Genesis

[0:00] As I intimated this morning, I will venture to ask your attention again to that portion in the 26th chapter of Genesis, wherein we read at verse 22, And he removed from them and digged another well, and for that they strove not.

[0:33] 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.

[0:48] I spoke this morning, as most of you know, with regard to those practical applications of the principle that essential as water was to Abraham and to Isaac.

[1:04] And we've read in the 4th chapter of John concerning Jacob, the woman of Samaria, had a great appreciation. One would feel an undue appreciation of the well of Jacob until the Lord opened her eyes to see the signification of the principle that the God of Jacob drank from the same well as the people of God all drink of, and that is the well Christ Jesus, the one alone that can give us that living water that a man shall drink and never die.

[1:49] But I want to come after just running over the things I spoke of this morning, largely concerning the exercises of worship, the sanctity of the Sabbath, the blessing of the house of God, the other benefits that God has provided for us, that the devil seeks to deny us partaking of these benefits.

[2:23] And how the Philistines appear to be in this particular the devil's servants to fill up the wells with earth, so that those things that promised benefit to Isaac and his company were only maintained as the Lord caused Isaac's people to build, to dig again the wells.

[3:03] And my friends, we feel there's much in reference to the activities of Satan, seeking to fill up the wells, to deny us the benefit.

[3:20] But that essential which is in our religious life, the essential of the blessing of God resting upon us, and the ways that we hold so near and dear, and also the doctrines which God has made so precious to our souls.

[3:42] Now I mentioned just in closing, I was about to speak upon the fear of the Lord, and saw that the time was rather overspent in our morning service.

[3:54] I apologise for keeping you in at all over time, but nevertheless I'll continue this evening. The well of the fear of the Lord.

[4:06] We read, It's an unctuous light to all that's right, and a bar to all that's wrong. How the enemy of our spiritual well-being, and the enemy of the glory of God, seeks, as it were, to turn us away, or deny us the benefit of the fear of the Lord.

[4:35] We read in the scripture that it's the beginning of wisdom, and as Satan would rather us spend our lives in ignorance of God, his word, and his ways, and thus perish in our sins, than we should come to the experience of the fear of the Lord, and be maintained in that exercise of the holy fear of God.

[5:10] And as Isaac proved, that there was an opposition, there was the Philistines seeking to stop the wells, so we find, do we not, that there is opposition to everything that's good, everything that's right, everything that's profitable.

[5:36] And my friends, there is the necessity of being kept, being maintained, and upheld by the Spirit of God, and in the ways of God.

[5:52] Well now, the fear of the Lord, the fear of the Lord, the reality of the divine presence, the reality of the everywhere presence, of the Lord, the reality of the fact that God knows, not only what we say, but why we say it, the motivation within us, that causes us to utter expressions, whether for good or for evil.

[6:38] And also, the fear of the Lord, that makes us conscious, that the Lord is mindful of the spirit of our hearts, concerning the ways we are compelled to walk.

[7:00] Thou God, seest me. He sees us all together. He doesn't just see the external, he sees the heart, and the Lord knows everything.

[7:13] And a consciousness of that, that the Lord is over all, and the Lord knows all, can be a very profitable restraint and constraint in life's experience.

[7:31] Now, there's a temptation to dismiss, as it were, that those principles, and to walk on in the ways of the flesh, actuated by natural desire and inclination, irrespective of the will of God in matters which concern us.

[7:57] Now, the devil is seeking, as it were, to quench, or to stop up the well of the fear of God, that we may, as it were, map out our own way, and we may exercise ourselves in many respects, according to the environment which we are found in.

[8:21] because it's not easy to be different from others. It's not easy, as it were, to live in a society that is alien to God and to godliness, and show forth the fact that there is this holy principle of the fear of the Lord restraining and constraining us in what we say and what we do, where we go, and how we maintain, as it were, our lives here below.

[8:57] Some of the young people, I've got a grandchild in Suffolk, taken by her parents from the very dawn of her days into the house of God on the Lord's Day, and she travels from her home to the nearest town to school.

[9:19] She has a bus ride and her sister to school and from school, and sometimes on the bus the other children say bitter remarks to them about how they spend Sunday, going to chapel and going to Sunday school and so on, and they raise sort of suggestions with respect to the being of God, and I won't convey to you some of the remarks because it wouldn't be profitable to you for me to do so, but their remarks which belittle the fact of religion and would, as it were, fill up the well if the children were left to take notice of what was said to them, they would despise their upbringing and the ways of God and the benefit of the soul in the instructions of the sanctuary.

