The Obedience of Faith

Genesis 12:4-5
Gary Wassermann | Sunday, March 27, 2022
Copyright © 2022, Gary Wassermann

Genesis 12:1–3 records God’s call to Abraham.  There are aspects that are uniquely directed to him, but there we learn about the basic Christian call.  Our text this morning moves the spotlight now to Abraham and presents his response.  That response can be summarized as “the obedience of faith.”  Saving faith produces true obedience.  Saving faith and the work it produces are nothing short of miraculous, and every Christian will do such works.

Abraham was a truly remarkable man.  He was a great man.  But we study him not merely because we want to admire him nor even just to learn from him, as we learn from any other example like Zacchaeus or the Syro-Phoenician woman.  The significance of Abraham for us is that he is uniquely called the father of all who believe.  These words are found in Romans 4:11, but the perspective of Abraham as our father runs throughout the New Testament.

There are two points of significance to Abraham as our father.  The first is inheritance.  Those who are Abraham’s children inherit the blessing given to Abraham.  We find this especially in Galatians 3.  That is why it should be of greatest importance to us to be children of Abraham.

The second is pattern.  Like father, like son.  Abraham is the pattern.  His life is given as a model for us to see what the Christian life looks like.  And those who are his children will live like he did.  As he believed, they will believe.  Galatians 3:7 says, “Those who believe are children of Abraham.”  As he did, they will do.  In John 8:39, Jesus spoke to unbelieving Jews who were proud of their lineage from Abraham.  He said, “If you were Abraham’s children, then you would do the things Abraham did.”

I have four points this morning: faith, obedience, leaving all, and perseverance.

Faith

Our text from Genesis this morning is brief.  It does not give us an insight into the mind of Abraham. It does not record any of his words. So we can easily miss the significance of what Abraham did. We can skip over it as though Abraham’s actions were fairly ordinary, when, in fact, nothing could be further from the truth.  So my first intent this morning is to show that Abraham’s obedience was by faith, that is, by saving faith—the same faith that every other authentic Christian believer has.  Hebrews 11:8 comments on these verses, and it says Abraham did these things by faith.

Consider also that in the New Testament, the attribute of Abraham that is most emphasized is faith.   Romans 4 is all about Abraham’s faith.  Hebrews 11, which lists the Old Testament heroes of the faith, devotes more time to Abraham than to any other person.  Galatians 3:9 calls Abraham “the man of faith.”  James 2 describes Abraham’s obedience as the outworking of his faith.  The Lord Jesus Christ said of Abraham in John 8:56, “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.”  This is by faith!

To see the significance of what Abraham did in Genesis 12:4–5, consider his background.  Abraham began his life in spiritual darkness in the land of the Chaldeans.  He was an idolater.  Joshua recalled that history in Joshua 24:2: “Long ago your forefathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the River and worshiped other gods.”  Abraham may have heard of the true God, but to an idolater, the Lord was at best one of the many gods.  So it was God, not Abraham, who took the initiative.  Stephen said that “the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia” (Acts 7:2).  The God of glory condescended to draw near and reveal himself to one who was sunk in sin, immersed in idolatry—one who had no concern for God’s honor.  There was nothing in Abraham to deserve God’s notice, still less to merit his favor.  In that regard, Abraham was just like every other elect sinner.  In the language of 1 Peter 2:9, God called him out of darkness and into his marvelous light.

The statement, “The God of glory appeared to Abraham,” says something not only about what God did, but also about the effect that it produced on Abraham.  I do not know what Abraham saw with his physical eyes, but through this appearing, for the first time in Abraham’s life, God became a living reality to him.  Before that, what had God been to Abraham?  Nothing beyond the lifeless statues of wood and stone that his countrymen worshiped, a story that was told, a vague and distant idea.  But now, he knew that God is the living God.

Furthermore, Abraham perceived God to be an all-glorious reality.  This is the God who is holy.  This is the God whom the angels worship.  This is the God with eternal power and divine nature.  This is the God who fills heaven and earth.  A. W. Pink said that this is part of the personal experience sooner or later of each of God’s elect.  He appears “before their hearts—terrifying, awakening, and then attracting.”[1]  Professor Eta Linnemann testified at this church that at some point in her life she came to know God as the living God.[2]  The Bible tells us that God does this work in the heart of every sinner.  Second Corinthians 4:6 says, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”  Do you know God in this way?  Is God a living reality to you, and a glorious one at that?  If not, call upon the Lord while he is near.  Call upon him in the day of his favor.

