Big idea: God’s sovereign grace calls us to humility and hope.
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Good morning, family and friends, it's good to have you here. I know there are some new faces that I have not yet had a chance to meet. I'd love to meet you in between. In between. After this hour, it would be great to connect. We are in we're returning to Genesis. So we were in a work series becoming the last two or three weeks we've been doing that. But this marks the halfway point through the book of Genesis. So 50 chapters is chapter 25 we've been at it about a year. If you're new, I would encourage you to go on a podcast binge. You know, don't binge Netflix binge sermons, so that you can catch up with us. And we would, we'd love for you to be able to do that and to help feed your soul that way, from the beginning, if we're looking at Genesis, to get us to this moment of our scripture, reading, God was gracious. God's gracious at creation. He made mankind, all the world, marriage work, very good. He gave one limitation, and that limitation was Adam and Eve, I've got work for you to do, be fruitful, multiply, take care of the garden. But have one limitation, don't eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. For the day that you eat it, you will die. That limitation was to say, don't make your own rules for living and life. Can't do that. You need to follow my ways. I'm wise. Satan entered, deceived, they rebelled, and what we have found, find is a world that has fallen into sin. And yet, from very early on, God had set forth a promise, because his eternal plan is to redeem for Himself a people for His own possession who will glorify Him forever. That's the storyline of the Bible. That's what God is doing. And that is a promise of grace, starting in Genesis three, the promise of a Head Crusher who's going to kill Satan and defeat sin by his own death and resurrection. All the way through, we come through the story, and there's some cycles. God blesses His people rebel. They experience death or judgment, and God inserts another promise, continuing the story along. This happens with the flood and Noah. It's happening with Abraham after the Tower of Babel. We are in chapter 25 in one of those cycles, and it's a really important transition. Abraham was promised he was an idolater, a moon worshiper, a Ur of the Chaldees. He was promised that if he went to the land that God showed him the promised land, that he would receive blessings. And those blessings, most importantly lead to, importantly lead to Jesus Christ, chapter 25 the text gives us the hand off between Abraham and Isaac, and we get the foreshadowing of the hand off to Jacob. It's a key part of the storyline. We're going to look at it today. Stand with me for the reading of God's Word. I'm going to read 19 through 34 I'm going to refer to the earlier part in the sermon outline, but you're going to notice something. Abilities American sensibilities are that everybody should get the same thing all the time. Jacob gets mercy, Esau gets the consequences to his sin or justice. And it is the first real contrast, the first real setting forth of the Divine, the doctrine of sovereign grace. We're going to look at it this morning, and you're going to see it as we read. These are the generations of Isaac Abraham's son, Abraham fathered Isaac. And Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebecca, the daughter of Bethuel, the Aramean of Pat and Aram, the sister of Laban, the Aramean, to be his wife, and Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife because she was barren, and the Lord granted his prayer. And Rebecca, his wife, conceived the children struggled together within her and said, and she said, if it is thus, why is this happening to me? So she went to inquire of the Lord, and the Lord said to her, two nations are in your womb, two peoples from within you shall be divided. The one shall be stronger than the other. 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 hair. Cloak, so they called his name Esau. Afterward, his brother came out with his hand holding Esau his heel, so his name was called Jacob, or he cheats. Isaac was 60 years old when she bore them. When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man in 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 field 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 Edom, which means red. 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. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Then Esau. Thus Esau despised his birthright. This is the word of the Lord God. We praise You and thank You that the record of your saving works is not a sanitized version of myths where there are always heroes and never failures. You are the hero. You are the God of grace. We see the stories got some things that are interesting, confusing, and I pray that you would, by your Spirit, enlighten us to understand that. And I pray that You would help us see what is true in it. Father, we pray that you would be at work in us to recognize your grace and grow in our humility, our gratitude and our dependence. Father, I pray for people in our church. Doug hanenberg is dealing with his cancer treatments, and I pray that you would encourage him heal him. Dave just lost dot, and they just had the memorial this last week, comfort and help him and the transitions that he is in. We pray for our nation. You call us to pray for men everywhere, especially for kings and those in authority. So we pray for our president, our Congress, our state governor and state leaders that they would have their hearts open to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and having them open govern out of submission to your will by your grace, I pray for churches in our city. I pray for our church as we're trying to reach this five minute circle, the 40,000 people that live five minutes from us, we share the load like with Grace Christian Fellowship Central. Pray for Brett as he preaches. I pray for Indian Trail church. For Kyle Swan as he preaches and as their leaders Shepherd and care. Pray that you would help us be humble yet bold proclaimers of the gospel. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen, you may be seated. Winston Churchill was Prime Minister of Great Britain during World War Two. Recently, there have been a number of movies highlighting his his time. He is famous or infamous, depending on which end you got it from of his quick wit and willingness to assert his authority. When he was young, he wrote a friend and says, We are all worms, but I believe I'm a glow worm. Okay? In the Churchill folklore, there's a story told he was walking one day, his mind was preoccupied, and he runs into a man, and both their papers go scatter across the across the ground. Churchill yells at him, watch where you're going. And the man said to him, you ran into me. Said, but I'm a very important person. Okay, there was a punchline there. My delivery is not so good.
