Let's open our Bibles now to
Genesis chapter 22. Genesis chapter 22. 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 rose
up early in the morning and saddled his ass, and took two of his
young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clad 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 eyes, and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said
unto his young men, abide ye 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.
They 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, hear my, my son,
And he said, behold the fire and the wood, but where's 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 there
and 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 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 lad, neither do thou anything unto him. For now I
know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son,
thine only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes
and looked, And behold, 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 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. And we'll end our reading there.
Let's bow before our Lord together in prayer. Our father, We bow before you
this evening. We bow reverently and we carefully
come into the presence of the thrice holy God, daring only
coming before you, pleading the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Pleading his obedience is our only righteousness. Pleading
his blood is the only cleansing we have. The only reason we have
that our sin would be forgiven. Pleading his person, His perfection,
knowing that we could only be accepted in the Beloved. But
Father, how thankful we are you've told us in your word that you
do accept your people in your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Father,
we're so thankful, so thankful that you have provided the way
that sinful men and women such as we are can be accepted in
your sight, that we can call the God of heaven and earth our
Father. and come before you in worship.
Father, we're thankful. We pray this evening that you
would enable us to worship you in spirit and in truth, that
you would enable the name of Christ our Savior to be exalted.
And Father, let each heart here this evening see him with the
eye of faith and believe on him and rest on him, rejoice in him,
rejoice in Christ our substitute as Abraham and Isaac rejoiced
as they came back down the mountain having seen the substitute die
in Isaac's place so that he could live. Father, bless us, we pray. Father, we're thankful for how
abundantly, how richly you've blessed us. And we dare not forget
to pray for those, Father, that you brought into the time of
trial and trouble. There's so many. Father, we pray
that you'd be with them. We pray that you'd comfort their
hearts with your presence. We pray that you'd heal. that
you comfort, that you deliver. Above all, Father, we pray you
give your people a fulfillment of your promise, that your grace
is sufficient, that you'll not leave nor forsake your people.
Now, Father, all these things we ask in that name which is
above every name, the name of Christ our Savior, amen. All right, I've titled the message
this evening, Where's the Lamb? I would have to say, I don't
know if I'm supposed to have a favorite, but I would have
to say that our text tonight is my favorite Old Testament
picture of Christ. Because it's so clear. You know,
I need things to be clear. This text tonight sets forth
so clearly the salvation of God's elect comes through the death
of the substitute. The only way any of us could
live is if Christ the substitute dies in our place. It's really
impossible to miss Christ in this text unless you just simply
don't want to see him. You know, after last Wednesday's
message, Isaac told me, and I read the text, and he thought, well,
I know Christ is there, but I don't see him. Isaac, we see him here. I mean, this is just so clear.
You can't miss it. And you know, like Brother Henry told us so
often, the Old Testament scriptures are bifocal. You know, when we
look at the Old Testament types and pictures, many times there
is a practical application that will help the believer in our
life here below. And always, always, there's always
a picture of redemption in Christ our Savior. And our passage tonight,
obviously, is one of those bifocal scriptures. So I'd like to begin
with the application that's helpful for our life, the believer's
life here below. how to walk through this life
here below. It's applicable to many who are
here, many of our loved ones right now, and I hope it'll be
a blessing to you. There is a lesson here about
the believer's trial, the trial of our faith. Verse one, it came
to pass after these things, after everything that happened that
God had ordained to happen, in God's purpose, at God's set time,
that God did tempt. He tried 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'll tell thee of. 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 claimed 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 eyes and saw the place afar off. Now God-given
faith will always be tried. Our faith has to be tried. It
has to be tried to make it stronger. It has to be tried to make it
more beautiful by burning off the dross of this flesh. God
doesn't send trials to hurt us, to hurt His children. God sends
trials for this reason. To teach us to trust Christ more
fully. And to lean on the arm of the
flesh less and less and less. You know, the weaker that we
see ourselves, the stronger our faith will be. Because the weaker
we see ourselves, the more we'll depend upon Christ. Now this
has been happening to Abraham from the moment God first called
him. Remember, God first appeared unto Abraham and said, get out
of your father's house. Go to a land that I'll show you. And
ever since then, God has been trying Abraham at me. The Jews
say Abraham had 10 great trials, and I would venture to say he
had more than that. From the time God called him
until this moment in Genesis chapter two, God's been trying
Abraham. And God had reserved the hardest
trial for the last, for the end. I don't want to pass over this,
You and I cannot really imagine how horrible this trial was for
Abraham. When our daughter Holly was first
born, I thought not long after about this text, and I thought
about that. I thought about taking that precious baby and killing
her, slitting her throat, cornering her body, and burning her body
with fire. Shawna, I got physically sick,
was sick the whole rest of the day. And that was just trying
to imagine it. Abraham lived this for three
days, walking to the place where he intended to kill his son,
where he would slit his throat and watch the blood of that precious
promised son bleed out. He'd cut his body in quarters
and burn it to ash. Now think about Abraham. He'd
already sent Ishmael away. Abraham loved Ishmael. This was
a hard thing for Abraham to do, send Ishmael away. And the Lord
calls Isaac your only son. He thinks sending Ishmael away
was hard enough. Now I've got to kill my only
son. Not only does he have to watch
Isaac die, he's got to do it. He's got to die by Abraham's
hand. And for three days, I would just
imagine It crossed Abraham's mind to think, am I really going
to do this? Am I really going to kill my
son? Now, how am I going to explain
this to Sarah? How am I going to explain this to these heathens
around here who sacrificed their children? How am I going to explain?
