Well, we're going to continue
in the book of Hebrews. And we're in chapter 11. We've been looking at the faith of
Abraham and differences in that that we've seen in verse 9 all
the way through verse 19 up until last week. This morning, we're
going to take another look at one of the seed of Abraham. The
very one that Abraham took up to the mountain to sacrifice. The very one that asked his father,
father, we have wood, we have fire, but where is the sacrifice? And Abraham said this comment,
which was so prophetically true, the Lord will provide himself. Himself. Isaac knew these words. He knew these words by heart.
And his two sons, Jacob and Esau, he knew that one would be the
one who the Lord would bring his seed through and that seed
is Jesus Christ. Isaac knew. It says in verse
20, by faith. That means he trusted in the
Lord. The same way Abraham did. The same way you and I do. He
trusted in the promises of the Lord. The Lord promised the great
covenant, the covenant of old between the great three and one
that God the Father would give God the Son of people. That's
a promise. And God the Son This is the faith that Isaac
and all of God's people have by faith, Isaac blessed Jacob
and Esau concerning the things to come. I want to talk a little bit about
this remarkable faith of Isaac. Turn over to, mark your spot
in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 20. Genesis chapter 27. Let's look
at this faith that is spoken of here. Let's read the whole
chapter. And it came to pass that when
Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see,
he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son? And
he said unto him, Behold, here am I. And he said, behold, now
I am old. I know not the day of my death.
Now, therefore, take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver,
and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison,
and make me savory meat, such as I love, and bring it to me,
that I may eat it, that my soul may bless thee before I die.
Now, remember, Esau is the eldest. Esau and Jacob are twins, but
Esau came out first, so he's the eldest. He's the one that,
by God's word, should be blessed, the firstborn. Now, going on,
verse five, and Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his
son, that's the mother, that's Isaac's wife, and Esau went to
the field to hunt venison and to bring it. And Rebekah spake
unto Jacob her son, saying, behold, I heard thy father speak unto
Esau thy brother, saying, bring me venison, and make me savory
meat that I may eat and bless thee before the Lord before my
death. Now therefore, my son, obey my
voice according to that which I command thee. Go now to the
flock and fetch me from whence the two kids of the goats, and
I will make them savory meat for thy father such as he loveth.
And thou shalt bring it to thy father that he may eat and that
he may bless thee before his death. And Jacob said to Rebekah
his mother, behold, Esau, my brother, is a hairy man, and
I am a smooth man. And my father, pre-adventure,
will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver, and I shall
bring a curse upon me and not a blessing." Isn't that interesting?
Here we have Jacob, the very one that God loves. And I stop
right now for just a moment, because think of yourself. The
very one that God loves. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. We know the scripture says that. And look at what Jacob
is here, a deceiver. Aren't you thankful the Lord
shows us the truth about those in scriptures that he blesses?
Let's go on, shall we? And his mother said unto him,
upon me, this is verse 13, upon me be thy curse, my son, only
obey my voice and go fetch them. Go fetch me them.' And he went
and fetched and brought him to his mother. And his mother made
savory meat, such as his father loved. And Rebecca took goodly
remnant from her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house,
and put them upon Jacob her son. And she put the skins of the
kids of the goats upon his hands and upon the smoothness of his
neck. And she gave me a savory meat
and the bread which she had prepared into the hand of her son Jacob.
