The God of Abraham is revealed through his personal and unique experiences with God, not through generalizations. Jesus highlights this by stating, "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," emphasizing individual encounters. Abraham's journey began with God's call to leave his homeland, an act of faith and obedience despite not knowing the destination. This obedience, even amidst subsequent trials like famine and family disputes, demonstrates that God's promises are foundational, and absolute trust in Him is paramount, as exemplified by the ultimate test of offering Isaac. The sermon concludes that the God of Abraham desires complete trust, not just in His gifts, but in Him as a loving Father who always knows the right way.
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You all hear me? That's very good. Now you all have a God. Your God may not be quite the same as my God. We each one see God from a different point of view and God reveals himself to each of us in a particular way. there is opportunity for lots of variance, difference in our point of view about God. And so I thought that during our morning devotions this week we would think about God as he was viewed by, or as he revealed himself to some of the patriarchs in the Old Testament.
We will be thinking about the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac. the God of Jacob, the God of Moses. And to begin with, let's turn to Matthew chapter twenty-two. Matthew chapter twenty-two. And verse thirty-two, well, we'll begin reading at verse thirty-one. The Lord Jesus is speaking. And he says, But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have you not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying?
Twenty-two, thirty-three. I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Notice that Jesus did not say, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He said, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. Because each of these men had an experience with God that was different than the experience of the other man.
And that's the way it is with us. We have our own individual, personal experience with God. It is certainly to be hoped that that's true. Because if we just know God from the generalization that we hear in sermons that people preach, or in the things that other people say, we don't know God at all, What we need to do is get to know him as our own personal God, the way these men did. And so I hope that this week, as we think of these things, we will gather up the ideas that move these men in their relationship with God.
Long years ago, in the land of the Chaldees, There was a man named Kara, and he had a family, and he had three sons and several daughters, apparently. We don't know how many daughters he had. And he lived in Ur of the Chaldees. But he left Ur of the Chaldees, and he moved to Heron, which was several hundred miles, about three hundred miles, to the north and to the west of where he lived. Now turn to Acts chapter seven.
Acts chapter seven, verse two. Well, we'll read, yeah, verse two, the latter part. The God of glory appeared unto our Father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Heron, and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee. Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Heron, and from thence, when his father was dead, He removed him into this land wherein ye now dwell.
Let's go back to the original record of that in the twelfth chapter of Genesis, where we've told just exactly what happened. Genesis chapter twelve, we'll read the first five verses. Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curses thee, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
So Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken unto him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. And Abram took Sarah his wife and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran. And they went forth to go into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan they came. The first thing that we read about regarding God and Abraham is that God spoke to Abraham and told him to make a move, and Abraham obeyed God and did what God said to do.
He responded in obedience to God. And as we will see, this made Abraham one of the most remarkable men that ever lived. He went to the land of Canaan where the Lord wanted him to go. He left Heron when he was seventy-five years old, and Sarah was sixty-five years old. They went into Canaan, and they went, it tells us in the New Testament, by faith, not knowing whither he went. He did not know where he was going. All he knew was that the Lord had said to him, You go.
I'll take care of where you're going. And so he went, not knowing whether he went in obedience to God, and God honored that. He honored that faith. And here we have one of the original definitions of what faith really is. It is a conviction that moves. It makes us do things in response to the word of God. It is an action taken with the assurance of things hoped for, although they are yet unseen. He did not know where he was going. He started out on the basis of the word of God, not on the basis of what he could see.
And there is no greater blessing that can come to a man than to be honored by God for having obeyed him. This is the greatest thing that can come in human life is the blessing of God that is given in response to our obedience to God. God always responds to our obedience. And he responds with blessings. The kind of blessing he promised to Abraham. He promised Abraham the very choicest blessing that Abraham could conceive of.
that is that he would have a multitude of children. That was the great blessing. Now, God, you notice, did not tell Abraham why he wanted him to move. He just told him to move. And very often, when God wants us to do something, or there is something to be done in response to his will, he doesn't wait to experience explain it to us. God doesn't give us explanations, and there's a good reason for this. If God was to explain everything to us, it would invite discussion, wouldn't it?
