Storms Creek Church 4-16-2023

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Episode Transcript

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Good morning, and welcome to StormStreet Missionary Baptist Church this Sunday morning radio
program. This morning, we'll bejoining Pastor Kenny Herks because we once again
open the scriptures and study God's work. Okay, we're going to be in
the Book of Genesis, Genesis chaptertwenty two, and I want to begin

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by reading the first two verses,but we're going to be looking at verses
one through fourteen, which is avery familiar passage to most of us.
And it came to pass after thesethings that God did attempt Abraham and said
unto him, and he said,behold here I am, and he said,

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take now thy son, thine onlyson, Isaac, whom thou lovest,
and get thee into the land ofMariah, and offer him there for
a burnt offering upon one of themountains, which I will tell thee of
I want you to notice in versetwo where we see it written and he

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said, take now thy son,thine only son, Isaac. And I'm
going to use those three words thineonly son, for the title for the
message for today. You know,most of us like to hear a good
story, one that's true, oreven one that's made up. We like

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to hear stories of love and war, and sports and adventures and some amazing
event that's happened. Now, manyof these stories, well, well they
are a lot alike. They sounda lot alike. You know, the
names and places change, but thestories a lot of times are pretty similar.
Plus, when it comes to astory, don't we like to have

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a story that has a happy ending. Most of us don't want to hear
a story that has a sad ending, So we like to hear stories that
turn out good and have a happyending. Occasionally, we'll hear a story
that is unique, a story thatis unlike any other story that we have
ever heard. And I think that'sthe case with the story we're going to
look at this morning. It isa story that, as I said,

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it's familiar. It's not one thatwe've not heard before. Most of us
have heard this story told over andover. We've read of it. It's
a story that does have a happyending, although for a while it doesn't
look like it is. It isa story that's not just a happy ending
for the characters that are involved ina story, but really it's a story

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that has a happy ending for allmankind, because all of us. As
I'll show, you should enjoy theblessings of this particular story. Now you
know that I'm talking about the storyof Abraham and Isaac when God told Abraham
to sacrifice his own son. There'sa movie out now it's called His Only

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Son, and it's based on Genesischapter twenty two. It's based on the
story that we're going to be lookingat this morning. See what we have
here in Genesis twenty two is astory. Well, it's a story that
people have been interested in for thousandsof years. It is well, it
is a story that I think leadsto a even greater story. In fact,

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it leads to the greatest story that'sever been told, and that is
a story of how God sinned hisonly begotten son into this world and he
offered himself there as a sacrifice forsinners. Now, that is the greatest
of all stories. And so Ithink the story we're looking at today is
just a story that kind of isa preview of that. You know,

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today, there are people who saythey don't believe this story, that if
the story is true, then Abrahamwas insane to think that he was actually
going to sacrifice, he was goingto kill his own son. You know,
that doesn't make any sense. Hehad to be out of his mind.
Well, as we will see,that wasn't the case. This is

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a true story, and Abraham wasn'tout of his mind. He was simply
a man of faith doing what Godwell, doing what God had commanded him
to do. So the story,as we look at it this morning,
has four parts. It starts withGod's command. Then you have Abraham's obedience,

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thirdly Isaac's submission, and the fourthGod's provision. So you'll know is
that it begins with God, itends with God, and in between are
the two other characters in the story, and that's Abraham and Isaac. So
first of all God's command. You'llnotice that end verse one, which I

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register meant ago, it says thatGod did tempt Abraham. Now, the
word tempt can have two meanings.It can mean to entice or it can
mean to test. Now, Godisn't enticing Abraham. He's not trying to

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get him to sin. No,that's not what's going on. Now,
what he's doing is is he iswell, he's testing him. He's testing
him in order to demonstrate his faith, that his faith is real. See
Satan is the one who entices usto sin. God is the one who
tests us in order to well,in order to increase our faith. Now,

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this isn't the this isn't the firsttime that Abraham's faith has been tested.
You know when back in Genesis chaptertwelve, he was asked to leave
his home to least leave earth thecolds, and he was asked to leave

