Alrighty, once again we are in
the book of Hebrews and we're going to look at chapter 11,
verse 20 again. Now last week we spent a little
time considering the great faith that Isaac had in blessing his
two sons. One with the blessings of the
Spirit, Jacob, and the other with the blessings of the things
of this world. And we're going to kind of consider
that once again this morning, but I want to begin by reading
for you from Isaiah 46 verse 9 through 11. We read these words,
Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there
is none else. I am God, and there is none like
me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times,
the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand,
and I will do all My pleasure." Now I want to stop there before
I go on. We call Him Lord for a reason. Because He is Lord. And to be Lord means to be God
Almighty of all things. Now I know we use that word in
human flesh, we call some of the old language of old, they
would call each other Lord. But even then, it was in reference
to what status they were. Well, the essence of Lord, the
essence of Lordship is in the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. All things were created by Him.
Nothing that was created was not by Him. And the Word was
manifest in the flesh. That's what we read in John chapter
1. So when the Lord says, my counsel shall stand, and I will
do all my pleasure, we believe, don't we? We believe because
in our hearts, in these new God-given hearts that He's given us, the
old stony one was cut out, discarded, thrown away, and a new heart,
a new heart to believe on Him, says He's Lord! He's God! So this statement, My counsel
shall stand that we have no problem with that. He says, I will do
all my pleasures. We have no problem with that.
He goes on in those verses to say, calling a ravenous bird
from the east, the man that executes my counsel from a far country,
yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass, I have
purposed it, and I will also do it. And the whole point of
this message, of this study this morning is this, that He is Lord. Now, I know that this story of
Jacob and Isaac and Esau kind of makes the world stop and think
to themselves, oh, see here, some things happened that the
Lord may not have had complete control of. Look here, Isaac
blessed his son Esau. Now, do you think the Lord would
have purposed that? And I'm going to tell you right
now, yes He did. It's the same thing as Jonah.
We've talked about this over and over and over and over again.
Same thing as Jonah. Was it an accident? Did he somehow
or another detour the will of God by running from God? I'm
telling you here, no, he didn't. God purposed for him to do what
he did. If he didn't purpose it, then
we're wasting our time calling him God. He's not truly Lord,
is he? But he is. He is Lord. And the very idea that Isaac
blessed both of his sons. You think Isaac didn't know that Esau had sold his birthright
when he was younger over a bowl of soup? You think he didn't
know that? It says in Hebrews 11 verse 20,
By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning the things
to come. And I want to talk to you this
morning about how the blessings of Jacob, which seemed like blessings,
but if you look at them, really they weren't. I mean, from that
point on, he had to run, didn't he? He had to hide. Did not Esau
threaten to kill him? Did he not have to go off and
hide under Rebekah's brother's house for 20 years? Did he not
go off to that house and fall in love and want to marry one
of the daughters? But still, the whole point, Jacob,
what seemed to be a blessing to Jacob really wasn't, was it?
It didn't seem like a blessing to the men of the world. Jacob
had to run. He had to hide. Yet God had promised him the
blessings, and the blessings that God had promised came to
pass, didn't they? The seed of Abraham came through
the loins of Jacob. The purpose of God always stands
fast. It's unalterable. You cannot
change it or it would not be His purpose. It cannot be hindered. The Lord our God always does
all of His pleasure, as we just read there in Isaiah 46, 9-11. How clearly this fact is demonstrated
in Isaac's two sons, Jacob and Esau. Jacob, the younger, was
to be served by Esau, the elder. Does this purpose come to pass?
Did that purpose come to pass? Absolutely. All parties involved
sinned against God, yet Esau, by godless unbelief, and Jacob
and Rebekah by deceit, and Isaac by giving way to the human passions,
it would seem to the eye of man that everything known was contrary
to God's purpose, wouldn't it? How could he save such a man
who is so deceitful? Jacob had to deceive to get the
blessings of his father, Isaac. Yet we see God overruling everything,
including Jacob's deceitfulness by his providence to accomplish
his purpose. Can we see how the Lord overrules
in our own lives? Despite us, his purpose is served. How else could we say these words
from our own heart? And we know, and we know that
all things were to the good. How else could we say that if
we didn't think that all things, including, including, and I'm
not encouraging, you know, those of you who know the Lord, no,
I'm not encouraging you to be sinful, but including in our
sins, our Lord's purpose is accomplished. Rebecca, she presumed, didn't
she? Isaac's wife, she acted in a
terrible unbelief and presumption, attempting to secure by the arm
of the flesh what God had promised to do by His free grace? She
didn't wait, no. She thought she had to get the
blessings. She thought that Jacob had to
get the blessings, so she helped deceive her own husband that
her son, instead of waiting and receiving and waiting on the
Lord, who promised that Jacob would be, he promised, didn't
he promise that when he said, the elder shall serve the younger?
