Clean Transcript

Forfeiting Our Christian Birthright

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• Hebrews chapter 12, and we're going to read verses 12 through 17. Hebrews 12, beginning there with verse 12, reading through verse 17. The title of the message is "Forfeiting Our Christian Birthright." So notice, if you would please, verse 12. The Word of God says, "Wherefore, lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed."

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• "Follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. Looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled, lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For you know how that afterwards, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected."

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• "For he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears." We have a problem. In fact, we have many problems. But our main problem is that we are unaware of our problems and do not even know that they exist. And when we discover them, we usually discover them by accident because most people do not study, neither do they consider events. But when we do discover them, we're absolutely shocked. We're shocked beyond measure. We are astonished beyond belief.

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• And we begin to ask the question, how in the world did we get in this mess so quickly? And the truth is we did not get in the mess that we're in quickly. It's been building over a number of years. We either simply ignored it or did not pay any attention to it or decided that if we just left it alone, everything would simply vanish and go away.

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• But I hope each of you understands the fact that problems never disappear. Problems never vanish. Problems never go away. They must be resolved in a biblical manner in order for that problem to simply disappear. If they're not resolved in a biblical manner, then they simply remain. I want to point out the fact that what you and I are seeing in our land today is not just simply a cultural problem. We have a biblical problem and most Christians are totally unaware of it. I want you to consider just for a brief moment the destruction of our statues and our monuments.

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• They're being destroyed by people who have absolutely no idea, no inkling, no consideration, no understanding of their history or their importance to society and cultures alike. And it's not just—it's not foreigners that are doing the dirty work. It's Americans. In fact, it is Americans who have imbibed a politically correct social justice warrior mentality, which is nothing less than pure Marxism. It is communism in a mask.

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• Government schools, Hollywood, TV, music, and MSM propaganda have done their jobs very well. So the problem that you're experiencing, the problem that you're seeing, is far more than simply interpreting the past in light of the present day understanding and ignorant attitudes. And it's not just southern monuments that are being destroyed. It's also the monuments of our founding fathers. They're even pulling down a monument of Christopher Columbus. And in other words, what we're seeing is an erasure of history. It is an endeavor to block out the past and block out the truth and the character of our ancestors from our minds.

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• So there is indeed a method to their madness. Let me give you just a couple of quotes. The first one is by Milan Kundera. I want you to listen carefully to what he said. "The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory, destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have someone write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long, the nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was." And of course, then Karl Marx simply said this, "A people separated from their history are easily persuaded." And then of course, Joseph Stalin claimed, "Who controls the past controls the future, and who controls the present controls the past."

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• And then lastly, Adolf Hitler, who said, "The big lie is a major untruth uttered frequently by leaders as a means of duping and controlling the constituency." Well, the attack on all of our monuments is usually based upon now what the attackers are referring to as systemic racism. I wish I really and truly knew what that was. It just simply means it's in the system, and I guess it means it can never ever be erased. Well, racism is now a catch word, and especially the systemic racism is a catch term which enables someone simply to destroy anything that they disagree with or anything that they do not like. It's a value judgment in the mind of the attacker. And I might say that it's a value judgment. This is only based upon wickedness, but upon ignorance as well.

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• Pastor Ron Rumber, who is a friend of mine and has been over 40 years, wrote a little blog, and I want to quote it because we are being attacked today and are stained with what is known as white guilt. Here's a little article that he wrote. "What is white guilt? We're now told that being born white means that you're a racist. This indicates that the ones who cry the loudest that whites are racist are themselves the greatest racists in the history of mankind. Talk about intolerance."

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• "Many Christians are buying into this idiocy by wearing the complex created for them by God-hating rebels who wish the destruction of civilization as we know it. Yes, the civilization given to you by God through our founding fathers. Those who wish to wear this mantra, while also claiming to be the children of God, need to think for a change."

