In Hebrews, the fifth chapter,
the Spirit of God tells us that our Savior learned obedience
through the things He suffered. The Son of God, as He walked
on this earth, learned obedience by the things He suffered. And
that which was true of God's darling son, the Lord Jesus,
is true of every believer in this world. We learn obedience
by those things which we suffer at the hand of our Heavenly Father.
Those things we suffer by God's wisdom and God's purpose and
the accomplishment of God's providence. The believer's life, in fact,
is really a series of trials. We're tested and proved. Our faith tested and proved. And by being tested and proved
again and again, it is strengthened. Character is developed by discipline. Would to God this generation
of Pambi folks raising children or giving birth to them and feeding
them until they get grown would learn to discipline children.
Learn to discipline children. No child should ever be told
to do anything twice without suffering for it. It just shouldn't
happen. It just shouldn't happen. How
come? Oh, you're so mean. No. Character
is developed by discipline. And our Heavenly Father is determined
to develop our character. He does it with discipline. Often
it appears that the lives of God's children are crowned with one great test,
one great trial of faith for which all other trials were just
preparatory. If they hadn't experienced all
the other things leading up to this time, they couldn't possibly
endure that one great trial. That certainly appears to have
been the case with God's servant Abraham in Genesis chapter 22. Turn there if you will. Actually,
our text will be the entire portion we read earlier today. Verses
27 and chapter 21 through verse 19 of chapter 22. The title of
my message is Beersheba, Moriah, Beersheba. We start with Abraham
at Beersheba where he and Abimelech made a covenant. And then Abraham
and his son Isaac with two young men who served them, Go at the
command of God to the land of Moriah, where God points out
one of the mountains at Moriah, upon which God required Abraham
to sacrifice his son Isaac. And then Isaac, Abraham's son,
and Abraham, his father, come back to Beersheba and dwelt there. Genesis 22 is one of the great
chapters of scripture. I came to the office early Friday
morning and opened my Bible to Genesis 22
and started to read and knew immediately this has got to be
my message for today. May God make it a message to
your heart. Here in Genesis 22, for the first time, the Lord
God shows us by a picture. the necessity of human sacrifice
for the ransom of our souls. He's shown us again and again
throughout the book of Genesis that a sacrifice is required,
but here for the first time, he shows the necessity of a human
sacrifice for the ransom of our souls. He shows Abraham and shows
us by the picture here given that the seed of woman whom he's
promised who will crush the serpent's head, must be himself sacrificed
to crush the serpent's head. By man, sin came into the world,
and by man, sin must be removed. By a man, sin entered into the
world, and by a man, sin must be punished, even to the satisfaction
of the justice of God. The blood of bulls and goats
pictured in all the Old Testament rites and ceremonies could never
take away sin. But now, once in the end of the
world, the man Christ Jesus appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. And after he had offered one
sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God,
for by one offering, He hath perfected forever them that are
sanctified. Genesis 22 also records Abraham's
greatest trial. It records the greatest revelation
of the gospel and it records the greatest trial any man suffered
to that point since the fall. Perhaps the greatest trial any
man ever suffered on this earth except the God man, Christ Jesus.
The chapter is full of Christ. It is full of redemption. It
is full of the gospel. It is full of the things of God
and full of spiritual instruction. It takes place in the land of
Moriah. And in the land of Moriah, there were three mountains or
actually three peaks of a range of mountains. One is Mount Zion,
the other is Mount Moriah, and the other is Mount Calvary. I
can't help but to think that the mountain here pointed at
to Abraham where he must offer his son Isaac was Mount Calvary
to which Isaac's seed and Abraham's seed and the seed of the woman
must be crucified in time to come. There are so many things here.
