How very good of you, Father,
to gather us together tonight in this building where so often
we've met together and the Spirit of our Lord Jesus has been with
us. And we have been enabled to worship
Thee, O God, to render to You the honor and the glory that
You are so deserving of. It is here that we have been
blessed. Indeed, some of these have been
blessed for many, many years to gather here and listen to
the Gospel of the Lord Jesus, the message of redeeming grace.
And we're thankful that we can continue to meet this evening. We're very grateful for the opportunity
to minister to those who are joining us by way of the Internet,
Lord, we ask that all of us together, as a group of people and yet
as individuals, may we render unto You that honor that is Your
due. We bless You, Father, for Your
great omnipotence, all of Your power, for Your sovereign rule
over all things. how good it is for us to remember
that all things in this world and all things that pertain to
each of us are under the dominion of our great God and Savior Jesus
Christ. Nothing happens to us by accident. Nothing happens by chance. Our
Lord who suffered, bled, and died for us and who has been
exalted because of His victory at the cross of Calvary. He ever
lives to make intercession for us, and He is the One who is
conducting all things in this world to the end, Father, that
You have ordained. And we know that's good for us.
That's the most blessed thing we could hear concerning our
daily lives, that you govern all things and that you will
make certain that all things work together for the good of
your dear children, those who love you, those who've been called
according to your eternal purpose of grace. We lift up to You tonight,
Father, these that have been mentioned who are having the
infirmities of the flesh, experiencing difficulties. These and others
of our congregation. Lord, we pray that if it be Your
will, You'd give them a restoration of good health. And indeed, we
ask that You would Convince your people of the sufficiency of
your grace to see us through every trial. These difficulties
do not come our way except by the sovereign hand of our God. And Lord, that helps us to know
that back of our difficulties Well, who among us doesn't have
some difficulties either personally or somebody in the family? Some trial or trouble? Lord, it helps us to know that
back of all things is our loving Heavenly Father. And You bring
these things to pass for Your glory, and You'll make them all
work together for our good. So we ask that you would calm
any anxieties within the hearts of your people tonight. Let us
not be dismayed. Let us not be troubled needlessly. Our God governs. All things that
happen to us are according to your sovereign will and pleasure. And therefore we can rest in
our Savior knowing that He who loves us with an everlasting
love, He who bought us with His own bloody sacrifice, He who
put away all of our sins, He who brought in for us everlasting
righteousness, He oversees all things for our good. And Father, for Your glory. It
is such an honor to be in your family, to be named among the
children of God. Oh, what a precious and glorious
and high calling this is, that now, now, we are the children
of God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that when our Lord Jesus shall appear
We shall be like Him, and we shall be with Him, because we
shall see Him as He is. Indeed, as our brother mentioned,
comfort those who have experienced the grief of the removal of a
dear, precious loved one from their midst. And as we think
about you taking Carolee home to everlasting glory and happiness,
we rejoice in your good providence. And we know that she is in the
presence of the King. Where there was joy, there is
joy forevermore. Bless the family that remains. And that's her earthly family
and her spiritual family, her church family. And enable us
to continue on, laboring in the gospel together, magnifying the
name of our God. Thank you for establishing this
lighthouse in this dark, dark city. And Lord, send forth the
Word that goes forth from the pulpit. Send it forth with authority
and with saving, saving power as only You can do. We fully
depend upon You, Lord, as we preach the Gospel. And we know
that You will draw Your sheep unto Yourself exactly at the
right time. So bless these who are gathered.
Those who are watching, enable us to worship tonight and give
us the hearing ear and the seeing eye and the believing heart.
May our great God be honored tonight. For Jesus' sake, we
ask these things. Amen. Here's my subject for this evening,
and I kind of wrestled with a title, but I finally came up with this,
Jacob, Esau, and a Bad Bargain. Jacob, Esau, and a Bad Bargain. Last week we were introduced
to Isaac's two sons, Jacob and Esau. Esau was the elder. Jacob was the younger. Isaac
entreated the Lord with Rebekah, or as the Scripture says, for
Rebekah. And the Lord answered. Isaac had sought a son, but as
God so often does, He did exceeding abundantly above
all that either Isaac or Rebekah could ask or think. Our God has
no limits to the degree of blessing that He can give to His children.
