All right, let's open our Bibles
to Genesis 21. We're going to begin the message
in Genesis 21. Brother Ronnie read through verse
21. I want you to look at verse 22.
I remember Abraham had not possessed the land. Abraham dwelt in the
land to which God promised him and his seed as a stranger. He dwelt in tents with Isaac
and Jacob, but he never possessed the land. But verse 22 said,
and it came to pass at that time that Abimelech, Abimelech was
the king of the Philistines, Abimelech and I call the chief
captain of his host, faken to Abraham, saying, God is with
thee in all that thou doest. Now, therefore, swear unto me
here by God that thou wilt not deal falsely with me, nor with
my son, nor with my son's son." And that's as far as they carried
it. But according to the kindness that I have done unto thee, thou
shalt do unto me, and to the land wherein thou hast sojourned."
In other words, King Abimelech, king of the Philistines, is asking
Abraham to make a covenant with him and a contract of peace for
the days ahead, because he recognized that God was with Abraham. In verse 24, Abraham said, I
will swear. So down to verse 32, thus they
made a covenant at Beersheba. That's where Abraham dwelt, John
Gill said, for 26 years after that. But they made a covenant
at Beersheba. Then Abimelech rose up, Bacchus,
the chief captain of his host, and they returned into the land
of the Philistines. And verse 33, now remember this
is wilderness. It's this open country. So Abraham
planted a grove, and this is the first time you'll run into
the word grove in the scriptures. Abraham planted a grove, planted
trees. He made a special place, sort
of an oasis out there in the desert. Trees for shading. He planted a grove for what purpose? And called there on the name
of the Lord, the everlasting God, Abraham made a place where
he could retire from the world, from business, from his flock,
all the people and worship God. The everlasting God, our Creator,
our Sovereign, our Father. And as I say, that's the first
time that this business of a grove is mentioned in the scripture.
And these groves became later to be abused by idolatry. So Moses, if you'll turn to Deuteronomy
16, Moses in the law forbade the building of a grove, a private,
personal place, because it just turned into places of idolatry. In Deuteronomy 16, Abraham built
it for a good thing, a personal, private place where he could
commune with God. But here in Deuteronomy 16, verse
21, Moses says, Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees
near unto the altar of the Lord thy God, which thou shalt make
thee. Neither shalt thou set up any
image, any statue, pillar, image, which the Lord thy God hateth.
Now back to the text, Genesis 21, so Abraham dwelt sojourned,
verse 34, chapter 21, read this, Abraham sojourned in the Philistines'
land a long time, many days, many days. Now then, chapter 22, it came
to pass after these things. After what things? Hadrian Ishmael
dwelt in peace now Ishmael when Abraham sent him away You have
commentaries at home. You read this for yourself, but
but they called kept calling Ishmael lad, but he wasn't a
lad. He was a full-grown young man
and When Abraham sent them away, he sent them with full intention
of caring for them They got lost. That's what happened. She got
lost in the wilderness and all that in the purpose of God. But
God made a great nation out of him. He took him a wife, not
out of Canaan, but out of Egypt, which was bad. But he made him
a great nation, Ishmael. And so Ishmael and Hagar were
safe and dwelling happily and in peace. All was well with Abraham's
house. Isaac, the son of promise, had
now grown up. He was a strong and obedient
son. I was reading all the different
ideas about his age, anywhere from 13 to 37, believe me. No one knows exactly how old
Isaac was at this juncture, but we can safely say that Isaac
was near to 20 years of age or older. He was a young man. And
the days had passed after all these things, all this had taken
place, and Isaac is, Ishmael Hagar is fine and all is well
with Abraham's house, and Isaac the son of promise is a young
man in which Abraham found great joy and comfort. All right, verse
1 says, It came to pass after these things that God did Now,
the word is try Abraham. Another better word is prove,
p-r-o-v-e, prove Abraham. God doesn't tempt any man to
sin. Satan tempts me. So this is not
tempting to sin or tempting to evil, but it's the word God did
prove Abraham. To prove the sincerity of his
