I will be speaking this morning
from the book of Genesis, the first book in the Bible, the
book of Genesis, chapter 22. Genesis 22. Now, the Bible, God's
Word, is a book which principally speaks of Jesus Christ, God's
Son. Christ said so. He said, ìThe
Scriptures testify of me.î All the prophets bore witness of
Jesus Christ. The Old Testament, which was
the only scriptures the apostles preached from, and which our
Lord preached from, the Old Testament is prophecy in exact detail concerning
who the coming Christ was to be, what he was like, what he
was to be like, where born, his lineage or family, his character,
why he was coming, and the complete success of his coming. All the stories of, say, Abel,
Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Daniel, David, Ruth,
and so on, all those stories are stories of Jesus Christ,
His person and work, types, symbols, shadows, pictures of Jesus Christ. Now, if someone does not see
Christ in them, if they do not understand these stories as being
stories of Christ, the Scriptures say that. They say as much. And I'm reading from 2 Corinthians
3, verse 14 says that some folks have their minds blinded
until this day remain at the same veil, untaken away in the
reading of the Old Testament, which veil, or covering, or blindness
is done away in Christ. That veil is lifted when one
sees Christ in the Old Testament. I hope you will see this wonderful
picture of Jesus Christ in Genesis chapter 22 this morning. There
is no clearer picture in all of the Old Testament than in
this chapter. Now again, this is written not
to brag on Abraham or Isaac and their faith, but this is a type,
this is a picture of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Alright, I'm
reading from Genesis 22, and I'll read the first two verses.
It came to pass, after these things, that God did tempt Abraham,
or try Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham. And he said, Behold,
here I am. And 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, offer your son for a burnt
offering upon one of the mountains which I shall tell thee of. Take
your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and take him to
a mountain and offer him there as a burnt offering." God Almighty
has one son. One, or that is, an only begotten
Son, who dwelled with God the Father from eternity past. One Son, which God sent to this
earth for one reason. He sent Him to be a substitute,
a sacrifice, a burnt offering. or that is, to suffer the fiery
wrath of God in the place of, in the stead of, or as a substitute
for God's chosen people, a sinful people who deserved that wrath. Yet God sent his Son to take
their place. All right, I continue reading
with 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, and clave, or split 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 eye, and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said
unto his young men, Abide ye here, or stay here with the ass,
and I and the lad will go yonder. and worship, and come again to
you. And Abraham took the wood of
the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son. And Abraham took the fire in
his hand, and a knife, and they went both of them together, Abraham
and Isaac. As Abraham laid the burden of
that wood on Isaac his son, And as the Father and the Son went
together to that mountain to offer that sacrifice, so God
Almighty, God the Father, laid on Jesus Christ, His Son, the
burden, all the burden of saving His people. God laid on Jesus
Christ all the iniquity of all of His people. And then God the
Father and God the Son both went together to Calvary's mountain. to save the people whom God had
given to Christ. The saving of God's people was
completely between God the Father and God the Son. No one else.
