Hebrews 12, the part that I want to focus on, is beginning of verse 15 there where the bible reads, "Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat, sold his birthright. For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
What I want to preach about tonight is the life of Esau. This is a man ... He is only mentioned a couple of times in the New Testament, and here, he is used as a bad example of someone that we should not strive to be like, because he for one morsel of meat, sold his birthright. I want to go through the whole life of Esau from the Old Testament, and show you that even though he is a bad example in this passage, he actually did have some good qualities. He wasn't just a man that was just rotten to the core. There are some Bible characters that are like that. They are just rotten to the core. Esau was not one of them. I believe that Esau will be in heaven.
A lot of people misunderstand the passage in Romans 9 that we're going to go to later that says, "Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated." I'm going to prove to you at the end of the sermon that that's not talking about the person, Esau. That's talking about the nation of Esau. Just as the nation of Israel is named after the man Israel, the nation of Esau is named after the person, Esau, the Edomites. I'm going to prove that from the Bible. If you are skeptical about that, just listen to the sermon, and let the word of God speak for itself. Let's go back to Genesis Chapter 25, and let's start out with the story of Esau selling his birthright. This is the thing that he is condemned for in Hebrews Chapter 12. God says, "Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau."
He is saying, "Don't be like Esau, who for one morsel of meat, sold his birthright." Let's go back to that story in Genesis 25 verse 27. The Bible reads, "And the boys grew, and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field, and Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents. And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison, but Rebekah loved Jacob. And Jacob sod pottage, and Esau came from the field, and he was faint. And Esau said to Jacob, 'Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage, for I am faint.' Therefore, was his name called Edom. And Jacob said, 'Sell me this day thy birthright,' and Esau said, 'Behold, I am at the point to die, and what profit shall this birthright do to me?' And Jacob said, 'Swear to me this day,' and he sware unto him, and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles, and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way."
Then here is the key statement at the end of verse 34, "Thus Esau despised his birthright." You say, "What does it mean that he had a birthright?" The birthright was the fact that the the first born son would receive a double portion of the inheritance. For example, I, at this time, have five sons. If I were going to die, and my wife were to die, and we were leave this great inheritance of all the material wealth that I don't have, but if I did have, leave all this wealth or inheritance under my children, then because I have five sons, it would be divided into six parts. Not five parts, six parts, because the oldest son would receive a double portion. You divide it six ways. You give double portion to the oldest son, and then the other four portions are allotted out to the other sons. You say, "It doesn't fair, give everybody the same. That what the Bible teaches. That was the law back in the Old Testament. That's the way that they did things.
If I ever have great possessions and lands, which I'm sure I probably never will, I'll leave my first born son a double portion. He said, "Why is that?" I was trying to think about why that would be that God would do that. Obviously there are a lot of symbolic reasons why God did the things that he did in the Old testament and in the law, but if you think about it, you make all the mistakes on the first child. That's the one that you vaccinate. You don't really know what you're doing in the early days of parenting. That's the one that you make all ... That's kind of a consolation for them. At least they get the double inheritance, because you got better at parenting by the time you had the second, and the third, and the fourth. I don't know, but that's what I was thinking about.
When we see the story of him despising the birthright, what he is really doing is he is receiving a very small reward now. He wants to just gratify the flesh now with a bowl of soup, basically, a bowl of chilly, a bowl of pottage ... Whatever you want to call it, and bread. He just wants to satisfy his hunger and lust for food with this meal right now in order to forfeit something down the road. You have to understand, the birthright is something that he is not going to enjoy for a very long time, because his dad is not going to die for many, many decades. At this time, what's important to him is just to eat this meal. Looking at this, thousands of years later, we look at this as just ridiculous. Why would you sit there and give up your birthright? Your father is a very wealthy man. We know that Isaac had great wealth and cattle. You're giving up a double portion of the inheritance, just for one meal?
God's trying to show us something, and that's why He uses this as an illustration in the New Testament. He likens the fornicator unto the person that would sell their birthright. He says, "Don't be a fornicator like Esau, who for one morsel of meat, sold his birthright." Why would he use that comparison? What He is teaching here is that when you commit fornication, you're doing something similar to what Esau did, because you're taking physical gratification now, physical pleasure now, and you're forfeiting great riches, and treasures, and rewards later. Later you're going to regret what you lost. What's also interesting about this, is that Esau sold his birthright for one morsel of meat, which means he despised his birthright, which means that he did not have it properly valued in his mind. When it says he despised it, it means he didn't have proper respect for it. He didn't understand how valuable it was, how important it was.
He ends up, in the next chapter, losing the blessing from God. He wanted to just sell the birthright. He still wanted to keep the blessing that would be passed down from father to son, the Abrahamic Covenant and so forth, but he ends up losing both. Even though he never bargained away his blessing or he never would have been willing to give up the blessing, he [is 00:06:48] very upset when he lost the blessing. What this shows us is that when we commit sin, the consequences are always greater than what we think they're going to be. We think to ourselves, "I'll go ahead and have this meal, and I'll lose the birthright, but I can live with losing my birthright. I'm okay with just a single portion. My dad is so wealthy, what does it matter if I get the double or the single portion? I'm okay with that," but wait a minute. Are you okay with losing the blessing of God? No, but you lose both.
A lot of times, we'll look at sin and say, "If I commit this sin, these are going to be the consequences, and I can live with that." What God's showing us here is you don't know what the consequences of sin are going to be, because a lot of times, you might factor it in, and said, "If I do this, maybe this will be the punishment," or "this is what God is going to do. I'm just going to go ahead and do it anyway," but sin always costs you more that you think it was going to cost you. You end up losing more than you thought you would lose. The specific sin that's brought up here is fornication. We need preaching against fornication in 2014 my friend, because fornication runs rampant in America and in this world, and it's just a given that people are going to commit fornication.
People just act like, "Everybody is [doing 00:08:09] ..." No, not everyone is doing it, and God's people are not to be committing fornication. It's not an excuse to say, "The world we live in, that's just the way things are." No. That's not the way they [ought 00:08:20] to be in God's house and amongst God's people. When we talk about fornication, we're talking about people that are hopping in the sack, before they're married. We, as God's people, need to have a standard in our church that people remain pure and virgin until their wedding day. That is what the Bible demands, and that is what the Bible teaches. That's the standard that we should hold up, and that's what our young people ought to live up to. You need to talk to your teenager, and talk to your young person, if you have children that age, and explain to them the importance of abstaining from fornication.
