How to Pass Tests, Part Two

This is the second in a series of sermons on how to pass tests. Tests and trials are inevitable in the life of a Christian. The life of Abraham can teach us how to pass these tests.

How did Abraham, the father of all true believers, pass divine tests? He lived by faith in the God of glory who appeared to him when he was still an idol worshiper. God commanded him to leave his country, his kindred, and his father’s house, and go to a country that would be shown to him. He obeyed, and so he arrived in Canaan at age 75. Abraham lived by faith in God’s promises to him to make him into a great nation and bless him, and in him, to bless all the families of the earth.

Faith waits. God fulfills his promises in his time, not in our time. Yet he is always on time. The promise of the Messiah was fulfilled after two thousand years, in the fullness of time. Believers in the promises of God wait. For example, five times in Psalm 130:5–6, the psalmist says to wait: “I wait for the Lord. My soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord, more than the watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.”

How do we pass tests? By living by faith in the God of glory, in El Shaddai, and waiting for him patiently. We believe in God who raises the dead. All God-ordained experiences must increase our faith in God. Paul says, “Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead” (2 Cor. 1:9).

The Fifth Test (Gen. 15:1–21)

In Genesis 12–14 we examined four tests Abram faced. In Genesis 15:1–21 we see the fifth test.¹ Abram, the great warrior, became afraid. Yes, he defeated the four kings and delivered his nephew Lot and all others (Gen. 14). But now he was worried that these kings would come back to fight against him, in the spring, when kings go out to war. And Abram was scared.

This was also the experience of Elijah, the great prophet. He defeated and killed 850 false prophets. Then he prayed, and God sent a torrential rain to end the drought. Yet he became fearful when Jezebel, the feminist, threatened to kill him (1 Kings 18–19).

Abram was also afraid. But in the night, God appeared to him and spoke to him. The first words he said were: “Fear not!” When God comes to us, he always tells us: “Fear not!” Second, he said, “I am your shield.” Third, he declared, “I am your very great reward.”

Unbelievers are fearful because they have no God to lean on. Their idols are a fraud. But the God of glory tells us, “Fear not!” We need not fear Satan, who comes at us like a roaring lion to swallow us up. Rather, we submit to God and resist the devil, and he flees from us. We need not fear temptation, because our Lord will help us, as Paul says, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it” (1 Cor. 10:13). We need not fear the world, because God is for us, and his mighty hand can crush Pharaoh and all the armies.

Fear not, child of God! In Matthew 6:25–34, Jesus told us six times, “Don’t be anxious.” Those who seek first the kingdom need not worry about anything. David says, “Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then will I be confident. One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple. For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me high upon a rock” (Ps. 27:3–5).

The Lord told Abram, “Fear not,” and then he gave the first reason: “I am your shield.” God is our shield as well. The shield of faith will completely protect us. We are in Christ, and he is a wall of fire all around us. Nothing in all creation can attack God and destroy us who are in him. He is our Sovereign. It is his duty to protect us. He is the Almighty King. Those who live by faith are not exposed to extinction and destruction. We are under the shelter of his wings. Our God is our hiding place. We are those to whom Moses says, “Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you,a people saved by the LORD? He is your shield and helper and your glorious sword. Your enemies will cower before you, and you will trample down their high places” (Deut. 33:29). Our God is our shield, our helper, and our glorious sword. And, notice, what Abram feared did not happen. The four kings never came back to destroy him.

The second reason the Lord gave is: “I am your very great reward.” He rewards us exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or imagine. The writer to the Hebrews says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he is a rewarder of those who earnestly seek him” (Heb. 11:6).

Believers are rewarded by grace. Our God gives us all that we need—food and clothing and housing and husbands and wives and children, according to his own calculations. But above that, he gives us eternal life. And above all, he rewards us with himself. What more can we want, when God himself is our reward!

The Lord is saying to us: “Fear not! I am your very great reward.” So we read in Deuteronomy 10, “That is why the Levites have no share or inheritance among their brothers; the LORD is their inheritance, as the LORD your God told them” (v. 9). The psalmist says, “You are my portion, O LORD;I have promised to obey your words” (Ps. 119:57). The psalmist also declares, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heartand my portion forever” (Ps. 73:25–26).

