Go with me back to Genesis 22.
Genesis 22. I was speaking with a fellow
pastor the other day. And we were talking about how
deeply We both want to learn what it is to preach Christ. And I mean that. I understand
that I've done this a couple of times before. I understand.
But I'm being sincere. I want to grow in the knowledge
and in the ability and in the clarity of what it is to preach
Christ. Really. Sometimes we talk about
the doctrines of grace. We've heard the term the doctrines
of grace. It's a term used to describe
five points Tulip. Total depravity. Unconditional election. Limited
atonement. Irresistible grace. Perseverance
of the saints. Tulip. What that means is men
and women are completely sinful and cannot do anything to save
themselves. Totally ruined. Total depravity. So God the Father chose, elected
a particular people to save. An unconditional election. It
had to be an unconditional election because all were totally depraved. Had to be. And God the Son died for every
single one of those particular people. It had to be a particular
death Because if it was a general death, then the Son of God would
be a failure. He would have died for people
who were not saved. This was a limited atonement. It was a particular redemption
for the particular people that God chose to save. And God the
Spirit in time will call every one of those particular people
And they are coming. And I just, I love irresistible
grace. I do. They're coming. They are
coming. Just expect it. God's people
are coming. It is irresistible. And none of those people are
going to be lost. None of them are going to be
lost. They are all going to be saved. They are going to persevere to
the end. Five points. Sometimes we talk
about preaching the outline of the three R's. You may have heard
of the three R's. That's the exact same thing in
a simpler form. Ruined by the fall. Redeemed
by the blood. Regenerated by the Spirit. All of that is correct and true. That is the outline of scripture. That is the the outline of the
true gospel message. But the thing about it is the
Apostle Paul very plainly said, we preach Christ. That's how it's worded, we preach
Christ. In light of that doctrinal outline,
we preach Christ. If we want to get to the heart
of the five points and the three R's, it's Christ. We're preaching a person. We're
trying to get to a person. And sometimes I feel like we
get hung up on trigger words and trigger phrases. And salvation
is not in trigger words and trigger phrases, it's in a person. You
know what I'm saying? It's in a person. We're trying
to get to him. We're trying to preach him. We're trying as hard
as we can. We're trying as hard as we can
with all the ability that has been given to us, begging God
for his spirit. We come up in such weakness thinking,
I don't even know what I'm doing. Would you do this? Would you
speak to your people? Lord, would you stand and speak
to your people? We're trying to preach a person.
We preach him over and over again. We talk about him. We talk about
him. We declare him. He is our message. He is the message. As I was talking with this fellow
pastor, I was telling him, I want to learn what that means. I really
do. I want to learn what that means.
I want to know what it is to preach Christ. And I pray that
God would give me the ability to do it. I pray he would. And not only me, all of us who
preach the gospel and All of us who hear the gospel, there's
no difference. There's no difference. I want
all of us to know what it is to hear the message of Christ. I want us to be zeroed in. When we hear a message. And again, we don't just listen.
I want to be blessed. I don't just come with a critical
heart and a critical ear, but there's a critical heart and
a critical ear involved. I want to know is the message
I'm hearing the message of Christ. I want all of us to know whether
or not we are hearing the message of Christ. I want us to have
the ability to recognize when we're not hearing the message
of Christ. And when we are here in the message
of Christ. And this is the reason why. The
message of Christ is the only message that saves. Why do we
just preach this? And I say same message, but same
man, why do we preach this same man over and over again? It's because this is the only
message that saves. Us hearing that we need to straighten
up and fly right, that is important for us to hear, because we do.
I believe with all my heart, believers ought to act like believers.
God's children ought to act like God's children. Even in our own
homes, we expect our children, straighten up and fly right.
Not so you can be one of my children. You are, therefore, straighten
up and fly right. We all need to hear that. It's
true, all right? That's true. But it won't save
anybody. It will not save anybody. Men
and women, they can try to straighten up and fly right all they want
to. We should try to. But not one soul has ever been
saved from straightening up and flying right. That's not the message that saves. It's not the message it saves.
It's it's the multitudes message. Straighten up and fly right is
every false religion out there. And I'm not against straightening
up and flying right. OK, I'm not against that. But
I just want us to understand that's not the message that saves. The only message that saves is
the message of Christ. And I want to know what it is
and what it means to preach Christ. Again, as I was talking to this
fellow pastor. Who I love and respect very much.