I thank God that I got this kind of preaching when I was a teenager, because the temptation is great in the world that we live today, and in our culture, because we're being bombarded with images and things that would incite us to commit fornication. We need, more than ever, preaching that will show all the numerous passages in the Old and New Testament, that tell us over and over again not to commit fornication. Marriage is honorable in all, and the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge. We need to understand the importance of being pure before you're married, and [they needs 00:09:38] to be preached. Let me say this young people. We have many singles in our church, and it need to be preached for their sake as well, that's first of all, this is a major sin in the Bible. It's something that we need to stay away from, but what you have to understand, young people, is that, God willing, some day you're going to get married, and you're going to be married for a lot longer than you're single in most cases.
If you think about it, if you fulfill the average life, you're going to live to be about 70 to 80 years old. Even the Bible says that you're going to be 70-80 years old. If you think about it, if you get married around the time you're 20-25 years old, something like that ... The average amongst the world is 30, but a lot of the reason why the average has become 30 is because they're just being a whoremonger for a decade, and then they get married. Actually, in reality in the past, the average was more like 20 in the America, when people would get married. It seems like whenever I talk to people [in 00:10:34] my parents' generation, my parents included, they all got married around 20 years old. Let's say you're 20, 25, even 30 years old, but if you're going to live to be 70 or 80 on average, and if you stay married to that one person, you're going to be married for a lot longer than you're single.
Also, you don't even start thinking about these things until, you are a teenager anyway. Basically, there is a brief period of abstinence that you need to go through as a teenager, where you refrain from this act as a teenager, because you're not married. You refrain from that relationship with any woman, or you refrain from that relationship with any man, depending on whether you're a boy or girl. As a teenager, you go through that trying time, and then you get married, and then you can enjoy it for the rest of your life. It's worth it. If you just say, "I just can't wait," and then you go out and commit fornication, then you are selling your birthright for the bowl of pottage, for the morsel of meat, for that physical pleasure. It's not going to be worth it. It's going to cost you more than what you bargained for. Not only that, but if you're growing up in a Christian home, and you're hearing this kind of preaching, and you know what the Bible says ... The Bible says, "And to who much is given, of him shall much be required."
God is going to judge much more severely the Christian young person that grows up under this kind of preaching who goes out and commits fornication than the person who is unsaved, and the person who'd never heard this, and they're being taught by the public school system, "Hey. It's fine, as long as you do it safely," and all this kind of garbage. You will be judged more [gravely 00:12:11] my friend, because you've been given the advantage of hearing all the truths of God's word, and being a child of God at a young age. Take this seriously. You say, "I don t really care about waiting until I am married." Do you care about God judging you? Do you care about God ruining your life? Do you care ... [You say 00:12:32], "God would never do that. I might switch over to [Joel Osteen's 00:12:34] Church." Here is the thing, God will punish. Whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge.
The Bible says, "Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." If God scourges every son that he has, don't you think he would scourge them for a sin like fornication? Do you really think you're going to go out and commit fornication, then God's going to scourge you, and you are going to say, "It was worth it"? Do you think you're really going to say that? You don't know what God is going to scourge you with. He could really punish you badly. There are people who go out and commit fornication, and have very bad consequences of it. The more preaching like this you've heard, and the more truth you've heard, the more God is going to hold you responsible. The reward is great, if you will live a godly life, and if you'll abstain from this. We need to understand that this is the primary thing that God wants us in the New Testament to learn from the life of Esau, the number 1 thing he wants us to learn, because that's what he quotes in the New Testament.
He doesn't want us to be a fornicator, or a profane person, because that would make us like Esau. We're selling our future, and we're selling our great rewards, for one morsel of meat, just for a little bit of physical pleasure, food for Esau, or the gratification of the flesh that goes with fornication for the other. Let's go back to the story of Esau. This is the first mistake that we see Esau make. He sells his birthright for a morsel of meat. He despises birthright. God was displeased with that. As a result of this, if you flip over to chapter 27 ... For the sake of time, I'm just going to quickly [bolt 00:14:13] through the story with you in chapter 27. What happens is, Jacob's mother tells him to deceive Isaac, and to trick him into giving Jacob, Esau's blessing, because Isaac loved Esau, and Isaac wanted to bless Esau. Even though he had sold the birthright, he still wanted to give him the blessing. He still wanted to pass on the blessings of God, but Jacob's mother incited him to lie, and to deceive his father, and pretend to be Esau.
Isaac sends Esau out hunting to go catch an animal, and make him venison, that his soul would bless him. He says, "Go out and make me savoury meat, such as I love, that my soul may bless thee." He sends him out to go hunting. While Esau is out hunting for the meat, Jacob's mother instructs him just to go get a kid of the goats. They're going to get this kid of the goats, and Rebecca is going to cook it up ,and make it seem as if it's the wild game that Esau was going to catch. [She's just] basically going to season it the same way that it would have been seasoned. Because Isaac is an old man they think they can pull this off. The older you get, your taste buds aren't as sensitive. Have you ever noticed that if you go out to eat with an elderly person, they really put on a lot of jalapenos and tobasco sauce, and you're "Whoa! How do you handle all that?"
[inaudible 00:15:41]. Wait, you're not old though. The older you get, you use more of those type of things, because your taste buds get a little bit desensitized, so you really have to put on the hot sauce and so forth. Basically, they're putting so many spices on this meat. Isaac is not going to be able to tell that this is goat meat versus venison. He is not going to be able to tell that ... That's the plan anyway. Jacob says, "This isn't going to work, because even though you can make the meat taste the same, and I can bring the meal to him ..." By the way, Isaac is old, and his eyesight is gone, so he's not going to be able to look at Jacob, and tell that it's Jacob. This is how they think they're going to pull it off. He says, "Wait a minute. What if dad feels me?" He said, "I'm a smooth man, but my brother, Esau, is a very hairy man." If he reaches out and feels me, and I'm smooth, he's going to know that I'm lying, and instead of blessing me, he is going to curse me."
Rebecca gives him the idea that he is going to basically take the skin of the goat and put it on him, and basically make himself hairy, so that when he reaches out and feels it, he'll feel that hair, and he'll believe, and he'll also smell that gamy outdoor smell, which is kind of the way Esau smelled, because Esau was a hunter, whereas Jacob was the one that dwelled in tents, and dealt with the sheep, and so forth. Let me say this. A lot of people wrongly teach that Jacob was a mama's boy or a sissy. Nothing can be further from the truth, because if we were to study ... First of all, there is no way God would have blessed if he was a sissy. God doesn't bless queer little sissies. Jacob was a manly guy, if you study his life. Just because he is smooth, that means he is girly! No, it doesn't, because that's genetic. Some people are just covered in hair, and some people are really smooth. It doesn't make you more or less manly.
