Good morning. Good morning. Good morning.
I would like to ask you to turn with me in your Bibles to Exodus 3. You will be very familiar with these verses. These will be our foundational verses.
Beginning in Exodus 3:5-6:
Draw not nigh hither: loose thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.
And He said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.
Then, in Exodus 3:15:
And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is My name for ever, and this is My memorial unto all generations.
Then I will read Exodus 4:5. This is the explanation given to Moses:
That they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee.
I will read in Matthew, in the New Testament, just very quickly—Matthew 22. These are familiar verses, I believe, verses 30-33. This is when the Pharisees came and tried to trick the Lord concerning marriage in heaven. This woman had been married to seven brothers, and they asked Him whose wife she would be in the resurrection.
Beginning in Matthew 22:30:
For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as angels in heaven.
But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying,
I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?
God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.
And when the multitudes heard it, they were astonished at His teaching.
Another verse I would like to read is Acts 7:2. This is concerning Abraham:
The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran.
Finally, a verse of the Lord’s own speaking concerning Abraham—John 8:56:
Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day; and he saw it, and was glad.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Lord, we thank You for Your Word. We look to You to open Your Word to us. It is something no man can do, but it is the purview of the Holy Spirit.
So we say, Lord, again, just as Peter said, “You alone have the words of eternal life. To whom shall we go?” Unless You speak, Lord, there will be nothing of value this morning. But if You speak, Your words can and will accomplish, according to Your own promise, all that You send them forth to do.
So this is our prayer, in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
This coming weekend, Jeffrey and I will be with the brothers and sisters in Newark, New Jersey. Newark does not have the best reputation in the world, but there are brothers and sisters there who are a blessing.
Jeffrey will have the young people—we do this every year—and I will have the older folks. Probably they figured the young people would not understand me.
When I was praying, after the invitation, about what I should speak on there, I could not get clear for a long time. It did not seem to come clear to me. But near the end of last year, the Lord really began to speak to me about this matter: the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob.
If you remember the word I shared a few months ago, “I AM: The Greatest Revelation,” it had to do with this very scene in Exodus 3. It touched on these same verses: “I am the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob.”
This is a remarkable thing. For God to go on and say, “This is My name for ever,” is incredibly remarkable. And for Him to say, “This is My memorial unto all generations,” is equally remarkable.
Then we read those verses where the Lord was challenged by the Sadducees. They did not believe in resurrection, so they were trying to trip the Lord up, as it were. But the Lord said that God is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. This is His name forever. He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living.
Now, brothers and sisters, that is remarkable. It is in all three Synoptic Gospels. “The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” occurs four times in the Old Testament and five times in the New Testament. That seemed to seal it to me that this is the burden the Lord wanted me to share.
I will also share on Joseph, the last person in the Old Testament book of Genesis. I think it is quite remarkable what these men mean. They mean far more than Bible stories. If all we get out of the Old Testament is Bible stories, then we miss everything the Lord has to say to us.
Brother Stephen’s book, Men After God’s Own Heart, made a great difference to us as an early assembly in 1982, when Brother Stephen gave these messages. I still remember them. By the way, I refused to read this again until after I prepared.
Stephen said this, and I think it is remarkable and insightful. I think we should take it to heart:
Genesis is the first book of the Bible, and it is a book of biographies. Sometimes we think the Bible is a book of doctrines, of teachings, of truth. That is true, but when you open the Bible, it reflects the fact that God’s interest is not primarily teaching; His interest is man.
Not only is the purpose of God toward man, but also the place of the work of God is in man. For God does His work in man until he shall have come into what God had originally designed for him to be.
It is an excellent book. You should read it.
Years ago, I was with Stephen alone. Those of you who know our brother Stephen know that he is not the conversationalist. I was young, intimidated, and wondering how to strike up a conversation with this dear older brother.
So I said, “Stephen, why does the Bible say, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?”
