So Genesis 22, as we close the chapter, the first half, there's that glorious Gospel story. We read it. We studied it. I hope even you've told it and you've thought about it again since last Lord's Day that we were together. We're not done thinking about it because there's more that the Lord will want to help us attach to the thinking of this real event in Abraham's life concerning his telling. We've learned along the way that really we can call Abraham an evangelist, and an effective evangelist. An evangelist who tells people of his guidance everywhere that he goes. We learn from his encounters when he travels to Egypt, and his encounters with Abimelech when he makes a covenant with him. We know this of the surrounding region even with his extended family. Abraham is a kind man. He's a compassionate man. He's a gentle man. And in this, he never takes off his gospel voice. He never mutes his gospel voice. So this second part, if you will, I think it's a fair way to think of the chapter if we're dividing the chapter in two. It seems as though verse 15 is a good spot to make that marker. There it says, then the angel of the Lord called upon Abraham a second time from heaven. So in this, he calls from him a second time. And it appears as though this is in extraordinarily close proximity to the events that have just been unfolded in chapter 22. Abraham and Isaac and the two young men traveled to Mount Moriah. We learned last week that this particular location is the very place where the temple will eventually be built, where sacrifices will be made to the living God, and that this is immediately following that. Now, we don't know how much time has gone by, but this much I think we can have some confidence in, at least enough time for Abraham to put the ram that God provided as a substitute sacrifice for what he was requiring of Abraham to do, that at least that amount of time has passed. So when verse 15 comes in here, the angel of the Lord, and we've learned this from many chapters of learning about Abraham, It is very clear that this is somewhat a mysterious individual, but yet at the same time, everything points to this being a pre-incarnate Christ. Abraham is in dialogue with the Lord himself, not just an angel of the Lord, even though, listen, we don't have a problem with the language that's describing him as a messenger of the Lord, a messenger from heaven, this messenger of being. This is among those who visited Abraham before Sarah was pregnant. This is the same angel of the Lord. Abraham is extremely comfortable with dialogue with this individual. So the angel of the Lord is now a second time called called to Abraham in this encounter. We'll say it's not only the second time because there's been a couple of times even prior to this that Abraham has had these encounters with an angel of the Lord. But in this proximity of these verses and the unfolding of the narrative, for the second time, so the first time here, the angel of the Lord comes to Abraham and says, listen, you need to take your son, your only son, so that's We kind of walked ourselves through some of the complication of that language. It's not wrong. It's not contradictory. We know that Abraham had a son prior to Isaac's birth. That's Ishmael. But in the promise that God gave to Abraham and Sarah, Isaac is his only son. Legally, technically, He is, so when he refers to him as his only son, and let me just remind you, let your gospel ears, let the radar of your gospel ears pick up everything you know about the gospel. Soak it all in and work it in and massage it into your mind and to your heart eventually and see. He takes his only son And he's instructed to go to the land of Moriah and there the angel of the Lord will show him where, and the text bears out, that he will be specifically upon Mount Moriah. And we know from the book of Deuteronomy this to be the place where Solomon will eventually build David's temple. And so here's the unfolding, the rolling out of the narrative. Which, by the way, it's been seen since Genesis chapter 1. The gospel being shown to us, revealed to us, put in front of us, we're hearing it, we're thinking about it. And the New Testament writers, inspired by the Holy Spirit, What do they do? They point back here to the book of beginnings, and they're constantly seeing the gospel, the parallel, those things which tie everything that God has been doing along the way, tied to Jesus Christ, our only begotten, our only Messiah, God's only begotten son. And so the second time of the angel of the Lord coming to Abraham, is in this close proximity here of this event. So God asked him to do something. I think this is maybe the understatement of the message this morning. The first half of the chapter here, God asked Abraham to do something very difficult. And really, I mean, yes, it is that. But maybe it's not even sufficient enough description as to how difficult this is. I would say this, I do think what God has asked of Abraham here is more difficult than anything you will ever be asked of God to do. I am confident of that. That is true, isn't it? Your life has shown there's been difficult times in your life, haven't there? But I don't think anything in all of the universe could equal the testing that God gives to Abraham here to take your only son and to sacrifice him. But yet we learn this about Abraham. Abraham loves God and he will not even save his own son to disobey God. That is That is humbling, isn't it? I hope that your soul hears how humbling of a thing that God has asked of Abraham to do, and remember this. There's this idea that Abraham is living in, and we get