After the service tonight, we'd
like to be able to set up the tables for the reception for
the marriage next weekend. Acts chapter seven, Jacob beget
the 12 patriarchs. I've entitled this message, The
12 Patriarchs. And you know that much of the
Bible is written around these 12 men. These are the sons of
Jacob and would later become the 12 tribes of Israel. Turn
with me to Genesis chapter 49. Now this is when Jacob is dying
and he's giving his last words and prophecies concerning
his 12 sons. Genesis 49, and Jacob called
unto his sons and said, gather yourselves together that I may
tell you that which shall befall you in the last days. So these
are Jacob's prophetic words concerning his 12 sons. Gather yourselves
together And hear, ye sons of Jacob, and hearken unto Israel
your father. Remember, Jacob and Israel are
the same person. Reuben, thou art my firstborn,
my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of
dignity, and the excellency of power, unstable as water. Thou shalt not excel, because
thou wentest up to thy father's bed, Then defilest thou it. He went up to my couch. Simeon
and Levi are brethren. Instruments of cruelty are in
their habitations. Oh, my soul, come not near into
their secret. Unto their assembly mine honor
be not thou united. For in their anger they slew
a man. And in their self-will they dig
down a wall. Cursed be their anger, for it
was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel. I will divide
them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. Judah, thou art he
whom thy brethren shall praise. Thy hand shall be in the neck
of thine enemies. Thy father's children shall bow
down before thee. Judah is a lion's welt. From
the prey, my son, thou art gone up. He stooped down, he couched
as a lion, as an old lion. Who shall rouse him up? The scepter
shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his
feet until Shiloh come. And unto him shall the gathering
of the people be. Binding his fold into the vine
and his ass's colt into the choice vine, he washed his garments
in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes shall
be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk. Zebulun shall
dwell at the haven of the sea, and he shall be for a haven of
ships, and his border shall be into Zidon. Issachar is a strong
house, couching between two burdens. And he saw that rest was good,
and the land that was pleasant. He bowed his shoulder to bear
and became a servant unto tribute. Dan shall judge his people, and
one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the
way, an adder in the path that bideth the horse heels, so that
his riders shall fall backward. In the midst of this, Jacob says,
I've waited for thy salvation, O Lord. Gad, a troop shall overcome
him, but he shall overcome him at the last. Out of Asher his
bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties. Naphtali
is an hind let loose. He giveth goodly words. Joseph
is a fruitful bow, even a fruitful bow by a well, whose branches
run over the wall. The archers have sorely grieved
him and shot at him and hated him, but his bow abode and strength
and the arms of his hand were made strong by the hands of the
mighty God of Jacob from thence is the shepherd, the stone of
Israel, even by the God of thy father who shall help thee and
by the almighty who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven
above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of
the breast and of the womb. The blessing of thy father hath
prevailed above the blessing of my progenitors unto the utmost
bound of the everlasting hills. They shall be on the head of
Joseph and on the crown of the head of him that was separate
from his brethren. Benjamin shall raven as a wolf. In the morning he shall devour
the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil. All these are
the 12 tribes of Israel. This is the first time the tribes
of Israel are mentioned. All these are the 12 tribes of
Israel. This is that their father spake
unto them, and blessed them every one according to his blessing.
He blessed them. Now the 12 patriarchs were the
12 sons of Jacob. who would become the 12 tribes
of Israel. And their names were written
on the breastplate of the high priest. I love thinking about
that. When he would come into the Holy of Holies, he would
have a breastplate with the names of these 12 men written, showing
how he represented them. They became the nation of Israel. Now understand this. They're
given to illustrate the gospel of Christ. That's the purpose
of all this. It's not just a history book.
