Faith in the Present, Hope for the Future

Welcome to Built on God's Word, the preaching and teaching ministry of Highland Park Baptist Church in Bartlesville, Oklahoma.! Pastor Mike Scrivani preaches on Hebrews 11, verses 17 through 22.

! Offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.

He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. By faith, Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.

By faith, Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. By faith, Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.

May God add a blessing to the reading of his Word. Would you please be seated? Our culture ties a person's identity and sense of worth to what they have, what they do, and what they've achieved.

But in ancient times, in biblical times, a family's hopes and dreams, their identity was tied to their firstborn son, or the firstborn son.

Ancient cultures attached tremendous value to the eldest son. Firstborn sons represented the prime of human strength and vitality for their parents.

They were the primary heir of the family. They would be the one who would care for their mother and their father in the event of their father's death and provide for the unmarried family members, the sisters in that family.

The firstborn son carried the father's legacy and the family's into the future. So parents cherished the firstborn son, seeing them as indispensable because the family's hopes, aspirations, and legacy rested on the shoulders of that son.

In a sense, the firstborn son was the family. When Abraham was 75 years old, God called him out of the land of Ur, promising him a great legacy.

God said that he would give him a promised land, establish a great nation through him, give him a great name and great blessing.

We read about that in Genesis 12, 1 through 3. Now the Lord said to Abraham, He was a foreigner in the land that God promised.

However, as time passed, Abraham questioned how God would fulfill his promise since he and his wife Sarah remained unable to conceive a child.

Look with me at Genesis 15, 1 through 6. After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision. Fear not, Abraham. I am your shield.

Your reward shall be very great. But Abraham said, O Lord God, what will you give me? For I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus.

And Abraham said, Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household shall be my heir. And behold, the word of the Lord came to him. This man shall not be your heir.

Your very own son shall be your heir. And he brought him outside and said, Look toward heaven and number the stars if you are able to number them. And he said to him, So shall your offspring be.

And Abraham believed the Lord, and the Lord counted it to him as righteousness. As more time went on, Abraham and Sarah remained childless.

They foolishly tried to take matters into their own hands with disastrous results, consequences that still last to this day. But God in his grace, and despite their sin, kept his promise to them.

About 25 years after God first called Abraham, God once again assured him that he and his wife, Sarah, would have a son.

Genesis 17, 17 records Abraham's response to this. Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old?

Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bury child? A short time after this, Sarah listened at the door as Abraham met with some heavenly messengers, one of whom is addressed as the Lord.

And the Lord told Abraham that this time next year, Sarah would have a son. Genesis 15, 12 through 14 says, So Sarah, hearing this conversation, laughed to herself, saying, After I am worn out and my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure?

The Lord said to Abraham, Why did Sarah laugh and say, Shall I indeed bury child now that I am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.

And in a divine bit of poetry, God told Abraham to name his son, the son of the promise, Isaac, which means he laughs. Abraham laughed.

Sarah laughed. But God had the last laugh when Isaac was born. God fulfilled his promise. Abraham and Sarah had a firstborn son in fulfillment of God's promise, and on whom the future fulfillment of God's promises rested.

As the years went by, no doubt Isaac brought his parents joy and laughter as they saw him grow into a young man.

We don't know how old exactly Isaac was when God commanded Abraham to do the unthinkable, to offer his son as a sacrifice on Mount Moriah.

Isaac was likely somewhere between a teenager to a young adult, early 20s. The Bible doesn't say, doesn't reveal his exact age or Abraham's emotions when he received this command.

But Hebrews 11, 19 gives us insights into Abraham's thoughts, which teach us another important truth about what it means to live by faith.

It's the main idea for this morning's sermon. Living by faith means trusting God in the present and believing his promises will be fulfilled in the future.

Living by faith means trusting God in the present, believing his promises will be fulfilled in the future. The encouragement, this exhortation, this summons to live by faith in Hebrews 11, if you remember, comes off a warning against falling away from Christ in Hebrews 10, 19 through 31.

There the writer of Hebrews urges his readers not to throw away their boldness, but to continue to trust in Christ, continue to endure the persecution they face for their faith in Christ, not to shrink back, but to press on in faith, in belief, in trust, in God.

The writer of Hebrews has defined what faith is in chapter 11, verse 1. He says, Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

It is this kind of life, living by faith, that pleases God because it testifies to his faithfulness. It testifies to the goodness, the rightness, the blessedness of our Lord, who is worthy of our faith as is exemplified in the lives of those who came before us.

And so beginning in Hebrews 11, verse 4, the writer of Hebrews starts setting before his readers examples of men and women who lived by faith. They trusted God.