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and go to a place that well, he did. God didn't even tell
him where he was going. Hesaid, I'll lead to a place that
I'll show you. So this tookThis took faith on Abraham's part to leave
and go to a place that hedoesn't even know where he's going. And
then when he was ninety nine andSarah was ninety, God told him that

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he was going to have a son. Now, Roman's chapter four tells us
that he considered not his own bodyyet dead, said he staggered not at
God's promise. He believed that Godwould do what was basically impossible. In
fact, it was humanly impossible.For one hundred year old man and a

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ninety year old woman to have achild is something that's impossible. But he
sees that God's able to do thatwhich is impossible. Now, we would
agree that this was an even greateract of faith on Abraham's part than when
he was asked to leave home.But these two events don't even come close

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to what we see here in Genesischapter twenty two. This is by far
Abraham's greatest test. That he iscommanded to offer his son as a sacrifice.
He's commanded by God to kill hisown son. Now, keep in
mind, this is the son ofpromise. Isaac is the son of promise.

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God promised to make of Abraham agreat nation, and he's going to
do that. He said, throughhis son, through his seed, through
Isaac. How can that be?If he kills his son, that would
put an end to Abraham's seed.Now, in this command, it almost

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appears as if God is mocking Abraham. Now of course we know that he's
not, but on the surface,it kind of appears that way. Let's
look closely at verse two and seethe command. And he said, take
now thy son, thine only son, Isaac. Now some would say,
well, wait a minute, now, that's not true. Isaac wasn't Abraham's

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only son. He had a son, Ishmael. But Ishmael was taken from
Abraham's family as far as the covenantthat God made with Abraham, Ishmael wasn't
even to be considered. No,Isaac was considered his only son, and
it was through Isaac that the promisewould come. So then he goes on

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and he says, whom thou lovest? Now, this is the first mention
of love in the Bible, andit's the love that a father has for
his son. Now I didn't haveto say that, that's where I said.
It almost appears like he's even mockinghim. He could have said,
take now thy son, thine onlyson, Isaac, and go to the

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land of Moriah. But he addsthat whom thou lovest, I think that's
too well. To touch our affections, is to get our emotions stirred up,
to show us just how dear Isaacwas to Abraham and what God was
calling Abraham to do. Has thereever been a son more loved by his

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father than Abraham and his love forIsaac, I don't think so. The
only exception of that, of course, would be the one that we're to
look at at the end of thechapter, at the end of this message.
But truly Abraham loved Isaac. Now, some would argue that God's making
a point here that Isaac was toodear to his father, he had begun

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to take God's place in Abraham's affections. Now I know that it is possible
for that to happen. In Matthew, chapter ten and verse thirty seven,
Jesus, he that loveth father ormother more than me is not worthy of
me. And he that loveth sonor daughter more than me is not worthy

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of me. So it is possiblefor, I think, for a father
or a mother to maybe love achild more than they even love God.
And we know, of course thatthat's not right. Nothing should take the
place of God in our affections.He is to have first place. And

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so would argue that this testing isjust to see just where Abraham's loyalty lie.
Was he more loyal to Isaac thanhe was to God? He love
Isaac more than he loved God himself. Now this is not an easy question,
though, to answer, and Ithink it's possible that that is true.

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In fact, when I preached onthis passage probably twenty years ago,
that's kind of the way that Iwent, That's what I brought out.
But I'm kind of looking at ita little bit differently. Now you see
this story is well, it's morethan just a story of a man's faith,
although that is an important part ofthis story, Abraham's faith. But

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really I look at this as alove story, and I think that the
love that Abraham has for Isaac isjust to be a well a preview,
a foreshadowing of the love that Godthe Father had for his only be gotten
son. Because we know that Godnot only was he willing to offer his

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son as a sacrifice, he actuallydid. He sacrificed his son for sinners,
sinners whom he loved. So let'slook at this as a as a
love story. So that is thefirst part, that is Abraham's command.
Secondly, I want you to noticeAbraham's I'm talking about God's command. Secondly,

