Genesis chapter 22. And it came to pass after these
things that God did tempt Abraham. After all the other trials and
hardships and difficulties he had already endured, perhaps
Abraham had begun to think, at last the storms are over. This
man, Abraham, was a man of remarkable faith. He is called the friend
of God. Abraham is the father of the
faithful, that man who symbolically represents the beginning of the
church of God, that man with whom God made his covenant, that
man called out of earth the Cowdeys through whose seed, that is,
Jesus Christ, Abraham's seed, all the nations of the earth
would be blessed, that man through whom Christ came into the world,
Abraham, this man of remarkable faith and faithfulness. was a
man whose life was marked by trials. As you read his biography,
as it's given to us in the scriptures, it seems that Abraham's life
was written in episodes of one trial, followed by another trial,
followed by another trial, followed by another trial. You recall
he was first called out of Ur of the Chaldees and called there
to leave his home and his family. When God first revealed himself
to him, when the Lord Jesus first came to him, he called him to
faith in Christ and calling him to faith in Christ called for
him immediately to abandon everything that was dear to him. What a
trial. This man buried his father Terah
in Haran. His father decided to cling to
him, and he followed him, went with his son out of Ur of the
Chaldees, but God didn't call his father. He just called Abraham. And Terah had to be buried, and
Abraham buried him. This man, Abraham, soon met with strife from the
one member of his family whom the Lord had been pleased to
call his nephew, Lot, strife between their herdsmen. And he
had to part company with his brother and his nephew, Lot. And then Lot was taken into captivity
by those men who had invaded the land. And Abraham had to
go to war with heathen kings and conquer them to deliver Lot
from their hands. Abraham, this man to whom God
promised a son, when he was an old man, He was an old man when
God made the promise, and he had to wait 25 years for God
to fulfill the promise. 25 years he waits for God to
fulfill the promise. This man Abraham, after 25 years
of waiting, finally Isaac is born to him. He saw Lot's family destroyed,
swept away in the flood of God's wrath. What a trial it must have
been. The Lord Jesus came to Abraham
and said, I'll not hide from Abraham what I'm about to do.
I'm going to show him. Surely he will direct his children
to follow me. And Abraham prayed and prayed
and prayed, because he knew that Lot dwelt among a heathen people.
And finally, he said, Lord, if there's just 10 righteous in
that city, will you spare it for 10? And he said, I'll spare
it for 10. And the angel of the Lord destroyed Sodom, leaving
Lot's daughters and her sons-in-laws in the land of Sodom to be destroyed. Only Lot, two of his daughters,
and his wife were delivered. And Abraham rose up in the morning
and saw the smoke of Lot ascending up to heaven. Abraham This man
who was friend of God Was required then to take his son his dear
son Ishmael His son and his mother Hagar and cast them out of the
house forever because Ishmael strove with Isaac And Isaac could
not have Ishmael to supplant him. Sarah was despised by Hagar. And Sarah said to Abraham, throw
this woman and her son out of this house. And God said, Abraham,
she's right. Throw them out of the house.
And it took Ishmael and Hagar and put them out of his house
forever. Abraham surely must have thought.
