If you would, open your Bibles
first to Hebrews chapter 11. Hebrews the 11th chapter. Technical difficulties here. I had intended to bring a message
on verses 20 and 21 of Hebrews chapter 11. And when I finished
it, I looked at it and thought, Well, that's way too long. So
I split it into two parts. So the title of the message this
morning is Faith's Blessing, Part One. You might be surprised
to find out, Lord willing, next Sunday we'll have a message,
Faith's Blessing, Part Two. But verse 20 of Hebrews chapter
11 says this, By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning
things to come. Now I really just have, want
to ask and answer two questions this morning. Number one is this,
how do I get this blessing? This blessing that's spoken up
here. How do I get this blessing? And number two, what's the blessing? What is the blessing being referred
to here? Now, if you would turn back to Genesis chapter 27, the
passage that we read to open the surface. First, I want to
deal with this. How do you get the blessing? There are several things that
go into that. First, you get the blessing. by the election
of God. You remember how the Lord came
to Rebecca and told her, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. He told her the elder should
serve the younger. Now that is election. God choosing who he would save
and God choosing the worst, the least. If you and I were going
to choose somebody to save, every person in this room would choose
Esau. We just wouldn't much like Jacob.
God chose Jacob to save. So the blessing comes by God's
election and it does not come by man's works. In Genesis 27
verse one, it came to pass that when Isaac was old, 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. 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 into 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." Now, Isaac knew
the birthright and the blessing belonged to Jacob, didn't it?
This is not something Rebecca kept to herself. He knew this. He's an old man. And he loves
his son Esau. Can't blame him. Of course he
loves his son Esau. Of course he does. He loves Esau. And he loved the venison that
Esau went out and hunted and cooked and prepared for him.
And Isaac is going to give Esau the blessing by works. He said, go out there and get
me some venison and I'll give you the blessing. Now he knows
it belongs to Jacob. But he said, by works now, you
go out there and get me some venison, I'm gonna give you the
blessing. Now, you know the end of the story. We know Esau did
not receive the blessing. And you know why Esau didn't
receive the blessing? That's in Isaac's heart right
now. But you know why Esau didn't receive the blessing? It's because
it's God's will that Jacob be blessed. It's God's will that
Jacob receive the birthright, and God's will is going to be
carried out. Now this is a picture to us.
The salvation is not by works. It's not by what we do for God.
Salvation comes by what God does for us. And salvation doesn't
come by our natural birth. Who it is that we're related
to, salvation is in a new birth. Salvation doesn't come by our
natural abilities. It's by God's grace. Salvation
is through the promise of God. That's where salvation begins.
In the promise of God. when God elected a people, chose
a people to save, and God never chooses somebody that can do
something for him. He always chooses the least deserving,
those who can do nothing for him, that he must do everything
for them. That's who God chooses. You get
the blessing, first of all, it begins here in the election of
God. Number two, you get this blessing through the sacrifice
of Christ, verse five. 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, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command
thee. Go now to the flock and fetch me from Thin's two good
kids of the goats. 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. Now, Rebecca told Jacob to go
get a kid, to get a lamb from the flock and to kill it. And
she would fix it just the way his father, Isaac, liked. Now,
there's no excuse at all for what Rebecca and Jacob are doing
here in deceiving Isaac. No excuse for it whatsoever.
Rebecca knew very well what the promise of God was. The Lord
came and told her before these boys were born, Jacob have I
loved, Esau have I hated. I'm going to make a great nation
out of Jacob. Jacob is the one that's going to be blessed of
me. The elder shall serve the younger. She knew that. She knew
it, didn't she? But she wasn't acting in faith
at this time. She knew the promise of God,
but she thought, looks like this thing's all going to fall apart.
I'm going to help God out in this matter and deceive Isaac.
And there's no excuse for that. That's not acting in faith. But
you know what? God overruled even that. To accomplish
his purpose in the redemption of his people, to give us a picture
of the redemption that we have in Christ. And like I said, there
was no excuse for them deceiving Isaac. We won't get hung up on
that. The point is the kid, the lamb that Jacob got and killed. That lamb is a picture of Christ. The way that Rebecca cooked that
lamb, that pleased Isaac, Jacob's father. That's a picture of Christ. His sacrifice pleased the father. Now the blessing begins with
God's election, doesn't it? But election is not salvation.
