We're in Genesis chapter 22, and look at verse 1, the Bible reads,
And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him,
Abraham, and he said, Behold, here I am.
Now, the word tempt in the King James Bible is often a little bit different than what we would normally think of in our modern vernacular.
A lot of times when we think of tempting someone, we think about enticing them with sin, or enticing them with evil,
or trying to get them to do something wrong, or do something evil.
Yet, that's not what the Bible is meaning here when it uses the word tempt.
Tempt, in an older sense, can mean simply to try or to test someone.
Or you could even think of it in a modern vernacular like attempt, to attempt something.
In a sports setting, you might think of someone trying to attempt to perform the fastest race,
or the fastest car, or something. They're trying to attempt to break the world record.
That's more in line with what the Bible is trying to mean here when it says to try and test.
What you have to understand is that God is going to test His people.
God is going to test Christians, and He's going to try you, and He really wants to see what you're like,
because it's really easy to talk the talk. What's hard, though, is to actually walk the walk.
What's actually hard is to be willing to actually follow God's commandments when you're tried, when you're tested.
What gives God honor and glory is when His saints are tempted and tried, and they actually come out.
They come through that temptation, they come through that trial, and they show that they had great faith in the Lord.
It shows that the Lord is worthy of faith, that the Lord is worthy of trusting.
The Word of God is something that we can rely upon. It's something that we can look to as a source of being credible.
If no one's really willing to obey the Lord through faith or to be faithful, it kind of discredits the Lord.
It kind of makes it seem like the Lord's not trustworthy or someone that you don't really want to rely upon.
If you make some kind of a promise, you don't think that He's really going to come through with it.
Whereas with the Bible's teaching here and showing us that men of God, when they show these great acts of faith in the Lord,
and the Lord is able to rescue them, save them, deliver them, it shows how faithful the Lord truly is.
If nobody actually ends up following through with God's promises, or when God's trying to tempt them, they're never willing to trust the Lord,
then we don't get to see how great the Lord truly is. We don't get to actually see how the Lord will rescue, will deliver, will save.
God gets the most glory and the most honor from His people or Christians being tempted and tried,
and then coming through that temptation or that trial.
Look at verse number 2.
And He said,
So, in previous chapters we'd learn about Ishmael, but Ishmael had been cast out.
So now Abraham has one son, he has Isaac, and it's to illustrate a lot of spiritual truths in the Bible,
and the Bible describes Isaac as being his only son, his only son, and it's the one whom he loves,
and it says here that he's supposed to take him into the land of Moriah,
and he's supposed to offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell the of.
Now this is really interesting because a lot of things.
You know, first of all, he's the only son, right?
But I want to focus on one aspect, and then we're going to kind of come back to this verse.
Keep your finger here, but go to 2 Chronicles 3 for a moment.
Go to 2 Chronicles 3.
What's interesting is the Bible says that he was supposed to go into the land of Moriah.
Now, there is a mount Moriah as well, as the Bible would describe,
and, you know, when it talks about Moriah, it's kind of a larger geographical area,
so there could be a lot of different things happening in the land of Moriah,
but he's saying there's a specific mount in the land of Moriah that I want you to go to.
Well, Moriah is mentioned in your Bible one other time, okay?
And I want to show that to you and then show this cool connection the Bible constantly makes.
Look what it says in 2 Chronicles 3, verse number 1.
Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem in mount Moriah,
where the Lord appeared unto David his father,
in the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.
So we have this place where David goes, and he's supposed to bring back the tabernacle.
He's supposed to bring back the Ark of the Covenant, and he doesn't do it correctly,
but eventually he ends up buying a piece of land in order to build the temple of the Lord,
where he wants to future build that,
and the Bible later describes it, when Solomon ends up building that house of the Lord,
that it's at Jerusalem, and notice it's in a mount, and it's in a mount Moriah.
Now, that's not a coincidence, okay?
What's interesting is there's always this constant, like, foreshadowing that the Bible's giving us,
and it's painting these pictures, and it's kind of showing us that,
hey, the same place that Abraham's going to do this ritual with Isaac
is the same place where God built his house.
It's the same place where the temple of the Lord is going to be,
and that's where Christ was crucified.
You know, Christ was in the temple, and was condemned, and then drug out to the mount,
which in the New Testament is called Golgotha, or the place of the skull,
and that's where they ended up killing him,
and now I can't say, you know, there's not a verse, a third verse that I could tile this together,
but I believe that it's the same mount, because that would make perfect sense why that would be,
but go back, if you would, to Genesis chapter 22.
No, but for a fact, it's the same area.
Like, it's undeniable that it's the same area, and it's incredible that the Lord is having them
perform all these same things in the exact same areas, in the same regions,
and I even believe on the same mount, because God knows everything.
God already knows where Christ was going to die.
God already knows everything about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ,
and look, the things that are told to us in the Bible are about the crucifixion.
They're about Jesus Christ. They're about his life,
so it only makes sense that God is going to direct Abraham to the exact same mount
that in the future, his son is going to be the sacrifice.
His son is going to be, as the Bible describes, the burnt offering, okay?
Now, it says that he's thine only son, whom thou lovest.
The Bible says the same thing about Jesus Christ.
Now, you're never going to have to turn there. I'll just read a few verses.
The Bible says no man has seen God at any time.
The only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
John 3, 16, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
1 John 4, verse 9 says, In this was manifested the love of God toward us,
because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him.
God wants to stress something, that he had one son,
and he was willing to sacrifice that only son for us,
and he illustrates this through Abraham, who's also willing to offer what?
His only son.
Now, again, this great doctrine that we have here in the Bible
could only be understood through the Trinity,
could only be understood through the eyes of understanding the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
These oneness Pentecostals destroy this story,
because, you know, Abraham's not going up onto the mount to sacrifice himself.
He's not going up to hold the knife to himself.
No, he's doing it to his son, and we see two people having to go through something very difficult.
We see a father having to sacrifice his son and the love he has,
and then we see the son's obedience unto his father, and we can see that dynamic.
And really, this is the full picture of God's love towards us,
where one is willing to sacrifice his son for us,
the other one's willing to sacrifice himself and be obedient unto his father for us.
And we can see this picture of love that's just emanating through the Bible.
I mean, the Bible says it's manifest, the love that God hath toward us.
What is it? That he sent his only begotten son.
So what the Bible's saying is the ultimate picture of love is God sacrificing his son.
Because the reality is, if you ask me, what's a harder sacrifice,
you to die or your child to die, it's way harder to want to sacrifice my son.
That is way more difficult, and especially in the context of being my only son.
You know, I do have three sons, but, you know, if I only had one,
and I was told to sacrifice that for somebody else,
that would be the ultimate picture of love or sacrifice that I could offer.
Because, you know, if someone were to hurt my son, I would want to step in the way.
I would want to protect them and to guard them,
and I would rather take that punishment rather than themselves.
So it really illustrates how much God's willing to pay for us,
how much God's willing to go through to reconcile us to him.
Because, you know, think about it, he's the creator of the universe.
He can do whatever he wants.
He can just send us all to hell.
I mean, think about it.
It's like, make my son suffer or send all these worthless creations into hell,
and frankly, we're worthless in his sight because we're wicked sinners.
I mean, we're vile. We're wicked. We've done nothing good, you know.
But for some reason, he still wanted to redeem us.
For some reason, he still felt like we were worth, you know, the sacrifice of his son.
He still loved us enough to go through that horrible punishment and pain.
And so we should look at this story and realize, you know,
if that's really hard to imagine, you giving up your son,
it's even more that God had to give up his son.
And that's why he uses such a gut-wrenching story.
Because if someone walked in here and says, sacrifice your child,
I mean, that would be, you wouldn't even think about it.
You'd be like, no.
I mean, that would be something that's completely off the table,
you wouldn't be willing to do.
