The Son of Promise

Thank you for reading this sermon from Christ Fellowship. I hope and pray that this sermon will be a blessing of grace and truth to you. With that said, let me encourage you not to use this sermon as a replacement for your local church. Christ Jesus did not establish his Church simply for us to consume content. Instead, He calls us to be part of a real, covenant family.

Alright, let’s go ahead and go into our sermon for this morning. We’ll be in Genesis 22, if you want to turn there. We’re continuing our series, The Road to Emmaus, where we go through Old Testament stories. We see Christ displayed in them. And that’s really what we see this morning in our text. Before we go into it, I want you to think of the person who matters most to you in life. Think about the person you love the most, the person you cherish. Just imagine how hard life would be without them. Just one day they weren’t in your world anymore. They weren’t around you. It’s a hard exercise for us to do. We don’t even want to think about that. We block out any possibility in our mind that this could happen, just because of the pain that it would cause. This would be horrible, but even worse, think about if God asked you to take the life of this person. If God asked you to give this person up instead of keeping them in your life. We can’t even really imagine that. We would never think that God would ask that of us. It just doesn’t seem to fit with who God is and who we know him to be. Yet this is what we find in our text this morning. This is actually what God asked Abraham to do to give up his beloved son, Isaac. And so as we go into this text, I think we see this bring up a question for Abraham. It’s a question that’s brought up for us as well. Can we trust God? Can we trust him when his word seems to conflict with our experience and our knowledge? This is a question we’re going to explore this morning. Can we trust God? So just a little background for where we’re at in Genesis. We’ve been covering the life of Abraham a little bit. So God calls him out of this home country, promises to make this great nation out of Abraham and his descendants. So God, he’s faithful to Abraham even when Abraham falls short. God makes a covenant with Abraham that he’s going to keep this promise to him no matter what. The only problem is Abraham and Sarah, they still don’t have a son at this point. They’re very old. They’re questioning, is God going to fulfill his promise? So we still don’t have a son to extend our line and our descendants. And so finally God, he he them with their son, Isaac. So God is faithful to his word. He blesses them. They They their son. And it seems like everything’s on track. It seems like everything’s going well. They have the son of promise, the child of promise, who God is going to fulfill all these blessings through. And then we come to our text this morning, Genesis 22. Let’s go ahead and jump into it, starting in verse 1 and 2. After these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham. And he said, Here I am, Lord. He said, Take 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 shall tell you. So imagine the shock that Abraham experiences when God asked him to make this sacrifice. Like I said, they’ve been waiting for years to have this son, Isaac. They finally receive him. Everything’s going well. And God asked Abraham to give him up. This is their only son at this point. They love him deeply. And God asked us of him. And not only that, God doesn’t just ask, Hey, give Isaac up, let him go. He actually tells Abraham to make this sacrifice himself. He commands Abraham to be the one to take the life of Isaac. He tells him to travel to this mountain with his son and make this sacrifice. And so I think this story is supposed to shock us to some degree. It’s supposed to make us uncomfortable and really wrestle with the text like God would ask this. So you place yourself in the shoes of Abraham. You don’t really know that this is a test. Like you really believe that God is asking you to sacrifice your son. And it seems to be in contradiction to what God has already told you. He’s already given you his word that he will fulfill his promises through this son. And now he’s asking you to sacrifice him. This doesn’t seem to make sense for Abraham. It doesn’t seem to make sense to us. And like I said, it would raise this question. Can I trust God? Can I trust him when this seems to contradict what I know and what I experience? I think we all experience this questioning to some degree in our life, no matter what it is. Maybe for you, your experience is fear. You’re tempted to hide. You’re tempted to show yourself. You want to hide behind this facade. God, the question you’re asking is, can I trust God to be my security? Can I actually trust him to protect me, to be my source of comfort, my source of identity? Maybe your experience is despair and your struggle against sin? You’re like, man, God, why am I still wrestling with this sin? I thought I was supposed to be able to obey. You’re starting to ask the question, God, like, can you actually deliver me from my sin? Can you actually cleanse me of my sin? You’re like me. You’re tempted to prove yourself to others. You want people to applaud what you do. You want to find your identity and everything that you work for, who you are. You’re asking the question, is God’s approval enough for me? Can I really trust that God’s approval is all I need and rest in him? So this question, it is relevant for us. We do experience this obedience. It’s always a question of, do I trust God? Can I trust him? So this is a question that Abraham faces. It’s a question that we face as we go through this text. So let’s go back in starting in verse 3, 3-8. So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son, Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. 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. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his his And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went, both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, my father, and he said, here I am, my son. He said, behold, the fire in the wood, the where’s the lamb for a burnt offering? Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son. So they went, both of them together. So the first surprise of this story is that God actually asked this of Abraham. That kind of shocks us off the bat. But I think there’s another surprise that Abraham obeys just like with unquestioning obedience. It’s kind of surprising, like we would expect Abraham to be like, God, why are you asking me of this? What’s the purpose behind this? But we don’t see him do that. We just see Abraham obey without hesitation. He gets up early. He makes all the preparations he needs. He gets Isaac and he starts traveling. He starts obeying God. And so as they’re making this path, I’m sure it’s hard for Abraham to be obedient. I I this is a three-day journey that he’s making with Isaac. The whole time he’s probably contemplating, man, like, I’m going to have to obey God. I’m going to have to give up my son at the end of this journey. So what does this show us? So like I said, we do wrestle with this question, how how I trust God? How do I trust God? And that is a question we need to ask. But before that, we need to understand that it’s actually not a question for God. God’s not asking for our trust. He’s actually demanding it of us. He demands our trust whether we understand his commandments or not. I’m sure Abraham didn’t understand why God asked him to do this, but he did obey. So we’re not in a position to judge the Word of God. We’re not in a position to make a call on whether it’s reasonable or not. Our position is sitting beneath the authority of God’s Word, submitting to it. And we have to have that basis as we do face this question of trust. James, the apostle James, he actually uses this story as an example of what it means to trust in God and how we show that faith in him. In James 2 he says, You see that faith was active along with his works and faith was completed by his works. And the scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. And he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. What is James saying? He’s saying, if if truly have faith in God, then we express that in our works. If we say that we believe God, we say that we trust in him, then we will respond in obedience. We can’t say that our faith in God is real if we’re not willing to answer his call. So this is a helpful framework for our faith as we are wrestling through different issues, as we’re facing the question of obedience. It’s It’s helpful framework. When we’re faced with that question, can I trust God? We have to answer that with I must trust God. I must submit to him by being obedient, by expressing my faith. So we have to be in a position of submission under the word of God, trusting in him, obeying out of faith. But this isn’t a blind faith that we have in God. We still do have a reason to place our faith in God. It’s not because we know his plan. It’s not because we know his reasoning. But there is something that our trust rests in. There’s something that we can look to God and say, yes God, I do trust you because of this. So what is that something? What is it that makes Abraham so willing to even obey this commandment that God gives him to give up his son? What is the object of his faith? We look back at our texts for seven and eight. We see Isaac ask Abraham where the land is for the burnt offering. And Abraham responds that God will provide for himself the land for the burnt offering. God will provide. We see Abraham’s faith that’s rooted in the provision of the Lord. It’s rooted in God’s provision, not his own. So why do we obey God? Why is our faith in him? It’s because we trust that he will provide for us. Our trust is not found in what we can secure for ourselves. Our trust is not even in our own obedience. Our earthly comforts that we have. Our satisfaction is not found in what we provide. We obey out of a deep trust that God has provided for us. And so if you hear this morning and your heart is asking that question, can I trust God? The answer is yes, because he provides for you. Because he will provide for you. You don’t need to cling to the things of this world. You don’t need to secure for yourself what you think will give you peace. What God provides for us. Far surpasses anything we can provide for ourselves. And what God provides for us, it’s the same thing that he provides for Abraham here. God provides for us a sacrifice. Let’s go back to our text starting in verse 9. 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 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 Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham, and he said, here I am. He said, do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear 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 thorns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, the Lord will provide. As it is said to this day, on the mount of the Lord, it shall be provided. Abraham, he he that God will provide and God provides for him. But notice something here in the text. Abraham, he says that God will provide a lamb for this sacrifice. But God actually doesn’t do that. He provides a ram for this sacrifice. So there’s a difference here. Why would you provide a ram when Abraham thinks that a lamb is coming? It seems like a minor difference. It’s actually very important. Because this ram, it functions just as a placeholder. It functions for the lamb of God that will eventually come and be the true sacrifice that all of God’s people look forward to. In John 1, upon seeing Jesus, John the Baptist, he cries out, Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. So what does God provide for us? Provides His