Let's take our hymnals, looking
at hymn number 235. We'll stand and sing Pass Me
Not, hymn number 235. Pass me not, O gentle Savior,
hear my humble cry, While on others Thou art calling, do not
pass me by. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry, While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by. Let me at the throne of mercy
find a sweet relief, Kneeling there in deep contrition, held
by unbelief. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry While on others Thou art calling, do not pass me by Trusting
only in Thy merit, would I seek Thy face Heal my wounded, broken
spirit. Save me by Thy grace. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. While on others Thou art calling,
do not pass me by. Thou the spring of all my comfort,
more than life to me. Whom have I on earth beside Thee? Whom in heaven but Thee? Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry. While on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by. If I don't get to the bulletin
until too late, I always put myself down to read on Sunday
mornings because it just ain't fair. I don't want people popping
in on me, which I'm be ready in season out of season, Lord
said, wasn't it? But it worked out well. I can read my text.
If you will, let's turn to Genesis 29. Genesis 29. Beginning verse
31, Genesis 29, verse 31. And when the Lord saw that Leah
was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. And Leah
conceived and bare a son, and she called his name Reuben. For
she said, surely the Lord hath looked upon my affliction. Now,
therefore, my husband will love me. And she conceived again and
bare a son and said, because the Lord hath heard that I was
hated, he hath therefore given me this son also. And she called
his name Simeon. And she conceived again and bare
a son and said, now this time will my husband be joined unto
me because I have born him three sons. Therefore was he called,
his name called Levi. And she conceived again and bare
a son and she said, now will I praise the Lord. Therefore
she called his name Judah and left bearing. And when Rachel
saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and
she said unto Jacob, give me children, or else I die. And
Jacob's anger was kindled against Rachel. And he said, am I in
God's stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?
And she said, behold, my handmaid, Bilhah, go in unto her, and she
shall bear upon my knees. that I may also have children
by her. And she gave him Bilhah, her handmaid, to wife, and Jacob
went in unto her. And Bilhah conceived, and bare
Jacob a son. And Rachel said, God hath judged
me, and hath also heard my voice, and he hath given me a son. Therefore
called she his name Dan. And Bilhah, Rachel's maid, conceived
again, and bare Jacob a second son. And Rachel said, with great
wrestlings, have I wrestled with my sister, and I have prevailed."
And she called his name Naphthitella. And when Leah saw that she had
left bearing, she took Zilpah, her maid, and gave her Jacob
to wife. And Zilpah, Leah's maid, bared
Jacob a son, and Leah said, a troop cometh. She called his name Gad. And Zilpha, Leah's maid, bear
Jacob a second son. And Leah said, happy am I, for
the daughters will call me blessed. And she called his name Asher. And Reuben went in the days of
the wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field and brought them
unto his mother, Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, give
me, I pray thee, the son's mandrakes. And she said unto her, is it
a small matter that thou hast taken my husband? And wouldst
thou take away my son's mandrakes also? And Rachel said, Therefore
shall he lie with thee tonight for thy son's mandrakes. And
Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out
to meet him and said, Thou must come in unto me, for surely I
have hired thee with my son's mandrakes. And he lay with her
that night. And God hearkened unto Leah,
and she conceived and bared Jacob a fifth son. And Leah said, God
hath given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my
husband, and she called his name Issachar. And Leah conceived
again, and bare Jacob the sixth son. And Leah said, God hath
endued me with a good dowry. Now will my husband dwell with
me, because I have born him six sons, and she called his name
Zebulun. And afterwards, she bare a daughter,
called her name Dina. God remembered Rachel and God
hearkened to her and opened her womb and she conceived and bear
a son and said, God hath taken away my reproach. And she called
his name Joseph and said, the Lord shall add to me another
son. Now, if you will turn over to
Genesis 35. That's 11 sons. We'll look at the 12th one. Genesis
35 verse 16. And they journeyed from Bethel,
and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath, and Rachel
travailed, and she had hard labor. And it came to pass, verse 17,
when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said unto her, fear
not, thou shalt have the son also. And it came to pass as
her soul was departing, for she died, that she called his name,
Benoni, and his father called him Benjamin. And Rachel died
and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. Let's pray together. Father, if you've been out with
us, don't let us go. Lord, we petition, we inquire
of you that you gather two or three here today and you be in
our midst. Be our teacher, show us what
great things the Lord's done. Forgive us for what we are, Lord.