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• "Now listen, who determines our race and the bounds of our habitation? Who determines and who put us in the families in which we are born? Who determines the nation in which we were born? Are you catching on yet? Feeling guilty because you're white is the same as slapping the Lord in the face and questioning his authority, his will, and his sovereignty." And then he gives this passage from Psalm 100, verse 3, "Know ye not the Lord, he is God: it is he that made us and not we ourselves. We're his people."

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• "We are the sheep of his pasture." So who made you white or who made you black or who made you purple or pink or whatever color you are? It was God. And so then to challenge the fact that you were born white or born black or born brown or pink or purple is to challenge the sovereignty of God. It is God who determined our race, our family, our nationality.

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• We had absolutely nothing to do with it. Now, what I want to do is emphasize a statement that I had made earlier. And I want to clarify that statement because I said what is happening in our land today is not just simply an attack upon culture. It is more an attack upon Christianity. And since it is an attack upon Christianity, it's an attack upon the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

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• You must remember the passage from Psalm 2, verses 1 and 2. The Bible says there, "Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?"

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• Now, listen, "The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder and cast their cords from us." In other words, the kings and the rulers of the earth are in rebellion against God. That's what we see today that is happening. It's nothing less than pure, undiluted, depraved, and wicked rebellion against God.

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• Now, think about this with me. Because I just said it's not just simply an attack upon culture. It's an attack upon Christianity. It's an attack upon the Word of God. Culture is nothing more than religion externalized. That's all it is. Your culture is a product of your religion. It was the Christian religion, particularly Christianity, that founded what you and I know as Western civilization. So this country then was based upon and founded upon Christianity.

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• Now, I want to give you some quotes to demonstrate this, but one of the easiest and clearest quotes that I can give you is from Antonio Gramsci. Antonio Gramsci was and is the guru of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Antonio Francesco Gramsci was an Italian Marxist philosopher and a communist politician. He is the godfather of what is going on today, cultural Marxism. I want you to listen carefully to what he said. "Socialism

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• is precisely the religion that must overwhelm Christianity. In the new order, socialism will triumph by first capturing the culture via infiltration of schools, universities, churches, and the media by transforming the consciousness of society." You know, when I listen to that, "Socialism is precisely the religion." Socialism is a religion. Communism is a religion, an atheistic one, but it's still a religion. And then he goes on to say this, "in the new order," indicating since socialism is the religion that's going to overthrow Christianity, therefore the old order was the Christian order. America was built upon a Christian foundation.

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• I could give you a multitude of quotes, but let me just give you four. The first one was attributed to James Madison in 1778 as he addressed the General Assembly of Virginia. He said this, "We've staked the whole future of American civilization not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."

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• Then John Adams in 1787 said this, "The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence." That's what you're seeing. "If 'Thou shalt not covet' and 'Thou shalt not steal' were not commandments of heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made free." Huh. And then John Jay, who was the first Supreme Court justice, who was appointed by George Washington, said this.

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• "Providence has been pleased to give this one connected country to one united people. A people descended from the same ancestors, speaking the same language, professing the same religion, attached to the same principles of government, very similar in their manners and customs." And basically that's what a nation is. And then one last one by Benjamin Rush in 1798, in defense of the use of the Bible in schools. Here's what he said.

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• "In contemplating the political institutions of the United States, I'll admit that we waste so much time and money in punishing crimes and take so little pains to prevent them. We profess to be Republicans," not the Republican party. It was not even around back then. He said, "We profess to be Republicans and yet we neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our Republican form of government. That is the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible." So Benjamin Rush is saying if we want this Republican form of government, which is rule by law, to continue, we must continue to teach the principles from the Word of God.

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• So you can argue as you will, and as you please, the truth of the matter is clear. America was founded as a Christian Republic.

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• Now we've strayed from our foundations for many years, that is for sure. But what we're seeing today is this: a sledgehammer, backhoe, bulldozer, and heavy equipment attack upon the foundation upon which this nation was built. It is an intent to crumble the very foundation of Christianity and Christian influence to absolute dust and put in its place what you and I would know as undiluted Marxism. It is impossible to enslave a people who know the truth, believe the truth, cherish the truth, and respect the truth. But what has happened is this: slowly but surely we've been propagandized. We've been lied to. We've been deceived. We've been deluded into thinking that we can live free apart from the Word of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. That is absolutely impossible. The only thing that you can produce apart from Jesus Christ is enslavement and death, which reminds me of Proverbs 8, verses 35 and 36, where our Lord said, "For whosoever findeth me findeth life and obtaineth favor of the Lord."

