Please turn with me in the word of God to Genesis chapter 27. Two weeks ago, as we were reading our text, I asked you to keep your antenna up so that you could pick up the pronouns that were in the text. Last week, I asked you to keep your antenna up to recognize the timing words that were in our text. This week, as we read verses 1 through 40 of Genesis 27, I want you to pay attention to the words that talk about our five senses. because there's a great emphasis in the text upon the senses of hearing, of touch, of taste, of sight, of smell. And this is standing out in the text, and I believe there's a reason for it standing out in the text. So as we read it, bear those things in mind as we begin our reading of verse 1. Now it came to pass, when Isaac was old, and his eyes were so dim that he could not see, that he called Esau his older son, and said to him, My son. And he answered, Here I am. And he said, Behold now, I am old, I do not know the day of my death. Now therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver, and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me, and make me savory food such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die. Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. And Esau went into the field to hunt game and to bring it. So Rebekah spoke to Jacob her son, saying, Indeed, I heard your father speak to Esau your brother, saying, Bring me game and make savory food for me, that I may eat it and bless you in the presence of the Lord before my death. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to what I command you. Now go now to the flock and bring me from there two choice kids of the goats, and I will make savory food from them for your father, such as he loves. Then you shall take it to your father, and he shall eat it, that he may bless you before his death.' And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Look, Esau, my brother, is a hairy man, and I am a smooth-skinned man. Perhaps my father will feel me, and I shall seem to be a deceiver to him, and I shall bring a curse on myself and not a blessing. But his mother said to him, let your curse be on me, my son, only obey my voice and go get them for me. And he went and got them and brought them to his mother and his mother made savory food such as his father loved. Then Rebekah took the choice clothes of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob, her younger son. And she put the skins on the kids of the goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck. Then she gave the savory food and the bread which she had prepared into the hand of her son Jacob. So he went to his father and 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 just as you told me. Please arise, sit, and eat of 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? And he said, Because the Lord your God brought it to me. Then Isaac said to Jacob, Please come near, that I may fill you, my son, whether you really are my son Esau or not. So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, And he 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. Then he said, Are you really my son Esau? And he said, I am. He said, Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son's game, so that my soul may bless you. So he brought it near to him, and he ate, and he brought him wine, and he drank. Then his father Isaac said to him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son. And he came near and kissed him, and he smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him, and said, Surely the smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed. Therefore may God give you of the dew of heaven, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine. Let people serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be master over your brethren, and let your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be those who bless you. Now it happened, as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. He also had made savory food, and brought it to his father, and said to his father, Let my father arise and eat of his son's game, that your soul may bless me. And his father Isaac said to him, Who are you? So he said, I am your son, your firstborn, Esau. Then Isaac trembled exceedingly and said, Who? Where is the one who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it before you came, and have blessed him, and indeed he shall be blessed. When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with an exceedingly great and bitter cry, and said to his father, Bless me, me also, O my father. But he said, Your brother came with deceit, and has taken away your blessing. And Esau said, Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and now, look, he's taken away my blessing. And he said, Have you not reserved a blessing for me? Then Isaac answered and said to Esau, Indeed, I have made him your master, and all his brethren I have given to him as servants. With grain and wine I have sustained him. What shall I now do for you, my son? And Esau said to his father, Have you only one blessing, my father? Bless me, me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice and wept. Then Isaac his father answered and said to him, Behold, your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth and of the dew of heaven from above. By your sword you shall live, and you shall serve your brother. And it shall come to pass, when you become restless, that you shall break his yoke from your neck." Let's pray. Our Father, we ask that the Holy Spirit of God would help us, both as I preach and as your people here, that you will teach us and instruct us from this very sad chapter of Holy Scripture. But show us, Lord, and teach us, and warn us, and comfort us as you see fit. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. As a Confessional Reformed Baptist Church, we believe that God is sovereign over all of his creation, over all the events of human history and over the salvation of sinners. And as I look at this text, as I read this text, what stands out to me is God's sovereign grace. and his providential direction of human events. First of all, God's sovereign grace. Genesis 27 is an infallible description of a very sad chapter in the life of God's chosen people. There are four people involved in this little charade that's going on. Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Esau. And each of them is guilty of great sin. As I read the text, did you hear it that first of all, there's favoritism here. Favoritism expressed in both partiality and prejudice. Rebekah is partial towards Jacob, prejudiced against Esau. Isaac's the complete opposite. He's partial towards Esau and prejudiced against Jacob. As we'll see in just a moment, there's self-willedness here. Isaac is fighting against the purposes of God, which had already been prophesied. Furthermore, there's deception and deceit that is intentionally plotted and very diligently carried out. Furthermore, we have blame shifting on the part of Esau that leads to murderous intent. There's even sensuality in our text, and when I say the word sensuality, I don't mean it the way we usually think of it. We usually think of it in terms of sexual terms. That's not what I mean. There's sensuality in the sense of inappropriate concern for your belly, because Isaac in this text is thinking with his stomach, as we shall see. But the worst of all, in my view, we encounter blasphemy. blasphemy on the part of Jacob, who would dare to invoke the name of the holy God in order to deceive his father and to cover up his own sin. And these are God's chosen people? These are the people whom God has chosen to place his name upon? This Jacob is a man whom God himself will later give a new name, Isaac, and he'll call his chosen nation after him. And you're looking at these people and going, what a deceitful and dysfunctional family they are. Is there anything redeeming in anything that they're doing here? And it tells us something. It tells us that when God chooses to save sinners, He chooses them not based upon their merits. He chooses them based on His grace. And aren't you glad? Because if He chose you and I on the basis of our merits, He would have chosen none of us. He chooses them by grace. So that's the first thing I see here. The second thing I see is God's sovereign guidance. There is a mystery that we cannot fathom. We can't comprehend between what God has decreed and what God has commanded. He's given He has decreed certain things to come to pass, and everything God has decreed to come to pass will come to pass. You can't stop it. It's immutable. It's unchangeable. It's unstoppable. It's non-negotiable. Everything God has decreed will come to pass. But then, there's His preceptive will, which is constantly resisted. Because that is what God has commanded you and I to do, and very often we don't do it. And yet, nonetheless, even when men break God's preceptive will, His decretive will always comes to pass. And yet, He's not the author or approver of sin. So that even in this sad episode, even through the sinfulness of Rebekah and Isaac and Jacob, what God had decreed to come to pass, comes to pass. That is, that the younger will lead the older, the older will serve the younger, which is what God had decreed. The Messiah will not come through Esau, the Messiah will come through Jacob. And so we see these things in our text. So as I preach the text this morning, I'm going to preach it under four headings. First of all, we see a stealthy request. Secondly, we see a wicked scheme. Third, we see a blasphemous deception. And fourth, we see a remorseful son. So let's consider those things together. First of all, a stealthy request. Verse 1 gives us the context of what's going on here. Isaac's old. Several commentators mentioned they think at this point he was about 137 years old. He's old. He doesn't know how many years are ahead versus those that are behind. Actually, he would live for 43 more years because he did not die until he was 180 years old. But nonetheless, he doesn't know that. He doesn't know the day of his death, and so he has a request. He's lost one of his five senses he can no longer see. About a year ago, I got a new prescription with my eyes for my contacts, and I had to start reading reading glasses. And when I got reading glasses the very first time I had family worship, It just so happens I was reading this text and I hadn't previewed it. And the very first thing I read, I said, now children, you have to get used to me wearing reading glasses because my eyes have changed. And the very first words I read were, Isaac had grown old and his eyes were very dim. Suffice it to say, it took us five minutes to restore order before we could get back and regain our composure and keep reading the scriptures. But nonetheless, he's lost his sense of sight. and he only has four senses left. But in the midst of that, he has a request. He calls his son Esau to himself and says, I don't know the day of my death, so I want you to go out, make me savory food, get your bow and your arrow, shoot a deer, fix some venison for me the way I like it, and when you give me that food in exchange, I will give you a great blessing. And the blessing he's intending to give him is the blessing of the firstborn son, which was a double portion more above the blessing any other son would receive. Now, I've said that this is a stealthy request. In other words, it seems that Isaac is trying to do this secretly. And the reason I say that is for several reasons. First