Give us ears to hear. Look upon us, give us ears to
hear. Give us hearts that rejoice,
Lord, and calm our wrestlings and our strife and our grief. Give us contentment in the one
that saved us, our great, exceeding great reward. It's in his name
that we ask. Amen. All right, brethren, if
you will, let's turn in our handles to number 354. 354. What a friend
we have in Jesus. What a friend we have in Jesus
All our sin and griefs to bear What a privilege to carry Everything
to God in prayer Oh, what peace we often forfeit Oh, what needless
pain we bear Oh, because we do not carry everything to God in
prayer. Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer
And we find a friend so faithful Who will all our sorrows share
Jesus knows our every weakness Take it to the Lord in prayer Are we weak and heavy laden? Conquered with a load of care
Precious Savior, still our refuge Take it to the Lord in prayer
Do thy friends despise forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in
prayer In his arms he'll take and shield me, Thou wilt find
us all the same. Joseph Scriven was born
in Ireland in 1819. He graduated from Trinity College
there in Dublin at a young age, I think he was an engineer. And
he met a woman and they were in love and they were engaged
to be married. She was espoused to him. And
the day before they were going to be married, they went out
on a canoe ride and it capsized and she was drowned. She died,
his bride did. So shortly thereafter, he was
distraught and he moved to Canada. Went from Dublin to Canada and
lived a very quiet life. Didn't take up an occupation.
He wasn't given an occupation. He just did odd jobs to make
ends meet and feed himself and finally fell in love again years
later, 20 some years later. And they courted for a few years
and they were about to get married and she fell ill with pneumonia
and died. And so now he's alone again.
And then his mother, she got deathly ill. He had published
a hymn, 115 hymns he wrote. I don't know any of the other
ones, but I know this one. In our continent, this is one
of the most famous ones, isn't it? Every church sings it. What
a friend we have for Jesus. And his mother was deathly ill in
her deathbed, and he wrote this hymn for her. And then he published
all those hymns, he didn't publish this one. And then late in life,
One of the ladies at the church went to check on him, hadn't
seen him in a couple weeks, and he was not tending as he used
to, and she come to him, he's very ill, very, very sick, high
fever. And she said, you okay? And brought
him some soup, and she looked, and there was some papers there
on his nightstand, and she saw this poem become the hymn. And she said, Joseph, did you
write that? He said, me and the Lord did. He gave it to me. And they went the next morning,
she went to check on him. He was face down in the lake
right next to his house, floating. They don't know if he went to
take a cold drink of water or fever got to him and he had to
cool off or what. Until that ended. The stories behind these
hymns are unique. Philip Bliss wrote our last one.
A Blind Lady wrote the first one. Pass me not. Well, that's
something to say if you can see. Can't even tell which way you're
going. Pass me not. That's a precious thing. I want
to make a statement. We'll be in Genesis 29 if you
want to turn back there. I want to make a statement here
at the beginning and then I want to make the same statement at
the end. And time passed, and in this
present time, the Lord looked upon his people in Christ. And he made us here. And when
we heard, we heard about our unity with him, atonement, oneness
with Christ. And he made us rejoice. He made
us praise him. And we saw that all the judgment
that we rightfully earned, it was accomplished, it was finished. It's finished. And yet, this
is the life of the believer, not life, everybody life of believer,
and yet we still wrestle. We wrestle. And then a great
host comes, a great host on heaven, in heaven and in earth. We're
surrounded by a good course of witnesses, ain't we? Our brethren
come to us, our word from the Lord comes to us. He ministers
to us and we're happy again. And what makes us happy? We see
Christ our reward. We wrestle, he comes to us in
a host, we see Christ our reward and he abides in us and we abide
in him. And we're added to him. Our pure
minds are stirred up, as Peter says. We're added to him. We're
filled in with him. He's added to us. I am his and
he is mine. And our brethren are added. He
adds to the church. And we all collectively, together, we see
him seated at the right hand of the Father. And because he's
there, and because we're in him, we'll be with him forever. Is
that your experience? Nothing's new. Nothing's new. That's what we'll see here. Lord
will. I got 12 points this morning for 12 sons, and I'm gonna try
to hit each son of Jacob two minutes apiece. Okay. When I
was young, I always liked to like that when the preacher told
me how many points they was, I start counting down when this
thing we got got 12. It sounds like a lot, but I'll
try to go fast. I'm gonna probably write an article, I wanna touch
on this last time. There's so much, like I said, in this thing.
People try to take Jacob and Esau, and they say, well, Jacob
have I loved and Esau have I hated? And the world says, well, he
loved Esau less. No, that's not what the word
means. In this text, when Jacob says, I love Rachel more than
I love Leah, that's exactly what it means. He loved Leah less.
That's what Jacob meant. I love you more. I love her,
but not as much as I love you. That's exactly what Jacob meant.
That's exactly what the text says. And then God said, Leah
was hated. We got something to learn about
love, don't we? We got something to learn about love. God's love
is either total and complete or there's nothing. There's nothing. We can't have two masters, can
we? He won't allow it. He teaches us something of love.
But I want to look at these children this week. First child born.
Look here, Genesis 29, verse 32. Genesis 29, verse 32. And Leah
conceived and bear a son. And she called his name Reuben,
for she said, Surely the Lord hath looked upon my affliction. Now, therefore, my husband will
love me. Reuben, she called his name Reuben. That means, see
ye a son. I'm gonna go through each one
of these names. See ye a son. Isn't that what
Eve said? The Lord said, I'm gonna send
a seed through you, it's gonna crush that serpent's head. She
goes, there he is. I got a man from the Lord. She
was wrong, that's what she was looking for, wasn't it? This
pairs perfectly, these sons of Jacob, with Exodus, and I look
forward to getting there. Exodus 3, it says, the Lord said,
I have surely seen the affliction of my people, which are in Egypt.
