This morning, I want to ask you to turn to 1 John chapter 2 for our New Testament reading. 1 John chapter 2. And we're going to read just a brief portion right in the middle of the chapter. 1 John 2, and we'll be reading verses 15 through 17. John writes, do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride and possessions is not from the Father, but from the world. And the world is passing away. long with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. And now will you turn with me to the book of Genesis as we continue our studies there this morning. We're coming to the end of the second major division of the book. You can outline Genesis in three basic points. Number one, you have the primeval history in chapters 1 through 11 that takes you from the initial creation week up through the ancestry of Abraham. Then picking up at the end of 11, really in chapter 12, On through the end of chapter 36, you have the patriarchal history, and we're coming to the end of that second major section today. Then you pick up in chapter 37, where we'll be studying, Lord willing, next week with the story of Joseph. So as we come to the end of this second section, we're going to read from chapter 35, verse 16, down into just the opening verses of chapter 36. Then they journeyed from Bethel. When they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel went into labor. And she had hard labor. And when her labor was at its hardest, the midwife said to her, do not fear for you have another son. And as her soul was departing, for she was dying, she called his name Ben-Oni. But his father called him Benjamin. So Rachel died and she was buried on the way to Ephrath, that is Bethlehem. And Jacob set up a pillar over her tomb. It is the pillar of Rachel's tomb, which is there to this day. Israel journeyed on and pitched his tent beyond the tower of Eder. While Israel lived in that land, Reuben went and lay with Bilhah, his father's concubine, and Israel heard of it. Now the sons of Jacob were twelve, the sons of Leah, Reuben, Jacob's firstborn, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun, the sons of Rachel, Joseph, and Benjamin, the sons of Bilhah, Rachel's servant, Dan, and Naphtali, the sons of Zilpah, Leah's servants, Gad, and Asher. These were the sons of Jacob who were born to him in Paddan Aram. And Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, or Kiriath Arba, that is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac had sojourned. Now the days of Isaac were 180 years, and Isaac breathed his last, and he died and was gathered to his people, old and full of days, and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him. These are the generations of Esau, that is, Edom. Esau took his wives from the Canaanites, Ada the daughter of Elon the Hittite, Aholabama the daughter of Ena, the daughter of Zibion the Hivite, And Bazimath, Ishmael's daughter, the sister of Nebaioth. And Ada bore to Esau Eliphaz, Bazimath bore Reuel, and Aholabamah bore Jeush, Jalem, and Korah. These are the sons of Esau who were born to him in the land of Canaan. Then Esau took his wives, his sons, his daughters, and all the members of his household, his livestock, all his beasts, and all his property that he had acquired in the land of Canaan. He went into a land away from his brother Jacob, for their possessions were too great for them to dwell together. The land of their sojournings could not support them because of their livestock. So Esau settled in the hill country of Seir. Esau is Edom. Isaiah reminds us that the grass withers and the flowers fade. But the word of our God stands forever. And this is God's living and inherent truth. Let's pray. Our Father, as we come to you this morning, Lord, we look to the help of the Holy Spirit. We ask you to guide us. We pray with the psalmist, open our eyes that we may behold wondrous things out of your word. Open our eyes that we may see Jesus. Lead us into all your truth. And through the power of your holy word, conform us to the image of your son, in whose name we pray. Amen. As we enter the final weeks of summer and we anticipate the autumn, the six black walnut trees on our property are starting to drop their fruit, and they are a mess. But they're also beautiful. They're tall. They're imposing. They have a large canopy. The wood, if you sell it, is quite expensive. It's exquisite. It's beautiful. If you were to stand in our yard and look up at one of those trees and ask, how did that get there? I would reach down and pick up one of those hard green pods from the yard and say, it's all in here. Because you see inside that pod, there's a shell and inside that shell is the black walnut itself. And inside that black walnut is the DNA, all of the genetic coding that's required for that kernel, that seed to become a sapling and eventually grow into a large black walnut tree. God has designed it that way. And the Lord has also designed a similar pattern for redemptive history. When you and I read the New Testament, We look up, as it were, at that large, imposing tree. When we read the New Testament, we read about the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ, his life, his death, his resurrection, and we have the apostles' authoritative interpretation of his person and work. But that large tree, if you will, grew from a seed. And that seed is the first gospel promise that we found in this book of Genesis. The Lord spoke to Eve in Genesis 3.15 and said, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. There was the first gospel promise in all of Holy Scripture. God said, I will send a Redeemer. I will send a serpent crusher to deliver you from your guilt and your condemnation. But just as no tree grows from a seed overnight, this truth developed over time. And it developed, as that verse says, in two lines. There's the seed of the serpent and there's the seed of the woman. There's the seed of the serpent, all of those who follow Satan, those who side with him in his rebellion against God. Let's use the New Testament word for that. And we'll call it the world. But then there's the seed of the woman. All of those who follow the godly line of promise. that line that's ultimately fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, but it includes all of those who are united to Him, those who love God, those who follow Him. Let's use the New Testament word for it. It's called the church. Now, in our studies in Genesis, we've observed the growth and development of these two lines, the world and the church. We saw it right after the fall with Cain and Abel. Then there was that distinction between Noah and his contemporaries. And then Abraham had two sons, Ishmael, the seed of the serpent, the world, and Isaac, the son of promise. But no relationship in the book of Genesis epitomizes this distinction between the two lines more than that of Jacob and Esau. The difference between these two was evident even before they were born. And that's why the Lord said to their mother, Rebecca, in Genesis 25, 23, two nations are in your womb, two seed. Two peoples from within you shall be divided. The one shall be stronger than the other, and the older shall serve the younger." This distinction became evident as these boys grew into manhood, and Esau despised his birthright. He despised all of God's promises and the covenant of grace that were contained in that birthright as it was passed down from Abraham to Isaac, and then eventually to Jacob. Now, as we come this morning to the end of this second major division of the book, This distinction between Jacob and Esau, between the church and the world, comes to the forefront once again. In summary fashion, Moses tells us about Jacob, the church, and Esau, the world. Here we have, in a nutshell, if you will, the story of God's people and their enemies. The differences here could not be more stark or clear. God's people appear feeble and sinful, and the world looks so strong and impressive. And those appearances can be discouraging, can't they? when the church seems so small and so weak compared to all of the machinery of the world and its wealth. But appearances can be deceiving. And you can only read this passage properly when you read it in light of the end and the completion of the story. You see, brothers and sisters, behind a weak church stands a strong God who overcomes a seemingly successful but sinful world through His Son. Now this morning as we look at this passage, I want us to simply look at those two contrasts between the church and the world and the lessons they have to teach us. Look with me first at the end of chapter 35 where we have the story of the weak and struggling church. Moses is going to lay this out for us in four parts and we will survey them rather quickly. At Bethel, Jacob had had the sad task of burying Deborah, his mother's nurse. But that was but the prelude to two additional funerals. Jacob and his family set out from Bethel and headed south toward Ephrath, or what we know today as Bethlehem. We don't know how long they stayed at Bethel, and we aren't sure why they left. Back in chapter 31 verse 13, Jacob left Padan Aram to return to Canaan because God had called him. He left Shechem to go to Bethel at the beginning of chapter 35 for the very same reason the Lord says, arise, go up to Bethel. But the reason he left Bethel is a bit of a mystery. We have another surprise in the text in that we discover suddenly that Rachel was pregnant. And on the way to Ephrath, before they had gone much distance at all, she went into labor. And Moses tells us her labor was hard. That's a reminder, folks, that not only do we have the seed promise in Genesis 3.15 of a Redeemer, but we also have the reality of sin and its consequences that follow in the very next verse. Yes, there will be a serpent crusher to come from the seed of the woman, but the Lord says to Eve, I will multiply your pain in childbearing, verse 16. You see, sin always brings suffering in its wake. Don't forget that. It was true for Eve, and it's true for you and me as well. As she was in labor, struggling to give birth, when her labor pains were at its worst, Her midwife said to her, don't fear, you're giving birth to a son. Now the midwife's words were significant culturally and spiritually. Culturally, they were important because it was a woman's desire to have sons for her husband. A son would carry on the family line. He would carry on the family name. He would have the ability to care for his parents when they were elderly. But there's not only a cultural significance to her words, there's also a spiritual significance. Remember, Rachel had a son before this, and she named him Joseph. The name Joseph in Hebrew means may he add. And the name of that firstborn son became a prayer. Genesis 30 verse 24, she called his name Joseph saying, may the Lord add to me another son. Spiritually, God was answering her prayer as she gave birth. God was being gracious to her in allowing