All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn back to Genesis 33. While you're turning, let me
say this. Sandy Locke, hopefully, will
be getting out of the hospital. She had her foot, leg operated
on the other day, and Neal has been under the weather. So be
remembering Neal and Sandy. Hopefully, Lord willing, she'll
get out tomorrow. I meant to tell you that before. Genesis 33. The scripture, actually inspired by the Spirit
of God, sets forth men, women, as they truly are. An uninspired
writer would always try to put a nicer, more endearing spin
upon the life of those we find and read about it, but not so
the spirit of truth. When the Lord has recorded that
which He's recorded, it's recorded exactly as it is. And we see men and women as they
truly are. Now this is good because from
the scriptures we read and we see that those that lived in
these Old Testament times, those that lived in the times of our
Lord when he was on this earth, the way we see that they are,
they were. That's encouraging. It's encouraging
because I see and you see failings and fears and struggles and doubts. So we realize that God Almighty
has been pleased to tell us how His people are. As they are born
in Adam and as they are born in Christ. Abraham believed God. Abraham trusted God, Abraham
obeyed God. The Lord told him to leave his
house, he left his house. Abraham believed God. But then
when times got rough and he thought he was gonna die because he was
afraid that somebody was gonna want his wife and kill him for
her, he lied. He said she was his sister. Elijah, on Mount Carmel exhibited
great faith, boldness. He challenged 450 prophets of
Baal to see who was going to answer, God or Baal. And when they were trying to
get Baal to answer, he mocked them, made fun of them. He said
evidently he can't hear what you're saying, he must be busy,
maybe he's asleep, maybe he's gone somewhere, maybe he's out
of town, I don't know. But then he prayed a prayer and
asked God to rain fire down from heaven and the Lord did. But
then when Jezebel told him that she was gonna kill him, he fled
from her. We see tonight that Jacob, A
man that had received the promise of God. Told him, he said, I
want you to go back home. I will be with you. I'll be with
you. Before Jacob got home one night,
God wrestled with him, wrestled with him till the break of day. And when the scripture reveals
that the Lord beheld the faith that he had given Jacob, when
he saw that he prevailed not against him, he saw Jacob didn't
quit, Jacob didn't run. God gave him faith to believe.
And the Lord told him, said, let me go. Jacob said, I'm not
gonna let you go, lest you bless me. And he blessed him. Asked him, what's your name?
He said, my name's Jacob. He said, no more. Your name is
Israel, a prince with God. This man knew God, heard the promise of God. He
wrestled, God wrestled with him. And now he's going to meet Esau
and he's distressed. He's afraid. There's a lesson
for us right there. We truly know, those that believe
God know Him. This is life eternal, that they
might know Thee. We know something of who God
is. We know something. I said before,
we see through a glass darkly, but we see. And Jacob knew God,
and he loved God, and he was thankful for the mercy that God
had shown him. And here he is, like we find
ourselves, fearful, doubting. The scripture says in Genesis
33, 1, And Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold,
Esau came, and with him four hundred men. And he divided the
children unto Leah, and unto Rachel, and unto the two handmaids. We do not doubt that Jacob believed
that God was with him. We don't doubt that. But when
Jacob looked up and saw Esau coming with the 400 men, immediately,
he did what he said he was going to do. I'm going to divide them
up. And if Esau comes after this
group, then this group right here will possibly escape. He
made a plan. He had a plan. He was going to
try to do what he could. There's a man that's struggling,
flesh and spirit. Here's a man that knew God and
struggled. And the scripture says in verse
2 and 3, He put the handmaids and their children foremost,
and Leah and her children after, and Rachel and Joseph hindermost,
And he passed over before them and bowed himself to the ground
seven times until he came near to his brother. Now he put, I
want you to notice the order of how he went before them all.
He went in front. Right behind him in the foremost
part of the family, he had the handmaids and their children
in front. Then he had Leah and her children
behind them, and then Rachel and Joseph. He loved Rachel.
And you can see what he's doing. He's trying to protect her as
much as he can. He put her all the way in the
back. I can understand that. He loved
her. Then Joseph passed over ahead
of him and he was bowing himself, the scripture says, seven times
until he came to his brother. Now I can tell you what he expected.
He expected that there was going to be a fight. And he expected
that because of what his brother had let his mother know. that he was going to kill Jacob.
He said, I'm going to get him. I will get him. And 20 years
doesn't erase that. If somebody told you 20 years
ago, I'm going to kill you. I can tell you this. It may kind
of fade a little bit during that time. When it comes time for
you to be face to face with him, you're going to remember it.