Son. Provides His Son as a sacrifice for us. It’s fulfillment of His provision. Abraham’s faith, it actually just points toward to Jesus as this ultimate fulfillment. Hebrews 11 says that Abraham was able to offer Isaac up because he believed that God could even raise him from the dead. So this is amazing that this early in the biblical story, you see that Abraham believes in the gospel. He believes that even though his son may die, God has the power to raise him from the dead. He believes that God can provide a sacrificial death. And that’s the source of his obedience. It’s the source of his faith. It’s the source of our faith as well. That God, he will and he has provided a sacrificial death in our place. And not only that, he’s raised his son and he’s brought us into that life that his son has. Christ has the provision that God gives as the center of this story. So we’ve been looking at this chapter so far, kind of placing ourselves in Abraham’s shoes. And we’ve been thinking through, you know, what does it look like to trust God? What does it look like to obey him? And we need to do that. That’s what the New Testament does. It holds up Abraham as this example of faith. But we can only learn from Abraham’s faithfulness when we behold the God who his faith is in. This is really directing us to look at God and who he is and his faithfulness. And that’s what strengthens our faith. If you look back through the text here, there’s a couple of phrases that are repeated throughout it. The first one that you see repeated is, here I am. So Abraham, when God calls to him in chapter one, he says, here I am. When Isaac asks Abraham where the sacrifice is, Abraham says, right, or Abraham says, here I am. Then when the angel of the Lord appears to stop Abraham from making the sacrifice, Abraham says, here I am. And so this phrase in Hebrew is actually one word, hina, and it means behold. And it kind of conveys this sense of, I’m beholding God, like the presence of God before me. Behold, there is God and I am before him. Moses, he says this when God appears in the burning bush. Isaiah says this, Isaiah 6, when the voice of the Lord comes to him. And so it’s just a reverent submission of looking upon God, like behold God. The other phrase we see is the Lord will provide. See this repeated throughout the text. Abraham believes that the Lord will provide a sacrifice. He names the place of sacrifice the Lord will provide. And then even in Israel to this day, that they’re reading this, they’re still saying that on the Mount the Lord shall provide. And so when you put these two phrases together that are repeated throughout the text, really like the main message here is behold the Lord who will provide. Behold God, the one who will bring provision. And that’s the message for us this morning. It’s to come and behold God, behold him who has provided his son for us. The story really is about beholding the love of God as a father. To God, he’s been the father of Jesus from all of eternity. If you compare him to Abraham, God, he walks with his son Jesus. Jesus has a son depends on God, he trusts in him. God walked with Jesus his whole earthly life all the way until they reached the mountain of sacrifice. And when Jesus gets to the top of this mountain, he’s bound to the wood of the cross. And there is no replacement for him. There is no ram that appears. He wasn’t returned to the embrace of his father. Instead, his father is the one that actually does sacrifice him. God pours his wrath out on the son whom he loves so that we can be brought into the love of the father. So that we can be saved from his wrath. We’re actually more like Isaac in this story than anything else. Even ancient Israel, when they would read this text, and even today, they place themselves in the place of Isaac. On the Jewish New Year’s Day, they still read this chapter. They read the binding of Isaac and they celebrate the mercy of God. That if he had not provided the sacrifice for Isaac, they wouldn’t be here as a nation. And so that’s like us as well. Like Isaac, we are sentenced to this death. God has declared by his word that we are under his judgment and deserve to enter into death. And yet God did not spare his only son but provides a sacrifice for us so that we can receive his provision. And this is really where the true power of the gospel comes from. This is how our faith is strengthened. This is how we come to respond in obedience. There’s a famous sermon by an old Scottish Presbyterian pastor named Thomas Chalmers. The title of the sermon is called The Expulsive Power of a New Affection. It says old language. But his main argument in the sermon is that if you know something is wrong, that’s not enough to change your behavior. Just knowing something is wrong and isn’t healthy for you, that’s not enough to change your heart and change your actions. He says the heart can only be changed by desire for something new. A desire for something better that overpowers and drives out the old desire. He says it’s a new affection that overpowers the old and drives out the old for the new. So for example, if you know someone or you’ve seen someone addicted to substance abuse or something like that, oftentimes they understand that it’s wrong. They know they shouldn’t be doing it. They know the pain and the damage that it causes. But knowing it’s wrong isn’t enough to actually change their behavior. Just understanding the consequences doesn’t actually bring about the change. It’s really not until they desire something better, until they actually receive something better. They receive hope. They experience that. Only then, when their heart is really changed and they desire something new, that’s when their behavior changes. That’s when they’re transformed. The same goes for us in our battle against sin. You’ve probably experienced this, that oftentimes knowing sin is wrong isn’t enough to stop us from doing it. Knowing