Amen. This is a great morning. We had a tremendous time in Sunday School this morning. We had an awesome chapter to study in Luke 22. And we talked about the Lord's Supper. And now, we come this morning to Genesis 22. And this is one of the most famous and one of the most moving passages, I believe, in all of Scripture. In this story, we see a father and his beloved son. We see God command this father, Abraham, to sacrifice his beloved son Isaac. This is Genesis 22. And as we've been looking at the journey of faith in Abraham's life, this chapter brings us to kind of the grand finale of his journey of faith in his life. Genesis 12. was the calling of Abraham, and Genesis 22 is the culmination of his faith. These two chapters, Genesis 12 and Genesis 22, serve kind of as bookends of his life and his ups and downs of faith. Let me remind you of some of the significant events in Abraham's life leading up to this chapter that we're going to look at this morning. Back in Genesis 12, God first called Abraham and He said to him, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. So the destination at the beginning, the destination was uncertain. He didn't tell him exactly where he was going to be going, but Abraham obeyed immediately. He set out from Haran in obedience to God, but not knowing exactly where this adventure was going to take him. God promised him. God made a promise. He said, I will make you a great nation. And then later God said, I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth. Your offspring are going to be so many, they're going to be like the dust of the earth. Then He said of Eleazar of Damascus, He said, this man shall not be your heir. Abraham thought, well, maybe this guy in my household, maybe he's going to be the heir. But God said, no, he's not going to be your heir. Your very own son shall be your heir. And He told Abraham, look up into the sky and count the stars in the sky if you can, so shall your offspring be. Your offspring, not only are they going to be like the dust of the earth, they're going to be like the stars in the sky. God just continues to lavish these promises on Abraham. Even his name, Abraham, that God gave to him, it means the father of a multitude of nations. Abraham and Sarah tried to come up with their own plan. And Abraham slept with Hagar and they had Ishmael. After that, God made it clear that Ishmael is not going to be the son of promise. Your plan is not the plan that's going to work. I'm going to have a better plan. And God said, Sarah, your own wife, she is going to bear a son and his name will be Isaac. And the covenant is going to be with this promised son Isaac. Then, as we looked at last week, Isaac was born miraculously when Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah was 90 years old. This amazing miracle. And then we didn't look at it in detail last week, but also in chapter 21 we see that Ishmael and Hagar are cast out, making it even more abundantly clear that Isaac is the son of promise. This is how Abraham's descendants are going to become nations and are going to multiply like the stars in the sky and the dust of the earth. It's going to be through Isaac, not through Ishmael. Now this brings us up to speed in Abraham's life up to this point. The promise was made back in chapter 12. Abraham and Sarah, as we have seen, have gone up and down in their fight of faith. But now the unbelievable, the laughable promise of God has come true and joy has filled their hearts. And that sets the stage for what is to happen here in chapter 22. Let me read Genesis 22, verses 1-19. After these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, here am I. He said, take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, Stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, My father, And he said, here am I, my son. He said, behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Abraham said, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son. So they went both of them together. When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham! And he said, here am I. He said, do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, The Lord Will Provide, Jehovah-Jireh. As it is said to this day, on the mount of the Lord it shall be provided. And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice." So Abraham returned to his young men and they arose and went together to Beersheba and Abraham lived at Beersheba. Let's pray together. God, what an amazing passage this is and what beautiful pictures of the Gospel You give us in this passage. Oh, Lord, I pray that we won't miss what You have to teach us in Genesis 22 today. Thank You for Your Word. Your Word is supernatural. It cuts into our hearts. And I pray that You'll do a supernatural work among us today. For unbelievers here today, Lord, pierce their hearts and let them see their desperate need for You. Draw them to Yourself. And for those of us who are trusting in You, I pray that You will build us up, edify us, strengthen our faith, grow us in faith, and as You test our faith, Lord, through the trials of life, refine us, strengthen us, cause us to persevere, preserve our faith so that we may glorify You and delight in You for who You are. Magnify Your Son, Jesus Christ, among us today. And it's in His name we pray, Amen. Well, as we look at Genesis 22, the first thing I want to talk about is Abraham's faith. Abraham's faith. Notice, first of all, some similarities between Abraham's test in this passage and Abraham's call back in Genesis 12. There, first of all, is a clear command that is given. that requires supernatural trust. We see this in chapter 12 and chapter 22. In chapter 12, it's, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house. That's quite a demand. That's quite a command for God to give to Abraham. He has to leave everything that's familiar to him and set out. In chapter 22, offer your son as a burnt offering. These are difficult commands. They require absolute trust in God. We also notice that in