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Walking With The Lord - Part 2

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• Genesis 5 and Hebrews 11. Genesis 5 and Hebrews 11. This is the second part of walking with the Lord.

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• Exactly how many messages I do not know. I'm working on number five at the present, and I know there's probably going to be at least three more after that. So this is walking with the Lord part two. Notice if you would please Genesis 5, and let's read verses 22 through 24. Genesis 5 verse 22: "And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah 300 years, and begat sons and daughters. And all the days of Enoch were 365 years. And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him." Now if you would turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 11 and let's look there at verse 5. And please hold Hebrews 11 because we are going to be coming back there. Hebrews 11 verse 5, the Bible says, "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and was not found, because God had translated him. For before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God." Last week we began this series on walking with the Lord and we found out that of course Enoch walked with God, and then of course Abraham walked with God, and a host of others in the Bible as well.

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• I told you the leading question that I had to ask was, are you walking with the Lord? I also pointed out last week how that it is impossible to walk with the Lord as long as someone is walking in sin and rebellion. One cannot walk contrary to Him and walk with Him at the same time. That's when I quoted Amos 3 and verse 3 where the question is asked, "Can two walk together except they be agreed?" And I also pointed out last week how you cannot walk with the Lord unless you already know what it is to walk before the Lord, because God told Abraham in Genesis chapter 17 and verse 1, "I am the Almighty God, walk thou before me and be thou perfect." And we will look at

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• a number of passages in this word "before" was used in the Scripture. And literally what it means is that we are walking in the presence of God, or in the face of God. But let me show you one good illustration. If you will turn in your Bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 15, 1 Samuel 15. You know the story here where God has sent King Saul on a mission where he is to destroy all of the Amalekites.

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• Let's look if you would please at the first four verses. The Bible says in 1 Samuel chapter 15 verse 1, "Samuel also said unto Saul, The Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over his people, over Israel.

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• Now therefore hearken thou to the voice of the words of the Lord. Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not. But slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox, sheep, camel, and ass." So here God now has commanded Saul to go and kill all of these people, man, woman, ox, suckling, ass.

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• Well skip down to verse 7 if you would. Saul initially began to obey. The Bible said, "And Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah until thou comest to Shur, that is over against Egypt. Now watch, and he took Agag the king of the Amalekites alive and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and of the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them. But everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly." So Saul has refused now to obey the Lord. You know the story how Samuel comes and he hears the sheep bleating and the oxen lowing, and Saul professes to have obeyed the Lord. He said, "If you've obeyed God, what meaneth the lowing of the ox and the bleating of the sheep in my ear?"

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• And then of course is when he tells him that obedience is far more and far greater than sacrifice. But if you will skip down in your Bible to verse 32 to find out what happened to Agag, the Bible says this: "Then said Samuel, Bring ye hither to me Agag, the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came unto him delicately. And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past. And Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal."

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• Now, the word "before" literally means in the presence of, in the face of. In other words, to make this very simple, Samuel did to Agag exactly what God would have done to Agag, where Saul had refused. And he did it as unto the Lord. He did it before the Lord, in the presence of the Lord, which was an act of obedience and worship as well.

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• Now, last week I pointed out five things about walking with the Lord. I said, first of all, if we walk with the Lord, walking implies communion and fellowship. Secondly, I said walking implies purpose. You have a purpose for a walk. Thirdly, walking implies progress. You go from one place to the other. Fourthly, walking implies agreement. We are in agreement. And then fifthly, walking also implies resolution. In other words, if there is a problem we certainly work it out. So if we are walking with the Lord then we are constantly and continually endeavoring to bring our lives in conformity to His Word.

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• Now, there is a question that has to be asked. Do we walk with the Lord? In fact that leads to several other questions. How do I know whether or not I'm walking with the Lord? How do I know whether or not Steve is walking with the Lord, or Pat is walking with the Lord, or David is walking with the Lord? How can we tell whether or not the brethren are indeed walking with the Lord? How can we know that our walk is pleasing unto the Lord? Now with that in mind, I want you to go back in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews chapter 11. I want to try to begin answering those questions. And I'm going to answer those questions over the next several weeks. We'll just begin to answer today. But notice if you would in Hebrews 11:5, for the Bible is here speaking about Enoch. And the Bible says, "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and was not found, because God had translated him. For before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God."

