God Provides, part 1

He must feel, not only because it's his beloved son, but it's the God who promised the son, provided the son, and then commanded the son. Abraham was called to walk by faith. You see, tasks are for our faith from God. They reveal faith, as they do here with Abraham. They refine faith, as every task up to this point has done for Abraham. This morning we're looking at this so that we can learn how to have faith, refine our faith so that we trust more in God. The series is actually organized so that we would be prepared for Easter. We're looking at a series on God provides. This week, God provides the substitute. Next week, God provides deliverance from Egypt. And then we'll see how God has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and Colossians on Easter Sunday. The simple message this morning, God proves true when we trust him. God proves true when we trust him. And as you've already heard, God provides. God provides. Let's look at our text. And before I get into the outline, I want to just kind of, well, click here on after these things. We want to look at some context. We're going to remember who Abraham and what's led up to this point. Abraham is clearly most introduced in Genesis 12, and this is the beginning of the Abrahamic promise. This is the beginning of God bringing about a promised people that we're a part as a church. Abraham reveals himself, God reveals himself to Abraham while Abraham is still a pagan, and simply says, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. Okay, there's the command. And then he makes a promise. I will make you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you. I will curse and end you, all the families of the earth, shall be blessed. The simple command is go. That's actually pretty hard here because he's leaving all security. He's leaving his family and his farms and all, and every aspect of security to trust this God who has just revealed himself for the first time to him. And notice the promises. Blessing, blessing, blessing. And the big one, all the earth. be blessed through you and specifically because of a son who will come to you." Well as Abraham, he goes, he trusts God, he follows him. And then right afterwards there's a famine and he flees to Egypt. That's the first failure of faith Abraham has. Then he gets impatient because his wife is barren. And God is not quick to fulfill the promise, to give him a promised child that would fulfill all these blessings. And so he tries to adopt a son, Eleazar. That's Genesis 15. And afterwards, God says, let me make it clear to you that I'm making a promise. Cut up these animals and put them in halves. And then God walks through and recites the covenant again. I will be your God. You will be my people. Trust me. He then has another lapse of faith and tries to have a child with another woman, a substitute. Then God gives him the sign of circumcision. Trust me. I will provide the promise. What's interesting here as we look at the context is Abraham is familiar with failure. Abraham is the father of faith. To be a child of Abraham is to be a child of faith, but yet even here we see that the father of the faithful, he knows failure. But most of all, he knows that God always proves faithful when he fails. Every time he has failed, God has come to bring him out of that failure, and God has remained faithful. As you look at Genesis 22, we're going to see here it's God tested Abraham. We're looking at how he's refining him. He's seeking to reveal his faith. And the story has a number of repeated phrases that are very important. We see, take your son, your only son, whom you love. Take your son. You do not withhold your son, your only son. The emphasis here on Abraham's love for Isaac, the unique status of Isaac as the promised only son of Abraham. And then we also see three callings. And that's how we're gonna organize the sermon this morning. First, God calls Abraham. Abraham. Abraham responds, here I am. That's a call to obey. Next, verse seven, Isaac calls on his father Abraham, my father. Abraham says, here I am, a call to endure, a call to endure. And then finally, an angel calls out to Abraham, Abraham, Abraham, here I am, a call to rejoice. A call to obey, verses 1 through 6. A call to endure, verses 7 through 8. A call to rejoice, verses 9 through 19. Let us look at the call to obey. God says to Abraham, take your son, your only son, whom you love, and go. Well, he's at least familiar with the go promise. That's familiar enough from Genesis 12, but now it's heightened. Take your son, and he tells him what he's supposed to do with it. Take him to the land of Moriah and offer him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you. So again, like Genesis 12, go, I'll show you the exact place as you're going, walk by faith. The weightiness here isn't that go and I'll give you a son. It's you're going to give me back the son. You're going to sacrifice that son. Now the name Abraham is father of many. His very identity is tied to Isaac. The very covenant of God is bound up with Isaac. The blessings that God has promised are tied to Isaac. And so we feel this tension. It's a father who loves his son, so there's emotional attention? There's conflict