The following message was given at Grace Community Church in Mendon, Nevada. If you want to be awestruck, turn to Genesis chapter 25. Genesis 25. This is the reading of God's Holy Word. Now these are the records of the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham became the father of Isaac. And Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the Aramean, of Paddan Aram, the sister of Laban, the Aramean, to be his wife. Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was barren and the Lord answered him and Rebecca his wife conceived But the children struggled together within her and she said if it is so why then am I this way? so she went to inquire of the Lord and the Lord said to her two nations are in your womb and two peoples will be separated from your body and One people shall be stronger than the other and the other shall serve the young the older shall serve the younger When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. Now the first one came forth red, all over like a hairy garment, and they named him Zach, I mean Esau. Afterward, his brother came forth, and his hand holding on to Esau's heel. So his name was called Jacob, and Isaac was sixty years old when she gave birth to them." This is the reading of God's holy word. Well, we enter into the next section of the book of Genesis, and we enter into a part of Scripture in which might sound familiar to you, we enter into such things as family conflict, parental favoritism, sibling rivalry. Well, if I just described your family, you might want to stick around. But we also enter into a section that talks about God's sovereign electing grace. We now enter into this next section which focuses, in a sense, on Isaac. But here's the interesting thing. Although Isaac is, in fact, the second great patriarch of the nation, what do we say? Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Isaac himself is actually a minimal character in the story. He is what Bruce Waltke calls, he's gapped. His life is shrunk down, even though he lives a long life, and all of a sudden, all we see are just these little tiny episodes in his life. Compared to Abraham, Isaac is a tiny figure. Compared to Jacob, compared to Joseph, Isaac is, in fact, a tiny figure. This is interesting because, of course, you think back to Isaac's miraculous birth, You think that back in those 20, 25 years of life that Abraham and Sarah had together, hoping and hoping and hoping for that child, that child, of course, was Isaac. So here he is, he has this miraculous beginning. He demonstrates this moving, obedient faith in chapter 22. And the interesting thing there is that in 22, when Isaac is offered up by Abraham, it's not as if anything is said about Isaac's really remarkable, obedient faith. He has an awesome wedding story, right? He's got a great wedding story, but guess what? It's actually a servant who ends up being the main player in Isaac's wedding story. Don't you hate it when somebody other than the bride and groom gets all the glory at the wedding? We end up getting a glimpse, and really only a glimpse, of his strong faith in our chapter today, but as time goes on in Genesis, Isaac actually becomes increasingly unimpressive. He ends up serving really little more than this transitional figure between Abraham and Jacob, and Old Testament scholar Bruce Waltke says Isaac's gapping likely reflects his failure to remain faithful. The one who starts out so miraculously. The one who shows great promise at the beginning, doesn't end well. In fact, as we'll see starting in the passage today and especially next week, what we end up seeing is that Isaac himself tries to, as it were, usurp the very purpose of God by giving the blessing to Esau instead of Jacob. That would be the last event that we see in Isaac's life until he dies. He's off the scene. Well, today we start with Isaac and Rebecca, and we see again the theme of barrenness, and we see this theme of strife, but this strife is going to be on steroids. We'll see the favoritism between Isaac and Rebekah for their respective boys. And in this passage, we have Jacob and Esau immediately introduced to us. In fact, Rebekah's barrenness is skimmed over very, very lightly. We're gonna see that these twins struggle Even in the womb. At the end of the day, if you want to be just real honest about it, Esau's more likable than Jacob. Who would you rather have hung out with? Esau or Jacob? Those of you that say, Jacob, you just know the end of the story and you're lying. Esau's a hunter. Who wouldn't like Esau? He's hairy and he hunts. But even though Esau is the more likable of the two, Esau is rejected and Jacob is chosen. And what we see starting in this new section is that the grace of God is always powerfully at work. Even in the midst of human failure and human weakness and human inability, the grace of God is always at work. And sometimes the grace of God is at work in spectacular ways, and sometimes it's at work in rather ordinary and mundane ways, but at work nevertheless. And so verse 19 