That was excellent, thank you
so much. Such a great, great hymn. Let's go back to Matthew chapter
25. Matthew chapter 25. Here's the
title of my message is simply Goats. I wanna talk to you about
goats. Actually, that portion of scripture
that our brother read to us is a continuation of his answer,
the Savior's answer to a question that was put to him in chapter
24 and verse 3. If you want to read that, I'm
going to read it right now. Chapter 24, verse 3. And as he
sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him,
privately saying, And here's what they ask, to tell us when
these things be, and what shall be the sign of thy coming and
of the end of the world. That is, when is going to be
the consummation of all things? When is the end going to happen? And the end is going to happen
when God has fulfilled everything that he has purposed to do. Now,
God's eternal purpose, in God's eternal purpose, all things were
predestinated. And in his almighty power and
unerring wisdom, He is bringing his predestination, his purpose
to pass, by what we typically call providence. So the Lord
is bringing all things to fulfillment, and everything will arrive at
the end, at the goal that he himself has ordained. And everyone will know when the
end comes because it will be the end. It will be the end of
time as we measure time. Now our Lord Jesus here in chapter
25, he speaks of the judgment that is going to, it's going
to come at the end, at the end of the world. All will be there. I know there are some who believe
a separate judgment for the saved and another judgment for the
unsaved. I don't find that in the word
of God. I find a general resurrection
and I find a general judgment. Our Lord speaks here of him sitting
in judgment in that great day when he comes back. Here are
four things very briefly, and I've got to move on quickly to
get to my main points in this message. But number one, here's
his coming. Here's his coming. the glorified,
exalted Son of Man, He shall return even as the two angels
said to His disciples when He ascended back up to glory. Do
you remember there in Acts chapter 1 when our Lord Jesus was being
raised, received back to heaven, welcomed back to glory, the triumphant
Savior, the one who had fulfilled God's purpose of redemption. He was going back to heaven as
the God-man to be seated at the right hand of the Father to receive
the reward for his obedience unto death and for redeeming
and saving and reconciling the people of God's choice. And as
he lifted up to heaven, his disciples were just looking, gazing up
into heaven, the scripture says, as though they would never see
him again. And those two angels, those two
men in bright garments, they said to the disciples, why stand
you here gazing up into heaven as if you'll never see him again?
And they said, this same Jesus, not somebody else, but this same
Jesus, he shall so come again in like manner as you have seen
him go. That man Christ Jesus who redeemed
his people, who satisfied God's justice for us, he's gone back
to glory, he's ruling the world, and one of these days he's coming
back to this earth. So the first thing is his coming.
Secondly, his companions. He'll come back with His angels
with Him, all of the holy angels. The angels are divided. God made
a distinction between the angels in old eternity. There are some
angels called elect angels. God ordained that they would
be His to obey Him, to worship Him, to do His bidding. And then
there were, according to God's purpose and carried out by providence,
unelect angels, non-elect angels, that is, the demons who also
carry out the purpose of God in a very mysterious way. Those
are his companions, the angels, all the holy angels coming back
with him. And we can also gather from 1
Thessalonians chapter 4 that all of the saints of God are
coming back with him because that's what it says. We shall
come back and he will Raise our vile bodies, our souls join back
to the bodies, and we will come back with him, his companion.
Here's his coming, his companions. Thirdly, his character. He's coming back as judge. The
father has committed all judgment, John chapter five says this,
all judgment under the son. God has already given him all
authority over all things, and there is also the fact that God
is committed unto this one who is called the Son of Man, all
judgment. You will stand before the God-man,
Christ Jesus, and you will stand either in Him or against Him,
one way or the other. you will make an appearance before
the Son of God. Deny that? Many people do. A
lot of people refuse to think about that, but He is coming.
He's going to have companions with Him, and He's coming in
the character of judge. Not to show mercy, not to be
lenient, But he's coming as the judge, and all men will be judged
by the righteousness of the judge himself. And only his people
will measure up to that righteousness. Well, what is his conduct? What's he going to do? He's going
to separate. That's what the scripture says
here. There will be a separation. There will be a revelation of
a distinction that he made even before the world began. Our God, in sovereign grace,
and when I say our God, Father, Son, and Spirit, in covenant
grace, chose a people unto salvation. He ordained them to indeed be
his people, to be saved by his grace, redeemed by the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that distinction was made
before the world began, and nothing is ever going to change that.
