Address—D.B. Imbeau
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Turn with me, please, to the book of Mark.
Mark chapter 4 verse 26 and he said so is the Kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up. He knoweth not how. He knoweth not how.
For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself.
First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. Progress in the soul, progress in our Christian life.
It's a seed, it starts and it's small.
But it grows.
And yet it says know not how phrase back in the book of Genesis that caught our attention in a family Bible reading back in Genesis chapter 25 and the very last phrase of the chapter.
Like to spend just a couple minutes talking about them? Genesis 25 and verse 34.
Thus.
Esau despised.
His birthright? Naughty, naughty Esau.
And yet I want to ask, what really did Esau Miss say? Well, that's a silly question.
Yeah, but think about it again. What did Esau really miss?
You know, the birthright that was handed down in those first years from Abraham to Isaac. Isaac then went to Jacob, Jacob to his children especially. Joseph was the beneficiary.
You know.
Commonly the thought of the birthright was that when dad passes away or when he gives up his inheritance to his children, the oldest one would get twice as much as like anyone else did. So if there's were the two sons, Jake, Benissa, the one who got the birthright would get two parts and the one who was the next born, and in this case it was Jacob, probably by about 20 minutes because they were twins.
He would have gotten one part, so Isaac would have divided his property up in three parts. Two would have gone to the eldest, which was Esau 1 to Jacob. A slight hitch. Isaac had a birthright to pass on.
Right. Esau, despite there was something that he despised. He despised the birthright, but Isaac didn't have the land to give him. And so you take 0 / 3 and then take two parts of that and give it to Esau and one part to Jacob. So what did Esau miss?
In his eyes, he missed nothing. And yet there was this birthright that got handed down to the next child. In this case, Jacob ended up with it.
Isaac had received it from his father, and yet there was nothing tangible. There was nothing of substance that you could go out and farm and get a crop from, or build a house on. There was nothing there now he saw as an interesting man. We, we.
His family, as we know, are the enemies of the people of God.
And we can kind of see the long term results, but in the short run what Esau saw.
It didn't make a such a difference. He really ended up with as much as Jacob did and really in their lifetime, he might have ended up with more than Jacob did. Jacob didn't end up with much and he ended up going into Egypt and and he had a rough life. Yes, God talked with him. That was a blessing. And yet there was another time that God.
Came to him in the form of the Angel that wrestled with him, and Jacob came out of that with.
Messed up hip so Jacob almost ended up behind.
He saw at least he had Mount Seir and he was wealthy. We find that out later on. He had a fairly good size following of people and he kind of came out okay. So who would you rather be?
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Jacob or Esau?
Or, more interestingly, which one are we?
We come into Christianity and the blessings of Christianity.
Through salvation and that verse that was read there in Peter.
Referred to it's there in first Peter the 1St chapter whom having not seen ye love verse Adam first Peter one in whom though now ye see him not.
Yet believing ye rejoice with joy unspeakable.
And full of glory.
What do you have to show for your Christianity?
Interesting question.
Are you better off?
What? What do you have to show? Is it worth having a birthright?
And is it worth handing that birthright onto your children?
Because that's all that Isaac could do. He just had it. He had no land to go with it. He just gave it on to the next. And Jacob was anxious, anxious to get hold of that. So he could be a rich, wealthy man with huge fields out there. No, so he could pass it on to his children. That was his intent, was to pass it on, not to get something himself.
But to pass it on, you know, we've been talking a bit about turning the grace of God into lasciviousness.
And what a question, What questions arise from that?
You know I'm saved and I have a home in heaven. The Lord Jesus Christ has given me new life. God is my Father.
And so how I live in this world, What difference does it make?
You know, a lot of people are asking that question.
And the answer they're coming up with is it doesn't make any difference.
And so instead of the will of God in our lives, it's our own will. Doesn't mean that those people's lives are a disaster.
Does it mean that God strikes them with some sort of lightning? You know, No.
They learn quickly.
