Main idea: Epic sovereignty beats epic sins every time.
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Well, good morning brothers and sisters, good morning guests with us. What a what a joy it is to gather. I grew up across the road from 500 acres of dry land farming. This is sunshine today. The rain is sunshine. Every every dry land farmer wants it stored up before, before all the wheat gets growing. So I was just rejoicing on the way Ian is I was spinning out in the truck. It was awesome. It was awesome. I need to wait in the back already. Here we go. But if you're new with us, we're so glad to have you here this morning. I would love to connect with you after I met some people last time, last hour. I'd love to meet you after this one. This this evening, all the members and I would encourage you to come back. Not only, we're gonna have really fun time with some finger food five o'clock, that's usually a real highlight, but also, we're going to be hitting some highlights of some things that are going on here. We're going to do something. We're going to try to be a little creative. We have two or three topics that we want to talk about with you. So we're going to break up into pods with elders and members so that we can ask some questions. We have three big things that we want to talk about. The One of them is how to help you in your everyday Bible reading, especially dads, husbands, you know, we're called to read with our family and our kids. How are we doing with that? How can we help you do with that? Some of you study the Bible with people that you're discipling. How? How can we help encourage and equip you? Second one is to help us with our financial stewardship. If you hadn't noticed, housing is really expensive. So there's a kind of a challenge in our culture and our time. So we want to help each other in stewardship, thinking about how to honor God's money really well. And so we want to hit some some things about that as well tonight, as well as some other updates. It should be a sweet time as we get together to pray together, think together, bring your kids. I like squawking kids. They'll probably be five minutes to ask Pastor Dan any question that will stump him. It's one of my joys with the kids. So that should be a fun time. Encourage you to come back tonight for that. All right, we're going to read God's word today. We are in Genesis, chapter 27 I'm going to read almost all of it. I'm going to read the full story. If you have a hard time standing for the full length of that and the prayer, it's okay to just either stay seated or sit back down as you do that. So if you're able stand with me for the reading of God's word Genesis, 27 one through 45 we're just going chapter by chapter through Genesis as we go into it. If you've ever fallen into an epic family fight, like a divorce or an estate dispute, there might be surprising comfort in this section. Sometimes it seems like God has withdrawn when you see all the sin around and he's not inserting himself, but he is. The Bible had major family conflicts too. And so here's a passage that can bring hope and change in a surprising way. Also, I want you to notice what somebody loves. It's really important in understanding what's going on in the passage you're going to see it. So look for those things. Esau is going to love something, and it's been causing trouble for a long time. So with that Genesis 27 one through 45 when Isaac was old and his eyes were dim so that he could not see. He called Esau, his older son, and said to him, my son. And Esau answered, here I am. He said, Behold, I am old. I do
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not know the day of my death. Now then take your weapons, your quiver and your bow and go out to the field and hunt game for me and prepare me delicious food such as I love, and bring it to me that so that I may eat that my soul may bless you before I die. Now, Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to his son, Esau. And so when Esau went to the field to hunt for game and bring it, Rebekah said to her son, Jacob, I heard your father speak to your brother, Esau, bring me game and prepare for me delicious food that I may eat it and bless you before the Lord, before I die. Now, therefore, my son, obey my voice as I commanded you. Go to the flock and bring me two good young goats so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father. Such as he loves, and you shall bring it to your father to eat so that he may bless you before he dies. But Jacob said to Rebekah, his mother, Behold, my brother, Esau is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. Perhaps my father will feel me and shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself and not a blessing. His mother said to him, let your curse be on me. My son, only obey my voice and go bring them to me. So he went and took them and brought them to his mother, and his mother prepared delicious food, such as his father loved. Then Rebekah took the best garments of Esau, her