Much like many of you, I don't
like to tell your pastor no. He keeps picking on me, it's
getting easier. It's a privilege to be here, I'm thankful to see
you all again. If you will, be turning to Genesis
chapter 30. Genesis chapter 30. This is about the time, we remember
Jacob went looking for a wife and found Rachel, he served seven
years, he got Leah. And he served seven more years,
Finally has Rachel and now they have a son. But before we look
at this and his payment, his hire, these sheep that he would
take and the goats that are speckled and spotted and ring-streaked
and brown. That's everything undesirable,
isn't it? Little spots, big spots, bands on them are all brown.
We want white sheep, don't we? That's gonna be his payment.
I wanna give you, we call it BLUF. It's an acronym. Bottom
line up front. In case I miss anything or I,
get lost in my notes or lose my vision or something. I'm going
to tell you everything I've got to tell you up front and then
we'll see it come to pass, okay? Laban here pictures several things.
We'll see little glimpses. He's trifocal. He pictures the
law. He has to be satisfied. That's Jacob's father-in-law.
He has to be satisfied first. And he pictures unbelievers.
That's his attitude. He doesn't see things through
the gospel lens. He doesn't see things as Christ
has revealed to be true in this earth. And he pictures this world. He ain't for us. He ain't for
Jacob. He's out to take care of himself. It may look beneficial, but he's
going to jump on a good deal with the first thing coming.
And then Jacob here in this story pictures the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the faithful husband to
his bride, and he's the one that has the sheep. They're his sheep.
And he takes all the undesirable ones. The ones that ain't worth
it, you only take them to auction. They might be worth some meat,
but they're not worth for show or breeding stock. And nobody
wants those, and he said, give those mine. Give those to me.
Just like the Lord said, he said, for my son and so on, too, I'll
give the heathen for your inheritance. I read that. Who wants heathen?
Can't I get money or maybe some cars or something? The Lord said,
give those to me. I'll take them. He does. So Jacob
pictures Christ in this. Try to see that. Any guesses
as to who the little spots, big spots, ring, striped, and brown
are? That's us, isn't it? This was a blessing to me, and
truth, I'm thankful for you men that prayed for me. The Lord
says, Lo, I'm with you always. And he said, I'll never leave
you, I'll never forsake you, but boy, we inquire for his presence,
don't we? We ask him to. And I pray this
will, this is sweet to me, I pray it's sweet to you. Genesis chapter
30. We'll begin there in verse 25. In Genesis 30, 25 it says, and
it came to pass when Rachel had born Joseph that Jacob said unto
Laban, that's his father-in-law, send me away that I may go unto
mine own place and to my country. Give me my wives and my children
for whom I have served thee and let me go. For thou knowest my
service which I have done thee. It says there in verse 25, it
came to pass What happened for this to come to pass? Absolutely
everything throughout time. If the Lord records this moment,
we ought to pay attention, shouldn't we? Jacob had left his father's
land, and remember, he had received that blessing of the firstborn.
He was entitled, had the right to everything, and there was
a bunch to be had, wasn't it? And he had that blessing, and
he was told by his father. His father said, you come to
this specific place, to this specific family, and you go find
yourself a bride. And they go down there. And he
did, he left, he come down. And he came, and other than his
brides, for those seven years each, he didn't take a wage the
whole time. There's a lot of people, I've
heard good things and bad things about Lee and Rachel, if it's
Jew or Gentile. Christ fulfilled a perfect purchase. for his bride. And we read that
there's neither Jew nor Greek, neither bond nor free, male nor
female, but we're all in one in Christ our Lord and our kinsman
redeemer. And he laid down his life once
in perfection for his bride. That's what he did. Now those
wives are a picture of Christ's bride and Laban here's a temporary
picture of the law. He's gotta be satisfied. He pictures
a lot of things about this, but he's gotta be satisfied. He's
been fulfilled. And that last child's born, all
his time's been committed to him, and it's time for the whole
family to pack up and go to the promised land, to go back where
they came from. But something takes place here
in verse 27. It says, And Laban said unto
him, I pray thee, if I have found favor in thy eyes, Terry, you
stay a little bit longer. Why? For, because, I've learned
by experience that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake. Jacob said, I've fulfilled everything,
I'm going home. I'm taking my family that's rightfully mine,
and I'm going back to my father. And Laban here says, will you
please just stay with me? Because I've learned I fare a
whole lot better when you're around. Now he had to been satisfied
with those seven years for that bride, and he has been. But here
is a picture of an unbeliever, the attitude of an unbeliever.
