Sep 19, 2021 11:00 (Genesis 26:1–25)

the face okay so down here yes oh hmm teachers like foreign good morning great to be with you on this kind of round rainy cloudy day as we gather to bask in the glory and the glow of the son of god the lord jesus christ uh just a few announcements before we begin i do want to remind everyone just about some recent changes to our covid protocols so just want to let you know that this service as you can probably see by looking around is a mask optional service as is sunday school and our midweek and evening programming but just want to remind you if you would feel more comfortable being in a kind of mass designated area that even now as we speak we are streaming the service in our fellowship hall and that environment is mask designated uh and then going forward uh our early service at 845 is mass designated and we do the same thing in the opposite we stream the service into the fellowship hall uh in in with a mask optional environment so just wanna ask you to to honor that the requests that we're making with respect to those services uh especially that you would in fact wear a mask in the mass designated environments we're asking you to do that and we're asking that you would show love and deference to your brothers and sisters regardless of your mass preference uh well as we move forward a couple of uh other announcements number one i just want to thank carlton for his willingness to step into the pulpit this week uh that afforded me the opportunity to travel back to phoenix for a couple of days this week to visit with my folks who many of you may know from our prayer requests are both in ailing health and so it was a great uh honor for me to be able to spend a couple days with my folks knowing that carlton was ably filling the pulpit upon my return so i appreciate that brother and then this evening when carlton would normally be preaching uh we actually have a special guest preacher dr richard pratt will be in the evening pull in our evening pulpit uh dr pratt is the president and co-founder of third mill which is an evangelical ministry dedicated to providing sound biblical and theological training for christian leaders worldwide dr pratt is a long time distinguished professor of old testament at reformed theological seminary and has become over the last couple of decades one of the leading missiologists in our reformed tradition and so it is a great honor to have him here tonight and encourage you if you're able to come to our evening worship service at 6 p.m it'll be a great joy and a great delight to have to sit under the teaching of dr richard pratt just a couple other announcements one is that coming up uh in just two weeks uh you'll see it printed in your uh under one of your uh hymn 364. there's a little announcement there uh that as part of celebrating our 120th anniversary as a church we're having some special church history lectures uh by dr chad van dixhorn from westminster seminary he'll be speaking on friday night october 1st saturday morning october 2nd and then we'll be preaching in our worship service on sunday october 3rd dr van dixoren you may remember preached at carlton's installation he's a great friend of this church and we'll be speaking about some of the profound lessons that we can learn from church history so i want to encourage you to participate and attend any of those sessions as you are able and then finally it's with a heavy heart that i announced that one of our dear members carol gardner passed away this past week and her uh service uh funeral service will be held here at westminster tomorrow morning at 11 a.m followed by a graveside service at floral hills memorial gardens in tucker would encourage you as you're able to attend but even if you're not able to attend please be in prayer for bob and the gardner family as they mourn carol's loss well with all of that said we have gathered this morning to worship and as we prepare our hearts for worship i ask that you would consider these words from second timothy chapter two the apostle paul writes the saying is trustworthy for if we have died with him we will also live with him if we endure we will also reign with him if we deny him he also will deny us if we are faithless he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself hmm hmm so okay ah hey is oh let us pray our father in heaven we bless your holy name and give you all glory all honor and all praise for you are most worthy we as your people come into your presence today with fear and trembling and in humble reliance on your mercy which is ours by faith in the lord jesus christ for his sake only we ask that you would bless our worship may be glorifying unto you as we worship in spirit and in truth and bless christ's spiritual body as we sing and pray and receive the word preached be glorified o lord in christ's name amen people of god we have been justified by faith we have peace with god through our lord jesus christ and this is so because christ is risen he is risen indeed let us stand and sing him 5 29 love divine all loves excelling oh is oh oh is my grace foreign amen you may be seated well this morning in our scripture reading and our sermon we will be reminded of the great covenant faithfulness of god we'll be reminded of the the covenant that god made with abraham and his offspring and we will be reminded of god's faithfulness to that covenant even when we as god's people are not so faithful to god and to each other here in this moment of worship in this covenant baptism we are reminded of those same promises with with great precision and clarity here in this simple act of water baptism we zoom in on god's covenant promises we remember how god promised abraham that he that is god would grant abraham personal salvation righteousness by faith and an eternal homeland god made these personal promises to abraham and then he gave abraham a sign and