Isaac and the Lamb

Pray with me, would you please? Father God, we thank you for today. Lord, I pray that we'd be like Mary, who in Luke chapter 2, when she heard the story from the shepherds, she treasured all these things up in her heart. I pray, Father, that we would treasure the story of Christmas in our heart, value it more than anything else, because it truly is our life. And pray, Father, that our lives would be changed because of what we hear today and in the coming weeks about the arrival of our Messiah. We pray in Jesus' name we ask these things.

Amen. You know, I love the Christmas season. I love to preach the story that we all know so well. I love to tell people about the Christmas story. It is the greatest of all stories, because it helps us understand the great love of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And so as you go through these 25 different symbols with your family, I trust that it is a rich blessing for you, as well as for them, as they have just a brief moment of every day to be reminded of what this season is truly all about and why we celebrate Christmas every day of the year, not just one day or one month out of the year.

Today, I want to talk to you about Isaac and the Lamb. It's one of the symbols, it's one of the prophecies about the arrival of the Messiah. I want to begin with the story of John the Baptist, because John the Baptist would come out of the wilderness like a locomotive, and he would begin to preach a gospel of repentance. And one day, he would point to the Messiah and say, Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. That's in John chapter 1, verse number 29. He would repeat that in verse number 36 of John chapter 1.

But I always marvel that why John would introduce the Messiah to us that way. I mean, after all, he could have said, Look, there's God in the flesh. He could have said that. He could have said, Hey, there's the Holy One of God. He could have said, That's the Christ of God, the Messiah of God. He could have said, There, there, look, there's the Son of God. He didn't say any of those things. Instead, he used a phrase that is so unique that it becomes the way we will see Christ throughout all eternity as the Lamb of God.

Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Now, what would get him to say that? Where would he go to understand the Messiah was the Lamb? Because there's only one place in all of the Old Testament where the Messiah is specifically referred to as the Lamb. That's Isaiah chapter 53. So we know that that John would know the Old Testament. We know that he would understand the prophecies of Isaiah. And so because of one chapter in the Bible, Isaiah 53, John the Baptist would say, Well, you know what?

I'm going to use this phrase about the Lamb of God just to try to maybe confuse people about who the Messiah really is. No, no, that's not it. There's only one place in the Old Testament where the Messiah is called the Lamb. Only one. That's Isaiah 53 verses 6 and 7. There's only two places in the Gospels, John 129, John 136. There's only one place in the book of Acts. That's 8, chapter 8, verse number 32. And that's a quotation of Isaiah 53. And the only other place that the Messiah is called a Lamb is 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 18 and 19, where he talks about that we were redeemed not with perishable things such as silver and gold, but with that which is imperishable, the precious blood as of a lamb.

Five times. Once in the Old Testament, twice in the Gospel, twice in the Epistles. And yet, when John, not the Baptist, but John the Apostle, gets a glimpse of heaven and what happens in heaven and begins to wonder what's going to happen on earth, he sees one as a lamb standing as if he had been slain. He takes the scroll from his father's hand in Revelation 5. And all of heaven erupts in praise and worship, saying, worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive glory and honor and praise. And from then on out, another 27 times in the book of Revelation, he's called the Lamb.

What did John the Baptist know that nobody else knew? I mean, that's how he's going to be seen for all eternity, the Lamb of God who has taken away the sin of the world. It's really his apocalyptic name. That's his name. The apocalyptic name of Christ is the Lamb of God. That's why those 28 references are used in the book of Revelation. John knew something. John the Baptist, the greatest preacher who ever lived. Christ said he was the greatest man born of a woman, greater than David, greater than Abraham, greater than Isaac.

It was John the Baptist. Wow. John knew the Messiah. John knew him as Lamb. How did he know that? Because I believe he knew the book of Genesis inside and out. We don't know what happened on the backside of the wilderness where he was trained by God himself to be a preacher, so that when he came out of that Judean wilderness, he spoke as no one else had ever spoken. And he was able to say things that no one else had ever heard of and speak with great authority like no other man before him, because God spoke to him and told him what to say.

So he did. But he knew that infamous chapter, Genesis chapter 22, inside and out. And he knew that in that whole chapter, there was a picture that would be indelibly etched in the mind of this man and every person who would believe in the Messiah henceforth. Turn with me to your Bible to Genesis chapter 22.