older son, which were with her in the house and put them on Jacob, her younger son, and the skins of the young goats, she put on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck, and she put the delicious food and the bread which she had prepared into the hand of her son Jacob. So when he went into his father, he said, My father. And he said, Here I am. Who are you? My son, Jacob said to his father, I am Esau, your firstborn. I have done as you told me, now sit up and eat up my game that your soul may bless me. But Isaac said to his son, how is it that you have found it so quickly, my son? He answered because the Lord your God granted me success. Then Isaac said to Jacob, please come near that I may feel you, my son, to know whether you really are really my son, Esau or not. So Jacob went near to his to Isaac, his father, who felt him and said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. And he did not recognize him because his hands were hairy, like his brother esau's hands. So he blessed him. He said, Are you really my son, Esau? He answered, I am. Then he said, bring it near to me that I may eat of it. Eat my son's game, and bless you. So he brought it near to him, and he ate, and he brought him wine and he drank, and his father, Isaac, said to him, come near and kiss me, my son. So he came near and kissed him. And Isaac smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him and said, See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed. May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. Let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be everyone who blesses you. Soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, when Jacob had scarcely gone from the presence of his Isaac, his father, Esau, his brother, came in from his hunting. He also prepared delicious food and brought it to his father, and he said to his father, let my father Arise and eat his son's game that you may bless me. His father, Isaac said to him, who are you? He answered, I am your first born, Esau, then Isaac trembled very violently and said, Who? Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me. I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him. Yes, he shall be blessed as soon as Esau heard the words of his father, he cried out with an exceedingly great and bitter cry and said to his father, bless me, even me also, my father. But he said, Your brother came deceitfully and has taken away your blessing. Esau said, Is he not rightly named Jacob, for He has cheated me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he has taken away my blessing. Then he said, Have you not reserved a blessing for me? Isaac answered and said to Esau, Behold, I have made him lord over you and all his brothers, I have given to him for servants and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you? My son, Esau, said to his father, have you but one blessing? My Father, bless me, even me also. O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice and wept. Then Isaac, his father answered and said to him, Behold, away from the fatness of the earth shall be your dwelling away from the dew of heaven. On high, by your sword, you shall live and you shall serve your brother, but when you grow restless, you shall break his yoke from upon your neck. Now Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing with which his father had blessed him, and Esau said to himself, the days of my more of mourning for my father are approaching. Then I will kill my brother, Jacob. But the words of Esau, her older son, were told to Rebekah, so she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said to him, Behold your brother. Esau comforts himself about you by planning to. Kill you now, therefore my son, obey my voice, arise, flee to Laban, my brother and Haran and stay with him while, a while until your brother's fury turns away, until your brother's anger turns away from you and he forgets what you have done to him, then I will send and bring you from there. Why should I bereft of both of you in one day. This is the word of the LORD God we come before you looking at a passage where every person in it but you is sinful. And we often look to these situations and wonder, what good you do. Will sin win the day or will it not? But we know you are faithful and you carry out your good purposes. With that in mind, we come to you today, wanting you to teach us and help us by your Spirit, Lord Jesus, we thank you as the answer to the prophecy that's given here, that you are crucified, risen, reigning and soon to return. Our hope is set on you, and while we wait and the nation's rage and our sin often erupts, we would pray that You would give us a firm hope in you and a desire to be like you. We pray that You would help us rejoice when there is peace. We rejoice today. A couple of years ago, when hostages were taken by Hamas and a war erupted, it was both grievous, and we prayed for the peace of Israel. And this weekend, it looks like there's a measure of peace, and