Hebrews - The Faith of Abraham and Sarah - Part 1

Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go. Abraham did not know that song, but he could have sung it. Hebrews 11:8 reads: "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went." Not everything that is called faith is true faith. There's a great deal of shallow believe-ism these days. Some people think that faith is just simply a mental assent to some Bible doctrine, but that's not what faith really is.

Or some people think that when they work up an emotion and they feel good, that this is faith. But faith is much more than that. Unless our faith leads to action, it is not true Bible faith. The mind must be enlightened, the emotions must be stirred, but the will must be activated. Obedience is the proof of real faith. By faith, Abraham obeyed.

Now obedience isn't always easy. I would remind you that in the Christian life of faith, we don't live on explanations; we live by promises. Faith does not respond to explanations; faith responds to promises. We like to ask questions: where are we going? Where is this going to end? How is this going to work? When are things going to happen? I'm the same way.

In my own Christian walk, I've had those days when I've asked God a number of questions and God has not always given me an explanation. I'm glad for that. Not that God is against explanations; in due time He does explain what He is doing. But your faith does not grow on the basis of explanations; it grows on the basis of promises. Romans 10:17, "Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God."

Now there's no conflict between faith and reason. Occasionally we receive letters from people who listen to the broadcast or who read our magazine and they say, "Are you people against science?" No. No, there is a true science that is honest and has integrity. There's also a great deal of theory that is contrary to the word of God. Faith and reason are not contrary to each other. God is all-wise and all-knowing and God wants us to use our minds. He just doesn't want us to depend only on human reason.

Proverbs 3:5-6: "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean not unto thine own understanding." Doesn't say you should ignore your understanding, but you don't lean on it. You lean on the promises of the word of God. And for that matter, even a scientist operates by faith. Any scientist has to believe in a certain philosophy; he has to believe that there is an order in the universe; he has to believe in certain things that he is attempting. So even scientists operate by faith.

But you see, obedience is the organ of spiritual knowledge. It's when we obey that God shows us more. In John 7:17 our Lord told us: "If any man is willing to do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God." In other words, if you want to know the will of God, if you want to know the teaching of God, obey. You say, "When I understand, then I'll obey." No, first you obey, then you will understand.

The Bible says that believing is seeing. John 11:40, "Did I not say to you that if you should believe, you should see the glory of God?" With the world, seeing is believing, and this is why the world does not appreciate the spiritual walk. Abraham is named about seventy-four times in the New Testament.

In fact, one-third of Hebrews 11 is devoted to Abraham and his influence on others. Abraham is a great man of faith, and Abraham obeyed God, and his obedience is an encouragement to us.

Now in this passage, Hebrews 11:8-19, we discover a fourfold obedience on Abraham's part. I want to survey this with you. Hebrews 11:8-10, Abraham obeyed when he did not understand where. Hebrews 11:11-12, he obeyed when he did not understand how. Hebrews 11:13-16, he obeyed when he did not understand when. And then, the hardest test of all, Hebrews 11:17-19, Abraham obeyed when he did not understand why.

In other words, Abraham could have asked the question where, how, when, why, but instead he obeyed by faith and then God answered all these questions for him.

Let's take this first area of obedience. In Hebrews 11:8-10, Abraham obeyed when he did not understand where. "By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God."

I don't know how you do it in your home, but when my wife and I are preparing for a trip, we like to know where we're going. We get the map out. Now my wife is a great reader of maps. She has an innate sense of direction. I get lost in a telephone booth. The other day I lost my car in a parking lot. But my wife has a wonderful sense of direction.

We’ve been in the middle of Africa and she's known exactly what direction to go in. And so we get our maps out, we get folders of the places we're going to visit, we plan our destination, we say, "Now where can we stop to spend the night?" We mark out the route, and before we leave, we have everything all planned. Now of course we turn it over to the Lord because you don't know what a day's going to bring forth.

You say, "Lord, we've done the best we can to plan this trip, now we're turning it over to you and you can make any changes you want to make." I am not the kind of a person who's anxious to get in my car, turn on the ignition, point the car in some direction and go and not know where I'm going to go.

But that's exactly what Abraham did when he made his pilgrimage to Canaan. God said to him, "Abraham, I want you to leave." We're told in Acts 7:2 that the God of glory appeared to Abraham. Now we don't know how this was accomplished, but God in His grace called Abraham. And Abraham responded to God's call.

