Turn in your Bibles, if you would
please, to Hebrews chapter 11. And when you go to college, or
probably any school, they give you a syllabus. I didn't know
what that was until I went to college. Shows you the things you learn
by going to college. But the syllabus tells you what
you're going to be required to study, what they're going to
cover. And sometimes we wonder, what shall we go to next in scripture?
God has given us a syllabus, it's the scripture itself. So
we just follow it through here. And here we are in Hebrews chapter
11 and verse 20. I've entitled today's message,
By Faith, Isaac. So you'll see why. Let's pray. Our gracious and dear Heavenly
Father, we thank you for your word you've so abundantly given
to us through the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, concerning
him. and by Him who is the Word of God, the prophet, anointed
prophet, to speak your words to make God known to us in Himself,
in His words, in His life, in death, and now in His resurrected,
exalted place in glory, sovereign over all things. Help us to see
today, dear Father, what you have given us by way of instruction
to life. Your words are life. They concern
our Savior. And help us, dear Lord, as we
consider these we've mentioned in prayer, in love, those who
have been blessed, those who are suffering affliction, those
who have been given to us to encourage us and to pray for
us and to befriend us in this life. We pray, Lord, your blessings
on them, that you would be with them. Especially, we pray, Lord,
you'd be with Tim's family and Eddie, his brother. And we thank
you for Tim and we thank you for the grace you've given to
him. We pray, Lord, you'd be merciful to Eddie and do for
him what only you can do according to your grace. And now, Lord,
be with us for Christ's sake. In his name we pray, amen. Hebrews chapter 11. Verse 20, by faith Isaac blessed
Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. If you look back in
Hebrews chapter 11, you'll also see in verse eight, or verse
nine, by faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise as in
a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob,
the heirs with him of the same promise. And then you'll see
in verse 13, these all died in faith, not having received the
promises, but having seen them afar off. That's what faith is,
is that perception of spiritual realities, eternal realities,
because of God's promises in Christ. Having seen them afar
off and were persuaded of them, That's the work of God in us.
We don't persuade ourselves. We don't force this doctrine
into our own minds. God persuades us and embrace
them. That's a glad trust, a glad laying
hold on the salvation in Christ our Savior. And they confess
that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Having
once trusted Christ, we don't stop trusting him. We walk with
him. We live upon Him and we realize that this world is a
strange place to us. that we believe now what the
world doesn't understand, and we declare it, we publish the
name of the Lord, and yet we realize that only God gives us
that grace, and we pray for those that we love who don't know Christ,
and we want them to, because the Lord has made himself known
to us, but we ourselves are strangers and pilgrims. This world is not
our home. Being with Christ is our home. So we delight that
in this world God has given us the fellowship of the gospel
with the saints here. But this is Isaac's life. He
lived in tents with his father Abraham and his son Jacob. And he didn't receive in the
experience of his life the promises God told him were his in Christ. He only had them by faith. Look
at verse one of Hebrews 11. Now faith is the substance of
things hoped for. What we have now by this God-given
grace of faith in Christ is the very substance of all that we
hope for. And it says, the evidence of
things not seen. We don't see what God has said
in our experience, but we have these eyes, this perception of
the truth and we're firmly persuaded of it and we lay hold on it by
this grace of faith. And so back to verse 20, by faith
Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. Seems
like a small comment on a man's life, doesn't it? And maybe like
me, Maybe like me, you're tempted to think Isaac's life was not
very significant, especially since so little is said about
him here in the 11th chapter of Hebrews. It says that he blessed
Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. And so that confirms
to us that faith is the substance of things hoped for because when
Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, it was concerning things to come.
things that were not yet received in experience, but things that
would happen that he believed by God's word were certainly
going to happen, and he hoped for them, he waited for them
in this grace of faith. And so he confessed this, but
he also blessed Jacob and Esau with respect to those things
to come. And that takes great grace and
faith to be able to do that. He didn't do it pretending. He
was firmly persuaded of it. He spoke of future things as
if they were real because God calls those things which be not
as though they were. And he spoke about them even
before they came to pass, long before they came to pass. And
he never received them in his life, and yet he was completely
persuaded of them and embraced them. This is the way things
are. However God sees things, that's the way they really are.
And faith enables us to take them to ourselves, as it says
in John 3, verse 33. And we have laid to our seal
that God is true, because we've heard of him in Christ. And so
he blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. Concerning Jacob,
he blessed him according to the promise God gave to Abraham of
justification in Christ, by Christ, and our eternal inheritance in
him. Concerning Esau, he blessed him
according to the physical, temporal things of this world. Both came
to pass. In Jacob's case, it was an eternal
blessing. And in Esau's case, sadly, it
fell far short of eternal blessings. It was only temporal blessings
in his life. And Esau never saw the glories
of Christ because he never had that gift of faith. And yet Isaac
spoke of things to come, which confirms the truth Set down in
verse one that faith is the substance of things hoped for. And so he
spoke about things future. But I want to look at Isaac's
life. I want to take you to the Old Testament and do some highlights
in Isaac's life. Because when we do this, we see
the richness of God's blessings to us. Because if you first,
before you go to the Old Testament, I want you to take you to Galatians
chapter four. where much more is said about
Isaac in Galatians chapter four. And I'm gonna read to you from
verse 21 to the end of the chapter in Galatians chapter four. The
apostle writing to the Galatian believers who were Gentiles and
had believed Christ, but were tempted by those who were of
the Jews and held to, tried to hold to Christ and the law, their
own works plus Christ's works, which never works. and they came
to the Galatian church and tried to persuade them, they had to
be circumcised. They had to do something, even a small part
of the law, in order to receive the full blessing. And the apostle
completely squashes that claim by showing them in the entire
book, but especially in chapter three, of how, did you receive
the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?