There are those whom He calls His sheep, and there are those
that He calls goats. And in this last, in the judgment,
the final, at the end of the world, our Lord is going to separate. This is His conduct. What's He
going to do? He's going to separate the sheep
from the goats, the righteous from the wicked. Believers from
unbelievers. The children of God and the children
of the wicked one. There will be a separation, a
division. He himself will conduct this
judgment. He will publicly divide all of
Adam's race before the eyes of all the demons, all the angels,
and before the eyes of all population ever since He made Adam. Everyone
who's going to live in this world up until the time when He comes
back, He will bring them all, all of us, before Him and his
conduct will be to separate, and this is an everlasting separation
of the sheep from the goats. In that day, earthly distinctions
will be meaningless. Rich and poor won't matter. College graduate Somebody who
quit school at an early age, won't matter. Those who were
influential in the world, who were the somebodies in the world,
and those who were nobodies in the world, won't matter. That's
not the issue in that day. In that day, all earthly distinctions
will be meaningless. Here's all that will matter to
God And to you, are you in Christ Jesus? That's all that's going
to matter. Are you righteous in Him or unrighteous
in yourself? Do you have grace or are you
graceless? That's the distinction. Faith or no faith. Belief or
unbelief. Converted or unconverted. Saved
or lost. That's the only distinction in
that day. Now of the goats. These are the
non-elect. These are the non-chosen. Left
in their wickedness. Left in their sinfulness. This
is the sin that they loved? See, there is no unfairness with
God. If all men got according to their
own desserts, to their own what they're worthy of, all men would
die. But God made a distinction in
Christ before the foundation of the world. He chose some unto
salvation. If you refuse to believe that,
you're denying the very Word of God. The Lord Himself has
a people. Christ came to save them. His
name is Jesus. He shall save His people from
their sins. And if there are some who are
His people, then it makes sense that there are some who are not
His people. If there are sheep, then there
must be goats. And the sheep are sheep not because
they believe. but their belief is evidence
that they are sheep. In fact, in John chapter 10,
the Jews were squabbling with him as they always did, picking
at him and trying to get under his skin and trouble him about
the scriptures and mess him up and they couldn't do that. And
he said, you believe not because you're not of my sheep. He didn't say, you're not of
my sheep because you believe not. Pay attention to the word
of God. He says, here's the reason you
don't believe. You're not of my sheep. As I
said unto you, my sheep hear my voice. You wouldn't hear my
voice. And that's evidence that you're
not my sheep. You're of the goats. In Zechariah chapter 10 in verse
7, the Lord says, mine anger was kindled against the shepherds,
and I punished the goats. That's my introduction. Now,
this may come as a surprise to you. The majority of the times
in the scripture where a goat or goats are mentioned is not
in a bad light, but in a favorable light. And I'll tell you what
led me to work on this message. I received an email, and I get
several emails, and I appreciate, those of you who are watching
by way of the internet, I appreciate you reaching out to me. And those
who write me, a letter, send it through the mail, I appreciate
that too. But have a lady, and as I recall, she is from Northern
Ireland. She's communicated with me before,
and I really appreciate hearing from her, and we've corresponded
several times. I won't tell you her name, but
I doubt that you know her. But I want to read this email
to you. Dear Pastor Byrd, I was just
thinking about the two goats on the Day of Atonement, and
I'm wondering why they were not lambs since they pictured Christ. In the New Testament, goats and
lambs are opposites. I'm still enjoying your well-crafted
sermons. I haven't found any other pastor
who can set forth God's plan of salvation the way you do.
I may, and she tells me what denomination she is. She says,
our preachers are very faithful to God's word, but there is just
something extra special about your sermons. They generate in
me a tremendous feeling of joy. I really appreciated the email,
and she will be listing of this. I sent her a, I got this email
on my birthday last Wednesday. And so I answered her on Thursday. And I said, I appreciate it.
And I said, you have led me to do a study on goats. And I said, I hope you'll be
listening. And of course, it's very late
in Northern Ireland now, but I'm sure she'll pick up on this. She'll listen on the internet.
I appreciate Matt and Paul. They're making sure that our
messages go forth on the internet. I do appreciate what they do.
And there are a lot of other people who are blessed because
the word of God goes forth from this pulpit. So I want to say two things.
