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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] When you play for the time, like, do you just play one time when you're in the top? Or do you play two times when you're playing one time? I think you play just one time at a time. Regardless. I think. I was like... Oh man, I'm stressed out. I was stressed out. Yeah. Can you do it? I think I can do it. Yeah, get some with some pressure on you. Seriously, can you imagine playing it like a conference? Especially because of our music, we're going to try to make it really special. Are you going to go to music practice this Sunday? You should. I was bummed to miss it, but we're going to do it as well in a very, very different way. Very different. We're going to be making it here all the time. We need to compete with Verity, man. I don't think we're going to be able to compete with Verity. But it's our first year of trying things out, so hopefully this is at least better than the rest of the game. You know what I mean? Verity can't have football or ping pong, but they can have a music. When it comes to athletics, we'll win. When it comes to just things running perfectly smooth, I mean, it has no difference. Yeah. That thing is well-oiled machine. It's like almost the official tournament. Yeah, it's legit. It's like crowd picture. I went to houses or something like that. It's kind of hard. Hey, Beth, go to mama. They have a gun or something. I don't know. They have sacks. They have tuba. Clarinet. They play a lot. Other guys can play like multiple instruments. Like the guy that played Christian, he can play clarinet, and then he went over there and played a piano. I can do it all. I'm going to like back butt, dulcimer, art, or something. These guys are fun. Yeah, I know. Yeah. Yeah, James Mahal Mundi plays the violin and piano. Yeah. It's just Asian. Yeah. Asian. Yeah. Hey, man, we need to go to, we got to go to Asia because he's like, save some people that bring it over here. Yeah. Yeah, Esther, the cello girl, she's also nuts. I heard she can, I heard she has like a perfect potato. That's what, that's what her, uh, Andrew from Gante was telling me. He's like, basically if you like sing a note, she's like, oh, that's either A or A flag. I was like, that's stupid. It's like, why am I asking such a question? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't do rock amazing too slow. Some people really go real slow on that. More fast paced. Yeah. Yeah. Welcome. It's Baptist church. If you could find your seats and grab your song book. Let's turn our song books to song 129, rock of ages. Song 129, rock of ages. Song 129, rock of ages. No, it's on. Maybe our speakers aren't on. Maybe our speakers, but it's all right. It just starts. But he can fix it. 129. Rock of ages clap for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from thy wounded side, which flowed, be of sin the double cure. Save from wrath and make me pure. Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no languor know? These for sin could not atone. Thou must save and thou alone. In my hand no price I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. While I draw this fleeting breath. When my eyes shall close in death. When I rise to worlds unknown. And behold thee on the throne. Rock of ages clap for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Good singing. Let's have a word of prayer. Lord, thank you so much for this day and the opportunity to be gathered in your house. I pray that you bless this service that all things that are done will be done to your honor and glory, and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, for our second song, we'll go to song 192, Ring the Bells of Heaven. Song 192, Ring the Bells of Heaven. Song 192, Ring the Bells of Heaven. Ring the bells of heaven there is joy today. For a soul returning from the wild. See the Father meets him out upon the way. Welcoming his weary wandering child. Glory, glory how the angels sing. Glory, glory how the loud hearts ring. Tis the ransomed army like a mighty sea. Peeling forth the anthem of the free. Ring the bells of heaven there is joy today. For the wanderer now is reconciled. Yes, a soul is rescued from his sinful way. And is born anew a ransomed child. Glory, glory how the angels sing. Glory, glory how the loud hearts ring. Tis the ransomed army like a mighty sea. Peeling forth the anthem of the free. Ring the bells of heaven spread the feast today. Angels swelled the grand triumphant strain. Tell the joyful tidings bear it far away. For a precious soul is born again. Glory, glory how the angels sing. Glory, glory how the loud hearts ring. Tis the ransomed army like a mighty sea. Peeling forth the anthem of the free. Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you didn't already get a bulletin and you'd like one, just slip your hand real quick and we can have an usher come by. Get you a bulletin on the front. We have Psalms 148 verse 5. If you're able to quote that to a non-family member and you're age 18 or under, you can get an ice cream or a couple pieces of candy right after the service. Also on the inside we have our service and soul winning times as well as our church stats. Please continue to turn in your soul winning maps and I'm going to get a count for any soul winning for the last few days to report. Was there anything from Monday by chance? Alright, one for Monday. What about Tuesday? Was there anything on Tuesday by chance? Alright. Then today, was there anything to report from today by chance? Alright, keep with the good work on soul winning. On the right we have our list of expecting ladies. We have several there to keep in your prayers. Also we have a prayer list of several different prayer requests. Please send any other additional prayer requests to our email address so that we can add those to our list. If you want to also fill out a communication card, you can just fill that out and slip it into the offering plate. We have the Negara family. If you'd continue to pray for David and Rebecca. Also Miss Lucy, her mother's tumors and swelling. Brother Cameron Hall had surgery yesterday I believe it was and I think he was sent home already so and I think everything went well but just continue to pray for his recovery. And then Verity Baptist Manila. That's Brother Matthew Stuckey sent out of Verity Baptist Church. Just continue to pray for them as their COVID restrictions are really vexing. Not as vexing as Australia though, man. And if you've read in your reports over there, it's crazy what they're doing to people over there. And so definitely be in prayer for the brethren and Pastor Kevin Sepulveda in Australia. Brother Jeff Goodwin was just praying for a job. Miss Eva Garcia is traveling and she was just asking for that as well as a final doctor's appointment. Miss Ginger would still just be praying for her family and Malcolm's friend Jonathan. So we have several different prayer requests there. I'm going to say a quick word of prayer as a church family for those that were mentioned. Thank you Heavenly Father for giving us this opportunity to come together and to sing praise under your name and to hear the word of God preached. I pray that you bless the service. I pray that you would just bless all the ladies that are expecting and those that are not here, that you would just help them with their pregnancy, that you help them with their delivery, give them strength. I also pray that you would just bless all those that are mentioned here with other various health issues and concerns. That you could be with them, you could strengthen them. If it be possible, just give them complete healing and recovery. I pray that you also give those that are in need of other services. You give them wisdom and they just give them favor. And I pray that you just help bless our church to be a shining light and to get many people saved. And that we do all this in the honor of your son. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. On the back we have a couple of announcements. We have a music ministry practice. And again, that's mentioned there as September 5th. But I believe it's every Sunday until our conference. Is that correct? Okay. So just at 4 p.m., if you'd like to participate, you can even just come and just sing. Singers would also help. It helps the musicians work with their timing and just getting used to the songs. It helps you get more accustomed to be able to sing out loud. Because we've got some new speakers and we're going to be putting them up here. And so we're going to be hearing you guys sing in the services. And so I'm really excited about that. Also September 11th, this Saturday, we're having our Shreveport Louisiana Soul Waning Marathon. And so there's already a sign-up sheet. A lot of you have signed up. But if you want to, still just let us know. Those that are planning on carpooling, we're going to meet here at 6 a.m. and leave at 6 a.m. So there's not a lot of window there. Just show up and we're going to leave bright and early and head out. And who's planning on showing up to carpool? Just so I have some kind of an idea. Okay. So we've got a few stragglers here. The usual crew. But we'll meet. And we're going to meet at a park. Mike Woods Park. It's actually in Bossier. So there's like a river that separates Shreveport and Bossier. And so we're going to be meeting in Bossier in the park. And then we'll get our maps and go soul-waning from there. So if you have any questions, you can always email or contact us. I have videos out there that has the address. And we're going to go soul-waning for a couple of hours, have lunch there in the town. Go soul-waning for a couple of hours. And then heading out, we're going to actually have dinner, but it's going to be not in the Shreveport area. It's going to be in Longview, Texas. So we're going to kind of be heading back this direction. And then we're going to have dinner there in Longview on the way. But you know what? Just show up hungry with a Bible and be ready to give the gospel. And so we'll have everything else covered for you. I'm really excited about this event. I think it's going to be a real big success. If you can't make it, just pray for us that everything will go smoothly on Saturday. And then Pure Words is having their third annual false Bible burning September 25th. If you have any false Bibles, please turn them in to me so that we can get these things lit up, all right? October 2nd, we've got our fall swap. The 6th through the 10th is our fire-breathing Baptist fellowship. And so we also have a guest for our Sunday Spanish service, Pastor Enrique Reyes down there in Houston. He's going to come and preach our Spanish service. So we're going to have a great lineup of preachers, events, and all kinds of stuff. November 13th, there's also an Oklahoma City soul-winning marathon. And so obviously our events are surrounding ourselves with lots of soul-winning. And praise the Lord on that. That's pretty much all I have for announcements. Let's go ahead and go to our third song, 198, Joy Unspeakable, 198. Yeah, that's song 198, Joy Unspeakable. I have found His graces all complete. He supplyeth every need. While I sit and learn at Jesus' feet, I am free, yes, free indeed. It is joy unspeakable and full of glory, full of glory, full of glory. It is joy unspeakable and full of glory. Oh, the half has never yet been told. I have found the pleasure I once prayed. It is joy and peace within. What a wondrous blessing I am saved from the awful gulf of sin. It is joy unspeakable and full of glory, full of glory, full of glory. It is joy unspeakable and full of glory. Oh, the half has never yet been told. I have found that hope so bright and clear, living in the realm of grace. Oh, the Savior's presence is so near, I can see His smiling face. It is joy unspeakable and full of glory, full of glory, full of glory. It is joy unspeakable and full of glory. Oh, the half has never yet been told. I have found the joy no tongue can tell, how its waves of glory roam. It is like a great earth flowing well, springing up within my soul. It is joy unspeakable and full of glory, full of glory, full of glory. It is joy unspeakable, full of glory. Oh, the half has never yet been told. While the offering plates are passed around, please turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 27. That's Genesis chapter 27. . . . . . . . . . . Genesis 27, the Bible reads, And it came to pass that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son, and he said unto him, Behold, here am I. And he said, Behold now, I am old. I know not the day of my death. Now therefore take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver, and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison, and make me savory meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat, that my soul may bless thee before I die. And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau his son, and Esau went to the field to hunt for venison and to bring it. And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying, Bring me venison, and make me savory meat, that I may eat, and bless thee before the Lord before my death. