Genesis 36 Unholy Like Esau

Cornerstone Church

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All right, Pastor Tim, would you open us in a word of prayer? Sure. Father God, thank you so much that we can come here and learn from your

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Word. Thank you for choosing us and loving us even before we were born, even before the earth and the foundations of the earth were made.

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We thank you that you sent your Son to die on a cross for us and then sent your Spirit to us later on to convince us and convict us of sin and point us to your

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Son to believe in Him, believe in His name and the death and the resurrection of your Son Jesus.

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We pray now that you would speak through Pastor Jeff to teach us more about that and more about your Word and that we would come to love your

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Son and the Word of God. So we thank you in Jesus name, amen. Amen. Today we study

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Esau. Remember Esau, how he struggled in the womb with his brother

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Jacob, the heel grabber, grabbing his heel. What are some of the physical characteristics of Esau?

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He's hairy, he's strong, he smells, yeah he does smell and he's red.

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You know one time I actually had some black Hebrew Israelites in inner -city Philly call me

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Esau and they said, because I had led this kid named Christian to the

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Lord a little while before and these Hebrew Israelites were banded around him trying to convince him he was from one of the lost tribes of Israel of ethnic descent and that's how their kind of religion works and so I came walking through and I was talking

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I got to rap him with these guys and one of them was really aggressive towards me. He said, put out your arm.

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I was like, alright. So I put out my arm and he put out his and he said, look at the difference of the skin color and I was like, yeah there's a shade difference, we're all brown you know and he's like, no you're red, you're red.

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That means you're Esau, God hates you and so do I. He's like, well alright, nice talking to you too.

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Yeah so that that's black Hebrew Israelite theology that it's an ethnic. No, we kind of went on from there but it got even more ridiculous.

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But the characteristic of Esau's red skin, right? The struggle between Jacob and Esau.

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Remember when Jacob dressed up like Esau he made himself smelly. I think that was you that said that,

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Bob. He put on a fake fur and he went in and tricked his father for the blessing.

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But Esau himself sold his own birthright. Remember this story? That's right. What happened there?

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He needed porridge. He needed stew. He sold that red stew. Yeah. He sold it out.

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That's kind of cheap. Yes. Now Esau sold his birthright.

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When it came time for Jacob to bless Esau, I'm sorry for Isaac to bless

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Esau, was there any blessing left for him or was it too late?

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For the birthright. He did get a blessing. Yeah. The birthright was gone.

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When a person who's been offered the gospel of Jesus Christ again and again and again, who's been called to repentance and faith, rejects to the point of their death, is there a choice after death?

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No. No. Done. There comes a time. Is it possible even in this life for opportunity to repent to come to an end?

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Yes. According to Hebrews 6, it says, land that drinks in the rain often falling on it, but is always hard to it.

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It is only fit to be burned. In fact, in that context of someone who's been so exposed to Christianity has tasted the goodness of the word of God, the powers of the coming age.

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If they fall away, if they apostatize, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance.

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Now we don't know when someone has reached that point. So for our part, what do we do? We witness, we keep talking, we keep calling for repentance, but the principle is here,

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God knows. There comes a point when a person is so hardened and dead in their sin that he gives them over.

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I think that Romans 1, it mentions that phrase that he gave them over, he gave them over, he gave them over.

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It mentions it three times. There is a kind of sinning unto more sin that hardens and deadens the heart.

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This is a very strong warning in Romans. Some kinds of sexual immorality are a result of being given over to the lusts of the flesh, right?

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Remember Romans 1, 26 and 27, because they did not retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to sexual sin.

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And then he gives, gives them over again to more unnatural sexual sin.

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So lack of repentance can result in being given over, hardened, and the time for repentance can run out.

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When the New Testament comments on the life of Esau in Hebrews chapter 12, and we'll get to this in a minute, but I'm going to read it now just to set the stage.

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He says, see to it that you have peace with everyone and for holiness without which no one will see the

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Lord. Now listen about Esau. That first of all, you have no root of bitterness. And then secondly, that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau who sold his birthright for a single meal.

