Genesis 22 The Faith of Abraham

Cornerstone Church

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So, over the past few weeks, we've been talking about Abraham's faith journey. A couple of weeks ago, we put up a slide that showed his progression heading towards, more and more towards righteousness, towards sanctification, but having peaks and valleys, if you would.

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And that chart seems to have a point at the top at Mount Moriah, which then showed a continued upward trend.

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As we get through the book of Genesis, once we get into this moment at Mount Moriah, there doesn't seem to be recorded those great valleys.

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Not to say that he became perfect, but clearly the progression for Abraham had come to a point where Mount Moriah is now identified as a test moment for Abraham's faith.

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1 Corinthians 10 .13, no temptation has overtaken you, but such as has come to man.

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God is faithful. He will not allow you to be tempted beyond that which you are able, but with the temptation provides the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.

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I bring that up because in God's sovereignty, Mount Moriah occurs at a point where God knows that Abraham is ready for Mount Moriah.

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Perhaps having been presented with Mount Moriah early on when he goes down to Egypt, perhaps he was not ready yet to be walking that closely with God.

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And in fact, it isn't until Genesis 15 where it said he believed that it was counted unto him for righteousness.

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The reality then is even that even if you are spiritually mature enough, you're still not going to do it without reliance on God.

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So the reality that God is the one who provides, that God is the one who gets through, we're at Genesis 22 and we're going to be looking at this great test.

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Romans 6 .4, I'm going to ask Tim if you would read Romans 6 .4. This was a major part of Jeff's sermon about three or four weeks ago when he did

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Romans 6 .1 -5. Romans 6 .4,

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Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the

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Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. The reality is that our intent, our desire as believers, we still must desire to bury the flesh and to be raised in newness of life.

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We are a new creation, old things have passed, all things are new. With those desires and choices, we now are walking with him.

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There's this reality that the progressive sanctification, I think Jeff that's how you you described it a couple of weeks ago.

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So now we have Abraham is going to be given the opportunity by God to either respond or not respond.

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There's going to be an amazing test. James 1 .2 -4, Consider it all joy brethren when you encounter various trials.

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Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing.

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It's going to start out in chapter 22 with after these things

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God tested Abraham. Now we're going to be looking at this passage and there are two major ways to look at this passage.

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One is to answer the question that's raised in the beginning after these things

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God tested Abraham. It's looking at it from a filter of the test that God presents with Abraham.

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Now how does he meet the challenge of this test? Another way which is an amazing way is to look at it as when they get on top of Mount Moriah the type imagery of the

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Messiah to come. Now either one of these is an amazing way to look at it and both can be.

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Jeff and I talked, do we teach this thing twice? I teach one way, him the other, but I think that might just be a bit much.

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But Jeff is going to speak up when it's time, hang on a minute.

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I'm emphasizing the faith side. Jeff will be able to emphasize the type side. But let's open up with a prayer and then

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I'm going to ask you to read out of that book for us. Okay. Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for Genesis 22.

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Just such an amazing passage that you have given us Lord. We pray that each of us would be challenged in our faith, that our faith would be built up and that we would be strengthened in our most holy faith.

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We give this time to you and pray for you to help us now by the hearing of your word in Jesus name. Amen. Go ahead, read what you got.

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Okay, yeah. So Genesis 22 is clearly a type of Jesus Christ and I think there are eight ways that foreshadow the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

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First, it concerns a father and his unique son of promise. The chapters that precede this one reveal how special Isaac is.

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Similarly, the Bible will reveal God as a father and Jesus as the unique son.

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So in Colossians, he's talked about as the prototokos, the preeminent one, the unique son, or monogamous, the only son.

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In the same way, Genesis 22 stresses that take your son, your only son,

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Isaac. So there's the first image of Christ. The second one is the father must sacrifice his son, which where else are you going to find this in the

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Bible, but that the father must sacrifice his only son. People often ask who killed Jesus.

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The best answer is to say that the father did. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son.

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Third, Abraham's son Isaac goes willingly and he lies down to be sacrificed.

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As Jesus said, no one takes my life away from me, but I lay it down on my own initiative.