It wouldn't matter what God told us to do, we'd have some better idea. We'd want to know more about it. How is this going to work? How can you do that? Why should it be this way? or that way, or the other. If God opened it up for discussion, it would be absolutely endless. And God doesn't do this. God reveals His will. He doesn't ask us whether we think it's a good idea. He doesn't ask us whether it conforms to what we would like. No, He simply tells us what He wants us to do.
He expects us to respond and to do it. That's what faith is. It responds to what God says. God does not give explanations. God gives promises. Now promises we can understand and we can take hold of. And that's what Abraham did. When he got this promise from God, that was all he needed. He didn't need an explanation. He had the promise. that if he moved he would be blessed. So he moved and he knew he would be blessed, and he was blessed.
Job lived in the days of Abraham, apparently. And you know that's another case in which God did not explain what he was doing. Do you remember that conversation that went on in heaven between Satan and God about Job? Now, God did not come down to Job and say, Job, we've had a conversation in heaven, and Satan wants to have you, that he can test you, and I'll be with you, and you hang in there, and it'll come out all right. He didn't do anything like that. No, he didn't say anything. He just said to Satan, go ahead, get in the works. And Satan did.
And Job was, he thought he knew God. And how can this happen? How can this happen? He knew he was a righteous man. And don't blame Job if he knew he was a righteous man. Even God said he was a righteous man. And the house fell in on him. He lost everything. And he was reduced to sitting in a heap of dust boiled from head to foot, and he said, this doesn't jive, this doesn't work out. Now Job lived a long time before David lived, but Job could have written the first psalm.
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners. Job believed that, and he believed that if he was a good and a righteous man, that he would have the blessing of God. Don't you believe that? Don't you believe someone? Yeah. But did Job experience that? Not at first. No, sir. And he couldn't understand it. Here I am. I've tried to be a righteous man. I am a righteous man.
And everything is going wrong. And that's not the way I understand God. And so he said to his friends, Maybe we're wrong about God. Oh, boy, were his friends shocked. Maybe we're wrong about God. Because his friends all believe that about God, too. Job and all his friends believe that if you were righteous and you did the right thing, that God would bless you. And yet they look at it. Well, the only conclusion they could come to the three friends was that Job was keeping something secret that was not righteous and that he was really a secret sinner.
But Job knew better than that. And then Job finally got to the place where he said, Look, even if I have sinned, even if I have sinned, I haven't sinned enough to create this kind The punishment is all out of line with whatever sin I may have committed. I didn't mean to sin. But I have really been laid out. And he couldn't understand that. Because God doesn't explain. But by the time you get to the end of the story with Job, Job says, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear.
That is, he knew what people said about God. But now mine I seize thee, and I repent in dust and ashes. And he's saying, in effect, forget it, Lord. Forget all my complaining. Forget all I ever said. If you think this is the right way, this is the right way, I'll accept this, because I've learned to know what you're like. And that's the way it is with Abraham. Abraham didn't need an explanation from God. He just needed a promise. And when God gave him a promise, Abraham believed that, took hold of it and acted as though God would keep his promise, which he did.
And then you would think, wouldn't you, that having done that, that everything was going to be great peaches and cream for Abraham. He responded so wonderfully to God in obedience, not even knowing where he was going. He went out when God called him, and he got to Canaan where God wanted him, and so everything is going to be great in Canaan. Wouldn't you think that's what would happen? That isn't what happened. As soon as he got to Canaan, he ran into real trouble. There was a famine in the land.
And he was really in trouble. But he was on the right track. He'd gone where God wanted him to go. Well, when he found the famine, then he sort of lost his way. And he kept going. And he went on past the land then to Egypt. And in Egypt, he got into all kinds of trouble. You remember he told lies and got in trouble with Pharaoh and all kinds of problems down there until Pharaoh kicked him out of Egypt and he came back to where God wounded him. You see, he didn't rest in the place that God had sent him.
He went on and he had more and more problems. And I think God allowed this so that we might understand that sometimes we can trust God for the totality of our lives and not for the details. Here's a man who left Chaldea and came way around to Canaan not knowing whether he went at the word of God and he got to the land where God wanted him and he ran into the problem of famine and then not knowing what to do he went on into Egypt and he ran into more problems this this was a difficult experience for Abraham but he turned around and he came back from Egypt he was kicked out of Egypt by Pharaoh and he came back to Canaan And when he got back to Canaan, you'd think, well, that takes care of that.
