we have now you remember yesterday i said that we'd be asking some questions of our speakers that's right in the morning did you forget about that i should have told you what i'm going to ask you didn't tell me what the questions were yeah oh boy okay the first one's an easy one okay what's your favorite dessert remember yesterday it was favorite food now we're getting a little more specific i'm trying to think where i am here i should say pavlova shouldn't i that would be a ah thing to say pavlova's actually australian isn't it
oh well someone's told me a lie i thought it was from australia we'll do for this week pavlova terrific great pastor taino what's one of the greatest challenges in your opinion that the church is facing today the world church i probably should have asked you these questions beforehand shouldn't i well that's okay it's a great question we have a lot of challenges because we're such a diverse people millions of us now around the face of the earth i think the the great challenge to be relevant to people where they live all of us face different
challenges you know there's a similarity to living the christian life in the world today but in the cultures and the language and the situations that we live it's very different and we must make jesus relevant to everybody in their own situation that he's a very present help in whatever time of need we're in i think that's a great challenge for us very good and very appropriate um appropriate answer um this is a question that my little boy actually asked me and so i'm gonna because i'm missing my family my family and i get hit until
february as i was telling you and ryan said to me one morning dad what are you going to enjoy the best about heaven so pastor tyner what are you going to enjoy that's the way ryan said i know it's not too good english but he's only four what are you going to enjoy best about heaven does he call you pastor no no no not dad yeah you know one it won't be wonderful to uh get acquainted with jesus i think that's what we're going to to uh sing about and worship about throughout eternity and it's
not going to be a formality but the the reality of the communication system in heaven is that we'll be able to talk to jesus face to face thank him for what he's done for us bask in the warmth of his smile get a hug from him every time we want it to be able to say to him i'm here because of what you have done for me thank you it'll be the theme of our song all throughout eternity 10 million years from today will still be saying the same thing to him and to see people
that you love that are there and to hear them say to jesus i'm here because of what you did boy that's going to be wonderful yeah this will be great yeah heaven will be a wonderful place won't and this morning for our prayer time we asked pastor tyler if you'd like to stay oh he's got a seat there that's good this morning um i want to do something that i did the other morning in early morning worship um i haven't been at early morning worship the last couple of days jet lag's caught up on me
so somebody's filling in for me but um i make it a part of my devotions at times to pray assam and this morning what i'd like you to do is as i pray i would like you to close your eyes but i'm actually going to read a psalm so let's pray together praise the lord praise the lord o my soul i will praise the lord all my life i will sing praise to my god as long as i live do not put your trust in princes immortal men who cannot save when their spirit departs they
return to the ground on that very day their plans come to nothing blessed is he whose help is the god of jacob whose hope is in the lord his god the maker of heaven and earth the sea and everything in them the lord who remains faithful forever he upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry the lord sets prisoners free the lord gives sight to the blind the lord lifts up those who are bowed down the lord loves the righteous the lord watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the
widow but he frustrates the ways of the wicked the lord reigns forever your god o zion for all generations our father we thank you that we can pause in your presence and study your word this morning together we thank you for the bible lord we thank you that it is a letter of love to us to show us what you're really like and to reveal your passion for a relationship with us lord we look forward to that day when you come and we can see you face to face father we ask you please bless pastor
pastor tyner this morning as he opens your word to us may we leave this place blessed by you yourself in jesus name amen thank you matthew thank you john for the music all of you when we get to heaven we'll all have voices as big as john won't that be nice john reminds me of the the great base and the swedish choirs they had a huge choir with ten thousand sopranos ten thousand altos ten thousand tenors one base like john they were singing the hallelujah chorus and in that big part where there's a as loud
as you can sing the conductor stopped looked at the bass john he said not quite so loud we got to hear everybody else there yeah thanks for the music and thank you for coming this morning on a drizzly day stephen tells me this is unusual for your summer time uh temperature's nice we can work up quite a sweat in here this morning studying and it'll feel good won't it well you're a little bit scattered i don't mind if any of you want to move in close we've got empty chairs close by i hope you brought
your bibles with you before we open or maybe on the way to opening to genesis 28 let me remind you of some presuppositions that we're sharing here about bible study the first one is that god is the hero of the bible stories if we study the bible correctly not jacob like we look at today not abraham or the rich young ruler not david not paul god is the hero and as we approach the bible it's good for us to say the same thing that philip said when he said just show us the father and that
