Brethren, if you will, open your
Bibles to Genesis 22. The directory is there in the back.
If you would so like to update your information or put it on
there, feel free to. Genesis 22. We've been here quite
a bit over the last few years. I hope the Lord will show us
something. this morning, titled that message, A Proven Provision. The Lord's going to be a provision,
and he's going to prove it. If I wanted to tickle the ears
of mankind and get as many downloads as possible, I'd say this is
faith exercises, faith push-ups. Here's something to do. We always
start perking up, don't we? That's our nature. But the Lord
provided Abraham something. That Lord we looked at the first
hour, the one that owns everything. This is His earth, we're His
fullness that's on it, we're His people, all of mankind, all
of everything, your eye teeth to your eyeballs, to anything,
it don't matter. The Lord owns it, it's His, and
He'll go with His own as He sees fit. Now, to believe that, and
to believe that God is God, that He lives up to His name, and
I'm nothing but a trespasser on His land, and that Christ
is the only one that can ascend to glory and stand in His presence,
and for me to be in glory, I'm going to have to be in Him. He's
going to have to save me, lay down His life for me. I'm going
to have to be His body, and He's going to have to be my head. Be a new creation. When that
happens, that's called having saving faith. When you believe
what He said, I believe Him. He gives you a heart to believe.
That's saving faith. And I want to be as plain as
I can. You hear me? If God gives saving faith, I apply this to myself, as we
each should. If He gives saving faith, He's
going to prove it. He is going to try that faith.
He's going to exercise that faith, and that faith is going to grow.
If He's gracious to someone, That grace is going to grow.
It's going to happen. If that ain't happen, you ask
that he gives you saving faith and he makes it to grow. Here
in Genesis 22 verse 1, it says, and it came to pass after these
things that God did tempt. That means prove him. He tested
Abraham, not just for the Lord to find something out. He's doing
this to prove to Abraham and to us so we could learn from
it. that God did tempt, he proved, he tested Abraham, and he said
unto Abraham, he spoke to Abraham. He says, and it came to pass
after these things. After what things? All the great
trials that happened in Abraham's life. That's what we've been
going through for months on end now. Several months we've been looking
at the book of Genesis. For a couple months now I've been looking
at Abraham, all the trials that happened in his life. And I've
read this, and I've studied this this week, and I just spent all
week sitting on it, and I just thought, my old man asked, Hasn't he been through
enough? Really? Ain't he learned yet? Does he have to go through this?
Hasn't this faith that God gave him, hasn't it been proven yet?
Lord, ain't I done everything? Done everything you told me to
do? Kind of. We're honest, right? Leave your land, you go to Canaan.
Oh, we'll go to Tehran. Don't take your family, leave
your mommy and daddy. Well, daddy, come on. I'll take a lot. Kind
of. But I thought, you know, hadn't
he been through enough? And then I thought of what the Lord's
given us. Bob, the Lord's proved his faith
that he's given you over and over. And if you're his, he will
continue to prove it. He ain't gonna leave you with
a day old experience. He ain't gonna give you the experience
of yesteryear, of 20 years ago, of some warm fuzzy you had, or
one time you happened to stumble across doing what God said you
ought to do. He's going to prove it himself
to his people anew, fresh, just like Abraham. What's these things
that Abraham went through? Some call this the theologians. You can't study somebody you
don't know. They call this the 10 trials of Abraham. Well, I
counted a little bit more than 10. I thought there's a few honorable
mentions in there, but I'll give them to you. First thing, God
comes to Abraham. 75 years old. Now he's good and settled. He's
got all his ducks in a row. He's got his retirement funds,
the wells dug. He's got him a cold house down
there, spring house, keep all his vegetables in. He knows where
all his gardens are. He's got all of his friends in
the community. What happened if God left? Well, we just had
to find another God, wouldn't we? He's comfortable there, and he's
old. He's 75 years old, and God comes to him, and he speaks to
him in his comfort, and he says, you leave your family and your
friends. You pack up everything you own
and leave. If it don't fit in a moving truck,
don't take it. Sell it. Leave your children.
Leave your businesses. Leave your crops. Leave everything
you know. Leave that rock where you and Sarah first met, and
you had your first date, and you kissed her. Walk away from it, and you
follow God. That's a trial. You lived that?
