All right, brethren, if you will,
let's open to Genesis 29. Genesis 29. I printed out the year-end financial
statement there on the back table. I put that out for you. Take
it, be diligent, and look at it. We'll learn something about
that in a little bit. Don't just close your eyes and
think everything's going to be OK. It might not be. Or it might
be better than you think. But take that and look it over.
Genesis 29, we'll be looking at Jacob and what ends up having
two wives, really four wives. And I was eager to touch on this,
but there's so much here. This diamond has more facets
on it. than you can imagine, and I feel
like I'm trying to pick out a jewel for you out of a field that's
packed full, knee-deep with jewels. Which one do I give? And then
I talked to Brother Todd this week, and we was talking about
John and some of the books and stuff, and he said, you know,
he's been in John 3 for like, five or six weeks. And I said,
good, we might spend five or six weeks in Genesis 29. Then
we start talking about Jacob and his life. And anyway, I'm
excited to be here at all. But what we don't cover today,
we may spend several weeks here in this. There's just packed
full. We'll begin in verse 11, Genesis 29, 11. And Jacob kissed
Rachel. and lifted up his voice and wept.
And Jacob told Rachel that he was her father's brother and
that he was Rebecca's son. And she ran and told her father.
And it came to pass when Laban heard the tidings of Jacob, his
sister's son, that he ran to meet him and embraced him and
kissed him and brought him to his house. And he told Laban
all these things. Laban said to him, surely thou
art my bone and my flesh. And he abode with him in the
space of a month. And Laban said unto Jacob, because thou art
my brother, shouldest thou therefore serve me for naught, for nothing,
tell me, what shall thy wages be? And Laban had two daughters. The name of the elder was Leah,
and the name of the younger was Rachel. Leah was tender-eyed,
but Rachel was beautiful and well-favored. That term tender-eyed
means blear-eyed. People said, well, she had, she
was tender-eyed, she had pretty eyes. Can't you say something
nice about somebody? Well, I liked her eyelashes.
She wasn't appealing. She was the ugly one. But blear-eyed
means dim, a film over them, bloodshot. It wasn't pretty eyes,
it was ugly eyes. And that was the best thing they
had to say about her. Leah was tender-eyed, but Rachel, beautiful. well favored, well equipped,
blessed of God. And Jacob loved Rachel and said,
I will serve thee seven years for Rachel, thy younger daughter.
What's the wages of my work, of my labors? Her. I want Rachel. And Laban said, it is better
that I give her to thee than I should give her to another
man. You're just better than everybody else. Abide with me.
And Jacob served seven years for Rachel. Boy, seven hard years,
wasn't it? Nope. They seemed unto him but
a few days. Why? How could seven years seem
like a few days? For the love he had to her. The
love he had to her. And Jacob said unto Laban, give
me my wife, for my days are fulfilled, that I may go into her. And Laban
gathered together all the men of the place and made a feast,
a bachelor party. It came to pass in the evening
that he took Leah his daughter and brought her to him, and he
went in unto her. And Laban gave unto his daughter
Leah Zilpah, a maid for an handmaid. And it came to pass that in the
morning, behold, it was Leah. And he said to Laban, Jacob spoke
to Laban, what is this thou hast done unto me? Did I not serve
with thee for Rachel?" Isn't that the covenant, the contract
we went into? Wherefore then hast thou beguiled me? And Laban
said, it must not be done so in our country. There are rules
to give the younger before the firstborn. You didn't know that
walking into this? I know we made a covenant, but
the rules say the firstborn gets married first and then down the
birth order. That's our rules. He says, fulfill
her week. And we will give this also for
the service which thou hast served me yet seven other years. You stay another seven years
and I'll give you Rachel. And Jacob did so. 14 years just passed. You see that? Quick, wasn't it?
Blink of an eye. Jacob did so and fulfilled her
week. And he gave him Rachel, his daughter, to wife also. And
Laban gave to Rachel his daughter Bilhah, his handmaid, to be her
maid. And he went in also unto Rachel,
and he loved also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him
yet seven other years. He loved Rachel also more than
Leah. Rachel was the first love. Verse 31, and when the Lord saw
that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren.
She 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. He gave me a child. The Lord
knew I just had it rough. I've had it so hard. And now,
because I've done something, now Jacob's going to love me.