He's seen us. He looks upon us. That first
thing that happens, the first child, first birth, see ye a
son. How can the Lord look upon his
people and be compassionate? How can that be? We just saw
it last hour. We're rebels, ain't we? He looked upon his son, his
son. He said, Yet it pleased the Lord
to bruise him, he hath put him to grief, when thou shalt make
his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall
see us through him and prolong his days, and the pleasure of
the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see the travail
of his soul. She said, He looked to my affliction.
Call his name Reuben. Well, that's because the Lord
looked at the afflictions of Christ, wasn't it? That's how he sees
us. And he shall be satisfied. You think Leah was happy because
she had that baby? I got a boy. I'm the first one
of this whole mess of wives that he's going to have. I got the
firstborn son. She was happy, wasn't she? We're
satisfied too, aren't we? Salvation is God seeing someone
in Christ. Him seeing his son, his firstborn
son first. Salvation to the Lord. That's
him. Reuben, here's a second son.
Verse 33, and she conceived again, and bare a son, and said, because
the Lord hath heard that I was hated. He looked on me, now he's
heard me. He hath forgiven, therefore given
me this son also, and she called his name Simeon. Simeon means
plainly, hearing, hearing. Said, Lord heard me, I'll call
him hearing. He looked on me first, saw the
son, now he hears. There in Exodus 3, it says again,
Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people,
which are in Egypt, and I have heard their cry. The Lord hears
his people. And you know what he said? By
reason of their taskmasters. Would you like to have a taskmaster?
Would anybody? Would you want to have somebody
just rule over you and beat you and whip you and make you carry
heavy rocks all day? No! Nobody wants that. Lord sent
them taskmasters, gave them something hard, gave them a heavy duty
trial. That way they'd cry out to him.
And because of all that working he did to make them cry, he says,
I hear them. I looked on you and I heard you.
Doesn't that make a trials that the Lord gives us? a little easier. Doesn't that, hearing the good
news of what he's done, doesn't that make us just thankful in
all things? Thankful in our afflictions,
thankful in our trials. This is wonderful. God tailor
made this just for his child. What are you going through? Think
of the worst thing you were going through. The Lord God Almighty
of heaven and earth tailor made that just for you and just for
your brethren. And it's magnificent. It's magnificent. He heard them. He hears them,
but he hears them after we hear him. We hear him first, don't
we? He looks on us, but then we hear
him. We're the ones that hear. That's
what Paul said, then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the
word of God. How can the holy God we offended
give us the gift of faith? because of his son. Christ was
speaking there in Isaiah 50, he said, Lord God hath opened
mine ear. We looked at that in the bond
sermon, didn't we? He opened my ear and I was not rebellious,
neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters
and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair and I hid not my
face from the shaman's bidding. The holy God of heaven and earth
bore all of that so you and I could hear. Now, do you think it's
important? Is it? Here's what God says. He said, take heed what you hear,
what you hear. I'd be real careful. There's
a, we have a plethora. I mean, an unlimited one man
couldn't listen to it in a lifetime of, of good preaching and bad
preaching and in between preaching everything else out there. God
said, be careful what you hear. I won't be careful. Do you want
to be careful? I want to drink from a Goodwill. Do you? And
he said, be careful how you hear. How are you here? I ought to
never be afraid or ashamed to tell somebody in church to sit
up, pay attention. God Almighty said so. He said,
be careful. How are you here? How are you
here? Whenever we come to service, we get here early, sit down,
let our heart rates calm down, because we're getting ready to
hear a word from Almighty God if he's pleased to be with us. We do
that. And we're respectful when we
come in. How are we here? When we come
asking him to give us a word, My pastor was preaching, I said,
Lord, feed him, he can feed me. I want to hear a word from you.
We prepare ourselves and we don't, like Kim was cooking dinner,
I don't eat everything I can on the way to home so I can eat
her dinner. Show up hungry, don't I? Good
appetite, that's good seasoning, don't I? We're hungry, makes
good seasoning. Third son, verse 34. And she's conceived again
and bear a son and said, now this time will my husband be
joined unto me? He's gonna love me and all these
things on her half. She said, now he's gonna be joined unto
me because I have borne him three sons. I gave him a perfect number
of sons. Therefore was his name called
Levi. Levi. Levi means attached, adjoined,
united. That's what it means. That's
what Levi was, we're in Hebrews 7. And as I may say to you also,
Levi also, who receiveth tithes, paid tithes in Abraham. That Levi, he was the tribe of
the priests, they didn't pay tithes. And so everybody gave
10%, and there was 11 other tribes that paid, not Levi. And so the
Lord saw fit that way his ministry would be provided 110%. That's grace, isn't it? The abundant
giving. And he said he paid tithes in
Abraham. It didn't say pay tithes when Abraham paid it. It didn't
say pay tithes if Abraham was to pay it, then he paid it. And
it wasn't as if he paid it when Abraham paid it. He said he did
pay tithes in Abraham for because he was yet in the loins of his
father when Melchizedek came to him. How did Levi pay those
tithes? He was in, he was joined to,
Abraham, his father, Abraham. That was his grandfather, wasn't
he? You think they messed up and wrote down wrong? I don't think so.