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• But then he went on to say, "But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul. All they that hate me love death." And that's exactly what we're seeing in this country today.

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• Now, I want you to look at Hebrews chapter 12 and verses 16 and 17, just for a moment. We're going to come back here. I'm not going to expound this passage yet, but he says in verse 16, "Lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For you know how that afterwards, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears."

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• Now, the background of these two statements happens to occur in Genesis 25 and Genesis 27. So I want you to look back in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 25 first, and let's read verses 27 through 34. Genesis 25, and we'll begin reading there with verse 27. Watch, if you would please. Genesis 25 verse 27. The Bible says, "And the boys grew. And Esau was a cunning hunter, a man of the field. And Jacob was a plain man dwelling in tents. And Isaac loved Esau because he did eat of his venison. But Rebekah loved Jacob. And Jacob sod pottage. And Esau came from the field, and he was faint. And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage, for I am faint."

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• "Therefore was his name called Edom. And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die, and what profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day. And he sware to him, and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils, and he did eat and drink and rose up and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright."

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• Now, I want you to note carefully this last phrase in verse 34. "Thus Esau despised his birthright." We have to understand the significance of the birthright in order to understand the enormity of Esau's crime. The birthright belonged to the firstborn, which in this instance would have been Esau. Although he and Jacob were twins, Esau was born first. So this is known as the law of primogeniture. This is where the firstborn has this particular right given unto him. So let me give you very quickly what was involved with the birthright, and there were five things. So when we talk about Esau despising his birthright, here's what he despised. First of all, the one who had the birthright would be the priest of the family, or he would be designated as the one who led the family in worship and obedience to God, okay? You will find that in Exodus chapter 22 and verse 29. So the priesthood of the family, the patriarchal headship, went to the firstborn. Secondly, in the birthright, the firstborn received a double portion of all of the father's possessions.

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• You'll find that in Deuteronomy 21 and verse 17. Now, why in the world did the firstborn get a double portion? And the answer is very simple. Because the firstborn had the responsibility, as well as the privilege, of taking care of his parents in their old age when they could not take care of themselves. And so, therefore, he got a double portion. He got a portion for himself, but a portion for his mother and father a little bit later.

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• Number three, in that birthright, one was then lord over his brethren. In other words, he had the right to dictate to the younger children. He had the right to tell them what to do. You will find that in Genesis 27, verse 29, verse 37, then in Genesis 49 and verse 3. So, so far, he had the priesthood of the family, he got a double portion, he was lord over his brethren, and number four, in the family of Abraham, the firstborn was the one through whom the Messiah was to come. In other words, he would be in the ancestry of Jesus Christ is what it would amount to. And then number five, the firstborn also had the right of conveying special blessings and special privileges when it came time to die. And this is exactly what Isaac was doing in Genesis 27, and also exactly what Jacob was doing in Genesis chapter 49. So you have these five things that made up what you and I would call the birthright.

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• Now, the right of primogeniture was among the most noble, honorable, and spiritual in the ancient world. It was more than simply carrying on a family's tradition. It was, in reality, carrying on the family, the family's property, the family's value, the family's faith, which would ultimately affect society and community.

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• Now look what the Bible says. "Thus Esau despised his birthright."

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• Now the Hebrew word for "despise" means this. It means to despise, to hold in contempt, to disdain, and to treat as worthless and vile. Thus, it refers to something that is to be scorned, treated with contempt, and treated and viewed as if it was despicable.

