I hope the Lord will give liberty this
morning, liberty, freedom of his word, and give you heart to receive it,
freedom of hearing. This will be a blessing if he
does. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 6 says to the saints and believers
in Christ that this is to the praise of the glory of God's
grace. Salvation is to the praise of
the glory of his grace. Wherein, that is. in his grace,
by his grace, a free gift. He hath, God hath, made us accepted
in the Beloved. Accepted in the Beloved. He's talking about the Lord Jesus
Christ, who God said, this is my Beloved Son, the Son I love. God said that. about one person,
his son. And he said also, in whom I am
well pleased. He said that twice from heaven
out loud while Christ was here. He never did say that about anyone
else. Nowhere. You'll see in scripture, nowhere
where God says I'm well pleased with this person or that person.
Only Christ. God never said that about anyone
but his one son. God says about us, to the contrary,
he says there's none good. In Psalm 14, and Paul quotes
it again in Romans 3, he says there's none good, no not one.
He says they all together become filthy. That's what God says
about mankind. But now he had one only begotten
son, the God-man who came here And God said out loud, I'm well
pleased. And over in the Psalms, he said,
I'm well pleased for his righteousness. He's a righteous man, holy man. I'm well pleased with him. But
now, he says here, in Ephesians 1, verse 6, that he, God, hath
made us accepted in the beloved. That somehow God accepts us,
that God is well pleased with us in the Beloved. Because of Christ. In Him. All the way through this first
chapter, it talks about in Christ. In whom? In Him. If you noticed, we're going to
see, I hope, what that means. What it means to be accepted
in the Beloved. Everything is in Christ, for
Christ's sake. In verse 13, go down there. Verse
13, talking of Christ, it says, in whom, in Christ, you also. Paul says, not only us, the apostles,
but you also trusted in him, in Christ, after you heard the
word of truth. After you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation. After you heard the gospel. You trusted Christ. You looked
to Christ. You believed Christ. Christ alone. You trusted in him. Read on.
In whom also, after you believed, you were sealed with the Holy
Spirit of promise. Alright, are you still with me?
Alright, he says God has made us accepted in the Beloved. That
we're accepted only in Christ. That God is not pleased with
anybody outside of Christ. Outside of faith in Christ. Not
pleased with anything about them. And to the contrary, Scripture
says he's angry with the wicked every day. And that's all of
us by nature, if we're honest. But he says, God has made us
accepted in the Beloved, and he says, you heard about this
when you heard the gospel. You heard about it from the Holy
Spirit. And you trusted and looked to
Christ alone, and therefore you're accepted in him. All right? I want to illustrate what all
this means. We're going to illustrate it. God's going to illustrate
it with a story. I don't know if you read the
fine print in the bulletin. That's the reason I put it in
fine print, to test you. We're going to go over to Genesis
27. Okay? Go over there. Genesis chapter 27. This is where
we're going to study. Genesis 27 is a real-life, real-life
illustration of what it means to be accepted in Christ and
hearing about it from the Holy Spirit. Genesis 27. This is the story of a man named
Jacob. Jacob throughout the book of
Genesis represents, and all the Word of God represents, God's
people. Jacob have I loved, God said. Jacob have I loved. Happy is
he that hath the God of Jacob for his head. I am the Lord,
I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Jacob, throughout scripture,
represents all of God's chosen people. Though he was a no-good,
if you read his life, you'll see. He was a no-good, deceitful
fellow until God changed him. He was sinful by nature, he was
self-seeking, but God chose him. God said, I love you, before
he was born, didn't he? Before he was born, God chose
him. He was loved by God. He was blessed
by God. All the blessings of God were
for Jacob. And God later on changed Jacob's
name to, you know, Israel. Israel means a prince of God.
