Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Genesis chapter 25. Genesis 25. I'd like to look at verse 11. Genesis
25, 11. And it came to pass. You know
what? Isn't it wonderful to hear that?
that it just speaks, it has the ring of God's wisdom, power,
sovereignty. Everything we've been looking
in Ecclesiastes, there's a season and a time for every purpose,
pointed unto man, wants to die, want time to be born, time to
die. It came to pass, after the death
of Abraham, that God blessed his son, Isaac. And Isaac dwelt by the well,
Lahiroi. Now the Lord, turn to Genesis
12. The Lord had promised. He promised
Abraham that he was going to bless, gonna prosper. He was gonna bestow benefits
upon Abraham. Genesis 12, one to three, now
the Lord had said unto Abram, get thee out of thy country and
from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that
I will show thee, And I will make of thee a great nation,
I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be
a blessing. And I will bless them that bless
thee and curse him that curses thee, and in thee shall all the
families of the earth be blessed. So the Lord promised to bless
Abraham And all of the chosen in Christ, all of the lineage,
not everyone that came from Abraham, but the people of God, the chosen,
the elect, they would all be blessed, those who were found
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Genesis chapter 22
and verse 15, talking about God's blessing, Genesis 22 verse 15, and the angel of the Lord. This
was right after the Lord delivered Isaac from the knife of his dad
who was going to sacrifice him unto the Lord for a burnt offering.
And Abraham called the name of the place Jehovah-Jireh. As it
is said to this day in the mount of the Lord, it shall be seen
the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the
second time and said, by myself have I sworn, saith the Lord,
for because thou hast done this thing and hast not withheld thy
son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and
in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the
heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore, and thy
seed shall possess the gate of his enemy. So the Lord had promised
Abraham that he was going to bless him. And I'm going to bless
all that was found in Abraham, those chosen in Christ. They
were going to be blessed. But he had promised also specifically
that he was going to bless Isaac too. Genesis 17, we've gone over
these, but just as a remembrance, Genesis 17, in verse 20 and 21,
Genesis 17, 20, as for Ishmael, I have heard thee. Behold, I
have blessed him, and I will make him fruitful. I will multiply
him exceedingly. Twelve princes shall he begat,
and I will make him a great nation. but my covenant will I establish
with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this set time
in the next year. So Abraham was blessed of God. And his son Isaac was also blessed
of the Lord according to his good pleasure, God's good pleasure
to bless Isaac. And when we consider God's blessing,
Turn over to Ephesians 1. When we consider God's blessing,
we think of the blessing, you know, so many times you'll talk,
I'm talking about two people, somebody, and they've been, they've
had some good health or they've been delivered from a disease
or something, and they talk about, oh, I'm telling you, the Lord
has really blessed me. Well, God's people in this world, they
receive the blessings of the creation of the Lord, but sometimes
not, but spiritually, spiritually. Ephesians 1, 3 said, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. all of the spiritual blessings
of the Lord given unto his people, all according, as he said, concerning
Isaac. My covenant is going to be with
Isaac. Covenant mercy chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world that we should be holy
and without blame before Him in love. So, chosen of God, redeemed
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and blessed in regenerating
power and grace by the Spirit of God, the cleansing, leading,
sealing, keeping power of God's Spirit. are blessed of God. And with the knowledge of this
eternal spiritual blessings being made known unto us, the Lord,
and turn with me to Matthew 5. I'm gonna stay here for just
a few minutes. The Lord had been pleased to set forth in his sermon
on the mouth the glorious evidence of God's blessing to his people.
And when we start talking about blessings, let's hear what the
Lord has to say. concerning those that are truly
blessed. Blessed of God. Matthew chapter
five in verse three. Now the Lord is preaching this
message. He's preaching a message on the mountain. And here's what
he says. Blessed, happy, happy, joyful. These people are happy. Blessed
are the poor in spirit. for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Now, somebody can be poor in
this world, poor financially, poor in esteem of others, but
those that are found to be spiritually poor, blessed are those who are
convinced that they in themselves have no fit righteousness of
their own to commend them before God. Now that's a blessed man. That's a blessed woman. Someone
who knows, according to these scriptures, that they're poor. spiritual poverty, and therefore
they continually find themselves, because of being convinced of
their spiritual poverty, they're like blind Barnimaeus. In heart,
Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. That is the foundational
blessing of Almighty God. He brings his people down in
their own estimation of themselves. Saul of Tarsus, thought himself
to be something. And the Lord brought him down.
