Let's turn to Genesis and chapter 22.
Genesis 22.
We were looking at verse 10, where we
see that Abraham lifted up the knife to
slay Isaac, and we saw that Isaac was
a young, healthy, strong man who could have
resisted his father and got out of that
situation.
But he didn't do it, which shows something
of the way in which Abraham had brought
up his son.
It would be quite something if we could
bring up a son in such a way
that when he's 25 years old, and we
lay him on an altar saying, I'm going
to kill you because God told me to
do it, and he just lies down there
and submits.
We've really got to admire Abraham for the
way in which he brought up his son
in the fear of God, and more than
that, in confidence in the fact that whatever
my father Abraham says or does is the
best for me, even if it means he's
going to kill me, I'll accept it.
It's really something fantastic.
We see further in verse 11 that as
Abraham was about to do that, the angel
of the Lord called to him from heaven
and said, Abraham, Abraham, and he said, Here
I am.
Now, there are only, as far as I
can see, seven places in scripture where God
calls a person with a double call, like
here, Abraham, Abraham.
It speaks of a time when God was
so delighted with Abraham's obedience in this which
was most costly for him.
And just in passing, I'd like to mention
where the other references are where God calls
a person by a double call.
Genesis 46, verse 2 is another reference where
God spoke to Jacob.
The interesting thing is that all these double
calls of God are very significant.
Abraham, Abraham is the first one.
And Genesis 46, verse 2, we see God
speaking to Israel in visions of the night
and said, Jacob, Jacob.
And he said, Here I am.
God said to him, I'm God.
Go down to Egypt because my purposes are
going to be fulfilled there in Egypt.
The third one is in Exodus chapter 3,
verse 4, where God speaks to Moses by
the burning bush.
And the Lord saw that he turned aside
to look.
God called him and said, Moses, Moses, here
I am.
Now I'm calling you to deliver my people
out of Egypt.
He first spoke to Jacob to tell them
to go to Egypt and now he calls
Moses to, after 400 years, to deliver them
out of Egypt.
The next one is in 1 Samuel chapter
3, 1 Samuel chapter 3, in verse 10,
where the little boy Samuel was sleeping and
the Lord came and stood and called, as
at other times, saying, Samuel, Samuel.
Samuel, Samuel.
That's the next instance, the fourth one.
And the fifth one is in the Gospel
of Luke in the New Testament, Luke's Gospels,
and chapter 10, Luke chapter 10, and verse
41.
But the Lord answered and said to her,
Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about
so many things.
That is the fifth instance where the Lord
again has something very significant to say.
One thing is needful, He says in the
next verse, and that is to sit at
His feet and hear His word.
Luke 10, 41.
And the sixth instance is in Luke 22,
and verse 31, where before Jesus goes to
the cross, He speaks to Peter and says,
Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to
sift you like wheat.
But I have prayed for you that your
faith may not fail.
And when you have turned again, strengthen your
brothers.
Again, a very significant word that the Lord
spoke.
And the seventh one is in Acts chapter
9, verse 4, where the Lord is speaking
to Saul of Tarsus, turning his whole life
around, changing the direction of his life.
He said, when Saul fell to the ground
on the road to Damascus, the Lord spoke
to him, saying, Saul, Saul, why are you
persecuting me?
In each of these instances, if you take
time to look at them, you find that
there is something significant that the Lord was
speaking when He called a person twice by
the name.
He usually called a person once.
But these are the seven double calls of
scripture, and each of them is significant.
And the first of these, as we have
just seen, is in Luke 22, verse 11,
where God has something special to say.
He says, Abraham, Abraham.
He says, don't stretch out your hand against
the Lord.
I never wanted you to kill him.
I only wanted to test you.
To see whether you fear God.
He says, now I know that you fear
God, since you have not withheld your son,
your only son, from me.
We see there that this is the proof
of the fear of God.
We saw earlier the fear of God mentioned
in Genesis 20 in relation to sexual sins.
Here is the second reference in the scripture
to the fear of God, and the first
time that God says concerning a human being,
now I know that you fear God.
What is the proof that we fear God?
That when God speaks in secret, God spoke
to Abraham in secret at night.
He immediately obeys again in secret.
He took Isaac up to the top of
the mountain and sacrificed him there without anybody
seeing.
An immediate obedience in secret to that which
we have heard in secret.
That is the proof that we fear God.
There is no other proof.
However much I may obey in those things
where other believers can see me, it does
not prove that I fear God.
I may not fear God at all.
The only test is when I have learned
to obey God in those areas where other
believers know nothing of what God has spoken
to me in my conscience, in my heart,
and where I have obeyed God in secret
without a single other believer knowing anything about
it.
So when we examine our life to see
whether we fear God or not, the test
is this.
In those areas where others cannot see me
or know anything about my life, have I
obeyed in secret before God.
