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Bro. Bill Nichols
Okay. We're ready to roll. We're in chapter 26, and as we worked our way through the book of Genesis up to here, we experience a common thread, the total depravity of man. Beginning with Adam, the first man placed in an almost perfect environment when presented with a choice to obey or to not obey.
And you remember when that was, when in Genesis 3 verse 1, now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, yea, have God said, you shall not eat of the tree of life, of the garden, for the, and the woman said unto the serpent, serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the gardens, the trees of the garden, but not of the tree which is in the midst of the garden.
God has said, you shall not eat of it, neither shall thou touch it, lest thou die. And the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall surely not die, for the Lord doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
So when presented with the choice to obey or not to obey, to obey God's commands or to become a God himself, Adam and Eve chose to disobey. The thread continues with Noah, elect out of a corrupt world, preserved through the flood.
Noah also chose to sin. Then through Abraham, called the friend of God, who when faced with hardship, chose to sin. And now in chapter 26, we have what is the most detailed account, to the extent that it is detailed, of the life of Isaac.
We've alluded to the role of Isaac as a type or a model of Christ already. But in the end, Isaac is just a man. And as such, we recognize that he is subject to error. And here we see slippage away from God.
First, we see him attempt to leave the promised land because he was afraid God could not supply his needs. And second, we see him follow his father's example concerning his wife, because he was afraid that God could not protect him.
So now we're going to pick up the story in verse, I told you 14, it's actually verse 12. Then Isaac sowed in that land and received in the same year a hundredfold, and the Lord blessed him. Now, it occurred to me that this was an important verse, that although Isaac displayed the propensity to sin that's common to all men, he did not forfeit his promised blessings.
Isaac, like all of us, elect and non-elect alike, had a choice to make. Not the choice to be elect or to be not elect, but to obey or to not obey. We here in this church have a really good feeling for the sovereignty of God.
We understand just how sovereign God is. There's nothing that happens outside of his will. In fact, we made a 15-minute diatribe on that last Sunday. Nothing happens outside of God's will. But I think sometimes in our rush to acknowledge that sovereignty, we yet give short shrift to the responsibility of man.
Almost everywhere in the scripture, and I haven't found an example yet that doesn't meet this, when election is discussed, it's coupled with our responsibility to obey or to disobey. So what do we choose?
Well, let me tell you what Paul said. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth. I've got something in here. Under, take that out, of course. Understandeth.
My machine sometimes stops in the wrong places and I don't always get them. So I had a really weird looking word there. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way.
They are altogether become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. So John, the answer to your question is, left to your own devices, you'd never choose to do good. That last little verse, there's none that doeth good, no, not one.
That's a quotation from Psalms 14. If you want to go there, Psalms 14, beginning at verse 2. I thought this is such a beautiful, the Psalms express things so beautifully. 14, starting at verse 2. Did I not say 14?
No, 14. Yeah, with Psalms, that's possible, isn't it? Psalms 14, the Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. They are all gone aside.
They are all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Now, these two verses together clearly imply that all of the world's false religions are fallen man's attempt to escape the true God, not to seek Him.
When man comes up with his false religions, he's not seeking to approach God. He's seeking to escape from God. There's none that seek God. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. So the question becomes, what religions are false?
If all of the world's false religions are fallen man's attempt to escape the true God, not to seek Him, then which of these religions are false? Or which religions are false? All of them save one. The denominational part of the church also is a false religion.
And it probably is a good idea that we keep that in mind. And another thing we need to keep in mind is we can shed ourselves of the denomination, but we haven't shed ourselves of the nature. We have to be careful.
No matter what we call ourselves, we also have to be careful that we're not creating some other way to God other than through Jesus to say, well, okay, if you come to Park Meadows Church, then baby, you got it right.
Now you can get to heaven. If we say that, we're just the same as everybody else. I feel like this is what we're talking about, isn't it? It is. And it's not just the Roman Catholics. It's the Southern Baptists.
It's the Church of Christ. And to a degree, it is Park Meadows Church. Because we also have that same nature. Thank you. We got that same nature. And we have got to suppress that nature. And we can't suppress that nature by ourselves.
No, I think you're right. I think we're closer to the truth than they are. It is. It is. And it's pervasive throughout all of the religions. And it's not just the Christian religions. In fact, it's more the non-Christian religions.
If you think we have a closer approximation to what the Lord wants than Roman Catholic Church, we're not perfect either. And I didn't mean that you were. I didn't mean that you wanted it for him. We don't know what Adam wanted.
Adam just did what his wife told him to do. But okay, so which religions are false? All of them except for one. In John 14 .5, Thomas said unto him, Lord, how can we know the way? And Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh to the Father.