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• Now, I want to show you the impact of Hebrews chapter 12, verses 16 and 17 shortly. But before I do, what I want to share with you and show you is the enormity of Esau's sin in despising his birthright. That thinking is probably foreign to our minds today because we were not alive in the Old Testament. We did not understand the Hebrew culture, nor did we understand how God transferred blessings in those days. But let me just show you the fact that Esau is condemned in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. So the Word of God is consistent in condemning Esau. So what was the enormity of his sin? First of all, Esau dishonored his birthright by considering it worthless. If you look in Genesis chapter 25, again, look at verse 30. Esau dishonored his birthright by considering it worthless. So Genesis 25, verse 30.

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• "And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage, for I am faint. Therefore was his name called Edom. And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point of dying. What profit shall this birthright do to me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day. And he sware to him, and he sold his birthright to Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils."

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• "And he did eat and drink and rose up and went his way. Thus Esau despised his birthright." Esau valued his birthright so lightly that he traded his birthright for a piece of bread and a bowl of beans.

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• Now he may have been hungry, but he was not starving, and neither was he ready to die. So you need to ask yourself this question. Out of all the herds and gardens that Isaac and Rebekah possessed, could he not have gone to his father and mother and gotten something to eat? Well, of course he could have. T.H. Green, in his Prolegomena Ethics, said this. Listen carefully.

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• He said, "Since, however, it is not the hunger as a natural force but his own conception of himself as finding for the time his greatest good in the satisfaction of hunger that determines the act." So simply stating what he's saying is this. Esau may have been hungry, but he was not ready to die. And what he is presenting here is his own concept of his own hunger.

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• We've said things like that. "I'm so hungry I could eat a cow." Nobody can eat a cow, not a whole cow. "Well, I'm so hungry I could eat 10 steaks." No, you can't eat 10 steaks, but you're expressing the fact that you are indeed hungry. And so Esau now dishonored his birthright by considering it so lightly he traded it for a piece of bread and a bowl of beans. Secondly, Esau despised his birthright in trading it for self-satisfaction.

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• I want you to stop and think about this. Esau thought more of his stomach than he did of his soul. He thought more of his physical well-being than he did his spiritual well-being. Esau was willing to trade the future for the present. He was hungry. His stomach was growling and he wanted food now and he was unwilling to wait any longer. He thought of himself more than God. His needs came first and he was willing to trade eternity for present satisfaction.

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• Dr. Lightfoot conjectures, and listen to what he wrote. "We cannot suppose Isaac so poor, or Rebekah so bad a housekeeper, that he might have been supplied with food convenient other ways, and might have saved his birthright. But his appetite had the mastery over him. He's in a longing condition, and nothing will please him but this red pottage. And so to palliate his desire, he pretends he is at the point to die. If he had been so, was it not better for him to die in honor than to live in disgrace? To die under a blessing than to live under a curse? The birthright was typical of spiritual privileges, those of the church of the firstborn. Esau was now tried.

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• How he would value them, and he shows himself sensible only to present grievances. May he but get relief against them, he cares not for his birthright. Better principled was Naboth, who would lose his life rather than sell his vineyard, because his part in the earthly Canaan signified his part in the heavenly." So interestingly enough, Esau was not starving. To show you, look in verse 34. Look what the Bible says. "Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils, and he did eat and drink and rose up and went his way."

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• Now, I got news for you. If you've been starving for 40 days and 40 nights, you're not going to eat and drink, just get up and go on about your business. It's going to take you a while to recover and recuperate. So he just sat down, ate and drank, got up and went on his way. He was secure and impenitent. He did not have any remorse for his ingratitude to God.

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• He did not have any concern for anything that he had done for himself or to himself and his posterity. He was unthinking, he was uncaring, and he just simply preferred momentary satisfaction over spiritual gifts and spiritual blessings. He cared more for his lusts and his appetite than he did for the blessings of God. So let me put it like this. Esau represents many people today. I might say he represents most people because most people live like Esau. We consider our immediate gratification—are the gratification of our desires more valuable than integrity, character, honesty, obedience, and spiritual blessings? If you look at the average person today, they'd much rather make money than worship God. They'd much rather have an extra house somewhere or an extra car, or they'd much rather have a cabin on the lake than to worship God. They're more concerned about their present gratification than they are their eternal future. So Esau not only dishonored his birthright by counting it so little, he despised it by putting his self-satisfaction above it. And thirdly, listen carefully, Esau desired his birthright after it was taken away.

