I don't know about you, but I know that I need to hear that repeated again and again in my heart, that God's steadfast love endures forever. That's a great comfort amidst a changing world and my own changing life and my own exceedingly fickle heart. The scripture reading for this evening is Hebrews 11, verses 17 through 19. This is the word of God. 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. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our Lord will stand forever. You can be seated. A couple weeks ago, I was absent from you because I was filling the pulpit at Redlands OPC. It was a wonderful chance to be with those brothers and sisters. We had plans to drive back the following day, but all of my appointments canceled. And so I was able to surprise my son with a trip to Universal Hollywood. I'm getting old enough that theme parks are a rapidly decaying interest to me. But he had a lot of fun. And you can tell that theme parks wear people out. Because one of the most dangerous places to be is leaving a theme park at the end of the day. There's a lot of screaming and crying kids and frustrated parents. Christian and I got out wise and early. Except as we were leaving, we were behind a very large family. Um, about six or seven kids. And they kind of had us funneled through these kind of cattle cars, you know, because of covid to go the right way. And we were walking through the way and simultaneously all six kids let go of their balloons. And if you're a parent, you already know what was coming. I had to brace myself for the screams of six very upset Children. And of course, parents did what they always did. Oh, it's okay, it's just a balloon, we'll just get another one. And I'm reminded in that moment, as they were all screaming, and possibly breaking my eardrum, what a comedian said, that when children lose their balloon, parents are very uncaring. And what they ought to do is supplant their own life in place of the child. Imagine it was your wallet tied to that string, with your insurance card and driver's license rocketing to the sky. Someone coming to you and saying, oh, it's okay, you don't need it, is not gonna be a very big comfort. We all have those things in our life which, if we were to lose them, would cause a great amount of fear and trepidation. When we just moved houses, I was sure that I had misplaced my signed Lute Olsen basketball, which is only interesting to those of you that are U of A fans or grads, but I was willing to tear apart my garage to find what I had lost. We hold on to things of this world very dearly. We can greatly fear losing them. For many reasons, the story of Abraham and Isaac echoes through the ages and sears our consciousness, but one very real reason is this, that it causes us great fear and trembling to lose what is closest and most dear to us. We see Abraham's willingness to lay down the life of his son and ask ourselves, how could we possibly ever do the same? And yet here is the challenge when this passage is also brought up in the book of James, Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac is a picture of a good work that a Christian is called to do. How is that possible? Well, let's examine this passage tonight and I hope that by opening the scriptures and reading them reverently that we will be built up to that kind of faith that overcomes fear and trembling. To build up to that faith we need to have the right elements to build. The first point will be Christ the cornerstone. The second will be faith the foundation. And the third is willingness the wall. Now we say that Christ is the cornerstone of this type of faith and yet We can read it again, this passage very quickly, and see that Jesus' name is not expressly mentioned. 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. Jesus' name is not expressly mentioned in that section, And yet Calvin says one can scarcely study the story of Abraham Isaac without seeing Christ everywhere. To more fully lay it out for this first point, Christ the cornerstone, we're gonna turn back to the original telling of the story in Genesis chapter 22. I won't read it at length, but I will skip ahead towards near the end of the story, starting in verse seven, middle of the story, I should say. Isaac said to his father Abraham, my father, And Abraham said, here I am. Here I am, my son. And he said, behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, God will provide for himself a lamb for a burnt offering, my son. And so they went both together. When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac, his son, and laid him on the altar on the top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, here I am. And he said, do not lay your hand on the boy. nor do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, seeing that you have not withheld your son, your only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it as a burnt offering instead, instead of his son. we're gonna work backwards through the book of Hebrews telling of it. In examining that section, we are reminded by verse 19, when it says this, that God was able to raise him from the dead, which figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. The author of Hebrews is saying that God did in fact receive Isaac back from the dead. And yet we just read through this passage, The knife is not plunged into Isaac's bosom. The boy does not die. How can it be said that Isaac is received from the dead? And yet the fullness of the story reveals that it cannot end without death present in it. Abraham knows this. When Isaac says, where is the lamb? Abraham knows this. There has to be one. He