Go ahead and turn with me to
Genesis chapter 33 if you would please. Genesis chapter 33. Let me say in the very beginning
that contentment is a rare thing among people today. We live in
a time when it's A rare thing for folks to say that they have
enough. For the most part, people generally
desire more than what they have. And here are three words that
you won't hear very often. What are they? I have enough. But in our text this morning,
we have an account of two people, two men, actually two brothers,
twin brothers, who say these three words to one another in
the same conversation. And this is very unusual when
you consider that these two brothers differed so much from one another. One was a man's man. The other
was a mama's boy. One sold his birthright. The
other stole it from him. One God loved. The other God hated. Yet both claimed to have enough. And they did, but in two different
ways. With Jacob and Esau, of whom
I speak, there are great lessons for us to learn. These two brothers
are often mentioned together in the scriptures, and there's
good reason. As I said, they were twin brothers.
They were the sons of Isaac. They were the grandsons of Abraham.
The older was named Esau, whom God has said to hate, and the
younger was named Jacob, whom God has said to love, even though
God should have hated him too. And the odd thing about that
is that Jacob would have been the one that you and I would
have hated, and Esau would have more likely been the one that
we loved. 30 times they're mentioned together
in the Bible, 25 times in the book of Genesis alone. And in
the book of Romans, we're told a great deal about them, though
their names are only mentioned once. together in Romans chapter
nine, and you more than likely know the verse that I'm referring
to there, the very verse which I just mentioned in passing,
and that is in verse 13 of Romans nine, as it is written, Jacob
have I loved, and Esau have I hated." Now, most everyone is familiar
with the story of Jacob and Esau. Esau cared little about the spiritual
and covenant blessings of God as the firstborn. And Jacob desired
that birthright so badly that he stole it by the means of deception. When Isaac was about to die,
He called Esau and he told him to go out and to kill a deer
and to make a batch of his favorite stew. And Isaac told Esau that
when he returned that he would give Esau the blessing of the
firstborn. And this was the blessing of
God's covenant. But Esau had already sold his
birthright and the blessing of it to Jacob. So Rebekah, Jacob
and Esau's mother, overhears this conversation between Isaac
and Esau, and she calls Jacob, her favorite, and she devised
a plan where Jacob would pretend to be Esau. You remember that?
By even, you know, by going as far as putting hair on him, making
him a hairy man, because Esau was. And I think I picture Jacob
as being fair-skinned, and he probably rehearsed for days to
talk a little bit lower. But anyway, they pulled this
off. And their scheme worked brilliantly
since Isaac was old and nearly blind. And by the time Esau returned
from hunting, Jacob had already received the blessing. And Esau
was so angry that he vowed, he swore to kill Jacob when Isaac
died. So again, Jacob's mother, Esau's
mother, had Jacob to flee and take refuge with Isaac. with
her brother, a man named Laban. And that's a whole nother story.
We covered this years ago in our study of Genesis. And you
know, Laban may have been the only man alive that was more
dishonest and conniving than Jacob was. And you remember what
he did? He deceived Jacob into working
seven years for Rachel, and then he gave him Leah, And he goes,
well, that's not the daughter that I wanted. And he made him
work another seven years for Rachel. And what he did, Laban
just continued to cheat him and to deal with him dishonestly,
till finally he had enough of life with Laban. The Lord had
blessed everything that Jacob did. Everything that Jacob touched,
the Lord blessed. And when Jacob left, he did so
with tremendous herds of cattle and sheep and great wealth. And he returned to the land of
his fathers and he began to make plans to appease Esau, because
he knew Esau was there waiting. He wanted to keep his brother
from killing him as he had vowed to do. Now, so let's pick up
the story here in Genesis chapter 33 in verse one. And Jacob lifted
up his eyes and looked and behold, Esau came, oh my, and with him
400 men. And you can imagine what's going
through Jacob's mind. So he divided the children unto
Leah and to Rachel and to the two handmaids. And he put the
handmaids and their children foremost, put them out front. And Leah and her children after
and Rachel and Joseph hindered most. And he passed over before
them and bowed himself to the ground seven times until he came
near to his brother. And Esau ran to meet him and
embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him and they
wept. And he lifted up his eyes and
he saw the women and the children, that being Esau, and he said,
who are those with thee? And he said, the children which
God hath graciously given thy servant. Then the handmaids 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, and they bowed themselves. And
