Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Neiber. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Mattawar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now, here's our pastor, Todd Nyberg. If you could get a Bible
and follow along with me, it would be very helpful. We're
going to be looking at Genesis, the 27th chapter, and I've entitled
this message, How to Obtain God's Blessing. Now, I desperately
want to obtain God's blessing. And I know so clearly that I
don't deserve God's blessing, but how I want God's blessing. How can a sinner obtain God's
blessing? Now, we're going to look in the
Old Testament and how Jacob obtained his father's blessing. Jacob didn't deserve the blessing. As a matter of fact, this is
a tale of deceit and swindling. But I want us to remember The
Old Testament is given to illustrate the New Testament. And every
Old Testament story, without exception, is given to illustrate
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not a history book. Truly, it's His story. Our Lord said in John chapter
5 verse 39, you search the scriptures. He said this to the Pharisees,
you search the scriptures and then you think you have eternal
life and they are they which testify of me. So remember that
when you read the Old Testament, this is given to illustrate the
doctrine of the New Testament, the gospel. of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, I pray that God will bless
this message and teach you and I how to obtain God's blessing. Now, the writer to the Hebrews
in the 11th chapter of Hebrews mentions this story, Jacob blessing
his sons concerning things to come as an instance of faith.
So in this story of fraud and deceit, and that's what it is
from the human side, we have an instance of faith. Now, Jacob swindled his brother
to obtain the blessing. Now, how can this be an act of
faith on Isaac's part when it was a swindling and deceit? Well,
it was determined before before they were born, that Jacob would
have the blessing. You remember how God said, the
elder Esau shall serve the younger Jacob? Jacob is going to obtain
the blessing. Do you remember how God said,
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated? Esau had no love
for God. Esau didn't care anything about
God's blessing or God's favor. He could care less. He was an
enemy of God. He had no love for God. God said,
I hate him. And his hatred is a just hatred. It's not like our hatred. It's
not a vindictive hatred the way we would. It's a hatred based
upon justice. God said regarding Esau, I hate
him. Somebody said, doesn't God love everybody? No, no. The scripture says, thou hatest
all workers of iniquity. He loves all in Christ. He loves
all who believe. He loves all who are found in
Christ. But he is an enemy of those who do not believe the
gospel. Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Now it was
determined before by God that Jacob would obtain the blessing. Now let's read about this in
Genesis chapter 27. Beginning in verse one, like
I said, if you've got a Bible and can follow along, I think
it'll be great, greatly helpful. And it came to pass that when
Isaac was old and his eyes were dimmed so that he could not see,
he called Esau his eldest son. And if you'll remember, Esau
was Isaac's favorite. Jacob was Rebekah's favorite,
but Isaac was, I mean, but Esau was Isaac's favorite. He said,
my son, and he said unto him, behold, here I am. 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 to 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."
God uses this to teach us of how to obtain the blessing. Now,
Isaac has determined to give Esau the blessing. Now, remember,
Jacob was Rebekah's favorite, and Rebekah was listening as
Isaac made this promise of blessing to Esau. 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 said unto Jacob
her son, Behold, I heard thy father speaking to 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 them two kids of goats, and I will 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 this is deceit. This is fraud. It's wrong. It's a lie. Jacob wasn't Esau. The father had determined to
bless Esau. Isaac said, he's the one I'm
going to bless. Rebekah tells Jacob, you go and you're going
to obtain the blessing by deceit and by fraud. Now let's go on
reading. Look at Jacob's reply to this. And Jacob said to Rebekah,
his mother, behold, Esau, my brother, is a hairy man and I'm
a smooth man. My father, pure adventure, will
feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver, and I shall
bring a curse upon me and not a blessing." He was afraid. He
thought, what if my dad finds me out? I come in masquerading
as Esau, and he finds out I'm Jacob. He'll bring a curse upon
me and not a blessing. And here's his mother's reply,
verse 13. And his mother said unto him,
upon me be thy curse, my son, only obey my voice, and go fetch
me them. And he went out and fetched and
brought his mother, and his mother made savory meat, such as his
father loved. Two kids of goats were killed,
and she made this venison, this meat, and made it taste like
the venison that Esau had gone after. And Rebecca took goodly
raiment of her eldest son Esau, his best clothing. which was
with her in the house. And she put them upon Jacob,
her younger son. She put the clothes upon him
and she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands
and upon the smooth of his neck. And she gave the savory meat
and the bread which he had prepared into the hand of her son Jacob. She made it to where he looked
and felt and smelt like Esau. And he came unto his father.