You forsook everything for the gospel? Then he arrives in the land of
Canaan. There's some roundabout ways there, Tehran. And he didn't
listen to God. And he said, well, I'm going
to cling to daddy just a little bit. God killed your daddy. They let him
tinker with it for five years and it killed him. And he said,
you ready now, Abraham? Go to Canaan. And he got to Canaan.
He was where God put him. He's where God told him to go.
And what happened in Canaan? There's a famine. He forsook
everything. He showed up where God wanted
him and he just about starved to death. Oh, it gets me weak in the knees.
That's a trial. You live that one? Abraham did. He tells Sarah, they go down
to Egypt because he put it in his hand. He said, this just
makes good sense. I'm going to go where the economy is good.
Ain't nobody can can eat here. I'll go down to Egypt. Get me
a job down there. keep my family fed. Troubles
arose. He had a real pretty wife in
the flesh. That's physically what happened. There's spiritual
implications. Physically, he had a good looking
wife. And he said, that king is going to take notice of you
and he's going to kill me so he can have you. There are heathens
down there. Abraham wasn't lying. They took
notice, didn't they? He said, you tell them you're my sister.
What a trial that'd be. That's not just a change of who
happens to buy the groceries for that woman. You put yourself
in his shoes. It's reality, it's life we're
talking about. This ain't a history lesson. That's a trial. The Lord dealt
with it. The Lord spared Sarah, spared
Abraham's decision, and he provided, kicked him out. He left there
pretty rich, had a whole lot of cattle, a whole lot of stuff,
and a little old handmaid named Hagar with him. She was one of
the servants that he took out of Egypt. They get back home,
everything's better, and then that nephew of his, he called
him son, Lot, they separate. They got so much stuff. Real
estate's getting hard to come by, and nobody wants to give
up any land. And he said, pick what you wanna
do, Lot. Lot didn't say, I'll sell off everything and stay
with you. I wanna be where the gospel is. I don't care where
that is. That can be on a mountaintop,
that can be in a valley, that can be over in the city, that can be
out in the county. It don't make a difference. I wanna be where
God's, Christ is preached. I want to be where the Messiah
is exalted. I want to be with brethren. I can't be by myself.
I've got to be with somebody that helps. God designed it that
way. You can mock at it if you want
to. I've got to be with them. And Lot looked him in the eye
and said, I'll take that good stuff over there. Oh, what a trial. You going to leave the gospel
over this? Would you leave your family over that? Somebody starts
to take off for the gospel. Would you leave your children
because of that? Hmm, that's a trial. Then Locke got swept
away. And that foolish decision he
made, there's four kings that whooped five kings, and they
took over everything. That's a lot of people. And they snatched
Lotto with all the other folks in Sodom, and Abraham had to
go fetch him. And he took 318 farmhands, not
experienced seasoned gunfighters, just a bunch of old farmhands,
and said, let's go get him. Are you crazy? That's a trial
for the 318 men, I can tell you that right now. It's worth dying
for. God's sheep are worth dying for.
I'll do whatever it takes. That's a trial, wasn't it? And
he had to go ahead and get that blood all over him. Knives are awful
slick and hard to hold onto when they're covered in blood. That's
a trial. He smelled like that. He had
to go shower before he could go back to Sarah. He had to go look his wife in
the eye, knowing how many people he killed. That's a trial. the king of Sodom
after all this. Melchizedek comes, they got the
first church service, first Lord's table. Well, that hadn't been
instituted in the law yet. Well, maybe that eternal, that
law is eternal. Maybe we ought to learn something
about that. Maybe God's consistent and we ought to learn something
about that. Melchizedek comes, brings him bread and wine. And
Abraham says, you take, take what you want. Take a 10th of
it. Right there, see that tent over
there? That's the best patch of it. That's yours, my kids.
Take that with you. Because God's done something
in his heart. And while that's happening, the king of Sodom
comes to him and says, I'm gonna make a rich man out of you. You
give me them souls, and I'll give you everything. Everything
your little heart desires. That's a trial. That's a trial. A blessing's a trial. What the
world calls a blessing. A great financial windfall is
a trial. I ain't never seen nobody leave
a gospel over being broke, but I've seen a bunch of them leave it
because it was rich. They want to keep their toys. That's a
trial. What was they rich with? What
did we see the first hour? It ain't yours, is it? Maybe if
you was faithful with a little bit, you might be faithful. The
Lord will give you more to be faithful with, huh? That's what he told
the one with the talents, huh? That's a great trial. The king
of Sodom tried to make him rich after the battle. Abraham and
Sarah, they take matters into their own hands. We ain't forgot
about Hagar. She'd been around about 10 years with him, and
Sarah said, well, Lord, he's gonna have a people, but it ain't
gonna be through me. He wasn't telling the whole truth. Maybe
we didn't understand it. Take Hagar, go lay with her,
and that'll be my son. She claimed Ishmael, didn't she?
