In this sermon, the preacher recounts the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac. He describes how Abraham obediently takes his son Isaac to be sacrificed on an altar, but just as Abraham is about to kill his son, God intervenes and provides a ram as a substitute sacrifice. The preacher emphasizes that this story illustrates God's plan for salvation, where an innocent one must die to wash away sin. He also highlights the importance of demolishing false hopes and proclaiming the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as the only means of salvation. The sermon concludes with a tragic real-life story of a young man who tried to save his mother from a flood but ultimately lost her.

Will you turn please to Genesis chapter 12. There are several verses that we will be using, in fact several portions, and I would suggest that you note them if you wish to think your way through again. Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 through 4, you have the call that was given by the Lord to Abraham. I think we should hear it. Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee. And in thee shall all nations of the earth be blessed. This is the promise that God made to Abraham, that he should have a seed. In Genesis chapter 13 and verse 16, this same promise is repeated and explained just a little further. Verse 16, And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. But in Genesis the 15th chapter, verses 2-4, you discover Abraham's weariness, weary in well-doing, weary in waiting. And Abram said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless? And the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus. And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed, and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir. And, behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. In Genesis chapter 16, verses 2-4, you find Abraham lapsing from weariness into unbelief. We ought to see that. You ought to get acquainted with this man, Abram, because he is the father of the faithful. And you ought to understand some of the problems that the father went through in order to know the difficulties that you as his child will encounter. Hear it now. Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bare him no children. And she had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold, now the Lord hath restrained me from bearing. I pray thee, go in unto my maid. It may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. And Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife. And she went in unto Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. A lapse into unbelief that brought the no end of grief to the world, even down to this present hour, when the sons of Ishmael level their guns at the descendants of Abraham in the Middle East. Now would you see the reassurance that God spoke to the heart of Abraham in Genesis chapter 17, verses 15 to 19. And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be, that is, princess. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her. Yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations. Kings of people shall be of her. Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years old, and shall Sarah that is ninety years old bear? And Abram said unto God, All that Ishmael might live before thee. And God said, 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. Then to chapter 18 in verses 9 to 14. Here again God reassures Abraham. Then they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said, Behold in the tent. And he said, I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life. And lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent door which was behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age, and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my Lord, being old also. And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child which am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. Then if you please in chapter 21 and verse 2 and verse 16. For Sarah conceived and bare Abraham a son in his old age at the set time of which God had spoken to him. Isn't this marvelous? You see so many things in it. First, by way of introduction you discover that God is in no hurry in working out his plan. It's amazing, you know, how ready we are to live in this little fragment of eternity we call now. And if it isn't done now, the way I want it to be done, within the little handhold that I have on time, it isn't done at all. That was the problem. That was what Abraham faced. God promised, and Abraham just couldn't wait. He hadn't discovered that God is in no hurry, that God is working out his plan according to his time schedule. You know, the nearer you come to the Lord and the longer you live with him and the closer you draw to him, the more certain I am that he takes from our heart this frenzied little beatings of our wing against the bars of now. It has to be done right now. In Isaiah chapter 28 and verse 16, there's a marvelous promise that seems to bring this into focus and rebuke us for it. Therefore thus saith the Lord God, behold I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tribe stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth shall not make haste. Well, Abraham made haste. Couldn't wait. And the result was as it always is. Unbelief and disobedience brings with it the pain that can't be erased, even though it is forgiven. The second thing we would see here in the scriptures we have read is that God is faithful to his word. Though he tries a man's faith in his word, God keeps his word. But you see, there's no question on his part that he's going to keep it. The question is, do you believe that he's going to keep it? Do you believe he's going to keep