Isaac, Jacob, Joseph (Hebrews 11:20-22 Jeff Kliewer)

That's just a really amazing thing. Earlier this morning, Pastor Jeff prayed that our intent and our focus this morning as we come together would be to have our eyes fixed on the kingdom of God and not on the things of this world.

Unity Without Compromise

That's our prayer for you this morning. I wanted to start out this morning with a little encouragement that in life, in how we experience life, how we walk in our life, there are going to be temptations for having harmony and being in commonality with one another by dumbing down to the lowest common denominator.

There's a bumper sticker, it still exists, I still see it every now and then, it says co-exist. It has all the different icons of all the different religions. It's like, can't we just all get along? Isn't it okay?

Let's just all get along. That's not the way of the scripture. I think I can say with the authority of scripture that it's not God's desire for us to get along with each other by finding the lowest possible level where we don't disagree on anything.

No, I think it's God's design that we ascribe to him. In fact, it's going to teach us in Ephesians 4, Paul is going to write to the church at Ephesus, and he's going to tell us to speak truth in love, truth, speak truth, but do it in love, and that we should be growing up in all aspects unto him.

That should be where we're setting the bar, doing it in love. In John 17, as Jesus prays what we know as the priestly prayer, in verse 11, he prays to his father, keep them in our name, keep them in our name that they may be one even as we are one.

It is God's desire that we have a heart of unity and camaraderie and fellowship, but at a level that seeks after him. Don't fall into the trap, the snare, that as long as we are in unity, it's okay to compromise because that's not God's truth.

I have a few announcements. We're finally taking a break from a little bit of the hecticness of things that we've been doing and right now, but don't breathe too long because there's so many amazing things coming up.

Most recently, Jonathan Leonard, he's sitting back there, was down south and he attended a training conference on love life. And he became equipped with approaches and things that we would do in ministering to women who are in extreme issues of pregnancy and are being encouraged by the world.

Get rid of that growing piece of blob inside of you because it's an inconvenience. That is not truth. What is there is a child of God. Jonathan has been trained on how we can minister to and encourage these women and Jonathan is going to provide a training class for us here at Cornerstone.

It will be August 22nd. It will be after the morning worship service so that we can be equipped to go to the Cherry Hill Women's Center. We can be equipped to minister to these women in a time of need.

There are so many lives that are being sacrificed at the altar of the world and let's get equipped. A couple of other things are coming up. We're going to be having another baptism service. We had one a few months ago.

I was outside. That meant amazing time, but we know that there are others who are seeking after baptism. We're going to be scheduling one at the 19th of September. We are also going to be starting another starting point class.

For those of you who are perhaps new to us, for those of you who want to learn more about our church or the E-Free Church, who would like to maybe become members, we're going to be having a class in the month of September.

So if you're either interested in baptism or you're interested in our church for a class, contact myself, Pastor Jeff, any of the elders, and we will make that happen for you. I want to remind you, Sunday evenings we have our prayer meeting at 6 o 'clock.

During the week we have men's, women's Bible studies. You can go on our website and get all the information for that, but stay in contact with one another. I want to read a note that we got from Gary Kamlin.

Gary and Terri Kamlin are missionaries in Portugal. Terri, we've been praying for her for the last few months. She has come down with cancer and she is now undergoing chemo therapy, which her body did not react well to.

In fact, it reacted poorly. She's been hospitalized. Gary has given us a note of praise that God has relieved much of the pain. She still is under the chemo, but much ahead of the time, Terri was discharged today and arrived home at about 5 .30 this afternoon.

The infection was a tough one, but it now cleared up and the inflammation of the intestine has improved and overall Terri is feeling very good and glad to continue her recovery at home. That's a praise that God has relieved her of that, but we do continue to pray for her.

Thank you, Jesus. Well said. Let's go to prayer. Father, we do lift Terri to you at this point in time. We know the ravages of cancer, but we do know that you are the sovereign God and that you know her.

In your timing and in your will, Lord, we know that you have the best for her. We boldly pray, Lord, that these treatments that are being given will be successful and that she and Gary will continue for a long time in their ministry there in Portugal.