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I want you to notice Abraham's obedience. Verse three. And Abraham rose
early in the morning, saddled hisdonkey, took two of his young men
with him, and Isaac, hisson, and clave the wood for the
burnt offering, and rose up andwent into the place of which God told
him. So you notice that itsays that he rose up early. Okay,

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don't miss that that's very, veryimportant to this story because what that
tells me is is that Abraham didn'thesitate, didn't question God, didn't seek
the advice of others, as if, is this really what God's calling me
to do, commanding me to do? You know, should I? Should

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I do this? No? Infact, it doesn't even say that he
told Sarah what he was doing.Now I'm of the opinion that he probably
did. We're not told that,But I just could not see him taking
Isaac and leaving for three days andSarah not know where they're at. What's
going on? We see what wesee here in this verse is we see

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Abraham's trust. We see him demonstratinghis faith once again. That's why again,
that's why he's mentioned in Hebrews Hebrewschapter eleven talking about faith. What
is faith anyway? Well, mysimple definition of faith is hearing God's word
and acting on it, which isof course what we see Abraham doing here.

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He's acting on God's command, God'sword. That says in verse four.
Then on the third day, Abrahamlifted up his eyes and saw the
place afar off. So it tookhim three days to leave his home and
to go to Mount Mariah, threedays of travel. How you wonder what

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was going through Abraham's mind and he'smade this three day journey, you know,
he had to be, you know, thinking about what he was going
to do when he got there,what he was being commanded to do.
You know, did he think that, you know, maybe because of some
sin that he had committed, thatGod was punishing him and asking him to
do this, That could have possiblygone through his mind. Probably he was

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thinking about the promise that God gavehim, and how is God going to
keep that promise? How is Abraham? How is he going to have a
great nation if he kills his sonand so he wouldn't be able to have
any more children. The line wouldstop if he kills Isaac. So how

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is God going to keep his promiseif he sacrifices his son? Well,
I think when you look at this, I think that Abraham basically had two
options, two choices. The firstone is I think he would have to
conclude that God, well God cannotbe trusted, that God doesn't know what

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he's doing. He tells Abraham todo one thing, and then he contradicts
it by telling him to do thecomplete opposite. Well, although he cannot
understand how the problem can be resolved, he knows that he can trust God.
God's going to keep his promise,just like he's done before. So

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the first option you just strike thatout. He doesn't conclude that God cannot
be trusted because he knows from experiencethat God can be trusted. And so
however God's going to work this out. He still puts his faith in his
trust in God that God's going tokeep his promise. I love what Warren
Wersby says here. He says welive on promises, not explanations. How

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true that is when you think aboutthis case. That certainly is what Abraham's
doing because God doesn't explain to himwhat's going on. All he has is
God's promise that through his seed,through Isaac, he is going to be
a great nation. He's going tohave a great multitude of people. It

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goes on then in verse five,and Abraham said, unto his young men,
abide you here with and I andthe lad will go yonder and worship
and come again to you. AndAbraham took the wood of the burnt offering
and laid it upon Isaac, hisson, and he took fire in his
hand and a knife. And theywent both of them together. And Isaac
spaken to Abraham his father, andsaid, my father, And he said,

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here am i my son. Andhe said, behold the fire in
the wood. But where's the lambfor a burnt offering? And Abraham said,
my son, God will provide himselfa lamb for a burnt offering.
So they went both of them together. Now, I want you to just

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remember what I just read, andI want to read to you then from
Hebrew's chapter eleven, because in Hebrewwe have the account of what we're looking
at. In Genesis chapter twenty twosays by faith, Abraham, when he
was tried, offered up Isaac.And he that had received the promises,
offered up his own begotten son ofwhom it was said that in Isaac shall

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I seed be called Verse nineteen,accounting that God was able to raise him
up even from the dead from whencealso he received him in a figure.
So here is the conclusion that Abrahamcomes. To use a little bit of
algebra. Here A plus B equalc. A. God has promised that

