Yeah, I’m off center. Yep, that didn’t help. That’s a terrible thing, to be off center, as you know from the Bible. It’s better. It’s better. Yes, sir. That’s right. That’s right.
Well, good morning. I’d like to read several verses. They won’t be too long of selections, but there’s a number of them to give our context.
Turn first of all to Exodus 3, verse 6. This is after the Lord appeared to Moses in the burning bush at Horeb. I think you know the verse.
“I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.
And then, after He revealed that He was the I AM to Moses, He said this in Exodus 3:15-16:
And God said moreover unto Moses, “Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is My name for ever, and this is My memorial unto all generations.”
“Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, hath appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt.”
And after the first miracle, when the staff turned to a serpent and back to a staff, God said this to Moses in Exodus 4:5. This was the reason He was sending Moses to Egypt and to the children of Israel:
“That they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee.”
I’ll read in Matthew, when the Lord Himself spoke this verse. Let’s see if I can get my fingers to cooperate. Matthew 22:30-33. The Lord was speaking to the Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection, by the way. Yet they tempted the Lord with the question of a woman who had married seven brothers in succession after each had died childless.
Now, you think you have family problems. You think about that one. They tried to trick the Lord and asked, “Who will she be married to in the resurrection?” Well, of course, they did not believe in the resurrection.
So the Lord said:
“For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as angels in heaven.”
“But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?”
“God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
And when the crowds heard it, they were astonished at His doctrine.
Now turn back to Genesis. I’ll read some selections. Genesis 25:5—this is a very important verse about this morning:
“And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac.”
And back up to Genesis 24. This is a very key passage when we talk about Isaac, verses 1-4:
And Abraham was old, and well stricken in age: and the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things.
And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had, “Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh: and I will make thee swear by the Lord, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell: but thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac.”
Skip over. I’m running you all over the place, I know, but you’ll understand, I hope, later—or I’ve miserably failed. Romans 8:16-17:
The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified with Him.
And another few verses in the New Testament: 1 Peter 1:3-4.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who according to His great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
unto an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.
Now go back to Genesis and read these verses in Genesis 26. You have to understand these verses if you’re going to understand anything about Isaac, verses 12-13:
And Isaac sowed in that land, and found in the same year a hundredfold: and the Lord blessed him.
And the man waxed great, and grew more and more until he became very great.
And then Genesis 26:17-25:
And Isaac departed thence, and encamped in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.
And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham: and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them.
And Isaac’s servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.
And the herdsmen of Gerar strove with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours”: and he called the name of the well Esek; because they contended with him.
And they digged another well, and they strove for that also: and he called the name of it Sitnah.
And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, “For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”
And he went up from thence to Beer-sheba.
And the Lord appeared unto him the same night, and said, “I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for My servant Abraham’s sake.”
And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there: and there Isaac’s servants digged a well.
Lord, we commit the reading of Your Word to You. As we heard this past Wednesday, and as was spoken again this morning, Your Word is alive. Your Word is powerful. Your Word is quicker and sharper than any two-edged sword, able to divide asunder soul and spirit. It even knows the intents of our heart.
So we call upon You to speak to us Your Word this morning. We’re not at all satisfied with what man can come up with, however clever, however intelligible. We’re only waiting to hear the voice of the Lord.
And so we say, like Peter said:
“To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.”
Speak, Lord. We call upon You. We ask the Holy Spirit to make known to us Your living Word, and we believe when You do that, it will accomplish the work You send it forth to do. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Well, we’re dealing with this matter I read from in Exodus 3—these remarkable verses where God says, in that first great revelation about “I AM,” “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”
It’s remarkable, isn’t it? He says that. And He says something more extraordinary than that: “This is My name forever.” If He said, “This is My name,” you’d understand it. He has many names. But He said, “This is My name forever.”
And then He said more than that: “This is My memorial unto all generations.” He said, “I’ve seen what happened to you in Egypt. Go and tell the people, ‘The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent me to you.’”
And that first miracle—as we already read—of the staff transformed to a serpent and then transformed again, was for the single great purpose of going to the people: going to the Egyptians who did not believe, going to the Hebrews who did believe but were in bondage, and saying to them, “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has sent me to you.”
Well, this has been the substance of the burden that’s been on my heart. We’ve already looked at Abraham, the spirit of revelation. Today we’re going to look at Isaac, and the thought in Isaac is an incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading inheritance. That’s what Isaac stands for.
