Let's open our Bibles to the
book of Hebrews chapter 11. Today I'm going to launch out
from this one verse, verse 20, which says, by faith, Hebrews
11 20, by faith Isaac, you know who Isaac was, the son of Abraham
and Sarah, the miracle child, the child of promise, the line
from whom the Lord Jesus Christ would come according to the flesh. That's the issue. So by faith,
Isaac blessed his two sons, Jacob and Esau, concerning things to
come. Now I've entitled this message,
Glorious Things to Come. And that title is really exclusively
limited to Jacob here concerning his role in the lineage of Christ
and his example as an infamous sinner saved by the grace of
God. And even though Esau is included
on things to come, the things to come for Esau and those whom
he represents in his lineage is not glorious at all. And we'll
see that. But these glorious things to
come are those which have been fulfilled in this line, Isaac
and Jacob, by the coming and the doing and the dying, the
work, accomplished redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what this chapter is all about. And the faith here is
like the faith in each one of these examples of faith. It's not their act of believing,
but it is God's promise to save his people through Christ by
grace. Now again, that doesn't negate
or diminish or render needless the fact that we must believe.
He that believeth not shall be damned. That's what the scripture
says. And that believing, that act of faith, is the gift of
God. By grace are you saved, through
faith, that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. Not of
works, lest any man should boast. But the emphasis here in Hebrews
11, with each one of these men and women who are mentioned in
the Hall of Faith, is the promise and the ability, the power, and
the grace, and the faithfulness of God to send Christ, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Savior, the surety, the substitute
into the world to do His great work, to save them and His people
today by His grace, through His righteousness, His blood, His
righteousness imputed. That's the emphasis. It's all
according to faith, the promise of God, the faithfulness of God.
Now here, in this one verse, he mentions Jacob and Esau. And
I love to talk about Jacob. Many times, I didn't go back
and count. You can do that with these computer
programs now, these Bible programs. But I didn't go back and do this.
But I guarantee you, many, many times, In the Bible, God identifies
himself as the God of Jacob. And I like that. I'm glad that
God is the God of Jacob. That's why I had Brother Mark
read that passage in Psalm 46 two times. This is spoken by
the psalmist. Psalm 46, 7, the Lord of hosts
is with us. As Mark said, that's the Lord
of a great army. It's a great army that cannot
be defeated. That's what that means. The God of Jacob is our
refuge. Selah. Think about that. The God of Jacob. Have you read
much about Jacob? You know who Jacob was? Well, Jacob was anything but
a pillar of society. But we'll get into that in just
a moment. But there in Psalm 46, 11, he says the same thing. He repeats this, bears repeating.
The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Whenever I think of Jacob, I
think about Malachi 3, verse six. I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore, you
sons of Jacob are not consumed. You know what I am? I'm a son
of Jacob. I don't have an ounce of Jewish
blood in my DNA that I know of, but I'm still a son of Jacob,
a child of Abraham. Abraham and Isaac and Jacob,
they are commonly referred to in the Bible as the patriarchs. Some people add Joseph. Later
on we'll talk about Joseph. Abraham is the great example
of how God justifies the ungodly. Mark dealt with that last week
in Romans 4. Abraham was a sinner, naturally
speaking, just like all of us, born dead and trespassed, fallen
in Adam, born dead in trespasses and sins. He grew up as an idolater
in the Ur of the Chaldees, and yet God chose him before the
foundation of the world, gave him to Christ, sent Christ to redeem him from
his sins and establish righteousness for Abraham. Righteousness imputed
as taught in Romans 4. Abraham had nothing in himself
to recommend himself to God. No works, no heritage. Isn't that the way it is with
all of God's people? How does God justify the ungodly? by His grace through the righteousness
established by Christ on the cross as our surety and substitute. And then Isaac is the great declaration
of that promise. The Messiah would come through
Isaac, the child of promise. What is the promise? It's not
just that Abraham and Sarah would have a child. It's more than
that. It's that through that child, Messiah would come. Christ would come. Righteousness
would be established. And then there's Jacob. Now the
story of Jacob and Esau is a story that is amazing. It's a story
of man's sinfulness and depravity and pride and unbelief. And let me tell you something,
both Jacob and Esau fit that bill. But I do too. I fit that bill too. I was born
naturally a Jacob. Just like Esau, according to
the flesh. The Bible says that. Listen,
the Bible says that we are even God's people, even God's children,
even God's elect, are by nature, that is how we're naturally born
and act and conduct ourselves, By nature, naturally speaking,
