[0:00] That's all of our notices for this week, so we're going to turn to our Bible reading. Willie Phillip, our senior minister, is going to be preaching God's Word to us shortly, and he's continuing in the book of Genesis. So do grab a Bible. If you don't have one, we have some visitor's Bibles spread around at the sides, the back. So do grab one and follow along as we pick up where we left off last time in Genesis chapter 25, the very first book of the Bible, Genesis chapter 25, and we're going to pick up in verse 21, reading through to the end of the chapter. And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife because she was barren. And the Lord grunted his prayer, and Rebecca, his wife, conceived. The children struggled together within her, and she said, If it is thus, why is this happening to me?
[1:06] So she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said to her, Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided. The one shall be stronger than the other.
[1:18] The older shall serve the younger. When her days to give birth were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb. The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak. So they called his name Esau. Afterward, his brother came out with his hand holding Esau's heel. So his name was called Jacob. Isaac was 60 years old when she bore them. When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man dwelling in tents. Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game. But Rebecca loved Jacob. Once when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the fields and he was exhausted. And Esau said to Jacob, Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted. Therefore his name was called
[2:22] Edom. Jacob said, Sell me your birthright now. Esau said, I am about to die. Of what use is a birthright to me? Jacob said, Swear to me now. So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob.
[2:43] Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and ruse and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. Amen. This is God's word, and we'll return to it shortly.
[3:00] Well, this... We'll do turn, if you would, to the passages we read together there in the end of Genesis chapter 25.
[3:16] Last week in verses 1 to 26 here, we saw the wonderful constancy of our covenant God, a God we can trust, we must trust, always. But in these final verses, of the chapter, what's underlined for us is really the other side of that truth.
[3:36] That is that we must never distrust and far less despise him. We cannot treat this God with contempt. And the truth is that this passage tells us that those that do will forfeit the privileges that are offered to him by God's redeeming promises.
[3:58] Verse 23 speaks, doesn't it, very clearly of God's sovereign grace, grace that humbles all of us. Jacob was not chosen because of his works, but because of God's call, even before his birth.
[4:13] And God works his salvation his way, and we must bow to his sovereignty. But the question arises, will this family accept that?
[4:25] It's hard, isn't it, for human beings to accept that? We don't want to submit ourselves to only one way of righteousness. We don't like a way that gives us no sense at all of our own superiority, our own self-worth.
[4:43] We don't like something that forces us to see that everything we have is sheer grace, only by submission to God's mercy. And actually, it's every human heart that the Apostle Paul is describing in Romans 10, verse 3, when he says of the family of Israel that seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness.
[5:07] But God's salvation for all people will come only one way, and it's his way, through his chosen vehicle of promise. And what verses 27 to 34 here warn us is that sadly, even within the professing household of faith, even within the household of faith, God's promise can be despised and can be rejected.
[5:31] God is sovereign, but he sovereignly makes his people to be responsible to him. And so, if the privileges of God's covenant are scorned, then, yes, they can be forfeited.
[5:47] Now, a lot of preachers in this passage focus very much on Jacob. They like to berate Jacob for his scheming, for his deceit, and so on. But that is not actually the focus of the writer here.
[6:01] There is implicit criticism, I think, of Jacob, as there is of Isaac, and indeed of Rebecca. But what this story shows us very plainly is that what God has promised, that the elder will serve the younger, will come to pass, despite all this family's failings, because God's grace is persistent, it is tenacious, and it will overcome a multitude, a multitude of sins.
[6:26] But not all sin. God's grace will not overlook determined refusal of that grace.
[6:39] Mercy is not received. It will not be effectual. And eventually, that mercy will be withheld. The last words of this chapter are decisive.
[6:51] Look at them. They're chilling. Thus, Esau despised his birthright. He showed contempt for the covenant of God, and therefore he showed contempt for the God of the covenant.
[7:06] And that's what these verses lay out for us. A prophesied division unfolding now in history, and a culpable despising that is unveiled for us here.
[7:19] Look first at verses 27 and 28. They show us this division unfolding. On the surface, these verses seem to be just about the unfolding contrast in character of the twins in a trivial way, but they're much deeper than that.
[7:34] They betray a deep, deep reality of a deepening conflict over the covenant, and a conflict indeed with the covenant God himself.
[7:44] Verse 27 encapsulates the fulfillment of the prophecy of verse 23, the dividing from the womb of the two brothers, two nations even, two peoples.