Now he's back in Canaan where he belongs. So there won't be any problems there now. When we get out of the place that God has chosen from us, we could expect the problems that he had down in Egypt. And we're not too sympathetic with Abraham because of his journey down into Egypt and the trouble he got into down there. But now that we see him come back, And he's restored and he's in Canaan again. We think, ah, ah, glad. Now he's going to have blessing. But as soon as he got back into Canaan, he got back into more trouble. You remember what happened? The next thing was that Lot's herdman and his herdman got into arguments about the land.
And the land wasn't big enough for both of them. And all the family problems that came out of of that situation and Lot and Abraham have to separate because of the problems they were having. Seems like whenever Abraham got into the place of God's appointment for him there were problems. Doesn't it seem that way to you sometimes? Seems like All of us have the notion that when we obey God and when we get into the place where God has chosen for us, the problems ought to stop. But it seems as though the general experience is that when we get into the place where God has chosen for us, the problems start there.
Haven't we all had experiences like, haven't we all had this question in our lives as we've come along the way. Why is it? I try to do what's right, but it somehow doesn't seem to work out right. All I get into is trouble. Amen. Amen. Well, we go on to chapter thirteen and verse fourteen, and the Lord said unto Abraham, after that Lot had separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward and southward, and eastward, and westward. For all the land which thou seest to thee will I give it unto thy seed forever.
And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, there shall thy seed, then shall thy seed also be numbered. So God reiterates his promise to Abraham. Now what obviously was the problem is that God had said to Abraham to get out away from where he was in Taldia, where he was in Heron, to come to the land of Canaan, but to leave his kindred. But he dragged Lot along. And as long as he dragged Lot along, he was going to have problems.
So he's having problems here, and God has got to get a lot out of the way so that he can bless Abraham. He wanted Abraham for himself. He didn't want Abraham occupied with and busy about the things of his relatives. He wanted him for himself. And so God worked it out this way by trouble. He brought one thing after another. into Abraham's life until finally he separates Abraham from Lot. Chapter fifteen, after these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram.
I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. Just trust me, Abraham, the Lord says to him. And Abraham talks to God. And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me? Seeing I go childless and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus. And Abram said, Behold to me thou hast given no seed. And lo, one born in mine house is my heir. Now Abraham is reminding God that he made him a promise.
And he hasn't kept his promise. He has no seed, and God had promised him a great family. And Abraham is getting old. And nobody knows it more than Abraham does. So God confirms his word to Abraham with an oath. He guarantees Abraham that he will keep his promise. Believe me, Abraham, he says. Abraham has this vision in which God gives him confirmation of his word with an oath.
And this was no casual thing. But it was no casual situation. By now Abraham is ninety-nine years old and his wife is eighty-nine years old. And Abraham knows as well as you know, and as well as I know, that there are very few people that age having children. Very few. Right. In the meantime, Abram gets into more trouble. He gets into trouble with Abimelech, one of the kings in Canaan. Because he tries to make it again. He tries to...
he tells a lie. He tells that Pharaoh is his sister, and he gets all involved in the situation, trying to protect himself and to protect his wife. Abraham learns the hard way. Sometimes he has to be told twice. Of course, we're not like that. We don't have to ever be told twice about it. Three times. That's a great thing about the word of God. We learn about the meanness of Adam. We learn about the drunkenness of Noah. We learn about the selfishness of Lot, the cowardice of Abraham, the cunning of Jacob, the sensuality of David, and the inconstancy of Peter.
Quite a group of people, aren't they? They're so much like somebody we know. And God tells us that it's because he wants us to know that he's dealing with people like us. And I suggest this to you, that if the divine purpose is to be turned aside by the faults found in individual character, then divine government of man is at an end and human progress is an impossibility. If God was to change his purpose just because we failed, You can forget the whole thing.
But God does not change his purpose because we fail. He hangs in there. Doesn't he? Doesn't he? Yeah. He hangs in there anyway. Whether we fail or whether we don't fail, whether we go right or whether we go wrong. He stays there. He stays with us. I think one of the lessons that we should learn from this is that we're not to judge the universal by the local situation. We're not to judge Christianity by individual Christians. A lot of people do this.
A lot of people judge Christianity by individual Christians. This is a great mistake. That's like judging the English language by a dime novel. If you want to judge the English language, you read Shakespeare or you read the books of Winston Churchill. And there you will find the English language in all its glory and beauty. You don't find it in a dime novel. And if you want to know about Christianity, you learn about it from Christ, not from Christians. Because we are all a failing lot. We expect that of ourselves and we should forgive it in others.
