and found in the book of Genesis, beginning in chapter 22 at verse 1, hear the word of the Lord. Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, here I am. Then he said, now take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Mariah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and he split the wood for the burnt offering in a rose and went to the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw a place far off, and Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey, the lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you. So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took the fire in his hand in a knife, and the two of them went together. But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, my father, he said, here I am my son. Then he said, look the fire in the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? And Abraham said, my son, God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering. So the two of them went on together. Then they came to a place of which God had told him, and Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order, and he bound Isaac his son him upon the altar, upon the wood. Abraham stretched out his hand and he took the knife to slay his son. The angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham, so he said, here I am, and he said, do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son from me. Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son. And 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 shall be provided. Then the angel of the Lord called Abraham a second time out of heaven and said, by myself, I have swore and says the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, blessing I will bless you and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand in which is on the seashore. And your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. And your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. So Abraham returned to his young men and they rose and went together to bear Shabah and Abraham dwelt at their Shabah. The word of the Lord, thanks be to God. Let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, we come to a very familiar text and a familiar story this morning. Pray that by your spirit that you would open our eyes to things that perhaps we've passed over in the past, or we would pray that you would be at work in our midst, that you would reign in our midst through the preaching of your word, as it's accompanied by the power of your Holy Spirit. Lord, you know us, you know who we are as we gather before you this morning. We would pray that we would see Christ and Him lift it up. We would pray that the gospel would sound forth, that we would know the freedom that we have in Christ. Lord, speak to us. We so desperately need our vision renewed of who we are in Christ and our calling in this world teach us through your word we pray now in Christ name and then maybe see it. How do you deal with the profound disappointments in your life? How do you deal with broken promises, fractured relationships, unmet expectations, whether they're real expectations, whether they're realistic or not? How do you deal with these things when things start crumbling around you? And more importantly, I would ask how do you interpret these events, these things? And I say more importantly because it's in the interpretation of the events of our lives that will either experience contentment, joy, happiness, a sense of peace, or we won't. How do you interpret the events of your life? John Piper, who might quote often, said this when he was beginning to preach a series on the Book of Job. He made the following statement to the flock and trusted to his care. He said, one of my primary duties I believe is your pastor is to preach and to pray in such a way that when your calamity comes you get God. And even more I think to preach and to pray in such a way that when your calamity comes you will worship God and bless him in it. Now I want you to substitute for the word calamity there. When your dreams are dashed against the rocks, when your expectations of life don't come to fruition, when your life seems more filled with pain and sorrow and disappointment than it does with happiness, or when the Christian life just doesn't seem to be working for you. Now this may seem like an odd way to start this sermon as we're going to look at this great man of faith. But I'm going to pose you something this morning and maybe some of the language that I'm going to use is going to unsettle you a bit. This is PG-13 this morning. I'm not going to say, don't worry, you don't have to send your kids out right now. But I'm going to talk about this passage from the vantage point of Abraham because I think it's so easy for us to take a look at a text like this and to pass over really what's going on here. I mean, God calls Abraham to kill his son. I mean this is mind-boggling. And I think that if we really stop to consider this and enter and walk around in Abraham's sandals for a few minutes, this is calamity striking. All of his expectations, his greatest hopes and dreams were bound up in his son. And now God calls him to sacrifice his son. I want to tell you the story of three people real quick. There was a girl that I served as a resident advisor with at the college that I went to, North Park College in Chicago. And one night we were dormitory monitors together. And as in the course of our conversation, I could tell that she had a bit of an embittered spirit and she was very frustrated. And as I probed a bit, I asking her questions, came to find out that she was preparing to go on to medical school and she had just taken her MCATs and she had gotten the results back and she hadn't done as well as she wanted to do. And so she wasn't getting enough financial aid that she needed. She came from a home where she had already racked up a bunch of money in loans and she just did not know how she was going to go into medical school. And this is what she had been gearing her whole life