I love God's timeliness. We found this building this past
week. We were looking at possibly trying
to purchase. And if we do purchase this building,
God will have to provide. God will have to make the way.
No doubt about that. And it will require us to believe
on God. trust God to provide, to do what
God alone is able to do. And then this week I opened my
Bible to see the next, come to the next popular story for our
series of popular stories. And the next popular story is
the story of God calling Abraham to offer up Isaac. That's by God's arrangement.
That's by God's arrangement. When God works all things together,
He works all things together so that He leads you to a passage
like this at the same time that He's working something special
in providence in your life. That grabs your attention. That
makes you pay attention. This was Abraham's greatest trial. Abraham's greatest trial. And whatever God's pleased to
do concerning this building, most likely it will be a trial
for us. I'm on. And the main point of the passage
is this, God will provide. God will provide. It will be a trial for us, just
like it was a trial for Abraham. But the point of the passage
is God will provide. God will seek to it. If God's
pleased for us to have this building, or if God's pleased for us not
to have this building, either way, God will provide. The only
thing for Abraham to do was to trust God, believe God. And the
only thing for us to do is believe God. Either way, that's it. Believe God. Let's turn in our
text, Genesis 22. Let me just read verse 7 and
8. Isaac spake unto Abraham his
father. He said, My father? 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. God will provide. God will provide Himself a lamb
for a burnt offering. And so they went, both of them,
together. I know Brother Ravi preached
from this passage not too long ago, a very good message, and
I preached from it not too long before he preached from it, and
I think I've preached from it four or five times since we've
been here, and I hope to preach from it many more times. This
is a very, very special passage of Scripture. It's a very beautiful
picture of Christ, and it teaches us much about faith, and about
the trying of our faith. The first thing I want to show
you here is God shall try his child. God shall try his child. He says there in verse 1, It
came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham, and
said unto him, Abraham, and he said, Behold, here am I, or here
I am, and he said unto him, 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." God was going to try
his child. It says here God did tempt Abraham. It means to try, to prove, to
test. He tempted Abraham, tested Abraham,
tried Abraham, Now number one, God's going to try the fear of
His child. He's going to try our fear of
God, number one. Our reverence, our respect, our
awe of God. That's what the fear of God means.
He's going to try that. He's going to try that. Look
down at Genesis 22, 12. Look at verse 12. He said, Lay
not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto
him. For now know I, for now I know
that thou fearest God. For now I know that thou fearest
God. See, God presents a trial to
His child. And it's a trial which is beyond
our understanding. We can't comprehend why God would
put this before us. We can't comprehend what God's
reasoning is or what's behind it, why God's doing it. We just
can't comprehend that. God said to Abraham, take now
thy son, thine only son, and offer him up as a burnt offering.
This was the son God promised that Christ was going to come
through. This is the son that God promised Christ would come
through. And then when Christ came, He's
the one that God promised all Abraham's true elect children
were going to be blessed. And God said, now you offer Him
up. You know, when you're a child,
under your father's care. There's a lot of times that your
father gives you a command, tells you to do something, and you
don't understand why he does it. You don't understand the
reasoning behind it, the logic behind it. It just don't make
sense to you. Why would he tell me to do that?
But if you fear your father, if you reverence your father,
if you respect your father, you'll do what he says without questioning
him and back-talking Him, and all of those things. Because
you reference Him, you'll do what He said. And much more when
you fear God. When you fear God, there's so
many things God does that we don't understand it. And we just
don't, we can't comprehend why God would put this in our life
or what have you. There's a lot of things like
that. But when you reference God and you respect God, you
don't question God, And you don't talk back to God. You submit
to God and you obey God. Look here. He told Abraham to
do this. And the Scripture says, verse
3, And Abraham arose up early in the morning, prepared everything
he needed, and he went unto the place of which God had told him.
