Title: What Are The Facts About Your Faith?
Bible Book: James 2 : 23
Author: Donnie L. Martin
Subject: Faith, Christian; Facts Upon Faith
Objective:
Introduction
It was on the old TV program “Dragnet” that Sergeant Joe Friday, played by the now deceased actor, Jack Webb, made famous the words, “Just the facts, ma’am. Just the facts.” The basic meaning of that theatrical statement was, “Skip the fluff; don’t embellish anything; cut out all the suppositions and opinions, and just tell me what happened—tell me the truth.” You see; Sergeant Joe Friday wanted to be sure that the facts didn’t become so obscured by embellishment that they became fiction.
Oftentimes even Christians get a little mixed up about what’s actually fact, and what’s fiction. This is really quite easy to do, when it comes to our walk with God. Sometimes we subconsciously think that because we talk a good talk that we walk a good walk. While believing the right things are important, it doesn’t guarantee that one is living what they say they believe. Behavior is the real test of one’s beliefs. Though none of us can claim to be 100 percent consistent in this area, what we truly believe will affect how we behave.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the realm of our faith toward God. More often than not, we talk a good faith, but simply don’t practice a good faith. We can boast of trusting God; but the proof of that trust will be verified or vilified by one’s response to trying circumstances that press us beyond measure. It is this fact with which I wish to challenge you today. I want us to consider the question, “What Are The Facts About Your Faith?”
I. A Submissive Faith
A. Real Faith Submits To God What Is Precious
Genesis 22:1-2, “And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt (test) Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. 2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.”
Isaac was not only the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah, but his was a miraculous birth. After the birth of Ishmael, Abraham and Sarah had waited 13 years for the birth of their promised son. Their bodies were now old, and their childbearing years were long in the past. God knew how much Isaac meant to Abraham, for God referred to him as, “…thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest…” (v. 2a).
Don’t miss the divine picture that is foreshadowed in this event. Abraham was told to go to “the land of Moriah,” and sacrifice Isaac. “Moriah” means, “chosen by Jehovah” and its location is the present- day Temple Mount (Smith’s Bible Dictionary). This was a picture of the future sacrificial death of God’s “only son,” the Lord Jesus Christ. God the Father dearly loved God the Son, for the Bible says, “For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth…” (John 5: 20a). But in spite of God’s love for the Son, He sacrificed Him on Calvary, so that all could be forgiven and receive eternal life through faith in Christ (John 3: 16).
Though God isn’t going to require us in our present day to make blood sacrifices of our children, as an act of worship, He will often test our faith in other areas that are precious to us. God may test us in the area of our children’s, or our health, our home, or perhaps even our financial wellbeing. If God were to test you in those areas, would it destroy your faith in God? Would you continue to trust Him in spite of the loss?
Someone once made a very enlightening comment about faith: “One of the major issues in the matter of faith toward God is the issue of ownership” (Source Unknown).
If you see everything that has been entrusted to you, as yours, rather than God’s, you will have an extremely difficult time enduring loss.
B. Real Faith Submits To God Promptly
Genesis 22:3, “And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.”
We are not told of any pause or questioning on the part of Abraham, concerning God’s command. We are simply told that he responded immediately to God’s instructions. Please don’t pass this off as merely a Bible story; for Abraham made every preparation to follow through with what God had told him to do, even to the point of cutting the wood that would be used to consume Isaac’s body on the altar.
One surefire test of one’s faith toward God is how long it takes one to submit to God’s revealed will. We must learn to so trust God that we obey promptly. Bible teacher Donald Grey Barnhouse (1895-1960) told the following story:
A young son of a missionary couple in Zaire was playing in the yard. Suddenly the voice of the boy’s father rang out from the porch, “Philip, obey me instantly! Drop to your stomach!” Immediately the youngster did as his father commanded. “Now crawl toward me as fast as you can!” The boy obeyed. “Stand up and run to me!” Philip responded unquestioningly and ran to his father’s arms. As the youngster turned to look at the tree by which he had been playing, he saw a large deadly snake hanging from one of its branches! At the first command of his father, Philip could have hesitated and asked, “Why do you want me to do that?” Or he could have casually replied, “In a minute.” But his instant obedience without questioning saved his life! Donald Grey Barnhouse (Acquired from www.pastorlife.com).
II. A Stabilizing Faith
A. Faith Produces Confidence In God’s Plan
Genesis 22:4-6, “Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. 5 And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. 6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.”
In Genesis 17:16, 19, & 21, God explained to Abraham that He would give him a son by Sarah, and that He would establish His covenant with that son, and his progeny. Abraham knew that though he had failed God on a number of occasions, God had never failed him. That much he had learned.
Notice the faith in God that is implied by Abraham’s statement to his servants: “I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you” (v. 5). In spite of what God’s command implied (the death of Isaac), Abraham knew that God would fulfill His promise.
