The Lord God says to his own,
my son, give me your heart. The heart he demands. And if we're his, one way or
another, he's going to have it. He's determined that we give
him our hearts and he'll speak to it that we give him our hearts
if we're his. We would be wise whenever we've
learned news the child is about to be born, mama and daddy would
be wise in their hearts and in their minds to go immediately
to the cemetery and bury the child. David and Betty just got engaged. The world's going to know it
now. Congratulations. You'd be wise when the time comes
and you're wed, in your hearts and minds, to go to the cemetery
and kiss each other goodbye. Everything here is temporary. Don't set your heart on anything
here. Set your heart on Christ. Set your heart on him. Set your
affection, not your affections, your affection on things above. Set your heart on Christ. In order that we set our hearts
on him, the Lord graciously, graciously, wisely, in his goodness
causes us to endure many pains, many sorrows, many heartaches
while we make our pilgrimage through this world. And at times
they seem utterly unbearable. William Cowper, who wrote many
of our best hymns, best hymns in our hymn books, was a man
who constantly suffered great difficulty, trial. One of his
hymns goes like this, "'Tis my happiness below, not to live
without the cross, but my Savior's power to know, sanctifying every
loss. Trials must and will be fought,
but with humble faith to see. His love inscribed upon them
all, this is happiness to me." God in Israel sows the seeds
of affliction, pain, and toil. These spring up and choke the
weeds that would else or spread the soil. Trials make the promise
sweet. Trials give new life to prayer. Trials bring me to his feet,
lay me low, and keep me there. Did I meet no trials here, no
chastisements by the way? Might I not with reason fear
I should prove a castaway? Bastards may escape the rod,
sunk in earthly vain delight, but the true born child of God
must not, would not, if he might. I have never known a child who
had a loving father or loving mother who lovingly disciplined
them growing up, who did not thank them for the pain and the
rod they experienced as they were growing up. Not while it
was happening. Oh, no, not while it was happening.
I never knew one, never knew one in my life to say, Daddy,
thank you for beating me. I never knew that to happen until
the beating was well over. and the lesson was well learned
and he looked back upon what the result was and he had reason
to give thanks. And we will find according to
scripture that the glory and blessedness of heaven will be
indescribably greater because of our trials upon this earth. It's exactly what Peter tells
us in the first chapter of first Peter. In the fifth chapter of
Hebrews We're told concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, that though
he was son, yet learned he obedience by the things that he suffered.
He learned experimentally what obedience was by his suffering. And you and I, who are the sons
of God by adoption, will learn obedience by suffering. It seems like that's the only
way we ever learn anything. I don't know that that's so,
but it appears that way. We learn obedience by things
that we suffer at the hand of God our Father. Our Lord is the
Son of God. Someone said, God had one son
without sin. He has none without sorrow. And
that's certainly so. You see, the life of a believer
in this world seems to be a series of trials, a series of heartaches
by which our faith is tested, by which it is proved, and by
which it is improved. God knows what he's doing. He
knows what he's doing. When faith was a little girl,
I never will Well, I might. I'm forgetting most everything
these days. I don't think I'll forget. One day, she just knew
we brought her to worship services. She was sitting down with Shelby.
And if I had to look at her twice, she was going to get blistered
when we got done. And rather than meeting folks at the door,
I'd meet her at the front pew and off we'd go. And one of the
ladies said to me after services one day, she said, Preacher,
you're going to give that child a complex. I said, I fully intend
to. I intend for this child to do what I tell her to do the
first time I tell her to do it. And it seemed like, man, between
six or eight months and five or six years old, it seemed like
every time I turned around, I was bending that child across my
knee. Every time I turned around, just every time I turned around. And so often, that's the way
it appears to be with God's people in this world. Certainly that was the case with
Abraham. Turn with me, if you will, to
Hebrews chapter 11, verse 17. Sometimes I think God graciously
sends us little trials, little heartaches, little troubles to
prepare us for greater trials and greater heartaches and greater
troubles, whereby we may honor him. to prepare us ultimately
for a single thing, to be endured and done for Christ's sake. Here
in Hebrews chapter 17, or chapter 11, rather, in verse 17, we read,
by faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac, and
he that had received the promises, God called Abraham to offer up
his darling son Isaac. this man who had received God's
promises. God promised him that in this
boy, in this boy right here, not in Ishmael, you can put him
out, in this boy right here, I'm going to raise up your redeemer,
the redeemer of my people. And I'm going to call all the
nations of the world to be blessed through this boy right here.