Number one, goats were accepted as offerings to the Lord. Turn
with me back to that passage that this dear lady mentioned,
which is in the book of Leviticus chapter 16, the Day of Atonement. Leviticus chapter 16. And if you'll notice in Leviticus
chapter 16, this is the Day of Atonement, there is nothing,
nothing spoken about lambs. No sheep are mentioned. The emphasis is on the goats,
the two goats. It says here in Leviticus 16
verse 4, concerning Aaron, he shall put on the holy linen coat
and he shall have the linen britches upon his flesh. He shall be girded
with a linen girdle, with the linen mitre shall he be attired. These are the holy garments,
therefore shall he wash his flesh in water, and so put them on."
Now his high priestly garments were spectacular, glorious. But now he wears the garb, the
dress, of a priest who labored daily in the tabernacle. All of his garments were white.
And that pictures our Lord Jesus. who's the perfect son of God.
He shall take, look at verse five, he shall take of the congregation
of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering
and one ram for a burnt offering. And Aaron shall offer his bullock
of the sin offering, that's for himself. and make an atonement
for himself and for his house. Now verse 7, he shall take the
two goats and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation and Aaron shall cast lots upon the two
goats, one for the Lord and the other one for the scapegoat,
the removal goat. The word scapegoat means the
removal goat. And rather than read all of the
rest of this, permit me to just kind of quickly summarize it. The goat that he cast lots that's
for the Lord, that goat had to die. That goat had to die. That's pictured the death of
our Lord Jesus Christ in the death of that goat. And Aaron
would go into the Holy of Holies with all the children of Israel
outside, waiting and watching. And he would take the blood of
that goat in a basin with a bunch of hyssop, and he would take
the blood and he would sprinkle it upon the mercy seat seven
times. The blood of the goat. That pictured
the substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ in the
death of that goat. The other goat was called the
scapegoat, the removal goat. Aaron would then come out. Before
all of the congregation of Israel, he would lay his hands upon the
head of that scapegoat, confessing the sins of all of Israel on
that one day of atonement. No other priest could go into
the holy place on that day, nor into the Holy of Holies, of course.
Only he could. He alone ministered before God. He alone appeared before God.
That's what our Savior did. He appeared before God by the
blood of Himself. He was God's sacrifice for sin. Nobody aided Him in salvation. Nobody assisted Him in redemption. This was a work of Christ Jesus
only. Only. Aaron then came out. There's the scapegoat, puts his
hands on the head of the scapegoat, confesses the sins of Israel,
which was a symbolic transference of guilt. Then he chose a fit
man to lead that goat, which was, in the symbolism, laden
down with all of the iniquities of the children of Israel. Just
like God laid on the head of our Lord Jesus Christ our scapegoat,
God laid on him the iniquity of us all. And our Lord Jesus,
here's what he did, and here's what this goat symbolized, the
result of the death of Christ Jesus. And that fit man led that
goat out of the camp of Israel into a land uninhabited, and
then he came back without the goat, therefore without the sins. You see, our Lord Jesus, who
laid down his life for his people, He took our sins upon himself.
The Father laid on him the iniquity of us all. And our Lord Jesus
bore them and he bore them away, away into a land uninhabited. He removed, he removed our sins
from us. The scripture says as far as
the east is from the west. Two goats. Both of them pictured
our Lord Jesus. One, his work of redemption.
The other one, the result of his work of redemption. Now look
at another passage with me, and that is in Exodus, Exodus chapter
12. And I just preached from this
a couple of weeks ago on New Year's Day. Exodus chapter 12 and you will
recognize this passage of scriptures being the Passover and I'll read
to you just three three or four verses here Chapter 12 verse
1 and the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt
saying chapter 12 of Exodus verse 2 this month shall be unto you
the beginning of months and It shall be the first month of the
year to you. Speak ye in all the congregation
of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall
take to them every man a lamb." Now, I'm not a Hebrew scholar,
but this word, lamb, means one out of a flock, either a sheep
or a goat. Do a little word study on it.
I did, I was driven to study the words. Look it up. It means one out of the flock. Either a lamb, one of the sheep,
or one of the goats. And I can make good on this.
