Blessing. Lord, it is my chief
complaint that my love is so weak and faint, and oh for grace,
oh for grace, to love Him more. Turn back to Hebrews chapter
11. I've entitled this message, Faith's
Accounting. Faith's accounting. Verse 17 says, 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, Then Isaac shall I see
be called accounting. that God was able to raise him
up, even from the dead, from whence also he received him in
a figure. Now this is, I suppose, what
Abraham is most famous for. And who among us has not feared
that if we were tried like Abraham was, we would not obey as Abraham
did? I try to put myself in his place
and the closest I can come is Aubrey. I've only got one daughter,
one child. What if God told me to take a
knife and slit her throat and let the blood run out and put
her on an altar and burn her up? That is what God told Abraham. to do. Now, which one of us have
not at least thought, I just do not know if I could do that. Now, remember, the promise of
God was made through Isaac. He said through Isaac, through
this boy, the Messiah is going to come. and all the nations
of the earth are going to be blessed through this person. Now, Abraham knew that God had
made this promise and that God never breaks His promise. He's utterly faithful. He always
does exactly as He says He's going to do. So, Abraham knew
that even if he killed Isaac, the promise would still come
through Isaac because God said it. He believed in the utter
faithfulness of God to his word. So he reasoned and he concluded,
this is faith's accounting. He reasoned and concluded that
after he killed Isaac, God would raise him from the dead. He believed
that. And in his mind and in his heart,
this was already done before it took place. In his mind, he
killed his boy. He offered him up and God raised
him from the dead. He knew God was going to raise
him from the dead because God said he would. He knew God would
do precisely as he said, and so he even received Isaac as
raised from the dead in his mind, in a figure. All of this was
done before it took place in the mind and heart of Abraham.
The issue was already settled. Now James tells us that this
is what demonstrated the reality of Abraham's faith. Would you
turn to James chapter two? Verse 21, Was not Abraham our father justified
by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works
was faith made perfect, and the scripture was fulfilled, which
saith, Abraham believed God. And it was imputed to him for
righteousness, and he was called the friend of God. Now, it was
Abraham's works that proved the reality of his faith. He believed
God would be faithful. He believed God would be true.
Now, what if he were to refuse to obey God? He would say by
that, I don't believe God. His works proved the reality
of his faith. Now, faith's works are founded
on who faith believes. Abraham, my throat, I got my
throat stretched this week and it's affecting me, so bear with
me. Abraham believed God to this
extent. Whatever God said would take
place, would take place. He was relying on that. And he
believed in his heart that even if he killed his son, because
God promised the Messiah was going to come through this boy,
he knew that God would raise him from the dead. Now that is
faith's accounting. That's faith's reckoning. That's
faith's reasoning. That's faith's numbering. That's
faith's logic, if you will. His accounting that God would
raise him from the dead. Now let's go back to Genesis
chapter 22 where we read the whole story about this. And I
like what Brother Walter Gruver said about this passage of scripture.
He said, if a man can't preach the gospel from Genesis chapter
22, he needs to find something else to do. And I would agree. I love this story. It is the
gospel. Genesis 22, verse 1. 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. Now Abraham's greatest trial
came in his old age. Now listen to me real carefully.
God's going to test you. God is going to test you. He's going to prove you, not
for his information, but for yours and for others. Now, every time God audibly spake
to Abraham, it preceded some trial. Abraham, get rid of Ishmael,
cast out the bond woman and her son. Abraham, I'm going to destroy
Sodom. Abraham, and I just bet when
Abraham heard his name called out from heaven, he winced. Behold, in fear, here am I, Lord. Behold, here I am. Verse 2. And
he said, Take now thy son, thy only son,
Isaac. Now remember, he had another
boy named Ishmael, and Ishmael represents salvation by works.
