[AI translation] I would now like to start a new series, this time from the Old Testament, and by the grace of God, with the help of His Holy Spirit, continue this Sunday by Sunday, as we did a year ago with the Gospel of John. This time we will take Abraham, whom the Bible calls the father of believers. The interesting thing about this long-ago biography is that the story of Abraham's life is not just the story of a man named Abraham who lived long ago, but the story of the believer, the believer of all time. In Abraham every believer can know himself. The way he is treated by God, the way he relates to God, the way he obeys or falls, the way he is tempted and blessed, is truly an example in which we see, step by step, that this is about us! If only we could all see that it is always about us! And the word is spoken to us, and it is a personal address from God.We begin now with the calling of Abraham. The story of Genesis 12 is briefly summarized in Hebrews 11:8: "By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he was to inherit, and went out, not knowing where he was going." So this passage of Abraham's life, which is recorded for us, which is worthy of note, began when God said to him, "And the Lord said to Abraham." That is how the new, the different, begins in a man's life, that is how the Lord says something to him! Abraham had lived before that, and we know from the story that he lived a long time, 75 years, but that was not important, it was not essential, except to prepare the moment when God would intervene in this life. But otherwise there is nothing recorded about him. His actual life begins when "the Lord said to Abraham" (Genesis 12:1). Just as it took God to speak, to say, "Let there be", for this whole created world to exist at all. The Lord said, "Let it be. ...and it was! (Genesis 1:1-24) So the life of the whole created world began with the word of the Lord. But the true life of every human being, that which is now worthy of being recorded for eternity, that which has meaning, purpose, destiny, begins there, that the Lord said, that is, that God speaks! And if this word of God inspires in man a faith, a faith that obeys the divine word, there, in that human life, a new phase begins, a turning point is reached, something else begins.
Has the Lord ever spoken to you in this way? In such a life-changing way? He spoke to me in this way, in this new direction, when He let me know that for the merit of Jesus Christ He had forgiven all my sins and had put the inheritance of His Holy Son, the gift of eternal life, in my name. It was this word of God's grace that created the most decisive turning point in my life so far, challenging me, like Abraham in Haran, from a way of life and lifestyle and setting me in a completely different direction. A path that, even through failures, setbacks, a thousand troubles and miseries, I know is leading me home. This is where the real story of my life began. Have you ever heard that God's intervention in your life is where the real story of your life begins?
Once God has spoken to you in this decisive way, He will call you repeatedly, leading you on with His word. Not only once, but several times in the life of a believer, "The Lord said to Abram: Come out of your land, and out of your kindred, and out of your father's house, into the land which I will show you." (Genesis 12:1) The Lord called Abraham out of his own house, out of his kinship, out of his father's house, out of the whole way of life he had been living, out of his old familiar frame of life, out of the secure position in which he had settled. He told him to leave everything that had been part of his life and his thinking for 75 years; to start a new life, to dare to follow God's guidance, to follow his step by step. This is especially true at great historical turning points, such as now. Yes, even in the course of history, God sometimes calls the believer out of the framework of his life, from a way of life in which he has been settled for a long time, into a new, different, unknown, unusual way of life. So God shows us a new way in which he wants to lead his people.
Yes, the Lord of history can speak to His children today in this way, even through events, "Come out of your land, and out of your kindred, and out of your father's house, into the land which I will show you." (Genesis 12:1b) And blessed is he who can undertake and make this journey, not forced by events, but in obedience of faith. And why did Abraham have to take this step, which was certainly not easy? Was it not good for him where God had called him from? We do not know. But it is not important. Whether or not his old way of life was good for him, God is now telling him precisely not to look back, but to look forward: go to 'the land which I will show you'. God has chosen Abraham to do great things, things that can only be done by faith, that is, by relying entirely on God, by relying on Him and listening to Him. That is why Abraham had to leave his whole old life, his kinship, his father. He was not to be supported in his knowledge of his circumstances, protected by the authority of his parents' house, surrounded by kindly kindred spirits, but, being separated from all this, he was forced to trust himself entirely to the Lord. God only says: come! And the soul asks in vain, "Where to? "You will see," says God, "to the land which I will show you. To make obedience easier, He also makes a promise to His call, "And I will make you a great nation, and bless you, and I will exalt your name, and you shall be a blessing." (Gen 12:2) God does not leave the obedience of the believer unrewarded. But what reward is that? It is this: 'I will make you a great nation', that is, the fruit of Abraham's obedience will be enjoyed largely not by himself but by future centuries. For he will not live to be a great nation. We know from the story that he did not even live to see it, because in his late old age he had an only son.