of all, typically when these blessings were given, they were given in a public manner. And yet he's calling Esau privately to himself to ask for this thing because he favors Esau over Jacob. And he wants to give this blessing to him rather than to Jacob. But here's the thing. Isaac doubtless knew the prophecy that had been made many years earlier to Rebekah, that the older shall serve the younger. He already knew what God's intention was, but yet he still wants to give the blessing of the firstborn to his favorite son, Esau. That's why I'm saying he's being self-willed. He's trying to subvert the purpose of God. Furthermore, Isaac had clear evidence of Esau's poor character. Not that Jacob was exactly a model of piety at this point either, but he has good evidence of his character. First of all, he had to have known that Esau had sold his birthright to Jacob in exchange for basically a bowl of bean soup. Furthermore, the last chapter ended by telling us that Esau had presumptuously married not one, but two women, both of whom were pagan Canaanites. And they were a grief of mine to Isaac and Rebekah. But nonetheless, his favoritism of Esau over Jacob persists that he wants to have his way with him rather than what God himself has decreed and ordained." J.C. Rouse wrote something about it over a century ago that's very appropriate in this case. It's in a footnote in his book, The Duties of Parents. He says, quote, as a minister, I cannot help remarking that there is hardly any subject about which people seem so tenacious as they are about their children. I have sometimes been perfectly astonished at the slowness of sensible Christian parents to allow that their children are in fault or deserve blame. There are not a few persons whom I would far rather speak about their own sins than tell them their children had done anything wrong." End of quote. And this seems to be a Isaac. He's just willfully blind to what's going on in Esau's life. And then, there's more than a hint in our text as to what motivated Isaac to favor Esau. And it was sensuality. Now, sensuality is, again, we affiliate with sexual things. That's not what I'm saying here. That's not how I'm using the word. The root word of sensuality is the word sense. And the idea of being given over to your passions or your bodily appetites without moderation is very often the way the word sensual is used. Let's put it this way. Paul had a lot to say about our liberties in Christ when he wrote to the church at Corinth. Chapter 6, he says this, "...all things are lawful for me, but all things are not profitable." He's saying, in principle, I know that God has given me a number of liberties in Christ. However, it's not always profitable to your soul to practice every single liberty God has given you. And then he goes on to say this, He says, all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. Even in the exercise of my liberties, I will retain, by the Holy Spirit, self-control. I'll rule my liberties, my liberties will not rule me. And then he says this, foods for the stomach, and the stomach for foods, but God will destroy both it and them. In other words, I have the principle, in principle I have the right to eat all kinds of food. However, even in what I eat and put in my mouth, I will exercise self-control, moderation, and temperance. I will be in control of it, it will not be in control of me, and I will not be given to excess." Now, in Isaac's life, it seems that he was given over to some excess when it came to what he ate, that perhaps he was gluttonous. Let me show you what I'm talking about. Listen carefully to these scriptures. Genesis 25 verse 8 is the first time we're told of Isaac's favoritism of Esau. And Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game. He's thinking with his stomach. Now listen, all throughout chapter 27, let me repeat several verses. Verse 4, make me savory food such as I love. Verse 9, I will make savory food for your father such as he loves. Verse 14, and his mother made savory food such as his father loved. Verse 19, please arise, sit and eat of my game that your soul may bless me. Verse 25, bring it near to me and I will eat of my son's game. So he brought it near to him and he ate. Verse 31, let my father arise and eat of his son's game that your soul may bless me. Verse 33, Where is the one who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it before you came, and I have blessed him. You see, there's a deliberate emphasis upon the fact that he's thinking with his stomach. He's thinking with his stomach and not with his reason. Let's put it this way. Gordon Winnum, who is a commentator, said this, Isaac's sensuality is more powerful than his theology. His sensuality is more powerful than his theology. And this is why this weakness in Isaac is why he showed partiality to Esau and prejudice against Jacob. And it's a weakness that Rebecca and Jacob were able to exploit. So, we see a stealthy report, that's the first thing. Secondly, we see a wicked scheme. It seems that Isaac did not intend for his wife to hear about the blessing to Esau, but in God's providence, she hears about it. She's listening through the tent door or on the other end of the line or something, but nonetheless, she immediately runs to Jacob. Esau's gone out to the field. It's going to take him a few hours to hunt down the game, to skin it, clean it, cook it up, and bring it to Isaac. So, she's got to concoct a scheme very, very quickly. And she comes to him and says, Esau's gone out to hunt for venison. I can take two goats and make them taste just like venison. I know how to fix it just the way your father likes. I'm going to fix this, and you're going to take it in to him, and then he'll bless you instead of blessing your