And especially if you said, all right,
I want you to sacrifice your son for all these people.
But 90-some percent of them are not going to receive that free gift that you offer them to.
And none of them deserve it.
None of them are worth it.
And in fact, you know, most of them probably won't even come to church on Wednesday night.
Most of them probably won't even come to church on a Sunday night.
Most of the, here's the thing.
Even the ones that accept your gift, most of them will never even share the gospel one time.
They'll never even tell somebody about that story.
Think about that.
Someone literally sacrificed their child for you,
and the majority of Christians will never go in their entire lifetime telling one person about that story.
The gospel of Jesus Christ.
We live in a world where people are so selfish today,
they're so concerned with themselves today,
hey, and they'll read stories about Abraham and Isaac,
and they'll think like, oh, okay.
And then they'll never open up their mouth and actually preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I mean, God literally had to sacrifice his son.
God literally had to go through the pain.
You know, Abraham gets a pass here, but you know what?
God didn't.
And we can't downplay the sacrifice.
And not only is it a sacrifice, look what it's described in verse 2.
A burnt offering.
And that's going to lead us somewhere.
Go to verse number 3.
It says,
And Abraham rose up early in the morning and saddled his ass and took two of his young men with him.
And Isaac his son enclaved the wood for the burnt offering,
and rose up and went unto the place of which God had told him.
Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off.
And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide he here with the ass,
and I and the lad will go yonder in worship and come again to you.
And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son.
Now it's interesting how the father ends up burdening his son with the wood.
Meaning what?
That God the father burdened his son with the cross of Jesus Christ.
And he made him carry it.
He made him take it up the mount, didn't he?
And he took the fire in his hand.
So who has the fire?
God.
Or Abraham.
And a knife.
Who has the knife?
God.
Which is the one representing what?
Death.
And they went both of them together.
So we see God the father has death and hell in his hands.
And what does Jesus have?
He has the cross in his hands, doesn't he?
Keep your finger and go to John chapter 19.
Go to John chapter 19.
Can you imagine carrying the instrument of death for yourself?
I mean, it's got to be hard to carry your cross.
Think about it.
This is what's going to kill you.
I mean, wouldn't you be like, I'm not carrying that thing.
Because I know what you're going to do with it when you get me up to the mount.
But Christ is literally carrying his cross.
Now, it gets to a point where he just physically can't.
And someone else comes in to carry that cross for him.
But he was willing to carry the instrument of death for himself.
Isaac is carrying the own wood that he's going to be laid on.
I mean, when you think about it, he's realizing the pain and the suffering he's going to have to go through.
It says in John 19, verse 16,
So notice Christ literally had to carry his cross.
Now, in other gospels, we find that another person,
I believe it's Simon, was compelled, the Cyrenian, to help carry the cross of Jesus Christ.
And I always wondered about that.
But what I believe that's picturing is the fact that where Christ is going to leave off,
we end up stepping in and having to bear that same cross.
You know, the Gentiles and the Christians are going to come in,
and Christ did tell us to carry our cross.
And so we're going to have to carry it.
And not only is that, it's not really our cross, though.
If Simon didn't carry his cross, whose cross did he carry?
Christ's cross.
And when we go out and we preach the gospel, we're not carrying our cross, we're carrying his cross.
And we're going out and we're bearing the marks of Jesus in our body,
and we're preaching his gospel, and it's all about him.
You know, we don't want to make the gospel about us and our sufferings and our persecutions.
And here's the thing.
Obviously, sometimes we kind of glory in the persecutions that we go through and the sufferings that we go through.
But we should take all that persecution, all that suffering, off of ourself and carry his cross.
Because all of the stuff we go through is so minuscule in comparison to what Jesus did for us.
Why do we want to sit here and be like,
Oh man, brother, it's so hard.
Well, I'm having to go through.
You know, oh man, somebody left me a bad comment on YouTube.
Can you believe that, brother?
I mean, someone left me a horrible voicemail that I just had to click delete on.
You know, oh man, that was such awful suffering.
It's like, it's so minuscule in comparison to what Christ did that we should get the focus off of ourselves so much
and put the focus on Jesus Christ and realize it's all about him and what he did for us.
Go back if you would and let's look at verse number seven.
So we see the preparation for a burnt offering.
We see a preparation for a sacrifice for something to die and then to be a burnt offering.
And I don't know how much Isaac knew in this moment.
You know, he's going to ask the question here which seems like he's kind of,
he's starting to add things up and he's kind of thinking like, this is weird.
Did we forget something?
Like, do we need to go back?
Verse seven, And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father and said, My father, and he said, Here I am, my son.
And he said, Behold the fire in the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
Wouldn't that mean that you're like, hey, what's going on here?
You know, what are we actually sacrificing?
Verse eight, And Abraham said, My son God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.
So they went both of them together.
You know, I look at this question as kind of, you know,
alluding or making me picture the idea of Christ when he's in the Garden of Gethsemane asking, you know, if there's any other way.
And he's kind of thinking like, what's going on here?
But he says, Not my will thine be done.
And the day Abraham answers in a clever way, you know, he's not being like, it's you, son.
He's saying God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering.
And here's the thing, you know, God did everything.
When we think about it, God was able to even provide the full payment through himself and through his son.
He's the one who provided us everything.
It had nothing to do with us.
God didn't ask us to pay anything.
He didn't ask us to earn anything.
God is the one that's providing every single thing necessary for salvation.
God gave us the life that we didn't deserve.
And then he's one that gives us the eternal life that we didn't deserve.
And you say, who provided that? He did.
All of it's provided for by him.
All of it's done for by him.
I'm just a sojourner. I'm just a stranger just passing through.
And everything I have, he just gave to me.
Everything I own, everything I possess, my physical body, my mind, my family, my wife, my money, my clothes.
You know, naked came I into this womb, and thither shall I return again.
And the reality is, everything we have is just borrowed from the Lord.
He provides every single thing unto us.
And if we have the right attitude, the right mindset, we'll realize, you know what?
You know what? God is the one who's providing it all.
It's all God's, and he provided the lamb.
Who is that lamb? Well, it's none other than Jesus Christ.
But again, that lamb is for what? A burnt offering.
And they both of them went together.
Now go to John chapter 1. Go to John chapter number 1.
And we see the tandem nature of this sacrifice, where it's the Father and the Son going together.
And really, that's the picture of the gospel, is a father with his son.
I mean, the most famous verse in the Bible, John 3.16, it's about a father and a son.
You know, and so it's so bizarre when people want to, you know, change the trinity.
They want to try and, you know, boil it down to something that it's not.
Take it into being one person, or something beyond that, or something weird.
Look what it says in John chapter 1, verse 29.
And the next day, John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.
So notice, John the Baptist, he knew who Jesus Christ was.
That's because Baptists know who Jesus is.
Baptists believe in the doctrine of the trinity.
It didn't start with me. It started with John the Baptist.
He said, Hey, Jesus is the Lamb of God.
John chapter 35, again the next day, after John stood, and two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he said, Behold, the Lamb of God.
So notice, John the Baptist is pointing to Jesus. He's pointing out the Lamb of God.
Go to Revelation chapter 5. Go to Revelation chapter number 5.
Now, in Revelation, the Bible talks about one sitting on the throne, who's none other than God the Father.
Yet, there's another person in heaven that is worshipped.
And it's crazy to me how anybody could then look at who's worshipped in Revelation 5 and say it's anything other than the Lord Jesus Christ.
Anything other than God himself, because God is the only one that's allowed to be worshipped, period.
Especially in heaven.
Obviously, God allows people on earth to worship false gods and to do wickedly on this earth.
But no one's going to go up in heaven and worship Buddha.
No one's going up into heaven and going to worship a false god, or an image, or an animal, or mankind.
They're not going to get up there with their fat head of Lebron James and worship Lebron James in heaven.
