He's reminding us of that. Hebrews chapter 11. Now the constant
theme of Hebrews is law and grace. That's the contrast between law
and grace. Works and grace. And the writer of Hebrews, he
gives that stark contrast in order to give us the understanding
by the Lord's spirit, if he would be our teacher, that you can't
mix the two. It's one or the other. There
is no in between. Either you're working or you're
resting. Either you're keeping laws and
ordinances or you're resting looking unto Christ as all in
your salvation and righteousness. There is no in between. And I've
titled this message Working or Resting. Working or Resting. Understand something, these that
rest and these that work are determined by God himself. They
are born in freedom. We can see how the child born
into, the child born into Hagar by Abraham, and that's who our
subject, our topic is about today is Abraham. We see that she was
called the bond woman. She was a slave. So the child
born into her was a bond slave. But the child born into Sarah
being Abraham's wife, bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh,
Isaac was born free. He was born free. And so either
we are born free or we're born in bondage. And who maketh us
to differ? But is it not the Lord? Is it
not mercy? Is it not grace? Yes. Yes, he maketh us to differ.
Not by works of righteousness which we have done. No, we're
not working righteousness ourself. Christ did that. We're resting
in his righteousness. We're resting in his promises.
We're resting in the promises only found in the finished work
of Christ by his grace. Or, We are working unto our own
damnation. We're working unto our own death.
Because that's all that these hands can work towards when it
comes to righteousness and things of God is death. That's all we
can produce. That's all that we are. And that's
all that the law, that's all that's found in the law is death.
The death came by Moses, but grace and peace came by the Lord
Jesus Christ. It was not the law's purpose
and place to show us grace and peace. It was to show us you're
a sinner. You cannot please God to show us what we are, so it
was given in mercy to show us what we are. For those who think
they're higher than they are, go to the law. What'd the Lord
say? Have you heard what's in the law? You that try to live
the law, have you heard what's in the law? No, he told the Pharisees, search
the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life.
No, it's Christ is all, isn't it? Christ is our life. Let us
read our text here in Hebrews 11. We're reading three verses,
verses 17 through 19. By faith, Abraham, when he was
tried, offered up Isaac. And he that had received the
promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was
said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called, accounting that
God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence
also he received him in a figure." Here we have interesting wording
from our Lord. All that is mentioned here is
the obedience of Abraham. But we know a little more about
Abraham than just his obedience, don't we? We know of his disobedience
because the scripture has been given. We know of his unbelief.
Multiple times he was caught in unbelief, wasn't he? Well,
the one time that comes to mind, and probably the most predominant
for all of us, would be whenever the Lord said, I'm gonna make
a great nation of you, you're gonna have a child. And Abraham
said, Lord, I'm past the age, and so is my wife, there's no
way we can do that. And the Lord said, yes, I'm going to make,
I'm going to give you a child. And Abraham fell upon his face,
as we heard last week, and he laughed at God. Have you ever
laughed at God? Our flesh ever laughed at God,
I'm certain that's true. I'm certain our flesh laughs
whenever we first heard the gospel. I'm sure our flesh laughs at
the things, because we can't understand it. It doesn't make
any sense, does it? That's why our flesh laugh, but
oh, the Lord gives us faith, we don't laugh, we believe. There's
the difference. The Lord giving faith, then we
believe. And likewise, when Sarah heard that she was gonna conceive,
even after they had had Ishmael, she laughed at the Lord. So what
did Abraham and Sarah do? They felt like, I suppose, they
had to help God out, like so many do today in religion. They
have to do their part, got some kind of work to do, whether it's
big or whether it's little, and they do it, just like Abraham
and Sarah. And Sarah said, well, here's
my handmaid, and she can bear seed unto you, or she can have
a child unto you in my stead. I can't do it. Well, there's
a problem with that. The promise was to Sarah and Abraham. The
promise was to the free woman and the free man, not to the
free man and the bond woman. That was the problem. So what
did they do? They decided to have a child
with Hagar. Abraham and Hagar had a child