We don't have a lot of time today. We don't have a lot of time during the Christmas holiday when it comes to preaching time, because we do so many other things. So I will get as much done as I possibly can in the brief time that I have. So we can always, as a Christmas gift, you can always take the battery out of the clock for your pastor. That would always be a good thing. Genesis chapter 22, I just want to read to you the story. And I'm going to make some comments along the way. As I do, hopefully it will open your eyes to some things that maybe you've never seen before.

Let's begin in verse 1 of Genesis 22. Now it came about after these things that God tested Abraham. We'll stop right there. God tested Abraham. Now this Christmas season, you're going to be tested. Some of you more so than others. But God tested Abraham. And I want you to know something about this chapter, that God tested Abraham, and Abraham passed the test. You know, we were growing up in school. We didn't really like tests, did we? Teacher would say on a surprise occasion, take out a piece of paper and a pen.

Today we're going to have a pop quiz. That's a nice way of saying I'm going to flunk you today. And they would give us a test. And we hated those pop quizzes. We even hated when we received our syllabus and knew the date of the final exam. We don't like tests. But Abraham would receive a test unlike any test you have ever received in this life. His test was unique to him. And his test was severe. But Abraham, unlike most of us, he passed the test with flying colors. And there's a reason why he passed the test.

And I want to help you understand how it is Abraham was prepared to face the test and pass the test. How you can always be ready for the pop quiz that God gives you in life. Because, you know, for the most part, we're not prepared, are we? The test comes and we're caught off guard. But there's something in the life of Abraham that helps you understand how he was prepared to take the test and pass it. Here it was, or here it is. Chapter 21, verse number 33. And Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba.

And there he called on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God. Abraham was a worshiper of God. He worshiped him in spirit and in truth. Listen carefully. Whenever you worship God the way God was intended to be worshiped, you are ready to face any test and pass that test. If you are facing a test today and are failing in your exam, then you are not worshiping God as he intended you to worship him. Abraham called upon the name of the Lord. Whenever Abraham called upon the name of the Lord, it was a symbol of his worship and his commitment to God.

And when he did that, he was ready to face whatever God had for him. He didn't know what God was going to do. Let me say it to you this way.

God spoke to Abraham 10 times in his life. Did you know that? He lived 175 years and God spoke to him 10 times, three of them in Genesis 22 alone. That means on seven other occasions outside of the great test in Genesis 22, God spoke to Abraham in 175 years. You know, God speaks to us every time we gather to worship him. Did you know that? Yeah. Every time we gather to worship God, he speaks. Sometimes we listen.

Sometimes we don't. We spent six weeks on that, on true blessing from God. And you can pick this up if you want to, true blessing from God, how to listen and obey the voice of God. But we hear it and it goes in one ear and out the other. Abraham, he couldn't pick up a Bible and read it. Didn't have it. So whenever God spoke, you can imagine how undivided his attention would have been upon his Lord, right? 10 times, God spoke to Abraham, the father of our faith, and he listened and obeyed. We had the privilege of listening to God speak every time we open his word, because this is the living and abiding word of God.

And some of us can't even take 10 minutes a day to listen to him speak because we're too busy doing something else. Most of us can't even be in church 52 days a year to listen to God speak because we got to go to work. We got to go on vacation. We got to, we got to do something else. Something else is more important than listening to God speak, not Abraham. He wanted to hear God speak. And when he spoke, he listened, but because he was a worshiper, he called upon the name of the Lord. When the test came, he was ready for the test.

He passed it. Let's look at that test together. He said to him, Abraham, he said, here I am. He said, take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you. So Abraham rose early in the morning and sat on his donkey. Now just that narrative alone just raises all kinds of questions in my mind. How come Abraham didn't say, are you kidding me? You want me to do what? We do that all the time.

And just the little things, not the big things, just the little things in life. We say, you want me to forgive who? I don't know. You want me to do what? I don't know, Lord. God says to Abraham, kill your son.

Take now your son, your only son. Now wait a minute. Didn't he have another son? Yeah, he did. Ishmael, firstborn. But he wasn't the son of promise. Isaac was. That's why he says, take now your son, your only son. It's the son of uniqueness. By the way, same phrase used by John the apostle to describe how God saw his only son, his only begotten son, the son of uniqueness, the rightful heir to the promise. Because Ishmael was the firstborn, but he was not the rightful heir to the promise. Isaac was.

Take now your son, your only son, the one you love. If you don't know this, you need to know that this is the first time the word love is mentioned in the Bible.

And God waited till Genesis 22 to tell us about love, because love is always defined by sacrifice. And there is no better example outside of the love that God had for his son and his sacrifice for us to help us understand what true love is all about, right? So the Lord God waited until this chapter to tell us about what love looks like. So this is the first time the word love is mentioned in the Bible.