here? I want to point out, Abraham doesn't have every possible answer he could want. He doesn't understand what God is doing, but he knows the God who is calling him. God has been very clear. His Word is sufficient. I am with you. I am for you. I am your God. I will bless you. How this makes sense that the promised son is supposed to be sacrificed, that doesn't make sense to Abraham. But he walks by faith, seeking understanding. He doesn't just believe what he understands. Verse three, this is a very surprising turn. So Abraham rose early in the morning. Let me just say, not me. This is one of those days where you just want to kind of magnetically, you're magnetically just bound to the bed. That weighty, hard task. Let's wait a little bit longer. But Abraham demonstrates his faith. He's eager. He's quick. He rises early. He saddles a donkey. He takes two of his young men and his son, and they cut the wood, and all preparations are made, and he goes. And I think we see Abraham respond so quickly in faith because for 25 years God has remained faithful. This is a difficult, painful task. But we see his faith responding to the God who is faithful. Next we see a call to endure. Look at verse 4. On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place. So God is making himself known that he's gone to the area of the mountain, and now he knows the specific place to ascend. And Abraham says to the young men, this is very interesting to see kind of what's going on with Abraham and the way he's contemplating this. You all stay here. The boy and I, we're going to go over. We're going to worship, and we're going to come back. It's very important. This is a third—this is a first-person plural. We're going to go, we're going to worship, and we're going to come back. Now, worship means he's going to make a sacrifice. Abraham's walking by faith, understanding, but he's trusting the God who knows all and cares for him and loves him. We're going to worship. We're going to come back. Hebrews tells us that Abraham was a man of faith because even here he knew that God could raise him from the dead. He didn't know how it was gonna work out, but he at least had the trust that God could raise the dead to life. We see this call gets harder in verse seven. Isaac, his only son, whom he loved, says to his father, my father. Now he's about 13 at this time, we think. He's a young teenager. Abraham has taken the wood. He's put it on Isaac. He has to carry his own wood that he would be a sacrifice on. Abraham has the knife and the fire. And Isaac is old enough to look around and say, something's going on here that's unusual. He says, my father, Abraham. He says, here I am, my son. I wrestle with how to present this because I know that at this point my voice is breaking and cracking so much as I would respond to a child asking for my attention, knowing what he's carrying, and knowing what we're supposed to do next. Abraham appears to be unshakable in faith. Here I am, my son. Isaac asks the logical question. Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the land? Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son. So they went together. I call this a call to endure because endurance is remaining under a trial. Abraham is not trying to give unnecessary, unhelpful answers. Abraham is looking and trying to himself remember that it is God who is always faithful and God who is always provided. And now he's even trying to teach his son to have faith. God will provide. He remains under this trial. He doesn't give up. You see courageous faith that only keeps him going, as his son is even asking what's going on now, which must turn the gut, wrench the emotions even more. He's even teaching his son to have faith. God will provide. The third thing we see, the final, is a call to rejoice. This scene is difficult to imagine, But when he came to the place in which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there. They organized the wood. And then he laid the wood in order and he bound his son Isaac. Now, Abraham's an old man and Isaac is a young man. Isaac must just be submitting to his father. One of those difficult things, it doesn't talk about it, but can you just imagine Abraham having to look at his son and just the confused, afraid expressions on his face? This is a painful story to imagine what is going on here. It only gets harder. He laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his knife, his hand, took the knife to slaughter his son. And after he raised it up, he hears once again his name, but only hear it twice said, the angel of the Lord speaks, Abraham, Abraham. Yes, Lord, here I am. Can you imagine the relief here? Please say something. The first words that come off the angel's lips. Do not lay your hand on the boy. Or do anything to him. The relief that must just overcome him because of the tension, because of the desire to faithfully endure through this command. And now we hear it's all God has provided. He has spoken directly to him, specifically to him, do not do this. Why? For I now know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son from me. You have trusted me with a promise. You have trusted me to obey. As James 2 says, he's demonstrated his faith with this