Genesis 28 Sermon-Bread, Raiment and Peace

Genesis 28:1-22

Bread, Raiment and Peace

June 23, 2019

Lynchburg, Virginia

EXORDIUM

         Our Lord has promised to take care of us. He keeps His promises. We have not seen the righteous begging for bread. The fact that God promises to take care of us is one good reason to walk in faith. Of course, the Lord provides food, drink and shelter for us, the basic necessities of the human body. But His general promises are also true. Those who serve Him know that you reap what you sow. If you work hard, the Lord provides a bountiful harvest. If you trust Him with your riches, particularly in tithing, then you always have enough money. If you trust Him with your time, particularly by setting aside one day in seven as a Sabbath to the Lord, then you always have enough time to accomplish whatever the Lord has called you to.

         But we do not serve the Lord merely for what He can provide for us. The rain falls on the just and the unjust. But He keeps His own in perfect peace.

EXEGESIS

28 And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. ² Arise, go to Padan-aram, to the house of Bethuel thy mother’s father; and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban thy mother’s brother.

Isaac has now come to his senses and seeks to bless Jacob. He knows that Rebekah is right concerning Esua’s wives. They are a grief and are the potential downfall of the family. Furthermore, Esau is plotting the murder of Jacob, so Rebekah is planning his escape to safety.

It seems that Isaac is still not willing to hold Esau accountable. If he did, Rebekah would be able to reveal the plot against Jacob and Isaac could set Esau straight, send him away, or strengthen Jacob to protect himself. Instead, Jacob is driven away and Esau remains in the good graces of his father.

All Provision

Jacob was after food, clothing and peace. These are three necessities. Maybe we do not see peace that way but it is. God has provided for us through His Son. He promises to provide our physical needs. He gives us food, clothing, shelter. And sometimes we only think of these sorts of things as needs. Without them we die.

But without peace we also die. If you are not at peace with God, then you are at war with Him and that is always a losing proposition. But thanks be to God that He has provided a way of peace with Him through His own beloved Son. He sends His Holy Spirit to give us a spirit of peace that passes all understanding. 

In the world you will have tribulation but we know that He has overcome the world, and that gives us a peace that know man can take from us. Peace with God has given us an inner peace without which we could not be.

Sinless in Jesus

Dear Saints, we know we sin and our sins often rise up before us and condemn us. We are infected with a guilty conscience and feel the need to do penance to cleanse ourselves. The problem is that penance won’t cleanse you. If anything, it only condemns you more because your penance is also faulty.

         We shrink from the thought that we are sinless in Jesus. We even resist it thinking if we go there then we might even sin more. God forbid! But the reality is that Jesus has purged your sins. He has forgiven you and presented you to His Father as one who can rightly, even worthily stand before Him. The Father sees you as sinless because you stand here in the name of His sinless Son, Jesus. Think on that. Breathe a sigh of relief. Be filled with joy in the Holy Ghost. Give God the glory.

Genesis 26:34-27:46

Jacob Have I Hated

June 16, 2013

Lynchburg, Virginia

EXORDIUM

         The Word of God should lead us, not our own desires, the cultural expectations, or what we simply think is best. When the Word is clear, we must obey. 

In this chapter, we see that Isaac has grown old. His senses are weak. He is blind and his sense of touch and smell are weakened. He hears okay but is reduced enough to not believe his ears.

Isaac was about to sin against the command of God. His wife, Rebekah, had her eyes upon God’s covenant promises and hatches a plot to keep Isaac from forfeiting God’s blessing.

We can see from the narrative in this chapter and the next that Rebekah’s plan worked and that Isaac came to his senses.

Rebekah and Jacob are often condemned for this plot. Remember that Jacob obeys his mother here. Remember also that if the plot fails and Isaac issues a curse to Jacob instead of a blessing, that Rebekah is willing for the curse to fall upon her and not Jacob. 

Given the level of deception to secure this blessing, it is also clear that Isaac could have reversed his action. He could have said, “Let the blessing I gave to Jacob not fall upon Esau and let Jacob, the deceiver be accursed.” He does not do this. Why? Because he realized that Rebekah and Jacob were right and that his blessing was rightly placed on Jacob and not on Esau.