he said, what menaced thou by all this drove which I met? What is all this? And he said,
these are to find grace in the sight of my Lord, speaking to
Esau. And Esau said, I have enough. My brother, keep that that thou
hast unto thyself. And Jacob said, Nay, I pray thee,
if now I have found grace in thy sight, then receive my present
at my hand. For therefore, I have seen thy
face as though I had seen the face of God, and thou was pleased
with me. Take, I pray thee, my blessing
that is brought to thee. Now look at this, because God
hath dealt graciously with me and because I have enough. And he urged him and he took
it. Both these men said, I have enough. Now from this text, I want I want for us to consider the
words, I have enough. In light of three things this
morning, I want us to consider these three words first, from
Esau and what they meant to him. Secondly, from Jacob and what
they meant from him. And thirdly, from the perspective
of God, who made these two men to differ in their words and
in their actions. And the three words again, or
I have enough. So I want to ask each of you
here this morning, do you have enough? Do you have enough? First, we'll consider the words,
I have enough from Esau. Now as we've already established,
Esau was an ungodly man that says that he has enough and we
must consider why he says that he has enough. In Esau, we see
the contentment that unregenerate men and women have in this world
and with this world, who are yet without Christ. Esau was
content with what he had. He was a lost man. He was without
God. He was without Christ. Scripture
says without hope. And yet, he was a content man. I suppose this would be a good
time to discuss the meaning and the definition of the word content. It means to be in a state of
peaceful happiness. It means to accept a particular
thing. Content with that. It means to
be satisfied and content with something. And when Jacob sent
forth this bounty of gifts to Esau, Esau said, you keep them. I have enough. In other words,
I have plenty. And this was a commendable thing. It displayed some moral excellence
on Esau's part, but it also teaches us many other valuable lessons. One is moral excellence is not
salvation. It's not the same thing as God
giving grace. and it will not produce a godly
righteousness. Esau was a moral man in many
ways, more so than Jacob. But you can be moral and not
know God. Not every lost sinner is outwardly
immoral or outwardly disrespectful. There are some lost people that
are honest and moral people. I know many. Morality often produces
charity, and morality very often promotes compassion. And much
of the time, morality leads to self-righteousness, causing men
and women to think they're saved. But over and over again, we've
seen that salvation has never ever been about what we do. It's all about what Christ has
done for us. Let's never lose sight of that.
It's obvious from what we see here in Genesis chapter 33, that
Esau had learned some things. He had no doubt learned something
about contentment. He had obviously learned something
about forgiveness. He had become a generous man. He had learned to be caring and
merciful. And there are many who have learned
these things. but are yet lost in their sin,
just as Esau was. And many times it's this magnanimous,
this generous attitude that convinces men and women to believe that
they're righteous and are saved men and women. Many people think
this is how folks are saved. I can't tell you how many times
when I've had people explain to me, well, I think that you
just be as good as you can and treat people like you want to
be treated, treat people fair and honestly, and that's all
that God expects. No, no, He expects much more
than that. He expects perfection. And we
can't provide it. And there's a saying that goes
that men begin to believe their own press. You've heard that.
So-and-so is a generous man. So-and-so is a forgiving man.
So-and-so is a content man. He must be a Christian. And they
believe what others say about them. They go, yeah, yeah, I
am. I'm a Christian. Instead of what
their mind and their heart tell them, they believe their own
press. Esau didn't know God. He was
content with what he had, but he didn't love and trust the
God that gave it to him. He didn't acknowledge God as
the giver. He was satisfied with what he
had, but not with the one that gave it. And in the end, all
the lost reveal their fallen condition. They reveal their
lack of need of Christ, and they will They will need more than
just morality. They must have Christ. No true contentment without Him. Hell's going to be full of what
the world calls good moral people. And heaven's going to be full
of Jacobs who do not of themselves deserve to be there. Having everything
that this world has to offer is nothing if you don't have
Christ. All is nothing without Him. Paul
said, for to live is Christ. So it says, he lives a good life. If he doesn't have Christ, he's
not. To live is Christ, and to die is gain. Well, how can death
be gain? Well, for the believer, it's
to be absent from the body. How can that be good? It's to
be present with the Lord. It's to be face-to-face with
Christ. That's what heaven is. Not pearly
gates, streets of gold, cloud hopping, and all that nonsense.
