God Will Provide

We're going to open our Bibles
today to the book of Genesis, the 22nd chapter and the 14th
verse. Now here's the text. And Abraham
called the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh, which means the
Lord will see to it, or the Lord will provide. Now you take your
Bible today and open it to Genesis 22, verse 14. Let me speak to
you on the subject, the Lord will provide, or the Lord will
see to it. If you look back at verse 1 of
Genesis 22, it says, And it came to pass that God did test Abraham. That word is tempt there, but
the word is test. God does not tempt any person
to sin. God is not the author of sin.
But God will test his people. Now we know that the Lord will
bless his people. Paul wrote in Ephesians 1, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ.
God blesses his people. He blesses us in an innumerable
way. We could recite from now on the
wonderful works of God through Christ on our behalf. He blesses
his people, and then the Lord will forgive his people. He's
merciful. and gracious, the Lord delights
to show mercy. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness. God will forgive his people,
and our Lord will supply the needs of his people. Paul wrote,
But my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches
in glory through Christ Jesus. And David said, I am old, I have
been young, but I have never seen the seed of God begging
bread. God will supply our needs. He'll
meet our needs. Maybe not our wants or our desires,
but our needs will be met. All things will work together
for good to them who love God, who are the called according
to his purpose. And then God will keep his people.
We're kept by the power of God through faith. And he that hath
begun a good work in you, Paul said in Philippians 1, 6, will
complete that work. He'll perform it. He'll finish
it. in the day of Jesus Christ. And
he'll never leave us. Our Lord promised his disciples.
He said, I'll never leave you. Lo, I'm with you always, even
to the end of the earth. God will keep his people and
he will never leave them. He will never forsake them. But
this is true also. God will test his people. And the apostle wrote, count
it not strange when fiery trials come upon you. These fiery trials
are from God. They are from God, and they are
sent to try our faith. God will try his people. He's
going to test his people. He promises that. He said, if
you be without chastening, you're not a son, you're not a child
of God. Every child of God is going to
have to be tried. He's going to go through severe,
fiery trials. Actually, Paul says, count it
all joy. Not only don't count it strange
and don't be amazed. But he says, count it joy when
you try, because you know the hand of God is upon you. God is equipping you for something.
God's preparing you for something. God's preparing you for his presence,
for his glory, and maybe to be used in his kingdom. He's dealing
with you as a son, and he's preparing you. He's just not letting you
go and letting you become anything. He's shaping you and molding
you and forming you and getting you ready for his glory. So God
will try his people. In what way? Look at verse 12
of Genesis 22. God will try our fear of the
Lord. He said to Abraham, Now I know
that you fear God. In the first verse it says it
came to pass after these things that God did try Abraham. And when the trial was over,
he said, Now I know that you fear God. So the trial, one of
the reasons for the trial was to try Abraham's fear of God. The Lord delights in the man
who has a holy reverence for God. Do you know throughout the
Old Testament that the people who knew God were identified
in this fashion? Those that feared the Lord. That's
right. Jacob feared God. Joseph feared
the Lord. David feared the Lord. All the
way through the word of God, love for God and worship before
God, and reverence for God, was described by the word fear. And
Israel, what that the Lord require thee, but to fear the Lord, and
walk humbly before thy God." Now, that's an unknown article
in this day. That's an unknown article, and
not many folks have feared God, because a God is not preached
from the pulpit who is worthy of fear, who is worthy of worship,
or who is worthy of reverence. There is no fear of God before
their eyes. And then God will not only try
our fear of the Lord, but he will try our love for him. That's
why these trials are sent, to try our fear and to try our love. He said, Abraham, I know that
you fear God, seeing that you have not withheld your prized
possession from me, your only son. And my friend, in Matthew
10, verse 37, my Lord said, He that loveth father, mother, brother,
sister, husband, wife more than me is not worthy of me. Is there
anything or anybody that you love more than Christ? I'm not
asking you if you love God as much as you ought to. I know
you don't. I know I don't. I'm not asking you if you love
God as much as you want to. I know you don't. But I'm asking
you this. Is he first? Is he king? Is he
Lord? Is he the lover of your life,
the supreme delight of your heart? Is Christ first? If you love
anything more than you love him, then you don't love him in a
saving fashion. That's right. Christ said that. He said you can't even love your
own life more than me, you're not fit to be my disciple. So
he said, Abraham, I know now you love me. And God may give
you a little trial to find out if you do love him. He may reach
in and take that which is dearest and nearest to you to find out
who you love the most. And then God will not only try
our fear of him and our love for him, but he'll try our faith
in him. All of these trials are trials
of faith. That's what Peter called them, trials of faith. Abraham
believed God. Yes, he did. He believed God.