We looked at Abraham. The key to Abraham is what he saw. You remember, the Holy Spirit’s very succinct and powerful revelation about Abraham in Acts 7:2, when Stephen, the martyr, before he was martyred, said:
“The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia.”
That’s an all-important verse. That is the summary of Abraham in the New Testament. God appeared to him. He revealed Himself to him. And He didn’t just do it once, but He did it again and again and again.
When you read the record of Abraham, it says, “And God appeared to Abraham.” He was, in fact, the spirit of revelation.
But you take it further. When you look at the Lord Jesus, He said this most remarkable thing. It must have confused totally the children of Israel. He said in John 8:56:
“Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day; and he saw it, and was glad.”
Abraham saw My day. So the key to Abraham, at least as the New Testament says and the Old Testament record verifies, is that he was, in fact, the spirit of revelation.
Now, brothers and sisters, I’ll leave you with this. Don’t look at these men—that God says, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”—as some sort of historic record alone. If you do, you miss the whole point.
These men stood for much more than that. We should know the history, but the history, as we heard this morning, is only shadows and types. You know, I tell you a verse—you know it, you know I love it—1 Corinthians 10:11 illumined to me the whole of the Old Testament:
“Now these things happened unto them by way of example; and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come.”
Brothers and sisters, that is the whole explanation of the Old Testament. I have fallen in love with the Old Testament, because in the Old Testament we see revelations of the Lord Jesus that lift us into a higher place, above human flesh, beyond the story, beyond these men. In fact, we see in these men what God is after in man.
Well, that was last time. What do we see? What Abraham saw. If you do, it’ll change you from inside out. If you do, it’ll capture you. If you do, it’ll constrain you by the love of Christ to give yourself for the One Who gave His all to you. It will do that.
People ask me the difference between revelation and knowledge. Knowledge is a wonderful thing. I don’t fault knowledge. But knowledge will never capture you. Knowledge will never change you. Knowledge will never constrain you to give all to Him.
So what we need is to be like Abraham: the spirit of revelation.
Well, today we’re going to look at Isaac: an incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading inheritance reserved for you in the heavens.
Now, three things about Isaac stand out, at least to me. There are much more. You can’t cover, like I tried to do up in Newark, New Jersey, thirty-nine chapters of Genesis in four sessions. We won’t attempt to. But what we will do is hit the highlights in these chapters.
The three things are:
First of all, the heir. Now, when I say “the heir,” you’ll get the point in a moment. We’re not talking about Isaac alone. We’re using Isaac, but the Bible is pointing to Someone greater than Isaac.
If you’re going to understand this inheritance that you have—that is incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading—you have to see the Heir. I think you know already where I’m going.
Secondly, you have to see that we are joint-heirs. Believe it or not, God has made us joint-heirs. If you’re going to understand the inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading, you’re going to have to see that we’re joint-heirs.
And thirdly, I think we need to spend at least a little time figuring out what on earth the Bible is talking about when it speaks of digging and re-digging wells. I think it has everything to do with our inheritance: how we enter into our inheritance, and the secret of entering into this incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading inheritance.
So let’s begin with this point: the Heir. The story of Isaac and Jacob is tremendous in Genesis. It is a pivotal story, because in this story we not only see God obtaining a nation—the beginning of attaining a corporate testimony for Himself—but we see the foreshadowing of the greatest promises in all of the Bible: the Heir.
We see the greatest promises to His people, what they will obtain as a result of being His children. This story of Abraham and Isaac is, therefore, a tremendous foreshadowing of the heart of God for man.
Abraham is the father; you know that. Isaac is the son. And if you look at Genesis 22, you get an even clearer insight into the heart of God.
You remember Genesis 22, when it begins by saying that God tested Abraham, when he offered Isaac his son. It referred to him as the only son. Well, it was true historically. It was true in fact, if you look at it. Of course, Ishmael may come to mind, but He was pointing to something bigger.
The only son. You get it? Those words are implanted in the Bible to bring us out of the realm of just Isaac and Abraham.
And He goes further in Genesis 22. He says, “the son whom thou lovest.” Now indeed Abraham loved his son, but you cannot imagine how much more God loves His only Son. That’s the point. This is the foreshadowing in the story of Abraham and Isaac.
It speaks of God the Father and His only Son, the Son of God’s love. We’ve been translated from the kingdom of this world into the kingdom of the Son of His love. That’s the phrase in Colossians.
So, if you’re going to understand the inheritance you have in Christ, you must understand the Son of God’s love. That’s what you’ve been translated into. That’s the whole point.
