Christmas in Genesis (The Promise of Freedom)

Thank you for subscribing to the Shepherds Church podcast. This is our Lord's Day Sermon We pray that as we declare the

Word of God that you would be encouraged Strengthened in your faith and that you would catch a greater vision of who

Christ is May you be blessed in the hearing of God's Word and may the Lord be with you last week we talked about the typology of Marley and how

Joseph Marley was bound in heavy chains and It's great. I get to see the the play this week

So it brought out even more of the symbolism and how those chains were weighing him down symbol of eternal consequences that were lying on the the body of Marley and Would be awaiting

Scrooge if he did not repent Now I thought it was interesting in Dickens and also in the play that we watched the chains were made of these strange items cashboxes keys padlocks ledgers

Deeds and heavy purses that were wrought with steel that were all sort of woven together inside of these ethereal chains

And I think what Dickens was getting after and certainly the play brought this out was the idea that these are individual acts of sin that were perpetrated over the course of a lifetime that were

Unforgiven that were weighing down Marley acts of greed acts of Accumulation of sinful wealth and also the refusal to participate in acts of true generosity

And all these sins span the life of Marley and it weighed him down to the point to where almost every word that he speaks is interrupted by agony and pain

The chains represent the fact that the judge has not overlooked the sin and that the case against him is certain the binding of Marley also and the chains of Marley also represent to Scrooge a warning that if he doesn't repent and if he doesn't

Turn to the Living Christ and Dickens does not bring this out as clearly as the play does the play did a great job bringing

Out the gospel that's underneath this story and that if he doesn't repent and turn to Jesus Then he will be in the same place the chains will be laid upon him and he will be in torment and agony forever the binding of Marley is foreshadowing of the doom that is coming if Scrooge doesn't repent but also in a way

Marley acts as a kind of or a type of Savior to Scrooge He comes sacrificing himself

Demonstrating his bindings in order to set Scrooge on a different path that will end up setting him free his bindings

Not only point to Ebeneezer's future, but they also in a very real sense point forward to his salvation

For it was his bindings that set Scrooge on the quest that brought him to faith

Now in the same way that Marley's bindings point to a ton of things They point beyond themselves to things that are that are great and weighty weightier than the chains

There's a binding in the scripture that we're going to look at today there's actually three bindings in the scripture that we're going to look at today one in the

Old Testament and two in the new and The one in the Old Testament is like Marley in the sense that it points beyond itself.

It points to something greater So what we will do is we will turn to Genesis 22 1 through 19

We'll look at this binding and then we'll at the end We'll see how it points to the greatest freedom that you and I could ever possibly know

So if you will turn with me Genesis 22, excuse me, it's 1 through 14 That we will do this morning as you're turning there

I'll give you a great vocab word that I shared with the men at the at the Bible study on Tuesday hap hacks legomenon

It means a word that shows up only once in the Bible The word here for bound in Hebrew is a hap hacks legomenon

It shows up the only time in the Old Testament here out of 10 ,000 unique words

That show up in the Old Testament. The only time it shows up is here. I think there's a reason for that. Let's read

Now it came about after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him Abraham and he said here

I am And he said take now your son your only son whom you love Isaac and Go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which

I will tell you So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey and took two of his young man men with him and Isaac his son

And he split wood for the burnt offering And he arose and went to the place of which

God had told him on The third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance and Abraham said to the young men

Stay here with the donkey and I and the lad will go over there and we will worship and return to you

Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son and he took in his hand of the fire and The knife so the two of them walked on together and Isaac spoke to Abraham's father and said my father

Here I am my son Abraham said behold the fire in the wood But where is the lamb for the burnt offering and Abraham said

God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering my son so the two of them walked on together and then they came to the place which

God had told him and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood and bound that's the word

His son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood Abraham stretched out his hand took the knife to slay his son

But the angel the Lord called out to him and said Abraham Abraham and he said here I am he said do not stretch out your hand against the lad and Do nothing to him for now.

I know that you fear God Since you have not withheld your son your only son from me

Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked and behold behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him for a burnt offering in the place of his son

Abraham called the name of that place. The Lord will provide as It is said to this day in the

Mount of the Lord. It will be provided. Let us pray Lord, we thank you for every verse of Scripture We thank you for the simple passages

We thank you for the complex We thank you for the ones that seem Shallow in the best way that we could jump in and and get wet and not drown and yet Lord We also thank you for those passages that are so deep.

It feels like we will drown in them Lord we thank you For passages like this and all that it points to and and how it points so much beyond its own pages

Lord, I pray that as we observe these things today that we would see nothing less than the gospel of Jesus Christ and That Lord we would see how true freedom comes from you.

