Our lesson this morning is about a very prominent man
who's mentioned all the way through the scriptures. Abraham's name is mentioned quite
often, but not as much as Jacob. You find Jacob's name from one
end of the Bible to the other. He was a very prominent figure
in the Old Testament. And his name is Jacob, but God
called him Israel. God changed his name just like
he did Abraham. His name was Abram, but God said,
now they're gonna call you Abraham. And he told Jacob, he said, your
name shall be called Israel. And by this man, God would raise
up a mighty nation who would be called after his name, Israel. You know, in Romans chapter nine,
I think it is, where he's arguing these things, Paul said, they
are not all Israel who are of Israel. And when he said of Israel,
he's not talking about the nation, but he's talking about the man. Jacob. And there's much we could
say about this old patriarch, but I want to limit our thoughts
this morning as Jacob is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
I have four things in which I believe he is a clear type of Christ.
The first thing is this. Jacob is a type of Christ in
that by him God manifested his election. He said what he said
to Jacob's mother before those two children were ever born that
the purpose of God according to election might stand. That's why he said what he said
to his mother. And what he said was The elder's
gonna serve the younger. For Jacob have I loved and Esau
have I hated. Now I'm not gonna spend a lot
of time trying to convince you that God chose a people to salvation
because it's stated so often in the scriptures there's just
no excuse for anyone to not believe in election. A man is nothing
but a rebel. if he doesn't believe in election.
It's stated over and over and over and over, not only in the
Old Testament, but in the New Testament. All of God's blessings
from eternity were freely given to men and women, it says, according
as they were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
world. These things are not according to what you do or according to
who you're related to, but they're according as God hath chosen
you in Christ before the world began. Paul tells us in Romans
11 that there was a great multitude in the days of Elijah. You remember
Elijah, he said, just come and take me, Lord, because I'm the
only one left. And the Lord said, you're not
the only one left. I have thousands that haven't
bowed the knee to me. You're not the only one. And
as there was a great multitude in the days of Elijah that were
reserved of God, even so at this present time, Paul said, also
there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And
if by grace, then it no longer works, otherwise grace is no
more grace. In Romans chapter eight, defending
the justifying blood of Christ, it said, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? Now you can lay things to men's
charge, but you can't lay anything to the charge of God's elect.
God justified them, and Christ died for them. And he loved them
with an inseparable love. And then in Peter's first general
epistle to the saints scattered throughout the land, he addressed
them as elect according to the foreordination and foreknowledge
of God. Election, there's no excuse for
anybody to not believe in election. It's stated so clearly in the
scriptures. And it's not stated in a, oh,
what should I use? over here in an unimportant way. But it's always tied directly
to the salvation of God's sheep. It's tied together with those
critical things like faith and repentance. And these scriptures that I've
mentioned to you here, they're just but a few of the scriptures
that speak of God's election of his saints. But here's the
question, how is that election manifest? How is it manifested? How do I know that I'm elect
of God? How do you know that I'm elect
of God? How can I know that you're elect
of God? How is that election manifested in this world? Does God just elect and save
a people and never make them aware of it and they just wake
up in eternity and find out whether or not they were chosen? That's
what the herd shall believe. But that's just not so. God manifests
His election. Well, how does He do it? Well,
first of all, He manifests His election in a divine act of providence. This is what God... Now, He's
going to establish His election in Jacob. And here's what He
told his mom. The elder's gonna serve the younger. How's that gonna come about?
By a divine act of providence. In God's providence, that's how
it's gonna be. The elder's gonna serve the younger.
God's providence favors his elect. Is that too hard? God's providence, he abounds in good providence
to his elect. In John 6, 44, this providence
is called being drawn by the Father. Things happen in God's
providence that draw you to Christ. Yeah, I was living up in northern
Ohio, and I had a good business, and I was well-liked in that
community, and we didn't even have to advertise to get work.
The work just was more work than we could do. But things come about in God's
providence and we left there and moved back to Kentucky and
then some things in God's providence happened again and then we decided
it was time that we needed to go join a church. And so we went
and joined a church and then from there the Lord led us to hear Henry
Mahan and we heard the gospel. God's providence is called here
in John chapter six, the Father drawing you. And that's what
he does. He draws us. That providence,
you might not understand each individual thing that happens,
but once it's brought you to Christ and your eyes is open,
you can look back and see it. And I tell you, I've heard people
say, boy, I'd like to have that to live over. Boy, not me. I
don't want to change anything. Everything that happened to me
brought me to Christ. Good and bad brought me to Christ. It was an act of providence that
brought the Savior to Jericho. Well, as luck would have it,
no, no, that ain't how it was. Old Blind Bartimaeus had been
coming out there sitting on that old dirty blanket for years.