named Ishmael. And so we see that's a work. They took matters into their
own hands. You want to find out what a work
is, it's by definition taking matters into your own hands when
it comes to the things of God. We don't run back to the law
for justification. We don't try to help God out
when it comes to salvation. We believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And believing is done by faith,
and it's the gift of grace. So Abraham and Sarah had Ishmael,
and then the Lord appears again unto Abraham and says, Abraham,
you're going to have a child by Sarah. But this time, Abraham
believed God. Scripture says, Abraham believed
God, and it was accounted unto him for righteousness. What does
that mean? That means Abraham believed God because of righteousness,
faith was given to Abraham. It was accounted unto him. Because
he was found to be righteous, because he was found to be Christ,
the Lord gave him faith to believe, and therefore, that's why Abraham
was righteous, because he was found in Christ. Not because
he chose to believe God. He didn't wake up that morning
and say, you know, I think today I decided I'm gonna believe God. And the Lord said, well, I'm
pleased with that. That's not what happened. No,
God chose Abraham in the covenant of grace for the foundation of
the world ever happened. Chose him into eternal life and
therefore gave him faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
the promise of the Messiah found in the Lord Jesus Christ. He
believed God. And sure enough, what came to
pass, the Lord visited Sarah and Abraham at the age of 90,
and at the age of 100, they had Isaac. Well, all we hear about
here is how the Lord talks about his obedience. And that was just
one account. On two other accounts, Abraham
lied about his wife being his wife. He was scared. His wife
was a fair woman, the scripture says. Abraham met two different
kings. One was the king of Egypt and
there was another king and both times he walked in. First time
he walks in, the king said, who is that woman? And Abraham said,
that's my sister. Yeah, she's just, she's just
my sister. He was scared. He thought they
need, scripture even tells us this. He thought this man is
going to kill me and he's going to take my wife. So I'm going
to say that she's my sister. And what happened? Well, the
king took her. and was wanting to marry her, but the Lord had
cursed the city because he took Abraham's wife. And he said,
you didn't tell me that she was your wife. You brought all this
upon us. And he said, you should have
told me it was your wife to begin with. He said, well, I was afraid
you were going to kill me. And we see that Abraham, he got to
leave in peace, didn't he? Well, he'd done it again whenever
he went down to Egypt. Went down to Egypt, thought he'd learn
it. That's us. Can't learn a lesson the first
time. We have to do it 20 times, you know, or more. You know it's
true. We learn more if we wish we could learn the easy way.
I remember I was told as a kid, you're going to have to learn
the hard way, aren't you? You're not listening. Well, that's true. But that's all of
us, too. Most people have to learn the
hard way. They have things figured out
for themselves. They have things that they've worked through in
their lives, and they believe I know how to handle this circumstance.
this situation and they try it and it doesn't work, then what
do they do? Well, if they're not the Lord's, they keep trying
to figure it out. But if they're the Lord's, that moment they fall on their
face and they say, Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. Lord,
save me. I'm tired of working. Give me
rest found in Christ alone. I've been working. I wasn't even
trying to work, Lord. I wasn't even meaning to work.
You ever feel that way? Boy, I wasn't even trying to
work this out and take matters into my own hands. I see that
I did it now. I'm embarrassed of myself. I'm ashamed of myself.
Lord, save me. Well, Abraham goes down to Egypt
and does the same thing to that king, and the same thing happens
all over again. What was that called Abraham was doing when
he lied? It's unbelief. He didn't believe
God would take care of him. He didn't, at that moment, in
his flesh, it was a moment of weakness. I believe I can handle
this situation better than God can, and that's what our flesh
thinks all the time. It never stops thinking that.
And until the Lord, and we're gonna hear the second hour about
trials, until the Lord send trials to us that causes us to have
no confidence in the flesh, we'll not cry out, Lord, have mercy
on me, the sinner. Lord, save me. If that never
happens, we'll never need him. We'll be like, I got this. How
many people you met in life and they act like they've just got
everything under control? I've got this. I've got this. Somebody asked me the other day.