And of course, the answer was, it was a rhetorical question.
It was by the hearing of faith. They heard of Christ. And they
heard of the spiritual miracles that God does in the lives of
his people because of the redeeming work of Christ. And that work
of Christ for us produces, brings to us the gift of the spirit
of Christ in us, whereby we're enabled to lay hold on Christ.
And so now in chapter four, he's concluding this argument and
he brings the Old Testament account of Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac,
and also Hagar and Ishmael. And this is gonna teach us a
lot about Isaac. So we'll pick it up in verse 21. Tell me, you
that desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For
it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid,
the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bond woman
was born after the flesh. But he of the free woman was
by promise, which things are an allegory, for these are the
two covenants. the one from the Mount Sinai,
which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar, or Hagar. For this Hagar
is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem, which
now is, and is in bondage with her children. Those words there
might not seem obvious to you what they mean, but the apostle
is showing by the Spirit of God that Hagar corresponds to the
Jerusalem on earth, with a doctrine that the Jews believed and held
of justification by their own personal obedience. So in other
words, Hagar represents bondage that results from trusting our
own works to be saved. All who believe that are like
Hagar's children. They're children of the bond
woman. So continuing, verse 25, which
I read, actually, I'll read it again. For this agar is Mount
Sinai in Arabia. So she corresponds to Mount Sinai
where the law was given. And answereth to Jerusalem, which
now is, corresponds to the city of Jerusalem in the physical
world where the Jews worship, the center of their worship,
and is in bondage with her children. All who believe like them are
in bondage. All who believe, which is most
of the world, by the way, The false religion of man's will
and man's work in salvation are under the bondage, not only of
their sin, but also of the curse of the law, and under the bondage
to do the whole law. He goes on, verse 26, but Jerusalem
which is above is free. Jerusalem above is the heavenly
Jerusalem. And of course, that Jerusalem
is free, which is the mother of us all. We'll explain some
of this in a moment. For it is written, rejoice thou
barren that bearest not, break forth and cry thou that travailest
not, for the desolate hath many more children than she which
hath a husband. So we need to unpack this verse
just a little bit. First of all, Sarah. Sarah was
the wife of Abraham and Sarah was the mother of Isaac. Now
Isaac was the promised son. Sarah corresponds to Jerusalem
above, which is free. And Isaac was the son of Sarah,
the son of the free woman. And so Isaac corresponds to the
believer. As Sarah was to Isaac, so Jerusalem,
which is above, the heavenly Jerusalem, is to every believer. But when Sarah was married to
Abraham, she was barren. She couldn't bear children at
all. In fact, she didn't have Isaac until she was 90 years
old, far longer than before when Hagar, Abraham's servant woman,
bond woman, actually Sarah's bond woman, was given by Sarah
to Abraham and by Abraham bore Ishmael. That happened before
Sarah had Isaac. So before Hagar gave birth to
Ishmael by Abraham, Sarah had no children and was barren. And
so it looked as if Hagar, who bore Ishmael, was the married
wife. In all perception, in all appearances,
she was the one bearing children. She must be the blessed wife. In fact, when she conceived Ishmael
by Abraham, she boasted, and we'll look at this in a minute,
she boasted against Sarah, who was her master, her mistress.
And so this boasting caused Sarah to treat her harshly and Hagar
fled away from Sarah. But as I said, as Sarah is to
Isaac, so the church of God is to every believer. How was Isaac
born? Through his mother, Sarah. He
was the son of promise, the one God promised to Abraham to be
his only legitimate son, the only son born of the Spirit,
the one through whom Christ would come and by whom, Christ, God
would justify the heathen through faith, Galatians 3.8. So we see
the connection now, the relationship, the physical relationship points
to a spiritual reality. Abraham gave birth to Isaac through
Sarah, the mother, and so God the Father gives birth to his
people through the preaching of the gospel, which comes to
us through the church, and the church is Christ's wife. And
so we're gonna see some more about that. But here anyway,
Hagar, what about her? Well, she was the mother of Ishmael. Ishmael was born to Abraham also,
but through Hagar. So, physically, Ishmael was related
to Abraham, but he was not the son of promise. He was not an
elect child. He was not redeemed. So he, in
this account here explained in Galatians, he was a slave because
he was a son of the bondwoman. And so it turns out that God
compares Hagar with Jerusalem on earth and her children because
Ishmael was a son to Hagar and he was a slave because his mother
was a slave even though he was actually a physical son of Abraham. And so the Jews who believe their
works justified them before God or sanctified them before God
correspond to Ishmael. And Hagar corresponds to Sinai
where the law was given. They trusted in the law their
own obedience to God's law in order to be justified, in order
to be saved. Can't work. Those people who
do that are never the true children of Abraham. They're cast out
with the bondwoman. Okay, does that make sense? So
in John 8, Jesus told the Jews who wouldn't believe in him,
he says, you're of your father, the devil. Oh, no, we're not.
