May God be pleased to bless our
souls this morning as we consider his word together. Let us turn
to the book of Genesis chapter 22 and we'll read verse 13. The book of Genesis chapter 22
and reading verse 13. 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 We read such an account as this,
and we observe how gracious God was to Abraham, and we observe
that Abraham was blessed with a wonderful faith to believe
that which God had told him to do, and what the outcome would
be. We may think, well that was very
wonderful and very amazing, and so it was. But we must not forget
that every one of us need faith. And as Abraham was blessed with
faith, so we need faith today. Abraham believed God. and it was accounted unto him
for righteousness. And we today need faith to believe
God. And as the Lord gives us that
faith, then indeed may it be accounted unto us for righteousness. And as we consider such a great
truth now, wonderful it is to think that you and I, as such
unworthy sinners of the earth, not deserving any blessing or
any favour, should receive this great and glorious gift of living
faith. And so we must believe that such
a record of accounts like this in the Word of God, interesting
as they may be, have a very deep and important significance for
us today. And so may we bless God for the
record of them. And as we read an account like
this, to see indeed, as the Word of God tells us, a deep which
counters beneath. There is the picture here, there's
the surface account, but there is a much, much deeper significance
in the words of this chapter. Now, the Word of God is a spiritual
book. It's an interesting book naturally,
but the most relevant and important consideration is that it is a
spiritual book because it speaks to the souls of God's people. And so may the word speak to
our souls even this morning. And may we be blessed as we consider
the contents of this account. Now, Abraham, we're told, was
tempted of God. Well, the truth is of course
he was proved. His faith was proved. That's
what the word tempted means here. God did prove Abraham. And God
proves you and me today, in our religion, we don't journey through
life without our religion being proved and tested. It's not a
question of just rolling along day by day and thinking, well,
that occurred and everything's smooth and plain sailing. Continually
we will come into testing times. Now the blessing is that Abraham
was brought through that testing time, and God still today brings
us through these testing times. We may not have to go through
a time perhaps to such an extreme situation as Abraham did, but
I believe in some things, although not in the same way, Yet the
path that we had to pass through may be seeming difficult and
testing and trying for us in our little life. To us it may
be an enormous mountain. Here it was, to Abraham, an enormous
mountain. And the Lord does bring those
things, I believe, into our lives today, which are, as it were,
enormous mountains. And it is then that we need the
like living faith as Abraham was blessed with. Now, Abraham
was commanded of God. He was told to take his son,
his only son, and offer him for a birth sacrifice what a commission
that was. And perhaps to understand it,
to think that he was the son of God's promise. We might say that really all
Abraham's religion was bound up in his son Isaac because of
the fulfilment of God's promise to him. And it had been a wonderful
time when God had blessed Sarah with that conception and she
brought forth his son Isaac. And now Now God's telling him
to go and offer him up. And we see, and this is a wonderful
view and a wonderful indication of God's grace, we see what Abraham
did. He rose up early in the morning. You might assume that this blessing
came to him perhaps at night during the night vision. We see
he rose up early in the morning. He didn't hesitate. He didn't
hesitate. God's commands. The command was
to be obeyed, however costly it was. And so Abraham rose up. He took two young men with an
ass and wood in his hand. And after three days he looked
up and he saw Moriah ahead of him. He said to his young men,
well you abide here. with the ass. And it's very significant
what he says. And I and the lad will go yonder
and worship and come against you. Now Abraham, surely you've
been told to go and offer up your son Isaac. Well we see here
that his faith to be able to speak words like this and come
again to you. And so Abraham and Isaac set
off and it wasn't very long before Abraham was asked a very logical
question by his son as to where is the offering? Behold the fire and the wood
but where is the land for a burnt offering? Then what does Abraham
say? Again we see glorious faith.
My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together.
How significant it was that God gave Abraham these words to speak. how true they were going to be
yet how wonderful that Abraham was able to speak such prophetic
words because this chapter is really one of the most prophetic
chapters in the word of God and because of the prophecy that
it contains it is a wonderful account to strengthen our faith
today as we see some 2,000 years before the Lord Jesus' birth
the Lord revealed this position to Abraham all those years passed
by and it came to pass and so Abraham and Isaac came to the
place and Abraham built the altar and laid the wood in order and
bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood.