So he only had the promise of a reward, and yet he believed it to be true! Because God said so! And if He is no longer worth it, God will still fulfill it because He promised. Behold the far-reaching consequences of a believer's obedience to God's leading. Many times you are only deciding your own destiny by your own obedience or disobedience to God, not even speculating on what most selfish people speculate on: making all the sacrifices so that my children will be better off afterwards, but God will build your obedience into the destiny of the centuries to come. Your obedience to God's guidance has an influence and a role in shaping the future destiny of the entire Hungarian people. And here, in the promise given to Abraham, this perspective is even more dizzying: "in you all the families of the earth will be blessed" (Gen 12:3). He will be the One in Whom all the families of the earth will be blessed, but it is also true that in some way the fate of all mankind is affected by the obedience of believers.
"And Abraham went out as the Lord had said unto him." (Genesis 12:4) And in this short message it is implied that Abraham made his decision. He stepped out on the path of faith, taking all the risks that go with it, leaving the old behind, setting out for the new without knowing what awaited him there. It is indeed as we read, "By faith Abraham obeyed, when he was called to go out into the place which he was to inherit, and went out, not knowing whither he went." (Heb 11:8) This obedience by faith is what believers today need to learn. Faith and obedience go together like two halves of the same apple. There is no such thing as having faith but being weak in obedience. Where obedience is lacking, faith is also lacking. Faith and obedience are as much one and the same as one and the other side of a 10 forint. If only one side is there and the other side is blank, white, without the 10 forints, it is a forgery. Any belief that is also not obedience is a forgery. So says the Bible, "faith also, if it have not works, is dead in itself." (James 2:17)
"By faith Abraham obeyed," and did not wonder, "What will be the result of this! Faith means precisely to trust everything to the Lord. On Him who called, sent, guides. He trusts in God, who is Love, and who will certainly not lead His elect to destruction, who will not lead them into trouble without the way out being ready with Him. Abraham was no longer a young man when God took this great step in his life, he was 75 years old. This is an age when one is very willing to cling to the old, to his childhood memories, to his familiar surroundings and relationships. It is very difficult to start a completely new life at that age. You no longer have the flexibility you once had, you don't want to wander, you prefer to stay where you are. All the more remarkable is the greatness and boldness of Abraham's obedience by faith. It was enough for him that God spoke, and Abraham went on his way.
How good it is for one who dares to turn all the way to the future in obedience by faith! Of course, we must appreciate the past and take with great gratitude all that was good in it, but we must not brood over the past, we must not become attached to the past, for that is how our life becomes fruitless. Abraham, the believer, must be fruitful for his people and for God. "I will bless you and... you will be a blessing", says the Lord to Abraham. Can God give a greater blessing to a child than when he makes himself a blessing to those around him, than when his life, his suffering, all his efforts, his hopes, his death, bear blessed fruit for the benefit of his fellow men?! The blessing of God is not a private pleasure, but the bringing of light and joy into the lives of others. God-blessed man is a channel of God's manifold blessings to the world. But many such channels this world needs today! Believers in whom the gift, the light, the blessing that God has given us does not remain and does not fade away, but goes where God has intended it to go: as light and salt into the lives of others. Of the many blessings that God has showered on you in Jesus Christ, in His passion, death and resurrection, how many of them have become blessings for others? God wants to bless you and wants to bless you so that you can be a blessing in the world!
That is what the Lord is calling you to do! It may be in new ways, it may be by breaking many old ties, by sacrificing familiar frames of life, but it is to lay the foundation for a promising future that is worth every sacrifice. "By faith Abraham obeyed, when he was called to go out into the place which he was to inherit, and went out, not knowing whither he went." (Heb 11:8) And with this obedience a new history begins. God begins a new history with those who dare to obey Him fully by faith.
When Abraham arrived in Canaan, he built an altar and called on the name of the Lord. We too have an altar where we can call on the name of the Lord. God set up this altar there, on Calvary, in the crucifixion of His holy Son. There the Lord has marked out for us the place of meeting. There we can meet Him. We need new encounters every day, so that we may dare to walk in obedience by faith.
There, at Calvary, we call on the name of the Lord:
I beseech thee with all my heart, O God of mercy:
Let this day also be done in peace,
To learn thy will, to walk in thy ways;
Let thy grace cover me, and let my pleasure be according to thy pleasure.
(Canticle 487, verse 2)
Amen
Date: 22 June 1952.