I don't know of a line of a song
that is more blessed, moving, and mysterious than in the beloved,
I went to the tree. Every time I hear that, I think
I quoted it this morning, I think. Anybody remember? Okay. That is just, Yeah, it's amazing. I've entitled
this message. God blessed Isaac. Let's read verse 11. And it came to pass Genesis 25
once again, and it came to pass. I love that phrase. God purposed
it. It came to pass. That's true
of everything. After the death of Abraham, and
Abraham serves as a great type of Christ, it came to pass that
after the death of Abraham that God blessed his son, Isaac. And Isaac dwelt by the well of
the Haroi, and we're going to consider that probably in a few
weeks when we get into Genesis chapter 26, at the different
wells that Isaac dug. God blessed Isaac. Isaac was an interesting character,
like everybody else in the Bible was. He was an interesting character. As a matter of fact, when you
read of what took place in Genesis 27, where he favored his son
Esau and his Rebecca favored Isaac and the deceit that took
place in that family. This was actually a wildly dysfunctional
family. If you look at what took place
with Isaac. He was the man who told Esau,
bring me such meat as my soul loveth. That's strong language,
isn't it? And he was a man that God blessed. God is blessed. I wish I could say that right.
God is Blessed, as Melchizedek said, blessed be the Most High
God. Paul said in Ephesians 1.3, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, the blessedness
of the blessed one. And look back in Genesis 12,
I love the way This begins with Abraham. Now the Lord had said unto Abram,
get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy
father's house unto a land that I will show thee and I will make
of thee a great nation and I will bless thee and make thy name
great and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless
thee, and curse him that curseth thee, and in thee shall all families
of the earth be blessed. I want in on this blessing, don't
you? The way he blessed Abraham and the way he blessed Isaac. Now his blessing is first mentioned
in creation with regard to the birds and the fishes. The scripture
said he blessed them. And then with regard to our first
parents in the garden, it says he blessed them. He blessed the seventh day of
rest. Isn't it a blessed thing to rest?
to rest in Christ. He blessed the seventh day of
rest. And I love where it says, God
blessed Noah and his sons. You know, they were the only
ones that God blessed in the earth at that time. That's what the scripture
says. Somebody says, how could that
be? Well, that's what the Bible says. Only Noah and his sons
were blessed by God in salvation. The rest of the earth was wiped
out. What a blessing. And instead of thinking, how
could God be so severe? We ought not think that way.
We ought not think that way. Whatever God does is right, glorious,
best, holy, and true. And what a blessing to Abraham
and his sons to find God's favor. Now, Abraham serves as a type
of Christ in this passage of scripture. When was Isaac blessed? After the death of Abraham. Now hear this real carefully. God has one reason for blessing,
only one, the death of his son. Because
of the death of his son on Calvary's tree, he can pour out his blessing
on you and me. But don't forget, the only reason
is the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every blessing we receive
has this as its source, the death of Christ. That's the reason
for every blessing Not because you did anything to earn a blessing,
but because of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, God made a
way for him to pour out his blessings on sinners in a way that would
not violate any of his attributes, and that is done through the
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. God made the universe for Christ
to come and die on the cross. I love saying that, I love thinking
it. The glory of the cross that God created the universe for
this purpose. And every blessing that any sinner
has, has this as its source, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, all of Isaac's blessings
or all of Isaac's blessing was because of his relationship with
Abraham. That's why, why would God bless
you? One reason. because of your relationship
with his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that ought to encourage
everybody. God's got a reason to bless you.
I don't deserve God's blessing. Yeah, but he does. He does. And you're in him. And what a
blessed place that is to be. Every blessing Isaac received
was because of his connection with Abraham and all of our blessings
are because of our connection with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now
Isaac was blessed of God before he was born. I love thinking about that. You
know, God gave him and Sarah his name before he was ever born. And he was known of God and blessed
of God before he was ever born. And if you're blessed of God,
your blessings are eternal. They were given you in Christ
Jesus before the world began. Every single one of them. Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 31
three, behold, I've loved you. with an everlasting love. There was never a time when God
didn't love me. Camp on that for a second. There
was never a time when God didn't love me and know my name. Before I formed thee in the belly,
I knew thee. Behold, I've loved you with an
everlasting love, therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn
thee. Now Isaac was supernaturally
born. His dad was 100, his mom was
90. His birth was miraculous. Your birth is utterly miraculous,
being born of God. And that's a miraculous birth.
