If you would, now open your Bibles
with me to Genesis 26. Probably, as long as I live,
every time we sing that song, I'm going to miss Roy Dennison.
Sitting right over there singing that second part on that chorus.
Singing it out so loud. Other people were singing it
with him because you could just sing along with Roy. I miss him
every time. I bet he's singing something
now, isn't he? All right, let's look here for our scripture reading
and read this entire chapter, Genesis chapter 26. 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. And the Lord appeared
unto him and said, go not down into Egypt. Dwell in the land
which I shall tell thee of. Sojourn in this land and I will
be with thee and will bless thee. For unto thee and unto thy seed
I will give all these countries, and I'll perform the oath which
I swear unto Abraham my father. And I will make thy seed to multiply
as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these
countries. And in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed,
because that Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my
commandments, my statutes, and my laws. And Isaac dwelt in Gerar,
And the men of the place asked him of his wife. And he said,
she's my sister. For he feared to say, she is
my wife, lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for
Rebecca, because she was fair to look upon. And it came to
pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech,
king of the Philistines, looked out the window and saw, and behold,
Isaac was sporting with Rebecca, his wife. And Abimelech called
Isaac and said, behold of a surety, She's thy wife. And how saddest
thou, she's my sister. And Isaac said unto him, because
I said, lest I die for her. And Abimelech said, what is this
that thou hast done unto us? One of the people might lightly
have lied with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness
upon us. And Abimelech charged all his
people, saying, he that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely
be put to death. And Isaac sowed in that land
and received in the same year and a hundredfold. And the Lord
blessed him. And the man waxed great and went
forward and grew until he became very great. For he had possession
of flocks and possession of herds and great store of servants.
And the Philistines envied him. For all the wells which his father's
servants had digged in the days of Abraham, his father, the Philistines
had stopped them and filled them with earth. And Abimelech said
unto Isaac, Go from us, for thou are much mightier than we. And
Isaac departed thence and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar
and dwelt there. 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 their names after the names by which his father
had called them. And Isaac's servants digged in the valley
and found there a well of springing water. And the herdman of Gerar
did strive with Isaac's herdman, saying the water is ours. And
he called the name of the well Isik, because they strove with
him. And they digged another well
and strove for that also. And he called the name of it
Sitna. And he removed from thence and digged another well for that
they strove 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 should be fruitful in the land.
And he went up from Thins to Beersheba. And the Lord appeared
unto him the same night and 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. 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. And Abimelech went to him from
Gerar and Ahazoth, one of his friends, and Phicolth, the chief
captain of his army. And Isaac said unto them, wherefore
come ye to me, seeing you hate me, and have sent me away from
you? And they said, we saw certainly that the Lord was with thee.
And we said, let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt
us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee, that thou
will do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have
done unto thee nothing but good. and have sent thee away in peace.