Mansions of glory, it's to be face-to-face with the one who
loved me and gave himself for me. Where He is, we also will be. And when we see Him, we shall
be like Him. And that's great, great gain.
But earth was Esau's heaven. This is what I want you to see.
And like the rich man who fared sumptuously every day on earth,
but he died and he was buried and he lifted up his eyes in
hell, being in torment, according to Luke chapter 16. Turn back
a few pages to Genesis chapter 27. I'll show you this. Verse
38. Genesis 27 and verse 38. And Esau said unto his father,
Hast thou but one blessing, my father? This is when he came
back from hunting and he'd given the birthright to Jacob. He said,
bless me, even me also, my father. And Esau lifted up his voice
and he wept and Isaac, his father, answered and said unto him, behold,
thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth and of the dew of
heaven from above. And by thy sword shall thou live. and shalt serve thy brother. Esau had his portion in his life,
and that being the fatness of the earth. And it's gonna be
the same for many today. They can say, I have enough,
but they don't have Christ. And therefore they have nothing.
They love the world and God hates them. Can a God of love hate,
you ask? A holy God of love can, and a
holy God of love does. Love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. There's something very sobering
here about Esau, who is without God and without hope in this
world, saying, I have enough. Now, how horrible it would be
to be under the wrath of God and in danger of eternal destruction,
and at the same time, be perfectly content and satisfied with what
you have. That's so sobering to me. There's
no true contentment apart from being at peace with God. And
there's only one way to be at peace with God, and that's in
and by and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Enough? Do you have enough? Not without Christ you don't.
And Esau was without Christ. Now, let's talk about Jacob's
contentment. Jacob also said, I have enough,
but that's not all he said. Back in Genesis chapter 33, verse
11 again, Jacob said, take, I pray thee, my blessing that is brought
to thee, because God hath dealt graciously with me. And because
of that, I have enough. And he urged him and he took
it. Now, the Apostle Paul did not
say that contentment itself was great gain. Paul said that godliness
with contentment is great gain, 1 Timothy 6, 6. You see, there's
no true contentment, no true satisfaction with us or with
God with us apart from having Christ who is godliness. Godliness doesn't speak of any
particular grace. It speaks of all the graces of
the Spirit of God. It speaks of faith. It speaks
of hope. It speaks of love. It speaks
of fear. It speaks of all the fruits of
the Holy Spirit, goodness, meekness, temperance, all these things
which against there is no law. For all of these things are found
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And without Him, not any of them
are given. There's no true contentment apart
from Jesus Christ. And what I'm about to say, I
say for my own benefit, and I say to my own shame. One who declares
to have Christ, but murmurs about things, has no true contentment. Complaining is just the opposite
of being content. Now, I'm not going to say amen.
I'm going to say oh me, and then I'm going to say amen. Because
we were teasing this morning, but I was complaining about the
water being not cold and not being in a glass with ice like
it used to be for me. And you know I was kidding. But I would like to have cold
water. Kind of was murmuring, wasn't
it? It's the opposite of being content.