knows there has to be a lamb for the offering. He knows that there has to be death. Many Bible commentators will point out the many ways in which Isaac is a type of Christ. He journeys three days, he carries wood up a hill, I think all of those are accurate, and yet for Abraham to put ourself in that place, which is the point of this exercise, is for Abraham to know that there must be death. Abraham knows there must be death. He tells his son that there will be a lamb for the offering, without knowing that the lamb is another than his son. That's why the author of Hebrews says that Abraham believed Isaac was able to raise his son from the dead. Going up the mountain, Abraham seems to believe that the lamb is going to be Isaac himself, but either way, there must be death. We often want to gin up this kind of faith in ourselves. We want to produce it. We want to do great works of mercy or of penance that might lead us to a place where we so fear God we're willing to lay down our most prized possession or indeed maybe a beloved family member. And yet look here that Abraham's first concern is not his experience or his own faith, but the truth about God. The first truth that Abraham knows is there must be death in the offering. The second thing that Abraham believes, according to the author of Hebrews, is that God is able to raise Isaac from the dead. And at the end, Abraham calls a name to that place, the Lord will provide. The whole time through, Abraham's primary point of concern is the character and person of God. He is placed in a very real trial. The author of Hebrews calls it a testing. This is a difficult moment that Abraham must pass through, and yet what overridingly occupies Abraham's mind is who God is, not who Isaac is, not what might happen in the future, but who God is. A theologian once said this, the more we know of God, the more unreservedly we will trust him. The greater our progress in theology, the more simpler and more childlike will be our faith. Abraham didn't start with, what's gonna happen to my multitudes? Abraham didn't start with, how do I create the situation to save my son out of this? Abraham starts with, God will provide for himself. Abraham starts with his right knowledge of God. And this quote hit me as I was studying him because we're called to that childlike faith. And I think of all the good ways in which we're called to be like a child, and then all the bad ways in which you emulate a child. And this is pressing on my mind as I have an eight-week-old baby at home. And one of the most important milestones in a child's development is something called object permanence. Around the age of three months, so not Owen yet, a child will begin to recognize his parent's face. And I tell you, it's very promising for the first eight weeks for that baby to not know who I am nor care. It's a little insulting. So we're all waiting for that day when Owen will look at me or look at his mother and rejoice with happiness. And yet it's not for several more months that his beautiful little baby brain will be able to understand object permanence. Because in that time, if something leaves an infant's sight, they cease to be aware that it exists altogether. Which if you think is a hard place for that kid to be, he's just learned who mom and dad is, he loves seeing them, but the minute I leave, as far as his baby brain is able to understand, I no longer exist. We see that when infants cry in terror when mom leaves. We also see this with their extremely overjoyed reaction at a game of peekaboo, which to them is nothing less than the world's greatest magic trick. I cease to exist, and now I re-exist. That's the way their brains are formed. But at eight months to a year, babies understand object permanence. So we think, because we as adults have almost no object permanence when it comes to the character of God. We cease directly interacting with God's goodness, or his steadfastness, or his perseverance, or his patience, or his grace, and the minute we stop seeing it working powerfully in our life, we are like that infant who thinks it has completely ceased to exist in the world, and in many ways, we are far more despondent than they are. We're called to a childlike faith, but we're not called to forget who God is. And what we have to see in this passage is that's Abraham's first thought. God will provide. I do not know how this is going to work out. I do not know what I'm supposed to do. Am I really supposed to offer my son? But Abraham knows this. He knows that God will provide. God's character is the cornerstone of this kind of faith in life. And we say Christ must be the cornerstone because the New Testament tells us again and again that Christ is the exact image of the Father. And in him, the fullness of God is pleased to dwell. It is stunning to me how many agnostics and atheists say, well, if God existed, where is he? And the answer is Jesus. He came and is the exact image of God, and we see this. It is the lamb who dies for Isaac. That's why he figuratively speaking rose from the dead, because the New Testament again and again tells you as Christians that you have risen with Christ. You were crucified with him, and then you have risen with him. Christ is the one who dies for Isaac. Christ is the one who provides, provides for Abraham and for Isaac on that mountain. So the knowledge of Christ's character that God will provide, even if I don't understand, that is the cornerstone of this faith. And only once that cornerstone of the character of God and the character of Christ is lain can then the foundation of faith, be laid around that cornerstone. We'll jump back