Portrait Gallery of Faith (Part 3 of 3)

Music playing Well, in Hebrews chapter 11, we read that Abraham did exactly that simply because God told him to. Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg explains what Abraham's obedience teaches us about God's plan and purpose for our lives. In the eighth verse, we come to Abraham, who is described in the book of Romans as the father of all who have faith—that he is the ultimate expression in New Testament terms of an Old Testament indicator of what it means to have faith, that he walked with God, he was a friend of God, he believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. And when the New Testament theologians seek for that classic illustration of what it means to trust God, to depend upon God, and not upon works' righteousness, then they turn again and again to the illustration of Abraham.

Now, there are three incidents from Abraham's life which are interspersed here in the next few verses through to the end of verse 19. But let us begin by noticing, first of all, this statement in verse 8, by faith Abraham, when called to go to a place, he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he didn't know where he was going. Now, once again, it's helpful, I think, to turn back to the book of Genesis and to see the historical context to which the writer of the Hebrews is referring. And you'll find this, of course, in Genesis chapter 12. And God's call to Abraham was a call in Genesis 12, 1, to leave your country, leave your people, and leave your father's household and go to the land I will show you.

And then, in verse 4, so Abraham left as the Lord had told him. Now, we are not just to skim over this. Think about it for a moment. You are here, and some of you are surrounded by everything that represents security to you.

Indeed, most of us in one sense are—the people that we love, the situations with which we are familiar, and all that is wrapped up in the experience of our lives. And God comes to the individual in that context, and he says, Now I'd like you to go. I want you to leave all this behind. And, incidentally, where you're going is not as important at the moment as that you get going. And Abraham left as the Lord told him.

Now, why would anybody ever do that? He had nothing to go on save the command of God and the accompanying promises. But that was enough for him. That is faith. That is faith in every day and in every generation—the command of God, the accompanying promises, and then the step of obedience.

The callings of God, said Graham Scroggy in an earlier generation in Scotland at Charlotte Chapel in Edinburgh, seldom leave a man or a woman where the calling finds them. Indeed, said Scroggy, if we fail to go forward when God says, Go, we cannot remain stationary, because our refusal to move forward is a backward movement even though we never take a step. When God says, Go forward, and we say, No, I'm gonna stay here, then we kid ourselves into thinking we'll be staying there, because our refusal to move forward is actually to take a step backwards.

And so, the illustration here of Abraham in respect to faith is, first of all, faith on the move. He is to make a departure, and he's also to make a discovery. What is he going to discover? Well, he's going to discover that the only place to be is where God wants you to be. Indeed, to turn it around, there is no ideal place to serve God except the place where he sets you down.

He didn't know where he was going. It was sufficient for him that God had told him to go, and he said, Fine, I will go. He was to discover that the only place you should be is where God wants you, and the only purpose that you should ever seek to fulfill is that which God has made known to you. And God had made known to him the fact that he was going to make of him a great nation, he was going to grant him a great name, and he was going to shower him with a great blessing. But what that possibly meant on the morning when he awakened and when he encountered God in this way, much of which is cloaked in silence, we can only marvel at the obedience of Abraham—an obedience which, we're told, was to transform his lifestyle. Obedience to God will always transform our lifestyle. He obeyed and went, even though he didn't know where he was going, and as a result of having done so, by faith he made his home in the Promised Land, and like a stranger in a foreign country, he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob who followed him.

In other words, there was this sense of impermanence about all that now was to characterize his life. I want to get intensely practical tonight and just ask a question in case some of you are finding your hearts stirred, and my question to you would be of further impetus in this direction. Has God been speaking to you as an individual about moving? Has he been speaking to you as an individual about moving on? About moving on in obedience to him?

About getting up and going? It runs absolutely contrary to everything that you have been thinking about, because you have so much that is represented in security around you. After all, you've worked for quite a long time in this particular place. You've just been getting to the stage where you felt that everything was really hunky-dory, and now suddenly there is this strange, insistent voice in your ear, and God's saying to you, I want you to move. I want to tell you, you'd better move. Because if you don't move, you won't stay where you are. You'll go backwards. It's very important when we have that sense that we check very carefully with those who are responsible for us, with those who care for us and know us best.

Because every so often, our own subjective instincts can get us in deep trouble. I've told you before of the girl who came to me after the Bible study at our previous church in Scotland. She announced to me that she was going to Australia. I said, When are you going? She said, I don't know. I said, Why are you going? She said, Because God told me to. I said, Well, that's interesting. How did he tell you? She said, Well, I just have a feeling in my stomach. I said, Okay.

