Genesis chapter 22, very familiar
portion of scripture. It has to do with substitution. I titled it the Gospel of Substitution. Some have called this the Gospel
of Mount Moriah in the Old Testament. It's a very clear picture of
the substitutionary work of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's as clear
a picture as Isaiah 53. You know, Isaiah 53 is called
by many the Gospel of the Old Testament, or the Gospel in a
chapter. In Isaiah 53, well here we have
it in Genesis 22. Also we have here in Genesis
22, the first mention of human sacrifice, of a person being
sacrificed that has never been mentioned before until Genesis
22. And then God tells Abraham to
offer up his son for a burnt offering. Now let me read the
first 14 verses. And it came to pass after these
things that God did tempt to try Abraham and said unto him,
Abraham, And he said, behold, here I am. One thing you notice
about Abraham, every time God called, he answered. He answered. And he said, 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. And Abraham rose
up early in the morning, quit to obey. When God told him to
leave his family, his country, the Chaldees, when God told him
to leave, what did he do? He got up and he left. 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, and 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. And Abraham said
unto his young men, abide ye here with the ass. I and the
lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you, me and
him. You see, he had received him
in a like figure, it says in another place that God raised
him up. He had received him in a like
figure. He knew that they were going
to come back. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering
and laid it upon Isaac his son, there's the cross, and he took
the fire in his hand, there's the wrath of God, and a knife,
there's the justice of God, the sword of God's justice, and they
went both of them together. Everybody else stayed back. You know, when our Lord, I'm
getting ahead of myself, but I have to mention this when I
remember it. I've learned when I'm at my age, if I don't say
it, I'll forget it. But here, the servants stay back,
and it's the father and the son going up the hill, up to Moriah,
Mount Calvary. They say that's where Mount Calvary
was. And going up there, and the sacrifice is gonna be burnt,
slain, burnt, and offered, right there. And it's between the Father
and the Son. This work of redemption is between
the Father and the Son. This saving of a people is between
the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I don't want to
forget that, it's the whole Trinity involved. And Isaac spake unto
Abraham his father, and he said, my father, And he said, here
am I, my son. And he said, behold the fire
and the wood. But where's the lamb? Where's
the lamb? That boy knew what he was taught.
He'd been taught, hadn't he? Abraham taught that boy. He taught
his son about the lamb. Where's the lamb for a burnt
offering? And Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself
a lamb for a burnt offering. So they both, 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. I like that. It's order, order
in the service. 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. 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 thine hand
upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him, for now I
knowest 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, offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh,
as it is said to this day in the mount the lord the lord it
shall be in the mount of the lord it shall be seen all right
that's a beautiful story of substitution that is so clear it's so clear
you know when our lord spoke of abraham and john 8 56 he said
abraham saw my day and was glad i believe he was talking about
this day he's talking about this day now verse one begins with
after these things After many trials that Abraham had been
put through, leaving his country, leaving his family, and you know,
that's a trial. Yeah, it's a trial. You know,
most of all of you, most of you here, you've lived in the same
area you grew up in. You've never left your family.