says, now these are the records of the generations of Isaac. And you might remember when we started the book of Genesis, I told you that the Hebrew word here that's expressed by this phrase, the record of the generations is the word Toledot. And there are 10 toledotes in the book of Genesis. In fact, these toledotes, these book of the generations of, actually give us the very structure of the book itself. We now get to the eighth of the 10 Toledotes here, and we see these are the records of the generations of Isaac. Now, this is actually quite natural because, remember last week, at the beginning of chapter 25, we had the sons of Keturah by Abraham, and then at the end of the section, what did we have? This is the book of the generations of Ishmael, and then it gave us Ishmael's genealogy. Well, of course, Ishmael is rejected, Isaac is chosen, and now we have the book of the generations of the chosen one, Isaac himself. It says just repetitively, if you notice, these are the book, the record of the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham became the father of Isaac. What's interesting about this beginning genealogy is that it says it's the record of the generations of Isaac, but who does it start with? Well, it starts with Abraham, again, and twice. And there's a reason why you see this repetition. The idea is that this is Abraham's son. In other words, this is the promised seed. And then, repetitively, Abraham became the father of Isaac. That's a genealogy start. But this one then introduces this incredibly lengthy narrative. Notice. There's not this long list of names following this genealogy. This genealogy begins with the record of the generations of Isaac, begins with Abraham, and then launches into a very long narrative that will go through chapter 35. The repetition of Abraham affirms that it is indeed Isaac, not Ishmael, who is the covenant head, who is the promised and, in fact, the elect son. Verse 20, and Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel, the Aramean of Paddan Aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean, to be his wife. What's funny is that the only real list of names we have here aren't actually the generation of Isaac at all. It's the family of Isaac by marriage. So you get this genealogy, Book of the Generations of Isaac, and the only names you get are your in-laws. And by the way, once you get to know these in-laws, you're gonna be thankful for yours. Why does Moses actually introduce here Rebecca's family? So she's the daughter of Bethuel, the Aramean. Woo, Padan Aram, yikes. Sister of Laban. I can guarantee you, you would not want Laban as a brother-in-law, let alone a father-in-law. And yet, this sets the table for us. Because Jacob's life is going to be one of incredible conflict and introducing us once again to Rebecca's family prepares us for Jacob's flight in his continued conflict even with those who are his in-laws. Verse 21, Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was barren, and the Lord answered him, and Rebecca, his wife, conceived." Now, by the way, it's interesting here that Moses, as he's telling us the story of Isaac, just begins by telling us Isaac prayed. It's actually no small detail to say that Isaac prayed. Why did Isaac pray? Because his wife was barren. Well, this is now the second time that we've seen a barrenness or infertility story in the book of Genesis. And of course, the first one was the story for how many chapters. And so here you had Sarah who was barren for all of those years, and they wait 25 years from the time of the promise, but she was barren before that. Now we have Isaac praying for a barren wife. Could it be that Isaac had learned a few things from the faithless tactics of his parents? Don't you think that there were times where Isaac would say, hey dad, how did I get Ishmael as a brother? Oh, well, son, it's a long story. It was your mom's idea. I mean, so Isaac would have been fully aware of how Ishmael came about. He would have been fully aware of Abraham and Sarah's own after the fact perspective on that this was just a really bad idea to try to help out the sovereign God. In fact, maybe, just using a little sanctified imagination here, maybe there were quite a few times around the family worship time in the tent of Abraham where Abraham and Sarah said, Isaac, we need to tell you this lesson again. Listen, when God gives you a promise, you don't need to actually help him out. Every time we take the role of trying to be God's consultant, the Almighty actually shows us up. Our ideas are always bad, although they may seem good at the time, but when you have a promise from God, you can trust Him. I have no doubt that Abraham and Sarah just drummed that in to Isaac's little brain as he grew up. And now he finds his own wife barren. And instead of coming up with some other form of fulfillment for her to have a child, you have to remember now that child is in fact key to the fulfillment of a larger promise. Isaac has to have a son. And what does he do? He prays. He