Abraham Example of Faith

Do any of you get the Our Daily Bread reading notes? Did you read last night? Have you got your book there? Could you just pass it forward? Just chuck it forward bit by bit. When you remember that yesterday I spoke on another word for faith was risk and I nearly popped out of my skin last night when my wife and I were just about to pack it in late last night and we turned to the reading for October the 22nd, Risking Everything. And it says, Genuine faith in Christ includes commitment and commitment involves risk.

Otherwise, faith is nothing more than mental assent, than mental assent. And so you'll find that, you know, it's interesting that it's not just simply a thought that's pushed out from one side of the ocean, but people are discovering that all around the world that a real active faith goes beyond mental assent of biblical knowledge to taking a risk. And anything that is at its depth of beauty and meaning and feeling is always at the point of risk.

It's always right up there. Now remember that in the garden, that it was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So everything at its intense good is always one twig away from the same item being intensely evil.

And the tragedy with us humans is that we so want to be so good and we're trying so hard to be such good Christians, we're afraid of life and we're afraid of risk. And therefore we tend, if the microphone here represents the tree, we tend to be a way back here in any act, any function, any faith relationship, anything that we're doing in life, we always practice it at a very safe distance from the tree. But in doing it there, there is absolutely no content to it.

Anything at its intense good and value in human life will always be up at the point where it's within reach of risk. And faith is something that you exercise at the point of risk, always. Peter having to walk on the sea by faith, that involved risk.

I mean, have you ever seen 12 men in a boat and one decides to go over the edge? The minute he puts himself to one side, they'd all have to lean to the other. And there he is with his legs dangling in the water and his hands on the edge. And there comes that moment of risk.

He has to take his bottom off the edge and his hands off and wait and see. You see, faith is a little bit like jumping out of an airplane in a parachute. Do you know what happens when you jump out of a plane in a parachute? It's so many thousands of feet up.

Nothing. You're falling. It's free fall.

And you pull the cord and nothing's happening. You pull the subsidiary cord because you feel nothing's happening. And there was no need to pull the subsidiary cord.

It was happening. It's all happening behind you. The bag is open.

The chute's gone out. It's trailing out behind you. The cords are lengthening and then it's beginning to billow out.

The wind's beginning to catch it. And then you feel yourself being caught as you lower to the ground. But in actual fact, taking a parachute jump does mean taking the risk.

Jumping out. And if you don't, you've had it. Faith acts within the realm of impossible, not possible.

We had a disaster at the end of the Second World War in this country when one of the British fighter planes was on its way back from a bombing raid over Germany. And as it was approaching the British coast, it had engine trouble. And the captain knew that it was coming down.

He tried to make it to the coast, but in actual fact didn't. And the plane sank in water yards, yards from the shoreline. And in actual fact, you could stand on the fuselage of the plane in the water.

And it was just under the surface of the water by about a foot. Rescuers got out there and could look into the aeroplane and see the crew in the cockpit and the cabin. The hatch was jammed and they couldn't get it open.

But the bomb doors of the plane underneath were open. And the wheel bays were open. And the water was beginning to come in from underneath.

But because of the tightness of the ceiling, all the air was in the top of the cabin, still there, but it wasn't going to last long. And they shouted to them and even held up a piece of paper and wrote on it, hold your breath, take the risk, go down into the place of death, dive down into the water, swim out under the bomb bays and bounce up to the surface for plenty of fresh air out here. One by one, that crew did this ridiculous thing.

They took the risk. They could see people there through the perspex of the cockpit. They could see that there was just that much between them and the outside and above that, just a foot of water through which they could see people with loads of fresh air.

But to get that fresh air and to live involved risk. And the risk was to go into a position of death that they might be raised again to newness of life. So one by one, they did it.

They dived into the water, came under the bomb doors, shot up to the surface and breathe. But one man wouldn't take the risk. He wanted to hold on to what air was left in the cockpit.

And they were trying to break through to him. They couldn't break it. And they watched him die.