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee. Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two good kids of the goats, and I will make them savory meat for thy father, such as he loveth. And thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death. And Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold, Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver, and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing. And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse, my son. Only obey my voice, and go fetch me them. And he went and fetched and brought them to his mother, and his mother made savory meat, such as his father loved. And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob her younger son. And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck. And she gave the savory meat and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob. And he came unto his father, and said, My father. And he said, Here am I, who art thou, my son? And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau, thy firstborn. I have done according as thou beatest me. Arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me. And Isaac said unto his son, How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because the Lord thy God brought it to me. And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son Esau or not. And Jacob went near unto 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 discerned him not, because his hands were hairy, as his brother Esau's hands. So he blessed him. And he said, Art thou my very son Esau? And he said, I am. And he said, Bring it near to me, and I will eat of my son's venison, that my soul may bless thee. And he brought it near to him, and he did eat. And he brought him wine, and he drank. And his father Isaac said unto him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son. And he came near, and kissed him, and 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. 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 my mother's sons bow down to thee. Cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee. 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 savory 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. 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 subtlety, 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? And Isaac answered, And said unto 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, 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 sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother. And it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck. And 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. And these words of Esau her elder son were told to Rebekah, and she sent and called Jacob her younger son, and said unto him, Behold, thy brother Esau as touching thee, doth comfort himself, purposing to kill thee. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice and arise. Flee thou to Laban, my brother to Haran. And tarry with him a few days until thy brother's fury turn away, until thy brother's anger turn away from thee, and he forget that which thou hast done to him. Then I will send and fetch thee from thence. Why should I be deprived also of you both in one day? And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me? Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for Genesis chapter number 27, and for the opportunity that we have here tonight to gather in your name and listen to this chapter be expounded. I pray that you would fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit now and help him to preach his sermon for us so we can learn more about this chapter and all of the nuggets and the truths that are encapsulated here in this portion of scripture. We love you, and in Jesus' name I pray, Amen. We're in Genesis chapter 27, and it's really focusing on Esau and Jacob here. What's interesting about this chapter of the Bible is it's really kind of a strange chapter as far as all the elements that are going into it and all the things that are happening. But what's so cool about this chapter is it's one of the most spiritually deep chapters of the Bible where it just pictures so many truths about the New Testament and about Christ and about God. As we go through this chapter, instead of focusing on the surface, I want to slow down and just really pay attention to a lot of the symbolism and the metaphors that are being taught through this chapter. It says in verse number 1, it says, And it came to pass that when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, he called Esau his eldest son, and said unto him, My son. And he said unto him, Behold, here am I. And he said, Behold now, I am old. I know not the day of my death. Now therefore, take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver, and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison, and make me savory meat, such as I love, and bring it to me, that I may eat, that my soul may bless thee before I die. Now, what's interesting about this chapter of the Bible is I believe that the characters represent other people. And really, to understand this chapter well, you kind of have to substitute some of these people in your mind for another person. And Isaac in this chapter is really going to play that which is God the Father. As you go through this chapter, it's going to be interesting how Isaac is actually going to play the role of God the Father. And Esau is going to picture the children of Israel in the flesh, according to the flesh, and he's going to illustrate a lot of things for them. Now, in this parable, as I would call it, it's a true story. It really happened. However, it's being used for spiritual pictures. We have Isaac telling his son to go and do this work. Okay, going out and getting his weapons, getting his quiver, getting his bow, going to the field, getting venison, and preparing him a meal. To me, I liken this unto basically just the Old Testament, or specifically the law given to Moses, because the law given to Moses is very similar in the request that God the Father is asking of the children of Israel. I mean, what are the things that God the Father is asking the children of Israel to do? Go to war, aren't they? Aren't they supposed to go and take over the Promised Land? So they're supposed to take their bow, they're supposed to take their quiver, they're supposed to enter into the Promised Land, and there's a lot of physical, carnal war that the children of Israel go through in the Old Testament. Not only do they do that, though, they also go to the field and they take some venison. So they're supposed to take certain animals from that flock and then make them do sacrifices. And when you think about the Old Testament law, it's a lot of what? Entering the Promised Land, taking over, a lot of war, and then a lot of sacrifice. And ultimately, what does the law picture? It pictures a lot of work. You know, it pictures the work of God, the service of God, going out and doing these type of functions so as to be pleasing to the Lord. Basically, the law is basically your service to God, following His commandments, how to offer the sacrifices, how to, you know, handle yourself in every area of life. The law spells out righteousness in a very plain manner so that you know what's right and what's wrong. And, you know, the Bible tells us in the New Testament, it says, For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. So to differentiate Moses from Jesus, Moses is giving a law, Jesus is giving grace and truth, okay? And really, when we look at Esau here, he's kind of getting the law, as it were, he's just kind of getting these requests. There's not a lot of grace. I mean, I didn't read any grace in this section of what Esau has been commanded. He's just being commanded straightforward, do this, do that, come and do this. You know, there's a lot of commandments that are given to him. And really, the law is just commandments. I mean, it's just law after law after law, instruction after instruction after instruction, okay? Now look at verse 5, let's contrast this. And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau's son, and Esau went to the field to hunt for venison to bring it, and Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son, saying, Behold, I heard thy father speak unto Esau thy brother, saying, Bring me venison, and make me savoury meat, that I may eat, and bless thee before the Lord before my death. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice according to that which I command thee. Go now to the flock, and fetch me from thence two kids, good kids of the goats, and I will make them savour meat for thy father, such as ye love it. And thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death. Now we have two new characters that we're introduced to. Initially we have Isaac and Esau, who's God the Father, and then we have the physical Israel, we have the carnal Israel, we have the Old Testament Israel. Now we have Rebekah, who actually pictures Christ, who pictures the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we have another son, Jacob, who's going to be spiritual Israel, who is that which is going to be saved Israel. Now Rebekah, what's interesting about Rebekah, think about this. She heard what was spoken to Esau. So Christ, he's aware of the law of Moses, he's aware of the instructions given to Esau. Here's another thing that's interesting. Rebekah predates Esau, doesn't she? He's before Esau. And just like Christ predates the children of Israel, he predates the law, he's before everything. Before Abraham was, I am, is what Jesus Christ said. So we have a lot of symbolism here that's still putting together. But now Rebekah is telling Jacob to do something. He is saying, hey, I want you to get some venison and make me savory meat. Or obey her voice in order to do the same thing, basically. But again, it's to obey her voice. I think that's not a coincidence that it's using this phrase here, obey the voice, because when Christ comes, what was it they were supposed to be obedient unto? They were supposed to be obedient unto his words. You know, the words which he spake, they have life and truth, and so they are spirit and truth, and they're supposed to believe in his words, and he even says, my sheep know my voice, and they hear me. You know, they're not going to follow a stranger. So you have a lot of coordination with the voice of God, specifically the Lord Jesus Christ, and here with Jacob, who's going to obey her voice. Now, keep your finger here, because I want to come right back. Go to 2 Thessalonians, chapter 1 for a moment. Go to 2 Thessalonians, chapter 1. Now, we have to understand about being obedient is the first obedience was to a lot of commandments, a lot of instructions, but this obedience to the voice of Rebekah, to me, shows a little bit of a delineation, because in the New Testament, it makes it really clear that the only thing necessary to be right with God is to obey the gospel. And what that means is specifically to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, okay? So there's an obedience in the New Testament that's different than the law. Instead of being obedient to a whole bunch of instructions, we're obedient to the gospel of Jesus Christ. We're obedient to the words of Christ when it comes to His death, burial, and resurrection. And so obedience could be defined as salvation, but only if it's synonymous with what it means to believe or to trust in Christ. And I'm going to show you that in the Bible. 