[7:56] And even through childhood and adolescent times, that contrast in character seems to be being obvious here. Esau, we're told, was an outdoor man.
[8:08] He was a man of the field, a man of the wild. He was a hunter. Jacob, by contrast, it says, was a quiet man. It's a difficult word, rather ambiguous. It generally means single-minded.
[8:20] It generally means upright. It's used very often of Job, for example. And here it is used in contrast to Esau's rather wild and rugged ways.
[8:30] He could maybe translate it as being suggested to translate it civilized or cultured. His place was among the tents with the flocks, with the livestock. He was a shepherd. He was a pastoralist, as we'll see as the story unfolds.
[8:43] And it's worth noting, if you remember, that the Bible generally has a very negative view of hunters. Remember back to Genesis chapter 10, Nimrod, the mighty hunter, whose city was Babel, the center of that defiant civilization built against God.
[9:00] So this description of Esau as a hunter certainly has ominous spiritual overtones. Moses' readers would certainly pick that up. As would they pick up the description of Jacob unfolding in this story as a pastoralist, as a shepherd.
[9:14] It's no accident, is it, that the God of Israel, and indeed the Messiah of Israel, the seed of Jacob, would be called, well, not a hunter, but a shepherd. But notice, it's not that we're being told here, somehow, that Jacob was more worthy than Esau.
[9:30] In a sense, actually, it's the opposite of that. Because in the eyes of the world, it's Esau, the firstborn, the man of might and strength, the hunter. He's the one who seems far superior.
[9:43] It's like today, isn't it? The adverts, the magazine covers, they're not full of pictures of bookish, bespectacled academic types, are they? They're full of Esaus with a six-pack and the biceps, a mighty hunter.
[9:58] And that's what's seen as success, as value in the eyes of the world. Esau is a man of the world. He cut a much finer figure in the world's eyes. And it seems, if you look at verse 28, also in his father's eyes, Isaac loved Esau.
[10:16] That doesn't mean he didn't love Jacob, but he seemed to favor Esau because, notice, he ate of his game. Now, this isn't a text about parenting, much as people might want to use it as that, from moralizing about the dangers of parental favoritism and so on.
[10:37] But it's not about that, although I think the writer is hinting, isn't he, that something is not entirely all well in Isaac's priorities in life. And the Bible's very honest, isn't it, about the failings of the people of faith.
[10:49] It doesn't airbrush anything out. I think that is true here with Isaac. Bruce Walkie says, Adam failed in eating, Noah in drinking, and Isaac a gourmand in tasting, as we'll see later on.
[11:04] What we have here is a trailer for Isaac's later embarrassing entrapment in chapter 27, when he's deceived and entrapped precisely because of his weakness for his son's gourmet venison casserole.
[11:19] And actually, even worse, it may explain much about what Esau, his favorite son, had learned about priorities in life from his father. Which seemed to lead him then to despise and discard his birthright for the sake of satisfying his stomach.
[11:38] Isaac had once been a great man of earnest and committed prayer. We read verse 21. He prayed faithfully for over 20 years for God to fulfill his promises.
[11:49] He never deviated to concubines, to carnal temptations. And yet now, over the decades, it does seem that, well, it's what Jesus called in his parable, the cares of the world and the delights of riches.
[12:01] It seemed that that had choked him and stifled that previous prayerful covenant focus. And of course, that's not uncommon, is it?
[12:13] How many men are as keen in prayer, as committed to gospel outreach when they're 55, as they are when they're 25? Quite a challenge, isn't it, to us men?
[12:26] But Isaac's taste for worldly delight seemed to have given him a soft spot for Esau, this son who reflected those same worldly appetites as the father. But, notice verse 28, Rebecca loved Jacob.
[12:43] There's a contrast again. Maybe Rebecca was the more spiritual of the two. Was she looking to Jacob because of what God had revealed to them in verse 23, about him being the chosen one?
[12:58] I think that probably is what the text is saying. Although, as we'll see in chapter 27, Rebecca is far from perfect, at best, like the best of us. Even good desires are tinged with sin, aren't they?
[13:11] But however we construe this, what surely is the deeper reality that these verses are portraying to us is this, the conflict surrounding God's covenant promise, even within the covenant family of faith.
[13:27] We just don't get the impression here, do we, that this is a family united in devotion to God's promise. Isaac seems resistant, doesn't he, to the idea of God supplanting Esau.
