Now this story begins with these
words, and it came to pass after these things that God did
try Abraham. God did try Abraham. God tried his faith. You say, but Abraham believed
God. Abraham believed God. I know he did. I know he did. But faith still must be tried. Must be tried. Let me show you
that in James chapter 1. Faith must be tried, first of
all, to determine its genuineness. Whether it's true faith. In James
chapter 1, verse 3, My brethren, verse 2, count it all joy when
you fall into different temptations or trials, knowing this, that
the trying of your faith worketh patience. Not only is faith tried
and must be tried to determine its genuineness, but it must
be tried to perfect it and to strengthen it. Look at 1 Peter,
chapter 1. 1 Peter, chapter 1, verse 6 and
7. It says here in 1 Peter 1, 6
and 7, wherein you greatly rejoice, that is, in Christ and in salvation,
though now for a season, for a little while, if need be, you
are in heaviness through many trials and many temptations,
that the trial of your faith, the trying of your faith, being
much more precious than of gold as perish it, So it be tried
with fire, and you have to try gold with fire, it has to be
put in a hot fire, that it might be found under the praise and
honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Faith got to
be tried. There's no such thing as untried
faith. It's tried to determine its genuineness, it's tried to
strengthen it and perfect it, and it's tried to purify it.
to purify. Faith must have one object, Christ. And that's the reason that Abraham's
love must be tried too. God tried his faith and God tried
his love. You say, Abraham loved God. I
know. But God will be loved supremely. This is the key. And that's the
reason he said, take your son, your only son, whom you love.
Abraham must be tried at the point where his love can most
fittingly be revealed. God took his most prized possession
and tried him right there. The Lord God must be loved by
his own. Now, false professors and unbelievers
may go through life without trial, but whom he loveth, he chastened
it, he tried. Every son whom he loveth must
be tried. If you're not tried, you may
be a bastard, you may not be a son. But he'll try every son,
he says that. And he tries every child, every
son, tries his faith. He tries his love, because God
will be love first. He will be love supremely, above
any other object of love. We are to love one another. We
are to love Him supremely. And then Abraham tried his fear.
It said down in verse 12, Now I know that you fear me. Of course
God would. The writer used the word now.
But God knew, Abraham feared God. Abraham feared God, but
now wait a minute what I'm saying is this the Lord's total rule
and Sovereignty will again and again and again be established
before his children We're gonna fear the Lord. I Know you get
a lot of static on that. I preached one time down Panama
in the canal zone I preached on the fear of the Lord There's
a lot in the scriptures about the fear of the Lord. David said,
come, my children, I'll teach you how you ought to fear the
Lord. The beginning of wisdom, the fear of the Lord, on and
on and on. And fear God and keep His commandments. This one thing,
he said, I require of you, fear the Lord. And the chaplain's
wife was a big military outfit. She came up and she said, I disagree
with your message. I said, on what point? She said,
we're not supposed to fear God. We're supposed to love God. Well,
I said, I don't remember all my conversations been 30 years
ago, but I said this to her. I said, I'm not talking about
a slavish fear. I'm talking about a fear of sonship.
But I said, even a son who knows God will fear God. If he knows
God, he'll fear God. Now, I know the God of this present
day and the God that's being preached today, he's a peanut
God. I wouldn't fear him either. He can't do anything unless you
let him. Satan's running around here wild loose, and God can't
do anything about it. They tell me a flood comes, and
God doesn't have anything to do with that. I say, well, who
did? Satan. Where was God? Somebody dies, so God didn't
have anything to do with that baby's death. He didn't. Who
did it? Satan. Then we'd better start worshiping
Satan, because he's the one getting some things done. Is God sitting
idly by? I'm telling you this, there's
one will in this universe, and that's God's will. And everything
else is second causes, whether it be Satan or demons or whatever
it is, it's second causes, God's the first cause. You see, even
when they crucified Christ, Peter said, you did what God determined
before to be done. You with wicked hands crucified
the Lord, but you did what God determined before to be done.