I can't possibly deal with all of them. We have before us a
picture of great faith. picture of God's purpose being
fulfilled in the accomplishment of his gracious intentions. We
have a picture of substitutionary redemption, and we see clearly
God's great provision for his people in Christ. Let's look
at what we can in the few minutes before us. First, look at the
time at which this trial took place. Verse what? And it came to pass after these
things. When I read that, I thought to
myself, surely, by the time Abraham got to Genesis 22, he must have
begun to think, life's got to be easier from now on. Things have got to be easier
from now on. It's just my great trials are over. Let me tell
you why I think Abraham must have thought like that. This
man, Abraham, had been called of God at the mere word of God
to leave Ur of Chaldea, to leave behind him everything he had
been trained to gather for himself and everything he had gathered
for himself. to leave behind him all his kindred, and to become
a nomad, to walk from place to place until his seed inherited
a land God promised to give him. Abraham buried his father, Terah,
the one blood relative he had with him in Haran. And then Abraham
experienced a terrible time of strife between his herdsman and
Lot's herdsman, so great was the strife that he said, Lot,
son, time for us to part company. You choose the right hand, I'll
go to the left. You choose the left, I'll go to the right. Take
whatever you want to, and I'll leave that to you. And Lot and
Abraham were divided. And then Abraham heard that Lot
had been taken captive by the kings of the plains. And he armed
his men and went to war with the kings of the plain to deliver
Lot and his family from their hands. And then Abraham had word
from God that he was going to destroy Sodom. And he prayed,
and he prayed, and he prayed, and he prayed. And finally, he
said, Lord, if there's just 10 in Sodom, will you preserve the
city? And the Lord said, if I find
10, I'll preserve the city. But it wasn't 10 people there
who believed God. There was just one man there
who believed God. And he brought Lot and his two
daughters out of Sodom. And Abraham rose early in the
morning and went out and saw the smoke of that city. What
a heavy trial. Abraham saw Lot's family. He had at least two daughters
and two sons-in-law. in the city of Sodom, burned
to ashes under the wrath of God. This man, Abraham, then was required
to take his son, Ishmael. That's his oldest boy. Required
to take his son, Ishmael, and the woman who bore him, give
him a bottle of water, and kiss them goodbye forever. Surely,
surely things are going to be smooth from now on. Surely now
the heaviest of trials are over. Surely there'll be no more dark,
dark storms. But Abraham was mistaken. It
came to pass after these things that God did tempt, try, test,
prove Abraham. Came to prove Abraham to himself. God knew what Abraham made of.
Abraham needed to know what he was made of. He came to prove
Abraham to himself. And so he says, Abraham, now
give me your heart. Give me your son. You're only
Isaac. You're only Isaac. I found it
interesting as I read through this, I don't think I'd ever
noticed it before, where the Lord says, you're only son Isaac.
The word son is in italics. Strike through it in your mind
is put there by translators to make the sentence read more smoothly.
But you missed part of the meaning. He says, give me your son. You're
only Isaac. And Abraham started making arrangements. I look at the opening line of
verse one again. I can't help but to think there must be a
specific reference here to the covenant made between Abraham
and Abimelech at Beersheba. In verse 31 of chapter 21, Beersheba
is mentioned for the first time. The word means a well of oath,
or it might be translated a well of seven, or a well of peace. I'm sorry, an oath of seven or
an oath of peace. Abraham, you'll recall, sacrificed
seven new lambs there. Abimelech said, what are you
saying to me? These seven lambs you set aside here. Abraham,
these seven shall be a witness to me. that I've digged this
well, that this is my property. And I sacrificed the land, seven.
Used in scripture to speak of perfection, completion, and of
grace. So Abraham made this place to
be called Beersheba, the well of the oath, the well of seven. It's a place where the covenant
was made, Beersheba. was one of the cities possessed
by the tribe of Judah. It was in the southernmost tip
of the land God gave to the children of Israel. And if you'll read
through the Old Testament and mark where it's used, you'll
find that Beersheba was a constant reference point throughout the
history of God's people in the Old Testament, beginning right
here in Genesis 21. Abraham called the name of this
place Beersheba. Anything take place includes
everybody from Dan to Beersheba. Dan in the north, Beersheba to
the south. Beersheba was the place where
Abraham and Abimelech and their children after them were bound. Bound forever. You see, a covenant
is an agreement that's binding. You have land covenants, we call
them deeds. It's an agreement that's binding. And we have covenants presented
in the scriptures by which men are bound to one another, by
which a man voluntarily binds himself to another man. And he
can bind himself and his property for his family generations to
come. Abraham and Abimelech, bound
themselves and their children and their children's children
by this covenant, never to make war with one another, but ever
to be at peace with one another. And the seven lambs were sacrificed
for it. Second, the time was after these things
had come to pass. The one who did the tempting
was Abraham's God. God did tempt Abraham. Not because he was angry with
him. Trials never come. Not to God's
people because they're angry with him. He's angry with him.