They're given to illustrate the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and they represent God's elect. And we're going to see that as
we consider this passage of scripture. Now, let me give you a little
bit of historical background. It's kind of off the wall, really,
when you read about these 12 patriarchs. Jacob fell in love
with Rachel. asked for permission from her
father to marry her. He said, well, you're going to
work for me seven years. He worked seven years, and they seem like
just a day. He loved this woman so much. So the time of his wedding, somehow
Laban substituted Blerod Leah for Rachel. Now, somebody says,
what's Blerod? I mean, I don't know. Evidently,
Rachel was better looking. But something happened. And he went into Leah and she
became her, his first wife. And I don't know how he couldn't
figure that out that night, but evidently he couldn't. He got
up and said to Laban, you've ripped me off. You, you did me
wrong. And he said, well, that's the
way it is. The firstborn has to be married first and you're
gonna have to work another seven years for Rachel, which he did. Now, during that first seven
years, while he was still working for Rachel and wasn't married
to her, Leah had four children, Reuben, Levi. Where have I got this at? Reuben. Reuben, Levi, well, I guess I
can look in the chapter and see. Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, and
Judah. Those are the four kids that
Leah had. Now, after those seven years,
he marries Rachel, but Rachel is barren. Rachel becomes jealous
of Leah, and she says, I want you to go into my servant and
have children by her, and those will be my children. So she gave
Jacob her handmaid, Billa, and she bore two sons, Dan and Naphtali. Now Leah became jealous of that,
and she gave Jacob her handmaid, Zilpah, and she bore two more
sons. Gad and Asher. And then we have
the story of Reuben finding some mandrakes, giving them to his
mother Leah. And Rachel said, I want those
mandrakes. And she said, well, the only
way you can do it is if you let Jacob come into me. And I think,
where's Jacob in all this? I mean, it's almost like he's
being dealt with. But Leah and Rachel agree. Jacob comes in once again to
Leah, and they have two more sons, Issachar and Zebulun. And then at last, God hears Rachel's
cry for children, and Joseph and Benjamin are born. Now over
this period of years, four different mothers, we have the 12 sons
of Jacob. And in Genesis 49, that passage
of scripture I just read, were given account of Jacob's blessing
them and making these prophetic statements concerning them. And
like I said, in Genesis 49, 28, this is the first mention of
the 12 tribes of Israel. 12, 12 apostles, 12 tribes, 12 foundations. This represents the whole of
God's elect. Now we're going to be considering
the life of Jacob in the weeks to come, not much tonight, but
Jacob made such a difference with Joseph. He loved him more
than his other sons. And I think of Joseph's dreams
when he came to his brothers and said, I dreamed your stalks
are gonna bow down to mine. I dreamed the stars of heaven
bowed down to me and the sun bowed down to me and did obeisance
to me, worshiped me. And you can imagine how angry
they got. And Joseph, when we were first
introduced to him, he writes on his brothers. He brings Jacob
their evil report. He tells the bad things they
did. So his brothers hated him, but
we're gonna get into his life in the next few weeks. But who
is, while Joseph is Jacob's favorite son, who is his most important
son? That's easy to answer, Judah. It was through Judah that the
Lord Jesus Christ came. So Judah is his most important
son. And he's called, in this passage
of scripture, Lion's Whelp. And we go into Revelations 5,
and remember where he says, the lion of the tribe of Judah. Now, what I want to do, and I'm
going to be brief, I want to preach the gospel from this,
but I'm going to set forth the first three sons. I'm going to
save Judah for last, and then briefly go over the eight other
sons and see what we can learn of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ regarding these 12 patriarchs. Now, the first three that are
mentioned are the boys of Leah, Reuben, Simeon, and Levi. the first three. Judah is separate
from them. Now, I don't completely understand. Of course, I don't completely
understand biblical numerology, but there's something to it.
These numbers do mean something. For instance, 7 and 12 is the
number of perfection. Six is the number of man. Remember
when it says 666 there in Revelation? Adam was created on the sixth
day. That's the number of man. It
means failure, failure, failure. People think of 666 and they
don't understand what that's saying is the Lord's going to
win because men are just failures, failure upon failure upon failure.
The Lord's going to win this battle. Number five is the number
of grace. All of the numbers used in the
building of the tabernacle are divisible by five. and it represents
the number of grace. Three is the number of completion.
And this is what I've read anyway in Pink's book on numerology. And these first three boys give
us a pretty good view of man. Reuben, verse three, thou art
my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the
excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power. That sounds
good, doesn't it? unstable as water. You're never going to
excel. And then he talks about Reuben.
He's great. Well, this was obviously wrong.
He said, because thou wentest up to thy father's bed and thou
defilest it. He went up to my couch. He went
up to one of his father's concubines. And he says, unstable as water,
you shall not excel. That's his prophecy regarding
Reuben. Do you remember when Reuben volunteered to bring Benjamin
down with him? Remember how Jacob responded? He's not going down with you.
