God's love is the central theme, presented not as fleeting emotion but as a profound, sacrificial act rooted in His divine nature. The sermon contrasts worldly notions of love with the enduring love of God, exemplified by the Abrahamic covenant in Genesis 22 where God tested Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his only son, Isaac. This narrative foreshadows God's ultimate sacrifice of His own Son, Jesus Christ, demonstrating the immense cost and depth of His love for humanity. The message emphasizes that this divine love is the source of transformation, offering salvation and a new life to those who accept it, and calls listeners to internalize and live out this sacrificial love.
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As was mentioned, during the course of this weekend, we're going to be looking at the subject of love. Now, it's not going to be love, like many of you think of, love, like the girls walking down the boy side of the cabin. That's not the kind of love we're going to be talking about. Keep in mind, puppy love leads to a dog's life. I'm going to say that right off the top so I can get it out of the way. That's not the kind of love we're going to be talking about. We're going to be talking about the love that the Word of God teaches. At a camp like this, I like to think that we come together and we get exercise. We get exercise bodily, whether you're playing softball, baseball, soccer, running horses.
I don't know how much exercise you get riding a horse, up and down, motions, jarring the bones, or whatever. But you get different kinds of exercise. You get to breathe some fresh air for a change. especially for those of you from St. Louis, places like that. You get some fresh air. You get to stretch the legs a little bit, get out, do some hiking, things like that. Then you also get emotional exercise. You get to meet new people. You get to associate a little bit. You get to broaden your horizons mentally, emotionally. And make sure you meet someone new. Just don't hang around with all the same people you've known for years.
That doesn't do you any good. Doesn't round off any edges. Meet some new people. Go up to someone you don't know and say, hello, my name is XYZ. And you say, where did you get such a strange name? But you see, it's a good way to kick it off. And then most importantly, what we want to do is we want to get spiritual exercise. I know sometimes young people have a tendency to think, oh, that means studying the Bible and sitting through meetings that go on indefinitely. Well, in these meetings, I want you to think and I want you to exercise spiritually. I'm going to be setting down principles that we see in the Word of God concerning this subject of love, and I want you to be thinking about them.
I want you to take time during the weekend to be alone and to think about them and to think about how they apply to your life. Young people, I want you to understand something that's very, very important. And that is that you are at a time in your life when you have to make the greatest decisions of your life, and yet it is a time in which you have the least amount of education, the least amount of knowledge, and the least amount of experience from which you can draw on to make those critical decisions. And so, therefore, it is extremely important that you grab on to a source that has the knowledge that has the experience, that has the wisdom, and draw upon that source to make your decisions.
And I am going to submit to you throughout this weekend that this is the source. This is where the knowledge and the experience and the wisdom is that you can draw on to make the critical decisions of the rest of your life. And at the basis of all this, the foundation of all of this, is the love of God. I was in Honolulu, Hawaii. And there was a fellow there that was a Baptist evangelist. And he used to walk up and down Waikiki Beach. And if you have never been to Waikiki Beach, I don't suppose you have. It's a long way, huh? Okay, good. If you've ever been to Waikiki Beach, you will know that all the strangest people in the world gather at Waikiki Beach.
It doesn't mean strange. But all the weird people in the world gather at Waikiki Beach. And this fellow was out at Waikiki and he was preaching the gospel. And two very abnormal looking guys grabbed a hold of him and took him behind a building and they shoved him up against the wall. And he noticed that they were carrying an assortment of weaponry. Whereupon he said to them, God loves you. And the fellow that was holding his throat said, What? And let go. Now, ordinarily, when these two fellows grabbed people and shoved them up against the wall, they heard an assortment of other kinds of language.
But never had anybody told them, God loves you. And so they stopped and they listened to him. And it not only saved his neck, but it also... resulted in the salvation of these and others there on YCCB. So that by the end of the week, a lot of these who were very strange people were walking out into the ocean to be baptized. God loves you. The most effective message that we have to bring today is not the message of which you're going to hell. Now, that's important for people to know. And I will tell you that if you reject God's message of love, there is only one alternative, and that is you will get what you have earned, what you deserve.
Over the course of your life, you will receive what you have earned if you reject God's love, and that's God's judgment. But the first thing that we want to establish is that God loves you, and he went to a great deal of trouble to show you just how much. to display his love. And now this is the love that he wants for you and I to exhibit, to have in our lives. And this is not the soap opera kind of love. This isn't not the gitsy-gitsy-gitty kind of love. This isn't the love that's here today, gone tomorrow. But this is the love that grabs a hold of a person's life and it makes a difference.