That's a trial. And Abraham was told to just
pack his bags and take off to some place. I'll show you later
on. And he did. And the Jews said that he had,
they count 10 major trials that he had. And this tells us that
our greatest trials may be yet to come. Abraham was an old man
when God did this. He was not a young man. He was
an old man. I thought this, I thought our
greatest trials yet to come, that's death. You know, when
we come up to die, we face it. But God'll bring us through it
just like He has all the others. But the point of it is this,
our God is sovereign. And He does all things that He
has purposed according to His purpose, which He purposed in
Christ before the world began. That's what God's doing. He's
giving us a picture of it here. Abraham didn't realize this at
the time. He didn't realize this was going
to be written down for millenniums. to come and they would read about
it. Here we are in 2020, 2024, here
we are in 2024 reading about this, this story, this clear
picture that God has given to me and you to understand the
gospel. Abraham lived through this. It
was a real trial for Abraham, but I'm glad God put him through
it. I'm glad he did. It gives us a clearer understanding
of the gospel. And in verse two, God tries Abraham. It says God did tempt Abraham
there, you know, verse one and two. And God tempted him, that
means he tried him. He tried his faith, he tried
his love. God said, you take your only
son, the one you love, and you take him and you offer him up
as a burnt offering. That's not, that's, I can't even
enter into that, to do that. But God told him to do it. You
know, the scripture said, he that loves mother, father, sister,
brother, son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
And it's evident here that Abraham did not love Isaac, the son of
his love. God says that your son, the one
you love, he did not love him more than he loved God. He didn't
do it. He loved God more. And I can
only imagine the thoughts going through Abraham's mind as God
told him to do this. But Abraham shows great faith
here in obeying God and he shows great love in obeying God. He did what God said to do. But
how great is the love of God to all his children? How great
is that love demonstrated? in God giving us His Son to die
in our place. God Almighty, the Son of God,
died that we might live. All you who believe, He died
that we might live, that we might be forgiven, that we might enter
into His presence. All of us have to die here in
a little while, don't we? We all do. And there's going to be some,
there's going to be some who are going to go into his presence
with this reason, Jesus Christ died for you and put away your
sins. And now there's no barrier between
you and God. There's none. Now in verse two, and he said,
God said, and every word is full of spiritual meaning here. He
said, take now thy son. Abraham had two sons, but God
specifically pointed out one, the promised one, the loved one,
the one beloved and promised of God. Take now thy son, thine
only son, this is the one God called as his son, thine only
son, Isaac, whom thou lovest. not a servant, not Ishmael, but
that beloved promised son between you and Sarah, you take him and
you take him into the land of Moriah. It's about 40 miles from
where he was at. That's a three day journey. God
gave Abraham plenty of time to think about it. He gave him three
days. Three nights to think about it.
And you know that when he looked at Isaac, that whole time, that
whole journey, he would look at Isaac, the son of his love,
knowing what he's gonna do to him in a little while. Knowing
he's gonna do that. And I have no doubt he didn't
tell Sarah about it. Because this was between him
and God. This thought occurred to me as
I was reading this, the thought that he didn't tell Sarah, this
is between God and Abraham and Isaac. God must be obeyed without
consulting the flesh. I have no doubt when God told
Abraham to get out of that land where he was at and to go to
a place, he'd show him later. He didn't go in and ask Sarah
what she thought about it. He didn't do it. Abraham, no doubt,
was the head of his house. And he went in and said, Sarah,
pack your bags. God said to move. He didn't know God up to that
point. But God made himself known to him, and when God told Abraham
to do something, Abraham did it. And he didn't consult with
the flesh. he didn't do it and offer him
up listen here's here's the well this is tough now offer him there
for a burnt offering Abraham knew what that meant
he knew what that meant but here is one of the clearest pictures
of redemption substitution we have right here in chapter 22
God the Father offering up his son for a burnt offering for
a sin offering in the stead of his people God did that God did
it Christ became our burnt offering he became our sin offering by
the will of the Father the Father did that on purpose and the Son
did it on purpose God the Father called His Son to the work of
redemption, and He willingly submitted to it. He willingly
submitted to dying for a multitude of sinners no man could number,
to put away their sins, to undergo the fire of God's wrath. You
notice when I was reading that, that the fire is in Abraham's
hand, the wood is laid on Isaac, and the fire and the knife belong
to Abraham. they're going up that mountain
together they're going up there and now it says verse 3 abraham
rose up early in the morning ready to do the lord's will he
took isaac to sacrifice the wood and he took off and they traveled
and not one time do we read do we read of abraham faltering
do we we don't read of him halting hesitating and the lord having
to push him on oh he was ready to do it As Paul wrote over in
Romans, it says, he was strong in faith, giving glory to God. This, brethren, I tell you, we've
never really, really entered into what's going on right here.
