In verse 1, there was a famine
in the land beside the first famine that was in the days of
Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech,
king of the Philistines, unto Girath. And the Lord appeared
to him and said, Go not down into Egypt. Dwell in the land
which I shall tell thee of. Sojourn in this land, and I will
be with you, and I will bless you. For unto you and to your
seed I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which
I swore unto Abraham your father. And I will make thy seed to multiply
as the stars of heaven, and will give unto your seed all these
countries, and in your seed shall all the nations of the earth
be blessed. Because Abraham obeyed my voice
and kept my charge. my commandments and my statutes
and my laws. And Isaac dwelt in Given. There was a famine in the land. A famine is something that is
essential to life. Something or some things. And
if those things are taken away, then it threatens our well-being. It threatens the well-being of
our life. One of the things you often read
about in the Old and New Testament is there were several famines.
There have been several, several famines that spoke of in the
history of this world in the Word of God. There was a famine,
and we're told here in verse 1, in Abraham's day. And there
was a famine in Jacob's time. There was a famine in David's
day, a severe famine. There was a famine in Elijah's
time, and Elijah's. Naomi and her husband and her
children went down to dwell in the land of Moab because of the
famine in the land. So there's been many famines,
this recorded in the Word of God. And there's different kinds
of famine. We're not told here what brought
this famine on. It was probably a drought, a
famine of food, a famine of water. And when there comes a famine,
you've got other things that come with it. It breeds other
things, diseases, not only a lack of food and water, but a lack
of clothing sometimes and shelter. And then there's economic famines. Something that is essential for
the well-being of our life is taken away. There's economic
famines. That's what we're concerned about
today, as they look down the road. We're facing an economic
famine. My dad told me, he went through
the Depression, and he said there wasn't so much a food shortage
during the Depression, there was a money shortage. And sometimes
those who had the milk poured milk out and destroyed potatoes
to keep the prices up. But Dad said nobody had any money.
Economic famine. And then the scripture talks
about a spiritual famine. In Amos chapter 8, listen to
this in verse 11. The days come, saith the Lord,
that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread,
nor of thirst of water, but of hearing the word of the Lord. And he said, they'll run to and
fro from the east to the north, seeking the word of the Lord,
and shall not find it. That's a spiritual famine. That's
the worst kind of famines, a spiritual famine. And there's two things
about a famine that I noticed as I looked at it in these passages
in the Scriptures where it's written. Now, I'm talking about
a real famine, something that's caused a scarcity of something
that's essential to maintain the life of the land. And that's
missing. And then a famine comes. I'm
talking about a real famine. And first thing about a real
famine that I noticed, it comes because God calls for it. Now,
this comes right back to the sovereignty of God. It comes
because God calls for it. Listen to 2 Kings 8, verse 1. This was Elijah speaking to that
widow woman that he had stayed with and she had supported him.
Then spake Elijah unto the woman whose son he had restored to
life, saying, Arise thou and your household, and sojourn wheresoever
you can sojourn, for the Lord hath called for a famine. Who
called for it? The Lord called for it. And he
said it shall be over all the land for seven years. You know, man is proud, ain't
he? He's a boastful creature, man
is. He builds in these safeguards. You know, we've heard a lot in
talking lately. You know, we had the Great Depression,
but now we've built in these safeguards. That ain't going
to happen to us. And they build their dams and
store their waters. We've got our modern technology
that we've invented. And we're almost famine free.
