I feel rather spoiled getting
to see you two weeks in a row. It's a great blessing for me.
If you would, open your Bibles with me tonight to Genesis chapter
35. Genesis chapter 35. I've titled the message this
evening, Son of Sorrow and Joy. What I hope the Lord will be
pleased to show us is a picture of Christ in Jacob's last son,
Benjamin. Our text begins in verse 16 of
Genesis chapter 35. And they journeyed from Bethel.
There at Bethel, the Lord met Jacob again, blessed him again,
reiterated his covenant, reconfirmed his covenant promises to Jacob,
and they journeyed from Bethel. And there was but a little way
to come to Ephrata. 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, thou
shalt have this son also. And it came to pass that her
soul was in departing, for she died. That she called his name
Benoni, but his father called him Benjamin. And Rachel died
and was buried in the way to Ephrata, which is Bethlehem.
And Jacob set a pillar upon her grave. That is the pillar of
Rachel's grave unto this day. Now here and there, Jacob and
his family are returning back home to Jacob's homeland. And as they traveled, Jacob's
dear wife, the wife that he loved the most, died in childbirth.
And you know this was a very, very hard trial for Jacob. Here
everyone's expecting the happy arrival of a new baby that they'd
bounce on their knee, and Jacob's most loved wife died giving birth
to that child. Now, this was a hard, hard trial
for Jacob to endure. The Lord had just blessed him
at Bethel, revealed his covenant, reconfirmed his covenant to Jacob,
and almost immediately, Jacob endured this hard, hard trial.
If you live long enough, you'll find that's the life of a believer. Now, all of this happened as
a result of Adam's fall, didn't it? Remember, after the fall
of the Lord told Eve, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow like
conception. It is sorrow thou shalt bring
forth children. And that's what Rachel experienced
here. She was dying in hard labor. She endured the sorrow of labor. And that's why she named the
baby Benoni. That name means the son of my
sorrow. That's a nice name to hang on
a little fellow, isn't it? The son of my sorrow. Now before
we go on looking at Benjamin, there's a picture of Christ.
There's something I want us to notice here. I believe it would
be helpful. Moses wrote that Rachel's soul
departed. Now Rachel died, her body died,
but her soul didn't die. Her soul departed. Her soul went
somewhere else. And here's why I point this out.
It's for the comfort of those who have loved ones who have
died trusting Christ. Their bodies died. But my friend,
they are living. Their souls are living. There's
no such thing as soul sleep. People try to tell you that both
the body and soul are asleep in the grave until Christ returns
and there's a resurrection. That's not so. Our souls never
die. When the body dies, the soul
departs. It's going to go somewhere. And
for the believer, that is the most wonderful moment, the best
moment of our life, when our soul departs this sinful body. Because for the believer, the
soul departs to go be with the Lord. It's exactly like our Lord
told that people on the cross. Today, shalt thou be with me
in paradise. To be absent from the body, is
to be present with the Lord. Souls depart and go somewhere. And for the believer, they go
to be with the Lord. Eternal bliss, eternal glory,
eternal joy. And the reason that the souls
of believers go be with the Lord is because of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Because of who he is and what
he's accomplished for his people. And that's what Benjamin pictures.
Rachel named this baby Benoni, the son of my sorrow. But Jacob
changed his name. Jacob changed his name to Benjamin,
which means the son of the right hand. Jacob didn't want everybody
thinking about Rachel's sorrow and death and childbirth every
time they saw this boy and called his name. So he changed his name
to the son of the right hand. That name means the son who's
in the place of honor, the son who's in the place of status.
This is Jacob's last son, and Jacob is an older man now. And
what I've heard for many years and now have learned by experience,
older men tend to enjoy those babies more. Jacob is not so
busy trying to scratch out a living. His family's provided for, kind
of settled now. And Jacob's older. Now he realizes
much more than he did when he was a young man, the brevity
of life. How quickly this thing goes.
And he's able to take time to enjoy this new baby. He enjoys
that child. You know he did. But at the same
time, What a great trial this is for him to endure. Jacob's
heart is absolutely broken when Rachel died. He loved her from
the moment he saw her. And now his heart's broken. But
at the same time, just as true, this baby boy is bringing him
so much joy. And tonight I want us to see
how Benjamin, with his two names, is a picture of Christ our Savior.