He said, he said, as preachers. And this applies to hearers too. Okay. As we listen to the message
being preached, he said, as preachers, before
we stand up to declare our message, we should look at our notes.
and ask ourselves the same question that Isaac asked Abraham on the
way up Mount Moriah. Genesis 22, verse 7. And Isaac spake unto Abraham
his father, and said, My father? And he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, behold the fire
and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burn offering? Isaac said, I see the fire and
I see the wood. I see what consumes and what
fuels the consumption. I see my sin and I see God's
anger and judgment against my sin. That's where the motivation
for straighten up and fly right comes from. Many people see the
fire and the wood. But straighten up and fly right
is not the remedy. Where is the lamb? Where is the
lamb? That's the critical saving component
of the message. That's the message. That's the
message that will point men and women to Christ. So that's the
message I want to preach. I want to preach that tonight.
I want to preach that every time I stand up and I may not say
the exact same words. I do very much want to say this,
we're not we're not looking for trigger phrases. We're not going
to listen with a critical ear saying, well, if he didn't say
these exact words, he didn't preach Christ. It's not what
I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is where
is the lamb needs to be the fiber of the message. It needs to be
the underlying foundation of everything that we declare from
this word. Where is the lamb? It is all
because of the lamb. It's all because of the lamb.
Now I want to spend just a couple of minutes here answering this
question, where is the lamb? That's what I want to do tonight
because this is our subject and this is what has been on my mind
and laid on my heart. And because this is the critical
foundation of our message, let's just take a minute and answer
the question, where is the lamb? All right. Hold your place right
here in Genesis 22 and turn with me to John chapter one. John chapter 1. John the Baptist was baptizing
in the River Jordan. If you look at verse 29, it says,
The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." I
love envisioning that whole scenario in my mind. I just love John
baptizing, John the baptizer. And he was baptizing, showing
this picture, showing this sign. And all of a sudden, here comes
the Lord Jesus Christ. I can't help but think, what
if the Lord returns during a message, and you're trying to preach Him,
and you're trying to preach Him, and you're just trying with all
your fickle, unable, unworthy, and then all of a sudden, you
cry, there He is, look at Him. Can you imagine that moment?
Look, He's right there. Behold the Lamb of God which
took away the sin that this world Where is the Lamb? I tell you
this, He is in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is why we preach Christ. It's because He is God's Lamb. If we're going to say, where
is the Lamb? If we're going to look at this, if I'm going to
write these out, and then before I stand up, I thumb through here
asking myself, where is the Lamb? What I'm saying is, where is
Christ in this? Where's Christ in it? We have
a little one here who asked the parent about a particular Old
Testament story. And the parent told, explained
the Old Testament story. And then the little one said, where is Christ in that? Don't you wish some adults would
ask that question? If we're going to say, where
is the lamb? What we're asking is, where is Christ in it? Where's
Christ in it? God said, if there's going to
be any hope for sinners like us, we're going to have to have
a lamb. That's what he said. You have to have a lamb. And
we do. We do, in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ, our substitute and Savior, behold the Lamb. As we tell these Old Testament
stories to our children, in these stories, let's say, honey, behold
the Lamb. Behold the Lamb in this. See
the Lamb in this. Here's the Lamb. Where's the
Lamb? It's in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Turn with me over to Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53, the heading at the
top of my page says, The Humiliation and Sufferings of Christ. Isaiah 53, verse 1. who hath believed our report,
and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed. For he shall grow
up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground.
He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there's
no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected
of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we
hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not." I think about that Ethiopian eunuch who was sitting
in that chariot reading that right there. And Philip came
up and he said, who is that talking about? And he said, that's talking
about the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 4 says, Surely He hath
borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem
Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. He was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.
He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep before
her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from
prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation?
For he was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression
of my people was he stricken." Where is the lamb? He's on the
altar of sacrifice. The end of verse 8 says, For
the transgression of my people was he stricken. That's why he
was brought as a lamb to the slaughter. In Genesis 22, Isaac
said, Father, where is the lamb for a burnt sacrifice? That was a sacrifice for sin.
