Abram’s Costly Faith - Clover Sites



Abram’s Costly Faith Text: Genesis 11:27-12:9 Dietrich Bonheoffer opens his book The Cost of Discipleship with a chapter entitled “Costly Grace.” His point is simple: True grace is always costly. Yes, grace is free. By “free” we mean that we can never pay for it. However, true grace is not cheap. Even though we can never pay for it, It will still cost everything you have and are. In other words, true grace is free, but it is never cheap. If there is no cost, there is no grace. Cheap grace was the grace of the Pharisees. Costly grace was the grace that came to Paul and the Apostles. Anecdote: Man in Myanmar who makes $100/per month whose daughter needs open heart surgery. Last week we studied the grace of God that came to Abram. His genealogy spoke of grace. His call and election was all of grace. The promises that came to Abram in Gen 12:1-3 were all of grace. However, none of it was cheap. Today’s sermon is about the cost. Abram made the only proper response to faith. He obeyed. In fact, true faith compels deeds. Cheap grace is dead grace. It is the faith of demons. In the words of the Reformers: We are saved by grace alone through faith alone, but saving faith is never alone. A life of growing obedience always walks one step behind true faith. Our main point is this: Saving faith is costly! Today’s reading is about Abram’s faith—what it cost him, and why he paid the cost. I want to make four points. 1st The Conviction of Abram’s Faith. 2nd The Cost of Abram’s Faith. 3rd The Weakness of Abram’s Faith. 4th The Reward of Abram’s FaithThe Conviction of Abram’s Faith Last week we learned that God chose Abram. God initiated a relationship by speaking to Abram through his word. God spoke to Abram. Faith was Abram’s response. He believed God’s word. In other words, Abram’s faith was a gift from God. It was a byproduct of God’s self-disclosure. Abram walked away from this encounter believing that God rewards those that obey him. His willingness to obey God expressed his confidence in God’s goodness. That is how faith glorifies God. (Hebrews 11:6) "6 Without faith it is impossible to please [God], for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him."The faith that pleases God believes that he is a lavish Giver. God made extravagant promises to Abram. As we learned last week, they break down into seven clauses. (Promises to Abraham) 2 I will make of you a great nation I will bless you [I will] make your name greatYou will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, Him who dishonors you I will curse In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” In the words of Hebrews 11:1, Abram’s faith was an “assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.” It was an assurance that if Abram obeyed, God would fulfill all of these promise. At the root of Abram’s assurance was confidence that God rewards those that seek him. It was also a conviction of things not seen. It was conviction that God is there, and that God is good, that God is sovereign, and that God will intervene in the affairs of my life for good. In other words, behind God’s word of command and promise was the character of God. Abraham sensed and felt the glory of God through God’s self revelation. It captivated him. This pleasure ruined him for the pleasures of this life. Abraham saw that the ultimate blessing/pleasure is God himself. In the words of David. (Psalm 16:11) "In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore."Note: God led Abraham West toward the land of Promise. He is the first person in Genesis to move West. He is going back to Eden. There he will find the presence of the living God, the “pleasures” referred to in Psalm 16. To get this “blessing” Abraham must leave the City of Man (Babylon) and enter the City of God. He must separate himself from the City of Man. That means family, kin, and country. (Hebrews 11:8–10) "8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance…10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God."(Hebrews 11:15–16) "15 If [Abram] had been thinking of that land from which [he] had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, [he desired] a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called [his] God, for he has prepared for [him] a city."Grace is costly. However, when people see the reward they pay the cost eagerly. There is a huge difference between conviction and a belief. We act on convictions, but we prevaricate about considerations/ high thoughts/morality/ideals. Richard Wurmbrand said, “A man really believes not what he recites in his creed, but what he is willing to die for.” For example, we will give money freely when we have a conviction that God is good, that he will take care of us. But a mere belief will produce stinginess. Martin Luther wrote, “Okay, there is the promise; I take my stand on it, and I stand ready to sacrifice life and limb, property and honor, everything I am and have…that’s what it means to believe.” M. Luther, House Postils, Vol 2, pg 133 Because Abraham’s faith was a conviction about God’s willingness to reward, he was willing to pay an extravagant price for the reward. Here is how Jesus describe\d this motivation. (Matthew 13:45–46) "45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, 46 who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it."The Cost of Abraham’s faith Map: Abraham’s Journeys Risky Faith12:1 “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to a land that I will show you.” Heb 11:8 “He went out not knowing where he was going.” True faith always involves risk. God sent Abram without directions. Otherwise Abram would have trusted in the directions, rather than God. God called Abram to go out alone, into the unknown. God called him to travel 800 miles across a bandit infested wilderness, not knowing where he was going, with no one to protect him but God. Calvin paraphrases Gen 12:1 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.’This is an amazing story. Abram is 75. At age 75 most people are settling into a life of ease—what we call the golden years. Not Abraham. His life’s work was just beginning. His greatest risks and adventures were still before him. The greatest challenges were still to come. As an old friend of mine often said, “There is no retirement in the Bible— just refirement.” Four thousand years have passed, but nothing has changed. Saving faith still motivates great risks for God. They are responsible risks, yet they are still risks. (Matthew 8:19–20) "19 And a scribe… said to [Jesus], “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” 20 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”"Jesus call does not guarantee an easy life. So, what does it guarantee/promise? He promises to make us more than conquerors [over life’s problems] through him who loves us (Rom 8:37). Despite our problems, he promises