it? I suppose more Christians have been plunged into despair and discouragement and defeat because they've tried to emulate Gideon than any other single problem. You know, they put out the fleece. Have you ever done it? You put out the fleece. I've put it out time after time, you know, sort of wear the wool off, dragging it in and out. And still am never satisfied that I actually have the mind of the Lord. We must know, must put it out. Oh, how unfortunate it is that we have taken the pattern that God permitted with the pagan, because Gideon was a worshiper of idols, and he wasn't taught in the things of the Lord. He wasn't taught in the things of the Lord. This fleece business isn't given as instructions for the believer. This is given as a testimony of what a man who basically was an unbeliever did with God. Abraham is counted as the father of the faithful because he believed that God was able to do what he promised. God is faithful to his word, but his, the reason he delays, perhaps among other things, is that he wants to see that you have the same attitude toward his word that he has. After all, faith is simply confidence that God's going to do what he said he'd do. The third thing we see is that God has a set time for everything that he's promised, and you can't hurry it up. You can't speed it up. God has fixed a time. God has set a time for accomplishing his will. Now you just accept that, and rest in it, and rejoice in it, and don't try to fight it. Don't try to hurry God. We live in this little thing of time when the sands drip through the glass so fast we feel we can't keep up with them, and God must. He just must do it before the next train leaves. But he won't, you see. He won't do it that soon. He isn't going to fit into your time schedule. You must be prepared to relax and wait patiently for the Lord. He just doesn't do things the way we would instruct him to. Now these are some general principles we see, but I would like to have you see how the birth of Isaac foreshadows the birth of Christ. Several general observations that are so clear that you perhaps see them without my mentioning them. First, Isaac was promised to Abraham, and so was Christ. Our Lord Jesus was promised first in the Garden, saying, In thy seed, in the seed of the woman, shall the serpent's head be bruised, though the seed shall have his heel bruised by the serpent. This was the first promise of Christ. In Abel's Lamb, in Noah's Ark, and now here and down through the centuries there is more written and said about the birth of Isaac than any other person whose birth is recorded in the Scripture. But there is more said about the birth of Christ than all others whose births are mentioned in the Scripture. Isaac was promised, but much more so was the Scripture replete with testimony to the coming of Christ. But you'll also notice that there was a long interval between the promise of the birth of Isaac and his being born. And we see this as a picture of the fact that there was a far greater interval between the promise of the Lord Jesus Christ and his coming. How many there were that in despair tried to set up this man and that, and say, Oh, this is Christ, and here is the anointed. But there came the hour when he was born of Mary, and thus was fulfilled the promise that had been made way back there in the garden. Then we see that Isaac's mother questioned whether or not God was actually able to bring this to pass that he had promised. Her word was, Shall I of a surety bear a child which am old? But what did Mary say, the mother of our Lord? How shall these things be, seeing I know not a man? Do you remember what the angel of the Lord announced or said to Sarah? Is anything too hard for the Lord? But what was it that he said to Mary? With God nothing is impossible. So in both cases, the mother questioned and doubted and wondered how it could be. Then we see that Isaac's name was specified before he was born, and so was our Lord Jesus. Thou shalt call his name Isaac, thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin. Isaac's birth occurred at a set time, not the time that Abraham desired or Sarah wished, but the time that God had fixed. So the birth of Christ came at the set time, for in the fullness of time God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law. We further see that Isaac's birth required a miracle to be fulfilled, and so did the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Sarah's body as good as dead, and Abraham's likewise. And yet, because he had promised, God reversed the course of nature and caused the body of Sarah to bear, and we find that Isaac was given because of the divine intervention, the supernatural operation of God. And by the same token, we see Mary submitting herself to the will of God, and that the Holy Spirit overshadowed her. That which was born of her was none other than God come in the flesh, Emmanuel. But I would suggest to you that Isaac's birth foreshadows or pictures, perhaps even better, explains regeneration. May I remind you that Isaac was born after the powers of nature had ceased to operate. All the powers and activities of Sarah and of Abraham were gone. Thus the scripture would make it clear that the only one that is a candidate for regeneration is the one that has discovered that he is dead in trespasses and sins. Christ Jesus came into the world to seek and to save that which was lost. He doesn't have difficulty saving lost people. Every lost man, truly lost man, that ever came to him went away saved. Every Republican that came down before him with a consciousness of his guilt went home justified. God's problem is not to get people, lost people, saved, but it is to get nice people, if you please, wicked nice people, to realize they are so lost that