Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20080921.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Genesis: Explaining The Foundations Of History
Part VII: Explaining God's Plan To Bless Men Regardless Of Apostasy
O. Trusting God For Personal Blessing In A Spiritually Errant Group
(Genesis 25:21-34)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

Probably everyone in our Church must relate to some institution like a family, an extended family, business or government that contains people who do not trust in God and heed His Word, and this tension can be so great that it leaves the believer wondering how God can bless him when God clearly cannot bless the group:

(1) For example, three believers in our Church have recently reported how hard it is for them to know how God can bless them in relating to members of their extended family in certain matters since the other parties counter God's ways! The frustration of one believer in the matter is so great, just telling me about it brings this party to tears!

(2) This issue even affects believers in Christian ministries: I received a notice last week from the school from which I received my undergraduate degree, a doctrinally sound school for which I thank God I was trained with a double major in Bible! However, the notice promoted the school's alliance with a national insurance company to sell us alumni the company's auto and home insurance to boost the school's income. It read: "Alumni receive up to a 10 percent savings on auto insurance and a 5 percent savings on home owners insurance . . . [with] a small percentage of the total premiums" going to the school!

However, I clearly recall the founder of the school, a godly internationally renowned Bible teacher, explaining to us students how 3 John 5-7 reveals the financial support for Christian work should come from believers! For this school to join with a nationwide secular insurance company to raise its support not only smacks of a lack of faith in God that this school asserted when I was there, but it strains against the teaching of 3 John 5-7 opposite what its founder taught us!

So, this raises a question I myself must answer: "How am I to function with God's blessing when the school that gave me wonderful training in God's Word now acts in unbelief and in disobedience to it?"

(3) If your retirement savings are at all invested in the stock market, you are feeling the effects of recent market turmoil that all came from people greedily violating Biblical principles. All of us left in the "lurch" may then be asking how God plans to bless us in our savings plans due to the disobedience of others that affect those plans!

So, we ask, "If a believer must relate to a group, but the group doesn't heed God, will God still bless the believer?!"

(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "If a believer must relate to others in some spiritually errant group, is there hope for blessing in his OWN life? IF so, HOW?!"
  1. In the previous message in this series, we learned that God let trials arise for Isaac's family to direct each member to trust Him and not yield to the unbelief of Abraham's other godless sons, Gen. 25:1-18.
  2. A KEY trial for the WHOLE family was the birth of twin sons and GOD'S PREDICTION that the older son and his offspring would serve the younger son in CULTURAL TENSION against the norm, Gen. 25:19-23; H. C. Leupold, Exp. of Genesis, vol. II, p. 704-706.
  3. However, INSTEAD of TRUSTING GOD to REDUCE this TENSION, EACH MEMBER of the FAMILY personally FAILED to do so, thereby ADDING to this TENSION to the THREAT of the FAMILY'S FUTURE DESTRUCTION, Genesis 25:24-34:
    1. Starting at their births, Rebekkah's sons exhibited characteristics that signaled they would have widely different roles as adults (as follows):
      1. The firstborn son was born red and hairy like a little animal, so he was called Esau, a pun on the word "hair," Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Gen. 25:25; Bible Know. Com., O. T. , p. 69.
      2. The second son grasped Esau's heel, so he was called "Jacob", or "heel catcher, trickster, supplanter," Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to Gen. 25:26.
      3. In time, like the hairy little animal he appeared to be at birth, Esau showed a bent for roaming about the countryside hunting game while Jacob was content to live as a nomadic tent dweller, 25:27.
    2. Isaac and Rebekkah who named these sons would have seen the boys' natural bents signaled at birth continue on into boyhood, bents that would add to the cultural tension that would occur when Esau the hunter came to serve the nomad, Jacob, as God had predicted, Gen. 25:22-23. Thus, the parents should have asked God for wisdom to guide the sons to release both the cultural and temperament tensions!
    3. However, both Isaac and Rebekkah faithlessly let their own lusts guide their parental activities, leading to greater future tension :
      1. Isaac loved wild game, so he favored Esau since he hunted it in tension to God's prediction that Esau would serve Jacob, 25:27-28.
      2. Rebekkah preferred Jacob, knowing of the coming elevation of Jacob (Gen. 25:22-23), and she was evidently attached to Jacob who stayed home, adding to the tension to come by distancing herself from her other son, Esau, 25:28b; Ibid., Leupold, p. 710.
    4. These sons variously adopted faithless attitudes about their roles as influenced by their parents that only enhanced their future conflict :
      1. Esau's unchecked preoccupation with sensuality as enhanced by his father's taste for wild game and favoritism helped Esau despise the spiritual value of his birthright and sell it to Jacob, Gen. 25:29-34.
      2. Jacob wanted Esau's birthright for its value in God's Covenant, but he selfishly thought it could be gained by manipulation rather than faith as encouraged by his mother's selfish favoritism of himself.
      3. Thus, the faithless way this birthright was transferred as fostered by the unwise way both parents related to their sons could only lead to great hatred in Esau for Jacob once Jacob came to rule him!
    5. Thus, (1) with the parents' failure to release the cultural tension in their sons' future roles, (2) with the sons developing widely differing temperaments unchecked by both parents, and (3) with each parent faithlessly favoring a different son over the other that (4) fostered faithless coarseness in both sons, the family was set to self-destruct!
  4. HOWEVER, GOD would SOVEREIGNLY use INTENSE TRIALS to lead JACOB to TRUST Him for His PLAN to SUCCEED:
    1. God eternally knew of Esau's repudiation of spiritual things, so He never planned for him to have the covenant lineage, Romans 9:10-13.
    2. Thus, God did not block Esau's careless sale of his birthright to Jacob!
    3. Jacob's view that God's blessings could be gained by manipulation would be later corrected by God when He let Jacob back himself into a trial where he had to trust God to stay alive from the threat of his murderous brother Esau, Gen. 27:1-32:24, 25-30 with Gen. 33:1-4!
Application: If we must relate to a spiritually errant group, to be blessed of God, (1) may we trust in Isaac's God, Jesus Christ, for PERSONAL eternal life to become a spiritual son of God, John 1:11-13; 8:56-58. (2) Then, (a) trusting God to be SOVEREIGN in His eternal plan, (b) may we personally trust Him and heed His Word, for (c) God will SOVEREIGNLY overrule by TRIALS in the GROUP (d) to make room for us to be INDIVIDUALLY blessed!

