Hello and welcome to another broadcast. We call it Plain and Simple. We are looking in Genesis chapter 27. Have your Bible ready. Well, today we continue our study in chapter 27 of the book of Genesis. We call it a tale of two boys. The boys' names, Esau and Jacob. Now, they're of the family of Isaac and Rebekah, and we have found in our study here that there has been a major change in the life of Isaac since he was out in the field meditating just three chapters previous to this one. There has also been a major change in Rebecca since she lighted off her camel and come running to see her new husband who was out there in the field meditating. As a result of those changes that they had in their lives, we find their family is an absolute mess. And the reason the family is in the mess that it is in is mainly because Isaac has absolutely no discernment whatsoever as to what is right and wrong anymore. He used to have great discernment, but not anymore. So, he's being deceived. Now, to be deceived is to believe something that is not true. When the disciples were talking to Jesus and they asked him in Matthew 24, what shall be the sign of the end of this local church age, the first thing on his list was he said in verse 4, Take heed that no man deceive you he said in verse 5 many shall come in my name and shall deceive many He said in verse 11 false prophets shall come and shall deceive many in verse 24 says they shall deceive now the reason we get deceived about something is Because we do not have the ability to discern and to discern is to be able to judge what is right And what is wrong? We read in Hebrews 5 and 14 that we should be able to discern both good and evil. Matthew 16 and 3, Jesus said, can you not discern? In Luke 12 and verse 56, he said, how is it that you do not discern? Ecclesiastes 8 and 5 says, A wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment. Well, the reason Isaac was deceived was because he had a lack of discernment, and the reason any of us would have a lack of discernment is because we don't want to pay the price for it. God offers no cheap discipleship program. If we are not willing to pay the price for discernment, we're not going to have it, and discernment is very expensive. Three times Jesus said, you cannot be my disciple. You might want to check those times out when he said that and see what he said it costs. He said, count the cost. If you're going to be one of my disciples, count the cost. Well, you can go back in the Bible and have a look at people who had some discernment and what it cost them. It cost Noah and his family the fact that they were against the entire world. That's quite a cost. Abraham, he changed his complete lifestyle, left Ur, the Chaldees, had a very fancy home to live in. He spent the rest of his life living in a tent. Enoch, what it cost him, he walked alone. Joseph was hated by his brothers, ended up put in a pit, put in a prison, and then put in the palace. And you see a great thing. God always has the plus side. I'm saying when you're going to decide that you want discernment, pay the price or you're not going to get it. And Moses, what did it cost him? He spent his life, most of it, out in the desert. Yeah, he came from a palace. He was in line for the throne of Egypt. No, it was a high cost, a discernment. The three Hebrew children, they ended up in the furnace. Paul, he was hated, imprisoned, forsaken even by his friends. And this is why in Matthew chapter 7 and verse number 14, when Jesus took that handful of disciples aside up on the mountain, and he talked about walking the narrow life as a Christian. He said in chapter 7 and verse 14, few there be that find it. He was not talking about few finding the pathway to heaven. He was talking about Christians with discernment who are going to decide they're going to live for God and pay the price. He said, few there be that find it. Now, it's important, I think, to take a minute here in this broadcast and figure out, well, how do I get this discernment? If I want it, how do I get it? Well, if you have your Bible there, turn with me to Proverbs 2, and we will have a look at it. It says in Proverbs 2, beginning in verse number 1, it says, My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandment with thee, so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding, yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and lifteth up thy voice for understanding, If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as hid treasure, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord giveth wisdom out of his mouth, cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous, he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. He keepeth the paths of judgment, and preserveth the way of his saints. Then he said, keep in mind, he has said in verse one, if thou will receive my words, if you will hide his commandments, if you will incline your ear to wisdom, if you will apply thy heart to understanding, if you cry after knowledge, if you lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hid treasure, then thou shalt understand, And then down in verse 9 he says again, Then shalt thou understand righteousness, and judgment, and equity, and every good path. When wisdom entereth into thine heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto thy soul, discretion shall preserve