will be found in verse 20. Hebrews 11 and verse 20. The
scripture says, by faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning
things to come. The title of the message this
morning is the blessing by faith. The blessing by faith now to
get to this point i want us to to recap a little bit of what
we have been studying concerning faith and we have seen that all
true faith in christ in doers in doers if you look back the
chapter third uh... uh... same chapter verse thirteen
it says these all died in faith true faith endures to the end
And so does all who are quickened by the Holy Spirit and given
life in faith in Christ. This faith is a gift of God.
It is the power of God. It is the work of God in the
believer's heart. He gives us this faith and this
faith, if it is genuine, will not go away. It will endure until
the end of this life. We will continue in the Word,
in hearing, in obeying and worshiping God. And as we journey through
this life, We are ever looking forward to the kingdom that is
to come. This world to a believer is nothing
but a barren world. It is an empty world. It is full
of difficulties. It's full of troubles. It's full
of trials and tears and sorrows. Therefore, for our joy, we do
not look for any comfort here. Our comfort is in heaven. Our
joy is there where Christ sits. And so the believer will endure,
looking only to Christ. By faith, we endure. Now then, but as we journey through
this world, we also know this, that we shall be tried. All true
faith will be tested. You see, it's easy for someone
to say, I believe in Jesus. That's easy. Any one of you can
say that. But one thing is, God will test
that faith. Not for himself, but rather for
you, that you may know if your faith is real. That's the important
thing. If your faith is not real, then
what good is your faith? If it is not genuine faith, it
is not anything to your soul, it's no value to you. And so
I desire to know this, is my faith real? When I come to death's
door, when I enter into before the judgment bar of God, is my
faith genuine? Or is it made up? And to do this, God tests. He
tries. And that's what he sees in verse
17. Abraham, he says, "...by faith Abraham, when he was tried."
So faith is tested. The psalmist said, "...many are
the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out
of them all." So then, believer, let us see that the trial of
our faith, though painful and grievous, though vexing to the
flesh, it is precious. That's what Peter said, the trial
of your faith being much more precious than gold that perisheth. Why? Because it is to the praise
and glory of Christ. That's what our faith is, to
the praise and glory of Christ. Abraham was tried, and you remember,
he was tried how? By offering up his only son,
Isaac, whom he loved. His beloved son. The one in whom
the promises was given. Yet Abraham did not flinch. He
did not flinch at the command of God to offer His Son. Why?
Because he believed the promises of God. So then we see this.
True faith does not look at the outward circumstances. The grounds of our faith is not
based in circumstance. It's not based in this world.
Our faith is based on the Word of God. And the Word of God rules
over all things. True faith does not look at the
appearance, but looks only to the promises of God. Abraham
believed God and was faithful regardless of the circumstances. Therefore, he trusted the Word
of God that Isaac would surely be the one from whom Christ would
come. Therefore, he was able to offer
him up. Now I ask you this, you who are
believers, are you tried? And believe me, if you are not
tried yet, you will be. Seems like that this life for
the believer is nothing more than one wave of trial, one wave
of difficulty after another. The believers are tried. Yet we are not looking to the
arm of flesh to deliver us. We do not look to the arm of
flesh to deliver us. We look to Christ. We look to
Him. We know this, that all the promises
of God are yea and amen in Christ. In Christ. Now, now then we get
to our text. So we see that faith endures,
and we see that faith is tried. Now then, by faith, Isaac blessed
Jacob and Esau concerning the things to come. Now, in these
next three objects of faith, he's going to deal with Isaac,
with Jacob, and with Joseph. And the first thing I want you
to see is that the... to notice is that these men are
not seen in their prime, but rather at their deathbed. It was at his deathbed that Isaac
blessed Jacob and Esau. It was at Jacob's deathbed that
he blessed the children of Joseph. It was at Joseph's deathbed that
he said, when you leave this place, take my bones. And so
these men are seen at the end of their life. These saints,
having endured all the trials of their course, have now come
to the end. Yet what do you see these saints
doing? Are they looking back? No. They're looking forward. They're looking forward. Look
at that. In our text, it says, "...he blessed Jacob, and he
saw concerning things to come." He was at his death. His life
was over. This body was about to go to
the ground, and yet these men were not looking back. They were
looking forward. They were looking to the future.
