Good morning, saints. It is a glorious morning—glorious morning to give thanks to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It is always a glorious morning to give thanks to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
I have been particularly impressed this year, in this season of Thanksgiving, that it is important for our spiritual well-being to return and give thanks to Him.
You know, the saints in the Old Testament, when they were in the desert, the Lord gave them manna every day. But instead of giving thanks, they began to grumble and lacked appreciation for God’s great love that He shed forth on them in giving the manna to keep them alive.
So often, I guess what I am saying this morning is, often we just take the Lord’s blessings for granted. We should not, but we do. May the Lord save us from ourselves, and may we learn to really give thanks to our Lord and Savior, particularly as we gather around His table on Sunday morning.
So, just a bit of encouragement for this season that we are in. Normally, I do not say much about these holiday seasons, but I mentioned Wednesday night that most of the holidays that are celebrated actually have their beginnings in heathen rituals and holidays. But this one does not seem to.
You know, even unbelievers on Thanksgiving get their family together. Even unbelievers will often give thanks and have each one say what they are thankful for for the year. So, in a way, it is a special time.
Well, our Lord is so gracious. Let us just begin with a word of prayer.
Lord, we come to Thee this morning. We do want to return and give thanks in our hearts for the One we have believed in. And we are persuaded that You are able to keep that which has been committed to You against that day, Lord.
Lord, we are grateful this morning that we have the Holy Spirit, that we might have our ears opened, our eyes opened, and our hearts renewed in the grace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, Lord, do open these words to us that we might see Jesus, that we might know the living God. We ask that You reveal Yourself this morning as we share in Your Word. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.
Well, we sang that song, “I Know Whom I Have Believed.” My question is: Do we know Whom we have believed in?
Many say they believe in God, but how few know God.
My burden has been, ever since we started a couple of years ago in the first chapter of Genesis, that as we looked at these Old Testament patriarchs, we would really have our eyes opened to know God and to learn His ways.
Moses, it said, learned His ways, but most of the people only knew His acts. Now, what does that mean? It means that most of the people were willing to accept what God’s grace gave to them, but they never really learned Who He was, why He did things the way He did, or had a close relationship with Him such as Moses had.
But today, brothers and sisters, it is the privilege of every saint to know God. You know, God is infinite. He is unknowable unless He chooses to reveal Himself to you.
And the amazing thing about God is, He has not chosen to be secretive, but to be very open. He says, “Look, if you will just look, if you will just pay a little bit of attention, you will see that it is My desire to reveal Myself to you.”
He says, “Look at the stars of heaven. Look at the fields. Look at the trees. Look at nature. Do you not see Me there? Is there not some sense in your heart that there is a God? Does that not draw you to search out Who this Creator is?”
He wants to reveal Himself to us. That is why it says that when man appears before Him and tries to say, “Well, You know, God, I just did not know You. I did not want to know You, and I had no idea You were real,” He will have to say, “You are without excuse.”
“You are without excuse. I have tried all I could to reveal Myself to you, but you just would not listen.” Well, that is our God. He wants to reveal Himself.
And why does He want to? Brothers and sisters, I think it is amazing that this uncreated God of ours has such a deep desire for a relationship with created beings, such as we are.
Now, we know that man was created unique and special, in that he has a spirit as well as a soul and, of course, a body. But the spirit is that there might be communion with God. No other creature has been created with that.
So we are unique, and God has created us because of a desire in His heart that He might be able to fellowship and communicate with us, His created ones. He desires to have a relationship that is not distant.
You know, recently my mother passed away, and a dear brother of mine came up to me and said, “Jerry, at your mother’s passing, one word keeps coming to my heart, and the word is El Shaddai.”
I thought about it, and I said, “Well, Lord, exactly what are You trying to tell me?” The next day, it really just hit me like a ton of bricks. El Shaddai means Almighty God, and that is the way my mother knew God.
