Go back to Genesis 26. Read again
verses 12 through 16. Very meaningful, relevant message.
Then Isaac sowed in that land and received in the same year
a hundredfold. The Lord blessed him. The man
waxed great and went forward. He grew until he became very
great. He had possession of flocks and possession of herds, a great
store of servants. The Philistines envied him. All
the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days
of Abraham, his father the Philistine, Stop them. Fill them with earth.
The Bimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us. Thou art mightier
than we. Isaac in the midst of his enemies. That's the title subject of this
message. Oh, the believer in an ungodly
world. We live in it. Our Lord said,
You're not of it, as I'm not of it. We live in it. There's
a reason why we're here. like Isaac, like Abraham, as
a purpose must be in him. And there are many dangers we
face living here. Many dangers. Gerar was Abraham
and Sarah's home for a while. It was where Isaac was born.
He was born and raised there. That was his hometown. But he
was one of God's chosen. He was one of God's elect. He
was chosen out of the world. out of the world. In the midst
of the Philistine. He was one of God's people in
the midst of his enemy. A friend to God, like Abraham.
While all around him, hated God. Just like all of God's people.
There are two stories here. Two stories. There is a literal
story. The literal story of Isaac, the man. And then there is a
spiritual story of whom Isaac represents. The Lord Jesus Christ. There's an actual story that
we need to look at, that we need to apply to ourselves. And then
there's a gospel story that we also need to look at and apply
to ourselves. There's the man Isaac, and then
the God-man Jesus Christ. So which should we look at first?
Christ must have the preeminence. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, God Almighty was manifest in the flesh. He dwelt in this
sinful world. He who came and is peace personified
dwelled in the midst of a God-hating world, a world that he made,
a world that he blessed, a world that he Possessed and told him
to get out. We don't want you. Light shone
in darkness. The darkness comprehended him
not. Men are lovers of darkness rather
than light. Some make many pretensions of
holiness, of mercy, of love and of grace. But all those things
came and they hated him because he exposed them. He exposed them. That light came into the darkness.
That's what light does. It exposes darkness. He came
unto his own. The earth was his. The earth
is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. Gerar was given to Abraham,
wasn't it? All this land that the Philistines
were squatters on belonged to Abraham. and Isaac. This was
Isaac's land. Did not our Lord say, The meek
shall inherit the earth. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness thereof. But he was among his enemies,
our Lord was among his enemies, and he was despised and rejected,
and they cast him out. But the Lord loved some of those
enemies. Behold what manner of love. Come to a place that you own.
People are living there. Don't give you thanks for it.
Don't give you the glory for it. And want you out. Did not our Lord give that parable
of the landowner and he sent his servants just to get some
fruit from it and they killed all the servants and then the
son went and then he killed him too? He said, shall not the great
husbandmen be angry? Yes, God is angry with the wicked. And all of us were just like
them. We were no different from them.
But God. You can't preach the Gospel without
saying that, can you? And you, that were enemies in
your own mind by wicked works, have He reconciled. We're going to see how the Lord
sovereignly made Isaac's enemies come to him and seek peace. Well, our Lord came here and,
oh my, he was the blessed of the Lord. That's what they said
about Isaac in verse 29, didn't they? Thou art the blessed of
the Lord. They said of him in verse 28, We certainly see that
the Lord is with you. And these enemies find peace
with him like old Abimelech. Christ, the son of promise, the
man of the well. Christ, like Isaac, is the man
of the well. He is the well. And he is the water in that well.
The wellspring of living water. He digs the well. He is the source
of the well. He is the spring. David said,
All my springs are in thee. We come from thee. All blessings.
He's the source of all blessings. He is the well. He is the water.
And He's the digger of the well. I like to think of these wells.
Isaac, everywhere he went, he dug wells for water, living water. You couldn't live without water.
And the people everywhere benefited from this water that Isaac dug. That's got to be his church.
It's everywhere. These well springs of water where
Christ is preached. And anybody, even the heathen,
benefit from it. Our Lord, the Lord God. And the
Lord spoke, we read there, where the Lord spoke to Isaac, didn't
He? I am with you. And our Lord God spoke to His
Son, didn't He? Spoke of His Son. This is My
beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And right after He spoke
to His Son and bore witness to Him that He was His chosen One,
Isaac built an altar. And right after our Lord spoke
to His Son, He went to the altar. And He hung on the cross. That's
the altar. And He Himself was the altar.
