Okay, brethren, let's be turning
to Genesis chapter 25. Genesis 25. Isaac and Rebekah
had been married for nearly 20 years, and still they had no
child. And the Spirit tells us in verse
21, And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife. He prayed to the
Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord was
entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. Now about Isaac's prayer to the
Lord, the sense is that he prayed over his wife. And what that
means is he prayed opposite to her. He prayed in front of her,
opposite to her, so that some interpreted he prayed with his
wife. While he was praying to the Lord,
he was with his wife. He was there before him and he
was praying to the Lord for her. And there's a tradition that
tells us that after so many years, these nearly 20 years, that Isaac
took Rebekah and that they traveled together to Mount Moriah, which
is where Isaac had been bound to be sacrificed. And that he
went there because that's where our God renewed his promise to
Abraham that he would bless him with a multitude of seed and
that in his seed all the nations of the earth would be blessed.
Actually, let's look there at Genesis 22. Genesis 22 in verse
15. It says, And the angel of the
Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and
said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord. For because thou
hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only
son, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying
I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the
sand which is upon the seashore, and thy seed shall possess the
gate of his enemies. And in thy seed shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice."
And Isaac understood He was the seed, he was the son of promise,
and that in him all the nations of the earth would be blessed.
Now, I don't put much confidence or trust in the tradition of
men. But I said that to you because
there is an element of truth in this, because this is where,
and this is what I mean by that, this is where the promise was
declared. And that sacrifice had an eye
toward Christ concerning His redemption, the redemption of
His people. And so the promises rested upon
all the promises of God made unto us to the Church of God.
All the promises of God rest, lean, all their weight is upon
the redemption of Christ. It's in Him. God hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. And that in heavenly places we
saw from Genesis chapter 1 speaks to the covering, the atonement
of Christ in heavenly places. Now, whether Isaac and Rebekah
physically went to Mount Moriah, that is not what I'm saying or
resting any of this upon. Whether he went there physically
or not, I'm sure he was thinking of the promise. He was thinking
of that promise and he was praying with an eye toward that promise
that God had made unto Abraham and Isaac. because all the prayers
of the children of God are heard for Christ's sake. We pray, coming
to the Father, resting and believing and trusting that he receives
us for Christ's sake. That's our confidence, brethren.
That's the basis for all answered prayer. God is the God who hears
the prayer of his people because or for Christ's sake. because he redeemed us, because
he put away our sin and sanctified us and justified us so that as
we saw in that hymn upon the solid rock, we stand justified
before the throne of God, before holy God, seated on his throne
of judgment, we are justified without fault before the true
and living God. We don't want God to hear our
prayers based on our perfect obedience. If God only answered
us for our obedience, He'd never hear our prayers. We wouldn't
have any prayers heard or answered by Him. And so we don't want
to come to God in our obedience. We come in the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ because he obeyed the Father. That's
my confidence. You and I could be blind. We
might think we've obeyed God in all things. We might think
that we are spotless and clean, but we're not. There's secret
sins and sins that we don't even know or realize that we're doing.
We come in the obedience of Christ. That's where we come to the Father. That's actually how we obey God.