both passages, the plan is only partially revealed at first. God doesn't give all the details. In chapter 12, He says, go to the land that I will show you. I'm not going to show you now. I'm not going to tell you the details now, but I will show you later. But just go. And then in chapter 22, "...offer him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." God will reveal the details of the plan along the way, but Abraham has to set out and take each step by faith. God doesn't reveal the whole plan immediately, but He says, go, do this, and I'll make the details clear as you go. Also, in each passage, we see Abraham obey immediately. In chapter 12, verse 4, it says, So Abraham went as the Lord told him to do. And then chapter 22, verse 3 says, So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac. Immediate obedience. This kind of obedience is breathtaking to us as we look at how difficult, how impossible these commands were to keep, and yet Abraham set out and obeyed immediately. We should stand in awe of this kind of faith. Not worshiping Abraham in any way, but worshiping the God who granted him this kind of faith. This is amazing faith. It's recorded here for us as we read the Bible. These things are recorded here for us to instruct us, to convict us, to inspire us to exercise this kind of faith. Of course, we know that Abraham was not perfect. He has had some very low points in his fight of faith. But we can look to these instances of deep trust, and these instances where he obeys immediately, and we should be tremendously encouraged to trust the promises of God wholeheartedly. We should step out in faith. We should trust the promises of God. We should obey His commands. Even when a lot of the details are uncertain, we should strive in our lives to emulate this kind of faith. The other thing we see in each of these passages is God's promise. In chapter 12, I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." You remember that amazing promise that God made to Abraham back in chapter 12? And now in chapter 22, later in the chapter as I read in verses 17 and 18, I will surely bless you And I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of His enemies. And in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice." So again, here in chapter 22, we see God's promise. Now, there's a command of God and there's a promise of God. in both of these passages. And as we look at Abraham here at the beginning of chapter 22, Abraham must have felt some major tension between these two things. Some serious tension between God's promise and God's command. How do these two things fit together? Abraham knew that God had promised to make him into a great nation to multiply his descendants. And he knew that it was supposed to happen through Isaac. The Son of Promise. But now God has told him to offer Isaac as a burnt offering. You see the problem here? How is this going to work, God? Your command doesn't line up with your promise. How will the promise be fulfilled if Isaac is dead? How will Abraham's descendants become as numerous as the stars or the sand if the Son of Promise is put to death? Abraham must have wrestled in his mind as he thought about the command of God and the promise of God and how these two would come together. As he walked along with Isaac toward the land of Moriah, he must have recounted in his mind all of the amazing things that God had done for him as he pondered and questioned, what is the Lord doing here? He must have thought back to all the other things had done in his life up to that point. Thinking of the initial call out of Haran when God called him. Thinking of how God rescued him from Pharaoh and rescued him later from Abimelech when he made those stupid choices to call Sarah his sister. Got himself into so much trouble, but God delivered him. Thinking of the victory he had over the armies that had captured Lot. Thinking of when he received the blessing from Melchizedek. Thinking of the great promises that God had made to him. And then seeing that unbelievable promise come true when Isaac was born. Just think of the highlight reel of Abraham's life as he looked back and meditated on those great things that God had done for him. And now as he faces this deepest test of faith, the deepest test of faith imaginable, God grants him again, grants him faith to believe in His promise. Even though he doesn't see exactly how this is going to work out. Even though the command seemed to be against the promise. God gave Abraham a childlike faith to trust that the promise would still be fulfilled somehow. He wasn't sure how. But God gave him faith to trust. Before we move on in the story, we need to talk about this command that God gives to Abraham because we read this story and the natural response is to ask, well, why would God do something like this? Why would God give one of His children a command like this? How could He? How could God ask Abraham to kill His son? Well, a couple of things to realize here. First, is that God did not tell Abraham just to murder Isaac. That wasn't the command, go murder your son. That was not the command. The command was to offer him up as a burnt offering. That's the command, to offer him up as a burnt offering. It's not about wanting Isaac dead. It's about testing Abraham's faith. You see? The command, it's about testing Abraham's faith. Asking him to offer up his son Isaac. Asking Him to offer to the Lord what is so precious and so dear to Him. So it's not murder that God is calling Abraham to do. It's an offering. A call to offer up to Him what is most precious and most dear to Him. And indeed, the promise itself. Isaac was the hope of that promise being fulfilled. Well, the second important thing to understand is the significance of the firstborn. We need to understand how people in Abraham's day and how Abraham himself would have thought of the firstborn child. Just to contrast this with something else, if Abraham had heard a voice telling him to sacrifice his wife, Sarah, That would have