Jacob means a cheat. But Israel means a prince with
God. A prince with God. Now let's read the first four
verses of Genesis 22. This is all about old Jacob. It came to pass that when Isaac,
now this is Jacob's father, Isaac was old and his eyes were dim
so that he could not see, he called Esau, his eldest son,
Jacob's elder brother, said unto him, My son, and Esau said unto
him, Behold, here am I. Isaac said, Behold, now I am
old, I know not the day of my death, but now therefore take,
I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver, and thy bow, and go out
to the field. And take me, or shoot me, hunt
me some venison, deer, some venison, and make me savory meat such
as I love." I love that meat that you bring me. that I may
eat, that my soul may bless thee before I die." So here the father
says to his eldest son, his firstborn son, he says, now you go out
and into the field and you prepare, you get some meat and bring it
back to me, the meat I love that you have given me before. Bring
it back to me and I'm going to bless you with all the blessings
that belong to my eldest son before I die. Alright, this is a picture. This
is a type, as everything in scripture is in Old Testament, is a type,
a shadow of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything in the scripture is
a picture, a prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ. Alright, in
the beginning, God the Father, God Almighty, God the Father
purposed to create a world, purposed to create a world full of people.
And he made a covenant. This is what the scripture says,
and I'm just summarizing it. God Almighty made a covenant,
a covenant of grace. The whole world would be fallen,
fallen creatures, sons of Adam, deserving of God's wrath. But
God, rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved the
people. Chose many. Chose many. And he made a covenant,
a covenant of salvation. a purpose to save many of these
sons of Adam. And in that covenant, God Almighty
told the son to come to earth as it were, as Esau, go to the
field. Come to earth, he told his son,
come to this earth and do what pleases the Father. God created man holy and upright
and righteous. That's what pleases God. God's
holy, holy, holy, holy. He loved the righteous. Lord
loveth righteous things, the scripture said. And he hates
iniquity. Well, man is altogether unrighteous. But now God's Son came to the
field. He came to this earth and became
a man, a holy, spotless, righteous Son. And he produced the life
which the Father loves. He said, bring that back to me.
Glorify me as a man and come back and I'll bless you with
all the blessings that heaven can afford." Are you with me? And that's what Christ did. You
come down here and become a man, go to the field, become a man,
and be a substitute for these people. Savory meat is dead as
a dead animal. You become their substitute.
And you return to me and all blessings will be yours. Verse 5, Rebekah, the wife of
Isaac, Rebekah heard this. She overheard Isaac speaking
to his son Esau, the eldest son. She overheard when Isaac spoke
to his son. And Esau went to the field to
hunt for venison to bring it. Rebekah overheard this. Now God,
the Holy Spirit, this is who Rebecca represents, the Holy
Spirit. You see, you've got the Father,
you've got the Son, and you've got the Wife there, in on this.
The Father told the Son, you come down here. You go to the
field. The Father told the Son, you
go to the earth and do what I require you to do. The Holy Spirit was
in on this covenant of grace. God purposed it. The Son purchased
it. The Son came down here to do
it. And the Holy Spirit is the one that applies it. This whole
thing pertains to sons of Adam. This whole thing pertains to
sons of Jacob. Sinners, like us. They need the
blessing. But the blessing belongs to the
Son, the eldest son, whom Esau represents. The blessing belongs
to Christ. He's the only one that deserves
a blessing. He's a well-beloved son of God in whom he's well
pleased. But us sons of Jacob, we want the blessing. We need
the blessing. Sinners need it. Well, Rebecca overheard this,
all right? She was there when the father
spoke to the son. You've got to pay close attention. All right, now read verses 6
through 10 with me. Rebecca spake unto Jacob. Her
son, Rebekah, took Jacob aside and said, verse 6, Behold, I
heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying, Bring me
venison, make me savory meat, that I may eat, and bless thee
before the Lord before my death. Now therefore, my son, Rebekah
is talking to Jacob. She says, Son, you obey my voice. You listen to me. According to
that which I command thee, go now to the flock, fetch me from
thence two good kids of the goat, and I will make them savory meat
for thy father, such as he loveth." I'll make that meat that he loveth.
