You may be seated. It's a good hymn. Probably should
have sang the next verse. Hard to sing, hard to play. All right, Hebrews chapter 11. Ephesians 2 says, For by grace
are you saved. Through faith. For by grace are you saved. Through
faith. Through believing. That's the
way God ordained it. Believing. Just shall live by
faith. But that's not of yourself. It's
a gift of God. You just don't decide. God does the deciding. So remember
that as we look at these examples. Every one of these people were
saved by grace. And the faith that they had was
a gift. Remember that. They're not sharing
the glory of God. They're not sharing the glory
of God. Isn't this just like God to give
some credit? Just like a kind parent, isn't
it, to dote over and make over the children who they haven't
done anything? Isn't that right? You remember
Joe and the boys were growing up, and they, well, Steve, now
you know, don't you? You have a boy that he doesn't. He can't do it like you want
him to do, but he tries, and sometimes just gets in the way.
But yet you say, good job, good job. That's just the way our
Heavenly Father is, isn't it? Well done, now, good and faithful
servant. Why, we didn't do anything. All
right, look at verse 20 in Hebrews 11. I just want you, I needed
to preface this with that verse. These aren't sharing the glory
with God. Verse 20, By faith Isaac blessed
Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. All right, turn back
to Genesis 27 where this story is. Genesis 27. And I was just saying that God
gives credit sometimes when it's hard
to see how. And this is one of those cases.
We're going to see that in Isaac. We're going to see it in Jacob. How this can be attributed to
Isaac's faith here, what happened You know the story, Genesis 27? I'm not careful, John. This is one of my favorite stories,
chapter 27. But that's not the context. This
whole picture of Christ here is not in the context. He said, by faith, Isaac blessed
Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. The story of Isaac blessing
his sons is a story of sin, deception, trickery, treachery. This whole thing is a bad scene.
A bad scene. Everybody in this was just... You know the story, don't you?
Everybody in this story was in a full of sin, weren't they? Starting with Isaac. Let's look
at it. It says in verse 1 of chapter 27, now, And it came
to pass that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, that he
could not see, he saw his eldest son, and said
unto him, My son. And he said, Behold, here am
I. said, Behold, now I am old, and I know not the day of my
death. Now, therefore, take, I pray
thee, thy weapons, thy quiver, thy bow. Go out to the field,
and get me something to eat." So here's an old man, his eyes
were dim, and it's pretty obvious from
this whole story that He'd become old and dull and in a bad way. Spiritually, his eyes were dim
because of what happened here. And I'll show you this. It said
of Moses, now listen to this, the scripture said of Moses when
he was 120 years old, his eye was not dim. Now, look back at chapter 25
here, where it starts back here. Chapter 25, verse 23. Now, this
is what God told Isaac's wife, Rebekah. Look at it. Genesis 25, verse 22. The children struggled within
her, and she said, If it be so, or why am I thus? And she went
to inquire of the Lord. The Lord said unto her, nations
are in thy womb, two men or people shall be separated from thy body.
One people shall be stronger than the other people. The elder
shall serve the younger." The oldest boy is not the blessed
one. The youngest. God said this,
didn't He? You reckon she told Isaac? Sure
she did. Women tell their husbands everything.
A lot that they don't want to hear. But she told him that. And he knew that. Then why didn't
he do it? He was going to bless Esau, wasn't
he? His eyes were dim. What did he have in mind before
he was dying? He wanted something to eat. He was in a bad way. Isaac was
in a bad way. Scripture don't shed too much
good light on Isaac right here. It just doesn't do it. Look at verse 28. Isaac loved
Esau. Why? He ate his venison. That's a poor reason to love
a boy, isn't it? It would be like Joe saying, I love
Stephen most because he fixes my truck. That's pretty poor, isn't it?
That's what it says. Well, look at chapter 27 now,
verse 4, and he said, Make me some savory meat such as I love,
and bring it to me, that I may eat, that my soul may bless thee
before I die. He didn't say anything about
Jacob. That's sad, isn't it? That's
sad. Isaac is a sad example of how
a child of God can become rich and increase for goods, and he
was, if you read the whole story of Isaac. And he's a spiritually
dull and useless, but God overrules. God overrules even our sin, and
to accomplish his purpose. Now here is the story. Though
Isaac's eyes were dim and his spirit was dull, yet we're going
to see him. We're going to see him. He's
not altogether without faith. And we may fail miserably. If we live long enough, we will.
