I'm going to have you turn to
Genesis chapter 32 and just sit there. Just sit there for a bit. telling them men back there that
something about this message that just got a hold of me and
I think I didn't know what it was until this morning that's
like well why why do I charge you to listen it's no different
than I hope any other message but I don't know why it was so
particularly of interest to me, and the Lord revealed it, or
I figured it out. Because this is me, when we look
at Jacob in Genesis 32, this is me in junior high, in high school,
and the first part of my college years. This was me. And I just
saw that this morning. So I would ask you, I believe
we must understand some vital issues that only this book can
answer. Because in junior high and high
and college, higher education, higher learning.
I was looking, the Lord started getting a hold of me, and I was
looking everywhere, friends, family. I was writing some of
my old buddies' letters, and I wondered why they didn't write
back, because it was like, oh, you're getting religious, you're
getting weird on us. Well, I looked everywhere but
the Bible that I had been given. Isn't that funny? I had been
given a Bible in college. Who needs that? Well, I did. And we need the Holy Spirit to
cause us to recognize and see the grave consequences presented
to us this morning. May he allow us to observe whether
we are on the broad road or the narrow road. I know we say it,
it's life and death, it's heaven or hell. But I have some questions,
I have four questions and then sum up what I'm thinking or heading
towards in Genesis 32 to ask ourselves. Number one, did Christ
successfully pay personally my or your sins, sin debt? Did he do that personally? Well,
we could look at, don't turn there, we could look at Matthew
121 and said, his name shall be called Jesus for he shall,
not maybe, he shall save his people from their sins. Secondly,
was he then, Christ then accepted of his heavenly father on our,
on my personal, your personal behalf? Hebrews 1, 3 says, Christ,
where is he at now? He's seated at the right hand
of God. So that means God's accepted what he did. Did the righteous
three, did the righteous God really, truly receive all that
Christ did for me or for you on Calvary's tree? Hebrews chapter
seven, verse 27 is the answer to that. He by himself, by himself
put away sin. This one I like to look at. If
you want to turn to 1 Peter chapter 3, like I said, we'll be going
back to Genesis 32, 1 Peter chapter 3. Fourthly, the question I thought
of was, my sins or your sins actually placed on the Savior's
body, or as a myth, was our torturous iniquities laid on his person. Truly, really, look at 1 Peter
3 and verse 18. For Christ also hath once suffered
for sins, the just for the unjust, that
he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but
quickened by the Spirit." So, did Christ successfully pay for
sins? Matthew 121. Was he accepted
of his Heavenly Father? And personally, this is all personal,
I can't answer it for you, but I answer it for myself, On my
behalf, yes, Hebrews, did the righteous God really receive
all that Christ did for me or you on Calvary's tree? Yes, Hebrews
7, 27. Was my or your sins placed on
his body? He had no sin. He could do no
sin. But he became sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Christ. First Peter 3,
18 in Corinthians, Lastly, if all these questions
are of importance, are we to speculate, do we just speculate
or guess as to the fact or the grand truth of Calvary's great
substitutionary work? That's what happened at Calvary,
it was a substitute. He took my place, did he take
your place? And God accepted that, he swapped,
it's called substitution. and thereby wonder if all the
above questions, one, two, three, and four, are really true, and
do they have definitive answers? Are we just speculating, just
guessing that God's gonna accept us? Now turn with me to Genesis
chapter 32, and I would like to thank William
Mason for revealing just a thought, and then it just blew up. Genesis chapter 32, let's start
reading in verse three. Now Jacob's getting back, he's
getting ready to go back to see his brother Esau, which sold
him his birthright for porridge, and so he's concerned, he's concerned
that whether his brother's gonna receive him or not, okay? Verse
three, Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau, his brother,
unto the land of Seir, the county, a country of Edom. And he commanded,
Jacob commanded, saying, thus shall you speak unto my lord
Esau, thy servant Jacob. Sayeth thus, I have sojourned
with Laban and stayed there until now. And I have oxen and asses,
flocks, men's servants, women's servants, and I have sent to
tell my lord that I may find grace in his sight. And the messengers returned to
Jacob saying, we came to your brother Esau, and he has come
to meet thee, 400 men with him. Uh-oh, that doesn't sound good. Then Jacob was greatly afraid,
and distressed, and he divided the people that was with him,
the flocks and the herds and camels, into two bands. And he
said, if Esau come to the one company and smite it, then the
other company, which is left, shall escape. So he's strategizing. He's doing all this stuff in
his mind, like we do. We're just like Jacob. This is
what we do. So now if I get in a mess, I
can do this, I can... And Jacob said, oh God, my father
Abraham, my father Isaac, the Lord, which sent unto me, return
unto thy country and thy kindred and I will deal well with thee.