Abraham had no maps, he marched right off the map. He had no atlases, he had no folders, he didn't know what the route was going to be. A day at a time, a step at a time, Abraham obeyed when he did not know where. We're told in Joshua 24:2 that Abraham had been an idolater before he left Ur of the Chaldees. Ur of the Chaldees was no little country village; it was a large city.

The archaeologists have done extensive excavating at Ur of the Chaldees and they have discovered that it was an amazing city with a very, very high level of culture. In fact, one of the clay tablets that was unearthed was that of a mathematician who was working out a problem in trigonometry. And so Ur of the Chaldees was some fair city with a great deal of building and science and merchandise.

And we get the impression that Abraham was a very wealthy man; perhaps he was a merchant there. We're told in Genesis 12:1-3 that Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees and he took his father Terah with him, he took Lot with him, and then Terah died and Lot went along with Abraham and away they went to Canaan land.

Abraham knew the first step. He knew that God was leading him and that's all he knew. Now quite frankly, that's a bit frightening, isn't it? He knew the first step, he knew that God was leading him, and by faith he set out for Canaan land, for the Promised Land.

You see, faith obeys a step at a time. You say, "Well, I want to live by faith." Marvelous, that's great. Are you prepared for some unknowns? Are you prepared to be able to say, "Well, I'm not sure what's going to work out here; all I know is that God has told me this and God has told me the next step."

I've noticed in my reading of Christian biography that many of the great saints of God that we honor today stepped out by faith and they weren't quite sure what the next step would be. When J. Hudson Taylor had the burden to open up inland China to the gospel, it seemed like a foolish thing to do, it was a dangerous thing to do, and yet a step at a time, God led him. It's an amazing thing when you step out by faith.

Abraham looked for a city, literally for "the city." Now that's the city of God, the heavenly city. Abraham looked for the city. He knew the ultimate, he knew the one who was guiding him, but the immediate was hidden to him. But he was guided by the word of God.

Now he didn't have a Bible such as we have; he was helping to write the Bible by the life he was living. But God would speak to him. Now the word of the Lord came to Abraham saying... We have the word of God, we have the spirit of God, and the spirit of God can guide us from the word of God.

Number one, we have to be sure that we're called. By faith Abraham when he was called. Don't invent the call. Don't manufacture the call. When God calls you through His word by His spirit, that's the first step. First, we have to be sure we're called. Secondly, we must notice that what we're called to is an inheritance. God doesn't want to make us poor, he wants to make us rich.

Now Abraham never owned anything in that land except the grave in which he buried his wife. But he left it for others. So we must be sure we're called, and when we are called, we must realize we're being called to an inheritance. We aren't called to become poor; we're called to become rich.

Now I'm not talking about material things; I'm talking about spiritual things. Abraham happened to be rich materially, but that was an incidental. At the end of Hebrews 11, you find people who wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented. These people were not rich in material things, but they were in spiritual things.

Thirdly, when we're called, we must obey. We don't obey because we invent the idea ourselves; we obey because God has shown us what he wants us to do. He was called, he realized that his call involved an inheritance, and he obeyed.

Now Hebrews 11:9 tells me that the same kind of faith that caused him to obey caused him to sojourn. He was a sojourner. We're told that they were strangers and pilgrims. Hebrews 11:13, they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. You know, a fugitive is somebody who's running away from home. A vagabond is somebody who has no home.

A stranger is somebody who's away from home. A pilgrim is somebody who's on the way home. Now Abraham sojourned as a stranger and a pilgrim in the land of promise. I notice that five times in this section about Abraham the word promise is used. And I'll say it again: faith does not mean that we live on explanations; faith means that we live on promises.

Faith is not acting in spite of evidence; faith is obeying in spite of circumstance and consequence. I can just hear some of Abraham's friends saying, "Now Abraham, you're making a big mistake. You don't know where you're going. You're not planning this thing carefully." Abraham says, "I've seen the God of glory. I've heard the call of God's grace. When God's grace and God's glory have been revealed to me, I have to obey." He went out and he obeyed, not knowing where he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a foreign country.

Now you and I are strangers and pilgrims. We do not belong in this land. We have a citizenship in heaven. Dwelling in tents. You say, "Well, I don't dwell in a tent." Yes, you do. 2 Corinthians 5:1: "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens."

You're living in a tabernacle, you're living in a tent. That body of yours is very temporary. A little disease germ can get into your bloodstream and you will be flat on your back and you will be sick. You live in a tent. And because you live in a tent, your life is rather temporary, isn't it? Dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him, the joint-heirs of the same promise. It's a marvelous thing. Abraham by faith obeyed, Abraham by faith sojourned.