Let me put it plainly, in plain words. My words aren’t always so plain; for that I ask forgiveness. But to Abraham, Isaac was everything. Now, that is a statement of fact. To Abraham, Isaac was everything. But to God, the Lord Jesus is even more.
I think that’s the story behind this whole story. You remember the three extraordinary events in the New Testament. I love these because they’re so unusual. These are earth-shattering events.
You remember when the Lord was baptized, when He went to John the Baptist and said, “Do this to fulfil all righteousness.” You remember, of course, Matthew 3.
The Holy Spirit came upon the Lord as a dove, and John the Baptist saw the Holy Spirit descending upon Him. Then out of heaven came that great and terrible voice:
“This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.”
That’s how much God loved His Son. He couldn’t—I hate to say this about God, and you may be upset with me if I do—but God couldn’t restrain Himself. He couldn’t help Himself. He was overwhelmed at this thought: that this only Beloved, foreshadowing His death, would go into the waters of baptism, and the Spirit of eternity would fall and rest upon Him.
And He had to say it: “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.” It is an event of the ages.
Can you imagine that baptism? We had a baptism just recently, didn’t we? Last week. I was gone. But can you imagine if we were out there having a baptism, and God rent the heavens and spoke through the heavens and said, “This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased”? Indeed, it’s earth-shattering.
What happened again? You remember the story in Matthew 17: the Mount of Transfiguration. I think you all know that story.
Peter, James, and John—that inner circle. By the way, does that often puzzle you, that there was an inner circle? It did to me. But long ago, I shared something: those three, just like these three in the Old Testament, stand for something tremendous that God is after in man.
So Peter, James, and John went, and the Lord was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun. Now, brothers and sisters, I may be given a little to exaggeration, but the Holy Spirit doesn’t exaggerate the Word. It says His face shone as the sun.
You think of Moses when he came off Horeb, and his face glowed to such an extent that they veiled him. You remember the story. But the face of the Lord was so transformed, and His garments, it says, were white as light.
I think that’s a perfect explanation of white: white is light. Now, don’t get all hung up that we have cool light and warm light and all that. It was white. It was light.
Peter, any good Jew that was there—this was the pinnacle of their experience. Moses and Elijah, the prophet, were there. What an event this was. Can you imagine, if you were a Jew? This would be the highlight of your life.
So don’t be so upset with Peter when he was bubbling over with excitement and said, “Lord, it is good that we be here. Let us build three tabernacles: one for Thee”—he had it in the right order; give him a little credit—“one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
But the biblical record shows that God could not stand it any longer. He could no longer restrain Himself. While Peter was yet speaking, out came that voice from heaven:
“This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him.”
Earth-shattering, you will agree, I hope.
And then, of course, that wasn’t the end. You remember when the Lord, in John 12, began to ponder that His hour had come. Let me turn to John 12 real quickly and read you just a few verses.
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit.”
“The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.”
“If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be.”
Then in John 12:27, He says these striking words:
“Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour. But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy name.”
Listen to this:
There came therefore a voice out of heaven, saying, “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”
The crowd therefore, which stood there and heard it, said that it thundered.
Brothers and sisters, this is the point. Isaac stands for the son of the father’s love, but he is a reflection pointing to the only Son—big letters, capital letters: S-O-N.
This is the supreme thing that is in the heart of God. This is what the story of Isaac is about. If you miss it, and you only see an inheritance of Isaac from Abraham and digging wells, it’s a nice story. But if you see beyond, you see the very heart of God revealed in the Old Testament.
I think this is a tremendous story. To God, He is everything. And if I could put it this way, He even exceeds everything.
You remember in Colossians—I love that phrase—“Christ is everything.” You know that phrase? Everybody knows that, Colossians 3:11. In my version, Darby, because most of the time you can’t understand Darby, he added words in brackets, square brackets, to make things a bit understandable.
So he said, “Christ is everything.” Unfortunately, that’s not what the Bible says. That was an added word. It says, “Christ, everything.” End of sentence. That’s the whole story.
Brothers and sisters, unless we see the Son of God’s love, unless we see the only Son—the One Whom God loved above everything else—we’ll never understand the story of Abraham and Isaac.
You remember when Abraham had the thought of not having a child. You remember the agony he was in. God appeared to him and said, “I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” You remember Genesis 15.
And Abraham said to the Lord, “What wilt Thou give me, seeing I go childless, and he that shall be possessor of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” He will be the heir. That’s what he said. It was agony: “What wilt Thou give me, since I am childless?”