According to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house,
verse four. And if the household be too little
for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take
it according to the number of the souls. Every man according
to his eating shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb
shall be without blemish a male of the first year. You shall
take it out from the sheep or the goats." And I never really
thought about that. And I appreciate this lady writing
to me. It caused me to look a little
closer at the scripture. The blood that was put on the
doorpost and over the doorpost, it could have been the blood
of a lamb, or it could have been the blood of a goat. I know this, that blood pictured
the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. We all agree on that. whether
it was the blood of a sheep or a goat, made no difference to
the Lord. He said, when I see the blood,
whether the blood of a lamb or the blood of a goat, He said,
I will pass over you. And there's no question but what
goats often pictured our Lord Jesus in some manner, in some
way. But still the question lingers. I know why, I understand why
the Lord chose to call the Savior the Lamb of God. He was meek. There was an innocence
about him. He was very precious. He fulfilled the prophecy of
Genesis chapter 22, the Lord will provide himself a lamb for
a burnt offering. He is the lamb of God. But I
still haven't answered the question. Why were goats sometimes used
as types of our Lord Jesus? Number one, The goat was the very, very symbol
of determination and leadership. In fact, in the Old Testament,
Daniel chapter 8 verse 5 and Daniel chapter 8 verse 21, goats
were likened unto leaders or kings or princes. You see, unlike sheep who follow
Sheep follow the shepherd. Unlike sheep, goats don't follow. They lead. And the goat herder
walks behind. Hear me. The Lord Jesus is not
a follower. He's a leader. And throughout
His earthly ministry, His earthly journey, He wasn't following
as a sheep. He's leading. He's determined
to go forth to the cross of Calvary and die the death that was necessary
to redeem us. Yes, as a lamb, he was led to
the slaughter. Led. Because the sheep follows. But as a goat, he was the leader. He was the director of everything
that happened to him. Know this, and remember this.
Throughout the ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ, He was always
taking the lead. Always. You remember in that passage
in Matthew 16, and I made reference to it this morning, He asked the disciples, who do
men say that I, the son of man, am? Talk about prophets and so
forth. Who art thou? Who do you say
that I am? We say that you're the Christ,
the son of the living God. Shortly after that, Peter took
him aside for this reason. Our Lord then said to them, first
time very publicly, he said, I must go to Jerusalem. I must
suffer many things of the chief priests and scribes. I must be
killed. I must be raised again the third
day. And Peter said, Lord, let me talk to you about this. And
he pulled the Savior aside. And he said, be it far from thee,
Lord. This shall not be unto thee.
And the Lord rebuked him and said, Get thee behind me, Satan,
for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that
be of men. You see, our Lord Jesus was not
reluctant to go to the cross. He had a determination. He takes
the lead. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
50. Isaiah chapter 50. He's not a follower. He's the
leader. He's the one who's in charge.
Isaiah chapter 50. Notice in verse 5. I'll start
reading at verse 5. Isaiah 50 verse 5. The Lord God
hath opened mine 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. I hid not my face
from shame and spitting. He didn't hide from them. When
they came to arrest him, who took the lead? He saw them coming with their
Torches and spears and so forth and swords. Here's this great
band of men coming after the Lord Jesus. He said, Whom seek
ye? He didn't step back in the shadows
to hide. He steps forward. Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.
He said, I am. And they all fell about backwards,
remember? Knocked him to the ground. And
they got up, dusted themselves off, and he said, whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I told you, I am he. If you seek me, let these go
their way. You can't have me and them. He's
taken the lead. He's not a follower. He's like
the mighty goat. He leads the way. He is bent
on going to Jerusalem. Look at what it says here in
verse 7. He says, For the Lord God will
help me, therefore shall I not be confounded, therefore I have
set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. I'm not going to be disappointed.
I won't be disappointed in my mission, I won't be disappointed
in my ministry. I won't be disappointed by what's
about to happen. I'm going to lay down my life
for the sheep. I'll lay it down. He said, I
have the power to lay it down. They couldn't take his life from
him. He said, I have the power to lay it down and I have the
power to take it again. This commandment have I received
from my father. He said, I've set my face like
a flint. Here's determination. I was reading. I'm not familiar
with goats, except spiritual ones. I've had a little few experiences
with some spiritual goats. But I'm not a goat herder, and
I wouldn't profess to be. I don't know too much about them.
What I know about them, I've read about them. And although
they can be very stubborn, very headstrong, there was nobody
more headstrong than our Savior. He set His face like a flint. His disciples said, don't go
to Jerusalem. Don't you know they want to kill
you? Do you think that held Him back? It was for that purpose He came
into the world. Why, he's the Savior sent by
the Father to redeem those whom God gave him in covenant grace.