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• So, in walking with the Lord, he pleased God. Now, I don't know if you are aware of this or not, but we have been commanded to walk pleasing unto the Lord. I want to just quote the Scripture for you.

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• Next week we are going to look at it in detail. But in Colossians 1 and verse 10 the Bible says this, "That you might walk worthy unto the Lord in all pleasing, in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God." So if we are walking pleasing unto the Lord, He says we are walking in every good work and we are increasing in knowledge of the Lord.

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• So let me point something out. If we are walking in every good work, it is the Word of God that defines a good work and not man. So many people say, "Well I'm doing a good work." Well that depends on who is defining the word good. That depends upon the definition of "is," as some people would say. Obviously God is the one that defines what is a good work and what is not. And God has indeed commanded us in the Bible that we are to be fruitful and full of good works. But let me point something out about the knowledge of God. I don't know if you've ever thought about this or not, but the knowledge of God should be extremely precious to us, and with us, because the knowledge of God is the only thing that we're going to take with us out of this life. And we're to increase in that knowledge now in this life, in this present age, while we can increase in knowledge. And so the Bible tells us if we're to walk pleasing unto the Lord, it is to be in every good work and increasing in knowledge. And so we have to be like David when David was called a man after God's own heart.

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• The Bible in Acts chapter 13 verse 22 says this, "And when he, God, had removed him, this King Saul, he raised up unto them David to be their king, to whom he, God, also gave this testimony, and said, I found David, the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, who shall fulfill all my will." So obviously fulfilling the will of God is walking pleasing to the Lord as well.

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• So the question has to be asked then, how do we know what God's will is? Well there is an answer and I'm not going to get into this very deep today, but in 1 John 3 and verse 22 the Bible says, "And whatsoever we ask we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight." Well what are pleasing in His sight? Keeping His commandments. Obeying His Word. So we know then that God's will is revealed in His Word. And we know that as we obey Him we are walking pleasing in His sight. So what is walking with the Lord? How do we walk with the Lord? What I want to do today is cover just one point. One point with three sub-points. According to the Bible, and what I'm going to do is this, I'm going to go from the simple to the more complex, okay? Today is the simplest. Here's what walking with the Lord is: it pleases God when we walk by faith.

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• Look if you would back in Hebrews 11 verse 5, "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death. And he was not found, because God had translated him. For before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God." Now look at verse 6, "But without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." So here is one thing that we can be absolutely dogmatically certain concerning, and that is without faith it is impossible to please God.

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• Because the Scripture says that flat out. I've got a good pastor friend in Indiana by the name of Andrew Green. Andrew had three daughters. Three daughters and sons. One of his daughters' name is Faith. And at Bible college she met the man that she was to marry and his name is James. And they were courting and Alice and I were sitting at dinner and they were telling us about this. And James told me that Faith looked at him and said, "You say the Lord has called you into the ministry. You say that you want to please the Lord." She said, "It is going to be impossible for you to do that unless you marry me."

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• Well he said, "How can that be?" She said, "Well because the Bible says without faith it is impossible to please Him. So you have to marry me." Well, they got married. We laughed about that. And I looked at James and I said, "Well, I've got one more verse for you now so that you're married. Bible says Romans 14:23, 'Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.' You better stay with faith." And that's it. So you have to understand this verse in context. Obviously Faith Green took it out of context. But notice if you would he says, "But without faith it is impossible to please Him." Now, so we please God when we walk by faith. Here are three things and I want you to understand these three. Walking by faith first of all has reference to the person of God. Look in verse 6, "But without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is." Wow. Faith then has reference to the person of God. Obviously if one does not have faith he will not believe in God, and he will not seek Him, or believe that he rewards the diligent seeker.