Stephen, with wisdom, said, “Why do you not figure it out for yourself?”
I could have been offended and left, thinking he did not want to speak to me. But I am thankful for that wisdom. He said, “What do you think it says?”
Over these years, I have considered and thought about that little sideways rebuke, and I have come to some conclusions.
I will try to share, in the coming weeks and months as God permits, about Abraham. Today, I believe Abraham represents the spirit of revelation—just as we read in Ephesians 1:17, “the spirit of wisdom and revelation.”
I will try to share about Isaac. The thing the Lord has impressed me with over these years is that phrase in 1 Peter 1:4:
An incorruptible, and undefiled, and unfading inheritance, reserved in heaven for you.
Of Jacob, I cannot think of anything more fitting, when you see the work of God in his life, than that phrase in Romans 8:29: “Conformed to the image of His Son.” I think that is the end of the work He is doing in His purpose.
And I think of Joseph, that last of the patriarchs. Surely there is a meaning in why he is the last. I think of that phrase repeated again and again in the letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3:
He that overcometh.
This is the last call to the church. May we experience what these men experienced.
There are three things we will look at today, God willing, if we have time:
I believe that if we see what Abraham saw, there will be a response. And we need to see what Abraham’s response was.
Let us begin with this thought concerning Abraham’s revelation. Aside from Moses, Abraham is the most-mentioned character in the New Testament. I could give you the numbers, but you do not need the numbers. They are close, but I think it is very significant that Abraham is mentioned so often.
As a matter of fact, when you turn to the opening of the New Testament, in Matthew 1:1-2, it says:
The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judah and his brethren.
That leaves out a lot of people right there. That is the significance of these two: David, the man after God’s own heart, and Abraham.
I think Abraham, in a real way, shows us the beginning of the recovery of God. You might say it began with Noah. I do not think so. The real recovery from the fall into the purpose of God in the Old Testament begins with Abraham.
He is the father of a nation. God is after a people. God is after a testimony. God is after an expression of Himself. That is what Father Abraham stands for.
The most prevalent thing in Abraham’s life is revelation. This phrase caught me again and again: God appeared to Abraham.
Stephen the martyr, in Acts 7:2, gave that incredible summary of the whole life of Abraham, and he simply said:
The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham.
End of story. Abraham was, in fact, a man of revelation. Again and again God appeared to Abraham, and again and again God spoke to Abraham. Those revelations are quite full and significant.
Acts 7:2 sealed this burden for me. Then the Lord said a remarkable thing:
Abraham saw My day.
You may think that is a strange thing for the Lord to say, but that is the spirit of revelation. It is not a time thing. It is not an event thing. It is seeing by the Spirit into the heart of God.
The Lord said these remarkable words about Abraham and no one else:
Abraham saw My day, and he rejoiced.
Let me read some of the verses. Genesis 12:7:
And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.
It is very significant. You need to notice that phrase: “The Lord appeared unto him.”
Genesis 17:1:
And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am God Almighty; walk before Me, and be thou perfect.
God appeared to Abraham. Look at Genesis 18:1:
And the Lord appeared unto him by the oaks of Mamre.
Again, that phrase is so important. Then, in Genesis 26:2:
And the Lord appeared unto him, and said, Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of.
Brothers and sisters, these phrases are vitally important. I believe the spirit of revelation captured the man. I believe the spirit of revelation changed the man. I believe the spirit of revelation compelled the man to follow the Lord wherever He went.
This is precisely what Abraham stood for. You remember, Hebrews records that he went out, not knowing where he was going. But because of divine revelation, he followed the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, that is for all of us to know. You do not know exactly where you are going. You do not even know exactly how you will get there. But this one thing you do know: He who is leading you, you can follow.
That is the message of the spirit of revelation in Abraham. Has the God of glory appeared to you? Has He?