We were born of Abraham. He says to them there in John
8, I know you were born to Abraham physically, but you're not Abraham's
true seed. because you don't believe me,
and Abraham did. And so you can read that in John
8. And throughout scripture, there's this long explanation
of the fact that the true children of Abraham are not children born
to Abraham physically only, but those who are born by the Spirit
of God, and who are given this grace to look to Christ as Abraham
did, and trusting him as all of their salvation. Okay, so
now there's the context. Isaac was born to Sarah. Sarah
corresponds to the heavenly Jerusalem, the church. And through the church,
all of us are born because God sends his word out through the
preaching of the gospel. And the result of that preaching
in the children of promise is that God's spirit enters into
them, the spirit of Christ enters into them, and He is their life,
and by His life in them, they look to Christ only." Galatians
2.19, he says, I'm crucified with Christ. Galatians 2.19,
he says, I through the law am dead to the law, that I might
live to God. The law required me to be judged,
and I was judged by the law, cursed by the law, in the Lord
Jesus Christ. In verse 20, I am crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me by his spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ
lives in his people. Now, it's essential that we have
these revelations from the New Testament of the way things truly
are in the life of a believer, because Isaac, Isaac now represents
who? The children of promise, those
who believe Christ, those born of the Spirit, those who were
birthed through the mother of us all, which is the Church of
God. And we wonder about that. How
could the Church of God be compared to a mother? Well, as I said,
because it's through the preaching of the gospel, Christ gives to
his church to preach the gospel that his children are brought
in. And who is the church but the bride and the wife of Christ
the Lamb? Okay, we understand these things
from scripture based on the many things we've talked about and
what scripture reveals in the past. Okay, does that make some
sense? Now, I wanna go back to, look
at Genesis chapter 16. We're gonna begin there because
that's where this account of Hagar and Sarah first began. And I wanna pick it up there
because there's an important event there that occurs. Remember,
we're looking at the faith of Isaac and God's dealings with
him in his life here. In Genesis 16, and I can't take
time to read the whole thing, I encourage you to do that, but
look at verse one. Now, Sarai, Abram's wife, bare
him no children, and she had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose
name was Hagar. Again, Egypt. What do you think
of when you think of Egypt? You think of the children of
Israel going there for over 400 years in bondage to Pharaoh and
his people in Egypt, and God having to bring them out and
redeem them by the blood of the Passover lamb, remember? And
so, Egypt represents our bondage in sin, our bondage to Satan
in this world, and sin, and this world, and Satan. We're in bondage,
even though we're God's people. So, Sarai, Abram's wife, bare
him no children. She had a handmaid, an Egyptian,
whose name was Hagar. It's not enough to be born, physically
born, and related to Abraham physically. We have to be born
of the Spirit. If we're only Jews, Physically,
by our physical birth, that's not enough. Jesus told Nicodemus,
you've got to be born again. So, verse 2, Genesis 16, verse
2. Sarai said to Abraham, Behold
now, the Lord has restrained me from bearing. I pray thee,
go in unto my maid. It may be that I may obtain children
by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice
of Sarai. And Sarai, Abram's wife, took
Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian, after Abram had dwelt 10 years
in the land of Canaan and gave her to her husband Abram to be
his wife. Abram's 85 now, and so they'd
been there a long time, nothing was happening. What did Sarah
think? She thought, and Abraham agreed,
that God has promised us a son. I obviously can't bear children,
so he must have meant through my maid. In those days, the slave
woman would be used for that purpose, to bear children to
the master. That's not God's plan. That was not God's plan.
So what Abraham and Sarah did here was wrong. But God used
the wrong in order to teach a very important lesson. They actually
did What Galatians is teaching against, trusting in what they
could do to bring God's promise to pass. What's God's promise? Justification, a right standing
before God without sin, a perfect righteousness in the sight of
God and all the blessings that are given to the righteous. You
can't obtain that through what you do. It doesn't matter what
you do. So this is the lesson in the
Old Testament of that. And so, Abraham, verse 4, went
into Hagar and she conceived. And when she saw that she had
conceived, what happened? Her mistress, Sarah, was despised
in her eyes. And so Sarah said to Abraham,
my wrong be upon thee. I have given my maid into thy
bosom, and when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised
in her eyes. The Lord judged between me and
thee. But Abraham said to Sarai, behold, thy maid is in thy hand.
Do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with
her, she fled from her face. So this is the context. Now listen,
verse seven. The angel of the Lord found her,
Hagar, by a fountain of water. in the wilderness by the fountain
in the way to Shur. He said to Hagar, Sarai's wife,
he said, Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence comest thou? And with
her wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the
face of my mistress Sarai. And the angel of the Lord said
to her, return to thy mistress and submit thyself unto her hands. Now think about what we just
read in Galatians. What must this mean? It means that there's
salvation only in Christ. Those who would be saved, who
call themselves Abraham's children, have to submit to the gospel
preached by the church, which would correspond to Sariah here.
That's the only way we can be saved, is to submit to the gospel
preached by Christ's ministers, because that's the truth. And
God gives faith under the hearing of that gospel, and that's the
only way He gives it. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God concerning Christ and His substitutionary
redeeming work. And so, in verse nine, the angel
of the Lord said to her, return to thy mistress and submit thyself
to her hands. And the angel of the Lord said
to her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not
be numbered, but for multitude, speaking about Ishmael's children.
And the angel of the Lord said to her, behold, thou art with
child, and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael,
because the Lord hath heard thy affliction. God heard her affliction. Because Sarai had punished her. And Ishmael will be a wild man,
his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against
him. Not a pleasant life. And he shall dwell in the presence
of all his brethren. And Hagar called the name of
the Lord that spake to her, listen, thou God seest me. For she said, have I also here
looked after him that seeth me? Wherefore the well was called
Beer-le-Hiroy, and I'm sure I'm pronouncing that incorrectly.