That life seems to go on just the same.
That whether they really set out to please God or not really doesn't seem to make a difference. Monday morning comes, you go to work. Sunday morning comes, you go to church.
You know, life goes on happy.
Contempted basically going to old age retire.
It seems to work.
It seems to be an OK formula. Why don't I do that? Why don't you do that? We're glad to be Christians.
But as soon as we're Christians, we don't want to be Christians. We can't always put our finger on how things are going to grow, to go from the seed to the little sprout, to the ear, and to the full and mature ear. It's not always dynamic. It's not always something that is so startlingly obvious to us.
Because we have a birthright that is intangible. What are you going to put your finger on? How are you going to measure the results?
How are you going to grade it? Some questions from these meetings brother, and I'm sure that the brother who gave this will agree with me.
And we had a very nice meeting about hiding the child. And, you know, I'm sure a lot of parents, myself included, have a little notebook and a pen and we're jotting down some of those verses and some of the some of the taking little notes from the meeting.
And I hope you did.
But you know.
If you do those things.
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So that your children do turn out. It won't work if you do those things.
In obedience.
And in honor to the Lord Jesus Christ.
It will work.
And there is a mighty difference.
A mighty difference. I was talking to someone.
And she said this.
Happens to be a person I work with.
You know, I gave my life to the Lord Jesus and so did my daughter, and you know it didn't work.
Yeah, it didn't work. What do you mean? Well, I knew what she meant.
What she meant was she hoped that when that happened, that.
Things would go right in the home and her husband would love her.
Things like this and then she says it didn't work.
I don't know if she's truly saved or not I.
Have my doubts but.
What does it mean for it to work?
How are you going to grade it if you have a birthright that has nothing tangible with it?
Let's turn to Luke Chapter 7. And this was a little thought that was given by a brother to me yesterday, and I've enjoyed it a lot. And I trust he would not.
I really trust that he would feel it was OK that I passed it on.
In Luke Chapter 7, the Lord came to a man's house.
And at the end of the chapter, the man's name was Simon. You see, we know that. We know these stories. Let's go to the verse that is of interest here, verse 44.
And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon.
Seest thou this woman?
I entered into thine house. Thou gavest me no water for my feet, for she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. Thou gave us me no kiss. I came.
But this woman, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet, my head with oil Thou didst not anoint. But this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.
The Lord says here in verse 44, right in the middle there I entered into thine house.
And then what were the things that were commented on? Was it the behavior of the children?
Was it the hospitality? Well, you say some of these things have to do with the hospitality. Well, let's apply these things.
No water.
Where was the opening of the word of God?
No kiss.
Where was the affection and no.
Oil.
Where was that sense of the liberty of the Spirit of God to kind of direct in the circumstances there? But what does that accomplish? What does it give me of something tangible? You know, you plant the seed and really.
Can we now legitimately say we know not how it grows?
There are things in relationship to the birthright that is ours.
That are very physical and tangible.
There has to be an actual submission in obedience.
Obedience.
To the direction of the Spirit of God and to the Word of God.
Obedience isn't a.
Popular word perhaps?
There has to be the simple opening of the Word of God and you know these things were to be directed to the person of Christ himself.
It wasn't you didn't wash your children's feet. It's that you had no water to wash my feet. And it's not, oh, you're not showing affection to your children. It's you had no kiss for me. Simple. Yeah.
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And it would go along with a birthright that doesn't really have a whole lot of tangible things to it.
It's not really a formula.
For success in the family.
And yet, on the other hand.
It is.
If we have that new life.
Which is from Christ. We're partakers of that divine nature. Then Christ would be for us.
Just.
Because.
He's our savior.
How our hearts.
Are moved, but that solemn cry.
We sang this morning.
Is there something in your heart, just your heart, not to make a splash, not necessarily to make a difference, but just because Christ is your Savior?
And he's given us something that.
Doesn't show a lot now.
And it's in those circumstances that that seed will grow.
And it will develop and it will come to the mature.