He'll bring it to me, I'll make it, and verse 10, "...and thou
shalt bring it to thy father." You're going to bring this to
the father that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before
he dies. You see that? Rebecca overheard
this, what the father said to the son, and she pulled her other
son, Jacob, aside and said, now you listen to me. I want you
to have the blessing. You need the blessing. Now you
do what I say. You listen carefully now. You
do what I say. And you're going to bring to the father what he
loves. You're going to present it to
him. And you're going to get the blessing. Are you with me? Now, Rebecca
represents the Holy Spirit of God. Now, Christ is the only
begotten beloved Son, the heir of all things, right? God the Holy Spirit reveals to
all the sons of Jacob, all who are truly called sons of All
sinners, that is. He reveals this to all of his
chosen people, Jacob Abba. That we're blessed only in Christ. That we can only have the blessing
in Christ. Christ is the heir. We don't
deserve it. Christ alone deserves it. He's
the Father's favorite. We don't deserve the blessing,
but the Holy Spirit reveals to us how we may be accepted in
the Beloved. You see? How? How may we be accepted in the
Beloved? How? Can God who is holy have anything
to do with me, this old son of Jacob, who is nothing but sin
upon? I can see how he loves the Son, the Son of God. He is
holy and righteous like him. I can see why he would be well
pleased with him. How can he have anything to do with me,
an old son of Jacob? Well, the Holy Spirit tells Look
at verse 11 and 12. Jacob said to Rebekah, his mother,
Behold, Esau, my brother, is a hairy man. I'm a smooth man. Esau's hairy. I'm smooth. We're nothing alike. We're altogether
different. He's a rugged man. I'm a mama's
boy. He's a man's man. I'm a sissy,
so to speak. Verse 12, My Father, if I go
to the Father for adventure, He will feel me, and He'll find
me out immediately. I'll be like a deceiver, and
I won't be blessed. I'll bring a curse upon them,
not a blessing. We're altogether different. Mama, Dad, He'll see right through
me. We're completely different, Esau
and me. Completely different. How am
I going to be made? How's he going to bless me? Well,
God Almighty reveals to us, the Holy Spirit, the first thing
he makes us to realize upon hearing the gospel is this. God is holy,
and we're sinful. That's the first thing. That
Christ is holy, and we're not holy. We're unrighteous. God
is well pleased with his Son. He's not well pleased with us. And I'm sinful. That's the first
thing God Almighty shows to a son of Jacob, that we're altogether
undone, unprofitable. Now how, and this is the question
that every son of Jacob asks first, how can God, who have anything to do with me.
Why would he? How can he? How can God have
anything to do with me? Surely, I'm full of sin. Surely my sin is going to find
me out. No matter what I try to do, I
can't disguise myself. No matter what I do, sin is mixed
with all I do. If I look within, everything
about me. I'm a son of Jacob. That's what
I am. How is God going to accept me? Well, verse 13, his mother
said unto him, if you obey my voice, my son, if you obey my
voice, upon me be thy curse, just obey my voice and you go
fetch what I told you to do. You go fetch it. What is the
voice of God? How does the Holy Spirit speak
to people? It's not in a babbling tongue. It's not in an undiscernible
language. No, it's the gospel from this
book. The gospel of Christ. It's what
I'm talking about this morning. This is how the Holy Spirit speaks
to the sons of Jacob and tells them that they may be accepted.
This is how. And he says, you'll believe.
Believe. Now, that's by the Holy Spirit,
too. He says, you believe, you listen to me, and you'll be accepted. Just listen to me. Just listen.
Obey my boy. Obedience to the faith. And you'll
be accepted, too. Yes, you will. Only one way.
All right? Let's go on. Verse 14. And so,
it says, he went and fetched and brought them to his mother.