brother." Well, granted, Rebekah knows God's promises, that the older shall serve the younger. But brothers and sisters, the ends don't justify the means, do they? The ends don't justify the means. Andrew Fuller says it this way, quote, the deception practiced on Isaac was cruel. If Isaac was in the wrong, endeavor to convince him or commit it to God who could turn Isaac's mind, but do not avail yourself of his lost of sight to deceive him. Such would have been the counsel of wisdom and rectitude, but Rebecca follows her own. End of quote. When we first met Rebecca, there was much to impress us about her godly character. But brothers and sisters, let's remember, even the godless of wives have feet of clay. We are all great sinners. And Rebecca shows that in this particular context, in this particular situation. Well, at first, in verses 11 and 12, Jacob seems to respond in an honorable way. He gives her some pushback and says, no, we shouldn't do this. This is not the best idea you've ever had in the world, mom. But on closer inspection, you realize it's really not that noble at all. Let's look at it again. Look at verse 11. Jacob said to Rebekah's mother, Look, Esau, my brother, is a hairy man, and I'm a smooth-skinned man. Perhaps my father will fill me, and I shall seem to be a deceiver to him, and I shall bring a curse on myself and not a blessing. Do you see that Jacob, he doesn't mind being told he should lie. It's okay if I lie to God and lie to my father. but it's getting caught that I'm worried about. If I get caught, then I may be cursed." And Rebecca gives a presumptuous response. Let the curse be on me. Go ahead and do what I'm telling you. And Jacob, without any more hesitation of conscience, runs out to get the goats. See, he doesn't care about lying, he just cares about getting caught in a lie. That's what we call worldly sorrow, worldly remorse, and not godly sorrow. So he runs out and he does it. He goes out and he gets these two goats and he kills them and he brings them to his mom. Now, think about all this. First of all, again, Jacob is the man that God is going to name his nation after. Doesn't that tell you that God is a God of grace? It's proof positive that God is a God of grace that doesn't choose us by our merit. But I'll tell you something else about this whole episode. It's proof positive that the Bible is given by inspiration of God's Holy Spirit. And the reason I say that is this. If you were going to concoct a false religion and want to proselytize people to your cause, and you wrote a book, wouldn't you set before your heroes, you'd magnify their brilliance, you'd magnify their virtues, and you would hide their weaknesses? Does the Bible ever do that? It is so candid about the weaknesses and the stupidity sometimes of God's people to tell us this is who they were. It doesn't hide any of those things from us and says, come follow us. Come walk in the same faith that these people walked in. Even though it's told us that they were sometimes buffoons and goofy and stupid and did very immature and sinful things. Well, it's proof positive that God isn't concocting carefully cafted tales in order to deceive us. He's telling us truth. And being candid and honest because the hero of the Bible is not any of the men and women who occupy it except the man Jesus Christ. The hero of our Bible is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. In fact, I'm going to go ahead and give away the end. In Genesis 27, that's the hero who's standing out here. It's the God who, behind the scenes, is doing great things despite the sinfulness of His people. When God saves us, He doesn't just save us from sin. He doesn't just save us from the wrath that is to come. You know what? He saves you from you. And he saves me from me, doesn't he? And he goes on saving us from ourselves. And that's what we see him doing in this text as well. Well, it's sad in verses 14-17 to see how diligently Rebecca pulls off this deception. You know, if only we were as diligent in pursuing holiness as we are in pursuing sin sometimes, we'd be holy people, wouldn't we? But yet, she's so diligent. I mean, think about what she's got to do. She has to cook the freshly killed goats. Carve them up, cook them up in the supper just the way he likes it while they're cooking. She runs over to Esau's dresser drawer, pulls out his musky smelling clothes and gives them to Jacob. Then while he's doing all that, the food's still cooking, she then takes the skins, cleans them, and then weaves them and sews them into something that he can wear so that he can feel like he's got hairy clothes. Here's the thing that she's trying to do. She's trying to deceive all of his senses. He can't see, so he's not going to be able to tell that this is Jacob instead of Esau. But he's going to touch him, so let's make sure that his sense of touch is dealt with. He's going to eat his food. Let me cook it just the way Esau cooks his food so that it will be deceived there. And even the sense of smell. By wearing Esau's clothes, I'm going to deceive him in every way possible with all the senses he has remaining. And look how many hours of work this must have taken for her to pursue this deceit of her own husband. How diligent she is to pursue it. So what do we see? A stealthy request, a wicked scheme. Third, a blasphemous deception. In verse 18, Jacob walks into his father's room, carrying his food, dressed like a goat. Trick or treat. Hi, Dad. He says, My father. And Isaac responds, Here I am. Who are you, my son? And I can't help but wonder if Rebecca was face-palming herself right now. I was trying to deceive all his senses, but I forgot about his voice. Because Isaac still has perfectly good ears. And he says, Who are you, my son? And Jacob says, I'm Esau. I am