Now, it's just Sarah, and me, and Isaac. Just Sarah, and me, and Isaac. God commanded me to depart from
my family, and God's taken all my family from me. Just Sarah,
and me, and Isaac. Just us in whom God has promised
his blessings and by whom God has promised to bless his people
for all generations to come. Just Sarah, me, and Isaac. The troubles are over now. The
trials are over now. It'll be smooth sailing from
now on out. And it came to pass after these
things that God did tempt. Abraham and This was Abraham's greatest
trial That's the title of my message
Abraham's greatest trial He had been tested again and
again and again But now the Lord God seems to say Abraham Give
me your heart Give me your heart. The one who
brought this test upon Abraham was the Lord God himself. God
did tempt Abraham. The God of all grace whom he
trusted and worshipped and served. The God of all grace for whom
he had abandoned everything. The God of all grace who called
Abraham his friend. God did tempt Abraham. Now this word tempt here doesn't
mean tempt as enticed to sin, but rather it means to try, to
test, to prove Abraham. James speaks about this kind
of trial or this kind of tempting from God. God brought this trial
on Abraham not because he was angry with him. God doesn't bring
trials upon his people because he's angry with them. He brings
the trial because of His love for His children, that He may
teach them, that He may do them good, making them partakers of
His righteousness, making them partakers of His very nature
in His grace, as they are made to experience in this world what
it is to walk in this world with God Almighty, teaching them who
they are, proving them. Not to the world. Not to the
world. We've got nothing to prove to
the world. You greatly mistake yourself if you think you can
prove to the world that you believe God, or prove to the world that
you're faithful to God, or prove to the world that you're one
of God's. That's not going to happen. We've got nothing to
prove to the world, and we've got nothing to prove to God.
There's much to be proved to ourselves, and we need it, and
God sees to it. No wonder James spoke as he did
then about this kind of trial. When the Lord God comes to try
his people, it is that we may be bettered by the trial. That we may know him as we could
not otherwise know him. That we may walk with him as
we could not otherwise walk with him. That we might serve him. as we could not otherwise serve
him. When this trial was over, Abraham
knew himself better than he did before, and he knew his God and
Savior better than he did before, and he knew his relationship
in this world with all things better than he did before. My
brethren, count it all joy then when you fall into divers temptations,
knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience,
blesses the man that endureth temptation. For when he is tried,
when he's been proved, he shall receive the crown of life, which
the Lord has prepared for them that love him. All through his
life, it seems, God had been preparing Abraham for this day. All the other trials were preparatory
trials. All the other tests were only
to prepare him for this test. And now it came to pass after
these things, our great sovereign God does all things in due time. He does all things in the fullness
of time. After these things, after these
things. After the fall, after the flood,
after the exodus out of Egypt, after the tabernacle, after the
law, after the prophets and the kings and the priests had all
run their course, it pleased God to fulfill every prophecy,
every pattern, and every promise of the Holy Scriptures by the
sacrifice of his dear son. so that all things that came
prior to that, all that was done from the beginning of time until
Christ came in due time was to prepare the way and show the
way of Christ coming in due time. To him give all the prophets
witness that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall
receive remission of sins. That's what all the Old Testament
was for. When you read the Old Testament, you read about creation,
and you read about the fall, and you read about Israel going
down into Egypt and being brought out of Egypt, and you read about
the Passover, and you read about the sacrifices and the ceremonies
of the Old Testament, and the priestly garments, and the priestly
breastplate, and the functions of the priest, and the mercy
seat, and the altar where God's sacrifices
were offered, the Ark of the Covenant with the mercy seat
covering it, all those things testify that all who believe
on the name of Him who was crucified at Calvary receive the remission
of sins. It was all written to tell you,
if right now you'll trust God's Son, All your sins shall be put
away. All your sins gone forever. That's
the message of the book. God's providence is also always
on time. All things are of God. God does all things and it does
all things right. So learn this. Our trials always
come from our Heavenly Father. He may use the devil to bring
Job into trouble, but skip the trial came from God. Did you get that? Our trials come from our Heavenly
Father. When you get angry with the secondary
causes, you're really showing anger with God. Our trials come
