In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the story of Abraham and the ultimate test of faith that he faced. The sermon begins by discussing the previous events in Abraham's life, including the birth of Isaac and the persecution of Ishmael. The preacher highlights how Abraham obeyed God's call to sacrifice Isaac, showing his willingness to let go of what was dear to him. The sermon emphasizes that Abraham's life was a series of tests of separation, and encourages the audience to live out their faith in a similar way.

Genesis chapter 22. This is the pinnacle of Abraham's life. It says in verse 1, it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, here I am. 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. Wow. This is the pinnacle of his life. First of all, it says that after these things, you know, let me just comment on this first verse. After what things? Well, the previous chapters talked about the birth of Isaac. We talked about that a couple of Sundays ago. And the persecution of Isaac by Ishmael, Abraham's other son. And the story about how Abraham cast Ishmael out of the house against his will. He really didn't want to do that, but he saw that God was calling him to do that. And how Ishmael almost died. And then when he was almost dead, the Lord saved his life and gave him a promise and gave him a future. And I think I've talked before about how these things, the book of Genesis is the foundational book of the human race. And these things go right up to the time we're living right now. They have every bearing. The story of Ishmael and Isaac, that's being played out every day in the news. Okay. The Arab world and Israel and bringing the whole world into it because it's God. God's in it. But God even has a future for Ishmael. Okay. God has a promise and a blessing even for the Arabs. Anyway, it was after all that, that this episode comes up in Abram's life. It says God tested Abram. Verse one is after all the hell, all that other stuff that was a test in itself. But after that, God tested Abram. Now Abram is typical of every believer. Okay. Just think about it. We're so familiar with it. We don't get the power and the intensity of it. The eternal and infinite God calls himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Okay. He puts men, fallible men's names into his name, joins the names and says, you will know me as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jesus even called him the God of Abraham. Okay. What is it about Abram that we're to learn? Well, a lot of things and we've spent a lot of time talking about it. But one thing is that Abram's walk of faith, this is how every believer is. This is, he's a typical type of all true faith. Okay. True faith is faith like Abram's faith. And it says that God tested Abram. And basically, you know, this test is like the ultimate test. The whole story of Abram's life is God testing him. But basically one thing that struck me in meditating on this passage is that in Abram's life from the beginning, there were four major tests of separation. And if Abram is the father of all faithful, then that means in some way or other, we live this out. Okay. Four major tests of separation that when God called Abram, he said, leave your father's home and your kindred and come to a land that I will show you. So he has to let go of something near and dear to him. What is that? His whole home. Ur of the Calvites. We call it Iraq. Now they used to call it Ur or Babylon. He has to leave that. And then the second one, he has to leave Lot, his nephew. Lot has to go one way and Abram has to go another. That's a separation. And then the third one is he has to put Ishmael out of his house. That was that each one hurts more. It'd be bad enough to leave your home and your land and everything, you know, and then to leave your nephew, even if you do disagree about a lot of things. But then the third one, he has to leave Ishmael, his son, puts him out of the house. That'd be like cutting off your arm. But there's nothing like this test. Take your son, your only son, whom you love. You're going to notice God calls him his only son because Isaac is the only son of the promise. Isaac is the only son of the seed of the woman. Isaac is the only son by whom the Lord Jesus Christ will come. He says, you take that son and you offer him as a burnt offering to me. Wow. How many know each test comes, calls for something a little bit more near and dear to you. He wants you to leave your home. He wants you to leave your land. He wants you to split off with your nephew. He wants you to give up your son. He wants you to offer your son on an altar and burn him to God. It looks bad, but underneath every one of these tests is a spiritual, spiritual leave or of the call these. What's that? The first thing a Christian has to do leave the world, love, not the world, nor the things that are in the world. Turn your back on the world. What about lot? What's the meaning of lot? Oh, separate from