But God's providence brought one day the Savior to Jericho. And you know what? That old blind
beggar knew it. He knew it. And he wasn't about
to let him leave town. What about the woman at the well?
You think the Lord just got thirsty that morning and went out to
that well? And God's providence led him to that well and led
her to that well. In John chapter one and verse
16, the apostle said, and of his fullness, talking about Christ,
through whom grace and truth is now come, of his fullness
have we all received and grace for grace, that's provenient
grace, that means grace before grace, grace upon grace. God's grace is sovereignly bestowed
upon all His elect from their conception to the grave. His grace constantly
being bestowed upon you. There's a hundred times when
I should have been dead when I was a young man. driving crazy and driving when
I was asleep, he couldn't hold my eyes open. I could go on and
on and on. There's a hundred times I should
have been dead. And there's countless interventions
of God that'll never be known or seen in this world. But nevertheless,
they attend the lives of his people. You take old Joseph. Here's a prime example, Joseph.
Look how God's providence used Joseph. And when he finally got
reunited to his brothers and he saw what the hand of God had
done, he said, you meant it for evil. You meant to kill me. You meant it for evil. But God
meant it for good. That's God's providence. God
manifests his election by his providence, and I don't care
how Esau struggled, he could never do anything except serve
Jacob. And that's this world, they hate
the gospel, they burn this church down if it's legal. They despise
the gospel, but they serve you and I in the power of God. And then secondly, God manifests
his election by an irresistible calling. He called Jacob. He came to Jacob in the middle
of the night, and Jacob wrestled with him. There's a calling here, an irresistible
calling. In John chapter 10, verse 26,
our Lord said to the Jews who rejected Him, He said, You believe
not because you're not of My sheep, as I said unto you. He said the same thing to them
that he said to these others. But you believe not because you're
not of my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice. That's an effectual calling.
They hear his voice while others don't. Oh, they all hear. They can all go outside and maybe
tell you the points of the message, but they didn't hear it. Not in the sense that it moved
them. Not in the sense that they obeyed that gospel. You believe, Paul said, that
form of doctrine that was delivered unto you. You become the servants
of God. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them. I know them, and they follow
me. In John 6, 37, our Lord said,
all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Who's going to come
to him? All that the Father gave him.
Why are they going to come? Because they're all going to
be taught of God and drawn of the Father. That's why. God's
election is always attended by an irresistible calling. Listen
to this scripture in 2 Thessalonians 2.13. I don't think there's another
scripture in the Bible that says this as clearly as this scripture
here. Paul said, We're bound to give
thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. whereunto
he called you by our gospel, now watch this, to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. They obtained what was
meant for them to have. They obtained it. How'd they
obtain it? Through an irresistible calling. So God manifested his
election in Jacob by his providence, and he manifested his election
to him by divine revelation, establishing his covenant with
him. And then thirdly, God manifested his election by the presence
and power of the Holy Ghost. Because you're sons, God sent
forth his spirit into your hearts to cry, Abba, Father. So then Jacob is a type of Christ
in that God's election is manifested in him. Secondly, Jacob is a
type of Christ in his supplanting of Esau. What in the world is
supplanting? That's not a word we use, is
it? You kids down at the school,
your teacher never used that word supplant. It's just not
common in our day. It's a very old English term,
and it's seldom if ever used in our everyday speech. I don't
think I've ever read a newspaper article that they use the word
supplant in. It's just an old term, a very
old term. To supplant means to displace,
to displace. It means to take the place of. It means to oust. We had some folks hunting on
our property down there. My boss wasn't real tolerant
of it. He'd spent a fortune putting up no trespassing signs all the
way around his hunting farm. And he spent thousands of dollars
a year maintaining this just to hunt on it. And these people
would sneak in and hunt. And I'll tell you, they were
ousted when he caught them. Out. It means to oust. It means to usurp the power and
position of another. Take over his position. That's
what Jacob did. Under the law, Esau was the heir. He was the elder. Under the law. He was the first. He was to have
it. God said, no, it's not going
to be that way. The elder is going to serve the
younger. And Jacob usurped by the power of God. He usurped
the power and position of another. And as Jacob took what appeared
to be Esau, so Christ took what appeared to be Satan's. He took
it from him. He took it from him. He took what appeared to be man's. He ousted him. He took it from
him. In a natural sense, the birthright
and the lion's share of the father's inheritance should have went
to the firstborn. Isaac loved Esau. He did. He was a man's man according
to the scriptures. A good hunter, accomplished woodsman,
a strong man armed. He wasn't afraid of anything.