Who he is and how he has accomplished the salvation of his people.
Benjamin is born just about a half mile outside of Bethlehem, where
some years later the Savior will be born. He's a picture of Christ.
And Benjamin's two names picture Christ our Savior, who's both
the man of sorrows and the Son of God's right hand. And if the
Lord Jesus Christ is going to be the Savior of sinners, He
must be both. He must be the Son of Sorrows.
And He also must be the Son of the Father's right hand. So first,
let's look at Christ, the Man of Sorrows. Look at Isaiah chapter
53. Here's Christ, the Man of Sorrows. Isaiah 53, verse 2. For he should grow up before
him as a tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground. He hath
no form or countenance, and when we shall see him, there is no
beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected
a man, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, and we
hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. This word sorrows in verse three,
it means physical and mental pain. And acquainted, he's acquainted
with grief. That word means he's caused to
know. The Lord Jesus Christ is caused
to know grief. And that word grief means sickness. Referring to sin, sickness. Now
this is the Son of God. When he became flesh, he became
a real man, he was caused to know every kind of sorrow and
grief that there is. He knew mental sorrows. Isaiah says there's no form or
comeliness that we should see and there's no beauty that we
should desire in. Apparently the Savior was a physically
unattractive man. You see all these paintings and
when they have a movie of the person they cast playing the
role of Jesus, it's always six foot two, six foot three, better
looking and taller than you know everybody. has a kind of a glow,
you know, halo. That's not the Lord Jesus. He
was a common, ordinary man. From what we read, it seems to
indicate there's no physical beauty about him. And let's face
it, this is true as long as man has been on this earth. Physically
beautiful people have more advantages in this world, don't they? Our
Lord did not have that advantage, that physical advantage. If somebody's
going to come to our Lord, it's going to have to be for spiritual
reasons. It's going to have to be a spiritual
need. It's going to have to be because they see a spiritual
beauty in Him, not a physical beauty. There's no physical beauty
that would make people flock to our Savior. He lived such
a hard physical life. People thought he was near 50
when he was just 30 years old. But no beauty, physical beauty
about him. And that made people avoid our
Lord. Now there's sorrow in that. I
know he's the Lord of glory, he knew what he was doing, but
there's sorrow in that. Our Lord knew the sorrow of being
rejected by people that he knew. He's despised and rejected of
men. People in the flesh rejected
the Lord for a variety of reasons, because of His physical appearance.
They rejected Him because of His upbringing. This man's just
a carpenter. He's not been to our schools.
He's just a carpenter, and he's a poor one at that. They rejected
Him for that. They rejected Him because of
where He grew up. Can any good thing come out of
Nazareth? They rejected Him. Now there's sorrow. in being
rejected. Same way you feel when you're
rejected. There's sorrow in that. In words, people rejected our
Lord because they hated His doctrine. Christ our Savior came proclaiming
salvation by grace through faith in Him. not our works of the
law, not the ceremonies of the law. And man by nature hates
that doctrine. Man by nature hates salvation
by grace because man by nature loves our works. We want some
credit, you know, some glory for our works. And our Lord preached
salvation by grace. And he was hated for it. Remember
that time the whole multitude left him? Because he preached
salvation by grace. And all that was left was twelve.
And he offered the enemy, he said, there's the door. You wouldn't
want to go? You know, every believer, and
certainly every preacher of God's grace understands, has got a
taste of this. It's being rejected for our doctrine. By God's grace, this is a fact,
I wouldn't change my message one hair's breadth. Not one hair's
breadth would I change it. so that people would like me
more. In order to attract a bigger
crowd, by God's grace, I would not change my message one iota,
not one. But it still causes you sorrow
when somebody hates you. It still hurts. When they hate
you for telling them the truth. It's just a horrible feeling. And our Savior suffered that.
Oh, how He suffered that. He suffered the physical pain,
the hunger, the thirst, the homelessness. You think about the one that
owns a cattle on a thousand hills. Hungered. The one who created
water. Man, still yet, can't figure
out how to make water. We can't make it rain, but we
want to. The one who sends rain is will. The one who creates
water said, I thirst. I thirst. The king of heaven,
I mean he owns it all. He's the one who gives the fox
his dens to live in and no place to lay his head. He suffered
all of those things because of the people that he came to save.