And immediately when that happened, Hagar was despised in Sarah's
eyes. That was your idea, Maddo. Maddo. You think that's a trial for
Sarah? Yeah. You think that's a trial for Abraham? You got two mad
wives at you. Hagar wasn't a stand-in. You got two women mad at you.
The wisest man that ever lived said it's better to dwell in
the corner of a housetop than with a brawling woman in a wide
house. He had two of them brawling with him. They was fighting each
other. That's a trial. Two of them going
at each other. The Lord gives Abraham circumcision
as a token. He said, I'm going to circumcise
the heart of my people. When I have a child, it's mine,
I give him life. He goes, I'm gonna go into that
heart and I'm gonna cut that old dead flesh that's useless
out of their heart. But on the outside, you will
have the token as a picture to remind you the heart work I'm
gonna do, you're gonna cut off your foreskin. He was plum grown. Half of you know that's a trial.
He wasn't eight days old. This wasn't out of his memory.
He didn't know what was gonna happen and this just happened
to happen to him. He was grown, plum grown. He knew what was
going to happen. They didn't have lidocaine back then. That's what Timothy had to sacrifice
for the gospel too, didn't he? After Paul got through preaching
that circumcision is not of the flesh, it profits a man nothing,
and then he meets Timothy and says, Timothy, you're going to
go preaching with me. God's going to use you, I can
tell. Now come out back, I'm going to circumcise you. I would never do such a thing.
Maybe God ain't going to use you. I would never be vaccinated. Well, if God's gonna make you
travel and preach, watch your nevers. That was a trial for
him. Then he intercedes for Sodom.
What a trial that was. Have you ever prayed for someone
that despotfully uses you, that takes every occasion they can
to stab and throw darts at you, and you say, God save them? You
ever prayed for a president you hate and that you think's the
boogeyman, and him and Sasquatch teamed up to gang up against
you? What foolishness that is, I don't care about me and you,
Have you ever said, Lord, save our president? God save the king.
Prince Charles is sitting over on the throne today. Prince Charles
III, God save him. Let him turn off that green nonsense
and his organic vegetables and get away from all that nonsense.
Give him a new heart. Make him like Christ. You think
it'd be a better place to live? Have we done it? That's a trial. Go to a brother
for Sodom. Have you prayed for the Sodomites in this county?
Have I? The homeless people? An encampment's growing out in
this county, isn't it? God's saving people. They're hooked
on drugs, they're hooked on the wine of Babylon, thinking they're
righteous. Lord, give them a new heart. Give me an opportunity
to preach gospel to them. Give you all an opportunity to
say, come hear the gospel preached. You hookers and you pushers and
you peddlers and everything else, come hear the gospel preached.
Come hear about a man that told me everything I've ever done,
and then he saved me. Do I pray for them? I'm a cold-hearted,
Man, I tell you, I was texting a friend of mine yesterday. I
said, I need more compassion. I need to have a heart like Christ.
He come to me. I looked down on them people.
When somebody uses cuss words, or prostitutes, or porn stars,
or whatever else in our day, I look down on them people. I
was worse. Abraham stood up and said, God, would you save 50
out of Sodom? Never did ask for a lot, did
he? You know it was on his heart. And he knew not to pray for what
he wanted, but for what he needed. That's a trial. Isaac was born.
Well, ten and a half. I had a .5 put near my nose.
Abimelech comes. He gets scared again. Now Sarah's
even older, and he says, tell them you're my sister. That trial
was on repeat. He walked into it. The first
time, you'd think he'd learned something. And what is this wise?
Our father Abraham, this great prophet of God, what'd he do?
The same dumb thing again. That was a trial, wasn't it?