         So, does the end justify the means? Does the outcome of bringing Isaac to his senses, negate the deceit of Rebekah and Jacob towards Isaac? I don’t think it should be looked at in that way. This was an extreme measure to keep Isaac from crossing God. The text does not give us more details about the prior conversations of Rebekah and Isaac about which of the sons should be the son of promise, but her actions reveal that she thought she had no other options.

          Can you imagine a modern day example for a moment? Imagine a family with a vast estate. They have thousands of acres, many thousands of cattle, hundreds of employees and a billion dollars in the bank. They have two sons, one a wastrel and insolent towards his parents and the blessings of his life. The other has paid attention to his mother, who manages the estate, and has a keen eye towards the management of flocks and herds. The father connects to the wastrel and the mother to the faithful son. She knows that the older son would destroy them. What should she do? The father will not hear her mind in the matter even though he knows his wastrel son will destroy all they have built. Such a woman might take extreme measures to protect the property from such a son.  And she would be right to do so.

God's Blessing on You

How can you be more blessed than to be in God’s presence, forever, cleansed from sin, clothed in white and seated at His Table? The answer? You cannot.

Today is Father’s Day and a good day to remember our Father, who is in Heaven. He is the perfect Father. Though we have failed Him many times, He does not hold it against us. He provides a way for us to come to Him, to sit with Him, to receive His blessing. He is full of forgiveness and eager to pour out His bounty upon us. 

Through His own beloved Son, He has made us worthy partakers of His blessing. He blesses us as He blesses Jesus, the One in whom He is well pleased. A child is content when he is welcomed and blessed at his father’s table. This is you. You have come to receive the blessing from the Father and the Son. His Holy Spirit rests upon you. Give thanks.

The Need for Cleansing

For some, confession is merely going through the motions. Because we think we are better than the next man or woman, then we give ourselves a pass. But what if we compare ourselves to God, the Father? Or to His Holy Son, Jesus? Or, to the Holy Spirit. God, in His perfections is Holy, the One who dwells in unapproachable light. 

         Our entire worship service is based upon how we approach a Holy God. Isaiah was concerned that he was going to die because He had seen the One Holy God. Beware saint, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground. Such ground ought not to be defiled and where it is there is a great cost. A life must be given for such sacrilege. 

         Do you see this need? Do you come to God carefully? And only in the name of His Son, Jesus who died for You? And by the power of His Holy Spirit who gives you life? 

         Come to God respectfully in the name of His Son and receive the bounty of His blessing of forgiveness. Come to Him in your own name of comparative virtue and receive your just punishment. Choose, rather, to bow the knee to Jesus.

Genesis 26 Sermon, Wells of Salvation

Genesis 26:1-33

Wells of Salvation

June 9, 2019

Lynchburg, Virginia

EXHORDIUM

Isaac leaves the land in which he was dwelling in the face of a great famine. The crops had failed in the midst of a dearth of rain and there was not enough food to preserve them. In the land of his wandering, he finds water, the source of life. 

But he is hard pressed by the enemies of God. They claim his water without doing the work to dig the well. Isaac moves on trying to find peace and rest only to find more trouble.

God intervenes on his behalf, and uses the occasion of the lust of the Philistines to plunder them and bring great riches and wealth to Isaac.

In this land, God provides a well of springing water. Isaac sows and the blessing of God provides a one hundred fold increase. 

These stories of God’s provision of water should remind us of what water symbolizes. 

John says, “I baptize you with water but one is coming who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

John 1:29-34 ²⁹ The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which ^||taketh away the sin of the world. ³⁰ This is he of whom I said, After me cometh a man which is preferred before me: for he was before me. ³¹ And I knew him not: but that he should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water. ³² And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. ³³ And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. ³⁴ And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.^[1]

EXEGESIS

26 And there was a famine in the land, beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar.

Moses points out that this is a different famine than the one in Abraham’s day. The reason seems clear, that this story is so similar to the previous story of Abraham, that he doesn’t want to be confused and conflate them.

Living Water

From the side of Jesus flowed the water and the blood. Whomever the blood has covered, the waters come and wash and give life.

Jesus is the Temple of God and His water flows from His side. At first it is but a trickle and only waters 12 thirsty souls. But soon 120 are able to drink deeply, then 3000, then 5000 and finally a great multitude that no one can count. 

From Jerusalem to the ends of the Earth, the water and the blood flow, washing and giving life, so that all the world will live in the living waters.