Satan couldn't touch Job till God let it. A house divided against
itself cannot stand, and God's house is not divided. One will
in this universe. His directive will or his permissive
will, but it's still his will. When Adam fell, that was the
will of God, I assure you, he never would have fallen. I can't
explain it, but I just know God's on the throne. And I'll tell
you this, there's just one place a man will worship, and that's
at the throne of a sovereign God. Worship, I'm talking about. He'll bargain, quarrel, argue,
debate with an equal, but he'll worship a sovereign. And there's
one place a man will fear, and that's before the throne of a
sovereign God. The Lord holds the wind in His
hand, and He holds your breath in His hand. And He's determined
your days and established your bounds, and you cannot pass.
What are you preaching? I'm preaching that Almighty God
is to be feared and will be by those who know Him. Yes, he will. If you do not fear God, you do
not know God. So Abraham will be tried. His
faith, his love, his fear, he will be tried. All right? But you ask this, you say, hadn't
he been sufficiently tried? It says in verse 1, it came to
pass after these things, after these things. Seems like that
this man's life was one crisis after another. This pattern,
this friend of God, said God was his friend. Abraham was God's
friend. He talked to Abraham like a man
talked to his friend, face to face. God chose him. He's a pattern
of conversion. He's the father of the faithful.
And yet, his life was one crisis after another, and all of them
were significant. They weren't little peanut trials
like some of us complain about. The car wouldn't start. What
an awful trial. What an awful trial. But you
think about this man's trial. He's 75 years old, lived in his
father's community. See, families lived together,
not only for provision, but for protection in those days. They didn't have a police force.
They lived together to encourage and help one another. They lived
together as large families, and you just didn't go out. in the
world and anywhere in the desert and start living by yourself
too dangerous and No way to make a living So they live together
Sons were born and grandson and great-grandson great-grandson
all this tribe kept increasing that was their area Well, God
came to Abraham He said to five years old and said get out of
your father's house and go to land. I'll show thee He didn't
know where he was going But he believed God. Now that's tough.
Imagine the tears. Imagine the traumatic experience
that man went through. Getting all his stuff together.
Where you going Abraham? I don't know. You don't know?
God didn't say. And you going anyway? Going anyway.
And you know he never did own a piece of land. He was a sojourner
all his life. Lived in a tent. Till he died.
But he went. And then you know that division.
He took his nephew Lot with him and they had a division. God blessed them and prospered
them. They had so many camels and oxen and sheeps and all these
things. And then they started fighting
among themselves. His servants and Lot's servants
and Lot came to him and said, now we're brothers and we just
can't fight. And Abraham said, we're not going
to fight. He was the old man, Lot was the kid, you know, nephew,
he was the uncle, he would come, he came with Abraham, and Abraham
said, well, Lot said, pick out what you want, take the land
you want, and I'll take what's left. That's faith, you know,
that's humility. Of course, Lot, like most of
us, greedy, he took the plains, the well-watered plains, and
Abraham went to the mountains. And then those kings, you know,
would make him rich. They tried to make him wealthy.
He rescued these kings in a battle, and they were going to give him
everything they had. He was going to be the richest
man on earth. He turned that down. They said,
why don't you settle down and be somebody? He said, well, I've
lifted my hand to God, and I'll depend on Him the rest of the
road. He turned his back on the world's riches. And then he interceded
for Sodom. God came to him and said, He's
going to destroy Sodom. And his nephew, Lot, and his
family were down there. And that old man went through
some trial. He went through some hard prayer. He said, Lord, did
you find 50 righteous people down there? Were you spared?
Yep. About 40. Yep. I don't want to be presumptuous,
Lord, but there's 30 down there. Well, he got out of 10, you know.
He couldn't find 10. Abraham stood there and watched
it burn up. Then he did have a son. He was 90 years old, never
had a son. Finally he had a son by one of
the handmaids, you know, and got 14 years old and got to him
to get rid of him. That's his only son. You know,
Isaac was born. Loved him. Hunted with him, fished
with him. That's tough. That's tough. And now, Old Abraham seems to
be settled down to a peaceful life. Isaac's been born. Isaac's
got up pretty good size, you know, and the hurt over Ishmael's
probably settled a little bit. Everything's pretty peaceful.