This is an aspect of true faith. True faith, even at death's door,
looks forward. Not as this being an end, but
rather being the beginning of the experience of all the promises
of God. Our deathbed is a place that
we should look as a point of leaping off into eternity to
receive the true blessings that God has prepared for us in Christ. That's what these men were doing.
They were looking forward. looking to the future. How true it is that all the saints
of God that the death of the body is not the end but rather
the beginning. Paul said to depart and be with
Christ is what? Far better. Far better. And so it is with all true faith. We have all the blessings of
God bestowed upon us, but we have not yet experienced the
fullness of them. We see yet through a glass darkly. But these men were looking forward
to seeing Christ face to face. They were anticipating stepping
off. Why? Because God was faithful.
That's what their hope was in. God was faithful that Christ
should come and deliver them from their sins. And now, I want
us to narrow in, though I'm not looking at all three this morning,
just looking at this one, Isaac. By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob
and Esau concerning things to come. Now, the blessing, the
blessing, Now, before these two men, spoken
of here, Jacob and Esau, the ones who were to be blessed,
before the children were yet born, God declared this. that the elder shall serve the
younger. That's the declaration of God
about these two men in the womb of their mother, not yet being
born. God said this, the younger one
shall be blessed. The younger one shall be blessed
over the older. That's God's declaration. If you go to Genesis chapter
25, you can see this for yourself. Genesis chapter 25. And you can
kind of stay over here in Genesis. We're going to see a lot of things
out of this account. So, it can rain in this area
in your Bible. Genesis 25 and look at verse
22. This is Rebecca. She's pregnant
with these children and she's having a struggle. There's a
struggle in her womb. These children are even fighting
in her womb. And she says in 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, and the elder shall
serve the younger." And yet, Isaac... Now, Isaac heard this. Isaac knew this to be the truth. And yet, we see this in verse
28. Look at this. As the children
grew up, look what happened. Isaac loved Esau, because he
did eat the venison. But Rebekah loved Jacob. And so knowing this, the prophecy
of God, he loved Esau, so when his life was soon to come to
an end, with his whole heart he defied
God. The blessing was to go to Jacob.
God said that. And yet we come to the end of
Isaac's life. You come to chapter, look at
chapter 27, and look at verse 1. He said, It came to pass when
Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see.
He called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son. And
he said to him, Behold, here am I. And he said, Behold, now
I am old. I know not the day of my death
now therefore take I pray thee the weapons and the quiver and
the bow and go out in the field and take some venison and make
me a savory meat as such as I love and bring it to me that I may
eat listen that my soul may bless thee before I die see Jacob believed
the blessing but he defied God in the object of the blessing To bless Jacob over Esau was
against all natural order and custom. It was always the custom
of the men of this day to bless the elder son, not the younger. And also this, Jacob was not
appealing to his father. He was not an appealing son.