prays. It's interesting also that the word wife is mentioned three times in two verses, just a way of reminder that Isaac is the only one of the patriarchs who will be monogamous. So he's got that going for him too. Now look at the text. It says, Isaac prayed to the Lord on behalf of his wife because she was barren, semicolon, and the Lord answered him, and Rebekah, his wife, conceived. Now what does that sound like to you? It sounds like Rebekah has a hard time getting pregnant, Isaac prayed, God opens her womb, she conceives and has a baby. But the fact is, is that that is actually not how the story goes. Again, Isaac's life is gapped in so many ways because in verse 21, it just looks like these things happen in rapid succession, but just look down for a second at verse 26. Isaac was 60 years old when she gave birth to the twins. Verse 21 describes a 20 year journey for Isaac. It describes a 20 year journey of prayer and pleading of Isaac on behalf of Rebecca. Verse 22, so she conceives happy day, right? She goes to her gynecologist and he says, look at this, you've got, so she goes home, she hangs up the little black and white thing that no matter how you look at it, it actually doesn't look like. anything, but you know that those are babies and you put them up on the fridge and here's Rebecca, she's so happy, but she actually gets news from her OBGYN and says, hey, guess what? You not only are pregnant, you've got twins. Isn't that exciting? I just wanna testify. Twins are awesome. I mean, as long as they're grandchildren, okay? Two at a time is fantastic, right? And so here they are, and this is the interesting part, verse 22, but the children, Oh, so that's how you find out they're twins. She conceived and the children, right? Struggled together within her. And she said, if it is so, why am I this way? So she went to inquire of the Lord. And so here we see that the children are struggling together. Now, this is actually indicative of Jacob and Esau's life. They jostled each other. In fact, the word that's used, new American standards have somewhat blandly struggled, you could translate like this, they collided with each other. They were on the verge of crushing each other. And so here she is, do you think she could feel this? So like there's a war zone in my womb. And in fact, Ken Matthews, one Hebrew scholar says, the verb indicates reciprocal blows that occurred between the children. They're in there duking it out, grounding and pounding each other. It's awesome. This conflict, of course, is going to continue. And Jacob, his whole life, will be marked by this conflict. He will be a struggler until God subdues him. Well, Rebecca asks a question, sort of interesting, a strange question. In fact, the actual meaning of it is uncertain because literally, so here she is and she's got these boys and they're just colliding with each other, right? And arm bars and choke holds and all of this going on. And she says, literally, if so, why am I? Now, I don't know what that means. Maybe, maybe pregnancy with twins can exegete this better than via Hebrew grammar, but let me just give it a shot. It could be, as the new American standard says, if it is so, then why am I this way? Which actually doesn't make any more sense than just literally rendering it. The ESV, if it is thus, why is this happening to me? That's a little more clear. The new English translation actually creatively says this, and this might be pretty close. If it's gonna be like this, I'm not sure I wanna be pregnant. Most of the translations have something like, why is this happening to me? Again, Ken Matthews notes, he says, in effect, she's asking, what good is this pregnancy? Will the children survive? Will I survive? And so this causes great consternation with her. And so she goes and it says, Rebecca inquires of the Lord. You actually get a little glimpse here. So Isaac is a praying man and Rebecca goes and inquires of the Lord. She's gonna seek the Lord. You know what's interesting is that Moses doesn't tell us what exactly that means either. I have a theory though, it's just a theory. Who's been identified as a prophet in the book of Genesis already? Abraham. It could be that maybe Rebecca goes to her father-in-law, who is, of course, still alive at this time. He's going to be about 160. And Abraham's a prophet, and she goes to inquire of the Lord, and she gets a word from God, an oracle from the Lord, and this is what the oracle says. The Lord said to her, verse 23, two nations are in your womb. And she probably said, that's what it feels like. and two peoples will be separated from your body and one people shall be stronger than the other and the older shall serve the younger. And so this oracle that Rebecca receives from the Lord says, first of all, what is going on here? The reason why there's so much turmoil is that there are in essence two nations in your womb. Now those two nations would end up being Israel and Edom. You know any Edomites? You should. Herod was one. Israel and Edom would actually be in conflict