Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. I would like to look at verses
17 to 19. Hebrews 11, verses 17 to 19. says 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. Let's pray together. Our Father, we call upon you
tonight as needy people. Lord, people that are proud. People that need you. Lord, help us Lord, help us to
worship, knowing that in ourselves we are nothing, and Christ is
all. Lord, would you bless the services
tonight for Christ's sake. Amen. Psalm 24.1 says, The earth
is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof. the world and they that
dwell therein. This world belongs to God. This is God's world. And we are
the recipients of that which God Almighty is graciously pleased
to give. He is the creator. He's the governor
of everything. And He has the right to order everything in this world. He's got the right to raise up
or put down. And when He's done, He's going
to dispose of this world exactly as he pleases according to the
scriptures. And he's going to make another
world that is created in absolute righteousness. This is God's world. This is
God's world. 1 Chronicles 29 and 11 says,
Thine, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and
the victory and the majesty for all that is in the heavens and
in the earth is thine. Thine is the kingdom, O Lord,
and thou art exalted as head above all." You know, there's
nothing that gives me more comfort than knowing that God Almighty
is in control. I thank God for that. I thank
the Lord that He rules and reigns and the army of heaven among
the inhabitants of the earth. God Almighty. Now, knowing that
the earth is the Lord's and they that dwell therein, we behold
the marvelous dealings of Almighty God with those that He has been
pleased to call to Himself in mercy and compassion. Now, what
I'm about to deal with is the mercy and grace of Almighty God
to draw His people to Himself. God knows how to bring His people
to Him. He knows how. We're made to see how God deals
with the objects of His love, and how the Lord proves His faithfulness
to them. and their faithfulness to Him
by obedience through trials, testings, and chastisements of
their faith. 1 Peter 1.7 says this, that the
trial of your faith, being much more precious than that of gold
that perisheth, Let me tell you what is more precious than gold
that perishes. Let me tell you what's more precious,
what's more important, what's more precious to God's people. It's the trial of their faith.
That's what's more precious than gold that perishes. For whom
the Lord loveth, that's who He chastens. If you be without chastisement,
if Almighty God allows a man or a woman just to keep going
where they're going in rebellion, it proves that they're illegitimate.
They're not His. If He allows a man or a woman
to keep going in their rebellion and arrogance against Him, the Scripture says they're bastards. That the trial of your faith,
being much more precious than that of gold that perishes, though
it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor
and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. That our faith,
the faith of God's elect, might be found to be genuine. Almighty
God is going to make sure that it's proven He's going to show
us His faithfulness to us by the trial of our faith. Now,
the Scripture starts off that we're going to look at tonight.
It says, by faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac. Now, Abraham, just like all of
God's people, He had been tried. He was made to learn by experience,
and that's the only way we really learn. Nobody really knows if
you've not experienced it. There have been times that somebody
would come up and say something to me or tell me something that
they've gone through. Something, a great trial or something. Now, if I've experienced that,
I can say, I know how you feel. But if I've never experienced
it, I don't know how you feel. There's a few things that the
Lord has blessed me in being able to experience. And I know
what it feels like. But every one of God's people,
they're going to learn by experience, and thereby strengthened by the
Lord through the trial of their faith. Faith is only proven or
found to be real by testing, the proving of it, by chastisement. And usually we are going to find
the older we get, the chastisements, the trials increase. Abraham at first, remember we
were looking at him at first when he was called out of Ur
of the Chaldees. His first trial was to leave
his land, leave his family. You're going to have to give
up where you live. Go out into a place which he
should after receive for inheritance. Well, after he left and he was
journeying in the land of Canaan, The land of promise. He traveled,
the scripture says, toward the south according to Genesis 12,
9 into the land of Egypt. And then he had another trial.
This one was a little bit tougher. He was afraid that when he got
there to Egypt, the Egyptians would look at his wife because
of her beauty and would kill him. So he said, Tell them that you're my sister.
Of course, you know what happened. The Lord revealed that she wasn't
his sister, it was his wife. And then being delivered from
that trial, he was proven by faith to believe God when he
and Lot, his nephew, now they had, here was Abraham's herdsmen
and all of their There's livestock and stuff, and there's lots,
herdsmen and all there, and there was a squabble over grass. It was over where their animals
could get something to eat. And there was a heads up about
it. And here was Abraham and Lot. And their herdsmen, they started
fussing over grass. And by the grace of God, Abraham
came and he told Lot, he said, we're brethren. This can't be. We're brethren. What are we squabbling
over grass? If the issue is not the gospel
of God's grace, it's not an issue. It's no issue. He told Lot, he
said, you take what you want. And I'll take whatever's left.