So that's not our tendency. Our tendency is to do something else. Our tendency is to take care of our own interest. The Church is so busy seeking the interest of the Church. Well, what happened is that's the result of man's natural tendency to seek after his own interest, not the interest of God.
Philippians, Paul said in Philippians, for all seek their own, not the things of God, not the things of Jesus Christ. And that tendency to seek things in our own interest will certainly lead us to failure.
Our only hope is that God will seek us. Mercy. In John 6, the Lord says, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out, for I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
And this is the Father's will, which hath sent me, that all of which he hath given me I shall lose nothing, but shall raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last days.
And the Jews murmured at him, because he had said, I am the bread which cometh down from heaven. And they said, is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How is it that he saith, I came down from heaven?
And Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, murmur not among yourself, no man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will raise him at the last day. So how do you get to Jesus?
You draw him by the Father. It is only as the result of God's work in the heart that anyone seeks him. So John, if you make a decision to try to obey God, it's only because God sought you and put in your heart that desire to seek him and to do what he wants you to do.
Without Jesus, you can seek a God, but you can't seek the God. So that's kind of what I want to have us think about as we go through the rest of this passage. So now back to Isaac. Though Isaac displayed the human propensity to sin, he did not forfeit his election, nor did he forfeit the blessings associated with it.
Isaac reaped the blessing promised to him by God, for when he sowed, the increase was a hundred fold. And that's extraordinarily fertile, even in that land. It's also mentioned that he was rich in cattle, and they had a great household.
And moreover, all of these things Moses, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, attributed to the blessing of God. So why did he have those things that he had? Because God blessed him. Why did God bless him?
Because he chose to bless him. Why did God choose him? Because he chose to choose him. What did Isaac do? Isaac chose times when he would obey God, and times when he didn't. And for Isaac, for the most part, Isaac did a pretty good job of obeying God.
We only have one chapter of his failures. Wait till we get to Jacob. We're not going to, as a result of being elected, be perfect. Even though we're elected, we still have the propensity to sin, because that's the nature of man.
And because of that, we will sin. As Brother David says, if you're walking hand in hand with God, you won't sin then, but you turn loose and you will. And the man waxed great, and went forward, and he grew, and he became very great.
For he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants, and the Philistines envied him. Being elect doesn't mean that all is well with the world. In fact, being elect probably means you're at odds with the world.
Isaac was content to stay where God told him to stay. Now remember, he was heading down to Egypt, and God said, No, don't go to Egypt. Go to Gerar, and stay there. And so he did that. Isaac was content to stay where God told him to stay, and farm the land.
And those efforts were blessed by God. But though they were blessed by God, they were envied by the Philistines. Now, let's go to verse 15. 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.
Water was so precious in that land that wells were essential. Plugging someone's well was ruinous to them, and constituted serious aggression, often leading to war. Isaac could have retaliated, but he chose not to.
What he did instead was he dug some new wells. Now, this verse seems to be out of place to me, but the Lord put it where he put it. And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us, go from us, for thou art much mightier than we.
Now, I read that, and I recall what I think it was Ms. Carpiak said last week. You might wonder why Abimelech saw Isaac and his family as so much mightier than his entire city. Well, that could be one reason.
They may have seen the blessings that fell upon Isaac and said, well, this man is blessed of God. But they also might have remembered the last episode between them and one protected by that same God. And so, now Abimelech is a little bit fearful that maybe it's not Isaac that he's viewed as so great, but that Abimelech views God as so great.
It is, and I'm going to come to that later, but from a little bit different perspective. No, no, no, no, no. I like that you did that, because it didn't occur to me then, but it did later, and it brought back something also that you had discussed earlier.
Isn't it interesting, and I think this is close to a quote, isn't it interesting that Abimelech could recognize that Isaac's God was greater than his God, and yet could choose not to obey him? Isn't that interesting?
Yeah, and so now that you're gone, now that you're gone with the mighty Abraham gone and now dead, we'll fill the wells with dirt. So what did Isaac do? And Isaac departed thence and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar and dwelt there.
So even though Isaac may have viewed the filling of the wells as an act of aggression, he did not respond in like manner. Instead, he heeded the words of Abimelech, and more importantly, the words of God.
So what did God tell him to do back in 26 -2? He says,. And the Lord appeared to him and said, Go not into Egypt, dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of, so join in this land, and I will be with thee, and I will bless thee.
For unto thee and unto thy seed will I give all these countries, and I will perform the oath that I swear unto your father, to Abraham your father, and I will make thy seeds to multiply as the stars of heaven, and I will give unto thy seed all these countries, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.
Now we know part of that is the seed in whom all the nations are going to be blessed, that will come later, that is Jesus Christ. But I'm going to give to the seed all the countries. I will give these, I will be with thee, and I will bless thee, for unto thee and unto thy seed I will give these countries.