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We all think we're very important people, don't we? We tend to, we tend to do that. And it may be true that many fake a humility. We are all worms, but in truth, we often think we are more deserving than other people are. Chapter 25 unsettles the notion of deserving. It unsettles human pride. It sets before us a crucial doctrine, the doctrine of sovereign grace. In particularly we in particular, we see God's divine selection of Isaac and Jacob. There is a prophecy given, and God doesn't. Choose Jacob earlier. He didn't choose Ishmael. He didn't choose any of the other of Keturah sons. No, he chooses Isaac according to his own purposes, sovereign grace. First. Sovereign God does what he does because of His power and His wisdom alone. He doesn't take advice, and he doesn't need anybody's help. He is not coerced into any of his decisions. He doesn't owe nature, nature's laws. He doesn't owe anything to anyone. He can make his decisions as he pleases. He is good, righteous and holy to do it, Grace, meaning he gives favor, kindness, help to undeserving people. The doctrine of sovereign grace shows up here because we get through chapter 25 and you have this head scratcher that Jacob is going to be the one who gets the birthright. He's the one that's going to rule, and he doesn't look like a good guy.
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No one has ever been able to say to God, I deserve blank. You owe me. No one has ever been able to say about anything to God. You owe me what he offers and what he gives in any blessing is grace. Any time you experience blessing from God, material, blessing, financial, blessing, relationship, blessing that is grace. It is not deserved. Saving grace God using the gospel of Jesus Christ to save sinners, is grace from the first years of my Christian life, the Gospel doctrines of Jesus, Christ, His death for me, his resurrection for me, His ascension to Heaven, the union that I have with him that's going to be for now and all eternity are stunning, stellar. They amaze me. But right along with that comes this doctrine of sovereign grace, because I've never thought before or now that I'm deserving of it. I don't deserve it. Grace is grace because we don't deserve it. The fact that some get saving grace should make them say, hallelujah, what a savior he gives grace. Big Idea this morning is we're going to look at this passage see how this doctrine is illustrated. God's sovereign grace calls us to humility and hope, as we depend on his promises, it calls us to humility and hope. Drawing near to the God of sovereign grace produces the greatest weapon against pride and entitlement. Do you tend to get impatient, angry, irritated or annoyed? Well, you've probably lost sight of sovereign grace. Sovereign grace is the light switch that chases out the blackened moods of UN forgiveness and bitterness when you recognize what God in His grace has given you and somebody doesn't give you what you deserve on Earth, you can act like your Heavenly Father and Jesus by returning injustice with grace, cold, pompous arrogance and belittling self righteousness is replaced with servant hearted warmth, harshness is replaced with gentleness. Fear of not getting what you want, or fear of losing what you have, is replaced by a settled security and sovereign grace has so many transforming realities to it. We're going to look at it this morning in the close of the life of Abraham, the beginning of the promise to Isaac. We're going to see it in two ways. Specifically, it produces contentment in Abraham. It produces a dependence in Isaac and Rebecca. So we're going to look at those two in two parts. First, humbly content yourself in the blessings that come from sovereign grace. When you recognize your blessings and you recognize that they're from God's sovereign grace, you grow in contentment, and that's going to be in the face of the reality that you have many things that are joyful, that you could thank God for, and you have many things that are difficult. The