Today I want us to be looking
in Genesis chapter 22. I want to begin reading in verse
one and read down through verse 18. And the title of the message
today is The Sacrifice of Isaac. Genesis 22, verse one. 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 servants with him, and Isaac his son, and claimed
the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up and went into 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, the
lad, will go yonder and worship and come again to you. And Abraham
took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son.
And he took the fire in his hand and the knife, and they went
both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham
his father, and he said, My father. And he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire
and the wood. But 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 both of them went 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 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 a 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 the angel of the Lord called
unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and he said, by
myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because I has done
this thing and has not withheld thy son, thine only son, that
in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply
thy seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which
is upon the seashore, and thy seed shall possess the gate of
his enemies, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the
earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice." It is
spoken of of our Lord in the scriptures that he learned obedience
by the things which he suffered. When he walked this earth as
a man, I cannot explain what that means. It just says, while
he walked here as a man, that he learned obedience by the things
which he suffered. And we see here Abraham being
obedient. to what God had told him to do. Abraham's life was one trial
after the other. And every believer's life is
just a series of trials from one trial to the other. And we
are tested. And this is what we see, one
of the things we see here in this text, is God tries, or it
says in verse one, he tempted Abraham, or tested him. One trial
leads to another. But in this chapter also, we
see the necessity of a human sacrifice for the ransom of our
souls. All leading up to this point,
God told him to take an animal and to sacrifice it as he did
Adam and Eve in the garden to make an atonement for sin. But
now we have the first picture, the first picture set forth here
in these verses of God requiring a human sacrifice. Wherefore,
as one man's sin entered into the world, and death by sin,
so death passed upon all men, for all men must die. And the
Lord Jesus Christ took upon himself human flesh to be our mediator,
our substitute. Why? Because the blood of bulls
and goats can never take away sin. It is not possible that
the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin. But this
man, talking about Christ, after he had offered up one sacrifice
for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. For by
one offering, he hath perfected them, hath perfected forever
them that are sanctified. In this chapter, we see it's
full of pictures of of how God redeems and he saves sinners
by the sacrifice of his darling son. Everything in this chapter
portrays God's great sacrifice of his dear son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Someone has said that this is
rightly called the gospel of Moriah because many believe that
this very mountain where that Abraham was gonna offer up his
son was the very place where Mount Calvary was at. That's
kind of amazing, isn't it? How God set this apart. He said, you go to the mountain
that I'll tell you. You go to Mount Moriah and on
the mountain that I'll show you, that's where he was to offer
up his son. First of all, what you see, it
says, and it came to pass after these things. After these things,
all the other heartaches, all the other hardships and difficulties
that Abraham would come through, you remember how with Lot and,
I mean, he came through with Lot and his herdsmen and then
with Hagar and Ishmael, how he had to cast them out, and how
he waited all those years to get a son. And God gave him a
son. God gave him Isaac. And now God
tells him to go offer up his son. After all this, All these
things, can you imagine Abraham thought, well, you know, all
the hard things are over. You know, I've been through many
trials and many testings, but all the hard things are over.
All those things was just leading up to this point, was leading
up to this test, to bring Abraham to this place where God would
test his servant. And all true faith will be tested. All true faith will be tried.
In essence, what he was saying to Abraham, give me thy son,
thine only son, thine only son. Can you, we can't even imagine
how much Abraham loved Isaac. In essence, God was saying unto
him, give me the dearest thing that you have, the dearest thing
to your heart. Now that's a test. That's a test. The purpose of this trial or
this testing was to try Abraham. God didn't send this trial to
Abraham because he was angry with Abraham. He did this because
he loved Abraham. But this trial revealed God knew
what kind of faith Abraham had. God knows all things. All things
are naked and open with him whom we have to do. But this trial
revealed the reality of his faith. After this trial, Abraham would
know himself better than he did before, and he would know Christ
better than he did before. That's why God sends these things.
All Abraham's life, God had been preparing him for this event
right here. God called him out, God singled
him out, and God does all things in due time, and he does it on
purpose. Now listen. After the fall, after
the flood, after the prophets, after the kings, after the Psalms,
and after all the priests had all run their course, then God
sent forth his son, the only begotten son into the world.
After all those things, all those things led up to that one time,
and in the fullness of time, God sent forth his son, made
of a woman, made under the law. God's providence is always on
time. God help us to learn this. Our
trials always come from our heavenly father. And our trials are brought
upon us by God to prove and to improve our faith. That's what we see here in verse
one. Came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham.
In verse two, we see the trial. Take now thy son, thine only
son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and offer him for a burnt offering."