They said, well, you act like you got it all together that
you got this. I'm like, I just know who does. It ain't me. He's on the throne, it's not
me, I'm just looking to him. He's gonna order and provide
according to his will, that's who I'm looking to. If he'll give
me the grace to do that, I'm not trying to sound arrogant
in that. It's not me that's even looking,
it's him that's causing. So there's no bragging on ourself,
he gets all the glory. He gets all the glory. So it's
interesting wording here. Abraham just believes the promises
he offered up his son. Counting that God would raise
him up from the dead, he just believed God. Why is that? Because
God is not looking at your works or my works to please him. God is not looking at your lifestyle
to please him. He's not saying, well, if you
don't live this way, you're not mine. And if you don't do this,
you're not mine. And if you do this, you're certainly
not mine. He says, here's the truth. Here's the truth, you
know how to live, look to Christ. That is the truth, look to Christ
and live. And continue looking to Christ.
Every decision that you make, every prayer that you pray, everything
that you're doing, look to Christ. There's gonna be times when you're
gonna get discouraged, you're gonna get beat down, you're gonna
be overwhelmed, look to Christ. There's gonna be times whenever
you're not beat down, you seem to be having it easy for a little
while. And I told the men back there,
you're either in a trial, you're coming out of a trial, or you're
going into a trial, and that's the life of a believer. I don't
wanna preach my second message first hour, so I'm trying to
stay away from it, but it's the life of the believer. And you
see the trial, you see Abraham, he's strong, and then he's weak,
and then he's strong, and then he's weak, why? Because he's
looking to Christ, and God gave him the ability to do that through
faith at one point, but at the next point, he leaves him to
himself, and what does he do? That's my sister, she's my sister, Is that
not us? Oh Lord, have mercy on me, the
sinner. That's us, isn't it? Now I'm working again. I've put
my foot in my mouth. I've done something. Lord, save
me. Lord, have mercy on me. And the
good news is, the Lord says, I have put away your sin. You shall not die. You can't
put away your sin. Stop working. Rest. Rest. Another thing that Abraham did
that showed the same weakness that we show, Abraham begged
God, he begged God to accept Ishmael as the promised. Second
time God came, the Lord came to Abraham and said, I'm gonna
make, I'm gonna raise up seed unto you by Sarah. And he said,
well, I would that you would let Ishmael live unto you. What was he saying? I wish that
you would accept Ishmael instead. He's good enough. You know, he's,
see the Lord don't look at the outward appearance. He looks
at the heart, doesn't he? He looks at the heart, and the
picture there was the bond slave. He said, no, you're in bondage
still. You took matters into your own
hand. You were working. I can't accept it. You know why
the Lord couldn't accept it? He touched it. Can't accept anything
a man touches, except for the one man, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He begged God, he said, well, just accept Ishmael. He said,
no, Sarah will have a son. And I love that the Lord didn't
tell him no. I love the Lord's responses to his people. And
you can read it whenever he was in the New Testament, same as
the Old Testament. Whenever a prophet would have a question
unto the Lord, a yes or no question, the Lord wouldn't even answer
the question. Even, remember Nicodemus came to the Lord by
night. Nicodemus, he said, well, we know that you're a teacher
you sent from God because nobody could do these things. And he
said, you must be born again, Nicodemus. It's cut right to
the point. He just got right to the point, didn't he? He didn't
even acknowledge the first part of it. And he did that so many
times, and the same thing he does here with Abraham. He says
to him, Sarah will have a child, and you're gonna call his name
Isaac. You're gonna call his name Isaac. Do you know what
that means? No, I'm not going to accept Ishmael. But he didn't
have to say it. He just said what was gonna happen,
and that's what he does for you and I. It may not come clear
that it's yes or no, but in the end, we know that he meant no,
or we know that he meant yes. We know that he meant no, and
we know that he meant yes. Why didn't he accept Ishmael? Well, because he wasn't looking
in faith to the promise of God. He was looking to what Abraham
could do. Abraham had a problem. They didn't have a son. Abraham
calculated, well, I can, by Sarah's wording, he said, well, I can
calculate that I can have a son by Hagar, and that son can be
my heir. See, the Lord don't need our
help. Did you know that? He doesn't need our help. So
why do we pray? Well, number one, we're commanded
to, but number one, I love to pray. I love to speak unto the
Lord and because I know he's listening. He promised he was
listening. If you are his child, why would
you not want to pray and call out unto him? We see Abraham
here, the reason that he found himself in unbelief was because
he took matters into his own hands. And when we're praying,
we're not taking matters into our own hands, we're asking.