I hope we don't get like Isaac. I hope we're more like Moses. But if Christ is in us, Christ said, I have prayed for
thee, Peter, that thy faith fail not. Peter denied him, didn't
he? He did. But what God did shall
be forever. You'll not totally deny the Lord.
You'll end up denying yourself, everything about yourself, and
make this confession. All right, look over in verses
30 through 33. Here it is. Now Isaac's in a bad way. And
it came to pass, and you know how Jacob and his mother deceived
the old man. And it came to pass, verse 30,
as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, he thought
he blessed Esau. You know the story. Doesn't everybody
know this story? Oh, come on, am I? You're going
to make me have to preach from Genesis 27. We've got five examples
of faith there. What happened was that Jacob, the youngest son, and
his mother schemed and connived to get the blessing for Jacob
instead of Esau. Isaac was old and he was hearted His eyesight was bad, and Jacob
dressed up like his brother. He dressed up like his brother.
And his mother prepared some food that just like Isaac liked. And Isaac thought it was that
venison. He thought it was Esau. He thought it was Esau he was
blessing because Jacob dressed up like him and the old man filled
him and he felt like Esau and he smelled like Esau. And he blessed him because he
appeared to be Esau. That's the story of Christ. That
whole story is Christ, because we're sinners. We don't deserve
the blessing. Christ deserves the blessing.
And how we're going to be blessed is that we're in Christ. We're
found in him. We're covered with a covering
like he saw, but that's not the story. OK? Here's the story. In verses 30 through 33, it came
to pass as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob,
Jacob was scarce left the presence of his Isaac, his father. Esau,
his brother, came in from hunting, and he had also made savory meat
and brought it to his father and sat under his father. Then
my father arrived. Get up, dad, and eat. Here it
is, the venison you asked for. Bless me now. Isaac, his father,
sat under him. Who art thou? And he said, I
am thy son, thy firstborn, Esau. And Isaac My margin says, trembled with
a great trembling, greatly. That means he started shaking
all over. This is the man I want to look
to, God said, that trembles. What's he trembling about? He realizes, I've been blind. How could I get in such a state
as this? I ought to have known better.
How could I do something like this? That's exactly what his dream
would have been. He said to this man, when I looked,
he trembles at my word. Not the one that says, that sounds
good. He stepped on my toes. My heart got me shaken to my soul. What
God said, what's happened here. He realized that God worked in
spite of him. that God's fulfilling his purpose
in spite of his sin. And God's going to do what he
determined to do even if Isaac gets in the way. And that made him tremble. And look what he said. Now, he
wasn't without faith, now. And Esau was upset. And a little
later on it says Esau was crying, Dad, please bless me, please. Dad, how could you? You can't
let this happen. You can't let this happen. I'm
the oldest son. You love me. What'd Isaac say? That's right. Look at verse thirty-three. Isaac
trembled, said, Where is he that hath taken venison, and brought
it to me? And I have eaten of all before thou camest, and hath
blessed him? Yea, and he shall be blessed."
Right there is the Word. God's done this, and he's going
to be blessed. What God does, what God hath
purposed shall be done. We need to realize that. You
know what? We need to realize that. And right here, this is a good
example of faith, because as I said, Esau started crying,
wept, strong, strong crying. And in spite of Isaac's natural
affection for that boy, He said, I'm not going to change
it. I'm not going to change what God has done. If I'd have done
what I was supposed to, I'd have done it right in the first place. And he said, I'm not going to
change it for you, boy, no matter how much I love you. I'm not
going to compromise the truth. Do you see the point there? By
faith, Isaac blessed those boys like he did. The youngest first.