There's a difference here in the way I worship God and this
idolatry. How am I going to explain this?
With all that had to be going through his mind. Abraham was
immediately obedient and started walking. And he had every intent
of killing his son. He had every intent. There in
verse 10, Abraham stretched forth his hand, took the knife to slay
his son. Abraham meant business here. He was going to obey God. And every parent here wonders
this. Would I have done it? Well, I've
done what Abraham did. And we probably think, I don't
think it would. I don't think I could do that.
But you know what enabled Abraham to go through this trial obediently? It's not that he's superhuman.
He's different from you and me. I'll tell you what enabled Abraham
to go through this trial obediently. He believed God. Look at Hebrews
chapter 11. I'll show you that. Hebrews chapter
11. The thing that enabled Abraham
to go through this trial obediently, with some comfort in his heart,
was he believed the word of God. Hebrews chapter 11 and verse
17. 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 him up even from the dead. For whence also he received
him in a figure. Now you remember a few times
God told Abraham. He spoke audibly to Abraham and
told him the Messiah is going to come through your son. You're
going to have a son. Sarah is going to give you a
son and you're old age and the Messiah is coming through him.
People from all over the world are going to be blessed in him,
in his seed. And Abraham believed God. He
believed he'd have a son, and sure enough he did. And he believed
that the Messiah's coming through this son. And Abraham believed
absolutely nothing is gonna stop God from keeping his promise.
Absolutely nothing, because God can't lie. Abraham believed if
he killed Isaac, God would go to the extreme of raising him
from the dead. Because God's going to keep his promise. The
Messiah's going to come through Isaac. And that's the only thing
that let Abraham go through this with any obedience and any calmness
of heart. He believed the Word of God.
Now there's a good lesson here for
you and me, we can take home with us. We go through times
of trial on our own. At the appointed time, when it
comes to pass after these things, that the Lord sends us a trial.
I'm telling you, we'll know more peace of heart, we'll experience
more comfort of heart, if we trust God's Word, and we believe
God's promises. If I think more on God's Word,
and I think more on all of God's precious promises to His people,
and I think less upon my circumstances, the more peace of heart I'll
have in times of trial. See, true faith, just like Abraham's
faith here, true faith, the faith of every believer, is not based
on our feelings. It's not based upon our circumstances.
It's based upon the word of God, isn't it? And the more often
that we're tried and the more often we see, indeed, God is
true to his word. God keeps his promise. The more
I'm tried and the more God comes to me and keeps his promises,
the more I'm going to learn to trust him. The more I'm tried,
And the more God is true to his word, the more I'll believe the
word of God. And you know the Lord also tries
our faith to prove to us, not prove to him, not prove to other
people, but to prove to us that our faith is genuine saving faith. That's what James meant in that
passage I read to open the surface. This is what he meant when he
wrote about this trial of Abraham. James said Abraham is justified
by works. You've got to look at that statement
in context of what James is writing there. You know good and well
that Abraham was not made sinless, not made without sin by his own
works. Christ did that for him, didn't he? No, he doesn't mean
Abraham was justified before God by his works. What he means
is this, Abraham's faith was justified in this trial. When Abraham obeyed God, his
faith was proven to be genuine faith. And he acted on what he
believed. See, Abraham did what he did
because he believed the Word of God. Now the same thing is
true when the Lord tries you and me. When the Lord tries us. And we continue trusting Christ. And we don't quit. Well, you
know, it's proven to us, our faith in Christ is genuine, saving
faith. That's the result of the trial,
isn't it? Even when the trial's over, I
don't think anybody can honestly say, I'm glad for the pain that
I suffered in the trial. What I'm thankful for, what makes
me glad, is the result of the trial. That God's proven to me
my faith in Christ is genuine. But our faith has got to be tried
before we know if it is or not. It's just like somebody building
a ship. Well, it looks good there on the dry dock, don't it? Is
it going to float? One way to find out. pushed out
there in deep water. That's how we're gonna find out.