[13:41] And instead of helping to see Esau that he, like all of them, must submit to God's oracle, that the blessing must come through Jacob and his family, Isaac, Isaac seems to want to do God's salvation his way.
[13:53] That's what this story will show to us. He wants to persuade God that he knows better. He's got a better plan. And again, that is such a common thing for us to do.
[14:03] God reveals his way of faith for us, for our children. He tells us, doesn't he, to teach our children, to go on teaching them God's truth, to nurture them, to trust in a way and obey God's word, to nurture them in the admonition of faith.
[14:21] And yet, many Christian parents, many Christian youth workers want to do the opposite. No, don't give your kids too much Bible. Don't get too serious. It'll put them off. Go easy.
[14:31] Keep it light. And you see, the results of that kind of catastrophic thinking can be seen throughout so many churches today. A total absence of young people.
[14:45] What a mess we often make. These verses don't give us a very happy picture, do they, of covenant family life. A very sad follow-up to that beautiful chapter that we read in chapter 24 about Isaac and Rebecca coming together.
[14:59] Bruce Walkie says this, a marriage made in heaven can end in dysfunction when a spouse gives priority to taste in the mouth over voice in the heart, the voice of God through his word.
[15:14] And that's true, isn't it? And yet, doesn't this once again just serve to magnify to us the extraordinary grace and mercy of God? In this story, none of these four characters at all come across well without major defects.
[15:31] And yet, God has committed himself to this family. And to work through this family. And to make his purpose prevail through this family.
[15:43] And God's purpose will prevail despite all the sin, all the weakness of his people. But, sin does have consequences. And God won't be mocked.
[15:56] And that is what the sobering message of the next scene here is in verses 29 to 34. Because what we see here is a despising that's unveiled.
[16:09] The background, you see, of verses 27 and 28 pave the way for this story which on the surface just seems to be a compact over cooking. But again, it betrays a much deeper reality.
[16:20] And that is because of Esau's contempt for the covenant and for the God of the covenant. The scene that unfolds, if you look at verses 29 and 30, it suggests, I think, that this is very typical behavior of Esau.
[16:35] Esau charges into the camp for one of his hunting expeditions and he wants food and he wants it fast. Give me the red stuff, the red stuff. That's literally what it says. And it seems to be that this was a habitual mantra of Esau because you'll see the bit in the brackets.
[16:51] It tells us he had a nickname, Edom, which sounds like red in Hebrew, Adam. Esau is known as the guy who's always shouting for Adam, Adam, Adam, give me the Adam.
[17:05] You don't get called drunken duncan, do you, just because you've overdone it on the booze once. You don't get called Mack the Hack because just once in a football game you brought somebody down and gave away a penalty.
[17:16] It's a habitual thing. And that's why Esau was called Esau the Red. This was the way he always behaved. A man whose habitual focus was on the immediate needs of his body.
[17:31] He had the sort of mind that deferred to his body. As William still puts it, we expect it in animals but not in those created in the divine image who are given minds to control their bodies.
[17:44] So probably this scene had happened many, many times before but this time at least it was to become a moment of destiny. What does verse 31 signify, do you think?
[17:58] Lots of commentators slam Jacob here. Oh, Jacob's taking the devil's shortcut and so on. Well, that may be so but I'm not so sure. John Calvin is much more generous to Jacob and I think the text is more generous to Jacob.
[18:14] Yes, Jacob does seem to exploit Esau's situation of hunger and Calvin says who would not condemn Jacob for his inhumanity but here's the thing, what kind of a question is Jacob's question in verse 31 do you think?
[18:30] Sell me your birthright now. Perhaps he's jesting. Yes, yes, Esau, you're dying of hunger again. Okay then, you might as well give me everything you have.
[18:41] You're not going to need it, are you, if you're dead? Or, could it be a more serious question? Could it be a test to see just how much Esau does actually care if at all?
[18:55] But what was surely to be the central concern of both of these brothers, the whole family indeed, God's covenant. I'm not sure, it's hard to be sure. But even if Jacob's motivation was wrong, and I'm not sure it was, there's no deception here, is there?
[19:13] It's just plain talking. Even if his, even his motivation was wrong, his desire, his sense of value is surely right. He's seeking to confirm himself, isn't he, in the truth of the promise that was made by God about him before his birth.
[19:34] The younger would be the one inheriting the promise. As Calvin puts it, he wants to more fully establish the certainty of his own election. In other words, whatever Jacob may lack in his method, he is seeking to value the thing that God values and what God has taught him to value.