He didn't mean to. And God overruled him. But the
point that we need to learn is that after it was all over, he
realized that it was God's God. And we believe God, God's purpose
and God's will takes first place over even my oldest boy. Right? Right, except you forsake all
you have, any man love, father, mother, brother, sister, son,
or daughter more than me. Can't be myself. So Isaac didn't
fail totally, did he? Huh? When it counted, Joe. Why? Because God didn't fail
him. God taught him. Look at the next
example in Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11, verse 21. By faith,
Jacob, when he was a dying, when he was a dying. That may
be where we get, where we talk like we talk. He's a going to
town. He's a dying. Biblical language. You ever thought of that? Mountain
people of old, Barbara, used to speak in language. Hope me.
You hopes me. I forget the first time I heard
an old country fellow tell me that. He hoped me. That's biblical. When he was a dying, when he
was a dying, Jacob blessed both the sons of Joseph, worshipped,
leaning upon the top of his staff. Now turn back to Genesis 28 for
this story, or 48 for this story. Genesis 48, all right? Now when
you think of Jacob, do you think of somebody with great faith? Huh? If you were going to write
a book about faith, people who are faithful, would you put Jacob
in there? Huh? We just read how he started. His dad said in that very story,
he said, as his name is, so is he. just like him. Genesis 48. I wouldn't. God did. And people, if I was writing a book
of faith, I wouldn't put my name in it either. Because I'm a son
of Jacob. What about you, Joe? Would you
include your name? Would you put your name inside
Abraham? I wouldn't either. God does. Oh, my. That's our God, isn't
it? So this is not about Jacob's
strong faith, but this incident that happens is what this is
about. And all of this, these stories,
are about God's amazing grace in giving faith, no matter how
little they had or how much they have, it shows us how God gave
and how God moved, and how God is going to work his purpose
through, with, or against, or in spite of sinners, even using
their sin. Right? The whole life of Jacob
is a picture of a sinner saved by grace. Look at it here in
verse 10, Genesis 48, beginning with verse It said, Now the eyes of Israel
were dim for age. Dim for age. This is Jacob. Changed
his name to Israel. Dim for age. Now it specifically
says here that his problem was old age. That's the reason. So that he could not see. But
we're going to see in a minute how he did see. He had an eye
of faith. Read on. And he brought them
near, that is the sons of Joseph, his grandsons were brought near
unto him, and he kissed them and embraced them, Ephraim and
Manasseh were their name. And Israel said unto Joseph,
I had not thought to see thy face, lo, God hath showed me
also thy seed. And Joseph brought them out from
between his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the
earth. Now Joseph, here Joseph had his face on the ground, and
the old man Israel, Jacob, had these two grandsons right there
sitting between his knees, you know, his grandboys. Joseph's bowed on the ground,
respect. And Joseph took them both, Ephraim
in his right hand, Joseph took these boys, Ephraim in his right
hand, toward his dad's left hand. Now, Ephraim's the youngest,
and he took him and put the youngest in his dad's left hand. And Manasseh
in his left hand, he took Manasseh in his left hand and put him
in his dad's right hand, and brought them near unto him. Okay? Now, when you were going to bless
the oldest son, you blessed him with your right
hand. That's the way it was. That's all the way through the
scriptures. Scripture says, God saveth with the son of his right
hand. With his right arm, his holy arm that brought him the
victory. That's all a picture of Christ right there. All right?
So Joseph took his oldest boy and put him in the right hand
of Israel and took his youngest son and put him on the left hand
and said, now, dad, here, bless him. This is the only time stand
that we see that Joseph didn't use good discernment. Israel
stretched out his right hand and laid it on Ephraim's head, and his left hand on Manasseh's
head, guiding his hands wittingly, for Manasseh was the firstborn.