They're not going to get up in heaven and worship their trophy.
Look, the only thing that's allowed to be worshipped in heaven is God.
And now, look what it says in Revelation 5, verse 11.
And all that are in them heard I saying, blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb forever and ever.
Now, you know what's so silly about this?
Tyler Baker of Valiant Baptist Church, he said that this is a literal animal lamb.
And it's not Jesus.
What in the world?
It's saying every creature...
Look, it even says in verse 11, and the beasts.
Look, there are animals in heaven, but you know what?
They're worshipping Jesus.
They're not worshipping another animal.
Just like when John the Baptist looked at Jesus walking, it wasn't going like,
Oh, it's the Lamb of God.
No, it was Jesus.
It was the Son of God.
And obviously, the Bible describes him in Revelation, and it talks about the seven eyes and the horns and everything like that.
But look, it's Jesus, my friend.
It's not just an animal.
We're not going to be worshipping an animal.
The animals are going to be worshipping God in heaven, okay?
And that's a title.
That's a name unto who Jesus is because of what he represents.
The Lamb that God would provide for the world.
Notice how he's described in verse 12.
The Lamb that was slain to receive power.
So he's the Lamb that's slain, and you know what?
He's the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
And when we go to heaven, we're going to worship the Lamb which was slain.
And that death is what gives us life.
Go back, if you would, to Genesis chapter 22, Genesis chapter 22.
And the Bible keeps hammering in chapter 22 that it was a burnt offering too, okay?
Now, it says in verse number 9, it says,
And they came to the place which God had told him of,
and Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order,
and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood.
So we see Isaac is put upon this wood, which is a picture of Christ being put on the cross.
Verse 10,
And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven and said,
Abraham, Abraham!
And he said,
Here am I!
And he said,
Lay not thine hand upon the lad,
neither do thou anything unto him.
For now I know that thou fearest God,
seeing thou hast not withheld thine only son from me.
And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked,
and behold, behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns.
And Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
Now, a lot of great symbolism here.
We see that Isaac, nothing happens to him.
And in fact, he makes a pretty strong statement here in verse 12.
He says,
Neither do thou anything unto him.
This is a picture of the substitutional atonement that Christ gives us,
how we deserve death, how we deserve to be on that altar, how we deserve the knife.
But what happens is God ends up replacing Isaac with this ram,
and that ram is a picture of Jesus Christ.
And now that ram is going to end up taking all the punishment.
The ram did nothing wrong.
The ram just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, didn't he?
But he didn't because God wanted him to be there to illustrate Christ.
And notice the ram is caught in a thicket.
That's a picture of what?
Christ with the crown of thorns shoved on his brow, isn't it?
How he was caught in the same way.
The Bible says they plated a crown of thorns and put it about his head.
Now, what's interesting is they took the ram, and notice what it says in verse 13,
offered him for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.
Now, think about this with me, okay?
Obviously, he was going to kill Isaac.
We know that.
I mean, that's what the knife would have done, right?
Now, if he had gone through this exercise, what would have been the next stage?
He then, after the sacrifice, would have burnt him, okay?
But then he replaces it with the ram.
What's interesting is in this replacement, it doesn't mention the death of the ram, does it?
Does it say anything about the ram being cut with the knife or dying?
No.
What does it mention?
Only the burnt offering.
Now, think about this.
What Christ did on the cross, is that going to save you and me from physical death?
No.
We're all going to die.
We're all appointed.
You know, everybody that's lived, you know, before us has died.
And we're appointed unto death unless we go through the rapture.
That's the only exception, really, when it comes to death.
And there's a few other exceptions, which were appointed to the rapture,
like Elijah being caught up in a whirlwind,
or you could argue maybe Enoch in the sense that he was immediately translated.
Maybe he died.
I don't know.
You could interpret that a few different ways.
Or you could even say with Moses, we don't know exactly what happened with him
because obviously the devil is contending about the body of Moses, so we don't know exactly.
This is why people say Enoch, Moses, or Elijah, one of them is potentially the two witnesses
because they haven't died yet, okay?
And I think that's plausible.
I think it could be Moses.
I think it could be Elijah.
I think that's good.
I've even heard the fact that it could be Enoch.
Or, you know, it could be some random people.
You know, I don't know.
It doesn't really matter necessarily.
I think those are good theories and everything like that.
But the point that I'm wanting to make here is that the substitution was not about death.
What was it about?
The burnt offering.
Now here's the thing.
What Christ did for us, though, does allow us to escape something, and that's hell.
We won't escape physical death, but we will escape hell, and the ram took the place of what?
The burnt offering.
Now, I want to go through this a little bit.
Go back to Genesis 8.
The Bible hammers and emphasizes burnt offerings.
I mean, it is just a constant theme throughout the Bible, just over and over and over again.
Burnt offering, burnt offering, burnt offering, burnt offering.
I mean, when you're reading the Old Testament, you get a little bit like, okay, we get it.
Like, burnt offerings.
But that's for good reason, okay?
Look at Genesis chapter 8.
Look at verse 20.
Again, that's not even emphasizing death.
What is that emphasizing?
The burnt offering.
Go to Exodus chapter 10.
Go to Exodus chapter number 10.
And the sacrifices in the Old Testament were burnt offerings, okay?
Now, obviously, you had to kill it.
They didn't burn it alive.
They killed it first, and they would drain the blood, and then they would go through
lots of different other symbolism as far as either removing the fat or, you know, cutting
out certain pieces of the meat and burning certain parts of the animal.
And we could talk about a lot of that as a symbolism, but one thing that's really clear
in the Bible is these are burnt offerings.
They burned them.
Exodus chapter 10, verse 25.
And Moses said, thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt offerings that we may sacrifice
in the Lord our God.
So when Moses is trying to leave Egypt, what does he want to do?
He wants to do burnt offerings, okay?
Now, when God is actually sending them out, he's going to give them a really special offering
called the Passover, and it's the Passover lamb.
And what is that Passover lamb?
Look at chapter 12, and look at verse number 5.
Chapter 12, look at verse number 5.
Your lamb shall be without blemish.
This is picturing the fact of Christ's sinless nature.
A male of the first year, you shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats, and
you shall keep it up until the 14th day of the same month, and the whole assembly of
the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.
So this is illustrating how the 14th day of the month at the even, which would be the
afternoon, is when they would kill this Passover lamb.
And that's exactly what happened with Christ.
I believe the 14th day of the month, you know, the first day of the month, they took Christ
and they killed him at even, which would have been maybe around 3 p.m. our time.
It says in verse 7, and they shall take of the blood and strike it on the two side posts,
and on the upper door of the post of the house is where they shall eat it, and they shall
eat the flesh that night, roast with fire and unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs
they shall eat it.
Be not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire, his head with his legs,
and with the pertinence thereof.
So he's saying, look, this is to burn the whole animal, and while you killed it, what's
the process in between burning it with fire?
Burning it and then eating it, consuming it.
Now again, what is this illustrating?
What is this pointing to?
It's illustrating the entire sacrifice of Christ, okay?
Because Christ didn't suffer in one aspect, in one way, he suffered in many ways.
He suffered at the hands of the chief priest by being spit upon, hit in the head, railed
on, blasphemed, then he has to go through Pilate, then he has to go to Herod, then he
comes back, then he has to be basically stripped of his clothes, they put on a purple robe,
they mock him, they beat him with a whip, they shove a crown of thorns on his head,
then they make him carry his own cross.
I mean, this is a lot of different events that we're talking about here.
Then they nail him to the cross.
Then he suffers on the cross.
And when you understand the timeline, it's pretty much from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. that he's
on that cross.
Six hours.
And I don't know, they just claim that the way it works is you basically have to like
push up with your legs to get a breath is often, you know, what you kind of have to
do.
And you're having to push up where that nail has been driven through your feet.