And they sit back and they brag and they lift their voices towards
heaven. And you know what they say? We've saved society. We've
saved the planet. We've done it. Well, you let
the Lord call for a real famine. You let Him do it. I'm not talking
about a little road bump. I'm not talking about a little
hiccup, as they call it, that can be corrected by man, or after
a while he'll correct itself. But I'm talking about something
the Lord said. I'm talking about something God calls for. And
when God calls for it, there's no safeguards against it. Man
can brag about his little inventions and how wise he is and how mighty
he is, but I tell you, when God calls for a family, it's irresistible. No human inventions, no human
might or wisdom can withstand the famine that God calls for. You and I can talk about second
causes and we can talk about means. We can talk about men being slothful
and wasteful and coming to want and all of that. But I'm talking
about a real famine when God calls for it. Man can't resist
it. He can't resist it. Abraham didn't,
did he? It came in Abraham's day and
he went down to Egypt. Jacob couldn't resist it. He
went down to Egypt. Modern man can't resist it either
if God sends it. It's not man-made. It's God called
for. And it's irresistible. That's
the first thing I noticed about famine. When it comes, when a
real one comes, It's because God has called for it for whatever
reason. I don't know why He does things.
I don't know if it's to punish. I don't know if it's to correct.
I don't know why He does it, but He does these things. He
rules in the kingdom of men. He not only sets over it whom
He pleases, but He has His way in the wind and in the whirlwind. He has a purpose behind it. It's
just, it's right, and it's good. But God does it. He does it. And the second thing I noticed
about a famine, as I was studying on it, is this. During a famine, and this is
the nature of a famine seemingly in the Word of God, you can suffer
the loss of some valuable things during a famine. There are some people that not
only lost their food and lost their drink and lost their house
and lost their property, they lost their health, they lost
their children, and some people have even lost their own lives
during a famine. Look here what Isaac lost. The
Scripture says here in verse 1, he went down unto Abimelech
king of the Philistines and to Gerah." Where did he leave? He left this well of Laheroa. Remember the well that we looked
at as we studied that? The well of vision? He loved
this well, drank from its cool water. He lived for years at
this well. Loved to walk in the fields in
the cool of the day and meditate, but now he lost that. He lost
his well, he lost his sweet fields of meditation. And the scripture
says he went down here among these strangers. I tell you, a family, boy, it
has no respect to persons sometimes. Brothers and sisters, don't put
your roots down too much in this world, I'm telling you. I'm telling
you. I don't care who you are, or
what you are, or how you prepare. When a famine comes, it can dry
up the roots or root you out of some of the things that you've
enjoyed. You and I, I'm getting out, won't
be too long, three or four more years, and I'll be looking forward
to my monthly check. Some of you are already getting
a monthly check. But don't look too forward to it. And if you've got a nice little
bank account, don't put too much confidence in that. And that
house that's good and warm on these cold days, don't get too
comfortable in it. And that table that's always
full of food, and that nice car that you can drive and go anywhere
you please at any time, don't get too comfortable with these
things. Don't put your roots down too deep. Because if God
calls for a famine, I'm telling you, these things can be rooted
up, and you'll be rooted up from them. Precious things that we
love can be taken away when God sends a famine. It happened to
this man. It happened to Abraham, and it's
happened to many others. And I'll go so far as to say
this, when God sends a spiritual famine, these graces, that are
in our heart. The grace that may have warmed
you this morning while I was preaching the gospel to you,
you may all but lose it in the morning. These graces of the
Holy Spirit that warms your soul today, you may all but lose it
tomorrow. Not lose it. Thank God, not lose
it. But all but lose it. Oh, be thankful. Be sober. Be diligent. Take heed to the
means that God has given us. But I'm telling you, if God calls
for a famine, you can't resist it. You can't resist it. There's no means that you can
take heed to. There's no praying. There's no
reading. There's nothing you and I can do if God calls for
a famine to your soul. But a famine is coming. I've
experienced it, haven't you? You can't believe. You can't
repent. You can't walk humbly with the
Lord. You can't enjoy the Lord. There's a famine in your soul. Have you ever experienced that?
I have, and you have too. And there's nothing you can do
about it, is there? Isaac lost his well and lost
his fields. Young Jacob lost his sweet mother
at a young age, never saw her again. Joseph lost the company
of his whole family. Israel lost the land of milk
and honey. David lost the joy of his salvation. Solomon lost a united kingdom. Jeremiah lost his people, his
country, and the temple of God. The Galatians lost the gospel.