I did this before, what am I thinking? You ever done that? I know better. You ever live that one? Maybe
it's just me, I don't know. Isaac's born, and the Lord tells
him, because there's somebody mocking God's child, and he said,
you get rid of him. It ain't my job to separate the
tares and the wheat. You hear me? It ain't my job
to separate the goats and the sheep, but I'll tell you what,
I'll keep them goats from butting the sheep. I'll go stick my knee in between
and they butt me. Break it up. But here, he finally had Isaac.
He had that promised seed. The Lord told him, this year's
the one that Christ is coming through. And there will be a
whole people made just like Christ through this one. I promised
it. It's impossible with you. I'm doing it. And this is him.
Ishmael mocks, just like his mommy did. Sarah, just like Sarah
did. And the Lord said, cast out the
bond woman. And Ishmael, that woman that's been with you for
28 years, you think they got along? You think they're friends?
His flesh and blood, Ishmael, the picture of works, he said,
get rid of them. That's a trial. That's a trial. You ever run one of yours off?
Because God told you to. I haven't. That's a trial. He
said, you give them a loaf of bread and a jug of water, and
you send them into the desert. And you know that bread's going
to run out, and you know that water's going to run out. You're sending
them to their death, to perish, to burn up. After all these hard,
serious, lasting trials, all the heartaches, the Lord had
one more for him. Wasn't that enough? It wasn't
because the Lord had another one for him that answered my
question. He's tested, proved once again. And this is the most
difficult trial of all. There's the 12th one. Now in
our text, the Lord says, that son, your only son, whom you
love, You offer him up to me as a burnt offering. He's mine. Give him to me. Genesis 22, verse
one. And it came to pass after these
things that God did tempt Abraham and said unto him, Abraham. And
he said, behold, here am I. And he said, take now thy son,
thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest and get thee into the
land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon
one of the mountains, which I will tell of thee. The Lord's going
to try to test and to prove the faith of Abraham. The faith that
God put in him. If he proved what I call faith,
it's gone. Go run for the hills, wouldn't
it? The Lord gave him faith. His faith, the faith of Christ.
And he said, now I'm going to show you what the faith of Christ
does. I'm going to show you how faithful Christ is to his word. I pray the Lord bring heavy trials
on us. Kevin, what are you talking about? If he shows Christ to
us, he might save one or two of us. Wouldn't that be something?
Strike on, Lord. Strike on. If the Lord gives
true faith, it's a gift only he can give. It's the gift of
faith. If we really have his faith, he's going to prove it
to us. He's going to prove that he gave
it to us and it's his. He's going to test it out. He's
going to make sure it's put to good use. Do you think he'd Weren't
fig tree cursed? Why? He didn't eat no fruit off
of it. He said, I don't have no fruit, curse it. And Peter said, you
really did curse that tree. That thing dried up. If the Lord
makes something, he's going to use it. If he gives muscles,
you're going to use them. If he gives a heart, it's going
to beat. If he makes a sheep, it's going to follow him. It's
going to do something. It's going to comfort the other
ones. Some say this is weird. This is strange. Why would you
do such things? Why would you say it's It's say
something like it, Kevin. Why would you say, I hope the
Lord sends us heavy trials. I'm gonna make some hard on us, teaches
us something. Why would I say such thing? That's weird. That's
weird. No, it ain't. Why is this thing
happening to Abraham? Is this weird? Lord told him
to go kill his own son. It's not strange. Peter said, beloved,
think it not strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to
you as though some strange thing happened unto you. Why did this
happen? Who do you think did it? the
one that owns the land and the fullness thereof, right? God
controls everything. He gave that trial. Don't you
count it strange? Don't you take it lightly? You
thank the Lord for it. I'm just ate up with cancer from
my toes to my head. Good, thank you, Lord. Good. Don't you count it strange? Some
strange thing. You but rejoice in as much as you are partakers
of Christ's suffering, that when his glory shall be revealed,
you may be glad also with exceeding joy. In that trial, when you
see Christ high and lifted up in the trial, you'll go, I got
joy now. I forgot. You think Abraham forgot? Of
course he did. He's like, me, do you? He had to be shown Christ. Peter says rejoice, and James
did too. He said, brethren, count it all joy. Count it all joy
when you fall into divers temptations, knowing this, that the trying
of your faith worked with patience. God's going to grow you and mature
you and make you patient. teach you to shut your mouth
and wait on Him. Stand still and see the salvation of the
Lord, ain't you? Don't discredit trials and consider them strange.
