Rev. David Holwick H Abraham #8
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
March 6, 2005
Genesis 22:1-13
|
I. A season of tests.
A. Daniel's tests.
SAT's.
HSPA (called hespa - High School Proficiency Assessment)
These are something new to most of us - if you don't pass
them, you don't graduate!
In a few weeks we'll know if Daniel will be a college professor
or a hamburger flipper at Ledgewood's new White Castle.
B. God's test of Abraham.
1) Test rather than temptation (King James).
a) There is a difference between trials and temptations.
1> Temptations come from our inner desires. Jam 1:12-16
2> Tests come from the Lord who has a special purpose
in them.
b) The goal is different.
1> Temptations are used by the devil to bring out the
worst in us.
2> Tests are used by God to bring out the best in us.
3> Temptations seem logical and attractive while
tests seem very unreasonable.
2) God's ultimate request.
a) Every emotional string is pulled:
Your son,
your only son
Isaac, whom you love
b) Would Abraham offer up the longing of his heart?
C. Why would God give Abraham a son and then require him killed?
1) There is a Jewish tradition that he wouldn't.
a) Abraham should have known that the "Judge who must do
right" would never request a human sacrifice.
b) Abraham failed the test, by this reasoning.
He should have argued with God again.
2) The Bible is clear that God did ask.
a) Perhaps it was because Abraham had tried his own
schemes to get a son rather than waiting on God.
b) God now wanted to know whether Abraham would trust
him, unconditionally and unreservedly.
II. Fifty-fifty or 100% for God?
A. Many people have a bargain relationship with God.
1) If God blesses me, I'll believe in him.
2) Jacob took this approach: Gen 28:20
"IF God will be with me and will watch over me..
and give me food to eat and clothes to wear...
[and] I return safely to my father's house...
THEN the Lord will be my God."
3) The reverse is often true as well: God doesn't bless, so
I will no longer believe.
a) Jerry Falwell's father abandoned his faith because a
child of his died.
b) On the other hand, many others, including [Jane Doe] in
our church, have found that their faith was born
as they struggled over the loss of a child.
B. Believing in God no matter what.
1) This is the truest aspect of faith.
a) Believing in the dark, when it doesn't make sense.
b) Trusting just because God says so.
c) Abraham never seems to waver in his faith in this
episode.
2) Abraham trusted, but his blind faith had an insight.
a) Hebrews 11:19 shows Abraham was counting on a miracle.
1> God will keep his promise of a son because otherwise
there would be no "sand on the seashore"
descendants.
2> In Genesis 22:5 he tells the others, "We will
worship, and then WE will come back."
b) Since he raised the knife, he knew that death might be
in God's will, but resurrection would follow.
III. Sacrifices must cost us something.
A. What is one thing you value more than God?
1) For many, it is a spouse or a child.
2) True faith is being willing to give God everything.
a) Jesus says this is what genuine discipleship is.
B. Being glad to give.
Dr. Roy L. Laurin wrote a book in which he tells about a
Christian businessman who had gone out to Korea on a visit.
As he was traveling about he noticed in a field beside the road
a very strange scene.
He saw a boy about eighteen years old pulling a plow, and
holding the handles of the plow was an older man, evidently
the boy's father.
This tourist took a snapshot of it and said to his guide,
"What a strange thing that is.
I suppose they must be very poor people."
The guide, who was a Christian, said, "Yes, they are poor.
I know the story behind this.
A number of months ago, the church to which these people belong
was erecting a new building.
All the members were asked to contribute something.
This father and his boy wanted to give but they felt they had
nothing to give.
Then it dawned upon them that they could give their only ox.
So they killed the ox, cut it up, sold the meat in the market
and gave all the proceeds of it to the building fund of the
church.
This spring they have had to pull the plow themselves."
The businessman said, "That must have been a most remarkable
sacrifice for them."
The guide said, "They did not think so. They thought they were
rather fortunate to have an ox to give."
The businessman was so impressed that when he got home he went
to his pastor and told him he would be doubling his giving.
#4561
Pastors love this kind of story - especially when your church
is contemplating a new building program!
But this isn't meant as crass manipulation.
After all, none of us really sacrifice like this.
All of us skim off some of the cream, like the rich givers
Jesus noticed at the temple vs. the widow with her two coins.
Perhaps we need to ask the question afresh - what is God really
worth to us?
IV. Taking a different perspective.
A. Most of us put ourselves in the position of power.
"Hanoi Hilton" movie about the prisoner of war camp in Vietnam.
Major Fischer (composite?) was imprisoned when his helicopter
malfunctioned just over the Demilitarized Zone.
It was now Christmas dinner, winter of 1969.
The other prisoners asked Fischer to give a sermonette.
"When I was young, at religious school, I remember a great deal
was made of Abraham and Isaac...
How God ordered Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, his only son, his
beloved child.
Abraham stood with a knife in his hand and wrestled within
himself to decide whether to believe, trust God, or to
deny him.
And I suppose that most of us identified with Abraham,
wondering how we would use free choice if THAT was us.
Well, since I've been in here I've had time to think about
Isaac.
Helpless, tied up on an altar, an audience to what might become
his own death.
#2040
B. Jesus knew all about Isaac's feelings.
1) Big difference: Isaac was not aware of what was happening.
a) Jesus was completely aware.
b) That is why Gethsemane was so hard for him.
2) Jesus submitted to being sacrificed.
a) It was not done TO him - he gave himself up to it.
b) God's knife was not stopped and there was no substitute.
1> Jesus himself was the substitute.
2> By his blood, we are healed.
3> He gave up all this for us; what shall we give him?
3) Like Abraham, God the Father anticipated a resurrection.
a) The happy ending of Easter shows God can work out
anything for the best.
b) We can trust him to do the best for us, too.
=========================================================================
SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
#2040 "The Helplessness of the Cross," from the movie "Hanoi Hlton,"
written and produced by Lionel Chetwynd, 1987.
#4561 "Doing Some Plow Work For The Lord Jesus Christ," Dr. Roy L. Laurin,
quoted in sermon "That You Might Be Rich" by Rev. Ray Stedman,
Kerux sermon #4920.
These and 25,000 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
=========================================================================
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
Created with the Freeware Edition of HelpNDoc: Free Web Help generator