God is our portion. God is our reward. But there is something even more wonderful: “For the LORD’s portion is his people” (Deut. 32:9). Do you understand that? We are God’s portion, God’s inheritance.

Now for the first time Abram enters into a conversation with God. He first asks, “Why am I without children? You promised me children. Yet my chief servant, Eliezer of Damascus is going to inherit all my property.”

God answered, “No, Abram, he is not going to be your heir; that is not my eternal plan. A son whom you father will be your heir, according to my plan for you. Come outside with me. Look at the clear night sky. Can you count all the stars?” Normally, with the naked eye, one can count about eight thousand stars. But Abram could not count all the stars. Then God said, “So shall your offspring be” (Gen. 15:5).

Abram believed God’s promise. In the Hebrew the idea is, “Abram said, ‘Amen,’ to his promise,” or “Abram rested upon God himself, and he was justified” (Gen. 15:6). Abram was clothed with divine righteousness because he believed in the promised Messiah, the Son of Abraham. Paul speaks of this, “[Abraham] believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. . . . The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say ‘and to seeds,’ meaning many people, but ‘and to your seed,’ meaning one person, who is Christ” (Gal. 3:6, 16). “Abraham believed God” means he believed in his own offspring, in Jesus Christ. What must we do to be saved? “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”

Then Abram had another question for God. “You have not given me any land, as you promised.” That was another problem. So God made a covenant with him. Abram brought a heifer, a goat, and a ram. He cut them in half and arranged the halves opposite each other. He also placed a dove and a pigeon, without cutting them. In a typical covenant, both Abram and God would pass between the pieces to seal covenant between the two parties. But God was not making a bilateral treaty. He was making an unconditional, unilateral covenant with Abram. God alone was taking a self-maledictory oath, saying, in effect, “If I do not fulfill my promises to you, let me be destroyed like these animals.” And so only God passed through the divided animals (Gen. 15:17).

All the promises God made to Abraham were fulfilled in time, especially this one: Christ died for our sins. Yes, we sinned, but Christ died for our sins. So we shall never die for our sins.

So God said to Abram, “I know your wife is barren and getting old. I know you are also getting old. I know you own no land in Canaan. Yet I am going to give you a multitude of children, and all the land of Canaan, from the river of Egypt to the great river of Euphrates.” Abram believed God and God’s promises. He passed the test.

The Sixth Test (Gen. 16:1–16)

In Genesis 16, however, Abram and Sarai miserably failed the test of faith. They refused to believe God’s promise. They did not patiently wait for God to fulfill his promise to give them a son fathered by Abraham through his barren wife Sarai by means of a divine miracle. When there is no faith, people manifest convulsion or paralysis. Like Israel of old (Numbers 14), they refuse to go when God commands. This is paralysis. And when God says, “Don’t go,” they convulse and go. We see such convulsion and paralysis often.

Ten years have gone by since God spoke to Abram in Genesis 15. Now Abram is eighty-five and Sarai is seventy-five. But now Sarai refuses to believe God. Like Eve, she starts to take matters into her own dirty hands. In her frustration and impatience, she begins to convulse, doing what God did not command. She blames God and blames her husband for her lack of children. In fact, she blames everyone but herself. That is the nature of sin. Then she decides do what God, in her estimation, has “failed” to do for her: she decides to build for herself a family. It was all in accordance with the customs of the time. So Sarai commanded her husband to submit to her ingenious plan, and, sadly, he did.

Everything worked as Sarai had planned. In verse 4 we read, “[Abram] slept with Hagar and she conceived.” Then the troubles began, one after another. When she learned she was pregnant, Hagar began to despise Sarai. Then Sarai despised Hagar and became angry at Abram. Everyone was fighting. There was no peace in the family. Sarai’s ingenious plan backfired. Sarai oppressed Hagar and she left, running away to the desert. God sent her back, and in time she gave birth to Ishmael. But God stopped speaking during that time.

