I'm going to ask you something. If you stay in Scripture long enough, after a while you start realizing there's a lot of patterns that keep repeating themselves here. A lot of things that just keep happening again, whether it's judges, And you see the cycle in Judges where people are delivered from something and they're grateful. The second generation arises and says, and a generation arose that did not know the Lord. And then you just watch it decline, watch it decline. And so God sends famine, hunger. His tool chest is full. Enemies, all kinds of things, until the situation gets bad enough that they cry out. And when they cry out, God sends them a deliverer, a judge, if you would, and that judge relieves them of the particular symptoms they're going through right now. And as they come through those symptoms there, they come back again, they're so happy for the delivery, and they come back here a prosperous people, thrilled with the delivery, until the second generation arises that knew not the Lord, and it goes right through the whole cycle again and again. You follow that? that it's just a repeated cycle. And you can see that even in the Exodus. Here you got Abraham. Abraham's really pretty solid for the Lord. Then you hear Isaac, okay, he's pretty solid. And then you have Jacob, and Jacob's pretty solid with the Lord, so he has personal encounters. Matter of fact, he is, can I say obstinate enough that he wrestles with God? All right, that's how he gets the name Israel, okay? And then his kids, The one who's got a personal experience with God, Joseph, the kids don't like him. So they want to get rid of him. So they get rid of Joseph. And I say, things don't go so well for the other 11. They're just not that committed a bunch of guys. And they finally go on. Now we're going to go down into Egypt. So you get down to Egypt. When you get to Egypt, they're going to ultimately adopt the ways of the Egyptians. How do I know that? Because when Moses gets over to the land, Joshua gets over to the inside the land, he says, put away from you the gods of your fathers. What? You guys brought that junk with you from Egypt? Why? But anyway, you see him there, and you see then all this suffering they went through until they finally cried out enough, they deliver us from this, and God sends a judge, Moses. And he judges the situation, and we're back to normal. To watch it just do the same decline again. So I'm going to ask you about something. Here's a pattern that I've noticed. As I was looking through and making this study of the bloody sacrifices the sacrifices of something else I went back here and I think it through creation How does creation start It starts in water. It starts in water. And out of the chaos of the water, you get the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the deep, and you start seeing order made out of the watery mess. And out of that watery mess comes now life. Everything comes back to life again and you go through the fall now I've got in order for God to show grace to Adam and Eve Let me just remind you what did God say would happen to them if they ate that fruit? They would die. Did they die? Yes, they spiritually died. Did they die physically? No What prevented that from happening? the atonement the atonement. He covered them with animal skins and sent them away from the place they could live forever in that nasty way. So he sent them away. So if you get the picture, you have this watery mess that comes, now life comes out of that watery mess, And now they get atoned and covered and they're out into a nasty world. It's a world that's going to have to be destroyed. I'm going to ask you, what destroyed it? The same water it was created out of. You follow me? So when Noah gets off the boat, what does Noah do first thing? Offering. It's an atonement. You follow me? It's how I get my relationship back with Him again. We have just been through the most horrible, sinful situation. So, I come out of the watery mess. I've got a new phase of the world beginning, just like I had over here. I had a new phase beginning with Adam and Eve and the hope that was in that. Now I've come over to the flood that took away everything. I've come here to a new beginning with eight people, and those eight people are offering a sacrifice. Do you see the pattern? God did that for Adam and Eve. He's doing that now for Noah. So it's the same pattern. Noah's understanding, that's what he's supposed to do. Well, today, what I'm going to do, I'm going to take two different guys who were contemporaries. They lived about the same time. We're going to take a look at them and the things that they did that show the continuation of a pattern. And then next week, we're going to start looking at the tabernacle. Because I think the tabernacle is the picture of the sacrifices and what worship really is. Everybody follow me? That's what we're going to look at, because this whole study, remember, is about worship. What is worshiping? And I'm fearing that because we are so far removed from what the Old Testament was, and we don't like to look at the Old Testament because, well, it's all over, past, you know, past tense. We're missing the point of what the theme was. The theme was, in order to have a relationship with God, a bloody sacrifice is required. And then we'll look back on and say, well, yeah, historically, Jesus died for me, okay? How do I, 2,000 years removed from that, keep that in my mind? Because to be close to God requires a bloody sacrifice. And