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• But alas, it was too late. When Jacob rightly received the blessing that attended the birthright, Esau was overwhelmed. Now I know that Jacob deceived his father. You know that. Because Rebekah heard Isaac say to Esau, "Go get me some venison. Make me the savory meat that I love, that my soul may bless thee before I die." Now you have to understand that the birthright and the blessing went together. And Esau had already sold that birthright to Jacob. And so Rebekah must have been a wonderful cook because she took goat meat and made it taste just like venison. And she put Esau's garments on Jacob and put the hair of the goat on his arms. And yes, he deceived his father. Because he knew that Esau would not keep his part of the bargain.

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• So what has happened now? He goes in, he deceives Isaac, and Isaac gives him the blessing that goes with the birthright because he believes that Jacob is Esau.

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• Now, I want you to see what happens. Look in your Bibles to Genesis 27, Genesis 27. And let's begin reading there with verse 32, because Jacob has just left and Esau is now come in. Verse 32, Genesis 27. "And Isaac his father said unto him, Who art thou? And he said, I am thy son, thy firstborn, Esau." Now I want you to watch verse 33. We'll come back to it. "And Isaac trembled very exceedingly and said, Who?

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• Where is he that has taken venison and brought it to me? Now I've eaten of all before thou camest and have blessed him. Yea, he shall be blessed." And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry and said unto his father, "Bless me, even me also, my father." And he said, "Thy brother came with subtlety and hath taken away thy blessing."

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• And he said, "Is he not rightly named Jacob? For he has supplanted me these two times." No, only once. You sold it the first time. He said, "He took away my birthright. And behold, now he's taken away my blessing." And he said, "Hast thou not reserved a blessing for me?" So here Esau cries with a very bitter cry in verse 34. And he asked his father, "Have you not even reserved one blessing for me?"

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• Now, I want you to turn in your Bibles back to Hebrews chapter 12. Okay. Look at Hebrews chapter 12 and let's read again verses 16 and 17 in light of what we just read in Genesis 27. Now watch. Hebrews 12 verse 16. "Lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For you know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected."

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• "For he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears." Now listen to me very carefully. Esau was not seeking repentance. Esau was seeking the blessing. He sought it with tears. He sought it with a bitter cry, but it was too late. To demonstrate that Esau was not seeking repentance, all you have to do is read Genesis 27 verse 41. Let me quote it for you. "And Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob." What did he say? "I'll kill him. I'll murder him." Wow. It was not repentance that he was seeking after. No, he was seeking after that blessing, but it was now too late. John Gill wrote this. He said, "Though he that is Esau was very solicitous for the blessing and shed many tears to obtain it, yet he had no true repentance for his sin in selling the birthright. Tears are not an infallible sign of repentance. Men may be more concerned for the loss and mischief that come by sin than for the evil that is in sin, and such repentance is not sincere.

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• It does not spring from love to God or concern for His glory, nor does it bring forth proper fruits. Or rather, the sense of the words is, that notwithstanding all of his solicitude, importunity, and tears, he found no place of repentance in his father Isaac. He could not prevail upon him to change his mind, to revoke the blessing he bestowed upon Jacob and confer it on him. For he plainly saw it was the mind of God that the blessing should be where it was, whose counsel shall stand and that he will do all of his pleasure."

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• Now, I want you to hold Hebrews 12, but go back in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 27. I want you to see this. Because Isaac all of a sudden realized that he had done unwilling justice in blessing Jacob, and he dared not reverse the blessing. So in Genesis chapter 27, verse 33, look at it. "And Isaac trembled very exceedingly." That is, he feared with a great fear. He was very, very upset and very concerned. "Who?

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• Where is he that hath taken venison, and brought it in, and I have eaten all before thou camest, and I have blessed him, yea, he shall be blessed." In other words, all of a sudden he realizes now he has blessed Jacob instead of Esau, and he is not about to change his mind. So neither his natural affection for Esau nor Esau's importunity to his father got him to reverse the blessing. He did not reverse it, and he would not reverse it.