That is an important question. Do you just have knowledge of the living God? Do you just have religion? Do you just have tradition? Or has something much deeper than all of those—something life-changing—stirred your heart and your spirit, so that the God of glory has revealed Himself to you?
Brothers and sisters, if that is the case, there will be a difference in your life. I believe that is what is lacking in the church.
Have you seen the Lord’s day? Has the Lord of glory opened Himself to you in such a way that you are no longer the same, but are arrested, captured, and compelled to follow Him whithersoever He goes?
I believe that is Abraham’s revelation.
The second thing I want us to spend some time considering is this: What did Abraham see? It is important. If this character is so important in the New Testament economy and purpose of God, then what he saw is important. What he saw was for our benefit.
You remember what Paul wrote to the Corinthians:
These things happened unto them by way of example; and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come.
This is what I believe we need to see. What did Abraham see? Let us consider some of the appearings.
The first appearing is Genesis 12:1-5. By the way, it is not an easy thing to cover the task I have for the upcoming weekend—thirty-eight chapters in one weekend—but we will pray for the Lord’s grace.
Now the Lord said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto the land that I will show thee:
And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing:
And I will bless them that bless thee, and him that curseth thee will I curse: and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
So Abram went, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.
And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.
This represents calling. This is when Abraham was first called.
Brothers and sisters, sometimes I think we Christians think of calling in the wrong way. We think of calling as being called to a special ministry, and you may be. But we think of these great patriarchs as being called, while we do not think so much of ourselves as being called.
Calling is absolutely the first thing Abraham saw. He was called out of Haran and called into the land of promise, which is Canaan.
If you read the Word, you understand from 1 Corinthians that we are all called saints. That is what Paul said to the Corinthian church. You are called. I am called. Abraham was called. Paul was called. Every one of us must see this first revelation: we are called.
We are called out of something, and we are called into something. We are called out of our former land and all the idols in Ur, in Mesopotamia—even out of Haran, where they stopped until the old man died—and into the promised land.
You are called out of this world, and you are called into Christ.
That is the first revelation Abraham had. Another thing about this calling is that Romans 8:28-29 says we are called according to purpose. That is not some general call merely to say, “Follow Me.” We have the greatest calling because we are called according to His great eternal purpose, from which He never deviates.
So our life is a call, number one. Our life is a call according to purpose. That is the revelation Abraham saw.
You will remember that in these verses there is a sevenfold blessing. It is a tremendous blessing. I often hear people speak about this concerning Israel, but brothers and sisters, this is for us. This is for the people of God, and it is a complete blessing.
The sevenfold blessing is as follows:
When I thought about that blessing, I thought, can there be any greater blessing? Is there anything that can compare to it?
Then the Lord drew me to Ephesians 1, where it says:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
Here are seven blessings. You may think they are quite full—and they are full. But when you think of what we have in Christ Jesus, when Paul was enabled by the Holy Spirit to write that incredible Ephesian letter, he said that we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies, in Christ Jesus.
So, brothers and sisters, Abraham has nothing on us. Do you understand? Do you understand what the Apostle Paul wrote when he said that you have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies, in Christ Jesus?
To me, that is the first thing Abraham saw. It had to do with calling. We need to see that we are called, walk in that calling, and see that we are called according to purpose.
Some people think we are called just for blessing. Thank God for blessing. No, we are called for much greater things—according to His great purpose.
Let us look at the second appearing in Genesis 13:14-17:
And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward and southward and eastward and westward:
For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.
And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.
Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for unto thee will I give it.
Abraham saw the land, and Abraham saw the city. You remember in Hebrews: he saw the city whose Builder and Maker is God.
Have you seen the land of promise? Brothers and sisters, it is not Canaan. It is Christ. It is the fullness of the Lord Jesus.
Canaan is a picture of a land flowing with milk and honey—abundant riches that cannot be imagined. But what you have in the Lord Jesus far exceeds anything Canaan ever was.
That is what Abraham saw. He saw the land, and he saw the city.