Thou art now the blessed of the Lord. And he made them a feast,
and they did eat and drink. And they rose up at times in
the morning and swear one to another. And Isaac sent them
away, and they departed from him in peace. And it came to
pass the same day that Isaac's servants came and told him concerning
the well which they had digged, and said unto him, we have found
water. And they called it Sheba. Therefore,
the name of the city is Beersheba unto this day. And Esau was 40
years old when he took to wife Judith, the daughter of Beeri,
the Hittite, and Bashamath, the daughter of Elon, the Hittite,
which were a grief of mine unto Isaac and to Rebekah. All right,
let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, we bow before you
this evening, seeking a blessing from your storehouses, of mercy
and grace that you have reserved for your people. Father, how
we pray that you would meet with us in the person of thy spirit,
enable us to truly worship thee from the heart this evening,
in spirit and in truth. Enable us to hear and believe
a word from thee, a word that you have prepared for us to hear
for your glory, for our good, our instruction, our edification,
the feeding of thy sheep. Father, as we bow before you,
how thankful we are that you are God Almighty, God over all,
that you always accomplish your purpose. Whatever it pleases
you to do, that's what is done. And Father, how we thank you
that it's pleased you to save a people, to make us your people,
a people that you would redeem by the blood of your son. And we beg of you that you'd
be pleased tonight to give us a word from thee. Father, bless
us. How we thank you for all the
blessings, how richly you have blessed this congregation. It's
beyond measure. And Father, we know it's only
for Christ's sake. It's only because of your promise of mercy
and grace. It's not because we've earned
it. And Father, we're thankful. And we beg of you that you continue
to preserve and protect this place. We pray that you give
us the wisdom and the heart to preserve the unity of the Saints
here and cause this continue to be a place where your sheep
can come and hear of Christ and worship and peace and love and
harmony. And Father we pray for those
that you brought into the valley of trouble and trial. There there's
so many right now and in deep and difficult places. Father
we're thankful to know thou art able And we pray that you'd be
pleased to deliver them, that you'd be pleased to deliver them
quickly. Until then, Father, that you give them a special
portion of your presence and your grace in their hearts. To
all these things we ask, that name which is above every name,
the name of Christ our Savior. Amen. I've titled our lesson
or our message this evening, Our Wells of Water. Now, Isaac,
you know, is given to us as a very clear picture of Christ, the
son of God, who's the promised Messiah. But you know, Isaac
is also often a very good picture of the believer. And that's how
I want to look at him tonight. Isaac is a type of a believer
in the different circumstances that a believer finds ourselves
all throughout our life. Now, Isaac is known as a man
of wells, wells of water that he dug. We're told of at least
five wells Isaac dug in his lifetime. Wherever it was that Isaac moved,
he went from one place to another, he always went from one well
to another well. Now, on the surface of that,
I wouldn't say that that's very uncommon, would you? Especially
in a desert area, how much you need water. We need water to
live. So especially in a desert area, you'd think lots of people
would go from one well to another well. But in other people I know,
Doug Wells, we read of a well that Abraham's servants dug,
other people dug, but we're specifically told, more than any other of
the Old Testament characters, of Isaac digging these wells. And it seems like every time
Isaac dug a well, he found water. Now, to me, that has to mean
that the Lord blessed him. I mean, this is a desert area. In that kind of climate, you
dig and find water. The Lord has blessed you, especially
if you never dig up a dry well, you know. And each of these different
wells that Isaac dug are pictures. They're pictures of the different
experiences that every believer goes through in our life. And I hope to show us tonight
that in every situation that we experience, the believer must
have Christ. He's our strength. He's our He's
our life, he's our stay in every situation. And these wells represent
five different experiences that every single believer will experience
all throughout history. And the first one is back in
Genesis chapter 25, verse 11. It's the well at Lehorah. And it came to pass, verse 11,
after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son, Isaac, and
Isaac dwelt by the well Leheroi, now Leheroi means the living
one sees me. Isaac was living in a place where
the living God saw him. Now you remember the Lord's name,
Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord will provide. That name that the Lord
revealed, the name of the Lord was revealed on top of Mount
Moriah when Isaac was getting ready to be killed. Isaac remembered
that name, Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord will provide. But that name
also means the Lord sees. The Lord will see to it. Isaac
lived in a place where the Lord's gonna see to it. He's gonna see
to his provision. For the Lord to see is for the
Lord to provide. You know, isn't that the experience
of every believer? We all live right where God sees
us and provides for us. Even before we knew him, he saw
us and he provided for us. Isn't that comforting? Everywhere
you go, the Lord sees you. He's going to provide. He's going
to provide what we need. And we have to say that's true.
And physically speaking, the Lord's provided everything we
need, hasn't He? Richly, He has. But more importantly, this is
true of our spiritual needs. And for the Lord to see is for
the Lord to provide. Whatever the Lord sees His people
need, that's what He provides. Well, I'll tell you what we need.