That's fear. That's fear of God. That's reverencing
God. That's respecting God. You see,
God is wisdom and He knows the end from the beginning. Whatever
He does is right. And He's working all things together
for the good of them that love God. And He's doing it on purpose. And so, when you have a true
fear of God, you're going to reverence God. You're going to
respect God. And then secondly, God will try our love of God. He's going to try our fear. And
He's going to try our love of God. God's a jealous God. Scripture says He will not share
His glory with another. He won't share the glory that's
due to Him. He won't share the praise that's
due to Him. He will not share the affection
from His child that's due unto Him. He won't share that. He
just won't share that. Our affection cannot be divided
between our Lord and some other treasure. It can't be. He said
this, He that loveth father or mother more than Me, He's not
worthy of me, and he that loveth son or daughter more than me,
he's not worthy of me. If a man can let his mother,
his father, turn him from the gospel of Christ, not worship
with his people, not assemble with his people, or his son or
his daughter, because he loves them, He doesn't want to offend
them and he doesn't want them to cut him off from their love. If a mother, father, son or daughter
can do that to somebody that claims to be a believer, they
don't believe God. They don't believe God. You see, God gave Abraham Isaac. Isaac was Abraham's greatest
possession. promised this boy. He was the
son of promise. He was a son of a miraculous
birth. And Abraham had to wait 20-25
years for this boy to come. And now this child is grown up.
I mean, he's somewhere around 20 years old by now. Most people
agree. He's a grown boy. A grown young
man. And he's Abraham's pride and
joy. Abraham loves him. He loves this
boy. Loves him dearly. And so God
says to Abraham, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom
thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer
him therefore a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which
I will tell thee of. By Abraham's work. Now listen
to me. By Abraham's work. And by work
I mean by his obedience to God. By going and offering up his
only son, Abraham proved that he loved his only son. But he loved God supremely. He loved God more than he loved
that boy. That's what he showed. That's what he showed. Look down
at verse 12 again. He said, Lay not thy 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. Do you see that? God gives us
all kinds of treasures in this life. Gifts that He gives us
and they are treasures to us. We are thankful for them. We like these things. We hold
on to them. Some of them we love dearly.
But we ought to hold on to every one of them with a very loose
hand because God will provide. God will see to it that nothing
steals our affection from Him. He's going to see to it that
nothing steals our heart from Him. Nothing. Alright, thirdly, He's going
to try our fear of Him. He's going to try our love of
Him. And thirdly, He's going to try
our faith. He's going to try our faith. Isaac was the son
through whom God promised that Christ would come. And then Christ
was going to bless all His people. He was going to bless all His
people in every nation. This is the son through whom
He's coming. Wouldn't that make you put a
little special value on Isaac? Wouldn't it? If you had the child,
you know how we brag on our kids, if you had the child, That God
said, I'm going to bring the Messiah through that child. You'd
put a little special confidence in that child, wouldn't you? You see how folks put special
confidence in Mary? Because Christ was born of Mary?
But you see, Abraham is to believe God and to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's not to believe on Isaac. Not to put confidence in Isaac.
Isaac is just a vessel. He is just a sinner like you
and me. So is Mary. What better way to prove Abraham's
faith in God's ability? What better way to prove Abraham's
faith as being a man who trusted God's ability? God's ability
alone. What better way than to command
Abraham to offer up Isaac as a burnt offering? Let's see if
he's trusting in Isaac or if he's trusting in God who gave
him. And so God said, offer him up. And the Scripture says this,
Hebrews 11, 17. Look there with me. Hebrews 11,
17. Which one is Abraham going to
believe? Believe God or is he going to
believe I have to keep Isaac alive because
Isaac is the one that is going to bring this Messiah. And I have to keep him alive.
I can't do this. Who does he believe, God or he
put confidence in Isaac? Look here, Hebrews 11.17 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."
