Good morning. We do rejoice in knowing that salvation is of the Lord from election to glorification. It's his sovereign will and purpose fulfilled. And faith rests there. Faith rests there. I'd like to ask you to open your Bibles with me to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. Let's ask the Lord's blessings on our time together. Our Heavenly Father, thank you for bringing us here to this place. Thank you for the promise of thy presence. Thank you for the revelation of thy grace and glory given to us in thy word. Thank you for the Holy Spirit who opens the eyes of our understanding and gives us faith to believe thee. Lord, how hopeful we are that you will pour out that grace upon us here today. Lord, that we might be enabled to worship, truly worship in the power of your spirit, in our hearts, according to the truth that you've revealed. Lord, bless us with being able to worship thee. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. The book of Hebrews reveals the Lord Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of all the Old Testament types and shadows. This book begins with God in sundry times and in divers manners spoken to our prophet to the prophet to our fathers through the prophets in the past half in these last days spoken unto us by his son. And then it goes on to reveal the Lord Jesus as the one who has fulfilled for his people all the promises and all the prophecies that God made in types and shadows in the Old Testament. In Hebrews chapter 12, there are a couple of verses here that have been a great concern to me on several occasions in the past. And now that I believe the Lord has revealed in Christ the understanding of this passage, my heart is greatly comforted. And I'm at rest in these verses. I hope that if they've bothered you, that the Lord will, by his word, show you the meaning of these verses in light of Christ and enable you to not fear. The spirit of fear is not of God. He gives us a spirit of love. And that's our hope this morning, that these verses will not cause you a worldly sorrow, a fleshly fear, but that they will drive you in a godly sorrow and in a fear of Him to rest your hope in Christ. That's the end of all that God has given us in his word. And here's the verses. Look with me, if you will, in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 15. Looking diligently, looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God. Fall away from salvation by free and sovereign grace. A salvation that was accomplished in the person and in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. A salvation that cannot be earned. A salvation that is not deserved. And a salvation that cannot be lost. Grace. Grace. And so the words now that are about to come are in warning of falling away from that salvation that is all of God's grace. Looking diligently, and this chapter begins in verse two with, where do we look? We're looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of faith. He's the one that purposed it. He's the one that fulfilled it. He's the one that gives it. He's the one in whom we have faith. The just shall walk by faith. So when he says looking diligent, he's carrying on the same thought, looking unto Jesus, looking diligently unto Christ, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled. If we lose sight of Christ, if we're not looking to him, If we're not resting the hope of our salvation in God's sovereign grace accomplished in Christ, then we are prone to have a root of bitterness, fear, critical spirit, If I know that I'm saved by grace, how can I be critical of you? And when I am critical of others, it's because I've lost sight of Christ. I've lost sight of how the Lord saved me to think that I could stand in judgment of another man and to not see myself as the chief of all sinners. So here's the context of what the Lord's saying. Looking diligently unto Christ lest you fall from grace and the spirit of bitterness trouble you and thereby many be defiled. As soon as we look away from Christ and begin to look to ourselves and compare ourselves to ourselves and to one another and that root of bitterness takes root, it produces the fruit of the flesh. Lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau. Now Jesus and Esau, the Old Testament type Esau as a picture of the flesh, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. That's a reference to what Esau did in Genesis chapter 25. We'll look at that in a moment. Jacob, Esau came in from the field, was hungry. Jacob said, Jacob had prepared a pottage, the scripture says, a bowl of soup. And Esau insisted that his brother Jacob give him some of that soup. And Jacob said, give me your birthright, and I'll give it to you. And Esau said, I don't need my birthright. He gave up his birthright for a bowl of soup. And now the next verse is in reference to what happens in Genesis chapter 26, when Isaac, Jacob and Esau's father is dying and he's going to now on his deathbed bestow his blessings upon his sons. For you know how that afterwards when he would have inherited the blessing, he sold his birthright Now years later, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. This is the verse that has concerned me for myself. Though he sought He sought a spirit of repentance diligently with tears. He begged his father, Isaac. He pleaded, he wept, he fell upon his knees. He asked his father to bless him, but the blessing had already gone to Jacob. Turn with me now, if you will, to Genesis chapter 27. Genesis chapter 27. Verse 27. Now here's the story of Esau not receiving the blessing. In verse 27, and he came near and kissed him and he smelled the smell of his raiment and blessed him and said, see the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed. Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of corn and wine Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee. Be Lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's son bow down to thee. Cursed be everyone that cursed thee, and blessed be he that blessed thee." Now, this is when Jacob, Isaac tells his eldest son, Esau was born first. Jacob came holding on to his heel. They were twins. So Isaac is the one who gets the birthright, and he's the one who gets the blessing, according to the law. But Jacob, prior to this, in the same chapter, with his mother Rebekah, when Esau goes out to get food for Isaac, Jacob dresses up like Esau, and deceives his father Isaac in believing that he is Esau. And consequently, Isaac is an old man, he can't see. He said, this is the voice of Jacob. But Rebekah had dressed Jacob up in Esau's clothes, and Rebekah had put hair on Esau's hands. on Jacob's hands. And now Isaac says, it smells like Esau, feels like Esau, but it sounds like Jacob. And here we have a glorious picture. Yeah, Jacob was a deceiver. He deceived his father. It's all in God's purpose that Jacob should receive the blessing. But what a glorious picture we have of the believer's union in Christ. We go before the Heavenly Father and our voices cry out to the Lord to save us and to bless us. The scripture says that the prayers of the saints are a sweet-smelling aroma to God. And here Isaac says of Jacob, smells like Esau. What makes our prayers effectual? Is it the sincerity or the accuracy of how we pray? No, it is in whom we pray. We conclude our prayers within Jesus' name because we would never dare offer a prayer to God, whether it be a petition or whether it be a prayer of praise or thanksgiving, we would never dare offer a prayer to God without the sweet smelling aroma of the prayers of our advocate. We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one, who ever lives to make intercession for us. And so we pray in his name. And here Jacob comes before Isaac in the name of Esau. And he smells like him. And he feels like him. But the voice is Jacob. Isaac now is going to bless him for Esau's sake, believing that it's Esau. This is how we come before God. We come in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, follow me down, if you will, to verse 33 of this same chapter. Esau is now, Isaac has given the blessing to Jacob. Jacob has left the room and right on his heels, Esau comes in with the food that his father had asked for, believing that his father was going to bless him. And Isaac realizes right away the blessings already being given to another. And the scripture says in verse 32, and Isaac, his father said unto him, who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn Esau. And Isaac trembled very exceedingly and said, who? Where is he that hath taken venison and brought it to me? And I've eaten of all before thou camest and have blessed him, yea, and he shall be blessed. And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father. And he said, Thy brother came with subtlety, and hath taken away the blessing. And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he hath taken away my blessing." It's not exactly true. He didn't take away the birthright. Esau sold Jacob the birthright for a bowl of soup. The birthright and the blessing is very important if we're to understand what the Lord is saying about Esau in Hebrews chapter 12. And so Esau is crying now to his father. And behold, now he had taken away my blessing. And he said, hast thou not reserved a blessing for me? And Isaac answered, And said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy Lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants, and with corn and wine have I sustained him. And what shall I do now unto thee, my son? I've given all the blessings to your brother. And Esau weeps. He said to him, Father, hast thou not one blessing for me, my father? Bless me, even me also, my father. And Esau lifted up his voice and he wept. Now this is the story that the Lord's given us in Hebrews chapter 12 to say, to not fall from grace. Not be like Esau, who wanted the blessing, but had no interest in the birthright. And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth. Now it's interesting, the word, the name Adam, the word earth, the word, the name Esau, and the name Edom, all come from the same word in the original language. It's the word red. red. And it's a picture of the earth from which our Adamic nature was made. God took the dust of the earth, and he made us flesh from the earth. From the earth you were made, and to the earth you shall return. But he had to breathe into our nostrils the spirit of life in order for us to be a living soul. Adam, Edom, Earth, and Esau are all types of that old red man who's made from the dust of the earth. It's the old nature. Just like when Rebecca was pregnant with Esau and Isaac. And the boys were fighting within her womb. And she went before the Lord and she said, why am I thus? And he said, because there are two nations in you. Two different manner of people in you. But the older Esau, who will be born first, will serve the younger Jacob. There's our two natures. Our first nature, Adam, born of the flesh, born in this world. Our second nature, Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, a prince of God. The spirit wars against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit so that we cannot be what we would be. We would never sin. The believer's heart's desire is to be done with sin, to be rid of sin, to never have the thought or word or action of sin ever again. And his longing desire is for that day when this body will be put back in the earth and that he will receive a new, sinless, glorified body. No more sin. No more sorrow, no more tears, no more death. All that comes as a result of sin. This is the picture. This is who Esau is. Now what is Esau wanting? He's wanting the blessings from his father. He's wanting to master over his brother, which was given to his brother. He's wanting all the benefits of salvation and he's crying for them. He wants to go to heaven. He wants God to provide for him. He wants all the blessings and all the benefits that come with salvation. And he's a picture of what the natural man does in order to try to be saved. But the father says, I've given the blessings to your brother and all the blessings of God are yes and amen in Christ. He's your brother. Now, Chapter 25, verse 29. Isaac is out in the field. He's a man of the earth. The scripture says that. He's a man of the earth. He's a man of the world. And that's not to say that There's