Lesson #1 From Abraham: The Foundation Of Faith Text: Genesis Series: Book of Genesis, #7 Pastor Lyle L. Wahl January 9, 2005

Transcription

1 Lesson #1 From Abraham: The Foundation Of Faith Text: Genesis Series: Book of Genesis, #7 Pastor Lyle L. Wahl January 9, 2005 Introduction Today we reach another first in Genesis the first person the Bible describes at great length. Abraham. His parents named him Abram, Exalted Father. God renamed him, Abraham, Father of Many. To the Jews he is Father Abraham, Our father, Abraham. He is the central figure of Genesis He was the one chosen by God to begin the nation through which the Savior of the world would come. The basic phases of his life are described with clearly described key events there are no retouched images here. This first detailed portrait reveals truths and lessons to be understood and valued by our own commitment and action. This is the first of several weeks of looking at and, hopefully, learning lessons from Abraham. Today we are thinking about the foundation of faith. You don t have to be an engineer or architect to know that the foundation is critical to the structure built on it. A tall office building had been completed only a few years when some disturbing cracks were noticed in a wall on the 42 nd floor. A structural engineer was contacted. When he came, he notified reception, who notified the manager. The manager took the elevator to the 42 nd floor and waited, and waited, and waited. They looked all around and finally found the engineer not on the 42 nd floor, but in the 6 th basement level. The manager was upset, What are you doing here? We re paying you to look at the problem on the 42 nd floor! The engineer, Sir, you may have cracks on the 42 nd floor, but your problem is right here in the basement. Serious cracks, problems, develop at different levels of our lives. When they do we need to check the foundation. The foundation of life is faith. From Abraham we see the reality and importance of the foundation of faith.

2 The Nature Of Faith Is Faith is a familiar word, but is often misunderstood. In general terms our current usages of the word include the ideas of complete trust or confidence, belief and trust in God, a strong belief in a religion, a system of religious beliefs. For what we are considering today, first, broadly, it refers to belief, confidence. Then, specifically it refers to the belief, confidence, trust which is the basis for how you think, what you do, that is, the foundation of your life. Some people think they are beyond faith, that they don t need it, that they act only on reason, facts; what they see, know. Faith is for everyone not just religious people. The reality is that everyone has faith. Think about it. We have faith in things the food you buy, such having faith that the mushrooms you buy at the store you are safe, not poisonous. Faith that airplane you get into can actually get off the ground, stay in the air and land safely. Faith that when you turn a nob or push a button on a little box that sound, music, pictures come from that machine. We also have faith in people. Yes, some people say that no longer have any faith in others. Can that really be so? Let s say you decide to go for a drive this afternoon. You get in your car and head out, and end out on a country two-lane highway. There you are, going the speed limit of 100 km/hr (give or take a bit). A car comes toward you at the same speed. Both you and the other driver keep going. Why? What prevents a head-on collision? Certainly not that little yellow-painted stripe on the road! You both keep going because you trust that the other one is going to stay on his/her side of the road. That s faith. Then we all have faith in the basic assumptions, values we hold. Make no mistake, to be a staunch atheist requires faith! To believe that all the beauty, order and complexity of our world came from nothing but time and chance requires faith! Faith. Everyone has faith not just religious people. Today we are looking at basic, bedrock faith. Faith that you build your life on. Question: What is the foundation of your faith, of your life? Faith in God is the one and only solid foundation for life, faith based on and in the one and only true God. 2

3 The Substance Of Faith In God Is Having a basic picture of the nature of faith and our need of faith in God, let s turn our attention to the substance of true faith in God. To start with, it is based on, it is knowing and accepting God as He is. We see that in our central character, Abraham. God called him to leave his homeland, relatives and friends and move out without knowing where he was going. Let s look at God s call, statements, promises to him.! We start at the beginning of chapter 12. Now the LORD said to Abram, Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. and in you all the families of the earth will be bless ed (1-3).! Now go down to the opening verse of chapter 15. After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great.! One more, drop down to the first verse of chapter 17. Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, I am God Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless. I will establish My covenant between Me and you, And I will multiply you exceedingl y (1-2). The substance of true, life-giving and fulfilling faith is based on knowing, accepting God as He is. God reveals some of His character and will in these statements to Abram. God is over all the people and places of the earth. He has the right to direct us. God is in control of our future, future generations. He provides strength, protection, blessing. He is the Almighty the sovereign God. God makes promises to people. He has standards and expectations for people such as, walk before Me and be blameless (17:1). There are some dramatic and perplexing truths here. But Abraham believed God as God revealed Himself to be. 3