You see, he believed God rather than, even though God said this
is the boy in whom thy seed shall be called, he believed God rather
than looking to Isaac. And it says, verse 19, and he
did it accounting that God was able, God was able to raise him
up even from the dead from whence also he received him in a figure. You see, by this work, by obeying
God and offering up His only son Isaac, Abraham proved that
his faith was not in word only, but his faith was real. He really
did believe God. He really believed God. Now,
you'll hear men talk about James chapter 2, and James 2.14 says
this. Let me just read it to you. It
says, What does it profit, my brethren, though a man say he
hath faith, and have not works." Can faith save him? Man will
read that. There are a lot of other things
he says there about A man being justified not by faith only,
but by works also. And he speaks there about faith
and works. And men always hear that. And what he's saying there,
he's not saying that we're justified before God, before the law of
God by our works. Our works have nothing to do
with our justification from our sin and our justification from
the law. Our works have nothing whatsoever to do with that. What
he's saying is a man is justified as truly being a believer by
his obedience to God. A man's faith is justified as
being the God-given gift that God has given him when he truly
does what Abraham did here and believes God. That's when he
proves that he really does believe God. But men will read that and
hear that and they'll go around boasting about their works of
faith, their works of faith, how they did this or how they
did that. But when they speak about their works of faith, their
works of faith are nothing like the illustrations that James
gives. James there talks about a man
When he talks about that beggar coming to that house, we looked
at it Thursday night. When he talks about a beggar
coming there and needing a coat and a morsel of bread, he's talking
about coming to a man, a believer, who only himself has one coat
and one piece of bread and doesn't have money to get another one.
He's not talking about him coming to a man that's got an abundance
of coats and an abundance of bread and plenty of money where
he can get some more. What does that prove if he gives
him a coat and a piece of bread? It'll prove nothing. He's not
having to trust God. The man that's having to believe
God when he gives a coat and a piece of bread is the man that
won't have any left when he does it. That widow that came with
the two mites, Christ said she's given more than everybody. How
do you judge that? They gave thousands. How do you
judge she gave more? You don't judge it by how much
she gave, you judge it by how much she got left over. She didn't
have anything left over. That's the one God says, now
that one believes Me. He's trusting Me. And then He
used Rahab as an example. You know what Rahab did? Rahab
risked her life before a brutal king in Jericho by taking care
of these spies and sending these spies out covertly so that they
could get out and get back to Joshua and Joshua could come
in and take over Jericho. She committed treason to her
king is what she did to protect these spies for God because she
believed God would protect her and she believed God would save
her. She trusted God. Now that's a work of faith. And
then he used Abraham as the example. You see what Abraham is called
to do. He is called to sacrifice his son. The son that God says,
this is who the Messiah is coming through. This is the one through
whom I am going to send forth my son and save all my people
all over the world. Now you go sacrifice him. When
you talk about having to believe God, that takes some faith in
God now. You have to believe God to do
that. You see, it's not a trial when you stump your toe. It's
not a trial when a car breaks down. It's not a trial when we
got some clothes down in the basement that was just left over. We hadn't worn in two or three
years and we give them away. That's not a trial. No, no. A trial that God speaks about
is when it's beyond our ability to have any comprehension or
be able to reason this thing out whatsoever of what in the
world is God doing. You just have to trust God because
you fear God. You reverence Him enough to say,
yes Lord, whatever it is you sent will be right. It's a trial
when it requires you to take sides with God over your most
prized possession. whether it's a child or an inanimate
object or money or whatever it is, when you take sides with
God over that most prized possession, believe in God will provide.
Now that's a trial. It's a trial whenever it requires
you to believe God's able to do what only God is able to do. The trial brings us to the point
where we can't do anything else but believe God and trust God.
That's the trial he's talking about. That's how a man's proven
to believe God. That's how he's proven to believe
God. Alright now, so first of all, God's going to try his child
that way. He's going to do that. But now secondly, God's going
to give us just the right trial at just the right time. He's
going to give us just the right trial at just the right time.