His father, wasn't it? Our unity with Christ is what
that picture is. The Lord looked upon us in time
past. He sent a messenger to us, gave us ears to hear, and
we heard about our oneness with the Savior and how necessary
that is. how our transgressions were lifted. Lifted away, wasn't
it? What we just looked at? The two
become one. He gave us the institution of
marriage, which is a whole nother lesson. Jacob's just making a
debacle of this whole, he's got four wives. The Lord never gave
that. He said the two shall become
one. There's one husband, one wife. But because that picture's
Christ and his bride, he has one bride. We are one in him,
aren't we? They're in Exodus, that unity
comes out again, Exodus 32, excuse me. Moses stood in the gate of
the camp and said, who was on the Lord's side is gonna go to
war. Talk about guts. Which one of
y'all's man enough to go to war? He said, who's on the Lord's
side? Let him come unto me and all the sons of Levi. gathered
themselves together unto him. Every one of them said, let's
go, boys. And they stood up. Warriors, soldiers, ain't gonna
back down from that. You crazy? They don't know who
they're messing with. We're God's people. He's on our
side. Who could be against us? Let's
go right now. And they gathered themselves
unto him. We are one. The body of Christ
is one, and in their local assemblies all around this place, we're
all of one voice, ain't we? One faith, one birth, one accord,
and we gather where he is. That's a bold statement in this
state. It just had to be bold. Somebody needs to hear it. God's
people are united with Christ, and they gather with him, and
they gather with his people on this earth. That's so. That's
a time to draw a knife. Somebody needs to warn people.
God's people, they're gathered together with him. Fourth child,
verse 35. And she conceived again a bare
son, and she said, now will I praise the Lord. Now I'm gonna praise
him. I always thought this was interesting.
Leah was, she had a perfect number of sons. She gave him three sons,
right, completion. He's gonna love me, he's gonna
love me. He's gonna be joined with me, love me. What happened
now? I'm going to praise the Lord."
She didn't say nothing about Jacob, did she? Yeah, she might
be learning something. She conceived again and bear
a son, and she said, now will I praise the Lord. Therefore,
she called his name Judah and left bearing. Judah means celebrated,
praise, praise. You think after walking through
that dry sea floor, through the Red Sea, there was no condemnation
to those people. Nobody died. They can't come get us now. In
Exodus 14, 31, it says, Israel saw that great work which the
Lord did upon the Egyptians. He drowned them all in six feet,
six inches, or whatever. I don't know how deep it was.
They drowned everybody, wasn't it? It was a miracle. And the people feared
the Lord and believed the Lord and his servant Moses. That's
what happened when they saw. They feared the Lord and they
believed him. If you fear the Lord, you praise him. If you
honor Him and you respect Him, you're gonna praise Him. We're
not saved by a stoic, made out of stone God that has, no, we're
saved by a compassionate God. His compassions don't fail. And
His people aren't just rigid and sterile and ugh. That's self-righteousness. No, they have a new heart in
them. And they worship him. They fear the Lord. They honor
him. And I tell you what, they praise him. They thank him for
it. Lord, this is all you're doing. Thank you. Thank you.
Sometimes we might be playing the harp and twirling that baton
out in front of the ark, walking down the streets, and sometimes
we're crying in the corner, but we give him praise. And we could
leave bearing right there. The Lord come to us, and that's
what he did. We could leave this world right now. on Judah, couldn't
we? On his praise. He looked on us.
He spoke to us. He united us with Christ. We
praise him. We can leave now. He ain't done with us. We can
be satisfied. That's when contentment comes.
Verse in Revelations, it says, I heard a voice from heaven saying
to me, right, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. Those
that are in him, united with him, and those that praise him
because they're united with him, because the Lord looked on them,
because he spoke to them, they're blessed. They can die in the
Lord right then. Fifth son, Genesis 30 verse five. And Bilhah conceived and she
bare Jacob a son. And Rachel said, God hath judged
me and hath also heard my voice. He's judged me and he's heard
me. and hath given me a son. Therefore she called his name
Dan. Dan means judge, judge. We're convicted of sin. That
comforter comes, the Holy Ghost comes to his people and he convicts
us of sin. Singular, the noun, what we are. That's all that I am outside
of Christ. I'm nothing but sin and he convicts us of righteousness.
That's all he is. Everything, he don't do what's
right. What he does is right, because he's holy. And we start
learning something about that. And he convicts us of judgment,
because the prince of this world's been judged. That was me. My
judgment's been put away. My condemnation's been put away.
