Good morning. I was happy to see that when the children were asked to be dismissed that no one got up and left. We are what we are by the grace of God. Mercy. We're going to begin this morning, if you have your Bible, you can open to Psalm 103. And then we'll go to Genesis after that, Psalm 103. Last time we began to look specifically at some of the details regarding Abraham, which I entitled his final exam, if you will. He's been walking with the Lord for 40 plus years now. He's grown in his understanding of who God is. by way of God's character and shock of shocks, he's found him to be trustworthy and merciful and kind and good and faithful. And that's all in spite of Abraham, just like it's all in spite of us, as he's the same God yesterday, today and forever. You know, we're no different than Abraham in terms of what's in our flesh, in our flesh does no good thing. And there's times in my own walk with the Lord I've been brought to tears when I ponder how God has on countless occasions shown himself to be merciful and gracious and kind and faithful, when I obviously didn't deserve it. And in fact, and oftentimes I deserve the very opposite. And I hope that you found that to be true in your own life. And in Psalm 103 captures some of that. We can pick it up in verse eight. It says, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. We should just stop and ponder that right there. It says, he will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins. He's not punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far he's removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him. For he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. Verse 16. Or verse 15, as for man, his days are like grass. He's the flower of the field, so he flourishes. If the wind passes over it, it's gone, and his place is remembered no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children, as to such as keep his covenant and those who remember his commandments to do them. You know, the mercy of God is an integral part of all that he does, and that mercy that he is and possesses and dispenses is open to all mankind, and we all need that mercy. In fact, the Spirit of God is in the world today trying to show mankind how desperately he needs that mercy. And when one objectively reads the Word of God and evaluates himself outside of Christ before God, he recognizes that. And this is Paul's description of us apart from Christ, it says that at that time, prior to salvation, you were without Christ, you were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, you were strangers to the covenants of promise, you had zero hope, and you were without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, there's a great contrast. You who are once far off and brought near, how? By the blood of Christ. And that's the gospel message. This is the reason we need our mercy, because we're got a sin problem. In fact, summarizing what's said about us prior to salvation in verse 12, it says, we are without Christ prior to salvation. We're alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. We're strangers to the covenants of promise. We had no hope. We're without God in the world. And that's because we were born in Adam, separated from God. We were dead to him in trespasses and sins. We are without God in the world. And in that same Adam position we had, we deserve God's wrath manifested for all eternity and hell. And sometimes people have a hard time accepting God's evaluation of them, and that's why I love to go to Romans 3, 4, it says that God be true in every man a liar. I remember talking with an elderly lady once that I never tell a lie, and I said, well, you just did, because God says this, and she asked me to get up and leave. She didn't want to hear the truth. And the truth isn't always pretty, but the truth needs to be embraced in order for Christ to set you free. And what in essence I was telling this lady was that whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at one point, you're guilty of breaking the whole thing. And so you can stack up all the things that you think you have going for you, and yet it's all canceled in a heartbeat. When you break the law, you broke the whole baby and you're done. And so the Spirit of God is in the world pointing to us, according to Romans 3, 19 and 20, telling us we're guilty. And we're guilty of breaking God's law, and because of that, we deserve to pay the penalty associated with that, and that penalty is death or separation from God forever, and the like of fire. But then we have God. and who he is in Titus three verses four through six, bring that out. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appear, God is kind, he loves us in spite of us, and reminded that it's not by works of righteousness which we have done, but it's according to his mercy that he saves us. How? Through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. You know, God is holy, and His holiness means He is righteous in every way, and He's separate from all mankind. He lives in a perfect place called heaven. He desperately wants all of us to join Him there, but we have a problem. And He gave us this holy, righteous standard in the world, and as I or you objectively compare yourself to that standard, we have to agree with God that we become guilty. We've broken those laws, in fact, verse 20 says, the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in God's sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. This is how we know we've failed God miserably, because when it says don't lie, we lie. And so, as a guilty sinner, we deserve the just penalty for sin, which is, again, eternal separation in hell, because the wages of sin is death. But this is the last thing God wants, and so he made a provision. outside of us, totally wrapped up in who He is and in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, because God loves you. And Romans 5.8 says, God demonstrates His own love toward us, and while we were still sinners, He didn't ask us to try to change something we can't, we're still sinners, Christ died for us. And so the death of Christ becomes the ultimate expression of God's love for sinful men, because they're on that cross, He died in your place, and he died in my place. The wages of sin is death. Christ died, and in doing so, he did so to pay for your sins, because in God's justice system, someone has to pay. We don't have the wherewithal to pay the bill. Christ says, I love you, so I'll become a man. live a holy and perfect life as God could and should and did. And he cried on that cross, it