Episode Transcript
[00:00:16] Speaker A: Hey, Good morning.
All right. There is a. There's a really amazing passage in the Old Testament in the book of Ezekiel that talks about the prophet receiving a vision from God of a valley that's filled with dry bones.
And the Lord says, prophesy over these bones. So speak my word over these dry bones. And if you're familiar with church, familiar with the Bible, you've heard this story, maybe you're not. But this amazing thing happens. When Ezekiel speaks the words of God over these dry bones, they come to life.
So flesh is actually formed over these bones. These bones come to life. And so I say this to say, here's a little bit of vision casting as to why we at Redemption Hill preach through books of the Bible, because that's what God does when his Word is opened. So when God's word is opened and we just read it and teach what it is and what it's saying, God brings dead things to life. So maybe you come in this morning and you're not a Christian. Going to try to find my space on the stage.
It fixed? Check.
Good. Nope. There we are. Okay.
Maybe you're here and you're not a Christian and what you need is not advice on how to live a better life. That's not what you need. You don't need to be entertained. You don't need good stories or. Or funny antidotes or. Not that those things are bad. What you need is life.
You need real, true life. And that true life can only come from God. And God does it by his spirit, through His Word. Or maybe you're here and you're a Christian and you need to be refreshed and your soul is tired. You're discouraged, you're weary. Maybe it's over your. A struggle with a particular sin. Or maybe it's just the circumstances of life that have you very tired. We hope and pray that through the reading of God's word and the preaching of His Word, the Spirit of God speaks through His Word and brings about refreshment. That this would be like drinking fresh water this morning as we open God's Word. That's what we want. That's what we want to pray for. Okay, so I'm going to pray for that. And then we're going to dive into a very difficult passage of Scripture. Okay, so we're going to talk about the testing of God. Like, why does God test those that he loves? How do we think about that? How do we see that illustrated in the story of Abraham and Isaac? So let me say a prayer for us and then we'll dive into to the passage together.
Father, we love you. We thank you for your word. We thank you for, thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit. We thank you Father, for sending Jesus, for loving the world, for loving your people so dearly that you sent your only son that whoever believes in him would not perish but have eternal life. And it all being for your glory.
And so God, I pray that this morning you would change our minds, that you would reorient our hearts, that our lives would be lived for your glory and not our own.
God, give us insight into this passage, help us understand we're not going to understand everything. There's going to be mystery here. And I pray that you'd help us to be humble enough to embrace that, but confident enough in what your word does teach us, what you have revealed to us through your word about you God, and about your ways and your working in our life through this story of Abraham and Isaac. So we love you, we need you and we pray all of this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Amen.
When I was in high school, I remember a very, I have a very vivid memory of an encounter with a Christian. So I did not become a Christian until around the age of 22 as a senior in college. Did not grow up in the church, grew up in a pretty pagan household in all respects. And so Jesus radically saved my life and my soul as a senior in college. But prior to that, when I was in high school, I was a menace in all the ways that you might define that word. And one of the ways that my menacing expressed itself when I was in high school was that I cheated a lot.
[00:04:30] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:04:31] Speaker A: I just cheated on tests a lot. I didn't study for them, I didn't think about them. I showed up to the test and I just found creative ways to find answers for tests that were not my own. And so one particular moment in my high school life I was, I think it was ninth grade geometry class, not great at geometry. So showed up to a geometry and geometry is one it's not. It wasn't a multiple choice test. You either know it or you don't. So I get a test with a bunch of fill in the blank and I just don't know the answers to the test.
[00:05:00] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:05:01] Speaker A: So I'm like, I'm either going to write my name on this thing and get a zero or I'm going to cheat.
And unfortunately at that moment in my life, cheating was the more viable option for that rather than honesty.
So the test is underway. And I proceed to, very boldly, but stupidly, just look behind me to the person directly behind me and just literally start copying their answers. So there's nothing sneaky about this form of cheating. I just looked behind me and was like. And then I'd kind of write the answers and look behind me and. And they were either oblivious or they just didn't care. I don't know. Anyways, as I was looking behind me, gathering this data, thinking that I was going to just slay this test, I turn around and look back, and my teacher standing over me, and she gave those famous last words, brad, bring me your test.