to never leave or forsake us (Rom 8:39). He promises to work all things for our good (Rom 8:28). He promises a future life of unimaginable happiness and joy. God asked Abram to trust Him rather than circumstances. He was to follow God with blind faith. In order to receive the promises, this was the condition he needed to meet. Separating Faith True faith always separates the believer from others. It is often unbelieving friends, family members, and even some believers with whom we have significant disagreements. Saving faith separates us only to later unite us more perfectly with those that are on the same page with us. Unity is never the ultimate goal of the Christian faith. Obedience is the goal. Unity is a fruit of obedience. Christian unity always presumes a prior separation. God called Abram to leave Babylonian culture, his family, and his clan. This must have been excruciating. In Abram’s day family and clan were everything. There were no nation states, just large, extended clans. The Middle East is the same today. Abram’s family was so close that he married his half-sister, Sarah. His brother Nahor married his niece, Milcah. Their clan, like all clans in those days, was inbred and ingrown. Abram’s entire life revolved around family in a way that we cannot imagine today. Yet, God said—Gen 12:1 “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.It was a threefold separation. First, God commanded him to leave his country, Ur of the Chaldeans. As we have seen he was 75. He had spent his entire life there. Older people are generally less flexible. Their instincts are to hunker down. But God called Abraham to uproot himself and travel to a foreign culture, to permanently leave Chaldean culture. In addition, God commanded him to leave his kindred, his extended clan. Last, God commanded him to leave his “father’s house.” This meant his father, his brother Nahor, Lot, and his other close relatives. Why? Because they were not among the elect. They would not join the people of God. They were idolaters. Abram’s sanctification meant separation. This has always been God’s methodology. Listen to the words of Jesus. (Luke 14:25–35) "25 Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish….’33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. 34 “Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? 35 It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”Saving faith is costly. Cheap faith/grace is salt that has lost its flavor. By definition, God’s grace will cost you everything. The Weakness of Abraham’s Faith Like each of us, Abraham’s faith was costly, but it was weak. He believes, then he vacillates. “Did God really say?” As our story progresses he will falter in faith and he will disobey God. For example, even though God commanded him to leave his father’s house, he takes Lot. 4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. In the coming weeks we sill study Abram’s many failings. Yet, and here is the crucial lesson, each time he stumbles, despite his weakness, God proves himself faithful. So ultimately, Abraham’s failings expand his confidence in God’s goodness and faithfulness. Forty years later, at about age 115, his confidence in God is so developed that he is willing to sacrifice Isaac at God’s command. Through Isaac all of God’s promises must come. But Abram has nothing to fear. Why? He knows from experience that God is so good that he will need to raise Isaac from the dead rather than be unfaithful to his promises. That is gigantic confidence in God’s goodness. It is the ultimate fruit of costly grace. The Reward of Abraham’s Faith The Christian life is like a Scavenger hunt. Your team gets directions. You follow them. You arrive at the destination, and then you get the next set of directions. That is exactly how God’s rewards work. Jesus said it many ways—(John 15:2) "2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit." (Luke 8:18) "18 To the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away.”"This was Abraham’s experience. Motivated by God’s promises he migrated to Canaan. He arrived at his destination. He set up camp at Shechem, which was the geographical center of Canaan. 5b “When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land.” The Oak of Moreh was where the Canaanites met for divination, to hear from demon spirits. But here, instead of divination, God amplifies the promises. Abraham has obeyed the first set of instructions, he has moved to Canaan. Now God rewards him. 7 “Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. “The original call said nothing about God giving Abram the land or giving it to his Offspring. (Remember, Sarah was barren). Abram’s obedience, the obedience of faith, opened the door to more promises. This is how it worked for Richard Wurmbrand. His obedience meant imprisonment. “In our darkest hours of torture the Son of man came to us, making the prison walls shine like diamonds and filling the cells with light. Somewhere far away, were the torturers below us in the sphere of the body. But the spirit rejoiced in the Lord. We would not have given up this joy for that of kingly palaces.” How about you? Your spiritual life is dry. You don’t hear from God, and you don’t know why? Here is the question: what have you left undone? What has God asked you to do, that you have been unwilling to do? Augustine: “Faith believes what you do not see. The reward of faith is to see what you believe.” Application: Look To JesusLike Abraham, our faith is weak. Hopefully, it is growing. How do we get more? Three Suggestions. 1st Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Read the Bible. Read Good Christian Biographies. 2nd Obey God. The more you obey, the more your faith will grow. 3rd Most importantly, Look to Jesus. Jesus possessed the perfect faith of which Abram’s was only a shadow. Jesus is the only man whose “assurance of things hoped for and conviction of things not seen” was perfect. When you believe the gospel, God imputes his faith to you. Jesus is the only man whose faith perfectly pleased God. He absolutely believed that “God rewards those that seek him “ (Heb. 11:6). “For the Joy set before him he endured the cross” (Heb 12:2). When you believe the gospel, God imputes Christ’s perfect faith to you. Jesus is the only man who paid the infinite cost that true faith empowers, the cross. When you believe the gospel, God imputes the faith that empowered that obedience to you. In summary, true faith is a work of grace, and the faith that true grace produces is always costly. Saving faith is costly. Cheap grace is the grace of religious hypocrites. By contrast, costly faith/grace changes us. It molds us. It shapes us. Nothing is ever the same. “True grace,” writes Tim Keller, “changes you from the inside out. Neither law nor cheap grace can do that.” ................
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