Lesson 14

If you take your Bibles and turn to Genesis 21, Genesis 21. So we left off last week with the story of God promising Abraham that he would be a father of many nations and that he would have a son that came through him and Sarah. And the fact that Abraham is going to be a father of many nations, that's a really, really big thing. Because it's the children of Abraham who are going to receive this blessing that God's promise that he'll bless them. And so I want to be a blessed person. I don't want to be a person that's cursed with the ground with Adam. I want to be one that's blessed in Abraham and the promise savior. And the fact that he made Abraham a father of many nations was telling us spiritually that people from all kindreds of the earth would be able to enjoy and participate in the salvation that the promise savior would bring. Alright, now if you'll look here in chapter 21, we're going to move forward. I'll close this door here. Just in case. There's any noise outside? Chapter 21, verse 1 of Genesis. "And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. " So now Sarah, his wife, who's old, and Abraham's old, God opened her womb and allowed her and Abram to have a child. Just like he said. And so if you'll look here now in verse 3, "And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him Isaac. " Okay? One of the last places we left off last week, we were looking at tokens. Remember, we talked about the token of the rainbow. How it was a picture of the savior to come. It was the assurance of salvation from the flood. And then we saw that God gave the token of circumcision, which again was a picture of the savior to come, who would put away our natural identity in Adam and allow us to be a new creature in the promised savior. Forever put away our sin and guilt that we were born into in Adam and be able to be a new creature in Christ Jesus. Alright? And so if we'll look here now, remember God told Abraham to circumcise his children on what day? The eighth day. And the eighth, number eight means new beginning. Remember, seven days in the week, a new beginning on that eighth day. So if any man be in Christ, the Bible says in the New Testament, "He is a new creature. Old things have passed away. " That's the circumcision and that skin being passed away, put away. Alright? So let's go ahead and look here now in verse four. "And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac, being eight days old, as God had commanded him. " Now, was Isaac going to heaven at that time at eight days old because he was circumcised? No. Isaac is only eight days old. He doesn't know. He doesn't understand. He doesn't believe God's promise. He's just a baby. This was just a symbol of what God would do. It was a token. Does the rainbow save us from a flood? No. It's just a token, okay? In the same way, if I were to be in a store and I were to buy Chris an iPad, alright, if I had Mike's money, I would buy you an iPad. I'll tell you that right now. If I were to buy Chris an iPad and I gave him the receipt and I gave him the iPad, when I paid for the iPad, I used cash. I then gave him the iPad and the receipt after I purchased it for him. If he were to leave that store and a police officer see him pass the register up and not pay for the iPad, and it's close to Christmas time and the police officer tells Chris, "Hey, you didn't pay for that iPad. You just stole this thing. He's got the receipt. " Now, the receipt is a token of what I've done. It's proof, but it's not the purchase, is it? The purchase was with cash. The receipt is the proof of the purchase. The tokens were proof, so to speak. It was like a receipt. I can hang on to this. I can hang on. Look at the rainbow. I've got God's promise. Look at the circumcision here. I've got God's promise that God's going to make all things new. In fact, let me show you something real quick. I want to just read a verse to you. It's very beautiful. In fact, you may want to turn there. It's in the book of Revelation, if I remember right. Yes, Revelation 21. It'll be easy to find the very last book of the Bible, is Revelation. And it's almost the very, very, very end of the book. So if you'll look in Revelation 21, it's almost the last chapter. Verse 5, Revelation 21, verse 5. Genesis is the beginning. It tells us how everything began, how we got here, how things got to the way they were and what God was going to do about it. Revelation tells us what God did about it and how God fulfilled the promises He gave in the beginning in Genesis. If you'll look in Revelation 21, verse 5, and we'll read the words of the promised Savior. "And he that set upon the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things new. ' And he said unto me, 'Write, for these words are true and faithful. '" So in the end, He makes all things new. Everything that's old and that came with the sin of Adam will be one day forever put away, like with the circumcision. And then everything will be made new in Christ Jesus. So if we'll look here now in verse 5, Genesis 