Now, when you go home today,
sit down and read this chapter again. I'm not going to just
stand here and read it right now. We're going to go down through
some of it. But you take it and go home and
sit down and read it. Now, there's a lot of titles
I could have put on this lesson. God Will Provide Himself a Lamb,
A Gospel Story, But this morning, as I was going
back over this, the title hit me, I told you
he would seek to it. I told you he would seek to it.
Isaac said, father, here's the wood and the fire, but where's
the land? And Abraham said, my son, God
will provide himself a land. And over there in verse 14, Abraham
called the name of that place, Jehovah Jireh, that is to say
the Lord shall be seen or he shall see to it. I told you,
I told you he would see to it. The Lord will provide, he will
provide. He'll see to it. Now what we have here in the
beginning of this chapter is a trial of faith or a challenge
to faith, response of faith, and a gospel story. That's all
we have. You know, it's like we looked
at last week, the allegory, and I said Abraham, Sarah, didn't
realize that they were creating an allegory. And here again,
Abraham, I know, did not realize he's creating a gospel story
by what he's going through, by what God is putting him through.
And so we start here in verse one, it says, after these things,
it is said among the Jews, at least I've read this, that Abraham
had 10 trials. Now I don't know what all 10
of those trials were, but I know this, this was probably the toughest
of them. This was probably the toughest
of his trials. After Abraham had endured many
trials, after he became an old man, It's hardest trial has now
come. I think sometimes our hardest
trials come later in life. And I have learned this. I think
old age itself is probably the toughest trial. I've seen this
by watching my parents. I think old age is probably the
toughest trial that we probably go through. But after these things,
after these trials and all that God had put Abraham through,
God did tempt or He tried Abraham. You know, faith must be tried.
And if God has given me faith, if God's given you faith, I assure
you He's gonna try it. He's gonna try it. That's the only way that we can
be sure that the faith that we have, the faith we profess to
have, is genuine. It's when God tries it. And when
God tries it, we come out on the other side of the trial even
stronger than when we went in it. Job said, when he has tried
me, I will come forth as gold. And it's the only way for faith
to grow. How I desire that my faith in
Christ, that your faith in Christ will grow stronger. I do, I desire
that it grows stronger and stronger until the Lord takes us out of
here. But knowing that, I also know
this, I know this, for it to grow. I'm gonna try it. I'm gonna try it. It's like the
oak tree stands out there and it's growing. And every year
that oak tree goes through the storms, it goes through the rain,
it goes through the hard wind. And each time it goes through
it, those roots grow a little deeper, get a little deeper and
it gets a little stronger until one day you have a strong oak
tree. And one of the things that made
that oak strong is the storms that it went through and made
those roots get down into the ground and hold on. And for faith to grow, It has
to be tried. It is then that we exercise that
faith in Christ that God's given us. And we look to him for help
in time of need. And when he helps us, faith is
strengthened. Now, if you'll notice here, God
speaks to Abraham. And Abraham said, behold, here
I am. Here's the response of faith,
ready to do God's will. God has spoken to him in the
past. And I tell you, not every time the Lord speaks to us, is it, I'm trying to figure out
how to say this. I want the Lord to speak, don't
you? I want the Lord to speak, but not every time he speaks, brings a joyful occasion at the
time. When God appeared to Abraham,
he said to him, Abraham, I want you to take Isaac, the son whom
you love, your well-beloved son. I want you to offer him up as
a burnt offering. I have no doubt that Abraham
and Sarah went to bed that night. And as they went to bed, he went
to sleep, and God woke Abraham up. And he said, Abraham, I want
you to take Isaac. And I want you to offer him up
as a burnt offering. And I tried in my mind as I thought
over this to put myself as best I could in Abraham's place. There he is, laying there. God has woke him up and God has
given him a very difficult situation, a real challenge to faith. Listen, not only does God challenge
his faith, he challenges his love. You know, I've mentioned
this scripture different times just in the past few weeks. He
that loves mother, father, sister, brother, son or daughter more
than me. Well, Abraham's love to God has been challenged as
well as his faith. And Sarah laying there beside
him asleep. And you know, being a man, he's
thinking this is my only son and it's her only son. I'm gonna
go offer him up as a burnt. Now, I know that the scripture
teaches us that Abraham received him in a like figure of being
raised back up, but still yet, he had to do this. He had to
do this. And this is a tough trial, but
he says here, he says, here I am. And God says, take now thy son. And here, what we're gonna see,
we're gonna see a picture We're gonna see a picture of Isaac
being a type of Christ and Abraham being a type of the father, and
then the picture's gonna change. It's like turning the photo out. You know, you get to change pictures. The picture's gonna change from