That was her relationship with God. She did know El Shaddai. She knew the Almighty God, and she looked at Him in that light. That was her light on God.
She told me a number of times, “Now, Jerry, you know how it is. You do the best you can. You do all you can. And if you cannot make it, then you go to God.”
Well, I know that is wrong, brothers and sisters, but that shows you the kind of relationship that she was able to have with God. Now, God accepted that relationship. That is the way in which she knew Him.
But there is so much more. Yes, we need to know El Shaddai, the Almighty God, but there is so much more to God to know. And that is what my burden has been for these last couple of years as we have been sharing the lives of these patriarchs.
Do you want to know God? You know, it is your choice and it is my choice as we live this life. Even after you become a Christian, you still make those choices, do we not?
Do you live your life at that point to really know God, to really have a personal relationship? But, you know, personal relationships are varied.
What I am talking about is a relationship of heart, a relationship of soul, mind, and spirit with God—that you really know Him.
It is like you get to the place in your spiritual life with the Lord that you can kind of anticipate the Lord because you know Him so well. Well, it is our choice.
The other road we often take is that we seek the pleasures of life. We want to live; we want to make it through, so to speak. We are just kind of scrapping and scraping in our lives just to get through, and we are crying out, but we are grasping at things to try to make it.
Power, money, fame, jobs, family—there are so many things that we find our lives wrapped up in.
But it seems to me, brothers and sisters, as I have lived these sixty-seven years, that the more things that we gain, the emptier we seem to become. We find out that the things in life that really matter are not things that can be bought with money, but things that can only be obtained in your heart.
And that is why, brothers and sisters, we need to give our lives to knowing God. He wants us to know Him. He wants that close relationship.
Now, in our quest to know more about God and His ways, we have come to the life of Abraham. We have been over a year looking at the life of Abraham, and today we come to his death.
I have not read it yet, but let me read Genesis 25:1-2, 7-8. Very simple thought.
Then again Abraham took a wife, and her name was Keturah, and she bore him six children.
I am not going to say all those names. For those in my group, they understand why. We wrestle with trying to say all these things, but she had six children.
And these are the days of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived, a hundred threescore and fifteen years: one hundred seventy-five years.
And Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.
He died in a good old age, full of years. You know, when we come to a funeral, we want to celebrate the life of the one for whom the funeral is. Now this morning, Abraham has passed away, so I thought it would be good if we could just take a little while to celebrate the Lord in the life of Abraham and how we find God revealed in the life of Abraham.
First of all, if you remember Abraham as a young man, as a child when he grew up, he grew up in a land of idols and idol worship. In fact, tradition says that his father was an idol maker. So he grew up with this sense that there were many gods out there; there was a god for everything.
But one day, the God of glory came to Abraham. Now, I think it is interesting that it is the God of glory, because when you see the God of glory, that is fullness. All the expectations of God are wrapped up in His glory.
This is Who appeared to Abraham: the God of great expectations. He appears to you; He appears to me. He might not meet us in a dramatic way always, but when He does meet you, when He touches your heart, it is the God of glory.
He has great expectations. He wants to bring you into that fullness which He knows as the God of glory, because glory appears when God is satisfied. So, you see, it is important: it is the God of glory that meets you. Such great expectations.
Well, the God of glory met him, and there was nothing about Abraham, above any other man or woman, that would have attracted God to Abraham. There were no particular aspects about his life or virtues that we know of that would have caused God to choose Abraham.
Brothers and sisters, Abraham was chosen by grace. It was the pure love and grace of God that chose Abraham. He did not choose Abraham because He looked for special features.
But praise the Lord, He did find a man whose heart was open enough, even though he was surrounded with idols, that when the God of glory spoke to him, he responded. He responded to the God of glory.
And the Lord said, “Abraham, I want you to leave all and go to the promised land.”
Well, a couple of important things. First of all, the only reason you know God is because He revealed Himself to you. Often we think we find God, but He has been trying all along. When we do find Him, it is because He found us first.