And when God does that with us, brings us into those deep waters,
this is when we find out our faith is genuine. Now that's
a good lesson for us, isn't it? But the most significant teaching
of this, our text this evening, is the picture of Christ we have.
God's people lived because Christ the substitute died in our place.
I love a Walter Groover, said about this passage. He said,
if a man can't preach Christ from Genesis chapter 22, he needs
to find something else to do because it's just so obvious. Now, you remember when the Lord
told the Pharisees, Abraham saw my day and was glad. They said,
well, you've seen Abraham. You're not yet 50 years old.
Well, the day the Lord was talking about is this day, Genesis chapter
22. I failed. The Lord enabled Abraham
to see past his son, Isaac, and he saw the picture. He saw the
meaning of what was going on here. The salvation of God's
elect is going to come through the Messiah that's coming through
Isaac and they're going to be saved because that Messiah is
going to die as a substitute. He's going to die in the place
of his people. Christ, the savior who's coming
through Isaac and Isaac shall I see be called. He's going to
die. so that his people will live. Abraham saw that. God enabled
him to see that. And oh, that made Abraham glad. Now, I had no doubt in my mind,
Abraham was glad he did not have to kill his son. He did not have
to burn his body. Abraham was real glad about that.
Isaac was real glad about that. I mean, Isaac, they're bound
to the wood. God says, stop. And they see
the ram over here caught in a thicket. Abraham takes his son off that
wood and puts that ram on the wood in his place. And Isaac
watches the lifeblood of that ram come out. Abraham slit his
throat. He watched that body, that ram
burn. And he said, that was me. The
only reason I'm living is that ram died in my place. He got
it. Oh, he was glad. I don't think
Abraham's all that surprised somehow that, you know, because
in verse five he tells his young man, he said, you abide here
with the ass. I and the lad will go yonder
and worship. And we're coming again to you. So I don't think
he's necessarily all that surprised, but sure was glad. What father
wouldn't be? But I tell you what made Abraham
truly glad. The Lord showed him. how God
is going to save sinners in both mercy and truth, in both grace
and justice. He's going to come through the
sacrifice of God's son. God's going to sacrifice his
beloved son as a substitute for his people. So his people will
live. Now that truth is so amazing. It makes everybody who believes
it glad. I want to preach the rest of
this in such a way that all of us will leave here glad tonight.
I'm going to give you a few facets of this picture. I remember I
was at Gettysburg one time, and if you've all been there, that
humongous picture somebody's painted of the battle, you know. And somebody's standing there
saying, let me show you some things in this picture. Let me
show you some things that stick out. Well, we can't exhaust this
picture. Just let me show you a few things
here that stick out from this picture. Number one is this. Salvation through the death of
Christ our substitute. That's the doing of God the Father.
Now who told Abraham to do this? This wasn't something Abraham
cooked up. The Lord told him to do it. And the Lord told him
to do it as a picture. The father determining to sacrifice
his son in order to save his people from their sin. See, this
is the purpose of the father. And when it came time for his
son to be put to death, for him to be sacrificed, the father's
the one that did it. Look at verse six. 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. Abraham took the fire and the
knife because Abraham's the one that's going to carry this thing
out. He's going to do it as a picture of God, the father. The fire,
that's a picture of God's wrath against sin. And at Calvary,
the father poured out all of his fiery wrath against sin upon
his son. And he poured that wrath out
upon his son. That fire kept burning until
sin was gone. The sacrifice of Christ is the
only sacrifice that consumed the fire. Every other sacrifice,
the fire consumed the sacrifice and turned it to ash. Christ,
the lamb of God, when he was sacrificed, he consumed the fire. He suffered until sin was gone. And the knife, that's a picture
of God's justice. See, God's justice was satisfied
at Calvary because the father himself plunged the sword of
justice into the heart of his fellow. All of the cross is an
act of God. Don't let anybody ever fool you
on that now. I know men did everything that they wanted to do, but all
they were were instruments in the hand of God so that God's
will would be done and God's justice would be satisfied when
the father slaughtered his beloved son as a substitute for his people. And then there's Isaac. They're
going up to the father. He's got the knife and the fire.
