Faithless Religion: Isaac

NEEDS EVERYTHING in sermon notes below (updated 10/27/25 DRae)

INTRODUCTION

Genesis 27:1-5 NKJV  Now it came to pass, when Isaac was old and his eyes were so dim that he could not see, that he called Esau his older son and said to him, “My son.” And he answered him, “Here I am.”  (2)  Then he said, “Behold now, I am old. I do not know the day of my death.  (3)  Now therefore, please take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me.  (4)  And make me savory food, such as I love, and bring it to me that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die.”  (5)  Now Rebekah was listening when Isaac spoke to Esau his son. And Esau went to the field to hunt game and to bring it.

Genesis 27:15-33 NKJV  Then Rebekah took the choice clothes of her elder son Esau, which were with her in the house, and put them on Jacob her younger son.  (16)  And she put the skins of the kids of the goats on his hands and on the smooth part of his neck.  (17)  Then she gave the savory food and the bread, which she had prepared, into the hand of her son Jacob.  (18)  So he went to his father and said, “My father.” And he said, “Here I am. Who are you, my son?”  (19)  Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn; I have done just as you told me; please arise, sit and eat of my game, that your soul may bless me.”  (20)  But Isaac said to his son, “How is it that you have found it so quickly, my son?” And he said, “Because the LORD your God brought it to me.”  (21)  Isaac said to Jacob, “Please come near, that I may feel you, my son, whether you are really my son Esau or not.”  (22)  So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, and he felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”  (23)  And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau’s hands; so he blessed him.  (24)  Then he said, “Are you really my son Esau?” He said, “I am.”  (25)  He said, “Bring it near to 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.  (26)  Then his father Isaac said to him, “Come near now and kiss me, my son.”  (27)  And he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him and said: “Surely, the smell of my son Is like the smell of a field Which the LORD has blessed.  (28)  Therefore may God give you Of the dew of heaven, Of the fatness of the earth, And plenty of grain and wine.  (29)  Let peoples 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!”  (30)  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 hunting.  (31)  He also had made savory food, and brought it to his father, and said to his father, “Let my father arise and eat of his son’s game, that your soul may bless me.”  (32)  And his father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” So he said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”  (33)  Then Isaac trembled exceedingly, and said, “Who? Where is the one who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it before you came, and I have blessed him—and indeed he shall be blessed.”

• Well this morning we start a difficult chapter in Genesis… one that has caused a lot of confusion for the people of God over the ages… and, with God’s help I am going to do the best I can to make sense of it for you.
  • The events that took place are not that hard to comprehend…
    • Isaac is old and blind and dying.
      • The time has come to confer his birthright blessings onto his sons.
      • Esau, being the first born of the twins, felt that he was owed the better blessing and the birthright portion of his fathers inheritance.
        • It also helps that Esau is his father’s favorite, because he was a hunter and Isaac liked to eat!
      • Jacob on the other hand was his mother’s favorite. And she wanted Jacob to get the better blessing and the better birthright.
        • So she conspires with Jacob a plan… a scheme if you will… to trick old Isaac into giving the wrong son the better blessing.
      • The trick works! Isaac is fooled into believing that Jacob is Esau and he gives Jacob this great and wonderful blessing.
        • When Esau comes in and finds out about it… Isaac is upset, and gives a second blessing… a much worse and harder blessing, to Esau.
  • And so there you have it, booth sons were blessed, but Isaac gave the good blessing, the firstborn blessing to the wrong son… well he thought it was the wrong son at least… he gave the birthright blessing to Jacob… And Esau get’s a blessing that almost reads like a curse… we will get to that later…
    • Now none of that is all too confusing… none of that is all too difficult…
      • The difficulty comes when you put God into the equation… when you start thinking about the Omniscient, Omnipotent God of the universe… The All Knowing God, the Ever Present God… The God who is expected to uphold these blessings and prophecies…
      • The difficult question is “Why would God honor a blessing gained in deceit… AND FURTHER… why would Isaac allow the blessing to stand?
      • God certainly knew that deception was happening… And God knew the blessing was intended for Esau… so why would God not simply honor the intent of the blessing?
      • And Isaac certainly found out he was deceived… why not say “Oh yeah, well that blessing was meant for Esau, so even though you were standing in front of me when I said it, Jacob, it is not for you… it is for your brother.
        • But that is not what happened… Let me read verse 33 again… after the deception had come out… after the truth had come out… Isaac says this:

