Genesis chapter 22. We looked
at this last week. We'll look at it this morning,
and I want to look at it one more time before we leave chapter
22. I want to begin reading in verse 1, and I want to read this
incident that took place between Abraham and his son Isaac. A very familiar story to most
people. Genesis chapter 22, and let's
begin reading in verse 1. It came to pass after these things
that God tried Abraham, He tempted Abraham, proved Abraham, and
said unto him, Abraham, and he said, Behold, here I am. And
he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest,
and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for
a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I will tell
thee of. And Abraham rose up early in
the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young
men with him, and Isaac his son, and claimed the wood for the
burnt offering, and rose up and went into the place of which
God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham
lifted up his eyes and saw the place before off. 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. 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. And Isaac spake unto Abraham
his father, and said, My father. And he said, You are my, my son.
And he said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the
lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God
will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went
both of them together. And they came to the place which
God had told him of. And Abraham built an altar there,
and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid
him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his
hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the
Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham. And
he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand
upon the lad, neither do anything unto him. For now I know that
thou fearest God. Sin that hath not withheld thy
Son, thine only Son, from me.' And Abraham lifted up his eyes
and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket
by his horns. And Abraham went and took the
ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his
son. And Abraham called the name of
that place Jehovah-Jireh, As it is said to this day, in the
mouth of the Lord it shall be seen. 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 hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from
me, 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 the
nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice."
Now, this incident this morning that I just read to you, we have
a top, we have a beautiful picture, of the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ, of Calvary. And it's in a type, and we see
not only the offering here of the Son of God, but we see His
resurrection. We have this in a picture. And
one of the main reasons that this incident is so important
to us is for the first time that I know of, and maybe one of the
few times in the Old Testament we have it revealed to us, or
at least hinted at, that not only is a sacrifice required
to put away sin, but for the first time it seems to be hinted
at here that it must be a human sacrifice. Before, we saw God
killing animals and clothing Adam and Eve. Abel had his lamb
that he slew and approached unto God with it. But for the first
time, God Himself reveals to us that nothing else can atone
for sin but a human sacrifice. Not the blood of bulls and goats,
or lamb, or the ashes of a heifer, but a human sacrifice. And he
seems to indicate that here to us in verse 2. Take thy son,
thine only son Isaac, and offer him for a burnt offering upon
one of the mountains that I'll tell thee of. But you'll notice
here not just any human sacrifice, not just any human, but one of
God's own choosing, one that God has appointed. Take thy son. And not just any of your sons,
thy son Isaac, the one that I put my hand upon." And here in verse
8, Abraham's father hints at this when he tells his son Isaac,
God shall provide himself a sacrifice. And somebody's asked the question,
does that mean that God will provide a sacrifice for himself? Or does that mean God will provide
Himself for a sacrifice? It means both. It means both. God Himself, in the God-man,
gave Himself for sacrifice for our sins. We're told that distinctly
in Acts chapter 20 and verse 28, that God purchased the church
with His own blood. And the Son of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ, not by the blood of bulls and goats, but by His
own blood, by His own blood, the blood of the God-man, He
entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. So here in this type, this beautiful
picture, we have redemption set forth right before our eyes. And it's a human sacrifice. Now why, as we read the Old Testament
and we find this out, why only a man, a human being, can put
away sin? Why must it be a man that has
to die for sin? Because it was by one man that
sin came into this world. By Adam and his sin, Judgment
passed upon all men and death came because of one man's act
of disobedience. And it must be one man that came
and put away Satan. But it can't be just any man.
It has to be the God-man. God shall provide Himself. And this type here that I've
read unto you reminds us of something else. And I'll look at that in
one of my points this morning. And that's this, that the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ was God's purpose. It was God's way
of salvation. This took place here, Abraham,
Alfred, and Isaac, probably 2,000 years or 2,100 years before the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet in this time, that God has
given us here, He shows us that the cross of Christ is His way
of redemption all along. It's not some alternative plan
that He had to resort to when Christ came, but He shows us
here that what took place in time here with Abraham giving
his son actually happened. that are 2,000 years or so later.
