Marriage Conference 2018 - 04 - By Faith Isaac Blessed His Sons — Hebrews 11

0:00 Well, good morning. Good morning. It's good to have been with you this weekend and enjoy your fellowship and encouragement. And also to have had the privilege to open God's word together with you. And I'd like to have us turn to a few verses of scripture.

0:29 So we'll be doing a little bit of a jog. And to Hebrews in chapter 11 for one verse. Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 20. By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. And that's all I'm going to read there.

1:20 Last evening as we concluded, we were looking at the responsibility that parents have with regards to children in bringing them up. And that that is an exercise in which parents unite. And God in His infinite wisdom saw fit to bring children into the environment of the marital relationship, the covenant relationship of the husband and wife, and saw that as a fitting place for the bringing up the developing of children. When we think about bringing them up, to what end are we bringing them up? What is the purpose?

2:22 What's the end game, as they say? Well, in the New Testament, we won't take time to turn there, but in Mark's Gospel there is a little account about a father who had a son who had he's been possessed by a demon and he brings the boy to the disciples. You remember the account just after the transfiguration. And the disciples, the father informs the Lord Jesus, they were not able to help him or his little boy. And the Lord Jesus said something in that context, which I think is important to note.

3:13 He said, Bring him to me. So when you really think about the responsibility of parents to bring children up, what are we trying to do? I think the Lord gives the answer, Bring them to me. And that ought to be the burden of every parent's heart. That through the exercises of home life, the conversations, the care, all that we do for the well-being of our children, the ultimate aim on the heart of every God fearing parent ought to be this, that when I am done with my assignment I will have brought my son, my daughter to him.

4:21 Bring them to me. And you do that by praying for them. You do that by instructing them. And you do that by example before them. We looked last evening at that passage in Exodus, Deuteronomy rather, and chapter six, where Moses commands parents that the word of God should be in their heart and then they should speak it to them, teach it to them, going out, coming in and all of that.

5:11 And that is an instruction that we find not only from Moses but we find the same in the New Testament, don't we? You remember Paul writing to Timothy and he encourages his son in the faith and he says to Timothy, The things which you have learned and received and heard and saw in Me these do. It's an important order, isn't it? You saw it, you heard it and you saw it. And this is a great charge to parents, isn't it?

5:59 That the things that our children are hearing ought also to be the things that they are seeing. When Luke writes the Acts of the Apostles, is as you know the things that Jesus began both to do and teach. And the balance and the coupling of the two is consistent throughout Scripture. We are to do and we are to teach. The things that you have seen and heard this do.

6:58 In two Timothy chapter one, I believe, again we won't take time to turn there in the interest of time. Paul again reminding Timothy of the Scriptures that you have seen. You've heard it from them, but you've also seen it in your grandmother and in your mother, which is now in you. Okay? So our charge as parents is to bring up children and one aspect, an important aspect, maybe the main aspect of bringing up children is ultimately bringing them to Christ.

7:57 And to be praying that that happens consistently and unswervingly. The faith that is in your grandmother, is in your mother and now it is in you. It's an unfeigned faith, real, without hypocrisy. It is an influential faith. It dwelt in you.

8:39 So it's an important question that parents need to ask of themselves as they are living out their faith before their children. Is the word of God that I'm trying to teach my children something that is really dwelling in me? Now what does that mean to have the word of God dwell in you? Is it simply that it's got a little corner somewhere? Colossians chapter three has that word used by Paul.

10:03 And generally, I don't carry with me my toolbox. If for some reason I thought I'd kind of rearrange the walls and the windows in the places where I'm staying because it's really not my business to do that. I'm just going to spend a night and I'm going to move on. Now some thirty some years ago, we bought a place where we have been living for as many years and it it had mustard yellow floors and commode. It's just not our color.

10:44 So over the last thirty years, we've kind of done a lot of changing to house. You know, we've got new windows in places that did not have windows, and some walls have come down. Over the years, the place has now taken on something of our own personality, own taste, our own interest. Why did we do it there and not at Dave's house where I spent last night, you know? Or or at the Hampton Inn where I stayed a couple of months ago.

11:30 Because that's not my house. I'm a guest. That's what hotels call you, right? You you are our guests. But in our own house, that's our place and we have the freedom to move things about.