Of course, Lot set his sight towards Sodom. You know what
happened. Well, next time, God had told
him he was going to give him a son. He said, you're going to have
a son. Of course, like always, we think
God's forgotten. Sarah, his wife, tells him, said,
well, I think probably what God meant was maybe you ought to
just take Hagar, my handmaid, and you go into her. And then
there will be your son. And of course, Ishmael was born. And Abraham loved Ishmael. That was his son. That was his
blood. Bone of his bone. Flesh of his
flesh. That was Ishmael. He had to turn Ishmael out. Hagar,
can you imagine that? They put him out. Great trial. And now, he's had a son from
Sarah. God has given him A son. And this is Isaac. And here is
the son of promise. And here's a son that Almighty
God has blessed Abraham and Sarah to have. And now here is this
boy. And God Almighty is going to
try Abraham again. And these trials. Turn to Genesis
22. I want us to read this account. Just look how these trials have
increased and increased and increased. I mean, just from having to give
up your land, give up your home, and then give up your pride concerning
your wife. Then he had to give up the lands
that he had. Now it's come down to his son. In Genesis 22, verses 1-14, it
came to pass after these things that God did tempt, test, try
Abraham. He said unto him, Abraham, and
he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thine 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 thee of. And Abraham rose
up early in the morning, saddled his ass, and took two of his
young men with him. And Isaac, his son, claimed the
wood for the burnt offering, rose up and went up into the
place of which God had told him. Then on the third day, Abraham
lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said
unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass, and I and
the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you. And Abraham
took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son.
And he took the fire in his hand and a knife, and they went both
of them together. 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? And Abraham said, My son, God
will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. 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 altar, bound Isaac his son, laid him on the
altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his
hand, took the knife to slay his son. 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 thou hast not withheld thy son,
thine only Son, from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes
and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket
by his horns. Abraham went and took the ram
and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh.
And it is said to this day in the mount of the Lord, it shall
be seen." Boy, what a picture. Glorious picture of the gospel.
Substitution. The giving up of your only son.
It was Abraham, tried of God. The Lord God Himself gave his
only begotten son. But when it came time for the
Lord of glory to die, there was no voice from heaven to stop
him. He laid down his life and he died. But in the mind of Abraham,
that boy was dead. He was dead. Every believer learns
by experience. The Lord to prove our faith to
us. often will lay his hand upon
something or someone that is truly dear to us. There will
be times when we will be tried. But by the grace of God, God
keeps His own. Three days, Abraham knew, I'm
going to have to offer this boy up. I just imagined three days. how many things that his son
would say to him, talk about stuff, laugh. Can you imagine what was going
through Abraham's mind? But there was one thing that
was needful. God's honor. God's honor. The lad and I are going to go
up and we're going to worship God. This was the only thing
that mattered Almighty God's Word. Abraham was not some cold,
insensitive dad toward his son in himself. I'm sure that that
old man warred against that new man, but by faith By that faith
alone that God Almighty gives, when he was tried, and only by
faith, the Scripture says Abraham offered up Isaac. But you could say, well, he didn't
really. He didn't really kill him. Yes, he did. In Abraham's
heart, that boy was gone. He was gone. He that had received
the promises offered up his only begotten son. It was done. In Abraham's mind, God's Word
was the final authority. Isaac was secured to that altar. That knife was raised up in the
air. And by faith, the Son that Almighty
God had promised to be the posterity of His people. Abraham was going
to kill Him. The one that Almighty God said
a people would come through and would have a seed that would
excel the numbers of the stars and the sands of the sea, but
especially in that boy. Abraham knew. Abraham knew that
through that boy, the Messiah was going to come. Abraham knew
that. God had told him that through
Isaac shall thy seed, that seed was Christ, and Isaac shall thy
seed be called. Human seed, yes, but through
that seed, the Messiah was going to be in there. You go back in
Matthew and look and go back and find out how the lineage
of Christ, and you're going to find Abraham, you're going to
find Isaac. And he knew that the Messiah
was coming through. I want you to take that boy,
your son, your only son, and you offer him to me for a burn
off. By faith, Abraham did just exactly
what God told him, took him up all the struggles that he must
have had. Can you imagine Satan's darts
flying that day? Can you imagine the flesh, the
conscience speaking to Abraham? Does this sound consistent to
you? Does this sound like a loving
God? These fiery darts. What's Sarah going to think when
you come home and you tell her that you killed Isaac? What is
Sarah going to think when you tell her that God told you to
offer Isaac unto Him on an altar? This son that was promised while
she was standing there, that years before, she laughed. When
he said, you laughed, she said, I didn't. He said, yes, you did.