And we've got a record of it in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And as I look at this type with
you this morning, and as we read it and comment on it, it's my
hope that you'll notice something as we preach about this this
morning, that your faith lays hold of this picture. You know,
sometimes we go to the New Testament, the epistles, and we have everything
there in fact. Everything's recorded. Here's
the fact of what's happened. And we believe that. Our faith
reads that. Our hearts read that. And we
believe that. But you know, sometimes, when
you see something pictured, your eyes of faith can see it, even
sometimes when your ears of faith can't hear it. So as you and
I look at this type this morning, I hope that our hearts goes out
and our faith lays hold of this type. I recommend to you, if
you don't have them, I recommend to you that you get Brother Mahan's
little booklet on the pictures of Christ in the Old Testament.
Such a blessing they are because all He does is go through the
Old Testament and picks out these places like this and shows us
Christ in them. And what a blessing they are
to see that. Now, first of all is this. Here's
the first thing I want to see. And I want to look at this whole
passage this morning as we see it in type of the Lord Jesus
Christ. But one thing I've noticed about
this type here And we don't see it any place else in the Bible
that I know of in the Old Testament in these types. And let me explain
it to you this way. When you look at the types of
Christ in the Old Testament, and His suffering and His death,
usually in that type, the Son of God is the central theme.
When you look at Him, it's centrally concerning Him. But when we come
here to this type, we see something else. This is something that
we never see or seldom see in these types, and here we see
the Father's part. Here we see the heart of the
Father delivering up His Son, not sparing His Son whom He loves. In Isaac, what do we see? We
see him lovingly and sweetly submitting to his father's will. His father is going to kill him,
and what does he do? He just sweetly and lovingly
submits. But in Abraham, what do we see? Oh, we see a heart
of love in delivering up his son for us. In Hebrews chapter
11 and verse 17, Isaac is called Abraham's only begotten. Abraham's only begotten son. Abraham had one more son, and
his name was Ishmael. And after Sarah's death, he got
married again and had other sons. But here he's called Abraham's
only begotten son, and there's a reason for that. Abraham loved
him above all his other children. He had a special place in Abraham's
heart. He was Abraham's delight. Take
thy son whom thy soul loveth. Abraham loved all of his children.
He loved Ishmael and he loved all of his children. But brothers
and sisters, he had a special place in his heart for Isaac.
His heart belonged to Isaac and everything he had belonged to
Isaac. Look over here with me in the
24th chapter of Genesis. Just turn over a couple of pages.
This is where Abraham had sent his servant to get a wife for
Isaac. And his servant came to Rebekah's
family. And here's what his servant,
Abraham's servant, said concerning Abraham's attitude towards Isaac.
Look what he said in Genesis chapter 24 in verse 34. And he
said, Abraham's servant said, I am Abraham's servant, and the
Lord hath blessed my master greatly, and he is become great, and he
hath given him flocks and herds and silver and gold and men's
servants and maid's servants and camels and ices, And Sarah,
my master's wife, bore a son to my master when she was old,
and unto him hath he given all that he had." See that? The one that Abraham was to offer
up was the one that he loved so dearly that he gave everything
he had to him. All his riches he left to Isaac. Why did he do that? Isaac had
a special place in that boy's heart. Isaac had a special place
in his father's heart. He loved him and delighted in
him. And when you and I come to think
of God the Father and His feelings towards His Son, oh, we see that
in Abraham. We see something of God's heart
and how He felt of the Lord Jesus Christ, His own beloved and only
begotten Son. You know God has many sons. There's
a sense in which we could say every human being is a child
of God. They're His offspring. He's the
Father of the spirits of all flesh. But in a special sense,
God has spiritual children. Those who are born of Him, now
are we the sons of God. But you know something? The Lord
Jesus Christ is the only begotten of the Father. And He was with
the Father from everlasting, and He tells us that He was the
delight of His Father from all eternity. Listen to what the
Lord Jesus said, Thou lovest Me before the foundation of the
world. Thou lovest me from all eternity. God loves His children. And He
saves His children. But you know something, brothers
and sisters, He loves them in Christ. And He saves them for
the sake of Christ. He don't do anything for anybody
for their sakes. He'll save a man, He'll forgive
a man, and He'll give that man life eternal, but He does it
for the sake of His only begotten Son. And Glenn, if He looks upon
