Untitled Sermon (4)

INtro

Good morning.

If you don’t know me, which I think by now most of y’all do, my name’s ’m the youth pastor here at Saint John’s. Fun fact about me, I grew up in central Florida in between (literally) an orange grove and a cow pasture. It may not look like it now, but I grew up country. Like back woods, small town in the south country. This morning I’m wearing a pair of Nike Cortez’s and a shirt from Urban Outfitters, but 15 years ago, I was wearing wrangler jeans and cowboy boots, and for fun, my friends and I would go into the orange grove behind my house, we’d pick oranges off of the trees and we’d throw them at each other. Kind of like a snowball fight, but with citrus fruit. So, that’s a little bit about me. At heart, I’m still this little kid from Florida. Now, one of the things that I miss most about Florida, is the mountains. Now, I know what you’re thinking - “Florida doesn’t have mountains.” Well, I did a little bit of research, and at one point, the US Board on Geographic Names had a certain criteria of what could be considered a mountain, but in the 1970’s they abandoned it. Presently, there is no universally accepted definition of the term mountain, and the term “mountain” changes depending on local usage. All that to say, Florida does have a mountain, and it measures in at 345 feet above sea level.

Now, I’ve never actually seen this “mountain,” and when I think of Florida, I don’t think of mountains. But, I have seen real mountains. I’ve driven over them, I’ve backpacked through them, and I’ve even climbed on top of some. And in these circumstances, where I’ve been climbing or backpacking through a mountain, I’m always reminded of my relationship with the Lord. I’m reminded of my faith journey, I’m reminded of the struggles and difficulties that I’ve faced while trying to follow the Lord. I’m reminded of sacrifice, of love, of all kinds of things. And I don’t think this is a coincidence. Mountains are mentioned 500 times in scripture. And some of the most significant events in biblical history took place on a mountain. So, this morning, we’ll look together at two Mountains, and we’ll see that our greatest treasure is God himself. So, if you have your bibles, open up to Genesis Chapter 22, starting in verse 1, and we’ll go all the way down to verse 19.

Genesis 22:1–19 ESV

After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” 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 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 son. 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 and the wood, but where is 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. 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 horns. 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.” 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.

This is the word of the Lord

Pray

Background

Our text this morning opens up with the three words “After these things.” I remember learning elementary school to never use the word “things.” I was taught to always be more descriptive. Well, here, Moses, who many believe wrote the book of Genesis, writes “After these things.” So, what are the things Moses is referring to? A lot has happened in the life of Abraham up to this point. And, the journey of Abraham is one of my favorite story arcs in all of scripture. You have this random guy, who at an earlier point in the book of Genesis was simply called Abram, who was born in the land of Ur, and was living in the land of Haran, and was someone who not because of anything good he did, not because of any merit he had, not because of anything he could provide, was called by God to go.

Genesis 12:1–3 ESV

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

He was called by God to leave behind everything he knew and journey to a land that God would “show him.” So immediately, Abram leaves the land of Haran, where he had just buried his father, and he sets out on a journey with his wife Sarai and his nephew Lot and everything they own and were able to pack up, and they go towards the land of Canaan. Abram, Sarai, Lot, and all of those who were with them, make it to the Land of Canaan, and God says to Abram, “To your offspring, I will give this land.” Now, at this point, Abraham is around 75 years old. Sarai is probably 65, and they have no children. They’re wandering through a land that isn’t there’s, but this land has been promised to their offspring, to their children. So, they’re traveling through the land, and they set up camp in a few different places, and at some point we’re told “Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there.” So, we have Abram, who was called by God to go, and so he goes, and he gets to the land of Canaan, and God tells him “this is the land.” And so he’s there for a little bit, and then comes a famine. If I’m Abram, I’m thinking, “okay, God. You’ve brought me here, you’ve asked me to leave my home, which no body does, and you’ve sent me to a land, and now there’s a famine.” So, Abram travels down to Egypt, and this is where his first “test” occurs. Now remember, he’s just been promised that his offspring will be given land. But, when he gets to Egypt he convinces Sarai, his wife, to pretend to be his sister, because he’s worried that once they see Sarai, they’ll kill him because of her beauty. Up to this point, Abram has trusted God without question. But here, after having heard the promise, his faith wavers, and he takes matters into his own hands. Out of fear, Abram quits trusting the LORD. He loses faith for a moment. But, God remains faithful to Abram. Not only does God remain faithful, but he adds to the promise. In it says

Genesis 13:14–18 ESV

The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” So Abram moved his tent and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord.

Not only will his descendants take possession of the Land, but they’ll be numerous too.