Thirteen years passed by. There was no real peace in Abram’s household. Yet God had not stopped Sarai from her foolish actions. This should cause us to tremble. God could have intervened at any time and said, “This is not my plan.” But God permits his people to sin and suffer the consequences. God did not interfere when Eve sinned, nor did he stop King David from sinning.

Friends, there is a perfect will of God, and there is a permissive will of God. The result is peace or pain, family harmony or family misery. But it is your choice.

The Bible should be our standard, not pagan customs. God never exchanges his plan for ours. Our God is unchangeable in his being.

What have you wrought, Sarai? You did not build for yourself a family. You brought forth a mocker who would one day mock Isaac, the son of promise. And one day God would send away Hagar and Ishmael from Abram’s household. Your plan failed, Sarai. And Abram, you failed to believe God. You failed to govern your family for God. Both of you failed the test. But, thank God, he remains faithful to his promise to save us.

The Seventh Test (Gen. 17:1-27)

God always waits until his appointed time, until all our self-strength is gone. So God waited until the body of Abram and the body of Sarai became as good as dead. Now he appears in chapter 17. Abram is ninety-nine years old; Sarai is eighty-nine. Both are as good as dead, and they knew it. They were incapable of having children.

Now God comes as El Shaddai, Pantokrator, God Almighty, as the God who raises the dead, the God of miracles. He demands that Abram walk before him and be blameless. Abram is to live in God’s presence. He is to live a God-conscious and God-centered life. He is to live the way Joseph would live one day, when he said to Potiphar’s wife, “My master has withheld nothing from me except you because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” (Gen. 39:9). He is to live as David would live one day, when he prayed, “I have been blameless before [God] and have kept myself from sin” (Ps. 18:23). God’s Holy Spirit is able to help us to love God, to believe God, to obey God. He will help us to keep us from sinning.

When he appeared to him, this almighty God promised to do several things for Abram. “As for me, I will do these things for you.” Then he says, “As for you, Abram, you must do this, and you will. I am changing your name to Abraham, which means ‘father of a multitude.’” Finally, the Lord said, “And as for you, Sarai, you will do this. And I will change your name to Sarah, ‘mother of nations.’” So we read:

GEN. 17:4-8: GOD’S PROMISE TO ABRAM

* I, not you, will build you a family.

* I will make you very fruitful.

* I will make nations of you and kings will come from you.

* I will establish my covenant between you and your descendants forever.

* I will give Canaan to you and your descendants.

* I will be your God and the God of your descendants.

GEN. 17:9–14: GOD’S COMMAND TO ABRAM

* You must keep my covenant.

* You must circumcise all males in your household eight days old and up, both those born in your household and those whom you have bought.

Note that Ishmael and Esau were circumcised but were not saved. What saves us is circumcision of the heart by the Holy Spirit, which is regeneration. We read in Deuteronomy 30:6, “The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.” Paul writes, “No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man’s praise is not from men, but from God” (Rom. 2:29). He also says, “Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh” (Phil. 3:2–3). The visible church always consists of baptized unbelievers and baptized true believers.

GEN. 17:15–16: GOD’S PROMISE TO SARAH

* I will bless her.

* I will give you a son by her.

* She will be the mother of nations.

* I, not you, will build a family for you through Sarah. You build nothing.

In verse 19, the Lord confirmed to eighty-nine-year-old Sarah that, by a miracle of resurrection, he would build for her a family and nations. He also rejected Abraham’s request, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!” (v. 18). God will never be a rubber stamp for our own plan.

Abraham believed God and obeyed him by circumcising himself and all males of his household, born and bought. It is possible that he the same day circumcised not only himself but maybe about a thousand people. So we read, “On that very day Abraham took his son Ishmael and all those born in his household or bought with his money, every male in his household, and circumcised them, as God told him” (Gen. 17:23). This was immediate, exact, and joyful obedience to a difficult task that rendered all of them vulnerable to enemy attack. It was great faith in God Almighty, and they passed the test.

The Eighth Test (Gen. 18:1–15)

This was the test of hospitality. When we bless God, he blesses us beyond all our imagination.

While Abram was staying near Mamre, three heavenly visitors passed by his tent one day. One was the Lord and two were angels, all in human form. They were traveling in the heat of the day. Abraham saw them from the tent, went out to meet them, and invited them to stop and eat with him.

