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We will begin, brothers and sisters, by singing Anthem 39, followed by a word of prayer. Anthem 39, the Lord is in his holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before him. Anthem 39. Great God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we can approach unto thee to call thee our Father, we bless and we praise thy name this day, and ask thy blessing upon our meditations upon thy word, that the entrance of thy word may give us understanding and make us wise, who are simple. Lead us, Lord, in the ways of righteousness and the ways of peace. Through Christ Jesus we ask this. Amen. Good morning, brothers and sisters. Our based very largely upon the second and third chapters of the book of Genesis. The book of Genesis, the beginning, the first book in the word of God, is the key to the understanding of much that follows later. It is the cornerstone, and I don't think it's twitching it too strongly to say that if we underestimate or we don't value the information that's given to us in the book of Genesis, that we are very easily likely to go astray when we come to later things. I think that the book of Genesis is just about one of the most important of the books in the word of God. And yet, because we've read it so often, we read it at the beginning of the year, these first few chapters of the book of Genesis, many of us can practically recite them off by heart. Because of our familiarity with them, I say, we tend to miss many of the intriguing, the fascinating details that God has given us in these chapters. With your permission this morning, I hope I shall be able to bring some of these wonderful things out for you. Having said that, I'd also like to say that the men who wrote the New Testament under the inspiration of God, were our leaders in our attempt to understand the book of Genesis. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself, you recall, on many an occasion, quoted from the book of Genesis. He quoted to prove the validity of one man, one woman. He quoted other passages. The writers of the New Testament, the rest of the New Testament, quote the book of Genesis several times over. They refer to Adam, they refer to Eve, they refer to all manner of things in the book of Genesis. And I say, we will use them as our leaders in our efforts to understand what Genesis is trying to tell us. So let us go in then, to the book of Genesis, to look at this man, Adam, his wife, Eve, the place where God put them, and the reason for which God put them there. Before we actually go into the book, I'd like to ask you to bear with me while I express a personal feeling. I sometimes wonder what it is that makes committees choose people like me to come and speak to people like you. And I think that the reason must be something like this, like this story. There was a vacancy for a Mississippi boat pilot, and three men applied for the job. And the first one went in and said, I've been sailing this river for ten years, and I've never hit a sand bank, a reef, a sunken log, a rock, or anything else. So the second one went in and said, well, I've been sailing this river for fifteen years, and I've never hit a sand bank, a reef, a sunken rock, or anything else for that matter. And the third one went in and said, I've been sailing this river for five years, and I've hit every rock, reef, sand bank, mud flat, and everything else. I know where they all are. And he got the job. I am very much in the position of that third pilot who applied for the job, and therefore I think I may be qualified for this particular task that has been laid before me this day. Let us then go into chapter two of the book of Genesis. Genesis chapter two. Let us begin by considering the garden itself first. Chapter two and verse eight. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the river went out of Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted and became four heads. And then it tells us that the name of the first is Pisan and gives the name of the other three. Let's dwell on these words for a few moments, brothers and sisters, because the details tend to elude us. First of all, let's remark on the fact that this is a strange thing for the Lord to do. The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden. If you turn back with me to chapter one and verses 11 and 12, you'll see why I say it is a strange thing for God to do. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth. And it was so, and the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself after his kind. And God saw that it was good. But what that statement or those two verses are saying to me is that God had just finished, not very long before chapter two begins, He had just finished planting up the whole of the planet with all of the vegetation that is upon it. Grass, herb, flower, fruit tree, the lot, all of these things all over the planet. And now He finds it necessary, verse eight of chapter two again, to plant a garden eastward in Eden. And that's a strange fact. If it doesn't strike you as strange, I think it should. Why does God bother to plant this garden? The ninth verse, out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. Notice that the man has already been made. In verse seven, the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground. And He takes him and puts him into this garden after he has planted it. Why has he planted this garden? Can we turn over to the book of Isaiah, to chapter 61? Isaiah chapter 61, I think, gives us the clue to all of this. Chapter 61, these verses you know well. Verse one, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Jesus, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Verse three, to comfort all that mourn, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the spirit of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that He might be glorified. Now those words remind me unmistakably of the Garden of Eden, that they might be called trees of righteousness out of the ground, may the Lord God to grow every tree. The planting of the Lord, the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden. So these men and women here in Isaiah chapter 61, are trees of righteousness planted so that He might be glorified. Where is God glorified? Answer, the Lord God is glorified in temples, in temples sometimes made with hands as in days of old, and nowadays in temples not made with hands, spiritual temples, men and women planted that He, the Lord God, might be glorified. And I suggest to you that with that in mind, that this is the reason why God planted this garden eastward in Eden. It was the temple of the living God. It was where Adam and his wife were to meet with the Lord God, to worship Him, to praise Him. And the more one thinks about that idea, the more attractive it becomes. For you now think of the New Testament in Ephesians where we are called living stones being built into a holy temple for the Lord, fit for His habitation, yes? And this garden doesn't have people in it, it has living stones, these trees which God has planted, living structures in this living temple. And it also makes sense of the fact that there is no temple here. It's a most striking omission, I think. There is no temple in the Garden of Eden. Why not? It is a temple. And perhaps you'd like to look with me at the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, and see the similarity of ideas between what I've been expressing and what is described in Revelation chapter 21 and 22. Chapter 22 first, where we can't miss, we cannot mistake the similarity between here and the Garden of Eden again. No possibility of error. Verse 1. And He showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, and in the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river was there the tree of life, which bear twelve manner of fruits and yielded her fruit every month. The river of life, trees of life, planted on either side of this river. It's a reconstruction of the Garden of Eden again. But look back now at chapter 21 and verse 22. It's a description of Jerusalem, the New Jerusalem. And I saw no temple therein. There wasn't a temple there. Why not? For the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it, and the city has no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine upon it. For the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. You see, I think that the whole city has become a temple to the living God. Similarly, in Genesis, the Garden of Eden is a temple to the living God. Where Adam was to meet and to worship him. It's a wonderful thought, brothers and sisters. So let's go back to the Genesis record, and let's now attempt to visualize this garden. I think it will repay us because of its sheer beauty and the wonder of it all. Genesis chapter 2 again, and verse 10. And the river went out of Eden to water the garden. Therefore, brothers and sisters, this garden must have been up on a mountain side, on the top of a mountain, because rivers flow downhill. Therefore, since this river goes out of Eden to water the garden, then it must have been, as I say, pretty high up somewhere. And what is more, this is an extraordinary river, most peculiar. It's back to front, totally back to front. Look at the next bit. From thence it was parted and became into four heads. Now every river that I know collects tributaries running into it, forming one main river. This one's the wrong way around. It starts off as one river and splits up into four. It was parted into four heads. And not four little fiddling tiny heads, either. You notice the name of these rivers. There's Gaihan. There's Hiddikel, which is an enormous river. There's Euphrates, another enormous river. So there must have been a colossal source of water where this river began. And it reminds me, doesn't it? It must remind you as well, of the prophecy in Ezekiel, where the water issues out of the temple, comes down and runs along, and in a very, very short time is so deep that a man can't walk over, because the water flood is so heavy, the depth is so great, the current is so strong. Sounds very much like that. And you remember that that was a prophecy of water coming out of a temple of the living gods. So we come back to the same idea, once again, by another route. What feature is there about a garden that distinguishes it from a field, brothers and sisters? In England, all the gardens, every single garden I've ever seen there, if it's in reasonable condition, has got a wall, a barrier, a fence or something around it. Therefore, the Garden of Eden must have had one as well. And we can prove this to you from chapter 3. Can you just turn over there with me? Chapter 3 and verse 24. So, it says, he drove out the man, and he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden the kerabim, and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the Tree of Life. Well, it wouldn't have been very bright, would it? To put the kerabim on the east side, if all that Adam had to do was to nip smartly round to the west, up over, and get in. It wouldn't have been too clever, would it? So therefore, brothers and sisters, we come to this conclusion, that the Garden of Eden was on this mountainside that I've described before, it must have had a wall, and must have been inaccessible on three sides, for some reason or the other. It had a wall, or something like that, around it. A bit more about the Garden of Eden. Let's go back again to verse 9 of chapter 2. Perhaps you've not thought about this, but it makes sense when we try to visualize this thing, to take these details that are given to us seriously. Verse 9. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. Every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. How many trees does that make? Or think. The firs, the poplars, the palms, the oaks, the spruces, the hundreds of different species, genera, the different kinds of, all over the place, one specimen of each that the Lord God takes to put in His Garden, to grow, to become these enormous great trees described in Ezekiel. How many trees do you think there were that were pleasant to the eyes, let alone good for food? Let's suppose there were two or three hundred of them. Let's suppose for the sake of argument. If there were two hundred trees, enormous ones, as Ezekiel said, and each one takes up an area of about, I don't know, two hundred square feet or whatever, that argues that this garden here was not like a garden as we understand it, but rather like a park, a much greater area extending probably as far as the eye could see in many directions. A huge place. A large, spacious, well-distributed, well-laid-out garden. Park perhaps would be a better idea to express it. And what about the next bit? Are the tree of life also in the midst of the garden? And the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Notice those words, in the midst of the garden. By that I understand that this was the geographical center of the garden, that God had measured it carefully, and then drawn the diagonals as it were, and planted those two specific trees, plum center, in the midst of the garden, as a centerpiece as it were, to all the other beautiful trees that he'd got all the way around. It takes the breath away to try and imagine that. It's just my imagination again. But I rather believe that the center of the garden was perhaps led up to those two trees, with an area of grass around it, with flowers growing around the edges, all leading up to this great centerpiece with these two wonderful trees there. And perhaps from between the two trees come running the waters of the tree of life, that the source was there. It began there and came out, to run out of the Garden of Eden. It must have been a wonderful place, brothers and sisters. There can't have been any trees like that before or since, that God planted and caused to grow. But more about that on Sunday. Now let's have a look at Adam himself, because he is the one that is the focal point of our attention this morning. God makes Adam, verse 7, of the dust of the ground, breathe into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul, a living creature. And he gets up. No, he doesn't. Let's imagine this again. The Lord God forms him, makes a model of him, of clay. There he is. And then God leans over him, and breathes into his nostrils the breath of life as it says, and he opens his eyes. And the first thing that he sees, is the face of the angel that has given him life. The face of God, the first thing that he beheld. Isn't that a wonderful thought? Reminding one so much of the Lord Jesus Christ, who died, lay in his tomb, and maybe the angel came and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he opens his eyes, and there is the angel of God that he has sent, to do this wonderful thing. But God is not going to give him eternal life just like that. He has to do something. Verse 15. And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it. What does that mean? To dress it, and to keep it. What does dress mean? It means to do the work that a gardener normally does. What does a gardener have to do normally? Well, if you don't like gardening, the way I don't like gardening, then you'll know only too well what a gardener has to do, because you don't do it. And your wife has words to say to you about the matter every so often, to keep you on your toes. What does a gardener have to do to dress his garden? Well, he has to get the weeds out. Aha, I heard you thinking. There weren't any weeds in the garden of Eden. You're wrong. I'll prove it to you, shall I? There were weeds there. You're thinking, thorns and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee. There weren't any thorns and thistles before then, were there? There maybe not have been thorns and thistles, but there was something much worse. Can we go back to chapter 1 and verse 11? Chapter 1 and verse 11. And God said, let the earth bring forth grass. Grass. Grass is the enemy of all gardeners in England. It grows everywhere. It grows where you want it to grow, and it grows where you don't want it to grow. It grows most prolifically where you don't want it to grow. You know, it just grows everywhere. And this, brothers and sisters, this is the beginning of all things, the beginning of the world. The soil is absolutely fertile to the nth degree, and you drop one seed of grass on the ground there, and 25 plants come up. And not only tiny little ones like that either, but they grow that high. Weeds, he had to do that. He had to get that grass out. He had to get all the seeds that were fluttering about the place, because these things brought forth seed. He had to get those plants out from where they ought not to have grown. He had to look after these things. And these trees that got put there were fruit trees. Every tree that was good for food, there were hundreds of fruit trees everywhere. And he couldn't eat them all. Not him and Eve, between the two of them. So what happened to the fruit then? They ripened, they dropped off onto the ground, and would have rotted there if a gardener didn't come round to pick them up. So he had that to do as well. But it was rather a big job, brothers and sisters. If this place was an enormous park, as I'm suggesting to you that it was, if it was a great large expanse of garden, he'd have his job cut out doing all this, looking after all this area. But he had two jobs. One was to dress it, to look after it, as I've been suggesting to you there, and the other was to keep it. And that word in the Hebrew is related to the word for a watchman. He had to act as a watchman over this garden, to prevent things, enemies, from getting in. Enemies? From getting in? There weren't anybody else around to come in and steal? Yes, there were. Yes, there were. Supposing, brothers and sisters, in the beginning of all things, God created this great, massive herd of brontosaurus. And supposing these brontosaurus decided to take a canter through the Garden of Eden, what do you think would be left after they had finished? Not a lot, I suggest to you. And so Adam had to keep these things out. To keep it. To stop it from being flattened. To stop it from being eaten. To stop the trees from being damaged. He had to do all that. He had his work cut out. But while he was dressing the garden, he couldn't be keeping it. And while he was at the gate on the east side, he couldn't be dressing it. So he was split down the middle between dressing and keeping. And God sees that this isn't right. Verse 18. The Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him and help meet for him. And so he made his wife. Let's get those words again. Verse 18 of Genesis chapter 2. It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him and help meet for him. This is the function of his wife. First of all, a help, meet, fitting, answering for him. But now we see the problems beginning. Notice, brothers and sisters, that this is the world's first wedding. Verse 21. The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept. And he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man made he into a woman and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. This is the first wedding in the world, brothers and sisters. And notice it takes place, if you'll pardon the expression, in church. Because the Garden of Eden is a temple, and the first marriage takes place in a temple before the Living God. But there's something of great importance that must be mentioned here. If this was a temple, if this was the beginning of the people of God, then there must have been a high priest in all this. There must have been someone whose job it was and would have been to lead the worship of the people. Who was it? Answer, Adam, the high priest, the first high priest in the house of God. And the high priest speaks the word of God. He prophesies, or at least he did in later times. And you notice those words in verse 24 of chapter 2. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. And the Lord Jesus says that he which made them at the beginning said this. So God said that. It wasn't anybody else. It was God who said that. But when you read it in verse 23, brothers and sisters, does it not strike you as if it is Adam who's saying this? This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. It reads almost as if it's Adam that's saying that. You see, if Adam is God's high priest, then it is really God speaking through him on this particular occasion. And that makes sense. But the function of a high priest is also to convey knowledge to the people. The priest's lips should keep knowledge. And we notice in all our reading that nowhere does it say that God commanded Eve that she should not touch the two trees, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Nowhere does God tell Eve that. He tells Adam, verse 16, And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayst freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Didn't tell Eve? Therefore we have here a picture that God is conveying knowledge to his priest who is to convey it to his people. And this is where the tragedy begins. Because Adam didn't do his job as he should. Notice now the third chapter, verse 1 and 2. Temptation comes, trouble comes, trials come. Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden. Adam did not do his job as he should, brothers and sisters. You remember one of his functions was to keep the garden, to watch over it as a watchman. He, Adam had named that serpent and the word for serpent seems in the Hebrew to be very closely related for that word for a deceiver. Therefore somehow, I don't know how, Adam knew or had the idea that this serpent was deceptive. Therefore he should have kept it out of the garden. Therefore he should have got a stick and at the first appearance of it he should have beaten it black and blue to get it out of the garden. He should have done. But he didn't. And what's more, there are conversations here with the serpent. Do you see that first word? And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God, it's a continuation of a conversation that's taken place previously. Yea, hath God said, there's been some talk between them before. Why didn't Adam chase that thing out? I don't know. How did it get there? It flew. It flew into the garden. Because when God curses, it says, on your belly shalt thou go. Therefore it either walked or it flew. And I suggest to you that it flew. And this is the origin of the legends concerning all these winged dragons and what not. It flew into the garden, landed on this wonderful tree and begins to talk to this woman. Now brothers and sisters, put yourself in the position of a serpent for a moment. You've just flown into the garden of Eden. You've just landed on this tree. And there are some wonderful looking fruit there. What would you be tempted to do? What would be your inclination? I'll tell you what mine would be. I'd be tempted to have a taste, see what it looked like. Because remember, these two trees are trees of wonder. Magnificent beyond description. Wonderful things. I'd be tempted to eat it. And I feel sure in my own mind that this is what did happen. That the serpent did eat of that fruit. And these words in verses 4 and 5 and so on make a little bit more sense if we think that. Imagine the force of this, brothers and sisters. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not chomp, munch, chew, surely die, crunch. For God doth know, chomp, chomp, that in the day that ye eat thereof, munch, chew, your eyes shall be opened. And ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when she saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and the tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit. She saw all that. Number one, it was good for food. Number two, it was pleasant to the eyes. And number three, it was going to make her wise. How could she see such a thing? Brothers and sisters, put yourself in the position of someone beginning to learn chemistry. You go into the chemistry laboratory and the professor says to you, look, you see that glass of stuff over there? Look, you see it? Have a good look. It contains arsenic. It'll poison you if you drink it. It looks like water but it's not. Don't touch it. Well, you know that the professor knows his job. You know that all that he has said so far has come to pass. Would you therefore think about going to drink that, drink out of that glass? Now, they knew that whatever God had said had come to pass. After all, they were the products of his word. Would they touch that tree? Would they eat that tree? Unless, unless they saw something that made them think otherwise, look at how strongly Adam had planted this idea in this woman's mind. Verse two, Eve said, Adam, that is a poison tree there. If you even touch it, you're going to die. Exaggerating. Don't touch it. Eve was convinced of this. That was poison. That was not to be touched, far less eaten. And there she is now, bold enough to take that fruit and to eat it. She saw that it was good for food. She saw that it was pleasant to the eyes. She saw that it would make her wise like it had done to the serpent, which could now speak and reason in a way that it never had been able to do before. I wonder if it was like that, brothers and sisters. Now, let's consider Adam's role in all this. Where was Adam at this time? Answer, he was standing right there. Verse six, Brothers and sisters, I think if I was Adam, at that juncture, if I had any respect at all for what God had told me, I'd have said to Eve, Eve, you see this stick here? If you touch that tree, I shall beat you black and blue. Don't you dare touch it. And Eve might have listened to me. Since I had beaten her black and blue on many previous occasions. But did he do that? Did he stand there saying, Eve, don't touch it. Eve, don't eat it. Eve, no way. And he did eat. Willingly and with malice, a forethought. He chose voluntarily, willingly, with his eyes wide open, knowingly, to do what God had said he should not do. He chose to do wrong. And therefore, although Eve was deceived, Adam went into this with his eyes, his mind, and everything else wide open. Why? Because he wanted to be, as it says, as God's, knowing, good, and good. What a remarkable thing that a man should choose that instead of all those privileges that God had given to him. For instance, it infuriates me that this man should do a thing like this. Make no mistake about it. This is not merely eating of a fruit. It is a lifting up of the hand against God. It is a rebellion against everything that God had told him. It is willful, perverse, rebellious action. You know that there's a law in physics, don't you, that says every action has an equal and an opposite reaction. You know that as well as I do. Therefore, from that one act, since all the sin, all the misery, all the disease, all the suffering, all the death that has come upon mankind, since that time has flowed from that one action, then this is no little sin. It is a sin of the highest, most perverse, and evil character. Brothers and sisters, we don't do well to say that it was Eve's fault. The New Testament makes it abundantly plain that it wasn't. I'd like to show this to you in the fifth chapter of the Letter to the Romans, Romans chapter 5. Perhaps if you've got your pencil or your pen there, you might like to number these as we go along and make sure that I've got the number correct. Perhaps you can agree on one point before we actually look at this passage. Here is the point I'd like to have your agreement on. If God says something one time, he's serious about it. If he says it twice, then it is really, really serious. If he says it three times, well, would you believe? Would you believe God if he says it ten times? Ten times? Let's count them. Chapter 5 and verse 12. Mark and little numbers we go along by the side of these to get the number right. Wherefore, as by number one, one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, verse 14, nevertheless, death reigned from Adam, not Eve, Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of number three, Adam's transgression, who was a figure of him that was to come. In the middle of verse 15, for if through the offense of one, four times, that's Adam, many be dead, verse 16, and not as it was by one Adam that sinned, that's five times, so is the gift, for the judgment was by one Adam, six, to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. For number seven, if by one man's offense, death reigned by one, eight, that's Adam again, verse 18, therefore, as by the offense of one man, Adam, judgment came upon all men to condemnation, verse 19, for as by one man's disobedience, ten times, many were made sinners, and so by the obedience of one, shall many be made righteous, ten times. Friends, as it says it there, unless I'm very sadly mistaken, ten times that it was Adam who sinned first, not Eve. We have all said for so many years that it was Eve's fault. Well, what about that passage in first of Timothy? Shall we have a look at that? First of Timothy, chapter two, and verse 13. For Adam was first formed, and then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression, and the Greek creates in my mind at any rate that she became involved or caught up in the transgression, that she was not a prime mover in it at all. So brothers, let's look seriously again at the position and the privileges that God gave to this man and to this woman. He was God's high priest. He was put into God's temple. He was the one who should have conveyed knowledge to his wife and to his children when they had children. He was the one that in the most ideal of circumstances chose to do that which was wrong, evil, in the sight of God. And here are we today in idyllic circumstances, husbands, wives, children of the most high God, to become kings and priests unto him in the ages to come. Let us, brothers and sisters, this day resolve that as we have seen that this man has sinned so sadly and so evilly before God, choosing to turn his back on the things of God, put them behind him, and thereby bring sin, death, misery, and suffering upon all of his children and upon himself, that we ourselves, when the time comes, and we shall expand upon this later in the week, when the time comes, we shall value our privileges and act as if we deserve them, and we are going to do something to deserve what God has given to us. Let us not forsake our privileges. We shall enumerate them. We shall go into them in great detail. But let us this day, if nothing else, resolve that here are our privileges, exceeding great and precious promises. We shall treat them as such.

Transcript

Let us begin, brothers and sisters, by singing together hymn number 37, which we will follow with a word of prayer. Hymn number 37, the Lord is my shepherd, I'll not want. O Lord our God, the shepherd of Israel, the shepherd of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has this very day, we bless and we praise thy name, thanking thee for thy word, which is able to make us wise unto salvation. Thanking thee for our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we may have forgiveness of our sins. Thanking thee for his kindness and his tenderness, that he leads his little ones and those who are with young tenderly and with compassion. Look down with compassion and mercy upon us this day, O God. Open our hearts and our eyes and our ears to the messages contained in thy word, that seeing and hearing them, we may take them and put them into practice in our lives, that we may be better pleasing servants of thine. Hear our prayer, O Lord, for we offer it through Jesus' name. Amen. As an introduction, brothers and sisters, brother Brian McLeod will lead us in the reading of Genesis chapter 4 verses 1 to 17 inclusive. Now Adam kneweth his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. And again she bore his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep and Cain a tiller of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel in his offering, but for Cain in his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. The Lord said to Cain, Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is couching at the door, it is desirous for you, but you must master it. Cain said to Abel his brother, Let us go out to the field. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, Where is Abel your brother? He said, I do not know, am I my brother's keeper? And the Lord said, What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground, and now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength. You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. Cain said to the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me this day away from the ground, and from thy face I shall be hidden. And I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will slay me. Then the Lord said to him, Not so, if any one slays Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. And the Lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who come upon him should kill him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he built a city, and called the name of that city after the name of his son, Enoch. I understand, brother and sister, is it there? I've been in a large number of inquiries as to just where I come from, who I am, and what I do. So perhaps to save you asking too many more questions, perhaps I can just tell you briefly who I am. My name's Wilfred Alley. I was born in the West Indies in a country called British Guyana, as was. It's now called Guyana. It's on the north coast of South America. I live for about eight years in Trinidad, two more years or thereabouts in Barbados, and for the last ten or so years I've been living in Birmingham, in England, with my wife Sue, who's sitting over there, looking very red. So I hope that settles any questions in your minds. Remember that South America is just below North America, over on that side. This morning we are going to deal with Cain and Abel. But first of all, I'd just like to recover or recapitulate a few of the things we said yesterday. We saw that the Garden of Eden, I suggested to you, was a temple to the living God. We suggested that Adam was God's high priest, that Eve and the children that they would later have would have been the people of God. We suggested that the fault or the main sin in this unhappy incident in Genesis chapter 3 was really Adam's fault, and God himself puts the blame on Adam ten times in Romans chapter 5. And all in all, you have probably gathered that I don't have a particularly high opinion of Adam himself. I have a far higher opinion of Eve in this particular instance here, because notice that to her is the promise of the Messiah between thy seed and her seed. And if that's not a blessing, I'm not quite sure what is. And my impression of Adam is rather confirmed when we come into the fourth chapter of the book of Genesis. We find in the first verse this simple statement, perhaps to which you've not given due weight. And Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bare came, and she said, I have gotten a man from the Lord. Now, there's a problem in the translation of that verse. Many of the versions have it in different ways. And the problem arises from one peculiar fact about Hebrew. In Hebrew, there's a particle, a small word, which cannot be translated into English, and it's the word ath. And it always, or very, very, very, very often, marks out the object of a sentence. So when we read that she said, I have gotten a man from the Lord, the problem in translation is that it really says, I have gotten a man is the Lord. In other words, the word the Lord is the object of that sentence, which means, I suppose, that what she is really saying, that I have gotten a man, and that man is the Lord. That Eve is really saying that this man Cain, who I have now begotten, is probably the one who God promised me back in Genesis chapter 3. Thy seed and her seed, who is going to bruise thy head. And if you accept that concept, then you see that Eve is exercising the greatest faith in the promise of God in Genesis chapter 3. And it's another little mark, another little pointer in the direction that this woman really was a woman of faith. And you notice it's not her husband that names the child. He doesn't seem to be interested, he doesn't seem to care. Maybe that's pitching it too strongly. But certainly, it is Eve who does the naming of Cain. But now, brothers and sisters, let's leave that point there for a moment, and we'll return to it later on. And now, let's have a look at the other concept that there was a very great amount of knowledge of God and of His laws in the book of Genesis. Remember, I suggested to you yesterday that the Garden of Eden was a temple. A temple is not without its rights. A temple is not without its laws, its regulations, and the instructions which govern the behavior of those who go into it. Now, we also notice in chapter 3 that there is the institution of sacrifice. Because the Lord God makes coats of skins and clothes them to cover their nakedness, to cover their skin. And in that one verse, we also have the institution of animal sacrifices as distinct from plant sacrifices. That the sacrifice of an animal, the shedding of blood, would put away sin. I think sometimes we do, the people in the book of Genesis particularly, a great injustice in thinking that they were, well, they didn't have quite as much understanding as we have. I think that's completely wrong. These men in the book of Genesis, described from the very beginning here and coming down to our time, these men were our fathers. And the children are very rarely greater than their fathers. And since we, with our brains and modern technology, our inventions and so forth, have produced all of these wonderful things we see in our cities, then the potential, at least, must have been present in the brains of these men. They weren't fools. They were intelligent, logical, reasonable people. Wicked, yes, but not thick, not stupid. And now let's have a look, well, through the book of Genesis, just a quick scampus through the book of Genesis, let's look at some of the indications of how much was known about the sacrifices and the demands of God. Have a look with me, for instance, at verse 16 of chapter 4. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. How can you go out from the presence of the Lord? The presence of the Lord is everywhere. God is everywhere by his spirit. Therefore, this expression, the presence of the Lord, must mean something else. And what I take it to mean is that it means the place where God had put his name, where God was worshiped, where God met with men, the place where the Lord was present. Cain goes out from the presence of the Lord. Let's go down a bit into chapter 14 of Genesis and notice there the description of Melchizedek. Genesis chapter 14 and verse 18. And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought forth bread and wine. And he was priest of the Most High God. And he blessed him, and he blessed and said, blessed be Abram of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be the Most High God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. So they were priests. Melchizedek was a priest. Abraham, you recall the psalm says, was also a prophet. Look down a bit further and we see there in the 14th verse, I'm sorry, the 24th verse. I'm sorry, I've lost my reference. Verse 21. And the king of Sodom says to Abram, give me the persons and take the goods to thyself. I'm sorry, I've really lost this verse where it says that Abram gave him tithes. He paid him tithes of all that he had taken from these men. Verse 20. That's right, I'm sorry. Thank you very much. And blessed be the Most High God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thine hand, and he gave him tithes, a tenth of all. So they had the practice of tithing as well. Let's think also of Noah offering up the sacrifices after he came out of the ark. Let's think also of Abram offering sacrifices unto God. Let's think into the book of Exodus where Jethro is described as a priest of Midian. Let's think also of Tamar who was threatened with being burnt because she was an adulteress. And you begin to see that there's a great deal more to suggest that these people worship God in the way that is appointed in the law of Moses than perhaps you would first thought. And at this point I'd like to suggest to you that you have a good look at Blunt's Undesigned Scriptural Coincidences. He goes into great detail there and collects a lot of this information in a very short space. And I couldn't do a better job than he has done. Blunt's Undesigned Scriptural Coincidences is a book which is highly recommended reading for every Christadelphian who believes that this is the word of God. It is a most wonderful compilation. But let's go back to the story of Cain and Abel. Back to Genesis chapter 4. Now let's put ourselves into the picture correctly here. It says in verse 1 that she bare Cain and said, I have gotten a man, even the Lord, whose is the Lord. She thought that Cain was the seed who would deliver them from the sins. Verse 2, she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. So Abel was a shepherd, Cain was an agriculturalist, a farmer. Now there's nothing wrong with being an agriculturalist, a farmer. There's nothing wrong with being a shepherd. There's nothing, no great virtue in being a shepherd over being someone who deals with produce from the ground. There is no great virtue in it. But what there is, expressed very clearly I think in this story, is the principle of obedience to the will of God. Let's read the next verse. It came to pass in the process of time that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. When it says in the process of time, if you have a look in your margin there, it helps us where it says at the end of days. It means at the end of the year, the days of the year. A year had gone round and it had come to its end. What's so special about