Hebrews chapter 11 of course
is about faith. I've been thinking a little bit
more about it this week and I'm realizing that faith is universally
applicable grace God has given to us that enables us to do everything
in the Christian life. And so I want to continue the
study in Hebrews 11 in this time about Abraham. We're gonna be
looking at verses 17 through verse 19. So before we do that,
let's pray. Father, thank you for this grace
that you've given to us to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. In
all of our life, there is nothing more precious than this faith
that you've given to us, and we know this is by your Spirit
dwelling in us, so that it is not our own life that we live,
but Christ who lives in us. And this is by your grace, tremendous,
unspeakable grace. And this life in us, our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ, by His Spirit living in us, enables
us to believe Him, and to walk by faith in Him and do all that
we do in this life, though we live in this body and it's sinful,
though we commit sin, yet in our... new nature in our resurrected
spirit and soul, we are enabled to live by the Lord Jesus Christ,
by faith in Him. So we pray, Lord, that You would
teach these things to us. Make Yourself great in our eyes.
In His name we pray. Amen. Hebrews chapter 11. If you were to look at each of
the people mentioned and each of
the things mentioned about them in Hebrews chapter 11, you'll
see something that is hard to miss, which is that faith is
that grace of God which gives us a universal tool that really
serves every purpose as a Christian. You know, in our own physical
lives we take tools from a toolbox in order to fix problems. God
has a toolbox in it for the Christian believer. It's faith in Christ. And so you see that here. In
John 6, 29, this is the work of God, that you believe on him
whom he has sent. This is it. Faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Obedience of faith, obedience
to the faith, meaning the gospel, and the obedience that flows
from faith, all are centered around faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Abel, if you remember, worshiped
God. He came to God with the blood
of that lamb, which God first shed and clothed Adam with those
clothes, those skins in Genesis 3.21. Abel did the same thing.
He came to God through the blood of the lamb. He came and was
justified by God through the blood of Christ. And he offered
his lamb looking to Christ. And then we saw also that Seth
and Enos called on the name of the Lord. They were constantly
calling. Calling on the name of the Lord
is to call for salvation. It is to worship him because
of his salvation. And Enoch walked with God. He pleased God and that he did
by faith. He pleased God. He was found
in Christ and he lived upon Christ. The life that I now live, I live
by the faith of the Son of God. He lived and walked. just as
he first received the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. Noah prepared
an ark to the saving of his house. He fled to Christ for refuge.
He exhorted his family to get into the ark. God shut them in,
those elect few, and the rest of the world was destroyed. And
he condemned the world in that act of preparing the ark and
getting into the ark, and his family then receiving the safety
of the ark, which typified Christ in his atoning work, and they
also condemned the world because the world had no interest in
it. and they suffered the outpouring of God's wrath. So there Noah
again. Again, Noah also by faith, he feared because God's word
to him that he was gonna destroy the world and he trusted God
and he did what God said. And then after Noah, Abraham
is mentioned. Abraham, God called him to go
out to a place which he should after receive for an inheritance
and he obeyed and he went out not knowing whether he went.
Not only did he obey, He didn't know where he was going. God
gave him his word concerning Christ, concerning justification
by him and eternal inheritance, and Abraham left. And he lived
in the very land, the physical region that would be given to
his physical descendants, and he looked for another inheritance.
