The Test of Abraham's Faith — Genesis 22

0:00 Okay, so today as you can see from the slide here, we're going to have Genesis 22. There's two huge themes in Genesis 22. One of them is the theme of Abraham's faith. It's great enough. He's mentioned in the catalog of faithful men.

0:25 Matter of fact, he's given possibly a third of the chapter in Hebrews 11. And it mentions in particular his offering of Isaac as a sacrifice to God. The other theme is the theme of the illustration of Abraham and Isaac being an illustration of God the Father and God the Son and how God the Father gave his only son for us. Beautiful illustration. We'll hopefully get into both of these.

0:58 Now, as we open up in our chapter, Genesis 22, the very first verse says, It came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham. And so we have the testing of God. And what I thought is before we got really deep into the story of Abraham, we just take a quick little survey of the way that God tests. What are God's purposes in testing us? And the first point that I'd like to make is to differentiate between the testing of the Lord and the temptations of Satan because they differ so greatly in their purpose.

1:39 Satan only has ill for us. He only desires our destruction. Satan tempts us through our lust to make us sin. And here's the verse, I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter had tempted you and our labor might be in vain. So, this is Paul writing to Thessalonians' concern.

1:59 Satan is a great tempter. He's called a liar and a murderer And even part of the so called Lord's Prayer is, Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil ones. So, Satan is a great enemy. His purposes are exactly the opposite of God's purposes. God tests us under moral responsibility to reveal whether we will remain true to him or not.

2:27 God's objective is exactly the opposite of that of Satan who seeks our downfall. God tests us to reveal our true moral state so that any failure on our faith would be revealed leading to repentance. God is greatly honored when we overcome in the test of faith. And here's a couple of verses. I know also, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness.

2:56 God has great purposes for us. And then, what is man that you should exalt him, that you should set your heart on him, that you should visit him every morning and test him every moment? Do we realize that God is working in every one of our lives and bringing circumstances into them? He's testing us to whether we would remain faithful to him and he also has many purposes in his testing. And so we might ask that question, so what are some of God's purposes in his testing?

3:31 God has our good in mind in his test. And here's here's the verse for it talking about God as he reviewing how he fed them in the wilderness, who fed you in the wilderness with manna, which your fathers did not know that he might humble you and they might test you to do you good in the end. So so we see that God's got these purposes in the way that he is working with us and testing us and putting circumstances in our lives. God has purposes in our lives we might recognize them. Second reason, testing produces patience.

4:49 Third reason, testing develops character. And this is from Romans five:three-five. We also glory in tribulations. That's hard to do, isn't it? Hard to do.

5:06 This is the Apostle Paul speaking. So, have an example there. We glory in tribulations knowing that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance character and character, hope. Now, hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. So, character, what would you call character?

5:33 It's that, sometimes we say it's what you are when nobody else is watching you, character. It's what you are in your inner man, the real you. And as go through the school of God in our lives, the testing of God, we find that he develops character in us. And I think you'd find that particularly illustrated in Abraham through all the testing that God put in his life through the years. Okay, we are purified into something that's very precious to God himself through testing.

6:08 God uses the illustration of the refiner of silver. So in your imagination, you're seeing this ancient scene and here is a crucible and there's hunks of silver ore in there and the refiner is pumping the billows and putting the fire on there and suddenly the mass of silver sort of collapses down into the crucible. You stare in the crucible to see you. And there on the top of the crucible is covered with black stuff. And you kind of give a groan in the master refiner.

6:49 He maybe grins at you and he picks up his spatula and he scrapes off the scum and the impurities on the top. Woah, there's the silver underneath. But then suddenly more impurities come up and it's black. And so he waits a moment and then he carefully scrapes off some more. He does it a number of times.

7:06 But when he's done and he stares down into the crucible and there on the surface of that silver is a perfect mirror. His own reflection is reflected back to him. And what a beautiful example of what testing does in our lives that it sort of purifies us and removes the crud in our lives to the point where where God himself is reflected in our lives. For you, oh God, have tested us. You have refined us as silver is refined.

