In our expository study of the book of Genesis, as we've gone verse by verse, chapter by chapter, today's message is entitled, Where's the Lamb? Where's the Lamb? I wanted to show that clip to you today. I know it's not 100% biblically accurate, but I wanted you to understand the emotion of what's taking place here today in the chapter.

So many times we read over text and we just breeze over text and it just becomes something we've heard a thousand times or something we've talked about and we don't really understand the magnitude, but we get to chapter 22 today.

And this is one of those chapters in Genesis that compels and demand our very close attention in a way that's haunted the church for a long time.

In many ways it's troubled the church in a lot of ways. We'll talk about that this morning, but it's one of those chapters throughout scripture that's memorialized in the Christian church and it's also memorialized throughout Judaism in art.

It's one of the most familiar stories in the entire Judeo-Christian history and in the modern world, one of those stories that causes no end to difficulty and controversy as well, too.

There's a lot of controversy behind it, too, and we'll talk about that this morning, what's said about this.

But we come to the sacrifice of Isaac, and we'll see that there are contemporary critics of the scriptures, including the new atheist out there, that refer to this chapter as the classic demonstration of divine child abuse.

That's how they determine this chapter.

This is one of those stories that require a great deal of explanation.

It's not one of those stories that you find in your children's picture books, Bibles, for good reason.

It's not for children, but it is for the church to understand what's going on here.

Remaining true to what we have studied so far in Genesis as we have gone chapter by chapter and verse by verse,

the closer you look, the more the story, the more the narrative, the more the text demands our attention.

And at a deeper level than really a lot of Christians have ever really given it.

This is one of those monumental texts in the flow of biblical history, and it's known in Jewish history as the Akedah, A-K-E-D-A-H.

Josh always likes to keep up with me on my Hebrew.

But it's known as the Akedah, the binding of Isaac, and that's what it's called.

It's the Hebrew word for binding, and in the Hebrew imagination and in the rabbinical teaching of this text,

they teach it as the binding of Isaac so that it's a euphemism in a way of not using the word sacrifice.

They don't want to use the word sacrifice in a tip to maybe try to minimize a little bit of the horror of this text.

And at this point, we need to state something very straightforwardly, and that is, this is one of those tests of biblical authority.

It's one of those tests of whether or not we genuinely believe that this is the word of God.

This is the word of God.

And it comes down to this.

If this is merely a story, just a story, a literary story of ancient Israel, and that's how many represent this.

Many, many people will teach this this way.

If this truly did not happen in time and in space and in history, if God did not do exactly what he said he did,

and if Abraham did not do exactly what the text says he did, if this is just a narrative, okay,

it is an immoral, horrifying narrative.

However, if it's true, then we are saved.

We'll get to that in a moment.

That's what's at stake.

Scripture is literature, but it's never just merely literature, okay?

You need to understand that.

There are narrative accounts, and it's never merely literature.

This is salvation history that we're getting into today.

Salvation history.

We are being told how it is that we are saved.

And it's true, this is Israel's history, but this is salvation history.

The text begins in chapter 22.

It says, after these things.

After these things.

After what?

After what amount of time?

After these things is a Hebrew expression that means, after this, the next big thing is this.

That's what it's saying.

It doesn't tell us.

We're not given this specific amount of time between the birth of Isaac, and now we have the sacrifice of Isaac.

We're not given that.

This is just the next big thing.

That's what this passage means.

And it's a good thing that we're told this up front.

This is actually a divine gift by God that He's given us.