He lived a life of long patience, waiting for God's promise, and
he never actually received the promise in the life that he lived. He never experienced the fulfillment
of the promise except by faith until he went to glory. And God
promised him the world. He promised him all things in
Christ. And so not only he, but Isaac and Jacob and Sarah lived
their lives by faith in this life, every day of their life,
throughout the long periods of their lives, they lived upon
God's word, looking to the Lord Jesus Christ, walking in this
faith. And so in Hebrews chapter 11,
where we were last time, through verses eight through 16, we saw
this. And in verse 16, to recall this
to your memory, now they desire a better country that is in heavenly,
they seek in this life as they live their life here, as they
go get up in the morning, as they make breakfast, they get
dressed, they go to work, they do their job, they come home,
They gather around the table, they give thanks to God, they
go to bed, they get up, and they do it again. And this is the
way they live their life. Constantly looking to Christ,
constantly looking for Christ, and living their lives trusting
that everything in their lives is given to them by God, whether
it be good, bad, or otherwise. And so in verse 16, they look
for a country, they desire a better country, a heavenly, wherefore
God is not ashamed to be called their God. They're citizens of
heaven, they live as citizens of heaven and strangers in this
world, and God is not ashamed to be called their God. He made
himself their God. He committed himself to be their
God and they were made to be his people. And so you see, even
in this, that in these things, we've really done a comprehensive
survey of faith in the life of the believer, looking to the
Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn't matter whether it's
life, whether it's things present, whether it's things to come,
whether it's death, whether it's happy, whether it's sad, whether
it's the feeling of depression, whether it's the feeling of exuberance,
whether it's calamity or tragedy, hunger, being destitute or afflicted,
whether it's testing, whether it's temptations, whether it's
unjust treatment by men in this world, or whether it's the fiery
darts of the devil. faith is given to us, to support
us, to keep our eyes on God's Word, on Christ, and to live
our lives. Don't underestimate the importance
of faith. Don't underestimate that in your
life you're going to be called by God to live upon Christ by
faith. This is your life. And it brings
glory to God as you undergo difficulties in your life to maintain an attitude
of living under the umbrella of God's providence, of his provision,
and making supplication to Him, and depending upon Him, committing
it to the Lord, trusting Him, waiting on Him to do His will,
and being thankful to Him, who can only do good, and will work
all things together for our good, to do whatever He would with
us as we depend upon Him. That's the life of the believer.
And so we see this here in Hebrews chapter 11. It goes on, and I
won't go through it all now, but there was Isaac, Jacob, Joseph,
Moses, Moses' parents, and Rahab the harlot, David, Joshua, Jephthah,
Samson, all these people lived by faith. Some of them conquered
kingdoms. Some of them were cut in half
with wooden swords. Some of them were destitute. They had nothing. They lived
in caves and mountains and deserts. And others were in places of
influence. But whatever it was, they lived
by faith. They lived by God's word. That
was the one thing they depended upon. That's the way they viewed
life. They saw things through his eyes. Now, today I want to
look specifically at verses 17 through 19. Hebrews chapter 11
verse 17, by faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac. So God tries the righteous. This is a text of scripture.
God tries the righteous. He tests them. Why? Does God test his people because
he needs to know how they're going to react? No, he tests
them in order that he might prove that the work of faith in them
is his work, that he will hold it up. Remember, Peter was tried. Jesus told Peter, before the
rooster crows in the morning, you're going to deny me three
times. And Peter said, no. No, I will
die with you. No, I'll die with you. I'll die
for you. And so it went on, and guess
what? Exactly what Jesus said would happen, happened. Peter
denied him three times. Before the morning, before the
rooster crowed. When he heard that crow the rooster,
it was the third time. He was tried. And Jesus said
before that, he said, Satan has desired to sift you like wheat,
but I have prayed for your faith. That's what we need. We need
the Lord Jesus to uphold our faith. Give it to us, increase
it, and uphold us in faith. Looking to the Lord Jesus Christ,
because faith ascribes, faith credits to God all truth, all
wisdom, all goodness, all the work of our salvation, and faith
looks for what God has promised, depending upon him, to be faithful
to his word. Like David prayed to the Lord,
Lord, do as you have said. That's the life of the believer.
Lord, do as you have said. And so we're gonna see this.
By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, What did he do? He offered
up Isaac. And he, Abraham, that had received
the promises, offered up his only begotten son, of whom it
was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called, accounting
that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence
also he received him in a figure. I want to go back to Genesis
22, where this account is given in detail. In Genesis 22, we
see what God said to Abraham, and we'll learn much from it.
But notice here that the emphasis is on, by faith, Abraham, when
God tried him and tested him, he did what God told him to do. That's a mature faith. And in
fact, in Abraham's case, he made the highest sacrifice that he
could have possibly offered. He offered up his son Isaac.
And Isaac, if you remember, was the one God promised to Abraham. Abraham and Sarah, Abraham was
100, Sarah was 90, and they had waited a long time. Abraham,
25 years since the promise that God was gonna give him, not only
a son, but through his son, would bring Christ, and through Christ,
all the nations of the world would be blessed. So Abraham
waited for that. He waited for Isaac, and there
were several times where he and Sarah doubted But God fulfilled
his word. He kept his promise. And Isaac
was finally born. And now Isaac is the one. And
God says to Abraham, in him, in Isaac, shall thy seed be called. It would be through Isaac, through
his natural generation, that God would bring Christ into the
world. And all of God's people would be like Isaac. They would
be called the children of promise. Isaac was a son of promise and
all who believe Christ are like Isaac, children of promise. Children of promise. So Isaac
was the promised one through whom Christ would come. Now,
notice how God speaks in Genesis chapter 22. And he came to pass
after these things, and what he had just got through talking
about was first in chapter 19, God came to Abraham and told
him he was gonna destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, and Abraham begins
to pray and ask the Lord, don't destroy the city. He pleads with
the Lord, would you destroy the city if there were 50 righteous?