will be enough for us jeremiah 31 3 says the lord appeared to us in the past saying i have loved you with an everlasting love i have drawn you with love and kindness that's the face of god that we want to see this hero that we study no matter where we look in the bible we're going to find that god looking back at us secondly the bible is god's voice speaking to us today not so important what happened back there as a history lesson it's interesting fun to study for that but we miss most of
the inspiration unless we apply it to what we face today in our lives the bible is god's voice speaking to us today romans 15 4 everything that was written in the past was written to teach us that's why we study the bible and then finally every bible story teaches us some way about salvation second timothy 3 15. the bible is able to make us wise unto salvation that's what we're looking for every bible story is going to say something about that so as we think of those things now let's turn to genesis 28 one of
the loveliest stories in all of the bible this is a story where jacob has left home and he's on his way to where he will spend the next 20 years and he stops after the first day of the journey it's late at night he's tired he's still tense from all of the trouble that he's been in at home he's looking up at the stars and he feels like if you can just have a good night's sleep everything will be okay i felt that way the first few days i've been here i could just get to
the night and have a good night sleep and boy i've been sleeping well i know how jacob felt got that stone and put it there in his underneath his head for a pillow and he fell fast asleep and he had this beautiful dream you remember how it goes angels on the stairway going up and down this ladder that reached from earth all the way to heaven now let's say right at the beginning of our looking at this story today that god's appearance to jacob in this dream was not a reward for jacob's good behavior god
didn't take a look at the last few years of jacob's life and said he's such a good boy i'm going to go and give him a special promise that's not the way it was this appearance to jacob was an evidence of god's graciousness to someone who did not deserve to have the promises that god gave him remember the latter at bethel was after the lentil stew it was after the stolen blessing it was asked after the grasping after the deceiving after the actions that caused anger and bitterness and fury and grudges it was after jacob
made esau so angry that esau decided he would murder his brother genesis chapter 27 41 esau says i will kill my brother jacob and his anger was justified jacob had done some terrible things to esau god's appearance in the latter at the top of the ladder was not a reward for the good deeds that jacob had done but from the top of the ladder god promises marvelous things to jacob chapter 28 verse 13 god says i am the lord the god of your father abraham and the god of isaac i will give you and your
descendants the land on which you are lying verse 14 your descendants will be like the dust of the earth and you will spread out to the west and to the east to the north and to the south all peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring does this sound familiar to you it's the same promise that god gave to abraham isn't it again coming to a man who does not deserve these promises god goes on to say in verse 15 i am with you and you will watch and will watch over you
wherever you go and i will bring you back to this land i will not leave you until i have done what i have promised to do sounds familiar doesn't it same way that god talked to abraham and by the way would you like to have god say those promises to you this morning look at the words again i am with you you woke up this morning thought about the day ahead of you would there have been a more precious promise to you than if god could have whispered audibly to you i'm going to be with
you today what a promise i will watch over you wherever you go and i will bring you back to this land i will not leave you until i have done what i've promised to do what a wonderful promise and if it's true that what was written in the past is written for us to teach us and to tell us these things these are promises that are for us there are significant moments in all of our lives when we hear the promises of god just like this to us jacob's reaction is the same one that we
have it's an amazing reaction he wakes up and he was astonished how awesome is this place he says this is none other than the house of god this is the gate of heaven so many times in our lives as we look back on them especially we see the points when the gates of grace have opened up into our lives if we had time this morning you could tell you could each tell us of those times in your lives when god opened the gates of grace wide to you and you you thought about how precious those
promises are i can remember a moment in my childhood waking up in my grandmother's house and she would sing turn your eyes upon jesus look full in his wonderful face and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace i didn't understand the theology of that song at the time but i remember waking up to my grandmother's sweet even though it was a little squeaky voice i think the gates of grace were opening up many times as i look back on my life story the gates of grace were
opening wide when we find a willingness in ourselves to move toward that grace to accept the promises of god a turning before the returning a leaving before the cleaving are responding to god's whisper saying i will arise and return to my father in my own life it was often the moment when i i started to refuse to fight any longer against the gospel i grew up a good seventh-day adventist boy went to church all of my life in sabbath school and mv meeting went in gathering did all of those things the good adventist kids are
taught to do went to adventist schools all my life took theology in college studied all the things i was supposed to study memorized all the verses i was supposed to memorize but i kept fighting against the good news i'd read what paul has to write in some of those epistles in the new testament and i would get angry at paul he just didn't understand seventh-day adventists i thought how could he say some of the things that he said i just wanted to fight against god in the gospel and the good news and i realize now