we're just the same as the children of wrath. No difference. The
scripture has concluded all under sin. Jew and Gentile. So that we know this, like Jacob,
if God were to ever look upon us and decide to give us or bless
us or save us based upon what we've earned or deserved, we
would get nothing but damnation. Mark it down. The story of Jacob
and Esau is the story of God's sovereign, unconditional, electing
grace upon the people of His choice. Look at Romans 9. You know what this says. We're
studying this on our Wednesday night studies. Look at it. Romans 9, look at verse 15. God says, for he saith to Moses,
God will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have mercy,
God says, upon whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. That's God's sovereignty. You know why people do not like
that? Because we fell in Adam. What
was Adam rebelling against? God's sovereignty. God's right
to be the creator and the ruler, to set the rules. Verse 16, for
so then it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,
but of God that showeth mercy. It's God's prerogative. That's
what he says. But look back up in this chapter. Verse 9. He says, For this is the word
of promise, at this time will I come and Sarah shall have a
son." Now, the Jews, the unbelieving Jews, if you just considered
Abraham's experience with Sarah, And God making a distinction
between Isaac and Ishmael, the Jews could, in their unbelieving
minds, and when I say that now, I'm not just putting down the
unbelieving Jews. This is the way we all are in our nature. They could have said, well, Ishmael
was not born of Abraham and Sarah. He was born of Abraham and the
Egyptian Hagar. So they could have seen a national
ethnic distinction there. So what happened? Well, look
on, verse 10. And not only this, but when Rebekah
also, now Rebekah was Jacob's wife, one of his wives, also
had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac. I mean, Rebekah
was Isaac's wife. And he said, even by our father
Isaac. Verse 11, for the children being
not yet born, neither having done any good or evil. Now, how
much plainer can you get here? It wasn't God looking down through
a telescope of time to see who'd be good and who'd be evil. It
says, that the purpose of God according to election might stand
not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto her,
the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. So in other words, they couldn't
raise any objection of ethnicity here because Jacob and Esau were
twins, both born of Jacob, or born of Isaac and Rebekah. And what happened here is that
God even narrowed the line even more. He narrowed it with Abraham,
he narrowed it with Isaac, and then he narrowed it with Jacob.
This is the line through whom Christ would come. But there's
no ethnic distinction between Jacob and Esau. They were twins. Esau was the firstborn. He came
out of the womb first, but Jacob followed with his hand on his
heel, and that's why he was named Jacob. Now, if you all have any
relatives or children named Jacob, I don't mean to offend you, but
the name Jacob means supplanter. That's what it means in the Hebrew. I like the name Jacob though,
I mean, don't get me wrong, or Jake or whatever. But that's
what it means. Esau means red, because he was
hairy and red. They're very practical people. But here's the thing. God made
the distinction. People get upset they read passages
like this. Well, how in the world could
God hate Esau? Well, according to the Bible,
that's not the problem. That's easy, because Esau deserved it. But so do you and I. The problem is, how could God
love Jacob? A sinner! No better than Esau. In fact, if you knew the two
boys, I'm pretty sure if you read the whole biography of Esau
and Jacob, you'd probably warm up to Esau a whole lot better
than you would Jacob. Esau was a man's man. He was
a hunter. He'd be like the athletes today.
Jacob was a mama's boy. That's what he was. Jacob was
a conniver. He planned and schemed. And he
had his mother with him. Talking about mothers. You see, Isaac's favorite was
Esau. That's my boy. Rebecca's favorite was Jacob. That's my child. That's how it
goes. And then understand this. Jacob
was deserving of God's love, not. no more than Esau. In fact, if God gave Jacob what
he deserved and what he earned, it would be hatred too. And then
understand this, and I always make this point because people,
you know, I've had several people tell me, well, I'm not going
to serve a God who hates. If that's true, then you're not
going to serve the God of the Bible. But the reason people have such
an aversion to that is because they equate or compare God's
hatred to their own. Now let me tell you something
right now, when you and I hate For the most part, it's evil. It's sinful. It's pride. It's vengeance. But when God
hates, it's a holy, righteous, just hatred. And really what
it means is He rejected Esau on a just ground. So then the
problem comes, how could he love Jacob? Well, if he's going to
love Jacob, that means he's going to provide the best for Jacob,
eternally and spiritually. He's got to have a just ground
too. He must be just when he loves. He must be just when he
shows mercy. He must be just when he shows
grace and compassion. He must be just when he justifies. just like he was with Abraham.