Rejoice in them. Be joyful because that means your children are
the true God. Turn over to Hebrews chapter 12. Be good for us. Hebrews
chapter 12. This gives us some comfort and
assurance during the trials because we know who sent the trials.
Hebrews 12, verse six. For whom the Lord loveth, he
chastened, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye
endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son? Here's a rhetorical
question. I mean, this was so absurd. It was written here as
a sarcastic rhetorical question. For what son is he whom the father
chasteneth not? We don't understand that worldly.
You love your children, you make them mine. You chasten them. For if you endure your chastening,
God deals with you as sons. I know many believers that are
in heavy trials and they worry and they fret because they're
fearful and they're disturbed in the trial. I'm in the trial
and I'm shook up in the trial. I'm disturbed and I'm disturbed
that I'm disturbed about being disturbed. You ever lived that
way? You ever had that happen? I'm upset, I ain't upset enough. I say you ought to be fearful
and pray you are disturbed when you're without the trial. If
you got heavy trials, good. The Lord said he chases his children.
Well, I just ain't never had it that bad. You better pray
that God shakes your life up Gives you some heavy, hard trials.
Brings you down to nothing where you ain't got nobody or no thing
to cling to but Him. If not, you'll die and go to
hell. Look at verse 8. But if ye be
without chastisement, wherefore all are partakers, then are ye
bastards and not sons. If you get chastised, if the
Lord don't send you strong, heavy trials to make you cry out to
Christ, and I mean cry, not say a pretty little prayer that everybody
else has memorized, and it's a bunch of religious jargon that
comes out of our mouth, just like the sin that goes in, it
comes right back out. I mean cry. God, save and moan. I ain't got no hope but you.
That's a good thing. You're a son. You're a child
of God. And if not, you're not sons. You see that? That's plain. The faith God gives must be tried. If he gives faith, he's got to
try it. And I'll give you some reasons for it. First, it's got
to be proven to us. Not him. He gave it. He knows
what it is. People quote in Scripture the Lord. He wrote that. He knows
what he said. It must be proven to us that it's genuine, that
it's true. I need to know that. Do you need
to know that? I believe him. Do you want to know if you really
believe? I do. Is this something my mommy
and daddy did? Or is this something that I believe? Am I following a man or am I
following God? I want to know. How do you know that you believe
if your faith's never been put to the test? You don't, do you? How can you
be sure that you are trusting God if you've never had any difficulties
or problems or troubles or trials or pains, woes? Trials reveal
how genuine the faith is. That's what God said to Abraham
when he offered up Isaac. He said, now it's clear that
you love me. Now I know you love me. Now I
know you believe me. Not that he didn't know, but now Abraham
knew, and now everybody around knew, and guess what? Several
thousand years, you know, and I know Abraham believed God.
God saved him. It was the work of God. It was
his workmanship, wasn't it? Hebrews 11, one says, faith is
the substance of things before. It's the evidence of things not
seen. It's the evidence of salvation.
That's got to be proven that it's real. Next, our faith needs
to be proven so it grows, so it's strengthened. The Lord's
been gracious to us. Do you want to grow in grace
or are you just fine where you are? Don't matter what you want. He's going to grow you in grace
where he is. He's given me faith. Do you want more faith? I believe
him. Do I want to believe him more? Yeah. How are you going
to grow? It's going to have to get strengthened. It's going
to have to Grow and be stronger, just like our muscles. If we
live a sedentary lifestyle and we don't move and we just lay
down all day, you start losing the muscles. You can't use them. Next thing you know, you're bedridden.
The more that faith is tried and tested, the more you have
to depend on the Lord and to look to the Lord and wait upon
the Lord. The more those things happen,
the more faith you have, the stronger your faith is. As it's
tried, faith is strengthened. And faith must be tried to give
us patience. James said, tribulation worketh
patience. We learn to wait on the Lord by waiting on the Lord. We learn how to receive comfort
and be comforted by being comforted. That's how we learn everything
else, isn't it? Mike Smith, how did you learn how to love? God
loved you. Ain't that right? How are we going to learn patience?
We have to be patient. I ain't good at that. Me neither.
It's gonna take some time, isn't it? That's a lifetime of work.
Then, once that's done, you have comfort and peace. We learn comfort
by being comforted, and that's where we get our comfort. And
our comfort comes when our teeth totally shut up to Him. We have
no arm of this flesh to lean on. Not a warm, fuzzy feeling,
not a person, not a loved one, not a child, not a spouse, not
nobody. You ain't got nobody but Christ.
