All right, if you would open
your Bibles with me now to Genesis, excuse me, Genesis chapter 27. Genesis chapter 27. And it came to pass that when
Isaac was old and his eyes were dimmed so that he could not see,
he called Esau his eldest son and said unto him, my son. And
he said unto him, behold, here am I. And he said, behold, now
I'm old. I know not the day of my death.
Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy
bow, and go out to the field and take me some venison, and
make me savory meat such as I love, and bring it to me that I may
eat, that my soul may bless thee before I die. And Rebekah heard
when Isaac spake to Esau his son, and Esau went to the field
to hunt for venison and to bring it. And Rebekah spake unto Jacob
her son, saying, behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy
brother, saying, bring me venison and make me savory meat that
I may eat and bless thee before the Lord before my death. Now
therefore, for my son, obey my voice according to that which
I command thee. Go now to the flock and fetch
me from thence two good kids of the goats, and I will make
them savory meat for thy father, such as he loveth. And thou shalt
bring it to thy father that he may eat and that he may bless
thee before his death. And Jacob said to Rebekah, his
mother, behold, Esau, my brother, is a hairy man, and I am a smooth
man. My father perventure will feel
me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver, and I shall bring
a curse upon me and not a blessing. And his mother said unto him,
upon me be thy curse, my son. Only obey my voice and go fetch
me then. And he went and fetched and brought
them to his mother, And his mother made savory meat, such as his
father loved. And Rebecca took goodly Raymond,
of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and
put them upon Jacob, her younger son. And she put the skins of
the kids of the goats upon his hands, and 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 he came unto
his father, and said, my father. And he said, hear my. Who art
thou, my son? And Jacob said unto his father,
I am Esau, thy firstborn. I have done according as thou
badest me. Arise, I pray thee, sit in need of my venison, that
thy soul may bless me. And Isaac said unto his son,
How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son? And he
said, Because the Lord thy God brought it to me. And Isaac said
unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my
son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not. And Jacob went
near unto Isaac, his father, and he felt him. And he said,
the voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.
And he discerned him not because his hands were hairy as his brother
Esau's hands. So he blessed him. And he said,
art thou my very son Esau? And he said, I am. And he said,
bring it near to me. And I will eat of my son's venison
that my soul may bless thee. He brought it near to him and
he did eat and he brought him wine and he drank. And his father
Isaac said unto him, come near now and kiss me my son. And he
came near and kissed him and he smelled the smell of his Raymond
and blessed him and said, see the smell of my son is as a smell
of a field which the Lord has blessed. Therefore God give thee
of the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth and plenty
of corn and wine. Let people serve thee, and nations
bow down to thee. Be Lord over thy brethren, and
let thy mother's sons bow down to thee. Cursed be everyone that
cursed thee, and blessed be everyone that blessed thee. We'll end
our reading there. Let's bow before our Lord together. Our Father, how thankful we are
that in your goodness to your people, you've allowed us another
opportunity to meet together to worship your matchless name. And Father, I pray that you would
enable us tonight to worship, to praise the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ. We've gathered together this
evening out of many different walks of life and different responsibilities
of the day. And Father, we've come tired,
hungry, dusty, thirsty, needing refreshing from the storehouses
of thy mercy and grace. Father, I pray you'd cause your
word to go forth in the power of thy spirit tonight. First
and foremost, bring glory to your name, but also father to
comfort, refresh and edify the hearts of your people. Use your
word as it goes forth to reveal Christ to the hearts of your
people here this evening. Father, we thank you for this
congregation, this family of brothers and sisters that you've
given to us. Father, I pray you give us each the heart to take
care of one another, to look out for one another, to pray
for one another. Father, give us the wisdom to
carefully protect the unity of the brethren here. That this,
the goal, the purpose of this place might be to preach Christ
to our generation. That this might be a place where
sinners, whoever they are, wherever they may be found, may come and
hear the good news of Christ our Savior. Father, cause us
to be faithful to our generation, to this next generation coming
up, that we teach them Christ, that we point them to the Savior.
