Genesis 22. This passage in Genesis, no doubt it records Abraham's greatest trial. I can't imagine a greater trial for any man. But this passage also reveals the gospel, the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord spoke in John 8 and he said this, he said, Abraham, all the way back there, he said, Abraham rejoiced to see my day. And he saw it. Not only did he rejoice to see it, he saw it and he was glad. Some have referred to this passage as the gospel of Mount Moriah. Many of the old writers believe it to be that it was actually Mount Calvary where our Lord was crucified, where the Lord Jesus Christ died.

So let's just Take a few minutes this evening and look at this passage. It's a familiar passage. Let's look at it together. Look at the beginning with verse 1. It came to pass, after these things that God did tempt Abraham, and he said unto him, Abraham, and he said, behold, here I am.

after these things. Now whether that's a reference to a number of trials that Abraham had faced or merely just the things that are written in Scripture here in the book of Genesis. Many things had happened up to this point, but a couple in particular, a couple that pointed to, that pictured the Lord Jesus Christ. in his great sacrifice for sin. One of those is the fall of man. We read that early on about man's fall. And consider what happened after the fall. Remember that prophecy that was spoken when God said, I'll put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, it'll bruise thy heel, but thou shalt bruise his head." And then what else happened after that? Remember, there was a sacrifice. God slew an animal and he took coats of skins and he clothed Adam and Eve. A sacrifice pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ.

What about another thing that happened? Remember the flood? Remember when God said, I'm going to destroy this world by a flood. And in that, we see God's wrath. We see his judgment on sin. But we also see people delivered. Not everyone, but we see his people, eight of them, there in the ark. God put them in, he closed the door, and in that ark was was peace and safety, but what happened? What happened when those rains ceased and the ground, the fountains dried up? Remember that? Remember when that ark landed? Let me just read this. When Noah, think about this, when Noah and his family came out of that ark, In Genesis 8 verse 20, let me just read it to you. It said, Noah built an altar unto the Lord. And he took every clean beast and of every clean fowl, and he offered a burnt offering on the altar, a sacrifice. And it says the Lord smelled a sweet savor. You see that there was a sacrifice, and we see that throughout Scripture. When man approaches God, he can only approach with a sacrifice, with a blood sacrifice.

Well, after these things, after these things, and it pleased God to fulfill every promise, every prophecy, every pattern, every sacrifice, pointing to His only begotten Son. All that had gone before pictured Him, pointed to Him. Scripture says this, "...to Him give all the prophets witness, that through His name, whosoever believeth in Him shall receive the remission of sins." All of the Scriptures. Can you imagine sitting down and writing a book I can't imagine that, to say anything. And yet the Lord has written this book in every verse, every scripture, whether we see it or not, points to his son, points to the Lord Jesus Christ, all the scriptures. Our Lord speaking to some of his disciples there in Luke 24, he said, beginning, wouldn't you just love been sitting there, beginning at Moses, Moses wrote the book of Genesis. Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded them in all scriptures. What? The things concerning himself, concerning him, his suffering, his glory.

If you read on in Luke 24, down in verse 44, it says this, he said unto them, These are the words I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled that are written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me, concerning Christ. And then he opened, he opened their understanding that they might understand the scriptures. I pray he would do that for us, that he would open our understanding, that he would just give us a glimpse, a glimpse of his glory.

And he said unto them, thus it is written and thus it behoove Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. After these things, God did, and then it says God did tempt Abraham. Now, when God is said to tempt Abraham, here in this passage, it doesn't have that ordinary meaning of tempting. Hold your place there in Genesis. Turn over to the book of James. James chapter 1. Verse 13. James 1 verse 13. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, Neither tempteth he any man."

But the Lord does try His people. He does test His people. And that's what's happening here. He's going to test Abraham. He's going to try Abraham. The Revised Version says this, God did prove Abraham. And God's people, God's people are tested. God's people are tried. Let's turn back here, and that's what God's doing here. He's proving Abraham.