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• This should be the answer as to why anyone without faith cannot please God. Because obviously if he has no faith he does not believe that God is. He does not believe the promises of God. He doesn't believe anything about God. So obviously it is impossible to please God. But I want you to note something, it must be made exceedingly clear and plain that the faith is to be exercised in the God of the Bible and in Him alone. Faith is not just in any God. I'm sorry but those who worship Allah do not have faith. Those who worship Hinduism do not have faith. I'm sorry, but that is the truth. The only faith that counts is the faith in the one true and living God who has revealed Himself in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Bible says without faith it is impossible to please Him. You cannot believe in His person unless you have faith. That is why the Bible says in Romans 14 verse 23, "Whatsoever not of faith is sin." So if anyone tries to come to the one true and living God apart from faith, it's sin.

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• Plain and simple. So someone who tries to be saved by their works, their works are nothing but sin. As Isaiah says, they're filthy rags. Paul says they're dead and rotting bodies. In other words it is impossible. Habakkuk chapter 1 verse 13 says concerning God, "Thou art of pure eyes, and behold evil, and canst not look upon iniquity." In other words God cannot look approvingly or condoningly upon sin. And when someone comes to Him without faith it is sin. So there is no way in the world that God can condone or approve that person or that act. Now when I say that faith refers to the person of God, by that I mean this: by faith we believe that He is. By faith, we believe that He is the great I AM, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Faith believes in His person. Faith believes that He is who He says He is and He is exactly what He says He is. And faith believes in each of His attributes. Faith believes that God is omniscient, that God is omnipresent, that God is omnipotent, that God is eternal, that God is infinite, that God is immutable, that God is glorious.

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• Faith believes everything that God has revealed concerning Himself. Now when I say that faith relates to the person of God, one must believe that He is what the Scripture says. But He is what? Well, He is the Creator. He is the Lawgiver. He is the Judge. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is indeed God. Whatever the Bible says He is, God is.

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• Now, the interesting thing is this: in Psalm 14 and verse 1, and Psalm 53 and verse 1, two verses that are almost identical begin like this: "The fool has said in his heart, there is no God." Now those two verses may be interpreted in two different ways. You could interpret Psalm 14 verse 1 and Psalm 53 verse 1 as a theoretical atheist where someone is saying God doesn't exist. Or you could interpret that where someone is saying, "No God, no God for me," which pictures his rebellion against the One True and the Living God. So it really doesn't matter in one sense of the word whether you interpret it as a theoretical atheist or someone who happens to be a practical atheist in that sense of the word. God says both of them are fools. "The fool has said in his heart, there is no God." And the problem with the theoretical and the practical atheist is this: God condemns them in their foolishness. For in Psalm 10 and verse 4 the Bible says, "The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God.

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• God is not in all of his thoughts." God is not in all of his thoughts. Now if we don't want to be wicked we must seek after God. And if we don't want to be wicked then God should be in all of our thoughts. What does that mean? That means simply whatever we begin to do or whatever we begin to think about doing we should say, "Where is the will of God in this? What does the Word of God say about this? How do I order my life here in obedience to God?"

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• So faith believes that God is the God of Scripture. Faith believes that God has revealed Himself in this book. Now, let me make it plain: faith does not believe in false gods or foreign gods or foolish gods. What's a foolish God? A foolish God is someone that you make up out of your own imagination. So many people instead of worshiping the God of the Bible they worship some God that they made up in their mind. I've had people tell me and say to me, "Well, I know God's not like that really." Well what they're trying to tell me is my God is not like that, the one I've got up here in my mind. The only God that exists is the one who has revealed Himself in the Scripture. And let me tell you, God does not need excusing. God does not need explaining. God does not need anyone to add to or take away from His Word. God is God and He is God alone.

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• Let me show you. I want you to turn in your Bibles, hold Hebrews 11, but turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 44 and let's begin with verse 6. Isaiah 44 and verse 6. Isaiah 44, watch if you would please at verse 6. Isaiah 44 verse 6, "Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the first and I am the last, and beside me there is no God." Wow. That's pretty plain. Skip down to verse 8. Again, God says, "Fear not, neither be afraid. Have not I told thee from that time and have declared it? You are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? Yea, there is no God. I know not any." And since God is omniscient, that is God is all-knowing, I would suspect if there was another God He would know about it. But He says now there is no other God. Look in Isaiah 45 and verse 5. He says, "I am the Lord, and there is none else.

