The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: Praise be to God forever and ever. God has had a plan to love you from the very foundation of the world. God has a plan and he had the provision to bring it about and to fulfill it so that you and I might love him and know him in this life and in that life to come forever and ever.

Guest (Male): Today on the Healing Word, Pastor Jack Morris is here with you to continue "God is our Provider," part two in our series "The Names of God." From Genesis chapter 22, we'll watch God test Abraham's faith and reveal himself as Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who provides exactly what is needed, exactly when it's needed.

Pastor Jack Morris: The obedience of faith. If there's faith there, faith is going to obey. Faith is going to do something. Look at what happened. Look at verse three. Early the next morning, the very next morning, he didn't say, "Well, let me think about it for a week or let me pray about it for a month." God had spoken. Do you hear that, friend? God had spoken, and early the next morning, faith steps out. Faith begins to move. Faith is not dormant. Faith is not passive. Faith is active.

Abraham knew enough about God that God meant what he said and said exactly what he meant. But early the next morning, prompt obedience, unquestioning obedience, instant obedience. That's how it works. That's the man of faith. That's the woman of faith. Faith acts. Faith doesn't just simply talk. Faith walks the talk. Can you say praise the Lord? Faith walks the talk.

Jesus says, "I love you." What did he do? He walked to Calvary. He did something. God bared his heart and Christ died. Faith walks the Via Dolorosa. Faith walks the talk. Faith puts up. And this is exactly what Abraham did. What an astounding story. Look at this old man. We never read of a questioning word. When he was 75 and when he was 95 years old, he did question God. When he was 99, he even laughed. All of that was recorded.

But Abraham had grown in faith and in confidence in God. Now he doesn't question God anymore. He knew better than to question God. He walks with God and he does what God says. I don't think, friends, that you and I have sufficient appreciation for this story because we know the script. We know what happened. We know the end. But Abraham had no idea that God was going to do anything other than say, "Give me your best. Give me your all. Give me your darling. Give me that which is nearest to your heart."

He didn't know. We know. God came to Abraham when he was 99 with a staggering promise. Now he comes back 27 years later with a staggering demand. Non-negotiable. Either you follow me or you don't. And Abraham followed the Lord. Now, look on with me. Verse four, on the third day, they were on their journey. Well, let's go back to verse three. Early the next morning, Abraham got up and saddled his donkey and he took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac.

When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him. He got up that morning, cut the wood, got the donkey, got the people together. And it was early afternoon, he didn't stop. He kept right on going. An old man, almost exhausted after all that work, he kept right on going. On the third day, he looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you."

This is overwhelming as we look at the sacrifice of faith. Point C, write the word sacrifice down. Faith obeys, but faith also sacrifices. You see, faith is simply this. This is the simplest way I know how to describe faith. Faith is just simply complying with instruction. That's what faith is. God says something, God instructs you to do it, and you do it. It's simply complying with instruction.

I wonder about the overwhelming horror that must have just come over and blanketed this old man's soul, flooded his soul. I wonder how he must have thought. He was an intelligent old man knowing that he was going to have to take a knife. How often he had taken a knife and plunged it into a lamb as a sacrifice. Now he was going to hold the handle of a knife and plunge it into the flesh of his only son.

And how he would feel the handle as the knife went in. I know this old man must have been thinking these thoughts. How could he have felt otherwise? How could he have thought otherwise? I wonder if he thought about his son's body, the anatomy, where he would place the blade to bring about a quick death, that there would be the least amount of pain. For three days, he had to think about this as he traveled. And finally, he saw the place and he wouldn't stop.

Maybe he thought, "If I pause for a moment, I might back out." But I won't pause. I'll keep my focus on God and the instruction and I'll walk toward it and keep going. This was the son that he had longed for. I doubt that he even talked to Sarah, his wife, about what was going to happen, lest she become so upset and hysterical and try to talk him out of it. I doubt that he talked to the servants, for they may have physically kept him from doing it.