And that's what he's expecting. And Jacob is showing all the
respect he could possibly make. And the scripture says in verse
4, in the midst of what he expected, and Esau ran to meet him, and
embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him, and they
wept. I read that and it just rejoices
my heart. Because, I mean, we were reading
some scriptures here that was bringing up a battle. I mean,
we're getting ready to have war. There's going to be a fight.
Somebody's going to get hurt. And Jacob's got his family, and
he's got these kids, and he's got... And here comes Esau, and
Esau's got 400 men. Jacob's got 11 boys, one girl, and four women with him. That's
what he's got. And the scripture says that he
saw in unexpected kindness, ran up to Jacob and he embraced him
and he kissed him. And I can just imagine Jacob
just, he couldn't believe, I can't even believe what's happening
here. And Jacob, you know, I'm sure just melted Jacob too. I mean, he was so thankful. I'm
so thankful we're hugging as brothers and we're not fighting. The scripture says, Proverbs
21.1, as Jacob witnessed the effect of God's power, the king's
heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water he turneth
it whithersoever he will. You know, it's so hard. Here's a family squabble. These two brothers, these two
twin brothers, twins, they're twins. They're just moments of
difference in their age. And this thing's been going on
for over 20 years now. And family trials, family troubles,
these are hard. They're hard. And you go through
something like this. And you know that the Lord's
able. The king's heart's in the hand
of the Lord. As the rivers of water, he turneth
it whithersoever he will. And you pray, Lord, I know you're
able. Lord, if you will, like that
leper, Lord, if you will, you can. I know you can, if you will. And I'm sure that Jacob's desire
was that there would be reconciliation. I mean, he'd sent those droves
over and he'd sent, there were presents going to win Esau's
favor and he bows himself seven times coming before him and he
wants reconciliation. Is anything too hard? for the
Lord who spoke this world into existence. Oppose all things
by the word of his power. Is anything too hard for him?
He who by himself purged our sins, the sins of his beloved
people. He who sits right now on the
right hand of the majesty on high. The Lord of Glory, obviously,
tamed Esau's heart. But He did so for His glory and
for our good, because we're going to learn something here. God's
going to teach us something. And what He does, again, for
His glory and our good, He softens Esau's heart. Esau, up to the
time, he was mad. When a fight was surely expected
by Jacob, these two brothers, they embraced and they kissed
each other. Both of them wept when they saw
each other. And I know this while the Lord
is not always pleased. The Lord doesn't always, it's
not recorded that he always quiets the animosity of those that hate
God's people. He's not always pleased to do
that. but he restrained Esau from doing
any harm to Jacob. He calmed Esau just as easily
as he calmed that raging sea. When the disciples was in that
boat and they were afraid and they cried out, Lord, did you
care that we perish? And the Lord spoke to that water. see that wind and it just... The scripture says, Psalm 70,
16, Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, and the remainder
of wrath shalt thou restrain. The scripture declares that we're
hated by the world. But the reason of the world's
hatred being because God Almighty has been pleased to show mercy
and compassion to whosoever He will. The reason the wrath of
this world is not furiously poured out upon God's people is not
because of their ability to restrain the world, but according to the
secret providence, the power of Almighty God's watchful eye,
His protection, the Lord protects His people according to His good
pleasure. Well, they embraced and they
fell on each other's neck, kissed each other and they wept. And
the scripture says in verses five to seven, and he, that is
Esau, licked up his eyes and saw the women, children, and
he said, who are those with thee? And he said, the children which
God hath graciously given thy servant. Then the handmaidens
came near, they and their children, and they bowed themselves, and
Leah also with her children came near and bowed themselves, and
after came Joseph near and Rachel, they bowed themselves. After that warm and affectionate
meeting, Esau, he looks up and he sees this large group of people,
this large family, that's with his brother. And he inquires,
and he said, who are they? And Jacob, directed by God's
spirit, is moved to confess that the family that he's acquired
wasn't acquired by his own natural ability, but rather they were
acquired by him who is the author and the producer of Jacob's heritage. Psalm 127 verse 3 says, low children
are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is
his reward. Jacob's wives, their handmaids,
his kids, he was careful to give God the glory. That's what he
said. Whenever Esau lifted up his eyes,
who are those with thee? Jacob said, the children which
God had graciously given thy servant. Psalm 127, four and
five. The arrows, as arrows, I'm sorry,
are in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of the youth.
Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. So Jacob's
family has been acknowledged as being according to the mercy
and grace of God and the family They do just exactly what Jacob
had done. He had bowed himself seven times
and each of them, the handmaids and then Leah and her kids and
then Rachel and Joseph, they come and they show respect unto
Esau. And then Esau being introduced
to Jacob's family, he asked his brother in verses eight and nine,
he asked him about the livestock, these droves, livestock that
were being brought. He says in 8 and 9, he said,
What meanest thou by all this drove which I met? And he said, These are to find
grace in the sight of my Lord. And Esau said, I have enough,
my brother. Keep that thou hast unto thyself. Now, it wasn't that Esau was
asking ignorantly. It wasn't that he just happened
to see all those droves at that moment, because remember the
droves had been sent before this happened. Jacob had some servants,
he said, you take drove after drove and you put some space
between them. We looked at that last time. Put some space and
you go and you tell my brother Esau that these are a gift unto
him that I might win his favor, that I might find grace in his
sight. And so when Esau asked, when
he asked he said, what meanest thou by all these droves? They
were there. He saw Adam, but when he saw
that the droves had come, he's asking this, why did you do this? I see him. What meanest thou? What meanest thou? And then Jacob
said, to find grace in your sight. So it wasn't that Esau was in
the dark about those droves of animals being given to him, but
what he wanted to know is this. Why are you doing this? Why are
you doing this? He told him. He said, what meanest
thou? And Jacob told him, verse eight,
to find grace in your sight. And Esau said, I have enough. I have enough, my brother. Keep
that thou hast unto thyself. I've got plenty. I've got plenty. I don't need this. I've got plenty. I've got much. So here we see
the hand of the Lord has given Esau exactly what God promised. he was going to give Esau. In
fact, he gave Esau exactly what Esau wanted. Whenever Jacob had
gone before his daddy Isaac to receive the blessing, remember
Isaac's eyes were dim, and Rebecca, Jacob and Esau's mother, had
heard that her husband Isaac was gonna bless Esau. He told
him, he said, you go out, kill some Benson, prepare meat as
I like, and I'm gonna bless you. And you remember what happened. Rebecca told Jacob, she said,
your father's gonna bless Esau, but I want you to go and you
get the goats, kill two goats. You bring them, and I'll prepare
the meat as your father likes. And she put skins on his hands
and on his neck, She wrapped him in Esau's goodly raiment. Jacob went before his daddy,
and Jacob got the blessing. You know, you remember the story.
But after Jacob got the blessing, right after he got the blessing,
he left. And about that time, here comes Esau in from the field.
And Esau comes in, and Isaac Ask him, who are you? He said,
well, I'm Esau, your firstborn. His daddy asked him, he said,
well, then who was that that was just here? And then Esau
realized Jacob got the blessing. And he said, he's tricked me.
He's a supplanter. He's a liar. He's stolen my birthright
and he got my blessing. Well, Esau sold his birthright
to Jacob, he gave it, and with the birthright goes the blessing.
Blessing goes to the firstborn, but he sold it. He said, I don't
want it, I'm gonna die anyway. So he sold it, but he's mad anyway. So he tells his daddy, he said
in Genesis 27, 38, after he realized that Jacob had gotten the blessing,
and he says, hast thou but one blessing? My father? And Isaac
answered him according to the direction of the Holy Spirit.
He said in Genesis 27, 39, he said, here's the blessing. Here's
the blessing that you got. What Jacob got was the spiritual
blessing, the birthright blessing. And here's what Esau gets. Behold, thy dwelling shall be
the fatness of the earth and of the dew of heaven from above.
By thy 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 off thy neck. So here's what
he told Esau in the blessing. You're going to have the good
of this earth. That's what you're going to have. You're going to enjoy the dew
of heaven. God will bless you. God blesses
men and women. The sun rises on the good and
the evil. It rains on the good and the
evil. It rains on everybody. Everybody
receives general blessings. But Jacob got the spiritual blessing. And Esau got a perishing blessing. You're going to have the good
of this earth. That's what's going to happen. And here's the evidence. of what
was promised to Esau. Esau asked him, he said, all
these droves right here, what do you mean by this? Oh, I gave
these to you that I might find grace in your sight. He said,
Jacob, I don't need that. I've got enough. I've got plenty. He wasn't a pauper. He had stuff. He didn't feel he needed anything
from Jacob. He truly felt that he had enough.