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Now here's the point of Esau. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected for he found no chance to repent, although he sought it with tears.

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That's what the New Testament wants us to remember about Esau. One, this is from Hebrews 12 verses 14 to 17.

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It's in your notes right here. We're going to, we're going to read it down there. I just wanted to set the introduction though, using that verse because the

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New Testament teaches us what we are to remember about Esau. So now let's go back

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Genesis chapter 36. And today we're not going to read all 43 verses, but we are going to read the first eight verses nine to 43 are a genealogy of the sons of Esau and how they become the chieftains, the

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Kings, the leaders of a nation called anybody know?

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Edom. Very good. You ever heard of Herod? He was an

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Edomite. One of the last Edomites. We're going to understand how the

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Edomites are given over to destruction. The book of Obadiah is only one chapter long, but it's about the

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Edomites. All right. So let's read beginning now with Bob, why don't

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I go to your side? Cause I usually go right to left. This I'm going to go left to right. Change the orientation of the clock here.

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So Bob, would you read verses one to five for us? Now these are the records of the generation of Esau that is

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Edom. Esau took his wives from the daughters of Canaan, Adah the daughter of Elon the

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Hittite, Obah the daughter of Anna and the granddaughter of Zibion the

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Hittite. And also Bassamath, Ishmael's daughter, the sister of Nebioth.

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And Adah bore Ephrath to Esau and Bassamath bore Uel. And Oma, Oma, Bama, Nord, Jewish, and Jelum, these are the sons of Esau who were born to him in the land of Canaan.

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Okay. Even though I was not tempted to name my daughter, Oh Holy Mama, or my son

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Elon, although is there a famous Elon in the world right now? There's where you get that name.

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The main point of this section is not the obscurity of the names.

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What is the main point of this section? Well, you have to remember some context prior to this.

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Back in Genesis 26, 35, who made life bitter for Isaac and Rebecca?

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Esau's wives, the Hittite, the Hivite, these Canaanite women who did not regard

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Yahweh. So they made very bad daughters -in -law. They were not making life pleasant for Esau's parents.

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They were like a thorn in the flesh, probably very rebellious and mean and ungodly and immoral.

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All of these things, they did not worship God. And they also probably worshiped idols, which was a real grievance to the righteous hearts of Isaac and Rebecca.

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Perfect examples of that in the modern times. This is why, raise your kids and your grandkids to marry the right person.

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Tim teaches the youth, it is the second most important decision of your life. The first is to take Jesus as your

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Lord and Savior. The second is who you marry. That makes such a difference in your life.

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So, but here in verse 27, 46, Rebecca said to Isaac, I loathe my life because of the

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Hittite women. So what does she say about Jacob? At the end of Genesis 27, the last verse of Genesis 27, she says, don't let

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Jacob marry a Hittite woman or a Canaanite woman. Send him back to find from our family, treat.

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And that's what ends up happening, that he goes and eventually finds Rachel and Leah and two of their handmaids and maidens, which is not good.

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But this is the, the effort to escape the problem, the trap of Canaanite women, right?

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And here's the picture of Canaan. Canaan pictures the world and the world wants to press us into its mold to be like the world in how the world thinks and moves.

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What was Esau's original problem? Remember the stew, it was his stomach.

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And the stomach is a picture of appetite, appetite, lust, desire, cravings of the flesh.

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The world, the flesh, the devil are our enemies. His flesh and the world of Canaan offered him many pleasures.

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Remember Sodom and Gomorrah is already functioning there and lots gotten tangled up there.

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It got destroyed. But that kind of culture is pervasive in the land, sexual immorality, all kinds of desires to please the flesh.

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And Esau is a fleshly man. Give me that stew. He sells the very birthright of God, which is a picture of our birthright, our inheritance in Christ.

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He sells out the spiritual things for the earthly, the worldly, the carnal.

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He has a carnal mind. So Esau is a picture of a man controlled by appetite.

