Last week we went through most
all of Genesis chapter 26, but I didn't read the last two verses
because I wanted to save those to this evening. And here they
are, chapter 26, 34 and 35. Esau was 40 years old when he
took to wife. By the way, that's the same age
Isaac was when he took a wife, when he married Rebekah. He was
40 years of age, but he saw, he took to wife two women. Judith, the daughter of Biri,
the Hittite, and Bashemoth, the daughter of Elon, the Hittite. Now these are descendants of
Ham and Canaan and Heth. These are ungodly people. These
women came from families that hated the God of Abraham and
Isaac. They had no love for the gospel.
They were idolatrous people. And so Esau, he goes out and
he finds these women and he marries them. Evidently, he married two
at a time. And as we shall later see, he
married more women and they were all ungodly. And of course, this
was a grief. Look at the last verse of the
chapter. This was a grief of mine to Isaac, and Rebekah just
broke their hearts. This union of Esau with these
two ungodly wives, greatly troubled mom and dad. And we can learn some things
from this, and I'll give these briefly to you. Number one, Though
a son in a household grows up in the midst of the truth of
God, in the midst of where the gospel is loved by mom and dad,
that is no guarantee that the children will love the Lord. Here's the son who despises the
things of God, and we'll see that later on. And he goes out
and he's not looking for somebody who believes the gospel. He's
not looking for a wife who fears God. He's not looking for a bride
that has the same love for the Lord God of Israel. as his parents
did. This is a man who is himself
ungodly, and he seeks those who are like-minded, and he finds
two women who will marry him. Learn this. There is no guarantee
There's no guarantee that even if you raise your children up
in the gospel of the Lord Jesus, there's no guarantee that they're
going to love the gospel. Because you see, grace doesn't
run in the heritage, in the bloodline. It's always true, sinners are
saved by grace. Now, don't you know that Esau,
just like Jacob, I mean, they're the same age, these are twins.
They both grew up hearing about substitution, hearing about how
the blessings of God have been upon Abraham, their grandfather,
and these things that they've listened to, been exposed to
for all of these years, yet Esau, as it winds up, he has no interest. I think as we read in Hebrews
chapter 12, and as time allows, we'll go to Hebrews chapter 12
in just a little bit. This is a man who is himself
an apostate. He evidently gave some lip service
to believing the things of God, but then he forsook them. And
he went back as a dog goes back to its vomit, and as a pig goes
back to its wallowing in the mire. This is what Esau does. And this absolutely breaks the
hearts of Isaac and Rebekah. And, you know, being a parent,
Nancy and I know that unless God is gracious and speaks to
our children and our grandchildren, they're not going to believe
the gospel. This message is not automatically believed. Years
ago when I was pastoring in Louisiana, We had, one Sunday morning, here
came in a whole row of people that I didn't know. They were
dressed up pretty good, and I wondered, well, I wonder who these folks
are. And after the service was over, they came up to me and
they said, we're a pulpit committee, and they named the church, the
congregation, said, I wonder if we could speak with you and
your wife in your office. And I said, okay, but I'm not
looking to move or anything, but I'll be glad to meet with
you. And so we went back and we talked a little bit. And then
they said, now, your children are saved, aren't they? Just
kind of matter of factly. I said, well, I don't think so. And they were shocked. They said,
but you're a preacher and your children aren't saved? And I
said, well, I can't save them. I have no power to do that. I
said, they're growing up in the environment of the Gospel. Indeed
they did. It's one of them right here.