they need a savior. Everyone you meet on the streets or in the train or airplane or home or office, everyone you meet anywhere has a plan of salvation that he thinks is sufficient. You will find this to be true. You talk with the vilest reprobate you've ever met, and somewhere deep down in his mind he has concocted a scheme to circumvent the justice of God and to get home somehow safely. He has, of course, doesn't have the truth. He has a lie. He's believed a lie and rests on a lie, but he has it there somehow. Of course, the main argument is God didn't mean what he said. He questions the word, and then he says, well, if there is a God, of course there is, but if there is, then all I need to do is the best I can and he'll see. But to everyone to whom you speak, there is this accusing of others and excusing of themselves. There is the erecting of a plan of salvation. Now the reason why people are not coming to Christ in the numbers we desire is because we have not demolished the false hopes upon which they rest. And part of our task as witnesses for Jesus Christ is to cause the lost about us to realize that it's not enough that they pay their debts. It's good, mind you. It's splendid. I think that they're going to be happier for doing it, but it isn't enough. It isn't enough that they don't beat their wives, or that they don't get drunk only once or twice a week, or that the sins they commit are sins that haven't any penal penalty from the society attached to them. They only commit personal sins. But I've talked with people, and you have, and have found the myriad of plural, simple, often idiotic, to our terms at least, things upon behind which they hide and upon which they rest, and they're quite confident that they're going to make it. They're determined and earnest and energetic, and they're not nearly as bad as some folks they know, and the things they do all have a real reason for being done, and any God that had any sense at all would be certain to accept their explanation of why they did it. And this is what you find, and this is what you find in Abraham. He's not prepared to recognize that he can't do it, that it's impossible for him to do it. Take this offspring of Eleazar. Take this son of Hagar. Lord, you've got to figure out a way. We've got to help you get this thing across. We don't want you to be embarrassed. He's working, trying, striving, and then finally comes the place where he knows he's hopeless and that God has said it must be of Sarah, and it must be by Abraham, and he's closed in with God. He's at the end of himself. He's at wit's end corner. He's helpless. He's bankrupt. Then God can work. And so it is with the sinner. The only one that God can save is the one that has come to the end of himself, that has discovered the mountain of his guilt, the immeasurable, unplumbable depths of iniquity in his spirit, that sees himself at the end of himself hopeless and helpless. That one is a candidate for grace and for mercy. Oh, that again we can hear the cry of the lost rising to our hearts and ears. What must I do to be saved? It's been so long since I've seen a smitten, broken, lost man. Would God I could see one tonight. Perhaps you're here, and God is bringing you to the end of yourself. Before no salvation until one is stripped of the utterly helpless, the only kind of people God saves are the bankrupt. And so we find that it was this place that God could begin to work for Abraham, and it's this place that God begins to work for sinners. Nothing in my hand I bring simply to thy cross, I claim. Before Isaac could be born, there had to be a miracle. And my friends, salvation is of the Lord. Let us not forget that salvation is the supernatural operation of God. There is a miracle performed every time a sinner is saved. We must remember that. We must remember that it is the supernatural operation of the Holy Ghost that awakens sinners. You can't awaken them, nor can I. You have them with you in your shop and office and home, and you talk with them and give them scripture verses, but what you say, the warnings you give, the entreaties you offer, do not awaken them. If words were do it in argument prevail, they would have come to Christ long ago. It's a miracle, my friend, and you standing beside your lost loved ones are due wisely in the well if you lift your heart in the recognition of the fact that the only way your sinning loved ones will ever come to Christ is because God in grace and in mercy and in supernatural power awakens them to their dreadful plight. Let's recognize that just as the sinner is cast on God, so we, that witness, are cast upon the Lord. It is the supernatural operation of the Holy Ghost to convict the sinner, to show him the rebel that he is and cause him that has justified his uncleanness and iniquity to take sides with God against himself. Whenever you find a convicted sinner, you see the handiwork of Almighty God. It's the work of the Holy Ghost to convict. You can give the scripture, you can witness, but you cannot convince a man of his guilt. You can tell him he is guilty, but you heard it said so often a man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still. You've changed nothing, but when the Holy Ghost takes the shaft of truth and pierces that which covers the heart and unveils the iniquity of the human spirit and the individual becomes convinced of his sin, this, I say, is the work of God. We must stand in the presence of our loved ones and friends and neighbors, utterly dependent upon God to save them. You say, well, doesn't the plan of salvation save? No. Well, doesn't the gospel save? No. Well, don't scripture verses save? No. Well, surely the doctrine saves? No. No. Plan, scripture, doctrine never saved and can't save. Jesus Christ saves. He