And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay
his son. He was being proved to the uttermost. Right to the very last second
we might say. And it may be To some extent
in our lives our faith may be tested to the very last second
as it were. We might perhaps put it this
way, right to the time we were just about to give up everything. You must remember that here was
God's promise fulfilled in Isaac and now was he going to be taken
Well, we do know that God has said to, we read about Abraham,
that he believed that God was able even to raise him from the
dead. Even to raise him from the dead.
He had such faith. And so here we have then, Abraham
about to thrust the knife in to slay his son. And then, the miracle of the curse, and
the angel of the Lord. There is none less, of course,
than the Lord himself. He comes and calls. He says, Abraham,
Abraham, here am I, and he said, lay not thy hand upon the land,
neither do thou anything unto him, for now I know that thou
fearest God. Say thou not withheld thy son,
Thine only Son from me." The evidence of faith set forth here
so that the Lord tells him that he knows that our fear is God.
Seeing us not withheld, Thine only Son from me. What a wonderful
evidence it is to observe in this account that he was blessed
with that fear of the Lord. You see, he had the fear of the
Lord so greatly in his heart that he was only concerned to
do the will of his God. Only concerned to do the will
of his God, whatever the cost. It is a very extreme illustration
for us, is it not, to observe such a situation. As we now walk
upon the earth, And it's good if we are able, in times of extreme
stress and extreme anxiety and extreme concern, perhaps about
our spiritual path and our spiritual life, to remember the proving
time that Abraham was called to pass through. may have been encouragement to
us as we look into our lives. But now we see Abraham. He lifted up his eyes and looked,
and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. And Abraham went and took the
ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son. I believe this is very wonderfully
significant and very wonderfully prophetic. First of all, we have
this Abraham lifting up his eyes. Lifting up his eyes. In a situation,
he'd be looking down, hadn't he? He'd be looking down at his
son. He'd be looking down at what
was going to occur. Now God has spoken and now what
does he do? He lifts up his eyes and he looks
and he looks. Sometimes we find ourselves looking
down. Looking down and we don't see
deliverance, we don't see any way out. We see as though we
are hemmed in. Abraham was here about to say
something. The Lord spoke and then he lifted
up his eyes and looked. What did he see? Well he saw
something which he didn't expect to see I'm sure on the top of
this mountain. A ram, a lamb. And there was something peculiar. The lamb was caught in a thicket
I think if we could understand that's a very prickly hedge as
it were, prickly bush perhaps. But he wasn't caught by his wool. His flesh doesn't appear to be
damaged. It was judged by his horns. Well,
I'm sure you know that horn is a very hard material. and the thorns don't really damage
the horns. So here we see this lamb caught by its horns and so the
ram itself is not damaged, that's the inference here. And if you
think of this First of all we might look forward and go to
the time when the Passover was instituted and they were to take
a lamb on the first year without a spot. It had to be an unspotted
lamb. And what did that signify? The
same as it signified here. The Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, and he beheld this lamb
caught in a thicket by its horns. Now then, this ram could not
escape. The Lord ordained that this ram
should be there. How it came there we don't know.
