You and I have come here this
morning to open up God's Word and let Scripture interpret Scripture. The Lord has chosen by the foolishness
of what I am about to do to save sinners and to establish those
He saves. So I have asked you this morning
to open your Bibles and with reverence let us read these passages
together. In Genesis chapter 25, and let's
begin in verse 21. Isaac entreated the Lord for
his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord was entreated of
him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. And the children struggled together
within her. And she said, If it be so, why
am I thus? And she went to inquire of the
Lord. And the Lord said unto her, Two
nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be
separated from your belly. And the one people shall be stronger
than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger.
And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there
were twins in her womb. And the first came out red, all
over like a hairy garment. And they called his name Esau.
And after that came out his brother, and his hand took hold on Esau's
heel, and his name was called Jacob. And Isaac was sixty years
old when she birthed him. And the boys grew, and Esau was
a cunning hunter, a man of the field. And Jacob was a plain
man, dwelling in tents. And Isaac loved Esau because
he did eat of his venison, but Rebekah loved Jacob. And Jacob
sowed pottage, and Esau came from the field, and he was faint.
And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same
red pottage, for I am faint. Therefore was his name called
Edom. And Jacob said, Sell me this
day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I am at
the point to die, and what profit shall this birthright do to me?
And Jacob said, Swear to me this day. And he swore unto him, and
he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and
pottage of lentils, and he did eat and drank and rose up and
went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. I want to dwell mainly there
on verse 23 this morning with you. Rebecca had married. Isaac came
from a poor country. They were joined together as
husband and wife, and for 20 years she was barren, had no
children. And Isaac went to the Lord and
prayed for his wife, and she conceived. Now, no doubt Rebecca
was grieved in her heart. They thought it was a curse of
the Lord in those days, especially these Hebrew women, these Jewish
women, if they could not have children. So she no doubt was
grieved, and Isaac went and entreated the Lord for her, and then she
conceived, and what a happy woman she was. Now, you ask me how
I know that. Well, why would Isaac have been
praying for her to conceive if she didn't desire a baby? And
we have a lady, and you remember her, if you would turn over to
your right just for a minute, in the first Samuel, Samuel chapter
1, and if you'd like to read the story here, we have a story
of a lady by the name of Hannah. And she was a woman who also
was barren. And she prayed for a son for
years, and she was grieved and wept and terribly burdened in
her heart. And finally she was blessed and
she conceived, and she bore the great Samuel. She committed him
to the Lord. But notice how she prays in 1
Samuel chapter 2 when this child was conceived by her. Notice
how happy she was in 1 Samuel chapter 2 and verse 1. And Hannah
prayed and said, My heart rejoiceth in the Lord. My horn is exalted
in the Lord. My mouth is enlarged over my
enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation. There is none
holy as the Lord. There is none beside thee, neither
is there any rock like our God. Talk no more, so exceeding proudly. Let not arrogance come out of
your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge. And by him actions
are weighed. The bows of the mighty men are
broken, and they that stumble are girded with strength. And
they that were full have hard themselves for bread, and they
that were hungry cease, so that the barren hath born seven, and
she that hath many children is wax feeble. The Lord killeth,
and he maketh alive. He bringeth down to the grave,
and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor, and he
maketh rich. He maketh low, and he lifteth
up. He raiseth up the poor out of
the dust, and lifteth up the beggar out of the dunghill, to
set him among the princes of the people." And on and on she
goes, praising the Lord for visiting her and giving her this child. So Rebecca was a woman of lack
attitude. When she conceived these sons,
she no doubt was happy. But look back in our text. Back
here now in verse 22, we're told that these children begin to
fight within her. It wasn't just a normal kick
of the infant, and you mothers know how that feels. You recognize
that. But this was much more than that.