I think, if you can follow where I'm coming from, We're supposed to do everything in the name of Jesus Christ. Why? I'm going to show you. That's because He is the bloody sacrifice. Years ago, He's the bloody sacrifice every day of your life. You follow what I'm saying? It's an ongoing... No, I don't mean it that way. That's not the word I want to use. It's not repeated, it's not ongoing. It is a sacrifice that is kept in your mind all the time. When you don't keep it, it's like coming to the Lord without a bloody sacrifice. Does that make sense? It's like trying to renew things because you're a nice guy. Yes, and the Lord's Supper is a good demonstration of that, a good illustration of that whole thing. All right. Yes, sir. The blood is cleansing us? Yes, yes, because I'm coming back to him. When I make a confession, I've come back to the bloody sacrifice, because how do they say it? If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just. How can he be faithful and just? Because he promised that one bloody sacrifice would be adequate to be just for me. So I can't, my confession of sin without the knowledge that Jesus is the way that sin is taken away would be pointless. That'd be just like me feeling better because I got it off my mind. It's not about getting off your mind. It's about being cleansed. And that's where it said, you know, that you confess your sins, he's faithful and just, so he's looking back at the sacrifice again, and he cleanses us from all unrighteousness. And earlier he had just said, it's the blood of Jesus that cleanses us. So that's how it goes together. Is that what you're looking at? Yes Yes Yes, it's it's the everlasting it's eternal sacrifice it goes on all the time it not on the world It's been applied every day of your life. I I'll make it that way. It is one sacrifice that's good for eternity, and it's applied to your life every day. And I don't think anyone will ever worship until they understand what that application is. Does that make any sense? Because everybody that's going to worship is worshiping because they see some great benefit that God did to them. Some great thing that God did for them or some great moment like when when Noah gets off the ark He's gonna offer up that sacrifice just you know You have to get yourself back into that era to understand what that was. That man's been on a boat for a year They have been jostled all around. He has no idea what's going on in the outer world He just knows that when he looks out, it's nothing but water And he's got people he's wondering about. Did all those people die? Did everything die except what's on this boat? And there's all of that. Then when they do find dry land... Your heart had to just practically be bursting to think, this is wonderful, I can get off this thing. I like camping, I like being on boats, but I like coming back on dry land and doing something else too. You understand what I'm saying? So he's coming back off there, he's excited, so he's going to offer that sacrifice. and that's going to be worship, though the word worship was never used in that situation. It's described for us, all right? So today, I want you to take a look at some really, I think they're neat things anyway, in the life of Abraham. So that's who we're gonna take off with on this little study this morning. Go to the life of Abraham, we'll be looking at Let me get my stuff here. Oh, there it is. Let's go to Genesis 12, 6-9. Well, we'll read the earlier verses too, because you have to have a setup for those things. Genesis 12. In the scriptures, God is always in the business of finding a judge. He's the one that appoints the judge. He finds someone to set things correct. So you've got, he's gonna choose a Moses. He's gonna choose an Abraham. He's gonna choose a Jesus. He's gonna choose a, you follow where I'm coming from? He's gonna choose prophets. He's gonna choose who he's gonna choose. And he does that himself. And he puts them in that situation. So if you would, let's pick up with verse one. Now the Lord had said to Abram, Get out of your country, from your family, from your father's house, to a land that I will show you, and I will make you a great nation. I will bless you. I'll make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. I will curse him who curses you, and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Now, I don't know how that was done. It just simply says, the Lord says to Abram. I don't know how that was done, because he doesn't tell us that. show up and speak to him? Is there a voice he heard in the air? We're not told that. We're just told this. He knew enough to know that God's telling him, get out of where you are right now and go someplace else. So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was 75 years old when he departed from Horion. Then Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people whom they had acquired in Haran, and they departed to go to the land of Canaan. So they came to the land of Canaan. Abram passed through the land to the place of Shechem, as far as the terebinth tree of Moriah. And the Canaanites were then in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, to your descendants I will give this land. And there he built an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. Okay? So his response to God doing something powerful, I mean, I know we can read this and think, of course, that's what God did, but it's no big deal. He's taking a guy out of his homeland and moving him a