In this sermon, Pastor Chuck Smith focuses on the story of Abraham and his unique test from God. He begins by emphasizing the importance of allowing the Son of God to fill our hearts and satisfy our souls. Pastor Chuck then delves into the progressive fellowship between God and Abraham, highlighting the pivotal moment when Abraham was tested to sacrifice his son Isaac. However, just as Abraham raised the knife, the angel of the Lord intervened and commended Abraham for his faith and obedience. This story serves as a reminder that true faith is demonstrated through corresponding works.

Oh, let the Son of God enfold you With His Spirit and His love Let Him fill your heart and satisfy your soul Oh, let Him have the things that hold you And His Spirit like a dove Will descend upon your life And make you whole Welcome to The Word for Today Featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor Chuck Smith Of Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California Pastor Chuck is currently leading us on a verse-by-verse study Through the entire Bible And on today's edition of The Word for Today We'll begin to look at God's progressive fellowship with Abraham As we pick up in Genesis, chapter 22, verse 1 So let's follow along As Pastor Chuck Smith focuses on a very unique test for Abraham Now it came to pass after these things And now we probably have a period of 25 years or so later This last instant, of course, that we had a date Was the weaning of Isaac Now some 25 years after Isaac was weaned It came to pass that God tested Abraham And said to him, Abraham He said, here I am And he said, take now your son Your only son, Isaac, whom you love Love is probably one of the most important words in the Bible And interestingly enough, this is the first time The word is found in the Bible And there is a study of the Bible That takes the first use of the word in the Bible And usually the first time that a word is used in the Bible Sets the pattern for that use of the word throughout the Bible So there is what they call first mention In biblical interpretation And so when you're studying a particular subject You go back to the first mention of that word Or the first mention of that subject And you study the circumstances of the first mention To get a light upon wherever it is mentioned So in the law of first mention, this is an important thing The first mention of the word love in the Bible Is interestingly enough The love of a father for a son Now we hear a lot of mother love But the first mention of love in the Bible Is not of a mother for her child A husband for his wife But it is of the father for his son Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom you love Turning to the New Testament What is the first mention of love in the New Testament? In Matthew's Gospel we are told When Jesus was baptized That the voice of God spoke from heaven saying This is my beloved son The love of the father for the son Mark's Gospel, the first mention of love Is also at the baptism of Jesus Where Mark records the voice from heaven saying This is my beloved son In Luke's Gospel, the first mention of love Is again at the baptism of Jesus When God said this is my beloved son But what's the first mention of love in John's Gospel? We have the Synoptic Gospels, they all agree What's the first mention of love in John's Gospel? Can you guess? Of course you can For God so loved the world That he gave his only begotten son God's love for the world My beloved son in whom I am well pleased God is giving his beloved son So God said to Abraham, take now your son Isaac Thine only son whom you love God does not here recognize Ishmael Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac Ishmael was the work of the flesh God refused to recognize him Because of the work of the flesh He's not the child of promise He isn't the work of God, the work of the spirit He's the work of the flesh And so God doesn't acknowledge him But acknowledges only that work of the spirit Isaac, take now thy son, thine only son Whom thou lovest or whom you love We so often are guilty of trying to Offer to God the works of our flesh And we want God to accept them God will not accept the works of your flesh So much of the endeavor for God is endeavor in the flesh That's one of the weaknesses and the problems of the church today We are endeavoring in the ability and the energy of the flesh To do the work of the spirit The psalmist said, except the Lord build the house They labor in vain who build it Except the Lord watch the city The watchman waketh but in vain We're going to be surprised, shocked And perhaps greatly disappointed When we stand before God and our works Are then tried by fire Because so many of the works are going to be burned The works of the flesh Those things that I've done in the flesh Listen, I spent years, years Trying in the ability and the energy of my flesh To do the work of God I tried for years in my flesh To build the church of Jesus Christ And it all went for naught Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain And I'll tell you, I spent a lot of years laboring in vain God doesn't recognize the works of your flesh He wants the work of his spirit in your life So take your son Isaac, whom you love Your only son Go to the land of Moriah To offer him there is a burnt offering On one of the mountains of which I shall tell you The land of Moriah was the area of Jerusalem Abraham living down near Beersheba About 30 miles away You made 10 miles a day walking And so it was a three day journey And so