That's obeying the word of God. That's obeying the gospel, is
believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting that he is all my righteousness
in whom I come to the Father and will be heard and accepted
of him. He's our righteousness, not we
ourselves. Men ought always to pray and
not to faint, resting all upon Christ. Resting everything upon
Christ. So the Lord was entreated of
Isaac, and Rebecca, his wife, conceived. And that's an encouragement
to us. That's an encouragement to us,
to go to the Lord, to not faint, to pray always. He prayed for
a long time. for nearly 20 years he was praying
for his wife to conceive and to bear a child. Paul says it
this way in Philippians 4, verse 6 and 7, be careful for nothing,
meaning don't carry around this burden and weight of care troubling
yourselves. You cannot fix it. You have this
burden not to carry it, but to cast it upon Christ. to cry to
Him, your Savior. He said, Be careful for nothing,
but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving,
let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God
which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds
through Christ Jesus. God hears us for Christ's sake. That's where the blessings are,
is in Christ. Rebecca's husband had prayed
for her, and now she conceives life in her barren womb. She was barren. She couldn't
produce fruit. She couldn't produce life. But
when her husband prayed for her, she brought forth life in her
dead womb. And that's what it was. She couldn't
keep the promise. Whatever they did, they could
not bring forth the promise. until God had purposed to bring
forth the promise. We saw the trouble that Abraham
and Sarah got into when they tried to help God in bringing
that promise to pass. Sarah gave Abraham her handmaid
Hagar because God couldn't do it, apparently, and so they had
to help God out with their works, and all it did was produce fruit
of bondage, the bondage of the flesh, and trouble, and trouble
for the people of God in Ishmael. And so her husband prayed, and
the Lord was entreated. Now, verse 22, and 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 there's a spiritual picture
in this for us. What do I mean? Well, Christ
is the husband of his bride, the church. The church is the
bride of Christ. Christ is the husband, and Christ
is the one who intercedes for his wife. He prays for his wife. He prays that she who is barren
and dead in trespasses and sins will be made alive, a new creature,
by His grace, by the gifts which are in Him when He rose from
the dead and gave gifts unto men. We are alive, we are new
creatures in Christ because of the gift of God in Christ, the
life of Christ our Savior. And so He intercedes, and in
the day of grace, She conceives and bears fruit, bears that seed
of Christ formed in her, made in her by the Holy Spirit, which
is given of God the Father and the Son to regenerate dead sinners. Born in Adam, dead in trespasses
and sins, and gives us a new birth, making us new creatures,
bearing life in that which was once dead, all by the grace and
power of our God. Romans 7 speaks of it this way.
I'm gonna look at Romans 7 and then Romans 7.5 and then Romans
7.4. Romans 7.5 says that before Christ
was formed in us, it says, for when we were in the flesh, the
motions of sins. Now, when I read that, I recall
to mind what it says in Romans 6.6 about Christ has delivered
us from the body of sin. we've been delivered from that
body of sin born of Adam's seed that corrupt seed born under
the law born in bondage unable to save ourselves or to produce
living fruit and to bring forth anything when we were in the
flesh without Christ the motions of sins and that body of sin
which were by the law that law of sin and death working death
in us because we are sinners It did work in our members to
bring forth fruit unto death. Unto death. Without faith it's
impossible to please God. And so we can be very religious
and we can do things that on the outside appear good and maybe
even helpful to people and helpful to others. But that's not the
righteousness of God. The Jews did that. They were
very zealous for the law. And they went about working in
the law and counted it as their righteousness, but they refused
the righteousness of God in doing that. And we see with the Galatians
that just because you say Jesus and give him a lot of credit,
But then turn to the law or turn to your works. As they were turning
to circumcision, Paul was saying, you have no part in Christ. You've
fallen from grace. It's not Christ plus. It's Christ
is all and in all. Christ is all. And that's what
our Lord is teaching us here. He's teaching us that Christ
is all. And so if there's any work, any obedience that you
can look to, that you have done, and you take comfort in that,
don't. Don't take comfort in that. It
cannot save you. You're on sinking sand. You are
on ground that is ready to crumble out from under you if you stand
before God trusting your works. Cast them away because they've
become an idol and a snare to you. That's not how God saves,
is by our obedience under the law and the body of sin. That's
for those born of the seed of Adam. and not born again of the
seed of Christ. Paul said that I may be found
in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ." It's by his faith, the
faith of Christ, and we believe in him. but it's of his faith,
the righteousness which is of God by faith. That's how God
reveals and manifests his life and his power in us. He gives
us faith by his spirit. We're new creatures believing,
resting everything on Christ. That's a new creature. That's
not the flesh doing that. That's the seed of Christ in
you. He does that. And so our Lord said, he teaches
us that we are the right, that he is our righteousness. He even
tells us if your right eye offend or your right hand offend, pluck
it out and cut it off. It's better to go into eternity
maimed than with those things. Have no confidence in your strength
as we saw this morning. That's a picture of your strength
and your ability to see And you're looking to what you've done in
your strength and your work and saying, here, God, take this. Christ says, pluck out that eye
and cut off that arm. That's not your righteousness.
