Let's turn in our Bibles this morning to the book of Genesis. It's right before Exodus. First book. Alright, it's trying to be helpful. Now, I always mention in our offering time that we really don't expect our visitors to give, whether you're a first-time visitor or have visited for a while, we don't expect you to give. We're thankful for everyone that puts anything into the offering to pay for things, but I forgot that this morning. It's too late. But if you want anything back, just let us know. All right, Genesis chapter 22. I knew a man one time in Ohio. I preached a camp meeting out there, and the pastor told me about a man that after he heard the sermon, he literally asked for his money back. So they gave it to him. Man, we live in funny times, but also very desperate and serious times. Let's all stand together in reverence to the reading of God's Word. We're going to read beginning in Genesis chapter 22 with verse 1. Genesis 22 and verse 1. Before we begin, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you again to be able to be in your house today. We ask your blessings upon each individual, every family that's here and represented here. We pray, dear God, that You would open our ears and our hearts to the reception of Your Word. I pray, dear Father, that You will help us to have the cares of this life removed for a time that we might concentrate on what You have to say to us. We pray and thank You for Your Son Jesus. We pray that He might be lifted up today. We pray that You'll speak in a very powerful way to our hearts, that we'll all be submissive to the will of Your Spirit as it's manifested to us today. And we ask it in Jesus' name, Amen. In Genesis 22 and verse 1, the Bible says, And it came to pass that after these things that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham. And he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I shall tell thee of. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clad the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said unto his young men, abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son. And he took the fire in his hand and a knife, and they went both of them together. 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 said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together. And they came to the place which God had told him of, and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And 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." May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Word. Please be seated. I just want to direct your attention just for a moment to Abraham's answer in verse 8. This is not really the sermon this morning, but it's good for us to be reminded of this. In verse 7, Isaac, as he journeyed with his father up the mountainside, Isaac said something that he probably wanted to say for a long while before he said it. He said to his father Abraham, he said, here's the fire and here's the wood for the offering, but where is the lamb for the offering? And Abraham answered him, and I want you to notice he said, my son, God will provide Himself a Lamb. You know, there is a lot, a great deal of importance in how things are said. And in the original language of Hebrew, from which this, of course, is translated into our English, it's made very clear that that's just the way that Abraham said it. God will provide Himself a lamb. You know that is the great truth of the gospel. God provided Himself a lamb. Paul wrote about it and said God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. We believe in the threefold nature of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And it is a wonderful thing this morning just to have our pure minds stirred up by way of remembrance. What a great God that we serve, a kind, long-suffering, merciful God that had mercy on a world of ruined, rebellious loss. sinners bound for a devil's hell, but God Himself provided a sacrifice when He came in the form of His only begotten Son and laid down His life at Calvary that we might have a sacrifice made for our sin. But I want to just mention something else about this passage, this event that's recorded in Genesis chapter 22. Something else that's pictured here. This is such a beautiful picture of faith. But I want you to notice something in particular here about this passage of Scripture. Now the parallel, the New Testament parallel Scripture to all of this is put very simply in Hebrews 11 and in verse 17. It says, "...by faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac, and he that had received the promise offered up his only begotten Son." So you see who Abraham typifies there is God the Father. And Isaac, his only begotten Son, represents that only begotten Son, capital S-O-N, Jesus, that God, who so loved the world, gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believed in him should not perish. I want to preach this morning on this subject, how we should view our duty as believers where death is concerned. And I'm not talking about death as it pertains to the demise of these physical bodies, these mortal bodies of ours that one day may have come to the end of these earthly lives and experience that narrow grave that Job spoke about, when our earthly tent will be folded up and all of that. It's appointed unto men, the Bible says, once to die. I'm not talking about that death, though. were believers. I'm talking about our duty toward that death that Paul was speaking of when he said, I am dead. And he said, we are dead as believers and our lives are hid with Christ in God. But we need to live that way. Amen. We need to recognize as Paul recognized that he was dead and his life was hid with Christ in God. I'll say more about that in a minute. But let's