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Number four, did you ever notice this? The sacrificial son rides in on a donkey.

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Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey before he was led away to be slaughtered like a lamb.

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Number five, the sacrificial son must climb a mountain. Remember on the mountain of the

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Lord, it will be provided. And here Jesus likewise has to climb the mountain.

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Number six, the one to die must carry the wood of his own sacrifice. Isaac had to carry the wood for the sacrifice in the same way

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Jesus carried the wood of the cross until he crumbled under it. And number seven, a substitute is provided.

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The lamb caught in the thicket is a picture of a substitute provided and Jesus himself would be the substitute for us.

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So this is to mark the place of the Christ until he comes. No substitute would be provided for Jesus.

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It was not possible because he alone would be the substitute to die in the place of sinners. And lastly,

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Abraham expected to receive Isaac back from the dead. And even on the third day, because he journeyed for three days in that sacrificial mode, thinking that his son was as good as dead.

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But figuratively speaking, he receives him back from the dead coming down the mountain. So in all of those things, it's all a picture of Jesus Christ being sacrificed at Calvary.

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And I want us to take this picture as an amazing reality. And this in and of itself is definitely the topic for a study.

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But I wanted him to read that so that we do have that, we don't forget that. Yeah, Rick.

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Just saying the big picture is that God wasn't asking Abraham to do something that he wasn't.

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Absolutely. And what book was that from? It's called Faith Is Not Blind. And who's the author?

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Yeah, I wrote that. It is available on Amazon.

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A shameless plug. Okay, so now here's

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Abraham. And he has gone through an amazing series of interfaces with God starting in chapter 12 and even before, but having his times of failure, having his times of amazing, even laughing when

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God said, you're going to have a son, and so many things.

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And now God is going to tell him, take your son, your only son. We were talking this morning as the three of us got together, we were looking in the book of Ecclesiastes.

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And I'm going to read a verse, Ecclesiastes chapter two, verse 11. Then I consider all that my hands had done and the toil

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I had expanded in doing it, and behold, all was vanity. For Abraham at this point in time, there has to be a certain level of, it's finally come, it's finally to be.

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Isaac, for all accounts, he's either a tweenager or early teenager, but he is a child of some, he's grown to a certain extent.

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And so Abraham has finally seen the culmination of the promise that God has given.

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Now Ishmael is gone and it wasn't going to be the son of the slave girl.

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All of this wasn't to be finally, finally, the chosen, the promised heir is there.

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And now God is going to say, I want you to take your son, your only son, and to sacrifice him, make him a burnt offering.

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The temptation, the first temptation for Abraham would have been to say, this isn't right, this isn't fair, this is my son, you can't be taking my son because in fact, by the way, you already promised that he would be here, this can't be.

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As we were talking this morning out of Ecclesiastes, anything that we have, anything that we do, anything that we accomplish, if the pronoun is first person singular in describing it, then it's basically denying

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God. And Abraham is going to be given the opportunity to accept

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God's decision or to say, first person pronoun, this is my son, you can't do this to me.

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There's a church in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, by the name of Grace St.

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Paul. The background behind this church is that it was a United Methodist church.

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Back when being a United Methodist church was not a bad thing. And they had a healthy congregation, their building was much too small, it was in the center of town, no parking.

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So the congregation went on a program to fund and to build a better building outside of town where there would be parking and everything else, and they accomplished it.

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Then United Methodists went woke and the pastor said, not with us, we are not going woke, we're staying true to scripture.

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And so United Methodists did what they can do based on the bylaws of the United Methodists, they closed the doors because the

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United Methodists owned the building, not the local congregation. And instead of saying, no, we built this by the sweat of our brow, by finding funds, we did this ourselves, they surrendered to God.

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And basically Pastor Dan Meador says, church never was the building, the church of my saints are

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God's saints. This is a picture of what Abraham's going to do. Eventually God comes through with the promise, eventually

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Isaac is born and the family is there. And now one day after these things,

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God tests Abraham. Give me the first three verses. And Rick, if you would get

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Genesis 15, one ready, Genesis 17, 21, Carol, and Candy, Genesis 18, 14.

