Now, James can write, don't you see, that
Abraham was justified by works when he offered
his son.
But wait just a minute.
Did he offer his son?
And Abraham stretched forth his hand, took the
knife to slay his son.
And he plunged the knife into his son.
Is that the way your Bible reads?
No.
Mine doesn't read that way either.
And in verse 11 it says, 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.
Now, he knows now.
How does he know?
By action, by works.
Before it was by faith.
Now God sees your heart.
He knows whether you're genuine or not.
But your neighbor doesn't know.
Your friends don't know.
They can only know by works.
And that's the reason James could say that
faith without works is dead.
It has to produce something.
Now God tests Abraham.
Now may I say that I believe that
any person that God calls, any person God
saves, any person that God uses, is going
to be tested.
God tested Abraham.
And God today tests those that are his
own.
He tests you and me today.
And these are tests that are given to
us to strengthen our faith, and to establish
us, and make us serviceable for him.
That is the important thing that we need
to note here.
This man, Abraham, is now given the supreme
test.
And God will not have to ask anything
of him after this.
Now, he said, Abraham, you're not to do
this.
And verse 13, And Abraham lifted up his
eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a
ram caught in a thicket by his horns.
So Abraham took this ram and he offered
it for a burnt offering instead of his
son.
And that's been the substitution all the way
from the Garden of Eden down to the
cross of Christ.
It was this little animal that pointed to
his coming.
And God would not permit human sacrifice.
But when his son came into the world,
his son went to the cross and died.
And God spared not his own son, but
he delivered him up freely for you and
for me.
And on that cross, it became an altar
on which the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world is offered.
It's very important to see that, friend.
Now, verse 14 says, 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.
And so Abraham names this place.
And as I said before, a great many
people believe that it's where Solomon's temple was
built.
And Golgotha, the place of a skull, is
just right there on that same ridge that
the temple was on that Abraham offered his
son.
And it was there that the Lord Jesus
Christ was crucified.
That is a glorious, wonderful thing to see
here.
And now Abraham calls the name of that
place Jehovah-Jireh.
How wonderful it is.
Here's where God intervened in his behalf.