Our scripture text for this morning is Genesis chapter 25. Back in the book of Genesis, we took a brief break this summer to go through the Beatitudes. And I take for granted how long, you know, nine or 10 weeks is. It feels like a whole year has passed and getting back in the book of Genesis took me some work this week, but I believe we're here and we're ready to go. Verse 19 is where we'll begin and we'll end with verse 26. Let's stand out of respect for the reading of God's word. This is on page 19 of your Pew Bibles. These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham fathered Isaac, and Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the Aramean, of Paddam Aram, the sister of Laban, the Aramean, to be his wife. And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife because she was barren. And the Lord granted his prayer. And Rebekah, his wife, conceived. The children struggled within her. And she said, if it is thus, why is this happening to me? So she went to the inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said to her, two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you shall be divided. The one shall be stronger than the other. The older shall serve the younger. When her days to give birth were completed, behold, there were twins in her womb. The first came out red, all his body like a hairy cloak, so they called his name Esau. Afterward, his brother came out with his hand holding Esau's heel, so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was 60 years old when she bore them. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God abides forever. Amen. You may be seated. Two sons, two destinies. When Isaac's wife, Rebecca, learned that she was pregnant with twins, I'm sure she praised the Lord for a double answer to her husband's prayer. She had waited so long to have a child and she knew the promises that were given to her family's line. Promises of a covenant of grace through Abraham and coming now to Isaac and now to their children. But they had no children until miracle of miracles once again. right at the time when it feels like all hope is lost, God answers prayer. And here in this case, my family, there are twins in my family, and so we know what a joy it is to have not just one blessing, but to learn, wow, there are two. Rebecca had to be excited beyond words. But then something started happening that worried her. And we can understand why she would be disturbed. Why? Because there was something happening within her, something abnormal. And it showed her that her pregnancy was in fact pregnant with meaning, that there was something that God was telling us through these twins within her. What is God teaching us with Isaac and his sons, Jacob and Esau, the twins? The story of these two sons and their two destinies teaches us that the great difference between believer and unbeliever is God's sovereign electing grace. We need to look at the two brothers, these divided brothers, and then we need to look at their divided destinies. Divided brothers, divided destinies. And we see that these brothers are divided because Of what's happening within Rebecca throughout these nine months that she waits No pregnancy is easy. At least that's what the women in our congregation have told me but Rebecca's was painstakingly hard Because the twins that she carried wouldn't stop wrestling in her womb and Literally, this is what it says in the Hebrew. They were smashing each other, kicking and pulling and grabbing and fighting over the small space in which they together grew. Of course, this is enough to disturb Rebecca. And who can blame her? There was a WWE match going on inside her. And you could picture one twin, you know, grabbing the other and pulling and pushing and kicking. And Rebecca is just feeling all of this in her and saying, just stop. What does this mean? She says, if all is well, if this is indeed a blessing, if God has his hand of favor upon me, then what is happening? And why do I feel like there is turmoil within me? She asked the Lord, and the Lord tells her, two nations are in your womb. Two peoples from within you shall be divided. Remember that this all started back in Genesis 3.15. The conflict that is going on inside of Rebekah started way before it started in Genesis 3, 15, when God said to the serpent, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring. There is a conflict, there's an ultimate conflict raging in this world after the fall into sin. And it is raging, oftentimes we've seen, even between members of the same household. Now, I want us to get back into the gear of thinking about that flow of Genesis. This was perhaps the only thing I didn't like about stepping away from Genesis for the summer was we lost a bit of that momentum of the flow. But if I could get you back into it, I want you to remember that Genesis was so focused on tracing God's line of promise. And you could picture a family tree and God was tracing it through these different branches of the family tree. It started with Seth, right? And then it would go, it would weave through, it would weave through to Abraham, and then it would go to, not to Ishmael, but to Isaac. And it would weave through, and God was tracing heir after heir after heir after seed after seed of his promise. And at every point, the seed of the serpent has also slithered out to oppose God's purpose. We've seen these two things, God's promise falls to someone and then someone else rises close to them to oppose them. And we've seen it back and forth, the conflict of the ages. Now, the sad thing is that this conflict, this enmity has often played out in the same household in between siblings. Think about where we've seen it. We've seen it with Cain and Abel. We've seen it with Isaac and Ishmael. And now the conflict comes between Jacob and Esau. And it would continue throughout history in the nations that these two little boys would come to represent. Esau would be the father of the Edomites and Jacob, the father of the Israelites. And these two tribes would both fight for the little tiny space in the promised land, the borders