In fact, some men can't even grow a beard whatsoever, just because of genetics. A lot of Asians, a lot of Native Americans can't grow beards, other can. It's just genetic. It doesn't make them any more or less manly. In fact, if you study the life of Jacob, he is one of the most manly men in the Bible, because of the fact that ... Just to give you some examples of this; if you remember, there was a stone that would be removed from the well, so that the shepherds could water their flocks, and they would wait until all of the shepherds got together to move that stone. Jacob just went and moved it by himself. This guy is not a weakling if could lift this giant stone on his own. When he slept outside on his way to Padanaram, he used stones for his pillows. This guy isn't exactly the princes and the pea, where he has to have his little mattress and ... This guy was a tough guy. Not only that, but he wrestled with the angel all night.
Anybody who has ever done any wrestling knows it's physically exhausting, but he wrestled and fought all night. All through ... We could go on and on. The sermon is not about Jacob. It's about Esau. All throughout the Bible, we see evidence of Jacob's manliness. It wasn't that he was a sissy or a weakling, he just happened to be a smooth man. Esau was a hairy man. They go through this deception where Jacobs puts on the skins and everything with the hair to make himself smell like Esau and be hairy, and he brings the food that's a decoy, and he shows up, and Isaac is a little bit skeptical, because [of 00:19:04] the voice of Jacob, but the smell, and the arms, and feeling is like Esau. "Are you sure you're Esau?" He says, "Yes. I'm Esau." He lies, and says that he's Esau. Isaac ends up giving this blessing to Jacob.Let's read the blessing.
It says in verse 27, "And he came near, and kissed him. He smelled the smell of his raiment, and blessed him, and said, 'See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field, which the LORD hath blessed.'" Isaac thinks he's blessing Esau, he's really blessing Jacob, because Jacob is stealing his blessing. It says in verse 28, "Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine. Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee. Be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee. Cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee." Look at verse 30.
"And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, and Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac, his father, that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. And he also had made savoury meat, and brought it unto his father, and said unto his father, 'Let my father arise, and eat of his son's venison, that thy soul may bless me.' And Isaac, his father, said unto him, 'Who art thou?' And he said, 'I am thy son, thy firstborn, Esau.' And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, 'Who? where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it me, and I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him? Yea, and he shall be blessed.'" Watch this. "And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, 'Bless me, even me also, O my father.' And he said, 'Thy brother came with subtilty, and hath taken away thy blessing.' And he said, 'Is not he rightly named Jacob? For he hath supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright, and behold, now he hath taken away my blessing." And he said, 'Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?'"
First of all, that's not really true, because he sold his birthright willingly. He was being stupid. This time, it's not his fault, but this is the result of God looking down, and saying, "You despised your birthright? If you're going to be a fool, then I'm going to punish you more by taking away your blessing." That's what happened. That's why he lost the blessing. I'll prove it to you. In Hebrews 12 ... You don't have to turn back there, but what we read was, "Lest there be any fornicator or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat, sold his birthright." That's [what he started 00:21:42]. He sold his birthright. "For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing ..." Now we're talking about something different, "he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears."
What's that saying? He could not repent at that point of having sold the birthright. At that point, there is no going back. He can't say, "Wait a minute. I'm losing the blessing too? I've changed my mind. I should have sold ..." No. It's too late. What God's trying to show us with the story about Esau is that once you mess certain some things up, it's just too late to fix it. Esau ... We're going to see this later in Esau's life, he always thought he could fix things. "Go ahead and sin, and mess things up, and you can fix it later." Wrong. Sometimes, there are consequences that never go away. Sometimes, you go out and sin one time, and there are consequences that never go away. That's the sad truth of the world that we live in. There are people who take drugs one time, and permanently damage their brain, and become an insane person for the rest of their life. It's true. There are people out there who commit fornication one time, and pick up disease or whatever.
There are things that you do that can cause irreparable harm and damage to your life. Esau, he is looking for repentance. He is looking for a way to fix it. You can't fix it. You're done Esau. You've lost now the birthright, and you've lost the blessing, and there's nothing you could do about ... A lot of people say, "Marijuana is not too bad. Don't worry about marijuana. It's the other drugs that are bad, but just smoke marijuana." Here is the thing, a lot of times when you buy marijuana, it will be laced with something else. There is the guy on my street ... Remember I told the story a few months ago, where he bought a joint, and basically, it had something else in it. I guess they want you to come back and say, "That's the best marijuana I've ever had. Can I get some more of that?" They put something else in it. Unless it's certified organic ... I'm just kidding.
You start doubling in sin, and saying, and you say, "I'm not going to go out and start snorting cocaine or shooting up heroine, but come on, I'm just going to fool around with a little marijuana." That's the selling the birthright, and then when God allows it to be laced with something poisonous, that's God taking away the blessing. You thought you were just fooling around with a little marijuana, and then what actually happens is you end up with something worse that's put into the marijuana. That's what happened to this guy on my street. His brain was fried. I'm sure he lost his job, because his brain was fried for days from whatever he took. There are all kinds of ways that you could commit what you think is a harmless sin, and how it can escalate to something that you didn't expect. We need to be careful with that.
He loses the blessing. He is very upset about it. Did he care much about the birthright? No. [He 00:24:38] despised the birthright. He didn't really .... About this blessing, he's weeping, he's crying out, he's begging his father. It's a very sad sight here, when we see Esau so distraught over losing the birthright. Look what it says in verse 36. At the end it says, "'Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?' And Isaac answered and said to Esau, 'Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants, and with corn and wine have I sustained him, and what shall I do now unto thee, my son?' And Esau said unto his father ..." He keeps, over and over again, begging, "'Hast thou but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father.' And Esau lifted up his voice, and wept, and Isaac his father answered and said unto him, "Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above, and by thy shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother. It shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck."
Esau does not like that blessing. It says in verse 41, "Esau hated Jacob, because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him. And Esau said in his heart, 'The days of mourning for my father are at hand, then will I slay my brother, Jacob.'" "Slay" means "to kill." We see now the next mistake in Esau's life. Esau's first mistake was to sell the birthright. His second mistake was that he hated his brother, and wanted to kill him. That's not right, obviously, for him to hate his brother. Was it right for Jacob to steal the birthright? No, I'm sorry. Not the birthright, the blessing. Was it right for Jacob to lie, and deceive, and steal the blessing? No. Should Esau turn around, and hate him, and want to kill him for that? Obviously not. This is the second bad thing we see about Esau, is that he hated his brother and he wanted to kill him. Of course the bible says, "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer," because if we hate our brother in our heart, the Bible says that that is likened to murder.