We thank you, Lord, for the good news that this internal infection has subsided. She continues now in her treatment. Father, we lift Carol Budd and her family. We know that Dick has gone home to the Lord and is in glory alongside you right now and experiencing an amazing existence with you.

But there is an emptiness in our hearts here. We pray for Carol. We pray for the rest of the family, that you would be alongside them as a comfort, as a consolation, as a presence for those family. Lord, we pray for your protection for our church in the midst of many of the attacks that are going on right now.

There are things like critical race theory, the woke movement, and we pray, Lord, that there would be no compromise, that our focus would be on your word and on your truth. And so, Lord, protect Pastor Jeff as he speaks clearly and as he's got a book coming out to speak about it.

Protect him because we know Satan will be on the attack. We ask, Lord, that your word would remain true here. Lord, as we walk in our daily walks, I pray that our focus, Lord, that we would be seeking God's truth in all things, that we would deny the temptation to compromise, but we would stay true to you in love.

Today, as Pastor Jeff brings us into Hebrews chapter 11, as we look at Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph and their lives of testing and their lives of difficulty, yet, Lord, the perseverance through the way that you have protected them through to the end.

We pray it would be an encouragement to us to walk true to you. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

John 4 .10 says, In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Lord God, we just come humbly before you this morning, Lord, and we just confess, Lord, that we are by nature sinners, but you are by nature our Savior.

We praise you for your gift.

In the loving kindness of God, our Savior appeared.

He saved us. Not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he's poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior.

Open, and darkness tries. He's our God. He's our God. How great is our God. He's our God.

Amen.

Please be seated, and let us go to our great God in prayer. God, your word commands us to make every effort to add to our faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, to knowledge steadfastness, self-control, brotherly love.

Lord, this morning, that is our desire, and so we're asking for help. By your word, we ask that you would make us more steadfast, more persevering, stronger.

In the faith.

We pray that your word would minister to our hearts to make us more like you. So please, use your word to accomplish these things in us, even as we make every effort to pay attention and to hear and respond to your word.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Perseverance Shown by Olympic Discipline and Luis Zamperini

How many of you are watching the Olympics?

Anybody?

Nobody's watching the Olympics?

Come on.

I got eye rolls going on out here. What is wrong with the Olympics?

Come on.

The Olympics can be kind of fun to watch, right? So one of the things you know about an Olympic athlete is that this person, man or woman,.

Has trained.

All Olympians have in common that they are very disciplined people. Delaying gratification, putting off the things of the flesh, disciplining their bodies for the goal that they have. We can appreciate that about their perseverance.

And it's not just like a flurry of activity where someone gets excited about something and does it for a week or two. It is a sustained discipline. A daily disciplining of the body, persevering week after week, month after month, year after year to finally reach the point where they are.

One of the most famous Olympians of all time was Luis Zamperini. Anybody familiar with Zamperini? He was training for Tokyo, only the Olympics before World War II. And as a high schooler, as a senior in high school, he went to the Olympics and was the leading American in that race.

He didn't medal, but he did, I think, set the record for the fastest individual lap in one of his races. Luis Zamperini. Well, from there, the war broke out and he went to war against Japan. And their plane crashed into the ocean.

And so he found himself adrift for 47 days. And by perseverance, he continued to live until a passing Japanese ship picked him up. Which, of course, brought him into a prison camp. So he did make it to Tokyo.

Just not as he expected. He was there as a war criminal. And for years, he was suffering under the horrible treatment of the bird. If you haven't seen the movie Unbroken, it is worth watching. It's a hard watch, but it shows what perseverance looks like.

Luis Zamperini. Luis Zamperini did not persevere and survive of his own accord. Even though he showed great perseverance to survive for 47 days, had it been a day or two longer, he would have perished.

It was God who kept him alive on those waters. It was God that kept him from dying under the mistreatment of the Japanese prison camp guards. And it was God who, after the war, drew him to saving faith.