He came on person, on a personal mission to save his people from
their sins. All with determination. Lo, I
come to do thy will, O God. Secondly, turn to Proverbs chapter
27. Proverbs chapter 27. And I'll
tell you, the way I prepared this message, stick with the
scriptures, and I just, I looked up and read every verse in the
Bible that had goat or goats or kid or kids in the verses. And I pulled some of them out.
You perhaps could, some things might be added to this, but you'll
get the gist of what I'm talking about here. Proverbs chapter
27, look at verse 26. The lambs are for thy clothing,
and the goats, they're the price of the field. In other words,
goats were used for purchasing land, possessions. Let me tell you something, our
Lord Jesus, he purchased us. with his blood. What was the
price of redemption? It wasn't his good works, though
they were necessary and they were glorious. But it wasn't
his good works that he did. It wasn't the miracles that he
did. It wasn't the healings that he administered to those who
were sick. That means by which he bought
us. with His own precious blood. No other price would satisfy
God. Sins, you see, they demand, according
to the purpose of God, the law of God, sins demand death. Death! Blood! Our Lord Jesus didn't die a peaceful
death. He wasn't put to sleep. Even when they at first offered
him the wine that kind of dulled the senses, he wouldn't take
it. Because that which he had to
endure for us was the fierceness of the fury of God's wrath. And nothing would dull that.
He would taste the bitterness of divine judgment himself. and drink the cup of justice
dry. And that's how he bought us. A goat was used as the purchase
price. Thirdly, a goat was good for
food, for milk, and meat. Read the next verse. And thou
shalt have goat's milk enough for thy food, and for the food
of thy household, and for the maintenance of thy maidens."
I read this, goats were, they were highly prized by Hebrew
families. What was the reason? A female
goat produced either two or three kids a year, and therefore the
family had milk to drink, and the butter made from the milk,
and then the kids could be used, as they grew a little bit, for
food, for meat. Our Lord Jesus, in that way,
He's like a goat to us. He's milk for the weak and the
young. He's meat for the strong men. He's milk. He strengthens our
spiritual bones. And He's meat. We feast on Him. Our Lord Jesus said this, My
flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that
eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and
I in him. He is the food of his people.
And how nutritionally deprived are those congregations who only
occasionally hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Congregation's
not going to be strengthened. Well, we need to preach more
Christian living, preacher. Tell us about the responsibilities
of the family. Tell us what we need to be doing. We need to be going to Christ
Jesus over and over again, learning anew the gospel of His grace,
and that puts within us a desire to honor Him, and to serve Him,
and to worship Him, and to bless Him. I don't know of a more Christian
message that we could ever present than the message that Jesus Christ
died for sinners, was buried and rose again the third day.
That's milk, folks. That's meat. The goat provided
milk for the family and meat for the family. Fourthly, a goat
skin was used for warmth. to cover them. Now, in order for the goat skin
to be suitable clothing or a coat for someone, what was necessary? The goat had to die. I don't know what kind of animal
God killed in Genesis chapter 3 to clothe our naked parents. Could have been a sheep, could
have been a bullock, could have been a goat. But I know this,
before they could ever be clothed, there had to be death. And before
you and I could be robed in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, he had to die. He was obedient
unto God in all things, up to and including his death. And he covers us. In Hebrews 11, verse 37, it talks
about the Old Testament saints of God. It says they wandered
about in sheepskins and goatskins. It's like you got a good coat
on there, brother or sister. Yeah, it's from a goat that was
killed. And I'm telling you, we have
not a pasted on righteousness, but we're made the righteousness
of God in Christ Jesus because the goat or the lamb of our Savior
died for our sins. providing for us a righteousness
God approves of, because it's a righteousness equal to the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Fifthly, a goat, though used
for food, was considered to be the least tasteful of all foods
food for the poor. Let me make good on that. Turn
to Luke chapter 15, and you'll recognize, those of you who are
familiar with the scriptures will recognize Luke chapter 15
as being the parable of lost things. Lost sheep, lost coin,
lost son. We know when the lost son, we
call him the prodigal son, when he came home, He had a little
speech prepared for his father, but here's what the father said.
Look at verse 22. Luke 15, 22. But the father said
to his servants, bring forth the best robe, put it on him.
That's the robe of righteousness of Christ. Put a ring on his
finger. That's the ring of sonship. Shoes
on his feet, our feeders shod with the gospel of peace. And
look at verse 25. And bring hither the fatted calf,
and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. And so the father put
on this very extravagant banquet, invited everybody to come. My
son, my son was dead, he's alive again, he was lost, he's found.