The Jews lost Christ. Some have lost their spiritual
eyesight and can't see afar off, and others have fallen from their
steadfastness. Famines come. Oh, God, don't
send us a famine. Don't call for a famine upon
us. I want showers of blessings,
don't you? I want him to drop a few handfuls
on purpose. If you have to, Lord, beat us
out of our slothfulness, our rest in places. Forgive us our
sins, but don't call for a famine upon us. I don't like famines,
do you? Maybe they're needful. No doubt
they are. Maybe it causes humanity to look into God again. Maybe
it corrects some things that's wrong. But I don't like them.
I don't like them. There was a famine in the land. Verse 2, And the Lord appeared
unto him, and said, Look at this. Here's what the Lord said to
Isaac. He was headed down to Egypt. The Lord appeared and
said to him, Go not down to Egypt. Dwell in the land which I will
tell thee of. Sojourn in this land. He appeared
unto him. and told him, go not down to
Egypt. You know walking with the Lord
is a personal thing. You've got to walk with Him for
yourself. You can't walk in somebody else's light. When the famine came in Abraham's
day, Abraham took off down to Egypt, and the Lord never said
a thing to him. He gave him the liberty to stay
in the land of Canaan or go down to the land of Egypt, whatever
he wanted to do. When a famine came in Jacob's
day, the Lord commanded him to go down to Egypt. The famine
comes in Isaac's day and the Lord commands him not to go down,
but to stay in the land of Canaan. All of us has to walk in the
light that the Lord gives us. Do you know that? We have to
walk with the Lord for ourselves. Each one of us has a conscience,
and no matter what others can or cannot do, you and I have
to keep our own conscience clear with God. I keep walking your
light, and you keep walking my light. The Apostle Paul said,
I have lived in all good conscience towards God. This is our rejoicing,
the testimony of our conscience, how essential it is to keep our
conscience clear towards the Lord. You dear sisters, you love
your husbands and you obey them, but you cannot walk in your husband's
light. When it comes down to your fellowship
with the Lord, and you are worshiping Him and following Him, your husband
is not your master. Larry is not your master, Sue.
Christ is your master. And the same way with you husbands,
with your wives. You cannot walk in her light.
You children, when the Lord saves you, you cannot walk in your
parents' light. You have got to walk with the Lord yourself.
You have to keep your conscience clear with Him yourself. You
have to walk with Him, and when you die, You're going to die
to Him, and you're going to stand before Him yourself. And I'm
sure, brothers and sisters of this, that it won't be any small
comfort when you and I come down to die that we walked in the
light that God gave us. We've obeyed Him for ourselves,
and we've not tried to walk in somebody else's light. I'll tell
you one thing about the conscience. that I want to stay out of people's
conscience. I don't want in another man's conscience. I don't force
my convictions or my preferences off on anybody. I don't try to
force somebody to believe a truth or to accept a truth contrary
to the full consent of their conscience. The conscience is
the throne room of Jesus Christ. And that conscience must obey
Him and walk with Him in the light that He gives. And I hope
by saying that, that the light you walk in is the light of His
Word. And that your conscience has
that light. Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet
and a light unto my pathway. Go not down to Egypt. But dwell in this land. But Lord, my dad went down there.
My dad went down there. But you're not your dad. You
do what I tell you to do. There are things, brothers and
sisters, that other brothers and sisters have the liberty
to do, but you may not do. And if you do it, your conscience
will be defiled. You walk with the Lord. You seek
His will. You work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in
you to will and to do. You go not down. Your daddy went
down, and I'm going to command your son to go down. But I'm
commanding you not to go down. See how walking with the Lord
is an individual thing. It's amazing what he tells Isaac
here. He said, you dwell here in the
land that I will tell thee of. I will tell you of. Don't you
imagine that Abraham had already told Isaac about this land? Why,
you know he had. Abraham was old and dead, and
now Isaac was getting up in age. And the Lord said, I'm going
to tell you of this land. Well, he told Abraham about it,
but now Isaac's got to learn about it. Not from Abraham, but
from the Lord. Brother Glenn said this morning,
I may teach you, but the Lord's got to put it in your heart,
you see. And this don't evolve from one generation to the other.
