Well, good morning. This happened
quick, didn't it? What a foretaste we have. And
I won't preach in that day. We'll have the preacher preaching
to us. What a blessing that'll be. We think we rejoice now.
And we do. Oh, what a day it'll be. I've
got top notes, I've got handwritten notes, and then I've got some
just pieces of paper stuck in my Bible. This is either going
to be real good, or you're going to love Britt's message. It was
a pleasure to meet him. What a first impression. He brought
the gospel to me, my friend. The Lord didn't say, everybody's
going to know you're my disciples if you got your doctrine in a
row. He said, you'll know you're my disciples if you have love
one towards another. And I've been loved greatly.
I want to thank Paul, for having me out, it's an honor. I understand
that. He won't, I can't say this of
myself, he won't say it of himself, but I can say it by him. Lift
up your hands. Moses. He is God's ascension
gift to Rocky Mountain. You know that? He's God's man. That'll be my test. Will I continue
to preach Christ? Oh, Lord, keep me. Lord, is it
I? Lord's kept you here for a long time. You're his man. And you
love him. I know you do. You tell me. And
he loves you. And him and his wife labor greatly
for you and things you don't see. And Mindy, Lord calls, man
calls his wife, too, and things she suffers and willfully, she's
thankful. Friday was my anniversary. Kim
was sitting at home. And I'm here. And she said, you
go preach. I got her a good gift. I'm a
good husband. I told Ron and Tammy, they've
got to wait to find out what I got her. I got her a mop. That's one of them steam ones.
It's a nice one. She asked for it. She got me luggage. I think
I still live there. I hope I'm not going home. You
ladies here, thank you for all the cooking. I think I've stalled
enough. A wise man told me once, man, I'll preach two things,
Christ and 30 minutes. And I've always tried to start
early in preaching. I tried to get to 30 minutes.
You got dressed up and you want to hear. Surely I can tell you
something of our mighty God. At least 30 minutes, couldn't
I? And now I do my best to keep it to 30 minutes. Now my time starts. Genesis chapter
20. Genesis chapter 20. Our Lord went through the scriptures
with those who wrote of Emmaus and revealed himself. Oh, what
that would have been like to hear. I want to tell you about
a man. I want to look at him here in
Genesis. He's a horrible man. He was strong. He was powerful.
The Lord saved him. And then he proved to be a picture
of Christ. That sound familiar? I hope I
have a message for you. There's a man here regenerated
by the Word of God. He spoke to him. He convicted
the man of sin. He convicted the man, Christ
is righteousness. He convicted him that judgment
was complete. And that gave him liberty. Does that give you liberty?
It's finished. Oh brother, Bill Clark in England
said one time, he's tired I'm sure, somebody asked him, he
said, what's a believer's rule of life? How are we to live in
this world? He said, believe Christ and do whatever you want.
That's, well you can't say that. Yeah, if you believe Him, if
you know Him, oh, fruits are going to come out of you, you
can't keep from it. This man's convicted of sin. He was gracious
above and beyond. He had fruit. He was forgiving.
He was long-suffering. That means you're going to suffer,
and it's going to take a long time. You're going to bear your
brethren's burdens. That means you're going to put them in a
backpack, and they're going to be heavy. You're going to carry
them around. And then, years later, 40 years
later, here's a picture of Christ. That happens, doesn't it? to
his people. You are a picture of Christ to
me. He dwells in you. I know it. Like Paul told the
church at Thessalonica, I know you'll call an election, brethren.
Word came in power to you. You forsook your idols. You look
for his coming. Oh, if the Lord would come today.
If he'd come today. Aaron did that. The Lord took
Aaron up on a mountain. What you did was wrong, Aaron.
You was there with Moses and you smoked a rock, told you not
to. And he said, I'm going to strip you and put your clothes
on your son and I'm going to kill you. Our Lord went to a mountain.
For his son, he took his robe and was given to his son. Stephen,
being stoned, cried just as our Lord did from the cross. Lord,
forgive them for what they do. They don't know what to do. And
a little snot-nosed punk stander named Saul, holding her coats.
