Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac demonstrates profound faith and obedience to God, serving as a powerful type of Christ's sacrifice. The sermon details God's test of Abraham, emphasizing that this trial was not from Satan or circumstance but directly from God to refine Abraham's faith and reveal his heart. The narrative highlights Abraham's immediate obedience, the significance of Isaac carrying the wood, and the eventual provision of a ram, illustrating that true worship involves costly obedience and complete trust in God's plan, ultimately leading to immense blessing.
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Genesis chapter twenty-two I'm going to read one verse from first Peter chapter one and verse seven by way of an introduction it reads this way that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perishes though it be tried with fire might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried, was fire. Genesis chapter twenty-two and verse one.
And it came to pass after these things that God did test Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham, and he said, Behold, hear mine. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou love us. and get thee into the land of Mariah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose up early in the morning and saddled and asked and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son and cut 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. He took the fire in his hand, and the knife, and they went both of them together. And Isaac spoke 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 is 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 them 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 with, tell 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 horn. 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 mouth of the Lord it shall be seen. Long ago an ancient king was making an attack upon the Hebrew people. He was being constantly repelled by the Hebrew people and it became very obvious to him that the one true God was on the side of these Hebrew people. Finally, in frustration, this ancient king went to his wise man, a seer that was among his advisors, and he asked him, why is it that God is on the side of these Hebrew people that I cannot defeat them?
The seer explained it to him this way. Long ago, their forefather, a man by the name of Abraham, was commanded of God to take his one and only son and offer him up as a burnt offering. Abraham obeyed this command even though God did not require him to carry it out. The king then thought within himself for a moment and said very well, I have two sons, I will offer up these two sons as an offering to this one true God that he will side with me. However, his two sons overheard the conversation, and they beat him to the draw, so to speak, they slew their father, and thus ended the military campaign against the Hebrew people.
Such is the impact of this story that we find in the twenty-second chapter of Genesis upon the lives of men and women down through time. not only in the realm of the Hebrew people themselves, not only and most certainly in the Christian realm today, but even among the ancient people in their literature and the things that we find concerning these ancient peoples, this one story has had this kind of impact upon the peoples that lived in this area.
that a man would take his son, his only son, and dare to offer him up as a sacrifice. In our lesson this evening we are going to be seeing a two-fold lesson actually. Again we are going to be taking note of the faith of Abraham and at the same time we are going to see in Scripture what I think to be one of the most explicit type of our Lord Jesus Christ in all of the Old Testament, not only in this lesson, but again in tomorrow evening's lesson as our Lord Terry's. So in Genesis chapter twenty-two, twenty-three and twenty-four, we are going to have unfolded for us one of the most explicit and its character, characterization, there we go, and in its instructions for our hearts of all the pictures that are given to us in the Old Testament concerning our Lord.
In Genesis chapter twenty two and verse one, you will notice that after a period of time, it came to pass after these things. These other activities now have unfolded. Isaac is born. The bond woman has been put out. Abraham and Sarah are now seen as a great man of faith and a great woman of faith. It is now after these things that God will come to them and put them to the greatest test of all. Up to this point we can see that Abraham has been willing to leave behind all family ties.
Abraham has recognized that material wealth is nothing in comparison to seeking the will of the one true God, in seeing God as his Lord, as the one who is in control. Abraham has made tremendous sacrifice. He is wandering in this land as a stranger and a sojourner. And one would think that in the mind of God this would be enough. Surely it would be enough that Abraham is already left behind all worldly attachments, that he might look for a city whose builder and maker is God. But we find that this is not the case.
God is going to go with this one step further. Now you will notice here on the outline that there are three points that show us three kinds of trial. We see trial by Satan. The example is given of Job, in Job one twelve and two, six to seven, where Job will make, or where Satan rather, will make the request of God that he might cast his servant Job. The Lord has said, have you ever seen a more upright man than Job? Satan said, well, of course he's upright. You put a hedge around him, you're protecting him. The Lord said, very well, you can take away his family's possession.