They suffer all of those things because of the weakness of our
flesh. He came to be the representative of his people, so that everything
we suffer, he can comfort his people by telling us, I know,
I know. In the end, all that he suffered,
How much did he suffer when he suffered for the sin of his people?
Verse 4 of Isaiah 53. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes
we are healed. Our Savior suffered for sin. He suffered everything that sin
is, with the exception of committing it. He suffered every emotion
of sin, every effect of sin. And He suffered that for His
people because that's what it's going to take to save His people
from their sin. You and I are sinners. Sin is
all we know. So, since that's true, you and
I can never imagine the great suffering our Savior endured
when he was made sin. The holy Son of God, who knew
nothing but holiness, was made sin. And the thought of it made
him think his body was going to die. That's how horrible it
is. His suffering is so much greater
than we can ever imagine. He suffered everything that sin
is. Now hold your place there. Look
back at Isaiah 53. Look back at Psalm 40. Our Savior never committed any sin. Never. But He sure felt the guilt
of it. Psalm 40, verse 12. For innumerable evils have compassed
me about. My iniquities have taken hold
upon me so that I'm not able to look up. They're more than
the hairs of my head. Therefore, my heart faileth me."
Now, Psalm 40, this is Christ speaking from the cross. And
he says, my iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I'm not
able to look up. Isaiah wrote, he bore our griefs
and carried our sorrows. This is how truly Christ was
made sin for his people. He was made to be the sin of
his people. As he was suffering for sin,
he didn't call this the sin of my people. He called it mine
iniquities. Those iniquities are his. He
said it right. They're his iniquities. You and
I committed them, but they're his iniquities because the Father
has made him sin for his people. And it had to be that way. If
the Lord was only bearing the sin of someone else, there'd
be no guilt in that, would there? There'd be no guilt in it. Actually,
he'd feel pretty good about himself if he was just going and paying
the debt that he didn't owe. That's very honorable. There's
no guilt in that. He wore his head high. I'm coming
in here to pay a debt I don't know, because I'm so good I'm
paying the debt for somebody else. But that's not what happened. The Savior says the feeling of
guilt, the guilt of sin is so bad, I'm not able to look up. I'm not able to look my Holy
Father in the eye, because I'm guilty. Oh, what a horrible,
horrible feeling. When Janet and I were fairly
newly married, we did what young couples do. We went and bought
us a house. And that banker, I'm telling
you, he had no business making a loan to me and Janet. Mr. Slibeck, his bank president.
We dealt straight with the bank president, Mr. Slibeck. And I
asked Mr. Slibeck some years later, what
in this world possesses you to give me a channel home? His wife
ended up being a teacher for our children. And he said, well,
here's the thing. He said, our bank, we're a local
bank. He said, we still own your mortgage.
We don't sell your mortgage. You're still doing business with
you and me. And he says, being a local bank,
he said, we see you out in the community. And we're in a community
of school functions. He said, I see you at school
functions. I see you at Kroger's. I see you at the mall. He said,
if you weren't paying that mortgage, he said, you'd be so ashamed
you'd be seeing me place that money. You'd be so ashamed. I
said, yes, I would. He said, that's why we gave you
that loan. Our Savior felt the shame of
defaulting on that loan. He felt the shame, the guilt
of sin before his father. He said, I'm not able to look
up, to look my father in the eye. He suffered the shame of
sin. He hung naked between heaven
and earth for all to see, and people mocked him while he died.
Just the humiliation of that. And that's just tip of the iceberg.
The worst part of his suffering was suffering naked before his
father. I can't explain this. He's the
holy son of God, a sinless sacrifice. But when the father made his
son sin for his people, he was stripped of his righteousness,
and he was naked before his father, spiritually naked in shame before
his father. So the worst part of a Savior's
suffering is when His Father, all in eternity, He said, I was
daily the delight of my Father. I was ever with Him. I was with
Him when He prayed. I was with Him. I was daily His
delight. Now His Father shows Him no delight.