And was like, all right. So I get up and I bring the test, and she gets the test, and she gets a red marker, and she just writes a zero on it.
And I go back to my seat, and I ended up failing geometry. Had to take it over the summer because of my foolishness. Now, here's the question I want to pose to us.
Why? What was my problem in that moment when I received the test from my teacher and I looked at the test and I knew none of what I was supposed to say in order to get a passing grade? What was my problem?
It was failed preparation, okay? Now, ultimately, the problem was my sin.
[00:06:35] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:06:36] Speaker A: That was the problem.
But the reason I didn't have the answers, the reason I couldn't pass the test, was because of failed preparation, okay? Here's the simple premise of today that just is wildly complex and interesting and mysterious. God tests people.
Now, God does not tempt his people to sin. And we'll talk about the distinction in a moment. I want to go through a lot of scripture with you this morning from both the Old Testament and the New Testament to talk about this idea of what it means that God tests his people, how and why. He doesn't tempt his people, but he does test us for those who are Christians, for our good and our joy in his glory.
So we need to get past this kind of mental hurdle when we think about something like this as thinking that somehow God is vindictive and bad because he does this. Everything God does, if you're a Christian, if you're a follower of Jesus, is for your joy.
It's not just for your moral good, though. It is for that in order to make us more like Jesus in our character.
But he does it all for our joy.
Because if we really get down to it, the more you and I become more like Jesus by the power of the Spirit in all of life, and the more we come to know him in the midst of suffering. So much so that we can say, as the Apostle Paul said, I count all things as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. In essence, what Paul is saying is I count all promotions as loss if it means because of them, I know less of Christ.
I count all health as loss if it means that through my health I know less of Jesus.
That that actually is, that living in that place is more happy for you than not.
And so one of the ways that God in his good and gracious and gentle providence, does that in your life and in mine, if you're a follower of Jesus, is through testing.
It's through testing. So I want you to consider, as we dive into the passage of this just profoundly, incomprehensibly painful test, that God commands Abraham to do that. As we think about this, I want you to consider, when you're in a season of trial or pressing, so to speak, a stressful situation, maybe to be more specific, what comes out of you.
Like, what are the kinds of things that you see coming out of you in moments of financial insecurity or in moments of a health scare?
Like, you go to the doctor's office and you expect a routine checkup, and they tell you that not everything's exactly right with maybe your white blood cells, and you're gonna have to wait a couple of weeks as a test guy. Like, what comes out of you in those moments?
Like, what comes out of you when your child isn't doing the thing that you want him or her to do?
Like, what comes out in these kinds of moments? The thing that comes out ought to be very revealing to you and to me.
So why? Why does God test us as his children? What does it mean that God tests us? How do we think about these things? Let's look at the example of Abraham and Isaac, because I think it is going to be helpful.
Let me read the passage one more time.
Hebrews 11:17, 19, says, by faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, through Isaac shall your offspring be named. He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. So let's just look at the first phrase together when he was tested. I'm going to pass over by faith because we'll come back to that in just a moment as we talk about what ought to be the Christian's response to testing. But first, let's Talk about the testing.
[00:10:56] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:10:57] Speaker A: When he was. When he was tested. What did God's test of Abraham actually look like? Thumb with me to Genesis chapter 22. So all the way to the front of your Bible, the sound of flipping. I'm going to stop talking. Thumb with me. Genesis 22, tell you what I'm about to tell you in just a moment.
Genesis 22, verses 1 and 2.
So hold your place in Hebrews 11. Flip to Genesis 22 if you don't know where the book of Genesis is. It's the very first book of the Bible to be all the way back to the beginning of the Bible.
I was just going to say it's a really sweet sound in a church when you hear pages flipping. It's a good thing. You should bring a literal Bible to church. There's nothing sinful about using your phone. It's just a. I think it's a good thing. Bring your Bible.
[00:11:44] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:11:45] Speaker A: Genesis, chapter 22, verses 1 and 2.