And He Himself was the sacrifice. And right after that, His enemies
started coming to Him. Isn't that the picture here?
That's the picture. Christ. of all His chosen ones,
after they see Christ and Him crucified, are reconciled to
Him and come seeking peace. And they find it, and the Lord
prepares for them a feast, like Isaac did his enemy. And they
go away in peace. Reconciled. That's the story. That's the spiritual story. If
we don't get the next one, that's enough. But these things
are written for our learning. All the Old Testament saints,
their lives are recorded. What is recorded of them is recorded
for our learning, for our example, 1 Corinthians 10 says. Many of
them, God was not well pleased. They were overthrown in the wilderness.
Some of them were not overthrown like Isaac. It appeared they
were, but God had mercy on them. Right after Isaac denied his
wife, was living in this place, after the Lord gave him all these
promises, after the Lord warned him, don't go to Egypt, and told
him plainly, gave him exceeding great and precious promises whereby
he might be a partaker of the divine nature, escaping the corruption
that's in the world through lust, after that he went He acted like he didn't even
believe the Lord, didn't he? And that's us. That's all of
us. Sons of promise, though we are.
Elect, chosen of God, loved of God. That's our hope. Our hope
is not found in us, but it's found in His oath and His covenant.
Like Abraham, the Lord reminded Isaac, I'm blessing you because
Abraham was faithful. And the Lord blesses us because
Christ was faithful. Isaac wasn't faithful to his
Lord, but bless his Lord, he was faithful to Isaac. Now, right
after that, you think about that. Right after the Lord made all
these promises, Isaac is dwelling a long time in Abimelech denying
his wife. What's he doing? What's he up
to? How's he carrying on this charade? It says he dealt there a long time.
Sad. And in spite of that, in verse
12 we read, despite that, the Lord blessed him. Just poured
out blessing after blessing. Despite his sin, despite his
unfaithfulness, despite his unbelief, despite his cowardice, the Lord
blessed him. Isn't that our Lord? All the
blessings of God are not because of us, but they're despite of
us. The Lord blesses us because He's
the blessed Lord. And that's why, that's what you
read, to not bless the Lord. Bless the Lord. Praise the Lord.
You need to bless the Lord. The greatest blessing, the Lord,
we know this. that the Lord chose Isaac, that
the Lord revealed himself to Isaac, that the Lord spoke to
Isaac, that the Lord would promise he'd be with Isaac, that the
Lord would protect Isaac and keep him all the days of his
life. That's the blessing of the Lord. The blessing. These other things were a trial
to him. Isaac received and was blessed
a hundredfold. Material things are not always
a blessing. They are sometimes a curse. To
the people of this world, they are a curse. Our Lord said that
the gold and the silver, the canker, the rust of all the gold
and silver that men have accumulated will rise up in the judgment
against That's why Solomon wrote, Don't
let me be rich, lest I forget thee. Don't let me be poor, lest
I steal and deny thee, and bring reproach upon you. But just give
me that which is convenient. Just give me what I need. And
isn't that what our Lord said? Go with me to 1 Timothy chapter
6. Our Lord said, Having food and
rain, but you tell me Who does not have troubles with an excess
of things? When you ever get a little excess,
an overflow of money or whatever it is that you don't have trouble
with, then it's not a trouble to you because what do you think
about it? What do you think about it? How am I going to spend that
on me? And then when you do, you're
guilty because you didn't spend it the way you should have. All of us are guilty of that.
We're all guilty of that. The Lord blessed him a hundredfold.
And everybody in this room can say that the Lord has blessed
a hundredfold. Anybody over 40, anyone. A hundredfold
from where we started. A thousandfold. I think back
to my wife and I, about a 600, Square foot apartment. Happy
as a lark. No debt. And we got lots of stuff. Lots of debts. Better is a little with the fear
of the Lord than great treasure. And what do you have with it?