And he came unto his father and said, My father? And he said,
Here am I. Who art thou, my son? And Jacob
said unto his father, I am Esau, thy firstborn. I have done according
as thou hast badest me arise, I pray thee, and eat of my venison,
that there my soul may bless me. And Isaac said unto his son,
How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son? And he
said, Because the Lord thy God brought it to me." He even lied
upon God, didn't he? Did you catch that? Let's go
on, in verse 21, and Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray
thee, that I may feel thee my son, whether thou be my very
son Esau or not. And Jacob went near unto Isaac
his father, and he felt him, and he said, The voice is Jacob's
voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. And he discerned
him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau's
hands, so he blessed him. And he said, Art thou my son
Esau? And he said, I am. Now I want to jump over. Here
we jump over to verse 33. And Isaac trembled, very exceeding
me, and said, Who? Where is it he that hath taken
Venice, and hath brought it to me? And I have eaten of all before
thou camest, and have blessed him. Yea, and he shall be blessed. Verse 34, 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 so, O my father. And he said, Thy brother came
with subtlety, and hath taken away thy blessing. And he said,
is he not rightly named Jacob? For he hath supplanted me these
two times. He took away my birthright. Remember
how he did that? Remember Esau actually gave away
his birthright for a bowl of soup long ago. And behold, now
he taketh 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? And
Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my
father. And Esau lifted up his voice
and wept. And Isaac his father answered
and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness
of the earth and the dew of heaven from above." Now, I want you
to take notice of what he's doing here now. He's giving Esau the
blessings of the world. What we're going to see here
this morning is the remarkable faith of Isaac blessing one son
with spiritual blessings. That's what the blessing of Jacob
is, the blessing of the firstborn. It's a spiritual blessing. It's
a commandment from God that the firstborn should receive the
blessings of the Father. But here, the second son is receiving
the blessings of the world. Go on with me. And Isaac, his
father, answered and said, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness
of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above, and by
the sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother, and
it shall come to pass, when thou shalt have the dominion, that
thou shalt break his yoke. from off thy neck. And Esau hated
Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed
him. And Esau said in his heart, the days of mourning of my father
are at hand. Then will I slay my brother Jacob. Now, after reading that passage,
this is the passage which Paul refers to. Go back to our text,
if you would, in Hebrews chapter 11. Paul is referring to this,
and you'll see why. Isaac is held before us here
as a man of remarkable faith. The Holy Spirit specifically
declares that Isaac, in an act of faith, blessed both of his
sons, both Jacob and Esau. Now consider with me a couple
of things that we might glean from this record that God has
given us in this event. First off, God Almighty saves
whom He will. That's what we read over in Romans
chapter 9. For this is the word of promise,
this time I will come, it says in chapter 9 verse 9 of Romans,
and not only this, but when Rebecca also hath conceived by one, one
of a father, for the children being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election. So we see here that God saves
whom He will. The religious of this world,
they can just rant all they want, they can rave all they may, they
can gnash their teeth upon the Word of God, but the fact remains
this, that salvation is of the Lord, and God has mercy on whom
He will. Folks, this is grace. This is
the grace that you and I praise God so much for, is that He did
choose us. He chose us in His Son, the Lord
Jesus, before the world was ever created. He's not waiting for
you to make a decision. He's already made a decision
for you. You weren't seeking Him. He sought
after you. It's a fact, according to God's
Word, that election stands. Esau makes that very distinction
here. He says, God has mercy on whom
He wills. He chooses some, and He passes
by others. The purpose of God according
to election stands firm. It says this in 2 Timothy 2 verse
19, the foundation of God stand assure the Lord knoweth them
that are his. And we just read Romans chapter
9 verse 11 through 16. Next we see that God's elect
are almost always those that we least expect it might be.
Who would have thought? Who would have thought? My mom
was probably the only one. who thought that John Reeves
would ever be called out of darkness? Who would have thought that Lee
Reeves, my older brother Lee, would have been called out of
darkness? Who would have thought any of you would have been called
out of darkness? Wouldn't that be something? I
know we struggle with the thought that maybe Nancy Pelosi might
be called out of darkness to hear the truth, but who would
have thought? It would surprise us whom God has saved. His ways
are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts.