God is telling us up front, by the writing of Moses through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

is a test. Just like when you're riding in your car, they always, before they put that stupid blaring noise on their radio, they tell you, this is a test of the emergency broadcast system. Don't freak out. This is only a test. This is a test. That's what they're telling us right off the bat. The King James Version says that God tempted Abraham. And that's a very, very poor translation. Very poor translation. The tested is more exact. And a lot of people come up with the idea,

well, is God tempting Abraham in this passage to kill his son. Scripture is very clear that God does not tempt us. God is not the author of temptation. Alright? But at the same time, the Lord Himself told us to pray, Lord, lead us not into temptation. Okay? But this is not temptation. This is testing. There's a difference. And we're going to see this, that God is not tempting Abraham to take his son's life. He is testing Abraham by commanding

Abraham to do the very thing that he would never ever want to do. Never. Verse 1. After these things, God tested Abraham and said, Abraham, and he said, here am I. Does that sound familiar to you guys? As we've been studying this, that should, that should, that should come bring back to your mind. That parallels with chapter 12. The call of Abraham. Okay? It's precisely the same thing happens. God calls Abraham. Abraham says what?

Here am I. Here am I. Here am I. So we're being trained. We talked about this a lot, how Genesis is training us. Genesis is training us. The Scripture is training us in a lot of different ways, a lot of different avenues. We're going to talk about that a little bit this morning. But we're being trained by the Scripture to anticipate that when we meet our father Abraham, he is going to hear from God and he is going to immediately respond positively. Here I am. I'll go. Now, he doesn't always follow everything perfectly in obedience.

We've seen that. But he responds immediately and he responds positively. Scripture is showing that. They're training us to know that. Unlike Adam and Eve, who when they found themselves in a bad place, they hide themselves from God. In no way is Abraham hiding himself from the Lord. But when God cries out to him, he issues an immediate, obedient, here I am. Here I am.

Now, notice the language beginning in the next verse, in verse 2. The language is a language of intimacy.

And in this language of intimacy, there's also no minimization as to what's at stake.

And what the Lord is speaking to Abraham doing. He says, Take your son, your only son, Isaac.

You need to understand the intimacy as he's speaking that. Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love.

And go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall tell you.

The son whom you love. The son whom you love. This is excruciating.

We can't just blow through these passages of Scripture and not understand the magnitude of what's going on.

It's almost impossible to believe that this text follows the preceding chapter.

Preceding chapter, we had the son of promise. He was given. It was a time of joy.

They name him Laughter. His name is Isaac. The fulfillment of all this.

And in the very next chapter, the Lord is testing Abraham by telling him to offer his son, his only son, whom you love, as a burnt offering.

Now, the Hebrew word here says that Isaac is still a lad.

Alright? And many of the English versions will say later on in this chapter that I and the lad will return.

So he's a young boy. Okay? He's a young boy.

He's old enough to carry wood, though. We need to understand that.

He's old enough to carry some wood on his back.

But according to the text and according to the context in here, he's probably around 12 to 13 years of age, we believe.

And again, this is parallel to chapter 12 because the Lord gives Abraham a command and Abraham immediately obeys.

Verse 3.

And Abraham rose early the next morning, saddled his donkey with two of his young men with him and his son Isaac.

And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place in which God told him on the third day.

So it's not just no easy journey.

There are three days traveling here.

The third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.

The third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.

The third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.

This is critical for us. What does Abraham know of the God who's calling him to sacrifice his son, his only son, the son whom he loves to offer him up as a burnt offering? What does he know of this God? Not only does this text upon closer reading tell us in advance that we are to know that that the Lord is testing Abraham, but we are to rest assured that Isaac's life is not really in danger right now. It's not really in danger because the Lord is testing Abraham.

We get to see this on the back end. So we know this is reading. But the second thing that we notice that's embedded in this text here is that Abraham is is is is is responding as the Lord called him responding with an immediate obedience. Abraham's also he's also tipping his hand a little bit as well, too, within the text. Abraham's giving us a sign that he understands that there's more at stake than meets the eye. There's more at stake than just what meets the ear. Okay.

And the way that he responds to his servants in verse five. Abraham said to his young man, you stay here with the donkey and I and the boy will go over there and worship and we will come again to you. He doesn't say that we'll go over there and worship and one of us will come back. We're going to go over. We're going to worship and we will return. We're going to return. He knows something. Abraham knows something.