2 Thessalonians, chapter 1, look at verse 6. ...that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. So the Bible says people who are not obedient to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ are not going to heaven. They're going to have everlasting destruction. They're going to go to hell. And you say, well, what does it mean to obey? Well, read a little bit further, verse 10. When He shall come to be glorified in His saints... So these are the people that are not going to be damned. These are the people that are going to be saved, to be admired in all them that believe. Notice, because our testimony among you is believed in that day. So we have two different groups. One that does not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and then what's the other group? The ones that believe. Because what it means to obey the gospel means to believe the gospel. Let me show you this again. Go to Romans, chapter number 10. Go to Romans, chapter number 10. Base false teachers will sometimes say, oh, you've got to obey the gospel. And it's like, yeah, you do have to obey the gospel. But here's the thing. I'm going to obey the gospel according to what the Bible teaches, and obeying the gospel according to the Bible is believing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look what it says in verse 16. But they have not obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah saith the Lord, Who hath believed our report? So then again, the Bible defines for you what it means to obey the gospel and the gospel is believing the gospel, obeying the words of Christ. That's what it really means. Think about John, chapter number 5. Go there for a second. John, chapter number 5, and let's look at another verse here. The Bible's always consistent on this subject because the only thing necessary for salvation is simply trusting in Christ. It's simply putting your faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. There's no works. It's not by works of righteousness which we have done, but by His mercy He saved us, is what the Bible clearly teaches. John, chapter 5, verse 24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is past from death and life. So again, the Bible is making it clear that we're supposed to hear. Look at verse 25. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. Notice the coordination with the voice of God and obeying the gospel, and that same symbolism, I believe, is kind of foreshadowed with Genesis, chapter 27, with Rebekah saying, Obey my voice, and hearken unto her words. Go back to chapter 27. Now, what is she commanding or telling Jacob to do to get two good kids of the goats? Okay, and again, obviously these are always going to picture the sacrifice of Christ, you know, the animal sacrifice, and again, good ones, meaning it's not, you know, some kind of a bad thing. Jesus Christ said, I'm the good shepherd, and obviously Jesus Christ is good, you know. I tell that to the Jehovah's false witness that say, you know, there's none good but one that's God, and it's like, well, Jesus is good, you know, because then He's God, right? But He is good, okay? And I like this next phrase, though, because He's going to get the kids, but then what does it say? And I will make them savory meat for thy father such as you love it. So who's really doing the work here? Is Jacob doing the work, or is Rebekah doing the work? Now, obviously Jacob has to get the sacrifice. He has to accept the sacrifice, which is illustrating the point that we have free will, illustrating the fact that we all have to choose to believe in Jesus Christ, but ultimately that sacrifice is going to be performed by Rebekah, which is picturing Christ, meaning it's not our sacrifice that gets us into heaven, it was Christ's sacrifice that gets us into heaven, saying, I will make them savory meat for thy father such as he loveth. Who knows better the sacrifice that God the Father is pleased with than Jesus Christ Himself? Just like Rebekah knows what her husband likes to eat, wink, wink, women out there, okay, she knows what her husband likes to eat, okay, savory meat, right? Notice she's not putting beans in this stew, okay? Meat, okay, such as he loveth, all right? And it says, Thou shalt bring it to thy father that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death. Now, here's the thing. He's still bringing it to the Father, Jacob, okay? But he's not bringing what he prepared. He's not bringing what he made. He's not bringing his works. He's bringing the works of Rebekah. He's bringing the works of someone else. And when we go and stand before God, if you're going to get into heaven, you have to bring someone else's works because your works aren't good enough. Your works are as filthy rags as what the Bible teaches. We have to bring the works of Jesus Christ. And praise the Lord, we have his imputed righteousness. The word impute means that it's basically been given over to us, that it's been credited to us. When you look at your bank statement, you have credits and you have debits, right? The debits takes away from your account. The credit adds to your account. Imputing is basically adding it to your account. It's a credit, okay? And so we get credited all of Jesus Christ's righteousness, and then all of our works are debited to Jesus Christ. So all of our sins we gave him, and then he gave us all of his righteousness. And that's how we stand before Christ, righteous, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but by his mercy saved us. Now, isn't this different than when we saw Esau? Now I see grace. Now I see something a little bit different, where Jacob's not even doing anything. He's just receiving this blessing through Rebekah's offering, through Rebekah's work, through Rebekah wanting to be gracious under his son Jacob and to help him out here in this story. So if we went to verse 11 now. Jacob said to Rebekah his mother, Behold Esau my brother is a hairy man, and I am a smooth man. My father peradventure will fill me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver, and I shall bring a curse upon me, not a blessing. And his mother said unto him, Upon me be thy curse my son, obey my voice, and go fetch me them. Now that we already have all the pictures put together now, now that we already have the characters of the story, these verses are going to jump off the page to you. I mean, if you're saved, notice he's saying, look, if I stand before God, this would be the Christian speaking, obviously when Jacob's saying if I stand before my father, he can tell the difference between me and Esau. Because Esau, you know, doesn't look the same as Jacob. Esau looks like he's from the Middle East, okay? Real hairy. No, I'm just kidding. And Jacob's real smooth. And so there's a distinction between them. What is this picture? This picture's the fact that if we were to stand before God, if we were to just judge us based on our own character and merits, we would be naked in his sight. Basically, Adam and Eve, they stand before God, and they are ashamed because they're what? Because they're naked. And when we're sinful, in our sinful condition, if we were to stand before God, we would stand naked, and we would be ashamed of our sin, we would look as a deceiver to Christ or to God, and so we have to have a covering. And that's a real important aspect that we're going to get to in a minute. Without that covering, we're basically not going to be accepted. Jacob's saying, I'm not going to be accepted with Isaac if I am coming to him smooth. And so he wants this covering because he's afraid he'd get a curse. And again, what's our curse for sin is going to hell, right? And that curse, according to the Bible, keep your finger here, go to Galatians for a moment, go to Galatians, chapter number 3, that curse was given to Christ. So our curse is what? To die and go to hell. Because we've broken the law, we've broken the commandment. If we were to stand before God, that's what he would give us, that's what we deserve, that's what we've earned. For the wages of sin is death, is what the Bible says. And there's a certain curse that's associated with the law. Look at Galatians, chapter number 3, and let's look at verse number 10. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. That's how I know every person that believes you have to repent of your sins and be saved is cursed. Because it says you have to do everything perfect or you're cursed. That sounds like a tough, a tall task to manage here. All? All things are in? I mean, how many sins do you have to repent of? Technically all of them. If you believe you have to repent of your sins and be saved, it would be all of them. But here's the problem, even if you did repent of all your sins, you still have past sins that need to be accounted for, and because of those you're cursed. And because of your cursing, you can't live by the law. Verse 11, but that no man is justified by the law on the side of God, it is evident for the just to live by faith. And the law is not of faith. Tell that again to every repent of your sins heretic. Look, my salvation has nothing to do with the law. It has nothing to do with turning from sin. It has nothing to do with getting right with God by turning over a new leaf or stop murdering and stealing or lying or fornicating or having foolish thoughts or none of that. No, it's not of faith. Because the law just point blank says thou shalt not steal. It's just right there on the surface. So the law is different than faith. It says this, the man that doeth them shall live in them. Meaning what? The law was just telling you, hey, do X, you did X. Do Y, do Y. It's evident in the fact that you can see it. But it's not really faith. It's not really taking any faith to see the law. You know when I pass by, when I'm driving on the road and I'm kind of going down pretty fast, you may be thinking, I don't know where I stand. You don't know if there was a cop on the side of the road, you don't know, I don't know what the speed limit is because you haven't seen one in a while. But if there's a posted sign right there that just says 50 miles per hour, you know exactly where you stand. That's not faith, that's sight. But if you don't have that sign, you kind of have to be like, it's not something you can see, it's not something you know necessarily by your visual eyes. That's the difference when it comes to faith. But what if someone was sitting in the car looking at you and saying, you're under the speed limit. You don't know that. They're just telling you that you have to put your faith in what they're saying. And so when it comes to salvation, I've never died and gone and stand before God and been judged and gone to heaven and escaped hell. I haven't seen any of that. I haven't experienced that, I haven't gone through that yet. I believe it by faith that me trusting in Christ I'm saved. And so there's a distinction between the law and between faith. He's saying law is just right there on the surface, it's something you can see, it's something really tangible, whereas faith is putting your trust in something. Now again, we're not talking about blind faith, we're not talking about you just guessing. I'm saying, again, in my analogy, someone sitting next to you, and our analogy is Jesus saying, I got you covered. You say, well, you don't know how fast I'm going. And he's like, I still got you covered. And that's how sinful you are, he's like, his grace still abounds. Pardon my parable. But look at the next verse, verse 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit. Notice this in faith. So what's being symbolized with Rebekah