We're convinced of those things, isn't it? And in the light of
the gospel, because of that, because of what he come to us
and convinced us of, now we judge all things. We had opinions before
in our own self, and opinions means heresy, and now we see
what God says about it. You wanna know what to do? What's
God say about it? You wanna know what's consistent with the gospel?
And now we can judge everything. Okay, what kind of vacuum cleaner
do I buy? The gospel impacts that, don't
it? We got a new vacuum cleaner for the church, by the way, it's
wonderful, you'll love it. The gospel dictates those things.
We think on those things. We judge all things in this life
according to that now. That's the meat. I wrote that
little short article. People around the world, it'll
circulate. It'll get where it needs to go if the Lord sees
fit to use it. We have the milk of the Lord saving us, and we
have the meat of the application of that. We judge all things. Paul said that in 1 Corinthians.
He said, dare any of you There any of you having a matter against
another go to law before the unjust and not before the saints?
If two believers are there and they're having it out, you gonna
sue somebody in a court of man's law? What is wrong with you? He goes, I dare you, what? Question
mark. And you don't do this, you couldn't
handle this in the light of the gospel and with saints and believers?
He said, do you not know that the saints shall judge the world?
And if the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge
the smallest of matters? If the Lord's gonna put this
in our hands and judge us, he says, you can't figure this out. Paul's being
real rough with them, and they needed to be rough with. He said,
know you not that we shall judge angels? How much more are the
things that pertain to this life? That's grown up stuff. I know
people profess to be great grandpas in the faith. Well, here you
go. You know the gospel. In light of the gospel, is this
the gospel which we're doing? And then Paul says this, he says,
take it to the least esteemed of you and let them settle the
matter. I love it. Why would you do such a thing?
If y'all having it out, take it to the person y'all think
the least of. You know why? That's the one that's most likely
to be merciful. The one that's most likely to be gracious, the
most likely to forgive. Why? Because they've been forgiven
much. Because we esteem them low. Buddy, that's precious,
isn't it? We judge all things, all things. When our praising in this life
is complete, the final judgment will come on it, when the Lord's
done with us here. And he says, when the Son of
Man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him,
then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory, and before him
shall all be gathered, all nations, and he'll separate one from another,
and he'll divide us the sheep from the goats, and he'll set
the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left. And the
king shall say to them on his right hand, come, ye blessed
of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world. For I was hungered and you gave
me meat. And he goes on, I was thirsty
and you gave me something to drink. I was naked and you gave me something
to close. I was in prison and you come and visited me. And
those that have the understanding of the gospel to judge things,
they judge themselves so they're not judged, don't they? And I
said, Lord, when have we ever seen you hungry? When have we
ever seen you in prison? I ain't never seen you in prison.
What are you talking about? He said, you've done it to the
least of these. You've done it to all my brethren. How did we do
that? He did it. I judge that he did
it. He's my life, isn't he? Sixth
son, verse seven. And Bilhah, Rachel's maid, conceived
again a she-bear Jacob, a second son, and Rachel said, With great
wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister, and have prevailed. And she came, she called his
name Naphtala. Poor old Rachel, all of them. Jacob hasn't spoken to the Lord
this whole time in these 20 some years that we've been looking
at, have we? You heard his name come up? He gets mad at Rachel
a little bit ago and says, I ain't the Lord, he's the one that gives
you child. But you ain't heard him being God's prophet, none
of that, has he? The Lord's using him. But she
was wrestling with her sister out of all these blessings that
the Lord's given them, the kindness the Lord's given them, and the
strength the Lord showed to them, she was still wrestling. And
that, Tilly, means wrestling. When I was growing up, we called
it wrestling. And then I moved to the big city of Ashland, Kentucky,
and I found out that ain't how you call it. And so I try, I
say it weird every time, wrestling, wrestling, wrestling. Anyway,
Paul talked about these things, didn't he? He said in Ephesians
6, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities
and powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual weakness in high places. Remember when we went through
that in Ephesians? What's the highest place on us? Our head,
isn't it? And he goes on to say, you need
a helmet. You need a helmet. Take the helmet of salvation. What happens to us when we're
wrestling within ourselves and we're getting beat up? Do you
feel beat up? Do you feel overwhelmed in this
world? It's because you're looking to this world or yourself. That's it. If you've got your helmet on
and you look to the God of our salvation, well, what have we
got to worry about? Who can be against? I can't be
against me. He ain't against me. Nobody can be against me.
We do a lot of wrestling, don't we? Paul wrote all of Romans
7, and I'm thankful for it. I'm thankful for it. That apostle
used more. He labored more than them all.
He wasn't bragging. He was telling the truth. He wrote the bulk
of the New Testament, didn't he? Man, greatly used of God. Preached more than any of them.