Now Joseph had his head to the ground And he blessed Joseph and said,
read it with me, verse 15, God before whom my fathers Abraham
and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all. His confession, his
blessing is all about God. God which fed me all my life
long unto this day, God. God. That's who he first starts
talking about and that's who he's extolling in it. That's
faith. Verse 16, the angel which redeemed
me from all evil. Who's that? That's Christ. Capital A, isn't it? The angel. You remember that story, don't
you? When the Lord stood at the top of that ladder at Bethel
and blessed the angel which redeemed me from all evil. He's talking
about God and he's talking about Christ. Jacob knew something
in his old age. He finally learned something,
didn't he, Jeff? Oh, he said, the angel, God which fed me,
God of my father, the God who is God, and the angel, the Son
of God, which redeemed me, the only Redeemer, bless the lads. Oh, God, bless these boys. Oh, God's angel of mercy, bless
and redeem these boys. Is that what you say, Joe, Lauren
and Joseph? Is that what you, that's your
wish? Sure it is. Save them, redeem them from all
evil. Bless the lads. Let my name be named on them
sons of Jacob. I am the God of Jacob. You sons
of Jacob are not consumed. Blessed is he that hath the God
of Jacob for his help. Let my name be named on them.
prince with God. Let the name of Christ be on
them. Let them be found in him. The name of my father is Abraham
and Isaac. Let them grow into a multitude
in the midst of the earth. Let their children and their
children's children know the same God and the same Lord, love
the same gospel." That's what he's saying, Nancy. And when Joseph took a peek,
Joseph looked up. and saw his father laying his
right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him. And he held up his father and
said, Wait, stop! Don't do that. To remove Ephraim's
head from the Manassas, he said, Put it over here and do this.
Joseph said unto his father, verse 18, Not so, my father.
This is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head.
And his father refused. and say it, I know. Believe me, I know. It took me all these years to
learn something. Now I know. Believe me, I know. You see the lesson here? Charles Ross, do you know now,
seventy years old, that who's going to be blessed is who God
chooses, not whom we decide, not that
man decides, not of the will of the flesh, but of the will
of man. But it's of God. Do you know that? Tell me that. Say, I know, Paul. I know. Good. Jacob realized this, remember? He, all his life, came flooding
back to him. That whole incident, how God
chose him, and how at the very outset God overruled his sin
and his wickedness and his evil, his conniving, and all the days
that kept him. And now it came up, and it all
came flooding before him. And I bet you if Ephesians 2
had been written then, he'd have been quoting it. Oh, by grace
am I saved. It's whom God blesses. It's whom
God saves. It's whom God chooses. I know, son, I know. All right,
look at the next one very quickly. In Hebrews 11, verse 22. Hebrews 11, verse 22. By faith,
Joseph. When he died. Now, this is three stories of
three old men. three old men, grumpy old men. That's what you could say about
it. And let's hope this is the same
story of Henry, Joseph, and Charles. By faith, Joseph, when he died,
when he died, made mention of the departing of the children
of Israel and gave commandment concerning his bone." Now, back
in Genesis 50, that's where this is found, Genesis chapter 50.
Now, when you think about Joseph, if I was going to give an example
of his faith, the whole life of Joseph was
an example of faith. Joseph was a That's the reason
I said this is one of the only times that Joseph showed some
lack of discernment. Right, Stan? The rest of his
life, Joseph was seventeen years old. How old are you, Jennifer? Seventeen years old when he was
taken captive and put down in Egypt. You know the story, don't
you? His brethren sold him. Joseph was loved by his father. And he went out to do them good. He was a fine boy. A fine boy. Went out to do his brothers good,
but they didn't like him because he was a goody two-shoes. And they sold him into Egypt.
Well, did he fall? Did he get into all kind of mischief
and wickedness and just become a hellion? Oh, no. Not Joseph. The Lord was with him. And there
are many examples of faith in the life of Joseph. One time
in Potiphar's house, you remember that? He ran from that woman.
Young, single man. proposition by this beautiful,
wealthy woman, he ran. He's a fine boy. In prison, he
didn't complain, he didn't murmur. He was content where he was at,
what sort of state he was in, he was content. He'd learned
both how to be abased, and a little while later we're going to find
out he learned how to abound. It's all the same. God's with
him. The point I'm trying to make
is, would to God that he give us a Joseph. He called his name Andrew. It's going to take saving grace.
It's going to take keeping grace. It's going to take restraining
grace. Give us a Joseph in our midst. Scripture says it's good that
a young man bear the yoke in his youth. Why does he say that? See, it's
good that a young man or a young woman come to know Christ, bear the
yoke, follow Christ in their youth. Why? Because the older
you get and the more of this world you get a taste of. Let me tell you something, it
never completely leaves you. It plagues you all the days.