On what ground did God justify Jacob, save Jacob, love Jacob? On the ground of the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Period. Had nothing to do with
Jacob himself or his works. The story of Jacob and Esau is
a story of God's sovereign providence and power. I mean, this is amazing
now. We see in the story of Jacob
and Esau, God working all things after the counsel of His own
will in spite of the decisions, the desires, and the schemes
of sinful men and women. And that's why He says here in
Hebrews 11, by faith, by faith Isaac did what he did. What did
he do? He blessed both Jacob and Esau concerning things to
come. And as I said, that's another
proof that faith here is the promise of God and God's faithfulness
and power to fulfill His promises in and by the Lord Jesus Christ
as revealed in the true gospel in spite of the schemes and desires
and wills and decisions of sinful men and women. As I said, this does not deny
or diminish the reality and the necessity of the fact that sinners
must come to believe God's promise. But remember what we said when
we started this series through Hebrews 11. Faith has a foundation. What is it? The Word of God. Faith has an object. Who is it?
The Lord Jesus Christ. Faith has evidence. That's the
gift of God that brings sinners to believe in Him and repent
and obey God as motivated by grace, love, and gratitude. This whole thing is recorded,
if you go back to Genesis 27, and there's a lot of scripture
here and I don't have time to read all of this. Most of you
are very familiar with the story of Isaac and Rebekah and Jacob
and Esau. But the record of Genesis 27
is an amazing example of God's sovereign providence. God's in
control, folks. God governs this world according
to the good pleasure of His will. To accomplish His will and not
man's will. You see, God, as I've said before,
God is not some kind of cosmic chess player up in heaven making
His counter moves to our move. He does not act upon man's whims
or desires or decisions. If he does, this world is doomed. It was Isaac's will. Now you
know how the story goes. Isaac wanted to bless Esau. And the blessing that he's talking
about in Hebrews 11 is the birthright. Now you know the birthright.
It's not just giving things to his kids. We all give things
to our kids. Isaac gave things, material things
to both Jacob and Esau and they both were well off. It has nothing
to do with a treasure chest or a house or a land or anything
like that. The blessing is the birthright. It was Isaac's desire
and intention to bless his son Esau with the birthright and
that was according to the law of the firstborn. As I said,
they're twins, but Esau came out of the womb first. So technically,
he was the firstborn. But it was God's will to bless Jacob with that birthright. Why? Well, we read it in Romans
9. It was given that the purpose of God according to election,
God is the one who is in control. God is king. His word is law. And he saves by grace. Why did he save Jacob, the supplanter,
and leave the ideal all-American boy, Esau, to his own? to show according to the purpose
of the election of grace that it's not of him that runneth,
nor of him that willeth, but of God that showeth mercy. Many, many times people do things
out of ignorance, even out of evil intentions. And this includes
believers too sometimes. But God has a purpose and a will
that cannot be overturned or changed. You remember the story
of Joseph? His brothers, in their wicked hearts and minds, in their
jealousy, even against Joseph's arrogance and bragging, What'd
they do? They sold him into slavery, and
they wanted him dead, but Reuben stepped in and said, no, we're
not gonna kill him, we'll just sell him into slavery. And you remember
what happened to Joseph? And he became second in command
in Egypt, and his brothers were brought before him, and they
trembled just knowing he's gonna get us. And Joseph calmed their fears
by saying what? What did he say? Well, it's recorded
in Genesis 50, verse 19 and 20. Let me read it to you. Joseph
said unto them, Fear not, for I am in the place of God. I'm where God put me. Now as
for you, you thought evil against me. It was sinful for you to
do this. But God meant it unto good. And
why? To bring to pass that is this
day to save much people alive. That's how the Hebrew children
were preserved. According to the sovereign purpose
and will of God, even in spite of the evil intentions of Joseph's
brethren, God preserved the Hebrew children. Wow. Does that impress you? It does
me. That's not high philosophy, but
our minds can't reach into it. And then the greatest act of
evil ever committed on the face of the earth is when the fallen
human race gathered together in opposition against the Holy
Son of God and sought to murder Him. In their minds, putting
Him on that cross was murder. In our minds, we can say. And yet the Bible says we did
no more than what God had determined beforehand to be done. Well, as I said, Esau was his
father's favorite. Jacob was his mother's favorite.