Can you imagine what Abraham felt when he got this command? Can you imagine what he had suffered
at the thought of offering up his only son? He waited on him
for so long. What great love God must have
had, we see a picture here of willingly sacrificing his darling
Isaac. No mere man ever made such a
supreme sacrifice. Here God is telling us what he
has done to save his people. John 3.16, for God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten son. He said, Abraham, you take
your son, your only son that you love. God had only one son
and one only begotten of God, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but should have everlasting life. That's
the picture here. It's not just Abraham offering
up Isaac, but it's God offering up his darling son. That's the
truth. That's the trial. God said, this
is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. He not only loved
his son, but he gave him up as a burnt offering, as a sacrifice
for someone else. Our Lord never sinned, but he
died for the chiefest of sinners. He was made sin for us who knew
no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. God gave Abraham this command,
and he gave him no reason for the command. This was all he
had. was the command. And we don't
read that he reasoned with flesh and blood. He did not go and
ask Sarah what she thought about all this. The command was contrary
to nature. God told Abraham that God would
give him a seed, and God gave him one. And it seems to go contrary
to nature, and it seems to go contrary to the promises of God. But God made the promise. The
promise came from God, and the command came from God. What would
everybody else think? What would Sarah think? What
would everybody else around Abraham think if he obeyed God? Verses three through 10. When
we read these verses, we should turn our thoughts away from Abraham
to the Lord God Almighty. And this here, we see a picture
of God's great purpose of grace and his work of redemption for
his people. When God told Abraham to go offer
his son, he said, you go to Mount Moriah, to the mountain which
I'll tell thee, in verse 3, and Abraham arose up early in the
morning. Early in the morning. and saddled his ass and took
his young men with him and Isaac his son and claimed the wood
for the burnt offering and rose up and went to the place which
God had told him. That's faith. But he didn't wait
around. He knew what the purpose of God
was. This is, God has a great purpose,
a purpose in redemption. He got up early and he got everything
ready. And then it says they went three
days' journey. Can you imagine those three days?
Every night when they'd camp or how they slept? Abraham's
thought was on one thing, that sacrifice. What he must do, what
he was commanded to do, and what he did. His thoughts were all
about this sacrifice, about his darling son. And our Heavenly
Father, He purposed and planned the sacrifice of his only son
from all eternity. It was not an afterthought with
God. He never thought about altering his purpose and his plan to redeem
a people. Abraham prepared everything,
everything that he needed. He got the wood together, he
saddled the ass, he got the fire, and he got Isaac, who would be
the sacrifice. Our Heavenly Father prepared
everything. He prepared the time, He prepared the place, and He
saw it from all eternity. God's heart was on one thing.
His heart and mind was set upon Mount Calvary when His Son would
be made a sacrifice and an atonement for sin. And God made everything
ready. Everything. Everything that in
the Old Testament leads up to Christ coming into this world
to be a sacrifice. Like I said, not an afterthought.
God purposed it, God determined it, and God decreed it. If man
had had his way, they would have killed the Lord Jesus Christ
before his time. But he said, their hour has not
yet come. But when it was his hour, he
said, this is their hour. And he gave himself over unto
the hands of wicked men. And they did exactly what they
wanted to do, but they did exactly what God determined and decreed
to be done. Why? He purposed it. All things
were ready. All things. Do you see in verse
5, when they come to the place, Abraham said unto his young men,
I bide you here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder
and worship and come again. And Abraham took the wood and
the burnt offering, and they did upon Isaac his son. He took
the fire in his hand and a knife, and they went both of them together.
And Isaac spake unto 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 is the lamb for the burnt offering?
And Abraham said, My God will provide himself a lamb. for burnt
offering, so they went both of them together. They went alone,
Abraham and Isaac. The two men did not go with them
to the mountain, and redemption was a work between God the Father
and God the Son alone. Twelve went with our Lord to
the Passover. Eleven went with him to the garden.
Three went with him when he went into the inner garden to pray,
but when he went to Calvary, when he went to the cross to
make an atonement for sin, he went to the cross alone, him
and the Father. It's between him and the Father. And it said the wood was laid
upon Isaac's back, and the cross, the instrument of death, was
laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And Isaac asked a question, where
is the lamb? He said, Daddy, I see we have
the wood, we have the fire, we have the knife, the instrument
of judgment, but how can we worship God without a sacrifice? He tells
the servants, he said, you stay here, me and Isaac's gonna go
worship God. How are we gonna worship God
without a sacrifice? He said, God will provide the
sacrifice. God will provide the sacrifice.
God will provide himself a lamb. Christ is the lamb of God. He
is the sacrifice from God, and he is the sacrifice for God. An old preacher said one time,
God has to do something for himself before he does something for
you. This is God's sacrifice that God provided. Three things
here. God provided himself. as the lamb for the sacrifice. Emmanuel, God with us. God in human flesh. God became
the sacrifice. God provided himself as the lamb,
as the sacrifice. God provided. Not our providing
it. Abraham didn't provide it. God
provided the sacrifice. And God provided a lamb for himself. God declared a substitute. God declared a sin offering,
a burnt offering. And who provided it? God did
for himself. And God will provide. That means
he will see to it. Nothing will be left undone. What God requires, what God demands,
only He can give. And what He gives, He will accept. Let me say that again, what God
requires. God requires a perfect substitute,
a perfect sacrifice. And nobody else can produce one.
Nobody else can provide one. God provided. And Abraham, he
knew, he said, God will provide himself the sacrifice. And he has, and he did. And what
God provided, God accepts. Then we see Abraham, verses nine
and 10. When they got to the place, You're
going to think it's ironic after he told Isaac that if Isaac asked
another question, it's sure not mentioned here. He believes his
father. He was submissive to his father.