long way up the river because he's got to go all the way up the river here. and come down this way here. So he's got a long way to go. And as he's coming down here, that's when the Lord's going to tell him, right in here, this is the land they're going to give to you. Now, that's a big deal. That is a big deal. So his response to that is, create an altar and offer sacrifices on it. That's His way of saying, thank you. That's His way of saying, let's renew this relationship. That's His way of saying, I'm in it with you. That's His way of having a contract. It's a covenant. It's a covenant agreement the two. So, matter of fact, the word for covenant is the word which means split, put into, cut into, to cut. So they would say that you cut a covenant. And that was said, to cut a covenant, is because you never offer a whole animal. You cut the animal up in pieces. And then as you offered those pieces, if two people were going to have a covenant together, they would take whatever animal it was, clean the animal, set it apart, cut it in pieces, and then each of you were to walk between the pieces. And as you walk between the pieces, you're saying, I am making this covenant, I'm cutting this covenant. It's cutting because you're walking between the two pieces. I'm cutting this covenant between this man and all my descendants following him if I don't keep this covenant. you may do to me and my descendants what we just did to these animals." That's cutting a covenant. Then they would sit down and participate in the pieces of that covenant. They would have a meal together, and that meal together was a sign of the covenant. The sign this thing was true. Everybody's going to remember the party we had that day. It's going to be right here. That's the way it's going to be done. Now, if you follow that, can I tell you, that's the way we do weddings. Weddings is cutting a covenant. You ever wonder why you're supposed to say, are you friends of the bride or friends of the groom? Oh, friends of the groom, that side. Friends of the bride, that side. Why do you do that? Because you're actually cutting a covenant between the two families. She's going to walk down that aisle that he's supposed to have already, he's the one who put this thing on. She's walking down the aisle to show that the pieces have been cut and we're making this covenant together. If anything comes between us, you can kill us. Follow that? All these pieces right here That's that's why you're going to have a reception afterward because all these participants here are going to take and eat the food That came from the sacrifice you just made That makes sense to you. You know, so that's that's what it's supposed to picture that's cutting a covenant and You're gonna see that as we get this so Abram is now cutting a covenant with God He's realized that God has promised all these things So he's offering pieces for it. He's going to eat that. It doesn't even tell us that. It could have been a burnt offering. It could have been something that was consumed all the way. That's what he has in verse 8. So if you would, I'm sorry, verse seven, let's pick up in verse eight. And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord. Now I've got both of them brought together. Remember how we were talking about, until Seth came along. with his children, people weren't calling on the name of the Lord. But after Seth's son Enos was born, men began to call on the name of the Lord. They were asking for mercy. They were praising him for being the one true God. And here he is combining an altar and a calling on the name of the Lord at the same time. Let's go then on to I think it's chapter 13 No, it's good chapter 15 chapter 15 And this is gonna be a little bit long reading but just just hang with it I think you'll appreciate the story After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram and vision said do not be afraid Abram I am your shield your exceedingly great reward and But Abram said, Lord God, what will you give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus? Then Abram said, look, you have given me no offspring. Indeed, one born in my house is my heir. He said, behold, the word of the Lord came to him saying, this one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir. Then he brought him outside and he said, look now toward the heaven, count the stars if you're able to number them. And he said to him, so shall your descendants be. And he believed the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness. Now notice, that's God saying something, you believing it, and that's what sealed it. That's all it was. That's the bottom line operational principle for all this age. When this world's gone, I don't know what happens after that, but I know this, that from creation to the end of this age, faith is the operating principle. All right, let's go on further. Then he said to him, I'm the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldees to give you this land to inherit it. And he said, Lord God, how shall I know I will inherit it? I got this promise, but I'm going to have a little collateral. OK. So he said to him, bring me a three year old heifer, a three year old female goat, a three year old ram, a turtle dove and a young pigeon. Then he brought all these things and cut them in two down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other, but he did not cut the birds in two. And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away. Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him. Then he said to Abram, know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them 400 years. And also mention, also the nation, Whom they serve, I will judge. Afterward, they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace, you shall be buried at a good old age, but in the fourth generation, then they shall return here, for iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete. And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between the pieces. That same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying to your descendants I have given this land from the River Egypt to the Great River the River Euphrates the Kenites the Kenizzites the Cabanites and the Hittites the Perizzites and the Rafaim the Amorites the Canaanites the Girgashots and the Jebusites So if you get in the picture, he's making a covenant now in the other way the covenants made is Both people, both the parties have to walk between those pieces. Notice this, only one party walked through them. Only one party. That's what makes it an unconditional covenant. Abram was already believing God. So now that you see this smoking, burning oven, and I say that is the seraphim and cherubim of God. They are always in the presence of the Lord. That's what we call the Shekinah Glory. What Moses is going to call the Shekinah Glory later. That's what Ezekiel is going to see as this flashing lights and flame that went about. That's what the flame was that we call the Shekinah Glory. That's what this is. And it's passing between the pieces. And it's the only one that passes through the pieces. So, what's Abraham to know? that if this guy or if this smoking oven doesn't keep this covenant, I can kill him. I can cut him in pieces. You follow that? That's what he's making this covenant. That's how serious God is about this is always going to be. All of your descendants, everybody that's coming from your loins, this is what it's going to be. That's why, kids, we are still supporting Israel. I know there's people saying this is not true Israelites. There's Jewish people over there, not the true Jewish people. The true Jewish people are all gone now. genetically modified out, they're just not there anymore, and that's going on quite a little bit. There's the Ashkenazic Jews, which are from Europe, Eastern Europe, they are also there. There's a conflict going on between those two groups right now. There's a group of that, which everybody's calling Zionists, and another group that's Ashkenazis, and those Ashkenazis are pitting themselves against the other group of Jews there. So, there's a potential civil war that could be there in Israel itself. So, at any rate, what I want you to see simply is God made this covenant with him, and that's how you can know. So, Abram's asking, well, how can I know this for sure? So, what does God do? You take these pieces, set them apart. I'll walk between them. Abram's not having to walk between them, why? Because Abram could very well break the covenant. Matter of fact, isn't that the history of Israel? That they're gonna break it again and again and again and again and again. But the one who did walk through it said, I won't, I won't, this is what I'm gonna do, all right? Okay, let's take a look at another one here. I want you to see, this is exactly how this goes. That was 15, let's go to 16. And this one is not really as much a covenant, I'm sorry, an offering, but this is where, I don't want to have to go through it all. Yeah, well, I guess I will. Let's go through all of it. Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had an Egyptian maid servant whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, see now the Lord has restrained me from bearing children. Please go into my maid. Perhaps I shall obtain children by her. And Abram heeded the voice of Sarai. That's a surrogate. That is a substitute. You see, substitution was not an unheard of thing in their day. This is something they knew about on a regular basis, that someone might have a child that's still going to be part of that same family, all right? Then Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan. So he's what, 85 years old now. So he went into Hagar and she conceived, when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes. So Hagar is thinking, look, my master could not conceive, I can, so who's blessed? Moi, she's not, duh, which one of us is a better woman? Yep, that's me. And so she flaunts that to the person she's working for. That is going to create no small amount of trouble. All right. Then Sarah said to Abram, my wrong be upon you. I gave them my maiden into your embrace. And when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The Lord's judge between you and me. So now Sarai is blaming Abram. You're you're conceiving children of her you're not conceiving children of me. So the Lord judged between you and me So Abram said to Sarah indeed your mate is in your hand to do to her as you please It was Sarah dealt harshly with her. She fled from her presence now the angel of the Lord Now, by the way, that's what we usually call the pre-incarnate Christ. The angel of the Lord is usually the same one that is known as the Lord Jesus Christ before the incarnation. Now, the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur, and he said to Hagar, Sarah's maid, where have you come from? Where are you going? She said, I'm fleeing from the presence of my mistress Sarai. The angel of the Lord said to her, return to