Trouble. It's always trouble. Isaac had
trouble. Trouble with his Abraham and Lot. I had trouble. It was always a source of contention,
strife and contention. Look at 1 Timothy 6. The Lord,
through Paul, warns us here. 1 Timothy 6, verse 6. Godliness with contentment is
great gain. We brought nothing into this
world, and it's certain we can carry nothing out. Job said that,
didn't he? A long time ago. And naked I
came into this world, and naked shall I return. It's certain
we can't carry anything out. And having food and rain, but
let us be there with content. A day that will be rich. That's what they're after. Fall
into temptation and a snare. and into many foolish and hurtful
lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of
money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after,
they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through
with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, woman
of God, child of God, flee these things. Follow after righteousness,
godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. In fact, a good fight
of faith, that's going to go with this message too. Our Lord
said, provide yourself bags which wax
not old, things that mauls can't corrupt and rust and thieves
can't break through and steal. We've all got a problem here,
don't we? All of us. Isaac had much stuff
and he had much strife, like Abraham, like Lot, Listen to
a wise man. Listen to a wise man. He said
this many years ago. A great preacher of the gospel
said this. Two greatest dangers that believers
face in this world. The two things that are the most
dangerous for a believer. Two things that are dangerous,
that are deadening, and that could destroy us. Number one,
the things of this world. And number two, the people of
this world. People of this world. Both are
dangerous. Both are deadening, deadening
things. People of this world who are
dead. Believers, here's the point.
Believers are in this world, but they're not of it. Our Lord
prayed to the Father in John 17. He said, they are not of
this world even as I am not of this world. Why? Because that's
the way He made them. That's the way He remade them.
A new creature. And He prayed there in that prayer.
He said, Lord, I pray not that thou shouldest take them out
of the world. Because if we're not in this
world, there's no reason for this world to continue. But He
said, I pray that thou shouldest keep them from the evil that's
in this world. Keep them from this present evil
world. which is a danger to them. Isaac made some kind of friendship
with Abimelech. We saw that in the very beginning.
He made some kind of friendship with Abimelech. How could he? It was for some kind of carnal,
selfish reason. He went to Aguirre to seek this
man's help in the time of famine. He didn't eat him. The Lord came
right after that and said, you don't need Him. You have Me. He said, don't go down to Egypt. Don't lean on the arm of the
flesh. You don't need the world. They need you. I'm going to bless
you. Don't lean on the arm of the
flesh. He ended up, because of this
association with this man, he ended up not just denying his
wife, but denying the Lord. He was fearful. He was a coward. He didn't speak up. He never
said anything. Denied the faith. And that's
what we do. If we don't, speak up. And they
cast us out. Again, this is something we all
have real struggle with. Believers are in this world,
and like Christ, we're the salt and the light. of this world. Isn't that what our Lord said?
You're the light of this world. And if you don't shine light,
what does that make you? In darkness, even as others.
Salt of the earth. Salt. Our Lord said if salt is
lost, it's safer, it's influenced. What good is it? Worthless. Men will trot all over you. Now, here's the point. Except
for business or commerce, we live in this world and have to
deal with it. And we can be a friend to this world. But if we are witnesses of our
Lord, we will not be a friend of the world. In James 4, he
said this twice, the friendship of the world is enmity with God. The world didn't consider Christ
their friend. He was. He was. And that's what James tells us. He said, and we're to love all
men, And never act as if we're superior to them or holier than
thou, come not near me. And I'm afraid that we, and I'm
speaking from experience, sadly speaking from experience, I'm
afraid we don't speak up for many reasons. I've jotted down
a few. See if this is not so. We don't speak out and speak
to others, which is our purpose. We're soft, we're light. That's
our purpose. Our only purpose for contact or spend any time
with, other than commerce or business dealing with, is in
hope that the Lord will use us to tell them the truth and the
Lord bring them to hear the truth. That's right. Our Lord came in
this world to do what? Save sinners. And He said, I
go, I send you. To do what? Just have fun? I wish I wasn't teaching this
because I feel like a hypocrite. But this is one reason why we
don't speak up. The first reason we don't speak up is because
of unbelief. We don't believe our God like
we should. We fear man. We don't fear God. We don't believe
God's Word. We look all around us and we
fear the consequences. We don't trust Him. We fear the
consequences. He's told us He'd be with us.
