All right, Genesis 33. I titled this lesson, I Have
Enough. I Have Enough. Both Esau and
Jacob said, I Have Enough. But they did not mean the same
thing. They didn't mean the same thing. We'll get to that at the
end of the lesson. But let us look at a few things
and learn from Jacob here. The first thing I want us to
look at and to give attention to is Jacob's conduct before
Esau. Here is a man who just wrestled
with the Lord all night long. He wrestled with God. And the
Lord changed his name to Israel because he said, as a prince
hast thou power with God. You have power with God. And
so the morning comes and it's time for Jacob to meet Esau. And the first thing Jacob does
is he staggers his family. He puts the handmaidens and their
children out front. Then he puts Leah, her children,
after them. And then Rachel and Joseph behind.
You can tell the love Jacob has. He's going to sacrifice the handmaidens
first. If Esau comes and His intent
is what Jacob thinks it is. He's gonna sacrifice them first,
and then if they get by him, then he'll sacrifice Leah and
her kids first, and he's keeping Rachel and Joseph back. You know, his love is just so
evident. He loved Rachel. But he puts
them out there. Then he passes over to meet Esau. And what we will see here is
we see great faith and little faith in the same person. In the same person. He just wrestled
with the Lord. And he gained the blessing. I
will not let you go till you bless me. And then turns around
and he's still scared to death of Jacob. But I can identify
with Jacob. How many times In your life as
a believer, have you gone to the Lord so troubled about something
and gone away from there just as afraid as when you came? We've
done it many times. We've been Jacob many times.
I can see Jacob in me so much. Here we see great faith and little
faith. David is an example. David kills
Goliath. by himself with a sling. He takes
a sling and a smooth stone and he takes that giant down. For
defying the armies of Israel, for defying his God, he takes
him down and then he runs from Saul and hides in a cave. He's
scared to death. What about Elijah? He stands
before 400 prophets of Baal. Stands them. Stands them face
to face. Stands them down. And then runs
from Jezebel. Takes off and flies and gets
in a cave and hides from Jezebel. I tell you, great faith and little
faith are seen at the same time. And we're going to see this in
the message after this. where Peter asked the Lord that
he can come to him walking on water, and he does. Then at the
same time, shortly thereafter, he starts to sink. It's amazing
how fickle we are. I'm so glad salvation is all
of grace. I'm telling you, not one of us would be there if it
were not all of grace. And notice here in verse 3 what
Jacob does. He does something I think is
just unbecoming of a believer. And he passed over, that is,
he passed over the brook before them, and he bowed himself to
the ground seven times until he came near to his brother."
This is the one wrestling with God. This is the prince. This is one whose name means
prince, one who has power with God, and he's bowing himself
seven times. Now, it was a custom in that
day to bow, Bowing once, you know, that's enough. Seven times,
that's like a dog crawling to its master. That's what that's
like. Bowing seven times, just scraping
and crawling. He's crawling to Esau. This is
the one who just asked God for mercy and for help and for deliverance.
This is the one whom God gave the covenant to. This is the
one whom God said, I will be with you. Let us walk according to our
faith in God. Our God is God. Our God is God. He's not just one among many
gods. He's the only God there is. And
He's our God. He's our God. Jacob bows himself
seven times to Him. And Esau says to him, what do
you mean by all this drove or banned? And Jacob says this,
that I might find grace in thy sight. Well, you know the definition
of grace is unmerited favor. You can't buy unmerited favor.