Well, back to Genesis 22, look at verse 2. 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." I can't even begin to imagine the grief of Abraham when he received this command, the sorrow The sorrow he suffered in even considering the death of his son, and listen, at his own hand at that. But we also see the great love, the great love he revealed in his willingness to sacrifice his son.

Listen to these words. You've heard this before. Take thy son. Who is thee son? None other but the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Thine only Son. Christ is the only begotten Son of the Father, whom thou lovest. God said this, he said, this is my beloved son. It was by the will of the Father, the will of God the Father, that the Lord Jesus Christ became our offering, a burnt offering, our sin offering, our sacrifice. Scripture says it pleased the Lord to bruise him.

Well, let's read on here in our text. Look at verse 3. Abraham rose up. He got up early at this command. He got up early in the morning and he saddled his ass and he 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 he went unto the place of which God had told him, he obeyed God. He did what God told him to do. And on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and he saw the place afar off. Three days, three days as they traveled and all this time, you know, he had to be considering what was about to happen considering the death of his son. How that must have weighed upon his heart. I wonder, I wonder as they went along the way, did he ask himself or did he, could there be, could there be another way? Is this the only way this can happen?

Three days, the Lord Jesus Christ was the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. God the Father foreordained His death. He purposed the sacrifice of His Son from all eternity. And His eternal purpose does not change. Malachi 3.6, it says, I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and he saw the place afar off. Let's read on verse five. And Abraham said to his young men, Abide ye here with the ass, I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and he laid it upon Isaac his son and he took the fire in his hand and a knife and they went, both of them, together.

abide here. That's what he told her. He said, you abide here with the ass. I and the lad will go yonder and worship and we're going to return. You see, we're going to go, we're going to go. The two of us are going to go and we're going to come back.

Just a few chapters back in Genesis 15, God appeared to Abraham and He said to him, He said, I am your shield. I am your exceeding great reward. And Abraham asked God this question. He said, Will you leave me childless? Will you leave me without a child? And I don't know where Abraham, but God brought him out. And he told him, he said, you look to the heavens. You ever do that on a clear night? Just look up at the heavens and just, you think, at first you think you see every star in the sky. And then you look a little longer and there's more, and there's more, and there's more. He said, you look out to the heavens and you count the stars. And if you be able to number them, so shall thy seed be."

Abraham, Scripture says this, Abraham believed God. Turn to Hebrews 11 verse 17. Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11, 17, by faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac, and he that had received the promises, he offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said in Isaac, shall thy seed be called. Accounting, believing, knowing that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure.

Abraham, he believed God, didn't he? You men stay here with the ass. I and the lad will go and worship And I don't hear any doubt in that, do you? We're gonna go and worship and we're gonna come again to you. And pay attention to who's going. It's the father and the son. And they went together to the mountain.

Redemption. Redemption is the work of the Father and the Son. That's so, isn't it? God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. And at the same time, Christ was in the hands of and under the wrath of God for the sins of his people.

We read back in Isaiah, we read this often. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him. And with His stripes, every stripe that was laid to our Lord, with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we've turned every one of us to our own way, and the Lord hath laid on Him. Who was deserving of it? You and I. But the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Brother Henry wrote this in his commentary. He said 12 went with him to the Passover. 11 went with him to the garden. But when he went to the cross, he went alone.

What else do we hear here in this passage? Abraham laid the wood of the burnt offering on Isaac. He bore it. Does that sound familiar? Turn to John 19. John 19. Look at verse 16. Then delivered he him therefore unto them to be crucified. And they took Jesus and they led him away and he bearing his cross. That wood was laid on him, wasn't it? The wood of the burnt offering was laid on him He, bearing His cross, went forth into a place called the Place of a Skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha. And the Lord not only bore His cross, He also bore our sin, laid on Him. He bore the wrath. He bore the punishment. of sin.

Well, back to our text, Genesis 22, verse 7. Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and he 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 for a burnt offering? We should ask that question every time we open God's word. Every time we come to worship, Every time a message is preached, where's the lamb? Where's the lamb? And listen to Abraham's answer. He said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. God will provide himself a lamb.