It makes changes. It makes drastic changes. It makes even biological changes. I was talking to a fellow once who had been hooked on hard rugs all of his life, and the love of God reached in and changed him to the extent, and I talked to a doctor, I talked to a biologist, I talked to a chemist, and they all told me that this was impossible, and yet he was a man who had not touched any of these drugs since the day he received God's love. It changed him drastically. It changed his whole outlook on life. It changed him as a person. And God's love can change you. And if you're sitting here today and you're saying, I am a Christian, I have received his love, then one of the things that we're going to be looking at is how is God's love working now in your life?
What kind of changes are happening all the time? Everything changes. Just can't change it. It's not just what they're doing when they blow up the dirt here and build buildings and things. Not just that, but nature all around is changing. The trees change. Everything is changing. And you're changing. And you're changing either for the better or for the worse. And the way that you're going to change for the better is how you allow God's love to work in your life. Now there are going to be certain principles, and I want to want you to think about them, jot them down. You've got pencil and paper. I let you all got photographic memories.
And I'm going to be asking you. Be alert, because I'll stop and ask you right in the middle somewhere. What did I just say? You'll be terribly embarrassed if you don't know. Genesis chapter twenty-two, let's read from verse one. And it came to pass after these things that God did test Abraham and said unto him, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, Behold, here am I. It said, Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest. 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 his ass 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 to the place 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, laid upon Isaac his son, and he took the fire in his hand and a 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 of 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 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, for 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 bird 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. Now, I'm going to very quickly give you five basic points in our outline.
that we are going to be looking at. In Genesis chapter two, we are going to be looking at the plan. And this is all under the heading of God's love. We put love up here. First, the plan. Genesis chapter twenty-two. Second, the pattern. John chapter thirteen. Thirdly, the principle. First, Corinthians thirteen. Fourth, the practice. Ephesians five, one to seventeen. And then finally, the practical, which will be a review of all that's gone on above in first John chapter four. Now, If you didn't get all that, we'll be going over it again. Genesis twenty-two, that's what we're going to be looking at now, and that is the plan. You'll notice that I made it simple. Everything begins with T. First of all, the plan.
In your text, I want you to look because we're going to be picking out T phrases. In verse one, one of the first T phrases that we see is thine only son. Abraham, God called to Abraham and said, Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou love us, is our second key phrase. Right off the bat, I want to point out that this is the first mention of love in the Bible. First mention. Now that brings up a very interesting question. Why? Why?
What is peculiar about the love that is spoken of in Genesis chapter twenty-two? Anyone want to venture an idea? Do you know what I mean by peculiar? Is there something different about this love? If you were going to write an account of the history of the world and you were going to put down the word love for the first time, in what setting would you put it? Family? What would you do? Somebody in this row right here?
Anybody? Give me a shot. Where would you put it? How would you speak of love? Anything. Would you speak of it as a little boy loves a puppy? Good. How would you think of it? Do you think that Adam loved Eve? I would think so. Probably, yeah. Do you think that any husband or wife loved each other, clear up to the time of Abraham? We've already had the flood. Sorry. All these people.
Now we've got Abraham called out of the early Calvary. And now Genesis chapter twenty-two. Twenty-two chapters of Genesis have unfolded. And now we have the word love. Nobody loved anybody? Clear up to Genesis twenty-two? Is that it? What is different about the use of the word here? Why is it special? What do you think? Okay. What kind of love is it? Love of what for what? What? Somebody over here. Okay. The love of a father. for his son.
There is nothing in the Bible that is there by accident. And when you see something like this, you've got to stop and think, what is the Spirit of God telling me here? It's there on purpose. It's all by design. What is the design? The first thing that we zero in on is it's his only son. Was Isaac the only son of Abraham? Well, you're all back to Jerusalem. Everyone who says yes, raise your hand. Raise your hand. Oh, yeah. Everyone says no, raise your hand. For those of you who say no, what was his other son?
Ishmael. But what was Isaac? Okay. What is distinguished Isaac from Ishmael if he is the son of promise, and he is the one, therefore, who is called thine only son. So again, Scripture is not just giving us information. If it was just giving us information, it would have to say, well, there's Ishmael and there's Isaac. But it is teaching us something. It is telling us something. The Spirit of God is saying, I'm going to call Isaac the only son because I want you to be the only son. on April twentyth, nineteen eighty four to learn something.