Does anybody know the first time the word love is mentioned in the New Testament? No? It's a good guess though. Matthew chapter three, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Isn't that unique? The first time love is mentioned in the New Testament, it's about God, the father's love for his son.

The first time love is mentioned in the Bible, it speaks about a father's love for his son, Abraham's love for his son, Isaac.

Now see, you've already learned more today than you would have ever learned had you not been here. That makes pretty much sense, doesn't it? But you're going to learn more about the Christmas story today out of Genesis chapter 22 than you've probably ever imagined because the Bible is about redemption, right? The Christmas story is about redemption. So everything in the Bible is about Christmas. So I think we ought to have Christmas trees up all year round. So just during the month of December. It's all about Christmas.

So take now your son, your only son, the one you love, and go to the land of Moriah. Circle the word Moriah, it means foreseen by God. This becomes very significant in the text. Go to the land foreseen by God. In other words, what's going to happen here has already been foreseen in the mind of God. It's already been planned out, mapped out in the mind of God. And Abraham, because he was a worshiper, he was a true worshiper. When the test was given, he just obeyed. That's all he did. He submitted to his father in heaven because that's what true worshipers do.

They don't kick and scream and bellyache and gripe and complain because of the test that comes their way. They know that there's a sovereign God ruling over all. And because they worship the everlasting God, the true God of the universe, they just obey what it says, which we did. It says, and offer him as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I would tell you. So Abraham rose early in the morning, and he saddled his donkey, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac, his son.

And he split wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. This really helps us understand a living sacrifice. The Bible says in Romans 12 that we are to present our bodies a living sacrifice.

What's that? This is it right here. This is a living sacrifice. See, the problem with a living sacrifice, it can always jump off the altar. Dead sacrifices can't. Living sacrifices can, right? They can jump off, on, jump off, get back on again, get off again. And so Abraham would take his only son, the son of promise, the son that he loved, he would take his son, he was to go to the land of Moriah, and there he was to sacrifice his son. Abraham did exactly what God said. He took the knife, he was about to slay his son, and we'll see in a moment, the angel of the Lord stopped him.

If the angel of the Lord did not stop him, Isaac would have been a dead sacrifice, and Abraham would have been a what? Living sacrifice, right? Now you understand Romans 12, 1 and 2. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. What does that mean? That means you are willing to sacrifice every dream, every ambition, every desire that you have on the altar when God says, kill it.

For me, that's what a living sacrifice does. That's all based on the mercies of God. I beg you, I beseech you therefore, based on the mercies of God, after all that God's done for you, the least you can do is jump up on the altar and say, Lord, I will sacrifice everything for you, because you're my God. See, how do you know that you understand the Christmas story? How do you know that when you wake up on December 25th, you know the significance of Christmas? You know, because you're willing to sacrifice every dream, every desire, every hope, every ambition, every pleasure that you have on the altar for the living God.

You are. Because that's what Abraham did. He faced a test. He passed the test. In fact, the story gets even better. Listen to this. On the third day, very significant.

See, he's circling around the word third. Why? Listen, listen carefully. In Abraham's mind, Isaac was a dead man. For three days in Abraham's mind, Isaac was dead. This is significant to the story of Christ, because Isaac is a type of Christ in the Old Testament. Read the story. On the third day, Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance.

And Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go yonder, and we will worship. And what's the next phrase? We will return. And we will return. Now, wait a minute. Wait a minute. I thought God said, go and offer your son as a sacrifice. Right? And then what God said. How did Abraham know that once he offered his son as a sacrifice, that he and the lad would then return to his men? Was he going to carry him down the mountain dead? He believed in a promise that God gave.

And remember, hear God speak 10 times, seven outside of Genesis 22. So, you know, you don't hear God speak very often. When he speaks, you just go up on to every word, and you don't forget it. Remember back in Genesis 17, verse number nine. Probably don't, so let me read it for you.

Genesis 17, verse number nine. It says these words. It says, Genesis 17, verse number 19. But God said, no, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son. She'll call his name Isaac, and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. Abraham, listen carefully, believed in a resurrection, although he'd never seen a resurrection. He would have to believe. If God asked me to kill my son, the son of promise, and yet my son is going to have a myriad of descendants that follow him, there has to be a resurrection.