Isaac and his wife asked for a son. God said, I'll give you
two sons. And indeed, He did. There's nothing
that is impossible with our Lord. He grants to His people grace
and mercy, and He gives so often, so much more than we could ever
imagine. You could never have dreamed
in your life of unbelief and spiritual deadness. You could
never have imagined what God had in store for you. You could
never have thought of how much a God of grace and glory loved
you. And how He would bring you unto
Himself. And He would give you by the
Spirit of God, spiritual life, and bring you to the Savior.
You could never have imagined in a million years, if left to
yourself, you would never have thought that you would be a child
of the King. That you would be royalty. I
say this to all of you who are the people of God. And all of
you out there who are the people of God. You are the king's sons
and daughters. Don't ever forget that. This
world is indeed filled with rebels, filled with the ungodly, filled
with the wicked. But scattered amongst the wicked
sons and daughters of Belial, there are the sons and daughters
of the king. and you're privileged to be numbered
among that group. Isn't that amazing? You could
never have imagined that. And you have very little idea,
I have very little idea what awaits us in glory. I have not
seen, nor heard, nor has it entered into the hearts of men the things
that God has in store for those that love Him. Heaven is going
to be more glorious than we could ever imagine, because we shall
be with the Savior, and we shall see Him as He is. Isaac was 60 years old when the
twins were born. You will remember that Abraham
was 100 years old. when Isaac was born, so that
means that Abraham was 160 years old when Jacob and Esau were
born. Do you remember how old Abraham
was when he died? 175. So, to do just a little
bit of math, these boys were Jacob and Esau were 15 years
old when their grandfather passed away. And I wonder how often
Abraham, along with their father Isaac, I wonder how many times
granddad and their dad spoke to them about the things of God.
And Abraham could speak of the faithfulness of the Lord. I can
almost hear Him speaking to Jacob and Esau. Listen. Listen to me, my grandsons. I
was an heir of the Chaldees. I was an idol maker and an idol
worshiper. And yet the God of glory called
me and He revealed Himself to me. Let me tell you about Him. and how faithful he's been to
me through the years. And I'm sure he spoke to Jacob
and Esau about these things. And Isaac said, and let me tell
you about the gospel of substitution. Let me tell you, Jacob, Esau,
now are you listening, boys? Let me tell you something. Our God told my daddy, Abraham,
to go up on a mountain and offer me as a burnt offering to God.
And I bet you them boys was just wide-eyed and said, really, daddy?
Yeah, really did. And we went up there on that
mountain. And I wondered, since we were going to worship God,
I wondered how come there wasn't a lamb. Because every time before
when we'd go to worship God, there was always a lamb. And
you know what your grandfather told me? He said, God will provide
Himself a lamb. Let me tell you something, boys.
Through your granddaddy, and through me, there's one who's
going to come into this world one day, and He is the Messiah. He's the promised Savior. And He's going to save people.
You know how He's going to save people? Well, it was illustrated
by what happened to me. I tell you, your granddaddy was
ready to put that knife into me. And I just believed that
it would all work out according to God's will. And I was ready.
And then God stopped him. And God had a substitute over
there in the bushes. There was a ram caught by his
horns. And you know, my daddy went over
there and he got that ram and he cut them ropes loose from
me and I got off that altar and he killed that ram and put it
up on the altar. And that ram died in my stead. I am living proof of the great
truth of substitution. And let me tell you boys, one
of these days, God's going to send His Son, and He's going
to die for sinners. Now you know they told them stories
like that. And them little boys listened
like little boys tend to do. Listened to these stories from
granddaddy and from daddy. Both of them heard the gospel.
But just one of them was loved by God. Just one of them was
a vessel of mercy. Just one of them, he was a child
of God. The other one was a child of
the devil. God didn't love him. Scripture
says God hated him. But they both heard the gospel.
