The Ultimate Test

Let's pray together. Our God and Heavenly Father, we now come to your word. A portion of this service, when you speak to us, give us the faith to hear and to believe. Help us to listen attentively. Lord, this is not just some ancient text we come to. This is the living word of God. so I pray that you would use it for your purposes to divide to expose our hearts to bring conviction, to bring encouragement to help us to know how to live before you God grant that I pray for your glory and our good in Jesus name, Amen in the spring of 1976 I sat in a small classroom with six other students we were waiting for our philosophy professor to show up.

He was going to bring with him the final exam in our history of philosophy class. At last, Professor Jim Greer strode into the room and with a few words of instruction passed out the exam. It was two essay questions. I remember the seven of us sitting there in that little stifling room for over two hours answering those two questions. Now to me, at that point, that was the ultimate test.

That was it. And it seemed like an eternity passed in that little room. And yet that eternity is nothing compared to the eternity that Abraham must have felt as he walked up the slopes of Mount Moriah with his son Isaac, ready to sacrifice him. That, without a doubt, is the ultimate test. So I want you to take your Bibles and turn to Genesis chapter 22.

Let's read through that familiar story again. The ultimate test of Abraham's faith that we find in this chapter. Genesis chapter 22, I'll begin reading in verse 1, you follow. After these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham. And he said, here am I. He said take 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 saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac.

And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son.

And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, my father. And he said, here am I, my son. He said, behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.

So they went both of them together. When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac, his son, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham.

And he said, Here am I. He said, Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

So Abraham called the name of that place the Lord will provide. As it is said to this day, on the mount of the Lord it shall be provided. And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you. and I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore and your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because you have obeyed my voice.

So Abraham returned to his young men and they arose and went together to Beersheba And Abraham lived at Beersheba This is the final test of Abraham's faith. The story of Abraham is a story of faith. The story of a man who believes the promises of God, and at times, fails to believe those promises. But now we come to the final, most difficult, most revealing test of Abraham's faith.

And you know what? It ends just like it begins. It begins with God saying in chapter 12, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land I will show you. And it ends with God saying, take 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 will tell you.

This story begins with a call to leave his past out of a simple trust in God. It ends with a call for him to abandon his future with a simple trust in God. So as you're near the end of the story of the man of faith, you find God giving Abraham this ultimate test. Now what's the purpose of this narrative? Why is it here? God records this story for a purpose.

What is that purpose? It's the purpose of motivating you to believe. Just like Abraham. Motivating you to true, authentic, bold faith. Will you still believe the promises of God when everything else says such promises look foolish? What will you do when the circumstances cry out for you to abandon what looks like the foolishness of God?

Will you believe when all the circumstances say to believe is ridiculous? Will you believe what God has said? Well, if you want to exercise this kind of faith, what must you do? Here's the first point. Here's what you have to do. Count on God testing your faith.

Count on God testing your faith. Now Moses immediately clues us into the fact that what follows is a test Don get the idea that God favors or demands human sacrifice He tells us right off the bat this is a test The readers needed to know that Now, God has tested Abraham's faith in the past, remember? He's done it providentially. That is, he's arranged circumstances in his life so that they move him towards exposing his faith or exposing his failure of faith.

The famine that moved him to Egypt, When Lot chose the best land, the invasion of the foreign armies, the difficulties arising with Hagar and Ishmael, the conflict with Abimelech, all of them God arranging those circumstances in order to show his faith. But here, now, this test comes directly from God. He commands Abraham, take your son, your only son, the son whom you love.

Isn't that interesting how he puts that? Twice. Take 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 will tell you. Now, I don't know about you, but you can almost read Abraham's mind at this point. It's not here, but if I were Abraham, this is what I'd be saying.

What? Are you kidding? Are you kidding me? What? This is the son that you promised. My son is the heart of the promise because you've told me from my son is going to come kings and nations.

That a people as numerous as the stars in the sky are going to come from this son. That all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed through him. And now you tell me to kill him. That promise does not make any sense. Does it? because he told him, I'm going to reckon all your descendants through this one son, Isaac. Now go kill him.