Hebrews 11 tells us that. Hebrews 11, verse number 19, says this. He, and as Abraham, considered that God is able to raise men even from the dead, from which he also received him back as a type. In other words, he believed there would be a resurrection of his son if God asked him to kill him, because he believed and hung on to a promise that God gave to him about his son. How do you pass the test? You pass the test because you're a true worshiper of God, and in the midst of your worship, you believe in the God of his word, and you hang on to those words no matter how severe the trial.

That's what Abraham did. See? I and the lad, we're going to return. We're going to have to. I don't know what else God's going to do except raise my son from the dead. So Hebrews 11, 19 proves to us that Abraham believed in a resurrection. He's in the hall of faith. He believed in Genesis 17, 19 that told us that there would be a promise given to a son that he would have many descendants after him. Abraham believed. Read on. Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac's son, by the way, Christ would carry a wooden beam toward Calvary, took in his hand the fire, which is always a symbol of judgment because Christ would bear the judgment of his father on the cross, and the knife because there would be a piercing, and we know that Christ was pierced while on the tree.

Isaac became that perfect type of Christ. So the two of them walked on together, and Isaac spoke to Abraham, his father, and said, my father, he said, here I am, my son. He said, behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? Isaac wasn't no dummy. He knew we have the knife. We know we have the wood. We got the fire, but we have no lamb. Where is the lamb? That's a good question. I mean, I would probably ask that question. Listen to Abraham's response, and just a cursory reading of it would not help you understand it.

You need to examine it to get the full meaning of it. So we'll do that. Listen to what it says. And Abraham said, your text says what? God will provide. God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son. So the two of them walked on together. Now, think about this for a moment. The word provide in Hebrew, yireh, okay? Used 1,300 times the Old Testament. That's 1,300 times. Of the 1,300 times it's used, 1,296, that means every time except for four, it is translated to be seen or to see.

1,296 times, the 1,300 times it's used, it's a word of vision. It's translated to be seen. So if you go back and you read what Abraham said, and Abraham said, God will be seen. Not God will provide. God will be seen or God will see to it. God will provide. But God provides, listen carefully, what he already sees. Oh, by the way, where will God be seen? On a mountain foreseen by God, right? So you have Moriah, the mountain foreseen by God. You have a word, yireh, which means to be seen. So on the mountain foreseen by God, God will, what?

Be seen. See, aren't you glad you came today? Aren't you glad you didn't get the flu and had to miss church today? Think of all those poor souls who missed today because something else was more important to them than hearing the word of God. So when the test comes their way, guess what? They'll flunk. Didn't you just hate flunking tests in school? I hated it. That big old F on there. I hated an F. It's worse to flunk life. And how many people do we know flunk life because they're not true worshipers in God and not prepared to receive what God has for them because they didn't listen?

And here, Abraham says something so unique, it gets even better as the story goes on. Let me read it to you.

Then they came to the place of which God had told him. Then Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. There is no, listen, unwillingness on the part of Isaac. Why? Because he is a perfect type of Christ. We have no conversation between father and son, except what we see Isaac asking his dad about the lamb. But there is no wrestling with father saying, oh no, oh no, dad, you got the wrong son. Get Ishmael up here. Ishmael deserves to be on the altar, but not me.

I'm Isaac. I'm the beloved son. I'm the son of promise. You can't slay me. You can't pierce me. You can't put me on the altar, but Ishmael, you can put him on the altar because he's not my mother's son. He's Hagar's son. Put him on there. Who needs him anyway? Well, God needed to use him and is still using the descendants of Ishmael even today. But there's no argument. Why? Because as the son willingly obeyed his father and went to the cross, not my will, but yours be done. So the son, Isaac will only obeyed his father and was placed on that altar to die.

This is the Christmas story. And although we wouldn't think of it as a Christmas story, this is really what it is. So you read on and it says, and Abraham stretched out his hand, took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord, the pre-incarnate Christ, listen carefully. This is so important. Listen to what it says. Called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. He said, here I am. He said, do not stretch out your hand against the lad and do nothing to him. For now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son, your only son.

I know you fear me. The reason Abraham can pass the test is because he feared God more than he feared everything else. And the reason you don't pass your tests is because you don't fear God as you should. Abraham did because he feared God. And God says, now I know, not that he didn't know.

God always knew. God always knew. But Abraham had to live it out to its fullest. But I want you to notice the very next phrase when the Lord God says, now I know you fear God since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from who?

From me. The angel of the Lord, who is the pre-incarnate Christ, says, verse 22, verse number one, now it came about after these things that God tested Abraham.