I said, You know, what did you have for your dinner? She didn't think that was very spiritual, but it was actually a very good question. Because we don't make dramatic moves in our lives just as a result of something going on in our solar plexus. The call of God is not directly related to a glandular condition. And there was that which accompanied Abraham's move, which was marked by the clear delineation of the unfolding purpose of God, and in the economy of the local church, God has put leaders and pastors and friends and guides and relationships there in order that the call might be tested before ever a person gets on Qantas and heads for Melbourne or for Sydney. It's interesting that in his move he didn't simply pitch a tent, but he built an altar, and he looked back to God's call in the building of the altar, and he looked forward to God's city, and he lived as a stranger in a foreign country. He was looking forward to the city, verse 10 says, with foundations whose architect and builder is God. His gaze was to a different destination.

His perspective was on a different horizon from the run of the mill of those around him. God had spoken. Abraham had heard. Abraham decided to trust God and obey God. That's faith. Now, we not only have Abraham's faith expressed on the move, but we also have his faith expressed in the waiting room, and that in verse 11. By faith, Abraham, even though he was past age and Sarah herself was barren, he was unable to become a father, because he considered him faithful, who had made the promise.

I don't know whether faith on the move is tougher than faith in the waiting room, but if you turn to Genesis 17, you'll get a flavor of what is described for us here. When Abraham was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless. I will confirm my covenant between me and you, and will greatly increase your numbers. And God said to Abraham in verse 15, As for Sarah your wife, you're no longer to call her Sarai. Her name will be Sarah. I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her, so that she will be the mother of nations.

Kings of peoples will come from her. And Abraham fell face down. He laughed, and he said to himself, Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? And will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety? This isn't the laugh of Sarah, which was a laugh of rebellion or indifference. This is the laugh of somebody who, if he doesn't laugh, will burst into tears.

Humanly speaking, you see, the possibilities of childbirth are long gone. And every year that has passed makes the promise that God has made to Abraham all the more or less likely to be fulfilled. In fact, twenty-four years, as I say, have passed since what we looked at in the first verse of chapter 12. But Paul tells us, when he writes of the incident in Romans chapter 4, and I quote from verse 20 and following, Yet Abraham did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith, and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. That's faith! So Abraham to believe in this way was not some blind leap in the dark.

It was belief on the basis of the promises of God. God said in the Lord Jesus, I'm going to prepare a place for you, therefore I take him at his word. He said, If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back for you, therefore I take him at his word. Jesus is definitely coming back.

He is coming back personally, he is coming back visibly, and he is coming back for his own. How do we know? Because he said it in his word. And it is as surety as it was that the promise made to Abraham, which went for twenty-five years before his fulfillment, would actually be his experience. And furthermore, he promised that if he came back for us, that he would take us to himself and that we would be with him forever. That heaven is our home.

That this is only a place of passage. That there's no real point in building for ourselves any lasting edifices here, if in point of fact we are going to embrace the faith of Abraham, because we will, like Abraham, be looking for a city whose builder is God, and then a city that has foundations that isn't like any other city. But God brought him through all of this, and his wife, through all these years of delay.

Let's notice the simple, obvious truth. God always has a reason for his delays. God always has a reason for his delays. There is a sense in which impatience in our lives really ought not to be there.

And I say that to my great shame. We saw it in the story of Joseph. Remember, Joseph says to the cupbearer, By the way, when you get out of here, it'd be great if you could put in a special word for me, because I really feel that I could be doing much better if I was out and on my way and on with business.

The cupbearer leaves, forgets all about him, and he languishes down in the dungeon for another significant period of time. And you remember, as we look back over the story, we saw that God in his sovereign purpose was keeping Joseph for the exact moment so that when he was released from that situation, the plan and pattern of his life would continue as God intended. Now, in this case, in relationship to Abraham, God wants to make it absolutely clear that the son that was to be born to Abram was a gift from himself and was as a result of his promise.

And in the same way, God may choose to limit our resources so that we might enjoy the abundance of all that he makes available to us. And therefore, all of his delays, all of his hold-ons, all of the faith in the waiting room are still part and parcel of his purpose. What was it that kept Abraham going? It was the revelation of God made clear in his name. El Shaddai. Genesis 17. The Lord appeared to him and said, I am El Shaddai.

Walk before me. Now, El Shaddai is a combination of three. In the Hebrew, El is God, sah is who, and dai is sufficient.

God, El, shah, who, dai is sufficient. So God comes to him, and he says—and you can imagine what an encouragement it was when he goes back to his wife and he said, God affirmed his promise to me, and she said, Do you really think it's going to happen? And he said, Well, you know, he came before me, and he said, I am El Shaddai. I am the God who is sufficient for everything. Before you do anything else, Abraham, I want you to know that every need that you encounter, every difficulty that you face, I am sufficient for it.

What an amazing promise! And from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore. Now, there then follows this little summary statement. All these people were still living by faith when they died. Who are these people? Well, I think they're the people who've just been mentioned—namely Abel and Enoch and Noah and Sarah and Abraham. They were all still living by faith when they died. Now, you see, again, the context is so important. He has already said at the end of chapter 10, we don't want to be those people who shrink back and are destroyed. We want to be the kind of people who continue and are saved.