And Father, we ask a blessing on those that you brought in
the time of trouble and trial. There are many right now, Father,
we pray you'd be with them. We pray your hand of healing
be upon them, that you'd comfort their hearts with your presence.
Father, that as soon as it could be thy will, that you deliver. And until then, until that time
that you see fit to deliver your people, we pray that you comfort
their hearts with your presence. Give them grace sufficient for
the dark valley which you've called them to go through. And
Father, all these things we ask in that name which is above every
name, the name of Christ our Savior. Amen. I've titled the message this
evening, Blessed in Christ. The story of this family that
I just read to you is a sad, sad story, isn't it? It's just
embarrassing for a family to operate the way this family is
operating. If that happened to my family,
I would be humiliated. People would find out, you know,
this is how my family operates. It's especially embarrassing
for believers. I mean, Jacob is one of the fathers.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You just kind of expect something
from the man, don't you? Believers should understand something
about love. Believers should understand something
about self-sacrifice that makes family life better, that makes
the family care for one another, love one another. But that's
not what happened in Isaac's family, is it? This whole thing is dysfunctional.
Isaac and Rebecca both have a different favorite son. Instead of loving
those boys the same, they each got a different favorite. And
Esau, or I'm sorry, Isaac, started out knowing. Now he knew this.
God said the birthright belongs to Jacob. He knew this. He knew
that the blessing belonged to Jacob. And Isaac tried to bless
Esau anyway, because Esau was his favorite. Who can figure? The Lord told Rebekah directly,
audibly, directly to Rebekah. He told her Jacob will have the
birthright. The elder shall serve the younger.
Almighty God said that. Well, Rebekah still tried to
manipulate the situation. She tried to manipulate her husband
so that Jacob, her favorite, would be sure to have the birthright.
She couldn't just wait on God. She couldn't trust God to keep
his promise. She had to manipulate the situation to make sure this
thing happened the way she wanted it to happen. And you know, in
the end, Jacob, he's Rebecca's favorite. In the end, she manipulated
him too, so that he would marry who she wanted him to marry.
I've never really seen this before this week. Look down here at
verse 43. This is after Esau discovered the birthright, the
blessing had been given to Jacob. He's mad, he's gonna kill his
brother. In verse 43, Rebecca says, now therefore, my son,
obey my voice, and arise and flee thou to Laban, my brother,
to Heron. and tarry with him a few days, until thy brother's
fury turn away, until thy brother's anger turn away from thee, and
he forget that thou hast done this to him. Now she knew this
anger was just gonna last a few days, but she's sending him all
this way, and she says, then I'll send and fetch thee from
thence. Why should I be deprived also of both of you in one day? And Isaac later on must have
asked her, why did you do that? Why did you send our son away
from him? We may never see him again, and they never did. They
never saw Jacob alive again. Jacob never saw his parents again.
And Rebekah said to Isaac, she manipulated the situation. Here's
why I sent him away. I'm weary of my life because
of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob take a wife of the daughters
of Heth, such as these, which are the daughters of the land,
what good shall my life do to me? She just wanted him to marry
who she wanted to marry. And she manipulated the situation.
I mean, just all this family. And Esau, He's not innocent in
this thing, is he? Esau sold his birthright for
a bowl of beans. And when he did that, he showed
total disregard for God. Yet he still wanted the blessing.
He didn't want the blessor, but he wanted the blessings. He wanted
the stuff. He already sold his birthright.
Well then, even when the birthright's given away, he got so mad, he
said, I'm gonna kill my brother. He's gonna kill his only brother.
He just got one. He said, I'm going to kill him.
And Jacob, he took part in all this when he said, all it's going
to seem to my father is if I'm a deceiver. But Jacob, that's
a jar. That's what your name means.
You're a deceiver. He deceived his own father so he could steal
the blessing from his brother. I mean, just oh. And humanly
speaking, all you can call that's evil. I mean, that's all you
can call it. And the first thing I read, I
thought of, first lesson I saw when I read this chapter beginning
this week is this. This is what you see all through
scriptures. God saves sinners, doesn't he? He saves sinners.