we would pray that you would finish it and fulfill it. Thank you for how you've used President Trump and his team to help move that situation toward peace. And I pray for the peace of Jerusalem, the kind of peace that comes because Israelites from north to south hear the Gospel, surrender their lives to you and trust you, that Gazans would do the same, that Egyptians and all those involved in the process would see the glory of the gospel and be changed. We pray for our president for wisdom. Our government is shut down, and we want our rulers to rule righteously for the flourishing of the country. And we entrust ourselves to you. And we entrust them to you that you would save those who need saving, that you would use all for your glory. I pray for churches in our city. I think of Haven, Bible Church in the South Hill, and their ministry growing and thriving. Help Pastor Mark faithfully expound your word. Help the elders faithfully shepherd that this city would know you and turn to you and follow you faithfully. Christ's name. Amen. You may be seated
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Well, family disputes have to be the hardest, because they're with the people that we're closest to. Have you ever seen sin like a grease fire in the kitchen threaten to destroy what's closest to you? I mean, that's, that's what's going on here. This is a, this is a story about who's going to get the family estate. That's what this is. If you were to put it in simple terms, what's ironic is what, what should happen in a family? The absolute opposite happens. Families are supposed to gather at the table. People are to gather at the table in food and fellowship and peace and harmony, and instead, a meal becomes the source of a major conflict. And if you've seen the torch thrown into the tent like one person called this scene, you have to ask yourself, sometimes, will sin win the day? Have you ever been in a conflict with a friend, a spouse within the family, or ever experienced political conflict and polarization, or international conflict and war? And have you thought in your heart, will sin win the day? Sometimes it feels like it. We read through this passage, everybody sins. There is only one hero, and it's God Himself. Will sin win the day? The answer from this chapter is a resounding no. I mean, even when everyone on every sin, sin, every side has sin. Canker blossoms all around our mouth. I mean, this speech here is pretty terrible. There's only one who stands glorious, glorious father, the ruling Son, Spirit of power. He is stable. There's one stabilizing truth that emerges out of this. Epic sovereignty beats epic sins every time. Epic sovereignty beats epic sins every time. Here's why God is sovereign, and his sovereignty has to do with his power, his wisdom, His rule and his supreme will, if we were to say it one way, there's no plan B for God. God thwarts sin whenever he wishes. We're going to see that Isaac and esau's Sin is thwarted by Rebekah and Jacob. God uses sinners without ever sinning himself. Well, that's going to be Rebecca and Jacob's sin. And in the end, God's sovereign purposes display the glory of His grace, of His mercy, and yes, His justice, epic sovereignty will shine and give us hope and direction. It's important to get this. Important to get this right. If you get this wrong, some serious things are going to erupt into your life. When you think sin will win the day, you won't care if you sin to get your own way. When you think sin is going to win the day, you don't care if you sin, so long as you get your way, if you get this wrong, you're going to spiral into cynicism, despair, you're going to be Eeyore, or you'll do something far worse, perhaps, contemplate throwing yourself off a bridge. This is an era where people are in despair. They think sin is going to win. The fact that God's epic sovereignty is at play means that he's piloting an unsinkable ship, and you can find rest and hope in it. When you don't like what God has commanded you to do, knowing God's epic sovereignty will keep you humble and waiting patiently. You'll wait patiently for the promises that are still to unfold, and when you see your epic sins, seeing God's epic sovereignty will catalyze your heart for holiness and growth through one of the most important thing God needs to produce in you, and that is your humility. And the next three chapters after this, Jacob is going on a great journey, not just to get a couple of wives, but a journey of transformation. Epic sovereignty means that there is hope for change when you repent and submit to God's Wise will. This morning, as we look at this, we will identify epic sins, we will marvel at Epic sovereignty, and we will welcome epic transformation. Epic sovereignty beats epic sins every time first epic sins identify epic sins. The story of Jacob, deceiving Isaac gets the gets the blessing. Getting a blessing is a chronicle of common epic sins. Let's start with the greater context as we think about what's going on in chapter 