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Right, Genesis chapter 26, now in our Bible study of the book of Genesis, and just to give you a recap, as usual, last week we were in chapter 25. Abraham took a wife, who was also referred to as a concubine, and in this context it was a lesser wife. It was Keturah, and by her he had six more sons, one of note being Midian, the father of the Midianites. Abraham died 175 years old and was gathered to his people, and we looked at what that was referring to. And that was referring to the fact that he was saved, he went to heaven, he was gathered to his people. Isaac dwelt by the well of the high royal and was blessed by God, the picture being the blessings that come from being close to God, and how that's a blessing in itself, being close to God, and ultimately we looked at how that would be being in his house, or as close to his house as possible. We saw that Ishmael died at 137, he was gathered to his people too, and that for me showed that he was saved, it was a testimony unto Abraham. Obviously we knew that God knew that he would command his household after him, and Ishmael wasn't just a stranger after being cast out, we saw that he buried Abraham as well. It wasn't in chronological order, Isaac by the way would be over 120 years old now, but instead we then start to see some of the life of Isaac from 40. Because at that point we saw that Ishmael had died at 137, but remember like I said he was only 16 or so years older, 14, something like that, 13 years, whatever it was, older than Isaac. So we're now looking at Isaac's life from 40, we did at least last chapter, starting, and the first thing we saw was that they had twins at 60, after 20 years childless, and what we saw was that he entreated or prayed, and perhaps you could argue continuing the Christ picture with Isaac, you know, because it's a funny thing that we see that it said that he entreated the Lord, and then straight after Rebecca's enquiring of the Lord in verse 21 which says, And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren, and the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebecca his wife conceived, and the children struggled within her, and she said, And she went to enquire of the Lord. So she looked, it wasn't that she was unable to talk to God and enquire of the Lord, but we saw that it was Isaac's entreaty that resulted in having a child. We then looked at the picture and prophecies of Esau and Jacob with the two nations, Edom and Israel, but also the replacement of Israel. As explained in Romans 9, with the former eventually being hated by God, the picture being seen in the selling of his birthright, from the end of the chapter, verse 29, it said, Then verse 1 of Genesis 26 begins with, I'd like to pray before we continue. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for just so many lessons that we can learn out of this chapter, Lord. And help me to preach those just clearly now, accurately, Lord, fully your spirit. Help everyone to have attentive ears, and just help everyone to just, you know, really take from your word what you wanted to take tonight, in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. All right, so we've got another famine. Seems to be, I think what he's saying here is it's comparable beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And that famine, if you remember, it resulted in Abraham going to Egypt in chapter 12. And instead of Egypt, Isaac went to Gerar, which is right in the south of what was Canaan. Okay, so we're on the sort of southern borders here. And nowadays it's in between that tiny area called the Gaza Strip, which is a pretty small area, right, and Beersheba. So on the east of the Gaza Strip, it's that area in between. Now, Abimelech means father of the king. That's what that name means. And I don't believe it's probably the same one as in Abraham, so it could be. I don't believe it is. It seems to be a title for Philistine kings in the same way as, for example, Pharaoh for Egyptian kings. Not every time we see them talk about Pharaoh as the same person. Or, for example, Herod. Okay, so, but it could be we're not really sure. Verse 2 says, and the Lord, if it was, he'd be very old. The Lord appeared unto 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 thee and will bless thee, for unto thee and unto thy seed I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I swear unto Abraham, thy father. So God is telling him directly, don't go down into Egypt, right? And for me, this is another appearing of the Son of God, okay? He appeared unto him, would have to be the Son of God. You can't see God the Father and live. And as mentioned before, Egypt is often a picture of the bondage of sin, okay? Now, although obviously we see that kind of further on in the Bible with the Exodus from Egypt, it seems to just be a current thing. So it's, for me, just something that's continual throughout the Bible, Egypt picturing the bondage of sin. Isaac was warned not to go there, but to go where God wants him. And the result is blessing of not only him, but his seed, right? And with there being obviously the prophecy of Christ there too over that and the following couple of verses. But let's not miss the spiritual application here, following on from last week, which is that there's somewhere that God wants us, okay? God has a place for you. God wants you to be somewhere. And look, even when there's a famine, when there's a famine all around, there's still somewhere to go, isn't there? There is still somewhere to go. There's always somewhere to go in the world. There will always be the Gospel being preached somewhere. There will always be a genuine church somewhere, if not multiple genuine churches. Turn to 1 John 2, and there is a famine when it comes to the Word of God, isn't there? There's a famine in this nation when it comes to the Word of God. And when we say to the Word of God, yeah, you could still pick up a King James Bible in a bookshop, although I'd imagine that's getting less and less, you can order one pretty easily online, right? But when it comes to the Word of God being actually preached accurately, when it comes to a place where God clearly sees it as a church with the candlestick, it has the Gospel, they preach the Gospel, they have the Word of God, that's pretty rare, isn't it? I mean, that's not just rare in this nation. In fact, that doesn't exist in probably the majority of nations, I would say. I don't really know exactly the numbers, but there's a lot of nations that don't seem to have a genuine church. But, look, when it comes to being fed with that bread from heaven, because that for me is a picture we see with famines, with a famine of the Word of God, God wants us to respond by going where he wants us, okay? He wants us to respond by going, okay, there's a famine for the Word of God, and the response shouldn't be going to Egypt. The response shouldn't be, okay, well there's not really much, there's not many churches, it's a bit of a long distance to get to church, so I might as well just go back into the bondage of sin. He doesn't want us to do that, does he? He wants us to say, okay, we need the Word of God, there's a famine, I need some feeding, right? So I'm going to go where God wants me fed, not go, wow, it's a bit fine. And sadly, that's probably the answer of most Christians in this world. Most people you get saved don't turn up at a proper church, do they? Now, it might be that they just avoid church completely and go, well, it's a bit fine, it's not really for me or whatever else. Or it might be that they just end up still in some wicked false church somewhere. They're still hanging around in at least the Egyptian