By Faith

By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son. Of whom it was said, through Isaac shall your offspring be named. He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. By faith, Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. Rejoin with me once again in prayer. God, thank you for this time to come to you and to teach your word. I ask a blessing upon it, Lord, that it would be used mightily for the advance of your kingdom and for us to grow in godliness. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So, Hebrews 11, 17 through 20. And for our devotion tonight, I thought I would break it down into three parts for us. First, we're going to look at those first two words, by faith, and understand their significance and meaning. And then second, I thought we'd look at Abraham's life and see how he lived by faith. And then finally, I'll just offer some general application for our lives. So we're going to get right into it, our first part, by faith. And we can rightly ask ourselves, are these words important? Do they really matter? Let me offer you five reasons from scripture why these words are so very important and why they have significance in our lives. So the first reason why the words by faith are important is one, God's grace is manifested by faith. Listen to these words from the Apostle Paul from Romans 4 verse 16. That is why it depends on faith. in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring, not only to the adherence of the law, but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham. I'm not going to go into the full context of chapter four, but one thing I just want us to understand from this little point that Paul is making is that Faith is dependent and manifested by God's grace. Meaning, it's not the works that we do that earn God's merit. It is what God has done for us in Christ Jesus. And when we respond by faith, we are united to those works that Christ has done. And His righteousness is given to us. So, God's grace is manifested by faith. And that's so important, again, just to understand that we give praise to God. because of his grace, of what he has done for us. And that's why that by faith is so vital. The second reason the words by faith are so important to us is that we are justified by faith. Romans 3, 28, for we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. So we can rightly ask ourselves, why do we need to be justified? Or in other words, why do we need to be declared righteous before a holy God? We've learned from our Genesis series, in Genesis chapter 3, that sin enters this world, and because of that sin, because of Adam's sin, we too are counted to be in sin. And so we stand condemned before a holy God. Because of that, God wrath abides on us, and we rightly deserve eternal punishment. But God, again, as we learned, in His grace, in His mercy, provides Christ for us. And so, when we respond in faith, or by faith, we are justified in God's eyes. We can then stand in front of this holy God. We are justified by faith. Third reason. The words by faith are so important. We have peace with God. This comes from Romans 5, verse 1. Paul says, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So again, it stands on God's grace. Point one. Point two, we are justified because of this faith. And now, point three, we have peace with this God. We can come to this God. We no longer stand condemned. The wrath is not upon us. And we have peace. We can indeed cry out to Him, Abba, Father. Paul said a little differently in Romans 8.1, therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. I see it really as the same as 5.1 of Romans chapter 5. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ being justified by faith. Fourth, we live our new lives in Christ by faith. You hear these words from Galatians 2.20-21. from Paul, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose." So once we've seen God's grace, point one, His mercy to us, we respond in faith, we are justified, we have peace with God, point three. And then finally, point four, we live our lives by faith. We live obediently to God by faith. It is God sanctifying us through our faith and by our faith that we start to do these works that we've been prepared beforehand by God. So our lives live by faith. And then finally, our fifth reason why the words by faith are so vital and so important is they help us fight sin. Remember Paul's definition of sin from Romans 14, 23. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. So I take that to mean whenever we're living a life that is not centered by faith in what Christ has done for us, we're living typically by our flesh. We're living by our own sinful natural desires, which is sin. It's not proceeding from faith. So we finished part one sort of looking at the words by faith and why they are so important. And as we transition now into our second part, I want us to look at the life of Abraham and see how he lived by faith. As we do so, let us keep in mind the definition that scripture gives us of faith. And that's from Hebrews 11, verse one. Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for. the conviction of things not seen. The assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. So we should ask ourselves, well, what did Abraham hope for? Or what were his convictions of the things not seen? Let's look at five instances from Abraham's life that showed he lived by faith. The first way we can see that Abraham lived by faith is Abraham believed that he would see Christ's day. I get this from John 8, verse 56, where our Lord Jesus Himself tells us, Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad. So Abraham, looking ahead to the promises, sees the joy and the greatness of Christ. And he rejoices. So Abraham is believing that he would see Christ's day. He's living by faith. The second way we see that Abraham lived by faith. Abraham believed that he would be the father of many nations. Romans 4.18, in hope he, he there referring to Abraham, believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations as he had been told, so shall your offspring be. Abraham, trusting the word of God, believing what God has told him, And when he says, you will be the father of many nations. Now remember, as we've gone through our Genesis series, Abraham at one point was living in the land of Ur. He was not the father of any nation, let alone many nations. Yet he believes this. He believes that he will indeed be the father of many nations. Again, think of our definition of faith. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. And Abraham's living that. He does not see that he will be the father of many nations, literally see that, but he believes in it. He's showing faith. He has assurance of things hoped for. The third way Abraham lives by faith is that he believed that he would have a child when he was an old man. So Romans 4, again, continuing in verse 19 through 21, He, again referring to Abraham, did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead, since he was about a hundred years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. So again, Abraham, Hearing the words of God who says through your son through Isaac your offspring. I will give you a child Abraham is a hundred years old his wife is barren, but yet he believes the promise of God I think one thing that is really striking as we listen to this again from what Paul tells us in Romans 4 is that Listen to verse 20 again. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God. If you ever wonder how you can grow in your faith, it's right there. Give glory to God. And that's an amazing little thing to think about. But that's how we grow in our faith. Give glory to God. In Abraham's faith grew and so are ours. Fourth reason, or the fourth way that Abraham lived by faith. It comes from our passage that we read tonight at the beginning. Hebrews 11, 19. Abraham believed that God would raise Isaac if he sacrificed him. Again, Hebrews 11, 19. He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. Now, last week, Keith preached from Genesis the sacrifice of Isaac, and I think he did a wonderful job of explaining the emotion behind that. And if you listen to the Q&A, he followed that up of really detailing and wanting to try to capture that emotion. And it's a point that we just can't forget. I mean, to really think about that, a father will sacrifice his son, will take a son to go. And Keith rightly brought up the fact that he rose early in the morning to do it, if you remember from Genesis. It's an amazing testament of faith, an amazing assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. He knew that God would raise him from the dead because he believed again from the earlier promises that in you, you will be the father of men and nations. In this offspring, Isaac will be. So he knew that the promise cannot die. if he sacrificed Isaac. If so, God would be alive. And Abraham believed. Finally, Abraham lived by faith, by believing that one day he would be in heaven. Hebrews 11.10, for he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. And then finally in Hebrews 11.16, but as it is, they desire a better country. That is a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared for them a city. When Abraham left Abram in Genesis chapter 12, he was looking forward to that day when God would give him that heavenly city. He believed in the things not yet seen and had hope and assurance for those things. So now, let us sort of think about how we can apply this to our lives. How can we understand, one, the importance of the words by faith, and then looking just at the example of Abraham himself, and applying that in our lives. Our first point, I hope that we can understand, is that, one, faith should lead us to obedience. Or if you will, faith should lead us to take risks because of the power of Christ within us. So we should ask ourselves, what are the hard things God is calling us to? Are we being obedient? Or are we running away from God and not trusting His promises? One of the things I was struck by in just sort of reading this passage and thinking over it over the last couple of weeks, and particularly this last week where I've sort of had a Not the best week, just to be honest. And looking and thinking, how would I teach on this on faith? But knowing that faith doesn't look back in the sense that you don't look back to your works and see what you've done. If you're looking back, you're looking back to the promises that God has fulfilled in your life. But faith also is looking forward. and resting on Christ's promises. And I think so easily we can twist that faith and start to just look back on what I am not doing or what I should be doing, rather than how God has been faithful. And then looking forward to how He will be even more faithful. So that's our first point of application. Then our second point, just ask ourselves, where does our faith lie? Can we say that our faith lies completely in the finished work of Christ? Or do we find ourselves putting our faith in man? Do we find ourselves putting our faith in science and reason? In our works? For example, our knowledge of doctrine? Our parenting skills? Our kindness? Our humility? Our acts of mercy? Let us remember that our faith is a gift of God's grace, and this faith is grounded on the objective truth that Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the scripture, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, and that he appeared to over 500 men. Faith is the instrument that God uses to unite us to the finished work of Christ. We are not justified because of our faith. No, we are justified because of Christ's work on the cross. And when we respond in faith, Christ's righteousness is imputed to us and we are counted righteous before this holy God. So we must fully be aware that we will continually try to justify ourselves by our works. It's very easy to find our righteousness in our works and not in the finished work of Christ. And when we do so, we become enslaved once again to the law. And that is why the reformers fought so vehemently for this doctrine of justification by faith alone. Listen to these words from Martin Luther. This doctrine, justification by faith, is the head and the cornerstone. It alone begets, nourishes, builds, preserves, and defends the Church of God. And without it, the Church of God cannot exist for one hour. For no one who does not hold this article, or to use Paul's expression, this sound doctrine, Titus 2.1, is able to teach or write in the church or successfully to resist any adversary. This is the heel of the seed that opposes the old serpent and crushes its head. That is why Satan, in turn, cannot but persecute it. As Pastor Keith mentioned today, we're saying goodbye, in some ways, to an old friend. Abraham was a tremendous man of faith. As I prepared for tonight's devotional, I was reminded of one of my favorite passages from Scripture, Romans 8, 29 through 30. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. And I thought about Abraham. God foreknew and predestined Abraham. And when the time was right, God called Abraham. So remember Genesis chapter 12. Now the Lord said to Abraham, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. And God justified Abraham. Listen again to these words from Genesis 15. And he brought him outside and said, Look toward heaven and number the stars if you are able to number them. Then he said to him, So shall your offspring be. And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. And finally, we know that Abraham is glorified. No, he has not received his new body yet, but he is with the Lord. Hear these words from our Lord Jesus. I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. So yes, in ways we say goodbye to a good friend today, but thankfully, in Christ, we are children of Abraham, and we shall worship at the feet of Christ with our good friend. Let's pray. God, thank You. Thank You so much for Your mercy to us in Christ. Lord, thank You that You have given us a Savior, that You have looked down upon us and have given us a Savior, and that You are a very loving and merciful God. God, I pray that we will give You more glory. I pray that we will be a church and a body that just wants to praise you more. And lo and return, Lord, our faith will grow. And that's where we want to have a deeper and more richer faith in you. So I pray for everyone in this room that we would have a deeper faith in you. We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.