Election is unto salvation. There also must be a sacrifice
for sin. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Lamb of God. He came as the Lamb of God to
be slain as a sacrifice for God's elect people to purchase their
redemption. And that sacrifice, the sacrifice
of Christ, pleased God the Father. It pleased His every attribute. It pleased the Lord to bruise
Him, Isaiah says. The sacrifice of Christ pleased
God's holiness. It pleased God's justice. That sacrifice put away the sin
that made God angry. And he's pleased. But you know
that sacrifice pleased God's every attribute. It pleased his
love. It pleased his mercy. It pleased
his grace. The sacrifice of Christ is what
enabled God to be merciful and gracious to sinners. The sacrifice
of Christ is the demonstration of God's love for His people,
that He sacrificed His own Son so that He might save them. And
the death of Christ is a sweet-smelling savor to God. How many times
do we read in Scripture about man's religion? Something that
makes man feel good. God says, there's a smoke in
my nose. It's an offense to me. But to sacrifice Christ, now
that's a sweet savor to the Father because it satisfies Him Look,
hold your place or look over at verse 26. And his father Isaac said unto
him, unto Jacob, come near now and kiss me, my son. And he came
near and kissed him. And Isaac smelled the smell of
his raiment. And he blessed him and said,
see, the smell is of my of my son is as the smell of the field
which the Lord had blessed. That smell pleased Isaac because
he associated that smell with his son Isaac. The smell of Christ's
sacrifice pleases the Father. It pleases His every attribute.
And the only way, and the reason we make such a point of this
is this, the only way God the Father can be pleased with the
likes of you and me is in His Son. Not in what we've done,
but in who Christ is and what He has accomplished for our people.
The only way the Father can bless you and me is if we're in Christ
our Son. Our sin has been punished in
him. But now look at verse 11. Jacob said to Rebecca, his mother,
behold, he saw my brother as a hairy man. Now 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 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. Now, Isaac, or Jacob, is completely
right here. I'm deceiving my father. If he
feels me, he's going to know I'm a deceiver. He's going to
bring a curse upon me. And Rebecca said, don't you worry about this.
It's a matter of deceiving your father. If he finds out, let
it all fall on me. Let all the blame fall on me.
Let that curse fall on me, not you. Now, I know you see a clear
picture of Christ here, don't you? The Savior said to the father
of his people. Put their sin on me, let the
curse fall on me and not on me, let the curse fall on me and
I'll bear it away from him and let them let them live. And since
Christ died, there's no curse of sin left for God's people
because Christ poured away. That's how we get the blessing,
is in the sacrifice of Christ. He bore the curse of our sin
away. All right, thirdly, you get this
blessing by being clothed in Christ's righteousness. Verse
15, and Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which
are with her in the house, and she put them upon Jacob, her
younger son. Now Rebekah took Esau's best
outfit that he had, and she put it on Jacob. Again, I know you
see the picture here, don't you? This is a picture of being clothed
in Christ's righteousness. All of God's people are clothed
in Christ's righteousness. And it has to be that way. We
can't come to God in our works, can we? Now, our works produce
what? Scripture says filthy rags. And
that doesn't mean like a dust rag, you know, you use, it gets
dirty. Janet tears up her old towels and makes rags out of
them. Doesn't seem like they last very long. They get too dirty
even for her to use as a rag. She throws it away and tears
up another towel. That's our work. They're not that. They're
filthy rags. They're rags that are defiled
with sin. Salvation is being clothed in
Christ's righteousness, in the spotless robe of His righteousness
that He earned by His obedience to the law. And our obedience
to the law doesn't contribute one stitch for that robe of righteousness. Now, when we talk about a robe
of righteousness, listen to me now. This righteousness, as Scott
Richardson used to say, is not pasted on. It's real. See, our story is a picture,
isn't it? And that's all it is, is a picture.
You can't make a picture of type stand up on four legs. Jacob's
still Jacob, isn't he? Clearly he's still Jacob. He's
going there deceiving his blind father. And he's dressed in somebody
else's clothes. That's all he is. He's Jacob,
dressed in somebody else's clothes. But when God saves His people,
He clothes them in the robe of Christ's righteousness. And that
doesn't mean He just covers up. He takes that perfect, precious
robe that robe of perfection and covers up our filth and our
sin and our guilt. It's all still there. It's just
hidden from view because we got this robe on. That's not it at
all. When God clothes his people,
he makes them righteous. He makes them righteous through
and through. And we get that in a picture,
verse 16. As she put the skins of the kids
of the goats upon his hands and upon the smooth of his neck.