saves. Salvation is not in a plan, it's in a person. This life is in his Son, he that hath the Son at life. And it's just as much a miracle when a man is born of God as it was when Isaac was born of Sarah, nor when Christ was born of Mary. It's a divine operation. It is a supernatural work. We must recognize that. Then you want to see something else, dear friend. The coming of Isaac into Abraham's household aroused opposition and produced a conflict. You recognize that, don't you? And have you, dear child of God, perhaps new young child in Christ, babe in Christ, I've had it said to me so often, you know, I never knew what temptation was until I was born again. Well, of course, you see, when Isaac came into the household, Ishmael became angry. You didn't discover the true nature of Ishmael until Isaac came. I am certain that a sinner never knows his heart really until God has first convicted him, and there are depths of it that he doesn't discover until after he's been born again. And it is when he is born of God and has partaken of the divine nature that he sees himself in the light of the one who has regenerated him, and then he discovers the depths of his iniquity. Ishmael was, I'm sure, a very, very pleasant young man, easy to get along with as long as Isaac wasn't on the scene. Why, he was the heir of all things. He possessed everything. But as soon as baby Isaac was born, Ishmael has a glint in his eye. He's being defrauded and cheated out of his heritage. He's the firstborn. They ought to come to him. And so it is that when you're born again and you have passed from death to life, it isn't long until you discover that you are very much on the scene. You see, you are Ishmael and Christ is Isaac in your heart. And you discover some of your capacity for perfidy and meanness when you're born again. You see yourself. You see what you are. You become acquainted with yourself. Oh, how many there are that came to Christ and said, Lord, I want to be saved from hell. I want to be saved from the penalty of my sin. And they are forgiven and pardoned and receive assurance that they're passed from death to life. But about a year later, 16 months later, they come around and say, oh, that I could somehow be saved from myself. What's happened? Well, they're acquainted with Ishmael. They don't know what to do with him. They don't know what it is, but I know what to do with him. God's word tells us, you know, Abraham had to take Ishmael and Hagar out to the appointed place and leave them there. And my friend, God has ordained that you take the Ishmael that you are to the appointed place and leave it there. Do you know what that place is? It's the cross crucified with Christ. You're never going to know the joy and peace that God has purposed for you until you're prepared to declare war on the Ishmael that you are and take sides with God against yourself. You take yourself out there as did Paul to the backside of the cross, Lord, that I that I am by nature proud, sensuous, lustful, unclean, demanding, arrogant, haughty, religious, dedicated, earnest, sincere, sensitive, self-pitying, self-gratifying, Lord, that I, good and bad I that I am, I count to be Ishmael, and there's no place in the household of Abraham for him. And I'm taking him where you've appointed the place, and that's the cross crucified with Christ. And then Isaac can reign, and Isaac can rule, and the blessing can come because Ishmael is where he belongs, and that Ishmael is you. You didn't know how bad he was until then. But now I want you to see the offering up of Isaac quickly in closing. Would you turn to the 22nd chapter of Genesis? This is the most beautiful picture of the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ that you find anywhere in the scripture. And here is the first occasion in the Bible when you discover that the sacrifice is to be of a man and not just of a beast. This was given to Eve when it was said, The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head. But immediately the animals were slain and coats of skin were made, and it was thus assumed that for a time at least it would be animals. Oh, we know that Eve said of Cain, I have gotten thee, man, the promised seed. And Lamech said of Noah, This is the comfort and rest that will deliver us from the curse. But here we discover in this 22nd chapter that salvation was to come through the sacrifice of a man, the first place in the scripture. The second verse, if you would see it, And God said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest. This reveals the heart of the father, the heavenly father's heart toward his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It gives us the divine side of Calvary. It lets us look at this from the standpoint of the father. From eternity past the Lord Jesus has been the only begotten of the father, loved by the father. And now he is saying to Abraham, who has his son Isaac, thine only son, though he had begotten Ishmael, but in the eyes of God only son. And he's speaking thus of the greater Isaac. Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest. And somehow you enter into the heart of the triune God, and you find that the father is loved with everlasting love, the son. Take him now, take him now. And everything you find hereafter is being acted out by Abraham as a picture of that which God the father is going to do toward his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And see then what he says in the third verse. 