21, verse 5, go back there please. Genesis 21, verse 5. "And Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born unto him. And Sarah said, 'God hath made me to laugh so that all that hear will laugh with me, laugh with joy. ' And she said, 'Who would have said unto Abraham that Sarah would have given suck,' or that means nursed a child, 'for I have born him a son in his old age. ' And the child grew and was weaned, and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned. And Sarah saw the son of Hagar," remember that Hagar, they had a son through Hagar? "Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking. "Wherefore she said unto Abraham, 'Cast out this bond woman and her son, for the son of this bond woman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. ' This is a very important passage of scripture and the New Testament explains on it, but here's what happens. Ishmael, of course, is the older brother, and he sees a big party being made for Isaac. Well, instead of being excited about it and celebrating with his little brother, he starts making fun. 'Ooh, Isaac, you know, big deal. ' And she sees, Sarah sees that boy mocking her son. She went to Abraham, she said, 'You get rid of this bond woman, and you get rid of that boy, because he's not going to inherit the things that Isaac's going to inherit. He's not going to be an heir with my son, Isaac. ' And so, of course, it hurt Abraham, but God told Abraham, 'Do what Sarah said, because she's right. Cast him out. ' And Abraham cast Ishmael out with his mother, and he did not become an heir of Abraham, as Isaac did. Isaac was going to inherit the promises that God had given Abraham concerning the land forever, eternal life, not perishing, but having everlasting life. All of this was going to be passed down through Isaac and his son, and his son all the way down to the promised Savior, who was going to make that happen. And so, Ishmael was cast away, and all of that was a picture, an Old Testament picture, of religious people who will one day be separated from God and will not inherit the promise of everlasting life. They were close, they were in the family, they came to church, but they never trusted the gospel of Jesus Christ and came to God by faith in the promised Savior. And the book of Galatians explains that. So, if you'll look here now with me, and let's see here, go to chapter 22, 'And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham, and he said, Behold, here I am. ' So now God's tempting, that means he's testing Abraham, he's not tempting him to sin, he's testing him in the sense he's going to see what Abraham does, he's going to put him to a test. Of course, God knows what he will do, but he's practically putting him to a test. He says, 'Abraham, Abraham, and him said, Here I am. ' Verse 2, 'And he that is God said, Take now thy son, not only son Isaac. ' Now, the reason he's called Abraham's only son is because he was his only son as far as the promise was concerned. The Savior would only come through Isaac. The promise of everlasting life would only come through Isaac's descendants. So, 'Take now your son, your 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 will tell thee of. ' Alright, so, here we go. Here's a mountain, Mount Moriah. He said, 'Now you take your son, your only son Isaac, the one you've been waiting so long to have, the one you finally in your old age gave birth to, that you waited so long. ' And now that he's grown, or he's a young man now, he's not a little boy, he's a young man now, now that he's a young man, and almost the age to get married and to start having children and to go ahead and start having that nation develop from your offspring, as I promised. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to take Isaac to a mountain, Moriah, and I want you, you know how you've been making offerings to me? You know, you make an offering to me and you call on my name. I want you to take Isaac, and I want you to offer him to me. I want you to put your boy, Isaac, on an altar, sacrifice him, and offer him as a burnt offering to me, set him on fire after you kill him, and let the smoke rise up to me that may be pleasing to me. Wow! That's rough, isn't it? That's very intense. Now you can put yourself in Abraham's place. Yeah. Number one, here's what you've got to think. Is God right all the time? Yes. Is God going to tell me to do something that's wrong? No. Has God changed his mind? Will he keep his promise to Abraham? God never changes. God never lies. God always keeps his promise. So Abraham in his mind, as hard as this is for him, he's now tested. Who will he love more? Now listen, when Adam was tested in the Garden of Eden, his wife came to him and said, "Hey, you know that fruit that God told us not to eat of? Here, eat it. I ate it and didn't do anything to me. You eat it. " Now at that time, Adam's got to make a choice. Who do I love more? My God or my wife that God gave to me. Who do I love more? And he had to make a choice. Now Abraham has to make a choice. Who do