The Trust of a Man

God requires that we place our trust in Christ. Without their trust, Without that faith, the benefits of his death are not yours. But a Christian man. is a man who trusts. For the just.

Shall live Bye face. Trust. We trust in Christ. but trust is also a defining characteristic of a Christian. Hello and welcome to Renewing Your Mind, and it's good to have you with us on this Tuesday.

I'm Lee Webb. The message you're about to hear goes back to the early days of R.C. Sproll's ministry. He delivered it to a small group of men, and it was part of a series he titled, Meaning for Men. Let's join R.C.

Now as he teaches on the trust of a man. God made a promise. to Abraham. You remember the story how that In his old age, When Abraham's wife was well beyond the years of childbearing, How that God called to this man. And took him out into the darkness of the night.

And he said, Abraham, look to the stars in the sky. And count them If you can. For God says your descendants will be more than the stars of the sky. More than the sand. Along the seashore.

And Abraham said, But God, how can this be? Since I have no son. And my heir is my servant Elies. It was on that occasion that God said. That out of Abraham's own loins, would come a child of promise, And that through this child, not only would Abraham be blessed.

but that all of the nations of the world Would also Be blessed.

Now after the promise, Abraham Had to wait. And as you know the story, he grew impatient and tried to take things into his own hands to make sure that this promise was fulfilled. And so he entered into his wife's handmaiden. And the fruit of their union brought forth the son, whose name was Ishmael. But as scripture declares, Ishmael was not.

The Son of Promise. That children. Had to be born. of Sarah. And then the scriptures say that Abraham knew his wife.

And she conceived. And she brought forth a son, Whose name was Isaac?

Now think of it, gentlemen. In ISYNC. Was the world to be blessed. Through Isaac. was to come the promise of the Messiah.

Through Isaac. Comes the promise not only of a great nation, but of all of redemption of the world. Can you imagine? The hope And the joy. that Abraham invested In that young May.

Then the Bible says There came a time of testing, And it is that time of testing that I want to consider this morning. And so I'll ask you to open your Bibles to the 22nd chapter. of the book of Genesis. Beginning at verse 1, we read this account. And it came to pass after these things.

That God did test Abraham. And said unto him, Abraham, And he said, Behold, here I am. And God 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 you 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 claved the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place which God had told him. And then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said to his young men, Stay 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 he laid it upon Isaac his son, and he took the fire in his hand and a knife. And they went both of them together.

Now Isaac spoke unto Abraham his father, and he said, My father, He said, Here am I, my son. And Isaac said Behold a fire in the wood But where is the land? For a burnt offer. And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. And 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 he 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 he 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 you fear God. saying that you have not withheld your son. Your only son for me.

And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horn. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering. In the place of his son. Neo has the ears to hear the word of God. Let him hear it.

Oh, this tax Tells us But God Put Abraham to the test. He put him to the kind of test that I hope to God I never. Have to endure. It's one thing when God asks us to give of ourselves, to give of our finances, to give of our time. as a measure of living sacrifice to him.

But on this day in human history God Did something that he had never done in the history. Of the world. He called Abraham and he said, Okay, Abraham, here's what I want. Take now. Your son.

And I want you to offer him to me. As a sacrifice.

Now man, that's not exactly. What God said. To Abraham, because had God come to Abraham and said, Okay, Abraham, give me your son. If that's all God would have said, then Abraham would have marched directly to the tent of Ishmael, and he would have taken Ishmael and he would have offered Ishmael there upon the altar. But God was far more specific than that.

He said, Abraham, take now your son. Your only son. You know who I mean. The one Homey laughs. Isaac.

Abraham can't believe his ears. No, no, no, not Isaac. Oh God, you can't be serious. Can you imagine what was going through the mind of Abraham saying, wait, I have known this God, I have followed this God, I left the land of my fathers. To follow after this God, I know his character.

I know his integrity. He doesn't ask parents to commit murder. This can't be. We read in verse three these words. Typical understatement of sacred scripture.

And Abraham rose up. Early in the morning. And saddled his ass and took two of his young men and Isaac his son. And he claved the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went to the place of which God had told him. The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard wrote an entire book on this verse.

Entitled Fear. and trembling. Where Kierkegaard mused on the significance of these words, and Abraham rose up early in the morning. As Kierkegaard read this text over and over and over again and looked at it from this perspective and then from that perspective and turned the thoughts over in his mind, he said, What is Scripture telling us here? Why did Abraham Rise up.

Early in the morning. And Kekergaard considered. Different possibilities for that. He said, perhaps the scripture is trying to say here. That Abraham was such a man of confidence and trust in God that when God came to him and said, All right, Abraham, your orders for tomorrow are to take your son to Mount Moriah and sacrifice him there for me.

And Abraham responded, clicking his heels, and says, Aye, aye, sir. First thing in the morning, I'll get at us. And so Abraham, not flinching, not worrying, got up with a smile on his face and said, Good morning, God, and went over and set out to be obedient. That's how it happens, gentlemen. In fairy tales.

But not in real life. And this book is about realize And about real men. Where even the Son of God Sweats blood. In the Garden of Gethsemane Abraham understood. The Command of God And when he put his head on his pillow that night.

He thought, wait a minute. This must only be a test. He's only going to see how far I'm willing to go, but he. He certainly is not going to make me go all the way because if I kill my son, that's the end of the promise. That's the end of the whole history of redemption.

He can't be serious. And maybe he really wants me to do it. Maybe he wants me to kill him. To see where my heart is. To see whether I've invested.