Unfinished or challenging. When you recognize sovereign grace, it can breed contentment in the middle of the unfinished and difficult. Did this for Abraham. Chapter 25 turns the page for us to Isaac. It's Abraham's death. After Sarah died, he takes another wife, Keturah. Keturah has a number of sons. Isaac is set to get the blessing the sons have to find another place to live. This was true years before with Ishmael, verse seven says these are the days of the years of Abraham's life, 175 years. Yeah, not as good as Methuselah, way better than any of us know. Abraham breathed his last and died in a good old age, an old man and full of years, and he was gathered to his people there, there is the language of contentment. Breathed his last, he died a good old age. What does that mean? The end of Abraham's life, he rejoiced in all the blessings that had come to him over the years of his sojournings. A good old age doesn't mean there weren't problems in his old age, Ishmael was set against the family, part of the prophecy about him being a donkey of a man against his brothers. And yet he could see by Ishmael large family the villages, the fact that Ishmael sons became princes. He could look at his late years and say, the promises aren't finished. There are still many to go, but what God has given me is good talks about him being an old man full of years. And that idea full of years is a Hebrew way of saying contented. He was contented at the end of his life, he was gathered to his people, another Hebrew phrase that has this idea of, once you die, you go to be with the people who have gone before you, he's gathered to his people. Presume, gathered to his people who were in the faith, and even the Hebrews here have this understanding of life after death. They have an understanding of resurrection. And Abraham is going to wait like everybody else waits for the final day of resurrection. When Messiah returns, He is content. He had been given promises. He had been given great promises. If you're new with us as we look at the end of his life, he had been given some great promises, starting in chapter 12. Did he deserve his promises? Did he deserve this blessing in his old age? If we go back to chapter 11, first mentions of Abraham. He's a moon worshiper with the rest. And in chapter 12, when he is called out of Ur the Chaldees, he's called away from idolatry into the faith of the one true God. Does Abraham display immediate and stellar faith? Well he goes, but he lies. He doesn't trust he prays some, but he doesn't pray at most important times. Is he deserving of the grace? No, he's not deserving of the grace. He wasn't worthy being called. He didn't stay worthy. He didn't do enough things to make him worthy of the promises. God is faithful to the promises that He gives and to the people that he calls. And Abraham recognizes all the blessings that He has, and he says, I die a happy man. His sons get a get along well enough to bury him. In verse 11 Moses says God's baton has passed after the death of Abraham. God blessed Isaac, his son and Isaac settled at beer, Lahai Roi. Isaac's going to carry the line all the way carry the line that's going to lead to Jesus. The close of Ishmael. Life is also included. You can see the generations in chapter 12, if you noticed at the end, he breathes. His last verse, 17, and dies. And he's gathered to his people. He goes to his forefathers, and it says, they settle from Havilah to Sure, which is opposite Egypt, in the direction of Assyria. He settled over against all his kinsmen. What does that mean? Over against? This is referring back to what I mentioned in Genesis, 1612, Abraham and Sarah make a faithless gesture to bring Hagar in as a concubine, and she has Ishmael, the relationship explodes. Hagar runs off. God tells her to go back. But he says this about Ishmael. He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen. And at chapter 25 at the end, you have the scene of Ishmael with 12 sons, and they become princes of villages scattered across the east, up to what would eventually be Israel.
