The Israel of God

We're in training. This is part of what God has commanded. We are preparing not just for this life, but we are preparing for that coming kingdom of God. The training is through God's Word, which is His textbook. It's what He's given us as students to study, to improve our understanding about. And so we are finishing up this last day of Unleavened Bread, but there are still many lessons that we have in God's Word about it.

And He does tell us that we should preach and teach, meet in due season. And so this is what our purpose is. We actually are commanded by God what kind of message we should give. It shouldn't be on just some other peripheral subject, but it has to do with the days of Unleavened Bread and the last day of Unleavened Bread. For one thing, maybe some of you don't know, but on this seventh day, according to the best that we have from the biblical sequence of events, and also Jewish tradition does say that the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea on the last day of Unleavened Bread.

Let's go to Exodus 14, verse 21. Remember, they left, and then a few days later Pharaoh pursued them. And they were in front of this huge Red Sea. If anybody has been in that area of the world, the Sinai Peninsula comes down as a triangle. And then you have these two branches of this sea, which are part of the ocean there. So these are very large branches of the sea. I don't know how many of you saw that movie.

They always give the Ten Commandments around that time. How many saw? Can I see? A few. Okay. Well, remember that dramatic scene. I wish I had it here, where they lifted up the rod and all of a sudden the Red Sea starts parting. It's very well done. And so here is where the Bible describes such a parting of the Red Sea. In Exodus 14, verse 21, it says, And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night.

So it wasn't just spontaneous. It took hours for this to happen and made the sea into dry land. And the waters were divided, complete defiance of the laws of physics, because here water was not seeking its own level. So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on the right hand and on their left. I always get a chuckle how they do it in Hollywood.

This old movie by Cecil B. DeMille called The Ten Commandments, and you see some of these Israelites are walking and all of a sudden this fish comes out and flops in front of them. And so this was something unheard of. And by the way, that was etched into the memory of the people of Israel to this day. That is something that was etched indelibly into their minds and actually would be retold generation after generation. Continuing on, it says, and the Egyptians pursued and went after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh's horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.

Seems like he himself did not perish there because it says his horses, his chariots. There's still a little dispute over that because if the Pharaoh of the Exodus was Hamanoptep II, which is the most probable Pharaoh, his mummy is still there in Egypt. You can see it in the British or the rather museum there, the Cairo Museum. And it says, verse 24, Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fights for them against the Egyptians.

Then the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the waters may come back upon the Egyptians and on their chariots and on their horsemen. Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and when the morning appeared, the sea returned to its full depth, while the Egyptians were fleeing into it. So the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.

Then the waters returned and covered the chariots, the horsemen, and all the army of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them. Not so much as one of them remained, but the children of Israel had walked on dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.

It's very interesting, according to Egyptian history, that several decades later, the Egyptians had a new Pharaoh, which repudiated the old Egyptian gods.

He was known as Tutankhamen, and he was the one that... well, the son was... the other one was, you think here, he was a father that started the movement toward just having one god instead of many multiple gods.

And the way most historians explain it, it was because an event took place that discredited the Egyptian gods to the point that they started coming up with this one god idea.

His name was Ashkenon, and he basically set up a new system, a new temple to the one god, the sun god, and then later on they finally overthrew. With Tutankhamen, who was his son, they finally went back and restored the old Egyptian gods. But something happened there for them to start up and just repudiate the old gods. So it's very interesting that in history you see something that really destroyed the faith of the Egyptians on their gods or in their gods. So we see that Israel was helpless. They didn't have an army.

They didn't have a fighting chance against these mighty Egyptians, but they overcame the Egyptians through the power of God.

It's also interesting that Paul wrote about this parting of the Red Sea and the Israelites going through. During the time when the church was going through the days of the Passover and the days of Unleavened Bread, let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. I'll keep a little bit of the suspense of where I am going to because just as you saw the Israelites overcome the Egyptians, not because of their own power.

So here we have a church that was very small, persecuted, and yet it also is told to overcome as well. In 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 1, it says, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea. Talking about the Red Sea. All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. That's why it's mentioned that Christ is the pre-existent God that the Israelites got to know. We just read this morning there in John 6, Mr. Viera, that Jesus Christ said, no one knows the Father.

See, the people of Israel, they knew the God Yahweh, the God, the eternal God, but at that time they did not know that there was the Father who was giving Jesus Christ the authority to carry everything out here on the earth. They were not aware of that. Now some people say, well, that changes religion. Why didn't God reveal all of this at the beginning? Well, God is in no obligation to reveal everything at the beginning.

