Go back with me to Genesis 22. We all have a lot of needs, don't
we? We have a lot of needs. Financial
needs. We have physical needs. We have
emotional needs. But there is one need that is
greater than all of those other needs put together. I need to know that Christ has
dealt with my sin. That's what I need to know. If you have come here with that
need, you know the question is, I think the question every person
ought to ask himself is, Why did I go to church this morning?
Why? Well, it's Sunday. That's not
a good enough reason. You're supposed to. That's not
a good enough reason. Everybody else is doing it. That's
not a good enough reason. I want to go to heaven. That's
not a good enough reason. If you have come here this morning
with this one need needing to know if Christ has dealt with
your sin. I cannot think of a clearer and
louder word of encouragement and assurance than Genesis 22. I really can't. Now somebody might hear that
and say, Genesis 22? The word Christ is not even in
Genesis 22. Oh, he's in there. He's in there. Let me show you something very
quickly. Go with me over to Luke 24. Luke 24. Verse 27 says, And beginning at Moses and all
the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the
things concerning himself. Concerning himself. Now look
at verse 44. And he said unto them, These
are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you
that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law
of Moses. That's Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers, Deuteronomy. He said, and in the prophets,
that's Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and all those little ones toward
the end. He said, and in the Psalms, concerning
me. Concerning me. Then opened he
their understanding that they might understand the scriptures. Now these men had been with the
Lord for three and a half years. They had been with him for three
and a half years. And it says, after he told them
that, then he opened their understanding that they might understand the
scriptures. You know, they were with him
and they heard him and they walked with him and they watched him
and they followed him. And they asked, Lord, increase
our faith and Lord, teach us how to pray. And then he's leaving. And he said, everything in this
word is concerning me. then opened he their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures. They had them, they
held them, they read them, but one day God caused them to realize
that every single word in the book is about Jesus Christ and
him crucified. Every single word. What an opening
that is. What an opening that is. It's
a life-giving opening. That's what it is. I pray that
the Lord might open up my understanding today. Go with me now over to
Genesis 22. Genesis 22 verse 1 says, And it came to pass after these
things. What things? Well, look back
in chapter 12. Back in chapter 12, the Lord
came to a man named Abram. And when the Lord came to him,
he was 75 years old and he was an idol worshiper. That means
he was living in sin. That's what it means. Living
in sin. Genesis 12 verse 10 says, And
there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down into Egypt
to sojourn there, for the famine was grievous in the land. And
it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt,
that he said unto Sarai his wife, behold now I know that thou art
a fair woman to look upon. Therefore it shall come to pass
when the Egyptians shall see thee that they shall say this
is his wife and they will kill me but they will save thee alive.
Say I pray thee thou art my sister that it may be well with me for
thy sake and my soul shall live because of thee. He lied on and
he denied his own wife. He was going to give her to Pharaoh
to save his own neck. You know what you call that?
Sin. Absolute sin. And then in chapter
13, look at verse 5. It says, And Lot also, which went with
Abram, had flocks and herds and tents. And the land was not able
to bear them that they might dwell together for their substance
was great so that they could not dwell together. Why? Sin and unbelief. Don't you think
God would have provided all they needed? Verse 12 says. Verse 10 says, And Lot lifted
up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was
well watered everywhere, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and
Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of
Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him all the plain
of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east, and they separated themselves
the one from the other. Sin. Abraham dwelled in the land of
Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain and pitched
his tent toward Sodom. But the men of Sodom were wicked
and sinners before the Lord exceedingly." Sin. He ran into sin. And then in chapter 15, God told
Abram that he was going to have a son. Chapter 15, verse 4 says, And behold, the word of the Lord
came unto him saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that
shall come forth of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. Verse
13 says, And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed
shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs. and shall
serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years." They're
going to be in bondage four hundred years. Why? Sin. Chapter 16. Chapter 16, verse
1. Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bare
him no children, and she had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose
name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold,
now the Lord hath restrained me from bearing. I pray thee,
go in unto my maid. It may be that I may obtain children
by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice
of Sarai. Why did Abram do that? Sin. That's why, sin. Well, you know,
he was trying to accomplish God's work. God said you're going to
have a son, and all he was trying to do was accomplish God's work. I know it's called sin. Every man who is trying to accomplish
God's work for him is sinning against God. It's called sin. But look at chapter 17. Verse
1 says, And when Abram was 90 years old and nine, the Lord
appeared to Abram and said unto him, I am the almighty God. Walk
before me and be thou perfect. And I will make my covenant between
me and thee and will multiply thee exceedingly. I'm going to
make a covenant between you and me. Verse 15 says, And God said
unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, Thou shalt not call her
name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be. And I will bless her
and give thee a son also of her. Yea, I will bless her and she
shall be a mother of nations. Kings of people shall be of her.'