I can't even imagine how hard that is, how much that hurts.
But when you're about to die, you push up and it hurts and it's just like a gruesome,
just horrific, agonizing, torturous, painful death that he has to sit there and suffer.
And that's why they were going to break the leg of Jesus so he'd just immediately die,
suffocate or whatever.
But they didn't have to because he'd already died at the point of 3 p.m.
But they didn't end there because it didn't end with the killing of the lamb here.
What happened?
They roasted with fire, picturing another element of the fact that while Christ's body
was buried in the grave, his soul descended into hell and it was roast with fire, his
soul.
He was suffering in hell for us.
It makes it very clear that they had to burn all of it.
Verse 10,
And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning, and that which remaineth of it
until the morning ye shall burn with fire.
So he's saying you just burn this animal the whole time.
You burn it, cook it, eat the meat, and the rest of the animal you just burn and burn
and burn and burn the whole time while they're going through this ritual picturing what?
How Christ was burning for them while they were going through the Passover.
Go to Exodus 29, go to Exodus 29.
It would be silly to just reject all the teachings on the burnt offering, pretend like they don't
picture anything.
God's not just adding all this extra story in here for no reason.
God's not just saying like, hey, all these burnt offerings mean nothing.
Just wink, wink, nod, nod, there's no point to it.
I don't know why I told you to burn the animal.
That's basically what you have to believe if you deny the fact that Christ also went to hell for us.
Look at Exodus 29, verse 18.
And thou shalt burn the whole ram upon the altar.
It is a burnt offering unto the Lord.
It is a sweet savor, an offering made by fire unto the Lord.
Go to 2 Samuel chapter 22.
Go to 2 Samuel 22.
Now here's the thing.
People will say, well, you can't base your doctrine on a picture, Pastor Shelley, and you're right.
But you know what?
You have to believe the picture is picture something.
You can tell me all day long I'm wrong on the picture, but if you really want to prove me wrong,
then why don't you prove what that picture really is then?
Why don't you show me the clear statements and all the illustrations of what that picture really means?
Because that's the best way to disprove anybody.
If you're wrong on a picture, then show me the right picture.
The problem is a lot of people will just tell you you're wrong on a picture, but then they won't tell you what it really means, though.
Or what it symbolizes.
They'll say, oh, it's just the cross.
And it's like, he really wasn't on fire when he was on the cross.
There wasn't any fire aspect.
So it's kind of strange how you're going to bring up the fire as the cross when it had no real relevance, did it?
Or they'll say, I've heard this.
They say, well, when we do the Lord's communion and we do the Lord's supper, there's no fire there.
And I say, oh, OK.
Is that bread that you ate, was it cooked in an oven?
Oh, yeah, it was.
I guess there's your fire, right?
But look what it says in Second Samuel chapter 22, verse five.
When the waves of death compass me, the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.
The sorrows of hell compass me about.
The snares of death prevented me.
In my distress, I called upon the Lord and cried to my God.
And he did hear my voice out of his temple, and my cry did enter into his ear.
So the Bible talks about here in verse six,
the sorrows of hell compass me, meaning encircling and surrounding me.
Here's the thing.
Who's talking here?
The prophet or of some other man?
It's about Jesus.
He's talking about himself.
Go to Psalm 16.
We'll see the exact same thing mentioned here.
Go to Psalms chapter number 16.
And in chapter 18 is going to be like a direct quote from Second Samuel 22.
We have plenty of verses that talk about Christ being in hell and not just being in hell.
How it was suffering.
Because notice he said the sorrows of hell.
He didn't say the victory of hell or the triumph of hell or the joys of hell.
Because there isn't such thing as joys of hell.
There isn't such thing of enjoying hell.
It's sorrows of hell.
Verse eight, chapter 16.
I have set the Lord always before me because he's in my right hand.
I shall not be moved.
Therefore, my heart is glad and my soul rejoiceth.
My flesh also so rest in hope.
For thou will not leave my soul in hell.
Neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption.
Thou wilt show me the path of life.
In thy presence is fullness of joy.
At thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.
The Bible makes it clear that this passage is about Jesus.
Because later in the book of Acts it explains to us how David died and his body saw corruption.
What does that mean decay or rot?
But Jesus' body didn't decay and rot because it rose again.
So if that's about Christ then another thing has to be about Christ.
That his soul was not left in hell.
There's the thing, David's soul never went to hell.
And again, what's the whole emphasis of the hell?
That he had hope.
What was the hope?
That he wouldn't be left there.
Now, if he was enjoying himself or if he was having a good time.
Think of it this way.
What if I said I'm going to give you hope because you're not going to be left in heaven.
You'd be like, no that's cool, I want to be left there.
Like somewhere you want to be, you want to be left in paradise.
You want to be left in the presence of God.
You want to be left in heaven because it's the greatest place ever.
Why would you not want to be left somewhere?
Because you don't want to be there.
It's like if I went to the Bahamas and they're like, you know, if you test positive for COVID you could be left there.
And it's like, don't scare me of the Bahamas.
You know, it's like, you wouldn't be like, oh man, the only hope I have is that I'm not left in paradise.
You know, it's like, no it's great.
Right?
And so it's emphasizing the point that hell is not a good place to be.
It's not a place anybody wants to be.
You don't want to be left there.
Go to Psalms 18, just flip the page and look at verse 3.
I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, so shall I be saved from my enemies.
The sorrows of death compass me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.
The sorrows of hell compass me about.
The snares of death prevented me.
In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God, and He heard my voice out of His temple.
And my cry came before Him, even into His ears.
Go to Psalms 116.
What are those two Psalms alluding to?
Or what is Psalms 18 and 2 Samuel 22 alluding to?
It's alluding to Jonah and alluding to Christ.
Why?
Because He's going to be in hell, not wanting to be left, not enjoying it, not having a good time, suffering,
but crying unto the Lord.
And then the Lord in His temple, meaning God the Father, is going to hear that cry,
and He's going to deliver him out of hell.
He's going to deliver him out of the pains of death, all these things.
Psalm 116, look at verse 1.
I love the Lord, because He hath heard my voice and my supplications,
because He hath inclined His ear unto me.
Therefore will I call upon Him as long as I live.
The sorrows of death compass me.
Notice this.
And the pains of hell got hold upon me.
I found trouble and sorrow.
Then called I upon the name of the Lord.
O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul.
Now if you were in hell, and the pains of hell got hold upon you, wouldn't you be crying,
Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul.
Wouldn't that be a pretty good prayer to pray?
And how can you look at this verse and then tell me,
like what is, who is suffering the pains of hell that got hold upon them?
Is it David?
Did David suffer the pains of hell?
Did they get hold upon David?
He never suffered the pains of hell at any point.
Christ went to hell though, and Christ suffered the pains of hell.
Now go over to Jonah chapter 2, go to Jonah chapter 2.
Well, how do you know that Christ was crying out and paying from hell?
Let's keep reading the Bible.
Because the Bible does make this clear.
I've heard Baptist preachers say,
nowhere in the Bible does it say Jesus was suffering in hell.
Nowhere in the Bible does it say that Jesus was in pain in hell.
And it's like, well, that's easy to just say if people don't know the Bible.
But people that actually do know the Bible, it's like,
it's like nails on a chalkboard or something.
It's just like, what about these verses?
And this is coming from people that are King James only too.
I mean, maybe you've got a modern version where it twists these verses
or chains them or alters them and says something completely different.
But someone that has a King James Bible in their lap,
what do they do with all these verses?
They just have to ignore them.
But I don't believe we should ignore any verse.
That's why we're doing a Bible study through the book of Genesis.
We actually look at every single verse, every single line,
so we can truly appreciate what Christ did for us.
And you're missing out on a huge section of the Bible
since burnt offerings are the most mentioned thing
about the sacrifice in the Old Testament.
