Love so amazing, so divine He
made my home, my life, my all Alright, let's go back to
Genesis 2 Our Lord said in John chapter
8, He said to a crowd of people,
to some Jews, He said in John chapter 8, Your father Abraham
rejoiced to see my day. He saw it. And he was glad. When did he say it? On Mount
Moriah. In the mouth of the Lord, it
shall be seen. What? His glory. And he went on to say, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am. I envy the person in here who's
never heard this before. But it is my prayer that those
of you who have heard it time and again will hear it as if
it were the first time. This is how you know the gospel
is gospel-y. The gospel means good news. If it's truly gospel-y, it never
grows old. I will decide myself." This is a true story, a true
story of a man named Abraham whom God tried, tested his faith,
faith that God gave him. Abraham was an idolater. Abraham
was 75 years old. He didn't know God. But God knew
him, foreknew him, chose him, brought him, revealed himself
to him, brought him out of that idolatry. to know the living
and true God. And now he knows God. But that
faith must be tried. Through the praise of the glory
of his grace. As Peter wrote, the trial of
your faith might be found under praise, honor, and glory. Who's here? Him. Who loved us. Washed us from
our sins and on blood. Who called us and chose us. This is a trial of a man and
his faith that God gave him. And this trial, oh, it was down
to this. It was for the honor and glory
of God. We now know that God's grace
is real. God's grace is sufficient. God's
saving faith is true. A man will sacrifice his own
son. That's what the Lord is. But this is not about Abraham. This story wasn't written to
the praise of the glory and the honor of Abraham's faith, but
Abraham's Father, God, the God who gave him this faith. This
is to the praise of the glory and the honor of God's Son, whom
God killed. God killed him. Let's look at
it. Verse 1 and 2, it came to pass
after these things that God did tempt, so the word is try, lead
him to a place to try his faith. Try Abraham and said unto him,
Abraham, and he said, behold, here I am. When God calls you
will answer. And he said, Take now thy son,
thy only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the
land of Moriah, a particular place, and offer him there for
a burnt offering. Kill him, and lay his body on
an altar and burn it upon one of the mountains, which I will
tell thee of. And then God was silent for at least three days. Perhaps Abraham had some questions. You know he did. God has appeared to him before
and told him that his son, Isaac, was deceived that all the people
of the world were going to be blessed through him. How, if
Isaac is dead? How? You know he had some questions. You know he didn't fully understand
this. You know he didn't see. He didn't
understand. what God was doing, but what
He did, He did it anyway. That's right, isn't it? You're
not called to understand, you're called to believe, you're called
to trust Him. Hate not thy son, not only son,
and trials befall us, and difficult, fiery trials. Take now thy son, and he went
on to say, thy only son Isaac, your only one, whom thou lovest. Anyone have a son you love, is
your only son, you love him? Take him, and get up through
the land of Moriah, and up on a mountain I'll show you, Kill
him, shed his blood, and burn his body to me. A bird offering to me. The right hand got up, and he went. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? Abraham believed God. And how
you know this is the test. This is what our Lord said, now
I know you fear God. This is the test. The first test through the fear
of the Lord is the beginning of Satan when God called Abraham
out of his father's house. He left his father, he left his
mother, he left his brother, he left his religion, he left
them in their religion, and he went to follow the living and
the true God. That's how you know. That's the
first thing. He left that. And now the Lord
brings him to a real test. Take your only son. You're going to see who you trust,
who you really believe, whose honor and glory it is you're
really after. This is ultimate self-denial. Our Lord said, If any man come
after me, let him deny himself. That means his self, everyone
that is related to your self. And offer it up unto the Lord
that's yours to do with as you will. And Abraham got it, and got a
knife, and got the fire, and said, Son, come on. What test? There's some in here
whom the Lord has taken. Sons and daughters. Some the Lord has taken and only