from our Father. Our trials are brought upon us
to prove our faith to ourselves. God knows. We need to know. I don't know whether I believe
God or not. Hang on. You're fixing to find out. You're
fixing to find out. Every ship looks good in the
harbor. Put it out to sea and you'll
find out what it's made of. Our trials are intended of God
to prove our faith. And our trials reveal Christ
and make him more precious. I verify that to you with every
experience I've had. Our trials are from our father. Our trials prove our faith. And our trials reveal Christ
and make him more precious. All right, read on. Look at verse
2. And try to realize something
of the magnitude of this trial. And he said, take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou
lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah. I'm told that
Moriah and Calvary are the same place. And offer him there for
a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell
thee of." The words of this verse taken one by one reveal the greatness
of Abraham's trial, the magnitude of his sacrifice,
the love behind it, and the agony he endured through it. What a
great trial it must have been. Can you imagine Abraham's grief
when he received this command. His sorrow as he contemplated
the death of his son at his own hand. God didn't just say, Abraham,
give me your son. I want you to kill your son for
me. He didn't just say, take the
knife in your hand now and kill that boy right now. I can almost
imagine him. OK. Here's the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking to Abraham in a pre-incarnate revelation of himself. The God
of glory came to Abraham. He said, give me your son. Sacrifice
him to me. I can almost imagine him in that
moment of passion saying, OK, I'll do it. But God said, now
think about it for three days. You think about it for three
days, three days. Can you imagine walking that
boy for three days, sitting and looking at his face in the fire
for three nights, as he laid down, watching him for three
nights, getting up three mornings, all the while planning to kill
him? Not because of any anger, but
because God said do it. What a trial. What a trial. What a heavy, heavy trial. I'll
tell you something about God. When I was in school, the folks
teaching, trying to teach fellas to preach. Frank, you do some preaching
now. If I could teach you, I wouldn't. To learn to preach from a man,
you had to learn much. But they tell us, now, you have
to plan your message and your services and work on people's
emotions and strike while the iron's hot. And of course, these
evangelists and religious hucksters get folks to make a profession
of faith. That's exactly how they do things. And they work
right up to what they call an invitation or an altar call,
and this is the time, strike while the iron's hot, and get
folks to make a decision right now. If God Almighty calls you
to do anything, He'll give you time to back out of it. He'll give you time to think
about it. I promise you. Abraham, give me your son after
you thought about it for three days. Oh, what love he must have
had for God. What a sacrifice he made. Every
word in this second verse seems to have been intended by God
to be a jagged sword to pierce his heart. Take now thy son. And this jagged sword reveals
something about God's sacrifice for us, the Lord Jesus. He who
died in our stead at Calvary is God's son, thine only son. Jesus Christ is the only begotten
of the father full of grace and truth God's only begotten son
Isaac Isaac take don't don't go back and get Ishmael Take
your only son Isaac The word means laughter or delight the
Lord Jesus Says I was daily his delight. And God takes his delight and
sacrifices him for us. Whom thou lovest. God said, this
is my beloved son. He said, Abraham, you take your
son whom you love and give him to me. Offer him for a burnt
offering. Not just a sacrifice, a burnt
offering. Not just a sacrifice like Jephthah's
daughter was maintained in her perpetual virginity. No, no,
not just some kind of a sacrifice, a burnt offering. Not just that
she should suffer something, but to be a burnt offering. Again,
picturing our Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
burnt offering. our sin offering, sacrifice to
God for us by the hand of God and according to the will of
God. Then said he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh
away the first that he may establish the second by the which will
we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable
gift. Look at our text again and consider
the difficulties Abraham had to overcome to obey God's command. There were many, many things
Abraham might have argued as reasons for disobedience. Are you like that? God forgive me, I am. You know God's will, and you know it's costly, and
immediately begin to make excuses for not doing it. I must have
misunderstood. Abraham might have said, but
Lord, why? What's the reason for this? God
gave him none. All he had was God's command.
There have been a few times in my life when I knew that God
would have me to do something. I had no question God had me
to do it. And I couldn't see any reason for it at the time.
