I'll ask you, if you will, to
open your Bibles tonight to Genesis chapter 22. And it came to pass after these things
that God did tempt Abraham, test Abraham. And said unto him, Abraham,
and he said, behold, here I am. 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 unto
me upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of. And
Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass,
and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son,
and claimed the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up and
went unto the place of which God had told him. Then on the
third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar
off. And Abraham said unto his young
men, abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder,
and worship and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood
of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac, his son. And he
took the fire in his hand and a knife, and they went both of
them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham
his father and said, my father. And he said, here am I, my son. And he said, behold, the fire
and the wood. But where's the lamb for a burnt
offering? And Abraham said, my son, God
will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went
both of them together. And they came to the place which
God had told him of. And Abraham built an altar there
and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid
him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his
hand, and took the knife to slay his son. 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 thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything
unto him. For now I know that thou fearest
God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from
me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes
and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in a 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. And Abraham called the name of
that place Jehovah-Jireh, as it is said to this day, in the
mount of the Lord it shall be seen. And the angel of the Lord
called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time. and said, by
myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done
this thing and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that
in blessing I will bless thee and in multiplying I will multiply
thy seed as the stars of the heaven. And as the sand which
is upon the seashore, and thy seed shall possess the gate of
his enemies, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the
earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice. So Abraham
returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together
to Beersheba, and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba. We've just finished
reading a very well-known historical event from which the gospel of
substitution is clearly pictured. The ram that God provided was
slain in the stead or in the place of Isaac. And I want to
speak to us tonight from the words in verse 14, where we are
told, Abraham called the name of that place. Abraham lifted
and Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah Jireh. Now this is the first, the first
of seven or eight of these compound names of Jehovah that are given
to us in the Old Testament. And all of them speak to us about
our great God. If you have a marginal reading
in your Bible, I want you to look at it, a marginal reading
and a number just before Jehovah-Jireh. In my Bible, it is a number one. And the alternative reading is,
the Lord will see or provide. Is that what your marginal reading
reads? The Lord will see or provide,
Jehovah-Jireh. And then there's another number,
in my margin at least, that points me back to verse number eight. And in verse eight, we have Abraham
answering Isaac's question. And it is the most important
question. Where is a lamb for a burnt offering? Isaac asked his father, where
is a lamb for a burnt offering? He saw the wood, he saw the fire,
he saw the knife. Where's the lamb for a holocaust? for a burnt offering?" And Abraham's
answer, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. That is very clear and very cheering
to all of God's children, a very wonderful picture and type of
the gospel of substitution. Now having said that, I want
to speak to us tonight from the remainder of the words in verse
14. If you look again, and Abraham
called the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh, as it is said
to this day, in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. In the mount of the Lord it shall
be seen. And I'm going to take the words
in the mount of the Lord not to refer to Mount Moriah, as
many people believe that it does. It cannot be proven that it does. Mount Moriah was the place where
the temple was built, where that destroying angel that was passing
through Israel, destroying men and women, came to Jerusalem
and stayed his hand. And David went there to that
place, and it was a threshing floor of a Gentile. And David wanted to buy that
place, you remember, to build an altar there. That's where
God stayed his hand from destroying the people of Israel. And the
man said, no, I won't sell it to you. It's yours. Just take
it all. And David said, no, there's no
way. I will not offer a sacrifice
unto the Lord that does not cost me. And so he bought the threshing
floor, bought the oxen, the wood, everything there, and built an
altar. And that is the place where Solomon
built his temple. So many people believe that this
mount here that God directed Abraham to was that particular
mount. Now, in Jerusalem, Jerusalem
was built with many mountains around it, many mounts. So tonight,
I'm not going to take this to mean in the mount of the Lord
it shall be seen to refer to Mount Moriah, but rather to Mount
Calvary. Mount Calvary, where the Lord
Jesus Christ was crucified. On a hill far away stood an old
rugged cross, where the dear Lamb of God left His glory above