Far be it from you, the judge of all the earth, the judge of
all the earth will do right if there's 50 righteous, would you
destroy the whole city? And far be it from God to destroy
the righteous with the wicked, and he begins to plead according
to God's character. And the Lord says, no, I won't
destroy it for the sake of 50 righteous. And then he says,
what about 45? Very meekly, Abraham is submitting
to whatever God's will is. He says, for lack of five, would
you destroy the whole city for the lack of five? And the Lord
said, no, I won't destroy it for the sake of 45 righteous.
And he keeps going down until he gets to 10. And the Lord says,
I won't destroy it for the sake of the whole city, for the sake
of 10 righteous. God won't destroy the righteous
with the wicked. Remember, Noah and his family
were taken out. Then God destroyed the world
by flood. And so it is at the end of time.
God will not destroy his people with the wicked. He's going to
save them out of the world. That's why we know before God
destroys the world, he's going to take all of his people out.
But here, In Genesis 22, we see something different. God did
destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, but he took Lot out. Lot was the
only righteous one in that city. He took Lot out. And then he
rained fire and brimstone from heaven upon those two cities
and destroyed them. Abraham was pleading for it.
But here, notice in chapter 22, God is going to give Abraham
a command to do something that's gonna show how God is not going
to destroy, but how he's going to save. Here in Genesis 22,
it came to pass after these things that God did tempt or try or
test Abraham. Abraham, what does that name
mean? It means a father of many nations. When did God give him
that name? When did God call him Abraham,
the father of many nations? Well, it was actually before
Isaac was born. Before Isaac was born, God said,
your name shall no longer be called Abram, but Abraham, meaning
father of many nations. And so God calls those things
which be not as though they were. That's what Romans 4, 17 says. Abraham believed God who calls
those things which be not, your name is Abraham, father of many
nations, as though they were before it happens. God says it's
so. And he stakes his reputation
on it. If it doesn't come to pass, God obviously lied or couldn't
fulfill his word, but that never happens. So God always says what's
going to be before it comes to pass, because he's the one who
brings it to pass. His name is Abraham and it's
significant here. Notice, it came to pass after
these things that God had tipped the father of many nations through
Isaac. And said to him, Abraham, he
called him by that name. And Abraham said, behold, here
I am. Verse two, and he said, God 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. Nowhere in scripture did God ever command his people
to sacrifice their children, except here. And you would think
that's contrary to all that seems like God would do. But God tells
Abraham to do this. Take your son, not Ishmael, not
a servant, your son, your only son, the only one who was legitimate,
the son of promise. See how God is emphasizing bringing
Abraham back to the promise. He calls him by his name, Father
of many nations. He identifies the one he wants
him to sacrifice, Isaac. His name meant laughter because
Sarah laughed and so did Abraham. The promise that they would have
him when they were old. And he was the son of promise?
He was the one through whom Christ was promised. In Isaac shall
thy seed be called. In all of God's people, like
Isaac, would be called the children of promise. So he's talking about
the promised son. the loved son, the one that was
the only begotten by Abraham in God's eyes. Not Ishmael, he
was the son of the slave woman. He himself was a servant. But
Isaac was the free son, the son of the free woman, the son of
promise, the one who was born of the spirit, you see. In Galatians
chapter four it says it that way. Ishmael represents those
that are born of the flesh. But here God says, take the son,
the son of promise, the son of your old age, your only son,
Isaac, your only begotten son, as it says in Hebrews chapter
11. And he says, take him, the one you love, and get into the
land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon
one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of. Now, this land
of Moriah is significant. If you're interested in what
this mountain is, it shows up later in scripture. In fact, it's very significant.