We need everything that God requires of us. And everything that God
requires of His people, God's provided for it in the Lord Jesus
Christ. God sees we need righteousness.
See what He did? He provided Christ our righteousness. He provided Jehovah Sidkenu,
the Lord our righteousness, who came and obeyed the law for us
and gave us His righteousness. God sees we need a sacrifice,
a sacrifice that'll satisfy God's justice, a sacrifice that'll
put away the sin of His people. Well, God has provided Christ,
the Lamb of God, who came to take away the sin of the world.
He was sacrificed for us, and by His sacrifice, He satisfied
God's justice so that God can be both just and justify the
ungodly. He did that through the sacrifice
of Christ. God looks at us and sees we're spiritually ignorant.
Do you know what God did? He provided Christ the wisdom
of God. The wisdom of God is our wisdom. What God's given us, what he's
provided for us. In Christ, now I know we don't know everything
there is to know, but in Christ I see. I see how God can save sinners.
I see how God can save a sinner like me and still be God. I see
how God's worshiped. I see, I see. When God looks
at us, I'll tell you another thing He sees. He sees us as
all sheep having gone astray. See what He does? He provides
Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep, who came to seek and
to save that which was lost. God requires that we have faith
in Christ and He sees we don't have any. So He gives us the
gift of faith. The gift. God sees that we have
a dead heart. A heart that can't love Him.
a heart that can't believe Him, a heart that hates Him, a heart
that's hard and cold and cannot be molded, cannot be changed.
So God provides. He says, behold, a new heart
I give unto you. A new heart and a new birth.
See, God's provided everything we need, hasn't He? And it's
all in Christ. Now I'll tell you one more time.
You come to Christ. You come to Christ for everything
that you need and everything that God requires. It's all in
Christ. Now go to him. And the name of this well means
the living one sees me. Well, I see how God sees me and
provides, but how is it that God sees all of his people? Well,
he sees us in Christ. That's where he sees all of his
people. And I honestly can't think of a greater blessing.
The father, since he sees us in Christ, he's all of his people
as righteous, and as holy and as perfect as His own Son. Now that is such a comforting,
assuring thought to our hearts. I don't have to come to God based
upon my own merits. I come to God in Christ, accepted. And when I come to God, you know
why I'm not destroyed? Because when the Father sees
me, all He sees is His Son, and I'm accepted. The Lord sees,
he sees his people in Christ. And we read this over in chapter
26. The Lord blessed Isaac for Abraham's sake. He said, I'm
blessed you, I'm giving you this blessing because I promised your
father Abraham I'd do it. Well, same thing's true of every
blessing that we receive. God blesses us for Christ's sake.
He blesses us because he promised he would, not because we deserved
it. And that's the way God sees all of his people all of the
time in Christ. He blesses them for Christ's
sake. He accepts them in Christ's sake.
He sees them in Christ all of the time, forever. He sees nothing but Christ. That's
how God sees his people. All right, the second well is
the well Isaac. Look over in chapter 26, verse 19. And Isaac's servants digged in
the valley and found there a well of springing water. And the herdman
of Gihar did strive with Isaac's herdman, saying the water is
ours. And he called the name of the well Esik, because they
strove with him." Now that name Esik means contention or strife. There was contention, strife,
as soon as they found this well. The first thing we see about
this well is this. It's called a well of springing water. They
called it living water. Because this well, or this water
flowed out of the well. It wasn't like a deep pool of
water down in the ground. You had to drop a bucket way
down there and draw the water up. This water flowed out of
the well. It was living water. Now look
over at John chapter four. You know already that that living
water, that running water there is a picture of Christ, the living
water, spiritually living water. Lord Jesus Christ is living water,
life-giving water for his people. And this is what he talked to
the woman at the well about in John chapter four, verse seven. There cometh a woman of Samaria
to draw water. And Jesus saith unto her, give
me to drink. For his disciples were gone away into the city
to buy me. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, how is it
that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me which am a woman
of Samaria, for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.'
Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knowest the gift
of God, and who it is that saith thee, Give me to drink, thou
wouldst have asked of him, and he would have given thee living
water. And the woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to
draw with, and the well is deep, for whence then hast thou that
living water? Art thou greater than our father
Jacob, which gave us the well and drank thereof himself and
his children and his cattle. You reckon, you reckon this,
the Lord is greater than Jacob who dug the well. And Lord so
patient, look in verse, he just doesn't even answer that. In
verse 13 he answered and said unto her, whosoever drinketh
of this water shall thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the
water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that
I shall give him shall be any. A well of water springing up
into everlasting life. Now, who is this water? What
is this water? The water's a who, not a what.
Well, look at verse 26. Jesus saith unto her, I that
speak unto thee am. I am. Christ is the water. See, when God causes his people
to be born again, he gives them life. He doesn't just give them
a drink of water. He gives them a fountain of water,
springing up in their heart so that they'll never thirst again
because they always have that water springing up in their heart. That drink of water I just took,
it tasted pretty good. I don't need any more water right
now, but I will for too long because I'm going to use it up.
You know why a believer doesn't thirst for life and thirst for
righteousness anymore? You only thirst for something
when you don't have it in you, when your body needs it. The
believer doesn't have to thirst for life because Christ is our
life. We don't thirst for righteousness
because Christ is our righteousness. Christ is the fountain of life
and you can never use him up. See that water I drank, I'm going
to use it up. I'll need some more. Christ is in you, you never
use Him up. You never use up His righteousness.
You never use up His holiness. You never use up His grace. You
never use up His forgiveness. You never use up His love. He's a well of water springing
up in us. Christ is the source of our life.
It comes from Him. We receive our life from Him
and He's the source of it. He is our life. We live because
we're joined to Him. We live because He lives in us. And He's the sustainer of our
life. He sustains our life by constantly
having that well of water springing up in us. See, we need Him every
hour, don't we? If He doesn't have that water
springing up within us, we'll wither away and die. We cannot
live without Him. And by His mercy and His grace,
His people don't. He's that well of water springing
up and He never leaves them. Now look back at Genesis chapter
26. This well, esig, remember, means contention or strife. You
think, well, I don't see how the contention is here. God gives
life. He's the fountain of life. He's the living water springing
up in us. Where's the contention? Well,
I'll tell you the contention, our contention, our strife with
sin. I'll tell you when it begins. It begins as soon as Christ gives
us life. It has that life of water dwelling
in us and springing up in us. As soon as there's life, spiritual
life in a believer, you're going to have contention with the world.
And you're going to have contention from the world. But you know, we're not here.
We do have contention with the world. And there's a lot of things
wrong in the world, isn't it? But we're not really here to
change the world. We're not here to try to change it, because
you can't change it. It's always going to be sinful. There's always
going to be something wrong with it. I'll tell you what our biggest contention
is. It's with our own sin. Look there at Genesis 26 verse
1. I'm going to show you an example of this. The biggest contention
is the contention with our sin. There is a famine in the land,
besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And
Isaac went unto Abimelech, king of the Philistines, unto Gerar.
And the Lord appeared unto him and said, go not down into Egypt.
Dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of. Sojourn in this
land and I will be with thee. And I will bless thee. For unto
thee and unto thy seed I will give all these countries. And
I will perform the oath which I swear unto Abraham thy father. And I will make thy seed to multiply
as the stars of heaven. And I will give unto thy seed
all these countries. And in thy seeds shall all nations
of the earth be blessed. Because Abraham obeyed my voice
and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. And what's quite a promise, isn't
it? A promise directly to Isaac from God Almighty. All right,
read on. Verse six, and Isaac dwelt in
Gerar, and the men of the place asked him of his wife. And he
said, she's my sister. For he feared to say, she is
my wife, lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for
Rebekah, because she is fair to look upon. And it came to
pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech,
king of the Philistines, looked out at the window and saw. And
behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah, his wife. He was playing
with Rebekah, acting with her, as only a man would act with
his wife. And Abimelech called Isaac and said, behold, of a
surety, she's thy wife. And how sayest thou she's my
sister? And Isaac said unto him, because I said, lest I die for
her. And Abimelech said, what is this
that thou hast done unto us? For one of the people might lightly
have lied with thy wife, and thou shouldst have brought guiltiness
upon us. And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, he that
toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.