And she knows the Gospel, that was first and foremost the Word
of God in our home. And this is the same Gospel I've
been preaching for 40 some years. I said, I can't believe the kids
aren't saved. What kind of preacher are you? And that was it. And they left. They let me high
and dry. But that was okay with me. I
was contented where I was. But Nancy and I talked about,
can you believe that? They just thought the kids automatically
would be saved. Well, there may be people who
are shocked that Esau wasn't a believer. But listen, this
matter of salvation has always been of God. It has never been
according to the will of man. And though we certainly teach
our children and our grandchildren, and as the case may be for some
of you, your great-grandchildren, we teach them the gospel of God's
redeeming grace, nobody can save a sinner but God. Yet, when our children are unbelievers
and give no indication of loving the gospel, it's a grief to the
heart. And we pray for them. And I know
you do. Those of you who have children,
you're always concerned about their spiritual condition. And
if you have some doubts about their being secure in Christ
Jesus, It's a burden to you. I know it is. It's a burden to
you. We pray for our children. The
reason we pray for our children, because the one to whom we pray
is the only one who can help them. We know that, don't we? Sure we do. So, number one, though
Esau grew up under the sound of the gospel, he had Abraham
for his grandfather and Isaac for his father, yet apart from
the work of the Spirit of God, he just kept on going. in his
carnal ways. The second thing I think that
needs to be stated here is that these two marriages of Esau with
these women, these ungodly women, revealed that Esau was a man
of the world. No wonder that birthright that
he had just sold to his brother Jacob, no wonder it meant nothing
to him. The things of God meant nothing
to him. He had come in, as you well remember,
those of you who were here last week, he came in hungry and he
said, I want a bowl of whatever it is you're cooking there, literally
red, whatever the red was, pottage or soup or lentils or whatever. He said, I'm hungry and I'm so
hungry I'm gonna die. And Jacob said, I'll sell it
to you for the birthright. Well, he said, well, I'm going
to die. What good is that birthright to me? The things of God mean nothing
to him. Because you see, the birthright, the things of God
mean this, we live by faith. We live upon the promises of
God. Isn't that right? That's how
we live. That's how a child of God exists. We're always living
on the promises of God. We're living upon promises that
the natural man cannot see. The natural man needs to see
and then believe. And all Esau could comprehend
was, I want something I can see, I'll eat this pottage. You didn't
have the promises of God. They don't mean anything to me.
He got rid of them. There is no spiritual life in
this man. I'll tell you something. God
hated him. and he hated him with good reason.
But God loved Jacob and he loved Jacob for no good reason in Jacob. He loved Jacob because he would.
I'll tell you something about Esau. He hated God too. God hated him and he hated God. And he lived and died graceless,
godless, and Christless. He died in his sin. And here's
another thing that needs to be stated. Though this is not so
apparent, nevertheless it's true. Grandparents and parents who
love the truth of God are greatly troubled when they're raised
under the sound of the truth and then leave the gospel seeking
only happiness from the world. And it especially troubled Isaac because, like his father before
him, he did not want the family blood to be mingled with ungodly
blood. Isaac knew he's in the lineage
of the Messiah. And now what's Esau done? Esau's
the firstborn. And Isaac, he has already been
told. He knows that God's favorite,
the one God loved, the one God chose, was Jacob, not Esau. But in spite of what he knew,
He still goes against, as it were, the purpose of God. And he wants Esau to be the one
that gets blessed. He knew who God's choice was. Turn back to chapter 25. Chapter 25. Look at verse 21.
And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife because she was
barren. And I told you that word for his wife would be probably
better interpreted or translated with his wife. Both of them together
praying because she was barren. And the Lord was entreated of
him. And Rebekah's wife conceded the children struggled within
her. And she said, if it be so, why
am I thus? And she went to inquire of the
Lord. And the Lord said unto her, two nations are in thy womb. and two manner of people shall
be separated from thy bowels. And the one people shall be stronger
than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger."