the end of a year? Well, brothers and sisters, think back with me into the law of Moses now. You recall that the first month was the month that the Passover took place, the month of Nisan. In the seventh month was the day of atonement, the feast of tabernacles, the feast of ingathering, the feast of trumpets in the seventh month. And the seventh month was also the first month of the Jewish civil year. So it was the beginning of a new year and the end of an old one. And I suggest to you, this is what's happening here. It is at that time of the year, round there in that part of the calendar, that the feast of ingathering or a feast of ingathering is taking place. And they are all coming to the Lord with these fruits of the ground on Cain's part and Abel bringing the flux that he had brought, that he had reared. But there's trouble, trouble in the family. Cain is the older brother, Abel is the younger. Now the older brother in all of the families of Scripture, going down up to the time that God chose Levi, the eldest brother was always the one who was the priest of the family. You remember God took Levi instead of the firstborn, the eldest. The eldest brother was the priest of the family. So in this case here, Cain is the priest of the family. Abel is less than him, Abel is inferior. But since Cain is the priest of the family and the priest's lips should keep knowledge and he should know about the regulations that God has commanded, Cain knew, Cain should have known that God did not want vegetable sacrifices instead of animal sacrifices for the putting away of sin. He knew, there's no doubt about it in my mind. He knew full well that that was the case. And he brings of the fruit of the ground an offering to the Lord. Here God, this is what I've got. You take it or you leave it. Abel on the other hand is different. Notice that fourth verse. And Abel, he also brought, and I think you should read that as meaning, that Abel brought in addition to the firstlings of the flock, he also brought the fruit of the ground. It's two sets of things that are being described here. He also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. Notice, brothers and sisters, the firstlings of his flock, that which was demanded by God in sacrifice. Notice the fat thereof. Remember in the law of Moses, the fat was specially holy to the Lord and it was not to be eaten. Abel brings animal sacrifices and the fat thereof. Clear evidence that they knew what God wanted and that God had told them what he wanted too. Abel is careful. Abel brings exactly what God demands. And a bit more. Cain, who cares, says Cain. I don't. And it says in the fifth verse, I'm sorry, the end of the fourth verse, and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering. And one of the versions, one of the ancient versions, translates that as he sets it on fire. He sets it on fire. As it were, he offers it on the altar and down from heaven comes fire, consumes the offering of Abel, and there is the offering of Cain sitting there in his baskets and God doesn't really want to know. And so, to Cain, verse five, and to his offering, he had not respect. He didn't want to know. And so Cain is angry. And Cain was very wroth. And his countenance fell. I think, brothers and sisters, that this is what we might describe as a public humiliation of Cain. Don't think for one moment that these are little boys. They are not little boys. They are in their thirties, I'm fairly sure. They are grown men. And by this time, Adam and Eve must have had other children as well. And those children must have had children. And I would not be surprised in the slightest to find out that Cain had got children and that Abel had had children. I don't know. But I would not be surprised at all to find that out. And everybody's gathered, as we are today perhaps, to worship the Lord. There's Cain bringing his offering there and Abel bringing his offering there. And down from heaven comes the fire, burns up the sacrifices, and leaves Cain untouched. And everybody says to themselves, well, God doesn't want Cain's offering. And Cain is very wrath. And his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wrath? Why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, if you do the right thing, that which I have commanded you, shalt thou not be accepted? And that doesn't make sense. But if we look at the marginal rendering of that, you'll see it says, If thou doest well, shalt thou not have the excellency? And that doesn't make much sense either, does it? But if you turn with me now to the 49th chapter of the book of Genesis, to Genesis chapter 49, and the third verse, you'll see another instance of the law of Moses, or the law which was codified in the law of Moses, in operation here. Genesis 49 and verse 3. Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength. The excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power. Unstable as water, thou shalt not, revised version, have the excellency, because thou wentest up to thy father's bed, then defileth thou it. He went up to my couch. In other words, Reuben had defiled his father's bed, and had been thrown out from being the firstborn. He had been thrown out from the privileges of being the eldest son. He had lost it, and they had been transferred to Joseph and to Judah. Now in Genesis chapter 4, it's the same thing. If thou doest well, shalt thou not have the excellency, be the firstborn, be the priest, be the one that I accept, the one that has all the rights and the privileges? Yes, of course you would. Of course he doesn't want to. He doesn't want to know. Next bit of the sentence makes even less sense. And if thou doest well, if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. Now that's the most difficult piece of scripture to understand, but let's see what it means. First of all, if he doesn't do well, sin is lying at the door. What door? Answer, the door of the tabernacle, the door of the place where they were meeting, the door of the place described as the presence of the Lord. There is a door. What about sin lieth at the door? Well, I understand that in Hebrew, the word for sin can just as easily be understood to mean a sin offering. And what this could mean is, if thou doest not well, a sin offering is lying at the door. In other words, Abel, his brother, had brought sheep and put them, and left them outside the door of the tabernacle out there as a sin offering, as a possible sin offering for his brother, if only his brother would accept it. If thou doest not well, there is a way to cleanse your sin. It's outside there, lying at the door. You've got to take it. And unto thee shall be his desire, Abel's desire. Abel will look up to you, because once more you are the high priest instead of him. And thou shalt rule over him, Abel. Because of your iniquity, Cain, you are in this miserable position. I have rejected you, but there's a way back. Take it, and you will have the excellency once more. Well, there are some people you can talk to like that, and there are some people you can't. And Cain is obviously one of those that you can't. And Cain, verse 8, talked with Abel his brother. And it came to pass when they were in the field that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him. Brothers and sisters, if ever you needed proof that these were not little boys, here it is. Little children don't get up and smash stones into the skulls of their brothers, but this is a grown man, full of hatred, full of anger, full of wrath, picking up a stone or a knife or something and smashing his brother into the ground with it, breaking his skull in. There is Abel lying on the ground, quite dead. But Cain isn't a fool. He buries him. He must bury him. You can't leave him to lie out in the field like that. And we know this because of the tenth verse. The voice of thy brother's blood cryeth unto me from the ground, brackets, where you have buried him and dug a hole and stuck him in. Cain, where is Abel thy brother? As if God didn't know. Brothers and sisters, this is a consistent feature of scripture all the way through, that God gives them a chance to turn around and to repent. Cain, where is Abel thy brother? Where is he? God knew. Adam, where art thou? He knew where he was. Saul, Saul, why persecutes thou me? He knew. But he's not asking him to improve his knowledge. He's asking him to give him an opportunity to repent. Where is Abel thy brother? Had Cain said, I have slain him, then you can see that the relationships would have been different. But not Cain. I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper? And he said, what hast thou done? He's still asking. I know what you've done. But what hast thou done? Confess. The voice of thy brother's blood cryeth unto me from the ground. I can hear him crying, says God. I can hear him. He's dead. And I know that you've killed him. And now cursed art thou from the ground, which has opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength. A fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth. And now brothers and sisters, we come to the strangest, I think, quite the strangest part of the story. This 13th and 14th verse. I think, and I may be pitching it too strongly, and I hope you'll forgive me if you think I am. I think that in this verse, Cain confesses and Cain is forgiven. Look at the proof of this. Cain said unto the Lord, Margin, mine iniquity is greater than that it may be forgiven. Mine iniquity is greater than that it may be forgiven. He admits to God the enormity of the crime that he has committed. I have killed him, and it's too much to expect forgiveness for this. Behold, verse 14. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth, and from thy face shall I be hid. Because I have sinned, you will not turn your face towards me. You will turn away from me, O God. And I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth. And here now, in the next verse, in the next part of the verse, is another illustration of the law of Moses. That it shall come to pass that everyone, our revised version, whosoever findeth me shall slay me. It's an element of the law of Moses. When someone was slain, the avenger of blood went after him to kill him. And he says, this is the avenger of blood that Cain's worried about here. Maybe Abel's children, I don't know. And God says, this is not going to be so. Now, brothers and sisters, we have this question mark of this sign, or this mark that is put upon Cain. What exactly was it? Well, just before we try to answer that question, can I just review briefly the elements of the law of Moses that we've found in this chapter so far? There's blood sacrifice. There's fat. There's a priesthood. There's the law of the firstborn. There's the law of the avenger of blood. There's the law of displacing the firstborn if he didn't behave himself. We see sin offerings. We see a tabernacle. We see the law against murder. We see punishment of crime. All these things are elements of the law of Moses. And now, can it be a surprise that this last 15th verse here that we've come to contains another one? When a man was going to flee from the avenger of blood, where did he go? Answer, he went to a city of refuge. And I think this is what is happening here, that God appoints a place of refuge for Cain where he would be safe from the avenger of blood so that he would not be slain by that man who had come after him. And where is that place likely to be? There weren't any cities, or not that we're told of, there weren't any cities, but there was a place. Verse 16. And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord. Do you remember when Solomon sent his captain to slay Joab? Do you remember what Joab did? Joab fled. Joab ran where? To the tabernacle and took hold of the horns of the altar. And Solomon said, go and get him out of there and kill him. Because the horns of the altar, the tabernacle, was one of the places of refuge. One of the cities of refuge. And therefore, I suggest that what's happening here is that God says to Cain, right Cain, I will appoint a place of refuge for you, but it is in my tabernacle. You have got to stay there. If you go out, you will be slain and your blood will be on your own head. Well, the tabernacle is the tabernacle. It's the place of worship of God. It is the place where those whose hearts are right before God will find some rest and some ease and be glad and rejoice. But Cain, the atmosphere of holiness is far too much for people like him. He can't stand it. And he stays there for a while and then he can't stand it and he goes out. Verse 16. Why does he build a city? It's his own city of refuge where he thought he was going to be safe. And he calls the name of the city after his son. Enoch. And so, brothers and sisters, another sorry story. A man named Cain, who was a man of God, forsaking willfully, deliberately with malice of forethought the privileges which God has given to him. Let us, as I said yesterday, take time out once a week or twice a week or more if possible to sit down and reckon up our privileges before God and say to ourselves just how much do we value these privileges and let us act as if we do. And what about Abel? The blood of the Lord Jesus, it says, speaketh better things than that of Abel. It is to this point that I'd like to diverge a bit for the rest of this session for the next ten minutes or so. Abel was a shepherd. So was the Lord Jesus. Out of thee shall come forth he that shall be ruler or shepherd of my people Israel. And those in the New Testament are also called shepherds. Can we turn to the first of Peter and look briefly at some of the functions of shepherds. Look briefly at that which the shepherds had to do. First of Peter chapter 5 and verses 1 to 4 because there are profound exhortations that come from this and some which need to be drawn out at length. The elders, verse 1, which are among you, I exhort, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Now notice carefully that this is to the elders, the senior members of the meeting, the arranging brethren. Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint because somebody's twisting your arm to do it, but willingly, not for filthy lucre because you're getting paid for it, but of a ready mind because you want to do the job. Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Those words need serious thought. The elders are being called the shepherds. What's a shepherd? A shepherd is somebody who looks after his sheep. And now, brothers and sisters, a shepherd must be a man or a woman who knows the state of the flock, who cares about the state of the flock, who cares about his or her brethren and sisters. We are all when it boils down to it somebody's shepherd or the other. Look around your meeting. There are those there who are strong in the faith. They've been there for years. They are firm. They can resist all manner of temptations and problems. They are the pillars of the meeting. Those need to turn in their turn now and help others. Those who are young in the faith, those who have marital problems, those who have difficult children, those who have teenage children that are pre -presenting problems. All of these and many more situations arise which need the compassionate eye of a shepherd. Which shepherd, you think, would say to himself, right, this sheep of mine is sick, kick him out of the flock. I have done well. My flock is now safe. Which shepherd would do that? It would be a grievous loss to him if he did such a thing, brethren and sisters. And so it should be when one of our brethren is sick, he wants to leave the meeting because he has believed something that we think is not true. What's the first step that we should take? The last step that we should take is to kick him out of the door. The first step should never ever be that. It should be to go to him with the attitude that we are a shepherd, we are shepherds, we care about this man or this woman, we are interested in your problems. Let's talk about it. Discuss it sympathetically rather than with a rod. I've very rarely read in scripture or anywhere else about a shepherd taking a rod and beating his sheep. Very, very rarely. And yet so often this is our attitude. That's the very first sign of trouble. We cut off, we chop, we shove to one side, we axe, we do everything that a shepherd would never do. Yes, there comes a time when the infection is too great, when it does need cutting off. But it should then be done, if at all, with love, with great sorrow, with regret, rather than saying to ourselves, oh, well, he's gone now, problems are finished. We can get on with the business of being in the truth. Too often is it like that, brothers and sisters. Tend the flock of God which is among you. Feed them, heal them, give them water to drink, look after them, because sheep are basically stupid. And if it doesn't please you to be likened to a sheep, then please rest assured it is not me that's doing it. It's the Word of God. Sheep are basically stupid. And those who have intelligence need to be the ones that take great care of these sheep. I'm very much minded, brothers and sisters, of the 40th chapter of the Book of Isaiah. Perhaps I can just draw your attention briefly to them, to that passage. Isaiah chapter 40 needs a bit of serious meditation concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Wonderful passage dealing with Jesus. Verse 10. Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him. Ah, there we have it. We're going to beat them black and blue. Is it? Behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs in his arm, because they're too little, their legs just won't hold them up for the journey that they're going. He shall carry them in his bosom, and he shall gently lead those that are with young. Is that a description of the way you shepherd your particular flock? Your husbands, your wife, and your children? You mothers, your children, and your neighbors, and acquaintances? You preachers, is this how you preach to the outside? Or do you take the stick and beat them over the head with it until they see the truth, or at least see stars? Brothers and sisters, this is totally removed from that sort of spirit, isn't it? He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. When they need food, he'll take them to the right place where they can get some grass that they might enjoy and eat. He shall gather the lambs in his arm and carry them in his bosom. There's a picture of a shepherd with one lamb there, perhaps another lamb there, walking along, going back to the fold or wherever, but taking care of them so that the big bullies, the rams and the others won't trample on them, won't put them, won't shove them to one side. He shall gently lead those that are with young. The pregnant ewes, the ones who are bearing children, the ones who are preaching in our midst, the ones who are about to give birth to children. You can't treat a mother who's just about to have a baby, seven months along, and you can't treat her like a long-distance runner. He shall gently lead those that are with young. Push them if they need help, but certainly help. You see, the spirit of it, it's not at all one of beating, pushing, pounding, kicking, biting, gouging, scratching. It's loving. That's the word, I think, that describes this. He loves his sheep. He laid down his life for his sheep. And brothers and sisters, before you cut one of those sheep off, before you amputate them, before you throw them to the wolves outside there, think once, twice, ten times, because that is a person for whom Christ died. You didn't die for them. Maybe if you died for them, you could throw them out. Think. Feed the flock of God which is among you. Let us each look round in our own circles and see those for whom we are shepherds. Let us see whether we are giving them the appropriate and correct instruction, whether we are building them up rather than tearing them down. Brothers and sisters, the theme of a shepherd is a wonderful one. It demands much more meditation than, unfortunately, we can give this morning. Cain killed his brother because his brother was good. Let us follow the example of that man and the Lord Jesus and do good to our brethren, however ungrateful and ungracious they might be as a result of it. That's what God would have us do. We'll conclude with a word of prayer after we've sung hymn number 73. O Lord, the Almighty, our shepherd, our keeper, our guard, our guide and our friend, we raise our hearts to thee this morning in thanks and in love and in adoration for the wonders of thy word and for the beauty that is in its pages and thanking thee for the love that thou hast shown to us the sinful sons of men to call us thy children. Help us, O Lord, to value or write our privileges, that we should take them up with strong hand and walk with faith and with love and with hope before thee in the paths of righteousness all the days of our life. Hear our prayer, O Lord, our God and our shepherd, and accept our thanksgiving through Christ Jesus who died for us. Amen.

