I'll just read it and then obviously
we'll just have to skim over the top, but I'm hoping that
in skimming that I encourage your interest to go back and
study the life of Abraham. He is the father of the faithful.
He's mentioned again and again in this situation, he's mentioned
again and again in Hebrews and other places in the scriptures
just to remind us that he is the father of the faithful. His life is a pattern of the
lives of God's people. And it's good to remember before
we begin that Abraham had been a believer for about 45 years
at this stage. He was called out of Iraq when
he was 75 years old and he had to wait 25 years to have Isaac And now Isaac's a man, a young
man, probably around 20 years of age. So Abraham has at this
stage walked with the Lord for around 45 years. Genesis 22 verse 1, And it came
to pass after these things, which is the birth of Isaac and all
of the trials that Abraham had been through, that he and Sarah
had been through, that God did tempt did test, did prove Abraham,
and said to him, Abraham, and he said, Behold, here I am. 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
thee of. And Abraham 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 unto 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 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 both of them, and they
went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham
his father, and said, My father. And he said, Here I am, 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 order, and bowed 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, 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 the thicket
by his horns. And Abraham went and took the
ram and offered him for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son. And Abraham called the name of that place, Jehovah-Jireh. As it is said, to this day in
the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. And the angel of the
Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time and
said, By myself I have sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou
hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine 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
sand which is 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 hast obeyed my voice." So
Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went
together to Beersheba, and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba. Peter, in his first letter, says
that the trial of your faith, the testing of your faith, being
much more precious than gold that perishes though it be refined
with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory. James talks about that faith,
that faith which is tested and tried. He says, knowing this,
that the trying of your faith worketh patience, and let patience
have a perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting
nothing. My brethren, he said earlier,
count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations. See, the proof, the proof of
your faith, the testing of your faith produces endurance. I quote those verses to you often
out of Romans 4.20. It says that Abraham staggered
not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith. giving glory to God, being fully
persuaded of what He had promised. He was able to perform, therefore
it was imputed to Him for righteousness." And then it goes on to say, "...but
also for us, to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on Him
that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead." It's the peaceable
fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised. See, faith
is exercised like it is with these Thessalonians, like it
is with people that we see around us and we meet again and again.
It's exercised. It's exercised by trials. It's exercised by testings. And it's exercised It's exercised
so that we would see that the foundation, He who is the foundation
of our faith, that stone that Isaiah 28 speaks of, that foundation
stone, a tried stone. You'd find that the Lord Jesus
is tried. And He's precious. He's a sure
foundation. And that he that believeth shall
not make haste. You see, the trials that have
come and are a necessary part of God's loving care of us in
this world are really opportunities for God to show us the faithfulness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So let's look together at Abraham's
trial, Abraham's tested faith. See, they which are of faith,
says Galatians 3, the same are the children of Abraham. Faith, children of Abraham. See, Abraham believed God and
it was accounted to him for righteousness. And I'd like us to think again
and again about what the Lord Jesus said in the midst of a
trial of His, where in John 8 He had people He declared Himself
to be the light of the world, and in John 8.31 He had people
who seemed as if they believed on Him. And then He goes on to
talk and explain about Himself and explain how His faith operates
in the lives of the people and who He is and who His children
are. And they claimed these people
to be children of Abraham. And he says to them, if you were
Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. So here
we see in Genesis 22 some of the works of Abraham. But in
at verse 56 of John chapter 8, he makes this remarkable statement.