That's Abraham doing his part. You remember the story. Sarah
said, I know God's made us this promise, but nothing's taken
place. We need to do our part. Abraham, you go to Hagar and
you go into her and we'll have a child through her. And thus,
if we do our part, God's promise will come to pass. And Abraham
said, okay. And God never acknowledges Ishmael
as a son, does he? He's a son of the flesh. Take
now thy son, thy only son, Isaac. And notice how poignant all the
language is. Thy son, 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 shall tell thee of. Now, some have
objected How could God call on him to do something that was
not right? How could it be right to kill your son and to burn
him as an offering? What could God get out of that? How could God call upon him to
do something that was not right? Now, wait a minute. If God says
to do it, that makes it right. God is so supreme. That He does
not do things because they're right. They are right because
He does them. You believe that? If God said,
take your son, your only son, whom you love, and offer him
up as a burnt offering to me, it is the right thing to do. Whatever God says, is right,
shall not the judge of the earth do right? Now verse 3, And Abraham
rose up early in the morning, I kind of doubt that he told
Sarah what he was going to do. I believe Sarah would have offered
all kinds of objections, you can understand that. I doubt
that he discussed this with her. God told him to do it. And he
was called upon to do it. And notice how prompt his obedience
was. He rose up early in the morning. He didn't wait to see if maybe
something would change. He rose up early in the morning. He saddled his ass and took two
of his young men with him and Isaac his son. And he claimed
the wood for the burnt offering and rose up and went into the
place of which God had told him. Now, he didn't leave anything
out. He got the wood ready. He had
the fire ready. This act of obedience had already
taken place in his heart. He wasn't waiting to see if maybe
it wouldn't take place. This act of obedience had already
taken place in his heart because he believed God was going to
raise his boy from the dead. Verse 4, Then on the third day Abraham
lifted up his eyes and saw the place A far off. The third day. There was another
resurrection that took place on the third day. But I think how this must have
ripped him apart. Difficult. Difficult. The thought of slaying his son. Now he did it. How it must have
ripped him apart. There wasn't anything easy about
this. Verse 5. 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. Now he noticed, he states
his faith at this time. We're going to go worship and
we're going to come back. He really believed God would
raise him from the dead. He knew he would. So he says,
we're going to go worship. Now, this is the first time the
word worship is found in the scriptures. And if you want to
understand something about worship, understand this. First of all,
worship is obedience. That might be the best definition
of worship. Worship is obedience. And worship has something to
do with substitution. Because that's what this story
is all about. Substitution. So there's no worship
without obedience. And there's no worship without
some understanding of substitution. How God saves sinners. So he says, you fellas wait here
and I and the lad will go yonder and worship. And come again to
you. Verse 6. And Abraham took the
wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac, his son. And he took the fire in his hand
and a knife, and they went both of them together. Now, do you remember another
time when one carried the wood that was to be used for his own
execution up a mountain? This is so full of the gospel. Verse seven. And Isaac spake unto Abraham,
his father. And said. My father. Wonder how Abraham felt when
he heard his boy say this. 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? Now, at this point, Abraham had
not told Isaac what he was getting ready to do. And Isaac knew you
have to have a lamb. Dad, here's the fire. Here's the wood. Where's the
lamb? Now, in a lot of preaching, you
got the wood, you got the doctrine, you got the structure, you got
the fire, you got the heat, you got the emotion, you got the
feeling. We need wood and we need fire. But what are those without the
lamb? Where is the lamb for a burnt
offering? And I'll tell you what, every
message I hear, this is my question. Where is the lamb? Where is the lamb? If the lamb's not in the message,
it didn't come from God. Where is the lamb for a burnt
offering? And I'll guarantee you when Isaac
said this to his dad, can you imagine his emotional response? Can you imagine? I've got a lot
of favorite verses and this Genesis 22, eight is one of them. Listen
real carefully. Here's the fire, here's the wood,
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. Real simply. God will provide himself a lamb. Here's the first thing I want
to say about that. I mean, you can't provide anything. You can't and I can't provide
one thing that God would accept. I've heard people say, give Jesus
your heart. What would he want with it? What
would he want with that heart of yours? Do you think he could
accept that? There's nothing that you have,
there's nothing that you are that he could accept. But thank
God, God provides the lamb. All that God requires, God provides. Is that the gospel? All that
God requires of me, God provides. He requires perfect righteousness.