And the only difference, and we've all heard preaching about
Jacob and Esau. Last week I read from Romans
9. The only difference between those
two boys was the difference God's sovereign grace made. That's
all. It wasn't that Jacob was better
than Esau. In fact, in some ways, he was
more of a scoundrel. He was a deceiver. And as his
name implies, he was a supplanter. But he was God's man. That's
the thing. As it says in Romans 9, these
children had done nothing good or evil that the purpose of God
according to election might stand. God said the elder shall serve
the younger. And God said, Jacob have I loved. He first said that in Malachi
chapter three and verse one. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. I had no regard for Esau. I thought nothing of him. I had nothing good for him, but
I had everything good for Jacob. This is totally due to the sovereign
grace of God. Well, when Rebecca became pregnant,
the children, these boys, they struggled within her. And she
said in verse 22, and I mentioned this last week, she said, why
am I thus? What's going on? And the people
of God, those of us who know the Lord, or who are known of
the Lord, as Paul said, we know about the struggle. The old man
is the elder. The new man is Christ in you,
the hope of glory. And there is a constant warfare
going on. The old and the new. And it will
continue to go on until the day that we die. And then, bless
the name of God, it'll be over. I know that people in this world,
most of them, they think of death as, well, they're not suffering
anymore. Well, that's true, if it's a
child of God. But if we're thinking straight, it
isn't physical sufferings that make us want to be with the Lord,
it's that we want to be done with sin. That's the problem. That's the root of the issue. Because every difficulty we experience
in this vile world is due to this old man. It's due to sin. There's no question about it.
And the only way we're ever going to be rid of all these other
things is to be rid of sin. And that's not going to happen
until the Lord takes us home unto Himself. Well, the children struggled
And the Lord said to her in verse 23, two nations are in your womb. Look at it this way. Esau, he
pictures an unbeliever. He's a man of the world. He loves
the world. He hates God. And Jacob, he loves
the Lord. He represents the nation of the
Lord. True Israel. Here are these two
men and they go through their life battling against each other. And that's the way it still is.
They're the unbelievers and they're the believers. They're the people
who believe in salvation by works. They're the people who believe
in salvation by grace. There's never going to be any
peace between the righteous and the wicked. There may be peace
on the surface and we try to get along with people, but there
can't be any real union between people who love God and people
who love an idol. There can't be. People who love
grace and other people who believe in self-righteousness. Pick yourself
up by your own bootstraps. Do the best you can. Exercise
your free will. We can't have true fellowship
with those who believe free will because we believe in free grace.
And it has to be one or the other. Free grace or free will. It's
got to be one or the other. And according to the Word of
God, it's God's free grace. It's not of him that willeth,
Romans chapter 9 says. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth. Him that makes an effort. Running
is an effort. Running is exertion. Running
is putting your whole heart into it. But it isn't by your efforts. It's not of him that willeth
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth the mercy.
It's God who manifests mercy. It's God who reveals mercy to
sinners through the Lord Jesus and His substitutionary sacrifice. So here we have in the womb of
Rebecca a picture of an unbeliever and a believer. And there never
will be any real peace between believers and unbelievers. Not
in this world, nor in the world to come. Now look at verse 24. And when her days to be delivered
were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. And the first came out red all
over like a hairy garment. They called His name Esau. His
name means hairy. Some writers say he came out
and he looked more like a little full grown man. He's hairy all
over. And after that came his brother
out who took hold of Esau's heel as though to pull him back in
so he could get out first. And his name was called Jacob.
And Isaac was three score years old when she buried him. Jacob. I'll tell you what, he's not
much to brag on. There's no good about Jacob.
But you know what we're called in the Bible? Sons of Jacob. Because there's nothing good
we've ever done. We're like his offspring. Deceivers. We're natural born supplanters. Looking out for ourselves. That's
Jacob. But you can say all these things
about Him and that's all true. I'll tell you what, the Lord
loved Him. Christ died for Him. And the Spirit of God called
Him by His grace. The only difference between these
two is the different sovereign grace made. So it says in verse
27, the boys grew and Esau was a cunning hunter. One other man
is spoken of this way. His name was Nimrod. And he was
a persecutor of the righteous. And that's Esau. He's a man of
the field. And our Lord said in one of His
parables, the field is what? World. The world. Esau loved
this world. He loved the things of this world.
He was attached to this world. And as far as Jacob was concerned,
Jacob, he was a plain man. You know what that means? Upright. Look up the word. Perfect. It's exactly the same word that
God used, although it's translated a little different, when God
said of Job that he was a perfect man. This is Jacob. He's a perfect man. Well, how
can he be such a perfect man and such a sinful man? The same
way we are made perfect, and yet we in ourselves are imperfect,
we're sinful. Through Christ Jesus, who is
our righteousness. He's our perfection. And here's
the thing about Jacob, he dwelt in tents. And you read over in the book
of Hebrews chapter 11, Jacob was like his grandfather Abraham
and his father Isaac. They dwelt in tents. In other
words, they were sojourners. They didn't look for anything
lasting here. They dwelt in tents. They knew
they were just biding their time. That's what we're doing, right?
