The Call of Abram Part Two

The Call of Abram Part Two: Abram’s Response

For our guests we are in a series in the book of Genesis and this morning we are doing the second part in a two part message on God’s call to Abram. Last week we looked at this passage from the point of view of God’s calling of Abram. This morning we are going to look at Abram’s response to the call of God and how it changed his life.

Abram is not a perfect man – he has his flaws and his sins, Next week we’ll see some of that as Matt preaches on Abram’s habit of throwing his wife under the bus whenever there was trouble. Abram was not a perfect man and if you doubt that ask Sarah, but what is clear as we look at his life is that Abram is a man of faith, and over and over again his response to God’s command is one of faith.

What is faith?

Faith is absolutely essential to the Christian life. Every aspect of the Christian life is vitally tied to faith. We are saved by grace through faith. We are to walk by faith and not by sight. Our work is to be motivated and energized by faith (1Thess. 1:3; 2 Thess. 1:11). We are to take up the shield of faith to protect ourselves from the fiery darts of the enemy. We are to fight the good fight of faith. Hebrews 10:38 sums it up for us: the righteous will live by faith.

Faith touches on every area of our lives from salvation to sanctification, but what is faith, and how is it supposed to operate in our lives? For many when they hear the word faith they think of the Faith movement because the FM has emphasized faith so much in their teaching. Put the word faith in front of anything - faith preachers, faith teachers, faith healing, faith movement, word of faith churches, and talking about the FM. Unfortunately though, the word of faith teachers teach a faith that is dangerously distorted and unbiblical. In their teaching faith is a force, a spiritual law that even God has to answer to. God spoke the world into existence by faith and by our words of faith we can obligate God to do what we want Him to do for us – which usually involves money or healing. One of the most prominent faith teachers said on a TV program, “When we use the spiritual laws that God has set up, God must obey what we request.”

By faith we get God to obey us. That is a serious departure from what true, biblical faith is.

At the other end of the spectrum, there are Christians who have fallen into a religious routine that has little need of a living, dynamic faith for it to function. I appreciated hearing a woman in Christian ministry share on the radio how she came to a point where she realized that someone looking at her life would see an exhausted, stressed out, impatient woman who gets angry easily and yells a lot at her family and the people she works with. What they would have a hard time seeing is the difference her faith made in her life.

Maybe some you are thinking, that’s me. Maybe when you look at your life you see someone who gets up late, rushes to get to work on time (or to begin homeschooling or whatever), is stressing over all that needs to get done, gets angry and yells at your spouse or kids or co-workers way too much, and then veg’s all night in front of the TV, only to climb into bed knowing you’re going to do it all again the next day. What’s more concerning is you have little time and little interest in God’s word or in prayer. If you were honest, you have a hard time seeing the difference faith is making in your life.

Faith isn’t a heavenly Visa card that obligates God to give us what we want, nor is it something we put up in the attic with all the other useless stuff we got for Christmas. Biblical faith, is, as Charles Spurgeon put it, a channel or conduit pipe. Grace is the fountain and the stream; faith is the aqueduct along which the flood of mercy flows down to refresh the thirsty sons of men. And not one single aspect of the Christian life can be lived without the conduit of a living, dynamic, growing faith – so let’s begin our journey with Abram, the man called the father of faith, and learn all we can from him about faith.

Genesis 12:1-9

I. Biblical faith often calls us to leave the known for the unknown

God called Abram to leave everything he knew – his country, his people, his family, his culture, everything that he knew and loved – to go another land that God says He will eventually show him. God is specific about all that Abram needs to leave, He is vague about the journey ahead and where Abram is going. John Calvin describes God’s command to Abram this way:

I command you to go forth with closed eyes, and forbid you to inquire where I am about to lead you, until, having renounced your country, you shall have given yourself wholly to Me. ~ John Calvin

Have you ever stood on the brink of the unknown? Maybe you felt the Lord inviting you to take on a new challenge, or go back to school, or accept a new job, or enter a relationship with someone, or relocate. Or maybe it was a character challenge – to grow in an area that is foreign to you or had been a source of failure or discouragement all your life. Or to witness to a friend about your faith in Jesus Christ, having no idea how they will respond.

Leaving the known for the unknown is often an aspect of faith. God doesn’t always lay everything out before us in clear, progressive steps. Often He just says, take the first step and I’ll show you where to go from there. Calvin is right: what God is after is that we give ourselves wholly to God. That’s really what faith is – not a way to grab stuff from God or get God to obey us, but a call to open our hands to God – to give Him everything, yielding everything, surrendering everything, to His will.

II. Biblical faith believes God’s promises are better than the promises of the world

God called Abram to leave all he knew and go to the complete unknown, and Abram’s response is simply and briefly recorded in verse 4:

So Abram went, as the LORD had told him... Genesis 12:4

In this simple response we see a picture of Abram’s faith. Abram believed God’s promises and because he believed God’s promises, he obeyed God’s commands. Faith and obedience go together.

Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. Hebrews 11:9-10 (ESV)

Abram obeyed and went without knowing where he was going – because he saw God’s promises were better and surer than any promise this world can make. We live our lives on promises – everything around us promises something. We change jobs because we are promised more money or better hours or like what we do more. We eat a cheeseburger because it promises to make us happy for 10 minutes (it doesn’t tell us that it will make us 5 pounds heavier for 20 years). The alcoholic turns to drink again and again because alcohol promises to fill his aching need and thirst. Lust promises pleasures that are worth destroying your marriage and family for.

We pursue things like eating healthy, working out, seeking money, position, material stuff, reputation, acceptance, fame, applause, being left alone, winning an argument, having a relationship, all because they promise something we want. All around us promises are being made and what’s weird is that all around us promises are being broken. Sin never delivers what it advertises. But not just sin, everything in the world, even good stuff, always leaves us with a faint longing for more. It’s never enough.

This is a vital aspect to faith: it sees something not visible to the natural eye. It sees God’s promise through eyes of faith and it knows its better. Abram saw God’s promises and knew they were better. Jesus calls to Peter and Andrew to leave their fishing nets and follow him and become fishers of men. He’s asking them to leave a secure living and a family tradition and He doesn’t even have a place to call home. Yet with eyes of faith they know it is better.

Think about what we’re calling non-Christians to when we witness to them: there’s a lot that is winsome and attractive about the gospel and about Jesus Christ, but in essence the gospel calls people to repent and leave the sin they love so much, and follow Jesus. Then to make it harder Jesus says if anyone wants to follow Him they must deny themselves, pick up their cross and follow Him. Jesus definitely didn’t have a PR agent. But if we are to be faithful as His witnesses, we won’t try to market Jesus, we will give the gospel, praying and trusting that as we do, God will stir faith in the heart of that person and they will see with eyes of faith that following Jesus is better. Knowing Jesus is better. Better than anything in the world. Better than life. Paul says he longs to depart and be with Christ – for that is far better.

Faith also sees that God’s promises are surer. God promises Abram wonderful blessing, but those blessings are not visible or even possible to man. God promised to make of him a great nation, but his wife is unable to conceive even one child.

There’s a lot that could be said about this, and I am going to trust that I don’t need to qualify this, but God often calls us to do what we can’t do. I’ve seen people do presumptuous things in the name of faith only to regret it. Faith must be built on the clear word of God and His will, and so if we should be praying and reading God’s word and seeking wise counsel before we presume something is God’s will. But having said that, let’s be sure that we aren’t just doing what is practical and possible for us to do, but are always trusting God for new testimonies and new adventures and new lands for His glory.

III. Biblical faith will be expressed through obedience to God’s commands

Abram’s faith took action: God called him to go, and he went. Abram going was an expression of his faith. If he didn’t go, it would have revealed that he didn’t have faith, no matter what he said.

Paul tells us that we are saved by faith alone, works of any kind do not contribute to our salvation and in fact if we try to add works to our faith it negates our faith. One of the greatest dangers churches face is the creep of legalism – slowly but surely rules become necessary to live a Christian life. We will always stand fast in the gospel of grace that declares that all was accomplished for our salvation on the cross.

But there is a danger on the other side we need to be just as concerned about: a faith that’s dead.

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. James 2:14-17

We are saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone. James says watch out for a faith doesn’t ever do anything. A faith that’s all excuses and no obedience. A faith that claims God as yours but does not claim you as wholly God’s. Watch out for a dead faith – it can’t change you, it can’t claim you, and it can’t save you. True faith will always be expressed by obedience to God. Our obedience demonstrates we really have faith. You can obey without faith, but you can’t have faith without obeying.

Not that we obey perfectly, but taking hold of the great and precious promises of God leads us to obey the commands of God. Biblical faith does promise wonderful blessings. It is better. But promises are channeled to us through the conduit of a faith that obeys. You say, what am I supposed to obey? Not so much in some non-moral decision that you are trying to make – should I change jobs or not? If you are trying to apply faith to a non-moral decision, I recommend you pray about it, ask God for wisdom, get good counsel, and then just do something. I think the first place to look for the intersection between promise and command is in the clear commands of Jesus to us.

• Jesus commanded us to love one another. To serve one another. To love our enemy.

• To forgive someone who has hurt you. Jesus promises if we forgive we will be forgiven. It’s not that obeying the command to forgive earns us the promise of forgiveness – it’s the other way around: if we are really clinging to the promise of our complete and total forgiveness through Christ, than we will obey His command to forgive.

• Love the Lord our God with all our heart and mind and strength and soul. Half-hearted? Love.

• Love our neighbor as ourselves.

• Let our light so shine before others that they might see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven. Are you walking the extra mile in good works so people see and glorify God?

• Make disciples of all nations – God promised Abram that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him. This is the fulfillment of that promise – when the nations become followers of Jesus they inherit all the promises and blessings of Abraham. Are you a disciple making disciples?

Conclusion

Faith is essential – a living, dynamic, growing faith. But the first step some of us need to take to limber up our faith is a fresh commitment to obey God. Let’s stand and as we sing, allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you. Not in 20 areas all at once. Just one, maybe two areas where He is calling for you to believe His promise is better and obey. This is a time between you and God. If you want to come to the altar, please do. But let's do business with God.