The God of Isaac is presented as the God of receiving, contrasting with the God of Abraham who is the God of trusting obedience. While Abraham was an originator and pioneer, Isaac lived a life of submission, exemplified by his willingness to be sacrificed, his passive acceptance of his marriage, and his response to the Canaanites taking his wells. The sermon highlights that Isaac's blessings were not earned but inherited, emphasizing that God's provision and grace are freely given, not worked for. The core lesson is that true Christianity involves receiving God's gifts, such as salvation and victory, through faith and allowing God's new nature to operate, rather than striving to earn them.
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Well, it's good to be together again this morning, isn't it? We'll all set this morning to hear about God. Everybody wants to hear about God put his hand up. Right. What God do you want to hear about this morning? Right. The God of Isaac. Yesterday we talked and shared together about the God of Abraham, didn't we? And what was the characteristic of the God of Abraham? What about the God of Abraham? Faithful. No? The God of Abraham is the God who loves to be trusted.
Don't forget that. He loves to have his people trust him. Now this morning, let's turn to Genesis chapter twenty-one. And we will begin to think about the God of Isaac. Now you remember that The Lord Jesus spoke of the fact that God was the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.
The same God, but seen through the experiences of different personalities and different kinds of people. And each of us get our concept of God through the word of God, and it is the same word of God. But we each one has his own experience, his own background, his own understanding, his own appropriation of God.
And so we saw that The characteristic of the God of Abraham was that he loved to be trusted. Now chapter twenty-one, and the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived and bear Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac.
And Abraham circumcised his son, Isaac, being eight days old, as God had commanded him. And Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born unto him. And Sarah said, God has made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me. And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham that Sarah should have given children such? For I have borne him a son in his old age. And the child grew, and was wean.
And Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac would lead. And Sarah's, well, that's as far as we need to read, the first eight verses. Now Abraham was a most remarkable man. I think we said yesterday we went so far as to say that we thought that he was one of the, if not the, most remarkable man that ever lived in the world. His son Isaac was completely unremarkable. He was the opposite of his father. Well, now wait a minute, unremarkable.
I suppose anybody that is born into the world with a father a hundred years old and his mother ninety is got something, you know, remarkable in one way anyway. But so far as he himself was concerned, there seemed to be nothing very remarkable about Isaac. Isaac's life was a life of submission. Now that doesn't sound like much of it. A life of submission. That wouldn't challenge you to anything, would it? That a person lived a life of submission? You're not interested in a life of submission, are you?
No answer. Right. Notice the quietness. No, you're really not. Very interested in the life of submission. Somehow, we like people that get out and do it. And this did not characterize Isaac. I remember once speaking about Isaac in a meeting like this. You know, it may have been in this room. I'm not sure. But anyway, Bob Little. was in the group that was listening to this. And I talked about Isaac and his life of submission, and I spoke about a life of submission as a desirable thing.
I thought that this was great, that this man lived a life of submission. And after I finished, Bob came up to me and he said, well, that was very interesting. I knew there was something wrong right away. And I said, is that so? What was so interesting? He said, when I preach about Isaac, I preach about him as a lazy loafer. And I can't see anything good about his life, and you made him out a hero today. But I'll say this for Bob. He said, but I think you've got something there. And I think we will all agree before we're through that there is something to be said for Isaac's life of submission.
Remember now this morning. And please remember this. We are not talking about Isaac this morning. We are talking about the God of Isaac. And believe you me, that's something else again. The God of Isaac is what we're talking about. Will you hold that thought now for the next little while? That's quite different. As if there is One phrase that does not apply to Abraham and Isaac, it is the phrase, like father, like son.
Isaac was nothing like his father. Now, Isaac got off to a good start. We touched on that yesterday. When he was a teenager, his father took him up to the top of Mount Moriah and explained to him, But God had said that he was to be offered as a burnt offering upon the top of Mount Moriah. And this young teenager that could either have overpowered or run away from his father, who was at that time about a hundred and thirteen or fifteen years old, submitted.
and gave himself to his father to sacrifice him on the altar. Here was a man who was willing to submit himself to the word of God if it cost him his life. And it was about to cost him his life. Isn't that great? I think that's a wonderful thing. When you find a person that is so committed to the word of God, that he will commit, submit himself to the Word of God, though it costs his life. I know people who wouldn't submit to the Word of God if it cost two dollars and a half.