And even after God saves us, even after we're regenerated
and the Lord reveals himself to us, we're sinners still, aren't
we? We're sinners still. Jacob and
Rebecca the same way. And you know, Isaac never should
have let this happen in his family. He never should let it happen,
but it did. And before we're too hard on Isaac, let's ask
ourselves this question. How many things do we do that
we know we ought not be doing and do it anyway? See, this family
is us. Their nature, their way of operating,
it's us. It's our nature. It's the way
we operate. Now, as evil as all of this is,
there is still a picture of Christ in this chapter. This is evil,
but only God can bring good out of evil. And you know, the preeminent
example of that obviously is the cross of Calvary. What men
did was evil. I mean, they didn't have any,
any holy, pure desires in their hearts to, to sacrifice the Lord. He'd be the sacrifice for sin.
All they want to do is kill him and torture him. And they wanted
just the most wicked evil things they could think of to do to
him. That's what they did. But didn't the Lord bring good out
of it? Out of that crucifixion came the sacrifices, saved a
number no man can number. God brings good out of evil.
He did the same thing here in this chapter. Now that is never
an excuse for evil, you know that. But here is something comforting
to the hearts of God's people who know, have some idea of the
evil we'll do if God lifts his finger off of us. Our evil will
never stop God's purpose of good. He's still gonna bring his purpose
of good about to his glory for the good of his people. Now in
the midst of all this evil this family's doing to one another,
all this twisted manipulating, the twisted way of thinking,
God here gives us a picture of how his elect are blessed and
they're blessed in Christ. It's always in Christ. God's
elect are sinful, wicked people. They never do anything right
and they never will. Everything they do is twisted deceptive. But God's elect, as sinful and
twisted as they are, are still blessed. And never because of
them, it's always in Christ. Let me show you three or four
things about that. Number one is this. God's elect are blessed
because the Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God, brought his father
what his father loves. Verse one, it came to pass that
when Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not
see, He called Esau his eldest son and said unto him, my son. And he said unto him, behold,
here am I. He said, behold, now I'm old. I know not the day of my death.
Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver and thy
bow and go out to the field and take me some venison and make
me that savory meat such as I love and bring it to me that I may
eat, that my soul may bless thee before I die. I tell you, the
way to a man's heart must really be through his stomach, huh?
It has to be. You know why Esau was Isaac's
favorite? He knew how to go out there and hunt a deer and kill
it and make him this meat sauce and this meat dish, you know,
that he just loved. He just loved to eat it. Just ate it up every...
That's why Esau was his favorite. So he told Esau, now go get some
of that venison. Make me that dish, you know,
that I like so much. And after I eat it, I'll bless you. And
I wondered, why don't you just bless him now? You know not the
day of your death. You know it's coming soon. Why
don't you just bless him now? A very wise person told me something
one time. He says, you get up in years.
If there's something you got, you want somebody else to have,
give it to him now. Don't wait till your day, because
you don't know what will happen. And I thought, it seems like
Isaac is telling Esau. Now, Esau, there's one more who.
I want you to jump through. One more hurdle I want you to
clear, and then I'll bless you. Go make me this meat dish that
I like, and then I'll bless you. There's a hoop to jump through,
a hurdle to cross. But do you know that is exactly
what God the Father said to God the Son? He said, Son, bring
me what I love. You bring me what I love, and
I'll bless you. He said, Son, I love righteousness. I love holiness. I love perfection. Now you bring me what I love.
Son, I've set my love on a people. And they're sinful people. They're
separated from me because of their sin. Now son, you go get
those people. The people that I love. And you
bring them to me. Bring me what I love. Now in
order for the Father to accept that sinful people into His presence,
they have to be made. what the father loves, not just
what he'll grudgingly accept. Now they have to be made what
the father loves. Let's never be mistaken. Almighty
God does not love our sin and our iniquity. He does not love
the filth of our sin. He's offended by it. So he told
his son, you go bring me what I love by making my people what
I love. You bring me a righteous, a holy
and a simple people. And the son said, father, I'll
do it. In order for him to do that, the son had to become a
man. The son of God was born of a
virgin so that he would be a real man. The Lord Jesus was a real
man, just as real of a human as you and I are. But he was
born of a virgin. He was born of a virgin so he'd
be a real man, so he could be our representative. But unlike
you and me, he's a sinless man. Since he was born of a virgin,
he didn't take part in Adam's sinful in Adam's sin. He didn't
have Adam's sinful nature. Christ our Savior had no sinful
nature and he never committed a sin. He established perfect
righteousness. He obeyed God's law perfectly.