The old man is finally at rest. And come along, God said, Abraham!
Oh, that's tough, isn't it? Here I am, Lord. Here I am. And along comes the greatest
trial He ever had. Here I am, verse 2, take now,
after all these trials and crises, take now your son, your son. And God designates who it is. Not a son by a concubine or a
son by a handmaid. This is your son, your heir from
Saba. Take your son, your only son. And I'm talking about, God said,
Isaac. That's what I'm talking about, Abraham, in case there's
any. See, the Lord makes it plain, in case there's any. He knows
we'll finagle. God said, take your son and sacrifice
him. Abraham would have got one of those boys in the barn back
there. He said, Abraham, I'm talking
about your treasured possession. Take your son, your only son,
whom you love. Now, we're going to get into
something else. The Lord was distinguishing his gift here,
too. He took his son, his only son, the son of his love, his
dear son, sacrificed him for us. But he said, take him up
there, now watch this, and offer him as a burnt offering. When I was reading this, preparing
the message, I kept coming back to that burnt offering. Don't
just kill him, but burn him. You see, when they took the lamb
and slew it, caught the blood in the basin, they burnt the
body. They burnt the carcass. Burned
it on and off. That's why he had that fire and
that wood. Now there's some things I know
about trials, a real genuine trial, not so much from experiences,
from the Word, and from this right here. You might remember
this if you can. Number one, trials which try
faith, love, and fear. Genuine trials, I'm not talking
about these little skirmishes with the flesh. I'm talking about
trials sent from God. Number one, they are from God.
It says, and it came to pass after these things that God tried
Abraham. God tried him. God tried him. It's God that tries his children.
He doesn't leave that work to somebody else. He does it. He
plans it. He purposes it. He pursues it.
God tried him. These trials will come when it
pleases the Lord. It says that it came to pass
that after these things, God tried it. I don't care if you're
seventy-five, God will try you when He's pleased to try you.
Twenty-one, thirty-one, forty-one, fifty-one, sixty-seven, eighty-one,
God will try you when He pleases. You're not going to choose the
time, He's going to choose it. And he chose this time. He chose
this time, especially for Abraham, after all these things, after
all these victories, after all these things. But the old man
was at peace, seemingly, living out his days now, watching his
heir, that God's promised child, the miracle child, the child
in whom I'll be blessed. Abraham, where am I? Here we
go again. But it's God's time. Thirdly,
these trials will be of the severity God chooses. You take your son, your only
son, whom you love. I want to tell you a story, Mike.
You heard it tonight, some of the rest of you with little children.
I want to tell you a story. I got a letter Monday from a
dear lady in Medford, Oregon. who listens to and has been blessed
by our sermon tapes. And especially in this time of
trial, she knows the gospel of grace. She said she learned the
doctrine and then she experienced it, April the 30th. But she said
she had one of her sons, her children, died of encephalitis. But she had another child, a
little girl, six months old. Six months old. And she's head of the Right to
Life movement in that area, and they had a popcorn sale. She's
a believer, loves the gospel of grace. And they had a popcorn
sale, and they had some left over. And she brought it home
in some big bags, and of all places, she stored it in the
baby's bedroom. And the little six-month-old
baby, the age of Hannah, rolled off the bed into one of those
popcorn sacks and smothered to death. Now that's a trial. That's a
trial. But these trials will be of the
severity that God chooses. Somebody said that the great
ships do business, though, in deep water. And then these trials, fourthly,
will occur where God elects. He told Abraham, he said, you
go to a place I'll show you. I'll show you where we're going
to deal with you. Where I take you. That's where it'll happen. And then last of all, and this
is the good news, these trials will be for our good. Yes, they
will. Eternal good, not temporal good.
This dear lady that wrote me, Miss Hudson, that put her in
the hospital. Shocked. You mothers, that is too. Indescribable. Monday when I
read the letter, I got sick just reading the letter. Just made
me cringe. Imagine her experience. But you say, Brother Mahan, what people try to do is lessen
Abraham's trial with this. They say, but Abraham believed
God, and he knew that God would raise up Isaac from the dead.