A foot under the surface and they watched him slowly suffocate and die because he held on to what he thought was secure now rather than take a risk. And this is the measure in which Christians also die and that they're afraid to take a jump into the area of risk in order to see the power of God manifest itself in a way you never thought imaginable. Now it may be that in the course of what we discussed yesterday that you felt pretty battered.

It may be that you felt, hey, I am a talking Christian. I am not a walking one. And even in priding myself that I came from a good church and a good church background and a good Christian experience and coming to Bible school, it just suddenly hit me here yesterday.

I am not a walking Christian. And I felt battered yesterday by the spirit of God that my life is nothing but mush really compared to the reality of the substance of what it means to be a man of God. I know now that I'm all talk and no walk.

So what do I need? Some special prayer? No. What you're going to do is take your first piece of courage and that is you're going to join the class to learn to walk by faith that's practical. To learn to walk in the realm of risk.

And I want you to settle your minds on the fact that it's not a two day course where you will graduate. This kind of a walking faith is a faith where the class graduation party will be the day you enter the presence of the Almighty. So you might as well settle down like the rest of us and put up with the pain of learning to enjoy an active faith.

You see the trouble with us is we want everything done yesterday. We want to have some special prayer with Jesus where I'm now a walking Christian. God is the one who is not afraid to take the next 30 years if necessary to get some of you adjusted.

Learn to join the class and know that graduation is not tomorrow. I'm going to learn and you're going to make lots of mistakes on the way. You're going to make lots of mistakes in the class of learning to walk by faith.

But would you please please for once in your life enjoy making your own mistakes. I've made all the mistakes but I tell you this they're mine. I'm not letting anybody else get the credit for the messes I've made.

Boy I can't stand these people that run around these days saying oh it's an evil spirit in me that makes me do this or any evils. I'm not giving any evil spirits the credit for what I do. Any of the junk I've ever done in my life and sins I've ever committed in my life it had nothing to do with spirits it's me I did it because I wanted to and I've had to learn to live with it.

Oh I've made big mistakes but they're all mine and I'm not giving anybody else the credit. I'm not looking for a scapegoat. I'm not blaming spirits for it.

The spirits don't come near me. I am surrounded by the angels of heaven for my protection and if there's any sin striking sins it's because I'm rotten and they're my mistakes. I've had to learn just to come cap in hand, kneel down, seek his forgiveness, pick up and start all over again and the greatness of God is he's never ceased to allow me the dignity to keep coming and keep getting forgiven and keep on keeping on learning not to make the same mistake twice.

Don't be so occupied with being so spiritual that you forget to allow yourself the dignity of being a human being that's weak because if you will not learn the intrinsic weakness of your humanity when you're young surprise surprise it'll hit you in 30 years time but you're going to discover one way or the other you are just a dishrag like the rest of us and that's why James very practically inciting his examples of people who walked by faith and not words chose as his first illustration here in this central passage of describing an act of faith Abraham verse 21 was not Abraham our father justified just as if I'd never sinned that's almost a good definition for justified just as if I had never sinned by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar seest thou how faith wrought with his works and by works was faith made perfect or mature and the scripture was fulfilled which said Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness and he was called the friend of God.

Imagine having God as your friend because you learn to walk in a practical fashion in your faith and not just have talk but you'll notice you'll notice the incident that God by the inspiration of the spirit here as God puts into this epistle through James as the illustration of Abraham's justification by faith work Isaac Isaac offering on the altar but listen that wasn't when God started to train that man in faith in actual fact from the first time God spoke to Abraham to when he offered Isaac in the altar there was 65 years passed so join the class you guys won't wait 65 days to get a perfect faith and it took God 65 years to teach this man to learn to do what he was told if you look at Genesis and chapter 12 we read there now the Lord had said unto Abraham to Abraham that means in a

previous occasion this is not the first time the Lord is saying this the Lord had said unto Abraham get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house and to a land I'll show you and I'll make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing and I'll bless them that bless thee and curse him that curses thee and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed now God had said that to him at some previous time before now who was Abram he wasn't a Jew Abram was a pagan from Ur of the Chaldees and Ur was the biggest fortress and citadel of pagan worship that you could have found it was the bedrock of heathenism and idolatry and yet God steps in by his sovereign grace and talks to a young man there in Ur of the