It is upon this effectual call that Abraham left his country, his people, and his father’s household, as God commanded.  Abraham knew God and Abraham loved God.  He entrusted himself entirely to God.  So the basic argument of Abraham’s soul and of every other sanctified soul is this:  “I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).  If you know God, if you believe in God, you will do this for him too, for Christ who loved you and gave himself for you.  John Owen said, “The first act of saving faith consists in a discovery and sight of the infinite greatness, goodness, and other excellencies of the nature of God, so as to judge it our duty upon His call, His command, and promise, to deny ourselves, to relinquish all things, and to do so accordingly.”[3]  That is the nature of saving faith.  That is the faith that Abraham had.

Obedience

Three aspects of the first clause in verse 4 declare that Abraham obeyed.  First, the first word is “so.”  That is a glorious word.  Sometimes after God speaks, we read “but.”  But here it is “so.”  Second, the leading verb is “left.”  That is exactly the same verb as the first word God spoke to Abraham in verse 1.  Abraham did exactly the thing that God had commanded him to do.  Third, the clause ends with “as the Lord had told him.”  That is the principle on which Abraham acted.  Hebrews 11:8 highlights the principle on which Abraham acted when it says Abraham “obeyed and went.”

Consider the hindrances and obstacles Abraham faced when leaving.  This highlights what he did in obeying.  First, Abraham lived in a day when clans and tribes lived together for one generation after another.  Setting out to go somewhere else was not something that people did.  If you did go elsewhere, you did so because the whole clan was moving.  You moved together with your people.

Second, Abraham was well along in years with a household under him.  To some of you who are young, perhaps in your late teens or early twenties, Abraham’s journey may not seem like a big deal.  You can set out on a backpacking trip, travel light, and enjoy the adventure of having to be inventive.  You can go on a road trip with only a basic idea of a plan and fly by the seat of your pants.  If you’re strapped for cash, which is common for young people, you can live in a cramped space and tough it out.  Partly that’s because of the energy that young people have, but partly it is because you don’t have a lot of responsibility.  Abraham was the head of a household.  He had not only himself, and being in his older years, but he also had, first, a wife, and there is no doubt that she wanted some comforts that he would have been glad to go without. But he had to look to those because she was his wife. He also had servants, and so he had to see to their needs as well.  And so under normal circumstances, to set out on a journey like this, he would have had to be able to guarantee that he could provide for his whole household in the way that was appropriate, as well as to insure their protection and their safety wherever he was going.  But the text tells us, and Hebrews 11:8 comments upon it specifically, that Abraham did not know where he was going, so it was impossible for him to make the kind of guarantees that a responsible head of household would have wanted to make.

Third, Abraham was relatively wealthy.  It is not much trouble to leave a place when your prospects there have dried up.  If you’ve lost your job and there are no prospects on the horizon that you can see in your area, it is a natural thing to move on in search of opportunities.  Abraham had no such incentive.  He was well-supplied and probably well-connected.  It is hard to leave a comfortable situation.

Fourth, just as there was nothing to constrain Abraham to leave his home, there was nothing to attract him to his destination.  He did not know where it would be.  He did not know the sort of place it would be, even.  God did not say to him that it would be a land flowing with milk and honey.  Would it be fertile or barren?  Would it be plagued by wild beasts?  Would it be beset by hostile people?  Would it be open?  Would it be spacious?  He did not know. Who leaves something good for something unknown?

All these were obstacles and barriers Abraham faced in making this journey.  There was nothing in Abraham’s flesh to induce him to make this journey.  There was nothing in the circumstances he could see that would assure him of success.  There was nothing that would cause him to leave except the bare command of God: “As the Lord had told him.”  In fact, there was not just nothing to cause Abraham to leave, but everything in his flesh opposed him leaving.  Yet look, Abraham is leaving.  He is packing up and he is setting out and he is going forth without looking back.

How do you explain this?  It is only by the miracle of divine grace wrought within him.  Likewise, it is contrary to the flesh for every Christian to lean not upon his own understanding, but to obey God’s word in all situations.  See here the power of faith to triumph over fleshly objections, to surmount obstacles, and to perform difficult duties.  Is this the nature of your faith?  Is your faith producing works which are not only above the power of nature to do, but even directly contrary to it, even directly the things that you would not ordinarily of yourself want to do?

Abraham’s obedience was like that of the former thief, who steals no longer, but becomes honest, industrious, and generous (Eph. 4:28).  It is new activity empowered by the Holy Spirit that the flesh could never produce because Abraham was a new creation and so he did the will of God.