Years later, the Lord heard him. I want to look at Brother Abimelech. He's kind of bold. I know. He's often seen as a heathen
in this nation, in this Philistine nation, a rough man. I'm a heathen. Abimelech didn't
deserve to be saved. I don't deserve to be saved.
Genesis 20, verse 1, Abraham journeyed from thence towards
the south, and dwelt between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned
in Gerar. And Abraham said of Sarah his
wife, She is my sister. And Abimelech came of Gerar,
sent, and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in
a dream by night, and said unto him, Behold, thou art but a dead
man." What did we look at the other night? But Bimelech, you're dead. Oh,
if the Lord would find a sinner that don't know Him yet and tell
us we're dead and speak life to us. He said, You're a dead
man for the woman which thou hast taken, for she's a man's
wife. But Bimelech had not come near her. Physically, he had
done nothing. In his heart, he did, didn't
he? God looks on the heart. And he
said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation? She said
not unto me, she's my sister, and she said it herself, he's
my brother. In the integrity of my heart
and innocency of my hands have I done this. Start talking to
people about sin. It ain't what you do, it's what
you are. And that's what will come out of what you do. I ain't
that bad. I didn't do nothing bad, I'm
innocent, ain't I? And then God spoke to him. Verse six, and
God sent unto him in a dream, yea, I know that thou did this
in the integrity of the heart. I know what happened, for I also
withheld thee from sinning against me. I did this. Therefore, I suffered
I thee not to touch her. The only reason you didn't touch
her, Abimelech, is because of me. If there's anything that
even remotely looks like righteousness, it's mine. It ain't yours. You're
dead. Now therefore, restore the man
his wife, for he's a prophet. He shall pray for thee. He's
going to pray for you, Bimelech. And thou shalt live. And if you
restore her not, know that thou shalt surely die. Thou and all
that are thine. Therefore, Bimelech rose early.
Because this was a dream. It was at night time. He didn't
sleep. He just got up with the sun, didn't he? Soon as he could
see. Rose early in the morning and called his servants and told
these things in their ears. And the men were sore afraid.
They were sore afraid. He asked Abraham, what happened?
Why did you do this? Verse 11, and Abraham said, because
I thought surely the fear of God is not in this place, and
they'll slay me for my wife's sake. He said, Ben, look, I thought
that no one in this land of Gerar feared God. I did think that. You fear Him now. He spoke to
you. He showed you what you are. Verse 12, and yet indeed, she's
my sister. She's the daughter of my father, but not the daughter
of my mother. I told a half-truth. She became my wife. Verse 14,
and Abimelech took sheep. The Lord said, you restore him.
Restore him his wife. That's what he said. Take Sarah
back. That's all he said. And Abimelech, verse 14, took
sheep and oxen and men's servants and women's servants and gave
them unto Abraham and restored him, Sarah, his wife. And Abimelech
said, behold, my land is before thee. Dwell where it pleaseth
thee. He gave him above and beyond. The Lord's people is generous.
Because I have nothing. It's His, and the fullness thereof
of this earth is the Lord's. Do you know each of you own a
house on Lawson Valley Road in Humboldt, California? You come
out there, it's yours. Do what you want to with it.
You're welcome. Benwick said, I don't want you
to leave. You're God's prophet. You stay anywhere you want, but
you stay close to me. He rebuked Sarah, told her to have eyes
for her first love. What wisdom? Verse 17, so Abraham
prayed unto God, and God healed Abimelech. He healed him, and
his wife and his maidservants, and they bear children. Life
was in them. They were bearing. That's us, isn't it? We bear.
The Lord puts life in us. For the Lord had fast closed
up all the wounds in the house of Abimelech because of Sarah,
Abraham's wife. There was death because of sin,
and Christ gave life. That's what happened. He realizes
it. He tells him over in the next
chapter, it came past the time of Imalek, and Phicol, the chief
captain, spake to Abraham saying, God is with thee in all that
thou doest. It wasn't great events. He saw him cast out Hagar and
Ishmael. But then just day to day for
years, he saw this man day in and day out. It rained today.
