Good evening. Open with me to
Romans chapter 4. In Romans 4, you'll notice Paul
is speaking, well, he's written to the Romans. These are Gentiles. These are not Jewish people.
And he's discussing how faith comes not by the law. I mean,
how righteousness, how sanctification, justification does not come by
the law, but by grace and by faith. So, he comes to his conclusion
in chapter 4, verse 16. Therefore, it, salvation, justification,
righteousness, is of faith, that it might be by grace. To the
end the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that
only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the
faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written,
I have made thee a father of many nations. Before him whom
he believed, even God, who quakeneth the dead, and calleth those things
which be not as though they were. Abraham, who against hope believed
in hope, that he might become the father of many nations. According
to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. And being
not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when
he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness
of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God. And being fully persuaded that
what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore
it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his
sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also to whom
it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our
Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses and raised again
for our justification. I'm going to continue reading
in chapter 5. But tonight, Donnie's going to speak from Genesis 22.
And that may very well be my most favorite passage of Scripture.
There are hundreds of ways in that text to see Christ and Him
crucified. And I had that in mind when I
was picking out my reading for tonight. These next 11 verses,
if you're able, can you put yourself in Isaac's place? upon the altar,
ready to be sacrificed, and the lamb provided. More than that,
though, can you hang yourself upon the cross that is rightfully
mine, where I should have been slain, and instead Christ died
for me." As we read this, you'll notice Christ died for us. May God give us the grace to
see Christ died for me. Chapter 5 Therefore, being justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein
we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not
only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation
worketh patience." That tribulation that Abraham faced as he took
his son up that mountain for three days knowing he was going
to sacrifice his son. Verse 4, and patience, experience. and experience hope. And hope
maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in
our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when
we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. But God commendeth his but we also joy in God, through
our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. After such good scripture reading
and good singing, I feel like saying, Amen, let's go home.
That's what I feel like doing. Like he said, if you can't see
the Gospel and see Christ in Genesis 22, you couldn't see
Him anywhere. But let's read these first 14
verses. And it came to pass, after these
things, that God did tempt Abraham and said unto him, Abraham, and
he said, Behold, here I am. And he 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. And Abraham arose
up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two
of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and claimed the
wood for the burnt offering, and rose up and went unto the
place which God had told him. Then on the third day, Abraham
lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said
to his young men, abide ye here with us and I and the lad will
go yonder and worship and come again to you. Oh my, what a verse
of scripture. And Abraham took the wood of
the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son. And he took
the fire in his hand and a knife and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham
his father and said, my father. And he said, here I am, my son. And he said, behold, we've got
the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb? Where is the lamb
for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, my son, God
will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went
both of them together. And they came to the place which
God had told him of, and Abraham built an altar. And there laid
the wooded 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. And the angel of the
Lord 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 land, neither do thou anything
unto him. For now I know that thou fearest
God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only
son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes."
Four times we read about Abraham lifting up his eyes. He lifted
up his eyes and looked and behold him, and behold behind him a
ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took
the ram and offered him up for a bent offering in the stead
of his son. 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, or the Lord
will provide." Well, I don't know what to say. I've read it.
It speaks for itself, don't it? It just speaks for itself. You
know, what could you say about it? But I'll try to say a few
things. There's many, many things is
precious to the Lord's people. Precious to people. But God's
people truly, truly know what is precious. We know what's precious. Christ is precious to them that
believe. Oh, how precious He is to those
that believe. He is so precious that we long
to spend eternity with Him. He's so precious that we love
to think of Him. So precious that we cast our
souls on Him. Not only is He precious to us,
but He's precious to His Father. Oh, how His Father loves His
Son. And His blood, His blood that He shed for sinners, oh,
how precious it is. How precious His blood is. Because
it satisfies God. God said, I saw the travail of
His soul and was satisfied. Christ's blood satisfied God.
satisfied His justice, honored His righteousness, and blessed
His and honored His blessed holiness. Not only did it satisfy God,
but it satisfied our conscience, the blood of Christ. How precious
is it? It satisfied our conscience. Your conscience asks for anything
other than Christ. Does your conscience want anything
other than the blood of Christ and the sacrifice of Christ?