her to present to her husband another son, but it would cost her her life. There is a bit of tragic irony to the story of Rachel. When in chapter 30, she couldn't conceive, she went to Jacob and said, give me sons or I die. "'Who am I?' Jacob said. "'Am I God?' Only God could give her sons, but when he did, the second one cost her the ultimate price. As she was dying, she named this boy Ben-Oni, son of Mysorah. Jacob did not want, This last child born to his favorite wife to live his entire life under that moniker, that depressive name. And so he called him Benjamin, son of my right hand, favored son, exalted son. And Rachel died. Jacob buried her on the way to Ephrath. She is the only one of the patriarchs or matriarchs not buried in the cave at Machpelah. That itself was a sadness. He erected a stone memorial, a pillar, much as we would set up a gravestone today, to mark the place of her burial. And it was still evident over 400 years later when Moses was writing this passage. This is now the third memorial stone that Jacob has erected. Two, he erected before God as acts of worship, and now one of sadness and mourning, a reminder of the stark reality of death. A reminder that sin has brought death into the world and death has passed upon all mankind because all men have sinned. And that death must not only be suffered by those in the world, but you and I as believers have to face it as well. Read the story of Job who lost all of his children in a single day. We read the story of Mary and Martha who lost their beloved brother Lazarus. Just last week, a dear friend of mine buried both of her parents who passed away within 48 hours of each other, leaving her a single lady in an empty home, bearing the sorrow as a believer with hope but deep sadness nonetheless. This passage reminds us, brothers and sisters, our life is but a vapor. It's here, you see it for a moment, and then it's gone. This passage confronts us with the reality of our ultimate weakness, our ultimate limitations. As a church family, we celebrate weddings, but we baptize our babies, but we also conduct funerals. We feast and we fast, and that's the story of the weak and struggling church. Jacob moved on, and so Moses moves on in the text to tell us not only about the death of Rachel, but also the sin. of Reuben. The next stage in Jacob's journey took him to a place called the Tower of Eder, or as you'll find it translated in the NIV, Migdal Eder. We aren't sure where that was located. We presume it was near Bethlehem, but the knowledge of its location is lost to archaeologists and cartographers today. But what happened there has been forever engraved on the memory of God's people. and it has been inscripturated in God's word. Because while Jacob lived in that land, his firstborn son slept with his concubine. Reuben slept with Bilhah, his stepmother. And Jacob knew about it. This act was one of gross perversion. It was an act of incest. But it was more than an act of lust and immorality. Reuben, by doing this, was positioning himself to take over leadership in the family. If he could have a conquest over his stepmother, then he could usurp the position of his father. This is exactly what Absalom did in 2 Samuel 16. When he drove David from the city, he asked Ahithophel, okay, what do I do next? Ahithophel says, I tell you what, you go sleep with your father's concubines. That'll make you a stench in the nostrils of your father and that will strengthen the hands of the people with you. And so Absalom was so brazen that they even set up a tent for this on top of the house. It was a power play. Don't think of it as a romance. It was a power play in which Reuben broke the seventh commandment, thou shalt not commit adultery, but also the fifth commandment, for he failed to honor his father. He said in his own heart, it's time for the old man to move aside and for me to take leadership. This tragedy at the Tower of Eder, demonstrates that at times some of the vilest of sins can arise in the midst of the people of God. In fact, this very same sin occurred in the church at Corinth. In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul wrote, it is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans. For a man has his father's wife sleeping with his stepmother. And you are arrogant, Paul says. All you not rather to have mourned, let him who has done this be removed from among you. Do you see the tragedy of the church here? Not only had this gross perversion entered their ranks, but look at their response. They were arrogant about it. Evidently, they were saying, why we have so much Christian liberty, we can just do anything we want. We're okay. What they should have done was mourned over it and excommunicated this fellow. the worst of sins can occur in the midst of the people of God. I don't know if you follow the American church scene very much, the church scene at large, but it gets downright depressing because we have story after story after story of moral shipwreck and the destruction of ministries, moral failures that bespirch the name of Christ. This past year, when the news broke of Ravi Zacharias and the long-term patterns of immorality in his life, we hardly knew what to think or say or do. That news rocked the evangelical world. It shook us. It saddened us. It even raised the question, could a man who lived that way be a child of God? I'm certainly not his judge. He stands before the judge of all the earth. But I do know this, sin is insidious. And