4 How about us? People of every generation have tended to view God as they want to see Him, as they want Him to be. And so, it is no wonder that endless concepts, philosophes and religions have been developed. At the same time, there are many people who are honestly questioning and searching. Is there really a God? or Gods? And, if so, What is God like? How can I know for certain? While God reveals Himself in our world around us, He gives the clear and authoritative revelation of Himself in the Bible. He is the God of the Bible. One of the disturbing trends of our time is that increasing numbers of people who identify themselves as Christians, even as evangelical Christians, trust more in their own concepts and views of God and what is true, than what the Bible declares. So, the substance of faith in God is based on, knowing and accepting God as He is. There is one more element. This true faith involves personally accepting and trusting God and His truth. Go back to Abraham, when he was still Abram. God told him to pack up and move out, and to do that as Hebrews 11:8 tells us, not knowing where he was going. His response? Here in chapter 12, So Abram went forth as the LORD had spoken to him (4). God spoke, So Abram obeyed, he got up and moved out. When he finally arrived in Palestine, God told him, To your descendants I will give this land (12:7). The land was filled with people who, to say the least, were not anxious to give it up. And notice the promise: It was not to you, Abram, and your descendants, but to your descendants. It was only later that God said, to you and your descendants (13:5). Look at Abram s response in verse 7 of chapter 12, So he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him. He heard, accepted and acted in worship, giving thanks. There are other examples. In chapter 13 when his nephew Lot chose the best land, Abram s response was one of faith in God and God s promise. When he later rescued Lot in chapter 14 and was offered great rewards, in faith he declined them to keep a clear testimony. When almost 25 years after God s promise to make a great nation from him, when he and his wife still had no children, his faith was in God and His promises (17). Then, after his son Isaac was born, and God tested Abraham s faith and love with the direction to sacrifice Isaac, Abraham responded in faith to God as God was, to God s promises believing, as we are told in Hebrews 11:19, that God could even raise him from the dead to fulfill His promises. 4

5 That was Abraham. How about us? We have a distinct advantage which Abraham did not enjoy the completed God-breathed, inspired Word of God, which God so graciously has given us without flaw or error and which, then, is totally trustworthy. Yes, we first must know who God is and accept Him for who He is, but then we must personally accept and trust God and His truth. A Solid Foundation of Faith for Life is impossible without personally trusting God and His truth. Is this true in the things you are facing today? In the good, bad times? The easy and hard choices? The routine and exceptional experiences of life? The Blessing Of Faith In God Is This record of Abraham also shows us something of the blessing of placing faith in God. First, there is an open door to acceptance and friendship with God. For Abraham, let s go to the classic passage, the opening verses of chapter 15.15:1-6 READ. After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great. Abram said, O Lord GOD, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?`And Abram said, Since You have given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir. Then behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir. And He took him outside and said, Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them. And He said to him, So shall your descendants be. Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness (1-6). Abraham had a track record of believing God. Here it states, summarizes the results, blessings of faith. The promises of God were reaffirmed even more through the rest of the chapter. The key here is verse 6. Let s read it again, Then he [Abram] believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. It was faith, by God s grace, that opened the door to acceptance and friendship with God. 5

6 God s word to and for us is the same. Paul wrote in Romans chapter 1, the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, But the righteous man shall live by faith (16-17). Again God speaks to us through Paul in Ephesians 2, For by grace you have been saved through faith; and not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast (8-9). A second blessing of this faith is a path of ongoing friendship with God. Abraham experienced this blessing. We have traced some of the major events, markers of his faith and friendship with God. God called him from Ur, down by the Persian Gulf. He journeyed north up to Haran. Later, into Palestine; in, around, through it. In a time of famine, down to Egypt and back. These were travels and years of faith, not perfection we ll see some of his failures in the following weeks. A life of faith and so, a life of a close relationship, friendship with God. Much later, God spoke about Abraham through Isaiah, and said of him, Abraham My friend (41:8). In the New Testament, James tells us that Abraham was called the friend of God (2:23). What about us? Can you describe yourself as the friend of God? If Jesus were here physically, would he introduce you, me, saying, This is My friend? Being a friend of God is a blessing of faith. Faith that knows and accepts God as He is. Faith that is based on personally accepting and trusting God and His truth, and acting on that truth. Jesus talks in John 15 about being faithful and fruitful, about believing and obeying, about trusting and doing. It is in this relationship of faith, He tells us, that He calls us His friends (e.g., 15:14). Conclusion The one and only secure foundation of life is true faith in God. Do you have real faith in the one and only God as He is? There is no other foundation, no other way to security for now, for forever. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6 states this head on and clearly, Without faith it is impossible to please Him [God], for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. It is not religion, not the church but true faith in God through Jesus Christ. 6

7 Most of us here this morning are in the faith. But are we really living by faith? Is faith in God really the foundation of for what we think, plan, say and do from day to day? Again, we are not talking about perfection here, but a pattern of character, like Abraham. Listen to a few words of wisdom from Yogi Berra:! Never give up, because it ain t over until its over.! When you come to a fork in the road, take it.! Remember, whatever you do in your life, 90 percent of it is half mental. That is amusing and perhaps confusing. But what does it have to do with faith? If you ve been a Christian very long, you no doubt have heard the truth of Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38, all taken from the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk 2:4 that the righteous person will live by faith. Knowing that and living that can be separated by great gulfs at times as we dream our dreams, put our plans together, shape our view of God and His truth, as we determine and act on our priorities. All of that, like the wisdom of Yogi Berra, can be confusing, but it is not amusing it is tragic when we do not have that living, active foundation of faith. As come to a few moments of personal, one-on-one time with God this morning, thank Him that by His grace he provides and blesses a life of faith, calls people living by faith His friends. Review the foundation of your faith what determines what you really think, dream, say and do. Commit yourself to see God as He really is, and His truth as He has revealed it and actually live by faith Lyle L. Wahl Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. 7