Esau was the type of person the world admires and looks up to
and follows. Jacob wasn't. They were twins,
but Esau was delivered first, therefore considered the firstborn. But God had already told Isaac
that the elder would serve the younger. Look back at Genesis
25. You can read this, Genesis 25. And look at verse 19. Listen to this. This is before
they were born. These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's
son, Abraham begat Isaac. Isaac was 40 years old when he
took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian, of Padanaram,
and the sister to Laban the Syrian. And Isaac entreated the Lord
for his wife because she was barren. Rebekah was barren. You
know, it's amazing how all these women were barren that they married.
Abraham married Sarah, she was barren. Isaac married Rebecca,
she was barren. Jacob married Rachel and she
was barren for a while, wasn't she? The Lord gave him children. Power of God. And the Lord was
entreated of him, that is, of Isaac. And Rebekah, his wife,
conceived. The children struggled together
within her, and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And
she went to inquire of the Lord, and the Lord said unto her, Two
nations are in thy womb. Now let me say this about that.
This is what causes some people, when they go over to Romans 9
and they read about Jacob and Esau and how God loved Jacob
and hated Esau, They'll say, based on this verse, well he's
talking about nations there, he's not talking about individuals.
Not true. In Romans 9, he's talking about
Jacob and Esau, individuals. But let me give you something
to think about. What is a nation made up of? A bunch of individuals. So even
if you go over there and say, well, he's talking about nations,
well, you're just saying God loved a bunch of individuals and he
hated a bunch of individuals. That's what a nation is. But
that's not what this means. In other words, there'd be a
nation come out of these boys. The Arab nation came out of Ishmael,
but the Edomeans came out of Esau. And that's the nation that
King Herod was from. but the Jewish nation would come
out of Jacob. So he says, two nations are in
thy womb and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels.
The one people shall be stronger than the other people and the
elder shall serve the younger. Well, the book of Hebrews back
there says, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to
come. Now this blessing was the birthright of the firstborn son. It was the blessing of God in
the firstborn passed on from generation to generation in the
age of the patriarchs. And here's what that birthright
represented. Now listen to this, this birthright
represented Christ and all the blessings of God's grace in Christ
for all the elect." That's what the birthright represented. It was not just material things. Material things were included.
Riches were included. But it gave that firstborn male
the right to be the spiritual head of the family, representing
Christ, who is the spiritual head of the church, He's the
head, we're the body. He's the one who paid the price.
You see all of that come into play. And that's what that birthright
represented. And so what happened was Isaac,
you know the story how Isaac was going to bless Esau. And he told him to go out and
hunt and bring him some venison in. Cause he was hungry and then
he'd bless him. And you remember what Rebecca
did and Jacob, they schemed. It's all written in Genesis 27.
They schemed around and Jacob, you know, Esau was a hairy man
so, and by this time Isaac was blind and Esau was a hairy man
so Jacob put fur on his arms and he went out and he, Rebecca,
he got some meat and Rebecca made a pot of stew and he went
in and deceived Isaac. And Isaac blessed him with the
birthright instead of Esau. Somebody asked one time, how
could Isaac by faith bless Jacob when he was deceived? It was
a deception, wasn't it? God worked His will by overcoming with a deception. Well, first of all, Isaac thought
he was blessing Esau, didn't he? But it was the will of God
that he blessed Jacob. So even though he was not aware
that he blessed Jacob, he knew that the person whoever he blessed
in the name of the Lord would be blessed. And that's the way it is. The
man or woman who believes God believes that the sovereign purpose
of God will be accomplished even though he does not understand
it all, his ways past finding out. But Esau was an unbeliever
who despised his birthright. He thought nothing of it, he
rejected. You remember what happened back in Genesis 25 when Jacob
connived to get the birthright away from Esau? Esau had been
out in the field. He'd been hunting. He came in. He was hungry. Jacob had made
that mess of pottage and bean soup. And Esau was so hungry
that he traded his birthright. Somebody asked me one time, said,
well, why would he trade that for a mess of beans? He didn't believe. He didn't
think anything of that. That promise that God made to
send Messiah. He didn't believe the Gospel.