Not did he just obey it. Scripture said he magnified it
and honored it. And he brought his father what
he loves. Perfect obedience. Something
you and I don't know anything about. He brought his father
perfect obedience. Perfect righteousness, perfect
holiness. Now since the Son of God, the
Lord Jesus Christ, as He came as a man to be the representative
of His people, His people did everything our representative
did. When Christ obeyed the law perfectly, so did you who believe
Him. Every time. When He established
perfect righteousness, so did you, if you believe in Him. If
you're in Him, if He is your representative, And that's how
God's elect are made righteous. That's how we're made what God
loves. It's in Christ. It's nothing by what we do. It's
all in Christ. So Christ established a perfect
righteousness. But something still has got to
be done about the sin of these people. So the Son of God took the sin
of His people. He took it away from them. And
He made it His. He made it to belong to Him.
He took the guilt of it to be His. He took the shame of it
to be His. He took it into His own body
upon the tree. And He suffered and died to pay
the penalty for that sin. He suffered everything that that
sin deserves. You know, I bet we say that,
make a statement similar to that in every single message that
we preach, don't you think? Does it ever get old? I mean,
you think about the Son of God. The Holy Son of God willingly
be made sin for His people and willingly suffering, suffering
the wrath of His Father, suffering His Father, turning His back
upon Him so that He could cleanse a sinful people. You think of
Him doing that now. He did it willingly for people
like you and me. It's just beyond human comprehension. But when He gave up the ghost,
He shouted, Father, into thy hands, I commend my spirit. Justice
was satisfied. He didn't give up the ghost until
the price had been paid. Lock, stock and barrel. The blood
and the water that flowed from his wounded side. That blood
and water flowed out and washed God's elect holy, white as snow. That's how the son made his people
holy, made them to be what God loves. And because he could come
to his father and say, father, I've done everything you said,
I did everything you told me to do. The father gave to his
son every blessing he promised to give him in the covenant of
grace. And you know what? Christ our savior has already
brought his father what he loves. He brought his people to him.
Already He has. I mean, it doesn't seem like
it. Here we all are. We're sitting here in this body of flesh in
a sinful world with a sinful nature and just all the ugh around
us. But you know what Scripture says
with God's people? We're seated right now in heavenly places.
In Christ. We're already there. In Christ. Now look over Hebrews chapter
2. At the end of time, here on earth,
Whenever that may be, I probably pray that it will
be soon, but whenever that is at the end of time, then it's
going to be brought to pass that everyone that Christ came to
save, he's going to bring them all and present them to the Father.
Perfect body, perfect soul. Hebrews 2 verse 10. For it became
him for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing
many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation
perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifyeth
and they who are sanctified are all of one, they're one. For
which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying,
I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the
church while I sing praise unto thee. And again, I will put my
trust in him. And again, behold, This is the
son speaking to the father. Behold, I and the children, which
God has given me, the son is going to come to the father and
say, father, here's the children you gave me. They're all here. I brought you what you love.
And eternity will begin if you can say begin that way. All right,
here's the second thing. Look back in our text. Here's
God's elector blessed because the Lord Jesus Christ bore the
curse of sin for his people. Look at verse five. And Rebecca
heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son, and Esau went to the
field to hunt for venison and to bring it. And Rebecca spake
unto Jacob her son saying, behold, I heard thy father speak unto
Esau thy brother saying, bring me venison and make me savory
meat that I may eat and bless thee before the Lord before my
death. Now, therefore, my son, obey
my voice according to that which I command thee. Go now to the
flock and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats. And
I'll make them savory meat for thy father, such as he loveth.