get back to Abraham. Now, Abraham had experienced a lot of things in his life. We were talking about trials in our Sunday school lesson this morning. Abraham had trial after trial in his life, trials of his faith. We have trials put to our faith that's put to trial sometimes. He'd had times of hardship before this ever happened that we read about this morning. And those trials of his faith, those times of hardship that he'd already had, had gone a long way in preparing him for this trial of faith that he's experiencing here we read about in Genesis chapter 12. Let me just remind us of some of those trials. One of them came in Genesis chapter 12, when God spoke to Abram and called him to leave his family and his home, his father that is, and his mother, and brothers and sisters, and just called him to leave his home and go out to who knows where. Abraham didn't know where. But God spoke to him. Now it takes a great deal of faith. for somebody just to respond like that and leave everything that they have, their roots, their kin, and so on and so forth. That was a trial of faith, but Abraham surrendered to that trial on his faith and he left. And there were other trials. One of the greatest is seen in Genesis 13, where the Bible says Abram's nephew, Lot, who was traveling with them, his herdsmen and Abraham's herdsmen weren't getting along, and things were getting kind of rough. And Abraham, the patriarch, said to Lot, you just choose any of the land that you want, whatever you choose, you can have first choice. And wherever you decide to go with your herds and flocks and tents and everything, that'll be fine, and I'll just go somewhere else. Well, the Bible says that Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom. I just want to bring this out real quick. He pitched his tent toward Sodom and finally wound up in Sodom. And his motivation for that was he looked and he saw that it was a good place to raise cattle. But it wasn't a good place to raise children. Amen. Sodom is a type of this world that we live in. This sin-cursed world where people are alienated to God. And Sodom is represented by this world. It's not... Sodom is not a good influence on children. It's not a good influence on you. It may be a fine place to raise cattle and involve in the commercial pursuits of life, but this old world is not a good place. It's not family friendly. Lot got in there, and you know the rest of the story. He lost his family. Amen. Another trial of Abraham's faith came. Went to rescue Lot later on. Abraham was called to go up with only 300 men against five kings and their armies. Five kings. Great trial of faith for him to go against those five kings with only 300 men. But he did. And he won the battles, defeated them all, and rescued his nephew Lot. So he had many trials upon his faith. But now in our text, I want you to look at three things. And this is still the introduction. Sometimes the introduction's a lot longer than the sermon. But look in verse 2 at what Abraham heard. This is what he heard. How would you like to hear something like this? God said to him, Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and offer him for a burnt offering. God said that. Abraham heard God say that. Now if ever anybody might have been tempted to say, huh? What? It might have been Abraham, but he heard God very clearly. And when God told him to offer him for a sacrifice, he knew that God had already laid down all of the rules minutely for how sacrifices were to be offered. They would take the lamb or the heifer, whatever it was, and they would bleed it dry. and fill up a vessel with the blood of that sacrifice. Then they'd skin the sacrifice. Then they would quarter the sacrifice. That's the way sacrifices were to be altered, offered. And now Abraham hears God say to him, take thine son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and offer him for a burnt offering. That's what he heard. Now look where he headed. In verse 2, goes on and says, and take him, get thee into the land of Moriah. Three days away. But I want you to notice in verse 6, as Abraham traveled with Isaac, his beloved, only begotten son, to the place of sacrifice that had been specified, him knowing, Isaac not knowing what was to transpire there. I want you to look at what he held in his hand. Verse 6 says, Abraham took the fire in his hand and a knife. Now I'm going to say this, Abraham with that fire in his hand for the offering and a knife in his hand, I mean all of that speaks for itself. Do you know what he was really holding in his hand? His own life. Because Isaac was there. For Isaac to die meant for Abraham to die. Now I want to elaborate on that point a little bit. Isaac represented 25 years of patient waiting for a son. Amen. 25 years earlier, God had promised Abraham and Sarah that they would have a son. It was incredulous, almost unbelievable. They were well past the age of Mary. But God said to them, you're going to have a son. I'm going to give you a son. How it thrilled Abraham's heart. And he never stopped believing God about that. and for 25 years he had patiently waited. All of his hopes had been in what God had said concerning his son. This was his only begotten son. His only son. The son that he loved, that he had by Sarah. So Isaac represented all of these past patient hopes. And he also represented all of Abraham's present joy and enjoyment. For he was, verse 2 goes on to say, the son whom thou lovest. And not only was Abraham's past and his present tied up in Isaac, but also his future. Because in Genesis 17 and 19, God said to Abraham, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed, and thou shalt call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant and with his seed after him." His