Who tested Abraham? God the father or God the son? Because they're one and the same, see? The pre-incarnate Christ says, you have not withheld your only son from me.

When the Bible says it was God the father who tested Abraham. Because God the son and God the father are equal. This is a beautiful story. Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns that Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for burnt offering in the place of his son, in the stead of his son. In other words, there was a substitute for his son. The son was a substitute for you, right? He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

He bore in his body your sins and mine. He was our substitute. He died in your stead. He died in your place so you can experience his life. So the whole story of substitution is exemplified in Genesis chapter 22. Verse 14, and Abraham called the name of that place Yahweh Yireh. The Lord will provide? No, the Lord will be seen. Because it's a word of vision. And because God is the all-seeing God, he will provide, right? Because he sees the need before the need exists. God is a God of provision. Listen to what it says.

And Abraham called the name of the Lord Yahweh Yireh. The Lord will be seen as it is said to this day. What day is that? Today, 2010. This is the living and abiding word of God. It wasn't just to this day 2,000 years ago. 3,000 years ago. It's to this day today. To this day it will be, or in the mountain of the Lord, it will be seen. To this very day on Mount Moriah, the place foreseen by God, God will be seen. All that to say is that we know where Mount Moriah is. It's where Stalin's temple was built in the land of Israel.

Second Chronicles chapter three, verse number one tells us that God told him to build the temple on Mount Moriah.

Why? Because it was foreseen by God that he would be seen on that mountain by all men. And Mount Moriah is where Mount Calvary is today. Because you know where Mount Calvary is, it's right off of the walls around Jerusalem. Because Mount Calvary is a quarry. It was all one mountain. Moriah was all one mountain until they began to take the stones from the quarry to build the walls around Jerusalem. And what was left? A place that looked like a skull, the place of the skull, Golgotha. It was all one mount because it would be foreseen by God on Mount Moriah, the provision of God for all man, the substitution of Christ on behalf of man.

First John 3.5 says, what? Christ came for this reason, that he might take away your sins. That's why he came. How was he going to take away your sins unless he became your substitute, died in your place? And that's the story of Isaac and the Lamb. Then the angel of the Lord called Abraham a second time from heaven and said, by myself I have sworn to the Lord because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son.

By the way, it's the third time he says that. Indeed, I will greatly bless you and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as a sand which is on the seashore and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. And in your seed, all the nations will of the earth will be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. And thus God never spoke to Abraham again. That was it. The last thing Abraham said to God is because you have obeyed my voice, all the nations of the world will be blessed.

And we just got done doing a series on true blessing from God, right? All about listening and obeying the voice of God. But this is just a great and beautiful story. It's all about the sacrifice of the Lamb, the Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world. So John the Baptist, back to where we began. John the Baptist, when he saw the Messiah, he said, there he is. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Because John the Baptist, he knew the apocalyptic name of the Messiah, but he also knew Genesis chapter 22, which pictured for us the birth and death of our Messiah in a story that came from his father Abraham and his son Isaac.

And thus, when you gather tonight around with your children, around your little Jesse tree, as small or as big as it may be, and you begin to talk about Isaac and the Lamb, would you help your children know how to pass the test? Better yet, make sure you're passing the test so that you can teach your children how not to flunk in life, but to really pass the test that come your way. Because they're going to come. They're going to come. And without Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life, you'll have a hard time.

And when He is your Lord and Savior, you need to worship Him, to obey His voice, follow His Word. So you can pass the test. You're prepared when it comes, as Abraham was, and thus pass it with flying colors. Remember when you used to walk out of your classroom when you were younger? Some of you, you have to go back in your memory a lot longer than most of us do. You walked out of that test and you really felt good about it because you were prepared. You went and you took the test. You walked out and said, yeah, I nailed it.

I nailed it. And you knew you did well in the test. Well, when God brings a test your way, you need to know you're going to nail it. And Abraham provides for you a model that will help you nail every test that comes your way and pass it as he passed it. And to hear the voice of the Lord, you have obeyed my voice, Abraham, and truly all the nations of the world will be blessed simply because you listened, you obeyed. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for today. Truly you are a great God and you are worthy to be praised.

The whole story of Isaac and the Lamb opens up to us a whole new understanding of the birth of Christ, the coming Messiah. Thank you that as a church we can study these things in our homes. We come back together on Sundays and begin to learn more about what it is you have us learn. I do pray for everybody in this room who's here. You do a mighty work in their lives. Having heard today's lesson, they would obey and follow you. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.