Then Abram fell upon his face and laughed. And said in his
heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years
old? And shall Sarah that is ninety
years old bear? Why did Abram do that? Why did
he laugh at God? And why did he doubt God? Do
you know why? Sin. Verse 19. And God said, Sarah
thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed. And thou shalt call his
name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting
covenant and with his seed after him." Abraham, a promised son,
is coming. And this promised son will establish
my covenant. And that promised son is Christ,
the Son of God. Well, in chapter 18, the Lord
visited Abraham and Sarah again, and he said, Sarah is going to
have a child. Verse 11 says, Now Abraham and
Sarah were old and well stricken in age, and it ceased to be with
Sarah after the manner of women. Therefore, Sarah laughed within
herself, saying, After I am waxed old, shall I have pleasure, my
Lord, being old also? She laughed at God. Sin. It doesn't look good for these
people, does it? Doesn't look good for us. Verse 13, And the
Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall
I of a surety bear a child which am old? Is anything too hard
for the Lord? At the time appointed, I will
return unto thee according to the time of life, and Sarah shall
have a son. Then Sarah denied, saying, I
laughed not, lied to God, and then she called
God a liar. Sin. And then in chapter 19,
God rained down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah, and the
reason He did that is because of their sin. And after all that,
you'd think Abraham would have finally learned something, wouldn't
you? After all that, you'd think Abraham would finally have learned
to trust the Lord, obey the Lord? But look at chapter
20, verse 1. And Abraham journeyed from thence
toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur,
and sojourned in Gerar. And Abraham said of Sarah his
wife, She is my sister. And Abimelech king of Gerar sent
and took Sarah. Sin. Sin. So chapter 22 verse 1. says, and it came to pass after
these things, Abraham and Sarah and Lot and Moses and David and Solomon
and Isaiah and Gabe have all lived a life of sin. That's all it's been, start to
finish. These men, it is wonderful that the Lord did not hide their
sin in his word. It's the only thing that gives
us hope. These men were sinners. And there's nothing good that
can be said about them. Sin, sin, sin. But in this text that we have,
God is about to show Abraham and he's about to show us what
it's going to take to pay the penalty for all that sin. All
of that sin. Abraham, you're a father now. God gave him a son. Abraham, you're a father now. I am a father, God says. The father of God, he's called.
Abraham, you have a son. one son in the eyes of God. Abraham, I have a son, the only
begotten of God. He said in verse 2, take now
thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, the one who is altogether lovely
in your eyes. the one who is all your delight.