He's not going, I don't trust you for a second. You know, Jacob
understood his voice. He didn't try to make them out
to be what they weren't. Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel. look at Simeon and Levi, verse
five. Simeon and Levi are brethren, instruments of cruelty. are in
their habitations. Oh, my soul, come not near unto
their secret and to their assembly, my honor, be not thou united.
Stay away from them, for in their anger they slew a man and in
their self-will they dig down a wall. Cursed be their anger,
for it was fierce and their wrath was cruel. I'll divide them in
Jacob and scatter them in Israel." I know what he's talking about
when he's talking about this event. Now, do you remember how Dinah,
there was a man from the Hivites, I can't remember what his name
was, but he fell in love with their sister, Dinah, and the
scripture said he laid with her and defiled her. And he comes
up to the brothers and says, look, I want to marry her. And
they say on one condition. All of you guys are to be circumcised. And if you're all circumcised,
then you can marry our sister. So this great group of people,
Levi's are all circumcised and while they're trying to recover,
Levi and Simeon come and murder every one of them and kill them.
A large group of people. Now these men were wicked men. You know, when we talk about
the patriarchs, I've said this so many times, the Bible's not
family friendly. The way you look at the things
these fellas did and what they did was terrible. Now we're gonna
come back to Judah, but let's look at these other men. Verse 13, Zebulun, this is the
fifth son, Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea. And
he shall be for an haven of ships and his border shall be unto
Zion. Now, Zebulun's name means exalted. That's what the name means. And
if you're a believer, how much has God by his grace exalted
you? To think that I know Christ?
To think that he's made himself known to me? To think that he
loves me? How exalted is every believer. And I love the way it says he's
a haven. He's a haven. Christ is a haven
for sinners, isn't he? He's the friend of publicans
and sinners. He's a haven, a place of safety,
a place of security. And that's what every believer
is to be, a haven. Not someone where people are
afraid of what you're gonna do, but being around you, they can
find safety and security. a haven, not the opposite, but
a haven. Now let's go on reading verse
14. Issachar is a strong ass couching
between two burdens. And he saw the rest was good
and the land that was pleasant. He bowed his shoulder to bear
and became a servant unto tribute. Now he's strong by grace. Be strong in the grace that's
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's couched between two
burdens. And you know, as believers, what burdens them? Your sin. Your sin is a heavy burden that
you hate. What's the other burden? The
law. A law you cannot keep, but he
is strong by grace, dealing with these two burdens and every believer
is going to deal with these burdens until they die. But what does
it say about this man? He saw that rest was good. Isn't it wonderful to rest? They which have do enter into
a rest. And what that means is when you
rest, it means the job's finished. You don't have anything to do.
All you have to do is rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. They which
have believed do enter into rest. He saw that rest was good and
the land, it was pleasant. And he bowed his shoulder to
bear and became a servant unto tribute. Every believer's great
goal is to be a servant. Look at verse 16. Dan shall judge
his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a servant
by the way, a serpent by the way, an adder in the path that
biteth the horse heel so that his rider shall fall backwards. Dan means judge. Judge. Now I want you to think about
this. The Lord Jesus Christ is the great judge. And everybody's
going to get exactly, precisely what they deserve, meted out
by the great judge. If I'm saved, it's because I
deserve to be saved. Somebody says, how can you say
that? Because the righteousness of Christ is my personal righteousness
before God. Does the Lord Jesus Christ deserve
heaven? Well, of course he does. Every
believer deserves because they have the very righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. We deserve heaven. You don't
have anything to feel guilty about. You don't have anything
to worry about. The just judge is going to say, come in. Well
done, thou good and faithful servant. That's what justification
is. Oh, I wish the Lord would give me the grace and you the
grace to enter into the fact that through the work of Christ. Justification, the great judge. Says, come in, you deserve this
and every unbeliever. is going to get exactly what
they deserve. If God sends a man to hell, that's
exactly what he deserves. He earned it. The punishment's
never greater than the crime. God is always going to be a just
judge, and no one is going to escape from this. Dan shall be
a serpent, by the way, this judge, an adder in the path that bideth
the horse hill so that his rider shall fall backwards. This judgment
is always in operation. The horse and the rider shall
not escape. Verse 19, Gad, a troop shall
overcome him, but he shall overcome him at last. Now, isn't that
the story of the life of the believer? The troop shall overcome
him. A troop shall overcome him. I
love that scripture in Proverbs where it says a righteous man
falleth seven times. You know what that means? All
the time. All the time. Look at your experience. All the time. Do you ever feel
like you rise above your sin? You ought to. You ought not ever
sin. I've not ever seen. But how, you know, when that
scripture says, if a man be overtaken with a fault, overtaken, can't
you understand that? Oh, we understand that so much
because we know the way we are. He's overcome but he's gonna
overcome. He's always gonna win. You see
there are no, somebody says they're leading a defeated Christian
life. There's no such thing. There's no such thing at all.