Bang, it was God. The devil came back and the Lord said, see there, have you ever seen a more upright man than Job? The devil said, well, of course he's upright, but he says, I'll tell you this, skin for skin all that a man has will give for a splash. The Lord says, very well, you can have a splash, but you can't take his life. Bang, he afflicted him with boils from the head up top of his head down to the sole of his foot. There was testing by the devil, trial by Satan. Then we have trial by circumstance. An example of this is found in the life of Elijah in First Kings seventeen. Verses one to sixteen we have where Elijah is told to go by a brook, by the brook in Kidron, and there he will drink of the water of the brook and ravens will feed him.
This actually came to pass. This is an incredible thing in itself because ravens are actually it's a vulture and usually the ravens would eat the food themselves rather than to bring it to someone else. But they did bring the food to Elijah. He ate the food, drank of the water of the brook, but then what happened? The brook dried up. There's a trial by a circumstance. God said, go there and I'll take care of you. Now here's Elijah looking. The brook's dried up. Now what does he do? Well now the Lord will speak to him and say, go to a widow. So he will go to this widow woman. He said, this widow woman will sustain you. So the first thing he finds when he gets to the widow woman is that her meal barrel is almost gone and the cruise of oil is almost gone.
She's going to make one last cake so that her son and her might eat and die. There's a trial by circumstance. We see again how the meal barrel never went dry nor the cruise of oil and the Lord continues to supply their needs. But finally, and the greatest of all, is trial by God. You'll notice that Lot never reached this point in his life. Lot succumbed to the temptation of Sodom and Gomorrah. Sodom and Gomorrah was enough to take Lot aside. But Sodom and Gomorrah had no temptation for this man Abraham.
Abraham had gone beyond the trial of Sodom and Gomorrah. He had gone on from the trial of the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah when they offered him reward. He had gone beyond these things, but now God himself is going to begin to deal with this man, Abraham. Now, times we as Christians have a tendency to kind of hang our heads and say, oh, why would God put me to the test? Why? Because of that verse I read in First Peter, chapter one and verse seven, that we might come out like gold, that He would try us, that He would mold us more into His image.
A lump of gold is taken in the Old Testament time. A lump of gold would be taken and heated up until it was soft, and then it would be fashioned into the beautiful shape of a lampstand. But only as it is heated up, God wants to heat us up. He has a work that He wants to perform in our lives. He wants to put us to the test. He wants to run us through the fire of trial that we might come out like gold. The trial of our faith is more precious than gold. It is of extreme value to our Lord. Our Lord wants us for a sacrifice just as He is going to ask for the Son of Abraham.
He wants us for a living sacrifice. We read in Romans chapter twelve and verse one. And you'll notice at the end of that verse it says, which is your reasonable service? It is only reasonable that we present ourselves totally as a sacrifice unto God. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies. Our body contains the soul and spirit. God is saying, I want it all. I want not only a commitment. I want not only a full surrender, a full surrender of all that we are and all that we have.
We've already taken note in our lesson that our Lord wants us to give everything to Him, cast aside everything that we might seek first the kingdom of God. But now in this lesson we're going to see that God wants even more than that. He wants our hearts. God already had Abraham's disciple. Everything about Abraham belonged to God already. But now God is going to do a work here that is going to demand his heart. It is an important lesson for us to learn. In connection with this, our Lord does not tempt to do evil in James chapter one and verse thirteen.
God is not tempting Abraham to do an evil thing. He is trying Abraham to make him do the reasonable service. The same way in our lives. When we are tempted to do evil, that is not of God. That is our own flesh that's at work. And if you will look up that text at your leisure in James, you will find that this is what it's telling us. It is our own lust. It is our own flesh. our own sin that is within us, that will tempt us to do evil. But God will try us that he might have our hearts. He will try us to make us better. The Lord does not allow us then to be tempted above what we are able.
Now this is a very key point. I'm going to just flip back very quickly and read this verse. First Corinthians chapter ten and verse thirteen. There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful who will not permit you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make the way to escape that ye may be able to bear it. So the Lord is going to provide us the way in which we might bear this trial, to bear the temptation that is taking place. Now beloved, if we never proceed in our spiritual lives, if we never exercise faith, if we never continue on down this road of holy living, a separated walk unto God, we will never reach the point where we will be tried as was Abraham.
