Transcription downloaded from https://sermons.gracespringfield.com/sermons/73249/20250601_iwillnotleavethee/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] Okay, bring us up to speed. Where are we? I just wanted to see if any of us remembered.

[0:14] ! Okay, we're ready for Jacob to be sent away.! Who's Jacob? Isaac's son.

[0:30] Okay, now you're getting the worms open. Twin brother of Esau. What's the relationship with Jacob and Esau? They're twins.

[0:41] What's that? Okay, why? Because Jacob's a liar.

[0:58] And Esau isn't. Well, we don't know that, do we? Okay.

[1:11] Okay, Esau was supposed to receive a blessing. So why does Esau hate Jacob?

[1:24] Okay, Jacob stole his blessing. Anything else? Is that all he said about it? Right. There's more to this than just the blessing, isn't there?

[1:46] The birthright. Now, did Jacob steal the birthright? Well, what? Not really.

[1:59] Okay, I have a not really. Okay, a deception. How did Jacob deceive Esau regarding the birthright?

[2:14] That was a blessing. Right. And Esau said, hey, I'm going to die if I don't eat today.

[2:38] Okay. And then what good will the birthright be? So, and Jacob said, I'll sell it to you. Give me your birthright.

[2:51] What did Esau do? Did he say that's a bad deal? He bought it. He went for it. What does the book of Hebrews, later on we get later revelation.

[3:05] We're not told in Genesis, but we are in Hebrews, what Esau's mindset is. What's Esau's mindset at this point?

[3:18] Yeah. Okay. Yeah. But what is the character of Esau? That's where he's called godless or profane, which sometimes, usually, I shouldn't say usually because you may not, but frequently when I hear the word profane, what do I think of?

[3:48] Yeah. Curse words, filthy language kind of stuff. So when I say, or when I hear, this guy's a profane man, that's kind of the connotation that I frequently hear. Who else hears that?

[4:10] Is that how you, is that what the word really means? I can't think of his name and it wouldn't matter if I could.

[4:21] There is a composer many years ago. He wrote some music and he called them the sacred and profane.

[4:35] Now, what's the difference? Does that mean one was used in a body house and one was used in church? Yes, exactly.

[4:53] Why? Why when, let's get, we're going to get in our time machine and go forward to the service of the tabernacle.

[5:07] And in the service of the tabernacle, there were specific, there was a specific ordinance God gave for the making of the anointing oil and the incense that was to be burned every day.

[5:34] And he said, this incense will never be used anywhere else. And this anointing oil will never be used anywhere else.

[5:48] Except what I specifically say in the service of the tabernacle and the anointing of the priests and the sacrifices and the burning of the incense.

[6:01] Now, Aaron's son burned strange fire before the Lord, is what your scripture will say. That means they burned incense that was not the prescribed incense.

[6:16] What did God do? I know you know, we've talked about it. What did God do?

[6:27] He killed them. Fire went out from the altar and consumed them. And he said, because you didn't treat me as holy.

[6:46] You, you, I told you what you could do. I told you that only this incense was going to be burned in the tabernacle.

[6:57] But you burned a different incense. Now, that seems pretty rash to me, pretty harsh. But he was teaching them something.

[7:10] So here, the point of that whole thing is, there is a difference between the sacred, that which is set apart to God, and that which is common use.

[7:23] So when Esau was a profane man, it simply meant he didn't think about God. That's what it meant.

[7:34] It didn't necessarily mean that he was foul-mouthed. Now, we know that that's his point. Because in he, back to the book of Hebrews, it said that was the illustration given for calling him profane.

[7:51] Because for a pot of soup, he sold his birthright. Now, I'm never tempted to want something so much right now that I failed to look down the road at the possible consequences.

[8:13] I'm glad I'm never tempted that way. But that's what I should be learning. I should be learning, look, there are some things, some behaviors, Roger, that have, your behaviors have consequence, maybe not to your eternal destiny, but they do have consequence in this life.

[8:38] And maybe in other people's lives. And that verse in Hebrews says, let none of you, he's talking to the Hebrew church at that point, because he is talking about people saved at that point.

[8:56] He tells them, you know, Judaism's passed, get out of there. But the point of it is, he said, then don't let any of you be godless like Esau, who for the, for a pot of soup, he sold his birthright.