Transcript

Let us begin, brethren and sisters, by singing together hymn number 289. Most glorious things are spoken, Jerusalem of thee. Please remain seated while we offer a word of prayer. O great God, God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, who has promised to raise from the dead those who serve thee and believe in thy promises, to thee this day we lift our hearts in thanksgiving, to bless thee and to praise thy name, for all thy wondrous goodness, and for all thy bountiful kindness to us, the children of men. And, O Lord, we thank thee for the great and precious promises which we espouse, made to thy servants, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. On this day, as we contemplate the lives of Jacob and his brother Esau, we pray that thou wouldst turn our feet aside from the paths of evil, that we may choose that which is good, and so please thee, our God and our Father, through Christ Jesus we ask these things. Amen. As an introduction to the subject, brothers and sisters, we shall read together, or we shall be led together in the reading of Genesis chapter 25, verses 19 through to the end. And Brother Jim Priest has kindly consented to lead us in that reading. Genesis chapter 25, verse 19. And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham beget Isaac, and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel, the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban, the Syrian. And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. And the children struggled together within her. And she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels. And the one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger. And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, they were twins in her womb. And the first came out red, all over like a hairy garment. And they called his name Esau. And after that came his brother out. And his hand took hold on Esau's heel, and his name was called Jacob. And Isaac was three score years old when she bare them. And the boys grew, and Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field. And Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents. And Isaac loved Esau, because he did eat of his venison. But Rebekah loved Jacob. And Jacob sawed potage, and Esau came from the field, and he was faint. And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red potage, for I am faint. Therefore was his name called Edom. And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die, and what profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day. And he swear unto him, and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and potage of lentils. And he did eat and drink, and rose up and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. We have in this story, this before us this morning, brothers and sisters, the third example this week of a man who despised, a man who forsook all of the mighty privileges which God gave him. And it is from that that we shall take our lessons this day. Let's go in then at the 19th verse. These are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son. Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Fadanarum, the sister of Laban the Syrian. You notice that in verse 26 that it states there that Isaac was 63 score years old when she bare the children, which means that there was a gap there of 20 years in which she was barren, in which she had no child. This was obviously a matter of considerable distress, a matter of considerable concern. So the logical thing is that Isaac does in verse 21 is to entreat the Lord for his wife because she was barren. I'd like to pause there for a minute, brothers and sisters, and think around this question here that is before us. Isaac, not having a child for 20 years, entreats the Lord that he might have a child. Abraham, his father, had been for a much longer time without a child, and yet we never ever read of Abraham begging God for a child. The nearest we come to it is when Abraham says to God, Lo, I have no child, and one born in my house is my near. Abraham doesn't seem to demand or entreat or ask God for a child because God had promised him a child. In thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed. And Abraham takes this at its face value, accepts it, and doesn't seem to go on and on at God about it. Isaac is different. Maybe he is provoked to do so by Rebecca, who was a very intelligent, very clever woman. She may have kept on at him saying, ask God, ask God, and he does, but God is entreated of him. Yet it had been said in scripture that in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Therefore, Isaac was going to have children, and yet he sees fit to entreat the Lord for a child. I wonder, brothers and sisters, this is a suggestion that I'm putting to you now to consider, that whether in point of fact he did right, God had stated, I will give you children, in Isaac shall thy seed be called. God had stated he would give him children. Did Isaac do right to entreat God? Did God give to Isaac and to Rebecca before he was ready to do so because of their entreaty? Did the fact that they kept on at him make him act as it were before his time? Certainly, the consequence of this is very serious. Verse 22, she conceived, and the children struggled together within her. It's not just normal kicking movements of children within the womb that's being described here. The children struggled together within her, so much so that she says, if it be so, if this is the way I am, why do I live, as the revised version says, wherefore do I live? It was agony having those children inside her. They were kicking, they were struggling, they were squirming, they were probably punching and beating one another, I don't know, within the womb, and the poor woman was sort of standing there watching this going on, and it must have hurt intensely. They were enemies from the time of their conception, it looks like. She went to inquire of the Lord. Where did she go to inquire of the Lord? It doesn't say. Shall we speculate? Yes, of course. I suggest, brothers and sisters, she went to one of two places. She either went to see Melchizedek, the king of Salem, the priest of the Most High God, who was the prophet of the Lord, presumably, or she went to see Abraham, Isaac's father, who was also described, as you know, as a prophet of the Lord. She went to inquire, she asked one of them, and the consequences of the inquiry are set before us here. The Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb. Two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels. The one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger. And of course, Rebekah, having received this message from the Lord, goes home and doesn't say a word about this to Isaac. Do you think so? Never. She went straight home and she said, Do you know what the Lord said to me, Isaac? And then she quotes this and says, The elder shall serve the younger. So from that time forward, Isaac must have known that when those children were born, that God had intended that the elder was going to serve the younger. He knew this. And brothers and sisters, I ask you to put that in a mental pigeon hole and take it out later when we come to the subsequent thoughts in this address. Isaac knew God had made it plain to Rebekah, who made it plain to Isaac. Isaac knew. Verse 24, And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment, and they called his name Esau. Must have been an extraordinary sight, this child. It wasn't blood. It was hairs all over this child. Red hairs. She must have been like my wife did, been eating too many tomatoes during her pregnancy. Came out red all over like an hairy garment. Must have been a sight to see. Called his name Esau. And after that came his brother out and his hand took hold on Esau's heel and his name was called Jacob. So the boys are born. Twins. They had been fighting in the womb. As they are born, Jacob grabs hold on Esau's heel. And notice they are 60 years old when she bears them. Isaac was 60 years old when she bears them. And now, brothers and sisters, we have before us, verse 27, a little verse which I would earnestly ask you to put in a little box because that verse there is a summary of the two men that they developed into. It's a little encapsulated epitome of all that they were. And scripture summarizes it for us so beautifully and simply. And the boys grew. And Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field. And Jacob was a plain man dwelling in tents. Now I want to consider to dwell and meditate a little bit on both of those statements. Let's take Esau first. A cunning hunter, a man of the field. What does that mean? If you are going to be a cunning anything, a cunning gardener, a skillful cook, a skillful cunning clever pianist or guitarist, a great photographer, a strong, powerful athlete, a good, outstanding weightlifter, whatever, whatever you are going to be cunning at, you have got, brothers and sisters, to practice diligently at it because nothing that's worth having, as it were, comes without a great deal of effort. And certainly Esau is an outstanding hunter. He is a cunning hunter, a good, clever hunter. So what does that mean in practical terms? Answer, he had to spend a great deal of time hunting. He had to spend much time learning how to track animals through the forest. He had to spend much time learning how to shoot straight with his bow and his arrow. He had to spend much time learning how to stay on his horse as it charged through the forest so he wouldn't get knocked off it. He had to spend a great deal of time, as I say, practicing, practicing, practicing at being a hunter before he could be called a cunning hunter, a man of the field, which in its own turn means that he didn't have much time to spend at home. You can't be learning to hunt while you are at home. There are not very many wild beasts there. So he's got to spend a lot of time chasing after them and never be at home. Practice, practice, practice makes perfect. And that's what Esau did. Scripture calls him a man of the field. He lived out there. He breathed the open air. He was one of these probably hill, hearty, how-do-you -do types. His brother, on the other hand, is different. Jacob was a plain man, dwelling in tents. Now do you notice how those two sentences are set in direct opposition to one another? Esau was a cunning hunter. Jacob was a plain man. Esau was a man of the field. Jacob dwelt in tents. Exact parallels to one another. What's a plain man? Does that mean he was plain to look at, he wasn't particularly good looking, or what? It's a bit more than that. Look at the margin. A plain man, my revised version tells me that that word, plain, means quiet or harmless. Hebrew, perfect. Perfect. That word also occurs in the 37th Psalm, which you probably remember. Mark the perfect man and behold the upright. So perfect or plain in this case means an upright man. A man who was not crooked. A man who was honest, straight in his dealings before God. And yet we, brothers and sisters, have gone on for years and years and years saying that Jacob was a crook. He was a deceiver. He was a rogue. He was a cheat and a swindler. Scripture says directly the opposite of that in this verse. Jacob was a perfect and upright man, dwelling in tents. Now let's take the second part of that. Dwelling in tents. Would you turn over with me to the letter to the Hebrews to chapter 11 And see there how this word is used or how this expression is used. Hebrews chapter 11 and we want the ninth verse. Hebrews 11 verse 9. By faith Abraham became a sojourner, revised version, in the land of promise. As in a strange country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. Now notice it's a question now of a bit more than just simply what they lived in. Scripture is not telling us that they didn't have a house to live in. I think it's telling us a bit more. This tent or these tents that are described here are probably special tents. I believe and I put it to you as a very serious suggestion that it wasn't only a tent. It was the tent of worship, the place that they met with God. If you go back now with me to Genesis 26 to verse 5, you'll see there that there's considerable, considerable evidence that they must have had some sort of tent, some sort of place to worship God, to meet with him. And it was looked after by Abraham, then by Isaac in his turn, and then by Jacob, who dwelt in tents with Abraham and Isaac. Genesis 26 and verse 5, because he says that Abraham obeyed my voice, and notice all these individual items now, Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws. There are at least one, two, three, four, five items there, commandments, statutes, laws, charge. That word charge is of interest because the word charge is used later on in the law of Moses to describe the charge that was given to the children of Levi over the tabernacle and its appurtenances. So Abraham must have had a tabernacle and its appurtenances and places to worship. It's those tents that is being described there in verse 27, dwelling in tents, the tents of worship. Now, brothers and sisters, supposing we accept that thought for a moment, let us see where it leads us. If Jacob dwelt in tents, that means he performed with Abraham, with Isaac, the office of a priest. But I'd like to remind you at this point now of the privileges that attach to being the firstborn son. If you happen to be the firstborn son of a family, then three things automatically came your way. Number one, when your dad died, there were two of you, let's suppose. When your father died, the goods would be divided up into three, and two of those three parts would be given to you. You inherited a double portion of your father's goods when he died. Secondly, if it was a kingly or a royal family like the house of David, then if you were the eldest son, you are automatically in line to become the king, very much as Prince Charles in England is the heir to the throne, because he is the eldest son and not Prince Andrew or one of the others. Thirdly, and most important of all in our considerations this morning, is that if you happen to be the eldest son, then you became automatically the priest of the family when you became of age. You remember that the tribe of Levi was taken instead of the firstborn to serve God. Therefore, I say, brothers and sisters, Esau was the priest of God. Esau was the firstborn. Esau, it was, who should have been dwelling in tents with Abraham and Isaac, heirs with him of the same promise. Where was he? Hunting. Off in the bushes, off in the plains, off in the hills, off in the mountains, off in the savannas, off in the deserts, hunting. Never here on the Sabbath to worship God. Never here to take charge of the things that he should have taken charge of. Never here to bother too much about the commandments, the statutes, the laws, the voice, and the charge of God. Never there. Who did it instead? Jacob. He dwelt in tents. His heart was there. That's where he belonged. That's the thing that he wanted. And, brothers and sisters, now, if you think of it like that, can you not see that this man's heart was right before God, and what he wanted above all else was to stop this endless, wicked trampling upon the high privileges that God had given to Esau by his brother. God had given to Esau his greatest privilege, to be his high priest. Esau was never there. Esau trampled over these privileges, and there was Jacob doing that job and wanting so badly to be the priest of the family that he was saying for years, I wish I could do it. I wish I could have that job. His heart was there. And now, brothers and sisters, look at the next couple of verses. And Isaac loved Esau because he did eat of his venison, but Rebekah loved Jacob. Let's take the first point first. The firstborn son, if he did not do as he ought to have done, if he misbehaved, could be ousted from his office by the father. I'd like to show you an instance of that if you'll stick your hand there in Genesis 25 and come with me to 1 Chronicles 5. 1 Chronicles 5 and verse 1 is an outstanding illustration of that here. 1 Chronicles 5 and verse 1. Now the sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, brackets, for he was the firstborn, he was born first, he was the eldest son. But for as much as he defiled his father's bed by going into Bilha, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel, and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright. In other words, the privilege of firstborn was taken away from Reuben and handed over to the sons of Joseph. And so, the same thing should have obtained with Esau. Esau didn't care about the temple and the tabernacle rather, and the worship of God, and Isaac as a good father who served God and who was true to God, should have thrown him out of the job. Get out of it. But no, what's the scripture say? Isaac loved Esau because he did eat of his venison. Just so long as Esau kept him supplied with venison, he could be the priest, he could do what he liked just as much as he wished. I say, brothers and sisters, in this, Isaac is very reprehensible. He should have thrown him out. He did not. And as a result of it, trouble came. But there's another very important point that comes out here, which I must make. You notice that there's a split in the family. Isaac loved Esau. Rebecca loved Jacob. And because of this, enmity came between the two of them. Brothers and sisters, it happens so often, doesn't it, in almost every family you care to look at and you care to name. That if there are two children or more than one, then one of those children or two of those children will be very dissimilar. You'll have the extrovert type. You'll have the introvert type. You'll have the outgoing sort. You'll have the quiet, gentle sort. You'll have the good. You'll have the bad. And because one of them is better looking, is more winning in their ways, is more something or the other, more appealing, the family tends to split because you love the one more than the other. And this can bring about extreme jealousy and extreme anger, extreme frustration in some of those children. And I beg of you that if you have a family that has more than one child in it, that you make very, very sure as far as in you lies not to show favoritism to the children. If you're a school teacher, make very, very certain that you don't show favor to the bright ones, the good-looking ones, the whatsoever ones above the others. It's a very, very bad thing. And many of you have probably got bad experiences in your mind of what happened to you when you were children because of this very thing. Isaac loved Esau. Rebekah loved Jacob. And Jacob himself later on, very unwisely, does the same thing to his own children. As I say, Jacob himself does the very same thing when he gets older. And as a result, although he had nearly been murdered by his brother because of this favoritism, he himself now goes and shows favoritism to Joseph and to Benjamin. Natural, understandable, but wrong. Shall we go on? Verse 29. For I am faint, therefore was his name called Edom. And the opportunity had come at last. Jacob, as I said, for years had been watching his brother trampled gaily over these privileges that God had given to him. For years he had wanted to be the priest of the family. And he says, Sell me this day thy birthright. I want that job that I should have, that you don't want. Give it to me. Sell it to me. I'll… And now listen to what Esau has to say. Behold, I am at the point to die. And what profit shall this birthright do to me? Here is the man standing nakedly revealed for what he is before you. Behold, he says, I am at the point of dying. Rubbish. As we have had experiences in England just recently, men and women can live for up to 30, 60 days without food before dying. And he certainly had been hunting for 30 or 60 days without food. Most certainly not. He probably was a great, big, strong, robust, healthy fellow. He wouldn't have died. Not at all. Sell me this day thy birthright. Put it like this, brothers and sisters. A man comes to you and says, I'll give you five million dollars on one condition. Think about it. I'll come back tomorrow and I'll tell you the condition. And you sit there and you say to yourself now, what could I do with five million dollars? And you start building your castles in the sky, the trips around the world and I don't know what else. Five million dollars. You can do an awful lot with five million dollars. You can have ten swimming pools in your back garden if you've got a big enough back garden. I don't know. All sorts of things you can do with five million dollars. Comes back the next day. He says, have you thought about it? Yeah. What's the condition? He says, well, I'll give it to you on one condition. That you never again pick up your Bible and you never again go near to a Christendelfian church or anything like that. What would you tell him? I hope you would do as I would do and give him a swift kick where it hurts. I hope you would. But five million dollars is a lot of pressure. And you might consider it. But supposing he came to you and said, never read your Bible again, never go near to the Christendelfian church and I'll give you a hamburger with mustard on it. What would you do then? You really would kick him where it hurts, wouldn't you? Yes, you would. And here's the situation before us. Sell me this day your birthright, the privileges that God has given you to be his high priest. Sell that to me, says Jacob, and I'll give you a plate of beans. And what did the man do? He sold him his birthright. He sold his birthright unto Jacob. He gave him. Brothers and sisters, it's so abominable that he should have done this thing. He could cook. He must have come back from hunting with something. He could cook. You remember when his mother cooked that goat's meat for his father. His father was unable to tell the difference between his mother's cooking and Esau's cooking. Therefore, he could cook. And he could cook well. He could have waited. Sell me this day thy birthright. And he gave away the greatest privilege that God could possibly have given him for a plate of beans. And Jacob, by way of extras, gives him a piece of bread as well. Brothers and sisters, isn't it shameful? Isn't it disgusting that a man could sell such a thing so cheaply? Is it any wonder now that the next verse goes on to say and he did eat and drink and rose up and went his way thus Esau despised his birthright? Brothers and sisters, those words or that word despised is one of the strongest words in scripture. When Nathan came to David and said to him wherefore hast thou despised the word of the Lord because you have slain Uriah the Hittite with the sword and has taken his wife? That's the word that's used. Despised his birthright. He had total contempt for the things of God. And the shameful story doesn't end there. Verse 34 again. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and potage of lentils and he did eat and drink and rose up and went his way. Simple words but they only occur as far as I can tell in one other place in the Old Testament. In Exodus chapter 32. Would you like to look with me at that? Exodus chapter 32 and verse 6. See the context of this. And they rose up early on the morrow and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings and the people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play. You notice how similar that is to what is said in Genesis. What were they playing? Well it wasn't hopscotch. It was something rather more serious than that. Neither let us commit fornication says the Apostle Paul as they committed. They went off to commit fornication. And I read that verse there in Genesis 25 as meaning precisely that. That Esau ate and drank and rose up and went his way after one of the idolatrous temples and brothels that dotted the land in which they dwelt. And the letter to the Hebrews again, if you'll turn with me to chapter 12, makes this point very forcibly indeed. Hebrews chapter 12. And it's the 16th verse. And notice the context in which this is placed. Hebrews 12 and verse 16. So the selling of the birthright is placed in the same context as a profane person and a fornicator. And that's where he went that day. So unthinking is this man, brothers and sisters, that he goes off to this idolatrous brothel and there he has to tell his sorry story about his brother who has robbed him, he says, of his privilege, of his birthright. Brothers and sisters, how can we dare to say then that Jacob deceived Isaac? Do you think this day when he bought this thing off Esau, do you think he didn't take witnesses? Do you think that he didn't get Esau to sign some piece of paper to say this? And do you think that he didn't show it to his father? Do you think his father didn't know about that? And yet his father persisted in giving the blessing of the firstborn to this unworthy, evil man. So evil was he that so often he went to these places that he took his wives from them. One of their names is Aholibama, which means a tent of a high place. Which high place? Certainly not the high place of God. The high place is that he had found one day wandering through the forests. I can almost see how it was, you know, brothers and sisters. One day he was off chasing this deer on his horse and he chased after it and he shot through a thicket up to the top of this hill and the deer disappeared. But at the top of this hill was this high place of worship. And there they were doing interesting things. It interested him. So he went the once and he went again and he went again and he went again. A profane person or a fornicator such as Esau who found his wife and married her from one of those places. It's a sad story, brothers and sisters. And you doubtless have blamed Jacob all these years for being a crook, a cheat, a swindler. I hope this day we have said enough to convince you that that was not the case. But now let us take some words of exhortation from this. First of all from Esau. Exhortation from Esau? Yes. If you want to become a cunning hunter or a cunning whatever, a guitarist, a photographer, a painter, a gardener, I don't know what, if you want to be a cunning one of these, then what happens is this. You become interested in it. You practice. You buy the best equipment. You join a club. And sooner or later what happens is off you go to the clubs regularly and pretty soon you're doing things and seeing things that you ought not to see. And you go there again and again. And you find people there who think the way you think. You find women there who interest you because they think about the same things that you're thinking about. You find men there who are very interesting and very personable. And lo and behold, before you know it, you're involved with one of them. Possibly in adultery. Possibly marrying out of the truth. Possibly being led away. Your time has been taken. Your time has been consumed by all of these extracurricular activities. Brothers and sisters, watch this carefully. Because it is so easy to fall into. It's so easy to do. It's so easy to get lost in this particular forest. And what about Jacob? Jacob spent his life dwelling in tents with Abraham, with Isaac, heirs with him of the same promise. He wanted the promises of God. He thought about very little else. He concentrated on that. He grabbed up in this particular instance here. He grabbed the opportunity. When it came his way, he bought it. He took it up. He held it to himself. And the opportunities come our way too. Very, very often. All the arranging brethren say, look, we're organizing a preaching effort in thus and so. And you think to yourself and say, well, I can't do it that week because, because, because you're losing the opportunity. And if you're not bent towards preaching, then there are lots of other opportunities to buy up. There are the sick that needs visiting. There's good that needs doing. There are friends, there are people who need friends. There are people who need company to talk to. There are those who you should be reading the Word of God with. And we, brethren and sisters, have these exceeding great privileges given to us. For we shall be kings and priests unto God. We who are brethren, let us take up the fact that God has put within our hands the privilege of being the heads of our families. And let us act as heads of our families and lead, lead in the ways of righteousness, not in the ways of laziness and of iniquity and of uselessness. And sisters, let us take up all the opportunities that our children, our grandchildren afford us. They are privileges. Did you know that the book of Deuteronomy, for example, said that you are to teach your children and your children's children concerning the things of God? Your grandchildren? Privileges that come our way. Let us not despise them. Let us not sell them for things that are passing, for things that are merely transient. I'd like to conclude with a look again, a final look at the 12th chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews because it brings us face to face with the firstborn, the one who did not sell his privileges at any price. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 16 once more. Lest, says the writer, there be any fornicator or profane person, as Esau, who for one mess of meat sold his own birthright. And that word, for, is a very interesting one. In Greek, it's the preposition anti, A-N-T-I. And it normally means a commercial sort of transaction. I give you $5 in exchange for this roll of film. I give you $10 for this thing. The word that would be used there in Greek is anti. It is a commercial exchange. Esau, a commercial transaction, sold his birthright for a mess of potage. Look now with me at verse 2. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who in exchange for, same word, anti, in exchange for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. It was a small price to pay, Jesus thought, for the great joy that was set before him. And we ourselves, let us forsake these things that so easily come upon us, so easily draw us away from the truth, endure the cross, despise the shame, that we might be set down at the right hand of the throne of God when the time comes. We shall conclude this session with a prayer. Please remain standing after we have sung hymn number 179. O God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, in whose name is enshrined the promise of the resurrection from the dead and the hope of life eternal. We thank thee for the privilege of reading and meditating upon thy word and ask that in thy mercy and in thy strength we may go forth during the coming days to serve thee faithfully, to buy up the opportunity, to lay aside the weight that so easily beset us, to esteem our privileges aright, and to worship thee, our one true and living God, through Christ Jesus, our Lord and our mediator, at thy right hand. Amen.