of Israel, like this little womb that they'd fight over their descendants. Neither could really inherit the same space. But it wouldn't stop there, would it? This conflict between the twins, this conflict between their descendants, it was really just pointing to the great cosmic ultimate conflict, the big fight between whom? The serpent and the savior. Genesis 3.15 stuff. And it would lead all the way up to the cross, where the promised seed, Jesus Christ, would engage in mortal combat with the seed of the serpent. And there would be head crushing, and there would be heel biting. And this is where it would all come to its forefront. And now you and I share in this same conflict, don't we? If we are connected to Jesus, if we are united to him, we are on the front lines of a bitter conflict. Jesus tells us this in Matthew 10, 21. He says, there are times where the sword that divides between people will cut even into households and you'll have father against daughter, son against son. Believer opposed to unbeliever, unbeliever opposed to the Christian. And this is the basic reality that we need to realize that there is, first and foremost, a spiritual warfare raging around us. You are either for Christ or against him. We sometimes forget about this conflict, especially in our quiet neighborhoods, in our comfortable American context. And we have friends, close friends, who don't call upon the name of the Lord. And there's nothing wrong. In fact, we're encouraged to have peace and live in quiet and prosperous lives alongside those who would oppose and would disagree with us in the faith. And yet there is at the same time a conflict that will not find resolution. There is a great dividing line of humanity that separates brother from brother, parent from child at times. This is the great dividing line of humanity, not rich and poor, Not between liberal and conservative political parties, but upon those who call upon the name of the Lord and those who don't. And I suppose the first question that jumps out of the text to you is this, which side of that conflict are you on? There's no middle ground. There's no lukewarmness. Say, well, I'll just wait in the middle. No. Only one of us will inherit the new heavens and the new earth. Will the new heavens and the new earth be for the glory of God or will it be for the glory of man? What say you? Here's the first big truth that we need to grasp this morning. There's a great dividing line that runs through humanity. It's the line that separates the Savior from Satan. Believer and unbeliever, heaven and hell. Divided brothers. But we also see divided destinies. See, you see the destinies of these two brothers play out, don't you? The older will serve the younger. Now that's a complete reversal of the normal order. Usually the first son to come out of the womb, didn't matter if they were twins or not. I mean, twins kind of complicate things. You know, this happens in my own family. You know, I have twins, or I don't have twins, but I have twin siblings. And we always say, who's older, Daniel or Delaney? And the answer is always, oh, it's Daniel because he came out one minute earlier or something like that, right? Well, it was the same way when you had twins in ancient history. The first to emerge from the womb was the firstborn and they would, they would get the rights of that, which were immense rights. All of the benefits of your father's household, all of the privileges. There was a little bit, there was a little nod of respect towards the second or third or fourth or fifth born, but the firstborn, wow, they really had the power. They really had the inheritance. But not here, the older shall serve the younger. And in the text says this, one will be stronger than the other. So God is intentionally setting his blessing upon one. Who is that? Upon Jacob. God sets his blessing, sets his favor, sets his love upon Jacob. What makes the difference? How are some saved like Jacob while others turn from God like Esau? How do some inherit the blessings of his riches and rewards while others live their life without regard to God? Surely there's some principle that would explain it. Was Jacob smarter? Was he genetically superior? Was he more spiritual? No, none of these things work. He certainly wasn't stronger. That goes to his brother. He certainly wasn't genetically superior. He had the same dad. He certainly wasn't more spiritually attuned. He's a deceiver who comes out grabbing his brother's heel like a serpent would. So why him? Why this choice? Why one brother gets the mercy? Why one brother gets the compassion while the other is left? And here's the clear, but much more difficult answer. We want some rational principle, don't we? We want to say, oh, it was this. It was this. Jacob was just better. Jacob was better at this. Esau was just such a horrible guy. No, it's not that easy. The scripture says you weigh these guys and you're not going to find something that really separates them. And if you really want to be pressed to choose according to human standards, go with Esau. So why does God go with Jacob? Jacob and Esau hadn't even been born yet. And even then, their destinies were already determined by God. That's what the text says. That's what Romans 9 underscores several times. And here's the second big truth then that comes out of this passage. That dividing line that runs straight through sinful humanity is determined by none other than God himself. This is the doctrine of divine election. And let me say this right away. It is not comfortable, at least not always comfortable, and it must be handled with great care. But I do believe it's biblical. If it were just left to me making everyone happy, I would completely skip over this, and yet I'd be neglecting the Word of God. Because this doctrine is difficult, and yet it's here. This is what we learn from Genesis chapter 25, and then from Romans 9, which comes in to further clarify that this is the case. All humanity is guilty and left in sin. There is none who is superior to another. All are deserving God's wrath. All deserve justice. God did not have to save