I remember Linda and I went to see the Biltmore in North Carolina. I do not know whether you have seen the Biltmore. It is quite a sight for a frustrated architect like me. It is a beautiful sight.
I think they told me it had forty-eight bathrooms or something. I did not want Linda to get any ideas in our new remodel. Nevertheless, that is what they said. It is the largest private residence in all the United States.
The Vanderbilts, who had way too much money and not enough sense, built this thing out in the woods of North Carolina. It is a stark reminder of the beauty of a glorious design.
That day, the artist who did the official pen-and-ink rendering of the Biltmore was there, selling his prints. They were beautiful. If you like pen-and-ink, I love that sort of thing.
Being the artist, if you paid him what he was asking, he would sign anything on the line. Looking at the glory of that great estate, I said to him—because he was a Christian, and I shared with him—“Why do you not put on that line, ‘whose Builder and Maker is God’?”
How much greater is what He is doing, what He is building. How glorious.
Well, Abraham saw the land and he saw the city. Have you seen the land?
Brothers and sisters, it is a glorious land. The land is the place where God dwells. The city is the only place in the universe where God has set His name.
We are the city of the living God. We, the church, are the land where He has chosen to dwell, and we are the one place where He has set His name forever.
Is that not glorious, brothers and sisters? Some people say we speak too much of the church. Rubbish.
To Him, indeed, the church is glory. He gave His all for it, that He might wash it and cleanse it, and that in the end it might be without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.
This is what Abraham saw. Have you seen it?
Do you go to church? Do you feel compelled to go to a meeting? Or have you experienced the reality of the land, the reality of the city, where, as our brother prayed before the meeting, God has commanded the blessing?
It will change your life when you see it. No other land will you want. No other city will you seek, but this one, whose Builder and Maker is God.
The third appearing is in Genesis 14:18-20:
And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was priest of God Most High.
And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth:
And blessed be God Most High, Who hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him a tenth of all.
Brothers and sisters, Melchizedek is a shadowy figure who is mentioned only twice in the Old Testament: once here in Genesis 14, and once in that great prophetic psalm, Psalm 110:4:
Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.
Of course, that is speaking of our Lord Jesus. But when you go to Hebrews, you begin to understand exactly who this High Priest is.
We have been studying Hebrews together, and the subject of Hebrews is, in fact, Christ Himself. The whole book is built around this truth: He is a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
Psalm 110:4 is repeated again and again in Hebrews. Melchizedek may be mentioned only twice in the Old Testament, but he is mentioned nine times in the New Testament, always in Hebrews.
Abraham saw Melchizedek, the great High Priest—the priest of God, who had no beginning and no end of days. This priest seemed to come out of nowhere. I believe it was the appearing of Christ in the Old Testament.
There Abraham saw One who changed him forever.
Have you seen? Have you seen the great High Priest?
Brothers and sisters, it would be a shame if we spent these months, and perhaps years, studying the book of Hebrews without having that living revelation Abraham had of this great High Priest—the Priest of the Most High.
How we need to see it. Turn to Hebrews 8. I will read it. Right now I am doing better on my time than I thought, and John has not gotten up twice, so I think I am okay.
Hebrews 8:1-2 says:
Now in the things which we are saying the chief point is this: We have such a High Priest, Who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,
A Minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.
When the writer says, “Now in the things which we are saying the chief point is this,” you can count on it. His whole subject was the great High Priest.
This is the One Abraham saw and gave a tenth to after those four kings were defeated.
Have you seen the sympathetic High Priest? That is what Hebrews says. This One of the Most High—how can it be that He is sympathetic to us? He knows us. He knows our frame, that we are but dust.
Even more, He is merciful. Thank God that this Priest of the Most High, this Melchizedek Christ, is merciful.
We can go to the throne of grace and there receive mercy and find grace in time of need.
That is what Abraham saw. He saw that He was a faithful High Priest.