to bear it to dark cavalry. This was said roughly 2,000 years
before the crucifixion. So for us tonight, about 4,000
years ago, Abraham spoke these words. in the mount of the Lord
it shall be seen. I have three points to make. First
is, the death of Christ shall be seen in the mount of the Lord. And I want to emphasize the word
shall. As Abraham said, In the mount
of the Lord it shall be seen. It shall be seen. This is the word of the Lord
and there are not any maybes, there are not any perhaps, but
in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. The death, the crucifixion
of Jesus Christ was ordered of God before the foundation of
the world. The Apostle Peter preaching on
the day of Pentecost to the very people who had cried out, some
of them at least, who had cried out, crucify him, crucify him. And no doubt the priests who
were involved in that delivering Christ to Pilate. The Apostle
Peter said, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God, you have taken and by wicked hands have
crucified and slain. The Jews delivered him to Pilate. Pilate delivered him to the Roman
soldiers, but behind all of the actions of men was God's in the
mount of the Lord it shall be seen. His death was purposed
and plan from old eternity. It was pictured in the Garden
of Eden by the coats of skins that were put upon Adam and Eve. It was portrayed by the Passover
lamb in Egypt to secure Israel's deliverance from the death angel. The prophets of old spoke of
it with clarity hundreds of years before God, who had determined
it, should take place. He was taken from prison and
from judgment. And who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the
land of the living. For the transgression of my people
was he spitten. So in the mount of the Lord it
shall be seen. There was no question. There
was no question. And men have come along in years
gone by, and they said, well, what if? There was no what ifs
with God. This was determined by God. If
you turn with me to 1 Peter 1, we sang this hymn just a few
moments ago, that we are redeemed not with silver nor with gold.
Here in 1 Peter 1, And verses 18 through 20, the
apostle said, 1 Peter 1, verse 18, for as much as you know that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, those
are precious metals, are they not? Those are metals that men
call precious, but those are metals that come from the earth.
And the earth is under the curse of God because of man's sin. Cursed is the ground for thy
sake. You know you're not redeemed
with corruptible things such as silver and gold from your
vain conversation. And how vain, how empty was our
conversation. That word conversation means
the way we lived. the way all men live apart from
Christ. It's a vain life, it's an empty
life, it's a life that can never bring happiness and can never
satisfy the soul. Our vain conversation received
by tradition from your fathers. Adam was our father and we received
this vain conversation, this fallen nature was passed down
to us from Adam to His children, to His children, to His children
unto us. But, thankful for that, aren't
you? But, even though we're not redeemed
with corruptible things of silver and gold, but with the precious
blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,
Now notice, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the
world, but was manifest in these last times for you. To redeem with his precious blood,
he was foreordained before the foundation of the world, to redeem
with his precious blood guilty men and women. And this is the
reason that we say, Before ever there was a sinner, in the purpose
of God, there was already a Savior provided. In the purpose of God,
before there ever was a sinner, there was a Savior who God had
ordained and provided in his purpose. In the mount of the
Lord, it shall be seen. The second thing, here's some
things to be seen in the mount of the Lord by Christ's crucifixion. And this is one of those messages
and one of those points that could go on for a long time.
Because every attribute of God, every attribute of God, if you
would take the time to look at the cross and this crucifixion
of the Lord Jesus Christ, you would see each and every one
of them there. But here are some things that
I would mention to us tonight that are seen in the mount of
the Lord by Christ's crucifixion. First, the love of God would
be seen in the mount of the Lord. God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son. If you turn to 1 John, if you
still have your scripture there in 1 Peter, turn over a few pages
to 1 John chapter four. Verses 9 and 10, the Apostle
John, he wrote quite often about love, didn't he? The love of
God. He's the one, remember, who actually
laid upon the Lord's breast at that Last Supper. He heard the
heartbeat of Jesus Christ, and what he heard was a heart filled
with love. an expression, a manifestation
of the love that God has for his people. Verse nine, in this
was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent
his only begotten son into the world. Remember when we read
just a few minutes ago there in Genesis, God told Abraham
to take his son, his only son, but we know that he had another
son, didn't he? He had another son, but he had
only one son of promise, only one son by his wife, Sarah. But he had a son before Isaac,
Ishmael, and he had sons after Isaac. But this was his only
son that was given by promise. And God has many sons, those
of us here tonight who know Christ, we are sons and daughters of
God. but he only has one only begotten
son, one who is equal with him, one who is God. And John says,
in this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that
God sent his only, his only begotten son into the world, that we might
live through him, here in his love, Not that we loved God,
but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. The love of God would be seen
in the mount of the Lord. You know, when you go into a
jewelry store to buy a diamond. Now, we don't do that very often.