I've had fruit. Now he's going to love me. And
she conceived again, verse 33, 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. Now he's gonna love
me. Third time's the charm. Because I have borne him three
sons, therefore she called his name Levi. And she conceived
again, and bare a son, and she said, now will I praise the Lord.
There's a whole message. Now I'll praise the Lord. Therefore
she called his name Judah and left bearing. She stopped having
children. This is a story. This is a story. We read it,
and there's characters in this story, and it's saying something.
And we learn really well from stories, don't we? We learn well
from illustrations. A man got on to me one time years
ago, and he said, preachers ought not use illustrations. And I
said, well, the Lord did. He gave the sense of the text,
didn't he? He gave us those things, spoke to us in a way we could
understand things. He explained it to us, didn't he? But we have
this story here, and we can learn a lot from this story. That's
what Paul told us. He said, for whatsoever things
are written aforetime were written for our learning. How can you
learn something if nobody teaches you? We got to learn some things,
don't we? This young strapping teenager,
Jacob, oh wait, he was well up in his seventies. He had to learn
some things. The Lord had to teach him some
things, didn't he? For whatsoever things are written aforetime
are for our learning, that through patience and comfort of the scriptures
we might have hope. That's just in our daily walk.
We gotta learn some things, don't we? But this story, it's a scandalous
story. Hollywood would love to get a
hold of it. Love to. What can we learn from this?
What can we learn? Here's the man, Jacob, that went
in and fell in love with Rachel. Love at first sight. He lifted
that stone that all the multitude, the other ones couldn't move.
It took all of them to do it. And he just went and moved it for
her when he saw her. And he kissed her. declared his
love first and foremost, and he never stopped loving her.
He went seven years, and then woke up with the wrong sister,
and then went another seven years. Why? For love's sake. For love's
sake. That's what he did, isn't it?
And now he's got two wives, and each of them have a handmaid.
He's got four wives. It's trouble, isn't it? It's
trouble. Todd said, yes, I got it. One
bride's a lot of trouble. He's got four, don't he? What
can we learn from all this? Well, first we can learn something
about marriage. They had a feast together, didn't
they? They had a potluck supper. We all fellows together, we're
gonna have something to eat, something to drink, celebrate a little
bit. But there was no ceremony. There was no ceremony that was
had. They didn't walk down an aisle. See that later. They didn't
walk down an aisle. They didn't bow their vows and
do all these things. He went in and he laid with Leah.
They're married. They're married. This is a foreign
language I'm speaking. Somebody's got to tell this generation.
Whenever you go and lay with someone, you're married. God
says so. He said the two shall become
one. That's what that means, isn't it? Jacob laid with Leah
and they're married. That's a serious thing. Marriage
is a serious thing. God used it to give us a picture
of Christ and his church and his bride. Marriage is a serious
thing. It's a man and a woman. I've got to say this. Isn't that
foolish? Marriage is between a man and
a woman. The Lord forbids homosexuality. Why? Because it goes, just like
false religion, it goes through all the motions of benevolence,
of grown-up activity, and it cannot produce life. Do you know
that? This covers polygamy too, doesn't
it? What did the Lord say? One man,
one woman. He said the two shall become
one. Not this one and four other ones,
and this one and ten other ones, or this one and two other ones.
Man and a wife, isn't it? One husband. He said, wives,
you submit to your own husbands. You own husbands. The Lord gave
you a husband, listen to him. If somebody else is listening
to this, the Lord gives you a pastor, listen to him. He didn't give
you 50, he gave you one. Listen to him. The Lord gave
you one savior, one God. We bow to him. We don't bow to
every God, we bow to him, don't we? We should enter into marriage
with seriousness and diligence, not drunken with closed eyes.
Not flippantly. Sober and eyes wide open. That's how it physically walked
to enter into marriage. If you're gonna get married,
children, don't do it on a whim. Be diligent. Have your eyes open.
And that's hard to do when you're young and you can't tell the
difference between love and lust. A lot of people say they're in
love. No, you're not. You're in lust.
That's what you're in. That's hard to do. Jacob was
over 70 years old here, though, wasn't he? Well, you think he's
learned some things, hadn't he? Hadn't he grew in wisdom and
he's matured some? He's been walking this walk a
long time. He knows a whole bunch. Nope.