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If you would get those verses ready, go ahead. After these things, God tested Abraham and said to him,

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Abraham, and he said, here I am. He said, take your son, your only son,

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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

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I shall tell you. After finally receiving the promised heir, after all of this thing, after receiving the promised heir and after eventually getting through all of these valleys of disbelief, if you would,

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Abraham's faith is now going to be tested to the fullest extent. When God called, what is

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Abraham's response when God called? That is a powerful testimony to say, here am

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I. This is an indication of completely acceptance of God's design, of God's sovereignty, of God's plan.

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And Abraham calls down, God calls down to Abraham and Abraham says, here am

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I. I don't know what level of exuberance, my mind goes to Isaiah, when

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Isaiah is somehow transformed into the very throne room of God, God says, who will go?

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And Abraham, I love to do this, and he had to be almost giddy, me, me, take me.

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And here is Abraham now, and God says, hello, and he says, here

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I am. And then Abraham is given these words, take your son, your only son,

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Isaac, whom you love, take him, go to the land and offer him as a burnt offering.

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And then verse three, so Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey and took two of his young men with him and his son,

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Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

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So Abraham is going to hear these words, not challenging these words. He is just going to rise early and he's going to start the journey.

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He is going to take Isaac, his son, his only son, and he's going to saddle him on a donkey.

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I hadn't picked that one up until you mentioned that, that the donkey, the donkey, what an amazing type there is there.

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But now he takes them and he takes the wood and they head out to the place that God had told them.

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Now, this again is Abraham. If we start out in chapter 12, verse one to three, we have the promise.

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I will show you, I will make you, I will bless you. And all these promises that are given to him and that his offspring would be.

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These were all promises that were given. And then in Genesis 15, go ahead. First one.

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Yeah. After these things, the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision. Fear not,

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Abraham, I am your shield. The reward shall be very great. These are words that are given to Abraham, but they're very powerfully given to each one of us who believe in the name of the

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Lord. There are times of trial. There are times of testing. There are things that we would really rather not go through.

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But can you hear the Lord saying to you in your heart, fear not, I am the shield for you and your reward will be great.

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It doesn't say, I'm going to take this trial away from you. It says, don't be afraid because I'm your shield.

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And at the backside, your reward will be great. And I have to think that these words would have encouraged

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Abraham in this time. Take your son, your only son, sacrifice him as a burnt offering.

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Going back to the words, do not be afraid. I am your shield and your reward will be great.

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1721. If Abraham knows that God has said this, that the covenant promise that Abraham has received and has had repeated is through Isaac.

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How could that covenant promise be actually carried out if he kills his son,

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Isaac? But then we go back to 1501. Don't be afraid. I'll be your shield and your rewards will be great.

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And then 1814 answers why he is able to do what he is doing when he is commanded.

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1814. Is anything too hard?

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If their family situations are brutal, if the work situation is tough, if the community is up at arms because the church dares to stand against pornography, is anything too hard for the

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Lord? The answer, that's a rhetorical question. The answer is nothing too hard. Proverbs 3 has got,

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I think, our strength that we can hold on, trust in the Lord with all your heart and not on your own understanding.

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And then he will. That's who we are. So God can be trusted to take care of, get this, what he already owns.

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So for Abraham, yes, it's his son and it's been waited for for over a hundred years.

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But who owns Isaac? Not Abraham. God owns Isaac. And if you can make that reality for you,

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I think of the rich young ruler. I have that further on down. He said,

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I kept all of the commandments from my youth until it got to the very last one, sell what you have. He had to realize that what he was selling was already

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God's anyway. So the response was here I am.

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And the response was without reservation. I'm ready to go. And he rises early to go forward.

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You're going to give me four to eight, John 4, 23, Tim. And Sue, are you able to read for it?

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Nope. Okay. Bob, if you would get Deuteronomy 6, Romans 12, 1, you're going to be doing double duty.

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Okay. All right. And then Psalm 73, Rick, if you would get, give me four to eight, please. All right.