It's in Jesus name. Amen Now events don't happen in a vacuum. I think we need to talk about the background of this

Particular passage and what we're gonna do is we're gonna spend about 90 % of our time today Probably about an hour and a half and I'm just kidding we're gonna spend about 90 % of our time on the background and then we will get to the aha the point at the end now

Abraham if you will remember is old He's old when God calls him.

God calls him out of the land of Ur which is a Metropolitan city a great city in the ancient world and God calls him and his barren wife out of The life of luxury.

This is a great city. This is a city that Archaeologists have even suggested could have had indoor plumbing, which is incredible at that particular time

This is a city where Abraham was living the life He had the sort of what we would call the

American dream and I don't think Abraham was looking for an entire total life interruption and yet there it is that God Uproots him and pulls him out of that place and moves him to a land where God says that I will bless you

And I will make your name great and those who bless you will be blessed and those who curse you will be cursed Abraham's entire life will have to remember is uprooted in this point

Genesis 12 1 through 3 says as much now the Lord said to Abraham go forth from your country and from your own relatives and From your father's house to the land which

I will show you and I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and I will make your name great and so shall and so you shall be a blessing and I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you and In you all of the families of the earth will be blessed.

What a promise It's the first time Abram has heard from God. I Want you to leave your family.

I want you to leave your father I want you to leave Abram was already old. So his mom and dad are really old

I want you to leave them they can there's nursing homes in her but I've got something for you. I Can imagine

Abram had no idea what to think about this Not only the logistics of I got to pack up and move away from all my family

From a God that I just met that would have been confusing enough But also God says

I'm going to bless you and make a nation out of you How does Abraham or Abram at this point?

Reconcile God if you're any God at all, you must know genetic or biology old men and old women, especially the old woman past the age of child -rearing don't have babies and yet He goes

It's a real sign of tremendous faith given to him as a gift clearly by God But beyond the physical issues beyond the family beyond the circumstances beyond all of that He believed

God enough to move his entire family and pack them up and move them hundreds of miles away to a

God. He just met Now you can imagine Abraham went home that night

Abram went home that night and he said you're not gonna believe what just happened God The one and only

God not the gods of her Not not those that the true God has told me that you're gonna have a baby.

So after dinner tonight Maybe we can go to bed early. I Mean, he's a man of faith.

He has to act in accordance with his faith You can imagine he's not gonna do nothing

He believes the promise so he's going to begin working to see that happen But can you imagine after like a month when there's no morning sickness?

No No anything you can imagine Abraham saying well, did I really understand the promise correctly? You can imagine after six months after nine months after a year after two years

Actually, in fact, there's a couple of years that transition from this point until Genesis 15.

He's moved his family He's taking them all the way there and no pregnancy. And again, he's a man who is acting in faith

So he's doing the kinds of things that make babies and nothing is happening you can imagine the disappointment and the bitterness and That would have set in between him and Sarah Sarah.

I at this point It's at this point that Abram Does what most of us would have done and starts to doubt whether he heard the promise correctly and and he says well

Maybe this promise has to do with Eliezer He's a gentleman who lived in Abrams camp remember

I said Abram was a was a very rich man. He had servants He had livestock. He was so rich. In fact in Genesis 14, he rescues

Lot from Four kings so Abram and his family go to war against four kings that's a big that that's a big group of people with a lot of blessing to take on four kings and Abrams Property is so big that he can do that and yet he doesn't have an heir

He doesn't have a son and he says maybe it's this gentleman Eliezer of Damascus maybe it's he that God will give me

And God says no God comes to him in Genesis 15 three years after he's told him that they're gonna have a son three years of waiting three years of unmet expectations

And he gives him more clarity on what is going on Genesis 15 1 through 3 says and after these Things the

Word of the Lord came to Abraham. I love how the Bible does that by the way after these things three years

After some stuff happened God is not on our timetable After these things the

Word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision saying do not fear Abram I am a shield to you your reward shall be very great

Abram said Oh Lord God, what will you give me since I am childless and the heir of my house is

Eliezer of Damascus and Abram said Since you have given me no offspring to me one born in my house shall be my heir and God responds.