seal of these personal promises through circumcision romans 4 tells us that circumcision was to abraham a sign and a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith before he was circumcised it was an awesome promise that god made to abraham and a powerful sign to accompany that promise but that's not all for we see that god promises the promises that god made to abraham they weren't just for him they weren't just personal but they were also promises that god would be god to him and to his children after him and that his descendants that the covenant people that would come from him they would be the very means by which god would bring the christ and then bring blessing to all the nations on the earth and the lord commanded abraham then to give that same sign the sign of circumcision to his offspring to mark and seal god's promises not just abraham but the promise is to that well what does that have to do with water baptism paul tells us in colossians 2 that though the physical act of circumcision is no longer required for new covenant believers the spiritual content of circumcision the circumcision of christ paul calls it the which we could say is the blessing of being children of abraham by faith that blessing is now bestowed on believers and through their children through water baptism so this morning we celebrate that philip and sarah parker are are baptized believers in the lord jesus christ and they come from a long line of believing families many of whom are here with us this day and they are resting on the on the righteousness that comes by faith in the lord jesus christ and now in faith as spiritual children of abraham they are bestowing the sign of the covenant the very circumcision of christ on their daughter posey through water baptism this is a glorious picture of god's covenant faithfulness to his promises which he has shown to his people throughout the ages so with this i didn't like to invite philip and sarah to come forward philip and sarah this is a great moment because baptism is a great means of god's grace to his people a great sign of his covenant faithfulness that extends through the ages however this great moment is is not a moment for presumption paul says in romans 9 that not all who are physical israel are spiritual israel not all who are circumcised in the flesh are circumcised in the heart and certainly we would recognize not all who are baptized in the visible church are saved so this is not a moment for presumption but it's a moment for prayer and for solemn vows in this moment you pledge yourselves to a a comprehensive effort to raise posie in the fear and admonition of the lord so baptism is a call to action for the two of you as you labor to bring the gospel of salvation to your child and yet at the same time baptism is a call to rest and trust for you know that all your faithful efforts cannot ultimately save your daughter she will not be saved by her own works and she will not be saved by your good parental works and what is more there will be time when when your parental works aren't actually so good times where you will fail times will you when you will forget neglect even forsake the vows you make today but in all of this baptism is a great reminder a reminder that posey can only be saved by the gracious work of the lord and as we baptize posey this day we are not just engaged in wishful thinking naive hope about what may come in the future but but this baptism is an act of faith faith not in ourselves not in our own work but faith in the lord and we profess on this day that the lord is faithful faithful to his promises faithful to his covenant faithful to his children and in this baptism we entrust ourselves and our children to the faithful god amen let's pray together heavenly father we come before you and we praise you as the faithful god we thank you that you have promised and so it shall be you will save a people for yourself from every tongue tribe and nation and you pledge to be god to us and to our children after us so in faith in your promises we we commit posey to you this morning and we pray lord that you would work in her life and in her family and her extended family that the day would come soon when she would make a public profession of faith in the lord jesus christ we pray that she would walk with you all her days the lord we we commit her into your care you are the only one who can save and yet this is the very thing you delight to do for your children and so we pledge ourselves and those we love and our children to you and pray that you would bless and keep and save we pray all these things in jesus name amen well i now want to ask you philippine sarah do you do you uh do you acknowledge your child's need of the cleansing blood of jesus christ and the renewing grace of the holy spirit do you do you claim god's covenant promises on her behalf and do you look in faith to the lord jesus christ for her salvation as you do for your own do you now unreservedly dedicate your child to god and promise in humble reliance upon divine grace that you will endeavor to set before her a godly example that you will pray with and for her and that you will teach her the doctrines of our holy religion and that you will strive by all the means of god's appointment to bring her up in the nurture and admonition of the lord i now want to ask the members of westminster presbyterian church do you undertake the responsibility of assisting the parker family in the christian nurture of this child it's a commitment to pray for the children of this church and the families of this church for many it will be a call to serve in children's ministry we could use some more help in the morning nursery just as you're something to consider but if you're willing to assist this family in raising their daughter in the fear and admonition of the lord i ask that you would stand oh uh just give me one moment um i