towards. She had just experienced a broken relationship through a guide that she thought that she was going to marry it was the end of her senior year. And we all know that if you don't aren't dating somebody serious, leave by the end of your senior year in college, there's absolutely no hope for you, right? And she was very embittered. She could not understand like God was doing us to it. And she said something like this to me, I have had it with God. I've had it with God. I'm tired of walking with them. I'm tired of pursuing them. If God wants me, he can come after me. She was angry. Martin Luther, person number two, in his struggle to understand the gospel. He once said to a friend at a point in his spiritual pilgrimage, he said, Christ seems to me as an angry judge with a sword in his hand. You asked me if I love God. This God who dams sinners, who imposes the relentless decrees of his law on their consciences. Love God. Sometimes I hate him. Person number three. There was a woman at a church in Tampa where I served for a year. I didn't know this was coming. She was part of the worship service one morning that she was going to give her testimony. And so I expected a testimony that she would give basically how she came to faith in Christ. Well, she had pervious. And as she got up to share her testimony, she began sharing that her house had just burnt to the ground about a year ago. Literally, just the whole thing burned to the ground with all the heirlooms in it, family pictures, antiques passed down to generations, raised to the ground. And she said through tears in her eyes, this is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. Because I became so attached to these things, it took God doing this thing to get reconnected to him so that I might know real happiness and joy. You know, we're all at different places in our spiritual journey as we come to worship this morning. And we're responding very differently to God's hand that has it worked in our lives. And my prayer is that God would give us grace to rightly interpret and to apprehend his good work in our lives as we look at Abraham this morning. You see, one of the keys as we look at Abraham this morning is this, the manner in which he interpreted the events of his life was through his understanding of who God was in his character. And through a faith that didn't originate within himself but was a gift from God, but that faith was cultured and cultivated by Abraham. And he interpreted all the events of his life in his understanding of who God was in his trust and love for God. Enter Abraham. Now, we would expect anyone to become embedded due to the course of their life in the events of their life. Abraham would certainly be a likely candidate. And I doubt that I certainly prior to preparing for this morning had never really viewed Abraham like this. But I want to read off a few of the things that Abraham experienced during the course of his life after he was called by God to be his child. And tell me if these things, or at least as I'm rattling them off, think if these couldn't cause a person to become embedded. He passed an unsettled life and continued exile up to his 80th year. In other words, when God comes to Abraham, he calls him and says, Abraham, go to this land that I will show you. I mean, you know, if I ever try to pack up a u-hole, and pull it in my driveway, load it up, and my wife came out to me and said, what are you doing? I'm packing a u-hole, we're moving. Where are you moving? We're moving too. I don't know. God just can't move. Just hop on my floor and start driving. He'll let us know. And he goes and he's in continuing exile. He was harassed. He was constantly threatened by the people that surrounded him. He endured a difficult and anxious existence according to Calvin in continual trepidation. Famine had twice driven him out of his new home. He had to move down into Egypt surrounded by a strange people. I mean, if you imagine having to leave your house twice because of the circumstances in that city had become so bad that you had to move and go elsewhere, pack everything up and move. He had reason for the upset with God. Twice, twice his wife was torn from his bosom, taken from his home to live with Pharaoh to join his harem twice. He had been separated from his nephew and actually had to go to war to win his nephew back, lot. And at the risk of his own life, he did so. Constantly in peril, circumstances of Abraham's life were not pleasant. And you know, it helps us to understand why Sarah, when God came to Abraham and he said, by this time next year, you will have a son. And what is Sarah doing? He's sitting in the tent. Oh, yeah. Yeah, right. Yeah, right. Our life has been really pushing. Now, we're going to have a son. Sure. I don't like they obtain a son. Maybe not through God's design, Ishmael, through the maid servant of Sarah. And God told Abraham to drive the son away, a son whom he loved. And finally, God gives them Isaac, the pride and joy of Abraham's home. And the person on whom all the promises that God had made Abraham would hinge. And is there a while they're enjoying peace at home. God suddenly thunders out of heaven, denouncing the sentence of death on this son. And at this point in time, can you see where Abraham might raise his hand and say, enough, enough. Listen, listen, you called me to move. You didn't tell me where I was going. I moved there. And everything came in in this place. You called me to move. I have to leave the place twice and go and live with these Egyptians. But when I get there, they steal my wife. I come back. Finally, finally, I get a son and you drive him away. Enough, enough. I am through with you, God. I threw you the girl I talked to at the dorm in North Park College. You see, we're all at a different point in our pilgrimage. But Abraham didn't respond that way. He didn't respond that way. This is a difficult call and command placed on his life. William Coper and the hymn that we sang this morning shows that he had some idea of this