Chaldees that's a Canaanite pagan and says get out from your family your kindred your people and follow me and I'll take you to a place where I'm going to bless you now he heard it faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God but there's a difference between a mental assent to the word you hear and the action of doing what you're told and the when God told him was in the previous chapter and we live we read in verse 24 and Nahor lived nine and twenty years and begat Terah and Nahor lived after he begat Terah 119 years and begat sons and daughters and Terah lived 70 years and begat Abram, Nahor and Haran now these are the generations of Terah, Terah begat Abram, Nahor and Haran and Haran begat Lot and Haran died before his father Terah in the land of his nativity in Ur of the

Chaldees and Abram and Nahor took them wives the name of Abram's wife was Sarai and the name of Nahor's wife Milcah the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah but Sarai was sterile she had no child and Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran his son's son and Sarai his daughter-in-law his son Abram's wife and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees to go into the land of Canaan and they came unto Haran and dwelt there in the days of Terah where 205 years and Terah died in Haran so they left Ur of the Chaldees and went as far as Haran and they decided to stay there now if you will just turn over to Acts chapter 7 Acts 7 keep your hand in at Genesis 12 Acts 7 in the apology of Stephen he says this in Acts 7 1 then said the high priest to Stephen

are these things so and Stephen said men brethren and fathers listen the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was yet in Mesopotamia Ur of the Chaldees before he dwelt in Haran he appeared unto our father Abraham before that was the first time before he moved to Haran and he said to him get thee out of your country and from your relatives and come to the land that I will show you then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans but he dwelt in Haran and from thence when his father was dead he removed him to this land wherein you now dwell so what was the problem the guy heard the will of God the word of God and he amended it God said Abram you get up you get out leave your family follow me and I'll bless you and he says God thank you got the message but I'm not leaving the

family I'm taking them with me even lot and that was a lot to take and I'll tell you he was a lot of trouble all through Abraham's life that man was bugged by problems he created for himself by his disobedience to the word of God and amending what God said to him because God doesn't really understand God's not really wise it's wrong just to say to me get up and leave your family and go and so he went to Haran everybody waved them goodbye from Ur of the Chaldees oh there's a guy with a calling to go to a new promised land and all they did was go over the hill and settle there for 10 more years till daddy died because daddy wouldn't leave and the biggest nuisance he had around his neck to enjoying the will of God for his life was daddy you'd be amazed at the number of daddies that hold

their sons back I had one here that stood in the very last night of Bible school and gave his testimony but he's called to the mission field he arrived at New York and there was a brand new white convertible waiting for him on the key to drive himself home got home and therein with his lawyer in the front room were all the documents ready just to sign his name to and he became a general manager of his daddy's firm a boat out there in the lagoon with house everything he needed and he signed I've never met a more miserable guy in all my life who for years has known that he's enjoying every piece of wealth in the world because daddy wanted to keep him at home and he never did get to where God wanted him and he lives with that every day of his life anytime he wouldn't admit it to anybody else

but anytime he sees me he tells me brother Billy I should be in Singapore I mean you just look at Mark Mark's gospel and chapter 3 verse 31 there came then his brethren and his mother and standing outside sent unto Jesus calling him and the multitude sat about him and they said to him behold your mother and your brothers are outside looking for you and Jesus answered them saying who is my mother or my brethren and he looked round about on them which sat about him and said behold my mother and my brethren for whosoever shall do the will of God the same as my brother and my sister and my mother yes family ties have not to become non-important but they have to become unimportant when it means doing the will of God he even stated quite clearly when Peter stuck his nose in the air in Luke 18