It's okay, Beer-le-Hiroy. However you say it, I'm sure
there are lots of intonations in there that I can't put. Behold,
it is between Kadesh and Bered. What does it mean? Well, in the
margin of my Bible, it might have it in yours, bir, that first
syllable there, means the well. And lehiroi obviously means,
thou God, seest me. Now I lay the foundation here
because we're going to see something important about Isaac. But notice,
first of all, what did we learn last week in Genesis 22, verse
8? What did Isaac ask his father,
my father? Here's the wood, and here's the
fire for the burnt offering, but where's the lamb? And in
verse 8 of Genesis 22, Abraham said, my son, God will see to
it. God himself will provide himself
a lamb. You understand? So when God sees,
God provides. When he sees in this way, thou
God seest me. Hagar was saying more than he
just sees me because when I was a child in Sunday school, the
Sunday school teacher would always say, God sees everything you
do. Of course he does, but that didn't instill any calm in me.
It only made me fretful and fearful. But here, this is a declaration
of salvation. Thou, God, seest me so as to
provide for me so that I have this well called the well where
God sees me in a way of provision. So Beerlehairoi is a very important
well. Now also, I want you, now this
is just showing us here that Ishmael was born to Hagar and
Ishmael corresponds to the unbelieving children of Abraham. And all
who like Ishmael in his physical relation to Abraham trust in
their works in order to be saved and yet Hagar is giving us the
answer here. You have to submit, and God told, the angel of the
Lord told her, you have to submit to Sarah. Go back and submit
to her. Listen to the gospel preached
by Christ's people, given to them by Christ himself, their
husband. and they are the children of
promise. You have to submit yourself to her. And when she did, when
she heard God's voice here in chapter 16, she understood when
she was by that well, this is the well of him that sees me
and therefore provides. So the question that naturally
comes to my mind is, does the Lord see me in this way? Does
he see you? If he does, what is he going
to do? He's gonna provide. And if he sees us in a way of
saving grace, he has then already provided the lamb for himself,
for us. And not only did he provide the
lamb, what does he do? He provides us his spirit compared
to water, a well of water in fact, to teach us and direct
us to go to Christ and to trust him and to drink of him. And
so she saw this. Now, in Genesis 18, if you look
at Genesis 18, this is where Abraham, the Lord appeared to
Abraham before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. But I wanna
bring your attention just to a couple of verses here. In verse
nine of Genesis 18, and the angels, the three men who came to Abraham
before they went on to Sodom to destroy it, in verse nine,
and they said to Abraham, where is Sarah thy wife? And he said,
behold, in the tent. And he said, the angel or the
Lord said to him, I will certainly return unto thee according to
the time of life and lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent
door, which was behind him. And now I wanna read this from
Romans chapter nine, and I wanna show you how God interprets what
he says here in Romans chapter nine. What is the significance
of this? Sarah shall indeed have a son. In Romans nine and verse
nine, for this is the word of promise. Promise doesn't depend
on us, it depends on God. A promise is given out of free
grace, not by our works. A promise concerns Christ and
salvation in Him. This is God's promise, verse
9. This is the word of promise. At this time will I come and
Sarah shall have a son. Now, what is it teaching here
in Romans chapter nine? Well, look back up in verse six.
It's not as though the word of God has taken none effect. Why
are the Jews, so many of them, unbelieving? They had the word
of God. They had the law. They understood
something about the fulfillment of it in Christ. They had the
preaching of the gospel after Christ rose from the dead. Why
are so many of them still in unbelief? Verse six. It's not
because the word of God has taken none effect. Not because God's
Word was weak. This is why. For they are not
all Israel, which are of Israel. They are not all true children
of Abraham, which are part of that physical nation. Verse 7. Neither because they are the
seed of Abraham are they all children. In other words, Ishmael,
those like Ishmael, trusting their works, are not Abraham's
children. But in Isaac shall thy seed be called. This is going
to happen a little later. We're going to read that one
too. Isaac he's talking about. In Isaac, not Ishmael, shall
thy seed be called. What seed? Well, first and foremost,
Christ, who would come and by whom we would be justified by
his redeeming work on the cross. But secondly, all like Isaac,
for whom Christ died. Remember Genesis 22 last week?
The ram was found, the ram was taken, the ram was slain, and
Isaac was let go. The child of promise was redeemed
by the Lamb. Isaac was the son of promise
and so in Galatians 4 28 it says now we brethren are like Isaac
we're the children of promise so here he says that the ones
who heard the Word of God but did not believe it among the
Jews did not believe not because God's Word wasn't powerful enough
to save them it certainly was but because they were never The
promised seed. They were never chosen in Christ. God never brought the word to
them in a way that gave them life and effectual hearing of
that word that produced in them faith in Christ. So he goes on. Verse 7, I'll read it again.
Neither because they are the seed, the physical seed of Abraham,
are they all children, true children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be
called, that is, they which are the children of the flesh, these
are not the children of God, but the children of the promise
are counted for the seed, and here it is again, for this is
the word of promise, at this time will I come and Sarah shall
have a son. So, he's teaching the doctrine
of election here in Romans chapter 9, where God chooses who will
be saved. In Acts 13, 48, it says, and
as many as were ordained to eternal life believed. So we believe
because we were chosen by God to eternal life. We were given
to Christ, and because we were given to Christ, all that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me
I will in no wise cast out. That's the reason we believe.
That's the reason Isaac, he was not only born to Abraham physically,
but he was born, according to Galatians 4 and here, of the
Spirit. He was born of the Spirit. All
right? So now look back at Genesis again.