Now, can you imagine how nervous he was at this time? He knows
that he's Jacob. But he comes to his father as
Esau. He comes with his brother's clothing
on. He comes with hair on him that
was supposed to make him feel like his brother. And he had
the smell of his brother. But he was deceitful. And I can
imagine how nervous he was. And he came unto his father and
said, My father? And he said, Here am I, who art
thou, my son? And Jacob said unto his father,
I am Esau. thy firstborn. He lied. I am Esau, thy firstborn. I have done according as thou
badest me. Arise, I pray thee, sit in need
of my venison, that thy soul may bless me. Now, Isaac smelled
a rat. He knew something was wrong.
He heard the voice of Jacob. But he was saying he was Esau.
So Isaac says, And Isaac said unto his son, How is it that
thou hast found it so quickly, my son? And he said, this is
Jacob's reply, Because the Lord thy God brought it to me. He implicates God as being the
cause of this. And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come
near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou
be my very son Esau, or not. Isaac, remember, was blind, but
he knew something was wrong. And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come
near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou
be my very son Esau, or not. And Jacob went near unto Isaac
his father, and he felt him, and said, The voice is Jacob's
voice. But the hands are the hands of Esau. Remember his mom
had put the goat's hair on his hands to make him feel like the
hands of Esau. And he discerned him not. He
couldn't see that it was really Jacob. He discerned him not because
his hands were hairy as his brother Esau's hands. So he blessed him. And he said, Art thou my very
son Esau? Are you truly him? And he lied
again. He said, I am. And he said, Bring
it near to me, and I'll eat of my son's venison, that my soul
may bless thee. And he brought it near to him.
And he did eat, and he brought him wine, and he drank. And his
father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son.
And he came near and kissed him, and he smelled the smell of his
raiment. and blessed him, and said, See
the smell of my son, as is the smell of the field which the
Lord hath blessed. Therefore God give thee of the
dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn
and wine. Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee.
Be Lord over thy brethren, and let thy brother's sons bow down
to thee. Cursed be every one that cursed
thee. and blessed be every one that bless thee." Now there,
Jacob, that unworthy cheat and scoundrel, that deceiver, obtains
the blessing. Verse thirty, the thick plottings,
and it came to pass The thick plot thickens. Excuse me. 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. He brought it to his father and
said to his father, Let my father arise and eat of his son's venison,
that thy soul may bless me. And Isaac, his father, said to
him, Who are you? And he said, I'm thy son, thy
firstborn Esau. And Isaac trembled very exceedingly
and said, Who? Where is he that hath taken venison
and brought it me, and I've eaten all before him? Thou camest and
have blessed him. Yea, and he shall be blessed. This blessing is irreversible. Jacob has the blessing. Now, without doubt, this story
is a story of lying and deceit Fraud and cheating. And this
conduct cannot be excused. Rebecca was wrong in what she
did. Jacob was wrong in what he did. It was evil and God was not pleased
by this. But if that's all we see in this
story, we miss the main point. Now, every story in the Old Testament
has a gospel application. Kind of like the Psalms, when
you read the Psalms, they're all Messianic. They're all Christ
speaking first. Yes, David speaks. Yes, the other
writers speak. But first, it's Christ the Lord
speaking. And I think an example of this
in the New Testament to prove what I'm saying, that every story
refers to the gospel as the story of Abraham. Sarah telling Abraham,
you go into Hagar to have a child because I've been restrained
from bearing. And then she ends up having her own son, Isaac,
because God says, no, that child is not going to be the heir.
