If you will, take your Bibles
and turn me to Genesis chapter 22. Genesis, the 22nd chapter,
and we'll be looking at verses 5 through 8 this morning. Genesis
chapter 22, verses 5 through 8. The Scripture says, And Abraham
said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass And I and
the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you.' And Abraham
took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son Isaac
and took the fire in his hand and a knife, and they went both
of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham
his father and 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 the burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God
will provide Himself a lamb for the burnt offering. So they went,
both of them, together. The title of the message this
morning is, The Ingredients of Worship. The Ingredients of Worship. Here, Abraham, in this passage
of Scripture, was tempted by God. He was tested by God. to
prove his faith. As every believer in Christ is
tested of the Father. Not that he would know our faith,
he is the one that gave us our faith, but that we would know
our faith and those around us would know our faith. He did
this to Abraham so that he would be a testimony of faithfulness. He would be a picture of every
believer in Christ. Abraham believed God and it was
counted to him for righteousness. This is a picture of God's tempting
and testing of every believer. And now in this passage before
us, we know that this is a picture of salvation. This offering of
Isaac, we all have heard many messages concerning how that
Isaac pictures the Lord Jesus Christ. And I believe that's
so. I believe that's good. I've preached messages from this
text as well. We have these two men. These
two men here that He brought with Him represent the both dispensations
of the Gospel, the Old and the New Testament. And you'll notice
where they were, they were with the ass. They were with the ass. You know that the Scripture speaks
of man as a wild ass is called? And when the two of them, the
Son and the Father, went and offered the sacrifice, they went
both of them together. It was God the Father and God
the Son who offered the sacrifice for our sins. You can see that. It's a beautiful picture. Beautiful
picture. But this morning, I want us to
see the seed plot that is here in our text Concerning worship. Concerning worship. Verse 5,
it says, "...Abide here with the ass, and I and the lad will
go yonder and worship." This is the first time this word,
worship, is used in all of Scripture. This word, worship. And we know
that Genesis is the seed plot for all the Scriptures. Every doctrine. Every doctrine
in the Scriptures. It has its roots. It has its
seed plot in the book of Genesis. And here it is. The law first
mentioned. Worship. This is a seed plot
for worship. Did you come here to worship
this morning? I hope you did. I hope you come here to bow down
before God Almighty and to worship Him, to sing His praises. Holy,
holy, holy Lord God Almighty, which was and is and is to come. This is the God we worship. We've
come here to worship. We should have. Every morning my children get
up and it's time to go to worship, I say, it's time to go to worship
God. We're going to worship God. I
know they don't fully understand that, but they know where I'm
going. They know what I'm going for. I'm going to worship God. And so should every one of us
worship God. And I'll tell you what, Isaac
knew something about worship. Isaac was taught by his father
something about worship. He knew that there was something
needed to worship God. Something that he didn't have.
Something he couldn't provide. There were some ingredients for
our worship to be accepted. And I'll tell you what, children
do not know how to worship God unless they are taught. My children
do not know how to worship God. I must teach them about worship. If they're ever going to learn
worship, they should learn it from me. They should learn it
not just from my words, but from my actions. When I say it's time
to worship, they know exactly where I'm going and what I'm
doing. There's no question. There's no question. A lot of
times they try me. A lot of times they push me. And they say, well,
where are we going? It's Wednesday. Where do you
think we're going? We're going to church. Sunday morning they get up. Hey,
can we go... No, we're going to church. They know. They know
where I'm going. And as I was preparing this message
this week, I was also instructing my son. as to what was needed
to worship. What was needed to worship. And
we should do this with all of our children. We should do this
with all of those people who see us going. That they should
know, they should be taught that there is a necessity. I must
go and worship. And I know that there are some
ingredients in worship. Look at this in verse 7. Isaac,
he tells us what he knows. Look at this in verse 7. And
Isaac spake unto his father, and he said, Father, here am
I, my son. And he said, Behold, here's the
fire, here's the wood, but where's the lamb? He knew
that fire was necessary. He knew that wood was necessary. And He also knew that a lamb
was necessary. These things are necessary for
worship. Necessary for worship. This is
a seed plot of all worship. First of all, he noticed that
they needed fire. He said, hey, we got fire. That's
one part of it. We need fire. Fire. Well, friends,
this fire here is a picture to us, a seed plot, and it speaks
to us of the person and character of God whom we have come to worship. The Scripture mentions three
times in Scripture that our God is a consuming fire. Friends, that's not popular,
is it? That idea of God is not popular. Oh, that was the God of the Old
Testament. Surely the God of the New Testament
is much kinder now. He's much more approachable now. He's more gentle now. He killed
people in the Old Testament, but in the New Testament, He's
much more approachable. We can approach Him any way we
want to. Most people think that God is
not worthy of their worship. These people, they think God
is not worthy of their worship. Religious folks, Say that God
is nothing more than a kind old grandfather who gives quarters
to His children. That's how they picture God.
