Turn with me to Genesis chapter
22. The book of Genesis chapter 22. This is a very familiar story
to most everyone in here. But perhaps there's someone who's
never heard it, and if not, I envy you. And for those who have,
maybe we'll hear it as if the first time. I'm certain there's
someone in here who, like me, growing up, you heard the gospel,
you heard these stories, yet you did not hear them. And there
came a time, in the Lord's good time, that you heard. You heard. This is a familiar
story, an old, old story. It actually crossed my mind.
It crossed my mind, I thought, most people have heard this before. I thought, there's preachers
in here. They've all preached this so many times. What could
I say that they haven't already heard? Well, that quickly left
my mind. Oh, to write the same things
Paul said to me is not grievous, but for you it's safe. And to
preach this, for us to look at this blessed passage, it's not
grievous at all. It's glorious. There's not a
clearer Old Testament type or picture of Christ and Him crucified
in all of God's Word. Brother Walter Groover one time
said, if you can't preach from Genesis 22, you can't preach. Just forget it. You know, the gospel is called
the good news, isn't it? Good news. That means it is always
new and fresh. It's God's Word. if he blesses
it, and it is his power. If he blesses it, it's his voice,
isn't it? It's how he speaks. And his word
is the living word, isn't it? He's a living Lord, and he speaks. It's his voice. So the gospel,
if it's good, and this is one way we know that it's gospel
to us, is we never grow tired of it. We can hear the same stories
over and over again, Grant. I have a repertoire of about
10 or 12 jokes. And my wife has heard them now
for 38 years. And she still laughs at them
now. They've long ceased to be funny. But that's love, isn't
it? Here's a better illustration
than that. We talk about the same things that we've experienced.
We talk about our daughter. We talk about our friends. We
talk about those we love. And we never grow tired of speaking
of those we love, do we? Or if you love the Lord, you
love this story. Genesis 22. Genesis 22. Now this is a real
story of a real man named Abraham. Chosen of God. Called of God. Born of God. And this is how
you know. Look at verse 1. It came to pass
after these things that God did tempt, or that is try or test
Abraham. said unto him, Abraham. And he
said, Behold, here I am, God's elect. For whom he did foreknow,
he did predestinate. And whom he did predestinate,
he called. God called Abraham. And Christ
said, My sheep, hear my voice. They answered that call. And
Abraham heard. God called him. He said, 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 shall tell thee of. As
I said, this is a real story of a real man going through a
real Fiery trial, faith will be tried, must be tried, that
you might know that it's true faith, that it's God-given faith.
It's the trial of your faith, Peter wrote. So Abraham was chosen of God,
you ask him. You know, there are people who
ask the question, must you believe in election to be saved? Well,
I believe only unbelievers would ask such a question as that.
If you would ask Abraham that, or ask any child of God that,
did you choose God or did he choose you? They'd say that's
a ridiculous question, isn't it? Abraham said, I was an idolater,
I was 75 years old. Didn't know God, wasn't looking
for God, wasn't seeking God. But God called me by his grace,
called me, revealed himself to me, called me out of darkness
into his marvelous light, called me from death unto life, called
me out of idolatry to know the living and the true God. That's
a ridiculous question, isn't it? Ask Simon Peter, ask James
and John, did you choose the Lord, he choose you. Only unbelievers
ask such questions as that. All of God's people know that
God chose them and called them. And he left his father's house,
he left his religion, he left his idolatry. That's how you
know someone's called of God, chosen of God. They leave their
former idolatry to serve the living and true God. That's how
you know. They renounce their past, like
Saul of Tarsus. To a man, to a woman, every single
person that God has chosen, if they were religious before, didn't
know the living and true God, they renounce it. They renounce
it. Chosen called, and he left his
father's house, and he left his religion. Abraham believed God,
the God of the Bible, the living and true God. And that's what
Paul wrote of, he said, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
What did Abraham believe? Now he didn't believe a doctrine
of election, he believed the God who elects. He believed the
God who chose, the God who called. He believed God, the scripture
said. But what about God? Well, our Lord said this of Abraham. In John chapter 8. Speaking to
some Pharisees. He said, your father, Abraham,
rejoiced to see my day. And he saw it, and he was glad. This is the will of the Father,
that everyone that seeth the Son and believeth on him might
have everlasting life. What did Abraham believe? Not
of what, to who? He believed Christ. You say,
Abraham didn't see Christ. Oh yes, he did. With the eye
of faith. When did he see it? It says he
rejoiced to see Christ's day, he saw it clearly. The Son of
God who was to come, the Messiah who was to come, the substitute
for sinners who was to come, the Redeemer of sinners who was
to come. When did he say it? Right here.