the consequences isn’t enough to say, you know what, I’m not going to do it. Our hearts, they must be set on something that far outweighs our desire for sin. We need a new affection that drives out the old desire and gives us a new one. And this is the power of the gospel in our lives. That only when we behold God, behold his glory seen in Christ, only then are our hearts transformed to desire something new. To desire holiness, desire goodness, because we desire Christ Himself. And as we behold Christ, as we grow in our faith, we begin to truly grasp the blessings that are ours in Christ. We see at the endless text, God, he begins affirming all these promises he makes to Abraham, because of Abraham’s faith. This is really the beauty of the gospel, that God, he’s the one who’s faithful. God is the one who gave up his son for us, and we just receive the blessings of Christ’s obedience by believing in him, not by our own obedience. This is what we see in the rest of our text, starting in verse 15, and we’ll finish it out beginning in verse 15. And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 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. 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. So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba, and Abraham lived at Beersheba. Now after these things, it was told to Abraham, behold, Milchon also has born children to your brother in Nahor. As his firstborn, but as his brother, came well the father of Aram, Kassad, Hazo, Koldash, Jilath and Bethelwell. Bethelwell fathered Rebecca. These eight, Milchon, Bord and Nahor, Abraham’s brother. Moreover, his concubine, whose name was Rumat, Bortibba, Geham, Tahash, and the Ka. I’m sure I didn’t pronounce all of those names right, probably very few number of them. But the genealogy is important, as we’ll see here in a second. But starting back in the first part here, we see God reaffirm these promises to Abraham. He swears by his own name to give these to Abraham. And notice that these blessings are given to Abraham because of his faith. Because he believed and got enough to not withhold Isaac. He says, because you have not withheld your only son, I will surely bless you. Paul, he says something very similar in Romans 8, the New Testament. He says, he who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? So this is a promise that we have in Christ. Because Christ has given up his son, God has given up his son for us, he will not withhold what we need from him. He will not withhold his blessings to us. In this last section we see this genealogy going through Abraham’s brother. And it seems kind of random, it seems kind of out of place at the end of the story. But there’s a reason it’s there. And if you look through these names, you notice that it mentions Rebecca, this future bride of Isaac. And that’s kind of where the story shifts after this chapter. It shifts to Isaac and Rebecca and their marriage. And we see that from Rebecca, this line of Abraham continues. From Isaac and Rebecca’s union, Rebecca being brought in to the Covenant family. This line continues and eventually Christ comes from this line. So God does fulfill his promise as the offspring of Abraham, Christ himself, comes through this line. And now we’re actually brought in to this Covenant family through Christ. That just as God gave these promises to Abraham after his faith, we now receive these promises through our faith in Christ. So what are these promises that we hold on to? First we need to rest on the assurance that God’s word is sure, that God’s word will never change. We see God swear by himself here. Hebrews 6 says that when God made this promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, I will surely bless you and give you many descendants. And so the certainty of God’s promises to you, the blessings that you have in Christ, they don’t rest on you. They rest on the word of God. And God cannot lie. God cannot change. And so these promises to you, they will never change either. These blessings that you have in Christ cannot be taken away because they are secure in this promise. I said, knowing this, what are these blessings that we have in Christ? What do we hold on to? In Ephesians 1, Paul says that God has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Paul spends the rest of Ephesians 1 unpacking these blessings. And this is really what we hold on to. As you go back into this week, as you face trials, as you face temptations, these are the promises that we look to when we say, God is with me. In Ephesians 1, we see that we’re adopted into the family of God because of Christ. We’re brought into the embrace of the Father because of Christ’s obedience. In Christ we have redemption by His blood. Your sins are forgiven. Your sins are cleansed when your faith is in Christ. Nothing you can do will change that. Christ has taken your guilt on Himself. In Christ we have an inheritance that will not perish. That one day we will be with Him, praising God for all of eternity. Nothing you can do can remove you from this family. Nothing you do can take away the redemption that you have in Christ and your faith is in Him. And that is what we hold on to. So as you face this question, cannot trust in God, turn and look to Christ. Behold the God who provides for you. Behold the God who blesses you and keeps His promises to you. Let’s pray. Lord, we praise you. We thank you for the provision that you’ve given to us in Christ. Thank you that we receive these promises in faith. They are held secure by your Word and in Christ Himself. I just pray that you encourage all of us here as we continue to walk our Christian life to trust in you, to submit ourselves to you and your authority to look to Christ as the object and the reason for our faith, and to place our hope and the blessings that we have in Him. Place our hope in Him Himself. I pray this in your son’s name, Amen. Amen.