These young unborn sons were struggling, contending one with
another, wrestling in her womb. And she was so grieved and concerned
about it, she says this, If the Lord has truly blessed me, if
this is a blessing of the Lord that I have conceived these children,
tell me, said, why am I thus? If this indeed be a blessing
of the Lord, why am I thus? Thus. Well, that's a question
Isaac could not answer. That's a question Abraham could
not answer. But she went to one who could
answer it. She went to inquire of the Lord. Now, brothers and sisters, you
here this morning who are in trouble, you here this morning
who need questions answered, I would encourage you to go where
Rebecca went. Go to the Lord. I covet your
prayers, and I know you covet my prayers. I need the prayers
of those I love. I've been profited by people's
prayers for me. But I tell you, there's times
when I have to go to the Lord for myself. And there's times
when you and I all have to go to the Lord and seek Him for
ourselves. Isaac went and sought for Rebekah,
but he can't go seek the Lord for her now. Now she must go
herself and seek the Lord. And that's what she does. And
you know, this is what this teaches us. That our struggles that we
have in this life is to bring us to the Lord in prayer. If
you never had any troubles, you'd probably quit praying. It's struggles,
it's trials, it's temptations. It is hardships sometimes that
brings us to the Lord to pray and seek Him. Is this not why
we have a throne of grace? We have a high priest who knows
us, that can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities,
and therefore we are told to come boldly to the throne of
grace, that you and I may obtain mercy and find grace to help
in the time of need. And I tell you, here is the difference.
Here is the difference between the saved person and a lost person. When a saved person gets in trouble,
he goes to the Lord. He goes to the Lord. I cannot
understand, for the life of me, how some professing Christians,
when trouble comes to their life, they stop coming to the public
worship. I cannot understand that. When you are in trouble,
where do you want to be? Don't you want to be among the
Lord's people? And when you get in trouble, where do you go?
You go to the Lord. That's the difference between
the saved and the lost. And that's what Rebecca did.
She went and she called upon the Lord in her day of trouble. And what happened? The Lord answered
her. He revealed some things to her
and to you and I this morning concerning these two sons. Now, that's what I want us to
look at. That's what I want us to look at. Looking at this from
an historical standpoint, it has an historical meaning. He
told her several things about these twins that were in her.
First of all, he said, there are two nations in thy womb. And you follow these two nations
right on through the Old Testament. The Edomites, those who descended
from Esau, they called them Edomites because that's what they called
him. Red, the Edomites. They were a great nation. And
then these descendants of Jacob, the children of Israel, you follow
them right on through the Old Testament, two nations, two manner
of people, she said, are in thy womb. They look different. Jacob
looked nothing like Esau. And I imagine their descendants
looked nothing alike. They were two manner of people.
Their religions were different. Their manner of life was different.
Some of them were hunters and the others dwelt in tents. They
were different manners of people. The one dwelt in Seir, the country
of Seir. The Israelites dwelt in Canaan. Two manner of people. And he
says, thirdly, one people shall be stronger than the other. And
that's what we see in these two brothers. All their descendants,
these two nations, they struggle with each other. Almost all the
entire existence of the Edomites struggled with the descendants
of Jacob. And finally, the Israelites got
the upper hand, and David brought them under subjection and taxed
them, and they served the kingdom of David. That's what he says. Lastly, the elder shall serve
the younger. And King David finally subdued
them, and finally we're told by Josephus the historian that
these Edomites were incorporated within the Jewish nation and
the Jewish religion. And there are no Edomites today
that we know of. There's Israelites and Jews,
but there are no Edomites. That's the historical standpoint,
but I'm not here as an historian. You'd have to go take a college
course on this or sit under some fellow that knew something about
history. But I'm here this morning to look at this from a spiritual
aspect. The Lord didn't give this just
to teach us history, but these things were written for our learning.