version of church, which is usually a combination of both. Going to some worldly church, some merging of the world's religions of work, salvation and Christ. Look, there's a lot of those around. I've bumped into a couple recently, actually, who are in some just wicked false church, but clearly saved. You try and encourage them and gently try and encourage, but they're just like, well, you know, they have some explanation, some reason why, what a waste, right? What an absolute waste of life. But God doesn't want us, he doesn't want us in Egypt, he doesn't want us in an Egyptian church. When the famine is far and wide, he has a destination. And look, for some, for example, that group out in Switzerland, what's the destination for them? Well, other believers attempting to build a church, you know? And that for me is genuine, right? That's kind of the alternative. You literally don't have anything in your country, but there are other believers and you're able to get together and you think, no, we're able to be strong and do this and get going and try and play. Look, that's great, right? But for most, they're languishing, they're sitting around, they're not doing anything. And most, look, what we need to do for most of us, and most, look, what we need to do for most people, they need to turn their back on Egypt. They need to go, no, actually, I need to turn my back on all those creature comforts, I need to turn my back on whatever it is that's keeping me in Egypt, keeping me away from church, keeping me away from either travelling to church or away from actually moving my backside nearer to church. It doesn't have to be here. There are ways, aren't there? There are churches around the world. I mean, I know it sounds a bit funny, but people can relocate. We have people, in fact, probably half of this room, I would say, probably weren't born in this country. Or if they were, their parents weren't born in this country and they've moved. You can't move, can't you? And we see people in the Bible constantly moving and moving around and trying to... And here, he's moving. And you know what? He's probably moving a lot further, a lot harder than most Christians in this world would have to move to get their backsides into a church. But they don't do it. And what a waste of life, right? What a waste of life. Just hanging around, just doing the bare minimum, listening to a bit of preaching online and patting yourself on the back because you know the reparate doctrine and you know about the post-tribulation pre-wrath rapture. Oh, great. Well, I'm better than everyone else. Yeah, but what do you actually do? What do you do? Get on with doing something. It doesn't have to be here. Go somewhere and do something, right? That's what we're here for. But we should go where God tells us to go. But to do that, 1 John 2 shows us how we need to do that. Because you've got to turn your back on the world, don't you? He says in verse 15 of 1 John 2, Love not the world. Yeah, you've got to stop loving the world. And there are a lot of Christians out there that just love the world. Neither the things that are in the world, if any man love the world, love the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world. When the world passeth away and the lusts thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. If you've done the will of God, if you've believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, you're going to live forever. So you might as well start thinking about eternal things. You might as well start thinking about the eternal things and that would include eternal rewards. They're there for a reason. That would include thinking about other people's eternities, right? And not just this junk in the world which ain't going to last very long. And what awaits a life? Sadly there are so many out there that that's what they think about more. And we do that when we turn our back on Egypt and go where God wants us and obviously where his house is. Look, if you're not in a house of God you need to find a way of either getting a house of God or being in a house of God. And in Genesis 26 it was to result in Isaac's seed being blessed too. So it wasn't just that by doing this Isaac could get a blessing. And look, we all want a blessing in life. If you're trying to pretend you don't, no that's a lie. You want a blessing. You want a blessing in this life. I'm sure you'd like to have some blessings in eternity to come as well. Extra blessings on top of just being in eternity. However, it's also a seed as well because it does affect our kids. Our seed is our responsibility. Going where God wants you, doing what God wants you to do doesn't just affect you. It affects your kids. It affects your seed to come. And a lot of people just don't seem to care about the kids. Isn't it sad? How many people? You knock on the door, you preach the Gospel to them and you say, oh you got any kids in there? Oh yeah, they wouldn't really want to listen. I don't think they'd be that interested. That's like the epitome of selfishness, isn't it? Especially if you know it's true and you've just got saved. And you just say, oh, don't worry about that. And it's like, look, the kids should be important. You should care about your seed. You should care about future seeds. And how do we care about them ultimately? By getting them into the things of God. And not just getting them saved, getting them in church, getting them used to being in church, getting them used to being in church, used to seeing people serving God and that to become a normality to them. Because as we know, for most people it's very hard. But here's another thing is a lot of people you'll find, if you talk to a lot of people and talk about testimonies and things like that, a lot of people who are used to church life to some degree, use a routine of something on a Sunday, for example, especially if they're used to people actually doing something aside from just a Sunday as well, a lot of the time when those people get saved are the most likely to be in church. Because those that don't, those that have just got no background in that at all, a lot of the time find it that little bit harder to just get used to the fact that Sunday, that's church. There ain't nothing else. And there shouldn't be anything else, should there? And you should be able to go, no, Sunday is a day for the Lord, right? Not just the morning where you tick the box an hour later and then you're back watching Super Sunday or something else. Sunday is a day for the Lord, right? And people who have that background are much more likely to do that in the future and your kids, just because they're saved, if you get them saved, if they ain't in church and they're not around the things of God, are you sure they're going to be doing that when they're older? And you go, oh, it doesn't matter as long as they're saved. Really? Does it really not matter? Because what a waste of life, if they just spend their lives some Baxter and Christian in the world in Egypt. Well, no, God wants us going somewhere and when we do that, when we do the things of God, it blesses us as well. Verse 2 said, And the Lord appeared unto 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 within and will bless thee, for unto thee and unto thy seed I will give all these countries I will perform the oath which I swear unto Abraham thy father. I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. Talk about the promised seed, we've looked at that already. The Lord Jesus Christ, out of turn to Galatians 3.16 says, Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not unto seeds as of many, but as of one unto thy seed which is Christ. We're seeing a prophecy there of the Lord Jesus Christ there