He believed God when he didn't know where he was going. God
just came to him and said, Get thee out of thy father's house
and go to a land I shall thee, and the scripture says Abraham
left. Abraham departed. On what basis? He believed God. God came to him and told him
that he would have a son, that he would be the father of many
nations, that his seed would be as the stars of the heavens
and the sands of the seashore. And Abraham believed God. He
didn't know how and he didn't know when, but he believed God.
His foundation of faith was the word of God. There are a lot
of things in this book I can't explain, but God says it and
I believe it. There are a lot of things about
Christ and about his glory and his substitutionary work and
his cross and the resurrection and heaven and the kingdom of
God I can't explain it and any man who thinks he can is a fool
because how can a finite mind comprehend an infinite God? How
can a fallible creature enter into the infallible? Paul went
to heaven and came back and couldn't even tell what he saw. That's
right, he said, I saw things it's not possible for a man to
utter. So I don't claim to have all
the answers, but I have the word of God, and that's sufficient.
Abraham didn't have the answers either. He didn't know where
he was going. He didn't know when that son would come. He
didn't know how. And God told him there in this
story, in Genesis 22, to take that son and put him on an altar
of wood and sacrifice him as a burnt offering. And he started
to do it, not knowing why, but he had the word of God for it.
these intellectual minds of today, we got more religion than we
have faith, and we'd sit down and try to figure out, now why
is God telling me to do this? And we'd lose the whole message
and the whole blessing and the whole direction because people
who believe God don't question God. They don't walk by flesh,
they walk by faith. They don't walk by sight, they
walk by faith. God says it, that's sufficient. And they wait for
God in due time to reveal what he's saying. Now that's the key.
He will someday. He'll make it all known. One
of these days Now we see through a glass dimly, darkly, but then
face to face. I'm going to know as I have been
known. I'm going to understand this
whole thing by and by. God's going to explain it to
me. That's right. When I have a mind capable of receiving it,
when I have an intelligence capable of comprehending it, when I have
the mind that can enter into God's wrath against sin and God's
holiness and justice and wisdom Wouldn't many of you start trying
to explain all that to me now? I couldn't comprehend it. I couldn't
enter into it. I don't have the capacity, and
you don't either, to hold God. It'd be like trying to put the
ocean in a peanut shell. It can't be done. God will try
his people. He'll try their fear of him,
their love for him, their faith in him. And it'll be revealed,
yes sirree. These trials will reveal it.
The day will reveal it. And then God will try his people
again and again and again. Not just once. You've come through
a heavy trial, well you're going to have another one. That's right. It says, look at verse 1 again.
