Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayer for attention to Genesis chapter 22, and reading for our text the last part of verse 7. We continue this evening with the questions asked in scripture, and this evening it is the question that Isaac asked of his father, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And now we look at the whole question first, yet then I want to combine our thoughts to the question that relates to today. And reading that is, but where is the Lamb. Where is the Lamb? The whole verse reads, And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father. And he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the Lamb? For a burnt offering. And Abraham's answer was, Abraham said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together. Dear Isaac knew there was something missing. There was fire, there was the wood, but where was the lamb? I wonder how many of us would realize if the Lamb of God, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, was missing. Missing in their life, missing in the church, missing in the ministry. Would we? Abraham had an answer for Isaac. And Isaac had a real concern. The lamb was missing. We know in a literal way, God provided that ram that was caught by his horn so it was spotless as required to beautifully typify the Lord Jesus Christ. But this was a trial. We read in Hebrews, Abraham, when he was tried. He went unto the place that God told him of and offered up his son and received him in time as from the dead. He believed that even if he had died, that God would have raised him from the dead. These things are set forth in Hebrews 11. And there was a great blessing. that God attached to this. They are beautiful words as Abraham did exactly what the Lord said, trusting in the Lord alone. The angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, verse 16, and said, By myself have I sworn saith the Lord, For because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy Son, thine only Son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven. Now, and then in verse 18, in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice. And Paul, in his letters, makes it very clear that this promise was not unto seeds as of many. In other words, it wasn't saying that in the Hebrews or the Jews or Israel was every nation to be blessed. But in thy seed, which is of one, which is Christ, in Christ shall all nations be blessed. So our Lord says of Abraham, Abraham saw my day and was glad. He rejoiced at it. He could see the beautiful type that was set before him here. The type of the lamb provided by God. The type of the substitutionary offering. Isaac taken off the altar, the lamb put in his stead. Christ in the stead of his people, him slain, him made an offering acceptable unto God. John Baptist was sent before our Lord. And John Baptist clearly pointed out Jesus of Nazareth and said, behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. That which was typified in all the sacrifices of the Old Testament, from Abel through Abraham, right through Israel and all the ceremonial laws, was all pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ and His sacrifice at Calvary. Again in Hebrews, God tells us that He took no delight in the blood of bulls and of goats. They could never take away sin. They were only given for the time to point to the coming Christ. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. And with all that shedding of blood, there is no remission in that, but there is in the precious blood of the Lamb of God. In the Passover, the Lamb was shed, the blood was put upon the doorposts and the lintel of the door. The Lord gave the promise that when the destroying angel passed over the houses in Egypt, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. We have also the beautiful prophecy in Isaiah 53, pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ that was led as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is done, so he opened not his mouth. Philip preached from that text to the eunuch, and the Lord revealed himself to the eunuch in that way so that he could bear witness and testify that I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He was baptized on that profession. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Lamb. He is the Lamb of God. He is the one that was set forth here and typified here. And the question that Isaac asked, where is the lamb for a burnt offering? The lamb of God was provided. He suffered, he bled, he died on Calvary's tree. He endured the wrath of God. The sins of his people were laid upon him and he bore those sins away. And then on the third day, he rose again. Remember, in this account here, in this 22nd of Genesis, Abraham, he was told to go to the mount which the Lord would tell him of. In fact, it is the same mount that the temple later on was to be built upon. But it was on the third day he lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off, verse four. A third day religion, how vital that we have that. And how necessary it go to that third day. You think of how this day, that third day began with Abraham. On the first day, it would have been as good as that Isaac was dead. The second also, the third, coming closer and closer. But by the end of that third day, what joy, what gladness, what blessing, what a finish of that trial! We think of how the third day began with the dear disciples, after the Lord had been crucified and slain and buried, began with sadness, perplexity, they've taken away my Lord, I know not where they've found Him, as if Mary would say, where is the Lamb? But at the end of that day, the Lord had showed himself to his disciples again and again, and then in the upper room, and we read, then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord, no longer needing to ask, where is he that we're slain? They now knew, and he'd shown himself to them. But this is a question that we also need to ask in our day, where is the Lamb? Or putting in our time, where is Christ? Where is Jesus Christ? For Isaac, he must add, but where is the Lamb for a burnt offering? For the Church of God, the offering has been made. There is no more need of any burnt offerings or any further offerings. There is that by that one offering, He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. But we