you, it's because of His Son, the Lord Jesus. And whatever
He does for you and me, it's for His Son's sake. But I tell
you, when He looks upon His Son, He delights in His Son for His
Son's sake. He sees in His Son what He doesn't
see in me and you. He sees beauty, and He sees glory,
and He sees delight. Everywhere that we find the Father's
heart towards His Son in the Bible, this is how He speaks
of it. He speaks with how much He loves
it, and how He delights in it. And when the Father sent the
Son into this world to be His servant, here's what He said
about it. Behold My servant. mine elect, in whom my soul delighted. I put my spirit in Him. I put
it in Him without measure. And when the Lord Jesus had come
to this world, and He had submitted Himself to water baptism, you
remember when He came up out of the waters? And there was
a dove that flew down from heaven and overshadowed Him, and a voice
spake to Him. God spake and said, This is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. You know one thing I
like about the King James Bible? All the other versions that I
know of, they try to harmonize all the Gospels. They want them
all to say the same thing. But this is what I like about
the King James Bible. In one writer, Matthew will tell
us one thing, then Mark or Luke or John will come right along
and tell us something else. Not contrary, but it gives us
more information. And when the Lord spake out of
heaven, when God spake to the Lord Jesus his Son, Matthew says,
he said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. He was speaking to everybody
around them. But when Mark recorded that, he said, you are my beloved
Son. He was speaking to Christ. And
what the Father wants the Son to know, you're the Son of my
love. And what He wants you and I to know, that Christ is the
Son of His love. The Father glories in His Son. He loves His Son. And the Lord
Jesus lived in the assurance of this. He said, My Father loveth
Me and shows Me all things that He Himself doeth. The Father
loves the Son and hath given everything into His hands. Just
like Abraham gave everything to Isaac, the Father has given
everything to His Son. And the Lord Jesus told His disciples
one day, He said, As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved
you. Now you think anybody could measure
the love of Christ for His disciples. I think it passeth knowledge,
don't you? We can't measure how much Christ loves a man. But
He said, just as I love you, that's the way the Father loves
me. The Father's love for His Son is incomprehensible. And as you and I read our text
here, in Genesis chapter 22 verse 2, Take now thy Son, thine only
Son Isaac, whom thou loveth, and offer Him for a burnt offering,
it helps us to begin to see the Father's feelings, His heart
feelings towards Him whom He spared not, but delivered up
for us. We see this in Abraham. That's
the first thing we see. Take now thy son, thine only
son. Ain't that what God did? Ain't
that what the Father did? Take thy Son, whom thou lovest."
Ain't that what the Father did? Who did the Father offer for
our sins? Was it an angel? Was it a world? Was it a host of men? No. Who was it? His only begotten
Son. That's who He offered. That's
who He offered. And secondly, here's something
else that we see in this time. Abraham didn't offer Isaac by
accident. Now this is so important as you
see this. And the Holy Spirit is so careful
as He gives us this time. Abraham did not, he wasn't out
one day hunting with Isaac. They weren't out just walking
or picnicking. And it came into his heart, why
don't you kill your son and offer him for a sacrifice. It was all
planned. Abraham got up early this morning,
and he saddled his donkey, and he split the wood, and he took
the fire in his hand, he took his knife, he took a rope to
bind Isaac with, he got these two young men to go with him,
and he took out towards Mount Moriah. Why did he do that? It was planned. That's why he
took everything that he needed, because he knew what he was going
there for, and he planned everything that he needed. everything that
he needed. And when you and I see the crucifixion
of our Lord Jesus Christ, one thing that you and I can know,
it was all planned. That wasn't an accident. It wasn't
some plan B that God had to revert to. It was all planned. When Judas went from the Pharisees
that night on the betrayal, and they got those soldiers with
their sticks and staves and weapons, and came there to the garden
to get the Lord Jesus. They thought they'd came there
to surprise Him. That's what they thought. They thought we'd
have to surprise Him. If we don't, He'll escape from
us. But when the Lord Jesus saw them coming, John's Gospel says
this, Jesus arose and went out to meet them. He got a hint from
them. He had before, hadn't He? and
slipped right through their midst. But the Scripture says when he
saw them coming, he got up and went out to meet them and said,
Whom seek you? And they said, We're after Jesus
of Nazareth. And he said, That's me. That's who I am. They went
backwards and fell to the ground just at the power of his voice.