7:38 And then, behold, I have refined you not as silver. I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, behold, I will refine them and try them. It's a repeated theme in the Old Testament. We're drawn into a closer personal relationship with God by testing.

8:01 And I think we really see that sort of magnified in Abraham. He had come to the point where he had this relationship with God. This is the verse, I will bring one third through the fire and I will refine them as silver is refined, the refiner illustration again, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name. I will answer them.

8:25 Personal relationship. I will say, this is my people. And each one of them will say, the Lord is my God. Beautiful picture. Personal relationship with God through his working in our lives.

8:42 God promises rewards to those who endure temptation. Here's the verse. Blessed is the man who endures temptation. For when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those that love him. God promises rewards.

9:27 By myself I have sworn, I think it says the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, blessing I will bless you. And then he has, in your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. So, we see God does have great and wonderful purposes for us. And I've left the bottom one kind of in bold here just so that we can take it as kind of a theme text for the testing of Abraham. Overcoming in the test of life brings glory to God and eternal blessing to man.

10:16 Now, I would like to go to the story of Abraham and I'd like to go through this... In Genesis 22, I'd like to go through the test of Abraham's faith. So it's introduced in the first verse, And it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham. We've just discussed some of the great purposes that God has in this testing. God tested Abraham.

10:49 Okay. And then the very first thing God said, he said, God said to him, Abraham. And Abraham said, here I am. And my take on that is that in that little statement there, get a sense of a personal relationship of Abraham with God himself. And this is no doubt the result of many, many years of walking with God and of God putting tests into his life and him trusting God and responding.

11:23 The result was that Abraham knew God. He knew God. Now, that's something that each one of us would desire to at least to say we know God better, but that was the relationship that Abraham had with God. Now, in the second verse, we have introduced to us the immensity of the test that Abraham was to be given. Then he...

11:52 So God says, take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you. Take now your son, your only son Isaac whom you love, and offer him as a burnt offering. Now that's a test. And so great is that test that I don't think that if you were to look in all of scripture that you would see anything that quite matched the test that Abraham had. When we pause to think of Abraham as this is the son of promise, this is the one and God is saying to him, sacrifice your son as a burnt offering, the one that you really love.

12:50 We understand it an immense task that Abraham was given. And so then we have in the third verse, Abraham's immediate response. It's a response of faith and we have to be kind of odd by his submission and obedience. So it seems like just the very next morning, he responds. So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey and took two of his young men and and Isaac, his son.

13:21 He splint the wood for the burnt offering and rose and went to the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. So we get this immediate obedience and submission of Abraham. But even if we try to ponder what this was like, see Abraham has to go three days now and he's going along, I suppose riding on the donkey and riding along, just riding and riding and he has to be thinking, right? He has to be thinking and thinking, can I go through this?

14:00 But the wonderful thing is that in spite of the fact that there would be every opportunity for this, we get absolutely no indication but complete faith in Abraham. Wonderful, wonderful example. Wonderful example for us in the area of faith. Abraham did not fail in faith. He was strong in faith.

14:22 And so he goes steadfastly through this three day journey. Finally, they arrive at the place and he lifts his eyes. There's the place up there. So Abraham says to his young men, stay here with the donkeys and the lad and I will go yonder and worship and we will come back to you. Interesting.

14:51 We will come back to you. So so here's... Here is an expression of faith that that we say, woah, what is he saying? He's saying, you know, we're going to go up there, but we will come back. But Abraham, don't you realize that God has told you to sacrifice your son?

15:09 And he says, no, Abraham said, we'll come back to you. What does he mean? Well, we're actually given the reasoning of Abraham. And so I want us to turn, those of you who have Bibles there, just turn in them to Hebrews chapter 11 and I'm going to start reading at the seventeenth verse. It gives us a little rundown of this story and we're told what Abraham actually thought.