My daddy, he knew this. My daddy, he knew that. But what's
the Lord taught you, son? That's it, ain't it? Sojourn in the land in verse
3, and look at this. And I will be with you. What
a comfort. What a comfort. Here he was in
this land of famine. There was a famine in the land.
And Isaac had just lost his whale, Laahelroa. This whale of vision
and his beautiful fields where he walked in the evening time
and meditated. He lost so much, but there's
one thing he didn't lose. He didn't lose his Savior. He
didn't lose his Lord. You dwell here, and I'll be with
you. Listen to this verse in Isaiah
43, verses 1 and 2. Thus saith the Lord that created
you, O Jacob, and he that farmed you, O Israel, fear not, for
I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name.
You are mine. When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you. I don't fear the waters if He's
with me, do you? When you pass through the floods,
they'll not overflow you, and through the fire you won't be
burned. The flames will not kindle upon you, for I, the Lord, your
God, the Holy One of Israel, I am your Savior. I'm with you."
Newton said, content with beholding His face, my all to His pleasure
resigned. No changes of season or place
would make any change in my mind. While blessed with a sense of
His love, a palace, a toy, would appear, and prisons would palaces
prove if Jesus would dwell with me there. What can separate us
from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, peril, or
famine? No, not even famine. In the land
of famine, you shall be fed. You shall be satisfied. You dwell
in the land, and I will be with thee. And what he says here in
the last part of verse 3, look at this. And to thee and to thy
seed will I give all these countries. I've given all these countries.
And I will perform the oath which I swear unto Abraham, thy father. Look what a great obligation
the Lord put Himself under. He swore to do these three things
there in verse 4. Look at this. He told Abraham,
he said, Abraham, I swear I will make your seed to multiply as
the stars of heaven. That's the first thing He told
him and swore to it. And secondly, He said, I will give unto your
seed all these countries. And thirdly, He said, in your
seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Now Abraham was dead and gone,
and God couldn't take it back. God had swore to these things,
and now He's going to have to do it. You say, well, yes, but there's
a certain condition has to be met. Well, they must be met then. And God must assure they'll be
met, because His reputation is at stake. His faithfulness is
at stake. I have sworn to Abraham, and
he's dead and gone now. He's up here with me. I can't
take it back. Therefore, what must happen?
He must multiply the seed of Israel. He must give them the
land, and all the nations of the earth must be blessed. I
swear and will not repent, Abraham. I swear. You and I ain't supposed
to swear, but God's not like us. And the reason you and I
aren't supposed to swear is because I swear I'll do something and
I can't do it. I swear I'll do something and I'll forget it.
But God said I can't swear of it any greater, so I'm going
to swear by myself. And He holds to it. He doesn't
have to swear. Why did He do this? For our sakes,
He swore. And boy, there was future generations
of these Jews They were always pleading this oath. Look in a
couple of places with me. Look in Exodus, just over to
your right. Book of Exodus 32. Boy, the children
of Israel got in trouble. You remember when they built
that golden calf? They got in trouble. A lot of
trouble. The Lord was ready to just wipe
them off the face of the earth as far as we knew. He told Moses,
let me alone, I'm just going to destroy every one of them.
And here was Moses' prayer to him. In Exodus chapter 32, look
in verse 9. And the Lord said unto Moses,
I have seen this people, and behold, it is stiff-necked people.