It's like a disease that fills your loin. Doesn't it, John?
If you start at an early age, just filling yourself with Egypt, you're going to mourn it for
the rest of your days, aren't you? Remember thy Creator in the days
of thy youth, before the evil days come nigh. See, when I get older, when I
get married, when I get settled after I sow my oats, then I'll,
you know, get serious about that. There's no promise that God's
waiting on you. There's no promise. Seek him now. Well, the Lord
gives this instance of Joseph as an example of faith when he
was dying. Why? Why? Well, it's a deathbed confession
is what it is. And I believe it's for this reason.
It's important how a man lives. It sure is. The just shall live by faith. It's important. It's vital how
a man lives. But it's even more important
how he dies. When he's laying on his deathbed, he's getting ready to go meet
God. And he's not going to see his
family anymore. He's going to have to give it
all up. There's nothing more here for him. Now what's he believe? Now what's
he got his mind on? What's he going to say? What's he going to say? Save me! Get the doctors! Help
me! Pull the plug. Pull the plug. Look at it here. By faith Joseph,
look at it. I haven't even turned yet. Genesis
50. It says in verse 24, Joseph said
unto his brethren, now here he is laying on his deathbed, I
am dying, and God will surely visit you.
He's talking to his brethren. His sons are around too. God's
coming. God's going to visit you. Bring
you out of this land, the land which you swear to Abraham, to
Isaac, and to Jacob." He's remembering God's word and God's promise.
That's what's on his mind. God's word. God's promise. Deliverance for his people. He's confident of his own deliverance. He's concerned about his people.
Oh, he doesn't say, now, I leave, I bequeath to Manasseh. my lawnmower." That's not always mine. His will, his last will and testament,
their delivery, their redemption, that they not stay in Egypt,
that they get out. And look at this. He said, Joseph
took an oath, or that is, made his children take an oath saying,
God will surely visit you, and I want you to carry up my bones
from hence. Back there in Hebrews 11 it says,
leaning on the staff. That's always been a type of
the scriptures, the staff. Now Rod and the staff company
worshipped. You know what it said, John?
He worshipped. What was he doing when he was
dying? Same thing where he started. Worshipping. Thinking about God. Thinking about deliverance. Leaning
on the staff. And he said, I want you to take
my bones. Take my bones out of here and
bury them when you all get out of this place. Take my bones
with you. I'm not an Egyptian. Never was. Never was meant to be. This wasn't my home. I was here.
I was a captive. You understand what he's saying?
I was a captive. I was brought here against my
will. I'm a Jew. Son of Abraham. Isaac. Jacob. This is not my home. Egypt. That's what he's saying. And
it's not your home, sons. God had for us an everlasting
city. Go there. He's coming. Go. Go. Take my bones with you. You remember not too long ago
when I told you to start planning your own funeral? This is what Joseph's doing. He's telling them what to preach
at his funeral. He's saying, put my body in a
casket where their Gospels preached. That's what he's saying. This
is what Bergie and Ellen told me to do. This is what Joseph's telling
them to do. That's exactly what he's doing. Take my bones out
of here. Bury them with the righteous. Don't let that Armenian preacher
preach my funeral. Don't let them around me. Don't
let them come near my casket. That's what he said. Don't let
these Egyptians around. I'm not an Egyptian. I'm not
one of them. I'm not of this world. See what
he's saying? By faith. By faith. How a man plans his funeral pretty
much tells me what he believes. What do you want said? What do
you want done? As Virgie said to me, preach the gospel. That's the reason we had Ellen's
funeral right here. right here. Took her bones out
of Egypt, her floral funeral home, whatever. All right, back
to the text in Hebrews 11. I did it this morning. I went
about 35 minutes, but I'm sorry, it's not going to work tonight.
Hebrews 11. Look at the next one here. Hebrews
11, verse 23. By faith Moses, when he was born,
was hid three months. of his parents. Actually, this
is talking about his parents. Talking about his parents. Amrum
and Jokabed was their name. And there's not much said about
these folks. It's about all that's mentioned
of them. That they saw he was a proper son, proper child, and
they were not afraid of the king's commandment. And they hid him.