We're all good talkers until we have to swim that river. Yeah, we're all good, strong,
able talkers until we Don't say much unless you've been there.
Don't have a lot to say. And he did. He knew God would
raise him from the dead. Let me read that to you. Hebrews
11. Hebrews 11. He knew God would raise him from
the dead. Hebrews 11, 17-19. Several reasons why I knew he
knew that God would raise him from the dead when he went up
that mountain he turned and told old servants He said you stay
with a sign the ladder going on in worship, and he said we'll
be back didn't he? We'll be back That's what he
said And it says in Hebrews 11 17 by faith Abraham when he was
tried offered up Isaac And he that had received the promises
offered up his only begotten Son, of whom it was said, that
in Isaac shalt thou seed be called, accounting that God was able
to raise him up, even from the dead. From whence also he received
him in a figure. But now wait a minute. At any less in this trial, how
would you like to take your son for reasons you couldn't explain
to him? Or to his mother. Or to your
neighbors. Or to your fellow believers.
And bind him with ropes and put him on an altar and take a knife
and plunge it into his heart while the blood spurted out.
Talk about a trial. And then to take his body, catch
his blood in a basin, what God said, and burn his body. Now that's a trial and though
Abraham knew Abraham knew God Instructed him to Abraham knew
He knew God was too good to do wrong He knew the judge of the
earth to do right He knew that God said several times in Isaac
shall thy seed be called nothing could happen that he knew all
that in here But I never will forget the look on the mortician's
face down here in Ashton when I told him that I was going to
preach my son's funeral. We were standing, my brother
and I, and my friend Bill Steen. He said, who's going to preach
this funeral? We stand there looking, the casket was open.
We were identifying the body. And I said, I am. I never will
forget the look on his face. It was really a disappointment
in me. He didn't understand that. He
did not understand that. And one man said when he read
the paper, the paper came out about Robbie being killed in
Vietnam and the funeral be conducted by his father, and one man read
that and he said, what kind of man is he? Doesn't he have any
heart? The world doesn't understand.
They don't understand. You can't explain it to them. You can't explain it to them. Abraham's trial was real, but
he believed God. God is greater than my trial,
however severe they might be. God is greater than my treasures. Paul said, I prevail till Christ
be formed in you, and when Christ is formed in you, He is greater
than all of these difficulties and trials. Your love for Him
is greater. Your devotion to Him is greater. Your confidence in Him is greater.
Everything else just kind of falls into a lesser place. And people think you're hard-hearted.
People think that you don't have any feeling. You know, I can't
explain it. I just know that we have confidence
in Him. He'll do all things well. And without that, I'd crack up
like they do. And you would too. How does a man die without Christ?
No wonder they go out screaming. No wonder they have to be shot
full of dope and I couldn't cope with this life
at all without Him, without realizing that my life is ordered by the
Lord. Commit thy way unto Him and He'll
direct your path. In all thy ways acknowledge Him.
Lean not to thine own understanding. No, I wouldn't have a peanut
God of the fundamentalist. He can't do anything. I wouldn't
have Jerry, Jerry, uh, Jimmy Swagger God. He's a 10 cent store
peanut God. Period. He says so himself. He said God doesn't have anything
to do with the storm, earthquakes, and the tornadoes. God doesn't
have anything to do with the death of children. God doesn't
have anything to do with sickness, huh? But the Lord God of heaven does. And if I believe that there's
one square foot of land where God didn't reign, I wouldn't
stand on it. If I believe there was one cinder in the air over
which God didn't have absolute control, I wouldn't want to meet
it. I'll tell you this, germs are microscopic. And if there's
a couple of germs out there God doesn't rule and reign over,
I wouldn't want to meet them. Because one of those little boogers
can put you away. I try. What are you saying? I'm saying
that our God is absolutely, infinitely, unchangeably sovereign. He's King of kings and Lord of
lords, and He reigns over all principalities and powers and
rulers and thrones and dominions, visible and invisible. And nothing
can touch me without His permission. Nothing. Nothing. The Lord is
my King, I will not fear what anybody can do to me, or anything. Absolutely. But in this lesson
here, first, Abraham is a picture of God the Father in redemption.