Greatly used of God. And he said, there's this law
in my members. Everything I want to do, I don't
do it. Everything I don't want to do,
and I know I ought not do it, I do it. Who's gonna save the old wretched
man that I am? Who's gonna save me from this body of death? Christ
has to, don't He? He has to keep us. We're made
more than conquerors. We wrestle, but we're made more
than conquerors, aren't we? Christ again, and what He's,
the provision that He provides for His people, there's a whole
host around us. Do you know that? Elisha. King
of Israel, the king of Syria was going at it, and Elisha's
president was walking around, you know, eating ice cream or
something. Nonchalant. And that servant of the king
came, and he was worried. He said, man, they got a bunch
of chariots and horses. What's wrong with you? Ain't
you nervous? And he answered, fear not. For
they that be with us are more than they that be with them.
And Elisha prayed all the prayers of God's prophets. Elijah prayed
it didn't rain. It didn't rain for three years,
did it? Elisha prayed, and he said, Lord, I pray thee open
his eyes that he may see. Let him understand something,
Lord. And the Lord opened the eyes of that young man, and he
saw and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots
of fire round about Elisha. A troop coming. A troop coming. In a couple of weeks, we'll look
at this in Genesis 32, but an angel came to Jacob. He's going
to bring him back home. And Jacob saw them and he said, this is
God's host. This is God's troops, these angels
coming. And he called the name of that
place Mahanaim. Paul probably paid close attention
to that. Mahanaim, two hosts, two hosts. We are surrounded
by great hosts, aren't we? We have a host in heaven. All
the armies of God looking after his people. Not a dog can wag
its tongue against his people. Ain't nothing can happen. Satan
can't touch nobody without the Lord's permission. That's our,
if you're gonna pick enemies and you're gonna rank them, it's
a scale of one to 10. There's yourself and then Satan. We don't
see it that way, but. Said, do you consider my servant
Job? He said, I can't, you won't let me. Can't touch him. There's
a whole heavenly host for us. And on this earth, there's a
whole host of people. A whole host of people. Going through
the exact same things we're going through. All over. Same illnesses, same sickness,
same cancers, same number of children, same not number of
children, same whatever. We have brethren on this earth.
They're going through the same thing. And what are they doing? The
Lord surrounded us. We're hedged about. We're fine. And then they're
gonna get scared and weak, and we'll go to them and say, fear
not, Lord's around us, we're hedged about. We have to see
it, keep being shown that, don't we? Eighth child, verse 12. And Zilphah, Leah's made Barak
Jacob a second son, and Leah said, happy am I. That make you
happy? You see that if we could, the
Lord could turn it open and you could look up through them Humua
Islands out there and up Lawson Valley and on the ridgeline completely
around us was nothing but chariots of fire and angels and saying,
we're watching you, ain't nothing gonna happen to you. That make
you happy? Make me happy. Anyway, Zilpha,
Leah's made Bear Jacobs the son, and Leah said, happy am I, for
the daughters will call me blessed. And she called his name Asher.
Asher is from the root blessed. Straight level and right. Happy. It's right to be happy. It's
right. It's just to be happy. Psalm
32. We just looked at them. Transgressions lifted. Sins covered. Our iniquity is not imputed to
us because it ain't there. And there's no guile in our spirit
because we got a new one. Blessed. We're blessed. Sometimes
we gotta be just surrounded by a host to be able to see that,
don't we? that we showed all the great things the Lord has
done for us for us to realize he's done something great for
us. Ninth child, verse 17. And God hearken unto Leah, and
she conceived and bared Jacob, the fifth son from her. This
is his ninth, the fifth one from Leah. And Leah said, God hath
given me my hire because I have given my maid to my husband.
And she called his name Issachar. Issachar means he will bring
a reward. He will bring a reward. We're
happy. The Lord surrounded us. He's looked on us, come to us,
spoke to us, made us see our union in Christ, and we're happy
for those things. We see that we're blessed. And
then we see our reward. He's our reward. People want
reward. They want to kick up gold dust in heaven. That's all
I ever heard. Eastern Kentucky growing up will be straight to
go straight to go. I guess I don't like potholes.
I don't know. That's important to people in mansions are important
people jewels in their crown because of some service they
did and they earned that's important to people. That's not the reward. What did God say to Jacob's father? He said, after these things,
the word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not,
Abram. I'm your shield, and I'm your exceeding great reward.
You want a reward? It's me. That's what he told
Abraham. David said that the Lord is the portion of my inheritance
and of my cup. Salvation's a person. Heaven's
a person. Glory's a person. And that's
who we want to be with. Anybody wants to go to heaven.
Anybody wants to get up from underneath the law. They don't like the
Christ that saved them from it. He has to reveal himself to us.
We'll be made one with him, don't we? And we just experience the
earnest, the down payment of that right now. What a foretaste. Oh, man, it's a tiny one. And
we give it. He gives it to us, don't it?
He said, Ephesians 1, in whom you've also trusted, after that
you heard the word of truth. How does God save people? That's
why I keep preaching. There have been six messages, I think, in the
last week of preachers preaching about why we preach. That was
good for me. People got to hear. Somebody's
got to stand up on her hind two legs and say something. Not for
correction, because you don't discount the oracles of God.