And the Lord said, ask and you shall receive. You have not because
you ask not. So we see that we ask, not as
a work, because at the end, is it not true that it's the believer's
prayer, Lord, not my will, but thy will be done. Is that not
the end of it? Every time we pray, Lord, not my will, but
thy will be done. Abraham, did not believe because
he wasn't looking in faith unto the Lord, to the promise. He was looking to what his hands
had produced. And what does the scripture say
about faith? Without faith it is impossible. What does that
word impossible mean to you and I? Does it mean kind of possible? Does it mean a little bit possible,
maybe possible? No, it doesn't, does it? It means
impossible. And so many times I forget that. I forget that
the Lord gives us these simple words to get us to understand,
or help us to understand, if he'd be our teacher, the word
impossible means that it is not possible at all, ever, exclamation
point. Not possible to please God without
faith. And Abraham was looking to what he could see, what he
could touch. Here's my son. Look what I've
done. It's the same goes all the way
back to Cain, doesn't it? Look at the works I've brought to
you. It's just what men do by nature. The Lord said, no, the
only thing I'm going to accept is what I provide. The only way
that you're gonna have a child is if I cause Sarah to conceive.
The only way that you're gonna have a child is if I cause you
and Sarah to have that child and I get all the glory. You
don't get any glory in this, Abraham. You get no glory in
this. This is not gonna be of your
hand. It's not gonna be of your works. It's gonna be of my grace
alone. And that's how salvation is,
isn't it? It's gonna be by grace alone. You and I can't put our hands
to it. You and I can't put our works to it. You and I can't
run to the law for it. We can't go and try to work something
up that would please God for it. No, we're either working
or we're resting. And only those who are unable
to rest rest their hope in the finished work of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and have ceased from their work. God will not accept anything
of our hand. He only accepts what he provides,
and we know why, because everything that we produce and everything
that our hand touches, we're corrupted, we're polluted, We're
tainted, we're defiled, we're desolate, we're unclean in his
sight. Even the stars, the scripture
says, are not clean in his sight. Even the angels who are holy
beings have to cover their eyes when they're in his presence.
See, that's the contrast. You and I, we wouldn't, we don't
have anything that we're capable of bringing into him that he
would accept. That's why we need a substitute. That's why we need
a substitute. That's why we need the Lord Jesus
Christ who can touch God and not be destroyed and touch man
and not be defiled. That's what he did for his people. If we're working, we're not believing,
we're not resting all of our eternal hope, all of our hope
of eternal life in the Lord Jesus Christ and that finished work
that he performed on the cross of Calvary. We're adding to it
or taking away from it. It's one or the other. Either
we're resting or we're working. There's no alternative. Did you
know that? The gospel's simple. It's not a complicated gospel.
Men hate it because of its simplicity. They wish it was more complicated.
They need something to do by nature. Just as Abraham thought,
I gotta do something. Can't just sit around here and
you wonder how long that took him. to take matters into their
own hands. How long would it take you and
I? I don't know. I don't know. Somebody asked me, how long was
it before Eve took the fruit after the Lord said, don't touch
the fruit? And I said, well, at best that afternoon, but probably
shortly after. How do you know that? I know
my nature. We're very attuned to our nature. Our Lord's revealed
it to us. Now, those who are in darkness, they don't understand
their nature is completely and utterly sinful. I don't trust
myself. I have no confidence in this
flesh. Well, I have confidence in Him.
And I believe in his power to keep us away from ourself, our
own worst enemy. I know he has that power. How do I know that? He's revealed
it in his scripture. More than that, he's revealed it by faith,
by faith in his son and by faith in his gospel. Now, can you relate to Abraham
and say that we can see the life of every single believer? One
way or another, we see the life of every single believer in Abraham.