He provides perfect righteousness. He requires a sin offering. He
provides a sin offering. All that He requires of me, every
bit of it, nothing left out, everything He requires of me,
He provides. God will provide a lamb for a
burnt offering. Here's the second thing this
means. God will provide for himself a lamb for a burnt offering. For God to do something for me
or you, he's first got to do something for himself. You see,
he can't accept you the way you are. He can't love you the way
you are. He can't receive you the way
you are. People talk about unconditional
love. There's no such thing. God can't receive you the way
you are. For Him to receive me or you,
He's first got to do something for Himself. He's got to make
a way where He can remain consistent with His justice and punish sin
and not let sin go unpunished in any way and yet receive and
forgive and save sinners like me and you. For Him to do something
for me, He's first got to do something for Himself. He provides
the Lamb. He provides the Lamb for the
burnt offering. He's made a way that He can be
just and yet justify. So by like me and you, through
the Lamb of God. God provides for himself the
lamb for the burnt offering. In that sense, the blood wasn't
shed for you, the blood was shed for God. Can you see that? The
blood was shed for God. Thirdly, God shall provide himself
a lamb for a burnt offering. God himself is the lamb. the Lamb of God. And that's what
John the Baptist was talking about when he made that statement.
Behold the Lamb of God, the Lamb of God's provided. God shall
provide Himself a Lamb for a burnt offering. Verse 9, And they came to the place which
God had told him of, And Abraham built an altar there. Now Abraham had built altars
before, but I bet this was completely
different. 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, Isaac was a young man at
this time and he could have easily overpowered his father. I have
no question about that. He could have easily overpowered
his father. And I can see if somebody starts
tying me up and tells me they're going to cut my throat and burn
me, I might have some objections too. I mean, you can understand,
but Isaac here is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I have
no doubt that his father told him. God told me to kill you
and offer you up as a burnt offering to him. And I'm going to do it,
but God's going to raise you from the dead. I'm going to kill
you in obedience to God, but God will no doubt raise you from
the dead because he's promised the Messiah is going to come
through you. God never goes back on his word. So Isaac agreed. You see, Isaac laid down his
life willingly, just like the Lord Jesus Christ did. The Lord
wasn't a victim. He said, I lay down my life willingly. I have power to lay it down.
I have power to take it up. This commandment have I received
of my father. And Isaac lays down his life willingly. So Abraham ties him up and lays
him. upon the wood that's upon the
altar, verse 10, and Abraham stretched forth his hand and
took the knife to slay his son. And who knows the agony that
Abraham felt? I know he believed that God was
going to raise his boy from the dead, but would that still be
easy? You know, here's something I don't understand. Can you imagine the agony that
the father felt when he took the sword of justice and plunged
it into the heart of his son. Awake, O sword! Smite the shepherd,
the man that is my fellow. Smite the shepherd, and his sheep
will be scattered. The... I don't know what to say. The pain It wasn't easy. Oh, it wasn't easy. I know that
the Lord was made sin and there's a very real sense in which when
the Lord forsook the Lord Jesus Christ, when His Father forsook
Him, it's because He was made sin and He deserved it and He
had it coming. He was the sin bearer. But how
much pain did that give the Father to do that? There's nothing easy
about this. Oh, I can't even talk about it.
The pain the Father felt. Now Abraham lifted up that knife
But he didn't plunge it. But the father did. The father
did slay his son. That's the substitute for his
people. Verse 11. Verse 10 and 11 together. 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. This is the Lord Jesus speaking.
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. Now Abraham's fear of God is
seen in this. He wouldn't withhold his son. Now turn with me to Proverbs
chapter 11 for a moment. Proverbs chapter 11. What is this thing of withholding
all about? Verse 24, Proverbs chapter 11,
There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth. Scatters the
seed, has nothing left, and there's a great increase. And there is
that withholdeth more than his meat. but it tendeth to poverty."
Now, here's this word withholding. You have a man who gives, he
gives, he gives, and all he does is get more. And you have another
man who withholds. He tries to save something for
himself. He withholds. You see, what you
give isn't seen so much in what you give, but what you keep,
what you withhold for yourself. Now, he withheld. This man, tends
to poverty. Now Abraham did not withhold
his only begotten son. Do you remember that widow with
two mites? You know what she gave wasn't much in our terms.