I cannot tell you how many times I have agonized when I discovered my own unfaithfulness. I have gotten to the point that I no longer apologize to God. But I say that verse:
If we are faithless, He abideth faithful; for He cannot deny Himself.
That is what Abram saw.
He saw something else, because the Lord said, “He saw My day, and he rejoiced in it, and he was glad.” He saw that He is a Priest who ever lives to intercede for us.
Can you imagine? I would think it pretty special if there were some low-level angel that lived and interceded for me. I would think it quite extraordinary if I had my own personal angel to do that.
Brothers and sisters, it is far more than that. This great High Priest, who has ascended to the throne and is at the right hand of the Majesty on high, ever lives to intercede for you according to God.
Have you seen it?
What about the fourth appearing? I think this fourth appearing stretches to the end. It has to do with the appearing of the promised Son.
When you speak of Abraham and Sarah—later Abraham and Sarah—their life really revolves around this promised son. Our life should revolve around the promised Son.
That was key to them. So I think the fourth appearing is a series of appearings concerning the promised son.
Look at Genesis 15:1:
After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.
This was the beginning. It does not mention the son, but this was the beginning. What Abram saw was the great I AM. What Abram saw was that God was everything.
He said to him, “I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.”
From that point on, it was not the land that enamored Abraham. It was not the city that enamored Abraham. It was the promised son that caught all of his attention.
I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.
It is Himself.
I will never forget, if you will allow me this little diversion, that in our early history our dear brother Llewellyn Miller brought to us a hymn by A. B. Simpson. I was a newborn Christian, only six months in the Lord, in 1972.
It was a long time ago. I know some of you think we do not live that long. But in 1972, the Lord revealed Himself to me. I will never forget it.
I will never forget the evening. I will never forget the moment. On February 4, 1972, indeed, the God of glory appeared to me, called me out of my family and out of my land, and into Christ. I have never been the same since.
Brother Llewellyn shared with us, in our early years, this hymn. It made an indelible mark upon our spirit. It became our motto, if you will allow me to use those words: “Himself.”
Once it was the blessing,
Now it is the Lord;
Once it was the feeling,
Now it is His Word;
Once His gifts I wanted,
Now the Giver own;
Once I sought for healing,
Now Himself alone.
This was the revelation that came to Abraham:
I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.
May we see the same thing.
Genesis 15:2-4 says:
And Abram said, O Lord God, what wilt Thou give me, seeing I go childless, and he that shall be possessor of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?
And Abram said, Behold, to me Thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.
And, behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This man shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.
God’s great gift to Abram was the promised son. It dwarfed everything else in the patriarch’s life. The land did not mean as much. The city did not mean as much. The blessings did not mean as much.
What began to mean everything was the promised son. That is the revelation I believe Abraham had.
It was the capstone of Abraham’s life. The summary of his life in Genesis 15:6 says:
And he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him for righteousness.
That is the capstone of his life. Brothers and sisters, faith is a key to revelation. It is indeed a key to revelation.
There is another thing about revelation: revelation produces living faith.
I have never heard anyone utter those words as charismatically as Brother Lance. How many times did he give messages to us on living faith?
The key is not what we do or how we strain to believe. It is seeing Who He is. Revelation produces living faith.
I think you get the point. “Only believe,” is what it says.
Years ago, our dear brother Michael Woods gave me a plaque. It is still in my office to this day. It has those words from Mark:
Only believe.
I often find myself looking at that plaque in the bustle of the day, in the demands of life, and saying, “Lord, that is the one thing You want: only believe.”
In Him is everything. That is what Abraham saw.
You know what happened next. Turn to Genesis 17:15-19. This is when the promise came, and Abraham and Sarah could hardly believe it.
And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.
And I will bless her, and moreover I will give thee a son of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall be of her.
Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is a hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?
And Abraham said unto God, Oh that Ishmael might live before Thee!