Now that long journey must have been exciting, tiring but exciting. Then he got there and had to live there and he had to live with some problems. A famine came into the land, Lot created some problems, there was a war. He had to sojourn in a foreign country, but he knew he was the heir of the promise. And he was walking by faith. And so by faith he obeyed, and by faith he sojourned, and by faith he looked.

For he looked for the city; that's the original. For he looked for the city which hath foundations. Now there's no foundation to a tent. You see, our life today as believers is the life of a pilgrim and a stranger, but one day when we enter into heaven, we're going to have the permanence of eternal glory.

There are no foundations to a tent. Don't get too attached to this world. It's good for us to feel detached. We are pilgrims and strangers, for he looked, by faith he looked for the city which hath foundation, whose builder and maker is God.

The word builder means architect. The architect of heaven is God. The maker of heaven, the constructor of the heavenly city, is God. This city is referred to in Hebrews 12:22: "You are come unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels." What a wonderful neighborhood we're going to have in heaven with angels as our neighbors.

Abraham obeyed God when he did not understand where. Now I don't know what your situation is right now. You may have some job difficulties and the Lord may be saying to you, "I want you to move." You may be facing some decisions now that frighten you just a little bit. There may be some elderly person right now who says, "I have to move into a retirement home but I really hate to do it. What should I do?" If God called you, and if God reveals his will to you, obey.

You say, "But there's so much I don't understand." There was so much that Abraham didn't understand. But you see, when you obey by faith, God gives you the assurance that you need and he goes with you all of the way. God abundantly blessed Abraham because Abraham obeyed by faith. He obeyed when he did not understand where.

Now in verses eleven and twelve, we shall consider that Abraham obeyed when he did not understand how. Here's an old man, here's an old woman, and they're supposed to have a baby. Now how is this going to happen?

Let’s look at verses eleven and twelve of Hebrews 11. "Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable."

Well, Sarah was a great woman of faith, and she was married to a great man of faith. Now God had promised Abraham a son. When God first called Abraham back in Genesis 12:1-3, he said, "Now I'm going to bless you, I'm going to make you a blessing, I'm going to make your name great, and from you all the world is going to be blessed."

You see, when you're called by God and you obey God, somehow God uses you to be a blessing to the whole world. And Abraham was promised a son. This was a part of God's great plan of salvation that had been instituted before the world began. It had been revealed there in Genesis 3:15.

When Adam and Eve sinned, God clothed them. God gave them a picture, as it were, of covering by death. The animals had to die that Adam and Eve might be clothed. Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. And God made the promise that one day the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. One day a savior would come who would defeat the evil one and bring righteousness and redemption and salvation.

Now in order for this savior to be born, God had to have human channels through which to do it. He rejected the Gentile nations; he called Abraham and Sarah and established the Jewish nation. Salvation is of the Jews. The Bible came to us through our Jewish friends. Jesus Christ was born of Jewish blood. And salvation is of the Jews. And we thank God that Abraham and Sarah were obedient to God, they were faithful, they believed God, and God was able to give to them a son, Isaac.

Then Isaac had a son, Jacob, and then Jacob had twelve sons, and from these twelve sons came the twelve tribes of Israel and the nation was born. Then the nation was purified and prepared in the land of Egypt, then the nation was called out from Egypt to go to Canaan. And then down through the years, the devil did everything he could to destroy that nation. He did everything he could to keep that line, that line of inheritance, from being formed. God had ordained that the savior should come through the Jewish nation.

Then he chose the tribe of Judah to be the tribe through which the savior would come. But there were many families in Judah, and so he chose one family, the family of David. And so it was through David's family that the Lord Jesus came into the world.

Do you realize how important Sarah and Abraham were? I'm not sure they fully understood all that was involved in this. We do know that Jesus said that Abraham saw my day and he rejoiced. We don't know how much God revealed to Abraham of the entire plan of salvation, but this we know: Abraham and Sarah obeyed God and trusted him when they did not understand how.

Oh, at first Sarah laughed, I know that. I know that. But she had faith and she trusted God and Abraham trusted God and they were able to have this son, and the descendants of Isaac and Jacob became like the stars of the sky and the sand by the seashore.

I wonder if the suggestion in verse twelve may not be that God has two kinds of children. He has his earthly children, the children of Israel, and he has his heavenly children, those who have trusted Jesus Christ as savior like the stars in the sky.

Now don't look to yourself; look to God. You don't know how something's going to be done. That's all right, just look to God. God is able to work it out. He's able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us. Trust God and obey him, even if you don't understand how, and you'll see him do the impossible.