throughout their long history, even culminating to the wicked Edomite Herod trying to kill the Christ child. So you got two nations, Rebecca, and two peoples, and these two peoples are gonna be separated from your body. And then here's the part of the oracle that is peculiar. One people shall be stronger than the other. And of course, in the history of Israel, we know that Israel continually has the upper hand on the Edomites. And then there's this line, and the older shall serve the younger. It's that line of the oracle which is the most surprising. It's that line which ends up being the biggest shock because what God is saying is that, Rebecca, I am going to do a sovereign reversal of how things are normally supposed to be. In the ancient Near East, even to this day, The idea of the firstborn, the firstborn had what was called primogeniture status. He was the primary heir. The one who was firstborn was actually the one who would, as it were, become the next patriarch in the family. He was the most important. In fact, not only in the ancient Near East, but the idea even today, think about China. Think about the quandary that China has put itself in with its longstanding one-child policy, which has recently been changed to a two-child policy. You know why they have to change it to a two-child policy? Because everybody wants a boy first. And so the abortion of literally millions and millions and millions of girls has created an incredible disproportion between male and female in China. But boy, the firstborn, and that firstborn, it is a status, there is a cultural custom to it where the firstborn is given certain rights and privileges that none of the other children have. And what God does in the oracle is he says that the younger, that is the one who's gonna be born second, is actually gonna be the one in charge, and the older one, the one that should have the status, is now actually going to be in a posture of servitude to the younger. God has absolutely turned things upside down and what, by the way, what is in this little expression, that last line in the oracle is simply indicating this. God has rejected Esau and he's chosen Jacob. That's the importance of it. Just as sure as there was a choice between Isaac and Ishmael, so there is a divine choice between Esau and Jacob, and it will be Jacob who is chosen, not Esau. Well, the twins come forth on that blessed day, verse 24, when her days to be delivered were fulfilled. Behold, there were twins in her womb. I love this. The first, so here's our first born, came forth red. Now, don't think like he came out like that, all right? The idea is he came out ruddy, okay? Like a ruddy complexion. He is this reddish looking little baby and he's hairy. Now, I won't say which one of my children came out, but he came out very hairy, and it was a little frightening. He's this red, hairy little baby. Ian Duguid says Esau was the original redneck. He, in fact, if Duguid goes on to say, if you really want to know what Esau would have been like, think of biker bars, tattoo parlors, and motorcycle gangs. That was Esau, and he liked to hunt, right? Then out comes the other one. Afterward, his brother came forth with his hand holding on to Esau's heel. Now, what you're not supposed to think is that somehow this is a symbol of sibling love and unity. Like, no, don't leave without me, I'm coming. Or, I was just hugging you, now I've almost, I just got your heel. This is not the picture. Actually, the idea is, in the womb, they're duking it out. Now, all of a sudden, you see, I wanted to ask Matt Berulich if he's ever seen this before and how it turned out, but here he is, and he's grabbing Esau's heel, and you know what the imagery is here is, and of course, I'm not saying that he consciously was thinking this, but this is the picture that's being conveyed, and that is, Jacob is saying, you're not gonna be first. I'm gonna do everything I can to keep you from being first. I wanna be first. If he would've had the strength and the wherewithal, I think he would've pulled him back in and slipped around and got out. So here are the twins, what a happy day. You have this hairy little red monster, let's name him Esau, okay. Notice nobody names their kid Esau. If you understood the story, you might not want to name your kid Jacob either. So you've got the little red hairy monster and then the smooth little heel grabber. Jacob's name, heel catcher, it actually conveys something of his character. Esau's name actually just sort of probably represents his appearance, sort of a reddish, hairy-looking little kid. Here, this one is different, though. Jacob's name actually conveys the idea of deception and betrayal and opportunism, and the fact is is that his name indicates, watch out for that kid, he is a little schemer. Now, how old is Isaac when these babies are born? 60 years old. 60 years old. 20 years, Isaac prayed. And here comes these two. little babies, representing actually at that very point two nations that would go disparate ways, two nations that would