Was he patient and careful? Did he double check? Nope. He didn't, did he? How'd this
even happen? I've thought long and hard about
this. How'd that happen? Was it just
too much wine at the feast? There's a lesson in sobriety,
isn't it? Be sober-minded, be serious, is what that means,
but don't be drunken with wine, too. Don't lay up drunk. Was
it too much wine at the feast, or had he waited too long already? He couldn't see a difference.
The light's right. It wasn't that dark in that room, was it?
He could tell a difference. He'd waited a long time for Mrs. Wright, and she wasn't available,
so he took Miss Wright now. Isn't that what happened? I don't
know which one it was, but all of them, everybody in this situation,
they're all flippant toward the marriage that the Lord honors.
They're all flippant towards it. A Hebrew writer said, marriage
is honorable in all, in the bed undefiled, but whoremongers and
adulterers God will judge. That's so, and he'd said, the
Lord said it, didn't he? Well, the Lord's gonna chase
them. Jacob, he's chasing his children, won't he? It says,
whoever the Lord loves, he chasteneth. Not punish, he chases them, corrects
them. For what? Why does the Lord chasten
us? We're going to be with Jacob
for a while. We're going to see all the boneheaded things he
does and the things I've done. I see it in him. But why does
the Lord chasten us? For our sins. The Lord's faithful
to teach his children and correct his children, and he's going
to teach Jacob, and he's going to teach all of us, too. Us that
are his, he's going to teach us. Marriage should be entered
into with great seriousness and consideration and prayer. And
I always tell you, I said, it's the same throughout it. We have
a pattern set. That's in the home, isn't it?
And what about if somebody's listening, if there's a group
somewhere listening, there's more people listening to us online
and Sermon Audio than there is that meet here. Do you know that?
So people out there listening, if you're going to get you a
pastor, I told you folks here what I say. I said, you don't
want your daughter getting married after two dates, do you? No, be serious. Get to know them. See how they
handle a trial or something. See what kind of person you're
dealing with. Don't jump into it. Don't be foolish. What's
that translate to? That's in the home. That's in
the local assembly. What about the body of Christ? The people
just... I'll have Jesus today. I'll accept Jesus as my personal
savior. You guys want to go get lunch?" Flippant, isn't it? That's what the Lord came to
that man, and he said, you tired of being crippled? And he said, would you be made
whole? You consider that. You're going to have to give
up some stuff. You might have to cast this world away. You
might have to give up mother and father and brother and sister
and lands and grandbabies and dogs and parakeets and everything
else. Whatever you hold dear. Will
you? Will you be made whole? There's a lesson there, isn't
there? Consider it. I wonder why they came up with walking
an aisle. Everybody says, come down the front of the church. You're married whenever the Lord
enters his bride, I don't know. He reveals himself, same as we're
married in the Redeemer. What else can we learn from this?
Lesson in depravity. We learn about marriage, there's
some plain spoken things that people ought to ask about, and
instead of just blindly walking into in the dark, the Lord has
something to say about it, doesn't he? Next thing we can learn is
depravity. Jacob's overcome with desire and selfishness, isn't he? He wasn't tricked too awful
bad. He was either drunk, which is
selfishness and desire, flagons of wine, or he was looking for
a miss right now. And then he'll, we'll just act
like this was a sham tomorrow. He was overcome with it. Laban's
overcome with the same thing, selfishness. Looking out for number one, desire.
He, we'll get to it in a minute. He come running whenever he saw
Eliezer. Leah, same thing. Rachel, really
the same thing too. Well, she didn't have a hand
in this. Oh, there's some selfishness going on. Not wanting to make
dad angry. Well, I don't want to make my
sister angry. Self-preservation and under the under the ruse
of not breaking the law. I don't wanna break the law.