It's not more clearly seen anywhere than right here on Mount Moriah.
Now, Abraham believed God. How do you know? Well, it's easy
to say, I believe. It's easy to say. This is what
James wrote of in his book, didn't he? They say, you may say, but
he said, show me. Show me. Faith must be tried
to be proved that it is of God. Because faith is a supernatural
work. It's an operation of God. It
takes the power of God. It's a gift of God and the power
of God. The exceeding greatness of his
power, scripture says, that worketh in us to believe the unbelievable,
to do the impossible. See, this faith enables or causes
every single child of God to do the impossible. What Abraham did here is impossible
with man. God told him to take his only
son, his only son, his well-beloved, only begotten son that he loved.
Did he love that boy? With all his heart. I have an
only child. Thankfully now I have two more
from her. Would I, could I take that child
and offer her up as a burnt offering to God? Could I, would I? Not
in my flesh. It's impossible. I couldn't do
that. I wouldn't do it. Would you?
Well, that's exactly what Abraham did. Now that's of God. That's of God. Take thy son,
that only son, and offer him up as a burnt offering to me. Every one of God's people may
not be called to do what Abraham did, but the principle is there.
Look at Luke chapter 14 with me. Luke chapter 14. Our Lord
said this a couple of different ways, a different time. Luke
chapter 14. The greatest proof, and I'm learning
this more and more, seeing it, the greatest proof of all of
our Lord actually doing a saving work in someone, is that they're going to love
the Lord their God more than they love their blood kin. There are no exceptions to this.
Look at Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14 and verses 25,
there went great multitudes with him and he turned and said unto
them, if any man come to me, and hate not his father and mother
and wife and children and brethren and sisters, yea, his own life
also he can't be a very good disciple. Is that what it said?
It says he cannot be my disciple. Now you know our Lord is not
telling us to hate anyone. Not at all. He tells us to love
our enemy. Love your neighbor as yourself. But here's the sense of it, and
I'll give you an illustration of it. Brother Walter Groover,
years ago, back in the early 60s, called of God to go preach
the gospel in a foreign land, the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. A hostile country. Back then
it was so primitive. So primitive. Hostile. He barely
knew the language. And he had five children. Babies. The youngest one was a baby in
arms. Lisa was about seven years old. And he took his family out of
the comforts of this country. Quit his job. and went down to
the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico to preach the gospel to those
people. And his family, when he was leaving,
his family said to him, you don't love your children. How could you do something like
that and love your children? How could you love your family
and take them to a place like that? Take them from this country
to a place like that? It's not that he didn't love
his children, he just loved God more. And this is of God. That can only be of God, Brother
Don, can't it? Eli, when they came to Eli, now he had two sons,
did he love them? Everyone loves their children,
that's just natural, isn't it? It's just natural, even your
wayward children. When they came to Eli and said,
God's gonna take your children, Samuel, he said, God's gonna
kill both your boys. What'd he say? He said, it's the Lord. Let him
do what seemeth good. Did it break his heart when it
happened? Of course it did. He loved them. But now listen
to this. A little while later, the Philistines
came and took the ark. He couldn't take that. They killed
him. The death of his boys didn't
kill him. But the taking away, removing the gospel, Now that's
of the Lord. And that same principle is within
everybody. What does the gospel mean to
you? I hope I've never tried on this.
