I want you to turn to three places.
I want you to take your Bibles from Romans, Chapter 9, and hold
it there. Then I want you to turn your
Bibles over to Genesis, Chapter 25, and then we'll go to Genesis
28. Romans, Chapter 9. We've been looking through the
Scriptures at some pictures of the Lord saving, pictures of
salvation. And let's look at another one
this afternoon. In Romans chapter 9, and let's
begin reading here in verse 10. We're going to look at Jacob.
Last week and the week before that, the last couple of weeks,
we looked at a bride for Isaac. Remember that? When Abraham sent
his servant to Mesopotamia to get a bride for Isaac. Rebekah came back. Isaac and
Rebekah was married. They had a son by the name of
Jacob. And this is who we want to look at tonight. We want to
look at a couple of weeks at Jacob. And let's see what the
New Testament says about him first. Here in Romans chapter
9, and look in verse 10. And not only this, but when Rebekah
also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, for the
children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto
her, The elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob
have I loved, but Esau have I hated." Now here's two passages of scripture,
here's two sayings that I want to mainly look at this afternoon
with you. One was quoted over in Malachi
chapter 1, and you know that very well. You probably memorized
this, where the Lord said, Was not Esau Jacob's brother? Yet I loved Jacob and hated Esau. That's the scripture that Paul
is quoting. The other passage, It was said
unto her, The elder shall serve the younger, is found here in
Genesis chapter 25. I want to read that to you before
we go to the text I want to look at. Look here in Genesis chapter
25 and look in verse 21. This is concerning the conception
and the birth of this man Jacob. Genesis chapter 25 and look in
verse 21. And Isaac entreated the Lord
for his wife because she was barren. She had no children.
She couldn't conceive. And the Lord was entreated on
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 thy vows. And
the one people shall be stronger than the other people. And the
elder shall serve the younger. Esau shall serve Jacob. Paul quoted that and that was
his meaning by it. Now in verse 24, 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 that is why they called his
name Esau. He had hair, and it was red,
and it was like a blanket all over him. It was a covering,
a hairy covering, and therefore they called him Esau, a hairy
covering. And after that, his brother came
out and his hand took hold on Esau's heel, and his name was
called Jacob. And Isaac was three-score years
old, sixty years old, when he was born. They called him Jacob. Because when he came out to Isaac
and Rebekah's amazement, Jacob had hold of the heel of his brother. And why did he do that? He was
trying to hold him back. Jacob wanted out first. What was the significance coming
out first? The firstborn. The firstborn got the birthright. He got the blessing. So Jacob
was a hold of his brother's heel trying to pull him back so he
could get out first. So they called him Jacob. That
means heel tripper. Later on they began to add something
to it and it meant supplant or deceiver. He wanted to trip his
brother up. Now look over here in the 28th
chapter and let's look in verse 10 through verse 14. Verse 10 through verse 14. 28, verse 10, And Jacob went
out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. And he lighted
up on a certain place, and pared there all night, because the
sun was set. And he took up the stones of
that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in
that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold, a
ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven,
And behold, the angels of God ascended and descended on it.
And behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God
of Abraham your father, the God of Isaac. The land whereon thou
liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed. And thy seed
shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad
to the west, to the east, to the north, and to the south,
and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth
be blessed. And behold, I am with thee, and
will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will
bring thee again to this land. I will not leave thee until I
have done that which I have spoken unto thee of." Now, Jacob was
a heel catcher from his birth. He tripped his brother up from
his birth. He was this way by birth. Now,
you can understand why Rebecca and Isaac would name him Jacob. He'll catch her. He'll trip her.
Because they were absolutely astounded when this newborn baby
came out trying to hold his brother in the womb. And wouldn't that
be amazing? I mean, here you have a child
And by his very nature, he tried to pull his brother back in so
he could get out first. To me, that's amazing. When I
read that today, I thought how amazing this is that an infant
that could not have been thinking as you and I think, you know,
that it'd be rational to determine cause and process things. So
it was by his very nature was a supplant. By his very nature,
he wanted to trip his brother up. and be born first to have
this birthright. So he plotted by any means he
could from this birth until the time that he got the blessing.