your mistress mistress and submit yourself under her hand. The angel of the Lord said to her, I will multiply your descendants exceedingly so that they shall not be counted for a multitude. And the angel of the Lord said to her, behold, you are with child. You shall bear a son. You should call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your affliction. He shall be a wild man. His hand shall be against every man, every man's hand against him. Then he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren. Then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her. This is her worshiping now. You are the God who sees. For she said, I've also seen him who sees me. Therefore, the well is called Be'er L'hai Ro'oi. observed that is between Kadesh and Bered. So she's calling on the name of the Lord, but she's calling by a different name. I'm going to remind you, when we talk about the name of the Lord, his personal name is YHWH, or Yahweh, or however that's actually pronounced. That's his personal name. But he has many other names as well. They are names that come because of function. Just like the word angel comes because of a function that that group of beings that God created in the beginning do. An angel is a messenger. Well, here, she's talking about the God who sees. And this is going to be related to the God who not only sees but provides. Provider is pro means to ahead, video means a see. So to see ahead is provide. So if you're being provided for, somebody looked ahead, saw what you were going to need, and you made provisions for it. You know, when you go on a vacation, you make provisions, you pack. Because you're saying, where are we going? We're going to a place that's going to have this or this. You know, we would pack to go to Colorado, for instance. Well, middle of summer is where we're going. It's hot in here. But when you get to Colorado, we're going to be about 9,000 feet up. It's not the same temperature, 9,000 feet up as it is here. So you may want to wear all your summer stuff and think that's going to be wonderful. You'll have a great summertime. But I'm promising you, sometime on that time there, you're going to take your short-sleeved shirt and say, that's not working as well as I wanted it to. And you're going to go to the gift shop, which is cleverly on the same campus. Has really neat hoodie sweatshirts Well, it says the camp on it. All right, but you will now go there because they know you did not make Provision for being here. You understand that? Okay, so that's that's the things that you're seeing in the scripture So when she names him, you're the God that sees me. I Just saw the God who sees me. What is this? I should have died. I But the God who sees me, I have just seen. So that's what she names him for. So it's named for a function. Let's skip up to 22, chapter 22. I know there's some more in 17, but I'm gonna go ahead and skip up to 22, because I want you to see several concepts that the Lord's introducing to us, okay? If I can, our understanding, this is not evolution. This is called progressive revelation. Revelation progresses along. We're learning new things all along, and God's showing us those things, and we're responding to them, okay? So back here, did God show to Adam and Eve that they need to offer a sacrifice? No, they didn't see that. Did they see there needed to be an altar? No, they didn't see that. I don't know what the bloody sacrifice looked like. I don't know what he did. Did he do it right in front of them and they saw that? I don't know all of that. But I know this, that as time went along, sometime I get to Noah, and he knows he's supposed to offer sacrifice. Somehow Cain and Abel knew they were supposed to offer some kind of a sacrifice. I don't know how, we're not told that, but progressively it's being revealed. By the time I get up to Abraham and his counterpart of that same time, they're knowing they're supposed to give a sacrifice. So everything they do, uh-huh? Oh, sure. He's the one who's revealing it. But it's going to be the Lord himself. You're not even going to see a whole lot about the Holy Spirit until you get up to around the time of the building of the tabernacle. What's the Spirit of God that's been at work? You're getting a progressive understanding of who the Trinity is. Because the Father's making himself very known during that first part, and the angel of the Lord then comes in, he's making himself known in it. Then I'm going to move up to see the Spirit come into this thing. Remember when we were talking about patterns? Back when the church is getting started, the big issue was who is Jesus? And there were people that differed in the church about who Jesus was. So they had councils to get together to talk about the Lord Jesus. Well then after that, they started arguing about the Holy Spirit. What's the Holy Spirit supposed to do here? So there are councils then later that come up about the Holy Spirit. You follow where I'm at? In other words, another progress in the understanding of who the Spirit is. Matter of fact, by the time I get up here to Moses, Moses is told to make the tabernacle just like you've seen it in heaven. Wow. Now you're going to take the pattern you've seen in heaven, and you're going to somehow bring it back here to earth, and you're going to make it just like that. How are you going to Remember all that how are you gonna do all that because God said I don't want you to vary it at all It has to be exactly what you see. So here's what