as well. No one is blessed, by the way, by your present day false converts to the false religion of Judah, is it? No one is blessed because, you know, someone does something to them. It's not what it's talking about. It's clearly talking about thy seed, the Lord Jesus Christ. As Galatians 3 clearly says, even though the millions of Zionists around the world want to ignore Galatians and other passages, Romans 9 and others in the Bible. But we like the whole counsel of God, don't we? Verse 5 says, Because Abraham obeyed my voice, kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws, and Isaac dwelt in Geras. So Isaac did as the Lord told him to. But did that mean that he was now perfect? Was Isaac now sinless? Did some people like to kind of still get pulled into that? Well, you're going to be, you know, as long as you're saved, you're going to suddenly, you know, show the works and everything else. No, Isaac repeats the sin of his father Abraham. We see in verse 7, And the men of the place asked him of his wife. And he said, She is my sister. For he feared to say, She is my wife, lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah, because she was fair to look upon. Now, just to remind you that we saw Abraham do this back in chapter 12 in Egypt and then chapter 20, where he was here, where he is now in Geras as well, OK, previously. Now, both of these happened before Isaac was born. So it's not as though he witnessed it. Isaac didn't witness this, OK? So it's not that he was just like, Yeah, OK, yeah, I've seen my dad do this. As far as we know. So why is he doing the same? Why is he doing the same? Well, there are a few reasons. It could be that it also happened on other occasions once he was born. All we know is the two that are documenting the Bible, but a lot of their life isn't shown. So that could have happened. For all we know, maybe this was like a regular thing that he did. He's just like telling everyone that, you know. And obviously, look, Sarah was at least a half-sister, it seemed. But regardless, not mentioning that it was his wife, you know, trying to deceive people. Or it could be just a case of inherited sin, you know, having a predisposition to being dishonest to save his own neck and just happened to be doing the same thing. I think probably less likely. Or it could be that Abraham, Sarah or even one of the many, many servants told him about this stuff that happened before he was born. So some, you know, probably a combination of all of that, right? I don't know. Somewhere amongst all of that. At least the first and the third there. But as with Abraham, it was a lie, and it was a very selfish lie at that as well, OK? You know, make no mistake about that. It's not like, oh, well, you know, at least I just think it's a sister. Because like we talked about with Abraham before, what did that really mean? Did that mean that men were trying to court her and all of just that weirdness? What on earth was even going on there? I mean, just to save his own... He should be protecting his wife, not just leaving her out for other men to kind of try their best with and who knows what. I mean, just what a bizarre thing to do, right? And like we saw, it's something that his father had already done on two occasions, at least documented. And the obvious take-home lesson is that as well as the blessings that our children can receive from our decisions, like we just looked at, they're often also personally affected by our decisions to sit, aren't they? They are personally affected by our choices, our decisions to sin. And it's not just the ones they necessarily witness as well. You'd be amazed what kids just basically pick up, don't they? Like sponges. And they will already have an inherited predisposition to sin, certain sins from you. And then on top of that, when we're just going into those sins and look, that's a big issue, isn't it? And it's a selfish thing. Again, it's a selfish thing to do. So again, when it comes to trying to avoid sin in our life, especially presumptuous sin where we're just going out and just willfully doing these sins, and that's a presumptuous sin. For me, he's just chosen to do that and continued this life. We see that it goes on for a long time as well. When we're doing stuff like that, our kids, look, they're going to pick up that stuff and ultimately you're not just affecting yourself. It's not just yourself that you're just willfully lying or whatever that sin is. Your kids are going to pick up on that as well. And they do repeat our sins and learned behaviour obviously is a big problem in life. In fact, it's the way that most of us learn. In fact, we learn most from observing and copying behaviour. OK, that's our primary way of learning. But it can be, look, blatant sin, but even lifestyle choices. And back to the original point as well, what a blessing to get our kids in a church, but it's not a blessing if your kids are coming to church and they're seeing you just being maybe a bad church member. Maybe you're like, oh, well, my kids, we only come down again and we kind of make lies up when we can't come. And our kids are privy to it, but they keep quiet. Oh, we don't think they really realise that we pretended we were ill or whatever else. No, kids, they pick up on that stuff, right? They might keep quiet. Or maybe at church you've got your church face, but your kids know that at home you never read your Bible. That they never see you pray. That, you know, the soul winning is kind of, you know, there's excuses that probably aren't very good excuses as to why you can't make soul. Look, kids pick up on all that stuff. And what's that going to do is affect their life to come as well. And they will copy that behaviour, won't they, in the future. And a lot of the time people say, you know, you can tell someone a lot of the time by how their kids are. And you can tell a lot by someone by their kids, can't you? And because they will learn behaviour, they'll behaviour certain ways and they'll slowly, with time, start to give away, right? The real behaviour. So, look, it's an important thing, isn't it? And mostly for your kids, you know, for their own futures. Now, Isaac here repeats his father's sin. But Abimelech rumbled him. Verse 8 says, And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abimelech king of the Philistines looked out of the window and saw, and behold, Isaac's father, and behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife. Now, I don't think that it's anything untoward. They're playing around, OK? And as much as, look, we all love our siblings, those of you that have brothers and sisters, there's a difference to how a husband and wife publicly interact in a brother and sister. There's just an obvious difference. You can see the difference, right? As you become adults, you know, you don't probably, you know, you're not as close quarters and stuff with your siblings as you're going to be with your husband or wife here. And another take-home, by the way, from that is that lies catch up with you in the end, don't they? They do catch up with you in the end. Some people become quite just used to lying, lie a lot, lie about lots of things. They do catch up with you. And here it seems to be a long time. It said, when he had been there a long time, but eventually it caught up with him. And, look, again, take-home from that, just, you know, God hates lying, he hates lying lips, he hates to see, and it's something that we should be doing, our utmost cut out of our lives. So they do catch up. Sometimes, you know, lies, you know, it takes a while sometimes. It can take a long time, like we see here, for it to be revealed. But a lot of the time it's when people become too relaxed in