He does reveal that when Adam and Eve were created, that God said, let us make man in our own image. So it wasn't, let me make him into my image, but referring to more than one. And Jesus Christ said, no one knows the Father except the Son who reveals.

I believe that. I believe that the Jewish people and ancient people, they did not know that God the Father was over everything in the universe and that it was Jesus Christ who was delegated and was commanded to carry things out. Now, that's not a problem if that's the way God wants to do things. To send the Word down here to the earth and to reveal things to us. So one thing was the understanding in the Old Testament, the other thing was what is revealed in the New Testament. But you have to have both to have the complete understanding about things. You don't have enough with the Old Testament by itself. You don't have enough with the New Testament. In a way, we have this dilemma that the Jews keep only the Old Testament. And so they have a partial understanding of things. And then you have the Protestant evangelical and Catholic world, and they basically focus just in the New Testament. Growing up as a Catholic, the only thing I ever heard in Catholic Mass were the Gospels. And the priests already had an outline for the entire year where they could only read sections of the Gospels. I never read about the Old Testament. I had no idea how it fit into it. But we need both. We need to emphasize both parts, because it's like beginning at the middle of a movie if you start out with the New Testament. And you don't understand what was the basis, and you're trying to figure things out. And so he mentions here that that rock was Christ. I believe he, also Paul, was inspired to say that. I don't think he was talking about some mystical idea out there. I think it was Christ who later came in the flesh. Continuing on, it says here in chapter 11, in verse 23, after he mentions the parallel of Israel crossing the Red Sea and how the church also has to overcome. He mentions in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 23, to describe the Passover service enacted by Jesus Christ. Now, who did he receive these instructions from? When the Apostle Paul is instructing the church, giving them the teachings of how to carry it out, who did he get it from?

Did he get it from the Jews? Did he get it from the Apostles? Did he just have hearsay? Notice what he says in verse 23, and it just struck me like it hadn't before. In verse 23, he says, So he is claiming the authority from the Lord himself. This is something he is not doing on his own. He says, this is what I received, not from the Jews that surround me. This isn't some tradition that I got. This isn't something that I got even a teaching second hand. Maybe he could have said, well, this is what I got from Peter, or what I got from John, or this is what I learned in Tarsus. No, he says, I got it from the Lord. So that makes it very authoritative, because the symbols for the Passover have been changed by Jesus Christ himself. So we are to keep the 14th as a day for the Passover, but the symbols have changed. We don't any longer have to have a lamb or bitter herbs or something else, but we do have to take the bread, the wine, as again it was mentioned this morning. So we find a New Testament church, just like the Israelites, a group of helpless people. They don't have a powerful army to defend their faith, but they are also those who are overcoming through the power of God. Do we see the parallel? In Matthew 28, verse 18, Jesus Christ promised to be with us to the very end. He would never abandon us, no matter what. Matthew 28, verse 18, He said, And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. He said He would be with us to the end of the age. And part of our job is to make disciples of those people who want to learn God's truths, who want to improve and be trained in understanding and applying God's Word to their lives.

I thought it was interesting yesterday, again, talking to a new person that's interested in coming to the church. And he asked me a couple questions about my life and how I got started. I think the most important thing that he got from it is that God's Word works. It has worked in my life. I would have done things differently.

I would have been different toward my wife. I would have been different to my children.

The results that has produced those fruits is because God's Word is the one that has been applied. So God's Word works.

You apply it, you will see the results. You break it. You might get away with it for a while, but eventually the results will come back to haunt you. It's that simple.

And since Christ said he would be with us, it was going to be a church that was going to be tried, and we need to be overcomers. Just like the Israelites overcame the Egyptians through the power of God. So it is with the power of God that we are able to overcome the wrong way of life that we see in the world.

We have our wrong tendencies, our own nature, and also Satan's own influence that he wants us to go the wrong way.

Now, how does the church overcome? Notice in Revelation 12, verse 7.

Revelation 12, verse 7. It says it very simply here, but at the same time very clearly.

It says, And war broke out in heaven. This is going to happen in the future.

Michael and his angels fought with the dragon. Talk about Satan and the dragon and his angels fought.

But they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. There's going to be one last rebellion from the time that Satan was cast down here to the earth.

And that has been before man was created. Satan has been going around the earth. He's a spirit being that's invisible, but he does influence through his thoughts, through his way of doing things.

He influences mankind. He tempts, just like he did Adam and Eve, into taking of the wrong tree.

So he tempts mankind up to this time.

But knowing that Jesus Christ is one day coming down, and Satan doesn't know the day or the hour, but he knows when things are getting close.

And he will have one last rebellion, where he will storm up to heaven, and Michael and his angels will stop.