What? What? What did God expect from Abraham? He expected Abraham to trust him. He expected Abraham to believe the promise that he had made. Will he believe or not? although it seems so contradictory that Abraham will trust that God remained faithful to the promise of raising up descendants through his son Isaac is he going to still believe that and will he obey God while he believes that?

Listen, God will test your faith. Count on it. Count on it. In our Bible studies, when we gather around the tables at church, when we are sitting with our families in our comfortable homes, we say, I believe God's promises. I know God is faithful and he will remain faithful to all that he has promised. But what happens when your spouse leaves you or the person you marry turns out to be not the person you thought he was?

What happens when death arrives at your doorstep and takes the child that you cherish and love? What happens when the doctor says cancer? What happens when the floodwaters reach once more to your doorstep and waste and ruin seem imminent? What happens then? Are you still going to say God is faithful? Are you still going to believe his promises?

God will test you to the point where his promises don't make any sense. He will do that, and he's going to do that to every one of his children. He will test you to the point where what he has promised does not make any sense at all. What happens when to all appearances God seems to nullify his promises? What are you going to do then? Are you still going to believe what he said?

Abraham's trust has to be weighed against common sense, against human affection, against a whole lifetime ambition of having a son. He must now act against everything earthly. First thing, if you're going to have a faith like Abraham's, count on God testing your faith. Now, if you would be moved to trust God like Abraham, then know what faith looks like.

Know what faith looks like. In verses 3 through 14, you have a description of the faith of Abraham Now it interesting how Scripture at this point examines his faith Do you notice how the pace of the story slows down dramatically In all the other times that we've looked at the test of Abraham's faith, in all those other times, what we have seen is just these general movements. Abraham moves from Mesopotamia to Canaan.

And then he moves to Egypt. And then we see armies invade. And we see that Abraham pursues them. But it doesn't give us any details. But now, the pace of the story suddenly slows down to these individual scenes. Unlike all these other tests, now the camera suddenly zooms in and we have these individual scenes.

Abraham arises early in the morning. Abraham saddles his donkey. Abraham gets two of his servants. He gets his son. You see him cutting the wood. You see him traveling for three days.

You see him talking with his servants and his son. And then, in the final scene, the camera slows down to slow motion. You see him laying a wood on his son. You see him grasping the knife in the fire. You see every word of the conversation. Then you see him building an altar, putting the wood on the altar, Binding his son Isaac.

Raising the knife for the fatal plunge. A voice speaks. Abraham's eyes shift to the thicket where the ram is. All of this to give you an idea of what his faith is like. It's like slow motion. It's like microscopic examination.

What is faith look like in the ultimate test? What is the kind of faith that we have to emulate? Well, let's look at it. The first thing that I notice is it's mundane. It's mundane. It starts out with what?

Go kill your son. What does he do? He gets up early in the morning. He saddles his donkey. Right? He takes two of his young men with him and his son Isaac, and he cuts the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. It's mundane. When we talk about the ultimate test of faith, here's what we think about. I'll believe in God when they tie me to the stake or they throw me in prison. Right? And we have this idea that somehow this kind of faith is a supernatural power that going to deliver us from any kind of effort or provide all the answers to our questions before we have to go on Right?

Jesus, I believe your promise of an abundant life. You've promised me an abundant life. So show me how all that works out before I do anything else. Show me how that life is going to be abundant. Please reveal to me what that is since my wife has left me. What is that abundant life going to look like?

It doesn't do that. Abraham still gets up in the morning. He saddles his donkey. He cuts the wood. He gets his servants. He gets his son.

He walks with his son for three days. Three days of thinking about what's going to happen. You ever think about that? Walking with his son for three days every step of the journey with this on his mind. And his resolve never falters. Step by step.

Every step of the way. What would have happened if he didn't saddle the donkey? Right? What if he didn't saddle the donkey? Everything falls down. What happens if after two days he turns back?

Right? It's the mundane. It's the everyday stuff. You still do what God calls you to do. How could Abraham... This is a thought that came into my mind.

How could Abraham keep going? How could he step by step by step for three days keep walking. How could he do that? How could he even get up in that morning? Why didn't he just stay in bed? If he hadn't saddled the donkey, then what?

How could he do that? I believe he rehearsed the promise of God. I will go to that mountain because Isaac is the son of promise. And God will remain faithful to raise up descendants through this son. I believe it. And he rehearsed that promise.