He knew that's what God said. Isaac knew what the Lord had
said to him and to Rebekah. The elder shall serve the younger. Not Esau, but Jacob. That's God's choice. And yet,
Isaac, so determined, so determined that even though
Esau had sold the birthright, he just got a blessing. And God's not going to let him
do it. Well, let's get into this. First of all, let me remind you
what the birthright was. It was honor and authority over
the rest of the family. A double portion of the family's
inheritance. Meant to be the priest of the
family. Lead the family in worship. Esau,
don't you want to lead the family in worship? Don't you want to
offer a sacrifice to God as a head of this family when Isaac dies? You lead us, you talk to us about
the things of God, talk to us about Christ, talk to us about
the necessity of an innocent victim dying instead of the guilty. Don't you want to lead us in
the worship of God?" He said, I have no interest. It means
nothing to me. The birthright meant he would
be the mouthpiece of God to communicate truth to the rest of the family,
and the birthright included the blessing, which is what chapter
27 is all about. But we read this back in chapter
25 and verse 34, the last statement of chapter 25, Esau, He despised the birthright. Esau
despised the birthright. It was of no importance to him. He preferred the things of the
world. I don't want to be saddled with that responsibility. Esau
really was saying, I don't want to be associated with God. I
don't need God. I can't even see God. And so, he didn't get the birthright,
he doesn't get the blessing. But that was all according to
the purpose of God. So let me show you a few things
real quick. Number one, Isaac's purpose was to pronounce a blessing
upon Esau. If you read the Jewish historian
Josephus, He says that at this juncture of Isaac's life, he's
137 years old. That's exactly the age Ishmael
was when he died. And I suspect that now Isaac
is thinking, you know, my older brother, half-brother, Died when
he was 137. Must be about time for me to
die too. That's the reason he thinks he's
kind of tying up loose ends. Now, understand this. It's a
good thing to have death on your mind. That's a good thing. And here
is Isaac. He thinks he's dying. But in
fact, he's going to live What, 43 more years? Because he doesn't
die until he's 180. But it's always good to be thinking
about death. And he decides he's going to
bless Esau. And so he says, and I just read
it to you, and I don't need to make any comments on that really.
Just go out in the field, give me something to eat. You know
how I like it. You know how I like it seasoned,
maybe a little hot, a little red pepper or whatever. You know
how I like it and bring it back and I'm going to eat and then
I'm going to bless you." Okay, so he goes out in the field to
hunt venison, to hunt wild game. Rebecca overhears that conversation. And Rebecca then goes and tells
Jacob the situation. And she says, I got it all figured
out. You go get me a couple of goats.
You know, your dad, he's old and his eyes are dim. Could have
had, I don't know, glaucoma. I don't know what was wrong with
his eyesight, but it wasn't seeing very good. His eyes were dim. And she said, we can pull this
off. I'll get one of Esau's garments. It has the smell of dirt, of
earth about it. And you get the goats, and I'll
take some goat skins and put it on your hands and on your
neck so that when your dad kisses you and hugs you, takes your
hand, squeezes it. He'll think you're Esau. She's
got it all figured out. And Jacob said, okay. So that's their scheme. And he
comes in and I read the scripture to you. They pull this off. Here's the thing. This blessing
was going to be Jacob's anyway. Isaac just, he wasn't patient
enough to wait, or excuse me, Rebecca wasn't patient enough
to wait for God to work things out as it were. And she's rushing. She's rushing. So often we get
in a hurry. It's hard for us to wait. Wait
on the Lord. Again, I say wait on the Lord.
It's hard for us to wait because we want God to act and we want
Him to act now. In fact, we wish He'd acted yesterday
if we'd be honest about it. Right? That's the way we are.
