The subject of Genesis chapter
22 is way too much to cover in a
single message, even in just an outline form. It contains
so much. I don't know of a chapter in
the Old Testament that has any clearer picture of the person
and work of Christ and the faith that embraces that work And the
trial that tries that faith in Genesis chapter 22 is so clear,
so clear. This man of faith chosen and
called out of idolatry, this man chosen to be a prophet and
a father to all them that yet shall believe, all declared here. He's called
to take his promised seed, his long-awaited son, The son in
whom all the promises depended and rested. All of them rested
on Isaac. And take him a three-day's journey
into the wilderness. Into a place where he didn't
know. He didn't know where it was going
to be. God said, I'll tell you. You get the lad. You put him
on there. I'll tell you this much. You're
going to sacrifice him as a burnt offering. And I'll show you the
place when we get there. For three days, he sat on that
ash. They traveled along, journeyed
along with his son all the while, thinking, thinking about what
had to be done. Take him a three-day journey
into the wilderness, into a place which God would show it, to take
his son, whom he loved, and lay him on an altar and plunge that
sacrificial knife into his heart and divide him up into pieces.
This wasn't a matter of just cutting the boy's throat and
walking away. This was a sacrificial offering. This was an offering and an altar
of worship. I just want to try to drive that
home to you tonight. This wasn't like in the case
where Zipporah circumcised Moses' son and then threw the stone
down on the ground in anger and said, Thou art a bloody husband.
She did what God commanded her to do, but she did it with disgust. This was an altar of worship.
What Abraham must do to his son, he must do in true love to God
and worship him in the light of what he done to his son. Divide
him into pieces, set him on the fire, and worship the God of
glory who ordered this thing to be done. Now, I haven't decided
yet whether I want to preach the second part of this Sunday
morning or next Wednesday evening. We'll just have to wait and see
about that, but I don't want tonight to get so much into this
thing of how Isaac typifies the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the
main message of this, of Genesis chapter 22, but there's also
A strong declaration here of trials, and that's what I want
to deal with tonight. I want to deal with this thing
of the trial of Abraham. This was a trial, a trial. Now, I'm going to ask you to
put a marker there in Genesis chapter 22 and turn with me to
Hebrews chapter 11. In Hebrews chapter 11, verses
17 through 19, the story of Abraham's trial is set forth in a way very
pointed and in a very clear fashion. Hebrews chapter 11, let's read
these three verses beginning with verse 17. By faith, Abraham, when he was
tried, offered up Isaac, and he that received the promises
offered up his only begotten son, the 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, from whence also
he received him in a figure. And then let me read verse 1
one more time over here in Genesis chapter 22. It says, It came
to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham. God did
tempt Abraham. Now the word tempt here would
be better translated tried. Tried. And I'm going to tell
you why I say that. In James 1, verse 13, it says,
Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God
cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man. But every man is tempted when
he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. The word here is
not tempted, it is tried. It is tried. The evil that tempts
us is in us. It's already there. God doesn't
have to do something to tempt you. The temptation's already
there. It's all around us and it's in
us. It's in us. He said we're drawn
away by our, see that word, own, our own lust and by being enticed. Now in
1 John chapter 2 verse 16, I'm still on this same subject. I want you, we're going to talk
tonight about trials. Trials. And I'm saying that according
to the book of James, inspired by the Holy Spirit of God, we're
drawn away when we're tempted. This temptation that we go through
is of our own lust. Our own lust. Now listen to this.
1 John 2, verse 16, he said, For all that is in the world,
what's in the world? Well, he tells us right here.
He sums it all up. The lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes, and the pride of life. That's what's in the world.