behold the family of god uh that stands with you as you endeavor to be family of god thank you you may be seated father name your child posey uh is a is is a flower name it is a symbol of beauty purity and simplicity weaver is a family name as you can see in the first few pews posey comes from a long line of godly parents grandparents posey weaver may god be pleased to use your life to make a tapestry of beauty and simplicity and purity to the glory of his name posey weaver parker i baptize you in the name of the father and the son and the holy ghost amen let's continue in our worship by standing and singing a great psalm of generational faithfulness hymn 364 let children hear the mighty deeds let's stand and sing yes yes is our father and our god we thank you for your steadfast loving kindness we thank you that while we were yet sinners christ died for us we thank you that he became a curse for us by being hung on the rugged cross to satisfy your justice and bear the wrath that was our due we thank you that he has risen the death could not hold him we thank you that in him we may boldly approach the throne of grace we thank you for your many blessings and pray that you would use our tithes and offerings to your glory in christ's name amen please be seated is is oh is god oh gloria foreign is is is so foreign would you please join me in prayer heavenly father we declare that you are faithful and true you remember your covenant forever the word that you commanded for a thousand generations we declare that you are good and your steadfast love endures forever and yet lord even as we stand before your enduring faithfulness we must then confess that we are not faithful and true and enduring like you are we make promises but we break them we make solemn commitments and we forget them we lie and forsake the truth under threat and pressure and in the face of hardship and affliction we are not enduring we lack perseverance we are inclined to give up and despair and then blame and accuse you for our failures have mercy on us o lord in your enduring faithfulness do not look upon us as our sins deserve but look upon us as children of your covenant the children that you have pledged to adopt and forgive and save through your great covenant mediator the lord jesus christ have mercy on us father for the sake of christ's obedient merit have mercy on us for the sake of his atoning death for our sins have mercy on us for the sake of his resurrection life which you have graciously imparted to us have mercy on us for jesus sake we pray this with complete dependence because we know that without christ we are a people without hope but we pray this with confidence knowing that you have promised to save a people for yourself and you are always faithful to your promise and now lord we ask that in your sure mercy you would not only forgive us and receive us but that you would minister to us and provide for us in all our needs we pray that in keeping with your promises you would comfort those who mourn we lift up john hunt and the hunt family as they mourn the loss of inez we pray for bob gardner and the gardner family as they mourn the loss of carol we pray that the funeral service this monday would bring glory to your name comfort to your people and even salvation to the loss and we pray that as our strong shepherd you would uphold and protect those who are weak and vulnerable as a result of injury or illness or or advanced age we pray for emily white walter and margie sandell rick and patty messner anna tufts father in the whole of the tufts family we pray for jonathan jakes gaylord langley susanna betzel martha akins and many others lord you have seen your people thus far we know that you will not abandon us in our trials even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we shall fear no evil for you are with us we we know that you will see us through the afflictions of this life through death itself and you will lead us unto heavenly glory you have promised it will be so and yet lord we pray that you would strengthen our faith in your promises increase our trust in your covenant faithfulness grant to us that renewed faith that you do in fact forgive all our sin that you will not leave us or forsake us that you are working all things for the good of those who love you and who are called according to your purposes oh increase our faith that you are strong and wise and good and that you do all things well increase our faith that you are worthy of our trust and our obedience we believe lord but help our unbelief grant us faith that we might be in ever increasing ways faithful that we might not live in fear but live with an abiding trust in your word and your promises in your character oh lord in the face of temptation and trial give us the grace to believe to obey and to endure with courage and joy we pray all this in the name of our savior the lord jesus christ amen let's continue in our worship then by standing and singing to our faithful god using the words of the glory of patriarchy let's stand and sing uh i invite you to remain standing as you're able for the reading of god's holy and inspired and inerrant word written for you and for me this morning our sermon text is from genesis chapter 26 i'll read from verse 1 through verse 25. now there was a famine in the land besides the former famine that was in the days of abraham and isaac went to gerar to abimelech king of the philistines and the lord appeared to him and said do not go down to egypt dwell in the land of which i shall tell you sojourn in this land and i will be with you and will bless you for to you and to your offspring i will give all these lands and i will establish the oath that i swore to abraham your father i will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and i will give to your offspring all these lands and in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge my commandments my statutes and my laws so isaac settled in gerard when the men of the place asked him about his wife he said she is my sister for he feared to say my wife thinking lest the men of the place should kill me because of rebecca because she was attractive in appearance when he had been there a long time abimelech king of the philistines looked out of a window and saw isaac laughing with rebecca his wife so abimelech called isaac and said behold she is your wife how then could you say she is my sister isaac said to him because i thought lest i die because of her abimelech said what is this you have done to us one of the people might easily have lain with your wife and you would have brought guilt upon us so abimelech warned all the people saying whoever touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death and isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold the lord blessed him and the man became rich and gained more and more until he became very wealthy he had possessions of flocks and herds and many servants so that the philistines envied him now the philistines had stopped and filled with earth all the wells that his father's servants had dug in the days of abraham his father and abimelech said to isaac go away from us for you are much mightier than we so isaac departed from there and encamped in the valley of gerar and settled there and isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of abraham his father which the philistines had stopped after the death of abraham and he gave them the names that his father had given them but when isaac's servants dug in the valley and found there a well a sprint of spring water the herdsmen of gerar quarrelled with isaac's herdsmen saying the water is ours so he called the name of the well isek because they contended with him then they dug another well and they quarreled over that also so he called its name sitna and he moved from there and dug another well and they did not quarrel over it so he called its name rehoboth saying for now the lord has made room for us and we shall be fruitful in the land from there he went up to beersheba and the lord appeared to him the same night and said i am the god of abraham your father fear not for i am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant abraham's sake so he built an altar there and called upon the name of the lord and pitched his tent there and there isaac's servants dug a well amen please be seated and let us pray and ask for the lord's help as we consider his word our father in heaven we come to you as those upon whom the end of the ages has come which is to say we we come as those who bask in the glory of the risen christ as those indwelled by his holy spirit and father we come as those who now turn our attention to the old testament that according to your word by endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope father we pray that you would fix our minds on heavenly things until the day dawns in the shadows flee and we see our savior face to face we pray this in his name amen in past months we've dipped into the book of genesis to examine the life of abraham the great patriarch of israel the great father of the nation abraham is a towering figure in the old testament now the apostle paul in the new testament calls him the man of faith abraham is the archetypal believer and genesis spends 12 chapters on his story abraham's grandson is jacob the deceiver the mischief maker he has his own exciting story genesis records it in nine chapters and sandwiched in the middle like a forgotten strip mall between two skyscrapers is isaac i put it that way because of this question what do you remember about isaac chances are you'd say well well he's abraham's son and he's the one whom god told abraham to sacrifice on that fateful day back in genesis 22 on mount moriah it's true that in that account we learn a little bit about isaac he starts out very well when he's bound to the wood his heart's cry to his father is is not my will but yours be done very near the very place where christ would utter those words to his heavenly father but if you remember from when we studied genesis 22 that passage really isn't about isaac it's about abraham it's about god's call to abraham to consecrate and to devote everything to himself trusting that even if necessary god could raise his son from the dead so what else do you remember about isaac if you don't remember much that's by design a scripture presents isaac as a weak and a passive man some of this is understandable if we examine his life we see that bad experiences followed isaac wherever he went from birth he was caught in this crossfire between his mother sarah and his father's mistress hagar as a teen he was almost sacrificed by his father i don't know what that's like but that would leave a mark and when isaac became a father his own sons jacob and esau didn't exactly get along and one of them wanted to kill the other one after his mother dies his wife rebecca comforts him but but rebecca turns out to be too clever by half because when isaac is old stricken with blindness his own wife conspires with his son to deceive him now we know in life that we can't blame everything on our circumstances and this is true in isaac's case he was weak and passive by nature he showed favoritism and not just any favoritism within his own family a favoritism that was driven by his own appetite we read in genesis 25 isaac loved esau because he ate of his game if abraham is the father of the faithful isaac as one writer has said is the father of those who are happiest at dinner time you have to catch him after a good meal and if we read in genesis 27 we find that it was his selfish appetite that actually led him to be deceived by his wife and his son but here's the thing in all of his circumstances in all of his weakness in all of his passivity and foolishness isaac is still a