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. The father set his son aside for sacrifice. From eternity past I say there has been a time set, there has been a fixed hour when the Lord Jesus Christ would die. He was the lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. Herod and Pilate did only as his determinate counsel and foreknowledge had purposed, did as God had foreordained and to his son. Everything that happened to Jesus Christ happened according to plan, according to the will of the father and the purpose of the father. Just as Abraham knew what was going to happen to Isaac and proceeded to do it. The father had set his son Isaac apart for sacrifice, a foreordained matter into which he now was moving. In Genesis, the twenty-second chapter, in the fifth verse, you find Abraham saying to the two young men, abide you here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you. It has been said by some of the commentators that these two young men speak of the thieves that were crucified, one on the one side and one on the other, that beheld the Lord Jesus carry the cross up to Calvary's mountain. But there in those hours of darkness, when our Lord just disappeared from the sight of the two young men and went into an agony that they never could understand and which they couldn't share, so did Isaac leave the two young men that had come with him, who were one with him, and he went on into the hour of sacrifice alone. This was between the father and the son. This sacrifice of Isaac was between Abraham and Isaac. And so when our Lord Jesus Christ went to Calvary, the Roman soldiers were there, the leaders of Israel were there, the mob, the hooting, howling crowd were there. But it was a solitary meeting between the father and the son, no one else, just the son, the father and the son. He is there alone with the Lord Jesus. Remember, will you not, that when our Lord Jesus went to Calvary, it wasn't to fulfill the anger of the Jews or the decree of the Romans, but it was to fulfill the eternal purpose of the father. We must understand this to understand Calvary. In the sixth verse we find that Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son, and he took a fire in his hand and a knife, and they went, both of them, together. This one is a young man, probably 19 or 20, a man in vigor and health and youth. Abraham is 100 years old. Do you think that Abraham prevailed upon his son and coerced him and made him carry the wood? Never, never, never not so. He said, son, here, put this on your back and carry it. And the son quietly, peacefully submitted to the will of the father. And so our Lord Jesus came and said, I only do those things that please the father. I delight to do thy will. It is written in the volume of the book, I come to do thy will. And when the hour was come, he took the cross upon his back and he carried it. But here is the marvelous part. There is every reason to believe that the very same hilltop where Abraham took Isaac was where the Lord Jesus Christ bore his cross and where he died, for it was at Moriah. There is every reason to suppose that it was on that same hilltop. Fire and knife were carried by the father, speaking of God's wrath against sin and his anger with sinners. His holiness and his justice moved in activity to vindicate themselves against sin. And fire, we see the flaming sword at the mouth of Eden. You find a fire as it is illustrated by the prophets. And finally, the lake of fire and brimstone in Revelation, speaking of God's ceaseless wrath against sin and his judgment which burns against sinners. In Isaiah, the fifty-third chapter, we find this picture that he was bruised for our iniquities as the father poured out his fire of wrath and anger against sin. It is the most amazing thing in Psalm 711 that you find God saying he is angry with the wicked every day. He hath put his sword, he hath bent his bow against the sinner. And God's justice would do this and must do this. And my dear sinner friend tonight, against your breast is the bow of God's wrath against sin. Over your head is his fiery sword of anger against sin. It must fall. It must fall. It will fall. It will either fall upon you or you will see it fall upon the Lord Jesus Christ. In Africa it was told that a British explorer came upon a cannibal chief. There had been a crime, a minor petty crime, committed in the chief's village. And the chief judged the man and said he must die. And he said, I want blood. I demand blood. I've got to see blood. And the Englishman pled with him not to do it. And he said, no, do it. And the executioner drew the poisoned arrow and let it leave the bowstring. Without a word, the Englishman stepped in the way and took the arrow in his own breast. He drew it over and took it out. And he said, here, you demanded blood. Here is the blood. I want you to know how much a man is worth. Listen, it was infinitely more than that. But our Lord Jesus Christ stepped in front of the bow of God's wrath and anger against sin. It was aimed at your heart. It was a bow that would sting for eternity. It was a sword that would cut forever. And into his heart came that bow of his wrath against you. Fire and knife were carried by Abraham to the top of the mountain. And I can see Isaac as he said, father, where's the sacrifice? And Abram looks into the face of his son that he's loved and he says, God will provide. Hold your hands. And the boy puts his hands behind his back and his feet all sore tight. And then he has to move with the father helping him up against the altar of stones. And there he must aid the elderly man in getting his body up upon the wood. And he lies there and looks into his father's face who loves him as he's never loved him before. And sees the father, perhaps with tear-filled face, but certainly with grief-filled eyes, lift the hand that holds the knife. And he looks down and sees the burning, smoking pot of fire. And he knows that the knife shall fall into his breast and the fire shall consume his body. And just that moment, the hand is stayed. For up