And he looked down at them and said, Who are you seeking? They
said, Jesus of Nazareth. I told you, I'm he. I'm he. And poor Peter, he got so upset
and so confused, He thought everything was out of control. I've got
to save my master. I ain't going to tell them what
they may do to him. So he draws out his sword and
he cuts off the servant of the high priest's ear. And the Lord
Jesus said, you put up your sword. The cup that my Father's given
me, shall I not drink it? He's already given it to me.
The way that I should die upon the cross has already been purposed. For this cause came I unto the
world. Why? To die upon the cross. To die upon the cross. That was
all planned, brothers and sisters. That wasn't an accident, was
it Clarence? When the Lord Jesus had raised from the dead and
the Holy Spirit came back and filled Peter's heart, and he
started preaching there on the day of Pentecost, and here's
what he said to those Jews. He said, Oh, I've been such a
fool. I was so foolish about this. I thought everything was
out of control when you fellas come to get Him that night. But
he said, I see everything different now. I see that God planned all
of this. He was delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. And just a few days later
when the church was praying, the world had come against them.
They all went to prayer, and here's the way they prayed. They
said, Lord, the rulers are gathered together. The kings of the earth
set themselves against you and against your Christ. And here's
what they said, To do whatsoever thy hand hath determined before
should be done. See, it wasn't by accident. Just
it wasn't by accident that Abraham got up early that morning and
saddled his ass and split the wood and took everything he needed
to sacrifice his son. And brothers and sisters, you
and I can say this, when Abraham got up early that morning and
saddled that donkey and collected everything that he needed and
headed out towards Mount Moriah, in his heart of hearts, Isaac
was dead already. Now that's so. He had so determined
to slay his son, as far as he was concerned, Isaac was dead
already. That's why he took the knife.
That's why he took the fire and the wood. Isaac is dead already
in Abraham's heart. And back yonder in that eternal
covenant of grace, when the Father and the Son enter into that covenant,
and all the terms of that covenant was fixed upon, who should die,
who he should die for, and all the results of that. And Jesus
Christ stood up and said, Father, I'll be the surety for my people.
In the heart of God and in the purpose of God, he was a lamb
slain from right there on. That's why he's called a lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. We're not redeemed
by silver and gold, but by the precious blood of Christ as of
a lamb slain and ordained, when? Before the foundation of the
world. It was purposed. And that's what we see in this
time. Abraham got up early that morning before anybody else was
up. And he planned everything and
got everything together to offer Isaac upon that altar. That's the second thing we see.
And the third thing that we see is this. And you look at this
and you read this, and I'll just comment on some of these things,
but all these things as you read them, if we don't go over to
the New Testament, they seem so coincidental. Just a coincidence. Just happened. There's no meaning
to it. But the Holy Spirit placed everything
in here to mean something to us. And he says here in verse
3, look at this. In verse 3 in our text of chapter
22, Abraham rose up early in the morning and saddled his ass
and took two of his young men with him and Isaac. Now I wonder why Abraham would
have did that. Why would he have took anybody
with him? Why not just say, my son, when you're going on a journey
and we're going along? Or why not take three men with
him? We'll never know the meaning of this until we turn over to
Luke chapter 23 and verse 32 and it says this, And there were
also two others led with him to be crucified. You see Abraham
going down that road? And behind him somewhere is Isaac
and these two men, and what do you see? Oh, your eye of faith
jumps out at it, and you say, there goes Christ and those two
thieves with him. There goes Christ up Calvary's
mountain and those two men with him. That's what we see, and
that is it. But notice how carefully now the Holy Spirit guards even
these types of crucifixion. He says there in verse 4 and
verse 5, On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the
place afar off, and he said to the two young men, Abide ye here
with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and
come again unto you. Now notice what Abraham did here.
He said, You fellows have come this far with me, but you can't
go any farther. What you've got to do is stay
down here. Me and my son Isaac are going
up here to the top of this mountain. And there's something that's
going to take place between me and him that you fellas ain't
going to be permitted to look in upon. You're not going to
be permitted. The only way you're going to
know what actually took place is because I'm going to come
back down here and I'm going to tell you about it. That's
the only way you're going to know anything about it. And there
was two thieves crucified one on the left side and one on the
right side of our Lord Jesus Christ. And around that cross
was a multitude of people. But what took place between God
the Father and God the Son upon that cross, no man or no angels
was able to enter into that. And that's what that darkness
typifies to us. You cannot see what God is doing
to His Son. Nobody was there to witness when
Abraham took that knife and ready to put it in the heart of his
son. We wouldn't have known it if it wasn't recorded. And darkness
come upon the face of this world, and that's to teach us, brothers
and sisters, that when the Lord Jesus hung there, God took our
iniquities and put them in the bosom of his dear son. You can't
see that, can you? You and I can't enter into that.