16:12 Stood that that meant that that Isaac had to grow up... He might have been pretty much grown up then, but Isaac had to grow up and get married and have children because God said that that his seed would be counted through Isaac. So so Abraham is trying to put together this this commandment from God to go and sacrifice his son with this promise from God that Isaac would grow up and have children and and they would... His seed would be counted through these children. And and he's trying to put this together and then he says, I got it.

16:43 He says, even even if God takes me all the way to this point of offering this my son, God will raise him from the dead. He has to. He... His promises demand that he do so. He'll do it.

16:56 And so and so Abraham had confidence. I think that was a great conclusion. We have to find Abraham's faith remarkable. I I I would I would like... We're we're going to talk about other things as we get through this chapter, but but let's dwell for a minute on Abraham's faith, the example of faith.

17:16 You know, Abel... Abraham is called the father of faith in in the in the book of Galatians chapter three. He's called the father of faith. How'd you like to be called the father of faith? So so your faith was so great that you would say like, wow, there...

17:33 There's the ultimate example of faith. And that's just about it. And probably, Abraham showed faith throughout his life, this is probably the greatest example of his faith. And what an example he is to us. So Abraham says, he...

17:50 We will come back. And so Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. He took the fire in his hand and and he took the fire in his hand and the knife, and the two of them went together. But Isaac spoke to Abraham. So we have...

18:11 Ultimately have the question. It's it's it's just... It's gotta come. Isaac spoke to Abraham and said, my father, and he said, here I am. He says, look, the fire in the wood, but where's the lamb for a burnt offering?

18:26 And Abraham said, my son, God will himself provide... Will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering. So the two of them went together. Now we'd we'd have to kind of ponder what Abraham meant when he said, God will provide for himself a lamb for Barabbas. So what did he mean?

18:53 Was he cryptically saying to Isaac, yeah, God will provide the lamb and by the way, you're the lamb that God's gonna provide. Was he saying that? Or was he looking ahead to the time when when he would look behind him in the thicket and there would be the ram? Was that what he was thinking of? Was he, God will provide himself a lamp?

19:14 Or was he looking clear ahead to the promise of Messiah, the lamb of God that would take away sin. It could be any one of those three. A matter of fact, I'm gonna have to admit to you, I don't know which Abraham actually was thinking about when he said that. Think actually any one of those would be a pretty good application, but I don't know what Abraham was was actually thinking. But what I do know is this, that when when Abraham said that, he said he said, my son, God will provide.

19:47 It was it was a statement of tremendous faith when you think about it. It it was... And we already have the reasoning. We... We've already been...

19:55 It's been open to us through through the New Testament scriptures that Abraham already believed that if he actually... If it came to the point where he actually killed his son that God would raise him from the dead. And so and so here's Abraham and he expresses absolutely and complete... Absolute and complete faith in God. My son, God will provide.

20:19 And what an example we have in him. And so and so I think that I I I really enjoy the the ending of that verse says, so the two of them went together. And so resting in this confidence... Now they go together and in my thinking, I don't know if I'm right or not, in my thinking, there there must surely been some point where Abraham finally stops and explains it to Isaac. But but the remarkable thing is that Isaac submits completely to Abraham when they get there.

21:12 They they come to this point where where Isaac is submitted to his father. He's bound, handed foot. He's laying on the altar... On the wood of the altar. And and Abraham picks up this knife to slay his son, a terrible moment.

21:28 Terrible moment. We'll talk about that a little bit more later because I'm going to go through it again with the other illustration. But at this moment at this moment, the angel of the Lord calls from heaven. I believe if... As you read that what he says, you see that it is actually God himself talking.

21:47 And he says, Abraham, Abraham. And and you can always hear Abraham. Here I am. You know? This is like...

21:55 You know? And and and and God says, do not lay your hand on the ladder. Do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son, your only son, for me. Now, I just want to say that if if you were to search through scriptures, you would find that God condemns the the...