This is how God tested Abraham says after these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, abraham. And he said, here I am.
God said, take your son, your only son, Isaac, the son of Promise, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains. Which I tell you.
Why would God tell him to do that?
Spurgeon thinks we don't know if this is true or not. Speculation. Spurgeon thinks that the word love is very key in that text. I want you to take this person whom you love supremely and I want you to offer him to me.
Society pastor says this and I think it's a helpful way to think about things.
What culture says you and I ought to do with our loves is to release them. So whatever you love or whatever you desire, you ought to have the freedom to just release it in whatever way you want to release it. Sexually, violently, whatever. Release it. You're free to release it. Anybody who tells you you can't release it or you shouldn't release it is a bigot. And they're religious and they're narrow minded. You should be able to release it. That's what culture says. Culture, religion says, suppress it.
[00:13:14] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:13:15] Speaker A: It says, okay, if you have desires, you shouldn't have desires. You should just do the right thing. The gospel says, redirect it.
Now we can't do the redirection. The Holy Spirit can. The problem is not that you love too deeply. The problem for you and I is what we love so deeply that sometimes good things in Our life that we love so dearly that we die for, like our kids, actually become the preeminent thing in our life.
And what starts off as love ends up being worship. And so it is possible that out of a loving pursuit from the Father in his son Abraham's life, he says, take this thing that's become supreme to you and give him to me, that you might be free.
Because, you know, you're more free when you love God more than you love that thing.
You can only love that thing rightly, whether it be your kids or your spouse or your job or your health or whatever. You can only love that thing rightly when it's put in its proper place, subordinate to your love for God. Does all that make sense?
Yes.
All right. So could be that that's what God's doing, but we don't know. Nonetheless. Nonetheless, we see in the text that God is testing Abraham. He loves Abraham and he's testing Abraham. So what is a test? Okay, let me give you a definition from the Greek word of what test means.
I'm sorry, this is my definition. But the Greek word parazo.
The Greek word parazo is. It means it's the kind of examination that's intended to expose what's already there or refine what isn't fully there.
[00:15:02] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:15:02] Speaker A: So the reason you and I take a written test. We're given a written test by a teacher, is to highlight what we know or don't know, and it's to refine what we don't know well enough yet. So it's intended for our good. Now, a temptation is not that. And we'll talk about the difference in just a moment. All of it depends on who is the one giving the testing. If the one giving the testing is benevolent and good and loving, then the test is intended for our good and our joy. If the one giving the temptation is evil and wicked and vindictive, like Satan or our sin, then it's intended to be a trap and not an opportunity. Does that make sense? Okay, different things. Here's my definition of a test based on this word. A test from God is a providential situation or event intended to expose the legitimacy of or refine one's love for God.
It's intended to expose the legitimacy of or refine one's love for God. So we say we love God, and we say we follow Jesus and praise God. I hope that that's true. And none of us do it. None of us do it rightly all the time. None of us are perfect in this. Right? This is we'll get to the hope for us in our failed test in just a moment.
But that's what a test is intended to do, is expose and refine one's Love for God.
James 1 I'm sorry. We'll get to that in just a moment. A temptation, on the other hand. So if that's a test, a temptation, on the other hand, is a trap, providentially allowed by God, but intended by Satan or our own sinful desires to lead us away from Christ and into destruction. So if a test is intended to lead us into more life, a temptation is intended to lead us into death. We see this in the Book of Job, for instance, as Satan scours the landscape looking for somebody to devour, he comes across this righteous man, Job, who trusts God and loves God. And then Satan goes to God in heaven and says, hey, how about your servant Job? Like, what if I take away his health? What if I take away his family? What if I take away his job and his money and all his success, all of these kinds of things? And surely on that day, he'll blaspheme you to your face.
God allows that to happen providentially for the good of Job and for his glory.
So a test is providentially ordained by God and intended to refine and grow our love for God. A temptation is a trap, providentially allowed by God, but intended by Satan or our own sinful desires to lead us away from Christ and into destruction. James says in chapter one, verses 12 through 15, he says, Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God.