And Paul tells us that that's an allegory to teach us of the
difference between law and grace. Now, we wouldn't have known that
that's an allegory to teach us regarding law and grace unless
God said it was in the New Testament. And this is true regarding every
story. This story that I've just given from Genesis chapter 27
is an allegory. to teach us how an unworthy sinner
can obtain the blessing of God. Now, there are four characters
in this story, Isaac, Esau, Jacob, and Rebekah, and each of these
four characters serve as four types. Isaac is a type of the
Father, the one who blesses. I want God's blessing. Now, Isaac
is the type of the father, the one who blesses. Esau is a type
of that blessed one, the Lord Jesus Christ, who the father
is going to bless. Remember, Isaac wanted to bless
Esau and Christ is a type of Esau in that sense. Rebecca is
a type of the Holy Spirit in that she teaches Jacob how to
come into the father's presence. And Jacob is a type of the believer. Now, remember, this is a story
about how to get the Father's blessing. And I so much want
God's blessing, don't you? And I know I'm not worthy of
God's blessing, but oh, how I want it. Now, this story tells how
a sinner can obtain the blessing of God. Now, if I get God's blessing,
like Jacob, it will have to have been already determined by God. God determined before that Jacob
was the one who was going to be blessed. Remember, the elder
Esau is going to serve the younger. God determined that Jacob was
the one who was going to have the blessing. So if I'm going
to have the blessing, first, it's going to have to begin with
God determining to give it to me. And secondly, if I get it
like Jacob, I'm utterly unworthy, completely unworthy of God's
blessing. And like Jacob, if I'm seen only
to be who I am in and of myself, I won't get it. If Jacob would
have came into the Father's presence and said, I'm Jacob, he wouldn't
get the blessing. The Father would have driven
him out. He couldn't come as Jacob. He had to come as the
Father's favorite. He had to come as Esau. And the
only way he could obtain the blessing is if he came as Esau. Now, let's remember this chapter
now in light of that. In chapter 27, once again, I
want to go through this chapter and see what we can learn of
how to obtain God's blessing. Now, in the first four verses, Isaac says, I'm going to give
Esau the blessing. All of God's blessing, all of
the Father's blessing is to Christ. Isaac determined to give Esau
the blessing. And that is who God has determined
to bless. His blessed Son, the blessed
one in whom is all the Father's favor and all the Father's love. It was determined that Esau would
have the blessing. And then in verse 5, after he
made this determination, remember, Rebekah was listening in. And
Rebekah is a type of God, the Holy Spirit. And Rebekah heard
when Isaac spake to Esau, his son, she heard about this predetermined
blessing. And Esau went to the field to
hunt for venison to bring it. And Rebekah spake unto Jacob
her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy
brother. This is the Holy Spirit telling
of the father's favor to the son. And he's speaking to Jacob,
the believer. And look what she says. Verse
seven. 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. This is the Holy Spirit speaking
to the believer. Go now to the flock and fetch
me from them two kids of goats, and I will make them savory meat
for thy father, such as he loveth. Now, for me to obtain the favor
of the Father, the blessing of the Father, I'm going to have
to bring the same sacrifice that he saw dead. that Christ did,
is really, Christ brought Himself, I'm going to have to bring the
same sacrifice. Now notice she said, get me two kids of goats.
There's only one other place where two kids are mentioned,
that's on the Day of Atonement. The goat for the scapegoat and
the goat for atonement, two goats were used. So this is talking
about the sacrifice of Christ. For me to obtain God's blessing,
there's only one thing I can bring. The sacrifice of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The same sacrifice He brought,
which is Himself. When I come into the Father's
presence, all I bring is the blood of Christ. I don't bring
my works. I don't bring the fact that I'm a preacher. I don't
bring anything about me. I bring only the sacrifice. If I bring anything else, I'll
be rejected. Now, she says, I'm going to make
savory meat, two kids of goats, such as thy father loveth. Verse
10, And thou shalt bring it to thy father that he may eat, and
that he may bless thee before his death. You bring this sacrifice
that I'm teaching you of and you'll be blessed. And Jacob
said to Rebekah, now this sounds scary to him. And Jacob said
to Rebekah, his mother, behold, he saw my brother as a hairy
man and I'm a smooth man. I can't come on my own. I'm different. My father for
adventure will feel me and I shall seem to him as a deceiver and
I shall be a curse upon me and not a blessing. Now, I understand
Jacob's fear. He thought, if I'm found out
to be who I am, what I am in and of myself, all I'm going
to get is a curse. And, you know, coming into the
father's presence, I know if I'm seen any other way except
in Christ, I'll be cursed and not blessed. And having some
of the idea of home sinfulness, I understand why Jacob felt the
way he did. Verse 13. And his mother said
unto him, upon me be thy curse, my son, only obey my voice and
go fetch them me. And he went and fetched and brought
them to his mother, these two goats, and his mother made savory
meat such as his father loved. And Rebecca took goodly raiment
of her eldest son Esau, which was with her in the house, and
put them upon Jacob, her younger son. Now this represents the
goodly raiment of Esau, the goodly raiment of Christ, the righteousness
of Christ being placed upon Jacob. The only way Jacob could come
into the presence of the Father is if he has the goodly raiment
of Esau. The only way a believer can come
into the presence of God is if they have the goodly raiment,
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how they
come into his presence. Verse 16, And she put the skins
of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth
of his neck. In order for me to come into the presence of
God, I'm going to have to feel like the Lord Jesus Christ. And
she gave the savory meat and the bread which she had prepared
into the hand of her son Jacob. So here Jacob comes with the
same sacrifice of his brother. He's got the clothing of his
brother on and he feels like his brother. He comes as his
brother in order to obtain the blessing. He doesn't come as
he is in himself. He comes as his brother. And
when I come into God's presence, I come only in the Lord Jesus
Christ and no other way. Now, verse 18, And he came unto
his father and said, My father. And he said, Here am I, who art
thou my son? And Jacob said unto his father,
I am Esau, thy firstborn. I have done according as thou
badest me. Arise, I pray thee, sit in need
of my venison, that thy soul may bless me. Now, when God says,
Who are you? When I come into his presence,
There's only one answer I can give. Christ. But you're not Christ. But I'm
in Christ. I'm in Christ. And I only come
in Him. I don't come beside Him. I don't
come behind Him. I don't come in front of Him.
