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Advent Productions

Hebrews 11- Faith

Benjamin Ng

01 The Faith of Abel

02 The Faith of Enoch

03 The Faith of Noah

05 The Faith of Sarah

08 The Faith of Jacob

09 The Faith of Joseph Part 1

11 The Faith of Moses’ Parents

10 The Faith of Joseph Part 2

13 The Faith of Moses Part 2

14 The Faith of Moses Part 3

12 The Faith of Moses Part 1

15 The Faith of Rahab

16 The Faith of Gideon

07 The Faith of Isaac

17 The Faith of Barak

19 The Faith of Samson

20 The Faith of Jephthah

21 The Faith of David

22 The Faith of Samuel

04 The Faith of Abraham Part 1

06 The Faith of Abraham Part 2

Father in heaven, thank you so much for this Sabbath day that you brought us into.

Thank you Lord for all that are able to come together to as we study together Lord, I'm just so thankful that you led us through this past week And Now as we're about to open your word, we ask for a blessing, the blessing of the Holy Spirit.

And as Solomon asked for wisdom, Lord, you promised in James chapter 1 that if we lack in wisdom, you are more than willing to give it liberally.

You won't hold back and you won't upbraid.

You won't make fun of us, Lord, because we know that only spiritual things are spiritually discerned.

So Lord, please grant us your Holy Spirit now as we open your word together, guide us now we pray in Jesus name, Amen.

We're going to continue the story of Abraham.

Let's turn the Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11 and we're going to start in verse 17.

And I've entitled this with a subtitle, the ultimate test of faith.

Hebrews 11 verse 17, 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 an Isaac shall thy seed be called." In order to understand this we have to go back to the book of Genesis and this is probably the greatest test of faith that God has ever placed on any human being apart from Jesus of course but as we look into this you're gonna see why so let's go back to that Genesis account how Abraham was instructed to offer up Isaac.

And I'm sure that this is a familiar story to most of you as you're listening this evening, but I pray that you would still be able to learn something from this story as we dig in.

Genesis 22 starting in verse 1 And he said, Tain't thou 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 1 of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

And Abraham rose up early in the morning and saddled his ass and took 2 of his young men with him and Isaac his son and claimed the wood for the burnt offering and rose up and went unto the place of which God had told him.

Look, why did God have to test Abraham like this?

He comes to him and not only does he say, I want you to offer your son, but I want you to offer that son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love.

I don't know if the connection has been restored.

I saw that my internet connection disconnected altogether.

So if you're there, please say something.

I don't know if I need to restart the stream.

So I don't know where we cut off, so I have to go back just a little bit.

So look, I want to go back to Genesis 22.

Look, why does God have to test Abraham like this?

Why does He have to ask him to offer Isaac his only begotten son, the only 1 to him because even though there was Ishmael, God had made it very clear that Ishmael was not the 1.

Why did God have to go to the extent to tell Abraham to sacrifice his son.

Look, we can look back on it today and go, oh, that was a good object lesson for us.

You know, the father offering Jesus Christ.

And for us, We can see this in a sense and a figure of what Abraham had to go through.

Look, Abraham had failed the previous test.

Abraham failed the previous test of faith.

God came to him and said I'm gonna make your family as the stars of heaven.

You're gonna have so many children you can't count them and what does he do?

He goes off, his wife says no not through me, go to Hagar, Ishmael comes out.

And even though 13 years later, God comes back to him and says, Ishmael's not the 1, you're going to have Isaac, and Abraham goes and sleeps with Sarah, look, he still failed the test, the original test.

So before God could fulfill his promise and his covenant that he made with him in Genesis 12, where he said, I want to bless you, I'm going to make of you a great nation and through you all nations of the earth will be blessed.

Before God could fulfill that covenant in his life, he had to make sure, he had to make sure that Abraham truly trusted him.

So God had to test him again to see if he really believed his word this time.

And even though Isaac came out, look, God made it abundantly clear.

It's going to be through Sarah, it's going to be about this time next year, you can name him Isaac.

There was here and there, but not to the extent that God was expecting of him when he told him in Genesis 15 that he was going to have a son and his faith faltered in that Ishmael you see so why would this have been such a difficult test when it came to Genesis 22 now to offer his son Isaac.

In Genesis 17, let's turn the Bibles there.

Genesis 17 and verse 19, and God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed, and thou shalt call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.

God made it abundantly clear in Genesis chapter 17 that it would be through Isaac that this covenant would be established And now God comes to him 5 chapters later in Genesis 22 and he tells Abraham, what?

How would you harmonize these 2 words of God?

To give you a little glimpse of an example of what we are trying to mean here is this.

If you follow me, if you give tithe an offering in Malachi chapter 3, that's a promise.

There won't be enough room to receive it.

So he says, if you give that, but then he says, what, I want you to keep the Sabbath.

So You're working this job and now you've got to quit.

With no job in sight, maybe it's a lockdown like now, and the only way to support yourself, you're thinking, I have to keep this job.

And if I don't keep the Sabbath, if I don't go to work on Sabbath, I don't go to work on Saturday, then how am I going to be able to keep the Sabbath, you see, and keep my job, I mean.

God wants you to be faithful, there's a command, and then there's a promise.

God, how are you going to bless me if I don't have a job?

And sometimes our faith falters, you see.

And so, look, there was a promise from God.

Through Isaac, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

The command and the promise came from the same mouth, from the same being, from the same God, and yet they seem to contradict each other.

I'm going to establish my covenant with him.

How, if you were Abraham, would you have reacted?

Well, the pen of inspiration tells us that he went back to that tree where he met the 3 strangers that were passing along, but nobody came.

All we read in Genesis 22 was Abraham got up, he obeyed, he left and he went.

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.

And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son.

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Hebrews 11- Faith

06 The Faith of Abraham Part 2

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