That's what every believer has. Really more miraculous than Isaac's
birth. The same power that was used
in raising Christ from the dead is used in birthing you into
the kingdom of heaven. That which is born of the spirit
is spirit. What a miracle that you've been
given this miraculous birth. Isaac's blessing was a display
of God's sovereign blessing. What about his brother? Cast
out the bond woman and her son, but the son of the bond woman
shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. If you have
been blessed with salvation and someone else has not, what's
the difference between you and them? Is it because you were
better? Is it because you were smarter?
Is it because you had more that would aid God in the spreading
of his kingdom? Is it because you used your will
whereas the other fellow didn't and the reason you're accepted
by God is because you used your will to accept Jesus as your
personal savior? You were able to do that and
the fellow that didn't, didn't. If you're a believer, you know
better than that. The only reason that you're blessed is because
of the difference God made. For the children, being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God according to election might stand. Not of works. Now, if you're saved, if I'm
saved, here's what we're an example of. The salvation's not of works. I'm a living example of that.
Salvation is not of works, but of him that calleth. What do you have, Paul said,
that you didn't receive? Isaac was blessed with a substitute.
Remember Genesis 22? They were getting ready to put
him to death. Abraham was getting ready to
put him to death and he was given a substitute. That substitute
ram, which pictured the Lord Jesus Christ, all God's people
have been blessed with a substitute. First Corinthians 15, three says
that the gospel is how that Christ died for our sins, according
to the scriptures. Now that word are, it would be
totally unfair to look at that as everybody. If I had a million
dollars and I said, this is for us, well, us doesn't mean everybody. It means yes, that I'm being
important to me. Doesn't mean everybody. The hour is not for
everybody. This is talking about God's elect.
This is talking about all of his sheep. They are provided
a substitute. Look in Genesis 25 while you're
there. Verse five, we've considered this last week and Abraham gave
all that he had unto Isaac. Everything Abraham had, he gave
to his son. God gave all that he had to his
son and all that his son has, every believer has. joint heirs
with Christ. Whatever Christ has, I have. Now God blessed Isaac. Now what does God's blessing
look like? Material blessings? Health? Wealth? A life without problems? Smooth sailing? Well, let's talk
about the rich man and Lazarus. You can read about these two
men in Luke chapter 16. The rich man had material blessings. He was rich. He had a lot. Lazarus was a beggar, poor. Which one was blessed of God? The rich man had health. Lazarus
didn't. He was full of sores. Which one
was blessed of God? Wasn't a rich man. The rich man was living the dream.
The scripture says he was clothed in purple and fine linen and
fared sumptuously every day. I mean, he was living the life.
What about Lazarus? Poor, sick, very difficult life. Dogs licking his sores. Which one was blessed of God?
It wasn't a rich man. Lazarus had what Paul called
all spiritual blessings. You know, I heard a preacher
say, Our problem is we're more interested in material blessings
than spiritual blessings. No, not believers. You see, really,
the only kind of blessing there is is a spiritual blessing. It could be these, quote, material
blessings are curses from God. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings. in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus according as he hath chosen us in him." Isn't that a blessing? To be chosen of God? He chose
us in him that we should be holy and without blame before him.
Isn't that a blessing? To be holy before God, to be
without blame? before God, that's so hard to
get hold of that right now I stand before God without blame. God has nothing to blame me for. I can only be apprehended by
faith, not by sight. And then he says, having predestinated
us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, is
that a great blessing? To be predestinated by God, to
be just like Christ, to be adopted? He's made us accepted in the
beloved. What a blessing. In whom we have
redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins,
according to the riches of his grace. What a blessing. Do these
things ever get old? Tiresome? If my heart gets old, they do.
