? Jesus, lover of my soul ? Let
me to thy bosom fly ? While the nearer waters roll ? While the
tempest still is high ? Hide me, O my Savior, hide Till the
storm of life is past, Safe into the haven guide, O receive my
soul at last. Other refuge have I done, hangs
my helpless soul on thee. Leave, O leave me not alone,
still support and comfort me. All my trust on Thee is stayed,
All my help from Thee I bring. ? Cover my defenseless head ?
? With the shadow of thy wing ? ? Thou, O Christ, art all I
want ? ? More than all in thee I find ? ? Raise the fallen,
cheer the faint ? ? Heal the sick and lead the blind ? Just
and holy is thy name, I am all unrighteousness. False and full of sin I am, thou
art full of truth and grace. ? Plenteous grace with thee is
found ? ? Grace to cover all my sin ? ? Let the healing streams
abound ? ? Make and keep me pure within ? ? Thou of life, the
fountain part ? Freely let me take of thee. Spring thou up within my heart. Rise to all eternity. Birth? Caleb? Let's see if I
can find the right note here. Okay. ? Lord, we come before thee now
? ? At thy feet we humbly bow ? ? O do not our suit disdain
? ? Shall we seek thee, Lord, in vain? ? Lord, on Thee our
souls deepen, In compassion now descend. Fill our hearts with
Thy rich rays, Tune our lips to sing Thy praise. In thine own appointed way, now
we seek thee, here we stay. Lord, we know not how to go till
a blessing thou bestow. Send a message from thy word
that may joy and peace afford. Let thy spirit now impart Christ's
salvation to The singing of the specials and
the hymns have been such a blessing. I have enjoyed hearing the gospel. The singing is equivalent to
the preaching of the gospel and being able to be blessed in what
is being said. I'm so thankful to see this place
the way it's just beautiful, what the Lord has enabled y'all
to do. And I'm just happy to have y'all
as my brothers and sisters. What a blessing. When I was thinking
of that message, I one time heard somebody say this. I can't remember
who heard it. That was a great message. And
they said the most God-like thing we can ever do is forgive somebody. That's a good statement, isn't
it? Would you turn with me to the
22nd chapter of Genesis? I was reading a book several
years ago about preaching, and the author warned about spiritualizing
texts and not giving the meaning and forcing something out of
it. And the great example he used was Genesis 22. You're in
danger if you don't give the main point of Genesis 22, Abraham's
obedience. That is the point of Genesis
22. And men try to put something
in it that's not there, trying to make it a gospel message when
the focal point of Genesis 22 is Abraham's obedience. Let me read a few verses. Verse 12. And he said, lay not thine hand
upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him, for now I
know that thou fearest God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy
son, thine only son from me. Verse 16. And he said by myself,
have I sworn unto the Lord for because thou has done this thing
and has not withheld thy son, thy only son, that in blessing,
I will bless thee. And in multiplying, I will multiply
thy seed as the stars of the heaven and as the sandwiches
upon the seashore. And thy seed shall possess the
gate of his enemies. And in thy seed shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed because thou has to obeyed my
voice. Now, if that is all we had, I
suppose we might be able to reach that conclusion. The reason for
Abraham's blessing is Abraham's obedience to what God said. How much hope does that leave
you with? How much? Come on. If that's the case, I have no
hope. I'm headed for hell for sure. Now, upon reading that, I don't
guess I ought to go into details, but I threw the book against
the wall. vowed to never look at that book
again, and I knew that that man had no understanding of the gospel. And he should not be, he certainly
knows nothing about preaching. Quite often, usually the person
who's least qualified for something writes about it. That's certainly
the case with this fellow. But what is the gospel in this
message? Now I'm not, I want to Obey the
gospel, don't you? I'm not saying that obedience
is inconsequential. It's not. I want to obey the
gospel. But like I said, if what that
fellow was saying is true about that passage of scripture, no
gospel for me. Verse one of Genesis chapter
22. And it came to pass. It's one
of my favorite statements in the scripture. God purposed it,
it came to pass. With regard to everything, yep,
everything. God purposed it and it came to
pass. Did the Lord know you'd be here
this morning? Of course he did. Why? He purposed it and it came
to pass. That's why you're sitting here
right now. And it came to pass after these
things. After what things? About 50 years
of history. The Lord first made himself known
to Abraham when he was 70. Abraham's about 120 years old
at this time. And Abraham's gone through a
lot. And let me remind you about Abraham. He's just like you are. He's as sinful and weak as I
am and as you are. And there are many things in
the scripture that point that out. You know, he had his wife
placed into a harem twice. That's pretty intense, isn't
it? How did Sarah feel about him
after that? And then he said, I thought surely,
I thought, here Abraham is, I thought surely the fear of God is not
in this place. Well, that's contrary to what
he ought to be saying, but he said it. He's got an old man. He's a sinful, weak man like
you and I. I thought Abraham was the father
of the faithful. He is. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God. Yes, that's true, by God's grace. But don't make something out
of him that he's not. He's just like me and you. And it came to pass after these
things that God did tempt Abraham. God put him to test. He's 120
years old. He's had a lot of trials. His
biggest trial is in front of him. And I wouldn't be surprised. I would just expect, with all
of us, that our biggest trials are ahead of us. They're going
to happen. I'm so thankful I don't know
the future. Aren't you? As far as this life, I don't
want to know. That'd be torment, wouldn't it,
if you knew what was going to happen and you just dread it?