You know, they want to be in charge. This man was willing to pay the price of his life. And I think that's another pretty remarkable thing about Isaac. Two remarkable things about this unremarkable man. But he's an altogether different kind of person than his father, just the same. Abraham was an originator. You know, God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees to go into a land which he knew not. He went out not knowing whither he went. He was a pioneer.
He went out alone with God. He was an originator. Isaac never did anything original in his life. He didn't know what it was to do anything new. He never took any initiative. You never hear about Isaac starting anything. He was a follower. You remember when Isaac was a little boy? His older half-brother Ishmael, it says Ishmael mocked Isaac. Well, you'd ordinarily think, you know, that that would mean a fight among the boys. But you get no indication that it bothered Isaac if Ishmael mocked him.
It sure bothered his mother. She really got on her ear when she heard Ishmael mocking Isaac. But it didn't bother Isaac. He didn't bother things like that. If people wanted to laugh at him, that was all right. Isaac never had anything to say about his marriage as to when he was going to be married, who he was going to be married to, or anything like that. He left in the hands of his father and his father's servant. They took care of those things. And if they picked out a nice girl, that was fine. You know, that's really submission, isn't it?
I'm glad I picked out my own, and am I glad for the one I picked out, too, I tell you. But Isaac didn't do that. Isaac not only submitted, in that case, it says that Isaac took Rebecca into his tent, and he loves her, and he was comforted after his mother Sarah's death. He not only submitted, but he really cooperated in his submission. That's a pretty good kind of submission. In other words, with Isaac, it was as it was with the Lord Jesus.
Let's turn to John chapter five and verse nineteen. And there we have a description from the Lord Jesus of his attitude. And it is a description of Isaac's attitude. John five, nineteen. Excuse me. Then Jesus, then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeeth the Father do.
For what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. Isn't that an interesting, an interesting phrase? Well, that characteristic of the Lord Jesus was the outstanding characteristic of Isaac. Abraham's son. Whatever his father did, he did. His father dug wells. The Canaanites filled them up. And did Isaac go and dig new wells? No. He just dug the old dirt out of the old wells.
They were good enough for him. He dug out his father's old wells. He opened them up. Everything was hard for Abraham. Because he was a pioneer and he was an originator, everything went hard for him. But everything was easy for Isaac. Nothing was ever hard for Isaac. He was born rich, and he was rich all his life.
Never had a care in the world. Pretty different than it was for his father. If you turn to Genesis chapter twenty-six now, and I suggest you do, because we'll look at several verses in that area, Genesis chapter six, verse six. And Isaac dwelt in Gerar. And the men of the place asked him of his wife, and he said, She is my sister, Genesis twenty-six, six and seven, now we're in seven.
The men of the place asked him of his wife, and he said, She is my sister, for he feared to say she is my wife, lest said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebecca, because she was fair to look upon. This fella couldn't even sin with originality. This is the same thing his father had done. Remember? Yesterday we were talking about the fact that twice Abraham did this foolish thing of lying about his wife. And now his son is doing the same thing. He didn't seem to learn a thing from his father's experience in this case. Well, he just couldn't do anything new.
Even in sin, he followed his father's footsteps. He dug his father's well. Now, Isaac was submissive not only to the directive will of God, he was submissive to God's permissive will. Look at twenty-six, twenty-two. And he removed some scents and digged another well. And for that they strove not. And he called the name of Adrahobos. And he said, For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.
Now you all know what went before this. Everywhere Isaac went and he opened up a well that his father had dug, the Canaanites came and laid claim to the well, took it away. chased his servants away from the well and took possession of it. And the servants of Isaac would get very, very angry about this. And they would come to Isaac and say, Let's do something about this. They're taking away another well. And they were all for going to fight about it. And Isaac would say, Well, we'll move on. Move on. We'll dig another well. And they would move on.
And, oh, my, the servants used to get so upset about this Isaac person, he wouldn't stand up for his rights. They were his wells. And when the people in the land would come and take over, he'd just say, well, all right, we'll move on. And he'd move on. You know, that doesn't have a very modern ring to it, doesn't it? We live in a day when people are very conscious of and very defensive of their rights, aren't we? Their rights. Not Isaac. Isaac didn't care about his rights.