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• Now, go back to Hebrews chapter 12. In light of Esau's attitude and actions, we're told in verse 16, "Lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright." Now, the interesting thing is in verse 16, Esau is called not only a fornicator, but a profane person. Now, how in the world can he be called a fornicator? And the answer could be given in several ways.

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• First of all, you remember he married three or four Canaanite women. And he married one or two of them just to spite his parents. But I believe in the context here, the word "fornicator" and the word "fornication" is very, very broad. I believe it is by this act that he had alienated himself from his family and from his spiritual offices connected with the rights of primogeniture. I believe he fornicated in desiring the satisfaction of his flesh more than obedience to God.

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• He wanted that red pottage and he wanted it now. He could care less about God, about the birthright, about anything. And thus he's called a fornicator. Now, he's also called in this verse, "profane." So let me ask a question. I want you to think about this. What has this message so far got to do with what is happening in our country? I'm going to give you the answer to that. I'm going to show you, I believe, what is happening, why it is happening. Esau is called a profane person. The Greek word for "profane" is the word "bebelos."

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• "Be" or "be," if you would like to pronounce it like that, is a negative, has a negative significance. "Belos" is the Greek word for threshold, but it means the threshold of a temple or a sacred edifice. Our English word "profane" comes from the Latin "profanus," which is made up of "procul et fano," which literally means "outside of the temple" or "far from the temple." So when you understand the word "bebelos," it means that someone has stepped over the threshold. That is, he's gone outside of the temple. He's gone in front of the temple. When you understand the word "profane," it means someone standing out here on the outside. So someone on the outside now is considered an irreligious man or someone who is acting outside of the temple. So, to act outside of the temple would mean to act outside of God, act outside of his word, act outside of his will, act outside of his worship. Albert Barnes said this on the word "bebelos" or "profane." He said, "The word 'profane' here refers to one who by word or conduct treats religion with contempt or has no reverence for that which is sacred.

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• This may be shown by words, by the manner, by sneer, by the neglect of religion, or by openly renouncing the privileges which might be connected with our salvation. The allusion here is to one who should openly cast off all the hopes of religion for indulgence in temporary pleasure as Esau gave up his birthright for a trifling gratification. In a similar manner, the young, for temporary gratification, neglect or despise all the privileges and hopes resulting from their being born in the bosom of the church, from being baptized and consecrated to God, and from being trained up in the lap of piety."

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• Now, let me just stop and think about this. And I want you to think with me. What he's saying is, a profane person is someone, maybe he's been raised in church. Maybe he's actually heard the preaching and teaching of the Word of God. Maybe he's also been raised in a Christian school. Maybe his parents have brought him up in the lap of piety. In other words, they tried to teach him what is right.

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• But what he does is he casts all of this off and rejects it and lives mainly for his flesh and for the satisfaction of his desires. That is a profane person. One further quote, Matthew Poole, "Bebelos imports one who has a bitter frame of spirit against the first table, one of an impure mind to Godward, opposite to godliness, who neglects and spurns holy things, rolling himself in its own pleasures, riches, honors, with a despising of God, His grace, and His glory."

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• Well, I hope you're beginning to see what this message has to do with where we are and what is happening. We are a profane people, and we have raised profane children. We've despised our birthright. We've not even trained ourselves, much less our children, in the history of this country. Most people have never heard of Benjamin Rush. They have no idea who John Witherspoon is. They have never heard of Ezra Stiles. Very few have even heard of Jonathan Edwards and the great revival. I'm just simply saying we have cast off our birthright. We've cast off our birthright, even as Christians, because we've turned from God. We've turned from his law. We've turned from his worship. And like Esau, we've crossed the threshold. We've stepped outside of the temple and we're living mainly for ourselves and to satisfy our lusts and our desires. And we have no thoughts toward God, toward holiness, toward righteousness, and toward obedience. We are a profane people. And what you're seeing in this country is the consequence of our profanity.