It's a beautiful statement. He says, Your father Abraham
rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and was glad. What an amazing blessing, brothers
and sisters. to rejoice, to see my day, to
see the day of the Lord, to see His hand, His sovereign hand
of love and grace and mercy and faithfulness, to see it and to
be glad. Isn't that what Christians long
for, isn't it? We rejoice to see the day of the Lord Jesus. And God's children, God's faith
children like Abraham, they see it. They see it and they're glad. So the first thing we need to
see in in chapter 22, verse 1, and it came to pass after these
things, after the birth of Isaac, after ten trials of Abraham's
faith that we'll look at briefly later on, after all of these
things, after the blessing of finally having a child, after
the blessing of Sarah who was barren and an old, old woman,
finally having a child. God did test, did tempt Abraham. God tried Abraham. God proved Abraham. The reality is Brothers and sisters,
God will try the believers' fear of God. You saw it down, read
it down there in verse 12. He says, Now I know that you
fear God, reverence God, respect God, in awe of God. A remarkable thing is the nature
of this trial. And it's similar to the trials
that we'll have before us so often. He said to Abraham, behold
here, and Abraham said, behold here I am. 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 for a burnt offering
upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of. The first
thing we need to see is that when God brings a trial and God
brings a testing, it's beyond our understanding. How does this make sense? How does this make sense? sacrifice
of Isaac fit with the promises. Abraham is taken outside earlier
in Genesis and he was told to look up at the stars in the sky
and they are all to come. All of these children of his,
the faith children of Abraham, were to come through Isaac. How
can God's purposes be achieved by this? You see, when God brings
trials, the trials are a trial that is beyond our understanding. And it's a trial that challenges
the very heart of what we have, doesn't it? He says, take thy
son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest. a child of love he was after
all those years of barrenness, after all of what it meant for
Abraham to have Ishmael, for all of what it meant for Sarah
to know that it was her that couldn't have a child. Abraham
was able to have children. This was his only son. God says it's his only son. The
only son of promise, whom they loved. God could have asked anything
else of Abraham, couldn't he? He could have asked for all of
his flocks, for all of his guard, for all of his men. But God tests
him in the thing that he loves the most, this only son. This only son who is the only
son of a promise. The other thing to notice about
the trial, and I think it's a really important thing, is the testings
of faith are often private testings. They're testings just between
us and the Lord. You see, Abraham, there's not
a word of him explaining to Sarah what he was about to do and what
God had asked him to do. There's not a word of him explaining
to Isaac and the young men and the others with him. How could
he tell Sarah that this is what God had told him to do? God tests us and tries our faith
that we will see that God is faithful, God is able to provide. When Abraham was first called,
he says, come, leave your family, leave your family, leave your
nation, leave everything. And where was he to go? Abraham wasn't told where he
was going. He wasn't told. God says, I'll
show you the place at the right and proper time. It was the place
known unto God. This was the place known unto
God. It was the place which God had
told him. The trials are a challenge to
our wisdom, a challenge to our understanding. The trials are
trials that we have to bear often in the privacy of our relationship
with God. And the trials are a trial where
God asks people to go to a place where He alone knows and He alone
will provide. In verse 3, Abraham rose up early
in the morning and saddled his ass and took two of his young
men with him and Isaac, his son, and cut the wood for the burnt
offering and rose up and went to the place God told him. See, God will test three aspects
of our relationship with Him. He'll test and try believers'
fear of God. reverence for God, awe of God. Imagine how Abraham must have
felt. Imagine. Imagine the multitudinous
excuses that he could have come up with not to go. As he cut
that wood, he alone knowing what that wood was for, as he took
that knife, and sharpened that knife, and he alone knew what
that knife was for. As he took that fire, he alone
knew what it was for." But Abraham is remarkable, isn't it? After
45 years of being tested in verse 3, he rose up early in the morning
and saddled his ass and he went. He went to the place that God
had shown him. See, Abraham had been tested
by at least 10 trials prior to this, and he'd been tested and
he knew that God is faithful. So it's the trials that show
us that God is faithful. Think back on the trials that
you have been through. Think back on the trials that
we've been through as a church. We would not, if someone had
shown us the script, we wouldn't have joined in. We wouldn't have
taken a part. And yet trial after trial after
trial, and what has happened? Have you got one tiny instance
where you can think that God is unfaithful? One time when
he's let us down, one time when this word has not proven perfectly
faithful and true. You see, people People will not
question God when God has worked in their lives, that they will
trust Him and His Word, despite what human wisdom would call
them to do, despite what their own hopes and desires might be. We just trust God. We don't question Him. And we're