still need to ask and be able to answer this question, where is the Lamb? I want to bring before you seven points to answer this question, where is the Lamb? The first answer is in heaven. The blessing of the resurrection and ascension into heaven of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is a vital doctrine. In our Articles of Faith and Gospel Standard, we have an article stating that the very bones and flesh that hung upon the cross are now glorified in heaven. They're not on earth, they're not buried on earth, they're in heaven. The disciples, they saw him bodily ascend up into heaven, the same as what Elisha saw Elijah bodily ascend up into heaven, and the same as it will be with God's children when he comes a second time at the end of the world with power and great glory, The dead in Christ shall arise first, and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up with them in the air, so shall we forever be with the Lord. We shall be changed, but it is the same body, but glorified. And so, with our Lord, we have not a dead Christ, we have not a dead Lamb, but a risen Lamb, an ascended Lamb, We have that beautiful word in Revelation, that John saw in the midst of the throne a lamb as it had been slain, still bearing those wounds, right in the midst of the throne, before God. And we are told this, that he ascended up into heaven to appear in the presence of God for us. He is our advocate with the Father. He said, I will pray the Father and He will give you another comforter which shall abide with you forever. I must needs go away, if I go not away the Holy Spirit shall not be sent unto you. That the Lord's presence in heaven is a vital, vital doctrine. Dear Stephen, the first Christian martyr who was stoned and the witnesses laying their clothes at Paul's feet or saw as he was then. And Stephen was calling upon the Lord and he testified looking up into heaven that he saw the Lord Jesus Christ standing to receive him. What a condescension it is when the Lord ascended up into heaven We read that he sat on the right hand of the throne of God. When his dear people are brought, as he has prayed, Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. When they are received into heaven, he receives them. He stands to receive them. And so the answer, the first answer, but where is the lamb? The lamb, even as it had been slain, is now exalted at the Father's right hand in heaven, the firstfruits from the dead, a token that all of the rest shall be gathered. There shall be a harvest. There shall be those that, according to his prayer, be with me where I am. So it is a vital answer, a blessed answer. Where is the Lamb? The Lamb is in heaven. But secondly, the Lamb is in all the Scriptures. We have Him here, and our Lord, when He rose from the dead, appeared to the two on the way to Emmaus, and He gently reproved them. He said, Ought not Christ to have suffered these things? and to enter into His glory. Beginning at Moses and in all the Scriptures, He opened up to them the things concerning Himself. A suffering Christ, Christ in all the Scriptures, the Scriptures, the Word of God, the Bible testifies of the Lord. Do we often think of that? Whenever we read, whatever passage we read, Whether it is those little small books by Lehman or Obadiah, do we read it and think, where is there in this short book, in this book of one chapter, where is Christ here? Where is he set forth? And he is in all the scriptures. Sometimes not very clear. but other times beautifully set forth in times and in shadows. Moses, he says, a prophet, shall the Lord thy God raise up unto you like unto mayhem, shall ye hear? We have a time in the book of Esther. Esther come to the kingdom for such a time as that. And again in Mordecai, speaking peace to all his seed. A type in Joseph, gone before to preserve his brother's lives by great deliverance. And in Judah, as being surety for Benjamin. Our Lord spoke of Jonah as being a type and a sign, as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly. So shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. In all the Scriptures we are to expect and we are to look for the Lord there. And precious are those times when we find Him. Yet dear Jacob, there wrestled a man with Him to the breaking of the day. And it was a precious time when I first saw that that man was none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Jacob was blessed, given the name of Israel, because thou hast wrestled with God and with man, and hast prevailed, one of the pre-incarnation appearances of our Lord. So in the second place, the answer, where is the Lamb now in these last days, in these Gospel days? He is in all the pages of the Scriptures of truth. The written and the incarnate Word in one thing, in all things, are the same. The third place where is the Lamb is in the midst of the church gathered together. The Lord gives a promise that where two or three are gathered together in my name, There am I in the midst. He promised when he ascended up into heaven, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Great is the mystery of godliness. God manifest in the flesh. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is a spirit. He dwells everywhere. He is everywhere. The Father is God, Jesus is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God, three distinct persons in one Godhead. The bodily presence of our Lord is in heaven, but His Spirit and His grace are with us. The Holy Spirit was promised and is given. He shall not speak of Himself. He shall receive of mine. and shall show it unto you, so that the Lord may say that, Lo, I am with you always. So we have this beautiful promise, when the people of God are gathering together in his name, unto him shall the gathering of the people be, that the Lord's presence is there. Now he said at the very beginning, would we notice if he wasn't? Would we say like Isaac, we have a building, we have a pulpit, we have a Bible, we have pews, we have people, but where is the Lamb? Is Christ here? Is the Spirit here, or is Ichabod written over the door? The glory of the Lord is departed. How vital for the Lord's presence. How vital that it be known and felt. Without that, without the power, the disciples were not to go away from Jerusalem, tarry in Jerusalem, Until ye be endued with power from on high. Where