We love Him because He loved us first. Secondly, He initiates this meeting with you. He is the initiator of your spiritual life. Praise the Lord.
Now, He told Abraham to leave all, and that is the first thing that we all need to learn about God. That is His first request.
When we become a Christian, it is necessary that we leave all. That is the call: to leave all and follow Him. Remember the fishermen. It said they just left their nets and followed the Lord.
The Lord asks us in the very beginning to leave all. In other words, brothers and sisters, all attachments in our heart should be only to Him. We can have other things; we can do other things; but our attachments can only be to Him.
“Leave all,” He said. That is what God calls us all to in our beginning. And go to the promised land.
Now, after all of these times, who is the promised land? Tell me. All right, we all know the answer, and I am not going on until I hear it. The Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the promised land. He is your promised land. God says, “I want you to go to the promised land.” In other words, leave all and follow Christ.
It is not enough just to leave all. You have to be going somewhere. You have to be led. And He says, “Follow Christ.”
So Abraham responded. You know, that is amazing, I think. He probably had a pretty safe, secure life, and God said, “Leave all.” In the New Testament it says he went out not knowing where he was going.
All he knew was it was a promised land, but he did not know in the beginning exactly where that was. He was just going out because God told him to. Brothers and sisters, that is faith.
A life of faith. Abraham had begun his life of faith, and he went out. He responded to God’s call.
But we remember that when he left, he got halfway. He got to Haran, which is halfway to the promised land. And what did he do there? He settled down.
Why did he settle down? Well, we find out in the New Testament, once again, that it was his father, Terah—the old man—that was leading him out.
Really, somehow in his relationship with his dad, he had told his dad about his encounter with God. Apparently, his dad was moved enough that he said, “Okay, son, you can go. But look, I think I will go with you, and we will take your nephew with us, and we will go out together.”
What we find out is, of course, that it was really Terah, the old man, who was leading, and not God. And what did they do? They settled down.
Can I say this much? Our old man might get enthused for a while, but eventually the old man will not go on with the things of God—that old man in your life.
That is why we learn in the New Testament that on Calvary’s cross Christ crucified the old man. In other words, that is God’s judgment upon that old man.
Interestingly enough, it was not until Terah died that Abraham was able to go on. In other words, the old man has got to lose control of your life. You have got to give him over to death. You have got to get him over to Calvary, where he was crucified.
Say, “Lord, I agree. I agree with You. The old man will never enter the promised land. The old man will never go on with the things of God.”
So that is a lesson that Abraham had to learn. But you know what? God was faithful. Abraham settled down there, they gained much cattle, and they were prospering. But the Lord spoke to him, and thank God, he listened.
Once again, Abraham responded to God’s call to go on to the promised land. At this point, Abraham was seventy-five years old.
I am not even seventy-five yet. There are a few here that are. But it is interesting: even at this age, God is still calling. He never stops. He never stops. That is the way God is.
Their first stop, if you will remember, was in Shechem. He went into the promised land, and it said he went to Shechem and put an altar there. He worshiped God. He had come to the promised land.
Now, Shechem means shoulder. This is another great lesson that we all have to learn about God. God wants us to lean on Him. He is our shoulder.
God said, “You have got to learn to lean on Me, Abraham.” Abraham was a little dismayed at this point because he had seen some of the giants. The Lord was saying, “Lean on Me, Abraham. You have got to learn by faith to trust Me to make this journey through.”
“You need to lean on Me and trust My promises.” Big lesson—a lesson of faith. Fundamental.
Well, his second stop in the promised land was between Bethel and Ai. Bethel means house of God; Ai, a heap of stones. I think it is interesting that God did this. Abraham set up an altar there and worshiped God.
God wants a house. It is interesting to me that very early in his spiritual life, God begins to hint to Abraham that there is something on His heart: He wants a house.
So He puts him between the two. Often, with a contrast, it helps us to see what God is really after. The contrast is a pile of stones and a house built of stone.