I mean, if you were going to say,
what's the most specific thing mentioned when it comes to sacrifice?
I believe it's burnt offering
because it changes ram, lamb, goat.
It changes all the different things they're going to do about them.
You know, if you were going to say,
what is alluded to more in the Old Testament?
The cross or the burnt offering?
It's the burnt offering.
Now, I can show you the cross all day long.
I just showed you the cross in Genesis chapter 22.
But if you were going to say,
what's more commonly mentioned?
The cross specifically or hell?
It's hell.
That's just a fact, okay?
Look at Jonah chapter 2 verse 1.
Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly
and said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord,
and he heard me out of the belly of hell, cried I,
and thou heardest my voice.
So notice in verse 2 he's saying, I cried.
Why did he cry?
By reason of mine affliction.
Now, you know what the word afflict means?
Pain.
It's real simple.
So why did he cry pain?
What was the cry?
He didn't want to be in the belly of hell anymore.
Verse 3, for thou hadst cast me into the deep.
In the midst of the seas, and the floods compassed me about,
all thy billows and thy ways passed over me.
Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight,
yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.
Now again, why is he talking about the holy temple?
Because that's where God is.
That's where the Father is.
And he's saying, he can't see that right now.
He's in hell, he's been cast out,
yet his cry is going to come all the way back up into the holy temple of God,
and God the Father is going to hear that cry of his Son,
and he's going to deliver him out of hell.
He's not going to leave him there.
He's not going to let his Son just stay in hell.
He said in verse 5, the waters have compassed me about,
even to the soul.
The depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.
I went down to the bottoms of the mountains.
The earth with their bars was about me forever,
yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God.
So what's interesting about Jonah is I believe it follows this pattern.
Verse 1, Jonah.
Verse 2, Jesus.
Verse 3, Jonah.
Verse 4, Jesus.
It just does this alternating pattern where it's just Jonah, Jesus.
Jonah, Jesus.
And then there's obviously some overlap here in the sense that
all of these verses could apply to Jonah from a metaphoric perspective.
And, you know, in a vice versa situation,
all the verses that are kind of specifically to Jonah
just give us some semblance of how Christ is also suffering
and what it's going to be like.
But the one that's the primary application,
the one that you're really thinking about,
it's kind of this picture of Jonah, Jesus, Jonah, Jesus, Jonah, Jesus.
Jonah didn't go to hell.
Jonah wasn't in the midst of the earth, you know, as it were.
But Christ was.
Now Christ wasn't in a whale's belly.
You know, Christ didn't have seaweed wrapped around his head.
That was Jonah, right?
So you kind of have that interlude, that intersection of the Bible.
And look, I've literally heard again the same Baptist preachers
look at this story and say, this is only about Jonah, not about Christ.
And I'm just like, Tim, give all the prophets witness.
Like, what would this be about if it's not about Christ?
And look, the picture of Jesus dying was in Jonah chapter 1
when they threw him off the boat.
But then there's more to the story.
There's the whole part about the whale.
Go to Matthew chapter 12, go to Matthew chapter 12.
And then Jesus brings that hole up and he says, hey, you know that story?
That was all about me.
Now, think about this.
I believe that Jonah fully encompasses all of Christ's life.
You know, you could look at his death, burial, resurrection, even preaching,
and how the gospel's reaching the Gentiles.
There's a lot to the book of Jonah.
There's a lot of symbolism.
There's a lot about Christ.
But Christ decides to illustrate and say,
there's one thing about Jonah that I want to bring up that's about me.
And what's the one thing that he emphasized?
Does he emphasize the cross?
Is he emphasizing the death?
What is he emphasizing?
Well, Jonah is emphasized in Matthew 12, verse 39.
But he answered and said unto them,
An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign,
and there shall no sign be given to it,
but the sign of the prophet Jonas.
For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly,
so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Why?
Because they're saying how Christ is going to descend into hell,
and that's the same picture that they get that Jonah is giving to the Ninevites.
Hey, as I was in the whale's belly for three days and three nights,
so is Christ going to be in hell for three days and three nights.
Now, again, other than Jonah smelling like, you know, whatever,
there wasn't a lot of evidence.
I mean, Jonah could have been making that story up,
but they believed him, didn't they?
We believe that story, don't we?
And much more do we believe the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
and that's what gets you saved.
That's what actually, you know, allows you to get to heaven
is your faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, okay?
Go to Acts chapter number two, Acts chapter number two.
And if Christ says with his own mouth, that was about me,
then you have to believe.
I mean, come on.
Seriously, you're going to literally tell me that that's only about Jonah
when Jesus is saying, like, this is the picture of me
and how I was going to go into the heart of the earth?
And what was he doing in the heart of the earth?
Well, by reason of affliction, he cried out of the belly of hell.
Out of the belly of hell cried I, right?
So what was he doing in hell?
What it said in Psalms chapter 18.
What it said in Psalms chapter number 16.
What it said in Psalms 116.
What it said in 2 Samuel chapter 22.
Well, we have the picture of all the rams and the lambs
and all the burnt offerings that are in the Old Testament, okay?
All these pictures.
And then it's explained clearly in Acts chapter 2.
Look at verse 23.
Him being delivered, talking about Christ,
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God,
ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.
So Peter's telling the Jews, you killed Jesus.
And he's saying, you have wicked hands and you crucified him
and he was slain.
We have that picture in Revelation, the lamb that was slain.
Verse 24.
Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death.
So did Christ suffer the pains of death?
Absolutely.
You can't even argue.
It just says he was loosed from it, okay?
But here's the thing.
At what point was he loosed from it?
It says very clearly in verse number 24, being raised up.
That means the resurrection.
Now again, when Christ was dying on the cross,
that was painful.
I'm not going to downplay it.
I'm sure it was the most excruciating pain imaginable.
Not only did he have all the physical pain,
he had the weight and the emotional suffering
of bearing the burden of the weight of all of our sins.
The Bible says he'd bear our sins in his own body on the tree.
I believe that the suffering of bearing our sin
was worse than the physical pain.
I believe the shame was worse than the physical pain.
And all of that was there.
All of that was present.
The fact that God the Father looked at his own son as being sin.
He became sin.
He who knew no sin became sin for us, as the Bible describes it.
That's got to be some of the worst aspects of it.
But I'll say this.
None of that, not even an ounce of it, was the pains of death.
Because Christ was alive at that point in time.
But let me tell you what the pains of death are.
It's called hell.
That's what the pains of death are.
So when he was loosed from the pains of death, that was what hell.
That's where he was at.
And you know, a lot of those same aspects still apply.
Because he was cast out of the Father's sight.
He wasn't in the Holy Temple.
He had become sin.
Obviously there was a lot of emotional anguish there.
Who knows if you can even tell time at that point
when you're in just constant torment.
I mean, any time you've gone through something really painful,
sometimes time slows down real quick.
I mean, when you're sick, a day feels like a week.
And if you're sick for a couple days, it feels like a year.
It's just like, oh man, sometimes it just is awful.
I mean, going through that kind of pain, time's got to slow down what it feels like.
I don't want to suffer for five seconds, that kind of pain.
Let alone three days and three nights.
But he was loosed.
Why? Because it was not possible that he should be holding of it.
Look, it's not possible for the Creator of heaven and earth, the Son of God,
to just be in hell for all of eternity.
That's not possible.
Verse 25,
For David, speaking concerning him,
I first saw the Lord always before my face,
for He is on my right hand, that I should not be moved.
Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad.
Moreover, also my flesh shall rest in hope,
because that will not leave my soul in hell.
Neither wilt thou suffer, thine holy one, to see corruption.
Now why is it important that his body didn't see corruption?
It's because when he came back to life, he showed...
Think about Thomas.
Thomas said he was not going to believe
unless he could stick his finger through the print of the nails in his hands.