[19:57] The birthright, the privilege of the firstborn. You see, the firstborn was a privileged status. Every firstborn belonged to the Lord. the Israelite people knew that through Moses.
[20:07] But it was much, much more than just about possessions. It was about position. It was about the future. And so, its value was always a matter of faith and trust in God.
[20:19] And in this family, you see, the one who possessed the birthright would inherit the blessings of the covenant made to Abraham, passed on to Isaac, and now, in God's word, to be passed on to Jacob.
[20:32] Jacob. So, whatever we may think of Jacob, what the text is telling us here is absolutely clear. Esau, Esau cared nothing at all for this greatest of divine blessings.
[20:49] Not once, not twice, but three times we're told that so clearly. Verse 32, of what use is a birthright to me? Verse 33, he sold his birthright.
[21:00] Verse 34, thus Esau despised his birthright. And more than that, he did it without even giving a second thought to the gravity of what he was doing.
[21:11] Look at verse 34, he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Having satisfied his appetite, says John Calvin, Esau did not consider that he had sacrificed a blessing far more valuable than a hundred lives to purchase a repast which would be ended in half an hour.
[21:30] And I think Derek Kidner is absolutely on the money when he says this chapter does not comment thus Jacob supplanted his brother but so Esau despised his birthright.
[21:49] And through this episode where no doubt each brother's conduct is far from perfect, nevertheless God brings to light doesn't he what is hidden in both of their hearts.
[22:00] And in Esau's heart what is unveiled is a despising, a contempt for what God himself prizes above everything else in this world, the covenant promise of his grace.
[22:17] And he who despises God's covenant despises God himself. Esau despised his birthright. don't you think it's very significant?
[22:30] It's so very significant that these verses sit right alongside these other verses that so clearly and unequivocally speak about God's sovereign choice in election and predestination.
[22:42] We have verse 23 and we have verse 34 sitting right beside each other to remind us surely that yes God is sovereign in saving grace. It was not by works says Paul but because of God's call that Jacob was chosen because God has mercy.
[23:00] And yet at the same time we're also being told aren't we very clearly that human beings are responsible for their own perdition. Esau despised his birthright.
[23:13] God did not compel Esau to do anything he did not himself want to do. He cared nothing for it. He sold it willingly without any thought at all and thus he forfeited the blessing.
[23:29] Hebrews 12 verse 17 tells us very plainly he was unholy profanely selling his birthright for a single meal so he was rejected and found no opportunity to repent.
[23:43] The privileges the enormous privileges of God's grace can be forfeited even within the household of faith who are blessed to steward that very grace of the gospel to the world.
[24:00] Where there's refusal to submit to that grace and the way of grace and God's saving righteousness through Christ alone his way where that is despised and held in contempt it may be forfeited.
[24:16] And that's the powerful point that Paul makes so painfully isn't it through Romans chapter 9 to 11. It's the basis of the very sobering warnings that you find in the letter to the Hebrews.
[24:29] Individuals are responsible. Individuals who have received great privileges as belonging to the household of faith are even more responsible than all other human beings.