is finished, which means paid in full. Your bill was paid, mine was paid. Every sin for every human being that has and ever will live, Christ paid for it, lock, stock, and barrel. So the issue is not cleaning yourself up, going to church, getting baptized, trying to turn over a new leaf, anything else you might want to think of to make yourself presentable to God. You can't do that. The issue is you will humble yourself and then accept through simple faith what he did for you in love. And faith or belief is only as good as the object you put it in. If you put your faith in yourself to get yourself to God, it's the biggest swing in the mist you'll ever have because you can't do it. But if you put your faith in Christ who got the job done perfectly, then you receive from him everlasting life. And so the offer is made to all mankind because all your sins have been paid for and Christ rose from the grave you can receive eternal life for free. The same life he possesses, you can escape what you deserve, the horrors of hell, on one condition. If you're willing to put 100% of your trust in him alone, and the fact that he got the job done, paid for all your sins, and rose again. It's so simple. And that's why it's called good news, because if there was any other burden placed upon you, it wouldn't be good news, because that's just another opportunity for you to fail. Christ got the job done. He didn't fail. And so, Once you trust Christ, you pass from death unto life, you become a child of God according to John 1.12. And then God leaves you on this earth for X amount of time to do His will. And part of the will of God for all of us includes testing. Testing, part of the good and acceptable will of God for you is for you to be tested in your faith so you can grow in the grace and knowledge of the Savior. And over time prove God to be faithful to who he said he is. And this has been going on in Abraham's life and in Sarah's life. Abraham and Sarah waited, waited, and waited some 25 years in order for the promise of a heir to be realized. But the Lord did make good on his promise in his time. He made it clear to Abraham that Isaac, his son Isaac, would be the heir. a person whom the covenant that he established with Abraham would come through, and the nation of Israel would come into existence, and ultimately that would lead to the Messiah being born, Jesus Christ, at the appropriate time. And it's through him that all the world would be blessed. And so, Abraham has been cruising along for a while here, he's been tested, and now comes the ultimate test, and we can go to Genesis 22 and see that. This is the final exam, if you will, for Abraham. Genesis chapter 22. Verses one and two. Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, And Abraham said, here I am. He said, take now 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 which I shall tell you. And so God, out of the blue it seems, decides to test Abraham. That's his decision. And the test that God gave Abraham was to sacrifice his son Isaac as a burnt offering, a complete offering, for him. Now God tests men to prove the depth of their faith as saints, as children. He never solicits them to do evil or to sin. And we saw a couple of studies ago that testing is part of the growth process for the believer in Christ. And again, God never solicits mankind to do evil. And so what he's doing here in instructing Abraham and testing him is not something that violates his character. And I cited it last time in an article written by Dilling in 1964, and he brought out some very good points. And just to summarize a little bit of that, it says, to speak of the immorality of God's acting in a way in any particular way that is an exhibition of pride which elevates the judgment of man above that of God. Because people sometimes read what God requires here and think, well, this isn't just, this isn't right, this is immoral. And he went on to say, such evaluations make man the standard of universal morality and thereby reveal a wholly inadequate concept of ethics. Man is the measure of all things in that mindset. A man likes to think he's the measure of all things, but ultimately one day he's gonna find out, should he not accept Christ, that God, in fact, is the measure. And he goes on to say, to insist that God could not have demanded the sacrifice of Isaac on moral grounds would lend support to the view that God could not have demanded the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the same reason. And yet, that's what happened. Contrawise, if the death of Jesus Christ is a true sacrifice, what ground is left for denying the possibility of God's demanding the sacrifice of Isaac? God is not acting in a way that is inconsistent with who he is. And so again, God's not tempting Abraham to do something outside of God's will for him. He's testing him to see where his heart is at, to see if his faith would waver, to see if the proposition holds true that was discovered by Abraham in Genesis 18.25, that the judge of all the world will do right. And so God did not require of Abraham something that God himself would not do. In fact, I put this on a slide for you to read. God did not require Abraham to do anything that he himself would not do. It's important to recognize that. The command to Abraham was intended to foreshadow what he would do centuries later on the cross of Calvary. And so we always need to remember, no matter how your life is falling into place or seemingly falling out of place, that this principle is true. No temptation or testing has overtaken you except as is common to man. You're not a trailblazer here. But God is faithful who will not allow you to be tested beyond what you are able, but with that testing or temptation will make a way of escape that you might be able to bear it. And so when it comes to Abraham, the essence of the test is does Abraham trust God, or does he trust what he sees in front of him? Does he trust the things that he holds dear to himself, or does he trust the word and the promise of the one who gave them? And that's a repeated test in all of our lives. Sometimes even daily. Because the tendency for all of us is to hang on to something we hold dear. And God says, do you love that more than you love me? I don't know. And so Abraham was to go to the land of Moriah to a mountain that God would show him. And so he said, I want you to leave Beersheba, I want you to travel to Moriah, and I want you to offer Isaac there. as a burnt offering, and a burnt offering was a complete and total consummation of what was offered, so this is saying in essence, I want