the end, don't they? They've been lying for a long time about things and then it just starts to catch up, stories don't seem to make sense. You hear one thing off one person, another thing off another, and it just starts to catch up. And, you know, that's something that is an embarrassment ultimately as well, isn't it? It's embarrassing when you know someone's lying to you. You know, they've been lying about something for years or about this, it's so awkward, isn't it? You don't really want to have to say to them, you were lying, you know, that's a big, whopping, great lie. And, well, I thought you said this, you just try and avoid it, don't you, just kind of think, oh, what a shame and how embarrassing, right? And we just don't want to get to that point in the first place. It said in verse 9, And Abimelech called Isaac and said, Behold of the surety she is thy wife. Can you imagine that point? Now, the Bible, you know, it's not kind of like this, you know, kind of long with all the kind of details of a story, but so we could kind of just surmise what possibly happened there. But he probably went a bit pale, didn't he, a bit white as a sheet or something else, or just looked very embarrassed. But he said, Behold of a surety she is thy wife, and how said thou she is my sister? And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, lest I die for her. So, again, same situation, seemingly saving his own skin. And Abimelech said, fair enough. Well, what's the worse that would have happened? Good on you. Did he say that? He didn't. He said, What is this that thou hast done unto us? Oh, well, you know, something that might have been a little affair. Who cares? No, he said, What is this that thou hast done to us? One of the people might lightly have lioned with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us. That's clearly a big deal to Abimelech, isn't it? That's clearly a universal truth. We've now seen this on three different occasions, the same lie. People who are ungodly, it seems, leaders, at least we don't really know any better than that. At least, you know, we see that he was down in Egypt before Abraham. Abraham, it was either this Abimelech or a former one. Now it's another one. And each time they're like, What on earth? This is serious business, OK? Adultery is serious business, OK? And it's not how the world tries to portray it now, OK? It's wicked, it's serious, and here he's just like, What on earth? What on earth are you doing? Look what could have happened. You absolute idiot, really, isn't he? And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death. Well, you need to think strongly about that sort of thing, right? And so should we, really. And I'm not saying Abimelech's our example, God's our example, and God says that adultery should result in a death penalty, and yeah, we don't enact the death penalty here, but God's government would, wouldn't it? Yeah, and when the Lord Jesus Christ returns and we have the millennial reign of Christ, everyone's like, Wait, it's a millennial reign, great. Yeah, and you know how he's going to rule with things like the death penalty for adultery? Because that was God's perfect law, wasn't it? Where he said, Not one jittle, not, you know, not shall pass away, basically. I mean, not one jot or tittle. Look, at the end of the day, all of that, all of that moral law, all of that law and order is going to be back. And we better get our heads right and our hearts right with that, right? He said, Then Isaac sowed in that land and received in the same year an hundredfold, and the Lord blessed him. And so, it's funny, old like you, you almost say, Hold on, what's suddenly happened here? He's just been lying. He was sinning. Okay, there's no doubt about that. Why was he blessed after? Well, just a quick heads up here. Anyone here sinless? No? I nearly saw a hand. Get your hand down at the back there. I'm joking, okay. Get that Pentecostal out of here. Okay, so look, we all mess up, don't we? We all make mistakes, don't we? Anyone here not made any mistakes ever? No? We all make mistakes, we all mess up. But we can all quickly move on too, can't we? Can't we all quickly move on? Yeah? You're able to move on. And do you know what stops us moving on? It's often us. Because look, if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all our righteousness. God wants us to move on. Often it's us, and then we start feeling kind of out of sync and everything. Look, if you've confessed it, you've gone to the Lord, you need to be ready to move on as well. And he wasn't blessed during that long time. We didn't see that, did we? We saw then Isaac sowed in that land. So after this came out, after that long time, where we're not seeing any blessing, then we see then Isaac sowed. And when you mess up, when you fail, get right with God and be ready to move on. It's the accuser that wants to keep the mind you of it, isn't it? It's the enemy that wants to keep reminding you in one way or another of past sins, past issues, past problems, keep you tied down to those. But you need to be ready, go, I've confessed it to God, I'm moving on now. I'm ready to move on, right? Isaac moved on. Also though, verse 12 can be easily skimmed over. It said, then Isaac sowed in that land and received in the same year an hundredfold, and the Lord blessed him. What was he sowing? Verse 14 indicates that he had livestock. Verse 14, I think, says, for he had possession of flocks and possession of herds and great store of servants. We saw that he was sojourning in the land, so he'd been there a long time, but I don't see an evidence of Isaac suddenly getting into farming, or getting into, you know, how would he have done that? Would he have suddenly bought some land and started a temporary farm? I don't know. We saw that he had livestock, that we know. He was sojourning there. So what in verse 12 did he sow that he then received an hundredfold of? Well, turn to Psalm 126. Now, while you're turning to Psalm 126, Matthew, Mark and Luke, if you remember, there's the very famous parable of the sower. I like to call it the parable of the soul winner. It's about a man sowing seed, and Luke 8-11 says, now the parable is this, the seed is the word of God. The seed is the word of God. This is a picture that is often used in the Bible. It's not just the parable of the sower. 1 Corinthians 9-11, for example, Paul says, if we have sown unto you spiritual things, you'll turn to Psalm 126, but 1 Corinthians 9-11 says, if we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we reap your carnal things? So we often see, for example, another picture, save people being referred to as the harvest. Some would think of people that are maybe low-hanging fruit, others would say they're the saved, but they aren't the labourers, but either way, in Psalm 126, we're encouraged to work hard in soul winning. Despite the struggles, the opposition to persecution, it says in verse 5, they that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. And back to Genesis 26, for me it's at least a picture, if not the reality, that Isaac was saving souls. That's what I believe we're seeing clearly there in verse 12. Then Isaac sowed in that land and received in the same year and hundredfold, and the Lord blessed him. That's why he's blessing him, because he's sowing. I'll tell you why he's blessing him, because he's soul winning. That's why he's blessed. And that's when you get blessed, when you sow. Look, I don't care how righteous that so-and-so Christian out there might think they are, what a good person, how much sin they think they've cut out of their life, how often they go to church, how many times they've read the Bible, how often they pray, if they