He said, you're going to have a boy. What are your servants going
to say? When you come back down there with that bloody knife,
and Isaac's not here, and they look up on that mountain, and
they see an altar up there and it's burning, what are they going
to think? What about your sanity? Abraham, with all the struggles
within, without, Abraham believed God. Oh, what a miracle of God's
grace. Abraham believed God. The only
thing that was important to Abraham, the only thing that mattered,
the only thing that must be done right now is that Isaac must
be offered, sacrificed. But what about the promises?
What about the promises of God concerning Isaac? What's going
to happen if Isaac is killed? Verse 19, Abraham accounting that God was
able to raise him up, even from the dead, from whence also he
received him in a figure. By faith, Abraham believed. If
I sacrifice my son just exactly the way God told me to do it,
I believe that Almighty God is going to work a miracle and he's
going to raise Isaac up from the dead rather than fail on
his word. God's word is not going to return
void. He is going to accomplish exactly
what He said. If He said that through Isaac
that the Messiah was going to come, then the Messiah is coming
through Isaac. And if I kill him just exactly
the way God told me to do it, then God Almighty will raise
him from the dead. And the lad and I will return
to those servants after we've worshipped God. By faith, Abraham
believed. that Isaac would be raised up. It's only as we meditate upon
God's Word, God's promise, that our heart can be settled. That
was the only comfort that Abraham had. God raised him up. That's what he said. Accounting
that God was able to raise him up even from the dead from whence
also received him in a figure. In the time of temptation, When
our heart is troubled, when our heart is heavy, His omnipotence,
His omniscience, His omnipresence, His sufficiency, His Word, I
will never leave you. I'll never forsake you. That's
our only hope. Oh, that Almighty God would bring
that back to me, Chuck. When God Almighty puts me in
the fires. in the trials. Lord, teach me. Lord, cause me to remember. Bring back to my memory Your
Word. Faith seeth when there is no
obvious solution. Faith spreads the need before
God and leaves the outcome to Him. Proverbs 16, 3, "...commit
thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established."
Abraham committed Isaac unto the Lord. He was the Lord's. The earth is the Lord's. The
fullness thereof. All souls are mine. The souls
are mine. And God delivered him. Abraham
believed that God raised him up. He believed that his son
would be just exactly alive. As he walked up that hill, he's
going to walk down off that hill. And God did in the heart of Abraham
exactly what Abraham believed God could do. He accounted that
God was able to raise him up. And that's exactly what God did.
Abraham raised that knife. and was ready to plunge that
knife into Isaac. And Almighty God stopped him.
And He said, don't do him any harm. In the heart of Abraham,
God raised him from the dead. Remember, that boy was dead.
In Abraham's mind, that boy was dead. Oh, how great and trying
are the provings of our God. But how these trials draw our
hearts to a personal intimacy with Him. Accounting that God
was able to raise Him up, even from the dead. Verse 18. I'm
sorry, I read it first. Let me read it. I commented on
it, just didn't read it. Of whom it was said that in Isaac
shall thy seed be called. I quoted that a while ago. Abraham
knew. This is the one. This is God's
choice. Abraham, who truly believed that
that boy was God's choice, Abraham saw the grace of God. From whence,
the Scripture says, also he received him in a figure. And though Isaac
didn't actually feel the knife, Abraham saw him as God. Abraham
saw him as raised. Abraham worshiped God. The scripture
says, and this is the account, 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. How comforting, how settling it is to know that
Almighty God will always, for our good and for His glory and
for the honor of His Son, for the comfort of His people, He
will draw us into these trials. And in the midst of these trials,
we will, by the grace of God, see the sufficiency of our God's
grace and His love toward us. Oh Lord, teach me. Teach me of
Yourself. Help me. And Lord, As you draw
us through, and we are going through them, I'm telling you,
we're going through. We're going to go through. If
you're not in one right now, we will be, or you've just come
out of one. But the Lord will. He's going
to try His people. Lord, keep us, for Your name's
sake.