made completely no sense to him. God would not have asked him to do something like that. Abraham would not have obeyed a command like that because he would have known it was not from God. But God giving him this command to offer up His firstborn, the Son of Promise, as difficult and as harsh and as terrible as that was, it made some sense to Abraham. It made some sense. He understood it. Not completely, but he understood what God might be doing in this. Because as we look into the Old Testament, we see that there's a significance to the firstborn. There's a significance to the firstfruits. The firstfruits were offered to God. The firstborn were committed to God. The firstborn were consecrated to God, whether as a firstborn child or a firstborn animal. The firstfruits, the firstborn were offered to God. It's symbolic of God's ownership over all His people. God's claim on the firstborn represented His claim on all of His people. Another aspect of this is that when God's judgment came down against sin, It came down upon the firstborn. You remember the Exodus? God killed all the firstborn in Egypt. The tenth plague. And that judgment, it fell on the Egyptians, but it would have fallen on the Israelites as well if it was not for the blood of the lamb that they put on the doorposts and on the lentil of their homes. So when we see the significance of the firstborn, it helps us make better sense of this command. It's not just a random, outrageous demand that God makes on Abraham. It's a test of faith that demonstrates God's sovereignty, His control and ownership over His people and His justice. in punishing sin. He owns all things and He requires a payment for sin. So Abraham would have had some sense and some understanding of this as he heard this command come from God. He understood that he and his family belonged to God. God owned them. And also, Abraham understood that he and his family deserved God's judgment and God's punishment for their sin. even though this command to offer up His Son is totally unique and is horrible and terrible. It was something that God had the right to do as the sovereign and just God of the universe, and it was something that Abraham understood the significance of. He is offering up to God His firstborn. All of His hope for the future, all of His hope for His descendants to become many. He's offering up all of his hopes and dreams to God, recognizing that God owns him and that God requires a payment, a just payment for sin. God was testing Abraham's faith here. He was refining him and causing him to rest entirely in God's plan and not in his own plan. Not the way he had things worked out in his own mind, but to trust entirely in God. Now, the dilemma that did exist in Abraham's mind was, again, how God's command could be reconciled with God's promise. If he obeyed the command, it seemed like the promise would be totally lost. How could Abraham become a great nation if he killed the son of promise? Look at Abraham's faith in v. 5. In spite of this dilemma, in spite of not understanding how all the details were going to work out, Abraham did have a deep faith that somehow it was going to work out. Look at v. 5. He says to the young men, I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you. Abraham believed that somehow He wasn't sure how, but somehow he and Isaac were coming back together. We look at this chapter and the chapter doesn't explain to us what was going on in Abraham's mind, but in the New Testament book of Hebrews, we do see what was going on in Abraham's mind. This is one of the amazing things about the Bible, that the New Testament sheds additional light back on the Old Testament. So we go to Hebrews, Chapter 11, verses 17-19, and it tells us this, By faith Abraham, when tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, Through Isaac shall your offspring be named. Now listen to this, Abraham considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. You see what Abraham was hoping in? He thought, I'll obey the command. I'll offer him up as a burnt offering. And God's going to raise him from the dead. Because God will keep His promise. And if it's God's will for him to die on that altar, well, God will just have to bring him back to life to keep His promises. That's how Abraham reconciled the command and the promise. And in fact, that's basically what happened. Right? I mean, Isaac didn't literally, physically die on that altar, but Isaac was as good as dead. And the angel of the Lord stopped Abraham just in time. And it was as though Abraham received his son back from death. Abraham's obedience here, is such a wonderful example to us. We should see this as an example for us to follow. Because he believed and he obeyed even though God's command was so difficult, so agonizing, so heartbreaking. But as we see, God's command did not contradict the promises. Instead, it was a beautiful display of God's faithfulness and God's provision. The Lord provided the Lamb which we'll talk about more in a minute. There's an important lesson that we need to learn here about faith. An important lesson from this passage that the New Testament again picks up on. It's a lesson that may seem obvious to us. I hope it does seem obvious to us, but it's something that is often missed by the church today. And the point is this, genuine faith, real faith in God will produce obedience. Real faith will produce real obedience in your life. If you really trust God, you are going to obey His commands. You're going to have a desire to obey Him, to follow Him, to do what He says to do in His Word. That's a natural and necessary response of true saving faith. Now, of course, I'm not talking about perfect obedience here. That's not going to happen in any of our lives. Abraham wasn't perfect. Just last week, we looked at that embarrassing ordeal with Abimelech, where he lied and got himself in trouble, got his wife, put her in a compromising situation. The same thing that he had done back in Egypt years before. Abraham was not perfect. None of us are perfect. We're sinners. We're going to continue to sin. So we're not talking about perfect obedience here. But where there is genuine faith in God, there will be real obedience. Not perfect obedience, but there will be this fight of faith, of desiring to follow the Lord and obey His commands. This is the point that James makes in James 2 where he is just lambasting those who think that there is such a thing as faith without works. He's chastising these people who think that, oh, well, yeah, I have faith, but works is just like an add-on. Listen to what he says in James 2. Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? This is not a gentle rebuke. that James is giving here. James wants us to see how ridiculous it is to think that someone can quote-unquote believe, can have some kind of abstract faith in whatever, without it changing who they are and how they act and what they do. Faith, if it's real faith, if it's saving faith, it will leap into action. It will produce good works. It will generate obedience in our lives. And James uses Abraham as an example. James writes, Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works and faith was completed by his works and the Scripture was fulfilled And now he quotes Genesis 15.6, and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness and he was called a friend of God. Now, some of the things in that passage can be kind of confusing because of the way James words things, but the point that he's making here is that works show that our faith is real, okay? The works that result from our faith, the works show that that faith is a real faith inside of us. That's what we see in Genesis 22. Genesis 22 is the fulfillment of Genesis 15-6. Abraham believed the Lord and He counted it to him as righteousness. That's Genesis 15. Abraham believed. And then the test in Genesis 22 shows that that faith is real faith. It's not just words or thoughts or some shallow commitment. It's a profound change of heart that has reached down into the innermost being of Abraham and has transformed him from the inside out. Now as we look at this, brothers and sisters, this is a time to test ourselves. Because so many people give lip service to Christ and faith. Oh yeah, I'm a Christian. Yeah, I believe. But is there obedience? Is there real obedience? Has that person's life really changed? Has your life really changed? You who profess Christ, are you willing to offer up to God everything that is most precious to you and trust that He knows best? It will be a fight of faith. And there will be ups and downs. There will be defeats and victories. But if we're not willing, if we're not desiring to obey Him, then we have no reason to think that God has done a real work in our hearts. Real faith will produce real obedience. If there's no obedience in your life, then you cannot assume that you're saved just because you say you're saved. Real faith will produce real obedience. Well, that's what we see about Abraham's faith in this passage. The next point I want to look at is the question that Isaac asks in verse 7 when he says, where is the lamb? This is the second point I want to look at this morning. Where is the lamb? Where is the Lamb? In verse 6, the narrative slows down dramatically to capture the emotion of this event. Let's read it again. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son. It makes us think of Jesus carrying His own wooden cross to His own death. Then verse 7, we see the tender love between this father and his son. Isaac said to his father Abraham, my father. And he said, here am I, my son. He said, behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Just think about all the things that were going through their minds at this time. The thoughts, the emotions, the confusion, the agony that must have been filling their hearts and minds. What is going on here? Isaac's here wondering what this is all about. What's going to happen? Abraham knowing what he's been called to do and yet not knowing exactly how this is all going to play out. And even though his heart must have been trembling and breaking within him, He was filled with faith. And he said, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son. You know, I read this story and I just yearn for more details. What else did they say? What were they feeling? Did Abraham go on and explain everything to his son? Isaac must have been so afraid and confused, but apparently he cooperated and obeyed Abraham put him up on the altar on top of the wood. And then verse 10 is like it's in slow motion. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord stopped him. And then in verse 13 it says, And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket. by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. And he called the place, the Lord will provide." Where is the lamb? God will provide the lamb. God will provide the lamb. In this case, he spared Isaac in the last moment. And he provided a ram to take the place of Isaac. The ram became Isaac's substitute. What a beautiful passage this is with such profound pictures of the Gospel here. The ram took the place of Isaac on the altar. This is so relevant to each and every one of us here this morning because we desperately need a substitute. We deserve God's judgment. We deserve His punishment. We need Him to provide a lamb to take our place on that altar so that we can go free. Otherwise, we're on the altar and we get punished. We get judged. The Lord will provide. He is Jehovah Jireh. That's the name of God that is used here. The Lord will provide. And He has provided. He provided the ram to take the place of Isaac. But that was just a pointer to something much greater, someone much greater. John the Baptist announced the arrival of this promised Lamb. He saw Jesus coming toward him and he said, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That's in John 1. Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God. The Lamb that God provided to be a substitute for sinners like me and like you. It's as though we are on that altar, our lives hanging by a thread, the knife of judgment ready to destroy us. And God has provided a Lamb. He provided Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, to take away the sin of the world. He is our substitute. He is slain in our place. Someone has to die. Someone has to be on that altar. Someone has to be punished. God's justice requires that. We need to understand this. God's justice requires that someone pay the penalty for sin. We have all sinned against God. And not just a little bit, but infinitely. The way we ignore God and dishonor God and disobey Him and run away from Him, in all of these ways, we deserve everlasting punishment from God. That's what we deserve. Justice demands that. The good news though, the unbelievably great news, is that God was pleased to crush His own Son in our place. Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, took our place. Let me ask you this morning, friend. If you were to die today, if you were to die today, what would be your plea before the Almighty God? What would you say to Him? If He said, why should you come into Heaven? What would you say to this God? This just and holy and righteous God? What would you say? No one will be able to say to Him on that day, God, I was good enough. I lived a good life. No one can say that. It's false. It's a lie. No one can say, well, reward me, God. Let me into Heaven because I lived a pretty good life. What a myth that so many of us believe. It's false. No one will be able to say that. We have all sinned. We all fall short of the glory of God. We have all turned away from Him. We've tried to live our own way. So don't think that you have any hope on your own. You don't. Our only hope is in the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. Throw yourself on Him. He's our only hope. Rest in Him. Cling to Him. Ask yourself this morning, is the blood of the Lamb covering my sins? Have I given myself to Christ? Am I loving Christ? Am I desiring Christ? Have I given myself to Him in such a way that His blood now is covering my sins so that He is my substitute? Look to Him. He's your only hope. Finally, this morning as we close, I want to talk about the father who did not spare his own son. This is the third and final point I want to look at. The father who did not spare his own son. We see here in Genesis 22, the angel of the Lord twice commends Abraham for not withholding his son. In verse 12, after he calls Abraham's name to stop him from slaughtering his son, he says, Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing that you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me." And then in v. 16, "'By Myself I have sworn,' declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you." Abraham's faith in God, which produced such a deep commitment and obedience to God, it prompted him to offer up his son to God, his only son, his beloved son. Did you notice that emphasis on Isaac as the only son? And you might wonder, well, what about Ishmael? Wasn't there another son? Well, yeah, there was Ishmael, but it has become very clear now that Isaac is the son of promise. Ishmael and Hagar were cast out In chapter 21, Isaac was born to Sarah as a fulfillment of the promise. And it's very clear, Isaac is the son. Isaac is the only son. Isaac is the son of promise. And God commands Abraham in verse 2, take your son, your only son, whom you love. And Abraham did not withhold this son, his only son, this beloved son. God, through His Word here, is giving us a very tender and tangible glimpse into the Godhead. This story is bigger than Abraham and Isaac. It teaches us about God the Father and God the Son. The love between Abraham and Isaac points to the deep, deep love between God the Father and God the Son, and Abraham's willingness to offer up his Son, his only Son, his beloved Son, points to God the Father who gave His only beloved Son. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. John 3.16 And after Jesus was baptized, we remember God the Father spoke from heaven and said, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. And then the words of Romans 8.32 seem to allude back to Abraham and Isaac where Paul writes, he who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? As we read the story of Abraham and Isaac, And as we feel the inner turmoil and the agony and the brokenheartedness of that event, we should learn something of our great God. He did not spare His own Son. And in this case, no one called out at the last moment and stopped Him. No one called it off. The Father drove that knife into His Son's heart. God did not spare His own Son, His only Son, His beloved Son, but He gave Him up for us. He gave Him up for us. He crushed His beloved Son on that cross. He poured out His wrath against sin upon His very own Son so that He can spare us from that wrath. Do you see? Jesus was not spared. so that we can be spared. What a God we serve. Trust in this God. Love this God who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all. Let's pray. God, we praise You this morning as the God who did not spare His own Son. What agony it must have been to allow your beloved Son, your only Son whom you love, to allow Him to be crushed, to allow Him to hang on that cross and suffer and die. And even worse than that, to bear your infinite and holy wrath against sin. what agony it was for Jesus to hang there and say, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? God, I pray this morning that we will see and understand and feel the great sacrifice that was made so that we can be spared. You did not spare your own son so that we can be spared from your wrath. Pray that You will call people to Yourself this morning. Grant faith. And grant greater faith as we fight the fight of faith and strive to love You and obey You like we see Abraham doing in this passage. Thank You for who You are. Thank You for Your Son. Thank You for the Gospel. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.