forward to the book of Hebrews. And it starts by saying, by faith, when Abraham was tested, offered up Isaac. By faith. First, Abraham knew Christ's character, but next, John Calvin says, after character, we know promise. And promise is the definition of faith. Here again, as a theologian, we've quoted, what I need, first of all, is not exhortation, but gospel. Promise. Not exhortation, but gospel. Not directions for saving myself, but knowledge of how God has saved me. Have you any good news? That's the only question I have for you. I know your exhortations will not help me. Has anything been done to save me? Now, we see this most powerfully in what we call the first full administration of the covenant grace. It's promised in the Proto-Evangelion, the pastor talked about this morning, this promise that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the seed of the servant. But then it's given to Abraham. God makes this promise to Abraham. And he really makes two promises, right? The first promise God gives Ahamram is, I will be your God. Yahweh will be God to Abraham and his descendants. And then the promise is, those descendants will outnumber the stars themselves. And then we have this beautiful picture of justification by faith alone in Genesis 15. To all those who say that justification is an invention of the Reformation, in Genesis 15, and Abraham believed God, and God credited it to him as righteousness. So the cornerstone of this faith is Christ, is his character, but then the foundation is the promise of God. Abraham believed God's promises to him. Abraham believed that Yahweh would be his God and that Abraham, that God would be the God to Abraham's child who had yet to be born, the child of promise. We see this now, this reference to promise. He who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son. The promise defines the faith. We talked earlier about how much we want to define our faith by our strength. Faith is born on the cornerstone of Christ's character, but then it's defined not by how hard we believe God's promises, but what God's promises to us actually are. Whether or not you see them, God's promises continue to exist. And Abraham understood this. God had promised Abraham, promised him, that through his offspring, Isaac, the nations will be named, that promise, that promise was more foundational to Abraham than what he saw, which was a son about to die. So brothers and sisters, rather than defining your faith by how strong it is, by how much exercise it gets, by the fruit that it creates in your life, we define our faith by what promises God has given to us, because that is more powerful than what we see or understand. which is why Augustine's famous motto, credo et intelligem, became so powerful during the Reformation. I believe that I might understand. How often we define faith by our own understanding. I just don't get why God. I just don't understand how God. I just don't understand where God is. But the definition of faith is his promise. He has promised to be with you. That's more powerful than what you see. He has promised to shelter you and love you. That's more powerful than what you are experiencing. He promised Abraham to name the nation through his son, and that was more powerful to Abraham even than death. Our illustration last time was childhood development. There's another really powerful step. When a child's about three or four years old, they're developing what we call analogical reasoning, the ability to understand something they don't see that doesn't apply to them. And a child psychologist came up with this famous test called the three mountains test, where a young child is given a 3D model of mountains. And each one of these mountains has a different defining characteristic. The first one is red, the second one's covered in snow, the third one has a goat in it. And several children are thrown different arrangements of the mountain. They're allowed to touch it, try to eat it. If it's a three-year-old, probably put it in their mouth. They're allowed to walk around it for any amount of time. And then they're taken to another room with about 20 paintings of mountains. But one of those paintings, one of those paintings is the mountain that they just saw. And at the age of three, 100% of kids will choose the painting that was the experience they just had. And in the words of one little girl, those are my mountains. Those are my mountains, that's why I picked him. And it's only as the brain continues to develop that we gain an ability to do analogical reasoning, to believe something that we don't see, right? Our brains take time to grow because they're this amazing, amazing creation by God. And yet so it is again, that just like object permanence, we forget about what God's character is the minute we stop looking at it, so it is also that we fall into the trap of those children who cannot believe anything we don't see. Those are our mountains. That is my only son. It is my house, it is my job, it is my reputation, it is my position, and what we see becomes the definition of faith rather than what God has promised us. And yet Abraham believes that even if his son dies through Isaac, shall your offspring be named. So the cornerstone has to be the character of Christ that God will provide. The foundation has to be God's promises. And then last, we build up to this willingness that will build the walls of faith. And we're gonna turn even forward more in our Bible to James chapter two, where again, Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac is mentioned. Now we know the book of Romans, Paul uses the faith of Abraham