My conscience doesn't ask for anything else. My conscience
is satisfied. It's not asking for nothing else.
And oh, and here's another thing about how precious the blood
of Christ is. It cleanses us from our sin. All our sin. All our sin. And
His promises are precious. Oh, how precious His promises
are. They've been and will be kept right to the T. All the
promises of God in Him are yea. And amen, no doubt about it. And faith, faith is precious. Faith is precious. And here,
he read Romans 6, I mean Romans 4, talked about Abraham strong
in faith, giving glory to God. Stagger not through unbelief
at the promises of God. And how Christ was delivered
our offense, raised again for our justification. And so here's
some precious, precious things that we see Faith, blood, Christ,
promises, all these things are precious right here. Verse 1
said, And it came to pass after these things, and to know after
these things is after what happened to Abraham up to this point,
especially after what happened to Abraham when Hagar and her
son had to be put away, when he had to rebuke Abimelech, and
then when he Went into covenant with Abimelech, then when he
planted the trees and had the seven lambs, the seven new lambs,
and then when he planted the tree, and Abraham's soldiering
down there, and it came to pass after all these things, this
last week, it was an ordinary day. After these things, it says
this, and we don't know how long after it was, but God did tempt
Abraham. There's the trying of your faith.
Trying of your faith, much more precious than of gold, though
it be tried with fire. that it might be found to praise,
honor, and glory at the appearing of our Savior. God did tempt
Abraham. That means he tried him. God
said, I'm going to try Abraham. I'm going to see, I'm going to
see Abraham. And I know what Abraham's going
to do. I know exactly what he's going
to do, but I want everybody else to see what Abraham's going to
do. I want to see how faith honors me. I want to see how God, how
men that's on this earth can actually honor God. And oh, and
Abraham, God spoke to Abraham. And he said, Abraham, he said,
Lord, here am I, I'm here. And oh my, look what he said
to Abraham. You talking about a trial. And
he takes it, God, when he says something, he says it, in such
a way that he just had passed such emphasis on. He says, take
now thy son. That would be enough. Take now
thy son. But he didn't say, take now thy
son. He said, take thine only son. And then he said, take now
thine only son, Isaac. And then he goes on, take now
thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest. He just build
on that, build on that. And Abraham's standing there
and listening to God say this to him. He waited years, him
and Sarah, waited years for this son to be born. Waited years
for God to give him this boy. And oh, and he says, and get
thee into the land of Moriah. And oh, he goes on to say this,
and offer him up. Offer him there. Offer him there for a burnt offering
for a burnt offering. Oh my Up on one of the mountains
I ain't even gonna tell you what mountain to go to yet up on one
of the mountains that I'll tell you about And I'll tell you Our
Lord Jesus Christ, God's Son, God's beloved Son, God's precious
Son, the Son of His love, before He ever come into this world,
He said, Son, there's a mountain you're going to go to, there's
a place you're going to go to, and there you're going to be
a sacrifice. Oh, listen, and look what Abraham
did. Now, Abraham, I can't imagine
what this man's mind went through. I cannot imagine. When you have
children, you every one of you all know how precious a child
is. Mean war you love them all when they're firstborn you love
them and as they you just think there's no way in the world I
can love them any more than I do, but you do Then you get grandchildren
and you love them and here's Isaac. God said he's the son
the son who now love it Abraham said oh, he didn't back up look
what happened. He rose up early in the morning
God told him he got up early early the next morning Saddled
his ass, took two of his young men with him. There's three of
them now, four of them. Isaac and Abraham and his two
young men went with him. And Isaac, his son, and claimed
the wood. Now, did Isaac claim the wood
or did the young men claim the wood? I believe Isaac claimed
the wood. That means Isaac chopped the wood. Isaac split the wood.
Isaac prepared the wood. And Isaac claimed the wood for
the burnt offering. and rose up and went unto the
place which God had told him. Our Lord Jesus Christ, God told
him exactly what he is going through when he came into this
world. And one time he was talking to his disciples and he said,
the son of man must go up to Jerusalem, must be delivered
into the hands of sinners and must die. And you know why Simon
Peter said, Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Be it far from thee, Lord.