And so the the the next the next the next verse is so poignant in scripture. We really need to understand how it really just grabs our throat here.

And Abraham took the word of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son, and took in his hand the fire and the knife. And so both of them went together.

As we have been reading Genesis, we have pointed out that Genesis is preparing us to read all of scripture.

It really is. Genesis is preparing even our instincts to know to know what we are looking for and at times to know what we are waiting for.

Okay. That's what Genesis has done as we've gotten up to this point. This text makes it clear that we have already been trained.

We've already been trained to be waiting for the birth of a child. As we've gone through Genesis, we knew that we were waiting for the birth of a child.

Sarah and Abraham were waiting and waiting and waiting for the birth of a child.

So why is that important? Because when we come to the salvation redemptive history, we're going to know that the scriptures have already been training us to wait for a child, a child of promise that will come.

So it's already been training us in that aspect.

Then we've been trained, even as the first readers of Genesis maybe had no idea, we've been trained to expect that the birth of the child that's going to matter is going to be a miraculous birth.

Now how is it miraculous?

Sarah and Abraham. Abraham is 100 years old.

Sarah is 91.

That's pretty miraculous.

Do you see in the retirement homes people popping up pregnant all the time these days?

I don't think so.

That'd be kind of gross.

I just, yeah, I just got sick in my own mouth right there.

Yeah.

There's a point in time you need to tell them, stop, mom and dad, right?

Okay, yeah.

I don't want to hear about that.

But yeah, it's going to be a miraculous birth.

So it's training us that there's going to be a miraculous birth.

So now we are being trained by Scripture to expect that when salvation history takes place, the child of promise is going to be carrying wood for his own sacrifice.

Dude, don't you see how God has knitted all this together?

None of this is by chance.

Understand, Scripture always validates Scripture.

The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed.

The New Testament is the Old Testament revealed.

God has a beautiful pattern as he shadows all these things.

So when we come to the child of promise, we can say, yes and amen, I see that.

I went through that.

We saw how, why did God wait so long with Abraham and Sarah?

So we would know what to wait for.

We would know what to expect.

And we would learn to wait on the Lord.

Now, it's important to also notice that Isaac doesn't start carrying the wood until they get to Mount Moriah.

Now, the wood, to me, I'll just say...

Because Abraham takes the wood and He places it on Isaac. The Father takes the burden of the wood and places it on His Son. Just as when Jesus lays down His life, the Father takes us. Isaiah 53, 6 says,

The Lord has laid the iniquity of us all upon Him. The Father took the burden of sin and put it on His Son. So when Isaiah comes and He gives the

prophecy of the prophecy of the redemptive child, the child of promise unto Him, a child will be born unto you, a Son will be given. That Son of promise we're waiting for will understand that there's wood in that picture. But that's the burden of sin. Because we see in the sacrifice that's taken place, the fire is always symbolic of the holiness of God. Right?

And so the fire consumes the wood. As it is when Jesus Christ is sacrificed for our benefit, He consumes the sin for us all.

We are free indeed under the cross, under the blood of Jesus Christ.

This is a beautiful shadowing that God does for us here.

And the next verse is even more poignant.

Verse 7,

And Isaac said to his father Abraham,

My father and Abraham,

Here he goes again,

Here I am, my son.

Here I am.

I'm your huckleberry.

You know, I'm jumping up.

I'm answering.

He said,

Behold, the fire and the wood,

but where's the lamb for the offering?

Isaac's old enough to understand the sacrificial system.

He knows we're missing something.

And I begin to say,

What does Isaac think right here?

What does he know?

What does Isaac fear?

I mean, is there any part of him that through his mind he's thinking,

Am I the lamb?

Does that even cross his mind?

Do you guys ever read these things and think about this?

You just go,

Yeah.