He went and fetched it. those two kids, just exactly
what she told him to bring. And his mother made savory meat
such as his father loved. And Rebecca, verse 15, took goodly
raiment of her eldest son Esau. She took the clothes of Esau, which were with her. She had
them in the house. They were hers to put on. And she, it says, Rebecca made
this meat savoury to the father. And Rebecca took the clothing
of Esau and put them upon Jacob, her younger son. Rebecca made this meat savoury. Rebekah took this raiment of
her eldest son and put it on her youngest son, Jacob. What
is all that a picture of? The Lord Jesus Christ came to
this earth and lived as a man, a perfect, holy life, a righteous
life. This is scripture. It says that
he fulfilled righteousness. He had a perfect life that the
Father was pleased with, a robe of righteousness. Now, the Scripture
says all our righteousnesses, this is Isaiah, all our righteousnesses,
everything we try to do is a filthy rag in God's eyes, full of sin. It's not perfect. God demands
perfection. But everything Christ did as
a man for thirty-three years was well-pleasing to the Father,
everything he did. Thought, word, and deed, heart,
everything about it, perfect, spotless. This is the reason
the Lamb of God is called spotless, without blemish. That's representative
of Jesus Christ, the holy, righteous, spotless Son of God. He worked
out this righteousness as a man. He lived for 33 years as a man,
a perfect life. Why? Why? to show us how to do it. We'll do it like He did it. God
will accept us. No, no, no, no, no, no. He was weaving a robe that was to be put on somebody
else. He was making a righteousness, the righteousness of a man for
sons of Jacob to wear. And this God, the Holy Spirit
is the one that puts it on us. She puts it on. And this savory
meat was the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. A substitute
for sin. God laid on him the iniquity
of us all. God sent Christ a Calvary tree
as a lamb slain before the foundation of the world. The lamb was slain. That meat, that sacrifice that
God was pleased with. to pay for our sin, sweet-smelling
savor of sins paid for. The Holy Spirit makes that savory
meat to us and to the pocket and applies that to us and puts
it on Jacob. Verse 16 and 17, puts it on the
sons of Jacob. He says he put the skins of the
kids of the goats upon his hands. Put the skins of those goats
on his hands 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 she said to him, now you
go to the Father, you go present yourself to the Father, and he'll accept you." Now what
you notice here in this story, Jacob, are you with me? Jacob
is just standing there. Jacob is passive here. Oh, she
told him to go, but he wouldn't have gone unless she told him
to go. But Jacob's standing there while his mother does it all.
His mother's going to make him acceptable. His mother's going
to make him appear to be Esau. He's just standing there. He
doesn't have a clue. He's afraid to go. He doesn't
want to go. He knows what he is. But his mother says, if you
listen to me, just listen to me, just stand still. And you
watch what I do. And she put all this on him when
he stood there like this. You ever been to a tailor and
had them tailor your clothing and measure this and that and
the other? And they'd outfit you, you know. This is what his
mother was doing. And she measured him, made all
of it. It had to be perfect. Can you imagine what needed to
be done to make him real? Put this skin everywhere. He's
going to go to the father and the father is going to touch
him and handle him and he's got to be like this guy. He's going
to be found out and it's going to be worse than it was. It's
going to be cursed, not just without the blessing. And Jacob trembling. Mom, is
this going to work? You just listen, son. You just
listen to me. I know the father. I know what he likes. I know
how to do this. You just stand there. And he's
passive, totally passive in all this. And her mother prepares
him and prepares everything for him and applies it all to him. What's that a picture of? Well,
salvation, people, you've heard us say it once, you've heard
us say it a thousand times. Salvation is the Every son of Jacob whom God has
chosen, whom God has loved, is passive in this thing of salvation. Salvations of the Father who
purposed it. Salvations of the Son who purchased
it. Salvations of the Holy Spirit
who applies it and reveals it. We wouldn't have a clue how to
go to God unless the Holy Spirit told us. And it wouldn't do us
any good unless he made us acceptable. made us accepted. And she says to him, now son,
you go. You go to the father. After she prepared him and everything
to look and feel like Esau, and gave him what the father in his
hand, bread, meat, over later it says wine, he went to the father. He had
it in his hand. You go. You go. Father will accept
you." Well, here he comes. Now, can you imagine? Huh? Can you imagine? You reckon he's
all full of pride and gumption and... I don't know why I have
to wear all this stuff, you know, but I'm good. I'm good as Esau.
God, he ought to love me like Esau. I don't think he deserves
any more than I do. I don't need this, my skin, what
do I have to have hairy skin, I like my skin. He knows. Father loves his son,
he knows that, he's been around, he's heard the father speak to
his son, they were intimate, and his mother, and he says,
he's coming, he's scared, he's fearful, he's trembling. He doesn't even want to come.
