The sermon, delivered by Jason Dohm, explores the story of Abraham as portrayed in Genesis 22. It highlights Abraham as a man who walked by faith, emphasizing four main points: true fear of God results in immediate obedience, complete obedience, trust in God, and makes one a powerful tool in God's hands. The narrative begins with God's promise to Abraham to make him a great nation through his heir, Isaac. Abraham's faith is tested when God commands him to sacrifice Isaac. Despite the immense challenge, Abraham obeys without delay, demonstrating his deep fear and trust in God. This act of faith is underscored by Hebrews 11, which reveals that Abraham believed God would fulfill His promises even if it meant raising Isaac from the dead. The sermon calls believers to emulate Abraham's faith, urging them to pursue immediate and complete obedience to God, trust Him fully, and become instruments of His will.

Let's ask for the Lord's help. Oh God, I pray that your spirit would be here present among us to help us. God, please come and attend upon the preaching of your word to stir us up in our hearts to cause us to love you and to fear you with a with a filial fear not a servile fear that drives you drives us from you but a the fear of a son with a loving father that brings us near to you. How God we long to be brought near to you. I pray that you would use your word to do it in Jesus name.

Amen. Well, my topic tonight is Abraham, the man who walked by faith. And if you would turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 22. I want to give you the lead up to Genesis chapter 22. In Genesis chapter 12 we meet Abram, he's 75 years old, and God appears to him and God tells him that Abram is going to be made a great nation and that all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him.

In chapter 15, God comes to reaffirm his promise that he's made. And Abram says, how will you bless me? I don't even have an heir. The heir of my household is a servant from Damascus. And God says, no, I will give you an heir.

And in verse 6, chapter 15 verse 6, the Bible says that Abram believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. And in the New Testament both Paul and James point to Genesis chapter 15 verse 6, Abram believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness and they say that's saving faith. In chapter 16 years have gone by and Abram still doesn't have an heir And so by the suggestion of his wife Sarah, they take matter into their own hands. Sarah says, I have a servant. Treat my servant as a wife.

And any children you have by her will be accounted to be mine. And this can be the child of the promise. And so they do that and Ishmael is born as a consequence of that. But in chapter 17, When Abram is 99 years old, 99 years old, God appears to him and says, this time next year you will have a child by your wife, Sarah. And in chapter 19, Abram's name is changed to Abraham and Sarai's name is changed to Sarah.

And in chapter 21, Abraham is a hundred years old and God fulfills his promise to give him an heir and Isaac is born. So this is the lead-up to our text and chapter 22. So Now in chapter 22 I'd like to read verses 1 through 19. Please follow along as I read. Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him Abraham and he said, here I am.

Then he said, take now your son, your only son Isaac whom you love and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son. And he split the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place of far off and Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey the lad and I will go yonder and worship and we will come back to you." So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took the fire in his hand and a knife and the two of them went together. But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, My father.

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

And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. So he said, here I am. And he said, do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son from me.' Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns.

So Abraham went and took the ram and offered it for a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place the Lord will provide. As it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord it shall be provided. Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time out of heaven and said, by myself I have sworn says the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, blessing I will bless you and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice." So Abraham returned to his young men and they rose and went together to Beersheba and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.

I believe the centerpiece of this text is verse 12 where Abraham has stretched out his hand, taken the knife to slay his son, And then the angel of the Lord, the Lord, God, calls from heaven and says, Abraham, Abraham, don't lay a hand on your son. He says, now I know that you fear God. Now I know. Abraham's willingness to obey God in this his willingness to stretch out his hand to take the knife in his hand to dislay his son was was irrefutable evidence that Abraham in his heart of hearts feared the Lord and that disobeying the Lord even even in this thing was unthinkable to him. So I do believe that verse 12 is a centerpiece of the text and I want to draw four things out of this text about the fear of the Lord.

Are you ready for these four things? First, number one, true fear of God results in immediate obedience. True fear of God, the real thing, results in immediate obedience. The promise that God would make Abraham a great nation. The promise of air and air and many many offspring becoming a great nation.

This promise was given when Abraham was 75 years old. Isaac was born when Abraham was a hundred years old. There was 25 years of hope delayed, hope deferred. Undoubtedly questioning and frustration and not understanding why the promise wasn't being fulfilled yet but finally the promise is fulfilled and and Isaac is what is what they had hoped for he was the child of promise He's now old enough to interact with his parents and God acknowledges that Isaac is the son that Abraham, it was his only son, it was the son that He loved and he calls for the life of his son. He calls for Abraham to take the life of his son.

And in verse 3, look back at verse 3, here's what we read. So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son and he's splitting wood. God commands Abraham to do this and early the next morning Abraham is making preparations and leaving for Mount Moriah. This might be one of the times where you or I would have said, I'd like to think this over. And with the passage of time, we can construct the reasons why we didn't hear what we thought we heard or we shouldn't do what God had said.

This is Abraham knows nothing of this. Abraham hears the command from God and Mount Moriah is at a distance and the next morning he's up and he's making preparations and he is leaving in order to obey. True fear of God results in immediate obedience. He didn't need time to think it over. At a hundred years old, at more than a hundred years old, Isaac was born when he was a hundred.

He knows by now what delay means. And not obeying God is unthinkable to this man who fears the Lord and so there is no delay. There is immediate obedience. Number two. So that's number one.