This son is the one through whom the blessing to the nations will come. I believe it. This is the one from whom will come kings and nations. God said it. I believe it. And he kept rehearsing that promise.

But through it all, it's mundane, isn't it? It's confident. Here's really an important part of it. Verses 5 through 8. Then Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son Isaac at this point has to be at least a teenager This is an old, old man.

His son's carrying the wood. He's got to be strong enough to do it. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife, and so they went, both of them, together. And Isaac said to his father, Abraham, my father, and he said, here am I, my son. He said, behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?

Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son. So they went, both of them, together. Here's the next thing I see about this faith. It's confident. It's confident. How did Abraham continue that journey, climb that mountain, and bind his son and put him on the altar?

He could do that because he believed that no matter what, this boy will still be the father of nations. will still be the father of coming descendants. And he will still be the one through whom the promise to the nations will be fulfilled. He believed that. And he was confident that God would keep his promise. Although he did not know how. You know what's interesting is verse 5.

I and the boy will go over there and worship. And I and the boy will come again to you. Now, I and the boy will come again to you is not there in your text. But the Hebrew verb there, will come again to you, right? That's plural. That is to say, the verb ending, if you can come with me a little bit deeper, that verb ending is plural.

And so you can translate it, the boy and I are going there, and the boy and I will come back again. He's confident that Isaac will come back with him. Now the writer to the Hebrews looks at that and says, Abraham knew that if he killed his son, God could still raise him from the dead. And so he was confident that that promise that he had made would still be fulfilled.

And then verse 8, when Isaac asked, he said, the Lord will provide a lamb. If God's intention is not resurrection, then Abraham surmises that God will provide some sort of sacrifice. Here's the point. No matter what appears to contradict the promise, you remain confident that God will keep His word. You remain confident that God will keep His word. There is one, to me, glaring example in our married life where I've seen that, where I remember this.

And I'm getting to the point where I've forgotten so much stuff. You know, my wife will say to me, remember when you said this last week? And I'll say, you making this up? I trust you, I must have said it. But I remember this one thing. I can still remember when Beck was pregnant with Levi, and I'd gotten a job.

This was back in 1982, 83, when the economy, and most of you here don't remember the 80s. Some of us are old enough. That was when the economy was at its lowest. But I had a job, and I wanted to get on permanent. I was, you know, that subhuman species called temporary, right? And so I was working like a dog with no benefits, no insurance, no nothing.

And I was hoping to get on permanent, and I bid for a permanent job, and I didn't get it. And my wife is bedridden at this point, and I got laid off. It's like, what now? I can remember though that we were confident God had said I'll meet your needs I'll meet your needs and I can remember coming home and saying what now but God says he'll do it he'll do it and guess what no money showed up in the mailbox but I did get a job the job where guys were stealing my lunch every day.

It was a crummy job. And then he gave me another job that was a whole lot better. And God came through. And we were confident. I can say this. We were confident at that point God was going to provide for us.

Kind of hoped it would be through the money through the mailbox, but it wasn't. All right? Confident. Confident. Verse 12. this kind of faith is obvious this kind of faith is obvious he said that is this angel of the Lord which as you keep reading the angel of the Lord says I swear by myself so the angel of the Lord is God so you look at it in verse 12 where he says do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him for now I know that you fear God seeing you've not withheld your son, your only son.

So it's obvious, you can see it. You say, wait a minute, if this is God, he already knew this was going to happen. What do you mean, now I know? Well, there's a different level of knowledge now. Yeah, God knows everything. It's kind of like you've taught your son how to play ball.

You've spent all this time teaching him and practicing with him and throwing and hitting. You know, he's not the best, but you know, he's on the high school team, but now he's starting to make noises like he doesn't want to go out there. He doesn't want to go on the field. But you're confident he's going to go on the field. You know your boy, he's going to go on the field.

But something happens when he steps out on the field. Now you know it in a different way. And so God knows it, if I can put it this way, in a different way. in a different way. Abraham steps on the stage of history with his actions and his faith is obvious. Faith should be obvious. It will be seen not just by God, but others around you.

How are they going to see it? I'll tell you how they see it is when you lose your job and you're not walking around like everybody else at work despairing about what's going to happen. You believe that God will take care of you. It'll be obvious. It'll be obvious. It'll be obvious when hardship comes into your life.