half-hearted and the worldly. That's a little closer, you know, do you have to walk? You have to go the way of faith and let the half-hearted and lukewarm go their own way. It has to be a separation of fellowship. Yeah, but what about Ishmael? That's close. That's my son. Oh, it's the fruit of his flesh. He did that. He created that. It was his reasoning with his wife, and they're going to help God, and they're going to do something for God, and they're going to make the promise of God happen. And God says, you even have to give that up. It's bad enough giving up your bad. You even have to give up your good, because that's all it is, is the fruit of his flesh. It is piety that is based on self-effort. You've got to offer that up to God. And the last one, you give back to God even the very blessings that he promised and he gave you. What does it say they do in heaven? They get the crowns, but they throw them right at the feet of Jesus. They take the blessings, but they just give no, no, this is really Jesus's. Everything belongs to Jesus. It's all everything that's naturally near and dear to him, but it's a substitute. That's what faith is. It grows, and when faith grows, the tests grow too. But there's a method behind it. Underneath it all, there's a spiritual message, and that is ever loosing yourself from that which is temporary, ever loosing yourself from that which is worldly, and ever attaching yourself all the more to that which is spiritual, true, and eternal. So the Lord would test him. God tested Abram and said to him, Abram, and he said, here I am. 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. The only son that you love. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. By the way, Genesis is a great book because this book has the most, obviously, the most first mentions in the Bible. First mention of the word testing right here. This is the first mention of being tested. So when first mentioned in the word of God, that tells you the nature of that word from there on. First mention of the word love. Give me your son, your only son whom you love. Give it to me. Remember what Jesus said? Unless you love me more than your father, mother, sister, brother, anything, you've got to love me more. Well, what are tests all about? Part of what the test is all about is that, you know, to show us what's in us. God tests our faith. Well, God knows what's in us already, but we're the ones that need to know. You know, Peter says, Lord, I love you. I love you right down to the man on the night Jesus was betrayed. Remember that? He was sure he loved him, but he was put to the test. He was put to the test and what was actually in him came out. It had to come out. It surprised him. It destroyed him. It devastated him, but it didn't surprise Jesus. Jesus still loved him. Notice it says, take your son, the only son whom you love, to the land of Moriah. See, Moriah is not just one mountain. It's a tiny mountain range and that's where Jerusalem is on the mountain Moriah, which is several tiny mountains. They're not huge, but included on Mount Moriah is the Mount of Olives, the Temple Mountain, Mount Calvary. Okay. All on this little mountain here. So God, and Abram is in Hebron at this time, so God sends him 45 miles to Mount Moriah. In other words, you can't just offer your son anywhere. He's got to be on Mount Moriah, on the land of Moriah. And look at verse three, because you can see Abram's unquestioning faith. So Abram arose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac, his son. And he split the wood for the burnt offering and rose and went to the place of which God had told him. Verse three. See, it's so matter of fact, it's so direct. You know, you would think that there'd be like, um, a lot of soul searching and tossing and turning in the bed. And is that you, but notice the obedience of Abram. I remember there was a really good movie called the Bible many years ago. And then George C. Scott played Abram. And it just showed, it just drugged us out of where he didn't want to do this. He couldn't see how you could do this. And he went back and forth yelling, screaming, crying at God. But look at verse three of Genesis 22. Abram got up early the next morning and just went and packed up and got the wood together and got two young men to go with him and went to the Mount. No, it wasn't easy. He had to do the calculation of faith. Hold your finger in Genesis and look at me in Hebrews 11. It's never easy. I'm not saying it's easy, but what I will say is what the Bible says is that without faith, it's impossible to please God. The only thing that can please God is faith for those that come to God must believe that he is, and that he's the rewarder of those who seek him. So the only thing that you can do to please God is believe. Or let me put it the other way around. The only thing sin is, is unbelief. All sin is unbelief. Why do people sin? Because they don't believe. Because if they really believe that God's way was