Absolutely not verse 4 This man will not be your heir

But one who will come from your own body. He shall be your heir and It goes even bigger than that He doesn't just promise the old man and the old woman that they will have a son

He promises that their offspring will be so uncountable so incalculable

That you can't even count them It would be like trying to count the stars or trying to count the sand on the seashore the grains of sand

He says to him in verse 5 and 6 And he took him outside and he said now look to the heavens Count the stars if you're able to count them and he said so shall your descendants be

Then Abram after three years. It says he believed the Lord and God counted it as righteousness to him

Abram Believed God and he believed that God was true and he believed that God's promises were true Even if the timeline didn't purport with his timeline

Genesis 15 is an incredible example of faith without seeing anything

That would lead him to believe that these things were going to happen. This is faith that the

Apostle Paul says in Galatians now after this between Genesis 15 and 16

They don't get immediately pregnant again The first weight is between Genesis 12 and 15.

That's three years between Genesis 15 and 16 is 10 years 10 more years

With nothing no baby bump No, no cravings for port wine cheese in the middle of the night

And then they take it into their own hands again They're confused 13 years since the promise has come and Sarah.

I think this is my interpretation But Sarah has an epiphany God said it was your body

That it would come from not mine You can imagine Sarah come in and saying as far as I can tell this has nothing to do with me

Abraham This is about you. He said that the child's gonna come from your body. So here I have this great idea

Let me give you my maidservant Hagar and then the promise will come true because it'll come from your body

It's not about me. It's about you How silly we missed it Yeah You ever did that with God where you look back on something that that you know

God said in his word and you're like, I must not have understood that correctly Let me let me figure out some way to make this true.

What Sarah is ultimately doing Is she's limiting the power of God? she's trying to find a naturalistic solution to a supernatural problem and By doing that it was dishonoring to the

Lord Sarah believed they misunderstood Sarah believed that it was not about her, but maybe she could do this in another way and as we know

Men are not limited in the same way men can you know, maybe not as easily but men can have children in their 80s

There are examples of such all throughout history, but women can't after they pass a particular time.

It's over so Sarah's being practical and Abraham is being ignorant Because it never works out in the scriptures

When you take on a second or third or fourth wife it always adds to misery and it does in this situation and immediately after Immediately after this

Sarah regrets her decision Because Hagar gets pregnant easily quickly even and Sarah is angry about it she said

Here Abraham, here's my servant then as soon as she got pregnant every Frustration that was in her heart welled up even stronger in the womb of this woman was everything she wanted

And it wasn't her carrying her husband's child It was this woman and you can imagine the frustrations of anger and bitterness and she began to terrorize

Hagar to the point that Hagar despaired for her own life and she ran away into the wilderness.

I Love the fact that God Blesses her as well

Hagar When she's in the wilderness and she's almost ready to die. She has no water

Her child has no water. No food. God visits her the angel. The Lord visits her in Genesis 16 10 through 11

Moreover the angel the Lord said to her I will greatly multiply your descendants. She's talking to Hagar They will be too many to count

The angel the Lord said to her behold you are with child and you will bear a son you shall call his name

Ishmael Because the Lord has given heed to your affliction the Lord God is the only one who can take our sin and our brokenness and our corruption and turn it for blessing and turn

It for good and this is what he does Now she goes back and she submits to her master

To the wife of her master Sarah she submits and she has the child there and that creates no amount of Expectation in Sarah knowing that this was not the child of promise and God very lovingly

Gives the gift of circumcision to Abraham and you may be if you're especially if you're a man you're like, I don't think that was loving

It was loving because up until this point Abram had nothing To look at as far as promises

All he had was the Word of the Lord all he had was the was the verbal promise from God So God marks him

God cuts him God brings him a sign that is very personal

Every day he will notice the sign and God is like I'm gonna give you this to help you and to remind you that I am a

God that keeps my promises in The Old Testament the word for covenant making is is

Barit and it usually means to cut God literally cut

Abraham into his covenant He cut him in and gave him a sign that he would never forget now after this

First time God made the promise was three years next time. It was ten years gone now 13 years

Makes Abraham wait until the next time he interacts with God, which I think is fascinating right 26 total years of Waiting 13 from the time that Hagar returns and Abram is circumcised 13 years.

Abraham is 99 years old by the time that the next act of God's promise comes and in this time

Instead of God giving a word from the Lord The angel of the

Lord comes and visits Abram and he not only gives the word he comes in person to promise

Do you notice what God is doing? He's coming now in a way Incarnationally to demonstrate to Abram do not fear.

These things will come true Genesis 18 verse 10 and verse 14 He said I will return to you at this time next year and behold

Sarah your wife will have a son and then He says is anything too difficult for the

Lord, I love that God asks himself the question it's rhetorical no At the appointed time.