It's a mercy to not know what the trial ahead is, but you have
trial ahead. God did tempt Abraham and it
was for his good. But how difficult this trial
is. He said in him, Abraham. And I can. see Abraham wincing at this time
because every time he heard his name called, something big was
going to happen. Something difficult was going to happen. And I bet
he just kind of winced when he heard his name called. He hadn't
heard his name called in a long time. And now here his name is
called. And he said, behold, here I am. And he said, take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac. Wasn't Ishmael a son? He's not acknowledged to be one
here. Yes, he was the physical son of Abraham, but this is given
to teach us something. Ishmael represents the law. Let
me tell you two things, the law has never done. It's never produced
a son, never. And it's never created love,
only resentment. Take now thy son, thine only
son, whom thou lovest. It's almost like each statement
gets more difficult. The one you love, and get thee
into the land of Moriah. That's the place where Jerusalem
would later be built. And that mountain we know that
he's speaking of is the mountain that the temple would be built
on. Get thee into the land of Moriah
and offer him there for a burnt offering. upon one of the mountains,
which I will tell thee of." Involved in offering up his only
son that he loved as a burnt offering, was slitting his throat,
quartering him, putting him on an altar, and burning him up,
that there was nothing but ashes left. How many people in this
room right now are thinking, I could not possibly do that? You could, if God gave you the
grace to. But here's the point. You could,
if you believed upon killing your son, God would raise him
from the dead. That's the point. You could,
if you believed that upon killing your child, God would raise that
child from the dead and that the Messiah would come through
that child because God had promised it and all of salvation is in
that one who God will raise from the dead. Do you know Abraham
believed that? Look in verse five. And Abraham
said unto his young men, abide ye here with the ass, I and the
lad will go yonder and worship. And what's next? And come again
to you. You see in his mind, the deed
was already done. And he said, we're going to go.
He didn't tell them. I mean, you know, you can be
sure he didn't say, I'm going to go kill him, you know, because
they probably would have stopped him. But I and the lad are going to
go worship, and we're going to come again. Turn to Hebrews chapter
11 for just a moment. Verse 17, by faith. Hebrews 11,
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 in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Now God had promised through
Isaac, the Messiah would come. All the nations of the earth
would be blessed. God promised that. Accounting
that God was able to raise him up. God promised he would. God never lies. You see, Abraham
knew God and he knew God could not lie. He could not go back on his word. This is the knowledge of God.
This is who he is. It's impossible for him to say
something and not follow through. He's God. He's utterly faithful. And he believed, verse 19, accounting
that God was able to raise him up even from the dead from whence
also he received him in a figure. This whole time he believed after
God said to do that, I'm sure it was painful. I'm sure he didn't
tell Sarah where he's going. I'm gonna go kill Isaac. No,
that didn't happen. But he raises up, rises up early. Look in verse three. And Abraham
rose up early in the morning and saddled his ass. Genesis
22, verse three. Abraham rose up early in the morning. You
see, the deed was already done in his mind. And he saddled his ass and took
two of his young men with him and Isaac, his son, and he claimed
the wood for the burnt offering and rose up and went unto the
place of which God had told him. Then on the third day, what three
days that might've been on the third day. Now you know what
the significance of that is, the resurrection of Christ. It
was already done. In his mind, he'd already killed
that boy. And now, the third day. Then
on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place
afar off. I don't think he saw that with
anticipation. Was it in any way easy? I don't even know how to say
it. Was it easy for Abraham to do this, even though he believed
God? Of course it wasn't. Was it easy for God to give up
his only begotten son? Then on the third day, Abraham
lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said
unto his young men, He brought two men with him and he said,
abide ye here with the ash and I and the lad will go yonder
and worship. Now that's the first time this
word is used in the scriptures. I and the lad will go yonder
and worship and come again to you. Abraham really believed they
were coming back. Now, why did he ask these two
young men to stay? I mean, he brought him that far.
