but next Wednesday night, we'll
start back at our seven o'clock schedule. Let's begin our worship
service with hymn number 267, All Things Work Out for Good. All things work out for good,
we know, such is God's great design. ? He orders all our steps
below ? For purposes divine ? For purposes divine ? This is the
faith that keeps me still ? No matter what the test ? He lets
me glory in His will For well I know tis best. For well I know tis best. So now the future holds no fear. God guards the work begun. And mortals are immortal here. until their work is done until
their work is done someday the path he chose for me ? Will all
be understood ? In heaven's clearer light I'll see ? All things worked
out for good ? All things worked out for good M number 291, Guide
Me O Thou Great Job. Guide me, O thou great Jehovah,
pilgrim through this barren land. I am weak, but thou, almighty,
hold me with thy power. Bread of heaven, bread of heaven,
feed me till I want no more. Feed me till I want no more. Open now the crystal fountain
which Let the fire and cloudy pillar
lead me on my journey through. Strong believer, strong believer,
be thou still my strength and shield, be thou still When I tread the verge of Jordan,
bid my anxious fears subside. The swelling current, land me
safe on Canaan's side. Songs of praises, songs of praises,
I will ever give to thee. I will ever give to thee. Genesis chapter 49. I'm going
to read verses 28 through 32. The title of my message tonight
is Jacob Taught Us. Verse 28. All these are the twelve
tribes of Israel. And this is that their father
spake unto them, and blessed them, every one according to
his blessing he blessed them. And he charged them, and said
unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people. Bury me with
my fathers. in the cave that is in the field
of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field of
Machpelah, which is before Mamre in the land of Canaan, which
Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for possession
of a burying place. There they buried Abraham and
Sarah, his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah,
his wife. And there I buried Leah. The
purchase of the field and the cave that is therein was from
the children of Heth. And when Jacob had made an end
commanding his son, he gathered up his feet into his bed, yielded
up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people. Let us pray.
Now, Father in heaven, we are thankful for mercy and grace
that is ours through the shed blood and perfect righteousness
of Jesus Christ our Lord. We are thankful that you have
made him to be unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. We know that is in us and our
flesh dwelleth no good thing. That evil is present with everything
we do. With our mind we do serve the
law of God. With our flesh we serve the law
of sin and death. And we can only cry with our
servant, Paul, who shall deliver me from the body of this death.
I thank God through Jesus Christ. Father, we pray tonight for those
who are sick and going through trials, those who are awaiting
different operations and procedures. We ask, Lord, your help for them.
We pray you'd be with them and be with those doctors as they
prepare and minister to them. Thankful to see Julie back tonight.
It's good to see her face. Thankful that you ministered
to her, strengthened her. Pray for the other shut-ins,
Father. We pray for Wayne and for Ethel and for Peggy Lambert. We ask, Lord, your help for them,
strengthen them in Jesus Christ. Fix their hearts and minds upon
him. We pray for ourselves tonight, Fathers. We gather here that
you might be pleased to meet with us in the presence of your
Holy Spirit. to be our guide into all truth,
to lead us to Christ, and to take the things of Christ and
reveal them unto us. I pray that you'd open our minds
and our hearts to receive and believe your word, and to trust
you completely. Oh, how we long for that day
where we'll put no trust in the flesh. Help us, Lord, tonight
to worship you, to sing your praises, to be of a heart full
of thanksgiving for what you've done for us. Help us now, we
pray in Christ's name, amen. Now this is the account of Jacob's
last moments on the earth. Having declared the future of
his sons and told them what their futures would be and blessed
them with the blessings that he had for them. He tells his
son that he's about to die, and then he pulls his feet upon his
bed and dies. Before he does, he tells him
to bury him in the cave of Machpelah, where Abraham and Sarah and Isaac
and Rebekah and Leah are buried. The first 13 verses of the next
chapter are the record of Joseph carrying out these commands that
were given to the brethren here. My thoughts this past week have
been about Jacob and his God as I read these last few verses
of this 49th chapter. Jacob's earthly life has ended. One of the great and well-documented
patriarchs has left this world for the next world. Centuries
ago this man ceased to be and yet the record of his life, his
weaknesses, his frailties, his courage, and his triumphs occupy
the minds of believers to this day. In Southern vernacular he would
probably fit the colloquial designation saying he was a character. Jacob was a character. His life
is a large lesson and every sinner saved by grace can relate to
Jacob if he knows who he is. And every preacher that preaches
the gospel of sovereign grace treasures the record of this
man's life. Jacob taught us. Actually, God
taught us by using the life of this man as he directed the steps
of this man. Jacob's life has taught us what
a sinner is. We don't have to wonder. We don't
have to wonder. Now there are numerous evil men
in the world and in scripture and might be rightly designated
as sinners but who never know the wonder of God's grace. But
there are other sinners, other sinners, sinners who are made
to know their condition and made to confess what they are, sinners
who Christ came to save blood-bought sinners whose lives prove the
fact that they are sinners. Jacob was such a sinner. His name at birth had no L at
the end of it or J at the end of it, which would designate
that he had an association with God. He was Jacob. Some of the Jewish writers said
that that name was pronounced sometime like clearing your throat
or coughing up something, rather than sweetly pronounced. God gave him a name, called him
Jacob, and that means supplanter. What is a supplanter? A supplanter
is one who usurps the place of, especially through intrigue and
underhanded tactics. Jacob did that. Did it twice
to his brother. did it to his father. His name predetermined what he
would be and what he would do to his brother Esau. But actually
this was the name God gave him. This is the name God gave him.