It came to pass after these things. One of the great old writers
says that the scripture lists at least nine great trials of
Abraham. Nine, now think of it. Nine great
trials. Not one Some people live in the
past so long, they have a little trial back then, and they're
still talking about it after 30 years. Abraham went through
trial after trial after trial. God told him to leave his country,
leave his home. Then he left his father down
there and departed from his people. And then he gave Lot the well-watered
plains down there in the valley, and he took the mountains. And
then he turned down all the wealth of Solomon and Gomorrah. Turned
it down, it was offered to him. Those kings wanted to make him
rich, and he looked He looked face to face into the vaults
and treasures of Sodom and Gomorrah. It could have been his just for
the asking. And then he sent away Hagar and Ishmael. That's
right, he had a boy about 14, 15, 16 years of age, and God
told him to send him away, turn him away. The son of promise
cannot live with the son of the bondwoman. And he just walked
over the door and sent him away with Hagar, his mother. That's
tough. And after these things, Isn't that enough? Some of us
would be throwing up our hands by now, isn't it? But there's
still more to come. And not only more to come, but the greatest
trial of all, the hardest road to walk, the toughest mountain
to climb, the darkest valley to pass through, is just ahead. And God comes and he says, look
at it, verse 2, after all these things, after this man Abraham
had proved to be faithful and and dedicated and consecrated
after these things, God came, and Isaac was about 13 or 14
years old, oh, the apple of his father's eye, the pride of his
heart, and God said, Abraham, here I am, take your son, your
only son, Isaac I'm talking about, and offer him for a burnt offering
on the mountain where I'll show you. God was not only testing
the love and faith and fear of Abraham, but God was revealing
the gospel to Abraham. That's right. Now, if you read
the Old Testament and don't see atonement, satisfaction, substitution,
start back over and read it again. You've missed the whole thing.
God is teaching Abraham. Our Lord said, Moses wrote of
me. Moses wrote this book of Genesis.
And he says, Abraham rejoiced to see my day, my day, Christ
said he rejoiced to see my day, the day of my glory, the day
of crucifixion, the day of sacrifice, the day of atonement. He saw
it. He saw it. And he was glad. And whether
or not Abraham saw the full meaning of this picture, or whether he
understood all that he said, I don't know. But he wrote for
us, and he spoke for us. Because everything in the Old
Testament has to do with Christ. The Old Testament is Christ in
picture. The New Testament is Christ in
person. The Old Testament is Christ in figure, type. The New
Testament is Christ manifested, Christ revealed. And the Old
Testament has to do with sacrifice and atonement and substitution,
and it all points to Christ, because to him give all the prophets
witness. Now, when God came to Abraham
and said, take your son, your only son, whom you love, and
offer him as a sacrifice He was talking about what he was going
to do with his son, his only begotten, his well-beloved son,
who would bring the supreme effectual atonement and sacrifice. And
this was no hasty work. Did you know that mountain? Now,
if God had come to Abraham sitting in the tent and said, take your
son, your only son Isaac, right now, and take him out and sacrifice
him, Abraham might have run out there and done it without any
thought, without any consideration. But God always gives a man time
to think, time to consider. That's right. I know these preachers
always holler, strike while the iron is hot and draw the net
while the fish are in it and all that, but God doesn't work
that way. Our Lord said, sit down and count the cost. Count
the cost, whether or not you've got enough to finish the job.
Count the cost, whether or not you're able to meet the objections.
Count the cost. And Abraham had to travel three
days' journey to come to the place where he was supposed to
sacrifice Isaac. It wasn't next door, it was three
full days of traveling. God Almighty commands a man to
do something, God Almighty commands a man to do something, he gives
him some time to think it over. And it's not a hasty decision
and a hasty profession, but it's well thought out and well planned,
and it's done intelligently and willingly and lovingly and in
a determined manner. That's right. And Abraham took
his servants and his son, and they started towards that mountain.
And all day, as they walked, he watched that little boy run
and play. But God told him to do something, sacrifice that
boy. And Abraham believed God, and he was going to do what God
told him to do. And God gave him all that day, and at night
he'd sit. There was no sleep for that old gentleman. Well,
I know as the boy lay over there asleep, Abraham sat here and
watched that son, and it went through his mind, that's my only
son. I love that boy, and I love God
more. I must do as I'm commanded. And
that went on for three days and three nights, and finally they
came to the mountain. And he told the servants, he
said, you stay here now. And he took Isaac, and he put
that wood on his back. And he took the fire, and it
had a fire on the end of a stick. They didn't have matches then.