sons. that they love. And I hope no one ever has to
go through that again. I don't want to go through it. I don't want you to go through
that. And they're still sitting here
right now. They're sitting here right now
praising the God who took them. It's the Lord. Some of you have
witnessed it. God's grace is sufficient. And
what you do at your son's grave? Smiling. That's the Lord. That's a test above and beyond
any other test. Job said to him, And the Lord
slew his children. And Job said this, if he kills
thee, if he slays thee, the other, that's what I deserve,
I'll steal nothing. Now that man believed God. He
lied. I'm going to take your boys,
but it's the Lord. But don't take the ark. Don't take the ark. I can't live
without the ark. Now there's a man who knows and
loves God more than his own flesh and blood. That's the test. Our Lord said in Luke 14, if
any man, woman, anyone come after me, And hate not. Meaning that the world won't understand
how you could forsake your own, how you could not justify your
own, how you could condemn your sins. Not God. Not questioning God. The world doesn't understand
that. They'll accuse you of having a strange love. Hate. All right, now people, this is
the story here. This is the story. That is a
story. The text of everyone's true faith. It is. Some way or another, some
way or another, all of God's people are going to be called
on by God And that we must be prepared to lose everyone and
everything for His glory, for His honor, for His name. Everyone. And not make allowances for anybody. Not cut corners, not remove the
offense for anybody. I said, let God be trusted. And
though He slay me and everyone that belongs to me, I'll trust
Him. Can you say that? Can you say
that? Every one of God's people can
say this. Now one thing, Abraham didn't
want to do this, but he knew God. The judge of the earth will
do right. And whatever he does, to me and
mine, it's right. If he saved me, he's just, he's
faithful and just. If he damaged me, he has to do
that. Here's your story. God, before the world began,
said to his son, his only son, who dwelled with him in glory
before the world began, said to his only son, my son, my well
beloved son, Whom I love. Will you go? Will you go to Mount Calvary? Will you go to Mount Zion? Will you go to Mount Calvary
and be willing to offer up yourself as a burnt offering to me? Will
you go and lay down your life as a substitute for your people?
Will you go and be made sin, made a curse for them? Will you
go, willing to be forsaken by me? Will you go to hell for my
people? Will you go? Not asking for information,
but for our understanding. This covenant was made, and the
body and the son said to the father, and he said this on behalf
of his bride. He's the betrothed. I mean, he's
just beloved. the bridegroom and those of the
children, he said on their behalf, I will. And God said, and I will. If
you, my son, do this, I will. Exalt you to the stars, I will. You will be the seed in which
all will be blessed, I will. Bring back all whom you died
for, I will. And all will be blessed because
of you, because you were obedient to death, even the death of the
cross. That's the story. That's the
story. Look at verse 3. So Abraham got
up in the morning and saddled his ass and took two of his young
men with him. Our Lord God, when did he purpose
this? When did he prepare all this?
When did God do this? Abraham got up early. Well, God
did get up before the world began. God purposed all this before
the world began. Scripture says that according
to His purpose and grace which was given us in Christ before
the world began. Christ is called the Lamb slain
when? Before the foundation of the world. God purposed it. Known
unto God of all His works early. From the beginning. And He took
a few of His young men with Him. Remember the story of our Lord
when he went up on the mount of transfiguration. Remember
he put three of his disciples up on the mount, Peter, James,
and John, to show them his glory. His glory, why He came. This
is why He came. This is the beloved Son of God.
They all together loved this Son of God with such to do with
His people, to revere Him with His people. He took three chosen
disciples up on the mount to show them His glory. The glory
of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And
why He came. And two men were there, two young
men. Moses and Elijah. You say, Moses wasn't young.
He is now. He is now the due of youth on his brow. Elijah,
these two men appeared with Christ, the scripture says, in glory.