The angels desire to enter into that. He that knew no sin was
made sin. How in the world could we enter
into such a transaction? The Lord Jesus upon that cross
bore the full weight and the punishment and the penalty of
God's wrath upon our sin. And nobody can enter into such
a thing. And you and I wouldn't know anything about what took
place there except this one way. It's recorded. It's recorded. I wasn't there, you wasn't there,
and even the people that were there didn't have any idea what
was going on. It was done in secret out of
their sight. They could see the physical Son
of God hanging there, but what was taking place between Him
and the Father, they weren't able to enter into. But it's
written. And why is it written? Why is
it written? That you and I may read it and
believe it. And believing it, we might be
saved. That's why it's written. It's written. Fourthly, look at this. Abraham
takes the wood. And if we just read this, we'd
probably just read it and pass it and not think anything about
it. But he took this wood and he laid it upon Isaac, his son. Now can't you just see Isaac
as he goes up the hill one of these hills of Moriah, and you
see all of this wood. He's carrying this wood upon
his back. And you know what John chapter 19 and verse 17 says? And he, bearing his cross, went
forth unto the place that is called the place of the skull. There Abraham is, and he puts
this wood upon the back of his son, and we see him cross, carrying
it up Mount Moriah. And brothers and sisters, I earnestly
believe in my heart, the very place that Isaac went up, upon
this Mount Moriah, carrying that wood, just 2,000 years later,
you see the Son of God carrying that cross, upon this same mountain,
and hanging in this same place between heaven and earth. But
notice also this, Abraham took fire in his hand and he took
a knife. And I bet you anything, you just
about know, that as Isaac looked over there at Abraham, his father,
he knew exactly what that knife was for and he knew what that
fire was for. That's why he asked the question
that he asked. He says, Father, I've got the
wood on my back. I know that's to burn the sacrifice.
I see the fire in your hand. I know what you're going to do
with that fire. You're going to light that wood and burn the
sacrifice. I see that you've got the knife
in your hand. I know what you're going to do
with that knife. You're going to slay the sacrifice. Isaac
knew that. He knew that. And as you and
I think of this fire and this sword as it's recorded to us
in the Word of God, it's a terrible thing. Two of the most terrible
things that I can think of regarding God is the fire and the sword. When I thought of this, I thought
of Genesis chapter 4, chapter 3 and chapter 4 where the Lord
ran our first parents out of that garden. And you remember
what he put there in the interest of that garden to make sure nobody
went back in that garden? He placed a cherub there, a mighty
angel. You remember what he had in his
hand? A flaming sword. that turned every way, a flaming
sword. Not just a sword, but a fiery
sword. A fiery sword. And listen to
these passages of Scripture. I will send a sword after them
till I have consumed them, saith the Lord. And here it is right
here. In Ezekiel chapter 22, listen to this. I have poured
out my indignation upon them I have consumed them with the
fire of my wrath. Their own ways have I recompensed
upon their heads, saith the Lord." When you talk about the fire
of God, it is something that consumes. It is his jealousy
against sin. When you talk about the sword,
you talk about the sword of vengeance, the sword of justice. And in
the garden of Gethsemane, the Lord Jesus saw the fire in his
father's hand. And he knew the sword, in just
a short few hours, was going to wake against him and bathe
itself in his blood. He knew that. And it was a cold
night and just a Understand this made him sweat as it were great
drops of blood. And on that cross he was to cry
out, I'm consumed by the blow of thine hand. He knew this.
He knew all of this. He knew everything that the Father
was going to do to him. Just as Isaac knew what that
fire was in his father's hand for. And he knew what that knife
was there and he knew what the wood was for. The Lord Jesus
knew what the Father was going to do to him upon that cross.
The cup which he's given me to drink, shall I not drink it?