He's scared to death. He wants the blessing. He wants
the blessing. He needs the blessing. He knows
he has to have the blessing. But he's trembling. He's fearful.
He's unsure. He's unsure. It's not so much
he doubts his mother. He knows himself. Well, he always
has been. I've been a deceitful fellow
from the beginning. Here I am doing it again. Dad's going to see right through
me. Oh, and it's going to be bad.
But Mom told me, and I believe her, and here I come. What about you, son of Jacob?
Everybody really knows God the Father is holy. It's seen and
heard of Him in this Scripture. and seen and heard of the well-beloved,
only begotten Son of God, and who is well pleased, and you
see he's altogether lovely, and you see yourself as nothing but
a son of Jacob from the beginning, no good, and even now you're
no good." How can God have anything to do with that? And even now, I feel like he's going to see
right through me. He's going to kick me out. And it's the
fear of the Lord. You see, the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of salvation. I see so much pride in religious
people today. Proud of themselves. Proud of their profession. Proud
of this and that and the other. But not the sons of Jacob. Not
the true believers. They're fearful. They're trembling.
And they're unsure of themselves. They believe the gospel. They
believe the promises of God. They take God at his word and
they come to God. Oh, but they're trembling. They're
trembling. Isaac wants the blessing. He
needs the blessing. But it belongs to Esau. It belongs
to Esau. Look at verse 18. Verse 18. And he came unto his father and
said, My father? He said, Here am I who art bound. my son, here am I, who are you?" Come to the Father and say, My
Father. Our Lord said, this way pray. Father, which art in heaven. All right? Jacob comes, My Father,
Jacob says, here am I for you. What's he going to say? What's he going to say? Who are
you? Now, throughout the scriptures, we're told Throughout the scriptures,
it's the blood that makes atonement for the soul. Throughout the
scriptures, we're told, there's only one righteous person whom
God accepts. Throughout the scriptures, we're
told, in Christ's name, do this in Christ's name, in Jesus' name,
for Christ's sake, in him, in whom, by whom, through whom,
to whom. in him, in Christ, by Christ,
for Christ's sake. Everything is for Christ's sake. That's what the Spirit teaches
to every son of Jacob. Everything is in Christ's name. The Father blesses, the Father
accepts only in Christ. So God Almighty asks every son
of Jacob, who are you? What are they going to say? What are they going to plead? What if Jacob said, It's me,
Jacob. What rights you got to come here,
son? I want the blessing. It doesn't belong to you. Get
out. What's he going to say? Who are
you? Verse 19. I love this. Jacob said unto
his father, I am Esau. That firstborn. He pleads his
brother's name. I'm Esau. Look at all he says
here. I, Mesau, thy firstborn, I have
done according as thou badest me. Arise, I pray thee, sit,
eat my venison, that thy soul may bless me. I, Mesau, I brought
what you told me to bring, bless me. I, Mesau. What is to be our plea before
our Holy God? Huh? Our work? No. We say, for Christ's sake. Father,
I come to you in Christ's name. I come to you pleading the merits,
the work of Christ, what he had done. Not what I had done, what
he had done. I plead what Christ had done
for my sake. Now, will you bless me, Father,
for Christ's sake? Who are you? Why are you here?
What's your name? Christ. That's what he's going
to say to every son of Adam that stands before those gates someday. Christ, why should I let you
in here? And to everyone that says, well, I, I, I, I'm a good
person. Don't you know who I am? But to everyone that says, the
Father says, who are you? Why should I let you in here?
Why should I accept you in my holy heaven? To everyone, everyone,
no matter how sinful, no matter how young, no matter how old,
black, white, male, female, to everyone that says, Christ, that's the word that opens the
gates of heaven. Let me in for Christ's sake. I'm looking to Christ and Christ
alone. Bless me. Would you bless me
for Christ's sake? I love this. Look at the next
verse. And Isaac said unto his son, How is it that thou hast
found it so quickly, my son? Where did you get this meat so
quick? And he said, Jacob said, the
Lord thy God brought it to me. How'd you get this? He said,
God did it. And to every son of Jacob, but
God says, how did you get this foundation? How did you come
to know the Lord? How did you have all this revealed
to you? Every son of Jacob, this is their
cry, the Lord did it. Salvation is of the Lord. God
brought it to me. God chose me. Christ bought me. The Holy Spirit brought me. And
here I am. I wouldn't be here otherwise.