It says they talked. What did they talk about? Listen to me now. It says they
think of the deceit which he would accomplish. They were speaking about Christ
going to the cross to accomplish the eternal salvation of His
people, to obtain eternal redemption for His people. Not to try, but
to do it. And they think of this, the death
of death that He, by Himself, would accomplish. And the disciples heard this
and saw this. What is it? His glory. How can you say that without
shouting, Stephen? You'd like to be here right now
doing that. His glory! This is His glory! He is no Savior
who's tried and failed. He is no Savior who came to do
it for everybody, so let Him. That's not what He came to do.
This offering was to God. This offering, Abraham didn't
say, I'm going to offer you to anybody with exception. No, sir.
No, sir. God said, you bring that son
to Me. Offer him to Me. This needs to
be stressed. It's the false gospel that offers
Jesus, everybody. It's the false gospel. This offering
of Jesus Christ was to God. God will provide Himself. This is what every preacher that's
worked his soul, every preacher that God's called from the beginning
has always said, God has to do something for himself before
he does something for us. Honor his justice. He's a just
God. He can't be a Savior unless he's
first a just God. And this is how God made me just,
and justify those that should have been sent to hell. This is it. This is the heart
and soul of the gospel. Listen to this. Christ came and offered up himself
to God as a burnt offering, as a sin offering. Burnt offering. Burnt offering. Burnt offering. He said, don't water it down
to the people about the lamb, didn't he? Don't start it with
water. Don't make it, don't just serve it up raw. Burn it. Because
this is the God who natures by fire. This is the God who is
consuming fire. This is the God who will by no
means carry the guilty. This is the God who is holy,
holy, holy. This is the God who said the
soul deserves to share with God. This is the God that says, I
will by no means carry the guilty. Somebody's got to die for sin. Take him and offer him up on
Mount Moriah. Do you know Mount Moriah? Do
you know where that is? Do you know where Mount Moriah is? It's
the exact spot where the temple was built by Solomon. It's the
flesh, the threshing floor of a ruler that David bought. David
bought this fresh threshing floor. It wasn't given to him. The man
offered it to him. The man offered it. He said,
no sir, I'm going to buy this spot. I'm going to purchase it. David purchased that site, that
place. And Solomon, the son of David,
erected the temple. And right there is where the
blood was shed for the remission of God's people. Can you tell me God didn't write
this book? Oh, my. Now, Mariah, go up there. That's
where Christ came to offer himself as a burnt offering. Did God
sacrifice the sweet smelling savoury to God, you say? Sounds
pretty good to me right now. He rose up and went to the place. From third day, verses 4 and
5, he went and lifted up his eyes and saw the place. And Abraham
said, Abide here with the ash to the young men, and I am the
Lamb who will go yonder and worship. And we will come again. People,
the greatest place of worship, the greatest time, the clearest
picture of what worship really is came at Calvary. Where the
Son of God worshipped God as no one else, who laid down His
life for the people, who honored and satisfied the justice of
God, the holiness of God. The justice of God was satisfied
on Him to be worshipped. And even God worshipped His Son
in doing that. He said, you've done this, I'm
going to exalt you to the stars. They're going to call you God.
Everybody's going to call you God. Equal with me. But he told those two young men,
you stay here, you can't go with us. You stay here at the foot
of the mountain, I and the boy will go yonder. Father and son
will go up there and do this work. You can't enter into this.
And when Christ went to the cross, all of his disciples, he said,
you can't, you're not taking any part in this. No one had
any part in this. This was between the Father and
the Son. Salvation is of the Lord. It
was completely up to the Lord Jesus Christ to accomplish that. He didn't consult anyone. That's the forces of hell, and
man tried to prevent it from going. No sir, it's not going
to be prevented. And he went there alone, Christ,
by himself, purged our sin. Verse 6, Abraham took the wood
of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac, his son. He laid the very instrument of
his son's death on his back, on his shoulders. What does Scripture
say? That Christ carried his own cross. That's the whole gist of it. There used to be a song sung
when I was a kid, somebody sang it, that says, the words were,
I used to love it, love it, love to hear this man sing it, and
I look back now and it's wrong, it's wrong. It says, the cross
became so heavy that he fell beneath the load. Remember that song? That's what the word says.