No. The trial came because he loved
him. The father chastens the son whom
he loves. He tries him, he tempts him,
he tests him, he proves him again and again to mature him, to strengthen
him, to mold his character. The Lord of glory tempted Abraham,
and when the trial was over, everybody involved was better
off. Abraham knew God better than
he ever knew him before, better than he could have known him
before. He knew Christ better than he knew him before. He knew
his son better than he knew him before. And his son knew Abraham
better than he knew him before. And their servants knew Abraham
and Isaac better than they could have known them before. Everybody
involved in the trial is better off when the trial was over.
Although God had tempted Abraham and tempted him again and tempted
him again, all that was done in preparation for this. And
now it came to pass. Children of God, God does everything
well. All things are of God. Everything. And it does everything
on time. He's never early and he's never
late. After all these things, after
the fall, after the flood, after the exodus, after the giving
of the law, After 2,000 years of breaking the law, in due time,
in the fullness of time, Christ died for the ungodly. Everything
comes to pass exactly according to God's time. Now, I urge you,
learn this. All our trials come from our
heavenly father. That makes two things true. It makes them more bearable,
and it makes them more painful. The fact that our father sends
the trials sustains us, but the fact that our father sends the
trials makes them painful. You see, the reprobate, the unbelieving,
they have the same trials we have. They have the same heartaches
and pains we have, but to them, they're not trials by which God
proves them. They're just the consequence
of sin and things that God brings to their lives to warn them of
judgment to come. For the believer, we look at
the pain and feel the pain and know, my father sent the pain. And that makes the pain all the
more aggravated. Second, our trials are intended
by our father to benefit us. Now, you listen to me. Merlin,
that's his intent. He'll do it. They're intended for our benefit. And third, our trials are intended
to reveal Christ to us. To make us know him. To make
us know him better. To make us know him more fully.
To make us trust him more completely. Now third, let me show you something
about the magnitude of this trial. Oh, what a heavy, heavy, heavy
trial. Look at verse two. God said,
take now thy son, thine only Isaac, whom thou lovest. If I said that to you, Pam, about
one of your babies you've been bouncing on your knee, you go
visit them, you'd think, boys, oh, what's he going to do for
now? Take your son, your only Isaac, the only darling of your
heart, whom you love, and get thee to the land of Moriah. and offer him there for a burnt
offering upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of." Oh, how great the trial. How heavy the load. How painful the agony. And yet
how great the faith and the love that must have resided in this
man Abraham to willingly bow in obedience to God. Take now thy son, he said. Abraham must have been spitting
with grief. For three days, he contemplates
sacrificing his son. Oh, how he must have loved God. What a sacrifice he made. But
look at the text again. There is one greater here than
Abraham and one greater than Isaac. The picture is clear,
a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ and God our Father. Take now
thy son. The Lord God Almighty sacrificed
his son for us, thine only Isaac, his only begotten son. Isaac. The word means laughter. Laughter. God came to Abraham and said,
I'm going to give you a son. And Abraham laughed because he
believed God. Sarah heard the same word and
she laughed because she didn't believe God, but when she got
Isaac, she laughed. Isaac means laughter. Christ
Jesus is the laughter of God. He is the only one in whom God
delights. The only one with whom God is
well pleased. Whom thou lovest. God said, this
is my beloved son. and offer him for a burnt offering. Not just a sacrifice, a burnt
offering. A sacrifice to be consumed by
fire. A sacrifice for sin. Abraham, you take your son Isaac
and offer him for a burnt offering. God says, made his soul an offering
for sin. An offering consumed by the fire
of my holy wrath. Fourth, look at the difficulties for
a moment Abraham had to consider. There are many things I see that
Abraham might have offered his excuses and arguments to justify
his excuses for disobedience. But when God commands, we must
not consult with flesh and blood. The Lord God gave Abraham no
reason for making this sacrifice. Try to find one. He didn't say one word about
why. I'm requiring this. All Abraham had was God's word,
do it. He knew what God's will was,
that's all. The commandment that God gave
Abraham was contrary to everything in nature, everything in reason,
everything in love. Take your son Isaac, your only
Isaac, and offer him on one of these mountains to me. But I love him. But you promised
that through this boy, you'd send the Redeemer and all the
nations of the earth be blessed. He's my only son. But the commandment
was clear. The commandment appeared totally
contrary to God's promise. Now, this is important. I don't
have time to elaborate on it this morning, but I said it appeared
contrary to God's promise. Remember, God promised Abraham,
you throw Ishmael out. The heir is not Ishmael. The
promise is not with Ishmael. You throw him out of the house.