faith and the strength of his faith. and his willingness to
obey God, his willingness and readiness to obey God and to
trust God. And he said, Abraham, and Abraham
answered, Behold I, behold I, behold I. I tell you another reason why
God is trying Abraham is that we may know him, that we may
know and understand the example that he is for us, that he may
serve as a good example because he's going to be the father of
the faithful and the father of many nations. So God establishes
for us what sort of man this is and what sort of faith he
has. All right, God said verse 2,
Abraham. Now, God didn't talk to Abraham
every day. Most of Abraham's days were spent
walking with God, but in silence. But when the Lord did speak to
Abraham, Abraham was always ready with this reply, Behold I, thou
God seest me. Behold I. Verse 2, now every
word in this command, I want to read it slowly and I want
you to listen, every word in this command, every word is like
an arrow to pierce the heart of this old man. Every word is
like an arrow, the tender heart of Abraham to pierce it. And God said take now, right
now, without question, without delay. with no time for consideration,
take now, thy son, thy son, not a beast,
your son, not a lamb, not a servant, not an enemy, you take right
now your son, your only son, your only son, only son by promise,
only son by favor, only heir Isaac, whom thou lovest, and
get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnoff
upon one of the mountains, which I tell thee of." John Gill says that the old Jewish
writers represented God and Abraham in a discourse together. We don't
have that here, but this dates way back to their ideas about
it. I'll pass it on to you. God said,
take your son. Take now your son. And he heard
Abraham, he had two sons. And God said, take your only
son. Well, each son was the only son
of their mother. Take thy son whom thou lovest.
He loved them both. God keeps putting this down Isaac,
that ended the conversation. Isaac. And it's a picture of
God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son. He loves us as he loves Christ,
you see. But this is his only begotten
son. This is your well-beloved son. Take thy son whom thou lovest. Take now thy son, thine only
son, Isaac. whom thou lovest, and get thee
to the land of Moriah." Now, this is way back, John, millenniums
before Jerusalem. But Moriah is where Jerusalem
one day would stand, right in this place. One day the temple
was built right there. One day Jerusalem was built right
there. Moriah is called the vision of
God. Abraham called it, look over
here in verse 14. And Abraham called the name of
that place Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord will provide. This is where,
millenniums later, Abraham stood there. It's 40 miles from where
he was standing. He's in Beersheba and Moriah,
40 miles away. Nothing there but mountains.
But one day Jerusalem would stand there. The temple would stand
there. The sacrifices would be offered
there. Mount Calvary is there and Christ would die there. That's Moriah. Now listen to
what he says to him. And take your son to the land
of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains whereof
which I'll tell thee of. Now Abraham knew what a burnt
offering was. He had offered many offerings.
It offered many burnt offerings. How was the burnt offering offered?
Well, the person offering the burnt offering would take the
lamb, and the first thing he'd do is cut his throat with a sharp
knife. Remember Abraham was walking
up the mountain. He had the knife and the fire.
Isaac had the wood. Well, that's the first thing
you do. You take, and Abraham, when God said this to him, this
is what's on his mind. taking his son's head and splitting
his throat. And then you lay the carcass
on the altar and you cut the body into quarters and lay them
on the altar in place. And then you set the fire. And
you catch the blood of the basin when you cut the throat, but
then you quarter the victim, put it on the fire, and watch
it burn to ashes till there's nothing left. Now that's the
commandment God gives Abraham. Now, no delay, no question, no
argument. Take now thy son, thy only son,
Isaac, whom you love, And offer him in this way, cut his throat,
catch the blood, quarter his body, set it on fire, and stand
there and watch it till it burns. Now you can be sure of this,
that this whole affair in trying and proving Abraham is nevertheless
a picture for us because Isaac is a type of Christ. Christ is the seed of Isaac.