And what that does is it makes us aware of our need of the Lord. He's the all-sufficient Savior. And to be found poor in spirit. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Why? Because theirs is the kingdom
of God. You know, somebody poor in this
world, You, if you don't have the money, or if you don't have
somebody that'll back you, well, you just don't get it. But to
be poor in spirit, let me tell you the blessing of being made
poor in spirit, theirs is God's kingdom. They're heirs of God,
and joint heirs with Christ. I've said so many times, I see
through a glass darkly, Mike. I can't get into that. I just,
heirs of God. Joint heirs with Christ. That
which the Father according to covenant, mercy and grace to
his people. The honoring of his son. All
I can do is I can just, I say, Lord, as you say it is, it is.
Blessed are the poor in spirit. Theirs is the kingdom. They have
the kingdom. Verse four, blessed are they
that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are those
that grieve. Now, you know, there's a grieving
that we know of. We lose somebody, things don't
go well for us. But to be made to grieve or to
mourn over my sin. what I see in myself. When life is imparted by the
Spirit of God, and we have new eyes to see, new ears to hear,
new eyes to see, and we begin to see something that we never
saw before. We always really thought ourselves
of being something. We may not be as good as everybody,
but we're, I mean, you know, I'd put myself at about that
75, 80%. You know, I mean, there may be some that'll, but I'm,
that's the natural man's thinking. I'm, you know, I'm not weighed
down here, but I'm, but to grieve over my sin and to realize immediately
that the wretchedness of my old man, the failure, You that know
him, you know what I'm talking about. The failure to think as
I ought. The waywardness of my reading
the scriptures. Reading scriptures, and then
next thing I know, I just, I'm thinking, I don't even remember
what I just read. Go back and read that again.
Tried to pray. Being sensitive to, you know. Blessed are they that mourn.
Why? They're gonna be comforted. They're
going to be comforted. Everyone born of God can enter
in to the words of the Apostle Paul, O wretched man that I am,
who shall deliver me from the body of this death? And the truth
of the matter is that This is the way it's going to be for
the rest of our lives. In fact, it's going to get worse,
get worse. You think I'd be getting, you
know, a little bit better. Oh no, oh no. We began to see
more and more of our wretchedness, our insensitivity before the
Lord and before others, before his word, concerning his word. The more we see of ourselves,
the more precious is the promise of God. They shall be comforted. Comforted. Comforted with the
continual reminder by the Spirit of God. I began to think when
I was writing these notes out of the comfort that we receive. And let me just, again, reiterate
what I just said about the wretchedness of myself. What makes me so sick
of me is that I'm getting ready to read a scripture, it's Romans
8.1, and it just grieves me that I can't enter into that as I
ought. There is therefore now, Now this ought to be the comfort
of a believer. Mourning over his sin. There
is therefore now no condemnation to them which be in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. There's
no condemnation. I see what I am. I know something
of me. If you knew me really, if you
really knew me, you wouldn't want me up here. You wouldn't,
you wouldn't. Listen to this one. Listen to
this comfort. Blessed are those whose iniquities
are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to
whom the Lord will not impute sin. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord, because he's imputed
it already to his son, will not impute sin. He won't charge me with it. Blessed are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted. Verse five. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Meekness is a spirit or an attitude
of, number one, respect lowliness unto the Lord, and gentleness,
kindness toward other men. It's a spirit meekness. I've said before, that's not
weakness. It's not weakness. It's an attitude of humility. unto the submission of the will
of God. It's a realization of who I am,
somewhat of who I am, who He is. It's an understanding, somewhat
of an understanding, that He's the Lord, that He's God, that
He's the shepherd of the sheep. And I'm the needy sheep of His
pasture. It's a submission unto His providential
dealings with all men, especially me. Meekness. It's the Lord, Eli said. Let
Him do that which He will. Let Him do. It's to submit unto
Him. He's the master and the servant. Blessed are the meek. They shall
inherit the earth. Now, different writers, and this,
I tried to get somewhat of a hold on what was being said, and most
of the writers that I read all admitted, you know, that it's
a very, that's a very, that's a very tough part. They shall inherit the earth.