this from the New Testament. We saw this last week. Abraham is convinced about the resurrection. Abraham is confident that God would, if he wanted to, could raise his son Isaac from the dead, even if he were to sacrifice him on the altar. Again, your gospel ears are picking all of this up, aren't they? So, just as Abraham had raised that knife, the angel of the Lord says to Abraham, Abraham, Abraham, do not harm your son, for God is pleased with you. Again, some of the things we see in the first half of the narrative. Can't you imagine how Abraham must have received his son after this news? I mean, boys and girls, do you have huggy and kissy grandparents? You go visit grandma and grandpa and this is like they won't quit hugging you. They won't quit kissing you. I think it's probably, we don't have this in the text, so I'm not putting it there in that same equal position, but I want us to understand the kind of relief that Abraham must have experienced. There must have been some serious hugging and kissing going on at this moment. And God blessed Abraham for his obedience. And he reminded him that his descendants would be, as we've heard this now five previous times, this will be the sixth time the Lord will use this language, that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the heavens and the sands of the seashore. In other places, he'll use the word dust of the earth, or here, the sand of the seashore. In other words, so many, even Abraham won't be able to count them. And how many sons, how many children to Abraham and Sarah? He can count that many, can't he? One. But God gives him a promise that is beyond him and a promise that is reaching into the New Testament, the Gospel. We'll see that. It's here again, the Gospel is laid upon the text. So in that 16th verse where we really kind of move deeper into the second half of the text, We see that there is no greater name for God to swear by than to swear by himself. This is the angel of the Lord when he says, by myself I have sworn. So the Lord himself, I have sworn by myself. By the way, we've seen this already in Genesis. This is not a first mention. This is a reiterating, this is an encouraging, you've heard me say this before, hear me say this again. God swears to no other name because there is no other name above him. Yes, in this world, man may create and institute gods in his own mind, which is, we'll learn along the way, God will forbid this eventually. He's already forbid it, but he'll write it in stone. He writes it on our hearts to give our worship to no other. Because God knows our hearts. One of those reformers of old made the noted statement about our hearts being idle factories. It's as though we can't, left to ourselves, we can't help but invent gods for ourselves. This is part of the glory of the Bible. This is why it's so kind of God to give us a word that describes who He is and shows who we are in relationship to Him, so that we would know there is no other God. He is the God of gods. This is a Hebrew cliche if you will, it's a he's the king of kings, lord of lords, god of gods, this kind of phrasing. This is a Hebrew idiom. It's a way of emphasizing, it's doing the extraordinary of what doesn't need to be spoken. There is no other God above him. There's none equal to him. The Bible will even tell us. So all of these descriptions of the Bible are making it clear. This is why the angel of the Lord is swearing by himself, because there is no other name higher than him to swear by. There's none equal to him. There's none higher than him. He He swears by himself. This is something that no other can do. Hebrews 6, verse 13 says that when God made the promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself. So it's actually the Bible that helps us. It aids us in our thinking here, because God made this promise to Abraham, and since he could swear by no other, He swore by his own name. The angel of the Lord is indeed a divine person, the true Yahweh. Because you have done this one thing, he says to Abraham, this one thing that I instructed you to do, God looked upon Abraham as if he had actually done this very thing. God is well pleased that Abraham had obeyed as I just mentioned, this with the other five times, a total of six times that God mentions this promise that He gives to Abraham that He would bless him and all nations so this is a promise of the nations of the world, this is a promise God gives to Abraham and in Abraham's faith you and I are descendants of God is is again reminding him of the glorious spread of the gospel. This will be to all the nations of the world. Here it is. It's more language of the gospel, isn't it? Verse 17, he says, your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. The angel of the Lord telling Abraham, your seed will possess the gates, the gate of their enemies. Well, remember Genesis chapter 3? We'll never get away from that, will we? When we look at the origin of the sound of the gospel, there's where God, when he curses the serpent in the garden, just following the fall of man, where he says, of the woman, the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. We'll see this more clearly in just a moment from the New Testament vantage point. The seed being, the seed in Genesis chapter 3 is Jesus. The seed, singular, in the New Testament will make it extraordinarily clear that this singular seed here is not Isaac, it's not Jacob, It's not Joseph, it's not Moses, it's not David, it's not Saul. None of these will do here. Jesus will do, and he will destroy his enemies. He will possess the gate. He will possess the world. We're made as