I think it’s a very poignant story. I remember, for us—you may not have known this, and this is just by way of illustration; this isn’t the rule, by the way—but we couldn’t have children.
We tried all those drugs, you know, whatever you call them, to help with infertility, and they didn’t seem to work for us. I remember the agony when we would go to the mall, particularly Christmastime, and see all these beautiful little children being strolled along.
We’d go around in the mall, and I’ll never forget the agony. Linda could hardly look across. She would look aside. And we were barren. The pain was terrific.
So the brilliant thought I had was, get a dog. I figured we’d make the dog our child, our only child.
So a short-haired, long dachshund came to us: Sir Lucas Snobbs. He was German. I’m German. Don’t you get it? Sir Lucas Snobbs. Of course, we called him Lucas. He was a terrible child.
I think his claim to fame is he bit both Lance and Stella. Terrible child. But the pain was terrific.
I remember one of the times Linda nearly died in ketoacidosis, a diabetic coma. She went to the hospital and was in the ICU, not knowing whether she would make it through, like a number of other times.
And we came out of that by the grace of God. We started talking to them about having children. The OB-GYN, whom we loved—she was German too, by the way; you see a pattern here—didn’t recommend the dachshund, thank God.
But she said, “Maybe you ought to try the drugs. Give it one more shot.” So we got the prescription. We thought it was a good idea. We were waiting for the cycle. It never happened.
And lo and behold, after a week or so, the OB-GYN said the unthinkable. She said, “Do you think you might be pregnant?” And sure enough, we were. We took those drugs back to the drugstore and said, “Can we have a refund, please?” And I think they did.
But this is the point: the agony in Abraham’s heart for an heir. All he wanted was an heir. He knew the heart of God. He represented the heart of God. He did not want Eliezer, as much as he loved Eliezer, and who was the servant over all his house, to be the heir that inherited everything Abraham had.
And so he wanted an heir. You know, I didn’t finish my story, but Jonathan was born. We named him, of course, Jonathan: gift of God.
And, of course, we had a few others—one here present. We had a miscarriage; everybody doesn’t know that story. But then we had Justin, and then we had Jessica. So the Lord was gracious.
Do you see the heart of God for the Heir? How Abraham wanted this heir. Genesis 25:5 says, “And Abraham gave all that he had unto Isaac.” That’s what God does with His Son.
You think of Ephesians 1:9-10. It is the mystery of His will. It is the purpose of God to sum up all things in Christ. This is what is primarily on God’s heart. This is what God is after.
That’s why, when we consider Isaac, I want us not just to look at the heir, Isaac, but the Heir, Christ—capital T-H-E, capital H-E-I-R: the Heir. That’s Who we see when we look at Isaac.
You remember the parable in Matthew 21:33-41. It’s when the householder planted a vineyard and left it to the husbandmen. He told them he would come back when the fruits were ready to receive the fruits.
He sent his bondmen, and what did they do? They beat one, killed another, and stoned another. So he sent more bondmen, and the Bible says they did the same thing.
So he had this idea: “Surely they will respect my son.” So he sent his only son. Do you know what the response was of the husbandmen? It says so clearly in the Bible. This is the point:
“This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and take his inheritance.”
And that’s exactly what they did to the Lord Jesus. The Heir is the key to understanding the story of Isaac. If you don’t see it, you don’t understand the story.
We need to see, in God’s heart, there’s One. There’s no second place. We like, in this politically correct age—I despise political correctness, so don’t get me started, and I know you didn’t—but we have to give everybody the same trophy because we think everybody’s equal.
God doesn’t think that way. There’s no one like His only begotten Son. And to us as believers, there should be no one like His only begotten Son: neither son, nor daughter, nor mate, nor anything else. But like He said of Christ: “Christ, everything.”
There was one thing in the heart of Abraham. It’s tremendous. When you read the story of Isaac, Genesis 24 shows us what was foremost in Abraham’s heart. What Abraham wanted, and what he sent Eliezer of Damascus to do, was to go to his people and his land—not to the land of Canaan—to find a wife for his son.
That was the one chief thing in his heart that he wanted for Isaac. Go, find her. That was the one mission of Eliezer.
You remember this story. It’s a beautiful story. He said, “What will I do if I go and this woman refuses to go? What will I do?” Abraham said, “You’ll be quit of your oath. You’ll be relieved of your responsibility from that.”
But he went with this single mission: to find a wife for his son.