ain't soul winning, they're well out of God's will. Well out of God's will. And look, I understand, there'll be seasons of life and there's times where maybe it's harder for reasons, especially some of the mums here, when they're heavily pregnant, they've got young children, things like that, it can be difficult, right? However, aside from those times, if you ain't soul winning, you're out of God's will. Let alone you ain't going to be getting blessed. All these Christians that think they're getting all these blessings and they can't even open their mouth and tell someone how to get saved. What on earth? You can't even open your mouth and tell someone how to get saved. These so-called pastors out here in the independent fundamental Baptist around this nation claim to believe the King James Bible's the word of God, yet they can't even go out and preach the gospel to someone. Do me a favour, what's wrong with them? But yet they think that they're doing the will of God and that they're leading from the front their church. It's like, how many get out there and preach the gospel? You're lazy so and so if they're even saved. Do you know what the truth is? Usually it's because they don't really believe the gospel saves people. Because really they believe they've got to change their whole life and come to their church. So why bother going out there and just wait until they come in? Because they don't really believe the gospel. That's why they all hate soul winning. That's why all they ever do when you talk about soul winning, oh, let's hope they come to church. Because they don't really believe they've probably even got saved. Because they don't believe the gospel saves, they believe it's a whole lifestyle change. But that's not what the Bible says, does it? If thou believeth with all thine heart thou mayest, talking about baptism, not, well, we've got to do all that, do all this, do all that, then you might be saved. So what shall I do to be saved? Well, you've got to come to our church for a few years, we'll work it out. No, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ thou shalt be saved. But there are extremes with this though. So there are, in a smaller kind of world, because there's not many people out soul winning, there are those who act like complete morons and think that their so-called soul winning solves it. So there are those out there, and we don't want to be like that. People who just kind of forget all the other parts of trying to live for God and all the other things that go like, well, as long as I go soul winning I can just live in this open sin and act like an idiot and everything else. Soul winning will cover it all. But there is a truth, still, that it is the best response to failure in the Christian life. So just because you've messed up, just because you're in sin, just because you've done things in your city and we're all going to sin, right, the best response is get out there and preach the gospel. Get out there and get soul winning. It's not, well, it doesn't really matter how I live, as long as I soul win. No, however, just get out there and soul win. And do you know what's often the truth, often sadly the case is that people start to feel guilty about their sin, guilty about whatever they do, and then feel like they're going to be a useless soul winner. No, still get out there and soul win. Here, Isaac's home in the land of received in that same year and hundred fold. Because he got out there, he moved on, he got busy, and the Lord blessed him. And the man waxed great, verse 13, and went forward and grew until he became very great, for he had possession of flocks and possession of herds and great store of servants, and the Philistines envied him. Now notice his seemingly increasing servants. Again, might be to do with him going out and getting people saved, but I don't know. But as we grow, whether it's our families, our churches, or it's just that we're going forward in life, the world just ends up envying you, don't they? And that's, you know what, that's a reality. Now, as much as they're used by the devil, and as much as, sadly, you're all going to have wicked children of the devil in your kind of family circles, friend circles, old friend circles, hopefully they're old friends, yeah, and things like that, a lot of the time what the emotion that they're running on is envy. Whether it's children of Belial or not, because the children of Belial, according to Romans 1.29, are full of envy. Yeah, they're full of it, and you see that. When you get to know these people, you see that just burning envy in them. And it's like, sometimes it really shines out, right? Eyes are almost green with it. And it does happen like that. Now, they rarely admit to the envy, so like I said, it's not that they say, oh yeah, I'm just so envious of that person. They'll convince themselves that they're, for example, just so worried that the children aren't being brainwashed at school. They're just so concerned that you're homeschooling, and your children aren't listening to all sorts of just wicked filth from the age of four or five upwards. It's just such a genuine concern for your child, that they're not hanging around with like literal just monsters all day every day. I'm just so worried about your kids, that you actually care enough to not both go to work, to actually be at home and look after your child and let's be honest, mums here, it can be pretty tough, can't it? Homeschooling children all day every day that they're actually worried about the kids? I mean, it's bizarre, isn't it? But how many family members claim that that's real, that's the issue? That's the problem. I'm so worried that they're not getting to socialise with just absolute terrors. Like, I just can't believe it, you know? I'm not getting to socialise with kids that watch EastEnders every night. What are we going to do? Let alone the rest of it, right? Or it might be those poor women, those poor mums having to have more than one child. So they claim that's their concern. You know, her poor body. And look, don't get me wrong, it's taxing on a woman's body, right? But how many mums here are thinking what a curse having children is? It's a blessing, isn't it? An absolute blessing, yet how many of the so-called family, the so-called friends, who really, they envy you, they envy you for even being able to have those children, for caring enough to want to love and raise those children, and instead it's, oh, the poor thing, being forced to have lots of children. No one's being forced here to have lots of children, right? I hope not, anyway. Those poor women, those poor Christian women not bearing all their bodies when they go out to the shops. Those poor women who, when they come round to our house, aren't dressed like whores. Poor things, I'm just really worried about them. Because they're not wearing skin-tight trousers. Because they're not wearing hot pants. Because they're not, you know, wearing all these just bizarre outfits that these women of our day are all wearing. Oh, those poor things, I just really worry about them in their skirts. Really worry about them in their long dresses. It's nuts, isn't it, really? But what it is, it really is envy. It's envy that they actually have a man that doesn't want them to dress like, basically, in the attire of an harlot. That they have a husband, for example, they have a husband who they're not out there trying to market themselves dressed in the attire of an harlot. And they envy it. They really do. And, look, how about the poor men? Let's just talk about the women for a minute. The poor men being brainwashed at that cult to cut out sin out of their life. Oh, you poor things, you know. Oh, how are you going to break