They will eventually defeat Satan and his demons, and they will be cast down here to the earth.

And then, literally, things are just going to break loose on this earth, when Satan is cast down, as it says here.

Continuing on, it says, so the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of all, called devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. So he's a master deceiver. A person that is deceived doesn't know he's deceived.

That's why, in the Bible, one of the things they accused Paul, when he was teaching the truth, to say, Paul, you are turning the world upside down. But actually, Paul was turning the world right side up.

We are the ones that started with an upside down world.

And through the lenses of the Bible, we're able to write and get things straightened up.

We turn the world right side up.

And so, Satan, the devil, who has deceived the world, was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

And I heard a loud voice, saying, In heaven now salvation and strength in the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ, have come.

For the accuser of our brethren, who accuses them before our God, day and night, has been cast down.

And they, talking about the brethren, talking about the church, overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony.

And they did not love their lives to the death.

Therefore, rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them.

Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.

Because he knows Christ is coming, so he's going to make a real mashed potatoes out of this world.

He's just going to really influence people, and you're going to see just like what happened during the 1930s in Germany.

That the German people were always very welcoming, very jovial people, and all of a sudden, when Hitler took over in 1933, all of a sudden, things changed.

One of the famous reporters said he went there in 1932, and he said everybody was jovial and nice, and he said he went there a year later, and he said the whole world, the whole German world had changed.

So the people were all uptight, and they became sort of like these robots, programmed by this man and his influence on them.

And it just took six years to prepare to lose the Second World War upon this whole world.

And these were the people that were happy, go lucky, and nice. So this is going to happen again, when the beast and the false prophet are empowered and energized by Satan.

And they're going to change the influence, the atmosphere, the mindset of this world. It hasn't happened yet. We don't know when it's going to happen.

But we know it will, one day, before Jesus Christ comes back.

So the point here, though, that I want to make is that how did the church overcome? It was by the blood of Christ.

So they, again, have taken of the Passover, they have accepted the blood of Christ for their forgiveness, and because they are part of God's people, they are able to overcome things.

It's interesting that the Bible tells us a lot about overcoming, and that's the key word for this seventh day of Unleavened Bread, the term overcoming.

In Romans chapter 12 verse 21, here's a very important principle. Romans 12 verse 7. It says, I'm sorry, it's verse 21. Romans 12, 21. I was reading the Revelation 12, 7, 1. It's Romans 12, 21.

It says, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. So we are not supposed to fight back and use the weapons like many churches have gone to war.

Some of the longest wars in the history of mankind have been religious wars, and some have been within the Christian world. We have the famous Thirty Year War, that basically after Martin Luther got started, and the whole war erupted in Europe, basically all the way up to the 1550s or so.

It was a 30 year war. It devastated the great part of Europe. And finally, the two sides were exhausted. The Pope and his minions on one side, and then the Protestant world and the other, they just had 30 years.

They finally just said, well, let's divide Europe up, and the Protestants will be in the northern part of Europe. That's why you see the northern part being more Protestant, and then the southern part is more Catholic.

But there wasn't much spirituality or Christianity to talk about during that time. But the church is not supposed to overcome evil with evil.

William Barkley makes this comment again, when we quote these scholars, it's not because we go through or believed in their doctrines, but these actually, they sometimes, studying the terms, the words in the Bible, they do shed light on what is true. And Barkley says, a famous African-American, once said, That's worth repeating. I will not allow any man to make me lower myself by hating him. I'm not going to descend to that level of carnality by any person that tries to do it. So, the word overcome is an interesting word. It's important to focus on it today because it has a lot to do with this seventh day of Unleavened Bread. It is used 17 times in the book of Revelation. It is the Greek word for victory in the New Testament.

The word victory in the New Testament is nike, and the verb is nikau. That's why we get the word Nike for the sports company that produces all kinds of shoes and Nike.

Of course, they don't pronounce it right because it's nike, but what do they know about Greek? They just used the term and the little swish logo that made it so famous.

In the classic Greek, nikau was a common term used for victory in battles, in games, legal matters, and opinions.

In general, it meant to conquer, to overcome, or to be proclaimed victorious. The Greek people were very sports-minded. They were very athletic. They loved competition.

This was an important word for them. As a matter of fact, for the Greeks, they invented the name of a goddess for victory, which is nike. The sculptures of nike were among the first scriptures to depict joy, with nike's joyful face and arms victoriously raised high.

You had the goddess, which was a symbol of victory, with her hands held high, with a big smile, being victorious, either in battles or the Olympic Games. They would use this time and time again.

Often, after a victory in nike, in war, there would be a celebratory entrance, what they called the three embayos, of the victors into the capital, where the victors of the battle would march, banners, and heads held high.