If my heart grows dry, they do. Oh, it becomes dry, there it
goes again. But oh, if the Lord gives us his spirit, what a blessing. infinite spiritual blessings
we have in Christ Jesus. Now let me quote Ephesians 1,
3 again. I want you to see just how Paul
said it. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who hath blessed us. You know what that means? It
means you're a God. You've got everyone of us. Every believer
without exception has every one of them. Now, what do these blessings
look like, these spiritual blessings? I know it's what the believer
desires. That's what Lazarus had. He had all spiritual blessings. Now, the rich man wasn't really
interested in spiritual blessings. I look at him in the same light
as Esau, who sold his birthright for one morsel of meat, for a
bowl of soup. He was hungry. And thus he despised
the birthright. The natural man is not concerned
about these spiritual blessings but the believer is greatly concerned
to have these spiritual blessings. Now what do these spiritual blessings
look like? I keep a notebook. by my chair
in my study at home. And anytime something impresses
me, I write it down. Because if I don't write it down,
I will forget it. So I write it down. It's a lot
of stuff that I haven't gone back and looked at in years.
But something I wrote down recently, I want to deal with the attitudes.
You know that every day, close to every day, I can't say
every day, maybe I'd be exaggerating if I say that, but most of the
time, when I pray, I pray, Lord, would you be pleased to make
me poor in spirit? Would you be pleased to make
me to mourn? Would you be pleased to make
me to be meek before you? Would you be pleased to make
me to hunger and thirst after righteousness? Would you be pleased
to make me merciful? Would you be pleased to make
me pure in heart? Would you be pleased to make
me a peacemaker? Would you be pleased to allow
me the blessed privilege, a grace I don't deserve, to be persecuted
for righteousness sake? Now those are the Beatitudes,
and this is what the Lord Jesus Christ calls blessed. Now you've
run across all kinds of people while you're out. How you doing?
I don't know how many times I've heard this. They say, I'm blessed. And I suppose what they're saying
is, what they mean by that, I guess, is the Lord's blessed me. I didn't
get this, you know, the Lord's blessed me. Okay, okay. And what's really bad is when
somebody says, bless you. I hate it when people say that.
I hope probably somebody said that to me. Well, I didn't hear
it, if you said that to me. But here's the point. Somebody
says, bless you. I think, you can do that? Well,
don't they mean God can bless you? Well, I don't know if they
do or not. If that's not what they said, bless you. The only one who can
truly bless is the Lord himself. You believe that? The only one
who can truly bless in a way that counts is the Lord himself,
and look how he describes blessing. One of the things I love about
the Sermon on the Mount, I heard a preacher preaching on the Sermon
on the Mount not that long ago, and he made this statement. In
the Sermon on the Mount, there is no blood, only follow me. And my thought was, you don't
understand the Sermon on the Mount, you don't have any clue
as to what it means to follow Christ, or you wouldn't have
even said anything like that. The Sermon on the Mount is founded
on the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, just like everything
else is. The blood runs through everything. And anything that's independent
of the blood is no good. Now let's consider, just real
briefly, these eight states of blessedness. This is what God's
blessing looks like. First, blessed are the poor in
spirit. Now what's that mean? Does it
mean you have no self-esteem and you just have your head down
and everything's bad? Maybe, but that's really not
what poverty and spirit means. When you're poor in spirit, that
means you don't have anything. You don't have anything that
could recommend you to God. You don't have anything to bring
to the table. You're poverty stricken. You have some idea,
some understanding of the fact that if it comes from you, it's
sin. Would you present a sin to God
and expect him to accept that? All you are is sin. Now that's what it means to be
poor in spirit. You don't have anything but the Lord Jesus Christ. You don't have anything else.
Now if you have Christ, you're rich, but it's only the poor
in spirit who have Christ who is all. To be poor in spirit
means at all times, at all times, I don't have anything but Jesus
Christ. Do you know anything about that?