Abraham rose early in the morning He saddled his donkey He took two of his young men And interestingly enough The Hebrew word translated here young men Is the same word that is translated lad for Isaac So he was about the same age as these young servants That Abraham took Probably in their twenties He took his young men with him and Isaac his son And he split the wood for the burnt offering And he arose and went to the place of which God had told him Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off Now Paul writing to the Corinthians Speaks of the gospel that he had preached to them And he said the gospel that he had preached to them Was that of Christ Who died And was three days dead But who rose again on the third day That's the gospel Paul said which he preached to them And he speaks of it as being really From the Old Testament Now where do you have the teaching of the resurrection of Christ? How Christ died for our sins according to the scripture Was raised again the third day according to the scriptures What scriptures? Where in the Old Testament does it say that he would be raised again the third day? And as I look at the Old Testament This must be the reference to which Paul was referring For three days as they journeyed Isaac was as dead in the mind of his father Abraham Nonetheless Abraham the whole while was believing in the resurrection He could not understand what was going on He could not understand the command of God He saw a real dilemma God's dilemma God had said through Isaac shall thy seed be called Isaac didn't have any children He was not yet married So the seed has to come through Isaac And yet God is saying offer him as a sacrifice on the mount that I will show you Place that I will show you So how can then Isaac have seed? The only way he can is to be resurrected So in Hebrews 11 it said by faith Abraham Offered Isaac as a sacrifice unto God Knowing that God would if necessary Raise him from the dead in order to fulfill the promise Through Isaac shall thy seed be called So Abraham is going in faith The faith in the promise of God that through Isaac shall thy seed be called And on the basis of that promise He was willing to make this sacrifice God's word is going to be kept Isaac is going to be the father of the race God you've got a problem I don't know how you're going to solve it But that's your problem And so he came within sight of Mount Moriah And as he came within sight of the mountain He said to the two servants you stay here I and the lad will go and worship Now this is the first mention of worship in the Bible And we sometimes sing together Close our eyes lift our hands As we sing songs to God and we say Well we've been worshiping God Technically that isn't what the Bible terms as worship The word worship literally means to bow down That's the literal meaning of the word translated worship And what it is a reference to Is the bowing down of my will to God That's what God looks at as worship When I bow down my will to God God looks upon that as my worshiping Him And that's what worshiping God is all about You see you can lift your hands and sing With your eyes closed But you may be resisting God in your heart You say oh I had such a wonderful time Worshiping God today No you didn't Because the worship is that bowing down of my will to God And Abraham is saying to these boys We're going to go up to that mountain And we're going to bow down our will to God I'm bowing down to God's will Going up to bow down To surrender to the will of God We will go and we will worship We will bow down and we will come again Don't know how we're going to come again yet But we will because through Isaac shall the seed be called So Abraham declares they're going to worship And they're going to come again The word come we will come again The word come is a plural verb So it is we will come again We will come back to you So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering And he laid it on Isaac his son Even as Jesus They put upon him the cross And he bore it towards Golgotha He took the fire in his hand and a knife And the two of them went together But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said My father? And he said here I am my son And he said look the fire and the wood But where is the lamb for the burnt offering? And Abraham said my son God will provide himself the lamb For the burnt offering And the two of them went together Not God will provide for himself As you read in the New King James That's a poor translation But God will provide himself This is a prophecy of Abraham Concerning Jesus Christ God the Son Who was provided as a lamb Slain for our sins We are redeemed not with corruptible things Such as silver and gold from our vain manner of living But with the precious blood of Jesus Christ Who was slain as a lamb without spot or blemish As John cried behold the lamb of God That takes away the sins of the world God will provide himself a lamb For the burnt offering Marvelous prophecy So the two of them went together And they came to the place which God had told him And Abraham built an altar there He placed the wood in order And then he bound Isaac his son And laid him on the altar upon the wood Isaac 25, 30, maybe even 33 years old at this point We're not sure Possibly The next event we read about is the death of Sarah And Isaac was about 37 when his mother died His father now 125, 30 years old Surely at this point Isaac could have overpowered his dad He could have said wait a minute dad I see what's going on None of that You know you're