Jacob, just say what you're trying to do is you're trying to buy
his favor. You're trying to appease Esau. for what you did. That's what
you're trying to do. He's trying to buy Esau's favor,
not recognizing it is God who has power over the heart. The
heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord. Esau's heart is
in God's hand. He has the power over every heart. You know, in one place, God says
concerning Israel, that not even a dog, he said, not even a dog
will bark against you. Not even a dog will bark against
you. He has the power and control over the tongue of a dog barking
against his elect. And here Esau is trying to buy
his brother's favor instead of trusting God whom he just wrestled
with, to control the heart of Esau, to control the whole situation. Do we really believe that God
controls all things? Do we really believe, do I really
believe, do I really believe that God controls every, absolutely
every situation I'm in? Whether it's at work or wherever
I'm at, does God control every situation? I would, to God, I
would act like it. And I know I don't. I know I
don't. It's embarrassing. It's embarrassing. I believe God, but I tell you
what, I'm sure not going to brag about how I believe God. I ought
to believe God a whole lot more than I do. We ought to believe
God a whole lot more than we do. We ought to believe God like
Jesus Christ believed him. We ought to. We ought to. We
ought to be able to sleep on the back of the boat when the
storm is raging. When the trial is hot and heavy,
we should be able to, but we don't. And I understand that. That's because of sin. It's because
of what we are by nature. We still have that. But I want to. I want to. Lord, I believe. Help thou mine
unbelief. Help me to walk like I really
believe you. Help me to conduct myself in
faith. Help me to do that. Listen, in a way that's honoring
to God. This is not honoring here. What
Jacob is doing is not honoring. He's bowing and scraping, and
he's calling Him Lord. He's calling Him Lord. Now he's
recognizing his brother, his eldership. He's recognizing that,
but this is more than just, I think, recognition of his brother's
being elder. This is just unbecoming of Jacob
here to do what he's doing. Now Esau ready to embrace Jacob
without the gifts because God changed his heart. God changed
his heart. The gifts didn't change his heart.
God did. A right fear of God will give
us a right attitude toward men. A right fear of God will give
us the right attitude in whatever situation we are in. A right
fear of God. The scripture says, the fear
of man bringeth a snare. When we fear man, we fear everything
else. When we truly fear God, we fear
nothing else and no one else. We're not arrogant about it.
I'm not saying that. We're not arrogant about it.
It's humbling. There is a true humility to the
real fear of God. But we don't fear anything else
when we have a proper fear of God. And notice something else here,
and I'll get back to this. When Esau speaks of having enough,
he does not give God any glory at all. You notice that? Esau said, Brother, you keep
what you have. I have enough. There in verse
9, Esau said, I have enough, my brother. Keep that thou hast
unto thyself. I don't need your cattle, your
sheep, and these things that you're giving. I have enough. And there's a sense, I think,
here where Esau is saying, look, Jacob, you haven't hurt me. When Jacob was given the blessing,
Esau was bent out of shape. He was being out of shape. He
said, is there not a blessing for me, Father? Is there not
a blessing for me? And now he's got all this. He's
got 400 men with him, which I think is for a show. And he's got all
that he needs material-wise. He has it all. And he said, Jacob,
I'm fine, buddy. I have it all. I have enough.
I have all this material gain. Look what I've gained. Look at
my stuff. But now when Jacob says he has
enough, when he speaks of that, every time, every time Jacob
said, the Lord has been gracious to me. You see, he says there
in verse 5, you know, Esau would ask him about all these people
here, all this drove stuff, and Jacob said, the children which
God has graciously given thy servant, these children that
I have, God has graciously given them to me. He has graciously
given them to me. Now look in verse 11. Jacob is
urging Esau to take the present. He said, Take, I pray thee, my
blessing that is brought to thee, because God hath dealt graciously
with me. Esau never speaks of God at all. Esau never gave God one ounce
of glory or recognition for anything he possessed. Jacob said, even
though he's acting like he's acting, but still yet, he believes. Still yet, he's a believer. He's
a believer. And he says, everything I have,
God has graciously given me. I don't have anything that God
hasn't given to me. That's what Paul asked the question
he asked in Corinthians. What do you have that you didn't
receive? What do you have? What talent
do you have? What intelligence do you have?
What temporal blessing do you have that God Almighty didn't
give it to you? You didn't come up with it. God
gave it to you. And Jacob here says, God graciously
gave it to me. I didn't deserve it. I didn't
earn it. God graciously gave it to me.
But Jacob's still Jacob. He's still Jacob. You know, John's
still John. Doug's still Doug. Aren't we? We're still sinners saved by
grace. Because here Esau offers to leave some men with Jacob.
He offers to go before Jacob. He said, I'll go before you and
you come behind me. What he's saying is, I'll take
care of you, Jacob. I'll take care of you. Don't you worry,
I'll protect you. And Jacob says, no, that's okay. And Esau, I'll leave some men
with you. And he said, no, you don't need to do that either.
Because Jacob doesn't, he does not trust Esau. You can't trust
an unbeliever. He doesn't trust Esau. And he
says, I tell you what, you go on to Sear, and I and the children
will follow after you. We'll meet you there. We'll meet
you there. And so Esau says, OK. All right,
Jacob. So he takes off and leaves. And
Jacob does not and has no intentions at that point of going back home. He takes off and he goes over
to Sukkoth. He deceived his brother, lied
to him again. He had no intentions of following
him at all. And he turns aside to Sukkoth. God did not tell him to go there.