One day, Christ is going to come back to this earth with his saints and his angels, and it will be a victory procession in Jerusalem.

This last day of our leavened bread symbolizes the ultimate victory over sin, that God is not going to let sin ruin his plan of salvation, but one day sin and death will be overcome.

Notice in 1 John 5, verse 3.

This is a common scripture that we use. It's very important, but also the following one, which sometimes we don't focus on so much.

Verse 3, it says, for this is the love of God. Here's the biblical definition. You want to know what it is to love God? It says here, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. That we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.

That's the way to describe God's love, to how we love God. We proclaim, we love your commandments. Don't worry about that. That's not a bathroom. That's just a little bit of water going down.

But here it says, we keep his commandments, and we don't consider them burdensome.

So, see, a person can keep the commandments, but in a burdensome way. He feels they're a big weight.

And God, every couple of decades in the church, sort of lets things a little bit where people can just choose.

Oh, you don't want to keep the commandments? Fine, the door's there. And have some people proclaim, you know, free from the law.

And we'll see who walks out. Oh, yeah. God's law should not be burdensome. There's not one law that does us damage.

But being humans that we are, egocentric and egotistical, we sort of like our own ways.

And so sometimes God's law prevents us from doing things that ultimately will harm us.

And then going to verse 4, this is the one we sometimes don't focus on, says, for whatever is born of God overcomes the world.

Nikow is the term. And this is the victory, Nikkei, that has overcome, Nikow, the world, our faith.

So this is what walking this way of life is the way we are able to overcome, keeping God's commandments, but also remembering through the blood of the Lamb.

Just like the Israelites did not defeat the Egyptians on their own strength, God did it.

But they had to walk through the Red Sea. They had to show faith, just as we do. We have to be keeping this day.

It's not an easy day. People have had to lose their salary today. Some people have had difficulties getting off on these days.

Students have had to take classes off. Yes, that is overcoming.

That is putting priorities. Are you going to put God in his kingdom first or not?

And we know it's difficult. But these are the hurdles that God places in our lives to see how we are going to do. Verse 5 of this same place, it says, Who is he who overcomes the world? Nikau, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. Again, the word belief is not just intellectual asset. It's a person convinced, committed, convicted of that.

It's somebody that's truly putting his faith in a way of life.

Also, let's go to Romans 6, verse 12 to continue to complete this thought.

Romans 6, verse 12. Overcoming is very important.

The days of Unleavened Bread picture us removing sin from our lives, but it's also not just for seven days.

It means we are committed to continually overcome the difficulties and the sins and all the things in society that are wrong.

In Romans 6, verse 12, the Apostle Paul says, So sin can reign in your body. It can take over. It can control you.

And he says here, do not let it.

Verse 13, And your members as instruments of righteousness to God do things that are going to be pleasing to God.

For you are not under law, but under grace.

And this term under law sometimes confuses people. He says, well, does that mean that I can break all the commandments because I'm not under? Well, this is exactly what he doesn't want you to conclude. Notice the next verse.

Certainly not!

And so he's saying, no, that's not the right way. See, he already explained what under grace meant. Here in chapter 3, verse 9, these are good scriptures to put in your margin. If somebody has a good faith, you can say, I'm not under the faith, but I'm under the faith. And I'm not under the faith. And I'm not under the faith.

And so this verse, verse 9, it says, What then? Are we better than they? Talking about the Jews or Gentiles? Not at all! For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. The term under grace is called under sin. The term under the law means to be under the condemnation or penalty of the law. You are responsible.

You are accountable. You are going to pay a penalty. In verse 19, it says, now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. So when you're under the law, that means that you're under that penalty. You break it.

You're going to pay the penalty you are condemned by. It's different when you are under grace, because now, through Christ's sacrifice, you are able to receive that mercy and forgiveness, and that you are no longer, as it says here, condemned, guilty before God. Notice verse 20, therefore, by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. So it talks about the previous way, which was that, yes, we were all under the condemnation of breaking the law, and we were guilty.

But under grace is when you already have been forgiven through the sacrifice of Christ. You have committed yourself to a new way of life, and so from then on, you are under grace, which means that God's forgiveness is there extended to you conditionally, as long as you follow his way of life. As long as you are doing your part, that grace extends. I don't want to go into all the Scriptures there in 2 Peter 2. You can read them later, where it says what happens with a person that got to know the truth and was opened his mind to it, and he knew the commandment, and then he turned around, and he left God's way.

Does that say, oh, you're still under grace? No. You put yourself under law again. See, and it says that it's like the dog who goes back to its vomit, or the sow that goes back into its filth. So, no, we've been clean. We've been forgiven, but that doesn't mean we go back into the old system and morals that we had before. I produced sins time and time again.