He gave the countries to Isaac, even though Isaac never possessed them. He gave the countries to Isaac's seed, and Isaac's seed will possess them. So his command was not to leave the country, not to go to Egypt, stay in the country, so he did not leave altogether, he just left the city and went out into the valley.
And Isaac did begin 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 called them.
Same place, same wells, same names, the wells were dug by his father, and therefore they belonged to him. And Isaac's servants digged in the valley and found there a well of springing water. Well, it's not unlikely, is it?
Isaac knew where to look. He just went to where the wells were and reopened the well of his father, reopening the well that the Philistines had plugged. And the herdsmen of Gerare did strive with Isaac's herdsmen, saying, the water is ours.
And he called the name of the well, Eske, because they strove with him. So, think about this. They plugged the wells when Abraham died. Well, they weren't afraid of Abraham anymore, and maybe they weren't afraid of Abraham's God because they thought that when Abraham was gone, Abraham's God would go with him, maybe.
Partly, they plugged the wells to prevent Abraham's descendants from returning, and partly, I think, just from plain, pure spite. Yeah, we know they were jealous. So, now the wells are reopened. What happens?
They claim the water. They plugged the well to keep Isaac from returning. Isaac returned anyhow. Isaac re-dug the well, and they said, the water's ours. Isaac might have resisted, and if he had resisted, he might have prevailed.
But he didn't. What did he do? Went over and dug another well. And they digged another well and strove for that also. And they called the name of it, Sitna. And the same play played out again. So, he moved from thence and digged another well, and for that they strove not.
And he called the name of it, Rehoboth. And he said, for now, the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land. He certainly is getting a lot of water, isn't he? He hasn't missed in a well that he's dug.
We know that can be a lesson to us, too. We feel like we've got to strive. Isaac's herdsmen strived with Abimelech's herdsmen, but we really don't have to. What belongs to us belongs to us. God will provide.
He did a simpler thing. He kept digging until he got to a place where maybe the herdsmen didn't want to go that far. I don't know. And he went up from thence 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. So, now what happens is suddenly the Lord appears to him. Did the Lord not appear to him at his other times?
Apparently not. Apparently, this was something different, because what's the first thing he did afterwards? He built an altar and called upon the name of the Lord. And he pitched his tent there. And there Isaac's servants did dwell.
I'm running ahead of time. I'm going to get through too quick unless you guys have something to input. And it's okay if we do it. I've run over many times. Yeah, and Abraham didn't really have his face to face confrontation with God early on.
He was in the promised land when God walked through the sacrifice for him and made all the promises. He had told him back in the very beginning, get out of this country into a land I'll show you. And although Abraham didn't jump up and head right away, he did get up and start moving.
And though it took him a long time, he finally got there. In our culture. I don't think so, because certainly Satan will use anything that you do, Satan will use against you. But the worshippers of Baal were sacrificing their own children.
It was a bloody time. I think all the religions were bloody at the time. Lots of them are today. Some of them are not. Do the ones that are bloody? Let me ask the question a little bit differently. We all, I think, pretty much agree that the Muslim religion is not the proper way to go.
That that's not the way. Well, let's try one a little less severe. How can it be the way for cutting people's heads off? Let's try one that's a little bit more gentile. What about the Hindu religion? Is that a better way?
In the world's eyes, it's a better way. It's a peaceful way. It's a tolerant way. What about the Jewish religion? The Jewish religion today is not the way. And why is it not the way? And he told them, he said, I am the way.
And all of these sacrifices that you were doing, your whole tradition of sacrificing is pointing toward the sacrifice that I am going to make. And by now, he's made that sacrifice. There's no looking forward to it anymore.
That's why the Lord, I think, allowed the sacrificial system to die out. There's no longer any need for it. There's no longer any pointing toward there's. Yes. Yes. And they discovered. Yes. But it pointed to something.
It pointed to something that was in the future. And as long as it pointed to something that was in the future, it had it had its role. But now it would be pointing if they were doing it to something in the past.
I think that's right. Who do you choose to follow? And you will follow someone. You'll either follow, you'll either follow the Lord or you'll follow Satan. And you'll, you'll follow Satan thinking that you're following after your own will, but you don't have any will of your own.
You'll be following after Satan's will. Okay. So verse 26, and Abimelech went to him from Gerar and Ahuza, one of his friends, and he called the chief captain of his army. Well, okay. First thing, these are probably not names of people.
These are probably titles because the last time this event happened was with Abraham and he was visited by people with the same names. And did I tell you how many years? Ninety years. Ninety years have passed from the time that Abimelech went down and told them that Sarah was his sister.
And now Isaac has gone down and told them that Rebecca was his sister as well. About 90 years. So Abimelech and the company of a friend and a highest ranking officer in the army sought after a treaty with one they estimated to be superior and stronger to them and a possible threat.