And Isaac carrying the wood on his back. Now that's an obvious
picture, isn't it? The Lord Jesus carrying that
wooden cross on his lacerated back. But now it's more than
that. It's more than just predicting
that the Savior would carry that wooden cross. When the Lord Jesus,
when they put that cross upon his back and he carried it, you
know what he is showing us? He's bearing the curse of sin
for his people. The cross, death on the cross
shows there's a curse of sin. Cursed be everyone that hangeth
upon a tree. He carried that cross, showing
us He's bearing the curse of sin away from His people, so
they'll never have to bear it. Now you think of that. God sacrificing
His Son at your place. Him being made sin for you and
bearing the curse of sin away from you forever. Oh, that makes
me glad. Does that make you glad? Then here's the second thing.
Salvation through the death of Christ was effectual. And that
word simply means this, it got the job done. When Christ died,
he accomplished everything he intended to accomplish. And the
proof that the death of Christ our Savior put away the sin of
his people, made them righteous, is his resurrection again on
the third day. It's no accident Abraham had
to walk for three days to get to Mount Moriah, was it? And
we read there in Hebrews from whence He received Him from the
dead in a picture. That's a picture of the resurrection
of Christ. God's Son's going to die as a
substitute for His people, but now He's not going to stay dead.
He's going to be raised again the third day. The Lord told
His disciples, I'm going to rise again the third day. And how
weak our faith is when somebody came and told Him three days
after He died, you know, the Lord's risen. They said, no, He's not. Well, the Savior, he was indeed
delivered unto death for the transgression of his people.
And he is raised the third day, not as a party trick, but to
give us proof positive. His sacrifice eternally justified
his people. His sacrifice took the sin of
his people away and made them without sin. Oh, that makes me glad. Does
that make you glad? Oh, to be without sin. Then here's
the third thing. Man can only worship God through
the sacrifice of Christ. In verse five, Abraham said unto
his young men, abide ye here with the ass, I and the lad will
go yonder and worship. We're gonna go worship and then
we're gonna return again unto you. This is what Abraham and
Isaac knew. If you're gonna worship God,
there's got to be a blood sacrifice. There must be blood for sin.
Which is why in just a little bit, Isaac's going to ask, where's
the lamb? There's fire, there's wood, there's
a knife, but there's nothing with any blood in it. Where's
the lamb? There's got to be a blood sacrifice for us to worship God. And Abraham was going to that
mountain to worship. He's going to worship to a blood
sacrifice that God had required. And he knew that worship would
be accepted. That's why he told those young
men, we're coming back. We're coming back because God's
going to accept our worship. Abraham fully intended to kill
his son and sacrifice his body. But he also knew this, God's
going to keep his promise. The Messiah is going to come
through this son, so he's going to raise him from the dead. After
this blood sacrifice and we worship God through the blood, he's going
to raise his son and we're going to come back down together. We're
going to come back down this mountain together because our
worship's been accepted. You know, the high priest went
in to the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. Why didn't
they drag him out dead? He went in with the blood. There's
got to be blood if God's going to be worshipped. And if you
and I would worship God today, we're going to worship God in
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not going to be by animal
blood. We're not going to be sacrificing animals and things.
It's through the blood of Christ's sacrifice. Looking to His blood
by faith. It's all I need. The blood of
Christ is all I need to stand perfect before God. To have my
sin debt put away, paid in full. Now you think of that. Almighty
God accepts common, ordinary people like you and me. Here
we are, this little old building out in the country, you know.