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And that's a warning for all of us. There are many people in our lives whose appetites are controlling them.

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You looked at me for that. I explicitly looked away so you wouldn't think I was targeting. Right, Bob?

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So that's the original problem. Now, you would think maybe he would repent.

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But the New Testament makes the point that not only is he a man controlled by appetite, he doesn't repent.

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Though eventually he seeks it with tears, he can't repent. He can't bring himself to repent. Time runs out.

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Let's read now verses six to eight. Maybe Barbara, would you like to read that for us?

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Okay. Esau took his wives and sons and daughters and all the members of his household, as well as his livestock and all his other animals and all the goods he had acquired in Canaan, and moved to a land some distance from his brother

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Jacob. Their possessions were too great for them to remain together. The land where they were staying could not support them both because of their livestock.

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So Esau, that is Edom, settled in the hill country of Seir.

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This is the account of Esau, the father of the Edomites in the hill country of Seir. Very good.

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And notice parenthetically it says, Esau is Edom. And that's the point of this section.

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It is how the nation of Edom comes to be. Originally, they're dwelling in the promised land with Israel.

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And presumably, had they believed in the God of Israel and kept covenant, they would have fallen sort of under the blessing of Isaac through Jacob, who is

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Israel, right? If he had stayed with his brother. But does he stay with his brother under that covenant blessing?

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No, he goes out. He goes out. And this is a very strong warning in 1st

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John 2 19. They went out from us, but they were not of us.

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For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out.

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That it might become plain that they are not of us.

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That's a New Testament context of people who were in the church, visible, not necessarily part of the invisible church, which is the true church.

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That's a theological term. Visible church refers to the gathering, the outward assembly.

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What's ostensibly the church, not the building, but the people. But even within the visible church, there are some who are not regenerate.

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And in time, they go out. And that's what's happening here with Esau. Although he is in the community gathered under Isaac's tent and with his brother, he goes out.

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And what happens here is the formation of a nation called

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Edom. This nation goes out from Israel because they are not of Israel.

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Right. Genesis 25 34, Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose and went his way.

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Thus Esau despised his birthright. That appetite of the flesh that overtook him was more than just mere indulgence.

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It also said something about the birthright. God, the eternal things.

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He sold out what was lasting and eternal, the future city for this city.

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Did you notice at the beginning of verse six, when Esau takes his wives, plural, how many wives should he have had?

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One. And with them, with these wives, all these sons and daughters, what else does it mention?

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Livestock and peace and property. You see, he had become so wealthy that he couldn't even coexist with his brother.

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They were clashing over goods and fighting over who gets to graze the land here or there.

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And so it's partly his own possessions and his outward appearance of success that drives him away from that covenant blessing in the promised land.

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So there it's the love of the world. Again, his possessions are too much for him.

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He doesn't regard the covering of Isaac and the blessing of God more than the things of this earth.

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And so Edom is born as a nation. Now, if you look, just glancing with your eyes, chapter 36 verses nine through 43, it lists the descendants.

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These are the generations. It mentions the chiefs and the Kings who were

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Esau's sons. I say despite their possessions, because these are chiefs, they're

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Kings, they're mighty men living up in their hill country. Sadly, from this breakaway, they have irrecoverably lost their standing with God.

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Irrecoverably lost their standing with God. They have possessions, there's Kings and chiefs in their number, but they've lost what was truly valuable.

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They've broken away from Israel. They would have done much better to have been a pauper.

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What's the saying? I'd much rather be a gatekeeper, a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than, you know, a

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King somewhere in a palace. They chose the kingdom of this world over the kingdom of God.

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It's a breaking. That's, that's the idea here. So we, we then see Edom pop up again, coming out of the, uh, the captivity in Egypt as they're wandering the wilderness.

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Edom has some interaction there. You'd think they'd be friends with Israel, are they? No, even though they're brothers, they resist, they don't let them pass.

