Turn with me, first of all, to
Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. You know,
we've been going through the book of Hebrews, and we've come
to these verses now, the story of which is found in
Genesis. Hebrews 11. Read verses 17 through
19 with me. By faith, Abraham. when he was tried, offered up
Isaac. And he 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 Isaac up, even from the dead. from whence also he received
him in a figure that is dead. Now, this chapter is about faith,
faith, God-given, saving faith. Faith is a supernatural thing. It's the work of God. It's the work of His mighty power,
it's what you said. It's not of yourself. To make
a man do what Abraham did, that's not natural. That's supernatural. That's amazing. It's a miracle.
And we're going to look at that because that's what this chapter
is about. Hey, we're going to look at this
man actually did this. He actually did this. And how
in a figure we must also sacrifice the dearest thing to our heart. And it will be tried like Abraham,
faith, true faith. But now we're going to look at
a greater display. Someone greater than Abraham
in this story. Brother Walter Groover one time
preached from this years ago. And his opening comments were,
if you can't preach it on this, You can't preach. Genesis 22
is a story. But go over there, Genesis 22. Such a story of extraordinary,
amazing, amazing grace of faith that God gave this man. But oh,
a much greater story than that. Look at it. Verse 1. It came
to pass, Genesis 22. It came to pass after these things
that God did tempt, that means try, Abraham. God did try him. He said, Abraham. He said unto
him, behold, here am I. Here I am. After these things. God did try. Faith will be tried. It must be tried to be found
to be true. It must be tried. It's easy to
believe God when there's no trial, isn't it? It's easy to say. It's
impossible to do unless God gives this faith. Faith, as we quoted
in 1 Peter, Though it be tried with fire, it's going to be found. God-given faith will be found
unto praise and honor and glory. Whose praise? God's praise. Praise and honor
and glory. Unto the praise of the glory
of His grace. Who gave such faith? That's who
Abraham was praising when this was over with. And we're not
praising Abraham here. So many look at this story as
praiseworthy of Abraham. No, no, no. This is to the praise
of the glory of the One who gave him this faith. It's going to
be fine. All faith will be tried, it says,
after these things. Abraham was now an old man, 120
years old. You'd think that his life would now be free from trials,
wouldn't you? Not so. Quite often the hardest
ones are in the end, because in the end you begin to lose
things, don't you? You begin to lose people and
so forth. An old man now, he already lived
his life and been through countless troubles and trials Abraham had.
He left his home and his family. That was at 75. He had that strife with Lot,
his nephew, and gave him the well-watered plain. He wandered
in the wilderness for years, in the mountains. He went childless.
Remember, that's a trial. Went childless for years. Then
he had a son, and the Lord told him to kick him out. Ishmael. My, my. Cast him out. And then
he had Isaac. Finally. Finally. I have some
peace and rest in my old age and die in peace. Well, you will
die in peace, but your trials are not over. The greatest one yet. After these
things, the Lord said to him, verse 2, 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 shall tell thee of." And that's all
he said. And he didn't speak to him again
for three days or more. You know, faith, often in a trial,
the hardest part is waiting. How's this going to end? How's
this going to end? Well, God had already promised
him. It's going to end good. And he promises us too, doesn't
he? Huh? All things. Good, seemingly bad. Good, evil. All things. Prosperity, want, sickness, health,
all things work together. For what? Good. It's going to
end good. You mark the end of the righteous
man. It will be well with him. It
will be well with those that trust God. Well, Abraham believed. He believed. It says he rose
up early. He rose up early in the morning, verse 3. He sat
on his ass. Now, he that seeketh me early,
the Lord says, you'll find me. He got up early. He trusts God,
Abraham does. He doesn't fully understand.