He didn't even talk to his son. You know, there are some people who have such a wonderful relationship with God and they don't really care what other people believe or think. They're going to stand on their convictions and follow what the word tells them to do. Isn't that wonderful? To have that kind of faith and confidence in the Lord. This is the kind of faith that Abraham had.

Now, this is my only thought about this situation. How could this man do it? How could he do that? My only thought is this: Abraham surely must have stopped looking upon Isaac as his own flesh and blood. Something happened in Abraham's mind. Now he started looking upon Isaac solely as a gracious love offering to be given to God. I'd better maybe say that one again.

He looked upon his son, "My flesh and blood. This is the altar." He's going to put his son on the altar and then cut his throat like a lamb. A human sacrifice. He had to stop thinking of him as "mine." God says, "Your son, your only son, Isaac, the son you love." That was all true. He had to stop thinking of him as "this belongs to me. This came from me. This is an extension of me. This is my beloved son." He had to stop thinking that way.

I don't know how else he could have done it. And he had to start looking upon him as a gift, a love gift to be given back to God. I don't think he could have done it otherwise. Look at verse 12. They approach the place. Isaac speaks up and asks the father what's going to happen. Here is Isaac carrying the wood and the fire.

Now here's how they would do it. They would have a little kettle with a handle on it. And when they were back where they got off the donkey, they had this little kettle and they built a fire and they put the kettle and they carried it. And here Isaac is carrying the kettle and the smoke coming out of the kettle. They weren't going up there and start a fire up on the mountain. They carried it up the mountain. Here's Isaac carrying the wood on his back, carrying the kettle, and he looks up and he said, "Dad, where's the offering?"

I imagine Abraham thinking, "Boy, you're the offering and you're carrying your altar." And here's this young fellow, 27 years old. He must have had great faith in his father. He could have resisted. Surely he could have outrun him. Surely he could have overcome his father with physical strength. But he knew his father heard from heaven and he willingly went to that altar and placed himself on that altar.

In Hebrews chapter 11 verse 19, Abraham concluded in that verse that if God took Isaac, God would raise Isaac back to life again. He even told the servants, "We will worship and then we will come back to you." Here's a parallel that causes us to think back to Calvary and what happened there between our Heavenly Father and his only begotten son.

I think of the three days they traveled. I think of the three days that Christ was in the grave. I think of Isaac carrying his altar. I think of Christ carrying his cross. I think of Abraham thinking that God would raise him from the dead. I think of Jesus coming back from the grave. Abraham, give your only son. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Think of the story. Observe the parallel.

Abraham takes the knife. He never stopped one moment to consider or to debate God's demand. Look at verse 12. He takes the knife and the angel speaks, "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know." Look at those words. "Now I know." God is saying, "Now I know what's in your heart. Now you know what's in your heart. Now I know that you will withhold nothing from me."

This is what God is saying. "Now I know that you fear God." What does the word fear mean? It means that you so reverence God, so believe in God, so committed to God that you will bow your life and everything that you have and all your life and everything your life touches. It's all on the altar. It's committed. If you fear God, it will become visible because God will speak and test your heart. The test still goes on. "Now I know that you fear God."

Point D in your outline, put down the word provision. The provision of faith. Because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son. Verse 13 says Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of— what's the next word? Instead of— say that word instead of. Instead of.

I can't help but think of Calvary and instead of me and instead of you, Jesus was caught. Caught in the bonds and cords of Calvary love. That's why when they said to him, "If you're the son of God, come down from the cross and we will believe," Jesus said, "I can't come down because I'm caught with love for a lost world to redeem the world." Instead of his son.

Look at verse 14. So Abraham called that place— what did he call it? The Lord will provide. And to this day, it is said, "On the mountain of the Lord, it will be provided." The Lord will provide. Jehovah Jireh. Jehovah Jireh. The Lord will provide. That is the Hebrew word which means the Lord will provide.

Friend, you and I lost in our sins, forever lost and no way to get out. Who's going to provide a way? Who's going to provide a suitable sacrifice? Either we will die for our own sins or Christ will die for us instead of us. And God did that. God provided his own lamb. John the Baptist says, "Behold the Lamb of God." You and I were headed for our own eternal execution and debarment from heaven forever. But we looked up and there was a Calvary Christ. There was the Lamb of God.