Genesis 27:33 NKJV  Then Isaac trembled exceedingly, and said, “Who? Where is the one who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it before you came, and I have blessed him—and indeed he shall be blessed.”

• I don’t know about you, but I have struggled with these verses before… and I am really blessed to have had the opportunity to study these verses out and to learn what actually went down…
  • So what we are going to do in the next four weeks is we are going to talk about every person who is involved in these events… There are four people involved… Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, and Esau…
  • Four people in Genesis  27… and all of them acted faithlessly in one way or another…
    • Isaac – Trusted in the flesh and pursued his own desires over God’s word.
    • Rebekah – Rebelled against her husband and used sin to try to advance God’s plans.
    • Jacob – Aligns himself with sin and deceit.
    • Esau – Chooses the things of the world over the things of God.
• You see all four were being religious… they were interacting with God and the things of God… and all four were doing so in a faithless manner… Which is why this series is called “FAITHLESS RELIGION”.

• FAITHLESS RELIGION… What happens when you try to practice true religion… when you try to honor and please God… but you do so without faith?
  • So over the next four weeks we are going to talk about four of the most common ways that people try to practice religion without faith… what that looked like in Genesis 27 and what it looks like today… what the consequences of faithless religion are… and hopefully over the next four weeks I encourage you to practice good and pleasing religion… religion that is faith driven and God pleasing… Let’s pray.

• Now, before I get started this morning we need to define some terms… because I don’t want to spend four weeks talking to you about faithless religion when maybe you don’t know what I mean by these terms… let’s start with the word religion…
  • Show of hands… have you ever heard the phrase “It’s not a religion it’s a relationship” in relation to Christianity…
    • Or maybe something like “Religious people killed Jesus. Relational people love Jesus”
      • There are many other variations, but they always center around using the word religion as a bad word… But this is a problem because the Bible says that religion can be pure and undefiled before God…

James 1:27 NKJV  Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

• So whenever a Christian uses “religion” as a bad word, I like to ask “Which part of religion do you not like? Is it the taking care of the orphans you hate? Or the widows? Or maybe it’s the bit about keeping yourself unstained from the world?”
  • And I do this to point out a couple of things…
    • First, Christianity is a religion… it is the largest religion in the world… it is the only true religion… and it is PLEASING TO GOD WHEN DONE CORRECTLY.
• So when I say “Religion” here is my definition:

Religion: Intentional Interactions with God, His Kingdom, or His plan.

• Religion is the Christians intentional interaction with God, His Kingdom, and His plan.
  • So when you worship, that is a religious act… because you are interacting with God.
  • When you pray… that is religious.
  • When you bring your tithes or give your offerings… when you come to church and fellowship with other believers…
  • When you go out to make disciples…
  • When you forgive others because Christ forgave you… when you love your enemies because Christ commands you to love your enemies…
    • These are all religious acts… they are all a part of true religion.
    • And the result of pure and true religion is that orphans and widows get taken care of… and that we God’s people stay out of sin and stay unstained from the world.
• Now if you are interacting with a false God… Buddah, Muhamid, Charles Darwin… whatever… that is false religion.
  • But I am not talking about false relgions when I say “faithless religion” in this series… to the contrary I am talking about interacting with the True God and His plan… but doing so faithlessly.
    • So now I need to define faithlessly…
      • We get our definition of faith from Hebrews 11:1 and Romans 10:17

Hebrews 11:1 NKJV  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Romans 10:17 NKJV  So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