If you let a man speak, you hear him. as it's the oracles of God,
but we preach because I hear, and he said, whom you also trust
after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation,
and whom you've also believed, and you were sealed, you were
surrounded, wrapped up, pitched with that Holy Spirit of promise,
which is the earnest of our inheritance. That's a down payment. We got
it right now. Until the redemption of the purchased possession,
unto the praise of his glory. That's what we have now, reward.
Reward. You see your reward? You got to kind of go through
some of these things to see that and be happy about it, don't
we? Tenth child, verse 19. And Leah conceived again and
bared Jacob the sixth son. And Leah said, God hath endued
me with a good dowry. A good dowry. Now, will my husband
dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons, and she called
his name Zebulun. Zebulun means a habitation. Habitation. He really is with us, ain't he?
He really is with us. We're really with him. In eternity,
yes. Yes, this is real. This ain't
just stories, this really happened. John 14 says, Let not your heart
be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. They're one in the same, ain't they? He said, In my Father's
house are many mansions, many dwelling places. If it were not
so, I would have told you. He said, I go to prepare a place
for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I'll come again
and receive you unto myself that where I am there ye may be also. I won't be where he is. I want
to be where he is. I want to dwell with him. Zebulun,
I want my habitation to be with him. Well, what about right now?
He said in John 14, a little further on, he said, if a man
loved me, he will keep my words. If I put my love, if I loved
him first, he's going to love me, and you're going to keep
my words. It's going to happen, because he's the one doing it.
He said, if a man loved me, he'll keep my words, and my father
will love him, and he will come unto him, and we will make our
abode with him. We're going to dwell with him.
Well, hadn't he been there always? Yep. We just had a child and
made aware of it one more time. Made aware of it one more time.
He said, John 15, abide in me and I in you. He's in us and
we're in him. Brother Greg said that one time.
He said, we're going to wake up in glory one day and realize we've always
been there. We'll finally know something about unity. We'll
get it. We'll see it through a glass dimly now. I get it.
And that's what he was saying. Why didn't I preach better when
I was down there? Well, get it. He said, abide
in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except
it abide in the vine, no more can ye except it abide in me.
He said, I am the vine, you're the branches. He that abideth
in me and I in him, the same will bring forth much fruit,
for without me you can do nothing. Now, tell me, where does a branch
end and a vine start? Go outside in that parking lot
when we get done, look at a tree, and say, where does a branch
end and a trunk start? Well, I'd probably, man, I know that's a branch,
I know that's a trunk, They're one. They're joined together,
fitly framed together. Now cut that branch off and put
it over by itself, like that coal out of the burning. You
want to take the coal and move it over to another state? Is
it going to keep warm? Don't go out in it. 11th child. Verse 22, and God
remembered Rachel and God hearkened to her. And opened her womb,
and she conceived and bare a son. And she said, God, have taken
away my reproach. And she called his name Joseph,
and said, the Lord shall add to me another son. It's going to keep going. As
long as we live, there's going to keep being something added,
isn't it? Joseph. His name was Added. Added. He did a lot of accounting further
on in the book, don't he? That's all right. His name's
Added. Lord Added to us. Added to us. It says in Acts
2, and they continually, continuing daily with one accord in the
temple and breaking bread from house to house to eat their meat
with gladness and singleness of heart. praising God and having
favor with all the people, and the Lord added to the church
daily as should be saved. He's added, isn't he? We've got
so much, and he keeps adding. The Lord's added some people
since we've been meeting together, hasn't he? The last three years.
The Lord's added some people who wasn't here three years ago,
and you're here now. The Lord's added you. He saw fit. Congregations
all around this world, I prayed adds to his church daily as he
sees fit. Or is it harvest? Harvest. I pray he does. How's he going
to do that to the preacher of the gospel? He's going to look
upon them and he's going to speak to them because they're going
to hear him. See how this keeps happening? Same thing. Last one. Where are we going to end up?
Right where it started. Full circle, isn't it? Full circle. Oh, I'm sorry, Genesis 35. We're
still in Genesis 35. Genesis 35. Some things took
place. We'll cover these in the next
couple months, but things took place. Here, Genesis 35 is when
that 12th son was born. Old Joseph and Benjamin, man,
that's... Jacob was very fond of him, wasn't he? Genesis 35, verse 16. And they journeyed from Bethel,
and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath. And Rachel
travailed, and she had hard labor. And it came to pass, when she
was in hard labor, that the midwife said unto her, fear not, I shall
have this son also. And it come to pass, as her soul
was departing before she died, She called his name Benoni, but
the father called him Benjamin. She called him this, it's what
the bride said. She said, ain't no way I'm having
another child, and this child ain't coming. Lord might be out
of business, I don't think I'm having more children. That's
what the bride was saying. And then her death rose, life
was given, and she said, Benoni, the son of my sorrow, the son
of my sorrow, And then there was a head of that house. He's
waiting to name him and she's dead name what I want to name
him. His name's Benjamin, son of my right hand. So tomorrow,
what's what's the completion all this, those that are on the
right hand of Christ, because he's on the right hand of the
father, and he's up at the sheep on the right hand goats on the
left will be with him. We'll be with him. That last
saint will finally be called. I don't get it. That's a fearful
people. We need to get told fear not,
I guess. People's scared to death over this end time thing is prevalent.