We're biding our time. We're going to glory. We're going
to be with the Lord Jesus. And until that day, we go about
our business and we seek God's grace and God's glory and we
preach the Gospel and we worship together, we sing together, we
encourage one another, until that day when the Lord takes
us home to our permanent home. We don't have a permanent home
here. Nothing is permanent here. It's all destined for the destructive
fires of God. God's going to renovate this
earth. He's going to burn it. He's going to purge it. That's
everything you own. All you possess. Don't get too
attached to anything in this world. It's caught up in smoke. We're looking for a city that's
got foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Now, here's
an interesting thing in verse 28. Isaac loved Esau because
he did eat of his venison, but Rebecca loved Jacob. Opposites
attract. Isaac, he was more reserved. He was not adventuresome. Boy,
Esau sure was. And so opposites attract, and
so he kind of took a special liking to Esau. But Rebecca,
and she's more adventuresome. She's really more like Esau. When Abraham's servant came looking
for a bride for Isaac, she said, I'm going. She didn't say, well,
I've never been out of this town before. I don't want to go. Oh
yeah, I'm willing to go. And she loved Jacob. And Jacob,
he dwelt in tents. Apparently he was a shepherd.
He's a man of the world. Just the opposite from Isaac,
so Isaac loved him, showed favoritism, that that's a dangerous thing,
you shouldn't do that, but they did that, and Rebecca loved Jacob,
because he was the opposite to her personality. And so we get
to verse 29. Jacob sawed pottage, lentils,
And they usually did this, especially a lentil soup during a time of
sorrow. I wonder what would have brought
about that sorrow. The death of Abraham. The death
of their grandfather. And Esau came in from the field
and he was faint. And Esau said to Jacob, feed
me, I pray thee, with that same bread pottage, I'm faint, I'm
starving to death. He really wasn't. He wasn't starving
to death. He is a mighty hunter. But he
wanted something to eat. So in verse 31, Jacob says, well,
Why don't you sell me the birthright? I give some need if you sell
me the birthright. Now the birthright meant nothing
to Esau. In fact, he even says in verse
32, Behold, I'm at the point to die. What's the birthright
to me? How's that going to profit me?
I want some need. This birthright, it not only included spiritual
things, but it included material things as well. The firstborn
had the birthright. The birthright goes to the firstborn.
And it meant you got a double portion of the father's inheritance. That's pretty good. It also meant
you were the administrator of the family's business. But more than that, it meant
you would become like the spiritual head of the family. The birthright
meant that you'd be the priest of the family. You would officiate
at the worship service. You'd be the one, whoever had
the birthright, they'd be the one family gathers together and
how they're going to worship God? By blood sacrifice, right?
They've got to kill an animal. Esau wasn't interested in worshiping
God. He's a man of the world. It meant
nothing to him. And he just bargained here. Jacob
was the one who put this out on the table. Sell me your birthright,
I give you some food. And Esau, he's typical of the
man of the world. He doesn't look toward the future. He's not thinking of what's going
to happen out there. He's only interested in right
now. That's the man of the world.
What's a birthright mean to me? Nothing. Nothing. I know my grandfather
loved the Lord, and I know my daddy, he says he loved the Lord,
but they can have that religion. It's not for me. I have no interest. I have no interest in any Messiah
who's going to come. I have no interest in any Emmanuel
who's going to enter into this world. God with us, and then
lay down His life for sinners. Those things mean absolutely
nothing to me. I'll take the food." And I'll tell you what, he went
for a bad bargain. But that's the way the man of
the world does. That's the way the man of the
world thinks. Esau was only thinking of the
present. Typical of the man of the world,
eat, drink, and be merry. Today we live, and tomorrow we
die. And look, let me show you this
reference. I do want you to look at this with me. Hebrews chapter
12. Look at Hebrews chapter 12. Verses 15 and 16. Hebrews, and we'll go to chapter
12, verses 15 and 16. Verse 14 says, follow peace with
all and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. You're
not going to see Him so as to be accepted without holiness.
Thank God Christ is our holiness. He is our sanctification. Who
of God has made unto us wisdom and righteousness and holiness,
or sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Look at verse 15. Looking diligently, lest any
man fail, come short of, be destitute of the grace of God, lest any
root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many
be defiled, lest there be any fornicator or profane person."