That he was going to be smitten of God and afflicted. He knew
all that beforehand. But I love the last part of this
verse 6 here in our text. Look at this. As I read this
yesterday and thought about this, my heart just leaped when I come
to this place. Isaac knew all of this. And there
in verse 6, And look what it said, and they went both of them
together. Ain't that amazing? They went
both of them together. Abraham knew what he was going
to do, and he began to dawn upon Isaac. Where's the sacrifice? There's got to be a lamb to sacrifice. You can't enter God's presence
without a sacrifice. And he knew. He began to understand. That's why he asked that question.
You know Isaac could have resisted his father. His father was getting
old. Isaac was probably a young man,
but now 18, 16 years old. The margin here, instead of saying
lad, it says literally young man. He could have resisted his
dad. He could have ran away. But you
notice what he did? You never find one word of protest.
When Abraham laid him down and tied him up and laid him upon
that altar and drew that knife to slay him, he never says one
word. Never one time does he struggle.
He lays there and submits himself to the will of his Father. Abraham
had purposed to slay him and Isaac had purposed in his heart,
I'm going to let him do it. I'm not going to resist him.
Who does this remind you of when you think about this? Ain't that
the Lord Jesus Christ? Ain't that the Son of God? Listen
to what the Scripture says about Him. God was purposed to bring
Him to the dust of death, and He was perfectly willing to be
brought there. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and
as a sheep before her shearers is done. He never opened His
mouth. He could have resisted. He didn't.
I could call for twelve legions of angels, but he didn't. What
did he do? He said, I delight to do thy
will. Oh my God, even to death he delighted in it. He delighted
in it. Lo, I come to do thy will. And
what was the Father's will? That you and I should be saved
through the offering of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Father offered the best he had. I don't know if that may sound
irreverent. The best God has? But you know what the best God
has is? His Son. He offered the best He had. And
the best He has was more than willing to be offered. I come
to do the will of Him that sent me. And fifthly this, and I'll be
closing here in just a second. Isaac is alive again. We see
here the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Three days
and three nights, I said, that Isaac was as good as dead to
his dad. When the Lord appeared to him
that night and said, You go offer Isaac, Abraham got up the next
morning, got everything together, and in his heart, he said, My
son is dead. In my heart, I've killed him.
He's dead. And on the third day, that's what we're told there
in verse 4, on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and
saw the place of Pharaoh. Why was it the third day? It
was the third day he offered Isaac. But instead of offering Isaac,
God stopped him and showed him around. And Abraham went and
got that ram and put him on that altar in the stead of his son. And you know what the writer
of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 11 and 19. He tells us that Abraham
received him from the dead in a figure. In a figure. And what
does that mean? Well, it probably means this.
It was three days that he was good as dead to Abraham. But
on that third day, when Abraham was ready to kill him, God said,
get him off that altar. Abraham said, it's as though
he is raised from the dead. And there's the resurrection
of Christ there. But when the Lord Jesus went to that altar,
When the Lord Jesus went to that cross, nobody was there to take
His place. Nobody said, you come down and
I'll take your place. Nobody able to do that. When
He went to that cross, He hung there until He gave up His life
unto death. But three days later, the Scripture
says He arose from the dead to die no more. To die no more. He has risen to die no more. And look in verse 15 and verse
18 of this chapter very quickly. This is something here that's
so encouraging. Look in verse 15. 15 through
18 gives us something that's very instructive and very competent
and assures us. The blessings of God. The blessings
of God. Why do they come to anybody?
Why does God bless anybody? because of somebody else's obedience. And this is what we learn from
this. This is one of the most confident doctrines that's taught
in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Oh, God bless
me. Well, He'll bless you for somebody
else's sake. You say, oh, I want to be perfectly
obedient. I do too, but I've never known
any mere man to be. But I knew one man who was. He's
no mere man, the God-man. He obeyed God perfectly. And
look here what the Lord tells Abraham in verse 15. The angel
of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time
and said by myself, this is the Lord speaking, he's this angel,
by myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast
done this thing and hast not withheld thy son, thine only
son, from thee, that in blessing I will bless thee, And I will
multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, as the sand which
is up on the seashore. 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." Ain't
that wonderful? We see three seeds here. If you
may have noticed as I read to you. Abraham's natural seed. The Lord said, Abraham, I'm going
to give you a natural seed. that's going to be as the stars
of heaven for multitude. And if you can count the grains
of sand on the seashore, you can count your posterity. And
brothers and sisters, probably, if you got all Abraham's natural
seed from Isaac to Jacob to all his twelve sons, to all their
children, their grandchildren, if you lined all the Jews up
and congregated them all together, this world probably wouldn't
contain the number of Abraham's natural seed. That's how many
children Abraham had. Natural children. Huge number
of them. Abraham was dead and gone, and
God just kept on blessing. Everybody kept having children.