[24:41] Hebrews says to taste the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come and yet to hold in contempt the covenant of God to hold in contempt there for the Christ of God and the blood of Christ that is the greatest sin of all and it incurs the worst punishment of all and yet that was Esau he despised his birthright he had contempt for the covenant of God and therefore for the God of the covenant himself because he was determined in his desire to sacrifice that which is divine and eternal and ought to have been his greatest treasure for something that was merely temporary immediate it wasn't just a slip up it didn't just happen by accident it was purposeful it was definite verse 33 he swore an oath gladly solemnly confirming that contemptuous rejection of
[25:47] God's covenant privilege and all because the appetites of this world had so buried his appetite for God and for his promises and that's why in Hebrews chapter 12 Esau is held up as the very antithesis of the true faith laid out in Hebrews chapter 11 Abraham lived for a heavenly country not for an earthly reward Moses rejected the treasures of Egypt and he lived instead for the reward for the promise they set their hearts on the unseen on the future they endured as seeing him who is invisible but Esau saw only the visible the immediate the things of this world and not only Esau alas but many within even the New Testament covenant family the professing church of Christ Paul says many walk as enemies of the cross of
[26:48] Christ their God is their stomach and they glory in their shame with minds set on earthly things and their end also is destruction that's a real warning isn't it from the apostle of Christ to his readers in a New Testament church and the story tells us where that begins it begins in Isaac really allowing his spiritual appetite to be eclipsed by earthly ones and Esau his son entrenched those attitudes in habits that became literally an addiction to this world a love for the seen over the unseen and in the end a total loss of perspective on absolutely everything that really matters in life and that happens happens in the church sometimes yeah it is in the visibly destructive appetites things like drink and sex and drugs and none of us think that we're immune from these things either given the right circumstances but just as often it's in much more respectable appetites venison stew is hardly the wicked thing is it but it was
[28:07] Isaac's undoing often it's the golf club or it's the holiday home or it's idolizing our children's education some kind of self indulgence masquerading as oh quality time with the children or doing the right thing or finding time with others any one of these things can be can be perfectly good in itself but also very easily as Jesus says can become something that grows up and chokes and stifles and eventually kills all appetite for that all important birthright of eternity it doesn't it doesn't matter does it in the end what's going to be written on your tombstone but it will matter for all eternity whether the epitaph on your life that God says is he cherished his birthright or he despised his birthright and that's what this story is teaching us isn't it to people who profess to belong to the people of
[29:19] God it's a loving warning from God written for us and let me draw to a close with three applications that the Bible itself gives to us very clearly of this story the first is Paul's point in talking about this in Romans 9 to 11 and it's simple don't blame God don't blame God those who will not inherit the kingdom of God will suffer loss because they despise and they reject God's covenant of grace and their rejection by God in the end is the outworking of that in the end God grants the desires of our hearts no one will ever be able to say oh I wasn't elect it wasn't my fault no the Bible affirms absolutely the sovereign grace of God in election but it also affirms equally absolutely man's responsibility for rejecting
[30:19] God Esau did not want to be chosen he didn't care he looked with utter contempt on the covenant that is the most heinous rejection of God himself and God cannot but hate those who despise his covenant because it's to despise it's to hold in contempt the very salvation one at the cost of the blood of his own son and God cannot but turn his face away from those who profane the blood of Christ who outrage the spirit of grace that's what the apostle says in Hebrews 10 that's why our confession of faith the Westminster confession affirms that God has chosen in Christ unto everlasting glory out of his mere free grace and love those who are saved to the praise of his glorious grace but also that others he passes by to ordain them to dishonor and wrath for their sin for their sin
[31:31] Esau had no complaint Esau chose his destiny gladly Lord Jesus is just as clear in John chapter 6 he says all that the father give to me will come to me sheer sovereign grace but that sentence continues and whoever comes to me I will never cast out they must come he says this is the will of whom who sent me that I should lose nothing of all he has given me God is sovereign but again he goes on for this is the will of my father that everyone who looks to the son and believes in him should have eternal life we must believe Matthew 25 Jesus is just as clear no one who hears the terrible words from Jesus lips on the day of judgment depart from me you cursed into the eternal fire not one of them will go there because they stumbled by accident they will go there because like
[32:37] Esau they have despised the precious covenant of life the promise of God in Jesus Christ don't blame God there will be no one in hell who hasn't shown contempt for the blood of the covenant who hasn't outraged the spirit of grace don't blame God the second clear implication the New Testament gives of this story is to say don't be naive that's the application Paul gives in Galatians 4 and other places he tells us repeatedly division lies at the very heart of the story of God's kingdom and it has done from the very start and it will do right until the very end read Jesus teaching especially read the parables in Matthew 13 about the wheat and the tares about the good fish and the bad about the parable of the sore he tells these parables to tell us to expect that division visibly in the world now as people are challenged with the gospel as it confronts them and as it goes on challenging them throughout life people's choices and people's ongoing choices within the professing family of the church will affect their destiny and will reveal the truth about their hearts it will unveil where they are and where their hearts truly are whether they love