You ain't got no function to do but just hear Him. You ain't
got nothing else in the world but Him. Now you got comfort. Right then, everything's fine. I know the Lord. Well, my car's
broke down. That's his car, it ain't my car.
That's his hunk of iron sitting out of that parking lot. That
ain't my hunk of iron. Well, you pay taxes on it. No, I pay
taxes to his king with money he gave me. It's his money. Starts
changing you. You start having some comfort.
You stop walking around this world like people that don't
know God and running around with heads with their chickens cut off.
calms you down. And then finally, once we're,
our faith has been proven to us and it grows and we get comfort,
now we're going to help our brethren. Our faith must be proven in trials
so we can learn and gain understanding, have patience, be matured so
we can help our brethren. I know one of the brethren that's
going through some extreme physical trials and they're a strong willed
person, and they have desires, and I know somebody else that's
about to go through that trial. And that one believer is a comfort
to the other believer, because they say, I know what you feel
like. Here's what you're going to go
through. I've lived it. This is the thought you're going to have,
but be of good courage. The Lord sent this, because they
know. They've lived it. It's not something
you read in a book. It's something you live. You
get that? And they can help their brethren. Why? Because sheep
are herd animals, ain't they? They need one another. I need
you. Did y'all listen to that message I sent to you? That's an outstanding message.
That was a good, instructive message. And I needed it. I need
you. I need you. Your brethren need
you. Need you. This ain't something you just
dress up and play church on Wednesdays and Sundays. This is life. It's
family. We need one another. I know another
fellow. He's got three children, and
all three of them are professing believers. And two of them's
married professing believers, and they have babies. Now, who
you want to take advice raising children from? You want to get
your self-help book down at Barnes & Noble? You want to find somebody
that's got heathens running around and children that won't mind?
I don't want to go listen to what he's got to say, don't you?
I lean on my brother. I call him and say, hey, what'd
you do? Here's what I'm thinking. What do you think? Because you've
lived it, and I see the fruit of it. I see the fruit of it.
I lean on him. I may not have the same results,
but I'm gonna put down the same fertilizer on them plants that he did, you
know what I mean? I'm gonna grow them tomatoes
in the same spot he grew them, watering the same amount. Paul
wrote this, blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who
comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort
them that are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves
comforted We're comforted by God. How am I gonna comfort my
brethren? God's gonna have to comfort me first. Where's that
gonna come from? A pretty heavy trial. Now, do
you wanna avoid them trials? I don't wanna walk into them,
but if the Lord gives them, don't throw them away. It's gonna be profitable. Might be years and years later,
that's happened, ain't it? Several times. I go through something
like, how in the world is this gonna be profitable? And then
10 years later, when that wound's all covered up, that scar, it's
scarred over, don't hurt no more, I said, you see that scar? Here's
what you're going through. Here's what I went through. God's
going to comfort you the same way He comforted me, because
you're His. He's going to prove it to you. And then they won't
hear, just like children when you give them advice, they won't
listen. And then they'll go out and the Lord's going to prove
Himself to them. They'll say, that was right. He was right, Lord. God tries Abraham. It's good for him, and it's good
for the whole body of believers at that time, and it's what few
of them there was, And it's good for the whole body believers,
what few of them they are in our time. His trial is good for
you and me. Do you know that? It is. Genesis
22, verse 1. 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. And he said, take now thy son,
thine only son, thine only Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee
into the land of Moriah, and offer him up there for a burnt
offering upon one of the mountains, which I will tell of thee. And
Abraham rose quickly, rose up early in the morning, and saddled
his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac
his son, and claimed the wood for the burnt offering, and rose
up and went into the place of which God had told him. Then
on the third day, Christ is off of this, I want to help you with
your trials, because I hear so many of y'all talking about how
much trials you're in, and I want to help you, and I want to tell
you what's going to happen with God and his people, what he does.
That's all a mess if we don't see Christ in it. He's through
this. This is him throughout. Take your son, your only son
that you love. He said, this is my son and whom
I'm well pleased. That's his beloved son, his firstborn.
That's Christ, isn't it? You pack him up, take him to
a mountain. Take him up on Golgotha's hill. You're gonna kill him.