Let me read this one verse of scripture to you. In 2 Chronicles
3, in verse one, it says, Solomon began to build the house of the
Lord at Jerusalem in Mount Moriah. where the Lord appeared to David,
his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshing
floor of Ornan, the Jebusite. So there was a place called Jerusalem,
a city. It was built on Mount, a mountain
called Mount Zion. And this mountain corresponds
to Moriah. If you look at this, we're gonna
see something from that. Mount Moriah, is Mount Zion,
where Jerusalem, the city of the Lord, was built later. And
so we're going to see. And where was the Lord Jesus
Christ crucified? Calvary. And what is Calvary?
It's a mountain. Where at? Outside the walls of
Jerusalem. So here God directs Abraham to
a place far from where he lived, where he was staying then, it
was a three days journey, to Mount Moriah. And he says, I
want you to take your son there and offer him as a burnt offering.
Verse three, notice what Abraham did. Did he know where this mountain
was exactly? God's gonna direct him there,
just like when he was first called. Did he know what land God was
going to give to him? No, not physically, but he's
gonna go there, and he's gonna live there like a stranger. He
trusts in God, he depends on his word. Whatever the Lord says,
at this point in his life, Abraham has proven God to be faithful
in his experience. all the years he waited, and
God fulfilled his word to Isaac. And now God tells him, take that
very son and offer him as a burnt offering. What was Abraham thinking?
Notice verse 3, 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 he claimed the wood for the burnt offering. He was intent
on this. He was really going to do it. And he rose up and
he went into the place of which God had told him. He was obedient. By faith, Abraham, when he was
tried, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. Verse four, then on
the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place
afar off. Verse five, and Abraham said
to his young men, abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad
will go up yonder and worship and come again to you. Nothing
in scripture is incidental. God says, the Holy Spirit writing
here what God told Abraham to do, he says, Abraham told his
young men, you stay here. Me and the lad are gonna go there. So they're one place and Abraham
and his son are in another place by themselves where the Lord
sent them. Not only were they by themselves,
but he said, I and the lad will go up yonder and worship and
come again to you. What were they going to worship?
How were they going to worship? They were going to worship in
the offering God commanded Abraham to offer, which was his son.
Now, do you hear the gospel here? It's dripping, and it's meant
to be. obvious that God is directing
Abraham to carry out in this command he's given to him, this
test. He's giving him a physical picture
of what God would do and his son would do for our redemption. Abraham and Isaac went alone.
And what is Hebrews 1.3 says, when he had by himself the Lord
Jesus Christ purged our sins. The Lord Jesus only went to the
cross with our sins, and he accomplished redemption without any help from
men, but with his Father's own strength alone. It was he and
his Father. Look at the Gospel of John in
chapter 16. I want to read this text of Scripture
to you. Notice, he says in John chapter
16, In verse 31, Jesus answered them, do you now believe? Talking
to his disciples, because they heard what Jesus explained, how
he was sent by his father into the world. In fact, let me read
this to you in verse 28. I will read out back a couple
verses. Verse 27, Jesus is talking to his disciples. Very close
and intimate conversation with only the 11 disciples. Now he's
about to go to the cross, very near to that point where he offers
himself to God on the cross. Verse 27, the Father himself
loveth you because you have loved me and have believed that I came
out from God. Verse 28, I came forth from the
Father and I am come into the world, again I leave the world
and go to the Father. His disciples said to him, Lo,
now speakest thou plainly and speakest no proverb. Verse 30,
Now we are sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that
any should ask thee, but by this we believe that thou camest forth
from God. In verse 31, Jesus answered them,
Do you now believe, and here's the verse, Behold, the hour cometh,
yea, is now come that you shall be scattered, every man to his
own, and shall leave me alone. And yet I am not alone. Because what? The Father is with
me. You see? So back to Genesis 22. Abraham tells his two servants,
you stay here. I and the lad will go yonder.
And we will worship and we will come again to you. Because in
the offering up of Isaac, we see the offering up of the Lord
Jesus Christ by God the Father. And this is the worship. This
is the worship of God in the offering of his son. We worship
God in our salvation. This is what God did. There's
nothing that demands our worship more than what God did in his
son. That's what he's saying here,
and he did it by himself. It was just him and his son.
In verse six of Genesis 22, and Abraham took the wood of the
burnt offering and he laid it upon Isaac, his son. What does
that remind you of? Remember when Jesus was going
to Calvary, what did they do? They told him to carry his cross. But what is the cross? Well,
God says in Deuteronomy 21 that he that hangs on a tree is cursed
of God. That's the last verse, I think,
in Deuteronomy 21. Whoever hangeth on a tree is
cursed. That's what God said. And what
was the tree? Galatians 3.13, Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. He was cursed of God. So the
tree, the cross, was laid upon Christ and he was told to carry
it. And he carried it. And so God
In the scripture, scripture is speaking here, Abraham, as God
the Father, laid the wood on Isaac to carry it up the mountain.