crazy if you think I'm going to Let you go any further And he could have overpowered his dad But he submitted to his father He allowed his father to tie him and place him on the altar Even as Jesus In going to the cross Submitted to the will of the father He could have escaped it In the garden he prayed father Let this cup pass from me Nevertheless not what I will Thy will be done And then when the soldiers came to arrest him And Peter pulled out his sword and began to swing away Jesus said Peter put away your sword The cup that the father has given me to drink Shall I not drink it Don't you realize I could call 10 legions of angels To wipe these guys out But the cup the father has given me to drink Shall I not drink it As he was praying there in John 17 Father glorify me with the glory that I had with thee Before the world ever existed What shall I say He said I desire to escape this hour But to this hour was I come into the world Submitting to the father he went to the cross Isaac submitting to his father Was bound and placed on the altar And Abraham stretched out his hand And took the knife to slay his son I imagine at this point Isaac was looking up at his dad And he saw the tears rolling down his dad's cheek Hardest thing Abraham ever did I mean this is the greatest test of faith he could ever have Somehow God's going to bring this kid back to life I don't know how But you know he's got to be the one through which the promise comes God has said through Isaac shall thy seed be called And there was that moment father son And if you ask me Which one was suffering the most Abraham or Isaac Being a dad I would venture to say Abraham was suffering more than Isaac When Jesus was hanging on the cross who suffered the most Take now thy son thy son whom thou lovest This is my beloved son And we don't often think of the pain of the father's heart When the son was being sacrificed for our sins Abraham raised the knife And the angel of the Lord again not the angel of God But back to the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said Abraham Abraham And he said here I am He said do not lay your hand on the lad The young man Nor do anything to him For now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son Your only son from me James gives to us a very interesting commentary on this particular Passage of scripture Declaring that Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness But the proof that he believed God was manifested when he sacrificed his son And thus that work of sacrificing son was the proof of his faith So that faith without works is dead abiding alone He uses that as a part of his argument that faith has to produce works That are corresponding and in harmony with what I declare I believe And so the faith of Abraham was demonstrated in his willingness to offer his son We'll return with more of our verse by verse study through the book of Genesis In our next lesson as we continue to follow the testing of Abraham And we do hope you'll make plans to join us But right now I'd like to remind you that if you missed any part of today's message Or perhaps you'd like to order a copy for that special friend or loved one You can do so by simply contacting one of our customer service representatives And they'd be more than happy to assist you with the ordering details Simply call 1-800-272-WORD And phone orders can be taken Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time Once again our toll free number is 1-800-272-9673 And for your added convenience you can order online anytime When you go to the wordfortoday.org And while you're there be sure to browse through the additional resources That include Bible studies, commentaries, CDs, DVDs 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Box 8000 Costa Mesa, California 92628 And be sure to include the call letters of this station with your correspondence And now on behalf of the word for today We'd like to thank all of you who share in supporting this ministry With your prayers and financial support And be sure to join us again next time As Pastor Chuck Smith continues his verse by verse study through the book of Genesis That's right here on the next edition of the word for today Now once again here's Pastor Chuck Smith May the Lord be with you May his hand be upon your life And may your heart be open to God To deal with the issues of your life where sin is moving in Because sin is crouching at your door It's wanting to rule over you But even so Jesus wants to rule over your life and you should rule over sin through him May God give you victory and power As you live in fellowship with him through Jesus I am the lion What's going on? There's a big scary giant Don't be afraid we have God on our side My name is David and I know all about big scary giants I've defeated lions and bears and God will help me defeat Goliath too It's true and Pastor Chuck wants to tell you all about the story of David and Goliath In his new book Just for Kids So come along on a great adventure and discover how God used David to defeat a big scary giant And learn why David believed that God was big enough even to conquer Goliath And as a gift each book contains an audio CD of Pastor Chuck actually reading the story of David and Goliath So your kids can read along To order your copy call the Word for Today at 800-272-WORD Or to see a sneak preview of the story of David and Goliath Visit us online at thewordfortoday.org Again the number to call is 1-800-296-73 This program has been sponsored by The Word for Today In Costa Mesa, California