He was the heel catcher. The one who came out second but
then pulled his brother back in and came out first. He felt that though God had promised
him the birthright, since he was a supplanter, he would supplant
God in the fulfillment of that. God had said, The elder shall
serve the younger. That's what he had said at his
birth. The elder shall serve the younger. God had promised
him. But he felt like a lot of people feel in the promises of
God that it's up to them to make sure God's promise was fulfilled.
Did he believe God? No, his problem was UNBELIEF!
He was a sinner, and that's what sinners do. They feel like they've
got to help God out in doing what He has promised He would
do. And the lesson finally learned by every believer is this, that
God does not need, want, or solicit help from any of His creatures. He does as He pleases. in heaven
and earth and all the deep places. Jacob was a con man. No doubt
about it. Say you're hungry Esau, you're
starving to death, you give me that birthright, I'll give you
a bowl of soup. Done deal. Done deal. Say Esau's to be blessed Isaac,
though you're blind and can't see, Jacob will put on some venison
grease put some fur on his hands and go up to Isaac and say, Bless
me, Father. And he said, Who is that? And
he said, It's Esau. It's Esau. Isaac wasn't so sure
about it, so he smelled of him. He sure smelled like Esau. And
he reached out and touched his hand, felt the hair on his hand
and said, Well, it is Esau. And he blessed him with a birthright.
God had already promised it, but twice he was going to help
out God. He was a mama's boy. He was a usurper. He was a liar
and a deceiver and a prolific whiner. He was a sinner and God loved him. That's the
record in Scripture. He was a sinner and God loved
him. Some people say I can't imagine
how God could hate Esau and love Jacob. I can't imagine how God
could love Jacob at all. When I read about him sometimes
I get mad and then I realize God's talking about me when he
says that. God said that he loved him twice
in the word of God in the book of Malachi. In Malachi's prophecy
and in Paul's epistle to the Romans God said he loved Jacob. and he hated Esau. He loved Jacob. Here's a wonder of wonder. God
Almighty loves sinners of a specific kind. Sinners who the Holy Ghost
has revealed that they are sinners. The old saying, Puritan saying,
went that the sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made
him so. For evil men live out their life
in this world, though we may call them sinners, they'll never
call themselves that. They'll never see themselves
as that. And here's the wonder that God
loved Jacob. God loved him. A consideration
of Jacob, of his life, his character, makes one know this of a surety
that God's love must then be unconditional love. There is no condition in the
life of Jacob, in this man, that made him lovable, but God LOVED
him, and according to the scripture, the only way God's love is perceived
or grasped or understood is this. Hereby perceive we the love of
God that He laid down His life for us. This is how God's love
is understood. I know men talk about God's love
all the time. They go to 1 John and they say,
Well, it says God is love, so therefore God is love. But that's
in reference to us loving the brethren. Text without context
is pretext, and the context of that is God is love, and we'll
know that God is love if we love the brethren. If we love the
brethren, that's the context of it. Men talk about God's love
all the time, but they're talking about this anemic affection which
can actually do nothing. They tell men all over the world,
God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. I saw it
on a sign just the other day when I was driving around. God
loves you. Know this, God loves you. Does
He? He loved Jacob. Jacob was a sinner. Jacob was
a sinner, and God loved him. Scripture says God laid down
His life for those He loved, so we know this about Jacob.
God laid down His life for Jacob. He loved us and gave Himself
for us, saith the Scripture. The thrice holy God, whose eyes
are too pure to behold evil, how does He often refer to Himself?
In His infallible Word, He refers to Himself as the God of Jacob. Of who? Of Jacob. Now occasionally it says Israel.
That was the name he gave to Jacob on the night that Jacob
wrestled with Christ all night long. And God put out his hip
and changed his walk forever. Sometimes he calls himself the
God of Israel. But more often than not you'll
find this term. The God of Jacob. The God of sinners. Jacob taught
us what it is to be a sinner. Jacob also taught us that God's
love is distinctive and particular. People talk about the universal
love of God but you'd never accept it in your own case with your
husband or your wife. My wife wouldn't like it very
much if I said I love you and all the other women in the world.