Couldn't see any reason for it at all. I recall Shelby and I
were engaged I just graduated in high school and everything
was said I'd started in school same school. She was in Bible
College Started before high school was finished and started summer
school and I finished up the summer school course and we're
gonna get married the next year soon as she graduated and Just
a few weeks before time for college to start I Just knew I Just knew
It was God's will for me to go to school somewhere else. And
I packed up, moved nearly 1,000 miles from home, knowing I'd
see her twice before we got married. Why? I just don't know. But it's what God has. Abraham, give me your son. No
reason given. The commandment was contrary
to nature, contrary to reason. And certainly contrary to Abraham's
love for his son. So it would appear. God had promised
in Isaac, Christ is coming. God had promised the woman's
seed is coming into the world through Isaac, your son, he shall
be Abraham's seed. And now God says, take Isaac
and kill him. The commandment appeared then
to be against God's promise. If I do this, how's God going
to fulfill his promise? If I obey God, how is it possible
for God to do what he said he was going to do? If Abraham obeyed
God as he knew he must, he was sure to suffer much ridicule,
persecution, and reproach for it. Bob, how would you like to go
home tomorrow and explain to Mary Blue that you sacrificed
your son? What am I going to say to Sarah?
What am I going to say to my servants in my house? What am
I going to say to the heathen around me who know I left everything
to follow God? Oh, God. Give me grace. to give you such
obedience. Give me grace to give you such
obedience. Matthew Henry made this wise
observation. God's commands must not be disputed,
but obeyed. We must not consult with flesh
and blood about them, but with a gracious obstinacy, persist
in our obedience to them. Blessed obstinance that makes
a man persist in obeying God Whatsoever he saith unto you
do it Now look at verses 3 through 10 And let's see something about
Abraham's sacrifice Abraham rose up early in the
morning and prepared everything with great care He 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 a burnt
offering and rose up and went into the place which God had
told him. And on the third day, Abraham
lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. After three days,
three nights, they come to the place. But our heavenly father,
planned and purposed and ordained the sacrifice of His Son for
us, not three days or three thousand years, but from everlasting. And He never turned back from
it. Abraham prepared everything for
the sacrifice. And so it is that our Heavenly
Father prepared everything for the sacrifice of His Son. He
was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. Where do you think the tree came from on which they nailed
the Son of God? Who do you think gave the soldiers
the strength and the knowledge in their brains to pick up a
hammer and drive the nails in his hands? Where do you think
history was made? God prepared everything. from before the world was in
sovereign predestination to bring it to pass exactly as it was.
And God arranged it in his providence. Abraham saw the place afar off.
And so our God from eternity set his heart and his mind and
his attention upon Calvary and the sacrifice of his son. Abraham
and Isaac were told went to the mountain of sacrifice together
alone. Abraham said in verse five, to
his young men, abide ye here with the ass and I and the lad
will go yonder and worship and come again to you. But Lindsay, he said, we're going
to go worship God. I'm going to kill my boy. And
me and the boy are coming back to you. Paul said he received him as
one risen from the dead. Abraham believed God. He believed
God would fulfill his promise, even though God called him to
sacrifice his son, somehow he and Isaac are going to walk down
off that mountain together. We'll come back here to you.
Verse six, 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, look at this,
both of them together. I and the lad going, both of
them together going. And Isaac spake to 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 is the lamb for a burnt offering? Where is the lamb? Where is the
lamb? Where is the lamb? I see religious activity. Go to religious services. Hear
men talk about religious things and I keep asking where is the
lamb? Where is the lamb you can't worship God without a lamb and
Abraham said my son God will provide watch it now himself Well, he didn't say God will
provide for himself he said God will provide himself I God will
provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of
them together. Redemption's work is the work
of God alone. It is the work of the triune
God alone. Man has no part in it. The Lord
God, our Father, and the Lord God, His Son, our Savior, went
up to Calvary together, and there God did business with God on
our behalf. Made His own dear Son to be sin
for us. Tortured his son in body soul
and spirit. Yes Tortured his son and finally
drew forth his sword and slaughtered his son in violent anger and