[10:31] but there are these that stop up wells wherever, as it were, the exercise of grace and of godliness is found, there's soon some strong opposition that's raised by the adversary of souls that seeks, as it were, to quench the benefit that is to be found through the fear of the lord and the observance of the ways which he ordains in holy scripture.

[11:09] Well, I want to leave these practical applications, instructions, there's the well of parental guidance and instruction and there's much instruction in the word of God to young people how they should react to the counsel of their parents and that they should be in love and subjection to their instruction and children obey your parents in all things for this is good and right and there is with respect the well of a Christian home or sometimes it may be called into question but your parents won't let you do this, your parents won't let you go there, go here or go there and all sorts of arguments are raised to the detriment of a household conducted in those ways of God and of godliness which are the best background for life and it's a great mercy if God has given you to partake of the benefit but don't expect the enemy of souls to pass that advantage by oh my friends he seeks to deny as it were all the benefits that we can derive through the blessing and mercy of God resting upon us he seeks as it were to rob

[12:49] God of glory and ourselves of the good of these things and I could go on in the preceptive part of scripture because they're all concerning the well being of our souls what a wonderful thing it is to have a relationship at the head of the household that is consistent with the teaching of God you know I don't I don't know how you feel about this but I I've married a goodly number of people in my time but I realise in passing remarks that two people with differing backgrounds are coming together I don't say spiritually but their lives have not been absolutely parallel to that point when they agree to go on together in what we hope is the will and way of

[14:02] God and there is need of the scripture in its directives husbands love your wives and be not bitter against them wives be in subjection to your own husbands in all things you know some may read those scriptures and think well that's irrelevant that doesn't come near to me but there are times in life when you think differently you may see differently you may come to judgments especially when family life develops where the husband thinks that way would be better and the wife thinks the other way would be better and there can be an atmosphere which is alien to the profit of either party now this is when we want to come face to face with the word of God and say now what does God say in regard to the varying positions of parenthood and my friends we've got to realise this solemn responsibility that the most accountable in the partnership is the husband he's the head of the house

[15:28] God has decreed it shall be so and God can give wisdom and grace for him to hold that position in the fear of God and to the advantage of the whole household now this calls upon the wife to be subject and it's not easy when you're persuaded your right and you're absolutely sure he's not to give to give to his opinion in the fear of God believing that if what he may decide and bring to pass shall not be ultimately to the prophet that God can overrule any situation to profit in the issue commit it to the Lord leave it with the Lord and ask the Lord to make every crooked thing straight and every place plain every crooked thing straight and every rough place plain well now

[16:33] I've got very practical but these are things which concern the wells and the filling up of the wells by the enemy of souls who hates peace especially if that peace is well seasoned with the fear of God and the love of the truth and the desire to humble ourselves under God's mighty hand but I'll turn now particularly to those wells which concern the doctrines of our faith you know I might say initially one of the doctrines that Satan absolutely hates is the doctrine of election the sovereign right of God to make a choice among the children of

[17:37] God the children of men who shall be saved and who shall be left now none deserves to be saved none deserve to be saved if we reap what we deserve there wouldn't be one daughter or son of Adam in glory the whole development of the doctrine of election is the love of God to save some as opposed to the justice of God leaving all to perish nothing no doctrine more sweetly testifies of the sovereign love of the father than the doctrine of election

[18:37] I can't tell you why he chose to save who he chose to save and if we bring that question home to our own hearts believing that God has a favour to us and he's put us among his children and he's given us tokens for good that we are elect to everlasting life my friends the greatest question is why me why me oh blessed God why such a wretch as me who must forever lie in hell were not salvation free but it is free salvation that saves none of us merit the benefit but there will be according to that immeasurable incomprehensible benefit that has come to the human race there is a number which no man can number of every nation kindred and tongue whom God has elected to save my friends it's a wonderful thing that God has exercised his love to such an extent that the number to participate of his great salvation is beyond the comprehension of our natural intellect well now the devil he tries to stop this doctrine doesn't he and some of us have known the bitterness of the argument of Satan trying to convince us that whatever we do whatever we've said whoever we've been born into the family circle of however many generations have partaken of the benefit you're not elect and therefore there's no hope for you and my friends I've drunk into the bitterness of that argument and you look around yourself and you can see a thousand reasons why that should be so because of the depravity of your nature the want of the fear of