They have spiritual applications to them, and that's what I want
us to look at this morning. I want you to take your Bible
and I want you to turn to some passage of Scripture that Teach
us what's meant by these two men, even while they were in
the womb. First of all, I want you to turn
to Romans 9. May the Lord open our hearts
this morning and teach us as He taught Rebekah. First of all,
what's meant by Jacob and Esau unborn children in the womb of
their mother. Well, let's look here at what
the Apostle Paul teaches us concerning these two unborn infants. Look
in Romans chapter 9, and look here in verse 10. Look in verse 10. This is mentioning
this birth. Rebecca was pregnant with these
twins. And look here in verse 10. And
not only this, but when Rebekah also had conceived by one, even
by our father Isaac, we have one mother, her name was Rebekah,
and their father was Isaac. These two twins had the same
mother. These two twins had the same
father. That's what Paul said. In verse 11, and the children
being not yet born, I just read that to you, didn't I? Neither
having done any good or evil, And this is what that's supposed
to teach us, that the purpose of God, according to election,
might stand not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said
unto Rebekah, the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. And I like to read
this like this, because I think this is the context. Jacob have
I chosen. Jacob have I elected to life
and to salvation, but Esau have I passed by. I've left him out
of my election. Now what do we see in this? We
see in these unborn infants the sovereignty of God in electing
and choosing a people to salvation. Not by anything that they have
done. not by any merit he saw in them,
because it was before they were born. And then we see the justice
in that by passing by all the rest." That's what we see in
these two men. Now, the Lord had already elected
a people before the foundation of the world. That had been taken
place before this time. But He gave us this example to
teach us how He did it. When God chose a multitude to
salvation, what determined who He would choose and who He would
pass by? What was the criteria for doing
that? Was it that God looked down through history and said,
oh, there's a good man? and he's capable of doing great
deeds, therefore I'll choose him?" No! How do we know that? Well, the Scripture here tells
us God chose Jacob. When did He choose him? Before
Jacob was born. Before he ever done any good
or before he ever done any evil. God said, I choose Jacob to salvation. And why did God pass by Esau?
Was it because He saw Esau was a wicked man? that Esau would
not come to him or repent? No, it had nothing to do with
that. Simply because it was his sovereign will to do so. Now that's what's taught us,
first of all, by these two things here. These two brethren, they
had the same mother, they had the same dad, there was no difference
in them, neither of them had done any good or any bad. The
choice of one being chosen to salvation and the other being
passed by was determined by the sovereign will of God Himself. Now that's what, first of all,
this teaches us. Secondly, I want you to turn
to the book of Malachi. If you go back to your left to
the book of Matthew, that's the first book of the New Testament.
And the very next book to your left will be the book of Malachi.
That's the last book in the Old Testament. I want you to turn
here, and here's what, secondly, we see and is taught us by these
two men before they were ever born while they were still in
the womb. Look what the Lord teaches us
here. First of all, we're taught the sovereignty of God in election. How does God choose? According
to His own sovereign will. He chooses no man to salvation
in Christ because of what he sees in that man. God chose by
His own purpose and grace, and that's free. Something else here
we're taught in this, and that's God's distinguishing, God's everlasting
love towards those elect people. Now look at this in verse 1,
Malachi chapter 1, the burden of the Word of the Lord to Israel,
thou Malachi. I have loved you, saith the Lord,
yet you say wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's
brother, the Lord said? Yet I loved Jacob, and I hated
Esau." Now let me stop here and comment on this just a minute.
The meaning is here, as you read verse 1, The Lord loved Jacob. When did He love him? Before
he was born. That's what we're studying on,
is it? There done no good or evil, that's the purpose of God.
And here He says, I loved Jacob. When did He love him? Before
he was born. I loved Jacob. He didn't earn
my love. He didn't merit my love. He never
done anything to merit it. I loved him before he ever done
any good or ever done any evil. I loved you, he said, as I loved
Jacob. I loved him freely, therefore.
If you can't find a cause for loving somebody, and you love
them anyway, that's what we call loving freely. If you can't find
a reason to love them, and you love them anyway, that's what
we call loving freely. And the Lord said, before Jacob
was born, I loved him. Without considering him, without
considering what he would do, I loved him. And the Lord said,
I love you the same way. I love you freely. You continue reading sometime
the book of Malachi at your leisure, And you'll find the Lord laid
many grievous charges against these Israelites, Jacob's children,
Jacob the descendant. And He chastened them sore, too. But in chapter 3 and verse 6
of this book, look at this. Look in chapter 3 and look in
verse 6. And I hope that when they read
this, this greatly humbled these Israelites, these sons of Jacob.
He laid all these charges against them and rebuked them and chastened
them to soar. But look what he says to them
in chapter 3 and verse 6. I am the Lord, I change not,
therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. See what he says
to them? After he had rebuked them, and
chastened them and told them of their sins, yet he turns right
around and he says, here is why you are not consumed, because
I loved you just as I loved Jacob. I loved you freely, and though
you sinned grievously against me, you are not consumed by my
wrath because I love you. My love for you was not dependent
upon what you do or don't do. I love you freely. And my love
has not changed because of your wickedness and your sinfulness.