That's easy. People wanna keep Sabbath. Well, do they own a
Lazy Boy? Make me sit down. You become an adult and they
send you to your room, so you gotta go to bed. Thank you. Pleasure when you grow up. Jacob,
why was he there in the first place? Who's wrong in this situation? I wrote this down too. Who's
wrong in this whole situation, this family affair? Everybody
involved. Which man has sinned and come
short of the glory of God? Everybody involved. Everybody
from Adam and Eve. Jacob, I was there in the first
place. Tricked his brother. Stole the
inheritance, didn't he? Lied on those things. Ran for
his life. His brother's gonna kill him. And his mom went in
and helped him. And they tricked their dad. And
Isaac said, oh, you know, I don't want him marrying a woman from
here. Send him away. Okay, yeah. So we got full consent. He was
on the lam, wasn't he? He didn't have anything. Coming
to this other country, looking for a wife, but looking to save
his own skin. And then he's the one that said, why, what is this
that thou hast done unto me? The trickster was tricked. The
one that did wrong had wrong done to him. He forgot what he
had done, hadn't he? He was up on his proud horse.
Who are you to do this to me? Have you ever done that? Have
I ever done that? Why would they ever say, think,
do, act, speak, write, whatever to me? To me? You know who I
am? He forgot who he was. Laban,
back in chapter 24, 70 years before, Eleazar came, that faithful
servant. Boy, what a man that was. He
come looking for Rebekah, didn't he? And he brought loads of stuff. Jewels and chariots and camels
and all these things, riches. Laban got ear of it and went
running. He ran. Said, what can we do
for you? Greedy, greedy, looking out for
himself. One of the old riders said, you
know what he's trying to do here? He's pulling this trick, get rid of
both daughters. I'm gonna get a two for one sale. I'm having
a hard time getting rid of Leah. Let's get things moving. And
he used the love and the beauty of his other daughter to pawn
off his firstborn. What a self-serving man, isn't
he? Horrible. And then 70 years later, so he's
107 years old, he ran to meet Jacob. He got wind. But boy,
if my brother-in-law was rich 70 years ago, imagine how rich
his son is now. They've had decades of them herds
growing. Woo-hoo-hoo! I'm gonna retire good. Selfish. Leah. Knowing exactly what she was
doing. Knowing exactly what she was doing. She agreed to all
this. She just wanted to be married. And she knew, she knew that this
man who'd been around the house for seven years, working for
free, did it all for love. And you think he bragged on Rachel?
Day's coming, honey. What kind of house you want?
What kind of car you want to drive? What kind of chariot you
want? Oh, just talked about her. Is
that thing heavy? Oh, it ain't heavy. No, it's
light. Where's Rachel? She said, this
man loves my sister, who is bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh,
and you know what, I'm gonna sneak right in there. She knew exactly
what she was doing. What about Rachel? She's not
without blame. She knew all this was happening. That man she loved,
that loved her first, that man that served seven years for her,
that she quietly stayed back and waited on, didn't she? And
now he's gonna be deceived. And she didn't stand up to her
daddy, and she didn't stand up to her mommy, and she didn't
stand up to her sister, she just let it happen to save her own
skin. That seven years that he served for his bride. That's
what we looked at the first hour. And he said that was nothing
for love's sake. That was like a couple days.
Easy peasy. We got something to learn about
love, don't we? We got something to learn about love. There's
a lesson here in sovereignty and grace. Sovereign grace. Sovereign mercy. What the Lord
does. What good could come of all this?
Have you ever heard somebody say, Lord ain't in this? Better
watch your words. He's in all things, isn't he?
I need to watch my words. He's in all things, isn't he? Lots cast into the lap, but the
whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. Man does the sinning,
and God does the reigning. He purposes these things, but
it's, man's the one that does the sinning, isn't it? But the
Lord's sovereign over the whole thing. What good can come of
this? Something good's gonna come of it. What good can come
from whatever you're going through right now? The Lord sent it. My times are in your hands, isn't
it? Either the Lord governs absolutely
everything or he is governed. Let's remember that in November
whenever there's an election, okay? Let's remember that whenever
the health department comes out and says we gotta do something.
Let's remember that three years ago when the Lord says put masks
on. He either governs all things or he's governed. Is our times
in His hands? I hope so. I hope He grows us
to act like it, doesn't He? Well, if that's the case, maybe we
ought to just do more bad things. Ah, the law entered that the
offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. That's what's going to happen
here. But what should we say then? Shall we sin that grace may abound?