And our Lord, you know, when scripture says that our Lord
said that Abraham saw my day, he saw it right there. Right
there. He saw God took his own liver. Isaac was spared, but Christ
was not spared. And the Father took his Son and
made him his Son, the Son of God, the heir of all things made
him a burnt offering for sin, a sacrifice for sin. He spared
not his own son, but Christ died under the wrath and by the hand
of his own Father. That's just so. And that's what
you're seeing here in talking about this burnt offering. And
that's what Abraham is seeing. And all of this Abraham saw Calvary. All right, look at verse 3. So
Abraham rose up early in the morning. It may have been that
night God spoke to him. That's what I believe, that God
spoke to him during the night. Saru was asleep, and God called
Abraham, take your son, go to a mountain, I'll show you, I'll
show you the mountain. That's where I'll sacrifice my
son someday. You sacrifice him to me." And
Abraham rose up early in the morning. I don't imagine he slept
very much, if at all. Saddled his ass. He told no one. He told no one. I don't know where Willie kept
anybody this. He told no one. He saddled his ass, took two
young men with him, Isaac his son, but first He went out and
cut the wood. He didn't know what he was going
to find at Moriah. So he cut the wood right here
himself. He cut the wood and put it on
that donkey, the wood that was served to burn his son. He cut the wood. And he picked
out two young men, two young servants to accompany them. It's
40 miles from Beersheba. I don't know whether all of them
rode. Who knows? I do not know. I know that Abraham
had an ash that he saddled, and you derived, and that the wood
for the burnt off one was on one of them. And then there's
the container that carried fire. I can't explain what this was,
but they talk about it being some kind of thing that kept
the fire going. And they carried it with them.
They didn't have matches or anything like that, but they carried the
fire with them. And they went and traveled two days. Some of them traveling on foot,
and I guess others riding, but they traveled for two days, 40
miles. And on the third day, verse 4,
and on the third day Abraham lifted up his eye, And he saw the place afar off.
And the Lord had told him back here in verse 2 that the mountain
that he'd tell him of. But Abraham lifted up his eyes
and he saw the place. He saw the place. One of the
mountains. There were several mountains there. The mountains
are called Mount Zion is there. There's the hill Aqsa that's
there. Mount Calvary's there. Mount
Moriah's there. There's several mountains in
that area. where Jerusalem would be built.
But Abraham lifted up his eyes and he saw something that identified
the place, right the place where he would offer his sons a sacrifice. Someone suggested that the others
didn't see it, the ones with him, the young men or Isaac,
but he saw the glory of God on that place. like maybe the cloud
that followed the, that led the Israel in the wilderness. Maybe
that's what he saw, but he saw the place afar off. Now verse 5, and when they got
there, he saw this place up the mountain. And Abraham said to
the young men, these two young men with him, you abide here
with the I and the land will go yonder and worship and come again to you." Now the
sacrifice here as at Calvary involves just two, the Father
and the Son. It pleased the Father to bruise
him. It's a matter between the Father
and the Son. God was in Christ reconciling
the world to himself. And Abraham told these young
men, you stay right here. The lad and I go on there and
worship God. We go on there and worship God. You know, these
young men, if Abraham had taken them, which he never could do,
but these young men could never understand what he's doing. No
way in the world that these young men would have the slightest
understanding of this man of God. and what he's about to do,
and why he's doing it, and why God would command it. You see,
great things are not for the curious. The things, the mysteries of
God are not for the curious. They're for believers. They're
revealed to believers. They're taught to believers.
They're understood by believers. They're experienced by believers,
but not by the curious. Not for those who are unenlightened,
but for those who are enlightened. Christ has enlightened. He's
illuminated. Abraham understood exactly what's
going on. He understood exactly. He saw
another day. It's like Noah building an ark. To the people around him, it
was the most stupid thing a man could do. Wasting 120 years of
labor. But he saw what they didn't see.
He understood what they don't understand. He entered into God's
purpose. God shows his ways to Moses,
his acts to the children of Israel. I see signs, church ads, come
worship with us, come worship with us. How can the unseeing
worship with us? How can the untaught worship
with us? How can the uninterested worship
with us. They can't worship with us. They're
hindrance to worship. And that's the reason when Abraham
and Isaac started up that mountain, he turned to those young men
and said, stay right here. Stay right where you are. You
don't know what's going on. And I'll tell you another thing.