If there are no such areas in my
life, I can sit in the best assembly
in the world, but I do not fear
Him.
God cannot say, now I know that you
fear God.
God tests us.
He tested Abraham nearly fifty years after he
called him out first.
And God will test us even fifty years
after we are converted to see whether we
fear Him.
That is not a test that we say,
oh, we passed that test long ago.
He says, now I know.
Now I know.
Doesn't God know everything?
Of course He knows everything.
But yet He tests a man so that
He can lead him on to something greater,
so that we ourselves also know whether we
fear God or not.
Now I know that you fear God because
you have not withheld your son, your only
son, from me.
And we learn something more there, that the
test of the fear of God is in
obedience in something which is very costly, not
something which is easy to do.
There are many areas where obedience is easy.
We've used the illustration of a father telling
a child, eat that ice cream.
That's not difficult for that child to do.
That obedience is very easy, because the child
loves to do it.
But when the father says, come and help
mummy to cut the vegetables when he would
like to play at five o'clock in
the evening, that's a little more difficult than
obeying the command to eat that cup of
ice cream.
You know that.
There is an obedience which is easy and
delightful, and there is an obedience which is
costly and difficult.
When Abraham obeyed God, it was not like
eating a cup of ice cream.
It was so difficult.
And it is in that obedience, which is
expensive and costly and costs me everything, that
I know whether I fear God or not.
In most areas, we all obey so easily.
We, there are so many areas we obey,
but the test is not in those areas.
Many, many things we do, do not prove
that we fear God.
It's good to do those things, we are
obeying God, but they are not the test
of whether we fear God or not.
That is in the secret area, and where
obedience has really cost us some tremendous sacrifice.
And if there has not been such areas
in our life, then that is probably an
indication that we are still quite a few
miles away from being tested in this simple
area of the fear of God.
We haven't taken it seriously.
We haven't taken our spiritual education seriously.
So, let's take a lesson from that, the
proof of the fear of God.
Verse 13, Then Abraham raised his eyes and
looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught
in the thicket by his horns.
And Abraham went and took the ram and
offered him up for a burnt offering in
the place of his son.
And we can say that that is where
the gospel was preached to Abraham, that instead
of his son, a substitute dies in his
place.
A substitute dies in the place of his
son, a ram.
The first clear example in the Old Testament
of a substitute, when Abraham said, when Isaac
asked him, Where is the lamb?
Abraham said in verse 8, God will provide
himself a lamb.
It was a word of faith, but he
never saw it.
He never knew, but he spoke out.
But it was a prophetic word that God
did provide there a lamb, a ram, and
later on provided himself in the person of
his son as the lamb.
There's a word in John's Gospel, chapter 8,
verse 56, when the Jews were trying to
stone Jesus.
Jesus said in John 8, verse 56, Your
father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and
he saw it and was glad.
When did Abraham see the day of Christ?
That was when he saw the ram that
could be killed in the place of his
beloved son.
And we can say that to Abraham, Isaac
was more dear than even his own life.
He would have gladly given his own life
rather than take Isaac's.
So we can say that it was a
picture of God providing a substitute instead of
Abraham's own life being given up.
And there, in some way perhaps, he didn't
understand it fully, I'm sure he didn't, but
in some mysterious way he saw the day
of Christ.
We can say he had a revelation of
Christ because he himself acted in the spirit
of Christ.
He would have never had that revelation if
he had sat in the tent in his
house and not obeyed God.
He got that revelation on that mountain because
he offered a costly obedience to God.
And there we learn that we can never
have revelation unless there is a costly obedience
in our lives to God.
Now, don't think, my brothers and sisters, that
what we hear from another person is revelation.
We can hear the truth from another brother
who has got revelation, but we receive it
as information.
We have to obey God in our personal
life and secret and private and sacrifice for
that information which we got from that brother
to become revelation.
And I would say that most believers don't
have any revelation in their lives.
All that they know is second-hand truth.
Yes, God uses others to communicate the truth
to us, but that's not enough.
We, each of us, have to get revelation.
And if we are desperate, we'll get it.
If we are satisfied without it, we won't
get it.
Think that there are believers who can drift
through a whole Christian life, born-again believers,
never get the revelation of God.
Follow Abraham, and we will get revelation.
Follow him, and you'll find that God opens
up the word to you and reveals things
that are hidden from the wise and the
clever.
If you follow Abraham up to that mountain
in secret, not before the face of men,
privately, obeying God in secret, obeying God in
your thought life, obeying God in private, costly,
sacrificial obedience, there is the place of revelation,
increasing revelation.
Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day.
He saw it.
He saw something that was way into the
future, two thousand years later.
And that's the mountain that we need to
go up also.
There he saw Jesus as a substitute in
the place of that ram, dying in our
place.
And Abraham called the name of that place,
The Lord Will Provide, or as the Hebrew
has it, Yehovah Yireh or Yahweh Yireh, The
Lord Will Provide.