saying, hey, your curse is going to be upon me? It's symbolizing how Jesus Christ was going to take our curse so that we could receive what? The promise and the blessing of Abraham. Rebekah saying, hey, your curse is upon me so that he can receive what? The blessing of Abraham. Why? Because it fits together like a glove, and specifically in the New Testament, it's talking about Gentiles, isn't it? Because they're the spiritual Israel, they're the spiritual Jew that will receive that blessing of Abraham, and Christ gets our curse. Go back, if you would, and look at verse 14. Genesis 27, look at verse 14. And he went and fetched and brought them to his mother, and his mother made saviour meat such as his father loved. And Rebekah took goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob, her younger son. And she put the skins of the kids of the goats upon his hands, and upon the smooth of his neck, and she gave the saviour meat and the bread which she had prepared into the hand of her son Jacob. We have Jacob clothed by Rebekah picturing what? How we're clothed with Christ's righteousness. Just like he is going to be clothed physically, we're clothed in a spiritual sense by having that white garment, that white robe put upon us. And there's a lot of parables like this when someone goes in the wedding, and he's like, how'd you come in hither not having on a wedding garment? And that's picturing someone that doesn't have the robe of righteousness that comes from Christ only. And if you stand before God without that clothing, you're going to be rejected. Just like Jacob, if he didn't come with that hairy garment, as it were, the skins of goats or whatever, then he would have been rejected of his father. Jacob's also covered in skins though. What is that picture? It pictures the sacrifice element. Notice, what is it that covers us? We're covered in the blood of Jesus Christ, aren't we? And you know, the skins don't come out of thin air, they come from the sacrifice of an animal. They come from the killing and the slaying of an animal, and that's the picturing of the precious Lamb of God being slain for us. Not only that, he has to bring meat and bread. Well, what is that picture? When we think about the New Testament, go to Matthew 26 for a moment. Keep your finger here and go to Matthew 26 for a moment. All of these things are picturing the same thing over and over in all kinds of different ways and all the different elements that are going to happen, but look at verse 26. So what is it that the bread and the wine represent? They represent the body and blood of Jesus Christ, which pictures his death on the cross and his blood being spilled. Isn't it amazing how it's just every single verse is just picturing the cross of Jesus Christ here, all the way back in Genesis chapter number 27. Go back and let's look at verse 18 now. And it came unto his father, and said to my father, and he said, Here am I, who art thou, my son? And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau, thy firstborn. I have done according as thou beatest me. Arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me. Now here's the thing, Jacob is coming in and he's claiming to be Esau. Now what you have to understand about the Bible is God can use imperfect people in even bad situations or weird situations or sinful situations to illustrate spiritual truth. Now is it right for Jacob to come and lie to his father? Obviously the answer is no. I'm not going to sit here and just because it has a cool spiritual truth exonerate the actions of Jacob here. However, why is it being used or mentioned here? Because it's illustrating a spiritual truth, a greater spiritual point. Just like Jephthah. Jephthah makes a spiritual vow that he's going to sacrifice what comes ever to meet him and it ends up being his daughter. Now is it like a good thing that he ends up obeying that oath and killing his daughter? From a carnal perspective, no. Because he's slaying your own child is horrible. It's evil, there's a lot of messed up things about that. But because he wants to obey God and because it illustrates a spiritual truth, God includes it in the Bible to show us what's really happening. Now, it's always been confusing me because I'm like, why is Jacob the good guy here if he's the deceiver? Or he's lying or whatever. But here's the thing, the spiritual truth is not a lie. The spiritual truth is this. Jacob is coming and saying, I'm Esau. Well, that's like us being Gentiles saying that we're Israel. But here's the thing, we're not lying about it. It's actually true. We really are spiritual Israel and so we are Israel. And so that's why it has to use this parable or this deceiving aspect to try and illustrate the spiritual truth that even though it's really Jacob, he's Esau in the spiritual sense. Or meaning what? If you're a Gentile in the physical sense and that's true, you're also spiritual Israel because they're both true. And so that's why it's using this interesting parallel to help us understand that we truly are a Jew. Romans chapter 2, let's just turn there for a second and read a couple of verses. But a lot of people don't like this truth because it takes away from this specialness of being a physical Jew. But here's the reality, there is no specialness anymore. God's not a respecter of persons. He doesn't really care about our physical attributes. We care so much about our physical attributes. The Bible says beauty is vain. A woman that fearth the Lord, she shall be praised. Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman that fearth the Lord, she shall be praised. I think most women and even men today, they really care about their physical appearance so much. It's a major component of every day. How they look, their physical characteristics, and a lot of people are always really dissatisfied with how they look. Most people are not just going around like, I'm just so attractive. Or they're just constantly in love with all, they're like, I wish I had different hair. I wish it had more volume. So they add volume to it, right? Or they wish that it would do a twirl at the bottom or it was curly. Or they wish it was a different length or something like that. Or it was highlighted. Whatever. They're just not satisfied with who they are. They're disappointed in the fact that they're not taller. Or they have some, I wish I had blue eyes. I wish I was less white. I don't have a problem being white. It is what it is. Or they're upset that they're dark-skinned. Whatever it is, they're just upset about who they are on the outward appearance. I just think God doesn't really care that much about that. Obviously, God thinks that you're beautiful. God made you the way he wanted you to be made. And he's pleased with your appearance. And that should be good enough. If you're already married, your spouse already likes the way you look. I guarantee it. You're typically not going to get married to someone that you're just like, Now, I'm not saying you should let yourself go. But what I am saying is that you should work on your inner beauty. Work on the inner man. And here's one thing the Bible teaches, is that we have an inner person. Look at verse 28. For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly. And circumcision is that of the heart, and the spirit, and not of the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. The Bible's saying that inside, if you've believed on Jesus Christ, you are a Jew. You are a spiritual Jew. And here's the thing. You can make way more transformations about who you are on the inside than you can on the outside. On the outside, you can only do so much. On the outside, you can only fix so much. You can only put so much lipstick on a pig. You can only cut your hair so much. You can only do so many things. But you know what? You could change your personality a lot. You could be a lot nicer, kinder, more intelligent. You could be more subservient. You could be more humble. There's a lot of work that you can do to make yourself a better person. And you should be more focused on your inward person, rather than your outward person. And when it comes to Jacob and Esau, him pretending to be Esau, don't get so worried about the outward. Worry more about what's on the inside. Because that's what really matters when it all comes down to it. Go backwards to Genesis, chapter 27. Let's go back in our Bible. Pastor Shelley thinks I'm ugly. I didn't say that, okay? I think you all look great, okay? But at the end of the day, do you really even care what your friends look like on the outside? Or do you really care about what your friends look like on the inside? I mean, how many of your friends are you thinking like, man, you're a jiku, man. You know, you're just such a handsome guy. Or are they thinking like, I like this guy because he's smart, or he's funny, or he's fun to be around, or whatever. You know, work more on that person. That person's really important. And when it even comes to dating advice, there's tons of times where people, they look at someone, and it looks attractive, and then it opens its mouth, and it's not attractive anymore. You know, and so you've got to work on that inward person. And if you're asking a lot of girls out, and it seems like they're interested, and so you start talking to them, start working on that person, okay? Maybe that's the one that's a little bit more important. Look what it says in verse number 20. And Isaac said unto his son, How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son? And he said, Because the Lord thy God brought it to me. You know what I like about this? Again, salvation is just brought to Jacob, just like salvation is brought to the Gentiles. You know, in Romans chapter number 10, it says, I was found of them that sought me not. I was manifest unto them that asked not after me. And here's the thing, when it comes to soul winning, you know, some people might be discouraged about the fact that they're like, man, where's all the Acts 16 encounters where people are just falling down saying, sir, what must I do to be saved? You've got to realize that's an exception. Most people that you get saved, if you get people saved, are not going to ask for it. They're not seeking it. You have to go and find them. You have to go and approach them and confront them about the gospel, and you have to bring the gospel to them. You know, you can't be reactive in getting people saved. You have to be proactive. You have to go out there, and you have to find people, and you have to approach them, and you have to talk to them, and you have to compel them to come in, and you have to earnestly contend for the faith. And you know what? The Bible makes it clear that just like we got saved, most of us, and not all, but probably most of us, probably weren't even asking for it. It just kind of fell into our lap or something, or we were looking for something else, or we were just interested in the truth or whatever. You know, my parents just dragged me to church, and I'm sitting there, and the guy's telling me how to go to heaven. You know, I wasn't doing anything special. It was just brought to me. It was just handed to me. It was just put in my lap from my parents, basically, taking me to a church where at least they're preaching the gospel. And you know a lot of people that got saved by their parents? They didn't ask. Their parents just put it in their lap. And you know what? I say, Amen. You know what you should do? You should put the gospel in your children's lap, in your grandchildren's lap, in your friends' and your family's lap, in your neighbors' lap, in your city's lap. You should go out there and compel people to be saved and just bring it to them. And again, it's super fast. I like that. It was fast. It didn't take a long time. Hey, when you go soloing, you know what? You can get someone saved 15, 20 minutes. It's not going to take that much time. And think about it. You change that person's life for eternity. You know, Jacob's future is going to be changed forever by this course of action. You know what? It was brought to him fast. And it was brought to him, meaning