We'll be in the book of Exodus. And I've said this before, don't
know if you're tired of hearing it or not, but I'm going to say
it anyway. I love the stories in the Bible that emphasize a
little characteristic just of a thing or a person. and they
use that, that one characteristic to show something about salvation
or show us something about Christ Jesus or our natural depravity
which should be there and about redemption. Just one little thing. Like Mephibosheth who was lame
on both feet yet which is a picture of natural
man who's incapable of crossing that gulf between himself and
God. But because the king, which was
David, he swore an oath that wasn't even to Mephibosheth,
it was to his father. He was brought to sit at the
king's table all the rest of his days. I just, I like those. There's too many of those to
list in one setting, especially as they pertain to Jesus. But
today, the characteristic we will use to bring glory to God
is the lookalike. The lookalike. And that's, I'm not talking about
an imposter. An imposter, even though that's
gonna be what happens to the main character in our story,
He's the very definition of one. The imposter represents himself
as someone else through deception for fraudulent gain, right? And as this relates to the salvation
of the elect, they are not imposters, all right? They're not imposters. And they did not earn their salvation
fraudulently. Turn to, I said Exodus earlier,
I'm sorry, turn to Genesis. Chapter 27, Genesis 27, starting
in the first, excuse me, first verse. Now it came to pass when Isaac
was old and his eyes were so dim that he could not see, that
he called Esau, his older son, and said to him, my son and he
answered him, here I am, here I am. Then he said, behold, now
I am old. I do not know the day of my death.
Now, therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your
bow and go out to the field and hunt game for me and make me
savory food such as I love and bring it to me that I may eat,
that my soul may bless you before I die. Now, Rebecca was listening
when Isaac spoke to Esau, his son, and Esau went to the field
to hunt game and to bring it. So Rebecca spoke to Jacob, her
son, saying, indeed, I heard your father speak to Esau, your
brother, saying, bring me game and make savory food for me that
I may eat it and bless you in the presence of the Lord before
my death. Now, therefore, my son, Obey
my voice according to what I command you. Go now to the flock, bring
me from there two choice kids of the goats that I will make
savory food from them for your father, such as he loves. Then
you shall take it to your father that he may eat it and that he
may bless you before his death.' And Jacob said to Rebekah, his
mother, Esau, my brother, is a hairy man, and I am a smooth-skinned
man. Perhaps my father will feel me,
he'll touch me, and I shall seem to be a deceiver to him, and
I shall bring a curse on myself and not a blessing." So as the
story goes, Rebekah goads Jacob into deceiving Isaac for the
blessing that is meant for Esau. And of course, as we know, Jacob
receives the blessing. Now, our sensibilities today
would probably react negatively to this. It seems that in a lot
of the history of the Bible, there was a lot of cutthroat
tactics and everybody just kind of did it. I don't know exactly
how that would be felt, A little history here is warranted as
well to explain the situation. In Genesis 25, it provides pretty
much everything we need to know. It states Esau was the firstborn. There were twins inside Rebekah.
Esau was born first, and they noted how hairy he was even at
birth. He was called Red, and he was
a skillful hunter. He was loved by his father Isaac,
while Jacob, it said here, dwelled in tents and was a mild man,
was a mild man. But Rebekah loved Jacob. And
because Esau was the firstborn, it meant that he would receive
a double portion of his father's inheritance compared to Jacob
or compared to the siblings entirely. But Esau didn't care for his
birthright. And one day, he got so hungry,
he traded it to Jacob for food. And the next major event is the
story we have just read. Isaac, it says, was 60 years
old when Jacob and Esau were born. And we know that at least
40 more years had passed from that time because it says that
when Esau was 40, he took two wives from the Hittites, and
they were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah. Isaac is at
least 100 years old. You can imagine his eyes weren't
doing so well. He's at least that, but he did
live to be 180 in total. So by the time our story takes
place there, Isaac says, I don't even know the day of my death.
I want to bless my son. So Isaac has a blessing. for Esau but it's snatched by
Jacob because God revealed to Rebekah while she was pregnant
still with both Jacob and Esau that the older shall serve the
younger. And this is simply that promise
coming to fruition. The focus today though is the
lookalike, the lookalike. Jacob received Isaac's blessing
only because he looked like the one who it was meant for. And
of course felt like the one it was meant for. Now what makes
this wonderful, it is very uncommon for someone to be mistaken for
someone else and receive something good, right? Instead of something
bad, it's usually the other way around. Someone mistakes you
for the bad driver that cut you off, right? Your cars look similar. Or the police arrest the wrong
guy because his clothes match the suspects, right? He had a
black t-shirt and jeans. Well, that describes half all
men. So there can be a case of mistaken
identity, but it's usually a negative one. But in this case, Jacob
receives the blessing. Now compare this, they took Jesus,
who committed no sin, who was found faultless before Pilate,
which is a picture of the law saying, I find nothing wrong
with this man. Those are the words out of his
mouth. And made him look like a criminal. Imagine a foreigner or even yourself, From so far away, he had not
heard any of the news of Jesus's ministry. Just blank slate, comes
into town, never been there before. Has no idea what's going on.