only led to that place of not questioning Him and not debating
with Him, as God has exercised, exercised faith to show us that
He is faithful. You see, fear of God is one of
the covenant blessings, one of the blessings of the new covenant,
one of the blessings of the eternal everlasting covenant. In Jeremiah
32, after he's made those remarkable promises of the covenant in Jeremiah
31, and he talks in Jeremiah 32 about being a husband to them
and working for their good in all things, and he says in verse
40, I will make an everlasting covenant with them. that I will
not turn away from them to do them good, but I will put my
fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me." The
secret, says Psalm 25, 14, the secret of the Lord is with them
that fear Him. He will show them His covenant. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. Proverbs 14.27 says the fear
of the Lord is a fountain of light. Isaiah 33.6 says the fear
of the Lord is a treasure. It's a treasure to reverence
God and be in awe of Him. It's a terribly fearful thing
to fear man and not to reverence God. He tested. That was the result
in verse 12, isn't it? Now I know, says God, that you
fear me. The Lord's trying of His saints
will be a test to prove our love for Him. See, our God is a jealous
God. He will not have a divided loyalty. He's jealous, like a jealous
husband for the affection of his bride. He will not share
His glory or praise or the affection that's due Him. The Lord quite
simply says, you cannot serve two masters. He will, in love
for his people, he will take away the props of this world
that we might find ourselves at rest, at rest in that cleft
rock. He says, the Lord says these
remarkable things. He that loves father or mother
more than me is not worthy of me. And he that loves son or
daughter more than me is not worthy of me. That doesn't mean
we're not to love. Not to love our mothers and fathers. It doesn't mean we're not to
love our sons and daughters. But if it comes to a decision,
to a pointed decision between loving those in this world and
reverencing and honoring God. God will see to it in the lives
of His people that they will honor Him. See, Isaac was precious. Isaac was promised. Isaac was
a loved child. And God says to him, take now
thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest. Abraham was revealed
by the trial to love God, to trust God, to trust Him above
all. And God tested Abraham's fear
of him. He tested his love. And he tested
and proved Abraham's faith. Hebrews 17 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." See, God had made a promise to
Abraham. And in exercising Abraham's faith,
he was caused, Abraham was caused by this remarkable circumstance
to see that God is remarkably faithful to his promise. Abraham could have had special
reason to have confidence in Isaac, but Abraham was brought
to a place by God where he must believe God and must believe
and trust Christ and not to have his confidence in Isaac. So the
trial came from God. God tempted Abraham. The trial came from God at an
appointed time. It came to pass. You see, the real trials, the
real trials that God sends to His own require that they take
God's side, God's side, against their reason and understanding. They take God at His word and
just rest and wait. And even if the whole world goes
the other way, even if all the reason and the wisdom and the
power of men goes the other way, God will work faith in his people
that he'll make them to stand. He'll take believers, he takes
his people to a place where God alone is able. And he'll take believers to a
place where there is no strength in him. See, Abraham was reduced
to nothing in himself. Nothing at all. All he could
do was just wait and trust the Master. One who had loved Him,
one who had walked for all those 45 years with Him. See, faith
is the gift of God, Ephesians 2. It's the gift, but faith is
exercised, faith tried, faith tested is the gift of God. How do our trees grow so big
and tall? They get exercised by the wind
and their roots go down and they get stronger and stronger and
they can reach hundreds of feet into the air. Why? because of what they're attached
to. It's the object of faith. God gives faith and God gives
the trial to strengthen and to grow that faith. And then God
in faith brings us through the trials. Just think of the trials
that Abraham has been through. Leave your own land, leave your
nation, leave your family, leave the religion of Iraq. Leave and not know where you're
going. Leave on the basis of a word
from me." Abraham had a trial to leave that nation of Chaldeans
and God provided for him by faith. In Hebrews 11.9 says, By faith
he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange land, dwelling
in tabernacles. For he looked for a city which
has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. He saw no city
with foundations in that land. He had all of that land. but
he was looking for something else. God had provided. God was faithful. He had to go
down to Abimelech in Egypt and even though he lied about Sarah,
his wife, he went through another trial. And who provided the way
of escape? Who moved the hearts of those
people not to touch Sarah? Twice God moved the hearts of
people that Sarah would not be touched. Abraham, again, weak. God, strong and providing. And then as they grew and he
and Lot grew in their positions, the herdsmen quarrelled. And
what a trial. Abraham says, you can have whatever
land you like. Here it is, it's all ours, it's
all mine. Lot, you can have whichever area
you like. And Lot looked at those plains
of Sodom and Gomorrah and all that beautiful pasture land.