22:15 Condemns human sacrifice and particularly the sacrifice of your own children. So we have to understand that God was not going to allow Abraham to do this. And God knew ahead of time that he wasn't going to allow Abraham to go through with it. And we would have to ask ourselves question like this, and we'll ask this again too. We'll have to ask this question.

22:38 Why would God allow Abraham to go through such a trial? Why would he? And of course, we we... We've already talked about some of the reasons why God does, But we're gonna spend time on Abraham. And and part of the rest of this message is gonna be this.

22:53 How do we answer the question that that God allowed Abraham to go, like, through an ultimate test of faith? But anyway, we know that God stopped it and and Abraham looks around to his back and and, woah, there's a ram caught in the thickest back there. He he goes over and maybe the ram is struggling. I don't know. But he gets hold of that ram and he drags it out of the bushes.

23:18 And and he he slays the lamb the lamb, the lamb of God providing. Now now we would have to say that this would be a very appropriate place to say... To apply the verse that says, God will provide himself a lamb for burnt offering. So in this particular theme or looking at the chapter where it's a test of Abraham's faith, I think that would be a very good application of that verse. And so whatever Abraham actually understood when he said it, because I don't think he understood that God was going to do that, but but that would be that would be the...

23:56 One of the best applications for that. So the ram is provided and dies in place of Isaac, and Isaac is freed. But now in this theme that we're trying to trace through this chapter, it's the theme of Abraham's faith. Faith is put before us as this is what we're after. This is the test of faith.

24:21 We want to see the faith develop. Wouldn't God say that to each of us? And so here is Abraham and Abraham looks up. Put yourself in his shoes for a minute. It's like his son's just been delivered.

24:40 Perhaps in his mind, he clicks back to twenty minutes before, however long before, half an hour before, and Isaac is asking this question and he says, my son, God will provide a lamb for a burnt offering. And now here here he is and and the the the lamb has died. The lamb has been... Has gone... Has died in the place of Isaac.

25:06 And then Abraham, he looks up to heaven. This is this is Don's take on this. He looks up to heaven and he says, wow. Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide. What a God I have.

25:23 That's what he's saying. What a God I have. The Lord will provide. And and then the interesting says is it has this little statement and I I just ponder it. It says, as it is said to this day, fourteenth verse, as it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord, it shall be provided.

26:01 A prophecy in this statement that's saying, it's gonna happen, folks. It's gonna happen. The big one's gonna come, the big sacrifice. Now, I said we'd ask the question again, why? Why would God allow a man to go through such a test as this?

26:18 Why would why would this be? And and, well, I'm going to start off by saying overcoming in the test of life brings glory to God and eternal blessing to man. Well, that's exactly what happened in this. God was glorified, but he was glorified in a great... Even in a greater way than just just Abraham's faith.

26:44 He was glorified in an even greater way. And and I believe that it... It's kind of like this. If if we were to... If if...

26:55 Say say, put yourself in a place of God. And you're looking down here at men, and and they they just don't seem to be able to get it. We kind of understand that, don't we? They just don't seem to be able to get it that that... What did it really mean for God to give his son?

27:13 What did that really mean? I mean, he's God. He's God in heaven. He's so great and mighty. Just do it.

27:20 You know? Just do it. But, you know, I think God's saying, no. No. You you don't have...

27:24 You're not getting it. This was a real sacrifice for me. And so and so it's like God says, now I'm going to ask this man to do something because I'm going to make an illustration. It's gonna be it's gonna be perhaps the most significant illustration of all times outside of the actual act of the Lord Jesus dying of of ex ex... Explanation to us as to what it was that God was doing when he gave his only son.

27:52 And and and so God creates a drama. And it truly is one, a drama for us in which in which a man who was one of the most affectionate fathers and he treasured his son. He was a son of promise that God Almighty, Jehovah God had provided him a son. He waited twenty five, thirty years for this son to arrive all the time with a promise from God. Isaac loved his father and Abraham loved his son.

28:31 And and now God comes along and said and says, Abraham, take now your son, your your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and offer him for a burnt offering. Oh, what must have grasped at his heart? Oh, he must have trembled. Now we know that he did overcome in faith, but but we think he he had... He was pretty human man, you know, and what did he what did...