And Rebecca said, listen, you're going to get the blessing. Let's
just put this in gear and we'll shove it right on through. And
so, that's what they do. And Jacob says, well, it's the
voice of Jacob, but you sure do smell like Esau. And that garment you got on,
sure he felt down that garment. He said, that's Esau's alright. Felt his skin, yeah, you're Esau
alright. I accept you. Let me tell you
something. You know, God uses word pictures
to teach us of our Lord Jesus Christ. And actually, in many
ways here, Esau is a picture of our Savior. We wear the robe
of Christ Jesus. We have that fragrance about
us. and God accepts us for Christ's
sake. There's a gospel lesson. Let
me tell you something. There's always gospel lessons
to be seen in the Word of God. There's no question of what we
haven't found many of them. It's still a book full of the
gospel. God give us eyes to see the truth
of redemption and salvation by grace in the Word of God. So Jacob does indeed get the
blessing. He gets the blessing. He's successful. But then after he leaves, Esau comes in. It's a sad thing. Now I'll read
you a little bit more, verse 30. And it came to pass, as soon
as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jake was yet scarce
gone from the presence of Isaac his father, that he saw his brother
came in from honey. 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. Now verse 32. And Isaac, his
father said unto him, who are you? He said, I'm your son. I'm your
firstborn son, Esau. And Isaac, he began to tremble
very exceedingly. He 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. I blessed him, and there's no
reversal of this. What is the blessing? The blessing
is to be in the lineage of the Lord Jesus. The blessing is to
be associated with that Messiah who's coming. That's the blessing. And let me tell you something.
Jacob wanted that. He wanted to be associated with
the Savior, with the seed of the woman who was promised. Actually,
it's called the blessing of Abraham. Go over to chapter 28. It's he
wanted the blessing of Abraham. Look at chapter 28. Look at verse
3. This is Isaac talking to Jacob
and actually blessing him. Chapter 28 verse 3, And God Almighty
bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou
mayest be a multitude of people, and give thee the blessing of
Abraham. What is the blessing of Abraham?
Or rather, who is the blessing of Abraham? It's Christ Jesus. That's the blessing of Abraham.
Read again, at your leisure, Galatians chapter 3 verses 13
and 14. The blessing of Abraham that
it might come upon the Gentiles. That's the blessing. Jacob wanted
the blessing of Abraham. He wanted to be in this Royal
lineage. Oh, to be associated with the
Son of God. That's Jacob's feeling. And Esau, meant nothing to him until it's
too late. And I'll tell you verse 34. It's one of the saddest verses
you'll ever read. Chapter 27, verse 34. After Jacob says, I have eaten
of all before thou camest and have blessed him, yea, and he
shall be blessed. And when Esau heard the words
of his father, he cried with a loud and exceeding bitter cry. and said unto his father, This
is heartbreaking. Bless me. Bless me also, my father. And Isaac said, Thy brother came
with subtlety and hath taken thy blessing. And he said, Is
he not rightly named Jacob? For he hath supplanted me these
two times. He took away my birthright. Now
wait a minute. Esau, now you're a liar. You
sold your birthright. Jacob didn't take it away from
you. He sold it, because it meant nothing to him. And behold, now
he hath taken away my blessing. And he looks at his father, and
he says, Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me? And Isaac
answered and said unto him, Esau, behold, I have made him thy lord.
And all his brethren have I given to him for servants, and with
corn and wine have I sustained him. And what shall I do now
unto thee? And of course, there were mercies
that were given to Esau, but not the blessing. Now go over
to Hebrews chapter 12. In Hebrews chapter 12. And I'll say this about Esau.
He seems now to be interested, but it's too late. It's too late. It's gone. The blessing's gone. He sold the birthright, and now
the blessing's gone from him. You know, the Bible's full of
warnings. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation? There are some people who believe
sovereignty to the neglect of man's responsibility. When we
say men are responsible to believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus,
we're not going to back up on that. You're responsible to believe. But do not ever confuse responsibility
with ability. God commands men everywhere to
repent. This is His will concerning the
Lord Jesus. Believe on Him. Believe on Him. That's what God says. And you're
responsible to believe. If you don't believe, it's your
fault. Here's Esau. Here the things of God were right
in front of him. I don't want to live on promises.