On all this stuff.

But the next verse tells us even more what's going on with Abraham

than just a superficial reading of the text

because Abraham, listen, responds with a statement of faith.

A statement of faith.

Verse 8,

Abraham said,

God will provide for himself the lamb.

For a burnt offering, my son.

So they went, both of them together.

In the Hebrew imagination,

God has called him to Moriah.

And Moriah itself is a land named for the fact that God provides.

That's what Moriah means.

The Lord, God provides.

And so, you know,

does Abraham know when God said to him to take him to Moriah to sacrifice,

that even by the name of the place that God was going to provide?

You know, does Abraham even know that?

Even when his son asks,

Where is the lamb?

And he says,

God will provide for himself.

A burnt offering.

My son.

God will provide.

This is an incredible statement as we look at the text.

When we all all of a sudden understand that Abraham,

in this, in the answer that he gives to Isaac,

Abraham is doing one of two things.

He's either lying to his son.

Where's the lamb?

Well, God will provide for himself.

He's either lying to his son,

or he's telling the truth.

One of two things.

And later on,

we're going to see that Abraham knew when he was speaking the truth.

But again,

notice the specific way that he speaks here,

that Abraham said,

God will provide for himself a lamb for a burnt offering.

My son.

Not just God will provide.

Listen,

listen,

friends.

It's not just God will provide for himself.

And this text is ultimately fulfilled in Romans 3.

That's what it's getting into.

As Paul writes,

and Paul writes and he says,

what took place on the cross

was God both demanding

and providing for the sacrifice himself.

God demanded a sacrifice.

And it had to be a perfect sacrifice.

So you know what?

I'm going to provide for it.

It comes in fruition.

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law of the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And we are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God, here we go, put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received.

By faith. That was to show God's righteousness because in His divine forbearance.

He had passed over former sins. He had passed over former sins. It was to show His righteousness at the present time so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Bam! Right there. He would be the one who both demands the sacrifice and He would be the one who provides the sacrifice. For the Lord will provide for Himself the Lamb.

But the question that Isaac asks is horrifying. Where is the Lamb? Where is the Lamb?

When they came to the Lamb? When they came to the place, verse 9, of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood on the altar and bound Akedah, his son, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood.

Then Abraham reached out of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took a knife to slaughter his son.

Now this text is written in such a manner, it's like accelerated. In the Hebrew, it's like, we've got to get through this quickly.

They're writing it in a little bit more accelerated pace.

Okay? But the text, it doesn't clean it up at all, what's going on here.

Okay? But what Abraham was clearly prepared to do, he, having told Isaac that God will provide for Himself a land, having told His servants that the boy and I will go up here and worship and we will return, he now holds out his hand with a knife in it.

And the word here is rightly translated, slaughter.

Slaughter, his son.

Abraham clearly intends to obey what God told him to do.

Even as he said to his son that, when his son asked where the lamb was, he says, God will prepare for Himself.

And now he has bound Isaac, the binding of Isaac, Akedah, and now his father is ready to obey by, as the word says, slaughter him.

Verse 11, but the angel of the Lord came to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham, twice.

Usually he just spits his name once, Abraham, yes.

But if any time the scripture mentions your name twice, that means God's really trying to get your attention.

God ever said your name twice?

He said my name twice, three times, five times, lots of times.

Curtis, Curtis, Curtis.

I said, stop!

I still didn't listen.

And he said, here I am.

Here he is, Abraham.

Here I am.

And he said, do not lay a hand on your boy or do anything to him.

For now I know that you fear God, seeing that you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.

So the Lord, through his messenger, immediately stops Abraham as he is poised to take his son's life.

Verse 13, and Abraham lifted up his eyes, and behold, behind him was a ram caught in the thicket by his horns.

And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son.

The Lord, the Lord has just provided for the sacrifice that he demanded.

He has just provided for the sacrifice that he demanded.