verse 28 Peter said lo we have left all and followed thee and he said unto them truly I say unto you there is no man that hath left house or parents or brethren or wife or children for the kingdom of God's sake who shall not receive manifold more in this present time and in the world to come life everlasting for some people not for everybody but for some people there will be the demand to let family go and to leave under the instruction of the will of God and go and do what God wants you to do amend it and you're in trouble if you look in psalm 45 psalm 45 a verse that I've had to face myself verse 10 listen oh daughter consider and incline your ear forget also your own people and your father's house so shall the king greatly desire thy beauty for he is thy lord and worship thou him yes

for some there may come that necessity for God to say I have something special for you and I can tell you this today if I had gone back home all those years ago and told my family that Strachan had become a Christian and they had welcomed me back I would have probably been a Christian film projectionist in Scotland now but the very fact that there came that that choice you either stop the Jesus rubbish or you can leave this home and I was crazy enough to leave home but I'll tell you this I've never been a night without a bed or a day without food I've never had a year without friends and everything that God said he would make up to me for in this life never mind the next one he has fulfilled in my life because as much as I was in tears I made it a choice to follow my God rather than bow

down to the demands of a family and it's wrong for parents to produce you as a means of security for them in their old age and he had to sit there and wait for daddy to die before he could get on with the will of the Lord but God didn't throw him away God did not throw him away and that's why the 12th chapter of Genesis opens up by a reminder and now he decides to go verse 4 so Abraham departed the last I can go daddy's not there this morning to say you're not going I don't think it's the will of the Lord you should go and I hear God better than you hear God and I'm not going daddy's gone and they departed as the Lord had spoken unto him and lot went with him what a problem he should have let that lot behind and Abraham was 75 years old when he departed out of here and Abraham took Sarai

his wife and Lot his brother's son and notice this and all the substance that they had gathered and the souls that they'd gotten in here and would you please note the consequences of disobedience was that in the 10 years they skittered around here and they developed a whole mass of consequences of substance bodies people junk that they now had the duty to take with them and very often in life that's one of the lessons we learn if you amend the will of God you don't step out and take the risk and obey him you will incur upon yourself consequences that you have to transport with you my child the rest of your life no wonder God says I don't need to punish you for your sin the mess you'll carry around will be enough punishment you'll punish yourselves by your sins because you will create

circumstances events situations problems that you will now have to carry with you the rest of your life and you're going to have to live with it and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan and into the land of Canaan they came verse 6 and Abraham passed through the land unto the place of Shechem unto the plain of Mori and the Canaanite was then in the land yes he didn't move him into a place there where there's no problems he's bringing the mess with him that he'd incurred in those 10 years and now he's also having to transport with him into the land those problems and face new ones that are waiting for him the Canaanite and the Lord appeared unto Abraham and said unto thy seed will I give this land you're not going to have to earn it at last you're prepared to take the risk move in

with your problems plus the ones you're going to get because of your obedience I re-utter my promise that I'm going to give you a gift I'm going to give it to you you'll never have to be good enough to get it be holy enough to get it sanctified enough to get it I'm going to give it to you this land of promise and there built he an altar unto the Lord who appeared unto him and he removed from thence unto a mountain in the east of Bethel and pitched his tent having Bethel in the west and Hai on the east and there he built an altar unto the Lord and he called in the name of the Lord and hallelujah I'm home I'm in a place of faith love relationship after all those years even if I've got a few problems and scars and junk I'm having to traipse with me of my own making I'm at last in fellowship

with the Almighty oh he's learnt his lesson he'll never make that mistake again he read the next verse and he journeyed going on still towards the south and there was a a famine in the land oh god I'm hungry I just knew it wouldn't work I should have stayed in here and should have stayed in earth I go and make my testimony to those people that I'm going to obey God and I'm going into the place of blessing built my altar said my praise and now we've got a problem oh god I'm hungry so what do you do in the face of your problem in the place of blessing so Abram went down to Egypt isn't that lovely yes you just hightail it out of there and get back into the world I knew it wouldn't work so let's go man straight into Egypt and Egypt in the Bible typifies everything that is of the world bondage