Do you begin to see the unfolding drama of the Bible? The start of the Bible is about a wedding. The end of the Bible is about a wedding. Those glorious events at the end of the Bible, when they come to the feast of the Lamb, and when the whole church comes in, in Revelation 21, as the bride coming down from God—it’s the whole story.
If you don’t understand what was in the heart of Abraham for Isaac’s son, you will never understand the Bible, because it’s the entirety of the Bible. Everything had to do with this one mission.
So Eliezer—I love Eliezer. His name’s not mentioned in Genesis 24, but I think most commentators are pretty sure it’s Eliezer. Eliezer was on a mission that he would not be discouraged from.
Even when he got there to Rebekah’s home, at the well, and went into Laban and her mother and all of that, he said, “Let me first tell you my business.” That was his whole business: to find a wife for the son.
Brothers and sisters, if Abraham represents the Father—and we have to see the bigger picture—if Isaac represents the Son, the only Son, the Son of His love, then Eliezer represents the Holy Spirit.
And the mission of the Holy Spirit is to find a wife for His Son. That’s the whole mission. That’s what He is looking for in the church. That’s what He is looking for in you and me.
You remember the beautiful story. He goes to the well and says, “What I’ll do is, when I see the maiden, I’ll say, ‘Give me water to drink.’ And if she says, ‘I’ll give you water to drink, and I’ll water your camels,’ I will know God has prospered me.”
And sure enough, Rebekah comes along. He says, “Would you give me water to drink?” She gave him water to drink. Then she said, “I will draw water for your camels also.” And it says he bowed and worshipped. This was God’s heart: here, the wife for the Son.
Now, when you think about our inheritance, that’s what you need to be thinking about. This is the one thing that’s in God’s heart, and this is the single mission of the Holy Spirit.
You may say many other things the Holy Spirit does, and it’s true. But this is behind everything else. In the end, what He’s after is a wife for the Son.
You remember the beautiful end of the story. Eliezer wanted to leave and not delay. Laban, being all the juggler, the deceiver that he was, said, “Let her stay ten days with us.” And he said, “No, don’t delay.”
Then they said, “We’ll ask her.” This is the one question that the Holy Spirit has for you. They went to her and said:
“Wilt thou go with this man?”
Remember, we’re not talking about Isaac. As a believer, will you go with this Man? Will you leave all others—your family, your life—and will you cleave only to this One?
To me, that’s the story of Isaac. Have you heard the Holy Spirit whispering to you those words: “Will you go with this Man?”
And more importantly, have you offered up the response that Rebekah offered up? She said these beautiful words, so full of meaning, so simple, so profound:
“I will go.”
If you’ve done that, you’re on your way to discovering what Isaac was about. You now, with this inheritance, have the highest calling—an unimaginable calling—of anything else.
You are part of the future bride of the Lamb. Can you imagine a greater inheritance, brothers and sisters? I can’t imagine a greater inheritance.
It would be one thing, and I think Christians often think like this, to be a servant for eternity. It would be another thing to be a prophet, or whatever, in eternity. But to be the very companion of the Son of God’s love for all eternity—the chief thing that’s in His heart—unimaginable.
If it were not in the Bible, you would pause at it. But God has chosen for His church to be the very wife of the Lamb. That’s our inheritance. Think of it.
You remember when the apostle Paul was writing the letter to the Ephesians and waxing eloquent about all these practical matters, saying, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave Himself up for it.”
But then he said, I think it’s Ephesians 5:32:
“This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church.”
That is the great story of the Bible. And that is our great inheritance.
I think the first great event in history is when Christ comes humble: God incarnate, the Son of Man, the Servant of God, the suffering Savior, dies for us and is raised from the dead.
But I think the second great event in all of history is when the bride has made herself ready. We read that in Revelation 19. That’s the whole story.
What a wedding feast. It goes on for a thousand years. Now, you didn’t have a thousand-year wedding feast.
I told the brothers and sisters up there, because they were mostly Chinese, “You Chinese know how to eat.” We went to a wedding feast in New York years ago, when I was young and Linda was younger.
They brought out one course, and I ate too much. I didn’t know the Chinese secret. They brought out a second course, and I thought that was the end of the meal, and I ate too much. Then they brought out a third course, and by the thirteenth course, she could have laid me out.
They brought in this giant fish, the size I’d never seen before, and we all feasted upon this fish at the end. But there’s nothing like this wedding feast.
You are part of the bride of the Lamb. When you think of inheritance, can you imagine a more honored position? His companion for eternity.