son of the covenant which is to say isaac is the one through whom god would bring about the savior of the world in whom all the families of the earth would be blessed through faith isaac is the one from whom the nation of israel would come from which would come the christ and perhaps even more for you and for me he is someone like us who is blessed in christ through faith not because of the strength of his person but because of the power of the promise of god received by faith in fact it's against the backdrop of isaac's life that the power of god's promise to save shines all the brighter for us this morning so as we examine this episode in genesis 26 i want us to see how through isaac god reveals that he is a god who saves the most undeserving of the world even the likes of you and me the opening section of our text is verses one through five where we see the one great principle the good news for undeserving people and that is this that god blesses on the basis of another god blesses on the basis of another it's a very simple point but the way that we're going to get to that point is a little bit complicated so hang with me god blesses on the basis of another i say another because the other who besides isaac looms large in these opening verses is abraham abraham actually looms large throughout this chapter he's mentioned seven times in our text and he looms large in multiple ways abraham looms large first as an example of fear an example of fear i say this because right away in verse 1 when we read about this famine this famine that drove isaac to migrate to the southern border of the promised land to an area called gerar ruled by one abimelech king of the philistines our minds are to go back to a similar episode with abraham back in genesis 12 a famine drove him down to egypt and then again in genesis 20 we read that abraham travels lo and behold to gerard ruled by a king whose name is abimelech and now the abimelech in abraham's day is probably abimelech senior isaac is encountering abimelech jr but both trips in the life of abraham in genesis 12 and chapter 20 were not his finest moments both times abraham feared for his life and as a result he lies and he says that sarah is his sister and so obviously as we come to genesis 26 we're meant to read this account in isaac's life as a repeat of abraham's experiences he too will be fearful and passive and we'll examine those accounts later on but the second way that abraham looms large in our text is as an as an example of faith he's an example of faith as we said before by god's grace abraham was not always fearful he reached a point in his life when he was willing to devote absolutely everything to god even the son of his love and if you remember back in genesis 22 he was trusting that that god could even raise isaac from the dead which hebrews says in the new testament figuratively speaking he did receive isaac back from the dead because just when he was about to plunge that knife into his son you remember the angel of the lord stops him and remember what god says to him he says this in genesis 22 because you have done this and have not withheld your son your only son i will surely bless you and i will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the sea shore now as we listen to god saying i will surely bless you we need to remember that abraham's act of obedience in genesis 22 was not a meritorious thing god was not going to bless abraham on the basis of the merit of his obedience no we know that in genesis 22 as god repeats these words he's repeating the words that he gave to abraham all the way back in genesis 12 when he called him out of a pagan nation upward and to himself god had promised him this gracious gospel-centered promise of a heavenly kingdom that would come through the lord jesus christ in his life and his death and his resurrection and god promised to abraham that he would be the biological father of a nation that would be a scale model of the kind of kingdom that jesus is bringing that jesus would actually come from that nation and all of it was going to be by grace so in genesis 22 as as abraham offers up his son to god and god says because you've done this that is because you've demonstrated your faith and my gracious promise through your obedience i will surely bless you we're to understand that god is reassuring him all the more of his grace in light of his obedience which obedience by the way was itself a gift of god's grace well all this is background when we come to chapter 26 as isaac sojourns that is he dwells temporarily in the promised land that is his inheritance but is not yet his in full possession and god assures him of the same promise look at verse 3 god says i will be with you isaac and i will bless you for to you and to your offspring i will give all these lands and i will establish the oath that i swore to abraham your father but then in this speech that god makes to isaac something interesting happens god adds that the covenant blessing will come to isaac on the basis of abraham's obedience you see that in the text abraham's obedience to that heart-wrenching call to offer up his son on the altar look with me at verses 4 and 5. god says and in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge my commandments my statutes and my laws what what's going on here well we need to remember that the promise back in genesis 12 was all of grace the nation to come was all of grace the christ to come was all of grace the heavenly kingdom to which it pointed was coming all of the grace of god but in genesis 26 5 abraham's obedience the obedience that flowed from his faith in the gracious promise of god is held up to isaac as the basis for the blessing of abraham being extended to abraham's offspring while not meritorious in itself abraham's obedience in other words becomes a picture for isaac of how god operates that is that god blesses on the