Isaac being a type of a believer and the ram caught in a thicket
being the type of the Lord Jesus Christ as a substitute. That's
what we're gonna see. So he says here, take now thy
son, obey now, take now, obey now. You know, hesitation leads
to trouble. It comes to spiritual matters,
it leads to doubts, and we start to reason and think, but God
didn't give him time to think about this. He says, do it now. Take now thy son, thy only son,
thy only son. Abraham had two sons. But the
one son is the one God gave him by promise, and that's the one
he's talking about, the son of promise. You take him, the son
whom thou lovest, not only son Isaac whom thou lovest, not a
servant, not a servant, but a beloved son, that son of promise, that
son between you and Sarah, You take him, he's the one, and you
take him to the land of Moriah. That's about 40 miles from Beersheba. 40 miles. Three days journey. This is a tough trial. Not only
did he tell him to take his son, His only son, his beloved son,
and offer him up as a burnt offering, but he gives him three days to
think about it. Three days to think about it. He had plenty of time to think
about it. I have no doubt he did not tell
Sarah. When he got up that morning, he told his servants, you go
saddle the ass, you go get the wood and the fire, you get all
this stuff and let's go. We're going. I don't even think
he told Isaac about it yet, until he got up to the mountain there.
Then he told him what was going on. And I'll get to that in a
minute. But he didn't tell Sarah. And here's a good lesson. We
must not consult with the flesh when it comes to doing the Lord's
will. He didn't get up and say, Sarah, the Lord spoke to me last
night. He appeared to me. And you know
what he told me? He told me to offer up Isaac
as a burnt offering today. What do you think her reaction
would have been? I believe he kept his mouth shut
and did the Lord's will. And offer him up as a burnt offering. Now listen, this is the first
mention of a human sacrifice. Now we're getting, and Abraham's
gonna, get right here a very clear picture of substitution. He's gonna get a clear picture
of the gospel. Our Lord said, Abraham rejoiced
to see my day. He saw it and was glad. And I think this is the day.
I think this is the day he really began to have another clear understanding
of the gospel. and how God saves sinners. And I think this was that day.
And this is also the clearest picture of the gospel substitution
of the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. God the Father
offered up His Son. There was a human sacrifice made
for us in order for us to go free. Jesus Christ was offered up as
a burnt offering for our sins. God the Father called forth his
Son to the work of redemption. He purposed it and he executed
it. He executed. The Father went
with his Son to Calvary to offer him up as a sacrifice for our
sins. He was delivered up by the determined
counsel and foreknowledge of God. That's what happened to Calvary.
And Abraham rose up early. This shows he's ready to do God's
will. Ready to do God's will. As hard
as it, as hard as it is, he's ready to do it. True faith is
obedient to the Lord's command. Christ said, you are my disciples.
Keep my commandments. Obedient to me. They traveled,
as I said, for three days. And not one time do we read of
Abraham faltering. There's no doubt when they stopped
and they camped and they're sitting there by the fire, that he's
looking at Isaac. And I have no doubt that his
heart's heavy because he's about to, he's about to slay his son. He's human. He's human. That's
the son of his love. And his heart's heavy, but he
didn't falter. We don't read of him faltering or going back.
For three days, he had an opportunity to go back, but he didn't. He didn't. God the Father purposed
the death of his son and never ever altered that purpose. Abraham
had three days to think about it. Now listen, God the Father,
I'm gonna put this in language you and I can understand. God
the Father had eternity to think about it and never changed his
mind, never altered. No shadow of eternity. at any
time, at any time. And what we see in verse five
through seven is a beautiful picture of the father and the
son going up the mountain together, one to die and the other to put
to death the son of his love. That's what we see. What a beautiful
picture of the gospel. If you'll notice, they took wood,
which represents the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, and fire,
which represents the wrath of God, but where's the lamb? Where's
the lamb? There's some things here that
needs to be pointed out. Isaac knew in order to worship
God, There must be a lamb. There must be blood shed in order
to complete, in order to even make the worship
of God possible. We cannot have a worship service
here this morning and the lamb be missing. It can't happen. God cannot be worshiped this
morning apart from Christ and him crucified. Now you can call
it a worship service if you want, or I can call it a worship service
if I want, but it's not a worship service if the lamb is missing. The lamb has to be present in
order for this to happen. there'd be a worship service
because Abraham said, he said to this, there in verse five,
and he said to his young men, abide ye here with the ass and
I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and worship, and
come again to you. He knew he was coming back, him
and Isaac. Come again to you, but listen,
the lamb has to be present. God cannot be worshiped with
wood and fire only. There must be a blood sacrifice.