They believed his word. Their faith was active and responsive. Abel worshipped God. He gave the Lord his first and he gave the Lord his best. And we read about Enoch.

By faith, Enoch walked with God during a life and a time when his culture drifted away and turned away from the Lord. Then we read about Noah. Noah, who by faith worked for the Lord, constructing an ark and was saved from the waters of God's judgment.

Beginning in verse 8 and through our text this morning, the writer of Hebrews turns his readers' attention to Abraham, showing them and us that living by faith means trusting in God for the future, however improbable that future may seem to us or to others in the present.

In verse 17, the writer of Hebrews reviews the great test of Abraham's faith and sets this example before us, encouraging us to trust God in the present when our faith in him is tested, believing his promises will be fulfilled in the future.

Sometimes the Lord commands us to go to places, do things, say things that test our faith.

A test of faith could be as simple as forgiving a person who hurt you. You know God commands you to forgive. He commands Christians to forgive.

But we fear that if we forgive this person, we'll be releasing them of this debt, and then they'll take advantage of us again at some point.

And we want them to feel the pain that they've caused. And we don't think forgiveness will achieve that. So sometimes something so simple as forgiving someone tests our faith.

A Christian's faith is sometimes tested by the loss of someone they love. In those moments, they ask, why God? A test of faith could be surrendering your plans for your life to God, your career to him, sacrificing whatever aspirations you had for yourself, for your future to obey his will for your life.

It may be that today he's calling you to surrender your entire life to him, to have faith in Christ, to turn away from your sins, to believe in him and be saved.

Whatever the case, in our text this morning, we have three principles that encourage us to live by faith in the present, believing God's promises will be fulfilled in the future.

Three principles that help us live by faith today, trusting God in the present, that his promises in the future will be fulfilled. The first principle is living by faith means trusting in God's promises.

Trusting in God's promises. Paul Tripp said, faith is not irrational, but faith will take you beyond boundaries of your reason.

Our faith is often tested in moments, again, when we ask why God or how God. And so the writer of Hebrews using Abraham and the patriarchs as examples reminds us of God's faithfulness in the present and his trustworthiness for the future.

Most importantly throughout, eventually in chapter 12, he points us to Jesus, the Son of God, as the ultimate demonstration of God's faithfulness.

And so I ask you, friend, do you desire to live by faith? Do you hope to establish a legacy of faith for your family?

Do you long for our church to stand until our Lord returns? When your faith is tested, will Jesus be glorified in your life?

Living by faith means trusting in God's promises. Again, verses 17 through 18 says, by faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it is said, through Isaac shall your offspring be named.

The word test here means to examine or to try. And when we hear that word test often, it conjures up a negative or negative thoughts in our mind, doesn't it?

We don't equate the word test with good things very often. In school, our knowledge on the subject that we've been taught is examined through testing.

As it pertains, I don't often hear kids say, I'm excited that I have a test today or tomorrow. Or we haven't had a test in a while. I feel like it's time that we have a test.

As it pertains to our health, sometimes the doctor orders tests, tests to be done on our blood, our heart, other parts of our bodies.

And usually these tests are conducted when they think something is wrong with us. We don't look forward to those tests or those results. At work, our performance is tested through a review process, which few people look forward to.

At least in those cases, we know when the test is coming. And if we've studied, if we've taken care of our bodies, if we've done a good job at work, we feel confident that we'll pass the test.

To this point in Abraham's life, Abraham has demonstrated great faith in God. A pattern has been established. God promises, Abraham believes.

And central to all of these promises was the promise of offspring, which was fulfilled in Isaac, the promised son. The one through whom God's future promises would be fulfilled.

The Lord's command to Abraham to sacrifice Isaac to him, I'm sure, didn't make sense. At this point, Isaac was not married.

He didn't have any children. So Abraham is in a dilemma here. On the one hand, Isaac must live for God to fulfill his promises to Abraham.

On the other hand, God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. And so we see this great test of Abraham's faith. But it was a test God prepared Abraham for from the time he called him by revealing himself to Abraham, demonstrating his character to him.

Abraham's walk with the Lord had brought him to what appeared or seemed to be to him an impasse.

Have you ever found yourself in a place where you know you must go forward in obedience, but you're uncertain of the outcome, yet you know there's no other way.

There's no other way. In 170 AD, the Emperor Marcus Aurelius was stationed on the front lines of the Macromantic Wars commanding the Roman army against fierce Germanic tribes.

The enemy was menacing. The conditions for war were brutal. Back home, Rome was being devastated by a plague that was sweeping through the land, through the empire.