The Lord sent rain, didn't it? Little things, not these great
Grandiose trials and those are important Lord sends them but
day in and day out He was a man that served God and I've been
like know it. He said you're God's man God's
with you God's with you Well, the Lord takes Abraham home takes
Sarah home They have Isaac and the trials that Abraham had but
here chapter 26 Genesis 26 There isn't much listed on Isaac. He lived longer than Abraham
and Jacob, but very little is written about him. Or what we see, though, in us
and our gracious God. Genesis 26, verse 1, And there
was a famine in the land, beside or the same as the first famine
that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech,
king of the Philistines, unto Gerar. That's a stand-alone sentence,
isn't it? The Lord didn't put it there
by accident. People say, well, there's a definition
that Abimelech was the title they used, like Caesar or something. That was the king of the Philistines.
I think this probably was the first one, but we don't call
him King-King, do we? Abimelech King, it's always worded
that way. Abimelech King of the Philistines. I'd say they honored
this man. Some think that this wasn't the same one because he'd
have been reigning for at least 40, 50, 60 years. We just saw
a queen reign a little longer than that, didn't we? I think
the Lord's able to sustain them. If this isn't the same one, he
was well taught. He had the same heart, but I feel it was the
same. Famine for Abraham came. Famine for Isaac came. Famine
for Jacob came. And famine's always the Lord's
response to rebellion. to sin, and even in our rebellion,
and we'll see this here in a minute, the Lord blesses His people.
It's for their good. It's for their brethren and their
day's good, and it's for our good in our day, thousands of
years later. This is good for us. Verse 2 there says, The Lord
appeared unto him, appeared unto Isaac, he was standing off the
Bimelech, and said, Go not down into Egypt. Dwell in the land
which I shall tell thee of. Abraham went down to Egypt. That's the world. The Lord never
told him to go down. Isaac was on his way. He didn't
tell nobody. He just thought in his heart, well, there's corn
down there in Egypt. Let's get to going. Businesses
are booming. And the Lord spoke to him before
he even said it out loud. He said, don't you go down to
Egypt. Jacob learned his lesson. Jacob said, I'm afraid. He feared
to go to Egypt. And the Lord said, go to Egypt.
Where does that leave me and you? Dependent on the Almighty
God. My opinions and my thoughts and
my wisdom ain't nothing. Christ must be my wisdom. Wait
on the Lord. Wait on Him. Call to Him and
wait on Him. That's where it leaves us. But He said, I'm going
to tell you about this land that you're going to dwell. That means
you're going to stay forever. I'm going to tell you about a
land, colon, verse 3, sojourning this land, right where you're
standing in Gerald. We're in Rocky Mount, Virginia
today. We're sojourning here. We're
passing through it. The Lord tells us of the land where we
shall dwell. Stephen, that's what you've been
hearing your whole life. Where are you going to be? Where the
Lord is going to put us? And he says, I will be there
with thee. I will be with thee and I will
bless thee. I'm going to speak comfort to
your heart because I'm with you. And what a blessing that is.
For unto thee and unto thy seed I will give all these countries
and will perform the oath which I swear unto Abraham your father. This is a covenant God speaking
to his child. If you're his child, listen.
Let's listen to him. And I will make thy seed. That's
singular, isn't it? I will make thy seed to multiply
as the stars of heaven. I will give unto thy seed all
these countries and in thy seed shall all nations of the earth
be blessed. We know Paul told us in Galatians
3. unto Abraham, and his seed were the promises made. He saith
not in seeds as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed come
I, which is Christ. He tells us plainly. Plain preacher. Christ is going to come out of
you, Isaac, and I'm going to bless the whole world through
him. A promise was made. The Lord was going to be with
Isaac. He was going to bless Isaac. Why was that sure? Why
was it? Verse 5, because Abraham obeyed
my voice. People said, well, he left home,
didn't he? And he kept my charge. He was made God's prophet, and
he preached the truth, not sometimes, all the time. He kept my commandments. He circumcised this whole house,
didn't he? He kept my statutes. Abraham observed the Lord's table
with Melchizedek. And my laws. What laws? Why haven't
they come yet? There ain't no Levites yet. It
was written on his heart. He kept that moral law. He believed
God, didn't he? Now, was that just Abraham, a
man born of Adam, that just mustered up so much faith to do all that
stuff? Abraham knew better. Isaac knew
better. And we know better, don't we? That's a picture of the seed
to come. That's a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's fulfilled all for his people. And that's the only reason we
know that that covenant of our God is sure in all things to
us because of him. Isaac, because of Christ, I will
be with you and bless you. And he knew it was so. That's
like in Hannah's prayer. We just sang those things. Well,
them believers back then didn't know so much because we think
we know so much. Our arrogance. She said, Lord,
there's no God besides you. You give life and you take it.