She wouldn't like that very much. She wouldn't accept that, because
that's not love. Love is always particular and
specific, and so is God's. The two times that God said He
loved Jacob was declared in opposition to the fact that He hated Esau.
In Malachi chapter 1, in that great book where God says, I've
done this, and Israel says, No, you didn't do that. He calls
God a liar six or seven times. The first time He does it, He
said, I have loved you. And they say, where in have you
loved us? Where in have you loved us? He said, I love Jacob. And I hated Esau. I hated Esau. Malachi chapter 1 verse 2 and
3. Then in Romans 9 and verse 13, Paul says it again, quoting
Malachi. saying Jacob have I loved and
Esau have I hated. And he does that in reference
to the fact that men are going to say this makes God unrighteous
if he loves one and hates the other. No, he's God. He can do
as he pleases. And he does as he pleases. Some
have said erroneously that God didn't really hate Esau. He just
loved him less than Jacob. That's what they say. That is
a lie. It's a simple lie. It's not even
close to the truth. not even close to the truth.
In both instances, in the Hebrew and the Greek, the word hate
means to detest. It means to pursue with hate. It means to count as a foe or
an enemy. And someone who is your enemy,
you don't love them. You hate them if you are their
enemy. This is not a hint. There is
not a hint or a scintilla of affection ever attached to the
word hate in scripture. No affections ever attached to
that word. Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated. And in
Psalm 111 the Lord says those that commit violence my soul
hateth. Same word. Detest. Pursue in hate. Who does God
love? He loves his own. Having loved
his own, it says. He loved them to the end. Having
loved his own. He loves his people. He says
that in scripture. He loves his elect. Those whom
he's chosen. He loves his sheep. He loves
his church. He loves his bride. He loves
his children. He loves his brethren. These are all the people that
God is said to love. Now they are all by nature. at enmity with God. That means they consider God
their enemy, they are His enemy, and they feel enmity toward Him.
But He does not count them their enemy. This is the wonder of
God's grace and mercy. We know that sin is against God.
We know that sin is rebellion against God. We know that sin
would stick their finger in God's eye. Sin would rip God from His
throne and set themselves in His place. We know that sin is
that way. How does God view the sin of His people? How does He
refer to it in Scripture? Sickness. Sickness. Maladies. Weaknesses. Frailties. Those things that
are to be pitied. Why? Because God pities His children
as a Father pities His children, so He pities everyone that fears
Him. He knows our frame and remembers
that we are dust. God does not count those who
are at enmity with Him, who are His people, as His enemies. He does not count them as such.
The Bible is clear. Those whom God has loved, He
has drawn to Himself. He said in Jeremiah 31.3, that
great chapter of the Gospel, Jeremiah 31, which sets forth
the Gospel and the New Covenant clearly. He said, I have loved
thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, I have drawn thee. Therefore, I have drawn. That's
what happens when God loves you. He draws you to Himself. He'll
bring you to Himself. And those whom God has loved,
He saves. He saved the ones He has loved. That is what it says in 1 John
3. In verses 16 and 17, He makes
that clear. He draws the analogy of our love
for our brethren off of that love. He says in 1 John 3, verse
16, Hereby perceive, that is to understand or to grasp. This
is how we understand God's love. Not with our view of love or
not with what we think how love is defined, but this is how we
understand it. This is the only way we understand God's love.
Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His
life for us. That's it. How do we know God
loves us? He laid down His life for us.
He laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our
lives for our brethren. That don't mean we ought to just
kill ourselves just so our brethren think we love them. That means
if our brother's life is on the line and it's either them or
us, we're the ones that die. That's what that means. We stand
in front of the gun and take the bullets. That's what that
means. Here God defines what he's talking about. He illuminates.
He illustrates it, if you will. He said, but whoso hath this
world's goods, that means he has the capability, he has the
wherewithal, he has the equipment, he has the world's goods, and
sees his brother have need and shuts up his bowels of mercy
or compassion from him. How does the love of God dwell
in him? Now here he says what God's love does. Evidently, if
God has the power to save and everyone will say that He does. If God sees His child whom He
says He loves in need and does not save him, how can God say
He loves him? That's what is being said here.