Ain't many of us here, you know, and you consider how many people
are in the whole wide world, how many people in this area,
just little old us here. We're just not much. And God
accepts us. He accepts our worship. Our fumblings
and bumblings and... I'm going to try my best to go
home glad tonight. Glad in Christ our Savior. But
I promise you, before I go to bed, I'm thinking something I
said. I wish I could say that different. That just wasn't enough
to glorify God the way you ought to be glorified. And that weak
worship is accepted in the blood of Christ our Savior. Now, our
worship is accepted in the blood of Christ alone. It's not our
works. It's not our works plus Christ.
It's not our orthodoxy plus Christ. It's not our good intentions
plus Christ. Our worship is accepted in the blood of Christ alone. Now, I love this passage because
it's so clear and simple. Knowing that all I need to worship
God is the blood of Christ. That's simple. I just need one
thing. Just need to look to one person,
one place. That makes me glad. It's easy for me to get confused
if I gotta look two things. But just one, God let me look
down. It's simple, isn't it? That makes
me glad. Now here's the fourth thing.
This is very important. Before God can save a sinner, God's
got to do something for himself. See, God can't save a sinner
at the expense of his holiness, at the expense of his justice.
God's holy law and God's justice must be satisfied. Well, fallen
man can never do that. So God's going to have to be
the one to do it. Verse seven. And Isaac spake unto Abraham,
his father, and said, my father. And he said, here am I, my son.
And he said, behold the fire and the wood, but where's 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. See, there's got to be a lamb.
For that ceremonial sacrifice, there's got to be a lamb. There
has to be a lamb who's a picture of Christ. A picture of Christ,
the lamb of God. But now in order for sin to be
put away, now we have all these rivers of blood from the bulls
and the goats and the rams and the sheep and the oxen and the
turtle does. If all this blood, animal blood,
But in order for sin to really be put away, it can't be animal
blood. The blood of an animal cannot
pay for the sin of a man. We have a different nature. In
order for sin to be put away, see, the blood of bulls and goats
could never take away sins. That's why Christ had to come.
The sacrifice requires a perfect man. See, you and I are men,
men and women. We're the nature of man. Somebody
with the nature of a man, who's perfect has to offer the sacrifice
for our sin. There has to be a man with sinless
blood who sacrificed like all those lambs of old were. So the
sin of God's elect is going to be put away. You and I can't
provide a lamb like that. We can't provide a perfect man.
So God's going to have to do it for me. So first, God must
provide a lamb for himself. God must provide a lamb that
will satisfy His justice, that will satisfy His holiness, that
will put sin away in truth. And since we can't do it, God's
gonna have to be the one to provide it. And that's just what the
Father did. That is the very reason the Father
sent His Son into this world, born as a baby. He didn't come
to this world as a full-grown man, because you and I didn't
come to this world full-grown, did we? We came as babies. That's
the way Christ came. He grew into a full grown man. He came in our nature so he could
be the substitute for his people. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the perfect man. His obedience and his sacrifice
satisfied his father. That's why when his public ministry
began, John the Baptist, how did he identify him? Behold,
now you look to him, you wonder where the lamb is? Behold, let
me tell you, here he is, the lamb of God. which taketh away
the sin of the world. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only sacrifice who satisfies the Father. And the Father provided
him. Second, God must provide himself
as the Lamb. A man can't be perfect. We can't
be perfect. We can't satisfy God. So in a
wonder, I mean a wonder that none of us can understand really,
Almighty God became a man. so he could be the perfect lamb
who would put away the sin of his people. And like I say, since
he's God, he's God and man, he satisfied his father. He satisfied
everything a holy God would require. His sacrifice, I love this, satisfies
both God and the sinner. Can you think of anything more
opposite than God and the sinner? I can. And the sacrifice of Christ
satisfies both those two opposites. His holiness, His righteousness,
His blood, His death, all satisfied the Father. And His sacrifice
satisfies sinners too. Sinners look to Him and we see
He's all I need. I just depend on Him for all
of the salvation of my souls. I know I can depend on Him because
God provided Him. God's not going to provide somebody
that's going to fail. Now what a wonder. that God,
who's the offended party, God, who we've sinned against. He's
the one who provided the sacrifice to put the sin of his people
away. Sin that was against him. God provided himself as a land
to pay for it. Oh, my. That makes me glad. That somebody as wonderful as
the son of God would do something so wonderful for a wretch like
me. Oh, that makes me glad. Then fifthly, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Lamb of God, is the willing sacrifice. Verse nine
says, and they came to the place which God had told him of, and
Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and
bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.