We've had several lose, the Lord take their children. I can't
imagine what that would be like. I don't want to go through that.
But I know God's grace is sufficient. And I've seen it happen. One
lady lost her only child and he was a wayward son. He was
an unbelieving boy. And she was in the worship service
the next morning. Now that's of God. Most people
get angry and mad at God, don't they? That's of God. And she
knows he had done all things well. She believed God. Any man come after me, our Lord
said, let him deny himself, that's family. You know, the greatest
proof of that is to justify God even if he does not save your
family. Can you do that? That's the greatest
proof. To justify God in a condemnation
of your blood kin. Only the faith of God's elect
will do that. Abraham, take thy son, thy only
son, whom thou lovest, and offer him as a burnt offering unto
thee. Now, you and I know, those who know this, know this is not
about Abraham's faith. This story is not about Abraham's
faith, although it commends the faith that God gives, such miraculous
faith, such impossible thing to do, commends, that's why it's
not of yourselves, it's a gift of God. It commends the power
and the glory of God enables a person to do such a thing.
But this story is about the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's what this story is all
about, of whom Isaac is a picture, of whom Isaac represents. The
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. How that the
Father, the Heavenly Father, took His only begotten Son, whom
He loved, And did offer him. Abraham didn't have to do it.
He did it in a figure, but he didn't have to offer his son.
Well, God did. God did kill his own son. Look
at verse 3, now here's the story. 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,
and rose up and went unto the place of which God had told him.
Early in the morning, before dawn, he believed God, didn't
argue with God, and didn't say, why does this happen to me? He
didn't ask any questions, he didn't. That's faith in it, trusting
the Lord implicitly. But he did this early in the
morning. He got up early and did this, which is a picture
of how our Lord purposed the salvation of God's people. How
early? Before the world began. Before
the dawning of time. Abraham got up before dawn. Our
Lord did this before the dawning of time itself. When was Christ
crucified? 2,000 years ago? Now, scripture
says he was the lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
That's early. Well, Abraham saddled his ass
and claimed the war. There's a great preparation involved,
great preparation made. Oh, we sing that song, oh, the
love that drew salvation's plan. John Newton, you want to read
a good sermon. I remember reading this as a
young man. John wrote a sermon entitled,
The Character and Genius of the Gospel. People talk about men
and women being geniuses. Genius means an extraordinary
mind full of wisdom and wonder. There's only one genius. That's
God himself, the mind of God himself. What a genius this gospel
is, huh? What a glorious, amazing... Don't you wish you could tell
it like it ought to be told? The wonder, the power, the amazement
of it. Oh, the wisdom, the workings, the preparations of God Almighty
to perform this gospel. It's the mere preparations that
were involved. Scripture says, a day is as a
thousand years, and a thousand years as a day before the Lord.
times of no essence to God, but he spent, as it were, the equal
of a thousand years in planning and purposing one day. Everything in creation, everything
God purposed and everything God created, pictures his son and
this redemption that's in him. What glory, what amazing wisdom
that is, what a genius. Every type, every symbol, every
shadow, every person, every place, every single thing shows forth
the Lord Jesus Christ in him. Early, he rose early. It says
he took two young men with him, verse four. On the third day,
Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham
said unto these two young men, Abide here with the ass. I and the lad will go yonder
and worship and come again unto you. Abraham looked at this place
afar off. Scripture says that about all
of God's saints. They see afar off. They're persuaded
of these promises and embraced them. These two young men that
he took with Him up that mountain. Who are they? Who do they represent?
You remember when our Lord went up on, took Peter, James, and
John up on the Mount of Transfiguration to show Himself who He really
was? When He peeled back that veil
of flesh and showed them who He is, God dwelling in light
which no man can approach unto. There were two men with two young
men. Yes, two young men. He said, Abraham, Moses wasn't
young. He is now. They appeared in glory. They had the dew of youth on
their brow. Moses and Elijah, that's the law and the prophet.