slavery he goes to Egypt and when he gets there he develops a new quality it's called look after me even at the expense of the wife so he went down to Egypt to sojourn there for the famine was grievous in the land and it came to pass when he was come near to enter into Egypt that he said his wife behold now I know that you are a fair woman to look upon he's uh he's 75 she's 65 she must have been some dolly therefore it shall come to pass when the Egyptians shall see you that they shall say this is his wife and they will kill me but they will save the alive he's living on his imagination he's creating problems that are not even existent they're all in his imagery how to protect number one say I pray that you are my sister that it may be well with me for thy sake and my soul shall live

because of thee and he teaches his wife to lie on his behalf such a godly man this oh our great father of faith what a bag of rags and it came to pass when Abram was coming to Egypt the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair the woman was taken into Pharaoh's house and he entreated Abraham well for a sake and he had sheep and oxen and asses and men servants and maidservants and she asses and camels and the lord plagued Pharaoh and the lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram's wife and the almighty had to move in to protect Sarai because of the stupidity of his great man of faith who was not walking by faith anymore but had jumped out of the place of blessing because you've got to take action you've got to look after yourself God can't keep

you in the place of the impossible he can't take a risk and stay in the land of promise when there's a famine God couldn't supply what we need to keep us so you've got to take action you've got to take the things back into your own control you've got to go back to Egypt and when you get there just take care of each difficulty that arises to make sure I survive and Pharaoh called Abram said what is this that thou hast done unto me why didn't you tell me she was your wife why did you say she's my sister so I might have taken her to me to wife now therefore behold your wife take her and get going and Pharaoh commanded his men concerning him and sent him away and his wife and all that he had and Abram went up out of Egypt he and his wife and all that he had and lot with them into the south

and Abram was very rich in cattle and silver and gold and he went in his journeys from the south even to the Bethel to the place where his tent had been at the beginning have you noticed that all he did was waste his own time and in this life we don't have time to waste if you want to be a blessing in time you can't afford to waste a few years dicking around in Egypt looking after yourself being the master of your own destiny mapping out your own salvation taking care of your own problems because I'll tell you something when you decide to get out of there and come back into the land of blessing do you know where you come back to the very place you left from all you've done is waste your own time God doesn't say oh well we'll just put you up to where you should be in my program God says

sorry all you've done is mark time your destiny's waiting for you you left from this point stepped out of my will dickered around there in Egypt now you're back will you just start from where you left off and you'd be amazed at the number of people that to their own destruction and detriment have discovered that's true they've wasted 10 years backsliding 10 years looking after number one 10 years doing their own thing and when they decided to come back to the Lord you know where they started exactly where they left off it was the same with Jonah arise and go to Nineveh yes sir so he arose and went to Tarsus because he didn't want to be a blessing to pagans and God spoke to the fish and it caught him and when the fish vomited him up onto the ground at the seashore when he'd said from in

the depths of death oh God give me another chance and I'll obey I'll take the risk I'll do what you want me to do anything God anything fish let him out there he is standing on the shore and he says oh thank you father where do you want me to go I told you Nineveh I thought we'd been all through that I mean couldn't I go to Africa Brazil somewhere you know wonderful mission feel Nineveh but that's where I ran away from I know Nineveh all he'd done was waste his own time all he'd done was end up in the belly of a fish to get out and find that God hadn't adjusted his program Nineveh do you know that Jacob did the same he left the land of promise at Bethel and when he came back do you know where he came back to Bethel hey watch it you guys have you ever decided to just kick the traces and

take a wee wander and say ah this is not working go on waste a few years I'll get a news for you you're going to start where you left off and when you decide to repent come back get converted again turn again to your God and say oh God I'm fed up with that mess I'm in at last I'll take the risk and believe you and do what you want me to do where shall I start God where you left off my child the years are not giving back there's not a lesson you're going to miss and he came back and lot became a big problem made several battles and in chapter 15 after these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision saying stop being afraid Abram I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward and Abram said Lord God what will you give me seeing I go childless and the steward of my house is