The poor old Isaac. Isaac repeated the mistake that
his father made twice. Remember, Abraham twice went
someplace and said, now, Sarah, say you're my sister, so they
don't kill. And Isaac did the same thing. He did the same thing. You know Abraham told him that
story. And he did it anyway. Isaac knew better. And you know
he knew better. Why on earth would Isaac do that? I mean, immediately after God
promised, I'm going to bless you here. If God's blessing him
there in that country, is he going to get killed? Is somebody
going to take Rebekah from him? Why on earth would Isaac do that? Maybe Isaac asked the same question
Rebecca asked. You reckon? Why am I thus? Why did I do that? Well, we saw
Sunday. Here's why I did it. Here's why
I'm thus. It's because of the nature of sin that's still in
us. And because that nature of sin
is still in us, we need to hear the gospel over and over and
over and over again. We need to hear of Christ over
and over and over again. so we don't miss it, so we don't
start wandering off from it. And there's a good example of
that in verse 17. And Isaac departed thence and
pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar and dwelt there. And
Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they digged in
the days of Abraham, his father, for the Philistines had stopped
them after the death of Abraham. And he called their names after
the names by which his father had called them. Abraham had
dug these wells, but the Philistines had gone and stopped them up,
filled them up with earth, and so you couldn't get water out
of them anymore. Isaac went and dug them back up. He knew there
was water there. He just cleared that earth back
out, dug up those wells. Here's what I want to say about
this. Remember Brother Henry saying so often, stick to the
old paths. Stick to the old paths. And this
is what he meant. Don't go looking for a new message.
Don't go looking for a new way to package the gospel, make the
gospel more appealing to the flesh, so you can draw more people
in here. Keep to the old paths. Keep to
the old proven ways. Keep to the old, old story. Keep
to the eternal gospel of Christ. It can't be improved. Keep to
the old ways. This is the only gospel that
God uses to save sinners. The eternal gospel of Christ.
Now stick to it. Stick to it. You know, you could
call gospel preaching a well of water, couldn't you? Gospel
preaching is what lets people see Christ and get to Christ,
doesn't it? We preach Christ, we present Him to people so they
see and drink, can't they? And that way, gospel preaching
is a well of water. Well, I think of many, many places
on this earth where the gospel used to be preached. There's
a well of water there. There used to be. Now there's not. What happened? The Philistines
filled it up with dirt. That's what happened. You know,
that well can get clogged up, and it gets clogged up by man's
religion, man's religious ways, and man's religious traditions.
The springing water gets clogged up when men start adding things
to Christ. That's what clogs up the fountain.
Men make our conduct and our outward morality an issue in
salvation. You've got to act a certain way
to keep your salvation. They're clogging up the well. That's
what they're doing. They make the building where
we worship to be so important. Maybe it's the, you know, where
it's at in town. It's got to be in a good location.
Or it's the history. The history of the building.
A man told me one time he was going to a place because of who
used to be the pastor there a generation ago. I don't know much about the Metropolitan
Tabernacle now. I know it used to be a fountain
there. It used to be in the Gospels. Not anymore. Well, just because
Spurgeon preached there, just because way back there John Gill
used to be a pastor of that congregation, doesn't mean that's where I want
to go. I want to go where the Gospels preach now. If you go
there just looking at history, you're clogging up the well. Men make an order of service. Make it an issue of worship.