And I thought this, I pray that the children here as they grow
up will be very clear on this matter. There must be the lamb. Where is the lamb? When you hear
somebody preach, Look and listen for the lamb. You don't hear
it anywhere else. There must be a lamb for a sacrifice
if God's to be worshiped. Must be the shedding of blood
if God's to be approached by sinners. Isaac knew this. Abraham
taught this to him. He knew this. He knew it. And
Abraham makes a profound statement as well as a prophetic statement.
He says in verse eight, my son, and here's faith, here's faith.
He said, my son, God will provide himself. Here's the wood, here's the fire. But now the lamb is going to
be of God's providing. It's going to be if God's providing.
God will provide the lamb. And listen, I heard Henry say
this once and I've never forgot it. God will provide himself
a lamb and God will provide himself as the lamb. God will be the
lamb. Jesus Christ is God in human flesh. And God Almighty is the lamb. He is the land. They came to the place. When
they got to that place, Abraham built an altar. He built an altar
there and laid the wood in order. I like the way that there's,
you know, there's, this is not just written out, you know, like
the wood was laid in order. And that's easy. It's easy just
to pass over that. But I thought as I read this,
there's to be order in the worship service. Not chaos, there's to
be order. God is a God of order. Worship is to be, there's order
to it. Isn't there? There's order to
our worship service. This also shows, I think, how
calm Abraham was. How confident. He was, he wasn't
just throwing things around and tore up. He just laid that wood
in order. He built an altar, laid the wood
down, they had the fire, they're getting ready. He's getting everything
ready. He's about to slay his son. Now I'm telling you, as
far as Abraham's concerned, Isaac's dead. Isaac's dead. And this is the time, I think
when he built the altar, You put the wood in order. I think
this is the time that Abraham turned and talked to Isaac, what
God had revealed to him. Told him what God had revealed
to him. And Isaac, Isaac is a beautiful picture of the obedient son. You know, I don't know, but they
say he was between the age of 20 and 30. Abraham was well over
100, well over 100. I'm gonna say he was probably
around the age of 20. He could have overcame Abraham
easy. That boy could have just overcame, overpowered Abraham. But when Abraham told him what
God had said, now listen, Isaac willingly, laid down on that
altar and let Abraham bind him. That's a beautiful picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ who willingly laid down his life for us. He was not pressed to do it.
He was not forced to do it. He said this, no man takes my
life from me. I lay it down of myself, and
if I lay it down of myself, I take it again, but know this. He said, know this, you're not
taking my life from me. I'm laying it down for you, for
a multitude of sinners. He said, I'm laying it down of
myself. And Isaac is a beautiful picture
of that. When Abraham revealed to him what the Lord had said,
I believe Isaac just submitted to it. Isaac believed the gospel. He believed the same gospel Abraham
believed. And then Abraham, in verse 10,
stretched forth his hand to take the knife and slay his son. He took that knife. He had that
knife ready to slay him. to do what you do with the burnt
offering. And then set him on fire and
burn him. Sit there and watch that body,
that boy he loved so much burn up. God stopped him. God stopped
him. Abraham stretched forth his hand,
took the knife to slay his son, and the angel of the Lord called
him out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. This is how, this shows
how imminent it was, and when he was, the blow was ready to
be struck, and the angel said, Abraham, Abraham. He's saying,
stop. Stop. And he said, here am I. Again, the obedience, here am
I. Speak, Lord, thy servant heareth. And he said, lay not thine hand
upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him, for now I
know thou fearest God. Now God knew that. You know,
God knows the heart. God knows the heart. We see here how God looks on
the heart. He said, I know you fear God. Abraham, I see your
heart. I see your heart. Abraham stopped. Here's where the picture changes.
Abraham stopped and listen, here's where it changes. He said, I
know thou fierce 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. Well, the picture changes, but
it's the same message. It's the same message, same picture,
but now we see a different part of it. Years ago, I worked for
Bob Coffey. He owned an art gallery. And
there was a picture in there of an artist. It was an original.