that every time i struggled with that it was the gates of grace that were opening up to me the opening of grace is not a condition but a response remember that's grace that always precedes us it is grace that awakens the desire for grace in it some people think that it was the prodigal son all by himself in a far country in the pigsty that somehow managed enough courage to stand up and say i'll return to my father no it was god's voice whispering and said it's better in your father's house he was responding to
grace not generating it himself i made a cardinal mistake one time as a guest speaker i was there to talk for church at a church that i didn't belong to and i went to a sabbath school class to listen in on the discussion and you know guest speakers are not supposed to talk up in other meetings just the ones that they're given and i listened and i listened at this sabbath school class and the teacher began to talk about things and i was getting uncomfortable and inside me i wanted to talk and break that rule
of the guest speaker and finally he was talking about people who are facing temptation and use shoplifting as a as an example you're tempted to go to the store and steal he said and there's a thing you want and you know where it is in the counter and and you go right there to to the store and you're you're ready to go in and he said god can't go into the store with you because you have an evil purpose so god stands on the outside of the store waiting for you to come out again standing
on the street outside the store and you go in and you're standing there in front of the counter and you're ready to to steal this thing and he said stop what you're doing and run back outside to god and i finally raised my hand i couldn't wait anymore i said let me disagree with you just a little bit if god is on the outside of the store and you're on the inside you won't be tempted to steal because satan has you exactly where he wants you away from the presence of god that's all he needs
but the fact is if you're beginning to think should i steal or should i run back to god it's because god's standing right there next to you whispering in your ear don't do it stay close to me god doesn't leave us and have us try to screw up the courage to run back home to our father's house he's there whispering in our ear grace awakens the desire for grace in our lives our response of faith is being fully persuaded that god has the power to do what he promises to do that's where we take part
instead of walking through the gates of grace that jacob saw open to him jacob turned away his response after he talks about this awesome place is an interesting one chapter 29 of genesis chapter 28 verses um 20 and 21 and then jacob made a vow saying if god will be with me if god will watch over me on this journey i am taking and if god will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that i return safely to my father's house then the lord will be my god if god does what he
promised not a welcoming of his promise and saying since god has promised then this is my god jacob says if god does all these things then i will respond and he will be my god there are only two basic orientations to the spiritual life one is a responding to god's goodness and accepting of his grace or rejoicing in the promises a trusting that the promises that god makes will be kept in christianity we call this approach a grace orientation a grace orientation is defined like this our place in god's kingdom is assured because of god's
great love for us not because of our good works let me say it again i know you agree with me but i just want to get it down again our place in god's kingdom is assured because of god's great love for us not because of our good works the obedience is there the good works are there the witnessing is there the worshipping is there but they are all there as a response to god's grace they have nothing to do with our salvation that's the first approach to spiritual the spiritual life the second orientation is a
keeping track of the rights and the wrongs trying to balance the ledgers and attempting to pay god back or earn his love or merit his favor and in christianity we call this approach a works orientation and a works orientation is defined like this our place in god's kingdom is awarded to us either in whole or in part in exchange for or because of our obedience our proper behavior our correct belief the strength of our faith the merits of our christian life our acceptance of christ's grace or anything else other than the holy undeserved favor of
god manifested to us in christ jesus that's a works orientation many professed christians at the end of the world will have a works orientation we're told about them in matthew 7 verse 22 in fact jesus tells us the very words that they're on their mouths many will say to me on that day jesus said lord lord did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles do you hear them keeping track of all of the good things that they've done and jesus calls them evil doers and says
he doesn't even know who they are jacob's words reveal a works orientation in his life it's been there for a long time and here when god opens the gate of grace to him his words reveal a works orientation in patriarchs and prophets pages 197 and 198 ellen white says this jacob's error was now clearly set before him he had not trusted god's promises but had sought by his own efforts to bring about that which god would have accomplished in his own time and way jacob's words reveal a works orientation now you and i know people
with a works orientation the adventist church is full of people in the works orientation stephen and leanne and i were talking on the way out to camp today about how it's endemic in all of us we're born with a desire to grasp and and control the situation and say we have to be rewarded for what we are what we do in fact in the world's economy it is the way of the world we only get wages when we work we we're told to work at our relationships children have to work to get good grades in