I don't care what it is. I don't care what it is. It comes
under one of those three headings. The lust of the flesh here are
all-inclusive. They are inclusive of sensual
pleasures in the world, including intemperance in all matters. All these sensual things. It
includes what these glances and looks that
men give and women give. Unchaste looks with sensual thoughts. But it also has to do with a
sinful curiosity. We like to look into things that
we're forbidden to look into. We like to look into things that
have what Paul calls endless genealogies and things that just
gender questions. They don't gender learning. It's an insatiable curiosity
to look into things that we have no business looking into. Lust
of the eye. Solomon said all things are full
of labor. A man cannot utter it. The eye
is not satisfied with seeing. You can't satisfy a man's eyes. They just want everything. Everything
it sees is new and desires it. Desires it. This goes down the
road. Boy, I'd like to have one of them. I'd like to have a farm
like that. I'd like to have... Down he goes. Solomon said his eyes are never
satisfied. But mostly what he's talking
here about is covetousness. The eye wants everything it sees. The eyes is the dinner plate
from which the flesh eats the meat. And then he speaks of the
pride of life. What is that? Success, high titles,
recognition, honor, to be loved and respected, fame, to be the
center of attention, the pride of life. These are the things that tempts
a person and draws them away by their own lust. Everybody
has them, everybody practices them, and everybody is drawn
away by them. But God's faith is always victorious
over these temptations. And those who have trials are
those that God permits to be tempted in order to reveal what's
genuine in them. You recall Job. Job didn't volunteer for these
things. Satan was walking up and down
the land and approached the Lord. And the Lord said, Have you considered
my servant Job? Yeah, but you got him hedged
about. And God gave him permission to do what he did to Job. That's
a trial. That's a trial. Paul speaks in I Corinthians
chapter 3. He talks about the ministry of
the gospel and how it's received and how men take what they hear
and build their hope upon it. How they hear that instruction
of God in the gospel and how they obey that which they hear.
And every man's work, he said, whether that of the preacher
or that of the hearer, is going to be made manifest. How's he
going to manifest it? He's going to pass it through
the fire. What's he talking about? He's talking about trials. Talking
about trials. Man says, I believe that. You
better be careful. You better be careful. It'll be clearly, publicly manifested. Because God's gonna cause it
to pass through the fire. And the fire, he said, shall
try every man's work of what sort it is. Now with this in
mind, let me point out three things concerning this trial
of Abraham. First of all, I want you to look
at who was trying. Abraham was a believer. Now we
might find, and folks love to do this, they like to find men
like Solomon or King Saul. Was he saved or lost? David called him God's elect. But he killed himself. Was he
a saved man or not? We like to debate things like
that. We like to go through there and find some of these men who
manifested certain things, certain things were said about them,
and then we like to speculate on whether or not these men were
saved. Do you think he was saved or lost? But I don't have to
speculate about Abraham. Abraham is the father of all
them that believe. Abraham, God said himself, Abraham
believed God. That's good enough for me. There
ain't no speculation there, Glenn. This man's a believer. He's a
believer. When did he become a believer?
He become a believer before this trial. Before this trial. And that's what I want you to
see. He did not become a believer because of the trial. But quite
the opposite, the trial came because he was a believer. They don't produce faith, they
reveal it. Someone told me this years ago,
I don't know where he got it from, but he said this, he said,
said what was born in the storm will die in the calm. Have you
ever heard that? Something happens, somebody's
wife gets cancer, something happens, the storm comes, whatever it
is in that family and somebody comes up and professes faith
over that and gets a little religion and then soon as those things
are over and they begin to be forgotten and they get on with
their life and then they go right back to doing whatever they did
before. If it's born in a storm, you can pretty much mark it down,
it's going to die in the calm. What God's going to try here
is the pure gold. The pure gold. And unbelievers
are tried in a I wrote this down that unbelievers are not tried,
but unbelievers are tried, but their trying is of a different
kind. And so I'll go ahead and deal
with that since I brought it up. But they've got no life,
they've got no grace, they've got no light within. And it's
not faith that's revealed in their trial. It's not the gold,
the pure gold, which is revealed in their case, but their own
sins. is evidence through these things
that God puts them through. Unbelief is surrounded on every
side with light, light of conscience and creation and the Word of
God and the Gospel. And the truth is that everyone
that doeth evil hateth the light. How does God prove that? He brings
the light. He brings the light. And they
despise it. They despise it. But he that
doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest.
The believer is a man in whom God has taken up his abode. He's
moved in. He's taken down that strong man
and taken over the rule of that house. He's a believer. Abraham
was a believer. Grace is not just a doctrine
to him, it's an experience. I don't know how else to say
that. It just is. It's not just in his head, it's
in his heart. It's not just in his heart, it's
in his ways, it's in his prayers, it's in his dealings with men.
If this man's not gracious to some degree, I'm not saying that
that grace is given in the same degree to all men, but the same
kind of grace is given and he will be gracious. He will be
gracious. If he's not gracious, he's never
had grace. It's just that simple. Grace
is what he's about. Grace is his confession and grace
is his way. He's in the world, Paul said,
but he's not of it. He abides here. He lives here,
just like Abraham did. He lived in that land. God called
him out of his land. Now he lived in this strange
land, but he didn't start building the triplex when he got there.
He just lived in a tent because he knew this was just temporary.