thee, understanding shall keep thee. to deliver thee from the way of the evil man, from the man that speaketh forward things." And so he says here very plainly, if, if, if, if we will do these things, then thou shalt understand. Now, if you're going to receive his word, if we're going to apply our heart to understanding, if we're going to cry after knowledge and lift up our voice for understanding and seek it like silver or like hid treasure, if we're going to do those things, it might mean you have to turn the television off for a while and get your face in the Bible instead of looking at all that garbage on TV. If you want to pay the price, if you want to take the time, then God said, I will give you discernment. Well, is it any wonder that he said, Few there be that find it. God is no respecter of persons. It matters not whether we call ourselves Pharisees or whether we call ourselves fundamentalists. To reject the leading of the Holy Spirit as we study the Word of God to show ourselves approved under the Lord is to leave ourselves incapable of discerning the truth. We read in Romans 12, verses 1 and 2, it says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service, and be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. What for? that ye may prove—translated discern, twice that word—that ye may discern what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. God does not have a cheap discipleship program. We need to realize that discernment is available for For every Christian, however, it's a choice. You don't have to go after it. You can just choose not to bother, as most do. But it says in Hebrews 5 and verse number 14, but strong meat belongs to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. The Greek word translated exercise here is where we get our word It's spelled G-Y-M-N-A-Z-O, and it's where we get our word, gymnasium. And if we are in the word, we have our senses exercised to discern both good and evil. And as long as we're going to just put the word of God aside and say, well, I'll spend a few minutes in somebody's commentary, then we're not going to get the truth that we need. Now, I'm not saying throw out your commentaries. I'm saying commentaries are good. Maybe, commentary some are not so good, they can lead you astray or they can help you, but the Bible says, study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word, not just checking a few seconds in a commentary somewhere, but getting into the word of God and letting the word of God get into us, and that is where we get discernment. Well somewhere along the line, Isaac got too busy for all of that and he lost whatever discernment he ever had. Well, we read in verse 30 of chapter 27, 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. Well, he said in verse 35, Thy brother came and hath taken away thy blessing. And he said, Is he not rightly named Jacob? Now Jacob means And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord. He's in charge. He's getting the inheritance. Esau's lost everything. Well, Esau says at the end of verse 38, lifted up his voice, down in verse 41 it says Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father had 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 Jacob now he thinks they're at hand. He's gonna live beyond 40 years after this, but he's gonna wait till his father dies Then he's going to kill his brother. I said when we started this broadcast this family is a mess Well, we read in verse 42 that these words of Esau her eldest son were told to Rebecca in 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 Haram, and tarry with him a few days, until thy brother's fury turn away. As we mentioned in our last broadcast, That few days turned into 20 years, and it's doubtful that she saw her son again, because when he finally did come back, There is no mention of Rebecca being on the scene. Well, she said, go and tarry with my brother for 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 hath done to him. Not very likely. Then she said, I will send and fetch thee from thence. Why should I be deprived also of you both in one day? And Rebekah said unto Isaac, I am weary of my life. Well, I guess you ought to be, Rebekah. You made your choices, and with choices come consequences. And we have said that again and again. We are free to choose whatever we want to choose. We are not free to choose the consequences. Well, the consequences, Abraham, he started off with a great blessing we saw, and he made some mistakes because he made some wrong choices. We come through the family, and they're all making some wrong choices. And when you make some wrong choices, we suffer the consequences of those choices. And Rebecca said to Isaac, I am weary of my life. She says at the end of verse 46, what good shall my life do me? Well, we get into chapter eight. We see that Isaac called Jacob and blessed him. What an amazing thing that is. We see the absolute grace here. You can imagine when Jacob found out your father wants to talk to you. After this deception and after what he did to him, He calls Jacob, and what does Jacob do? Jacob blessed him. What a lesson we have here in absolute forgiveness and grace. Well, we're out of time again. We'll have to pick it up here in our next broadcast. Be sure and tune in. We'll try to make it plain, and we will try to make it simple.