So, I hope that's understandable now. Now, where does a word overcome? An overcomer come from in the Bible. It comes from the life of an overcomer, one who was finally a victor. Now, we've learned, we've heard the Greek word, but actually, the word overcomer comes from a certain person who was given that name. Anybody want to guess who that is? Yes? Who? Yes, that's correct. Jacob. And so, we're going to study a little bit about the life of Jacob, because in a way, we all go through the life of Jacob.

Jacob, who became Israel. And one of the proper translations of the word Israel is, he who overcame through God. He who overcame, and God saw that spirit, and so this man was named after that. Let's study these parallels, then, between this overcomer, Jacob, who became Israel, and we, who have to overcome, and are called, in Galatians 6, 16, the Israel of God.

God's church is called the Overcomers of God. It's the word Israel, you know, he who prevailed, he who overcame before God, and it's a very beautiful story. The first part of his life, he did not do things according to God's will. But still, God was with him, as with our lives. God was looking, and one day he would be calling us to his way of life, just like he did with Jacob. Notice in Genesis 25, Genesis 25 verse 21, we're going to study a little bit of this wonderful life. Personal interest is always very important, and it catches your attention. So we're going to learn something about Jacob today. Genesis 25 verse 21 is his birth.

It describes it here. It says, Now Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife because she was barren, and the Lord granted his plea, and Rebekah his wife conceived. But the children struggled to gather within her, and she said, If all is well, why am I like this? If a mother has ever had twins, and of course, Kadi and I had twins, one of them is dedicated to the name Rebekah, and all of a sudden you start seeing through the belly their little movements and different things that one baby would not do.

We didn't know we were going to have twins until the seventh month. And I thought, how am I going to get away from this? Because we already had two girls. And I always kid about that.

I went to the doctor, and the doctor said, Well, here's the first one. I said, Doc, now don't be joking around. This is no time to be kidding. And he said, No, I'm not kidding. And I thought, twins, that's going to be a lot of diapers. And we didn't have any of these special disposable diapers. We had the cloth diapers. And so I'm just thinking of myself, like one of these old Jerry Lewis movies, where he was taking care of five kids and used one of these gloves for the five kids to suck on.

And we already had four, and I'm thinking, I'm going to be another Jerry Lewis here. And then all of a sudden, lights came out, this word, Carmen Sita. And she was a member of the church, who was a single lady in her forties at that time. And I thought, Carmen Sita, she's going to pull me out of this.

And so we hired her on. It's just supposed to stay like three years. She stayed for 11 years. And she's the girl's nanny and kind of second mother. And you've seen her here a couple of times. But anyways, here's the situation with Rebecca. And so she went to inquire of the Lord.

Why am I feeling this? And the Lord said to her, two nations are in your womb. Two peoples shall be separated from your body. One people shall be stronger than the other. And the older shall serve the younger. So it was prophesied. God had a purpose for each one of them. So when her days were fulfilled for her to give birth, indeed, there were twins in her womb.

And the first came out red. He was like a hairy garment all over. So they called his name Esau, which means red or reddish. And so he was ruddy. And he was very hairy. You've seen some of these fellows. They're pretty hairy. I've seen some of them in their YMC and everything. They looked like a bearer, you know, just all hair. Well, this was the way Esau was.

Afterward, his brother came out, and his hand took hold of Esau's heel. So he was already struggling to try to be the first one to supplant. So he grabbed Esau's heel. So his name was called Jacob, which means supplanter. Or it comes from the word heel, or pulling at the heel. And this was the way Jacob would be for the first part of his life.

He was always trying to supplant his older brother, because his older brother was the one who would receive the first-born blessings. He would be the first one.

And it says here, So the boys grew.

And Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field. But Jacob was a mild man, dwelling in tents. So one of them was a real hunter, an outback guy. He'd go out there and just hunt and do everything, very macho-type. But Jacob wasn't that way. He was more of an intellectual to study, to meditate, to do things more in the home. And Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his gait.

But Rebekah loved Jacob. So you had a little bit of rivalry here between the two sons.