We need a sacrifice for sin. With all the sins of God's people
laid on him, he was laid on the altar of sacrifice for that sin. That altar was the cross of Calvary
and the Lamb of God still bears the scars from it. There's an
old song that says, I'll be looking for scars up in heaven. It's
not going to take long because it'll be the very first thing
we see. But the song says, I'll be looking for scars up in heaven,
scars that love held on the tree. Scars that turn judgment to mercy
for a hell-deserving sinner like me. Those scars will be the eternal
reminders of where the Lamb of God was laid for the sin of His
people, the altar of sacrifice. So where is the Lamb? He's in
the person and work, the sacrificial work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Go with me back to our text now, Genesis 22. Verse 6, it says, And Abraham took the wood of
the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son. And he took
the fire in his hand and a knife, and they went both of them together.
And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father and said, My father.
And 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 himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went
both of them together. Where is the lamb? He is in the
purposed provision of God. God provided Himself a Lamb. God's people needed a sacrificed
Lamb to appease God. And God Himself provided that
Lamb for His people. The Lord provided. He purposed
to provide and not just a Lamb for Himself to appease Himself.
He provided Himself to be that Lamb. He purposed to provide
Himself. He was the Lamb slain before
the foundation of the world. So where is the Lamb? It's in
the person, the work, and the full provision of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Turn with me now over to Exodus
chapter 12. Exodus 12, verse 3, it says, Speak ye unto all the congregation
of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall
take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their
fathers, a lamb for in house. And if the household be too little
for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house
take it according to the number of the souls. Every man according
to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb
shall be without blemish. A male of the first year, you
shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats, and you shall
keep it up until the 14th day of the same month. and the whole
assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the
evening. And they shall take up the blood
and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post
of the house wherein they shall eat it." Now look at verse 13. It says, and the blood shall
be to you for a token upon the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will
pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy
you when I smite the land of Egypt. Where is the Lamb? He is on the doorposts of our
houses. That means the way in. It represents
the souls of God's people. The blood of Christ God's provided
lamb has been poured on the souls of every child of God. It's on
their hearts. It's on their minds. God sees
it. By faith, we see it too. The
blood of our substitute has been poured all over us. And God said,
when I see his blood, I'll know that he died in your place and
you'll live. I'll pass over you. Where's the
lamb? He's in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's in the altar of his sacrifice. He's in the
purposed provision of God. He's in the heart, mind, and
soul of every one of his people. And turn with me to Revelation
5. Revelation chapter 5. Verse 1, it says, And I saw in
the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written
within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a
strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to
open the book and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in
heaven nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to
open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because
no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither
to look thereon. And one of the elders said unto
me, Weep not. Behold, the Lion of the tribe
of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book
and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and lo,
in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, and in the
midst of the elders, stood a Lamb, as it had been slain." Where
is the Lamb? He is seated on His throne. He
is risen in His glory, ascended up on high, and seated on His
throne. Who's seated there? The Lord
Jesus Christ is. The Father is. The Spirit is. And all of God's elect are. Right
there with Him. All of God's elect are right
there in Him. In all of His glory. In all of
His worthiness. All the host of heaven is right
now crying, worthy is the Lamb. Worthy is the lamb that was slain
after the Lord provided. And again, this is just something
I love thinking about, I just love envisioning this whole scenario. After the Lord provided Abraham
and Isaac, their lamb, that ram caught in a thicket. I can only imagine. You know,
here, Isaac is bound. He's laying on that altar, the
knife is in the hand, and Abraham committed in, he was committed
to it. He was past the place of, am I really going to do this
or not? He was committed to it. And all of a sudden, Abraham
saw that ram. I can only envision him crying,
Isaac, I see a lamb. And Isaac looks over and says,
I see it too. And they lay hold of that lamb.
And that lamb is now the substitute for Isaac. And the blood is shed. And God is satisfied. And he
lives. After Abraham saw that ram, he
cried, Jehovah, Jireh. I bet he laid hold of that ram,
crying, Jehovah, Jireh, the Lord has provided. Oh, now I see the cleansing wave,
the fountain open wide. The Lord has provided himself
a lamb. I can see Abraham crying, thank
God, thank God. The Lord provided himself a lamb. That's the message I want to
preach. I pray the Lord has enabled us to do it. That is the gospel. That's the glorious news. That's
the heart of it. That's the heart of it. If we
ever find out where the lamb is, we'll find the gospel. If we ever find out where the
lamb is, if we just get to the lamb. We'll get to the gospel. Lord, lead us to him. Teach us
what it is to preach him and to believe on him and to love
him and to rejoice in him. Never let us get past where is
the lamb? All right.