There's another acronym with him, what's in it for me? How
can I benefit? Laban saw through experience.
He had lived for 14 years there, watching this boy Jacob there,
and everything that happened, and he saw that he was increased.
He didn't have much going for him whenever Jacob had showed
up. He's okay, but this guy showed up, and business has been booming
for 14 years. And my daughters are happy, my
grandchildren are happy, everything's good. And he saw this, and he
says, you know what? God's blessed Jacob. What a frightening thing to have
that attitude. And think, he's blessed him, what can I get out
of it? That's so, that happened to Abimelech,
he went talking to Abraham one time and it says there in Genesis
21, it said, it came to pass, that's an important time too,
that Abimelech and the chief captain, they came to Abraham
and speaking to him and saying, God is with thee in all that
thou doest. I don't want to observe Just
watch the Lord work. I want Him to work in me. I want
Him to work in you. I don't want to just witness
these things, just stand off to the side and say, well, that
was interesting. I'm going to go on about my business. I want Him to work
in me. I do. I want Him to work in you. In the military, and I'm sure
some of my brethren here have experienced this, there were
some times I experienced in other countries that were unpleasant.
And either through what happened, And they would say, you're not
smart enough to figure that out. Or you're not lucky enough for that
to happen. And I told them, well, the Lord's going to take care
of me, and he may be pleased to kill me. Like those three Hebrew children,
the Lord may kill me. And that's his business. But
he's on his throne no matter what kind of thing. And I've
actually had people tell me, they said, if I had a God, it'd
be your God. My heart hurt for them so bad.
But they observed these things, and they said, you ain't like
other folks. And I said, well, I'm peculiar. My whole family's
peculiar. They're peculiar people. But
they had that testimony. And if the unbeliever sees these
things and sees it in your life, you've experienced that. You
ain't like other folks. But for the believer, you've
experienced this in yourself. You have a new creation in you
and you see these things and you witness. You're just watching
what the Lord's done and you just tell the whole truth and
nothing but the truth. We don't have to profess to things we
don't know. Like that blind man, it kept getting simpler and simpler
and simpler until he just said, I was blind and now I see. I
don't know what it takes. That's what happened. You can't
convince him otherwise. And he would prefer everyone
see. But I see. I know that. And I'll
tell you who did it. The believers experienced these
things. And we know that the sole reason, 100% unquestioning,
the only reason I'm blessed or you're blessed or anybody else
blessed is because of the Lord, because of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And it's his doing. And we know it's for his sake.
It's for his glory. There's things in this world,
I was talking earlier, I like air conditioning. I like running
water. I like those. I can live without it. I've done
it a lot. I'd prefer those things, right? And wouldn't Christ's
glory be best? If somebody sits down and explains,
hey, we're going to do this and this is what's going to happen.
And this is, according to the scriptures, this is for the glory
of the Lord. All things are, but to see that, have that in
the forefront of our mind, that's a blessing, isn't it? That's
contentment. We're happy for those things. And the Lord's
proven his word to us. It says it there, just like with
the numbering of Israel. It says plainly, if you don't
take a half shekel of the sanctuary, plagues coming. Guess what? Plagues
coming. The Lord said so, and that and
other things. Throughout time in our lives, we see the Lord
proves himself. That's what that says, and he's true. It's so. He proves himself to us over
and over again, and I'm thankful for his patience. I'm gonna tell
you one time, and that's it. He says, come now, let's reason
together. Speaks to us like children, don't it? We learn to take pleasures
in infirmities, the believer does. And we say, well, this
is hard. I wish this trial didn't happen.
but we're gonna see Christ in it. And what's the world say?