They would have tried to stop him. You put that down. When this old man took Isaac
with that knife, One of those fellows would have grabbed his
arm. The other would have tackled him. There would have been a
melee up there. Well, turn to Matthew 16. Even the disciples tried to stop
the Lord from going to the cross. In Matthew chapter 16, listen
to this. Matthew 16, verse 21, listen to this. Plain instruction. And yet they didn't understand.
Matthew 16, 21, From that time forth began Jesus to show unto
his disciples how he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many
things of the elders, and keep priests and scribes, and be killed,
and be raised the third day. And Peter took him aside and
began to rebuke him. Can you imagine what these young
men would have done? They took Abraham aside and rebuked
him. As Peter took our Lord aside
and rebuked him, and this shall not be unto thee. And our Lord
turned and said, Peter, unto Peter, get thee behind me, Satan.
You're an offense. You're an offense. A natural man does not understand
sin. He doesn't understand the perfect
law. He doesn't understand the holiness of God. He doesn't understand
the requirements of the law, of justice, and the righteousness
of God. He does not understand substitution.
He does not understand satisfaction. He does not understand why God
must crucify Christ so he can be just and justified. Ignorance. That's right. Don't you come with us. I remember
hearing Rex Humbard. Some of you may remember him.
Thankfully, he's faded away. But I was listening to him preach
on television one time. He was describing Calvary and
the way they were treating Christ, the way they were bidding upon
him and crucifying him. And he was shedding tears, Humbard
was, just talking about what a terrible, terrible thing it
was. If I'd have been there, I'd have stopped it. I thought,
yeah, you surely would have. You'd have stopped it. And that's
what these young men would have done. That's what Peter would
have done if he could have. That's what Satan would have
done. Stop it. But not Abraham. Oh, thought of God. So verse
6. Now, Abraham took the wood of
the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac, his son. Here is a picture of Christ who
bore our sins in his body on the tree. Our Lord God took the
cross. He, bearing his cross, went to
Golgotha. I see Isaac climbing up that
mountain, carrying that wood on his back. That's Christ, going
up Mount Calvary with that cross on his back. And then it says,
and Abraham took a knife, a fire in his hand and a knife. Abraham
is the father, and he has the knife. And the fire, the wrath
of God, it'll burn his son. Turn to Isaiah 53, and see if
that's not what this is saying here. Isaiah 53. Verse 4, Isaiah 53, verse 4, Surely he
hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem
him stricken, smitten of God, smitten of God, and afflicted. Verse 10, It pleased the Lord
to bruise him. The Father put him to grief.
I shall make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed
prolong his days, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hands." So when I see Isaac going up that mountain with that
load of wood, bearing our... I see Christ bearing our shame
and sins and bearing the cross, and here's the Father with the
knife and the fire. pierce his son, shed his blood,
and roast his body in the fire and wrath of his judgment against
sin. All right, verse 7. And Isaac
spake unto his father. Now Isaac was an obedient son,
as Christ was an obedient son. Scripture says Christ learned
obedience by the things he suffered. But Isaac spake to his father,
and he said, My father. And his father said, Here I,
my son. He said, Father, behold the fire
and the wood. Where is the lamb for a burnt
offering? This boy had seen the burnt offering. This young man had seen. He'd
witnessed many sacrifices. He'd seen his father take that
lamb and cut its throat and catch its blood. put his body on the
altar, and burn it with fire, and put that blood on the altar
as a sacrifice. And he knew without a lamb, there's
no worship. Without blood, there's no forgiveness.
There's no worship without an intercessor or a mediator, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He knew what was done to those
lambs. He said, where is the lamb? Where is the lamb? Where is the lamb? And here in
verse 8, And he knew what was going to happen was a burn offering.