They shall inherit the blessings. of the Lord in this life, all
that the Lord has providentially been pleased to give us, knowing
that all things that come about in this life, all of them work
together for good to them that love God, but they shall inherit
the new earth when the Lord makes all things new. Blessed are the
meek. They're gonna inherit the earth. Verse six, Blessed are they which
do hunger and thirst after righteousness. Spiritually being found to be
hungry and thirsty after the righteousness of Christ alone. Now that's a blessed man. That's
a blessed woman. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after the righteousness that is of Christ Jesus only. He who is the Lord, our righteousness,
everyone born of God knows that his own righteousness is but
filthy rags, that righteousness that'll never be accepted of
God. But there's a desire to be found in him, not having mine
own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through
the faith of Christ, the righteousness, which is of God by faith. Ours,
which is given unto us, and we know it only by faith. That's
all we know. I don't see. I don't see myself walking as
I ought. But as the Lord says, all found
in him that believe him were robed in his righteousness. Blessed
are the meek, they'll inherit the earth. Blessed are they that
hunger and thirst after his righteousness. That righteousness that has been
established by the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ, imputed
to those who believe, received by faith in him, They long only
to be robed in that righteousness. Blessed are they that do hunger
and thirst after righteousness, they shall be filled. And again, you think about these
scriptures, we've read them so many times, but boy, as I was
reading them, I'm thinking, these are to be pondered over. Blessed
are they that hunger and thirst, they shall be filled. David said
in Psalm 71a, My mouth shall be filled with
thy praise and with thy honor all day, all the day. David's,
I mean, Paul's prayer, turn over to Philippians 1. Philippians
chapter 1, verse 8 to 11. Blessed are those that hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled, filled. Listen to Philippians 1, 8 to
11. For God is my record. How greatly
I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ. And this I pray
that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and
all judgment, that ye may approve things that are excellent, that
ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ,
being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by
Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. Filled with the fruits of righteousness. Blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness. They're gonna be filled. They
will be filled. Look at verse seven. Blessed
are the merciful, blessed. Blessed are the happy, are the
merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are those that
are merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. This is not a blessing,
I can tell you this, of God's mercy that's dependent upon whether
or not I've shown mercy to others. Because if it was blessed on
my merit, If it depended on me, having
God show mercy about whether or not I was truly merciful,
here's what it would say. Blessed are the merciful for
they're gonna receive condemnation because my spirit of mercy toward
others won't measure up in myself. But what the Lord was saying
right here is those who have obtained mercy Find that there's
now a new heart there to be merciful toward others. There's a heart that gives and
forgives. There's a kind and graciousness
for Christ's sake, for Christ's sake. I wonder how many times
I can remember my kids growing up trying to teach them, we do
this for the sake of the Lord. For Christ's sake, we do this.
How many times we talk to somebody, somebody's got a problem, there's
a squabble or something, and we say, listen, for the sake
of the gospel, for the sake of the spirit among the brethren,
for the sake of the Lord, for the sake of Christ, blessed are
the merciful, they shall obtain mercy. One that has been given
a heart to be kind and gracious for the Lord's sake. and he considers
the mercy that's been shown him. Turn to Ephesians 4. Ephesians
chapter 4. Ephesians 4, 29 to 32. Let no corrupt communication
proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use
of edifying. that it may minister grace unto
the hearers. And grieve not the Holy Spirit
of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. I got this from Brother Henry.
He was talking about that scripture, grieve not the Holy Spirit. He
said, now, you know, you think about this. Now, how am I gonna
grieve the Holy Spirit. He said it has something to do
with the spirit of the believers. This is talking about the spirit
of God. There's no doubt about it. But the grieving of the spirit
among the people of God. How is that? What do you do?
Well, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and
evil speaking be put away from you. all malice, and be ye kind
one to another, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's
sake hath forgiven you. Blessed are the merciful, for
they shall attain mercy. Verse eight, blessed are the
pure in heart, Now you know our heart by nature is corrupt. This is the way we all are. I'll read this, Genesis 6, 5.