You're holy. Do you know anything different? The Lord gave a promise
to Isaac. Gave him instruction. Verse 6
says, And Isaac dwelt What happened after the promise was made? There
was obedience. There was obedience. Verse 7, And the men of the place
asked him of his wife, and he said, She's my sister. For he
feared to say, She's my wife, lest, said he, the men of this
place should kill me for Rebekah, because she was fair to look
upon, like father, like son. Nothing changes. Rebekah didn't go into a harem
like Sarah did. But a lie was told, sin was committed, and
there was consequences for it. There's going to be consequences.
Here we see a bimble egg as a picture of Christ. This one that the
Lord told him to stay. I'm losing my fear of telling
people. My pastor said, don't ever give advice, and if somebody
asks it, I'm going to give it half the time. But I'm not afraid
to tell you to obey the Lord. Go where His Word is preached.
Go where His people are. A man told me one time, he said,
I might lose my job. I said, who gave you that job? He said,
Lord, I couldn't give you a job. The Lord commanded him, he said,
if Bimelech's your brother, you stay there with him. Y'all got
the gospel there. Don't you go nowhere. I'll take
care of this famine. I'll take care of this drought, this lack
of rain. Don't you worry about that. You stay where I put you. But
he dealt well there. And here at Bimelech, this one
the Lord spoke to, the one convicted of sin, the one that was gracious. Gracious. We'll say it again.
He's a picture of Christ here. Look at it. Verse 8, And it came
to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king
of the Philistines looked out a window and saw, and behold,
Isaac was sporting with Rebekah. This king looked out a window. Let me read you something. You're
familiar with all these things. This is where I go to the sticky
notes instead of the... The Lord told Malachi, He said,
Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse. There may be
meat in my house, and prove me, how herewith saith the Lord of
hosts, if I will not open a window of heaven and pour out blessing,
and there shall not be room enough to receive it. The king looks
to his people out of his window, looks upon them. In our sin,
in our lies, in our rebellion, in our enmity, And He pours out
blessings upon us, regardless of what we... It ain't in our
hand, is it? It's Him. But Abimelech, king
of the Philistines, looked out a window and saw and behold,
Isaac was sporting with Rebekah, his wife. They were laughing
and joking and carrying on. And he said, Dad, I've seen a
man and wife before. You all ain't brother and sister.
He looked upon his constituent. Verse 9, And Abimelech called
Isaac, called him by name. personally, and said, Behold,
of assurity, she is thy wife. And how saidst thou, She's my
sister? You've done wrong, Isaac. And Isaac said unto him, Because
I said, Lest I die for her. Lest I die for her. What a blessing. The Lord said,
I'll be with you, and I'm going to bless you to be convicted
of sin and have a heart to admit it. To be convicted that we're
not righteous, that Christ is righteous. To be convicted of
that judgment that the Holy Spirit comes. The Lord said that's going
to be Him and it's going to be a blessing. Isaac got called
out. It was a blessing, isn't it?
It doesn't say he got called up to the carpet. It didn't say
come here. He yelled through that window. You know who's sitting
right next to him? Rebecca. I got to plug this. You pull wives. I mean, poor
wives. I told Kim, I said, I never told
anybody to use my sister. I was trying to save myself,
get myself out of the doghouse. It didn't work. Rebecca was sitting
right there. And he said, lest I die for her.
