Faith - Hebrews 11:20

delight yourself in Yahweh and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to Yahweh, trust in him and he will act.

You see, it's in this psalm. The psalmist teaches us that to attain these desires, to be happy, to be secure, to be safe, is not by trying harder or working smarter, but to trust in God and have faith in him. And at the same time, it teaches us what this looks like. In fact, the scriptures teach us over and over and over what this means, what it looks like to have faith in God. And that is exactly what this perhaps obscure text before us in Hebrews 11 that we just read teaches us. This text that describes the faith of Isaac teaches us what commendable faith is. This evening, I want to study Isaac's faith with you. And I think as we do, we will discover that faith is total submission to God's will. Faith is total submission to God's will. Now, the reason this verse is so brief is because the author is writing to Jewish Christians, so he expects them to be experts in Old Testament history. But because most of us are not, we're gonna have to go and take a quick field trip to the book of Genesis, and we'll be in chapter 27. Now, as you're flipping there, let me summarize the setting. There are four characters, Isaac, his wife, Rebekah, and their twins, Jacob and Esau. Now, despite the fact that he was younger, despite the fact that he was younger and that Isaac loved Esau more, there are two things that indicate that Jacob was to be the heir. First, God had promised it, and second, Esau had carelessly and impulsively sold Jacob his birthright. So we read, and as Isaac grows old, he calls Esau and he says to him,

I am about to die. Get me some food and I will bless you.

You see, Isaac wants to sneak this blessing onto Esau, even though he must have known that Jacob was to get the birthright. Surely he knew God's will. Surely Jacob had told him that Esau had sold him his birthright. But God is not a man that his plan can be thwarted. His plan couldn't be hindered by the waywardness of Isaac and Jacob and Esau and Rebekah. In his sovereignty, God would still bring about his plan in spite of their sin. So returning to the story, Rebekah hears Isaac's intentions and colludes with Jacob into tricking Isaac to bless him. And so Jacob does receive the blessing. But now, here comes Esau, and look down at verse 32. Pay close attention to this next part, because this is where we see Isaac's great act of faith. Chapter 27, verse 32. It says,

his father Isaac said to him, who are you? He answered, I am your son, your firstborn Esau. Then Isaac trembled very violently and said, who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me? And I ate it all before you came and I have blessed him. Yes, and he shall be blessed.

This is the event for which Isaac's faith was commended. The scriptures record that Isaac trembled very violently, literally that he trembled with a great trembling exceedingly, even to abundance. He was seized with this terror and dread, not only at the recognition of God's sovereignty, but at the realization that he had just tried to work against it. This is conviction. This is the realization that he is nothing, that despite his best efforts, God had stepped in to bring about what he had decreed. And so Isaac immediately repents from this disobedience and doubles down on his blessing saying,

yes, and he shall be blessed.

He didn't try to reverse it. He didn't try to alter it. He fully and totally submitted to God's will. By faith, Isaac affirmed God's purpose of blessing Jacob and proceeded to give Esau a lesser blessing. That is what Hebrews 11 is talking about. He said, God, if this is your will, let it be. If this is what you insist, I buy it. I repent of my disobedience and completely submit to you. And that's the lesson. That's the lesson for us. You think you can do it yourself? You think you know best? You don't. Jeremiah says that

the heart is deceitful above all things.

You have to turn to God. You have to totally submit your life to Him, and that begins with trusting in Christ for your salvation. God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. And that truth is this, that His Son, Jesus Christ, came into the world to die for sinners. And he rose again three days later, having defeated sin and death. And if you believe in him as your Lord and Savior, you will be saved. That is the first step of submission. And for believers, Paul tells us that the stories of the Old Testament were given for our instruction. So we have to ask what instruction is given here. And it is this, remember that God is a sovereign God, and what he says will undoubtedly come to pass. It's not contingent on our approval. It's not contingent on what we want. It's not even contingent on reason or nature. It's contingent on the reality that God is God, that he is sovereign over the universe, and when he speaks, he will bring it to pass. The only thing that keeps us from seeing this is such a dangerous thing. It's pride. And what is pride? It's this attitude in your heart that says, I know best, my will be done. It's this attitude in the heart that says, I am high, I am good, I am just, I am true, I am God. And so it blinds us to this truth of who God is. But we see in Proverbs 16, 18, that

pride goes before destruction.