Christians, as followers, as descendants of Abraham in the faith, We are made more than conquerors in Christ. Verse 18, there's that language of all the nations of the earth will be blessed by that principle seed. Notice, as we saw in the first half of the chapter, there's parts of this that are just the narrative of the actual events that are happening. There's parts of the natural world are being related in the narrative. The same is true here in the second half, where it speaks of the seeds, singular, or, excuse me, plural, which it does use it in both. Sometimes in the narrative, it's referring to the descendants, the plural, those who will come after Abraham. And then he will also use the singular word seed, and here he's referring, especially in verse 18, he is directly meaning, and we get this from the New Testament, as a matter of fact we might as well go ahead and get that hearing into our ears Galatians chapter 3 verse 16 we know that this principle seed the singular seed in Genesis 22 verse 17 and 18 Galatians 3 verse 16 says this the Apostle Paul inspired by the Holy Spirit now the prophets were spoken to Abraham and to his seed singular. He does not say, and to seeds, as referring to many, but rather to one. And to your seed, quote, that is Christ, end quote. The Apostle Paul tells us what we're reading about here in Genesis chapter 22, the seed that will possess the gate of their enemies is the Lord Jesus Christ. The the crucified, or the born incarnated God. The angel of the Lord is informing and essentially preaching this to Abraham in the Old Testament. There again is this glorious great gospel. Luke chapter 1, you could read in a larger context, you could read verses 67 through 80, you would see this, but let me hone in on verse 73. The seed, singular, the seed promised to Abraham. This is Zacharias speaking here. He says this, the oath which God swore to Abraham, our father. There's Zacharias seeing the born babe and he announces the oath which God... Oh, glorious day, the gospel, the gospel, the gospel. So Christ is the great blessing of the world. This is how Matthew Henry puts this. Abraham was ready to give up his own son for a sacrifice to the honor of God. Salvation of men. There it's pictured here in Genesis 22. God comes and he provides a sufficient, a substitute. In other words, this won't have to be done again when Christ is sacrificed for the sins of the world. This is the glorious announcement. So God fulfilled his promise to Abraham. This can be seen principally in Jesus Christ. Now, yes, generations have gone between Abraham and Jesus. And the line that we read about, the ancestral line, which, by the way, we're going to be reminded how good it is that the Bible keeps a record of the households, that we have a record of this. We know where Jesus's line comes from all the way back to Eve, to Adam and Eve in the garden. One will track it back as far as it can through the kings, as the prophets would speak of, and then we would see this through to Noah, to Adam, and Eve principally there, the seed of the woman. And there because Mary, conceived by the Holy Spirit, untouched by man, can be referred to as the seed of the woman. All other times of the mentioning of the seed of man is when a father is listed, a biological, tangible being, a male and a female, that would be referred to as the seed of the man. But in the mysterious, glorious gospel, and the conception of Jesus in the womb of Mary is untouched by sinful man. This is a primary of the gospel. So God fulfilled his promise to Abraham. It can be seen here with the aid of the New Testament. And there, with the aid of the New Testament, for the landing upon our ears, we can see that indeed the purpose of the Bible is that we would know who God is. And that we would know who we are in relationship to God. This really is the purpose and the points of the Bible. So the world will be defeated from Abraham's vantage point. The world will be defeated like David will defeat Goliath. That easy and that profound through the through the blood of Jesus. Jesus will have the nations. This is 17 and 18, Genesis 17 and 18. The seed, in your seed, verse 18, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you've obeyed my voice here. Jesus will have the nations. This isn't something that you and I should wring our hands and fret and worry over. Can he do it? Is it possible? This is what we can say with confidence. He has the nations of the world. Jesus, possessing the gates of the nations, the gate of the nations of His enemies. Jesus, the champion of heaven. Jesus will have for Himself a people who were, this more language of the New Testament, isn't it? Jesus will have for Himself a people who were not a people, but now are a people. He will have a church, the Israel of God. They will be more than a conqueror in Christ. And what will they do? They will subdue his enemies. Christ will have the nations. And he's done this by building himself a church and commissioning her to take this gospel and behave like an evangelist to the nations. We go as conquerors in Christ. We go in obedience to God, and in that, in the same way in which we obey God to take the gospel to the nations, God will bless that obedience in the same way that he blesses Abraham's obedience here, and he will multiply it, as many as the stars of the heavens and the sand of the seashore. Well, chapter 22 closes with a little bit of a forward notice of a particular individual we're going to need to know about moving forward. Not immediately. The very next chapter will be the mourning of the loss of Isaac's mother. Chapter 23 is the