For example; if you look on a woman to after her, you've committed adultery with her already in your heart, and if you hate your brother in your heart, it's like committing murder in your heart. By the way, a lot of people will misquote that ... "Don't hate anybody." It says, "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer." It doesn't say, "Whosoever hateth anyone ... If you hate [Malzeitang 00:27:00], you are a murderer. If you hate Kim Jong-il, or Kim Jong-un, or Kim Jong ... Whoever the Kim Jong is that hangs out with Dennis Rodman, or whatever faggot that he hangs out with, "Don't hate any ..." That's not what the Bible says. There's a time to love and a time to hate my friend. People will misquote. I got so many emails about, "How dare you preach a sermon against Obama. You're not loving your brother." If Obama is my brother then I'm a monkey's uncle. Obama is not saved. Obama does not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, so he is not my brother by any definition.
I just had to put that in there from last week. You thought this was going to be a sequel's to the bastard sermon, because we are in Hebrews Chapter 12, but it wasn't. It's just a coincidence. Anyway, Esau hates Jacob in his heart. He wants him dead, and of course, because of that, Jacob goes and flees at his mother's advice. He goes and flees into the land of Padanaram in order to go find a wife there. Part of the reason why Jacob went to Padanaran to find a wife is because Esau had married the wrong kind of wife, and this made his parents very upset. They were not supposed to marry of these wicked heathen unsaved tribes of the land of Canaan. Esau married two wives, and they were both Hittite wives. This is the third mistake that we see Esau making in his life.
First he sold the birthright, then he hated his brother and he wanted him dead, then he goes out, and he marries these two women. First of all, you're only supposed to have one wife. All throughout the Bible, it's real clear that a man leaves his father and mother, and cleaves onto his wife ... Singular, and they too, shall be one flesh. Esau goes out and marries two wives, and they were two heathen wives. They were of the Hittites, and his parents were very upset that he married these Hittite wives. Remember how Esau thought that he could find a place of repentance when he came to the blessing, and he thought he could fix it? He tries to do the same thing with the mistake he made by marrying these Hittite wives. Look what it says in verse 6 of chapter 28. Go to chapter 28 of Genesis, verse 6.
"When Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and sent him away to Padanaram to take him a wife from thence, and that as he blessed him, he gave him a charge, saying, "Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan ..." Remember, that's what Esau had done. He took a wife of the daughters of Canaan, "And that Jacob obeyed his father and his mother, and was gone to Padanaram, and Esau seeing that the daughters of Canaan ..." Meaning the ones that he had married, "pleased not Isaac, his father, then went Esau unto Ishmael, and took unto the wives which he had, Mahalath the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham's son, the sister of Nebajoth, to be his wife." Think about Esau's logic here. He says, "I've done wrong. I've displeased my parents," and he feels bad about it. He is looking at Jacob being obedient, and Isaac is pleased with him, and he wants to please his father.
He says, "If my parents aren't pleased with these two heathen Hittite wives that I've married, here's how I'll fix it. I'll just take on a third wife that they're going to like. They're going to love the third wife, because she's an Ishamaelite. She's not one of the daughter of Canaan, so this will make them happy. Here's the thing, you can't fix it when you marry a heathen godless person. "We'll add a good wife to the mix, and then that'll make it all right." It's ridiculous, isn't it? It's ridiculous sometimes when we think that there's always a way to fix the sins that we commit. That's why we need to just to be careful not to mess up our lives in the first place, because sometimes you get in a situation where you're stuck with the consequences of your actions. You young people need to be very careful that you do not marry an unsaved person, because if you marry an unsaved woman, an unsaved man, you're going to have serious problems with that.
You say, "I just hope they'll get saved later." You need to just get them saved before you get romantically involved with them, and before you end up getting married to them, because of the fact that otherwise, you're going to get to a situation where you want to go a certain direction in your life, and they want to go a completely different direction. Sometimes, thank God that that person that you married, that's unsaved, will end up getting saved. That's a blessing, but don't count on that, because a lot of times, that's not how it ends up. I could think of a lot of people that I know right now that want to be a godly Christian, want to live a life that's pleasing to the Lord, and their spouse is unsaved, and it hinder them. It's not an excuse. They could still serve God. They could still do something for God, but they're not going to be able to do as much as if they would have married a saved person. They're not going to be able to enjoy as much fellowship and communion, because what fellowship have light with darkness.
You're going to be so different. It's not compatible. You're worried about 50 points of compatibility on some internet dating site. The real point of compatibility, are you both saved? Do you both have the Holy Spirit living inside of you? That's what really counts more than anything when you're getting married. Esau takes on a third wife. Guess what? Marrying a third wife is not the answer, because that's actually sin, to marry a third wife. You can see that Esau's heart is in the right place, but he is sincerely wrong. He is doing wrong here. Then, let's just fast-forward, because we kind of go away from Esau. The last time we see Esau, he hates Jacob, he wants him dead. That's his immediate reaction to just being angry, just losing his temper. Then he kind of looks at the fact that Jacob is being blessed, he's being obedient, and he says, "I'm going to marry a third wife, and try to patch things up with mum and dad. I'm going to marry this Ishmaelite wife."
Then we don't see Esau again for decades, because we're busy with the story about Jacob. Jacob goes into a far land. What he sowed by deceiving his brother, he ends up being deceived over there by his uncle. That's another story. Decades later, Jacob is going to come back now to the land of Canaan. He hasn't seen Esau in decades. Last time he saw Esau, what did Esau want to do? Kill him. He hated him. He wants to kill him. Jacob goes back to Canaan, and he knows that if he goes back to Canaan, he is going to have to face Esau. When he is going back to Canaan, he gets word that Esau is coming to meet him with 400 men. That's not really the normal way that you go meet your brother that you haven't seen in 20 years. You don't bring 400 troops with you, so basically, he is nervous. He thinks that they're just coming to just wipe him out.
Like, "Finally, revenge time. 20 years later, we're going to get him." Jacob is really worried. He is praying all night. He wrestles with God. He does all of the different things ... We're not really focusing on Jacob, but look what happens when he finally meets up with Esau in Genesis 33, verse 3. This is when Jacob has been gone for 20 years. He comes back and meets Esau once again. He thinks Esau wants him dead. He think Esau hates him, and wants to kill him. It says in verse 3, "He passed over before them, and bowed himself ..." This is Jacob, "bowed himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother." Jacob's being very humble here, isn't he? Bowing himself seven times to his brother Esau. Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him, and they wept." What do we see about Esau here? Isn't this a good quality in Esau? That Esau has done what? Forgiven his brother. He forgave Jacob.