You know what? No natural man wants to live
on the promises of God. Only by grace do we live upon
the promises of God. Poor Esau. He let it all slip away from
him. He's so related to the blesser,
Isaac, and yet he's rejected. And now he seems to be, and I
emphasize seems, he seems to be concerned about the blessing. But it's gone. You see, he saws a picture of
a person who goes through life. Earlier in life, he makes some
kind of profession of faith, and he's with the family, and
the family loves the Lord, but then he leaves because the things
of God really don't interest him. But then he dies, and in hell,
he lifts up his eyes, and he's in regret. Well, that's too late. I don't know what you're thinking.
I don't know much about deadlines. But I do know this. Right now,
the door of mercy is open. And if you want mercy, come and
get it. If you want Christ Jesus, want
the bread of life, come and eat. Want the water of life, come
and drink. Say, well, I'm not thirsty. Well, that's your fault.
It isn't that there's not water, so I'm not hungry. It isn't that
there's not bread. If you're not thirsty, that's
not my fault. I set before you the water of
life. It's not my fault if you're not hungry. I set before you
the bread of life, Christ Jesus. and everybody is responsible
to eat of him. But you never will, because you
don't have an appetite for it. That's the problem with the natural
man. He doesn't have the right appetite. God has to give that
to him. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation? And I tell you, and you don't
need to turn to this, but in Luke 13, And you can jot it down
and read it later in verses 24 and 28. It says, "...many will
sit down in the kingdom." They'll sit down with Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob. You know who's not mentioned?
Alongside of Isaac? There's no Ishmael there. Ain't nobody going to sit down
with Ishmael. Oh, he's not in glory. And there's no mention of Esau
either. Nobody's going to sit down in the kingdom of God and
eat with Esau. Because he despised the things
of God. And let me tell you something.
It's this way. You either love the things of
God or you hate them. There is no in between. There's
not a third group. You either love Him or you hate
Him. That's just the way it is. And
look here in Hebrews chapter 12. Look at verse 14. Follow peace with all men and
holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. This is not
the way you live. Holiness is not how you live. You know, not doing this and
not doing that and laying aside your bad habits. That's not holiness.
True holiness. You want to know what true holiness
is? God is holy. You've got to be holy in Christ
Jesus. That's the only way you can be
holy. Who of God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification. That's not you getting better
every day. That's holiness. You've got to
have holiness. Who is our holiness? Christ is.
And I'll tell you, without that holiness, no man shall see the
Lord. Looking diligently, look at verse
15, looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God.
Now, if I go to the center column of my Bible, it says here on
verse 15, or fall from, that is fall from the grace of God. I tell you, once you have been
given grace, you're not going to fall from it. That's a bad
note in there. The idea is, look indeligently
lest any man become destitute of the grace of God. Or lest
any man come short of the grace of God. Do you really have the
grace of God? If God gives you grace, you're
going to have it forever. Isn't that right? You're not
going to lose it. Do you have the grace of God?
We say, I don't know if I have the grace of God or not. Is Christ
your all? Is He your hope? His blood? His righteousness? Lest the root of bitterness springing
up trouble you and thereby many be defiled. Verse 16. Lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau. First of all, what does profane
mean? It's just the opposite of holiness. That's a good way
to remember it. It's ungodly, unholy. He is an unholy man. Jacob and
Esau, Jacob was a holy man in Christ Jesus. And Esau's a profane person in
himself. And Esau, he was a fornicator
because he left the gospel. And then he went a whoring after
other gods at spiritual fornication. Who for one morsel of meat sold
his birthright. Now look at verse 17. For you
know how that act would when he would have inherited the blessing.
got interested then, he was rejected. Isaac said, no, no. I blessed your brother and he
is blessed. I mean, that settles it. And
then it says, for he found no place of repentance, though he
sought it carefully with tears. What in the world does that mean? Does this mean he went to Isaac
and said, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry and start crying.
I want the blessing. That's not what it means. That's not what it means. where it says, he found no place
of repentance. He went to his dad and he begged
his dad to repent of what he had done. What is repentance?