As strong as Zamperini was, and he was a man's man, right? This is one of the strongest, toughest, most persevering men in the history of the world. He could not save his soul. Coming back from the war, he suffered from PTSD and was depressed and an alcoholic, and would have died that way, but for grace.

Grace interposed, and God sent an evangelist named Billy Graham to Los Angeles. And there, at a Billy Graham crusade, he heard the gospel of Jesus Christ, and went forth and surrendered his life to God.

Through faith in Christ. It was God who sustained him, and all of the glory for his life is owed to God. It's to the praise of God's glorious grace. Today we're looking at this subject of perseverance.

And we're going to see in the text three examples of believers who make it to the end, and in their dying moments, they're still clinging to Christ. Their faith perseveres to the end, and all saving faith does that.

Saving faith is not a one-time decision at a Billy Graham crusade. For many people have been deceived in that way, thinking because they made a solitary decision in a moment of time, that they're born again.

But no, true saving faith will be an enduring faith. It will continue with that person right through death. And at the moment of death, the sight, which is by faith, when a person beholds Christ by faith, becomes sight.

We will see him face-to-face. Now we see through a dark glass, but then we will behold him face-to-face. Faith perseveres knowing that God can be trusted with the future. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 11.

And today we study verses 20, 21, and 22. And it is as if the author of the book of Hebrews has been cruising along down the highway at a steady pace, and all of a sudden he just puts the pedal to the metal, and just flies through the rest of the book of Genesis.

If you haven't noticed, so far the whole book of Hebrews chapter 11 has been an exposition of the book of Genesis. So follow with me. Hebrews 11 verse 3 refers to Genesis 1, creation. Hebrews 11 4 is about Genesis 4, the story of Abel and how by faith he offered a sacrifice that pleased God.

In obedience he offered a blood sacrifice, which points to the blood of Christ. In 11 5, Enoch walks with God. That corresponds to Genesis 5, where Enoch walked with God, and then he was no more because he was taken.

A picture of walking with God, being sanctified. And then in Hebrews 11 verses 6 and following, we have the story of Noah, which of course corresponds to Genesis 7 through 9. And then from Hebrews 11 8, all the way through the text we're studying today, we have the story of Abraham, from Genesis 12 to Genesis 24.

So pedal to the metal now. In three verses, we go all the way from chapter 24 to Genesis 50. So what that tells me is we have a lot of material to cover. So here's what I'm going to do. I thought about splitting this up into three sermons, but that's not what the author of Hebrews did.

In fact, the first thing I want you to notice as we read 20, 21, and 22 is that all three patriarchs have something in common in this verse. See if you can pick it up before I tell you. Hebrews 11 20, 21, and 22.

By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.

All of these have in common death. This is the end of life where the patriarch, the believer, has persevered to the end and is still believing and begins to exercise that faith by blessing the descendants that will follow him.

They're still looking for a future hope, the kingdom, even though they're nearing the end of their life. So I didn't decide to preach three separate sermons, but to group them because I want us to see that thread that runs through these verses.

They are a unit. Isaac, Jacob, Joseph. It's their dying. It's the end of their life. And what we see in common is that all of them have persevered in the faith right through to the end. Now, if you're like me, when we studied Abraham last week and we saw a man who when commanded to kill his son even though the promise was that through that son the world would be blessed, by faith reconciled those two things, reasoning that God would raise the dead.

That if he killed his son, God would raise him from the dead. When I saw that faith in the text, it made my faith feel very small. To me, Abraham is a giant of the faith and I'm a flea. But when we come to Isaac, we have an encouragement of a different direction.

A more ordinary man. Isaac is more pedestrian than Abraham. And so let's look at him first and we will take each of these one by one. Verse 20, by faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.

Face value, you say, well, that's good. That shows a lot of faith. But this here is another example of a waffling, faltering faith. Well, why do we say that? Turn back with me to Genesis chapter 25, verse 23.

Isaac procured a wife named Rebecca who came back with the servant and they were married when Isaac was 40 years old. For 20 years, they were unable to have any children until showing faith. Isaac prayed for his wife and we're told she became pregnant.

