Introduction:
All of us who know anything at all about the Bible are familiar with this story . . . how that . . . .
1. God spoke to Abraham to get out of his country into Canaan, and he did
2. God told Abraham that He would bless him by giving him a son and making his son into a nation
3. Sarah was barren, so Abraham tried to come up with his own solution to the problem by
a. suggesting to God that he make Eliazer his heir
b. taking Hagar, his wife's handmaid for a concubine
4. God rejected both of these alternate plans that had been concocted by Abraham and told him that through Sarah he would have a son, Isaac, and that in Isaac his seed would be called.
5. Finally, Sarah did conceive and bore a son and they did name him Isaac (meaning Laughter, because Sarah laughed at the seemingly absurd promise that she and Abraham would have a son at such an old age!).
6. Then all of a sudden, God tells Abraham to take Isaac up to the Mt. Moriah and to sacrifice him upon an altar as a burnt offering!
7. Can you imagine the consternation Abraham felt?
a. God had brought him from his home and his family to a land where he was a complete stranger and even an enemy to many of the inhabitants of that land.
b. God had refused his solutions to the problem of his not having an heir to inherit the land!
c. God had promised him that he would have a son, and that through this son, his seed should be called!
d. Now God is telling him to kill his heir for whom he had worked so hard. He had finagled and done every thing he could think of to make sure that he would have an heir. Now God wants him to destroy his heir, his only son!
8. Abraham ended up doing what God had said!
9. He decided that if God wanted him to offer up the thing that was dearest to him, he would do it! If God wanted him to offer up what he was depending upon for his future, he would do it!
10. He understood that if he did kill Isaac, that God would have to raise him up anyway, because had promised that this was the very one that would be Abraham's heir! See the witness of the New Testament:
Hebrews 11:17 "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 in a figure."
11. The reason he was able to do this is because he had already given himself completely to God, just as we need to do!
12. Romans 12:1-2 says . . . .
13. Luke 9:23-25 "And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?"
14. The point that I'd like to get across in today's message is
Every believer must present himself to God
HOW?
I. By doing exactly what God says (v. 1-3)
1. It may seem ridiculous
2. It may seem senseless
3. Do it anyway
4. You have no idea why God wants you to do this thing that you find it so difficult to do! Notice in verse 1 that it says "that God did tempt Abraham." This word, tempt, has the implication that God wanted to try or test Abraham. He wanted to show Abraham just how much he really did believe God!
5. Sometimes we go through things in our life to prove to us just how great God is. He wants to put us in a position to rely totally on Him. He wants us to quit relying on self, so He tells us to do something that seems impossible. He is just testing our faith! And mind you, He's not doing it for His benefit, He's doing it for ours!
6. When God does tell us to do something we had better do it exactly as He says:
7. Without doubting (v. 2)
8. Without delay (v.3)
9. Allow me to illustrate:
When I felt the Lord nudging me to come to Bible college, I was working in a church in Gulfport Mississippi. I was already going to the Bible institute the pastor had started there, but when God impressed upon my heart to come to Trinity, I decided I had better do it; but I had to go home first and take care of some debt and save money toward my first payment for college. I was totally in God's will! When I got home, God provided me with a good paying job, and a ministry in my home church--helping out with the teens. After I had gotten to know the pastor and the youth pastor quite well, they both told me I didn't really need to go to Bible college. I had been brought up in the nurture and admonition of God's Word. They felt I knew about as much as any Bible School graduate. They did not know, however, that God had called me to go. It didn't seem to make sense to me then, but I came to Trinity and discovered that I didn't know nearly as much as I thought! God brought m!
e here for a purpose!
Truly, we must present ourselves to God
I. By doing exactly what God says (v. 1-3)
II. By following His command to the end (v. 4-10)
1. Abraham and Isaac traveled the 50 or 60 miles from Beersheba to Mount Moriah in about three days. This was, no doubt, a very difficult time for Abraham, who was on his way to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac.
2. Still, Abraham pressed on to do what God had commanded him!
3. With perseverance (v. 4-5)
4. With preparation (v.6-9)
5. He knew what God wanted him to do when he got there, so he prepared himself to do it. He got the wood together and busted it up into pieces so it would burn better and told Isaac to carry it! He took fire to burn Isaac!! He also made sure he had his knife with which to slay Isaac!!! (v. 6)
6. With persistance (v. 10-12)
7. He was in the very act of killing his son, when God said, "Now hold on Abraham! You don't have to kill
Isaac after all! It was a test!"
8. I picture Abraham poised to cut Isaac up and the angel coming out of the sky and knocking the knife out of Abraham's hand and telling him not to kill Isaac!
This brings us to our next point:
We must present ourselves unto God:
I. By doing exactly what He says
II. By following His command to the end
III. By changing direction when god leads (v. 11- 14)
1. When God said, "Never mind Abraham, you don't have to kill Isaac!" He didn't kill him! It's very simple!
2. We seem to have a hard time doing this because we have usually told everybody and his brother what God told us to do! If God says not to do it after all, we have to tell everyone that we are not going to do it after all! We have too much pride! Maybe we are afraid that others will think we are a quitter. Maybe we are scared that they might say we just gave up because we could not do it! Who cares what other people think! If God tells us to change directions from where we thought we were going, we had better do it! Don't be so bull- headed that God has to break your leg or cripple your back or something to get you to change directions!
3. Listen for His leading (v. 11).
4. This would probably save us about 95% of our trouble. We keep banging our head against a closed door when God has impressed upon our to head a different direction! Our problem may not be willingness, maybe we just weren't paying attention to His leading!
5. Learn the lesson (v. 12)
6. Remember in verse 1 where it said that God was testing
Abraham? Well, in verse 12, He explains th reason to Abraham when He says, :"Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me." He was testing Abraham's faith!
7. Abraham learned this valuable lesson and went on!
8. We need to do the same thing in our lives. When the Lord brings some trial, or allows us to go out on some venture to test us, we need to learn the lesson and go on! Most of us get discouraged and defeated and want to give up because things did not turn out just the way we had in mind. Sometimes we get mad at God for what He "did to us!" Why can't we just learn our lesson and incorporate it into our lives so that we may better serve God?!
9. Lood for His provision (v. 13-14)
10. When the Lord has seemingly left us out on a limb as a result of our obedience to Him, we need not to forget that He is still there and is ready to provide for our needs. He will provide whatever the situation He has placed us in requires!
11. He had told Abraham to go up into the mountain to sacrifice to him and had told him that that sacrifice was to be his only son, Isaac. The Lord lifted the requirement that he offer up Isaac, but did not negate the responsibility of Abraham to offer up a burnt offering to Him!
12. Abraham looked around and "behold!" (that word means, "Looky here!!") a ram (one of the normal sacrificial animals) was caught in the bushes just a ways away!
13. Abraham's faith was proved to be true. He had said in verse 8, "My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering:"
14. This was not a reference to Jesus (himself is the indirect object of the verb provide, besides, Jesus was not offered up for a burnt offering!), it was just a statement of faith that God would work things out the way they needed to be worked out!
Conclusion:
We must present ourselves to God
1. Because it is an act of faith. Notice again in Hebrews 11:17 it says "By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac:" and faith pleases God (Hebrews 11:6)
2. Because it presents a good testimony to others of what God can do. (v. 14)
a. Abraham called the place "Jehovah-jireh" which means"the Lord will see and provide"
b. When others referred to this mountain, they were reminded of what the Lord had done through Abraham!