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• There is no God besides me. I girded thee though thou hast not known me." Notice, "I am the Lord, there is none else. There is no God besides me." The only God that exists is the God that has revealed Himself in the Bible. Now faith believes the person of God. Faith believes that God has revealed Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. We serve the triune God, one God who has revealed Himself in three persons.

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• Now without me getting into this today, which I have explained this in times past, if you deny the Trinity then you are actually denying salvation. Because in the Bible there's a different aspect of salvation applied to each divine person. Salvation originated with God the Father. Salvation was purchased by God the Son. And salvation is applied by God the Holy Spirit. So if you deny the Trinity then you're denying salvation because the only salvation that exists is that which is from the one true and the living God who's revealed Himself in the Scripture. So you also have to say this, since faith relates to the person of God and we are going to walk pleasing to God, if we come to Him we must come to Him in the way that He demands. And the Bible says in Ephesians 2 and verse 18, "For through Him," that is through Jesus Christ, "we have access by one Spirit unto the Father." So how do we get to the Father? We get to the Father through the Son in the Spirit.

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• That's why Jesus Christ said in John 14 verse 6, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me." There are so many preachers today who try to say, "Well the Jews are going to have a second chance. There is a different way of salvation for them." There is no different way of salvation for them. I don't care who you are or where you are, unless you come to God the Father through Jesus Christ you will die lost. Just that simple. Jesus Christ said, "I am the only way to the Father."

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• Now in Hebrews chapter 10 remember the Bible says this beginning in verse 19, "Having therefore, brethren, boldness by the blood of Jesus to enter into the holiest." Notice if you would we can have boldness through the blood of Jesus Christ to enter into the holiest. So if you and I are going to walk with the Lord, if we're going to walk pleasing unto Him, we must have faith in His person. He is God and He alone is God. There is no other God. So when someone says, "Well the gods curse thee," I'm sorry, there's only one that can curse and only one that can bless. No one else is going to curse me except the one true and the living God. No one else is going to bless me except the one true and the living God. Okay? Now so walking worthy of the Lord and walking with the Lord, we walk first of all by faith and faith has a reference to His person. Secondly, I want you to look in Hebrews 11 and verse 6 because faith has a reference to His promises. Watch verse 6, "But without faith it is

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• impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him." Why would anyone seek God if they did not believe in His person? And why would anyone diligently seek Him if they do not believe in His promises? Now let me tell you what the word "diligently" means. When the Bible says that God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, the word "diligent" here means to seek out. It means to search out. It means to investigate carefully. It means to be diligent, to crave, to beseech, and desire. So the Bible is teaching us then if we are going to come to Him with His promises we are going to crave those promises. We are going to desire those promises. We are going to seek them out. We are going to search them out. Now there are many promises in the Bible. And certainly God has given us a multitude of illustrations in the Bible where He has been faithful in fulfilling His promises.

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• In fact, Hebrews chapter 11 refers to people to whom He has fulfilled promises. But what I want to do is this, I want to just take two of those promises from the life of Abraham and show you the power of God and the faithfulness of God. So I want you to go back in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 17. Genesis chapter 17. Everyone knows that Abraham and Sarah were childless. Now it is true that Abraham had a child by Hagar, this Egyptian maid, Ishmael, but that child was rejected by God in the sense that he was not the child of the covenant. So if you look at Genesis 17 beginning there with verse 15, "And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.

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• And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her. Yea, I will bless her, and she shall be the mother of nations. Kings of people shall be of her. Then Abraham fell upon his face and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years old? And shall Sarah that is ninety years old bear? And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee. And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed, and thou shalt call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee.

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• Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. Twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time next year."

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• Now, let me ask you a question. Who in our lifetime has ever heard of a 100-year-old man and a 90-year-old woman having a baby? And it's probably the same true back then. I had a good friend many years ago. I lost track of him, but his name was John Lee Maddox. And John Lee was born when his father was 75 and his mother was in her 60s. So it's possible, you know, even later on in life, but not at 100 and not at 90.