be radically related to God in radically different ways. So what do we see in this passage? Well, first of all, I mean, and again, the way that it's so briefly gone over, it can be easily missed, but the promised seed is just as important to Isaac as Isaac was to Abraham. Understand, just as sure if Abraham and Sarah would have been barren for all those years. You see, these struggles continue still to this day. It's what Isaac and Rebekah's house sounded like all the time. But just as sure as Isaac's birth was crucial for the promise to be fulfilled to Abraham, so Rebekah's barrenness jeopardizes the covenant promise as well. So we have to see that what took multiple chapters and 25 years in Abraham and Sarah's case, here this is all shrunk down, but for 20 years there was this question, would God fulfill his promise? The other thing that we see in this text, though, is that Isaac shows that he is indeed a man of faith and a man of prayer, and he understands the covenant promise that has been given to him by his father and by God Himself. Isaac is a man of faith and a man of prayer. Matthew says, unlike his parents, who chose a substitute wife, Hagar, Isaac turned to prayer. Perhaps he's spurred on by the heartache his family had experienced by giving Hagar to Abraham. And again, how long does he pray? Well, he prays for two decades. And he perseveres. never relying on his own plans or his own schemes. And so year after year, he just trusted God. And of course, with every passing year of barrenness, it looked more unlikely. And yet there was Isaac continuing to pray, persevering in prayer, not giving up in prayer for 20 years. Some of you may know what that's like. It may not be barrenness, but maybe there is a burden in your life, something that you've looked at and at times you just feel like just giving up. Because the way that we think prayer works is like verse 21, Isaac prayed, God answered, boom, great day. But there's more to the story than that. John Newton in one of his great hymns, come thy soul, thy suit, prepare. She's on prayer. The opening line goes like this, come thy soul, my soul, thy suit, prepare. Jesus loves to answer prayer. parenthesis even if it takes him 20 years for his grace and power are such that none can ever ask too much Isaac prays but The other thing from this text that we need to clearly note is that Isaac prays to the sovereign Lord. Isaac actually prays to the God who has the power, because he's sovereign, to do something about it. And so, far from making prayer unnecessary, the sovereignty of God is the very incentive for prayer. Isaac doesn't just go to a God that wishes him well. He goes to the God who can open the womb. You see, the God to whom we pray is not just filled with good wishes towards us. He is the one who is almighty in power and sovereign over absolutely everything. And he is the God who has the power to open wombs. He is the God who has the power to turn the king's heart. He is the God who has the power to bring life from the dead. And we pray because God is sovereign. Could you imagine? Some of you might remember years ago, probably 30 years ago now, there was a rabbi from New York who's some note, Rabbi Harold Kushner. He wrote a famous book called, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, all right? Now, we could quibble over the title, of course. The really amazing thing, by the way, is when good things happen to bad people. That's the amazing thing. Well, anyway, Rabbi Kushner is trying to deal with the problem of evil in this book, and of course, the problem of evil revolves around two pillar truths, and on the one hand, it is that God is sovereign, and on the other hand, God is good. And you understand why that ends up creating a problem for people in a sense because these things seem to be in conflict. If God is all good or if he's all powerful and he's all good, then of course why does evil exist and why do bad things happen? This is the traditional problem of evil. As Bible believers, you and I understand that we never have the option of choosing what one we like better, God is sovereign or God is good. You hold them both even if it doesn't make perfect sense as to how it always works out. But Kushner actually wasn't satisfied with that as most people aren't. And of course he ends up choosing God's goodness And what he ends up saying in essence is this, is that here's the foundation of your hope. God is good. He's really good. He loves you. He may even like you. And he wants the best for you. And if he could do anything about it, he would. But he can't. He's good. but he's not all powerful. So at the end of the day, Kushner's God just ends up being a God who just, he's really nice and he wishes you well, but he doesn't have the power to do anything. And I ask, if that's true, why in the world would you ever even pray? What would that prayer even look like? Lord God, maker of heaven and earth, I know you have happy thoughts towards me. And if you could do something about it, you just might. But since you