There was no good option for him. Death ahead, death behind. One evening alone in his tent with these problems weighing heavily on his mind as he seemed to be at an impasse.

Marcus Aurelius wrote in his journal, Our actions may be impeded, but there can be no impeding our intention or disposition because we can accommodate and adapt.

The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way. In other words, the obstacle isn't an impediment to advancement.

It is the way to advance. Abraham has something infinitely better than Marcus Aurelius ever had.

He had the one true God who had proven faithful to him time and time again. And so, brother, sister, if God calls you to it, he will get you through it and he'll teach you something about himself that you otherwise wouldn't have learned.

Our text says, when Abraham was tested, he offered up Isaac. In the Greek, that word is in the present tense, indicating completed action.

When God commanded Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, in that moment, fully aware of God's character and his faithfulness and mindful of the consequences of disobedience, Abraham did not hesitate.

God commands it, I must do it. He was resolved to obey. And the Genesis account of this story corroborates Abraham's resolve to obey God's command instantly.

Genesis 22, 1 through 3. After these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, here I am. He said, take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains on which I shall tell you.

So Abraham arose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

Abraham didn't stall. He didn't bargain with God. He didn't say, you know, oh Lord, take my life instead of my son's.

He didn't argue. He didn't hesitate. Though I wouldn't doubt that every fiber in his being wanted God to change his mind about this command or wanted to rebel against what God was calling him to do, Abraham saw no other way.

But he saw past this impasse. He looked beyond the obstacle. He trusted that God keeps his promises because to that point, God had kept his promises to him.

God had been faithful. Isaac was evidence of that. The way forward was to go through this test, not knowing at the time why God commanded it, but trusting in the God who gave the command.

The original readers of Hebrews were enduring persecution for their faith in Jesus. If the arrest of their fellow believers, their brothers and sisters in Christ, if the plundering of their property, the threat of martyrdom and the constant stress, pressure, and anxiety put on them by the culture to turn away from Christ was tempting them to drift away or neglect the great salvation of Christ, causing them to wonder, is following Jesus worth it?

Is there truly a future reward for following Jesus? If that was the case, the writer of Hebrews reminds them of Abraham's situation here.

It seems as if God was contradicting and nullifying his promises, but he wasn't. This test of Abraham's faith demonstrated the faithfulness of God and pointed to the amazing grace and love of God to one day send his son who willingly died as a sacrifice for our sins.

Brother, sister, when your faith is tested, trust in God's promises and remember the cross. Remember what God has done to send his only son who went through the cross knowing what his dying and his rising again would accomplish for you.

Abraham didn't know God's plan but chose to trust in the character and the promises of the planner. And so the second principle we come to about living by faith, living by faith means trusting in God's plan.

It means trusting in God's plan even when you don't have all the details at the beginning. Verse 19 again says, he considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead from which figuratively speaking he did receive him back.

The word considered there in the Greek is the word from which we get our English word logarithm. It means to compute and calculate.

The thought is that Abraham used his logic, he used his knowledge of God to calculate, to reason out this situation. I like what Kent Hughes said about this verse.

He said, God has said Abraham would have children as numerous as the stars in sand and Abraham believed God. God had said that through Isaac the great covenant and blessings would come and Abraham believed God even though he was as good as dead.

Abraham knew Isaac had come through a miraculous prophetic fulfillment of God's word. He also knew Isaac had no children and in fact was not even married. Yet God had clearly told him to sacrifice Isaac.

There was no mistake or misunderstanding. Therefore, Isaac was as good as dead. And from Abraham's perspective, it was now God's problem. For God's word through Isaac had to be fulfilled.

Abraham's breathtaking logic was God could and would raise the dead. There was no other way God would keep his word. Let's look back again at Genesis 22 verse 5.

And note what Abraham says to his servants who accompanied him on the three-day journey to the place where God designated for Abraham to sacrifice Isaac.

Then Abraham said to his young men, so they arrive, here they are, and he says to his young men, stay here with the donkey. I and the boy are going over there to worship and we will come back again to you.

Abraham was certain that he would come back with Isaac alive because he trusted in the creative power of the Creator.

As Hebrews 11, 3 says, by faith, he understood that the universe was created by the word of God. He knew that God who brought forth everything from nothing could bring the dead back to life.

Now, Abraham had lapses in his faith, but it was through both the lapses of his faith and when he was faithful to God that his faith in God grew because God in his faithfulness delivered him repeatedly both from his unfaithfulness and in his faithfulness.

If you remember, God rescued Abraham's wife Sarah twice from Pharaoh and then Abimelech when Abraham lied and said that his wife Sarah was his sister to spare his life.