This is where that phrase, The Lord Will
Provide, comes from.
The Lord will provide what?
A substitute.
It's referring to Calvary.
He saw.
The Lord will provide.
Or as it is said to this day,
in the mount of the Lord, in the
margin it says, it will be seen.
In the mount of the Lord, you will
have revelation.
You will have provision, and you will have
revelation.
Revelation and provision in the mount of the
Lord.
But we've got to get there, in obedience,
in costly, sacrificial obedience.
And there God provides.
The Lord will provide.
That we walk up in faith, the Lord
will provide.
Even though it looks impossible, right up to
the time that Abraham took up the knife,
to the last second, there was no evidence
that God had provided anything.
It looked as if he was going to
lose his son.
And very often God's provision is like that.
Man's provision is quite different.
Man provides well in advance.
Human fathers provide twenty years in advance for
the dowries of their daughters.
But God provides at the last second.
Because that's miraculous.
For a father to provide twenty years in
advance, there's nothing miraculous about it.
But God provides at the last second.
When I lifted up the knife in obedience,
God says, stop.
I've got a way for you.
Very often we'll find that in life's testing.
It looks, it looks, it looks, it looks,
it looks as though there's no answer to
this problem, no solution.
But if we hold on in faith at
the last second, there's a solution.
Because in all these six thousand years of
human history, God has never disappointed a man
who trusted Him till the very end.
Do you know that?
Do we know that, brothers and sisters?
That in eternity in heaven, or at the
judgment seat of Christ, no brother, no sister
will be able to say to the Lord,
Lord, I trusted you till the very end,
and you let me down.
Impossible.
There will not be one human being like
that.
Those who have trusted till the very end,
like we sing in that song, those who
trust Him fully, find Him fully true.
The Lord will provide, and in the mount
of the Lord, it will be seen.
I want to point you out to something
in 2 Chronicles 3, which is significant in
this connection.
2 Chronicles 3, when Solomon began to build
a temple, the temple could not be built
in any place in Israel, in Palestine.
It had to be built in Jerusalem.
God had determined that.
And also in Jerusalem, it could not be
built in any part of Jerusalem that, you
know, some architect went out and looked for
some good site for the temple.
No.
God had already determined, long before Solomon and
David and King Saul and all were born,
long before the Israelites had even occupied Canaan,
God had already determined the location of the
temple.
You know which it was?
Here it is.
2 Chronicles 3, verse 1.
Then Solomon began to build a house of
the Lord in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah.
Mount Moriah.
That's what we read in Genesis 22, where
Abraham offered up his son.
God said, that is the place where my
house is going to be built, because my
house has got to be a house of
sacrifice.
Do you know where God's house is built
today in the New Covenant?
It's not built every place where people can
get a choir to sing a Christmas cantata
and an Easter cantata and stage some Christmas
drama or entertain people in some way like
that.
Well, that's not where God's house is built.
God's house is built where he finds people
like Abraham who will give up their Isaacs.
That's the place where God says, I'll build
my house there.
So you see, when Abraham offered up Isaac
on Mount Moriah, it was a very significant
thing.
It is the place where the Muslims and
the Jews are fighting for, the place which
they are fighting for today.
Because the Muslims have built a mosque today
on that very spot.
That's why the Jews cannot build a temple.
Even though Jerusalem is in the hands of
the Jews, they can't build a temple.
Why?
Because they know the temple cannot be built
in any place.
The temple has to be built in the
same place where Solomon built it.
And a mosque stands there today.
So how can they build a temple?
That's the place where Abraham offered up Isaac.
And the Muslims respect Abraham too.
They say he offered up Ishmael.
And God has saved Ishmael from death.
They've reversed the story.
And they say that place is sacred to
them.
But apart from that, it's significant that the
Lord chose that place to build a temple.
And I want you to see another thing
there.
It is also identified as another place.
On Mount Moriah, 2 Chronicles 3.1, where
the Lord had appeared to his father David
at the place that David had prepared on
the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite.
And that story is in 2 Samuel 24,
where when God had judged David's sin of
numbering the people.
That's one thing we see there, that God
does not like our counting numbers.
When David counted numbers, God judged him.
Why do you want to count numbers?
To see how many people you are a
king over?
Why do you want to keep a membership
list in your church?
To see how many people there are in
the church?
It was only 50 people once.
Now we are 150.
That is the sin of David.
And thousands of Christians have got no light
on it.
God judged David severely.
He said, why do you want to count
numbers?
You leave that to me.
You just trust in me.
That's why the judgment came.
That's in passing.
But then God said, all right, you've got
to come.
And his prophet came to him and said,
now you've got to erect an altar in
2 Samuel 24.18 on the threshing floor
of Ornan, the Jebusite.
This is the same place where Abraham offered
up Isaac on Mount Moriah.
