The Fire and the Lamb

Genesis chapter 22 and verse 1. And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt or prove Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham, and he said, Behold here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose up early in the morning and saddled his ass and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and claimed the wood for a burnt offering, and rose up and went unto the place of which God had told him.

I want you to notice the recurrence of that expression, the place. He went unto the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off.

And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son, and he took the fire in his hand and a knife, and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father, and he said, Here am I, my son.

And he said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, God, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together, and they came to the place which God had told him of. And Abraham built an altar there and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.

And Abraham stretched forth his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 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, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me.

And Abraham lifted up 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 stead of his son. Now another reading, please, in Isaiah.

Isaiah's prophecy, chapter 33. Isaiah, sorry, chapter 30 and verse 33. Isaiah 30 verse 33 says, For Tophet is ordained of old, yea, for the king it is prepared.

He hath made it deep and large. The pile thereof is fire and much wood. The breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.

Now finally the Revelation and chapter 21. Revelation 21 verse 1. And I saw a new heaven, and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them. And they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and death shall be no more.

And there shall be no, neither shall there, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any pain, for the former things have passed away. Now look down to the end of the chapter. Verse 22.

And I saw no temple therein, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it. And the Lamb is the light thereof.

And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day, for there shall be no night there. And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it, and there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life.

And we know that God will bless what we have listened to, and this further reading from his word this evening. I would like for a little while at the close of our meeting tonight to remind our hearts of the fire and the Lamb. The fire and the Lamb.

In chapter 22 of Genesis, we read about the fire. Abraham built that altar, and Isaac his son was placed upon the altar, and there was a ram that took the place of Isaac. God credited Abraham with a deed that he didn't have to complete.

He was willing to lay Isaac upon the altar, and he knew that if he had taken that knife and plunged it into his son, that God would raise him from the dead. Hebrews 11 tells us that, that God credited him with that act from whence also he received him in a figure from the dead. That's why he said to the young men, abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship and come again.

We're both coming back again. But in chapter 30 of Isaiah, we read about a place called Topheth that illustrates the place of eternal punishment, the lake that burns with fire and brimstone. We read that God hath made it deep and large.

It's kindled with the breath of his nostrils. And friend, we would tell you again tonight that if you miss God's great salvation, the Lord himself has said, where I am, ye cannot come. You'll know what it is to wade that fierce burning lake forever, to know that unmitigated wrath and judgment of God, to weep out your folly, to realize that I'll never, never be in heaven.

In chapter 21 of the Revelation, we read of a place where there is no fire. There's no lamb in Isaiah chapter 30, and there's no fire in Revelation chapter 21, because God is reminding us of that glorious place called heaven. In the land of fadeless day, there is no night there.

God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. What a wondrous day that will be for a sorrowing people. Every tear will be wiped away.

No more pain, no more sorrows, no more suffering. The former things have passed away, and we read the lamb is the light of that city. But there shall in no wise enter in anything that defileth, but they whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.

I would ask you tonight, friend, is your name written there, as the hymn writer says, on that page, white and fair? In the book of thy kingdom, is your name written there? You see, when you come to the end of the road, and the pulse is weakening, and the cold sweat is on your brow, and you realize I'm going out into eternity, all that matters is, is your name written in the Lamb's book of life. Well, I want to speak for a little while about chapter 22 of Genesis. Beautiful story, beautiful illustrations.

We could look at Isaac as a picture of our Lord Jesus, the one who was loved by his father. Not only that, the one who was his only begotten Son. That's what we read about Isaac.

God said to Abraham, take now thy son, thine only Isaac. You see, Isaac was the son of promise. It was from Isaac that that royal seed, including David, would come, and then eventually the Messiah, the Savior, Abraham knew that, the son of promise.

And so the Lord Jesus was God's only begotten Son. And he was the one that went to that place that we read about. Luke tells us in his gospel, chapter 23, when they were come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified him.

And over and over again, we read tonight about the place. Take thy son and offer him up on the place which I shall tell thee of. And when they came to the place, Abraham built an altar.

And that place reminds me of Calvary. But you know, when it came to the work of Christ upon the cross, there was no substitute. He must go all the way.

He must bow his head and acknowledge and submit to the awful judgment of God that he endured to put away sin. There was no one to take his place. Well, I want to look at Isaac tonight in a very simple way, as a picture of those who are not saved in our gospel meeting.

You see, like Isaac, who was loved by his father, there's a God in heaven and he loves you in spite of all your sin. What a wonderful thing that is. That thou should think so much of me, says the poet, and be the God thou art, is darkness to my intellect, but it's sunshine to my heart.