And so within her womb were Jacob and Esau. But look at chapter 25, verse 23 from the book of Genesis. The Lord said to her, namely Rebecca, Two nations are in your womb and two peoples from within you shall be divided.

The one shall be stronger than the other. The older shall serve the younger. God said, and when God speaks, what he has to say is authoritative. It's not an opinion. It's not a mere suggestion. It is a decree from Almighty God, namely that two nations are within the womb of Rebecca.

We know from studying history that one of those, Jacob, becomes Israel and the other, Esau, becomes the Edomites who live in Mount Seir. If you watch Indiana Jones, there's a scene where they go to Seir.

That's where the Edomites were. Not that I recommend watching Indiana Jones, by the way. We went back and watched that. Now that we're grown, as kids, like, oh yeah, Indiana Jones. That's a gruesome movie.

That's not a movie for kids. Side note, careful what you let your kids watch. So not that we have experience with that, but guys, Seir is Edom. And the Edomites were enemies of Israel. They laughed from on high while Israel was being attacked in the valley.

And it was foretold that this would be the case, that Israel, the younger of the two, Jacob will be born after Esau, even though he's grabbing his heel, which is why his name is Heel Grabber, Jacob. He's the younger.

Jacob the younger, we're told according to Genesis 25, verse 23, will be over Esau. That's a hard pill for Isaac to swallow. Why is that so hard? Well, in the custom of the day, the firstborn had the favoritism, had the inheritance, had the birthright, had the blessing.

The firstborn had a very high position in that culture. And for Isaac to bypass that and to bless Jacob rather than Esau would be very degrading to his eldest son. It would be a deep wound. And to make matters worse, as the kids grew up, Esau was the one that he loved.

He favored Esau. Why? Well, Esau was kind of like a manly man. He would go out into the woods and kill animals and bring back and cook a great steak dinner for Isaac. He loved Esau. Whereas Jacob was kind of like a homebody and very soft and gentle and quiet.

And I think Isaac just didn't connect as much with him. So when the time came for Isaac to pronounce the blessing over his son, the command had been given, the older shall serve the younger. Isaac called not Jacob, but Esau.

And he said, son, today is a special day. Today, go into the field. Bring back the game that you know that I love. Cook me a meal. And when you've done that, I will give you the blessing. Now, we know what he had in mind at this particular point.

Because when he thinks he's praying over Esau, he makes him greater than his brother. So he's intending to disobey the command and go with what his heart tells him. Go with what he wants. He's going to bless Esau, not Jacob, but God.

Rebecca hears the plan. She goes to Jacob and says, quick, before your father blesses your brother, here's what you're to do. Take this goat skin and cover your arms and your head with goat skin. Because your father is basically blind.

He can't tell by looking at you, but he'll feel your skin. And when he feels the goat skin, he'll assume you're Esau. Wow, that kind of tells you just how hairy Esau was, right? If you can confuse it by putting goat skin on him.

And he puts on Esau's clothes. So he has the smell of Esau. And he goes in, and at first Isaac is suspicious. You sound like Jacob. I know that voice, but you smell like Esau. Come here, let me feel you.

And he feels the goat skin. Ah, okay, you're Esau. And so he pronounces the blessing. The older shall serve the younger, said God. He pronounces you will be over your brothers. And Jacob receives the blessing and leaves.

Well, what's going to happen next? You know the story, right? Here comes Esau in from catching the game. He brings in the steak dinner. Turn with me to 27, verse 23. He presents the food. Isaac's like, who are you?

Well, I'm Esau, I'm back. In chapter 27, verse 23, it says he did not recognize him because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands, so he blessed him. So Isaac had blessed Jacob. Now look down at 33.

Then Isaac trembled very violently and said, who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me? And I ate it all before you came. And I have blessed him. Pause. Yes, and he shall be blessed. Shaking violently, Isaac realizes what happened.

He blessed Jacob, not Esau. He's shaken by this. But at the end, he says, yes, and he shall be blessed. This is what the author of Hebrews picks up on. Because when you read the story of Jacob and Esau, it doesn't look like a triumph of faith.