Christ Jesus is the righteousness of his people. That's just so,
and that's what he teaches us in the gospel. Now, because of
this redemption of Christ for his people, Romans 7.4 describes
us now saying, wherefore, my brethren, Ye also are become
dead to the law by the body of Christ. See that we're not in
that body of sin. We've been delivered from that
body of sin, and we are in, translated, in the body of Christ. We've been redeemed from that
sinful body of Adam's race, of his corrupt seed, that ye should
be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead,
that we should bring forth fruit unto God. Christ, our husband,
has prayed for us. He's interceded for us so that
now we bear fruit. We bring forth fruit unto God,
acceptable fruit. And that's because it's the fruit
of Christ, the righteousness of the righteous fruit of his
spirit. It's not the works of the flesh. It's the fruit of the spirit
by his grace and power. Now, before life. was conceived in Rebecca, she
didn't have this struggle as she has now. She feels a fight
within. She feels that struggle within.
And this is something that results only after the life of Christ
is formed in his child. We have struggles. The world
has struggles and temptations and difficulties and faults and
problems and sorrows and all kinds of things. But when Christ
is formed in us, now we feel a very different kind of struggle
because it's a spiritual struggle. And we're troubled. We're troubled.
because of the sin of this flesh, and the corruption of this flesh,
and it's the old man of this flesh. Paul described it this
way in Galatians 5.17, For the flesh lusteth against the spirit,
and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one
to the other. so that ye cannot do the things
that ye would." And that describes Rebecca now. It describes the
trials and the temptations experienced by the believer after that faith
is come. when by the grace of God we walk,
not in the strength of the flesh, but in the new man, by the spirit,
by faith, trusting him. He's separating us from our vain
confidences. He gives these trials and difficulties
to show us that our hand is withered, that we are weak, that we don't
have strength. And he'll keep bringing these things in measure,
in time, teaching us by the gospel, blessing us with his spirit,
to sever that love of the world and that confidence, that vain
confidence in the flesh, and showing us he's all my righteousness. He's everything. I thought I
had a part, and I knew the right thing to say, but now I see I
don't have a part, and I see I was trusting in my own works,
and now I see it's all of him by his grace. And he does that.
He grows us in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior
as it pleases him. as it pleases him in Christ.
Peter describes it this way, giving us encouragement. In 1
Peter 1, 6 and 7, he said, wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now
for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold
temptations. And it's a season, brethren.
There's seasons that we go through this. Rebecca wasn't pregnant
all the days of her life after this. She went through seasons
of it, where the Lord was instructing her and teaching her in this
manner, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious
than a gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might
be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of
Jesus Christ. If Christ shed his blood for
you, you shall be delivered from death. You are delivered from
death and he will reveal that in you. And our God proves that
faith which he's given. He's not proving it to himself.
He's proving it and showing it to you what he's done and accomplished
for you in Christ. He proves it with these trials
and manifold temptations. I've said this a few times, this
illustration, but it was so clear to me that back in New Jersey,
there was a young woman who had heard the gospel and came in
so excited, so joyful, so excited. She was so excited that she had
her mom coming, she had her two older brothers coming, and they
were coming regularly with her. And they were there every Sunday,
and they were going to the services, and she was rejoicing and smiling
and loving what she heard. And after a short while, she
was baptized. And as soon as she was baptized,
the manifold temptations came, all kinds of troubles. Her boyfriend
came up during the baptism. They had a bad car accident.
He had such a bad concussion, he was loopy. for a year after
that, I think. I remember talking to him, and
I didn't know what he was saying. And he was really messed up after
that. She lost her job. All these troubles
started happening, and all these problems started coming out of
the woodwork at her. And the only thing she could
think of was, well, all this has happened since I got baptized
and began following Christ. Now I have all these problems.