11:49 When the word of Christ dwells in us richly, settles down in us, it is so that this word can actually influence our thinking. The Lord has authority in my life to say to me, this stays and that goes and this does not fit with who you are. When I was in my boyhood days, and don't ask me when it was, it was some years back, We used to sing this chorus, I haven't sung it in many many decades. Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me. All His wondrous compassion and purity.

12:57 O Thou Spirit divine, all my nature refine till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me. And this, I believe, is God's desire and design for husbands and for wives, for parents. That we can see in each other more and more of the beauty and the character of Christ. And less and less our own selfish preoccupations. So for God marriage is very important.

14:24 We need to help one another out. We need to encourage one another. You know, some of you maybe are at that stage where you don't have children that you are bringing up anymore. They've been all brought up. But then you see others that are now having that assignment.

14:44 You need to be an encouragement to them, need to pray for them, you need to come alongside. Maybe you've been at this business of marriage for a while and you've gone through some tough and difficult times and the Lord gave you grace to endure and you have come to another season and you see maybe a younger couple starting out and maybe struggling, you need to come alongside and pray and help and encourage. Walk with them, support them. Last evening or in the afternoon we looked at Genesis 24 and this beautiful marriage that came to be. And I want to look a little bit at chapter 27 in Genesis, to which the writer of the Hebrews refers when he identifies a point in time in Isaac's journey of faith.

15:58 And he lands at this particular juncture in Isaac's life and highlights it as an exercise of faith on the part of Isaac. By faith, says the Hebrews writer, by faith Isaac blessed his sons concerning things to come. Now, what is the context to which that refers to? What it refers to, what is taking place in chapter 27 of Genesis? Now it's a long chapter, we won't take time to read all of it.

16:54 But verse one goes like this, 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 I am. And he said, Behold now, I am old, I know not the day of my death, and therefore I pray thee, take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver, and thy bow, and go out to the field and take me some venison, and so on and so forth. You know the account. Now if you have spent much time in Genesis 27 recently, you know that Genesis 27 is kind of an ugly chapter.

17:49 Nobody is doing well. It's the same people, two of them, about whom chapter 24 closes saying, And upon his mother Sarah's death Isaac took, I now take thee Rebekah to be my lawfully wedded wife. He didn't say all of that but that is essentially what happened. And Isaac loved her and she comforted him. What more can you ask?

18:37 And this is kind of the ultimate. Now look at chapter 27. They are hardly recognizable as the couple we left in chapter 24. What their journey has been like between verse 35, no, verse 67 of 24. And where we are brought into Isaac and Rebecca's living room here in chapter 27.

19:20 We don't know where all they have been. For a while they went through a childless stage and all the stress and the strain of that. And you can talk to couples now who go through that part of the geography and the strain that it puts on the marriage. We know that Isaac and Rebecca had a little bit of a time in a place called Girard. And Isaac told the locals, you know, she is my sister, because he was afraid, she being such a beautiful woman, others would be interested in her and could take him out to get her.

20:23 And he actually said it, you know, I was afraid that I will have to give my life for her. Well, we should be somewhat forgiving of Isaac because he did not know the bit about what Paul said in Ephesians five, Husbands, you love your wives as Christ Himself loved the church and gave Himself up for her. Isaac didn't know that part, so he said, you know, I don't want to let anybody know that I'm her husband. If somebody... I'm going to say, she's my sister because she's pretty, I'm going to lose my life.

21:05 Sorry, I said that's what you're supposed to do. That's the whole idea. But then if you read back a few chapters, know that Abraham pulled a stunt just like that. Like father, like son. So now Rebecca is going, what is all that bit about you bringing me into your mother's tent and loving me?

21:38 And when the going got tough, you bailed on me Isaac. How am I supposed to respect a man like that? Question from last evening. Isaac at one time was an outstanding type of the Lord Jesus. Once he was given to building altars and digging wells wells that were blocked up by the enemy Upon his father Abraham's death, that's one of the first things he did to open up the wells again.

22:27 A good man, leading a good life, exemplary life, All of a sudden he's gone into kind of a news blackout. We don't hear anything about Isaac for a while. And when the chapter opens, we find him certainly materially prosperous according to chapter 26, but he's become through these years a very carnally minded man. He is preoccupied with food. In verses three and four, Go to the field and take some venison and make me some 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 so forth and so on and so forth.