as a sign of justification by faith alone. Paul says, when Abraham believed, we quoted Genesis 15, when Abraham believed the promises of God, that alone was credited to him as righteousness. And Paul says, look, this proves it. Man is justified by faith alone. And now James says, when Abraham offered up Isaac on the mountain, that was a good work that proved his faith. See, this proves it, that justification is by faith and works. and so enters an apparent conflict that has tormented many theologians, none more notable than Martin Luther, who believed that this meant the book of James must not be in the Bible, and spent a long time arguing that the book of James should be consigned to the dustbin. So what do we make of this apparent conflict? We should pay careful attention that Paul and James use different elements of Abraham's life. We went back earlier that when Abraham believed the promises of God, that was the foundation of faith. Faith alone justified Abraham in front of God. But now, a later event, Abraham is willing to supper up Isaac. He's willing, he is willing to do the work. And that proves to who that he had faith. Now, Roman theologians and any of those who want to bind the law unto the hearts of God's people for salvation will say, well, it proves to God that Abraham had faith. God didn't know if Abraham really believed, and there are these two types of faith, right? There is this weak faith that doesn't count, and then there is an obedient faith that really earns God's love. Wrong. In case you were wondering, it's not only wrong that it's here, see, do not be deceived. Do not be deceived. The book of James is overwhelmingly concerned with encouraging Christians to a holy life on this earth. And it starts out this way. Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith, the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. Now that's important because we're gonna go back to what Hebrews says about this trial in Abraham's life. What does it say in Hebrews 11, 17 that Abraham was Tested. James is concerned with how Christians ought to treat each other, how we ought to live, not how we're justified in front of God. Because our faith produces steadfastness. That faith is already there. It's only the Christian who can encounter a test or a trial, and on the other side of it come willingness and steadfastness. It's only those who are already justified by faith, James says, those who have faith who then can produce good works. This is why throughout all of Reformed history we say that good works and faith are separately but never come separately. They are distinct but they are joined. And so now as Christians, we see, yes, God's saving of Isaac is a sign of how Christ saves us. The Lamb takes our place. That's why Abraham can be considered, figuratively speaking, to come back from dead. Because the character of Christ in the gospel saves Isaac. And the foundation of our faith is not in what we can do, but in God's promises to us, that even on the other side of death, he can justify and save us and put his gospels to the nation. But those things result, James chapter 2 says, those things result in a test that produces willingness. Here again is our nameless theologian. A new and more powerful proclamation of the law is the most pressing need of the church in this hour. Why? A low view of the law brings legalism into religion. A low view of the law brings legalism. When we do not understand what God has really required of us, we believe that we can do it. We believe that we can do it and then earn God's love towards us. Instead, the theologian says this, a high view of the law makes man a seeker after grace and then obedience. Pray that a high view may prevail. And so it should not at all be terrifying to us, in James chapter two, to see Abraham's offering of Isaac as a paradigm for the Christian life. Because your very presence in this Christian life was because Christ has already chosen you and loved you. Your presence in the seeking of this understanding means that the character of Christ is set towards you. No matter how bad you are at object permanence, God loves you. He has given His grace to you. His Lamb takes your place. And no matter how weak your hold on Christ is, His promise to you is this, everyone to whom the Father has given me, not a single one of them will I lose from my hand. His promise is sure. His promise, if you but believe that Jesus is Lord and confess with your mouth that he rose again from the third day. If you believe in God's promises, they are more powerful than your weak faith. But now that faith will be tested in this life to produce a willingness to lay down even your son. And we think, not me, I could never do that. But when we make that kind of objection, brothers and sisters, we think we're honoring God. Oh, I could never honor God that way. But in reality, we are rejecting his promise to us that yes, even you, even you weak and lowly sinner, through understanding Christ's character and holding fast to his promises, even you can have a faith that produces steadfastness. It's truly impossible. There are many spirits of this age that promise these lies, that you will never, ever overcome your sin, that there is no hope, that you should be accepted exactly how and where you are, and that you are resigned to that fate forever. And instead, God says, look at Abraham, who was a liar. who gave over his wife to a king because he was so afraid, who committed adultery and abandoned my promises. To this man, to this man, my character was revealed, my promises were given. I chose him and I justified him. And I gave him a faith that