[9:15] All right. So we know that Esau didn't take much thought for God. We know that. We have to see it in Hebrews.

[9:25] We don't see it in Genesis. Okay, back to the point. Why, why then does Esau say he's going to kill Jacob? He says he, he stole my birthright and he stole my blessing.

[9:42] Now, as has been pointed out with a, and a, he sold it, and a, and a no, he sold the birthright.

[9:54] Yes. Yeah. We are not told that in Genesis.

[10:15] And we're not really told that even in Hebrews. He simply uses Esau as a point. I believe, personally, the way I read that is, he was godless because he did not look to the future and what the birthright meant.

[10:37] He looked only to the now. All I know is that he, is what the scripture does reveal and that is, he's godless.

[10:49] Now, he, he's not called godless because he sold the birthright. He's called godless and it's illustrated by selling the birthright.

[11:00] So, I'm assuming that Esau was godless in all of this stuff. He, he didn't take, we do know, what about his wives?

[11:18] Okay. And what do we know about the Hittite women? Not all Hittite women, these Hittite women. there's just a phrase that's said.

[11:31] They were a grief of mind to Isaac and Rebekah. They, they were a pain. In fact, why is Jacob being sent away?

[11:49] Rebekah says to Isaac what? This will be probably chapter 27 near the end. Maybe right at the end if I recall.

[12:12] Yeah, she says, if, if Jacob marries one of these women, what good's my life? I may as well not live.

[12:23] So, Isaac says, okay, we'll send him away. That's the only one she gives. Right.

[12:37] The actual reason is, she says, Jacob, you're going to have to take it off because Esau plans to kill you when your father dies and the time of mourning is over.

[12:48] So, she tells Isaac, though, send him away. Send him back to where, by the way?

[13:04] Send him to my brother Laban. What's he supposed to do there? Get a wife from, from, marry one of your cousins from Laban's house.

[13:14] house. Now, we'll get into that, what God's going to say later on after Sinai about this business.

[13:29] But right now, actually, Rebecca is Isaac's cousin, isn't she? Yes.

[13:42] The answer is yes. This one, this one will be firm about. Okay. So, get out of here.

[13:52] Go back. Terry. Terry. I don't know.

[14:11] Yes. So, I don't know. At least four years from the time of the blockchain until the time he left. Right? No, I think, I think what we will discover, I, I may be wrong, but I think what we will discover is that Isaac is somewhere just shy of 40 years old at this point.

[14:39] I don't know. What? You don't think so? Okay. Okay. He was 40, he was 40 years old when he married Rebecca.

[14:54] Isaac was 40. Isaac was 40 when he married Rebecca. And, the timeline's not given strictly, so I don't know.

[15:09] But if Jacob's gone 14 years, at least, in Haram, at Laban's house. Yeah. When he comes back, his father's gone. Right.

[15:20] So, he died in time, I assume. While, while Jacob was gone. Right. So, I don't know what the time span from the time of the blessing to now is.

[15:41] Does anyone? Okay. I didn't, I did not even attempt, frankly, I didn't attempt to research that and dig that out.

[15:55] I don't really know. So, get out, go back to my brother and find a wife from his household.

[16:07] So, now, verses 1, Genesis 28, verses 1 through 5 is where we'll concentrate right now.

[16:18] If you take a moment and refresh on that. And, what catches your eye?

[16:48] Does anything? Anything? Okay. This is another blessing. What else?

[16:59] We'll get to that, by the way. What else catches your eye or does anything? Okay.

[17:10] He's blessed in verse 4. Verse 4, the blessing of Abraham. He's given the blessing of Abraham. Okay. Okay. What did, does this sound anything like Abraham's charge to his steward regarding finding a wife for Isaac?

[17:39] In fact, it's almost a direct quote. Do not take a wife from the Canaanites, right? Don't, don't take a wife from here.

[17:51] Go there. Now, he does, he does bless Jacob, and he does one other thing, he gives Jacob a charge.

[18:06] So, what is the charge? don't marry a Canaanite woman.

[18:19] Go to this house, go to Laban, and get your wife there.

[18:31] Okay, and what's the blessing? Okay.

[18:44] That has to do with progeny or descendants, and the land. land. What land?