I come in Him so that when Christ comes, I come. This is the name
wherewith she shall be called, speaking of every believer, The
Lord our righteousness. That's how I come. The Lord our
righteousness. I come in Christ. I don't say
I'm Todd. I come in the Lord Jesus Christ, which is what Paul
meant when he said, oh, that I may win Christ and be found
in him. When God comes looking for me,
there's only one place I want to be found in the Lord Jesus
Christ and Jacob. Said, I, Esau, thy firstborn,
I have done according as thou babest me. Arise, I pray thee,
sit in need of my venison, that thy soul may bless me. And Isaac
said unto his son, How is it that thou hast found it so quickly,
my son? And he said, Because the Lord thy God brought it to
me. And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that
I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not.
Now for me to have God's blessings, I'm going to have to feel exactly
like the Lord Jesus Christ. Once again, I've got to be in
Him. There's no other way I can come.
And Jacob went near unto Isaac, his father, and he felt him,
and he said, The voice is Jacob's voice. But the hands are the
hands of Esau, and he discerned him not, because his hands were
hairy as his brother Esau's hands, so he blessed him. Now, for me
to obtain the blessing, there's going to have to be no discernible
difference between me and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now how in
the world can that be? Only as I am in him. If a mother is within a baby's
womb, and that mother walks into the room, who do I see? I don't
see the baby, I see the mother. The baby is in the mother. I
don't discern anything but the Mother. In the Lord Jesus Christ,
oh, that I come only in His presence, so that there's no discernible
difference. Verse 24, He said, Art thou my
very Son, Esau? And he said, I am. And when God says, are you my
very Son Christ? The only answer I can give is,
I am. But isn't that a lie? No, it's
not. I'm in Him. I'm united to Him. The Scripture
says, as He is, so are we in this world. I'm in Him. And the only answer I can give
is, I am in Him. And he said, bring it near to
me, and I will eat of my son's venison, that my soul may bless
thee. And he brought it near to him, and he did eat, and he
brought him wine, and he drank. And his father Isaac said, Come
near now, and kiss me, my son. And he came near, and kissed
him, and he smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him,
and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field
which the Lord hath blessed. Therefore God give thee the dew
of heaven. He had taken the blessing. and
the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine. Let
people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee. Be Lord over
thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow to thee. Cursed be everyone
that curseth thee, and blessed be everyone that blesseth thee."
Now, Jacob is the great type of the believer. And if I'm going
to be blessed by God, I'm going to be blessed the same way he
was. I'm going to have to have Christ's arraignment, His righteousness. I'm going to have to smell like
Christ. I'm going to have to feel like Christ. I'm going to
have to be Christ. And when the Lord spoke of His
people, He said, Inasmuch as you've done it to the least of
these, My brethren, you've done it to Me. You see, every believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ, comes to the Father precisely the way
Jacob came. Now, in this story of fraud and
deceit, and that's what it is, let's call it for what it is.
You know, the Bible doesn't try to hide men's character or flaws
or errors or sins. In this story of fraud and deceit,
I see how I can come, sinful and deceitful as I am in and
of myself, I can see how I can come to the Father and get all
of His blessing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we have this message
on cassette tape, on DVD or CD. If you call the church or write
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Knopper praying
that God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. That's
our prayer. If you request a copy of this
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