you, Saul, your firstborn son. I've made your game. Eat it and bless me. He's trying to deceive him. And in verse 20, Isaac is skeptical. Something's not right. And notice what he says. He says, how is it that you have found it so quickly, my son? You didn't leave here very long ago, and you've already found the deer, you killed it, you cooked it, you skinned it, all that stuff, and already you're bringing it back. And listen to the deceit of Jacob. I think in a chapter full of really bad things, verse 20 is the worst. Because the Lord your God brought it to me." God's name is holy. You don't use God's name to cover your sin. You don't use God's name to lie to your Father. Oh, God in His providence just brought the deer to me so quick. This is the guy that God has chosen? He's the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? God is a God of grace. Proof positive. This is blasphemous. This is taking God's name in vain. This is not what you do with God's name. But Isaac buys it. And he says, come near me that I may fill you, my son, whether you really are my son Esau or not. He's still skeptical. But notice what's happening. All the sense words that begin to be employed, he touches him, you see. So Jacob went near to Isaac, his father, and he felt him. And he said, the voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. My ears are crying out, Jacob. My hands are saying, Esau. And then he says, asks him again. He says, are you really my son Esau? Verse 24. Another lie. I am. He says, bring it near to me, and I'll eat my son's game, so that my soul may bless you. So he brought it near to him, and he ate, and he brought him wine, and he drank. So now it's the taste. I'm going to taste the food, and it tastes just like the food that Esau makes. And then his father said to him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son. And he came near and kissed him, and he smelled the smell of his clothing. Now it's the sense of smell that he's saying. So basically, this is what's going on. Isaac's ears, well his eyes are out of commission, so he can't tell with his sense of sight that this is Jacob, or that this is not Esau. But then his ears are saying, this is Jacob, but his touch, his taste, and his smell are all casting their vote for Esau. So he says, the eyes have got it. I just believe that this is him and I'm going to bless him. Now here's the point I'm trying to make to you. Remember just a few chapters back, God had said to Isaac, remain in the land and don't go down to Egypt in the midst of a famine. Everything to common sense would have said, run down to Egypt because you've got to spare your family and there's no food being produced in the land. But what did Isaac do? He obeyed because he walked by faith and not by sight. What do we find him doing now but walking by sight, as it were, and not by faith? Because he's trying to undo what God himself had declared he was going to do to cause the older to serve the younger. And yet he wants to go against that purpose. Now he's using all his senses, and his senses deceive him into believing this really is Esau that's in front of him. And so he gives him the blessing, and we have that in verses 27 to 29. And will you notice, as we read it, that there are echoes of God's blessings given to Abraham in what's being said here. Surely the smell of my son is like the smell of a field which the Lord has blessed. Therefore may God give you of the dew of heaven, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine." It seems that he's saying, may you inherit the promised land. The promised land and promise to my father Abraham. And then in verse 29, "...let peoples serve you, and nations bow down to you." If all the nations of the earth bow down to you, what does that make you? It makes you the head of the nations. It makes you the king of kings, and it makes you the Lord of lords. Do you know what he's talking about here? He's foreshadowing, even if Isaac didn't know it. He's foreshadowing the Messiah. May the Messiah come through you, the one to whom all nations shall bow down. Be master over your brethren, and let your mother's sons bow down to you. See, here it is. Jacob thinks Esau's in front of him, and he wants Jacob to serve Esau, rather than Esau to serve Jacob, as God had decreed. But then he says, Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be those who bless you. Isn't that exactly what God had said to Abraham? Those who curse you, I'll curse. Those who bless you, I'll bless. In other words, I am designating you, my son, the heir of all the promises and the covenant God had made with my father, Abraham. But who is he blessing, not even knowing it? He's blessing Jacob. God's eternal purpose is being transacted, even in the deceitfulness that's going on. And there's something else we should notice here. We talked about this morning, we read from Acts 17, that there's a day of judgment coming. And on that day, who is going to be cursed and who's going to be blessed? Those who blessed Jacob's descendant, Jesus Christ, by believing on him, are going to themselves be blessed. But what about those who rejected him? Blow out those who did not believe in him, they will be cursed on that day." So again, I see in this text a foretelling, a hint of the Messiah that was to come. So what have we seen thus far? We've seen a stealthy request, we've seen a blasphemous or a wicked scheme, and we've seen a blasphemous deception. Finally, we see a remorseful son. Verse 30, the timing words are interesting. As soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had scarcely gone out from his presence, you know, just a few more minutes and the gig would have been up. Because he would have caught Jacob dressed like a goat trying to impersonate him. But he escapes