Well came the day when Isaac was born. God kept his promise. Oh, what a day that was. Oh, they named him Laster. That was such a happy day. That would have been some feast, believe me, that Abraham gave the day they meet Isaac. And they named him Laster. And then the years went by. Thirteen of them or so. Twelve or thirteen years went by. Abraham loved this boy. Oh, how he loved Isaac. And then word came from the Lord.
Abraham, take thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, and offer him for a burnt offering on the top of a mountain that I will show thee. I don't suppose there were more devastating words ever spoken to men than those words. Oh, what a problem they brought to Abraham. And we all understand what the problem was. He thought of all the promises God had made. How long he had waited. And now he's to offer his son. How can God keep his promise if he offers his son?
Oh, what a time. But again, and this is what made Abraham great, early in the morning. Abraham was on his way with his son to obey the voice of God, though it cost him what was most dear to him in all his life. Have you ever taken that walk with Abraham? I don't think they said very much because of the question that Isaac asked him on the way up the mountain. My father, behold, the fire and the wood. Where's the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, God will provide himself a lamb, my son.
And he got up to the top of the mountain, and Abraham took the stones, and he built an altar, and he laid the wood on it. And didn't you know what I think Abraham did? I think he went over and he sat down on a big rock. And he said, Isaac, come over here and sit down beside me, on a rock beside me. And there he told Isaac about the promise of God, about the long years of waiting, about the joy they had when he was born, and how much he loves him the last year. twelve or thirteen years that he'd had him.
And I'm sure Isaac listened to this wonderful story with rapt attention. And then Abraham said, Isaac, I have a word from God that I must offer you with a burnt offering upon this altar. And I can hear Isaac say, Here am I, my Father. This is what God wants you to do. I am available. Something like that took place.
Here is a strong young teenager, fleet of foot, strong of limb. Here is an old man, a hundred and twelve years old. and he's not sleet of foot and he's not very strong of limb either and this boy could have taken off down that mountain like a like a like a deer but he did not and it says Abraham bound him with cords and laid him on the altar and took the knife and raised it in the air and then he heard the voice Abraham it.
Lay not thy hand upon the child. Oh, relief. Oh, the flooding, leap of joy in his heart, as God told him, take him off the altar. And as he did and turned, and there was the ram that God provided. for a sacrament. Oh, what an experience Abraham had. God said, Now I know. Now I know.
What did he know? He knew how Abraham would respond, how far Abraham would go in his obedience, because Abraham gave up his Abraham sacrificed his son just as truly and just as really as if he had plunged a knife into him. And he received him back as from the dead, we're told in the New Testament. God appreciated that. When I was in India one time, I went with a guide from New Delhi out to see the Taj Mahal. And... a university student took me out there.
He was my guide. And on the way back, I asked him if he was married, and he said, no. And I said, when are you going to get married? He said, when my father chooses a wife for me, and I said, when your father chooses a wife for you, aren't you going to choose your own wife? Oh, no. He said, no. My father will choose my wife. I said, wouldn't you rather choose your own wife? No. He said, my father loves me. My father knows what would be best for me. He's better able to choose me the right wife than I would be able to choose her. And I thought as I sat beside him that day in the car, oh, God, would I trusted you that way?
You know, that's the way Isaac trusted his father. And that's the God of Abraham. That's the way God is the God of Abraham. That's what he wants. The characteristic of the God of Abraham is this, that he wants to be trusted absolutely. And I'm sure all of us can testify to our own hearts that we have a ways to go before we trust him.
Absolutely. But I would remind you that God is always right, and he can always be trusted. That he knows the way he takes with us. Now Isaac was a great gift of God to Abraham. But God is not just a giver of gifts. And he does not want us occupied with the gifts. He wants us never to forget that he is our Father.
And he wants us to trust him. As our Father. That is the God of Abraham, the God who wants to be trusted. Shall we pray? Oh, thank you for the record of this life that you have kept for us, Lord. We thank thee that we have such an illustration. We can't think of anything. that would illustrate more effectively to our hearts that you want to be trusted than this story of thy servant Abraham.
Help us to learn from this to rest in thee for Jesus' sake. Amen.