That's all they did, they hid him in an ark. That's a good thing for a parent
to do. Don't be afraid of what anybody or anything or the world
or whatever. You take your son and you put
him where the gospel is. Do all within your own power
to have him where the gospel is. To have him where he'll be
found. where he'll be found. Moses was
found. Commit him to the Lord. That's
what they did, Deborah. She put him in an ark and committed
him to God. Lord, he's yours. Would you save him? God honors
that. God honors that. He sure did,
didn't he? There's not much said about them. What happened? Moses, the deliverer. Isn't that something? Well, here's
that Moses is our subject. Verse 24, By faith Moses, when
he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's
daughter. A young man, forty, that's young. He says he refused to be called
the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He refused. And there is a refusal. There certainly is. A refusal
to be made on our part. It didn't, was it not Moses himself
who said, choose you this day whom you will serve? Was it Moses
or Joshua? I get them mixed up. Joshua, OK, Joshua. that said
that. Choose you this day. That's significant
that the law doesn't say that, but the Savior does. Choose you
this day. That's what Christ said later
on, didn't He? Will you also go away? What'd they say? Oh, no, no, no, no. We refuse. We choose you. Huh? Isn't there? All right, now why? Remember
how this whole thing started. Remember. Now Moses is not going
to get the credit here. He's an example of how we choose,
yeah. Look at verse 25. Here's the
very word. Choosing rather to suffer affliction
with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for
a season. Choosing rather. And Moses chose because God first
chose him. That's why. Now, but it says
here, he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of
God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. And I confess,
and all those who have been out in the world any time at all,
that there is pleasure in sin. But here's a key phrase. Three
words. For a season. For a little while. You either quickly grow too old
to enjoy it, or whatever. But it's just for
a season. It does not last. The Scripture says that things
that are seen are what? Temporal. It doesn't lie. Henry, can I use you as an example?
You can't be offended, can you? Embarrassed? Yes. Offended? No.
I'm not going to embarrass you, but he was this old fellow here. Sitting in our house the other
night, rehashing something of his wild career. And I'll not give you the details.
We're not in the center bragging on business. That's what most
of those testimony meetings are about, aren't they? Oh, I was
so drunk. Let me tell you how drunk I was. Bragging on themselves. But anyway, Henry was talking
about how low down he was. And worthless he was, but God,
but God. But while you were doing it,
while we were in it, we thought, rip, roar, and you know, snort,
and nothing's going to stop me now, is it? And nothing would stop your wild
career except hell or God. Isn't that right? That's the reason I say you get
a taste for Egypt, and there's not enough of it to suffice,
and you'll just keep going and going and going until you kill
yourself, unless God kills you first, slays you. He chose, rather, to suffer affliction
with the people of God. The reproach of Christ, look
at verse 26, "...esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches
than the treasures in Egypt." And there is reproach, there
is your friends. Jennifer, your friends at school,
how many of them are interested in the gospel? Goodness gracious, is there a
twelve-year-old, fourteen-year-old boy on the top side of this earth
who's interested in the gospel? So what if you are? I hope you are. Are they going to make fun of you? There's a reproach. And there's
reproach for Not only fourteen-year-old, but sixty-four-year-old. Right? They make fun of you. And their
reproach will last all your days. Sure will. I remember going through
it when the Lord was dealing with me. And the reason I say
it's by grace is because I didn't want to be saved. Did you, Rebecca? I didn't want to be saved. Well, I do now. But I didn't
want to be, and I didn't want to go through all that persecution. Tried to hang on a little bit,
but finally realizing by God's grace that, hey, the reproach
of Christ is far greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt.
But these friends, these brethren, these family, none of my old
cronies even compares. whom the world is not worried
about. Those friends are not friends at all. They just were
friends for what they could get out of me. There's reproach. Reproach for and of Christ. Greater
riches than the treasures in Egypt. Can you say that from
your heart, people, some of you? Can you say from your heart, this gospel And these people are worth losing
my family and others.