For God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted. When he is lured and enticed by his own desire, then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. So it's not just a matter of who's behind the temptation or the test, but it's also a matter of what's going on internally in the one being tested or tempted. So James says, all of us have desires, and those desires sometimes are sinful desires. And we shouldn't say when we're tempted to sin that it's God the one doing it. Because really, it's not God the one doing it. It's your own and my own sinful desires within us that are leading this thing to give birth to eventual death. Does that make sense? Okay, so we have the distinction between a test and a temptation.
All right? Jonathan Edwards says this to help illustrate this. He says, the surest way to know our gold is to look upon it and examine it in God's furnace, where he tries it for that end, that we may see what it is.
If we have a mind to know whether a building stands strong or not, we must look upon it when the wind blows. So try to picture this in your mind. This is helpful, I think. And thinking about these things, if we're going to know the stability of a building, we can't just say it's stable. We have to only say it's stable after the wind blows and attempts to knock it down.
[00:19:42] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:19:43] Speaker A: He says if we would know whether that which appears in the form of wheat has the real substance of wheat, or be only chaff, we must observe it when it is winnowed. If we would know whether a staff is strong or a rotten, broken reed, we must see it when it is leaned on and the weight is borne upon it. Okay, so anybody ever leaned upon a wet stick before?
What happens to the wet stick?
It snaps like butter. Okay, so he's saying that you really don't know the strength and the stability of something unless pressure is put on it.
And that's the purpose of a test, to put pressure on it from the loving hand of God. Not only that it might be exposed whether or not the faith that we say we have is legitimate, but in order to refine and grow that faith for our joy and for God's. For God's glory.
So God tests Abraham. How does Abraham respond?
Hebrews 11. And again, we're going to go back and forth to Genesis 22. Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11 says, by faith, Abraham offered up Isaac. That's how he responded. God tested Abraham, said, take your only, take your beloved son and offer him to me. And then it says, by faith, Abraham offered up Isaac. And he who had received the promise was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, through Isaac shall your offspring be named. So a key word in that passage is the word offering. And it's present active in its tense in the Greek, which just means that from the beginning to the end, Abraham had a disposition of heart by which he was offering up his son.
Okay, so it wasn't just that Abraham was like, I'm not going to offer him up. And then he got to the top and he's like, okay, I'm going to offer, like, the whole process from the bottom of the mountain to the top of the mountain, that long, excruciating walk that that father took with his beloved dear Precious son, the promised Son. That whole walk was an act of by faith, offering him up to God.
Gotta trust him to you. I entrust him to you.
I'm giving him over to you.
God, as much as I love my son, you're better.
The whole act was an act of offering by faith. This was Abraham's response. Genesis 22, 3, 10. I'm just gonna read it to us. So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.
Then Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you. And Abraham took the word, the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went, both of them together. And Isaac said to his father, my father. And he said, here I am, my son. I mean that. That is a.
That's a hard. This is hard.
He said, behold the fire in the wood. But where's the lamb for the burnt offering?
When they came to the place of which God told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order. And bound Isaac, his son and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son, Abraham. By faith. And we've defined faith like this, friends.
It is only a life. Let me say this. It is only a life of faith in Christ that pleases God.
It does not matter.
Not that it's irrelevant, but you're working for God. You're trying to be a better person before God. Go to church, give a little bit of money, serve a little bit. Don't do this or that, do that, like that way of living your life is not pleasing to the Father. Because it's all about you.
It's all about your efforts.
It's all about your righteousness and your glory.
What pleases God is a broken and contrite heart that says God, I'm not good.
You're good.
You're holy. Woe is me. I'm a person of unclean lips. I have open hands to you, God, because I have nothing on my own, no goodness in me, no righteousness in me to bring to you that you might accept me. Because of it, I have nothing. And I come to you with nothing and as nothing. And it's in that place that the mercy and the grace of God meet you and change you.
God is holy and he is desperately merciful.
And so faith is acknowledging that.
And it's turning to him for grace.
And it was by faith that Abraham offered up his only son.