Look at verse 1. It says, It came to pass after
these things. After these things. that God
did tempt Abraham. He tested him after these things.
Now, when God tests us in a trial, we don't have anything to boast
about. We have nothing to boast of. Nothing whatsoever. Faith
is the gift of God. God gives it. It's not of works,
lest any man should boast. That's what the scripture says.
It's by God's grace. It's a free gift. And here's
what God does. God first gives His child faith. God first gives His child faith. That's needed for the particular
trial. He gives him faith that's needed
for the particular trial. And then He gives him the trial. And then He sustains his faith
during the trial. And then He brings him through
the trial. You see what I'm saying? The whole thing is of God. It's
of God. God first provided... They say
Abraham had ten trials. This is the tenth one. That's
what the old Jewish writers say. He had ten trials. Number one,
God first provided Abraham faith. And then he told Abraham, believe
God and leave her. Leave your father, your mother,
all your companions, all your former idolatry. You leave that. Leave it all behind. But God
gave him faith first. And then he called him out. Hebrews
11.8, I can prove it to you. Hebrews 11.8 says, By faith,
by faith, that gift of God, by faith Abraham, when he was called
to go out into a place which he should after receive for an
inheritance, obeyed. And he went out, not knowing
whether he went. And God provided. God provided. It says several times in Scripture,
God led him the whole way. And then number two, God first
provided Abraham faith. He first, He grew him in that
faith that He had given him. He grew him in it so that he
would behold his eternal home was in the heavens. It wasn't
in the earth, it was in the heavens. Where God dwells, the foundation
that God built, that house that city God built, He gave him faith
to behold that. And then God called him Now you
sojourn in this land. You know what a sojourner is?
He's a sightseer. When you drive through some place
and you're just sightseeing, you're just sojourning through
that place. You're not going to stay there. He gave him faith
to sojourn in that land. And then called him to just pass
through it like a pilgrim. And the Scripture says this.
It says, By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in
a strange country, dwelling in tents. He didn't put down any
stakes. Dwelling in tents. Verse 10 says,
For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder
and maker is God. I'm reading out of Hebrews 11.
And God provided. God provided, just like He did
in the beginning. And then God first provided Abraham
faith. He built up his faith. to face
that trial with Abimelech down in Egypt when they went down
there. To believe that God would deliver him and his wife Sarah
out of the hand of that Egyptian king. He gave faith to believe
that. And so when he went through that
trial, guess what happened? He believed God and God provided. God first provided Abraham faith,
built up his faith so that when him and Lot got into that trial,
Abraham could say, let's don't have They just don't have any
strife between us like you take whatever of this property you
want. Just imagine that. You imagine taking your property
that you own and telling somebody that's having a quarrel, take
anything you want. I'll just take whatever's left.
That's what Abraham did. But he possessed a whole lot
more than we possess. Take whatever you want. I'll
take the rest. And you know what happened? God
provided. God provided. God first provided
Abraham faith to intercede for Lot when Lot was down there inside
of him and God said, I'm about to destroy it. That was a trial
for Abraham. That's his nephew. And that city
is supposed to be destroyed, wiped off the map the next day.
Imagine if wherever your mother, father, son or daughter lives,
you got word it's fixed to be destroyed tomorrow. Wouldn't
that be a trial for you? That was a trial for Abraham.
And he believed God. God gave him the faith to believe
God and he interceded with God over that. And you know what
happened? God provided. God provided. And you go on and on like that.
He first provided faith to fight those kings who took over Sodom.