29:00 How did... And and so and so and so we have Abraham here. The the first thing that he does is he... The next morning after god told him this, he he goes out, he saddles the donkey, and and he he... They told that he split split the wood.

29:21 May... Maybe he actually had the men split the wood, but it almost sounds as though Abraham did it himself. Split the wood for the burnt offering. He call... He he organizes this thing and he he causes it to be done.

29:34 And and and I... What I'm gonna kinda hinge on a bit here is the idea that there was there was some some roles that were being enacted here. So so here's here's the role of the father and the father is the one that that it's his will that this is going to happen. Remember Jesus praying in the Garden Of Gethsemane? It was the father's will that this would happen.

29:59 And over here is the son and he is obediently and submissively obeying the father's will. And so he has some roles going. So here's Abraham. He gets up and he puts the plan into action and they take off on this trip. And then finally they get to the site and here here he stands and there in their view, there's a mountain.

30:28 That's it. That's the one. That... That's that's it. That's the one God told me about.

31:14 So in my thinking of this, it would be like here's the sun. Remember they were up in heaven before this happened. And so the father sends the son down into the world and he takes on humanity. As he's doing so, he's putting the load of wood on his shoulder, so to speak. And he lives a life that's a perfect life that's leading towards a goal at the end of that life.

31:43 And and it's a perfect life that is preparing him for... To be the lamb of God. It's kind of interesting in in in the book of Hebrews chapter two. Lists several reasons why the Lord Jesus became a human being. He partook of humanity.

31:57 And one of them is that he might be be able to be sacrificed. He might be able to die. God can't die, but Jesus could die as a man. And so so so the Lord Jesus comes and and he becomes a man and and he he showed us, so to speak, plays his role. He he's totally obedient to the father, perfect in his ways.

32:22 And in the end, he's a prepared prepared vessel, so to speak. He's the lamb. The lamb that's capable of taking away the sins of the world. So, so we have these roles going on. So, the servants have to remain behind and the lord Jesus said to Peter, he said, where I'm going, you cannot come.

32:46 You cannot come now, but you will come after this. Okay. So the Lord Jesus was going to heaven by way at the cross and he was going to do something that Peter couldn't have anything to do with. Peter Peter wanted to come with his sword. Right?

33:00 Cut off the servants of the high priest ear, but lord said, no, put your sword away. You you can't have a part in this, Peter. This is not something you get to do. And so so the lord Jesus goes to the cross. Okay.

33:16 So let's go ahead with our illustration. So the eighth verse or the seventh verse and the question is asked and it says, my father, look, the fire and the wood, but where's the lamb for the burnt offering? There's a fire. Everything is there. So now I'm going to take the other viewpoint because I'm in an illustration that suggests the other viewpoint.

33:47 Now I don't... I'm not saying that Abraham thought this when he said the Lord will provide. I don't know what Abraham afterthought... Actually thought. But in view of it being a picture of Christ, Abraham is the lamb.

33:59 Okay? God will provide the lamb. I I should... I said Abraham. Isaac is the lamb and god will provide a lamb.

34:09 And Isaac was the lamb of God's... Was the picture of the illustration of the lamb of God's provision. Okay. So we'll just go on with them down... Right down to this this finish.

34:21 So here here, Abraham builds the altar and puts the wood on the altar, and and Isaac willingly submits. And and he's tied hand and feet, and he's laid on the wood. And at this moment, we see the the knife that's raised up. Abraham takes a knife. It's a terrible moment in a way when you think about it.

34:44 And and he's he's ready to thrust the to take his own... The life of his own son. And and and we're... What we're trying to do is we're trying to get it. Okay?

35:32 I kind of in Hebrews 12, it starts off, for consider him, this is what we're trying to do now, consider him who endured such contradictions of sinners against yourself. He was the author and finisher of faith. So the Lord Jesus was was there and and and he was he was there and the father's up above. And the picture, the illustration is that that God has wrath against sin and and and that that this son that's down here, he's he's the one that must bear that wrath. So it's pictured graphically with the knife there hanging over Isaac.