No, he didn't fall. I looked it up in all four gospels.
Nowhere does it say, our Lord, the cross became so heavy, he
fell. No sir, no sir. In fact, God laid on him something
heavier than that. He laid on him the weight of
the world was on his shoulders, and he didn't fall. But, but, but, didn't we say
there's a man there that compelled Simon of Cyrene, that compelled
him to spare his cross? Yes. They did, but Christ bore
it first, didn't He? And they compelled Him, and everyone
who follows Christ, everyone who sings His glory, is going
to bear that cross for Him. They're going to bear His cross. They're going to bear it. That's
suffering, persecution for Christ and Him crucified. But the father
took the fire in his hand, and the knife in his hand, and both
of them went together. God pleased the father to bruise
him. God Almighty, who is a consuming
fire. God who said, the soul that sinneth
must surely die. God that was doing this. Read
on. And Isaac sat down to Abraham,
his father, and said, my father, Oh, weren't those the first,
this is the first time Isaac spoke in Scripture. This is the
first word ever recorded by Isaac in Scripture. His first word, the son of Thomas,
the seed, the first word out of his mouth was, my father. John 17. Christ on his way to Calvary,
lifted up his eyes to heaven, to the Father and said, Father,
glorify thy Son, that thy Son may also glorify thee. And the Father said, Here am I, my son." That touched
me when I read that. My son. Oh, God said it out loud,
didn't He? For heaven's sake. This is my
son, my only forgotten, well-beloved son. This is my son in whom I
am well pleased. Abraham loved this boy. He was
obedient. You know, Isaac was about 18
or 20 years old. Isaac wasn't Isaac was a force to bear this
word. Isaac was a force to go. Isaac
was willing. You hear me? Listen to me. Isaac
was willing to go. Isaac was a young man in his
own right, and Isaac was willing. The father told him what they
were going to do, and he laid, and Isaac said, I'll do it. I'll
go. Obedience. He's obedient. He's
willing. Christ is your willing, obedient
Son, and God laid on Him, and He willingly took it. And love
is people. And love first is Father. Father
is Lord. And laid it on Him, and Christ
took it. And look at this now, verse 30. Said, My Father, He
said, Here am I, My Son. He said, Behold the fire and
the wood. Where is the Lamb of my life? Isaac knew from a child, just
like our children know. Our children are taught this.
Aren't you Emmett? Aren't you Abby? Aren't you David? All our
children are taught this, Olivia. All our children, David. I'll
ask you, from a child all taught without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. Every man after 12 must have
a lamb. A lamb for a half. Every single
person, if you're one of God's, you'd have a lamb. You must have
a lamb. From Abel, the first person mentioned
who came to God, he brought a lamb. Blood to the last, from Abel
to Zerubbabel, from Abel to the last. No death. You can't come
to a holy God without lamb, without a substitute. If somebody's got
to die for sin, without the sharing of blood, there's no remission
of sin. The punishment for sin is death. And we've all sinned
and come short of the glory of God. Either I have to die for
it, or I have a substitute. The lamb. And one day when our
Lord came walking, John the Baptist was teaching, repent, repent,
repent. Your sins are separating you
from God. Repent. For God. He said, look. That's who we've
been waiting on. To hold the Lamb of God. Pointing
at Jesus Christ. He said, take it the way the
sins were. Praise for Him. The Lamb, the Lamb. And here's
what Abraham said, my son, And here's what God says to his people,
My son, God will provide himself a lamb for Mernon. God will. God will provide, you can't do
it, you can't do anything, he didn't bring this sacrifice,
he brought, he sent it, he's sent by the Father. God will
provide himself, God will provide for himself, to satisfy his justice. A sin offering, a sin payment,
a substitute, someone to die for you. for this pen. He was made bad, not made to
look like it, not merely imputed, though he was, and this is the
mystery, but he was actually made me guilty. And God laid
on him, and God killed him. God would provide himself a lamb. God is the lamb. Paul said to
the Ephesians, feed the church of God which you purchased with
his own blood. God was in Christ reconciling
the world in His hands. God was manifesting the flesh.