even when his own son was on the line, he believed in me. Brothers and sisters, to all of us is given that same faith. Even if it's the size of a mustard seed, because of Christ's character and the foundation of his promises to you, a willingness can and will flow out of your faith. Jesus was certainly not a mere enunciator of permanent truths. On the contrary, he was conscious that he stood at the turning point of the ages. when what had never been was about to come to be. I've quoted a nameless theologian a couple times, and that theologian's name is John Gress of Machen, who we all hold dear to our hearts, I believe, if you know him. He's the founder of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, a good pastor, not a sinless one by any means, but a faithful man. And it's often said that we in the OPC or of faithful seminaries were sometimes called Machen's warrior children. And I gotta admit, I love that nickname. I wanna be a fighter. I wanna be faithful. I wanna have that kind of strength and courage to stand before the world. Francis Schaeffer said that Machen's defrocking was the most seminal moment of the first quarter of the century. We aspire to that, right? We aspire to Luther's boldness to stand in front of the Diet of Worms and say, here I stand, I can do no other. We aspire to Calvin's boldness to stand in front of the Council of Geneva and say, I will not change what I believe because of what you tell me. We aspire to be Machen's worried children, and that this is Machen the whole time he's been talking to us, and he says this. Jesus is not just a nunciter of truth. Jesus did not merely come to place his fingers in our ears and say, be opened, or merely say to us, arise and walk. He has done a far greater thing for us. He died, he won, and now we follow. Even nature's warrior children must know that sometimes our faith is found in laying down what is precious to us because the character and promises of God are yet more beautiful. Do we believe that even the really noble things that we fight for are much more dependent on God's action than our own? Are we willing to even see what we love die knowing that God can bring it back to life? Brothers and sisters, I am not calling you to be a coward. I am not calling you to give up the fight. I'm not calling you to lay down and let false theology, false living, false ethics affect you. But what I am saying is that it is not the power of your hand that will accomplish these things. God can bring even dead things back to life. And that faith, founded on Christ the cornerstone and His character, built up by His promises, then in the Scriptures, in Hebrews, in Genesis 22, in James chapter 2, calls us that sometimes following Christ, in the words of Matian, means knowing that He died, He won. We lay down what is precious to us and follow. It might be our relationships, right? We are in conflict with a husband, a wife, a mother, a father, a son, a daughter, just a brother and sister at church. We're there in sin and we say, I have to tell them. That's what's on the other side of it. And the answer is, are you pursuing what you see as the end or are you pursuing Christ's character and his promise? Are you trusting him to work even when the situation looks so bad that it's dead? Perhaps you have a family member or a coworker who hates Christ this very moment and you say there is no way that person will ever come. God brings dead things back to life. Perhaps it's something that you've called to, that you cherish in your life, and you say, I can't lay down my job. I can't lay down my school. I can't lay down this position. I'm doing good things in this position. God has promised that out of where I am will come blessings. And Hebrews 11 says, from Isaac shall the nations be named. But Abraham believed that God was able even to raise that promise from the dead. Brothers and sisters, nothing comes from clinging to our balloons or our wallets or our jobs or our own belief more than we cling to Christ's character and his promises. What is given to Abraham is also given to you by Christ. Let us encourage one another to be willing to lay down the things we hold very, very deep and on the other side of fear and trembling is a God who brings dead things back to life. Please pray with me. Father, if you did not bring dead things back to life, we would not be here. Our only hope is in the active obedience and passive obedience of Christ, wherein he died for our sins and was risen for us in victory. Lord, let us be a people who believe that God brings dead things back to life. Let us not hold too dearly to what we have been given in this world, even if we see it as a good thing. And there are so many good things you've given us, Father. Indeed, Abraham laid down even the life of his only son, to whom the promise of the ages was given, because he believed that Christ's character and his promises were the sure cornerstone and foundation of his faith. Lord, you've given that faith to each and every one of us. We didn't create that faith in our hearts. Lord, we know that you did it to us. While we were still strangers and aliens, Paul says in the book of Ephesians, while we were still sinners, Christ yet died for us. And you've put this faith in our heart. Lord, let us grab onto that truth. It is your character and your promises. And when we grab onto those, Lord, help us to do that. And when we do that, Lord, remind us that everything else you're able to bring to fruition through the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us be of this mind and the spirit in the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.