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." This chapter goes right into
it, doesn't it? Right into it. A burnt offering was a sin offering. The wages of sin is death. It
must be punished. Men and women who are sinners
must be punished. Must be punished. For just the
smallest breaking of the law, that wage is death. It must be
punished. And men and women, they don't
take this seriously right now, but they will. They will. And this gospel is so amazing. I pray the Lord would let us
enter in to what our Lord has done for us. We know it. Lord, send your spirit. Put it
in here. He is saying, take the perfect
one. You have one son. One son. You take the one who is perfect
in your eyes. To our God, his son is the sinless
one. And you offer him as a payment
to God for all that sin. Now Abraham, my son is sinless. And your son has sinned. Isaac
was a sinner just like me and you. And the wages of sin is
death. But I'm going to show you what
my son did for your son and his seed. His seed. Isaac represents Christ. In Isaac
shall thy seed be called. But Isaac also represents every
sinner who has been put in Christ. Verse 3, And Abraham rose up early in
the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young
men with him. And Isaac his son claimed the
wood for the burnt offering, and rose up and went unto the
place of which God had told him. Then on the third day, Abraham
lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. Abraham had three
days of dread for his son. It took him three days. God said,
this is where you're supposed to go. You're going to take him
up on a mountain. You're going to offer him for
that sin. And so Abraham went out, and Abraham had three absolute
days of dread. Three days of... I don't even
know how to describe it. How do you describe that? Knowing
what is taking place right now. Three days of dread and let's
look at this very fearfully. But so did God our Father. Three days of absolute dread. He made heaven go dark whenever his precious son gave
up that ghost. He told the S-U-N, stop shining. Isn't that something? Go dark. Verse 4 says, Then on the third
day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. Isaac,
his end was set. And so is ours. So is every man's. I mean, it's set. His bounds are set. He cannot
pass. It is appointed unto man once
to die. Verse 5 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." Everybody
else is going to stay here. We're going alone. That offering that was made to
God for sin, it was a transaction between God the Father and God
the Son alone. A holy transaction. No one else
took part in that transaction. No sinner added anything to that
transaction. Everybody else is staying here.
All of the things are staying here. The animals are staying
here. The servants are staying here.
We're going alone. Verse six 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. Abraham took the burden of this
sin offering, and he laid it on Isaac, his son. And that's
what God the Father did for us. He took the burden of our sin. He bore our sins. carried our grief. He took the
burden of our sin and he laid every bit of that on his own
son. The government shall be on his
shoulders. Verse 6 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. That's the wrath of God. The wrath of God and the judgment
of God. It says, he took the fire in
his hand and a knife. That's the word of God. Which is sharper than any two-edged
sword. Our Lord said over in John 12,
he said, I am not going to judge you. He said, my word is. The word
that I have given you. That's what's going to judge
you in the last day. And in absolute holy justice,
God the Father, He took the weight of sin, the weight of the sin
of His people alone, and He laid that burden on His only precious
Son, and then He took His wrath, and He took His holy law, and
He said, You come with me. I'm not entering into this like
I want to. Because this is amazing. It's
amazing. Could you do that with your own
son? Could you do that with him? That's amazing. Why? We sing that song, why? Why would
they nail him to Calvary? Why would God allow that? It's amazing. It's amazing. We hear this transaction, this
great transaction, and think that somehow the elect deserved
it. We didn't. We just didn't. God took his wrath, he took his
law, and he made the sinless one to become sin. And then he
took him and said, a sacrifice has to be made. Why? Why? Why not just kill us all? What? What does God need us for? That's amazing. Now every time
I read this verse of scripture, this is an awesome thought to
me. One of these days we're going
to see our Lord face to face. We're going to approach the throne
of grace and sitting on that throne is going to be God the
Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. all wrapped up in
the body of Jesus Christ. And we are going to be one in
them as those three are one. And we're going to know them.