bizarre way that God works in the lives of believers, listening to some of these phrases in the hymn, God works in the mysterious ways, the title itself, God works in the mysterious ways. It says, you fearful saints, the clouds use so much dread. What clouds are these? The clouds of the circumstances of our lives, it looks like we are in constant peril behind a frowning providence. A frowning providence, he hides a smiling face. Frowning providence, this looks like a bad thing. But he's hiding a smiling face. The bud has a what? bitter taste. But sweet will be the flower. And we scan his work in vain, Coper tells us, God is his own interpreter. He will make it plain. But you see, the providence of God in Abraham's life and in our life sometimes, we feel like, and this is the language you might be uncomfortable with. That God is messing with us. Think time. That God is messing with us as his people. Is he messing with Abraham when he says, kill your son. You see you and I, we have a great advantage as we read this text. Verse 1 in the text tells us, it says that God went to test Abraham. So we know immediately that this is a test. I was growing up, but used to have these things that would come on the radio all the time. This has been a test. The emergency broadcasting system. If this wasn't a test, then that's what would have come on your radio and given you detail. We always had these things. But we are given a heads up before the thing came on. This is not a national emergency. Trust me, you'll know what it is. And we're given that benefit at the beginning of this text. This text. We know that Abraham's going to be tested. So we look at this text with very different eyes than Abraham's experience of what happened here. Abraham doesn't know that this is a test. He just knows that this God whom he loves, who has been so faithful to him in the midst of tribulations, trials, difficulties, and hardships, is now calling him to do the most difficult thing that he's ever asked him to do. He does not know that this is a test. It's God messing with Abraham. Well, it feels that way. And maybe you've felt that way before. As you look at the circumstances of your life, man, I know God is good. I know this. I know that he's good. I know that he loves me. I know that he's faithful. But man, it sure feels like he is messing with me. God, you messing with me. You know, I wouldn't have been so bold to harp on this messing with business. If John Calvin hadn't said something like this in one of his commentaries, here's what Calvin said about the messiness of God. Meanwhile, God in a certain sense assumes a double character that by the appearance of disagreement and repugments in which he presents himself in his word, he may distract and wound the breast of a holy man. God in a certain sense assumes a double character. Calvin is saying that in a certain sense, God is apparently acting duplicitous, saying assuming a double character. You know what this would, you know, we see this in the scripture. It's like God comes down, it's Lennox Lewis. Lennox Lewis, this big heavyweight boxer steps in the ring with a toddler. The toddler's just, ooh, really. He lands an unguarded left hook. God, God did this to Abraham's grandson, Jacob. Bless me, God, bless me, God. Okay, Jacob, I bless you. In the hip, he walks with a limp the rest of his life. Very odd blessing. Very similar to person number three. Bless me, God, bless me. All right, I'll set your house on fire. And you'll know true joy. All right, does God mess with his people? Well, I think that God does, but he only messes the blessed, the detached us from the things that we think that we're going to find true joy and happiness. And because God knows that we can't, and we won't, because God knows that only true joy and happiness can be found in him and in him alone. We know from the text this morning that Abraham is rattled. Now, I am administratively challenged, a politically correct way to say that I'm not organized. So I would not have picked up what most commentators picked up in this text, because most commentators say that it is so obvious that Abraham is rattled by this divine imperative. By the way, he goes about things when he rises early the next morning. I read and I said, well, his donkey finally got his men up, Isaac split wood. Most commentators say, listen, Abraham is visibly rattled. He is doing things in a bizarre order here, and it shows that he is moving forward in obedience, but he is kind of dazed. The left hook, the divine punch, he's dazed, but he moves forward in obedience. And now, I think it's important to say this at this point in time, you and I will never face the kind of trial that is in this text that Abraham did. And here's what I mean by that. Abraham's trial and test was very unique in the sense that God comes to him and he contradicts his word. You and I will not ever experience that kind of test or trial. We have the whole Council of God, the canon is closed, and here it is. But at Abraham's point in time, the first five books of the Bible weren't even written. And so Abraham doesn't stand in the privileged position that we did in one sense. So you and I will never face this kind of test from God where God comes to us and says something that is clearly contrary to his word. And this is Calvin says this. He says that God indeed made a trial of Abraham's faith, not in the usual manner, but by drawing him into contest with his own word. Listen to that again. God indeed made a trial of Abraham's faith, not in the usual manner, but by drawing him into contest with his own word. God will not do that. And there's all sorts of wackos walking around and filling prison cells who said, God told me to kill that person. No. God did not tell you to do that. God is telling you to leave my life. I'm so happy with this other person telling me to leave him. God surely wants to be happy. God is not going to do that kind of stuff. He's not going to contradict his word. It's clear he's spoken. We are not going to face the same