Now, of course, in the New Testament Peter said, “We are living stones, built together [as] a house of God.” This very spiritual principle that we see in the New Testament, He reveals to Abraham in the Old Testament.
He is not interested in a pile of independent stones. Now, these independent stones in a pile are touching one another; they are together. But they are certainly not a house in which God can occupy.
The point being, right in the very beginning God hints to Abraham that there is something on His heart about a house for Himself.
Well, praise the Lord. At some point in our Christian life, the Lord has to turn our eyes from just thinking about ourselves to thinking about what is on His heart. And He does this with Abraham.
Then there was a famine in the land. You know, I think this is so interesting, the way God does things. As young Christians, we think, “Man, I am the Lord’s now, and everything is going to be great. All that I ask, He is going to give me—all the blessings—and I am just looking for blessing after blessing.”
We just think that as long as we love the Lord, nothing really tough or bad is ever going to happen. Now, that is a natural thing. How could the God of love ever allow anything in my life that is difficult or bad?
But God allows a famine to come in the promised land—milk and honey. God does this for a reason, brothers and sisters. It is through our difficulties that we really learn to know God.
Now, we do not want difficulties. I know I do not. But I have to say, it is in the difficulties of my life that I have learned the most about the Lord.
Well, there is a famine. Remember, he goes down into Egypt and tells the king that his wife is really his sister. She really was his half-sister. It was a half-lie, kind of a white lie, we would call it today.
What happened? He did not go down there at God’s direction. He was not leaning on God. He was in a famine, and when the difficulty came, instead of leaning on God, he trusted in his own understanding.
His understanding said, “Look, there is stuff in Egypt. There is provision down there, and I am going to get it.” He was leaning to his own understanding.
So he goes down. He gets into trouble with the king. Frankly, if you read the story, you realize that what Abraham did justified the king actually killing him. But he did not. God kept the king from doing that, and He delivered Abraham out of his mess.
Now, when we lean to our own understanding, we get in all kinds of messes, brothers. Sometimes we try to blame God for the mess, but the result is that we have leaned to our own understanding and get in trouble. But you know, God loves us, and He delivers Abraham.
How often have we been delivered from things that we have gotten into because we made our choice, we made our decision, and we decided we were going to do it our way? It was obviously the best way to go, the only reasonable way to go.
Yet we did not really trust God in that matter. Well, there is the problem. But Abraham’s faith is being tested, Abraham’s faith is being dealt with, and it is growing.
The next thing we see that is of great significance is that the herdsmen of Lot and the herdsmen of Abraham start fighting over the property because their herds have grown so much that there is not enough land right where they are to take care of both herds.
So Lot and Abraham separate. Abraham gives Lot the choice of the land he wants. Lot does what most of us would do: he chooses the plushest land, the best land for his cattle.
Abraham said, “Fine. I will go my own way. I will take the rest.” Abraham had enough faith to believe that God’s promise was true, that he was going to possess all the land, and he could actually give it up. That is faith.
But something else important happened here. In the beginning, God had asked him to leave all. In other words, all of his attachments really needed to be cut.
His father had been taken care of, but his nephew Lot was still there with him. God had to cut that part of his life.
Often, it is things that we are so attached to that we do not really realize are weights to us until God moves and separates us from them.
Now here, it is God’s doing. Actually, Lot and Abraham decided to do this separation, but I want you to understand, brothers, often this touches the deepest part of your soul—your affections.
Your affections for your family, for your loved ones, for your husband, for your wife, for your friends. Now, we are to have affection for all of these, but that affection can never become between you and God.
These affections cannot take first place. It is the affections of our soul, and they are deep and have deep roots. It really takes the Lord to cut those roots.
It is not that you do not respect these ones at all, but God has to have first place. He has to purify your soul life. He has to purify your affections.
Oh, deep lessons—deep lessons that we go through concerning this. But God is purifying him; He is not punishing him.
