your Bibles to Genesis chapter 25. And our text for this morning will be verses 24 through 34. As we continue our series through the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis, this is on page 20 of your pew Bibles. Beginning with verse 24. When Rebekah's 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 that his name was called Jacob. Isaac was 60 years old when she bore them. When the boys grew up, Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man dwelling in tents. Isaac loved Esau, because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob. Once, when Jacob was cooking stew, Esau came in from the field, and he was exhausted. And Esau said to Jacob, Let me eat some of that red stew, for I am exhausted. Therefore his name was called Edom. Jacob said, sell me your birthright now. Esau said, I am about to die of what use is a birthright to me. Jacob said, swear to me now. So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God abides forever. All men, you may be seated. It's easier than you might think to judge, misjudge the worth of a family heirloom. There are lots of stories about this, and I don't know if you've ever heard about them. Someone totally miscalculating, misjudging the worth of something that they'd inherited from, let's say, their grandmother, their great grandmother. And one of these stories, maybe the most famous of them, happened back in the 1980s. A man sold off some trinkets he'd inherited from his grandma at a local flea market. He was just looking to make some quick cash, a few dollars here, a few dollars there. And one of the things he sold for $13 was this gaudy looking costume ring. And the transaction was done and he went his way and the new buyer went her way and flash forward to 2017. So many, many, many years had passed. And the new owner of the ring learned something of the value and learned that the original seller was dreadfully wrong. It wasn't a fake costume ring at all. Its value was far more than $13. It was in fact a real 26 carat diamond ring worth $850,000. That first seller didn't realize the true worth of his inheritance. Esau's story is just like this, isn't it? He had an inheritance like none other, a birthright that no one in the whole world had. And he pawned it all away for what? For a cup of soup. You could go ahead and blame this deceitful twin, Jacob, but Jacob isn't the one who sold away the birthright. No, that was Esau. That fell to him. So we could lay blame on both of these twins in the midst of this text, but it's Esau who sold the birthright. And so the text ends. So Esau, despised, His birthright. We need to focus in on this this morning. Because the question that this poses to you is, what about you? What about your birthright? And you say, I didn't know I had a birthright. You do. You have a wonderful birthright in the gospel. And we're going to see that unfolded in the text this morning. And we need to be warned. This is one of those warning passages. Last Sunday, we heard a beautiful reminder of the doctrine of election and our security in Christ. And yet we come right next to a warning passage that says, take heed, lest you think you have it all, lest you take it for granted, lest you trade it away, that you forget that you have something marvelous if indeed you hold onto it. Faithful to the end, brothers and sisters. Don't despise your gospel birthright. How do we despise our gospel birthright? There's two ways that I wanna flag in this text. The first is we despise it when we take it for granted. Let's look at that first. We despise our gospel inheritance, our gospel birthright, when we take it for granted. And that's certainly what Esau did here. He took his privileges for granted. He was an immensely privileged man. He was his dad's favorite. Rebecca loved Jacob. the younger. But Isaac, the patriarch, he loved Esau. And so Esau had the heart of the head of the family. He had the heart of his father, the heart of Isaac, who was the one through whom the promises were extending. And he was also the firstborn. You know, we talked last week, how do you have a firstborn when you've got twins? Well, one's got to come out first. And the first one to emerge was Esau. And be it 30 seconds or one minute or three minutes, it doesn't matter. He came out first. And so in this time and in this culture, he was in the heir to incredible privileges as the firstborn. Let me tell you what those privileges were. His birthright, being the firstborn meant that he would receive double his dad's inheritance. So if there were only two children, Jacob and Esau, Jacob would get one third, but Esau would get two thirds of the estate. There's more. The birthright meant that he was the obvious heir, the inheritor, the one to carry on the blessing. And I mean that with a capital T and a capital B, the blessing. We've been talking about the blessing throughout the Genesis. Do you know what the blessing is? The blessing was God's promise, starting in Genesis 3.15, to choose a line, to choose a family line, and to save the world through a future offspring. and you start down the road, you go to Seth, and then you end up with Abraham, and then to Isaac, and now you're saying, well, which of the twins is going to be the one to carry on this incredible honor, this beautiful privilege to be the one through whom comes