Let's look now at the book of Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. And we want to consider verses 17 through 19. Let's read these verses. By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac. And he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called, accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure. May the Lord give his blessing to the reading of Holy Scripture. These are some stunning verses. And I know that we'll only scratch the surface of them here together today. But let's Enjoy the scratch anyway. We have seen mention of Abraham and Sarah previously here in this chapter and previously in the letter to the Hebrews, Abraham, that is. And then there was something of a parenthesis in verses 13 through 16. that spoke of the patriarchs in general, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and in some respects we could include Joseph in that. Now we return to one individual once again, Abraham. He is such a great figure in the Old Testament, and it should not surprise us that What we have seen thus far is not the conclusion, is not all that is said about him. We have this before us to consider also. It speaks here of Abraham being tried. By faith, Abraham, when he was tried. Now, Abraham went through a number of trials throughout his life. But it's as if this was the trial of trials. This was the greatest, this was the most difficult, the most trying of his trials. And we know that the trials that God puts his people through are not in order to confuse us or to trip us up. They are not to induce us to doubt and unbelief, but rather they are to prove our faith, to show the quality of it, to refine it and purify it. And in the long run, to do good and not harm. unto us. You might put a marker back in Genesis chapter 22 because that's the chapter where these events are recorded. It says in verse 1 of Genesis 22, it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham. Not tempting him in the sense of inducing him to sin, but putting him to the test, proving the quality of his faith, in other words. And God said to him, Abraham, and he said, behold, here I am. And he said, take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest. God underscores the love that Abraham had for Isaac. That makes the trial all the more trying. And get thee into the land of Moriah and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of. Here in Hebrews, he's called the only begotten son here in verse 17. He is the son that Abraham loved here in Genesis. Again, in our text, in verse 18, he is the one Isaac is the one of whom it was said in Isaac, shall thy seed be called? He's the child of promise. He's the heir of the promises of God. God is very specific. By the way, that of whom it was said is from Genesis chapter 21 and verse 12 in Isaac shall thy seed be called. God is very specific. as to who is to be offered as a burnt offering, who is to offer the offering. Abraham can't send one of the servants in his place. He's got to do it himself. And God tells them where to travel to do this. As we read these inspired accounts in the word of God, It's always good as much as we can to put ourselves in the shoes of these people. How would you have responded to such a command? Perhaps we would have thought. Surely Ishmael would be better to offer up. Or maybe someone else could do the terrible deed. Or perhaps, Lord, let me be offered up, but not Isaac. There is surely no greater test of faith anywhere in scripture than this. This, I think, surpasses Job's trials. It is only exceeded by our Lord himself laying down his life on the cross. James Haldane, in his commentary, simply says, never was anyone subjected to so great a trial. All of God's purposes, as far as the redemption of sinners, the promise of Genesis 3.15, the coming of the Messiah, all that had been revealed thus far to Abraham, all of God's purposes were limited to this one young life of this one young son of Abraham and Sarah. Whatever Abraham understood about the redemption of his own soul and his own reconciliation to God by the coming Redeemer, Messiah, He must have understood that it was through Isaac that that seed would come. And so Abraham's own redemption hung upon Isaac as the heir to the promises that would eventually be fulfilled in Christ. And yet God says to Abraham, Go. Offer him up. As a burnt sacrifice. Reduce him to ashes. Now, atheists love this portion of the Old Testament story. They love it because they poke fun at it and they ridicule it. And they say. You're telling us that this loving heavenly father orders a father on earth to murder his son. And they scoff and laugh and think that we should be ashamed of that event. Let us not be ashamed. This is the word of God. This is the will of God and his way is perfect. The fact is God does not owe us any explanation for his dealings. We do not sit in judgment over him. He sits in judgment over us. What he does is right. What he does is best. He does no evil. He who forbids murder may suspend his law as he pleases. That is the prerogative of the law giver. Furthermore, this was no simple murder, but it was a sacrifice to appease divine justice. And the atheists of this world seem to have not read the whole chapter and realize that God ordered it to stop at the last minute. The real issue that they have trouble with is the death of Christ on the cross and God putting his own son to grief for the redemption. Of sinners and atheists. And Abraham. And you and me. Believer in Christ. It's worth mentioning that. Abraham was not a young man when this. Trial came. He was advanced in age. And as far as the story of his life is concerned, this was the last trial. His last trial was his greatest trial. Think of that. You might think after all Abraham had endured in a long life of ups and downs and difficulties and walking by faith, that finally at this advanced stage in life, a hundred and we don't know exactly how old Isaac was, but Abraham is, is well advanced in age. You would think that God might let up a little bit, let Abraham coast along, but