anything wrong with a man being manly man, or being a man of the world, being a man of the earth. Spiritually speaking, he is of the dirt. He's just of his Adam nature. He's Esau. And Jacob sawed pottage, and Esau came from the field, and he was faint. And Esau said to Jacob, feed me, I pray thee with that same red pottage for I am faint, therefore was his name called Edom. Red, red, red, red, earthy. That is what's of the earth is earthy. That which is from the heaven is heavenly. And Jacob said, sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, behold, I am at the point to die. He wasn't going to die. He was just hungry. But he exaggerates his physical condition because the belly in the Bible is often spoken of in reference to the flesh. You're reminded of the weakness of your flesh two or three times every day when your belly tells you to feed it. And so it is. Esau is feeding his belly. And Esau said, behold, I am at the point to die And what profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, swear to me this day. And he swore to him. And he sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils. And he did eat and drink and rose up and went his way. He just went his way. No regard for his birthright. Thus Esau despised his birthright. Now one more passage. After the two boys are struggling in the womb of Rebecca, look with me at chapter 25, verse 24. And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb, and the first came out red, all over, like a hairy garment, and they called his name Esau. And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold of Esau's heel, And his name was called Jacob, for Isaac was threescore years old when she bared them. And the boys grew. And Esau was a cunning hunter and a man of the field. And Jacob was a plain man." Now, I don't know why the translators use the word plain here. It's the only place in the Old Testament where this word is translated plain. Every other place, it is translated perfect. Perfect. The scripture says that Noah was a just man and perfect in his generation. It means to be complete. It means to be undefiled. And so Jacob is called a perfect man. And Esau is called a man of the earth. The Bible tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ is himself the fullness of the Godhead bodily and that we are complete, perfect in him, in him. We are able to come boldly before the throne of grace and find help in our time of need. We're able to approach a holy God and present our prayers in the name of our advocate, our sin bearer, our substitute, our savior, our brother, the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's the only way we can approach God. And all the blessings that God has for his people must come through Christ. They must. I've given the blessing to Jacob. The only thing left for you is whatever benefits and comforts and blessings you might have in this world. That's all you have. So if the blessings at the end of Isaac's life were the benefits of salvation, righteousness, justification before God, entrance into glory, being able to come into his presence, all the blessings, the forgiveness of sin, If that's the blessing spoken of in chapter 27, what is the birthright? What is the birthright that Esau, a man of the flesh, Adam, the old man, despised, disregarded, had no interest in? Well, the birthright is a clear picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. The firstborn son was to be anointed and set apart. He was to be given a double blessing. He was to carry on the name of the family. He was the patriarch of the family. The New Testament tells us in Colossians 1, verse 15, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the firstborn of all creatures. In Hebrews 8, the scripture tells us that he is the firstborn among many brethren. When the angel appears to Mary, he tells her, that she will bring forth her firstborn son and his name shall be called Jesus. So this birthright, this birthright is a picture of the covenant promise that the father has made to his son as his firstborn. Hebrews chapter 12, come back with me where we started in Hebrews chapter 12. Verse 17 says, he sought the blessing carefully with tears, but there was no salvation for him. This is what has concerned me in the past. Lord, Is it possible that I've sought you with all of my heart and like Esau? Because I see so much flesh in me. I see so much of my Adamic nature. I see so much of the redness of my earthiness in my life. Could it be that like Esau that I've sought your salvation with tears and not to be found? Why was Esau rejected the blessing? Why was the blessing rejected from Esau? The blessing is what we want. The blessing is what we need. Because he despised the birthright. You cannot have the blessing without the birthright. Seeking the blessing on the basis of the birthright is the only way to have the blessing. The birthright is a clear picture of the Lord Jesus Christ as the firstborn, the one in whom God the Father made a covenant promise in eternity past to bless his work and to save his people through the work of Christ. The natural man, the Esau's, the Edomites, the enemies of Israel, the Adams of this world, will all seek the blessing in the strength of their flesh. They will all seek the blessing as a result of their obedience to the law. Let me show you that. Look, look, verse 18 of Hebrews chapter 12, for you are not come to Mount, you are not come to the Mount that might be touched and that burned with fire, nor onto blackness and darkness and tempest. That's Mount Sinai. You didn't come to Mount Sinai to be saved. and the sound of trumpet and the voice of words, which voice they that heard and treated that would not be spoken to them anymore." The people of Israel said, Moses, you go to that mountain. We can't get close to that mountain. Moses, in that respect, is a type of Christ who's able to go to the mountain of the law, but no man could touch that mountain. for they could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched the mountain, it would be stoned or thrust through with a dart. Not even an animal could touch Mount Sinai. You can't touch the law and be