He told His disciples, He said, you go out, take no thought what
you shall say. I'm with you. We don't believe
Him. We think it's up to us. We're afraid. We're afraid of
men. We're afraid of people. We fear losing some influence,
some favor, some business, some contacts, some things we need. We don't need them. Our Lord
has told us. We don't speak because of our
own sinfulness. We feel like we're such sinners
that we feel hypocritical talking to the world about the things
that we're still guilty of. But that shouldn't stop us, should
it? Finally, Lot spoke out. Finally. I don't know. We feel like a lot, don't we?
Mockers when we do spit. Our flesh, and I have as much
trouble with this as anybody, our anger rises. We have a battle
with the flesh when we talk to people. And I have a hard time
not getting mad at people. I got mad with a lady the other
day I was talking to. She started telling me how much
she knew about the Bible. I said, quote me one scripture. Just
one. See, I've been reading the Bible
all my life. I said, isn't this part of it? Just one. But she wouldn't listen
to me. And I actually got mad at her.
I called her later and apologized. I felt bad. I should have had
compassion. But our anger, right, our flak.
We know our inability. We know our inability. We have
very little knowledge of Scripture. They have very little wisdom,
very little patience. Oh, my. Well, those are just
a few things. And there are many more. Believers
are in this world, and they're here for a reason. Salt, light. Hopefully the Lord views us.
Tell somebody the truth. No one is befriended into the
kingdom of God. You say, the Lord was a friend
of sinners. I'm sure glad. And eateth with them. I am sure
glad that this man received the friend of sin, aren't you? And
eateth with them. But there's a huge difference
between him and me. Sin can't touch him. Sin has no influence over him
at all. But it does me. It does me. He is separate from sinners.
Undefiled by it. The world still has much of what
my old man craves and gravitates to. It had no effect on him. Besides,
every time that he sat with sinners, every time he preached to them,
and he was there for one of them for their salvation. He was in
a rich man's house, Simon Magus. You think he wanted to eat with
that He had disdain for him. He didn't
want that man's company. But he was there for a purpose. He was waiting on somebody. He
was eating. He went there to eat. And in
politeness to those that invited him, he went there. But God did
that. And he was waiting on a woman.
And she came in, a sinner. that they didn't want anything
to do with. That's why he came. And after he saved her and forgave
all her sins, he left and never went back. And Simon didn't go
to him. No, sir. He didn't need him.
But my, my. See, we're affected. Nobody is
socialized into the kingdom of God. They're spiritualized. befriended
into the Kingdom, they're born into it by the Word of God. It's
not our influence, it's God's Word. God's Word. Hopefully, something we say will
entice them to come hear the Word, the Gospel, and the Lord
will take the Word and convict them of their sin, show them
their need of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then make them your
friends forever. And then you'll be the best friend.
And in the bulletin for Sunday is a message by Brother Don Bell.
He said, the best friend in the world is the one that will tell
you the truth. You want to be a friend? Tell somebody the truth. Scripture says, how can light
have fellowship with darkness? How? If the Word of God is not
discussed, what is? And where is the common ground
on anything with the people of this world? I talk too much about the world
as it is. I get tired of it. I don't want
to talk about it. I'm hoping, I get with my brethren,
I'm hoping that the word will come up. That something profitable,
some conversation that's profitable will take place. It doesn't always
do that. But here's the point. If we sit by the fire on a table
like Peter did with unbelievers, it won't be long before we're
denying our Lord. And like Lot, the longer we live
and dwell with the world comfortably, we'll seem as one that mops.
I need that. I need it desperately. I need
it. I thought about this. You know,
righteousness is holiness and cleanliness and godliness. Sin
is like dirt and filth. Righteousness doesn't rub off
on people. Holiness doesn't rub off, but
sin does. Isn't that right? They said in verse 16, thank
God, they said to Isaac, get out. Get out. Leave us. Like they said to the
Lord, like the Lord said they would do to us. Leave us. They
want no more part of you. They aren't much mightier than
wigs. Leave us. Thank God Isaac was
cast out. But if you're cast out, the Lord
will take you up. Blessed are you if men revile
you and persecute you. Say, all men are evil falsely
against you. For my name's sake, Christ said,
blessed are you. That's what they did to the prophets.