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This doesn't end peacefully, but Abraham is contented. He is contented. Do you want to kindle contentment as you get older? Do you want to kindle contentment as you get older? Do this? It's a two column exercise. It's a really simple exercise in column one, consequences I deserved from God, like think of every sinful, foolish, stupid thing that you've done. Now let's just pick your top five that you could be really in trouble for, or you are really in trouble for. Column one, consequences I deserve from God. Column two, blessings I don't deserve from God. There are a lot of them. If you have called out to Jesus Christ for forgiveness from your sin, even this morning, you have an eternal, eternal set of blessings, set of heavenly blessings, set of earthly blessings. This is going to cultivate contentment versus jealousy, anger, resentment the cure for jealousy is a recognition of the rich blessings you have in Christ now and will receive when you cross into His presence in Glory. So sovereign grace in Abraham's life produced contentment. Number two, sovereign grace produces hopeful dependence. Hopeful dependence. This is in chaos. We go from a very peaceful transition out the end of the story for Abraham, the end of the story for Ishmael, the beginning of the story for Isaac. We get it in its fullness, starting in these chapters, and they don't start well. It's almost as if God has a plan for every person. He calls to himself to start by making them trust him in very serious ways, like, Why didn't it just go easy for Isaac? Because Isaac needed to learn how to trust sovereign grace. Verse 20 Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebecca and Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife because she was barren. You're going to find out in a couple of verses we read it, they had been barren for 20 years. 20 years sounds really similar to what his father had to go through waiting 25 years for the Promised Son. He prayed. Think it's reasonable to think that he prayed a long time, and finally, the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebecca, his wife, conceived. It seems so odd in some ways, because you read chapter 24 where we finished, the beginning of last month. Rebecca is industrious, strong, beautiful, full of faith, and she can't get pregnant for decades. It shouldn't start like this. She should be able to get pregnant easily, and she is not. We often think that you get married and you just have kids, that's just what happens. That's not what just happened. Just, not just what happens all the time, in this case, the natural course. Because Ishmael got the natural course, he had 12 sons. His 12 sons became princes. The natural course was interrupted in a really specific sense, to highlight Sovereign Grace, God is going to have to intervene, do something miraculous, another miracle baby, as I like to say, it is here, but God hears the prayer and she gets pregnant. But not very long, this pregnancy turns from joy to difficulty. Verse 22 the children struggled together within her, and the struggled words, the idea of smashing into each other. She could tell there was a war going on inside her womb, and she thought they're going to kill each other like I can just feel it. They're going to kill each other in the womb, and then what will I be left with? I'm already way too old to have a baby, and these could kill each other. Ian, I won't have anything. She says in this lament and grief, if it is thus, why is this happening to me? It's almost like let me die. This is just too much. And she does what her husband did, she goes to the Lord and prays. She went to inquire of the Lord, which immediately, as we're talking about sovereignty and grace, there's usually this pushback. Well, if God is sovereign and knows everything and has everything planned out according to His purposes, then why bother praying? Well, why do you pray? Because God is sovereign. He's the one with the power and the ability and the wisdom and the might. There is no better place to go, no one else to go, than to the God who is sovereign and he ordains prayer because he's put you into a relationship with him. I
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He didn't give you a computer spreadsheet for your life. Watch what happens. He gave you a life to interact with him, and he ordains prayer as a means for that relationship. The answer doesn't go really well. In fact, we have a prophecy about the twins that their future, that foretells their future. Listen to what it says. Two nations are in your womb. Good news, you're going to have two offspring. They're going to become nations. They're going to be great, hooray, two peoples from within you. Hooray. Until you get to shall be divided. There's going to be two nations, but they're going to be divided. This war that's going on now is not going to stop the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger. This is a promise about Edom and Israel. It's not just about the boys. It's going to be about Edom and Israel, which throughout their history, went through cycles. Edom attacks Israel fights back. Sometimes Edom serves Israel. Sometimes Edom gets the upper hand. And don't forget, it goes all the way to Jesus. Herod the tetrarch is an Edomite. He's idum Ian and sought to destroy Jesus.