Now what would it make sense if the Jehovah's Witness or whatever,
he had a loner body that didn't have holes in his hand,
and he's like, I'm Jesus.
You'd be like, no you're not.
I mean, imagine if someone just completely changed bodies with your wife
and was a completely different person and was like, I'm your wife.
You'd be like, no you're not.
It wouldn't matter if she could mimic your spouse.
It wouldn't matter if she could say things.
You'd be like, you're just not my wife.
It makes sense that Christ is going to come back in the same body that he died in
so that they're like, this is Jesus.
This is that same Christ.
Behold my hands and my feet that it is I.
He didn't say, oh, I'm completely different, bro,
but believe it's me still anyways.
He's like, no, look at my side.
Look at my hands.
Look at my feet.
It's me.
That's why he didn't want to see corruption,
and then for all eternity, that's who we're going to worship,
is that Jesus, that lamb that was slain.
Verse 31, he's saying this before,
spake of the resurrection of Christ that his soul is not left in hell,
neither is flesh to see corruption.
This Jesus hath God raised up wherever we are witnesses.
Now go to Revelation chapter 1,
and I know I'm covering a lot of this that I've covered before,
but I think it's important to just get it deep into our mind
and our heart and our soul,
and when you're challenged, maybe having heard this so many times,
you could actually show somebody.
If you have a family member, a friend, or a cousin,
or you're out soul winning, you'll be like,
oh, I remember those verses now because Pastor Shelley
preaches it every week.
I'm just kidding.
He showed it to me so many times, I haven't memorized.
Revelation chapter 1, look at verse 18.
Obviously Christ at some point had to die,
otherwise the gospel didn't really happen.
He really died,
which really means his soul was separated from his body,
and in order to have the state of being as being declared dead,
you have to go to hell.
That's why Jesus said,
whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die,
believeth thou this.
That's why the Bible says that we'll never taste of death,
we'll never see death,
because as soon as we take our last breath on earth,
our soul is going to be carried into heaven.
So you won't even know what death really is,
because you haven't died yet, so you don't know what death is.
The moment you take your last breath,
you're carried into heaven and you still have consciousness
and you're in heaven and paradise.
So you have no idea what death is.
O death, where is thy victory?
O grave, where is thy victory?
O death, where is thy sting?
It's gone.
You don't have it. You don't know.
But Christ can't say that.
Christ can't say, I don't know what dead's like,
because he was dead.
In order for him to be dead, he has to be in hell.
Just like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
they're not dead, they're alive in heaven.
That's why the Bible told us in Hebrews,
go to Romans 6, I'll show you one more verse there in Hebrews.
It says, but we see Jesus, who is made a little lower
than the angels for the suffering of death,
crowned with glory and honor that he,
by the grace of God, should taste death for every man.
Here's the thing, Christ had to become mortal.
He had to become like us so that he could die.
And why is it important that he could die?
So that he could be dead.
You have to die in order to be dead.
In order to get to hell, you have to die.
If you never die, then you would never go to hell.
So you would never know what death is like.
But we're all going to die, and fortunately,
we don't have to experience what death is really like,
because by the grace of God, we got salvation.
And we have eternal life, we were quickened.
Our spirit and our soul was quickened,
and we can never die.
And even though Christ did die one time,
even though he allowed himself to die,
even though he allowed himself to go through that suffering,
it can't ever happen again.
And I've heard this stupid philosophy or logic as if,
well, if Christ could die and go to hell,
then it could happen again.
It's like, that's blasphemous to say that it could happen again.
And look what it says in Romans 6, verse 9.
Knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead,
dieth no more.
Death hath no more dominion over him.
But here's the thing, in order for that statement to be true,
at some point, death did have dominion over him.
Because it says no more.
It's not saying like never did.
He said, I'm dead.
And here's the thing, if Christ didn't die,
you and I are still in our sins.
If he didn't raise from the dead, we're still in our sins.
We needed both the death and the resurrection
so that we could have hope.
Go back to Genesis chapter 22, go to Genesis chapter 22.
This is a great story of the Bible to hammer that point.
And you know, a lot of people love the story of Abraham and Isaac,
can point to a lot of things of Christ,
but I feel like most Baptist churches won't touch the hell aspect of this, will they?
They won't.
And look, that was hammered.
Burn offering, burn offering, burn offering.
The ram was what? A burn offering.
And isn't that really what we're the most thankful for?
Aren't you the most thankful for the fact that you're not going to hell?
I mean like, if you're going to say like,
why did you get saved, Pastor Shelley?
I was scared of going to hell.
You just wanted fire insurance.
Yes, I did.
You know what? I have fire insurance on my house.
You know, it's like, why?
Because I don't want it to burn down and then be screwed, you know?
It's like, well, you know, if you have fire insurance,
you know, that doesn't mean that you necessarily love your house.
It doesn't, but I just don't want to suffer that consequence of that happening.
And hey, there's more to being a homeowner than having fire insurance.
But let me tell you what, I want fire insurance.
And if there's more to being saved, then not going to hell.
There's more important things, you know, after that, you know,
like following Christ and getting other people saved.
It's not like it's over, but you know what?
I'm sure glad I got that fire insurance.
And that policy can't be canceled.
It's sealed.
And the best part about it was free.
Every other insurance policy is a rip off, OK?
Look at Genesis chapter 22, verse 14.
And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah Jireh,
as it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord, it shall be seen.
Now, this is why I believe that this is the same mount.
Think about the phrase he just said.
In the mount of the Lord, it shall be seen.
So we didn't get to actually see that sacrifice, but you know what?
We will.
And, well, we did through Christ.
Obviously, we look back.
They look to the forward, to the future.
But, you know, it's this great name, Jehovah Jireh,
picturing God saving us.
OK, now it says in verse 15.
The angel of the Lord called on Abraham out of heaven the second time
and said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord,
for because thou hast done this thing
and has not withheld thy son, thine only son,
that in blessing I will bless thee and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed
as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is upon the seashore,
and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies.
You know, it's interesting.
Again, it says in verse 16, By myself have I sworn.
You know, the only person God can swear on is himself.
OK, it says that later in Hebrews.
But he's telling him he's going to have this great blessing, you know,
and he's going to have this multiplication of seed.
And here's the thing.
He's not talking about physical Jews here.
He's talking about the spiritual Jews.
He's talking about you and he's talking about me.
He's talking about how we are going to possess the gate of our enemies.
OK, verse 18, And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed
because thou hast obeyed my voice.
Notice there's the indicator.
It's not about physical Jews.
He's saying every single nation is blessed because of what he did here.
Why? Because it pictures the gospel
because Abraham was pictured and used by God to illustrate Christ
and through his physical seed through Isaac's physical seed.
Will they also give heritage to a spiritual seed, which is Christ,
which will give us that same spiritual seed and we become seed of Abraham?
And it's not about a physical thing.
It never was a physical thing.
This is a spiritual book, and these are about spiritual promises.
It's about faith.
Says in verse number 19, So Abraham returned unto his young men,
and they rose up and went together to Beersheba, and Abraham dwelled at Beersheba.
It came to pass after these things that it was told Abraham, saying, Behold,
Milka, she hath also borne a child unto thy brother Nahor.
Hus is firstborn, and Buzz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram,
and Kezed, and Hazo, and Pildash, and Jidlap, and Bethuel, and Bethuel begat Rebekah.
These eight, Milka, did bear to Nahor, Abraham's brother and his concubine,
whose name was Ruma, she bear also Teba, and Gaim, and Thayash, and Makah.
So what's the end of the story?
Abraham's blessed, okay?
Go to James chapter 2, and I want to finish on a few other verses here.
Let's kind of just think about big picture of this story,
because Abraham has gone through a pretty long journey,
and, you know, eventually we're going to kind of get rid of Abraham.
We're going to focus on Isaac.