Now Isaac left, and verse 17, he departed thence, and from
that day forward he had strife. Apparently he was dwelling at
ease in Gerar. And what does the Scripture say
about woe unto them that dwell at ease in Zion? We just sang that song. Am I
a soldier? Well, after he left, after the
Lord said, You don't belong with this man. And had this man kick
him out, and we don't need to part company with people if we're... They'll part with us. They'll
part with us. And verse 20, go down to there. The herdmen destroyed with Isaac's
herdsmen, saying, The water is ours. He called the name contention
because they strove with them. Digged another whale and they
strove with that also, called the name of it Sitna. Those people
said, this is our whale. What do you mean it's your whale? Isaac dug it. It's Isaac's whale. It's the Lord's whale. It's the
Lord's water. What do you mean it's yours?
Isn't that a huge difference in the people of this world and
the people of God? Number one, the people of God are thankful.
Number two, number one, the people of God give all the glory to
God for all things. Not the people of this world.
They're proud, boasters, heady, high-minded. Look what we've
done. This is ours. Like that fool Nabal said, shall
I give my meat to David and his men, his rabble-rousers? Shall
I give mine? Yours. You don't understand the
huge difference between the world and the believer and the world.
The believer is humble, meek. The believer says, this is the
Lord. It's not ours. Nothing I own. You notice Isaac
didn't have a house. He had a lot of stuff. But it
was stuff he could take with him. He still dwelled in tents. And we have here no continuing
city. But we dwelled in some pretty nice tents, don't we?
But get this through your head. It's not going to stay. It's
coming down. Every stone. Well, and this contention
that we struggle with in the world, like a lamb among wolves. How can a lamb be comfortable
around wolves? How can a cat wear with a room full of dogs?
It can't be. I mean, you might have to. As
much as possible, he said, live peaceably with all men. But David
said, I'm for war. I mean, I'm for peace. And they're
for war. He said, Woe is me, my soul is
among lions. Woe is me that I dwell in Meshach,
David said. I have to be here. One time he
didn't have to be where he was, did he? Gath. And he acted like
a madman. That's when he denied the Lord
in Gath. He went to Gath seeking some help from that king. That's
when he acted like a booming idiot. But God. That's when he wrote Psalm 34
where he said, This poor man. This poor excuse for a man, this
poor excuse for a believer, this poor excuse for a son of God,
cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his
troubles that he made and he brought on himself. Blessed be
the name of the Lord. Blessed be the God of Isaac. Abraham did it too. Abraham and
Jacob. We're getting ready to look into
the life of Jacob. One troubled, met, and trapped, and pent after
another. Many of it, much of it is on
me. They strove everywhere with Isaac.
Strove. But Isaac, being like his Lord,
when he was reviled, he reviled not them. They reviled him. These fellows are liars. Bimelech
said down here, we didn't do you any harm. We sent you away
in peace. All men are liars. He didn't send him away in peace.
He said, get out. Well, that's what men say, you
know, about our Lord. But I don't hate God. Yeah, you
do. But Isaac reviled not. He took it all patiently. The
Lord used that. He used that. And when he was
reviled, reviled not again. And when they strove with him,
he didn't strive back. He wasn't a brawler, but took
it peacefully. He said, just take it. Just take
the whip. Then he went to Beersheba, verse 23. Then he went up from
there to Beersheba. Where's Beersheba? What's Beersheba?
Anybody recall? That's where Abraham built an
altar and called on the Lord after all the strife that he
had. with the Bimelech of all people. Same strife. Same trouble. Same troubles. And enmity. And so he went to
Beersheban. There he called on the name of
the Lord, built an altar, and the Lord answered him and came
to him and gave him again the same... What did the Lord tell
him? Look at it. Verse 24. The Lord appeared to
him and he just said the same thing. things that Isaac had
forgotten, but all his hope, all his peace. He said, 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. For Christ's sake, I will. Boy,
that's a blessed promise, but it's also a rebuke in that. A
reproof. Correction. What's wrong with
me? Isaac, when the Lord is saying this to him, he's thinking, what's
wrong with me? Why didn't I trust him? He told me that before.
He's told me that time and time again. My dad told me. I didn't
believe him either. So he built an altar and called
on the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there. And I like this.