Every believer is more than conquered through the Lord Jesus Christ.
And anybody who simply believes the gospel, listen to me real
carefully. If you believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God,
you've overcome. If you believe that Jesus is
the Christ, You've overcome, that's saving faith. Yeah, you'll
be overcome, but you're gonna overcome because greater is he
that's in you than he that's in the world. Verse 20, out of
Asher, his bread shall be fat and he shall yield royal dainties. Now, Asher means happy, happy. There's no doubt that we spend
too much time sad because we think of circumstances and we
shouldn't do it. When you realize that you're
complete in Christ and that all God requires of you, you have,
and you stand accepted in the beloved, doesn't that make you
happy? Sure it does. And we love the royal dainties,
the good food of the gospel. Oh, how glorious the food of
the gospel is. Verse 21. Naphtali is a hind let loose. He giveth goodly words. Naphtali is a hind let loose.
And the idea here is liberty. The Lord is that Spirit, and
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Now, what's liberty? Liberty
is freedom. Now, if you have liberty, two
things that means. Number one, you don't owe anything.
You don't owe anything. You're debt free. You stand before
God's law without debt. That's what liberty is, the only
liberty I know of. I tell you, when you're in debt,
just financially, think of the pressure it puts you under. Think
of how it weighs down on you. It's not a good thing. But oh,
how liberating it is to not know, to not owe anything. And the
next thing about liberty is, You get to do what you want to.
You're not serving out of fear of punishment or hope for reward. You're doing what you want to
do. Now, he's like a hind let loose. And he gives goodly words, the
goodly words of the gospel. And he talks about Joseph and
his fruitfulness. And we're going to spend probably
four or five weeks in Joseph and for the next four or five
Sunday nights. But the point of Joseph is, is he's fruitful. And every believer bears the
fruit of God, the Holy Spirit. There's not one that doesn't
love, joy, peace, long suffering. gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance, the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit. Every
believers are fruitful. They bear the fruit of God, the
Holy Spirit. Verse 27, Benjamin. shall raven as a wolf. This is
talking about his appetite. In the morning, he shall devour
the prey. At night, he shall divide the spoil. Now, every
believer has an appetite for the word. Every single one. Now, I realize there are times
you can read the Bible and you'd get nothing out of it. You read
it, doesn't mean anything to you, and you think, what's wrong
with me? I realize that. Everybody goes
through that. But that being said, Every believer
has an appetite for the Word, for the Word Himself, the Lord
Jesus Christ, for the Word of God. You don't want to hear from
me. You don't want to hear merely the words of a man. You want
to hear from Him, the living God. You've got an appetite for
the Word, for the written Word, the Bible that reveals the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, let's go back to verse 9
or verse 8. I want to spend the remainder
of our time on Judah. As I said, he's the most important
of the sons of Jacob because he is the one through whom the
Lord Jesus Christ would come. Judah, verse eight, Judah, thou
art he whom thy brethren shall praise. Now, what an honor to
be called the brethren of the Lord Jesus Christ. all of God's
elect, every believer, his brother, his sister, both he that sanctifies
and they who are sanctified are all of one. For the witch cause
he's not ashamed to call them brethren. He's not ashamed to
own me as his little brother. And that's true of every single
believer. Brethren of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what does it say? Thou art
He whom thy brethren shall praise. Isn't that what we're doing right
now? We're praising Him who is our salvation. We're extolling
His greatness. the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He's the one His brethren praise. What that means is we trust Him
completely. We give Him all the glory in
our salvation. We look to Him only. He's all
we have. He's all we want. He's all we
need. And we praise Him. That's what
this gathering together is right now. It's to praise the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the one His brethren shall
praise. Thy hand, go on reading, verse
eight. Thy hand shall be on the neck of thine enemies. Thy father's
children shall bow down before thee. Now, the Lord Jesus has
enemies. Everybody who is not one of his
brethren. And these are people who have
no love for Christ. They would be happy if Christ
didn't exist. They would be happy if the gospel
were not true. They do not have any love for
Christ. That's the way every natural
man is. When you make your friend an unbeliever, you're making
somebody who hates the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's important
to remember that. But his hand is on the neck of