What's Laban say? You're nuts. You're crazy. What's wrong with you? And we
said, no, the Lord said this. He's on his throne and he'll
bless his children in it. We've learned to take pleasures
in reproaches and necessities and persecutions and distresses. Why? For Christ's sake. It's
his will and it's for his glory. That's why it's coming to place.
And I heard 2 Corinthians says, for this thing I besought the
Lord thrice, Paul said. Three times Paul asked that it
might depart from him. And the Lord answered and said,
my grace is sufficient for thee, my strength's made perfect in
weakness. And Paul's response was, most gladly will I rather
glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest
upon me. Knowing his power, he's revealed
himself to us. If that ain't good news, I don't
know what is. And he won't forsake his own. He won't fail. And all
the work that needs done is done. Therefore, I take pleasure in
infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions
and distresses for Christ's sake, for when I'm weak, and that's
pretty weak, and it hits every angle that you can think of,
then am I strong, because he's my strength. My strength's not
an idea, it's not a philosophy, it's not a systematic theology,
it's a person, and he's proved himself. If any person is blessed
with eternal life, it is solely because of and for Christ's sake. That's it. That don't make you mean. I've experienced this. It don't
make you mean. It makes you want to be a blessing
to others. Not just get a blessing like Clayton. I want to be a
blessing. I lack nothing. You might die
today. Okay, good. It's the Lord's will
and I'm going to be with him. I want to be a blessing to others.
Let me tell you about him. Paul said there in Ephesians
4, that's for Christ's sake too. He said, be ye kind to one another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as, in the same
manner, that God, for Christ's sake, it's all because of him,
hath forgiven you. Let that mind be in you. Poor
Laban, he was self-serving though, wasn't he? He's a picture of
this world. Look here at verse 28. And he said, appoint me thy
wages and I'll give it. That seems so innocent. Seems
nice almost, doesn't it? Tell me what you need. Tell me
what you need. That's a good sales tactic. I
don't know if any of y'all have ever been in sales when you was
younger or now or you may be in the future. Don't offer up
no more than you have to. Worldly, don't tell everything
you know to just, well, what do you need? That was his attitude. Well, he's a good businessman,
right? No, he's not. It wasn't until Jacob showed up, but what
was the heart of that? He wasn't abundantly generous,
was he? What can we do more? What can
we do? The Lord's abundant to us, hasn't
he? In mercy and grace and food in this nation, and patience. He's abundant towards us, and
that spirit in us wants to be abundant. Not just, well, what's
the minimum that we can get by with? What do you need? Just tell me what'll suffice,
and that's what we'll do. I need to be reminded often,
and I want my children reminded of this, the world ain't out
for my benefit. There's some nice people and
people I've done business with and those things, but this world's
contrary to the believer. It is. Jacob's reply to his wages. Look here in verse 29. He said
unto them, Jacob's speaking, he says, thou knowest how I've
served thee and how thy cattle was with me. Now he's talking
about what's most important to Laban. This is the most important
thing to him. This is more important than his
daughters were to him. He treated his daughters like
cattle. And he swapped them out and traded them and everything
else. He's speaking about his cow, verse 30. For it was little
which thou hast before I came. You didn't have much. And it
is now increased unto a multitude, and the Lord hath blessed thee
since my coming. You see what the Lord's done,
and you know it. He's convincing the gainsayers is what he's doing.
You know exactly what happened, and I'm telling you God did it.
Now, and now when I shall provide for my own house also. I've done
everything for you. I've provided everything for
you. The Lord's done this. I've worked for you without a wage, and now
I haven't put anything back for my family, and now I've got to
provide for my family. Jacob served faithfully as unto
the Lord, but he served without any salary apart from his wife's
for 14 years. He didn't receive a wage. He
says, I've been looking for your cattle after your cattle all
these years, and I haven't been able to provide for my own family.
