Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2223
“And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.” Genesis 22:1.
WE may regard the father of the faithful as being a pattern of his children. As God dealt with Abraham, so will He deal in measure with all those who, as Believers, are the children of believing Abraham. Everything that will abide the fire shall go through the fire, that it may be both proved and improved. We clearly understand that when God is said to “tempt” Abraham, the word used does not carry its ordinary meaning. “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts He any man.” But Jehovah is accustomed to try and test His people and this is what we are here to understand. The Revised Version renders the words, “God did prove Abraham” and, as I have said, God works by the same method with all His saints.
Of course, we shall not all attain to the same stature that Abraham reached, neither shall we all be tried by the same tests that were applied to him, but every one of us shall be tested, like Abraham, if, indeed, we are Believers in God. He was the Columbus who, by faith, went out and discovered a better country, that is, a heavenly—and his track has been followed by many other voyagers. Not without storms did he cross the sea and we, too, who venture after him on the voyage of faith, must expect to meet with contrary winds and waves sweeping high. We may look for a considerable measure of conformity in our lives to the life of the great Patriarch and we must not be astonished, as though some strange thing had happened to us, if great and severe tests should be put upon us before the chapter of life is over.
None of us ought to object to this. Shall the child of faith be otherwise than the father of the faithful? I may say of Abraham what our Lord said of Himself—“The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.” Shall the Believer, saved and justified by faith, as Abraham was, rebel against sharing in Abraham’s lot? We shall sit down, by-and-by, at the same table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of our God. Surely we may be content to fare on the road as they fared. In fact, I hope you will say, concerning Abraham, “Where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people and your God my God.” We are willing to take the portion of the righteous. We will not say, with wretched Balaam, “Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!” We would have a far better desire than that—“May my way be the way of the righteous, that my end may be like his! May I have a portion with Your people, O God: and do You deal with me as You do with all those who love Your name!”
Let us look at our text. It is a kind of preface to this unique, this unparalleled story of Abraham’s test. First, “It came to pass after these things, that God did tempt (or “prove”) Abraham”—here we see the Lord’s way with Believers. And, secondly, when God, “said unto him, Abraham,” the Patriarch instantly answered, “Behold, here I am”—here we learn the Believer’s way with the Lord. These two heads will not be difficult to remember—the Lord’s way with Believers and the Believer’s way with the Lord.
I. First, THE LORD’S WAY WITH BELIEVERS. He deals with His own people as He does not with the world. To be loved by God with the love He bears to His chosen is a wonderful honor, but it carries with it the Father’s authority. “Whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.” All disciples are subject to this blessed discipline.
First of all, then, let us notice that God does deal with His people, He is never far away from them. He leaves them not to themselves, but is always near those who are truly His. God did test Abraham. It is a great thing that God should take any notice of us, poor creatures that we are. “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the noon and the stars which You have ordained; what is man, that You are mindful of him? And the son of man, that You visit him?” Job wondered that God dealt with him in the way of affliction, for he says, “Am I a sea, or a whale, that You set a watch over me?” We are so insignificant that it is a great wonder that God should come to deal with us at all. If you saw some tall archangel, whose wand might make a mast for some great man-of-war, bending down over an ant’s hill, or talking with an ant, you might wonder at his stoop. But this would be nothing compared with the infinite God, the Maker of all things, condescending to deal with us worms of the earth! Yet He does so. We are precious in His sight, therefore, as the goldsmith assays the metal, as the silversmith refines the silver again and again in a furnace of earth, so does God test, purify and try us—He sets a high value upon us and, therefore, He tests us. O child of God, be glad that God comes near you! I would sooner feel His hand heavy upon me than be forgotten of Him! I would rather see His face wreathed in frowns than never see Him at all! Oh, what an awful thing it will be for those who will be cast away from Him! To hear Him say, “Depart,” will be like an infinity of wretchedness. But if He even calls us to Him that He may chasten us, His voice has music in it! Lord, blessed be Your name, You think upon Your servants! You think upon them even when You chasten them and when You test them—for this we would bless Your holy name.