[19:03] The promised land, promised to Abraham. So, God had told Abraham, I'm going to give all this land to you, and your descendants.

[19:15] Now, Jacob's receiving the same promise. These are the three big names, if you will, in Judaism, aren't they?

[19:31] Abraham, and Jacob. In fact, God's going to refer to himself that way frequently. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

[19:46] So, Jacob receives the blessing of Abraham, and that promise. And included in that is the, I will bless those who bless you, curse those who curse you.

[20:05] Now, what's the blessing? Well, the first blessing. The first blessing had to do with sustenance, right, and ruler, or lordship, over, over Esau's descendants.

[20:22] Remember, the first blessing, sustained him with corn and wine, and you shall, rule over your brothers.

[20:35] All right. Now, that would, yes, that would be in chapter 27. Now, so, what does Isaac do?

[20:54] He sends him away for a few days. days. That's how Rebecca had described it, right? Go to my brother's house for a few days until your brothers, until Esau's temper subsides.

[21:14] And verse 5 says he went. Now, as we go on, verses 6 through 9, we come to a parenthesis.

[21:34] We take a parenthesis in the iteration of Jacob's life and plan. What is this parenthesis?

[21:45] this parenthesis? What is parenthesis? What is parenthesis? back to Esau.

[21:56] We're back to Esau. So, these verses are going to pertain to Esau. What do we get about this? What is the opposite?

[22:09] Esau was heard what was going on and so he found that the women had been right to he decided not to prove to okay?

[22:27] Now, remember what was wrong with them? They were a grief of mind to Esau's parents.

[22:38] Now, when Esau sees that Jake, that his folks are not pleased with the Canaanite wives, the Canaanite women, he saw something else that Jacob obeyed and left, right?

[23:00] He sees that. So, I'm going to do something. I'm going to do something to appease my folks. What is it?

[23:11] What did he do? Ishmael's gone at this time, but he went to Ishmael's family, and he took a wife from Ishmael's family.

[23:37] Now, apparently, he thought, well, he doesn't like Canaanite women. Maybe he'll like these relatives.

[23:48] I'll go to Ishmael's relatives and his relatives. Anyway, for whatever reason, that's what he did.

[24:05] So, by the way, this brings us back to something that puzzles me, unless I just accept it for what the scripture says, and that in God's overall plan, he looks through history, he sees what's going to happen, and he makes the choice, Canaanites were descendants of Canaan.

[24:49] The man Canaan is whom? Or was whom? He was a grandson of Noah.

[25:04] Noah. So, and once again, we get into a seedy part of history, but Noah became a farmer, he plants a vineyard, he drinks too much, he gets drunk, he gets sloppy drunk, and he uncovers himself in his tent, and Ham goes in and sees him.

[25:39] What does Ham do? Do you remember? He tells his brothers, and the idea seems to be that he thought it was funny.

[25:53] Hey, look what the old man did. that seems to be it. So, when Noah awakes, and for some reason he awakes and knows what Ham has done, does he pronounce the curse on Ham?

[26:15] He pronounces the curse on Canaan. Now, what's up with that? I don't know. I don't know.

[26:27] All I know is that God in his omniscience looks out and causes that to happen.

[26:39] And, in fact, this is why they shouldn't be marrying from the Canaanites, is part of it.

[26:50] And this is, the result of this, of course, is a people that God has set apart for destruction when he gives Israel the land.

[27:05] So, I don't know why. He doesn't say why. Shem did it, or, Shem, Ham did it, but, Ham did it, but the curse fell upon Canaan.

[27:29] So, having said that, Roger, this one this is a theory, but based on the language used about uncovering nakedness to become funny, funny, crazy, used that as a euphemism for taking advantage of somebody's wife.

[27:51] So, some have theorized that that's what happened in this case, that Ham took advantage of his father's wife, and through that, that's where Canaan came about from.

[28:05] So, that's why Canaan was cursed, not so difficult in him. So, it seems kind of strange that there would be a curse just for seeing somebody naked.

[28:20] It does seem that way. Now, the word does say, and that is true, that's used frequently as a euphemism.

[28:30] However, the setting does come that Noah lay uncovered in his tent.

[28:42] That was the setting given in Genesis. So, I see how that theory comes about. I simply don't know because speculation can take me down a bad road sometimes.