you to kill him for me. And we saw in verse three that Abraham hemmed and hawed, no he didn't. It says here that he rose early in the morning, sat on his donkey, took two of his young men with him, he took Isaac, his son, He took the wood for the burnt offering. He arose and went to the place which God had told him. And on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey and the lad, and I will go yonder and worship. And notice, we will come back to you. Amazing faith. So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering. He laid it on his son Isaac. Isaac carried it up the mountain. He took the two of them, and the two of them went together. But Isaac spoke to Abraham, his father, and said, my father. And he said, well, here I am, my son. Then he said, look at the fire and the wood, but where's the lamb for the burnt offering? And Abraham said, my son, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering. So the two of them went together. And we'll stop. There for now. Now the question we could ask, we asked last week, why Mount Moriah? And we know prophetically that this is where the temple was built, 2 Chronicles 3.1. Now Solomon began to build the house of the Lord of Jerusalem on Mount Moriah. where the Lord had appeared to his father David, the place that David had prepared on the threshing forth of Oron the Jebusite. And so the Temple Mount is on Mount Moriah, right where Abraham offered Isaac his son. And we know that Mount Moriah would later be called Mount Zion, 1,000 years after that, the time of Solomon, some 2,000 years after the time of Abraham. is the exact same geographical location where Jesus would die for the sins of the world. And so there's obviously a foreshadowing going on here, and that's why Mount Moriah was the place where he was to go. Now what hit me this week as I reread this passage, it's mentioned in verse six and verse eight, It says, Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on his son. He took the fire in his hand and a knife, and the two men, notice it says, went together. And it's repeated for emphasis in verse eight. And Abraham said, my son, God will provide for himself the lamp and the burnt offering. So the two of them went together. And so Abraham and Isaac walked together here. And this becomes a picture for us. We have Isaac collaborating with Abraham and his obedience, and just, it pictures the father and the son collaborating in obedience to bring about the potential salvation for all mankind. They walked together to that sacrifice. So Abraham here takes the elements of execution, and they walk up the mountain together. And so Isaac becomes the focus here in Wicks. But you know, Isaac had his inquiry, and I like, again, how Frutenbaugh captured this. Then came Isaac's inquiry in verse seven, and he said, critical thinker, he's seeing something's not adding up here. And Abraham's answer was, Abraham said, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering, my son. In Hebrew it reads, yaira lo, which allows for two options. The first is that God will provide for himself or second, that God will provide himself as an offering. Either one is acceptable. How, again, they're a powerful foreshadowing of the cross of Christ. It was a divine provision either way, and notice Isaac inquired no further. And so Isaac becomes a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ who died upon the cross. Now I was thinking of some more things that Isaac and Jesus have in common. And I thought the birth of Isaac was prophesied before he was born, just like the birth of Jesus Christ. I mean, in Genesis 21, 1 and 2, it said, the Lord visited Sarah, just as he had said. So it was prophesied. The birth of Jesus Christ was prophesied. When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth a son born of woman, born under the law. It was prophesied, and there was a time set in which both would be born, and it was realized. Jesus was named before his birth. The angel appeared to Joseph and said, you shall call his name Jesus. Why? He will save his people from his sin. Isaac was given his name by God. by God himself in Genesis chapter 19, 17 rather, in verse 19 it says, and God said, Sarah, thy wife shall bear a son and you shall call his name Isaac. And so both of these sons were prophesied, both of these sons were born at a set time, they both had names given by God, they were both conceived by a miracle, and they're both sons of prophecy and promise. And so again, there's a picture here going on. Now some have speculated since the only thing Abraham said was God's gonna provide that Isaac might start to realize that he's the offering as they're going up the mountain. And I'm just trying to envision or imagine what was going through his mind during that trot. I mean, he's thinking, should I make a run for it? And who knows what's going through the heart of Abraham. This is no easy deal, right? But we know what was going through somewhat in the mind of Abraham, because he's in the hall of fame of faith for this very ordeal. It says, by faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, who had received promises offered up, This is only begotten son of whom it was said, in Isaac your seed shall be called, concluding that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense. This is a picture of it. And so Abraham's faith didn't waver at all. He said, you know what, God made a promise. He's not bucking on that whatsoever. And so if I go through this, I'm convinced God will raise him from the dead. Now that's called unwavering faith. And that's called a test, an amazing test. I like what one preacher said, who's now with the Lord. He says, Genesis chapter 22 is as close as you'll find to finding the pulse beat, the heartbeat of God. If you want to know what God felt when Jesus went up that hill of Calvary, place your hand in the bosom of Abraham and feel what he went through. Feel what went through Abraham's heart as he went up that mountain with Isaac. Only God knows, but I mean, just try to envision yourself. When you read a story sometimes, it's more helpful to immerse yourself in it to really get a better picture of what's going on. Well, that's the only thing that Abraham said to Isaac, though, and there might have been more he wanted to say, but he didn't utter a deceptive word. Abraham fully understands that God will provide, he believes God has provided, and so they walk together. In essence, he's telling Isaac, don't worry, God's got this. Now, those are comforting words if you're willing to believe them. If you're thinking you might be the sacrifice, you