He does not understand. For three days, it's going to
get more difficult waiting, the anticipation of this. You know,
we often anticipate. And that's sometimes worse than
the trial itself. Anticipate or perceive troubles
we might have, and it causes us great grief. And he had to
think about this for three days. Scripture says he staggered not
and unbelieved, was rich in faith, strong in faith, and against
hope. Scripture says in another place,
against hope. believes in hope. He didn't understand how God
said, God said, I'm going to bless you through your son, your
seed. You're going to be like the stars
of the sky and the sands of the seashore. I'm going to bless
you with innumerable people in your son. And yet now God tells
him, take your son and kill him. And he doesn't understand. He
really doesn't understand. But we don't have to understand. Just believe. He's going to understand,
isn't he? He's going to understand like
he never understood before. He's going to see how that all
things, everything speaks of Christ. He's going to see Christ's
day, all right, when this trial is over, like he'd never seen
Christ before. And he's going to be glad, so
glad that he sent this trial and that God in His wisdom ordered
it all. And it's so good, so good to
God's glory. Now, like I said, without a doubt,
Abraham's troubled, but he's not distressed. He's perplexed,
but he's not in despair. He gets up early. He gets up
early, saddles his ass. There's two of his young men
with him. He makes preparation. He clayed
or split the wood. Think about that. Just stop and
think about that. That he's making all this preparation
to kill his son. We're going to see what that
means in a minute. But he did as God told him, and for three
days he traveled, read on. On the third day, Abraham lifted
up his eyes, verse 4, and saw the place afar off. That had
to have been the hardest three days of his life, huh? Much time to reflect, think about
that boy he loved. Also, to meditate, he needed
peace like he never needed before. He needed strength like he never
needed before. He needed courage like he never
needed before. He needed to trust God like he
never trusted Him before. Where is he going to get that?
One place. The Word of God. David said,
Remember thy word unto thy servant upon which you caused me to hope. That is, remind me. Bring your
word back to my remembrance. Put me in your word that I might
find hope against hope. I don't see how this is going
to turn out. Show me. Make me trust you. Make me believe
you. Lord, help me. I believe. Help
my unbelief. How? The Word. Faith cometh by
hearing the Word. Oh, blessed is the man who delights
in the law of the Lord. Nothing shall offend him or uproot
him. Believing God. Scripture says
that he believed God. What did he believe? The seed,
Isaac. His seed will be called. That's
Christ. He believed God was able. We
read there in Hebrews, it says that he believed that God was
able to raise him from the dead. Now God said, in your seed, in
Isaac, your seed be called and there will be an innumerable
people. Well, how is he going to do that if he is dead? Well,
somehow or another, even though my son is dead, God is going
to raise him up again. I don't know how, it has never
been done, but God is able. I believe him. I trust him. I'm
going to do what he says. Do what he says. Not understanding,
but believing. He killed my son. He told me to. I've got to raise
him. And the seed will go on. I say, what a picture this is
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Huh? In Isaac, thy seed shall
be called. In Christ, God's seed is called. He's the seed of God. And how
all of this is a picture of God the Father and God the Son in
a covenant. When God spoke to Abraham, God
Almighty, before the world began, before the foundation of the
world, God the Father covenanted, that is, got together with His
Son and the Holy Spirit and covenanted this great plan or purpose of
salvation. This great story of salvation,
John Newton called it the greatest stroke of genius the world has
ever seen. From the mind of God, the eternal,
all-wise mind of God Almighty, purposed this great thing called
salvation, the eternal salvation of sinners, to the praise of
the glory of His grace. And God the Father said, here's
what we're going to do. Here's what we're going to do.
It's not a cooperative effort, it's of the Lord, of the Father,
of the Son, of the Holy Spirit. Election by the Father, redemption
by the Son, regeneration by the Holy Spirit, salvations of the
Lord. These three are one in this work. They do it all. We're
passive, just like Isaac was passive as God spoke to his father
and everything was done concerning him. So it is with the sinners
whom Christ came to save. In a covenant, God Almighty before
the world, and oh, what preparation! Like Abraham prepared, you know,
for three days? Oh, God prepared for millenniums. Time immeasurable prepared this. Every jot, every tittle, everything
predestined, predetermined by God in His infinite purpose.