25 everything centers around a meal. Meal time is designed by God to be a place of intimacy, trust and welcome. But for Isaac and Esau, Jacob and Rebekah. It was perverted into times of manipulation and disobedience. Isaac loved Esau. Just look back with me. The End of Chapter, 25 verse 27 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 of his character. No, he loved Esau because of his industriousness. No, he loved Esau because he loved a hairy son. Give me a big hairy hug. He loved him because he ate of his game. It was his food from early on in the. Isaac's parenting, he played favoritism, because one of the idols that he had was his food. His God was his belly, as Paul would say later. And you noticed when we read through, I told you what Isaac loved. What did Isaac love his food. He loved his son for his food. He loved food. My son can give me food. This domination, creature comforts, as we might call it, could exacerbate if we look back at last week, Nathan preached through. We saw, we saw Isaac growing in his faith. He has some moments of weak faith, but because God was with him, he's growing in his faith. But we turn the page. He's getting old, and that faith is fading, and what's reemerging is his
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real God, well, his idol, his belly, and he is willing
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to disregard the direct prophecy of God. For this, Esau remained Isaac's, and though he married idolatrous and contentious wives in 2635 they made life bitter for Isaac and Rebecca. Remember, we all have to keep our vigilance as we age. So here he's old and almost blind, and his love for food and his favoritism had disregarded the prophecy about the boys, the older was to serve the younger. Already Jacob had traded for the birthright. I was trying to think of a kid's version of that. Imagine Esau comes into the room and says, give me your Lego death star so I can complete my collection. And he says, Well, give me, give me the whole LEGO Store and you can have it. Well, What good's the whole LEGO Store if I don't have the Death Star? You know? Like it was an obvious, silly move. It was an impulsive move, despite the fact that he had given over the birthright, this meal for the whole of the family inheritance, despite that, he still was going to give him a blessing. So think of this this way, birthright is legal. Blessing is spiritual. They're to go together. The birthright and the blessing were to go together. Jacob figured out how to get the legal Now Isaac was going to give away the spiritual. Take your weapons. This is verse three, your quiver, your bow, go out to the field and hunt game for me. Prepare for me, delicious food such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die from the deepest part of my being, I want you blessed. It is willful, willful sin against God, and He takes advantage of his creature comforts, fine wound, fine food, fine wine is Isaac's drug of choice, and Esau is his dealer. He's old. His eyes are getting weak. He's getting tired. Now listen, if gluttony and substances trap you when you're young, they will dominate when you're old, too. They'll corrupt your judgment. Lots of us live with chronic pain. Here we have a man with blindness. When you have chronic pain, you might walk by the liquor aisle and go, boy, that sounds good, right now, but if that becomes your savior, you're going to end up making really bad decisions. It's that stuff that's going to get you. We see his epic sins. It's the greatest of all of them, because he is directly disobeying the Word of God. Then there's Rebekah, verse five, Rebecca was listening when Isaac spoke. Remember, they're tense. The walls aren't thick. You can hear what everybody's saying everywhere. She finds out, she tells Jacob, jump down to verse eight. Now therefore my son, obey my voice as I command you. Go to the flock. Hawk, bring me two young goats so that I may prepare from them delicious food for your father, such as he loves, like there's that refrain again, and you shall bring it to your father to eat so that he may bless you before he dies. Now think about this. Rebekah knew the promise. She was the one that was given the prophecy. She was the one. I mean, it doesn't say that she told him, but it's hard to
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imagine she didn't tell him. Rebecca knew the promise. Certainly she