It was just temporary. God called out of His Father's
house and out of His own land to be a sojourner. He was a man
of faith. Listen to that 17th verse of
Hebrews 11 again. By faith. Ain't that how that
starts? By faith. Abraham. When he was tried. When he was tried. Not if he
was tried. There is no ifs on these trials.
These trials are coming if you're a believer. He offered up Isaac,
and he that received the promise offered up his only begotten
son. And though this was a real and
a private trial of this man Abraham, by faith, Abraham, that's pretty
private, ain't it? God calls a man's name, and speaks
of that trial that he had, and although it was a real and private
trial of Abraham's faith, I believe that I can say this, that in
principle it stands for us all. It stands for every one of us. Four times in the book of Romans
chapter 4, four times, you read this at your leisure, I'm not
going to turn to it tonight, but four times he says this,
not word for word, but he says it. He is the father. He just keeps
telling us that. Abraham is the father of all
them that shall yet believe. And he just, in order that he
might be the father of all them that believe. And he just keeps
presenting the arguments and pointing back to Abraham. And
present the next one and tell you about Abraham. So I know
that Abraham stood more than just an individual in this tribe.
And then at the end of Romans chapter 4, when he talks about
that faith and talks about that righteousness that was imputed
to him through this faith, he said, now it was not written
for his sake alone. That's five times in that book
where he tells us that this thing that's going on with Abraham
is not just about Abraham. It's about all them that believe
because he's the father of all them that shall believe. He is the tribe, Abraham, the
man of faith. Believer is a person with two
natures, an old nature received in birth, passed down from his
father Adam. And this nature is in sympathy
with this world. It sympathizes with everything
in it and about it. Everything about this world,
this heart, it can just go next to, quick, quick. It can just
snuggle up with anything that has to do with this world. It's
in sympathy with it. It craves and desires everything
it sees. It craves the sensual. It lusts
for what it's forbidden to have. It covets with an insatiable
want. But within this man there is
a new nature, a new man. And this new man is pure gold. He is pure gold. This new man,
it says, there is no sin. Now, that's what John said. And
what I said is what he said. This new man hungers and thirsts
after God. This new man craves the Word
of God. This new man rejoices in the
promises. Rejoices in the promised one
and rests in Him. And it's this new man, this man
of faith, This new man is what the trial reveals. That's why
God sends it. That's why He sends it. Look
back here at Genesis chapter 22, and here's the second thing
I want you to see. I want you to consider the trial.
Consider the trial. We've considered Him who is trite.
I've tried to show you that in Him is a new man. There's a new
nature in Him, but there's an old nature in there. And for
every good thing that you see Abraham do, you see foolish things
that he did. I've tried to point them out
to you as we went through this study. Lying to the king. He didn't know what this king
was about, and yet he comes up and then he... It's a very... I don't even know how to put
it. I forget the word the old writers
used when they described it. But when he came to the king,
he told him the truth, but he didn't tell him the whole truth. I don't know what you'd call
that, but it's a lie any way you want to put it, any way you
want to put it. And so what I'm trying to point
out to you here is if you sit back and try to look at what
this man did this way and that way, you can't really tell what's
in him. Here's how God manifests that
real gold. He puts it through the fire.
He puts it through the fire. It came to pass, it said back
here in Genesis 22-1, after these things. What things? What things? Well, after God
laid the responsibility of his brother's son on him. There's
one trial. His own father, ready to die,
God said, get you out from your father's house. Leaving the only place he ever
knew as home. Leaving the security of his kinfolk. Leaving the religion he grew
up in. Leaving everybody he knew. Confronting an evil king over
one of God's elect. Doing battle with him over his
nephew Lot. Interceding on the mountain for
Sodom and Gomorrah. having to deal with his wife,
and with Hagar, and Ishmael, and the promise of God, and himself
getting old, and Saber getting old. Think of the trial. This
man, his life was one long continuous trial. If you really begin to
study Abraham, you see that his whole life was a series of trials. But now this is the, what would
you call it, the supreme trial. And from what I've read, and
I agree with him, never was a man tried like Abraham. Not even
Job was tried like Abraham. This is a trial. This is a trial. And I tell you this, every time
you wake up in the morning and open these eyes, it's a trial.