That's been just like our father, too. What did Adam do? Lord,
it's that woman you gave me, Father. Well, what was Isaac afraid of?
Dying. Didn't our Lord tell him that he was going to make his
seed like the star, and he's going to be with him? I'm scared
of dying. How often we need our hearts
spoke to of the Lord's promises. We might go to sleep before he
is. He said, you'll never die. You'll never die. Verse 10, And
Abimelech said, What is this that thou hast done unto us?
One of the people might have lied with thy wife, and thou
shouldst have brought guilty guiltiness upon us. What are
you doing, Isaac? We've heard that before. Saul,
Saul, why persecutest thou me? I've done nothing wrong to you.
Abimelech took him in, in a famine, and for a long time, it says,
and fed him, protected him, hatched him about. What are you doing?
Why are you doing this? Abimelech Remember what happened,
didn't he? That man of Mimelech, what happened
to Abraham when they closed up the wombs? He knew what the consequences
were. He knew the Lord would kill everybody. Isaac's his man. What now? And I thought, you know, if I
was a king and I have a whole nation and there's one fellow
causing problems, one fellow's lying, one fellow's doing wrong,
what's the easy thing to do? Kill him. Problem solved. Take him out, or at least run
him off, right? What would have been easy in
the garden? Kill him. Do away with him. I don't need
them. These angels are here. They didn't
sin against me. There's a whole host. I have
my son with me. I don't need them. Kill him.
Be the easy thing. Look here what verse 11 says.
Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this
man or his wife shall surely be put to death. Tells the whole nation to the
man, about the man that just lied to him for years and took
advantage of him for years, ate his food without thanking him,
broke out of his wells without saying thank you. And he said,
you touch him, I'll kill you. He touches his wife, I'll kill
her. We heard that before? David said something about that,
didn't he? He suffered no man to do them wrong. Yea, he reproved
kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not mine anointed, and
do my prophets no wrong. When did he do all that? Moreover,
he called for a famine upon the land. Brought hard times to teaching
them things, didn't he? What's the result of this? Verse
12, Then Isaac sowed in the land and received in the same year
an hundredfold, and the Lord blessed him in a drought, in
a famine. He didn't sit back and just wait
for the Lord to drop food in his mouth, did he? Those people
are industrious people. They believe him, but they don't
fatalistically sit around waiting for something to happen. They
went out and started a garden. as unto the Lord, and the Lord blessed
it. Pat and rain, and he's got a hundredfold. Crops are booming. That'll be important here in
a second. Verse 13, and the man waxed great
and went forward and grew until he became very great. Boy, he
had everything. What's the key to unlocking all this good news
in this text? It's experienced grace. Man's logic cannot enter
into it. Theology cannot unlock the blessings
here. Only experience came. And Isaac
was a recipient, and you have been, of God's sovereign, almighty
grace in Christ. And we know it. Like that blind
man in John 9. You can explain to that fellow
in intricate detail what a hummingbird looks like. Oh, their feathers
are iridescent, they hover, and if you get near their food, they'll
come and peck at you. He might be able to feel those
little things, but he's never seen a hummingbird. I can tell
about this grace, all about it. I can't make you feel it and
see it and have it living in you. God can. God can speak to
the heart. A natural man would say, well,
if you're good, if you do good, God will bless you. If you live
right, you'll go to heaven. A heretic on television one time
said, you give your seed money, God will bless you. Even if you've
got to put it on a credit card, give it to me. That's low, Wynton. Lord, keep me from those things.
But if God's going to bless you, just like Isaac here, people
say, what? How could this be? He's lied. A whole nation got warned about
him. And now business is booming. How could this be? God blessed
him in spite of himself. My whole life, my dad said these
little simple things about business, just one sentences. And I thought,
he's a fool. I don't even fit on a post-it note. It's brilliant.
That man knew what he was talking about. And he'd tell everybody,
come church with me. Come church with me. Go gas station. Come church with me. I thought,
he's an idiot. Nobody ever comes. He hired and told his whole company,
I'll pay you a full day's wage to come church with me on Sunday.