He just, one minute, you see him, he's on top of Mount Moriah,
ready to sacrifice his own son unto God because he believes
he can resurrect him from the dead. The next minute, he's saying,
well, I don't even, that's my sister. That's not even, that's
not my wife, that's my sister. That's us, isn't it? Jesus came
into the world to save his elected sinners, and he put their sin
away by the sacrifice of himself. We're resting. Will we believe
that for a moment? And then we see with these natural
eyes things around us, and we begin to try to take matters
into our hands again just for a moment of the Lord, and he
allows us to do things and purposes us to do things so that we are
made to come back and say, Lord, save me. Lord, save me. You think about, you wonder if
Abraham ever thought, man, did I really mess this up? Did I
really mess this up bad? Now that he had Isaac, because
they had to cast out the woman. So Hagar and Ishmael, they were
cast out from the press. Sarah said, no, she can't be
around here no more. We actually did have a son. Ain't
that ironic? That's the one that gave her the woman to begin with. She's like, no, she needs to
go away now. We have a real son. He's not even, That's crazy,
ain't it? That's what happened. You wonder
if Abraham thought, man, I'm a dean, therefore things produced
by us and by others. And men compare apples to apples
that are seen and say, oh, you're a spiritual person. No, that's
physical. Those are physical things we're
comparing. But the Lord tries the spirit, doesn't he? He sees
the spiritual things, he sees the heart, he tries the heart. Thank God he doesn't allow our
unbelief or our failures or our sin to alter his purpose. He
said, I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore, you
sons of Jacob are not consumed no matter what you do. And I
take great rest in this. Then this doesn't encourage me
to go out here and commit some great sin. And it doesn't you
either if you're his. It doesn't. But to know that
I can't mess up salvation, and to know that I can't alter his
person, and I can't alter his purpose, there's great rest in
that. But that's not motivation for
me to go do some great sin. If anything, it's motivation
for me to love him more, to serve him more. And how do we serve?
We serve out of love. We serve out of love. One for each other
and unto him. We serve looking. That's what
it motivates me to do, to hear your sins are gone, Okay, good,
my sins are gone, now I can go sin more. That's not, that's
not it, is it? No, somebody says that. They
don't know who God is. No, we say, Lord, even after
we hear your sins are gone, Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner.
He says, I already have. I've already put those sins away.
That's not motivation to sin more, that's motivation to, hey,
we just fall in love with him more and more, don't we? I think
that's a good way to put it. We just fall in love with him more and
more. Abraham believed God and because
of righteousness, faith was reckoned to him. If God does not interject
his person by his power, by his spirit upon our person, no man
will believe. I always heard in false religion
that God is a gentleman and he would never invade somebody's
will. You ever heard that one? If he doesn't, we're in trouble,
first and foremost. Because by the will that you
and I possess right now, the will that Abraham, we see in
Abraham, the will that we see in all the men and women of the
scripture that were believers, the same will that we have, all
the way back to our father Adam, it's the will of unbelief that
cannot come to God, that will not come to God. It's the will
that says, let this man, let his blood be upon us and upon
our children, be away with this man, away with this man. That's
the will that we have. If he doesn't intersect that
will, if he doesn't intercept, So we're on a crash course to
hell. We're born in trespasses and in sin. Unless the Lord intercepts
our path, comes to where we are, gives us a new nature to believe,
we will never come to Christ. Aren't you so thankful? He said,
you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and in sin,
were. So he came where we were, when
we were dead, Christ died for the ungodly. When we were without
strength, Christ died for the ungodly. He did it. And he says,
I have bought you. I have redeemed you. I've claimed
you. You're mine. I've elected you. I've saved you by my grace. You're
mine. I'm gonna keep you too. I'm not
gonna lose one. That's good news, isn't it? That's
good news. He did the same thing to Abraham
that he does to you and I. Abraham and the Ur of the Chaldees,
he was down there bowing down to graven images and performing
rituals, no doubt, trying to please a false god, didn't even
know who God was, and God came to him and says, Abraham, I'm
gonna make a covenant with you. An everlasting, and what's that