We saw that in 2 Chronicles 3.1.
And David went there.
And when Araunah, who was an ordinary citizen,
saw the king coming, he said, why have
you come here?
David said, I've come to buy this place,
to offer an offering and to buy the
oxen and wood.
And Araunah said, please take it free.
I don't want you to buy it from
me.
You are my king.
Take the oxen, the wood, the yokes, everything.
And the king said, verse 24, no, I
will not take it free.
I will pay for it.
And that is not easy.
As a king, people like to take things.
I am an authority.
Why can't I take it free?
And besides that, all of us have a
flesh which loves to get things free.
You know that?
Have you discovered it, when somebody gives you
a gift?
How you love to get it, it is
free.
Particularly we find Christians in our country love
to get everything free.
They love to get tracts free, they love
to get books free, they love to get
tapes free, they love to get everything free.
That's why they never progress in their life,
because they love to get everything free.
They never think of payment.
They use somebody else's things and never pay
for it.
Everything they love to get free.
They love to get gifts from other people.
And you can't build a house of God
there.
The house of God is not built where
people are loving to get things free.
The house of God is built where people
like David say, I will not take it
free, because then if I offer it to
God, I've offered God that which cost me
nothing.
That's what he said here.
I'll pay for it, because I'm not going
to offer a cheap offering to God.
I will give to God that which cost
me something.
It has to cost me something.
Do you give a service to God?
It must cost you a sacrifice.
It doesn't cost us anything to come three
times a week to a meeting.
No.
Does it cost us anything to come three
times a week to a meeting?
Hardly anything.
But where what we give to God has
cost us something, cost us sacrifice, cost us
pain perhaps, there we know that the house
of God can be built.
That is the place, we read in 2
Chronicles 3.1, where Abraham offered Isaac, where
David offered that sacrifice which cost him something.
God said, that is the place where my
house will be built.
God's house is built in the place of
sacrifice.
Very important lesson for all of us to
learn, that we can never build the house
of God by learning a doctrine.
That's the stupidity that a lot of people
have.
They think, ah, I've got the doctrine, now
I can build the body of Christ somewhere.
I found that, brothers and sisters, here in
our country, in India.
There are people who've seen that God has
done something in our midst, and they said,
ah, it must be the doctrine.
Doctrine.
Okay, we'll take the doctrine, preach the doctrine
elsewhere.
And there are people who preach the doctrine
and don't get the same results.
They use the same songbook and they don't
get the same results.
Because it's not got to do with the
doctrine or the songbook.
It's not a songbook that Abraham used on
Mount Moriah.
It's not a doctrine.
It's an attitude towards God.
And where that attitude of sacrifice and obedience
and devotion to God is there, even if
they don't use the same songbook, the body
of Christ will be built.
We can become a cult, thinking that those
who use the same songbook are part of
the body of Christ.
That's a lot of garbage.
I throw that in the garbage bin, that
idea.
It's those who have the same spirit of
devotion, of obedience to God, in secret and
private, who are part of the body of
Christ.
Even I don't care if they don't use
the same songbook.
I don't belong to a denomination or a
cult.
I want a fellowship with those who have
the same spirit of devotion to Christ that
Abraham had, that David had, that doesn't want
anything free.
It's a lot of people who use the
same songbook, who love to get things free,
who don't have the spirit of Abraham and
David.
A lot of people who believe the new
and living way, theoretically in their head, who
don't have the spirit of Abraham and David.
There's no body of Christ being built there.
And it can be that people can come
into our midst, appreciating the preaching, perhaps, or
the fellowship or something like that, but they
don't have that spirit in their hearts that
Abraham and David had.
They will find themselves outside the body of
Christ.
That's a sad thing, after being many years
in a fellowship and ending up outside the
body of Christ.
This is where God builds his house.
And so we see that that's a very
significant thing.
The temple is the place of sacrifice, not
the place of listening to messages.
God didn't choose Moriah because Abraham delivered a
wonderful message there one day.
No, the place of sacrifice.
Not because he got a fine choir to
sing.
No.
It's not even the place of miracles.
It's the place of sacrifice.
Mount Carmel, that's where Elijah brought the fact
from the truth.
We need to understand very, very clearly that
God is building his house even today.
Where?
Not in the place of miracles or sermons
or songs, but in the place of sacrifice
and devotion.
And how can I contribute to the building
of God's house?
By having that same attitude that Abraham and
David had.
If I come to the church—not to just
the meeting.
The church is the body of people.
If my attitude to the church is the
attitude that Abraham and David had to God,
then I contribute something to the building of
the body of Christ.
Otherwise, I'm just a passenger, just sitting, just
a listener.
Now God is gathering together people in the
last days to build his body, and it's
easy to sit there and miss the Spirit.
Brothers and sisters, beware of it.
I emphasize it because I've seen so much
of it.