In fact, Isaac was not even intending to do what God told him to do. This is a failure of faith. But God, through the deception of Jacob, takes that and works it together for his own purpose. This is a key doctrine of scripture.

We are preserved by grace. One of the great doctrines of the Christian faith is called the perseverance of the faith. The perseverance of the saints. If you're a Christian, you put your faith in Christ.

You're saved. He will keep you to the end. Philippians 1 .6. He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Amen?

Ephesians 1 .13 He has marked you with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a guarantee of your inheritance until the redemption of all who are God's possession.

Amen?

Alright, you're with me. This is good, biblical, doctrinal truth. He's not going to lose any of his sheep, John 10 .11. He will preserve us. However, this perseverance is often despite us, not because of us.

Isaac failed and yet was kept. Turn with me to Romans 9 to see this text and this very story taught for its theological meaning. Romans 9, verse 7 The doctrine is called the perseverance of the saints.

But it might be better said, the preservation of the saints. That God is able to keep his own. In Romans 9, verse 7 It says, not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring. But through Isaac shall your offspring be named.

Pause for a moment and let me introduce this problem. The problem in Romans chapter 9 is that God has said, through Isaac shall your offspring be named. In other words, the descendants through Isaac, Jacob, the people of Israel, are his chosen people.

These are the elect of God. And yet when Christ comes, born of a woman, born under the law, dies for our sins, rises from the dead, is offered to the people of Israel, what do they do? By and large, they reject.

So has the word of God failed? That's the question of Romans 9. You have the elect people, Israel, but they're not believing. So has the word of God failed? Here is how God reconciles those two. Within Isaac, within the offspring, the natural descendants of Abraham, there are those who are elect and those who are not.

It says in verse 7, through Isaac shall your offspring be named. Look at verse 8. This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.

Verse 9, for this is what the promise said, about this time next year I will return and Sarah shall have a son. It wasn't just the physical descendant Ishmael and Isaac, it was the one that God promised, namely Isaac.

And now look at verse 10. And not only so, but also when Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing, either good or bad, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of him who calls, she was told the older will serve the younger.

In other words, that promise, Genesis 25 -23, was before they had done anything. It is not of him who wills or him who runs, but it is of God who has mercy. Look at verse 13. As it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.

This is a very hard teaching. Jacob had done nothing wrong, neither had Esau. It was not anything that they did, no will that they exerted, no running, no effort. So what shall we say then? Look at verse 14.

We're in Romans 9, verse 14. What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? Is that unjust of God? Is that unfair? Answer, by no means. He goes on to say, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.

Here in the Greek, mercy and compassion are active verbs. We don't have that in the English. If we did, it would sound like, I will mercy whom I mercy, I will compassion whom I compassion. God actively gives mercy or compassion, not based on any merit, but just from himself, out of his own nature, by his own sovereign will, according to the praise of his glorious grace.

So it says here, I will mercy whom I mercy, compassion whom I compassion. How is that an answer? Because here is how we stand before a holy God, without claim. God owes nothing to any of us. Yet the world would object to this, of course, right?

Even the birthright. How could God favor the older over the younger? Or vice versa, to put the younger over the older. How could he privilege one or another? God has sovereign freedom in this world. Each of us are affected by the choices that God makes.

He chooses our parents, and that affects our lives more than almost anything. He chooses the country in which we're born, and that affects things drastically. He chooses the age in which you live. Even this idea of firstborn and secondborn, there's still a correlation that the firstborn tends to make more money than the secondborn.

There's some kind of privilege or advantage that comes along with that. Not always the case. The biggest factor is you, but there are things in this life that we cannot control. And the world hates that idea because the world clamors that all things be made equal.

That is not God's design. God has a freedom that we need to come to understand and really to submit to, that anything that God gives us above the ground is mercy. God owes us nothing. And when we come to that understanding from Romans 9, God will mercy whom he mercies.

And the potter has the right over the clay. We humble ourselves before a holy God, and in that we find freedom. And I'm here to tell you that this doctrine is good news. It is very good news. Here's why.