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They're against and oppositional always. The next major occurrence is an entire book of the

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Bible. Turn with me to the book of Obadiah. Obadiah.

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I'd give you a page number, but it's different in all of our Bibles. What's that?

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Amos Obadiah. Yes. And it's very hard to find because it's literally only one page.

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It's one chapter, but hey, how, how great is it? We can study an entire book of the Bible just in one sitting like this.

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This is only one page. Rick, would you mind reading for us just the first five verses?

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The vision of Obadiah. Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom.

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We have heard a report from the Lord and a messenger has been sent among the nations. Rise up.

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Let us rise against her for battle. Behold, I will make you small among the nations.

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You shall be utterly despised. The pride of your heart has deceived you. You who live in the clefts of the rock, in your lofty dwelling, who say in your heart, who will bring me down to the ground?

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Though you soar aloft like the Eagle, though your heart, though your nest is set among the stars, from there

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I will bring you down declares the Lord. You can stop there. Yeah.

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That's the end of four, but that works. How many of you have seen Indiana Jones and he goes to Petra and there's that big rock opening that he has to enter?

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That's in the land of Edom. Petra. A rose -red city half as old as time. What is it?

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A rose -red city half as old as time. Is that from Indiana Jones? No, that's an actual quote from it.

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Yeah, that's a historical quote of Petra. Yeah, because it's red. A rose -red city half as old as time.

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Half as old as time. Yeah. So, this is, it's founded by Edom. This nation is in the clefts of the rocks.

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That means that mountain range that is to the east of Israel, it was inhabited by the

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Ammonites, the Moabites, and the Edomites. Edomites to the south. Of that mountain range, they live up in the rocks.

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Now, are they a big nation or a small nation? Small, but they're prideful. They're lofty.

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They're high, like the Eagle's nest. They're exalted. And in their mind, they're above Israel.

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They're up in the mountains. And that physical picture is an example of how they think of themselves.

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They're puffed up. And they are meant to be a friend of Israel, as all of us are called to be.

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Friends of Israel. But instead, what's happening in the book of Obadiah is that when the

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Assyrians came to crush Israel, Edom, from their lofty position right next door, was in a position where they could have helped.

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They could have come to their brother's aid. Right? Did they do that?

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Now, what did they do, Bob? They watched it happen.

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You're exactly right. And more than that, they gloated. They delighted in the destruction of Israel.

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It's like this rivalry, the sibling rivalry, where you would think a brother, what should a brother do?

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A brother should have a brother's back. Right? That's what we say in tearing down high places.

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If you see a brother down, pick him up. If you see a high place like Edom, tear it down.

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Because on the high places, that's where they would build altars to Baal. That's where the Baals were. You got to smash the

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Baals. That's what Gideon found out. He had to smash his father's idols in the high place. But of a brother, what are you to do?

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Be their keeper. That's right where I was going. Am I my brother's keeper? And what did

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Cain and Abel discover? Yeah. Cain was not his brother's keeper. He was his brother's killer.

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And the Edomites were of the same heart, murderous toward their brothers. So when

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Assyria was wiping them out, they're up there eating the popcorn. They're sitting up from their perch, looking down, seeing these swarms of troops going against Israel, and they are clapping, cheering them on.

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Go get them. Meanwhile, there's blood in the streets. There's toddlers wandering around and falling down.

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It happens again with Babylon. Over and again, time and again, Edom is no brother to Israel.

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The book of Lamentations is about Jeremiah's weeping over that when the

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Babylonian captivity takes place. And it's hard to even read Lamentations chapter three, the kind of things that are happening on the ground.

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Meanwhile, the Edomites up high are gloating. So Obadiah three, you don't have to say one three, because there's only one.

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So Obadiah three, verse three, the pride of your heart has deceived you.

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You who live in the clefts of the rock, in your lofty dwelling, who say in your heart, who will bring me down to the ground?

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Though you soar aloft like the eagle, though your nest is set among the stars, from there

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I will bring you down. You see the answer to the question, who will bring me down to the ground?