You may have this outline written down in your Bible. I don't know. I've got it written in mine. Three points. The Lord will provide himself as the Lamb. The Lord Jesus Christ, he is the Lamb, the Lamb of God, and he is God. Second, the Lord will provide for himself a lamb. The Lord God is, He's the one who's offended. He's the one to whom and for whom the blood was shed. That He might be both just and justifier of His people. Third, the Lord will provide He'll provide. He'll see to it the redemption of all His sheep. He'll provide. The honoring of His law, the satisfaction of His justice, the fulfillment of His covenant, the eternal glory of His Son. He's going to accomplish it in full. Not one thing left undone. The Lord, He said that on the cross, He said, it is finished. It's complete. There's nothing, nothing left.

And our text says this, that they went, both of them together. Isaac must have been satisfied with his dad's answer, wasn't he? They went both together. He didn't take off running in the other direction. He didn't shove his dad down and they went both together. Two men can't walk together otherwise, can they? Amos asked that question. He said, can two walk together? except they be in agreement. Are we in agreement on this? God will provide himself a lamb.

Verse 9, again in Genesis 22, And they came to the place which God had told him of, and Abraham built an altar, It's got to be a sacrifice, doesn't it? Abraham built an altar and he laid the wood in order. And he bound Isaac, his son, and he laid him on the altar upon the wood. Here we see a willing and obedient sacrifice. Isaac didn't resist the will of his father. And listen, the same is true of our Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He giveth his life for the sheep. He lays down his life for his sheep. You know, they're in the garden when those men came to take our Lord by force. Remember that? There in the New Testament, there was a band of men and officers and chief priests and Pharisees, and they came to the Lord, and they came with lanterns and torches and weapons. And the Lord, knowing all things that should come upon Him, He went and fought to them. And He said, whom seek ye? Whom seek ye? And they answered and they said, Jesus of Nazareth. And our Lord looked at them and He said, I am He. And when He said, I am He, can you imagine the power that He spoke in? That band of men, they all fell backward to the ground.

But then he said this, if you seek me, let these my sheep, you let them go. They could have never taken him had he not been willing. The Lord Jesus Christ, he made himself of no reputation. He took upon himself the form of a servant. He was made in the likeness of man and being found in fashion as a man. He humbled himself and he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, a willing and an obedient savior.

And then quickly, let's read just these last few verses. Look at verse 10. Abraham, he stretched forth his hand and he took the knife to slay his son. Blood must be shed. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. 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 thy hand upon the land, neither do thou anything unto him, for I now, I know that thou fearest God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, not just any son, thine only son from me.

And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and he looked, and behind him, a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went, and he took the ram, and he offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. Substitution. A ram caught in a thicket. You reckon that was a thorn tree that his head was stuck in? And they went to that ram and they took it and laid hold of it and put it in the place of Isaac. And that ram was slain. And it died, even as the Lord Jesus Christ was sacrificed for us.

Isaac goes free, not the ram. Isaac's blood, think about that. Where is it? It still flows in his veins. He has life, but not the ram. Its blood poured out upon that altar, laid upon the wood for a burnt offering. I was thinking about this. Isaac, can you imagine him looking at that ram, Abraham looking at that ram? How that must have just thrilled his heart. What about Isaac? As he looks at that ram and he knows, he knows this, his life is because of the death of that ram.

The ram is sacrificed and Isaac goes free. Can you see the Lord? Can you see a glimpse of Him as He hangs on a tree? We sing that bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned He stood. Sealed my pardon with His blood. Hallelujah. What a Savior.

Here's just another thought. Remember, Isaac had been bound. That rope had been taken and he was bound to the altar, but no longer. That rope or whatever those vines, whatever it was that was used to bind him, it's not on him anymore. It's used to bind that ram. Our sin, that which bound us, it's been removed. It's been taken away and placed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that a beautiful picture?

Listen to the words of this course in closing.

Saved, I'm saved.
My sins are all pardoned.
My guilt is all gone.
Saved, I'm saved.
Saved by the blood of the crucified one.
Lord, let us see him.
Let us see our Savior
and give thanks and praise him.

All right, Isaac, come lead us in a closing hymn.