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told it to Isaac. She thought the blessing was a kind of Amazon delivery that you could steal on the porch. He's going to give a blessing, but the god who's giving it is not there. Some way, remember, both of them would have just learned in the previous chapter that God will be with you wherever you go, and it's as if you can get a blessing without the God who is with you giving it like a genie in a lamp. As long as you possess it, you can rub it. Get your three wishes when you're done, you can toss it aside. This is nothing short of looking to God like a sorcerer looks to spells, something to be manipulated. Epic sin number two, Jacob has no scruples. He doesn't mind lying. He just doesn't want to get caught. He's He's the Crafty one. Perhaps my father will feel me and shall seem to be mocking him and bring a curse upon myself, not a blessing. Yeah, he knew he was promised a blessing, and he was happy to hurry it along by acting sinfully. So Jacob was greedy. He was going to get the promise. Why is he greedy? Because he doesn't want it at God's good timing and God's good way. He's willing to lie. Ian, if I could insert a great biblical contrast here, young David, First Samuel 16, was anointed as the next king of Israel while Saul still lived. He waited 20 years and even refused to kill Saul two times while Saul was trying to kill him, he was willing to wait for God's timing to elevate him to his blessing. Jacob falls right into his character, the schemer, the cheater. He lies three times. The most egregious is in verse 20. Look at verse 20. Isaac asks, How did you get the animals so fast? Look how he answers them. This is Jacob's epic sin. I'm going to say, God did it? How is it you found it so quickly, my son, he answered, because the Lord your God granted me success. The animals were just out there. I got them really quick, and the plant seems to work. So just listen what to watch for, willful disobedience, favoritism, love of pleasure and comfort, bondage to alcohol, deception, unbelief in God's presence, a form of sorcery for Rebecca and Jacob, who would blame God for calling all of it to an end? I'm going to find somebody else. But this is why we have to stop from the first sin of Adam and Eve to the present day, the line that could float in your head from an old hymn is Grace greater than all our sin. God's grace has been greater than all our sin since the fall epic sovereignty, especially sovereign grace beats epic sins every time. Let's shift to seeing how God works this out. At Epic sovereignty, we marvel because this is not the way you expect the problem to be solved, God ensures His purposes will stand, even when his people. Sin Isaac buys the whole charade. He imagines that he's blessing Esau. And what you're in the middle of is a Middle Eastern a state dispute, if you've followed some headlines, Rupert Murdoch, the media tycoon, has they're trying to figure out who is taking over the Murdoch empire of all of his media. Well, this is a version of this. Isaac is trying to pass the estate on to the one who's not supposed to get it. Isaac. It brings Jacob close. He touches his hands, which makes you ask the question, how hairy was Esau? I mean, you usually think, how blind is Isaac. Isaac, we should be asking the question, how hairy was Esau? He was so hairy that when Isaac felt goat skins, he says, That's my boy. Least there's humor here. Smell his clothes. Verse 27 Isaac smelled the smell of his garments and blessed him again. I have farming roots. None done any farming myself, but I have farming roots. We would visit my cousins in northeastern Iowa. They were hog farmers and cattle ranchers, and you'd step out of the car onto the ranch and it would smell like they were hog farmers or they were cattle ranchers. And my mom was one of her favorite sayings, smell the money. Smell the money. The smell was uniquely Esau. I don't think they put fabric softener in his clothes or just hung them out to the dry for that sweet smell he smelled like to feel, and this is what he says, and that was a sign of agricultural wealth and abundance. See the smell of my son is as the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed. And so he blesses him. May God give you the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine. I mean, he's thinking of the richest agricultural blessings for his son. Just pause though, as you think about this going on, he's he's holding his hand out. Maybe it's at the back of his neck. Maybe it's at his arm. Isaac really thinks it's Esau. And Jacob is there knowing that his father loved his brother far more than him. If you want to talk about a bank account of daddy issues, this thing is stocked the favoritism Esau is going to be angry. Jacob is
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Jacob's messed up, but the blessing goes out. Verse 29 is really important for us to look at, because this is the heart of this it's one of about four of the major Abrahamic promises getting repeated. We'll see the rest. Next chapter, he says, Let the people serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be Lord for your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you. The two boys would become nations, and the nations would consider the other nation brother nations. And here we have this exalted promise, the peoples are going to serve you, the nations bow down to you, which is predicting here, early the eventual reign of Christ on the earth over all the nations we have, we have clearly stepped into something more than a blessing, into a prophecy.