everlasting covenant? There's only one everlasting
covenant, it's the covenant of grace. He said, I'm gonna make
a covenant with you. And it's not gonna be based upon
what you do, it's gonna be based upon what I do. That's why Ishmael
was rejected, because it was what Abraham did. But because
what God did, he accepted it. He accepted Isaac as the seed
that would be the promise. That's what he said, in Isaac
shall thy seed be called. Why? God did it. Not you and
me, we didn't do it, God did it. Not Abraham, God did it. And that's still what he's looking
for today, is what he has done on the cross of Calvary. Anything
short of that, he's not pleased with. He's not pleased with. The Lord comes to us and does
interject, and he reckons, reckons faith. He counts faith unto us
because of the Lord's righteousness. He gives faith unto his people
because of the Lord's righteousness at his appointed time. You know
what that means? Well, let me explain about faith just for
a minute. You already know this, but I want us to make sure we
are reminded. I feel like it's been a week since we met. It
has been a week since we met. I feel like it's been a month. I don't know
how anybody else feels. It was odd for me. But faith comes from
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the possessor of it. He
is the supplier of it. He is the source and the substance
of faith. It gives him all glory and all
praise. So it comes from him. It gives
him all glory. Doesn't give us any glory. And
if he doesn't give us that faith, we will never look to him, we
will never believe on him, we will never trust in him. But
if he gives us faith, you and I cannot help but look to him
because of its origin and because of its purpose. Because he's
the one that gave it and that's what it does. It looks to Christ
alone. It looks to him only. He's the
one that gave it. He gets all the glory for it.
So that you and I get no glory. If he gives that faith, you and
I, is that good news to you? You can't help but believe God
if the Lord gives you faith. That means I can't mess it up.
If he gave me faith, I can't help but believe him. I can't
help but look to him. He says to each of his children,
seek ye my face. And we say, Lord, I would not
have sought your face unless you said to me, seek ye my face.
That's what David said, wasn't it? That's what David said. You can't help but believe him,
trust his word, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Otherwise
we would be unable to believe the promise of God. We would
be like, don't think ourself any higher than Abraham. We would
be just like him. We would be, we'd be exactly
like him, wouldn't we? We would take matters in our
own hand. Now this is, And understand the
importance here. This promise that's given Abraham
of the Redeemer, this is the same promise that we're clinging
to, but it's, it's a past promise. And his was present. He never
got to see the promise come to fruition. We got to see it by
faith in the scripture. So we know that it actually happened,
but we still look to that same promise of the Redeemer. We still
look to the Redeemer, don't we? We're not just waiting for it
to happen. It already happened. And we're looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ
by the same faith. God gets all the glory. Let's
read our text again, Hebrews 11, verse 17. By faith, Abraham,
when he was tried, offered up Isaac. And he that had received
the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was
said that Isaac shall thy seed be called. Accounting that God
was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from whence also
he received him in a figure. It is interesting that he calls
Isaac, his only begotten son, because we see that he had another
begotten son named Ishmael. But Isaac was the only begotten
son of promise. Promise, that's the difference.
See, the Lord's not looking for what you and I do, as I've already
said. He's looking for what he has done, what he has provided. And in Isaac, that's why he said,
in Isaac shall thy seed be called, because I have provided. I have
provided. That's what, Jehovah Jireh means,
after Abraham had offered up Isaac, or was about to offer
up Isaac, the angel of the Lord stopped him. They had a ram caught in a thicket,
didn't they? I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit here,
but that's okay. And Abraham said, I'm gonna call this place
Jehovah Jireh. The Lord has provided. The Lord will provide. The Lord
will provide. Everything he required, he provided. And we see it's the same in you
and I as it is in Abraham. If we're gonna believe God, God's
gonna have to be the doer of it. It's the same with Peter.
Why did Peter not, why save Peter? The Lord said, Peter, I've prayed
for you. I've prayed for you, Peter, that
your faith fail not. And that faith, that's the point.