You do what Sarah said, the bond woman's son cannot be heir with
the free woman. Isaac is the one in whom your
seed shall be called. Isaac is the one through whom
the woman's seed shall come who will crush the serpent's head.
Isaac is the one through whom Messiah will come. Isaac is the
one through whom you will be redeemed. And you know what the
scripture tells us about Abraham? He didn't even stagger. He never
staggered. Why? He's fully persuaded. Fully persuaded. Fully persuaded
that what God promised, God was able to perform. You remember
what he told his two servants? He said, y'all stay right here.
Hang on to the reins on this ass. I'm going up to Mariah and
I'm going to worship God and Isaac and I. After we've done
worshiping God, we're going to come back here together. I'm
going up there to kill this boy. I'm going up there to kill it
because God commanded it. And I'm coming back with him.
He believed that God who made the promise would raise him from
the dead and he received him again from the dead. Read Hebrew chapter 11. What
a word! Matthew Henry rightly wrote,
God's commands must not be disputed, but obeyed. We must not consult with flesh
and blood about them, but with gracious obstinacy persist in
our obedience to them. Whatsoever he saith unto you,
do it. Now fifth, let's turn our thoughts
away from Abraham to the sacrifice. Look at verses 3 through 10.
We'll just pick up some highlights. Abraham rose up early in the morning,
we're told in verses 3 and 4, and prepared everything with
great care. Our God, the triune God, rose
up early in the morning time in the beginning before ever
the world was made and arranged everything for the sacrifice
of his son. Abraham carefully prepared all
that was necessary. And he had in his mind's eye
this place. He saw it afar off. And yet he never turned back.
And so our God, before ever the world was made, had in his heart,
in his eye, the place called Mount Calvary. And he didn't
have it fixed before him for three days. or for three months,
or for three years, or for 3,000 years, but from eternity. And he never staggered. He never
altered his purpose. He never changed his mind. Abraham
and Isaac went to the mountain on the third day. The third day
he saw this place. The third day they went to the
mountain. The third day he sacrificed his son. The third day, three,
speaking of the Trinity, in the third day of time, in the 3,000th
year of time after the world was made, God sacrificed his
son. On the third day, the day of
life and resurrection, Christ was sacrificed for us. And Abraham
and Isaac went up to the mountain We're told twice here, both of
them together. I don't know how to say what has to be said here,
but God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit, are not pieces of stone. People talk about God, we think
about God and recognize God's unalterable, unchangeable. I'm
fully aware of that, but don't even think about telling me that
God didn't feel the sacrifice of his son, just as Abraham felt
the pain He's about to inflict upon Isaac the Lord God Almighty
went with his son and there his son alone was sacrificed but
the one doing the sacrificing is his own father. Isaac asked his father a question.