Verse 14.

So Abraham called the name of the place the Lord will provide, as it is said to this day, on the mouth of the Lord, it shall be provided.

And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, by myself, I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son.

Now here again, we're being trained, we're being trained as well in exclusivity, exclusivity, because he says, your son, your only son, as in for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten.

earlier, just validating these things. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice. So Abraham returned to his young men, and they arose and went together to Beersheba, and Abraham lived at Beersheba. There's a couple more texts here that have to do with genealogy, but that's not really where we're going today. It doesn't really matter to us this morning. This is God testing Abraham. This is Abraham.

Obeying. This is Abraham demonstrating faith by doing exactly, willing to do exactly what God has called him to do. And this has troubled people throughout history, throughout the history of Judaism, throughout Christianity, who try to come to terms with this text without actually coming to terms with this text.

Richard Dawkins, who's one of the four horsemen of the modern-day New Atheism, refers to this as the classic example of theistic child abuse and bullying.

There are feminist interpreters of the scriptures that call this text a text of horror.

There are people who think that it isn't possible that we would believe in a God that is a jealous God.

But the scripture is very clear that God is a jealous God. Our God is a jealous God.

A God who will not tolerate the worship of other deities. A God who will not tolerate disobedience.

A God who will not tolerate sin.

This is a God who demands a sacrifice.

That's who this God is.

And that's enough to render that God immoral.

That makes Him immoral in the eyes of modern secular humanists today.

That's what's being taught out there.

That's what's being presented.

Who believe that there's no human sin.

There's no law that you could ever break.

There's no human wrongdoing.

There's no transgression that should ever be of that kind of importance to God for Him to act that way.

He doesn't have any right to act that way.

The scripture definitely shows us differently.

God knew Abraham.

God knew Abraham.

And the sovereign Lord of the universe arranged all these things in order to make a profoundly important point.

That this is a test of biblical theology because we find out here what we actually believe.

Not just about Genesis.

Not just about the first book of the Bible and the Old Testament.

But about the Bible as a whole.

This is why we do expository study.

We study the scriptures this way.

Now, very quickly.

Very quickly this morning.

How does this fit in with the redemptive story?

With the redemptive story?

Okay.

If it is true that this is just a story, then it's a horrible story.

Okay?

But if it's true, then we're saved.

Now, if it's true and we're saved, why is it that we're saved?

I'm glad you asked that question.

Turn with me.

Okay, you didn't ask that question.

I'm just going to tell you anyway.

James, chapter 2.

James, chapter 2.

Verse 21.

Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?

You see that faith was active along with his works.

And faith was completed by his works.

And the scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.

And he was called a friend of God.

You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

This is a tremendous...

This text tells us what we're looking at here in Genesis 22.

When we're looking at the sacrifice of Isaac, as this chapter is often called,

we're looking at Abraham living out his faith in obedience.

This is big for us.

Even living out his faith by which he has already been justified.

He's already been justified.

So what kind of test is this for Abraham?

It says that he's being tested.

Was this a test of whether or not Abraham was saved?

No.

Not at all.

That's already been declared way back in chapter 15 of Genesis.

It says when we're told that Abraham believed and it was counted to him as righteousness.

Romans 15, we see what's fulfilled...

He's been demonstrated that he was demonstrated here. That's the difference. It's not just lip work. His obedience is made. This is not where his obedience originates. His obedience originated chapters and chapters ago. That's when it originated.

In the same way we are saved by faith, not by works,

but the faith that saves is a faith that will be demonstrated in obedience.

That's the difference.

That's what Genesis 22 is showing us right here.

Now, most importantly, if you turn to James,

turn a couple pages to your left to Hebrews 11,

and we're told the internal story of what we are to understand about Genesis 22.

Hebrews 11, verse 17.

By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac.

And he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son,

whom it was said, through Isaac, shall your offspring be named.