If you will, in Genesis 21 is where it says here that Isaac
was called this way. In Genesis 21 and verse 12, and
God said to Abraham, let it not be grievous in thy sight because
of the lad, because of Ishmael. And because of thy bondwoman,
Hagar, and all that Sarah has said to thee, hearken unto her
voice, for in Isaac shall thy seed be called, not Ishmael,
not through Hagar, but in Isaac. All right? Now, what happens
next is in Genesis 22. We went over that last week.
Abraham offers Isaac. What did Isaac do when Abraham
took him up that mountain? He laid the wood on his son.
He was submissive to his father. He trusted his father. He loved
his father. It was as if Isaac had no concern. He was entirely at ease in submission
of obedience to his father. And what does that remind us
of? The Lord Jesus Christ, God ordained that he would carry
that cross, that wood up the hill. He himself would be bound. He himself would be pierced in
his hands and in his feet. He would be fastened to that
cross and there he would be cursed because he that hangs on a tree
is cursed of God. And so Isaac was, he was commanded,
God commanded Abraham to take him, bind him and lay him on
the wood and he did that and he was about to kill him and
God prevented him. When he called to him out of
heaven, Abraham, Abraham, He said, here am I, do not lay your
hand upon the child. Do not do anything to him because
God treated him then as us. God provided a lamb for him.
Now, in Genesis 23, something happens. Sarah dies. She's 127 years old when she
dies. And in Genesis 23, the account
is that Abraham needs to find a place to bury his wife. It's
very ironic. that God had promised to Abraham
and Sarah the entire land of Canaan and to their seed after
them, and yet they wandered in their entire life as strangers
in that land. They saw the promise afar off,
they were persuaded of it, they embraced it, and they confessed
we're strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Look at Genesis
chapter 23. He says in verse three, and Abraham stood up from
before his dead, Sarah had died, and he spake to the sons of Heth,
saying, I am what? A stranger and a sojourner with
you. He confessed that he was a stranger
and a sojourner in the earth. What is he doing here? He has
to find a place to bury his wife, the wife of God's giving it. She was both his sister and his
spouse. His sister and his spouse. And
what does it say in Song of Solomon? My sister, my spouse. The Lord Jesus Christ refers
to his people as his sister and his spouse because they were
the children of his father. They're related to him both as
a sister and given to him by his father as his bride, a spouse. And so Abraham now, in this very
sad time of his life, he looks for a place to bury his wife.
And guess what? He doesn't have a place in this
world, not even to bury his wife. So what does he do? He has to
buy one. He has to shell out money to
buy what God promised was his already and gave it to him. but
gave it to him in Christ, and he confesses by buying this piece
of land for Sarah's burying place, that it wasn't in this world
that he considered his inheritance, but it was in the world to come.
It was in Christ. All of his inheritance, everything
he had, was in Christ. And so in buying this land for
Sarah's burying place, he's saying, this land is not this physical
land. This is not what's important
to me. I'm going to buy it now. I'm going to pay for it now.
God's going to give me and Sarah a place to be buried. He also
was buried there. So was Isaac and Rebekah and
Jacob and Leah. And they were all buried in this
place, and none of them received, in their experience, none of
them received the promise God gave to them, but they lived
their lives by faith. And so we see here again, Abraham
living the long life. Life of faith, trusting God,
concerning Christ, worshiping God throughout his life, building
altars, worshiping the Lord. And so you see this. Now in chapter
24 of Genesis, what happens? Referring back to Isaac here.
Well, Abraham is old now. Remember, he's 10 years older
than Sarah. Sarah died at 127. How old was
Abraham? 137 when she died. And later on, we're gonna see
that Isaac married Rebekah when he was 40, which, you know, Isaac
was born when Sarah was 90 and Abraham was 100. It's easy to
calculate Isaac's age. If he got married at 40, his
dad was 140 then when he got married. So Abraham is an old
man here in chapter 24, almost 40. And he takes his servant, the
one who was over all of his house, who took care of everything that
was his, very, very faithful and wise servant. And he commissions
him, he sends him by a command to go find a wife for his son
Isaac. This is chapter 24. It says in
Abraham, verse one, Abraham was old and well stricken in age
and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things as he's blessed
all of his people in Christ with all things, all spiritual and
heavenly blessings in Christ. And Abraham said to his eldest
servant of his house that ruled over all that he had, put, I
pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and I will make thee swear
by the Lord, the God of heaven and the God of the earth, that
thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the
Canaanites among whom I dwell, but thou shalt go unto my country
and to my kindred and take a wife unto my son Isaac. What is this? Well, this is a representation
of how God the Father sent his, through the Spirit of God, sent
his gospel into the world to find a wife for his son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel goes out by the faithful
servant. The Spirit of God sends the gospel
through the ministers of Christ and they preach the word. Not
to the Canaanites. He sends them to his own people,
because out of them, he's going to call Rebecca. He sends his
servant to them. He doesn't take every wife there.
He only takes one. And notice how it happens here.
Go to my country, to my kindred, and take a wife to my son Isaac.
Think about Rebecca. Here's this guy coming on 10
camels. She's at the well. He parks his camels, and he says,
give me to drink. And she says, sure. So she gives
him some water. Oh, by the way, I'll give water
to all your camels. So she dips out water enough
for 10 camels. I don't know how much 10 camels
can drink. I'm sure there was a caravan of men with him too.