And so what did she do? She dumped Christ. She said,
well, God must be angry with me for Christ's sake. And it
proved, sadly, that her faith was a work of the flesh and not
of God. Because when God does it, there
will be dark times and tough times for the child of God in
certain seasons. But there will be an endurance.
He'll bring you through it. He'll recover you. He'll deliver
you from death and restore you in the grace of Christ. So you
see Christ is all, all and in all. So when Christ brings life
to his child, there's new struggles that arise. I'm sure the babies,
right? When the babies come out of the
mother's womb, there's new struggles that they never felt before when
they were coddled in their mother's womb. Now they're getting exposed
to all kinds of new senses and troubles that weren't there before. Well, Rebecca was troubled, and
she sought counsel from the Lord. Verse 23, and the Lord said unto
her, two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall
be separated from thy bowels. And the one people shall be stronger
than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger."
In other words, Jacob would triumph over Esau, his older brother. And these struggles are personified
in Jacob and Esau. They're picturing that old and
the new man. And it describes what was going
on in Rebecca's womb. It shows us the new man, born
of the spirit, striving against, which is incorruptible, striving
against that old man of flesh. And that old man of flesh strives
against that new man of the spirit. But we also see in a broader
picture that there's a distinction that God makes by his grace. between his seed and the seed
of the devil. And there's enemies within and
there's enemies without that are battled and put down. And
so this divisive battle, it began because of the promise of our
God made in the garden when he said to the serpent in the hearing
of Adam and Eve, and for us as well, he said, I will put enmity
between thee and the woman. Between the serpent and the woman,
and between the serpent's seed and her seed and the seed of
the woman, the Lord Jesus Christ shall bruise the head of the
serpent, crush his head, even though that serpent would bruise
his heel. Christ would have the victory.
Christ has the victory. And so before grace delivers
us, there's no enmity in us with the world. There's no enmity
against Satan and his seed. We embrace the world, we're part
of the world. Even if we don't think we quite
fit in, we still are very much part and parcel of this world.
Ephesians 2.2 said wherein in time past ye, speaking to us. As the church today, we walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience. That's how we walked. Among whom
also, we all had our conversation in times past, in the lust of
our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature children of wrath, even as others. God did not save us. because
we bettered ourselves and because we made a good decision or started
obeying Him and being better by the things that we did. We're
saved apart, entirely apart from our works of our hand. We are
saved by the grace of God in Christ. in Christ. And so what's
born of Adam is only flesh and a carnal mind. And he tells us
in Romans chapter 8, he says, they that are in the flesh cannot
please God. And he tells us that the carnal
mind is enmity against God. And Romans 8, 9 describes what
Christ has worked in us, saying, but ye are not in the flesh. That's not your strength. That's
not your hope. This body of sin, what we are
in Adam, does not dictate our inheritance hereafter. Christ,
the body of Christ, what he has done, he determines our inheritance. And he's delivered us from that
death and given us life. And he's given us his spirit
as a down payment, an earnest of our inheritance, whereby we
believe him and rest all our hope on him and come in the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. You are not in the flesh, but
in the spirit. If so, be that the spirit of God dwell in you.
Now, if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he's none of
his. And so when Christ enters the heart, in that day of grace,
he gives his spirit. He makes us alive. There's life
in the womb. In that barren womb, where there
is only death, we are now alive unto the things of God. Now we
have a spirit and understand the things of God because the
Spirit reveals them unto us and makes them known that he's well
pleased in the Son. To come in the Son, to believe
the Son. And that's pictured in Jacob,
who's a sinner saved. Now, there's enmity between Christ
in you and the devil's seed in this world, in this flesh, and
in this world. There's enmity, and that's pictured
in Esau. That's pictured in Esau. Esau
pictures the flesh and the strength of the flesh. And it describes
those who are left to themselves by God, left to their own strength. And you see that when you read
and look at Esau and Jacob, the stronger man in the flesh was
Esau. And here's this weak man in the
flesh, Jacob. And yet Jacob was blessed of
God And he saw being left to himself and that mighty strength
of his flesh could not save himself, could not bring the blessing
to himself, the blessing of God. And so God will leave, will pass
by some, he'll bless some in Christ and pass by others, leaving
them to the strength of their own flesh. And it proves, it
verifies time and time and time again that we cannot save ourselves
by the strength of the flesh, it's to make known to us that
Christ is all, lest we should put our hand to the work again
and think that we're saving ourselves and despising Christ as a result.