Yet, Rebecca didn't. She didn't wait on the Lord,
did she? We know another story that went the same way, didn't
we? Abraham, did he wait on the Lord? His wife came to him and
said, here, sleep with my handmaid. And he did. And Ishmael was born. I find it very interesting how
in Scripture, not once did God refer to Ishmael as the son of
Abraham. Not once. Both Rebecca and Jacob knew and
believed the promise of God. They knew God's purpose in this
matter of blessings, yet his father was ready to bless his
other son. Jacob had purchased the birthright
lawfully. Rebecca's faith failed when she
decided to scheme and through deceit get the blessings of Jacob.
And Jacob, when he agreed to it, They both should have left
it to the providence of God and waited for Him to perform the
work, but yet they did not. They were working in the energy
of flesh to prevent, to help what God had purposed. I want
you to look at a comparison with that. Hold your place there in
Romans chapter 11. Turn over to 2 Samuel. I want
to show you a comparison with this. 2 Samuel chapter 6. In
2 Samuel chapter 6, we read in verse 6, And when they came to
Nashon's threshing floor, Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark
of God, and took hold of it, for the oxen shook it. Verse
7, And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah, and
God smote him there for his error, and there he died by the ark
of the God. So here we see where man... I've
had a pastor tell me one time, he said, I was making a comment
about how Matthias, I said, the disciples made a mistake. And
they erred, is what I said, in choosing Matthias. They should
have waited on the Lord. Well, that's what we see here
is a man who should not have touched the ark, right? God killed
him for it. So we can think in our own in
our own fleshly mind that that was an error, that was a mistake.
He should have never done that. The purpose of our study this
morning is to see that even what we think is a mistake is not
a mistake with God. It's purposed of God for a reason. God purposed those apostles to
go and not wait. It was his purpose that they
should not wait, even though he told them to. and choose Matthias
so that God could show the importance of how Paul was chosen outside. Paul was chosen as the twelfth
apostle, not Matthias. It wasn't a mistake. God doesn't
make mistakes. We may do things that we think
are a mistake, but what God does, He purposes all things, does
He not? So let's go on here, and the
anger of the Lord was kindled against him, verse seven, verse
eight, and David was displeased because the Lord had made a breach
upon Uzziah and he called the name of the place Perez, Uzziah,
to this day, and David was afraid of the Lord that day and said,
how shall the ark of the Lord come to me? So David would not
remove the ark. Now you see how God's purpose
is here? If the Lord had not allowed Uzzah to touch the ark,
and if the Lord had not killed Uzzah, then David would not have
been afraid, would he? This is all pointing back to
the very verse that we read over there in Romans chapter 8, and
I'm going to read it here for you again. And we know, this
is what this is talking about. And we, the people of God, know
that all things work together for the good of them that love
God to them who are called according to his purpose. This is exactly
what that is. And David was afraid that the
day, and said, how shall the ark of the Lord come unto me?
Verse 10, so David would not remove the ark of the Lord unto
him and to the city of David, but David carried it aside into
the house of Obediem the Gittite. Now here, look at what comes
next. Verse 11, this is so cool. I know some probably think I
shouldn't use that word, but this is so cool. This is so neat
how God works these things out. He's going to bless this house.
And He purposed this man to touch the ark and kill him so that
the ark would stay here and be blessed to this house. And the
ark of the Lord continued in the house of Obediim to get tight
three months, and the Lord blessed Obediim and all his household.
And it was told King David saying, the Lord hath blessed the house
of Obed-im and all that pertaineth unto him because of the ark of
the God. So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house
of Obed-im into the city of David with gladness. And it was so
that when they that bear the ark of the Lord had gone six
paces, he sacrificed off oxen and fatlings. You see how the
Lord did all that to bring David to what? To worship him. Does not Paul tell us how he,
I'm not sure the right word of it, how he's greatly blessed
is what it means, but in his infirmities, in his trials, he's
greatly blessed by them, why? Because they bring him to worship
God. My sins, and I'm not saying they're
good, I'm not saying go out and commit your sins, But my sins,
the sins that plague me, bring me to worship my Lord. Let's go on. Let's finish this
up to verse 16. And David danced before the Lord
in all his might. And David was girded with the
linen of the ephod. So David and all the house of
Israel brought up the ark out of the Lord with shouting and
with the sound of the trumpet. And as the ark of the Lord came
into the city of David, Michael, Saul's daughter, looked through
a window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord,
and she despised him in her heart. Now let's go back to our text
in Hebrews. Even though Isaac's affections
for his son were misplaced, he was quite affectionate for his
son. Remember what it said there? Remember what it said, what we
read last week, where it said that he sent his son Isaac, sent
his son Esau out to get fresh meat and cook the venison that
he loved? Folks, Isaac was a man's boy. He was a man's boy. My boy, he's
going fishing with me. Well, I know Jacob over here. He's kind of hanging out on his
mama's skirts. Even though Isaac's affection for his children. Now
remember, Isaac knew the promise was made that the elder shall
serve the younger. He remembers that. Even though it was misplaced. Even though Isaac loved Mesau
more than Jacob. Even though it was selfish. Even
though it was human love. How often does our human actions,
our displaced affections, lead to sin? Esau was his elder son. He was likely the more masculine
of the two. And Isaac loved the savory meat.