So she's dipping all this water out. Think about the miraculous
response that she had towards Abraham's servant. He said, give
me to drink. And she not only gives him to
drink, but all of his camels too. And this was according to
what the servant had asked the Lord, show me who the wife of
my master's son will be by making her do this. And she did. She
was made willing when she heard that he wanted water from her,
she was made willing to give it. She was selected by God,
and the servant of Abraham came to find a wife for his son Isaac,
and he found her, and when he found her and told her what he
wanted, she was compliant, she was willing in the day when she
heard that word. Doesn't that remind you of Psalm
110, verse 3? Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. We're saved when we're the enemies
of God. But we're made willing. We want
Christ, don't we? We want him. Remember in John
chapter 4, Jesus came to the well. It was Jacob's well, by
the way. And he sat on the well, and this
woman came to him. And she was an obviously promiscuous
woman. She had five husbands, and the
man she lived with was not her husband. And she came to the
well. And you know what Jesus said
to her? Very much what this man said to Rebecca. He said, give
me to drink. And of course the woman, not
having at that point any spiritual insight, she started arguing
with him. Why are you talking to me? I'm
a woman of Samaria and you know, the well is deep. I don't have
anything to, you know. All this back and forth. But
throughout that account, what happens? Jesus reveals himself
to her. And when he did, he fulfilled
his request of her to give me to drink. Because in verse 34
of John 4, when his disciples came back, they said, Master,
eat. And he says, no, no, I have me
to eat that you know not of. For my meat is to do the will
of Him that sent me and to finish His work. What was that work? It was to save his people from
their sins. It was to lay his life down. It was to offer himself
as a sacrifice for his people in satisfaction to God and to
sanctify them and to perfect them forever. And in giving them
that salvation, because it was clear there was wells of salvation,
he was talking about revealing himself to them. And of course,
that's through the Spirit of God that He does that. Then they,
in turn, turn to Him and say, Thou art the Christ. They are
given sight to see Christ by the Spirit of God, and then Christ
is satisfied. He receives the fulfillment of
His request to her, give me to drink. Now that's all teaching
us, look at Isaiah chapter 12. It's all teaching us that a very,
very important thing here, which I'm trying to get to about Isaac,
and I'm giving you the spiritual part of it here as we look at
the physical part. Isaiah chapter 12. In that day,
thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise thee. Though thou wast
angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortest
me. Not anger now, comfort. Behold, this is how, God is my
salvation. I will trust and not be afraid,
for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song. He also is become
my salvation. Jesus Christ, his name means,
Jesus means Jehovah is salvation. That's what this is talking about.
He is Jehovah my salvation. Verse three, therefore with joy
shall you draw water out of the wells of salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
fountain of living water and we draw water out of the wells
of salvation because He dug deep in order to give us that water
of life. The Spirit of God is given to
us and He directs us to Christ. We see Him, we take of Him and
our souls are satisfied knowing that God has received us for
Christ's sake and we want to stay there and continually take
and drink of Him. Whoever drinks of this water,
Jesus told the woman at the well, you'll thirst again. But the
water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing
up unto eternal life. And so that's what he's talking
about here. The work of the Spirit of God in the heart of his people,
the promised seed, who would be given the Spirit of God and
therefore see Christ and live upon Him. They would be sustained
by Him in their life. They would worship God because
of Him and in Him. And that's the way they would
live their lives. like a well of water. In John
chapter 7, in the middle of the Feast of Tabernacles, after everyone
had eaten and been there all this time, Jesus said this in
verse 37, In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus
stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto
me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. This he spake of the spirit which
they that believe on him should receive, for the Holy Ghost was
not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. Okay,
so it's clear, the water is the spirit of God given to those
The Lord calls, they come to him and they drink. Okay, look
at one more verse, Revelation chapter 22. Do you see this? It all ties together here with
Isaac and Sarah and the well. Revelation 22, listen to these
words in verse 17. And now, I ask you this question,
like Hagar, what was the well she came to? Beerlehiroi, right? What does that name mean? The
well of the one who sees me. Not just sees, but sees so as
to provide. The Lord will see to it. He will
provide himself, a lamb. Revelation 22 verse 17, and the
Spirit and the Bride, the Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit
of God, and the Bride, that's the church, Christ by His Spirit
dwelling with His people, the Spirit and the Bride joined one,
say, come, and let him that heareth say, come. We hear, don't we? We who believe, we've heard the
good news, the glad tidings. And let him that is a thirst
say, come, come. And whosoever will, let him take
of the water of life freely. There it is, the well, the well
of Christ's salvation dug out by his redeeming work, brought
to us and given to us through the Spirit of God so that we
in turn cry out, this is the Christ, this is all my salvation. The Lord who was angry with me
now comforts me. Behold, God is my salvation. The Lord Jehovah is my strength
and my song and he also has become my salvation and now I draw waters
out of the wells of salvation. So now look back at Genesis. Abraham's servant is sent to
a far country to find a wife. He finds Rebecca, he asks her
for water, she gives him the water, and he gives her the golden
jewelry, and she agrees to come back, because what happens to
the believer when they hear of Christ by the Spirit of God?