He believed God. God provided. And then that king
of Sodom, he came back and he wanted to enrich Abraham and
give him all these treasures from Sodom. God gave him faith
to say, I don't want any of your treasures. I'm not going to be
enriched by the kingdom of Sodom. You keep your treasures. I don't
want them. And God provided. God provided. God gave him faith
to repent from his vain works of trying to produce that promised
child with Hagar. God gave him faith to repent
from that. He showed him his father. He gave him faith to
repent from that. And God provided. God gave him faith. God gave
him that son later, just like He said He would. And then at
last, God gave him faith so that when God told him, send Ishmael
and Hagar away, Abraham loved that boy. That was Abraham's
son just like Isaac was. And he said, now you take whatever
is needed for them, bottle of water, put it on her shoulder,
you send them away. And God said, I will provide for them. And
Abraham believed God and God provided. And now he brings him
to this trial. Now, this greatest trial he ever
faced, but look here, verse 1, but it came to pass after these
things. It came to pass after these things.
See, I travel around and people ask me this question, they'll
say, when are y'all going to be ready, prepared to get in
a building? And I think what they mean is,
when are you going to have your funds together, whatever. And
this is my reply, we'll be ready when God provides the faith to
trust that God will provide. That's when we'll be ready, to
trust God will provide. He doesn't put you through the
severe trials. who has given you faith for the
severe trial. See what I'm saying? He does
it just right as it should be done. Now get this too now. This
is so important. When God proves our faith, God
is proving the faithfulness of the object of our faith. When God proves our faith, He's
proving the faithfulness of Christ Jesus who is the object of our
faith. That's what He's proving. God's
not proving that we have strength in ourselves. That's not what
He's proving. And that's how people speak of
these trials. Like when they get through, they speak of them
like, God, oh, I've proved how strong I am in faith. Well, that's
not what God's doing at all for His child. Because you don't
have any strength in you and I don't have any strength in
me. Our faith of itself has no strength. There's no strength
in just saying, I believe God. The strength of faith is the
God we believe. You understand what I'm saying?
You can't separate that. Not true faith. You ever received
really bad news? Have you ever received some really
bad news? It takes all the strength you've
got away from you. I told y'all when they, and this
wasn't even me, this was my father, but when they called me and told
me he had cancer, I was sitting at a gate in the Houston airport
and I sat there and missed my plane. It just took, it took
my strength from me. I mean, I was so distracted by
it, I didn't, I missed my plane. You think about Abraham. You
think about when that commandment came to Abraham to go offer up
your son. Abraham's strength was gone.
I'm talking about just his strength as a man. His strength was gone.
You think he slept any that night? You think you get bad news, do
you sleep? And the next day when he gets
up, you think about how his heart must have been in his stomach
when he was saddling his ass. You think about how weak his
arms must have been when he was out there trying to chop wood
that he knew he was going to use to burn his son on an altar. You think about when he was walking
for three days. You think about how weak his
legs must have been with every step he took. And you think about
how he must have had to hide the tears from his eyes when
he sat around that fire at night, every one of those nights, and
he sat around that fire, and there that boy sits on the other
side of that fire, not knowing where they're going
or what they're doing, and only Abraham knows it. You think he
had any strength. I guarantee you he wasn't strutting
around like a rooster going, oh, look at my faith. I guarantee
you he wasn't doing that. Where'd he get strength from?
When I'm weak, then I'm strong. When I'm weak, then I'm strong.
What does that mean? It means when God shuts me up
to the point that all I can do is trust God, that's when I'm
strong. When all I can do is cast my
care on Christ and pray, Lord, save me, that's when I'm strong. Because I'm trusting the One
who is my strength. You get that? You understand
that? That's when you're strong. Utterly weak in ourselves, but
we're only strong in Him. And here's something else. That
trial, that trial is to bring us to look only to Him and to
rest only in Christ and put no confidence in ourselves. God proves to His child that
God's ability to provide is greater than whatever our need is. When you're in a trial, God proves
that His ability to provide is greater than whatever our need
is. And remember this, He controls
the need as well as the provision. God controls the need as well
as the provision. The thing that makes the trial
a trial is that God sees to it. God provides and God sees to
it that you have no way to reason your way out of it. You have
no strength to bring yourself out of it. He works it so that
all you can do is trust God. He controls the need. And then
by Him bringing you through it, after He's brought you just to
trust Him, He shows you that His provision is always greater
than our need. You see, that's where we've got
to be brought in this thing about concerning our sin and salvation. He's got to bring us to the point,
showing us our sin to where we see, I can't do anything. I can't give myself life. I can't
make myself righteous. I can't make myself holy. I can't
preserve myself. I mean, I'm helpless. That's
when you won't have a choice but to believe on Christ. That's
when you'll cast your care on Him. And that's where He has
to bring us to. And then He shows us in Christ,
who's all of these things that we need, that His provision is
greater than our need. That's what He's doing in all
these little trials. That's what He's doing in every one of them.