school in every other part of our life we have to work and then suddenly we come to the spiritual life and we're told that we don't work to get god's favor he gives it to you freely as a gift a free gift of his love that's what the gospel is but many of us grasp on we hold on to our works orientation and i want to assure you this morning that a works orientation in a spiritual life always ends up with three outcomes first of all it always results in a dissatisfying religion you notice the
people and perhaps you can testify to this as i can in my own life when you hold on to a works orientation religion is not something that is full of joy to you it becomes dissatisfying and the longer you grasp the works orientation in your life the more dissatisfying religion comes becomes you begin to say religion is about these little tiny things that religion is not really about and i'm sure today you could tell me some of those things that people say this is what christianity is about this is what adventism is about things that
are not at the center of our faith if you ask most young people who leave the church today why they leave the adventist church they'll tell you because at the center of adventism is no rock music and no dancing and no caffeine is there anybody in the tent today who's a seventh-day adventist this morning because you because you don't like caffeine and you found a group of people that didn't like caffeine is that at the center of anybody's faith here this morning you know i've asked that question around the world and no one has ever
said yes to me why is it that so many young people think that at the center of adventism is no caffeine and no movies and no dancing and no rock music at the center of our faith should be jesus shouldn't it somehow we're giving the wrong impression to so many people a works oriented religion is always dissatisfying and we end up leaving it looking back at all of those things that we tried to put in the center of our faith the second outcome of a works orientation is that eventually works orientation reveals itself in a
judgmental attitude toward everybody else because works oriented people can't stand the fact that other people are grace oriented have joy in their faith and they begin to say you're not really religious because you don't have at the center of the same things i have and it's amazing how we do that from culture to culture from locale to locale from country to country we find people with a list of the sins and these things are okay in some countries you go next door to the next country and they're taboo there you can't do them and people
begin to point their fingers at each other you're not really a seventh-day adventist christian because you cut your hair differently than i cut my hair or you wear different clothes that i wear or you eat something different than i eat it's amazing a works orientation always reveals itself in a judgmental attitude and finally a works orientation frequently spills out into other aspects of our daily life we don't just keep a works orientation in our spiritual life we begin to put other people on a work strip with us and that's exactly the case with jacob jacob
goes to his uncle laban's house he remember he begins to work for leah and rachel we have this one shining moment in jacob's life where it says in chapter 29 verse 20 that he he served seven years to get rachel but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her what a wonderful romantic man he was it's the only good thing the bible says about him between the beginning of his life and until he finally changes but his works orientation begins to spill over to his wife leah especially and
there are these amazing notations in chapter 29 and 30. look at after leah has her first son verse 32 of chapter 29 she says surely my husband will love me now that i've given him a son somehow jacob had communicated to leah that she would be loved and accepted as his wife if she finally delivered a son to him that's not unconditional love is it that's not grace that's a work's orientation it's spilled over into his relationship with leah leah has a second child and then a third one and in verse 34 after her third
son she says now at last my husband will become attached to me the works orientation is deepened she doesn't even want love from jacob anymore just an attachment will do my third son i give to him finally he will feel a little attachment to me it doesn't happen with the third son it doesn't happen with the fourth son it doesn't happen with the fifth son and finally she has a sixth son son in chapter 30 verse 19 she says this time my husband will treat me with honor god is the need for love god is
the need for attachment just treat me nicely and i'll be happy this works orientation has spilled out into his relationship with his wife like a works orientation frequently does but it wasn't just with with leah probably with his children probably with others he begins to work 20 years long he works for laban from the first time he goes to work for him until finally he notices in chapter 34 that something is changing in laban's attitude toward him chapter 31 verse 2. and he doesn't know exactly what it is but folks people get tired of people
in a works orientation that judgmental attitude that work strip that they put you on finally grades and was working badly with laban and jacob got the idea he needed to get out of there he was going to go back god said sure go back to the home you used to have and so do you remember in secret jacob and the wives and the children bundle up the suitcases and they put them on camels and away they go after laban has gone away to shear the sheep and jacob takes off and he goes in one direction
the opposite of laban and it's three days before laban even hears that his family is gone and he begins to run in the same direction that jacob and the children and the grandchildren have gone and it takes him another week to catch up with him on the way he takes a rest and god says to him don't hurt this man don't hurt him i've got great plans for him and so we see in chapter 31 this this coming together when finally laban catches up with jacob and they sit down and laban says what have you