What were they talking about? Not what. Who? He says they spake of the deceased.
The death of death. The death that Jesus Christ should
accomplish. What message? Oh, wouldn't you
like to stay there a little while? That's what they spoke of. And
Christ said to him, the scripture says to him, give all the prophets
witness. He's even witnessed by the law
and by the prophets. It's all about him. Him. This is truly a hymn book, isn't
it? Moses and Elijah were there talking, speaking of that death
that he should accomplish. Well, these two young men that
went up with Abraham and Isaac, he said, abide here with the
ash. You stay here. I and the lad
will go up there. I and the lad will go up yonder
and worship. Now we're not saved by the law.
Moses couldn't bring us into the promised land, could he?
Joshua. What's that? Who's Joshua? Well, that's the
very name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he is that prophet, but we're
not saved by the law. We're saved by Christ alone,
who when he had by himself purged our sin, sat down at the right
hand of the majesty on high. This was not a cooperative effort
between Him and someone else. This was Christ Himself. This
was between the Father and the Son on Mount Calvary. There were twelve men in an upper
room, twelve including our Lord. There were three in the garden.
But when Christ went to Calvary's cross, it was Him and the Father
alone. What happened there? They worshipped. Never has a man worshipped God
like Jesus Christ did on Calvary's tree. Now this is worship. Never. True worship, adoration,
love, honor, praise, honor and glory to God. That's what worship
is. Oh how Jesus Christ worshipped
His Father on Calvary's tree. And I tell you this, I believe
the Father worshipped the Son there too. Huh? Did he not? Did he not say, because you've
done this, I'm giving you a name which is above every name. I'm
going to call you God. And let everything that hath
breath call him God, my equal, because of what he did on Calvary's
trail. The Son worshipped the Father, and the Father worshipped
the Son. And we'll never really worship
God, except at Calvary's cross, where Christ is. Well, here's
what he said now. And Paul wrote of this, that
Abraham had received Isaac as a figure back from the dead.
He was fully prepared to kill his son, wasn't he? Now God's never required that.
Human sacrifice can't put away sin. Just as the offering of
blood of bulls and goats cannot put away sin, well here's the
mystery of it. God became a man. God took upon
flesh. A body has to out-prepare man.
And yet the body and the blood of a human being did put away
our sin. But not just human blood, it's
divine blood in it, sinless blood. And the lad, he said, we'll go
and we will come again. He didn't know how God was gonna
do this, but he believed God. He believed the promise that
God, that of his seed, the seed of Isaac would be that the people
of God would come forth from them and be as the stars of the
sky and the sands of the sea. He believed that, didn't he?
Well, how is God going to do this if my son is dead? Well,
he believed he's going to have to raise him, didn't he? That's
what he did. And he said, we're going to come
again. We'll go up there. He accounted that God was able
to raise him from the dead. He must, if the promise is true.
The son cannot stay dead. He's got to arrive. That's the
promise of God. All the promises of God are there.
And all the scriptures speak of Christ and Him crucified,
don't they? All the Old Testament sacrifices are the killing of
a lamb. Killing of a bullet, a turtledove,
all those sacrifices are the killing. But Christ must suffer,
but he must rise from the dead. He must. Or else the promise
is not good. Or else he didn't fulfill the
requirements of the holy priest coming out of the dead. the holy
of holies. God didn't accept the sacrifice.
If the high priest doesn't come out of the holy of holies, God
didn't accept the sacrifice. He's got to come out. Paul preached
the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ every time he preached
it. Because it all depends on that.
We don't worship a dead Christ, we worship a living Lord. A sovereign,
successful, living Lord seated on a throne. Reigning and ruling,
expecting all things to be fulfilled as God promised and as He perfected. He said, I, the lad, will come
again. And all the scripture speaks of the coming again of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 6, it says, Abraham took
the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son.