might think, hmm, I don't know. But you know what? It seems like they're of one mind. Isaac has confidence in his dad. His dad is considering Isaac. And again, that's a picture of God the Father and his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we saw last time that Isaac carried the wood, just like Jesus carried his own cross. And again, that wasn't a twig or two, there was a number, a lot of wood had to be strapped on his back for a burnt offering. And so we determined last time he was a young man here, he wasn't just simply a boy. And so Jesus carried his cross, and in many ways it was our cross, as there on that cross he brought the full, excuse me, he bore the full brunt of the justice of God, and pouring out the wrath for your sins and mine. Well, in verse nine, we saw, we came to the place which God had told him, and Abraham built an altar there, and he placed the wood in order, and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And so Abraham binds his son and he lays Isaac on the altar. And again, he's a young man, And so he had the strength to 100% resist Abraham in this. But Isaac submitted to what his father was doing and obviously trusted him fully. And again, just like Jesus. And we looked at John 10, 17 and 18 last week when Jesus of his own volition chose to lay down his life and Isaac is not protesting in any way. He's choosing to go along with God's program. And so it's another type, another figure of what Jesus did. And notice, he doesn't verbally protest, Isaac does. And that's like Christ as well, in Isaiah 53, 7. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so Christ opened not his mouth. And we see that Isaac is offering no protest either. He's not saying, Dad, what are you doing here? You know, he doesn't protest in any way. Amazing. And so Abraham then raises the knife to slay his son. Verse 10, Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. So he's about to go through it. And you can only envision, I mean, if any of you have a son or children, you know that this is wow, this is like the ultimate test. But again, Isaac's collaborating with his father in obedience, just as God the Father and Christ collaborated to bring about ultimate salvation, the potential for ultimate salvation for all people. It's amazing. Isaac was compliant. You know, I was thinking about this. Isaac didn't get this way on his own. Abraham has been training him up all the way to develop this compliant relationship. And you know, Jesus actually said that that would happen. Back in Genesis 18, verses 17 and 19, when Christ and Jesus, or Jesus, the pre-incarnate Jesus is having a conversation with Abraham. He said, shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, since Abraham shall surely become great, a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord and do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has spoken to him. Isn't that interesting? You know, would you be able to raise your child in such a way that if you were Abraham and your son or daughter was Isaac, that they would do the same? Are you teaching your children to think biblically and principally? Are you modeling those principles so that when the difficult test comes, and it will, that they don't bat an eye, that they follow what the Lord would have because they've been following your lead when the command of God is explicit and you have not compromised so you've told them and showed them and modeled that this is how this thing works and we're trusting God in this. So when they're all on their own and they make their own decisions, they think the same way, by the grace of God. See, one of the objectives as a parent is to get your children to taste and see that the Lord is good. Are you modeling that for them? You know, Abraham spent time honestly teaching Isaac that the Lord provides. And so the simple answer he gave him when the test came was, the Lord provides. Do you believe that? Are you communicating that to your children in your household? I mean, when Abraham raises the knight, Isaac could have said, I'm done here, hop off that baby, and away he went. No, he didn't. It's like God is giving this to us in slow motion so we can just kind of see it all happen. Abraham doesn't hesitate. He just goes for it. Now Isaac's obviously aware this is the command of God and he goes along with it. He deliberately obeys. And again, as you saw last time, this is a picture of Christ. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider robbery to be equal with God, or something to hold on to, but he chose of his own volition to make himself of no reputation. He took on the form of a slave. He came in the likeness of men, and being a founder in the appearance of man, he what? Humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the awful death of the cross. Amazing, isn't it? But then we have some divine intervention here. Verse 11, but the aims of the Lord, and that is a phrase that indicates a pre-incarnated Jesus Christ, called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. He said, here I am. He said, don't go any further. Do not lay your hand on the lad. Do not do anything to him for now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son, your only son from me. And so at the appropriate time, the Lord intervenes by calling abruptly to Abraham to stop what he is doing. This is an urgent interjection. Don't do it. Why? Here's a picture of that. The reason is because God's concluded that Abraham passed the test. He's passed the test. From God's perspective, he passed. See, verse 12 says, for I know. For I know, verse 12. The reason God stopped Abraham, because he now knows, this is what the text says, Abraham fears him. Second half of verse 12 says, for now I know that you fear God, because you haven't withheld your son from me. Now, it's not that God didn't know before, okay? Let's be clear about that. But now it's proved in reality. It's demonstrated to the fullness. Abraham completed the coursework. He's taking his practical exam and he passed with flying colors. And this is what Arnold Fruchtenbaum says. He says, for now I know. He says, then God gave the reason. For now I know that you fear God. God already knew this. but it was now known by experience. What God knew would happen has now come into the personal experience of this man, Abraham. God is not shocked by this. See, in this test, Abraham demonstrated and practiced what was true of his profession. Abraham acted what he knew to be true, and this is actually something that that James uses, let's go to, put a marker here, go to James chapter two, and