And you say, by God's grace, I'm going to be what God wants me to be no matter what comes my way. I'm going to believe what Jesus said when he said, I've come that you may have life and have it to the full. I certainly don't know what that's going to look like. But I believe it. it's going to be obvious verse 12 again this kind of faith is fearful and what I mean by that is it's full of the fear of God now the fear of God here cannot mean afraid because you don't trust everything to someone that you're afraid of, do you? this means to hold God in the highest regard in the highest esteem he held God in such high esteem that he trusted him with everything Abraham, I know that you fear God.

Why Because of his faith He held God in such high esteem that he said I going to trust you no matter what The last thing and I think almost most importantly is this kind of faith is obedient It's obedient. Verses 9-11. What does he do? He does exactly what God tells him to do. He puts his son on the altar. Alright?

And then look at verse 18. Look at verse 18. And in your offspring, this is God speaking, in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because you have obeyed My voice. Now, is God saying there that Abraham earned this blessing because he obeyed? Oh, you obeyed. Good boy.

I'm going to give you something. No. What does that obedience mean? What does it mean? It means you truly believe. How do you know true faith?

How do you know when someone really believes? How do you know when someone truly believes? Well, let's say you're on a dark street. Now, you know the way down this dark street. You've been there before. And your little girl is holding onto your hand and she is absolutely terrified of the dark.

And you look down at your little girl and you say, Honey, do you trust your dad? yeah, okay, let's go. Okay, do you trust your dad? I do. Okay, let's go. And as you start walking, it's like, her feet are rooted in the ground. Right, you say, honey, honey, daddy's been here before.

Now, you can trust me. Do you trust me? Yeah, okay. Now, does she trust you? Nope. How do I know that?

Because she's not going with you. You know that she trusts you when she acts. You know what another word for obedience is? Faithfulness. Faithfulness. We know Abraham believed the promises of God because he acted like it.

He acted. This is the true faith that shows itself in the heat of the test A mundane confident obvious fearful obedient faith What else must you do if you'd exercise this kind of faith? Remember that God remains faithful forever. God kept his promise, didn't he? As the camera draws back from the scene, what do you see? You see Abraham and you see Isaac alive and well.

Able to fulfill the promise that God had made that all of this was going to happen through him. That all of those promises he had made all the way up to this point was going to happen through Isaac. You know it because there in the thicket was a ram, a substitute for Isaac, a sacrifice Abraham could offer in his place. So Abraham names the place the Lord will provide.

How does God remain faithful? How does he remain faithful? When you look at it, the first way he remains faithful is by providing. He provides a substitute. He raises up a substitute. Alright?

So he remains faithful to Isaac fulfilling all those promises. By raising up a substitute. You also notice how God remains faithful because He gives greater promises. Alright? He gives greater promises. Let's look at that.

Verse 15, The angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of the heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore, and your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice. Notice the greater promises. First of all, God promises even greater faithfulness.

Now actually, it's impossible for God to become more faithful than he is now. If God has everything that he needs within himself, he can't grow. Right? He's not going to get more faithful. but here, so Abraham has an even more solid base for believing, he swears by himself. He says, I swear by myself that I will keep these promises. Turn over to Hebrews for just a moment.

Hebrews chapter 6. Hebrews chapter 6. Now the writer of the Hebrews looks at this and notes something for us. Hebrews 6 beginning in verse 16. And we'll start, yeah, no, verse 15. And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.

For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of His purpose, He guaranteed it with an oath so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. There are two things that God did. the two things that made sure that he was going to keep his promise.

He swore an oath, and he swore it by himself. He is unchangeable. And there's nothing greater than himself to swear by. So he swore by himself. Even after he walked through those carcasses, right? Genesis 15.

He walked through the carcasses to show he was serious about keeping his promise. Even though he confirmed it by walking through the carcasses, he affirmed it. By instituting circumcision. Yet this time, in order to, so that Abraham would know for sure that God was going to be faithful, he swore an oath by himself. By the way, notice verse 17. God adds a promise here that we haven't seen before.

A greater promise. Your enemies are going to possess their cities. Or your, not your enemies, I'm sorry. Let me get it right. Your offspring, I'll multiply your offspring. We've seen that. and as we've seen that, and your offspring shall possess the gate of His enemies.