If you want to know all of us by nature, here we are. This wasn't just in the book
of Genesis. This is tonight. This is how
all men are born. God saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. That's man by nature. But blessed are the pure in heart. Now, that truth right there is
found one way. In regenerating grace, the Spirit
of God comes, and the Lord said, this is Ezekiel 36, 26. We've
looked at this so many times. I will take out, I'll take away
that stony heart, and I'm gonna give you a new heart, a heart
of flesh, and I'll write my law on your heart. and I'll be your
God, you'll be my people. Now, there's a new creation. There's a new man created in
righteousness, true holiness. That pure heart, and it knows,
it sees, and it loves, it loves God, and it loves God's people. And the scripture declares that
that new heart that is born from above, the Lord told Nicodemus,
verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God. They'll see God. That new heart is that. It's not a reformation of the
old heart. That old heart that was dead,
there's a new heart of flesh. That's what Ezekiel 36, 26. Turn
to Jeremiah 32. Jeremiah 32. I was reading this just a few
minutes ago before everybody started getting here. And there's
one word in here. It's the word O-N-A, one. And
I thought, that's such a precious truth. Jeremiah 32, verse 37
to 40. Jeremiah 32, 37 to 40. I'm gonna
start in 36. Now, therefore, thus saith the
Lord, the God of Israel, concerning this city, Wherefore you say
it shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by
the sword and by the famine, by the pestilence. Behold, the
Lord says concerning his people, I will gather them out of all
countries, whether I have driven them in mine anger, in my fury,
great wrath. I will bring them again unto
this place and I will cause them to dwell safely. And they shall
be my people, and I will be their God. And I will give them," here
it is, one heart, one way, that they may fear me forever for
the good of them and of the children after them. And I will make an
everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from
them to do them good. But I will put my fear in their
hearts and they shall not depart from me. Blessed are those people
right there. The Lord said, I'm gonna give
them one heart and one way. Now let me tell you the blessing
that I've realized. I looked up that one heart and
one way. What it means is in agreement.
I'm gonna give them one heart. I'm gonna give them one way. What is it that's, distinctive
of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ as opposed to all other
religions in the world. All believe the same thing. They
believe the same thing about themselves. They believe the
same thing concerning the God of glory. They believe the same
thing. All denominations, they've all
got different beliefs. They've got different ways. I'm
going to give them one heart, and there's going to be one way.
To a believer, salvation is by grace, through faith, and that not of
yourselves. It's the gift of God. They all
believe one thing. They believe God. They believe
God has chosen them in Christ. They believe Christ paid their
debt in particular. They believe that the Spirit
of God is gonna call all of God's sheep out. They believe one way,
one way. Blessed are the pure in heart,
that's them. That's that new heart that believes
God. They shall see God. They see Him. They see Him in
the scriptures. And they're going to see Him,
Joe, say, in my flesh. I'm going to see God. They're
going to see Him. And then, verse 9, back in Matthew
chapter 5, verse 9 says, Blessed are the peacemakers, for they
shall be called the children of God. Blessed are those who
Not those that think that they've established peace with God through
their own works or will. Christ alone, on behalf of his
people, has borne their sin in his own body and made peace with
God through the shedding of his own precious blood. But the peacemakers
are those who are ruled and led by, number one, by the Prince
of Peace. by the shepherd himself. And they know that the only way
of peace is what I'm just talking about. The way of peace is the
Lord Jesus Christ who is the way, the truth, the life. And
the only message that they believe is that peace has been established
with the Lord and declared through the gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace. The peacemakers, Peace has been
established for us by the Lord, and therefore we strive to live
peaceably, the scripture declares, with all men, especially those
of the household of faith. Blessed are the peacemakers,
they shall be called the children of God. And then lastly, verse
10 and 11, blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness'
sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, Blessed are you when
men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil
against you falsely, my sake. You know, if you're persecuted
because of our own haughty, proud, arrogant, insensitive attitude
or spirit toward others, Man's gonna have friends, show himself
to be friendly. That's what Proverbs says. But
if you're persecuted for not being gracious and stuff, well,
okay. People are gonna give you just
exactly what you give them. You're gonna be angry for them. They just leave you alone. But
the Lord has promised a persecution that shall be experienced by
God's people, not because of their arrogance toward people
or their haughtiness toward people. They're going to be persecuted
because of God's particular and distinguishing love for them.