You've got to do things in this certain order. You've got to
do this. You've got to do this big processional. And whenever
people start doing that, you know what they always do, always,
they take away time from preaching. Every single time. They never
add time to preaching. They take away time from preaching.
And it's pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them. You
start detracting from the time that you have preaching and the
importance of preaching, you clogged up the well and just
made it useless. And I tell you what, if you ever
find the well clogged up, you find that you're not hearing
of Christ, you're not being blessed, you're not getting a drink from
that living water because you're not hearing of Christ, I tell
you what to do. Get out your shovel and dig down
to the old pass. Dig up those old paths, those
old wells. Do what Isaac did and dig them
up. And don't give them new names. Call them by the names they were
before. Just preach the same old gospel. The same old gospel.
Use those old terms that those old timers, the reformers used.
Talk about righteousness. Talk about justification. Talk
about sanctification. Talk about justification by faith. Don't give them new names. Don't
give them names trying to make it appealing to the flesh. You
dig up that old gospel message that our fathers preached and
preach it. Hang on to it. Because if we're
going to have spiritual life, we need that old well of life-giving,
springing water, don't we? And wherever that living water's
at, there's going to be contention. There's going to be contention.
Satan's going to attack it. Satan's going to attack it. There's
going to be contention there. But don't let that stop you. Don't
let that stop you. All right, here's the third thing,
the third well. Is it Sitna? Verse 21 there in
Genesis 26. And they digged another well
and strove for that also. He called the name of it Sitna.
Yeah, Sitna. Now that word Sitna means hatred
and strife. You know, just like our contention
and strife begins the very moment that we're born again, It's a
contention and strife with our own flesh, with our own sin in
it. The believer also experiences hatred from the very moment God
causes us to be born again. And we think that seems like
a contradiction, doesn't it? To experience hatred the very
moment God sheds abroad His love in our heart? That seems like
a contradiction. But yes, we do. At that very
moment, we start experiencing hatred. And you'll have hatred. from the world, there'll be some
of that. You know, the world hates our God, so it's gonna
hate those that love him. The world hates our Savior, it's
gonna hate those that love him. The world hates our Savior, and
it's gonna hate those he saves, just the way it is. And then
what our Lord said, they're gonna hate you, because they hate your
master. If they hate the master, they're gonna hate your servants.
The world hates the message of salvation by grace. I mean, they
love the message of salvation by works, Oh, they hate the message
of salvation by grace. Then they're going to hate a
sinner who's been saved by grace. They just don't understand. You
know, telling somebody that life is going to be all peachy keen
after the Lord saves you. Now that's a lie. That's just
a lie. The moment God causes you to
be born again, you're going to experience hatred, hatred from
the world, and you're going to hate the world. You know, you're
going to, as soon as the Lord gives you life, you're going
to see things you never saw before. And you'll hate the ways of the
world. And notice I said, you'll hate
the ways of the world. And let's be mighty careful on
this one. We hate the ways of the world. We're not to hate
the people of the world. How can we preach the gospel
to lost people of the world if we hate them? You can't, you
can only preach the gospel to people if you care about them.
And no one should feel and show more compassion and understanding
to the lost than somebody who used to be lost and is now found. I didn't say that I'm lost and
I found the right way. No, I was found. The Lord came
and found me and he brought me. I used to be lost and the Lord
found me. Then I ought to feel genuine compassion for those
that are still out there lost, shouldn't I? See, nobody should
understand the lost more than us who used to be lost. And I
understand why the lost do what they do. And I hate their ways. But I pray for them. I pray for
them. Just be careful that we don't
hate the ways of the world so much. We start hating the people
of the world so that we can't preach the gospel to them. So
we can't pray for them and care about them. A believer does hate
the sinful ways of this world. But I tell you what will grate
on your last nerve. I mean what you hate the most.