36:20 But let's try in our mind's eye to go to Calvary. And there we see... When we have all this crowd in, they say, well, they're the ones that nailed them to the cross. But say, you're missing the point. The point was that God sort of sent them to do it and that God was working out a sacrifice that would be the big sacrifice for all creation and all time.

36:52 And so the Lord Jesus is hanging nailed to a cross. He's hanging there. He's suffering terrible, terrible suffering. And then suddenly it starts getting dark. And it gets very dark.

37:13 And in our minds, we're trying to pierce the darkness, so to speak. We're trying to see what's going on. And I believe we find the clue for what was going on in one Peter two twenty four where it simply says this, for he bore our own sins in his own body on the tree. He bore our sins in his own body on the tree. And so we see...

37:47 We we we say, oh, okay. That's that's the moment we're talking about here. Now we know that there was intervention of God. My time's up here, so I'll try to close out. We know there was intervention of God and and God calls from heaven, do not lay your hands on on the ladder.

38:06 Do anything to him for now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son, your only son from me. So so God stops Abraham because we know God wasn't going to allow this to happen. He stops Abraham. And in in one sense, the the the picture or the illustration is broken because the Lord Jesus didn't have that privilege of not doing it. The Lord Jesus went right ahead and he died for us, but Isaac didn't have to die.

38:33 But we almost have possibly even a more beautiful illustration than ever because suddenly the type changes, the picture changes. And instead of instead of Isaac being the lamb that's dying there, suddenly there's a lamb over here that's going to die in Isaac's place. And I like to put myself in Isaac's shoes right now in this part of the illustration and say, there it is. There's the picture. That's what he did for me.

39:03 He died on the cross for my sins. Praise the Lord that there was a lamb. There was a lamb that could die in the place of Don Morris. And you could say the same thing too. God God sent his son to be the lamb.

39:21 And and what what a message to each of us that of what god's purposes were. Would we ever have an understanding quite as complete without this story? I don't I don't think it'd be quite as finished or complete without this story that god puts in front of us. Well, the the the result, the consequences is... Are this, that that god blessed Abraham greatly.

39:45 We say, well, well, yeah, I can understand. Here's... What a what a what a a test of faith and he and he was victorious. God blessed Abraham greatly because he went through with that so that we could have an illustration that we would understand what Christ has done for us, and he did it for us. And and so and so I'm going to just go to the last of the prophecies.

40:12 It's the eighteenth verse. And God is giving this blessing to Abraham, and he says, in your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. Now it's interesting. We we might... Some some of these illustrations are are slightly vague.

40:32 Some of them are slightly vague, but here's one that God in a different place of scripture describes for us and and it's found in in Galatians three. I'm just going to turn to it quickly and then we'll close with this. In Galatians three, it's found, I believe it's verse 18. And this is what it says. It's not 18, so let's see what is it.

41:07 I guess it's 16. Okay? Galatians three sixteen. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. The great promises.

41:18 This was not the only time that the promise was made. This is the specific one though that this verse is talking about. And now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He does not say, and to seeds as of many, but as of one, and to your seed who is Christ. And so God makes it very clear to us that that this promise of the seed is talking about Jesus Christ, our precious savior, and and it was prophesied in in a blessing to Abraham.

41:48 And now this this talk is all about simple statement in scripture. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. And and that's what's pictured in Abraham. But now now what we wanna do is just quote the last half of the verse that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Whoever believes in him should not perish.

42:50 Father, we just wanna commit this message to you that we... That everyone here would be uplifted, that those that are saved might just glorify god for for this this illustration of of what the Lord Jesus did and what the Father did. And then if there's any here that have not trusted in the Lord Jesus as their savior, we pray that they would trust in him today for today is the day of salvation. We pray in Jesus' precious name. Amen.