We've been taking a guided tour of what's often called the hall of faith in Hebrews 11. A list of the Bible's true heroes of the faith. Today, on Turning Point, Dr. David Jeremiah sheds light on another name on that list. the man who had the distinction of being known as a friend of God.
From his series, Ordinary People, Extraordinary Faith. Here's David to introduce today's message, Abraham. And thank you so much for joining us. If you like the stories of people from the Bible, you've joined us at a good time because we're talking about people every day. We're talking about the heroes of faith who are listed in Hebrews chapter 11, which is usually referred to as the hall of faith.
Here in this chapter, we have the stories of many of the people of the Old Testament who believed God and accomplished great things for him. We have just finished talking about Noah, who built an ark for the salvation of his family. We have talked about Enoch, who walked with God, and the Bible says God took him, and he was not. The life of Abraham is really a much bigger platform because Through God's gift to Abraham of faith, Abraham believed God, and the Bible says he became the father of the Jewish nation. And the Bible in Genesis chapter 12 gives us the Abraham covenant, and it is very prominent today as we look at what is happening in the Middle East.
The study of Abraham is before us today and tomorrow. I hope you'll be with us for both days, all the way through. And don't forget. Turning Point is a publisher of a monthly magazine called Turning Points Magazine and Devotional. Every time that is put on my desk when it is finished, I just marvel at the beauty of it.
And when I see this, it's just so appealing to me. And I know that when you get your copy, it's hard not to just open it and start reading it right away because it's filled with wonderful truth that encourages you in your walk, adds value to your life. And if you don't get this magazine, you're missing out on a great opportunity to. Build yourself up in the faith. And so you can get the magazine if you just ask for your copy of Turning Points magazine.
And the next one that comes out in a cycle that we can meet your need, we'll send it to you right away. And you'll become a follower of Turning Point in a different way because this magazine links you to all that we're doing as we reach out to the world with the gospel. Thank you so much for being a part of it. And let's begin our study of this great man we know as Abraham. Over your Bible, open your heart.
If you were to visit Canton or Cooperstown. You would immediately be aware of the fact that Existing in those two places is a very special place. called a Hall of Fame. Cooperstown is the baseball hall of fame. Canton is the football hall of fame.
I've been In these places and visited them, and it is quite an experience. When you walk through the front door, you are immediately confronted. With the busts of people who have been placed there because of their accomplishments in these various sports. You stand in front of the bust and you look at the resemblance of the person, and there's a plaque underneath that tells you about their accomplishments and why they happen to be placed in the Hall of Fame. We have been visiting our own Hall of Fame, only we've called it the Hall of Faith.
And it has taken us to the 11th chapter of Hebrews where we have. Listed for us the names of people who are In the hall of faith, because they've distinguished themselves. by their accomplishments. We stopped first of all at the bust of Abel. who brought a sacrifice of faith to God.
And we moved on from him to visit the place where Enoch is enshrined. After him we saw Noah. And each of these men have accomplished in their lives some incredible things that demonstrate their faith before God. And the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, is about faith. It's about.
How we live by faith. The 10th chapter says the just shall live by faith. And the 11th chapter tells us how that works. We enter what we might consider to be the largest room in the Hall of Faith. In the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, we meet a man by the name of Abraham.
And Abraham is a bold choice to be included in the Hall of Faith. He was a source of Jewish pride and More central to Jewish thought than any of the prophets, or even than Moses, the great lawgiver. Abraham's grave to this day in Hebron is considered a holy place by the Jews. We first meet him in the book of Genesis in the 11th chapter. In verse 25, he's referred to as Abram, his shortened name.
And his record goes on in the book of Genesis all the way to chapter 25. The vast portion of Genesis is about Abraham. You will also find his name mentioned in Joshua and in 1 Chronicles and in Psalms and in Nehemiah and in Acts and in Romans, in Galatians, in James and 1 Peter. In fact, Abraham's mentioned over 300 times in the Bible. In the New Testament, his name is mentioned 74 times.
And in the book of Hebrews. His name pops up 11 different times. In fact, in Hebrews chapter 11, nearly one-third of all the verses in the chapter are about Abraham and Sarah. And Abraham comes to us in this hall of faith appearance. with a distinction that belongs to no other of the residents in the Hall of Faith.