It does not take a mystical experience or a complicated process to know what to do.  See the glorious simplicity of Abraham’s course in these verses, because obedience is very simple.  God told Abraham, “Leave,” so Abraham left.  Or to put it differently, it is as simple as, “I tell this one, ‘Go’ and he goes.”  It was a Gentile centurion who said that, and the Lord commended him for his faith.  There was no failure or U-turn in Abraham’s journey, because Abraham was obeying the express command of God.

What is complicated is disobedience.  God told Jonah, “Go to the great city of Nineveh.”  The next verse could have said, “So Jonah went,” and then the very next thing we would be reading about would be his ministry in Nineveh.  But instead, the next verse says, “But Jonah ran away from the Lord.”  What follows is a circuitous, complicated, and painful story that takes Jonah away, and makes obedience a bigger, harder task when he finally sets himself to it.

In the simplicity of these verses, we are also not told anything about Abraham’s thoughts or feelings as he went.  Maybe he had serious anxiety and heartache, or maybe he did not.  We are not told.  Whatever he might have worried about as he contemplated setting out either did not materialize or it was totally inconsequential.  The whole departure, journey, and arrival, with all their accompanying difficulties and obstacles, are summed up for us very briefly.  How Abraham felt about it did not matter.  Neither does it matter how we feel about doing what God has commanded.  When our feelings or our reasoning about the situation becomes the final arbiter for whether we will obey, we get into a needless, complicated mess.  If our feelings or our reasoning even have so much as a seat at the table, we make what could be simple into a far greater struggle as we are wrestling with our thoughts and feelings.

Perhaps part of the reason that the text says nothing about Abraham’s thoughts or feelings is that Abraham himself did not consult them.  It did not occur to him to consider them important.  He did not dwell on them.  He did not mull over them.  He did not even focus on them so much as to consider that he had to bring them into agreement before he set out.  His focus was on God.  God had given him a command.  God had given him a promise of blessing in connection with that command, and that was enough for Abraham. And that is enough for every believer.

As I said before, Abraham left for no other reason than God had told him to.  He did not know where he was going.  The obedience of faith means obeying when nothing we can see promises success.  When the Lord told Peter to put out into deep water for a catch, Peter had already been fishing all night and had caught nothing. As an experienced fisherman, he knew that morning and daylight was not the time to catch fish.  But he said, “Because you say so, I will let down the nets.”  And he caught a very large number of fish.

Sometimes it is not enemies who stand in our way, but simply the feeling of futility, the feeling, “I’ve tried everything, and nothing has worked.”  But God delights to test our faith and to show himself powerful and to show himself glorious in exactly such situations.  In such situations, the first test is whether we will listen.  Do you go to the word of God to find out the will of God?  That is the beginning of many of our troubles: We don’t seek out God’s will.  We won’t obey if we don’t hear.  But then when we find the will of God, we must do it.

Leaving All

What I have emphasized thus far is the principle on which Abraham acted, that is, his obedience to God simply because God said it.  But there is also a model for us in the action Abraham did.  He left all behind.  This is certainly a picture of holiness, a coming out of the sinful world and separating from the world, for Christ can have nothing in common with the system of this world.

But what I want to highlight more here is that by leaving, Abraham demonstrated that no loyalty would compete with his loyalty to God.  No authority could compete with the authority of God with him. Abraham had received God’s call, and everything else must take it subordinate place under the God of glory.  Material possessions must come under God.  Abraham left behind the region where he had a way of building wealth, where he knew what to expect of the crops and the rains, and where he had connections that he could make use of for commerce.  He showed that he did not love wealth and he would not serve wealth.  Whatever the world could provide, he would trust in the God who called him to provide.

Family bonds must come under God.  Family connections are our closest natural bonds, but it was God who created and ordained family.  He has the right to call us out of what our relatives expect of us, and he has the right to demand from us a loyalty that eclipses the obligations and affections that come with family.  Jesus declared the same thing to us in Luke 14:26: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.”

God gave this account of Abraham to us so that we would know what to expect in the Christian life.  Abraham is the father of all who believe.  Our faith will be tested.  It will be tested in our having to leave what is naturally dear to us. (GMW) There are trials and difficulties that are common to man in general, but there are also trials of faith that are common to believers.  Don’t think it is a strange or unique trial when you are called to leave behind a seemingly sure path to more money in order to follow Christ.  Don’t be surprised when you must part ways with friends or even close relatives in the service of Christ.  It may be painful.  It may be a fiery trial, but it is the normal path for all of God’s people in some form or another.  These trials come to test and to prove our faith.  Peter says, “These [trials] have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed” (1 Pet. 1:7).  Abraham walked this path, and we must join him in walking the same path.