And that will be most unfortunate. That ought to cause us extreme sorrow to think. that we would never reach this high plateau where the Lord Himself would come and begin to reach in and take our heart. Because we're going to see at the end of the lesson what a tremendous blessing it is when the Lord Himself comes to try our hearts. It is a trial of the heart. God did come and test Abraham. How is He going to do it? Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest.
This is the first mention of the word love in the Bible. You remember that the book of Genesis is a book of beginnings. And so now we have the beginning of this word love. Now doesn't that seem to be somewhat incredible to you? After twenty-two chapters or twenty-one chapters in the book of Genesis, we have not yet had the word love. Don't you think Adam loved Eve? Don't you think that Adam and Eve loved their sons, Cain and Abel? Or that Eve cared about her sons? We never read of Eve saying how she loved Abel at the loss of her sons.
Don't you think that Abraham loved Sarah, or that Noah loved his wife, or that Hamsham and Japheth must have loved their wives? Don't you think they did? I think they did. But no mention of love is given to us until we get to the twenty-second chapter of Genesis. I believe that if we take a very careful study of the first twenty-one chapters of Genesis, we will find here the mind of God. God is going to reveal to us his mind in certain things, such as the total depravity of man, sin entering into the world, the wages of sin as death.
atonement. Without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin. Justification by faith. Sanctification. Separated walk unto God. And right on down the line. In Genesis chapter twenty two, just as we have God coming to Abraham and saying, Abraham, I want you, I want your heart, so are we going to be given here the heart of God. Genesis one to twenty-one will give us his mind. Genesis twenty-two will give to us his heart. And this is where the type of our Lord is going to begin to unfold.
Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou love us. First mention of the word love in Scripture is the love of a father for his son. Not of a husband for a wife, a wife for a husband, or of a woman for her children. The first mention of love will be that of the father for his son. Take your son, and this love is going to be in connection with sacrifice. Take now the son, thine only son, Isaac whom thou lovest, and sacrifice him. Here God is pouring out to us his heart.
Because the Holy Spirit, by divine inspiration, as it moves through time, and as these words are pinned on these pages, is pointing forward to a time in which the infinite God will take His Son, His only Son whom He loves, and will send Him to a cross. He will do so according to a plan that has been determined before time began. In an eternity passed, according to the counsels and predetermination of God, the Son would go to a crop. And here we can almost see how that as God is giving these words, these instructions to Abraham, we can almost see how his heart is going out.
Abraham, take your Son. Just as one day, we can just see God is saying, just as one day, my Son. is going to go to a terrible cruel crop. Take this son whom you love. I have here a section then on the first use of the word love here in paragraph C. We won't take note of all of these sections. We want to move on to some other things. But you'll notice also that the first mention of love in the four Gospels I have them listed here is in Matthew three-seventeen, Mark one-eleven, Luke three-twenty-two, and then John three- sixteen.
The Synoptic Gospels are the first three. Synoptic means that they are similar in their writings. These first three Gospels will all give to us the first mention of the word love will be, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. First of all, God is going to declare to us, God loves His Son. The Son was always His light. The Son was the well-beloved one long before time began. Long before creation, before time, space, and matter was put in a motion, God loved the Son.
So three times over in those three Gospels, this is my beloved Son. this is my son I love him then in John chapter three and verse sixteen what do we read for God so loved the world how did he so love the world that he gave his son God so loved the son and then he so loved you and I he gave us this son this is the love of God The love of God is not passive. The love of God is not mere emotion. The love of God is not just words that are put together in poetic verse.
The love of God is a positive act whereby He gave His Son. So when we speak of love in Christian circles, You'll notice here I have, love is to identify the Christian. Our Lord has said, They shall know that ye are my disciples if you have love one for another. Love is the greatest of the gifts in first Corinthians, verse thirteen, thirteen. By keeping his word we prove our love and his love will bring us into service. So therefore, when we speak of love in Christian circles, it's very important for us to understand what it is.
Love is not just going up to a brother and sister and shaking their hand or putting your arm around them and saying, I love you. Love is doing a positive act for that brother or sister. Love, even more than that, is doing a positive act for this brother or sister who is unlovable. Because that's what we were. When we were enemies, Christ died for us. When we were in our sin. When we were shaking our fist at God saying, I don't want to have anything to do with you.