Who it was we don't know. The Lord ordained that it should
be there. And there it was caught by its horns. It could not escape. And if we think of that very
beautifully, with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ, he could not
escape that which his father had ordained for him. He had
to be sacrificed. This ram had to be sacrificed. And so Abraham took the ram and
offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son." Well, I'm sure we appreciate
that this picture that we have in this account sets before us
the glorious subject of substitution. Isaac was delivered The land
was sacrificed instead. The picture for us today is that
we, as God's people, are delivered. We are not slain as we deserve
to be because of our sins. But instead the Lord Jesus Christ
was slain, was sacrificed instead of us. He was offered him up
for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. It's a wonderful
picture for us to behold. Now as we read of Abraham saying
when he was asked by his son what would be provided, And Abraham had responded, God
will provide himself a land for a burnt offering. And so on this
occasion this land had been provided for a burnt offering. This spotless
land had been provided and was offered up instead of Isaac. And then as we move to the New
Testament, we remember the words of John the Baptist referring
to the Lord Jesus Christ as that heavenly Lamb. As he spoke those
words, behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the
world. And so today, as we think of
this wonderful account of Abraham taking this ram and offering
him up instead of his son, to think now today of the Lord Jesus
Christ being offered up on our behalf. And yet what a wonderful
sacrifice it was. What a wonderful blessing it
was. And the account here is very
wonderful and very special. We read on, the angel of the
Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time and
said, by myself have I sworn saith the Lord, for because thou
hast done this thing and hast not withheld thy son, thine only
son. We have a vast difference really
here. Abraham was willing to offer
up his son, his only son. And God substituted that son
with a man. My friends, God the Father gave
his only begotten son. And he wasn't allowed to escape. He wasn't, as it were, excused. The father gave his son freely
so that he might be that one sacrifice for sin in our place,
in our stead. Perhaps as we consider Abraham
and we think of What a great trial, what a great burden it
must have been to take His only Son. And yet we see how that
was a situation where the Son was delivered. But we see the
greater wonder of the plan of salvation in the Almighty God,
our Heavenly Father, giving His only begotten Son. so that we
might be freed from eternal death. And what did the Son of God have
to endure when he was offered up? It wasn't a question of just
being placed on the altar. It was a question of suffering,
enduring the curse that was due to us. I wonder how we view sin. Whether we view sin in an abstract
way. Whether we think sin is just
our sin, which is a occurrence which we read about, and we don't
really have much apprehension of how terrible it is. But if the Spirit of God is working
in our heart, then that Spirit of God will show to us the awfulness
of sin, the curse of sin. Because the curse of sin is the
soul that sin is, it shall die, cast out from God's sight. No spiritual life. The effect
of sin. A hymn writer says very aptly,
O thou hideous monster of sin, what a curse hast thou brought
in. How do we view sin? Do we view
it as a hideous monster? Do we mourn over our sin? Are we sorry for our sin? Does
it concern us? Does it make us cry out? Does
it make us pray for mercy? Or do we just treat sin as something
abstract, something not very important? Well, in order to
get some understanding of the awfulness of sin, Because of the awfulness of sin,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, had to come
and to die in our place to deliver us from that curse. What a love there was. What love
there was in this Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the
world. What love there was in giving
himself as a burnt offering. And of course the wonderful significance
was that in that offering of life the blood was shed. We read do we not in the Hebrews
without shedding of blood there is no remission, there is no
forgiveness. There is no way that you and I can be freed from
the condemnation of the law which said the soul that sinneth it
shall die. No freedom, no deliverance, only
in the shed blood and only in the shed blood of the blessed
Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this picture we have here
of Abraham taking this land, slaying this land and offering
him up in the stead of his son. What a wonderful picture it is
of substitution. And it won't mean I believe it
won't mean anything to you and me unless we have some understanding
of our sin. It can just be an account, it
can just be a picture. But when the Spirit of God convinces
us of our sin and shows us how we stand, a sinner condemned
before a holy God, we know hope in ourselves. It's then, as it
were Abraham, he lifted up his eyes and looked. By faith then
we lift up our eyes and look and what do we see? A crucified
Saviour. And what do we see? The Saviour
of the cross bleeding and dying to take our place. Yes, he took
the dying traitor's place. And my friends, have we not been
a traitor, haven't we? To our God. We haven't done that
which we should have done. No wonder the Apostle Paul when
he speaks, when he wrote that epistle to the Romans and explains
that his innermost feelings, in all honesty. And it's wonderful
to have an account of the truth, the honesty of a man's heart. And he tells us, the law is holy,
and the commandment holy, and just and good. He wasn't disagreeing
with the truth of God's Word. But he tells us this, was then
that which is good made deaf unto me? God forbid, but sin,
that it might appear sin, working death in me, by that which is
good, that sin, by the commandment, might become exceedingly sinful. Paul didn't view sin as something
light. He viewed it as exceedingly sinful. And he tells us his experience. For we know that the law is spiritual,
but I am carnal, sold under sin." Yes, he was sold because of the
sin that he committed. He was sold because of sin. He says, for that which I do
I allow not. For what I would, that I do not
art, do I not. But what I hate, that do I. Now that's not our old nature,
that's the new nature. And what a blessing is if you
and I have the testimony of the work of God in our heart, demonstrating
to us that we do possess a new nature which understands what
the apostle declares here. For that which I do, I allow
not. What I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that I do. And it makes us cry out to never
go dwell here. If then I do that which I would
not, I consent unto the law that is good. God's law is good. Now that it is no more idle doing,
but sin that dwelleth in me." The difference there is between
the old nature and the new. The new nature speaks of holiness,
our old nature is still sinful, and sin dwells within, and we
hate sin and we cry against it. For I know that in me, that is
in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. for to will is present
with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not." He
explains to me very clearly the battle between our old nature
and the new. And this is a very clear evidence
and testimony of the work of God in the soul. For the good
I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Now, if I do that, I would not, it is no more I that do it, but
sin that dwelleth in me. I find in the law that when I
would do good, the evil is present with me. Well, how cruel, I'm
sure. If we know anything of the work
of God in the soul, we'll understand what the apostle is explaining
here. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man, after our new nature. Our old nature doesn't
delight in the law of God. We don't want laws to hinder
us, to stop any, perhaps, natural enjoyment. But here we have this
testimony then, I delight in the law of God after the inward
man, for I see another law in my members warring against the
law of my mind, and bring me into captivity for the law of
sin which is in my members. And so having explained this,
he then cries out from his heart, O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me? from the body of this death.
