Christmas Message/ The LORD will Provide

This is not going to be a traditional Christmas message today. Most of our time will be spent in the Old Testament book of Genesis talking about Abraham and Sarah.

But

I will tell you that both of these are important and that one of these is of most importance, but context of the question is everything and without receiving we truly cannot give.

I will tell you that both of these are important and that one of these is of most importance, but context of the question is everything. Without receiving we truly cannot give. and when this sermon is done I hope that I will have convinced you through God’s Word that It is defiantly better to receive than to give. Although giving is very important as well.

Lets pray.

Lets look at the life of Abraham

The Call of Abram

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The Call of Abram

12 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. 2 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. 3 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.”

4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him.

Abram at 75 years old who has no children is called by God, and told I will bless, I will make your name great and to your offspring I will give this land. Abram is just simply told to go from your country— trust me God is telling him. Get away from the false gods of your fathers and follow me the LORD.

But Abram knows that he is old, he knows that Sari his wife is old past the point of child bearing years, and in chapter fifteen he tells or tries to remind God I am childless.

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God’s Covenant with Abram

15 After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 2 But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue (or I shall die) childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 4 And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” 5 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

But time passes, and no child was given so Sari Abram’s wife tells Abram to go into her servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her. Chapter 16 tells us.

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Sarai and Hagar

16 Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. 2 And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 3 So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. 4 And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. 16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bor Ishmael to Abram.

How often do we do this same thing in our lives. God tells us we are blessed

God had a plan, and Abram and Sari tried to take his plan into there own hands at their own time. Ten plus years had passed since God had called Abram and told him he would have a child. This plan of Sari and Abram caused a lot of problems, but God is good and He does not let anything happen that is not supposed to. But Abram and Sari should have waited on the LORD.

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Abraham and the Covenant of Circumcision

17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, 2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” 3 Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, 4 “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. 6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”

And finally at a hundred years old Abraham has is given an heir a child born to him by his wife Sarah, not the servant Hagar, but Sarah. Listen to what Sarah says.

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The Birth of Isaac

21 The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. 2 And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. 3 Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. 4 And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. 5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. 6 And Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.” 7 And she said, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.”

God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me. Imagine this twenty five years has passed since God first called Abram to go— that is a long time, but now finally a child is born, a son is given and kings will come from him.

Now fast forward Issac is now grown into a man (20+)— everything is going great— and God says

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The Sacrifice of Isaac

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.”

God said Abraham I am going to test you to see if you love me more than anyone else so take the son whom I gave to you in your old age and kill him and give him back to me. I gave him to you and Sara your wife, now I want you to trust me and offer him back to me. Prepare him and sacrifice him as a burnt offering.

God said Abraham I am going to test you to see if you love me more than anyone else so take the son whom I gave to you in your old age and kill him and give him back to me. I gave him to you and Sara your wife, now I want you to trust me and offer him back to me. Prepare him and sacrifice him as a burnt offering.

Two things I want to look at briefly here: 1 the burnt offering. 2 why does God tell Abraham that Isaac is his only son—what about Ishmael?

In after the flood we see Noah offer up burnt offerings.

Burnt

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God’s Covenant with Noah

20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done.

In Lev we get an even better picture of the burnt offering

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3 “If his offering is a burnt offering from the herd, he shall offer a male without blemish. He shall bring it to the entrance of the tent of meeting, that he may be accepted before the Lord. 4 He shall lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. 5 Then he shall kill the bull before the Lord, and Aaron’s sons the priests shall bring the blood and throw the blood against the sides of the altar that is at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 6 Then he shall flay the burnt offering and cut it into pieces, 7 and the sons of Aaron the priest shall put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire. 8 And Aaron’s sons the priests shall arrange the pieces, the head, and the fat, on the wood that is on the fire on the altar; 9 but its entrails and its legs he shall wash with water. And the priest shall burn all of it on the altar, as a burnt offering, a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.

The burnt offering is only one part of the sacrificial system that God had set up. There was also sin offerings, and peace offerings

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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 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.

This is the climax of Abrahams life—At this moment a choice does he love the LORD enough, trust the LORD enough to take his own sons life— simply on the word that God says to do it! or does he run. Will Abraham give back his son to the LORD for an offering of atonement as a pleasing aroma to the LORD. Of course we know the story, we know that he tries to go through with it, we know that God stops him, we know that God indeed provides His own sacrifice— a ram that is caught in the thicket by its horns. God gives His own or provides His own sacrifice.

Look at what Abraham called the place after this event. verse 14.

So Abraham called the name of the place, “The LORD will provide” ; as it is said to this day “ on the mount of the LORD is shall be provided.”

The second thing we were going to talk about is why did God say to Abraham take your only son Isaac, when Abraham had another son Ishmael?

Paul gives us this answer in , but first I want to talk about another Son, the one that was to be born later. The one that the story of Abraham and Sarah patently waiting for their son and then finally receiving him and then asked to sacrifice him as a burnt offering is pointing to.

This Son is one that will be talked about by all of the prophets in the Bible. We will look at Isaiah though.

He will be born through a virgin

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14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

He will be one of Great worth and Power

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6 For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given;

and the government shall be upon his shoulder,

and his name shall be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

7 Of the increase of his government and of peace

there will be no end,

on the throne of David and over his kingdom,

to establish it and to uphold it

with justice and with righteousness

from this time forth and forevermore.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

And like Abraham and Sarah, the people would have to wait for this Son to be born, they could not take it into their own hands, it had to be at God’s perfect time.

And they would wait and prophets would come and write about Him, and then they would wait. And then the people would rebel and God would punish them, but because of Abraham God would forgive and the people waited some more. Then Malachi the last prophet in the Old Testament. And He even wrote about this coming child, but then they waited for four hundred more years the people waited.

and then He came just like the prophets had said, by a virgin mother. God proved once again to be faithful. This son came for a purpose. Christmas is great, we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, but let us never forget the purpose of the birth.

Jesus came to die as the sacrifice that Isaac could never be. The picture of Abraham is a awesome picture of the big picture of Jesus and salvation.

But also, unlike Isaac will be a offering to the God, He will be pored out like water.

Isaac was a miraculous birth like Jesus, he was long awaited like Jesus was, but Isaac was not the perfect son of God. He could never be the sacrifice that takes away the sins of the world. God used this as a test for Abraham, but it was also a picture of the one that was the perfect sacrifice. The people of God after Abraham would eventually set up the sacrificial system, but even this would fall short and only be a picture of the one that was to come.

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Christ’s Sacrifice Once for All

10 For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? 3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,

“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,

but a body have you prepared for me;

6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings

you have taken no pleasure.

7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,

as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’ ”

8 When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), 9 then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. 10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Jesus had to be born so that He could be the perfect sacrifice for all sins past and present of those who like Abraham are willing to follow and leave there old life behind— and give there everything to Jesus as their Lord and savior and God.

Why did God tell Abraham that he only had one son?

Why did God tell Abraham that he only had one son?

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Example of Hagar and Sarah

21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written,

“Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;

break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor!

For the children of the desolate one will be more

than those of the one who has a husband.”

28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” 31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.

Christ Has Set Us Free

5 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.