And so he's beginning to petition God, he's doing it correctly.
in verse 12, and you said, God said, I will surely do you good
and make your seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered
for a multitude. So he's petitioning God, he's
trying to boost his faith, he's trying to look to Christ, he's
trying to do the right things. And he lodged there that same
night and took of that which came to his hand, a present for
Esau, his brother. Here's the first present. 200
she-goats, 20 he-goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams, 30 milch camels with
their colts, 40 kind, 10 bulls, 20 she-asses, 10 foals. And he delivered them unto the
hand of his servants. Everyone drove by themselves.
They said unto his servants, Pass over before me, this is
Jacob talking, and put a space betwixt the drove and drove.
So make it look like it's bigger than it is. Keep flooding him
with presents. And he commanded the foremost
saying, when Esau, my brother, meets thee and asks thee saying,
who's art thou and whither goest thou and who's are those before
thee? Then thou shalt say, they be
thy servant Jacob's. It is a present, that's important,
it is a present sent unto my Lord Esau and behold, he also
is behind us. And so commanded Jacob to do
this the second time. And the third time, and all that
followed the drove saying, on this manner shall you speak to
Esau. He's trying to overwhelm him with presence. It's obvious,
right? What kind of faith is that? Where will that get you?
Here this morning, where did that get me for so many years?
This is where it will get you. And so commanded he the second
and the third and the followed row saying speak this verse 19
this manner in the Esau when you find him and say ye moreover
behold thy servant Jacob is behind us for he said I this is Jacob
speaking. I will appease him with the present
presence multiple presence that goeth before me, and afterward
I will see his face." Here's the kind of religion, here's
the kind of faith that this produces. Peradventure, he will accept
of me. Now, I tell you broken hearted,
this was my kind of faith. What does peradventure mean?
Perhaps, maybe, That's not very comforting. If you were to die today, if
you were to die right now, what kind of confidence would you
have that you would see Christ in glory and mercy and not wrath? Is your faith, is my faith, was
my faith? This is a hit home. Like I said,
I've never seen this before and that's one of the urgency that
I'm speaking here. I had a prayer adventure. Never
really sure. Never really sure. Peradventure, verse 20, peradventure
he will accept me. We are all by nature as Jacob's. Jacob, was he motivated by love
for Esau or by fear? Fear, because it says. Verse
7, Jacob was greatly afraid. He saw the 400 men and assumed
that they were going to be against him, not as a welcoming party. He was motivated to approach
Esau, in this situation, we are motivated by nature to approach
God not by love but by fear and by doing something to ease our
conscience. That's what he's doing. That's
what religion without Christ does. You call it whatever you
want to. You call it whatever denomination
you want to. So, Jacob could only rise to a puradventure
a maybe or a perhaps acceptance. I don't want that. That's this
world. If you come to my house per adventure, perhaps, you'll
get, you know, I'll take care of you, do this. But I don't
have the power or the authority to do a lot of it. But we're
speaking about God. But this example is put in here.
And as I said, I've never seen it. Nobody's ever said anything
about it. Is this, this was me. And is this you here today? It's
just you here today. We send present after present. Here's my present. I'll pray
more. I'm going to pray more. I'm going
to pray more. It's my present. I'm going to
come walk an aisle. Mom and dad are concerned about
me. I'm going to walk an aisle. That's my present. I will, starting
this year, be more religious. Pastor, you're going to see me
more. I'm going to do what I can. These are presents. These are
all presents. And if you're doing it to appease
your conscience and to appease God, it's only a perhaps salvation. It's only a perhaps religion. I will abstain or sacrifice myself
to you. This was the, you wanna know,
and I used to really like Jerry Lewis and his comedy and everything,
so I used to, did a deep dive on study. This is why he did
the telethons, because he made a promise to God that everything
he did, all the bad he did would be weighed out and it would,
no, this is what he did. He was presenting God a present.