We partake of Jesus, the water and the blood. We are cleansed in the blood, washed in the water, and filled with life giving power of His Holy Spirit. We give Him thanks.

Assurance

Romans 8:14-15 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

Words of Assurance- Sons and Daughters

         Remember what Peter said on the day of Pentecost, “For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” This is nothing less than the outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit. By this Spirit we are made children of God, who are overjoyed at being adopted into the Triune Name. Thus, we call God, our Father, our Abba. He is our beloved Father and we are His beloved children.

         All of the promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the provision of the wells of water that sustained life, were pictures of God’s promise to us to send us His Holy Spirit that we might have life and that life abundantly. Jesus has come, he has died, he has suffered. He has risen again and poured out the waters of the Spirit upon your heads. Rejoice you are forgiven!

Praise

SCRIPTURE OF PRAISE

Acts 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

PRAYER OF PRAISE

         Our Father in Heaven, we glorify Your Holy Name. We praise You for sending Your Spirit and giving us voices to utter Your praises so that we might call upon the name of the Lord Jesus and be saved. You have granted us rivers of living waters that flow from the precious side of Your only begotten Son. Your Spirit has filled the temple and Your people are gathered to sing of Your glory, majesty, honor and might. We lift Your name, the name above all names, and pray that all men everywhere will humble themselves and call upon the name of the Lord. Amen!

Genesis 25:1-34

Genesis 25:1-34

Stomach Thinker

June 2, 2019

Lynchburg, Virginia

EXHORDIUM

         There is a great deal going on in this chapter. Isaac is now married, comforted after the death of his mother. Rebekah has become the new matriarch of the family. Abraham is reinvigorated after Isaac’s marriage and takes a new wife, Keturah, at the ripe old 140. He has six sons with Keturah.

         Rebekah and Isaac are married for twenty years but have no children. Like her mother-in-law, Sarah, that she never knew, Rebekah is also barren. It is important that these women must rely upon God for their offspring. God wants us to know without a doubt that His works come about by promise and by the Spirit and not by the arm of the flesh. 

         Isaac prays to God for Rebekah and God hears him and answers her prayer and Rebekah conceives. But the boys struggle within her, vying for the preference of their mother, even before they are born. A prophecy is given that the older will serve the younger. Again, a recapitulation of Ishmael, the eldest and first born of Abraham, who must serve the younger Isaac.

         Ishmael was a covenant member and yet Isaac was chosen because the seed would come from Sarah and not Hagar. In this story, Jacob and Esau are both delivered of the chosen mother of the faithful. And yet one of them is a son of the flesh and one of them a son of the spirit. 

         It is not remarkable that any are condemned but that any are saved. It is not unjust that God would choose Jacob and overlook Esau. God’s grace and mercy are extended to whomsoever He pleases. It is never unjust when mercies are extended by God. God’s justice would condemn all. His mercies flow from His graciousness. It does no good to claim they are unfair. Rather, repent of your sin and receive His mercies.

Died, Rose, Ascended, Enthroned

The culmination of the gospel is realized in the Ascension and Enthronement of Jesus Christ. He is now the rightful ruler of Heaven and Earth. As our new Adam, He has accomplished everything to make man what he is supposed to be.

In His death, He paid for our sins. And He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, thus setting us at peace with the Father and with the Son. He gladly gives us His Holy Spirit, that same Spirit that raised Him from the dead, so that we can now live in His life.

He has raised us into the heavenlies, seating us at the right hand of the Father. All the promises of God to Jesus are now also our precious possession. We come with gratitude to thank the Lord for dying for our sins, for rising for our justification, for ruling over us benevolently, and for sending His Spirit upon us so that we know that He is always with us. Glory to God in the highest. Amen.

Praise

SCRIPTURE OF PRAISE

Luke 24:48 And ye are witnesses of these things.

PRAYER OF PRAISE

         Our Father, we thank You that You have raised the Lord Jesus from the dead and have seated Him at Your right hand from where He rules over all things. We thank You for choosing us in Him even before the foundation of the world. In Your wisdom, You determined that He would come and die for Your people at just the right time. And now, He has breathed the breath of life into Your people, granting us Your Holy Spirit, so that we might live in the mighty power of God. In the name of Jesus, we praise You for all Your glorious works. Amen.