what? Christ brings us the gospel. Christ brings us salvation. We didn't do anything to earn it. It's not something that we have that we can basically glory in. The only thing we have to do is just accept it. That's not Calvinism because, you know, Rebecca didn't shove it down his throat. She didn't force him. He's saying, hey, you know, here's this opportunity. Then he had to enact on that. He had to take that blessing. He had to take that upon himself, okay? So, but again, it's still brought to people. And we need to go out and bring the gospel to the lost. Look at verse 21. And Isaac said unto Jacob, Come near, I pray thee, that I may feel thee, my son. What if thou be my very son Esau, or not? Jacob went near unto Isaac his father, and he felt it, and said, The voice is Jacob's voice. The hands, the hands of Esau. And he discerned him not. But his hands were hairy, and his brothers Esau had hands, so he blessed him. And he said, Art thou my very son Esau? And he said, I am. Now, what's interesting about this is he's feeling the hair and he's like, the hair is right. The voice is wrong, okay? Now again, what is a lot of this symbolizing? Well, what does the hair represent? It represents Christ's sacrifice. So here's the thing. When we stand before God and he's testing out the righteousness, he could look at it and be like, this isn't really your righteousness, is it? You know, this isn't you. You know, it sounds like your voice, but somehow you got some other stuff going on here because you know what? You're not getting in through what we did. It's not us. Notice he's not going to feel your righteousness because your righteousness doesn't feel right. There's something wrong about your righteousness. And if you were to feel your righteousness, he'd say, get out of here. But he feels Christ's righteousness and because he feels what Christ did, he says, you know what? It's right. And he's going to accept him because of what Christ did, not because of what you did. You just put on Christ's righteousness by faith and by putting that righteousness on, now you're going to be accepted with God the Father, even though it's still you. And again, if it was the same person, you wouldn't see this delineation. You wouldn't see this unique structure of how we have Christ on us. Christ is in us and we have his righteousness and that feeling is what gives us that salvation. Go to verse 25. And he said, bring it near and I will eat of my son's venison that my soul may bless thee. And he brought it near to him and he did eat and he brought him wine and he drank. So again, we have the meat and the drink offering like communion that we celebrate and that communion pictured the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, the gospel. Verse 26, and his father Isaac said unto him, come near now and kiss me, my son. And he came near and he kissed him and 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. 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 everyone that cursed thee and blessed be he that blesseth thee. So we have him coming and his father smells basically the sacrifice that he was given and that's what gives this pleasing odor unto the Lord is the sacrifice which is similar to the sacrifice that Christ gives unto God the Father and that smell is a sweet smelling savor, a sweet smelling odor that comes into the Lord and that's what gives us the acceptance with God the Father is that sweet smelling odor. We have plenty of verses in the Bible that tell us about the sacrifice of Christ and how it's this sweet smelling odor and God really enjoys this sacrifice here and it's in the field and then he gives this statement here in the last few verses where he says he's going to be Lord over thy brethren and then he says, cursed be everyone that cursed thee and blessed be he that blesseth thee. Now this is that specific blessing that's given to Abraham. Keep your finger, go to Genesis chapter number 12 and see it stated there in Genesis chapter number 12 that blessing and look at verse number three and I will bless them that bless thee and curse him that curseth thee and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. So that blessing of Abraham we see is not given to Esau, it's given to Jacob and that's really important because again Esau represents physical Israel, Jacob represents spiritual Israel. Notice the blessing is not given to physical Israel, it's given to spiritual Israel which then is confirmed in Galatians chapter three which we already read that the seed is one which is Christ and that we get that blessing through Christ, through faith and just like Jacob is getting it and so again Esau loses out, Jacob ends up getting that blessing and it's given to specifically the Gentile. Go to verse 30. Now let's pause for a moment. Is Esau bringing his works or his faith? Bringing in his works. What did Jacob bring? He brought in someone else's works by what? By faith. They say why is it by faith? Well the Bible says faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Why would Jacob do all of this work? Because Rebekah told him to and he's obeying Rebekah's voice which is us obeying the gospel of Jesus Christ and standing, because here's the thing, wouldn't you be a little scared, think about this, just humanly speaking, wouldn't it be a little nerve-wracking to put on this garment, try to pretend to be like your brother, stand before God and basically try to get this blessing based on nothing about you but all of this trickery as it were. Well here's the thing, that's how we're going to stand before God and stand in heaven. I'm not trusting in any of the works that I've done. I'm going to stand before God and I'm going to say, hey, it's the skins on my arm and it's this offering that was given to me by Mom, by Rebekah, by Christ that's getting me in. And if that's not getting me in, I'm not getting in. I don't have a backup plan. In Matthew chapter 7 we see a group of people that are saying, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied unto thee? And have not cast out devils in thy name and have done many wonderful works. And then he will say to them, I never knew you, depart from me that worked in that place. So what do they bring? Their works. And what does Esau bring? His works. What does Cain bring? His works. What are the Jews physically going to bring to God? Their works and they're not going to be accepted with God. But those that bring the sacrifice of another by faith, they will receive the blessing. They will get salvation. It's so clear. Verse 32, and Isaac, his father said to them, Who art thou? You know, that's what he's going to say to the Jews because he doesn't know them. They're coming in and he doesn't even recognize his own son. Why? Because he's not going to recognize those that have rejected Christ because they're not his children anymore. He doesn't even know who they are. He doesn't even recognize their voice. Depart from me that work iniquity. They never knew you. Isn't that an interesting phrase to think about? And then when Esau shows up, he's like, Who are you? And he said, I am my son. I first born Esau. Hey, I'm a Jew. And Isaac trembled very exceedingly and said, Who? Oh man, it's not looking very good. Hey, when he doesn't know who you are, it's bad. Who? Where is he that hath taken venison and brought it me? I have eaten of all before thou camest and have blessed him. Yea, and he shall be blessed. Notice he's saying, Hey, I already blessed someone. And guess what? He's going to be blessed. Because that blessing is not going to be taken back. Verse 34, When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry. That's what the Jews are going to do, unfortunately. I don't take joy in someone being unsaved. It's going to be a sad day. You know, the day of judgment is not a glorious day. It's going to be a day of tears. You know, when we watch the lost, you know, basically point to their works and then they're going to be judged according to their works. They're going to be cast in the lake of fire. And you know, while it may be a few people out there that you kind of think you'll be excited for, the majority of people, I don't want to see people go to hell. I don't want people to be thrown in the lake of fire for all of eternity. You know, and even my worst enemy, even the worst person on the planet, if they could get saved, I would hope they would get saved. Because I don't want anyone to go to hell. But obviously since people are already destined to go to hell, I just say, go ahead and go. You know, I don't want to stop you. Obviously when it comes to the reprobate doctrine, we understand there's a few people on this earth, you know, a small percentage of the population that's destined to go there. And some people are like, oh man, you want people to go to hell. It's not that I really want people to go to hell. I just want the people that have already punched their ticket to just jump on that train. But at the end of the day, I don't want them to go there. I don't want anybody to go there. The Bible says God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should go under repentance. For God so loved the world, God didn't want anybody to go there. God sent His Son to die for everyone. And you know what, He's their Savior. It's just that they rejected Him, and they're going to spend all of eternity there. But it's going to be a sad day, and it's a day of great, exceeding, bitter cry. Jesus said there's weeping and gnashing of teeth. You know, when He's going and He's warning the Jews, He's saying, don't weep for me, weep for yourselves. Because of horrible, horrible judgment. I mean, there's nothing worse than hell. The pain and the suffering and the evil that they're going to feel for all of eternity, there's nothing to be compared with. And you know, it makes me so frustrated when I look at someone and I say, hey, if you die today, are you 100% sure you go to heaven? I don't care. You're going to die. You know, the apathy today of people. Or the pride of people. Where, you know, they've been in church the whole life, but they don't know if they're going to heaven. And you and I both know they don't know. But instead of just admitting that, oh, I'm good. I got it. I know. Are you going to really bank your eternity? Are you going to really bank the weeping and gnashing of hell on a, I'm good? Why can't you just let someone just open the Bible and tell you the gospel? Why can't you just hear what you have to do to be saved? But ultimately it's a point of pride. They want to work for it. They want to earn it. That's why people don't get saved. Always pride. Always goes back to the main sin of pride. Because to be saved you have to humble yourself and you have to accept the free gift of salvation. You know what? There's no glory in accepting a free gift. That's why the humble are going to be saved and the proud are not going to be saved. It's a sad day. Look at verse 34 again, the last part. And he said to his father, bless me, even me also, my father. Now again, he's calling his father because look, we're all the creation of God. And even the physical children of Israel, they were his children in a sense. And they are beloved throughout the Old Testament. They are his beloved even though they hate him and they reject him as a whole. Not everyone, but as a whole, a lot of them they rejected. He loved him. And then the young rich ruler comes into Jesus and he doesn't even get saved. I love this verse, it says, and Jesus looked on him and loved him. It doesn't say Jesus is annoyed with him, frustrated with him, loved him. And God loved, he saw the person here and he wants him to be saved. He wanted him to have this blessing. It was his for the taking, but it's his fault he also lost it. He says in verse 35, and he said, thy brother came with subtlety and hath taken away thy blessing. And he said, is he not 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? So again, we see the replacement of physical Israel with spiritual Israel. Let me mention, Jacob supplanted Esau, and let me tell you what, Christians supplanted the Jews. What