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Cursed be everyone who curses you. Blessed be everyone who blesses you. There are national there are international implications all the way to the present. So you could pause this. This is a family dispute, but you could say if there's a political dispute where sin seems like it's winning the day, if there's an international dispute where there is a war and it seems like war is winning. The day there is a promise that cuts through family strife, national strife and international conflict, to the day that Jesus will destroy his enemies and establish peace over the nations. This is epic sovereignty. God's plan predicted 1000s of years, 1000s of years before Jesus comes, no sooner than the blessing is given. Jacob exit. Since Esau enters, he prepares a meal. Essentially, he says, It's Esau, Father, I have brought my gourmet a meal ready. Bless me. Now. Look at verse 33 Isaac trembled very violently and said, Who is this? The shoe just drops, Isaac, who should have had the greatest faith, was the greatest sinner, and his soul is humbled to the core. Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate, ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him. Here we have a final submission to the will of God. He says, Yes, he shall be blessed. Finally, Isaac submitted epic sovereignty. Worked in this situation so that the promise given was fulfilled. And there's a really important principle, Isaac resisted willfully, and yet, through a sin, his sin was upended. It's a common it's a common motif in the scriptures. Assyria punished Northern Israel. Babylon published or punished. Judah, God used sinners to punish the sin of his people, almost like poetic justice. God can do that without himself sinning. Friend, don't be surprised that God humbles you through an injustice done to you for Rebecca and Jacob, we see God's sovereign purpose in elections, standing despite their sin, which is one of the major points of the two chapters, 25 and 27 it's so important about this in the Bible storyline, because there's never going to be a time someone can say, God rewarded my righteousness with entrance into the kingdom. I was glad to get David's arrangement of how sweet and awful. First time I ever heard that song. Lynn and I were in Rome. It was pretty emotional. One of her missionary friends had been living there for 30 years. And so Renato and his wife are north of Rome. They're doing all the evangelistic outreaches. They're going to the lakes. They're doing the plays. They're trying to reach every neighbor they can. And there were 12 people like that's, that's a church in in Italy, very small, very
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Yeah, there we go. They sang, how awful. This first time I'd ever heard it, beautifully Sung. And then Renato preaches Romans, 1133, through 36 about the mystery of God and how we need to know mystery. Here they have been 30 years as faithful missionaries with 12 converts and faithful ministry. And you ask the question, does sin win the day? No, it does not. Epic sovereignty beats epic sin every time, but it's in ways that are surprising mysterious.
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So no one can be no one can boast before the Lord
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later in Deuteronomy, 96 you can write the note down. God would say this to Israel, Know therefore that the Lord, your God, is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. Jacob was stubborn and deceitful. Israel would be stubborn. God gave it to them because of his grace. And it's true, from Jacob through Malachi, and yet God used Israel to bring us Jesus Christ. I mean, we have to marvel at God's epic sovereignty that he would continue to work to bring us to Jesus. Esau protested. He wept bitterly. He cries out, isn't there still a blessing for me? Isn't there a blessing for me? Isaac gives him a blessing of sorts. What's interesting is Hebrews 1120 comments on this passage, saying that Isaac, by faith, gave blessings to Jacob and Esau. The first one we see, the second one is part of the silver lining. Behold, away from the fatness of the earth, shall your dwelling be, and away from the dew of heaven, by your sword, you shall live and you shall serve your brother and. When you grow restless, you shall break his yoke from your neck. This is the blessing one day in the future, Edom is going to break free from the chains of Israel. Why is it so important to see that all these sinners have all these sins? Why is it so important? Because all these sins cannot thwart God's sovereign purposes and grace. Your sins, your sins cannot stop God's sovereign purposes and grace. In the epic family strife that you might know of be a part of their sins cannot stop God's sovereign grace. Epic sovereignty beats epic sins every time. In fact, epic sovereignty produces epic sanctification. So if we identify the sins, if we marvel at the sovereign way God continues blessing forward, that gets us to Jesus. We also have to say with number three, we need to welcome epic sanctification. We need to welcome it. God's sovereign grace is always working to make his people more like Jesus. He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it in the day of Christ, Jesus. And the word for