And it's the day of the crucifixion. And he's on his little donkey.
And as the foreigner nears Golgotha, he looks up and he sees three
men hanging by nails in their hands and feet. And around them
there's hecklers, you know? And the guards, they're heckling
too. And they're even gambling for the clothes off of one of
them. And the foreigner does not even
know the names of the three, right? He just sees three bodies
hanging. But to him, what do they look
like? What do they look like? Who else but criminals? They're the only ones that would
hang from a cross. They're the only ones deserving
the punishment. So the left one looks like the
middle one, looks like the one on the right. Back to front,
side to side, three criminals hanging on a cross. They all
look the same. Now the only difference is that
the middle one has had his face marred beyond recognizing and
even if someone had described his original appearance, it couldn't
be found now. And above this man's marred face
sits a crown of mockery and a sign reads, King of the Jews. Now
surely that sets this man apart a little bit, right? He must
have done unspeakable things to be suffering so and to have
the crown, the marred visage as it says, But our Savior's suffering, that
was the physical, right? That was the physical suffering.
His total suffering was not over. God's wrath was about to fall
on him for the sake of the elect. And the Bible says that God,
this is in 2 Corinthians, God made him who knew no sin to be
sin for us. So why should Jesus who knew
no sin be made into sin? It says, so that we might become
the righteousness of God in him. Or in other words, so that we
who were once not God's people would be called God's people. And that they who were once called
no mercy, would be shown mercy. That's out of the very first
chapter of Hosea. I don't remember the exact Hebrew
names, but God told Hosea, take a woman who's basically a prostitute
and name your children, excuse me, not loved and no mercy or
not my people. And then later on, he says, now
this is what I will do for you. Oh, Isaiah, I will call you my
people and I will show you mercy. And their names were changed.
These children's names were changed. Now, even though Isaac blessed
Jacob because he looked like Esau, right? He felt like Esau.
that this was done through trickery. God knowingly and with predetermination
blesses all of those who look like his righteous son because
they are like him being without sin. John says, and you know
that he was manifested to take away your sins and in him there
is no sin. whoever abides in him does not
sin. Now I read a little bit about
this because of course the word imposter comes up when you're
studying this very story. And the human side of us might
think, oh goodness, what if God sees your heart, whatever, your actions,
your thoughts, what if he sees me for who I truly, truly am? Remember Jacob's argument to
his mother, I'm smooth skinned, and my brother's a hairy man.
You know, hairy arms, big beard, hairy chest. Dad's gonna notice. Likewise, we are so different
from the son in whom God delights, Jesus. It says in Ezekiel 2 verse
5, my brother does God's will I,
on the other hand, am from a rebellious house. So what if I stand before God
and my rebellion's showing? Right? Like, like when they're,
you know, getting Jacob ready and they missed a spot and Isaac,
he sees it or he senses it. Well, do not fear for that. Throughout
history, there have been many, many children of God, both male
and female, both Jew and Gentile, all skin colors, all nations,
all tongues. And perhaps some of them, they
would look like each other. I'm sure someone looked like
you, someone looked like me throughout all history. It's just, it almost
has to be. finite number, right? But I can tell you that even
though they looked different or the same, they all rebelled
at the first. They all rebelled first. Not one of them looked like our
Redeemer. who came to do his father's will. That wasn't us, we're the rebellious
house. Yet God looked down upon each
one that he chose and declared, my
son or my daughter, Because our Savior's blood covers all the
things that make us look like someone else. Because of that blood, we look
like Him. We're look-alikes. So today, if you feel, if you
have been working for your own righteousness, and you feel like
an imposter, and that God will notice your self-righteous works,
and I'm trying to be very clear what I'm talking about here.
Self-righteous works. And that's why you feel like
an imposter. And you think he'll notice and not accept those works.
If you feel that way, good. If that is what you're really
doing, working for your salvation, I'm glad you feel that way. That's
a good sign. It says in Isaiah that those
works that you're doing that you think are so great, they're
like filthy rags to God. Would you accept filthy rags
as a present? Why should God? Those works will only lead to
ruin. They don't look like his son. And as God did not respect Cain's
offerings of the fruit of the ground, he was a tiller of the
ground. So he will not respect any offering
from the works of the hands of sinful man. Instead, if we offer
to God anything, It must be no more or less than the blood of
his only begotten son, so that we look like him. May the Lord bless his word.
Bruce, would you pray for us?