And so He's up there and He's frail, and He's just so loving
and kind, and He just wants to give you everything He has. He
don't have much, but what He wants you to have, oh, He just
loves everybody. So kind. They believe He has a duty to
them. He has a duty to heal them. He
has a duty to give them money and to make their lives happy.
That's how they view God. Most people believe God is only
worthy of worship when they decide to give it to Him. Well, I don't
suppose I'll go today and worship God. I have something else to
do. I have something more important
to do. They only worship God when it's
convenient for them. Or when they have some physical
need. Friends, if there is anything
or anyone that keeps us from the worship of God, we have not
thought right about God. We have thought more of ourselves
than we have thought of His worth and value in worship. We have
placed something If we are neglecting His worship, we are placing something,
we are placing someone above God and saying, this is more
worthy of worship than God. That's what we're doing. Make
no mistake about that. Friends, God is worthy of our
worship. He is worthy of our time. He
is worthy of our effort. He is worthy of our praise. For
our God is a consuming fire. Friends, He's worthy because
He created us. Psalm 95 verse 6 says, O come
and let us worship, and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord
our Maker. Remember, friends, it is God
that made us and not we ourselves. Who woke up this morning? Who
got out of bed this morning? Obviously, if you're here, you
got out of bed. You're breathing. Who did that
for you? Did you do that for yourself?
If God rolled you out of bed this morning and gave you breath
and life, my friends, He is worthy of your praise. He sustains our
life. He holds our life breath within
His hands and He gives it or He takes it as He pleases. That's
God. And that God is worthy of everyone's
work. Everyone. Every enjoyment, every
pleasure, every experience in this world is given to us of
God. Do you realize even sin's pleasure
cannot come unless God gives it? How many times has one person
went into sin and enjoyed it all their life, and some people
go into it, and they go into it and it's not as enjoyable?
But yet they can't help it, they're going right back into it. Who
gives that? God does. God gives everything.
If you feel anything, it is from the hand of God. He's worthy of our praise. I'll
tell you what, if some millionaire comes along and gives a million
dollars to charity, everybody in the world bows down and says,
oh, what a great man. Oh, what a good man. They have
a big celebration. They have a big news conference
and say, what made you give that money to those people? Oh, you're
so good. And yet God gives breath to even
the people that hate Him. And yet people neglect to worship
God. We should worship God second
because He's holy. This idea of a consuming fire. Fire is pure and fire purifies. It consumes. And Francis speaks
to us of the holy character of God. He is holy and righteous. He is all by Himself, different
from every one of us. And He is worthy of our praise
because He's perfect. He's perfect. God is perfect
in all He does. He is perfect in His omnipotence. He is perfect in His omniscience.
He is perfect in His omnipresence. God is perfect in His wisdom.
God is perfect and sinless and right and just and holy and everything
He does, He does well. Is that not worthy of praise?
When my kids do right, I praise my kids. I say, yeah, good job.
God does everything right. He is worthy of our praise. He
is holy. God says, see now, even I am
He and there is no God with me. I kill and I make alive. I wound
and I heal. I'll tell you what, He is worthy
of our praise. He is worthy of it. The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. He is worthy of your time and
effort to praise Him. He is worthy of all of our worship,
for our God is a consuming fire. Friends, fire is useful, isn't
it? Fire is good. When you're cold and you're around
a fire, that fire is good. But I'll tell you what, it demands
our respect, doesn't it? You get too close to that fire
and you'll find out it demands your respect. And you put your
hand on it only so long before it consumes your hand. Friends,
God, yes, God is great. God is good. God is full of love
and compassion and mercy. He is useful to the souls of
men. But friends, you better respect Him. You better respect
Him. God is a consuming fire. He is
to be worshipped and honoured in every aspect of our life. Whether you feel like it or not,
God is worthy of your worship. He is worthy. Yet the natural
man opposes the worship of God. 1 Corinthians 2.14, But the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they
are foolishness to him, neither can he know them, because he
is spiritually discerned. Friends, but regardless of what
our nature feels and what our nature wants, I'll tell you this,
God will be worshipped either in this life or the next. Either
you will find the time to worship God in this life, or you will
spend eternity in the flames of hell begging Him, kneeling
before Him, and worshipping Him. You will. You will. I remember we showed this on
Wednesday, those demons in that man, they didn't want to come,
but when Christ stepped foot on that shore, they had no choice.