There is so much to be separated from in our lives. Let me say it this other way: in these things that we have to be separated from, the Lord is full of mercy. But we need to remember that in the process.
The next thing, you will remember, is that Lot gets captured. Some kings formed an army, took over Sodom, took all the inhabitants, and took Lot too, who was down there in Sodom.
Abraham goes after the kings and actually defeats them. He had four hundred, I think it was around four hundred fifty, servants, and he defeats this army of four—I cannot remember whether it was four or five—kings. He defeats their army, spares Lot, and brings him back. Lot was his responsibility.
There are four very significant things that happen. First of all, right after the battle, after he has brought Lot back, Melchizedek, king of Salem—Jerusalem, the Prince of Peace—meets him.
The special One meets him, and he says this to Abraham:
Blessed be Abraham of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth.
Abraham lived in a culture where there were many gods. But he said, “The Most High God.” Now today, in the culture we live in, we do not live among idols that much. Unfortunately, worldly things have become our idols, and we end up actually worshiping these things.
So I guess you could say that we do live in a nation of idol worship. But there can be no other God. He is the Most High God. Have you learned that in your life? Are there any other gods in your life?
He is the Most High God. He really is the only God. Abraham had to learn that.
And it said, “Possessor of heaven and earth.” This is very critical at this point in Abraham’s life because he is offered the spoils of this battle by the king of Sodom. He says, “You can have all the spoils.” Abraham said, “No.”
Why did he say no? Because he knew the Possessor of heaven and earth. He knew the Lord of lords and the King of kings. He knew the One Who possessed everything, and therefore he could give this up, because he knew God was going to give him all that he needed.
God was the Possessor of heaven and earth. Do you know God in that way? Have you learned God in that way? Abraham learned God in that way.
Then the Lord meets him, speaks to him, and says to Abraham:
I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.
Shield. Do you know God as your shield? Abraham had been in this battle. He could have been killed, but he was not. God was letting him know that the victory was because of Him and not because of Abraham.
God had shielded him. God shields us from a lot, brothers and sisters—from a lot we never know. He shields us. There are things that happen to us, but God shields us from so many things that we do not even know.
We have to know God as our shield. He is truly your only protection.
Then He says to Abraham something so significant: “Abraham, I am your exceeding great reward.”
Now, in life we have learned in this nation to be a nation of success, a people of success. We are driven to succeed. You know, the only theory is, you have to be number one or you are nothing.
I think that comes from football. You are number one or you are nothing. You are either a winner or a loser. It is that kind of mentality.
The Lord said, “Look, you can live this life, you can grasp all you want to, but ultimately you need to know this: I am your exceeding great reward in life.”
You can look for riches, fame, glory, all you want to. It will definitely, in the end, leave you empty. But I am your exceeding great reward in this life and in the life after.
Now let me ask you it this way: Have you made the Lord your exceeding great reward in your life? Is He the real reward in your life?
It is a question we all need to answer, and one that Abraham responded to because he refused the riches that would be gained from that battle. He said, “I will not take them, because now somebody will say that you, king, have made me rich, when it was really God Who looked after me.”
He is the Possessor of heaven and earth. All these things are really His anyway. But I am not going to accept them from you, lest you say, “I have made Abraham rich.” His testimony was that God was the One Who was the Possessor of heaven and earth.
The third thing was, Abraham’s faith was still a little weak at this point in his life. But the Lord speaks to him because Abraham immediately after that asked God, “Now, what about this promise? Lord, I still have not had a child.”
The Lord had promised him an heir, but he is saying, “Lord, I have been here just a while now—no child.” So the Lord makes him a promise. This is the way the Lord strengthens our faith: He makes him a promise.
He said, “You will have children as the stars of the sky.” Previously, He had told him that he would have children as the dust of the earth.
Now, the dust of the earth is basically the nation of Israel today, the Jewish people—the dust of the earth, these earthly people. But in this case, He says, “Your children will be as the stars of heaven.” That is a heavenly people.