And I'd just be an old son of Jacob. My sins would find me
out. But here I am, about to be accepted. Salvation is of the Lord. What
the Father says. Isaac says unto Jacob, verse
21, Come closer, I pray thee, come near, that I may feel thee
my son. I'm going to find out whether
or not you're Esau or not. Come here, come close. Oh, there's no pride in Jacob. All his hope, Brother Henry,
all his hope. is that his mama made him out
good enough to be so. All his hope is not in his acting
ability, but in that covering and in that meat. Father's smelling
that meat. They say the way to a man's heart
is through his stomach, don't they? You men, you ladies, let
me tell you that. If your husband's mad at you
or whatever, just fix his favorite meal. And he comes storming through
the door, that roast beef or whatever it is. Sit him down. How you doing?
Dress nice. Dress nice, sit him down, feed
him. He'll forget all about it. Forget all that savory meat.
whom we love, God the Father, who ought to be angry with us.
That sweet-smelling savor of Christ, that blood before the
Lord, always. Always bring the blood before
the Lord. Always bring that faith in Christ, no matter how sinful
you are. Plead that blood. Plead that blood. Our hope is
in that covering, in that covering. But he says, Come near. You know,
our God Let's read on. He said in verse 22, Jacob went
near. We're told to come, and we come,
fearful though we be, but we come. Come unto me. We come.
Verse 22, Jacob went near unto Isaac his father, and the father
felt him. That is, the father laid hold
on him, grabbed his arm. When he felt him, he grabbed
the back of his neck. Remember his mama? He'd be covered
everywhere. Not just one little spot. Everywhere. She don't know where
he's going to grab him. Right hand, left hand,
all over him. Back of his neck. Father grabbed him around the
neck. Grabbed his hand. Come here. Hugged him. And he said, look at verse 22,
Isaac said, the voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands, they're
Esau's. I know those hands. The voice
is Jacob's voice. Ah, people. You, we may come
to God as sinners. Jacob went near. We may call
on God. Yes, we may. Whosoever calleth on the name
of the Lord shall be saved." If you don't call, he won't hear
you. We may call on God as sinners.
We cry, we call, we come, but why? What is it that the Father
accepts? The voice is the voice of a sinner,
but the works, the righteousness, is my son's. And he loved that
barber. The barber just said, beautiful.
That's beautiful. I'll preach to you from here
on out, barber. The voice is an old sinner crying
out. Why don't you ever listen to
him? Oh, the works of my son. He's pleading my son. Now, people,
we kind of think that Jacob was an old, ignorant, blind man here. God Almighty purposed this whole
thing. It had to be. God said, from
the beginning, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written,
Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. It had to be. It had
to be as a picture of Christ. It had to be. Jacob did what
God determined for him to do. Though he may have been unwitting
to this, yet God Almighty purposed this, and the purpose of God.
Though he's through all this deceit of Jacob, through the
sinfulness of Jacob, yet redounded to the glory of Jesus Christ.
Isn't that amazing? Where sin abounded. This little
thing was so deceptive on the part of Jacob and Rebekah. Where sin abounded, ah, grace
did much more matter. A glorious picture of God's saving
grace to the sons of Jacob. Aren't you glad this happened?
Later on in life, a son of Jacob named Joseph was over in Egypt,
and two of his sons came to him when he was an old man. You remember?
When he was an old man. And he switched hands. Blessed
the younger rather than the older. And their daddy said, Don't do
that, don't do that. He said, I know what I'm doing. Don't tell me what to do. I know
what I'm doing. This is God's way. And so, the voice is the voice
of the sinner, but the works are the works of Christ, he said.