And now God says, take him out of Chanda, three days, to Mount
Moriah and kill him. Kill him. Now let men call God
to their bar if they dare. We'll submit to God's revelation.
He's the Lord of life. Would to God we'd learn this.
He gives it. He preserves it. He smites it
and he takes it exactly as he will. And he who gave Isaac life
now calls Abraham his father and says, I want to take it.
I want to take it by your hand. All right, read up. He that had received the promises
offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said that
in Isaac shall thy seed be called. How on earth could he do this? How could a man do such a thing?
Accounting that God. Reckoning that God. God who gave
life out of Sarah's dead womb and gave life out of his dead
body. Reckoning that God, who had given
him this boy. Reckoning that God, who is God
indeed, was able to raise him up even from the dead. You remember
what he told his servants? We read it earlier, he said,
y'all wait right here, I'm gonna take my son, we're going up this
mountain and we're gonna worship God and we're going to return.
We're gonna return. And so he sacrifices his son.
From whence also he received him in a figure. Now that word
is just this. He received Isaac back from the
dead in a parable, in a picture, as a type to teach us something. Let's see what he's teaching
us. Turn back to Genesis 22 and just hold your hands in that
place. I will show you several things
in those verses we read earlier. This is one of the great, great
chapters in scripture. Here for the first time, The
Lord God shows us in a vivid picture the necessity of a human
sacrifice for the ransom of our souls. It was necessary that
since man had sinned, if man would be saved, if man would
be redeemed, a man must die in his stead. And God Almighty here
shows us the necessity of it, but that man is the Lord Jesus
Christ, our Savior, who has by the sacrifice of himself put
away our sins and is now seated at the right hand of the majesty
on high. And look here in verse one of
Genesis chapter 22. First, I call your attention
to the time of this great trial. And it came to pass after these
things. Brother Scott Richardson read
that one time in my hearings that it came to pass. He said
it always does. Came to pass. It came to pass
after these things. Now that's not written to fill
up space. After certain specific things, when certain things had
been done, when certain things had been accomplished, at exactly
the time of God's wise appointment, God did tempt Abraham. What things? All those other
trials. All those other hardships. Read
the book of Genesis beginning back in chapter 11 and get up
to chapter 22 and understand what this man had been through.
I can picture it. I think I can say this safely. Abraham must have thought to
himself, well Ishmael, I kissed him goodbye. I gave Hagar her
walking papers and I sent Ishmael out like God said. I've seen
all the heartache any man ought to see in this world. This old
man now settles down with his son, Isaac, and his old wife,
Sarah. And here's where now the worst
is over. Now the worst is over. Little did he know what lay before
him after these things. After, after he had waited 25
years for God to fulfill his promise. after he had been called
to leave his homeland, and at last to leave all his kindred,
even bearing his own father, Terah, in haven. after he had
endured the strike with Lot, his nephew whom he loved dearly. After he had gone and done battle
with the kings of the plain and brought Lot back into Sodom and
then saw his nephew's family utterly wiped out by the hand
of God except for Lot and two of his daughters. After this
man had been required to cast out Ishmael. Can you imagine? Fighting with Isaac. Ishmael,
striving with Isaac. Ishmael, determined to mock Isaac. And God said, the son of the
bond woman shall not be heir with the son of the free. And
there was a reason for it because Ishmael represents law and works
and Isaac represents gospel and promise. And the two cannot live
in the same house. And God said, you put them out.
You put them out. And Abraham loved that boy. He
loved that boy. He loved him, Lindsay, just like
you and I love our own. And more than that, just like
we love our lust and love this world and love the things of
this world. God said, put him out. Abraham
must have thought to himself after all these things. Now everything's
going to be all right. It's going to be easy now, honey.