My God shall supply all your need according to His riches
in glory by Christ Jesus. He's got abundant, more provision
than we've got need. If He wanted to, He could give
us so much need and just leave us to ourselves, but He's got
way more riches than we've got need. That's just so. That's where we have to be broad.
So God tries His child and God gives the trial just at the right
time. He gives it when He's given the faith to believe Him, brought
us down to where we got nothing, we can do nothing, we can think
nothing, but all we can do is cast our care on Him by His grace. When He brings you to that point,
then He shows you how fully He can provide. And then thirdly,
God gives the trial to give us a greater revelation of our Lord
Jesus Christ. So that He grows us in that fear
and in that love and in that faith by Christ. That's what
He's doing in every trial we face. You don't have a trial
in life until that very first trial which is to bring you to
the feet of Christ. To save you out of your sins
and bring you to Him to believe Him. That's when you have your
first trial. That's the first trial of a believer's
life. to bring us to repent from ourselves and cast all our care
on Him to trust Christ to save us by Himself alone. That's our
first trial. And then from that day forward,
every other trial we face in life after that is to teach us
that same message we heard in that first trial. It's to teach
us Christ alone is the one that's going to save us. Abraham's first
trial was teaching him to believe on Christ and calling him out
of earth. Every trial after that, was to call him to the feet of
Christ, to behold Christ. That's what Christ said. He told
those Pharisees, He said, Your father Abraham rejoiced to see
my day. And he saw it. And he was glad. And in every one of those trials,
Abraham was shown a little clearer revelation of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And there he comes to this one.
And God shows him a great revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
our Lord Jesus Christ even speaks to him. Look here, how did God
manifest His love to us? John said, because that God sent
His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through
Him. Now that's how God manifest His love toward His people. He
sent His only begotten Son into the world. His only begotten
Son, the Son of His love. That's who He sent into the world
to lay down His life for His people. That's how God manifests
how greatly He loved His people. Well, what better way to make
Abraham see Christ's day and to see God's love than to call
a father to offer his only son? What better way to make him see
what God the Father did in giving his only son than to call this
father, Abraham, to give his only son? What a good way to
show him what Christ has done, to show him Christ's day. That's
what this whole thing's about. Now, after our trials, what do
we do? What do we do after our trials? We don't learn much from
them while we're in them. But after they're over, we look
back on them. And by God's grace, we begin
to see God's hand in the trial. And we begin to learn what God
was doing in that trial. Well, I'm just sure of this,
that at the end of this trial, after Christ had revealed Himself
to Abraham, that Abraham looked back on this the rest of his
days. And every time he looked on this,
he could see Christ's day a little more clearly every time he looked
at it. He could see something else about Christ's glory every
time he looked at it. Don't you every time you look
at it? I do every time I look at it. I see something new about
Christ every time I look at it. He remembered He looked back
and he remembered God saying to him there in verse 2, Take
now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest. And by faith
he saw God the Father, God the Father giving his son, his only
begotten son, whom God loved. He could see that by faith. Christ said He saw my day. I
take that to mean He saw what God the Father did. And then
look, when Abraham would remember back on this trial and he thought
about how he made all those preparations there in verse 3. He rose up
early in the morning, probably before anybody else was awake.