clear work of obedience. Verse 13, and Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered up as a burnt offering instead of his son. God provided. So Abraham called the name of that place, the Lord will provide. has said to this day on the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided." Now let's be very clear here because we know from Genesis 15 and Romans 4, Abraham isn't saved because of this good work. Abraham is saved because he believed the promise of God before Isaac was ever born. That was counted to him as righteousness. But here we see the promises repeated to Abraham in verses 15 and 19. I will bless you. I will multiply you. The offspring will bless all the earth. All the blessings are going to come because God chose to use him as an instrument of that blessing. It's him walking by faith that lets him participate in the blessing. He is not saved by obedience. He's saved by faith alone. But he gets to enjoy and participate in those blessings because of his faithfulness. I want to meditate on this difficult story more, because it's actually really central to the big picture of the Bible. It is a story loaded with gospel signs and pointings. As one scholar says, rightly, the New Testament is contained in the Old Testament, the Old Testament explained in the New Testament. The New Testament is contained. There's a seed here of the New Testament. And the Old Testament is explained in the New Testament. We actually see what's going on here even more if we look at the gospel of Jesus Christ. I want to walk through two gospel meditations that are clear in this passage. The first is this. God provides the sacrifice that takes away sin. God provides the sacrifice that takes away sin. The ram caught in the thicket points to Jesus Christ, who is himself the substitute. There's a foreshadowing. Remember the words that John the Baptist declares when Jesus first walks up to him, and while he's doing his ministry out in the wilderness? Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. The blood of the lamb is significant for the story next week, where we look at the Passover. It's the sacrifice of that lamb over the mantle that causes judgment to pass over. We could even go to Genesis 3, 21. Remember, before Adam and Eve could leave the garden, they needed their shame covered. So innocent animals had to die to cover their sin and shame. We see this theme throughout scripture from Genesis 321 to Genesis 22 to the whole sacrificial system that's supposed to be a constant reminder. Our sin leads to death. Our sinfulness. Ours. The consequence of it is death. But God is going to provide a substitute. One of the clear prophecies of this that points to it is Isaiah 53. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord has laid on Him, the Messiah, the iniquity of us all. God has been making promises throughout the Old Testament that there will be one who comes like a silent sheep to be slaughtered for the sins of all the other sheep. And then John the Baptist declares, behold, the Lamb of God, who doesn't cover sin. He takes away sin. Because He, God's Son, came down, became like us in every way, yet without sin, so that when He died on the cross, He was crushed for our iniquity. We are forgiven because He suffered the forsakenness between He and the Father, suffering the, the full consequences of our sin. He's the once-for-all sacrifice, the author of Hebrews tells us. He removes it from us, as far as the East is from the West. If we look to the cross, God teaches us a number of things. First, He's a righteous God that must punish unrighteousness. He's a righteous God who has wrath properly against all sin. We also see on the cross our sin, what it deserves. Most of all, we see the ministry of reconciliation. God sent His Son to die in our place so that we can be forgiven and yet again, now again have a new relationship with Him. If you look at the Gospels, you see Jesus's perspective on the cross. I think here in Genesis 22, you see a little glimpse of maybe the Father's perspective, right? The Son represents us dying for our sin. He is crying out, Father, why have you forsaken me? But, but the Father, He looks on His perfect Son, His most beloved Son, who has always said what He's supposed to say, who has always done what He's supposed to do, and then He chooses to punish Him for sins He did not commit. That's a moment of conflict. Why would a good God do that to His good Son? John tells us it's because he loved us. He sent his son because he loved us. He sent his son, even though that we were so unworthy of this love, he sent his son to become sin for us so that we could be reunited with him. It's the only way we could be forgiven. That leads us to our second meditation. Our second gospel meditation. It comes right out of Romans 8.32 that we read earlier. God did not withhold his Son. Again, the emphasized language in verses 2 of Genesis 22, verse 12, verse 16. Isaac, the only son, the most beloved son, he points us to Christ. If we even just hear the language, his only son, whom he loved, that, we actually hear the, the Father's own voice, right? At Jesus' baptism, at the Mount of Transfiguration, when, when God would speak from the clouds to declare