We won't have any more to go through. Now we'll live in peace. Ishmael's gone. Hagar's gone. Lot's gone. But I've got Sarah
and I've got Isaac, everything's all right. And it came to pass
after these things, God did prove, try, test Abraham. Secondly, God did. God did. God did tempt Abraham. The word, as I've told you, means
to try, to test, to prove. The Lord God brought this trial
upon Abraham, not because he was angry with him. Abraham hadn't
done anything. Abraham had been walking with God, been obedient
to him. God didn't do this because he was upset with Abraham. He
did it because he loved him. The loving heavenly father made
bare the back of his darling son and poured out his rod on
him, not because he was angry with him, but because he loved
him. And he was preparing Abraham
for better things. He caused him to hurt, to drive
from him that which would in any way separate him from his
God and separate his heart from his God, separating his love
from his God. He did it to prove Abraham. not to himself, God's omniscient.
He doesn't need to know anything. He knew Abraham believed him,
but Abraham had to find out. Abraham, who was willing on occasion
to, because he trembled, willing to have his wife be another man's
Abraham had to find out he did believe God. Just like Peter
when he was sifted by satans, run through satan's sea of, had
to find out for himself that he did indeed love his God. Abraham had to find out that
God's more dear to him than Isaac. God's more dear to him than Sarah. God's more dear to him than him.
Although Abraham was a man who was a believer, He was a man
who had to have his faith tested, proved. And when the trial was
over, Abraham knew himself better than he had known himself before. And he knew God better than he
had known God before. And he knew God's faithfulness
better than he had known God's faithfulness before. And he knew
God's purpose better than he had known it before. Indeed,
all these things better than they could ever have been in
any other way. All through his life, the Lord
seems to have been preparing Abraham for this great event. And now it came to pass. Now listen to me, my brothers
and sisters. God's providence is always right. It is always wise. It is always
good and it is always punctual. All things are of God and all
things are exactly on time. Our trials come from our Heavenly
Father. He may use your worst enemy to
bring them to you. He may use Satan himself to bring
them to you. He may use one who is a betrayer
that you thought was a friend to bring them to you. But our
trials come from Him. They come from Him. They come
from Him by wise, loving appointment. And they are brought upon us
to prove us. To prove and to improve our faith. To prove and to improve our love. To prove and to improve our devotion. And our trials reveal Christ. They always do. and make him
more precious than he could ever have otherwise been. And whatever does that's good. No matter how much it hurts.
No matter what it costs. Now look at verse two. I want
you to see something of the magnitude of this trial. And he said, take now thy son,
thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the
land of Moriah, and offer him therefore a burnt offering upon
one of the mountains, which I will tell you of." The words of this verse, let's
look at them one by one. Can you imagine? Sometimes when
you read scripture, just sit down and try to put yourself
in the position of person of whom the scripture is speaking.
Can you imagine Abraham's grief when he got this command from
God? The sorrow he suffered as he contemplated the death of
his only darling son by his own hand. Can you imagine the love for God that must have ruled
his heart? But he, without hesitancy, I
mean, without hesitancy, started preparing for the sacrifice.
The faith and faithfulness by which this man must have been
governed. The Lord God said, give me your son. And then he
said, now don't do it here in the heat of a moment. Don't do
it here in the heat of excitement. The Lord comes and makes himself
known. Oh, this is a time, strike while
the iron's hot. God said, oh, no, no, no. And
I want you to think about it for three days. And I promise you, Bob. God Almighty
will have willing service to him. Always. When I was in college, being
a training school for deceivers, I was taught how to trick fellas.
And what you do is you Work people up into a frenzy. You want to
take an offering, you get them worked up and you get them excited.