his enemies. They cannot win their battle
against him. Think about this. How does the
father feel toward those who are enemies of his son? How does
he feel? People who have no love for his
son. And you think of how glorious the Lord Jesus Christ is and
how beautiful, how perfect. Oh, I wish I could talk about
him and talk concerning him the way I should, but he's altogether
lovely. He's altogether glorious. What
kind of pity is the father gonna have towards those who are enemies
of his son? No pity. His hand is upon the
neck of his enemies. Thy father's children shall bow
down before thee. The father's children bow down
and worship the blessed and only potentate the King of kings and
the Lord of lords. Now look what he says in verse
nine. Judah is a lion's whelp. This speaks of the power of Christ. Judah is a lion's whelp, and
we look into Revelation 5, he's called the lion of the tribe
of Judah. From the prey, my son, thou art gone up. He stooped
down, he cast as a lion, as an old lion, who shall rise him? Now, his power, the lion's whelp,
from the prey, my son. Who's his prey? Sin. Sin. He put it away. When he drank
the cup dry, he put it away. He rips his enemies, sin, Satan. They were the prey. When it says
he went up, this is talking about his resurrection. He went up,
gone up, he stooped down. Before he went up, he stooped
down. This is talking about his condescension. When he When he
became flesh, what a stoop that was when the Son of God became
a man like me and you, sin accepted. What a stoop it was when he was
made sin. But he's gone up from all that
because he put that sin away. But the stoop is talking about
the stoop of his incarnation and his resurrection. He stooped
down as a couch lion, as an old lion, who shall rouse him. Verse 10, the scepter. Now this is talking about his
royalty, his sovereignty. The scepter shall not depart
from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh
come. Now let's talk about his scepter.
The scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom.
Now what this is talking about is the absolute rule of the Lord
Jesus Christ. What does that mean? That means
he rules everything. He ruled in creation when He
spake the world into existence. He rules in providence. He controls
everything that takes place. I love thinking about this. Even
the thoughts going through my mind and the thoughts going through
your mind, He's in control of. Yes, you think freely. You do,
but he's still sovereign over your free thoughts. He's in absolute
sovereign control. I think of his rule in salvation. If you're saved, it's because
he willed your salvation. And it's because he is your salvation. He's got the scepter of his sovereign
rule. Look what it says next about
him. The scepter shall not depart
from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet. I love the
imagery there. He has no law over him. The law
is between his feet. You see, he's God. He's answerable
to none but himself. He has no law over his head.
The holy law of God is said to be between his feet. This once
again speaks of how great he is. Sovereign in creation, sovereign
in providence, sovereign in salvation. And look what it says next. The scepter shall not depart
from Judah nor lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh
come. Now the word Shiloh means peace
and tranquility. Can you imagine feeling perfect
peace? No guilt whatsoever. Perfect contentment. You're not looking for anything
else. Perfect satisfaction. Now, me and you are not going
to experience that here. You know why? Because we're still
sinners. And wherever there's still sin,
there's not going to be perfect satisfaction, perfect peace,
perfect contentment. But here's what is true. You do have reason for perfect
peace. You do have reason for perfect
satisfaction. You do have reason for perfect
contentment. And that is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And one of these days, you're
going to experience, this is true of every believer, you're
going to experience perfect peace. Nothing to rile you, nothing
to upset you, nothing to worry about, perfect peace, perfect
satisfaction. You really won't want anything
else. Perfect contentment because you're going to be perfectly
conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're not
going to deal with yourself and your sin and other sin anymore. You're going to be complete in
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is Silo and what a name for
him. And notice what it says next.
It says, The scepter shall not depart
from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh
come, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Now Judah, the Lord Jesus Christ,
unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Now the Lord
said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. What does every believer do?
They come to the Lord Jesus Christ. To Him shall the gathering of
the people be. And this is really our only interest.
Whatever it is to come to Christ, I want to come to Christ and
find mercy. I want to worship Him. I want to be saved by Him.