Now this was the seed of Abraham. God swore, they're going to multiply. And verse 10, Now therefore let
me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, that I may
consume them, and I will make of you a great nation. And Moses
besought the Lord his God and said, Lord, why is your wrath
waxing hot against your people? which you brought forth out of
the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Wherefore
should the Egyptians speak and say, For mischief did he bring
them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them
from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and
repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob thy servants, to whom thou swarest by Thyself. Ah, they began to plead this
oath. As soon as they found out God had swore to it, they began
to plead the oath. Remember. And you said to them, I will
multiply thy seeds as the stars of heaven, and all this land
that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall
inherit it forever. And the Lord repented of the
evil which he thought to do unto the people. Pleading the oath. And look here in one more place,
2 Kings 13. Look in 2 Kings 13 and verse
22. This was a stiff-necked people.
Well, but the Lord never destroyed them. And there's a reason for
it. Look here in 2 Kings 13 and verse
22. And Hazel, king of Syria, oppressed
Israel all the days of Jehoahaz. And the Lord was gracious unto
them, and had compassion on them, and had respect unto them. Why
would He do that? Because of His covenant with
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And He would not destroy them,
neither cast He them from His presence as yet. I tell you,
when God swears to something, He ain't going to fail. He ain't
going to fail. But you notice this oath is not
just about the Jewish people. And it's not just about the land
of Canaan. It's not about that, but it's
about something deeper than that. It's about these spiritual blessings
that's in Christ. For that third thing that the
Lord said there, in your seed shall all the nations of the
earth be blessed. That wasn't just to the Jew.
That was to the nations of the earth. That's gospel blessings.
And God has swore to it. Abraham, in you, in your seed,
shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. New Castle,
Indiana. I'm going to bless some people
around that area. I'm going to bless them. That's
what He said, wasn't it? You go over to Galatians chapter
3 and verse 8. God preached the gospel unto
Abraham saying, In you shall all the nations of the earth
be blessed. And He said not to seeds as of many, but to your
seed. One, which is Christ. In Christ
shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. One last place
in verse 5. Look at Genesis chapter 26 and
verse 5. If you have your pen or you want
to mark Luke chapter 1 and verse 68 through 78, a very interesting
passage to read on this oath that God made to Abraham. And
you look what the father of John the Baptist said about it. But
look here in verse 5 of Genesis chapter 26. As far as I know,
this is the first time that this concept is introduced in the
whole Bible about God blessing somebody for somebody else's
sake. Blessing a group of people for
somebody else's sake. And that's what he says here.
He says there in verse 4 that he has swore that he would increase
them as a nation, give them these countries, and all the nations
of the earth be blessed. Look in verse 5. Abraham obeyed my voice, kept
my charge, my commandment, my statute, and my law. He said,
I'm going to do this, I'm going to bless you, and I'm going to
bless your descendants for Abraham's sake. Ain't that wonderful? Not for your sake. And that's
what he kept trying to beat into the Jews. I haven't chosen you
for your sakes, he said. I have not chosen you because
you were more in number than the other nation. You were the
lesser number. I chose you for my sake. And
they couldn't understand that. They thought they kept trying
to do something to save themselves. I've got to do something to justify
myself. I've got to do something to please
God. Can't you imagine Isaac going
along trying to earn this blessing? After God had already told him,
I'm going to bless you for Abraham's sake. And why does God bless
us, brothers and sisters? Why does He do that? Why does
He forgive sins? Oh, sins that we commit against
Him daily, and He forgives us. Why does He do that? For Christ's
sake. God hath forgiven you for Christ's
sake. Why does He even save us in all?
Why does He clothe the shame of our nakedness? Why does He
justify us from all things? For Christ's sake. By one man's
disobedience, many were made sinners. Even so, by the obedience
of one, many shall be made righteous. Righteous for Christ's sake.
Oh, what a plea to go to the Father and say, forgive me for
Christ's sake. Justify me for Christ's sake.
Save me for Christ's sake. That's the best plea I know of.
I tell you, I don't know of a sin God won't forgive for Christ's
sake. For Christ's sake. He loves His
Son. His Son is worthy. He should be rewarded. And God
rewards Him. And He'll do a lot for Christ's
sake. And Isaac was said there, he
dwelt in Gilead. I said, Boyd, I'm going to stay
right here. You said stay, I'm going to stay. Whatever you say,
I'm going to do. God give us grace to be that
way.