can't, I'll take comfort in happy thoughts. Amen. The God to whom we pray is the God of whom it is said that from Him and through Him and unto Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. The God to whom we pray is the one of whom it is said our God is in the heavens and He does exactly as He pleases. And so as Isaac goes for 20 years, he goes with the confidence that the God to whom he prays is the God who has the power to even open up a dead womb. And when God hears, when God answers, simply because of the sweetness and tenderness of his own grace. Certainly fulfilling his divine purpose, but also an act of incredible kindness to his desperate people. So if you've been praying for something for years, and you wonder if the God of heaven hears, I can tell you that he not only hears, he has the power to act and to do. There's something else in this passage, by the way. It's actually embedded in that last line in the oracle, and that is God's sovereign election. God overturns the firstborn status very clearly, and He shows mercy to Jacob in a way that He does not show mercy to Esau. Now, when you think about that, let me just back up for a second and say, God made a sovereign choice between Isaac and Ishmael. And whom did He sovereignly choose? Well, He chose Isaac. God now is going to make another sovereign choice between Jacob and Esau. God gives the blessing to the one who had no claim to it, and He gives grace to one that did not deserve it. Do you wanna actually hear the apostolic commentary on this very passage? It is Paul in Romans chapter nine. Paul says this, starting in verse 10, and not only this, but there was Rebekah also when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac. Now, let me just say that the Greek text is a little more explicit than that, and that is that she conceived through one act of conception. Somebody could argue, well, Ishmael was of course rejected and Isaac was chosen because Isaac came through Abraham and Sarah, whereas Ishmael came through Abraham and Hagar. And so that explains why God chose one and rejected the other. But the fact is, is that when you get to Jacob and Esau, you're talking about two people that were brought about through the same act of conception. You don't get any more, you don't get any closer than that. You don't get any more equal than that. Four, verse 11, four, though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad. So notice prenatal pummeling is obviously not accorded as sin. so that God's purpose, according to his choice, would stand, not because of works, but because of him who calls. It was said to her, the older will serve the younger, just as it is written, and this comes from Malachi chapter one, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated. Is that hard for you to swallow? God did not choose Jacob because Jacob was the firstborn because indeed he was not. God did not choose Jacob because he was somehow morally superior. We're gonna find out that he was not. God did not choose Jacob because he was better looking or he was smarter or he was more godly because none of those things were true. God chose Jacob for one reason and one reason only and that was because of free sovereign grace. Now, everybody wants to say something like this, well, what about Esau, poor Esau? Let me just remind you, Esau was not treated unjustly. Esau was not treated unjustly. When God deals with human beings, he has one of two options. He can either treat them in mercy, or injustice, but he never treats somebody with injustice. At the end of the day, Esau gets justice. Jacob gets mercy. By the way, in the next passage, we're gonna see that Esau himself is no sterling saint, But the fact is, is that Paul says, through one act of conception, you have two in the womb, and God actually, in order that his purpose of election might stand, he chose one and not the other. You know, the real question is not, what about poor Esau? The real question is, how in the world could God have ever loved Jacob? You want to know the real question? It's not what about poor Esau. Here's the real question. How in the world could God ever show mercy and grace to Jacob? You know what that translates into? And it's this. If you're sitting here today, you're saved. You know the Lord Jesus Christ by faith. It is because in eternity past, God set his love and affection upon you, chose you before the foundations of the world, and in time brought you to faith in Jesus Christ, and the biggest question you should ever ask is not, well, why didn't you do that for my neighbor? The question is, and will always be, Lord, why would you do that for me? How in the world could you love me? You know absolutely everything, but if you only knew about me what I know about me, I wouldn't have chosen me. J.I. Packer, some of you have heard of him. The grace of God is love freely shown towards guilty sinners contrary to their merit and indeed in defiance of their demerit. It is God showing goodness to persons who deserve only severity and had no reason