They came and worshipped Him. Friends, God is not to be neglected
or set aside as though He were some pet for our amusement. Most
people treat God like a pet. You know, when I'm sad, sometimes
I like to get my dog and just kind of pet him. It makes me
feel good. I don't know why. Just grab that
little dog and hold on to him and just pet him. And I feel
good. It makes me feel wonderful. And then I put him down and let
him go. Some people act like they take God that way. They
come to church on Sunday and they stroke God. Oh, I love God. Oh, He makes me feel so good.
And as soon as the worship is over, they put him down and don't
pick him up again until next Sunday. Friend, God's not your pet. Scripture
says we are the sheep of His pasture. Believer in Jesus Christ, if
this is how you worship God, shame on you. Shame on you. You have not thought right of
God. You have not thought of Him as we should think of Him.
Flip over to Hebrews 12. I want you to see this, believer,
that this didn't happen to us. That this does happen to us.
Many times. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse
28. Paul says, Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom
which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve
God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is
a consuming fire." There it is. Paul said this, he said, Believer,
even though our kingdom is immovable. Friends, salvation is an eternal
thing. Nothing can move us from Christ.
Nothing can keep us from Christ. Who shall separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ? Nothing! Nothing shall separate
us. But I'll tell you what, He tells
us who are a part of this kingdom to remember to reverence God
with godly fear. No one should know God more than
a believer in Christ. You should know this. This is
not something you should forget. Because we are in Christ, we
should continue to reverence our God. We don't come as God
being our buddy. God's not our buddy. He's our
God. Worship Him. Worship Him. Number two, the second ingredient,
wood. He said, Father, here's the fire. And here's the wood. Now the
wood speaks to us of our sinful humanity. It speaks to us of
our sinful humanity. As a wood is consumed by the
flame, even so are sinners consumed by the justice and holiness of
God. Because God is holy, righteous,
and just, and I'll tell you, every one of those things should
move us to worship Him. Every one of those things. God
is holy, right, and just, and He has set against all sin. Just as it is the nature of fire
to consume the wood, so it is the nature of God to punish sin. Friends, we as wood deserve nothing
less than the consumption of God's holy wrath. We deserve it because of original
sin. The sentence of our father as
our federal head was passed down to every one of us. And we have become as wood before
the flame. Before Adam sinned, he knew how
to worship God, didn't he? Him and God communed together.
He worshipped God and God accepted his worship. But when Adam fell,
can we not see the stark contrast as to how he was ignorant of
God's worship? When he heard God, what did he
do? He grabbed fig leaves and supposed
that God should be pleased with that worship. He should be fine.
He said, well, if I'll just cover myself, then God won't even notice. God won't notice. Everything
will be fine with us. And so it is with all natural
men, with all of us by nature. We are all ignorant as to how
to worship God. The natural man is ignorant. Some think it should be by religion,
that they could approach God by worshiping in religion, by
baptism, by the sacraments, by the priesthood. They think that
somehow they can merit God's worship. They can do enough to
make God accept their worship. Fig leaves. That's all it is. It's fig leaves. They say, well,
we'll just do church membership and community service, and that'll
be enough. Some men think if they're just
determined to do it, well, I'm just determined to worship God,
He's just going to accept me. No, He won't. No, He won't. Romans 10, chapter 10, verse
3 says, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going
about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God." You see, they've not
seen God as a flame and themselves as wood. They've not seen that. If you've never seen that, you'll
never worship God. If you don't have those two ingredients,
you cannot have worship. Deuteronomy 4, verse 23 says,
Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the
Lord your God, which He made with you, and make you a graven
image or the likeness of anything which the Lord thy God hath forbidden
thee. For the Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous
God. Friends, take heed that your
God is God. Take heed that your God is God,
because if your God is not God, God says, I will consume you
like fire. I will be as a flame and you
will be the wood. I will consume you. Well, pastor, how do we worship
God? How is it that the wood then can stand before the flame? How is it that God is to be worshipped
and not consume us by His justice? Well, this brings me to my last
ingredient, and this is the most important. This is the most important. The lamb. The lamb. This is the answer. How is it
that God can be just and justify the ungodly? Here it is. The
lamb. Father, here's the fire. Father,
here's the wood. But where's the lamb? Where's
the lamb? He knew something was missing.