not so. The Lord puts him to the most difficult Test of all the test when he was tried, as if all the other trials were just preliminary and small. And I would conclude from that, that we should not expect the Christian life to get any easier as we move along in it, but rather we should expect it to become increasingly difficult. We won't go coasting into heaven. We will go fighting, fighting unbelief and fear. We will go to heaven indeed on our knees, seeking God's grace and help. We should expect mature seasoned faith to be tested in ways more profound and more intense than ever before. And it's a gracious thing. If God had given Abraham some test comparable to this 50 years earlier, it, it might've been just overwhelming and too much. God knows how much to test us and at what stage of our life and so on. And that should encourage us. He will not tempt you above what you're able to bear. First Corinthians 10 assures us God does know best. Well, we see here. Not only Abraham being tried, but we see Abraham offering. I'm kind of gearing my thoughts and hanging them on these pegs of the actions here. By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, here it is, offered up Isaac. And it is stated twice, he that had received the promises, here it is again, offered up his only begotten son. As we read this summary and as we read the Genesis account, there's no hint of doubt, hesitation, uncertainty, fear other than the fear of God. There's no hint of alarm. And I say that simply because Hollywood productions and even some animated Christian so-called productions that I have seen always picture that. Here's Abraham resisting. Oh, no. Surely not. And finally, it's Isaac tied down there on that crude altar who says, go ahead. A little imagination is a good thing. But that's too much imagination that denies what the scriptures indicate. There is nothing so lovely as obedience that is swift and full and wholehearted. May God give us that kind of obedient faith. Twice over, it says here that Abraham offered up Isaac. It's a perfect tense the first time, and it's an imperfect tense the second time. Did he offer him up? Well, you're familiar with the story, of course, and the answer is not simple, or you can't answer it in one word. In one sense, the answer is no. Because God, after all, stopped him at the very last second. There was no blood of Isaac's shed there that day. He was not burned as a burnt offering. But on the other hand, in another sense, yes, Abraham did offer up Isaac. And it's that sense that is in view here in Hebrews 11. Abraham offered him up figuratively. And that's the word there at the end of verse 19 in a figure in the same sense that Isaac was raised from the dead in a figure. Abraham offered him up in a figure. It's as if in God's sight, the deed was done. Because Abraham was prepared to go through with it and was not about to stop. And there's an important principle here that some writers call the principle of evangelical obedience, and that is that God accepts the desire for the deed. And of course, it works in reverse. The desire to sin is sin. But here on the positive, the desire to obey is obedience. The willingness to obey is obedience. In that sense, Abraham offered up Isaac. In that sense, David built the temple, even though David wanted to build it, but was not allowed to by God. But Solomon actually was the builder. Well, let us desire God's will. Even though we may be hindered from it. And even though we don't always see the fruit that we want to see, let us learn to be willing To do whatever God would have us to do. Next we see Abraham. Reasoning. Or the word used here in our translation is accounting in verse 19. We might ask how in the world could a mortal man, a man subject to like passions as we are man. Who loves his son? How could he? so willingly and obediently go through with what God had told him to do. I mean, it seems superhuman to us. I don't know that I could have done that. Here's how he did it. It's all here in verse 19. It's very simple. Abraham did some accounting. He did some thinking, he did some reasoning, some reckoning. The word accounting is translated reckoned in some passages in the New Testament. It's the idea of calculating, reasoning. He had three days to think about this. according to Genesis 22, is on the third day that they reached the place. And in those three days, you can be sure that every thought that Abraham had in his waking hours, and he probably had not that many sleeping hours, I would assume, is, how can this be? How can this happen? What is God up to here? And he does some spiritual accounting. I think it's very interesting and significant that that term is used here. And how did he account? What did he calculate? What conclusion did he come to in all of this? That God was able To raise up Isaac from the dead. Abraham thought something like this. God has promised that Isaac is the heir to the promises. That God's saving purposes are all with him. individually in the line of the Messiah. And now God has told me to offer him up. And the only conceivable solution to the difficulty here, this apparent contradiction, is that God is going to do something miraculous. And that God is going to reconstitute the ashes of my burnt offering into the body and life of Isaac again. I know that God can do anything. I know that even the birth of Isaac has been miraculous in a sense. It's as if Isaac has already been raised from the dead once because of the deadness of Sarah's womb and the deadness of Abraham, as far as reproduction is concerned. And so if God could cause this boy to be conceived in the first place. then he must be going to raise him from the dead also. I would note that Abraham's hope was not that Sarah would conceive again and another heir be born and some other method of the fulfilling of God's purposes. No, God had been very specific in Isaac shall thy seed be called. And the only calculation that Abraham's faith could come to. Was this. There doesn't seem to be any other option. It is that God's going to raise