23:32 He's just obsessed with food. If earlier he was identified with altars and wells and all of that, now his life is kind of marked out by the Weber grill, you know. And chapter 27 opens with note that Isaac is now blind. He could not see. And I like to suggest this morning that his difficulty seeing was far more serious at the spiritual level than at a physical level.

24:30 That he's now stricken, if you will, with spiritual myopia. He cannot see, see far. There's another man in the Bible about whom similar things are spoken. You remember Eli? At 98 or so, it is said that Eli was heavy and blind.

25:03 And you see all the stuff that was going on in his children's lives. And he was too blind to be able to see. Another older man, Moses, about him it is said, at 120, was strong and his eyes were not dim. So this is the picture with which we begin in chapter 27. Materially prosperous, preoccupied with carnal desires, And Scripture says that they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, and they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

26:08 And may I suggest that that also is true when it comes to family life. When we are preoccupied with what comes by nature, when we are preoccupied with the concerns of the flesh, We cannot please God in our Christian life overall, and also it is true of our family life as well. As he is spiritually myopic and as he is preoccupied with carnal desires, we also find that he is out of tune with the will of God. In verse seven of chapter 27, He says to Esau his son, Bring me venison and make me savory meat that I may eat and bless thee before the Lord before my death. Now where in the world did Isaac get the idea that that's how the blessing was supposed to happen?

27:25 I'm going to have my stomach full and I'm going to be satisfied then I'm going to bless. But when it comes to the matter of the blessing, God had already made known His will, hadn't He? That the elder shall serve the younger. That was already settled. That was God's revealed will with regards to the blessing and how it is to happen.

27:57 So Isaac is now prepared to take care of his will against and in contradiction to God's will. He is willing to rely upon his own natural sense in contradiction and contrast to the clearly revealed Word of God. What is the natural sense? Well, Ezo is the older of the two, and he should be the one to receive the blessing. Now as Isaac depends, relies upon his natural sense about things, as the account would show us, his natural sense fails him at every turn.

29:37 In verse 22, we are told that he heard the voice of the son speaking to him. And he said, boy, really sounds like my son Jacob. But he feels like Esau. So his hearing is failing him. He heard Jacob but he couldn't trust it.

30:10 In verse 25 his taste fails him, Because Jacob and his mom had cooked up some goat meat and he was sure it was venison. Failed taste. His touch fails him. He touched Jacob's arms and he was convinced it was Esau's. And his smell failed him.

31:00 He smelled Jacob's clothes and he was sure it was Esau's. So he began to trust his own natural sense in clear departure from the Word of God. And his natural sense failed him. Every turn. Now, Rebecca, also not doing very well in the picture.

31:42 This woman that Isaac took and loved, this woman who comforted Isaac is really no comfort to him now. He is, she is doing a bit of how would people say now, she pulled a little bit of a Laban. As she devised a plan, she overheard the conversation and she goes to Jacob and has a plan all mapped out. And you'd have thought, you'd have thought, at least I do think this. When Rebecca heard what Isaac was planning to do, as soon as the boy left for the field, you would think she had come and she would talk to Isaac.

33:05 You know, I couldn't help but hear what you were saying to our boy, but don't you remember what the Lord said? But none of that. Instead, she actually gets into league with Jacob and exploits Isaac's weakness. You know Isaac had kind of a weakness for food. He was kind of a little out of control when it came to food.

33:49 I mean that was how she knew she could get to him. So she cunningly creates this whole meal plan and in doing it she is leading her son to deception. You see. See the thing that we do for a moment, for a moment's gain of something could have lasting impact. So it's a very important principle I believe, that neither the husband nor the wife, neither the father nor the mother should exploit the weakness of the other.

35:57 And one of his boys came out and saw his dad completely wasted as people would say now. Sauced, Isn't that the word? He was sauced. Well, he was sauced that day. And what does he do?

36:22 He texts his brothers. Yeah. Come right out, man. You never, you never believe what I saw. And the other sons come and they see their father naked and they find a covering for him.

36:51 Do you do that for one another? Or do we post it? Is that the word now? Post it on Facebook or Instagram or whatever the thing is. Esau is doing very poorly in the chapter.

37:34 He's got an unsaved man's perspective all the way. A man on the ground. For him, eternal verities are things to be bought and sold. A little while ago, you remember in the previous chapter, he made a deal with his brother in selling his birthright for a pot of stew. And his argument, his reasoning is quite instructive.

