I'm reading now Genesis 26, 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 Gerah.
Now, this is the second famine that's mentioned.
You remember the famine in the days of
Abraham, and Abraham and Lot, they took off
for Egypt.
And notice what happens now.
And the Lord appeared unto him, and said,
Go not down unto Egypt, dwell in the
land which I shall tell thee of.
Now, why did God say that to this
man Isaac?
Well, he had an example before him of
his father, who ran off down to the
land of Egypt.
That reveals the fact that like father, like
son, that sins are carried from father to
son.
And you can talk about the generation gap
all you want to, but there's no generation
gap of sin.
It just flows right from one to the
other.
And generally, the son makes very much the
same mistake that the father did, unless something
intervenes.
Now, God says to this man Isaac at
the time of the famine, 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.
Now, listen to God as He confirms the
covenant that He'd made with Abraham.
And I 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.
Now, you can see that God is merely
confirming the covenant that He had made with
Abraham.
He says to Isaac, don't leave the land,
don't go to Egypt.
I want to confirm my covenant that I
made with Abraham with you.
I'll give you this land.
Now, not only that, verse 4 now, And
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 the
nations of the earth be blessed.
Now, that is a repetition of the covenant
God made to Abraham, and that is there'd
be a seed that would be the line
that would have that land, and the land
was involved, and he'd be a blessing to
all nations.
That's important to see.
Now, he says, Because that Abraham obeyed my
voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my
statutes, and my laws.
Now, up to this point, God had not
given any laws, that is, the Mosaic system.
Abraham wasn't inundated at all, but the important
thing is that when God told Abraham something,
Abraham believed God and acted upon that.
Abraham believed God and acted upon it, and
that's the demonstration of faith today.
We have too many people they complain about.
There's no reality.
A lady came in to talk to me
some time ago, and she said, I believe,
but I don't feel anything, and I'm not
sure, and my, what a feeling of uncertainty.
Well, you didn't have to talk to her
long to find out that there's no action
in her life whatsoever.
She was just sitting in the corner twiddling
her thumbs and saying, I believe, and then
expecting the house probably to fall in on
her or some great something to take place.
Well, that won't happen.
When you believe God, you act upon God.
If you should call me up right now
and say, Dr. McGee, you go down to
the bank there in downtown Los Angeles.
I've just put a certain amount of money
down there for you, and I want you
to go down there to get it.
What do you think I'd do?
Just sit right here the rest of the
day?
No, my friend, if you know me, you'll
know that by the time that you are
through speaking on the telephone, I will have
had my hat on my head and I'll
start walking.
I'll be down there.
Faith is what you act on.
It's something that you step out on.
Abraham believed God.
God counted it righteousness, and God now says
to Isaac, I want you to be that
kind of a man also.