But, time goes by, and Abram still hasn’t had a child. And the LORD comes to Abram again one day and says “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield, your reward shall be very great.” And at this point, Abram’ says “O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” And the Lord responds and tell him, No this man will not be your heir. Your very own son will be your heir. And scripture says that Abram believed him and it was counted to him as righteousness.

Ten years goes by, and Abram and Sarai get a little impatient. Again, they’ve heard the promise, but they havent seen it yet, so again, they take matters into their own hands. So, Abram takes a second wife, Hagar, she gets pregnant, things get complicated, Sarai gets jealous of Hagar, and then at 86 years old, Ishmael is born.

And then, when he’s 99 years old, God comes to Abram again, he reitorates his promise, and he changes Abram’s name to Abraham, and he changes Sarai’s name to Sarah. And he makes it clear, Ishmael is not the heir. You will have a son with Sarah and that son will be the son of promise. That son will be your heir. The son you have with Sarah will be the son from whom a great nation will come. And then a year later, Abraham is 100 and Sarah is 90, Sarah gives birth to Isaac. The child who has been promised to Abraham for 25 years.

Exposition

And so, when Moses wrote “After these things …” This is what he was talking about. After all of this. After Abraham’s doubt, after his wandering, after his faithlessness, after walking with God and struggling with faith for 25 years, and after finally receiving the promised heir. After all of this, it says, God tested Abraham. God calls out “Abraham!” “Here I am,” Abraham says. “Take your son, your only son Isaac,” God is being very specific here. He’s not talking about Ishmael. God says “Take your only son Isaac, whom you love,” God knows how much Abraham loves Isaac. “Take your only son, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burn offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” Now, it’s 2019, we’re modern people, and so we read this, at least I do, and we think “How could a loving God do this?” How barbaric. How could Abraham actually listen to this God?? But, in the ancient near-east where this story takes place, this wasn’t out of the question. And God isn’t asking Abraham to simply kill Isaac. He’s asking him to offer him up. Ancient people knew back then that sacrifice was part of what the gods required. And the ancient Hebrews knew that their God was just and that all people, every family owed God a debt for their sins. And this is why the concept of the first born is so important in scripture. In a patriarchal society, everything was given to the first born when the patriarch died. And the first born was then responsible for taking care of the rest of the family and ensuring that the family stayed in tact. And so God, knowing this, knew that the first born could, and often did, become an idol. And all throughout scripture God is upending and undermining the concept of the first born. We see it with Cain and Able. Cain was the oldest, but Able was favored. We see it with Jacob and Esau. We see it with King David. All throughout scripture, God is turning this system upside down. And he starts here. Isaac was everything for Abraham. He was the child of promise. Abraham’s legacy rested on Isaac. Everything that Abraham hoped for and everything that was promised to him was supposed to come through Isaac. And now Isaac is here, but God is calling on him to sacrifice him. He has the promise of God, but he now has this command. And here’s where the tension lies. God is calling on the first born, and Abraham understands that God is calling in his debt. So, Abraham’s thought process when God asks him to offer up Isaac is “Okay. God has come to collect what’s due to him. I have to pay up now.” God is just, and I owe a debt, so I have to pay it up. But Abraham also knew that God kept his promises. So, as Abraham is reasoning this out, he’s thinking through all of this. And here’s the horror of all of it. How can God be Holy and gracious at the same time? How can the God who is calling in this debt also say that through Isaac shall all the nations of the earth be blessed?

So, Abraham’s wrestling through this. And the next morning, he gets up early, saddles his donkey, takes two other young men with him and grabs Isaac. He makes all of the preparations for the sacrifice, and he heads towards Moria. They travel for three days, and I imagine these to be three agonizing days for Abraham. This isn’t a nice road trip. He’s traveling, out of obedience to God, to sacrifice his only son whom he loves. And on the third day, he sees the place. And I imagine his heart sinks. He’s there. It’s time. But notice verse 5 “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’.” I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you… Abraham had faith that he and Isaac would be coming back down the mountain together. says “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, of whom it was said, Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.” Abraham reasoned, God is just, God is holy, and god deserves what is due to him, but he is also merciful, he is also gracious, and he keeps his promises. And he reasoned, according to the author of the book of Hebrews, that God would raise him from the dead.

Let’s keep going. The majority of scholars note a shift in the speed of the narrative in verse 6. It slows down. Intentionally. Look at how detailed it gets and how slow the pace is. 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. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “KMy father!” And he said “here I am my son.” I imagine there to be a tenderness in Abrahams voice. Here I am, my son.” And Isaac says, behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burn offering? Abraham said “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burn offering, my son.” So they went, both of them together.