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He who exalts himself will be humble. He who humbles himself before Almighty God, God will exalt.

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This is the upside down kingdom in which God rules the world. It seems like this is a very secure people because how can you attack a cleft dwelling people?

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They have the high ground, right? Militarily, that's very difficult. And they've lived there. They've probably got encampments all throughout.

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They know every cave. They have every position. It is very difficult to attack Edom. If you were to go to Edom today, what would you discover?

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Yeah. Ruins, destruction, time and truth walk hand in hand.

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Time determines who God approves. It is shown out in time.

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With the Edomites, what do you have? A prideful people who felt secure, but what

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God says in the book of Obadiah, and if we had time to read the whole chapter, you can do that later. It's only one chapter.

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God will utterly destroy this people. Many people think that Herod, the

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Edomite, was one of the last Edomites. What happened to Herod's family line?

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Remember Herod Antipas? We know Herod, the king who killed all the babies of Bethlehem, his descendant

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Herod Antipas. What was his end? I think the original

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Herod might've been killed that way, but Antipas, he put on a shiny robe, and he stood up in the city, and declared the glory of the kingdom, and what happened?

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Yes, and it even says that they said, the voice of a God and not a man, and he received that praise, and the

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Bible tells us in Acts, what chapter is this? The Bible tells us in Acts that the worms ate him, and he died.

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So, he was eaten from the inside. So, that infestation of parasites had become so destroying of his body that they completely overtook him, would have been gruesome, and resulted in him dying right there.

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So, the Lord punished that. That's a gruesome picture, isn't it?

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Terrible way to go. Horrible way to go. Herod the Edomite, he exalted himself over God, and over the gospel, and took that glory as if he himself were a

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God, and God humbled him in a most remarkable way. Nebuchadnezzar was digging in the earth for seven years.

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Yeah, remember that story? Nebuchadnezzar, when he received glory that way,

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God reduced his mind to that of an animal. Anybody see the sight and sound of that, by the way? Ah, I wonder if it's still in...

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It was so good. Like, amazing how they depicted that. It was...

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At sight and sound. Yeah, that one was... Well, that was Daniel. Yeah, it was Daniel.

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Yeah, but it was remarkable. Yeah, anyway. So, the prideful nation of Edom exalts themselves, and God brings them down, ultimately.

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So, nowadays, when you look out at the political landscape, when's the last time you saw

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Israel in the news? This morning.

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This morning, right? Every single day, they just got the hostages back. God is still protecting them from hostile enemies all around.

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When's the last time you heard about the Edomites in the news? It's been 2 ,000 years since they made the front page.

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Yeah, and the idea here is that God's word is true. What he said in Obadiah came to pass.

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Everything God says comes to pass. So, then, Esau. Esau is

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Edom, we learned today. That's the phrase from Genesis 36. Edom is a lesson for us.

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What is that lesson? Yeah, don't exalt yourself.

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Love your brother. Love your brother. Don't get puffed up. Pride goeth before the fall.

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Yes, that's a picture of Now, what about Esau in his worldliness?

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What would that say to any of us? There you go.

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There's a golden rule, if there ever was one. So, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, these are a temptation for anybody living in the world, right?

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And sometimes these things can become entanglements and people get caught up in it. And they even leave the church.

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They go out from among us. Is there time to repent? Yes. Yes, we don't know.

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Yeah, we don't know if God ever comes to that Hebrew six place with anybody. We don't know that point.

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You went too fast there. She said something and I didn't get it. It was very good. Well, say it again, Barbara.

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What? Well, you just said something. Oh, do unto others as you would the golden rule. Yes. Yeah. So, don't take the quick gain.

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Yeah. Yeah. The phrase I like to use there is delayed gratification. Delayed gratification.

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The world is offering all of this instant gratification, you know, especially in the culture we live.

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It's much more like Canaan than it used to be in America. All of these ways to satisfy the flesh.

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Don't choose that easy road. It becomes a snare. It's entangling. Esau's great sin was his appetite, his lust.