God the Father and God the Son were together in the salvation
of God's chosen people. Now, Isaac at this time was a
young man, perhaps in his twenties. And Isaac was a willing and obedient
son. He willingly endured this burden
his father placed upon him. And we'll see how he was willingly
bound by his father. This is a picture of Jesus Christ
who willingly offered himself as a substitute for God's people. Alright, verse 7. I'm continuing
to read with verse 7. And so Isaac spake unto Abraham
his father and said, My father, and Abraham said, Here am I,
my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood. Where is the lamb for a burnt
offering? Isaac had been with his father
many times in the worship of God, which required a burnt offering,
which required bloodshed, the shedding of a lamb's blood, because
God had told the first man, Adam, that, and his sons, and all of
those whom he instructed in the way to worship God, that without
the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins. Without
a substitute for their sins, God would not accept them. Isaac
said, now here is the wood, here is the fire, where is the lamb? Now this is a question that needs
asking in the midst of all this religious frenzy going on today. There is much wood, or that is,
many buildings and facades of religion. Much wood, hay and
stubble, if you will. And there's fire. Here's the
wood. Here's the fire. There's lots of emotion, lots
of excitement going on in religion today, so-called Holy Spirit
fire. But here's the question of all
questions. Where's the Lamb? You can't worship God ever without
a Lamb. You can't come near to God ever
without blood, without a high priest, without a sacrifice,
without Jesus Christ being the center and the subject of your
worship. God won't accept anyone or anything
that comes near unto Him without the blood of Jesus Christ. Well,
verse 8, Abraham utters these prophetic words. Verse 8 says,
Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a
burnt offering. So they both So they went, both
of them, together up the mountain. Abraham said, God will provide. That is, salvation is of the
Lord. God does the providing. Jehovah-Jireh
is the name that was given to this mount. That is, God will
provide. God will see to it. Salvation
is of the Lord. Totally, 100 percent, God's provision. It is not a cooperative effort
between God and man. No. Jehovah-Jireh. God will provide. And it says
God will provide Himself a Lamb. God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto Himself. God was manifest in the flesh. Only God can save us. Jesus Christ
was God on this earth. God will provide Himself. And
then he says, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. Jesus Christ's death was more
for God than for us. Jesus Christ died in order to
satisfy God's wrath against sin. Jesus Christ lived in order to
satisfy God's holy law, to glorify God's law and glorify God as
a man. Jesus Christ's life and death
was for God more than for us. God will provide Himself a lamb. I hope you see that. All right,
I continue to read verses 9 and 10. And so they came, Abraham
and Isaac, came to the place which God had told him. And Abraham
built an altar there and laid the wood in order, everything
in order. and bound Isaac, his son, this
boy in his twenties, who had to submit to this willingly.
And he laid him, laid Isaac on the altar upon the wood. And
Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his
son, his only son, whom he loved. The place God foreordained before
the world The place of Christ's sacrifice was Mount Calvary. That's where God bound His only
Son to the cross. Yes, God nailed Jesus Christ
to the cross. It pleased God to bruise Him,
Isaiah said. Peter preached this at Pentecost,
that it wasn't men who necessarily killed Christ, it was God. Listen
to this, in Acts 2, verse 23, Peter at Pentecost says, Him,
or that is, Christ, being delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by wicked hands have
crucified and slain. Men did what their wicked wills
wanted to do, but they did what God determined before to be done.
That is, They had bound the Lamb to the altar. So Abraham stretched
forth his hand. In verse 11 and 12 it says, ìThe
angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven and said, ìAbraham,
Abraham!î He said, ìHere am I.î The angel said, ìLay not thine
hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him, for now
I know that thou fearest God. See, and thou hast not withheld
thy son, thine only son, from me.î And Abraham lifted up his
eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in a
thicket by his horn. And Abraham went and took that
ram and offered him, that ram, up for a burnt offering in the
stead of his son." A story of Abraham's faith, of Isaac's courage? No. This story of Jesus Christ
crucified. And that day on Mount Calvary,
God spared not his own son, but plunge the knife of his justice
into the heart of his son. Not because Christ deserved it,
but because God's people did. And Christ was dying in the stead
of a lamb slain in the stead of God's people. Now the justice,
the penalty their sins deserve, that is death, has been satisfied. And so all whom Jesus Christ
died for are completely justified, completely cleared of all charges. Yes, the blood of Jesus Christ,
God's Son, cleanses from all sin. Write it down. Jesus Christ's death was for
God's people and was a complete payment in full for all the sins
of all of God's elect. Not an offer to us, but an offering
to God. And everyone for whom Jesus Christ
died is eternally saved because Jesus Christ died in their stead. What a glorious picture this
is of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I hope it was a blessing to you.
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charge. Until next Sunday, may the Lord
bless you.