The Bible says that Abraham was a friend of God. On three different occasions, we are told that. 2 Chronicles 27 says, Are you not our God who drove out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and gave it to the descendants of Abraham, your friend forever? Abraham was God's friend forever. You will see that also in Isaiah chapter 41 and in James chapter 2.
What a title. Abraham. God's friend. Not given in any other way to any other people, except as Christians, we are called the friends of God. Is it any wonder That those Jews wanted to be called children of Abraham.
They revered him so much, they were honored by their association to his name. In this message, we're going to go from Hebrews 11. And two very central passages in Hebrews 11 back and forth to Genesis chapter 22. And our goal is for us to answer this question: why is Abraham given such press in Hebrews chapter 11? Why is he considered to be the primary example?
of a life lived by faith. Hopefully before we're finished, we will see the answer to that question. We begin with what we've called the training of Abraham's faith. And the first passage in Hebrews that refers to Abraham has to do with his early walk with God. Hebrews 11:8 says this: By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance.
Now, watch carefully. And Abram went out, not knowing where he was going. And Genesis chapter 12 tells us that the Lord said to Abram, Get out of your country, from your family, from your father's house, to a land that I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation. New to faith, Abraham's relationship with God was already marked by his obedience. And it's important to understand that Abraham believed life began with an immediate act of obedience.
His faith walk was a faith walk based upon what he knew God told him to do and his obedient response. to that information.
Now, it is true that many of us are like Abraham. We go out not knowing where we're going. But it has nothing to do with faith when it's with us. But the scripture tells us that Abraham had in the back of his mind a picture that God had given him. While he didn't know what this all meant or how it was going to be lived out in his life, we read in Hebrews 11 that he went out not knowing where he was going, and by faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country.
Dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise, for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. It is interesting to note that Abraham walked throughout the Promised Land. and he was a stranger in that land. He never owned one inch of the promised land that was given him by God until he bought a cave in the field of Machpelah, in which he buried his wife Sarah. To get a feel for what it was like for Abraham to walk in the land that had been given to him without having any knowledge of it and being a stranger in the land, one writer has suggested: we should imagine God promising you and your descendants the land of Guatemala.
And then, in obedience, you travel there and you live the rest of your life in your camper. Along with your sons' families in their campers moving from place to place, you remain an alien for the remainder of your sojourn. You have no citizenship, and you are perpetually an outsider. That's the way it was for Abraham. God called him to go out, not telling him where he was going, and to sojourn in the land of promise as a stranger, and Abraham obeyed.
I remember as a young pastor. Actually, I was a youth pastor at this time. Starting out in Haddon Heights, New Jersey, I had a summer Bible lesson program for young people, and I taught the life of Abraham way back then. I remembered an easy way to help young people and All of us as well. To understand this early part of the life of Abraham.
I took my pen and I learned how to make a little tint. and a little altar. And as I read through the book of Genesis, every time Abraham moved along in his pilgrimage, I sketched a little tent in the margin. And every time Abraham built an altar, I sketched a little altar in the margin. The tent reminded us that Abraham was a pilgrim and a stranger.
He had no permanent home. His tent was a movable edifice, and it moved often. And the altar was a picture of Abraham's worship before God. The altar reminded me that the only way Abraham could know what to do tomorrow was to stay in touch with God today.
So, when it was time for him to move in his worship with the Lord, God would give him information. And so, Abraham's early life was wrapped around these two figures: the tent, he was a pilgrim. The altar He was a worshiper. And I've often thought. That all of us are just like Abraham.
We too are pilgrims and strangers, and the Bible tells us that this world we live in is not our own. We're not at home here, or at least we're not supposed to be.
Sometimes we get a little too attached to the world and we forget that this is not our final home. But the tent reminds us that our citizenship is in heaven. And the altar reminds us that we endure this earth by living in fellowship with Almighty God.
Now, Abraham's life in his pilgrimage during these early days, as he's gone out not knowing where he is going, is a time when God is working in his life and helping him to come to a place of complete dependence upon Almighty God. Just think about it for a moment. Throughout the early part of his journey with the Lord, it seems as if all God was doing was little by little, one at a time, taking from Abraham everything that was important to him. First of all, he told him to leave his country. And then God told him to leave his father.
