God’s Promise to mankind

Introduction

This week we are starting our Easter Read through plan. So, today’s sermon text is from the first day of that reading plan. We find ourselves in the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis and in one of the great scenes of the book Scripture. If you will all please go ahead and turn your bible’s to Genesis 22. Genesis 22:1-19. In a few moments we will read it from the screen together, but please go ahead and have your bible open so you can follow along.

As just a quick reminder, after service today we will participate in The Lord’s Supper, so if you have something you need to confess to God about, being thinking about that and praying about that after the sermon. Also, if you haven’t gotten a reading plan, there are a few more paper copies up here attached to the newsletter; also you can find it on our church website underneath the Easter 2023 tab. Brothers and sisters, let’s each commit to this reading plan this easter season; God does great things to churches and believers who read His Word together.

Scripture

If you would all please rise for the reading of God’s Word today. The words to the scripture will be on the screen, please read along with me as we are reading. When I am done I will say “this is The Word of The Lord” if you will all please respond with “Thanks be to God.” First, let’s pray.

Father God, we thank you for who You are, a God he hears us and knows us. A God who provides for us time and time again, even if we can’t see or understand it in that moment. Father, open our eyes to what You do and how much You love us, which we know is very much. Help us Father, be better lovers of You. We ask specifically today Father, as we are about to participate in the reading of Your Word that You would bless us with it Father. Mold us, reform us, reshape us more into the image of Christ. Help us be more like Jesus. Take away any distraction that we may have, either physically or mentally and put it as far away as it can possibly go, because we want to see You, we want to know more about Your and what Your love means in our life. Your Word is truth, and we thank You for that truth. It’s in these things that I ask and in Jesus Christ’s Holy and precious name that I pray, Amen. Genesis 22, starting in verse 1.

22 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 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.” 3 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. 4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy[a] will go over there and worship and come again to you.” 6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. 7 And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.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. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 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.” 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”;[b] as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”[c]15 And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16 and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 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[d] enemies, 18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” 19 So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham lived at Beersheba.

Context

Here we find Abraham being tested by God by brining His beloved son Isaac to an alter to be sacrificed. Now, some important background on that, is to know that Abraham was a very old man, in fact he and his wife Sarah were both very old; You see, all they ever had wanted was a son of their own, and after many years of bareness, God provided to them a son, this son was Isaac and here we are at this time, we see the promised son Isaac who must have been teenager at least at this point….. If you will flip pack a few chapters in your bible’s to Genesis 15:5, you see that God promised Abraham he would have many descendants, meaning that he will have a son. God kept his promise, on his own timeline, and I’m sure you will remember how Sarah and Abraham tried to make the timeline their own (as we all too often do), not believing in God’s promise. In this narrative, we see a test of Abraham to see if he still believed in and trusted God’s promise to him. The lessons that Abraham learned, are lessons that we all too must learn, specifically with the promise of Salvation and redemption from sins, a message that we should all take to heart (especially this easter season) and try to understand what it means in our lives. So, from Gen 22:1-19, I want you to see 3 points about both Abraham’s and our Journey to understand God’s promise to mankind.

Message

Our first point, the first thing I want you to understand about God’s promise to mankind is: Faith in a promise

22 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 2 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.” 3 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. 4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. 5 Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy[a] will go over there and worship and come again to you.” 6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. 7 And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.

So, lets set the scene. After all this time, Abraham and Sarah are probably very excited. Finally, they can see the way that the promise of God, to make their offspring a great and mighty nation. This was of course through their son Isaac, who would go on to be the father of Jacob (also known as Israel, the father of the entire Jewish nation). After decades of barrenness, finally a strong teenage boy was before them, a teenage boy who seems to know and understand God and worshiped Him.

So, to test Abraham, God gives him this task, to go and sacrifice his beloved son. We know from the text, that it was never God’s intent to actually allow harm to the boy, as the text points out from the start, it was a test. Why is this, “As a test it was designed to prove faith. And for it to be a real test, it had to defy logic; it had to be something Abraham wanted to resist.”[1] We read more about this faith in Hebrew 11 which says, 17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, 18 of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

So, what did Abraham do, the text makes it clear, he gets up, and he goes and does just as God commanded. We understand here, that Abraham has a full and complete faith in God. Yes, it would seem counterproductive to sacrifice Isaac, but Abraham knows and we know that God is capable of all things. In fact, many scholars believe that Abraham and Isaac knew this promise of God and both were certain that should Abraham kill his son, then he would have been resurrected, come back to life. God is capable of this, because He is the God of both Life and Death. We would see God do this for the benefit of all mankind, when Jesus Christ rose from the grave after His sacrificial death on the cross.

So, what then is faith? Back to Hebrews 11, we see Paul write, “Now faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen.[2] So, what is that all of mankind, including yourself has been hoping for? It is for the fulfillment of a promise that God made long ago, flip with me in your bible to Genesis 3:15, in my bible it reads, “flip to and read gen 3:15.”So, here God tells Satan that he will put enmity (or hatred) between Satan (the serpent) and mankind. And one day, even though the serpent will bruise the redeemer (the saviors” heel, yet He (the savior) will crush the head (or kill) the serpent. So, we see even from the beginning of sin entering the world and it’s evil separating us from God, God promised that a way will come (and for us has already come) where sin will be destroyed. Beloved, this promise is for you too. That God saves, God redeems, and God makes us new, and overcomers from our sin. So, you see here for us and for Abraham, Faith in a promise.