He plotted to get this birthright and to have the blessing. Now, if we read in the chapters
preceding chapter 28, you'll remember what brings us up to
our text here. Remember when Jacob, he was a
mommy's boy. He loved to lay around in the
house. His mommy petted on him. He was so soft and tender. Esau
was a hairy man. He was a rough man. He hunted.
Jacob loved to sit and eat his mother's cooking. She taught
him her recipes. And one day he was working on
his mother's recipe and had a nice bowl of pottage fixed up and
some bread. Well, here comes Esau from the
field. He was so weak and faint, he says, I'm going to die. I'm
going to die. And you remember what Jacob said
to him? Give me your birthright, and I'll let you have some food.
And he said, I'm at the point of death. I'm going to faint,
and I'm going to die, and what good is this birthright going
to do? He despised his birthright. But I tell you, I know he did
that. I know he despised his birthright. But wasn't Jacob
a crook? You know Esau, Esau knew that
if I don't trade my birthright to him, he's going to let me
die here. And he's got the birthright anyway.
That's what a sorry supplanter this man was. He was a crook
and a liar and a deceiver. So Esau said, okay, you give
me that bowl of pottage and I'll give you my birthright. And Jacob
said, you swear to it. You swear to it. See how he was
thinking? He knows if I just give somebody
my word, it ain't going to mean anything. You're going to swear
to it. He swore to it. And he did. And he despised his
birthright. But here was a man that wanted
the birthright so bad, he was willing to let his brother die
or trade him out of it. When he got the blessing, remember
when he got the blessing? You think he's not a crook? You
think this man's not a crook and a deceiver? A supplanter? that he don't seek to trip people
up. Remember when he got old enough and his dad was going
to die, Isaac was blind and he was ready, preparing to die,
and he and his mother's advice and his mother's prompting, but
he did it. She put this goat skin on his arms because his
brother was a hairy man and He put on some of Esau's brother's
clothes. He come in to his dad, and his
dad said, who is this? He said, I'm Esau. We'll see
next week why the Lord asked Jacob, his name. What's your
name? And he said, my name's Jacob.
Not Esau? Not Esau, no, it's Jacob. Why
did the Lord ask you that? Because he went in and lied to
his daddy. And his daddy said, come here
and let me smell of you. And he did. He said, well, you
smell like Esau. Well, he had Esau's clothes on.
He said, you feel like Esau. He had that old boat skin on.
But he said, you got the voice of Jacob. No, he said, I'm Esau. I'm Esau. Well, he deceived his
dad, lied to his dad. He was going to get this blessing.
He was going to get this birthright by hook or crook. He was serving
his own end. Well, this brings us to our text. This brings us here to our text.
He lied to his dad. He deceived his dad. He got the
birthright. He got the blessing by hook and
by crook. But you know, it caught up with
him. Finally, it all come tumbling
down on this deceiver's head. His brother said, I'm going to
kill him. When I bury my dad, I'm going to kill him. His dad
and mom got him up there in the house and said, Jacob, you've
got to get out of here. You've got to leave the house.
Oh, when he thought about leaving his mommy, tears filled his eyes
and his lip began to tremble. Your brother's going to kill
you. He loaded up just a few things, all basically he had,
and he said it himself. I crossed over this Jordan with
my staff. Here's a man that left so quickly,
he didn't even take a satchel of food with him. For as we know,
he didn't have a change of clothes with him, just my staff. And
now he finds himself out here in the middle of nowhere, laying
on the ground with a canopy of the sky and the stars over his
head. Rocks for pillows to rest his
head on. Lonely, alone, miserable, and
helpless. And you know something? That's
right where God wanted him to be. right where God wanted him
to be. For the first time in this man's
life, God is going to teach him something about free and sovereign
grace. All of his life, all of his life,
by hook or crook, he's wanting this birthright. He's wanting
this blessing. Any way to get it. self-serving,
lying, and deceiving his dad, deceiving his brother, deceiving
his own self. And now God is going to teach
him something about his free and sovereign grace in Christ. You know something? Wouldn't
it have been much easier for Jacob, much easier for Rebekah
to remember what the Lord had told Rebekah before he was ever
born? The elder shall serve the younger. Oh, he got the birthright, didn't
he? And he got the blessing, but in spite of himself. He would
have got it anyway if he had simply believed and trusted what
the Lord told him to begin with. The elder Esau shall serve the
younger. Aren't we the same way, brothers
and sisters? Aren't we the same way? blinded by our sins. We're just
like old deceitful Jacob. We're sons of Jacob. We're born
depraved. We live. The Lord comes to us
in His Word and says, I'll save you by my grace. And what do
we say? Well, if I can do something to
get it. I'll justify you freely by my
grace. Well, I'm going to have to accept
it Anything we can glory in, any way that we can deceive ourselves