[21:11] God in so many directions and you scratch around as it were in the background of your life and it seems so many many evidences that you're not among the elect you're not among the saved if you'd have been among the elect and saved of God you never would have done this you never would have done that you never would have been here or been there and the devil comes in with oceans of arguments to try and sink you into despair but my friends how wonderful the Lord is with the temptation to make a way to escape I was telling my brother and his dear one of the wonderful deliverance I had many many years ago it would be many well over 50 oh yes 60 years ago

[22:21] I suppose now when I was delivered from that temptation dear Mr. Stanley Dale stood in Leicester pulpit one Easter Tuesday and he touched on the very note and he opened his subject on election he said the electing lover of God never kept anybody out of heaven it's the sole cause for any soul ever getting to heaven and you know I embraced that doctrine in the feeling of my heart and saw that there was hope for me that God had chosen me and if I was chosen I was safe I was safe whatever argument to the contrary may be presented in the weaknesses of my flesh and the frailties of my profession

[23:23] I've said sometimes I went over to Leicester from Coventry on the Midland Red Bus in those days and I travelled over to Leicester with the devil harassing me all the way what are you doing this on an Easter Tuesday for you're wasting your time you're not among the elect there'll be nothing for you you're just wasting your time you're wasting your time ever going to chapel you're wasting your time you might as well get into the world and enjoy yourself because there'll be nothing for you at the end of it and my friends if God had left me to that temptation I could have gone in the ways of sin to perish but blessed be God blessed be God he gave me a token and I came back on the bus from Leicester as peaceable in spirit as ever a man rode on a vehicle in his life praising

[24:23] God for choosing me and having done everything everything not something everything to secure my safety with him to a never ending eternity no I'm not suggesting to you in that that forever since the Philistines haven't tried to fill up the well all the doctrines of God in the hearts of his people are assailed by various temptations that come from various quarters and seek to disprove that even the tokens and favours that God has given to us hold up my goings in thy paths that my footsteps slip no my friends we need upholding in the consciousness of the sovereign goodness of God which has raised us up to a hope in his mercy forever and forever for now the doctrine of justification now what it's a great truth isn't it justified justified absolutely free discharged from every indictment that the law could lay at our door like a man as it were in a courtroom and the indictments are presented before the court and then some argument is raised that is satisfactory to declare the prisoner innocent and out of the door he walks a free person now

[26:28] I can only be brief but the devil is a preacher of the law and he preaches the law in such a way that sometimes we get very very low and a sense of dread and fear that all is not right with God but the apostle Paul says this for I am persuaded that he that hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ you see salvation is God's work and salvation is perfectly comprehended by that work which God the Father gave to

[27:39] God the Son to accomplish and that God the Son went to the end of the law for righteousness God the Son knew every transgression which was due to the whole election of grace to their condemnation and he bore the penalty instead he suffered for their sins he met the requirements of the holy law of God to perfection on their behalf he was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him there's justification the righteousness of God those for whom Christ died will be presented before the judgments see in perfect deliverance from the consequence of their own transgressions because

[28:45] Jesus Christ has paid the debt Jesus Christ has suffered the penalty Jesus Christ went to the cross of Calvary to procure an absolute discharge and my friends justification is by faith in the perfection of the sacrifice and offering that Jesus Christ has paid by faith we're justified by faith in the way of God to justify sinners and the way of Christ Jesus in meeting the requirement and paying to the uttermost the penalty if you want a key to the suffering saviour upon Calvary it is Jesus in the sinner's place

[29:45] Jesus in the sinner's place what he endured no tongue can tell to save our souls from death and hell but how are the people of God presented before God not in the rags of their own righteousness because they've got no they've got no righteousness but the righteousness of Jesus Christ imputed to them as though they had lived a law fulfilled a spotless life from the cradle to the tomb as if they had lived the life which Christ did live I do always those things that please him that is his father and a perfect garment is a garment of righteousness is provided by the suretyship of Christ and the church of God is presented faultless before the throne of God forever and forever that God in all the holiness of his being can accept them into his presence forever without the slightest the slightest marring of his character of holiness and perfect righteousness forever well now what a wonderful doctrine that is my rags are gone