God so loved me. So when we talk about love among the brethren, among the disciples, the learners and the followers of Jesus Christ as Lord, when we speak of love, then we are talking about a positive act. It's not just saying, but it is doing. Therefore, it's very important that we do things. Positive act that is going to help and uplift one another. This is love, as it is given to us in the word of God. Take your son.
Now think of this. Let us give back now to the real impact as we come close to the offering of Isaac. Let us meditate upon this for a moment. Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou loveth. These words were probably brought home to me with this greatest impact. One Sunday after we had come home from meeting, we were sitting down at dinner and my daughter Lisa was obviously deep in thought. So my wife began to ask her about what she was thinking.
And then she began to explain to us that she had had the lesson about Abraham offering up his son Isaac. Then she looked at me with her big blue eyes and said, Daddy, would you ever offer me up? Would you? One of your children asked you that? What would you say? I've always made it a practice to be absolutely honest with my children. And so I answered her honestly. No, Lisa. I wouldn't. Your daddy has a lot to learn about faith and love. Think of it.
God came and spoke to Abraham and said, Abraham, I want your son. Not only was this the well-loved son, but this was the son that came as a result of faith. from last night's lesson. We'll remember this. That Abraham staggered not at the fact that his body was dead. Sarah's body was dead. They were unable to have a child. They staggered not in unbelief, but they believed God and a child was born. This was the child of faith. And now God was saying, take this son, this child of faith, and offer him up as a bare offer.
Not only that, but this was the child of promise. God promised them a son. He promised them a seed. Not only that, this was the son of the covenant. The entire covenant between God and Abraham rested on the fact that this son was alive, that he was born and that he was living right there in their presence. There was the covenant. And now God was saying, take him and offer him up as a sacrifice. What a thought. What a staggering thought it must have been. But notice what we read in verse three.
And Abraham rose up early in the morning. If there was ever a morning in which you would be inclined to sleep in, I would think that that would be the one, not Abraham. Abraham believed God. Therefore Abraham is going to be up early in the morning to make his journey to a place in which God is going to tell him of. You'll notice that this is a place that is appointed by God. At the end of verse three, they went into a place of which God had told him. Then further...
verse nine and they came to the place which God had told him of. They are going into the area of Mount Moriah. Now in Second Chronicles chapter three and verse one we read there of how Jerusalem is built in this same mountain, in this same region. Historians tell us that in fact Jerusalem will be built in this same mountain, in this very same area, and that probably the place that God had appointed was the exact location where our Lord was crucified many years later, taking to a place that I will show you.
What place will it be? It is going to be a place in the mountain of Mariah. It is going to be a place just outside of the city walls that God could already see. He could already see Jerusalem there, though it wasn't there. He could already see what is to take place. It is taking a place that I will show you. And there, once again, we see the heart of God. For there the Lord would be thinking within himself, there is where my son is going to be offered up as a sacrifice. You'll notice also that in verse five, this is called an act of worship.
I and the lad will go yonder in worship. You'll notice on the bottom of your outline that I've once again given a quote from C.H. Macintosh. Take away faith and Abraham appears on Mariah as a murderer and a madman. Take faith into account and he appears as a devoted worshiper and a God-fearing man. What does this mean? I and the lad will go yonder in worship. Again we have a beginning. This is the first mention of the word worship. Worship is mentioned previously. We have an altar in the case of Abraham. But this is the first time in which the word is used. I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you.
Let us pause for a moment to take note of the fact that at this time Isaac is not a little boy. Now I know that that's... going to run against all the Sunday school pictures and planograph lessons and everything else. However, by this time Isaac is in his later twenties and could be in his early thirties. This is no little lad that's running up here. Now one of the reasons we know this, we know it by the lapse of time and the age that's given of Abraham later on in the chapter, but we also know it by the fact that Isaac is going to carry the wood. Now the wood required for a burnt sacrifice was quite a load, and it would take a good, healthy, strong young man to carry that wood.
This was no little boy. This was a young man strong enough to carry this great weight of wood. It probably would not be a coincidence if Isaac was somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty-three years of age. We don't know, because we can't figure it out that close. but we know that he is somewhere in this age group. So now we have a big strong young man going up there with his father who is well over a hundred years old. Now don't you think that Isaac could have just told his father to take a long walk off a short pier or go jump off a rock or something?
