The Faith of Abraham

Hebrews 11:8-19

     In our continuing series in the book of Hebrews, we come to the eleventh chapter tonight - Christian living by faith.  And this is a great, great section to just teach the basic principles of living by faith.  There are really only two ways to live in life; one is to live by sight, base everything on what you can see - that's the empirical approach, the other is to live by faith, base everything on what you can't see.  The Christian lives by faith, we base our lives on what we've never seen.  We've never seen God, we've never seen Jesus Christ, we've never seen heaven, we've never seen hell, never seen the Holy Spirit, never seen any one individual who wrote the Bible, never seen an original manuscript of the Bible, never seen any of the graces that God says He dispenses to us, they're not tangible, they're not visible to the eye, the human eye, and yet we bank not only our life but our eternal destiny on those things which we have never seen.  That's how the Christian lives.

     But the life of faith has some specific ingredients and I think they are pointed out very explicitly here in this particular text as we look at Abra­ham.  Hebrews 11 beginning in verse 8 and going through verse 19 presents to us Abraham as a pattern for faith.  And you'll remember that in the book of Hebrews the writer presents the priority of the new covenant.  Israel had always followed the cove­nant that God made in the Old Testa­ment, the sacrificial patterns, etc. etc.  And they had always believed that this was of God.  They had, however, allowed it to deteriorate into a works system where the old covenant had become nothing more than a ritual of works.  The writer of Hebrews comes along and says - let me show you a new covenant.  The new covenant in the blood of Jesus Christ replaces the old covenant and it is a covenant of faith.  This is one where you only believe, you don't have to work to earn God's approval.  And even the old covenant they didn't have to earn God's approval, they didn't have to gain God by works but they misconstrued the whole thing and they got into a works system.

     So he presents to them all through the first ten chapters the new covenant, ends chapter 10 by saying you apprehend the new cove­nant by faith.  Now they're so long separated from faith that they've probably forgotten what it is and how it works so he spends all of chapter 11 describ­ing to them how faith works and what it is.

     We saw, first of all, that he began with Abel and the life of faith.  And then he moved into Enoch and the walk of faith.  Then he moved into Noah and the work of faith.  Now he comes to Abraham.  And Abraham becomes a composite of the pattern of faith.  Abraham reveals the totality of a faith life.  All of the ingredients that make up a real life of faith.  And it's a tremendous thing that he uses Abraham because, you see, the Jews took all of their lineage back to Abraham who was the first of their race, he was the one chosen by God.  And so Abraham is a strategic illustration.  If Abraham lived by faith then that sets the pattern, you see? The rabbis had long taught that Abraham pleased God by his works.  The rabbis had long taught that God looked around the earth and he found one super-righteous man and that was Abraham and chose him on that basis.  That needs to be counteracted, that needs to be contradicted.  Abraham was not righ­teous because he wasn't himself holy, he was righteous because he was a man of faith and God imputed righteousness to him.

     So he establishes here that Abraham lived by faith.  And if Abraham did so must every other Jew because Abraham is the pattern.  For example, in Acts chapter 7 when Stephen wants to pull an illus­tration of faith he uses Abraham.  In Romans chapter 4 when Paul wants to use an illustra­tion of faith it is Abraham.  Abraham is the classic example of the life of faith, always used in the face of Jews.  Stephen was talking to Jews, non-Palestine Jews in the first part of his ministry, but when he talked about Abraham he was talking to the leaders of Israel in Jerusalem.  Paul in Romans 4 was laying out a ground work in an argument with a Jew, the ground work of theology, but his antagonist was a Jew and he uses Abra­ham as the illustration of faith.  The writer of Hebrews is writing to Jews and he also uses Abraham.

     And, you see, this is very critical because if a Jew is to buy the fact that life must be lived by faith not by works and legalism, if he is to buy it then the greatest way to sell it to him is to prove to him that Abraham did it.  Because Abraham set the pattern for the living of the Jews.  He was the first.

     And, in fact, the Bible is clear about Abraham's  effect  and about Abraham's example.  It says in Galatians chapter 3 and verse 7these words:

     "Know ye therefore that they who are of faith the same are the sons of Abraham."

     Since Abraham was the first man of faith, everybody that comes along putting faith in God is, in a spiritual sense, a child of Abraham.  And the Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed, so then they who are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.  You go over to verse 26 of the same chapter; "For you are all the sons of God by faith in Christ.  Jesus." Then he says in verse 29; "And if you be Christ's then are you Abraham's seed.',

     Now we who are Gentiles are not the seed of Abraham physically, we are the seed of' Abraham spiritually because of faith.  He was the father of faith in the sense of the pattern of faith, as a life pattern.  And as the leader of modern society in a sense, because you see the other three, Abel, Enoch and Noah were pre-­flood, Abraham is the first man of faith after the flood in the new world apart from Noah who was both pre and aft but after the flood his faith kind of waned, you remember he was caught in sin immediately after.  But the first real established man of faith after the flood when the new world began was Abraham so he sets the pattern for us, the pattern of faith.  And so we who live by faith in God are, in a spiritual sense, children of Abraham.  We do not become Jews in a physical sense but in the spiritual sense we are the children of Abraham in terms of faith.