Now His Father shows Him nothing but wrath. Look back at Isaiah
53, verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. The Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, was made sin for his people, and the Father
dealt with him in strict, exact justice. The Father in his holy
justice poured out all of his holy anger and hatred and wrath
against sin upon his son. And he held nothing back because
it was his son. He gave his son everything that
sin deserves. And Christ our Savior suffered
until that infinite mountain of sin was gone under his precious
blood. And when the price was paid,
when the Father's justice was satisfied, then and only then
did he give up the ghost. He gave up the ghost and died
because that's what the law demands for sin. There must be death
for sin. And he suffered everything sin
deserves until the price was paid. Hold your place there again. Look at Lamentations chapter
1. I just want us to... I want to
stress this so that we have some comprehension that there has
never been such great suffering before or since. What our Savior
suffered to put away the sin of his people. Lamentations 1
verse 12. Is nothing to you, all ye that
pass by, You think about those that pass by the cross. They're
on their way to Jerusalem. They're on their way to the temple.
They're on their way to observe the Passover. And they just pass
by. These three men being crucified. Here we sit tonight. The Savior
being crucified, being lifted up. Is it nothing to you? Is
it nothing to me? And we've heard this story so
often, it's old news to us. Is nothing to you, all ye that
pass by? Behold and see, if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the
Lord hath afflicted me. Not the Jews, not the Romans,
wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. From above hath he sent fire
into my bones, and it prevailed against them. He hath spread
a net for my feet, he hath turned me back, It made me desolate
and faint all the day. The yoke of my transgression
is bound by his hand. There are wreaths that come upon
my neck. The Father made him see and he
wreathed those things upon his neck. It made my strength to
fall. The Lord hath delivered me to
their hands from whom I am not able to rise up. The Lord hath
trodden underfoot all my mighty men in the midst of me. He hath
called an assembly against me to crush my young men. The Lord
hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judas, in a winepress.
For these things I weep. Mine eye runs down with water,
because the comfort that should relieve my soul is far from me. My children are desolate because
the enemy prevailed. Oh, how the Savior suffered. Far greater than you and I can
imagine. But he suffered. Everything sin
deserves. Everything. So his people never
will. The songwriter said, Man of Sorrows,
what a name for the son of God who came. He came in the flesh
and truly he's called the Man of Sorrows because of the great
sufferings that he endured to save his people from their sin.
He suffered till the price was paid, the Man of Sorrows. But
here's the second thing, look back in Isaiah 53. Christ is
the man of sorrows, but he's also the son of the Father's
right hand. Christ our Savior suffered as no one ever suffered. But now, his suffering is over. He'll never suffer again. Now
he's exalted. Go back and read verse 10 of
Isaiah 53 again. Yet it pleased the Lord to produce him. He hath
put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong
his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hand. He shall see of the travail of
his soul, and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Now, Rachel, for a short time,
saw the fruit of her travail, didn't she? She saw that baby
boy, Benoni, the son of her sorrow. But she died, and she never got
to hold that precious baby and do all those things with that
precious child like she had hoped to. And that can happen. That can happen, because death
is the result of sin. I recently read an article in
the news. I forget the exact numbers, but
it's shocking, utterly shocking to me. In the United States of
America, with the best medical care that there is in the world,
the infant mortality rate How many stillborn children, babies,
die at birth? And how many mothers still today
die in childbirth in the United States of America? Shocking. All our knowledge and all our
medical expertise can't stop the effect of sin, even in this
most natural thing of childbirth. It still happens today like it
happened to Rachel. But you listen to me. That will
never, ever happen to Christ our Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ
will not suffer in vain for anyone. He'll never travail and suffer
and die to put away the sin of some poor sinner and then never
get to enjoy the life of that sinner. Never. Christ our Savior
always enjoys seeing his children have life, eternal life. And here's the reason. He died
in their place so they can never die. He died in their place. They can never be stillborn.