He took this firewood, he split the wood and laid it upon his
son Isaac. Now, Isaac at this time, we would
think about 18, 20 years old, no. Maybe a little older, I don't
know. We're not sure, but he was old enough, big enough, strong
enough to bear this weight, to bear this burden, wasn't he?
And he was a young man in his own right, wasn't he? Now, did
the father force him to do this? Did Abraham force him to do this?
No. No. Isaac did it willingly. Isaac did it willingly. The Lord
Jesus Christ came, as scripture says, who for the joy set before
him endured the cross. He did it willingly, didn't he?
He did it willingly. He even This is such a clear
type of Christ that our Lord literally bore his cross up Calvary
Street, Calvary Mountain. He literally carried that cross.
There used to be a, you remember that song, Brother Todd, that
a man sung, what was it named? Lift your cross and follow close
to me. You remember that? I remember
as a young man loving that song. It just really moved me. Well,
the words in that song are this. While he was carrying that cross,
that song says, the cross became so heavy, he fell beneath the
load. That's just not so, is it? You
look in this Bible, you won't find it. I looked and looked
and looked. He did not fall beneath that load, Brother Chris. They
didn't put that cross on... I started to preach on this,
Simon Cyrene bearing his cross. They didn't put that on him because
Christ couldn't carry it. He didn't fall beneath that.
Catholicism has its little, there's a place near us, Catholic so-called
church, that has these little grottos, what's supposed to be
the steps of our Lord, and they have, show Him, you know, all
that idolatry, show Him coming to a certain point and falling
down beneath that load. Our Lord Jesus Christ didn't
fall beneath that cross. You talked about that last night,
didn't you? He's bearing something heavier
on his shoulders than a cross. Bearing the weight of the world
on his shoulder. Sins of his people. And he did not fall. He did not fail. That picture of Simon, we'll
look at that later. But every single person that
follows Christ must bear his cross. But he wasn't helping
Christ out. So don't ever sing that song. Turn it off and start singing
it. So much sentiment. Sentimental nonsense in religion.
Our Lord bore His own cross and He
bore the sins of God's people. God laid on Him the iniquity
of us all. All of it. And He bore it and
bore it away. Now look at verse six. Abraham took the wood of the
burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son and took the fire
in his hand and a knife and they both went, both of them went
up together. This is symbolic of the holiness
of God, the purity of God. Our God is a consuming fire,
scripture says. And the justice of God, that
knife, You spoke of that. We all speak of it. Every man
that's worth his salt speaks of the holiness of God, doesn't
it? This is where the gospel starts. The holiness of God.
The justice of God. Man's sin against this holy and
righteous God. That God will by no means clear
the guilty. He cannot. He must punish sin
and be holy, mustn't he? How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? How? Right here. This story. The fire of God fell upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. The wrath of God was expended
on His Son. The justice of God was satisfied
in the death of His Son. Someone may say that's too strict. Well, the justice of God ensures
our salvation. I love the justice of God, don't
you? Those who know something of the justice of God, they love
the justice of God. They would not have Him be less
God. They would not have Him be less holy than He is. But
since the justice of God was satisfied on Christ, since God
poured out His wrath and hell upon His Son, I cannot bear it. I will not bear it. If Christ
bore it, that's the justice of God. God will not, cannot require
payment for the same sin, can He? Is this just doctrine? It's our salvation. God is holy, God is just, the
law must be satisfied. We say that a lot, don't we?