You know, this is a picture of our Lord. This is good contract
negotiation. I told you Jacob's Christ in this, right? He made
himself of no reputation. Took the form of a servant and
didn't have a place to lay his head. He didn't own any property.
He didn't own any cattle in this world. Nothing to call his own. Yet, at the same time, he owned
everything, didn't he? Jacob had all the, Jacob, physical
Jacob, he had all the riches of his father's back home, as
rightfully he is. But here he was as a poor, unpaid servant. Why? For the love of his bride.
For love's sake, because he wanted to. That's it. This son, this
son owns a cattle on a thousand hills, don't he? But he came
for his bride in this world. He did. That's what Paul told
the church at Philippi. He said, let this mine be in
you. Which also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Why? He's God.
But he made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of
a servant, and he was made in the likeness of men. And being
found in the fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And I thought,
boy, you know what? I want to be obedient to death.
I want to be, that's the, Test of a watchman if he's faithful
to the end. How am I going to look to the one who's faithful?
I want the Lord to make me faithfully look to him who is the faithful
one. All the way till I leave this earth. That's what I want. You want that too. Not for fame,
not for promotion, not for my lineage or heritage, none of
those things, but for the lover of the Redeemer. Because he first
loved me. He first loved you. And I want
to make that love effectual to the end. That's what's going
to remain. Faith's gonna be gone. Hope's gonna be gone. What's
gonna be left? Love, because we're seeing right face to face.
It's eternal. We were little, like Laban. Laban's
kind of a picture of us, an old man too, isn't he? We were little,
we didn't have anything of our own but sin, and Christ came
and he's increased us, and it's been amazing. Unmeasurable. Laban, he was greatly blessed
because of Jacob's sake, because the Lord did it, because he was
there. But now it's time for Jacob to provide for his own
family. Look here in verse 31. And he said, what shall I give
thee? And Jacob said, thou shalt not give me anything. You ain't
giving me nothing. Wait a second, I thought we was
negotiating a good contract here. You were primed for the taking.
Natural man, when it comes to this matter of salmation, the
first thing I thought, you thought, everybody thought, everybody
born of Adam, what must I do? What must I give? What must I
say? What must I act out? All those
things. What can I give God to indebt
Him to me? What must I do to earn His favor?
Nothing. We have nothing to give. There's
some different things I've heard over the years, you've heard
over the years. Many say, well, give your heart to Jesus. Why would He
want that thing? What's the heart? Well, you know,
everybody's good at heart. That's not what the scriptures
say at all. It says the heart's deceitful above all things, above
everything. The heart's deceitful and desperately
wicked. Who can know it? We don't want
that. Well, what about our righteousness?
What's that? Our clean living, our morality, our good deeds
and works? No. We are all as an unclean
thing and all our righteousness, all of it, everything. It says,
filthy rags. And I used to think when I was
a little kid that was dirty shop rags that you change oil with.
No, that's not. Use menstruation cloths. That's
as polite as I can say it. Disgusting things. That's the
absolute best we could think of. All of it. We can't bring
our works. We can't bring our morality.
Well, what about our will? Well, I can choose to at least
have the right attitude. My heart's in the right place.
No. Our doing, no. The Lord said, you will not come
to me. Man's talking about a free will,
I don't want that will. I don't want the will that will
not come to him, that you might have life. You won't come to
me. So then, as Paul concluded there in Romans nine, it's not
of him that willeth, it's not of him that runneth, but it's
of God that showeth mercy. So what can I give you? What
can I give you? You ain't gonna give me nothing,
nothing. A believer comes saying, in my hand no price I bring,
simply to thy cross do I cling. We have nothing to give, but,
the one thing that's already been given to us that God will
accept, his son. Everything he's required's in
him, he's given his son for us, and says, now, I'll accept him. You're in him. Can you, I just, I can't, I know
it's true. Dying, being in the presence
of God, I said, wonderful job, come. You hungry? Come on, I'm
gonna serve you, sit down. You mean I'm allowed to be here?