done why have you taken my daughters and my grandchildren away and jacob's jacob's work orientation spills out toward laban look at verses 38 to 41 in chapter 31 jacob says i've been with you for 20 years now your sheep and your goats have not miscarried nor have i eaten rams from your flocks i did not bring you animals torn by wild beasts i bore the loss myself and you demanded payment from me for whatever was stolen by day or night this was my situation do you hear him keeping track of all of the things all
of the good things all the bad things he's got it all in the list doesn't he the heat consumed me in the daytime and the cold at night the sleep fled from my eyes it was like this for 20 years i was in your household i worked for you 14 years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks and you changed my wages ten times he's got it all written down and laban just sat sits there amazed at the venom spilling out from this works oriented man and then something absolutely amazing happens god
has also been working with laban you know the bible story is not just one tract but all kinds of things are going on at the same time you wouldn't have guessed that laban would be the gatekeeper to the gates of grace knowing what we know about crafty old laban but here laban is opening the gates of grace to his son-in-law jacob laban responds in grace he says you know what let's part friends may the lord watch between you and me while we're away from each other he says don't let me hear that you ever hurt
my daughters though i'll come after you if you do that you take good care of the daughters and i'll be okay and then the bible tells us the early the next morning laban kissed his grandchildren and his daughters and blessed them and left and returned home and now jacob is the one standing there with his mouth open expecting the worst from his father-in-law he has men met only with grace and kindness and good wishes you never know who it is that opens the gate of grace or how it is that those gates are opened it's
a good thing to watch out as you go through the day the people that you meet people you live with the people you're sitting next to right now you may be the person that opens the gates of grace to them i have a friend who had a very unhappy home she was an only child her mother and father were fighting her mother was a seventh-day adventist her father was not she was 15 16 years old was thinking about running away from home couldn't take the fighting in her home anymore her mother was not very well
in fact she was allergic to all kinds of things including tobacco smoke and she believes that it was because of the allergy that her father took up smoking just to be mean he smoked all day long the mother coughed walked outside to get fresh air finally my friend couldn't take it anymore one night late at night packed a bag early in the morning went out the back door of the house ran away went into the city lived for a few months away from her parents they didn't know where she was she didn't communicate with them
and in those few months that she was in the city she picked up some bad habits you think that somebody who had come from that particular home wouldn't do what she did but she started smoking and after a few months kind of unhappy with her life missed her mom and her dad she took a bus went back home late in the afternoon knocked in the back door her mother answered the door and there was the girl that she hadn't seen for 10 months mother threw her arms around her welcomed her in they sat at a
little table in the kitchen and began to talk the girl was telling her mom everything that she'd been doing well not quite everything that she had been doing and the girl noticed that the error in the house seemed fresher than it used to and it was quiet and peaceful and she kept looking around and she finally said where's dad mom said you know shortly after you left dad left too we're our divorce is final he's not here anymore i haven't heard from him for a few months my friend thought that was interesting was interested in
the cleanness in her house and and the the smile on her mother's face and and mother said would you like to sleep in your bed tonight and the girl did went up the stairs went into her bedroom unpacked her suitcase slept that night for the first time in 10 months in her home in her own bed next morning she was sitting on top of her bed kind of organizing things and her mother was cheering in the other side of the house and finally the mother stopped by the bedroom and she said i i've got to
go to the grocery store is there is there anything you'd like for me to pick up for you and the girl said to me my friend said i i realized that i needed to test my mother's love and she said mom i started smoking would you get me a carton of my favorite cigarettes and she said what they were allergic mother looked at her smiled left the room and an hour or so later when mom came back the girl was sitting on her bed still she heard her mother downstairs unpacking the groceries and she said
i wonder what mom's done and all of a sudden mom walked up the stairs came into her room and said here's what she asked me to get put a carton of cigarettes down on the bed you know i don't think i would have done it that way i don't know if you would have or not but the girl said to me she looked at her mother she looked at the carton of cigarettes and to this day she's never had the urge to smoke again you never know what it is that opens the gates of grace
unconditional love toward people who don't deserve it when we exhibit it to other people sometimes it tears down the barriers it introduces them again to god and they walk through the gates of grace laban responds to jacob and grace jacob is moved and the wrestling for merit begins to stop the work's orientation begins to melt he goes out that night preparing to meet his old enemy his brother esau and he kneels down and he prays now listen to the words of this prayer and listen to the changed man that we're beginning to be introduced to