That is you and me, and any Jew that has accepted Christ. We are the stars of heaven in Abraham’s promise. That is why Abraham is called the father of faith, because it began with Abraham, this man of faith.
I think it is so interesting: when the Lord revealed to him and said, “Your people will be as the dust of the earth,” that is all that was said. But here God adds something:
And he believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness.
You know, faith and righteousness go together. How do you obtain righteousness? Only through faith. Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. So we see that the faith of Abraham is increasing.
Then God comes back to him and makes a covenant with him—a covenant by sacrifice. If you will remember that sacrifice, he took the doves and the animals, cut them in two, split them, and the cloud went through them. It was a covenant by sacrifice.
Let me just reiterate: God has made an unconditional covenant with you—an unconditional covenant with you by sacrifice, by the sacrifice of His Son on Calvary’s cross. An unconditional covenant. In other words, God is going to do it.
He told Abraham that he would become a great nation—not just the multitude of dust, not just the heavenly stars, but a great nation. He says, “Your descendants will possess this land.” Covenant by sacrifice, and it will stand.
But his faith was still not that strong. After he had been in the land ten years, Abraham and Sarah got together and said, “Look, the Lord said we were going to have an heir.” Sarah came up with this marvelous plan. She said, “Look, just take my handmaiden. You can have the child by her. Obviously, God does not want me to have the child.”
Faith. Oh, our faith can be so weak at times, and God knows this.
You remember Ishmael was born. He was basically a pretty good kid, but he was not the promise, you see. He was not.
Of course, for thirteen years he grows before Abraham, very precious to Abraham—a manly man, a hunter. Abraham, of course, is very attached to him. I think it has reached a point in his life where he kind of feels like, well, maybe Ishmael might really be the one that God will use.
Because when Abraham is ninety-nine years old, thirteen years after Ishmael is born, God speaks to him. The significant point here is that for thirteen years, after Abraham took God’s matters up in his own flesh, in his own will—he decided to do God’s work in his own will and by his own strength—God did not speak to him.
Thirteen years of silence. This man was one to whom God obviously often had spoken in his life, and for thirteen years there was silence. I often like to call this the discipline of silence.
You know, when you have not heard from God for a long time, brothers and sisters, you should take note. That does not necessarily mean that the Lord is pleased.
Often, silence for such a long period is because, in the end, He wants you to see how precious your relationship is to Him, and how much you need that communion with Him to survive—how much you need that communion in your life.
You know, when God is silent for a long period of time, sometimes we just drift away. But thank God, He was merciful. He was able to touch Abraham’s heart again.
He meets him at ninety-nine years old and makes another covenant with Abraham. This time He says, “The land will be for you an everlasting possession,” not just a temporal possession, but an everlasting possession.
Listen to this. He said, “And I will be their God.” What a promise.
He seals it with the sign of circumcision, which is so significant because circumcision means the cutting off of the flesh. In other words, “Abraham, no more fleshly moves. No more trying to do My will with your own power and strength. You have got to learn to live by My strength, My life. Do My will with My strength.”
We as Christians must learn the same thing. But God gives him this covenant of circumcision to strengthen his faith.
He tells him, “You are going to have another child, but this time it will be by Sarah,” who obviously could not have children. Isaac was born a year later, but something happens in between. God reveals that He is the God of judgment.
What happens in that year in which Sarah is pregnant is that the Lord judges Sodom and Gomorrah in the plain.
Interestingly, in this story of God’s judgment, thank God lets us know that He is a God Who is tolerant. He is a God Who endures. He is a God Who is merciful. But it came to the point where God said, “Enough is enough.”
I do not know if God has ever said that to you, but He said, “Enough is enough.” He said, “I am going to rain fire on Sodom and Gomorrah,” and He tells Abraham about this.
Abraham intercedes, if you remember, for Lot. God sends two angels to Lot to get him out. Lot, knowing that judgment was coming, was refusing to leave. He did not want to leave.