If you are coming to such a crossroads, know that this is not an extraordinary or unreasonable call from Christ on you.  Know also that the God who proved faithful to Abraham will prove faithful to you too.  “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8).  God held out promises of blessing to Abraham that Abraham looked to by faith as he left his home.  When God calls us to holiness, he attaches the promise that he will be a Father to us, and we will be his sons and daughters.  In 2 Corinthians 7:1 we read, “Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit.”  God holds out immeasurable blessing to us.

But I want also to address those here who have left behind the world and other competing loyalties as Abraham did.  Some here lost many friends when they came to Christ.  Some came from unbelieving families and had to resist the demands of worldly parents.  Some turned away from a dream job or a career path because it would lead them away from God’s church that they had been called to.  Some have turned down opportunities for more money for the same reason.  Some have had the sword of Christ enter their own home, and they have stood with Christ and his church when a child of theirs rebelled and left.  There are also many other less visible ways in which various people have followed in the footsteps of Abraham.

There are two things I say to you.  First, God’s blessings are still for you.  Rejoice!  Peter was alarmed after Jesus’ encounter with the rich, young ruler, and he said, “We have left everything to follow you!  What then will there before us?”  Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.  And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life” (Matt. 19:27–29).

But second, consider carefully:  On what principle did you leave?  When you left the world, did you leave worldliness?  Did you leave on the principle of faith in God?  I put this question to you because as Genesis 12:4 says, Abraham left, and Lot went with him.  Lot left his home, his society, and his connections just like Abraham did.  Lot did exactly the right thing here.  At this point, he is above reproach.  But we know Lot’s history after this point.  Lot left his world, so to speak, but he did not leave worldliness.  He kept gravitating back toward what he could see and touch, toward what gratified his worldly desires, toward the culture and the honor that the world can give, and he pierced himself with many griefs.

Perhaps Lot left Ur like Mr. Pliable left the City of Destruction with Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress.  Pliable heard wonderful things about the destination they were going to, and he expected only pleasant things from there on out.  He was totally unprepared for the difficulty on the way, and he soon left Christian’s side.

Perhaps Lot left Ur because Abraham had taken care of him, and he expected he would fare better with Abraham on the road than without Abraham in Ur.  Perhaps Abraham had a certain power and attractiveness in his personality that attracted Lot to him.  Perhaps Abraham’s competence and history of success in business gave Lot some confidence that there would be prosperity at the end of this road.  Whatever the case, it is clear from Lot’s subsequent history that faith in God and love for God were not the primary, enduring principle behind his departure from Ur.

Lot should indeed have followed Abraham, and he should have followed Abraham because God had chosen Abraham as the man through whom his word and his blessing would come.  But faith in God needed to be the principle behind that.

In our own lives, even where we must separate from what is naturally dear to us for the sake of Christ, God often provides something on that path that will help us to do his will.  We have a pastor who counsels us with God-given clarity and confidence.  We have a church with friends, long-term relationships, familiarity, and a lot of resources to help in many ways.  We have many other things, but that gives you a sense of some of the benefits we may see in many cases where we follow God at some expense.  Godly children also make sacrifices to follow the Lord, but, children, you must recognize at the same time that your parents are endeavoring to make the right path the easiest path, and to make the wrong path difficult.

Be realistic about the sacrifice you have made.  It is not wrong to take encouragement from these things, but measure how much you have indeed left all to follow Christ.  How much was it God’s word alone that you depended on?  How much was it God you were serving?  How much was it the blessings of the age to come that you sought?

Without the faith of Abraham, you will eventually lay hold of worldly things again—if not the things you left behind, then something of the same nature.  Whatever the case in the past, whatever you did in the past, look to God now.  He is the living one.  He is the glorious one.   Follow the man of God because God works and speaks through him.  Treasure the church of God because it is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Perseverance

Genesis 12:5 says, “They set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.”  They arrived.  Abraham completed what he was called to do.  We know that Abraham did not know as he set out that Canaan was his destination.  That was not in God’s call, and Hebrews 11:8 says explicitly that Abraham did not know where he was going.  But he continued until he arrived in Canaan.

This means that Abraham persevered not primarily in traveling but in obeying.  This is an important distinction for our lives as well.  Here is what that means in Abraham’s life.  Canaan was southwest of Haran.  Presumably, when God called him to leave, God directed him to head southwest.  For Abraham to leave where he was staying was an act of serious discipleship.  It was a great hurdle to get over, as I have already described.