He won't let us do that. So he shows us, he gives us these
examples in the scripture to show us, left to himself, mighty
Esau could not bring the blessing to himself, could not obtain
the blessing, but despised it and hated it. In Romans 9, verse
10, we read of this. It says, and not only this, but
when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac,
for the children being not yet born, neither having done any
good or evil, 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. What then, or what
shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid, or absolutely not. For he saith to Moses, I
will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it's not of him that
willeth. It's not your free will decision that does it. It's not
of him that runneth your works, but of God that showeth mercy. And so when God will be gracious
to you, he blesses you with the gospel, to hear the gospel, to
receive that gospel, to receive Christ and to believe on him. And he gives life apart from
our works. Now he gives life and he gives
faith. He gives the spirit whereby we walk by faith in him, look
to him, want to hear of him, want to know of our Lord and
be pleasing unto him in Christ, always in Christ by faith. Now
the rest of this chapter, it reveals this enmity between the
child of God and the seed of the serpent, the children of
this world. When you look at Jacob, not everything
he did was right. In fact, he looks like the worst
man of the two. He had problems. He was not a
perfect man by any means, but he had an eye toward the promise.
He was given by God an eye toward that promise. He looked for that
blessing and he desired the blessing of God in that firstborn. He wanted that blessing, whereas
Esau, we see, despised it. He despised it and cast it off
from him. Now, we're given a brief description
of these men, and there's a lot of symbolism here. So look at
Genesis 25, verse 25 through 27. And the first, this is Esau,
he came out red, all over like a hairy garment, and they called
his name Esau. And after that came his brother
out, and his hand, this is Jacob, it took hold on Esau's heel,
and his name was called Jacob, which means supplanter. Because
Jacob was striving for that blessing. He reached out. No, don't go
out first. He was trying to pull him back
in. He was striving for that blessing. And Isaac was 60 years
old, three score years old, when she bare them. And the boys grew. And Esau was a cunning hunter,
a man of the field. And Jacob was a plain man dwelling
in tents. And so here comes Esau, the firstborn,
just like an Adam, of the flesh, of the flesh. When we're born,
we are creatures of this flesh. That's the firstborn there. Born
of Adam's corrupt seed, we're just men of flesh with no spiritual
life in us by the seed of Adam. His description is that he came
out red all over like in hairy garment. And that word red, that
he came out red, it actually means made. It means made. It's very similar to that root
word of Adam, which is red, made of the red dirt. But it means
made, so that the first came out made or complete. He was a refined man. As he grew, he was a strong man.
He was a complete man. He came out very grown up, very
wise to this world. He was a complete man. He was
basically a finished product. as he grew up. He was a gentleman.
He was a mighty man. He was a man who was very strong
in this flesh and he excelled in this world. He was very comfortable
in this world. He understood how it worked.