He had the fire on the end of the stick. And they started up
the mountain, and Isaac looked at his father, and he said, Father,
here's the wood, and there's the fire. Where's the lamb? You
can't have a sacrifice without a lamb. You can't have an atonement
without the blood sacrifice. I wish every preacher in America
knew that. Maybe they know it, but they're just not preaching
it. You can't have a sacrifice without a death. You can't have
an atonement without blood, without the shedding of blood. There's
no remission. You can't have a sacrifice acceptable
by God Almighty without a Lamb, the Lamb of God. That's what
John the Baptist said of Christ, the Lamb of God. And this boy
knew more than most religious people do today. He knew he couldn't
approach God without a sacrifice. He turned to his father and said,
here's the wood and here's the fire. We can't approach God. We can't be accepted without
a sacrifice. Where's the lamb? And that's
when Abraham uttered these words. My son, Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord
will see to it. The Lord will provide. Abraham,
if you slay your son Isaac, How is God going to fulfill his promise
to you that in Isaac shall all your seed be called? God will
provide. God will see to it. Wait a minute,
Abraham. Abraham, if you slay your son,
how are you going to face those servants when you come down off
that mountain? What are you going to say to them? God will see
to it. Those are the words of comfort
that had sustained this old man through three days and three
nights. God will see to it. God will provide. I don't care
what the circumstances, what the need, what the objection,
what the stumbling block, God will provide. Abraham, how are
you going to face Sarah when you go back home, your hands
stained with the blood of that boy born in her old age, that
promised child? God will see to it. God will
see to it. That's faith. That's faith. Abraham, how are you going to
face Abimelech the heathen king? How are you going to face the
Philistine and all of those heathens who sacrifice their children
regularly to whom you preached and before whom you lived and
you condemned their practices? How are you going to face them,
Abraham, when you get back home? God see to it. God see to it. And God did provide to it. God
did see to it. 2,000 years later, in the person
of his only begotten Son, in the person of Christ, God made
the fullest provision for the greatest need, he came into this
world himself. And they say right on that same
mountain, Mount Moriah, which is Mount Calvary, I don't know.
But he came into this world and took our sins in his body and
died on that tree as a sacrifice for our sins. I want you to look
at two or three other things. Look at verse 6, how this pictures
Christ. Abraham, God said, take your
son, your only son, whom you love. And that's, he's describing
his relationship with Christ. I and my father, one, Christ
said. The father loved me and hath committed all things unto
me. The father honoreth the son and honoreth him who will honor
the son. Take your son, God, your only son, whom you love.
and sacrifice him, not for your sins, God has no sin, he has
no sin, Christ has no sin, for the sin of your enemies, that's
love, and herein is love, not that we love God, he loved us.
But look at verse 6, Abraham took the wood and laid it on
Isaac, you see that verse there, he laid that wood on Isaac, see
Isaac climbing that mountain with that wood on his back, what
else do you see? I tell you what I see, I see
John 19, 17, listen, and he bearing his cross, went forth to a place
called the Place of the Skull, which is in the Hebrew, Golgotha. He bearing his cross. Isaac walking
up that mountain with that wood on his back is Christ. Climbing
that Mount Calvary with the cross on his back. It was his cross
because it was my cross. That's right. He was numbered
with me. He was one of us. That's right. He became one of
us. Christ was numbered with the transgressors. He became
bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. It behooved him, the
captain of our salvation, to be made like in all things his
brethren. He's one of us. When God laid
the whip on his back, he was laying the whip on our back because
he was one of us. It was his cross because it was
mine, and it was his cross from all eternity. That's right, he
was a lamb slain from the foundation of the world. None other could
be the Redeemer. None other could be the Savior.
