Seeing the Lamb Slain!

Grace Bible Church

Abraham laid Isaac on the alter and prepared to slay him, as commanded by God, but the Angel of the Lord stopped him at the last moment.But then Abraham turned and looked, and saw the ram caught in the thicket, provided by God, for the sake of Isaac!No doubt, that look was prompted by the Holy Ghost, so that Abraham might see the lamb that God had provided, just as He said He would!The instant Abraham saw that lamb, he understood everything: God's Lamb is slain in the sinner's place, and His wrath is done away with!The Holy Ghost had prepared Abraham's heart to see the lamb, and to grasp its necessity.Why is it, then, when we preach the Lamb to the lost around us, He is almost universally rejected? It is because lost men think they have no need for a Lamb of sacrifice to take away their sin.They are lost in their sin, and therefore they cannot see the need for a Lamb to save them.Trusting in the Lamb is unnatural without the converting power of the Holy Ghost to convince us of our sin, and judgment, and wrath, and salvation.Paul teaches that the natural man knows of God, but rejects that knowledge of God in rebellion. Therefore, he can only slide deeper and deeper into sin and willful blindness.The natural man, being void of the Holy Spirit, cannot receive the things of the Spirit, for they are foolishness to him. This doesn't mean that lost man cannot grasp the basic content and meaning of the Gospel, but rather that he cannot embrace it, or value it, or trust in it.The gospel is hidden from the lost, because the god of this world has blinded the minds of all unbelievers, so that the light of the gospel of Christ cannot shine unto them.