And Lot went down there and lived. And God provided. When Lot was
captured by the five kings, Abraham, just for those few men, rescued
him and returned everything, and it was God who provided. He wanted nothing of the booty. He was resting and trusting in
God who provided. When God came to destroy Sodom,
Abraham again was in an extraordinary trial as he knew what God was
going to do to those cities and he pleaded. He pleaded for his
nephew, he pleaded for the righteous down there. What a trial. He had that trial of Ishmael. That trial of having to send
Ishmael away. He had that trial of waiting
for Isaac all of those years. And God had proven Himself over
and over again. He was perfectly faithful to
His word and He was perfectly faithful to His word of promise
to provide. He's made exactly the same promises
to us, brothers and sisters. We will go through trials. They
might be private trials that you are enduring now that you
can't share with anyone. God will prove faithful. They are, as I said earlier,
these trials, these testings, this tempting of our faith are
sent by God to reveal again and again to us the faithfulness
of Jesus Christ. See, it's the object of our faith
who is faithful. The strength of faith is not
in us, the strength of faith is in the object of our faith. He is our strength. He is our
rock. He is that tried and tested and
precious foundation. Abraham was tried in the most
extraordinary way. What a journey those three days
were. as he left Sarah that morning, what it must have been like for
him as he sat round that campfire for those three nights. and they
chatted away, and he looked across at his son, and Abraham was the
only one that knew. As he cut that wood, as he loaded
that ass, as he prepared that fire for the journey. What an
extraordinary test, what an extraordinary trial for a man who was 120 years
old and walked for 45 years with God. See, he had no other refuge,
he had no other place than to believe God, to obey Him. Faith just looks out of ourselves
because God in the trial has reduced us to nothing. reduced
our ability and our power to nothing. See, God creates the
need. He creates the need for us to
trust Him and He shows again and again His ability to provide. His remarkable ability to provide
is greater than any need we could ever have. That's what happens,
isn't it? That's what happens in salvation.
sinners in need of a salvation. They have no ability in themselves. We have no ability to give life.
We have no ability to make ourselves righteous. We have no ability
to preserve or to protect. We must, believers must and believers
will by the grace of God be brought to a place where again and again
Christ will be all. Christ is all. My God shall supply all your
need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. What riches is our God, God?