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• So God now has promised him a son. I can't imagine the shock in Abraham when God said, "You have a son and you're gonna have a son with Sarah." And after the shock wore off, I want to show you Abraham's attitude. I want you to turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 4. I want you to watch this carefully, Romans chapter 4. And of course he said, "Oh that Ishmael might live before thee." And God said, "I've heard that and I'll take care of Ishmael.

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• But that's neither here nor there." He said, "My covenant is going to be with Isaac. And Sarah is going to have that child." So I want you to watch in Romans chapter 4 beginning there with verse 17. This is how Isaac responded to the promise of God. Romans 4 verse 17, "As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations before him whom he believed, even God who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Who against hope," we are talking about Abraham now, "who against hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be."

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• "And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, watch, and being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness." Wow. Now, I want you to note Abraham's faith in his promise at this point. And I want you to notice this statement because the Bible is very clear. Verse 18, the Bible says, "Who against hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations." Watch now carefully.

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• "According to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be." In other words, his faith was in the person of God, yes, but also in the promise of God, "that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be." Let me put this very plainly before you. Abraham believed God. Abraham believed the promises of God. He did not consider his body now dead. Notice if you would what the Scripture says. Look back in verse 17, "As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations before him whom he believed, even God, watch, who quickeneth the dead

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• and calleth those things which be not as though they were." So God quickened Abraham. God quickened Sarah. And Abraham believed this. And he did not look at his body now 100 years old, or at Sarah who is now 90 years old, past childbearing age. He did not look at the circumstances. He did not look at the situation. He did not look at his own helplessness. He did not look at his own hopelessness. What he did was he looked at the promise of God, and he said this, "A hundred years old is no obstacle to God. The deadness of Sarah's womb is no obstacle to God. God can raise the dead. God can call things that are not as though they are. God can do it." And so God promised this son to Abraham and Abraham believed. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief. Hmm. What does that mean? He had faith not only in the person of God but in the promise of God.

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• You remember the passage in Jeremiah 32 and verse 27 where God said this, "Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me?" Well Abraham did not believe that anything was too hard for God. God promised him a son and He told him that name him Isaac. If you will go back in your Bibles to Genesis 21 we will see if God is faithful to His promise. Look in Genesis chapter 21 and let's begin reading there with verse 1. Genesis 21 verse 1, "And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as He had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken him. And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac, being eight days old, as God commanded him. And Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born unto him."

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• Wow. Now, I want you to remember something. Abraham did not have an heir until God gave him Isaac. And one of the things that Abraham said to God, "If I don't have an heir, then one born in mine own house is my heir." And the oldest servant that he had was Eliezer. And God said to him, "Eliezer is not going to be your heir. You're going to have a child." And he believed God and God gave him this child. Now, I want you to understand something. Isaac was not only a child of old age, which most parents in their older years, if they have a child, spoil him rotten, you know. He was not only a child of old age, he was an only child. He was not only an only child, he was the heir. The entire covenant was tied up in Isaac. Everything that God promised was in Isaac. I want you to watch because here is where Abraham believes God the second time.

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• Genesis 22 beginning there in verse 1. Let's read through 12, verse 12. Genesis 22 verse 1, "And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt," or test, or try Abraham. "And he said unto him, Abraham, and he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him therefore a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose up early in the morning." He didn't sleep in. He rose up early in the morning, "and he saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him. And Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went into the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you."

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• "And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son, and he took the fire in his hand and a knife, and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father. And he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together. And they came to the place which God had told him of, and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him upon the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and he said, Abraham, Abraham."

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• "And he said, Here I am. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him, for I know, for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son." Now I want to point something out to you. Abraham and Isaac are going to worship. Isaac is carrying the wood. Abraham is carrying the fire and the sword, or the knife.

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• So we already see a picture. Here is Christ with the cross, carrying the cross. Here is the fire and the knife, which would symbolize the wrath of the Father. So they are going to worship. Abraham binds Isaac. Evidently Isaac did not fight back. He willingly lay upon the altar. Christ of course willingly undertook the cross as well. And I want to point something out. Abraham was not going to just simply kill Isaac. We can see Abraham with a knife raised about to plunge it into Isaac's heart. But listen, go back, if you would please, to verse 2. Look in Genesis 22 and verse 2. "And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him therefore a burnt offering." He was to set the wood on fire and utterly consume Isaac.