He knew something was missing. And there are three things about
this Lamb that are vital to worship. Three things about understanding
about this Lamb is vital to worship. First of all, we must recognize
the Lamb is required. You can have all the fire you
want and all the wood you want. You can declare God to be holy,
which He is, and you can declare yourself to be a sinner all you
want to, but if you don't have the Lamb, you cannot worship
God. Cannot. Will not be accepted.
A lamb is required. Isaac knew that to have an acceptable
sacrifice, there must be blood. Blood. The just reward for our sin is
blood. Do you realize that? If you don't
understand that, you're not going to worship. The wages of sin is death. Death. Hebrews 9.22 says, without
the shedding of blood, there is no remission. There is no
remission. But friends, not just any blood
will do. It must be the blood of a lamb. It must be the blood of a lamb. And this lamb, there was requirements
for this lamb. He couldn't just be any lamb.
You couldn't get a lamb with a broken leg. You couldn't get
a lamb who was covered in spots. You had to have a spotless, perfect
lamb in order to offer it and God accept it. It must be a spotless
lamb. Exodus 12 verse 5 says, "...your
lamb shall be without blemish." The male the first year, you
take it from the sheep, from the goats. If you'll remember in that temple
worship, there were two rooms. The first room had the candlestick,
the showbread, and the altar of incense. Three pieces of furniture. And every day they went in there.
Every day the priests went in there, they trimmed the candlesticks,
they replaced the bread, and they put more incense on that
altar. Every day. But there was a curtain. A big curtain on the back side.
And on the other side of that curtain was the presence of Almighty
God. And they could not go in there
unless they had blood. Unless they had blood. And even so, no man can approach
unto God without blood. You come to worship God this
morning, do you have blood? If you don't have blood, you
won't be accepted. I don't care how sincere you
are, you don't have blood, you will not be accepted. And it
must be the blood of the Lamb. If the priest went in there and
he trimmed the candlesticks and says, well, I trimmed the candlesticks,
surely God will allow me on the other side. I replaced the showbread
and I put new incense in here for God. Surely I can get on
the other side of this curtain and worship God. Well, what happens? God will kill him. And you approach
unto God without blood and He will kill you. Your worship will not be accepted.
Friends, we all have corrupted ourselves with sin. And so everything
we do, everything that we are, is so tainted and corrupt with
sin that it doesn't matter what we do. We cannot by our doing
please God. We cannot. We will not be accepted. Even if we were to offer our
own blood, if we were to cut ourselves and to drain our own
blood and offer it to God, God would not accept it because it's
tainted blood. It's not spotless. If you desire to worship God,
you must have a lamb. Friends, where is the lamb in
most churches today? Where is the lamb? Where is the
sacrifice mentioned in most pool pits today? They may have a lot
of fire and they may have a lot of wood, but they have no lamb. I hear a message of good works
and community service, church membership and giving money,
but I don't hear of the necessity of blood. There must be blood. God must be satisfied. His justice
must be satisfied. And it's only satisfied by blood. Blood. You know, when they were looking
for a lamb, they would take a comb and comb it through to make sure
it didn't have one black hair. That's where we get that phrase,
going through with a fine tooth comb. They would comb through
it. They would comb through it and
make sure that it was spotless. Friends, I tell you that the
rulers and the scribes and the priests, they combed through
the Lord Jesus Christ and they found this. Behold, the spotless
Lamb of God. There is a Lamb required. And
I'll tell you that Lamb, His name is Jesus Christ. He is the
Lamb of God. He is the only spotless Lamb
of God. And not only is He required,
not only is He required for worship, but I'm going to show you that
a Lamb is provided. A Lamb is required of every one
of us. But I tell you that a lamb has
already been provided." Isaac said, Father, where's the lamb?
And Abraham rightly said, Son, God will provide Himself a lamb. When Cain offered that sacrifice,
why was his not accepted? It was a bloodless sacrifice.
It was a sacrifice of his own hands. But what did Abel offer? He offered a lamb that he had
nothing to do with. He couldn't make that lamb spotless.