So we're going to call him, thine only son, whom thou lovest, first mention of love, and this is what I want you to do with him. I want you to take him to a place that I will point out, and I want you to sacrifice him. I want you to tie him to an altar. I want you to plunge a knife into him and kill him and burn him up. It's a burnt offering. Now how would you fellows like it if your father was given those kind of instructions? to announce a little bit. This is serious business. And this is something I want to reiterate about God's love. When the word of God speaks of love, it is serious business. The cost is very high. The demands are very great upon God's love.
Take now thy son, thy only son. You'll notice that that is mentioned three times throughout the text. If the Spirit of God says something once, it's important. But if it repeats it three times, it becomes extremely important the Spirit of God wants us to know in the Word of God that this phrase is extremely important thine only son thine only son thine only son and you want to know why because in the four Gospels the Sinaiti Gospels are the first three right here it is repeated three times God loves the Son First of all, we want to zero in on this phrase by an only sign in John one, fourteen and eight, and verse fourteen, verse eighteen, John three, verse sixteen, and verse eighteen.
First John four and verse nine. There is a phrase that is used by the Spirit of God. Throughout all these texts, you'll notice that these are confined to the writings of John. John was known as the beloved disciple, and he will write concerning Jesus Christ as being what? Who knows the theme of the Gospel of John? This carries over into his epistles. as God. Jesus Christ is God, or his deity. The book of Matthew will write of him as king, the book of Mark as servant, the book of Luke as the perfect son of man, and then the book of John as God. And as God, he will refer to the son of God as the only begotten. The word only begotten means the son who is distinct from all others.
Isaac was called the only son because he is the son who is distinct or he is the one who is set apart different from all other sons. Ishmael, for example. So thine only begotten son, the only one of his kind. Because in Romans chapter eight in verse fourteen we are called the sons of God. We are the sons of God even to those who believe on his name. We are his children by birth, his sons by responsibility. And the son of God is the one who has created all things And all of the universe and all of the creation is in the sun. So the sun has created all the things.
All of creation is in the sun. And all of creation is for the sun's glory. Do you see all this around here? This is all. This all came out from the sun as the origin. In school you hear about origins, don't you? They tell you some really remarkable things about origins. My father always told me, he says, some of our relatives may have hung by their necks, but none of them by their tails. And we're not sure how many in the future may hang by their necks. I have an article written by an evolutionist that said that there is a possibility that monkeys came from men.
Now think about that. Think about the first mother who had a monkey. Here is your child. Little Harry, isn't he? I didn't know they came with tails. Little boy grows to be four years old and he's climbing trees. That's a little foolish. But in Colossians chapter one, verses fifteen to nineteen, we read that the one who has originated the origin of all things is the Son of God. In Hebrews we read that he upholds all things by the word of his power. He is the brightness of his image. He is the expressed image of his person, rather.
All of the attributes are permanently fixed and set down in the sun in Colossians. The sun is God. The sun holds all of this universe together. And do you know why that's important? That is important because if the sun ever once stepped outside of the will of God, If the Son of God ever decided to change his mind or to go his own way, there would be nothing left. If the Son of God removed the word of his power, everything here would dissolve into nothingness. There wouldn't be a single atom, molecule, anything left. Everything's gone. That is the Son of God.
That is the only begotten one. That is the one who is distinct. who is unusual the one who is peculiar to all others he is the only one of his kind he is the son of God and he holds everything right here in his hands and he knows exactly what everyone in this room is thinking right this minute he knows and he's recording it he knows the end from the beginning he has the power to bring about absolute destruction and he has the power to create.
Nobody else has that. Man can take one substance and form it into another. We can make concrete out of something else. I don't know what. Something we do it. Sand, water, garbage. My daughter was telling me that now we can recycle garbage and turn it into oil. That's marvelous. In my house, we'll be able to propel our cars for years. But we can change things, but we cannot create. The Son of God can create. And I want you to start thinking in terms of his power, of his awesomeness. This is the Son of God. I want you to think in terms of God in his deity, in his glory, in his majesty.
In Isaiah he says, I am above all things. He says, my ways are far above your ways. There are so many things we do not understand about God because he is God. It's been said that if we could understand everything there is to know about God, he would no longer be God. He would be a product of our imagination. But he is God and he's far above us. And God has seen fit to become mindful of man. And the Son of God, the only begotten Son of God, came to this earth for a very important mission. Take the Son, whom thou lovest. I want you to now start thinking in terms of the relationship between the Father and the Son.