genesis 32 beginning with verse 10 he says i am unworthy god of all of the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant this is a different man speaking a day earlier he had all of the lists of how worthy he was now he kneels down he says i'm unworthy of all the kindness and the faithfulness you've shown your servant i only had my staff when i crossed this jordan but now i have become two groups of people save me i pray from the hand of my brother esau for i am afraid but you have
said i will surely make you prosper will make your descendants like the sand of the sea which cannot be counted the next night jacob is wrestling again but this time with god and when he understands that our wrestling cannot prevail with god he holds on as tightly as he can and he says i will not let you go until you bless me and his name like abraham's name before is changed finally when jacob now israel meets his brother he is a different man esau says who are these people jacob says these are the children that
god has graciously given your servant when he gives a gift to his brother he says to esau please accept the present that was brought to you for god has been gracious to me and i have all i need what a change when jacob finally walks through the gates of grace and camps in the camp of god works oriented people constantly grasping always keeping a list grace oriented people understanding that god has given us all that we need don't you want to be among god's grace-oriented people today in patriarchs and prophets page 197 ellen white says
now his was the assurance of one who confesses his own unworthiness yet trusts the faithfulness of a covenant keeping god who's the hero of this story the covenant keeping god what kind of god is he one that gives people who don't deserve great blessings continue [Music] continuously giving them what they need as he speaks to you and me this morning let's thank him for being that kind of god father in heaven we are reminded again through another one of the stories you've left behind of what your face looks like and we see it again as
a gracious face a covenant keeping promise making trustworthy god we thank you for inspiring us to obey and follow you and witness to your love by your everlasting enduring grace in our behalf thank you for being this kind of god to us this morning in this place at this time and may we may our faces so shine with the light from your face that we might be the openers of the gates of grace to others this day we pray in jesus name amen and i i know that your heart is good and you you want
to help me but what i'm telling you is i don't need help i'm god i can do what i promise i have the power to do what i promise is it a message incidentally that you and i need to hear does it ever feel like god isn't doing what he promises this story says to us god has the power to do what he promises to do listen to god as he promises you don't need to help him he can fulfill his promises and then finally you would think after all of this with god standing in
front of them saying i'll come back in a year and you'll have a child you think that abraham and sarah would know but before we get to the birth of isaac we have to go through one more story in chapter 20 with this king abimelech and here we find that abraham has not been learning his lesson very well so he tells sarah one more time tell him you're my sister sarah's 90 years old she must have been a beautiful woman because abraham is still worried that he's going to get killed before isaac is born because
of his beautiful wife and so one more time he tries to help god out and it must have been such a relief to god when isaac was finally born maybe now abraham would learn the lesson it seems like sarah learned the lesson sarah says in as we get into the story of the birth of isaac in chapter 21 the lord was gracious to sarah as he had said the lord did for sarah what he had promised and verse 6 says that sarah said god has brought me laughter. you think of that whenever your children are
born your grandchildren were born when our first daughter was born our first child our daughter my wife turned over and looked at her and said that she looked just like me and started to laugh i'm not sure i appreciated that too much but karen always knows what it means when sarah said that god brought me laughter sarah seems to be happy seems to be giving the the glory to god and hebrews 11 verse 12 says and so from this one man and he as good as dead came descendants as numerous as the stars in the
sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore and now we come to genesis 22. the birth of isaac has happened in between the birth of isaac and the sacrifice of isaac a few years pass and we don't know much about what was going on in abraham's life but there is a clue in the 11th chapter of hebrews if you can hold your finger in chapter 22 and look in hebrews 11 the great faith story we go through the beginnings of the the hall of fame of faith there we see the beginning story of
the birth of isaac in abraham's life and then before we get to the sacrifice of isaac in hebrews 11 there is an interesting interlude notice it begins in verse 13 when the writer of hebrews 11 says all these people were still living by faith when they died they did not receive the things that they had pro that the things promised they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance and they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth verse 13 14 and 15 16 go on to say people who say such things show
that they are looking for a country of their own but if they have been thinking of the country they had left they would have had the opportunity to return instead they were longing for a better country a heavenly one therefore god is not ashamed to be called their god for he has prepared a city for them and then hebrews 11 goes into the sacrifice of isaac is there a clue for us bible students here the beginning of the year 2002 that as abraham began to relax with the birth of the son that god had promised