the principles expounded upon. James chapter two. See, this is what James uses as an example of one's faith being demonstrated in accord to the will of God. See, he makes a propositional statement here in verse 14 of James 2. What does it profit? The issue is not do you have faith. The issue is, is your faith fulfilling what God left your faith to do on earth? What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says they have faith, but he's not expressed? He doesn't have work. Can faith deliver him? That kind of faith. If a brother or sister is naked and destitute, here's your example of daily food, and one of you says to them, depart in peace, be warm and filled, God love you, man, but you don't give them the things which are needed for the body, what is it profit? In other words, is your faith benefiting them? You have the means, you know there's a problem, and you're saying God will take care of you, but God says, I put you in that spot to take care of them. Is your faith being demonstrated is the question. I want to use verse 17, thus also faith, notice, by itself does not have works is dead. In other words, the faith is there, but you're not expressing it, so it's separated. The word death means separated. It's separated from the divine intent that God would work in through you so you could benefit someone else. Verse 18, but someone says, wait a minute, I have faith, and you have works, no. The goal is to show me your faith. He says, show me your faith without your works, and guess what? I'll show you my faith by my works. That's how God designed this, because faith is invisible. You can only see the effects of faith. He says, you believe that there's one God, you're an orthodox person, great. Even the demons believe, and they're going to hell, and that's why they tremble. But watch, you know, oh foolish man, that faith without works is dead, it's separated from the divine intent, it's not profiting someone, because God left you on this planet to fulfill the good works that he left you here to do. And then verse 21, he uses Abraham as the example. It was not an Abraham or father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son upon the altar. And this is the principle, verse 22. Do you see that faith was working together with his works and that by works, faith was made complete? In other words, this is part of maturity. The whole purpose It was to bring Abraham to maturity through the good works God left him here to do, and since he moved out by that, it was brought to maturity. That's his point. And this declares you righteous before men. Verse 23 in scripture was fulfilled, which says Abraham believed God. In other words, this was something that was true, But now it was now demonstrated, and he was called a friend of God. You see then, and this is the key, what do you see? A man is justified outside toward men, horizontally, by works and not by faith only. And then he uses Rahab as an example as well. And so this is being used to show that Abraham demonstrated to the angels, because they're not omniscient, and now to the world, that he, in fact, obeyed God when his faith was tested, and that declared him righteous to all men. So you go back to Genesis 22. See, Abraham got saved some 40 plus years earlier. It says he believed God and was credited for righteous. He was already righteous, but through this act, he demonstrated to others that he was, in fact, righteous and a friend of God. See, faith is invisible. But his actions allowed a public acknowledgement by heaven and earth. And so God measured Abraham's faithfulness with this phrase, verse. 12, he said, don't lay your hand on the lad, don't do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me. Abraham's faith was completed by what he did. And this is how God measured that. You haven't withheld your son, your only son, from me. You know, as I thought about that, Romans 8.32 jumped into my mind because God did not spare the slaying of his own son, though he spared Abraham from that ordeal. He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall I not with him also, freely give us all things? You know, there was no voice that came out of the sky when these Roman soldiers were pounding nails and raising that cross to stop it. because Christ went through it and offered himself for your sins and mine. And it had to be, because this is how God demonstrated his love for you. And again, there's no coincidence that the very place where Abraham offered his only begotten son is the very place where God would pour out his wrath on Jesus Christ, an innocent substitute for you and for me for sin. So God demonstrated his love. that he didn't love his son, but he demonstrated his love for you and me. And so this is pretty amazing. You know, it's funny how I still remember, I didn't realize how much my folks loved me until I had children. And that is no comparison to how much God loves me, because God proved it in a way that my parents never had to. I was reading one guy, and this guy's name is Warburton. And he suggests this, and this is just pure speculation, it's something to think about, that Abraham had desire to know the manner in which all the families of the earth would be blessed in him. So God imposed his command chiefly with the design of teaching Abraham by action, not words, how the nations would be blessed through the sacrifice of God's own son. By taking Abraham up to the very point of killing Isaac, the Lord allowed him to enter as closely as any mortal could to the experience of God in sacrificing his only son. Now that's speculation, but it is interesting to ponder. But here, God says, now I know. I know, I've discovered the depth of your loyalty to me. And what was Abraham's motivation? Well, we're told there, I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son from me. So his motivation was fear of the Lord. Now that doesn't mean he was so afraid of God that if he disobeyed him, he'd get struck dead. That's not what the word fear means in this context. No, it's a posture of humble, reverential respect and honor for God. You know, the concept of fear in God is captured well in Deuteronomy 10, verses 12 and 13. where Moses is giving the nation a command. He says, and now Israel, what does the Lord of God require of you but to fear the Lord your God? What does that look like? Well, to walk in all his ways and to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and his statutes which I command you today for your good. And so this is what, you wanna know what the fear of the Lord looks like? That's a nice summary statement right there. But the