[31:35] I'm blessed I'm blessed forever blessed my rags are gone and I am dressed with garments dyed in blood and my friends that's the that's the foundation of gospel assurance that's the foundation of gospel assurance looking away from yourself and all that you deserve by the sin and ruin of your flesh to the Lord Jesus Christ and see him on that cross bearing your sins and the witness of the spirit the witness of the spirit with our spirits it was all perfected for you for now justify the doctrine of justification for here I must hasten it's a doctrine of sanctification if

[32:37] God has justified us through the merits of his son he doesn't leave us without the ministry of his spirit to separate us unto himself and there is a distinction between the people of the world and the true people of God and it's by their fruit she shall know them the fruits of sanctification if the fear of God is in your heart you're a different person from what you were before he quickened you into life and you're a different person than other people that are round about you not different in that you're full of pharisaic pride and pleased with yourself for the benefits you've derived from your profession but pleased with the saviour's rich undeserved mercy that has given you favours not only of a lifelong benefit but of an everlasting benefit in glory forevermore now my friends you know how the devil is busy isn't he manifesting as he were the weaknesses and shortcomings of our profession oh that we could live in the fear of the

[34:08] Lord all the day long when I would do good evil is present with me and how I know to do the thing that I would I find not the desire is there but the shortcomings are obvious but my friends the desire bears its fruit and the Lord by his spirit influences the souls of his people with a desire to do right to live godly to live honestly to live humbly and as it were in a practical way bearing the fruits of righteousness in our own manner of life here below they took knowledge of them that they had been with

[35:11] Jesus and how can we profess to have been with Jesus and to appreciate the benefits of his salvation and live absolutely contrary to his word or to his example the wells the wells yes we're constantly in need of as it were a work a work of faith and of love to maintain the well and its water in our spiritual experiences and I could go on I want just to mention this and then I'm going to say amen and that is the well of promised glory the well of promised glory if we had hope in this life only we would be of all men most miserable how do you look upon the world racing and tearing about seeking to find satisfaction in those things we're in there's no lasting satisfaction there's no prospect of any length ahead of them if they attain all their ambitions it's for such a short while and then what afterwards what afterwards think upon the afterlife of those that die ignorant of the

[36:59] Lord Jesus Christ and the ways of God think of it when they come face to face with deity and he says depart from me I never knew you oh the agony that must immediately influence their prospects when they have nothing before them but the perfect displeasure of God forever and forever and forever well now what a wonderful well is the well of hope which hope we have as an anchor of the soul both sure and steps my friends to live in this world without a hope beyond this world what a wonderful thing it is to possess a hope that the Lord is with us in the wilderness pilgrimage and he's gone to heaven to do what he promised to do

[38:01] I go to prepare a place for you and if I go to prepare a place I'll come again and receive you unto myself that where I am there ye may be also you know there's not a situation on earth that raises the knowledge of any person to what it shall be like in heaven I have not seen nor he heard neither is entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him my friends there is this well at all how the devil tries to magnify our shortcomings our faults our failings and suggests that we are deceived in this and deceived in that and that was coincidental it wasn't the appearing of God and he's got a thousand and one arguments wherein he seeks to top up that well of hope but what was

[39:12] Rehoboth the Lord made room the Lord made room you know the Lord goes on making room for his people giving them a sip of this and that and the other to comfort and encourage them in their pilgrimage until at last he will say as the consummation of all spiritual benefit come up higher come up higher what a day that day will be released from all conflict eternal peace and joy forever more a few thoughts my friends I hope you've been able to follow my I was going to say babblings what they said the apostle in Athens but one tries to put the balance of truth and oh my friends to choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of

[40:22] God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season the balance is always to the spiritual and eternal advantage when it is rightly said the Lord to give all the mess Lord will Mr.

[40:58] Haddo will preach here on Friday evening and Mr. Farley is engaged for next Lord's Day hymn 1044 tune 477 water from salvation well thirsty tender come and draw grace in Jesus fullness well more than men or angels now hymn 1044 tune 477 heaven King according to dried altri years Jeżeli nuestro hmm feliz

[41:59] Thank you.

[42:29] Thank you.

[42:59] Thank you.

[43:29] Thank you.

[43:59] Thank you.

[44:29] Thank you.

[44:59] Thank you.

[45:29] Thank you. Thank you.

[46:29] Thank you.