free from the brainwash and stop being encouraged not to waste your life boozing down the pub? Oh, you poor things, can't you even just come and get drunk a bit? What sort of cult is this? Oh, those poor men that have been brainwashed to not shovel cocaine up their noses every weekend. Hundreds of pounds wasted on drugs and filth and gambling and all that. But that's honestly how they act, don't they? But what is it really? It's envy. They envy you because you don't need that filth to get through your week. You don't need that filth to get through a weekend. You don't need all the filth of the world that you have integrity, that you want to lead your families, that you're not just kind of turning after every bit of skirt that walks past or a bit of trouser. Because that's pretty much what it is. But that's the truth, isn't it? And they envy, but they pretend, they claim, that really they're worried about you. They care, you know, and it's lies. It's envy. It's all envy. They love nothing more than you being back in the bottom of a beer bottle somewhere, back in the pub, back in whatever it is, whatever the sin is, whatever the style of life is, back smoking weed, playing computer games, whatever it is, they love nothing more than you being back to your old self. Not because that suddenly, oh, great, I got my friend back. Just because it justifies their sin and it cuts out the envy. It's envy. But the problem with envy is this. Proverbs 27.4 says, wrath is cruel and anger is outrageous, but who is able to stand before envy? It's a really powerful emotion, isn't it? And it's an emotion which, when it says who shall be able to stand before, I think what he's saying here, Solomon in Proverbs 27, is that, look, wrath is cruel. Wrath can result in a lot of hard stuff happening. Anger is outrageous. Sometimes people just go full of rage and crazy things happen, but you're not going to be able to stand before envy. Envy trumps them all. It's powerful. People get eaten up by it. And like I said, it is a characteristic of the children of our enemies, but here we see the Philistines, and the Philistines here are an enemy of some sort. Let's see their response to their envy. Verse 15. For all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them and filled them with earth. Now, what are the wells a picture of? I believe, like, water represents the word of God, the wells being the source of. I believe that they represent churches. Okay, so here we're seeing a picture of churches. We saw that Isaac was previously blessed dwelling by the well Lehiroi. Genesis 25 and 11 said, And it came to pass after the death of Abraham that God blessed his son Isaac, and Isaac dwelt by the well Lehiroi. And how he is blessed by being there, but also because he was there. We looked at that last week. And here in chapter 26 and verse 15, the Philistines are stopping and filling them. And look, there are a few ways that the enemy tries to destroy genuine churches. And one way is by filling them with dirt. That's one way he does it. He fills them with dirt. Now, that can either be by just trying to over time fill them with basically unsaved reprobates to just rip apart your church. And another way is just by filling it with sin. And whether that's the contemporary junk music that slowly churches start getting filled with, that just basically just stops them, stops the fruitfulness of that church over time. Because the more sin, here's the thing with that sort of stuff. I was talking about this with someone a while ago. It could just be a little note, a little note change here, a little worldliness to the song there. And people that are into that sort of music start to seek that music again. So you go to a church and it's like rock and roll, and you used to be into rock and roll, and you come away from church hearing the rock and roll, what are you going to go home and start trying to listen to? It's the rock and roll. And what the rock and roll does is just poison your mind. And it's not just the music. There's many ways it happens, right? It's open, blatant sin in church. All this stuff is a way that the enemy destroys churches by filling that church with earth. And here they stopped them and filled them with earth. And eventually, what happens to these churches? They get more and more liberal, more and more worldly, they just get destroyed. Next thing you know, they're preaching from the NIV. Yeah? And next thing you know, what must I do to be saved? Well, it's a very complicated subject, actually. Well, we're going to have to do a year-long Bible study about that. And that's what happens, isn't it, with time? Well, that's one way, filling them with dirt. But look at this as well. It says in verse 16, And Bimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us, for thou art much mightier than we. And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent 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 springy water, and the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac's herdmen, saying, The water is ours, and he called the name of the well Isaac, because they strove with him. Now, Isaac means contention, or quarrel. And if anyone thought that planting this church, or future churches, would be without contention, I'll tell you now, you were wrong. Okay? You really were wrong. And look, this church plant had a lot of contention, and really, pretty much most of the contention we've had has been internal contention. Okay? Of one way or another. And big contention, big quarrel, big issues, have arisen internally in our church from early on. In fact, before our church was even planted, there were wicked people just latching on to that group of saved people in this country, trying to destroy it. Okay? And that's just the reality of real church life. Okay? Yeah, like we say many times, I'm going to get that and pat you on the back, liberal Baptist, where they don't have the gospel, and they don't preach the gospel. No one cares. It's already compromised, it's already run by the devil. You know, bring them in, bring them in and let them languish there. But when you're in an actual, real bonafide of church, you're going to have problems. You're going to have contention, you're going to have calling. And something, therefore, that we want to pray for, for example, our group in Switzerland who, for me, look, there's a massive, great door, a factual door being opened there, is they're going to get attacked. They're going to have it internally, they're going to have it externally. That's just the way it is. And here we see, for me, the picture here of digging these wells is ultimately it's church planting. They're going places, trying to dig the well, trying to produce a fountain of water. Basically, for me, the producer of where the word comes out from, and that is a church, ultimately. Even if you're like, oh, we were so winning without a church, whatever, you were basically sent out by the church, it's 10,000 miles away. Because the failings of sleeping on the job, or at least, or even worse, just the destruction of what was, you know, what had been churches in this nation. But with that, with the digging, with that, you're going to strive. You're going to strive with, and here I believe these Herdmen of Gira are picturing false prophets. They represent various false prophets, because it can be, like we know, false prophets that come into a church, and it can be false prophets that are just loitering on the outside of a church, but then it can also be actually the false prophets behind pulpits in so-called other churches. And they're striving. They're striving with Isaac's Herdmen saying, the water is ours. And he called the name of the Walezic because