It says he built an altar and then pitched his tent. A lot of people pitch their tent
and go looking for an altar. We'll move here, we'll dwell
here, and then we'll see if there's a church there. That's not the
way it works. That's not the way a child of
God does. No, no. You go where there's
an altar, where God is speaking, where Christ and Him crucified
is prayed. You go there, and if you find it, pitch your tent.
Pitch your tent. Call on the name of the Lord. And start digging another well.
Start digging another well. Apparently, Isaac was enough
of a witness. He was ashamed of himself. You
know he wasn't, as we are. But apparently, He was enough
of a witness that something made an impression upon him later. Scripture says, when a man's
ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace
with him. But if they don't, the Lord sends
enemies. Anybody know anything about that?
Isaac, though this man kicked him out, though this man evil
and treated him, though this man was blessed because of Isaac.
You know, the Lord has blessed this town because of this church.
That's a fact. That's a fact. which some of you have been fired
from. Still going in the midst of recessions
and construction just bottoms out. Still going. Why? There's
a church here. God's people are here. Ashland,
Kentucky. Armco Steel. Backwoods Steel. All of Pittsburgh failed. Bethlehem Steel failed. Thousands
and thousands of people. Laid off. Cut off. Our men didn't
lose their job, did they? Worked around. The Lord blesses
whole cities and communities for the gospel sector. Now, Bimelech
didn't realize it. Nobody realized it. The people
striving with Isaac didn't realize. You're striving. You're against
one that's blessing you. Isn't that what people do with
our Lord? Curse Him. Curse Him. Isn't it? Biting the hand that feeds them?
And that's what we did. You see? That's why we meet to
worship. Of all people, we should be most
thankful. Well, and he who's been forgiven much, loved much. I know. And to be the loudest witness
ought to be anyone. We are when we're young. But
Isaac, a man kicked him out, and Isaac took him in. A man kicked him out, but Isaac
fed him. Doesn't the Scripture say that? If thine enemy hunger,
feed him. You'll heat coals of fire on
his head if the Lord doesn't do something for him. And I don't
know, maybe they ended up real friends. It doesn't indicate
that. It does seem that they were. I don't know what the Lord
did with Abimelech. That's his business. But I don't
know if he belonged to the Lord. But this was an amazing thing,
wasn't it? Just amazing. Bimelech went to
Isaac. He went to Isaac. He sought out
Isaac. Took two friends with him. If
you've ever had anybody come to hear the Gospel through your
poor witness, you sure might thank the Lord. You think, boy,
If the Lord does something for them, I think this all the time. What a poor witness I've been. People that come and sit and
hear me and the Lord use me, I think, oh, how merciful. This is certainly of the Lord,
that's for sure. I didn't do it. I had nothing to do with
it. Nothing to do with it. Isaac, you know Isaac's thinking,
my, my, isn't the Lord gracious? Isn't the Lord merciful? Bring
this former enemy of mine. Kick me out. Bring me to me.
That's what he said. He said, Why are you coming to
me? You hated me. You sent me away from you. What
did he say? What did Ben Malek say? Verse
28. We saw certainly that the Lord was with thee. That's amazing. Who does that
remind you of? Nicodemus? One of those Pharisees? Pharisees stopped the wells.
Our Lord dug them up. Pharisees were stopping the water
from flowing, the Word. The Lord came to unstop them.
And Nicodemus was one of those well stoppers. Well, the Lord
brought him to them. We know God is with you. It must
be. And He asked him, Do us no hurt.
Have mercy upon us. Verse 29, You are the blessed
of the Lord. He now realizes, doesn't he? You're the blessed
of the Lord. And so do we. God reconciles us to himself,
brings us to the feet of his blessed Son, whom we gave no
heed to and had nothing to do with, brings us to his feet to
kiss the Son, serve him with fear and trembling. Realizing
that we're blessed because of Him. He's the blessed of the
Lord. If we're going to be blessed, we're going to be blessed in
Him. And we need Him to be at peace
with us. And what does Isaac do? He made
him a feast. And they did eat and drink. These fellas didn't
deserve that, did they? But such was Isaac. And such
is our Lord. And they left in the morning
in peace. They got up in the morning and in peace. And lo
and behold, right after that, somebody came to Isaac. Real
story. After Isaac did all that to these
undeserving fellows, former inmates, somebody came and said, we found
water. Well, we were digging. It's the
biggest well yet. It's a gusher. There's enough
water to go around for everybody. Isn't that the way the Lord does
things? We do a little, He gives a lot. He repays it. Cast your
bread upon the water. So Isaac, what a grateful man
he is now. What a grateful. So, Isaac, son
of promise. Son of promise. Chosen, loved,
taught, bought, brought. Blessed. Blessed. Why is he blessed? Things? No. The Lord does bless all of
His people with things. Food and rain. They never beg. But the great blessing is the
Lord knew him. The Lord was with him. The Lord
kept speaking to him. The Lord's presence was with
him. That's the blessing. And in the midst of strife and
contention in the world, he sure needed the Lord to be with him.