God did this, the Son of God. My son, God will provide himself
a lamb for a burnt offering. Only God could provide, only
what God would accept, Himself. Holyness. Verse 9, So they came
to the place which God told him of, and Abraham built an altar
there. While they're walking up that
hill, there's something I want you to think about. While they're walking up that
hill, God, who purposed all of this, this whole story is written
by the Lord, and purposed in every jot and syllable. While
this is going on, all this preparation is being made, God, down here
below the mountain, there was a fold of sheep. with an unseen hand, opened the
sheep gate, the door, and had a ram, the first little flock,
the best in that fold, without spot or blemish, walk out of
that sheep goad, and he shut the door, and he had that ram
walk up Mount Moriah, and walk all the way up that
mountain, and get caught in a thicket of thorns, arms wrapped around
his head and very safely waiting on watch to be assisted. That's really your watch. Yes,
that ram didn't just wander in there and, oh look, aren't we
lucky? No, no, no, no, no, no. God chose that one out of the
sheepfold. Had him go up that mountain and
stuck him in a thicket full of thorns about his head and said,
you're working to die. You were born for this end, born
to die for my son. Isn't that glorious? So there
they went. They walked up this mountain.
Abraham didn't know it. Abraham thinks the justice of God is
coming down on him. Abraham is a sinner. He knows
it. He thinks, you know what he thinks, Robert? He thinks,
I'm getting what I deserve. My son's a sinner just like me
and he's getting it too. Abraham, this is not, this is
for the glory of God. This is for the glory of God.
He's not punishing you. They went up there and he bound
his son, his hands and his feet up. God loved his son, and he had
to have those men bind him and smite him and do everything that
they did to him. Do you think God took pleasure
in that? Do you think God loves them necessarily? Do you? Do
you? Think for a minute that God loves
every one of them? He shouldn't love any of them. Huh? He shouldn't love any of them.
They hate each other. Well, His love beyond comprehension. But some of them that found Him
and smote Him and killed Him and struck Him, some of them
Then he turned to God for those despicable people. Think about it. I want to do
that. Oh, pray, there's lots of us
no man can do. This is where the love of God
is seen. Not that God ought to love anybody. This is where the love of God
is seen, that he died for unworthy God-haters. that we with which
He has been taken and crucified, the Lord of Glory, but did what
this God who loved us before the world began to determine
before to be done, and in the end, through His love, and wouldn't
have anything to do with Him for years, walked on His blood
like an anxious man. But, you can't preach the gospel
without Satan in it. It's not if you will it, he will
it, he will it, here's a gospel, but God, for His grace and love,
for which He loves us. God is listening, my friends. John says, hearing is the love
of God. See, not that we love God, but
that He first loved us and sent His Son to be a bloody sacrifice. Oh, this doesn't slow you nothing
down. If this won't make you praise God, nothing will. The angel of the Lord called
out. He put that knife to slay his son. The angel of the Lord
called out to Abraham, Abraham, Abraham. He said, Lay not thy
hand upon the Lamb. Neither do thou anything unto
him. Not one. Don't lay a hand on your son.
Don't. He's not going to suffer anything
at my hand. Cut him loose. Loose end. God said, I have a wrinkle. It's time to listen. I'll read you the next. Lucy! Why? He's a good boy? No! My son. One reason. My son. You see when Paul says,
God! Forbid that I should glory, fame,
and the cross. Horrible, horrific, terrible
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he put in there.