That's what it is to be poor in spirit and how blessed that
person is. Theirs is the kingdom of God. That person who's poor in spirit. Now, when you're poor in spirit,
you believe, you believe that if you did it, it's sin. Now we may think of more grievous
sins and so on. I know we catalog sins and everything,
but the poor in spirit knows that everything he does is sin.
THAT HE CANNOT NOT SIN. HIS SIN IS ALL HIS FAULT. HE
LACKS THE ABILITY TO SET IN JUDGMENT ON ANYBODY, FOR ANYTHING. AND
HE HAS NO CLAIMS ON GOD, NOTHING TO BRING TO THE TABLE. HE'S POOR
IN SPIRIT. NOW, THE NEXT BEATITUDE THAT
OUR LORD SAYS THAT SOMEBODY'S BLESSED OF GOD IS, AND REMEMBER,
THE BEATITUDES ARE WHAT A BELIEVER IS. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT
A BELIEVER IS, Read the Beatitudes. That's who our Lord tells us
is blessed. And the second thing he says is, blessed are they
that mourn. He's talking about mourning over
my sin. A state of mourning. My sin is not okay at any time,
and even when I'm rejoicing in Christ, I am mourning over my
sin. Sin's never acceptable. Sin is
never okay. Now, when people mourn, I've
heard this, you've heard this, time will help it. Not in mourning
over sin. Not in mourning over sin. As
a matter of fact, the more you grow in grace, the more you'll
mourn over your sin. It doesn't get better. It's a
continual thing. But blessed are they who mourn
over sin, for they shall be comforted. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
saying to her that her warfare is accomplished. Her iniquity
is pardoned. She hath received of the Lord's
hand double for all her sin. Now if you mourn, you're gonna
be comforted by God himself. And the third thing he mentions
are blessed are the meek. Blessed are the meek. Now I know the world thinks of
the word meek as being weak. You're a weak person. You let
people walk all over you. Meekness is an attitude before
God. A meek person knows this. Whatever comes my way, God is
the first cause behind it. Therefore, to be received and
bowed to without murmuring and without complaining. God sent
it. That's the meek person. You know,
the Lord was meek. The Lord is meek. He's lowly
in heart. The Son of God, the creator of
the universe is meek. and lowly in heart. And I think
the example that strikes me as being what meekness is, is when
David is so distraught leaving Jerusalem. Absalom is gonna kill
him. He's fleeing. Can you imagine
what it would be like if your son was trying to kill you and
you knew it? If you stayed in town, he'd kill you and you had
to leave? And he's so distraught, and while he's leaving Jerusalem,
a man by the name of Shimei is throwing rocks at him. And he's
saying, you're getting what you've got coming. You're a bloody man.
What goes around comes around. You're getting exactly what you
deserve. And his servant, Dabshi, said,
you want me to go take his head off? And David said, no. The Lord said, curse David. The Lord put those words in his
mouth. Whatever the Lord does, everything
that is, is what he does. Therefore, it's good. That is
meekness. May the Lord make us meek. before
him. And then the Lord said, blessed
are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. Now, first
of all, when you're hungry and thirsty, it's because you don't
have any food in your stomach. And you can't produce food. It's
got to come outside of you. That's what hunger is all about. That's what thirst is all about.
The only thing that can satisfy you is something that comes from
outside of you. Now, we don't have to guess as
to what he's talking about when he's talking about hungering
and thirsting after righteousness. Remember when the Lord said,
seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. A believer is someone who hungers
and thirsts after the righteousness and merits of Jesus Christ as
my standing before God. I hunger and thirst to be found
in him. Now, that's a state of being
with a believer. To hunger, you never get past
that. You're always hungering and thirst for his righteousness
because you know that your righteousnesses, according to the scripture, are
as filthy rags. And even if you don't see it
clearly, you believe it because that's what God says about it.
and you hunger after the righteousness and the merits of Jesus Christ. And next he says, well he says
those people will be filled. You know what, you're gonna be,
you hunger for his righteousness, guess what, you're gonna be filled
with his righteousness. You are, where it says you are
complete in Him, literally, you are filled, filled to the brim,
filled to the full. You can't hold anything else. Isn't that a blessed place to
be? To hunger and thirst after righteousness. And then we read,
blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the merciful. They shall obtain mercy. Now, if God has bestowed his mercy
on you, you will be a merciful person. Now, if you're not a
merciful person, and that's such an ugly trait, isn't it? Someone
that shows no mercy. It's so ugly, it's so offensive.