I still love you freely." Now that's love, ain't it? And that's
the way God loved this unborn Jacob before he was born. Jacob
have I loved. And then he goes on there in
the next verse and he says, But Esau have I hated. I hated Esau. Now let me give
you two interpretations to this, and you'll have to come to your
own conclusion. I'm Lord over no man's conscience. But some
people says here, when the Scripture says, when the Lord says, I hated
Esau, some people interpret this to be an arbitrary hatred. And by that I simply mean, I
hate Esau because I hate him. He's not done any good, he's
not done any evil, but I hate him simply because I hate him. I love Jacob freely, but I hate
Esau freely. They call that a positive or
arbitrary hatred. I don't understand that to mean
that. If you do, that's all right. We'll not fall out by that. But I just can't see God hating
anybody apart from their sin. But if he did, let's say then,
there's many wise men who say he did. But let's say this is
the true interpretation of this, that God hated Esau before he
was born, a positive hatred. We must go ahead and say this,
that God did not punish Esau arbitrarily, but he only punished
Esau because of Esau's sins. God never tempted Esau to sin,
and He only punished him because of his sins. If God hated this
man arbitrarily, because He would, that hatred never done Esau any
harm. He sinned and was punished because
of his sin. Others say this, that this means
this, the Lord loved Esau less or in a different way than He
loved Jacob. And the Lord explains this this
way, If a man come to me, and hate not his father, or his mother,
or his wife, or his children, and his own life also. Now we
know the Lord doesn't teach us to hate our father or our mother.
But He's teaching here that if we don't hate our parents in
comparison to our love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Hate them
in comparison. So if we receive that interpretation
of this verse 3, then we look at it like this. I hate Esau
in comparison to my love that I have to Jacob. You may find
some fault with that too. I don't know. But the Lord loved
Jacob far exceeding more than He loved Esau, and in comparison,
that love was hatred. If you want to receive it that
way, you'll have to be persuaded in your own mind. However, let
me say this, however we interpret this passage, one thing we must
see in it, and here's what it teaches, that God loved Jacob
before Jacob was born. And God never ceased to love
him after he was born. Jacob was redeemed. Jacob was
saved because God loved him. Now that's what the Scripture
means to teach us. And let me ask you this question. What does
the love of God have to do in your salvation? And you cannot say this morning
that God loves everybody the same, can we? He has this distinguishing
love, this everlasting love. And who's that love to? It's
that love He has for His elect people. Those that He chose and
gave to Christ. He loves them everlastingly,
and He sent His blessed Son into this world to redeem them at
a great cost to Himself. Even the shedding of His own
blood. And He calls them, He gives them a new heart, and He
keeps them through this world of devils and sins, and at last
He'll have them home in heaven. And what do they trace all of
that to? God's love. Herein is love, not that we loved
Him, but He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins, and sent His Spirit to call us and regenerate us
and put all His graces in our hearts. No, brothers and sisters,
God does not love everybody the same. However He deals with the
nonelect, whatever He gives them in the way of temporal blessings
He deals with them in justice at last. But with His elect,
those that He's chosen to salvation, He always deals with them in
love, everlasting, distinguishing love. Oh, He may chasten them
sore. He's even killed some of them.
And He may hide His face and grieve their souls, and some
of them may fall into doubt and great darkness. But they'll never
be lost. Why? Because I love you freely. And I am the Lord and I change
not. Aren't you glad that salvation
is not conditioned upon your attitude and your character and
your conduct? Aren't you glad it has a firmer
foundation than that? And where is it? The love of
God that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Look back over at our
text again. Look back over in Genesis chapter
24 again. Two nations are in thy womb. Two nations are in thy womb. This was not only meant for her,
but it's meant for us because it teaches us these spiritual
lessons. See the first thing he tells
us? Two nations are in thy womb. You know the Word of God is very
narrow. And it's very deliberate when it describes humanity. You know what the Lord does?
He takes all of humanity and He puts them in only two categories.