That's exactly what he's doing. I'm going to abstain, sacrifice
myself to you. On and on we could go. Use your
own example. You were here. I was here. Do
this or stop doing that. Promise my mom I would do this.
Why do I do that? Then I'd do something bad, and
then there I'd go. Then, in my case, would play the album Jesus Christ
Superstar. It's religious, so it was going
to take care of my iniquity. It's a present. I'm bringing
presents. And Jacob had it pretty bad.
He commanded the foremost. When my brother meets you, he's
going to say, what are these? And you say, well, this is from
your brother. They'd be from your servant, Jacob. Oh, I'm God's servant. It's a
present. And in 19, so he commanded the
second one and the third one, how much money did he spend to
try to appease his conscience? Well, I don't have that kind
of money, but I can do something. You bet you can, in the flesh
you can. All the while, we have no peace. I never had any peace. Only a
puradventure, a maybe or perhaps. Religion why I'll tell you why
and this and these acts are all based upon us All these things
we do are based upon us and Fear and not true heartfelt love to
Christ. We're bartering with God. I Didn't
know I didn't understand that concept, but I could do it. I
could do it It's get feeling bad Whoever
told their parents they wanted to go to church. And I'm in high
school. And I wasn't hearing anything.
And it's like, man, I've been really bad this week. Mom, you
think we ought to go to church? Because I figured just come to
church, just come in the presence. And my dad said this to me. My
dad, strange dad, he said, oh, I went to church and I felt pretty
bad. I said, yeah, you should. You should. He's a rascal. And
he thought he was just by going in the building. Where do you
get that? You just make it up. It's in
your heart. Because when we fell on Adam,
everything fell. I'm telling you, if we lived
a hundred lifetimes, we could never do enough to satisfy a
thrice holy sovereign. Or, could we pay the sin debt
we owe? So, What's the opposite of peradventure? What's the opposite of peradventure?
Well, it's certainty, surely, or without a doubt. That's the Webster's. As in, we'll look at these scriptures. As in, this is what the believers
do. This is what true believers do. Second Samuel chapter 23. This is David. 2 Samuel chapter
23. Remember what I said, what's
the opposite of maybe, what's the opposite of peradventure
perhaps? It's certainty, it's surely,
and it's without a doubt. And this is what David said,
2 Samuel chapter 23, starting in verse 1, Now these be the
last words of David, better last than never, David, the son of Jesse, the
man who was raised up on high, the anointed of God of Jacob,
the sweet psalmist of Israel, said, The Spirit of the Lord
spake by me, and his word was in my tongue. The God of Israel
said, The rock of Israel spake to me. He that ruleth over men
must be just. ruling in the fear of God, and
he shall be as the light of the morning when the sun rises, even
a morning without clouds, as the tender grass springing out
of the earth by clear shining after rain. David says, although
my house be not so with God, yet he, God, in Christ, hath
made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and Sure. There it is. There it is. That's the opposite of puradventure.
Sure. For this, is it yours? Is it
mine? Are you still bringing presents?
Get rid of those presents. For this, this covenant, this
person, this work, this The just for the unjust, this is all my
salvation and all my desire. Do you have any other desire,
any other salvation? If you do, it's the present.
It's a puradventure salvation. It's sure. Turn to 2 Timothy
chapter one. This is Paul. And there's no
doubt about these men knowing the gospel. So that's why I picked
these. We could go anywhere to scriptures
and see a believer. They had the same thing. They
said the same thing. Just different word usages. 2
Timothy chapter 1 and verse 12. Verse 11, Paul, I was appointed
a preacher, an apostle, a teacher of the Gentiles. For the witch
cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, I am not ashamed.