That's childish, God forbid. You're looking self-served, knock
it off. Paul said, God forbid, God forbid it. We know that all
things work together for good. All things, to them that love
God. They say, well, everything's going right. All things work
together for good. Well, not for everybody. Them that love
God, them are called according to his purpose. Because he does
everything on purpose. This happened on purpose. This
looks like a mess, and nothing good could come from it, and
it's going to get worse. He just got two right now. It's
going to get worse. What good's going to come? Twelve
sons are going to be born out of this debacle, out of this
disaster. Twelve tribes of Israel are going
to come from it. They were all sinners. They were
conceived in sin, they came forth from the womb speaking lies,
just like me. Just like us. Among whom we also
had our conversation in time past in the lust of our flesh,
that's what we was looking out for. Fulfilling the desires of
the flesh and of the mind, that's what all of them was in it for.
And we're by nature the children of wrath, even as others. We
ain't no different than nobody else. But God, I chose, no you
didn't. You did not. But God, God does
the saving. God does the choosing. But God,
who is rich in mercy, why would he do all that? For his great
love, wherewith he loved us. Why did he suffer them seven
years in Lamentations 3? For the great love wherewith
he loved us. This is the Lord's family tree.
Do you know that? This is part of it. This is 12
tribes of Israel. That's what's going to come out
of this family tree. Tell me about your family tree.
Would you omit some things? Well, I have great pedigree and
heritage and generals and governors and murderers and harlots and
whores and prostitutes and drug smugglers and everything else.
You tell about them. Mass murderers. I'm related to a mass murderer.
Do you come out telling people that? The Lord chose his family. Would
you choose that family? He chose us to be his family.
He's numbered with transgressors, isn't he? God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. Abraham! This is for me. He's an Iraqi idol worshiper. They're still on babies off the
mountains. Until he's up in his 70s and God save him. I'm thinking,
Jacob, this whole mess he's in. He's gonna have Judah, that's
born of Leah. And Judah grows up, he gets married,
his wife dies, he's got a daughter-in-law named Tamar, disguised herself
as a prostitute. He lays with her, has a child.
Rahab, at Harlot, She finally got settled down, didn't she?
What good could come of all this? She got married, had a baby,
name was Boaz. Remember a lot in that incestuous
relationship with his daughters? It's absolutely horrible. It's
inexcusable. That's bad. Moab is one of the
children born. What good come out of Moab? Well,
there's a little girl named Ruth down there, wasn't there? She
married Boaz. Where'd that come from? That's the Lord's heritage,
isn't it? That's the family the Lord chose. We shun those things. Don't look
at them. Oh, don't touch them. Don't taste them. Don't smell
them. Get away from them. That's bad. That's bad. It is
bad. We are too. Those scribes and those Pharisees,
they murmured. They said, this man receiveth
sinners and he eats with them. He's sittin' down eatin' and
drinkin' with sinners. Amen, ain't that good? It's good
news for a sinner. It's a fact on the wall for a
dead man. Might as well write it on tubes, don't make a difference
to them, do it. That's good news. This is a faithful saying and
it's worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came in the world
to save sinners, sinners of whom I'm chief. And I just want to,
I bet Paul was short, and I just want to rub him on top of that
little head of his and say, I know you really think that, buddy, but
you're number two. This is the chief. What do you say, Bob?
You think me and Paul's both young, young'uns that don't know
nothing? You're chief, ain't you? Every one of us were the
chief, anyway. This story, that's the story. That's what happened. We can
learn, that's the gospel too, isn't it? Isn't that the gospel? That's what somebody's talking
about, milk and meat. You ever ate a steak and not had something
to drink with it? That's just, you can't go have one without the
other, you know? That's the gospel. What the Lord
did for us, his great love, wherewith he loved us, and he abounded
towards us, and he was committed, and he entered into a covenant
with the one that ruled over us. and redeemed us with his
labor and his work while we sat there quietly. Didn't even know
it was happening, did we? And then made us fruitful, made
us have children. That's just the story. We can
learn a lot. Depravity, marriage, sobriety, modesty. Learn a lot from that. Here's
the gospel story. Here's the gospel story. Jacob's
an imperfect picture of the Lord Jesus Christ because all men
are imperfect pictures of the God man. That's why he came. If Jacob could have been a perfect
picture, the Lord used him. And he didn't. He sent his son,
his only begotten son. And so the heathen can pick at
the briars all they want, but they'll get over it. I've heard
this preached several different ways. I said this was a diamond
with a whole lot of facets. I've heard messages that Leah
has the Jews and Rachel has the Gentiles. Because the Lord said,
go to the Jews first, didn't he? And she was born first. That was the firstborn. And that's
right. It's right to do that. If you hear a message by somebody
that ain't your pastor that preaches that, just listen to it. Might
learn something. That's right. I've heard it preached
that Rachel is the Jews and Leah is a Gentile. She has more children
than them all. All of them combined, all four
of them, she has six of them. The Lord's abounded us Gentiles,
it's ugly. And us Gentiles, it's unappealing
to the world and everybody else. The Lord's increased the Gentiles
greatly. He saved a lot of Gentiles. And
then at the end, Rachel's gonna have Benjamin in them. I've seen
Leah preached as the law. She must first be dealt with.