Esau appeared to be and was confessed to be his father's heir. Everybody
believed that. Even Jacob believed that for
a while. God said it's not how it's going to be. And so it is in the natural scheme
of things. Esau thought his brother was
undeserving of his father's blessing. He was weak and ignorant. That's
how he saw it. Felt sorry for him. Younger brother. He never gave a thought. And that's the way this religious
world, who's under the power of the prince of the power of
the air, they don't ever give a thought. A religious man never
gives a thought to this old drunk and that whoremonger and that
whore. He never gives a thought that
they might be prominent in his kingdom. That they may be the
heir of God and they're not? Huh? I grew up in religion. I'm
telling you, I never had a thought like that. I would have prayed
just like that old self-righteous Pharisee, probably had. Boy,
I thank God I'm not like him. He couldn't possibly be the heir.
Yeah, that's the heir. Which one of Jesse's sons did
God anoint? The one everybody thought he
wouldn't. That's the way it is with false
professors in our day. Paul said they're deceitful workers
transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ, ever
learning yet never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
They're proud, knowing nothing. They're destitute of the truth,
desiring to be teachers of the law, and they don't understand
what they're saying and what they're affirming. They don't
know. The fathers of these perverse
professors believe their children to be true heirs, and they tell
everybody so, don't they? But God's not under any kind
of natural authority. He said the elder's gonna serve
the younger. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. And Satan being the father of
liars must be ousted. And as Jacob supplanted Esau,
so Christ usurped his authority and position and manifested his
love for Jacob. Our Lord said when a strong man
armed, he keeps his palace. His goods are at peace. And that's
the way it was when I was in religion. Satan dominated my
life, and I didn't know it. All his goods were at peace.
I wasn't struggling, trying to know something. I thought I knew
it. But when a stronger than he shall
overcome him, he'll take away all the armor wherein he trusted,
and he's going to spoil his goods. Let me tell you something else
here while we're on this subject. Jacob never did overthrow his
brother in the power of the flesh. He never did. He wouldn't dare
do it. He was scared of him. He respected his brother Esau.
He knew what would happen in an all-out battle if he just
rolled up his sleeves and said, all right, come on. He knew what
would happen. And he never tried it. And that's
the way with the believer. We don't roll up our sleeves
and tell Satan, come on. A fool might try that. But not a man with opened eyes.
He's not gonna try that. He's not gonna tempt that. Even
the angels didn't say anything to Satan. They said the Lord
rebuked them. Jacob didn't overthrow his brother
in the power of the flesh, but by the power and wisdom of God.
You know, Esau didn't even know he'd been supplanted until it
was all over. It was completely done before
he even knew it. And that's what our Lord said
about his kingdom when it comes. It doesn't come with observation,
for the kingdom of God is within you. All right, thirdly, Jacob is
a clear type of Christ in that what he agreed to for wages,
he's working for his father-in-law, and what he agreed to for wages,
this was gonna be his payday. Here it is, he's a type of Christ.
Now what's he gonna have for a payday? He's a clear type of Christ in
that what he agreed to for wages, for his labor, were such beasts
as could not of themselves be acceptable to God. It's written in the scriptures
it must be perfect to be accepted. And yet God plainly instructed
Jacob to take for his wages all that was ring-striped, speckled,
and spotted. None of those things acceptable
of God in and of themselves. And yet God said that's going
to be your wages. Why? Because Jacob is a figure
of Christ whose work purchased for him chosen sinners. That's
why not a one of them could be acceptable of itself and of himself. Christ died the just for the
unjust that he might bring us to God. This is a faithful saying. It's worthy of all acceptation.
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, Paul said, of
whom I'm chief. Think not, our Lord said, that
I come to call the righteous. I'm not come to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. The gospel is of such a nature
that it offers nothing but offense to the self-righteous. That's
all they're ever gonna get out of it, is offense. It mocks their obedience. It mocks it. The Lord came by,
he passed by, and Here's Abel's offering, and he had respect
to that. But he come to his brothers, and it said the Lord had no respect,
not any, for it. Just turned his nose up. Walked
past, totally ignored it. All the labor, all the work,
all the polishing. I know that stuff was set out
in an artistic fashion, the way some of you ladies set a table.