And we know the end of the story. Some of us do, some of us don't. But here's what God does.
God is amazing.
Right before Abraham brings the knife down on his son, God sends an angel. And the angel says, abraham, don't do this.
Stop what you're doing. I've already provided a sacrifice for you.
And in the thicket of a bush in a distance, Abraham and Isaac look up from the altar and they see a lamb.
He says, slaughter that lamb instead of your son.
Isn't God amazing?
Abraham didn't always respond this way, though.
Let me give you two examples. Abraham was a man of faith. His faith is worthy to be imitated by the grace of God. But he didn't always respond this way. Genesis 12 and 20 give us examples of Abraham actually giving up his wife to other men so that he can save his own neck.
Horrific stories.
I mean, like just an absolute nightmare for Sarah, his wife, because of Abraham's sin.
So he didn't always respond with faith toward God.
And this isn't just Abraham. From the beginning, we see God's people do this. Time and time and time again. God tests his people in order to expose and refine their love for. And time and time and time again, throughout the Bible, we see God's people fail that test. Sometimes they pass it. A lot of the time, they fail it. Genesis chapter 2. The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, this is a test.
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.
They failed the test.
Genesis 4, 6, 7. Their children. The Lord said to Cain, why are you angry? And why is your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it. Cain failed the test.
Exodus 20, 20, 21. After this amazing miracle of the parting of the Red Sea, by which God delivers his people by a sheer act of grace for his glory. He gives his people the Ten Commandments. Commandments are wonderful, by the way. They can't save you, but they're wonderful. They display God's goodness and his character. He gives them the Ten Commandments. And then Moses says this to the people after he comes down from the. From the mountain. Do not fear, for God has come to test you that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.
The people stood far off while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was.
They failed the test.
Paul in the New Testament goes as far as to say this friendship for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
We have failed the test.
If the test is God's perfect holy standard as expressed through his law, we failed the test.
None of us have loved the Lord with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength. We've loved his stuff over him.
We've failed the test.
So what is our hope?
Through generation after generation after generation and millennia after millennia after millennia of God's people time and time and time again failing the test, God says, I'm going to come and do it.
And so the promise, precious Messiah, Jesus steps into the world.
The Son of God takes on human flesh and becomes a servant of servants.
The king of kings did not count. Equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. Being born in the likeness of men and as fully God, fully man. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, Jesus is tested.
Matthew, chapter four. The Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tested by Satan. I love this interaction between God and Satan throughout the Bible by which it seems. It's almost like Satan believes he's actually in control of things.
Like there's some sort of like, equal footing between him and God and God's just sovereign over it all. Isn't that amazing? So the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted. Satan goes and he's like, this is my opportunity. And so he tests Jesus with all of the most alluring things that this world has to offer. Power, control, fame.
And Jesus says, be gone, Satan. For it is written, you shall worship the Lord, and Him only shall you serve. Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. But that wasn't the only test Jesus passed. So Jesus passed that test where Adam failed in the beginning, Jesus passed the test.
But at the end of his life, as he's on his way to be crucified on the cross for the sins of his people, to take on the entirety of the wrath of God, once for all, for the sins and disobedience of his people. Jesus is in a garden. And as he's in the garden, a place intended for beauty and rest and peace, he sweats drops of blood. He's an absolute despair of spirit and agony of mind as he's anticipating the suffering that he's about to endure on behalf of his people. And he says, my soul is very sorrowful, even to death. So he tells his disciples, remain here and watch with me. And going a little further, he fell on his face and prayed, saying, this my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.
Jesus passed the test.
Why did God put this story in the Bible of Abraham and Isaac? It's really difficult, confusing, challenging story.
Just as Isaac was Abraham's beloved son, Jesus was the beloved Son of God the Father. Matthew 3:17.
Just as Isaac would carry the wood on his back by which he would be sacrificed, Jesus would carry the wood on his back by which he would lay down his life for his people. Just as Abraham led Isaac up the mountain toward his death and Isaac obediently followed, God the Father sends God the Son toward his death. And Jesus wholeheartedly goes, just as God provides a ram to kill in place of Isaac, Jesus is the Lamb of God who came to take away our sins.