Pride precedes destruction. I've heard it put this way.

Pride precedes destruction, but this isn't because this is just how God created the world. There's no such thing as karma. Pride invites judgment because pride is rebellion against a holy God. Pride invites divine judgment because pride challenges God. It does not fear God. It does not believe God. It does not submit to God. Indeed, it is always against God.

It invites God's judgment and we don't even know that it's coming because we are blinded to the reality that God is sovereign. Now, the only solution to pride, you know, because pride blinds us to the truth about God, the only solution to pride is to see the sovereignty of God. In Isaiah six, we see that when Isaiah saw God as sovereign as he really is, then he finally saw himself and he fell to the ground and cried out, woe is me. The same is found in this story about Isaac. When he finally saw the sovereignty of God, he saw himself and his sin and he trembled violently. So let me ask you, do you see God? When you imagine your future successes and think about your future goals, how much of your confidence is directed towards you versus the reality that God is sovereign? So in light of that, another question we have to ask ourselves when reading this text is, when you're confronted with the command from your Lord Jesus Christ that just makes you think, not this, I can't, I don't want to, what do you do with it? When you're confronted with a command that just seems difficult, counterintuitive, ridiculous, absurd, just the most upside down, incomprehensible thing you could possibly imagine, what do you do with it? When you're confronted with a command that you just don't want to do, what do you do with that? What do you do with God's word, with his commands? When he speaks into your life and he speaks about your attitude, or when he speaks about the words that you say, or the thoughts that you think, or the things that you do, when he speaks about the goals that you have, your ambitions, your future, when he calls you to do something or calls you to not to do something, when Jesus commands you, what do you do with his command? God purposely made Isaac do something he did not want. to teach him and us this lesson, that faith is total submission to God. Faith is total submission to God. And I wonder how submission would look practically in each of our own lives. How attached are we to the pleasures of this world, to that one lingering private sin or area that we just refuse to submit to God? to that sin of anger, or lust, or self-pity, or apathy, and we think, I've submitted everything else to God, but he doesn't have to know about this one, or even good things, to that career, or relationship, or friendship, or marriage, or family, that makes us think, I worked so hard for this, surely, surely God will let me have this one. How tightly do we hold onto these things? Now, it is neither my job nor my responsible nor am I capable of applying scripture in every single way you ought to submit to God in whatever role he has placed you in life. But might I suggest that scripture does have prescriptions for every facet of your life. I mean, it is the very will of God. How much do we really examine it to see if our lives are in line with God's will? As a fellow brother in Christ, I beg you, please spend time in it. Meditate on it, pray through it, and ask God to reveal his will to you. And when he reveals an area that you haven't submitted, pray that he gives you the strength to do so. It's hard. but praise God that he's given us the power to do so through his son. We saw through the baptisms this past Sunday that when we confess that Jesus is Lord, we are buried with him so that just as he was raised by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. And when we inevitably fail, praise God that he still loves us, that he is a gracious God who is quick to forgive, who covers the shame and the guilt of those he loves, and that he indeed has the power to work out remarkable faith in rather unremarkable people. Just as Isaac failed, and not just here but repeatedly, yet still this one act of faith engraved his name in the hall of fame for faith. Be encouraged that even your single momentary act of faith still counts in the eyes of God. So turn to him and trust in his work on the cross. Please bow with me in prayer. Father, we praise you for your sovereignty. We praise you that you work all things together for the good of those who love you. We thank you for sending your son to save sinners and we pray that as we go through this week and through the rest of our lives, that you would show yourself to us. That in seeing you, we might see ourselves and be brought low so that we might more closely turn to the cross. We pray that you give us the strength to submit to you. In Jesus' name, amen.