Now, Rebecca made Jacob feel just like Isaac to an old blind
man. Now, you got to remember this
is a picture. They're dealing with an old blind man here. And
put those skins on him to make him feel like Esau. But when God makes his people
righteous, he makes them so righteous. He makes them so one with his
son that even the father can't tell the difference. He's not
blind, He sees all. He makes them just like His Son. God makes His people the very
righteousness of God in the Lord Jesus Christ by putting them
in Christ. Now that's the blessing, isn't
it? That's the blessed person who's been put in Christ, made
just like Christ. All right, here's the fourth
thing. You get the blessing as a gift from Christ's hand. Verse
17, and she gave the savory meat and the bread which she had prepared
into the hand of her son Jacob. Now, Rebecca had planned this
whole scheme, hadn't she? But when it came time to carry
it out, she put it into the hand of her son Jacob. Jacob's got
to carry this thing out now. Now, that's a picture of redemption.
The father purposed the redemption of his people. He elected those
people. He purposed to save them. And
when time came, He put that whole purpose into the hand of His
Son. If redemption is going to be
carried out, Christ is going to have to do it. You and me,
we can't be trusted with that. It's all put into the hand of
the Son. The scroll was put into the hand
of Christ, the Lamb in the book of Revelation. That's all of
God's purpose. No man was worthy, John said,
to open the seals thereof. Christ did. He took it in His
hand and opened it. He carried out all of the purpose
of the redemption of God's people. He carried it out. And if you
and I are going to receive this blessing, we're going to have
to receive it from the hand of God. We're going to have to receive
it as a free gift of God's grace. It's not something we earn. It's
a free gift of God's grace. It goes back to the very first
thing I said. Salvation is not earned by works. Salvation is
a free gift of God's grace. It's a gift of God's sovereign
grace, a gift that he gives to whomsoever he will. Christ earned
that salvation from his father and he freely gives it to the
people that he bought it for. If you and I are going to receive
this blessing, we're going to have to come down. We're going
to have to receive it as a free gift of God, as an undeserving
mercy beggar. God don't owe it to me. If he's
gonna give it to me, he's gonna give it to me as an undeserving
beggar. Now that's how a sinner gets
this blessing. It's by God's electing love.
It's by the sacrifice of Christ. It's by being clothed in Christ's
righteousness. And it's by receiving it as a
free gift of God's grace. And that's how we receive the
blessing. Now here's my second question. This is an important
question. What is the blessing? Everybody here wants a blessing. What's the blessing? What's the
blessing that God gives that is THE blessing? We're going
to see this in a moment. There are two blessings. Which
one is your heart set on? The blessing is all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Look at verse
28. This is the blessing that Isaac
gave to Jacob. He thought it was Esau, the blessing
that came to Jacob. He said, therefore, God give
thee of the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth and
plenty of corn and wine. Now, this is a picture of the
blessing that the father gave the son. He gave him the dew
of heaven. Now, the dew of heaven is what
gives life to the earth. It's what makes the earth fruitful.
Well, this blessing is in Christ. Christ is the one that gives
life to his people. Christ is the one that makes
his people fruitful. The dew of heaven gives the fatness
of the earth. It gives plenty of corn to feed
the hearts of God's people. It gives them plenty of wine
to make their hearts happy, to make them happy in Christ. See,
all of this, this is the blessing. It's spiritual life in Christ
Jesus. And this life is full of God's
grace. It's every blessing He has for
sinners. This life is a fruitful life.
This life bears the fruit of the Spirit. We have, we bear
this fruit of the Spirit because we're connected to Christ divine.
Now, we can only have this. This blessing is only found one
place. In Christ. But what fullness
that there is in Him. The fullness of this blessing.
And all God's people are given these blessings freely in Christ.
Verse 29. Let people serve thee, and nations
bow down to thee. Be Lord over thy brethren, and
let thy mother's son bow down to thee. Cursed be everyone that
curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee. Now part
of this blessing is bowing to Christ the King. Nobody's going
to receive this blessing if it's not bowing to Christ the King.
The Father made his son king. And if we're going to have Him
as Savior, first we're going to bow to Him as King. First.
Christ is the King. What did the Father say to Him?
You sit here in my right hand. I make your enemies your footstool.