or do something, do something to bring something to pass. And
God has to bring us the same place He brought Jacob. Lonely,
alone and helpless, lying in the dust to reveal to us, I'm
going to save you by All Jacob had been trying to
get for all these years was the blessing. And look here how the
Lord answers him in verse 13. And behold, the Lord stood above
it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham, thy father, and the
God of Isaac, the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give
it. That's what he purposed to do
all along, hadn't he? I tell you, we come one way,
don't we? We come one way. We come one way. Saved by God's
grace in Christ. Everything we have, He gives
us so freely. And can you remember your unconverted
days? My goodness, not even your unconverted
days. Remember today. Don't we still plague with trying
to earn something? Trying to deserve something. Trying to merit something. And
we seek any way we can to get God to do something for us. Aren't
we a bunch of Jacobs? Here's where Jacob needed to
be, laying on this ground, helpless. And here's where God is going
to reveal this to him. And here in verse 12 and verse
13, He dreamed, and behold, a ladder stood upon the earth, and the
top of it reached to heaven. Behold, the angels of God ascending
and descending, ascending and descending upon it." Now, we
know who this ladder is, don't we? It's Jesus Christ, isn't
it? It's Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ
in His humanity. He's a man upon this earth's
terms, and He's our God in heaven. He's the Son of Man. And He's
the Son of God. When He was upon this earth talking
to Nicodemus, He said, I'm in heaven. He was upon this earth
in His humanity. He was in heaven in His divinity,
in His deity. While He was upon this earth
being handled and looked upon and heard, He was in the bosom
of His heavenly Father. He is indeed this ladder that
extends all the way from this earth and all the way to heaven. And He not only is the way to
get from this earth to heaven, He is the way that all of heaven's
blessings are communicated to us. Did you notice how when Jacob
looked up and he saw the end that was in heaven, did you see
who was there standing over that ladder? The Lord God of heaven. And he was speaking from heaven,
and Jacob heard him speak standing upon earth. That's what Christ
is. God has spoken to us through
His Son. God blesses us with everything
that He requires of us, everything He has for us, through His Son. And when life is over, how are
we going to get up to heaven? Through His Son. He's the ladder,
isn't He? He's this ladder to heaven. You
remember when Nathanael came to the Lord Jesus, there and
John won, and they went to Nathanael and said, we found him of whom
Moses speak and that prophet. We found him. We found him. He's
from up in Galilee. Nathanael said, well, it ain't
him. It ain't him. Because nothing good ever comes
out of Galilee. Well, he said, come over here and see. Nathanael
had been over there under a tree praying, I think, for what he
was doing. But he went over there and he came up to where the Lord
Jesus was. And the Lord said, Behold, an
Israelite indeed, in whom is no doubt. I wonder why He called
him an Israelite. You know who Israel was? That
was Jacob after the Lord changed his name. And here he looked
at Nathanael and he said, Boy, you're a son of Jacob. You're
an Israelite indeed. He said, How do you know me?
How do you know me? The Lord said, When you're over
there under that fig tree, I said, well, they're with you. That's
probably who Nathanael was praying to. Oh, let me know the Son of
God, the King of Israel. Reveal Him to my heart. Now he
goes over there and the Lord Jesus looked at him and said,
I know who you are. He said, well, you're the Son
of God. You're the Son of God. I've been praying that God reveal
you to me. You're the Son of God. And this
is the statement the Lord made. He said, because you've seen
this, you marvel. He said, you're going to see greater things than
this. You're going to see the heavens open. and the angels
of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. So He's
this ladder, isn't He? Those ministering spirits that
are sent forth to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation,
they're under the authority of Jesus Christ. They're sent in
His name to speak to us of His grace and goodness and protect
us and guide us in the way. So this is the ladder. The latter. It's Jesus Christ. And through
Him, everything is so freely given to us, graciously given
to us. We don't have to manipulate to
get it. We don't have to deceive people
to get it. We don't have to think we're
trying to deceive God to get it. We just believe Him. We just
believe Him. What else can you do when He
appears and said, the land that you're lying on, I give unto
thee. I give unto you. I give unto
you. Wouldn't it be much better, brothers
and sisters, instead of deceiving ourselves and plotting and all
of that junk, wouldn't it be just much, much, much better
just to believe Him? We just can't do it, though,
can we? We've got to be raw here. Helpless and poor, laying in
the dark, brought to the end of our connivance and our deceitful
ways. That's the first thing. The elder
shall serve the younger. You might well believe that.