And He makes it so plain. You know what I love about God's
Word? There's no gray areas there. It's black and white. When you
get right down to looking at it, it's black and white. And
here, we come here and He says He takes all the humanity and
He categorizes them in these two places, two nations. And
ain't that what we see in all the Bible? There's the saved
and there's the lost. There's those who are alive to
God and those who are dead in sin. There's those who have been
called out of darkness into His marvelous light. And there are
those who are new creatures in Christ, and there are those who
are still in a state of nature. These two categories. And all
humanity is put into one of these two nations. Listen now. Listen. You and I find ourselves here
this morning in one of these two nations. We have a perverse
nation, a sinful nation, and we have a holy nation. That's
the two nations that the world is put into. Listen to what the
Bible says. Paul tells us this in Philippians
2. Do all things, brethren, without murmurings and disputings, that
ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke,
in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation among whom you
shine as lights. What kind of world do we live
in? It's a nation. He takes all the nations of the
world and He puts them under this one heading. And He says,
here is what the world is. It's a perverse nation. It's a sinful nation. Not nations, but just one nation. And listen to this one. You are
a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an unholy nation. That you should show forth the
praises of Him that has called you out of darkness unto His
marvelous light. You go to Russia, and you go
to Canada, and you go to Mexico, and America, and all the countries
of the world, and you get all the believers together, all the
children of God, and you put them in this one category, and
it's a holy nation. There's two nations in all the
world. That's what these two unborn infants represented to
us. There are two nations in thy
womb. There are the elect people and
the non-elect. There are those that I love in
a peculiar way and those that I have passed by. There are those
that are holy and those that are unholy. It is represented
in those two men, those two unborn infants. I have often said this, and I
believe it is so, that there are people that wish that the
Bible wasn't so narrow and dogmatic, and wish it wasn't so careful
in detailing and defining things and people. But it is. Some people wish, and I hope
you're not one of them. If you're here this morning,
I hope you're not one of these. But you may be. There are some people
who wish that there was some place between heaven and hell
for them to go to. They think that, well, I'm not
good enough to go to heaven. I know that. But I'm not bad
enough to go to hell. And they wish there was some
place in between there to go through. But there's not. There's
not. See, that's why we say the Bible
is not gray. It's black and it's white. Don't
you appreciate that? It deals with us honestly. It
comes to where we are. And it makes us afraid. Sometimes
it makes us tremble. Because it deals truthfully with
us. There are two places, hell or heaven, just two. There's
sin and there's Christ. There's the devil and there's
God. There's wickedness and there's righteousness, and there's no
in-between. There's no middle ground. The
Lord doesn't look upon humanity and put them in several categories.
There's just two categories, two nations. and all the world. One is a nation. They're a nation
of men and women made holy by new birth. They're cleansed and
made white in the blood of the Lamb. Christ was made sin for
them, and now they're made the righteousness of God in Him,
and they're holy. They're holy. We look around
us today and we're sometimes apt to complain and say, where's
the church? Where's the church? Well, she
may be difficult to see, but when you find her, I'll tell
you how you can describe her. She's holy. She's holy. Christ gave Himself for her,
and He's washed her and made clean, and someday He's going
to present her to Himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle
or any such thing. She's holy. She's a holy nation. There's a nation of unbelievers,
those who are dead in trespasses and sins, and whose minds are
enmity against God. Some are open and profane, and
others are religious. But they're still perverse. They're in this nation. Now,
do you and I wonder, brothers and sisters, that there's a struggle
between these two nations? Do you wonder why these children
struggled in their mother's womb? They were altogether different
people. And do you wonder why the church And the world struggles
to this very day, and they will until the end of time, because
they're two nations. One is holy, and one is perverse. Marvel not if the world hates
you. If you were of the world, the
world would love his own. But because you're not of the
world, but I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world
hates you. Therefore you have that struggle.
You have that struggle. Fourthly is this, and look at
this, what he said to Rebekah. She said, Lord, if you've truly
blessed me, why am I thus? Well, there's two nations in
you. And look here, there's two manner of people shall come from
your belly. Two manner of people. You know,
when these two brothers were born, there's no difference in
them. There's no difference in them at all. was described as a profane man. Hebrews 12 says he's a profane
man, an awful sinner, adultery, marriage several times. But Jacob
was no better. He was a deceiver, a liar. He
tricked his brother. Well, that's his name, Jacob.