People who have the words, but the Spirit
is not the same.
The words are right.
Songbook is right.
Doctrine is right.
But the Spirit, there's something missing.
It's not the Spirit of sacrifice and devotion
to Christ.
The Spirit is seeking their own.
Abraham was not seeking his own.
In Genesis 21, we read that God asked
him to give up Ishmael.
That was easier.
Genesis 22, a still more difficult step, to
give up Isaac.
Compare these two chapters.
Genesis 21, give up Ishmael.
Genesis 22, give up Isaac.
What is the New Testament meaning of this?
We can say that Ishmael is that which
is of the flesh.
To give that up is very clear to
us.
We know that that's bad.
Give up that which is of the flesh.
Do you understand that?
But to give up Isaac, which is not
of the flesh, which is a good thing,
when God tells us to give up something
good, that is a test of being spiritual.
The difference between the carnal believer and the
spiritual believer is not that the carnal believer
doesn't give up the fleshly things and the
spiritual believer gives up the fleshly things.
It's more than that.
The carnal believer may give up committing adultery,
give up telling lies, even give up losing
his temper, but there are certain good things
in life which he will not give up
for Jesus Christ.
Maybe his job, profession, his education, his occupation,
his family ties, good things, his love for
good food, and therefore he never becomes spiritual.
You know what Paul said in 1 Corinthians
6?
Here's the reason why Paul became a spiritual
man.
He not only gave up Ishmael, but he
gave up Isaac as well.
1 Corinthians 6, verse 12.
Paul says, All things are lawful for me.
What things?
Is adultery lawful?
No.
Telling lies lawful?
No.
He's speaking about a man who's given up
all those bad things.
He's given up Ishmael.
Having given up Ishmael, he says, Now I'm
only left with Isaac, and that's lawful.
That's a lawful son.
But even some of those lawful things I
give up, because not all of those lawful
things are profitable.
So we can say there are three levels.
There are the unlawful things and the lawful
things.
Two main subdivisions of the things in our
life.
Unlawful things, lawful things.
Then the lawful things are again subdivided into
two.
The lawful but not profitable, and the higher
level which is the lawful and profitable.
So we can say there are three levels.
The unlawful, those are the people who live
in sin, not even converted.
And then we have the believers who live
in the lawful.
They say, It's perfectly all right.
And they're always discussing things like, Is it
right or wrong to go to the cinema?
Is it right or wrong to wear lipstick?
Is it right or wrong to have a
little gold in the sari?
And they are living in this borderline between
lawful and unlawful.
They're always having questions.
Is this right?
Is that wrong?
Is this right?
They're living in the tree of knowledge of
good and evil.
Is it right?
Is it wrong?
There are lots of believers living in that
level.
They are born again, but they are carnal.
They never become spiritual.
There is a higher level for those who
are spiritual.
They are not asking, Is it right or
wrong?
They are asking, Is it profitable?
Is it for the glory of God for
me to have some gold on my sari?
Is it for the glory of God for
me to put some lipstick?
Is it for the glory of God for
me to wear ornaments?
Is it for the glory of God for
me to go to the cinema?
Their question is not right or wrong.
They're not living at that low substandard level
that 99% of Christians live at.
They're living where Paul lives.
They're all lawful.
Okay, even if everything is lawful, so what?
It's not profitable, he says.
So, that is the difference between giving up
Ishmael and giving up Isis.
Lots of believers are willing to give up
Ishmael.
Very few are willing to give up Isis.
That which is good.
What's wrong with this?
For example, in marriage.
Many believers say, It's enough if I marry
a believer.
The other person must be born again.
That's good.
But a spiritual person says more than that.
It's not enough the other person must be
born again.
The other person must have the same devotion
to Christ that I have.
Otherwise, I'm not interested.
You see, it's lawful to marry a born
-again believer, but it may not be profitable
if you're a wholehearted Christian that you end
up marrying someone who's not wholehearted.
And that determines which level you live.
Lawful.
Unlawful, of course, is to go and marry
an unbeliever.
Lawful is to marry a believer, but profitable
is to marry someone who is wholeheartedly devoted
to Christ just like you.
So there's a difference.
In all areas it's like this.
Many, many areas.
There's the unlawful, there's the lawful, and there's
the profitable.
There's a saying in English that the good
is the enemy of the best.
An English proverb, and it's self-explanatory.
It means that I can miss the best
by taking that which is good.
I take the good and I miss the
best.
That's a great tragedy.
So we learn a lot from that one
incident there in Genesis chapter 22 of Abraham
offering up his son and saying, in the
mount of the Lord it will be provided.
The spiritual man is the one who says,
the Lord is my provider.
I don't go running after earthly things.
The Lord is my provider.
He drops them into my lap as I
seek the kingdom of God first and His
righteousness.
And my mind is set on seeking God's
kingdom and His righteousness.