Well, I believe reading between the lines, he probably knew that
these two young men would keep this from happening. He was an
old man. And these young men would say, you can't do this.
But I believe more than anything else, it was just the father
and the son going for this transaction. Men did not participate in this. Oh, God used men, but this was
a transaction between the Father and the Son only. That is why the Lord turned the
lights out when Christ was hanging from the cross. It's a reminder
to us that we'll really never much understand it. Believe,
yes, but to understand the glory of that which is taking place.
Those two young men were left behind and Abraham and his son
Isaac go to that place to worship. Now, what is meant by that? I
have heard said, and maybe even said myself, that the obedience
of Abraham was the act of worship. Worship is obedience. Whose obedience? Now, I don't in any way want
to make any kind of excuse for disobedience. But if you ever
obeyed God in such a way as he could accept it, your personal
obedience, is that the emphasis? Human obedience? When we're talking about this
great transaction, they were going to sacrifice.
Worship is the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ That's worship. You worship God
when you would not dare approach him apart from the sacrifice
of his blessed son. You worship God when you know
your only way into his presence is through Christ and no other
way. Now you worship God only as a
sovereign. If someone doesn't worship the
absolutely sovereign God, they'd never worship God period. You
only worship a sovereign God that you can't control, that
you can't manipulate, that you can't make him do something that
you want him to do or obligate him to you by something you do.
You don't worship if that's what you're doing, that that's a non-existent
God. You only worship an absolute sovereign and you only worship
him when you know the only way you can approach him is in the
sacrifice of his son. Now, when Moses spoke to Pharaoh,
he said, the God of our fathers has said, let my people go. that they may go into the wilderness
and sacrifice to me. The only way of worship is through
Well, we sang it one time this week. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
This is all my righteousness. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
This is all my hope and peace. Only that is reverence toward
God. Anything else is irreverence. The only way I reverence God
is through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're going
yonder to worship. Let's go on reading, verse six.
And we'll come again to you, verse six. And Abraham took the
wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac, his son. Remember some other time someone
carried the wood up the mountain for their own execution? What
a powerful picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is interesting,
Isaac bore the wood, but Abraham, the type of the father, he has
the knife and the fire that was going to use for the slaying.
There they go, up the mountain. 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 is the lamb for a burnt offering? Evidently Abraham had not yet
told him what was going to take place. He would, but he hadn't
yet. Where is the lamb? He had been
taught by his father, the only way of approach to God is the
lamb. And I know he knew it didn't
mean that lamb, but it represented the lamb to come. Just like Abel
understood it wasn't that blood of that lamb that made him approachable,
but the blood it pointed to that would come, the lamb slain. And
he understood, where's the lamb? I'm sure that that, question
cut into his heart when he heard that. Where's the lamb? And that is a question you and
I, that's a question I ask myself before I preach any message.
Where's the lamb? If the lamb's not there, it ought
not be preached. I don't care what the subject
is. I don't care what you're dealing with. If the lamb is not there,
it's not of the Lord. Where's the lamb? Uh, we ought
to, when we hear a message, that's what we ought to be listening
for. Where's the lamb? When I preach, oh man, if I,
if I look over my notes, where's the lamb? I better not preach
that message. Amen. First Corinthians chapter two,
verses one and two, Paul said, I determined, I made this my
resolve not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and
him crucified the lamb, the lamb. Where's the lamb? What scares
me to death how many times I might have preached without preaching
the lamb. May the Lord give me grace. If I've done poor, I hope
I don't do any more by his grace. That's a scary proposition. Where's
the lamb? And look at Abraham's answer. And Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb
for a burnt offering. Now the whole gospel is in this
verse of scripture. If you would know the gospel,
God's gospel, here it is. God will provide. himself a lamb for a burnt offering. God is the one who provides. You know what you provide? Zilch. Nothing. What do you got that
he'd accept anyway? Somebody says, won't you give
Jesus your heart? What would he want with it? What can you provide? You can't
provide anything that he would accept. It shall be perfect to
be accepted. You can't provide anything. And
you know, that's what we all, we try to bring something to
God that we think will make him do something. No, you can't,
you can't bring anything. It's all bad. It's all bad. I hope I believe that. I know
it's the right thing to say. It's all sin. Can God accept your sin? You're
going to bring him your sin to atone for your sin? Doesn't make
much sense, does it? God will provide all that listen,
all that God requires. God provides. God will provide, oh you can't
provide anything that he would accept and what sacrilegious
irreverence on our part to think we could provide anything that
he could accept. He's God, he's other, he not like us. God will, oh God so gracious,
so glorious, God will provide. Write it down, you don't have
anything to worry about. God will provide. God will provide for himself.