And they go up the mountain. They get to where God wants Abraham to go, and he builds the altar, places the wood, and he binds Isaac. Now, Isaac carried the wood up the mountain. He’s probably a teenager, fully capable of overpowering his father who is well beyond 100 years old at this point, but he doesn’t. There’s no description of a struggle. Isaac submits and is willing to be sacrificed. And Abraham takes the knife, and just as he’s about to come down with it he hears “Abraham, Abraham!” And he says, out of overwhelming relief, “Here I am.” And the angel says ““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 horns. 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.”

And that’s the story. It ends, Abraham gets to keep Isaac, God knows where Abraham’s trust lies, and Abraham is promised with even more offspring.

Lesson

But, what does this teach us today. And I’ll try to be quick, but there are two things that I want us to get from this text this morning.

Why was God testing Abraham? Here’s what I think. God was testing to see what Abraham’s treasure was. God was testing to see if Abraham placed his faith in him alone, or in the promise. He was testing to see if Abrahams faith was in God or in Isaac. So God say’s offer up your son to me. And Abraham is forced to make a decision. He knows the promise. But, as I said earlier, he also know that there’s a debt that is owed. And so it’s a test. Where is Abraham’s faith? And Abraham passes the test. His faith is in God. He doesn’t know how God will keep his promise, but he knows he’ll keep it. But, I’m not sure that’s the case for most of us. I look back at my own faith journey, and my trust isn’t always in God and God alone. See, a lot of us want what A.W. Tozer describes as “God-and.” We want God but we also want something else. We want God, and we want a good relationship, we want God and we want a good gpa, we want God and we want a good career, or a good MCAT score, or a successful ministry. We want God and our kids to get into the top schools. We want God but we want something else along with God. And here’s what happens: The and, the thing that we often want along with God, usually takes precedence over God. It usually becomes an idol, and then it sits on the throne of our heart. It sits where God alone belongs. And That’s the human story. God created Adam and Eve, they rebelled, and we end up worshiping the creation. We end up worshiping the things God gives us rather than worshipping God himself. And so, the question is, what are we willing to sacrifice to God. Not kill. But sacrifice. Knowing that these are often good things. It’s good to want a good career, it’s good to want to be successful, but when it takes the place of God in our lives, we stand condemned. We’re without hope. Because these things can’t save us. These things don’t belong where God belongs. And that was the test for Abraham. You see, Isaac, even if he had been sacrificed as an offering, Isaac couldn’t have paid the price for sin. And the ram that was caught in the bushes, also couldn’t pay the price for sin. And this brings me two my second and final thing I want us to get from this story.

On that day, the ram took the place of Isaac. And this is where we see what is called substitutionary atonement. And so, when Abraham looks and sees the ram, God sees 2,000 years into the future. One the very same mountain range that this story takes place on is a hill, that we know as calvary. And God is saying to Abraham, don’t kill your son, there’s a substitute, and he’s not just talking about the ram, he’s talking about the lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. It’s that sacrifice, the sacrifice of Jesus, on the cross of calvary, that makes us clean. That makes us whole. That makes us righteous. When we come to him by faith, it’s that sacrifice that makes our worship acceptable to God. It’s not us. There’s nothing good in us a part from Jesus Christ. God made him who knew no sin to become sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. God laid upon him the iniquity of all of us - He laid upon Jesus Christ our idolatry, our jealousy, our anger, our bitterness, our pride, our rebellion, and all of our darkness, and all of the things we do in secret, all of it was laid upon Jesus Christ the perfect, sinless, spotless lamb. On the Cross, Jesus Christ is our substitute, and our sinfulness is imputed to him. We don’t have to die. Just like Isaac, we don’t have to die because there’s one who dies in our place. This is the Gospel. But, only by responding to it, are we saved.

God laid upon him the iniquity of all of us - the idolatry, the jealousy, the anger, the bitterness, the pride, that all of us have, all of our darkness, all of the things we do in secret, all of it was laid up Jesus Christ. On the Cross, Christ is our substitute, and our sinfulness is imputed to him. We don’t have to die. Just like Isaac, we don’t have to die because there’s one who dies in our place.

The only thing we’re required to do is believe Jesus died for our sins and then confess him as Lord of our lives, and then spend the rest of our lives in pursuit of him and only him. We don’t pursue God and fill in the blank. We pursue God and only God. That’s salvation. Maybe you’re here this morning, and you’ve realized I want God and something else, or maybe the something else has taken the place of God in your heart. Confess it. Repent of it. And root it out. Get rid of it. Sacrifice it to the Lord. Just like Abraham, who couldn’t place his faith in Isaac and the promise, we can’t worship God and something else. We can’t place our faith in God and in something else. God and God alone satisfies the longing of our hearts. So confess it. We’ll have a time of response, and now’s the time to get your heart right with the Lord. Let me pray.