This is kind of like the climax of Abraham and Isaac and the story about them,
and it's really the climax of Abraham's faith.
The highest peak of his faith is the greatest faith,
and really, it's the greatest faith anybody could show.
Being willing to sacrifice your only son to God,
I mean, what else could God ask for at that point?
I mean, it's the pinnacle of the works that anybody could ever do for God.
So when you look at what Abraham's doing,
you have to realize that this is the greatest work that I believe any man could ever do.
You're picturing the Lord Jesus Christ.
You're sacrificing your son, hypothetically.
Obviously, he didn't have to,
but, I mean, of any sacrifice, of anything God could ask you to do,
that's got to be the pinnacle, the top, the greatest work, okay?
That's why the Bible is then going to bring him up later as an illustration.
Of what? Faith and your works, okay?
Now, Abraham did other works throughout the Bible, and he's done other things.
You know, he delivered his brother Lot from Sodom.
You know, he paid tithes.
He's called upon the name of the Lord.
He's built wells. He's gathered wealth.
He's done all kinds of different things.
He's traveled these great journeys, you know, where the Lord's told him to go.
So he's done a lot of these great works,
but you say, what's the greatest work of Abraham?
The picture of him sacrificing Isaac upon the altar, okay?
That's the greatest work.
James 2, verse 21, the Bible says,
Was not Abraham our father, justified by works,
when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
Seest thou how faith wrought with his works,
and by works was faith made perfect?
Perfect in this picture is a complete,
meaning he had a complete faith in God.
Look, if you're willing to sacrifice your son on the altar,
your faith's complete at that point.
It's maxing out.
I mean, that's like 100%, right?
So we see how his faith was wrought with his works,
and how his faith met completion, it met perfection,
it met, you know, this ultimate picture here,
Verse 22,
Seest thou how faith wrought with his works,
and by works was faith made perfect?
And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith,
Abraham believed God,
and it was imputed unto him of righteousness,
and he was called the friend of God.
Now, if we look at this verse,
we have to understand a few different things.
Number one is that James 2 is not about going to heaven.
That's crystal clear.
He's talking about brethren, brethren, brethren.
The first part of the chapter is all about not being a respected person.
Then he's illustrating what's the point of having faith
if you don't have any works.
You know, the point of having faith is to do works,
you know, in the sense that,
obviously we're not talking about salvation,
but God is, whenever he's challenging you to have faith,
it's doing something.
It's like, kill the lamb,
put the blood on the doorpost,
walk through the Red Sea, you know,
like go and kill Goliath.
Obviously, those things are acts of faith.
But, you know, they're illustrated and demonstrated through works.
There's a point to it.
So it's like, what's the point of God putting us on the earth
and telling us to have faith to what?
Go out and preach the gospel to every creature
if we don't actually go out and preach the gospel to every creature,
if we don't actually teach all nations,
if we don't actually baptize people.
It's like, hey, we're baptized by faith,
but we don't baptize anybody.
It's like, that's a weird faith.
No, we need to have faith that baptism is important, don't we?
Don't we need to have faith that when we dunk someone in water
and they're professing that they trust in Christ
and they want to walk in newness of life
that we could see a spiritual rebirthing in this person
where they're actually going to walk in newness of life?
Where actually something's going to be different about their lifestyle?
Otherwise, what's the point?
What's the point of showing up?
What's the point of reading the Bible?
So obviously, there's a lot more to faith than just getting saved.
And so when you're looking in this context,
you've got to think verse 23
could be in reference to two different things.
Now, number one, we know salvation is by faith alone.
And when we compare this verse with Romans chapter number 4,
Abraham's saved by faith.
You know, it quotes this in a different context
in the sense that Abraham believed God
and it was imputed under righteousness.
You know, God also can use the word righteousness
in a different context other than being saved, okay?
Because the moment I believe in Christ, I'm righteous in a sense.
But in another sense, I'm not, right?
Because in another sense, I'm still in the flesh.
I still have sin that dwells in me.
In another sense, I'm striving for righteousness in my life, right?
So when you look at Abraham,
you could look at this verse in two different contexts.
If you want to rip it out of its context and say,
hey, this proves that salvation by faith alone,
amen, I believe that, I teach that
because you can pair with other verses and it's true.
But another thing you could look at this
is that God is looking at Abraham
and declaring him righteous as a righteous man
because of the faith that he has,
saying not only is he just saved
and that essence of righteousness,
he's also just a righteous man
because he follows God's commandments,
because he's a faithful Christian,
and that's justifying him being called righteous.
That's another way that you could be justified
in being described as a righteous man.
I mean, what sense would it make to look at a past...
Let's say we took a passage that we admire,
a man that we like and we say he's a righteous man.
What would justify that statement?
Wouldn't that man's works justify that statement?
Wouldn't we be able to justify that by the fact,
look, he goes out and preaches the gospel,
he's a selfless person, he has a lot of charity,
he loves people, he preaches the Word of God.
That's why he's a righteous man.
And so when we look at Abraham, we see,
here's a guy who left his family,
left everything he had, put his son in the altar,
and he believed God, that God wanted him to do the sacrifice,
and because he did that, he's justified in being called righteous.
But beyond that, he's also the friend of God.
That's another way you could look at this verse.
Now, I believe what I'm explaining to you
is a little bit more complicated interpretation of this verse.
And so usually I explain to people, I just say,
hey, Abraham was saved by faith,
and he's called the friend of God.
That's why it says in verse 24,
And you see then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith only.
But no matter which way you want to interpret this,
if you want to say that righteousness is his lifestyle,
that's fine, because it's not the context of salvation.
If you want to say it's about him being saved by faith,
that's fine, because he is.
But the second statement is really driving in how,
with your works, God is going to be pleased with you
and have the right to call you his friend.
Because you're not just automatically God's friend.
Keep your finger in James, because we're coming right back.
Go to 2 Chronicles 20.
So if you want to be righteous in God's sight,
obviously for salvation you believe in Christ.
But beyond that, we also need to have faith in the other areas of our life.
We need to believe his commandments.
We need to believe his promises.
We need to walk by faith.
Abraham is a picture of someone who walks by faith,
because he didn't understand how that was going to work out.
He's thinking, why would I offer my son on the altar?
In the flesh, that's not going to make any sense to him.
He can only have understood it through spiritual understanding,
through a faith, through trusting in the Lord,
knowing that God would not have him do something
that he's not going to end up providing for.
Look at 2 Chronicles 20, verse 7.
Art not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land
before thy people Israel,
and gave us it to the seed of Abraham, thy friend forever?
Why is Abraham called the friend forever?
Look at the works that he did.
Look at the faith that he had.
Go to Hebrews, chapter 11.
And I'm almost finished this evening.
Hebrews, chapter 11.
Look at verse number 17.
The Bible says,
By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac,
and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,
of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called,
accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead,
from whence also he received him a figure.
Now, I love this verse because in Abraham's view,
according to the Bible, when he was taking Isaac up,
either A, God was going to deliver Isaac before he ended up having to kill him,
or B, even if he did kill him,
God was going to somehow perform a miracle and bring him back to life.
That puts your heart a little bit more comfort to be like,
okay, I can understand why Abraham would do that then.
Right? Because to kill your own son just sounds so horrible.
You're just thinking like, why would God ever do that?
But if God promised you, what if God came down and said,
I want you to kill your son, but no, as soon as you do,
I'm going to bring him back to life.
Then at that point, there's no reason not to,
except for just not believing what God said.
And so from Abraham's perspective, he believed God,
and it was what? It counted on him for righteousness, wasn't it?
Go to James 1. I know I told you to keep your finger on James.
Look at James 1, verse 12.
Now, I'll say this.
You and I, I don't believe that we will ever be told by God
to sacrifice our firstborn or our only child, okay?
So if someone comes up to me like, I think God's telling me to kill my son,
that is not God, okay?