They wanted to take his rights away. That was all right. And then they dug a well, and the people in the land did not come and take possession of it. And what was Isaac's reaction to that? He said, the Lord has made room for us, and he was able to enjoy his well in peace. Wouldn't it be great to be like that? To be able to see in the circumstances of adversity, when our rights, or the things that we conceive of as our rights, are taken from us, We could leave it with the Lord. And then when the Lord provides, we could say the Lord made room for us.
Because the Lord does. The Lord does make room. As he did for Isaac. Kingsley, the English poet, put it this way. Who would sit down and sigh for a lost age of gold when the God of all ages is here? That was Isaac's attitude. You know, why should I worry about a hole in the ground? I know the God that made the whole earth. He'll provide for us. You know, we've got some rights that nobody can take away from us. And those rights we don't need to worry about for one moment.
The world can't touch them. And the world has nothing to compare with them. The Word of God says, To as many as received Him, the Lord Jesus, to them gave He the authority, the right to be called the children of God. That's our right. And if we valued that right as much as we ought to, won't worry very much about the other rights. We are the children of God upon earth. What do we care about the things of earth? The things that are passing, the temporary things.
We don't need to care about those things. God has made us his children and he will provide for us. Now in his old age, When Isaac got old, he had his own ideas about the blessings that he wanted to give his sons. Now, he had lived a life of submission, all his life. He had submitted to the will of God, but the flesh was strong. Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. And he loved that meat that Esau used to bring him. And in his old age, he asked Esau to go out and get some of that venison so he could have a blessing.
Isaac knew better than that. Isaac knew that the blessing was for Jacob. It wasn't supposed to go to Esau. But, oh, he loved the venison. But God took over, as God does. Here's a man who submitted to his will all his life. The Lord is not about to let him get off the track. And so things worked out. You all know the story about how Rebecca and Jacob figured it out together how Jacob could get the blessing instead of Esau getting the blessing.
It worked out that way. All kinds of trouble grew out of it. It would have been very, very much easier and better if they had simply let God work it out. But because they got mixed up into it and thought they'd help God, they brought a lot of sorrow and a lot of problems. Sometimes even the best of us, if we seek to live lives of submission. We come to the place in our time of weakness when the flesh overcomes the spirit and we try to help God out.
God doesn't need help. When we do that, we run into trouble. Will you remember that? But God overruled. That's the way he does. And then came the time for Isaac to die. When he died, guess what? They buried him in his father's tomb. He didn't even have a grave of his own. He didn't have anything that you could really call Isaac's. Abraham was a loner. He worked hard.
And to follow Abraham is hard for us. Be original with God. Be the friend of God. Be a pioneer. To go out and do things for the first time for God in faith takes a real man. We face hard demands when we do that. We must be strong in faith. But when you come to Isaac, he was a different type. He didn't go out that way. He didn't expose himself that way. He took things easier. But on the other hand, when you come right down to it, we don't like Isaac as well as we like Abraham, do we?
We don't like the idea of a submissive life. And yet here was the life that spoke of God's provisions. In chapter twenty-five and verse five it tells us that Abraham gave Isaac all that he had. He was there of everything, and he worked for nothing. No labor, no toil. Abraham attained, but Isaac inherited. Well, so much for his relationship to Abraham, on about his relationship to God. Well, it's the same. Look at verse two.
And the Lord appeared unto him and said, Go not down into Egypt, dwell in the land that I shall tell thee of, sojourn in this land. And I will be with thee, and will bless thee. For unto thee and unto thy seed will I give all these countries, and I will perform the earth, the oath, which I swear unto Abraham thy father. And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries. And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed? Why? Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
And Isaac dwelt in Gerard. Why is Isaac being blessed? Because Abraham obeyed God. All the blessing in his life was not his. It was because of Abraham. Now that says something to us, doesn't it? What's the blessing on our children? How significant is submission in our lives? Because Abraham believed God. Isaac was blessed. Are you hearing this?
Because Abraham believed God. Isaac is blessed. Nothing new. Nothing new is added. Nothing is added to the promises. The promises to Isaac are the same as the promises to Abraham. Verse twenty-four of chapter twenty-six. God draws a line unto this and says, 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. That's great. For Abraham's sake. You know, this is saying something that is not easy for you and for me. It's talking about bestowal and acceptance. It is talking about God's blessing. And now receiving the blessing.
And it is not easy to be on the receiving end all the time. We want to do something in return, don't we? We want to earn it on our own. God doesn't want it that way. He won't have it that way. The God of Isaac is the giving God, and he wants us to come to him as empty vessels, not as pool vessels.