Now watch this quickly and I'll close. Abraham is a picture of
God the Father. God said, Abraham, you take your
son, your only son, whom you love, and sacrifice him as a
burnt offering. That's exactly what the Father
did for us. Exactly. Jesus Christ is the
Son of God. Jesus Christ is the only begotten
Son of God. Jesus Christ is the Son of His
love. And then it says in verse 6,
look at this, And Abraham took the wood and laid it on Isaac. What is that wood? Well, that's
the cross. Well, what is the cross? That's our sin. He laid
our sins on him, laid all the iniquity on Christ, all of it. But verse 6 says, Abraham took
the fire in his hand and the knife in his hand. The Lord Jesus
didn't kill himself, it pleased the Father to bruise him. Abraham
didn't give Isaac that knife, didn't give Isaac that fire,
he did it. That's exactly right. And when
the Lord Jesus Christ hung on that cross, God put Him there.
To please the Lord to bruise Him, He was smitten of God and
afflicted. There's not a power in the earth
or hell that could touch Him that the Father allowed them
to. He took the knife and He took
the fire. And it says in verse 6, "...and
they both of them went together." Where the son went, the father
went, because they're one. God was in Christ reconciling
the world to himself. Abraham went right with Isaac,
and Isaac went with Abraham because they're inseparably joined together
in a blessed trinity, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Now, up to
this point, Isaac is a picture of Christ. Up to this point,
he's a type of Christ. But from here on, he's a picture
of the center. That's exactly right. Here only is a picture
of the sinner. Here he is walking, verse 7, beside his father, and
he said, My father, and the father said, Here am I. He said, Behold
the fire and the wood. Where is the lamb? Where is the
lamb? What's Isaac saying? Isaac knew
he was a sinner. He knew his father was a sinner.
And he knew something of the holiness of God and the need
of a sacrifice. Isaac knew without the shedding
of blood, there's no remission. And that's when he was inquiring
about a lamb. He said they were going up there
to worship. They were going up there to build an altar. They
were going up there to meet God. And Isaac said, well, here's
the fire and here's the wood. Where's the lamb? We're not going
to go to where Cain are we, Father? That's the way of destruction.
Isaac was a sinner and he knew it. He needed a sacrifice. He
needed a lamb. And then Abraham said to Isaac,
here's Abraham preaching to the sinner. I wish some sinner would
ask me where the lamb is so I could preach to him. I tell you, it's
hard to witness in this day. Everybody's made a profession.
Everybody's an expert on the Bible. Every mother's son's an
authority on the Bible. Do you know that? But Isaac asked,
where's the lamb? And Abraham said in verse 8,
My son, God, God will provide. God will provide, that's what
I've been saying to me and to you all these years, God will
provide. God will provide not only in
redemption, He'll provide in your home, in your need. He'll
provide food, clothing, and shelter. Your Father knows you have need
of these things. And if He so clothed a lady of
the field and feed the sparrows, will He not so much more clothed
and feed you? God will provide. Don't get anxious
about these things. God will provide. But here's
the subject we're on. God will provide Himself a length. He's going to be the length.
God Himself is going to be your length. I can't explain the Trinity. I believe it. But I know that
God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. I know
the Word was with God and was God, and the Word became flesh.
And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father. Our Lord Jesus said, you see
me, you see my Father. I am the Father of one. And they
said, you can't be God, you're a man. Well, you can't be God
because you're a man, but he can be God and be a man. Because
of body, God the Father prepared him. And he tabernacled among
us. God will provide himself. He
will be the Lamb. Abraham knew what he was saying.
I really believe that, because Abraham saw my day and was glad.
And watch this, he said, God will provide, I believe we can
put a word in here and be accurate, God will provide for himself
a lamb. He needs a lamb to save your
soul, to be just and justified. He can't save sinners without
a lamb. God will provide a lamb sufficient for himself, a lamb
suitable for himself, And a lamb is a sacrifice for himself. And
God will provide a lamb himself, a lamb for a burnt offering. The fire of wrath, the curse
of the law, the condemnation of hell fell on him, fell on
him, in my place instead. And by his stripes I am healed.