They get excited in a moment. Get it now. If they think about
it, they won't give. Oh, I want you to think about
it. I want you to think about serving God. I want you to think
about worshiping him. I want you to count the cost
for everything. Our Lord told Abraham, you think about it for
three days. Three days. Can you imagine the sacrifice? Take now thy son. Remember our text said Isaac
was received from the dead as a figure, as a figure. Isaac
here represents our Lord Jesus Christ, God's only son. The Lord God sacrificed his darling
son for us. Thine only son The only one you
got. Our savior whom God gave for
the ransom of our souls is described as his only begotten son, Isaac. The word means laughter, delight. The Lord Jesus is the only human
being of whom it was ever written, with him I'm well pleased. whom thou lovest. This is my
beloved son, God said, here he is. And offer him for a burnt-off
bread. A burnt-off bread by which redemption
is celebrated. A burnt offering by which the
wrath of God is demonstrated. A burnt offering for sin, for
trespass. A burnt offering by which rejection
is declared. Offer him your only son! Or a burnt offering. And so Christ
is for us. No wonder Paul said, thanks be
unto God for his unspeakable gift. Now, I've dealt with this
with you before, but I want you to consider the difficulties
Abraham had to face. I won't be long with this, but
I want you to think about it. Difficulties. How many men, how many women
faced with what they know to be the will of God, faced with
what you know is God's will, no question about it. Faced with
what you know God requires in his word, consult with flesh
and blood and figure out a reason to deny God's authority and God's
word. Abraham knew what God required
and lots of arguments could have been given, which to me would
have made good sense as reasons for disobedience. That made good
sense to me. God called Abraham to sacrifice
his son, but he didn't give him any reason. He didn't give him
any reason. Now, if I do something that's
very costly to me, I'm going to have to have a reason for
it. Aren't you? I've got to have some reason
for making the sacrifice. I've got to have some reason
for this deed that's going to be costly. But God gave Abraham
no reason. All he had was God's word. The commandment was contrary
to everything Abraham wanted, loved, and desired. But it was crystal clear, Bobby.
It was crystal clear. It appeared to be contrary to
the promises of God. I have to preach on this a while
later. He could have looked back at that and said, but now if
I kill Isaac, God, I must not have understood you right. How
are the nations going to be blessed if I kill it? How is the Messiah
going to come if I kill it? God, would you repeat that and
make it a little clearer? But it was crystal clear. It
came from God who made the promise. If Abraham obeyed the promise, can you imagine as he thinks,
as he thinks about it, what ridicule, what scandalizing, what reproach
he's going to have to face when he gets home? We don't read anywhere
in here that even talks to Sarah about it. How am I going to deal
with Sarah? How will I explain this to Sarah?
My servants, what will they say? What will they think of me when
I come back with the blood of my son all over me? What will
the Egyptians say? But he had God's word crystal
clear. God give me grace to give you such implicit obesity. Matthew Henry had this good statement. God's commands must not be disputed,
but obeyed. We must not consult with flesh
and blood about them, but with a gracious obstinacy, persist
in our obedience to them. That's what our Lord and Mother
told the folks at Mary Jacana, isn't it? She said, whatever
he says to you, that's what you do. Whatever he says to you,
do it. All right, 50. Look at verse
3. Learn something about Abraham's
sacrifice. We will read these again, verses 3 through 10. You
just pick them out as I go along. Turn your thoughts away from
Abraham for a little bit and away from Isaac to that one of
whom this is a picture. Abraham rose up early in the
morning, verses three and four, and prepared everything for the
sacrifice. David Burge, our God, rose up
early in the morning of eternity and prepared everything for the
sacrifice of his son. Carefully prepared everything
by his sovereign determination and absolute predestination.
And he saw the place afar off as Abraham saw Moriah afar off. And he never looked back. He never thought about altering
his purpose. God said, go to Moriah. And to Moriah he went. And God
Almighty, before the world began, said to his son, let's go to
Calvary. And he arranged everything. Everything,
everything exactly according to sovereign purpose so that
he at the appointed hour might slay his son in our stead at
Calvary. Look at verses five through eight.
Abraham and Isaac went to the mountain of sacrifice together. Hello. Now I've been thinking
about this for a long time. I sat down today and looked it
over after I finished my notes and I don't know how to explain
what I'm about to tell you. I don't know how to explain it
theologically. Some may think that I'm utterly
heretical for declaring it. I know that God is pure, eternal,
incomprehensible, immutable spirit. I know that God has no body such
as we have. He has no parts such as we have. He has no passions such as we
have. Nothing moves him. Nothing affects
him. Nothing changes him. He is God,
immutable, forever. But our God is not a rock. Not only is it true that Abraham
went together with his son to the Mount of Sacrifice, God Almighty,
in his holy being, in the totality of his being, went with his son
to the place of sacrifice. Redemption is the work of God. Yes, it is a work particularly
accomplished by Jesus Christ, the God-man mediator, but God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are all involved
in this great work. Someone said 12 went with the
Son of God to the Passover, 11 went with him to the garden,
3 went with him to pray. But when he went to the cross,
our Savior was alone with God his Father. Abraham took the wood and laid
it on Isaac's back. Our Lord in his providence, by
the hands of cruel men, laid the cross on his back. The instruments
of death were in the father's hand. Abraham took a knife with
him, and the fire in his hand. And the Lord God had the sword
of justice in his hands. Isaac raised a question. Look
at this. Isaac spoke to Abraham, his father,
and said, My father? And he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire
and the wood. But where is the lamb? Where's
the lamb for a burnt offering? This young man had been well
instructed in the gospel. He said, I know we can't worship
God without blood. I know we can't come to God without
a lamb. Where's the lamb for a burnt
offering? We're going yonder to worship God and said so, but
where's the lamb? And God, Abraham said, will provide
himself a lamb for a burnt offering. You see that in verse eight?