Christ is the King. Well, what a blessing that God's
people enjoy to be put into the Kingdom of Christ. A King that
has a kingdom has got people who live in it, doesn't it? Christ
is the King and His people are put under the rule of Christ
our Savior. And what a blessing to be enabled
by God's Spirit to bow down and worship Christ now. We know one
day every knee is going to bow, don't we? Every tongue is going
to confess that He's Lord. What a blessing to be enabled
to bow down and worship Him now because God can only be worshipped
in Christ. God can only be worshipped by
us when we're at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. Wasn't
that a blessing to bow to Him? Isn't it a blessing to bow and
to serve Christ? How do you serve Him? By serving
His people. By serving one another. What
a blessing. God gives you the opportunity
to serve one of His people. That's God's blessing to His
people. But there's a curse on those who don't bow, who don't
worship. And that brings us to Esau. Remember
our text said that Isaac blessed both Jacob and Esau concerning
things to come in. Two blessings and one for Jacob.
Well, what's the blessing for Esau? Esau got a blessing too.
Verse 30. And it came to pass as soon as
Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce
gone out from the presence of Isaac, his father, that Esau,
his brother came in from his hunting. 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 thee. And Isaac, his father said unto
him, who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy
firstborn Esau. Now you might be wondering if
Isaac wanted to bless Esau, even though he knew God said the blessing
belongs to Jacob, how is it that Isaac is blessing Jacob and Esau
in faith. Hebrews 11 said he blessed him
in faith. How is it he's wanting to give this blessing to Esau
in faith? I believe I can help you. We need to remember this. Having faith doesn't mean I never
do anything wrong. Having faith doesn't mean I never
think anything wrong. Having faith doesn't mean that
I never determine I want to do something wrong. Having faith,
saving faith, that doesn't mean we've gotten rid of that old
nature that wants to earn our salvation by works. They want
some credit before God by how well we've lived. Having saving
faith doesn't mean we got rid of that old man. Having saving
faith means this, that you live a life of civil war going on
inside you. That you live, that new man lives. He's a man of faith. He loves
God. He believes God. But he's living with an old man
of flesh. And they're going to fuss and
fight against each other as long as you live. But in the end,
there's this man, the man of flesh and the man of faith. The
man of flesh does not rule. He does not rule. Now that doesn't
mean we don't do the sinful things that we want to do. No, we do
them. But he doesn't rule in this sense. He can't make us
not believe anymore. He can't make us not love God.
He can't make us leave Christ. He cannot do it. He does not
rule. In the end, faith always bows
to God's will and to God's will. Every time. That's what Isaac
did in verse 33. And Isaac trembled very exceedingly
and 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. See, Isaac trembled in faith. He trembled before God in faith. And in faith, this is what he
knew. Jacob shall be blessed. He shall be blessed. Because
now he realizes this has been God's will all along. And nothing
I can do is going to thwart it. Well, verse 34. And when Esau
heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding
bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also,
O my father. And he said, Thy brother came
with subtlety, and hath taken away thy blessing. And he said,
Is not he rightly named Jacob, the supplanter? For he hath supplanted
me these two times. He took away my birthright, and
now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hast thou not reserved
a blessing for me? Now you see Esau, he really doesn't
care anything about the birthright. The birthright is a spiritual
blessing. It's the spiritual leadership
of the family. He don't care about that. You
know what he does care about? He just don't want Jacob to have
it. But he doesn't really care about the spiritual, the blessing.
He doesn't even really care about the blessing that Jacob got.
I mean, he just didn't want Jacob to have it. He said, just give
me any blessing. Just bless me in some way. I
don't care. I don't want Jacob to have anything,
but just give me some blessing. Any blessing. That's what he
says at the end of verse 34. Bless me, even me also, oh my
father, just give me any blessing. At the end of verse 36, has thou
not reserved a blessing, any blessing for me? And look at
verse 38. Esau said unto his father, Hast
thou but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my
father. And Esau lifted up his voice
and wept. He just wanted some blessing. I don't care what it is, just
any blessing. That's what he's asking for, see that? He didn't
care about the spiritual blessing. And Isaac blessed Esau too. But this blessing is all earthly,
material things, verse 39. And Isaac his father answered
and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness
of the earth and of the dew of heaven from above. And by thy
sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother. And it shall
come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou
shalt break his yoke from off thy neck. Now this blessing is
all an earthly material blessing. There's no spiritual blessing
in here at all, because there's just one spiritual blessing,
just one. It's all in clouds. Jacob has
it. Now this is all a material blessing
and it satisfied Esau. And I can show you that. Remember
years later, you know the story. Um, Isaac is determined to kill
Jacob soon as Isaac, his father dies and the days of his mourning
are over. He's going to kill Jacob. I mean, he's going to
settle this matter. Well, Jacob ran away. He's gone for years
and years and years, and now he's returning home. He had to
return home because he burned his bridges there too. His father-in-law's
going to kill him too. Everybody's going to kill Jacob.