Verse 23 and 24, now he said, You come near, and he did. And
verse 23, it says, He discerned him not because his hands were
hairy as his brother Esau's hands, so he blessed him. And Jacob,
one more time, Esau, Isaac said to Jacob, one more time, verse
24, he said, Art thou my very son, Esau? Are you really Esau? Are you really Esau? Tell me
one more time. Are you Esau? He has him up close. Brother Kelly, he has him up
close with his arm around his neck, feeling his hands off,
smelling that meat. And he said, tell me one more
time, whispered in my ear, is it you? Is it Esau? God Almighty closely scrutinizes
every profession of faith. God Almighty, who looks on the
heart. God doesn't look on the outward
countenance, as men look. He looks like a Christian. Well,
she looks like a Christian. Well, she sounds like a Christian.
Everybody thinks she's a Christian. God looks on the heart. Now,
tell me, what is it you're trusting? Who is it you're looking to?
If there's one answer, Jacob, If there's one thing about Jacob
that comes out, Brother Stephen, if Jacob says anything about
Jacob, he's a goner. Who is it now? And God Almighty
closely scrutinizes every profession of faith. Tell me now, who is
it you trusted? Whose righteousness? Whose works?
Whose faith? Who are you? Yes, Christ alone. And he blessed him. That's my
boy. That's my boy. And look at these
blessings. Got to hurry. These glorious
blessings. Verse 25. He said, Bring it near
to me, and I'll eat of my son's venison. I'll take it. I'll accept
it, that my soul may bless thee. He brought it near, the venison.
He did eat, and he brought him wine. There it is. Got to have
that. And he drank. Oh, the father
accepted what the son brought. And his father Isaac said unto
him, Come near and kiss me, my son, kiss me. And he came near
and kissed him. Kiss the son, I saw him too,
sir, kiss him. And he came near and he smelled
the smell of his raiment, and he blessed him and said, This
is a smell, see, the smell of my son. This is the smell of
a field which the Lord hath blessed. I love that smell. That's my
boy. Therefore God give thee, read
on, God give thee, he's blessing this old son of Jacob. All the
blessings that belong to Esau, he's blessing Jacob. Everything
that rightly belongs to Esau, Jacob's getting it. are bestowed on him." Read on,
"'Therefore God give thee the dew of heaven, all the blessings
of heaven, the fatness of the earth, all the blessings of this
life, plenty of corn and wine. Let people serve thee, nations
bow down to thee. Be loyal over thy brethren. Yea,
I'll give you Ethiopian sea before I ransom Egypt with thee.'" You're
my chosen, my well-beloved. Let your mother's sons, let everybody
bow down to you. Let everybody serve you. Cursed
be everyone that curses you, and blessed be he that blesses
you. Oh my, Jacob's standing there
saying, I don't deserve all this. This all, he's talking
about, he's sorry, and I'm getting it. I'm all bestowed upon the
undeserving And so it is in salvation. So it is in salvation. That Christ
is the deserving heir, yet sons of Jacob, they get the blessing
because the Holy Spirit came to us, revealed Christ to us,
imputed his righteousness, applied the shed blood. gives a new creature
a heart that really trusts Christ. And that's why it says in Ephesians
1, verse 6, Paul, he may have been thinking about that story.
It's all to the praise of the glory of his grace. Jacob received
it all. And it says, wherein he hath
made us accepted in the beloved. Whereas God has made us acceptable
in his Son, we don't deserve it. Christ does. But in Christ,
I'm acceptable. It doesn't say acceptable. Oh, now that I'm a Christian,
God loves everything about me. You're a sinner. You're an old
Jacob. Jacob was still Jacob from then on, wasn't he? But
he had the blessing. And all his blessings were in
that covenant. And you better plead Christ till the day you
die, till the day you die, because we're just sons of Jacob. Hear
not, though, he says, thou son of Jacob. Hear not. All right,
let's sing a hymn in closing, brother John. it's one area. My faith has found
a resting place. My faith has found a resting
place, I can be tried for free. I trust the Ever-Living One,
His word for me shall be. I need no other argument, I need
no other plea. It is because that He was died
and that He died for me, my heart is leaning on the Word, the written
Word of God. Salvation by my Savior's name,
salvation through His blood. I need no other arraignment,
I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died,
and that He died for me.