Sure he could have. But Abraham will tell the servants I am the lad. Now the English word lad denotes the small boy, but in the Hebrew the word here just means a young man. Now in comparison to a hundred year old man, thirty years old is still pretty young. Some of you folks still consider me pretty young because you're a distance down the road, Jeff. I won't say how far down the road, but you still consider me to be a young man. Now there are some people who don't consider me to be so young, like me. I feel I'm aging rapidly every day. But he says, I and my young man are going to go yonder and we are going to worship.
Worship is an act of obedience. I mentioned this just last Sunday. It is an act of obedience. It is an act of faith and it is an act of cause. It is an act of obedience. Abraham must take his son to a place appointed by God. And his son says, I and the land will go yonder and worship. His son must submit to his father, lay upon the wood, and wait for the knife to be plunged into his throat. It is an act of faith. Both father and son will be believing God, that God knows best.
They will take God at his word. And in Hebrews chapter eleven we read this of Abraham, that he believed God, and he knew that if all else fails, God would raise him up from the dead. This was the faith of Abraham. And then finally it is a costly act. It is going to cost Abraham his son. It is going to cost Isaac his life. Let us just flip back and notice some words in Hebrews chapter five. And then in Hebrews chapter ten, we are going to read here concerning the one supreme act of worship. Hebrews chapter five and verse eight, we read, though he were a son, yet learned he obedient by the things he suffered.
Though he were a son, yet learned he obedient. Have you ever wondered how the son of God learned obedient? Well, the word learned here means to learn by experience. The Son of God, being God, never had to obey until he became man. All the angels and the universe obeyed him. He spoke the word, things came to pass. But now, taking upon himself the form of a man, he is going to know obedience for the first time. For the first time in eternity, God is going to obey.
The Son of God is going to obey the will of the Father. So he is going to learn it by his own experience, by the things which he suffered. And then in Hebrews chapter ten, and verse five, wherefore when he cometh into the world, he's taken upon himself the form of a man. He saith sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not. but a body hast thou prepared me and burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure then said I lo I come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will O God above when he said sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not neither has pleasure in them which are offered by the law then said he lo I come to do thy will O God notice how this is repeated over again I come to do thy will, O God.
He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. By which will, the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily, ministering, and offering often the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down at the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting, till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he has perfected forever them that are sanctified, and the Holy Spirit also is a witness to us. After he had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them.
After those days said, if the Lord I will put my laws into their hearts and their minds will I write them in their sins and their iniquities, will I remember no more. Now our mission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. He said, I came into the world, took upon himself the form of a man, a body that has been prepared by God for sacrifice. He said, I come to do thy will. Worship is an act of obedience. The word worship can also be defined as bow down to, to bow down to, to bow down to the will of God. Why did Abraham say?
The lad and I are going yonder to worship because Abraham and his son were bowing down to the will of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the great antitype of all Scripture, of all Old Testament Scripture, will come on the scene saying, I come to do thy will, O God. And in his great act of worship, he became that one sacrifice for sin. You will notice in Matthew chapter eight and verse twenty that disciples came to the Lord and they asked to follow him, to be his disciples. And the Lord spoke to them then at that time and said, the son of man hath nowhere to lay his head.
Another way of translating that word would be, the son of man hath nowhere to bow down his head. In John chapter nineteen and verse thirty on the cross we read, that he bowed his head and gave up the ghost, or gave up the spirit. All through his life, there was nowhere for the Son of Man to bow down. His great act of worship was going to take place on the cross, and there he would bow down his head. Not a resting place. and all of the earth for the one who created it.
No place among creation or creature for the very Creator. But on a cross he would bow down his head and of his own volition he would give up his wife. He bowed down totally to the will of God and his sacrifice for our sins. This is why in Leviticus chapter one and verse three we read as a free will offering. It is a burnt offering of his own free will. He gave himself as a ransom for you and I. This is the picture that is being given to us in Genesis chapter twenty two of the sacrifice of our Lord of this great act of worship.