to the disciples who this is. He's my only son, with whom I'm pleased. He's my only son, my beloved. this, this, this theology of sonship is also throughout Scripture. It goes all the way back to Genesis 3 as well. Genesis 3 15, the, the first declaration of the gospel, God says a child will be born. A son will be born who is going to crush Satan. He's going to overcome sin and death. The two things that we cannot overcome on our own. We then see Isaac, the promised son. We'll look in a few weeks, Lord willing, when we start gathering again at 2 Samuel 7, when God gets more specific, who this son will be, a son of Eve, a son of Abraham, then a son of David. He says to David, one of your own sons will sit on the throne forever. And then we kept waiting and waiting and waiting. And then at the right time, God sent His Son, born of the law, born of a woman, so that we might become sons of God. Again, John 3, 16 points to what's going on here. God so loved the world that He sent His only Son that if you believe in Him, you will have everlasting life. God doesn't love us because we're lovely. He loves us while we're sinners. He loves us so that he can purify us in our sin. We see here the gospel is God doesn't withhold his own son. He gives him as our substitute. If you're a believer today and you're watching, The invitation this morning is to simply trust God. This virus has shown a number of things about us as humans. One, we're vulnerable. We're not in control as we thought we were. Death is something real and it's scary. God made us everyone in his image. Life is precious. We know this. Sickness and viruses, they're consequences of the fall. They're not the most concerning thing right now. Right now, it's the fact that we actually have a sickness inside. It's sin, is what the Bible calls it. Jesus says that what's inside of us, that's what defiles us. In the midst of this trial, in the midst of this testing, it's time to contemplate. What is life really about, and what happens after death? Jesus says that what is inside of us defiles us, and that is the sinful desires that you know and I know. The things that we actually know we don't have control over. The things that overwhelm us. The things that internally corrupt us. And this is what isn't so obvious, is that the righteous God who created us, good, and the righteous God that we rebel against, he's going to judge each one of us for every word and every deed. Unless we believe in Jesus, who's the only one who can take our place. See, on the cross, Jesus takes the place of those who believe in him. to die for their sin, to pay the penalty so the wrath of God is satisfied. So whoever believes in Him can be forgiven, can know God, can call Him Father, can know His love. Become a son of God. This morning, repent of your sin, recognizing it's bad, recognizing it's destructive, and look to God who is good, who can heal you and give you the life you need. the everlasting life of Jesus Christ, who died for you and rose again. Christians, there are three applications I want to give from this passage. It's one of the most quoted passages in the New Testament, alluded to often, so there's lots of application just to look at the passages that relate to it, that correspond to it. The first application revolves around faith. We see faith demonstrated in this story. We see faith from a man who is in the midst of a trial and continues to endure and then gets to rejoice. Abraham is a model of faith. Now, how do we ever get faith? It's very clear in Scripture. You only have faith if you hear the good word of God. You're, you're built up in the faith as you hear the good word of God. If you're lacking in faith, if you're struggling with faith, if you're overwhelmed with, with fear right now, my question is, what are you listening to? If the primary source of some kind of comfort is what the latest report is, you're, you're not going to be built up in your faith. You're trying to be built up in your understanding. You're built up in your faith as you sit under the Word of God, as you meditate upon the Word of God, as you think about His promises, as you think about His commands. Are you confused and in a trial right now? God says, come to me. I'll give you rest. Listen to me. I'll give you the promises you need to endure by faith. Today is a confusing time. Parents, we need to be modeling faith. We need to be showing children that God, we know he has provided in the past, he's provided ultimately in Jesus Christ, he's gonna provide in the future. The kids are watching. Are they seeing panic or perseverance? All right, so we should be planning. At this point, you should have some toilet paper. But you shouldn't have too much toilet paper. Right? We shouldn't be panicking. Kids should see faithfulness, and when asking questions, they should just hear something like, the Lord is good. He will provide. For the parents and family members who are concerned for Elliot right now, He will provide. For those who are afraid because they're working so closely with the coronavirus patients, He will provide. Psalm 91 is worthy of your meditation. Because you have made the Lord your dwelling place, the Most High, who is my refuge, no evil shall be allowed to