And as he went along in his journey, it wasn't long before he separated from his nephew. And he gave the good land to Lot. And then there came a time when he had the opportunity to become instantly wealthy, and he walked away from the spoils of war that were in the hands of the kings of Sodom. And it isn't long before He's being asked to say goodbye to Ishmael. His son by Hagar, and then to Hagar.
And little by little, everything that was dear and near to Abraham's heart is taken away from him, and God is working on him, God is preparing him, God is building into him this concept of faith because he's about to test him. And if Abraham had not had these early experiences, if Abraham had been a stranger to the tent and the altar, he never would have been able to stand for God as he did. when God gave him an incredible Instruction. As you see the life of Abraham, you see God taking away from him everything he was prone to depend on.
Sometimes I wonder if maybe God isn't doing that to some of us now. It's easy for us as we grow up in this land of plenty to have everything sorted out, everything prepared. We've got our future all laid out, and it's perfect, and we know where the portfolios are. And our trust in the future is in what we have accomplished with our lives. And then all of a sudden, something happens and that begins to dissipate.
And we're back to this whole deal where we have to look up and say, God, it's you and me. We don't know where to go from now, but we know you are faithful. God was teaching Abraham to trust in God and not in the things that God had given him. That's the training of Abraham's faith. That was his early.
Experience with God. And I point it out simply because if we're not careful, we see Abraham on the mountain of Moriah and we think, what a giant. And we forget that before you get to the mountain, you have to roam around in the lowlands and trust God for your daily provision. We come now to the testing of Abraham's faith, and the story of this is in Hebrews chapter 11, verses 17 through 19, and in Genesis chapter 22. Let me read, first of all, from the book of Genesis and the 22nd chapter.
Now it came to pass after these things. After what things? After all the things we've been talking about. all the things that God was using to prepare Abram. It says, It came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and Abraham said, Here I am.
When you turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 22, you discover Abram's defining moment. Did you know all of us have a defining moment? And this moment is a defining moment for a number of reasons. First of all, You need to understand as you look at your Bible in the book of Genesis that between chapter 21 of Genesis and chapter 22 of Genesis, 20 years go by. Chapter 21 is the beginning of our understanding of Isaac, God's gift to Abraham and Sarah.
Twenty Years later, We discover that God is going to ask Abraham to give up his son.
Someone has suggested that these 20 years of Isaac's. living in the home of Abraham and Sarah were 20 years of laughter. Did you know that the name Isaac means laughter? And I've often thought that when Abraham and Sarah knew they were pregnant at the ages of 100 in the late 90s. That was sort of a thing to laugh about.
How many of you know that wouldn't be really laughable? I mean, that would be really scary, but it was laughable. And maybe they laughed because you remember when God told Sarah this was going to happen, she went in the back and she laughed. And then Isaac was born, and they called him laughter. And one commentator has said, for 20 years, Abraham and Sarah rejoiced every day with this young man that God had given to them, this man of joy who brought laughter to their hearts.
Henry Blackaby captures the importance of this moment from God's perspective. He says, This is God's moment. This moment will gather together 40 years of the shaping of Abraham, especially of his faith or his heart toward God. This moment will gather all God had revealed of himself and all of his ways. And this moment will reveal the true heart of Abraham before God.
The Bible says that God is going to test. Abraham. He's going to test him according to the second verse by asking him to take his beloved son Isaac, his laughter, his joy, and to take that son to a mountain in Moriah and there to sacrifice him. to God. I would say that qualifies as a great test.
For Abraham. And the question is, why did God do that? Was God trying to get Abraham to disobey him? No, God does not tempt us to do evil. Satan does that.
God tests us to reveal the reality of who we are. And God is about to test Abraham so that Abraham can prove to himself and to God and to all of us that it is possible to believe God when it seems almost impossible to believe God. And Abraham does that. It's interesting that God didn't test Lot like this. Because Lot was tested by the low level that Sodom and Gomorrah provided for him.
But mark it down in your book and never forget it. God does not test us to sin. God tests us to prove who we are in Him. God was not tempting Abraham. James chapter 1 says, God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone.
So if you're going through testing right now, and maybe you think God is tempting you to do wrong, Just strike that out of your mind. God would never do that. If you're being tempted to do wrong, it's not coming from Him. It's coming from Satan and his emissaries.