This is what Isaac stands for. This is the Heir, and this is the bride. Everything else is a shadow.
Well, there’s another point I think we need to think about: joint-heirs. I think that’s important.
Not only is Isaac the heir—and Christ the Heir, if you get the emphasis—but we are also heirs. Listen to this. Galatians 3:29:
“And if ye are Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise.”
Galatians 4:7:
“So thou art no longer a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.”
Isaac was Abraham’s heir, but we, brothers and sisters, are much more than Abraham’s heirs. We are Christ’s heirs. Can you imagine? I think that’s tremendous.
You might wish you were Bezos’s heir, with a hundred and fifty billion dollars. It wouldn’t be a bad ride. Well, you’re much more than Bezos’s heir. These are pennies. You are Christ’s own heir. How tremendous.
Isaac was Abraham’s own heir. You are Christ’s own heir.
I remember years ago, when I was a young little boy—some of you are surprised I can remember that long—we would go down to Aunt Lillian and Uncle Albert’s farm down in Burgaw, North Carolina. That’s Jerry’s stomping grounds. Burgaw, North Carolina—not a very big place.
I remember we would go out, and they would take this old county boy and take me down, and we would slop the pigs early in the morning. I had never slopped pigs in my life.
I think my Uncle Albert was a crotchety old fellow. They never had any children. Uncle Albert told me stories. He had a big sow. That’s exactly the way it sounded. He said, “That big sow nearly killed a man.” I mean, you got me down there—I’m from the suburbs, slopping pigs—and he tells me a pig killed a man.
He jumped right on his back, and he was in the pen with him. I think it was really to keep me in line. I don’t know if the story was true, but it certainly kept me in mind.
Later on in life, Linda and I got a letter. We were heirs of Aunt Lillian and Uncle Albert’s pig farm on the Cape Fear River, North Carolina, along with forty-some other heirs.
The grand total was a twenty-three-hundred-dollar check. Oh, I was thrilled. I was thrilled to get that check. And I had to slop that pig.
They sold that farm and turned it into houses in a nice subdivision for suburbanites like me. You get the point.
We are heirs of Christ. It says, “Christ’s heirs.” Can there be a greater inheritance? Can there be anything more special that God has given to you?
He’s made you a son, indeed. You could have been left out of the inheritance. You read stories about that: the wayward son comes in, the lawyer breaks out the will, and, “To you, Johnny, who wasted your life, I leave nothing.”
But Christ said, “If a son, then an heir of God.” That’s the story.
We receive, it says in Ephesians 1:7, the riches of His grace. I’ve always loved that verse. Not just grace: the riches of His grace.
If you read Ephesians 2:6-7, we receive the surpassing riches of His grace. That one adjective tries to explain what this inheritance is that we have in Christ Jesus: the surpassing riches of His grace.
But you know something? I’m going to really shock you. You’re more than heirs. You are joint-heirs with Christ.
That’s what Romans 8:17 says: joint-heirs with Christ. And you know what that means, brothers and sisters? That means that everything that He owns will be shared with us jointly. Do you get it? It’s unbelievable.
You couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried to write it. Joint-heirs with Christ. Linda, I just found a joint tax return. That means what little bit I own, she owns, and vice versa.
Brothers and sisters, what is astounding in the world is not only that He is the Heir, and not only that we are Christ’s heirs, but we are joint-heirs with Christ. That’s the inheritance we have.
Oh, the story of Isaac is almost too good to be true. That’s where we need to see: all the fullness of the Godhead bodily dwells in Him. Can you imagine a more wealthy Benefactor?
We are heirs, and everything we have, we have jointly. Like Isaac, we are heirs of promise. And the One Who promised, it says in Hebrews, is the One Who cannot lie.
I remember a story I told you years ago. No, I haven’t told you in years, so Linda will exempt me from this one because she won’t remember it.
But I was foolish and naive enough to believe a friend of mine who said his father, who was in the army—and I loved the army—had all this army stuff and military stuff. If I would just show up at six in the morning, up in the woods behind his fence, I would have it all. He would get it for me: all these helmets and jackets and patches.
I believed it. Now, I know you think, “What a fool he is.” I showed up at six in the morning, kind of in the dark. My parents had no idea where I was going. I trod up through the woods, as I would often do, got to that fence, and lo and behold, there was not a single thing there for me.
I can’t tell you the disappointment. I was terribly disappointed. I believed this guy. He was a friend.