And Abraham answered him. And I believe in a few words
Abraham preached to Isaac the full gospel of divine mercy in
Christ. I don't know how close they were
to the top. Maybe they were at the top. Maybe they were getting
ready to build their altar. Maybe they'd reached the top
and they were sitting down for a moment resting. But the boy
turned to Abraham and said, my father, here's the wood. And
there's the fire. And I, where's the lamb? Without
the blood, there's no remission. I believe then that several things,
I'll tell you what I see here. Number one, Abraham cleared this
up. He said, my son, God will provide.
God will provide. Now you believe that, my son,
you believe that, you be assured of that. You rest in that. You take confidence in that.
God will provide. All right. Secondly, son, God
will provide himself a lamb. This is God's provision. The lamb is God's business. Salvations
of the Lord. God will provide an offering. God will provide a substitute.
God will provide a sacrifice. God will provide it for himself,
a suitable lamb. A sacrifice of satisfaction and
pleasure. God's never taken any pleasure
in the blood of an animal. Our Lord said that. He said,
you've never taken any pleasure and satisfaction in the blood
of animals. But God will provide, he'll provide
a lamb for himself, and he'll provide a suitable lamb for himself. And God, my son, will provide
himself a lamb. And secondly, I think he said
this, down here in verse 14, Jehovah-Jireh. Look at what Jehovah-Jireh
means in the margin there. The Lord will see. The Lord will
see. The Lord will see or provide.
The Lord will see to it. Now here are three things. In
seeing, in seeing to it, God takes notice of it. the everlasting
God. God looks upon it and takes notice
of it. St. David said, when I consider
all of the heavens, what is man that's not mindful of him, that's
not to see him? If God sees something, takes
notice of it, he's mindful of it. When Mephibosheth came before
David, he said, What am I that you should even look upon such
a dead dog, even see me? Instead of turning your head,
you're looking at me. Why would you even see me, look
upon me? God sees you. Now watch the second
thing. In seeing a matter, if God sees it, he'll provide it. Any matter or person which gains
his attention, will be dealt with by his hand. That's right. Anyone that gets his attention,
that God sees, God will deal with him, settle it, and provide. Anyone of whom he takes notice,
Lord, remember me. Thirdly, in seeing, in providing,
God is seen. In seeing to it, God manifests
His mercy, and His grace, and His goodness, and His power,
and His justice, and His holiness. In taking something over and
dealing with it, God is seen. That's the only way God can be
seen, a character. That's where God's seen. That's
where mercy and truth met together, righteousness and peace kissed
each other, justice and holiness is revealed as nowhere else.
God will see to it, God will see to it and provide, and in
seeing to it, he'll be seen. He'll be seen. That's the reason
he that seeth the Son and believes on him hath everlasting life. He is seeth the Son. And in providing, he gets all
the glory. And I'm certain, when this went
on, I'm just as certain that Abraham, right then, took a good
while and explained to Isaac what was going on. Abraham said, Son, as you know,
you're a miracle child. You were given me when I was
a hundred years old by God. You're the seed that God promised. And the seed from which his seed
will come. And be a Messiah come through
you. God's promise is in you. God's
command to sacrifice you is God dealing with me and all the world
revealing his son. And your command, my command
is to sacrifice you, and your command is to submit. But son,
listen. God will raise you from the dead. I'm to offer you as a burnt offering. But if I do, you can be certain
of this. God will raise you from the dead,
because in you is the seed. See, the Lord Jesus Christ knew
what he was doing. The Father and the Son were in
this purpose together. And Isaac, now listen, Isaac
was willing or Abraham could have never bound him. Never. He would have run away. He would
have dashed down the hill. He would have gone home. He could never, how would he
lay him, listen, Verse 9, and they came to the place which
God told them of, and Abraham built an altar there. He did
whatever he had to do, laid the wood and altar, and bound his
son. Bound his hands and his legs. Somebody said they bound the
lamb, keeping him from resisting. A lamb would kick, but they bound
his son, and he laid him on the altar. This 25-year-old young
man. with his full willingness and
assistance. That's a picture of our Lord
Jesus Christ who was willing. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter
of the sheep before his shearers as well. He opened not his mouth.