That's right too. What's the jewel for today? Which
jewel in this big old field are we gonna look at? Leah is a picture
of this religious world. The picture of those that profess
religion. They talk a good game. They know
all the right words to say. And they're tricksters. Rachel
is the true bride of Christ. There's one that's pretend, one
that's in word only, and there's one that's really loved, one
that's really a bride. Leah was a bride in name only.
Jacob entered that covenant for Rachel only, didn't he? Isn't
that what happened before? He didn't say, I'll enter in
covenant for whichever one you feel like giving me. Whichever one will
be glad to be my wife, I'll take all comers. He said, that's the
one I want. What's the price? Seven years.
Seven years everything went through the first hour. And he said,
I'll do it. Like a few days. For love's sake, couldn't he?
Jacob loved Rachel. And whoever the Lord loves, everything's
gonna be alright. You've got life eternal. And
it's in him. Everything's fine. Everything's
fine. It may not look fine. You may not think it's fine.
And that don't matter. It is fine. Everything works out good,
don't it? He set his eye on Rachel, didn't
he? Why was he there? He'd come looking for a bride.
He saw her first come up to that well. Jacob was still good to
Leah, though, wasn't he? She still had a roof over her
head. She had food in her belly and had a bunch of kids. He served
Leah, he provided for Leah, but don't you ever confuse the Lord
providing for this world or people in this world and him not killing
his enemies instantly. Don't confuse that with love.
Just because somebody's blasphemously preaching a false doctrine or
something, God doesn't strike them down dead right then, which some
of us sons of thunder would love to see happen. Don't confuse that for Lord loving.
He said he makes a sun to rise on the evil and the good. He
sends the rain on the just and the unjust. Those that curse
him eat his food. Those that curse him breathe
his air. And they just might be one of us. Rachel was the true bride, not
Leah. Leah saw Jacob and what he could do for her. And she
didn't want the one that she loved. She wasn't out to, I have
to have this one, I love this one. She just didn't want to
be single. There's a whole lot of people want to go to heaven.
They don't want to go to where Christ is. A fool doesn't want
to go to hell. A fool doesn't want to keep the
law. They won't be free from that. A fool don't want these
things, right? That's just good common sense. Leah didn't want
to be single. She didn't love Jacob. She didn't love him. She didn't care for him. Marriage
wasn't for love. It was for benefit. And so she
plotted and she maneuvered to get in there. She schemed up
a plan with who? Her evil father, her wicked father. That's who she's scheming it
up with. Who's the evil father of unbelievers? Who's that? Lord told those Pharisees, he's
the one behind false religion, isn't he? Saying all these things.
To the Pharisees, he said, you have your father, the devil.
Does that mean people wearing funny underwear and believing
little green men's coming out of space and this outlandish
nonsense? No, that's just stupidity. They're just idiots. What did
Paul write that whole letter to the Galatians for? to people
that professed and claimed to believe five-point Calvinism.
But, come over to the side. Now, now, now you gotta be circumcised,
okay? Or baptized, or tithe, or Sabbath,
or whatever, fill in the blank. You verb something. You gotta
do something. He said, it's not another that is. This ain't something
that's real similar. He's looking words up another.