Now, he says, let me remind you. Let me think about Abel for a moment and Enoch and Noah. And what about Abram and Sarah? What about when he was called to go out?

Remember when he did that? What about when God promised to him a son and all the descendants? And he said, Think about their devotion. It stayed the course all the way to the end. Still living by faith when they died. It'd be a dreadful tragedy to blow it out on the last quarter of a mile, wouldn't it?

Now, in these heroes of faith, it's not so much the importance of getting a flyer at the beginning. It's just steady consistency in the middle years, and it's staying the course right to the end. You want to have a goal in your life? Run all the way to the tape. That's what I want to do. I just want to run all the way to the tape.

I want to make a hash of it. You want to be known as the person with the great beginning, the average middle, and the lousy finish? It'd be better nobody heard of us when we were there at the end than that everybody talked about us, and we lay down in the grass before the whole event was over. All these people were devoted right to the end. They gave indication of their devotion, because they were living as aliens and strangers on the earth. They were quite prepared to admit that they were weird. They recognized that where they were going was not where everybody else was going in the same way as we say in the words of the psalm, in recognition of what Peter says concerning the scattered believers of his day in 1 Peter 1 17 and then in chapter 2 and in verse 11, This world is not our home.

We're just passing through. Our treasure is laid up somewhere beyond the blue, and the angels beckon me from heaven's open door. And I can't be at home in this world anymore, because I'm an alien. Their devotion is seen in that they continue to the end. It's seen in the fact that they were prepared to admit before anybody that they were aliens, that they were strangers.

Their direction is absolutely clear. They were looking for a country of their own. In fact, if they'd been thinking about the country they'd left, they could have gone back. And you see, again, he's saying, I don't want you boys to be go back.

Don't you be like those who began well and fell away. So all of this is purposeful. They were longing for a better country, a heavenly country, and the distinction that they had lies in this, that God is not ashamed to be called their God, because he has prepared a city for them. And when we feel ourselves to be part of a small company, when we feel ourselves to be beleaguered and buffeted and really making very little impact at all, let us take a walk through the portrait gallery, and let us see this man Abel, who discovered that faith means giving your very best to God. Let us look at this chap, Enoch, who considered walking with God the most important thing in his life. Let's hang for a moment and look up at this chap, Noah, who, despite all the people that said he was crazy, was so passionately concerned for the welfare of his family that he built an ark even when it wasn't raining, with no prospect of a flood, and was swept to safety.

And let's think about Abraham, leaving behind all that represented security to him—his home, his country, his father's house—and going to a place he didn't know, waiting all these years for the fulfillment of a promise which from every human physiological dimension was categorically out of the question. And think about them as a group. And think about the group that has followed.

And ask yourself the question, will my portrait be in the gallery? If you've gone in Edinburgh Castle, you'll find there these great books, which I'm sure they have in military monuments here in the United States, although I've never seen them. It's a sobering thing. It's just a long list of names. You read the names out, nobody knows who they are, but they're precious.

Their blood secured the freedom that we enjoy. And to a far greater degree, there is a book. It's kept in heaven, and it's full of names. Many of them we don't know, but they're all precious, and they're all significant, and they're all Abraham's children. In the books in Edinburgh Castle, there are some pictures.

Every so often there's a big one, but most of the time they're tiny wee pictures that you need a magnifying glass to actually pick out who's there. That's the kind of picture I'll get in the book of faith, but that'll be fine. I'll be glad just to have my picture in the book. Young people, with all your life before you, and all your hopes and all your dreams, believe me on the authority of God's Word, there's only one list you better make sure you're on. And it's called The Lamb's Book of Life. And God will write your name there if you will come to him in repentance and in childlike faith. So no matter what other places you get your name written, and no matter that anybody says you great, and no matter that you become a hero or you become a bum, to be a man or a woman of faith is the great issue.

May God grant that there won't be a person in the room tonight who will walk out the wrong door. Examining the faithful examples of those who relied on God's grace to run life's race. That's from today's message on Truth for Life with Alistair Begg. Sometimes it's hard to believe that these Old Testament heroes were just ordinary men and women like us. Their stories inspire us to serve God more diligently, but sometimes despite our best intentions life's circumstances get in the way. We feel defeated before we've even begun. Maybe that's your experience, and if it is you'll want to read a book called God Does His Best Work with Empty. This book explores something all of us struggle with, loneliness, loss, unfulfilled dreams. These difficulties can make us feel as though we have nothing to offer in service for God.

Author Nancy Guthrie points out however that the opposite is true. God often uses our low points to fulfill his purposes. In the book she gives us plenty of examples of people who in their weakness were used by God to accomplish great things.

Again the book is called God Does His Best Work with Empty. You can request your copy today when you donate to support the Bible teaching you hear on this program. Give through our mobile app or at truthforlife.org slash donate. I'm Bob Lapeen. Thanks for listening today. Have you ever been overwhelmed by your circumstances? Listen tomorrow and gain encouragement from our study in the book of Hebrews. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.