I want to be found in Him so that all God sees when He looks
at me is He sees the Lord Jesus Christ. unto Him shall the gathering
of the people be." What is the unity of the church? What is
the worship of the church? The Lord Jesus Christ. To Him
shall the gathering of the people be. Verse 11, binding his foe,
unto the vine." Now this is a reference to the Lord entering Jerusalem
on a foal. Binding his foal unto the vine,
and his asses colt unto the choice vine. And this is unusual imagery. If you had a donkey that you
were going to bind up, would you bind him to a vine where
he could eat up all the grapes? No, you know, if you bound that
donkey to the vine, he'd eat all the grapes. But the plenty,
the plenteousness, the wealth of his kingdom, he can bind that
foal and donkey to the vine. He can eat all the grapes and
there's going to be infinitely more left because of the infiniteness
of his kingdom. And look, it says he washed his
garments in wine and his clothes in the blood of grapes. Now the washing of his blood,
what does it do? What has it done is a better
way to state this. Not what does it do? What has
it done? Wherefore he hath perfected forever
them that are sanctified. That's what his blood did. You
know what his blood did? It washed away my sin. And I
have no sin. He was manifested to take away
our sins. In him is no sin. I'm washed. I'm washed clean. Washing his garments in wine
and his clothes in the blood of grapes. That's talking about
the putting away of sin. And it says in verse 12, his
eyes shall be red with wine and his teeth white with milk. Now
you know that that's not saying he was intoxicated. But he was
intoxicated by the wrath of God to where every part of his experience
was under the wrath of God when he was made sin. But the whiteness
of his teeth, even when he was experiencing the wrath of God,
he retained his perfect purity. Even when he was made sin, he
never sinned. Now, do we all understand all
that completely? Of course not. But Two more scriptures
turned at Genesis 43. Now this is Judah. This is Judah. Verse 37 and 42. And Reuben spake
unto his father, saying, Slay my two sons, if I bring not to
thee, speaking of Benjamin, deliver him into my hand, and I'll bring
him to thee again. And he said, My son shall not
go down with you. I would like to have heard the way he said
that. My son's not gonna go down with you. He knew Reuben. For
his brother is dead and he's left alone. If mischief befalleth
by the way in which you go, then shall you bring down my gray
hairs with sorrow to the grave. Now look in verse eight of chapter
43. And Judah said unto Israel, his
father, send the lad with me. Now, before I go on talking about
Judah, Judah is pointing out some serious flaws in his character
as a man. You remember when Jacob spoke
of Reuben and Simeon and Levi and he said all that bad stuff
about him? I bet when he mentioned Judah's name, Judah stiffened
up. You know, it was Judah's idea to sell Joseph in slavery.
It was his idea, he's the one who got that started. And he's
the one who had that horrible sexual sin with his daughter-in-law. And I bet he was thinking, what
is he gonna say about me? He was probably pretty nervous
after what he heard said about his three older brothers. And
I bet he was taken back when Jacob said, Judah's a lion's
wealth. But he didn't know he was talking
about his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that would come, the
mighty lion of the tribe of Judah. But Judah said in Israel, verse
eight, his father, send the lad with me and we'll rise and go
that we may live and not die, both we and thou and also our
little ones. I will be surety for him. Of my hand shalt thou
require him. If I bring him not unto thee,
set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. Now that is what the Lord Jesus
Christ said as the surety of all of his people. I'll be surety
for him. If you're a believer, Christ
said this with regard to you. I'll be surety for him. Everything
that you require of him, you look to me for." What a gospel
we have. Now let's close with Revelation
5. Verse 1, and I saw in the right
hand of him that sat on the throne a book. written within and on
the backside sealed with seven seals. Now this is talking about
the book of God's decrees and purposes. This book was written
way before the scriptures was written. This is the eternal
purposes or the eternal purpose of God. He's only got one purpose.
He didn't have a bunch of purposes. He's got one purpose, the glory
of his son. And everything that's going to
happen is written in this book. This is the same book the Lord
referred to when he said, lo, I come in the volume of the book
it's written to be. It's talking about God's decrees
and notice it's written front side and backside. That means
there's no additions, no additions. It's all set. God's purposes
and decrees sealed with seven seals. Verse two. And I saw a
strong angel. I reckon every angel is a strong
angel. Don't you? And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud
voice, who is worthy to open the book and to loose the seals
thereof. And no man in heaven coming week we ask that you would
give us the grace to walk with our dear son. We ask that we
might be found in him. We ask that you would open up
doors for us to preach your gospel according to your will. In Christ's
blessed name we pray. Amen.