Why is it that the world, you know the scripture, turn with
me to John 15. You know the scripture declares that you'll be hated
of all men for my name's sake. He said the world hated him before
it hated us. Why? What is it about a believer,
what is it about what a believer believes that makes the world
hate, hate him? What is it? The Lord gave the
answer. John 15, verse 19. John 15, 19. If you were of the world, If
you were of the world's religion, if you were of the world's ways,
the world would love his own. But because you're not of the
world, but I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world
hateth you. You said you mean to tell me
that false religion, the world, hates God's people because God
has chosen a people out of the world unto himself. You're telling
me that's why they hate? That's what the Lord said. Why? Because those that believe that
their justification before God is established by their own works. And when you declare that justification
before God is not by the deeds of the law, It's not by the deeds of the
law. And you're telling them now what you believe is wrong. And you're not justified before
God by what you did. We're justified before God by
the righteousness of Christ, by our sin debt being paid by
His blood, and it's by grace. It's through faith alone. And
when you tell them that what they're doing is worthless, they
will hate you. They'll hate you. They're gonna
persecute you. We conclude that man is justified,
Romans 3.28, by faith without the deeds of the law. So the
scripture declares blessed You have been blessed of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted
for righteousness' sake. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you
and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. You're blessed. You're blessed. No one's ever been persecuted
for being an exemplary citizen, but proclaiming and believing
that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ
alone, will bring the persecution of the Pharisees, believe me,
upon you. The gospel of God's grace exposes
the lie, and they hate you. Well, I'm gonna wrap this up. Genesis 25, the scripture says,
and after the death of Abraham, God blessed Isaac, his son Isaac. And Isaac dwelt by the well,
Lehiroi. He remained there. He abode there. That last part of that verse,
what it speaks of, is the keeping grace of the Lord toward his
people. Now, I always say I don't want to speak dogmatically upon
anything the Spirit of God has not dogmatically declared, but
the place, I'll just say this, it just appears as though to
be very consistent with this scripture, the place of Isaac's
dwelling. It says he dwelt by the well
Lehiroi. If you remember, that's the well
that the Lord met Hagar in Ishmael. Remember, whenever Sarah told
Abraham to cast her out, cast out the woman, that boy's not
gonna be with the inheritance of my boy. And so Abraham cast
him out, gave him some bread and gave him some water, and
when the water and bread was gone, Hagar just put Ishmael
over here so she wouldn't see him die. And God had already
said he was gonna make him a great, you know, he was gonna bless
him in this world and he was gonna be prince over many, you
know, nations and things like this. And so God said he was
gonna do it. Well, the Lord comes to him and he meets him at this
well right here, Lehiroi. And that's where, and Isaac knew
of that well. And that's the place where God
met Hagar and taught Hagar something of his overruling providence.
She thought they were going to die and God overruled and delivered
them. And then that well was called the well of him that liveth
and seeth me. Go back and look in your index
there, in your margin. That's what it is. Lehiroi, that's
what it means. Him that liveth and seeth me. And Isaac was at
this well. He dwelt at the well Lehiroi. That was the place that he was
coming from whenever he went out and met Rebekah, when he
saw the camels coming. This is where he was coming from,
right here, that well. Lehiroi, that was where he was
out, coming from that place where he went out to meditate. and
seeking the Lord. So that was a place where the
Lord had been pleased to manifest himself in that well. But that place, that well, that's
the part that really stuck with me. Do we not behold a picture? Talking about that well that
was out in that desert place. That well that was a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He who is the well of life. At
that place where there's sustenance, water, refreshment, in a dry
and thirsty land, that's where Isaac dwelt. He was gonna dwell
where God was pleased to bless. I pray that the Lord would teach
us something of being blessed of God. After Abraham died, the
Lord blessed his son, Isaac, and Isaac dwelt at that well,
the well Lehiroi. Lord, bless these words to our
hearts for your glory and our good. Amen. Okay, Gary.