I love more? Do I love God or my son whom God gave to me? Can I trust God in this? If God told us to do things, and if God said, "Mike, I want you to do something for my honor and glory. I want you to go lift up. I want you to go lift this 10-pound weight off the ground and just praise my name. " He could say, "I trust you Lord. Praise the Lord. " Because he knows he can lift 10 pounds. If God asks us to do something that's comfortable to us, that we're sure of already and confident in, is that really trusting God or is it trusting ourselves? Yeah. Now if God asks us to do something that's beyond our power, like have a child in her old age, like Sarah, if God asks us to do something very, very difficult like this, because humanly this isn't possible. I mean it would be completely unnatural to offer up your son and do that to the son you love. You just got through celebrating him not too long ago, and now you're told to kill him. And this doesn't make any sense when you think about it, because if Abraham is going to have a nation descend from him, and the problem of Savior is going to descend from him, and it's going to come through Isaac, how can the Savior come and offspring come through Isaac if he's dead? So you know all of that had to be going through Abraham's mind, and the Bible says it was going through his mind. He probably loses his mind. So will Abraham believe God? It really boils down to faith. Will he trust God and set aside his own way of thinking and accept God's word and trust him and obey God? Will he do that? Let's see. Verse 3, "And Abraham rose up early in the morning. " Now I want you to watch that. "Abraham didn't get up late in the day. He got up first thing in the morning. " He's going to obey God, and he's going to do it first thing. Let's get it over with. Let's go. "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 grabbed the wood for the burnt offering and rose up and went into the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. " It's a long journey. It's been three days now. Three is the number of God in the Bible. Now it's the third day. "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 in worship and come again to you. If you have a pen and you have a paper Bible, underscore in your Bible and come again to you. On the lad will go yonder in worship and underscore and come again to you. '" Does this say anything about Abraham's faith? What does it say to you about Abraham's faith? Abraham had servants that went with him. He probably didn't tell them anything about what he was doing. They would probably say, "Hey, stop! " Abraham and Isaac are here. They're going to go up here so he can offer up Isaac as God told them. And Abraham says, "Y'all stay down here. Men and the boy are going to go up there by ourselves and then we'll come back to you. " Now if Abraham's going to kill Isaac and offer him for a burnt offering, and then he and Isaac are going to come back together like he said, why does that tell you about what Abraham's thinking? What's he thinking? I just think that God's going to do like, feel his word or he's going to be there to make sure that all goes well, I guess. Yeah, yes sir. Raise him from the dead. Exactly right. Raise him from the dead. If he's going to kill Isaac, and Isaac's going to come back with him, the only way this can happen is if God raises Isaac from the dead. That's in Abraham's mind, you see. You get to the New Testament and it explains this passage and says that's what Abraham was thinking. God was going to raise him from the dead. That's the only thing that made sense to Abraham. So let's go ahead and look. Verse 5, "And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder in worship and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son. " So the boy's pretty big. Abraham's old. Isaac could have whooped Abraham. Okay? He doesn't lay the wood on his back. He puts it on the young man's back. He lays this wood for the altar, the burnt sacrifice, on Isaac's back. And they go marching up this hill to the altar. It says, "And it laid it upon Isaac his son, and he took the fire in his hand, so he had a torch with fire lit, and a knife, and they went both of them together. " Verse 7, "And Isaac spakened Abraham his father and said, My father or daddy? And he said, Here am I, here I am my son, and he said, Behold the fire in the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? Don't you know Abraham's gut had to have sunk? " Daddy, I see the wood. I mean, he's watched his daddy offer offerings before with lambs. I see the wood, the fire, the knife. Where's the lamb? Verse 8, "And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself for a lamb for a burnt offering. He'll provide one. " So they went both of them together. He still hadn't told Isaac. "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," which means Isaac had to be willing to be bound. "And laid him on the altar upon the wood. " Wow. Now, I want you to see something here because remember the Old Testament is full of pictures, fingerprints. When