that in the New Testament is sanctification. If you're new to the Bible, sanctification is the idea that God makes you increasingly holy. If you want to know what that looks like, he makes you more and more like Jesus, and that's going to happen right in front of us. God's sovereign work in allowing Rebecca and Jacob to lie was the tool God used to humble Isaac. Sometimes God lets people sin against you because he has a sin in you that He wants to deal with. Yeah, the grease fire in the family kitchen had been lit. But Isaac never goes back on God's will for Jacob again. Esau is utterly embittered. He vows to kill Jacob after Isaac dies, but Isaac and Rebekah find a new unity. They do damage control. There's often we would like, we would like the prayerful repentance of the characters. We don't always get that. What they do is damage control. They agree to send Jacob to Laban. There are serious consequences for Rebecca. You could read this and say, so did Jacob and Rebekah get away with it? Did they get away with the sin here? Well, if you consider having to be in exile for 20 years, getting away with it, I guess they got away with it, or her son that she dearly loved, there's no record that she ever saw him again. Sometimes the consequences that we receive for our sin leave us humble the rest of our life. Isaac's around 100 years old. If you jump over to 3528 and 29 he lives to 180 He lives to 180 I Isaac. Isaac dies an old man full of years. Esau and Jacob bury him together. There is a reunion day. We're going to see it in a few chapters. So it seems like repentance and obedience, this humility that God had to bring on Isaac gave him a new vitality. Three chapters are devoted to God's work. In Jacob's life, the cheater must be cheated 11 times. So just think about this. Think about strife that you've experienced where everyone has sinned, you have sinned, others have sinned. Maybe you're in the middle of it, and you ask the question, will sin win the day? And the answer is no, epic sovereignty beats epic sins every time God might thwart a sinner's sin, God might use sinners to thwart somebody else's sin yours. God may keep his promises despite the fact that nobody deserves them. God used epic sinners often in Israel's history. I turn over to Acts four. I want to illustrate this. Acts four. There are so many of these verses. This is one we haven't looked at before in Acts chapter four, Peter and John are arrested. They they are told, after their arrest for preaching the gospel, that they must stay silent. They gather the church together, and the church prays, here's what's happening. Worse could come. Peter leads a prayer, a prayer. They all pray together, and they say this in 427 truly in this city, Thiry Weber gathered together against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel. Now stop there and think in terms of political and national themes. So look at this Herod and Pontius Pilate. Herod, King of the Jews, kind of Pontius Pilate, representative of the Romans, had hated each other until when? When did they become best friends at the trials of Jesus, when they condemned him to death, you have two sets of sinners opposing Jesus, now there's a friendship bonded by fighting against God's will. Says, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, Gentiles and peoples the nations Israel, the long standing relationship between Romans and Greeks and Jews was horrific. The way Romans treated Jews in Rome in the Jewish Quarter was abhorrent. The way Jews despided despised Gentiles or Romans in Jerusalem. And when did they finally all get along? When did they when did they shake hand in friendship against Jesus? When they condemned him to death?
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The Radical Left and the radical right joined in opposition to Jesus, Sadducees and Pharisees. Sadducees the radical left, Pharisees the radical right, shook hands in partnership against Jesus when at his arrest, at his trial, at the condemnation and at his crucifixion,
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this is profound. How much sin is winning here. It seems like all the nations, all the political parties, all the peoples, are all sinning against Jesus, the only one truly righteous, the only one truly innocent, the only one to deserve the blessing of Abraham. And what does he say to do whatever your hand and planned had, planned had predestined to take place. It was an amalgamation of the worst sins ever committed by any set of people at any time, ever in history, toward Jesus, and it was according to the plan and predestination of God. So what was predestined? What was predetermined? That's the idea of predestined, predetermined, marked out, set as a future fact. What was it the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the payment of our sins. That is God's eternal plan, epic sovereignty, beat epic sin. I
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The most egregious sin ever. What happened? Guilt for direct disobedience
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can now be forgiven. Guilt for a fading walk with God in your old age. Can be forgiven. Guilt for excessive love of creature comforts, food, fine food and fine wine, it can be forgiven. Guilt for greed. Forgiven. Guilt for deception forgiven.