• So then faith is Trusting in God’s word because you have seen it to be true time and time again.
  • There is evidence there, there is substance there… I know that God’s word is true because I have seen the evidence of it being true and the substance of it being true time and time again… therefore I can trust that it is true, even if I can’t see God doing it… I know that HE WILL do it, because He said He would do it, and every time He has said something I have seen it to be true in the past… so I know it will be the same in the future.
    • So faith is knowing and trusting that what God said is true… especially in concerns to how you live your life and what the future holds…
    • And faithlessness is ignoring what you know to be true about God and living your life according to other means instead of God’s word.
• On one slide please, left aligned (not centered)

Faith: Taking God at His Word because He has already proven Himself true.
Faithless: Ignoring God’s proven Word and living by sight and feelings instead.

• So when I say “Faithless religion” I mean “Interacting with God, His plan, and His Kingdom…  interacting with it not from a place of His Word, His Prophesies, His Commands, and His Promises… but interacting with God based on what I see, what I feel… what my flesh thinks and desires”.
  • So in short you could define faithless religion as this:
• Faithless Religion: Interacting with God while ignoring His word.
• So if you come to church and ignore God’s word… that’s an act of faithless religion.
  • If you sing worship songs on the radio while ignoring God’s word, His promises… His commands… that’s a form of faithless religion.
  • If you read God’s word but never apply it to your life… that’s faithless religion.
  • If you take communion while harboring unforgiveness… that’s faithless religion.
  • If you call yourself a Christian but neglect the gathering of the brethren… that’s faithless religion.
    • You see what I am getting at here?
  • People who call themselves pastors though scripture says they aren’t qualified… that’s faithless religion.
  • Joining a church but refusing to serve even though the Bible clearly commands it… that’s faithless religion.
    • Am I stepping on any toes yet?
  • Refusing to bring the full tithe into the church but still expecting blessings… that’s faithless religion.
  • Trying to twist scripture to excuse your choices even though you know full and well what you are doing is sin… that’s faithless religion…
• And you see… Isaac, Jacob, Rebekah, and Esau… they ALL practiced faithless religion in chapter 27… and I think we can learn from their mistakes… so with the little amount of time that I have left this morning… let’s take a look at Isaac’s faithless religion and his redeeming act of faith at the end of the chapter…

Faithless Religion is Feed by Deception

Genesis 27:28-29 NKJV  Therefore may God give you Of the dew of heaven, Of the fatness of the earth, And plenty of grain and wine.  (29)  Let peoples 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!”

• Who does Isaac think he is blessing in this verse?
  • ISAAC THINKS HE IS BLESSING ESAU!!!!
    • But wait… why would Isaac tell Esau “You will be master over your brothers and your mother’s sons will bow down to you…”
    • Why is Isaac telling Esau “your younger brothers will serve you” when the word of God came to him and Rebekah saying the OPOSITE?

Genesis 25:22-23 NKJV  But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If all is well, why am I like this?” So she went to inquire of the LORD.  (23)  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.”

• God’s word said “The older, Esau, will serve the younger Jacob….” ESAU SERVES JACOB!
  • But Isaac loves Esau more than Jacob…

Genesis 25:28 NKJV  And Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob.

• So Isaac and Rebekah are playing favorites… and Isaac favors Esau… so even though God’s word says “Esau will serve Jacob” Isaac try’s to change the blessing, he tries to twist the blessing, he tries to subvert the blessing…
  • His sinful desires are contrary to the Word of God, yet he still tries to ACT like he is doing the things of God… He tries to act like the spiritual leader by blessing his sons… not God’s way… but his way… Not according to God’s word… but according to his own selfish desires…
    • In this blessing that he is doing, Isaac is practicing Faithless Religion…
• But it’s not just his motives… even the way it plays out is faithless religion.
  • Isaac’s eyes are bad… I don’t know if he is completely blind or just mostly blind…
    • So he doesn’t have that sense to go on… but he uses ALL HIS OTHER SENSES to try to determine which son he is blessing.
      • Notice that He tastes the food Jacob made him… and it tasted like Esau’s food.
      • And he felt the hands of Jacob, which were covered in animal fur… and he thought he felt Esau’s hairy skin.
      • And he tells the boy to lean in and give him a kiss… and when Jacob does that Isaac smells him and he smells like Esau.
      • In FACT the only sense of his five sense that did him well was his hearing…

Genesis 27:22 NKJV  So Jacob went near to Isaac his father, and he felt him and said, “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau.”