Contentment in Christ, regardless of our situation, our trials,
our troubles, it's always, our prayer is always, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as thou wilt. Where our selfishness and our
self will come in, is where our sorrows truly begin. When God's
will and our will are contrary to one another, we can be sure
that something is amiss and it's amiss with us, always. We're never right until God's
will becomes our will. And contentment comes only when
we can truly pray, not my will, not what I want, but your will
and what you want, Lord." And that's when godliness and contentment
is a great gain. And that's when we see that the
child of God who has Christ has more, more than enough. Jacob could give Esau all those
goats and all those sheep and all those camels and all those
bulls and all those asses, and yet say, I have enough. When a man and woman can sing,
my cup runneth over, they'll look for others who can collect
the overflow and they'll want them to have it. Let those empty
cups come so that they too can be filled. You see, the glory
of Jacob's enough was that God had given it to him. In Christ,
enough is always enough. It never diminishes. It's always
enough. It never becomes less. It's forever
enough. Esau said, I have enough. Jacob
said, God has dealt graciously with me. Because of that, I have enough. Our blessings are blessings indeed
when we indeed see that they come from God. And what a blessing
it is when God smiles on you and says, my child, this I give
to you because you are my child. Not because you deserve it, not
because you've merited it, not because you've earned it. I give
it to you because you're mine. I have a few little things that
my father gave to me that have no monetary value at all, no
earthly value. I wouldn't take any amount of
money for them. Why? Because they were my father's
and he gave them to me. He wanted me to have them. The Lord says, I want you to
have this because you're mine. You're my son. I entrust you
with it. Oh, how I desire to say with
Jacob, I have enough. It proves that I am God's child.
Dear friends, I've not attained, but I press forward only because
God gives the grace and the ability and the will to do so. And this
just puts a sweetness in the cup that overflows. And it's a sweetness that we
want others to share and others to have and to have enough. God
puts it there or it would not otherwise be there. And here's
the good news. Jacob represents all God's children. The sons of Jacob are the redeemed
of the Lord. Psalm 77, 15 says, thou hast
with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. The sons of Jacob are who the
word of the Lord is sent. 1 Kings 18, 31, and Elijah took
12 stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of
Jacob. unto whom the word of the Lord
came, saying, Israel shall be thy name. It's the sons of Jacob
that are kept and preserved forever. Malachi 3.6, for I'm the Lord,
I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed. Did you know that in the original
Hebrew language, the word that Esau used here for enough and
the word here that Jacob used is enough, are two completely
different words. I thought that was so interesting.
Esau said, I have enough, and it's a complete different word
than when Jacob said it. The Hebrew word that Esau used
for the word enough is pronounced rab, R-A-B, and it means abundant,
it means exceeding, it means plenteous, and it means sufficient. But the Hebrew word that Jacob
used for the word enough is pronounced kol, K-O-L-E. And you know what
it means? It means much, much more than
earthly material things. Actually, it doesn't have anything
to do with those things. Jacob is saying what Esau could
not say. That word kol, K-O-L-E, means
whole, W-H-O-L-E. Jacob is saying, I have all things. I have everything. I have the
whole. He that has all things has enough. Jacob had everything that Esau
didn't have. Esau had earthly riches, but
he did not have eternal mercies. Jacob had all. He had the whole
of God's spiritual blessings and heavenly places in the Lord
Jesus Christ. God was his covenant God and
Father. Christ was his Redeemer and Great
High Priest. The Holy Spirit was his sanctifier. He had all grace bestowed upon
him. He was loved of God from the
foundation of the world. He was the eternal heir of God. He had the birthright. He had it all. He had the whole of it. Now listen
to this good news. Everything that was Jacob's belongs
to the child of God. If you belong to Christ, everything
Jacob had belongs to you. Regardless of your outward circumstances,
your present condition, your troubles and trials, your sicknesses
and diseases. If you have Christ, you have
it all. You have the whole. And you have enough. You have all things temporal.
All things are working together for your good. Romans 8, 28.
No evil shall happen to you. Proverbs 12, 21. You have all
things spiritual. All spiritual blessings in heavenly
places are given to you. if you're in Christ. You were
chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, and you're holy
and without blame before Him in love. And you've been predestinated
unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto Himself
according to the good pleasure of God's will. You're accepted
in the Beloved, Christ Himself, and you have it all, and you
have enough. More than enough. You have all
things eternal. The Spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children,
then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if so
be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. In Christ, you have enough. You have it all. You have the
whole. So I close with the last point
being in the form of a question. What was the difference between
Jacob and Esau? Well, probably the best way to
ask that is who was the difference between Jacob and Esau? And I'll
give you a hint, even though you don't need it. It was the
same difference between God's elect and the unbelieving throughout
all the ages, throughout all time, and throughout all circumstances. He, God, is the only one who
makes the difference. Who maketh thee to differ from
another? God's people will be quick to tell you. God made the
difference. Everything that I have, I received
of Him. and he gets all the glory. I
don't get any glory for it because it was his gift to me. It's the
difference that God made. God's the only one who can make
the difference. Esau was a lost man. He was a cursed man. Esau despised Christ. Esau rejected
God's covenant. He sold his birthright, the blessing
of God, for a bowl of soup. God left Esau to himself. Esau
chose the world over Christ. It was no one's fault but Esau,
and it was God that allowed it to be so. Listen to this verse,
Ecclesiastes 3.11. He, God, had made everything
beautiful in his time, and also he had set the world in their
heart. Who did? God did. People love
this world. They say, I've got the tiger
by the tail. I've got the whole world. Things
couldn't be any better. It's God who said. the love of
the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the
work that God make it from the beginning to the end. God cannot
be charged with evil. God simply let Esau have his
way. And that's why the child of God
always prays, Lord, not my will, not my way. I don't want my way. You don't want your way. We want
God's way. Lord, don't let me have mine.
And then Jacob, he was a saved man. He was a blessed man. And
it was God that made him to differ. In and of himself, he was no
better than Esau, probably worse. But the Lord loved Jacob. The Lord chose Jacob. The Lord
revealed himself to Jacob. The Lord wrestled with Jacob.
He made him to confess who and what he was. Has he made you
do that? Yes, he has if you belong to
him. Jacob said, my name's Jacob, I'm a heel, I'm a supplanter,
I'm a nobody, I'm worthless, I'm a deceiver. And God said,
no, I'm gonna give you a new name. I'm gonna call you Israel, a
prince of God. And the Lord led and the Lord
kept Jacob all the days of his life. And that same blessing
is yours in Christ. God's promise to all His people
is the same, the same that He made to Jacob. Look at it again
with me, Genesis chapter 28 this time, verse 15. Genesis 28, verse 15, God says,
and behold, I am with thee. and will keep thee in all places
whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land,
for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have
spoken to thee of." Everything God's promised us, friends, He
is faithfully promised. He'll do it. And you have enough,
because you have it all. And you have it all in Christ.
Paul wrote, we can be confident of this very thing, that he that
hath begun a good work in you will perform it, finish it, as
Chris prayed. until the day of Jesus Christ,
Philippians 1.6. Faithful is he that calleth you
who will also do it. Let your conversation be without
covetousness and be content with such things as you have. For
he hath said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. Esau's enough was much. Jacob's enough was all. He that has much is gonna want
more, I can assure you. But he that has all has enough. To his children, God says, all
things are yours. All things. All things are yours
and you are Christ and Christ is God's. God will not withhold
any good thing from you. God himself is yours. He says so. He says, I'll be
their God and they shall be my people. I love being one of God's
people. It means that He's my God and
it means that He's my Father. And it means that everything's
going to be alright regardless of what happens. The Eternal Father gave Himself
to you with all His glorious attributes. with everything that
belongs to Him. He gives His very heart to you. For the Father Himself loveth
you, the Scripture says. The Son of God has loved you
with an everlasting love and given Himself for you, and He
gives Himself to you. All the merit of His atoning
sacrifice, all the love of His heart, all the wisdom of His
head, all the power of His arm is all yours. You have the whole
of Him. You have enough. His very life
is yours. He says, because I live, you shall live also. My hope
of eternal glory, eternal life is in Him. And then you also have the Holy
Spirit to be here. He dwells with you. He's in you. You're His temple. All light He'll bring to you.
All life He'll give to you and maintain in you. All light and
light. All comfort He's gonna bestow
upon you. All guidance and all quickening,
life-giving power He'll give to you. The Lord told Paul, He
said, my grace is sufficient for you. Was it? You better believe it was. He
said, my strength is made perfect in weakness. Oh, I tell you,
we're poor and needy, but His strength is made known in our
need. And that's what grace that we
have in Christ is, electing grace, calling grace, forgiving grace,
renewing grace, preserving grace, sanctifying grace, perfecting
grace, grace upon grace, grace that leads to glory. This grace
is yours and it's sufficient. It's enough. It is enough. Enough? Do you have it? Do you have enough? Well, if
you have Christ, you do. If you have Christ, you do. If
you have Him, you've got it all.