does supplant mean? It means to replace. It's anonymous with replacement. That's why you will have this term, replacement theology. You can call it supplantment theology, okay? Because that's what the Bible teaches. Now, let me show you some verses on this. Go in the New Testament to Matthew chapter 21. And I already preached a sermon where I covered a lot of this. You may listen to Jacob supplanted Esau, where I covered a lot of this. But it's good to cover it again and teach these truths again and be reminded. And the Bible is incredible. All the different symbolism and the metaphors that are taught. And it's interesting to me how what God does is He teaches us the same truths just over and over and over. Because we're just really thick-headed. We need a lot of instruction over and over. And you know what? If you actually do homeschooling, you'll learn this real quick. Your children have to hear the same things over and over and over and over. And it becomes mind-numbing sometimes. I've helped my sons with math and stuff. And I mean, you'll give them the answer. And then you'll be like, what's the answer? And they're like, I don't know. And you're just like, what? I just told you the answer. And sometimes I feel like that's how God must deal with us as Christians. He's like, you already gave us the answer. And then lots of times we're just like, well, what do I do? And it's just like, I already told you. I already gave you the instruction. You can think about the apostles. It's like, go into the world and preach the gospel. And it's like, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. And the apostle Paul, he just keeps witnessing to the Jew, to the Jew, to the Jew. And it's like, go to the Gentah, go to the Gentah, go to the Gentah. And it's like, we're thick-headed a lot of times. We're thick-skinned and we have problems just embracing change or accepting what God has told us. But the Bible makes it clear that Christians have taken the place of Jews as God's chosen people in the New Testament. Matthew 21, look at verse 43. Now what's the reason why? It's because they weren't bringing forth the fruits. They weren't the light unto the Gentiles. They weren't, you know, being this bright shining light. They rejected Christ. What if the Gentiles, or I'm sorry, what if the Jews had accepted Christ? I don't believe they would have been replaced. You know, he had talked about it when he's going to the cross. As a mother hen, he would have gathered the chicks under his wing. As long as they had trusted in Christ. I mean, he wasn't going to replace them. He wasn't going to have them fall out. And in fact, the apostle Paul alludes to the fact in Romans chapter 11, go there, go to Romans chapter 11, that, you know, if they had believed, they would have been even better. He's saying, if they had been cast away, you know, as given the gospel of the Gentiles, what would have been, you know, the bringing them in? Or what would have been, you know, the acceptance of them? He's alluding the fact that it would have been better if the Jews had gotten saved. Because there would have been that many more soul winners. You know, I was talking to Dylan about this the other day, and as we were driving around, and I said, there's 1600 Southern Baptist churches in the Dallas-Worth area. If you just go to their website, like Southern Baptist, and you put in our, like, a zip code in the Dallas-Worth area, and you just do like 50 mile radius. 1600 listings pop up. That's a lot. That includes zero independent fundamental Baptist churches. That does not include a single missionary Baptist church. I'm talking about only Southern Baptist churches. And I thought about it, and I'm like, okay, well, there's about 8 million people in the Dallas-Worth area, approximately, documented, you know, however you want to look at that. That would equate to about 2,000 doors, or I'm sorry, 2 million doors. Let me get my math right. Four people per door, somewhere in that range, you know, it could be more or less. Let's say 2 million doors. Let's say there's about 2 million doors in the Dallas-Worth area. If those 1600 churches all saved, I don't, they're not, but I'm just saying they were all saved. Let's say they just had 10 soul winners. 10 soul winners each. And they paired up. You have five groups going out from every church. They would only have to knock 250 doors to get the gospel to every single person in the Dallas-Worth area. And when you go out soul winning, you probably, on average, knock about 20 to 40 doors in an hour's time. You're talking about 8, 10 hours of soul winning, and you'd get the gospel to every single person. If only 10 soul winners. I mean, it wouldn't even take long at all to get the gospel into the whole world. So here's the thing. Why does it take so much longer? Because there's not as many workers. Truly the harvest, or truly the, I'm sorry, wow, I'm getting my tongue tied here. Truly the harvest is plenteous, but the labors be few, is what the Bible says. And if we had more labors, it'd be more the better. That's why we want Silent Partner. And that's why we encourage you. We have soul winning marathons. It's like, show up! Just have a heartbeat, you know? And even sometimes we have odd numbers, we triple up or whatever. Just having that extra person would have doubled the efforts. And you know, it's great to have people go out and help us labor in the gospel. And the same exists within Romans chapter number 11. Look at verse 15. For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be? The life from the dead. So he's saying, look, if them getting cast away ended up allowing the whole world to get saved, what would the receiving have been? Meaning, think about how many more people would have gotten saved, how many more people could have been influenced for the gospel if they had accepted Christ. But you know what? Still, we get this opportunity to be saved. Verse 16. For if the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy. And if the root be holy, so are the branches. And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, were graft in and among them, and with them partakers of the root and fatness of the olive tree, boast not against the branches, but if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Now, notice when he's saying when you're graft in, you're a partaker of the fatness of the olive tree. Isn't that similar to what we already had heard about how that blessing was going to be the fatness of the earth and how you get to receive the joy of the things of the earth, right? And when it comes to replacement theology, it's not like God is just like, I'm tired of you, I just want a new toy or something like that. It's making it clear that they were broken off for a reason. It's not just randomly. Look at verse number 18. Boast not against the branches, but if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. Thou wilt say then, the branches were broken off that I might be graft in. Well, because of unbelief they were broken off. Notice, he's not saying like, oh God just got tired of the Jews and just said, see you suckers. No, it's because they didn't believe in Christ that they got broken off. But if they had believed, they would have never been replaced. They would have never been taken out of the olive tree. They would have never stopped being God's chosen people. They would have always been God's chosen people. He's saying we just get to be graft in. But them being broken off, it's not really just so that we can be graft in. God just didn't want the tree to have no branches on it. Because they weren't going to be the branches. Because they weren't going to bring forth fruit. And because God desired fruit, he's like, well let's graft these ones in so we have some fruit. But at the end of the day, you know what, just because we get grafted in doesn't mean we couldn't be broken off. Now, you have to take this chapter and understand that he's talking about groups of people here. Because clearly we understand no one can lose their salvation. So from an individualistic perspective, I can't be grafted into the tree and then broken off and lose my salvation or anything like that. That's impossible. But as a group, as a whole, we could be broken off in the sense that if the Gentiles just give up on Christianity, if the Gentiles just reject Christianity, then at that point we're going to be broken off of that tree as well. And he's going to have to find a new nation. And to me, you kind of see this happen with the Antichrist. Because there's going to basically become a point when no one wants to really serve God anymore. Once we have the rapture, and basically the Gentiles are trotting underfoot, you know, the holy place. At the end of that, they're going to be discarded. And then we're going to usher in the millennial reign of Christ. And we're going to have new branches again on that olive tree, as it were. And that's why it says in verse number 26, And so all Israel shall be saved. Let's read all of these verses. And then we'll put it in context that I just put it in. Verse 23, And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in. For God is able to graft them in again. Meaning what? If all of Israel had turned to the Lord at that point, they would have continued to be God's chosen people. Verse 24, Meaning what? If a Gentile can start serving God, how much easier it is for a Jew to start serving God then? It's like it's a lot easier for Paul to be a Christian than it is for the Gentiles. Because the Gentiles were worshipping Diana. And they were worshipping all kinds of other false gods. And they didn't know anything about God, really. They were ignorant of God's righteousness. So the Jews, having had the law, and having known a lot of things about God, it's like even easier for them to serve God and to bend the light. And so he's basically saying, Hey, you know what? If you could be grafted in, how much easier for the Jews to be grafted in? It says in verse 25, So he's saying, even though I desire this, he made that clear in Romans chapter number 10. His desire is that Israel would be saved. And he's making it clear in even chapter number 11, that he has been saved. And in chapter 9, he would even be accursed for his kinsman's sake. That there's this blindness that's happened to Israel. Now, who's Israel in this verse? It has to be none other than physical Israel. Because he's just gone through and explained how they've been broken off. We've been grafted in. Who's Paul writing to in Romans? It's really easy. It's Romans. Roman people. Gentiles. He's saying, we've been grafted in. And not only are the Romans grafted in, Paul's grafted in, who's an Israelite. And he made it clear that they were all cast away, because he hasn't been cast away. He's still grafted in. He wasn't broken off, as it were. So then, who is blind? The unbelieving, unsaved Israel that's been broken off. So, Israel, in this passage, has to be physical Israel. Look what it says in Romans chapter 9, verse 6. Not as though the word of God had taken an effect, for they are not all Israel which are of Israel. Now, how does that sentence make sense? Because the first Israel is spiritual, and the second Israel is physical. Saying they're not all spiritual Israel, which are physical Israel. Meaning, there's some people that you would look at and say, this is a physical Israelite. He's a child of God because of the old covenant, as it were, in a sense. But, he's actually not saved. He's not really an inward Jew. He's an outward Jew. But we, who are saved, are an inward Jew regardless of what's on the outside. So, in verse 25, he's saying, blindness in part has happened to Israel. Now, notice the next word, until. We're slowing down. This is a passage a lot of people twist or misunderstand. Physical Israel is blind, until something. Okay, what's the moment in which all of physical Israel will no longer be blind? Until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. Now, when is that? Keep your finger here and go to Luke chapter 21. I know we're kind of going around as a Bible study, right? Luke