orientation of Abraham's heart is made visible by the fact that he did not withhold the thing that was most beloved to him, the thing that he most valued in life, something that was irreplaceable, Isaac. And that proved the fear of the Lord. So he passed the test. Amazing. Now God provides a substitute. Verse 13, then Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. And so Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And so God provided a ram as a substitute for Isaac. And so we have God's affirmation, but we also have God's provision. A ram caught in a thicket. And a ram is a male sacrifice. So he offered it instead of Isaac. And what does this portray? Obviously, the sacrifice of Jesus. A male ram, a male lamb. And I thought, you know what, it's stuck in the thicket, so it's like the ram had its own crown of thorns, just like Jesus, right? But the key word there is instead of. Instead of means in the place of. This is profound Christology. You know, Abraham told Isaac that God will provide for himself a lamb. And the two of them walked together, and so a substitution showed up. An innocent ram dying in the place of Isaac pictures Christ taking on, in our place, as a sacrifice for our sins. Like one pastor said, he said, what must Isaac have felt when he saw that ram? What must Isaac have felt when the bonds were taken from him? When he gets up off the altar, I wonder, did he embrace that ram? I wonder, did the tears flow down his eyes when he looked into the liquid eyes of that ram there dying upon the altar? I wonder what he thought when he saw the blood of that sacrificial animal that was spread there, and he knew that he died in my place. This ram had become my substitute. What a vivid picture. You don't read the story, but try to put yourself in it. Put yourself in Isaac's shoes. And that's the essence of the gospel. The righteous holy one died in our place to pay for our sins. You know, substitution is a very important concept to understand when giving out the gospel. First Peter 3, it captures this well. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just one, Christ, in the place of the unjust ones, you and me. To what end? That he might bring us to God. He was put to death in the flesh but he was made alive in the spirit. You know, we live in a day and age where this gospel message which communicates substitution has been watered down. There's a lot of minimization going on about our need of a savior because no one likes to be called a sinner. worthy of hell. You know, sometimes when I'm giving out a sermon, I say, so do you see that you're a sinner? Yeah, do you see that you deserve to go to hell? Well, I don't know about that. That's a little harsh, isn't it? No, that's reality right there. You know, a lot of times an evangelistic presentation is that along the lines that, you know, God's here to help you with your problems. And he wants to give you an abundant life. And sometimes if they have an easy life, God can just take you to the next level. That's what Jesus can do for you. You know, in Ephesians 1.13, the gospel is called the gospel of our salvation, which means you need to be saved from something. And again, what did Jesus come to do? He will save his people from their sins. And to do that, he had to become like his brethren. You know, Jesus didn't become an ape to die for apes. He became a man to die for mankind. So important, he came to save sinners. And the only way you and I can be saved is if an innocent substitute took the wrath of God in our stead. You know, God, You know, the gospel's not God's there to give you a little help in life, because you've got a problem. You know, John the Baptist said, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. A lamb was slayed on your behalf and mine, and Jesus Christ was that lamb. So the message of the gospel is not that Jesus can give you a nice life, though he's there to deliver you from all kinds of pitfalls in life. But that's secondary. You know, you can, Jesus himself said, what's the profit of an old man if he lives, has a dandy life and gains all things, yet loses his soul? Sometimes a perfect life, as you might define it, would be the very thing that keeps you out of heaven. Because you don't see your need of a savior. Yeah, but I need a new job. Well, you know what? Christ can obviously help there. He can help you with your drug addiction. He can help you with all these things, but those are always secondary things. The biggest thing you need is to be saved from hell, because if you've never had a drug problem, and you always had a rosy life, and economically everything was just dandy, and you go to hell, what have you really got? Nothing. God is able. In fact, he wants you to know he's able to help you with things. But you got to first realize the ultimate provision is you escaping the wrath of God in hell through his love and sacrifice for you. Verse 14. And Abraham called the name of the place, the Lord will provide, as it is said to this day in the Mount of the Lord, it shall be provided. So Abraham called the name of the place, the Lord will provide. The Lord will provide. Now, if you have a King James, it says this, Abraham called the name of the place, Jehovah Jireh, as it is said to this day in the Mount of the Lord, it shall be seen. And really, what it means, and this became a Hebrew idiom, is the Lord will see to it. That's what it literally means. The Lord will see to it. In other words, the Lord's gonna see that it's provided. He's gonna see to it that it's provided, is the whole point here. The Lord's gonna see to it. And again, this was written to typify Christ, In that mountain of Golgotha, the Lord saw to it with the provision of Jesus Christ. And so Jehovah Jireh, a new name of God. You know, for the believer in Christ, God's provision goes so far beyond paying the penalty of your sins. He wants to perpetually provide for you in this life. In fact, I'm going over the young people, 2 Peter 1, 3, and 4. His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to the life of Godliness. He dumped the truck. Through the knowledge of him who called us by glory and virtue, by which we have been given, and this is in the perfect tense in the Greek, all exceeding great and precious promise so we can be a partaker of the divine nature. We can walk with him and enjoy him and see his hand work in our lives. You know, God has made and faithfully kept promises to Abraham. And it's no different with you and me because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He promises grace is sufficient. He can't fail them, they're