Now Jacob cooked a stew, and Esau came in from the field, and he was weary. And Esau said to Jacob, Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary. Therefore his name was called Edom. So we had a change here. And the Bible changes names. It has to do with characteristics of the person. But Jacob said, Sell me your birthright as of this day. And Esau said, Look, I am about to die, so what is this birthright to me? Then Jacob said, Swear to me as of this day. So he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. And Jacob gave Esau bread and stew of lentils. Then he ate and drank a rose and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright. So there was one who really believed in carrying out the inheritance of his fathers. Remember we had Jacob, whose father was Isaac, and Abraham. And of course at that time, they weren't rich people. And he just thought, well, what's my birthright? It's not that important. He didn't really have the faith of what Abraham had been promised and Isaac had been promised. If you leave a finger here, and let's go to Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12, verse 14. It adds a little bit to the story of what was going on in Esau's mind at that time. Hebrews 12, verse 14. It says, Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. Looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness bringing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled, lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.

Esau and Jacob, they had both heard about the promises made to Abraham, that one day he would be the father of all of mankind, that the possessions would be the land of Canaan, that God would multiply their descendants as the stars are out there in the sky, or the sands, grains of sand in the beaches. And so, one had a vision that that was something that was worth, challenging and worth receiving, and the other one just sort of wasn't interested. That's why it talks about a profane person, a person that is profane. The word means just worldly. Those are his interests. He has no vision in the future. He just lives for the day, for the pleasures, the passing pleasures, day after day. And so, he was also, tells us about Esau, he was a fornicator, because he was a very ruddy guy. You could see him. He's real macho type, and boy, he could shoot an arrow, and he could get any type of game, and he was just rough and tough, and the girls all fell for him, and he didn't care. He wasn't thinking about his inheritance. He sold his inheritance for a plate of physical food, just like there are people that sell their birthright for just some material things. Some people just turn away from the church because, oh, look, all this, the world is offering me, but I can't do it in the church. And so, okay, go ahead and have your plate of lentils. I hope it fills you up a lot. But one day, you're going to look at God's kingdom when it comes, and you're going to say, and I gave that up for a physical, material plate of lentils. People do that to this day. Continuing on here in Genesis 26, verse 24 tells us a little more about Esau. Well, let's see here. We're going to see Esau in a moment more, but Genesis 26, 24, it talks about Jacob.

It says, In chapter 27, verse 21, it says, Then Isaac said to Jacob, Please come near, that I may feel you, my son. This is talking about Jacob, whether you are really my son Esau or not. So Jacob went near to Isaac, his father, and he felt and said, The voice is Jacob's voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau, because he, through deception, not only had received the birthright, because he knew his brother was hungry, and he knew his brother was a worldly person, so he said, Give me! I want this birthright that comes from Abraham and my father Isaac. And now, besides the birthright, was the blessings that Isaac was to impart on him. So in verse 24, then he said, Are you really my son Esau? And he said, I am. And Jacob lied. He said, Bring it near me, and I will eat of my son's game, so that my soul may bless you. So he brought it near to him, and he ate, and he brought him wine, and he drank. Then his father Isaac said to him, Come near now, and kiss me, my son. And he came near and kissed him, and he smelled the smell of his clothing, because he thought something fishy was going on, but Isaac was blind. He could virtually just could not see anything. He was very old. But he could smell, so he smelled, and sure enough, he had the same clothing and the same smell that Esau usually had. And so he was convinced, and he blessed him. He said, Surely the smell of my son is like the smell of a field, which the Lord has blessed. Therefore may God give you of the dew of heaven, of the fatness of the earth, and plenty of grain and wine. Let people serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be master over your brethren, and let your mother's sons bow down to you. Cursed be everyone who curses you, and blessed be those who bless you.

So, of course, at that moment, Esau finally came back. Now it happened as soon as Isaac had finished blessing Jacob, and Jacob had scarcely gone out from the presence of Isaac, his father, that Esau, his brother, came in from his honey. You had no idea his brother had deceived him. So, the short story of this is that Esau wanted to kill Jacob, because he was the second time that Jacob had supplanted him, had taken his heel, and pulled him back, and said, I'm going to be the first. Well, this led to a threat that Jacob felt he wasn't going to live very long.

Let's look in chapter 28, verse 1. It says, Then Isaac called Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said to him, You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan, because this is what had happened with Esau. Notice the verse previous, verse 46 here, says, And Rebecca said to Isaac, I am weary of my life, because of the daughters of Heth, which were the Hittites, they were part of the Canaanite population, although they were of a different ancestry, but they were still pagan people. It says, If Jacob takes a wife of the daughters of Heth, like these who are the daughters of the land, what good will my life be to me? So Esau was a profane man. He married people that did not have the faith. They were the women that just had their own pagan practices, and they were driving Rebecca nuts. Crazy! And so she did not want that for Jacob. And so Isaac tells him, that you shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan. Verse 2, Arise, go to Padam Aram, to the house of Bethuel, your mother's father, and take yourself a wife from there of the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother. And so then he blessed them at that time, and Jacob leaves. He has to flee for his life as well. In Genesis 28, verse 10, it says, Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set, and he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he laid down in that place to sleep. Then he dreamed, and behold, the ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven, and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. So he actually was able to see something like, in the spiritual world, angels do descend upon the earth, and they ascend back up to heaven, and he was able to see that. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham, your father, and the God of Isaac, the land on which you lie, I will give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth, you shall spread abroad to the west, to the east, to the north, to the south, and in you, and in your seed, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you, and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.