basis of the obedience of another just when isaac is about to repeat the sins of his father in gerar god wants him to know that he is a god who blesses not on the basis of the strength of isaac's person but on the power of his promise now admittedly the fact that abraham is that fallen father whose sins isaac is going to repeat in the land of here are and abraham is that faithful one whose obedience is pictured as the basis for isaac's blessing makes things a little bit complicated but this is what god is doing god in all of his wisdom is using these weak men this father this son to illustrate the great gospel principle that applies to to you and me which is that that all whom god welcomes into the eternal kingdom that christ has brought about is welcomed not because of our strength but because of the obedience of another the obedience of abraham's greater son the lord jesus christ friends if there's anything we need to remember this morning if there's anything we need to remember when our inner isaac our own weakness our own sinfulness rears its ugly head if we're a believer in the lord jesus christ it is that christ's perfect obedience to his father's charge to his father's commandments and statutes and laws and his life death and resurrection is the only ground upon which we can stand to be washed of our sins to glorify our god and father and to delight in his name it is the only ground upon which we can stand secure in the presence of god you see abraham's obedience on mount moriah was just a picture of the righteous obedience of our savior at calvary when through his death and and through his resurrection from the dead he secured god's eternal blessing for all who flee to christ through faith this is a blessing that is available to all who are all too much like isaac that in christ alone we have an open door to stand before our god clothed in the righteous obedience of another this is the great doctrine of justification justification that we are declared righteous only for the righteousness of christ imputed to us and received by faith alone that he covers all of our sins and washes them all away and unless we're clear on justification we're going to get going in the christian life completely out of whack because it's the doctrine of justification that gives you a track instead of a treadmill to run the race of faith you want to go somewhere do you want to grow in grace we need to get straight here that the foundation on which we stand is the righteous obedience of the lord jesus christ because if we don't have that clear in our minds the reason we'll be out of whack is we'll be tempted to think that it's actually our obedience that earns the favor of god that it's actually our obedience that brings the blessing of god to us no it is the overflow of his love for you it's the overflow of his goodness to you and it's a blessing that's secured on the basis of the obedience of another we need to remember this as well because as we continue reading in genesis 26 we might be tempted to shake our fist at isaac we might be tempted even to shake our fist at god because the more we read we realize that isaac doesn't run very well in our text so let's look at this second section in verses 6 through 16 where we learn not only does god bless on the basis of the obedience of another but but god blesses through famine and foolishness if god picked up the thread of abraham as an example of faith in verses one through five here in verses 6 through 16 god picks up the thread of abraham as an example of fear and he plants this in the background of this narrative verse 6 says that isaac settles in gerar according to god's word he's not to go to egypt as abraham did in chapter 12. he is to trust that god will provide for him in the promised land even as he lives in a pilgrim as a pilgrim in the wilderness incidentally maybe you've heard this before but isaac's calling in this life of a pilgrim is the calling of every christian today if you've trusted in the lord jesus christ philippians 3 says your citizenship is in heaven it's not here and yet you're called to live as a citizen of heaven in a world that belongs to jesus all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him and yet you're called to live in a world that has not yet been visibly subdued to jesus it's not yet been visibly purified by jesus and yet you're called to trust in god's provision until that day arrives but for now look no further than verse 7 to know that even isaac lived in a fallen world we read in verse 7 when the men of the place asked him about his wife he said she is my sister for he feared to say my wife thinking lest the men of the place should kill me because of rebecca now i said before that this account in isaac's life is a repetition of abraham's ploy when he went to gerar and told abimelech senior that sarah was his sister apparently using your wife as a shield was something of a family tradition it's something of a human tradition actually it goes back to the garden of eden doesn't it but right now let's just focus on abraham and isaac there are many similarities here but suffice it to say it's actually the differences between abraham's account and isaac's account that are key here so we want to run through some of the differences and see if you can detect a theme number one when abraham lies in gerrard saying that sarah is his wife his sister abimelech himself kidnaps sarah the danger to abraham therefore and certainly to sarah is real and immediate however in this account when isaac lies notice it's the men of the region who merely ask about rebecca there is no kidnapping the point here is that isaac at least is in a less threatening situation than abraham was and yet he lies number two in abraham's case god comes in a dream to abimelech to stop him before he touches sarah by contrast in verse 8 of our text we learned that isaac's lie works for a long time