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• So where would be his heir? Where would be the promise? Where would be the covenant? I want you to look back at verse 5. When Abraham got to the place, look what he told his servants. "And Abraham said unto the young men, Abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again unto you." Though he knew God had commanded to offer him as a burnt offering. By the way, I want you to look if you would in verse 7, "And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father and said, My father, and he said, Here am I my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?" I want you to watch Abraham's answer verse 8, "And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering." The Bible does not say that Abraham said, "My son, God will provide for himself." There is a difference. "God will provide himself." God will give God for the burnt offering.

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• And of course that is exactly what happened because Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. So Abraham said to the young men, "Stay here, I and the lad will go yonder and worship and we'll come again." Now, you know as well as I do, God had already told Abraham to offer him up for a burnt offering.

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• Now he's telling those boys, "We're going to come again." Here is faith in God's promise. Abraham accounted that if he slew Isaac and burned him as a whole burnt offering unto the Lord, that God would sovereignly, powerfully, miraculously raise him up from the dead. That's not speculation on my part. That's what the Scripture says. I want you to look back in Hebrews chapter 11 and let's begin reading there with verse 17. Hebrews 11. Notice if you would verse 17. Watch carefully. Hebrews 11 verse 17, "By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac. And he that had received the promises offered up his own begotten son, of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called, accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, watch, from whence also he received him in a figure," or in a type. In other words, Abraham and Isaac were a type of the Father and Christ. And he received him as one raised from the dead because he was willing to slay his son and obey him.

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• And of course God the Father did indeed give His only begotten Son and He did indeed raise Him from the dead. So he received him therefore a figure. So Isaac is a figure of Christ and Abraham is a figure of God the Father. Abraham was willing to give his only son. God the Father did give His only begotten Son. Isaac was willing to give his life to obey his father and Jesus Christ did give His life to obey the Father. Now, I want you to turn to Romans 8. I want to show you something. We are talking now about sacrifice of Jesus Christ. I want to show you something about God's promises. I want to show you how faith regards not only the person of God but the promise of God as well. Look in Romans 8 and verse 32. If you understand this verse then you should have no problem with all of God's promises. Romans 8 verse 32, watch what the Bible says: "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?"

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• Now listen, if God has already given us His best, if God has already given us His greatest and His dearest gift, the Lord Jesus Christ, what makes you think that He would not fulfill the rest of His promises? If He has given us the greatest, shall He not also give us the least? Do you think for one moment that God is going to skimp on His promises or to hold back or to balk or to back out? No. You know the Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 9 verse 15, "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift," talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, if God the Father was ever going to skimp, if God the Father was ever going to balk, if He was ever going to back out on one of His promises, don't you know that when Jesus Christ cried out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" If God was going to ever back out, that would have been the time. But He didn't.

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• He gave His Son, for which Abraham did so only in a figure. God did so in reality. So God's promises are true and that is why in Hebrews 11 verse 6 the Bible says, "It's impossible to please God without faith, for he that cometh to God must first believe that He is, and then secondly that He is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him." Hmm. Thirdly and very quickly, walking by faith has a reference to the providence of God. The providence of God is involved in Hebrews 11 verses 5 and 6. The providence of God is nothing less than God's sovereign rule over time and history. It is God bringing to pass that which He has ordained in eternity.

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• So one of our problems as Christians is this: so often we tend to walk by sight and not by faith. When the Bible teaches us in 2 Corinthians 5:7 that we walk by faith and not by sight. We, unlike Abraham, regard the circumstances and the situation and the troublesome times that we're in. Abraham, no, no, no. He just focused on the person and on the promise of God and he said, "God's going to work it out." He believed in God's providence. That's why the Bible says in Romans 8 and verse 28, "What? For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose."

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• You and I could sit here and we could think about all the bad things that have happened to us, or that are happening. But have you ever thought about the reason we determine that something is bad? Because we really don't understand and we really don't know everything. Do you understand that God has never promised us that everything that happens to us would be good? But He did promise us that He would work everything out for our good. I think of Jacob.