The very wood that was going to be used to consume him, to
burn him up in the offering. And that gives us amazing awe,
doesn't it? To stand still and to look at
this, what God the Father is going to do to His Son. He lays
the curse, the wood, the curse, what is going to consume Him,
the wrath of God, He lays it upon His Son and has Him carry
it up to the mountain. Because our sins were laid upon
Him. That's why the curse came upon Him. Our sins were laid
upon Him. God laid on Him the iniquity
of us all. And so He laid the wood on Him,
too, because of our sin, the curse came upon Him, the sting
of death, the sin. And so sin was upon Him. By the
imputation of God, He was imputed, He was made sin, and therefore
He was, our sins were taken from us and laid on Him, like we saw
last week in Psalm 51. He owned them. They were no longer
ours, but they became His. And He bare our sins in His own
body. It says in 1 Peter 2.24, He carried
them up to the tree. He carried them up to the cross
where He would be cursed of God and offer Himself as a burnt
offering for our sins. And God would receive satisfaction
and justice for that. And His law would be fulfilled.
So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, which would consume
his son, and that wood, that curse, that would come upon Christ,
which would be God's wrath poured out on him as a burnt offering,
and he laid it on Isaac, his son. And he took the fire in
his hand, and he took a knife, and they went, both of them,
together." Again, John 16, 32. I am left alone, but I'm not
alone. My Father is with me. And Isaac
spake unto Abraham his father." Notice Isaac's response. Isaac
is not a child here. He's big enough to carry the
wood. I don't know how old he was. John Gill thought he might
be 25 or even as old as 30-something. And he's called a lad here. Don't
let that make you think that he's a little boy. because they
called men, when they were young like this, lads, even though
they were older. So Isaac was old enough to carry
the wood, and notice Isaac doesn't even, there's no record of Isaac
talking to his father the whole way. He goes with him, he gets
up in the morning, his dad, Abraham, is carrying the wood. Think of
the relationship that Isaac had to his father. Abraham was a
hundred years old when he was born. What respect he had for
his father. He knew God's promise to his
father Abraham. His father had told him. He knew
that God favored his father. He had chosen him and given him
a promise and Abraham had explained to him this was concerning God's
own son. And so here they are walking
together. But Isaac doesn't yet know the full extent of what
God told Abraham to do, but even though he doesn't know the full
extent of it, what is he doing? He's completely confident. He's
confident in his father's wisdom. He trusts his father to do the
right thing. Isaac spake to his father, Abraham. He says in verse seven, Isaac
spake unto Abraham, his father, and he said, my father, And he
said, here am I, my son. And Isaac said, behold the fire
and the wood, but where is the lamb for burnt offering? Where's the lamb? He had seen
his father offer lambs before. He had seen him worship God before. But now he's asking him, here's
the fire and the wood, where's the lamb? Because they're going
up the mountain. And Abraham said, my son, God
will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. And so they
went, both of them, together. You see, there's so much in that
verse of scripture. God, God the Father, took the
son, his only begotten son, the son that he loved, and he would
offer him on Mount Calvary for the sins of his people. God would
see, God would see to it, he would provide, and then God would
be seen in it. We'll see this in a minute. And
so Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for
burnt offering. So they went both of them together.
Again, together, I'm not alone, but my father is with me. Isaac
completely submissive to his father. He trusts his father
implicitly. It's like there's no concern.
Isaac is not struggling to get out of this. He's not protesting.
Absolutely submissive in obedience. Verse nine, and they came to
the place which God had told him of, and Abraham built an
altar there, and he laid the wood in order, and then notice,
and he bound Isaac his son. Why did he bind him? Because
that's the way you treated the sacrifice. Bind a sacrifice and
lay it upon the altar. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
in the Garden of Gethsemane and the soldiers came to arrest him,
he said, if you seek me, then let these go their way. And then
in verse 12, it says, and then the soldiers took him and they
bound him. John 18, verse 12. So the Lord
Jesus Christ was bound. His hands were bound. And then
he was laid on the wood, the cross, and his feet were pierced,
and his hands were pierced. He was fastened to that wood,
bound. And so we see it here in type.