And he's returning home. But he's afraid. Esau's going
to remember this thing. Esau's still going to kill me.
As he gets closer and closer and closer to home, what Jacob
did is he sent the family. And he sent lots and lots and
lots of gifts. One gift after another. Sent
them ahead of him to get to Esau first, hoping he could bribe
Esau and make Esau not want to kill him anymore. Look over a
few pages of Genesis 33. I'll show you this. Verse eight. And he, this Esau, he said, what
meanest thou to all this drove which I've met? And he said,
these are to find grace in the sight of my Lord. And Esau said,
I have enough, my brother. Keep that thou hast. unto thyself. Esau's not mad anymore, is he? He wasn't intending to kill his
brother. He said, I've got enough. He
said, I got everything I want. God gave me everything I want. He gave me so many riches. I
don't want all this stuff that you're going to give me. God
gave me everything I want. The Lord's made me a rich man.
But you know what is so sad? was so heartbreaking when you
read that. Esau was completely satisfied. And he had no spiritual
blessing whatsoever. He didn't know the Lord. He didn't
have faith in Christ. He didn't have spiritual life,
but he was happy. He had material wealth. The Lord
gave Esau the blessing he wanted. And what happened? The Lord's
blessing has really encouraged me so much. The worst thing I can think of
is God giving me exactly what I want. Worst thing I can think
of. I'd be thrilled to hear the Lord
bless one of you with a big job. Big promotion. Big raise. I'd
be thrilled about that. But it also could worry you,
couldn't it? and take me away from Christ.
That can make me feel like I'm not so dependent anymore. In
Esau's case, that's exactly what happened. It was a curse. Esau
said, brother, I got enough. I got everything I want, I'm
satisfied. But look what Jacob said in verse 10. And Jacob said,
Nay, I pray thee, if now I found grace in thy sight, then receive
my present in my hand. For therefore, I've seen thy
face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou was pleased
with me. Take, I pray thee, my blessing,
which is brought to thee, because God hath dealt graciously with
me, and because I have enough. And he urged him, and he took
it. He still took it, because he
saw just get more of what he wanted. Now, it sounds like both
these boys are saying the same thing, don't they? I've got enough.
I've got enough. But the word enough that Jacob
uses is a completely different Hebrew word. Esau said, I've
got enough. I got enough earthly riches to
make me satisfied. But when Jacob says, I've got
enough, he's saying I have all things, all things. The word that Jacob uses means
the whole. God's given me the whole. He's given me all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places. in Christ Jesus. Jacob had the
forgiveness of sins. Jacob had seen the face of God. Jacob wrestled with the Lord
Jesus Christ and said, I will not go, let you go, except you
bless me. And he blessed him. He changed
his name from Jacob. No longer will you be called
Jacob. No longer will you be called a chief and a supplanter.
Now your name is Israel. You're a prince with God. You've
got power with God. You've been given a new name,
the name of Christ himself. You've got power with God. You've
got righteousness. You've got justification. You've
got sanctification. Jacob, you've got eternal life.
You've got peace with God. You've got a good hope through
grace. And on top of that, Jacob wasn't starving either, was he?