Now When the Bible says God is about to test Abraham, I want to kind of unpack this test for a little bit and show you what was involved in it. Was this really a test? Let's talk for a moment about the legitimacy of this test. For this test touched Abraham in the three parts of his personality, which are intellect, sensibility, and will. First of all, This test that God is about to give to Abraham is going to make a difference in his will.
Abraham's will was tested. Genesis 22, verses 2 and 3. Listen to these words. Listen carefully. Then God said, Abraham, take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love.
And go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.
So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son, and he split the wood for the burnt offering and arose. and went to the place of which God had told him.
Now, as we already know, Isaac was the beloved son of the aged Abraham. It would have been easy for him to say, you know, Lord God, this is really a hard thing you're asking me to do. I need a few weeks to pray about this. But the Bible says that the next day Abraham got up, prepared the wood, gathered his young men, headed out in obedience to do what God had told him to do. This was an act of his will.
He knew what God had said. He may not have processed it, and we're pretty sure he didn't. Emotionally, he was not prepared for this. Intellectually, he had not dealt with this yet. But what he knew was simply that God had spoken, and in an act of faith, in obedience, Abraham began to do.
What God told him to do. The psalmist puts it this way: I made haste and did not delay to keep your commandments. His will was tested. But here is where I think the test really took place, in his intellect. The Bible says, by faith Abraham, when he was tested, Offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, In Isaac your seed shall be called.
And I want you to just see if you can get into the intellectual dilemma that faced Abraham at this moment. All the way back. to the beginning of the story of Isaac, we have the prophecies. that begin In the 12th chapter of Genesis, that God is going to bless Abraham through giving him a son. And you know, Abraham had his moments when he didn't believe this.
He tried to take things into his own hands, and he wanted Ishmael to fulfill that promise, and he wanted the steward to fulfill it. And God said, No, Abraham, I want you to know this. I'm going to give you your own son. You and Sarah are going to have a son, and in this son is going to be the blessing of the whole world. Out of this son that I'm going to give you in your old age, I'm going to bless the whole world, and in the process, I'm going to bless you and Sarah.
And they wavered in their faith not at all. And they believed, and the Bible says God justified Abraham because of his faith. And one day, just as God had promised, Sarah gave birth. Isaac And the Bible says she was past the age of childbearing. I guess so.
And Isaac began to grow, and every time Abraham looked at Isaac, He heard the promises of God that this was the Son of God's blessing. He knew that this was a miraculous thing that God had done. On the other hand, Isaac is now 20 years old. And God comes to Abraham and he says, Abraham, I want you to take this son. Notice it says, the son you love.
And I want you to take him to the mountain. that I will tell you about. And there on that mountain, I want you to sacrifice him to me. And Abraham is caught in this dilemma. What do I do?
If I believe this is true, I can't do that. And if I do that, then this can't be true. And I don't know what to do.
Well, most of us have never been in a situation like Abraham found himself, but we have found ourselves, many of us, in situations where it seems like the things that are going on in life are contradictory. Here's God's word, and here's what we're facing. How do we put these two things together? The Bible says Abraham believed God. He did the thing that seemed impossible and saw God do a miraculous thing in his behalf, as we will find out tomorrow.
So don't forget to join us tomorrow as we complete the story of Abraham's incredible faith in regards to his son Isaac. We are studying the heroes of faith from the 11th chapter of Hebrews. And if you've never read that chapter before or have heard a series of messages on it, welcome to an exciting portion of God's Word. And remember, God still Has a hall of faith, and you and I can be in that. We can be in that hall if we'll trust Him and walk with Him every day.
I hope that's your goal. Tyranny is mine. Thank you for listening and we'll see you next time right here. For more information on Dr. Jeremiah's series, Ordinary People, Extraordinary Faith, visit our website where we also offer two free ways to help you stay connected, our monthly Turning Points magazine and our daily email devotional.
Sign up today at davidjeremiah.org slash radio. That's davidjeremiah.org slash radio or call us at 800-947-1993. Ask for your copy of David's newly updated scripture reference guide, Where to Go in the Bible When. It's packed with biblical answers and it's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also purchase the Jeremiah Study Bible in the English Standard New International and New King James Versions, available in a variety of handsome and resilient cover options.
Get all the details when you visit our website, davidjeremiah.org slash radio. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue the series Ordinary People: Extraordinary Faith on Turning Point.