But if you've experienced the free mercy of God, you will be
a merciful person. You're not gonna hold people's
feet to the fire. And the more you understand of God's mercy,
the more merciful you will be. Blessed are the merciful. That's what the Lord said. I
love that story of him for giving one guy 10,000 talents, and that
guy turned around and his Lord had frankly forgave him, and
then he goes to this other fellow who owed him $15, and he said,
pay me what you owe, and he took him by the throat and had him
thrown into the prison, and they went and told his master, and
what did his master do? He said, oh, thou wicked and
slothful servant. He had him thrown into prison
because he didn't get it. He did not get it. And then there's
blessed are the pure in heart. You know, this is one that used
to always bother me. Blessed are the pure in heart. Because
I look at my heart and I think, well, it's not very pure. Matter of fact,
it's not pure at all. I see such sin belching out of
it. And can I call my heart a pure
heart? Well, this is talking about the new heart that he gives.
It's a new heart. If you're a believer, you have
a holy nature. You have two separate natures,
one completely sinful and one holy nature, the pure heart.
It's the pure heart that believes the gospel. It's the pure heart
that loves Jesus Christ as he is, that loves God as he is,
that loves his way of saving. It's a pure heart. Every believer
has this pure heart. Blessed are the pure in heart.
Blessed are the peacemakers. They preach the gospel of peace,
and they want peace. Paul says, as much as lies in
you is, if it be possible, live peaceably with every man. We
want peace in the home, we want peace in the church, we want
peace with our brethren, we want peace. The gospel is the gospel
of peace, peace with God. I wanna be a peacemaker, don't
you? And if I'm a believer, I am a peacemaker. Because he said,
blessed are the peacemakers. And finally he said, blessed
are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake. Now, I believe you already know
that that's not talking about you're persecuted because you
gave a giant gift to a hospital or to feed the poor or you helped
somebody and acted mercifully. That's not what that's talking
about. We ought to be filled with works like that. I'm not
diminishing the importance of treating people right and so
on. But he's talking about being
persecuted for maintaining that the righteousness of Jesus Christ
is the only righteousness there is. Have you even turned to, I don't
even know if I asked you to turn to Matthew 5, but would you turn
with me there for a moment? Matthew 5, verse 10, blessed are they which
are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven. Blessed are you when men shall
revile you, and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil
against you falsely for my sake." Now, if you say that the righteousness
of Christ is the only righteousness there is, you're gonna have men
say, well, you're against good works. You're an antinomian. You're against obedience. Well,
you're saying all of our works count for nothing. Well, you're
right about that. I am saying that. But this is what they're
saying. They'll hear the gospel and they'll
say, Why? Your immorality is behind this. You're just looking for an excuse
to sin. And you'll say all manner of evil falsely against you for
my sake. What does the Lord say? He says,
rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven.
For so persecuted they the prophets, which were before you. You're
just getting what the prophets, which were before you. And this
is what God's blessing looks like. God blessed Isaac and it
was spiritual blessing. And here's what it ends up looking
like in that person, poor. Mourn, meek, hunger and thirst
after righteousness. Merciful, pure in heart, a peacemaker
and persecuted for righteousness sake. And that's what God's blessing
looks like. That's what a believer looks
like. That's what a believer is, one
who has been blessed by God. Now, as we're getting ready to
take the Lord's table, I want us to, if the Lord will permit
us, I want us to remember, and the Lord said this, do in remembrance
of me, I want us to remember just like Isaac was blessed after
the death of Abraham. Every blessing we possess comes
to us because of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. May we
ponder on that and meditate upon it and thank the Lord for that
as we remember his broken body and his shed blood. You'll come
pass out the bread and walk.