Remember, he told him to go back to his father's house, to go
back to Isaac, where Isaac was at, to go back there. He did
not tell him to turn aside. Jacob turns aside, still out
of fear of Esau. He's still afraid of Esau. And
he turns and he goes to Sukkoth, and when he goes there, he buys
a piece of land, he builds a house, he builds booths for his cattle,
to take care of his cattle, and he settles down there. God didn't
tell him to go. Now he erects an altar there,
but God didn't tell him to do that either. It's not till chapter
35 when he tells Jacob, go home and go back to Bethel and there
build an altar. He didn't tell him to do that
here. And listen, because of this fear of Esau and turning
aside, Jacob's life just gets in a mess. And then the sons
of Jacob go and kill all those men of Shechem. They kill all
those of Sukkoth there where they're at. I mean, it turns
out to be a mess. And then God says, Jacob, in
chapter 35, when we get there, He says, Jacob, go back to Bethel. That's where I told you to go
to the first time. And you turn aside out of fear, and look what
a mess it turned into. And you go back there, and there
you build an altar. There you build an altar. But
to close with this, To close with this, I wanna look just
for a few minutes at this statement, I have enough. I want you to
look, I wanna look at two things here. Esau says, I have enough. Esau looks at his material gain
and he's saying to Jacob, I don't need you to give me anything.
I don't need anything of yours. I have all the cattle I need. I have all the servants I need.
I have all the help I need. I don't need anything from you,
Jacob. I have enough." But when Jacob
says it, in the margin of my Bible here, when Jacob says it,
it means this. Jacob says, I have enough, it
means I have all things. That's what he's saying, I have
all things. I have all temporal blessings by the grace of God.
I have all spiritual blessings by the grace of God. The believer truly has enough. Do you have enough? I'm telling
you, if you have Jesus Christ, You have enough. Now, you may
not think you make enough. You say, well, if I can make
more money, I can live more comfortable. God has given you and he's given
to me what you and I can handle. I heard Henry say one time, God
has given us wisely. He has wisely given us what we
need, what we can handle. Evidently, I can't handle anymore. He gives us what we can handle.
He wisely distributes to His children. I have enough. I have enough
wisdom. Christ is my wisdom. I have enough
righteousness. I don't need any more righteousness
than what I have. I have enough. I don't need, I don't even feel
a need. Of course, I know self-righteousness
raises its ugly head from time to time. But I don't have a need
to add to it. I don't have a need to go do
something, give something, so I can add to the righteousness
of Christ. I have enough righteousness.
I have enough redemption. The blood of Christ, the death
of Christ is enough. I have enough sanctification.
Having Christ is enough. Turn over to 1 Corinthians. 1
Corinthians 3. Look in verse 21. Therefore let
no man glory in men, for all things are yours, whether Paul,
or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or
things present, or things to come, all are yours, and ye are
Christ, and Christ is God's. All are yours. Life, it's yours
in Christ. Death has no power over you. You have power over death in
Christ. Things present, things to come. Everything's yours.
It's all yours in Christ. Whatever belongs to Jesus Christ
belongs to us in Christ. What belongs to our head belongs
to the body. I have enough. Let me ask you
just a few questions here and I'll close. Do you really believe
that Jesus Christ is enough to appease God's justice? Do you
believe that his death, that his obedience and his death is
enough to appease the strict, strict justice of God to the very jot and tittle? Absolutely. If you believe God,
you believe that Jesus Christ is enough. Is Christ's blood
enough to wash away all my sins? I mean, secret sins. All my sins. Right down to my
thoughts. Is His blood enough? Is Christ's power enough to break
the power of Satan and to raise me from the grave one day? To
raise me out of the grave. You know, it won't be long. It
just will not be long. And you and I, if the Lord doesn't
come back, we're going to be six feet under. That's what we're going to have,
six feet under. Do you really believe that Jesus
Christ, His power is enough to bring me, to bring you out of
that grave alive and present us before God spotless? Absolutely. Absolutely. Here's the greatest question
of all. Is Jesus Christ enough for God? Can God require of me any more
than Jesus Christ Himself? No. Jesus Christ is enough for
God. And brethren, if He's enough
for God, He's enough for me. He's enough. When Jacob said, I have enough,
I have all things, I have all things in this life that I need,
and I have all things in Christ to stand before God that I need.
Every believer, every believer here has in Christ enough. I have enough.