You remember the story. He told his sons-in-law that there was going to be judgment, and they laughed at him. Finally, the next day, the angels literally had to grab them by the hands and pull them out.
He was so attached to the world. They had to pull Lot, his wife, and his two daughters out of the city. Then God rained fire and brimstone on it.
You remember, on the way up the hill and out from the destruction, his wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. She was so attached, she just had to look back.
All that she had lived for, all that they had built together—their home and everything—was there, and it was just too much for her. She had to look back.
Well, I want to say this much: Lot represents a worldly Christian. Lot represents a carnal Christian. Lot was so attached that when judgment came, he was not prepared to leave. His heart was not in it.
Look at it another way. Lot lost everything—all of his possessions, all that he held dear, even his wife.
He was spared judgment. He was in it, but he was spared. The Lord kept him, but he was saved so as by fire. Now, that is New Testament. He was saved so as by fire.
The fire tried him, and in the end all that was left was him and his two daughters.
But not so with Abraham. Abraham was up on the mountain where the Lord had him. He was spared the judgment, and he did not lose in the judgment. Praise the Lord.
Abraham was a man of faith. Abraham was there to see God’s purpose fulfilled. Lot was there to get all he could out of the life he was living. Two different ways; two different endings.
Well, at one hundred years old—bear with me a second; we have not quite got to the end of our brother’s life yet—Isaac is born. The spiritual seed, the heavenly seed, the one from God.
That meant that the natural seed had to go. Ishmael had to go. The two could not live together. This is the spiritual side of this story.
You are born a natural man. The natural man is what animates your soul; it is who you are. But when you accept Jesus Christ, the spiritual man comes into your life.
The natural man has to go, has to be replaced by the spiritual man in your soul. And that is a process.
What is the process? The New Testament process we learn is: deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow Him. Deny self, take up your cross daily, and follow Him.
That was Abraham’s life. Abraham responded. Abraham let the natural seed go.
Now, if you read that story, you will see that it was done with agony in his heart. It was not an easy thing. Deny yourself, take up the cross, is not an easy thing. But the natural man had to go.
Abraham’s faith was greatly increasing.
Then we know the story. God tests Abraham and says, “Abraham, I want you to take your only son and take him up to a mountain I will show you.” It happens to be Mount Moriah, at least we think it is, which is in Jerusalem.
He takes him up there. God says, “I want you to take him up there and offer him to Me as a sacrifice.”
Abraham responds. He is a man of faith. He does not question God. He just obeys.
Now let me say this. Why do you think Abraham had such faith? Would you have such faith if God told you to do such a thing? I look at my sons, I look at my grandsons, and I just do not know.
But God asked him to do that. He did not question. He obeyed in faith. It says he obeyed believing that God would even raise him from the dead. That was what Abraham’s faith was.
Abraham actually raised the knife, and it was only when God spoke to him and said, “Wait,” that he did not actually slay his only son. He brought him right to the brink.
What a man. Why did he have such faith?
I would propose, brothers and sisters, that the reason Abraham had such faith was because he knew God. He had really learned God. In his life process, he had learned to know God.
He learned that he could not lean to his own understanding. He learned that he needed to lean on God. He had learned that God was the Possessor of heaven and earth. He was the Most High God.
He had learned that God was his shield, his exceeding great reward, and whatever God asked, He would give to him—even his son.
He had such faith because he knew God. No man who only had a casual relationship with God could ever do such a thing. A man of faith—deep faith.
God was manifested. Not only that, but as you look at this story, you see that God had a testimony in this man—a testimony of Calvary.
The spiritual reality of Calvary was there in our brother’s life as he was willing to offer his only son. Calvary: a testimony on this earth of God and what He would do. An amazing life of faith.
At one hundred thirty-seven years old, his wife Sarah dies. At this point, they only have a grave. But in Abraham’s eyes, by faith he possesses the land. Do you understand?