to expect anything but severity. And so if you know Christ, and if you love God, and if you have faith alone in Christ alone, it is because of the free, sovereign grace of God. How dare us proud, arrogant, silly, little creatures say, I'm in Christ because I chose. We're in Christ because God chose. And so all praise to the one who owed us nothing but has given us everything. Pastor Robert Rayburn up in the Seattle area. Wrote this, I love this. I've thought about this many times over the years. He says, when you find a turtle on top of a fence post, you know it didn't get there by itself. All right, let me say it again for those of you that were struggling behind trying to hold somebody's heel. When you find a turtle on top of a fence post, you know it didn't get there by itself. And so Rayburn goes on, he says, and so it is in the world of salvation. When you find a foolish, rebellious sinner who loves himself and his sin with a passion and who hates God, and if the truth be told, wants nothing to do with him, and whose entire nature disposes him to reject the gospel of Jesus Christ, by nature, by birth, upbringing, disposition, and conviction, is just like these Jews who gnash their teeth at Jesus Christ. I say that when you find that sinner confessing his sins to God without extenuation or mitigation, pleading with him for forgiveness through the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ. When you find that sinner counting on the mercy of a loving God and then in turn loving and praising God for his grace, you find him eager to forsake his sins and to live that life that is pleasing to the Lord. I say to you, you know that that man didn't get on that fence post by himself. So, What if you're not a Christian? Do you just sit there and say, okay, I hear you, preacher, Jacob, he loved, Esau, I hated, I guess I just sit here, caesura, sera, whatever will be will be. What if you're not a Christian? What if you don't have faith today? Which means you don't have the forgiveness of sins today. What'd he do? Did he just sit there and go, well, God's gonna do what God's gonna do. There's nothing I can do about it. Well, let me just, let me tell you what you should do. If you're without Christ and without hope, you do the very same thing that Isaac did. You pray to the sovereign God. who alone can give you life. Why? Because the God who freely chooses some and not others is also the same God who has said, whoever calls upon my name shall be saved. And He is the same God that has said, and whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord will not be disappointed. And He is the same God who has said, I gave my only begotten Son, so that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And so today I tell you that there is a promise of salvation that extends to you in your lost state And if you cry out to the Sovereign God for mercy through His Son, Jesus Christ, and God in turn shows you mercy, forgives you of your sins, grants to you new life, then you will come to the blessed realization, "'Tis not that I did choose thee, for Lord, that could not be." Over the years, do you know who has most easily accepted this doctrine of election as I've preached it? It's not churchy people. Church people generally don't like the doctrine of election. The people that have never had any problem with me preaching election have been inmates. You know why? because they find themselves sitting on the top of a fence post. And they know that it wasn't because of them that they got there. The reason why most people hate this idea of God freely choosing is because it stomps and obliterates and decimates their pride. Proud before a holy God? Is that the way you want to go? I should put it this way. Is that the way you want to go out? God is opposed to the proud. He gives grace to the humble. And so blessed be the name of the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob who has chosen for himself a people from all eternity and there will not be one single Solitary one whom the father has given to the son who will be lost and not raised up on the last day Grace beginning middle and end Don't just live with it Love it! Love it! It's your life! Lord, thanks be to God I'm on top of this fence post and I know that I was not like some ninja turtle that got up here all by myself. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your free and sovereign grace. And Lord, I pray for those that are here today who are without Christ, without hope, without eternal life, without the forgiveness of sins. Pray for those, Lord, who today are headed straight towards eternal hell. And Father, I pray that today your Holy Spirit would lay hold of them, shake them, rattle them, convict them, and drive them to Jesus Christ. Father, we pray that those who are without Christ today would find that in Christ they have everything they need for life and godliness both in this age and the age to come. Father, we thank You for Your grace. We pray that it would be on full display today. In Jesus' name, Amen.