And this is important. God will provide for himself
a land for God to do something for me or you. He had to first
do something for himself. This is, this is where The father
and the son, they go up by themselves. This is a transaction. They accomplished
it. And God was doing this for himself,
for God to do something for you or me. He first had to do something
for himself. You see, God's holy. God's absolutely
just. He can't accept me or you the
way we are. It would be a violation of his
justice. but he did something for himself in the land. He made a way for him to be just,
absolutely just, and justify somebody like me or you in a
way that honors his justice, where his very justice demands
your salvation. God made it. to where his holy
law demands me to come in. God's righteous character demands
for me to come in because the Lamb put away my sin. You see, God's attributes, he's
not gonna violate any of his attributes. Any message you hear
that violates any of God's attributes is a wrong message. It didn't
come from God. God made a way for himself. to do something for me and you.
God will provide for himself this way. So can God do that? Of course he can. He's God. He's
God. And God provided himself as the
lamb. He's the one who does the providing.
He provides for himself. and he provides himself as the
lamb. The cross is the most godlike
thing God ever did. Creation came for this purpose. The lamb. So they went both of them together
and they came to the place which God had told him of. And Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order
and bound Isaac, his son, and laid him on the altar upon the
wood. Abraham was 120. Isaac could
have prevented this. He could have. He was a young
man, but I don't have any doubt that his father told him, now
this is what's going to take place. I'm going to kill you. and offer you up as a burnt offering
in obedience to God's command, but you can be sure of this,
God is gonna raise you from the dead. So just go through it.
And Isaac said, yes, father. Now that tells us two things. Christ's utter willingness to do this. He wasn't forced. He was utterly
willing to do this. And we learned something about
the faith of Christ. Though he slay me, yet will I
trust him. How he trusted what his father
said. I'm gonna be, now that's faith.
How dependent are you upon God to raise you from the dead? You
don't have anything to do with that, do you? It's gotta be utterly
the work of God. Christ perfectly obeyed his father,
perfectly believed his father, knowing his father would raise
him from the dead, and he was perfectly willing in this. Isaac let his father bind him. Let his father put him on the
altar. He did all of this willingly. And everything the Lord Jesus
Christ did, he did willingly. He said, I delight to do thy
will, O God. Now here's an example, I think,
of what Paul means when he says we're saved by the faith of Christ.
We are saved by the faith of Christ, aren't we? I'm resting
in his faith as my faith before God, but let's go on reading.
And they came to the place which God had told him of. And Abraham
built an altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac,
his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham
stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the Lord called
unto him out of heaven. Now that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the angel of the Lord. And the angel of the Lord called
unto him out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said,
here am I. And he said, lay not thine hand
upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him. For now I
know that thou fearest God, seeing that thou has not withheld thy
son, thy only son from me, which is God the Father not withholding
his only son. And we admire Abraham's faith. I want to have the same faith,
don't you? I want to believe God just the way Abraham did. God
said, now I know. God already knew, but now Abraham
knows. This was for Abraham's benefit. Lay not thine hand upon the lad,
neither do thou anything unto him. For now I know that thou
fearest God, seeing that thou is not withheld by son, thy only
son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes
and looked. That word look. is the same word
used with regard to those Israelites looking upon the brazen serpent. And Abraham lifted up his eyes
and looked, and behold, behind him. Behind him. Now there's a very
real sense in which faith is looking in the rear view mirror.
You're looking ahead to that which has already been accomplished,
what's already been passed by. Abraham looked behind him. Now, what a blessing this is.
I'm not looking to something that hadn't yet been done, but
something that's already been completely accomplished and finished,
signed, sealed, and delivered. when the Lord said, it is finished. You know what? It was finished. And Abraham looked behind him
and behold a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. This speaks of
the thorn crown brow of the Lord Jesus Christ. Was it there all along? I believe
so. I believe so. Sometime that night,
maybe somebody left the pen open, the sheep wandered out up the
other side of the mountain, gets its head caught in the thicket
of thorns, it's stuck, can't move. doesn't know what to do. It was already there. Abraham
just didn't see it. Now he does. Now he does. And he sees it behind him. And
he went and here is the gospel. He went and took the ram and
offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. Christ offered up in my stead. God giving his son for this purpose. He took my sin. Somebody says,
how could that be? God did it. Thou has made his
soul an offering for sin. For He hath made Him to be sin,
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. How can this be? God did it.