He wants to hear from us words like this, I am an empty vessel. Scarce one thought or look of love to thee I've ever brought, yet I may come and come again to thee with this the needy children's only plea thou lovest me. That's the basis upon which God wants to deal with you and with me on the basis of his great heart of love. He loves us so. He doesn't want us working for it. He wants us to open our hearts and our arms and to receive it.
The giving God. The one who comes out to us and gives us everything and what we must learn is to receive from God what he wants to give us and not to be trying to earn something from God. Our best efforts are not worth anything to him. What we must learn is to receive. Now we know what the God of Abraham wants. The God of Abraham wants our trusting obedience. But we do not know how to get there until we know the God of Isaac.
If it is life that we want, how is life obtained? By working for it? No, by receiving it. None of us gained eternal life by our efforts, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. He gave us life as a free gift of his grace, salvation, and all that goes with it. comes to us from God without money and without price.
There is nothing we can do to gain salvation. And it's true with victory in our Christian lives, too. It's not by struggling, not by fighting. It is by receiving it from God. Thanks be unto God, who always giveth us the victory, who always causes us to triumph. He wants us to receive these things that he has for us and wants to pour out upon us, and not continue striving and thinking to make ourselves Christians.
Not everybody in this room knows better than to do that. try and make himself a Christian, or to make ourselves better Christians. We can't do that. That comes to us from God, by the Spirit. It is as the Holy Spirit works in our lives. He works these things out in our lives. The nature of our new life which we have received from God is to love God and to value prayer and to esteem the Word of God and all we need to do to get in on the riches of all God has provided is to.
Let our new nature have its way. Let it run. Let it flow. Of course, this is all against the old nature, but the old nature isn't able to cope with this. The old nature may throw up obstacles now and then that stumble us and that make us very unhappy, but this is very native to the new nature that we have, and if we will, God will undertake for us. And so Isaac's question is the key to the knowledge of Isaac's God.
What was Isaac's question? Do you remember we spoke of it yesterday? My father, behold the fire and the wood. But where is the land of the burned offers? And the answer from Abraham, my son, God will provide himself a land. So from the time he was a teenager, Isaac learned this lesson from his father. God will provide. God will provide.
And anytime you have a need, and anytime we have a need, and anytime there is to be anything for God overflowing from our lives in worship to Him, it will be because God has provided, not because we worked it up, not because we had something to contribute, no, but because He has provided so much that it simply overflows. And the distinctive feature of true Christianity is that it compels people to receive. It is the will of God that you and I have open hearts, empty hands, and we let him pour it on and bless us out of the greatness of his mercy.
Isn't that great? We don't have one of these religions that you've got to work yourself down to the bone all the time and never know whether you made it or not. No, we have a God who is a giving God, who delights in mercy and who loves to do for us, exceeding abundantly above all we can ask or even think. Let me read you a verse from First Corinthians. Chapter I and verse twenty-five. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. For ye see your calling, brethren, how the not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called.
But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world, to confound the things that are mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us, wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption that according as it is written he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord God will not have anything of ours but he gives himself to us Christ is made unto us all that we need But not only that, Christ is made unto us all that God has.
Far, far more than our need, all God has. And so the God of Isaac would say to you and to me, don't copy. Don't be a slave to rules. Let him live his life in us in ways that we do not understand. He ministers to our hearts. And this works like the law of gravity. That's a wonderful thing. I doubt very much whether anybody in this room has given a single thought to the law of gravity this morning.
And yet the law of gravity is going on working for all of us when we put our feet down, they stay on the floor. We don't worry about keeping the law of gravity going properly. It takes care of us. And that's the way that Jesus Christ is going. That's the way it is with the God of Isaac. We don't have to struggle. We don't have to keep everything straight. All we have to do is let him work. Let him work. Let him provide. And as surely as the law of gravity works in our lives, the law of Christ will work in our lives and the life of Christ will develop and be manifested in us.
for his glory. Don't worry about whether your life glorifies God. Just give it to God, and he'll see that it glorifies him. We don't have to look after it. It will look after us. Well, let's put ourselves in his care. Let him operate for his glory. Shall we pray? Thank you, Lord, for this revelation of yourself, for the record of this man's life, this man who was willing to let thee take care of him.
Help us to let thee take care of us and to accomplish in these lives of ours that which is according to your will for us, for the glory of the Lord Jesus. We pray in His dear name. Amen.