Ever wonder why God loved you? Every one of us, sinners of Adam's race, in thought and word and deed, our whole outlook has been, no God for me, we take our own way, and yet God loved us. And God, Abraham loved Isaac. God loves you.

But more than that, God said to him, take thy son, thine only son, and offer him up for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains that I will tell thee of. And we read that Abraham rose up early in the morning. Now, there's not a father in the meeting tonight, if you got a message like this from God, I want you to offer your son as an offering, I would venture to say you wouldn't rise very early that morning.

You'd lie in as long as possible. But it says Abraham rose up early, and he saddled the ass, and he took the young man with him, and Isaac his son, and he claimed the wood, and he laid it upon Isaac. Now, that wood reminds me of a burden.

And if you're not saved in the meeting, friend, I know there's a burden on your soul. It's always there. We remember well those days when that burden of sin seemed to be so tremendous.

We wondered, will it ever be relieved? Will it ever be gone? The hymn writer was right when he penned those words, burdens are lifted at Calvary. You remember the pilgrim in the Pilgrim's Progress that John Bunyan wrote about, with a burden on his back, heading for the celestial city. His friends were against him, even his wife tried to discourage him, but he put his fingers in his ears, and he cries, life, life, eternal life.

And he starts for that city with that burden. And when he got to the cross, Bunyan writes that the burden rolled off his back, and pilgrim realized that the cross suggested Calvary and all the sufferings the Savior passed through. And he wrote these words, bless cross, bless sepulcher, yea, blessed rather be the man that there was crucified for me.

Have you ever been there, friend? I know there's a burden if you're not saved. And then there was the fire. You notice the fire was in his hand, how close he was to it.

And if you're not saved, friend, you're only a breath away from eternity. You don't even think about it. Sixteen or eighteen respirations every minute of time, and if God would close his hand on your breath, the next breath would be in the flames.

You see, you're near the fire tonight. Take a trip out to Yellowstone Park, or one of these volcanic areas in our world, and see those tremendous bubbling mud baths and those geysers that go up so frequently into the air with tremendous power and heat. I want to tell you there's fire beneath where you sit in the meeting tonight.

You're only about eighteen miles away from the flame. You know the Bible says that? Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming. And so there was the burden, and there was the fire, and then there was the judgment of God.

When they got to the place that Abraham saw far off, Isaac was bound to the altar. Now, he wasn't a mere child. He was perhaps seventeen or eighteen years of age at this time, and yet Abraham bound him to the altar, and he lifted that knife, reminding us of the judgment of God that's like an ominous cloud over your head tonight if you're not saved.

The wrath of God that at any moment could fall. And as Abraham's about to plunge that knife into Isaac, the angel spoke to him, Abraham, Abraham. You see, when God mentions a name twice, it tells us that God's in a hurry.

He's about to do something dramatic, and Abraham turns and he sees the ram caught in the thicket by his horns, and Isaac is lying there. Maybe there's somebody here tonight, and you're saying, Preacher, I wish I could say that my sins were gone. I wish I could say like these other men that the Lord Jesus took my place and died for all my sins.

I look back over seventy years tonight, that Monday morning, about five minutes to nine o'clock, I could tell you right to the second when I understood that he was wounded and bruised for all my sins. God said it. Maybe you're wondering how I can know.

I want to tell you in about two minutes how you can be sure of heaven. Abraham went over and he brought that ram that was caught in the thicket over to the altar. Isaac was loosed, and that ram was placed on the altar and burned to ashes.

God tells us that we read these words, he offered him up for the burnt offering and the stead of his son. If you had met Isaac the next day and said, Isaac, I thought you were supposed to be offered as a sacrifice, you know what Isaac would tell you? There was a ram that took my place, and everyone that's saved in the meeting tonight, they would say the very same thing. There was a Savior, the Lamb of God's providing, that took my place and died for all my sins upon the cross.

God wants you to understand that tonight. If realizing your tremendous need because of your sin is a Savior, and if you're willing to believe what God says, that Christ has died for sinners, that means he died for me. If you would trust him, you would have this great salvation.

It would be a wonderful meeting if someone would take in that truth tonight. It all takes place in a moment of time. No feelings, no flashing lights, no sensation, just God says it.

Christ died for sinners. I'm a sinner, that means he died for me. The Lord bless his word and bless you and save you for his name's sake.

Shall we pray? Our Father, we ask blessing upon thy word as we come to the close of this day in thy courts. We thank thee for the privilege of being with thy beloved people. And Lord, what a joy it would be if some soul tonight would simply trust thy Son.

We ask thy parting blessing. We commend this to thee in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.