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Maybe this is the first time you've ever been in a church, if anything in that list just pressed into your heart. Jesus is calling you to come to Him in faith and repentance. And Peter said in a sermon just before this,
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if you repent, follow me. Show it in baptism, you will be forgiven. You.
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Jesus had the worst sin ever committed, sinned against him, and God had a plan for your forgiveness. He has a plan for your humility. Humility. You know, you can be outraged by sin in the world. You can be outraged about sin against you, but you can't be outraged for long, you can't be outraged for long. Can you how? How could you because you bring your sin to the table as a sinner before a holy God. Sometimes you still sin in epic ways. Today. What do you do because of what Jesus has done, you can cry out for forgiveness and be restored. What did they do in Acts four? What did they do in Acts four? They prayed that God would powerfully work by His Spirit, opening the eyes of sinners in the city to come in faith and repentance. You've been sinned against. There's outrageous sin done in the world, and you can be outraged by it, but not for long. You need to welcome humility. Humility is the fountainhead for the pursuit of change. You want to you want to be holy God. God's not giving us this passage and say, you know, it's no problem if you sin, because God will just overlook it. He has a plan anyway. That is not the point of this passage. In fact, the point of this passage is that you should be so humbled by God's grace that you should say, I will obey you every time. Humility is necessary for the believer. The apostle Paul had wicked men, false teachers. He had wicked believers coming after him, and he said it was for his humility, for the progress of the gospel. Second, Corinthians, 12, seven. It says he had had a vision. He was brought up into the throne room of God. Paul. Saw Jesus again in heaven. He saw the glory of God in heaven, but God humbled him. He says, This is why Second Corinthians, 12, seven, so to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me. Is Satan bringing just messengers? Satan is using most likely false teachers or Christians who might be really Christians, but acted some pretty wicked ways to harass him, to keep and what does he say to keep me from becoming conceited, and sometimes you don't escape the consequences of your sin on Earth. Sometimes you don't escape injustices on earth because God keeps you humble. Notice the opportunity you want to look for, the opportunity to share the gospel with this Paul was unjustly jailed by the religious leaders in Jerusalem. He appeals to the higher courts. It's going to be sent to Caesar. He tells the Philippians this about this process as he is going to Rome to be prosecuted. He says, I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me, has really served to advance the gospel. God used his imprisonment so that he could preach to the Praetorian Guard, Caesar's Special Forces, the blessing, the blessing of bringing the Gospel in times of great distress, and finally, epic sins make us look forward to Christ's return. They make us look forward to Christ's return. Isaac thought. His heaven was a nicely roasted deer, a few bitter herbs and a nice flask of wine. Isaac had lived it that was His heaven. We often experience blessings from God as if they are our heaven and epic sins God uses in an epic way, so that we say no to that and yes to Christ's return. Christ will come in time. And so we look forward. We look forward epic sins make you look forward to Christ's return, because when Christ return, epic sovereignty will beat epic sin for all time, for all time. And that promise is in our passage. It's in our passage, the peoples will bow down to you. The nations will bow down to you. And he's talking about Jacob's offspring, Jesus Isaac could stand up from the great failure and say, one day, God will reign through the Messiah and bring righteousness and peace and so can you. Let's pray, Father, thank You for this powerful passage. We see ourselves in so many ways that at some point each of us could see something, some good thing that's become an idolatrous or a thing we worship, we love. So we could spend time, and we will, here in communion, confessing various ways we love the wrong things too much, confessing deceit, confessing that we think we need to move you along, confessing lots of things here, but God, what really stands out in this passage is as you kept the promise going, you kept your plan that got us to Jesus, Lord Jesus, we thank you for enduring all the hostility of men to bear our wrath and bring us forgiveness and may your sovereign grace be what motivates us to boldly and loudly proclaim the gospel Christ's name.
Dr. Dan Jarms is lead pastor at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.
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