That's what he saw. Ain't his name rightly called
Jacob? Because he's deceived me twice, he said. Lied to his
own daddy. to get the blessing, come into
his dad, him and his mother cooked it up. He came into his dad because
his dad was blind and he put some goat hair on his arm so
he would feel like Esau and smell like Esau. And his dad said,
what's your name? Who are you? And he said, I'm
Esau. Bless me, I'm Esau. And he blessed him. But there was something happened
to this man. And you see it. He had to flee from Esau because
Esau was going to kill him. He went over into Syria, where
Rebekah was from. And when he left that place finally,
after he married his two wives, Laban tricked him, but he tricked
him in turn. But he was coming back, and coming
back into the land of Canaan. And you can see his whole attitude
begin to change. The Lord began to humble this
man. And he began to pray like this, Lord, I'm not worthy of
the least of your mercy. Before he just wanted to trade
out with the Lord. I promise I'll do this if you'll
do that. But now he begins to humble himself
and says, Lord, I'm not worthy of the least of your mercy and
of your truth. And he began to pray and plead
the promises of the Lord. And one night, the Lord got him
alone. and begin to wrestle with him.
This man, the Son of God, began to wrestle with Jacob. And Jacob
was pleading for a blessing. Oh, bless me, bless me. And the
Lord said to him, let me go, it's breaking day. And Jacob
said, I won't let you go until you bless me. And the Lord touched
his thigh and his joint flew out. But he hung on. I won't let you go until you
bless me. And the Lord said, what's your name? Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Is your name Esau? No. I'm that old deceiver Jacob.
I'm that old self-sufficient, self-interested, deceiving Jacob. That's who I am. Would you bless
me anyway? Would you bless me in spite of
me? Would you be gracious to me? I can't let you go until
you bless me." And the Lord said, your name won't be called Jacob
anymore, but I'm going to change your name to Israel. As a prince,
you have power with God and with man, and you prevail. And the
Lord blessed him. And you know what he turned right
around and said? He turned around and said, what's your name? That's
what he asked that man rambling with him. What's your name? Everybody wanted to know the
name of the Son of God. But he never would tell anybody.
All through the Old Testament, they wanted to know his name.
God is sending his Son to be the Savior. What's his name?
He won't tell us. And Jacob said, perhaps he'll
tell me. What's your name? And he said,
what's that to you? I'm not telling you my name."
And he left. And you know what Jacob said
about this man that he wrestled with? He said, I've wrestled
with God. I've seen Him face to face. And
my life is preserved. And you know something? He changed
Jacob's name. He changed the way he walked.
And he changed his whole attitude. He was a different man the rest
of his life. And that's the way the Lord does
when He comes to one of Jacob's sons, an Israelite indeed. He comes to us and He changes
us. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. He's not the same manner of man
that he was before. All things have passed away,
and behold, all things have become new. And listen to what Paul
said. Paul said, I rejoice. Not that
you were made sorry, but that you sorrowed to repentance, for
you were made sorrow, sorry after a godly manner. For godly sorrow
worketh repentance unto salvation. And when repentance and faith
begins the work in a man's heart, that heart is changed. He's not
the same man or man he was before. His whole attitude changes. He'll
never walk like He walked before. His attitude towards God will
change. Your attitude towards sin will change. Your attitude
towards Jesus Christ will change. Your attitude towards the world
will change. Towards judgment will change.
Towards eternity will change. It'll change you. It'll change
you. You'll be a different man. You'll
be just like Jacob when the Lord gets done with you. He'll change
you. Seeing then that all these things
shall be dissolved, what manner of people ought we to be? There's two manner of people
in this world, brothers and sisters. The godly and the ungodly. The Jacob's and the Esau's. Those who love the Lord, those
who fear Him, those who follow Him, and those who don't. Just
two manner of people. Where do you fit in? Where do
you fit in to yourself? Fifthly and quickly is this.
Bear with me just for a few more minutes. He says here, fifthly,
and one people shall be stronger than the other people. One people
shall be stronger than the other people. That was a lot of discussions
when I read some of the commentaries on this. And the discussion was about
which one of these people was the strongest people. Was it
Esau's descendants and that nation of Edomites? Or was it the nation
of Jacob, the Israelites? Well, at first the Edomites were
stronger. They got the upper hand. When Israel was coming
back out of Egypt, the land of Banzi, the Edomites wouldn't
let them pass through their land. They were a stronger people.