He couldn't make that lamb whole. Only God could do that. He was
offering something God had already provided. And friends, even so, Jesus Christ
is the spotless Lamb of God that God has provided. Friends, sinners who are before
the flame of God's justice, I tell you, behold the Lamb of God. There is no other way of worship.
Behold, God has provided Himself a Lamb, a Lamb, so that we might
worship Him. God made the eternal Son of God
a body, and the eternal Son of God became a man. He took upon
Him flesh and bone, and took upon Him the nature of man, having
body and soul, and united it to His deity. And He came and
He honored God's law in absolute perfection as the Lamb of God. And as that Lamb of God, He was
raised to be offered. And He was offered up on the
cross, and as His blood flowed from His body, God poured out
all of His consuming fire on Christ. All of His justice, all of His
wrath, He poured out on the Lamb of God in the stead
of His people. God provided Himself a lamb as
Isaac was bound to the altar. So is every sinner bound to the
chains of his nature and laid upon the wood of his sins. And
under him is the consuming fire of God, the knife of justice
being raised. And God says, Oh, stay thy hand. Why? I provided a lamb. I provided
a lamb. And just as Abraham took his
son from that altar, he took that ram and he put it in its
place. That's exactly what God has provided for every one of
His people. A lamb. I cannot get over this. The offended
party has provided what the offended party required. Can you imagine that? Has that
ever been done at all? God required blood, and God gave His own blood. I like this, God will provide
Himself. God has not just provided any
lamb, He's provided Himself a lamb. God presented Himself a lamb
under the justice and wrath of God in the stead of His people. God is saying to all men striving
under the bloodless offerings, why would you strive and go to
hell? I've provided a lamb. Is that
not the gospel message? Is that not the most gracious
and glorious thing you've ever heard? It is if you're the one
on the altar. If you're the one bound, that's
the best message that I've ever heard. It's the best one I've
ever heard. God provided Himself a Lamb.
And thirdly, this Lamb was not only required, not only provided,
it was accepted. This makes it sweet. This makes
it sweet. As they saw that ram, do you
not suppose that Abraham and his son were glad? I know they were glad. I know
they were happy that God provided a lamb. There was great joy in
that. But I know this, that Isaac was
more glad that God would accept the offering. in His stead. It's one thing if you had a lamb,
but it's another thing if He didn't meet up to the requirements,
if He wasn't accepted. What a disappointment that would
be if Christ was offered up and God did not accept His offering. God provided a lamb and His blood
was shed for the remissions of sin. Let me ask you, was He successful? Was Christ successful? Was the
Lamb accepted? Of course He was. Of course He
was. Was His blood enough to satisfy
the justice of God? Some 700 years before Isaiah
wrote, it pleased the Lord to bruise Him. He hath put Him to
grief. Thou shalt make His soul an offering
for sin. He shall see His seed and prolong
His days. And the pleasure of the Lord
shall prosper in His hand. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. God was pleased. God was satisfied. He shall see
of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. And God was satisfied. When that priest went into that
high, the Holy of Holies, with that blood, you know, they had
bells. And as he moved around, they could hear the bells. But
I imagine when he stopped, you know, they thought they just
took a deep breath. I'm sure they did. They were
worried. And nobody felt any comfort until he came out of
that room. It was then the celebration began.
Friends, Christ has already come out of the tomb. And by His resurrection,
God manifests to every creature, to every man, that His offering
was enough, that His death was enough to satisfy God on our
behalf. And all who believe on Him, friends,
our worship is accepted. Is that not glorious? Our pathetic,
oh, lacking understanding of who God is and
who I am. And yet God accepts my worship.
God accepts your praise. Why? Because He has accepted
Christ on our behalf. He is the Lamb required. He is the Lamb provided. And
He is the Lamb accepted. Anything less than Jesus Christ
and Him crucified is not worship. What is worship? It is the kneeling before God
and giving Him praise, as do His name. It's recognizing who
He is and who we are, and knowing we need the blood of Christ. And God is praised. He's worshipped by that message. He's worshipped in that message
of the gospel that I preach, that you hear. that sounds so
sweet in the sinner's ear. Worship. Don't neglect God's
worship. He's worthy. And He's even provided
what we need. Why would we not come and worship? I pray this will be a blessing
to you. Remember that we're having fellowship after the service
today, so everyone's welcome to stay. Let's stand. We'll be
dismissed in prayer.