past, his present, his future, all in his son Isaac walking by his side toward Mount Moriah. Hebrews 11, verse 17-19 comments on this. It says, "...by faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac, and he..." Now listen to this, "...and he that had received the promises..." God had given him all these promises that were tied up in Isaac. "...offered up his only begotten Son, of whom it was said, Of Isaac shall thy seed be called." So here he has all of these expectations where Isaac is concerned and yet God's now told him to offer him up as a burnt sacrifice. Now how was he able to do it? Well, here's the answer to that. Hebrews 11 and verse 19 says that he was accounting. God told him that. Abraham was accounting. No wonder the Bible calls him the father of all them that believe. Abraham was accounting, it was in other words settled for him, that God was able to raise him up even from the dead. What a man of faith. Amen. But anyway, the end of Isaac, we can see how it would represent the end of Abraham. What God was doing in all of this, in all of this, God was giving Abraham help in dying to himself. He'd given him a lot of help in the past, as I mentioned. Now he's giving him more help where it comes to dying to himself. Abraham was his life. God said, lay your life on the altar. Consider your life dead. I want to say three things about this. Number one, I want you to see how providential this experience was for Abraham. Because it was all a matter of divine prerogative. But in Abraham's choice, it was God's choice. And then secondly, I want you to see how personal all of this was for Abraham. And in the third place, how profitable it was. for Abraham to have this lesson in death to self. Now, first, it was providential. It was a providential experience for him. All of this, as I said, was a matter of divine prerogative. Let's be reminded of this, brethren. We're not in charge. God's in charge. The things in life are not our prerogative. We need to look to find out what God's prerogative. is. And so it was God's prerogative in all of this and where what would be required of Abraham as a sacrifice. That was God's choice. And here's what God required. Your son, your only son, Isaac. Take now thy son. Now we need to be ready to offer to God whatever he asks of us. I mean, either he's God or we're God. And we're looking at him who is the father of all of those who believe, an example for us of faith and belief and so on. God did not let Abraham choose the thing that he was going to sacrifice or the time for the sacrifice. There are some Christians, and they say, Right now I'm young, I'm going to live my life and have fun and so on and so forth. I know that there are things that need to be offered up and sacrificed to God right now in my life. And I'm going to do that after I get out of my teen years, when I get to be an adult. Now the lesson here, beloved, is that that is not our prerogative to choose when. Not for young people and not for adults. Some people have said this. I've heard people say this years ago. Well, I'm going to start coming to church more faithfully once I've gotten all the money I can make working overtime and extra days and so on, socking it all away. Once I have my bank account in shape for college education for the kids and all of those things and I feel good about those things, then I'm going to be more faithful in church. Listen, it's not our prerogative. when we're going to sacrifice God, what He wants sacrificed, and what He wants sacrificed. There are some things people will hold on to. There are some things that people will say, this is off limits to God. Maybe it's some silly entertainment or recreation of some kind. Maybe it's a certain amount of their time. This is the only time. Maybe it has to do with somebody. Sometimes God will step in on a believer's life and say, I know you're interested in that girl or that boy, but they're not for you. That's God's prerogative to do that. That's not our prerogative. It's God's prerogative. And so God's prerogative is in view here in terms of where this offering would have to be made. God told him, he said, get thee in the land of Moriah. And he said, to the mountains of Moriah, to a particular mountain that I'll tell thee of. Now listen to this. It took three days to get there. You say, well, what does that have to do with anything? Well, Abraham had three days to think about it. Okay, man. Tall order. Offer your own son. The devil might have come along and whispered in Abraham's ear and said, don't you think this is a little much? Won't people think you're being radical? What will Sarah say? all kinds of time to deliberate, to rationalize, to justify a disobedience to God. Three days he had to think about it and deliberate on it, and then he deliberately made the decision to obey God and trust God. Amen. That's the way we need to be as Christian people. God's prerogative is not only seen here and where the offering was to be made, but also seen in terms of when it would be made. Look at verse 1. The Bible says this is when it happened. And it came to pass after these things. After all those things that had happened already. After Isaac had been born. I don't know how old he was at the time. Somebody said he might have been around six. Oh no, he was much older than six. He might have been 40. Somebody said he could have been as old as 40 years old. It's very likely. He was somewhere in between there. Just bear in mind that there's a lot of faith going on where Isaac is concerned here too. Amen? But the Bible says that nevertheless he went and followed his father and obeyed his father who was obeying his father in heaven. and recognizing that, you know, whatever God says, it's God's prerogative, not