I will return to you at this time next year and Sarah will have a son and this is where we get the name

Isaac because Sarah laughs and God says you laughed and she says no I didn't he said yeah you did

Now you can imagine one year later This is 24 years now 24 years after the promise was first given that the

Sun comes you can imagine If there was ever a woman and a man

Especially a woman who could be called a helicopter mom It was Sarah 24 years she waited for this child.

You can imagine the child's feet. Maybe didn't hit the floor except to give her old back arrest He probably had the most nutritious baby food probably non -toxic ancient

Middle Eastern diapers Organic butt paste even of whatever variety that they made back then

Maybe I'm supposing she was a little bit protective after waiting that long to see

God move Not unreasonably so but gratefully so she wanted to care for the promises of God She wanted to steward the blessings that God had given both her and Abram well and they raised the young man from a babe into a toddler and from a toddler to a young man and We don't hear anything from the

Lord this entire time Until the word used for Isaac is young man Usually given to someone who's older than a teenager, but yet not a married man.

So somewhere between 13 and 30 It's really not clear. But I would say probably somewhere between 13 and 20 given the age of Abraham and It's at that point that Abram hears the shocking news that this child your son

Your only son I want you to sacrifice him on the altar Can you imagine the dinner table conversation when

Abraham comes home that night and says hey God showed up again Oh, yeah, honey.

What did he say this time? Really? So super blessed about the last time he visited 13 years ago Yeah He wants us to offer our son

Isaac. It's a burnt offering you can imagine That probably didn't go over well that conversation must have been difficult to say the least and yet They did what none of us would have done and Abram and Isaac went

You and I would have stopped and we'd have said that was a bad burrito What I just ate that that caused a bad reaction.

That's mental illness. I need medicine. I need to go to the doctor I need that brain scan. There's something going on with me. They didn't say that Abram did not say that It says that he stood up and he and Isaac and two of their servants left to go obey the

Lord And it wasn't because Abram didn't love his son We know that's not the case because the text says it was his only son

It's because he loved God more and he believed That this same

God who brought life into a dead womb Miraculously could also bring life from the dead that he could raise up Isaac and bring him back

So they saddled up their donkeys They took their servants with them and they rode to the land of Moriah When Abraham saw the land in the distance it says on the third day ironically this great foreshadowing to Christ It says

I'm on the third day they approached this land that they told their servants to wait And he and Isaac climbed the mountain together

Isaac carried the wood up the mountain Abram carried the fire and the knife up the mountain and just in case you're wondering there was jars at that time where they would

Keep burning embers and they would carry those up and then those they would use to to set straw and fodder on fire

And then they would use that to get the the fire going. That's how Abraham carried the fire up the mountain

But he trusted God and we see that even in his words he says to his servants Me and the boy will return he knew

He didn't know how he didn't know what God was going to do But he knew that when they arrived and when he bound

Isaac That God would perform a miracle because God can be trusted what faith?

And it's at this point that he climbs up the mountain with his son. There is no lamb There is no ram caught in the thicket yet And he takes hold of his son

And he binds him on the altar and he raises the knife now. We have to talk about something here that I think is fascinating Abraham is like a hundred and twelve years old at this point

He lived in a time period which was strange Because if you remember people used to live to like nine hundred years old and things like that and that happened before the flood

But there was a weird period of time where ages were coming down Tara his father lived in the 200s

Abram I think is in the hundred and forties hundred and fifties when he dies So there's this period of time where ages are starting to trickle down to a normal age

Abrams pretty old. He's vigorous But still climbing a big mountain at a hundred and twelve years old.

It's probably not easy Isaac the word for him is is young man, which means that he was quite vigorous which meant that if Isaac really wanted to he could have ran away if Isaac wanted to he could have said

Yeah, dad. I don't think this is what God wants I'll see you at the bottom of the mountain and he would have won the foot race and Just in case

Abraham was really spry that morning and he grabs Isaac Isaac was stronger than him and could have thrown him off So what my point is is the only way that Isaac gets on this altar is willingly and voluntarily

It is not don't have the picture in your mind that Abraham in a moment of tears on his face grabs his son and forcefully puts him on there

Isaac climbed up there and let his father tie him down because he believed the promises of God, too

He submitted to the ceremony knowing that he was a child of promise

Abraham had taught him Your child that God gave us of miraculous circumstances.

God's gonna deliver you in this situation. He submitted to it And he trusted his father and more importantly he trusted

God He knew that even if he were turned into ashes

Well, God can make things out of ashes he did it in the Garden of Eden before I Would say that Isaac is bound by more than ropes.