Transcript

To briefly recap on what we've learned yesterday, brothers and sisters, I tried to convince you, or to put it across to you, that the struggle and the battle between Jacob and Ethel was not merely that of a cheat trying to do his brother out of what belonged to him. I tried to show you that Jacob, in wanting and desiring to have the birthright, was really after the things of God, that he was trying to remove from Ethel's hands the privilege of being the priest, that privilege over which Ethel had trampled so blithely and so gaily for so long. And so we come today to what has been described by many brethren, many sisters, as the deception, the guile, the subtlety that is practiced upon Isaac. I'd like to say that my opinion is not quite that. Isaac, you recall, was the one who was told, I'm certain, by Rebecca, that the elder shall serve the younger. Isaac was the one to whom, doubtless, Jacob took the deeds of the transaction between him and Esau, showed it to his father, and said, look, I have bought the blessing from my brother. Isaac was the one who, as the father, the head of the family, was the one who, in the position of leader, of ruler, as it were, should have put Esau out of the position of head of the family, as priest of the family, because of his dereliction of duty. Isaac did not choose to do so, and therefore, if anyone is at fault in this whole incident, I maintain that it is Isaac. It is not Jacob, and it is certainly not Rebecca. Let's look into the details of the story in Genesis 27 and see if we can pick some useful lessons up from here. Verse 1 of chapter 27. It came to pass, when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see, that he called Esau his eldest son, his elder son, and said unto him, My son. And he said unto him, Behold, here am I. And Isaac is old. Isaac is expecting to die. Isaac is not in good health. And there are several indications of that in this chapter. Perhaps you'd like to look at them with me. Verse 2. And he said, Behold now, I am old. I know not the day of my death. As if he was waiting. He was expecting it to be soon. Now we all know that Jacob went to Pananarom, and Jacob came back before Isaac died. But at this time, Isaac was in a very parlous state of health. I know not the day of my death. Verse 4. That my soul may bless thee before I die. Flick over the page to the 19th verse, and see what Jacob says to his father there, and see there are other indications he's not well. And Jacob said to his father, I am Esau thy firstborn. I have done according as thou baddest me. Arise, I pray thee. Sit, and eat of my venison, that my soul, that thy soul may bless me. Almost as if Isaac was lying down in bed. Arise, get up. Sit, here let's prop you up in bed, so that you may bless me. And there are other indications. Verse 33. When he finds out that he has been deceived, Isaac trembled very exceedingly. And if you've got an authorized version margin, you'll see that it says there, he trembled with a great trembling greatly. He was petrified. He was shaking like a leaf. And although fright may have been natural in a situation like that, it is probably an indication of the fact that he wasn't really well. Isaac's not well. Isaac's about to die, he thinks. And Scripture underlines this in his mental state now, back in the first verse, when Isaac was old, and his eyes were dim, so that he could not see. Is that Scripture's way of saying he couldn't see, that he should have given that birthright to his son, to Jacob, and not to Esau? One wonders about that. Anyway, verse three. Take, I pray thee, thy weapons, thy quiver, and thy bow, and go out to the field, and take me some venison, and make me savory meat, such as I love. I don't like the ordinary stuff, I can't stand it, but this is the one thing I do love, savory meat. Bring it to me that I may eat, and that my soul may bless thee before I die. And Rebekah, rather than this, must have been watching like a hawk. She must have been expecting that at some time soon, Isaac was going to give his blessing, and that he would have done it, he had given it to Esau. She is waiting for this now. She knows that this is going to come. The day has come. Verse five. And Rebekah heard when Isaac spake to Esau, his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt for venison and to bring it. And now you know the rest of the story from here on. She says to Jacob, go and kill two kids of the goats, and I will make it, I'll cook it, in the same way that your dad loves. And Jacob, verse 11 says, Behold, Esau, my brother is an hairy man, and I am a smooth man. My father will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver, and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing. Jacob's worried. You see, his conscience is involved here. He's not as heartless and as deceptive as he's been made out to be. He doesn't really want to do this, but it has to be done. Because, brothers and sisters, had it not been done that day in that way, what would have happened? Esau would have received the birthright. Esau would have received all the blessings that appertained to it. And had Esau died, then the blessing and the birthright would have passed directly to Esau's children and have bypassed Jacob forever. So it was that day, it was now or never, either it was going to go the right way or it was going to go the wrong way. And they decided that this was, or Rebecca decided that this is the way to do it. Verse 15. And Rebecca took the goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them upon Jacob, her younger son. It's a great day, it's a great occasion, and so the best clothes come out. But it's not just the best clothes, brothers and sisters. That expression, therefore, the goodly raiment, is very often used in the rest of the Old Testament of the clothing of the priest and perhaps of the high priest even. So these are the priest's garments that Jacob is now putting on. And we have in this fact here, in this 15 verse, further evidence that Esau didn't care about his privileges. Esau hated his mother, he really didn't love her very much. He was a married man, he probably lived elsewhere by this time. And there it says that the goodly raiment of her eldest son Esau, which were with her in the house, he hadn't used them for years. He didn't care, he didn't bother, he hadn't used them, so they were with her. And this concept that it's the priest's garment is supported very nicely in verse 27. He came near, he kissed him, he smelled the smell of his raiment. Now if it was the priest's garment and the priest burnt incense before the Lord, then the garments would be impregnated with the smell of that incense. So he comes near and he smells it, and it's the smell perhaps of the incense that he gets. See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed. Possibly another indication that this is in fact the priest's garments. So Jacob comes in now in the 18th verse to his father. And he came in unto his father and said, My father? And he said, Here am I. And straight away the Antennae are quivering. Who art thou, my son? The voice, he knows the voice, the blind hear better than those with eyesight, because they've got to listen harder. And Isaac's eyes are dim, he can't see, so his ears are sharper than usual. Who art thou, my son? And Jacob said to his father, I am Aethor, thy firstborn. I have done according as thou baddest me. Arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless thee. Suspicion still quivering in Isaac, the Antennae are still going. How is it that thou hast found it so quickly, my son? And Jacob gives the whole game away. And he said, Because the Lord thy God brought it unto me. It's a statement that Aethor would probably never have made in a thousand years. And straight away Isaac's suspicions are even more, are finding to brighter flame. Come near, I pray thee, my son, that I may feel thee. My son, whether thou be my very son, Aethor, or not. You see, Aethor wouldn't have said a thing like that. The Lord thy God brought it to me. Oh no. And so he comes and feels him. Now notice what it says. Isaac says, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Aethor. And he discerned him not, because his hands were hairy as his brother Aethor's hands. You notice he doesn't feel his face, because he's got a beard, just as Aethor had. And that would not have been any sort of indication at all. But the hands are the hands of Aethor. Brothers and sisters, it does create in my mind the question of what did this man Aethor look like? Did he, or had he been living today, would they have put him in the Smithsonian Institute as evidence of the fact that evolution actually did take place? One wonders, to be as hairy as a goat. Now goats have short hair, some of them, but many of the goats in the Middle East apparently have pretty long hair. And there's this goat skin on the back of his hand, and he feels this long hair. I wonder what he was like. One of our brethren in England has made a rather amusing comment. He said, he wonder what he must have smelt like. Because when, Jacob, when Isaac smells him, he smells a goat's skin. And he says, Look, this is what my son smells like. He must have smelt like a goat as well. Maybe it was like that, maybe it wasn't, I don't know. But here it is, he brings it near, and he eats of it. And all this is taking time. He's got to feel him, he's got to inquire of him, he's got to talk to him, he's got to ask of him all these details. And poor Jacob must have been getting a little bit quivery, because he now has to eat the meal. End of verse 25, he brought it near to him, he did eat, he brought him wine, he drank. And the time is going past, and Ethos is out there getting his deer, and he might come in at any moment. But at long last, his father Isaac says unto him, and Jacob probably breathes a sigh of relief, Come near now and kiss me, my son. And he came near, and kissed him. And he blessed him, he smelled the smell of his raiment, and he blessed him. Now brothers and sisters, let's just pause here for a moment before we actually go into this look at the blessing briefly, and see what's going on. The birthright is the legal title to those things we have described, to the double portion of the father's goods. It is the title to being king in the family, if it's a royal family. It's the title to being the priest of the family. All that is involved in the title first born in the birthright. But the blessing that's being given here, I believe, is the actual ceremony of the legal conferment of this title when the father is about to die. There was an occasion, a ceremony, a point in time at which the father actually conferred this, at the time of his death, upon his son. And this is what is happening here. This is the time of the conferment, or the conferral, I don't know which one it is. And it's being given now to Jacob. See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed. Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine. Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee. Be lord over thy brethren. And there's a surprising word, brethren. He only had one brother, Ethor. And I've wondered about this, brothers and sisters, and perhaps the suggestion that I make is just that. That the word brethren is only used loosely. It doesn't necessarily mean only brothers, but it means relatives, kinsmen as well. That Ethor at this time had got children, their wives, his wives, relatives. Be lord over thy brethren, your family. And especially, let thy mother's sons bow down before thee. I don't understand why it says sons instead of son. Curse be everyone that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee. The great blessing that God had given to Abraham had been passed down to Isaac. He's now passed to Jacob. It came to pass as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Ethor. And Jacob was yet scarce gone out from the presence of Isaac his father. But Ethor his brother came in from his hunting. He had just made it. I don't know, that is not true. He didn't just make it. God kept Ethor out of there until the time was right. It wasn't just by chance that that happened. The hand of the Almighty is here protecting Jacob from the wrath of Ethor. Had Ethor come in then at that time, I have no doubt in my mind that he would have whipped his sword out and had his head off. I have no doubt in my mind that that is what would have happened. In fact, he says as much later on. If you just look over into verse 41, it says, and Jacob and Ethor hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him. And Ethor said in his heart, the days of mourning for my father are at hand, then will I slay my brother Jacob. He would have killed him in the heat of the moment, in his wrath and his anger. He would have chopped his head off. I'm fairly certain of that. But God says, no. This is how it is going to be, not otherwise. Verse 32. Isaac, his father, said unto him, Who art thou? Who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn, Ethor. Of course, who else? And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, Who? Where is he that hath taken Venice and brought it me? And I have eaten of all before thou camest, and have blessed him. Yea, and he shall be blessed. The trembling, brothers and sisters, I'm sure, is a function of his illness, but it is even more a function of the fact that he realized how near he had come to wrecking God's plan and God's purpose with his son Jacob. He is now afraid before God of what could have and would have happened to him had he not done right, albeit unwillingly. That's why he trembles like this, so fearfully and so desperately. And Isaac and Ethor now cries. I'd like to ask you just briefly to turn back to the 12th of Hebrews and look at that verse again, which for some time bothered me. I never read it quite in the same way. I'd never read it quite in this way before. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 17. We commented on this yesterday, and we won't repeat the comment, but the 17th verse says, For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, notice birthright and blessing are the same thing almost in the eyes of the writer, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully or diligently with tears. Where are these tears? They're here in the 27th of Genesis. And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father. And he said, Thy brother came with subtlety, and hath taken away thy blessing. He's still persisting in this. And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob, for he hath supplanted me these two times? He, notice now, he took away my birthright. Taking a birthright out of the hand of a great, big, strong, healthy man like that, he took away my blessing, and now he hath is my birthright, and behold, now he hath taken away my blessing. And he said, Hath thou not reserved a blessing for me? He sought it diligently, carefully, with tears. Verse 38. And Esau said unto his father, Hast thou but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also, O my father. And Esau lifted up his voice and wept. It is sad to see a grown man cry like this. But there's no doubt about it. Esau loved his father, and his father loved Esau. And here he feels he has been done. He has been deprived. He has been cheated and swindled. And he cries. So Isaac does his best. Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above. And by thy sword shalt thou live, and thou shalt serve thy brother. And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck. What do you make of those two last sentences, brethren? It shall come to pass, when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck. As far as I can recall, there hasn't been a time in history when Esau has ruled over Jacob. Esau has participated in the destruction of Israel several times. But not have the dominion. Is this telling us, brethren, that at some time in the future, future to our time, that the Arabs, the descendants of Esau, are in fact going to have dominion over the children of Jacob, over Israel? It seems most highly unlikely at the moment, the way the Jews are going on, tearing their way into Lebanon, defeating, being conquerors, winning the Yom Kippur War, winning the Six Days War, establishing their state with great might and power. It seems highly unlikely. But here it is. It shall come to pass, when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck. I believe that that is still to come, and that is something that we shall see. Verse 41, And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father 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. And Rebekah hears this. Thy brother Esau, as touching thee, does comfort himself, purposing to kill thee. Now therefore, my son, obey my voice, and arise. Flee thou to Laban, my brother, to Heran, and turn, and tarry with him 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 hast done to him. I've not read, brothers and sisters, words more savagely condemnatory of a son than those. And he forget that which thou hast done to him. He knew him. He knew him well, that he was going to forget about it. That this important thing, this great privilege of being high priest unto God, would be forgotten by Esau. It's an incredible comment on Esau's love for the things of God, or lack of love for the things of God. He forget that which thou hast done to him. And now, Rebecca produces a stratagem. I think it's one of the more cunning things that women are recorded as doing in scripture. She wants Jacob to go to Heran. How can she get it done? Well, she says, she comes to Isaac, verse 46. I am weary of my life, because of the daughters of Heth. If Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, such as these which are of the daughters of the land, what good shall my life do me? She's not really too worried about it. There must be some truth in it, and Isaac must know that there is some truth. But really, what she's getting at is, I want Jacob to go away. And she chooses this way to approach it. I want him to marry someone of my own family, of my own kindred. It's a very clever way of doing it. It diverts his attention from the real issue to a side issue, as it were. But Isaac sees the point. And now, brothers and sisters, look at verse one of the 20th chapter, because this is where it seems to me that reconciliation takes place between father and son. And Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, Thou shalt not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Padanarum, to the house of Bethuel, thy mother's father, and take thee a wife from thence of the daughters of Laban, thy mother's brother. Brothers and sisters, if you've not married yet, you are about to get married, or you are courting someone, please do as Abraham did, please do as Isaac does here, and choose someone who believes the same things that you do. If you fail to do this, the consequences are incalculable. You cannot foresee where it will go. You may be fortunate enough to be one of those who marries out of the truth, and their husband comes in. I've never yet met anyone who recommends the practice. Never yet. And some of the consequences are almost beyond belief. You start off by marrying someone you think is thus and so, and only to discover to your horror that he is not, or that she is not. She turns out to be something totally different to that which you expected. Abraham was careful to get a wife for his son who believed the same things. Isaac is here showing some care for his own son, Jacob. Esau marries the daughters of the land and his life and the life of his wife. Rebekah must have been a misery. Brothers and sisters, if you are contemplating marrying someone out of the truth, then take the words of caution and warning that are given to us here. They are warning given for good reasons. You cannot tell what will happen if you do. Beware. So he blesses Jacob, and Jacob proceeds. And I'd like now to go to the 10th verse of Genesis 28, and look now at a rather interesting thought, a rather interesting theme that comes out here. Verse 10 of Genesis 28. And Jacob went out from Beersheba and went towards Haran, and he lighted upon a certain place and tarried there all night, because the sun was set. Now, if you read the authorized version here, it doesn't really make too much sense. And he took of the stones of that place and put them for his pillows. It doesn't make sense, because you wouldn't take a stone and put it on your head for a pillow, unless you happen to have rather a hard head. I don't think that's what he did. I think he got a large flat stone, rolled up his baggage, such as he had, put it there as his pillow, and laid down on this large flat stone to sleep. But the word I want to draw your attention to is that word, place. It only looks like a small word, and it only means a certain location in the way we normally speak. But in Scripture, it takes on rather a different meaning. Can we turn back for a moment to Genesis chapter 13 and see there the origin of this specialized meaning of the word place? Genesis chapter 13, and it's verse 3. And Abraham went on his journeys from the south, even to Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning, between Bethel and Ai, unto the place of the altar which he had made there at the first. So here, the word place is associated with an altar, a place of worship, a place of sacrifice, not just a certain spot. Come over with me to verse 14 of the same chapter and see there. And the Lord said unto Abraham, after that lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art. He's at his altar, he's worshiping. Where thou art, northward, southward, eastward, and westward. And verse 18, Abraham removed his tent, came and dwelt in the plain of Mamre, which is in Hebron, and built there an altar unto the Lord, another place. Chapter 18 and verse 33, the same phrase occurs again. And the Lord went his way as soon as he had left communing with Abraham, and Abraham returned unto his place, back to his altar, back to his place of worship. Chapter 22 of Genesis, and I think here it's even more obvious than it has been in the last verse. Abraham is taking Isaac to sacrifice him. Verse 3, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up and went unto the place of which