And thou shalt bring it to thy father that he may eat, and that
he may bless thee before his death. And Jacob said to Rebekah
his mother, behold, he saw my brother as a hairy man, and I'm
a smooth man. My father perventure will feel
me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver. And I shall bring
a curse upon me, not a blessing, And his mother said unto him,
upon me be thy curse, my son. Only obey my voice and go fetch
me them. Now I know you see the obvious
picture of Christ here. Rebecca tells Jacob, now you
just deceived your father. You followed through with my
plan of deception here and it's all gonna be okay. If your father
finds out he's upset about this and curses you, don't you worry
about it. Your curse be on me. I'll take
the curse for you. The picture's obvious, isn't
it? God the Son promised His Father He would bear the curse. He'd bear the curse of sin away
from His people forever. As much as I love these Old Testament
pictures and types of Christ, you know, the real thing is always
so much better than the picture. In the case of our Savior, there's
no deception going on. There's no trickery. It's not
a card trick, you know. The shell game where you move
stuff around, you can't guess which one the beam's under. There's
no deception going on, no trickery. Both the father and the son knew
exactly what they were doing. They knew everything that was
happening when Christ bore the curse of sin for his people.
Calvary is no deception. We think of the cross of Calvary,
there's no sleight of hand going on here. God's not pretending
like he's punishing his son for sin. He is punishing his son
for sin. He didn't pretend like the debt
of sin belonged to his son. He made the sin belong to his
son. He made the debt belong to him so that he had to legally
pay it. Everything that's happening at
Calvary is being done legally and above board, open for everybody
to see. And at Calvary, the curse, the
curse of the law, was truly, really transferred to Christ.
from the elect to Christ. Now there's only one reason that
could be. It's because sin was truly transferred from the elect
to Christ. When sin's transferred, the curse
is transferred. Now look at Galatians chapter
three. Christ loved his people. And it's like he's telling them,
don't you worry, I'll bear your curse. And as he bore the sin
of his people, he bore the curse of the sin of his people He suffered
and died and put the sin of his people away forever with his
precious blood. And when the blood of Christ
took away the sin of God's elect, the curse was removed forever.
That's what Paul tells us here, Galatians 3 verse 13. Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. How did he do that?
Being made a curse for us. For it's written, cursed is everyone
that hangeth on a tree. That, here's why he did it. that
the blessing of Abraham might come on all the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ, that he might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith. The death of Christ put sin away. And if sin's gone, the curse
has to be gone. Has to be. And the blessing of
Abraham, what's that? Christ died, he took the curse
of sin away that the blessing of Abraham might come on the
Gentiles. Well, the blessing of Abraham is righteousness by
faith. Righteousness through faith not
works. If you want to look over at Numbers
chapter 23, Numbers chapter 23, God's people were made righteous,
made actually truly righteous when Christ took the curse of
sin away. You think, can that be? Let's see what God says about
it. Numbers chapter 23, verse 20. Behold, I have received commandment
to bless, and he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it. That's
like when Isaac blesses Jacob. I blessed. I cannot reverse it. The blessing has been given.
Look at verse 21. He hath not beheld iniquity in
Jacob. Now think that story we just
read and everything Jacob did. God says, I have not beheld iniquity
in Jacob. Neither hath he seen perverseness
in Israel. The Lord his God is with him and the shout of a king
is among them. Sin is removed. You know why
God says I don't see any iniquity? Because there isn't any. Christ
took it away. Now here's some soul thrilling
news for everyone who trusts Christ. Trust him, be all their
salvation without any input from them now. If the Lord Jesus Christ
bore the curse of your sin away at Calvary, God can never curse
you. You think, well, God can do anything.
He can't curse you. If Christ died for you, if He
took the curse of your sin away, God cannot curse you. I mean,
He doesn't want to. His justice is satisfied. There'd
be no reason for Him to want to curse you. The only thing
God can do if Christ died for you is bless you. It's the only
thing He can do. It's the only thing He wants
to do. He's not going to bless you grudgingly. Your cup's gonna
run over with blessing. He's gonna bless you with righteousness.
He's gonna bless you with holiness. He's gonna bless you with salvation.