Have you seen him? Have you seen God's provision for you? Do you know the sacrifice to redeem you and to bring you into his church and into his kingdom? Jehovah Jireh. God will provide and God has marvelously provided. Jehovah meaning the almighty, the eternal, the self-existent one, the all-sufficient one. That's what the word Jehovah means. The word Jireh means three English words from the one Hebrew word Jireh meaning to see, to appear, to provide.

Three words make up the one word. So we put the word Jehovah Jireh together and this is what it says: the Lord sees, the Lord provides, the Lord appears. The Lord saw our lostness and our helplessness. The Lord provided a lamb, his own son. We couldn't go to heaven and get him. We didn't even know he was in heaven. But he came from heaven from the very bosom of the father to the altar of God, Calvary's cross.

The Lord appears. You see, that which God plans for, God always provides for, and in the fullness of time, Jesus came. Listen to this last verse, Genesis 22:14: "On the mountain of the Lord, it will be provided." Do you know where Mount Moriah is? There are the seven hills around Jerusalem. Long before there was ever a Jerusalem, Abraham and his son Isaac went and traveled three days to that seven-hilled city.

After they reached the city, close to the city looking off at a distance, Abraham saw seven hills, just a mountain region. And God said, "On that mountain, on that mountain the great sacrifice." It was years and years and years later on that mountain, that very mountain that our great salvation was provided for us. Praise be to God forever and ever. God has had a plan to love you from the very foundation of the world.

God has a plan and he had the provision to bring it about and to fulfill it so that you and I might love him and know him in this life and in that life to come forever and ever. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. In Romans chapter 8 verse 32, you might want to write that down and then read it when you go home. Romans 8:32: "He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things?"

God not only provided for our tomorrow. You talk about somebody embracing the future, embracing your future, your eternal future. That's what he embraced. That's what he reached out and claimed. And now he gives it back just as he gave Isaac back to Abraham. God took your life when you surrendered your life to him. And now he gives it back abundantly, not only life in this life, but life forever in the eternities.

This is the gracious God who gives and gives and gives. Abundantly gives, never stops giving. And throughout all eternity, his gifts will continue to come and continue to come and continue to come upon you and me. God provides. But in addition to that, it says here in Romans 8:32 not only did he give his son for our eternal salvation, but in the giving of his son, he has provided for our every temporal need.

For in giving us Jesus, he has given us all things. So there will never be any lack, any kind of lack to the person who truly places their trust in God and follows Jesus with all their hearts. I hope today, dear friend, that if you do not know him as your savior that you will now know that he provided. So wonderfully he provided. You do not have to provide. He already provided to give you life.

Christian, I hope your faith in him causes you to reach out in love to him and follow him in compliance to his will and serve him all the days of this life knowing that now through him you have eternal life. You are not lost, you have been found. Jesus is your savior. And as God loved Jesus, now God loves you equally. Let's bow before him.

Heavenly Father, you looked upon us in our lost estate, in our lostness, in our weakness, in our helplessness, in our emptiness, for we could not provide or work and attain our salvation. But you provided another lamb. I pray that we will lift our eyes as Abraham did and see that lamb caught by Calvary love, held in place for our great salvation, rising again that we might forever be redeemed.

I pray for those who know you not, that today they will receive you as their Lord and savior and see the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world. I pray for Christians, Lord, that we will come closer to appreciating more and more the great salvation and the wonderful provision, that we will know you, truly know you as Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide. And whatever it is in this life that we need, you will be the provider.

Knowing that when we come to the end of this life, everything long ago has been provided and put in place. We will not lack. Thank you for hearing us and bringing to us your great and wonderful salvation. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Guest (Male): When obedience meets faith, God reveals himself as our provider. If you're learning to trust God one step at a time, we invite you to explore "A Prayer Compass," an ebook designed to guide your prayer life with confidence and clarity. Donations are always appreciated and more messages from the Healing Word are available anytime at thehealingword.com. Join us tomorrow for another Healing Word message.