chapter 21 and look at verse 24. Now, in Luke 21, context is talking about the return of Christ, okay? And, verse 24, it says, And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations, and Jerusalem shall be trodden down to the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. And there shall be signs in the sun and the moon and the stars and upon the earth, distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring, men's hearts failing them for fear and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of the heavens shall be shaken, and then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. So, what's the context here? Christ returning. He's coming in the cloud. He's returning. When does He come? In verse 24, the times of the Gentiles being fulfilled, okay? What is that in relation to? That's the end times. That's when we're talking about the end of Daniel's 70th week. We're talking about the fulfillment of Scripture in regards to the Gentiles. And why is it the end of the times of the Gentiles? Because Christ is waiting for the last Gentile to get saved, the last Gentile to be brought into the fold. Now, once all the people that are going to get saved get saved, now all of a sudden that blindness is going to be rolled away from physical Israel. Go back and look at verse number 26 now. Romans chapter 11, look at verse 26. And so... Now again, the word and is because He's continuing the thought, okay? And so, all Israel shall be saved. So what is He saying? Blindness has happened to Israel for a time, but then some event is going to happen, and then no longer will physical Israel be blind anymore. What will happen? All Israel shall be saved. Why? Because in the millennial reign, everybody that's a physical Israelite will also be a spiritual Israelite. There will no longer be this chasm between a physical Israelite and a spiritual Israelite. There won't be this Jacob and Esau thing or whatever, it's just all Jacob. You know, it's just everybody is of Jacob, everyone is saved. And what is Jacob's new name in the Bible? Israel, okay? So it makes a lot of sense when you kind of slow down, you let the passage just tell you what it's saying, and you compare spiritual with spiritual. Go back, if you would, to Genesis chapter 27. And obviously, what gives us that salvation is the deliverer, because then it goes on to talk about there should come out of Zion a deliverer, that's Jesus Christ, and doesn't that kind of fit with the same timeline? What's mentioned of the ending of the fulfillment of the times of the Gentiles? Christ coming. And then you have in Romans chapter 11, what does it talk about? A deliverer coming out of Zion, okay? Again, and then when you go in the Revelation, Book of Revelation, we have the exact same thing fulfilled, Christ comes at the same appointed time. And then you enter in the millennial reign, and we get to be with Christ, and we'll be Israel. And there won't be this weird distinction. You know, people won't look at you as like, you're not really Israel, no, it'll match. We'll be physical Israel, we'll be spiritual Israel, all of the above. Verse 37. And Isaac answered and said unto 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, Ask thou but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, 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 the dew of heaven from above. And by thy sword shalt thou live and shalt serve thy brother, and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck. And 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 I will slay my brother Jacob. Now, he still gets a blessing. And here's the thing, you know, the Bible says, what advantage did it have to the Jew? And the Bible's like, much every way chiefly, you know? So it's like, it wasn't like being a physical Israelite was a bummer or bad or wrong. They still got the physical blessings of dwelling in the promised land. You know, they still had the great times with David, and they still had the great times with Solomon, and they still got to enter the promised land, and they still had, you know, as long as they served God, as long as they were right with God, they got to enjoy the blessings of the Lord. You know, one of the detriments is in the Old Testament they had to live by the sword. You know, they had a lot of fighting, they had a lot of war, they had to, you know, protect themselves from a lot of these different things. Now, even though this has a lot of spiritual truth, it still had carnal physical applications to that day. Esau does break the yoke off of his brother's neck, you know, and in a physical sense, you know, we see this division between them, and we never really see Jacob ruling over Esau in their physical lives. And I think the reason why is probably because God wants to help us understand that this is not going to be fulfilled in their physical lives. It was talking about a spiritual truth later that was going to happen. So that way we realize, oh, what God said didn't happen now, it must happen in the future. Because everything God says is going to happen is going to happen, okay? Now, Esau ends up hating Jacob for this, and that's because the Jews hate Christians. And when I say Jews, I mean physical Judaism, okay? Now, what you have to understand about a Jew is it could mean many things. When I mean Jew, when I talk about Jews, when the Bible talks about Jews, a lot of them, especially in the New Testament, we're talking about people that are in the religion of Judaism. We're not talking about an ethnicity here. We're not talking about people's physical characteristics, because nobody cares. I don't care, they don't care, nobody cares. But people that are in the religion of Judaism, this is a wicked false religion, and those people hate Christians, okay? There could be someone who's a physical Jew and a Christian at the same time. But when we talk about Jews here, and we talk about Jews hating Christians, we're talking about people that are in the religion of Judaism. And the religion of Judaism is a Christ-rejecting religion. It's of the devil. The Bible says it's the synagogue of Satan. The Bible calls them anti-Christ. And so, you know what? I want nothing to do with the religion of Judaism. Now, there's a nation today that promotes this religion. It's called the modern-day nation of Israel. Why in the world would I support a religion that hates Christ? And why would I promote a nation that is all of this religion? And it's encouraging people to be of this religion. And people say, oh, you're a Judeo-Christian. No, I'm all Christian. I'm zero Judaism, and I'm 100% Christian. I'm zero Talmud, and 100% King James Bible, okay? I don't want any of that junk. I don't want the prayer shawl. I don't want the kosher diet. You know, bring me a cheeseburger, okay? I want dairy with my meat. You know, I want it all. You know, I love the New Testament. And you know what? They didn't even like the Old Testament, okay? They rejected it as well. It rejects all of the Bible. Don't believe their lies today. But they're envious of Jacob. They're envious of Christians today. That's why they hate him. Verse 42. Now that, it just jumps off the page to me when I read that last verse. He's comforting himself with the idea of killing his brother. Think about that. But you know what? This is the world we live in. Now go to Proverbs 4 for a moment. Go to Proverbs chapter number 4. What you have to realize is there are people out there that they comfort themselves. They feel good when they hurt other people. This is a psychopath, okay? There are psychotic people out there that literally enjoy the harm of others, okay? And that harm could come from all kinds of means. It could come from beating them up. It could come from a lot of physical torture, a lot of physical pain. But there's not just physical pain. These people also just enjoy mental suffering. They want to steal people's money. They love ripping people off. They love causing emotional turmoil. They want your marriage to go bad. They want you to have problems with your family. They want you to have problems with everyone around you. They want to just cause you as much suffering and pain and mental anguish and evil that you can go through. And I'm telling you, there's people out there that love it. They enjoy it. They want you to go through it. And unfortunately, you know who's connected to this the most? Those in the religion of Judaism. Now, I'm going to tell you a secret. You know who's in control of Hollywood? Jews. Sorry, it wasn't really a secret. You know who's in control of the media? Jews. You know who's in control of a lot of government stuff and banking? Jews. And you know what will cause people all kinds of pain and suffering? Movies, the news, the bank, and the government. And then some people get confused and they think, oh, these people are ignorant. They don't realize the decisions they're making are going to cause people pain and suffering. No, no, you got it wrong. That's their goal. They're brilliant. Cartally speaking, they're wise as the devil. You know, the devil's not an idiot. The devil's wiser than Daniel is what the Bible says. And they know what they're doing. They're purposely causing people pain and suffering. And let me tell you what. Hollywood wants you to feel pain. You say, pain? How? They're going to tell you to be a fornicator and they're going to cause you all kinds of pain and suffering in your life from getting all the STDs and all the bastard children and all the whores and the whoremongers that are out there today. You know what? Hollywood's going to convince you that your marriage is terrible, that the grass is greener somewhere else, and they're going to try and convince you to commit adultery and to have relations with other people and to try to go and seek another kind of marriage, or that your love life isn't the love life of the movies and all the shows and all the rom-coms. And you know what they're trying to do? They're trying to destroy your marriage and they're trying to cause you to leave and go home and be dissatisfied with your life and wish you lived in a fantasy world. And you know what they're doing? They're trying to cause you problems in your mind. And they're loving it. They're sitting here thinking about, how can I cause people pain and suffering? Oh, okay, I'll put on this movie and I'll cause them all kinds of pain and suffering. You know, there's this stupid movie. I remember watching it and realizing it having this effect on me. It's called The Breakup. And I don't recommend this movie at all. I hate it. It was like Jennifer Aniston and... What's the guy's name? I can't remember. Vince Vaughn. Yeah, you're right. And the whole movie is just about them having a horrible relationship and just being crappy in their relationship and breaking up and it ends terrible. And I remember after watching it, all that would result is my wife wanting to, you know, and myself arguing with each other and being mad at each other because it would just point out and highlight all the imperfections of a relationship. You know, like a woman doesn't know where she wants to go eat, right? And a man can be lazy and apathetic at times or whatever and not always emotionally connecting. And here's the thing. Instead of highlighting all the problems in your marriage, why don't you read the Bible where it talks about loving your spouse? You know, husbands love your wives and be not bitter against them. You know, and where the Bible talks about women obeying their husbands. You know what I noticed in every single Hollywood film? The wife doesn't obey her husband. The wife is always telling her husband what to do and ruling over her husband and bad-talking her husband and bad-mouthing her husband. And then you're like, oh man, my marriage sucks. Well, quit being like the gossip girls. But being like Hollywood. And they love it. They love all the divorce because you know what they also are? Jews are lawyers. And they love, they love divorce. They love all the money they're taking from everybody. You know, the only person that wins in a divorce is the lawyer. And