is the Lamb? That should be the question that we each ask as we come into the house of God. Just because we have all the outward appearances doesn't mean to say the Lord is there. leave solemnly, there's many assemblies that profess that they are a church or a gathering, even a God's people, yet the Lord is not there. He's not sanctified in that place. There's no separation from the world. There's no evidence of the Holy Spirit's work. There's no evidence of true spiritual life. Not to take it for granted. It's not seen in just the external things, but in the power. Paul was able to say of the Thessalonians, that the word came not unto them in word only, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. And when that is the case, then we know the Lord is there. But fourthly, where is the Lamb? He is in the preaching of the Word. We preach Christ crucified. The Apostle Paul says, I determined to know nothing among you, that is amongst the Corinthians, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. A Christless sermon is a useless sermon. If Jesus is not there, if He is not lifted up on the pole of the gospel, if He is not extolled and set forth, then that will never do sinners any good. He is to be their meat, He is to be their drink, He is the manna from heaven, He is to be everything to the people of God. It's an easy thing to have a religion that is outside of Christ. The flesh loves it. In one sense, in a carnal way, it's easy to preach a sermon that is just frames, feelings, doctrines, all devoid of the life of Christ. but to preach Christ and to preach Him as a living Saviour and as the one thing needful and the one that is most precious to the people of God. That we need, the Holy Spirit, that we preach Him. The Lord deliver us from turning away from that one central message of the Gospel pointing to our Lord Jesus Christ. May we be like those on the way to Emmaus. May we be like the eunuch and we have Christ preached to us, set before us. It is incumbent on hearers to try their ministry that they hear in this test. Are you hearing Christ preached? Is He set before you as the Way, the Truth and the Life? Is He set before you in all the fullness of the Gospel? It hath pleased the Father that in Him, that is Christ, should all the fullness of the Godhead dwell. When our Lord preached Himself In John 6, except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of Man, ye have no life in you. In those that were naturally inclined, they said, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? They said, this isn't hard saying. They went back, they walked no more with him. The natural man receiveth not the things of God, neither can he know them, they are spiritually discerned. He will not relish, he will not like, he will not feed upon the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. He will have to have something else. Sadly, many churches, what they feed upon is really their bands and their music and their social clubs. And it has been said by some who've sought the things of God, and they've gone from one church to another, They've said it's just a religious social club. Most solemn thing. If Christ is not central and sought after, that won't satisfy a living soul. If Christ is not there, they will say, where is the Lamb? For natural souls, they us when he's withdrawn. May it be then, especially among us here, that the answer to the question, where is the Lamb? He is in the preaching. He is extolled, he is set forth in the preaching of the gospel. But then we have in the fifth place, the answer that he is in the ordinances instituted by himself. The two ordinances that our Lord gave to the Church of God, both set forth himself, believers' baptism by immersion and the ordinance of the Lord's Supper. The Lord said and commissioned his disciples, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be damned. In Acts 2, we read of 3,000 that pricked in their heart, they believed they were baptized and they continued in the breaking of bread in the Lord's supper. and in fellowship and in doctrine with the Apostles. Again, with the sermon that Philip preached to the eunuch, it led to the eunuchs desiring to walk in the ordinance of believers' baptism. They went down, both of them, into the water, and Philip, he baptized him. A beautiful time that has set forth of the burial and death and rising again of the Lord Jesus Christ, setting forth that the believer also is dead to himself, dead to the law, and risen in newness of life in the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says that when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with him. It is an ordinance of a believer's baptism that is an ordinance of obedience. willing, freely, lovingly wanting to walk in the ways that the Lord has set before the church and in obedience to his word. In the ordinance of the Lord's Supper his word is, do this in remembrance of me. It is not a sacrifice, it is not a setting again the A sacrifice of our Lord. No, it is an ordinance of remembrance. This doing in remembrance of May. As oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show forth the Lord's death till he come. It is an ordinance where we look back to his death. In the presence, we are showing forth his death in that ordinance, and we are to do it until he comes. So he's looking forward to his coming. It is an ordinance in which all of the Church members are one together. However differing their experience will be of calling and the Lord's teaching and blessing in their souls, every one of them, their sins were laid upon the Lord at the same time. He suffered at the same time for every one of them. He rose again at the same time for every one of them, and they are justified. through our Lord Jesus Christ, His life, His death, and this is set before us as making all the people of God as one in Christ. No difference in their standing, no difference in how their sins were put away. And so those ordinances, those two ordinances, no more, were instituted by our Lord and He is the centre of those ordinances. If we were to take away the Lamb, take away our Lord from those ordinances, they would mean nothing. They all set forth Christ, and the Church is to be reminded again and again of our Lord, who died and rose again. In both those ordinances are set forth those precious