And God said, Nay, but Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his seed after him.
Abraham fell down laughing at this impossibility. God said, “You will have a son. His name forever will be laughter.” I think that is quite special.
It was not just Abraham who laughed. Look at Genesis 18:11-13:
Now Abraham and Sarah were old, and well stricken in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.
And Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?
And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, who am old?
Listen to this. Write these words upon your heart:
Is anything too hard for the Lord?
Brothers and sisters, what did Abraham see? He saw the God of the impossible.
It was impossible—this one-hundred-year-old ancient patriarch and this ninety-year-old ancient lady, who had ceased to be able to bear in the natural way. But God had one revelation to show them: “I am the God of the impossible.”
Is anything too hard for Me?
Then we come to Genesis 22. There is not a more prophetic and solemn chapter in all of the Bible.
This tells us one thing: all the promised blessings come through the promised Son.
You remember the story. God said to Abraham:
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.
Can you imagine? It says at the beginning of that chapter, “God did prove Abraham.” Unbelievable.
I think if ever a tear fell from heaven, it must have fallen then. Because God realized this was His very sentence:
Take thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, and offer him up as a burnt offering.
I believe this is the highest revelation—to know God in His heart. It is the highest revelation. Nothing compares to it.
When Abraham took his son Isaac, Isaac asked, “My father, I see the wood, I see the fire, I see the knife; but where is the lamb for the offering?”
Unhesitatingly, Abraham said:
God will provide Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.
He raised that knife, believing that God, who promised, would raise Isaac from the dead. In absolute obedience, he was about to plunge that knife into the breast of the promised son.
Then something happened. The angel of the Lord appeared and said, “Do not harm the boy,” and withheld the knife.
Now, think about it. Most Bible scholars say that when the phrase “the angel of the Lord” occurs in the Old Testament, it speaks of the Lord Jesus appearing in the Old Testament.
Imagine this for a moment: here is the only son, the beloved son, restraining the knife that was to go into the heart of Isaac, because He knew it was reserved for Him.
Can you imagine?
There is a great difference between this story and the story of our Lord Jesus. On this altar of wood, Isaac was spared by the angel of the Lord.
But on that old wooden, rugged cross at Golgotha, the Lord Jesus received no such mercy. No voice came from heaven saying, “Do not harm the boy.” No angel appeared.
Those words in Isaiah 53 mesmerize us. We see how God chose to crush Him for your sake and my sake.
What a revelation this is.
I always remember Anne Ross Cousin’s hymn, “O Christ, What Burdens Bowed Thy Head.” I love verse five:
The Lord bade His sword awake;
O Christ, it woke ’gainst Thee.
Thy blood the flaming blade must slake;
Thy heart its sheath must be;
All for my sake, my peace to make;
Now sleeps that sword for me.
Never again. We have been delivered from judgment and delivered to blessing because His heart became the sheath of God’s sword of wrath.
That is the greatest revelation.
Let me end with just a few thoughts. If you see that Abraham represents the spirit of revelation, and if you see what Abraham saw, there has to be a response.
There cannot not be a response if you have seen what Abraham saw. Brothers and sisters, we must have revelation, but revelation alone is not enough. We must have a response to revelation.
Our brother Stephen, in his book Men After God’s Own Heart, said:
In the story of Abraham’s life, we see a very prominent object being featured, and that object is the altar. Throughout his life, he built altar after altar—not just one altar, but four altars. The building of altars is symbolic in the life of Abraham.
Let us think for a moment before we close about the altars. Have you built an altar? Have you built an altar?
The first altar occurred when Abraham was called. We read about it in Genesis 12. When the Lord first revealed Himself and Abraham was called, he did the one thing he was compelled to do in the spirit: he built an altar to the Lord.
Have you built an altar to the Lord?
It draws me to Romans 12:1:
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.
Or your reasonable worship, or your spiritual worship of service—whichever translation you like. Have you built an altar?