then, you know, they convince you to do all kinds of unhealthy things like eating fast food all the time with all their advertisements and their commercials and then you get to be really junky on the inside. So you have to go to the doctor and guess who's the doctor? The Jew again! And he's prescribing you all these drugs and you know what the drugs do? They don't make you better. They make you worse and then you need more drugs. And they are laughing all the way to the bank because they just want to cause you pain and suffering and evil and woe and they say, hey, here's a COVID shot for free too. Why is it free? Oh, have a fast food burger and fries with it. Come watch a movie and it's like, I wonder if it's the same group, the same people. And we're going to bankrupt your country while doing it so the bankers get their portion. Let's see if the Bible says anything about this. Proverbs chapter 4 verse 13. Take fast hold of instruction, let her not go. Keep her, for she is thy life. Enter not into the path of the wicked and go not into the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it. Turn from it and pass away. For they sleep not, except they have done mischief. And their sleep is taken away unless they cause some to fall. For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. There are really evil people out there and they cannot be comforted until they hurt someone. And notice Eve saw he's comforting himself with the fact that he's going to kill his brother. And you know what, there's people out there comforting themselves that people are going to take a vaccine and die from it. People comforting themselves that some poor young woman who listened to some stupid rap video about being a whore got pregnant and she's going to take herself down to the abortion clinic and murder her child. They're all excited about that. They get joy in that. You know what causes them not to sleep? When new abortion laws are passed in Texas or whatever that restricts some of that. And again, it's not perfect. I already preached about that. But you know what, just even the restricting of it is causing them to freak out. They're like, I can't sleep. We're going to fight. We're going to go to war. Why? Because they want murder. They want evil. They want wickedness. They can't handle it that people are serving God. They can't handle it that God loves you. They can't handle it that you're going to heaven. It just eats them up inside and they just want to kill you. They want to murder you. And there's evil, wicked people out there that want to hurt you. Stop letting them take away your joy, though. You know what? You're in control of your mood. You're in control of your happiness. You know what? We need to find joy in the Lord. Go to church. Read the Bible. You know, hang out with your family. Do constructive activities. Love your spouse. Go back to Genesis 27 and we're going to finish here. It's kind of a longer chapter, but there's a lot of great spiritual symbolism here that we can learn. And you know what? I find that Esau is only going to be able to hurt you when you let him a lot of times. A lot of people are letting Esau hurt them in all kinds of ways. You know, resist the devil and he'll flee from you is what the Bible says. And unfortunately, God's people, they want to kind of have both. They want to have the world and they want to have Christianity, but you can't have both and the more you grab the world, the more it's just trying to hurt you and stab you and kill you. Inject you. Verse 43. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice and arise. Flee thou to Laban, my brother to Haran, and tarry with him a few days until thy brother's fury turn away. I think this is against symbolism. Think about it. The apostles have to flee Jerusalem and they have to go to the Gentiles to preach the gospel. So they have him fleeing into Laban and fleeing the fury and the wrath of the Jews. Verse 45. Unto thy brother's anger turn away from thee, and he forget that which thou hast done to him. Then I will sin and fetch thee from thence. Why should I be deprived also of you both in one day? And Rebekah said to Isaac, I am weary of my life because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do to me? So she does not want Jacob to die, so she's going to protect Jacob. And here's the thing. Christ is with us. Christ is going to deliver us from the evil. Christ is going to be looking out for us. Christ is not going to want us to just die haphazardly. So as long as you're obeying his voice, he's going to protect you. He's going to deliver you from the devourer. He's going to protect you. And that's why it's so important to listen to Christ through reading your Bible and studying the Word of God. And at the end of the day, you know, she kind of has this perplexed, you know, thought of just like, if Jacob take a daughter of the, take to wife of the daughters of Heth, it's like it's all in vain. And to me, I kind of think of it this way. Think of it this way. If the Christians stop serving Christ, if we stop preaching the gospel, you know, if they never did, it's like everything that Christ did was in vain because Esau didn't get it and Esau was worthless. And then if Jacob ends up just squandering it and not, you know, having the right marriage, which again, what does that marriage kind of picture? It pictures us going into the lost and getting them saved, bringing the bride of Christ, right? Being married to the right type of person. What are the daughters of Heth to picture the world? And instead of going to the world, you're supposed to go to the saved, right? You're supposed to be with the saved. And I think of this. You know, it's a lot easier to marry the daughters of the land, right? Because they're close at hand in that sense. And I liken to this, the Christian life is harder than living for the world. You know, marrying the daughters of the land easier than going off and trying to find the right woman, okay? When it comes to serving God, it's a lot easier to just live your life, go to work, not have to tithe, not have to pay the bill, you know, pay the bill of going to church three times a week, you know, get the bill, right? You know, not going soul winning on top of that. Man, you go three times a week and then you go soul winning and the fellowships and a conference. It's like all the drudgery, you know, all this extra effort, you know, and you have to leave the longest sermons ever. Pastor Shelley, I mean, doesn't anybody preach shorter sermons? They all do, okay? Just go there, all right? Just leave. The door is there. But you know what? It's harder. It's harder to serve God. It's harder to serve Christ. Don't look at the Christian life and like, oh man, I wish my life was easy. Serving Christ would be easy. You know what? It's going to be harder in a lot of senses. But you know what's easier is the fact that you won't have to deal with as many consequences of sin. You know, he didn't say I have no burden. He said my burden is light and my yoke is easy. Comparatively, it's easier. But it seems easier to marry the daughters of the land. And here's the thing. Getting married would have been easier. If you know what would have sucked, the life married to that heathen. Being married to that woman would have been a train wreck. It would have been awful and vexing every single day and it would have ended up being a way worse burden than having traveled a great distance to get the right woman and then being married to the right woman for the rest of your life. Because here's the thing. You'd rather travel a huge distance and marry the right woman than travel no distance and marry the wrong woman. And we all know that. And so when it comes to serving God, you have to realize, okay, I have to go out of my way to get right with God, but then once you're on that path, it's going to be an easier life. That burden's going to be so much easier and lighter. You know, the way of transgressors is hard. Being married to the daughters of the land is hard. Being of this world, not separating yourself from the world is going to be worse for you, so much more heartache and woe. And a lot of young kids are in this room. And you know when the big heartaches come? When they're teenagers. When they start getting married. When they start making their own decisions. And you know what? The people that let their children be of the world, they didn't drag them to church, they weren't teaching them how to serve God, they made all kinds of horrible decisions that then their parents' hearts break. I mean, right now, you tell them not to be messy and they dump ice cream all over their shirts. You know? They lie to you. They don't clean up toys. They do whatever. But you get over it. You know what? Your kid ends up marrying the wrong person. Your kid ends up having a bastard child. Your kid commits an abortion. Your kid gets a tattoo on their face. I mean, these things are a lot more vexatious. And so you say, well, I don't want any of that to happen. Well, then put your kids in church now. Start serving God now. You know what? You can't make up for that lost time. And so it's important to say, you know what? I'm on the right path now. And while it might seem harder now, you know what? It's going to be a lot easier in the long run. And you're going to enjoy the fruits of your labor when you serve God now. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for this great chapter. Thank you so much for the gift of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and how we get into heaven just purely by His righteousness. Because we get to stand before God righteous, not by our righteousness, but by His righteousness. And I pray that we would realize that not only should we hearken to Christ's voice for salvation, but our whole lives. And that our lives will be so much easier, that you're there to protect us from all the evil and the harm that's out there. And I pray that you would just deliver us from evil that we'd be wise enough and have enough faith to trust in following Christ with the remaining portion of our life. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Our final song of the evening, we'll go to song 212, Happy Day. 212, Happy Day. Song 212, Oh Happy Day. That fixed my choice On thee my Savior and my God Well may this glowing heart rejoice Until its rapture's all abroad Happy day, happy day When Jesus washed my sins And gave them to me Happy day, happy day When Jesus washed my sins away He taught me how to watch and pray And live rejoicing every day Happy day, happy day When Jesus washed my sins away Oh happy bond that seals my vows To him who merits all my love That cheerful anthems fill his house While to that sacred shrine I move Happy day, happy day When Jesus washed my sins away He taught me how to watch and pray And live rejoicing every day Happy day, happy day When Jesus washed my sins away Is done the great transaction's done I am my Lord's and he is mine He drew me and I followed on Come to confess the voice divine Happy day, happy day When Jesus washed my sins away He taught me how to watch and pray And live rejoicing every day Happy day, happy day When Jesus washed my sins away Now rest my long divided heart Fixed all this blissful center rest Forever from my poor deep heart With him of every good possessed Happy day, happy day When Jesus washed my sins away He taught me how to watch and pray And live rejoicing every day Happy day, happy day When Jesus washed my sins away God bless, you are dismissed. Happy day, happy day When Jesus washed my sins away He drew me and I followed on Come to confess the voice divine Happy day, happy day When Jesus washed my sins away He drew me and I followed on Come to confess the voice divine Happy day, happy day When Jesus washed my sins away He drew me and I followed on Come to confess the voice divine Happy day, happy day When Jesus washed my sins away When Jesus washed my sins away He drew me and I followed on Come to confess the voice divine Happy day, happy day When Jesus washed my sins away He drew me and I followed on Come to confess the voice divine