ABRAHAM-THE OBEDIENCE OF FAITH.
Hebrews 11: 8 - 10 By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was to go. By faith he became a sojourner in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for the city which has the foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Continuing with the SECOND HALF-PRACTICAL.
Chapters 10: 19 - 13: 25.
Of a Life in the Power of the Great Salvation.
Now in the TENTH SECTION
Hebrews 11: 1-40.
The Fulness of Faith.
BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY
There is no child of Adam who is held in honor by such a large portion of the human race as is Abraham. The Hebrews, Christians, Mohammedans, and Islam look up to him as the father of the faithful. And God honors him as His friend! If anyone, this hero of the obedience of trusting can tell us what the secret is of a life of trusting. Our Epistle has called us to be imitators of them who through trusting and long-suffering have inherited the promises, with special mention of Abraham as one, who, having suffered long, obtained the promise (6:12-15). As Paul, too (Romans 4: 12), speaks of those who walk in the steps of that total trusting of our father Abraham which he had. Let all who have with purpose of heart determined, like Abraham, to be strong in trust, giving glory to God, listen to the lesson of his life. God expects from us, we do indeed need, and there is within our reach, the very same trusting which he had.
By trusting, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where it was that he was to find it. What was the object of God's thus dealing with Abraham? And what, in real Truth, the Worth and the Blessing of his Obedience? The call of God was no arbitrary one; as we see into its Divine meaning and purpose we shall understand what God asks of us and what our trusting must lay hold of. Man stands between the visible and the invisible. His sin and fall consisted in his having turned from God to the desire for the world. His Redemption from the power of sin could only be found in his giving up of the world and setting his whole heart upon God. It was to train him to this, to teach him to find his life and his happiness in God Himself, that the call came: Get out from your country, and from your kindred, unto the land that I will show you. God wanted to have him alone with Himself, separated from all he could cling to or trust in, that He might teach him to find his all in Himself (that land was not nor is now Palestine but rather is Christ Jesus the kingdom within the Canaan of overflowing abundance emphasis added). And it was by trusting, trusting that not only saw the land, and the promise connected with it, afar off, but saw the Living God near to fulfill the promise, that Abraham Obeyed. The call of God is ever accompanied by the promise; true trust in the promise is ever joined to Obedience to the call. Obedience is of the very Essence of faith. Faith is always the power by which a man gives himself up to an unseen object, and receives it into his heart and being (the land of promise, the Canaan land of Spirit over flowing with milk and honey, Christ Jesus and His faithfulness... emphasis added). It is in the very nature of things impossible, to receive God without receiving His Will.
By trusting God Abraham obeyed Him. We have seen how it was by obedience, by the doing of God's Will, the Son Himself was perfected, and perfects us: becoming the Author of Salvation to them that obey Him. Let us learn that obedience is the very life of perfect trust, and the only Way into the Holiest. Let immediate, unreserved, with joyful obedience be the one thing our heart is set upon. And let it especially manifest itself in this, one of the root principles of God's Will, His call to come out and be separate, and give ourselves to walk with Him wheresoever He leads.
He went out not knowing where it was he was to go. Say not that you cannot understand what it is to come out and forsake all. You do not need to know. You need to know something else--- that you have a God, who is watching and guiding you, and working out in you a nature and character fit for Heaven and Eternity. The one great mark of that nature and character, of Likeness to the Son and fitness for Heaven, is very absolute surrender to God, to let Him be all. Of that surrender deep humility, that only wants to obey and to trust, is the first essential. Therefore say to God, that at every cost, and in any way--- you are ready to obey. He will never disappoint the trust of a soul fully committed to Him and His Will.
By trusting he became a sojourner in the land of promise. He not only went out from Haran, but into Canaan. And not even this alone, but he sojourned, he abode, he lived there. He not only began well, but in simple trust and long-suffering he inherited the promise. It is the great lesson of perseverance again. Every day, over again, it must just be obedience and trusting, until God has brought us into closer communion with Himself, and can speak to men of us or through us as those who are His tested and trusted friends--- men who live only to honor Him.
For he looked for the city, whose builder is God. By trusting he saw the unseen; in hope he lived in the future. He had in his heart as little in Canaan as in Haran; it was in Heaven the true Canaan land of abundance was to be found; it was with God. And we, who have been called to enter into the True Tabernacle which God has pitched--- oh, shall we not obey, and go out, even though it be not knowing where we to are to go. Let us separate ourselves entirely from the world and its spirit; let us, like the Son, die to the creature, that we may live to God. A worldly spirit in the Church or the Christian is a very deadly disease: it makes the life of trust impossible. Let us count it our worst enemy, and live as foreigners, who seek the city which is to come. Let us hear the voice calling us out to Himself, to close intimacy, to obedience as of the angels in Heaven, to be a testimony and a Blessing for the world. And let it be said of us too: By trusting he obeyed, and he went out, and he sojourned in the land of promise, for he looked for a city.
1. See in Abraham how the whole life of trust is supernatural. His call, the promise of a country, of a son, of a seed--- all is distinctly Divine, above all sense and reason. It Is only when the soul looks steadily at the really supernatural things God is to do for us and in us and through us, that his trusting will rest entirely on the power of God, and obey at any cost.
2. God will hold as personal intercourse with you as with Abraham. God will be all to you as to him. Let your life be supernatural; perfect impotence under the operation of Divine omnipotence--- God by His Spirit working out in you His own Life.
3. Be a sojourner in the land of promise in the life opened up to us by the promises of God--- the Life in the Holiest of All, through the Holy Spirit. Live in the promises.
4. He went out, not knowing where he was to go. Christ Is not only Priest but Prophet, Teacher, and Leader. Trust Him to bring you within the veil, and to guide you all through life in the New and Living Way. It is a peace that passes all understanding, a love that passes Knowledge, a power that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we can think, that marks the life of total trust in the land of promise. Let us too go out, not knowing where we are to go.
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