So ladies, your husband no doubt is a sinner like me, but hopefully he hasn't lied about your relationship to him to spare his life. That would upset you, wouldn't it?

Here is Abraham's lapse of faith. But then we see Abraham having great faith when he rescued his nephew Lot with a minuscule force against powerful kings and Lot was rescued and Abraham was victorious.

Abraham was convinced that God would fulfill his promise through Isaac and trusted that though he died, God would raise him again.

As the end of verse 17 says, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. There was no hesitation. on Abraham's part as he raised the knife ready to plunge it into the heart of the son whom he loved.

And God stopped his hand before he could and he provided a substitute, a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. Genesis 22, 10 through 14 record this event.

And Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham.

And he said, here I am. He said, do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him for now I know that you fear God seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son from me.

And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

So Abraham called the name of that place the Lord will provide as it is said to this day on the mount of the Lord it shall be provided. Years later, that location, Mount Moriah became the location of the temple.

For centuries, in the temple, lambs were substituted to atone and stave off God's wrath towards the sins of his people. Isaac here, those lambs later, all foreshadowed the coming of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, God's only son, who came to take away the sins of the world.

God's son, like Abraham's son, bore the wood to the place where he would be sacrificed. However, God's son, unlike Abraham's son, did die.

His blood was shed. But in a very real sense, in the truest sense, Jesus was raised from the dead on the third day as the first fruits of those who in Christ will be raised too.

1 Corinthians 15, 20 through 23. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order, Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.

And so here, before we move on, I think it's important to make at least a couple applications. First, if you ever doubt God's plan or purpose or love for you, look to Jesus and the cross.

Romans 8, 32. He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

God has given you Christ. And that is much better than anything this world could give you. Second, when you don't understand God's plan, trust his word which communicates his character and know whatever you're going through, the good shepherd will never leave you or forsake you.

And third, whatever sacrifice God calls you to make serves a greater purpose which is for your good. The heart is an idol factory and we make idols of all kinds of things that compete with our love for God and tempt us to find fulfillment in things that can't truly satisfy us.

Maybe that thing could be your career right now. When you are faced with a situation where telling the truth and acting with integrity may mean an end to your job or advancement, what will you do in that test of your faith?

Whom will you serve? Maybe it's your children. Parents, it's great and it's good for you to love your children and train them up in the ways of the Lord and the ways that they should go.

But, if you make them the center of your universe, they are going to grow up thinking that they are the center of the universe.

God has given you children as a gift, as a stewardship. Don't turn them into an idol. It's not fair to them and it's not good for them and it is certainly not good for you.

what are the Isaacs in your life? What are those things, those people you can't imagine living without? Surrender them to God now and trust in His plan and know that if you have Christ, you will have all that you truly need.

So now we come to the third principle. Living by faith means preparing the next generation. It means preparing the next generation. Verses 20-22, and notice each of these patriarchs in the time in their life in which the writer of Hebrews is writing about.

By faith, Isaac invoked future blessing on Jacob and Esau. By faith, Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph bowing in worship over the head of his staff.

By faith, Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones. There's certainly much more that the writer of Hebrews could have included here about the faith of the patriarchs, the descendants of Abraham.

But the point here that the writer of Hebrews inspired by the Holy Spirit is making is not what these men did during their earthly lives, but what they did at the end of their lives.

They blessed the next generation. They followed the examples of their fathers and they prepared their sons to do the same.

They looked forward to going to the eternal city whose builder is God and they put things in order for the next generation who had now received the promises.

in their final hours. They didn't look back. They looked forward in faith. Now, these men, these patriarchs, they sinned in big ways and the Bible records all of that, but they were faithful to God who is faithful and their lives ended well.

what kind of legacy are you going to leave behind for others? What kind of legacy are you going to leave behind for your family?

What kind of legacy are you going to leave to your children? What kind of legacy are you going to leave for this church? will people at the end of your earthly life see you living by faith in Christ and dying in faith looking forward to meeting Him?

As God would have it, my parents are here this morning. I was blessed to live in a Christian home and I saw the faith of my parents challenged by unpredictable circumstances throughout the course of my life living under their roof.

Through loss, through the pain that I caused them, that tested, you hear my mom laughing, through the pain that I caused them, that I know tested their faith, they remained faithful.

And I share those stories with my kids about the faith that I witnessed growing up. I share those stories with my children today and I hope that they will with their parents too.

By faith, my parents, when they came across this situation, trusted in God. By faith, I hope I can say, when I came across this situation, I trusted in God.

By faith, as you live in this world, when you suffer, when you're hurting, when you're doubting, when you're discouraged, when you want to quit, when you want to lose hope, trust in God.