him from the dead. This is especially significant when we consider that in all of the history of the book of Genesis up to that point, no one had been raised from the dead. Abraham had not seen such a thing. He had not heard of such a thing. He accounted that God would do something that had never been done before. And that he would. Keep his promise, even if it involved doing something that was unheard of. in human history. He knew that God would sooner overthrow the whole course of nature than to be unfaithful to his word and to be a liar. And so rather than doubt God's promise, Abraham's faith required him to expect a miracle. This is the kind of accounting that pleases God. And let us account that God will keep his word even if it means he will do things that We've never heard of. Of course, the parallel here is that this is saving faith. The same faith in Abraham that believed in a resurrection of Isaac. Is the faith. Of Abraham, as we say, the faith, it's the faith of God's elect who believe in the resurrection of Christ from the dead. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth, the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. A belief in the resurrection of Christ is essential to salvation. And so the faith of Abraham here as a shadow and a type is the faith of every true Christian. Believing in the resurrection power of God manifested in our savior. Well, that brings us fourthly. To Abraham receiving. That's the last verb here. Verse 19 from whence also he received him. In a figure. And of course, account there in Genesis is that at the last second, literally the last second, God called it off. Let me just refresh your memory of the wording here. Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, here am I. And he said, lay not thine hand upon the lad. Neither do thou anything unto him. For now I know that thou, fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me. I think Abraham was just as surprised at that intervention as he was at the original command to offer up Isaac. I say that because our text here in Hebrews expressly says Abraham had every intention of carrying it out to the fullest. Expecting God to raise him from the dead. Abraham was not expecting God to stop him at the last moment. He was not expecting an intervention. He was expecting a resurrection. But you can imagine. The sense of relief, the sense of wonder, the joy. Oh, the depth of emotion that must have been there. between those two individuals on that mountain in Moriah when Abraham received Isaac again. He had tied him down and he unties the straps and Isaac gets up. Do you suppose they embraced each other? Abraham received him in a figure from the dead. This was like a resurrection. It was as good as a resurrection to Abraham's heart. Isaac was recovered, received, raised from the dead. It says in a figure and the word figure here is literally the word parable. in a similitude or likeness or illustration. And though it's not mentioned here, of course, the readers of Hebrews would remember the details of the story as do you and I. God provides an animal for a sacrifice there. And Abraham calls the name of the place Jehovah Jireh. Which means the Lord will see or the Lord will provide. Abraham. Faithfully obeyed. And his faith was rewarded. His faith was strengthened. You think about it as Abraham and Isaac go back down to meet the servants at the foot of the mountain, and they must have trusted God more than ever before. And we shouldn't overlook Isaac. What a testimony to him this was. It's no wonder. That later on we see Isaac as one who goes out into the field at eventide to meditate. What a great God I have. And I've seen his hand from my youth, Isaac could say. Now, there is so much parallelism to this with the gospel. I cannot refrain from just pointing out a few things here. Isaac was Abraham's only begotten. And our Lord Jesus Christ is the father's only begotten. son. That term is used 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 times at least here in the New Testament with reference to our Lord. And it's marvelous that here in our English translation it's consistent. It says there in Genesis 22 that Abraham did not spare Isaac. And we have that same term used in the New Testament in Romans 8 when it says, God spared not his own son. Oh, you see the amazing parallel there. I think it's worth mentioning that we see Abraham putting the firewood on the shoulders of Isaac, having him carry it. Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac, his son. And in the New Testament, according to the Roman custom, the victim would carry his cross to crucifixion. Our Lord evidently carried some portion of his cross some portion of the way until help was sought because of his weakness. from scourging. Our Lord lay in the grave three days. Isaac was under a sentence of death for three days. Here's a beautiful parallel. Isaac offered no resistance. There's no doubt that he was Big enough and strong enough to have overpowered Abraham, his father, if he had wanted. But he is compliant and he lays down. Our Lord Jesus Christ offered no resistance, but willingly laid down his life. He prayed, not my will, but thine be done. There's even some possibility that both of these events occurred in the same place. And I say it is a possibility. I would not even say a probability, but it is a possibility. We read there in Genesis 22 that they came to the land of Moriah, or God says to him, to the land of Moriah. And when they got to the land of Moriah on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place of far off. And so it's on one of the mountains of Moriah, verse two, which God would point out to him once they got there. Well, the same term Moriah is used in the days of Solomon with the location of the building of the temple. The temple mount is called Mount Moriah and scholars debate whether it's the same Moriah or not. And so I'm not going to be dogmatic on that, but if it is the same, And God says to Abraham, he would single out one of the mountains of Mariah. Mariah being