     Now Abraham's life was characterized totally by faith.  Genesis 15:6, clear back then, it says: "Abraham believed in the Lord and you see, he is calling them to leave the old covenant, leave the temple, leave the trappings of Judaism, leave the old priesthood and come to Christ. and just put your faith in Christ, you don't need all the works.  And they're having a hard time making the break.  And he must establish - Look, you don't need those works, you don't need that old covenant, old priesthood, old sacrifice routine just come to Christ and believe.  And in order to establish that that's possible he shows that even Abraham was justified by just believing.

     Now in this passage there are five features of faith that show us the complete pattern; the pilgrimage of faith, the patience of faith, the power of faith, the positivism of faith and the proof of faith.  And since Abraham is a spiritual prototype of every man of faith, we're going to consider this narrative in its spiritual sense and, I think, that's the sense in which the writer of Hebrews wanted us to consider it.  These five features, then, are the standards for faith.

     Number one, let's look at it, the pilgrimage of faith.  We see Abra­ham in all five of these things.  Verse 8; "By faith Abraham when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheri­tance," what's the next word? "Obeyed, and he went out not knowing where he went." Now if anybody told us that they were going somewhere, they didn't know where, weld consider them to be in danger of getting into some real trouble.  Because they hadn't carefully charted the course.  But Abra­ham was told by God - Get up and get out of this city - I'm going to use you to found a. nation.  You're going to be father of a nation and through you will all the families of the earth be blessed.  And it was through Abraham's loins that finally Messiah came, and it is in Messiah that-, all the world is blessed.  So God said - Abraham, Get up and go to EL land that I'll show you.  It's all recorded in Genesis 12 and it's repeated clear through chapter 18, all that deals with Abraham's call and so forth and so on.  And Abraham was told to get up and go.  Now I like the fact of the use of a use of the Greek tense here, it says in verse 8 - By faith Abraham when he was being called.  That's a present participle, while he was being called he was obeying.  In other words, at the same moment of the call he obeyed.  You might translate it - While being called he obeyed.  In other words, it was instant kind of immediate obedience.

     Now I like this, too, it says in verse 8 "And he went out not knowing," not epistamai.  And that is the kind of knowledge not like gnosis or that kind of knowledge but it's to fix your attention on something, or to put your thoughts on something.  Now read it that way - He went, not even putting his thoughts on where he was going.  He was so obedient that he didn't even think about where he was going.  He just said - God, You say go ­I go.  Where is immaterial.  It's only a question of obedience.  That's the pilgrimage of faith.

     Now it's - you say, Well, he probably went because Canaan was so attractive.  No, he didn't even know where he was going.  He had no idea, it was strictly a pilgrimage of faith.  Now in a spiritual sense this is a very real lesson for us.  Abraham lived in a very unregenerate world.  Abraham lived in a city known as Ur, U-r.  It was located in Chaldea or Mesopota­mia, which is the land between the Tigris and the Euphrates river, far east of Israel.  A fertile land where the garden of Eden was originally located, where Babylon, the great city, was finally built and all of that was in that area.  And it was a very, very pagan place.  In fact, in Joshua. 24:2 it says that; "Terah, the father of Abraham served other gods." So he lived in idolatry.

     There is an interesting statement by Isaiah, I think it's in Isaiah 51, where Isaiah gives a little bit of insight into the kind of home that Abra­ham came from when he says this, Isaiah 51 verse 1; "Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord," he says to Israel, "Look unto the rock from which you were hewned and to the hole of the pit from which you were digged, look unto Abraham." You say - Was Abraham the hole of a pit? Abraham was in bad shape living in Ur.  He was living in idolatry.  Abraham was a pagan.  Abraham was a heathen.  And it says - "Look unto Abraham, your father, and unto Sarah who bore you, for I called him alone, and blessed him." Sovereignly God called Abraham out of the pit, the pit of idolatry and paganism.  So when some­body comes up and says God chose Abraham because he was such a wonderful fellow you go to Isaiah 51 and tell him that he was a pit.