I was an investigator and I would recover stolen vehicles or something, then a lot of times I would look for latent fingerprints, and I would take the fingerprint dust and I would dust it in the areas where I could not see any prints, and if they were there, then they would stick and they would develop those prints and make them visible. And the prints, even though you couldn't see the person there, and the person wasn't there exactly at that time, you could see the presence of the person there in the past and lock it down that in fact they had been there in that vehicle at a certain time. In the same way, God puts his fingerprints all over the Old Testament so that when you go back and look, you can see the promise of Christ was there the whole time. I want you to notice what's happening. This is the very first book of the Bible before there were any apostles, before there were any Jesus come on the scene. And here in the very first book of the Bible, we see a father taking his only begotten son, laying the wood on his back, going up a hill to be sacrificed. Do you see that? Jesus said, "God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son. " What did they do to Jesus? They put the wood on his back, the cross, and he goes up to Calvary's hill to be sacrificed to God. This is the fingerprint of Christ in the Old Testament, laying there so that it can be discovered and proven. That he was here in the Old Testament the whole time. Now watch. Verse 9, "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. " Now I want you to look up here just a moment. I want you to think with me for a moment about all we've learned from the very beginning of this class. When God met with Adam and Eve in the garden after they sinned, did God kill Adam and Eve? What did he do? He didn't just let them go. He did curse them. God told them, "The day you eat the of, you'll surely die. " He killed innocent animals in their place. He killed an innocent substitute in their place, and then clothed them with the skins of those animals. Do you remember that now? So he killed Adam and Eve that day, but he did so through the virtue of a substitute. A legal substitute stood in their place, like a stunt double. Now if you'll look here, the double does the work, the actor gets the credit. The animals did the work. Adam and Eve got the credit. Now look here, verse 10, "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. . . " This is right when he's about to slay his son. "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, or that I practically see, that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. '" God let him get to where he was just about to come down. He says, "Abraham, stop! Don't hurt that boy. " Now did God change his mind about offering up Isaac for an offering? No. God always follows through with his plans. Watch what happens. Verse 13, "And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram. . . " What's a ram? A male lamb. There's a lamb. We were wondering, we saw the knife, we saw the fire, we saw the wood, there's the altar. And now here's a lamb that God provided. "And so he looked lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering. . . " Look here now. "In the stead of his son. " Do you see that? "In the stead of his son. " Today we would say, "instead. " Right? "Instead of his son. " In his son's place as a substitute. So that day, Isaac was offered up to God as a sacrifice. But the substitute stood in his place. Legally, Isaac died, but he died through the virtue of the substitute that died in his place. The stunt double. Alright? He suffered the death, Isaac got the credit, God got the glory, and Abraham got to obey and trust God. Because he did what God said. Abraham thought he would kill his son and God would raise him from the dead. But God did something different. He provided an innocent substitute to take Isaac's place. In the same way, this is what happened to us. When the Savior was born, he lived a perfect life for us. He then goes to the cross, and on the cross, you know, he goes up the mountain, he is the Lamb of God. He goes himself. And on the cross, just as God provided a lamb to take Isaac's place, God provided a lamb to take your place, your place, every one of your place. He provided a lamb to take your place. So that the lamb dies, and Isaac goes free and lives. Jesus dies, and we go free, and we live. It's a very beautiful, beautiful thing. The thing with Jesus is, there was a substitute for Adam and Eve. There was a substitute for Isaac. There was no substitute for Jesus. The lamb had no lamb to take his place. He just took our place. And boy, do we owe him a great deal of gratitude for that. Thank you, Lord. Let's go ahead and look here now. In verse 9-13, where we left off, and Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught on a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah Jireh, as it is said to this day, "In the Mount of the Lord it shall be seen. " Jehovah Jireh, that God provides is what that means. Pro-vision, in the Mount of the Lord it shall be seen. Pro means ahead. Vision means what? To see. So when we have provision, we have someone foreseeing our need in meeting it. Jehovah Jireh means God will provide. In the Mount of the Lord it will be seen. In other words, when your trouble is there, when you're needing a Savior, Jehovah God will provide. If you'll take your Bibles now and turn to the book of Romans 5. Romans 5, that's in the New Testament. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts. And then Romans. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts. And then Romans. Romans chapter 5. Huh? Yeah, me too. Me too. Alright, now if you'll look with me in verse 6. "For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. " When we were yet without strength, when we had no ability to save ourself, no ability to obey God's Word perfectly, no ability to overcome sin, Satan, and death in the grave, no ability in due time when we needed it most. When did God provide the ram? How about this? How about God would have let Abraham come down with a knife and kill his son, and then 10 minutes later after the boy's dead and burned, Abraham hears a ram caught in the thicket. Well, that's been terrible. That's not due time, is it? That's not due time. Due time is when it really counts, when it's really needed. A lot of friends will be friends until it's really needed. And then when push comes to shove, man, they're going to take the easy way out and they're going to be gone. But when it really mattered, when it really counted, when we had no ability, we're like Isaac, bound on the altar by our sin, no way to escape, and right with a knife's about to come down to judge us. When it really matters, Christ died for the ungodly. Did he die for the godly? Did he die for pretty good old boys? He died for the ungodly. How many of y'all can say in here that you're ungodly? I can't. Ungodly. Now, if you can say with 100% confidence that you're ungodly, then you can say with 100% confidence that Jesus died for you, because he died for the ungodly. When it really counted, he didn't show up after the judgment was made. He didn't show up after we'd already been condemned. How about you're trying to move? Nobody likes to move. You hate moving. And you get everything moved. You get the last bit of furniture in and you're toast. And you're sitting down, you flop down on the couch in your disgruntled living room in your new place. And suddenly Billy Bob pulls up in his pickup. He goes, "All right, I'm here to help. " Yeah. Have you? That's not due time. Jesus showed up when we needed to help. He showed up. He took our place. He did what we needed. When we had no ability, he came through for us. This is what we see here. He called the place Jehovah Jireh. In the Mount of the Lord it will be seen. When you see your sin, and you see I've lived such an ungodly life, I've been so terrible toward God. I've lived such a terrible life. I deserve hell. I don't deserve God's forgiveness. I don't deserve heaven. That's the Mount of the Lord. That's that insurmountable circumstance that God calls us to, that we and ourselves can overcome. And in your mountain, in your difficulty of your sin, in your inability to please God, there Jehovah will provide. In due time, in your mountain, Christ died for you, the ungodly sinner. If you'll only do what Isaac did, do you know what Isaac did that day? He said, "You mean God is going to let me up out of here, and he's going to let that animal take my place. He's going to let that lamb take my place. That's what God's offering me. What a deal. I will gladly hop up off this altar and let that lamb take my place so I can go free. " That salvation, the Bible says, "To as many as received, Jesus to them gave him power to become the sons of God. " All you have to do is realize in your mountain of sin that God's provided a lamb. And you simply, like Isaac, say, "You mean he's given me a lamb to take my place? What a deal. I'll gladly let him. I accept him as the one who died for me. " Then you're a Christian. Then you're saved. He dies. You live and go free with the promise that you'll not perish but have everlasting life because the sin is overcome, the grave will be overcome, and we in him will live forever. Well, that will go ahead and stop. My goodness, I got chill bumps on me. Hallelujah. Amen. Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for all you've done. We love you, and I thank you for the wonderful, wonderful story of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you, Father, here in Genesis. We're really reading the gospels. We're seeing, Father, that beautiful fingerprint of Calvary and how that we, by faith, let a lamb take our place that we might live. And I pray for many here who have not made that choice. They will, in Jesus' precious name. Amen. By the way, when you, like Isaac, come to that place and you make that decision, you'll let Christ take your place. That's when you're saved. That's when you're a Christian. All right. We'll stop there.