He knew he needed to be delivered. He couldn't deliver himself.
You and I can't deliver ourselves. We are impotent. We can't deliver
our sinful flesh. O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through
Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the
world, taking away your sin and my sin. So then with the mind
I myself serve the law of God, our spiritual soul, but with
the flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now, now,
no condemnation, to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. What a great, wonderful
truth that is, and how necessary it is. The Apostle didn't stop
and say, O wretched man that I am. Yeah, we say that and it's
true, but he moved on. His hope was in Christ. His hope
of freedom and deliverance was in Christ. What was he doing? He was looking to the Lamb of
God that taketh away the sin of the world. He was looking
to this wonderful burnt offering that we have a picture of here
in this account on Mount Moriah as Abraham lifted up his eyes
and looked and saw this Lamb, this ram. And so today, by faith,
may you and I lift up our eyes and look and live. That's what happened,
wasn't it, in the days of Moses. When Israel had sinned and the
serpents came and bit them and they died. And Moses was commanded
to make a brazen serpent and to put it on a pole and lift
it up. And they were told to look to that serpent and live.
And all those that looked, lived. Today, my friends, just like
Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, you and I need to lift
up our eyes and look, not to the brazen serpent, but to what
the brazen serpent portrayed, set before us, the Lord Jesus
Christ. There, Lord, I behold, There's
no other hope anywhere else but in a crucified saviour. One who was so willing to give
his life that we might receive life. So the angel of the Lord
called on Abraham out of heaven a second time and said, by myself
have I sworn to 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 a star to heaven, and as a strand upon the seashore,
and thy seed shall possess the gate of its enemies. And in thy
seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because
Thou hast obeyed my voice. What a simple, but what a powerful
statement. Because Thou hast obeyed my voice. The voice which God had spoken
to Abraham. A great time of proving, a great
time of tempting for him. But God was with him. And God blessed him. What a favour
it is to be able to view the glory of this situation, to know
the truth of it and how it leads us and directs us indeed to the
Lord Jesus Christ and nowhere else. We read by faith Abraham when
he was tried. You see, test off and up Isaac
and he that had received the promises offered up his only
begotten son. It may perhaps seem that you
and I are to throw away God's promises. Well, it was a temptation
to Abraham, but he didn't have to. It was just being tried. His faith was being tried as
to who he was serving, who he was following, who he was obeying,
we might say this, who he loved the most. Did he love God or
his son? He loved them both. My friends,
he loved God more. What a blessing that will be
for you and me, if although we have many temptations and many
trials, we might be able to testify and
have the evidence that by his grace we love God more. So he had this promise, in eyes
that shall I seek be called, accounting that God was able
to raise him up even from the dead, whence also he received
him in a figure. Well, Abraham was a sojourner. Yes, he was a sojourner on this
earth. My friends, he lived by faith. And that faith was in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And why do we say that? We read
these words, Abraham saw my day and was glad. And so today, that we by faith
see the Lord Jesus Christ upon that cross at Calvary, dying
in our place, shedding his blood so that we might be washed from
all our sins, and we might ask, are we glad? Abraham was. Are we glad today that Lord Jesus
Christ was so willing to come into this sinful world to die
so that we might live. If that is so, I'm sure we will
understand how the new song that the Church of God sings they
begin on this earth, they carry on in glory, worthy is the Lamb
that was slain. Amen.