That faith can't fail because of its origin. It's the Lord's
faith that's given. Our faith, when Abraham was tried,
that's to say when God tried the faith of Abraham, Abraham
believed God. But if you heard the words, whenever
the Lord had tried your faith, your question would be, is it
the Lord's faith he gave me or is it just my beliefs, my trust,
my anything? No, I love the fact that the
Lord calls it your faith, even though it's his that he's given
to you. It's a gift. It's a gift. It's sweet, isn't
it? Abraham believed God when God tried his faith in so much
that he would resurrect Isaac. Why is that? Why did Abraham
believe he would resurrect Isaac? Well, it's quite simple, really.
Abraham believed the promises of God, just as you and I do,
and he knew the truth. God can't lie. And God said,
in Isaac shall thy seed be called. So if God was going to have Abraham
sacrifice his son, the Lord had given him faith to believe that
God would resurrect him from the dead. Because his seed was
going to have to come through Isaac. So it is the same with
you and I when the Lord gives faith to look to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Everything else we don't understand all around us, but
we know one thing. You know how tomorrow's gonna
turn out? Nope, don't have a clue. You know how the economy's gonna
be? Nope, don't have a clue. How's your this in life? How
that in life's gonna go? How your health's gonna be in
10 years? How you're gonna be this? Nope, don't have a clue.
What do you know? I know that Jesus Christ saved
his people from their sin. I know that's true. I know that
he is the successful redeemer of his people and everything
that he promised he's going to keep, or he already has. He cannot
lie. I know that's true. How do you
know that? Because God's made me know it. Lord's made me believe
it. I didn't wake up one morning
and decide that, and you didn't either, did you? Lord said, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. It wasn't an invitation. And
aren't you glad it wasn't an invitation? Well, if you would
like to believe, here's your opportunity, you just let me
know. What a puny God that would be, a weak God, dependent upon
you and I. You know, if we see our frailty
and our sinfulness, aren't you glad that he's sovereign, he's
holy, and he's just, and he's right, he's true, and he's full
of grace for his people? He's full of grace, and he says,
believe. And you and I are, I believe. Lord, help my unbelief. Are you resting in the same power,
in the same truth, in the same promise of Abraham? Are you working?
There's one or the other. There's no difference. Last thing I want you to notice,
I said I was getting ahead of myself, and I'll be brief here, but the
story of Abraham and Isaac is a beautiful type and picture
of our Lord. And I love some of the details
that are given that show us that it's the Father and the Son,
the Lord, and what happened on Calvary's cross. And we see that,
Lord, so I don't want you to try to think about what it would
feel like or enter into if you can at all. the Lord promising
you something and promising you something. And even we can't
enter into hearing his voice verbally as a promise, but he
verbally said this. He was in the flesh talking to
Abraham. The Lord Jesus Christ was in
the flesh talking to Abraham. He said, you're going to have
a son. Now he has his son. And Lord said, I want you to
take him up. And I want you to offer your
only begotten son, Isaac up unto me as a sacrifice. And you know,
it doesn't say Abraham missed a beat. It doesn't say that he
lost sleep over that. And I don't, I mean, I would
think that one would, but it doesn't give us that information.
It doesn't say that. It says Abraham believed God.
I would, you know what the glorious truth is, Abraham believed God
the same way you and I believe God in salvation. The same way
we believe God cannot fail in his promise. You believe that,
don't you? That's what it meant there. Abraham believed the promise
of God that the seed would come through Isaac. So he knew that
if he sacrificed him, the Lord would raise him up. It'd be a
difficult task, but the Lord would keep his promise. He believed
God. So we see that they set off on
a three-day journey, and they get to the bottom of Mount Moriah.
And he tells the men, he says, wait here. I and the lad go yonder
to worship. What is worship? He was obeying
God for one thing. Worship is looking unto Christ.
Worship is offering. We don't come to service to take
from God. We come to service to offer worship
and praise and adoration for what he's done. What is that
worship? Looking unto Christ through the eyes of faith. Offering
to him the same thing that he's given us. We're not offering
what we produce. We offer the same that he's given. Here's
Christ, we believe him, same as you. And looking to Christ. That's worship, looking to Christ.
And we see these pictures as they're climbing the mountain.