kind of trial that Abraham did. Calvin agrees. Well, if this is not the usual manner that God tries us, what is the usual manner? Well, according to Calvin, it's this. God's usual manner of trying his people is by causing the dispensations of his providence apparently to contradict his word and requiring them still to rely upon that word, notwithstanding the apparent inconsistency. By causing the dispensations of his providence, Calvin says, the ordering up of our lives to apparently contradict his word. God tells us, I love you. I haven't for you. You haven't built it a prepared place for you, but once so, I wouldn't tell you. And in our experiences, Christians, I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you so much, God. God disciplines those he loves and no discipline is pleasant at the time, but painful. Hebrews produces a harvest of righteousness for those who have been trained by it. I want you to say something with me, and maybe if you don't remember anything else this morning, you remember this, because I hear that the half-life of the sermon is about three hours. When God gets to messing, he's ordering up a blessing. My red neckationist comes out in the pulpit. Say that with me. When God gets to messing, he's ordering up a blessing. One more time. When God gets to messing, he's ordering up a blessing. People are going, oh, man, I don't see that. It's true. It's true. God has put you in a tight place. He loves you. What did he do to Joseph? What did he do to Joseph? You minute for evil, but five minute for good. He could have he could have changed those events in Joseph's life. It's God. I'm going to throw you into a pit, and I'll sell you in this slavery. You're going to end up in jail pining away. My God, you Joseph, and my son, I love you, and you're going to know joy, boy. You are going to know joy. You might not like the past too much to joy, but you will know joy. God's desire to bless Abraham is in a core of the Psalm 1611. To refine his faith that he might know the path of life, he'd be filled with joy in God's presence and experience eternal pleasures from the hand of God. This blessing that Abraham is going to receive, it's going to be a blessing that is only experienced through the trials and tribulations that each of us must face as true disciples of the risen Christ. When God gets them in that messin', he's ordering up a blessing. Some of us need to really embrace this truth this morning because some of us are in a very tight place. Some of us quite frankly, if we're going to be honest, don't like the way God has ordered up our lives and it's tough. But you need to know he loves you. Abraham understood that. And twice in this text, he names the place, the Lord will provide providence. The Lord will provide. And this is one of the second aspects that is so amazing about this text this morning. Is Abraham's confidence in this God? He is so confident that God is for him, and if God is for him, who can be against him? His faith is truly amazing. He is a giant California redwood compared to us, little saplings, in terms of his faith. I don't know if I could do this. I would make a million excuses. I might be the one who said, enough God, enough, come on! Come on, let's see, God is faithful to his people, and by his spirit, he is going to work in us in such a way over time that he is going to mature our faith.
So if you're discouraged as you look at Abraham's faith, saying, I don't have the faith of Abraham, you need to be more discouraged because Abraham isn't the standard. God's holiness is the standard. Even Abraham didn't need to be the standard. But God loves us. If you understand the gospel, our failure in faith, our failure to walk an obedience, our failure to have the right attitudes before God, is all covered across. Yeah, we fail, and we fail a whole lot more than we think we do, and we're a whole lot worse than we think we are. But God's love and grace is so much greater than we ever imagined it was. That's the gospel. God saves sinners. God saves sinners. That's the gospel. I want to highlight four things that we learn from the life of Abraham and closing. That I think that we must have on our radar screen, as we go through the difficulties of life, if we're not going to lose heart. And we must have this as an interpretive tool. This must be at the core of our beliefs, because I think it was at the core of Abraham's. Abraham believed in God's goodness. That's number one. He believed in God's goodness. Now I highlighted a little bit earlier all the difficulties that Abraham experienced, and they were true difficulties and true trials. But you know what? God interpreted a lot. He had another side of that interpretation. He said in the midst of this, I could have died when I went to rescue us. Pharaoh could have killed me in Egypt. I'm still alive even though there was famine. And most importantly, I know the true source of all life. God himself. God has been good to me. He's been good to me. He's been faithful to me. Oh God, you are so good. You are so good. Do we know that God is good? Know that if God is for us, no one can be against us. Do we believe that he who did not spare up his own son, but gave him up for us all? That he will not also, along with him, also graciously give us all things Christ plus more salvation plus more. So I believe that. God is good. Rembrandt has a graphic depiction of the sacrifice of Isaac. And in this painting, Isaac is bound on this altar. He's hog tied and Abraham has his hand on his chin and he's bending his head back and he's got this knife coming down. And that's right about here. And an angel grabs his wrist and jostles the knife loose. And it's falling to the ground. God spared Abraham's son. But he slit the throat of his own. It doesn't matter, beloved, how bad things get. If we're becoming embittered and angry towards God, we have lost sight of the cross. He who did not spare his own son. He is so good. He's so kind. Abraham also believed in God's power. He believed in God's goodness. He