You have to give credit unto Esau for forgiving Jacob, and letting the past be the past, and moving on, forgiving and forgetting, and not seeking revenge for what Jacob did steal from him, the blessing. Look what it says in verse number 5, “And he lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children, and said, ‘Who are those with thee?’ And he said, ‘The children which God hath graciously given thy servant.’ Then the handmaids came near, they and their children, and they bowed themselves. And Leah also with her children came near, and bowed themselves. And after came Joseph near and Rachel, and they bowed themselves. And he said, ‘What meanest thou by all this drove which I met?’ And he said, ‘These are to find grace in the sight of my lord.’” Jacob had sent a drove of cattle before him, as a present unto Esau. He wanted to give Esau of his cattle, and wealth, and a huge gift.
Look what Esau’s reaction to this is, in verse 9. “And Esau said, ‘I have enough, my brother. Keep that thou hast unto thyself.’ And Jacob said, ‘Nay, I pray thee. If now I have found grace in thy sight, then receive my present at my hand, for therefore have I seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God. And thou wast pleased with me. Take, I pray thee, my blessing that is brought to thee, because God hath dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough.' And he urged him, and he took it." We see here that he had to really urge Esau to take the goods, before Esau would take them. Another good quality of Esau in this chapter is we see that not only has he forgiven and forgotten, but also, he is not greedy and desirous of spoiling his brother, Jacob, and saying, “You do owe me these stuff anyways, since you ripped me off of the blessing, and you, and ... So, give me more.” No, he is not greedy. He is not covetous. He says, “I have enough.” You know what? It’s a great thing in our lives when we can say these words, “I have enough.” It’s a great model, “I have enough.”
Esau said, “I have enough.” Jacob said, “I have enough.” That’s a great quality, contentment. We see that in the life of Esau. In fact, in this passage, we don’t see anything negative about Esau, do we? 20 years earlier, he was making some stupid mistakes, wasn’t he? Selling the birthright, marrying heathen wives, hating his brother, but now we see that he’s turned around. Now he is forgiving. He is content. He is being loving and friendly unto his brother. There are a lot of people in the Bible who made some really bad mistakes early in life, and then later on straightened up. Judah is another person like that. We go through the Bible, all kind of people like that. Anyway, just to make a long story short, Esau then basically wants to kind of join up with Jacob. He says, “Come with me. Let’s go and dwell together,” and Jacob doesn’t really take him up on it. Jacob kind of wants to do his own thing, and for Esau to do his own thing, and so forth. It ends up in verse 16 that Esau returned that day on his way unto Seir. After this poignant reunion, and their displays of affection for one another, they end up going their separate ways.
We don’t see Esau again until chapter 35. Flip over to chapter 35. This is when Isaac finally dies. He finally gives up the ghost. It says in verse 29, “And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days, and his sons, Esau and Jacob, buried him." We see Esau and Jacob in harmony at the funeral, burying their father, honoring his memory, and putting him into the ground. To find out where Esau finally ended up, we go to Genesis 36. This is basically the end of the story on Esau in Genesis. This is where we kind of get the final word on Esau from the book of Genesis. How did he end up? They went their separate ways. What happened though? If we read the story in Genesis 36, he gives us actually a whole chapter about Esau and his descendants. We’re not going to read the whole chapter for the sake of time, but let’s start in verse number 1.
It says, “Now these are the generations of Esau, who is Edom.” That’s another name for Esau: Edom. “Esau took his wives of the daughters of Canaan; Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Aholibamah the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite, and Bashemath, Ishmael's daughter, sister of Nebajoth. And Adah bare Esau Eliphaz, and Bashemath bare Reuel. And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah. These are the sons of Esau, which were born unto him in the land of Canaan. And Esau took his wives, and his sons, and his daughters, and all the persons of his house, and his cattle, and all his beasts, and all his substance, which he had got in the land of Canaan, and went into the country from the face of his brother, Jacob. For their riches were more than that they might dwell together. And the land wherein they were strangers could not bear them, because of their cattle. Thus dwelt Esau in mount Seir. Esau is Edom. And these are the generations of Esau, the father of the Edomites in mount Seir."
Then it just goes on, and on, and on, listing all of the descendants, but it also talks about how they had great kings in Edom before they had kings in Israel. They had kings in Edom, and all these dukes, and princes, and kings. What we take away from this chapter when we read the whole chapter is that Esau was a successful man in the end, in the sense that he had a great nation. He was the founder of a great nation, and he had all kinds of kings and princes that were begotten of his body. He also had wealth, and riches, and prosperity, because it says they had so much substance, they couldn’t dwell together. The land couldn’t handle all their cattle. It talks about him going to mount Seir, but if you remember, he was already hanging out in mount Seir, even before Jacob showed up. That was the place that he liked anyway, but he was also in Canaan.
When Jacob came, and set up shop in Canaan, and had so much cattle, it ended up being better for him to just kind of be in Seir, and for Jacob to be in Canaan. That’s the end of the story with Esau. We don’t see Esau ending his life in a bad way. Do we? We see him forgiving. He is doing right now. He is a nice guy. He is not covetous. He is successful. He is going out, and doing his own thing, and living in peace and prosperity. That’s how he ends his life. There's nothing about any horrible things happening to him or anything like that. Now, go to Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9, because this is the key passage right here that I want to deal with in the end of this sermon. I had to explain everything about Esau, to kind of lead up to this point, because we needed to understand the life of Esau. Don’t you feel like now you have a basic understanding of the life of Esau? Now we can go into Romans 9 with that understanding, and we can look at this passage, which is a passage that is abused and twisted by those who teach the false doctrine of Calvinism.
This is their favorite chapter. This is the chapter they [go 00:41:32], “Romans 9! Romans 9! Romans 9! Romans 9!” Here is the thing, Romans 9 has nothing to do with what they want to use it to teach. In fact, if you actually want to know what Romans 9 is about ... I don’t have time to teach it, but I’ve preached it in many other sermons, it’s about the fact that the physical nation of Israel in the Old Testament has been replaced by a spiritual nation made up all believers in New Testament. That’s what Romans 9 is about. In fact, Romans 9, 10, and 11 form like a trilogy of chapters. Romans 9 through 11 all go together, and they’re all explaining about the Jews, and the Gentiles, the physical Israel, spiritual Israel. When read in tandem with Galatians 3 and 4, they provide a very good picture of where the Jews stand today as far as the fact that they’ve been rejected by God, because they rejected the Lord Jesus Christ, and they’re no longer considered Israel. That’s what this passage is actually teaching.