befall you, no plague come near your tent. We don't know much about the virus. but we know the God who is in control. We know the God who is good. We know the God whom we can take refuge. The second application, there should be fruit. Faith produces fruit. There should be fruit from the faithful walk of believers. James 2 talks about this story. Was not Abraham, our father, justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone." Now this has been argued to contradict what Paul says in Romans 3 and 4, where he says it's faith alone that justifies you. I want to be very clear, they are not contradicting one another. They're using the same word in a different way. Justification can be that great Romans 3 truth where God says, not guilty. It's a legal declaration. That's what we receive by faith. The way James is using it is more like a demonstration, witness. Is there any witness that your faith actually is true? Is there any witness that you've said, I'm going to put off sin and put on Christ? I am following Christ as a disciple. Really, James 2 corresponds more to Romans 6. Or Romans 8, live by the Spirit. The reality is, believer, faith produces works. Faith can be evaluated by the life lived. The fruit of the Spirit is often best grown in adversity. And so we look at this and we could see love, that's best grown in difficult circumstances, difficult relationships. Self-control, when we're resisting the temptation to throw a tantrum because we've lacked, we've lost what we thought we had under control. patience, and the long-suffering waiting, what is God doing and, and what is he going to do with this trial? Joy in the midst of sadness with so many getting sick and so many dying. Seeking to, to find joy in Christ, even in the midst of all the difficulty. Peace in turmoil. Now is the time that God is actually trying to produce fruit. Follow him by faith. Our last application, forever. And here we go back to the scripture reading earlier, Romans 8.32. Romans 8.32 applies this truth. Paul asked the question, he who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. That's a, that's a, that's a truth. The father gave his only son. He did not withhold him. You hear there, Paul using this language from Genesis 22. Abraham, you didn't withhold your son. I'm going to provide a substitute. Well, the father, he didn't spare his own son. The son was the substitute. That's the truth statement. The question is this. How will he not also with him graciously give us all things? This is an argument from greater to lesser. The Father has not withheld His own Son. He's given you the best thing He could possibly give you, and that is Himself. The best thing God can give you is Himself. And He's given it to us in the most obvious, clear way to show us He loves us. How then can we ask, God, what are you withholding that's good? How can we ask, if God's really good, if things aren't exactly the way we want them to be, how can we ask, God, why aren't you helping me in these different circumstances? We're probably just not seeing the 10,000 way God is working in His blessings. What good thing will He withhold from you? The call here is to trust Him. God does not call us to tasks without answers, but He also doesn't give us all the information we really want to know. He gives all the information we need to know. From Romans 8, simply, we see all the answers we actually need to know to persevere in trials. I'll just mention two of them. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. If you believe in Him, you are not going to be condemned. Christ was condemned in your place. The second promise, the second answer you need to know how to persevere in a trial, there is neither, there's no separation. There's no condemnation of those who are in Christ. There's no separation from the love of God for those who are in Christ. Your position is secure in Christ. The Old Testament had a short way handed of saying these things, and that was, God says, I'm with you. I'm for you. Those are the only answers you need to persevere through a trial. God is with me. He is for me. We see this played out in that He has sent His own Son. His Son has accomplished your salvation by dying on the cross. He's risen again. He's at the right hand of the Father. And now He's sent His Holy Spirit to seal you, so that you can cry out, I'm a father. Help my unbelief. The Holy Spirit testifies to your spirit. You have the power of the resurrection living inside of you to persevere. And that position doesn't change. These are the answers we need to meditate upon in order to endure. We must know God can be trusted and he will prove himself to be true. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank You, Lord, for Your kindness. We thank You that You have not left us alone in this world of confusion and corruption, sickness and death. You've not left us alone with our own sin. Thank You that You've sent Your Son to die for us, to rise again. Thank You, Lord, for Your Holy Spirit that continues to be with us, to point us to Him so that we can trust You and know You and obey You. Thank you, Lord, for the assurance we have because of what Christ has accomplished and who we are now in him. In his name we pray. Amen.