• Interesting… faith comes by hearing… but Jacob ignored his sense of hearing… and instead trusted in his other senses…
• Now get this… here is the takeway of this point… Isaac is so dependent on his flesh that he allows himself to be deceived…
  • Let me say that again for y’all in the back… Isaac is so dependent on his flesh that he allows himself to be deceived…
    • Notice that he never prays. “God, I am confused… this boy sounds like Jacob but feels like Esau… God this is to important for me to get wrong… would you give me wisdom on what to do?”
      • No! There was no prayer and there was no fasting… the opposite was happening… “I want food! I want to bless Esau! So I am going to trust my senses instead of trusting God”… THAT’S FAITHLESS RELIGION.
• So how does this play out in today’s world? You ever wonder how Methodists, Lutherans, and Presbyterians… the mainline churches as some call them… you ever wonder how they got so far from the truth… how did they go from rebelling against the Church of England to help start America to where they are today… pro-sin and anti-God?
  • Well it comes from practicing faithless religion… they are practicing religion, yes, but somewhere along the way faith left the equation.
    • And I will show you how it happens, because it almost happened to me…
      • Do you remember when there was no LGBTQ alphabet people… it was just “Gay”… and do you remember when the media started painting homosexuals as victims?
        • They would cherry pick cases of homosexuals being persecuted… and maybe some real hate crimes happened (which I am not okay with, the Bible teaches us to love others).
        • And the media starts showing Westboro Baptist church holding signs that say “God hates homosexuals”.
          • Do you realize that Westboro Baptist church only has between 70 and 80 people who go to it… it is less than half the size of our church…
        • But the media made it seem like large swaths of Christianity were represented by the actions of Westboro Baptist…
          • So I am a young Christian growing up in Seattle and what I see with my senses, what I am seeing all over TV is that Christians are persecuting homosexuals…  I start to believe the deception.
  • Fortunately I had a good, Bible based church that lead me back to the truth… but these mainline churches… they thought “It is our job to LOVE THESE PEOPLE… they are the new widows and orphans that need to be taken care of.
    • So they hold board meetings, and raise money and talk about it in church… but they ignore what Scripture says about it… They practice faithless religion…
    • And the deception continues… Now it’s not Gays are persecuted… it is “I was born this way” and the deception continues “You can be whatever gender you want”… and the deception continues “Boys should be allowed to dominate girls sports if they ‘Identify’ as a girl”
    • And as the deception continues, the mainline churches keep chasing it further and further down the rabbit hole and away from God’s word.
• And the same will happen to you… if you practice faithless relgion… if you start trusting what you feel, what you see, what you hear… instead of WHAT GOD’S WORD SAYS… you will begin to even deceive yourself… this SOUNDS LIKE JACOB… but it feels like Esau… I want it to be Esau… I want to partake in this sin… I want to continue my addiction… my worldly friendships… my lust… my gossip… my drugs… whatever… when you start to pursue those fleshly desires you begin to deceive yourself… DID GOD REALLY SAY?
  • And the further and further you feed the flesh… the more and more you begin to love the deception… you want more of it… you feast on it… because the deception allows you to stay in your sin…Yeah yeah yeah… this taste like Esuas food… yeah yeah yeah this feels like Esau… yeah yeah yeah… you even SMELL LIKE ESAU…
    • And the same with sin… you get in that sin and you begin deceiving yourself… yeah yeah yeah… the Bible was mistranslated… yeah yeah yeah… this influencer says its okay… yeah yeah yeah… I found a pastor that says what I am doing isn’t sin…
  • But listen… if you find yourself in this sin and deception spiral, there is hope!
    • And I will just make the final point the conclusion because we have been going too long… so if someone wants to come and play… Listen church, if you have been in this sin and deception spiral, this faithless religion spiral for too long, there is hope! Faithful religion is Fed by the Truth.