Everybody wanted an abundance of children, those Jews did.
And boy, they had a bunch of them. And I'm telling you, a
bunch of them are still around. Hitler killed 6,000, 6,000,000
of them they tell us in 3 or 4 years. But look how they are
congregating back over there today in the land of Israel.
You reckon something may be in store for Abraham in actuality? You know there may be. God said,
I bless you. I'm going to bless you. Because
you done this, I'm going to bless you. And you read Romans chapter
11 sometimes. And Paul said, right now, Abraham's
natural seed, they're enemies of the Gospel. They're enemies
of Christ for your sakes. Because now God's turned to you
Gentiles. He has mercy upon the Gentiles. But Paul said, there's
coming a day when a host of them, they're going to be beloved for
the Father's sake. Not God the Father's, but F-A-T-H-E-R-S
apostrophe. For the Father's sake. Abraham. Abraham obeyed my voice, God
said. And I ain't forgot that. I ain't
forgot that. And I said, Abraham, I'm going
to bless you. You reckon something may be in
store for those Jews? Wouldn't that be wonderful? If
the Lord regathered those people and saved them? Oh, that would be wonderful.
Here we have another seed, though, and it's this. It's Christ. He
said here in chapter 22, in verse 18, and in thy seed shall all
the nations of the earth be blessed. Who is that? In thy seed. Well,
you and I studied this when we studied it over in Galatians,
didn't we? Paul said Abraham said not unto
seeds as of many, but thy seed, which is Christ. This is Christ. Thy seed, Abraham. There's going
to be a man come out of your lineage. He is going to be Christ,
the Son of God. And in Him, in Him, all the nations
of the earth are going to be blessed. Not just Jews, not just
Gentiles, but all nations will be blessed. And here is the third
seed, the nations of the earth shall be blessed. Who is that? Believers? Whoever believes Christ,
whoever believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, they are the seed
of Abraham. If you be Christ, then are you
Abraham's seed. His spiritual seed. If you're
Christ by electing love, if you're Christ by redemption, if He's
redeemed you, if you're Christ by a new birth, if you're Christ
by faith, then you're Abraham's seed. And God has blessed you. He has blessed you. Why has He
blessed you? God ain't blessed everybody,
has He? Now let's be honest, let's be intellectually honest
about this. Has God blessed everybody with
salvation? He's blessed everybody with natural
gifts. But has he blessed everybody
with salvation? I'm going to bless all nations. I'm going
to justify them. I'm going to regenerate them.
I'm going to wash them from their sins. I'm going to give them
life eternal. I'm going to bless them. Why would God bless a man? Dear saints of God, some of you,
you fall into all kinds of doubts and fears. Remember this, remember
this verse of scripture. By one man's disobedience, many
were made sinners. By the obedience of another,
shall many be made righteous. Quit looking at your own obedience
and getting all down about it. Ask the Lord for grace to walk
and follow Him fully. But when you fail, remember this,
you're accepted, you're saved, because somebody else obeyed
God's voice in your place. because you've obeyed My voice.
And God looks upon His Son and says, My Son, because you've
obeyed My voice, because you've been obedient to death, I'm going
to save old Terence Whitehead. And here comes Terence Whitehead,
and he said, Oh, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And God said,
I will, for Christ's sake. And you poor folks here this
morning that's lost, you're miserable, you know you're lost, you know
you feel yourself to be under the awful judgment of God, Come
and give yourself up to the Lord Jesus Christ. Just come and give
yourself up to Him. Oh, I'm going to turn over a
new leaf. That's not what I'm talking about. Oh, I've got to
get my act together. That's not what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about coming to a person, the Lord of glory, and giving
yourself up to Him to be saved by Him. And here's what you'll
see. God will have mercy upon you
and He'll save you for the sake of His dear Son, the Lord Jesus. Now I'm hesitant about saying
this, but let me say it anyway. Try that and see if that don't
work. Try it and see if that don't
work. The cause thou hast obeyed my
voice. What a beautiful picture. Beautiful picture.