the line to save the entire world? Well, looks like it's Esau. He's the firstborn. He is the inheritor. He's got the birthright. The salvation of the whole world. Pretty amazing privilege. But one day Esau comes home from a big hunting trip and he is starving for food. Now you gotta wonder, how hungry was this guy to say he's about to die? Have you ever been that hungry? Where you do anything, anything just to get a morsel of bread and a cup of soup. It's hard for me to not think that Esau here is being dramatic and overdramatic, but he's a hunter. He's a man of the land. He knows what real work involves, and so he must have been truly hungry. He comes home, his stomach growling. Perhaps he hasn't eaten for days. Maybe it's an unsuccessful hunting trip, and he comes in, he flings open the door, and he smells the most delicious lentil soup. wafting through the corridors of the home, and he follows it down, down the home, and he sees his brother, who's a man of the house. His brother's got the apron on, and he's cooking the soup. He says, give it to me right now. I'm famished. I'm going to die. And what does his brother say? Yeah, I'll give you some if you sell me your birthright. Yeah, make me the firstborn. Give me double the inheritance. Sell that to me right now and I'll give it to you for the soup. Now again, you could say, I can't believe what a conniving and deceitful brother this is. How could you do that to your brother in his position of poverty and his hunger? And yet, how can we not look from Jacob to Esau and say, how can you be so stupid as to sell this? How can you sell away your birthright for a cup of soup? Was it worth it? We're off stage yelling, don't do it. It's not worth it. That's not a fair trade. But apparently Esau thinks so low of his inheritance and so highly of his momentary hunger that he caves in without even bargaining. He doesn't even try to bargain this out. He just says, fine, take it, it's yours. Jacob says, do you promise Esau? Esau says, you have my word, I swear. You have the inheritance. Just give me the soup. Esau undervalued the birthright. He forgot the worth of what it was. He treated the diamond ring like it was a $15 costume jewelry. What about you? Do you value your birthright? Or do you take it all for granted? And this is my real concern for the kids in our congregation. That being a Christian would become so commonplace and routine that you would not realize what an incredible privilege it is to belong to the people of God. That you would think of baptism as just a baptism. You would think of the Lord's Supper as just a little cup and a little bread. And you would start to go through the motions such that When that hunger comes, when the world is selling you something you want, when it smells sweet, you would cave in like your gospel inheritance is nothing. Do you know you have a birthright? Galatians 3.29 says this, and if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise. There it is. You are heirs of an incredible promise. The blessing, capital T, capital B. You have great riches set aside for you in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 1 spells this out. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world. In him we have obtained an inheritance. Now what is that inheritance? Ephesians 1 tells you what it is. Our hope renewed, our sins forgiven, our guilt wiped away, our powerlessness reversed, our future secured, the resurrection of our bodies guaranteed. That's a beautiful inheritance. Yet how often it is that we're tempted to forget the worth of all that we have when even the slightest suffering comes into our life, when even the slightest amount of waiting presents itself to us. The pains of this life distract us from all that we have in Jesus, and we start to feel like God has somehow shortchanged us. Forgiveness of sins? What good is that when I'm in financial debt? I want a solution now. Victory over death? Well, I'd rather die than face this loneliness for one more day. You see how what we do, our hearts, our mind, we undervalue the birthright. And we say, if I don't have it now, if it doesn't give me something right now, and of course the gospel gives you something right now, but it also says wait for what is truly better. And to the degree that it does that, we say, well, I don't feel like waiting. I want something here and now, and the world is promising me things. And then we turn to our own strength to deal with our problems. We try to figure it out ourselves, like a mighty hunter, rather than trusting in God, who's our righteousness and reward. We act like Esau. And yet, there's one very big reminder for you, let me just put this before you, as to why you must not undervalue your gospel birthright. Don't forget how you got it. Jesus Christ, the firstborn, all creation, the very beloved from the father, his favorite, his very image, his eternal image came forth and did what? Clothed with great blessing, he gave his blessing to you. He traded his blessing for a curse. Not so that he would get some sort of momentary satisfaction, but so that you would be included in the birthright. Not on the outside looking in, but included with him. He took the curse so that you would be included in his blessing. Then you see the folly of trading it away for a moment of sinful satisfaction. And that's the second thing we really need to be aware of this morning. We despise our birthright when we trade it for instant gratification. What is instant gratification? I want it now. I don't want to wait. Give me the sugar high immediately. And all of our sin does that to some degree. I want you to listen to Hebrews chapter 12. We've already heard it this morning, but let me read it again. It mentions Esau by name. Out of all the places in scripture to turn, it zooms in on Esau as an example of someone who succumbs to instant gratification. Listen to Hebrews 12, 15 through 17. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears. I want you to notice how the world got a hold of Esau. Two words, instant gratification. It told him that pleasure now, gratification now, satisfaction now, pleasure now. That's what he truly needs. That's what the world said to him. It said that that which he waited for, an inheritance like none other, was not worth waiting for if you could have that satisfaction in your stomach immediately. I've sometimes thought of this. I've told my wife over and over again how often I drive past McDonald's or Taco Bell and its flashing sign is up there and I think, I'm just really hungry. If I just pulled in and spent, you know what, $6, that'd be amazing. There has never been once that I haven't said that greasy food was worth it. I mean, maybe you differ with me, but I say, It never has come through, it has never delivered on its promise, at least not to me, and yet I'm always so tempted to go back, because it is good for a moment. Well, I want you to realize, I know it's no sin to pull through the drive-through, I realize this, but what I'm saying is, don't do that when it comes to temptation and sin. Don't pull into the drive-through for a quick stop, because it doesn't matter how much the world promises it's going to deliver, and how cheap it tells you the cost is going to be, and how good it makes it look, it's not worth it. You will be miserable. Your stomach will ache and you will long for that which is truly better. Listen to Matthew Henry. The gratifying of sensual appetite is that which ruins thousands of precious souls. Don't do it. Don't take the bait. Don't follow the quick and easy promises of this world. Don't sell your birthright. Don't give away your Christian commitments and your honor as one who has been given great privileges of the gospel. For a quick and easy rendezvous with sin. And what did selling away his inheritance look like for Esau? Like slurping down a cup of soup. Nothing dramatic. No voice from heaven booming out, you fool, you've given it away. Nothing like that. He ate, he went his way. And this is how it is for all of us. Don't be expecting some sort of flashing warning sign saying, don't do that, don't give away your birthright now. You have commitments as a Christian. You have been baptized. Remember, there will be none of that. It will feel like the easiest day of your life to succumb to temptation. And it will only be later, as Hebrew says, many, many, many years later that Esau says, but wait, what about my birthright? It's not yours. Never was yours. Brothers and sisters, where are you tempted to trade your birthright for a moment of sinful satisfaction? Where in your life is that temptation almost visceral for you this morning? And what will you say when the world demands of you, sell me your birthright now? We have a wonderful example in our Savior. We've already heard of his work in giving us an inheritance that we don't deserve. But our Savior does even more than that. In Matthew chapter four, he gives us an example of what it looks like to stand firm when the world says, give me your birthright. Because here comes Satan into the wilderness when Christ is being tempted and Christ is hungry. His stomach growls and the devil says, go ahead, worship me. Go ahead, submit to me and I will turn this rock into what? Bread for your growling stomach. And what does our Savior say? Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. In other words, he says, devil, world, I don't live for instant gratification. I don't live for give it to me now satisfaction. I live for what pleases God. And here it comes to us, our lust cries, feed me, our pride cries, feed me. But the only meal that will really satisfy you is the bread of life. The bread of life, Jesus Christ himself. Do you believe that? May our Savior Keep us faithful to the promises that he's so freely given to us in this inheritance, which he has included us in, even though we do not deserve it. What? Praise to him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do hunker for that which the world promises an easy solution, and yet, We pray that we would not give ourselves away, that we would not sell our souls away, but that you would keep us rooted in the gospel truth. You promised to preserve us, so Lord, help us to cling to you. Cause us to persevere to the very end. This is your work in us. Lord, we pray that we would not feel overwhelmed by the pressures of this world, that we would stand fast, that we would not sell away, or be tempted to give away that which you say is ours to hold onto for eternity. We pray that we would not take for granted the holy things that you've placed us within. We pray all this asking your blessing upon Jesus who is faithful to us.