A Dress Rehearsal for Calvary | Part 2

Jesus Christ is clearly illustrated in part one of today's message. We'll begin in verse 17 as Adrian Rogers concludes this powerful message, a dress rehearsal for Calvary. Actually, a prophecy of his coming crucifixion on the cross. I want you to see it and believe it, and then I want you to ask yourself this question, what does that mean to me today?

What does it mean to me personally? Number one, the first thing I want you to see is the special person who is described. Now, the person who is described is Isaac, but you're going to see that Isaac is a picture of Jesus. Look, if you will, in Genesis 22, 1 and 2. Isaac, therefore, becomes a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Isaac was born of a miracle.

Jesus was born of a miracle. Put in your margin, Isaiah 7, verse 14. Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel. Isaac was loved of his father, Genesis 22, verse 2. And he said, take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest.

In Genesis 22, verse 16, he's called Abraham's only son. Compare that now to John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. We think about God loving the world, but, friend, I want you to know that God loved his son before he loved the world.

John 5, verse 20, for the father loveth the son and showeth him all things that himself doeth. Isaac was offered up as a sacrifice. Jesus was offered as a sacrifice. Genesis 22, verse 2, 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 shall tell thee of.

And, again, John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Isaac was raised from the dead. Genesis 22, verse 4. Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. God said to Abraham, Abraham, take your son and offer him as a burnt offering. Abraham takes his son and he counts the days. One, two, three, he comes to the place where the offering is to be made. Now, he takes his son and he starts up Mount Moriah to offer his son.

How was he able to do that? Well, remember Hebrews 11, verse 19? He was accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead.

Now, watch this. Whence also he received him in a figure? That is, in Abraham's mind, for three days Isaac was dead. From the day that God said, Abraham, take him and offer him, until the day that Abraham got him back, in Abraham's mind he was dead. Abraham received him from the dead. Now, what is the gospel that you and I preach? That Christ died for our sins, that he was buried and was raised again the third day.

1 Corinthians 15, verses 3 through 4. Abraham received Isaac back in a figure. God the Father received Jesus back literally. So, what we're talking about here is a special person. Isaac represents, prefigures, Jesus.

Have you got that? Let me move to the second thing. Not only a special person, but I want you to see a specific place that is designated.

I want you to see how this comes together. Now, look in Genesis chapter 22, verse 2. And he said, God said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him therefore a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of.

They didn't just say, go offer him. He said, I have a specific place. Now, look in Genesis 22, verse 4. Then on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off.

The name Moriah literally means foreseen of the Lord. The place is not incidental. The place is not accidental. It is the same place that Jesus would one day pour out his life's blood. Put down Luke chapter 22, verse 23.

And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him. Not a place. The place.

The same place. Now we've talked about a person. We've talked about a place.

Now let's talk about the purpose that is designated here. Genesis 22, verse 2. 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. This speaks of the cross, when Isaac was to be offered in that same place that Jesus was to die.

Think of the suffering of the cross that is pictured. Look, if you will, in Genesis 22, verses 4 through 8. 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 am the lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you. Abraham says he's going to be slain, but we're both coming back.

You talk about faith. We're going to go 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, Father, and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Isaac said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is a lamb for the burnt offering?

And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together. Now father and son come to a point beyond which the others cannot go.

You stay here. And father and son went to commune together. That tells me of dark Gethsemane where Jesus left Peter, James, and John, and the other disciples, and he went alone to commune with his father facing Calvary. And Isaac looks at his father. In Abraham's hand there's a torch of fire in one hand. There's a knife in his other hand. Isaac can read his father's face.

He begins now to know what is about to happen. Think of what must have been going through Isaac's heart as he sees his father go up without a lamb, only with his own son up to that place of sacrifice. Think of what must have been in Abraham's heart.