God, the son of his love, his only begotten son, laid him on
the cross. because he laid our sins upon
him and he bore them as his. They were no longer ours, made
to be his. And in that offering of his son,
he would blot out our sins. He would hide his face from our
sins. And so it says that he laid the
wood in order 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. Now, Abraham had killed the sacrifices
before, and the process was to kill it and then to burn it up.
And so Abraham reaches for the knife to kill his son. He is
going to obey God. Why? Because he believes God. God called him the father of
many nations. God gave him Isaac, who was the
son of promise. He said that through Isaac God
would call his seed. Christ would come into the world.
He would justify the heathen. He would give them an eternal
inheritance. This was the promise of the father.
Abraham was utterly convinced that what God told him to do
here would not prevent, but it was actually part of God's plan
to bring Christ into the world and to fulfill his promise. And
so when Abraham took Isaac and he took the knife, he saw in
that, if you can even comprehend this, if the solemnity of this,
what was going through Abraham's mind actually entered into it,
that he was going to kill his son and he believed God was then
going to raise him up. Abraham saw his life and the
life of his son in the resurrection of Isaac because that's the only
way Christ could come into the world. He saw eternal life and
the eternal blessings that God had promised him in the life
of his son. He knew God would keep his word.
In faith, he obeyed God. This is a mature faith, isn't
it? He was tried, he obeyed, and God kept his promise. And
so he says here, he stretched forth his hand and he took the
knife to slay his son. And the angel of the Lord immediately
called, I put the word immediately in the text, he 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 to him. Don't you even
nick him with that knife. For now I know that thou, fearest
God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only
son, from me." Abraham loved God more than he loved his own
son. I can't explain that. I don't think I do. I don't know
until I'm tested. Our niece was here with her husband,
Josh, and we were talking about one thing or another, Josh said,
I think that the reason that we're not as bad as those people
is because we just haven't been tested. I think that's a very
wise thing to say. We just haven't been tested,
have we? But in God's grace, he gives us this grace of faith
and it only comes to its strength when it's tested, and God gives
that grace. Someone said, I think it was
Norm Wells a few weeks ago when he was in rescue, he said, someone
asked Henry Mahan one time, he said, I don't know if I have
dying grace. I just don't know if I'm gonna
be able to believe while I'm dying. And he says, are you dying? He says, no, I don't think so. I said, well, you don't need
it yet. You see, God gives the grace to uphold the faith in
the trial, and like in Peter's case, after the trial, so that
we don't fall away. God tests us. Someone told me
one time when I was very young, he said, we never fail the test,
we just keep taking it again. God's going to make sure we pass.
And he's going to make sure we continue to hold fast to his...
Abraham had failed before. Remember the king of Egypt, Abimelech
in Phicol, the captain of a king called Abimelech? He let Sarah
be treated, he thought, she's my sister. And then the time
when he was afraid for his life, his name was Abraham. And yet
he didn't believe God and he was worried about his own life.
So we know Abraham's faith grew over time, was increased. And
here we see it in the full maturity of it. When the Lord calls him
to offer up his son and he obeys. Gets up in the morning, he takes
his service, he takes the wood, takes his son, he goes to Mount
Moriah, he builds the altar, he lays the wood on the altar,
puts his son, binds his son and puts him on the wood and takes
the knife. He's ready to kill his son. How could anyone kill
his own son? He loved his son. Because God
gave him the grace to show what God the Father would do. He loved
his son. The Father loveth the son. He
takes great delight in his son. He's always pleased with his
son. This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. And yet
God the Father took his only begotten son and delivered him
up for us all. How can we understand that? How
can we understand such love as this? That's what it is, it's
love. It's pure, holy, eternal love
of God the Father for His elect people that He offered up His
only begotten Son so that in the offering of His Son, He saved
them for eternity. Listen to this in 1 John 4. And
verse 9, in this was manifested the love of God toward it. This
is the way God's love was made known toward us. Because that
God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might
live through him. Verse 10 of 1 John 4, herein
is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us. and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. The sacrifice offered to God
to appease his wrath and satisfy his justice. That's what the
propitiation is. God made his son the propitiation
for our sins. Let those words reverberate in
your mind. that God would reconcile us to
himself through the death of his son, for God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten son. He loved his people. Jesus said, I lay down my life
for the sheep. For the sheep. The Father has
given me this commandment, John chapter 10, verses 15 through
18. He gave me commandment that I
should lay my life down. And he loved the Father and he
did what his Father gave him to do. It was complete obedience,
perfect obedience of submission to the will of the Father in
love for his Father and in love for his people. The Son of God
has loved me and given himself for me. unto him who loved us
and washed us from our sins in his own blood." The Father, God
the Father, gave his Son a sacrifice for us, and Christ gave himself
a sacrifice for us. I don't know how to describe
it. This is the words of God. We need to ask the Lord, make
this truth, the whole truth, about the way things are. Give
me this grace of faith to believe this, that God could actually
give his only begotten son, not for the good, but for the wicked. In this, God's love was commended
toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us. The scripture is replete with
this truth. It shines. You know what this
mountain was, Mount Moriah? It was Mount Zion, mountain where
Jerusalem was built, where Christ was crucified. That mountain
is exalted above all the other mountains. This is where God
plants his temple, where God dwells, where Christ was crucified. The Lamb of God slain from the
foundation of the earth is sitting on the throne of heaven in Zion. That's what it's about here.