He said, he said, daddy We've got the fire and we've got the
wood. I'm carrying it on my back. But
where is the lamb? Mamas and daddies, while you're
concerning yourself about teaching your children who the greatest
sports heroes are, and concerned about teaching them who the presidents
of the United States are, and concerned about teaching them
where the various continents are, Don't forget to teach them
they got to have a lamb. You can't worship God without
the lamb. You can't come to God without a sacrifice. When I see
the blood, God said, I'll pass over you. Without the shedding
of blood is no remission of sins. The blood is the life and the
atonement for sin. Where's the lamb? And Abraham
said something. And I really don't have any idea
what all Abraham knew. But I got a good hunch, he knew
a whole lot more than anybody gives him credit for. He said,
my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. And they reached the place of
sacrifice. And Abraham, we're told in verse 10, stretched forth
his hand and took the knife. As far as he's concerned, Isaac's
a dead man. He built an altar. He bound his
son to the altar. Isaac willingly laid himself
on the altar, and Abraham stretched forth his hand. In that day,
the prophet says, there shall be a fountain opened to the house
of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, a fountain opened
for sin and for uncleanness. How? How is the fountain opened? Awake, O sword, against the man
that is my fellow. Smite and slay the shepherd. Sixth, we have here a great picture
of substitutionary redemption. Look at this. Let's read verse
11. the angel of the Lord called
unto him. Now, we don't have to guess who
that is, because he identifies himself as the Lord himself.
He called him out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. He said,
here am I. And he said, lay not thine hand
upon the lad. Now, watch this. Wonder why he
added this. Wonder why the Spirit of God
added these next words. Don't kill him. Neither do thou
anything unto him. Don't kill him and don't harm
him in any way. Don't kill him. Do nothing to
hurt him. Why'd they add that? Because
this is a picture of our redemption, Bill. The Lord God He said, don't
kill him. Don't punish him in any way.
Don't hurt him in any way. How come? Look at this. He said,
now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld
thy son thine only from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes
and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket. How's he caught? By his horns. What? A ram caught in a laurel
thicket by his horns? A ram caught in a briar thicket
by his horns? How? Horns are the ram's power. Horns will rip the thicket apart. How's he caught? is caught by
divine arrangement and divine providence because Christ the
Lamb of God is caught in the thicket of our sins and in the
thicket of God's wrath and in the thicket of God's curse and
in the thicket of God's condemnation in the thicket of death by his
own power His own discretion, His own sovereign will. Now, are we ambassadors for God? As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's name, be you reconciled to God. For He hath made Him sin for us. who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. Here's the seventh
thing. Verse 14, Abraham called the name of that
place Jehovah-Jireh. In the mouth of the Lord it shall
be seen. Jehovah Jireh means the Lord
sees or the Lord will see. And seeing the Lord will provide. And the Lord will be seen in
the provision that he makes. Now look at the last part of
our text, verse 15. The angel of the Lord called
Abraham out of 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, and in multiplying I will multiply thee. Multiply thy seed as the stars
of heaven and as the sand which is upon the seashore and thy
seed not seeds seed Paul tells us this talk about Christ 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 Here's what I want you to see
because of the things that transpired here on Mount Moriah, on Mount
Calvary. Isaac, Abraham's only. Isaac, whom Abraham dearly loved. Isaac was elevated, lifted up
and exalted. He was made to possess a great
posterity. He said your seed will be like
the stars of heaven and as the sand on the sea. Isaac was made
to be a great ruler. He said he shall possess the
gate of his enemies. Possess the gate of his enemies. He will determine who goes in
and out the gate of his enemies. He will possess it and be in
total control of his enemies. Well, that's talking about Isaac
and the Jews. Have you been listening to the news last few days? They
don't possess much. No, no, that's talking about
Christ and his people possessing the gates of hell. He's a mighty
ruler. He became the source of universal
blessedness. In him, God has a people throughout
all the nations of the earth who shall be blessed. One more
thing, look at verse 19. So Abraham returned unto his
young men. I don't know who they are. Maybe
his young men who are waiting are justice and grace. They're
just two of them. maybe their righteousness and peace, maybe
their truth and mercy. But Abraham returned unto his
young men, and they rose up and went together to the place of the oath, the well of the covenant, the well of peace, the well of
seven, the well of grace, and dwelt there. I can almost see
Him. Yonder, sitting on His throne,
is God our Savior. Sitting right where everything
began, where everything shall be concluded, at Beersheba, the
well of the oath, where he bound himself, waiting until the last
of his seed, gathered from every nation in the four corners of
the earth, are brought to himself, waiting for the complete fulfillment
of the covenant. Can you see him? Look. He says,
I'm a just God and a Savior, and beside me there is none else. So look unto me, and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is none
else. Amen.