[29:05] Well, not me, but it would take you down a bad road. My speculations are always good. Okay. So, he sends Jacob.

[29:22] Jacob, we're 2810 now. Look at those next verses. But, Jacob leaves Beersheba and he heads for Haran.

[29:33] now. Now, most of us have some idea about these next verses, don't we?

[29:59] Somebody hum the tune. Somebody hum the tune. Nobody's going to do it, are they?

[30:19] We are climbing. Who wrote that stuff? Is there any accuracy to that?

[30:31] No. We're not climbing Jacob's ladder. But, back to the point. Okay, what happens?

[30:46] Here we are at the beginning of Pilgrim's Progress, aren't we? And I found myself in this place and I lay down to sleep.

[30:57] and as I slept, I dreamed a dream. Okay, so, Jacob lies down. Tell me something about the dream.

[31:16] Okay, he sees angels, what are they doing?

[31:32] They're ascending and descending on a ladder or a stairway, but they're ascending and descending.

[31:42] what else does he see? And the Lord stood above it and did what?

[31:57] And he spoke to him. Okay, what does God say? He says, first of all, he declares himself.

[32:11] I am the Lord. Okay? Any? I'm the God of Abraham and I'm the God of Isaac.

[32:26] Okay, keep going. The land where you're lying right now, what? I'm going to give it to you and your descendants right?

[32:44] And here's familiar, here's a familiar statement and your descendants will be what? Like the dust of the earth for number.

[32:58] All right? Abroad to the west, to the east, to the north, to the south, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.

[33:15] Now, the apostle Paul is going to reiterate this promise given to Abraham and, as we see, the promise is given to Jacob here to refer specifically to whom?

[33:30] the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom all families will be blessed.

[33:43] But, now, we also know in the time machine that in the prophecy of the kingdom, when we usually say the kingdom, we are going to be talking about a literal kingdom on the earth.

[34:13] The central kingdom is going to be located in Jerusalem will be the capital. There will be, it will not be a democracy.

[34:27] There won't be any voting. It will be a theocracy, which means what?

[34:41] God ruled. Alright, who's going to sit on the throne? Jesus, the risen Christ, will sit on the throne.

[34:54] now, what will be the case in the kingdom? I know we're in the time machine way ahead now. What will be the case for the Gentiles?

[35:10] Well, the nations that will bring their tithes to Israel are going to be blessed.

[35:24] those nations who don't will not be. What will we know about justice? He will rule the nations, and that word there is usually translated Gentiles.

[35:42] So, Christ will, at the time of the kingdom, he will rule the nations how. Will it, yeah, it's not going to be, ah, if you want to do it, cool, if you don't want to do it, I get it.

[36:05] Now, and the reason I put it that way, you know someone who treats the Lord, God, in that fashion.

[36:16] he's cool with me. No, he's not. He's not.

[36:27] Am I accepted by God? It's a trick question. Yes. How? In Jesus, in the beloved.

[36:40] We are accepted in the beloved. God is not impressed with me. He's impressed with himself in the triune God, Christ Jesus.

[36:58] So, that's why, not to rob it, but that's why we stand before God in a righteousness not our own, but the righteousness that comes by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[37:18] We can't be good enough to get there. I can't do enough. I can't give enough.

[37:28] I can't sacrifice enough to be accepted by God. God to The only righteousness acceptable to God is that which conforms entirely to his nature.

[37:43] And that's why I need the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why I need a Savior. It's because I'm not good enough. And I know I'm better than you, right?

[37:57] No, I'm not, we're not good enough. In fact, God through Isaiah will say and then Paul will reiterate it, there is none righteous, not even one.

[38:15] So, back here. So we get here, in you all the families of the earth will be blessed, that is in your seed.

[38:26] verse 15. Let's finish up what God says to him. And I will, I'll protect you everywhere you go until I bring to pass that which I have promised.

[38:56] now, let's come to the day of grace. What about the Christian? What does God say? Does he say that I'm going to inherit the earth or any part thereof?

[39:14] No. Does he say that nobody's going to be able to kill me? No.

[39:26] What does he say? He says that you have eternal life. If you trust in Christ.