That lasted about a month. And he couldn't even pay him
to come to church. I said, he's crazy. And he'd say, the Lord's blessed
me in spite of myself. Years later, I saw it took the
power of God to look a gas attendant in the eye and say, come to church
with me. And I saw what spot I was. And it's the Lord's blessing. That's what it was. If the Lord's
going to bless somebody, it will be in spot of you. I realized
that the Lord was gracious to me while I was at enmity. I was war with him. Oh, I knew five-point Calvinism.
And I went to Sunday school, and Bob Coffee taught me all
kinds of good things while I was sitting there. I didn't fight
anybody over it. That was true, but I didn't know
the truth. That was the way, but I didn't
know the way. I didn't know the person. And the Lord revealed
Himself to me. He spoke to me through a man. I'm thankful for
that man, but boy, I'm thankful the Lord spoke to me. Isaac did
nothing to deserve God's grace. That's the definition of it.
If you say unmerited grace, it's kind of a double hammer. That's
what grace is. If you earn it, it's a wage.
It's a wage. I tell my children, they don't
get allowances. They get wages. I say, come Friday, you don't
get $10 if you don't sweep the floor and do all those things.
It's a wage. Sometimes if I'm going to go
out, I'm gracious. Here, put this in your pocket. Go buy you
some ice cream. As a man, as a sinner saved by grace, Isaac
was a bad husband. I think all you women agree.
He was a bad husband, wasn't he? He forsook his bride, just
like his father did. He was a bad father. He had Jacob
and Esau, and he loved Esau. Why? Physically, because of his
belly. He got good deer meat. Oh, I
love the way he roasted. What kind of seasoning did you
put on that? You're my favorite, Esau. You're the strongest and
you're the athlete. I like you best. He's a bad husband
and a bad father. He was a bad neighbor. He knew
the Lord would punish sin. Sexual immorality then is no
different than sexual immorality now. It's wrong. And mankind,
you'll stand in judgment either in yourself or in Christ. I want
to warn all men, but it's still wrong. He knew that. He lied
to that whole nation, and he lied to his king that was so
gracious to him. What good can come of this but God? But God, who is rich, He ain't
stingy and He ain't feeble. He's rich in mercy. For His great
love, wherewith He loved us, even we were dead in sins, hath
He quickened us together with Christ. By grace are you saved.
This one wasn't as drastic as some other things. Lot was blessed,
wasn't he? Lot lie in a cave with his daughters. I don't know
how in the world to... How could that ever be good?
It can't. It's flat wrong. It's all he's doing is bad. An
incestuous relationship. And there's offspring. And every
day of his life, he had to wake up and look at them boys and
feed them. Knowing what he was. Knowing what he did. What good
could come of it? Years later, he's dead, wasn't
he? That one boy's Moab. That's where Moab come from.
Bless some... There was a woman down at Moab,
wasn't there? Ruth! Ruth, that was her name. She
ends up up in the house of bread. Up in Bethel. Marries a fellow
named Boaz. We end up with a savior from
there. Who's sufficient for these things? The Lord is. He's the
one that blesses. I thought of where grace was
first mentioned. God saw that the wickedness of man on the
earth was great, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil continually. And he said, I'm going to wipe
my face of the earth. He's holy. He's just to do so. But Noah
found, because he was already there before time, he found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. And grace has never been offered. No, we're in the Scriptures.
If you're just pretty pleased, like some, come get you some. No,
it's received. It's given. I use the illustration
to say, well, I've received something. We receive gifts at Christmas
time. And we're such a wealthy nation. You look to see if there's
one of those return receipts, in case you want to swap it out.
You may not want that gift, right? If you've got a glass of water,
glass, and you pour water in it, that glass receives the water. Contrary person might say, well,
the glass is getting knocked over, or maybe there's a hole
in it. I say, well, OK. When I was little, I used to
receive a butt whupping. My daddy, I received some spankings.
And at no point did I ever say, you know, Dad, I think I'm good.
I think I'll wait till I'm a little bit older to take this correction.