He's gonna bless you with the gift of faith in Christ that
won't quit believing. He's gonna give you his presence
and never leave you. He's gonna bless you in every
way. So if Christ died for you, what
do you have to worry about? But one of the things on that
list cannot be the curse of sin, I can tell you that. We might
worry about our health failing. We might worry about what it
is that's going to take me from this life to the next. And we
might worry about the events that are going to happen between
here and there. But one thing we don't have to worry about
is the curse of sin. Christ has borne it away. That's
not a promise he made that he couldn't fulfill. He actually
did it. I don't know if Rebecca could have cursed, could have
took Jacob's curse or not, but Christ did and he put it away. The real thing is better in the
picture, isn't it? All right, here's the third thing. God's
elect are blessed because they are in Christ. It's the only
reason. Look back in our text now, Genesis 27, verse 14. And he went and fetched and brought
them to his mother, and his mother made savory meat such as his
father loved. And Rebekah took goodly raiment
of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and
put them upon Jacob, her younger son. And she put skins of the
the kids of the goats upon his hands and upon the smooth of
his neck. And she gave the savory meat and bread which she had
prepared into the hand of her son Jacob. And he came unto his
father and said, my father. And he said, here am I. Who art
thou, my son? And Jacob said to his father,
I'm Esau, thy firstborn. I've done according as thou badest
me. Arise, I pray thee, sit in need of my venison, that thy
soul may bless me. And Isaac said unto his son,
how is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son? And he
said, because the Lord thy God brought it to me. And Isaac said
unto Jacob, come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my
son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not. And Jacob went
near unto Isaac, his father, and he felt him. And he said,
the voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.
And he discerned him not. because his hands were hairy
as his brother Esau's hands. So he blessed him. And he said,
aren't thou my very son Esau? And he said, I am. And he said,
bring it near to me and I'll eat of my son's venison that
my soul may bless thee. And he brought it near to him
and he did eat. And he brought him wine and he drank. And his
father Isaac said unto him, come near now and kiss me, my son.
And he came near and kissed him. And he smelled the smell of his
raiment and blessed him, and said, see, the smell of my son
is as the smell of the field which the Lord hath blessed.
Now there is a wonderful, wonderful picture here of the believer,
sinful, vile, and undeserving, but being blessed because we're
one with Christ. This is what we call a vital
union, a vital union with Christ. And here's why we call it vital.
that without this union, union with Christ, there can be no
salvation. There can't be any life, there
can't be any righteousness, there can't be any acceptance unless
we're joined to Christ. Union with Christ. Just like
our bodies can't live without the head, the believer cannot
live unless we're joined to Christ. Now what Jacob did, it's a sinful,
it's a dishonest, and to do it to your father of all people,
I mean your dad, That's what he did. But that's a picture
of a sinful believer being blessed in Christ. First, Jacob lies
and says, my name's Esau. When his father asked him, what's
your name? He said, I'm Esau. I'm Esau, your son. Well, that's
a lie. That's a lie. And then Jacob
tells his father, I've done everything you told me to do. That's another
lie, wasn't it? But you know what? When the believer
says, my name is Christ, it's all truth. It's not a lie. Now you're right. You think,
oh, that can't be true. By birth, by what you see in his flesh,
my name's Adam. My name's Jacob. My name is sin
and shame. But if I am in Christ, if I'm
one with him, his name is my name. Just like the name of my
foot. is the name of my head. It's
all Frank. The believer, joined to Christ, bears his name. Because
we are his body. Union with Christ does not mean
that here's me, and here's Christ, and we're mushed together. So
you know, you can see me and Christ, but we're just going
to accept Christ. I thought of this little illustration and
kind of tried to make it up before I left the house. Claire, this
is like the level of crafts, you know, your kids would, you
know, I might not even be able to do that, but this is what
I'm talking about. Here's me, and here's Christ. Union with
Christ doesn't mean you can see me in Christ. It doesn't, and
the Father just says, well, I choose to look at this white holiness,
but I know this is back here. That's not union with Christ. This is union with Christ. No
matter where you look, you look at the edges, you look at the
front, you look at the back. All you see is white holiness,
white perfection. Isaac, that's you in Christ.