I can be in your presence? Set out and rob him, put a ring
on his finger, kill the fatted calf. We're having dinner. Unbelievable. Verse 31 says, and he said, what
shall I give thee? And Jacob said, thou shalt not
give me anything. If thou wilt do this thing for me, I will
again feed and take and keep thy flock. Here's the proposal.
He said, if you'll do this for me, you want me to benefit you,
I'll keep minding your flock. Verse 32, I will pass through
all thy flock today. I'm gonna go through everything
you own. You're moving from dense, all the speckled and spotted
cattle, and all the brown cattle among the sheep, and the spotted
and speckled among the goats, and of such shall be my hire.
I'm gonna take all the ones that you ain't even interested in
taking to auction. And that's gonna be my pay. You
didn't make them, God made them. And that's gonna be mine. Verse
33, so shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come.
When it shall come of my hire before thy face, when this whole
match, me sortin' these things out sorted, whenever it comes
before you, everyone that is not spotted and speckled among
the goats or brown among the sheep, that shall be counted
stolen with me. He said, I'm gonna take only
the speckled and the spotted and the ring-streaked and the
brown, all the undesirables, and whenever it's time to square
up, you'll look on it, and if there's any one that's not that,
if there's any white one among all the flock that's mine, I'm
a liar. I'm a thief, I ain't worth nothing. Jacob promises to remove all
those undesirable ones and set them aside for his own. They're
separated, set apart for his using, sanctified. I'm gonna
take all those ones that you don't care about, that you don't
even like. You see one come out, you go, oh man, give me that
one. And he said, that's mine, set
it apart for my use. All the ones that's blemished,
all the ones that have spots, all the ones that's speckled
with color, all the ones that have bands around them, they're mine. And all the ones that's white
on the outside that look so pretty, look to be purebreds, they're
gonna be gathered together. You can have them. Now I'll look
after them, I'll feed them, I'll care for them. Now you remember
how big of a flock I grew you the first time. You can have
all that you want, but it's yours I'm not interested in. The offspring
of all those white ones, that come out, if they got any of
them blemishes and them spots and them ring streaks and them
browns, I'll take them too. You put them with mine, those'll
be mine. And if there's one white one in the butch, that's the
promise, I'll be a thief. This'll be corrupt, everything. You get
all the solid white ones. Verse 34, and Laban said, behold,
lo, wow. I would it might be according
to thy word. I like your contract better, Jacob. Let's do it your
way. That sounds amazing. I don't
have to do nothing. I just sit here, and you're going to do
all this for me? Knock yourself out, buddy. This sounds great.
That's a great deal. But we remember those banded,
speckled, spotted, and brown sheep. That's us. Why so many
words to say speckled, spotted, ring-streaking brown? It takes
all types. I said, well, he's only going
to get the brown ones and the speckled and spotted, but I'm
I got bands on me. We think that, don't we? We think
so highly of our sin or ourselves. Well, I got to get a little better
for the Lord to do something for me. I'm just too bad a sinner
that I don't think I'm worthy. No, you think too little of the
Savior. I did too. I had a trial, I'll tell them.
One time I had a real heavy trial when one of our children was
little and couldn't sleep for several months. My mom told me,
she said, why don't you, many of you knew my mother, she said,
why don't you ask the Lord to take that from you? And I said,
oh mom, it's not time yet. Like I know how long a trial
ought to last. And I'll tell you what, it got
worse. It got worse. It got bad enough to where I
cried out and said, Lord, take this thing from me. And he did.
10 hours later, done. I suffered with this for almost
a year and all I had, I wasn't ready yet. I thought I knew what
it was. Wasn't the case. But why so many different types?
Speckled, spotted, ring-straightened, brown. Well, that's all types,
isn't it? Fornicators, idolaters, adulterers,
effeminate, abusers, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers,
extortioners. In 1 Corinthians 6, it says,
and such were some of you, but you're washed, but you're sanctified,
you're set apart. The Lord went and chose you and
said, give me that one. That's what nobody else wants.