The story of Abraham and Isaac beautifully points us to the ultimate story.
God didn't stop the cross from happening. He ordained it to happen for our good and for his joy. For our joy and his good and his glory.
Jesus passed the test. So all Paul says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And he says this and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. So, friends, have you received that gift?
Are you still trying to live your life as if you. You can pass the test?
You didn't pass the test.
Let that statement not land harshly on you, but gently on you. Receive that reality and be free. You didn't pass the test.
You failed.
I failed.
We still fail. Even if you're a follower of Jesus in the room.
Jesus passed the test.
Jesus fulfilled the law of God perfectly. Jesus loved the Lord his God with all of his heart and mind and soul and strength and loved his neighbor as himself. So instead of living life as if the Christian existence is one of, you just gotta have a second chance so you can pass the next test. Recognize you didn't and that Jesus did and find your refuge In Him.
Find your hope in Him.
Drink of the water of salvation, eat of his flesh, drink of his blood, as he says, which simply means to trust him, to entrust your salvation to him.
Jesus is the hero of the story.
And for all of us who by his grace have put our trust in Christ and His finished work, you are justified.
That means before God the Father, you're righteous. Not because God looks at you and sees righteousness, but because when God the Father looks at you, he sees the imputed righteousness of Jesus, perfect and forever righteousness. That's how God the Father sees you.
You're a beloved son, you're a beloved daughter. You're filled with the Holy Spirit. This is who you are in Christ. And this is the good news of the Gospel, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Have you received Him?
Have you received this free gift of eternal life through Jesus?
Have you received this free gift of forgiveness, of sin through faith in Jesus?
Would you receive him today if you've never received him, receive him today. And for those of us who have, by the grace of God, we can rejoice in what Christ has done. And we'll close with this. We can rejoice in what Christ has done. And at the same time recognize that throughout the duration of your life and mine on this side of heaven, we will continue to walk through tests and trials as followers of Jesus.
So we've already been forgiven. We've already been adopted. We've already been cleansed of all unrighteousness. We've been imputed with the righteousness of Jesus. He is our righteousness. And as we live as sons and daughters, beloved of the Father, as we live as followers of Jesus, God, in His sovereignty and in his providence and his good purpose for your life and mine, will continue to providentially ordain tests in order to refine our love for Him.
Now, is God going to call you to sacrifice your son? No.
[00:35:47] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:35:48] Speaker A: I read a literal story last week as I was studying for this passage about a woman in a church who was so distraught over this story that she came up to the pastor and she said, what if God calls me to do that? And it was just like, oh, like, dear woman, like, no.
Okay. This is a descriptive story of something God did in time in order to point us to Jesus.
God's not going to call you to sacrifice your child. Don't do that.
[00:36:14] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:36:14] Speaker A: He's not going to call you to do that. But God does ordain tests in our life in order to grow and refine our love for him, to strip away these inferior loves that have become superior in our life. He's going to continue to do that. So what's the means by which you and I can prepare for these tests? And this is how we'll close. It's the means by which you and I can prepare for these tests. Well, the final section of our verse in Hebrews 11 says this. This is how Abraham did it, by the grace of God.
He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
All right, so what fueled Abraham's trust in and love for God so much so that he was willing to offer his Son as a sacrifice? Here's what might seem to be an overly simplistic answer, but I want to kind of flesh out the Word a little bit. He considered God.
That's what led to this. That's what led to this decision to be willing to continuously offer up his beloved Son to God. He considered God.
He considered the promises of God. He considered the faithfulness of God.
He took the time to consider this reality. God promised me this Son.
And not only did God promise me this son, but he promised me what he would do through this son, that I would have descendants as many as the stars in the sky, as many as the sand on the seashore. And it wouldn't be through Ishmael. It would be through this son, through Isaac. So even if I sacrifice him on the altar in obedience to God, I know that God can and will raise him back to life. In order to keep his promises.