truths. The sixth answer to this question, but where is the Lamb, is in the hearts of His people. He has formed in their hearts the hope of glory. When the Lord says He is with His people always, the Church of God, of course, is not just bricks and mortar. It is people. It is His people. He comes, He lives in them, He dwells in them. They have that union and fellowship with Him. Hymn writer speaks of it, that His people bring Him to the house of God and going they take Him again to their homes. It's a sacred realisation of the Lord's presence. We need to ask ourselves in this, do we have the Lord with us? Do we have His presence? Is His fear before our eyes? Do we walk in the Spirit? Are we mindful of Him? And those two on the way to Emmaus again, when the Lord first drew near, they didn't know Him. He was with them, but they didn't know. But they did, as He began to speak to them, have their heart burned within them by the way. And then that led to Him revealing Himself to them. It's a blessed thing to realise and to know the Lord's sacred presence as He warms our hearts, as He speaks to us. My sheep, they hear my voice, they follow me. The Lord's presence, as He comes and we're able to say, He knoweth the way that I take, following the Lord. It's a great blessing to have the Lord in our hearts. Where is the Lamb? Has the Lord made His residence there? Is He with us? Does He dwell with us? The seventh answer Where is the Lamb? He is in the way, going before His people. In John 10, when the Lord speaks of Himself as the Good Shepherd, He says that, when He putteth forth His sheep, He goeth before them. When Moses wanted to see the glory of the Lord, The Lord said that he would make all his goodness pass before him in the way. And Paul's message for his people is that we are to run the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. The Lord chose that he should ascend up into heaven and give his spirit here. so that our sights, our thoughts and affections are set on things above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. And all the way through this journey here below, Christ is the way, I am the way, we are to be followers of Him. Those in Thessalonica, when they were converted, became followers of us and of the Lord, says the Apostle. Be ye followers of me, as I also am of Christ, says the Apostle Paul. And we are to be a follower, following his footsteps, following him in his word, following his people, following his directions, following him wheresoever he goeth. The Lord said, if they have done these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry, if they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they have received My words, they will also receive your words. Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words, the same I shall be ashamed of before the angels and My Father in heaven. If we are a follower of Him, It means that we're not following the world, we're not following Satan, we're not following your own wicked heart. Hymn writer says, his track I see, the narrow way I will pursue till him I view. This is one of the precious promises the Lord gives for his people. They'll see providence opening up. They'll see provision in their lives. They'll see Him providing their homes, their place of worship, their partner for life. They'll see those appointed places. There's very evidence the Lord has gone before and He's made that provision. There'll be those Places where the timing of events is so clear, it has been noted that in the book of Esther, there's no mention of God, but His handiwork is everywhere. Whosoever will watch providence will never lack a providence to watch. And in Psalm 107, we come to the end of that psalm with all of the Why have the people of God mapped out? Who so is wise and will observe these things? Even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord. The beautiful words in that psalm, He led them forth by the right way, that they might go unto a city of habitation. Do we know what it is to be led of the Lord, the Lord to go before us? Like He did the children of Israel, let the fiery, cloudy pillar lead me all thy journey through. Was there a track through the desert? Was there a way marked out? The Lord led them in the right way. And we need the same. Let the Lord show us the way. You know, when the camp settled in the wilderness, while the fiery cloudy pillar rested, they did not move, they could not move. But as soon as that presence of the Lord moved, then they moved with it, and they followed it. That's how they knew their way. The answer here, where is the Lamb? If we are watching, watching the Lord's presence, knowing His presence, Then we would discern and know, like the children of Israel did. When that cloud, when that presence, when His blessing moved, then they were to follow that and go with that. But all the while it didn't move. All the while His presence was known and felt and dwelt over their camp and over their dwelling and where they were. Then they must not take it upon themselves to get up. and to move, because where would they go? Where would they go? It's a blessed thing then, the answer to where is the Lamb? He is going before his people in the way. May we then be followers of him. We will not miss the way then, and it will lead at last to heaven, lead at last to be where he is. It will be a right way, it will be the narrow way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. It will be the way of the Lord's own choosing, in whatever tribulations and trials and disappointments may be in that way, to balance it all will be the truth known and felt. It is the way the Lord went. And here's the way the Lord has led us and directed us. Third thing, when we go out of the way, we're no longer following Him. So this question, where is the Lamb? Abraham, Isaac in his day, realized there was something missing. And he had to add the last part of the question Where is the lamb for a burnt offering? That is what they needed then. That has been wonderfully supplied in the great anti-time in our Lord Jesus Christ. But in these seven ways, still this question is to be asked by us in the Church of God in these last Gospel days. Where is the lamb? May we be able to answer it in each of the answers who is set before you this evening. May the Lord add his blessing. Amen.