But you're justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and
by the Spirit of God. And we can't do anything about
that. We can't do anything to ruin it. We can't do anything
to make it happen. It said Jeremiah 13, can the
Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard change his spots?
Then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil. That's
the Lord's doing. Salvation to the Lord. That seems
so Simple to so many people, like, yeah, yeah, I know. Get
into the good stuff. That's the best stuff. He's done it. That means I can't undo it. I
can't undo it. Don't matter how spotted, how
speckled, or how banded, or brown I am, how dark his heart is.
The Lord's done it. He gave me a new heart. It's
his creation. Verse 35. And he removed that
day the he goats that were ring-streaked and spotted, and all the she
goats that were speckled and spotted, and every one that had
some white in it, and all the brown among the sheep, and gave
it unto the hands of his sons. That's the sons of Laban, verse
36. And he set three days journey
betwixt himself and Jacob, and Jacob fed the rest of Laban's
flocks. This will prove that Jacob is dealing justly. This
will prove he's dealing rightly, that he's not a thief. What's
gonna be the point that's gonna separate this all? Three days
of separation. That's how we're gonna know.
that this deal was done. That's how we're going to know.
Between the herds. What separates those herds? Three days of separation. Why? Why would they be separated?
So far, well, they can't intermingle. It's impossible for them to have
any offspring together. They're separated. By what? The
three days. The three days. To prove holiness. To prove himself
a just God and a Savior, Christ was three days removed. Well,
I'm just going to say I'm going three days, but I'm just going
the other side of the hill. It wasn't as if he went away for three days.
He's not pretending he's not a thief. It was three days. That
was the distance. Jacob was over Laban's white
flock and Laban's boys tended to Jacob's undesirable flock. The Lord's orchestrated this
whole world. He tells us plainly too, like the law enforcement
officers we have and We saw an earthquake a couple of years
ago in Pakistan. Killed like 2,000 people in an earthquake, because all
the houses were collapsing on one another. Kimberly looked
at me, she said, ain't you glad we have building codes? I said, yeah, the Lord
gave us ordinances, so it's for our good, isn't it? And then
we thanked him. Give the glory to him. We didn't come up with
that stuff. We're not that brilliant. He did it. Lord's got these of
Laban's boys to serve those undesirable sheep. What a thought. And Jacob's
taking care of all of them. He's over it all. Verse 37, and
Jacob took him rods. How are we gonna get more of
these? Where are these gonna come from?
Where's the spotted and speckled and reed-striped and brown gonna
come from? Here's the gospel in it. Verse
37, and Jacob took him rods of green poplar and of the hazelnut
and chestnut tree, and he peeled the white strakes in them and
made the white appear, which was in the rods. He took three
sticks there, three pieces of wood, And it was poplar, and
hazel, and chestnut. And I had to go look those up.
My brother knows trees. He'd say, oh, that's abandoned
cedar. I have no idea. I don't know anything about trees.
And so I thought, I need to study this some and look it up. And
those poplars, that's what contractors use. They'll use a tulip poplar
because they grow fast and it looks pretty around new houses.
But that's life. It's got a lot of life in it.
It goes quick. And hazelnut, that produces fruit. That's a fruit-producing tree.
And the chestnut, that's strong. It's long-lasting. And he takes
these three pieces of wood, and he strips them. Shows what's
inside of it, not just the outside appearance. People have crosses
all over the place, on hillsides, in their car, and on their dog's
collar, and everything. Well, that ain't peeled back,
is it? Cross takes that and strips it back and shows you the purity
in it. That's what he's shown us, and
the life that's there, and the fruit he produces, and that it won't
go away. This is strong. Verse 38, and he set the rods
which he had piled before the flocks in the gutters. Well,
I thought we was gonna, this is gonna be a big party and put
it on CNN and carry it. No, get way down low. Get down
in the gutter, to the gutter most. He put down the gutters
and the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink that
they should conceive when they came to drink. And the flocks
conceived, remember Jacob had all the white ones. The flocks
conceived before the rods and brought forth cattle, ring-streaked,
speckled, and spotted. Well, you used to thought it
was so pure. They see these three pieces of wood, and they see
the truth behind them. And when they see that, what's
produced? I'm spotted. I'm speckled. I'm ring-streaked.