This is the center. the stake at the middle of the
tent of all of God's purpose and all of God's glory. This
is where we worship God in the offering up of His only begotten
Son, the Son of His love for sinners, wicked sinners. He laying
our sins on Him in Christ in love, bearing them and taking
them from us as His own, confessing over His own head our sins, placing
them on Himself. and owning them before God, and
then blotting them out in the sacrifice of his own blood. Burnt
offering consumed in this outpouring of God's justice, a propitiation,
God's wrath removed from us. And Isaac was that son, that
submissive son. Now let's keep going here. Verse
13, Genesis 22, 13. And Abraham lifted up his eyes Oh, because God had said this
about him. He said, now I know. He withheld
him from taking the knife to Isaac. And Abraham lifted up
his eyes and looked. And behold, behind him, a ram
caught in the thicket, in a thicket by his horns. Caught in the thicket, you know,
a thorny bush. There his head was stuck. The
ram's head. And what was this ram? He was
the one that was going to get killed and offered up. Abraham
was going to take this ram, kill it, lay it on the wood, and burn
it instead of his son Isaac. And when we first see the ram,
Abraham first sees the ram, his horns are caught in this thicket.
It reminds us of what they did to the Lord Jesus, doesn't it?
Because He bore our sins, they did all that God's will was to
do, Acts 4, 27 and 28. Herod, Pilate, the Gentiles,
the elders of the Jew, they did everything God wanted to have
done to his son. And what did they do? They took
a crown made of thorns and they thrust it onto his head because
he bore the curse. That's what the thorns were there
for in Genesis, in the beginning. The ground was cursed. Thorns
grew out of it. A thicket of this bush. The ram
is stuck in it. Christ was bearing our sins. He was bound by his Father to
bear the curse and he willingly did it in submission of obedience.
That is the righteousness of God imputed to us. And so, it
says, he looked behind him, a ram caught in the thicket by his
horns, and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for
a burnt offering in the stead of, who? His son. Who was his son? He was the son
of promise. In Galatians chapter four, in
verse 28, listen to these words. They describe God's people, he
says, Galatians 4. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was,
are the children of promise. Who did Abraham offer up the
ram for? The children of promise. God's
people, given to Christ in promise, before the world began, who hath
saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." 2 Timothy 1.9. And so here we see this. He offered
up the ram instead of his son. God offered up his son instead
of our own suffering. We were redeemed from the curse
by the precious blood of Christ. And then in verse 14, listen.
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." Now, look back at verse eight. In verse eight, it said,
when Isaac asked his father, he said, my father. Abraham said,
here am I, my son. And he said, where 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. The words are
actually, God will see, he will see, God will see, just that
simple. And really it's implied as an
elliptical statement, God will see to it. So there's really
three ways you can explain these words here. God will see, God
will see to it or provide, and God will be seen in it. First
of all, we see that the Lord sees, doesn't he? What did he
see? Well, he saw us in our wickedness. But what did he see that wickedness?