I know we know what's going on, but to really enter into what's
going on with Abraham and God and Isaac and offering up his
son, that one he loved. But listen here, our Heavenly
Father purposed the death of His Son. You know He purposed
His death before the world began. Jesus Christ is called over in
Revelation, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
That's who He is. God purposed it. And God Almighty
never faltered to accomplish His purpose. Never hesitated. As I thought this, Abraham had
three days to think about it. God the Father had eternity and
never changed and never faltered. What God has purposed, he said
over in Isaiah, he will do. He will do it. And verses five
and seven give us a beautiful picture. The father and his son
going up the mountain together, told those men to stay there. They're gonna go up that mountain
together, one to die and one to put to death. One's gonna
put to death and the other one's gonna die. He's gonna be put
to death. One's carrying the fire and the
knife and the other one's carrying the wood, the cross, the son
of God. But Isaac asked a question of
questions. Where's the lamb? Where's the
lamb? Isaac knew they had to have a
lamb for it to be a proper offering, a proper sacrifice, proper worship. There has to be a lamb. There
has to be bloodshed. He knew that. He knew that. Let
me read what I wrote this morning. We as parents should make the
necessity of the lamb so clear that our children know when they
hear preaching that if the lamb is missing, they will ask, where
is the lamb? When you listen to someone preach,
you listen to them preach the gospel. Listen for the Lamb. Look for the Lamb in the message.
Where's the Lamb? Because there's no worship without
the Lamb. There's no worship without Christ. God cannot be
worshipped with wood and fire only. You know what that is?
It occurred to me this morning. If all you have is wood and fire,
That's all you have, wood and fire. You know what you have?
You have a service filled with nothing but emotionalism. Without
the lamb, you have nothing but emotionalism. That's all wood
and fire can produce. But the lamb produces worship. The lamb produces satisfaction. It's by the lamb, through the
lamb, that you and I, this morning sitting here, trying, attempting,
desiring to worship God. And it is through the Lamb that
we do. And God accepts our worship this morning. As flawed as it
is, God accepts our worship through the Lamb. And Abraham makes a
profound statement in verse 8. And Abraham said, My son, God
will provide himself a Lamb for a burnt offering. He didn't say,
My son, you're it. Yeah, I don't believe he told
him that till they got up there and it was time to make the offering My son God will provide himself
a land for a burnt offering so they went both of them together
I'll say something about this at the end and they came to the
appointed place Abraham built an altar laid the wood on it.
You see our worship service has an order to it. I You remember
when God told Moses about building the tabernacle? God said, you
build it just like I tell you. When Solomon built the house
of God, Solomon built the Lord, the house, the temple. God gave
him every detail. Not one detail was left to Solomon,
not one. And Abraham here, he's given
the detail and he's doing it exactly how God instructed him
to do it. But this also shows me the composure
Abraham had. I just see composure here. He just
laying out, putting everything on there. And then after he gets
everything in order, as God has instructed, it says he bound
Isaac, his son. Why did he bound him to an altar?
Why did he bind him to it? because it represents Jesus Christ
being nailed to that cross. He was bound to that cross. And now let me add this. He was
bound to that cross, not by nails, although they were used. He was
bound to that cross by love. That's what held him on that
cross. There's nothing stronger than love. It says there's stronger
than death. Love's stronger than death. You will die for someone
you love. Love stronger than death. And then he says here, he bound
Isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood. Now
there's something missing here in this picture. What's missing?
What would you naturally think would happen that's not happening?
Resistance. Isaac is willing to do this.
Isaac's not fighting him. Isaac was old enough at that
time and mature enough, and Abraham was an old man, Isaac could have
overcame his father. If nothing else, he surely could
have outran him. I know that. He could have outran him. But
he willingly laid down on that wood, that pile of wood, knowing
what was about to happen, knowing that he's the lamb, he's the
offering, he's the burnt offering. He knows that, and yet, He willingly
does it. He willingly does it. What a
beautiful picture of the willingness of our Lord. Our Lord said this
in John 10, 18, No man takes my life from me, I lay it down
of myself. I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down,
and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my Father. I have power, I lay down my life
of myself. We see the willingness of Isaac.