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through Isaac he would have a greatmultitude, he would have a great family.
B. God commanded him to sacrificeIsaac, to kill him, s
God certainly must then raise him fromthe dead. I mean, that's the

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only solution, that's the only waythat God's going to be able to keep
his promise. If he kills Isaac, then God's going to have to raise
Isaac back from the dead so thathe can then keep his promise. See,
there's never been someone raised from thedead, not up to this point,
so he doesn't have a previous resurrectionto look to. And that's true,

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but he realizes that there must bea resurrection. God must raise him
from the dead. And so whatwe see here is Abraham's faith at its
highest. You know, today wegather here on the Lord's Day on Sunday.
We gather here each week we celebratethe resurrection. Fifty two weeks out

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of the year. We celebrate aresurrection that has already occurred. It happened
two thousand years ago. Abraham iscelebrating in a sense of resurrection. He's
thinking of a resurrection that hasn't happenedyet. Now in his case, he's
thinking about Isaac, that Isaac's goingto soon be resurrected. But as we

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see, that's not going to happen, but he's really looking for a resurrection
that is still thousands of years away. So you see that we are looking
for a resurrection. We're looking toa resurrection that's already happened, where Abraham's
looking to a resurrection that hasn't happenedyet. That's all part of this story.
So that is Abraham's obedience. Thirdly, I want you to notice Isaac's

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submission. Isaac's submission verse nine.And they came to the place which God
told him of, and Abraham builtan altar there and laid the wood in
order, and bound Isaac, hisson, and laid him on the altar
upon the wood. Now here's theother character in this story, one that
I think is often overlooked. That'sIsaac. We don't know how old Isaac

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was at this time. I believehe was probably a young man, maybe
in his late teens, old enoughthat he could have escaped, old enough
that he didn't have to allow himselfto be tied down and placed on this
altar and killed. You see,Isaac was not dragged in change. He
wasn't fighting for his life as hisfather bound him on that altar. No,

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he submitted he willing. He willinglysubmitted to his father and allowed himself
to be tied to that altar,and it was going to allow himself to
be killed. Of course, wesee here that Isaac is a type of
Christ, because we know that,like Isaac the Lord Jesus Christ, he
submitted to his father to do hisfather's will. He didn't have to go

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to the cross. He could havecome down, he could have stopped at
any time, but he allowed himselfto be nailed to the cross in order
to do his father's will. Andso that's what we see isais don't don't
leave Isaac. Don't forget what Isaac, what part he plays in this story.

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And then finally we see God's provisionverse ten. And Abraham stretched forth
his hand and took the knife toslay his son. And the Angel of
the Lord called unto him out ofheaven, and said Abraham, Abraham.
And he said, here am I. And he said, lay not thy
hand upon the lad, neither dothou anything unto him. For now I

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know that thou fearest God, seeingthat thou hast not withheld thy son,
an only son, from me.And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked
in behold behind him a ram caughtin a thicket by his horns. And
Abraham went and took the ram andoffered him up for a burnt offering in
the stead of his son. AndAbraham called the name of that place Jehovah
Jirah, as it is said tothis day, in the mount of the

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Lord, it shall be seen.So just as Abraham was about to slay
his son, God intervened. Butwhat I want you to notice is is
that they didn't hold a sacrifice.There was a sacrifice still made. It
just wasn't Isaac. There was asubstitute. Aram was offered in the place

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of Isaac. You see, Abrahamwas looking for a resurrection. With what
he got was the substitute. Godprovided a sacrifice, a substitute. So
as we close, how is itthat we are to apply this story to
us today? You see, thegreatest difficulty in this chapter, in this

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story is not necessarily the conduct ofAbraham and his willingness to kill his son.
No, the greatest difficulty is Ithink with God and how God could
command Abraham to sacrifice his son tobegin with. You know, his child
sacrifice was practiced by the Canaanite nations. But it was forbidden by God and

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the Jewish people well to say,but God stopped him, he didn't go
through with it. True, Butthat still doesn't answer the question how could
God give such command in the firstplace. Well, that's not an easy
question to answer. There's a lotof things that go into that to make