It was nothing to him. That's right. How many people
neglect spiritual matters for earthly pursuits? That's Esau. That's what they do. Esau was a man of the world and
he was admired. But that's what he was. He was
a man of the world. The world meant more to him than the worship
of God, the promise of God, the gospel of salvation. The righteousness
of God. He didn't care about those things.
He had too much to do. Give me that pottage. Birthright,
what do I care? And he was a boy who wanted to
please his father. That's why he was so anxious
to get the blessing when the time came. So he was a man of the world.
He cared nothing of the promise of salvation and spiritual things.
But now Jacob. You say, well, what ran through
Jacob's mind? Well, he speaks of things to come for Jacob.
They're glorious things. You think about Jacob and his
story. We don't have time to go back
into all of it. You remember the story of Jacob and Rachel,
how he went down to his uncle Laban, and Laban deceived him,
and he got Leah, and then later he worked seven years for Rachel.
That's a picture of Christ. Christ completed the work, the
seven, and he got his bride, the church. Rachel was barren, but the Lord
determined to give her a child and she had the child Joseph.
Later on she had Benjamin. She died in childbirth. You know
the story of Jacob's ladder in Genesis 28. That's a picture
of Christ. Christ is the way to heaven.
Christ is the ladder. You see, he comes down, had the
angels descending and ascending, that's Christ coming down and
going up. He died, he was buried, he arose again, he ascended into
the Father, sin was put away, righteousness was established,
that's Jacob's ladder. That's what it's about. You remember the story of Jacob
wrestling the angel, which I believe was a pre-incarnate appearance
of Christ. Genesis 32, and Jacob overcame
the angel. Doesn't mean by his own power.
What it means is, well, remember that's when Jacob's name was
changed to what? Israel. Which means being blessed
of God, it means overcoming with God, being victorious with God. How does a sinner prevail with
God? By pleading Christ. Pleading
his blood and righteousness. You know the story of Jacob when
he blessed his sons on his deathbed. He blessed all the 12 sons. Out
of Jacob came the 12 sons, the 12 tribes of Israel. And he blessed
them. Remember how he blessed Judah?
Judah, your alliance, well, the scepter will not depart from
Judah until Shiloh comes. That's Jacob prophesying. Shiloh,
the prince of peace. But let's turn to one more verse
and then I'll close. Turn to Hebrews chapter 12. See,
that's the glorious things to come for Jacob. God is the God
of Jacob. He's the God who saves sinners.
He's the God who justifies the ungodly through the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the God who preserves us
and brings us to glory by His grace through Christ. I am the
Lord, I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. He's the God of Jacob that gives
me hope. But what about Esau? Well, things to come for Esau,
I'd label it bitterness. Look at Hebrews chapter 12. Look at verse 14. He says, follow
peace with all men and holiness without which no man shall see
the Lord. Look indeligently lest any man fail of the grace of
God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and
thereby many be defiled. lest there be any fornicator
and profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his
birthright. For you know how that 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 was brought to tears when
he found out that his father Isaac would not and could not
bless him. But that was not repentance of dead works brought about through
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That was sorrow over the fact
that he had been deceived by his brother and he wanted vengeance. Esau, he really got what he wanted. Remember when Jacob went away
and he came back and he met Esau and he was afraid Esau was going
to kill him and Esau said, don't worry about it, I've got as much
as I need. I've got the world. That's what Esau's want. Everything
that the world could offer and everything that the world gives,
Esau had. He was content, but he had no
thoughts of Christ and salvation and the necessity and need of
the grace of God. You see that?