He was a mama's boy. He hung around the tents, and
he hung around his mama. Now, Esau was a man's man, and
Jacob and Isaac admired that about Esau. He was a man's son,
and he was a skillful hunter, and he loved that venison, that
he could get that deer and cook a good stew, and Jacob loved
that. Yet, though Isaac failed in his
choice, in a selfish desire to set Esau above Jacob." Listen,
I do not want to diminish this truth that Isaac truly believed
the promise. Don't miss that. Isaac's faith
in the promise blessing was not dim. He was mistaken in the object
of his blessing, but he was no doubt a believer in the promise. And consider also Jacob and Rebekah
in this story. They believed the promise. They
believed the promise. They heard the Word of God and
believed the promise of God and knew this, that whosoever Isaac
blessed, he would be the one that Christ should come from. They believed that promise, that
this blessing had power. It had authority. Because it
was from the Word of God. They believed in the blessing. Yet the means by which they obtained
it, the means by which they accomplished it, was sinful. You remember
how they obtained this. First of all, Jacob, he schemed. He schemed and was very cruel
to his brother. His brother came to him hungry
and starving and what did he use? He used that in order to
buy his birthright. He said, well, sell me your birthright
and then I'll give you some stew. And you know, Esau didn't have
any respect to the birthright. That's true enough. But how Jacob
obtained it was sinful. It was wicked. And then how they obtained this
blessing here in verse 27 is by deception. Rebecca's going
to tell Jacob, she's going to hear about him wanting to bless
Esau and then what does she do? She sends him out to get some
goats and she makes a stew And then she puts Esau's clothes
on him and goat skins on his hands because Esau was a hairy
man and Jacob was a smooth man. So in order to deceive their
blind father... Can you see how devious this
is? The man was blind and they walked
in and deceived him to get the blessing. It was very deceptive. And this is a lesson for us.
Believer in Christ, I want you to see the lesson. We, who are believers in Christ,
are endowed with great and precious promises given to us by Christ. Promises that are not yet fulfilled. But let us not follow the example
of these schemers to fulfill the promises of God." Consider
this. Our Lord says to us, go into
all the world and preach the gospel. Why? Because we know
this, God has an elect people. We know this. God chose a people. We know this, Christ came and
redeemed those people. And the Spirit of God is now
sent into the world to call those people to faith in Christ. But what is the means? What is
the means by which God has chosen to save His people? It is the
preaching of the gospel. The preaching of the gospel is
the chosen means that God has ordained to call His elect. And
we know all these things, that all time and providence are moving
by the hand of God. We know this. We know it. We
know all circumstance and events are moving toward this thing
that God should call His people and gather them in. I remember
a story of a man, a believer, a friend of mine. He was a businessman,
very successful, and he was in a strange city, and he was just
walking around the city. Had no clue what he was doing
out that day on a Sunday, walking around. And he looks up and he
sees a sign, a church sign. He just says, Oh, well, I guess
I'll just go in here. And a man preached the gospel
to him, and the Lord saved him. Now, what was God doing with
all that time in Providence? He was leading that man to hear
the gospel. and saved him. We know this. Yet when the times are lean,
when few believe on Christ, in these times we in zeal and
sincerity believe the promises of God, yet we are tempted to
use deception to bring men in. It's a temptation, isn't it? Don't think it's not a temptation
to us. Well, let's just get some fancy music and let's get some
programs going and maybe we can get people in here so that they
can hear the gospel. See, we got good intentions,
but what are we doing? We are scheming. That's not for
us. And I tell you, it won't work
out well. It didn't work out well for Jacob and his mother.
They had to deal with much suffering because of their scheming. God
didn't excuse their sin. And so we're not to use the wisdom
of the world to fulfill the promises of Christ. What are we to do?
Preach the Word. What are you to do? Preach the
Word. Be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke,
exhort, all longsuffering. You see, we're not of the world. And we should not scheme with
the world. We should preach the Gospel.
And who does the saving? Who does the calling? Who does
the bringing in? God does. God does. So we should use every opportunity
available to us, but not with an idea to trick men into coming.
We don't do that. And also we should learn from
Isaac's mistake. Isaac believed the promise and
yet he willfully desired to give the promises to the wrong person. I know this, sometimes we have
family members and friends that we really love dearly and then
we know that their gospel, that their Christ is not the Christ.
We understand that we are worshiping two different gods and yet our
affection overrules and we give their gospel some credibility. I know we're tempted with our
children. We love our children. Our children come to us and say,
I'm scared. I'm fearful of hell. And what
do we want to say? It'll be alright. Well, that's foolish. How do
I know it'll be alright? If they don't believe in Christ,
it won't be alright. If they don't come to Christ
for refuge, it won't be well with them. We should not try to bestow the
blessings of the elect upon those that do not believe. We cannot.