My identity. My future In my son, Or in my Heavenly Father. And Abraham rose up early in the morning because. It was futile. To try to sleep.

Look what it says that he did. I can hardly believe this. He rose up early in the morning and by himself he went. Pulled the saddle down. From the wall and the stable and Put the saddle on the donkey.

this beast of burden for the journey.

Now let's stop for a second. Abraham was one of the wealthiest men of the entire ancient world. Abraham's house was filled with servants. Abraham didn't go around and put the saddle on his mule. If Abraham needed the use of a mule for the day, he would call his chauffeur, he would call the butler, he would call the rest of the servants and say, get the mule ready for the journey.

And they would drop what they were doing and they would go out and they would saddle the dong. And Abraham could give orders to the rest of his servants and I need some firewood. And so bundle up some sticks and put those on the back of the beast so that we can go to make our offering into the wilderness. But the Bible says Abraham rose up early in the morning, personally went out and saddled that donkey. And then he went to the side.

of the barn and he grabbed an axe. They went out. And he began to chop. The wood. himself For the sacrificial fire.

Why he did that? I can only guess that. That all of the pain and the frustration was going out of his arm and out of his hand and into the axe with every stroke. As he was muttering under his breath, God, you can't mean this. The axe would fly.

And the wood was reduced to kindling, which he bound and placed upon the back. Of the dock. And then we read. But he talked to of his young men. And he took Isaac.

And he rose up. And he went to the place of which God had told him. Most Lewis. Then on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the mountain afar off. Abraham is not only expected to go and kill his son, but he's expected to escort his son.

On a journey that goes for more than three days. One of the most grim Hopeless. Portraits Of the desperation of humanity is found in the picture that we've seen in the movies or in the newspapers of what is described. As the last mile. That corridor that connects death row To the electric chair in the state penitentiary.

and we remembered the tradition of the man walking, not for a mile, but for the last few feet. Being led to his execution, While a priest or a minister reads The words of Scripture. Can you imagine the drama? Of those few moments. But this isn't just a connecting corridor from a cell.

to an electric chair. This is three days' journey. And then some Abraham is walking beside his son. I can't conceive of what that was like. Your own lisa.

The son whom thou lovest Isaac. And as they saw Mount Moriah in the distance, Isaac turned to his father and he said, My father, Abraham said yes. What is it? He said, Well, Dad, I There's the mountain. We brought the fire.

There's the wood. But father, didn't you forget something? We've come all this way and And we forgot to bring a lamp. Dad, where's where's the lamb that we're going to use? For the offering.

And what does Abraham say? Hey, Isaac, don't worry about it. God'll take care of it. God will provide a sacrifice for us. Oh, how we can look at this.

As if Abraham just smiled and said, Don't worry about it. God will provide. What do you want him to say? When Isaac said, Father, where is the lamb for the ochre? Was Abraham going to say, Hey?

Relax. You're it. They came to the place which God had told him of. And Abraham built an altar there. And he laid the wood in order.

And he bound Isaac. His son. and laid him on the altar upon the wood. Mercifully. The Bible doesn't tell us.

about any conversation that took place. When Abraham took the ropes and went over to Isaac and said, Lie still. And he took his son's hands and put them together, and he bound his wrists, and he bound his feet. And he didn't even want to look into the eyes of his son as Isaac would look tearfully and questionably and disbelief. That his father would ever do anything like this.

And then Abraham walked over and picked him up and laid him on the altar. And as Isaac is frozen in terror, lying on the altar of sacrifice, Abraham reaches over and he takes the knife. There's another record! This is what you want. This is what you command.

And he raised the knife. And at the last possible second, as he's ready to drive the knife into the heart of his son, God screamed from heaven. Stand up! Abraham. Abraham.

Lay not your hand. Upon your son. For now I know. Did you trust me? Abrahams threw away the knife.

And before I even untied him, he put his arms around his side. And together. They worship God. Gentlemen, two thousand years late. The name of the mountain called Moriah.

was changed. And it was called Mount Zion. It is now inhabited by people. It would become a major city first of the Jebusites. And then the capital city of the Israelites.

The name of Mariah was called Jerusalem. And two thousand years later. God took his Son. His only son. The Sun How many laughs?

Jesus. And he took him to the mount room. And he placed him on the altar. And he bound him for the sacrifice. And God Almighty leads tonight.

And nobody collared stop. Took his life. That whosoever Puts his trust in him. Should not perish. But have everlasting life.

The scriptures tell us God. Withheld not. His only begotten Son. And he killed him. But men, the salvation that flows from that, the redemption that is given to us from that.

does not come to us automatically. God requires faith. God requires that we place our trust in Christ. Without that trust, Without that faith, the benefits of his death are not yours. But a Christian man is the man who trusts.

For the just Shall live Bye, Face. That was RC Sproul on this Tuesday edition of Renewing Your Mind. I'm glad you're with us. Meaning for men. That's the name of this series with Dr.

Sproll, and if you'd like lifetime digital access to this six-part series, Simply respond before midnight tonight with a donation at renewingyourmind.org or when you call us at 800-435-4343. In addition to the series, we'll send you a copy of Richard Phillips' popular book, The Masculine Mandate. Discover what the Bible teaches about biblical masculinity.

So call us now. Again, our number is 800-435-4343 or use the link in the podcast show notes. But be quick as this offer ends in just a few hours. In the 16th century, Protestants were protesting. What was all the fuss about when it came to the Roman Catholic Church?

And what are the points of disagreement today? R. C. Sproll will be with us tomorrow to begin a series on Roman Catholicism.

So I hope you'll join us Wednesday here on Renewing Your Mind.