It was an original. And it was an Indian on a horse. And there was this forest behind
it. what I can remember of it, and there's this stream. It was
a beautiful picture. I loved looking at it, beautiful
picture. But when you looked at it closely,
there were faces in the picture. There were faces in the forest,
faces in the rocks, on the streams, and there was faces all over
that picture. But when you just looked at the
picture, all you saw was an Indian on a horse in a forest. But then
when your attention was drawn to it, and it was pointed out,
and you started, well, there's a face. There's another one,
there's another one, there's another one. Here's another face. Picture. It's gonna change. There'll be
another face here. Now Isaac's gonna be a picture
of the believer. And that ram is a picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ, a substitute. Isaac is set free and the ram
with a crown of thorns on its head is caught in the thicket
by the thorns. Could it be a more clear picture
than this? There's a ram caught in a thicket
by its horns. With a crown of thorns on its
head. And Abraham takes that ram, he unties Isaac, and he
lets him, Isaac gets up off that altar, and then the ram is brought
over and put on that altar, and it is slain in the stead of Isaac. Don't you think Isaac wasn't
glad to see the ram that day? I bet you he thought, whoo-hoo,
And I'm glad that ram's over there. I had no doubt he was
thrilled to death just to hear of and see that ram. I mean,
that knife was drawn and he's looking up at his father getting
ready to stab him or cut his throat. That's the way they did
it. They cut his throat. And all of a sudden, everything
stops. Everything stops. And there's
a ram over there in a figure. Just happened to be there. Yeah,
right. And he goes over and gets that
ram and unties his son. And boy, don't you know Abraham
was thrilled to see that ram. Don't you know he was? He, whoo,
I bet you he just, man, the gospel cleared up for him that day. Boy, did he get a real picture
of the gospel. You and I, who believe we're
bound by the law to die for our sins, but God, who is rich in
mercy, found a ransom in his Son, set us free, and bound him
to the cross in our stead, and put him to death. Jesus Christ really died my place. And that's my salvation. That's
my salvation. Abraham called the place Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord will see, will be seen
in the mount. And one of the translation is
the Lord will provide. And that's the reason I titled
it. I told you he would see to it. Because when Isaac asked
him about the lamb, he didn't say, well, Isaac, you're the
lamb today. Abraham was, here's all Abraham
could say, son, this is one thing I know, God will provide himself
a land. We've got the fire and the wood.
Now God's gonna provide the land. But Abraham carried out the order.
He carried it out the order, believing God will provide the
land. And God had given him a vision. that he would raise Isaac back
up, because that's the only way the promise could be fulfilled. It's
the only way the seed could come if Isaac continued on. The Lord will see. He will provide. He will see our need and provide. You know, it's sad that we ever
doubt God. If he has taken care of the weightier
matter of my salvation, the very salvation of my soul, will he
not take care of all these other little things? Will he not do
that? I've never been called upon to
do what Abraham was called upon to do. The Lord will provide. Has he
not provided all that we need in the Lord Jesus Christ? Wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, redemption. Has he not provided
all that we need? I ask this question now. Where's
the lamb? He's seated at God's right hand,
ruling over all. That's where the lamb is. That's where he is. In verse 17, 18,
19, we see Isaac's greatness, which represents Christ. He said,
thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies. Thy seed, which
is Christ, shall possess the gate of his enemies. He rules,
the lamb rules, he's on the throne. And all nations shall be blessed
through him. All nations shall be blessed. Thy seed shall, in verse 18,
and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. America is blessed right now
because of the Lord Jesus Christ. And every nation on this earth
has been blessed. There are people saved out of
every kindred, tribe, tongue, nation under heaven, every nation. And it appears, you know, here's
something interesting, and I think this has a reference to the resurrection
of Christ, his ascension. Because he told, Abraham told
him in verse five, and Abraham said to his young men, abide
ye here with the ass, and the lad will go yonder to worship
and come again to you. But listen to verse 19, so Abraham
returned unto his young men, It sounds like Isaac stayed up
on the mountain, does it? It says, so Abraham returned
to his young men and they rose up and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham dwelt at Beersheba. I think that's a good picture
there of the resurrection of Christ, his ascension on the
glory. All right. I told you, I told
you he'd see to it. I told you he would.