God did. He said, all right I've got several people in your camp that I'm selecting and The people in your camp that I'm selecting I'm going to give to them special skills. I Am giving them my spirit And my spirit will fill them and they will do it just like I will even show them skills on how to melt that metal. I'll show them skills on how to put the thing together. I'll get them joint making. I'll show them all of that. That was done by the spirit of God. And we don't really have much about the spirit of God till that point. Now, we really got it. And from there on, we're going to start having a Samson. How's Samson going to kill all those people? It says the Spirit of the Lord came on him and he killed all those people. That wasn't just somebody having human strength. It was the Spirit of the Lord that supernaturally gave that man some strength. Does that make any sense? So we're just getting progressive revelation all the way through here. By the time you get to Pentecost, you've now got a full revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus is letting us know in advance, my Spirit's coming. Now, what did you say? Yeah, my Spirit is coming. Now, the Spirit of the Lord is coming in a big way for the church. The church without the Spirit and without the Christ, without the Father, is nothing. The church that tries to duplicate what Christ is, in its own power, is blasphemous. It's wrong. You follow what we're saying? It has to be done by the Spirit of God. Now, let's go to 22. You know this one. This is where Abram is about to offer his son Isaac. And as he gets ready to offer Isaac, he's got the altar built, he's got the wood, he's got all the parts, he's got the sharpened knife, and he's got the sacrifice. And Isaac's even saying, well, what's the sacrifice? I see this, I see that. And all Abraham says is, the Lord will provide himself a sacrifice. The Lord will provide himself. He knows he's going to kill his son. But he's saying the Lord will provide a sacrifice. When he's leaving the guys behind, let's see, he gets... Now, let's look at verse two. Then 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 of which I shall tell you. That is a fully consumed offering. There are no pieces left. He's not gonna eat any of it. He is going to burn that thing fully and completely, all right? So Abram rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son. He split the wood for the burnt offering arose, went to the place which God had told him. Then on the third day, Abram lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abram said to his young men, stay here with the donkey. The lad and I will go yonder and worship. That's the first time the word worship appears here. Though we may have seen all kinds of actions that were that this is the first time the word appears here And abram says that's what he and isaac are going to go do all right now, uh as you know, um There the he starts to make the offering it says, um He had stretched out his hand and took the knife and verse 11 says, but the angel Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. He said, here I am. And he said, do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son, your only son from me. Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by the by its horn So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son All right. Now here's Here's what I want you to get from this number one Abraham took time with this offering It was something that was going to cost him, something that was very important to him. He's not belittling it. He's not going to offer a blemish to anything. He's not going to take Ishmael. He's not going to take some other kid. He's not going to take one of the servant's boys. He's taking his own son. And he's getting ready to offer his own son. It's a bloody sacrifice. It's going to be a burnt sacrifice. The whole thing's going to be gone. Instead, you see substitution. That some innocent animal is going to die in Isaac's place. You see all of the pattern that's being repeated here? Instead of his son dying, he's going to let something else die for his son. which is setting up the pattern for the rest of what the tabernacle is going to be, for the rest of what it's going to be from here on out, even for the grand picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the ram caught in the thicket, even though he's the precious son of the Lord. Does that make sense? So next week we'll look at that. Who was a contemporary? Job was a contemporary. They lived about the same time. Abraham and Job lived about the same time. So if I can borrow just a few more minutes of your time turn to the first chapter of Job first chapter of Job Go to Psalms and turn left Verse one, there was a man in the land of us whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and shunned evil. Remember back in our original, but this we're saying the everlasting gospel is this, fear God. Give him glory and worship him. That's the everlasting the commands of the everlasting gospel. I'll look further And seven sons and three daughters were born to him all his possessions were 7,000 sheep 3,000 camels 500 yoke of oxen 500 female donkeys and a very large household so that his man was the greatest of all the people of the East and His sons would go and feast in their houses each on its appointed day and would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them So it was when the days of feasting had run their course that Job would send and sanctify