The second point to understand about God’s promise to mankind is: A promise that is proved

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. 10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. 11 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 12 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.” 13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14 So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”;[b] as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”[c]

So, we move further in, and arrive at the most gut-wrenching moment of the story. Abraham and Isaac arrive at the place God had told them go to. One really interesting fact, is that the mountain they would go to, the place they would go to is actually where Jerusalem would be built one day and the exact mountain is actually where Solomon’s temple would be built, so we see some interesting imagery and foreshadowing here. From here, the alter is built, the wood lain down, and the son (the sacrifice) willfully comes forward and is bound. As you can see, Isaac’s willingness is also a foreshadowing of what would happen to Jesus on Good Friday, the day of His crucifixion. Then, as Father Abraham lifts his knife to kill his son BOOM an angel interrupts Him. He tells Him not to harm the boy. Then we see from the angel say and Steinmann comments, “now I know you fear God (v. 12). Yet the angel also reveals that he is God: since you have not withheld your only son from me (i.e. from God who commanded the sacrifice, cf. vv. 1–2). While it may seem strange that the all-knowing God learned something about Abraham, in this case we should understand God as adopting the position of the senior partner in a covenant, such as a mighty king speaking to his vassal. His language is not simply informative; that is, it is not simply saying what God has learned. Rather, this is language that is evaluating a performance, stating a conclusion about Abraham’s actions and in effect declaring that the patriarch’s actions demonstrate that God is justified in bestowing his promise on Abraham and his descendants (cf. vv. 16–18).”[3]

Remember, Abraham knew that God made him a promise; and he was banking on God’s promise coming true, with Isaac. Once again, God proved to Abraham that His promises are trustworthy and true. So, Abraham names the place God will Provide because He did and will for all mankind and has for us. Many of you may know this place by another name, Jehovah-jireh or “God will Provide.”

Friend, is their anywhere in your life that you don’t think God’s promises are true or He cannot provide? Maybe you are thinking, “Pastor I know you have said that Jesus makes us new, He forgives us of our sin, but there is just no way that is possible with what I have done and there is no way He can do that.” Friend, I can say to with all assurance that whatever you have done or whatever you are holding out on God about, God has seen it before, He has forgiven before, and He can and will forgive it if you turn to Him in genuine repentance and faith. You are no more dirty or shameful than I am. Yet God’s grace is abundant and cleanses me every day, and He can and will for you too. I can say this with all assurance because God has given us a promise of forgiveness, A promise that is proved.

The next point to understand about God’s promise to mankind is: A promise of salvation

15 And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16 and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 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[d] enemies, 18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.” 19 So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba. And Abraham lived at Beersheba.

Once again, the text proves that this just wasn’t an angel, it was God. As verse 16 says, By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord. So, God swears by the highest authority there is, Himself (an act that we Humans are not allowed to do) that He will bless and multiply Abraham’s offspring beyond measure. What’s even more and greater, God promises to Abraham that from his offspring will come the one in which all mankind will know great blessings, that is the blessing that continues to and is available to all that earnestly seek and desire it, salvation, redemption from sin.

Abraham had absolute faith in God, and He got to experience something beautiful because of it. The same is true for you. Put your faith in the promises of God, the promise of this scripture section, and you will know something great and wonderful and cleansing and refreshing and freeing. This passage tells us about a very special person that has now come and has provided for all the elect of the world. This passage, is telling us about the coming of who? The coming of Jesus Christ the righteous. Whom we remember today during our Lord’s Supper and who’s resurrection we remember and celebrate during this easter season. From these verses, we see a Promise of Salvation. Have you taken this yet? Is salvation yet yours? If so, go and share it with the world. If not, there is no time like today. There is no time like today.

Conclusion

Beloved, I hope from the scriptures today you have seen these things. That have seen and understood Faith in a promise that our faith (really everything in our lives) is built on the promises of God. Did you also understand that from God, any promise is A promise that is proved. It must come true because He has sworn by His (the highest) authority. Did you see from this, A promise of salvation that is available to all who turn to Christ for forgiveness of sins and repent from their ways and pursue Him. These are among a few of God’s promise to mankind.

So, non-believer with us today. Are you not yet convinced that you are sinner and in need of the savior Jesus Christ? Let me share with you a scripture verse from Romans, Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Well, guess what, you are included in that all. For YOU have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God. What is sin? It is any rebellion against God. As such, you are separated from God, and will be until you repent and take on the sacrifice of Jesus. I invite you, respond and accept Him today.

With that, let’s conclude. Brothers and sisters, I love you all. If you have something you need to talk about, or need prayer, or want to talk more about accepting Jesus; then during our last song together I will be here. Please come on down. Let’s pray. Father God, thank You. Thank You for who You are and what You are doing to us in this place. May our eyes and our hearts always be pointed squarely on You, the gospel, and sharing it with others. Might we be a people so motivated and compelled by love that all see it on us and it moves our every action. We love You father, and we pray that with this message today you refine us with it and help us apply it to our lives. It’s in these things that I ask and In Jesus Christ’s Holy and Precious name that I pray, Amen.

[1]Ross, Allen P. “Genesis.” The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, edited by J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 1, Victor Books, 1985, p. 64. [2] Christian Standard Bible. Holman Bible Publishers, 2020, p. Heb 11:1. [3]Steinmann, Andrew E. Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary. Edited by David G. Firth, vol. 1, Inter-Varsity Press, 2019, pp. 220–21.