If you're a child of God, you might well believe that. Believe
His promises. Stop trying to earn something from God. Stop
trying to do something to impress Him. Stop trying to figure this
out yourself in your own human, fallen, silly nature. And just
believe Him. Sweetheart, listen, what did
I tell you back there? I said Esau was going to serve
Jacob. Leave it to me. I'll bring that
to pass. Trust me. Rest in the promise. I'll bring it to pass. It's going
to come to pass anyway. You might as well rest in the
promise and let God handle it, ain't you? This second little phrase here
that I mentioned comes into play in his conversion. The children
being not yet born, and having done neither good nor evil, it
was said unto Jacob the younger, Jacob have I loved." Jacob have
I loved. Here was a supplanter, a deceiver
by his very nature, a liar. He is a supplanter by his nature. I am amazed at that. I'm amazed
at it. By his practice, he was a liar
and deceived his own daddy. He was a wretched man. Esau,
I know the Bible says Esau was a propane sinner, and I tell
you Jacob was just as bad. Jacob was just as bad. It seemed like in some sense
Esau honored his dad more than Jacob did. We never read that
Esau lied to his dad, but Jacob sure did. This man was so sorry
in and of himself, there was only one hope for this man. He had only one thing going for
him. Can somebody tell me what it
was? God loved him. God loved him. Ain't that wonderful? That's the only thing he had
going for him. What else did he have going for him, Glenn?
Can you name me one thing he had going for him? I bet you
if you'd have talked to him in that midnight hour, laying there
under the stars, scared to death, poor and broken, I bet you if
you'd have asked him, what have you got going for you, young
man? I'm not missing my mommy. I ain't got nothing. I'm going
over to the land, but they don't even know me. And it's a long
way. Look, the blister's on my feet, and I'm scared to death.
What's that howling? Oh, mommy, I want my mommy. One thing, one
thing only, going for this man. Only one hope for somebody like
this. God loved him. But you know something? It was
more than that. It's more than that. I mean, God loved him unconditionally. It wasn't just that God loved
him. God loved him before he was barned. The cause of God's
love was found in God, and not in Jacob. And therefore, when
Jacob was barned and began this miserable deception and supplanting
and conniving, God never ceased to love him. Why? Because God never loved him for
what he saw in him to begin with. The cause of God loving him was
found in himself before he was ever barned. And if the cause
of God loving a man is found in God, then he'll always be
found in God. And that love will never change.
A virgin asked the lady of this
congregation one time, an old lady, said, Dear sister, do you
believe the Lord loved you before you were born? She said, If he
hadn't loved me before I was born, he'd sure never loved me
after I was born. Do you feel that way about yourself? But here's the precious, precious
blessing behind this. When God said He loved Jacob,
He said, Jacob is not barren yet. Jacob has not done any good,
and Jacob has not done any evil. I don't love Jacob because of
anything I see in Jacob. I don't even hate Esau because
I see anything evil in him. I love Jacob because I love him. The cause of it is found in my
heart, in my being. Isn't that wonderful, brothers
and sisters? Have you ever heard of such a
lie? Amazing love! How could it be that He could
love me? God has always loved His people
in the Lord Jesus Christ, and He will never cease to love them.
He did not cease to love them when they fell in Adam, and He
does not cease to love them when He sees them falling and rolling
in their own personal sins. Listen to these passages of Scripture.
Romans 5, 8. God commendeth His love toward
us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God loved us when we were sinners.
I tell you, He loved us before we were sinners. Because He loved
us before we fell in Adam. Romans 5, when we were yet enemies. Enemies. We were reconciled to
God with the death of His Son. When we were yet without strength
in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. God loves the sinners. He loved the enemies. He loved
the ungodly. My word. My word. Do you ever think of that? Ain't
that amazing love? Listen to Galatians 2.20. I am
crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me, the life which I now live. I live by faith of
the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." Loved
me. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Revelation
5-1, He loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood.