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Genesis 22, 4 to 8. On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.

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Then Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey. I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.

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And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife.

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So they both went. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father,

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Abraham, my father. And he said, here I am, my son. He said, behold, the fire and the wood.

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But where is the lamb for the burnt offering? And verse eight. Abraham said,

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God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son. So they went both of them together.

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Three days journey. Now, again, the type of three days in the tomb, but the three days journey that had to have given

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Abraham a lot of time to think about, what am I really doing? Did you ever ask yourself, what did

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Abraham tell Sarah as they were getting ready to leave? I didn't tell her. You know what?

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God just told me to take him somewhere, don't know where, but we're on our way. And I'm supposed to offer him as a burnt sacrifice.

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Now, we don't know if that conversation went, but did the conversation that include the phrase, don't worry, because God will provide.

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Yeah, Rick. In verse two, it says, take your son, your only son,

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Isaac, whom you love. I have a note in my Bible. This is the first reference to love and for God to acknowledge the love of the father to the son and then ask him to do this.

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Wow. The juxtaposition is quite interesting. That's a great insight.

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That's amazing. And the reality that the relationship between Abraham and his son,

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Isaac, and this, thank you, that is amazing. So he's going to be going for three days, doesn't know where, but God is going to show him where.

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And he responds by taking Isaac, he's got a donkey, I didn't pick up on that one. He's got firewood.

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And there is no indication of unwavering, his faith is unwavering at this time, that they're going to be going in front of Yahweh.

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Think about when they went down to Egypt, because there was famine in the land. Abraham's taking care of business, his family needs to be fed.

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There's no indication of God, do you want us to go to Egypt? You told us to go to this land, we're leaving the land, we're going.

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There's no indication of that. And what does he do? Tell him you're my sister. There's no indication of any wavering of his faith.

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And by the statement, when Isaac says, where is the lamb?

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And God says, God will provide for himself the lamb. That's an amazing profession of faith that can only come from the grace of God, through God's revealing to him, but a reliance that, okay, there's one of a couple of things that could happen here.

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My son's going to die, and I'm coming back alone. My son's going to die, but God is going to raise him back from the dead.

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Or my son's not going to die, but there's going to be a lamb. In any event, Abraham is going without any reservation.

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When questioned by his son, he testified his faith by saying, God will provide. In one way or another,

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God is going to provide. For Abraham to be able to say this and to do this is unnatural.

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It isn't a father's protective care for his son. This is not a natural thing.

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And so when this idea of worship is going to come to be, there's going to be a heart desiring worship.

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Who's got John 4 .23? That's me. Yeah. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the

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Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship him. Now we go back to Abraham, and there is definitely a spirit of worship that comes deep from the heart.

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And we come into the time of Jesus where the Pharisees are worshiping almost themselves.

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The rules, their religion, their authority, they're almost worshiping that. But there isn't a worship for Yahweh.

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Now we go into the early church, where when Paul is on his missionary journeys, when the diaspora occurs and churches are sprung up.

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But then there is a loss of fervor to the point now in the 21st century where we're seeing churches, there is no real worship.

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One of the things of dismay, Wednesday, was the significant number of people that stood up in testimony against the removal of pornography.

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They never heard that. They said we're banning books. But they would get up and introduce themselves by saying,

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I'm a Christian. I'm sorry, you're not. I really wanted to go up and say,

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I'm sorry, but you're not. Worship in word is not worship.

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Worship in truth. Deuteronomy 6. Hear, O Israel, the

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Lord is our God, for the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your

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God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

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They go, and they head up, and as they're now in front of the mountain that they have to climb, the reality is the time has come.

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God has told me that I must present my son Isaac as a burnt offering.

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And so the decision is to leave the donkey behind, by the way. They're going to climb by foot up this mountain, just the two of them, with the wood, with the fire, with the knife.

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Everything is going to be there for a sacrifice. And Isaac's going to look around, and he's going to say,

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Father, I see the wood. I see the fire. I see the knife, but something's missing.

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I said, no, God's going to provide. God is going to provide. He is ready.