Anybody say anything in addition to that? Your will, your choice,
your worth is an offense to God. I can't say this bold enough.
I can't say this enough. That's why religion is such an
abomination to God. What it took was one thing, one
thing God would accept, one single thing, and it was a horrible
one. Lay not thine hand, the only
reason the hand of God's justice is not going to touch us, one
reason John, one reason only, nothing to do with me, but because
Christ died. In that one Romans 9, verse 8,
he said, Who shall lay anything in charge of whose? God's elect. So this God can justify. How
do you justify it? Christ can. Oh, he told, Christ said, Glorify
me. If I be lifted up, that's what
I'm trying to do. Lay not your hand on that boy.
Take hold. Look behind you. Look, lift up
his eyes and look. Look, behold my servant, he shall
not fail. Behold the Lamb of God behind
him. You see, they were up there and
all the time they were up there and not knowing it, right behind
them was that Lamb. Why wasn't the Lamb crying? No, you're not crying, you're
supplicating. Silence. As the lamb before her
shivers, she said, Christ was led to the slaughter, silent. But they looked. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? Yes, I can imagine. I'm feeling
it right now. I've felt it before. I've looked
by God's grace. Behold the lamb. My secretary,
my secretary. Can you imagine Isaac? Can you
imagine Abraham? Can you imagine? Fred, look! Look, Fred, look! You don't have
to die. Look, Fred, look! Come here,
come here, come here. You're in bondage now. You're
in bondage now. Come on, son. Look, come on. Come over here.
Let's lay hold on this pacifier. Lay here, we'll grab hold of
it. Isaac, let's hold him. This is their home! This is Isaac's
land! Is this just for me they made
me do? Huh? Lay hold right there! Oh, you know this happened. You
know this happened. I can't help this. This is wonderful.
They both grabbed hold of the horns of that cracker by his
shoulder. You got to be out of your head.
I'm not letting go. And he laid that lamb, that ram,
on that altar. And they perhaps took that knife. it shed the blood and it says
there in verse, oh my, verse 13, he offered him up for a burnt
offering in the stead of his son. Right there's the gospel
in one of my substitutions. You know what the gospel's all
about? Somebody died for you, and there's only one, the Lamb
of God, the sinless Son of God. That's the only hope of it. That's an amazing story. Jehovah
Jireh, in the mouth of the Lord, verse 14, that's where it'll
be found. What? Everything. Everything. Now, you see the holiness of
God on Calvary. You'll see the justice of God
on Calvary. You'll see the glory of God on Calvary. You'll see
all the attributes of God on Calvary. You'll see His hatred
of sin. You'll see His love for His people.
You'll see the mercy of God. You'll see the justice of God.
You'll see where righteousness and peace kiss each other at
Calvary. You know, years I've spent in
vanity and pride? Clearly not. That minority was
crucified. No he's not. Right behind me. It was for me. He died. That counts. I've got to show
you one more thing. You know why this is going on?
You know why the son is being killed? Look at this. You're
going to miss it. You're going to miss it. Look down at the
verse. They went skipping down that
mountain. You know it. You know it. Skipping down that
mountain. What were they singing? Something. They were singing
something. Oh, how merciful is he! To God be the glory ever
comfortable. And when they got home, one somebody
came up and said, Oh, Abraham, verse 20. Oh, Milka, your brother,
or your sister-in-law has born children to your brother, Nahum.
Oh, that's good, good. Hud, and Bud, and Broden, and
Camule, the father of Aram, and Chesed, and Hazo, and Pildash,
and Gidlat, and Dathul, and Dathul. Oh, yeah, he had a daughter named
Rebecca. And then Milka did bear to Nahum. One female is mentioned. Oh yeah, and there's a girl born
named Rebecca. While Isaac is being sacrificed,
his bride is being born. He's got to live, Helen. This
son's got to live. He's got a bride waiting on him.
God sees it's going to come out of her. That ain't the best story
I've ever heard.