death and the burial of Sarah. And so we'll get to that narrative, Lord willing, next week. But verses 20 through 24, the close of chapter 22, it's not as interesting, it's not as, we can't necessarily see, well, right there, it's packed full, every piece of it is packed full of the gospel, but yet it is still part of the telling of the narrative of the gospel. There's an individual, a woman, that we're going to need to know about now so that when we come across her later, will know who she is and we know where she comes from. Now this will not satisfy your curious mind about all the complexities of the close relationships of husbands and wives at this stage. It's still early in world history where brothers and sisters or cousins are marrying. It's not forbidden at this point. It will be. And we'll see that whenever that does come about, that there's no other way around it. We can't go back and say, well, listen, Abraham and Sarah were some kind of brother-sister relationship. And then Isaac and Rebecca are gonna be first cousin relationship. No point of arguing in a modern day, can we come back and say, it was okay for them, it's okay for us. Because the Bible is very explicit, this is forbidden. Not yet, but it will be soon. So, the curiosity, the complexity, the inside scratching of our heads, we'll just, let's read the text. And we say, well, blessed be the name of the Lord. Now, I'm not going to read all these names again. For one, I'll pronounce some of them differently than the first time I came through it. But notice this. All you moms and dads and to the, by the way, around here, I love the names you give to your children. Some of them are tied to your families. Some of them are tied to stories and narratives of the Bible. It's blessed. Some of them are tied to great literature, world history, world literature. It's beautiful. I think you're doing smart things, giving children strong names. But I'm just going to go ahead and say it here. I'm waiting for someone to name their child Uz or Buzz. I think I can point to chapter and verse and say, well, blessed be the name of the Lord. One of the sons of Abraham's brother. Here they are. That Laban is not listed here. And I'm sure they had other children as well. But whenever we get just a couple of chapters down the road, we're going to be introduced to this beautiful love story, this romantic encounter between Rebecca and Isaac. And we'll learn about Rebecca's brother then. Laban will be a part of this narrative for quite some time in the days to come, not always favorably. But it's beautiful here that of all names listed in this genealogy of Nahor is that Rebecca is the only woman. Now, I'm confident she's not the only daughter born to these households. Most of these just mention the firstborn of the household. Now, we don't know, is Rebecca the firstborn? we get lost in the weeds here. But Rebecca is named here on purpose by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to the author Moses who's writing these things and telling this narrative to a people who know the story of God's people. So he's preserving it into a archaeologically sound and confident text that we can refer to in days to come. So Where verses 20 through 24 don't carry the big, flashy weight of page-turning narrative, but it gives us some helpful connection points in this narrative of Isaac, especially, moving forward. And so we'll continue to do that. I have good news for the boys and girls. I know we've kind of kidded ourselves. I'm in sermon 92 or 93 thus far going through the book of Genesis 22 as we've made this marker point here. And there's, what are there, 50 chapters here? I know some of the children have asked me from time to time, do you think it's possible you'll be done with Genesis before I graduate from school? I'm not so sure. The real question is, will I still be in Genesis when you have grandchildren here? Everybody in the room saying, oh, dear God, please let him move on a little bit faster than that. And I think we will. We're going to move into parts of Genesis that are big narrative blocks. There's going to be a lot of beautiful things to stop and look at, but it's also going to we're going to take on much bigger blocks of scripture text. to tell the narrative of the events that are soon to be happening. We'll get through the mourning and the sadness of Sarah's death in chapter 23, and then we move into romance, we move into stories of spectacular interactions of God's people, some good, some bad. We actually have a lot of negative things that will unfold, but in every one of them, we will keep tethered to the gospel. The telling of this narrative is for the highlighting of the gospel, the hope that we have. You read the pages of the Bible and you think, man, is it possible? Is my life any more out of control? I read the Bible and I think, well, thank God it's not that much out of control. But in every case, it is measured against the sufficiency of Christ and it is met by the blood of Christ and the sound of the gospel. And so, dear church, we should rejoice and be thankful to hear yet again the simplicity of the gospel and the reminder of how beautiful it is that you too once were chained to the enemy. as the writer, as Paul the Apostle speaks of, that we were transferred, we were rescued out of the domain of darkness and transformed into the kingdom of God's beloved son, Jesus the Christ. That's us. And that sound should never grow old to our ears. So it will be on our ears forever, even in this temporal day, and it will be told again and again in eternity of the mercy of God. Blessed be the name of the Lord.