But what did she keep for herself? Nothing. She gave all that she
had, even all of her living. How much did she keep for herself?
Nothing. Now in faith, we rely 100% on
the Lord Jesus Christ. We keep nothing for ourselves
to save us. This is what demonstrates the
true fear of the Lord. Complete dependence. Just like
that poor widow woman. She gave everything and she was
totally 100% completely dependent on the Lord. She withheld nothing. She cast in all her living even
all that she had. Now that's faith. All my eggs
are in this basket. I'm not withholding anything.
I'm trusting Christ only as everything in my salvation. I'm not looking
anywhere else. I'm not withholding a thing.
If who he is and what he did isn't enough to save me, then
I'll be damned. That's the only hope that I have. I don't trust anything or anyone
else. I don't trust myself. I'm not
withholding anything. I'm not saving anything. I don't
have an ace in the hole. I am totally, by His grace, completely
dependent upon Christ. I'm not withholding anything.
Somebody says, I don't know if I can do what Abraham did. You
better. You better. If you withhold anything, if
you don't put all your faith in Him, if you don't put all
your eggs in this one basket, who He is and what He did, you
will not be saved. And let's go on reading, verse
13. And Abraham lifted up his eyes,
Genesis 22 verse 13. 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. Now here's the gospel. Look. Abraham looked. What am I supposed
to do? Look. But I can't see. Look. you look, you'll see. And if you don't see, you have
not looked. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth, for I am God and beside me there
is none else. Look. When The Israelites were
bitten with those fiery serpents. Moses put that serpent up on
a pole, a brazen serpent, and what were they to do? One thing. Look at that serpent. You look
to Christ. What if I can't see? Look anyway. Look to Christ. You'll be saved. Notice next though, in verse
13, And Abraham lifted up his eyes
and looked, and behold, behind him, not in front of him, not
to the side, but behind him, there was a ram caught in the
thicket by his horns. Now the ground of salvation is
always behind us. It is not something yet to be
done. It's something that's already
been done. Look behind. My salvation is behind my experience. I don't find my salvation in
my experience. I found my salvation behind me.
It was accomplished by what my Lord did on Calvary's tree. And I'll go back even further
than that. Go back way back before the foundation of the world when
Christ was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,
united to Him. The ground of my salvation is
never out in front of me, something that needs to be done, but it's
behind me. He looked and behind Him, A ram
caught in a thicket. And he offered him up for a burnt
offering in the stead of his son. There is the gospel of substitution. The Lamb of God took my place. My sin became his. so that he himself in his own
person was guilty of my sin. God's wrath came upon him, the
sin-bearing substitute, and his perfect righteousness is mine. It's not something that's just
as our brother prayed either here in the study, I can't remember.
It's not simply something that's charged to my account, it's something
that's mine. This is my righteousness before
God. Verse 14, And Abraham called
the name of the place Jehovah-Jireh, as it said to this day, In the
mount of the Lord it shall be seen, the Lord will see to it,
the Lord will provide. This is what Jehovah-Jireh means,
the Lord will provide. All he requires of me, he promises
he will provide. What do you provide? Not a thing.
Not a thing. If there's one thing that I could
be said to provide, and I want to say this cautiously, I don't
even know how to say this. The only thing I provide is my
sin. He provides the salvation from
sin. Now let's look in verse 15. And 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 has not withheld, there's that word again, 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 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." Could I do what Abraham did? You must. I must. He says trust me completely. Do not withhold from me all your
trust. Look to my son only. All your eggs must be in this
one basket. The hardest thing you're ever
called upon to do. And the easiest thing to do is
to trust Christ only. It's the hardest thing, and it's
the easiest thing. I love to think of when our Lord
said, Abraham rejoiced to see my day. I can't help but believe
that this is mainly what he's thinking about. I love to think
of Abraham walking down Mount Moriah. I bet he was floating
down that mountain. He was so happy. He was rejoicing. You know somebody else that was
happy? Isaac. He was happy too. Abraham rejoiced
to see my day and he saw it and he was glad. I am too. Let's pray.