Gary, that's you in Christ. That's union with Christ. I hope
that, I just, I don't know. That might be silly. But I wanted a graphic example
of that. When the father looks at me,
he doesn't see Christ and me. All he sees is his son. His name
is my name. That's why Jeremiah could write,
this is the name wherewith she shall be called. Jehovah Sidkenu. That's his name. That's his blessed,
glorious name. The Lord my righteousness. That's
his name. I dare not take that name. is
my own. If you're in Christ, it's your
name. You didn't take it. God gave it to you. This is the
name where with she shall be called the Lord, our righteousness. His name is our name. Isn't it?
Then Esau, Isaac wanted to feel Jacob's hands. His hands felt
like Esau's hands, didn't he? His mother had somehow tied those
goat skins on the back of Jacob's hand. So they felt like hairy
hands. And Isaac felt those hands, and he accepted Jacob because
he said, that's Esau's hands. Now, I know Isaac was deceived,
but God the Father, there's no deception going on. God's not
deceived. God's not mocked. God's elect
are accepted because the hands of Christ are real. The Father's
not deceived. His eyes, perfect vision, sees
everything. And when he looks at the hands
of his son, his darling son, you know what he sees? He sees
scars. He sees scars. Those scars came
because he was nailed to a tree. Cursed is everyone that hangeth
upon a tree. Those scars are the evidence
he was sacrificed. He bore the curse of his people
and put their sin away forever. The father's not deceived. When
he sees those hands, he sees sin's been put away by the sacrifice
of my son. And when the father sees the
evidence of Christ's sacrifice for you, you're accepted, accepted
of God. He's not deceived. He's accepting
you because you've been made holy, perfect by the sacrifice
of Christ. And then Jacob's savory meat,
what he gave to his father, pleased his father. I don't know how
this works that Isaac was expecting a venison dinner and he got a
goat meat dinner. I don't know, those two meats
gotta taste different, I don't know. Maybe Isaac's taste buds
were kinda dulling too, I don't know. But the meat that he ate
pleased him, didn't it? It pleased him. Jacob brought
to his father what his father was pleased with. Now I know
Jacob tricked his father, but there's no trickery going on
between God the Son and God the Father. God the Son did please
his father. He brought his father what pleased
him. And you know what pleased the
father? It pleased the father to bruise
him. It pleased the father to make
his son to be the sacrifice, the substitute that put away
the sin of his people. And when the son willingly endured
that, he willingly made himself a sacrifice for sin, he pleased
his father. The sacrifice of Christ glorified
every attribute of the father. It glorified His justice and
His mercy at the same time. It glorified grace and truth
at the same time. God can be true to His character
and still forgive your sin because Christ truly paid the debt. Isn't
that amazing? And since the Father is pleased
with His Son, He's pleased with everyone in Christ. When you
come to the Father crying, Father, accept me for Christ's sake.
Hear me for Christ's sake. Have mercy upon me for Christ's
sake. You know what you've done? You've brought to the Father
what pleases Him. His Son. The sacrifice of His
Son. If you would be accepted of the
Father, plead the sacrifice of His Son. He's pleased with it.
He'll accept you. Then Jacob smelled like Esau.
You know why Jacob smelled like Esau? He stole Esau's clothes. He smelled like him. His clothes
smelled like his brother. Now I know Isaac was deceived. But God the Father is not deceived.
The Father says the motions of man's religion, all their feast
days and all their religious works and all their burning of
incense and all their offering, all these sacrifices, these burnt
offerings, God says it's a stench in my nose. It's a smoke in my
nose. It's something that's irritating
to me. These people are doing this to please God. This is the
best thing they can do to please God. And God says it's an abomination. all your feast days, your holy
days, your new moons. He said, away with them. They're
an abomination to me. But then the son came. He offered
a sacrifice for sin. And that sacrifice, the smoke
of that fire went up and it pleased the father. It pleased his justice
because this sacrifice, the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, took
away the sin of his people. And it pleased his father. It
pleased his father to see that his people were made holy and
righteous. The sacrifice of Christ did what
all of man's religious activity can never do. It put sin away. And the father's pleased. God's
people. We don't come to the father and
he's deceived and said, oh, you smell like my son because you
stole his clothes. You know why God's people smell
like the son? because we're clothed in his perfect robe of righteousness.