His choices are not our choices. Isaac chose Esau, but God chose
Jacob. Look over at 1 Corinthians chapter
1 with me. Look at a couple verses over
there. Go to the left, 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Look at verses 26
through 29. For ye see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty,
and base things of the world and things which are despised
hath God chosen, yea, and the things which are not to bring
to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory, in His
presence. Let us never imagine that we
know the purpose of God's grace concerning anyone else, nor are
beyond the reach of His, nor should we ever imagine that those
who we have no, maybe we have no love for even, that they might
be out of the reach of our omnipotent God and His grace. Let us never
imagine that none, no matter how excellent they may appear
in our eyes, have anything to commend them to God's favor.
We also see here that faith cherishes and prizes Christ above all things.
Turn over to 1 Peter chapter 2, if you would. To the right
of our text, 1 Peter chapter 2. Faith chooses Christ. seeks Christ, faith, counts Christ
precious, and all things else are dumb compared to Him. Look
here at verses 6-8. Wherefore, also it is contained
in Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect
and precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
Unto you, therefore, which believe, he is precious, but unto them
which be disobedient the stone which the builder disallowed.
The same is made the head of the corner and the stone of stumbling
and a rock of offense even to them which stumble of the word
being disobedient when true also they were appointed. Esau received
the blessings of the world. Jacob received the spiritual
blessings and he took them. He took them because they were
precious to him. The precious blessings of Christ,
the stumbling stone and the rock of offense to them which stumble
at the Word. Faith cherishes Christ above
all things. We also see here that unbelief
despises Christ and cherishes the lust of the flesh that we
see in Esau. He wanted some kind of a blessing
no matter what it was from his father, and his father gave him
blessings of the world and he loved it. Esau despised Christ.
Jacob chose him. Esau counted Christ but dumb
for the momentary gratification of his lust. Jacob counted that
dumb which Esau cherished. that he might win Christ and
be found in him. Look over Philippians chapter
3. Look over Philippians chapter 3, beginning at verse 3, we read
these words, for we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit
and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Multitudes are like Esau, the
sons of Korah, Amalek, Judas. Remember what Judas did? He gave
up Christ for 30 pieces of silver. These others, Demas, stand before
us as glaring examples of men whose hearts the world was. They were so set on the world
that they could not behold the works of God. Jacob preferred
Christ to anything and everything. Few there are like him. The birthright
Jacob chose represented Christ and God's salvation in him. For
that, Jacob was willing to incur his father's wrath and live in
separation from the families and friends and anything else.
We also see that God gives every one of us exactly what we want.
This is a fact deserving much thought and consideration. If
you desire Christ, I'm fully aware that God Himself has made
you want Him, but if Christ is what you want, Christ is what
you shall have. Seek Him in the day while He is still to be sought. Think about this. Let me turn
over to Jeremiah 29 and read for you from there. Verse 11,
we read these words. For I know the thoughts that
I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not
of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon
me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto
you. And ye shall seek me, and find
Me when you shall search for Me with all your heart." If you
want the world, if you want self gratification, if you want riches
of this world, that's exactly what you're going to get. God
is going to give it to you. If you despise Christ and choose
your own lust, God will give you that. Next we see when the
Lord God shuts a sinner up in reprobation, he's doomed forever. If God gives a person up, if
God turns a sinner over to Himself and He lets him have his own
way, he's as good as in hell already. When God shuts the door,
the door is shut just like it was on that ark when it began
to rain. We also see that nothing stands
in the way of, or in, or in any way hinders the purpose of God.
Our Lord had chose the line from which His seed would come through
Abraham right through Jacob, and the Lord blessed Jacob. Blessed
be the name of God. It's always His way overruling
our wills, overruling our desires, overruling our purposes, and
even our most reprehensible behavior to accomplish His everlasting
purpose of grace. the purpose of God shall stand. And then lastly, we see faith
ultimately bows to the will of God, because that is what every
believer truly wants, to bow to the will of God. Look over
at chapter 11, verse 20 one more time. By faith, Isaac blessed
Jacob and Esau concerning the things to come. Though the purpose
of God was in direct opposition to all that Isaac wanted, purpose,
plan, and work, to secure in the end, he bowed to the will
of God and blessed his son.