And they all began to be merry. Everybody except the older brother. And he wasn't any too happy about
this. He was in the field. Verse 25
says that. He called one of his servants
and said, what's going on? I hear music and partying. He
said to him, verse 27, Thy brother is come, and thy father hath
killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and
sound. And the older brother is angry,
and would not go in. Therefore came his father out,
and entreated him, Come on in, son. Come on in and join. Join in the merriment. Your brother's
come home. And he answering said to his
father, lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed
I at any time thy commandment, and thou never gavest me, and
the idea here is you never gave me even so much as a goat to be served to my brethren,
or to my friends. Not that you killed the fatted
calf, the best. You killed the best for my younger
brother who wasted his living on women and wine and wantonness
in the world. And you hadn't even provided
so much as a goat for me and my friends. The goat was the
lowest kind of meat used by the poor. You see, our Lord Jesus, He is
despised and rejected of men. He's unworthy of the faith and
confidence of most people. You know who will feast on Him? The poor and the needy. I love what the psalmist says,
I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me. I tell you, Christ is food, a
food that he's not tasteful to most of the people. He and his
gospel, his way of saving sinners by grace alone, that's distasteful. It's unsavory meat. To the vast
majority of people, to the religious folks of the world, they turn
thumbs down on such a meat as Christ Jesus, the only savior
of sinners. But if God makes you realize
you're poor and needy, you'll feast on him by faith. And you'll
find he's all you need. He's food for the poor people.
The Lord said to the lay out of sins, you think you're rich
and increased with goods. You don't even realize you're
poor and needy and wretched and blind. I tell you what, you show me
somebody who's hungry and you don't have any steak from the
finest fatted calf available, but you got a little goat meat.
You put that before him and watch him tear into it. And I'll tell you what, you sit
before people, Christ Jesus, the goat and the lamb. He's never called the goat of
God. He's called the lamb of God. I understand that distinction. But our Lord Jesus, he is the
one upon whom we feed. He's the one who, he robes us
and he clothes us. Sixthly, and I've got to go quickly,
a goatskin was used for water bottles. Leather canteens or leather bottles
or bags for weary, thirsty travelers to drink water out of. That's
what they used. The leather from a goat. Goat
skin. Christ Jesus is the water of
life, and he's the one in whom all the water of life is to be
found. We drink of him. And I'll give
you one last one. A goat had horns. A goat had horns. In the Bible,
The horn is the symbol of power. The goat, I read this afternoon,
stands up to any predator, to any enemy, using his horns
as weapon, but also for the defense of the flock. The scripture says, The Lord
is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my
strength, in whom I will trust, my butler, and the horn of my
salvation, and my high tower." In Luke chapter 1, the father
of John the Baptist said, God has raised up a horn of salvation
for us in the house of David. You see, in many ways, he is
likened unto a lamb. But a lamb is not a one who goes
after the enemy. A lamb is timid. A lamb is meek. And certainly our Lord had those
characteristics. But he's also like a goat. He
protects his people. He is the defender of his elect. Those redeemed by his blood shall
not be mortally wounded by the enemy. For the goat, our Lord
Jesus, the leader, he is a mighty defender, mighty defender. Of a lamb, we know lambs are
harmless. And our Lord bears that characteristic
too. But he's not harmless to his
enemies. and you stand in his way, you'll
find out this one who is the horn of our salvation, he will
take care of you in short order. He's the one who's out front,
and we're the flock behind him. He leads the way. Yep, here's determination and
leadership, purchase price, Food, milk, and meat. Skin used for
warmth. Though used for food, it was
considered to be food only for the poor. Skin used for water
bottles. Horns used for defense. And dominance. Dominance. The goat will show
you who's boss. who's in charge. You're not.
And in that way, you know, our Lord, He is meek and mild toward
His people. But if you get in His way, you'll
find out He's very stubborn. You bow or perish. That's the way it is. There's
just no two ways about it. Well, that's what I came up with
this week about goats. And sister, I trust that that
properly answers your question. Our Lord Jesus, typified in so
many ways. You say, why? Why is Christ Jesus
typified by lambs and goats and other animals, bullocks? Why
so many different ways? Because no one picture can tell
it all. All of these, all of these Old
Testament pictures and types and portraits of our Savior,
no one of them can tell the whole story. But all we need to know is the
Savior Himself and His finished, successful work of redemption. Let's sing a closing song.