Faith Defined #6, Abraham 1

Hebrews 11: 8-12
Abraham

Review
We learned about faith:
...substance to things we hope for
...has tangibility
...provides evidence for the things you can't see
...carried forth by elders from one generation to then next
...testimony of the believer has always been God's faithfulness
...helps us to understand things that without faith, we could never understand

We've looked at examples:

Abel--will come to worship God in the way God prescribes

Enoch--walked with God in obedience and hope, and preached in a generation that was headed for the flood....faithful to the Lord and before the judgement of God came God took him

Noah--true faith produces works/actions that bring results.  Noah was warned of rain, yet it had never rained.  For 120 years, he built ark in midst of most vile society family, by the time he was done his family was saved, and the world had been put on notice and found itself condemned and Noah was given right standing with Him. Right standing given by faith and belief in God.  Noah taught us service must be in faith to be acceptable with God.

Abraham
Father of the Jewish Nation
Father of all who would believe in the Lord by faith, Father of all those who walk by faith
one of the greatest examples of faith in the Bible, few men have more focus on the various aspects of their life, the details that are listed, the steps of their walks that are laid out,  25% of Genesis devoted to him.
He'll teach us much about the kind of faith that pleases God.
So celebrated was Nehemiah find him mentioned as the standard of faith.

Levitical prayer, Nehemiah 9, You are the Lord God who chose Abram you brought him out of Ur of Chaldeans, you gave him the name Abram, you found his heart faithful and you made a covenant with him...and you have performed your word for you are righteous.

Galatians 3--Are you so foolish that you begin by the spirit you seek to be made complete in the flesh, suffered so many things in vain, the one supplies the spirit among you.....just like Abraham who believed God and it was counted to him as righteous. Only those who are of faith can be the sons of Abraham.

With believing Abraham. He is constantly set up as the standard by which you can

judged by flood
man had begun to build towers for idolatry purposes
Babel
land mass of earth broken, sections set adrift,
languages confused
All of God's remedial judgement to slow the wickness of man
Idolatry was the key for most lives

Goes back to Ham
Babylonian, founded by Nimrod, descendant of Cush, descendant of Ham, son of Noath
basis of all false religion, Satanic
Polytheistic
Ur--Tigris River, southern Iraq, even then an ancient city, Babylonians were wise in many areas
three story ziggerat built to the moon God Namu
human sacrifices regularly brought
this is where Abraham lived
His father served these gods.  He was into Babylonian forms of religion.
God tells Abraham, "Get away from the city, from your parents, come to the land that I will show you"
He called him to leave the country and the family and the house and to come to a land that God would show him.

Genesis 12, Acts 7, and Stephen's sermon---Abram did not when called immediately go.
It appears that when God called him, Abraham sort of moved, took father, took his nephew, moved northwest to Heron.
Promised Land--600 miles west
Heron-- 610 miles northwest, 400 miles from Promised Land, Heron means "parched and dry"
Stayed here for God knows who long, took care of dad, watched over Lot
His father Terah's name means "delayed," died as an idolatrous man (from what we know in the book of Joshua)
After death of Terah, at age 75, Abram began to warm to the call of God to walk by faith.

"Now the Lord had said to Abraham... get out of the country, come away from your family, get away from your father's house, and come to the land that I will show you...."

He does come, but not alone, still takes Lot, but is beginning to move in the direction that God wants him to take.

Notice that in Hebrews 11 God makes no mention of Abraham's faltering, his great hesitancy, bringing Lot, trying to help God out by having a child and Ishmael, took years to separate from Lot...
All you find in chapter 11 are the things that pleased God by faith. He's not unaware of them.  He's not pretending they don't exist.
God's response with joy is when we walk by faith. The sins are under the blood.
The record God has of you is the times you were faithful.  The times you respond in kind. The record of the failures are covered by his sacrifice.

That's what you find pointed out here (the things God was pleased with) as opposed to all the falterings. When the book is opened on you, the rewards will be when you walked by faith.

v 8 "by faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inherenance and he went out."

Faith that pleases God obeys.  You will not find faith in the Bible without a corresponding obedience. They are inseparable.  Abraham would not have obeyed if he had not taken God by his word.

When he was called, when he went out..... present participle as if it were immediate.
We do a lot of failing but when we take a step of God by faith, God will respond in kind by blessing faith and rewarding it now and in the road to come.

God didn't tell him where he was going.

"All of the families of the earth in you will be blessed"

No---we are going to Canann, no you will live in a tent, just God's promise that blessing will come.

He went not knowing where he went.

He trusted God to get him to wherever it was God wanted him to go.
No promises of where, when, why, very little explanation.  And often that's what God requires.
He doesn't explain His doings.
In the book of Job in several places, God says he doesn't give an account.
If he did, would you really understand it anyway?
Faith trusts the Lord and doesn't need an explanation.  that's exactly the point of true faith.  It follows God implicitly.

Relocate and I will bless you.  That's it.  How often does God ask us to get going and we say "ugh, I don't know..." Abraham would get more details as he went.

Lot and Abraham separates (13).....Genesis 17

But what is mentioned in verse 8 is Abraham's response early in his walk.

It was great in God's eyes..he came, the cost was great, the reward was unclear and far removed, faith alone moved Abram.

So often we are willing to do what God says to us by faith if there is some personal gain or reward attached to it.  Not so for Abraham.  The promises were beyond him, just "I will bless you and others through you."  That''s a silly concept unless God is involved.
Most of us believe God is able, but faith trusts that God is willing and active to do what He says"

Use of a natural gift does not require much faith, when you see no capacity with you, and God says... going becomes a trust in God.

Abraham took the proverbial step of faith and he believed that God would finish what he had stirrred up and begun.

We would like to see the whole story.  Giving up your old life to follow Jesus....
God doesn't lay out the whole plan, just what he shows you to do, you begin to do.

Philip was led to Samaria to huge revival to preach. But it was the Lord who came to him and told him to leave this place and go to the middle of the desert.  He understands why Philip said "Lord that can't be you."  When all reason said no, Philip said yes.