So the writer of the book of Hebrews tells us that Abraham was actually in the act of obedience.

He was actually in the act of obedience when he's offering up his son.

And verse 19 starts off by saying, and he considered.

He considered, okay?

So how could Abraham say to his son, when his son says, where's the lamb,

that God will provide for himself a sacrifice?

How could Abraham tell the lads that were with him,

you guys stay here and the boy and I will go up and we will worship and we're going to return?

We're told in Hebrews 11 that he knew this.

He knew it.

Verse 19, Hebrews 11.

He considered that God was able.

God was able even to raise him from the dead.

From which figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

So how is it that Abraham was in the act of obedience and he stretches out his hand with a knife in it?

How is it that he told his son Isaac that God's going to provide a lamb?

How is it that he tells the servants, you wait here and God, how could this be?

Because Abraham trusted God knowing, as the writer of Hebrews says,

that God is able even to raise him from the dead.

In other words, Abraham knew that if he did what the Lord commanded him,

even if he took that knife and he slaughtered his son,

even if he offered him up as a burnt offering,

the Lord would bring him back.

The Lord, that Yahweh, we've gone through all the names so far,

that Yahweh, that Elohim, that Adonai, that Jehovah-Jireh,

the God of Israel was able to bring him back,

if that was what it took.

He was able to do this.

And the Lord declared him justified by the fact that he believed

and he reckoned it to him as righteousness.

And that God would be, Abraham knew that God would be faithful to his promises.

And his promises were that nations were going to be blessed through this child.

Great nations were going to rise up through this child.

And even if this boy was sacrificed, even if he was burned,

even if all this took place,

Abraham knew, Abraham knew.

The lad and I will return.

I don't know how.

I'm not really sure how.

But God is able.

And someone needs to hear that this morning.

Someone needs to hear that God is calling you to sacrifice something in your life.

You know what it is that you need to put on the altar of your life.

But if I do this, then all this is going to change.

If I do this, then this is going to happen.

If I do this, then people are going to, no, no, no, no, no.

God is saying sacrifice this.

And you need to know that God is able.

God is able to provide for himself in sacrifice.

Again, you look again at this passage, and if it's just a story,

if this is just a little story,

Because we have learned in this text that God will indeed provide a lamb for himself. And if that's true, we're being shown a model of faith once again with Abraham, who demonstrates a faith by which he has been declared righteous, that he obeys God in the moment, knowing that God is going to be unconditionally faithful to all of his promises. Did you know that? That God is unconditionally faithful to all of his promises? And all of his promises

are what? Yes and amen. Yes and amen. He is unconditionally faithful. And God will do exactly what he says he's going to do. And that God has ordered him to do this thing, then God is going to be faithful. He's going to be faithful. And he knows, he knows that this God that he has been serving, that for this God that he has been following, it is no big thing.

It is no big thing for this God to raise up a boy from the ashes. I've seen God do this, this, and this, and this. It would be no big thing for him to raise up this boy from the ashes. So what we are being trained to see, we are being trained now to watch for God to provide for himself a lamb.

For God to provide for God to provide a lamb. We're being trained to watch for the birth of the child who is going to be the fulfillment of the redemptive covenant. We're being trained already that this birth is going to be a miraculous birth.

That this child is going to be a miraculous. We've been trained that God is going to do this through a singular act, through a singular, through a singular, the son, your only son in whom you love, your only son in whom you love.

And we're being told to look in advance for the fact that when God ultimately fulfills this promise, there will be wood.

There will be wood. There will be a sacrifice. There will be a lamb. But we are saved.

We are saved because of the fulfillment of the text in Romans 8.

Romans 8. We're going to end right here this morning.

Romans 8. This is why we're saying Romans 8.

Verse 31.

What then shall we say to these things? For if God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

Give us all things.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever would believe in him would not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through the lamb.

Through the lamb.

Where is the lamb?

Where is the lamb?