Man, it was laid out. This is a symbol of works, religion. And all of those things were
laid out by him, and God come by and just more or less spit
on his sacrifice. He didn't give it any recognition
at all. When you tell the unbeliever that God mocks his obedience,
he's going to be mad. He's going to get riled up. And
also, when you preach this gospel for sinners, it denies their
claims. It totally denies their claims
of salvation, and it exposes their righteousnesses as filthy
rags. And it causes them to lose their
reward. The gospel's for sinners. It's
for sinners. The preacher, I don't know this
and I don't know that. Nobody does when they first come
to Christ. But they know they're sinners. And they know that he's able
to save them. They might not be able to tell you how, but
they know he's able. What is acceptable to God is
Christ and all his elect are accepted in the blood. Now I want you to listen. These
are quotations from the scriptures. I want you to listen to just
a few of these as the self-righteous sneer at Christ and the company
he kept and the men and women that he saved. They sat back
one day and looked at him and they said, why eateth your master
with publicans and sinners? He's in there, they got a plate,
they're sitting here eating their pork chops and he's sitting over
here beside them eating his pork chops. Why eateth your master with publicans
and sinners? looked at that woman washing
his feet and said, if he knew who she was and what she was
guilty of, he'd never let her do that. And that's why Jacob's father-in-law
probably laughed at his agreement when he said he'd take all the
blemished cattle and sheep. That'd be his idea. And you know what, he put things
out there to cause them to be blemished. That's right. God makes sinners
to know their sin, don't he? He makes it to appear. And then fourthly, Jacob is a
clear type of Christ in that he was hated of those who were
not blessed of his father. Nothing riles a self-righteous
man or woman more than to tell them they're not blessed of God.
I remember old Barnard stood up in the park. They called him
because their regular evangelist in the Providence of God got
sick. And so they were in a bind. They'd been advertising for months
throughout a county-wide revival meeting down in the Central Park
there in Ashland, Kentucky, and they already had the big tent
set up and everything, and now the evangelist couldn't come.
And one of the old deacons said, well, I know a man to come. I
think, I think he will. They said, well, call him. It
was Brother Barnard. He got up there and there was
hundreds of them sitting out there, maybe a thousand, I don't
know how many. Baptist churches in that whole
region round about were gathered down there in that park. And here's what Barnard said
to them. First words come out of his mouth. He said, the two
biggest lies that's ever been told, God loves you and Christ
died for you. When you tell that ungodly man,
that self-righteous man, that he's not blessed of God, that
he believed a lie, and going to be damned, that God hates
him. God hates him. He's a sinner. He's the chief of sinners. Boy,
he's going to get riled up. He's going to get riled up. When
Esau heard that his father had blessed Jacob and not him, he
cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry. Genesis 27, 34. A man quit coming here years
ago when we were down at the old church accused me of saying
that his grandmother was cursed of God. She might have been,
I don't know, but I didn't say that. I simply said that all of our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags and that no man and no woman
should be accepted of God on the basis of their own marriage.
That's what I said. And if the shoe fits your grandmother,
it fits your grandmother. God's people are accepted upon
the merits of Christ alone. Our Lord said this, he said,
if you were of the world, the world would love his own. You profess to believe in free
will and tell folks you've decided, you believe in deciding to reform
your life and that kind of thing, you're doing everything in your
power to keep the law and live a righteous life, this world
will love you. They'll love you. They might send you to school
and call you doctor and reverend and all that kind of stuff. They'll
love, this world loves their own. But our Lord said, because
you're not of the world, but I've chosen you out of the world,
therefore the world hateth you. Why do they hate you? Because
God hath chosen you to salvation. And he didn't choose them. They
despise you. They hate the very idea of God
choosing you and not them. They hate the very idea of God's
sovereign grace, and they hate the doctrine of imputed righteousness
and particular redemption. They hate the very idea of salvation
by the mercy of God, and they hate the very idea of walking
by faith, living by faith, and dying in faith. Esau never loved Jacob. He hated him till the day he
died. And that's what he said. That's what he said at the very
beginning. I hate him, and I'm gonna kill him if I can. If I
get the opportunity, he's gone. I hope these studies are beneficial
to you. I'm not just trying to get up
here and tell you some things. I'm trying to show you the foundation
that God has laid in the Old Testament and how he pictures
these things in these men. And then later on, when you come
back into these epistles again and we start our lessons in there,
you're gonna begin to recognize that a lot of the language that
they're using, even when they don't quote a particular verse,
they're using the language of the Old Testament scripture.
And they're using these old patriarchs of God as types of Christ. Thank you.