And God will test us on that to
see whether I'm real that it's a choice
between His kingdom and some good earthly thing.
Not evil earthly thing.
The choice is His kingdom and some good
legitimate lawful earthly thing.
God sees what choice I make.
God or Isaac.
If it is God or Ishmael, we're all
ready to say God.
I want God, not Ishmael.
But when it is God or Isaac, I've
seen many men who've learned to hate their
father and mother, but haven't learned to hate
their wives.
It's amazing.
It's in the same verse in Luke 14,
26.
But they're very zealous in hating their father
and mother, but not so zealous in hating
their wives.
Where did you get that from?
Where did you get this half verse out
of Scripture?
Christianity is full of these people who've got
half verses and a lot of people in
the church like that.
They haven't understood what that hatred means.
In other words, they were a bit fed
up with their parents in any case, so
they were glad to hate them.
That's not the hatred the Bible speaks of.
But they love their darling wives and so
they don't hate them at all.
I don't believe such people can ever be
spiritual.
They're not consistent.
Many like that.
They have not understood what it is to
give up an Isaac to God, saying the
kingdom of God is first, everything else is
second.
And so, we can ask ourselves whether we
have followed Abraham in this, whether we can
be a part of building up Christ's body.
The Lord is my provider.
He provides.
I don't know.
For the last second, He'll provide.
My job is only to seek the kingdom
of God first and His righteousness in all
things.
That's all.
Then the angel of the Lord, verse 15,
called to Abraham a second time.
This is the messenger of the Lord that
we've seen before.
It's obviously Christ in some manifestation.
The same thing we read in verse 11.
The angel of the Lord, the messenger of
the Lord.
And said, and this is where we know
that this is Christ Himself, what did the
angel of the Lord say?
Notice in verse 16.
Not by the Lord, but by myself I
have sworn, says the Lord, because you've done
this thing, not with hell your son, your
only son.
Indeed, I will greatly bless you and will
greatly multiply your descendants as the stars of
the heavens and as the sand which is
on the seashore.
And your descendants shall possess the gate of
their enemies.
And in your descendants, all the nations of
the earth shall be blessed because of one
reason.
Because you have obeyed my voice, and we
can say in secret, when nobody heard what
I have spoken to you.
For example, we can sit in a meeting
and God can speak something to our heart.
Nobody has heard it, even the person sitting
in the next chair has not heard what
God spoke to us in the meeting.
And you need not obey.
You can go away from there and not
obey what God spoke to you in the
meeting, and you can still retain a good
testimony in the church as a good brother,
a good sister, who is having a good
testimony, living a good life.
Nobody knows that that thing which God spoke
to you in the last meeting, you still
haven't obeyed.
Maybe God told you to go and apologize
to somebody for having wounded him or her.
You haven't obeyed it.
You got a testimony in the church as
a good brother, but not a testimony before
God.
We know in Genesis 21, Abimelech the king
came and said to Abraham, we know God
is with you.
But in Genesis 22, he gets a testimony
from God himself, and that's the more important
thing.
It's no use Abimelech coming and congratulating us
if God has got a different opinion.
So brothers and sisters, it's a wonderful thing
if God can say, you have obeyed my
voice.
If he can always say that, you have
obeyed my voice by giving up certain good
things because you decided to choose the best.
And what is the best?
In Romans 12, verse 2, it says that
good and acceptable and perfect, what?
Will of God.
There is only one thing which is perfect.
We can say the good is the enemy
of the perfect, and the perfect is the
will of God.
The good is my ideas.
For example, in Christian work, there are a
lot of people who have got a lot
of bright ideas how to serve God.
Lot of bright ideas, but may not be
the will of God.
God's way is perfect, and that's why we
need to seek God's will in all areas.
So Abraham returned to his young men.
Why did God bless him?
Because of obedience and having obeyed.
He comes back, and they rose and went
together to Beersheba, and Abraham lived at Beersheba.
We could ask ourselves one more thing before
we move on from this, and that is,
Have you ever heard God speaking to you,
calling you to do something difficult and hard?
Or have you only heard words saying, Fear
not, my child.
I shall be with you.
I shall take you through this trial.
I shall comfort you.
I delight in you.
I rejoice in you, my child.
You go to the average charismatic meeting, it's
that type of thing which they call prophecy.
I don't believe it's prophecy at all.
It's just somebody's got a bright idea in
his mind, and he just lets it out.
He says, Oh my child, I know your
needs.
My son, I know you.
And most people have problems in any case,
so when someone gets up in a meeting
and says, My daughter, I know your problem,
at least 80% of the women there
think, Oh God, he knows my problem.
My daughter, he says.
This psychological humbug which they call the leading
of the spirits.
We must have nothing to do with this
type of garbage and call it prophecy.
Prophecy is that which speaks from God, and
very often it's a hard voice saying, Offer
up Isaac.