The sacrificial lamb is for God. The sacrificial lamb is from
God. It comes from him. Whatever sacrifice
God requires is only what God gives. But more than that, this
sacrificial lamb is himself God. Abraham said to his son, my son,
God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering, declaring
plainly that he who is the woman's promised seed is God incarnate. That one who is our redeemer
is himself God. At last they came to the place
of sacrifice. Verses 9 and 10. Abraham built the altar, laid
the wood on it, He bound his son with his own hands and laid
him on the altar. But Isaac was a strapping young
man. He wasn't a boy now, he was a
grown man. He was not forced to be bound. He was bound by Abraham's hands.
He was bound according to Abraham's determination. He was bound in
submission to his father Abraham, but he was bound because he was
willing to be bound. And so it was with our Lord Jesus
Christ bound to the horns of God's altar by God's own hands
because of his own love for us. And Abraham stretched forth his
hand. Awake, O soul, against one that
is my fellow, smite and slay. Now look at verses 11, 12, and
13. What a picture of substitution. The angel of the Lord called
Abraham out of heaven. He said, wait, wait now, wait
now. Lay not your hand on the land. And Abraham, verse 13,
lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram
caught in the thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took
the ram and offered him up, look at it, as a burnt offering, in
the stead of his son. That's substitution. The Lord
Jesus Christ caught by the horns and put on the altar in the stead
of his people by the hands of God. Now look at verse 14. And Abraham called the name of
that place Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord will see. As a matter
of fact, that name Jehovah-Jireh could be translated any number
of ways and all of them be accurate. The Lord will see. And the Lord
seeing, seeing our need of blood and atonement, our need of righteousness
and holiness, the Lord will see and the Lord will provide. You
know how you'll say to your children, I'll see to it. I'll see to it. That means taken care of. Taken
care of it. Your child comes to you with
a problem, you say, I see, I see. That's all right. If I see it,
I'll take care of it. The Lord God sees our need and
he provides our need in his own son. And it means the Lord will
be seen. As a matter of fact, our translation
reads in the mouth of the Lord, it shall be seen. in the mount where God sacrificed
his son. When he saw our need, he provided
all our need, and he's seen in his provision. This is where
God makes himself known, at Mount Calvary. One last thing. This whole work was done so that Isaac might be exalted. Isaac was promised a great posterity
because Abraham withheld not his son. He said, he'll see his
seed. He'll see his seed. This one's
a picture of our Redeemer. Because he died and rose again,
God's given him power over all flesh and he'll see his seed.
And the pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hand. Isaac
was made to be a great ruler. And Isaac became the source,
listen now, he became the source of universal blessedness. The
Lord Jesus Christ, because of his covenant engagements being
fulfilled in our state at Calvary, has himself been exalted, given
a place of highest dominion, exaltation, and honor. And he
is the single source of all blessedness. In Him, all the nations of the
earth are blessed. In Him are all the promises of
God, yea and amen. In Him is blessedness forever. Now, in the light of these things,
I send you home to meditate, I pray earnestly on these three
things. in the light of what Christ has
done for us. What trial is too heavy to bear? What sacrifice is too costly
to make? What work is too demanding to
do for him? While we live here, trials, heartaches,
troubles mark our way because that's what we need. They teach
us to be weaned of this world. They teach us to look to our
God. They teach us to give him our hearts. But blessed be God,
those days will soon be over. David, let's sing about that.
Let's sing 147. There'll be no dark valley when Jesus comes. We'll be dismissed with that.