It's injustice. It's cruelty to do that. We shouldn't
do that. So we can learn these things
from this text. But there's greater things to
learn here in this blessing. greater things to learn and this
is what the Holy Spirit I know would have us learn from this
blessing of Isaac by faith Isaac blessed concerning things that
are to come now the whole intention of this by God is to picture
the gospel the gospel of Jesus Christ. The whole of this blessing,
this whole story, is to picture the gospel. First of all, the
first aspect this blessing pictures is the election of God. The promise of God was from the
beginning that Christ should come. The seed of the woman shall crush
the head of the serpent. How? And he shall bruise his
heel. By his crucifixion, by his death,
by his offering, he should wash our sins and cover our nakedness
before God. That's the promise. But to whom is this salvation
purposed? This salvation was not a random
chance. God did not purpose salvation
to be a roll of the dice. To whom was this salvation purposed? To whom did God purpose that
Christ should come and die? Well, this is clearly seen in
our example, in this story of Jacob and Esau. Remember back in 25, we just
read that in Genesis 25. He says, these two nations that
are in thy womb are two manner of people, shall be separated
from thy bowels, the one stronger than the other, and the elder
shall serve the younger. Before these sons of Isaac were
born, You pay close attention. God
chose one of them and passed by the other. God chose one. God loved one. And God hated
the other. He chose Jacob. to receive all
of the blessings. He chose Jacob to be the head
of his mother's sons. He chose Jacob that all should
bow down before him. And this was fulfilled, we know,
historically by those two nations, Israel and Edom. Edom is no longer
there. It's gone. Who's left? Israel
was left. So that was fulfilled historically,
but there's something greater here than a historical fulfillment. This is a picture, not of a physical
nation, but rather a spiritual people. A spiritual people. The church is pictured here by
Jacob. Jacob is a picture of the church. It is All saints and believers
in Christ, this is what Paul calls the remnant according to
the election of grace. So just as God chose Jacob and
passed by Esau, even so God chose a people that He should receive
the blessings of God, a people that He would save by the coming
and dying and resurrection of His own Son. This point of doctrine is no
fable, no imagination of man, but it is plainly revealed in
the Word of God. I'm not doing this to be intellectual. I'm doing this to show you this
is the truth. This is the Word of God. Go to
Romans chapter 9. This is very plainly described
for us in Romans chapter 9. Look at verse 6. Paul, after
telling about the Israelites, that nation, he said, they had
so many blessings, they got the prophets, they got the law, they
had God speaking to them and through the prophets, but yet
they're not all saved, Paul. How can they be God's people
if they're not all saved? Is the Word of God fallen to
the ground? Look at verse 6. Not as though
the Word of God had taken none effect. 4. This is why They are not all
Israel, which are of Israel. Neither because are they the
seed of Abraham are they all children. But in Isaac shall
thy seed be called." That is, now he's explaining it. That
is, this is the meaning, they which are the children of the
flesh are not the children of God, but the children of the
promise are counted for the seed. Well, this is the word of promise,
"...at a time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son." And
not only this, "...but when Rebecca hath conceived even by one our
father Isaac, for the children not yet being born, neither having done good or evil."
that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of
works but him that calleth. It is said to her the elder shall
serve the younger. Now what we just read? The elder
shall serve the younger. What is God teaching? Election!
Election! As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? See, Paul has already got your
argument. The argument of man is this.