And so God is calling Jacob to do his service, that he was the one that would carry out the promises that Abraham and Isaac received. He would be the recipient, and he would pass it on to his descendants. Not so with Esau. Esau would eventually become the land of Edom. That's where that southern part now, it's part of Jordan. And they would become a nation. Some think that eventually Turkey became the greater part of Esau. That's certainly historically, they bring that up, that the Ottoman Empire was part of the inheritance of Edom. But always, through Isaac and through Jacob, would be the peoples of Israel. And to this day, we have a great struggle between the Edomites and the descendants there of Ishmael, and all of the fights between these brothers and this kin in the Middle East. That's just the nature of the situation.

It's very interesting what Jacob tells God, verse 20. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, If God will be with me and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, I'm going to trust God to provide my sustenance so that I may come back to my Father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God.

And this stone, which I have set as a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that you give me, I will surely give a tent to you. So he committed himself paying the tithe, that he would commit himself to follow that biblical teaching. This pillar stone, there's been speculation. Certainly, there is a historical basis for believing that that pillar stone eventually ended up through the prophet Jeremiah after the Babylonian invasion.

Jeremiah took the king Hezekiah's daughters with him and eventually made it into Ireland. And there, the king Hezekiah's daughters married into the royalty, the Irish royalty. And eventually, that pillar stone went to Scotland and went to England. Some of you probably have been there to the place, Westminster Abbey and other places, where there is the throne of the Queen of England, the Queen Elizabeth II. And underneath the throne, there is this very ancient stone. It's called Jacob's pillar stone.

I've seen the signs there, which they trace it back. Now, some say it's more of a legend, but there is also the Irish annals and others mentioned that this ancient prophet that came with another man called Baruch, who was Jeremiah's helper, and that they brought a stone. It's called the stone of scone. Now, the Scottish people wanted it back, and it's been a big problem. But whatever, no matter what, we have here this vow that Jacob is going to follow God's way of life.

In Genesis 31, verse 38, Jacob left when he was 40 years old. He spent 20 years with Laban, and Laban made his life miserable, just as he had lived with deceit, supplanting his brother and doing things that way in a very carnal manner. So Laban deceived him, and you know that he wanted to marry Rachel, and instead Laban changed the two daughters, and he ended up with Leah. So he had to work another seven years for this. Notice what he finally learned in verse 38.

He says, These twenty years, he says to Laban, I have been with you. Your ewes and your female goats have not miscarried their young, and I have not eaten the rams of your flock. That which was torn by beasts I did not bring to you. I bore the loss of it. You required it from my hand, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. There I was, in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep departed from my eyes.

Thus I have been in your house twenty years. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. Unless the Lord of God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you would have sent me away empty-handed.

God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night. So you see, Jacob got his comeuppance. He was deceived himself. He suffered. He was paid back with the same coin that he had used before. In Genesis 32, verse 22, this is an important part as he comes back now to the promised land. Verse 22, he says, And he arose that night, and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed over the ford of Jacob. So he already had eleven sons. He had one last son, Benjamin. He took them, sent them over the brook, and sent over what he had.

Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. Now when he saw that he did not prevail against him, he touched the socket of his hip, and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as he wrestled with him. He said, Let me go, for the day breaks. But he said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. So he said to him, What is your name?

He said, Jacob. And he said, Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed, or overcome. Then Jacob asked, Tell me your name. I prayed, and he said, Why? You asked about my name. And he blessed him there. So Jacob called the name of the place, Peniel, for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.

And so he struggled, and again, stay here for a minute with a finger, and let's go to Hosea 12. Gives us a little more background into this incident as well. Hosea 12, verse 3. Hosea 12, verse 3. Talking about Jacob, it says, He took his brother by the heel in the womb. That's why he was named Jacob. And in his strength, he struggled with God. Wasn't some angel? It was with God. Yes, he struggled with the angel, which means messenger, and prevailed. He wept and sought favor from him. He found him in Bethel, and there he spoke to us. That is the Lord God of hosts.

And so here is the name of Jacob, now changed to Israel. The meaning of Israel is, He who prevails with God or overcomes. This idea emphasizes the prevailing against strength through dogged struggle. You just, you know, dogged, you're not going to give up, you're going to struggle until you finally triumph. That is the name of Israel. In Strong's dictionary, it's translated as, He will rule as God. He will rule as God.