And Abraham built this altar. And he laid the wood upon that
altar. Then he bound his son. And what I understand, he's probably
not a young man. He's a grown man. And he laid
him upon the altar. Isaac willingly? Lovingly, in
obedience to his father, laid himself down upon that altar. Our Lord willingly laid down
his life for his sheep. Abraham stretches forth his hand
to kill his son. John 10, 17, therefore does my
father love me because I lay down my life that I might take
it again. Now listen to this, no man taketh
it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay
it down and I have power to take it again. This commandment have
I received of my father in 1 Peter 2, 24, who his own self bare
our sins and his own body on the tree that we being dead to
sins should live unto righteousness by whose stripes You were healed. He willingly, willingly, lovingly
laid down his life. Do you see the picture? Abraham
with the knife in his hand, going to sacrifice his darling
son. And it says in verse 11, 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 thy 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 called in the thicket of his horns. And Abraham went
and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering.
in the stead of his son. Who provided the ram? God did. Once that Abraham's faith is
proved, God intervenes to save Isaac and now the type changes.
Now we have the beautiful picture of substitution. God spoke to
Abraham and he turned and looked and right there caught in the
thicket was this ram. a thorn bush. God had provided
the ram in the place of Isaac, and when he turned and saw the
ram, you know what he did? He went and took the ram. He
took Isaac off the altar and offered the ram in Isaac's place
as Isaac's substitute. They didn't leave them both on
the altar. The ram died as the burnt offering in Isaac's place.
God had provided the ram. in the place of Isaac. And this
ram is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ who was crammed
with the thorns, with the curse, in our place and in our stead. I'm so glad today that God provided
a ram. God provided a substitute. God provided the lamb. Remember
John the Baptist, when he was standing there in the River Jordan
that day, he said, behold, the lamb of God, which takes away
the sin of the world. We read in the book of Revelation
how that he is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world,
the one that God provided. And God has provided a substitute
who died in the place of sinners, the chiefest of sinners. And
he died in their place and they must go free. What a picture,
what a picture. And then it says, verse 14, and
Abraham called the name of this place Jehovah Jireh. As it said to
this day in the mount of the Lord, he shall be seen. Jehovah Jireh, this word can
be translated several ways. It could be translated, the Lord
will see. He saw our need. In particular,
he saw our need for righteousness and atonement. That's what we
needed. And he provided exactly what we needed. The Lord will
provide. He has provided all that we need
in His darling Son. Everything we need is found in
Christ. All spiritual blessings are found
in Him. Peace, rest, contentment, it's
all given, it's all provided in Him, nowhere else. Who provided
it? God did. Didn't leave it up to
us to try to work it out on our own, to try to provide our own
strength. He provided it. Then it means
the Lord will be seen. He will be seen in the provision
that he makes for his people, the provisions and the substitutionary
sacrifice of his darling son, all the provisions, everything's
in him. An old preacher said one time,
said God put all his eggs in one basket. Everything God has
for a sinner is provided in Christ. Acceptance, reconciliation, peace,
rest, assurance, joy, happiness, it's all he's provided. The Lord
will be seen. And you can see God's hand in,
who provided the lamb? Abraham could see what God had
done. The problem is this world just
cannot see what God has done, what God has done to save a people. And he's saving his people. How
does he save them? By the sacrifice of his darling
son, Jehovah Jireh. The Lord will see, the Lord will
provide, and the Lord will be seen. In verses 15 through 18,
And the angel of the Lord called Abraham out of the heaven a second
time and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for
because thou hast done this thing and hast not withheld thy son,
thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, in multiplying
I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven and as the
sand which is upon the seashore, and thy seed shall possess the
gate of his enemies, and in thy seed shall all the nations of
the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice." When
the work was done, when everything was finished, Isaac, the object
of the Father's love, was exalted. He was promised a great seed
of people. Promised. Our Lord said in Isaiah
53, he shall see his seed. He shall see the prevail of his
soul. He became the source, Isaac did, of universal blessings. Every blessing that God has is
found in Christ. Universal blessings. He would
be a great ruler. rule over all men. He's God. God has exalted him. Do you not
see the picture here? When he became an offering, a
sacrifice for sin, he did not state it. God raised him up,
and God made him Lord, and God set him up on the throne, and
God has highly exalted him, that the name of Jesus, ever knee
shall bow, and ever tongue shall confess, what? That Jesus Christ
is Lord. God exalted him. God exalted
him. He is exalted, he's king, he's
sovereign over all things, over all men, over all circumstances. And we see this here. Not only
in this picture, but all in the Old Testament. All those scriptures
speak of him. It's all about him. It's not
just a story about Abraham being tried, which he was, but it's
a picture how God saves sinners. How he saves sinners through
a substitute, through the one that God has provided. My prayer
is that God will give you faith to look to his darling son, the
Lord Jesus Christ, the one that God has provided as your only
substitute, the lamb that God has provided, what he has provided,
he will accept, and nothing else. What God has provided, God will
accept, and what God demands, you can't give, but God does
provide. I pray God may use this to speak
peace to your heart till next Sunday. May God bless you.