any. And yet God chose to rescue some from their own selfishness while he left others still shaking their fist at him. He did this for no reason in the sinners themselves, but only because of his gracious sovereign will. Before either boy had done something to try to impress God or set themselves aside from the others, before they were even born, God had made his choice. And Romans 9 says what? This isn't just about those boys. It's a theological truth, a personal truth for all of salvation. Listen to Romans 9, verse 10. When Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done neither good or bad in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of his call, She was told the older shall serve the younger. And then he quotes Malachi. Jacob, I have loved, but Esau, I have hated. And then look at verse 15 of Romans chapter nine. God says, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will harden whom I will harden. If this bothers you, you are not alone. What's our natural response to this doctrine of divine election? The very first thing, very gut reaction is this, that's not fair. That's not the way things are supposed to work, God. There's a different way that things should be done. There has to be an explanation. It can't be this. And yet I can't find any other way to read this text when you have Genesis 25 and Romans 9. I think here's two things, and I'll say three, here's three things, three things, brothers and sisters, that we ought to learn. And I hope that by the time I get to the end of these three things, you see that the doctrine of election is not just biblical, but also immensely practical. And yes, I would dare say beautiful. Here's the first thing. These texts remind us that we have much to learn about God. We're never going to figure him out. We are never going to master him. We are never going to have him at our command. God's sovereign choice does not bend to our expectations. He doesn't play by our rules. He doesn't choose the older. He goes with the younger. He doesn't go based on merit or superiority. He's King, not us. He's not bound by our cultural conventions. He's not impressed by our self-congratulating and false comparisons with other sinners who are just like us. He's God. Behold our God. Come let us adore Him. Jonathan Edwards, I've been studying him recently. He was a famous American theologian and pastor. But before he was a pastor, while he was still a schoolboy who was in a long line of a family of preachers, and he knew one day he'd probably be a preacher, something really bugged him. And that was that he came from a tradition that embraced this biblical doctrine of divine election. And he did not like it. He didn't know how to tell his granddad. He didn't know how to tell his father, but he hated this doctrine. He hated it because it didn't make sense that somehow God would save some and leave others out of the whole guilty mass of humanity. And so Edwards went all the way up to college saying, nope, I don't like this. Nope. And the moment that he saw the beauty of the gospel and the beauty of our God being this above our understanding, mighty, never fully figured out God, he said, this is what I need. This is the very God that I need. This is the God who exists and is the God I need. Not one that I can master, not one that plays by my rules, but a God that I come to worshiping and saying, God, I don't understand. Praise, praise you. The doctrine of divine election humbles us in awestruck gratitude. I was not, let me put it this way, it humbles us in awestruck worship. Praise you, God. We have much to learn about God. We also have much to learn about grace. We live in this rat race of a world where anything good that we have is somehow earned or deserved. And so we think that somehow the grace of salvation has to be in some way earned by an act of free will. We think that we have to do something to impress God, to stand out above the rest in order to be showered with his grace. And somehow deep down we say, well, that must be the difference why I was saved and another was not. It's because God looked down the corridors of time and he saw that I would do a good job with the opportunities that he gave me. But grace that is earned is not grace at all. It's God's to freely purchase on the cross. And it's God's to freely give to whomever he will. That's what Romans 9 says. The doctrine of election humbles us in awestruck gratitude. I was not smarter or wiser or more spiritual than the rest, O Lord. I have no reason to boast. I cannot be proud. I cannot prop myself up over others. You loved me because you love me, not for anything in me. And isn't that what we need more than anything else? We live in this world of relationships where the love that we received is dependent upon how we impress others or what we do for them. And finally, we come to this relationship with God where there's nothing in us that's impressed him. He knows us to the very rotten core of our being, and yet he still loves us. He still chose us. Why? Because he chose us. Not because of anything in us. Not because anything that could change in us. So that we could somehow lose that relationship. His love is constant and fixed because it does not depend on us. It depends upon him. This is beautiful grace. It's hard, but it's beautiful. And so I say to everyone listening now, come to Christ for this grace. Believe in him and receive it freely from his hand. And when you do, you will realize it was all of God's grace from very beginning to very end. Amen, let's pray. Heavenly Father, a difficult doctrine in your word today, and yet one that we cannot sidestep, for when we lean into it and acknowledge it and embrace it, we see how pure, how beautiful, how practical it is. Lord, we pray that we would be so full of joy in the grace of our Savior, that we would say in our hearts what we sung in a hymn earlier. Why was I a guest, oh Lord? While others would rather starve than come. And then our answer would be, it was your love that drew us to the feast. Nothing more, nothing less. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.