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Here's what comes out of this. God's saving promises will endure through conflicted and chaotic times. It will not turn out like most people think. God's grace will endure in unconventional ways. Already. The custom, the convention that we call primogeniture, the oldest gets the inheritance, is even before they're born, it's disrupted. God's grace works in unconventional ways. Verse 24 says, 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. They're creative in naming. He's hairy and red. So what are we going to call it? Him red. You're red. You know we're going to call you red, plain enough until we get to the next one. At least he's just red. Afterward, his brother came out with his hand holding Esau heel. So his name was called Jacob. He cheats. This is going to characterize the boys. Jacob's going to be a cheater. Isaac was 60 year old, 60 years old when she bore them. Just a little side. Fact, I Abraham died when Esau and Jacob were 15, they would have known grandfather, Abraham, he would have known them. Back in the story, Esau would be wild and hairy, Jacob would be a conniver and a deceiver. So the chaos goes from the womb all the way to adulthood. Verse 27 when the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field. Naturally, he's wearing a fur coat.
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He's strong. He's a man's man. He's a warrior. While Jacob was a quiet man dwelling in tents. Esau, wild and rugged outdoorsman. Jacob, a homebody. Esau would have been strong, like a warrior. Jacob would have been soft and plodding. We could say, as is often said about me, he's in his own head, plodding in my own head, the chaos is evident to the parents like you can't have more different boys, and the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter. We find that the problem continues on. It's not just them that has a problem, but even their parents have a problem. The chaos is evidenced in the parents verse 28 Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebecca loved Jacob. This makes matters worse. Isaac plays favorites with Esau because he likes roast meat or stewed meat, wild game. Rebecca plays favorites with Jacob, and certainly Rebecca told Isaac about the prophecy, but in in the face of the prophecy, both still choose their favorites. One fateful day, we see the prophecy begin to unfold. Verse 29 once, when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field and he was exhausted. Esau said to Jacob, let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted, Therefore His name was called Edom, which also means red. Okay, we get the idea. He's red, red stew. Little side note, Edom, its most famous city, its fortress city, was carved into the red cliffs. So red is everywhere in the country. But this is like, I don't know teenage boys here. He comes in, overly dramatic. I'm exhausted. Give me some food. And Jacob sees an opportunity. Sell me your birthright now. Now, Jacob should have willingly fed his brother, shouldn't he? His brother comes in hungry. You love your brother. You've got some food ready. Hey, here's some food. It's ready. Tell me about your hunting trip. No, sell me your birthright. Esau is impulsive, and perhaps he has no interest in the family business. I just want to hunt. I don't care what I get. Clearly, he's overdramatic. I'm about to die of what use is a birthright to me. If I'm about to die, swear to me now, Jacob says so he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob, and Jacob gave Esau bread lentil stew. That's the calm. It's still the common dish in the Middle East. Red lentil stew. He ate and drank rose and went his way. Notice this, Moses wants to give a commentary thus Esau despised his birthright. Moses shows us Esau was careless and reckless, careless and reckless. You have to put it in terms of deserving. Did. Did Esau get what he deserved? Yes, he despised his birthright and he lost his birthright. Did Jacob get what he deserved? No, Jacob is a cheat, a connivor. What does Jacob get? Grace, mercy, according to God's sovereign promises? Why so that no one can say to God, you owe me. No one can boast, no natural circumstance, no social convention, no worthiness nor merit. Can make anybody say to God, you owe me. It's to exalt His sovereign grace. Let's think it through by what this prophecy is leading to. Why Israel? Why Israel? The the other name Jacob is going to get is Israel. We go from he cheats to he who wrestles with God. Still not a glorious picture. The nation of Israel will be named after him in the promise as the nation that is perpetually scheming, cheating and falling back to idolatry, Edom. The nation will engage in numerous conflicts, and will be at war with Israel and God. So what's the basis of the