On the Mount: God Provides the True Sacrifice

So this was the nature of the test that was laid before Abraham. God had given him this son whom he loved. Would he value his son, the gift of God, this gift that God had given him? Would he value this gift that God had given him more than he valued God? Would he trust this gift that God had given him more than he trusted God? Would he worship this gift that God had given him with more fervency than he would worship God? And we know that Abraham believed with his whole heart that he would need to go through with this. [00:23:11] (59 seconds)  #TrustGodAboveAll

You see, what God is doing through this story is he is embedding into this people a shadow and an echo that will become so baked into their national cultural identity that when the true thing comes, not the shadow, not the echo, but the real thing, they're going to look at it and they're going to say, Oh, wow, I see it. I get it. I understand it. [00:26:54] (32 seconds)  #ShadowToSubstance

And so millennia later, there was another only begotten son who would carry the wood of his sacrifice up the mountain of the Lord. And on the mountain of the Lord, it would be provided. Only this time it wasn't Abraham's son. It was the only begotten son of God. And the wood of that sacrifice was the cross that Jesus carried. The Lord provided the offering just as on the mountain of the Lord, just as Abraham said he would do. [00:28:33] (56 seconds)  #CrossProvided

In the offspring of Abraham, the one whom Abraham did not withhold because of his love for God, would come the son of God, whom the father did not withhold out of love for you. See, the story of Abraham sacrificing Isaac is a story. But it's a story that provides an echo and a shadow of the day that Jesus would come. That he would be the sacrifice that the Lord provided on the mountain. Not the sacrifice of a lamb to save the life of one man. But the sacrifice of the perfect lamb of God to save the lives of all the peoples of the earth from sin and from death. [00:29:29] (48 seconds)  #LambForAll

So what we're celebrating here at Christmas is the son of God willingly coming into the world where he knew he would suffer and die. And he would do that to save us from our sin. To save us from the death that follows sin. To take our sickness, our suffering, our pain, our brokenness onto himself. He willingly gave himself as the sacrifice so that you could be saved. [00:30:45] (43 seconds)  #WillingSavior

And one day, he will completely remove his hand from us. His hand that sustains us, his hand that provides for us and protects us and keeps us, will be gone. And on that day, we will die. We will not just die physically, but we will die, die. A second death, an eternal death. And that is the wages, the consequence, the natural progression of our sin and our rebellion against God. [00:33:15] (31 seconds)  #ChooseEternalLife

And that brings us to the second difficulty that we have in considering this. Because on the one hand, we can be in error and say, well, I don't need saving. But on the other hand, it can be difficult for us to understand why he would do that for me. Because I know the darkness of my heart. I know the weight of my sin and my failure. And so it would be easy for me to say, I am unlovable because of my sin. I am too far gone. I am beyond redemption. Why would someone, much less the Son of God, love me enough to save me? [00:34:13] (55 seconds)  #LovedDespiteSin

Sell your house and move. Shut down your business and walk away from it. Lay it on the altar and put it to death. Be estranged from your family because you won't call evil good. We lay these things on the altar. Do you love those things more than you love God? Do you trust those things more than you trust God? Do you love the gifts that God gives you more than you love the one who has given them to you? [00:40:18] (42 seconds)  #LayItOnTheAltar