Because if my salvation depended on me mustering the courage to do what's right, like Isaac needed to muster the courage to bless the younger over the older, I might very well fail the same way that Isaac failed.

But if grace is his work in me, to him be the glory, and I am secure. Isaac was saved by grace, not by works. He was held and kept and preserved by God's power. And so in this moment, when he offered the blessing, having spoken the words, it dawned on him, and God's grace changed his heart, and he began to speak prophetically.

He pronounced that blessing, and he affirmed it. And then he spoke the harsh words to his profane son. You see, for a long time he had his head in the sand. Esau married Canaanite women. And once the blessing by Isaac was given over Jacob, a harsh word was spoken to Esau about how he would become the Edomite people.

Esau went to spite his father, married more Canaanite women. Esau was a picture of an unregenerate man. And Isaac spoke that word prophetically as hard as it was for him to do. So here we are, and we're going to move on to verse 21.

But notice, the example we're given in Hebrews 11 .20 is God speaking through Isaac, despite Isaac. He meant to bless the older. And instead, God turned it around for his glory to affirm what he had already said.

Jacob's Final Worship and Separation from the World

So Hebrews 11 .21, let's move on. Hebrews 11 .21 is our second example. If Isaac was the first, you'll be interested by the story of Jacob for the second. By faith, Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.

Remember the story of Jacob? He was a trickster. He tricked his father. We just studied that portion. Putting on goat hair and all this manner of deception, which was not glorifying to God. God used it, even though what he meant was for evil.

God meant it for good. He tricked Esau. When Esau was so hungry, he came in, and he spotted that Jacob had this red stew. And Esau's name means red. So he just really wanted this red stew. He was so hungry, he was willing to sell his birthright for a single meal.

So short-sighted, so worldly was Esau that he counted as a common thing the promise of God and the birthright, the future blessings. He was so caught up in the things of the world. Jacob, though, at least valued those things, but he tried to grab it, tried to grasp it as by the heel.

Later, he left. He had to run for his life after this Esau incident. And as he's going, he encounters God and says, surely the presence of the Lord is in this place. At that time, now Jacob begins to worship the true God.

Genuine faith is born in him, and the faith of his father Isaac becomes his own. And he progresses on where he meets Laban. And through much trickery one to the other, he procures not just one wife, but four.

He was after Rachel, remember the story? But he woke up after his wedding night to see that it was actually Leah that had been given to him. Laban tricked him in the dark of the night, and he found out in the morning.

And then the women have this like competing thing going where they try to have children, both Rachel and Leah and their servants. So such were born the 12 sons of Israel. Jacob is Israel. Now returning to the promised land after sojourning in the territory of Laban, he meets with God himself and wrestles with the Lord all night long.

Remember the story? And the Lord touches his hip and puts it out of socket. And so his name is changed to Israel. He comes back and meets Esau. Interesting there, he sends the children and the wives ahead of him.

I don't know why he did that, not very chivalrous at that point. But he goes back to the promised land. And as he comes to his dying days, we come to this passage in Hebrews 11, 21, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.

Where does that come from? Genesis 47, the last verse. Turn with me there. In the days of Jacob's life, he was a man of God, chosen of God, but clinging to the things of the world, constantly grasping at heels, trying to take for himself the things of this world.

In his dying, he has let go of those things. And all the energy he has left, he musters for the things of God. Here is a man who's looking to the future kingdom. In verse 31, the context here, Genesis 47, 31.

He's blessing his sons. He's giving instructions concerning his bones, not to be buried in Egypt, but to come back to the promised land. And he said, swear to me. And Joseph, he swore to him. Then Israel bowed himself upon the head of his bed.

In the Septuagint, that word reads staff. There's a difference there in the translation between the Masoretic Hebrew and the Greek translation of the Old Testament. But it's the case that both of these things happened.

He was on his bed and mustering what strength he can. He accomplished one last thing for God, blessing the sons, leaning on a staff. Look at chapter 48, verse 2. It was told to Jacob, your son Joseph has come to you.