[34:05] God's covenant of grace or whether at heart they really despise and disdain it and so there will always be division unfolding between those who are imperfect they are do prize the promise of God above everything else in life and others who simply don't and so they'll always be enemies of true gospel people those who are true to the promise despite all their inadequacies all their sin but true to the promise of God and often don't be naive often the bitterest enemies are those who once shared close bonds of fellowship with gospel people trace Esau's line right through the scriptures and you'll see how these Edomites were exceptional enemies to Israel right through their history from the time when they did everything to refuse to allow Israel to pass through their territory at the time of the exodus to later on siding with the
[35:06] Babylonians as we saw in Ezekiel when they attacked Jerusalem and destroyed it right through the story of Esther Haman was very likely a descendant of Edom Herod who massacred the infants in the time of Christ Edomite blood a race of implacable enemies to the people of Christ but once sharing the same tents and sharing the same bread people of Esau just like the people of Ishmael nothing's changed here's something that John Stott wrote about Galatians 4 29 and the persecution of the spirit born by those born according to the flesh he says the persecution of the true church of Christian believers who trace their descent from Abraham is not always by the world who are strangers unrelated to us but by our half brothers religious people the nominal church it's always been so the Lord Jesus was bitterly opposed rejected mocked and condemned by all who dogged his footsteps and stirred up strife against them were the official church the
[36:17] Jews the monolithic structure of the medieval papacy persecuted all protestant minorities with ruthless unremitting ferocity and the greatest enemies of the evangelical faith today are often not unbelievers who when they hear the gospel often embrace it but the church the establishment the hierarchy Isaac is always mocked and persecuted by Ishmael and Jacob by Esau so don't be naive the spiritual seed of Esau and of Ishmael are going to be alive and kicking within the church until the very last day and if we believe Jesus warnings about the parable of the sower then the unveilings of that over time will be things that grieve us and hurt us very greatly but finally lastly and perhaps above all is the most direct application of this story in Hebrews 12 verse 16 which tells us don't be like
[37:18] Esau don't be like Esau don't despise God's grace especially if you have grown up amidst the privileges of the household of faith why did Esau despise God's grace well yes his appetite for this world suffocated his desire for what's eternal and far greater and maybe that is a word for some of us right here tonight could there be something in your appetite for this world that's anesthetizing the call of God on your life it's a question we need to keep asking ourselves isn't it but it's more than that you see it's deeper than that Esau knew he knew that the only way to God's blessing was to buy to God's sovereignty to God's chosen way that through Jacob the promise was to come there was no other way and Esau hated that he hated the scandal of a unique and soul savior that said no not Esau's way but my way just like
[38:31] Cain remember what's wrong with my sacrifice that's why his anger burned against his brother and he killed him what's wrong with me what's wrong with my chosen lifestyle why should I submit to another like Jacob why should I submit to the Christian church today to the gospel today you Christians are a rotten lot just like Jacob you're full of flaws you're far from perfect why should I have to submit to your way of doing how dare you say that to me you see the answer is not not because Jacob was any better than Esau by nature he wasn't far from it but the answer was that God had purposed that through Jacob who became Israel a prince with God at last at last a true Israel would come one who was utterly worthy of all Jacob's love and Esau's loyalty the one who did have a right to ask from him everything his soul devotion and his soul homage and you see that's just the same for us today it's the same for you if you perhaps are a rather indignant agnostic today or an unbeliever just as
[39:55] Jacob deeply flawed as he was just as Jacob pointed forward to a real savior to a real prince with God you see we very flawed yes very flawed descendants of Jacob today Christian people we point back to that same savior the promised seed fulfilled at last in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ and like Jacob he was and is the only mediator of God's saving mercy he is the only hope of salvation but you see unlike Jacob he didn't come to grasp for himself what was ours to take it for himself he gave up everything that was his by birth right his as the glorious only begotten son of the father and he gave it up willingly and he became despised and rejected so that he might share all that was his eternal blessings as God's firstborn son share them with many brothers and sisters with everyone who will come and bow the knee to him and receive what only he can give the extraordinary saving mercy and grace of God and you see here's the thing friends it is still very very humbling to have to receive from another to bow to another and receive his way undeserved mercy that we know is utterly undeserved it's the hardest thing in all the world isn't it especially for a big man for a man of the world like
[41:31] Esau because it means death to pride death to performance death to pedigree death to everything it's the hardest thing in the whole wide world but there is no other name under heaven by which we may be saved so don't be like Esau don't despise God's grace because Jesus says this is the will of my father that everyone who looks to the son and believes in him should have eternal life and I will raise him up on that last day but only I only I can and will do that don't show contempt for him don't be like Esau confess him as your savior as your king today and every day of your life amen let's pray
[42:39] Lord we are so very conscious of the hardness of our hearts and how very hard we find it to bow the knee to your sovereign grace to admit there is no other way to admit that there is nothing that we can bring only a trust in your promise only a submission to your will but help us Lord help us all here tonight to be those who confess him and never to show contempt for him for Christ's sake amen