Well, that's just not fair! Is there unrighteousness with
God because He loved one and hated the other because He chose
one and not the other before they had done anything? Is that
unrighteous? He said, God forbid. For He already
told you this. I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
the promise of god was given to rebecca and that was jacob
that he should be blessed that he was the chosen one as a type
to show that the election standard that god has from eternity love
the people that his choice was not based on their works of what
they have done or should ever do to merit this, but according
to his own free grace, his own free love, he purposed to bless
them with all spiritual blessings. In Ephesians chapter 1 it said,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Listen,
Who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places, according as He hath 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. You see, all these blessings,
this blessing of Isaac is a typical blessing. It is a spiritual blessing. God hath blessed us. Who? All
that He chose in Christ before the world began. He hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings. And listen, no matter the schemes
of men, no matter the situation or circumstances of time, this
is sure. As sure as Jacob received the
blessing from Isaac, you mark this now, all the elect shall
be blessed by God. All of them. And nothing will stop it. Though
we, like Isaac, may be mistaken as to who they
are. Now I'll tell you this, I look
out here and I can only, I take you at your word, so you tell
me you believe in Christ, I can only see so much. I don't know.
I'm usually mistaken. So, who this blessing belongs
to, I know this, it belongs to all who are in Christ. To all
who believe in Christ. I know that. Though we may be
mistaken, Though we, like Rebecca and Jacob, may fail and sin, God will use all people, events,
and circumstances of time to bring His chosen to salvation. All things, all things move by
the sovereign hand of God and He overrules to bless His people.
Secondly, the blessing of salvation is by Christ. Now then, look
back at Genesis here. Look back at Genesis. And look
at chapter 27 and verse 2. Now, Isaac is going to try to bless
Esau here. He doesn't know what he's doing,
but God is using this to preach the gospel to us. Look at this.
And he said, Behold, now I am old, and I know not the day of
my death. Now therefore, take, I pray thee,
thy weapons, and quiver in a bow, and go out to the field, and
take me some venison, and make me a savory meat that I love,
and bring it to me, that I may eat, and that my soul may bless
thee and die. See here, the overwhelming purpose
of God is to show forth the gospel here. Listen, before Jacob would
bless Esau, he must first kill the animal and make the stew. Before the blessing of God can
be given, an offering must be made. An offering must be made. Because
of the sin of Adam, because we were all born in sin, dead in
trespasses and sin, because none is good, none is righteous by
nature, how then does a sinner obtain the blessing of God? By
an offering. An offering must be made, a sacrifice
must be offered to please the justice of God before the blessing
can be given. He's a picture of all reprobate
men. You see, he went out to make the stew of his own hands,
right? He was a skillful hunter. He
used his own skill, and he made an offering of his own making. And what was the result? He was
not blessed with spiritual blessings. And so it is with all who try
to bring in your works to God. If you bring in your offerings,
your offerings are not acceptable. You will not be blessed. But
I want you to see this. Jacob, he's going to bring in
an offering that is not made by his own hands. Look at that. And Rebekah heard when Isaac
spake to Esau his son, and Esau went into the field to hunt venison,
bringing it. And Rebekah spake to Jacob her son, saying, Behold,
I heard thy father speaking to Esau thy brother, saying, Bring
me the venison, and make me a savory meat, and I will eat, and bless
thee before the Lord before my death. Now therefore, my son,
obey my voice according to that which I command thee. Go now
to the flock and fetch me thence two good kids of goats, And I
will make them savory meat for thy father such as he loveth. And thou shalt bring it to thy
father that he may eat and that he may bless thee before his
death." See, Jacob is going to bring an offering, but not his
own. This is the doctrine of substitution. that by the offering and work
of another, Jacob was to please his father and receive the blessing."
The goat here pictures Christ. The goat here pictures Christ
as taken from among the flock. What is that? But Christ taken
from among humans, from among men. He came into this world
as a man. He condescended to become a man
so that he might offer himself to God in our stead. And being the offering for sin
in His flesh, God made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. You see, God made all of the
sins of His elect to meet in the body of Christ. And then
when God saw our sin in His Son, He exacted justice. He poured
out vengeance upon His Son in the stead of His people. Look at what... Let me see this. Look at what Rebekah said. Jacob
said this, My father, peradventure, will feel me. He said, I'm a
smooth man and Esau's a hairy man. My father, peradventure,
feel me. And I shall seem to be as him
a deceiver, and I shall bring a curse upon me and not a blessing.