Christ, that's his cross. It's been earmarked for him from
before creation. And it was his cross because
he was to die on it. Those old books of antiquity
said a man, the male factor, who was to die on the cross was
to first bear it. And it was his cross because
the law gave it to him. And until he satisfied that holy
law and holy justice of God, it was his cross. But I'll tell
you, when he cried, It's finished, it was his cross no more, and
it wasn't mine either, because the debt had been paid. All paid. He bore his cross. Now watch
this. Verse 6 and verse 8 both says this. Talking about Abraham
and Isaac. And they went, both of them,
up the mountain together. Abraham and Isaac. The servant
stayed behind. They had no part in this transaction.
They had no part in this sacrifice. No one but just Abraham and Isaac. Do you see the teaching here?
We need to learn to interpret the scripture. But as you look
at this statement, twice they went, both of them together.
I'll tell you what I see. 2 Corinthians 5.19. God was in
Christ, reconciling the world under himself. Nobody else had
a part in that atonement. Nobody else had a part in that
sacrifice. The church had no part in that sacrifice. Mary
had no part in that sacrifice. The disciples had no part in
that sacrifice. Just the Father and the Son.
They went, both of them together. Both of them together. They went
up that mountain. Only the Father and the Son.
God was in Christ, reconciling the world under himself. He's
the provider and he's the provision. Now watch verse 9. Let's move
on quickly. And Abraham bound Isaac and laid
him on the altar. Who did it? The Father did it.
Now, I know Roman soldiers nailed him to that cross. They nailed
his hands and feet to that cross. But the scripture says, Acts
4.28, that all these people, Herod, Pontius, Pilate, the Jews,
the Gentiles, the Romans, the soldiers, were gathered together
to do what God determined before to be done. That's right. They with wicked hands crucified
the Lord of Glory, but they did what God determined before to
be done. It pleased the Father to bruise
him. God Almighty just used human hands, doing what they wanted
to do, leaving them to their wicked hearts and their rebellious
natures, but it was his sacrifice. The sacrifice of Christ Jesus
was planned by God. It was executed and carried out
by the will of God. Christ said, I came to do not
my will, but the will of him that sent me. They said, don't
go to the cross. He said, for this cause came
I to this hour. You take your Jesus Christ superstar
book and throw it in the waste can. Christ knew where he came
from and who he was and why he came and why he came to do that,
why he came to die. He came on purpose. God sent
him to die. He didn't come down here to set
an example. He came to provide a sacrifice. He didn't come down
here to just preach and teach and try to reform this world.
He came down here to find a people. He came to the wilderness of
sin to find his sheep and to offer an atonement that would
be accepted by the Heavenly Father in their place instead. He died
for our sins. And then God said, all right,
Abraham, verse 12, I know you love me, seeing that you have
not withheld your only son, your only son from me. I know now
you love me. And I'll tell you this, how would
you go about proving that God loves sinners like you and me?
Well, don't go out and look at the beautiful stars and try to
prove the love of God. Don't go out, and they're beautiful,
aren't they? I love the stars and the moon and the trees and
nature and the flowers, they're beautiful. But that's not where
you see the love of God. You know where you see the love
of God? Go to Calvary. For God so loved the world, he
gave his only begotten son. Abraham, I know now you love
me, because you gave your son. And God, I know you love me,
because you gave your son, your only begotten son. Years I spent
in vanity and pride, caring not my Lord was crucified, knowing
not it was for me he died on Calvary. And by God's grace,
at last, my sin I learned. And then I trembled at the law
I'd spurned, till my guilty soul's imploring turned to Calvary. Oh, the love that drew salvation's
plan! Oh, the grace that brought it
down to man! Oh, the mighty God! God did stand
in the person of Christ at Calvary. That's where you'll learn everything
you need to learn, at Calvary. Don't leave there. Hang around
at Calvary. If you want this message on cassette
tape, you write to me. And join us next week at the
same time, until then, Henry Mahan, bidding you a very pleasant,
good day.

God Will Provide

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