This emphasizes the idea of rulership, as a prince ruling over his adversaries because of persistent struggle. That was the name given to Jacob after that great prayer struggle at Peniel. Because, as it says, as a prince, he had power with God and prevailed.

This is the name given to Jacob's descendants, the twelve tribes of Israel. And as it tells us in Ecclesiastes 9-10, Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. That's the type of person that God is looking for. An Israel, a person who doesn't give up easily, who perseveres, who struggles through the trials and difficulties and does not give up. Speaking in time, in type or symbol, we can say that the man Jacob represents a person before his calling who has not overcome. He is an unconverted person. He gets his way through nook and crook. The man named Israel, and certainly women are part of the same heritage, the person named Israel, on the other hand, represents a Christian who overcomes and who will eventually inherit the kingdom of God. Jesus Christ once mentioned in Matthew 11-12, from the time of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing and forceful people have been seizing it. That's from the God's Word. So it takes people that do not give up easily, that persevere once they know what is the truth. They're not going to give it up easily. They're going to resist any attempt to be overcome. They are not going to be defeated. As Paul said in Acts 14, verse 22, we must through much tribulation enter the kingdom of God. It's going to take, like Winston Churchill once said during that struggle in World War II, it's going to take blood, sweat, and tears. Sometimes the trials come from the outside, sometimes the trials will come from the inside. But if a person is part of the Israel of God, they will not give up, just like our struggle against sin. Of overcoming sin, we will not give up the fight. In Titus chapter 3, Paul describes the way we were, all of us, including the supplanter Jacob, before we came out of the world while we were in our mental capacity of an unconverted person. It says here, for we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. Yes, we all had a worldly way, some worse than others, but it doesn't matter to God. Sin is sin. There's no such thing as a mortal and a venial sin. Sin is sin. Little sin, big sin, we are all responsible. We might have been nice people, but we still had sinful natures, and we still did not have the converted mind.

That's why we need to equate overcoming with these days. Remember how we talked about... and there are actually three stages. I left one out the last time I talked, but the three stages of overcoming, of Christian finally entering the kingdom of God, is first of all the stage of justification, of being acquitted and being declared just before God through the sacrifice of Christ. The second stage is sanctification, which we have to do along with God, God empowering us through His Spirit. But we have to make the conscious effort. We have to overcome. We have to have that Jacob-type tenacity of not giving up. And then the third stage is glorification. So it's justification, sanctification, and glorification is when you are resurrected, when you are glorified by God, when because of overcoming, you receive the reward of the transformation and the glorification, and you are part of Jacob's inheritance, the inheritance of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That's why we are called the Israel of God in the New Testament.

Revelation 19 verse 7, notice some of the last words that God tells the church, because He's not talking to the world, but He's talking to those who are overcomers, and they are described here. Revelation 19 verse 7 says, It says, Let's talk about the process of sanctification, which eventually will produce glorification.

Continuing on, God's true church, of which we are a part of, is a spiritual organism, whose members, with God's help, will ultimately overcome their sinful natures, the world, and Satan.

Just like Jacob, the Israel of God must prevail and overcome through God.

Now, Israel, as we saw, can mean He who rules, or He who will rule, as God. In God's true church, the Israel of God will one day rule as part of the God family, under God the Father and Jesus Christ. Talking to the church of Philadelphia in Revelation 3 verse 9, and I'll be winding up here.

Revelation chapter 3 verse 9, It says, And then verse 12, He says, That word of gaining final victory. I will make Him a pillar in the temple of my God. In other words, a very important part of God's way of life, of His family, of His kingdom.

And He shall go out no more, because that person has assured a place in God's kingdom.

I will write on Him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, again, identifying the person with His position, His role, and the New Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God. And I will write on Him my new name.

And every one of these churches, if you notice, received that command, He who overcomes, that is something that we have to do as the spiritual Israel of God. Yes, Israel is, then, an apt designation for God's church. The Israel of God will rule as part of the God family, so we in true Israel of God have a great deal in common with that patriarch, Jacob. Like him, we will eventually have a new name. Like him, we struggle to overcome, as these days picture.

And like him, those who remain faithful among us will someday overcome and be given rulership in the God family, younger brothers and sisters reigning forever under God the Father and Jesus Christ. So in our lives, there are going to be many trials and tests to become overcomers.

This year, let's make it a year of overcoming. Why don't we write down something specific we want to overcome this year in particular? Because as overcomers, we must always be in the job of removing leaven from our lives.