God never, ever, ever, ever breaks his promises to his people. God is utterly, perfectly, completely faithful in all of who he is. And he is utterly, completely, unimaginably benevolent to his people.
He's good. And so Abraham considered this. The word considered that the author uses is an accounting term.
Anybody an accountant in the room? Anybody like math? Pastor Matt loves math. Drew loves math.
You don't. Are you an accountant?
Okay, all right, all right. So, as a failed attempt. Love you, Drew.
So the word Listen, the word that he uses is an accounting term. It means that Abraham was. He calculated God in his mind.
He very slowly, very intentionally, very methodically, almost as if he's sitting in front of a spreadsheet counting numbers in order to make a really significant purchase.
Consider the promises and faithfulness of God. And so I just want to close by asking you to consider this, friends, what are you filling your mind with on a regular basis?
If that's the kind of consideration it takes, and we know theologically, like, what was undergirding all of this that led Abraham to make this decision? The grace of God, not ultimately Abraham. Right. But the faithfulness of God working through Abraham. But it doesn't negate Abraham's responsibility here.
What are you filling your mind with?
We're a homeschool family, so I'm going to give you a homeschool term, okay? It's from an author who is actually Francis Schaeffer's daughter. He's one of my favorite theologians, gone to be with the Lord many years ago. His daughter writes this book called for the Children's Sake, and it's all about homeschooling. But it's an amazing book. Even if you don't homeschool, it's okay. Like, you should read it. It's very, very good.
[00:40:07] Speaker B: Okay?
[00:40:08] Speaker A: And she uses a word in that book called twaddle.
She says, don't give your kids twaddle.
And here's what twaddle is.
Twaddle is the youthless, useless, and inferior use of words produced or written for children by adults.
It devalued their minds, she said. Devalues their minds.
So what's twaddle? It's not always sinful. It's just stupid.
I mean, sometimes you and I watch things and listen to things that aren't overtly sinful. They're just stupid, and it wastes time.
And I'm saying this. I'm saying this as one broken person to another. This is not to shame.
I do it, too.
Hours on YouTube is stupid.
Hours on Instagram is stupid.
It's not because it's sinful in and of itself, but what are you filling your mind with? Because Paul says the only way for you and I to change and actually become mature people of substance, that's what the world needs.
The world doesn't need shallow people, superficial people, silly people. That's not what the world needs.
Doesn't need more silly men.
The party guy doesn't need that.
What the world needs are men and women of substance and character because they consider God.
They calculate God, his goodness, his faithfulness, his promises. You, friends, have so much more dignity than you think you do. You have so much more. You and I have so much more purpose than we think we often do.
I don't know how much time God's given us on this side of heaven. You don't either.
Let's not waste that precious time on pornography, on silly movies that aren't necessarily sinful. But they don't edify and again, please. Gosh. I mean, don't. I never get emails from you. But don't resist the temptation to hear what I'm not saying. I'm not saying there's no time for funny. There's no time for, like, all that is necessary. It's good.
I'm talking about a primary diet of intake.
As a primary diet of intake, are you filling your mind with the word of God?
Are you filling your mind with good theology so that you would know God more? Because as a result of knowing God, you're going to love him more?
Are you filling your mind with things that are going to lead you to be a deep person?
Because if you're not friends, here's what's going to happen.
Here's what's going to happen when you get the test, you're going to fail it.
But what if, by the grace of God, it's not going to be by your own strength, it's going to be by his strength in you alone in that moment and in me.
But what if, by the grace of God, we do what James is about to tell us to do and then I am going to close.
Are you filling your mind with twaddle or are you filling your mind with the things of God?
Are you considering him as Abraham did? Sacrificed his own son. Wow.
What a deep, deep moment for that man.
How did that change the rest of his life? We. We don't know.
Didn't make him perfect. But James. One, two, four, count it all joy. My brothers and sisters, when you meet trials or tests of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces. Listen to this steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
What if you and I became men and women who could say honestly what David says, that I have no lack.
Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him.
The crown of life. That's our aim.
That's where we're going. That we would receive the crown of life. And so let us consider God together.
Amen.
Let's pray.
Sa.