They leave their old way of life. They leave everything they formerly
trusted, and they follow Christ. They come and they're married
to him. That's Rebecca. That's the work of the Spirit
of God, through the preaching of the Gospel. And this is in
the life of Isaac. Now look at the ending part of
chapter 24. It's a long chapter, why I didn't
read it all. But notice in Verse 61, Genesis
24, verse 61. And Rebekah arose, and her damsels,
and they rode upon the camels, and followed the man. And the
servant took Rebekah, and went his way. And Isaac came from
the way of what? The well, Lehiroi. Interesting. What does that mean? Thou, God, seest me. God sees
his people in such a way that he provides for them. He provides
Christ crucified, like he did for Isaac, the ram instead of
the promised son, and he provides the well, so that from that well,
by the Spirit of God, we look to Christ and we feast upon him
and we worship him. And so Isaac comes from the way
of the well, the Hiroy, for he dwelt in the south country. How
old is Isaac? We're gonna find out, he's 40
years old now. He had been here at this well at least from the
age of 40. And Isaac went out to meditate
in the field at the eventide. Don't you find that to be a most
delightful thing to do yourself, to go out, outside, away from
everybody else, and think on Christ, and think on the gospel,
and make your supplications to the Lord. And he lifted up his
eyes and saw, and behold, the camels were coming. And Rebekah
lifted up her eyes, and when she saw Isaac, she lighted off
the camel. For she had said unto the servant,
What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And
the servant had said, It is my master. Therefore she took a
veil and covered herself, and the servant told Isaac all things
that he had done. And Isaac brought her into his
mother's tent, mother Sarah's tent, and took Rebekah, and she
became his wife, and he loved her. And Isaac was comforted
after his mother's death." What a beautiful story, all about
the gospel. And now in chapter 25, I want
to just touch on this a little bit here, because in this chapter,
what we're going to see is that Abraham had become old and he
died. But after Sarah died, he took another wife, Keturah, and
she bare him all these children, Zimram, Jokshan, Midan, Midian,
and Ishbak, and Shua, and so on. Jokshan begat Sheba and Dedan,
and the sons of Dedan were Ashuram, and Latusham, and Umim. What is this talking about? Abraham
had even more children. You think, well, how? Wait a
minute now. I thought he couldn't have children.
Well, Denise is always asking me this question. I don't have
to explain this. All I know is that when God gave
grace to Abraham to bear children through Sarah, he went on afterward
and did what? He had a lot of different people,
children, and they were all these different nations. And that corresponds
to God's promise, you're gonna be the father of many nations. Because after Christ was born
and came into the world and suffered, lived and suffered and died and
ascended and rose and went back and enthroned in glory, he sent
his spirit by the gospel to call his people and all across the
world in every nation, kindred, tongue and people, There were
children born of the Spirit of God and a nation sprang up as
if in one day, children to Abraham. And so perhaps that's what this
is all to deal with. I think that it probably does.
Notice in verse, after all these children, verse five of Genesis
chapter 25, and Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac. What
a blessed thing. John 3.35, it says, the Father
loveth the Son, and hath put all things into his hand. And
in Hebrews 1.2, you know that he was made the heir of all things,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaac here is a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ. God gave him all things, but
not to the Lord Jesus only, because Isaac is also a picture of the
believer, isn't he? He's the children of promise.
So you'll see that in the account God gives in Genesis there's
almost an inseparable, you can't hardly divide between Isaac as
a type of Christ and Isaac as a type of the believer because
I'm crucified with Christ and therefore I'm dead and yet I
live and Christ lives in me and I live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And so then we
see all these things, the days of the years of Abraham's life,
here in verse 7, were 175. He lived to be 175. Sarah died
when he was 137. He lived another 38 years, 175, and he died. How
old was Isaac? 175 minus 100, he was 75 years
old. Notice, Isaac is still at the well, Lehiroi. 75 minus 40, at least 35 years. What was that well? The well
of the one who sees me. The place of nurture and sustaining
given me by the spirit of God to live upon Christ. Look for
him. Look for the promise God gave
to me concerning Christ and justification by him and eternal life and eternal
glory. And what happened later, in the
same chapter, Esau and Jacob are born. And in verse 20, Isaac
was 40 years old when he took Rebekah. And then, in verse... In verse 26, after that, Jacob
came out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel, and his name
was called Jacob, and Isaac was threescore, 60 years old when
she bare them. So this is the time, you see
here from the time frames here, Isaac was 40 when he got married,
60 when he had his two boys, Jacob and Esau, but he stayed
at this well. But now in chapter 26, and we're
gonna have to get through this pretty quickly here, in chapter
26 we see Isaac again. But notice in verse one, and
there was a famine in the land beside the first famine that
was in the days of Abraham, and Isaac went unto Abimelech, king
of the Philistines, unto Gerar. Where was this? Well, it was
south. It was the southern edge of the land of Canaan. It was
very near Egypt. In fact, you see here in verse
two, when the Lord appeared unto Isaac and said to him, go not
down into Egypt, dwell in the land which I shall tell thee
of. Stay here, stay in Canaan. Who was Isaac? He was the son
of promise. He was this true seed of Abraham,
the believer. And what is God saying here?
Stay in the promised land. The land of rest, the land of
salvation by grace, the land of your eternal inheritance in
Christ. That's what Canaan is. Read Hebrews
chapter four. It's the land of rest. God ceased
from his works. Christ did it all. We rest in
him. Isaac is living now, but because
of the famine, he leaves something. What does he leave? He leaves
the place called Beerlehiroi. He leaves the well of the one
who sees me. Under affliction in his life,
Isaac has to go Or at least he thinks he does, and I'm not sure
if he could have stayed there or not, but by God's providence,
he went. And in going, what we see here is he goes down near
Egypt, as if he's on his way to Egypt, God stops him and keeps
him from going there, and he stays in this land of the Philistines
called Dirar. Now here, something very shameful
happens. First of all, Nothing shameful
happens. In verse 4, God promises him
to give him all these things. But in verse 6, Isaac dwelt in
Gerar, and the men of the place asked of his wife, and he said,
She is my sister. For he feared to say, She is
my wife, lest, he said, the men of the place should kill me for
Rebekah, because she was fair to look upon. And so it came
to pass, after it had been a long time, Abimelech, king of the
Philistines, looked out the window and saw And Isaac was sporting
with Rebekah so he knew that she was his wife. But, so Isaac
put his wife Rebekah at risk to save his own neck. What is
that? It's just like his father Abraham
did. Remember with Sarah? very much like Abraham did with
Sarah. And why did they do it? Why did
Abraham and Isaac do this? Because of unbelief. God had
promised them to give them the land and all these children.