What riches of provision, what riches of providence, what riches
of wisdom, what extraordinary riches. Our means again to reveal the
Lord Jesus in Revelation 19 is called faithful and true. Abraham rejoiced to see my day
and he saw it. What did Abraham see? Who did
Abraham see? What did Abraham see that made
him glad? We'll just go through this journey
of Abraham's and we'll think upon what it was like for Abraham
as he walked down that mountain and he went back to Sarah with
Isaac. Resurrected, says Hebrews 11,
raised from the dead to newness of life. What caused Abraham to rejoice? He rejoiced to see the promises
fulfilled. What a rare privilege. That's
what people long for, don't they, in people that they love. They
long for them to see. to see the Lord Jesus, to see
His die, and to be glad, to rejoice in looking forward to it, to
see it, and then to be glad. It's a special and rare privilege
that the Gospel brings, the Gospel that reveals the Lord Jesus in
His glory. So let's look at some of the
Gospel lessons. Here we have Abraham offering up, the father
offering up his only son, his beloved son, as a burnt offering. We have a great picture of the
Father offering up the Lord Jesus, this only Son, this beloved Son. And we have the preparations,
don't we? Abraham back in that camp, he alone knew all that
lay before him. All the others slept and were
unaware as the Father prepared everything prepared everything
everything prepared from the foundation of the world. In his precious son, a people
chosen, a people predestinated, a people eternally loved, a bride
prepared for a beloved son, a gift, a bride that must be made holy,
spotless and unblameable, all prepared by a father. He was going to sacrifice the
Son. And then that journey, it was a journey to a promised,
to a prepared place. Mount Moriah is the place of
Jerusalem, the place where Isaac was sacrificed, the place where
the Lord Jesus was sacrificed. Abraham lifted up his eyes and
he saw the place, there is just one place, afar off. And up to that place they get
to the foot of that mountain and the men stay behind. And
there the father and the son, they go together to that place. They go up to that place to worship. They go up to that place to sacrifice,
just the two of them. You see, the great act of worship
and the great act of sacrifice is a sacrifice, an offering. It is God satisfying God. It is God alone who can provide. And the father took the wood
of the burnt offering, verse 6, and he laid it upon Isaac,
his son, and he took the fire in his hand and a knife, and
they both went up there together. Abraham saw that through wicked
hands a cross was laid on the Lord Jesus. But it was done,
according to Acts 2.23, it was done by the Father's determinate
counsel and foreknowledge. One of the things that I feel
so often theologians make mistakes is they assume that the Old Testament
saints knew very vaguely about the things of God and there were
certainly many things that they would have longed to have seen.
But there were many, many things that God, who has promised to
be the teacher of his people, would have taught these saints
remarkable. If you'd asked Isaiah about the
Messiah, Isaiah would have described him and his work with great beauty,
and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and Nahum, and Obadiah, and all of
the others. See, God teaches his people. God teaches his people about
himself. And the father having laid the
wood on his son, he took the fire and he took the knife, and
Isaac was bound to the sacrifice. Zechariah 13 and 7 says, Awake,
O sword, against my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow,
says the Lord of hosts. arise and smite the shepherd." And Isaac asks that question
in verse 7. He says, Behold the fire and
the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? Isaac
knew that without the shedding of blood there is no remission
of sins. And here they come to that place
that God had told him. And Abraham built the altar there. God the Father alone built the
altar. And he laid the wood in order
and he bound Isaac, his son, and he laid him upon the altar
of wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand and he took the
knife to slay his son. He wasn't pretending. He wasn't
pretending. But prior to that, Abraham had
been asked that question, where is the lamb? And Abraham had
answered in the most wonderful words of prophecy, in the most
wonderful words of promise, he says, my son, God will provide
himself a lamb for a burnt offering. God will provide himself a lamb. The Lord will provide himself
as a lamb. The Lord Jesus is God. or it could be rendered the Lord
will provide for Himself a lamb. The Lord God is the offended
party to whom and for whom the blood was shed, that He must
be revealed as the just one, the just and the justifier of
them who trust His Son. The Lord will provide, or it
could be rendered the Lord will see to it will see to it that
redemption is secured. The Lord will see to it that
the covenant is fulfilled. The Lord will see to it that