I know when my first son was born I ceased to think so much of the love of Jesus and I thought more of the love of the father, though both are infinite in their love. I thought how it must have moved the father's heart to give his only son to die upon that cross. Think of how much the Lord Jesus suffered. Think how much God the Father suffered.

It is pictured here. Think of the suffering of the cross. Look in Genesis 22, verse 9. 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.

Use your sanctified imagination. Here's the altar. Here's the wood. Here's the torch. Here's the knife. Here's the knife. Abraham says, Come here, son.

Hold out your hands. And Abraham begins to bind those hands. I remind you that Abraham is well beyond 100 years of age. I remind you that Isaac is not a child as we sometimes see pictured.

Isaac is a strapping young man. He could have easily outrun the old man. He could have taken the old man and bound him. But he presents himself to be bound. You know what Jesus said? No man takes my life from me.

I lay it down of myself. Here you see the son submitting himself to the Father. They said of Jesus, He saved others himself. He could not save.

They were so wrong. He saved others himself, He would not save. He could have come down from that cross, but He did not. Notice in Genesis 22, verse 6, And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it upon Isaac his son. Wood is a symbol of humanity. It speaks of the wood of our wickedness being laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ. As you see Isaac bearing that wood, going up this mountain that Jesus would one day die on. Think of John 19, verse 17, And he, Jesus, bearing his cross, went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called Golgotha. Isaac goes up that mountain bearing the wood upon which he was to die.

Jesus goes up the same mountain bearing that wooden cross upon which he was to die. Think of the sacrifice of the cross that is pictured. Abraham has a knife and he has a torch and he has ropes. The cord speaks of the binding power of sin. The knife speaks of the bleeding power of sin.

The fire speaks of the burning power of sin because the fires of God's wrath would burn themselves out upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we've talked about the purpose, which was sacrifice. Now, I want you to think about the promise that's declared here. We've talked about a person. We've talked about a place.

We've talked about a purpose. Now, let's look at a promise. In Genesis 22, beginning in verse 11, Abraham is about now to sacrifice Isaac. Isaac has laid down his life.

He has become one with his father. His father now is about to make this offering, accounting that God the Father is able to raise him up. Genesis 22, verse 11, And the angel of the Lord called out unto him out of heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham, and he said, Here am I. And he said, the angel said, Abraham, 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 a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering upon the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place.

Now, don't you miss this. This is the whole sermon. Jehovah Jireh, as it has been said to this day, in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. Now the figure changes. The knife does not fall upon Isaac, who is representing the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the picture changes, and Isaac now represents us.

And there is a ram caught in the thicket. As I've told you before, this ram crowned with thorns, his horns locked in a thorny thicket is taken, and this ram becomes a substitute for Isaac. Isaac gets up off the altar, and the ram is slain in his stead. And the knife did not fall that day upon Isaac because one day it would fall upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Isaac had asked his father, Father, where is the lamb? Abraham said God will provide himself a lamb, and God did. You remember what John the Baptist said when he saw Jesus coming? Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world.

When Abraham saw what God did, when Abraham saw that ram that was to take the place of Isaac and give Isaac back to his bosom, give Isaac back, as it were, from the dead to Abraham, Abraham named that place Jehovah Jireh. Now what does that mean? It means the Lord will provide.

Now, friend, listen to me. I don't know what need you have. The Lord is there to provide that need. The Lord will provide. And that day, what was he going to provide?

Himself a lamb. Where was he going to provide it? In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. When is he going to provide it?

It shall be seen. He's talking about the day when Jesus Christ would die upon the cross. Now, what does this mean to you today?

Are you ready to apply it to your heart? If there were ever a promise, ever a promise, that God would have been tempted to renege upon, ever a promise that God might be tempted not to keep, it would have been the promise to send Jesus. If there were ever a time when God would say, I changed my mind, that would have been the time. But I want you to put down this verse.

It is very important because it sums it all up. It is Romans chapter 8 and verse 32. He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

Do you get the logic there in Romans 8, 32? He that spared not his own son. Now, when Abraham is taking Isaac up at the last moment, God said, Abraham, don't do it.