This ain't something, this is wildly different. Hear of that
whole book? for that. Lord used it, didn't
he? This is greatly different. Natural man thinks if they scheme
and they work hard and they plan that they can con the Lord into
loving them. And I got a flesh just like anybody
else does. Hard times come on me and I thought I've gave up
everything for this gospel to serve his people. You know what
I walked away from? That's my flesh. That's what
that is. Surely I'll be the Lord's, look
what I've done for him. That's that old man, wicked in
me, isn't it? That's the father of the devil.
If you produce a bunch of fruit, if you do a lot of good works,
then surely he will love you. You know what Leah said over
and over again? I had a child, well now he's gonna love me.
I had another child, I had another convert, now he's gonna love
me. Every one of her children was bad, too. Every one of them. Look at all my beautiful, my
little angels, hogwash. Hogwash. Unproductive. Knuckleheads,
wasn't they? We're not saved by works, we're
saved by grace. Mankind can't make God love him. You love him because he first
loved us. He has to be the originator.
To say make God, to say let God, to say use God or convince God,
and all these other things, it's absolute anti-God. It's anti-Christ. It's against the gospel. That's
so. That's so. And people that can
sit underneath that junk and listen to it, they ain't got
ears to hear. They're lost. They're dead. They
ain't got a living heart in them. Sanctify yourselves. Okay. People
think that's something holy. Oh, I'm going to read the scriptures
15 times a day and memorize Spurgeon or something. Hogwash. Go sit
underneath the false gospel and tell me how long you've been
sitting in that pew. Get your purse. We're leaving. You're
sitting underneath that junk. Go. How'd you set yourself apart? Instinct couldn't keep from it.
It's like holding your breath. You're going to breathe sooner
or later, ain't you? Instinct. to accept Christ, accept Jesus. That's not love, that's a decision.
It's a lie, it's ungodly, it's wicked. It's wicked. If you're relying on accepting
Jesus as your personal savior back when you was 12 years old,
you better hope God saves you. It's not so, that's wrong. We're
not brought to Christ by cunning ways and deception. We don't
trick people in, I don't bait the hook. The Lord keeps me,
I won't. and put on shenanigans in this place to try to get people
in a pew. Any means to an end, no, we're gonna use his means,
period. Leah took it in her own hands. Didn't that happen before?
Wasn't that a child wanted in his family tree? I got a good
idea, how about Hagar? That worked out great. Long time of struggling, wasn't
it? We're not brought to Christ by cunning deceptive things.
We're brought to him by the sovereign power and the will of almighty
God through the preaching of the gospel. That's a preaching
of truth, not a lie. Preaching of the truth, not a
lie. And in case somebody thinks that's just my opinion, the Lord
says it's through the preaching of truth, not a lie. So Leah just wanted a husband and
what a husband could give her. She wanted benefits, didn't she?
Jacob and Rachel loved each other. There was love there. She was
the true bride. She was the bride the covenant
was made for, and he served in perfection for her, in completion. He served seven years for her.
Seven years. Everything that was asked was
met. Every jot, every tittle, wasn't it? That's a long engagement. She was a spouse to him for seven
years, and she saw how he labored, little by little. Not all at
once, was it? Can't live seven years in a day.
People think, well, the Lord's done something in me, and I'm
gonna learn everything there is to know today. That ain't
gonna happen. Little by little, little by little, she saw how
he labored. She saw how he sweat, how he bled, how he stubbed his
toe, how he stood out in the rain, how he did everything.
And every day, she just thought, that was for me. That's for me. Oh, how he loves me. And then what happens the next
day? You see that love grow a little bit. Now, he really does love
me. He does. What's happened in your
life? Every day, I can't believe it. He loves me today. Still, I don't
think he's gonna quit. He said he wasn't. I'm starting
to believe him. This is true, isn't it? Long
walkin'. He loved her. Long engagement.