would be the son of inheritance as he began to look around at the land that he possessed that god had given him and the wealth that had collected and his lovely family as he began to relax about things on earth and thank god for fulfilling the promise his mind turned to a heavenly city and he began to think about how he was going to get to heaven ultimately is it possible that as he was growing older like many of us do as we get older we begin to wonder back on our lives and we begin
to think is god going to give me a heavenly home have i been faithful have i stood for the right have others seen jesus in me you know the song that we used to sing is it possible that abraham began to think about the heavenly country and that was where his mind was when genesis 22 begins the traditional interpretation you know of genesis 22 is good for abraham for obeying an arbitrary god good for abraham for knowing the voice of god even when god says murder the son that you love good for him for obeying
the traditional interpretation is that god did not feel that he had abraham's heart fully and so he gave him a test if you love me more than you love this son and when he comes to him he says your only son the son that you love isaac if you do that then you can prove that you love me how would you pass such a test i have never appreciated this test very much i have three grown children if god came to me at night and said to me i want you to take your oldest son
matthew whom you love take him out to a hill that i will show you and kill him i know exactly what i would say i would wake up in the morning and say to my wife the devil is tempting me to do something that i shouldn't do i wouldn't have no question in my mind that this was not the voice of god but the traditional interpretation is god knew the voice of god because it hurt it all his life and if god says kill your children that must be what we we want to do i've
struggled with that interpretation i hope you have struggled with it too i hope none of you this morning are ready to jump up at your out of your chair and run and find your children and kill them because you think that's what god wants you to do the true the contemporary rabbinical interpretation of the story is good for abraham for exposing an unjust god the rabbis are teaching these days that abram listened to this voice of an unjust god and he went out but he did not kill him they say it wasn't the angel that
stopped abram's hand it was abram's intelligence that finally said this is an unjust god i will not do it and abraham becomes the hero in the rabbinical tradition now because he is opposing an unjust god are we are we down to that is that the only interpretation that's left to us if we don't think that the traditional one of a god that's arbitrary telling abram to kill his children if that's not right are we left with an unjust god i can't go there either i'm afraid there must be another way to interpret it could there
be a clue to how we interpret this chapter in genesis in galatians 3 8 let me quote it to you don't need to look at it it says this the gospel was announced in advance to abraham we haven't talked much about the gospel in the life of abraham is there in galatians 3 8 a hint a clue on how to better interpret this story and is it the same thing that ellen white is talking about in the chapter of patriarchs and prophets on this test of abraham when she says it was to impress abraham's mind
with the reality of the gospel that god commanded him to slay his son is there the gospel story in what's going on well for there to be there let's think of again in the context of thinking about eternal life could the old pattern of feeling like he needed to help god have returned to abraham do we have any reason to believe that it had not returned could abraham had been one be wondering now if he had done enough to prove to god that he was worthy of being saved could he have been saying what do
i need to do to inherit eternal life like the rich young eager ruler that we talked about yesterday in church could the test have been not is he obedient enough but what is he still lacking to understand god could god be saying after all i've tried to teach him does he still not understand if you're still trying to help me abraham this time trying to help me get you to heaven maybe i can teach you a lesson by a powerful illustration and so verse 2 of chapter 22 says that god says to abram take your
only son isaac whom you love and sacrifice him as a burnt offering and apparently abraham accepts the proposal he gets up in the morning to do exactly what he was asked to do but while he has accepted the proposal apparently he can't bear to speak the truth to sarah he says not a word he sneaks out of the tent takes a couple of servants takes isaac and he leaves after a while of journeying he sees the mountain that god has said to him mount moriah and he says to the servants isaac isaac and i will
worship over there and then we'll come back thinking that he was going there to sacrifice isaac and on the way up the mountain isaac says to dad we have the wood for the sacrifice we have the knife we have the fire where's the sacrifice and abraham turns to the sun that he thinks he's about to kill and he says oh yeah god will provide the sacrifice a prophetic utterance but he didn't believe it he was telling him something to get his mind off of what was happening and so the story tells us that abraham binds
isaac on mount moriah places him on the altar begins to sacrifice him raises the knife to plunge it into the heart of his son and an angel reaches down and grasps abraham's wrists and says don't harm the child look there's a ram in the thicket what did abraham learn from the lesson is there anything we can turn to now and and say we know for certain that abraham caught the meaning that god intended to give him by this incredibly powerful illustration well in fact there is verse 14 of chapter 22 says that on the way