blessing? Now, the average comment about God choosing somebody is, well, okay, they weren't good when they started, but God saw there would be some good in them. Because he saw there would be some good in them. That's why he chose and that works for how many verses in this chapter? No verses. It works for no verses. The first thing we find is that the deceiver deceives. The cheater cheats. So God didn't look ahead and look at Jacob and said, Boy, he'll really get there. It didn't happen, in fact, to highlight this issue, after God rescued the weak and powerless slave nation called Israel out of Egypt. Remember, their slaves totally dominated. They need God's supernatural hand to rescue them out and for God to remind them to not get proud or not rely on themselves or go to other gods. He says this in Deuteronomy, 76 for you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth, and it was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord had set his love on you and chose you for you were the fewest of all peoples. They were the weakest, most unworthy people. It's not according to worthiness, it's not according to merit. Ian Earth. It's not according to social convention, who are the nations that are respected for millennia, those who were powerful and wealthy. You know your history books, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, China are still the most admired, civil admired civilizations in the world. Why? Because they were powerful and wealthy. What was Israel? The armpit of the Mediterranean? Little, tiny nation, virtually unfaithful to God for their whole history. And Israel produced the Messiah. Israel produced the Messiah, not according to social event intervention, not not according to social convention, not by merit. We could ask about us here, gathered in this room in this country. Why? Why us? Why us? Don't confuse blessings of sovereign grace with causes for our privileged place. Here's what it says about nations in the world. Psalm two one says, Why did the nations rage and the people's plot in vain? That is the state of all nations until Jesus returns. Yes, was Babylon worthy of Daniel? Was Persia worthy of Mordecai? Was Greece worthy of Paul? Was Rome worthy of Peter? Was Germany worthy of Martin Luther? Was France worthy of John Calvin? Was England worthy of George Whitefield? Was the United States worthy of d l moody or Billy Graham? Was Was any of this worthiness, not at all. We are here by grace. We are here by grace, not by merit. We are gathered in this room, sharers in the promised blessing through Jesus Christ, because of sovereign grace. Why me? Why me? It's not by nature your parents can't change your spiritually dead heart. Ephesians, two, one and two says and you all to you plural, were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. It's not by nature.
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I mean good parents, loving parents in the church want their children to be saved and follow Jesus. They give them scripture, they give them they pray for them. But can a parent change a child's heart? They can't. Only God can change a child's heart. I mean, I'm trying. I tried, I tried. I've worked really hard. Many of you are trying, and you're really working hard, but it's not by nature, is it by convention? The Jews thought that they were saved because of their circumcision. God chose us to be a special people. Therefore we are a more special people than everybody. That's how often election gets used by God's people, and we're special because God said we're special. They thought they were saved by circumstances, by a special mark of approval. Many in the church think they were saved by being religious, by praying, by going to temple, going to church. Here's what Jesus said to the very religious people. This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain. Do they worship Me? Going through the motions is not what saves it's not by worthiness. When Levi, the tax collector, followed Jesus, He made him a grand feast, inviting all his tax collector and prostitute friends, big feast for Jesus. The self righteous Pharisees said, how come he eats with tax collectors and sinners? This is disgusting. Jesus says, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous but sinners. It is not by worthiness. Your qualification to hear Jesus Gospel call to you this morning, your qualification is being a sinner. Are you a sinner? Come? Are you a sinner? Come? Here's the thing about sovereign grace. It's being offered to you right now, and you could take it. You can receive him. You are not worthy, but you can pray. You are not able, but you can pray, you can cry out for mercy, and God will extend mercy. It's not by merit for by grace. You have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works. But no one may boast.