Satan is crafty. And he will do his best, brothers and sisters, to destroy your life. He will do his best to destroy the ministry of this church. He is like a fowler who lays the snare for the unsuspecting bird. There's no giant flashing neon light that says your downfall and tragedy 10 feet ahead comes upon you suddenly before you're aware of it. This is why it is absolutely necessary that we mortify our sin, that we kill it. It was the Puritan theologian John Owen who said, be killing sin or you can be sure sin will be killing you. How do you do that? You bring the power of the cross to bear upon your temptations through prayer. You go to Jesus Christ for His sin-conquering death to be applied to the battle that's raging in your heart. To use the words of Paul in Romans 6, you consider yourself to be dead indeed unto sin. If you're a Christian, if you're justified, if you're one of those we were singing about this morning of whom there is no condemnation, then the power of Jesus' blood, His atoning death is operative already in your life. And that very same power, as you believe upon it, as you consider it to be true, as you rely upon that victory, can conquer and overcome your temptations and your sin. And that's the only way. It's the only way. So prayerfully and humbly, you throw yourself at the foot of the cross. Because it's there. and there only sin can be killed. But be sure, if you do not kill your sin, Moses moves on to the third section, and we must move on quickly this morning to the sons of Jacob. We have them listed in verses 23 through 26. You first have the sons of Leah, then the sons of Rachel, then the sons of Bilhah, then the sons of Zilpah. Why stick this list right in the middle of all of this? Well, it's to remind us that though 12 sons, and don't forget Dinah, the daughter, A family of 13 is large by today's standards. It's hardly the nations God had promised it. Though the Lord said kings will come from you, we've seen the firstborn as no candidate because of his terrible immorality. The second and third born, Simeon and Levi, the previous chapter told us, were bloodthirsty in their revenge. Hardly the best leadership material. The people of God here are small. Over the years, I've kind of chuckled when some people have referred to our little church. I'm not sure if they say that out of affection or sympathy. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. But here we are, our little church, and here's the membership role. This was the membership role of the church universal, the only church in existence in its day, at number 12. And then finally, we have the death of Isaac in verses 27 through 29. Jacob and Esau reunite for one last time. They go to the place called Kiriath Arba or Hebron. There Jacob dies. An old man and full of days were told he was gathered to his people at the age of 180 and they buried him. Another sad reminder. as once again, Jacob, with his little band, his little church, stands at a grave. Now what a contrast that is to chapter 36. Now, lest you are fearful that I'm going to go through this chapter in detail, have no fear. I'm not gonna read through all of these names, I'm not going to go into any kind of detailed exposition, but I want to give you a quick overview. What you'll notice in this chapter is that there are over 200 names listed. Now, I realize there's a lot of repetition, but 70 of these names are unique. That means that the descendants of Esau listed here, this story of the strong and powerful world, is five times as large, more than five times as large, as that of Jacob. There's great wealth. If you look at verses six through eight, they couldn't graze their livestock together. The land ecologically could not sustain it. And so they moved to their own land. You read here about chiefs of tribes and clans. Then in verses 20 to 30, you have the sons of Seir, the Horite. These are the folks that Esau conquered when they took over their land. They displaced them. And then in verses 31 to 39, you have a list of kings. There were kings reigning over Edom long before there were kings in Israel. Now just look at that. There's wealth, there's power, there are numbers, there's land. What's missing from this chapter? Anything missing at all from this story of the strong and successful world? Yeah, there are two things missing. There's not one record of a death. Not a single record. nor a single account of sin and its shame." I imagine if Asaph, the author of Psalm 73, were here this morning, he would say to us, see, I told you so. I told you so. The wicked prosper. The godly suffer. Listen to these words from Psalm 73. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled. My steps had nearly slipped, for I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no pangs until death. Their bodies are fat and sleek. They're not in trouble as others are. They are not stricken like the rest of mankind. All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long, I've been stricken and rebuked every morning. Now, let me give you that in Hebrew. Life ain't fair. That's it. Life ain't fair. The wicked do prosper, the godly do suffer. How does Asaph resolve this problem? He goes on in the Psalm in verse 16 to say, when I thought how to understand this, it seemed a worrisome task. It just wore me out. Until I went to church. It was a worrisome task until I went to the sanctuary of God. Until I worshiped. Until I heard the word of God. And then I understood their end. The