Once Abraham had done that, and left his old life behind, he could have taken his command to travel southwest as his new identity.  “I am a man who travels southwest.  That is what I do.  This is what is important about me.  So I will keep on travelling southwest.”  If he had done that, he would have traveled down through Canaan, through Sinai, into Egypt, right on into Cush, and beyond, and he would have been way outside the will of God.  No blessing would have attended him.

Instead, as he traveled, he continued to look out for and receive God’s direction.  That was what was important about him.  His traveling was perhaps like that of the Israelites coming out of Egypt.  Numbers 9:17–18 says, “Whenever the cloud lifted from above the Tent, the Israelites set out; wherever the cloud settled, the Israelites encamped.  At the Lord’s command the Israelites set out, and at his command they encamped.”  When Abraham had no new word from God, he continued to carry out the last word he had heard.  And when the new word came, he received it.  When God told him to turn, he turned.  When God told him to stop, he stopped.  He continued in this course all the way until Canaan.

The significance of this for us should be clear.  When God calls us, he calls us not merely from, but to.  And at the moment he calls us, there is some particular concrete task or direction that is the test of our discipleship that we must go forth and do.  Suppose you are called at a time when you are able, and your mind is sharp, and you engage in vigorous service, and so that is what you set out to do.  Suppose you are called when you are sick and disabled, and so you learn to rejoice and trust in God in that sickness and weakness.

As God’s servants, we take up what he has called to do.  But we are not to take that particular course or task as the thing that defines us, or makes us who we are, or gives us our dignity.  What happens when, in God’s providence, the energetic person is laid low?  What happens when the long-term sick person becomes well?

I will use a specific, concrete example.  Suppose you take the example of teaching youth Sunday school.  If God called you teach youth Sunday school, then you do it.  You may feel unqualified.  You may wonder how you can actually accomplish anything.  But you overcome all of those thoughts and objections by faith and then go teach Sunday school.  But then how do you go about it?  If you begin to tell yourself, “I am a Sunday school teacher.  That’s what makes me who I am.  That’s what shows my Christianity.”  Then what will you do when you are called to step aside from that task?  You will make a battle out of it, and when you can’t win, the transition will be a humiliating defeat.  Rather, in everything you do, do it in obedience to God.  You see, it is not in being vigorous or suffering patiently or teaching Sunday School or any other such thing that our identity is to be found. But it is in the identity of being a “slave of Jesus Christ.” There is where we find the highest dignity.  That is what a Christian is, and that is what Paul rejoiced to call himself.

God’s call of discipleship is, “Follow me.”  That is how he called the disciples at the beginning.  In Matthew 4:19, Jesus called Peter, “Come, follow me.”  But this was not just the call at the beginning.  Almost at the very end of Christ’s time on earth, when he had risen from the dead, Jesus came to Peter and asked three times, “Do you love me?”  When Peter said, “I do,” John 21:19 says, “Then [Jesus] said to him, ‘Follow me.’”

The whole Christian life is a life of following Jesus.  We never graduate from listening to him and doing what he says it simply because he says it, without understanding why, without being able to see how it is will lead to success.  Christ’s call to you and to me today is, “Follow me!”

Application

To sum up by way of application, we are all called to the obedience of faith.  Romans 1:5 gives that as the purpose of the gospel proclamation: “We received grace and apostleship to call people . . . to the obedience that comes from faith.”

As Abraham responded in obedience to God’s call, we must respond when Jesus is proclaimed as the only Savior and Lord.  In Acts 2, Peter proclaims to the crowd on the day of Pentecost, “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”  The people asked, “Brothers, what shall we do?”  Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.”  If you have not done this, do it today. Repent of your sins and seek to be baptized as a means of publicly confessing your faith and signaling your new life in Christ.

To be a slave of Christ means wholehearted obedience to the Bible.  In Romans 6:17, Paul said, “But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted.”  The obedience of faith is not a one-time act, but a lifelong course.

Abraham would not have arrived in Canaan if he had not obeyed and left.  He would not have arrived and received God’s blessing.  And we will not arrive in heaven at Abraham’s side unless we do the deeds Abraham did.  Hebrews 5:9 says, “[Jesus] became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.”  So search the word of God to find out the will of God.  Always have your ears open and be ready to listen for his direction.  Whatever you know that God wants you to do, do it.

Do God’s will in complete confidence because God is faithful.  He will not leave you nor forsake you, and his blessings are worth it.  That is what makes the path of the righteous shine ever brighter until the full light of day.

[1] A. W. Pink, An Exposition of Hebrews (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2006), 690.

[2] https://gracevalley.org/teaching/eta-linnemann-testimony/

[3] Pink, 694–695.