Look at verse 9. So they came to that place that
God told him of, and Abraham built an altar, laid the wood
in order, and did what? Bound his son. Here's Isaac the
sinner, bound and laid on the altar, bound by sin, bound by
iniquity, bound by the law of God, laid helplessly on the altar
of justice. Picture the sinner, bound by
sin, lying on the altar of justice and righteousness, to be executed
by the Father! God raises the knife. Verse 10, Abraham stretched forth
his hand and took the knife. There's the sinner bound by sin
under the curse and judgment and wrath of the law. And God,
the just God, justice means to slay him. Justice intends to
slay you. The soul that sinneth shall die.
He that believeth not on the Son, the wrath of God abides
on him, waiting to And thank God, verse 11, another
voice was heard, the voice of mercy. And the angel of the Lord
said, Abraham, Abraham, here am I, lay not your hand upon
the lad, let him go, I found the ransom. The sinner is bound, the sinner
is bound with sin, helpless on the altar. laid there waiting
to be executed, and the justice of God raises the knife of retribution
and would plunge it into the sinner, for God must punish them. But God's mercy cries out, deliver
him from going down into the pit. I found a ransom. And Abraham lifted up his eyes,
verse 13, and looked, and behold, here's Christ. Here's Christ,
Mike, right here. caught in a thicket by his horn. And Abraham took that ram and
offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. Boy,
don't you know the thrill that went through that old man's heart
when he was standing there holding that knife and would plunge it
into the chest of his son. And God said, Wait. Wait. I found a ransom. There is a
substitute. This is the gospel. Somebody
said it was on that mountain, Moriah, that Christ died. Mount
Calvary. That's where God took him to
that place. My friends, the Old Testament.
Charlie's an expert at this. Paul preached on Isaac last Wednesday
night. Here's the gospel. Right here. You want to know the gospel?
Teach the gospel to your children? Take them back here. You say,
honey, there we are, sinners, bound by sin. God must punish
sin. We're under the curse of the
broken law, under the judgment of God. And God Almighty in His
holiness must punish sin. But God in His mercy and justice
and love has provided somebody to take your place. And the ram,
the innocent, was put in the place of the guilty. He became
what I am, that I might become what He is. He died my death
that I might live, and He lives that I might not die. And Abraham
loosed Isaac, and boy, I tell you, got that ram and put him
on that altar. Watched the blood flow. I should
have been crucified. I should. I should have suffered
and died. I should have hung on the tree
in disgrace. But Jesus, my Lord, took my place. That's what you see. You know
that? You don't know that, you don't
know nothing. Worthwhile. You say, I can build a bridge,
but it'll fall down. Well, you say, I can do this,
that and the other, it'll perish. By grace, I'm trusting Christ,
that'll never die. That'll never fall down, never
perish. Because He took my place, literally took my place. And
you know old Abraham left that place singing. He said, this is Jehovah-Jireh.
Jehovah-Jireh. He called that to this day. The
Lord will provide. The Lord will provide. I sing that song, Mike, to God
be the glory, great things he hath done. So loved he the world,
he gave his own sum. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. To God be the glory. What number
is that? What? 449. 449. 449. I think after
hearing that story, we can sing that with a little more enthusiasm,
can't we? To God be the glory. Can you
imagine Abraham coming down that mountain swinging that boy's
hand? To God be the glory. To God be the glory. Boy, I'm
telling you, I'm telling you, what a joy to know that we have
a sacrifice and a substitute that God provided. Wasn't provided
from Rome, or Nashville, or Anderson, Indiana, or Baton Rouge. Provided
by God and it's his own son. God will provide himself sacrifice. That's my hope 449 let's stand To God be the glory, great things
He hath done, So love ye the world that He gave us His Son,
Who yieldeth His life and atones for sin, And opens the life-gate
that all may go in. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
let the people rejoice. O come to the Father, through
Jesus the Son, and give Him the glory, great things He hath done. O perfect redemption, the purchase
of blood To every believer the promise of God The vilest offender
who truly believes That moment from Jesus a pardon receives
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
let the people rejoice. O come to the Father, through
Jesus the Son, And give him the glory, great things he hath done.