He needed the Lord to be with him. And water. There's always
water. He never went thirsty. In a dry and thirsty land, Isaac
never was thirsty. Did our Lord say that? Blessed
are those that hunger and thirst, they will be filled. A well springing
in you, while the world passes through this world, hardly bested
and hungry, darkness and dimness and anguish of spirit, the people
that walked in darkness have seen a great light. The people
that were thirsty in the desert, wandering, of rock, was smitten
for them and watered those things. Isn't that our story? Isaac was
blessed. Let me close with this, and this
will be a blessing. Isaac was a blessed man. How
do we know? Those things I said, that he
was chosen, the Lord came to him, revealed himself to him,
his covenant with him, blessed him, gave him much goods and
things that he needed, sent strife. That's a blessing. He'd have
stayed right there. Lot would have stayed right there.
And he'd have perished. Strife's a good thing. Oh, blessed
are you, wouldn't it hate you? Why? They'd have cast you out.
You needn't cast out. You don't belong there. Strife
and contention is a blessing. Trials. He got trial after trial
after trial. Strife, division, trials. You remember he and his wife
were barren for a long time. It was a terrible trial. And
then had a son, two sons. And they were his biggest trial
of all. He had two sons. And that's why
these last two verses are here. It says that Esau, Isaac, blessed of the Lord, Isaac's chosen of God. God loves
Isaac. How do you know? He sent troubles. He sent trials. Trials of his
day. And he had two boys, and both of them were grief for a
long time. And one of them was lost. Anybody? Blessed be the Lord. Bless the
Lord. Oh, my soul. Our parents have two sons. Only
two sons left. One, by the grace of God, the
younger, not the elder. I wonder why that is. The younger,
not the elder. God broke down the infant in
his heart. God had great mercy upon him. And he stands before you, the
other soul to birthright. But it's not over, is it? It's
not over. And God is merciful. God is merciful. But if the Lord
loves you, and if you're blessed of the Lord and belong to Him,
He's going to send you trials. And you're not going to be a
part of this world. And if you do, He's going to bring you out
of it. He'll bring you out of it for your good. Okay, stand
with me. Our Lord, Your Word is glorious,
marvelous. It is without a doubt, beyond
doubt, the Word of the living God, wisdom from on high. A light that shines in darkness,
the discerner of the thoughts and intents of our hearts, separating,
dividing asunder the joints and the marrow, the soul and the
spirit. All things are naked, exposed before your all-seeing
eyes, the eyes of the Lord that run to and fro throughout the
earth. Oh, Lord, how we thank You for Your Word. giving us
eyes. Your Word is our eyes. We thank
You that You have lightened our darkness, that through Thy light
we see light. We thank You. But, O Lord, forgive
us. Forgive us, Lord, when we walk
in darkness. Forgive us, O Lord, that You've
told us to shine as lights in this dark world, and we don't.
O Lord, Thou art so merciful, so gracious to our unbelief,
cowardice to these poor sons of Jacob. You are so gracious
and so merciful. Lord, dung us, mold us, make us, shape us, conform
us to the blessed image of Christ who feared no man, who was Thy
faithful witness, O Lord. Call out sheep, and if it pleases
Thee, use us. Use these poor vessels, earthen
vessels. The excellence of the power is
of you, and we ask that you would use us. Use this church, Lord. Take not the candlestick away,
but use it, we pray, for thy glory and thy honor. In all these
things we do and say, in Christ's name, for his glory and honor.
Amen.