wrath and fury That justice might be satisfied They went up both
of them together to the mount of sacrifice as Isaac carried
the wood on his back so Christ carried his own cross and As
Abraham prepared the instruments of death, so our father prepared
the instruments of his son's death. And God provided himself a lamb
for a burnt offering. Christ is the sacrifice from
God, the sacrifice for God, and the sacrifice who is God. He
is God's lamb, God's sacrifice. And at last they came to the
place, verse 9, and they came to the place which God told him
of. And Abraham built an altar there and laid 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. Abraham, for God's honor, for God's will, draws forth the
knife to sacrifice his son. Isaac is bound by Abraham's hands
to the altar. But remember, Isaac is nearly
a full-grown man now. And Abraham's an old man. Isaac
was bound by his father's hands, but he was a willing sacrifice
and Abraham Stretched forth the knife to slaughter his son and
then something happened Verse 13 Behold behind him a ram caught
in the thicket by his horns Once Abraham's faith was proved God
intervened to save Abraham and Isaac, and the type changes. When God spoke, Abraham looked. Did you hear what I said to you
earlier? I want you to know God. Did you hear, as we prayed earlier,
praying that you might have life and faith in Christ the Lord? And you've been exposed to religion,
you've been to churches, and you see how religious hucksters
do things and trick and deceive men's souls. And you may wonder,
well, why don't y'all have the entertainment and have the hoopla
and have the altar calls and the tear-jerking stuff that religious
folks have? Why don't you have that? Because
I want you to know God. I'm not at all interested in
you being religious. I want you to know God. I want you to know
God. And the number one way that's
going to happen, God has to speak to you. He'll speak by the voice of a
man. He'll speak through his word, but God's got to speak.
And if God speaks to you, you'll look. You'll look. You'll look. And if you look, you will see
the ram, Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God. You'll see him caught
in a thicket. Did you notice what he's caught
by? Did you notice what he's caught by? Have any of you folks
ever seen a ram? I'm talking about one of these
mountain rams. I'm talking about one out in
the wild. His greatest strength is his horns. He might be caught
in a trap, might be caught in quicksand, might be caught in
anything, but not in a thicket by his horns, except God purpose
it. The Lord Jesus Christ is caught
by his very power and glory as God in the trap of divine justice
and made a sacrifice for us according to the purpose of God. And Abraham
offered the ram in the stead of his son. God demands of me a sacrifice that will both satisfy
his justice and be accepted as completely righteous before him. And you know that that's what
God demands of you. You know that. You know that. I don't
have any question. You know that. The reason your
conscience told me to is because you know that. The reason your
religion doesn't satisfy you is because you know that. The
reason your little good works don't get it done as far as your
conscience is concerned is because you know that. God demands satisfaction. God demands righteousness. You
can't perform it. But I'll tell you what I can
do. I can offer God what God provides. And I bring to God,
in the hands of faith, what God himself has given, his own dear
son, the Lamb of God. And God says, I'll take that. I'll take that. I'll take that. Now, verse 14. Abraham called the name of that
place Jehovah-jireh The Lord provided Ram as a substitute
to die in Isaac's place And Abraham said I'm gonna call the name
of this place Jehovah-jireh now that name that title for our
God and Savior is may be translated three ways, and all three of
them are accurate. Jehovah-Jireh means the Lord
will see. Jehovah-Jireh means the Lord
will provide. Jehovah-Jireh means the Lord
will be seen. And in Christ Jesus, all three
names are clear. The Lord will see. For God to
see means God will take care of it. We use the word like that
all the time. My girl come up to me, say something
to me, she needs something, I say, I'll see to it. That means I'll
take care of it. Hear me, children of God. Our
Savior's name is, I'll take care of it. The Lord will see. The Lord will provide. If he
sees, he provides. He is seen in the provision he
makes Now this is true with regard to all things in the lives of
God's people The Lord God will see The Lord God will provide
and the Lord God will be seen If you believe God If you follow
the Lord Jesus He will see that you are are not confounded or
put to shame. If you come into great need by
following Christ's command, are you listening to me? If you
come into great need by following Christ's command, he will see
that you lack nothing. If difficulties arise and it
appears that your way is blocked up and you can't possibly proceed,
He will level every mountain. The Lord will provide. Walk in
the way of obedience and every obstacle will fall before you.