You may recall how the two disciples on the way to Emmaus invited their fellow traveler, the risen Lord Jesus Christ, to enjoy their hospitality, and how Jesus blessed them (Luke 24:29). So Abraham entertained heavenly visitors unawares (Heb. 13:2). He brought them water, the best bread, the best meat, the best milk, and the best curds. (PGM) Notice, he did not give them leftovers.

The three visitors ate under the tree while Abraham himself waited on them. In truth, these visitors were not strangers. They knew Abraham and his wife. Though no one had told them about Sarah, they asked, “Where is your wife Sarah?” (Gen. 18:9). They knew all the problems of Abraham and Sarah. But there was no more waiting now for God’s promise of a son to be fulfilled. The time had come.

God waited twenty-five years from making his promise so that Abraham and Sarah could, in a sense, die. God delights in raising the dead. So these visitors spoke specifically to Abraham about the fulfillment of the promise:

1. It was time specific. The Lord said, “About this time next year . . . Sarah your wife will have a son” (Gen. 18:10, 14; see also 17:21)
2. It was mother specific. The Lord said, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son” (Gen. 18:10). It was always God’s intention and plan that Abraham would have a son through the barren Sarah, not through Hagar or anyone else.
3. It was father specific. “Abraham fell face down; he laughed and said to himself, ‘Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old?’” (Gen. 17:17). What is the answer? Yes.
4. It was gender specific. The Lord said, “Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son” (Gen. 18:14).
5. It was name specific. God said, “Your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac” (Gen. 17:19). “Isaac” means “laughter.” The Christian life is laughter from beginning to end because God raises the dead. We are always praising God. “Weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning” (Ps. 30:5). That is the Christian life. Don’t go around and murmur. In Exodus they were always murmuring. We get tired of people murmuring. How can you murmur when Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins? Question 25 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism speaks about the office of a priest. How did Christ fulfill it? He did so by his sacrifice, by his reconciling activity, and by his intercession. He died for us, that we will not die. We are given eternal life; we will never perish. Thus, all of life is to be celebration, rejoicing in God for this great salvation, this great mercy, he has shown to us.

“Isaac means laughter.” Both Abraham and Sarah laughed. Both could say, “God has performed a miracle for me.” After all, Sarah was barren. According to the Hebrew text, she was postmenopausal. She herself said, “I am worn out.” But God loves these people. He says, “Come unto me, all those who are weary and worn out, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). Try that. God is waiting until we become weary and worn out. We tried everything else; it did not work. So we should say, “I am going to go to Christ. He welcomes sinners.”

Sarah had a hard time believing. She had never heard of a barren, eighty-nine-year-old woman conceiving and giving birth. So she laughed. That was understandable. And God did not punish her for laughing, as he later punished Zechariah (Luke 1), who should have known what the Bible said about old people having children. It was written down in the book of Genesis about Abraham and Sarah.

So Sarah laughed, but the Lord said, “Is there anything too hard for the LORD?” I don’t have any problem believing in miracles. If you can believe in the first verse of the Bible, you can believe in anything God will do: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). And he upholds the heavens and the earth. He rules the heavens and the earth.

“Is there anything too difficult for the LORD?” What is the answer? Nothing! God introduced himself in Genesis 17 as El Shaddai, the Lord Almighty, Pantokrator. The word pantokrator appears ten times in the New Testament, and ninety percent of the occurrences are in the book of Revelation, where God is seen as almighty, doing great things.

Abraham believed, and Sarah believed. In spite of her lying and laughing, she finally believed. They blessed the heavenly visitors with hospitality, and the visitors in turn blessed them. They passed the test.

Do you invite people of God into your house? It is a great blessing to have God’s people come into your house and eat and sing and read the Bible and fellowship with God and his people. It is a great joy.

The Ninth Test (Gen 18:16–33)

This test is that of intercession. The heavenly visitors who stopped at Abraham’s were also on their way to Sodom. They went for the purpose of examining whether the iniquity of Sodomites was ripe for divine judgment. And they told Abraham of this mission.