That's not going to happen. Even Simon Peter didn't want
his master to suffer. Like most people, he wanted Christ,
but he didn't want his cross. But Abraham, And listen, they
went three days. Three days they rode. Three days
they rode. Three days they had things to
think about. Three days they was on this journey. Three days they got up. Traveled
all day, spent the night. Got up the next day, traveled
all day. And knowing what's gonna happen,
he's got the wood, he's got everything, and he's heading that way. And
on the third morning, and look what it says, on the third day
in verse four, Abraham lifted up his eyes, and he saw a mountain
way far off. You know how far off God saw
this mountain of our Lord Jesus Christ? He saw it from eternity. He saw the Christ as the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. God lifted up His
eyes, and Him and His Son lifted up their eyes, and before God
ever set the stars in heaven, and the sons of God shouted for
joy, He said, Yonder! There's a mountain. And oh, how
many times they come to get Christ, and he said, mine hour's not
yet come. And Abraham got there on the third day, lifted up his
eyes, and he saw the place. Didn't say a place, the place. The place. Oh my, the place. What place? The place God appointed. The place God told him about.
The place God set apart for this to happen. And I, this, and I
love this. Oh, what a verse of Scripture
right here. And Abraham said to his young men, y'all stay
right here. Stay here with the ass. I and
the lad will go yonder and worship and come back. God done told
him, gonna offer him. He gonna be on an altar and you
gonna burn him. You're talking about a man who
believed God that all his promises was in that man, in that son. He said if God takes him, he's
got to bring him again from the dead. What you read in John 11,
he said, oh Lord, he that was with a dead leg, that's where
Christ goes. And oh my, we're going to go
yonder and listen, this is what he says. We're going to go up
yonder and worship God. and we gonna come back. Right
off, we're going up on that mountainside, we're gonna worship God, bless
His name, and we're gonna come right back down. You know where
we worship God at? We worship God by Christ who
is on that cross. Rejoice, God, we rejoice and
glory in the Lord Jesus Christ by whom we've now received the
atonement. Oh, what a thing to say. What
a thing to say. Then that lad gonna go yonder.
And I'm gonna slay him. And I'm gonna put him on an altar.
And I'm gonna do what God said to do. And I'm gonna do it where
God told me to do it. But I tell you what, God's gonna
keep his promise. He's gonna bring that boy back.
Cause he done promised me that he's my seed. All the nations
of the earth gonna be blessed. He can't be blessed in a dead
man. We couldn't be blessed by a dead man. Oh, Christ never
lives to make intercession for us. Oh, listen, I'm telling you,
Christ died and he was buried, but he rose again. Oh, we're
not trusting a dead man. We're trusting a living man.
And all them promises of God are in him. Look what else he
says here. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and
laid it, oh my. laid it upon Isaac, his son.
He took the wood, laid it on his son's back. The wood that
he was going to offer him with. Our Lord Jesus Christ, bearing
his own cross, going outside of Jerusalem. And oh, he laid
that wood upon Isaac, his son. Christ bore his own cross. And
look what he said. And he took the fire in his hands.
He had a little censer. Had a little censer. Had a little
fire in it. And they carried that little censer with that
fire in it. And he had a knife. And listen to what it says. And
they went both, both of them together. Ain't you thankful
that God and His Son was in this together, that God provided,
God said He laid the wood on His own Son, and He made His
soul an offering for sin, that He made His soul an offering
for sin, that He laid on Him not only the cross on Him, but
laid our iniquities on Him, laid our sins on Him, that He was
wounded for our transgressions, He's bruised for our iniquities.
And God looked at him and saw the travail of his soul and said,
oh, I'm satisfied. Oh, I'm satisfied. And they went
both of them together. Together in heart, together in
purpose, together in will. Oh, not only did Abraham love
his son Isaac, but Isaac, his son, loved his father. Loved
his father. And look what it says. And Isaac, now Isaac's probably
18, 19, 20 years old, maybe even 21 here. And Isaac spake unto
his father. Him and his father's going together,
and they began to talking. He says, my father. And he said,
yes, son, what? And he said, behold, we got the
fire, and we got the wood, and we're going up here to worship.