Understand that God is three parts. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Some people think that that's pretty unusual, but really it's not. All around us we see things that are into become three parts or can be three things. Water can be liquid, solid, or steam. The problem is that it can't do that all at the same time. But everything around us is in three parts. We are three parts, spiritual bodies. All of God's worshiping unit is three parts. Creation is three parts. Time is three parts, past, present, future. We have the earth, the air, the atmosphere, and the space.
Everything is in three. So we have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And the thing that the Scriptures tell us in three times over, the three Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the Synoptic Gospels. They are similar. And three times, God opened up heaven, and he said, I love the Son. God loves the Son. In John chapter three and verse sixteen, the first mention of love in that gospel is God so loved what? The world. That's right. God so loved the world. But I want you to see this. The first thing that God tells us is Abraham loved his son Isaac.
God loves his son. The father loves the son. Three times he says it. It's like saying, pay attention, I'm telling you something. Here it comes. The Father loves the Son. The Father loves the Son. The Father loves the Son. And as you're reading through your Bible, the Spirit of God is saying, do you got that now? Yeah? I hope so. Yeah? Gotcha. Now, get this. God loves the world. God loves you. and he loves you so much, this is what he does.
He gives up his son. Take now thy son, thy only son, Isaac whom thou love us, and take him to a place to sacrifice. Okay, now on the sheet you can see that there are several references given. Again in John Gospel, I'm going to read through them very quickly. In John chapter five, Verse seventeen. But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him. Why did the Jews want to kill him when he said that? Are you on John five seventeen? Why?
All he said was, I work and the Father work. And now they're going to pick up stones and kill him. Why would they want to kill him? I heard something. Who's talking? Okay. No, go ahead and say it. No, go ahead and say it. No, go ahead and say it. Okay. Anybody over here? Okay. Here? How come? Why? Okay.
How is he claiming to be the Messiah? Did he say, my father? That's one, yeah. And then another reason. My father works and I work. You see anything in that phrase? Father works and I work. What's he saying? Yes? The father and the son never work independently of one another. Do you know of another person that's ever walked upon the face of this world that ever was able to totally work within the Father's will, the will of God? Anyone? Could it ever be said of anyone else that they never work independently of the Father's will?
Anybody? You? Here you go. Did you say that? You think Abraham could have said that? You think Moses could have said that? Think David could have said that? Nobody. They're all sins, isn't it? But this one said, my father worketh hitherto, and I work. He lined himself up, number one, as being the son of God, my father, and then he also identified himself totally, absolutely, with the father's work. He said, I am doing everything that the father has told me. And this made these Jews very, very angry. Now notice, Because he had not only broken the Sabbath, but said also that God is his Father, making himself equal with God, then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself.
Why not? Is it because the Son isn't powerful enough? No. He can do nothing of himself because he is wholly confined to the will and to the work of God. And this is the work of God. For the Father loveth the Son in verse twenty. and showeth him all things that he himself doeth, and he will show him greater works than these that he may marvel. For as the father raises up the dead and giveth him life, even so the son giveth life to whom he will. For the father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the son, that all men should honor the son, even as they honor the father, he that honors not the son, honors not the father who has sent him. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death, unto life.
Now I want you to get what is being said by the Lord, that he works totally dependently upon the will of the Father. He is totally in line with the will of the Father, and he is going to do exactly what the Father's will is. Keep in mind that the Son of God has the power of absolute destruction, the power to create. He is God, and he has all the attributes of God, everything named. Keep in mind, the Father loves the Son. In Proverbs, it said that he was ever his delight before creation ever came about. There was the Father and the Son, and the Father loves the Son.
And now God's love is demanding. God's love is put together a plan. God's will is his love for you and I. And the Son says, I will always do exactly what the will of the Father is. And it is the will of the Father that I give life to all those who come to me. John chapter ten and verse seventeen. Therefore does my Father love me because I lay down my life that I may take it again. Here the Son of God is given to us to teach of the great shepherd.
And what he says about the great shepherd is that the great shepherd is will lay down his life for the sheep. Here the Lord is beginning to unfold the plan of God to men and women. Because he's unbelieving Jews. So you and I here today, he's unfolding and said, here is this plan. Here is his will that I am tied into, that I am locked into. And that is, my father loves me because I'm doing what he said, because I lay down my life. John chapter seventeen and verse twenty four. Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me.
For thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. Please understand that this prayer is given just prior to our Lord's crucifixion. It is just within a few hours before he is being nailed to a cross. And in John, his prayer is for his own, to those who will be won by his word, by the word that the disciples will preach, by those he loves. And he says, I pray that they will see my glory, and I pray that they will understand that you love me, that you've loved me since the foundation of the world. Now back in Genesis.
where we have. First of all, therefore, love defined Romans five, six to eight, but God commended or put on display his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Now what do we know about God's love up to this point? What do we know about it? Up to this point. What do we know about God's love? You know? What do we know about it?
The Father loves the Son. We know that, right? Okay, and God loves the world. Do we know anything else about it? Yes. Pardon? What's your last word? Love as no other? As no other? Okay. Okay. The love comes from God.
So therefore it's unique. Right? Okay, good. Very good. This love that we're talking about can only come from God. You and I are not going to manufacture it within ourselves. Because we're talking about God loves the Son. God loves the world. The Son is totally confined within the will of God. Every action, every word, every thought was totally confined within God's will. And this is all within the love of God. And this is not something that you and I can just go out and think I'm going to love somebody like that. This is a love that is coming out of heaven to earth.
Its source, its origin is from God. Now I want you to think back Genesis chapter twenty-two and notice in your Bibles in Genesis twenty-two in verse three, verse four, and verse nine that that phrase, the place is mentioned. Three times. Once again, if the Spirit of God tells us something once, must be important. Two times, three times, it's got to get our attention. And so the Lord and the Spirit of God is focusing our attention to a place. Abraham was told, go to a place that I will tell you of. He lifted up his eyes and he saw the place. And when they came to the place, then he took his son, his only son Isaac, whom he loved, and he tied him down to an altar.
This place is in Mount Moriah. Mount Moriah is a place in First Chronicles, chapter twenty-one, verses eighteen to thirty, where there was a great plague that had swept through Israel. I believe it was during the time when David numbered the people. And his plague started coming through the people. through all of the people, and then it stopped. And it stopped at the threshing floor of Ornan. And Ornan was sitting there threshing wheat, and the death angel was coming, and he had a thorn drawn, and was about ready to strike him and his whole family dead. And all of a sudden it stopped. David had repented, and thus gnashes. And David came, and he saw that here, the death angel stopped here, and he came to this man, and he said, I want to buy your threshing floor so that I might establish an altar here. And he said, no, I'll give it to you.
And then David said something that's very interesting. It's something you ought to keep in mind. He said, I will not make sacrifice unto the God, unto God, with that which has cost me nothing. In other words, he will pay for the place of the burnt offering. David insisted that it cost him something to present a burnt offering unto God. Now keep that in mind, that it costs something to make a burnt offering. I'm going to tell you a little bit about the burnt offering in a minute. But this is the place, First Chronicles chapter three, and verse one tells us that Solomon is instructed to build the temple at the place of Ornan's threshing floor, a place where they had built an altar, and as they built an altar and they presented up the burnt sacrifice, it says the death angel took his sword and put it in his sheet.
So at this place of sacrifice, at this place of the burnt offering, the death angel stopped. No more death. Stop right there. This is the place spoken of back here, Mount Moriah. At this place, Abraham drew a knife and was about to plunge it into a sign when God said, no, stop, I will provide. As Abraham said, the Lord will provide. This is a very specific place and a very special place because then down from all time, sacrifices are going to be brought to this place. They're going to be brought to a brazen altar where thousands of animals are going to be slaughtered. The blood is just going to run over that ground and it's going to stain the earth.
There's so many animals. Hundreds and hundreds are going to be butchered and sliced up and then they're going to be placed upon the altar, the brazen altar, and then they're going to be consumed at the fire at this place. At this place, there's going to be sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice until finally there's one sacrifice that's going to come and it's going to fulfill and put an end to all others. This place is called the place of worship. Abraham said in verse five, I am the boy. Now remember, Isaac is not a little boy. He's an older fellow, probably in his twenties. But the word lad, coming from the Hebrew word, can be anyone clear up to twenty.