But, brothers and sisters, here’s a promise. Hebrews says, “He Who cannot lie.” Speaking of Abraham, it says there are two things that give us strong encouragement: one is the promise; secondly, it’s the oath.
You remember, God swore to Abraham because He could find no one greater to swear by. That’s the great encouragement, or the strong encouragement, we have.
Now listen to this again about this inheritance. First Peter 1:4 says it is incorruptible.
Everything in this world is corruptible. Everything in this world rusts and decays and gets old and worn out. Before you know it, you’re redoing that thing you did before that was the latest and greatest when you got it, and now it’s nearly worthless. I still have an eight-track player in my attic, believe it or not.
Everything is incorruptible in Christ. It’s more than that. Everything is undefiled in Christ. In this world, everything is defiling. The whole world, it says, lies in the evil one.
And yet, in Christ, this inheritance we have, so vast you cannot calculate it, is undefiled. Thirdly, it is unfading. It’s an unfading inheritance.
Brothers and sisters, I don’t know about you, but some of the great events in my life—probably somewhat similar for yours—are now faded memories. Once in a while, I think about those faded memories.
But this inheritance that you have in Christ Jesus, as a joint-heir, is an unfading inheritance. The glory of it will never diminish, and the radiance of it will always be there.
Then it says, “reserved in the heavens for you.” Now think of that, brothers and children: reserved in the heavens for you. This is reserved. Nobody can take your inheritance.
Nobody can go up and do a little extortion out there, like Maury’s inheritance. Can’t do it. It’s reserved for you in the heavens.
Brothers and sisters, how tremendous. So many things in this life you think you’ll get, you never get. But this inheritance—this inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading—is, in the end, reserved, kept for you by God Himself.
How tremendous. Hebrews 9:15 calls it the eternal inheritance. What a word. I think this is the story. This is the story of Isaac.
Now, what about this matter of digging wells? Have you thought much about this? What does that mean?
When you look at Abraham’s life, you see the prominent feature of the altars, right? Everybody remembers that: four altars. When you look at Isaac’s life, the prominent feature about Isaac’s life is the wells. It talks about him and his servants re-digging and digging the wells.
As a matter of fact, years ago we had a conference with this theme, a family conference. You may remember: “Re-digging the Wells.”
I think if you’re going to understand—and listen to me carefully—if you’re going to enter into this great inheritance we have in Christ Jesus, you have to understand this principle of digging and re-digging wells.
On the surface, it seems a little strange to me, because here is Isaac. You would think Isaac didn’t have to do anything. It says Abraham gave him everything that he had, right? So why would Isaac and Isaac’s servants have to dig the wells? Why would they have to re-dig the wells?
It doesn’t make sense, but there’s a spiritual principle here that is of absolute great importance. That spiritual principle is: we need to lay hold of, in Christ Jesus, this inheritance for ourselves.
It cannot be Abraham’s alone. It cannot be your parents’ alone. Didn’t we just have a baptism last week? Linda and I were gone, but that young lady stood up and said she had come to the realization that it had to be her God.
She had to enter into it. It couldn’t just be Susan’s God. It couldn’t just be your mother’s God. Brothers and sisters, I believe this is exactly what it means by digging and re-digging the wells.
You remember the strange verse in Timothy. I think you all know the verse:
“Fight the good fight of the faith, lay hold on the life eternal.”
Well, if you are a good evangelical, you will protest that verse. You’ll write in to the editors and say, “What do you mean, ‘Lay hold of eternal life’?” It says in John 3:16—and I believe John 3:16:
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
That’s good doctrine, right? Paul said to Timothy—matter of fact, these were his last letters; this is the last thing he said to him—“Lay hold of eternal life.”
This is re-digging wells. This is digging wells. You need to possess it for yourself. You need to enter into it yourself. You need to lay hold of it yourself.
You remember when the children of Israel are one of the greatest illustrations in the Bible. He said, “I give you a land flowing with milk and honey,” and He goes in and tells them all the riches beyond compare in this land of promise—which, by the way, is a foreshadowing of Christ.
It’s not a land we’re looking for; it’s a Person. And here’s the strangest thing. He said, “I gave you this land,” right? You would think you ought to walk in, like me, find the recliner, and pass out for the afternoon.
But He said in Joshua 1:3:
“Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, to you have I given it.”
Brothers and sisters, do you get the point? We need to lay hold of it. We need to enter in.
As a matter of fact, it says of Isaac, he re-dug the wells that his father Abraham had dug and that the Philistines had filled with dirt. He re-dug them. And it says another extraordinary thing: not only did he re-dig them, but he re-named them the exact same thing Abraham named them.