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And he gave into that to the point where it controlled him. He became a slave. And what is so jarring about this story is that there came a point, and let's read this verse now because this is the big idea where I started and where we're going to finish.

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There came a point where there was no more opportunity to repent. So, in the notes there,

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Tim, would you read Hebrews 12 verses 14 to 17? Sure. Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the

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Lord. See to it that no one vows to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled, that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.

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For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

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It's a scary verse, isn't it? It is scary. What does it mean? It means that there's a time for repentance.

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Now, we know repentance is also a gift of God. We're to pray that God would in His kindness grant repentance, but to the person maybe listening in the video or any of us, if you've been allowing sin in your life, any of these sins, a root of bitterness springing up and causing trouble, which causes the defilement of many, sexual immorality, unholy indulgence in appetites, could be actual food.

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For some, it's the drink. A lot of people have a taste for alcohol and that becomes enslaving to them.

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I'm just getting that sexual immorality is more than the physical, sexual. Yeah. It's deeper.

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What do you mean by that? Because I think you're right. Because I'm thinking when we look at sex, it's like it's overpowering.

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Right. And like you mentioned the appetite. It can be an appetite for anything. It can be sexually immoral.

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Anything that's against God's will. Well, I would say like, so the word there, pornea, refers to sexual immorality of various kinds, but I think it would be within the category of sexual things.

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So, it could be thoughts. Jesus says that if you even look at a woman with lust in your heart, you violated the deeper meaning.

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Nowadays, there's this movement called Revoice, Sam Albury and Is God Anti -Gay?

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It's his book. And his argument there is that a person can identify as gay in their identity, their own heart.

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But as long as they're not, like you're saying, physically practicing anything, they're okay.

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That's not biblical. The very appetite itself is disordered. Right.

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And sexual thoughts outside of God, maybe those thoughts come into someone's mind.

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We have to take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ. So, just to daydream or fantasize or anything like that, that's also sexual immorality.

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It's in that same category. That's right. No, I don't know if I said it better, but it's a great point because nowadays there's even a movement within evangelicals that's endorsed by Tim Keller and the

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Gospel Coalition, Sam Albury, Preston Sprinkle, Vaughn Roberts, Rebecca McLaughlin.

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These are very prominent teachers with the Gospel Coalition. They all hold to this idea of gay identity.

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You can take, and so they'll say like, well guys, if you have a gay identity, you can cuddle with other men, but just don't touch and perform.

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And I'm saying that's still gay. That's still ungodly. Jesus said it to the thoughts of the mind.

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What's that? Jesus talked about the thoughts of the mind. You don't need to ask. Right. Exactly. That's the verse where he says, if a man, and even take it out of the homosexual area, if a man lusts after a woman.

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Or anything. Yeah. Or anything. Yeah. I guess nowadays people are talking about, we don't even want to go the different directions that the world is gone, but anything can become a sexual sin mentally.

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The big point here is Esau's problem started in the heart with inordinate appetites.

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The appetite for that red stew, right? And here, the author of Hebrews, I think it's

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Paul, writing through Luke as his Immanuelson kind of guy, who is recording the sermon that Paul preached.

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But whoever wrote Hebrews, here's the connection he makes with Esau. That no one is sexually immoral.

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There's not even a reference to the sexual immorality of Esau, right? But it does say, or unholy like Esau.

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So any kind of inordinate appetites, which is idolatry. I put those two together.

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Yeah. Oh yeah. I think there is a separation there in terms of the conjunction or like,

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I think, because there's actually a list going before it. So it says, see that no one obtains, fails to obtain the grace of God.

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The first issue is a root of bitterness. That could be one problem, springing up and causing trouble.

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Or here's another example that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau.

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So I think those are kind of two separate categories, but they're related. When you see that as a list, you see a lot more in it.

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Yeah. You can get rid of the verses. Yeah. The way it's really written. Right. And you see it as a real list.