Abraham's out there getting everything together. There was no point
in laying in bed any longer. I'm not going to get any sleep.
Might as well get up. Saddled his ass, said there he is. Took
two of his young men with him. Isaac, his son, claimed the wood
for the burnt offering, rose up, went into the place of which
God had told him. Abraham looked back on that,
thought about that, and he said, you know, that's just what God
my Father did for me. In eternity, before anybody was
awake to grace or knew anything about it, God my Father made
every preparation there was to be made, predestinating His people
to be conformed to the image of His Son. He did all the work
back there before we ever knew anything about it. Abraham thinks
back on this trial and he thinks about verse 4. On the third day,
Abraham lifted up his eyes and he saw that place afar off. Perhaps
God revealed to him, Abraham, that's the very mountain. on
which I sacrificed my son." Abraham saw it by faith. Abraham thought
back on that trial in verse 6. He thought about when he took
that wood of that burnt offering and he laid it upon Isaac his
son, and he took that fire in his hand, and he took that knife,
and they went both of them together. And by faith, our Lord showed
Abraham, Abraham, do you see that no wicked hands are going
to slay my Son on that cross, it's me who laid that cross on
my Son's shoulders. It's God who took the fire of
His wrath and His justice and He burned His Son with that fire
of His justice to satisfy justice for His people. Do you see it's
God that did that? It's God that went up there.
God the Father went with Christ His Son, just like Abraham and
Isaac went together up that mountain. God our Father and Christ His
Son went together to Calvary, together to the cross. God was
in Christ reconciling His people unto Himself. Abraham thought
back and he remembered the words that he spoke to Abraham in verse
8. My son, God will provide Himself a land. God will provide Himself
a Lamb. And by faith, as God taught Him,
He could see God in His Son. God, the triune God, the fullness
of the Godhead in that body, in Christ the Lord. And He could
see God providing Himself. God providing Himself to be the
Lamb, to lay down His life in the place of His people. Abraham
could think back to verse 13. He lifted up his eyes, and he
looked, and behold, behind him there was a ram caught in a thicket
by his horns. And Abraham went, and he took
that ram, and he offered him up for a burnt offering in the
stead of his son. And by faith Abraham could look
down through the ages, and he could see the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lamb of God, caught in a thicket. He could see him there with that
crown of thorns around his head. And he could see God taking him,
giving him, and offering him up as a burnt offering in the
room instead of Abraham's son, in the room instead of Abraham,
in the room instead of all his people. That's substitution.
These are things God taught Abraham by this trial. And then look
here, at the end of that trial, at the end of the trial, he could
remember this. I bet you Abraham never forgot
this. I guarantee you he never forgot
this. FAITH, capital F, FAITH, the
Lord Jesus Christ Himself, FAITH spoke to Abraham's faith. Look here. from faith to faith. Verse 12. 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 thou hast not withheld
thy son, thine only son from me. Look at verse 15. And the
angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second
time. That's who's talking to him.
Christ. The angel of the Lord. The angel of the covenant. Christ.
And he said, By myself have I sworn, saith..." There's God, the Lord,
Jehovah. This is God speaking through
Christ to Abraham, into his heart, from faith to faith, speaking
to him. He said, "...because thou hast
done this thing." What did he do? He feared God, he loved God
supremely, and he believed God. That's what he did. He did something
else. And has not withheld thy son,
thine only son. That means He obeyed Him. He
feared Him. He loved Him supremely. He believed
Him. He proved it by obeying Him. He gave His Son. And look
this, He said, And because you did that, in blessing I will
bless thee, in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars
of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore.
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. Didn't Christ already know He
feared God? Of course He did. He gave Him
the fear. Didn't he know he already loved God? He put the love in
his heart. Didn't he know that he believed
God? He gave him the faith to believe.