You done told them fellows we was going up here to worship.
But where is the lamb that we're gonna worship with when we get
up there? Where is that lamb that you're
just gonna offer there? We got the wood, we got the fire,
we got the knife, we got everything that it needs to make an offering.
But we don't have a lamb. Where's he at? I've heard old
Scott say that several times. When he'd get through preaching
and somebody else get through preaching, he'd come up and he'd
listen. I didn't hear no lamb. There wasn't no lamb in that
preaching. He said, where was the lamb?
And oh my, where is the lamb? Father, we've got to have a lamb
if we're going to worship. If we're going to worship, we've
got to have a lamb. We've got to have an offering.
And oh, look what Abraham said to him. Abraham said, my son. Oh, this pleases my heart. He said, my son. Oh my. God is gonna do this. God's gonna
do this. What's He gonna do? He's gonna
provide Himself, Himself a lamb. See, the lamb's for God. God
will provide Himself a lamb for a burn off. Oh my, did God provide
us a lamb? John said, behold the lamb. Behold the lamb. When Henry preached
his daughter's Becky's funeral, That was what he preached from.
Behold the Lamb. God provided Himself a Lamb.
That was the hope he had, the hope she had, the hope everybody's
got. God gave Himself a Lamb. Provided Himself a Lamb. And
if God provides the Lamb, you know what? He only accepts what
He Himself provides. And if He provides Himself a
Lamb, then He'll accept that Lamb. He won't accept our Lambs. He won't accept our offerings.
But He'll accept the one He provides. And he said, my son, God will
provide himself a lamb. And he did, he provided himself
a lamb. And here it says again, look
what else it says here. Look what else it says here in
verse eight. So they went both of them together. They just kept on going. That
satisfied Isaac. Isaac was satisfied. The father
was satisfied. They was ready to go worship.
And they went both of them together. Oh my. You know who else was
with them there? God the father. But you talking
about a beautiful picture. The father and the son. And listen
to this. In verse 9. And they came to
the place. What did it say back up there?
It said, Abraham saw the place of far off, and they came to
the place. There was a place, they came
to the place, which God had told him of. You're there, Abraham,
don't go no further. This is it, this is the place.
This is the place right here. And oh my, and this, they're
going up this mountainside. And they came to the place that
God had told him. Christ came to the place God
appointed for him. He is delivered by the determined
counsel and foreknowledge of God. And look what Abraham did. He took time, and Isaac was no
doubt standing there, and Isaac was no doubt helping him, and
Abraham built an altar there. He built him an altar. What did
he build it up? He had to take rocks, and he had to pile up
some rocks. And he piled up them rocks and
he began to build an altar. And he built that altar there
and look what he done. And then he laid the wood. There
had to be an order. There was an order to the wood.
And he laid that wood in order. Laid that wood in order underneath
that. Had that wood ready to go. And oh my, we cannot imagine,
we just cannot enter into what happened in that conversation
between Isaac and Abraham, the father and the son, when Isaac
Abraham built that altar and laid the wood in order. And then
he said, son, come over here. What, what father, what? Lay
down here, lay down here, lay down here, lay down. He's a grown man. He said, lay
down. You know what he did? He laid down, he laid down. And
then Abraham took some cords, tied him up and laid him on the altar upon
the wood. Oh, that's, we ain't got to the, that's enough. What
kind of conversation went on between them two when this happened? I believe this with all my heart.
I don't believe Isaac hesitated, hesitated. His father loved him
and he loved his father and he was so obedient to his father
and he loved his father he would never think about doing anything
but obeying his father. Our Lord Jesus said, oh, if there
be any other way, if it be possible, Let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless,
at thy will, thy will be done. And he laid down. Now Isaac,
a grown man, laid down on that altar. Now he got to die before
he can put that fire under him. Now it ain't got, Isaac's laying
there watching his dad do everything that he's doing. And he got that
knife out. And Isaac's laying on that altar.
And he reaches that knife back. And Isaac's laying there. He
ain't flinching. I don't believe he's flinching.