Isaac says, Father, here's the wood, there's the son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, carrying that cross up that mountain. That's the
wood, isn't it? And the father had the fire. He said, here's
the wood, here's the fire, but where's the sacrifice for the
offering? And what did Abraham say? The
Lord will provide himself the sacrifice. He certainly did,
didn't he? He provided himself the Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and he provided for himself. He did
both. They reached the place where
the Lord's purpose for him to offer up Isaac, and he binds
him upon the altar. And he goes to sacrifice his
son. And the angel of the Lord, that's
the Lord Jesus Christ, stops him. He says, hurt not thy son,
thy only son Isaac, for now I know of certainty you believe God.
You believe God. And boy, you talk about a relief,
the same relief that you felt. Whenever the Lord came to you
and told you by faith through his spirit that your sins are
forgiven you, it's the same feeling. He turned and saw and there was
a ram caught in the thicket, a substitute, a substitute, one
that could take the place of Isaac that God would still be
pleased with. That's exactly what happened. He was caught
by the horns. in the thorns. And we see that those thorns
represent the curse of man from the garden. And doesn't it say
the Lord was made a curse for us on the cross? He that hangeth
upon a tree is a curse. We see that the knife that was
coming forth from Abraham, that's the sword of justice that did
pierce the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see that without
the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. There
was no one else to take the place of Christ if you and I were to
be redeemed, the Lord's people. And that's exactly what happened.
The father executed his son in order to redeem his people, and
he did. And the father was satisfied. Justice was satisfied. The law
fulfilled, and the veil in the temple was rent entwined from
top to bottom. And we look through faith, the same as Abraham did,
to the same sacrifice on that day. You know something interesting
about where they were at Mount Moriah? That's the same mountain
range that Calvary and Golgotha are on. Lord brought him to the
place, close to the place where he was gonna actually perform
that action on his own son. He was showing him, he was giving
him a picture. This is what's gonna happen for you to be redeemed.
It's not gonna come through your sacrifice, Abraham. Even if you
sacrifice Isaac, he can't save you. It's gonna come through
a sacrifice I provide, the ram caught in the thicket, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that's exactly what he did
for his people. By the sacrifice himself, by
the sacrifices of himself, he purged our sin. And when he hath
purged our sin, Hebrews chapter one tells us, he sat down on
the majesty on high. He sat down. All of God's elect were redeemed. The Lord's saying the same thing
to us as he was teaching Abraham. Here's my beloved son. whom I
am well pleased. I'm not pleased with you, Abraham,
and even your son, even though he's the heir of promise, he's
not the one that's going to bring forth salvation. My son's going
to do that. My son's going to do that. Either
we are working towards our own damnation or we are resting in
that finished work. We are resting in the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the work of the father in election
and in executing his son, the work of the son in shedding his
blood for his people, thereby purging their sins and being
raised because of our justification. And the work of the spirit comes
to each of us, each of his people at his appointed time and says,
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, live and gives that faith that
believes. If we've been chosen unto salvation,
that's exactly what we are made to do, is believe. But if you've been given this
faith, you believe God over what is seen. Abraham still wanted
to see some things, didn't he? There for a little bit, still
wanted to see some things. If you've been given faith, you
have to believe over things that are seen and to the things that
are not seen. That's what faith looks at. Faith never looks to
what it can see here, physically. It looks to spiritual things.
Either way, if we're working, we're looking towards physical
things. If we're resting, we're looking towards spiritual things.
We're looking towards the Lord Jesus Christ. We now obey God and not self.
How is that? We believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ as all of our hope for our righteousness. We are no
longer trying to help God out. We're no longer trying to do
him a favor. We've ceased from our works. We believe it is finished. As a matter of fact, that's our
only hope, isn't it? We believe it's finished, but as a matter
of fact, that's our only hope, that it's finished. If it ain't
finished, we're in trouble. We're in trouble. We say, God
have mercy on me, the sinner, because it is finished. Either
you're working, either I'm working, or either you're resting, or
either I'm resting. Let's pray. Father, cause us
to cease from our works if we have not, and continually cause
us to cease from our works. Cause us to look to your darling
son as all in salvation. Bless us to our understanding
and for your glory.