This was a test for Abraham. Was he going to rejoice in the destruction of the wicked Sodomites? Or was he going to intercede for God to spare them from destruction?

Abraham boldly prayed to the Lord that the Sodomites be spared, provided there were righteous people in Sodom.

Abraham expected through the witnessing activity of his nephew Lot that there would be a number of righteous people in Sodom. He expected a maximum of fifty, or at least a bare minimum of ten. The Lord agreed to spare the city if even ten righteous persons would be found in Sodom.

But Lot’s wife was an unbeliever. It is terrible to marry an unbeliever. What do a believer and an unbeliever have in common? His two daughters were unrighteous. What a failure in that family! Lot himself was a failure. So were both of his sons-in-law. They were mockers. So instead of ten righteous people, there was only one, and I even doubt that. The Bible speaks of “righteous Lot” (2 Pet. 2:7). That is the only basis.

God spared Lot and his daughters due to Abraham’s intercession to the Lord, the Righteous Judge of all the earth. Sodom was destroyed. But Abraham passed the test.

Abraham had interceded for Sodom, just as Jesus Christ intercedes for us. We must not rejoice in the destruction of the wicked. It is the will of God that we intercede for their salvation and bear witness to the wicked by preaching the gospel and living out the gospel before them.

Intercede for your children’s salvation, and for your friends’ and neighbors’ salvation. Let us learn from the utter failure of Lot. Let us evangelize and shine as light because we are the light of the world.

Application

Let us look at some lessons from what we have studied so far.

1. Did you know the Lord never appeared to Lot? The Lord did not become a guest of Lot in Sodom.
2. It is a fact that Abraham and Sarah failed to believe God many times. This is important. Yet the New Testament fails to mention their failures. Why is that? Because their sins, like ours, are forgiven. They are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ, in whom they believed.
   

   a. Romans 4:18-21: “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.” He wavered, yet he wavered not!
   b. Hebrews 11:11: “By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise.” God in Christ blots out our transgressions. Consider the following:

   i. Psalm 51:1: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassionblot out my transgressions.”
   ii. Isaiah 38:17: “Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish. In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back.” He refuses to see our sins.
   iii. Isaiah 43:25: “I, even I, am he who blots outyour transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.”
   iv. Isaiah 44:22: “I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.”
   v.Jeremiah 50:20: “‘In those days, at that time,’ declares the LORD, ‘search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none, and for the sins of Judah, but none will be found, for I will forgive the remnant I spare.’” I am fascinated by this verse. A careful search will be made for our sins, but none will be found.
   vi. Micah 7:18–19: “Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea,” and there is a sign: “No Fishing.”
   vii. Colossians 2:13–14: “He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.” The charge sheet was full of sins, but he took it away by his death on the cross. Nothing remains on it.

3. Don’t look to circumstances: “I am barren’; “I am old”; “I am worn out.” Look to Christ alone to pass all the tests of life. The Hebrews writer exhorts, “Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess” (Heb. 3:1); “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart” (Heb. 12:2–3), that you will pass the test. In Matthew 14:29–31, Jesus told Peter to come to him. So we read, “Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’” He looked upon the waves, not the one who called him to come out. “Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. ‘You of little faith,’ he said, ‘why did you doubt?’” We must look to Christ alone. Paul writes, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (Col. 3:1-2). Contrary winds will beat against us all the time. But with the psalmist we can say, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.” God is always with us. He is with us in the fire, in the flood, in the storm, and in the rain. He is with us when we are worn out and bedridden and when we are about to die. Therefore, fix your eyes on Jesus.
4. Live a God-conscious life.Practice life in God’s presence and be blameless. “Walk before me and be thou blameless.” This is what Joseph did. Potiphar’s wife wanted him to commit sin.But he said, “How can I do this wicked thing and sin against God, who is with me in this place right now?”

What about you? In every temptation God will make a way out so that you may resist and be victorious. “As many as are being led by the Holy Spirit, they are the sons of God.” Therefore, may we take heart at the example of Abraham. God is with us, and he safely bring us to the end.

¹The previous four tests are examined in “How to Pass Tests, Part One,” by P. G. Mathew, February 17, 2013.