until now, God has preached the gospel to Abraham. He has said to Abraham, by the death of an innocent one shall your sin be washed away. God stays the falling hand of Abraham. And caught in the thicket is the ram. God said it's enough. It's enough. The name of that place is Jehovah-Jireh. The Lord will provide. But Abraham knew that it wasn't a ram that he'd provide. For Abraham well knew the promise of the father that the seed of the woman and here was the seed of the woman given of God. And I can see Abraham as he stands there. And Isaac beside him. And the ram now has been slain and its flesh is burning on the altar. And I can see the two of them that look down across the years as they see it in the smoke that ascends from the sacrifice and visualize the time when there will be one who will be the fulfillment of all the lambs that have ever been slain. The Lord Jesus Christ. And there is this wonderful picture of the greater Isaac, the Lord Jesus, who was taken by his father, who laid upon him not only the cross for the penalty of our sin, but the corruption of your sin. And who loved you and drew you to him and crushed you to his bosom and took all that you were and became all that you were in order that he could redeem you from all that you are. And then out to Calvary to be suspended between heaven and earth and to take the sword of God's justice and the fire of his wrath until at length he could cry out, it is finished. Not another arrow in the quiver of God's wrath against him. Not another blow could the sword of his justice strike. Not another thing could he do. Not another drop in the goblet of God's anger with the wicked. It is finished. And the greater son of Isaac died the death that Isaac was spared. And the Lord Jesus Christ died the just for the unjust that he might bring you and me unto God. Abraham had a resurrection faith. In Hebrews, the eleventh chapter, you understand why Abraham could lift his hand above Isaac. He never expected to leave the charred flesh and bones of Isaac upon Mount Moriah. Never. Listen to it. By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac. And he that had received the promise offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called, accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead. From whence also he received him by a figure. And what does it say? That Abraham believed that when he had slain Isaac and his flesh had been burned, that God would miraculously raise him from the dead, even the way God had miraculously given him to him. If God could give him in the first place, God could raise him from the dead. And what does it say? Oh, how sweet! Abraham and the two young men returned to their home. But because it is the type, there is nothing said about Isaac leaving the top of the mount. For he speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ that on resurrection ground ascended into the presence of God and sits there at the right hand of the Father. What a marvelous picture! No word of his returning home with Abraham. Hear me now. Have you come to the cross? Have you come like Isaac and seen yourself under the sentence of death, deserving the sword, the dagger, the fire? Have you viewed yourself with all your guilt and uncleanness? And then have you seen the Lord provide another to die in your place, in your stead, to die your death? Samuel Johnson, the man so famous for his English contribution to the English language in his literary work, was on his deathbed. He called his physician to him. He was a thoughtful man. He was a wise man. Samuel Johnson looked up into the eyes of his physician and said, Believe a dying man. There is no salvation but in the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. There is no salvation but in the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. Near Tunbridge in England is a monument that was erected by the good people of that village to thirty gypsies. The gypsies had been working in the hop fields, gathering hops, and at the close of a hard day were in a wagon drawn by two horses, some thirty of them, and they were singing and chanting and enjoying the relaxation from a day's toil, when something caused the horse to veer on the narrow bridge. It struck the railing, and the horse fell and pulled the wagon with its occupants into the raging stream below. One young man succeeded in catching a horse that had broken loose. He mounted it and searched in the debris for his mother, who had been on the wagon. Seeing her floating by, he reached and grabbed her by the hair and pulled her out. But somehow in her struggle he lost hold, and he could not hold her longer. She died and perished in the flood. Two days later, when the bodies had been gathered from the stream in the local churchyard, a large trench had been dug, and thirty caskets were there. He went up to where his mother lay. He looked at her and looked at the box, and he said, O Mother, Mother, I did all that I could. I did all that any man could do, but you wouldn't let me save you. The Lord Jesus Christ looked over Jerusalem, and he said, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered you, but you would not. You would not come unto me that you might have life. God's Son, the greater Isaac, went to Mount Moriah and died that just for the undust, just died for you. Your sin is paid for. It's settled. It's under the blood. It's all cared for. If you will come and throw down the arms of your rebellion, broken and helpless, there's life. Believe me, said Johnson, there is no salvation except through the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. Are you saved? Have you been born again? Have you passed from death to life? Or have you trodden under your feet the blood of the everlasting covenant? Let us pray.