What did he see our sin as? He saw it as a need. When God
saw it as a need, he not only saw it as a need, but he saw
it as a need he would fulfill. Because when God sees the needs
of his people, he sees it for their salvation. When God sees
a need, he's going to not only see the need in grace, but he'll
see to the need. And so the Lord saw the need,
he saw our sin, he saw our need, and he saw to it, to meet our
need, and saw Christ alone as the all-sufficient provision
to meet our need, the need of our sin. We were sinners before
God, and God saw to it to make us in the Beloved holy and unreprovable
in his sight by the death of his Son. In John chapter five
and verse six, Jesus saw a lame man, and he had known, he knew
that he had been there a long time, and he said to him, will
you be made whole? Jesus saw the need, and he sought
to it. He met that need. He gave that
man strength to walk. And so with God, to see the need
of his people is to provide for that need. And from eternity,
our Father, God our Father, saw our need, and he met that need
in the Lamb of God, his only begotten Son. He saw our fallen
Adam, he saw our sins, and he saw his everlasting love for
his people, and he saw the provision of that love in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Words can't describe this. We
cannot sufficiently communicate what God is saying here. He saw,
God sees, and He sees to it. He saw the Lord Jesus Christ
as our surety. He saw Him in the covenant of
grace, fulfilling all conditions. He saw Him bearing our sins.
He saw Him bearing our curse. He was pleased, is pleased the
Lord. And we should think about this
all the time, all the time. When we feel the weight of our
sins, God saw it. When we feel the weight of our
sins, God saw our need met in Christ. He laid it on his son.
He sees. The Lord sees. My son, God will
provide himself a lamb. He not only himself provided
it, but he himself is the one he provided. God, the son, the
son of God loved me and gave himself for me. This wasn't just
a man, it was he who is God, a very God. And he saw it and
he met it. This is the love of God that
he provided his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Not
only did he see it, as I said, but he provided it, and that
is what Jehovah-Jireh means, the Lord will provide, but it
also means that the Lord will be seen in it. Not only did God
see our need, God provided it, but when the Lord Jesus Christ
gave himself, God received him and he looks upon him, and there
he sees the full satisfaction of our need met. When I see the
blood, I'll pass over you." And so he says in verse 14, Genesis
22, 14, he says, and Abraham called the name of that place
Jehovah-Jireh. For as it is said to this day,
in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. God sees our need, God
sees his son, and God is seen in what he did to his son. This
is the way we know God. Then this was manifest, the love
of God towards us. that God gave His Son that we
might live through Him. He gave, we know God's love because
He made His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. It should strike
us with absolute humility, meekness, trust, love, confidence, awe,
submission, hope, Everything, everything flows from this. Why?
Because faith causes us to see God. He says, behold, what manner
of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called
the sons of God. Therefore, it does not yet appear
what we shall be, But we know that when he shall appear, Christ,
we shall be like him, for we shall what? See him as he is. God sees him, when we see him,
we'll be just like him. God sees, God provides, and God
is glorified most significantly in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so, we could go on here, but I just wanna go back to Hebrews
chapter 11 to wrap this up. Hebrews chapter 11. I confess
the weakness, the total inadequacy to communicate to you what is
really meant here in that God gave his son as Abraham. If we
could just get into a little bit of how much Abraham loved
his son and treasured him as a gift from God, as the one in
whom Christ would come and then see God's eternal purpose in
his son fulfilled in him, then we would stand in awe. and we
would feel the weight of our sins lifted from us and we would
be forever thankful and forever trusting God. Troubles, trials,
who cares? If God is for us, who can be
against us? Neither life nor death, things present, things
to come. It doesn't matter, principalities,
powers, all these things. We're gonna be more than conquerors
through him who loved us. God has given us his grace of
faith. The spirit of Christ is in us.
We live by faith. Just as he ran the race, we're
gonna run this race. It doesn't matter what comes
to us. God will uphold us, he will preserve us, and we'll therefore
persevere in this faith. And so in Hebrews chapter 11,
by faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac. That's it. That's obedience,
isn't it? That's the ultimate. Obedience of a sacrifice, because
he saw in the command of God, the revelation of what God had
done in Christ. And so we do too, in all of our
lives. Whether it be trouble at work,
trouble at home, trouble of emotional problems, or anxieties, or loss
of loved ones, we can see in God's word, his answer to all
of it, can't we? We can trust him. We can trust
Him. Let's pray. Lord, we pray that
we would be enabled to see You in what You have seen, our sinful
selves. under the spotlight of your eye
of mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ so that you would provide your
son for us and your great goodness towards us and your grace and
mercy and your loving kindness, everlasting love in the Lord
Jesus Christ that you would give your only begotten son for us.
May we know him and know you in him and see the Lord Jesus
and see you in him. In his name we pray, amen.