The subject of the passage in Romans 9 is, who are the chosen people? The word “elect” or “election” means “too choose,” right? If I say, “Hey, we’re having an election tomorrow, go out and vote,” which I don’t say, but if I did, then what am I saying? You’re choosing. You pull out the ballot, and you choose a candidate. If we say, “Hey, we elected so and so," it means we did what? We chose him. What you have to understand is that people that are saved are called in the New Testament. When you see the word “elect,” that’s referring to the people who are saved. You say, “Why would someone who is saved be called ‘the elect’?” In the Old Testament, the nation of Israel were God’s chosen people, which means they were the elect nation, because God chose that nation to be a light to the Gentiles. In the Old Testament, the physical nation of Israel was God’s chosen people. In the New Testament, God said, "The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof," and He said [bad nation 00:43:33] was in [timepass 00:43:34], and not a nation, but it’s a nation of all believers in Jesus Christ.
He said, “If you’re Christ’s, then you’re Abraham’s seed, and heirs, according to the promise." Whether you’re Jew of Gentile, whether you’re bound or free, it doesn’t matter. Here is the thing. In the New Testament, God’s chosen people are Christians. It’s not a specific nationality. It has nothing to do with genealogy. He said, “Avoid genealogy.” In the New Testament, God’s chosen people are Christians. In the Old Testament, he chose a physical nation. This isn’t talking about heaven and hell, because obviously in the Old Testament, Gentiles went to heaven if they believed on the Lord and everything. The thing is, there was a chosen people on the Old Testament, the physical nation of Israel, there is a chosen people on the New Testament, saved believers and Christians, whether they be red, yellow, black, white. It doesn’t matter. That’s why the people that are saved are called “the elect,” because they’re part of the chosen nation, that royal priesthood.
The Bible says that those he foreknew, he predestinated to be conformed to the image of son. God foreknew who would be saved, and he chose them as His people in the New Testament as opposed to the Old Testament. That’s what the Bible’s teaching in Romans 9. That’s why it says in verse 6, “Not as though the word of God hath taken none effect. For they are not all Israel, which are of Israel, neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God.” He's saying, “The physical nation of Israel, physical descendants calling themselves Jews.” He said, “They are not the children of God. The children of the promised are counted for the seed.” That’s what this chapter starts out talking about, that’s what this chapter ends up talking about, the whole end of Romans 9 talks about it, chapter 10, chapter 11 go back to these themes, but Calvinists will isolate verses 10 through 16, and say that this is about God choosing individually who goes to heaven and who goes to hell.
Calvinists teach that God says, “You’re going to heaven. Hell. Hell. Hell. Hell. Heaven. Hell. Hell. Hell. Hell. Hell. Hell. Hell. Heaven. Hell. Hell. Hell,” and is based on nothing. It’s not based on anything. It’s not based on who believes in Christ. It’s just God just picked people. That’s not true. That’s a lie, because the Bible says that God will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. By the way, one of the worst teachings of Calvinism is they teach that Jesus didn’t die for everybody, even though the Bible says over and over again that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. That he died not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world. That the Bible says he is the savior of all men, especially of those that believe. They ... “No, no, no. He only died for a certain select few.” Wrong. He died for everybody, but only those who are saved, receive that gift of eternal life.
Again, I don’t have time to preach that whole sermon, but in Romans 9 here, we get the context of what he is actually talking about, and then it makes sense. Here are the verses that they twist. Starting with verse 10, it says, “And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said unto her, 'The elder shall serve the younger,' as it is written, 'Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.' What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith 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 is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.”
What they’re going to do is they’re going to take this passage, and say, “God chooses who goes to heaven and who goes to hell. You can see that God chose Esau to go to hell before he was even born, before they had done any good or evil ...” Are you listening? “Before they had done any good or evil, God hated Esau, and God loved Jacob, and God just chose him to be damned for ...” That’s not what this passage is teaching. First of all, the proof is when we go back and look up these two quotes. Whenever you’re studying the New Testament and there’s a quote from the Old Testament, a good way to understand that passage is, go back and read that Old Testament story. If God says, “As it is written,” and He quotes something, go back and look it up, and get the context, and understand what the point is that is being made. When God here is talking about choosing Jacob versus choosing Esau, He is talking about choosing him to be the chosen nation, to be the chosen people.
He is talking about choosing Israel to be the chosen people, and not Edom to be the chosen people. God made the choice also with Ephraim and Manasseh, where Ephraim had preeminence over Manasseh. God makes the choice of who is going to be progenitor of Jesus Christ. Who is going to be the chosen nation in the Old Testament? It’s going to be Jacob, and not Esau. Wait a minute. Does that mean Esau can’t go to heaven? No. You say, “The Bible says God hated Esau.” Let’s look up where these quotes come from. There are two Old Testament quotes here in Romans 9. Look at verse 12. “It was said unto her, ‘The elder shall serve the younger.’” Let's look that up, Genesis verse 25. Here is the thing. The election of Israel in the Old Testament is a picture of Salvation, but it is not equivalent to salvation. Just because you were in the Old Testament nation of Israel, do you think that automatically got you into heaven?
"In the Old Testament, everybody who was part of Israel just automatically went to heaven, and everybody who was outside of Israel automatically went hell.” That’s nonsense, because salvation is personal. Isn’t it? No matter how bad our nation is, we can still personally be saved, and we can still personally please God. Any Edomite, any child of Esau, or even Esau himself could still be saved, and love the Lord, and do right, even if he is not part of that nation of Israel. Then there could be people in the nation of Israel who were unsaved people, unbelievers. They went to hell, of course. This isn’t about personal salvation. Romans 9 is not primarily about personal salvation. Romans 9 is a chapter about, who are God’s chosen people? The conclusion is that it’s not the physical nation of Israel. It’s the spiritual seed. It’s not those who are the children of the flesh. It’s the children of the promise. Being chosen as a nation in the Old Testament pictures New Testament.
Lots of things in the Old Testament are Old Testament pictures of salvation. For example, Noah’s ark pictured salvation, but that doesn’t mean that everybody who wasn’t on the ark went to hell, and it doesn’t mean that everybody on the ark went to heaven. One of the guys on the ark was a very evil, wicked person: Ham. He was an ungodly man. We could go on and on about that, but look at Genesis 25. If we want to understand Romans 9, let’s look up the Old Testament quote, shall we? What does it say in verse 23? “And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels. The one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger. Question: Are we talking about individuals here? How can you say it’s about individuals, when four times here, he says, “Two nations, two manner of people, the one people, the other people,” and he says, “The elder shall serve the younger.” Is he saying that the eldest son shall serve the younger son, or is he saying that the elder people shall serve the younger people? Think about it. It’s all about a group, because let me ask you this, we read the whole life of Esau, didn’t we earlier? We went through every stage of his life.