We're going to commune with them in spirit. And here's a little foretaste
of glory divine. Here's a conversation between
God the Son and God the Father. Can you imagine those conversations? Verse 7 says, And Isaac spake
unto Abraham his father, and said, My father. And he said,
Here am I, my son. What love is in that? What love is in that? Did God
the Father ever stop loving God the Son? Absolutely not. But God is holy. He's holy. Our Lord said in Psalm 22, My
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And then he goes on down
a couple of verses and he says, But thou art holy. Now, you're
doing right. You're doing right. Verse 7 says, 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? I see judgment. The fire. And I see sin. The wood? But where is the lamb? Where is the substitute? Where
is the blood? The holy law says it's only blood
that will atone for sin. Where is the payment? Where is
the appeasement? Verse 8, And Abraham said, My
son, God will provide himself. God will provide himself. Not
only will he provide a sacrifice for himself, but he will provide
himself for a sacrifice. Verse 8 says, Abraham said, My
son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering So
they went, both of them, together. And they came to the place which
God had told him of. And Abraham built an altar there,
and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid
him on the altar upon the wood." And that's every single one of
us. Bound in sin, bound by this law, judged by God, sentenced
to die. That's every single one of us.
Verse 10 says, and Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife
to slay his son. And the angel of the Lord called
unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said,
Here am I. 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. 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." That ram is our king. That ram is our king. The Lamb
of God who willingly became caught. He put himself there. And he willingly let them press
a thicket of thorns into his head. This ram was caught up
in a thicket. And our God, according to it,
that the scripture might be fulfilled, he allowed their brains to say,
why don't we take a thicket and press it into his head? And he willingly allowed himself
to be thrown on the altar of God. And he willingly offered
himself instead of us. Behold the lamb. That's what
John said. Behold the lamb. Behold the lamb. Oh, now I see the cleansing wave,
the fountain deep and wide. Jesus, my Lord, mighty to save
points to his wounded side. Abraham lifted up his eyes and
looked and behold, the Lord said, Abraham, Abraham. I plunge, and oh, it cleanses
me. Praise the Lord, it cleanses
me, it cleanses me, yes, cleanseth me. I don't believe Abraham took
the time to get Isaac off of the altar. I don't know how long
it took him to tie him up on the altar, but I don't believe
he undid him first. I believe Abraham grabbed the
ram and threw him on top of his son. I believe that ram went
on the altar. I believe Isaac died under that
ram. And I believe Abraham grabbed
him and threw him right on top of his son and stabbed right
towards the heart of his son into that ram. It slit his throat. And I believe that blood poured
all over Isaac and the altar. And after that ram died, I believe
Abraham cut his ropes and said, Get up, my son. God said, You're
free to go. Justified. You don't have to
die anymore. That's what redeemed means. A
substitute died for you, son. Verse 14, and Abraham called
the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh. As it is said to this day in
the mount of the Lord, it shall be seen. The Lord will provide. The good news of this gospel
is the Lord has provided. He provided a ram. A ram on top of Mount Zion. I
looked and behold, a lamb stood on top of Mount Zion. Can you
imagine their conversation going back down the mountain? You ever
thought about that? Can you imagine the relief Abraham
had? Can you imagine the relief Isaac
had? The joy, can you imagine how
happy that was? The ram died. You know what they
talked about the whole time? That ram, did you see that? He
was caught there. It's almost like he was put there
waiting for us. And we didn't even, we took all
that time to build the altar and you tied me up. I never even
heard him. I didn't even know he was there
all that time. I never knew he was there. And
then I looked, there he was. Thank God for the ram. Thank
God for the blood that appeased God. And then they get back down
to the bottom of the hill, and there's the servants, and there's
the animals, and those servants look at Isaac covered in dried
blood, and they say, what in the world happened? And Isaac
says, God had mercy on me. You see all this blood? You know
what you call that? It's called mercy. That's what
just happened right on top of that mountain. A lamb was on
top of the mountain, and he was on me, and I died under him. And because of this blood right
here, I'm alive. God saved me, had mercy on me,
spared me. And that's all I'm telling you
this morning. God had mercy on me. That's all
I'm saying. And if you happen to come back
tonight, that's all I'm going to say tonight. God had mercy
on me. May God have mercy on us all.
Lord, I pray God would just pour blood on this place. Let the
ram be thrown onto this place. Be merciful. All right, let's
stand together.