You take the fire with you that destroys all the sin. You take
the knife to slay him, and he's gonna carry the wood on him up
that hill. You see that? And on the third
day, God told Abraham this. He said, that son you love, that's
a trial, buddy. I mean a trial. That son you
love, take him up that hill and go kill him. And for three days
I didn't talk to him. You think he prayed? The heavens
were shut up. Why? Because Christ had to be
forsaken. Sort of pictures. Had plenty of time to soak in
Abraham, didn't he? Lord knows what he's doing. He knows how to treat
his children. He knows how to train them up. And on the third day,
Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place of Pharaoh. And Abraham
said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass, and I and
the lad will go up yonder and worship. What's worship? Sacrifice. Think Abraham gave up some thoughts
them three days? Think he gave up some of him?
Those three days, he sacrificed it. Needed God. Needed to see
Christ again. And why'd he do that? He sacrificed
telling his wife where he was going. He believed God. All the
doubts and fears he had going through his head. Well, what
is my family gonna think? Well, we was heathens. We was
throwing babies off the mountains. They're gonna see me taking my
child up a mountain, gonna throw him off a mountain. They're gonna think
I'm killing him. They're going to think I'm going back to organized religion. And Sarah, I think the Lord's
going to raise him and he said so. He believed God. But he's
going to come back, he's going to have some scars on him where
I cut him. And he's going to have burns all over his body
because I burn him. What am I going to tell her?
Her beautiful son's just marred and scarred. I mean, the Lord
gave him life. What am I going to do? And he
went through all these things in his head. You know how I know
that? Because he's a man just like me. But what overrode every bit of
that? He believed God. And it's going to be proven.
And I bet every step he said, I can't believe I'm walking this
direction. Why am I doing this? Lord, let there be another way.
And then he was made to brought down three days to say, not my
will, Lord, but thy will. Is that right? It's a good trial. Good trial. Not to say, well,
the Lord's will be done. To mean it. Not say, I believe
God, but to believe him. Not believe in him or on him. Believe him. And Abraham took the wood of
the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son, and he took a
fire in his hand, and that knife he sharpened that morning, and
they went both of them together. But what he told them servants,
and we're gonna come again to you. You see at the end of verse
five? I'm gonna go up, I'm gonna kill
this boy. And both of us are coming back down. How could he
say that? He believed God, didn't he? Believed
God. Well, it don't look like he believes
God. It looks like he believes God. And they went up together,
verse seven, and Isaac spake unto Abraham his father and said,
my father. And he said, here am I, my son. And he said, behold,
the fire and the wood, but where's the lamb for the burnt offering?
He was trained upright. He had heard about Adam and Eve,
and Adam didn't have a covering, and that God killed a lamb, robed
him. Blood was shed, he had a covering.
He had a righteousness on him. And he'd been taught about Cain
and Abel, Cain worked hard, I mean sweat, and was diligent. And
he brought the fruit of the land. And God said, I don't respect
your offering. Abel came and said, I'm here
on the blood of another. I'm trespassing on your land,
I ain't got no business being here. You provided yourself lamb,
here it is. That's the only thing I bring.
And he said, I like that sacrifice. I said, good, that's accepted.
The other one ain't. Isaac had heard these things,
he was trained up And Abraham gives us five words to his son
that we ought to give to our sons and daughters and mean it.
Not this year's the Sunday school class we happen to memorize,
mean it. And I pray God send us a trial so we can really say
it, not pretend. Gives him five words that we
ought to do it, you and I also. If the Lord will make us get
a hold of these words, we'll have the foundation to grow on
on everything else, to base all of our other trials from. Everything,
no matter what the trial is, big or small, here it is. Verse
eight, and Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together.
First off, he will provide a lamb to stand in the place of Isaac. I'm going to kill you, son. He'll
raise you. You might be the lamb. I don't
know what the Lord's going to do. He said, you're going to live. And
he told me to sacrifice and most going to happen today. I'm going
to sacrifice you and you're going to live. I don't know how it's
going to play out. But if the Lord wants the lamb, whether it's you or
one caught in a thicket or me or whatever else, he's going
to provide it. Physically, it's going to be an offering for that. But this year stands for us,
this atonement for sin. There must be the shedding of
blood. Without the shedding of blood, there could be no remissions
of sin. God's going to have to provide that. Our blood ain't
worth nothing. It ain't as valuable as bulls and goats. At least
them birds and fowls out there, they cry, the ravens cry whenever
they're hungry of the Lord. Do we? No, and he has to give
it. Second, what the Lord's gonna
provide, this blood is gonna be for himself. God will provide
Christ the lamb slain before the foundation of the world. And he's providing. He's providing
Christ our representative in a body that was prepared for
him. He's also for himself. That sin atonement is for us.