But at last, at last, the Edomites were subdued. And they were overcome. Israel was the strongest nation.
I've heard this different times in different ways. But I've heard
ignorant men describing true Christians as being nothing more
than emotional weak and feeble minded. Have you ever heard people
describe Christianities that way? You're just a weak people.
You're weak emotionally and you're weak mentally. You're just weak,
feeble-minded. That's why you live like you
do and all of this. You know what the Bible says
about a true believer? You know how the Bible describes
him? Listen to this. Listen to this. This is what
the Holy Ghost says a believer is. You are strong, and the Word
of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one. That's not a weak person that
overcomes the devil and the gates of hell. Listen to this, speaking
of the death of Christ. I will divide him a portion with
the great, and he shall divide the spoiled with the strong. A believer is not a weak person.
He's a strong person, the Lord says. Abraham was strong in faith,
giving glory to God. This is the victory that overcometh
the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the
world? But he that believeth that Jesus
is the Christ. The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal, but they are mighty through God to the pulling down
of strongholds. And listen to this, Hebrews chapter
11 tells us of men and women who subdued kingdoms, wrought
righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
quenched the violence of fire, and out of weakness were made
strong. Be strong in the Lord and in
the power of His might. Be strong in the grace that's
in Christ Jesus. Paul said, I glory in my infirmities
that the power of Christ may rest upon me. If this world mistakes brokenness
for weakness and humility for feeble-mindedness, they're going
to err. A believer's not weak, he's just
humble. The Lord's humbled him. He's
not feeble-minded, the Lord has just broken him. He's a broken-hearted
man. And they suppose the believer
has no confidence and stability of spirit because he's renounced
self-salvation. You can't save yourself. How
weak are you anyway? I can't save myself. I have to
have somebody do for me what I can't do for myself. If you
call that weakness, call it weakness. But that's the truth. But I'm
full of confidence. Aren't you? It's just not in
here. It's outside myself. It's not
in myself. It's in another. It's in the
Savior. Listen to what David said. The Lord is my light and
my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When
the wicked, even my enemies and my foe, come upon me to eat up
my flesh, they stumble and they fail. Though then hosts should
encamp against me of men and devils, My heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against
me, in this will I be confident. For in the time of trouble He
shall hide me in His pavilion, in the secret tabernacle, in
Jesus Christ, if you will. He shall hide me, and He'll set
me upon a rock, and He shall hear me and lift me up. He'll lift me up above my enemies
round about me. Therefore will I offer unto Him
sacrifices of joy, and I'll sing, yea, I'll sing praises unto the
Lord. Why? Because He's my light and
my salvation. You take a man facing death and
he's singing? You take a man facing hell and
he's singing? Facing the judgment of God and
he's singing? How could he have such confidence?
Because it's in the Savior. It's in the Savior. Oh, they're
strong. I believe they're strong. You're
here this morning and you're lost. See how you feel when you
come down to face death. See how you feel then. Because
your confidence is in yourself. You may have said, oh, I made
an agreement with it. The Lord will avoid that agreement. Death
itself will avoid it. And lastly is this. I have to
say this right quick. We see in these two children
and their struggles what every child of God experiences within
his own self, within his own heart. In Jacob and Esau, we
have flesh and spirit. In Rebekah's womb, she had two
children. And they were hers. They were
her flesh. and her bones. And in every child
of God, he sees these two things, flesh and spirit. He has holiness
because the Lord has made him so, and yet he has sin, and these
struggle one with another. He has faith, and yet he has
unbelief, and these struggle one with another. He has love,
and he has hate, and these struggle one with another. And sometimes
it makes a child of God say this, If I am a child of God, why am
I like this? Why? How could I be like this?
Why is this awful struggle going on in my heart? Well, dear soul,
just live by faith and be patient. It won't be long. This old elder,
this old man that was born first, he'll be serving the new man.
And he'll be changed. The Lord Jesus is going to change
this foul body This old man will be changed, and then he'll worship
just like the new man worshiped, in spirit and in truth. May the Lord bless this Word.
Let us pray.