best, they'd never take their own way. If they really believe that only God would make them happy, they wouldn't take drugs or sexually sin or whatever. Every sin is unbelief. It's you don't believe that God's way is really the best way. So you've got to steal for yourself a few minutes back in the Garden of Eden and take it for yourself. See, all sin is based on unbelief. The only way to please God is faith. Now here's the faith equation. God said to me to sacrifice my only begotten son, burn him on an altar. But God also said to me that through Isaac, and that's what it specifically says a few chapters earlier, in Isaac shall your seed be called. Not through Ishmael, through Isaac. The salvation of the whole world is going to come through Isaac. Someone's going to come through Isaac that's going to bless every family in the face of the earth. Isaac hadn't had any children yet. So that's your faith problem, your dilemma. But it tells you in Hebrews what Abram actually thought about that. Now how could that be? How could I offer Isaac as a sacrifice to God and burn him on an altar, and yet through him every family in the earth will be blessed? Verse 17, by faith Abram, when he was tested, offered up Isaac and he who received the promises offered up his only begotten son. Notice that, only begotten son. I want to bring this out because it's not a contradiction. Abram had Ishmael, and when Abram married after his other, after Sarai died, he had other children. Why does it say his only begotten son? What is the meaning of only begotten son? For one thing, only begotten son, when it says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, it doesn't mean that that's his only son. It's the word monogenes, only unique son. There's never, we are all sons of God through faith in Christ, but Jesus Christ is the son of God in the way no one ever has been and ever will be. He's the only unique and eternal son. Abram had Ishmael and Abram had other sons, but listen, Isaac is the only unique son, totally born of the promise of God. Abram was dead, Sarah was dead, and yet God took the death and made it into life and gave them a son by resurrection, basically. Isaac is the only unique son. By faith Abram, when he was tested, offered up Isaac and he who had received the promises offered up his only unique son to whom it was said, in Isaac shall your seed be called. He concluding that God was able to raise him up even from the dead. Notice it tells you what Abram thought. How can I reconcile this? Oh, if God called me to offer my son as a burnt offering and God told me that through my son, every family in the face of the earth is going to be blessed, my son's going to have a child that's going to bless everyone on earth, that God must intend to raise my son up from the dead. Therefore, he got up early the next morning and went. It says in verse 19, concluding that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense or in a type. Go back to Genesis. It's a type. He rises early in the morning and saddles his donkey and took two of his young men with him and Isaac, his son, and he split the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day, Abram lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. Then from the time Abram figured that and set out on his journey, from that time Isaac was dead. He's as good as dead because Abram already offered him. His sacrifice is a spiritual thing. Sacrifice before it's anything has got to be spiritual. God says, I'm tired of your sacrifices, Israel. I'm tired of your feasts, your offerings, your money, your beasts, your cattle. I'm tired of it all. Why? Because they go through the motions of these sacrifices. But there's no real self-giving to God. God sees the heart and that's one of the things that this chapter of the Bible teaches right off the bat. It's the heart. Abram offered his son to God because God required it of him. Abram gave it to him and from the time Abram said yes to God, Isaac was a dead man. And they go up to Mount Moriah. It took three days. Notice for three days. How long was Isaac dead? Three days. There's two men with him. Servants. How many people were with Jesus when he died? Two. They get to the foot of the mountain and Abram says to his young men, stay here with the donkey and the lad and I will go yonder and worship and we'll come back to you. The two men have to stay at the foot of the mountain. This is a type of the cross of Christ. The two men were with Christ, but they could only go so far with Christ. Ultimately, what happened to Christ on that mountain was a transaction between the Father and the Son. And even though the two men were there, they weren't there. You know what I'm saying? This is singularly between the Father and the Son. A transaction, a giving of life at the requirement of God and at the service of worship. But notice what he says to the two young men. I'll go yonder and worship and we will come back to you. Both of us will. Jesus said to one of