Some of you men, I know, when you went to buy your fiance,
an engagement ring, you went to a jewelry store, and you know
the practice in a jewelry store is that they take a piece of
cloth, and it's usually a dark piece of cloth, and they put
that ring, that diamond, out upon that cloth. Now that dark
background doesn't put any sparkle into that diamond. It doesn't
put any sparkle whatsoever into that diamond. The sparkle is
already there. It just brings out the sparkle,
the contrast. And when we think about the love
of God, the contrast to show how great is his love is to say
who he loved. God so loved the world. Who he loved. He loved you if
you're one of His. He loved me. He loved the unlovable. He loved those that only God
could love. Notice in Romans chapter 5 with
me how the Apostle Paul brings this out. In Romans chapter 5 and verses
6 through 10, the apostle said, for when we
were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the
ungodly. Sometimes a person asks, well,
I wonder if the Lord, if Jesus died for me. Well, can you put
yourself in this place? He died for the ungodly. Can you say, here am I? He died
for the ungodly. All that God is, I was just the
opposite. God's pure, holy, kind, good,
everything that God is, I was just the opposite. I'm a sinner. That's what Paul is saying here.
For when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ
died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Can you take your place there?
Are you still trying to make excuses and convince yourself
that somehow you're in a different category? If you are, you're
just taking yourself out of all hope and all salvation. He died
for sinners. He died for the ungodly. You
say, are you proud of that? No, I'm not proud of it. I'm
ashamed of it. I'm ashamed of it, but it's the
truth. This is what we are, and this
is who Christ died for. He died for the ungodly. He died
for sinners. much more, being now justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if,
when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death
of his son, can you take your place there, an enemy of God?
I've had people say, well, I just don't like to think of myself
as an enemy of God. Whether we like to think of ourselves
as enemies of God or not, that's what the Bible says about each
and every one of us. By nature, we hate God. A man doesn't hate a God that
he can manufacture in his own mind and like he takes some Play-Doh,
you know, and fashions it this way and does this and does that
and he's got himself a God that just fits into his likeness. But the God of the Bible, the
God of the Bible, we were enemies, all of us by
nature. Being a sinner is to be an enemy
of God. So this would be seen in the
mount of the Lord, the great love of God. And I just bring
this out trying to contrast, trying to make a dark background
for us as we look at the jewel, the love of God. Here's a second
thing. The justice of God would be seen
in the mount of the Lord. Matthew tells us that for three
hours, for three hours, when the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified,
there was darkness over all the land. Isaac Watts wrote in that
hymn, well might the sun in darkness hide and shut its glories in
when Christ the mighty maker died for man the creature's sin. I think the darkness of the sun
may well be emblematic of the darkness, the darkness in you
and I to ever be able to fully comprehend what was seen in the
mount of the Lord. That is the justice of God, the
holiness of God, the righteousness of God. I must believe that for
him calling the sins of his people, his. I must believe this because
the Lord Jesus Christ called your sins, my sins. He called
them his sins. His sins, he said, they are more
than the hairs of mine head. Innumerable evils have compassed
me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me so that I'm not able to look up. They are more than
the hairs of mine head. Therefore, my heart faileth me. It was then that the justice
of God was seen in the mount of the Lord, when the sins of
His people were charged in such a way that they became His sins. Legally, they were His sins. And it was then that the justice
of God spoke these words, recorded in the prophets of Zechariah,
Awake, O sword, against the shepherd. It is as though God said, Awake,
O sword, against my shepherd and against the man that is my
fellow, my fellow, one with me, God the Son, one with God the
Father, made flesh. Awake, O sword, Against my shepherd
and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts,
smite the shepherd. Strike the shepherd, slay the
shepherd. A third thing that we may see
in the Mount of the Lord, the wisdom of God would be seen in
the Mount of the Lord. When God, in answer to Moses'