this Eleazar of Damascus and Abram said behold to me you have given no seed and no one born in my house is my heir and behold the word of the Lord came unto him saying this shall not be your heir but he that shall come forth out of your own bowels shall be thine heir and he brought him forth abroad and said look now towards heaven and tell the stars if you be able to number them he said unto him so shall thy seed be and he believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness oh he's got the word you're going to have a child an heir Isaac and in him shall all your seed be produced that will create that great nation Israel well that's the word but the faith risk action the practical outworking is different and so he goes in and there she is and she's now in her 80s making the

porridge and she says yeah what's that silly look on your face for I've been talking to God dear oh you have have you me and your God what's God been saying to you dear oh you're gonna have a baby I'm gonna have a what Abram I knew this religious bit was gonna drive you nuts what do you mean I'm gonna have a baby I hope you haven't blabbed this all over the village well on my way back I did tell one or two people oh what a mess you get us into with your so-called faith I'm gonna have a baby why don't you get back and tell your God he's 40 years too late apart from that I was sterile anyway I'm gonna have a baby you're supposed to be the father and leader of all of this family and now you turn around and put us in a mess like this look we better help God out of a mess look I've got a good

plan get Hagar my maid and we'll keep her in for nine months now go and get her pregnant and I'll insist she stays in the tent with me and I'll stay in the tent you keep going around letting people know I'm having a baby and when the baby's born I'll take it and I'll come out and say see got the baby we don't let anybody know we've got to help God out of a mess you can't take a risk like that of taking me to bed and hoping at your age and my age something as miraculous in the realm of the impossible could ever happen by faith don't be silly you've got to be practical about this now let's get going and so they they had their best technique for helping God out of a mess and they produced Ishmael nine months later they offer Ishmael to God and say we did it here's Ishmael and God says I

don't want him what do you mean you don't want him do you know what we've been through to produce this child never asked you I never asked you to produce Ishmael but God this is our best effort to help you out of a mess wait till 1984 and see what you've done in helping me out of a mess because today the entire energy crisis the entire economy of the world is governed and controlled by the offspring of Ishmael that was Sarah and Abraham's best effort to help God out of a mess because every Arab in the world today that threatens Israel and the safety of the entire world is the by-product of Abraham Sarah's best effort to help God out of a mess because Ishmael is the father of every Arab ever living and it's just taken us a few thousand years to discover how wonderful man's efforts to help

God out of a mess can be and the entire world is threatened by what they thought was a good idea for helping God out of a mess oh stick your plans in a dustbin it's not you you're laying down a foundation a disaster for by your efforts to help God out of a mess it's generations yet to come that are going to suffer the consequences of our stupidity of not leaving God to do things God's way you know what God did he made them wait 10 more years till it was 10 more years impossible then Isaac was born and she laughed who would ever have thought that my age 90 I could give a child suck who would ever have thought yes have you ever been staggered at the greatness of God he said to her is anything too hard for God hey you and you that are so busy arranging your faith so busy planning your

Christian life in this auditorium today to make sure that you're going to be a successful Christian today because you just don't see any possibility through a faith risk relationship to God that God could ever do anything for you are you going to tell me that you're the first in the whole of history since the dawn of creation that can claim that God at last you found somebody that's too hard for him to deal with are you going to turn around and say God yes I am too hard for you I am somebody that is impossible for you to meet my need and deal with my life properly because God's going to prove you wrong and he gave him Ishmael and from that first whisper in other the Chaldees obey me it's taken a man 65 years and at last he's in the place where God wants him to be and in Genesis 22 we read

this when it came to pass after these things that God did try Abraham and he said unto him Abram that was funny he changed his name you see you know what Abram meant Abram meant father he was the laughing joke for years walked around the village and they say good morning father and you perfectly well he'd no kids and when God says you're going to have a son by your own bowels not through that Hagar and he says and right now I'm so sure that what I'm going to do is going to be done I'm going to give you a new name I'm going to call you Abraham father of many can you imagine the hysterics in the community as he walked out one morning and said I have a pronouncement to make Ishmael is Hagar's child not from Sarah and God has now changed her name to Sarah which is princess and he's now