Because he done told him, said, me and you are going back down
off this mountain. He believed his father. And he raised forth
that knife, and look what it says, and took the knife to slay
his son. Took the knife to slay his son.
Arise, O sword, and smite the shepherd. Smite my fellow. And
oh, listen to what happened. This is Christ speaking here.
This is Christ. Christ intervened right here.
And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven. Christ
said, Abraham! He stopped. And he said, Abraham,
Abraham! And he said, here I am. Boy,
you talk about a man that was so full of joy when he heard
this. He was so full of joy. You can
imagine the rejoicing he had when God, that angel of the Lord
Jesus said, Abraham, Abraham, stop, stop! Lay not your hand
upon the lad. Don't do it. Neither do thou
anything unto him. And God done this to teach us
this. Now I know. Now I know that thou fearest
God, that thou fearest God. How do you know, see, that thou
hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me? Well, Abraham
lifted up his eyes again. He done got Isaac, you know,
off of the altar. Ain't been no fire set yet. And
Abraham lifted up his eyes. And this is what Paul Mahan said,
said, there's a fella had a bunch of sheep down on the bottom of
that mountain. He said, one day somebody left
the gate open, a ram got out. And that ram wandered up that
mountainside and happened to get stuck in some bushes right
where he was supposed to be. But anyway, he looked, he lifted
up his eyes, and there's a ram. Them big old curled horns on
him. And he was caught in the thicket,
he was caught by his horns. Who caught him? Who caught that
braille? Who put him there? That's what,
you're talking about God's ways. Oh, how unsearchable are his
ways and their past finding. Oh, the wisdom and the knowledge
of God. And oh, listen. And he lifted
up his eyes and looked. Oh, I can imagine when he first
saw that ram. Oh, he looked. He said, there's
a ram. There's a ram. And Abraham went
over there and got that ram. And you know what he did? He
put that ram on that altar. And look what it says. This is
substitution at its most purest in the stead of his son. Christ was put in the stead of
his children. And oh my, and he took that ram
and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son. God put Christ in the stead of
his son. And you know, when they came
to get our Lord Jesus Christ that night in the Garden of Gethsemane,
he said, if you seek me, listen to this, if you seek me, Let
these go their way. If you get me, let these go their
way. And that ram was taken and put
in Isaac's place. And Abraham told him, he said,
I'm telling you, told you we should come back down off this
mountain. And you know what Abraham called
that place? He named that mountainside there. And they tell me, I don't
know if it's so or not, but maybe we could find out by searching.
And they say that this mountain that he went on was the same
as Mount Calvary that was later in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah
in Jerusalem. They say it's the same mountain.
And Abraham called the name of that place, Jehovah. Oh, Jehovah. Jireh, as it is said to this
day, in the mount of the Lord, it shall be seen. What shall
be seen? That the Lord will provide himself
a lamb. And beloved, we have seen. We've been to that place that
God appointed. We've been to that place where
Christ was offered. We've been to that place where
Christ was put in our room and put in our stead. And now it's
not a far off. What is it? It's near thee, even
in thy mouth. What is it? It's the word of
faith we preach. What's that word of faith? If
thou shalt believe in thine heart, that God hath raised him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart, that's why
we preach the word of faith, with the heart. Man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth, confession is made
unto salvation. Oh, what a story, what a picture,
what a gospel, what a gospel. Our Father, in the blessed name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for allowing us to be here
this evening, to be with the children of God, to look at your
word together, Oh, Lord, thank you. Oh, blessed be your name
for offering your Son up in our room, in our stead, for fixing
that place and fixing it where we would come to that place.
And that, Lord, we partook of at death. Christ is our altar,
and now we come to worship you. We worship you through Him, by
Him, and because of Him. Oh, Lord Jesus, Thank you for
loving us. Thank you for dying for us. Thank
you for washing us from our sins in your own blood. Thank you,
Father, for making it to be so, and then working in our hearts
to believe, to believe, to be like Abraham, to stagger not,
stagger not at this promise of God, but believe it, rejoice
in it, find comfort and assurance in it. And Lord, we worship tonight. I worship tonight, and I thank
you for it. In Christ's holy name, amen.