With God, nothing shall be impossible. God did this. God took my sin. Somebody says, I put my sin under
the blood. You can't do that. You can't do that. The only one
who can do that is God. God took my sin and placed it
upon in his son. He who his own self bear our
sins in his own body on the tree. He took my sin and my sorrow. He made it his very own. He bore
the burden to Calvary and suffered and died alone. Now the Braavists. He's laying there in that jail
cell. He doesn't have any idea what's going on. And they open
up the jail cell and he think, well, it's time to get nailed
to the cross. You've been set free. You've
been set free. Someone is dying in your stead. And that is the only hope of
the gospel. Listen to me, my only hope is
that Jesus Christ died for me. And if you tell me that he died
for all men without exception, and some of those men wind up
in hell anyway, you've taken away my hope. There isn't a drop
of gospel in that message, not a drop. I despise that. To say Christ could pay for somebody's
sins and they wind up in hell anyway. Well, that means his
death doesn't save, something you do saves. That's all that
means. Abraham offered Him up for a burnt offering
in the stead of his son. That's exactly what happened
on Calvary Street. And Abraham called the name of
that place, Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord will provide. The Lord will see to it. If you ever said that to your
kids and they say, what are we going to do about this? I'll
see to it. I'll see. You don't need to worry about it. I'll
see to it. The Lord will provide. The Lord will provide for himself. You know, he said, when I see
the blood, I'll pass over you. Not when you see it. When I see
the blood, who had to see the blood? Well, those folks in the
house couldn't see a good day. They're in the house. When I
see the blood. I will pass over you. And he
provided himself as the lamb. Now let's close by turning to
John chapter eight. Verse 56. Your father, Abraham rejoiced
to see my day. I don't have any doubt what he's
talking about there. Your father, Abraham rejoiced. Can you imagine Abraham and Isaac
walking down that mountain? I bet they were floating down,
weren't they? He rejoiced. to see my day, and he saw it,
and he was glad. Then said the Jews unto him,
thou art not yet 50 years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus
said unto them, Verily I say unto you, before Abraham was,
I am. Then took they up stones to stone
him. I know somebody else who was
mighty glad when he was going down that mountain. It wasn't
just Abraham. You reckon Isaac was glad too? Aren't you thankful for the pictures
or illustrations or whatever, historical events that the Lord
gives us to cause us to understand his gospel? The star here is
not Abraham's obedience, is it? Amen. I was thinking that you hear
sometimes people talk about the power of prayer. And we know
that when we were yet without strength, no power. Christ died for the ungodly. Power is not in prayer, power
is in our God. As horns represented the strength
of Christ bound up with our sin. And yet the Lord put on our hearts
some time ago to pray for this meeting. And he was merciful
to cause us to cry out. And I think we can say this morning
that he's been Merciful to answer that prayer. God met with us
this weekend. This morning has been such a
blessing. Thank you, man. We're going to close the service
with a hymn and number 30 in the spiral hymnal. And then we're
going to I think the rain has quit. So we'll be able to go
over to the fellowship hall and enjoy a meal together. Please
say and do that. Let's stand together. Tom, you
come. I want to lead us in a closing
prayer. Our Heavenly Father, thank you for thy son, for his
accomplished work of redemption. Thank you for thy word and thank
you for the preaching of the gospel and for speaking so simply
and clearly to our hearts. Lord, we pray that your Holy
Spirit would cause us to remember the things that we've heard and
to reflect on them and to rejoice in them and to find our hope
and salvation in Christ. For we know that faith comes
by hearing and hearing by the word of God. We thank you for
the physical food that we're about to receive. And Lord, we
know that Everything comes from your hand, for truly a man can
receive nothing except to be given to him from heaven. And
so we thank you for it, and we pray, Lord, that you would bless
it and bless our fellowship. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. 31, 30, 30, 30. Glory, glory, I'm forgiven. All my sins are washed away. Christ, by his great blood atonement,
all my sin has put away. Sin imputed to my Savior when
He died upon the tree. As the substitute for sinners,
God will not impute to me. ? Glory, glory, I'm accepted
? ? Robed in Christ's own righteousness ? ? I'm a child and heir of heaven
? ? Saved by God's almighty grace ? ? Christ's obedience to the
Father is imputed ? In God's sight I'm pure and holy. He declares me so to be. Glory, glory, I'll not perish. In Christ's hands I am secure. He who saved me sure will keep
me. By God's grace I shall endure. This is not a vain presumption,
I just take him at his word. Christ has sworn they shall not
perish who believe on me their Lord. you