Lesson: EVERYONE in Isaac's family exhibited UNBELIEF in God in handling the TENSION of the future roles of Jacob and Esau, leading to greater tensions! However, God SOVEREIGNLY fulfilled His prophecy by allowing ADDED TRIALS for JACOB to preserve His eternal plan!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

The Lord revealed last week how He has sovereignly begun to shield us from needless problems because we have trusted and heeded His Word versus the lot of many other Christian groups (as follows):

(1) You may recall we have taken the stand based on 1 Timothy 2:11-15 that men must always lead women, that women must focus on their home duties as their key ministries. Paul's reference in verse 13 there to the creative order reveals this applies not only to the home, but to all realms like business and government. Many evangelicals "fudge" on this, allowing women to lead men in Bible study ministries.

(2) You may also recall how we do not promote political views as a body opposite what Calvinist reconstructionists do. John 18:36 directs us to avoid making politics our Church ministry as we are not to establish God's earthly administrative kingdom -- Christ will do that!

(3) Yet, these passages are not heeded by many evangelicals, and that has led them into a testimony problem (as follows):

(a) When John McCain chose Sarah Palin to be his Vice Presidential running mate, many evangelical leaders publicly "warmly endorsed the nomination" according to David P. Gushee, "The Palin predicament" in the September 15, 2008 issue of USA TODAY, 15A.

(b) However, Mr. Gushee has used this endorsement to back these evangelical leaders into a corner: referring in this article to 1 Timothy 2:11-12, Gushee implied evangelicals should reject its application to church affairs like evangelicals have done in endorsing Sarah Palin to be vice president IN ORDER TO let women pastor churches! He asked: "If you agree that God can call a woman to serve as president . . . would you be willing to vote for a qualified woman to serve as pastor of your church? If not, why not?" (Ibid.)

(c) Additionally, at the local level, a believer asked my wife last Sunday how Sarah Palin could Biblically run as vice president without staying home to mother her child who has special needs!

So, by HEEDING 1 Timothy 2:11-15 and John 18:36 as we as an INDIVIDUAL body have done so that we have not endorsed any candidate, God has shielded us from the testimony problem of MANY evangelical GROUPS who have compromised these verses!



May we INDIVIDUALLY KEEP trusting God and heeding Him for blessing to avoid the TRIALS that afflict so many groups!