You know some people that just get it. They just have these
great jobs, and they make these good decisions. They always seem
to invest in things that yield them a return. And whatever they
set their hand to, it does well. Well, this was Esau. He was a strong man who did very
well in the world. He was very comfortable in the
world. And as he grew, we're told that Esau was a cunning
hunter, a man of the field, so that he was not only a hunter
and able to take the venison and such, but what it's saying
there is he was a man of the world. He was a man of the world. He was a self-made man of the
world. He wasn't afraid to venture out
in the world. He wasn't afraid to go out there
and partake and mix it up with those of the world. He loved
it. He was a worldly-minded man, and he was very different from
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, who dwelled in tents. That didn't
describe him. They dwelled in tents. He did
not. He dwelled in the field. He was out there in the world. And if you think about it in
Genesis, Esau's description is very similar to that of Nimrod,
who is a wicked man of the world. probably one of the mightiest
men who ever lived, especially in his time. Nimrod, we're told
in Genesis 10.9, was a mighty hunter before the Lord. He was
a hunter also. Not that there's anything wrong
with hunting. It's describing for us their worthiness and their
strength. And Nimrod was the one who convinced
all the other men to bake bricks and to dwell in cities, to make
cities and to build the Tower of Babel. Nimrod was an idolatrous
man. And he convinced, he persuaded
others. He had influence over others and could do that. And
men followed him because he was a man of the world. We're told
that the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom was Babel and Erech,
or I think that's Iraq, basically, what we call Iraq, and Akkad
and Kalma in the land of Shinar, which is Iraq there. So Esau's
a man who's made for this world. He's nothing but flesh, strong
flesh. He's a strong man. He's a mighty
man. He's a cunning man. But he's a man of this world,
a man of the field. Jacob is described very differently. Jacob is a sinner. His name means
supplanter. And we see when he took hold
of his brother's heel, he was trying to usurp, to supplant
him and take his place to gain the blessing of the firstborn.
He wanted that blessing for himself. because there was a blessing.
The birthright gave him a blessing. That's why he wanted it. And
he would keep pursuing that birthright all his days while his brother
had it. He kept pursuing it time and
time again because he wanted the blessing. And we're told
that Jacob was a plain man dwelling in tents. And that means he was
very likely a herder of sheep. He kept sheep. When he went to
Laban, what did he do? He was very skilled. at keeping
sheep and it prospered. The sheep prospered under his
hand. He was very good at herding sheep just like Abraham and Isaac
before him and he dwelled in tents meaning he was a stranger
and a wanderer because when you're keeping sheep You don't put your
roots down very deep, because it's only so long before they
have to move on to another place to eat good grass. Because that's
how you get good sheep, is having good grass. If you've got good
grass, you're going to have strong, healthy sheep. If you have bad
grass, your sheep can eat all they want, but they're not going
to be very strong. And so he's not a man of this world. He looked for a city which hath
foundations, whose builder and maker is God. That's where his
heart was. He was looking for there. The
other sense of him dwelling in tents means that he was taught
of the Lord. He would speak to Abraham and
Isaac about the things of the Lord. He wanted to know the God
of Abraham and Isaac. Some say he even spoke to Melchizedek.
I don't know about that. But he seemed to have an interest
in the God of Abraham and Isaac. And Esau didn't. And so the following
shows us that this sinful flesh that's pictured in Esau cannot
save itself. As set apart, as mighty as Jacob,
as Esau was, a made man, a man made for this world, a strong
man, a mighty man, a cunning man, a smart man. He despised
that blessing of God. And we see God's distinguishing
grace here seen between them. In verse 29, Genesis 25, 29,
Jacob sawed pottage. That is, he boiled, he was making
a soup. And Esau came from the field, and he was faint. He was
weary, he hadn't eaten, and probably out there for days. And Esau
said to Jacob, feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage. And what that means is, Esau
didn't even know what it was. He just saw red. He said, give
me that red, red. Whatever that is there, give
me that red, red. that you made there. Let me have
that. From faint, therefore was his name called Edom. And if
you notice, that name Edom is very close to Adam, because it
is. All these words, red and Edom,
are very closely tied to the root word of Adam. And Jacob
said, Jacob said, sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau
said, behold, I am at the point to die. And what profit shall
this birthright do to me? And they're talking like they
probably had this conversation a few times throughout their
growing up. Because Esau really didn't care
for it. He didn't see what was so great
about this blessing of the birthright. And it just seems like he would
just dangle it in front of Jacob and tease him with it to a degree. And he could tease Jacob just
like you can be teased when your sibling knows what bothers you.
They just keep going right at it. And they just keep hammering
at that one thing because they know that's how I get to him.