There, in Genesis 12, Abram built an altar.
The second altar occurs in Genesis 12:8. It was about where he would dwell. After that calling, Abraham went to the mountain east of Bethel, between Bethel and Ai. There he pitched his tent to dwell, and there he built an altar to the Lord.
Brothers and sisters, Bethel is the house of God. Ai is a heap of ruins.
You will come, at one point or another in your life, if you are serious with God, to make a choice about where you will dwell. Is it the house of God, or is it a heap of ruins?
The world is nothing but a heap of ruins.
You remember, after that greatest revelation Peter had in Matthew 16, when the Lord said, “Who do men say that I am?” and Peter said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,” the Lord said:
What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his life?
Take up your cross. Follow Me.
Brothers and sisters, how many of us have wasted years and decades for a heap of ruins? I believe a lot of us need to build an altar here and decide where we will dwell. What is the purpose of our life?
The third altar occurs in Genesis 13:18. Lot separated himself from Abraham, and then the Lord appeared and showed the exceeding great and precious promises to Abraham.
He said, “Look northward. Look southward. Look eastward. Look westward. See that land. I will give it to you.”
These are the great promises. He said:
For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.
And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth.
Brothers and sisters, these are promises that cannot be measured. If you can discern northward, southward, eastward, and westward, you can see the vast scope of His promises.
Your seed, the promise was, shall be as the dust of the earth—numberless. Numberless.
This is the great promise. I think of 2 Peter 1:4:
Whereby He hath granted unto us His precious and exceeding great promises; that through these ye may become partakers of the divine nature.
Think of what Abraham saw. At that moment, he built an altar to the Lord. The great and precious promises.
You remember Hebrews 6. It speaks specifically about Abraham. It says that when God promised Abraham, because He could swear by none greater, He swore by Himself.
Then it says that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we have strong encouragement and an anchor for the soul.
Is that not beautiful, brothers and sisters? There is nothing that can compare with what we have been given in Christ: exceeding great and precious promises. By them we become partakers of the divine nature.
Can you imagine? Christ living in us—His city, His land.
Then there is the fourth altar, the final altar. We see it in Genesis 22:9. This was the last altar.
He saw something. He saw a God who gave all.
There is a famous saying that I particularly like: “All give some; some give all.” It was actually said by a Korean War veteran who was wounded and received a Purple Heart. It was not a great president or ruler; it was a simple man.
He saw the secret: all give some, but more importantly, some give all.
I take one exception to that grand old saying. I think it should be different for the Christian, at least:
All give some.
One gave all.
That is what Abraham saw. There he built that altar upon which Isaac was laid.
Here is the response you must have. If these things, if you see them in the Spirit, do not arrest you and capture you, nothing will happen. But if something of the grandeur of this revelation arrests you and captures you, you will give all to the One who gave all.
That is the burden. That is the burden about Abraham. This is our altar.
May the Lord of glory, the God of glory, appear to us as He did to Abraham. May we see His day as Abraham did.
This revelation will produce living faith. When we see what he saw, there has to be a response. The only response is an altar upon which you are offered.
I know there are young people, and perhaps older people, in this room who are fearful of a message like that. Do not ever be.
Nothing you give up for Him will you ever regret, and the blessings you will receive are innumerable.
That is the story of Abraham: the spirit of revelation, the man of altars, who gave himself to what he saw.
Will you pray with me now?
Lord, often I have held back and pulled back. Hebrews says that You do not delight in those who pull back.
But today, as You are my witness, here with all of the brothers and sisters, we put ourselves upon the altar.
We give ourselves to You, the One who gave all. And we say, Lord, never let us go.
Oh Lord, how beautiful it is to see Your day, to see Your face face to face.
We ask that You do this work in us. Give us the spirit of revelation. Cause us to see it.
Then cause us, by Your Holy Spirit, to respond.
In Jesus’ name, amen.