Esau loved. Esau provided for him. Isaac
was determined to bless Esau even though he knew the promise
of God was going to his son Jacob. Contrary to the revolution of
God, indeed, his eyes had grown dim. Isaac's blessings upon his
son were prophetic, as we read in Genesis 27, 28 through 40
last week. And that was a long verse, chapter
there. I think we'll refer back to that. If you'd like to read that in
your own time again, you can. But the significance of the blessings
were clear. Jacob was promised both spiritual
and temporal blessings. He was promised the coming seed
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. It was confirmed
to him, yet Esau was blessed, but only temporarily. Both Jacob
and Esau were descendants of Abraham, but only Jacob was a
prince of God. The people of God in any age
are those who believe him. Jacob believed God. They are
the Israel of God, God's true covenant people. The sovereignty
of God was manifested, displayed in the blessings of Isaac's two
sons. Isaac believed that one he blessed would have the promise
of God when he perceived that the providential hand of God
had crossed his own affections. He did not murmur about it. He
did not rebel against God. In other words, you'll recall
in those verses that we read last week and told his father,
don't you have any blessing for me at all? Remember that? And
his father finally, you know, he didn't complain against God.
He didn't complain against the Lord. He didn't turn to Jacob
and say, what have I done? No. He gave what he could to
his son Esau. He gave what he could. Look over
at Hebrews 12, 17 for just a moment. For ye know how that the afterward,
when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected.
For he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully
with tears. Esau found no repentance in God. He could not get back the blessings
that he had despised in his youth. They were given to Jacob as God
had promised. He had sold Christ for a bowl
of beans, in other words. And He fitted Himself for destruction.
So God's will is always prevailing. That's what we're talking about
this morning. That's what we were open with
those very verses for. We see that heaven is that God
rules. The Lord God prevailed. He always
does. He will accomplish. And it always
is. His purpose is to be performed. It always is. Our God always
prevails, and He yet shall prevail. He works His will even though
the weakness of sins are in others, yet He is of no way affected
by our sins or our weaknesses. Though it will never thwart the
purpose of God, unbelief rocks and wreaks havoc in our lives,
and in the lives of those who are under our influence, as it
did in Jacob's household that day, and for many years to come,
we are taken up with the satisfying of the flesh, we will terribly
be dimmed, sided spiritually, and we're sure to act in some
kind of unbelief. Let us rather believe God in
all things. Let us rather trust Him, our
Heavenly Father, to accomplish His will as He has promised it.
I think of this when I read these words. Are there times when I
try to earn righteousness of my own? Or am I just trusting
in the Lord? Am I waiting for Him to perform
His purpose? Look over at Proverbs chapter
3 for a moment. Proverbs chapter 3. Look at chapter
3 verses 5 and 6. Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart, and lead not unto thine own understanding. In all thy
ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct thy paths. We already know the words to
Romans chapter 8. I just read that one verse a
moment ago. But if we begin at verse 28 and
read it all the way through verse 31, we come up with these words. And we know that all things work
together for the good to them that love God, to them who are
called according to His purpose, for whom He did foreknow. O Lord,
Help us to trust in these words. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate. Didn't matter what happened. It didn't matter the choices
that Jacob, or the choices that Isaac had made. God's purpose
shall be served. Whom he did foreknow, He also
predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that
He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
He did predestinate, Him He also called, and whom He called, Him
He also justified, and whom He justified, Him He also glorified. One more, if you don't mind me
reading over in Isaiah chapter 40, beginning at verse 27, we
read these words, Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest,
O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is
passed over from my God. Hast thou not known, verse 28,
hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the
Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his
understanding. He giveth power to the faint,
And to them that have no might, he increases strength. Even the
youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly
fall. But they that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Oh, how I pray the Lord will
give us strength to Wait on Him. I witness this strength that
God gives to His people over and over and over again in my
pastor. Lord, help me to trust you as
much as Gene Harmons trusts his Lord.