believed in God's power. Book of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews chapter 11 verses 17 and falling that Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead. He knew that somehow all the promises were found in Isaac and as he is marching on that three-day journey to Mariah, the writer of the book of Hebrews tells us what's going to happen. He's thinking the whole time. I don't know. I guess God is going to raise him up from the ashes. Think about the faith. Think about the faith in God's power. He reasoned. He thought after he slit Isaac's throat and set that altar on fire and burned into the ashes into ashes, Abraham believed that God was going to raise him to dead from the ashes. That is gospel reasoning. That is the reflections of someone who has true faith. Oh God, you're good. Oh God, you're powerful. You know, raise my son to the ashes, aren't you? Abraham also believed three that God was very active in his life and in the world. He embraced the doctrine of providence. He believed that God would intervene and was continually intervening. No, I think that a lot of Christians today professing Christians live as practical deists and a deist is somebody who believes that God kind of created everything and then kind of went and sat in his lazy boy and has been channel surfing for all eternity and kind of just lets his creation go and he's not involved in it. But you know, Abraham believed in new because it's true that God is intricately involved in all the details of our lives and all the details of our lives. That is so important because we are so equipped to blame our problems and difficulties and everything on our spouses, on our jobs, on our life circumstances, you fill in the blank. God's ordered up your days. God's ordered up your days. He's got you covered. He's ordered up your days in such a way that you don't try to find your satisfaction in idols and things promise life that you'll death and he is at work in your life in all the minute details, ordering, ordering, ordering, ordering, Abraham knew it and if we're not going to lose heart, we better know that as well. R. C. Sproul said this about Martin Luther. He said God put Luther through the torments of hell and dangled him over the pit of hell so that this man could understand grace and once he understood it he would not compromise it. Now if you think about that, that is pretty tough. God put Luther through the torments of hell and dangled him over the pit of hell so that this man could understand grace. What's he going to take for you and I to understand we're more love and we need grace more than anything else? Final thing I'll say is this is that Abraham also believed God would keep his promises. He believed the gospel. Why do I say the gospel? Listen to Galatians 3.8. The scriptures 4 saw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and announce the gospel in advance to Abraham. All nations will be blessed through you. He announced the gospel in advance to Abraham. He believed the gospel and the gospel is simply this that we are a whole lot more sinful than we ever imagined. We don't even come close to emulating the faith of Abraham in terms of our own discipleship and we certainly don't come close to God's standard for righteousness. Your sin in my sin is so great. It's so vast. It's so heinous that we deserve nothing but condemnation, judgment, wrath, and death. We're a whole lot worse than we think we are. Leave the Bible. You'll see that the gospel also teaches us that we are a whole lot more loved than we ever imagined. God is infinitely gracious and compassionate. His love surpasses human understanding that this Christ came to earth. The gospel teaches us. The Son of God came to earth. Live the perfect life was without sin and became the sacrifice upon the altar so that you and I could be clothed in his righteousness and in his righteousness alone. Faith alone in Christ alone. Faith alone in Christ alone in this faith animates our lives to live differently and we must come to this risen Christ. Close with a brief dialogue found in the Chronicles of Narnia for Aslan the Lion who's the great Christ figure is talking with a girl named Jill because all this that I talk about remains over here unless we appropriate. Unless we come to this God every day see if you don't know Christ you need the gospel and if you know Christ you need the gospel and like Jacob I mean that's like I almost picture that that scene in Genesis 32 is riding one of those wild bulls and one of those country bars it's like Jacob holding on to God and God's like you know for me you don't know for me bless me God bless me God bless me God bless me God bless me God okay we got to come to Christ are you not thirsty said the lion I am dying of thirst said Jill then drink said the lion will you promise not to do anything to me if I do come said Jill I make no promise said the lion did you eat girls said Jill oh I swallowed up girls and boys women and men and for cities and realms said the lion and I dare not come drink said Jill then you will die of thirst said the lion oh dear said Jill I suppose I must go and look for another stream there is no other stream said the lion he messes the bless and Christ and Christ alone there is salvation be encouraged God is at work in our midst and in your life for your good God is for us who can be against us let's pray together thank you Lord that you love us enough to discipline us thank you Lord for your kindness to us thank you that you have invited us to drink and that you have made us come that you have called us to yourself faith as a gift it's not something we manufacture but you have given it to us as a gift and now Lord I pray that by your spirit you would cause that faith to grow that we would trust you more and more each day and in the midst of all of our difficulties and trials that we would find you good and powerful active in our lives and that we would be trusting in the gospel of grace that has set us free we ask these things in Christ name Amen