He was bound by faith the faith of his father Abraham And he believed the promises of God and because of that when

Abram raised his knife in the air It says that God caught out

Abraham Abraham You know that he's old because he had to cry out twice and I'm just kidding

And he said don't I know now that you love me more than anything else And Abraham looked up and he saw the ram caught in the thicket

Isaac came down free Now Isaac didn't deserve to be free neither did

Abraham need another did any other human on earth? We all deserve condemnation for our sin. So it wasn't like Isaac was getting what he deserved.

He was getting grace and This ram caught in the thicket was a substitutionary atonement for Isaac and It points forward to something so much bigger and so much greater than we could ever possibly imagine

Just like Marley's bindings pointed to something greater Isaac's bindings point to something beyond Themselves something greater to a future father and a future son into a future freedom

Jesus in the same way was bound by his earthly father when he was wrapped in swaddling cloths lying in a manger

It was a similar kind of binding. Those little cloths were tight It wasn't snuggly little blankets that you buy at Target today.

No, no, no, no, you ever seen Eskimo babies They look like mummies. This is how Jesus was bound

Placed in a wooden manger just like Isaac was placed on a wooden altar and yet God Instead of Isaac looked beyond Isaac to this

Christ the effectual offering that would be offered for our sins And yet it wasn't here that Christ was sacrificed

His earthly father bound him just like Isaac's earthly father bound him and Jesus just like Isaac walked away free from that moment

But the greater binding came when Jesus grew up preached the gospel told parables did miracles and the people of Israel grabbed him and bound him and Nailed him to a wooden cross

In the same way that Isaac was bound to a wooden altar. Jesus was bound to a wooden cross and in that binding

The true father would not let him go God the father spoke over Isaac.

I know now Abraham that you believe me Let the boy go over Christ God spoke no word to Jesus letting him free

The knife of God's wrath rose over the cross of Christ Coming down upon his son his only son on the third day on that exact same mountain

Mount Moriah as we've said before is the mountain that Jerusalem was built on and Calvary was its highest peak on the same summit that Abraham was going to offer up Isaac God offered up his one and only son and bound him to the wood and did not deliver him the point of this is

That Isaac could not be the true sacrifice to save Abraham or to save anyone because he too was a sinner

Christ Was what the sacrifice was always going to be? God allowed

Abraham to bring his child up to the top of a mountain to enact what was coming

And what was coming was the sacrifice of Christ? the perfect man The man who never sinned the man who was perfect and pure in all of his life would be offered as a substitutionary atonement for us in The same way that Abraham looked up and saw the

Ram that would take Isaac's place you and I today Have been given the pleasure of looking up and seeing the

Christ Who took our place You and I deserve to be on that cross you and I deserve to be on that altar

But it was for the love of God and for the grace of Jesus Christ That he was bound for us and as we close

All of this ties into Christmas Because Christmas is not just about sweet little baby

Jesus It starts there But he was born to die He was bound in his birth because he was going to be bound in his death with the same linen rags that he was wrapped up in the tomb and He was bound for our freedom

In the same way that Isaac was set free you and I have been set free by Jesus Christ And here's what

I want to challenge you with during this season if Christ the true and perfect Savior has died to set you free.

Why are you still in bondage? Why do you still let the rags and the wrappings and the ropes of depression cling to you

Why do you still let the grave clothes of? Lust and anger and jealousy and bitterness cling to you

If Jesus Christ is God's perfect atonement for you, then you have perfect freedom in him

Lay down those things that bind you do not walk in the seas and bound to anything other than faith in Jesus Christ Galatians 5 1 is where we'll end it says it was for freedom that Christ has set you free

Therefore keep standing firm and do not subject yourself any longer to the yoke of slavery brothers and sisters

Lay down your sins Stand up like Isaac and let the ropes fall down to the ground

There's anything you're struggling with give it over to Christ Because for freedom Christ to set you free remember that this season and remember that all year

Let's pray Lord God each of us are carrying burdens and each of us are carrying different things that we were not designed to carry and Lord while We deserved to be on that cross in your good pleasure you have determined that we would have a substitute

That the Living Christ would be put there in our place And because he's perfectly dying for our sins and our miseries and our failures

Lord, let us not pick them back up again Lord, let us not leave here today

Still wearing the grave clothes that we were delivered from Let us not continue on in the bondage

Addictions or or past sin or failure that Christ has perfectly died for Let us throw off everything that encumbers us and run the race that Christ has given us for freedom

Christ has set us free Lord God, I pray That while this is not a complicated truth to grab hold of word

I do pray that it would be a necessary truth that everyone in here clings to That we would no longer cling to anything that binds us

But Lord we would cling to Christ who has set us free Lord Help us this season to be free and to be free indeed