mine. And then, secondly, I want you to notice how personal this was. See, death to self is a personal thing. Nobody can die to yourself. You have to die to self. Nobody can do that for you. The duty to die to self is just as personal and intimate as anything can be for a Christian. Now notice this. First, there was no one there. You'll notice in this passage, there's no one here who could be a substitute for him in the offering of this sacrifice. He had to do it himself. Sarah couldn't do it. God said, I want you to do it. He had a lot of servants, but none of his servants could offer this sacrifice. Nobody could offer it but him, and nobody could die to self but you. There was nobody there to substitute for him. There was nobody there to sympathize with him either. Sarah wasn't there to sympathize. None of the servants were there to sympathize with him in it. It was just a totally, intimately personal thing. Now thirdly, I want you to see how profitable it all was. We've read the story. We've seen Abraham get up there on the mountain. Puts Isaac down on the altar. lays the wood upon him. He's getting ready to proceed with the ceremonial sacrifice. And then God stayed Abraham's hand. I mean, Abraham was poised and ready to just do what God said. Well, what was the profit in all of this? What was the purpose of it? What was the reason for it? Well, for one thing, I mean, there's a number of things. Here's two things that I've had come to mind. about this matter of death to self. Paul said this, Paul said, I'm crucified with Christ. And it's no longer I that live, but Christ that liveth in me. And the life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, gave himself for me. So what Paul is saying in that verse is it's a very profitable thing for each and every one of us who are saved to settle this matter of dying to self. That's not easy. But it can be done. And it must be done. And there's great profit in doing this. Now first, notice this about Abraham, how it profited him. It profited him in the sense that his knowledge of God was deepened. Now, if he had any doubts about it in the past, any whatsoever, he had no doubts about it now, God can be trusted. Even with your life. Amen. His knowledge of God, you need to have your knowledge of God deepened a little more to the extent that you can understand that you can trust God with your entire life. Hey man, these missionaries over here know that. You can't go on the mission field if you're not trusted, especially down in that area. Brother Lytle said, Brother Kirtland, would you like to go down and be, and join us on the mission field for a week or two? I said, I'd be happy to. I'd love to. He said, would you be afraid to go into the communist countries? That's dangerous. There was a time Americans could go anywhere and people were afraid to touch them or hurt them or molest them. Not today. They're fair game. There are times like that that you have to trust God with your life. But you know what, beloved? You don't have to be called the mission field to be required to trust God with your life. You need to trust God with every bit of your life. Everything that revolves around your life. Every aspect of your life. So his knowledge of God was just deepened. Look at verse 14, first part of that verse. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh. Remember he had his hand raised up, had that knife in his fist and he was ready to slay his son and God stayed his hand. And he looked over and here is a ram caught up in the thickets. caught those thickets by its horns. God had provided a sacrifice. Let me put it this way. God had provided a sacrifice because one of God's names is Jehovah-Jireh, which means God provides. We can trust God with our life and God will provide what we need in our lives. And Abraham knows that as he'd never known it before. The second way that he was profited that I see in this passage is his blessings were doubled. In fact, more than doubled. But notice verse 17. After all of this had taken place, God speaking to Abraham, and He says, in blessing I will bless thee, And in multiplying, I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is upon the seashore." What a blessing. Kind of reminds you of the story of Job, when Job's faith was tried. When you read the first part, he's lost everything he had. When you read the last chapter, he's gotten everything back doubled. Now, all of this is to tell us, beloved, no matter what our situation or station in life, we can trust God with our whole life. We can die to self, like the Bible tells us to do. It will be the most profitable thing that we can do. I notice Abraham gained some insights into the future that would just bless his heart. Look at verse 17 again. God said to him, and in thy seed, the latter part of that verse, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice. Now that's in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 17. And in thy seed. This is important. It's seed singular. Because it's talking about Jesus Christ. who had come of the lineage of Abraham. And God said, I'm going to give you a glimpse into the future that will just bless your heart. In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because thou hast obeyed my voice. How many blessings do you think God's people forfeit because they're unwilling to obey God? I mean, how much more could our futures be blessed if we would just be willing to die to self, instead of keeping old self alive, very much alive, which is what many do. In John chapter 8 and verse 56, when Jesus was here, he said to a crowd one day, he said, your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, when God gave him that glimpse of the future. And he said, Jesus said, and he saw