By the way, who's reading this at this time? Who are the first readers of Genesis? The children of Israel as they're on their way to the promised land. He's making a promise. God swore by Himself that they would be able to conquer their enemies So God God shows himself faithful by even greater promises All right? Now you can grow in your faith as you remember that God will always, always remain faithful to his promises. there remains yet one more component to put into place if you would have the faith of Abraham it's this recognize that you cannot exercise that kind of faith alone because some of you are sitting here today saying to yourself I can't do it go ahead pastor preach all you want I'll never get to that point I can't do it.

My faith is weak. My faith falters. I cannot be like Abraham. Actually, that's the first step you ought to take in having a faith like Abraham. Recognizing your weakness. I don't want you walking out of here saying, yes, let's do it!

Willpower! It's not going to happen that way. You've got to recognize you can't do it by yourself. You can't do it by sheer exercise of your will. You'll never believe like Abraham if that's what you're thinking. The first thing you have to understand is you are weak and you can't do it alone.

Well, what's our hope then? Here's what our hope is. Recognize that there's another son, another father, whose son ascended another mountain. And that mountain's name was Calvary. And that father put wood on his son's back. The wood of a cruel cross.

And Jesus went up that mount as an obedient son, just like Isaac willingly carried his burden and willingly went up that mountain. But there is a vast difference between this father and son and Abraham and Isaac. There's a vast difference. There are so many similarities, but there is a vast difference, you see, because this Father this Heavenly Father actually slaughtered His Son He actually killed His Son The prophet Isaiah, looking at that scene, wrote of that latter-day Son this, that He was smitten by God and afflicted.

And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. And it was the will of the Lord to crush him. And he has put him to grief. There's the difference. This father actually slaughtered his son. And there was no substitute waiting on the top of that mountain.

There was no substitute. You know why? Because his son was the substitute. That's why. He was the substitute for you and for me. He was the substitute for sinners.

Some of you today are strangers to the Lord Jesus Christ. You don't know Him. You don't care for Him. You might be coming to church. I don't know why, because it's the thing to do. I have no idea.

But you may be strangers to the Lord Jesus. And I say to you, that He is the substitute for sinners. and if you trust in Him, you'll be reconciled to God and you will begin the life of faith. The life of believing the promises of God. Now Christians, you are here saying, how can I do it? And I say to you, you've got to look to Jesus because He has redeemed you and when your faith does fail, as it inevitably will, God's not going to beat you up for it.

You know why? He's already taken that out of His Son. He's not going to come after you. Why you? Why don't you believe in My promises? I'm going to get you now.

He's not going to do that. You know why? He did that in His Son. He'll never come after you. Instead, He'll forgive you for your failure of faith. And more than that, Jesus has redeemed you from unbelief so that you can grow in faith If you saying here my faith is weak I saying yeah so is mine So let grow Let grow in our faith You have the ability you have the capacity to grow because Jesus death on the cross redeemed you from the bondage of unbelief and has now given you the capacity to believe.

You can believe like Abraham. You must grow. And the Lord will test you so that you will grow. All of us here will certainly be tested in our faith. In the everyday circumstances of life, we're going to be tested. In the extraordinary tragedies of life that inevitably come into all of our lives, you will be tested.

So when you feel the heat of the test, look first to the Lord Jesus Christ who died, who's called the author and perfecter of our faith. And who died so that you'd be free from your short-sightedness. And see the promises of God. Look to Abraham as well. Learn of his faith. Imitate it as you call on your Father to help you to grow in dependence upon the Spirit as you grow in that faith.

And remember that God will always remain faithful. Father, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for giving us this story of Abraham so that we can see the Lord Jesus Christ in it all and see the faith that You require of us and that You will help us to grow in. Thank You, Father, for Your great mercy to us in Christ. Thank You for the privilege of living by faith, living on the edge, but believing Your promises no matter what. oh God I help you I ask you that you would help us to live by faith for those Father who are here who do not know Jesus who are a stranger to him who have no interest in him I pray that you would begin to work in their hearts that they might turn to him in faith and believe the promise of eternal life and begin to live another way thank you for your word this morning in Jesus name Amen