It did not matter that he did not physically own that land. What mattered to him was that, in faith, God had given him the land, and it was his and his descendants’. He knew God was faithful to His Word.
The land was his, even though all he had to show was a gravesite.
Well, three years later, at one hundred forty years old—Isaac is now forty years old—Abraham remembers God’s promise and God’s covenant.
He said, “My son needs a bride. My son needs a bride.”
The heavenly seed must have a bride for there to be the fullness of what God was after—to have that nation, that family of stars and dust. It required a bride.
In other words, fullness being expressed. I do not know how to say it. The fullness that was in Abraham is going to be expressed through a family and a nation, and us as stars of the sky. For that to happen, Isaac needed a wife.
Praise the Lord, he did that. For God to have Bethel, to have the house of God, there would need to be living stones. Isaac needed a bride.
Of course, remember, he sent out the servant who represents the Holy Spirit. Last time we shared about Rebekah, as the bride, responding immediately. We will not go over that amazing story of love, but she immediately knows he is the one.
Well, let me say it another way. The important thing there was that the bride had to be from the right bloodline. It could not just be any bride.
The bride that Christ will have will be from His bloodline. Now, we are of Christ’s bloodline. When you accept Jesus Christ, it is His blood that redeems you, and it is His life that comes into you.
You are now a new creature in Christ. You have been born again, and you are in the right bloodline to be the bride of Christ—to be a part of the bride of Christ.
At one hundred seventy-five years old, it says that Abraham died in a good old age, full of years. Fullness. Completeness.
He had six more children before he died—fruitful to the end. He was fruitful. A fruitful life, a spiritual life, is a fruitful life. It never retires.
At eighty-six, when our brother Abraham had Ishmael, he went for thirteen years. During that time, I think he kind of settled down, and in his heart he was beginning to think Ishmael was really going to be the promised seed.
When God challenged him, he said, “Cannot Ishmael live before You?” The Lord said, “No. The spiritual seed cannot dwell with the natural seed.”
But I want to say this: I believe Abraham would have just gone on. I do not know that for sure, but if God had not met him once again, he would have just gone on, and the spiritual seed would have never come to pass.
Thank God that He was faithful to Abraham.
Let me say that another way: God is the Author and Finisher of your faith, my faith. He is the Author and Finisher of our faith. I do not care who you are. The Lord is faithful. Praise the Lord for that.
It said of Abraham—Jesus said of Abraham—that he saw My day and rejoiced. That tells me that Abraham saw beyond Isaac to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He saw My day and rejoiced. He saw Isaac, but he saw beyond Isaac because of faith.
It said he looked for a city which hath foundations. He saw beyond Bethel to a city that had foundations.
He looked at Rebekah, and he looked beyond and saw the bride. It was faith.
He carried the testimony, brothers and sisters, that God was the Most High God; that God would send a promised Seed to redeem the world back to God.
He had the testimony that Christ would overcome death and the grave and rise in resurrection. He had the testimony that God would have His house to dwell in. And he had the testimony that the Son would have a bride.
Yet in Hebrews 11, this is a point: it says that these patriarchs were not complete without us. We too are to carry that testimony, brothers and sisters.
We need to respond. We should not give up, should not give in, become settled down or satisfied, or stop short of the goal. We must press on.
In Hebrews 12, it encourages us to run the race with patience. Brothers and sisters, if the Lord tarries and I pass away and you pass away, I hope at the end of our lives that we can carry the testimony that the apostle Paul had:
I have fought the good fight,
I have finished the course,
And I have kept the faith.
May the Lord be merciful.
Lord, we come to Thee this day. We thank You for revealing Yourself to us, for revealing Yourself in the life of Abraham. Lord, You have shown us that the righteous shall live by faith.
Lord, we come back to Thee this morning. We know we have fallen far short of Your glory, but in mercy, Lord, once again touch our hearts. Once again challenge us.
Once again, by Your grace, bring us on. Keep us in this race, Lord, till the end. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.