True fear of God results in immediate obedience. Number two. True fear of God results in immediate obedience number two true fear of God results in complete obedience Listen again to The second part of verse 12 where God says, for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only Son from me. For now I know that you fear God because you've not withheld." Okay, this is the key point of the verse. There was no withholding even of the most precious thing.

If you've been walking with the Lord for a while, you know that there are things that are easy to give over to the Lord. It's not much price to pay, but for Abraham, this reached as far as there was to reach into his life. To the most precious thing, to the thing that he had looked for maybe impatiently for 25 years. And here is his only son, here is the son who he loves here's the sons that supposed to be lead to the fulfillment of the promises that God has made to him that he would be a great nation and that all nations would be blessed through him so everything inside of him had to have been screaming withhold But he won't withhold Okay, complete obedience reaching all the way into the most precious thing. This reminds me of David where he says, I will not offer to the Lord that which costs me nothing.

This is the heart of Abraham too. Not only would he not offer to the Lord something that cost him nothing, he was willing to offer to the Lord what would cost him the most. He would not withhold. True fear of God results in complete obedience. Number three, true fear of God results in trust in God.

I think this is going to be a theme that will be developed all weekend long, which is the close relationship, the close connection between the fear of God and faith in God, trusting in God, and how the true fear of God is a precursor. It precedes trust in God or saving faith as as John Newton was already quoted. Twas faith that taught my heart to fear. Twas grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved. It is the fear of God that precedes trusting in God and we find this in Hebrews 11.

Again, the great faith chapter. Listen to Hebrews 11's reflection on the account that we read in Genesis chapter 22. It's Hebrews 11 verses 17 through 19. By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. And he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son of whom it was said in Isaac your seed shall be called concluding that God was able to raise him up even from the dead from which he also received him in a figurative sense.

If in Genesis 22 we were wondering what was going through Abraham's mind, Hebrews 11 tells us what was going through Abraham's mind. It was this, God has promised me that he's going to fulfill his promises through Isaac. So if I kill him, God will raise him from the dead. Because it was unthinkable to Abraham that God would fail to keep his promises. And so because he had this filial fear, the fear that a son or a daughter has towards a good father, a loving father, because Abraham had this kind of fear in his heart.

He trusted God. He trusted God. And that trust had already been accounted to him for righteousness. It is this trusting in God that allows us to lay hold of the work of Jesus Christ on behalf of sinners. That's how you grab hold of the work that Jesus did on behalf of sinners is a transfer of trust.

You forsake all those things that you used to trust in, and you say I only trust one thing now and forevermore, and it is that Jesus has died and offered himself as a substitute for those who stand condemned. That's how it looks under the new covenant. That's how it looks now that we can see the promises of God in the full light of the day, in the full light of day in the new covenant. And So, the fear of God and trust in God go hand in hand. The fear of God preceding and paving the way for trust in God.

So number one was true fear of God results in immediate obedience. Number two was the true fear of God results in complete obedience, not withholding anything, even the most precious thing. Number three is the true fear of God results in trust in God as we see Hebrews 11 reflecting on what we on the account that we have in Genesis 22. Number four finally, men who truly fear God are powerful tools in the hands of God. Men who truly fear God are powerful tools in the hands of God.

Men who truly fear God are powerful tools in the hands of God. Back to Genesis 22, look again at verse 18. Genesis 22 verse 18. In Genesis 22 verse 18. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice.

We've already seen in verse 12 that it was the fear of God that produced the obedience to God. Verse 12, for now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son." Okay it was the fear of God that produced the obedience of God and verse 18 God looks upon Abraham's obedience and he says in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice." When the fear of God causes us to trust in God in a way that makes disobedience unthinkable. You have to look at Abraham and say to this man if he would not even withhold his son, disobedience must have been unthinkable. When that is produced in the heart of a man, God is ready to use him mightily. God raises up men, gives them that fear, gives them that trust that results in a radical obedience and Then he turns the world upside down with them If we want to see those things we have to have this thing brothers if we would pray to see Revival in our lifetime and to see the Lord turn our world upside down in our lifetime We must fear the God of fear God like this so that we trust God like this so that we obey God like this because men like that are powerful tools in the hands of God and it is the work of God.

Let's pray. Let's pray. God, we marvel at a man who would be made to wait for so long to see your promises begin to be fulfilled and then to have what seemed like that pulled back through your command to him and have him obey to walk by faith and not by sight in any way and to obey you and in a most Immediate and complete and radical way God we are confronted when we see this kind of obedience God I pray that you would bring us face to face with the difference between the condition of our own hearts and the maturity of this man who trusted you so thoroughly who feared you so thoroughly that to disobey you was unthinkable to him oh God please please raise us up as men who have something of this spirit Please work in our lives to make us ready for your work in the world. God we say that we long to see it. See you do something remarkable in our lifetime.

I pray that you would make us ready as instruments, radically willing to obey you in all things. God, please send your spirit in our hearts to do this. Oh God, pray in Jesus' name, amen. So we're gonna take 10 minutes, here's your assignment. Fathers, get with your sons and pray.

I want to call for a time of repentance. When we see the immediate obedience to a command like this and a complete obedience, an obedience that withholds nothing from God, I think we should be pierced to the heart when we see that. I think we should acknowledge that there's a gulf between us and the speed of obedience and the completeness of our obedience in this. And I think we, fathers, we should lead the way in repenting and in asking God to come do a work in our hearts to make us men like this. Go and pray.