Of course he did. Of course he knew that. He knew
it. But now, when he spoke to Abraham,
into Abraham's heart, would you just think about this? Think
about what happened there. The Spirit bore witness with
Abraham's spirit that he was indeed a child of God. You know
what Paul said over there in Romans 8? The Spirit bears witness
with our spirit that we're children of God, that we're heirs of God
and joint heirs with Christ. The Spirit bore witness in his
heart of that. This was assurance to Abraham. Do you ever doubt that you're
a believer? Do you ever doubt you're a believer? Let me tell
you the surest way you'll find out if you're one or not. God
brings you into a trial where all you can do is trust Him.
And He's given you the faith to trust Him. He sustains that
faith to trust Him. He brings you out of that trial.
Shows you Christ more clearly through that trial. And bears
witness in your heart. You're my child. That's when
you'll have assurance. I'm His. I'm His. That's what God did to Abraham.
That's what He did to Abraham right here. That's how our doubts
are removed, brethren. That's how Christ grows us in
reverence for God. He had it, but he grew him in
it. Reverence. Fear. That's how he had love
for God. That's how God grows us in love
for Him. A clearer revelation of Christ
in this great trial. He had faith in God. That's how
God grows us in faith in Him. This is the book learning, what
we're doing here today. He's teaching you the book learning.
When do you learn not to walk on stickers when you're barefooted?
When you walk on stickers. This is the book learning. Then
God's going to bring you into the trial and teach it to you
by experience. He's going to give you the sense
then. The true sense of it. To know
this is not just a theory. It's not just a tale that's told. We don't just come in here and
hear a good story and then go out and it has nothing to do
with our life. God makes sure for His child
it has everything to do with everything about you. Because
this is your life. Christ is your life. And He's
going to make you see that. And that's how He's going to
grow you. And I know He grew Abraham like this. You know how
I know? Look down there at verse 14. Abraham called the name of
that place Jehovah-Jireh. How do you know he saw Christ
far off and he saw all that stuff that you just said that he saw
in this and all this? How do you know he saw all that?
Look at what he said. This is what Jehovah-Jireh means.
In the mount of the Lord, in that mountain on Calvary, it
shall be seen. Everything that just happened
here today, Abraham is saying, everything that took place here
with me offering my Son, in the mount of the Lord, it shall all
be seen. When Christ gives His Son, it
will all be seen. Abraham saw it. He saw it. He saw Christ's day. Jehovah-Jireh. Jehovah will provide. Jehovah-Jireh. Jehovah will see
to it. Jehovah Jireh. Many years later,
in that mount of the Lord, Jehovah Jesus saw to it. He did what
Abraham said He was going to do. God offered His only Son,
and He didn't spare Him. And He offered Him in the room
instead of His people. And He purged the sins of His people. Abraham saw that. He saw that. He wouldn't have seen it if he
hadn't went through that trial, though. He had to go through that trial
to see it. That's why God gives the trial. He brings us to behold
Christ has provided everything for us. He gives us faith to
believe Him. He gives us more clear revelation
that He's preserving us by His grace in our Lord Jesus Christ. And He grows us to trust more
and more that our security is not us, brethren. Our security
is Christ. It's for the sake of Christ that
God is preserving us. That's what He makes you to see
through these trials. That's why James said, count
it all joy when you fall into different kinds of trials. Count
it joy. Count it joy. Well, my father's
got cancer. Count it joy. God's going to
show you something. God's going to show you a clear
revelation of His Son and show you how your security is in Him.
Count it joy. I lost my mother. I lost my father.
Count it joy. Count it joy. God's going to
show you the revelation of His Son. And if I'm without that
chastisement, I don't know Him. He said that. But He's going
to do this to His child. Show you that. And this is what
He's going to show you. God will provide. God will provide. God will provide. You don't have to wring your
hands and worry and fret and walk the floor and all that stuff
when you know God will provide. God will provide. Amen.