And Christ is called, just like Isaac here, Christ is called
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Before there was
a sinner, he said, Christ was prepared. He was the Lamb slain. And God Almighty, seeing afar
off, the Scripture said, like Abraham, afar off, God saw his
seed. The pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. God saw his seed. It saw the
end of this thing. Oh, for His glory. Oh, my. Now
look at verse 5. Abraham said unto his young men. He said to those two young men
that he took up the mountain with him, Abide ye here with
the ass. I and the lad will go yonder
and worship. Worship. Abraham knew. God. And to approach God, you worship
God. Our Lord said that. The hours
come and now is when true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit
and truth, for the Father seeketh such Worship Him. Heaven's all
about worship. And so is the people of God on
earth. Worship. Abraham was going to
approach God to worship God. That's why we come here, don't
we? If not, that's not me. This is
all about worship. Worship God. Rejoice in Christ. Hopefully you're going to rejoice
like Abraham did. And have no confidence in our
flesh. Abraham said, I and the lad are
going to go yonder and worship. I and the lad. This is between
me and the son. The father said, this is between
me and the son. You all stay here. I and the
lad are going to go yonder and worship. Oh, what a picture. You see, before Calvary, there
were twelve apostles in an upper room. Christ took three into
the garden with Him. Peter, James, and John. But when
he came to Golgotha, no man stood with him. This is between him
and the Father, because it pleased the Father to bruise him. This
is our great high priest who is going into the Holy of Holies.
When Christ went to Calvary, He was going into the holiest
of all, in the presence of the holy God, to offer up His blood
for His people. And nobody can go with Him. This
is His work, between Him and the Father, the Father and the
Son. That's what Christ said in that
garden, Father, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may glorify Thee.
He's going to glorify God. Worship as no man ever worshiped,
the complete giving of himself. Complete giving. And there's
no worship of God without the shedding of blood. No approaching God without the
shedding of blood. No remission without the shedding
of blood. No worship without a sacrifice, without Christ crucified.
Look at verse 6. Abraham took the wood of the
burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son. He took the fire
in his hand, a knife, and they both went up together. Abraham
laid on his son the wood that would consume his own body. And the Scripture says that Christ
bore his own cross to him. Men with wicked hands took and
crucified the Lord of glory, but they did what God determined
before to be done, what God purposed before to be done. This is amazing. In the preparation of God, like
Abraham claimed the wood, God planted a tree. Years before, planted a tree. And that tree's one purpose in
life was to be cut down and made into a Roman cross for His blessed
Son to hang on. and then thrown away and burned
after it served its purpose, not to be worshipped as just
a worthless piece of wood. And we don't wear that around
our necks and so forth. No, no, that's worthless jewelry.
We don't worship the cross on it which he hung. We worship
the Christ who hung that. But God Almighty put that cross
on his son, and the son bore his cross, and God Almighty took
the knife of his justice in his own hand And his son is going to bear
the wrath, the fiery wrath and indignation of God Almighty against
the sins of his people. My, my, my, my. Then Isaac asks
his father a question of all questions. It needs to be asked every time
we come to do this thing called worship. It needs to be asked
our generation, as never before, what Isaac asked his father.
Look at it. 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, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Isaac knew more than what most
seminary professors knew, didn't he? Our children no more. Our babes. Out of the mouths
of our babes and sucklings. They can tell you without the
shedding of blood there's no remission of sin. They can tell
you that. But you can't approach God without a lamb. It doesn't
matter how moral you are or how righteous you think you are or
how sincere you are or devoted you are. Paul said this of his
Jewish brethren. He said they have a zeal for
God, But they don't know God. They
don't know how to approach God. One way to approach God, a holy
God, how? You've got to have a lamb. God said this in the very beginning,
didn't He? In the very beginning, Abel knew this. Remember Cain
and Abel? Abel knew. Cain did too, but
he didn't like it. Where's the lamb, Isaac said?
Where's the lamb? Without the shedding of blood,
no remission. It's the blood that makes the
atonement for the soul. We've got the fire. We've got
the wood. Where's the one thing needful? Father, we've got to
have a lamb. And today in religion, you know
how it is. You see it. Wood, hay, and stubble. Got our edifices and our wooden
buildings, stone, all this building, wood, hay, stubble and all that.