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Look, let's just land the plane this way. Any kind of sexual or other sinful desire, appetites that become entangling and own a person, they can bring you right down to the pit of hell.

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But God has given us a day of repentance. Now is the time to repent.

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So don't hold onto those things. Or your situation could be just like Esau. You will run out of time.

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Today is the day of salvation. Now is the day of the Lord. Take these things seriously. Don't just say,

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Oh, you know what? I'm going to get right with God and become a Christian when I get older. But right now I want to have some fun.

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Esau never got to the point of repenting. That's scary, but it's a good warning. We need to take first of all that warning to ourselves.

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And then lastly, understand this and give that warning when you're witnessing.

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All of us have people in our lives who have gone out and they're in the world, they're in Canaan like Esau, and they think,

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I'll be fine. I have plenty of time. And they kind of know what you're saying is right, but they're dabbling in the world and they don't realize how dire that situation is.

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How do you know the day of your death? How do you know that you don't get hit by a bus today?

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It could be over just like that. I remember doing the funeral of my dear, my dear friend, Fred, you know,

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Bonnie's husband, both Messianic Jews. And he just goes out for a bike ride out of Holiday Village.

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And next thing you know, he doesn't see a car coming, a trailer, and he's gone.

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Now we were with him in the hospital for a month visiting and just spending time with him before he actually passed.

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But here's the good thing about Fred. He had come to believe in Christ before that moment.

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He was Messianic. Yeah, exactly. But none of us know when we get hit by a car or cancer just overtakes you or something.

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Too many people think there's always time. There's not always time. And the reason that God gives this warning is not to be mean or harsh, but because of love.

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He's saying, you know that afterward when he desired to inherit the blessing, doesn't everybody want to go to heaven?

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Everybody wants the blessing. They think they have plenty of time, but it says he was rejected for he found no chance.

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Is there another chance after you die? There's no chance after you die. Now this day is the day.

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So this is how we should think as witnesses. You know, both Tim and I had the chance to witness to people over at Stacks individually.

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And we've seen people actually coming here and getting baptized. That's right. The mom and the daughter. But that happened again yesterday.

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Just witnessing to somebody there that Rod Chandler had witnessed to. And it's like you have to have this urgency that you never know how much time we have left.

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You can't give the good news without giving the bad news. Yes. And most people don't give the news because they're afraid of being rejected or being made fun of.

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But I know you do. You've shown me the tracks that you give out and all that you do. And I know everybody here does.

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But witnessing this should motivate us to say, look, there's not infinite time. The person that I've had this happen before where people that I've witnessed to, the next time

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I see them is at their funeral. And I'm just thankful I had a chance. And other times I'm sure I've missed chances.

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So this is Esau's warning is just a reminder about the brevity of life, the shortness of time.

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He ran out. He ran out of time. No chance, it says. That's how the

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New Testament interprets. And by the way, when we're preaching and teaching and thinking through the things of God, always look for how the

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New Testament author, who's an inspired apostle, uses the Old Testament. Because that's the most important thing.

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If this is what the author of Hebrews picked up on from the life of Esau, when we're reading Genesis 36, that's the main lesson.

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And there's other lessons in the Old Testament. All of it is for our example, we're told. But yeah, pay attention to New Testament usage of the

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Old Testament. That's a little sidebar. Tim, could you close us in prayer? Of course. Father God, thank you so much for this teaching.

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I pray if anyone online is listening and they haven't yet repented because they think they have time,

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I pray that you would be able to stir them up so that they recognize now is the day of salvation.

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Today is the appropriate time. Right now is the time to trust in Jesus. We thank you for Jesus, that he died on the cross for our sin, that we may not perish,

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Lord, because we would perish if we don't believe in your son otherwise. But you've sent them that we might believe in him and have eternal life.

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We thank you for the bad examples in life. And then even looking back in your word with Esau, we pray that we wouldn't be people like Esau, but we would be people who obey your word and trust in you till the end.

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And trust in you now and then forever. Bow the knee to Jesus Christ. We pray in Jesus' name.