That's what I do. And so they probably did have
this conversation before. And Jacob said, basically, quit
playing around. No more games. Swear to me this
day. And he swore unto him. And he
sold his birthright unto Jacob. And so Jacob caught him in a
very weak, compromised position. A very weak position. He was
so weak that he preferred to satisfy his flesh and despised
the blessing of the birthright. And what that shows us is, yeah,
we can be very strong at times and we can do a lot of things
in the name of religion and in the name of our righteousness,
but there's something for everyone that whereby we can be tempted
and destroyed and brought down. There's something. And it shows
us the weakness of this flesh. It shows us that push comes to
shove when it comes to satisfying this flesh, like Esau will despise
that salvation of God, the promise of God of eternal life. I would
say we would enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season rather than
suffer with the people of God if it were left to us. And so
Adam, like Adam I should say, who Edom is named very much after
in that sense, Adam forfeited his dominion. He yielded to sin. and plunged himself in his posterity
into sin, death, and ruin." Sin, death, and ruin. That's what
we see here in Esau. He was the firstborn, according
to the flesh, and because of the temptation that he could
not resist and he had to satisfy that flesh, he despised his birthright
and treated it lightly, like it was nothing to him. Verse
34, then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils, and he
did eat and drink and rose up and went his way. Thus Esau despised
his birthright. He didn't even say when he got
done, hey, by the way, bro, I was kidding. I ain't giving you my
birthright. You know, I ain't doing that.
No, he didn't say anything. He rose up, was like, ah, my
belly's full. My flesh is satisfied. And he
went off despising his birthright. And that's the sinful lust of
man. That's what the Lord is showing us is that if there was
anything, even the smallest thing that required you to do something
for your salvation, we'd all fail and go to hell. That's what
the Lord's saying is you cannot save yourself. Even Esau was
tempted by a bowl of soup. and despise his birthright. How
much weaker are we and insufficient to save ourselves? That's what
the Lord is showing us through the scriptures that all are under
sin. Scripture hath concluded all
under sin that we might receive the promise by faith in Jesus
Christ. It's to bring us to Christ, to
behold his righteousness, to see him and to believe him. He
saw 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." Isaac had already given the blessing
to Jacob. There was nothing to give to
Esau. The blessing went to Jacob. He had done it. And so what it's
showing us is all our strength, all our wisdom, all our works
will not deliver us, will not gain us the blessings of God. We are sinners who need Christ. That's why Christ came to save
the sinners, to save his people who were destroyed and ruined
in Adam. He came graciously, and it's
by grace, not works, not the law, not the works of this flesh
that we're saved. We're saved by the grace of God
in Christ, which he established for us with his own blood. Look
to him. We, trying to come any other
way, we will run into a wall just like Esau and find nothing
and have nothing. But in Christ, Him who is the
firstborn, our firstborn, in whom all the blessings and inheritance
of God are, we come in Him by faith and receive all the blessings
of God. We don't have to beat up one
another and trick one another and connive one another. It's
all given freely in Christ. And it never diminishes, it never
runs out, it never runs dry. That river flows forever in Christ
for all eternity, believe Him. Rest in Him. Trust Him, brethren.
He's all. It's all in His hand. And so
like this flesh, which has fallen in sin and death, like Esau,
will never gain the blessings by our strength, by our works,
we need the grace of God. He provided Christ, who is his
grace, his power, his all, for us freely. He's everything, and
he did it. And so, our Lord's death and
resurrection has delivered us from the law, it's satisfied
the justice of God, and God is pleased with us. This is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him. You come in Him and
the Father receives you. Paul said, The word is nigh thee,
even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith
which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath
raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the
heart, man believeth unto righteousness. And with the mouth, confession
is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever
believeth in him shall not be ashamed. You will not be turned
away. It also says, you shall not make
haste. In other words, you won't realize
at the last minute, oh, I got no oil. Oh, I don't have any
works. Oh, I better, I don't have any righteousness. No, you
won't make haste. There's no movement. You're in Christ. And
you come in him. And you're in the family of God.
by Christ through His blood. Rest in Him, believe Him. Esau
never believed the promise of God in Christ, but Jacob did. And all of God's people are sons
of promise, sons and daughters of promise, and they come to
the Father through Jesus Christ, the Son. To the praise and glory
of His name, amen.