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Abraham is ready to, in essence, sacrifice himself, because by killing

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Isaac, his heir is gone. You've got Romans 12 on?

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Yes. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

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What he is doing is obedience to God, and a spiritual worship of God. Yes.

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Looking up that mountain, and having to climb that mountain, laying the wood on his son.

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Again, Jeff, another great picture of the type of Christ carrying the cross up there.

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He has the knife pierced in the side, perhaps, another type.

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There are so many types, but Abraham has to be working through in his own mind. There is only one way that he accomplishes this, and that's reliance on God's sovereign power.

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There's only one way that he gets to this point, and I believe that that is the grace of God within his heart to overcome what the flesh would demand that he does.

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Psalm 73, Rick? Yeah, this is Isaac speaking. Whom have

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I in heaven but you? My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

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These are great words to have, and especially in times of difficulty.

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I think of Tim McCormick, who his job is on the line, should he stand up against gender equity and saying, boys don't girl girls bathrooms in the workplace, his job could be on the line, but to be able to stand up and say that my flesh may fail, but God is my strength, and that's all you need is that God is your strength.

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Here's an old, by the way, where is Mount Moriah today? This is kind of cool.

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This is Jerusalem. Jerusalem is on Mount Moriah, and the fact that God is another type, that God is going to take

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Abraham and Isaac from where they are, they're down in the Negev at this point in time, which is in the southern region, a three -day journey, and they end up to what today is

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Jerusalem and Mount Moriah, and that's where the sacrifice is going to occur.

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It's kind of cool to see how God's picture just interweaves, and so although the journey would have provided Abraham with a lot of time to think about, what am

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I about to do, and what am I going to tell Sarah when I get back, all of these things could be going through his mind.

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His faith is totally unwavering. You see, he could see that God already saw through the events, and he's going to provide the way out so that he could endure it.

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Now, you're going to read 9 to 14. Carol, you're going to have Hebrews 22. Yes, Romans 3, 23 to 25.

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We have to read that because we got to add verse 25 on to it. I think

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I'll talk to the rest of them, recognizing time. Go give me 9 to 14, please. Genesis 22, 9 to 14.

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When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound

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Isaac, his son, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son, but the angel of the

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Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham, and he said, Here I am. He said,

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Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear

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God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns.

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And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

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So Abraham called the name of that place the Lord will provide, as it is said to this day, on the mount of the

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Lord it shall be provided. The word provided there is ra 'ah in Hebrew.

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And ra 'ah, when you look for its usage in the Old Testament, because it's

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Hebrew, this is really the only place where it's translated provide.

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Ra 'ah is used, the Lord will see. That's its predominant use.

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But look at the beauty of it. What Abraham is about to go through, God is watching.

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What Abraham is about to experience, God already sees what's going to happen.

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And when God sees the need and the experience, the provision of God is the natural result of God's nature, is to take care of it.

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So the word ra 'ah being said provide here can easily be said

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God sees and provides. It could easily be said that as well. So in verse 8,

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God will provide. He knew that God was watching. God sees and he will provide.

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And further on down, the Lord will provide. The Lord will always be there, always seeing.

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And in his power, he is always ready to provide. So when they came to the place provided by God, Abraham and Isaac's faith never faltered.

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And I have to throw into that Isaac's faith never faltered. Now let's put this into perspective.

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At this point in time, Abraham is over 110 years old. He's 100 years old when

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Isaac is born. Isaac is perhaps a teenager, maybe a young teenager because he's capable of carrying wood and stuff up a mountain.

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But he's got to be a strapping young lad of some sort. And he's already noticed, we have wood, we have fire, we have a knife, but where's the lamb?

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He's already noticed this. But in obedience to his father, and I think by translation, obedience to God's command to his father, he goes up without any indication of resistance, but they walk up the mountain together.

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It's a beautiful picture of unwavering faith. First of all, for Abraham, this is it. This is my promised heir.

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And for Isaac, daddy, I'm trusting you. And they both go up together.

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So Abraham builds an altar. By the way, where is that altar built?

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In Jerusalem. What eventually is built in Jerusalem?