a more general term here, it seems. Then it is conceivable that the mountain outside of the city. Upon which our Lord was crucified was the same mountain where Isaac. was offered up in a figure and raised from the dead in a figure. It would be like God to do something ironic like that. And then, of course, Isaac rose again after three days under the death sentence. Christ rose from the dead on the third day. But there the parallel ends. Isaac was spared. Christ was not spared. And the only reason Isaac was spared was because Christ was not spared. The only reason you and I are spared death in every dimension, and especially eternal death, is because Christ was not spared. But bore it and suffered and endured for us. If we could point to any one event in the Old Testament in the life of Abraham where we could say Abraham saw Christ's day and saw it and rejoiced and was glad, it would have to be this day. Think of the joy of descending from the mountain with Isaac, believing in a resurrection, receiving Him in a figure. If that's not seeing Christ's day, I don't know what is. It's the nearest that He could come to it in that Old Testament framework. Well, let me hasten here to some observations. The message to the readers of the book of Hebrews in the first century was surely this from these verses. Expect to be tested like Abraham was tested. They wanted to be identified with Abraham and think of Abraham as their father. Well, then expect to be tempted and tested and tried. And be faithful at all cost. And in as much as Abraham believed in a resurrection, so those who are of the faith of Abraham must believe in a resurrection. They must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the whole message of Hebrews here, is to believe in Christ and to continue faithful to him. It's as if the writer underscores this feature of Abraham's faith that Abraham believed in a resurrection from the dead. And here you've got these Jews over here who are denying the resurrection and trying to get the Hebrews to come back their direction and their beliefs. And he's saying here in this letter, no, Christ is not opposed to the Old Testament. Christ is not a contradiction of the Old Testament. Christ is the Old Testament. He's the fulfillment of the Old Testament. And of course, the message to us is the same. We must believe in the resurrection. We must believe in something that we have not seen, but we trust the account that God has given of it through eyewitnesses. And we have felt the power of that resurrection at work in our hearts, giving us life. We too must expect to be tested. We must be willing to give up our Isaacs. And when God calls you to give up your Isaacs, Understand that he's not against you. Whatever test he puts you through, he's not against you. He is serving your best interest as he was Abraham's. And it is through these trials that we enter into a closer communion with God and know something of a, of his own mind and heart. Who can understand the heart of God better than someone who has given up a son or daughter in death? This experience, any trial, but the more severe it is, the more certain it is, that we enter into the sufferings of Christ in terms of our own experience. I would also point out this. In some of our tests, we are very lonely. According to the Genesis account there, Abraham could not confide in anyone. I don't think he told Sarah what this journey was all about. He certainly didn't tell the servants that went with them what was going on, what the command of God had been. He didn't even tell Isaac until the last minute. For those three days, Abraham has to keep it all inside. This was a personal test. How isolated he must have felt from the rest of the world. But he was faithful. Let us also learn that even when God's command seems to oppose his purpose, we must obey. Even when obedience seems counterproductive to what would obviously be God's purposes, We must maintain faithfulness and obedience. And I'll give you a precious quotation here from Mr. Spurgeon. If an act of sin would increase my usefulness tenfold, I have no right to do it. And if an act of righteousness would appear likely to destroy all my apparent usefulness, I am yet to do it. It is yours and mine to do the right though the heavens fall and follow the command of Christ, whatever the consequence may be. That is strong meat. Do you say be strong men then and feed there on. When God appears to be going back on his word, keep trusting him, keep obeying him. In the end, you will sing the song of Jehovah Jireh. It is faith that makes our trials serve a holy purpose in our life. In other words, it is faith that sanctifies our trials, makes them a benefit to us in some way, makes them glorifying to God. You know, atheists have difficulties and trials in their life and they cope and they get through usually one way or another. but it is to no spiritual benefit to them. What's the difference? You know, the Christian and the atheist may endure the same difficulties. And in the life of the Christian, it has a sanctifying effect because the Christian faces it through faith by faith in faith, faith in God. And so let us not just endure. but let us endure by faith. Faith makes the difference. Faith is the victory that overcomes the world. And finally, God has raised the dead. We have proof of that in the resurrection of Christ. And if we believe that God is able to raise up Christ from the dead and in a figure to raise up Isaac, who was as good as dead, we ought not to doubt his power to preserve us as a church, to raise us from the dead as it were. I know a pastor in Arkansas, who a number of years ago, many years ago, his church went through trials and reduction, and they came down to five or six people. No more. Five or six. And the, uh, the pastor said to his father, who was one of the few, I think it's time to close. And his father said, I think it's time to pray. The Lord answered prayers. The church is still in existence to this day. God raises the dead. Let us take comfort and encouragement in that truth.