It's your own sin. A believer hates our sin. I hate my sin much more than
I hate the sin of the world. At least I do when I'm looking
at it, right? If I start hating somebody else's sin more than
mine, that's so self-righteous. And if I belong to the Lord,
He'll correct that. He'll correct that. He'll make me look at it
right again. But just generally speaking, a believer hates his
own sin much more than he hates the sin of the world. Don't you
know Isaac hated his sin? He hated his sin. He hated his
weakness. When this was over, he hated
that he told those Philistines Rebecca was his sister and he
didn't trust the Lord. You know he hated that. He hated
that more than he hated the idolatry of the Philistines because Isaac
knew He sinned against greater light than the Philistines did.
I mean, the Lord just spoke to him and gave him a promise. And
he immediately acted in unbelief. He hated his own sin. And that's
what I want. I hope the Lord gives me the
spirit to hate my own sin more than I hate your sin. So I keep
looking to Christ my own self. Right then, the fourth well is
the well at Rehoboth, 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 should be fruitful in the land.
Now Isaac had a well, nobody was fighting over it, nobody
was giving him contention over it. It was a peaceful place.
That's why he called the name of that place Rehoboth. And it
means wide places and abundance. Wide places. You know, in scripture,
when it talks about trials, often it talks about a narrow place.
This is a wide place. There's no strife, there's no
contention, just blessing and abundance. You know how we have
to say the Lord has abundantly blessed us? Abundantly. Don't
we have to say that? God gives his people abundant
mercy, abundant grace. Not by works of righteousness,
which we've done, but according to his mercy. He saved us by
the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost,
which he what? Shed on us abundantly. Abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Savior. Titus 3 verses 5 through 6. Christ
the living water gives his people life. And I'm telling you, it's
abundant. Eternal life. John 10 verse 10,
the Lord said, the thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill.
and to destroy, I am come that they might have life, and that
they might have it more abundantly. Abundant life, life that can
never be lost. And thankfully, what our Lord
does for his people, and what he gives to his people, is not
limited to our weak imagination, what we could make up. I hate
when I pray this way. Here's this problem. Lord, if
you do this, you know, fix the problem. The Lord always knows
better than me about what to do. Ephesians 3 verse 20. Now unto him that is able to
do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. Oh,
his wisdom is abundantly above ours. His ways are abundantly
above ours. His ways are abundantly better
than ours. Oh, he blesses his people abundantly
with grace. Now that's important to say it's
with grace. Gene, it's undeserved. He blesses us abundantly, even
though we don't deserve it. And here's a good example. Verse
12, Genesis 26. Then Isaac sowed in that land,
and he received in the same year an hundredfold, and the Lord
blessed him. And the man waxed great and went
forward and grew until he became very great. For he had possession
of flocks and possession of herds great store of servants, and
the Philistines envied him. Now why on earth would the Lord
bless Isaac like that? In the very year that he was
going around telling people, Rebecca's my sister, in the very
year that he's just given this weak display of faith, just really
he's shaming the gospel, he's shaming the name of his God in
front of the Philistines. Why on earth would God bless
him in that very year? The Lord told Isaac, you stay
in this land. I'm going to bless you. I'm going to bless your
seed after you. I'm going to give it all to your
seed after. And the first time somebody comes asking him a question,
he says, Rebecca, she's my sister. And he said that because I'm
afraid to die for her. Aren't you glad the Savior didn't
say that about you? He's not afraid to die for her.
And when I read that, when Isaac said I'm afraid to die for her,
this is what I thought. Now, you don't know this, but
Jan's grandmother, Jan said when she was little, she did something
that would displease her grandmother in a way that her grandma didn't
want her to do. Her grandmother would go... And she said, that's
worse than a weapon for grandma to go... We see what Isaac did. In our
self-righteousness, we go... But the Lord blessed him. The
Lord blessed him anyway. Before we go on talking about
Isaac, let me ask you this. Does that sound like anybody else you know?