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The temple. And what eventually happens in the temple when it is completely built and consecrated?

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What happens in that temple? What comes? The Shekinah glory.

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Yeah. The Shekinah glory comes and abides in the Holy of Holies.

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Same place. Same place as what's going to go on here as they climb up and they go to the top and Abraham builds an altar.

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Now he prepares the altar, he lays down the wood, he binds his son

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Isaac and lays him. He actually goes through the preparation. He does not stop or resist.

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He is ready to do the work that needs to be done. Give me a roll.

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Did I give Hebrews 29 to somebody? Yeah, go ahead. We can say that according to the law of Moses, nearly everything was purified by sprinkling the blood.

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Without shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. Abraham is going to have to kill with a knife his son, his only son whom he loves.

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The shedding of blood is going to be done. At the beginning of this chapter, God is going to test

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Abraham, test his faith. And what will have to happen is going to have to be a sacrifice, a blood sacrifice on an altar that's prepared.

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Romans 3 .23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We know this verse and I like to add verse 24 on to it, but we're going to add 25 this time.

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Go ahead. Romans 3 .24

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and 5. Romans 3 .23, for all have sinned.

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For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus when

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God set forth to be a propitiation by His blood through faith to demonstrate

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His righteousness because in His forbearance, God had passed over the sins that were previously committed.

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Okay, sinner, freely by grace, bloodshed. This is the picture of God's economy on how sin is taken care of.

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Abraham is going to go up onto the mountain, the test of faith, and he is going to be prepared.

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The picture of Abraham, and he is an older man, actually older than me. He's really old, older than you too,

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Rick. And he's going to take a young strapping, who do we have in the church that's about 12, 13 years old, boy?

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That's strong. Who do we have that's 12 or 13, a boy? Tim's 14 now, so.

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All right, so let's take Tim. Let's take Tim as an example, because that very well could be the age of Isaac.

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We got to add another 70 years to your life. Okay. You're going to build this altar, you're going to put the wood down, the fire is there, and you're going to take

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Tim, and you're going to bind him with cord, and Tim's going to just stand there and let you do this.

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That's why I say I'm wavering faith for Tim as well. The Lord Jesus went on the cross.

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The Lord Jesus laid down on the cross. The Roman soldiers took the spikes and the hammer.

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They didn't put him there, he went there willingly, and he went there according to God's sovereign will and obedience.

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Isaac goes down, and he's ready, he's ready to do it.

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He's got the hand up. The angel said, Abraham, Abraham. And by the way, this is the third time in this passage

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Abraham says, here I am. In the earlier other one it said, here am I, but it's the same words.

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Here I am. I am all in. I am all in.

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And here's Abraham with the knife ready to plunge, and the angel says, Abraham, Abraham. And Abraham's response is, here

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I am. I'm doing what God told me to do, to sacrifice my son.

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And once I slay my son, there's the fire, there's the wood, and it will be a burnt offering to the

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Lord. Psalm 51 17 says, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart.

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They are not actions, and they are not just exterior manifestations.

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Matthew, yeah, Rick. I was just thinking that one of the amazing things is that Isaac shows no signs of resistance.

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That's amazing. Yes. I'm wondering if God calmed him in some way.

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There had to be the grace of God in his heart. Yeah, because I can't picture. I think it's a picture of Jesus being willing.

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Yeah. He's just going with the Father's will, even though it seems harder. Yeah, especially at that age.

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Yeah. Absolutely, absolutely. Now, some commentaries do think that he could have been like low 20s or even up to 33 years old.

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That Isaac would have been that old? That's what some commentators say. Okay, and I don't deny that because we can't prove it one way or the other.

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Only because the word lad could could also mean young man. Okay. Yeah. Okay. And that's there.

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We can't prove that one. And he carried the wood all that way. I'm picturing more, maybe at least an older teenager.

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The only reason we have to date how old he was is the beginning of verse 23.

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Sarah lived 127 years. So that's roughly 37 years after the birth of Isaac.

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So the time span between the birth of Isaac and chapter 23 and where does

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Mount Moriah occur is purely speculation. It really, really is. Yeah. Was she still alive when he took her?