It was for Abraham. It was physically there for Isaac.
And that's for us. He willingly laid down his life
for his sheep. He's the good shepherd. He died
for us. But he died for himself. He died
for the Father, didn't he? He laid down his life for the
Father, honoring his will. Our King came to this world and
lived perfect. He died in perfection and he
was risen and it all honors the Father. He remained just as the
holy law withstands. Upheld the whole way because
Christ came and honored the Father. Why? One, he deserves it. Two, you have to. I have to, you have to. He did
it for us. What's required? If anything's
required, it better be in Him. The trial, the suffering, the
pain that Christ endured by being forsaken of the Father, it was
all for His chosen elect, but it declared the just and holy
God, and it honored Him through the end. The blameless Messiah,
the God-man, He worshiped in purity, without vanity. It was
not deceit in His mouth ever. He solely looked to the Father,
trusting Him, and having the Father's will as His focus from
cradle to grave. That's who God provided. Do you
want to provide a different sacrifice? Do you want to bring something
in your hand to God other than that? I never missed a Sunday
school. I never missed a day of church.
You want to take that to God? I don't recommend it. I've made
myself holy. I'm so just sanctified now. I'm
ripe for the picking. Don't. Christ was tested and tried as
we are, just as Abraham was, yet without sin. He knows what
we've been through. He knows what Abraham went through.
He knows whatever you're going to go through, go to him. He's
handled it yet without sin. Have you been tested? Has the
Lord sent you to trial? He says, my God will provide
all your need. God will provide. Son, God's
gonna provide. Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord will
provide. He doesn't say he's gonna provide
all your wants, and your prayer requests, and these lists, and
these committees, people gang up on God. Knock that stuff off.
Quit it. Ask him for your need. Well,
I got more than one need. No, you got one need. He's the
one thing needful. Lord, give us our daily bread.
Our Lord taught us to pray like that. Does he mean we didn't
have enough sense to ask, well, my stomach's growling, can I
have bread? Oh, give us Christ today. Allow us to see him. Allow us to see his provision
today. What you want, you need. I know a whole lot of people
that want the gospel. I know a few of them that need it. That's
like that deer that pants in the wilderness after water, because
they have to have it. What if you have to have the
gospel? Do you have to have a substitute? Do you have to have a mediator?
We're gonna get one. He will provide. Son, God will
provide. Isn't that it? So whenever we
have a trial come, it's hard. Hard trials come. Don't discredit
them. I'm telling you, don't discredit
them. Look to the Lord, ask him to
reveal Christ to you. See him high and lifted up. See
his provision in all things. In my faith, the growth, payment
for sin, the breath that I breathe, my physical health, whatever. Enough money, pay the lot bill. I pray I could see him and know
that he will provide and be taught. I know he's gonna provide, he
always has. You know what's gonna happen tomorrow? I'm a sinner,
I'm gonna forget. And I'm gonna wake up and go, oh, I got a letter
from the gas company saying it's gonna double this fall, what
we gonna do? Oh, they keep me hungry for him. This country's
maybe on the cusp of a physical downfall to where things get
real hard and there might be some physical famine in this
country. I don't know what the Lord's doing. And it looks like we might
be on the cusp of a spiritual famine that we always have been
in. Does the need change? And does His provision change?
It don't, does it? He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. And He's faithful, isn't He? Amen. All right. Father,
thank You for Your words. Lord, thank you for the trials
that you send us. Increase our faith. Give us patience. To look to your son. And the way that you see fit,
Lord, and if that's through heavy, hard trials. It's right. And be gracious to us, Lord.
Be merciful to us. You have been merciful to us.
Give us grace to be thankful for your wisdom, not our own.
For your righteousness, not our own. For Christ's redemption,
not our own choices. Forgive us for what we are. Lord,
be with your people everywhere as you promised you will be.
We see these things, Lord. Give us experience so we can
comfort those who are just beginning in trials and beginning in heartache. Give us the wisdom to point one
another to Christ. It's in His name that we ask,
amen.