And I don't pay attention to the world. I don't watch the
news and I ain't on social media on purpose. And I hear about
these things from other places. People scared of this could be
the end. Well, if you're a child of God, ain't that good news? Isn't it? The Lord's gonna come
today. What you scared for? Tell these
people this. Good. This is the end times.
Good. I don't have 60 years left. That's
great news. I ain't gonna make it to 102.
Wonderful. Body death's gonna be over. Thank you, Lord. Thank
him and go on. You think he's out of control?
The Lord ain't controlling stuff? People scared to death of the
boogeyman because they don't fear God. He's on the right hand of God.
You ain't got nothing to worry about. If you're his, don't worry
about it. Get you a pulled pork sandwich,
Peter. Sit down, eat it underneath, wherever you want to. Eat what
you want to. Rise, kill, and eat. You'll be all right. Go
hunt. Ain't nothing unclean. He's on his throne. It's fine.
Twelve sons of Jacob. I thought I'd really found something.
I thought, man, Lord, I was in this field digging, digging,
and I found a jewel that's just like other jewels. Ain't nobody
talked about this jewel yet. I was so excited, and I went
and found out, like, 25 peoples preached from this. I was on
the right track. I'm gonna give it anyway. I made
a statement in the beginning. See if we follow along a little
better this time. I'm gonna make the same statement. I copied and pasted.
You ready? The Lord looked upon his people in Christ. Reuben.
made us here, showed us our unity. He made us rejoice and praise
him. Seeing all the judgments accomplished, it's finished.
We still wrestle, don't we? We're wrestling. But there's
a great host comes from heaven and reminders from our brethren
on earth. Admonish one another. That means, stop doing what you're
doing. No, it don't. It means turn them to Christ. Show them Christ. That's what grownups do in the
faith. Show them to Christ. Turns us
to him, we see that heavenly host and we're happy again. Ain't
I happy? Happy as a man that does them.
We see Christ our reward. We see him again and we're going
to get him. He's with us now because he abides in us and we
abide in him, but that's a foretaste. Oh, I'm going to see him face
to face. I'm going to be made like him. I'm going to see him as
he is. I don't care what I look like.
I'm going to see him, be with him forever. And we're added
to him. Don't let that draw you nigh.
Does that stir up your pure minds? Peter knew while he was talking
about that. Oh, and our brethren are added.
We walk through this world as believers experiencing these
things. It's a lived experience is what's
common in this vernacular, isn't it? It's a lived experience.
You read a book about going somewhere, you went there. And we walk through
this world as men and women that believe God, knowing he's on
his throne. And the Lord uses that and draws
his people in. You invite people you see out
in public to come hear about a man. And miraculously, sometimes
the Lord does it. and he adds to his church, adds
to us, adds to him, and we're all gonna be seated at his right
hand. We're gonna sit down at that table and eat with him. He's gonna pour us a glass of
wine and serve us. Buddy, that's too deep for me. That's too deep to enter into.
It's gonna be so. And I tell you what, you're gonna be happy.
We're gonna be happy, ain't we? All right, let's sing another
hymn. We'll turn to 127. Hallelujah.
We'll stand and sing 127. Man of sorrows, what a name. For the Son of God who came Ruined
sinners to reclaim Hallelujah! What a Savior! Bearing shame and scoffing rude
In my place condemned He stood seal my pardon with his blood
hallelujah what a savior guilty violent helpless we spotless
lamb of god was he full atonement Can it be? Hallelujah! What a Savior! Lifted up was He to die. It is finished was His cry. Now in heaven exalted high. Hallelujah! What a Savior! When He comes, our glorious King,
All His ransomed home to bring, Then anew His song we'll sing,
Hallelujah! What a Savior! say next Sunday we'll be obeying
our Lord. Our sister Lisa's going to profess
Christ and believers baptism. He said so, and she said, okay.
She's obeying, she's following him. And I hope, Cameron gets
on to me all the time, I think I'm jovial, okay? When I'm walking
around Polk, she said, you got that permanent crease right there
where you frown. I said, I'm not frowning, the sun's just real
bright. If anybody ever has any questions, comments, or concerns
about things, worries they have, that's why I'm here. call me,
text me, send me an email. I always have my phone on me.
And if I'm busy, I won't answer. You'll be all right. I'll call
you back. And we got spotty reception. So sometimes I just get voicemails
and I didn't miss a phone call. But if anybody has any questions
about those things, Lord's Table, baptism or whatever, that's why
I'm here, isn't it? That's why I sent me here. I'll
earn my paycheck. I think old David, for a year,
sitting there and getting preached to, and they said, you know,
adultery's wrong and murder's wrong. He went, yep, mm-hmm,
yep. He just nodded right along with it until God taught him
something. But Nathan was right there for
him when he needed him, wasn't he? That's good. All right. You're
dismissed. Thank you.