No resistance. Isaac lay down on the altar. Our Lord
willingly went to the cross. Awesome. No man takes my life
from me, he said. I lay it down. I have the power
to lay it down and take it up. My father told me this. Oh, Isaac
knew that too. My father told me. This is all right. So then, verse 10, Abraham stretched
forth his hand and took the knife to cut his son's throat. That's
it. They cut the throat. He had that
knife in his hand. And that boy was lying on that
altar, and Abraham started down with that knife. And look at
verse 11. And the angel of the Lord, who
is this? This is our Lord himself. Verse
12, he said, Lay not your hand upon the lad, neither do thou
anything to him. For now I know thou fearest God. Verse 16, listen to this. And he said, By myself have I
sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, it
is not withheld thy son, thy only son, that in blessings I
will bless thee. So this voice from heaven is
the Lord himself. And listen, verse 11, And the
angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said,
Abraham, Abraham. You know, I looked at the different
places back there where God spoke to Abraham. He just called his
name one time, everything. He said, Abraham. Kept the eye
on the Father's hand. Abraham. Go out and look at the
stars. Abraham. He never ever said, Abraham,
Abraham. And it wasn't because he was tired of hearing either.
Like me. But I'll tell you why he cried,
Abraham, Abraham. Because Abraham was fully intent
on doing what God commanded him to do. cutting that boy's throat. He's got to be stopped quickly.
God let him get to the very point. There was no, he wasn't sitting
over there thinking about this. He wasn't walking around the
altar considering it. He was in the very process of
carrying it out. And that's when God cried out,
Abraham, Abraham. He stopped. There's no doubt he was going
to carry out this command, ready to obey the voice of God. In verse 12, lay not thine hand
upon the Lamb, neither do thou anything to him. But now I know, now I know. You suppose that
God didn't know till now? I think what he's saying here,
but I'm just sure, now I have made known, now I have made known
to Abraham and to all believers and to all who shall read this
account and to all to whom it shall be revealed that true faith
is to fear God, love God, believe God, and obey God. regardless of the cost. That's
faith. That's what God is saying. And this man is a man of faith. Abraham loved God more than he
loved that son. Abraham had a greater regard
to the commandment of God than for the life of his son. And he spared not his son that
God's honor, glory, and purpose might be manifested. Then Abraham lifted up his eyes. Abraham's eyes were on Isaac.
He was fully intending to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. Now, at
the voice of God, he lifted up his eyes. And he looked, and behold, And behold, behind him a ram
was caught in the 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. He took that same knife that
was meant for Isaac and cut that ram's throat. He took that same
wood Fire that was meant to burn Isaac and burn that ram so that
substitution That's Christ taking our place That which was intended
to pierce me pierced him the wrath of God that was intended
to burn me burned him The ram was unsought God provided
God didn't say now run down and get you a ram. The ram was right
there. God provided it. Secondly, the ram was unexpected. Abraham was resigned to the death
of this boy. And the ram was unexpected. Thirdly,
the ram was unarmed. He was caught by his horns. There
was no effort to retrieve him. That's what Olin got him. And
the ram provided an effectual sacrifice, it said, and he offered
him for a burnt offering in the stead, in the place, in the room
of his son. And that's the gospel that we
preach. It's an effectual sacrifice. It's an effectual sin offering. It's not a random redemption.
The ram died and Isaac was free. And all for whom Christ suffered
are free. And in closing, verse 14, and
Abraham called the name of that awesome place that one day would
be called Calvary, called Gotha, place of the skull, sacrifice,
where Christ was sacrificed. Abraham called the name of that
place Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord will provide, the Lord
will see to it, as it is said to this day, when Moses was writing
this, in the mount that shall be seen, Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord will see to it. All right, I pray that's a blessing
to you. Help us to see more clearly the
sacrifice of our Lord.