Got fiery, all these fiery preachers and fiery, you know, so-called
Holy Spirit fire and so forth. All this emotion and enthusiasm
and clapping and running. Where's the Lamb? Huh? Can't worship God without Christ
crucified. God won't hear us. God can't
be approached without the blood of the Lamb. Where's the Lamb? Oh, God is love. No, this is
a burn offering. That's wrath. That's judgment.
Burn up. Consume. This is substitution. This is a holy and righteous
God whose wrath is going to be poured out on somebody. God have
a Lamb. Oh, yes, there's love. Those
that know they need one, that's who God loves. Those who ask
with Isaac, where's the lamb? Those who know, Brother John,
to come to God, I need a lamb, I need Christ. Oh, there's the
love of God. Just like Noah knew he needed
the heart, just like Abel knew he needed blood. Where's the lamb? Where's the
lamb? And look at, oh, that's the question
of questions. Here's the answer of all answers.
Verse 8, we heard this morning, just and justified. Right here
it is. Verse 8, Abraham said, My son,
God will provide Himself a lamb for Bernal. Oh, my. Maybe Abraham knew what
he was saying, maybe he didn't. Maybe he knew in parts, like
maybe Isaiah when he was writing chapter 53. I know the Lord showed him after
this was over. But Abraham said in prophecy, Abraham said in
infinite God-given wisdom, he said, My son, God will provide. God will. Look down at verse
14. Abraham, after this was over,
called the name of this place Jehovah-Jireh. That means the
Lord will provide. The Lord will see to it. Whatever
needs to be done, the Lord will see to it. He'll do it. God will provide. Son, we're
here by the will of God. God will. This is all according
to His will and His purpose. We're called, chosen, elect,
saved by the will of God. God that will. My son, God will
provide. Always has, always will provide. He's our God. He's Jehovah-Jireh.
Everything we are and have is by the grace of God. What we
need, all we need, God will provide. We have provided nothing up to
this point, son, but God has provided all things, and He's
promised to do it till the day we die. And then on, Jehovah
Jireh, He will provide. My son, God will provide Himself. This is all for Him. You know,
God did this for Himself. Old Brother Scott, in his wisdom,
said this one time, he said, Before God does something for
us, He had to do something for Himself. He had to satisfy his
own law. He had to satisfy his own justice,
didn't he? He had to do this for himself. And Scripture says, well, the
old saying is, if you want something done right, do it yourself. Isn't that what Hebrews 1 said?
When he had by himself. purged our sin. Nobody else is
going to share His glory. Jesus Christ came, the provision
of God. God Himself was manifest in the
flesh. God provided Himself. God came
down, provided Himself a Lamb. John the Baptist, preaching. That came to him. And when he
saw Christ, he pointed all men to Christ. He said, Behold, the
Lamb. The Lamb of God. God's Lamb. The one that Abraham is speaking
of here. That God will provide. There
he is. The Lamb of God. God will provide
Himself, a Lamb, for a burnt offering. A burnt offering. the hell which his people deserve. When he cried, I thirst, it was
not just to fulfill scriptures, although he did. But he was enduring
the fire, the wrath of God. And we can't speak on that. But
he was an object of his father's wrath. Burnt offering. But like that burnt bush. Not
consumed. A burnt offering. But our sins
were. And so, verse 8, they both went together. My son, God will
provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they both went together. And verses 9 and following, they
came to the place which God had told him of. Abraham built an
altar there. That took some time. Oh, the
waiting. You know what I'm saying when
we talk about waiting, don't you? Going through a trial, waiting, not knowing what's going to transpire. That's the hard part. I built
