Not more than 20 miles from Calgary are some wonderful wilderness areas for hiking, fishing and enjoying.
For example, about 30 minutes from the city is something that we called the “Ice Cave.”
After an easy mile hike from the car, you come to the foot of a steep, 200-foot hill.
About three-fourths of the way up there is a cave with a 10-foot high ceiling extending about 40 feet into the mountain.
(Of course I have translated the actual dimensions from metric units into feet so that you can understand.)
Inside the cave there is a constant seepage of water from the ceiling,
And the floor of cave has at least some ice covering it,
With both a little stalactite of ice and its opposing stalagmite.
With every step toward the top the visitor slides back down half a step and sometimes more.
It is literally terrifying to a lot of people, and after a few minutes they turn around and slide back down.
Well, I’m treading on a shale-covered slope this evening.
I’m going to allegorize Stephen’s account of the life of Abraham and use him to illustrate the Christian life.
As I’ve often said, it is very easy to get carried away when using allegories.
And when comes to the really good ones, like Abraham, there is a tendency to stretch the illustration until it breaks.
Despite the fact that I have a nine point outline here, I’ll try not the break anything.
And I’m going to try to limit my outline to what Stephen says, and not to what Moses tells us.
There is a lot more that could be said about Abraham, and should be said under different circumstances, but we’re going to try to avoid those things in order to stick to Stephen’s sermon.
Let’s think about lessons that Abraham can teach us about the Christian life.
There is nothing mentioned here or in Genesis which says that there was anything in Abraham to elicit this invitation from God.
Jehovah was moved by His own gracious heart to call this man – by His sovereign choice.
To say anything more is to read something in the scriptures which just isn’t there.
But he was a sinner and apparently an idolater, and yet the Lord called him.
And despite that this denied and hated by the vast majority of Christendom, this is essentially what the Lord does when anyone is saved.
There is none that understandeth; there is none that seeketh after God.
If any sinful child of Adam makes the journey to the Promised Land, it is because the Lord called him, enabled him and delivered him.
I like the words “come into the land.”
And to others they say, “Come with me into Canaan.”
John Gill likes to quote several ancient versions of the Bible in other languages.
On the words “he removed him into this land, “Gill says,
“He removed himself”, as the Ethiopic version renders it;
or rather “God removed him”, as the Syriac version reads,
and so one copy in the Bodleian library; for it was by the order and assistance, and under the direction and protection of God, that he came into that land.”
They should attend the House of God to worship the Lord and to hear the Word of God.
They should long for the return of their Saviour, and they should want to share Christ with others.
In other words, you could say that the Christian life is following the Lord.
There is a wide gate and a broad way that leads toward destruction and many there are that walk therein.
There may be few traveling up that road, but the Lord walks with everyone of them.
And like He did with the two on the road to Emmaus, He comforts, instructs and excites us.
You will search in vain to find a Bible verse which says that Christianity is a synonym for Americanism.
But they are wrong.
Abraham didn’t migrate to the Promised Land after he was dead, but while he was yet alive.
American Christians need to seek first the Kingdom of Heaven, not any of the kingdoms of earth.
And Abraham was told to leave his family.
The reason of course was that his family were idolaters and worshippers of strange gods.
Yes, we want the people that we love to come with us to Heaven, and so we share with them the gospel though which God called us.
But when they reject it, we must still move on.
And sometimes we even have to bury our fathers outside the Promised Land.
And what do you suppose was Abraham’s reaction to the revelation
“That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years”?
Maybe, since he didn’t yet have a son, he couldn’t imagine a nation of children for which he could be worried.
But then again, since he has faith to believe the Lord, perhaps this becomes a cause for concern.
And yet, there was God’s promise that they would be delievered.
Should we be concerned about the world which our grand-children appear to be bequeathed?
We know that the saints of God will not have to endure the Tribulation, but there is already persecution against the saints.
We may live in peace and comfort, but there is no promise that this won’t come to an end tomorrow.
Should we be worried or concerned about what our grand-children might have to endure before the translation of the saints?
There are all kinds of problems which the Christian might have to face.
And the Lord “gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on.”
We remember that wealth in Abraham’s day was not measured with gold, stocks or bank accounts.
But whereas the child of God might not enjoy one much-sought-after-blessing, quite often the Lord makes up that lack with other blessings.
Stephen doesn’t bring it to our attention, but Abraham had a few herds of sheep and other critters.
So you don’t have a big bank account, his and her SUV’s and yearly vacations in Europe.
But you might enjoy blessings that those kinds of people can’t enjoy.
Maybe it’s a peaceful home life, filled with love and compassion.
Maybe it’s a
And the Lord promised him that his seed after him would possess that land, but as yet he had no children.
In fact when both he and his wife were beyond the years of producing children, the promise was still in effect.
So that meant that Abraham was going to have to trust the Lord and His promise.
The faith of Abraham is a truly amazing thing: in fact it is miraculous.
The call and the promise came out of the blue, from a God Whom Abraham knew not.
And unlike our call and promise, he didn’t have pages and pages of holy scriptures on which to strengthen his faith.
What if I had said that Abraham didn’t have a history of people of faith, and he didn’t have illustrations of faith?
There were great men of faith who had preceded Abraham: Adam, Enoch and Noah among others.
But Abraham had never met any of them, and it is debatable whether or not there was then a written record of their trust in the Lord.
But the fact is, that faith is no longer an attribute of our fallen natures.
Genesis 25:7-8 says, “And these are the days of the years of Abraham’s life which he lived, an hundred threescore and fifteen years.
Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people.”
What does it mean that Abraham was gathered to his people?
And I believe that he specifically joined Adam, Enoch, Noah and others who died in faith.
What he speaks of is the arrival of Abraham’s seed to the land of promise.
The Christian life is one of hope.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen.
At the end of every Christian life is an eternity dwelling the presence of the Lord in the place of His choosing.
This service isn’t supposed to begin when they are finally delivered, they are supposed to serve the God of promise from the git go.
And how is that done?
By obeying the things that He commands.
By implementing the things that He wishes.
By sacrificing the things that pleases Him.
By excising the things from our lives that displease Him.
By worshipping Him and enjoying the fellowship that He offers us.
And by learning more of Him and of the things that He wants us to learn.
I realize that most Protestants make circumcision equivalent to baptism.
And most Protestants make baptism some sort of atoning sacrament, claiming that circumcision some how saved the children of Israel.