So it is only appropriate that when we come together for worship that we remember the Lord in His death. That we show forth His death or we put on display His death. A lot of people sometimes they used to challenge us and say, why do you call that a worship meeting? It is the Lord's Supper. Why do you call it a worship meeting? Well, because it is. It is in time in which we commemorate, we put on display the greatest act of worship that has ever taken place in time or eternity. We remember the Lord in that time in which he bowed down wholly to the will of God.
And when we worship, we bow down in his presence. We remember the Lord. We obey his command. This do and remembrance of me. And as often as ye do this, remember me. It is the request of our Lord, and we will gladly bow down to it. Let us take note again of the faith of Abraham, remembering that these two lessons are intertwining for us, the type of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the faith of this man Abraham. We've already noted, Abraham told his young men, First of all, in verse three, Abraham rose up early.
Abraham was eager to set forth on this road of faith. Then secondly, he will tell his young men, I and the lad will go yonder and worship. Then notice what he says, and come again to you. He says, we're coming back. He didn't say just me. says, I and the lad. We're both going and we will both come again to you. Then finally in verse ten, the greatest act of faith here, probably in his whole life, Abraham stretched forth his knife, took the knife to slay his son.
In James chapter two, Remember that James is a book that tells us that faith produces works. James is also going to speak of Abraham. And in speaking of Abraham, he is going to use this very account in Genesis twenty-two. In James chapter two and verse twenty-one we read, Was not Abraham our father justified by works? This is not in contradiction to Romans chapter four where we read that Abraham was justified by faith. Because faith produces works. So he is justified by faith that produces works. Or justified by works. When he had offered his son upon the altar.
Seest thou how faith wrought with his works and by works was faith made perfect. Now notice this verse. It's kind of a tongue twister, but it's good for us. Seest thou how faith wrought with his works. Faith is producing works. And by his works, those works, faith is made perfect. God did not have to take Abraham up there for God to know that Abraham had faith. God already knew that. He knows everything. But God sent Abraham up to that mountain to show Abraham that he had faith.
because Abraham then learned something very important in his relationship with God. Many times the Lord will do this to us if we are willing to let him work in our lives. He'll take us to that point where he already knows what's going on inside of us, but he wants us to know it. Faith or works will make our faith perfect or complete. And Scripture was fulfilled with said, Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and he is called the friend of God. Ye see then by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
And like manner also is Rahab the harlot justified by works, and she had received the messengers, and sent them out another way. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. It was very easy for Abraham to go on content, believing within himself that he had faith as long as Isaac was alive and well and standing in front of us. The same thing in our experience too, isn't it? It's very easy to cruise along and say, I have faith, I believe God, as long as the house is standing, the bills are being paid, we're healthy, strong, able to get around, the cars are running, everything's going fine it's easy to say we have faith and actually believe it was then I said yes I have faith then it's nothing difficult about it but what about when Isaac is laid out on the altar the fire is there he took the knife and raised it up in his hand what about then how easy is it then how easy is it to have faith When the house burned down, the car blows up, we
get a kitchen in our back and we can't work anymore, how easy is it then to have faith? This is where the Lord wants our heart. He wants us to believe Him, to have total, absolute confidence in Him, just simply believing His Word. Abraham believed God. not only when Isaac was standing there alive and well, big and strong, but he believed God even as he stood over him with a knife raised about to plunge it into his throat. But you'll notice Abraham in his faith said, God will provide himself a land.
I often wonder if Abraham understood how prophetic he was. No doubt in his time of faith, he understood that God will provide a lamb right there at this time of sacrifice. This is exactly what took place as they turned around and they saw a ram caught in the thicket. But I wonder if Abraham realized the full impact of this statement. God will provide himself a lamb. In John, John the Baptist will declare, behold, the lamb of God. which taketh away the sin of the world. There is God's Lamb.
Yes, indeed, God will provide a Lamb. But as a Lamb, not only in this instance, but He is going to provide a Lamb down to the ages of eternity. A Lamb that will die probably in this very same place. The result of obedience. Notice in verse fifteen of our chapters. 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 have done this thing, hath not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee.
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. For Abraham returned unto his young men. They rose up and went together to Beersheba, and Abraham dwelt in Beersheba. The result is blessing. For those who bow down to God, for those who simply believe God, he believed that even that God would even raise up Isaac from the dead.