Confer not with flesh and blood as you seek to do His will and
He'll make a way for you to do His will. The Lord will see us through
this way of faith and obedience. He will see us through as we
are willing to walk in the way. And he will see to our way if
we dare to walk in his way. We prove that. He will see to our way if we
dare walk in His way. Trust in the Lord with all your
heart, in all your ways acknowledge Him, and lean not unto your own
understanding, and He shall direct thy paths. But the primary thing here is
not about providence. The primary thing here is about
redemption. The theme portrayed here in this
magnificent passage is our redemption by Christ and the revelation
of God's grace in him. The Lord will see. He sees our
need. We need righteousness and atonement
and redemption. And he provides. The Lord provides
for that need. Everything we need, God provides
in Christ. And the Lord is seen. in the
provision he makes. He's seen. The glory of God,
Rex, is revealed in the face of Jesus Christ, our crucified
Savior. Now look at verse 15. When the whole work was done,
Isaac, the object of his father's love, was exalted. The angel of the Lord called
unto Abraham out of heaven the 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, and in multiplying I will multiply
thy seed. as the stars of 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 nations
of the earth be multiplied, because thou hast obeyed my voice." Isaac was promised a great posterity. Isaac, typifying Christ. He shall see his seed. A seed
shall serve him. He shall see the travail of his
soul and shall be satisfied. Isaac, that is Christ, was made
a great ruler. He shall possess the gates of
his enemies. He has power given him over all flesh. And Isaac,
the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, became the source of universal
blessedness. In him, in Isaac, shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed. God blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. All blessedness is
in Christ Now, let me show you one more thing and I'll send
you home. I hope send you home with God look at verse 19 Abraham
and Isaac rose up and went together back to Beersheba you remember
what the name Beersheba means and Well of Oath. Well of Oath. Abraham and Isaac
went back to Beersheba. So Abraham returned under his
young men and they rose up and went together to the Well of
Oath. And Abraham dwelt at the Well
of Oath at Beersheba. This place Beersheba was named
after a well that Abraham had dug that Abimelech's servants
came and filled up with sand, and Abraham went and cleared
it out again, and Beersheba became to Abraham the well of oath."
Beersheba, remember, the first time it's mentioned, is the place
where Abraham and Sarah and Isaac were permanently separated from
Hagar and Ishmael. The law permanently separated
from the house of God. Beersheba was the place of God's
covenant, the place where Abraham made a covenant with Abimelech.
Now, why did he do that? Abimelech was a pagan king, heathen
all around him. But Abraham came and brought
gifts, earthly gifts, and gave them to Abimelech. And Abimelech
says, what's all this mean? Abraham said, this means this is mine. This is mine, and you don't put
your hand in it. This is mine. This whole land
is mine. You don't touch it. And so the
Lord God from eternity in covenant grace declares all the universe
he is. Belonging to Christ our Redeemer,
and no man can touch it. No man has anything to do with
what happens in this world. God controls it all. And He does
it according to the good pleasure of His will. Beersheba was for
Abraham and Isaac a place of worship. They built an altar
at Beersheba and called on the name of the Lord. And we go to
the oath of God in covenant grace. and worship Him as God our Savior,
whose name is Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord will provide. God will
provide. God will provide. You come to
Christ and you think, I can't follow Him. I can't believe God,
I can't persevere, I can't live for God. You're right, you can't. God will provide. You walk with
Christ in obedience as his servant. Follow him where he sends you.
God will provide. Through all the days of your
life and every trial and temptation, in every heartache and struggle,
in every fault and failure, in all your weakness, God will provide. Provide grace sufficient for
you. and meet your need in every time of need. When you come to
the hour of death, when other men are terrified, God will provide. And when you
stand before God's throne and God requires righteousness and
satisfaction and perfection, God will provide. And for eternity,
God will provide. God will provide. That's his
name. God will provide. God help you
to believe him. Amen.