I'm brown. That's when the truth comes out. Total depravity is
a doctrine, but I'm totally depraved. There's a difference. And I fought
tooth and, we was in high school, Andy, and I said I was apologetic
because I wasn't apologizing for nothing. And I was right.
And I was fighting doctrine as hard as I could, and then the
Lord revealed a person to me. He did. And that was, it wasn't
a fact that was true that happened to be out there. I give mental
assent to, that was me. That was me. That's what produced,
why? From Christ and him crucified. From Calvary's cross. That's
where it all come to fruition. That's where it took place. It
happened in time. And that blood was shed. Why? I'm dirty. I'm speckled and spotted
and ring-striped and brown. That's me. And it had to be just. There had to be a separation
there. This couldn't be as if, couldn't be pretend. His holiness,
how could a man be just before God? Where can righteousness
and peace meet together? Where can they kiss? Right there. And we're down low, we're brought
low to see that. We're not brought up to the seminary
and all that stuff. Brought down low to the gutters.
And he takes those out, verse 40. And Jacob did separate the
lambs and set the faces of the flocks toward the ring strait.
He sent them back and all the brown toward the flock of Laban.
If they come out speckled, spotted, ring strait or brown, he packed
them up and said, get them over with the other ones. Hurry, move
them three days. And he puts his own flocks by
themselves and he put them not unto Laban's cattle. Why didn't
he keep him there with the ram? Well, one, he'd be a thief, and
two, it won't profit him. He went, well, maybe it's good for
the speckled ones to stay with their white ewes, the mother
lambs, till they get to milk and, no, get them out of here.
As soon as they have life in them, move them. Get them out
of there. The Lord told Jeremiah, there in Jeremiah 23, he said,
behold, I'm against them that prophesy false dreams, saith
the Lord, and do tell them and cause my people to err by their
lies and by their likeness. Yet I sent them not, nor commanded
them. Therefore, they shall not profit this people at all, saith
the Lord. I've heard folks in different
times say, well, I go to a church and they say some truth and I
just eat the good parts and it won't profit you. It ain't gonna
do you good. And people say, well, that's
pretty close. I sent my kids down there. I said, you better
off send them to a rock concert or something. It ain't gonna
be, well, that's pretty bold of you. I didn't say it. The
Lord said, if it ain't the truth, If that blood's not profaned,
if that work of perfection and holiness at Calvary for us has
not shown that he was made sin for us, he's made me. People
argue that we're made his righteousness. Isn't that amazing? Maybe our
frowns ought to turn upside down. This is fabulous. We're sons
of the king. He said it won't profit him.
So he separates in verse 41. And it came to pass whensoever
the stronger cattle did conceive that Jacob laid the rods before
their eyes, and of the cattle in the gutters that they might
conceive among the rods. But when the cattle were feeble,
he put them not in. So the feebler were Laban's,
and the stronger were Jacob's. How was Paul made strong in his
infirmities and his weakness? That's Christ his strength, wasn't
it? In verse 43, and the man, increased exceedingly. Well,
I thought the sheep increased a lot. Well, no, it's who gets
the credit for it. Those flocks were growing. One
man, the man, is increased. He must increase, we must decrease.
And the Lord's people happy about it. I wouldn't have it no other
way. It's so. And it grows and grows
and grows. And we only see a, if Paul saw
through a glass dimly, what do you think I see? And it's amazing. The man increased exceedingly
and had much cattle and maidservants and menservants and camels and
asses. Once he got everything, he just
keeps growing. And it's all his. Well, I knew
it was all his. Yeah, but I just, there's more. It's all his. It
really is. And we're his. The heathen, he's,
this is wonderful. Give him to me. I'll take those
for mine. That's my inheritance. That's
my wage. I hope that's a blessing to you. It's amazing to me. Makes
me happy. Thank you all.