Do an about face. Change your mind, dad. I'm begging you to repent of
what you've done. And he sought it carefully with
tears. He cried to his father and said, please, oh please,
oh please, take the blessing away from Jacob and give it to
me. And Jacob said, I can't do that. I can't change the purpose of
God. Even though he sought his father
to change his mind and bless him, Isaac said, that's an impossibility. Can't do that. Let me give you this and I'll
quit. Save the very end of the chapter until next Wednesday. Consider something else. You
know, Jacob knew he was the chosen one. He did. Rebecca knew he was the
chosen one. Now, I know Isaac knew and he
wasn't too happy about it. But Jacob, believing, in sovereign
election did not keep him from going wholeheartedly after the
blessing. You see this old idea, well,
if I'm going to be saved, I'm going to be saved, so I'll just
sit right here till the dust settles and smoke clears. That's
no good. That's no good. If you believe in the sovereign
election of God, and that's true, it is absolutely the truth. If
you really believe it like you ought to believe it, that's not
going to keep you from seeking the Lord, going after the gospel,
being interested in the things of Christ Jesus. Not at all. And Rebecca, she knew. She knew Jacob's the one. But even though she knew the
sovereign purpose of God and she believed it in her heart
that this is going to come to pass, that didn't keep her or
hinder her from coming up with this scheme as to how Jacob's
going to be blessed. You know, there's something,
what is that verse that talks about the kingdom of God suffering
violence? And the violent, you know what
they do? Take it by force. They go after it. They go after
it. I visited a man one time. I'll
give you this real quick. I was visiting a man in the hospital. He was a prim-de-baptist. And
he had dropped in to hear me preach from time to time back
when I was in Virginia. Y'all came by several times back
in those days. So did Paul and Lisa and a few
others. And he had cancer. This guy had cancer. and he was
in the hospital, and somebody told me about what was going
on. Well, I knew the man. I liked
him. And I went in and I said, do you have a good hope through
grace in the Lord Jesus? He said, well, if I'm one of
the elect, I'll be okay, preacher. Well, how do you know you aren't
one of the elect? You know what Paul said in 1
Thessalonians 1? He said, I know, brethren, beloved,
your election of God. What did you do? Go into heaven,
look in the Lamb's book of life, see if your names were there?
No, he couldn't do that. He said, because you believe
the Word. The Word of God came to you in power. In the assurance
of the Holy Spirit. He stamped it upon you and said,
this is the truth. and the fact that you believed,
that's the evidence of your election. No wonder Peter said in 2 Peter
1.10, give diligence, brethren, to make your calling and election
sure. How can I be sure? Do you believe Christ? Love the gospel of grace? trusting only the bloody sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus and His righteousness only? Don't come up short on this now. I'll tell you, one other really
sad passage of Scripture is that passage in Matthew 7. Many will
say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, hadn't we done all these
things in your name, in your name, in your... Three times,
that's orthodoxy. I did so much for you, there's
been a mistake made. He said, I never knew you. You're
just workers of iniquity. All your religious work, you're
just works of iniquity. And you folks, you think you're
Christians? You're just workers of iniquity,
that's all you are. And I tell you, most of these
religious people around here, their religion consists of works. But God says they're works of
iniquity. That's all. No goodness to them. Christ only. Ah, yes. He's our hope. He's our hope. Well, let's close. Father, we
thank You for the understanding that You have given to us of
how You save sinners. And we know it's our responsibility
to seek the things of God. Lord, we're here tonight knowing
it's our responsibility to open the Word of God. Find out what
God has to say. This is our responsibility. Find out about salvation. Find
out about who God is. to find out what we are and who
Christ is, and just how God saves sinners. But Lord, no lasting
appreciation and belief will come to us apart from Your work
of grace within our hearts. And oh, how we ask You to be
merciful and gracious to us through our Lord Jesus. to be associated
with Him, to be blessed of God, to know Him and the power of
His resurrection. This is what we want. Continue
to teach us, Lord. For Jesus' sake we pray. Amen.