they strove with him. And ultimately, they kind of act as if the word of God's there, don't they? As if, oh, no, no, no, we know how it should be interpreted. No, these people, you know, anti-Semites, they got it all wrong, you know, or whatever else they try and shout and scream and find a problem with it. Oh, you know, it's easy believers. They're taking repentance out of the gospel. No, no, we just have the right definition of repentance, you false prophets. But they strive, they strive, they're constantly trying to, you know, battle with us, contend with us. It's said in verse 21, and they digged another well and strove for that also. And he called the name of it Sitna. Now, Sitna means strife or hatred. And now we're getting more extreme as well. So we start with a bit of contention, a bit of problems, like who are these guys, you know, planting a church, preaching the gospel, standing on the King James, going out and doing the things of God. We've got some contention, some issue. Then the next time it's like, right, then it builds up. Now we've got strife, we've got hatred. Hatred, they hate us, don't they? They do. And slowly that starts to become more and more apparent. We've seen that, you know, over time, people, you could just see the pure hatred, the hatred they have for us in our church. And that's how it goes, right? The hatred from our enemies grows. However, that could be a bit daunting to some, but if we do it God's way, we'll be victorious, won't we? Look at verse 22. 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 has made room for us and we shall be fruitful in the land. And Rehoboth, you know, meaning spaces, places, wide places, and, you know, in a way you can talk about even when it comes for us on a different scale, you can look a bit like church buildings, right? We had problems, strivings at that first one, you know, eventually kind of we got like this bizarre like two or three weeks notice to get out of there after doing all that work and all that stuff and all that, you know, anyway. And then when you move and then you go to this other place and we're striving there and we just can't like, you know, the council just saying, no, you can't have a church there and then finally it's like, no, God's got a place for us, right? God's got a place for us. And there are many ways obviously you could apply and for me, look, it's not that the persecution ends, okay? I believe that the beginning, though, is the easiest time to destroy a church before it's established, before, you know, really you've shown your fruits, you're still doing things right. It's much easier at the beginning, the early times, to be accusing the guy of being a false prophet, for example, from behind a pole pit, that he's just laughable, the stuff that you'll hear from false prophets, right? Okay, but because it's easier, because it hasn't been years and years of just start preaching the gospel, preaching the word of God, not preaching downloadable heresy, so it's easier. But it's also easier to pull people out early on before they get into their routine. They're in church, they're free to thrive, they ain't going nowhere. It's easier to disrupt that early. It's easy to get to people early. It's easier to destroy it earlier before people are getting the strength that comes from being in church regularly as well. They're much weaker. They're much easier to have their head turned by carnality and all the different angles that come in. It's much easier earlier. And once a church is established, it's rooted, it's firm, it's where it is, it's harder for them. Now, they're still going to attack. They're still going to weaken and find ways and try and find ways, and we don't want to, you know, we want to take heed, you know, if we think we, you know, take heed, if we think we stand lest he fall. However, look, at the end of the day, it is the primary targets at the beginning. And again, church plants in the future, the first church we plant out of here, that's going to be like real, that's going to be tough for them. Churches do fail. They had a church out in South Africa and, you know, there was obviously, there were some issues with the planting and everything else, that person, but the fact that it destroyed and that those people, whether or not it was theoretically a legitimate plant by the person that planted it or not, I think they called it like Morning Star Baptist, and I think if I'm right, it was like a Manly Perry plant, right? Okay, so make that what you will. However, those people, the people that were genuine there, like that's destroyed and it's like picking up pieces now. And that's what happens, you know, and whether or not they can make it like a joke from the first or it could be like a bad plant in the first place, or whether or not they can get to it first when there's a group of people, like that's when the attacks are going to come in thick and fast, right, to destroy it, to blow it out of the water first. So we need to like obviously be in prayer for these groups, for especially the Swiss group right now, but others, you know, in the future, because that's when the attacks come thick and fast, right? And I know that for a fact from when we started as well, like the attacks have continued, but, you know, hopefully with time, as we continue to secure more and more, it will be harder for them to think they can destroy it, and then we're going to go on to just sort of, you know, trying to weaken and pull people out and stuff like that as a kind of general, I believe. But here we see that the Lord has made room for us, we should be fruitful in the land. James 4.7 says, submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Now, he will come back in waves, so don't think that's it, he's fled, that's the end of him, okay? It's not, well, we live happily ever after and, you know, well, we had a bit of a tough time now, it's all sort of just kind of, you know, better roses. It's not like that. However, I do believe that with this sort of thing it will get harder for him as a church builds and grows and establishes more to be able to tear the whole thing down as long as obviously we're on our guard, et cetera. But it will come in waves and the attacks will come in waves. Verse 23 says, And he went up from thence to Beersheba, and the Lord appeared unto him the same night and said, I am the God of Abraham, my 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. So the Lord appeared after all of this striving. Again, for me, you know, that's the Lord Jesus Christ there appearing to him. I don't believe that, by the way, he got saved here, okay. Abraham surely solved that a long time before. Yes, he called the name of the Lord, but as we know that doesn't mean that it was necessarily salvation, okay. He's showing his faith, though, he's calling on God, he's setting up home there. For me, the picture is planting a church here, okay. We see 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. So where he's pitched, he's pitched by where the well's going to be, where the altar is, where he's calling on the name of the Lord, okay, because look, we ideally, again, I know it's not possible for everyone just like that, but you want your home to be as close as you can to your spiritual home, really, don't you? You want to be close to where your spiritual home is, where you're going to be serving God. I think we're seeing that. Verse 26 says, Now, you know, you could say the other guys are witnesses to the covenant, but you could say here as well that it's on the back of, look, at this point, we've had the Philistines being a foe and an enemy and everything else, in the same way maybe that many of your not, hopefully, reprobate family and