every day put rebecca in a more and more vulnerable position number three in abraham's case as i mentioned god stops the ruse through supernatural means but here in this case isaac is the one who spoils the lie he's not even a good liar because verse 8 says that king abimelech looked out of his window and the text literally says and behold wow he saw isaac laughing with rebecca his wife it's what his name means right isaac means laughter but apparently the laughter here was more than laughter it was the kind of laughter that communicates that the one you're laughing with is not your sister and we'll just leave it at that and when confronted remember back in genesis 20 abraham actually gives something of a defense for his law he says number one the people of gerard do not fear god and number two he says sarah actually kind of is my sister she's my half-sister which was true which was permitted before the law of moses came how does isaac respond when he's confronted well he gives a rather weak and self-centered and actually pitiful response he says in verse 9 i thought i would die on account of my wife he in essence says i was scared the whole situation magnifies isaac being isaac his fear leads to a brazen lie his passivity according to god's providence puts rebecca in greater and greater danger and his pitiful defense exposes a persistent selfishness and it's in light of this that that we see what can only be described as divine grace as undeserved favor that god still blesses such a one if isaac is still isaac then the god of the covenant is still the god of the covenant back in genesis 25 verse 11 we read god blessed abraham's son isaac and indeed he does to our surprise it says it very clearly in verse 12 the lord blessed him and isaac not only receives protection from this pagan king he reaps a harvest not just any harvest a harvest that's that's greater than anyone in gerar can believe especially in time of famine verse 13 says of isaac the man became rich and gained more and more until he became very wealthy now it's at this point that we might be thinking well why didn't god just smack him upside the head why this does this mean that if i'm a christian even if i'm a foolish christian god will bless me god will even make me rich not at all not at all scripture says that wealth can actually be the means of god's correction but notice what the latter part of verse 14 says he became so wealthy that the philistines envied him what's going on here is bigger than just isaac in other words god is pointing out through the life of isaac his plan not only to bless an undeserving people but to bring judgment on the canaanites you see friends there's something bigger going on here than isaac's portfolio god is is demonstrating his willingness to bless his people despite their foolishness to magnify his grace yes certainly god is also demonstrating his plan to plunder the canaanites to magnify his power this becomes something of a theme in the book of genesis and even beyond abraham does it when he leaves egypt in genesis 12 you remember god afflicts pharaoh's house with many plagues and abraham comes out of egypt with many possessions and then in exodus 12 the nation that comes from abraham is redeemed from slavery through god's mighty hand and what happens as they come out from egypt they come out with many of the egyptians possessions and so here isaac he enjoys the best fruits of gerard by the gracious hand of god as we think about the trajectory of this pattern of god blessing and undeserving people and plundering a people who had hardened their hearts against him we see in the new testament that something like this will be true for the church of jesus christ one day god will transform this whole world that belongs to the lord jesus into a realm fit for eternal fellowship with god all of the glory of it will be brought in and christ will receive it as the reward of his work and he will lay it all at his father's feet as we think about this coming day there's so many applications we could make to our own lives it would remind us wouldn't it of our own undeserving of the glorious inheritance that is ours in the lord jesus christ it reminds us of the staggering grace of god to people like us it it reminds us of the wisdom of god in his staggering way of accomplishing his plan but i think personally in our heart of hearts thinking along these lines should make us a calmer people a more contented people because we are a people who sometimes wish we had more flocks and herds yet we're filled with anxiety about all kinds of things about food and drink and money and clothes and health and work and retirement and family and singleness in the midst of all of our famine all of our foolishness god comes to us in the person of jesus christ and he says to us fear not little flock for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom god blesses on the basis of the obedience of another god blesses through famine and through foolishness and then third we see in verses 17 through 25 that god blesses through conflict and quarrel verses 17 through 25 describe isaac's battles with the people of gerar over water over wells of water specifically and i think the whole episode at first glance seems understandable but somewhat irrelevant understandable because in the ancient near east especially in time of famine water was an absolute necessity especially for someone who had untold flocks and herds and servants as isaac did his very survival depended on water and yet we ask why spend all these verses on the conflicts between isaac and his herdsmen and guerra and its herdsmen over water well that's just it isn't it that water was life these wells of water were life to isaac and to his people god's gift of water to his covenant people in the land was a sign of his desire for them to flourish in the land as a sign of the unstoppable plan of god to bless