Why do we say it? Because it's so. And because religion's not
saying it. We say it loud and clear because
religion is not saying it. Who do you hear talk about God's
holiness and God's justice, God being a consuming fire? Who do
you say that? That's the only fire they talk
about is acquire the fire, you know. They make their children
pass through that. God made his son pass through
the fire, the fires of hell on Calvary's trail. That was the
holiness of God against us. Justice of God satisfied against
us. This is a true story. Over in
Ireland, there's a stone called the Lynch Stone. There was a
Lord Mayor of a town, Galway County, Ireland, Lord Mayor of
a town back in the 15th century named Lynch. His name was James
Lynch. The town people loved their Lord
Mayor, James Lynch. He was a kind man, he was a merciful
man. They all loved him greatly. Well, James Lynch had a son named
Walter. And Walter was in love with a
young girl. And one day he came and found
that girl with another man. And he shot and killed that man. Well, they apprehended him and
put him in jail, and the crime called that he should be hung
for the crime. That was the law of the land,
that he should be hung. But the people loved their Lord
Mayor so much, Mr. Lamb, loved him so much, and
did not want to see his son killed for this crime. And they weren't
going to do it. True story. One morning, early,
bright and early, at dawn, they all heard the bell ringing up
at the house where the Lord Mayor lived. Ringing the bell. And
the whole town gathered up at his house, and there he stood
on the porch of his house, the upper floor of his house, with
his son beside him, and he had a rope around his son's neck. And he had the other end of the
rope draped over something else. And he said to the townspeople
of Galway County, no one is above the law, not even my own son. And he hung him. Did God kill his own son? Yes, he did. Why? This is the
point we're all laboring in. Was he sinned or was he not?
Was he guilty or was he not? Yes, he was. No one's above the
law. Whoever's guilty is going to
be punished. He was made sin. He really was,
wasn't he? And God killed his own son. But
it pleased the Lord to bruise him. That's the mystery of it. That's amazing. Verse 7 says, Isaac spoke unto
Abraham. Isaac the boy, the son, said
to his father, My father, and he said, Here am I, my son. He
said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for
a burnt offering? Where is the lamb? Our children
know this, don't they? Our children know that you must
have a lamb to worship God. All through the scriptures, it
tells us you must have a lamb. Where's the lamb? Isaac said.
We have the wood, we have the fire, but where's the lamb? That
question should be asked more in religion today. They've got
the wood, the hay, and the stubble. They've got the wildfire and
all that. Where's the lamb? You can't approach God without
a lamb. You can't come to God except through Christ and Him
crucified. If there's no preaching of Christ crucified, God's not
in it. There's no sacrifice. There's no remission of sins. Where's the Lamb? Where's the Lamb? Listen to this
answer. Abraham said, my son, God will
provide. Himself. Lamb or a burnt offering
My son God will provide God will salvations of the Lord in of
his own will He did this so of his will his power God will provide
Salvations of the Lord is completely his provision in completely his
provider. God will provide himself a lamb
God will provide for himself, will satisfy himself, satisfy
his own justice with the land that he provides. It must be
a perfect land. It must be a spotless land. Christ
was observed just like that Old Testament land. was observed
for a week to see that it was without spot and without blemish.
Christ was observed for 33 and a half years by men and devils
and God himself. And God said it from heaven,
didn't he? I'm well pleased, spotless, holy. He's the perfect
sacrifice. God will provide for himself.
God will provide Himself, He is the Lamb. God was in Christ,
reconciling the world to Himself. God was manifest in the flesh.
God will provide Himself a Lamb. A Lamb, God will provide. So
they went. So they went. Now, we're talking
about preparation that Abraham made. Something else was going
on at this time. Down below the mount, the mount
there, Moriah. There was a sheepfold. And there
was a shepherd who had sheep, males, females, in that sheepfold. One of those sheep, a male the
first year, was his prize sheep. He observed that sheep to be
the most beautiful of all of them, to be the most spotless
of them all, robust of them all. And he loved that sheep. Well,
lo and behold, now this happened. Lo and behold, an unseen hand,
as it were, opened the gate of that sheepfold. And that one ram walked out of
that sheepfold, and the unseen hand closed it again. And that
one ram walked out of that sheepfold and started walking up Mount
Moriah. Yeah, this is before Isaac and Abraham got there.