And his mother said this, Listen, upon me be thy curse, my son. Is that not prophetic? That's
what happened when Christ bore our sins. He said, upon me be
the curse, my son. That's what happened on the cross.
He bore our sins. But not only this. He bore our
sins. He satisfied the justice of God
by His offering. Listen, if you ever desire to
be accepted of God, you must have a savory meat. You must
have an offering, not your own. Only one offering can satisfy
the offering of Jesus Christ. And secondly, this was not enough.
Not only did Jacob need to bring an offering, but he himself must
have become Esau. He said, look, if I go into this
tent, my dad's going to know I'm not Esau. He's going to feel
me and know that I'm not Esau. Isn't that true? That if you
go to God and you go to God in yourself, do you think you would
have a standing before God? No. To be accepted of God, listen,
we must become the Son of God. Now the Son of God is the only
one God is well pleased with. He said, this is my beloved Son
in whom I am well pleased. But seeing we like Jacob are
sinners, we cannot by any means become the sons of God in ourself,
who is holy and righteous and eternally loved. Behold then the cause of the
two goats. Have you ever wondered why she
said, get me two goats? One goat was to make the savory
stew. The other goat was for this purpose, that she would
take the skin and lay it all over him, his hands and his neck. And she would take the robe of
Esau and cover him in it. Do you not see that this is what
happens with Christ and His righteousness? When a man comes to faith in
Christ, when we become a believer in Christ by the grace of God,
this is what happens, is we become, we are robed in His righteousness. So much so that we are in union
with Christ. This is how we're accepted. Because
we are in union with Him. Therefore, when Jacob came in
there with those clothes and stuff, his father, he was confused. He heard Jacob's voice. But he
tasted the stew and, man, that was it. He felt his hands and
he says, well, man, he feels like Esau. He grabbed him and
brought him in and he took a sniff and he said, man, he smells like
Esau. This must be Esau. And what did
he do? He blessed him. What is it when
we come into God by faith in Christ? We come in the very skin
of the Son of God. We come in the very skin of our
Savior, so that when God sees us, He sees Christ. When God
feels us, He feels Christ. When God smells us, He smells
Christ. When God tastes the savoriness
of righteousness, He tastes the righteousness of Christ. We have no righteousness of our
own, but all our righteousnesses are in Christ. Even so, believer, then let us
rejoice in this blessing. For we who are born again of
the Holy Spirit are given even the very nature of Christ, so
that when God searches for our sin, He finds none. In that day shall the iniquity
of Israel be sought for and shall not be found." Transgression
of Jacob shall be looked for and there shall be none. And notice, it is Jacob's voice
that he hears. What is this speaking to? This
speaks to the duality of our natures now. Though we are in
union with Christ, yet it's our voice He hears. Isn't that something? Our voice He hears. And accepts
us, He receives us, as He does His own Son. And so then, let us come near
to God, let us be comforted in this, For Paul says, we are unto
God a sweet saver of Christ. A sweet saver of Christ. Have you come to Christ? Have you come to Christ? Listen
to the Word of God. Neither is there salvation in
any other, for there is none other name, none other name,
given among men, whereby we must be saved. Look, there is no other
righteousness God will accept. There is no other offering God
will accept but Christ's. And except you come to God in
Christ, you will receive the blessing of Esau, which is nothing
but temporal and vanishing blessings. But if you come in Christ, you
receive the blessing of Jacob. Which is an eternal blessing.
A spiritual blessing. All spiritual blessings in Christ. So by faith, Jacob blessed, uh,
Isaac blessed Jacob. Because this blessing is a picture
of the gospel. Which, which Isaac believed. Which we believe. now he did bless Esau but again
those blessings he gave Esau were only temporal now you've
had blessings haven't you all of you you've had blessings this
morning you woke up a blessing you got you have food blessings
what are they temporal but we who believe have something greater
we have spiritual blessings of God I pray that God will bless
this to your hearts