38:16 His his thinking is, right now, I'm hungry. And right now... And he thought he was going to die. This is really interesting. Isaac in chapter 27 is thinking, I'm going to die soon.

38:31 And he had many years left, almost like a hypochondriac or something, you know. But in in in the previous episode, Esau is thinking, I'm I'm so hungry, I'm going to die. And my brother has this this thing that he has made up. And his reasoning is, when I'm hungry, what I need is food. What is my birthright going to do for me when I'm hungry and I can make one simple trade and I can have my needs met?

39:22 Now does this ever creep into marriages? You know, one impulsive move. I know there are people who click their way into lost testimony. One click and another click and a third click and you're drifted. Justifying it as though that meets some need.

40:52 And who could have faulted Him? If you're hungry and you have the ability to do it, why not? Commenting on it, G Campbell Morgan, I think it is, who observed that the Lord's response essentially was saying it is far better for me to be hungry in the will of God than to be full outside His will. Oh brothers and sisters, there are things that we need to learn to differ. There are areas in which we need to have self control.

41:39 We need to really come back and take to ourselves the reality of the words that the Lord Jesus spoke when He said, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Sin originally in the garden had to do with someone not being willing to live by the Word of God. And that tendency continues to ensnare us even now. Jacob, our time is up and I'll take maybe five minutes and try to finish it up with your indulgence. Jacob is not doing well at all.

42:44 He's a deceiver in training now, learning from his mom. And when he has a little bit of compunction about the whole thing, he says, know mom, I don't know if this is such a good idea because if I really do this, I will seem to be a deceiver. He was not that concerned about really being a deceiver. His concern is that I will seem to be, I'll appear to be a deceiver. More concerned about appearance than character.

43:44 So when he finally presents his dad with the food, he's all in now. Because father does some inquiry and he says, and who are you, son? And without batting an eye, he goes, I'm Esau. But he couldn't stop there. He had to I am Esau, your first born.

44:15 I have done as you told me. Eat of my venison. See how the lies pile up? And then of course, Isaac goes, How did you get it all so quickly? And he invoked God into the thing.

44:41 The Lord thy God brought it to me. Twenty five years later or so, Jacob would be asked the same question again. Who are you? What is your name? He said, I am Jacob.

45:51 Have you noticed that in all this drama as it is unfolding, this ugly drama, The two of them do not speak one word to each other. And finally, when the silence breaks, Rebecca says something, it is a complaint about her daughters in law. Much lessons that we can learn. We don't have time to go into all of that because the clock is unrelenting in its movements. But I want to conclude by observing this, that when the writer of the Hebrews wanted to highlight Isaac as a man of faith, where does the spirit of God guide him?

46:52 He guides him to this really messed up scene. Because through it all, God was still working out His sovereign purposes, providentially working it all out. Maybe where we cannot see faith, God sees faith. And Isaac's blessing of his sons were actually about things to come. Very much like the faith of his father Abraham, about things that are promised, but the promise has not been received yet, not obtained.

47:57 But he saw them at a distance. May God grant it to us that each one of us would have such clear vision spiritually to be able to see things that are still out ahead and to be able to go in for it. In your marriage, in your family life, not to be distracted by things that are variable and shifting, a problem of the day, an incident, but to be able to see things in the big picture. Because marriage is important to God, He thought of it, He designed it. There is a marriage that took place in Genesis.

49:44 And one day the glory of His grace will be displayed fully through the Church for the angelic hosts to behold. And it is your privilege and mine in our earthly journey to yield and to offer up our own marriages to God. That something of the glory of His grace may be put on display in our marriage for a short time. And may it be spoken of us as John mentioned it in chapter two. This miracle Jesus performed in your marriage and manifested His glory and they believed on Him.

50:37 Let us pray. Father, humbly we bow before You and marvel at Your wisdom and Your grace. Thank You for Your Word. Thank You that You were faithful to communicate Your thought to us. Faithful in preserving it, we thank You for the faithful ministry of the Holy Spirit who inspired the writers to write it.

51:32 Now to illumine the readers to, in reading, understand your mind. Thank You that through Your Word You lead us to Christ. And by Your Word You transform us into the likeness of Christ. And may it be so, even for us now. So that the beauty of the Lord Jesus will be seen in us with greater clarity as we learn to commune with Him and remain in the school of Christ.

52:21 We give thanks as we ask these things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.