He wouldn't fail his promise, and yet they doubted because
they feared for their, and because of that doubt, they feared for
their lives. And they put their wives at risk. That was a shameful
thing. And I'm sure that Isaac was hurting
for that, knowing that he had done that. And so that's the
frame of mind that Isaac was in. After this, he had all these
possessions. And so it says in verse 17, Isaac
departed there, from there, and he pitched his tent in the valley
of Gerar and dwelt there. And notice in verse 18, and Isaac
digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the
days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them
after the death of Abraham. And he called the names of the
wells after the names by which his father had called them. In
verse 19, And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and found
there a well of springing water. And the herdmen of Gerar did
strive with Isaac's herdmen, saying, The water is ours. And
he called the name of the well Esek, because they strove with
him. So Isaac is kind of a man who
hangs out by the wells. And so if you were to describe
him, you'd say, Isaac, the man of the wells. Why? Because Isaac lived upon Christ.
And the water signifies the Spirit of God who directs us to Christ
by who sustains our life, is all of our life. He starts with
Beerlehairoi. Now he's, but he's in this Philistine
land. What happens? He finds strife. That's what
esech means, strife. The Philistines come after he
dug the well. They said, it's ours. And they
strove together. So what does Isaac do? Look,
it's just a well. We'll dig another one. Verse
21, And they digged another well, and strove for that also. And
he called the name of it Sitna, which means hatred. So in this
world, the believer, as he seeks the gospel and seeks to worship
God as Isaac did by the well Bir Lahairoi all those years.
And now by famine and out of unbelief, he's driven to wander
around in the Philistines' land, keeps digging these wells, and
the Philistines come, first of all, it's ours, and they take
it from him. Well, he walks away. He had a lot of servants. Maybe
he could have put up a fight, but he said, no, it's not the
time. Even though in this world he had this conflict, he didn't
rely on his flesh to solve the conflict. He trusted Christ,
and so he walks on. Sitna, hatred, because the believer
is hated on believing in this world. Verse 22, and he removed
from thence and digged another well, and for that they strove
not, and he called the name of it Rehoboth, and he said, for
now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful
in the land. Where sin abounded, what happened? Grace did much
more abound. God made a spacious, abundant
place for him, Rehoboth. And then in verse 23, And he
went up from thence to Beersheba, which we will see in a minute,
which is called the Well of the Oath. And the Lord appeared to
him the same night and said, Notice, I am the God of Abraham
thy father. Fear not, for I am with thee,
and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's
sake. And he built an altar there, and called upon the name of the
Lord, and pitched his tent there, and there Isaac's servants digged
a well." So he built an altar. What does the believer do? Christ
is our altar, isn't he? We have an altar. It says in
Hebrews chapter 13, and there at that altar, what do we do?
We call on the name of the Lord. Jesus Christ, the name of the
Lord. He's the only name under heaven whereby we must be saved.
We call on him, for what? For salvation, but also in worship. He worshiped God here at this
altar. And there he pitched his tent,
I'm gonna stay here. And there they dug a well, another
well for Isaac. And then these guys come and
they want Isaac to make a covenant with them. And it came to pass
in verse 32, The same day Isaac's servants came and told him concerning
the well which they had digged, and said to him, we have found
water, and he called it Sheba. Therefore the name of the city
is Beersheba unto this day, and that means the well of the oath.
What is Isaac's life? He's living by the well, and
this last well he comes to after wandering around and struggling
and striving in this world, he comes to the one called Beersheba,
the well of the oath. God promised in Christ, he staked
himself to this promise, he's gonna give his people an eternal
inheritance, and we live our lives looking for what God has
promised. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. And so when he blessed Jacob
and Esau, Isaac is looking out at God's promise with confidence
that whatever God said, that's the way things really are. Let's
pray. Lord we pray that we might be
enabled like Isaac and like Abraham and Jacob to live in this world
as strangers and foreigners because we've seen Christ and we're persuaded
of him and we've embraced him with his glad trust knowing that
he is all of our salvation and we therefore take of him like
a well of water of salvation. By your spirit we're given this
grace of faith to look to him and him only And like Rebecca
left her family and all she had to be married to Isaac, Lord,
cause us to leave all that we have, every trust that we have
in our own understanding and trust in the Lord only. And we
pray, Lord, that you would give us this constant, sustaining
supply of the well of the water of salvation in our souls, that
Christ, by His Spirit, would dwell in us and spring up in
us as a well a springing well of salvation and we would say
with the Spirit of God, to all who hear us, come. And let us
who hear say, come, and let whosoever will come to the Lord Jesus Christ,
and so drink of him. And let us be like Isaac to live
our lives by faith in the Lord Jesus, and that you would uphold
us by your grace in this. And we would be enabled to worship
you because of our salvation in him, and live our lives and
look forward to all of your promises in the Lord Jesus. In his name
we pray.