God had told him. There's an altar there, it's in Moriah. Verse 4, then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off, on the top of this hill somewhere, there is this altar, he could see it. Verse 9, and they came to the place which God had told him of, and Abraham built, revised version changes that, the altar there, there was an altar there, it had been knocked down by the enemies of the Lord, and Abraham has to rebuild it. He lays the wood in order, and binds Isaac, and puts him on the altar upon the wood. Now so far it's a place of worship of the true God. But if you come over with me now to Genesis chapter 38, there, you'll see that it also means a high place, or a place of worship of the heathen gods as well. And it's always associated, or it seems to me, with idolatry and with prostitution. Genesis 38 and verse 14. You may recall the story, it's Judah and Tamar. Tamar is waiting for the son, for Judah's son, and nothing is happening, so she decides to do something about it. Verse 14, and she put her widow's garments off from her, and covered her with a veil, and wrapped herself, and sat in an open place. A prostitute sitting by an open place, a place of worship of the false gods. And now let's go down a bit further into the chapter, and see what happens there. When Judah goes into her, it says that she takes this staff, this signet, this bracelet that is in his hand, as a sign. Verse 20, Judah sends his friend. He found her not. Verse 21, then he asked the men of her place, saying, where is the harlot that was openly by the wayside? The men of her place, revised version. Which her? The her, I believe, is Ashtoreth, or one of the false gods that they worshipped. Where is the harlot? And that word harlot is the word kedesha, which is used of the sacred prostitutes, the one dedicated to these places of impure worship. And they said, there is no harlot here. But now, let's turn back to chapter 26, because there, this helps us to understand perhaps a bit more of what happened to Isaac when he went into Abimelech's land. Genesis 26, and the seventh verse. Let's go in at verse 6, perhaps. And Isaac dwelt in Gerar. And the men of the place, the men who are organizing this evil worship, the men of the place asked him of his wife, who is she? And he said, she is my sister. For he feared to say, she is my wife. Lest, said he, the men of the place should kill me for Rebekah and take her and turn her into one of these kedeshas. Verse 8, when he had been there a long time, Abimelech looks out and sees Isaac sporting with Rebekah his wife. And Abimelech called Isaac and said, behold of a surety, she is thy wife. How saidst thou, she is my sister? And Isaac said, because I said, lest I die for her. Verse 10, and Abimelech said, what is this that thou hast done unto us? One of the people might lightly have lying with thy wife, and thou shouldst have brought guiltiness upon us all, thinking that she was one of the kedeshas who belonged to that place, who belonged there. Let's go back to chapter 28 now and see what happens here to Jacob. And Jacob went out from Beersheba, verse 11, and he lighted upon a certain place and tarried there all night, because the sun was set. He comes to a place of worship of the true God, and this stone that he has lined down upon is in fact one of the altar stones. It's a great big stone, and he lies on that, and this is confirmed by his dream and what happens. Verse 16, and Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and she said, surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not. And he was afraid and said, how dreadful is this place. This is none other but the house of God, a temple, and this is the gate of heaven. And Jacob rose up early in the morning and took the stone that he had put for his pillow and set it up for a pillar. It was an enormous great stone, and this weakling, this meekling, this man who you probably thought was a milksop, picks up this great stone, sets it on its end, pours oil on the top of it, and anoints it. Verse 22, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house, and of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto thee. Brothers and sisters, as we are here, perhaps I can defend Jacob again. I'm always seeming to do that, but let me defend him again. We have all said, verse 20 means that here is Jacob proving that he's that sort of a man, here he is arguing and bargaining with God, saying, if God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God. Is he bargaining with God? I don't believe it for one moment. Let's look back at the 13th verse. Behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac, the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed, and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south, and in thee, and in thy seed, shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And behold, I am with thee, I will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, I will bring thee again into this land. And Jacob is merely taking up the promise that God makes. If God will be with me, as he says, then, if God does feed me, then, if I do come again to my father's house in peace, then, he is taking the promises of God and laying hold of them. He is not bargaining with God. How can we say such a thing? How could God say, for example, at the end of the 14th verse, in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed, words which he had used to Abraham, how could God use those words about a conniving schemer? It makes no sense at all, brothers and sisters. This is a man of God, it's not just a bargainer and a schemer. And so he leaves, so he goes to Palanarum, and there he suffers. The brothers and sisters, the main excitation that comes out of this for me is the fact that in that land there dwelt all these people who were so full of impure worship, who were so immoral, who were not above murder, who were the most disreputable sort of people. And in the midst of all that, here is a man who keeps himself from the world. He goes to Laban, and Laban goes and invites the men of the place to his wedding, where he cheats him. He keeps himself unspotted from the world, is what Jacob does. And perhaps you can conclude with a brief glimpse again at the 12th chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews. Because this is the object lesson that the writer of the Hebrews is trying to get across to us. Hebrews 12 and verse 16 again. He says, be careful, be very careful lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one mess of meat sold his birthright. He gave it up. He left the truth. He went out to enjoy himself and have a good time. He says, you are not to be like that. You are not to be fornicators. You are not to be profane persons. You are not to leave the truth. For you know that if you do that, afterwards, when he would have inherited the blessing, when he wanted it with all his heart, it was too late. He found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. You leave the truth, you go away from it, and you are possibly dead. He found no place of repentance. And the writer warns, don't you do it either, because you might not find such a place. Brothers and sisters, you may be weak in the faith. You may be rocking. You may be in a meeting where it's not pleasant. You may be in a meeting where the brethren don't particularly like you. You don't get on. You don't fit. But under no circumstances are you to leave the truth. For if you do so, you may find no place of repentance. Once you are there, the possibility of the forgiveness of sins exists. Once you have left, it is gone. And the day of opportunity is finished. I'd like to conclude with a word of prayer after we've sung hymn number 15. Lord, for thy mercy extended towards us, the sinful sons of man, for the forgiveness of sins which we have through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we can sit in heavenly places at thy right hand, we bless and praise thy name this day, and ask thee that the example of thy servants evolve, who lived amidst such dangers, such moral problems, such uncertainties, but lived victoriously in the faith which they had in thee, knowing that thou wouldst be with them in all their ways, despite the troubles that came upon them. Help us in our turn to rely upon thee as thy servant Jacob did, knowing that thou art with us. Thy rod and thy staff, they shall comfort us, that thou shalt in no wise forsake us or leave us. In the weeks and the months and the years that lie ahead, O God, please dwell with us, abide with us. For Christ's sake we ask this. Amen.

Transcript

When you take a walk out in the night in this place, brothers and sisters, and you look up at the skies, you see the stars, and there are some there that are very large, very bright, very prominent, and there are some that are not quite so easily visible, they are smaller, they are further away, they are still stars. And just so, in the constellation of scriptural characters that are brought before our attention, we've got the brilliant, shining, large stars, and we've got the ones that are not so bright. Stars they are, as I say, but not all of equal magnitude. And this morning I'd like to bring before you two of those, both of whom I think illustrate the same point. The first one is Lot, but I shall also digress a little and have a look into the book of Ruth to Naomi, and we'll see, I think, that both of these people teach us the same things. First of all, though, let us start with Lot, and I'd like to take you to the 2nd of Peter, chapter 2, to see there, or to read there, the scriptural assessment of this man's character, the divine judgment, as it were, upon who he was and what he had done. 2nd of Peter, chapter 2, and verse 7. In the context, Peter is speaking of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the destruction of the ancient world, and verse 7 says that the Lord delivered just or righteous Lot, who was vexed or sore distressed by the filthy conversation of the wicked, for that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with unlawful deeds. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations. So there we have God's assessment of Lot's character. He is righteous, he is just, he is righteous, verse 8. He has a godly man, and yet this very godly man, this same righteous man, comes to our attention in the 19th chapter of the book of Genesis as ending up in tremendous grief and in a pretty awful situation. Genesis chapter 19, which we read. The Lord rained fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot's possessions, Lot's goods, Lot's livelihood is all destroyed in this terrible overthrow of these two cities. The best that he has is verse 30, and Lot went up out of Zohar and dwelt in the mountain and his two daughters with him, for he feared to dwell in Zohar, and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters. At the end of scriptural dealing with Lot, that's where he is, in a cave, he and his two unpleasant daughters. Brothers and sisters, what is it that has brought this godly good man to such a desperate pass? What is the cause of this situation? Can we look back briefly into Genesis chapter 19 and verse 16, where I think that those brief words put there are another of these epitomes of the character of the man who is brought before us this day. And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand and upon the hand of his wife and upon the hand of his two daughters. While he lingered, Lot is a lingerer. Consider for a moment brothers where he is lingering, what the situation is in which he is still dawdling and hanging around. These angels have come, verse 1, there came two angels to Sodom at even. These two angels deliver Lot, verse 11, they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great. So Lot knows beyond any doubt now that these men are angels, they are servants of God. Verse 12, the men said unto Lot, hast thou here any besides, son-in-law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place, for we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxing great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord hath sent us to destroy it. God says plainly, clearly, unmistakably, we are going to destroy this place. And in the face of the coming destruction that God is going to bring upon this place, and I'm certain that Lot knows will come, he is assured of it, it says verse 16, while he lingered. It's an amazing place to linger, if ever there was one. But Lot doesn't only linger like that, Lot lingers in his love for the world. Can we just turn back to chapter 13, and see there the motives which Lot, which motivated him, which moved him, which caused him to do what he did, and let us mark the consequences of such motivation. Genesis chapter 13 and verse 5, and Lot also, which went with Abraham, had flocks, and herds, and tents, not a few, and the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together, for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together. And there was a strife between the herdsmen of Abraham's cattle and the herdsmen of Lot's cattle, and the Canaanites and the Perizzites dwelt then in the land. I wonder why that little sentence is put in at the end, that clause, the Canaanites and the Perizzites dwelt then in the land. Is it to sort of say to us, or to say that these Canaanites, these heathen, these people who dwelt round about, were looking on and seeing this strife between the herdsmen of Lot's cattle and the herdsmen of Abraham's cattle. I wonder if that's what it's there for. And now we have Abraham's comment. And Abraham said unto Lot, let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen, for we are brethren. Brethren, sisters, these two had so much that there was a row, a quarrel between their servants. So Abraham calls Lot to the round table to discuss the problem. And this I'm certain is only a summary of what went on, what transpired. He says, look, let's not fight. We be brethren. And it may well be that Abraham says to him, look, the Canaanites and the Perizzites dwell round about us, that we are the servants of God. They know we are the servants of God. They know we claim to be the servants of God. Let us not fight, because they will then laugh and mock and have us in scorn. We be brethren. My brethren, sisters, it grieves me that we have not learnt this lesson yet. For we be brethren. Half of us, or a large proportion of us, are in one fellowship. Another proportion is in another fellowship. Another proportion is in a third fellowship. And the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwell in the land, and they look at us and they think probably to themselves, now what is the matter with these people? How can they possibly be the servants of God? How can they claim to serve one God, one Lord, with one faith, one hope, one baptism, and still not be brethren? Brethren, sisters, whatever it is that separates us, let us break these barriers down. They have been here for too long. Let us tear down the walls that separate us, because the things that separate us, are they worth? Are they worth all the pain and the heartache and the dissension and the contempt that people on the outside must have for us when they learn of these things? We be brethren. But it's Lot we're considering this morning, not Abraham. Abraham stands before Lot there and says in verse 9, is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee from me. They're separating because they've got too much. Have we got so much that we can afford to separate from one another? If thou wilt take the left hand, I will go to the right. If thou depart to the right hand, I will go to the left. Abraham is willing to accommodate Lot. Whatever he wants, he'll do. You do that and I'll accommodate you, he says. And Lot comes along now. They were on some sort of a mountain. They were near to the altar, I have no doubt. And Lot lifted up his eyes and he looked and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as thou comest unto Zohar. And as a herdsman, as a shepherd, as a man who had flocks and camel and sheep and goats and cows, I have no doubt. Obviously, it appeals to him. There, down there in the valley, lovely, green, lush vegetation, marvelous stuff. There's Sodom over there, great city. There's Gomorrah, perhaps. Oh no, it's nice and green over there. We'll go down there, says Lot. Lot chose him, all the plain of Jordan. And Lot journeyed east. Brothers and sisters, here is a serious turning point in this man's life. Because of money, because of better conditions, because of self-improvement, because of advancement, Lot chooses to go that way, ignoring the fact that it says in verse 12, in verse 13, that the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners against the Lord exceedingly. He ignores willfully. He chooses to ignore that fact. He is veiled, as his name suggests. His eyes are veiled to this fact. He just doesn't consider it. He doesn't enter into his thoughts at all. And we ourselves, brothers and sisters, make choices like that. When we choose to move house, let's take that as an example. We choose to move house and we think, now, where are we gonna go? When we look around the city or whatever it is we live, oh, it's a lovely situation. It's a beautiful house. There's a good neighborhood. There's a good bus service. This and that and the other thing. Never considering, perhaps, that there are other things to be thought about. Where, for example, is the nearest Ecclesia? Where, for example, is that brother or sister upon whom you can rely, upon whose advice you can depend when you have a problem which requires a scriptural answer? Where is he? 70 miles in that direction. And should that not give us pause and make us think before we choose to go that way? It's green. It's well watered. But what's the point to bringing fatness into our pockets if it brings leanness into our souls? What's the point of it all? Well, we move house once or twice, perhaps three times in our lives. What about when we are going to choose a marriage partner? Ah, she's beautiful. But not in the truth. She's not involved in the truth at all. She shows very little inclination towards being in the truth. But when we marry him or we marry her, she might turn around, he might turn around. And so we choose, not with God in mind, but with something else. And too often, as I've said before, too often it turns sour. Too often the person you thought was one thing turns out to be something else. Too often, brother and sisters who have pursued this course refuse to recommend it to others. Brother and sisters, these are serious things. What is the point of making a decision that is logical, that is natural, that is obvious, if at the end of it all, it's wrong? Lot is not unrighteous, please remember. Lot is not unjust, please remember. Lot is not ungodly. But this is the sort of decision he makes that takes him down towards Sodom. You know this sequence just as well as I do. He pitches his tent towards Sodom. He goes that way, towards Sodom. In chapter 14, we find that he is actually living in Sodom. Verse 12, these kings come down and they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom and his goods, and they departed. He is living there now. Chapter 19, we find that in the beginning of that chapter, chapter 1, chapter 19 and verse 1, that there came two angels to Sodom at evening and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. As has been pointed out, to sit in the gate means you're one of the elders, one of the judges, one of the respected of that country, of that city. Lot sits in the gate. He pitches his tent towards Sodom. He dwells in Sodom and at the end of it all, he is a judge, he's a ruler, he's a big man in Sodom. Brothers and sisters, God did his best. God tried his best to get that man out of there and just so it is that when we make bad decisions, God tries sometimes to fish us out of it. He tries to get Lot out of Sodom. He sends these kings down and these kings come and this affliction comes upon him and instead of getting out of Sodom and staying out of there, learning the lesson, what happens? Lot's head straight back like a bee to the flower. And brothers and sisters, when we've put ourselves in bad situations before God, when we've chosen wrongly, when we've made wrong decisions, sometimes it happens that God does his best to get us out of it. By means of illness, by means of adverse circumstances, by means of other offers, God tries to push us out of it or pull us out of it but sometimes we won't come. We just won't come. And the trouble with decisions like that is that they destroy one's credibility. They totally destroy one's credibility with everybody. Lot went down to Sodom, he lived in Sodom and he didn't save a soul in Sodom. Let's have a look and see what happens. Genesis chapter 19. Remember who this man is. Lot is a judge in Sodom. Lot is a big man in Sodom and the angels come and he invites them into his house, was full marks to Lot for that and he pressed them, verse 3, he pressed upon them greatly and they turned in onto him and entered into his house and he made them a feast and they'd bake unleavened bread and they did eat. But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both young and old and all the people from every quarter. The house is a meeting place of these iniquitous and wicked men and they called Lot and said unto him, where are the three men? Where are which came into thee this night? Bring them out unto us that we may know them. And mark the words of Lot here, brethren and sisters. Lot went out at the door unto them and shut the door after him and he said, I pray you, brethren, do not sow wickedly. Brethren, I tell you, Abraham would have choked on his beard before he called people like this, his brethren. Brethren, do not sow wickedly. And he offers them his daughters, they've come here under the shadow of my roof, don't dare touch them. They said, stand back and see the contempt with which they hold him and they said again, this one fellow, this joker came into Sodom and now he will need to be a judge. Now we will deal worse with thee than with them. You see how much respect, how much admiration, how much affection and great thought they had for Lot in all this. So he didn't save any of the men of Sodom. They wouldn't listen to him. They had no respect whatsoever. They knew that he was a servant of God. What was he doing here if he was a servant of God? What's he doing here? They probably said, can't be taking his religion too seriously. So the men said, right, okay, verse 12, have you got anybody here else besides son-in-law, sons, daughters, whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place for we will destroy this place because the cry of them is wax and great before the face of the Lord and the Lord has sent us to destroy it. Verse 14, and Lot went out and spoke unto his sons-in-law which married his daughters or which are about to marry his daughter, we don't really know, and said, up, get you out of this place for the Lord will destroy this city and they're all stricken with panic and they all said, right, this man is very serious. We know in the past he's spoken the truth. Let's get out of here. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law. They wouldn't listen. They had no respect for what he said because they knew the man. He had weakened his position before them to such an extent that they wouldn't take what he said seriously. Right, so he didn't save his sons-in -law either. How about his wife? Verse 26, but his wife looked back from behind him and she became a pillar of salt. She my beautiful house, all my swimming pool, all my beautiful carpets, all this. She stood there and down from heaven rained fire, brimstone, liquid salt cascading over her. She became a pillar of salt. So he didn't save his wife. Well, only leaves his daughters, doesn't it? Verse 30, and Lot went up out of Zohar and dwelt in the mountain and his two daughters with him. For he feared to dwell in Zohar and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters. And the firstborn said unto the younger, our father is old and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us out of the manner of all the earth. Come, let us make our father drink wine and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. And so this terrible thing comes to pass. So he didn't save his daughters either. You see, brother and sister, once we make decisions that are weak, that we know within our heart of hearts must not be right, must be in some way wrong, even though there's nothing overtly wrong with them, they lead us on a path that goes inevitably downhill, that continues downhill, that has no turning back. God tries his best to get us out of such situation. But because we have put ourselves there and carry on putting ourselves there, we may eventually come to this sort of destruction. It seems to me, brother and sister, that God sort of draws the veil over him. At the end of this, there's no further mention of Lot at all. He's just gone. There's no further mention of him. He's just gone from the pages of scripture. God sort of mercifully closes the blind on him. Well, brother and sister, what's all that telling you and what's it telling me? It's telling us this, that if we act against our consciences, if we act in such ways that seem to be logical, natural, obvious, profitable, gainful, and do not consider at the same time whether it is a godly thing to do, whether it will improve our standing before God, whether it will improve our spiritual life, whether all those things which I've mentioned here are not taken into consideration, then we put ourselves on the path that goes inevitably downwards towards ruin. Oh yes, we may get into the kingdom of God. Lot is certainly going to be in the kingdom of God. It says so in scripture in 2nd of Peter chapter 2. Lot will certainly be in the kingdom of God and so probably will we. But just as those stars up there are great, big, fat, bright ones, or tiny little pinpricks, so will we be. We shall be as the stars that shine forever and ever, big ones or little ones. And if you want, like I do, to be ministered and abundant entry into the kingdom of God, then let us look into our lives now and choose carefully what we are going to do with respect to what God wants. Let's have a look now at the story of Naomi and Ruth in the book of Ruth in chapter 1. And I believe we see the same sort of thing there, the same decisions being made for the same sort of reasons and the same sort of consequences, this time perhaps a little bit more acute. Ruth chapter 1 and the first verse. And it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled that there was a famine in the land and a certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to Sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. Let's speculate a little bit about what these people were. They lived in Bethlehem Judah, brothers and sisters. There's another Bethlehem, but this one is Bethlehem Judah, the one from which David comes. And you'll recall, won't you, that David was a shepherd. Bethlehem is called the house of bread because it was so lush, it had so much vegetation that it was a real house of bread. David was a shepherd, it is very likely that these were shepherds as well. Because you see, they go to this country of Moab and Moab was a country of sheep-shepherds, so they choose to go there. They leave because there's a famine in the land. Brothers and sisters, pause here for a moment. I'm not for one minute trying to stand before you and pretend that I would make the right decision in these circumstances, but think about it for a moment. What are they doing? They're taking themselves up from the country of God, where at least God is nominally acknowledged, where God is at least nominally worshipped. They're taking themselves from there and because of this famine which God has sent, they are going to the country of Moab where things look better. But in the country of Moab, they worship other gods, they worship Kemosh, they worship other ones. And Kemosh, you remember, is a god that was a great brazen idol with a fire burning in his belly that they took the children and chucked them in to be right. Kemosh was the god of Moab. They picked themselves up and there they go. Did they do right? Did they do right, brothers and sisters? Do you think so? I have my doubts, especially when I remember, for example, Moses, who the letter to the Hebrew says, he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the treasures of Egypt. I think they should have stayed and the consequences of this prove, I think, that they should. They went to the country of Moab to save their lives. Verse 2, the name of the man was Elimelech and his name of his wife was Naomi and the name of his two sons are Malan, Kilian and they're Ephrathites of Bethlehem Judah. And they came to the country of Moab and they continued there and Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died. So he didn't save his life. She was left and her two sons. So what do they do? They get married. Do they send home for women to get married to who believe in the one true God? Not at all. They choose to disobey. Can you put your finger in there and turn back to Deuteronomy chapter 7 for a moment and notice the position that the parents play in the marriage of their children here. And notice the commandments too. Deuteronomy chapter 7 and verse 3. It says of all the people who dwelt in the lands there, that neither shalt thou make marriages with them. Thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods. No says God, you are not to take wives from the people who worship these other gods. Don't do it. And you notice it's the parent's responsibility. Thou shalt not take. Naomi is there. Naomi is probably the chief architect of this. Naomi goes out, selects two women, Orpah and Ruth, and marries them to her two sons. It's the logical, it's the natural, it's the expedient thing to do. They dwelt there about ten years, haven't got any children. And verse 5, Marlon and Chillion, both of them died. So the husband's dead, the elder son's dead, the younger son's dead, although they've gone there to save their lives. Seems as though God doesn't approve of this. So she's left with her two sons, she's left of her two sons and her husband. So she gets up now, the crooks in Moab being no less than the crooks in Israel. They swindle her of all her property, they cheat, they rob them, the poor women are left on their own, no one to defend them, all the goods are gone. She arose with her daughters-in -law that she might return from the country of Moab. For she had heard in the country of Moab how that the Lord had visited his people in giving them bread. Brothers and sisters, this does not improve my respect for Naomi and for what they did. Now there's bread there, they go there. When there wasn't any bread there, they picked themselves up and they left, despite the fact that it was God's country that they were leading in the very first instance. It does not improve my respect for them. They're doing what circumstances dictate rather than what principle dictates. So off they go. She, verse 7, she and her two daughters-in-law with her and they went to return to the land of Judah. And Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-law, go return each of you to her mother's house. The Lord deal kindly with you as ye have dealt with the dead. The Lord, and with me, the Lord grant you that you may find rest each of you in the house of her husband. Go back home, she says. You're not going to find any husbands in Israel. No, no, no, no. They don't like immigrants there. Don't come to Israel with me. The fact that when they go there, they might learn something about the true God. That's got nothing to do with it. Go back. You won't get a husband there. She kissed them, they lifted up their voice and they wept. And they said unto her, surely we will return with thee unto thy people. We really want to go with you. Naomi said, turn again, my daughters. Why will you go with me? Are there yet any more sons in my womb that they may be your husbands? Turn again, my daughters. Go your way for I am too old to have a husband. And even if I should have a husband, she says, and bear a son. Would you wait for them till they were grown? And then we come to this extraordinary statement. Nay, my daughters, for it grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord is gone out against me. And my margin translates that as, nay, my daughters, for it is far more bitter for me than for you that the hand of the Lord is gone out against me. She's wallowing in self-pity. She can't be sorry enough for herself. The hand of the Lord is gone out against me. She hasn't done anything wrong. The hand of the Lord is gone out against me. Not like Joe. The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord, he said. The hand of the Lord is gone out against me. And then, brothers, we have this totally unacceptable incident here. Verse 14, they lifted up their voice and wept again. And Alfa kissed her mother-in-law, probably at their goodbye. Okay, I'm off, said Alfa. I'm leaving. And she turns to Ruth and says this, and she said, behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back onto her people and onto her gods. Return thou after thy sister-in-law. Brothers and sisters, I ask you, if someone is showing signs of coming to the truth, leaving the Catholic Church, the Jewish religion, the Muslim faith, the whatever, coming to the truth, would you then turn around and say, look, don't come with me. Go back to your gods. Go back to your old religion, especially when you knew that what they did there was to take these children, eat up Kimash's belly and throw these children in. Would you say a thing like that and unto her gods return thou after thy sister-in-law? What sort of a woman is this we're dealing with here? You see, it's the logical, the natural, the obvious thing that is motivating her. If she comes to Israel, there is one god there, not the one you've been used to. You won't find a husband there because they don't like immigrants. You won't get a place of rest, as she calls it. Go back home. You'd be far better off there. The consideration that she might come to the truth, that she might believe in God, none of these seem to enter into Naomi's mind at all. And she's so wrong about it that Ruth puts her to shame and it is an eternal credit to this woman and to perhaps the teaching of her husband. I don't know that she says what she says. Intreat me not to leave thee or to return from following after thee. For whither thou goest, I will go and where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall be my people and thy God my God. Where thou diest, will I die and there will I be buried. Jehovah, do so to me and more also if ought but death part thee and me. And she takes the covenant name of God into her mouth, expressing her faith in God. The Lord Jehovah, do so to me and more also if ought but death part thee and me. Thy God shall be my God, she says. And brothers and sisters, if Naomi was an example, I really don't know how it happens that Ruth could believe so strongly in the God that she believed in. I really don't know. She's an extraordinary woman. And when she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her, she left speaking unto her and they carried on to Bethlehem. And brothers and sisters, all the privations, all these twisted thoughts that were in Naomi must have marked her face and her mind. So much so that when they got to the city, it says, the women said, is this Naomi? Surely not. Can't be Naomi. She's so different. And she said unto them, and brothers and sisters again, she just wallows in the self-pity of hers, call me not Naomi, which means pleasant. Don't call me pleasant. Call me bitter, for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. Ah, poor Naomi. I went out full and the Lord hath brought me home again empty. Why then call ye me pleasant, seeing that the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has afflicted me? Brothers and sisters, that's not true. I went out full, she said, totally untrue. She went out with her stomach flapping against her backbone. It was a famine, you remember? I went out full, she said, and the Lord has brought me back empty. It's a terrible sort of attitude to have, I think. But again, Naomi is a natural, ordinary sort of person that doesn't seem to be motivated by faith at all. Circumstances dictate what happened to her. Circumstances dictate her attitude, not principle. And of course, she stands there saying a thing like this, the Lord has brought me home again empty. And there's Ruth, standing there, this gentle woman who is now going to take upon herself the burden of looking after Naomi, caring for her in her illness if she was ill. She stands there and dares to say, I have come back again totally empty with nothing at all. It's tragic. It's sad. It's a pity. And you know full well what happens, brothers and sisters. The one of them, the one of those two who did not act according to common sense, who did not act according to that which appeared to be logical, natural, and obvious, that is the one who receives the greatest of blessings. She is married in a very short time. She finds someone to feed her in an exceedingly short time. And although she'd been married for 10 years to either Mala or children, which one, I don't know, she didn't have any children. And in an extremely short time, she has a child from an old man, Boaz. Boaz was an old man. You remember, it says that blessed be thou because thou hast not followed after the young men, implying that he was an old man. From an old man, she bears a child in an exceedingly short space of time. And not only that, you know as well as I do that her child had children who had children and eventually the messiah was born of that line. And so as a reward for her faith, as a reward for her not acting according to the the obvious, the natural, the immediate and expedient thing, Ruth is blessed far more than she could ever have dreamed or we would ever have dreamed. And so, brothers and sisters and young people, I say to you, when you have a serious decision to make in your life, lying there before you, consider, yes, is it going to be profitable? Yes, is it going to be beneficial? Yes, is it sensible? Yes, is it reasonable to do? But also make no mistake about it, consider carefully what it will do to your relationships with your God. Will it make you worse? Will it make you better? Will it improve your spiritual life? Will it destroy it? Will it take you away from home? Will it make you give you more time at home? Will you be able to attend the meetings or will you have to stay away from them? Will you be able to attend the Bible class or won't you be able to attend the Bible class? Will you go into isolation deliberately to make more money? Then you may pay for it by the destruction of your soul, of your faith. Would you do it? Think carefully, brothers and sisters, because the consequences of the logical, the natural and the obvious seem to me in scripture when they are divorced from thinking about God as all, they seem to be invariably wrong. Let's bear that in mind in the years and months that lie ahead. We will conclude with a word of prayer. After we sing together, one of the most profound hymns in the hymn book, I think, for us who cannot look into the future and see what's there, hymn number 105, Lord, who thyself has bidden us to pray for daily bread, number 105. Lord, who thyself has bidden us to pray for daily bread, freedom's the art for grace, and sickness' the aim, our path to bread. God, for to God our God, is such our hero, tell thee our prayer, so that we shall for each day our daily bread, thy name be heard. Thine is the burden of our coming years, where we belong. Thine is the burden of our coming years, where we belong. Where joy and grief set on earth and where tears it would not come. We could not care to hear something so gentle in this world's own. We have to know life as it cannot fail, nor love nor hope. Someday thy name I will never take up, our souls shall say, so let us be content, thy love to prove each passing day. O Lord our God, the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, who knows the end from beginning, we thy frail mortal children, whose frames are of dust, come unto thee this day, thanking thee for the lessons of thy word, and asking thee to help us in all our decisions, to be guided by the principles that thou hast laid down, that even when we choose them they appear to be difficult and painful, but we shall still choose them because they please thee, and will redound to our honor in the kingdom of God. O Lord open our eyes that we may see the right paths, enlighten our hearts, give us understanding that we may choose the right when these decisions and problems come upon us. Accept our thanksgiving this day and bless us all now through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

Transcript

And before I begin this morning, brothers and sisters, I'd like to express my very warmest thanks to you all for having listened so patiently so far, and for the hospitality that you've all extended towards myself and to my wife, and particular thanks to the committee who thought of inviting us here. I'd like to begin this morning by considering the way in which I, and probably you, are tempted. When there's something that tempts you, that you want, that you know that you ought not to have, it does not happen that you are tempted once to have this thing, and then for the rest of your natural life, you are immune from that temptation. That's not the way it is at all, is it? You see something that you ought not to have, and you say to yourself, boy, isn't that nice? I'd like to get my hands on that. But no, it's wrong. Scripture says you shouldn't have something like that, and you think of a verse or something that tells you that that would be wrong, and you look at that thing again and you say to yourself, no, I'm not going to have that, and you turn your back and you walk away. And a few days, a few hours, a few weeks later, the same happens again. You see the thing once more, and once more the temptation rises within you, oh, I would like to have that, and you resist, or not, as the case may be, and you walk away. And it comes to you again and again and again and again, sometimes getting stronger, sometimes getting weaker, depending upon your frame of mind. Now, when we read the gospels, we find that the Lord Jesus's temptations are condensed, as it were, into a little chunk in Luke chapter four, Matthew chapter four, and Mark chapter one. There's just a little brief mention there, in about 13, maybe 20 verses, and that's it. We don't read of him being really tempted after that. But I'd like you to turn with me now, to Luke four and verse 13, and see what he says there. And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season. And I understand from that, that he was relieved of temptation for a certain length of time. Now, if you turn over with me to chapter 22 of Luke's gospel, we see there, in the 28th verse, when the Lord is at the table with his disciples, the last supper, we read these. Verse 28, ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations. So, Jesus was tempted. He was tempted many times, in between Luke chapter four and Luke chapter 22, and indeed, up to the time that he died on the cross. Temptations came to him again and again and again, just as it happens to you and it happens to me. And yet, there's no record of this. There's no specific mention of it. And so, this morning, what I would like to do, with your permission, is to take you through the temptations of the Lord, in the fourth chapter of Matthew's gospel, not Luke, as we've been using, the fourth chapter of Matthew's gospel, and we shall then see, we shall attempt to find the incidents in his life where those very temptations occur again and again, and how he handled them. This is, of course, to emphasize the point that he was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. So, let's go then to Matthew's gospel, to chapter four. The first temptation, Jesus, verse one, is led up of the spirits into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, he was afterward and hungered. I think Luke says that he was tempted during 40 days and 40 nights, which is more like it, that the temptations came to him again and again and again and again during those 40 days during which he was fasting. Verse three, and when the tempter came to him, he said, if thou be the son of God, command that these stones be made bread. I've wondered often about this, brothers and sisters, and perhaps you may not agree with me on this point, but here is the Lord Jesus, about 30 years old here at this point in time. The previous 30 years, we have very little information, and after he has ministered to his brethren, thereafter he is beyond temptation. He can no longer be tempted with evil. What did he think of during those 30 years up to that point in time that we have in Matthew chapter four here? He knew, didn't he, that Isaiah chapter 61, for example, said that the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Therefore, at some point in time, he was going to receive the power of God, the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. I suggest to you that he must have, it must have occurred to him, just as it would have occurred to you and me. What will I do when I've got this, when God gives me this power, when my Father hands me this power? What am I going to do with it? Undoubtedly, I think we see here in chapter four of Matthew's gospel, we see here the culmination of all those years of thought that he must have experienced, which, and here are the major things which would have tempted him. Take these stones, he says. Take these stones and turn them into bread. He looked round the land, he looked at his people, the people of Israel, he saw them, he saw them starving, he saw the poor, he saw the needy, he saw the afflicted, he saw, and he thought it would be a good thing to do, to turn stones into bread, or to be able to turn stones into bread. And maybe that's what's happening here. It has come, the opportunity has come, the power has come, he is hungry, he is starving, and here within his hand is the power to turn these stones into bread. Had he done so, he would have done what most of us do quite often. God has put into our power the ability to do things. He gives us money, he gives us time, he gives us the ability to speak, he gives us the ability to love, he gives us many, many powers and abilities, and we can take these and use them for our own devices, for our own desires, for our own satisfaction. As the Lord is tempted here, if thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Had he turned those stones into bread, that's all that they would have been, by bread alone. That's all, finish. But there's more, he says to life, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And this temptation is repeated several times in the Lord's life, I'm quite sure. Let's look at one of those, I think, in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 14. Matthew chapter 14. And if you'd like to mark the fourth chapter, brothers and sisters, so we can refer to it again and again, it probably would help. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 14, and it's verse 13, to put ourselves in the picture. When Jesus heard of it, that John had been killed, he departed then by ship into a desert place apart. And when the multitudes heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities. And Jesus went forth and saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion towards them and he healed their sick. And when it was evening, these disciples came to him saying, this is a desert place, the time is now past, send the multitudes away that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food. But Jesus said unto them, they need not depart, give ye them to eat. And the disciples, being the disciples, say, Lord, we only have here about five loaves and two fishes. And he said, bring them hither to me. And now look at what he does, brothers and sisters, take careful note of what he does. He commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, to recline on the grass. And he took the five loaves and the two fishes and looking up to heaven, he blessed and break and gave the loaves to his disciples and the disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat and were filled. And they took up of the fragments that remained 12 baskets full. Now see what he does. He takes these five loaves and these two fishes and then he commands the multitude to recline on the grass. Now he may have been concerned about their comfort. In fact, I'm certain that he was. But I think he's doing something else. Supposing we go to a football game. Now there's 5,000 people there and we're all coming out onto the street. If I wanted people to see me, to make very sure that they did see me, I could do one or two things. I could climb up nearest telegraph pole and look like a fool as I fell off. But the other thing to do would be to somehow cause them to lie down or to sit down so that they'd be a bit lower than I would be. And I think this is what Jesus is doing. He wants them to see him. He wants them to see exactly what he does. So he commands them to recline. And then I have not the slightest doubt that he looks for a piece of rock that sticks out there and he climbs up on it. And so that they can all see, he takes the bread and the fish, looks up to heaven, thanks God for it. And then when they realize and understand that they are going to be fed by the word of God, he breaks the bread and the fish and hands them out. And thereby, what the Lord is doing is removing forever from the minds of all who were there the possibility that this came from Jesus alone. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Had God not said that you were going to eat today from those bread and from those fish, then they would not have done. It came from God, not from Jesus. And so you see the temptation to take onto himself the glory and the power and all that would go there with is removed by his action in front of all these people. He avoids the temptation. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Should we go back to Matthew chapter four? I want to leave the middle temptation for a while until last. Should we go to the third one in verse eight? Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them and saith unto him, all these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then said Jesus unto him, get thee hence Satan, for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve. Now, to understand the force of this temptation, brothers and sisters, we must make one or two considerations first. I think this temptation above all of the others shows just how ridiculous the concept of an external tempter really is. Suppose for a moment I came to you and said, look, hey, I'll sell you the whole city of Los Angeles for $25. It would make no sense at all, would it? You know that that city doesn't belong to me. You know that I have no right or title or authority or power to sell that to you. This is the son of God we're dealing with here now. He is the one who more than anybody else on the face of the earth before or since knew full well that the whole world and all that was in it belonged to the Lord. The earth and the fullness thereof belong to the Lord. What's it say in the Psalm? That the, that's what it says, that the fullness of the whole earth, the earth and the fullness thereof belong unto God. Jesus knew that, Jesus believed that, Jesus accepted that. How then could he accept possibly that somebody from outside or something from outside is going to come to him and say, look, take it all, it'll be yours if only you bow down and worship me. It is the most farcical statement you could wish for. But now let's have a look at the source of this temptation in Deuteronomy chapter, the last chapter of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter 34. And now appreciate, and we now appreciate, I think, just how potent, how powerful this temptation must have been to the mind of the Lord, saturated and steeped and soaked as it must have been in passages like this. Deuteronomy chapter 34 and verse one. And Moses went up from the plains of Moab onto the Mount of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah that is over against Jericho. And the Lord showed him all the land of Gilead unto Dan, and all Napthali and the land of Ephraim and Manasseh and all the land of Judah unto the utmost sea and the south and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zohar. And the Lord said unto him, this is the land which I swear unto Abraham, unto Isaac and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed. You see, all the kingdoms of the earth, the land and the glory of them in a moment of time, it's a reenactment of this. He sees Gilead, he sees Dan, he sees Napthali, he sees Ephraim, he sees Manasseh, he sees all the land of Judah right up to the Hindus Sea, the utmost sea, it says, the south, plain of the valley of Jericho, unto Zohar, all the way around surveying them. Unto his mind, to the Lord's mind come the words, this is the land which I swear unto Abraham, unto Isaac and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed. The seed had come, the Lord was here, it belonged to him by rights, but God was not yet prepared to give it to him, not until he had proved himself. Take it now, Jesus, take it, it's yours. Doesn't scripture say this one? Doesn't it say that it belongs to the seed of Abraham, of Isaac and Jacob? Are you not that seed? Take it, it's yours. But the only thing you need to do is to set yourself up in opposition to God. Then said Jesus unto him, get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Well, that's a very potent temptation. And you can well see that in the years leading up to this, the Lord must have considered taking the kingdom and the power and the glory thereof before its time. You can see it, but it comes again, again in his life. And I'd like you to draw your attention now to Matthew chapter 16, where we have there beyond any doubt at all, one of the most powerful temptations that must have come Jesus' way, made the more powerful by the fact that it comes from one whom he loves, one upon whose companionship he relied. Chapter 16, verse 21. From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised again the third day. And the disciples heard up to that point where it says, and be killed. They didn't hear that other bit. And Simon Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee. Notice, don't go to Jerusalem, don't die, don't suffer. The kingdom is yours. Really, we believe that. But he turned and said unto Peter, the very words almost that are in Matthew chapter four, get thee behind me, Satan. Get thee hence, Satan, he had said. Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou art his stumbling block unto me, for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. And now brethren, look at these words here and see if you can't see Jesus exhorting himself and using the very words and the very thoughts almost of his temptation. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, if any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whosoever would save his life shall lose it and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and the glory of them in a moment of time and lose his own life? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his life? And you can see him harking back to the temptation. What shall a man be profited if he shall gain the whole world and the glory of them in a moment of time and lose his own life? One of his too much to suggest that the Lord in fact might have been slain had he fallen for that one. Because brethren, sisters, you see the Lord Jesus being what he was would have been probably or could have been probably one of the most powerful enemies that God ever had. The strength of character, the strength of will, the determination of purpose. Whosoever shall lose his life for my sake shall find it. Whosoever shall save his life shall lose it. Then he goes on, for the son of man shall come in the glory of his father with his angels and then shall he reward every man according to his works. Then, I'm prepared to wait he says. I shall wait for God's own good time. And so the temptation comes again, comes again to him, set in, become much more powerful and potent I believe because it has come from his friend, one who loved him, his companion. Shall we go back now to Matthew chapter four once again? And this time consider the middle temptation which I have deliberately left till last. Matthew's gospel, chapter four and verse five. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, Jerusalem. And he setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple. And you know that many commentators have said that this was where the two walls met and overlooked the Kidron Valley. And said unto him, if thou be the son of God, cast thyself down for it is written, he shall give his angels charge concerning thee and in their hands they shall bear thee up lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. And brethren and sisters, the suggestion has been made very often that the Lord's on the corner there and is being tempted to jump out into the valley below. That doesn't make sense to me because not very many people would see him. And I suggest instead that he is being tempted not to jump that way but into the courtyard of the temple where all the worshipers would be gathered and there everybody would see this man jumping from the corner there and coming to float down to the earth like that. Who is this man? Fancy jumping off the top of that pinnacle there and not being injured. He must be the one who the angels are bearing up in their hands so that he won't dash his foot against the stone when he gets down here. He is the Messiah. He is the son of God. Show off, Jesus. And you can see how many times Jesus must have thought of this one before he received the powers and now it has come. Jump off, Jesus. Show them. But the temptation comes again, twice. And I'd like to ask you to come back with me now to Luke's Gospel to chapter four. Luke's Gospel, chapter four and verse 28. And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath and rose up and rose again and thrust him out of the city and led him onto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built that they might cast him down headlong. And what an opportunity there it was. Jump off, Jesus. Float down from there down to the bottom and then make a few aerial turns and come back and stand up there. And they would believe you. They will be certain, they'll be convinced then that you are the son of God, that you are the Messiah. Jump off, Jesus. But he, passing through the midst of them, went his way. We assume, brothers and sisters, that he used some of the power of God here to just pass through the midst of them and went his way. I wonder whether it wasn't rather that the disciples then took a hand in this and started elbowing these men to one side to let the Lord pass through. I don't know, but it's quite an interesting thought. I just rather, in the spirit of what Peter and James and John would have done, a few elbows and so on, would surely have pushed a few people to one side. But that's the first time. The second time is absolutely appalling. Can we turn now to Matthew chapter 27? Matthew's gospel, chapter 27. And verse 33. And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha, that is to say, the place of a skull, they gave him vinegar to drink, mingled with gall. And when he had tasted thereof, he would not drink. And they crucified him and purchased his garments, casting lots. And their brothers and sisters, under that blazing sun, they knocked the nails into his arms, they knocked the nails into his feet, they tied him up to that stake, hauled it upright and it drops into the slot, the crash. And with all the pain and the agony that must have taken, they still were not satisfied. Verse 39. And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads and saying, thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the son of God, come down from the cross. Those words, if thou be the son of God, are identical to those words in Matthew chapter four. If thou be the son of God, cast thyself down. Jump off, Jesus, show them. Leap off from that cross, terrify, horrify, amaze. And astonish these men. And how sore that temptation must have been. When we're sick, brothers and sisters, if it's possible at all, we go and take medicines, we undergo treatment, we sometimes have to undergo surgery. We do whatever we possibly can to stop this pain, to get cured, to get healed, to become whole. And how natural it is. And here is the Lord, with his flesh injured, his back bleeding with his crown of thorns or its marks left upon its head, out in the midday sun, stark naked, hanging on this cross and everybody walking past, shouting at the top of their voices, at least these wicked men saying, if thou be the son of God, come down Jesus, jump off, we'll believe you. He saved others, himself, he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross and we will believe him. He trusted in God, let him deliver him now if he will have him, for he said, I am the son of God, didn't he? How human beings can be cruel. Brother and sister, the extent of their cruelty and their words, it beggars belief. And here are they saying, if he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross and we will believe him. And so with all its vileness, with all its power, with all its force, that temptation returns. And just as the Lord withstood then, just so he withstood now, it is written, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And he believed in God, he trusted in him and he died. From the sixth hour, there was darkness all over the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cries with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, Lama sabachthanai. That is to say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Of course he didn't forsake him. Verse 50, he cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost and died. And he rose again the third day. Brothers and sisters, this man who was in all points, tempted like as we are, yet without sin. This man for whom temptation must have been a daily occurrence. The temptation of running away from the cross, of hiding from its shame, of avoiding the agony, it must have come to him at time and time and time again. As he walked, brethren, up and down the roads of Palestine, the Romans who were so fond of executing all their political opponents, all the men who dared to raise insurrection, he would see them hanging on the crosses by the side of the road as he went along. And each time he passes one of them, it must have come to his mind, one day, that's what it's gonna be like with me. And he's tempted in all points like as we are, wanting to avoid the cross, wanting to avoid the shame, wanting to avoid that agony. But voluntarily, rising above the flesh, rising above its lusts, rising above its inclinations and desires. And for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame. And now is set down at the right hand of the majesty on high. My beloved brethren and sisters, this is a Lord that is worth having. This is a man who it is worth following. This is a man who has no equals. And yet God is called his God. If the Lord Jesus is so wonderful a person, how wonderful indeed must be the God that he worships. And what about ourselves? When our temptations come bitter and sharp, when we have it within our power to indulge our flesh, to satisfy our lusts, to satisfy the affections thereof, shall we then take those opportunities into our hands and turn those stones into bread? Pause and remember this man. And when we have the opportunity of exalting ourselves wrongly, putting our brethren, making them look small, making our workmates look small, when we can be contemptuous, when we can be sarcastic, when we can be all of these unpleasant things, shall we do it? When we have a Lord like this? And shall we avoid the shame and the spitting and the reviling of those who hate him and who hate his father by going back to our places and hiding our light under the bushel so that no one can know, no one will hear, no one will think that this man is a Christadelphian? Is that the way it's going to be? Or are we going to be like Jesus? And choose rather that most difficult, that most painful of ways which leads to eternal life. Brethren, sisters, remember these temptations of your Lord, our Lord, and when we are tempted, pause, think of what he did, think of how he was tempted, and then let us walk strongly and firmly towards the kingdom of God. We shall conclude this session by singing of the day when God will give him the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. Hymn 25, after which please remain standing for a word of prayer. O Lord, thy judgments give the king, his son thy righteousness. Hymn number 25. Hymn number two. O Lord, thy judgments give the king, his son thy righteousness. thy righteousness, with right he shall the people judge, and war without rightness. The Jehovah shall cover his name in his days, and prosper in his reign. The Jehovah, the good will of God, and peace maintain. If just and great the wind and shout from sea to sea extend, it from the river shall reach forth unto her soft cross bed. For he, the King, he shall preserve, when need to live and come. The glorious song when he lived and had the will of man and home. His name forever shall he do, as thine a son he shall. Then shall he earth, live, live, and bless. All nations shall hear God. Blessed be thou, O Lord God, the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was blessed us abundantly, and richly, and with overflowing hand. We thank thee and praise thy name, for having sent into the world thine only begotten Son, who died for our sins, who suffered under Pontius Pilate, who was crucified, and who remained on the cross, and is now exalted to thy right hand. O Lord, we worship thee and we praise thee, and thank thee for such an example, for such a master, that we in our turn, when we are tempted, may remember him and his sufferings, and that we shall choose the right hand to do that which is righteous and well pleasing in thy sight, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Accept our praise and our thanksgiving, O Lord our God, for we offer it through his precious name. Amen.