Question: When did Esau ever serve Jacob, ever in the story? Did you read about it? Never happened. When did Esau bow down to Jacob? Never. In fact, we see the opposite. Jacob bowed down to Esau. Jacob gave gifts to Esau. Nowhere do you see the elder serving the younger of the individuals. Did the nation of Edom later serve the nation of Israel? Absolutely, yes. We’re not talking about individuals. They’re going to take Romans 9, and make it about personal individual salvation, and say, “God chose Esau to be damned personally, and to go to hell personally, and He hated him personally.” No. it’s a national thing. It was the nation of Esau that was not chosen. Look, if you would, at the other quote, Malachi 1. We looked up one quote from Romans 9, and we showed that we’re not talking about the individual. When it was said to her, “The elder shall serve the younger,” that quote is not about the person, because Esau never served ... Read Genesis as many times as you want. Esau never served Jacob. Didn’t happen.
Let’s look up the second quote in verse 13. “As it is written, 'Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.'" Let’s see if that quote is about Esau, the person, or Esau, the nation. Remember, Jacob’s name was changed to Israel. Esau’s name was changed to Edom, but often in the Old and New Testament, God will refer to the nation as Israel, or He will refer to the nation as Jacob. Hundreds of years after Jacob died, God would refer to the whole nation as Jacob, and He would refer to the whole nation of Edom as Esau. He would refer to the Amonites as just Amon, Moab ... Whoever their ancestor was, they just took on that name as a nation. The nation of Israel, because they're [descendent 00:53:32] from Isreal. That was the point.
Look at Malachi chapter 1 verse 1. It says, “The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi. 'I have loved you,' saith the LORD ...” Which of course the word “you” is plural. 'I have loved you,’ saith the Lord, ‘Yet ye,' say, 'Wherein hast thou loved us?' 'Was not Esau Jacob's brother?' Saith the Lord, 'yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau ...’” Is the sentence over? No. It says, “I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.” Question: Did God lay Esau, personally, did he lay his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragon of the wilderness? Did that ever happen? No, because actually Esau was very prosperous and succeeded, and his lifetime, the Edomites were thriving. Even for hundreds of years after his death, they were thriving, and ruling, and ... 12 kings. This king after king, after king, after king, after king, after king, prospering in the mountains of Seir, the Edomites.
How can you say that this is about God hating the person, Esau, when the other side of the end has nothing to do with the person, Esau, but is rather about the nation of Edom. It says, “I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste. He didn’t do that to the person. He did that to the nation, therefore He didn’t hate the person. He hated the nation. He says, “I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons [there was 00:55:05]. You say, “I’m still not convinced [inaudible 00:55:07].” Look at verse 4. “Whereas Edom saith, 'We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places.' Thus saith the LORD of hosts, 'They shall build, but I will throw down, and they shall call them, 'the border of wickedness ...” Watch this. “And, The people against whom the Lord hath indignation forever.”
Who is the Lord’s indignation against? An individual person, Esau? No. it’s against the nation of Edom. God has indignation against Edom forever. God destroyed Edom. God laid their mountain and their heritage to waste. The Edomites said, “We’re going to rebuild.” He said, “Go ahead and rebuild. I’ll destroy it again." This is centuries, and centuries, and centuries after the death of the person, Esau, that the book of Malachi’s ... the book of Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament, and it is chronologically the last book of the Old Testament. Not only does it follow that way in the Bible, chronologically, it is the final book that was ever written that is in your Old Testament scripture. What does that tell you? Both quotes that are being quoted in Romans 9 can be proven and demonstrated beyond any doubt to have nothing to do with the individual people, Jacob and Esau. Let’s go back to Romans 9 quickly, with that in mind.
In Romans 9, let’s read it again. Remember the whole chapter is about the fact that the promised seed, that the believers in Christ are the new nation. It’s no longer the physical nation of Israel. It’s talking about, who are the chosen people in the New Testament? It says in verse 10, “And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth. It was said unto her, 'The elder shall serve the younger.'" What we learn from that statement is that it was already predetermined before they were born, that Jacob was going to be the chosen one, and that he was going to be the progenitor of the Lord Jesus Christ. That was already determined. How it came about, it could have come about a different way than it did, but the way that it came about was through him selling his birthright, and through the blessing being stolen, and all the different things that happened there.
Everything obviously happened the way it did for a reason, but the Bible says here that it was not of works, but of Him that calleth. "It was said unto her, 'The elder shall serve the younger.' As it is written, 'Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.' What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For He saith 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 is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." God chooses who He is going to save. Not that He is going to save this individual, and damn this individual here is what he does, He chooses to save all those who believe. He chooses that those who believe in Christ are going to be His people in the New Testament. He chose, in the Old Testament, that the nation of Israel, physically, was going to be His people.
He doesn’t sit there, and choose an individual, and say, “You are going to go to heaven based on nothing, except just my will.” No He doesn’t, because there's a condition to being saved, "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth, the Lord, Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, and thou shalt be saved." There is an “if,” but the Calvinists teach unconditional election. "You’re just chosen to be saved based on nothing." Listen, you are not chosen to be saved based on nothing. You have to believe in Jesus Christ to be saved. If you don’t believe in Jesus Christ, you’re not going to be saved. God doesn’t make you believe in Him. You choose to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, then you are saved. It’s that simple, and there are so many scriptures, over and over again, that teach that whosoever will may come, he died for all men, he is the savior of all, he wants all men to be saved.
Jesus said, “You will not come to me that you might have life. “Will” means you don’t want to. “You don’t want to come to me that you might have life. Whosoever will, let him come take the water of life freely. Hahaha! Yes, sucker. It’s really just people that I already picked.” Think about that. “Whosoever will may come, please come be saved suckers! 99% of you aren’t even chosen anyway.” No, it’s stupid. It’s a false doctrine. You could prove it wrong. We could go through the five points of Calvinism, and prove them wrong with so much scripture. Unconditional election, are you serious? “If thou believeth with all thine heart. If thou shalt confess.” That’s a condition. Any computer programmer could tell you that the word “if” is a condition. “If then.” The computer people just woke up like, “Whoa, what’s going on?” They weren’t even paying attention to the sermon. [No 00:59:59], [I'm just kidding 00:59:60].
It’s clear here that God chooses a nation based on His will. Not based on anything that they had done in the womb. He just chose even before they were born. He just said, "The elder shall serve the younger." That’s His choice. He wanted to make a point. He wanted to do an illustration. He wanted to choose that, but here is the other thing. You know what other choice he made? He chose 12 disciples. He chose 12 disciples, right? One of them was the devil. It’s funny, because people will take verses, and they’ll show you where Jesus said to the disciples, “You’ve not chosen me, but I have chosen you.” They say, “See? Personal salvation.” They’ll take that verse that’s not about personal salvation, and then they’ll apply it to personal salvation. They’ll take Romans 9, which is not about personal salvation, it’s about nations, and then they’ll apply it to personal salvation. They’ll show you a verse, “You’ve not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you to teach and bring forth fruits, and your fruits shall remain.”