It's a trial. As soon as you open these eyes,
you was okay while you were sleeping. As soon as you open his eyes,
it starts, don't it? It starts. Every day. Every day. But here God cuts through the
chase, and we come to the crux of the matter. At God's command,
he must take the object of his love, walk with him, think about
what God gave him to do, lay him out there on a pile of wood, cut him up into pieces, set that
thing on fire, and sit there and watch his son
burn on the wood and worship God. Worship God. I don't know what it is. He can't
just slay his son. But he has to do this just the
same as he would do if he took a sacrificial lamb and laid it
on that altar. He'd do the same thing with his
son. Put him on his altar. And I've looked at this carefully,
and I believe this. I don't know what it is that
you and I love, but whatever it is, you can write it down. Sooner or later, God's going
to call us to lay it on the wood. You're going to lay it on the
wood. Whatever it is that gets between,
I'm talking about love, whatever it is that gets between you and
Him, affection-wise, you're going to bring it out and you're going
to lay it on the wood. You're going to lay it on that
altar. And when you do it, you're going to do it and worship God
while you do it. Huh? We're going to glorify God. I don't believe there was anything
in a man's mind more contrary than offering up his son. Contrary. I sat and looked at this for
the longest time. It was contrary to what he thought
he knew about God. Totally contrary. It was contrary
to conscience. Contrary to nature. Contrary
to civil authority. But contrary or not, God said,
lay him on the wood. Lay him on the wood. Not only
was this to be done according to God's command, but he had
to do it with a heart toward God. He had to do it willingly. And listen to this. You talk
about a tough trial. He says in verse 2 of Genesis
22, He said, Take now thy son, now watch how God emphasizes
this, thine only son. But He don't stop there. He said,
Whom thou lovest. Whom thou lovest. And get thee
into the land of Moriah, and offer him as a burnt offering
upon the altar. Now Ishmael was his son, but God didn't recognize him
as his son. God said, Isaac, thy only begotten
son. God tried his submission, and
he tried his loyalty, and he tried his love, and he tried
the grace he'd given him. He tried his faith. He tried
it. And brethren, every act of faith
is contrary to nature. It's contrary to reason. Contrary
to affection, contrary to natural principles and laws, and it's
contrary to religion and religious tradition. It's contrary. Abraham knew that. I like what
several things that Pink said about this. One thing that I
really like that he said about it is this was a trial in his
old age. This was the supreme trial. And
when God does battle, when the battle's formed, you don't take
a recruit and put him on the front line. You take a veteran.
Abraham was a scarred veteran. And you put him up there on the
line. And now you're going to try him. And I'll tell you this. Men I've known that's been in
this a long time, their most severe trials. I was thinking
about Henry Mahan this afternoon, thinking about his daughter Becky.
He loved her. Oh, he loved her. She died of
cancer. He loved that church, 13th Street
Baptist Church. He gave his life to that church.
That church went to... God offered it up. He split it. Dissolved it. Took it away. His boy, when he first started
this ministry, he loved that boy, and that boy was out fighting
for this country. God took him. God's going to try, He's going
to try our submission and try our loyalty and try our love.
He's going to try that grace that He gives to us. He tries
our faith. Paul uses this phrase, listen
to this. He said, we're cut out of the
olive tree which is wild by nature and grafted, now listen, contrary
to nature into the good olive tree. Everything about this faith
is contrary to our nature, the old nature, contrary. He said,
listen to this, the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit
against the flesh, and these are contrary one to the other,
so that we cannot do the things that we would. He said there
is a law, a natural principle in me, wars against the the faith
of God, the law that's in my mind, and it brings me into captivity,
brings me into the captivity of these sinful lusts. Oh, he
said, oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ
our Lord. The victory is that divine work
of grace in you that created the faith that embraces the Lord. And even though the flesh rages
in its battle, It cannot overcome the object of faith. And we looked
at the one who was tried, and we looked at the trial. These
trials were severe, they're real, they're fiery, they're called
fiery trials in the Scripture. And they're designed to burn
away the dross. That's what they're designed
to do. As Isaac was offered up to God, so must all this world's
treasures and relationships be laid on the altar. And as they're laid, we're going
to lay them there and worship God. And we're going to do it
out of love to Him. And we're going to do it because we trust
Him. We're not going to do it in disgust.