She watched him go through all that hardship. All that was done
for Rachel, not Leah. All that was done for Rachel,
not Leah. So, she had a plan, didn't she? Verse 31 says, when the Lord
saw that Leah was hated, she was hated, he opened her womb,
but Rachel was barren. She had some children, there's
some offspring there, and obviously there's another facet of this
dime we'll look at another day. But Rachel was bearing, and Leah
was having babies. I looked it up to see if her
tender eyes was the same as their eyes bug out with fatness. It
ain't, but I thought of that, wasn't I? David said, their eyes
bug out with fatness. All their kids come over and
have Thanksgiving dinner with them. Everything's going so good, and
they're getting jobs all over the place. They got money coming
out their ears. All their tomatoes are real ripe and pretty all
year long. And that Leah and that's the church of this world was talking about us. I imagine
our yearly budgets on the back table. That's about what the
lot bill is for a place of a month. I don't want to pay their lot
bill. Now those people come in here business list this all you
got. Well, Lord couldn't be in that place. Could he? Couldn't
be The thousands upon thousands of people were gathered for the
Passover, the Jews Passover, in a town called Jerusalem 2,000
years ago. Something's got to be going on
there, isn't it? Nope, there's 12 of them up in a room eating
dinner. That was it. Her eyes bugged out with fatness.
She looks so productive. She looks so blessed. She had
so many offspring, didn't she? So does this present evil world.
They got a whole mess of converts, don't they? What about Rachel?
She was barren. She couldn't produce life. Have
we heard that before? We've been in Genesis for over
a year now. We heard that one before? Sarah? She was barren. She couldn't produce life. Rebecca?
She was barren. She couldn't produce life. Hannah?
Barren. She couldn't produce life. I
can't do this by myself. The Lord's got to give life.
He's got to put life in us. The religious world, we're barren
here. Not to the Lord. How many goats is worth one sheep? To that Rachel he loves, the
Lord says, I've given nations for you. Nations. That ain't fair. That's right.
I ain't worth it. We're barren without the Lord
and we can't bring forth fruit of ourselves. And Leah kept saying
that over and over. If I have another son, he'll
love me. I'll have another son, he'll love me. Eventually she's
going to have six. If I have another son, he'll
love me. Any other first thing I thought
of? Has anything changed? Is there anything new underneath
the sun? We was in Kansas. 10 years ago, and on Craig, the
military police found this lady and charged her and put her in
jail, but she was pregnant. She lived off post and she put
on Craig's list, any of you ladies, you remember what I'm talking
about, any of you ladies that can't get that man to just commit,
I'll sell you a pregnancy test for $50, it's false. And then,
you know, something can happen. I don't know what happened. 13
months, no baby, right? That's what her intent was. I'm
gonna bend God's arm to get till he does something for me. Like
I've said over and over and over, these prayer chains and these
prayer requests and all this stuff, we're gonna get together and
we're gonna pray till God does something. That's a mutiny. Like Andrew
Jackson, he might kill every one of them. Don't do that. They said, we've done so many
wonderful works in thy name, and look at all these converts
we've produced, and he said, depart from me, I never knew you. Didn't
he? Why? Because he loves Rachel.
He loves Rachel. Who's she end up having? Joseph. Oh, that one was loved, wasn't
it? Wasn't that the favorite? Joseph, who she has. And then
another good picture, too. She has Benjamin. The baby come
in, the final son, and she dies. She gave her life, giving life
to that son. A lot of pictures there, isn't
it? A lot we can learn, isn't it? Oh, that we can be a Rachel.
She was beautiful. You know what that means? She
was real good looking. You know what the Lord says about his
bride? She's beautiful. She's beautiful. She's real good
looking to him. Isn't that amazing? Go read Song
of Solomon. Oh, don't feel like it, does
it? That's so. He said so. And that covenant
he entered into, all because of love, and he's going to in
perfection serve for that one. Something that makes us think.
Does that make you say, well, I guess he didn't say I got to.
I got to fulfill the law. That's your custom. I guess I'll
do it. No. 14 years passed in two sentences,
didn't it? He just did it. He did it. Let's
pray together. Father, we're thankful for this
friendly tree you've given us. Lord, thank you for saving sinners
of whom I'm chief. Forgive us for what we are. Lord,
forgive us our unbelief and our doubting and our fears. We're
so prone to wonder. Keep us, Lord. Keep us looking
to Christ, our kinsman, Redeemer, who gave all for us, that we
might have him. We might have life, we might
have him. Give us a cheerful spirit, Lord, to not bring reproach
on this gospel you've been so tender and given us. Make us
faithful servants, make us productive. Give children here as you see
fit, Lord. Produce life in your local assemblies throughout this
world daily as you see fit. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen.