All right, go with me if you
would now to Romans chapter nine. Romans chapter nine. When it comes to salvation, going
to heaven, being allowed to live forever in God's glory, there
are two ways of being accepted that are preached in pulpits. There are not two ways, but there
are two ways that are being preached in pulpits. And of all of the pulpits in
the world, I don't know how many there are in Kingsport, Tennessee,
America, the world. Of all the pulpits in the world,
there are only two ways of being accepted, preached. There's only two ways. Man's
way and God's way. Only two ways. Man's way is no
way at all. God's way is the only way. Therefore, all who preach man's
way are false prophets, period. If we're trying to figure out,
well, let's see, is he a true prophet or a false prophet? If
he's preaching man's way, he's a false prophet. And all who
preach God's way, and I mean all who preach God's way, all
of God's way, only God's way and all of God's way, not slicing
and dicing and taking the parts you love and throwing out the
parts you don't. Well, he's preaching half of
it. I mean, all who preach God's way are true ministers of his
word. And I just want to be clear on
the matter. We preach God's way here. You think about that. People
want to know, how are we different? Where do, where is the difference
really? Here it is. They preach man's
way. We preach God's way. That's the
difference. Now the apostle Paul reminded
us right here in Romans nine with two stories. back to back
one, he very, very briefly mentions two stories back to back from
the old Testament that spiritually illustrate these two ways. And the truth is every story
in all of the scripture illustrates these two ways, but God's spirit
led Paul to use these two stories. to remind us that God's way is
the only way. Now let's read verses 6 to 13. Romans 9, verse 6, it says, not
as though the word of God hath taken none effect, for they are
not all Israel, which are of Israel. Neither because they
are the seed of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall
thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children
of the flesh, these are not the children of God, but the children
of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word
of promise. At this time will I come and
Sarah shall have a son. 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. Now, what is man's way of salvation
and what is God's way of salvation? Man's way is works and God's way is grace. Works and grace. Works means Man has to earn it. This is an example of works.
Well, apparently, as long as I do this, then I can go. If
I will do that, then that's works. Grace means God freely gives
it to him. Period. It's a free gift. It means God is the one who works
the works. God is the one who does everything
that needs to be done. God is the one who provides,
and then he freely gives everything that he's provided. Every work
that he's done, he freely gives it to the sinner that he's chosen
to save. Salvation by God's sovereign,
promised, provided grace. Now that's what the Apostle Paul
illustrated us with these two stories. The story of Ishmael
and Isaac, and with the story of Esau and Jacob. And here's
what I want to do for this message. I thought about breaking them
up into two messages, but the Apostle uses them in conjunction
with each other. So I just want to give an overview. I just want to tell a very brief
overview of each one of those stories so we can see the illustration
of salvation and how God's blessing comes not by man's works but
by God's pre-grace. Verse 7, if you look right here
at verse 7, it says, neither because they are the seed of
Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be
called. That is they which are the children
of the flesh. These are not the children of
God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
For this is the word of promise, at this time will I come and
Sarah shall have a son." I'm sure you know the story of Abraham
and Sarah. They were in their old age and
they didn't have any children. The scripture says Sarah was
barren. Romans four words it this way,
the deadness of her womb. That's what it says. Spiritually that represents a
center before God, all men and women before God, there's no
life there. And the center cannot produce
any life because of the deadness, just dead. But God came to Abraham
and Sarah and he said, you're going to have a son. I'm going
to give you a son. I'm going to put life where it
was not before. And he said, you look to me and
you wait on me and I promise I'll do this. Well, Abraham and
Sarah, they waited up. It was about 25 years and no
son. So they got to thinking, maybe
God was talking about another way. And that's what man does.
Maybe he was talking about another way. Maybe we're not supposed
to be sitting here, waiting on him, looking to him. Maybe we're
supposed to take matters into our own hands. Maybe he means for us to accomplish
this work on our own. So they decided that Abraham
would have a son with Sarah's handmaid, Hagar. And that's what he did. And he
named that son Ishmael. But as soon as he was born, God
came to Abraham and said, he's not the one. He's not the one
that I promised you. I did not promise you a son through
the works of your own doing. I did not promise you a son through
your and Hagar's own ability. I promised you a son through
the deadness of Sarah's womb. I promised you something that
with man is impossible. I promised you something that
I must do for you because you can't do it for yourself. I promised
you a son through faith in me. And he said, I'm going to give
you that son. And at the time that God appointed, he did. And Abraham and Sarah named their
son, Isaac. All right. Now Abraham has two
boys in front of him. One by the works of his own doing. And one by God's providing. And
this is what God said to Abraham concerning those two boys. If
you look with me at Galatians chapter 4. Galatians chapter 4 verse 21. It says, tell me you that desire
to be under the law. That means under works, trying
to provide for yourself. What only God can provide for
you. This is something we need to
know. Only God can fulfill his promise. That makes sense. Doesn't it?
Only God can fulfill His promise. Trying to work to fulfill His
promise for Him doesn't work. It doesn't work. So verse 21
says, Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do you not
hear the law? For it is written that Abraham
had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, that's Hagar, the other by a
free woman, that's Sarah. But he who was of the bondmaid,
Ishmael, was born after the flesh, Abraham's doing. That was Abraham's
work. But he of the free woman, Isaac,
was by promise. That was God's doing. That was
God's work. Verse 24, Which things are an
allegory. That means that's an illustration.
That's a spiritual picture. For these are the two covenants,
the one from the Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which
is Hagar." That's what she represents and what comes from her. Mount
Sinai is where God gave the law, gave the commandments of the
Bible, the do's, the don'ts. And God promised the fulfillment
of all of His commandments through Christ His Son. He has promised
that. They must be fulfilled. All of
these commandments that God gave must be fulfilled. And God promised
their fulfillment through Christ His Son. That's what He said
He came to do. I didn't come to put it away.
I came to fulfill it. God has promised for His people
all of the fulfillment through Christ His Son. And here's the
warning. If a man tries to fulfill God's promise, through His own
work. What God has promised to fulfill
through Christ His Son. If a man tries to fulfill the
promise for Christ, it's not going to work. It is just not
going to work. Verse 24, Which things are an
allegory? For these are the two covenants,
the one from Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is
Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai
in Arabia. and answereth to Jerusalem, which
now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem,
which is above, of God, is free, which is the mother of us all."
That means man's work is bondage and Christ's work, His gift,
His grace, is freedom. Verse 27, For it is written,
Rejoice thou, barren, that bearest not. Break forth and cry thou
that travailest not. For the desolate hath many more
children than she which hath a husband. Now we, brethren,
as Isaac was, are the children of promise. The children of God's
work, not our own. The children of God's free grace.
Verse 29, but as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted
him that was born after the spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless,
what saith the scripture? What did God say to Abraham concerning
the work of his own flesh? What did God say to Abraham about
that? Here's what he said, cast it out. Verse 30, nevertheless,
what sayeth the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her
son. For the son of the bondwoman
shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. You cannot
mix man's work with God's grace. And here's what many people don't
understand. Not even a little bit. Not even
a little bit. It can't be mostly God's grace
and a little smidgen of my work. I mean, not even a little bit.
The two cannot and will not ever mix at all. Verse 31 says, so
then brethren, we are not children of by way of the bond woman,
but of by way of the free, we are not saved by our works. We're
saved by God's grace, His work that He performs and He provides. That is the only way God's blessing
will ever come to a center. And that's what Paul reminded
us of through that story of Ishmael and Isaac. And then right after
that, he confirmed it with the story of Esau and Jacob. Go with me back to Romans 9. Now Isaac, this promised son,
it says in verse 10, Romans nine, verse 10, 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 he so have I hated. Isaac had two twin boys of his
own with his wife, Rebekah. And they were named Esau and
Jacob. Esau was the older of the two. So naturally the birthright,
which was the blessing that a father would pass down to his oldest
son. It was assumed that it would
go to Esau. Esau was the natural rightful
heir of it. All right. While those two boys were in
Rebecca's womb though, God said to her, I have chosen for Jacob
to receive the blessing. Man's natural way is not my way. Therefore, I've chosen Jacob
over Esau. He said, the elder is going to
serve the younger. It's gonna be proven through
these two boys that my blessing does not come by man's own work,
man's own right, man's own deserving, but it comes by my freely given
grace. I fulfill the work. I perform
what is required. I freely provide it all. Now,
Rebecca knew that. God told her that. all through
the life of those boys. She knew that. So when they were
finally grown and Isaac was in old age, the scripture says,
his eyes had gone dim. He couldn't see anymore. And
it was time for him to give that birthright blessing. So Isaac,
who represents the judgment and the holiness of the law, The justice of the law. The justice
of the law would have said Esau gets the blessing. All right. The law would have said the rightful
one gets the blessing. The one it's owed to gets the
blessing. Isaac said to Esau who represents
Christ. I know that's hard to gather
at first, but he's the rightful heir. He's the firstborn. He's the one it's supposed to
go to. And the judge said to Esau, go
hunting, get a deer, make some venison, bring me something to
eat, and I'll give you the blessing. That's my demands. You do that,
and then I'll do this. Do this, receive the blessing. Rebecca, who represents God's
grace. She represents God's provision. She represents God's work in
performing everything that is required of the law. And freely giving that to the
recipient of grace. Rebecca heard Isaac tell Esau
what was required. And let's start reading between
the lines. God's grace heard what was required, heard what
was told to the firstborn. So she told Jacob, that's the
one she loved. That's the one she'd set her
affection on. She told Jacob who represents every center in
this room chosen to salvation. All right, every sinner that
God has chosen to save, she said, this is what I'm gonna do for
you. All right, now let's read that together in Genesis 27.
Turn with me over there. As we read this, let's remember
that Isaac represents the judgment of the law. And what that really
is is that holiness and perfection of Christ. He is the standard.
the law of Christ and represents His justice and His judgment.
Isaac represents the law of Christ. Esau represents the person of
Christ who is owed the blessing. Rebekah represents the grace
of God which is also Christ. God's provided work for His people.
It's the grace of Christ. And let's remember that Jacob
represents the sinner that is about to be saved by grace. He is only a sinner saved by
grace. Actually, look with me at Genesis
25. Go here first and look at verse
24. Genesis 25, 24. It says, And when her days to
be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her
womb. And the first came out red all
over like an hairy garment, and they called his name Esau. And
after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's
heel, and his name was called Jacob. And Isaac was threescore
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." Now watch verse 28 and remember who everybody
represents. And Isaac loved Esau. because he did eat of his venison,
but Rebekah loved Jacob. The law loved the rightful heir,
the one who it was supposed to go to, but God's grace loved
the sinner. All right, now chapter 27. Chapter
27, verse one says, And it came to pass that 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 unto 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,
thy weapons, thy quiver, and thy bow, and go out to the field,
and take me some venison, and make me savory meat such as I
love, and bring it to me that I may eat, and that my soul may
bless thee before I die. And Rebekah heard when Isaac
spake to Esau his son, and Esau went to the field to hunt for
venison and to bring it. And Rebekah spake unto Jacob
her son saying, behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy
brother saying, bring me venison and make me savory meat that
I may 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 from thence two good
kids of the 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. And Jacob said to Rebekah his
mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth
man. My father, peradventure, will
feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver, and I shall
bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing." This is what he
was saying. I know that if I go before him, I can only go in
my sin. I know that I'm nothing like
him. And if I go, I'm going to be found out. Verse 13, and his
mother said unto him, and this is what God's grace said, upon
me be thy curse. My son, obey only my voice and
go fetch me them. And he went and fetched and brought
them to his mother and his mother made savory meat such as his
father loved. God's grace made savory meat. such as the judge, the holy righteous
demander loved. And Rebecca took goodly raiment
of her eldest son Esau. God's grace took the firstborns,
the one the father loved, took his own clothes, Verse 15, Rebecca took goodly
raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house,
and put them upon Jacob, her younger son. And she put the
skins of the kids, that sacrifice, that's what a sacrifice was,
a slain, cooked animal. She took the very covering of
the sacrifice and she laid it on him. Verse 16, she put the
skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands. and upon the
smooth of his neck. And she gave the savory meat
and the bread which she had prepared into the hand of her son Jacob. And he came unto his father and
said, my father. And he said, here am I, who art
thou my son? And Jacob said unto his father,
I am Esau thy firstborn. Now let's go ahead and enter
into the gospel here. Jacob could not go in on his
own right. He could not go in on his own
right. He had to go in on the right
of another. That was the only way. He had
to go in pleading someone else's name. The name of the Father's
first begotten. It was the only way he would
be accepted. And it is the only way we will
be accepted. There is one name that the Father
loves to hear. There is only one name that the
law is satisfied with. And at the hearing of that name,
there's one name by which a man can be saved. What name do you come in? Jesus
of Nazareth. Not my name. His name alone. Verse 19, it says, And Jacob
said unto his father, I am Esau thy firstborn. I have done according
as thou badest me. Did he? Did Jacob? Did Jacob
do all this? Arise, I pray thee, sit and eat
of my venison, that thy soul may bless me. And Isaac said
unto his son, how is it that thou hast found it so quickly,
my son? And he said, because the Lord
thy God brought it to me. He said, God did this. How are
you standing here? God did this. All the glory goes
to God for this. Verse 21, And Isaac said unto
Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee my son,
whether thou be my very son Esau or not. And Jacob went near unto
Isaac his father, and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob's
voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. And he discerned
him not, because his hands were hairy as his brother Esau's hands. What that means is, as Esau was,
so was Jacob. And before the Father, because
of the provision of His grace, as Christ is, so are we. The end of verse 23 says, So
he blessed him. And he said, Art thou my very
son Esau? And he said, I am. And he said,
bring it near to me and I will eat of my son's venison that
my soul may bless thee. And he brought it near to him
and he did eat and he brought him wine and he drank. And his
father Isaac said unto him, come near now and kiss me my son. And he came near and kissed him
and he smelled the smell of his raiment and blessed him and said,
see the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the
Lord hath blessed. Therefore God give thee of the
dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth and plenty of corn
and wine. Let people serve thee and nations
bow down to thee. Be Lord over thy brethren and
let thy mother's sons bow down to thee. Cursed be everyone that
curseth thee and blessed be he that blesseth thee. Because of
God's grace, every inheritance blessing that the firstborn rightful
heir was supposed to receive, all of it went to the sinner.
All of it. It's amazing to read that, isn't
it? All of it. In Esau, Jacob received it all. Literally, in Esau. Jacob received
it all. And in Christ, so do we. Now from this point on, we're
gonna see Esau to represent two different things. Number one,
he still represents Christ, who was forsaken for his people. In order for his people to be
accepted, Christ himself had to be forsaken of his father. But he also represents a sinner
who tries to come before the judge bringing his own works,
the works of his own hands. He represents two things. And
verse 30 says, it came to pass as soon as Isaac had made an
end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from
the presence of Isaac, his father, that Esau, his brother, came
in from his hunting. And he also had made savory meat
and brought it unto his father and said unto his father, let
my father arise and eat of his son's venison that thy soul may
bless me. And Isaac, his father, said unto
him, who art thou? I don't know you. Now that's
amazing. What a thing to hear. Verse 32, Isaac his father said
unto him, who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy
firstborn Esau. And Isaac trembled very exceedingly
and said, who? Where is he that hath taken venison
and brought it me? And I have eaten of all before
thou camest and have blessed him, yea, and he shall be blessed. What I have done, I'm not taking
it back. What I've done is forever. And
when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great
and exceeding bitter cry. This is so holy, but because
of God's grace for our sake, the Lord Jesus Christ cried,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Now Esau shows us what Christ
did for us And he also shows us what will happen if a sinner
comes bringing the works of his own hand. Jacob came before the
Father in a covering that was not his, and he did not put it on himself. Someone else put it on him. And
he came bringing an offering, a sacrifice that he did not kill. He didn't slay it. He did not
prepare it. He did not provide it. It was all given to Him. He walked
in with something that was totally done for Him and given to Him. That means He came pleading grace.
The works of another. And here's what happened. The
Father blessed Him. Showing the contrast to that,
Esau came in bringing his own offering. The one he had killed. the one He had prepared. He came
bringing His own works, and He was rejected. Through this, we can see that
God's salvation is not by man's works, it's by God's grace. Totally by God's grace. God has
provided a work for all of the people of His choosing, and He's
called it His election of grace. And every person that He has
elected to receive this grace is going to receive it. They
are going to receive His work. They are going to receive all
of the requirements and the demands of God fulfilled for them. Everything He demands freely
provided to them. And that was God's purpose in
choosing the people. That was His whole purpose. It
was that He might provide for them a complete and total salvation. That it might be of grace. Chosen
to grace. And if it's of grace, it's no
more of works. Now we're done. Go with me back
to Romans 9. Romans 9 verse 6 it says, Not as though the word of God
hath taken none effect, for they are not all Israel, which are
of Israel. Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they
all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is,
they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the
children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for
the seed. For this is the word of promise, at this time will
I come and Sarah shall have a son. 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 he so have I hated. God's purpose in His
election was to give His grace to who He wanted to give it to.
That was His purpose in election. It was to send everything He
provided to exactly who He provided it for. It was an election of grace,
an exact election of grace. Now I want to tell you this as
we close. Brother Henry used to tell the story of a preacher
many, many years ago who was working out in his garden one
day and a woman that he knew in town was passing by and came
up to him and said, how are you doing today, preacher? And he
said, I'm doing fine, thank you. She said, let me ask you a question.
She said, why are you always preaching election? She said, that doesn't make any
sense to me. I've listened to what you said and I just, I can't
see that. I just don't think I can go along
with that. He said, well, let me ask you
a question. Who saved you? Did God save you
or did you save yourself? She said, well, God saved me.
He said, Well, did he do it on purpose or was it an accident?
She said he did it on purpose. He said, honey, that's election. That's election. Election is
God saving whom he will on purpose. He said, I chose Jacob. I chose
Jacob. God chose to save us. He did
it on purpose. He did it in full. He provided
and freely gave a full salvation to all of His people. Salvations
of the Lord. Totally of the Lord. Alright,
let's all stand together.