No, I received it. I got it. In spite of myself. Well, because of my spite. If
the Lord's going to be gracious to his people. It don't matter. You're his. I come home from
Iraq, and I hadn't seen, Johanna was six months old when I left.
I went for a year. And I come home, and somebody got a picture.
It was there in the airport. And I grabbed a hold of that
child, and I was going to hug her and kiss her. She's a year
old now. I hadn't seen her for half her life, been gone. She
didn't know me. And she cried, and she screamed,
and she pushed away and didn't want nothing to me. I didn't
care. I didn't care what she thought. I loved her. And I was
going to hug her, let her know I loved her. And I grabbed him. Old Greb's a hold of his people
now. Well, if Isaac did so bad, and I'll hurry, I'll wrap it
up. If Isaac did so bad, and he was blessed a hundredfold,
what's our sin, you say? What's the way that seems right
to man? You know where I'm going with this. Let's just sin more.
We'll do the Lord a favor and magnify his name. By one man's
disobedience, many were made sinners. So by the obedience
of one, shall many be made righteous? We died and ate, and we're alive
and Christ. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might
abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. We
just saw that sin had reigned unto death. Even so, might grace
reign. That's what it does. It rules.
It reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Christ Jesus
our Lord. What shall we say then? Shall
we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How can that make sense to us?
Our sense says to sin more. How shall we that are dead to
sin? We were dead in sin, now we're dead to sin. Live, that's
what we are now, live. Any longer therein. Know ye not
that so many of us as we're baptized into the cross of Jesus, we're
baptized into His death? We won't live for Him, no. That
war goes on. That's a reasonable service,
to serve Him. It's a reasonable surface to
be like Thomas and say, let's go die with him. We opt. Opt doesn't mean you ought to
do it as we use it. Opt means out of a debt of gratitude,
out of a debt of love. Well, it's just reasonable. Likewise,
reckon yourselves also to be dead indeed to sin, but alive
unto God through Christ Jesus our Lord. What's our response
to all this gracious, long-suffering? of our King Jesus that's hedged
us about. You imagine Isaac with a hundredfold
crop. You've got to eat it, don't you?
I like to put this in shoe leather. I was blessed a hundredfold.
Yeah, well, you've got to go out and pick an ear and go throw it in some water
and grill it and eat it, don't you? He had to carry that ear
of corn to Rebekah, his wife, that he had forsaken. Walked
right past the king that he lied to. And they said, you look here,
I know what I am. And the Lord fed them. Look what
it did to them. Look how generous and abundant,
beyond measure to us, He is. Ever more so corn. There was
a famine. And the Lord's faithful would
feed His own, not just in the physical famine, but that famine He speaks
about in Amos 8. There's a spiritual famine in
this nation, but they ain't in this room. There's a spiritual
famine all around. We drove past churches one after
another on the way up here. And they have clean teeth, he
said. I thought that was beautiful. You ain't ate nothing. You ain't
got to brush your teeth. He said, I'll give them clean teeth. They're
clean teeth. It's a famine. Look here, a hundredfold. In spite of ourselves. Verse 14, Genesis 26, 14. For
he had possession of flocks and possessions of herds and great
stores of servants and the Philistines envied him. There's a difference
between envy and jealousy. Jealousy says, I want what you
have. Envy says, I don't want you to
have what you have. And they didn't envy Isaac because
of his possessions. That made it worse. That was
icing on the cake. That did make it worse. But they
did not want Isaac to have what he had. They didn't want him
to have who he had. Who he had. Don't be afraid or discouraged.
The Lord said, I've overcome the world. I've overcome those
that are angry against you. That's going to make them madder.
Be of good courage. I've overcome. They're saints
rejoice, don't they? Isaac went from a famine to a
feast. He went from nothing in a famine
to a hundredfold blessing. That's what's happened to me.
I was dead. I went to lie. I was in a famine. And the Lord's blessed me abundantly.
Is that you? That's you. Well, we do. Thank
you. Thank you. I don't have to go
out and coach nobody into nothing. Thank you, Lord. We rejoice,
don't we? Amen. Thank you for having me.