Trust in God. He will never leave you. He will never forsake you. Look forward to Christ and seeing Him and knowing that whatever He had you go through, He got you through it.

And establish a legacy of faith for those who will come after you. As it pertains to our church, again, our mission statement is we exist to develop disciples of Jesus Christ to delight in Him and demonstrate His goodness as we declare His gospel to our neighbors and to the nations.

And so I want us to think about, just as a church, what are we doing now to prepare the future generations? Should the Lord not come back in our time?

What are we doing now to prepare the future generations to move forward in faith? What are we teaching them? How are we developing them?

What are they seeing us demonstrate? Are they going to be ready when that time comes for the Lord to take us home?

Are we investing in them now? Are we preparing them now? Are we willing to let go of whatever we want to hold on tightly to? Because this world is not our home. We have a future to look forward to.

What are we spending our time doing as a church? And are we investing ourselves? Are we spending time in things that last for eternity? Those are the things that we should be investing our time in.

Don't you agree? Because one day this world will perish. And I pray that we establish a legacy of faith in our congregation for those who came before us and who did that.

And now it's our time to prepare the next generation when it will be their time. And hopefully, our church is still here, is still committed to God's Word, committed to doing what is right on the day when the Lord returns.

And we all go and we all worship Him. the Lord of our faith. As we go to the Lord in prayer, this is the invitation.

This is the invitation. It's for you to spend time truly reflecting over what you've just heard proclaimed to you in God's Word.

It's for you to prayerfully think through these questions. Is there anything in your life you struggle to surrender to God because you fear losing it?

What is that thing? What can help you locate it is what you spend your time daydreaming about and what you fear most losing. Usually, whatever that is, that could be your idol.

That could be the thing that you most fear losing. If you refuse to surrender it to God, what does that reveal about your faith in Him? Whom do you truly serve?

What are you truly living for? Is your example of faith preparing the next generation to live by faith? For our older generation, are you preparing the generation behind you?

For the younger generations, are you preparing the generations behind you? Through the nursery, all the way up until the end of life, are we preparing these generations to live by faith?

I want you to think about those things now as we go to the Lord in prayer. And I pray that the Holy Spirit would convict you in the ways that He needs to convict you and me and change us in the ways that we need changing.

That we would live by faith. That we would be looking forward to our future home with our eternal Savior. Let's pray. Lord, as we spend time now reflecting on what we've heard in Your Word, what it means to live by faith, God, we have the example of Abraham.

We have the example of many others whose faith was tested. You brought them to a place, Lord, where all they had, all they could do was have faith in You.

And Lord, in each and every situation, You proved faithful. And so, Father, You know everybody here this morning.

You know what situation they are in, where their faith is being tested, whether, again, it's something as simple as just forgiving somebody as You've commanded them to, whether it's a bigger life decision about a job or about a person or maybe they're facing a diagnosis.

Lord, You know. And You know their faith is being tested. So, God, I pray that You would continue to encourage them through what has been shared from Your Word this morning, what it means to live by faith, the hope that we have in Christ, the hope that we have in the future city that You have prepared for us.

God, I pray that they would live by faith and that in living by faith, Lord, You would once again be proven to be faithful.

You would receive the glory for that, that a legacy of faith would continue to be established in their life and their family and in this church, Lord. Many churches don't survive, aren't around as long as ours has been.

Lord, we thank You for those who came before. We thank You for the things that they went through that tested their faith as a congregation, for the changes that they needed to make that were necessary for them to be the kind of church that Your Word commands them to be.

And so, Lord, we thank You for those who have come before. We thank You for entrusting this church to us now. And so, God, I pray that we would likewise be faithful, that, Lord, we would be the kind of church that You command us to be, that we would be preparing the generations behind us to move forward in faith, to not fear this world, to not fear the consequences of following You, but to live boldly and courageously for Christ.

And, Lord, You know those things that we don't want to surrender to You, those things that we've got a tight grip on. Maybe they're aspirations that we have for ourselves.

Maybe they're goals that just aren't Your will for our lives. Maybe it's a child that we just, we love them and that's good, but we've made them an idol and we have turned them into something that You forbid us to.

Whatever the case is, Lord, I pray that today we would surrender it to You, that we would give it over to You, that we would live with our hands stretched out, open.

God, knowing whatever You choose to place in our hands, praise God. And whatever You take out, praise God still. So, Lord, help us to live by faith.

And thank You for being faithful to us. And I pray, Lord, that You would be glorified in our lives and in our church, in Your church. In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen. To learn more, visit us in person or see the website at highlandparkbaptist.net.