an altar, laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac, his son, and
laid him on the altar upon the wood. Now, if you think of Isaac
as being a little small boy, don't. He's called a lad here. A man was a man around thirty
years old. So he could have been anywhere
from sixteen on up to twenty. But he is twenty. Abraham is
a hundred and twenty, something like that. So he's in his twenties. He's a robust, strong young man. He carried that wood up on his
back. And he didn't have This old 120-year-old man couldn't
have bound that 20-year-old boy, could he? Unless that boy was
willing. So Isaac, as an obedient son,
he put his hands behind his back, or in front of him, wherever,
and willingly let his father bind him up and put him on that
altar. What a son! To offer up himself
like that. Not only the Father offered him,
but the Son offered Himself willingly. I'll show you a greater picture
than that. The Son of God. Oh my! He didn't have to come
here, did He? To save sinners? Oh, He did. And in order to save sinners,
he had to willingly be made sin. He had to willingly offer himself
as a burnt sacrifice for God's people. They couldn't touch Stephen
in one final display of when he said, no man taketh my life
from me. They argued years ago about who
killed Christ. Remember that movie? They all
argued about who killed Him, the Jews, the Gentiles. Scripture
says everybody did. It says we did. That's not the
point. Men didn't kill Him. I mean,
they did kill Him, but they couldn't have killed Him had not the Son
been willing. And one last display of who He
is. the Son of God, in the garden,
and they came to take him with swords and staves, a whole mob,
a lynch mob, one man against hundreds, maybe a thousand or
so, angry mob. One man stood out in front of
them, went out before his sleeping brethren, who were unaware of
the danger, and our Lord was fully aware of it, went out before
them and stood there and said, Whom seek ye? They said, Jesus
of Nazareth. He said, I am. And they hit the dust, just like
every human being shall, as they stand before Him. And that final
display of who He is. Because He said, No man taketh
My life from Me. I lay it down of Myself. I lay it down willingly. What a wonderful Son, obedient
Son, the Son of God. So he laid on that cross as Isaac
laid on that altar. And it says, verse 10, Abraham
stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the Lord called
unto him. Who's that? That's Christ. Christ
said, you have not withheld your son from Me. That's an angel
of the Lord. Christ was there just like He
was in the garden. to Adam like he was to Abel,
like he was to Abraham in the beginning, like he was to Noah,
like he was to Enon. The angel of the Lord said, Abraham,
Abraham. And he said, Here am I. And the
Lord said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou
anything unto him. Don't touch him. Now I know that thou fearest
God. See, thou hast not withheld thy
Son, thine only Son, from thee." He says, Abraham lifted up his
eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in a
thicket by Zorn. Where did that ram come from?
He says, Abraham, and I believe he, I'm quite sure he untied
Isaac and took him out from altar there, and Abraham went, and
I bet you Isaac did too. And they both, see right there
in that bush behind them, is Isaac's life. And Abraham's too. His life is bound up in this
land. All the promises of God are bound up in this land. And
right there in that bush is the fulfillment of all those promises.
This ram is killed in the stead of my Son. The Word of God is
true. If this ram dies and my Son goes
free, the Word of God is true. So they laid on them. How tightly
do you reckon? And from now on, when you see
where it says, lay hold of that faith, hold fast. What does that
mean? Don't let go for anything. You
reckon Isaac was holding on? You reckon Abraham was holding
on to that ramp? You reckon? Who do you reckon could pull
him out? What do you think you could offer them for this ramp?