the young, the thieves on the cross, truly I say to you, you will be with me in paradise. This is fantastic. This is more than a thousand years before Christ, but God through Moses and through the Holy Spirit was teaching us exactly what was going to happen and where it was going to happen on Mount Moriah. The seed of the woman should crush the serpent's head, but he should bruise his heel. So Abram took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son. So you got this picture of Isaac climbing Mount Moriah with a big thing of wood on his back. What's that make you think of? And he took the fire in his hand and a knife and the two of them went together. Abram has a torch and a knife. But if you remember when the first couple sinned and we got ejected out of the garden, an angel stood in the way to keep them from ever getting back to the garden. And what he used to deter them was a flaming sword, fire and a knife. The fire in the typology is the utter holiness of God in its hatred of sin and evil. It's the wrath of God. So Isaac takes the wood on his back and he climbs the hill and Abram has the flaming sword in a sense, the fire and the knife. And verse 7, but Isaac spoke to Abram, his father, and said, my father. And he said, here I am, my son. Then he said, look, the fire and the wood, but where's the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abram said, my son, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering. So the two of them went together. Isaac was somewhere, anywhere between 15 and 30. That's what Bible commentators say. Hey, where's the sacrifice? He's hauling the cross up the hill. But Abram's answer is a prophecy on several, it's a deep, deep saying. Verse 8 is very deep. God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering. So the two of them went together. It's a prophecy that God will provide the offering that we need. Or even more personally, God will provide himself for an offering. Remember what Jesus said, John the Baptist says, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. When he says the lamb of God, see, they've been offering lambs for thousands of years. Rivers of blood blew out the temple, poured out in streams. They had a sewage system to wash away the blood. Thousands of bulls, goats, and sacrifices. But then Jesus came and John, by the Spirit of God, said, behold the lamb of God. Not so much the lamb that we offered to God. We've been offering things to God and they're inadequate. This is the lamb God offers to himself. God will provide for himself. Or another way to say it is that what God requires of us, God will supply. See, God demands perfection. God demands perfect righteousness. God demands that the soul that sins, it shall die. What God demands of me, I'm too bankrupt to come up with. I can't even pay the interest on the demands of God. It's too heavy for me. I couldn't bear it. But the gospel is. Abraham's preaching the gospel. Well, God will provide what God demands. God will provide for himself. See, another thing that's part of the depth of verse 8 is that Jesus died for God first. Jesus died for God first. You've got to get that in your head. We always think in a man-centered way. Jesus died for us. And you should. I mean, Jesus did die for us. But first of all, Jesus died for God. What do I mean by that? It was God's law that was broken. It was God's righteousness that was indignant and outraged. It was God's holy standards that were destroyed. Jesus died to satisfy the righteousness of God, the broken law of God, the demands of God for perfection and beauty and glory in the universe. Christ died as an offering to God. Then for us, he died. He died for us. But he died for God. God will provide for himself. God will supply what God demands. You know, like Romans teaches, you know, you are liable to judgment. You need righteousness and you don't have it. What are you going to do? Oh, here's the good news. The righteousness you need, God provides. God offers to us what God demands of us because he knows how bankrupt we are. Hold your finger in Genesis 22 and look at Romans chapter 3. God can't demand anything less than perfect righteousness. As I saw on a t-shirt one time, I don't usually like t-shirt theology, but this is pretty good. The righteousness that he requires is the righteousness which his righteousness requires him to require. I got you turned around yet? The righteousness which he requires is the righteousness which his righteousness requires him to require. Romans chapter 3, verse 23, all the sin that comes short of the glory of God being justified freely by the grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, who God has set forth as a propitiation. God set the crucified Jesus out there as a propitiation. So what's a propitiation? A propitiation is a satisfaction offering. In other words, righteousness is indignant against you. The law testifies against you. What shall satisfy the broken law? And you and I look at our pockets