The Lord blessed you anyway? The Lord blesses His people for
Christ's sake. Not because of what we've done,
but because of who Christ is, what He's accomplished. The Lord
blesses His people because He promised that He would. Not because
we've earned it, because God's keeping His promise. The Lord
blesses His people because He's He's rich in mercy. He's rich
in grace, not because we have any merit. Here is the basis
of every blessing you and I will ever receive from the Lord. Where
sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Oh, how abundantly
he's blessed us. Then the last well is the well
at Sheba, in verse 32. And it came to pass the same
day that Isaac's servants came and told him concerning the well
which they had digged. and said unto him, we found water.
And they called it Sheba. Therefore, the name of the city
is Beersheba unto this day. Now that word Sheba means oath. And its root word is a word meaning
seven. So this is a sevenfold oath.
It's a perfect oath. Seven in scripture is the number
of perfection. I'm not big on numerology, but
seven is clearly a number of perfection in scripture. And
this is what this well is teaching us. All of the salvation of sinners
is based upon God's oath. God's covenant of grace, God's
promise to save his people by his grace. God's promise to save
his people by the merits of his son, not their merits. Before
time began, God the Father promised he'd save a sinful people by
the bloody sacrifice and death of his son. The salvation of
sinners is by the promise of Almighty God. Since it's by the
promise of God, God cannot lie. Their salvation is going to happen. It's going to. Man's sin cannot
stop God's promise of grace. For sin abounded, grace did much
more abound. Man's unbelief cannot make God's promise null and void. No, it's impossible. God will
give him faith to accomplish it. God will save his people
because he promised. that He'd save them. He promised
He'd save them by His grace. And in closing, look first at
2 Timothy chapter 2. And to sum this up, I want to
look at three passages of Scripture. I believe they'll be a blessing
to you, something you can take home with you. 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 13. Now salvation is based
upon the oath, the promise of God. Is God gonna keep his promise? 2 Timothy 2 verse 13. If we believe not, yet he abides
faithful. He cannot deny himself. See,
this thing's not gonna depend upon if we decide to believe
or not, is it? No, God's gonna save his people because he's
faithful. And he's gonna make them believe in the day of his
power. But it doesn't depend upon us. Salvation depends upon
the faithfulness of God. Now look at Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews 10, verse 23. Let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering. Don't quit. Don't quit looking
to Christ. Don't quit trusting Christ. Don't
quit trusting the promise of God. Hold fast the profession
of your faith without wavering. Why? For he's faithful to the
promise. God's gonna keep his promise.
He's faithful to do it. Then one more passage, 1 John
1. 1 John 1, verse 9. If we confess our sins, He's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. And here I love this, God's both
faithful and just. Faithful to His promise of mercy
and He's just. God is faithful to forgive the
sin of His people and He's just to forgive the sin of His people.
because the sacrifice of Christ took away the sin that made God
angry. The sacrifice of Christ took
away the sin of His people and made it right for God to forgive
them. And He's faithful to do it. He's
faithful to forgive the sin of His people. He's faithful to
watch over and keep and preserve and protect His people because
of the sacrifice of Christ. The sacrifice of Christ means
if Christ died for you, you cannot perish. You cannot. And God will be faithful to make
sure you don't. Now I like that. Don't you like that? That God
keeping you to the end depends on His faithfulness, not yours?
I like it that way. I certainly do. Alright, let's
bow together. Father, how we thank You for
Your Word. Oh, how we thank You for Your faithfulness. Your promise
of mercy and grace to Your people. And Your Son, our Lord Jesus
Christ, Father, cause each of us here tonight to flee to Him,
to hide in Him. Oh, that You would see us in
Him and Him alone. How we thank You. Father, bless
Your Word. Bless Your Word. Show us Your
glory through the preaching of Your Word. And cause us to leave
here tonight and go home and lay down on our pillow, trusting
and resting in Christ our Savior. It's in His precious name. For
His glory and His sake we pray. All right, Sean.