Abraham’s faith in God stabilized his life. He kept his focus squarely on God, even though he did not understand why God would seemingly contradict His previous promise. Another good test of the measure of your faith in God is whether you remain stable amidst all the shaky situations going on around you.
I’m not saying that nothing will ever bring you to tears if you trust God; nor am I saying that nothing will ever disturb you if your faith is strong enough. I am saying however, that your faith in God will remain intact in spite of troublesome or tragic circumstances. It will give you a firm foundation upon which to stand, when everything about you seems shaky.
Abraham may not have fully understood why God would make such a serious request of him, but he was confident that God would make good on His promise, even if it meant raising Isaac from the dead.
Hebrews 11:17-19, “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: 19 Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.”
B. Faith Produces Confidence In God’s Provision
Genesis 22:7-8, “And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? 8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.”
Abraham probably had no idea how God would handle this situation. But he was confident that God would come through. How would you have answered your son’s question, “…but where is the lamb for a burnt offering,” knowing that in a few moments, you would sacrifice him to God? I believe it was only Abraham’s great confidence in God that kept him from breaking down into grief-stricken sobs for his impending loss. Faith is that within us that reaches out and trustingly lays hold of God’s promise, even when God cannot be felt, seen, or explained.
A church, or an individual Christian, will go only as far in their walk with God, as their faith in God is able to take them. It’s awfully easy to boast of trusting God’s provision when you don’t need anything. But when one stands to lose that which is precious to their soul, only a firm faith toward God will see them through.
Don’t miss the significance of Abraham’s response to Isaac’s question, in verse 8. He said, “My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering…” Over two thousand years later, that assertion would be literally fulfilled in and by the person of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God (Matt.27: 35).
III. A Sacrificial Faith
A. A Sacrificial Faith Makes God The First Priority
Genesis 22:9-12, “And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. 10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. 11 And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. 12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.”
I wonder if God is really the first priority in our lives today? Abraham chose God over his son. He chose God, rather than demand his rights. Oh, I wonder if we have really laid our “Isaac” on the altar of God today? Is God first priority over what is precious to you? As was true with Abraham, what we submissively give up to God, He often returns to us. The question is do you trust God with what is precious to you? God must be the first priority.
In recent years a head coach divorced his wife of 26 years when he left coaching a college team to become head coach in the National Football League. He said he needed a wife while coaching on the college level for social functions and to show families that he would be looking out for their sons. In pro football, however, she was an unnecessary accoutrement and a distraction to winning. He said winning football was his number one priority and his two sons second. How tragic!
In contrast to this, Tom Landry, former coach of the Dallas cowboys said, “The thrill of knowing Jesus is the greatest thing that ever happened to me. I think God has put me in a very special place, and He expects me to use it to His glory in everything I do...whether coaching football or talking to the press, I’m always a Christian...Christ is first, family second and football third.” Source unknown; taken from sermon illustrations.com.
Simply as a matter of observation, notice that this is the third time that Abraham has stated, “Here am I,” or words to that effect (Gen.22: 1, 7, & 11). Abraham was always available and attentive. It isn’t hard to imagine the tragedy that would have taken place had not God had the ear of Abraham, as he raised the knife to kill his only son (v. 11). Does God have your ear today?
I was asked concerning the fact that Abraham bound Isaac before laying him on the altar for sacrifice, “Do you think Isaac resisted?” My answer was simply that if he did, the Scripture does not tell us so. Since this whole account is a picture and foreshadowing of Christ’s death for the redemption of the world, I don’t think Isaac resisted in the least. For one thing, I believe Isaac had complete confidence in his father, just as Jesus, God the Son, had complete confidence in His Father. For another thing, I believe that just as the Son of God’s confidence in His heavenly Father resulted in complete submission to the Father’s will, even so, Isaac’s confidence in his earthly father resulted in complete submission in the face of death. Speaking of Christ’s death on Calvary, the author of Hebrews says, “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered” (Heb.5: 8—KJV). Paul mentions the same thing, when he says, “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Phil.2: 8—KJV). Jesus Himself said, “…I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself…” (John 10: 17b & 18a).
B. A Sacrificial Faith Manifests God’s Power To Provide
Genesis 22:13-14, “And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. 14 And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh (“God will provide”): as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.”
Folks, God always provides what His children need when they need it. Why does He do it like that? Perhaps the following story can answer that question: One of Rabbi Ben Jochai’s scholars once asked him, “Why did not the Lord furnish enough manna to Israel for a year all at one time?” The teacher said, “I will answer you with a parable.
Once there was a king who had a son to whom he gave a yearly allowance, paying him the entire sum on the fixed date. It soon happened that the day on which the allowance was due was the only day of the year when the father ever saw his son. So the king changed his plan and gave his son day by day that which was sufficient for the day; and then the son visited his father every morning. How he needed his father’s unbroken love, companionship, wisdom and giving! Thus God dealt with Israel and deals with us.”
Author unknown; taken from www.pastorlife.com