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• Now, let me try to tie this together for us. I want to make some applications. The first one is this. There are some sins that cannot be undone. You know, if I stole from Francis, I could make that right. I could give him back that which I stole from him and even add a fifth part to it like the Bible commands me. Well, what about murder? What about adultery? If I murdered Francis, I might be, by the grace of God, able to repent and I might be forgiven, but that's not bringing him back to life.

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• I can't undo what I've done to him. What about adultery? You can't undo defilement. You may repent, you may be forgiven, but there's no way in the world that you can undo it. It is too late to change the results of sin after the sin has been committed. That was what Esau was trying to do. He had already sold his birthright. He'd already despised it. And now he's trying to change the results of his sin by crying bitterly. May I point something out?

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• Think about those people who are dying without the Lord Jesus Christ, who die out of faith in Jesus Christ. Oh, they're going to realize it too late, and they will cry and scream and beg and plead, but it's over, it's done with. They're not going to be able to change how they live, and they're certainly not going to be able to change the just judgment of the judge of all the earth who's already sentenced them. So there's some sins that just cannot be undone. And I believe, secondly, that the rejection of our birthright is a sin that cannot be reversed. We may understand it too late. We may hate it. We may despise our ignorance of it. We may despise our stupidity in it, but it cannot be undone.

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• Esau was condemned by his own conscience. He saw too late that the blessing was worth having, and he cried and begged and pleaded, but it was over. He found no place of repentance, though he sought it—the blessing—carefully with tears. Likewise, what is happening in America in 2020? I read, I don't remember where it was, California, Oregon, somewhere, some man was arrested for tearing down a Black Lives Matter sign. And yet those who are in Black Lives Matter are protesting, looting, burning, stealing, and they're not arrested. What is happening? I also read it was in a Target store where one man walked in the store without a face mask on. The law was called. The deputy threw the man up against the wall, then down on the floor, handcuffed him and arrested him for not having on a face mask, and there's no law that demands you have to wear a face mask. What's going on?

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• The answer is we're reaping the consequences of despising the birthright that God gave us through the founding fathers in this country who gave us a Christian republic, and we are repudiating it left and right. Esau found no place for repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. He had already sold it for a mess of pottage. And what we've done is we've sold our birthright for materialism. We've sold our birthright for political expediency. We've sold our birthright for the satisfaction of our flesh. We've sold our birthright for anything that we wanted. We have to learn

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• the greatness and the enormity of the sin of apostatizing from the Lord Jesus Christ and his word. And the truth is, if we will not stand and fight for our Christianity and for our Christian foundations, we deserve to lose it. We deserve to lose it. And the truth of the matter is, we will lose it unless God is so gracious and kind to us. Most of you have probably read some writings of Thomas Sowell. Thomas Sowell is a black sociologist, a genuine conservative, and I believe a fine man. But Thomas Sowell said this, "If you are not prepared to use force to defend civilization, then be prepared to accept barbarism." Simply saying, if you're not going to fight and protect that which you have and what has been given to you, then you better get ready for anarchy, tyranny, and pure-out barbarism, because it is coming. And the reason it is coming is because we, like Esau, have despised our birthright. What is happening in America, we're reaping the consequences of despising that which God has given us.

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• We've sown the wind and we're reaping the whirlwind. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we bow to thee this day. We thank you for your word. And Lord, we acknowledge that we fail to study ourselves. We fail to learn. We fail, Lord, to stand for thee, thy truth, thy word, thy son. We've loved materialism, we've loved the flesh, we've loved everything except thee and thy worship. And Lord, the truth is, like Ezra said, we deserve everything we're getting and then some. Well, Lord, I pray that you'd speak to your people and grant us repentance and grant us faith and help us begin to stand for your truth and your word and your history. Because history is nothing less than your eternal decree coming to pass in time. Give us grace, Lord, that we may serve Thee acceptably with reverence and godly fear. And help us, Lord, not to willingly, knowingly forfeit our Christian birthright. In the name of Jesus Christ, we ask and pray. Amen.

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-04T19:16:22Z