Come to Mount Moriah and offer up Isaac.
My son and my daughter may not be
so interested in that.
And that's what God's calling us.
Offer up Isaac.
Have you ever heard God speaking a hard
word?
You know these believers who say, It's a
hard message.
It's a hard message we hear.
Think of Abraham and God.
Oh, that's a hard message.
That can't be God.
I better go to some other church where
they don't speak such hard messages like offering
up Isaac on Mount Moriah.
Think what Abraham would have missed.
My brothers and sisters, that's the way of
blessing.
And those who listen to that and obey
God come out triumphant and don't end up
like these wishy-washy, slavish, fat Christians who
are useless to God and useless to men,
and they're floating around the world today.
No.
Be a follower of Abraham and David so
that the body of Christ can be built
through you and your life.
And thus he returned.
He returned after he had obeyed.
He fulfilled the conditions, and therefore God says,
You will be blessed.
There are many people who claim the promises
of Scripture without fulfilling the conditions.
I used to be bothered by that once
upon a time.
I wanted to be honest, and I said,
Lord, there are times when I pray, and
I don't seem to get an answer.
Yet you said, Anything you ask in my
name, I'll give it to you.
And yet I ask for something, and you
don't give it to me.
And I don't want to just write that
off and say, Oh, well, I can't explain
it.
I say, Lord, I want to be honest.
Why does it work?
I remember once the Lord made it very
clear to me and said, Just read that
verse again in Scripture and see to whom
I spoke it.
And I saw that He didn't speak it
to a compromiser.
He spoke it to disciples who had forsaken
everything to follow Him.
To them He said, Ask anything in my
name, I will give it to you.
And today, a believer who has not even
forsaken 50% tries to claim that promise.
How will it work?
It will not work.
Don't be surprised if it doesn't work.
There's a condition to that promise.
Then I understood.
If I forsake everything, and I have an
attachment to nothing in the world, then every
promise in the book is mine.
If not, there may be a few promises
that God will give me food and clothing
and shelter.
But the real main ones I've missed.
So, there is a condition to a promise.
God blessed Abraham, it says here so clearly,
Because you have obeyed my voice, verse 18,
therefore I will greatly bless you, verse 17.
What is that great blessing?
That his children will get promotion in their
examination?
Or that Abraham won't get any cancer?
Is that the blessing He promised him?
These are for these third-rate believers who
seek God for these things.
But those who really want God's best, there's
a condition.
I will bless you because you have obeyed
my voice.
Take it seriously, brothers and sisters.
Particularly when that voice goes against what your
reason says.
Reason says, how can God ask for a
human sacrifice?
Faith does.
Never mind your reason, if God's told you,
do it.
There's always this conflict between faith and reason.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and don't lean to your own understanding.
Two opposites, your own understanding and God.
Faith and reason.
I believe the number one enemy of faith
is reason.
That's why you find the clever people are
the ones who have less faith.
The more intellectual we are, the less faith
we have.
Unless we crucify that intellect, the people who
are simple, they have usually more faith.
And I don't think any of us sitting
here are simple.
So we have a battle.
We're shrewd, we're clever, we're intellectual.
Therefore it's difficult to have faith.
Because our own understanding comes in the way.
It says, how can God ask such a
thing?
Abraham never questioned, he just obeyed.
And therefore he got blessed.
And we'll discover in eternity that the people
who got blessed the most were those who
obeyed God like Abraham.
And then it gives there a list of
the children born to his brother Nehor.
Verse 20 to 24.
And then we come to chapter 23.
And Sarah lived 127 years.
These were the years the life of Sarah
and Sarah died.
In Kiriat Arba.
In the land of Canaan.
And Abraham went to mourn.
In to mourn for Sarah and to weep
for her.
She died when she was 127.
We know that she was 10 years younger
to Abraham.
Abraham was 137.
God called Abraham when he was 75.
And now he's 137.
62 years she had stood by Abraham.
Very often not understanding why her husband is
doing all this.
Why is he suddenly packing up and saying,
Let's leave this place and go off.
Where are you going?
Don't know.
Can you appreciate a wife who followed her
husband like that?
Where are you going?
I don't know.
God told us to go.
And she also packs up.
Brings home guests uninvited.
Come, let's cook something for them.
And suddenly takes off the son.
Later realizes he was going to kill him.
Happy that they came back.
You have to admire this woman who stood
by such a husband.
It's not easy to be the wife of
a man who has revelations.
It is quite difficult.
It's easy to be the wife of a
drifter.
And a man who's seeking earthly things.
It's not easy to be the wife of
a man who obeys God.
And wholeheartedly seeks to follow in Jesus' footsteps.
But blessed is that woman who can follow
a God-fearing, wholehearted husband like that.
Without questioning.
Without grumbling.
Without complaining.
One day when Abraham gets his reward.
I'm sure God allows Sarah to come forward
to get her share too.