How we need to enter in. This is our inheritance, and how we need to enter in and possess it for ourselves.
There are some secrets about this. This is the first secret: we must ourselves enter into it. We must ourselves possess our possessions. We must lay hold of eternal life.
Now, I don’t think we can do this in our own strength. Don’t get me wrong. You know that by now. We can only do that as the Holy Spirit helps us cooperate with our blessed Heir to enter into all the inheritance we have in Christ.
The next thing you’ll notice about this entering in, digging wells, and re-digging wells, is that there’s always opposition.
You remember this story we read about opposition, about how there was quarreling over the wells. It was Esek, and then another one, Sitnah. They left that well, which the people of the land quarreled over, and they went to the next well and called it Sitnah because it means opposition.
Then they went to a third place and dug a well, and it was Rehoboth, which means broad places.
Well, this is the point: it’s never going to be easy to enter into our inheritance.
The Lord said, “In this world, you will have” what? But then what did He say? “But be of good cheer.” Just think if they left us there. I often read the Bible in such depressing tones: “In the world, you will have tribulation.” But, “Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”
That’s the secret. There will always be opposition. There’ll be opposition sometimes you can’t imagine. We have an enemy, Satan himself. But the Lord has completely overcome the enemy—completely.
It says in Colossians that He made a show of him openly, triumphing over him. We have opposition from the world. The whole world lies in the evil one.
Doesn’t the world give you trouble? If the world doesn’t give you trouble, I wonder about your walk. But if you walk with the Lord, you will find difficulty.
And John said this tremendous thing in his letter, 1 John 4:4:
“Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.”
Isn’t that good news? He said, “You’re in the world, but you’re not of the world.”
Brothers and sisters, we will experience great, sometimes terrible, opposition. But be of good cheer, because in the end, if you allow the Holy Spirit to do His work, you will come into broad places—Rehoboth.
Third thing, and the last thing—this is the last secret. When they dug those wells, it says:
“And Isaac’s servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.”
You remember that. We read that already. You remember the story of the woman at the well in John 4. What a story it is.
This lady, quite a dicey lady, by the way, came to that well with her bucket to get water to survive another day. You remember the Lord confronted her and said, “Go, call thy husband.”
She was caught. She said, “Well, I don’t have a husband.” The Lord said, “That’s right. You’ve had five. You talk about trouble. You’ve had five, and the one you’re with now is not your husband.”
This lady—we often think that we’re not worthy. Is there anyone less worthy? Yet the Lord showed her the greatest secret.
He said:
“Every one that drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up unto eternal life.”
And do you know what happened at the end of that story? That lady discarded her bucket. She had discovered the living Source.
That’s what digging wells, that’s what re-digging wells means. Have you discovered the Source is not in you? Have you discovered that the Source is in Him?
Have you discovered that you might have a trickle of something, but in Him you have a well springing up into eternal life? Everything that we need or want is in Christ Jesus.
When they dug that well, they discovered the source of life. This is, to me, the secret.
You know, brothers and sisters, this is the story of Isaac: an incorruptible, undefiled, and unfading inheritance reserved for you.
How we need to see the Heir, Christ. How we need to see God’s heart for His Son, the only One. How we need to see that we’re heirs of this unbelievable inheritance, and even more than that, joint-heirs with Christ.
And how, in the end, we need to cooperate with the Holy Spirit to dig and re-dig wells. You will certainly run into opposition. But if you continue, you will discover broad places in Christ.
And if you continue, you will discover this well of springing water, springing up into eternal life—even Christ Himself.
To me, this is the glorious story of Isaac and Abraham. May the Lord help us.
I think sometimes we think too little, that God may have done too little. God couldn’t have done more. Think of what you are: the bride, the eternal companion of His Son. Everything He owns, He’ll share with you for the ages. This is the inheritance.
Lord, we just commit to You these thoughts and pray the Holy Spirit would enlighten us. We live as paupers, we confess, begging for something to make it through the day. We’re like the blind beggar at the gate.
But You have so much more to show us, so much more to reveal to us, so much more to bring us into in Christ. We pray that You would open our eyes to see this inheritance—how wonderful this inheritance is, how full it is.
And Lord, we pray that in the end we will be those who allow the Holy Spirit to do His work and cooperate with You, that You may finish in us and bring us, in this lifetime and for all eternity, into all that You’ve determined for us in Christ Jesus.
This is the privilege of Your church. This is our great inheritance. Amen.