Profane is ungodly. It's the opposite of holiness. As Esau, who for one morsel of
meat, he sold his birthright. Did you know from Adam to Moses, the firstborn of the family would
get the double inheritance, but he would become the man to whom
God would speak, and it would be through that
man that he would speak to God on behalf of the family. It's
the firstborn, the rite of the firstborn meant that he would
gather the family together and say, it's time to worship God. In other words, time for church. It's time to worship the Lord.
Esau had no interest in that at all. But Jacob did. And I know Jacob, he was a scoundrel. And he was a deceiver. But he
wanted that birthright. And you know what? He got it. He got it. God ordained that
he would have it. You may not like the means that
he went about getting it, but that's how much it meant to him. And he therefore said to Esau,
you give me the birthright, here's the food. Bargain? And Esau said, it's a deal. Bad bargain for Esau. Bad bargain. See, these two men, they picture
two groups of people and the whole human race is divided into
just two groups. They're called God's elect and
the reprobate. Esau's a reprobate. They're called
vessels of wrath and vessels of mercy. Esau's a vessel of
wrath. Jacob, a vessel of mercy. There's
the righteous and the wicked. The sheep and the goats. There's
the wheat and the tares. There's Jacob and there's Esau. And between these two groups,
it's like a great gulf Fixed. So that those that would pass
from this group over to the other group, can't do it. Can't do
it. Grace saved Jacob. And the Lord
left Esau to himself. Had no regard for him whatsoever. That word hate in Romans 9. It's
the same word when the Lord says, except a man hate his father
and mother. That's not what I would call,
what John Gill called a positive hatred. It's not a malicious
hatred. It's just you have no regard
for it. When it comes to the Lord Jesus,
our Savior, Their competition with Him. You're to have absolutely
no regard for anybody else, not even yourself, because it says,
and hate your own self also. And our Lord had no thoughts
toward Esau whatsoever. No thoughts of goodness. No thoughts
of mercy. No thoughts of kindness. He just
hated him. left Him to Himself. And the
worst thing that God could do for any of us, or any of you,
is just leave us to our own will. Because, I'll tell you about
Esau. Here's what's true of Esau. And
of every natural man and woman, he was his own worst enemy. That's the way it is. And that's
the way it was with us. We were our own worst enemy.
And if God had not intervened, we'd perish too. But hey, God
intervened before the foundation of the world. He wrote Jacob's
name down in the Lamb's Book of Life. What about Esau's name? No. No. It wasn't there. It never would be there. He's
a reprobate. God sovereignly chose Jacob to
whom He'd give grace. He saw He exchanged that which
was seen for that which was not seen. He foolishly sold the opportunity
to be the priest of the family, the leader of worship, and he
exchanged it for a full belly. And I'll give you this reference,
and I'll quit. Look at Philippians chapter 3. Look at Philippians chapter 3.
Look at verse 17. Philippians chapter 3 and verse
17. Brethren, be followers together
of me. and mark them which walk as ye
have us for an example." And then he says, "...for many walk
of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping,
that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end
is destruction." This is Esau. "...whose end is destruction,
whose God The belly. In other words, all the issue
is taking care of the body. And whose glory is in their shame. And what do they mind? What is
it that they're taken up with? Earthly things. Well, what about us? The people
of God? What about the sons of Jacob?
Our conversation's in heaven. Our citizenship is in heaven. From whence also we look for
the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body,
that it may be fashion-likened to His glorious body, according
to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things
unto Himself. I'll tell you something about
Esau. He could not live on the bare promises of God. But Jacob
could. Because God gave him grace. But not Esau. He's a man of the
world. He walked by sight. He doesn't
have any faith. We walk by faith because God
gives us faith. He grants us to follow our Lord
Jesus Christ. Well, let's close in prayer.
We thank You, Lord, for Your Word, for the instruction that
the Spirit of grace gives us. Here we have set before us two
men who lived hundreds and hundreds of years ago. And yet each of
them is typical of The nation that they represent. Jacob, he
represents all of the true Israel of God. All of the elect of the
Lord. Drawn by sovereign grace. Desirous
to know God and be found in Christ. And Esau. So taken up with this world.
It's all he thought about. It's all he lived for. And when his life was over, he
died. He perished in his sin. Because
he despised, despised the birthright. He despised any relationship
with God. He despised the true Gospel. Lord, may that not be true of
any of us. Break our hearts. Make us bow
before King Jesus and worship Him and believe Him who is our
righteousness and only in Him do we stand accepted before Thee. Thank You for the grace that
You've given us in the Savior. Bless the Word to our good. For
Christ's sake we ask, amen.