They say, “See right there? We don’t choose Him. He chooses us!” No. we’re not one of the 12 disciples, so we can’t say, “God doesn’t choose us, we ... God chooses us. We don’t choose Him, because He said that to His 12 disciples,” because a few chapters later He said, “Have not I chosen you 12, and one of you is a devil?" How can that choosing be about salvation, when one of them went to hell? Jesus Iscariot is in hell tonight, but he was chosen. To do what? To be a disciple. He was chosen to do what? To be the betrayer, to be the traitor. You’ve got to be ... These Calvinists will take a passage, and take it out of context, twist the meaning, and they will alienate that passage from its Old Testament route.
They’ll take Romans 9 and just completely ignore the fact that both quotes in the example are about nations, about the people. Then they’ll ignore the fact that the first part of Romans 9 is all about the nations, verses 6 through 8, especially. Then they’ll ignore the fact that Romans 9:22 through 31, just again [bolsters 01:02:00], the fact that it’s all about which nation is the chosen people on the New Testament, not about personal salvation. Anyone can be saved. Let me just give you a quick review of the life of Esau. What did we learn about Esau? He definitely did some bad things. He’s definitely a bad example. You don’t see people naming their kid “Esau,” because they don’t want their kid to grow up and be a profane person. They don’t want their kid to despise the birthright, marry three heathen wives, and do these things.
There are some negatives about Esau, and some positives about Esau. Here are some negatives about Esau. By the way, the negatives about Esau were all early in his life. Early in his life, he made some mistakes. What that should teach us is that if we make mistakes early in life, they can haunt us for the rest of our life. Today, everybody uses Esau, even the Bible uses Esau as a bad example, because of stuff he did early in life. Some stuff, it's hard to live down. Esau is never going to live this stuff down, unfortunately. What were the negatives about Esau? He sold his birthright. He despised it, that’s number 1. Number 2, he married 2Hittite wives, and then followed that with the third Ishmaelite wife, and then thirdly, he hated and wanted to kill his brother, Jacob. Those are the three bad things about Esau, all early in life.
Positives about Esau is that number 1, he forgave his brother for lying and deceiving him. He also was very contented and not covetous of Jacob’s goods. Number 3, he was very fruitful and multiplied, and he seemed to take care of his family, and work hard to provide, and he was a leader. These are the positives, but I don’t believe that there is any reason to think that Esau is in hell tonight. I believe that Esau is in heaven. Part of the reason why I believe that, first of all there is no evidence that he wasn’t saved. There’s nothing about him worshiping other gods, and not believing in the Lord. The New Testament is not saying he is not [saved 01:04:00]. The New Testament is holding him up as the example to believers: Don’t fornicate, because then you’ll be like Esau. He is telling believers, “Don’t fornicate.” That doesn’t mean that Esau wasn’t saved, because guess what? Saved people do forget, that’s why the warning’s even there. That’s why we need to be ware of it.
First of all, there is no evidence that said he wasn’t saved, because the only evidence you could point to is why he hated you, but I already proved to you that that was the nation, and not the person, and that that was hundreds of years later. The reason that I think he was saved is that he even cared about that blessing. What was that blessing? That blessing was not a dollar bill. The only significance that that blessing had was the spiritual significance. That’s all. It was the fact that his dad was pleased with him, but it was a blessing of God. When Isaac blast Jacob and Esau concerning things to come, he did it by faith, and he did it in the name of the Lord. He said, “God is going to bless you. God’s going to bless those that bless you, and curse those that curse you. The Lord is going to make you fruitful, and make you the ruler,” and everything like that.
If Esau didn’t believe in the Lord, why would he have even cared about the blessing of the Lord on his life? It makes it seem as if he did believe in the Lord, plus the fact that he showed such forgiveness, and love, and humility in the end, that seems to indicate also that he had grown spiritually between his early life and the end of his life. What do we learn from Esau? I think the biggest lesson that Esau’s life gives us besides just having to disapprove the false doctrines of Calvinism ... I’ve done other whole other sermons that go in depth on that, but the biggest lesson that we learn from Esau’s life is that for some momentary pleasure, we can forfeit great blessings and rewards in the future, and that we can make mistakes, and commit sins that will haunt us for the rest of our life, and that we can’t fix.
We definitely want to preach to people, "Hey, you know what? You can always get back up, and you can always come back to church, and you can get right with God, and God is going to forgive you and God is going to be merciful to you." All those things are true. We see that in the life of Esau, because he picked it up, dusted it up, and he lived a pretty good life, and God blessed him in the end, and he actually grew spiritually, but hold on a second. In our zeal to tell people about the God of the second chance, let's not forget to warn people that there are still consequences to sin. You can abort your baby, and down the road you can basically confess that to God as a sin, and move on and live for God, and serve the Lord, and have a productive life for the Lord, and still do things for God, and not just throw your life away. God still loves you, and God still wants to use you for Him spiritually, but you know what? If you abort your baby, you can never bring it back to life again, and God's going to punish you for that.
You could have repercussions for that for the rest of your life. That's the truth. "I don't want to hear that. I [don't like that 01:07:08]. I just want to hear about the second chance." There is a second chance, but there's also consequences to your sin that never go away. You go out and fornicate, that disease might never go away. That psychological and emotional pain might never go away. The harm that you've done to your family, and that you've done to your parent, and the bad example that you've set for your brothers and sisters, and all the things that are the repercussions of bad decision that you made will never go away. Yes, you can still pick it up and serve God, and you can still be used by God, but you and the people around you are still going to suffer for what you've done. I'm not saying that to be vindictive or mean. It's reality, my friend. I'm telling you the truth tonight, that there are two sides of this coin, repercussions that never go away, and a forgiving God that doesn't just throw you in the trash when you make a mistake.
You can make a mistake, you can still live for God, you can still be blessed. I know a lot of people today who have lived a bad past. Even after they were saved, they did a lot of bad things, but God's using them, and God's blessing them, but don't you, young people, just think, "Then that's the path I'm going to take. I'm going to sow my wild oats, and then I'm going to get right with God later." No. You can't sow your wild oats, and then pray for a crop failure, that you will reap what you've sown. We need to be careful not to downplay the consequences of sin, and to think, "I can always fix it later." No. You can't fix it when you marry two Hittite wives, because marrying a third Ishmaelite wive is not going to make mum and dad happy. You can't fix it Esau. Your blessing's gone. Your birthright's gone.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for the story of Esau, Lord. Lord, I pity Esau. I feel bad for him, because he made these mistakes, and he was so sad. He just seem like he was sincere, but Lord, he messed up. Then help us not to be the same way.