We'll give you all the kingdoms of the world. No! Have it all. It ain't worth it. Right here
is life. That's a believer laying hold
of Christ by faith. He's not a part of life. He is life. All the promises
of God in here, the fulfillment of the promises. Our lives are
bound up in Him. If we don't have the Son, we
don't have life. If we don't die in the faith,
holding on fast to the horns of the altar, Christ Himself,
we're going to miss Christ. We're going to die without God,
without hope. This gospel. A person quits listening
to this gospel, finds no interest in this gospel, finds no need
in Christ, has no hunger, no thirst, no need for a substitute. They missed him. It says Abraham died in faith. They laid hold of this ram, and
it says, and he offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead
of, in the room of, in the place of his son. That is, this ram
died instead of his son. What's that? That's the gospel. As clear as
it can be sounded. The gospel is a gospel of substitution. Those that live before God some
day will live because Christ died, because Christ put away
their sin, because Christ was made an offering for them and
was killed in their stead. I like that verse 12. It says,
He said, Lay not your hand on the land, neither do anything
unto it. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that
are in Christ. There is not one charge. No one
can lay anything to the charge of God's elect. It is Christ
alone. And Abraham called the name of
that place, verse 14, Jehovah-Jireh. Jehovah-Jireh. I often wondered,
I know they went down, skipping down off this mountain just as
happy as they could be, rejoicing, laughing. Yes, they were. Singing
something. I don't know what they sang back
then. Before the song of Moses, but he may have made up a song,
Jehovah-Jireh. Didn't he? Jehovah-Jireh, I told
you, son. He's repeating this for himself. I told you, son, God would provide. He told us, didn't He, son? Skipping
down, singing down the mountain, talking. God's true in His Word.
God's true. He's to be trusted. God is true.
Though we don't understand His ways, He's true. You can trust
Him. Trust in Him, believer, at all
times. Remember that? At all times.
He's true in His Word. He's never failed. Not one of
His promises. word of mine shall pay." You
can trust Him. God has never let down one person
that trusts Him. I told you, son. He told us. I told you, son. God has promised. He said, In you is the seed. In you. Here you are. You're
living. And Christ came out of that grave three days later and
He said, I told you, didn't I? I'm the seed. Can't die. Or you die. I'm alive forevermore. See, I'm the seed. Paul wrote
a whole book about this, didn't he? Galatians and the Romans
about the seed. Not seeds, but seed. That seed
is Christ. Isaac is Christ. That's who Abraham
knew the seed was. I told you, son. Now, son, you
were a miracle. You were a son of promise. I
wasn't expecting to have you, but God provided you. You were
a miracle and you are a miracle. A son of promise. That's Christ. And son, you're going to have
a seed, so you've got to have a wife. You've got to have a
bride, and I don't know who it's going to be, but God said, in
thy seed, all the nations of the earth be blessed. That's
Christ. And son, you're going to have a bride, and we're just
going to wait until the Lord provides one. Boy, you know that
story. You know that story? Would you
like to hear that maybe next Sunday? Abraham sending his eldest
servant to find Isaac a bride? Well, news did come. It came
down from the mountain of God. The Lord Jesus Christ reiterated,
reconfirmed, reaffirmed the promises. He said, because you've done
that, I told you and I meant it, and I'm going to bless you,
and so on and so forth. And then right after that news
came that Nahor, Abraham's brother, had a family, children, been
out of touch for a long time. And he mentioned all these boys,
had a bunch of boys. And oh yeah, he got one girl.
Who needs a girl? Who needs a girl? He got one
girl. Her name's Rebecca. Isaac thought, hmm, cousin Rebecca. Good name. That's going to be
the bride. That's the bride. Waiting, she's
waiting. Jeanette, she's waiting. This has to happen. Son die? Oh, he's got to live. The bride's
waiting. The seed's got to go on. God
has promised. Oh, what a picture of Christ
that is. And Abraham, the man, he actually did this. God gives
us faith. It's our faith. We don't get the credit for it.
We don't get the glory for it. But God gives it. And God tries
it. And faith must be exercised.
And faith grows. And how do you grow? Eating.
Hearing. And that's how. And God honors
that. God honors what He gives. Faith
will be tried. And that faith that's tried and
that person that trusts Christ, it's to the praise of the glory
of His grace. You're a miracle. If you believe
this, if you believe in Christ, you're a miracle. It's not of
yourself. You're a miracle. A rare thing,
a peculiar person. You really are. And you will
be called on, some of you already have and will be called on, like
Abraham, to be tried, fiery trial, and it will be found. Whatever
God gives, that faith God provides, God will provide the grace to
go through it, to show that His Word is true, that His grace
is sufficient. And He honors that. Well done,
now good and faithful servant. That's something. Okay, Brother
John, you come. Come lead us in a closing hand.