them in the land so the wells that abraham dug back in his day were like they were like little outposts of the earthly kingdom god was bringing through abraham and the more we think about this the more we begin to understand why then in verse 15 the philistines would would rather fill those wells with dirt than have abraham the father of the faithful drink in their land we understand when the philistines oppose isaac's prosperity in verse 14 and and marginalize him in verse 16 and and deny him life in verses 18 through 21 we we begin to realize that the conflict here is not just material but the conflict is spiritual there's a kind of holy conflict going on a holy war it's a conflict that goes back to the fall back to the garden of eden to that original holy land where the rivers of the waters of life flowed and broke into four rivers to water the garden and just as sin cut off our first parents from that water so the spiritual conflict that unfolds in chapter 26 is a conflict waged against god's plan to bless his people in another holy land in the promised land which itself is pointing to the eternal kingdom of christ we know then that when the promised land is no more this spiritual conflict continues it continues in our own lives it it continues wherever we see the kingdom of jesus christ clashing against the kingdom of the world it's a conflict that we see whenever we encounter anything that wants to squelch the new life that god has given to you in the lord jesus christ through faith and in this spiritual war we learn that as he did for isaac god still blesses you he still provides he still refreshes the people of god he still opens a well i wonder if this is too allegorical is this too much of a stretch i don't think so because in john chapter 4 jesus remember sits down by a well and he tells the samaritan woman there a woman who knows something about conflict where she can drink to thirst no more and jesus tells her that he is the one who can give this water and the water that he gives is going to be nothing less than the holy spirit whom he will pour out from heaven after going to the cross to pay for the sins of his people and rising again and it's the holy spirit that's poured out from christ who is the one who who takes the righteous redemption of jesus christ and applies it to our lives and our justification when we believe on him it's the holy spirit who who leads believers out of their foolishness more and more into the wisdom of god it's the holy spirit who sustains us in the dry heat of this fallen world and the spiritual war that we must wage until we arrive at our final rest in glory we read in this chapter that isaac had to move around for his water until god made room but that's not true anymore one of the things that jesus said to that samaritan woman is that he will pour out the spirit upon the church so that he would be with the church wherever she gathers and christ says that as those come into the church and believe on him through faith the holy spirit becomes in the heart of every christian a spring of water welling up to eternal life the spirit from jesus is the ever flowing stream of life from his right hand in heaven so friends when you endure the spiritual conflicts of the christian life when you face the conflict with your own sin and your own heart if you have rested in the obedience of another in the obedience of the lord jesus christ if you come to him and confess all of your foolishness and all of your weakness to him you as the believing church of the living savior can say that though the earth gives way and though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea there is a river whose streams may glad the city of god the holy habitation in glory where the most high dwells and although the nations rage and though the kingdoms taught her the lord of hosts is with us the god of jacob is our fortress how is this true for a people like you and me it's because we have a god who out of the overflowing goodness of his own being blesses us through the obedience of another through famine and through foolishness he is a god who opens up pools of water in the wilderness he gives springs of water in the driest land so the implication is we must seek him we must seek him through faith we must lay hold on christ we must drink deeply from him when we do this we do what isaac does in verse 25 he he pitches his tent and he worships the lord isaac this strip mall of a man driven by his appetite repeating the sins of his father one with whom god has not yet done laid hold of the promises of god through faith so like him may you remember that god's blessing is not suspended upon your strength upon the power of your performance but on the power of his promise received with open faith you know that knowing this meditating on this is actually what strengthens our faith isn't it well through the lord jesus christ who is that ever-flowing source of eternal life today may god give us to drink from the river of his delights as we trust in him let's pray our father in heaven we thank you for the ever flowing ever giving stream of eternal life in the person of the lord jesus christ may we come to him with undivided heart more and more to drink deeply of the salvation that he gives father help us to fight the fight of faith and the war that we face until we reach our eternal rest with him forever in jesus name we pray amen well friends let's sing a hymn that we normally sing when we begin a worship service today we'll sing it here at the end hymn 457 come thou fount of every blessing let's stand and sing uh uh so now may the grace of the lord jesus christ and the love of god and the fellowship of the holy spirit be with you all amen you

Channel: Westminster PCA, Atlanta

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Id: JGwGtPblW74

Length: 84min 55sec (5095 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021