John 13-1, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved
them until the end. I have loved you with an everlasting
love, and having loved you, I'll never cease to love you. I'll
love you until the end. That's the only hope this man
had. And I'm telling you what, brothers and sisters, that's
the only hope even for this guy. We have these people talk about
the general love of God and that's all God's love is. It's just
a general love like a blanket that's just spread over everybody
without any exception. Well, I'll tell you this. I'll
tell you what kind of love the Bible teaches about this redeeming
love. It's particular. It's special. It's effectual. It's everlasting. When God loves in Christ with
this redeeming love, He chose, He redeems, He calls, He saves,
and He keeps. If God ever loves you, it's because
He's always loved you. And if He loves you now in Christ,
He'll never cease to love you. Why was Jacob saved? God loved
him. And I've asked this so many times.
What does the love of God have to do with your salvation? Everything. Everything. Doesn't it, God?
Everything. Everything. Here in verse 15,
I want you to notice this. In chapter 28, look in verse
15. I want you to look at these precious
promises. But there's more than just these promises. There's
something else even deeper than just the promises that He made.
Here's the promise He made to Jacob. And remember who this
man was. Behold, I am with thee. Well, ain't that a promise? I
will keep thee in all places where you go. I will bring thee
again to this land. I will not leave thee until I
have done that which I have spoken to thee of. Look what promises.
I'm with you. I'll keep you. I'll bring you. I will not leave you until I
have fulfilled everything. But you know there's something
else behind just being with you and bringing you and doing for
you. There's something else here.
You look at this close, real close, there's something very
intimate here. Did you notice this? Six times,
six times, the word is used or implied, I, I, I. Six times. Six times is the word
the used. It's not just a matter of God
making promises that I'm going with you, I'll never forsake
you, I'll keep you by my power, I'll bring you up to heaven.
It's even more than those precious promises, and that's wonderful.
But there's more than that there. Why does He even make these promises? Why is it so important to God
to make these promises to Jacob? Because there's this intimate
relationship between these two. God, the triune Redeemer, and
this poor Jacob. I and thee. Did you see that? Six times. Six times. I and six
times thee. I and thee. It's this love. It's this union. It's not just
about the promises. Oh, it's about that. They're
wonderful. And this faith that's within us gets a hold of these
promises. And we live upon them. And we
say, Fade, fade each earthly joy. But there's something deeper
here, isn't there? It's who makes these promises.
And it's how he feels about the one that he's making them to.
There's this thing between I and thee. And it's this bond, this
eternal bond of love. I will not leave thee because
I love you. I'll go with you because I love
you. I'll keep you in all places because
I love you. I'll bring you again to this
place because I love you. That's what's behind it all,
isn't it? What would happen, brothers and
sisters, to the very being of our Redeemer, if He lost one
of His children. He would cease to be God because
He would cease to love. If He's a sovereign Lord that
can be overcome, He's not sovereign. And God is love in His very nature. It's more than just an attribute.
He is love. And if he can love one day and
cease to love the next day, or something or somebody can separate
the object of his love from him, then he of necessity must cease
to be God. Let me show you that and close
it. Look in Romans chapter 8. Look in Romans chapter 8. Jacob have I loved. And look
what Paul says in Romans 8, verse 38. Look at this. Very familiar Scripture
to us. I am persuaded. I am persuaded. I am convinced that neither death
nor life. But what else is there, brothers
and sisters? What else is there? That's it, isn't it? You're not
leaving your dad. If you're not dead, you're living. And I'm
persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, fallen
angels or elect angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. If you found yourself at the
end of your way, and you're laying on the ground, your poor mouth's
been stopped, you're poor and you're needy, then that's a good
place to be. Because it's there that you learn
that God saves by His grace. There's where we learn that God
blesses us freely in Christ Jesus and for Christ Jesus' sake. And when we know that we're sinners,
we feel it, we see it in ourselves, there's the very place the love
of God in Christ is magnified to us. He does not love you because
of anything He sees to be in you. He loves you because He
loves you. Ain't that wonderful? Are you a son of Jacob? Oh, you sons of Jacob, you poor
worms. I tell you, God said some wonderful
things about you. He said some wonderful things
about you.