in God's providence, and here comes Esau. He's made savory food. He brings it to his father and says, Let my father arise and eat of his son's gain, that your soul may bless me. That's almost identical to what Jacob had said to him. And his father Isaac said to him, Who are you? So he said, I am your son, your firstborn, Esau. And notice in verse 33, Isaac doesn't have to touch him. He doesn't have to smell him. He doesn't have to eat his game. He knows the gig is up. Suddenly he knows he's been deceived. He hears the voice and he's like, I knew something wasn't right. And so he cries out. He begins to tremble exceedingly. Literally shook violently as he sat there in his bed. And he said, who? Where is the one who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it before you came, and I have blessed him, and indeed, he shall be blessed. I can't revoke what I've done. I have blessed your brother Jacob, and I can't take it back. Derek Kidner says this about his statement. He's acknowledging, even if it doesn't seem explicit, Isaac is acknowledging that God's purposes have prevailed, despite his attempts to thwart them. He says this, Isaac's statement, he shall be blessed, expresses more than mere belief that the spoken word is self-fulfilling. He knows he's been fighting against God, as Esau has, and he accepts defeat. I have blessed him. and he will be blessed. What God had said is going to come to pass, the older will serve the younger." Well, Esau hears these words. He cries out with exceedingly great and bitter cry. The man is welling. He's a grown man and he's welling at the top of his lungs and says, Oh, Father, bless me too, my father, bless me. But he said, Your brother. He came in with deceit and he's taken away your blessing. And notice the response of verse 36. I deliberately called this particular heading, a remorseful son, not a repentant son, a remorseful son. Esau's not repentant, he's remorseful, and you find it being made very obvious in verse 36. Is he not rightly named Jacob, that is, supplanter, the one who grabbed at my heel? He says, for he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright. Do you hear what he's saying? He gave his birthright away, willingly. He swore an oath in exchange for soup, but suddenly he's going to play the victim card. Oh, it was their fault. Jacob did something by deceit. He took it away from me. I have seen this so many times. People's own sin and their own stupidity gets them into trouble, and then when the consequences come, suddenly everyone else is to blame but themselves. And what Esau needs to do is accept the consequences of his own profane sin, his own profanity, and to recognize, I am bearing the consequences that I deserve. I've made my bed and it's time for me to sleep in it. But instead, he wants to cast the blame on someone else for his own sin and transgression. And the reality is, when he sold his birthright, he also sold the blessing of the firstborn. He should have known that. And he goes on to say this, He's supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and now he's taken away my blessing." And he said, "'Have you not reserved a blessing for me?' And Isaac answered, verse 37, and said to Esau, "'Indeed, I have made him your master, and all his brethren I have given to him as servants.'" In other words, you're going to serve him. He's going to rule over you. It says, with grain and wine I sustained him. What shall I do now for you, my son? And Esau said to his father, Have you only one blessing, my father? Bless me, me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice and wept. So Isaac gives him a blessing. But you need to recognize that sometimes in these blessings, there's also a little bit of a curse sometimes. For example, when we get to chapter 49, Jacob's going to bless all of his 12 sons. You ever read it? Is that blessing or is that cursing? Because some of them are blessed and there's like, he slept with my concubine. And that's why this is not going to happen and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And there's all these bad things that happen. So there's some good and bad mixed in with what he says to Esau here. He says, Behold, your dwelling shall be of the fatness of the earth and of the dew of heaven from above. Now, at first glance, that may seem like the same blessing he gave to Jacob. But actually, a better translation is the ESV, which is following the American standard, and the new American standard here, you will be pushed away from the fatness of the earth. You'll be put away from the dew of the heaven above. In other words, you're going to be a wanderer and a vagabond. You're not going to inherit the promised land. You're going to wander from here. Sounds a little bit like what God said to Cain, doesn't it? You'll be a wanderer and a vagabond upon the earth. Then he says, by your sword you shall live. That sounds a little bit like what Abraham said or what God said to Ishmael. That every hand will be against you. In other words, you're going to have a violent life. You're going to constantly be surrounded by adversaries and have to live by your sword. And you shall serve your brother. the older shall serve the younger." Here is Isaac acquiescing to what God had already decreed. And then it says, and it shall come to pass when you become restless that you shall break his yoke from your neck. Now, if you look through the rest of Old Testament history, you'll find that Esau's descendants were the Edomites. And they were brought under subjection to the Israelites, that is, Jacob's descendants. For example, specifically we're told under King David's rule, he subdued the Edomites and the Edomites literally became the servants of Israel. But then years later, they broke off that yoke