Now from what I gather, Abraham's about 120 years old here. It
really amazes me, he could walk for three days, don't you? There's
not a way in this world Abraham take his son, about 20 years
old, and bind him and put him on that altar against his will.
No way he could do it. No way. Isaac was willing or
this never would have happened. The father and the son, they
must have had a conversation about this. And Abraham told
him, son, I don't know exactly how God's going to do it, but
God's going to keep his word. He said, the Messiah is coming through
you. Somehow God's going to keep his promise even if I sacrifice
you on this altar. This is the way we're going to
worship God. And Isaac was willing. He's willing. Well, all of that
is a picture of Christ our Savior. He willingly went to the cross.
And you know why he went so willingly to the cross? He could have run,
couldn't he? When all those people came out
to him and said, he said, whom seek ye? They said, Jesus of
Nazareth. He said, I am. They all fell down backwards,
flat on their back. He could have walked away if
he'd wanted to, but he didn't. He said, let these go. I'll go
willingly. I'll go in their place. You know
why he went so willingly? Well, first of all, because he
loves his father. He loves his father. And he was
determined. He set his face like a flint
to go to Jerusalem because he was determined to glorify his
father. That's what he said in his great
high priestly prayer, glorify thy son that thy son also may
glorify thee. That's what he was concerned
about because he loves his father. Secondly, he was willing because
son of God keeps his promises. In the covenant of grace, the
father and the son entered into agreement. The father chose a
people, gave them to his son to save, and his son promised,
father, I'll save them. I'll save them by my obedience
and by my sacrifice for their sin. I'll shed my blood to blood
out their sin. He promised his father he'd do
it. So he went willingly. And thirdly, he went to the cross
willingly. You hold your seat here. Because he loves his people. He loves his people. He loved
a sinful, wretched, vile people. He loved them so much. He willingly
went to the cross. He was willingly made sin for
her. He willingly took their sin and his own body upon the
tree and suffered everything that sin deserves. because he
loves his people. The only way they can be redeemed
is if he sacrificed for them, and he willingly would sacrifice
for them. See, Christ our Savior kept his
promise, promise of redemption, at great expense to himself,
didn't he? Now you think of every other
promise in God's Word. Just think of it. Is God gonna break one of those
promises after he kept his promise of redemption? No, sir. He's gonna keep every promise
he's ever made to his people. I go back to what I said earlier.
When we find ourself in a time of trouble, you just hang on
to that for all you're worth. God's gonna keep his promise.
That makes me glad. Not only did he offer the sacrifice
to put away the sin of his people, he promised to perfect it. and
he's gonna do it. He's gonna bring all of his people
to be with him where he is that we may behold his glory. No more
by faith, but face to face. That makes me glad. Then here's
the last thing. There is eternal life for all
of God's elect because Christ died in our place. Verse 10,
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 lad, neither do thou anything
unto him, for now I know that thou fearest God. Seeing thou
hast not withheld thy son, thy only son, from me. And Abraham
lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, 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 instead of his
son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh.
As it said to this day, in the mount of the Lord, it shall be
seen. Now right as Abraham was getting
ready to plunge that knife into the heart of his son, the Lord
stopped him. Well now, Isaac quits being a
picture of Christ. Now Isaac becomes a picture of
you and me. A picture of all the left people that God intended
to save. And now the ram becomes a picture
of Christ. And like I said a little bit
ago, Isaac lived only because that ram died in his place. That
substitution and satisfaction. There's a substitute that satisfied
God. There must be bloodshed. There
must be a sacrifice on this mountain today. Well, there was, wasn't
there? The sacrifice of the ram so that
Isaac could live. But notice this, I touched on
this a minute ago. The ram was caught by his horns.
Now why is that significant? The horn of a ram is his power. The ram was caught by his power.
Our Lord was not forced to go to the cross against his will. No, he was caught. He was constrained
to go to the cross by his power to save. See, he loved his bride. It was his intention to see her
redeemed. But the only way she could be
redeemed is if he died in his place. He was constrained by
his power to save, to go to the cross. It wasn't nails that held
him to the cross. It was his own power. His power
to save that kept him to the cross, to the sin of his people
was put away. And the thicket that ram was
caught in, don't miss this, was a thorn bush. Thorns in scripture
represent the curse of sin. Thorns only start growing after
Adam sinned. The ram caught by his power to
save in those thorns is a picture of Christ bearing the curse of
sin away from his people forever. The Lord Jesus only had the power
to put away the sin of his people, so he sacrificed himself. Now,
what if Savior with power with love, with compassion, with honesty
that He keeps His Word. He cannot lie. What a Savior.