This is how we perceive God's love. Were you in trouble? WERE
YOU BROKEN AND RUINED IN SIN? WERE YOU DEAD IN TRESPASSES AND
SIN? DID GOD LOVE YOU? IF HE LOVED
YOU AND LEFT YOU LIKE THAT, HIS LOVE MEANS NOTHING. FOR HIM TO LOVE YOU BECAUSE HE
HAS THE POWER AND THE WORLD WITH ALL THE GOODS TO SAVE YOU. LOVE REQUIRES HIM TO SAVE YOU. LOVE SAYS HE MUST SAVE YOU. or else he doesn't love you at
all. It's that simple. Jacob taught us that, that God's
love is distinctive and saving. Jacob have I loved and Esau have
I hated. It's distinctive love. Finally, Jacob taught us of election
unto salvation. The result of God's unconditional
love was unconditional election. This truth is set forth in the
Word of God more than 140 times. Some say, well, it's just a minor
doctrine. They don't know what they're talking about. Some say
it's hard to understand. No, it's not. Everybody understands
what elect means. It means to choose. When it says
election unto salvation, it means God chose unto salvation some
people. He chose them to save them. That's
what it means. You say, well, that's hard to
understand. No, it's not. It's just hard to swallow. Unless
you're a child of God. Unless you're a child of God. It's clearly declared. And the
men who were inspired to report of this doctrine, this teaching,
were very thankful for it. When you talk to most people,
they're not thankful for it at all. But Paul was thankful for
it. In 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13, he was very thankful for
it. He said, brethren, beloved of the Lord, we are bound to
give thanks. We have to give thanks. We are
obligated to God to give thanks unto you, brethren, for you,
brethren, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the spirit and belief in the truth,
whereunto he called you by our gospel to the glory of the Lord
Jesus Christ." He was thankful. And Paul would bless God, which
means to say good things about God. We get the words eulogize. We also get the word euoglileo,
which means to declare the good news. He said, Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with
all spiritual blessings, according, or on the basis of the fact that,
according as He has chosen us in Christ before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy without blame before
Him, in love, having predestinated us to the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ unto Himself, to the praise of the glory of
grace. In the case of Jacob and Esau, election is defined and
illuminated and illustrated like nowhere else in Scripture. All
throughout Scripture it is simply stated that God chose His people. In Ephesians chapter 9 verses
11 through 13 it is defined. It says this is how it is done. This is how it was done. Romans chapter 9, verse 11, Paul says, For the children,
he's talking about Jacob and Esau, for the children being
not yet born, so they were still in the womb of their mother,
Rebekah, still in the womb of their mother, neither having
done good or evil, so whatever is coming up, they were not yet
born, And whatever is coming up has nothing to do with what
they did or did not do, neither having done good or evil, that
the purpose of God, according to election, might stand. What's
that saying? Election has nothing to do with
good or evil. It took place four years ago.
It's not of works. but of him that calleth. This
election is of God, it has nothing to do with you. Because that
is so, it is said to her, that is to Rebecca, the elder shall
serve the younger. Wait a minute, that is not the
way the law is written. God is the law giver. The elder shall
serve the younger. You mean the firstborn is not
going to get to be the firstborn? No, the secondborn is going to
be the firstborn. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, and he shall
have I hated." Well, what shall we say then? If that's the case,
if God is really like that, what shall we say then? Here's what
men will say. Is there unrighteousness with
God? Does that make God not fair? Isn't that what you hear? That's
not fair. Election can't be fair. That's
what men say. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. The strongest words
in the Greek language, no, not ever, no, never let it be. That's
a whole bunch of negatives in a row. No, not ever, no, never
let it be. God forbid. Because he said to
Moses, when Moses asked him, show me your glory, he said,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion
or show grace, be gracious unto whom I will be gracious. I will
show compassion on whom I will. So grace and mercy and compassion
belongs to God, they're his prerogative. So then, if that's the case,
If God chose whom he would save before they were born, and it
had nothing to do with their works, it had nothing to do with
whether they had done good or evil, and he proved it by loving
the worst kind of fella, Jacob, and hating the kind of fella
we'd probably like to hang around with, Esau, who was a hunter
and a man's man, and if he proved it by that, this is what God says, So then,
it is not of him that willeth, Well, I've got my free will.
No, you don't. It's not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God, which showeth mercy. Of God. And he goes on to explain
that. If you want to read the rest
of the chapter, he explains that in no uncertain terms, even to
the point that he made men the way he made men. Out of one great
big lump of clay, he'd split it right down the middle and
made some into vessels of honor and some made to destroy. The
example he used was Pharaoh. He says, I raised him up just
to put him down, just so you'd know that it's my business to
harden a man's heart or to save him. How do we know that of election
being so clear, Jacob and Esau? Jacobs taught us this. He taught
us this. Jacob and Esau are employed to
teach that election is absolutely unconditional, so that there
would be no question that God's grace is unconditional and entirely
according to God's prerogative. Jacob is gone from this world,
but he being dead, like Abel, yet speaketh. And his life and
his character proclaims that God's mercy and grace offer sinners
that's what that message teaches this is a faithful say worthy
of all acceptation Christ Jesus came into this world to save
sinners of whom I am chief scripture says and you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sin is what Jacob taught us Father
bless us to our understanding we pray in Christ's name