trustworthy. And so he's Jehovah Jireh. Now you and I can have a problem not seeing what the Lord has provided. See, sometimes a believer has a mental outlook where they refuse to see God's hand in their life because they've got an idea that this is how it should work out and if God doesn't work it out this way, well then he's not providing. That's the wrong posture. Have you thought through the purpose of God's testing in your life? Is to wait upon the Lord and see his faithfulness so you can grow in the grace and knowledge of the Savior? Whatever your test might be, And when it comes to testing, the spectrum is pretty broad. But you know, when I have my heart set on something and it does not come, is it possible for me in my unbelief to think that God is not for me but against me? Yeah, yeah. You know, one thing that kind of jumps off the page here in this whole escapade is Abraham's not saying under his breath, you know, God, how could you do this to me? This isn't fair. This is wrong. I'm entitled to a better treatment than this. Why are things working out this way? God, why are you sticking it to me and making me go through this? I'm not saying any of that, right? You know, maybe this morning you have a how long test. Maybe it's chronic pain in your life. Maybe it's relational and spiritual or physical. You have something, some kind of suffering that won't go away and you have to live with it. The test then becomes, is God's grace sufficient? You know, God allowed a thorn in Paul's life, and as far as we know, it never left him. Paul thanked God for the thorn, because that's where he learned that God's grace is sufficient. You know, a potential part of every difficult test, when love is involved, is the question, does Jesus really do all things well? You know, sometimes you get a trial and you want an explanation and there is none. And some people waste their whole life trying to find an explanation when there's not one to be found. It's unexplainable. Or maybe you're stuck in a problem that can't be solved. It's a test of faith. You know, when Paul was in prison, and he was in pretty substantial lack, he said this. Not that I speak in regard to need, and he had needs, but I've learned, whatever state I am, to be content. I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things, I've learned, both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need, because I can do all things through Christ, who continually infuses me with strength. Here he's in a bad spot, and he could be saying, God, why do you, I'm stuck in, are you kidding me? No. He learned that God's grace was sufficient. You know, Moses, he had to make a choice to esteem the approach of Christ's greater riches than the treasures of Egypt, and he had to look to the reward. So by faith, he took a tough path. He forsook Egypt, he didn't fear the wrath of the king, and he had to endure. How did he do that? He saw him as invisible. He saw the invisible one that never left him or forsaked him. It wasn't easy. He wasn't saying, God, why this? You know, there's no such thing as a perfect life on earth. I hope you've figured that out. You know, most of us here can thank God because most of us have had a number of pleasant and good moments, which we are to be thankful for. But you know, there's always thorns, there's always burdens, there's always something. And if I've got the mindset that things should be different than what they are, I am one miserable human being. Have you correlated your miserableness in life to you wanting something that you don't have and not believing Jesus does all things well? When you're miserable, you're complaining. You want things to be different and you oftentimes think you're entitled to more than what you have. You're not. You know what you're entitled to? Peace through the misery. John 14, 27, peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. Well, thank you, Lord. I'll take your peace. Not as the world gives it do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled. Don't be afraid. I've got this. Just enjoy my peace. No. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests be known to God, and then I'll give you peace. And the peace will surpass the understanding, and it'll guard your hearts and minds in Christ. That's where Abraham was at. And you know, when you're there, you can focus on the mission like Abraham did. It says, by faith, he dwelt in the land of promises in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, and heirs of him with the same promise, because he had his eyeballs on something else, just like Moses did. For he waited for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker was God. Yeah, but I got things going on, Lord. Don't worry, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear? After all these things, the unsaved seek. Your heavenly Father knows you need all these things. Instead, focus on things above. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and he'll take care of the details. That's the life. It's not the absence of difficulty. It's God's grace and peace in the difficulty. And I thought this was interesting. Make the issue. The issue of the Lord made with Abraham is communicated by the word withheld. He says it twice. Verse 12. He says, I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son, your only son from me. He says it in verse 16. By myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing and you have not withheld your son, your only son. What are you withholding from the Lord? Because you think if you lead that situation with him, he's going to screw it up. Ever think like that? I have. Especially when I was a young man. I'm not saying disappointment isn't going to invade your life because it is. William Sangster, a noted English preacher, visited a young girl in a hospital at a time when doctors were struggling in vain to keep her from becoming blind. It was sad, and she said to him, God is going to take away my sight. He listened, but at first made no reply, and then he answered compassionately, don't let him take your sight, Jesse. Give it to him. I don't understand, she responded. Try this prayer. Father, if I must lose my sight, help me to give it to you. And that was the proper mindset. You know, if Abraham would have never stretched out his hand in obedience, he would have sat there with a knife going, well, I don't know. He would have never come to experience how God revealed himself as Jehovah Jireh. He would have missed out, because he wasn't willing to go through the trial. But he took God by faith, and he raised the knife. And he got to