and they fled from Israel and they were a thorn in their side. So you find the very things that Isaac is saying to him fulfilled in their history. Now, there's two applications I want to make from the things we've seen in this text. First, remorse and repentance are two interconnected but very different things. Remorse and repentance are two interconnected but very different things. Turn with me to Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12, verses 14 to 17. The best and only infallible commentary on the Bible is the Bible itself. So notice what it says in verse 14. Pursue peace with all people, and holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled. lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he salted with tears." clearly referring to the very text we've just been studying this morning. He found a place for tears, and he shed crocodile tears. He wailed so loud that anybody near the tent could hear him, and yet he found no place for repentance. Brothers and sisters, let me tell you something. Just because someone cries, just because they seem convicted even over sin, and they shed tears, tears are never a sign of repentance. They are only a sign of remorse. The problem is there's two different kinds of remorse. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 7. Paul had written a scathing letter to the Corinthian church, rebuking them for a number of things in their lives and things that were out of order. And then he says in verse 8 of 2 Corinthians chapter 8, the follow-up letter, he says this. 2 Corinthians 7 verse 8. For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it. In other words, I didn't like having to write this to you, but it produced the desired result. For I perceive that the same epistle made you sorry, that is, it filled you with remorse, though only for a while. Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made to sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us and nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance, leading to salvation not to be regretted, but the sorrow of the world produces death." Do you hear what he's saying? He's contrasting that there are two different kinds of sorrow. One sorrow is, I am sorry that I have sinned against a holy God. I'm sorry I've sinned against my fellow man, and I am grieved in my heart. I am full of self-loathing because of it. I grieve over my sin. I don't make any excuses for my sin. I accept the consequences as just. It grieves my heart that I've sinned. The other kind of sorrow says, man, I'm really sorry for the consequences. I'm sorry that I got caught. I'm sorry things didn't turn out the way I wanted, but it's not sorrow for the sin itself. Just sorrow for the consequences that came as a result. And what do we see Esau doing? It's a sin. It's a worldly sorrow. Sorry I've gotten myself into this mess and I've forfeited the great blessing of my father because I was a profane man and sold my birthright. But not sorry that I sinned against God and sinned against my father by selling my birthright for a bowl of soup. We see it in the New Testament, don't we? You find Judas betraying Christ, and you find Peter betraying Christ. And both of them are full of remorse, but one of them goes and repents, and the other goes and hangs himself. You see, both of them shed bitter tears over what they'd done, but only one of them was led to repentance. The only way you can know if godless sorrow is godly is if it leads you to repentance. And how do you know that? By the fruit it produces. Because notice again in 2 Corinthians 7, Verse 11, "'For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner, what diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication, and all these things. You proved yourselves to be clear in this matter.'" In other words, you can only know when there's been a repentance by the works you see flowing from it. What did John say? He preached a baptism of repentance, and to the people he baptized, he said, now, go and bear fruit. and keeping repentance. Show that you're repentant. Because it's not just saying you're sorry. It's not just confessing your sins, it's forsaking sin. and not walking in those sins anymore, putting off unrighteousness and putting on righteousness. Stop lying, start telling the truth. Stop stealing, start working so you can give to others. Stop these things, put off these things, put on those things. That is the fruit of repentance. This fruit was not found in Esau. Now, here's my question for you. In this day and age in which people are told to believe on Jesus Christ, and so many here in the South profess to believe on Jesus Christ, profess to have faith in Him, If their faith is not accompanied by repentance, then their faith is not saving faith. And it's obvious to our eyes, you can see it with your senses, so many who profess to know Christ in this present age are walking on the broad path of destruction just like the rest of the world. because there was never any repentance and therefore no fruit of repentance found in their life. My question for you is this, when you believed on Christ, was there repentance that God granted you that accompanied your faith? because the true saving faith is repentant faith, that grieves over sin, that turns from sin and looks to Christ. When you became a Christian, you didn't stop struggling with sin, you started struggling with sin. But here's the thing, did God give you an initial setting free? Was there a sense of, I now have a new master, no longer do I serve sin, now I serve the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm now a slave of righteousness, And by God's grace, I'm going to persevere and pursue Him from this day forward." Was there a change, a fundamental change in your