     So Abraham was a sinner.  He was living in a vile culture of paganism.  And the God of glory condescended in sovereignty to pick Abraham up and found a nation through his loins, sovereign grace.  And Abraham responded with faith, he said - Okay, okay, I'll go.  And he Went even while being called.  And that is why God declared him to be righteous.  That's the pilgrimage of faith.  To forsake his birthplace, his home, his estate, sever family ties, leave loved ones, abandon all of his present habits for future uncertainty, man, it must have been a hard thing to do but he did it.  There's a great spiritual lesson in here.  I believe that the life of faith begins - watch this - with a break of the idolatrous system in which men have lived so long.  When you come to Jesus Christ I think there's a pilgrimage that God demands at that point and that's to leave the pattern of living that you have been involved in and come into a new kind of life.  And I don't think I'm spiritualizing the text to say that, I think that's the point here.  Abraham's faith separated him from that which was pagan, you see.  I mean, "If any man be in Christ he is," what? "He's a new creation, some things have passed away and a few things have become new." Is that what it says? What does it say? "All things have passed away, all things have become new." You see, salvation demands separation, practical separation from the world is the beginning of the life of faith.  You say - All right, God, I don't know what You're going to do with me, but I'm going to drop all those old things.  I don't know what You're going to substitute for them but I'm going to let them go.  That's the pilgrimage of faith to leave the system of the world.  That's where faith life begins.

     In Romans chapter 12, this is so familiar; "I beseech you, there­fore, brethren, by the mercies of God you present your bodies a living sacrifice." That's the beginning, give yourself.  "Holy acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service," or spiritual worship.  "And be not conformed," what? "To this world." That's the beginning of the life of faith.  "But be transformed by the renewing of your mind." And so the beginning, then, is to separate yourself from the world.

     Now there are so many, many passages that deal with this.  In II Corinthians 6, I'm just going to fumble through a few here, just listen as I read them, jot them down if you want.  II Corinthians 6:14; "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers for what fellowship hath righteous­ness with un­righteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness?" Now there you have a theological foundation - light and dark don't get together, right? Then you have a practical exhortation, so don't try and make them get together.  "What concord hath Christ with Belial (or Satan), what part hath he that believeth with an atheist (or a non-believer)? What agreement hath the temple of God with idols?" You're the temple of the living God so there's no sense fooling around with the idolatrous.  So, you see, it's a basic principle.

     You have it again repeated in Galatians chapter 1 verse 4, listen to this; Verse 3, "Grace be to you and peace from God, the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ," verse 4, "Who gave Himself for our sins." Now watch, "In order that," that's a hina purpose clause, "That He might deliver us from this present evil age." You see? Salvation is, at its very first step, to take us out of the system.  It is to send us on a pilgrimage, by faith, into an unknown kind of lifestyle which we've never known before.  And, you know, that's a hang-up for a lot of people.  I know people who say - Well, I don't want to become all those little goodies I like to do I've got to trade in." You know, you don't say to every guy - Would you like to become a Christian? What-l's involved? Well, you love God a lot and you be holy and sinless and go to church and read the Bible and... And he goes - Oh boy, what a drag.  See that's a very common kind of reaction.  What; he doesn't understand is that once he becomes a Christian, he gets a new set of price tags, and all the things that use to be valuable are worthless and all the things that use to be worthless are valuable.  Because he's different.  But you see, for the average guy that kind of a pilgrimage is a little tough to make.  And even some who come to Jesus Christ find it hard to make.

     Over in Hebrews 13, there's a great thought there.  He says, 13, Hebrews 13:13; "Let us go forth, therefore, unto Him outside the camp bearing His reproach." You know, you've got to be willing to pay the price, walk away from the system and go where Jesus went.  Watch this, Oh, I love it; "For here we have no continuing city." We're strangers and pilgrims, aren't we? We don't belong here.  We have no continuing city but we seek one to come.  What are we doing fooling in a system? Let's go with Jesus outside the system.

     In James chapter 1 verse 27 we find it again; "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this," want to know what pure religion is? "To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction." Did you know that? Listen to this; "And to keep oneself unspotted from the system." That's pure religion, the unspotted by the system.  James 4:4, another thought, "You adulterers and adulteresses," pretty strong, James.  "Know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God, whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God." That's right.  There's no fellowship.

     Peter was on the same wavelength in I Peter chapter 1. He says in verse 14, he says; "As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance." See, you use to be ignorant and you didn't know what else to do but lust, so you just went around lusting all the time.  Right? But now that you've come to Christ - cut it out.  Don't need to do that anymore.  I like it, verse 15; "But as he who called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of life." Isn't that good? You know what holy means? What does it mean? Separated.  Chapter 4 verse 2, this is basic but it's good, we need to be reminded, I need to be reminded; "Christ has suffered to release us from the flesh that we no longer should serve the rest of our time in the flesh, to the lusts of men but," what? "To the will of God."

     Second Peter 1:4, "By which are given u