prayer, passed by and proclaimed His name, as is recorded there
in the book of Exodus, one glorious attribute after another. As Moses
was hidden in the cliff to the rock and God passed by and proclaimed
His name, and one glorious attribute after the other was proclaimed. Merciful. Praise God. God's merciful. long-suffering,
gracious, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity,
transgression, and sin. But then those words, and will
by no means clear the guilty. How can that be? How can he say
he will by no means clear the guilty, and he won't, and at
the same time declare himself to be merciful, gracious, long-suffering,
abundant in goodness and truth? The guilty will only be cleared
by an atonement that will satisfy and does satisfy the infinite
justice of God. That's the only way. That's the
only way. Where will that atonement be
found? It will only be found by the wisdom of God providing
an atonement by Him who is both God and man. If He's not God,
He can't save us. He can't save you. But why would
I say if? He is God. He is God manifest
in the flesh. I and the Father, he said, are
one. Let me mention just one other
thing that may be seen in the Mount of the Lord at Mount Calvary.
The sovereign grace of God would be seen in the Mount of the Lord. It is seen in God singling out
one of those malefactors who was crucified that day. The scriptures
reveal that in the beginning of their crucifixion, they both,
they both railed upon the Lord Jesus Christ. But then God's
sovereign grace was seen in the mount for one, one and one only
came to seek mercy. Lord, remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom. To seek God's mercy on God's
terms is to find mercy. Let me say that again. To seek
God's mercy on God's terms. You say, what are God's terms?
Absolute surrender. Absolute surrender. To seek God's
mercy on his terms is to find mercy, for he will never turn
any away who come seeking mercy on his terms. Now, let me say
one thing more. Those given spiritual sight see their salvation accomplished
in the mount of the Lord. Let me say that again. Those
who are given spiritual sight see their salvation accomplished
in the Mount of the Lord. I see mine, do you? I see my
salvation accomplished in the Mount of the Lord. In the Mount
of the Lord it shall be seen. And those of us who are given
spiritual sight, we see our salvation accomplished there. I want you
to turn to one other passage, and that is in Isaiah 45, Isaiah chapter 45, beginning in verse 21. Tell ye, and bring them near,
yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient
time? Who hath told it from that time?
Have not I the Lord? And there is no God else beside
me, a just God and a Savior. There's none beside me. Look
unto me. And be ye saved, all the ends
of the earth, for I am God, and there's none else. I've sworn
by myself, the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness
and shall not return. That unto me every knee shall
bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely shall one say, in the
Lord have I righteousness and strength. Even to him shall men
come, and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed.
In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall
glory. We see how it is that God is
a just God and a Savior. We see that in the mount of the
Lord. How God is a just, absolutely just, holy, righteous, and a
Savior. We know that he must be just.
Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? We know that
he will be just, and we would not wish him to do anything that
would in any way tarnish his justice, his holiness. But at
the same time, we see, by God's grace, by spiritual sight being
given to us, we see how it is. that He is a just God and a Savior. He satisfied His justice once
and for all in the substitutionary death of His Son. And number
two, we see how that in the Lord we have righteousness and strength.
We see that in the mount of the Lord, how we have righteousness
and strength. He is our righteousness. And
that's another one of those compound names of Jehovah, isn't it? Jehovah
Tiskanu, the Lord, our righteousness. And He is our strength. We are justified in Him. And third, we see how all, A-L-L,
all the seed of Israel shall be justified and shall glory. Remember that seed that Abraham
was promised that would be like the stars in the heavens, like
the sand on the seashore, a spiritual seed. All Israel shall be justified
and shall glory. And we're all justified through
the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he is our glory. He that boasteth, let him boasteth
in this, that he understandeth and knoweth that I am God, and
there is none other. Well, I pray the Lord would bless
this word to all of us here this evening.