They must have eternal life. They must, because Christ already
died in their place. He died as a sacrifice for their
sin. He died as their substitute. They must live, because He took
away every reason for their death. The sacrifice of Christ put away
all the effect of sin from the souls of his people so they can
never suffer it. We looked a minute ago how Christ
suffered the guilt of sin, so his people never will. See, Christ
took the guilt of sin away from his people when he took their
sin away. There's nothing for the believer to feel guilty about. Not for the Father. because the
blood of Christ has washed away our sin from us. There's no reason
for the Father to condemn his people, ever, because the sacrifice
of Christ made them not guilty. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered
all the shame of sin of his people. So God's people, while we have
a lot to be ashamed about with each other, will never stand
before the throne of God ashamed. Never. Because we have nothing
to be ashamed of. The debt of sin has been paid. God's people will not stand before
God naked. Not ever. Because they're fully
clothed in the best robe. The robe of Christ's righteousness. And that robe is not just a robe
that's covered in the dirt and filth and shame of sin that's
still there. They're clothed in the righteousness of Christ,
made righteous through and through. So there's nothing to be ashamed
of. They're made the very righteousness of God in Him. And the point I'm trying to make
is this. The death of Christ is factual. It got the job done. The suffering and death of Christ
saved and cleansed everyone that He intended to save, without
exception. I'm afraid if Christ died for
you, you must be saved. You must be given eternal life. The very justice of God demands
it. When Christ has made sin, God's
justice demands he die. That's a fact, isn't it? Now that Christ has died, that
very same justice demands you live if Christ died for your
sin. They must be given. Everyone
for whom Christ died must be given eternal life. Because they
have no sin. The Lord Jesus accomplished the
mission that the Father sent Him to do. And since He did,
look at Hebrews chapter 1. Hebrews chapter 1. Since He did,
the Father has exalted Him to His right hand. He's the Son
of the Father's right hand. Hebrews 1 verse 3. who being the brightness of his
glory, and to express the exact image of his person, and upholding
all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself
purged our sins, put them away, what did he do? He sat down on
the right hand of the majesty on high. He sat down on the right
hand of his father. He's the son of the father's
right hand. And the right hand means the
place of status. Well, that's a fitting place
for the man who's been given a name which is above every name
in it, the place of status. It is his father's right hand.
The right hand also means the place of the ruler, or the place
of the one who has all authority and power. Well, that's a fitting
place for Christ to sit. The Father has made Him Lord
of all and given Him power over all flesh that He should give
eternal life to as many as the Father has given Him. Look at
verse 13 of Hebrews chapter 1. But to which of the angels said
he at any time, sit on my right hand. Thy make thy enemies, thy
footstool. He didn't say that to anybody,
but Christ the Savior did. Giving him the place of all authority
and all power. You remember our brother Stephen
was dying as a martyr. He said he looked up, and you
know what he said he saw? He said he saw Christ at the right
hand of God. And what's the Savior doing?
That's where he's at. He's at the right hand of the
Father. What's he doing there? What he's doing there is so far
beyond my pay grade, I can't begin to start to understand.
But there's two things I know he's doing there. First one is
this, Christ is at the right hand of the Father, guaranteeing
the salvation of his people. In Acts 2 verse 25, For David
speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face,
for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. The Lord Jesus Christ is on the
Father's right hand, the place of acceptance, the place of status,
the place of authority, that his people should never be moved. I can't be moved if Christ my
Savior is at the Father's right hand. And the second thing that
Christ is doing at the right hand of the Father is making
intercession for the sin of his people. Romans 8, 34. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. He suffered. But more than that,
He's risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. Christ our Savior makes intercession
for his people, and he does it without saying a word. He's not
constantly begging the Father, oh, forgive him for that one,
oh, forgive him for that one, oh, forgive him for that one,
like he's afraid he's going to miss one. He makes intercession for
his people without saying a word. Here he sits at the Father's
right hand, in full view of the Father. And the scars that are
in his body are the constant evidence Christ suffered. He was sacrificed for the sin
of his people. It's that sacrifice that has
made his people not guilty. And those scars are the constant
evidence He did what the Father sent Him to do. He put away the
sin of His people, and He's exalted at the Father's right hand because
He got the job done. Now, what a Savior we have. He's
both the Man of Sorrows and the Son of the Father's right hand.
Our Savior is at the Father's right hand, exalted. You know
why? Because as the Man of Sorrows,
He did what the Father sent Him to do. put away the sin of His
people. And it's that Son, with those
two names, that guarantees the salvation of God's people. That's
the Savior we've been given to preach. Now look to Him. That's the commandment of the
gospel is believe. Look to Him. Believe on Him. you'll find salvation
for your soul. All right. I thank you all for
having me again. Pray God bless that to you.