[39:42] If you trust what Christ did on the cross to carry your sin to the cross. That's why, by the way, Romans is so full of this wonderful imagery.

[39:56] that we get, even under the righteous law that was given by God at Mount Sinai to Israel, what did Christ do with that?

[40:14] It said, he carried those ordinances which were writ against us in stone, and he nailed it to the cross.

[40:26] Amazing grace. Christ, who knew no sin, became sin for us, that we might be the righteousness of God in him.

[40:45] So, that's what he says to us. Now, you mentioned eternal life. Turn to Titus chapter one, please.

[40:58] Titus chapter one, one of the last of the Paulines. Pauline's chapter one, especially verses two and three, but Paul's going to make, well, read, someone, would you be willing to read those first three verses?

[41:37] Titus chapter one, please. Okay.

[42:18] So, what did God promise in godliness? Eternal life. Now, can God make that mistake?

[42:29] I mean, could he have misstated himself? Could it be changed? No, God cannot lie.

[42:43] That is, God cannot tell an untruth, or if he says it, it must be. It's not just a, usually when I say lie, I'm talking about a purposeful untruth, I'm not talking about a mistake.

[42:58] When the scripture says lie, especially in your King James, it's referring to something that is not in accordance with true.

[43:09] So, so it's truth. So, God says, and when did God think it up? okay, now, did he announce it in Genesis?

[43:32] No, when did he announce this? It says specifically through Paul at the proper time or in due time.

[43:48] So, our Savior Jesus Christ was speaking then as he, so all of it's red letter in that case, right?

[44:09] So, when you see the t-shirt, what would Jesus do? He'd tell me to read the rest of it. He'd say, pay attention to everything I said, not just a little bit.

[44:24] So, for the Christian, we have promises. And in fact, in Romans chapter 4, Paul will say that, talking about Abraham and his faith, faith, and our salvation is through faith, just as Abraham had faith, believed God, and it was reckoned or counted to him as righteousness.

[45:01] Now, wait a minute, Abraham lied. Why was he righteous? because he trusted God. He believed God. So, Abraham believed God, it was reckoned to him as righteousness, and Paul will use that for us, being fully persuaded that what God has promised, he was able to perform.

[45:27] So, God said, I will do this, and Abraham trusted. And he says, in the same way, your faith can be put in him.

[45:38] And back when Paul's coming to the end of his life, the very end of his life, and he writes to Timothy, he says, so I am persuaded that he, God, Christ, is able, we wrote a hymn about this, I didn't write it, but we sing it, that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

[46:12] What did Paul commit? His eternal destiny. So, for the Christian, we have an eternal promise made by God, who cannot lie, cannot make a mistake, that if we trust Christ, we have, well, we have a whole lot of things, but we have eternal life, and by the way, we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies.

[46:46] Now, I don't always see it, and sometimes I say, Lord, well, I don't actually say it, the flesh says it, I'd rather not have the spiritual blessings right now, I'd like some temporal stuff.

[47:07] And we go through hard times, and we want that, and we bring that to the Lord, but he doesn't promise the temporal blessing, he does promise the spiritual blessing.

[47:17] have a great day, I've gone over, sorry. Yes, go ahead. Go ahead. Okay, Paul will say it that way, in fact, if you read the book of Hebrews, some of that stuff seems to crop up that way, in that he will say things like, they were looking for a country that they did not know, they were just sojourners in the land, he talks about that in the, what I call the hall of fame of faith, where he talks about these people and he says, they were looking for something, they didn't know what it was, they did not know to whom the promises would come to fruition.

[48:30] So, in that respect, yes, but it's not the same promises he gave to Israel regarding the earth. It's the, he's talking about the eternal promises there.

[48:43] because we do know that Israel's not only going to be, what do I want to say, they're not only going to inherit the earth, that's not all of theirs.

[49:00] That's not all, because Jesus Christ is going to say to the Sadducees about the resurrection, he's going to say he's the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

[49:17] He's not the God of the dead, but of the living. So, we do understand that there was something of an understanding of eternal life, but not clarity like we get with the Pauline epistles.

[49:48] Usually, not always, but yes, usually, usually, yes, spiritual life, eternal life, and perhaps we can get into that in more detail.

[50:04]  Right now, I'm going to have to run. Have a great week.