Or, well, it could be anyone clerked at thirty. It would be called a lad. Because you've got to remember that people in those days live to be a hundred. So if you think in terms of someone who's a hundred, looking at someone who's thirty, they would think of them as a lad. There's some men who call me, boy, yes. So my consternation. Well, then, you say, young man, what do you think you're doing? He said, I have gray hair. I have wrinkles. Yeah. Some of you, I call you young man. But this fella, Isaac, not little fella, probably pretty good size, might be eighteen, nineteen, twenty, something like that. And here he is, a fellow that's big enough to take Abraham, who is an old man, and tell him, forget it, fella.
I'm not going to lay down there. So he didn't. because Isaac knew and understood, as did Abraham, that what they were going to do is an act of worship. Now, does anyone here know why the sacrifice of son would be an act of worship? Why would a human sacrifice be an act of worship? Why would it? I don't understand why you're quiet now, because that's a pretty tough question. Do you know what worship means? What the word worship means? Christ, yes. Christ can be part of it.
Adoration can be part of it. Okay, make a note. Worship is bow down to. Bow down. Those two words would define it. You need to bow down. It means to submit yourself to the will of God. That's worship. Bow down to God. When you bow down to him, you pray. You adore. You sing. You meditate upon his word and upon his person. But you are bowing down to his will. We have a meeting in which we call it a worship meeting. And the reason why it is called a worship meeting is because the Lord said, this do in remembrance of me.
And we say, yes, I'll do that. we bow down to him and then we bow down to him and we acknowledge all that he is and all that he's done for us Abraham was bowing down to the will of God Isaac was bowing down to the will of God and in bowing down to the will of God they could call this act an act of worship Revelations chapter five verses six in verse six it says I saw a lamb in the midst as though he were freshly slain God's view of his son is now as the one who is in the midst of his people as the lamb as though he were freshly plain because he still bears upon himself the marks of Calvary and he is the one then who is bowed down to in worship in verse eight another key phrase God will provide Abraham all the time believes that Isaac could be raised off of the altar.
That even though Isaac was slain and even though Isaac would be consumed with fire and would be nothing left of him but ashes, Abraham believed all the time that from these ashes God could raise up his son and bring him back to life. This tells us of a provision of God. God will provide himself a lamb in Exodus chapter twelve. We read of a lamb that is provided, a Passover lamb. In Leviticus chapter seventeen, we read that the atonement, God says, I have given to you the blood upon the altar. I have given to you the atonement. In other words, I have provided. The reason why God must provide is because we are not able to provide for ourselves.
In Ephesians two and one, it says, and you who were dead in trespasses and sand. God says, your condition is dead. You are not able to provide. I will provide. And the word of God teaches us then that what God will provide is a sacrifice that will exceed all others in the book of Hebrews. It is a sacrifice that is likened to a burnt offering. And the burnt offering in Scriptures is a free will offering. So the picture that we have is that Isaac came and he of his own will laid down his life. He was submitting to the will of God. Abraham was submitting to the will of God. We've already seen in the Gospel of John that the Son of God is giving himself as a free will offering in Leviticus I.
and three, and then in John ten, seventeen, and eighteen, he says, I have power to lay down my life. I have power to take it again. The Son of God says, I am coming to this earth, and I am going to freely lay down my life. And in Isaiah fifty-three, seven, it will speak to him as the lamb who has led to the slaughter. There's a sheep before his shears is done. No, we got it. Sheep before his shears is done. The lamb shears. The what? Boy, I hope it's not his mouth. Yeah, that's right. Okay, so he is quietly, he is the one who has quietly led to the slaughter at Isaiah fifty-three and seven. At John eighteen and thirteen, he has led a way to be crucified.
He has always seen as the one who has led. He wasn't dragged screaming and shouting saying, wait a minute. Because if the Son of God would have said, wait a minute, I've changed my mind, what would have happened? What do you think? If the Son of God would have stopped when they beat him, they put the crown of thorns on his head, and then they took the cross beam of the cross, and they laid it on his shoulders that had already been ripped open by the Roman lash, if he would have said, wait a minute, I'm not going to go through it then. All he had to do was withdraw the word of his power, and time would have came to an end, anger, gone. If he would have stopped, Even if he would have stopped and let the course of time go on, you and I would have no future to look forward to except the lake of fire, where there's weepy, wailing, nationalist peace.
That's the only future we could have, but he didn't. He was led away, and he went, and he willingly laid down his life. Isaac, in our story, rose from the place of death from that altar, A ram was taken instead. He rose from that place of death. The Lord Jesus Christ went through death. He bore all the torments and the agonies of the cross. He went into the grave and we know that we can now preach salvation by faith in Christ through the power of his resurrection in Romans one, one to four. He is declared to be the Son of God because he rose from the dead.