We can't simply understand this text without it grabbing our hearts and understanding the question that Isaac asked.

Where is the lamb?

And that's the question that people all over the world are asking, whether they know it or not, or they frame it that way.

With the deepest hurting questions, when life has them strangled right now, they may not phrase it this way, but they're asking, where's the lamb?

This life is just turning into a mess for me.

My relationship, my marriage, my business, my this, that, everything is falling apart.

They may not be asking it, but they're wanting to know where the lamb is, and we get to tell the story.

We get to tell the story.

That's what these two young girls did today in baptism.

They're telling the story.

I've met the lamb.

I've met him.

He's alive and well in me.

And that's why Paul can say, come follow me as I follow Christ.

I'm not perfect.

That's what Aislinn says.

That's what Mallory says today.

Follow me as I follow Christ.

That's the testimony of the church.

We have the story of the lamb, and shame on us for not living it out.

Shame on us for not telling.

And I know you do too. And they're broken. There's a lot of messed up stuff going on right now in this world. People need to know who the lamb of God is. We take such painstaking time to show you the foreshadowing in Genesis 22.

of the sacrificial lamb, the obedience of Abraham, but all of it points to Jesus. Yeshua. Can you not see that? How it points to Jesus. Well, God is asking me to do a hard thing. You don't think God was asking Abraham to do a hard thing?

Brad, I want you to take your son. I want you to take your son. I won't say only because you got two. Your oldest son. Brad's like, no, I think I'll take a zero. Time me out. God is able. No matter what you're trying to push

through. And maybe that's the problem. Maybe that's the problem. Come on up here, worship team. Let's close up because I'm going to go into another sermon. No matter what it is that you might be trying to push through, maybe that's the problem. You're trying to push through it. And you're not relying on the strength of the Holy Ghost. You're not relying on the power of the Lord Jesus. God is able. And maybe, maybe

maybe, maybe you're like, well, I'm not really struggling with anything. To be honest with you, brother Curtis, my life's just a mess. God is able to resurrect even from the dead. And that's what he, that's what he said. In effect, that's what Hebrews is talking about. In effect, it's what he did. He's receiving him back to life because Abraham was saying, he's as good as dead. I'm going to do this. Holy cow.

Wow. And that's the one thing I do love about the, that the scriptures doesn't, it doesn't tell us, but I do love about the little film. Sarah. Man, where's Sarah in all this? You know, you know, they had to talk about it. Abraham, please take a lamb with you just in case. That's what my wife be saying. Just in case. Just in case it was bad pizza and it wasn't really the Lord telling you that. Let's be sure and certain. Did Abraham?

No, no, no, ma'am. He didn't take me. I want to be a man of great faith. I know you want to be a man or woman of great faith.

Let's live our lives in such a way that it points to the lamb and all that we do. All that we do. And we praise God for his word this morning. We praise God that there is just a knitting together, a foreshadowing, showing us a picture of what to look for, what do we anticipate. And we anticipate the day when Jesus comes and he makes all things new again. Amen and hallelujah to that. And some days I pray for him to come right now.

I'll be honest with you. But until that time comes, may that new life be the very thing that wells up inside of us and draws others. Draws others to say, I want to know the lamb like you know the lamb. I want to know the lamb. I want to know the lamb.

Amen. Today, if you have never made a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus, boy, I would be an honor and privilege just to sit and talk with you a little bit. I'll be here and John and Pauline will be back in the prayer room as they go every Sunday.

If there's a need you want to be prayed for specifically, there's a brother and sister that will cry out to the Lord with you and on your behalf.

Know it's always open to you.

Just praise the Lord this morning for Aislinn and Mallory and their statement of faith today that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior.

And Father, I just pray that that is our heart's cry.

That is our heart's cry as we live it out each and every day.

Won't you stand as we sing today?

As we close out this morning, giving thanks and praise to the Lamb of God.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen. Amen.