But is this not, spiritually speaking, the attitude of those
who are satisfied with that which they ignorantly think that they've
accomplished? I have enough. This is the natural
man's thinking. I have enough before God to receive
the blessing of God. I've got enough. I've got enough. Esau said that he had enough
to sustain him and that he needed no help. And man by nature, if
we miss this point in what he was saying, we miss the truth
of the gospel found here. Man by nature thinks, I've got
enough. Saul of Tarsus. Turn with, hold
your place right here. Philippians 3. Saul of Tarsus. This man was a religious man. He was a religious man. He was
a Pharisee. And let me tell you what he thought.
before the Lord called him out of darkness. I have enough before
God. Philippians 3, 5 and 6, this
is what he had. This is where Saul put all of
his confidence, all of his confidence. Now you think about this, all
of his confidence. Philippians 3, 5, circumcise
the eighth day of the stock of Israel and of the tribe of Benjamin. Hebrew of the Hebrews, touching
the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church,
touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. If you ask Saul of Tarsus, do
you have enough to be accepted of God? His answer, are you kidding me? Is that a trick question? Are
you serious with me? I was circumcised the eighth
day according to the law. I'm from the stock of Israel. You could trace my lineage back
from Jacob himself. Right on down. I go right back
to Israel himself. My mom and daddy were Hebrews. Touching the law, I was blameless. I was blameless. You see, that's kind of arrogant. He believed that. Turn to Mark
10. Mark chapter 10. Mark 10, verse
17 to 22. Mark 10. Verse 17, and when he was gone
forth into the way, there came one running and kneeled to him
and asked him, good master, what shall I do that I may inherit
eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, why
callest thou me good? There's none good, but one that
is God. Thou knowest the commandments,
do not commit adultery. Do not kill, do not steal, do
not bear false witness, defraud not, honor thy father and mother. And he answered and said unto
him, Master, all these have I observed from my youth. Blameless. I have enough. I have enough. And the Lord said
that there will be many in that day, many will say to me, In
that day, Lord, we have enough. We prophesied in your name, cast
out devils in your name, and did many wonderful works. You mean to tell me that these
people trusted in that? That Saul of Tarsus trusted in
that, my friend? Many will stand before the Lord
and will say, I have enough. I gave my heart to Jesus. I prayed
the sinner's prayer. I was baptized. I spoke in unknown
tongues. What a man thinks is enough to
be accepted before God concerning his works. will come short of
the glory of God. The Lord said unto those that
will stand before him and say these I prophesy. He said I never
knew you. I never knew. Esau said what
are all these troves here? Jacob said this is my gift to
you that I might show you of my desire for reconciliation. I find grace in your sight. He
said my brother. He said I have enough But having
heard Esau's statement, confession, having enough, Jacob said, in
verse 11, he said, take I pray thee my blessing that is brought
to thee because God hath dealt graciously with me because I
have enough. And he urged him. And he, Esau,
he took it. Jacob insisted. When Esau told
him, he said, I have enough. Jacob insisted that he take the
droves. He said, because God's shown
grace to me. God's shown mercy to me. The
Lord has dealt graciously with me. And Jacob said, I have enough. But the two words, when you look
them up, Esau said, I have enough. Jacob said, I have enough. But
when Esau used the word enough, Esau set forth this that he had. I have abundance. I have increase. I have a lot. I've got a lot. Jacob's word enough means I have
all. I have the whole. I have everything. Esau spoke of the temporal blessings,
the possessions that he had, and Jacob spoke of the eternal
covenant blessings in Christ Jesus. I'm going to just ask
you to turn to Ephesians 1, and in closing, I want to just read,
I'm not even going to comment, I just want to read on when Jacob
said, I have enough when he said, I have all. I have everything. I have everything. Ephesians
1, 3 through verse 12. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. And if we ever get,
If we're not careful, we become so familiar with this passage
right here. We just read it, but just pray
that God stop us for a minute and just give us some understanding.
According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love. Having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children, by Jesus Christ to Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in
whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins according to the riches of His grace, wherein He hath
abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known
unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure,
which he has purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the
fullness of times, he might gather together in one all things in
Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even
in him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being
predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all
things after the counsel of his own will, that we should be to
the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ. Esau asked
him, he said, why are you giving me this? I've got abundance. I've got plenty. I've got plenty. Jacob said, no, take it because
I have Everything. I have all. I have all. I have the whole. 1 John 5, 12 says, He that hath
the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. To have all is to have God. To have all is to have God. and
being found in Christ, we're found in God. I pray, Lord, bless
this to our hearts.