Oh, it makes me glad to trust Him. God wrote a book to tell
us about His Son and said, now trust Him. What a Savior. I'm telling you, that makes me
glad. I wouldn't find much reason to be glad if I had to trust
Him myself. Oh, but trusting in Christ. That makes me glad. Now let me give you this in closing.
Verse seven, Isaac asked, he said, here's the fire and the
wood, but where's the lamb? Where's the lamb? And this is
a question I'd like all of us to ask ourselves. Where's the
lamb? Where's the lamb for my sin,
for the burnt offering for my sin? If the Lord would be pleased
to reveal Christ to your heart, Christ the Lamb of God, you will
be saved. If the Spirit's ever pleased
to reveal Christ to you, you will be saved. Because when you
see Him, you can't help but believe Him. You can't help it. He's so wonderful. You will be
saved if the Holy Spirit reveals Christ to your heart. It would
be a mighty good idea, I think, for us to ask, Lord, where's
the Lamb? I know they're the Lamb. Where's
the Lamb for my sin? Where's the Lamb for the burnt
offering that will put my sin away? Lord, would you reveal
Christ to me? Would you reveal Christ to me?
Cry to the Lord in begging. Lord, show me Christ. Show me
the Lamb. Where's the Lamb? And don't stop
begging. Don't stop begging until the
Lord's pleased to show you His Son. Because when He does, you'll
believe. And we've got some young folks
here tonight. Let me give you a piece of advice. As you grow
up, you're in college, you've got friends, you go to whatever
different places, you may go hear some other people preach
in other places that are not where your parents would attend
for whatever reason you go there. And you're going to hear things
that sound different. It's not different what your
pastor preaches to you. If somebody's preaching something like that
to you, here's what I want you to ask. In your mind, ask this
about the message that you're hearing. Where's the lamb? See,
if that message is you've got to do this, and you've got to
do this, and you've got to do this, and you can't do this,
and you can't do that, and you can't do that, where's the lamb? Where's the blood? Where's the
blood that puts away my sin without any help from me? Where's the
Lamb that does all the saving for me? Because I can't do anything.
Where's the Lamb? Ask that about a man that preaches
to you. Ask that. Where's the Lamb? If
he's not preaching the Lamb, if his message is not pointing
you to Christ, get away. Get away and find somebody who
points you to the Lamb. Because this is the question
for our souls. Where's the Lamb? Where's the
Lamb for my sins? And then, after you've been believing
God for a long time, like Abraham was here, and God brings you
into a time of trouble and trial, and it's severe, and you think,
I'm right there. It's all I can take. Not one
more. You need comfort for your heart.
Tell you, this is my advice. Go to the Lord in prayer. and
say, where's the lamb? Lord, would you reveal Christ
to me again through the preaching of your word? Where's the lamb? I'm telling you, your heart will
be comforted by seeing him. It really will. Your heart will
be calmed. You'll find assurance for your
soul because when you see Christ the Savior, you'll know this. He can't fail. He can't fail
to save me. He can't fail to deliver me.
He can't fail to glorify me. And His love can't quit. I'm not in this trial because
God quit loving me. I'm not in this trial because Christ's love
just wasn't enough to see me through. He decided to be mean
to me. He decided to be unloving to me. Now when you see Him,
your heart will be comforted. His love didn't fail. He'll keep you. See, there's a whole lot to this,
isn't there? There's a whole lot good to our souls in finding out where's
the Lamb? Where's the Lamb? It is my fervent
prayer that all of us will leave here tonight glad, because the
Spirit showed us Christ the Lamb. All right, let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for this clear declaration of Christ our Savior. Christ, our
substitute, who died in the place of his people that we might live.
Father, how we thank you. How we thank you for a savior
who completely atones for the sin of his people, who saves
them, who keeps them, and will one day glorify them when it's
time. Father, I beg of you that you'd send your spirit and enable
us to see Christ, the lamb slain for our sin, the lamb slain as
the burnt offering for my sin, and make our hearts glad to rejoice
in trusting Him and Him alone. It is in His precious name, for
His sake and His glory, we pray. Amen. All right, Sean.