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it complicated. Let me just giveyou a couple of things to keep in
mind that I think kind of helpsus understand this. First of all,
the sacrifice of Isaac could not bewrong, whether it was commanded or actually
carried out, because God is incapableof doing anything wrong or evil. So
understand that what God commanded was notwrong, and it wasn't evil because God

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cannot do wrong and he cannot doevil. And number two, God didn't
act, didn't ask Abraham to dosomething that he wasn't willing to do himself.
In fact, he actually did sacrificehis son. Isaiah, chapter fifty
three and verse six says, allwe like sheep, have gone astray.
We've turned everyone to his own way. And notice these words. The Lord

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hath laid on him the iniquity ofus, All the laid on him the
iniquity of his hall Verse tend yetit pleased the Lord to bruise him.
And a lot of times people willask the question who was responsible for the
death of the Son of God.Some will say what pilot was, or
the Roman soldiers were, the Jewishreligious leaders, the Jewish people, you

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and I. All those answers aretrue, They're just not the main reason.
The main reason is I've just readin Isaiah, God's the one who
was primarily responsible for his son's deathJohn three point sixteen. For God so
loved the world that he gave hisonly begotten son. It didn't just mean
that he gave in the sense thathe let him be born and lived in

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this world and died of natural death. No, he gave his son.
It means he gave him as asacrifice. He gave him as the substitute
that all who believe in him wouldhave eternal life. You see, God
doesn't ask Abraham to do something hehimself would not do and what he actually

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did. So this story, yeah, I had, demonstrates the faith of
Abraham for sure, but even moreso, I think it foreshadows what God
the Father one day would do whenhe on this same Mountain offered his son
as a sacrifice. So it showsGod's love for his son, but also

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it shows even more so his lovefor those that he gave his son even
before the foundation of the world.It's a remarkable story. Verse twelve says
that there's a voice that said,lay not thy hand upon the lad Now
that's a cry that I was surethat was sweet music to Abraham's ears to

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hear that after he was about readyto kill his son. But you know,
that was a cry that wasn't madeat Calvary because there was no one
to be a sacrifice. There wasno one to be a substitute for the
son of God. So God stoppedthe sacrifice of Isaac. Really for two
reasons, and we'll close with thisone. His sacrifice would have been of
no benefit to him, to Abraham, or to anyone else. You see,

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the lamb that was to be sacrificedalways had to be without spotting,
without blemish. Well, Isaac wasn't. No one who's ever lived in this
world was without spot or blemish exceptfor one, and that's the true lamb
of God, Jesus Christ. AndAbraham's faith was demonstrated by his willingness to
carry out God's command. So wesee here a story, a story like

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no others. We see the faithof this great man, Abraham. But
even more than that, we seethe love that Abraham had for his son,
which was simply a preview, justthe foreshadowing of the love that God
has for his own son. AndAbraham didn't have to offer his son.

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God did offer his son as asacrifice for sins. See in verse seven.
Isaac asked his father, where isthe lamb for a burn offering?
Abraham said, my son, Godwill provide himself a lamb for a burnt
offering. Well, fast forward twothousand years on that same mountain, and

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you will see where the lamb wasoffered. Jesus was that lamb, the
lamb of God who came to takeaway the sins of his people. We'd
like to thank you for listening toour program this morning. We pray that
God has usus message to draw youcloser to Him. Storms Creek Missionary Baptist

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Church would like to take this opportunityto invite you to any of its services.
We have a Sunday school which startsat nine point thirty a Sunday morning.
Worship fifteen and our Sunday evening servicestarts at six pm. We also
have a Wednesday Night Bible Study whichstarts at seven point thirty pm. Storms

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Creek Missionary Baptist Church is also onthe Internet under Sermonaudio dot com. You
can go to www. Dot SermonAudio, look for Storms Creek Missionary Baptist
Church and listen to any of oursermons in full length audio at the side.
Again, we'd like to thank youfor listening this morning, and may

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God bless you throughout the week.