and we got nothing. We turn our pockets inside out. We can't satisfy the claims, the demands, the debt that looms over us. But God says in Romans 3, God set forth Jesus to be the satisfaction of the broken law and the offended righteousness of God. God has set him forth to be a propitiation by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness because in his forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus. How many have faith in Jesus tonight? Go back to the book of Genesis. Father, where is the lamb? Where is the sacrifice? God will provide himself, is what Abram literally said. God will provide himself, the lamb, for a burnt offering. A burnt offering is an offering that's specific. It's like your whole life, your whole being offered to God. Anybody here offered their whole life and their whole being to God? I'm afraid I haven't. Keep back too much for myself. But the gospel is there is someone who gave every shred of his being as a human being to God. He lived totally for God. He pleased God in every respect. It was so strong that when he was baptized, God himself testified on his behalf. This is my beloved son and him I'm well pleased. He totally offered himself to God. And then at the prime of his life, he gave that holy life to God on our behalf and for our salvation. So they came to the place, verse 9, which God had told them. And Abram built an altar there and placed the wood in order. And he bound Isaac, his son. You're supposed to see here, Isaac is between 15 and 25. Here, son, hold out your hands. Sure, dad. He binds him. Here, let me get your feet. Sure. Hey, dad, help me up to the altar, would you? I can't move. Sure. He scoots him up. Isaac lays down on the altar with his hands and feet bound. He gives himself willingly, freely. He understands what's going on and doesn't raise one peep of protest. It's the father and the son together in an offering. He sits there looking up at his father. He's the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac. The faith of Isaac. Willing obedience even to death. Worship to death. Isaac's sharing their bond. He doesn't cry, he doesn't complain, he doesn't fight. A 25-year-old man could fight his father. You got Alzheimer's, man, I'm getting out of here. The father says, Isaac, let me see your wrist. Here you go. Unbelievable. Here, let's get up on the altar. He puts him up on the stone and wood altar with the kindling under it for the fire. He picks up the knife, holds it right over the son. He's just about ready to plunge it and the angel of the Lord catches him. That's what happens. He doesn't resist. And then the typology changes because he says, look there, there's a ram in the thicket. God says, now I know, Abraham, I know you love me. You wouldn't hold back anything from me. Now I know you love me. Look over there. There's a ram. See, the typology changes. Now Isaac becomes a type of every sinner. Why? How's that? He's already in the place of death. He's bound, so he's helpless. Sinners are helpless. They can't save themselves. The knife is over his head. Well, whether they realize it or not, there's been a divine sentence passed. The wages of sin is what? Death. Eternal death. But God intervenes just in time. God intervenes with the substitute. The ram now becomes the type of Christ. Jesus. It's the substitute. It says, the angel of the Lord, verse 11, called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. So he said, here I am. See, the words here I am all through this chapter. Here I am. Here I am. Here I am is more than I'm here. Here I am is I'm at your service. Here I am to do your will. Abraham, here I am. He's got the knife up there. The angel goes like that. I saw the judgment coming my way. I read the Sermon on the Mount and I understood. I broke the law of God. I could see the ten witnesses being the ten commandments ranged against me. I could understand that hell would almost be too good for me. I became persuaded of that, having read the Sermon on the Mount and the words of Jesus. And I didn't know. I didn't want to live, but I didn't want to die because I didn't want to go to hell. And just in the nick of time, I found out that Jesus took my place as my substitute. That God really had provided something that God was demanding of me. The ram and the thicket. They burned the ram. But you know, Isaac is dead. And now he gets up off the altar and they cut off the ropes and he's alive. He'd been dead for three days and now he's alive. He may as well be dead, man. Abraham was going to kill him. It was over. He didn't even offer a peep in protest. Here, dad. Here you go. Oh, make sure you get the legs. Scoops him up, puts him on the altar. He looks up. I guess if you get a lamb and you go to slit their throat, they won't fight. You can put them on your lap and put their head back. They won't even fight. He looks up and Abraham's just about ready to kill him. And then he's delivered. And this is the first time in the Bible of several things. Verse 13. Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. That ram was behind us, too, wasn't it? It was 2,000 years ago that Jesus died. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place. The Lord will provide Yahweh-Yirah. Or some people pronounce it Jehovah-Jireh. Yahweh-Yirah. The Lord sees and will provide. As it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord it shall be provided. Or it could be translated, in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. Now this, too, is a very powerful prophecy. Remember, this is Genesis. This is 1,500 years before Christ. But the prophecy says, in the Mount Moriah, you'll see. You'll see. Or on Mount Moriah is where it will be provided. It goes all the way back to the original promise. Don't worry, Adam and Eve. The seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head, but he shall bruise his heel. And then this is a development, then. You'll see it on this mount, on Mount Moriah. Mount Moriah includes the temple, with its sacrificial system, the Mount of Olives, and even most importantly, Mount Calvary, all on Mount Moriah. You'll see, is what God says. You'll see it'll be seen on the mount of the Lord. It'll be provided. Then the angel of the Lord called to Abram a second time out of heaven and said, By myself have I sworn, says the Lord, because you've done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants, as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore, and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. So, this is the first time in the Bible that God swears. No God swears. God doesn't swear promiscuously. God doesn't swear blasphemously. God doesn't swear vainly or boastfully like people do. Swearing is a sin for us, and one of the reasons it's a sin is because we're not God. We can't back it up. We always have to swear by something greater. That means we're invoking something greater to our service. How presumptuous, but if swearing means you invoke something greater, then how could God swear? He can't swear by anything but himself. By myself, he says. In your seat all nations of the earth, verse 18, should be blessed because you obeyed my voice. Jesus came through Abram and blessed us. Amen. So, Abram returned to his young men, and they rose and went together to Beersheba, and when Isaac comes off that mountain, he's new. He's a brand new man. He's never going to be the same, all right? You'll never look at your father the same way. Never look at God the same way. No one will ever look at him the same way because he poured out his soul to death. He laid up on that altar, man. He gave up his life. Remember, sacrifice is spiritual, so God saw it that way. That's why we can talk about it that way. Isaac come back, he's resurrected from the dead, man. Now, it came to pass that these things that was told Abram, saying, indeed, Milcah also has born children to your brother Nahor, who's his firstborn, Buzz his brother, Camuel the father of Aram, Chesed, Hazal, Pildash, and Bethuel. And Bethuel begat Rebekah. These eight, Milcah bore to Nahor, Abram's brother. His concubine, whose name was Reuma, also bore Teba, Geham, Tahash, and Meaca. Now, what's the meaning of these last... He said, word came to Abram when he got back that his brother Nahor, that lived back in Europe, had all these kids. Remember what God said to Abram, you're going to have so many children, be like sand in the sea. His brother that didn't even leave Babylon had all these children. And they give the list of the children, you wonder why, what's it all about? But look at verse 23, Bethuel begat Rebekah. Bethuel is Isaac's cousin, and Isaac's cousin had a girl named Rebekah, who, as you'll see, will become Isaac's bride. So there's typology in that too. Jesus died on the cross, and now out of that comes the bride. Father, in the name of Jesus, I'm so glad to be counted in the company of the bride of Christ, the body of Christ, the church of the living God. I thank you for the one that's even greater than Isaac, who offered himself so willingly to God, who took the nails, who put himself on the cross. Nobody murdered him, he gave his life. He's the willing son, the only son, but you gave your son for us, O Lord. And you didn't take him back, Lord, like you gave Isaac back to Abram. You gave it all, O Lord. Thank you for this prophecy. It's so ancient, but so modern, Lord. It's so real, so life-giving and true. Minister to our souls, O Lord, the spirituality, the faith of Abram, the faith that pleases you, the faith that obeys and worships to death, the faith that even believes in resurrection all the time, Lord God. I just ask this, Lord. I ask that we would please you, and follow in the footsteps of our father, Abraham, O Lord God. You are the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And most importantly, you're the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and we love you and give ourselves to you afresh and anew in Jesus' name.