So Abimelech viewed Isaac as someone stronger than him and a threat to him. Isaac, on the other hand, perceived them as hostile, but the outcome of the meeting was a good thing for all involved. Peace between them.
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 an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee.
Now, what did Abimelech recognize and what did he fail to recognize? Yeah, I guess the way the question was worded kind of trapped you into a dead end, into a dead end in the street. Abimelech recognized that the source of Isaac's strength was that Isaac's God was with him, that God was with him.
They want peace with them, but they want peace with them only because what? Because they think Isaac is stronger than they are. And because Isaac's God is stronger than they are, but they don't want any party with them.
Yeah, that they were that they recognized that they were not drawn to that God. Okay, so I guess you've answered the second half of my question, isn't it? But there's no indication that Abimelech made any attempt to worship God.
Why is that? Why did they make no attempt to worship God, even though they recognized that the God of Isaac was greater than their God? They recognized, as Dave said, that they weren't his, they weren't drawn to him, they weren't elect, but they make no attempt, they make no attempt to change.
That is what's so strange. And I guess when you think about it, it's not as strange because we do the same thing. Now that is a profound statement, isn't it? They want the blessings of God, but they don't want to have to obey God.
They don't want God, they just want the blessings. They want the blessings, but they don't want to obey. Yeah, and just think about this as you kind of look back in history at this event. Abraham goes down into the desert.
And Abraham says, you know, I got a big following, I need some water. So he found when he digs the well, he finds water. So he's a powerful man, he goes digs another well, he finds more water. Everywhere you went, he dug a well and found water.
They see that. And they look at it and they say, well, let me see. When Abraham dies, maybe we should fill up the well so that his descendants won't come back. And then we'll have all the land to ourselves.
And when they filled it up, what did they lose? They lost the water. So they, out of spite, filled the wells. Isaac came back. They looked at Isaac and recognized that his God was more mighty than their God.
And they remembered Abraham. And so, because a lot of bad things happened to Bimelech's people when Abraham was there. If you remember, the childbearing of the women in Bimelech's kingdom was halted. There were no more children born while Sarah was in his.
And that's one of the reasons he said, hey, what's going on here? And so Abraham left being scolded by Bimelech for calling his wife, his sister. But when he left, the women regained their ability to bear children.
That was really important to the people in those days. Still is. So they have a feeling for how powerful this God is. Now, so Isaac comes back and he is perceived as being more powerful than they are.
And Bimelech says, maybe you ought to get out of here because you're more powerful than us and we're afraid of you. So he goes out and digs a well and what happens? Water. And so they said, well, we want that.
So he goes to the next one, more water. Everywhere he dug, he got water also. So they recognize the source. They recognize the source of all these blessings. They're just not willing, as Marianne said, to accept the responsibility of obedience that goes with it.
So here's what Bimelech said. Let there now be 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. We just ask you to leave.
And as we have done unto thee nothing but good, except take your wells away from you. I guess that's how you look at it. And have sent thee away in peace. And then what does he say? Thou art now the blessing of the Lord.
So they recognized where all this water was coming from. So Isaac made them a feast and they did eat and drink. And they arose up betimes in the morning and swear one to another. And Isaac sent them away and they departed from him in peace.
And it came to them, it came to pass on the same day that Isaac's servants came and told him concerning the well which they were digging and said unto him, we have found water. This was the very place where Abraham had made an oath with another of Bimelech.
And the well was the well of the oath which Abraham had named Beersheba. And he called it Sheba, therefore the name of the city is Beersheba unto this day. The well of the oath. Where Bimelech recognized the source of Isaac's blessing was not unwilling to partake in this blessing, but was unwilling to follow the God.
Why? Because he couldn't. And that's a picture of the day. Now while all this is going on, while all of this is going on, Isaac's two sons are gaining some age and stature and they're now 40 years old.
And Esau was 40 years old when he took wife Judith, the daughter of Berea the Hittite and Bashemoth, the daughter of Elon the Hittite. So Isaac was taking care of some business, but he wasn't taking care of it all, was he?
So how did they view that? Which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah. And so that sets us up to go into the next chapter. The chapter on Jacob primarily. Most gracious Heavenly Father, thank you for all the many blessings that you've given us.
Thank you for the blessing that you've attached to all of your children. Help us to understand that as we go through life, your blessings are always on us. And if at some time we feel like we are without your blessings, help us to understand that the one great blessing that you have promised us, you've already given your son to bear the responsibility for all of the bad things that we do.
And compared to that, no temporary disadvantage, no setback amounts to anything. Keep our eyes focused not on the physical blessings that you have given us, which you may give and you may take away, but upon the spiritual blessing that you have given us that is eternal and that no one can take away.
Jesus himself said, no one can remove them. Bless us and keep us and go through the service later this morning. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.