We're not going to do it out of a slavish fear, but because
we know that whatever God commands is just and holy and good. I
was talking with a young lady the other evening about her father. and her mother, and how she loved
them, and that they both died, and they died without faith,
and how that grieved her and hurt her, and she wanted to know
about them. And I said, you're going to have to take things
like that, and you're going to have to lay them in his hands. That's
what you're going to have to do. Just like Abraham took Isaac
and did exactly the same, you're going to have to put it on the
altar. Here it is. Here it is. Our greatest trial, Pink said,
will be where our love is set. And as to self-denial, Christ
will try our faith by whatever it is of self and world that
captures our greatest interest. And He tells us that, father,
mother, sister, brother. In Matthew chapter 5, verses
29 and 30, He speaks of this mortifying of the flesh, this
cutting away of the flesh, as plucking out an eye. That's how
hard it is. That's how painful it is, like
plucking out an eye or cutting off your right arm. And all that sacrifice, I just
want to keep emphasizing this, must be offered on that altar
of worship. But at the end of all this, there
is gold. Look at this man's face. He emphasizes this. This was
he who had received the promises. As I told you earlier, Isaac
was the key. He was the key to the fulfillment
of everything God had promised to Abraham. In Isaac, this whole
thing stood or fell. How could God raise up seed unto
Abraham as the stars of the sky and as the sands of the seashore
if Isaac dies on an altar? This man of faith was able to
lay his son on the altar of worship and plunge that sacrificial knife
into his heart because he believed God must raise him from the dead. That's how he could do it. That's
how he did it in true worship. He believed God would raise him
from the dead to accomplish his purpose and fulfill his promises. Look back over here at Hebrews
chapter 11. I want you to see that. Abraham
didn't just take his son up, bind him up with the cords and
lay him on the altar and get ready to cut him up with no thought
whatsoever about what he was doing. He knew exactly what he was doing.
This was God's anointing. This was God's elect. And God's
purpose would be fulfilled in him. God cannot lie. Cannot lie. And if I must cut
him in pieces at God's command and lay him here and burn him
to ashes, it won't make any difference. God is going to raise them ashes
up because God cannot lie. He cannot lie. By faith, Abraham,
when he was tried, verse 17, offered up Isaac, and he that
received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of
whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Now
watch this. You're wondering what's in his
mind. What's going through the mind of Abraham, accounting that
God was able to raise him even from the dead, from whence also
he received him in a figure. God's going to raise him up.
You remember when he left the servants and the young men down
at the bottom? He said, the lad and I go yonder
to worship, and we're coming back. We're coming back. He looked into the face of his
son, bound upon that altar, and I believe his son looked back
into his face, seeing him as he represented God's only begotten
Son, and saw by faith that though he must surely die, he must surely
be raised again. That man saw that and worshipped
God and raised that knife. And God said, Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. God had no intention
of having him slay his son. But Abraham saw in Christ, he
saw that his death was necessary to please God. He saw that in
Isaac. He saw his death as necessary
to manifest his love. He saw his death necessary to
manifest faith. But in his heart and mind, he
knew God would raise him up again because God cannot lie. Turn
back to Hebrews chapter 6 and I will wind this thing up. Hebrews
chapter 6. In Hebrews chapter 6 verse 13,
it says, For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could
swear by no greater, he swore by himself, saying, Surely, blessing,
I will bless thee, and multiplying, I will multiply thee." So after
he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men
rarely swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation
is to them an end of all strife. Now listen, wherein God, willing
more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability
of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable,
that word is unchangeable, two unchangeable things in which
it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation
who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us.
And if you go on and read the rest of that chapter, it talks
about that thing being an anchor that Christ carried right on
into glory as our intercessor. That is what anchors faith. It
enters in beyond that veil. It's that resurrection. In short,
Abraham brought everything he hoped for, everything he loved,
and put it on the altar of worship and put it there with an eye
to the coming Redeemer, whose coming was through Isaac, whom
God must raise from the dead to justify His own name. He had
to. And Abraham knew it. Abraham
knew it. Now, I'm telling you this. Faith
rests in the integrity of God. It walks in this world and makes
its decisions and sacrifices with an eye on God's promised
Redeemer and God's own integrity. And faith brings what it loves,
what it loves the most, and it offers it up on the altar of
Christ. You know, it was not His love
for His Son that sustained Him. but His love for the Father who
could not lie and who loved Him. Faith persuades the soul of God's
absolute supremacy. I just love this statement. Of His unerring wisdom, unchanging
righteousness, infinite love and almighty power. And it rests
itself upon the character of God. And if God says, do this,
faith says, here am I. Abraham, he said, believe God. That's what it is to believe
God. We're quick to say what we do. Oh, I'm a believer. Are you? We'll see. That's what God says. We'll see.
Let's see. Father, help us somehow through
these things. Educate us. We're so taken up
with the things of this world, so enamored by these things that
will soon be burnt to cinders. Cause our minds to think and
contemplate on these trials We might not be so shocked if we
just stop and think about these things. Think about what they're
for. Think about the good that's in
them and what they reveal. Perhaps we might even sit around,
as Paul said, and rejoice in these things. Count it all joy. Use the message tonight for thy
name's honor and glory. We ask you for Christ's sake.
Amen.