friends can be enemies, can't they? It can be a problem. They can be a constant hindrance, something that you're constantly coming up against for envy, for envious reasons, they're trying to tear you down in one way or another. It doesn't mean that they're completely wicked because we then see the result, these guys come back, they're seeing that he's being blessed by the Lord, they're seeing all that, like we talked about over the last couple of weeks, you know, when they see your good conversation, right, in a day of visitation, they may glorify your Father which is in heaven. And here, for me, I think, look, they're coming back and then we see they make this covenant. It says in verse 29, Thou art now the blessed of the Lord, and he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink, and they rose up betimes in the morning and swear one to another, and Isaac sent them away and they departed from him in peace. I think maybe that's a picture of those that can be, and I'm not talking about obviously the children of the devil here, but those who can contend with us in one way or another, and then in the future we see that they depart from him in peace and for me that might be a picture of salvation, but I may not be. But on the back of verses 18 to 25, all that well-digging, him responding properly to the Lord, there's this eventual peace, and it makes me think of Proverbs 16 and 7 as well, it says, When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him. Now, again, it won't necessarily last forever, so don't think, oh, right, well, you know, it must not be pleasing the Lord if you've got persecution. No, because all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. So, again, we find the middle ground with that, which is there can be times of peace, though, can't there? And sometimes you can have those times when your ways please the Lord, but I think for me, especially here, it's your own enemies, it's personal enemies, even his enemies to be at peace with him, and that's not talking about God's enemies. But, again, it won't last forever, but notice, by the way, the dishonesty in verse 29 as well, where he said, That thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched ears, we have done unto thee nothing but good. I mean, that's a lie, isn't it? Filling up the wells, they were striving for the wells, at least his men were, the herdmen of Geru and everything else, but it doesn't matter to Isaac, and the point being, look, he doesn't go, oh, and have a big rabbit. Look, we're possible we do one peace, don't we? We're possible. We don't need to seek the strife, some people go the opposite way with that. They're just constantly seeking strife with people that you don't have to have strife with. I know Brother Adam talked about that a bit on Sunday morning, didn't he, in his sermon, that you don't have to, you know, we preach to the saved here, but we don't have to go and preach that stuff to the unsaved. We just constantly try and have rows and have issues with people that, look, let them get saved first, then come to church, we're preaching the truth of the Bible, right? We don't need to go out and be preaching all the kind of hard preaching against people. And again, you might not be hard preaching, but you might be hard talking. Do you really need that with your old family and friends and stuff like that? And here, look, he could have pulled him up and gone, done nothing but good, and he's just like, no, for me, he's happy to have peace, right? Happy to have peace. If possible, we do want peace. This is, by the way, where Abraham made a covenant previously in chapter 21 with the whole seven you lambs mystery, which I know some of you had a bit of a kind of thought about. I don't want to come up with anything conclusive on that, but just in case you want to, because I think there's probably a picture here as well, by the way, where it makes a point, again, that Phichol seems to be, unless it's like Phichol's son, but Phichol, the chief captain of his army, there was a Phichol in chapter 21 that was the chief captain of the former Abimelech's army, or maybe the same Abimelech. Now we've got Ahuzath as well. So this might add to what that picture was or is, but there's at least the oath, the covenant resulting in them departing in peace from Isaac. I don't know, you could maybe talk about the New Testament now, I'm not sure. But verse 32 says, And it came to pass the same day that Isaac's servants came and told him, concerning the world which they had digged, they said unto him, We have found water. And he called it Sheba, therefore the name of the city is Beersheba unto this day. Now Sheba meaning an oath, Beersheba is well of the oath. Again they were blessed on the back of it, finding water the same day, it said it came to pass the same day that Isaac's servants came and told him, they came and told him, concerning the world which they had digged, they said unto him, We have found water. Now Beersheba was a southern inlet boundary of Canaan and you'll often hear, for example, the whole land described as from Dan to Beersheba. You might have seen that comment a lot. It's just basically from the north to the south, from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south, that's the whole land of Canaan there, that's the promised land. But this is there in the southern border here, Beersheba. And we're just going to, for time, just finish off now, the last couple of words, it says, And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beerai the Hittite, and Bashamath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah. So Esau is marrying into the tribe that Abraham didn't want to share burial places with, if you remember, and the reason really being because it was the people of the land and by the way, at the end of the next chapter, Genesis 27 and verse 46, Rebekah says this, And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, and by the way, the daughters of Heth are the Hittites, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me? So the daughters of the land are the daughters of Heth, which are the Hittites, and Esau has taken Judith the daughter of Beerai the Hittite, basically a daughter of the land, and Bashamath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah. Why? Because he's marrying daughters of the land. And the obvious take home is, don't go and marry a little like some worldly daughter of the land. And it's not just, for example, and obviously the obvious primary application is the unsaved. Marrying unsaved people is just going to ruin your spiritual life. But it's also, you could argue as well, marrying worldly saved people. People that are just so out there in the world, you've just got no chance of getting into the things of God. Either way, it's just going to be a nightmare. And obviously going out and finding a wife is, look, that's an important thing, that marriage is for life, not just for Christmas, in case anyone was wondering. Come on now, we're going to finish in a word of prayer. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for, well, a chapter in the Bible there. We can get much application out of that, Lord. And hopefully there's some messages there that everyone here is able to think about, Lord, many verses, many different applications there that we can get from those passages, Lord. Please help everyone here to just think about those words which have spoken to them most, to try and apply them to their lives. And whether it's making changes or taking heed, help us not to just be hearers of the word, but doers too, Lord. Help us all to get home safely this evening and to return on Sunday for another Denny House Tuesday. Thank you for all this. Bye-bye.