taste and see that the Lord is good. In fact, this could be what Jesus is referring to, speaking to the Pharisees in John 8. Your father, he rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad. I got to, he got to experience the reality of it with his own son. You know, when you pass a trial, a trial from all God's hand, you can look for fresh illumination of God's character. We got Jehovah Jireh here. And growth can ensue. You know, God, we don't read of Abraham being tested after this in the word of God. Through it all, God's grace was sufficient. And again, it reinforces that God would never ask you to do something he himself is not willing to do. There's always a reward for passing the test. James says this, blessed is one who perseveres under trial because having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. And the key to passing every test is to what? Love it. Love it. Well, God confirms the covenant because of this. Verse 15, then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven and said, I've sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, you have not withheld your son, your only son. Blessing, I will bless you. Multiplying, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and the sandwiches on the seashore and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed, all the nations of the earth will be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. So Abraham returned to the young men, and they rose and went together to Beersheba, and Abraham dwelt in Beersheba. Here God reaffirms his covenant with Abraham. And now it's interesting, we can put a marker here. Go to Hebrews 12 for a second, or six rather. I'm running out of time, so we'll speed this up here. The writer refers to this very passage in Hebrews 6. Verse 12. Well, verse 11, and we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end. that ye don't become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. For when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, saying, surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you. And so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men indeed swear by greater, and an oath for a confirmation is for them an end of all dispute, thus God determined to show more abundantly the errors of promise and the immutability of his counsel confirmed by an oath, that by two immutable things, an oath and the fact that God is impossible, it's impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, which enters the presence beyond the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Jesus swore. He made a promise and he cannot lie. And he's saying to these Hebrews, will you just walk in hope? Will you believe that? Will you rest right there and have an anchor for your soul? You know, Isaac and Abraham walked together. Do you realize that if Isaac didn't obey, then Abraham couldn't obey? Isaac could have said, I'm done here, and ran away. But then Abraham was stuck. He's 100 and some years old. It's not like he can run him down, right? They worked together. And the father and son loved each other immensely. and they loved each other, and if they didn't love each other and collaborate with each other like Abraham and Isaac, we wouldn't have salvation today. What do you suppose they talked about when they walked back to Beersheba together? What a precious time that would have been. Jehovah-Jireh, wow. Now the chapter ends. and giving us information that is pertinent to God's plan going forward. We can go back to Genesis 22 there. And this is setting the stage for Rebecca, who's gonna become Isaac's wife. Verse 20, now, came to pass after these things it was told Abram and saying, indeed, Milcah has borne children to your brother Nahor. His brother Nahor, who's still back up in that city that escapes me at the moment, Heron. Huz is firstborn, Buz, his brother, Buz. Camule, the father of Abram. Chesed, Hazel, there's a name. Pildash, Jidpath, and Bethuel. And Bethuel begot Rebekah. And these eight milka bore to Nahor, Abraham's brother. And his concubine, whose name was Rumah, also bore Tebah, Gaham, Thahash, and Machah. And so Isaac's gonna go get his bride from his brother's children. So he's setting the stage for the future. And I just wanna end here by just, I like what Wiersbe did here in his commentary on this section. He says, where does the Lord provide for our needs? In the place of his assignment. Abraham was at the right place so God could meet his needs. We have no right to expect provision of God if we're not in the will of God. When does God meet our needs? Just when we have a need and not a minute before. When you bring a request to the throne of grace, God answers with mercy and grace in the time of need. and right at the time of need, God intervened. Sometimes it looks like God waits until the last minute to send help, but that is only from our human viewpoint. God is never late. How does God provide for us? In ways that are usually quite natural, God did not send an angel with a sacrifice. He simply allowed a ram to get caught in the bush at the time when Abraham needed it, in a place where Abraham could get his hands on it. All Abraham needed was one animal, so God did not send a whole flock of sheep. To whom does God give his provision? To those who trust him and obey his instructions. When we are doing the will of God, we have the right to expect provision of God. We find ourselves asking how can I get out of this instead of what can I get out of this that will honor the Lord. We sometimes waste our sufferings by neglecting or ignoring opportunities to reveal Jesus Christ to others who are watching us go through the furnace. A lot of wisdom there. What a humbling story. See, Abraham had one objective, it was to see God glorified. He feared the Lord. Is that how you and I are thinking today? He passed his final exam. We're still here, so we got more exams coming. And his grace will be sufficient. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this amazing account of Abraham and just how he walked by faith and how your will was done and how He rose to the occasion by the grace of God, and may we think along the same lines, to recognize you are Jehovah Jireh, that your grace is efficient, that you will provide, come what may. as our times are in your hands. So thank you for these truths that we are privileged to see in story form. And may you work them into our hearts so we can see you as you'd have us to see us. And may you work in us and through us so that you are glorified in the life you've given us. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.