changed my name so I want you all to remember my new name from this day forward and that is father of many for a joke for 10 years to be called father of many when he wasn't father of any and yet at last he's a father and he says behold here I am and he said take now thy son thine only son Isaac whom you love and get thee into the land of Mariah and offer him there for a burnt offering in one of the mountains which I will tell thee of you know this time he's decided I'm going to do what I'm told God take the consequences and Abraham rose up early in the morning saddled the ass took two of his young men with him and he's Isaac his son and he split the wood for the burnt offering and rose up and went to the place that God told him to he just went and did what he had to do next he does what

he has to do you know what God wants you to do do what's next to be done then in the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off he didn't sit there and say but how are you going to take care of this I want to know God how you're going to work out this problem you've said in Isaac shall my seed be blessed I don't have another child I'm unlikely to have another one how can you produce a great nation out of Isaac if I'm going to kill him would you mind telling me up the donkey no he's learned his lesson faith is a risk I don't need to know at the moment I know at the moment what I can do at the moment and that is get the donkey ready and the wood ready and take the journey so he gets to the mountain and Abraham said to the young men you stay here with the ass and I and

the lad will go up there and worship and come again I've no idea how God's going to do it but if he's made a promise that Isaac's going to be the forefather of a nation then I'm going to go up there and kill him I don't know how God will do but he's going to raise him again from the dead and he was the first man Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 11 that ever conceived of the idea of resurrection and he'd no precedent nobody was ever raised from the dead before and Abraham took the wood and the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son and he wasn't a wee boy of 10 as the Sunday school pictures picture he was in his 20s and he took the fire in his hand and the knife and went both of them together and Isaac speak unto Abram his father as they were climbing up and all the way up that mountain he

could be looking around for an answer he couldn't see any answer to the dilemma but what does faith do faith takes the risk with to offer him at the top we're not at the top yet let's do what we can do now and get to the top and on the way up they're talking and he says father and he said here am I my son he said behold the fire and the wood but where is the lamb for a burnt offering and Abram said my son God will provide himself yes he'll provide himself how prophetic the man didn't know what he was saying he will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering Christ and Abram said my son God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering so they went together and they came to the place which God had told them all and there's no answer there's no answer what am I going to do here I am at

the place where I've got to kill him what have you what have I said well to offer him as an offering on what an altar where's the altar there isn't one so faith works get the altar made yes father so he makes the altar I wonder if he made it step back and say no I think we'll make it bigger and took it down hoping that within an hour or two something might happen and then he puts it all up I've got the altar ready well what are you putting on altar a fire so get the fire ready so he puts the stakes up I don't like that let's take them down there's kind of a waste of time getting the fire ready something's bound to happen soon nothing happens the fire's ready oh god the fire's ready the altar's ready so what are you going to offer on it Isaac you better get him up there uh son time and you

know he couldn't have wrestled him he had to exercise faith too and Isaac gets up there he's got him tied up and he's looking around well you better offer him yes get the knife out it's not sharp enough I'll just sharpen it for an hour or two let an hour or two pass there's no answer god so what are you up here for to do what's to be done and take the risk so what do you do offer him and he lifts the knife he's going to plunge it he goes stop now I know you've learnt your lesson and you'll do what you're told without question so would you mind offering that ramp what where did you come from you weren't there a minute ago no you get the answer to your dilemma when you need it not beforehand and just as you were climbing up that side of the mountain I had my answer to your problem climbing

up this side of the mountain but you don't get the answer to your problem till you need it the tragedy with us is we think faith is telling me three weeks in advance what the answer will be that I don't need now but I need then some of you are miserable this morning because you don't know what you're going to do when school finishes god what am I going to do wait till school finishes you could be dead by tomorrow you could be in heaven by next week what are you worried about you'll get your answer when you need it not before because faith takes the risk faith takes the risk and leaves god with the consequences and the minute you're going to obey god to say there's the answer take the ram and I'll give you back your son and the answer to his dilemma was right on time we get our answers to

our faith risk right on time not before time and god never fails you oh go and have a cup of tea