them Now he's sending for his kids. They've had their they had their party Now he's calling for them. He's he's he's gonna sanctify and then he's gonna wash them set them apart and And he'll rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them. For Job said, it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts. Thus Job did regularly. Here's an intercessor. That's his dad. This father is going to look all his kids over and you're gonna recognize they may have done something. So he is going to offer something in their behalf. In case they've cursed God or sinned in their hearts, he's going to offer something in their behalf. This is him worshiping God. This is how he's going to show, I fear God. I'm giving him glory. And I'm going to make sure that the burnt offering, this bloody sacrifice is done on behalf of my children. Does that make sense? And that's about this same time right in here. So Job is alive in a different part of the area, right in here. So Job and Abraham both knew about bloody sacrifices. They knew that had something to do with their relationship to God. It had to be renewed continuously. So they built altars to have that done. It said he did that regularly. So he knew that that's the way that you renew things. And God is not rebuking him for doing that. Matter of fact, he calls him a good man for doing that. He calls him a righteous man because that man is realizing you don't just have a good relationship with God because you're a nice guy You don't just have a good relationship with God because you try hard You're you're you're not showing anything special because you attend church regularly Well, that may be faithfulness to yourself You're starting to thin you might just say I'm a personal routine. I can't I'm loyal. I'm faithful I go to church every week because that's part of my routine That doesn't mean that you went because you wanted to worship God. I just meant you went to church because that's your regular routine. Follow that? So, yes. That's right. How did he know? Because God had put it in their heart that there is something that's wrong. They had observed something that happened in the flood and the stories are going to be told about things that happened during the flood through Noah's family. So they're going to understand that something was wrong. Something's divided us between God. So they didn't have to have, well, matter of fact, by the time you get to Noah, he passes down. If anybody kills anybody else, they're guilty of blood. You got to kill them. So they knew something was wrong. They knew there were things that were wrong from just what God had showed them already. Yes, according to Romans chapter one, it was in their minds and hearts. They knew who God was. They knew what he was about. They were not guiltless. They were guilty people. Matter of fact, other people in other groups were also offering sacrifices, but it was to their gods, not to the living God. Yes, they knew that they had offended somebody. And oftentimes it was just a way of, Kathy, how was it, offering in the jungle there, in the rainforest. It was just offering a gift. Yeah. Yeah, it didn't always have to be a sinful thing. It could just simply be, we're honoring you because this is your land and this is the way we take care of it. But he knew that could be they could have cursed God. That's the one he counted to be the sin. So all the way back to Noah, you knew you were not supposed to curse God. From the Tower of Babel, you knew you were not supposed to curse God. So it's they had good good knowledge of it. That's a great question. No, right anybody else got anything before I Stealing more your time All right next week then we're gonna start looking at a tabernacle. I think you're gonna I asked the kids one day I said why is it? It does I just want to know your church. That's what's the marina kids I was saying your church how many bring a lamb every week to the church and Well, I ain't gonna bring you anything. Well, how do you guys worship? If you're not gonna bring a bloody sacrifice, what? I said, does your pastor kill one for you each? No, no, no, no, it never happens like that. Your pastor is not killing sheep on the platform? He said, no. Well, what kind of a church are you going to? I said, why don't we do that? And one little girl sitting in the front said, yes? She said, I think Jesus is our bloody sacrifice. Oh, you do. Do you understand? She knew something. Now, here's what I'm going to tell you. Before you walk through the doors next door where the whole body is going to be assembled together, know that you're walking through those doors because of a bloody sacrifice. You're not walking in there because this is a nice place to be, there's good people, we can sing some songs or anything. You're walking in because there was a bloody sacrifice. And I'm going to encourage you, go in with that in your mind. And if that doesn't now help you enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise, then maybe you need to step back out and wait before you come in to join the assembly until that gets into your heart. That's why, brothers and sisters, I don't think we're getting to worship. We're not getting far enough along in the process so that we can worship. All right? Father, thank you so much for the gift of this day Thank you for the things that you're going to show us and teach us and we ask that you would open our hearts to the truth Thank you for all in Jesus name and for his sake. Amen. God bless you