Because many a wife suffers a lot because
of her husband's obedience to God.
So, we can think of that.
When she died at the age of 127.
Faithful.
Standing by her husband for over 60 years.
In faithfulness.
Not dragging, grabbing like lost wife.
Being fed up with this living in tents.
We were living comfortably there in Ura, the
Chaldees.
And you told us to pack up.
And no proper house here.
Nothing.
You don't know where we are shifting.
And that good land you gave off to
your nephew.
And all these things that wives complain about.
Why didn't you fight for the family property
and get it?
And all these things.
Think that Sarah was such a good wife.
That's a challenge to you sisters.
Be a good wife to your husband.
Even if you can't sometimes understand what he's
doing.
And Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah.
And then Abraham rose before his dead and
spoke to the sons of Hez saying, I'm
a stranger and a sojourner among you.
Think what he called himself.
I'm a stranger.
Here was a man who lived for 75
years in comfort.
As one of the leading citizens of Ura,
the Chaldees.
Given up everything to obey the Lord and
follow Him.
What did he get?
On this earth, nothing.
We'll discover soon what he got.
On this earth.
He says, give me a burial site.
That I may bury my dead.
And the sons of Hez answered.
They have respected him and said, hear us
my Lord.
You're a mighty prince among us.
Take the choicest of your grave.
Just like Aaron told King David.
Have it free.
No need to pay for it.
None of us will refuse you his grave.
Abraham rose and bowed down and said, If
it's your wish for me to bury my
dead out of my sight.
Hear me.
Please approach Ephron, the son of Zohar.
That he may give me the cave of
Maxilla.
Which is at the end of his field.
For the full price.
I don't want any discount or concession.
Let him give it to me in your
presence for a burial site.
Otherwise afterwards that fellow will keep boasting that
I gave Abraham a place to bury his
dead.
He must never let an unbeliever think that
he has had a part in God's work.
By contributing something for God's work.
Sorry sir, we can't receive your money because
God wants your heart first.
That's what you have to say to unbelievers.
No, he would not let anybody give it
half price or anything.
Full price.
Give it to me in your presence for
a burial site.
Ephron was sitting among the sons of Eph.
And he said, No my Lord, hear me.
I give you the field.
And I give you the cave.
In the presence of these sons of my
people, I give it to you free.
And Abraham bowed before the people and he
said, If you will only please listen to
me.
I will give, verse 13, the price for
the field.
Accept it from me.
He has a dignity.
There is a dignity about a man of
God.
That he doesn't go around like a beggar.
Hoping that somebody will give him something free.
And grabbing as soon as he gets it.
Then Ephron answered Abraham saying to him, My
Lord, listen to me.
This is Ephron telling Abraham, A piece of
land worth 400 shekels of silver.
What is that?
He said, That's nothing.
Bury your dead.
Abraham listened.
Oh, he said, It's worth 400 shekels of
silver.
Alright, I'll give you 400 shekels of silver.
And he weighs out, verse 16, 400 shekels
of silver.
The commercial standards.
And pays it.
A little thing.
But we can see something about the dignity
of this man of God.
An example worthy for us to follow.
Why?
Because the Lord was his provider.
Wherever you get the 400 shekels from.
The Lord is my provider.
I don't have to get a favor from
this unbeliever.
For my personal need.
And feel obligated to him for the rest
of my life.
We have to be very careful.
When an unbeliever does something for us, a
favor.
That we pray that in some way we
shall be able to serve him and return
that favor.
So that we don't live under obligation to
unbelievers.
If you are a child of God, don't
place yourself in obligation to unbelievers.
Keep that in mind.
So Ephraim, he did it, it says, in
the presence of all the people.
So that everything will be done decently.
So that other people will also know.
The Bible says we must provide things honest
in the sight of all men.
Everybody must see that we are upright.
So Ephraim's field was in Machphela, which faced
Mamre.
And all the trees in the field were
deeded over to Abraham for a possession.
Verse 18.
In the presence of the sons of Heth
and Abraham buried Sarah, his wife.
Verse 19.
And so the field and the cave that
is in it were deeded over to Abraham
for a burial site by the sons of
Heth.
We ask this question.
What did Abraham get in Canaan?
For everything that he gave up.
What's the answer?
A grave.
He never possessed anything in Canaan except a
grave.
And yet God said, don't worry.
One day your descendants will occupy this homeland.
And they have occupied it today.
Today, 1986, children of Abraham are living there.
But in his day he lived by faith.
All he had was a grave.
That's all.
But the only thing he had there, a
burial place.
We praise the Lord for the example of
Abraham that we can follow.
They sought another country.
A better one.
Therefore God is not ashamed to be called
their God.
When God called them, they obeyed.
They went up to the mount of the
Lord, believing that the Lord is my provider.
And therefore they were blessed.
Let's stand up and give thanks.