We smell like that sacrifice of Christ that put away sin. And the father is not angry and
he blesses. He blesses us for Christ's sake.
And here's the blessing of what we're talking about, union with
Christ. The father is not deceived. He's not playing games. He sees
everything exactly as it is. He calls it exactly as it is.
And the father who sees everything as it is, knows everything. He
says, I can discern no difference. Where is that here? Now, somewhere in here, you remember
me reading it where Isaac could not discern the difference. He
couldn't discern. He thought it was Esau. He couldn't discern the difference.
The father who sees everything says, I can't discern the difference
between Christ and my people. because they're one. Because
they're one. He can't discern a difference
because there isn't one. God's people are in Christ made
just like him. Now here's the blessing given
to God's people. Verse 28. Therefore God give thee of the
dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth and plenty of corn
and wine. Let people serve thee and nations bow down to thee.
Be Lord over thy brethren and let thy mother's sons bow down
to thee. Cursed be everyone that cursed thee, and blessed be everyone
that blessed thee. The father has given the son
his blessing. He gave his son the fatness of
the earth. He gave him the whole earth. The earth and everything
that's in it belongs to Christ, because he purchased it at Calvary
with his own blood. Now if the father gave Christ
all the world and everything in it, he gave him the people
too, didn't he? Gave him the people. And God's people who
live on this earth can never be lost. We belong to Christ
and He's not going to lose what belongs to Him. It's been given
to Him by the Father. If you're in the hand of Christ,
you can never perish. Never. Because He won't lose
you. And the Father made the Son King over all. He said, let
nations bow down to you. Well, sooner or later, all nations
are going to bow down to Christ. Everybody's going to bow down
to Christ the King. But God's people, Now they bowed to him.
They bowed to him willingly. They bowed to him thankfully.
Aren't you thankful? Our Savior's king over all. Our
Savior's sovereign. If the Savior's sovereign, then
nothing can happen against his will that would cause him to
lose one of his people. Oh, I'm thankful God's sovereign, the
Savior's sovereign. Now, the father's appointed his
son became Savior. And everyone who curses him is
going to be cursed. Everyone who will not believe
him, they'll be cursed. But everyone who blesses Christ
will be blessed. Don't you want to shout with
the psalmist, bless the Lord, oh my soul and all that is within
me, bless his holy name. Everybody who believes Christ,
that's blessing Christ, believe me, they're going to be blessed.
They're going to be blessed with salvation. They're going to be
blessed with eternal life. They're going to be blessed with
peace with God. They'll have everything that God has for a
sinner given to them in Christ by believing Christ. I'm thankful. I'm thankful that the Father
has put every blessing that there is to be had in one place, one
person. It's all easy to find. I was
thinking driving over here tonight. The gospel is not hard. It's
not hard. I mean, it's complicated. It's
something only God can do. But it's not hard. God does not
make it hard for sinners to be saved. Look at one place. Look
to one person. Trust one person. Go to one person.
It's all in Him. I'm thankful God put it all in
Christ. Because if it's in Christ, it
will belong to me too if I'm in Him. I hope that will be a
blessing to you. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, how we thank You
for Your Word. We thank You for this glorious picture of union,
the believer's union with Christ the Savior. And Father, how we
pray that you'd bless us for Christ's sake. That you'd see
us in Christ, that you'd hear us in Christ, that you would
be merciful to us for Christ's sake. Because of his righteousness,
because of his sacrifice, because of his blood. Father, hear us,
save us, call us and keep us. Bless us for Christ's sake. Father, bless your word as it's
been preached. Cause your people to be able to see your glory,
your redemptive glory in Christ the Savior by the preaching of
your gospel. Bless us, Father, we pray. It's
in Christ's name. For his sake and his glory, we
pray. Amen. All right, Sean.