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Yeah. Well, I say that with such assurance, believing the chronology, starting in verse 20, we start to transition from Mount Moriah to the continuation of Abraham's life, because we're going to read

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Jephthah. After these things, it was told to Abraham, the whole Micah. So we start to see a chronology of events after Mount Moriah.

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So the implication is that Sarah still is still is alive. We know about the rich young ruler.

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He could give up everything but his possessions. Abraham doesn't have that problem. He could even give up his son.

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And then as he's up there ready to do the battle, he just believes God is going to do in Psalm 27, be strong, wait for the

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Lord. He is going to work this out according to his desires. Because Isaiah 1 .11,

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it says, I take no pleasure in burnt offerings. But it says, I want your heart.

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And Abraham is up there with faith, giving his heart, seeing that it will come through.

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John 1 .29, I'm sure you could speak to that one, behold the Lamb of God. Because he said, go look, there's a ram in the thicket.

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God provides the sacrifice for Abraham. God provided the sacrifice for us.

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Romans 8 .32, God did not spare his own son. Delivered him.

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Only God can provide an adequate sacrifice. When they were up on the mountain, Isaac would not have been an adequate sacrifice.

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But the ram was. What God observed was the obedience of Abraham when he got up there.

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Give me verses 15 to 19, please. And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, by myself

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I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son,

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I will surely bless you. And I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.

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And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies. And in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.

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So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba.

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And Abraham lived at Beersheba. So I want to go back into verse 12.

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It says that the angel says, do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him.

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For now I know that you fear God. God already knew. This is not a revelation to God.

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It says the angel of the Lord called and said, by myself I have sworn, declares the

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Lord, because you have done this and not withheld your son, I will... There is not a cause and effect that God was caught by...

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Really? He didn't? He was willing to... He didn't back down? Confirmation.

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For who? Not for God. Abraham. And it's a lesson and it's a foreshadowing for us on how

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God responds to who we are. It said that in the beginning that God was going to test

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Abraham. He already knew the results of that test. I'm sure your students would have loved to know before you gave them a test what the outcome was going to be.

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You probably knew some of your students what their outcome would be. These are smart ones. These are the dumb ones.

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But God already knew what was going to happen on that three -day journey, on that climb up to Mount Moriah, on building the altar, on taking the knife, on binding

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Isaac, on two of them being part of this. By myself I have sworn, because you have done this, this is not news to God.

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This is affirmation to Abraham. He says, now I am going to bless you.

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I will surely multiply your offspring and the possessions. All of it which he has promised to him will come true.

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By the way, it's still going to come true. We're in the church age right now. Sometimes it's called a parenthesis between the 69th and 70th week of Daniel.

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Revelation is still God's fulfillment of his promise to his chosen people.

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It will come to be. My takeaway from this. On Mount Moriah, God provided two times.

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First time was with Abraham substituting a lamb for Abraham's son.

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On the second time, he substituted his own son as a payment for my sin.

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Two provisions. The second one is so life -changing for us. How do we get through this?

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How do we walk in this by faith? Faith obeys. Faith obeys.

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Trusting the Lord for his sovereign will to accomplish his sovereign plan. Faith obeys. He has asked you.

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He has told you. He has placed you. Faith obeys and faith then surrenders without holding back as Abraham did.

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No reluctance. No holding back. Then faith waits on the Lord. It's his timing.

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We would love to know right now what's going to happen to our land. What's going to happen for our building?

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We would love to know these things. But faith waits in God's timing. Do you want to close this please?

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Yes. Father, we thank you that on the mountain of the Lord, it has been provided. Behold the lamb that takes away the sin of the world.

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We thank you for the sacrifice of your one and only son, your beloved son.

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And Lord, now we pray for more faith on our part, Lord, that we would wait on you. That we would surrender without holding back.

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God, that we would obey and trust you to accomplish your sovereign plan. So thank you, Lord, for this incredible teaching from Genesis chapter 22.

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And we do ask that you would grant both repentance and faith to your people in Jesus' name. Amen.