No, he had all this present to send his brother Esau. He had
all things. And that's the blessing. The
blessing is all spiritual blessings in heavenly places given to us
in Christ Jesus. What God determined before to
give to his people. What Christ bought with his sacrifice
for his people and what he gives his people by his grace. That's
the blessing. There's a couple lessons here
I think we can learn and take home about this matter of faith's
blessing. Number one is this. God Almighty
saves whom He will. I wish I could get people to
start any religion that they want to say that they're in with
this. Who's God? God is God. He saves whom He
will because He does as He will. Salvation is of the Lord. We
can't earn it. But thank God He gives it freely
to whom He will. Number two is this. The people
that God saves, His elect, they're always the least deserving. Matter
of fact, they don't deserve it at all because when God saves
sinners, He saves the worst sinners. God saves sinners for His glory. Did you know that? Salvation doesn't have anything
to do with you and me. It's for God's glory. I love
what Brother Nyberg says about this. God will save every sinner. and he can get all the glory
and say, well, are you such a bad sinner? You've got no hope of
Christ? Then you've got a good hope. God saves sinners for his
glory. So the question is not, am I
good enough for God to be saved? Have I done enough for God to
save me? The question is, am I bad enough for God to save
me? Am I completely sinful so that I can't do anything for
God? Is that you? You've got a good hope. because
God saves sinners for his glory. It wouldn't be very glorious
to save somebody that could do half the work, would it? It would
be pretty glorious if you saved somebody that could do none of
it, and you gotta do all of the forms. God saves sinners for
his glory. Number three is this. God gives
everyone, every son of Adam, exactly what they want. Exactly,
in every single case. And you think, wait a minute,
nobody wants to go to hell. Wait a minute. By nature, we don't want to be
saved on God's terms. See, the issue is not whether
you want to go to hell or you want to go to heaven. Of course you want
to go to heaven. Of course you don't want to go to hell. That's
not the issue. The issue is bowing to Christ. And by nature, none
of us want to be saved on God's terms. By nature, none of us
want to bow to Christ. None of us want to have salvation
in Christ's righteousness without any of us being added to by our
works. So, God gives the lost exactly
what they want. They can't blame God for sending
them to hell. They didn't want to be saved on God's terms through
the Lord Jesus Christ. God gave them what they wanted.
Now, if you want to be saved on God's terms, If your desire
is to be saved by the Lord Jesus Christ, if your desire is to
be saved by Christ without any of your works being added to
it, if your desire is to bow to Christ and be saved on God's
terms, I tell you what you do. If that's your desire, tell you
what you do. You call out on God for mercy
and you be like blind Bartimaeus and don't stop. Don't stop calling. Jesus, the son of David, have
mercy on me. Don't stop. Almighty God says
he'll save you. The day you seek him with all
your heart, God said you'll find him. He'll save you. Because
here's the thing. You know, if you want to be saved
on God's terms, if your desire is to have your sin forgiven,
you are the only reason you desire that. God's already done a work
of grace in your heart. You didn't desire that by nature.
God gave you a new heart that desires that. Now you call on
Him and He'll save you. He will. The only reason anybody
wants to be saved on God's terms is God's already given a new
heart. You call on Him. Here's the fourth
thing. Every one of us have loved ones
that don't know the Lord, have no interest in Him. I mean, they
do. anything, not to hear the gospel.
Well, you take comfort in this. I don't know if God's going to
save him or not, but this I know, this is the fourth thing. Absolutely
nothing stopped God's purpose of redemption of his people.
Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Isaac's weak
faith and Esau's greed didn't take the blessing from Jacob
did it. Jacob's weak faith and Jacob's
cheating didn't make God take it away from Jacob. Their weak faith and their cheating
and their sin could not stop God's purpose. It couldn't help
God's purpose, couldn't help it along, and it couldn't stop
God's purpose either. And all through his life, How
many mistakes? I mean, huge mistakes did Jacob
make. How long did he live in sin and
rebellion that never made him lose the blessing? Because nothing
that will ever stop God's purpose of redemption for his people. That gives me confidence to call
on. Doesn't she? If hearing, nothing
will stop God's purpose of redemption. If that makes you sit back and
say, well, whatever it'll be, it'll be, you know, God's going
to save me, He's going to save me, nothing I can do about it, then
you've not learned right of God's grace and God's sovereignty.
But if you hear nothing will stop God's purpose of redemption,
and that makes you say, God save me. You've learned grace, you're
right. God helped us to call on Him.
I'd be pleased to hear this. For Christ's sake, all right,
let's bow together. Our Father, we thank you for
this word, this glorious picture of the blessing of redemption
in Christ our Savior. Father, I pray that you would
cause your word to take root in the heart of your people.
That you cause us to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That you cause us to one more time come to Christ. To whom
coming? To come to him. for all we need, for He is the
blessing. Oh, Father, give us Christ. Give
us Christ or else we die. Whatever else you do or don't
give us in this life, give us Christ. Give us faith in Him.
Enable us to leave here this morning believing in, rejoicing
in, and resting in Christ our Savior. We know it's all by Thy
grace, Your purpose for Your people. Father, we're thankful.
Bless us for Christ's sake. you