wicked prosper, but only for a time. Because as Hebrews 9, 27 reminds us, it is appointed unto man once to die. And after that comes the judgment. The world seems to have it all. Wealth, power, prestige. What does the church have? We've got a book. We've got a book. We've got bread. We've got wine. So weak and so ordinary. And yet through these ordinary means, God does extraordinary things. Yes, we bury our dead, but we bury them with hope. We bury our dead, as Thomas Cranmer, the author of the Book of Common Prayer, he put it so beautifully in that graveside committal, for as much as it pleased Almighty God to take to himself the soul of our dear brother or sister here departed, we commit his body to the ground, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection. Yes, we have to stand at graves. But as believers, we sorrow not as others who have no hope. We bury our dead, but we bury them with hope. We confront sin, but we also offer forgiveness. Where else do you find good news of grace but the church? What does the world have to offer you this morning? If you sin, you will be canceled. There's no hope. There's no repentance. There's no atonement. There's no reconciliation. There's no, I'm sorry, sufficient enough. But among the people of God, you hear the good news announced. Among the people of God, you're told of Christ who took even our worst sins imaginable and bore them on the cross. In the church, you hear the words of Jesus from Matthew 12, 31, all manner of sin and blasphemy. Yes, even the heinous sin of a Reuben can be forgiven. How do we know? We know because 1 Corinthians is not the only letter Paul wrote to the church. He said, you need to deal with this man. And the church did. And that fellow who was guilty of incest fell under deep conviction and he repented so much so that you go to 2 Corinthians chapter two and Paul says, forgive him and comfort him. Amazing words of grace. Where else are you going to hear that? Not in the world. Only in the weak and struggling church. Genesis 36 is an impressive list of Esau's generations, but it's not the end of the story. In fact, what we discover here is a pattern that occurs earlier in the book as well. After the death of Abraham, you have the generations of Ishmael, and then you have the generations of Isaac, and an extended story that we've been studying now for quite some time. about the progress and development of this godly line, the seed of the woman. That same pattern is repeating here. You have the death of Isaac, and then you have the generations of Esau, the seed of the serpent. But that's going to be followed in chapter 37, verse one, by the generations of Jacob. And it's there we're introduced to Joseph. Joseph. that beloved son who was despised by his brothers, that beloved son who took on the form of a servant, that beloved son who was punished though innocent, that son who was exalted to Pharaoh's right hand. That sounds vaguely familiar because he is a picture of our Lord Jesus, beloved of the Father, despised by the world, suffered in his innocence, but exalted to the right hand of the majesty on high. You see, behind a weak and struggling church stands a strong God who ultimately overcomes the seemingly successful but sinful world through the person of his Son. Josephine Baker was born in 1906 in St. Louis, Missouri. Her family was dirt poor. She was raised in a single-parent home. She got very little education. Somehow, by the age of 19, she had managed to scrape together enough money to get to Paris. And there she became a sensation, a singer. a dancer. She eventually started to act and she became a movie star. And by the time you get to the late 1930s, early 1940s, she was the highest paid entertainer in Europe. She was invited to all the fashionable parties. She traveled around the world. Her motto was, go big or go home. On a trip to Morocco, husbands listen to this. She took 28 pieces of luggage. Yeah, get a porter at the airport for that. That wasn't all. She took pet monkeys, pet mice, and a great dame. Go big or go home. But you see all of the glitz and all of the glamor, she attracted crowds wherever she went. All of the extravagance. It was a cover. Because the star was also a spy. Beneath her tailored made dresses, she concealed top secret photographs. Her sheet music was covered with notations written in invisible ink about German troop movements in France. Because she attracted so much attention and was so extravagant and outlandish in her ways, no one gave a second glance to her secretary, who was actually the chief of French security, and simply passed them on through. You see, looks can be deceiving. The church appears weak and struggling, and the world appears strong and successful, but looks can be deceiving. What won't deceive us? The Word of God. listen to it once again. Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that's in the world, all that's in the world, the lust of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, the pride of life, all that's in the world, all of Genesis 36, It's not from the Father, but it's from the world. And the world is passing away along with all its desires, but the one who does the will of God abides forever. Let's pray. Our Father, we simply ask that we might do your will. We ask that you would give us faith that would help us to see how things really are. Give us that eternal perspective so that we might trust you in these days and hours. For Jesus' sake we pray, amen.