saved. And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. The Lord Jesus on Mount Calvary took the sword of God's justice to satisfy what God required for the punishment of our lawlessness, of our inability to keep the law. And he greatly quaked, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? But here is the birthright, brethren. Here's the birthright. You can't have the promise, Genesis chapter 27, which Esau wept for and despised the birthright. You can't have one without the other. The only one that needs to fear what said of Esau in Hebrews chapter 12, Crying for a blessing are those who have disregarded and despised and sold for a bowl of flesh the birthright. But you are come, not to Mount Sinai, not to be saved by your law keeping, not to be saved by what you do, as Esau was trying to do, You've not come to Mount Sinai, to Mount Zion, Mount Sinai. You've come to Mount Zion unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn. There's the blessing of the firstborn. That's what Esau, Despised that's what he traded away He wasn't interested in a salvation That was that belonged completely to the firstborn He just wanted the benefits of the blessing You've not come to Sinai That's what the flesh does that which is of the flesh is flesh the flesh profit is nothing The flesh thinks that it can somehow earn favor with God by its law keeping. And if I just work harder, pray harder, cry like Esau, somehow the heavenly father will bless me, he'll bless me. No, I can't bless you. Why? Because you despise the birthright. The birthright is Christ and his church. The birthright is the covenant. The promise that God made to his firstborn to anoint him and to give him the blessing and to make him the patriarch of the family. But Esau said, I don't need that. I don't need that. I just need the blessing. What a clear picture of what the flesh does, of what Esau does, of what Edom does. Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated. Turn with me to, Obadiah. This is the passage that got me thinking about this. Obadiah. Obadiah's name translated means the servant of the Lord, the servant of God. And this is the vision that God gave to Obadiah. Thus saith the Lord God, concerning Edom. Concerning Edom. This is the destruction and the humiliation of Edom. And here's what the believer knows, that they have to die daily to that old man. But here's how we die. We don't die by disciplining the flesh. We don't die by somehow going back to Mount Sinai and figuring out a way to make the law restrain our flesh. That's not how we die. No, the scripture tells us, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. Reckon it to be so because you are. When Christ died on Calvary's cross, Paul said, I am, past tense, crucified with Christ. Here's how we, here's our view of Esau, our old man, Adam, Edom, the man of the earth, that red man that's made from the dirt. God hates him. And brothers and sisters, you hate him. You hate him. You hate him in yourself. And you hate him in man-made religion when he is given the credit for salvation and the birthright of your Lord is denied in salvation. You hate Esau, don't you? God's saying, now this is the vision of Obadiah concerning Edom or Esau or Adam or that old man. We have heard a rumor from the Lord and an ambassador is sent among the heathen. Arise ye and let us rise up against her in battle. Behold, I have made thee small among the heathen and thou art greatly despised. Edom, you're despised. You see, Esau despised the birthright, but Jacob, those that are in Christ, despise Esau. The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee. Such pride, such self-righteousness, such self-promotion. Do you not hate it every time it rears its ugly head in your life and in your heart? Every time you find yourself glorying in anything other than Christ, And expecting others, you see, this is what the Lord's talking about in Hebrews chapter 12. This Esau spirit, it causes division and it causes the pride of man to well up. The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee. He's talking to Edom. Talking to Esau. Thou that dwellest in the cliffs of the rocks, whose habitation is high, that saith in his heart, who shall bring me down to the ground? Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord. What a blessing it is. when God brings Esau down to where he belongs, brings him down to the dirt, takes the Saul's of Tarsus who are riding high on their high horse and knocks them off their horse with a voice from heaven and puts their face in the dirt and causes them to cry, Lord, what would you have me to do? Saul of Tarsus going about trying to establish his own righteousness. He said, he said, I was once without the law, I was alive. But when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. I died. You see, there's no coming alive in Christ. without dying to that old man. The rights of the firstborn have to be with the blessing. There's no blessing of salvation without this work of despising Esau. I'll bring you down. What a blessing it is. I remember years ago, Gina, whose first language is Spanish, and I'd made a statement a couple times in a message that God has to make you a sinner. And in her translation of that English into her mind, she thought I was saying that God has to make you sin. And we were able to talk about it, and she got it, and she said, oh, OK, I understand now. But you understand what that means, don't you, Gina? God has to make you a sinner. God doesn't make us sin. Let no man say that when he sins that God, no, we sin of our own will, of our own lust. Lust is conceived to bring forth sin, and sin bringeth forth death. We're fully responsible for our own sin. And that's part of the truth. That's part of the truth of despising Esau, is that we can't blame anybody else. It's all my fault. God's made me to see that this is all on me. And I hate that old man. If God's brought you, if God's made you to be a sinner and you hate that old man, you're not gonna be like Esau, crying for a blessing while despising the birthright. You will know that all the blessings of God come through the birthright. And without the birthright, there is no blessing. Let's take a break.