it and was glad. I studied that word out there. I studied that verse out in particular. He saw it and he was glad. That word glad means to leap forward. Remember when Mary walked into the home of Elizabeth and the Bible says that John the Baptist leaped in her bosom. She was with child with John the Baptist. But when The mother of Jesus Christ, the human mother, walked in. John the Baptist leaped in the womb. And when God told Abraham what He told him, Abraham's heart just leaped in joy at this glimpse that God had given him into His future. Turn to James 2. James 2. James chapter 2 and in verse 21. While you're turning there, I just want to say this, there's a commercial. A divine, a holy, a sanctified recommendation. You need to give, if you haven't, you need to give your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. If you haven't been saved. You can only do that personally. You're not born into salvation. It's never going to happen to you by accident. If you're ever saved, it's going to be because you have made a decision to obey God, turn from your sin, and receive Jesus Christ into your heart. And if you're saved, you need to be dying to self so that God can get glory and bless your life the way he wants to bless your life. Now in James chapter 2, verse 21, was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seeest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and he was called Here's a blessing, the friend of God. Amen. Jesus said, you're my friends if you do whatsoever I've commanded you. Are you really the friend of God this morning? Are you a good friend to God? Verse 24, you see then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith only. Likewise, also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works? I'm not going to read that part. But the point is that we are saved not by works, but we are saved by faith that then goes to work. For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works. You say, I think I'll go to heaven. I've asked so many people this, Brother Pelicone. If you were to die today, where would you go? When this life is over, where are you going to go? Oh, I think I'd go to heaven. I say, what makes you think so? Well, I think I'm a good person. And I always want to say, compared to who? Compared to Jesus Christ? Because if you don't measure up in righteousness to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, when you die, you're going to just go straight to hell. That's why Jesus came here and died for us. He who knew no sin, 1 Corinthians 5, 21, He who knew no sin, the perfect, blessed, holy Son of God, He who knew no sin, became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. I'm going to heaven if I die today, and the reason I'm going to heaven is because I have a Savior. It's not because God looks down and sees any righteousness of my own. I'm not going to heaven because I don't smoke, don't chew, don't associate with them that do, go to church, preach, etc., etc. I'm going to heaven because I have a Savior, and I have His own righteousness imputed to me. When God looks at me, He sees the righteousness of His own Son. And you can't get any better than that. Amen. Now my job as a Christian is to reflect and express outwardly what I really am inwardly. Amen. That's the problem with Christians today. They're not honestly manifesting they're not being who they really are. You are not a worldly, you are a child of God. You are not unholy, you are a holy child of God. You're not a child of the devil, you're a child of God. And you need to act like a child of God. Amen. And death to self is what really makes that possible for us. Not only all these wonderful insights given to him, his blessings doubled and his knowledge deepened, but look what it did for his testimony. In James 21, he's called the friend of God. He has a testimony for God. In verse 12 of our text in Genesis, God said, Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thine only Son from me. It's like that verse we read in our Sunday school class in 1 Peter 1 and 7, that the trial of your faith, let's talk about our testimony now, that the trial of your faith be much more precious than gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found, this is what the trial of our faith is supposed to do to us, that the trial of our faith might result in that the outcome will be found unto praise and honor and glory. Let me close with this one verse, Matthew 19 and 29. I mean, Abraham was ready, and he did. God counted it as if he'd actually done it. Give it all. Give it all. He's only begotten son. Sometimes people get saved and they lose some of their friends. I did. Amen. Sometimes people get saved and some of their family doesn't really want to have anything else to do with them. You quit getting invited to things and so on and so forth. Sometimes that happens. I mean, it can really cause a parting of the way. I mean, I've known some creatures, their fathers even turned their back on them custom. But you know what? It pays to follow Jesus. In Matthew 19 and 29, Jesus said, everyone that has forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my namesake shall receive a hundredfold and shall inherit everlasting life. Amen. And you know, that experience, Brother Aaron, took place on a mountain. All of the time, he was moving up. Moving up. Death to self means moving up. And the opposite of up is what? Down. Amen. And just to the degree that you and I are not dying to self, we're living on a low plane. And just to the degree that we're dying to self, we're enjoying the abundant life that Jesus said, I've come that you might have life, that's salvation, eternal life, and that you might have it more abundantly. Amen. Let's all stand together.