Why, Paul? For I know whom, Christ, I have
believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which
I have committed unto Him against that day. I know. I know. This is Paul. I know. I am persuaded without a doubt,
persuaded without a doubt, that Christ will keep, not my presence,
but me. He will keep me, keep me indeed. Matthew chapter 16, let's look
at Peter. Matthew chapter 16. I'm like Peter. Speak first, act later. Matthew chapter 16, verses 16, 17, and 18. Verse 15, Christ is speaking
and He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? That's the
question. Personally, that's why I ask
these questions. Personally, do you know who Christ is? Do you know what he's done, where
he's at now? And Simon Peter answered and
said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus
answered and said unto him, blessed art thou Simon Barjona, for flesh
and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my father, which
is in heaven. Blessed, another word for blessed
is graced, graced. Blessed art thou, graced art
thou, Simon Bar-Jonah. And that word revealed, I like
looking these things up, but flesh and blood, that means on
your own, no matter how many presents you bring, that's not
gonna reveal myself unto you. Flesh and blood hath not revealed
it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven hath. That word
revealed, interesting enough, out of the Strong's concordance,
concordance means to take off the cover. to take off the cover. We're born spiritually blind. Our eyes, our ears, our heart
has to be opened. So to be Christ revealed himself
to any sinner, he must take off the cover from our eyes, our
heart, our soul. What he's saying is of a certainty,
that opposite of puradventure, of a certainty Christ has laid
down his life for me. You are the Christ. And lastly,
let's look at another good friend of ours who we're similar to,
Thomas. John chapter 20. Oh, you believe Christ? You've
never doubted? I never doubted. Well, we doubt all the time. John chapter 20 and verse 28
and 29. Christ told Thomas to reach in
his finger and behold his hands, reached into his hands, thrust
it into his side, be not faithless, but believing. Verse 28, and
Thomas answered and said unto him, my Lord and my God. And Jesus answered, said unto
him, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed, graced are they that
have not seen me, and yet have believed through the preaching
of the gospel. What I'm telling you, the message
I pray, the message that I'm speaking is no different than
the message that's been spoken in this book. I'm not to take
it and twist it and add my thoughts to it. Thomas believed in, trusted
in, and had faith upon this Christ. These men, David and Paul and
Peter, And Thomas, these men were sinners just like you and
I and like Jacob. But they had a without a doubt
salvation. I just can't emphasize enough.
Do not leave this building with a purr adventure. Maybe. Don't do it. Don't do it. Why did they have a without a
doubt salvation? Because it, salvation, was all
centered in and on and because of the lovely Lord Jesus Christ
and what he did. So I close. Brethren, don't guess. No perhaps conversion, regeneration,
or salvation, but let us have a biblically based, Sure, certain,
and absolute atonement, which is found only in the one among
a thousand, as Job said. The son of righteousness, says
another place in the Old Testament, or in the sure balm of Gilead. He heals all manners of wounds. But trust in Emmanuel, Emmanuel,
God with us, as God among us and God for us. Trust in Emmanuel. Now we sing that song, Rock of
Ages, and in my hand, this is what it says, in my hand, no
price, no presence. I like that. In my hand, no presence,
no presence. I bring simply to the cross or
to Christ I cling, because when you talk about the cross in Christianity,
you're speaking about the immaculate work of a sovereign, immutable
Redeemer. Trust in Him. And let me close
by reading out of the Scriptures. There remaineth therefore a rest
to the people of God. Four, he that has entered into
his rest, he also has ceased from his own works as God did
from him. When you're bringing presents,
you're working. You're not ceasing. You're working. Let us labor, therefore, to enter
into that rest, lest any man, woman, boy, or girl fall after
the same example unbelief so The scriptures tells like it
is I got thinking you dig deep enough in this word You seek
him and you're gonna find him, but you're gonna find yourself
You're gonna you're gonna be digging you're gonna get sweaty
and you're gonna get dirty and you're gonna see yourself but
there is a Refreshing there is balm and Gilead there is The
one the Lord called the Lord Jesus Christ who came to seek
and to save his people from their sins Let's quit Bringing God
presence. He doesn't he's not he's not
benefited Let us just come to him sinners as though we are
And rest in him I'll never forget that message Don Fortner preached
years ago. He just said, quit working, just
rest. I thought, wow, that's exactly
right. Matt, would you close this please?