down the mountain after sacrificing the ram after after a wonderful scene of reunion with isaac abraham stops and he looks back up to the mountain to the altar and he says verse 14 abraham called this place the lord will provide and then the bible says this marvelous thing and to this day it is said i love it when the bible says that to this day whenever the chapter was written probably by moses much much later when god told him the stories of the beginnings but to this day the day that you and i sit here
in the big tent it's still there it's still being said to this day it is said on the mountain of the lord it will be provided that's the lesson that abraham learned you know where mount moriah is you do moriah is that great mountain on top of which sits jerusalem and suddenly abraham looked at the altar where he almost tried to sacrifice his son perhaps to try to help god save him if i'm this good if i would do this much if my works are this strong will that guarantee i have a place in heaven
and he realizes that god provides the sacrifice we don't provide the sacrifice we get to the heavenly city because on the mountain it is provided god provides the sacrifice what a wonderful preview of what would happen there on jerusalem the reality of the gospel is found in romans 3 verses 23 to 25 all have sinned and fall short of the glory of god and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by christ jesus whom god presented as a sacrifice of atonement who's the sacrifice that god provides jesus is any question in
your mind the sacrifice that is provided on mount moriah is jesus first john 4 10 this is love not that we loved god but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins is this a story about a hero named abraham and his good works or is it a story about a hero named god and what he does for us when paul wrote to the church in romans he and he devoted chapter 4 what we know today is chapter 4 to the same story beginning with verse 1 he says
what are we going to say about abraham our foe fathers what did he discover in this matter was he justified by works if he was he had something to be boastful about but not before god notice verse 4 and 5 now when a person works his wages are not credited to him as a gift but as an obligation however to the one who does not work but trusts god who justifies the wicked his faith is credited as righteousness what we learn from the abraham story is the same thing that paul wanted the church in rome
to learn from the story of abraham and isaac it is not our works that provide the sacrifice that justifies us and gets us to the heavenly city it's god who justifies and what our part in the bargain is believing is having the faith notice what paul continues to say to the church in rome over in verse 20 and 21 abraham was strengthened in his faith and he gave glory to god being fully persuaded that god has the power to do what he promises to do that's the message that we need to get from the story
finally perhaps god broke the pattern in abraham's life of abraham trying to help god out finally the one last illustration helped abraham understand that god has the power to do what he promises that's what faith is that's the definition of faith having trust in god that he has the power to do what he promised to do you and i this morning have been promised that god will save us he sent his son into the world to be a sacrifice so that every one of us who believe that he has the power to do what he
promises can go to the heavenly city it's the same lesson for us to learn today ellen white wrote a book called faith and works on page 24 she approaches this subject like this i ask myself how can i present this matter as it is the lord jesus imparts all the powers all the grace all the penitence all the inclination all the pardon of sins and presenting his righteousness for humans to grasp by living faith which is also the gift of god if you would gather together everything that is good and holy and noble and lovely
in humanity not just in the life of abraham not just in the life of one of you saints here but gather together together everything that is good and holy and noble and lovely and then present the subjects to the angels of god as acting a part in salvation of the human soul or in merit just apart the proposition would be rejected as treason they're pretty clear say to the angels that all the good things put together in humanity act just a part in salvation and the proposition would be rejected as treason standing in the presence
of their creator and looking upon the unsurpassed glory which enshrouds his person they are looking upon the lamb of god given from the foundation of the world to a life of humiliation to be rejected of sinful humans to be despised to be crucified who can measure the infinity of the sacrifice what we have to accept is that god provides the sacrifice and the gospel to abraham is the gospel to you and me on the mountain god will provide the sacrifice that gets us to the heavenly city what do we learn from the story who's the
hero the hero of genesis 22 abraham or god it's god who what do we know about this hero called god from everlasting he has approached us with a salvation that is a gift to us what do we find out about salvation that he wants to give it to us but that he wants us to know he provides the sacrifice we don't let's agree to learn the lesson together today of abraham in genesis 22. let's pray father we pause just a moment longer to praise you to give you glory for the infinite sacrifice beyond all understanding
of human hearts beyond the capabilities to fathom it of the angelic host beyond the comprehension of the unfallen worlds throughout the universe somehow in the goodness of your gracious heart you decided to give to us that which it is impossible for us to earn by ourselves no amount of good things that we do no amount of trying to help you out can get us to the heavenly city but we know this morning that that right has been given to us because of what jesus did and who jesus is and because this morning we accept him
and his life and death and resurrection in our behalf and at this moment we stand before you and the throne of grace just as if we had not sinned we glory in this moment with you and thank you and praise you for it in the name of our savior jesus christ amen