God spared Abraham's son, but God did not spare his own son. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the one who is prefigured and prophesied here in Genesis chapter 22. God provided himself a lamb. It doesn't say that God would provide a lamb for himself. God becomes the lamb. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.

God provided himself as a lamb. God in human flesh died. God the mighty Maker died for man the creature sinned. God died at Calvary for you. Does that mean anything to you? That God laid down his own dear son upon that altar? That the fires of God's wrath burned themselves out upon God's own dear son because God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son?

Listen to what the apostle Paul said in Romans chapter 8, verse 32. For if God spared not his own son, but delivered him up freely for us all, how should he not also with him freely give us all things? If you would ask me, Adrian, can I have your son? I'd say, why should I give you my son?

Well, I want to torture him and then kill him for some cause that I have. Will you give me your son? No, I would not give you my son that you might torture him and put him to death for whatever cause.

But suppose I loved you and your cause enough, your need enough, that I were to give you my own son that he would die in ignominy and shame and be brutalized. If I loved you enough to give you my son, and then you said, can I also have his computer? Can I also have his sport jacket? Can I also have his automobile?

Of course. If I did not spare the son, would I not also with him freely give you all things? My friend, if God gave Jesus, He's not going to hold anything else back.

Do you understand that? He is the God who provides. If God gave the one great gift, He's going to give all of the others. My provider, Jehovah Jireh, will be there. He that spared not his own son, how shall it not also with him freely give us all things?

Jehovah Jireh will provide for you. A missionary back in the days when they sailed to the mission field was about to get on the boat, walking up the gang plank. The trunks had been packed.

They couldn't fly home on 747 like we do today. The missionary and his family were going. A good friend walked up to the missionary just before he got on the boat and handed the missionary an envelope that was sealed and said, don't open this envelope. Don't ever open it until you come to the place, if you ever do, where you don't know what else to do, where else to turn.

You've run out of resources. You have a need that there's no other answer to than open this envelope. The missionary put it in his breast pocket.

Most of us would take them out, you know, see what's in it. The missionary put it in his breast pocket, stayed his full tenure on the mission field, came home and held up the envelope. It was still sealed. Never been opened because through sickness, sorrow, tears, pain and toil, there never, ever was a time when there was not a provision where God did not answer. His name is Jehovah Jireh. And the God who gave the first great gift is the God who will see us through. Now, friend, God spared not his own son for you. God wants you to be saved. You're saved by trusting Jesus. Believe that he shed his precious blood on the cross for you and that God raised him from the dead. The Bible says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. Would you pray, Lord Jesus, come into my heart, forgive my sin, save me, save me today.

Thank you for doing it. In your name I pray. Amen.

Amen. And if you prayed to receive Jesus Christ just now, let us celebrate with you. Go to our Find God's Love page on the website and you'll find answers you may need about your newfound faith. The address is lwf.org slash radio. Click the tab that says Find God's Love.

Welcome to his forever family. We can't wait to hear from you today. Now, if you'd like to order a copy of today's message in its entirety, you can call us at 1-877-LOVEGOD.

Mention the title, A Dress Rehearsal for Calvary. This lesson's also part of the insightful series, Champions of Faith, for the complete collection, all 18 powerful messages. Call 877-LOVEGOD or order online at lwf.org slash radio.

You can also write us at Love Worth Finding, Box 38600, Memphis, Tennessee 38183. To purchase our new Bible studies, much like this message in our online store, go to lwf.org slash radio. Do you believe in Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides? Keep your faith in him who willfully gave Jesus and will not hold back his love. We're so glad you studied in God's Word with us and we hope you'll tune in next time for more from Adrian Rogers right here on Love Worth Finding. A listener reached out recently and said this, I just wanted to say I enjoy listening to Pastor Rogers. He is amazing and I learned so much about God from him.

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