He so trusted in the Lord. And now the result is tremendous blessing. In Ephesians chapter one and the third verse, we read, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. He has blessed us. Just simply believe God. A lot of times people will say to me, Greg, God bless you. I'm not saying don't do that. You know, if you want to, go ahead. But a lot of times they'll say, God bless you, Greg. And I said, don't worry, he already has. He's blessed me with spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
And that's the best that I can possibly hope for. Blessing. Our Lord today still commands obedience. He said in Matthew chapter ten when speaking concerning discipleship, if a man is not willing to take up his cross and follow after me, he is not worthy of me. Let me just go back there and read a couple of those verses in Matthew chapter ten and verse thirty-eight. He that takeeth not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it. and he that loses his life for my sake shall find it." Abraham was willing to give his son, and he was given his son back in return in a very new, in a very rich way.
Now Abraham and his son are going to enter into a very intimate relationship with one another. They are now ready to lay aside Sarah the wife and for Isaac to take a bride. And for Abraham, no doubt this was an exciting time for him. A time of tremendous victory. His son is alive. He that loses his life for my sake shall find it. O beloved, it will lay ourselves on the altar as a living sacrifice. There's coming a time in which God will speak to us.
Our Lord will speak to us and say, you made sacrifices in your journey upon the earth. You went through pain in your journey upon the earth. You gave your life. You lost your life for my sake in your journey upon the earth. Now, find it. Here is your life in glory forever with the Lord. Jim Elliott, one of the missionaries that lost his life, in Ecuador once said, It is no fool who gives what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose. It is no fool who gives it all for Jesus Christ is Lord.
To walk this life of faith, to be eager to do it. In Romans chapter eight in verse thirty two, we read another very important verse of comfort and encouragement for our hearts. he that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Isaac rose up from the place of death and so would continue as a type of our Lord however Isaac never felt the night he would never feel the flames of fire our Lord on the other hand would feel the pains of there.
I've often noted that there isn't a single animal that was slain that was offered up as a sacrifice throughout all the Old Testament that ever felt the flames of the fire. Not one. They were already dead. Our Lord did. Our Lord took it all. He felt every pain, every physical pain, and then greatest of all, He felt the great anguish when God poured out His judgment upon your sin and mine that He bore in His own body on the tree. He felt that terrible fire. Then we read, He that spared not His own Son.
In Genesis twenty two we have the heart of God. He took His Son, the one that was closest to Him. put him on a cross. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? It is a blessing for those who are willing to walk by faith. God has already delivered up his son. He did not spare his son. Shall he not give us all things? And yet so how many times in our lives are we so weak and safe?
How often in our lives do we doubt God? How often do we fall down in failure and just not believe in God, taking them at his word? How often do we come to him as the disciples did in the boat and say, Lord, care us thou not that we perish. Of course he cares. He spared God His Son. He gave Him up for us all. And the Son now is making intercession on our behalf. There is no one to judge us. There is no one to condemn us. We have all things through Christ Jesus our Lord.
So, beloved, whenever you think the times are getting tough, this is something that I do in my own experience. Whenever I start feeling a little down and discouraged, What I do is I go back to Isaiah fifty three, Psalms twenty two, and I read again the sufferings of my Lord Jesus Christ. And then I examine real hard what he went through for me. And then suddenly my little problems are exactly that. They're just little problems. In view of what our Lord has done for us, Is it such a great thing for us to present ourselves as a living sacrifice?
No, Romans twelve one, it tells us it is your reasonable service. It's only reasonable that we do this. Shall we pray? Our Heavenly Father, we thank thee this evening for thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we're thankful for this beautiful picture that we have of him in the Old Testament. in this account of Abraham and Isaac, Father, we just pray that this evening it might truly warm our hearts. It might warm our hearts in this great example of faith that we see in Abraham and in Isaac, that it might warm our hearts to see how that God spared not his Son, but delivered him up for us all.
Father, we just pray that we might be so moved by the Word of God, by the Holy Spirit that is our teacher. We pray that it might so affect our lives that we might be better servants of thine. We might truly learn what it means to walk by faith. For it is far better life that we live when we simply believe God and just take it at our work. That's your word. Please pray there might be so, and we ask you now for thy blessing as we part. Bring us together again according to thy will. It's in his name we pray. Amen.