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The writer of Hebrews makes two comments about Genesis. 25 makes a comment about Genesis. 25 Paul makes the second one in Hebrews 1216, it enjoins us not to be immoral or unholy men like Esau, who sold his birthright for one meal, and when he sought the blessing and he repented, he couldn't receive the blessing, even though he sought for it with tears. I Esau got what he deserved. Jacob did not get what he deserved. Jacob got mercy. The second passage that comments on it is Romans 910, through 16. I. Now Romans 910 says this, where Moses had applied chapter 25 of Genesis to Israel. Paul applies it to Christians. Are we going to make it? Are we going to finish? Because we're looking at Israel, it doesn't feel like we're going to finish. And God says, No, you're going to finish. Let me tell you why, because it's going to rely on Him Who calls on his sovereign grace. That's how you're going to finish. Here's how it shakes out. When Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather, Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing, either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue not because of works, but because of him who calls it's not going to be works that earn you a place into eternity, in heaven, as it is written, Jacob I loved, BUT ESAU I hated. Let's quote out of Malachi, and that's a reference to a choice. Jesus makes those really big statements like that. Unless you hate your father, mother, sister, brother, you have no part of me. He is comparing your devotion to God to your devotion to family. And in comparison, one looks like love and the other looks like hate, love, God hate. But it is a issue of superiority. That's what's going on here. I chose one. I didn't choose another. I chose to set my affection and grace on one. I did not choose it to fall on another. But did the other get anything but what he deserved? No, he got just what he deserved. Jacob got grace. What shall we say? Then? Is there injustice on God's part? I know the typical answer is, but why aren't all people? Why doesn't God give mercy to everybody? As if God's required to give mercy to everybody. No. God gives those who remain in rebellion just what they're asking for, just what they deserve. And God gives those who come to Jesus admitting their sin, He gives them mercy. Is there any injustice on God's part? By no means, for he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion, on whom I will have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy. This is what it takes to make a Christian secure. I know there are a lot of people who put their faith in Christ and ongoing their sins, their failures, their difficulties, the circumstances they're in, make them think in their mind, I must not be saved. I don't know if I can make it. Here's the reality of sovereign grace. If God chose you while you were dead and a rebellious sinner, not meriting anything, God will keep you whether you merit or do anything else after it wasn't your salvation into the Kingdom wasn't by your merit, your continuance in the kingdom isn't by merit. It's all by grace. And it's not cheap grace. It cost Jesus his relationship with God and His life on the cross, God turned his back on Jesus, who was deserving of nothing less than reward and blessing. Jesus did not get what he deserved. Jesus got what we deserved.
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God turned his back on Jesus so that Jesus could bring us to God. And it's not cheap grace, meaning it doesn't do anything but transfer you. It starts to change you. We recognize Jacob begins his journey of growth when he's sent out of the family. In a couple chapters, we'll watch him get sent out. We'll see the deceiver gets deceived and he is forced to grow. He ends up being the prophet who gives the blessing at the end of the book that one of the key ones that foreshadows Jesus. He is used in a great way. So if you're here today, you know you're a sinner, and you know, well, I'm not saved by my righteousness. So it doesn't matter what I do afterwards. Of course, it will matter what you do afterwards, because God will give you a new heart, and you will seek to please Him and follow Him, imperfectly, but truly. Think of the story Jacob was as wicked as Esau and got grace and you. Can have that too. You can have grace too. You can have grace too. I think of what happens when a person is confronted with sovereign grace, one they are dependent. Look at the chaos that was in Isaac and Rebecca's life. Their boys are at war. Within there's favoritism. There is much tragic, much sinful, and yet God offers and secures his promise. This is a great security to us. Abraham has seen it for so many years. He dies contented recognizing it. There are a host of benefits from recognizing sovereign grace. When you are really treated with injustice, your spouse sins against you, a neighbor, somebody in the city, another country really sins against you. God doesn't owe you anything, but God designed us to owe each other something, love and justice, and when somebody doesn't give you what you deserve, you can look at God's grace, and instead of applying revenge or bitterness or hostility, you can apply compassion, patience, Forgiveness, if you're not getting the respect you think you deserve, husband from your wife. One, I'm not sure how much respect you deserve. Two, you can respond back with patience and grace, wife, when your husband is insensitive and unkind and not cherishing. You deserve that, but when you don't get it, you can respond with patience and kindness and compassion. Sovereign grace is utterly transforming in how your human relationships work because God has given me so much mercy, I can give compassion and mercy to others even when they don't deserve it.
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It removes from the Christians self righteous smugness when they see political news from the other that disgusts them. It dials back the angst and anger and frustration. It allows you to walk by the Spirit. Look at what Jesus gave you. What do you need to give to others?
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Add to this simple fact, Philippians, one six, Paul says, I am confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it in the day of Christ. Jesus. Why will he be faithful? Because he has made a promise by his sovereign grace, what he starts he will finish. Let's pray, Father, thank You for this passage, thank you for what you're teaching us. Thank you for these examples. Do the two things in this passage that you did for the patriarchs, make us content, not jealous, make us a people who pray when chaos surrounds our lives. Make us a people humble and quick to confess, quick to offer compassion and grace Christ's name, we pray.
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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