But I will say this, God will tempt us in other ways.
Just like he tempted Abraham, he's going to tempt us,
he's going to try us, he's going to test us.
And as hard as that was for Abraham, you know, God will test us
and try us with difficult things.
Look at James 1, verse 12.
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation,
for when he is tried, he shall receive the crying of life,
which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
So notice, God will try us, God will tempt us.
Now, it clarifies that he's never going to tempt us with evil.
It says in verse 13,
Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God,
for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.
You have to put those two in context and realize that
he's not saying the same thing here.
Verse 12 is talking about how he's going to try you with persecution,
and then verse 13 is clarifying and saying,
God's not going to tempt you with sin, though.
God's not going to be like coming up and be like,
you want to go to the bar?
Hey, want to go to the whorehouse?
Hey, want to do some drugs?
Hey, want to go to the casino with me?
That's not a temptation that God's going to give you, okay?
And when we think about it, where in the Bible do we see that?
Where do we see in the Bible God coming down from heaven
or sending an angel down from heaven and being like,
hey, Abraham, come on, want to smoke a joint?
No, that was the devil, wasn't it?
It was the devil that came unto the men of God or Jesus
and is trying to, what, tempt them with evil or sin,
saying like, bow down to me.
And he's like, no, I'm not going to worship someone else.
I'm only supposed to worship the Lord here, okay?
So we see evil people.
We see subtle men like Amnon's friend, Jehonadab.
Yeah, he tempts with evil.
He's tempting in with rape, with forcing himself upon his sister.
But you know what?
The angels from heaven and God are not coming down
and saying like, hey, let's go murder someone.
Hey, let's go lie.
Hey, let's go steal.
God doesn't do that.
That's the devil.
That's the tempter, okay?
But that word can have another meaning.
Just like the word evil has two meanings, wine has two meanings,
repent can mean different things.
Words can mean different things in the Bible.
Tempt can mean different things.
God will try us, though, test us.
Now, what does he test us with?
Taking big steps of faith, walking through the Red Sea,
standing up to Goliath, going out and preaching the gospel.
That's what he tries us with.
So here's the thing.
God's going to tempt you.
God's going to try you.
God's going to test you with these things.
Go to 1 Peter.
That's the last place I'm going to have you turn, 1 Peter 1.
But when we look at this story,
we have to realize that you are being tempted and you're being tried.
And we think about Abraham's life.
Abraham did not start day one,
offer your son upon the altar.
He went through a long journey, didn't he?
He was told to leave.
Then he's told he's going to have a son in his old age,
and it's not for years, years, years.
He has to go through all kinds of trials and temptations with Lot
and with the kings of Sodom,
and he goes through all kinds of other things that he has to walk through.
And in your life, God's not going to just walk up to you
and give you the hardest test ever.
He's going to give you really easy tests.
But here's the question.
How are you doing on the easy test that God's giving you?
Like, I don't know, read your Bible.
I don't know, pray.
I don't know, go soul winning.
How about just show up at church?
How about go to a church that's not popular?
But again, he's going to tempt you and try you and test you
and see how you do, and as you succeed, as you have victory,
as you go on through these trials and temptations, guess what?
They're going to get harder and harder and harder,
and a lot of times the reason why people are not being tried with something hard
is because they can't even do the easy thing.
Here's the hard thing for Lot.
Just don't go to Sodom.
But he already failed, you know?
And in our lives, we have to realize that we need to be faithful
so that God can continually test us in new ways
and in more difficult ways.
Why?
So we can give Him more honor and glory.
So we can do even greater things for Him and give Him more honor and glory.
1 Peter 1, look at verse 3.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
which according to His abundant mercy have begotten us again unto a lively hope
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled,
and that faith is not a way reserved in heaven for you,
who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time,
wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season,
if need be ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations,
that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth,
though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ,
whom having not seen ye love, and whom though now ye see him not, yet believing,
ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory,
receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
What is this saying?
He's really emphasizing the fact that we're going to go through manifold temptations,
which is the trial of our faith, but it's more precious to God than gold.
Meaning, more precious than all the money you could offer to God,
is you offering him your heart,
and saying that you're going to follow his commandments, and you're going to be faithful,
and you're going to take great steps of faith,
and you're going to do that which is right in the Lord's sight,
no matter how difficult it is.
You know, trusting in him, realizing, hey, I don't get to see him,
and you know, you say, what about giving up your child?
Well, the Bible says in Matthew 19,
And everyone that forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children,
or lands for my name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit a everlasting life.
Abraham was willing to give his only son up for Christ.
His only son.
Yet, it seems like today, Christians aren't willing to give hardly anything up.
They're not willing to sacrifice anything.
They're not willing to sacrifice a Sunday afternoon to go soul winning.
A Saturday afternoon, a Monday night.
Abraham's sacrificing his son.
You know, people won't sacrifice enough to go out and proclaim the gospel,
to share the word of God, to say they even know Christ.
You know, people, they're like, if I go to step-ass Baptist church, someone might recognize me.
Yet, don't Muslims, I mean, can't you recognize a Muslim from a mile away?
And they're wearing the garments of a pedophile.
Think about it.
They're literally, their garment might as well say, I love and worship a pedophile.
And they're not ashamed to go around with a pedophile garment on.
And then you got other people wrapping, enveloping themselves with a sodomite symbol of pride,
rejoicing about how prideful they are.
They'll decorate their house in it.
They'll decorate their car in it.
And they're like, you know, you're like, I'm afraid someone will recognize me.
They're putting it out in the open.
They're letting everybody know.
Yet, people will be like, did you go to steadfast?
No.
I don't want anybody to recognize me.
You know, I don't want to be like Peter.
I want to be like Peter and say, I know not the man.
Right? Isn't it crazy how many people would be ashamed to go to a church that, you know,
loves the Bible and loves Jesus Christ, while the enemy is not ashamed wearing the most filthy,
disgusting symbols they can imagine to draw up, to try and pervert themselves.
They're not ashamed of who they are.
I mean, Mormons don't seem ashamed.
They have a stupid little sign on their shirt that says elder, and they're 19 years old.
They might as well say idiot on it that they're walking around with.
I mean, how is it that Mormons are more bold than Baptists today?
How is it that the most disgusting, filthy perverts on this planet are more bold than Baptists today?
How is it that the pedophile institution of Islam today,
the illiterate religion of Islam today can go around and be so excited, hey,
we worship a guy, and we celebrate a guy that couldn't even read.
It's like, yet Christians today, they're so afraid to let anybody know that they're a Christian, aren't they?
I mean, women will wear a hijab in the Muslim faith, and then you talk to Baptist girls,
and they're like, I can't just wear skirts and dresses.
It's like, you're just not willing to take those steps of faith, are you?
Look at what Abraham was having to sacrifice.
You know, if you want to have someone to sympathize with you, you know, meet Abraham's level.
He was 100 years old. He had one kid, and he had to sacrifice it.
And yet, Christians today aren't willing to sacrifice anything.
We should look at Abraham's example and say, you know what?
Maybe there's some area of my life that God's challenging me right now.
Maybe the Holy Spirit's talking to me about an area that I need to change through the word of God.
And you know what? You need to step in faith so that God can tempt you and try even more for His honor and for His glory.
Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Father, so much for your Word.
Thank you for the pictures and illustrations you gave us of your Son and the sacrifice that He did,
and how He had to go through the embarrassment, He had to go through the shame of bearing His cross,
and that we would not be ashamed of the cross of Jesus.
We wouldn't be ashamed of the Word of God.
We wouldn't be ashamed of the King James Bible.
We wouldn't be ashamed of any of the verses of God's Word,
that we would wear it as a badge of honor today,
that we would take steps of faith today,
that we would want to be accounted your friend,
and that we want to stand alongside you and not to be ashamed of the Creator of the universe.
And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.