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• When those boys had gone down to Egypt and bought that corn from Joseph, and he told them, after he held Simeon, kept Simeon in prison, said, "Unless you bring Benjamin back, you're not going to get any more corn. You're not going to have Simeon back. You're going to have to bring Benjamin." And when those boys told Jacob, he said, "Why did you even tell the man that you had a younger brother?"

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• They said, "How did we know that he'd want him down there?" And finally they said, "If you want us to go, we're going to have to take Benjamin. We could have already been back if you hadn't been balking." And here's what Jacob said. Jacob said, "Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and you're going to take Benjamin away too. All these things are against me." How many of those things were against him? Not one. Joseph being down in Egypt was sent there to preserve the life of the family. Simeon was just being held temporarily to get Benjamin down there. Once Benjamin got there and Joseph revealed himself, that was to get the entire clan down there and save their hides. What Jacob was counting as bad was not really bad. It is bad in one sense of the word to have been lied to for 22 years and think that your oldest son or your only son by your wife was dead. It was bad to think that Simeon is being held in prison when he really wasn't. But none

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• of those things were against him. God was working everything out. You see, the problem is most of us never look past today. We don't look into the future. You say, "I can't see the future." That may be true, but we can learn to think generationally. We can think in advance. We can think beyond today. We know there's a better day coming. We know that God is faithful. We know that God is true.

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• Let me tell you something, folks. We have to come to the conclusion that God is on the throne, that God is sovereign, and that God is working everything out for our good and for His glory. Ours is the responsibility to trust Him, to have faith in Him, to lean upon Him, to have confidence in Him, and it's His part to work it out. That's what Abraham did. And God did work it out. So if we're going to walk pleasing to the Lord, the very first thing we have to do, and this is the simplest that I can make it, we have to walk by faith. And as we walk by faith, faith regards His person, it regards His promise, and it regards His providence. Now, let me make one application. Here it is. The simple truth is that faith pleases God. We cannot please Him without faith. And faith does relate to the person, the promise, and the providence of God.

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• Hebrews 11 and verse 1 describes faith as the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. And our one true and living God is indeed all of those. He is our substance and He is all the evidence that we need because there is no God beside Him.

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• Now there are times when yes, it seems dark to us. It seems dangerous to us. It seems like we cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel. But even when those dark and dangerous times come along we still have to exercise faith in Him. One of my favorite verses, Isaiah 12 and verse 2, "Behold God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid. For the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song, He also has become my salvation." Notice what the Bible said, "Behold God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid." When our oldest daughter was about three years old she was afraid of the dark. I taught her this verse. She memorized this verse.

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• Occasionally, she would get up during the night, and of course, she would wake Alice and I up, and we could hear her as she was going to the switch to turn on the light. She would be saying, "I will trust and not be afraid. I will trust and not be afraid." Yeah, she's afraid of the dark. Well, when we're in the dark, we need to trust and not be afraid. One last verse. Listen to Isaiah 50, verse 10. "Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light?" Here it is, "Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God." What does he say? Even when it's dark, when you have no light, you trust in the name of the Lord and you stay upon your God because faith pleases God. Without faith, it is impossible to please Him. If we're going to walk with the Lord, we have to walk in faith. Enoch walked in faith. Abraham walked in faith.

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• Anyone who's ever pleased God has walked by faith. Faith pleases God. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we ask for your blessing and Your help and Your grace today. We pray that You would indeed help us to walk pleasing unto Thee, to walk with Thee and to walk before Thee. Help us, Heavenly Father, to trust Thee at all times. We do pray, Father, for Gary as he goes into surgery this week, that You would encourage his heart, that You would give him, Lord, the ability to trust in Thee, to rest in Thee, knowing that you're in control and you'll work everything out for his good and your glory. Same with Pat. Lord, I pray that you would bless him and help him. We pray for little Aubrianna today and Lord, ask for your blessing upon her this Thursday and upon her family. Lord, we just commit each one of these on the prayer list before thee and ask that you would help each one. Give us grace now, Lord, that we may walk pleasing unto thee.

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• Help us to walk in faith. In the name of Jesus Christ we ask and pray, Amen.

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• so

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T20:38:54Z