his son is glorified. The Lord will see to it that
on this mountain his law will be honoured. On this mountain
there will be nothing left undone." The father bound his son and
he laid him on the altar. See the son willingly submits. Isaac doesn't raise a question. What did our Saviour say in that
garden? Thy will be done. It pleased the Father to bruise
him. And then the angel of the Lord The angel of the Lord spoke out
of heaven and said, Abraham, verse 11, Abraham, and he said,
Here I am. And he said, Lay not thy 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. And Abraham lifted up his eyes,
and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket
by his horns. And Abraham went and took the
ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son. Now we see substitution, glorious substitution. Abraham lifted up his eyes and
he looked and there was the lamb, there was the ram caught in the
thickets. You see the Lord Jesus was crowned
with the crown of thorns. He was bound, wasn't he? He was
caught. by those horns. Horns in the
scriptures represent power. He was caught by his power of
the promise and the glory of his father. He was bound to that
curse, wasn't he? He became that curse for us. That's what the thorns symbolize,
that crown of thorns, that symbol of the court curse in Genesis
3 on this world of ours. He's bound. He's bound to be
a sacrifice. He's bound by His promises. He's bound by His love for His
Father and the honor of His Father. He's bound by the love for His
people to be that substitute. A substitute for Isaac. Glorious, glorious substitution. A lamb. A lamb dies in the place
of his people, of his son. Abraham then receives this blessing. He called the name of that place
Jehovah-Jireh and said, this day in the Mount of the Lord
it shall be seen. In the Mount of the Lord it will
be provided. In the Mount of the Lord God
will have everything ready, all that is needed. And he makes this promise. The
angel makes this promise. He says, by myself I have sworn. God's covenant with God is the
glorious eternal covenant. I by myself have I sworn, says
the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing thou hast not
withheld thy son, thine only son. And then these remarkable
promises. There was done this thing, that
in blessing I will bless you. What's the thing that Abraham
did? He feared God. He loved God. He trusted God. He obeyed God. In blessing, in blessing I will
bless thee. multiplying I will multiply thy
seed. Thy seed is the stars of heaven
and is the sand upon the seashore." The same promise that Abraham
had received in covenant form in chapter 15. Thy seed shall
possess the gate. Thy seed is the singular. Thy
seed shall possess the gate of thy enemies. What did the Lord
Jesus say about his church? I will build my church and the
gates of Hades will not stand against it. The gates of the
enemies, the gates of their defences will not stand against it. Thy
seed, in thy seed shall all of the nations be blessed. because of the faithfulness.
The faithfulness of a father and the faithfulness of a son. Abraham rejoiced. He rejoiced
to see the diary of the Lord Jesus. He saw it and he was glad. And he called that place Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord will provide, the Lord
shall be seen to provide. God will see to it. Abraham, like you, my brothers
and sisters, will be tried and tested. We may be tried and tested
in ways again and again which are beyond our understanding,
in ways that cause us to just be dealing intimately and personally
with God in our pain. And we'll be tried and tested
to see, to have revealed to us again that God is faithful, God
will provide. On that mountain, God provided. In that mountain, the Lord will
see that it is done. The Lord will provide. He is
amazingly faithful, isn't he? There are no trials that come
as a matter of accident. Our God is faithful. Our God
has a purpose. that we will see His day and
be glad. And we will see that He is our
wisdom. We will see that He is our righteousness
and our sanctification and our redemption. We will see that
in Him all the spiritual blessings are ours. The trials will come. One of the saddest things that
we experience as believers is that we see trials come to people
who claim to be faith children and the trials reveal that they
turn to the ways of men. God will have his people. be
caused by the trials to rest in His wisdom, to rest in His
righteousness, to rest in His faithfulness, to rest in His
sanctification, to rest in His providence and His provision
and His promises. Is there any trial that's going
to be too great for our God? Never. Never one. counted worthy his people are,
counted worthy to suffer for his name. Is there any sacrifice
too costly? There'll never be one. He will provide. He'll provide
the trial. He'll provide the need. He'll
provide what he provided to Abraham. will see his day, rejoice to
see it, and be glad. May God cause us to look again
and again to him as we walk in the steps of Father Abraham.
Let's pray.