He is the one who was dead and is now So we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you. So he was caught by the seed of his power. The seed of his power is that he is God. And that because he is God, he has to do exactly what the will of God is. He is confined to the will of God. And this is where he's taught, because the triune Godhead, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit said, For God so loved the world.
And the only way that the world could have life is through his death. And then that is why we read in Ephesians chapter one, that we have a covenant. After God saw that Abraham was willing to offer up his son Isaac, After he saw that, then God confirmed the covenant that was made to Abraham. You reiterate it through that text. In Ephesians chapter one, verses three to ten, we see God's covenant that has been made with each one who has put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ as Lord. Now, very quickly, what else have we now learned about God's love?
We've seen its origin, it comes from God. We've seen the love of the Father for the Son. We've seen how that it is confined within the will of God, when it comes from God. We have seen now that there was a specific place that this plan is carried out. We see that it is spoken of as a burnt offering because it speaks of how the Son of God Lay down his life as his own free will. What do we learn from these things? From the place, the burnt offering. He laid down his life.
He rose from the dead. He is caught by the seat of a tower through weakness. He who knew no sin was made sin for us. What do we see about God's love? It can be put into one word that begins with an act. It is sacrificial. God's love is sacrificial. It is giving, and it is giving in the absolute sense. God so loved the world that he gave. He didn't hold back.
He didn't hold back one little bit. Young people during this weekend, I want you to think about the love of God in these terms that the Romans first of all opened his flesh through the muscle tissue, through the blood vessels, down to the bone. They ripped him open from the shoulders down to the ankles. They then put a robe upon him that would stick to this blood that was pouring down his back. They then took a crown of thorns from the earth and they pierced it into his head. And they took a rod and they jammed it in. And then they slugged him with their fists. It wasn't just... Romans were not like that. These are Roman soldiers. They took their fists and they beat him until the words of the prophet Isaiah came to pass that I am a worm and no man in song.
But in Isaiah fifty-two, it speaks of them as being not recognizable as a man, that when they look upon him, they could hardly tell he's a man. And when Pilate will bring him back, and there he is, beaten and bloody, And he was standing there and he says, behold the man. He was already totally pulverized and beaten and blood and tremendous loss of blood and loss of water and loss of strength. Here is God's love. God commended his love toward us and while they were yet sinners. While you and I were shaking our fists at heaven saying, I don't want to have anything to do with God, God was saying, here is my son. This is what is going to be done to my son because of sin.
Here it is. And then they nailed him to a cross. And he endured the cross for six hours, which many have said is far longer than anyone else could have under those circumstances because he had already been beaten almost to death. But he took all of the last ounce of pain, all of the last ounce of torment, and all the last ounce of abuse because God so loved the world. That's God's picture of love. That's what it is. And then God rose him from the dead on the third day, brought him back in power. And now in power, the Son of God says, to each one of us, I love you.
And we say, you do? He said, yes. Look at the mark in my hand, in my feet. Think about Calvary. Think about what I did. Think about that. And then understand, this is God's love. It is a sacrifice. It is a bloody, ugly, tormenting. cruel sacrifice. That's it. And yet it becomes a picture of great beauty and peace for all those who feel the release of their sin when they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's God's love. Think about that. Because young people, if you reject that kind of love, if you reject that kind of love, if you turn that kind of love away from your heart and away from your life, then God's judgment is what you deserve.
You've earned it. Because you have to be awful blind and hard-hearted and very cool to turn your back on that kind of love. That's the only kind of person you could be. Some do that. Some do that. We see God's love. Do it now. And the rest of the weekend, we're going to be learning more about how that love can change and work in our lives. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for thy son, our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you, Father, that he is thy son, thy only son, thy begotten one. We thank thee that, Father, as you have loved the son, so you love you and I.
That you have loved us with so great a love that you have sacrificed your well-beloved son. We pray, Father, for each one here that they have received that gift of love. We pray that each one here might truly know the love of God and know how to shed a broad in our heart that it changes and molds us and gives us new direction and new priorities in our life that causes us to seek first the kingdom of God and believing all the while that all the material things and all the temporal things will be added unto us because our Lord is always seeking to do those things that are for our good. Father, we just pray for our time together that you keep each one in safety. We pray that everything that is said and done might bring glory to thy name.