We see the willingness of Christ. And Abraham, verse 10, stretched
forth his hand to slay his beloved son. That's what he did. He stretched
forth his hand. He's going to kill him. Now,
in Abraham's, I'm telling you, in Abraham's heart, that boy
was dead. He drew it back. And I want you to, I want you
to notice here when the angel calls out how, how, how, Oh,
the word slips my mind. Urgent. Urgently. How urgently
the angel says, Abraham, Abraham. I mean, he was coming down that
night. And I mean, he shouted at him. But here in verse 11,
listen, here is where the picture now changes. You see, we had
the father and the son going up that mountain, the father
going with a knife in the fire, the son with the wood, Isaac
as a type of Christ, as the substitute, as the burnt offering, he's a
type as a burnt offering, as a sin offering, but now the picture
changes. It changes. Isaac goes from being
the sacrifice to being the believer, and the ram caught in the thicket
to being the substitute. See, now the picture changes.
Now, Isaac, who's laid on that altar, he's gonna be a sin offerer,
he's gonna be a sacrifice. Now, he's taken off the altar
and a ram is laid in his place. And the angel of the Lord called
on him out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said,
here am I. And he said, lay not thine hand
upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him. For now I
know that thou fearest God. You see, where there's true faith,
there's true fear. There's a right fear of God where
there's true faith. He said, I know you fear God.
I know that thou fearest him. See, thou hast not withheld thy
son, thine only, he keeps coming back this, thine only son. God
gave his only son for us. You've not withheld him from
me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold,
behind him, I thought of eternity past. I had to put that in parenthesis. He looked behind him, eternity
past. There's Christ slain from the foundation of the world.
And there's a ram caught in a thicket by his horns, or that crown of
thorns. And Abraham went and took the
ram, offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son. Now, see, God provided a substitute for Isaac. Isaac's taken off that altar.
I mean, the knife is ready to come down. Boy, if you and I
could only see that we were children of wrath by nature, even as others. And when that knife, that sword
of justice about to come down, it comes down on Christ. It comes
down on him. And we are taken off the altar.
We're taken away. We're taken out of the way. I
guarantee you, This is one of the happiest days of Abraham
and Isaac's life, right here, when God made known the substitute. Right as he's getting ready to
slay him, God says, Abraham, over there is the substitute.
You know Boy, you know how he had to feel. And Isaac, when he took him off
that altar, and Isaac's standing up, and he's standing back, and
he's watching what would have happened to him. That's what I see at Calvary.
I see what would have happened to me. And God did it. God took me out
of the way and put his son in my place. And everyone he did
that for are going to be saved. They're not going to be lost.
You think God's going to leave the end result of that up to a bunch
of God-hating rebels? No. 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. Abraham named that place
Jehovah-Jireh. You know what that means? The
Lord will provide or see to it. God will provide he's telling
his son earlier remember he said where's the lamb God will provide
for himself the lamb the lamb the lamb is of God's providing
the lamb the blood by which we are saved is of God's provided
not ours and the Lord will provide himself
as the lamb The Lord God of heaven and earth will himself become
the lamb, the offering. Isn't that something? When Jesus
Christ, the son of God, died on Calvary Street, he did not
offer up himself to me and you. He offered up himself to God.
And God was satisfied. It was a sweet smelling savor. And he said, take him off the
altar. Loose him, let him go. I've found a ransom. God found
the ransom in Himself. That's where God found the ransom,
in Himself. The Lord will see to it. He will
see to it that the redemption of all His people will be accomplished. He will see to it. He will see
to it that every one of His sheep come to faith. He will see to
it that every one of His sheep shall be saved. He will see to
it. The Lord will see to it. He will provide, the Lord will
provide everything we need in Jesus Christ. As Paul wrote in
Colossians, in him, you are complete because the Lord has provided. All right, that might be the
better title, the Lord has provided.