Conclusion – Faith Filled Religion is Fed by The Truth

Genesis 27:30-33 NKJV  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 hunting.  (31)  He also had made savory food, and brought it to his father, and said to his father, “Let my father arise and eat of his son’s game, that your soul may bless me.”  (32)  And his father Isaac said to him, “Who are you?” So he said, “I am your son, your firstborn, Esau.”  (33)  Then Isaac trembled exceedingly, and said, “Who? Where is the one who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it before you came, and I have blessed him—and indeed he shall be blessed.”

• The deception has been revealed… the jig is up… and now Isaac has a choice to make… does he double down… try to transfer the blessing from the deceiver Jacob back to his firstborn Isaac… or does he return to faithful religion?

Genesis 27:33 NKJV  Then Isaac trembled exceedingly, and said, “Who? Where is the one who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it before you came, and I have blessed him—and indeed he shall be blessed.”

• I have blessed him – and indeed he shall be blessed…
  • Guys… I have been a Christian for 21 years, and for the vast majority of those 21 years I have been hitting it HARD… studying, praying, growing… I have read through the Bible cover to cover COUNTLESS TIMES… and every time I got here I always scratched my head…
    • Why is ISAAC so stubborn… it’s not a magic spell man! Just say “No, it doesn’t count! That blessing was for Esau… you deceived me Jacob so you shall be cursed and Esau shall be blessed!”
      • Why does he double down on BEING DECIEVED…
  • And it finally hit me, as I was studying for this sermon… as we take our time through genesis… Isaac wasn’t doubling down on being received… he was repenting.
    • He was repenting for kicking against the goads… he was repenting for coming against a sovereign God…
      • I think in this moment Isaac realizes “You know what… God said he would be blessed back when he was in the womb…God said that you would serve him, Esau… I didn’t want to believe it… even when you sold him your birthright… I didn’t want to believe it… but now I see the truth… God said he would be blessed, and I indeed blessed him… and you know what… I finally believe God… Indeed Jacob shall be blessed”.
      • The truth came out and Isaac decided to believe in the truth *snap* and that reignited in Isaac a religion filled with faith.
• Hebrews 11… you ready for Genesis to REACH UP to the New Testament once again… Hebrews 11:20

Hebrews 11:20 NKJV  By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.

• Not by deception did Isaac bless Jacob… but by faith… you see I don’t think the blessing of Jacob really happened until the truth came out… it was when Isaac said, in faith this time, “Indeed Jacob will be blessed” that the blessing really happened.
  • That was Isaac practicing true religion… religion filled with faith.. a Faith filled Religion, not a Faithless religion.
  • He then goes on to bless Esau in faith… and then to die and be known as one of the fathers of the faith…
    • The hope in this message is this church… maybe you have been practicing faithless religion for decades… Isaac had been practicing this faithless religion of loving Esau and Hating Jacob for more than 40 years…But in a moment he returned to the truth.
      • You know what the truth is… the LORD is telling you right now what the truth is… it goes it against your desires, it goes against your flesh… but you know the truth… it is written in His word… He has placed a conscience inside your chest… you know the truth… Chose to turn to the truth and let it FUEL a faith filled religion… and it will end up well for you, it is not to late to repent and turn back to the faith.

Join us this Sunday at either 8:30AM or 10:30AM for worship followed by this message from the Word of God.

Christian Life Church of Cedar Rapids
2808 Schaeffer DR SW,
Cedar Rapids, IA 52404
www.CedarRapidsChurch.com