This ram walked up that mountain, got all the way to the top of
that mountain, and stuck his head in a thicket, and was stuck
there with a crown of thorns about his head, waiting to die. You want to tell me God didn't
write this story? There was a ram up there waiting
to take the place of Isaac with a crown of thorns about its head. So Abraham and Isaac, they headed
up that mountain. Look at verse 9. They came to
the place which God had told him of. Abraham built an altar there,
laid the wood in order. See, everything is done in order,
isn't it? Everything has been ordered by our God, and sure.
And he bound Isaac, his son. Isaac willingly took it as Christ
our Lord. Willingly laid down his life,
but he was bound by love, bound by the law, bound by his Father.
And he laid him on the altar. God delivered him up. He laid
him on the altar of wood and God put his son on Calvary's
trail. It says, Abraham stretched forth
his hand and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of
the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven, said, Abraham,
Abraham. And he said, here am I. And he said in verse 12, 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 Isaac, from me. How do we know God will forgive
sin? Because he hath not withheld his only son. Hearing his love,
not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son
to be the propitiation for our sin. How do we know God loves
us? That's how we know he sent Christ to die for sin. That's
how we know. He spared not his only son. God
spared Isaac, Abraham's son Isaac, but he spared not his own son.
God actually took the knife of justice that we heard about and
put it in his son's heart, killed his son. But God said to Abraham,
because he had a substitute, Abraham, he said, lay not thine
hand upon the lad, neither do, what? Anything to him. Don't touch him. And this is
what these men have been saying in it. If God killed Christ in
our sin, the law can't touch us, can it? No harm, no evil
shall befall you. Why? Because it fell on Christ. Law and justice will not, cannot
touch us. Cannot do us harm. How? Why? Look at verse 13. Abraham
lifted up his eyes and looked. Oh, look unto thee, our Lord
said. Behold, a ram caught in a thicket by his horn. It was
there all along. He just didn't see it. Like Donnie
said, he just now found it out. And Abraham went, I believe he
untied his son first, don't you? Don't you believe he loosed his
son, Isaac? Loosed his son, look! Isaac,
your salvation, your life. And since Abraham's life was
bound up in his son, that was his life too, his hope for his
son. Hope that God's promises is all in a living son, not a
dead one, a living son. He said, look, there's your substitute. It says that they went and took
the ram. They laid hold of that ram. You
reckon they laid hold of that ram, Bob? If that ram was the
means of your son being spared, how hard would you hold on to
that ram? Would you lay hold of it for
dear life, the life of your boy? Oh, that's why the Scripture
says don't Lay hold of this gospel and don't let go. This is our
only hope. Abraham and Isaac, I believe,
both of them went over and grabbed hold of that ramp of dear life,
didn't they? You got him, son? I do. You got
him, father? I do. And look at this. Here's the
gospel. in the five words in it. He offered him up for a burnt
offering in the stead of his son. In the stead of. Substitution. Oh, Abraham rejoiced
to see my day, the Lord said, and he saw it and he was glad.
They headed down the mountain. You reckon they were singing?
Where were they singing? Oh, how merciful. But this is not the end of the
story. You know what? It's just the beginning. Just
the beginning. Look down at verse 20 with me.
Came to pass, after these things it was told to Abraham, saying,
Behold, Milcah, she had borne children unto your brother Nahor,
and Huz, he was first born, and Buz, his brother, and Camul,
the father of Aram, and Chesed, and Hazo, and Peeldash, and I'm
glad we have names like Todd and Don and all that. What was
that cousin's name again? Pildash, Huzz, and Buzz, and
Jidlap, and Bethul, and Bethul, and Begat Rebecca. One female's mentioned. What's she got to do with anything?
Everything. That's Isaac's bride. He's got to live. His bride's
waiting on him. They're gonna have seed, he's
gonna see his seed, and he's satisfied. You tell me God didn't
write this book. Oh, Rebecca's born, by the way,
Rebecca, ooh. Oh, he done good, he's done all
things well, I think. Oh, may the Lord bless you.