heart? Because if there's no repentance, there's no salvation. What did Jesus say? He said, unless you repent, you will likewise perish. Who said it? Jesus said it. What did He say you had to do? He said you had to repent. What did He say would happen if you didn't repent? You would perish. It's just that simple. Have you repented of your sins? Have you been full of godly sorrow that has led to a changed life? If you don't have a changed life, don't claim you know Christ. Now, you don't have a perfect life, I know that, but do you have a changed life? Was it changed and are you changing? Now, sometimes, I know, people struggle with doubts about their salvation. They go, I don't know if I repented enough. Stop worrying about it because you didn't. The evidence you repented in the past is found in the fact that you're repenting in the present. That God is still working in you. You're still struggling with sin. You're still fighting with sin. You're not content to live with sin. And you're still fighting that battle, and you're still trusting Christ to save you. The evidence you repented and believed in the past is you're repenting and believing now. That's the evidence. Are you striving against sin, fighting against sin, growing in grace little by little, degree by degree? If that evidence is in you, then you have every right to say, yes, I am a born-again child of God, because I see the evidence of God working in me to make me holy, to help me walk in holiness, to hate sin more and more, and to love His ways more and more. Good news is, if you're a false convert, Jesus is not just in the business of saving lost sinners, He's in the business of saving false converts and making them true converts. And there are several people in this very room who could stand up and testify how God did the same for them. He can do that for you if you're not truly converted. The second thing I want to set before you is this. The election of God is an election of grace and not of merit. And aren't you so very glad? If God the Father chose to save you based upon the fact that He's omniscient and foresaw some righteous act that you were going to do, do you realize that the Lamb's Book of Life would be a book, a big volume with completely empty and blank pages? As a matter of fact, if God looked forward in time and said, you're going to make some righteous choice to accept Jesus, left to your own free will, and because I know who's going to choose me, I'm going to choose them first and write them down in my book, again, you know that book would be blank. Because by nature, our tendency is not to run to Christ, it's to run from Him. But the reality is, God did not choose you by your merit. What does the Bible say? It is not of him who wills. nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy." Look at the chosen family in our text. Would you choose these people? I wouldn't choose these people if I was running the universe. If He had to choose them based on their merits or their foreseen righteousness, He would have chosen none of them. But it's His grace and His mercy to sinners that He chose them in spite of themselves, and poured out His love and His grace and His mercy upon undeserving sinners. Let me tell you something, there's no other kind of person that God saves than undeserving sinners, which is a hopeful thing for me because, guess what, I'm one of those people. I see His patience and loving kindness with this family as they do really stupid and deceitful and sinful things. And you know what? It gives me some hope because the guy I look back in the mirror every morning, he's a piece of work. And when I see God being patient with other sinners, it gives me hope that He's patient with me too. Aren't you glad that God chose you according to the good pleasure of His will? and not according to the good pleasure of your will." And furthermore, there's a key phrase that Paul uses. He uses it all over the book of Ephesians. It's a recurring phrase. Every time the subject of our election is brought up, the Father shows you according to the good pleasure of His will in what? In Christ. He chose you through the mediation of Jesus Christ. In other words, He chose you looking, as it were, through the lens of Christ Himself, looking at you through His perfect righteousness, His shed blood, and that's the basis of His choosing you. Aren't you thankful you have a mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ? The hero of Genesis 27, and you're looking, there's no heroes there. If you're looking at the men and the women in the passage, you're right, there are no heroes. There's just sinners. But there is a hero, and that hero is God Himself, working behind the scenes to accomplish His purposes despite the fallenness of His people, and having mercy and love upon them. Here we are this morning, we are worshiping the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And that tells me He's a God of grace. Aren't you thankful to have a God of grace who loves us in Jesus Christ and has chosen us in Him? Never ever forget, the Bible has only one hero, and it's God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. So may He receive glory as we look at the scriptures and as we meditate upon Him day in and day out. Let's pray. Father, I pray for anyone here who is without repentance that you would grant them repentance, that you would break them over their sins and show them your holiness as revealed in your law, and enable them to flee to Christ, that they might be dressed in his perfect righteousness, a righteousness they can't earn, a righteousness which you freely offer by grace and which we freely receive by faith. Bless us now as we partake of the Lord's Supper together, and we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.