I'd like to give you all a warm
welcome to our worship here this evening. Let us ask the Lord's
blessing, let us pray. O Lord God of heaven and of earth,
you grant unto us a true spirit of worship this evening, that
help from the sanctuary, strength out of Zion, help to sing thy
worthy praise. O Lord, do be with us with a
sweet savour in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. we ask
through his dear name. Amen. Hymn, 579. Tune, Sheffield 235. Let us read together from the
Holy Word of God, Genesis chapter 49. If you have one of our free
Bibles, that is page 58. Genesis chapter 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. Gather yourselves together
and hear, ye sons of Jacob, and hearken unto Israel your father. 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 thou defilest thou it, he went up to my couch. Simeon and Levi are brethren,
Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul,
come not thou into their secret and to their assembly. Mine honour
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 wealth. From the prey, my son, thou art
gone up. He stooped down, he couched as
a lion, and 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 foal unto the vine,
and his ass's colt unto the choice vine, he washed his garments
in wine, and his clothe 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 an haven of ships, and his border
shall be unto Zidon. Issachar is a strong ass couching
down between two burdens and he saw that rest was good and
the land that it was pleasant and bowed his shoulder to bear
and became a servant unto tribute. Dan shall judge his people as
one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent by the
way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that
his rider shall fall backward. I have waited for thy salvation,
O Lord. Gad, a troop, shall overcome
him, but he shall overcome at the last. Out of Asher his bread
shall be fat, And he shall yield royal dainties. Naphtali is a
hind let loose, He giveth goodly words. Joseph is a fruitful bough,
Even a fruitful bough 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 in strength,
and the arms of his hands 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 breasts and of the womb. The blessings
of thy Father have prevailed above the blessings 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 twelve tribes
of Israel. And this is it that their father
spake unto them and blessed them. Every one according to his blessing
he blessed them. And he charged them and said
unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people. Bury me with
my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,
in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before
Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the
field of Ephron, the Hittite, for a possession of a burying
place. There they buried Abraham and
Sarah, his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah,
his wife. And there I buried Liam. The
purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was
from the children of Hath. And when Jacob had made an end
of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed and
yielded up the ghost and was gathered. unto his people. The Lord bless to us that reading
of his holy word and help us in prayer. Let us pray. Thou most merciful and gracious
God, our loving and heavenly Father, we come to thee through
our Lord Jesus Christ. And seek, Lord, thy mercy this
evening, that we might glean some treasures, some heavenly
manna from thy precious word. O Lord, do be pleased to refresh
our souls and strengthen our faith. For, Lord, thou hast said
that faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. and O do bless us as we have
Thy word before us and to be preaching Thy word. Lord, do
grant that we might be able to say with one of old, Thy words
were found and I did eat them, they were to the joy and rejoicing
of my soul. O Lord, may our hearts Be like
those two on the way to Emmaus, warmed by thy word as it is declared
unto us. O Lord, do prepare us each for
our end. We have read of dear Jacob's
last days, last hours, last breath. And O Lord, we know that we also
shall come to that time that we must be gathered as well.
O Lord, do prepare us and do grant that we might look forward
to the day of our redemption. Do grant unto us Thy salvation. O Lord, save us from ourselves,
from our sin, from this wicked and evil world, and from Satan
and all his malice and hatred against the people of God. Do
save us especially when he comes in as an angel of light, Lord,
how many are in the name of religion, fight against Thy precious truth,
hate those truths that are most precious to us, and yet profess
to be saved by Thee, Lord Jesus. O Lord, do grant that we might
truly know Thy truth as it is set forth in Thy Word, and that
Thou hast granted to us those True tokens, Lord, we know that
they have asked for a true token. And we know that there are many
tokens are taken which are not true ones. But Lord, do grant
us those that are true and that they're the looking into of thy
word. Lord, we would be dependent upon
thee as they are the life of the Church of God. Thou art her
salvation from beginning unto end. I dare not trust the sweetest
rhyme, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. But Lord, we do see that
we might have more than just a knowledge of the truth in the
head, but that which touches our hearts and that which is
kept alive by heaven. We thank Thee for Thine intercessory
prayer for all Thy people and for Peter especially. I have
prayed for Thee that Thy faith fail not. We thank Thee for faith. We thank Thee for that which
Thou hast given us and that which we know is from Thee. And O Lord,
do keep that alive even through our gathering tonight. Lord,
as we come up to the time when we would remember Thy birth,
Lord, we would remember it all the year through. But Lord, as
is custom, Lord, we more particularly think of Thy coming at this season. And we do see, Lord, that we
might truly know not only Thy coming to this world, but Thy
coming to our hearts. O Lord, visit us and visit us
still. Abide with us the days far spent,
Lord, the night draweth nigh. Lord, bless us, Lord, and favour
us in our souls. Forgive us our sins. Grant us
a close walk with Thee. Grant us Mary's portion, and
to choose that portion, to sit at Thy feet and hear Thy word.
Deliver us from anxious fears, cares that crush out Thee. meditation upon Thee and trust
in Thee. O Lord, do save us from every
weight and everything that does hinder us from running the race
that is set before us. O Lord, do grant unto us those
close times with Thee of sweet communion, fellowship and union. Come ye yourselves apart and
rest a while. We pray, Lord, for each of Thy
tride and tempted and afflicted people. Lord, do succour them
from thy house and through thy word, and do bless them in their
souls. Help them on their way, appear
for them in answer to their prayers. And do grant, Lord, that we might
be encouraged time and again, where thou hast come in for us
and answered our petitions. Now, Lord, we Do pray that Thou
hast blessed those here. Lord, may each of our souls be
precious. And Lord, as we gather in Thy
house, favour us, Lord, with Thy promised presence. Lord,
may we truly know it in the sweet savour of having Thee in the
midst. Lord, do bless and be with those
who join with us online and those who may listen to the recordings
afterwards. And we thank Thee where thou
hast given witness to thy word and where thy word has been blessed.
We pray for those who don't have a place of worship of their own,
or if they do, not a one where they can feed or find that sustenance
for their souls. And O Lord, help them, be with
them, provide, if it could please thee, that they do have those
of light mind and those to hear that proclaim thy truth faithfully. Lord, we do pray for those who
receive the free Bibles that we sent out, and O Lord, those
that take them from our Bible boxes. Lord, do work in the hearts
of each one to call by grace those that know thee not and
bring them to meet in the house of God, whether here or in other
parts of the country. O Lord, do be pleased to bless
this work. Lord, Thou hast given us the
means for it, and Thou hast given and inclined the hearts of many
to ask and to seek for a copy of Thy Word. And we do earnestly
beg Thee then that Thou hast blessed Thy Word and raise it
with power and convert souls and gather in the purchase of
Thy precious blood. Seek out Thy people. And Lord,
may this means be used to thine honour and thy glory. Lord, we
have no power to direct it, to influence any heart, to desire
a copy when they have it, to incline their hearts to read
it, and that it should be blessed. All is thy work. Lord, everything
is thine. We are but the instruments and
the messengers. O Lord, we'd be pleased to Bless
the word to thine honour and glory. We do seek that thou do
remember our dear AIDS friends. We thank thee for the time with
them today, this morning, and do bless them and their souls.
Be with them in the pilgrim home, be with them also in Bethesda. We do pray that thou hast helped
those who are unwell and are struggling at this present time.
Do comfort those in bereavement, Remember those who shall, after
Christmas, attend to a funeral, and we do seek help for them.
We pray for all in affliction, whether in this land or in other
lands. We pray for our dear friends
in Holland, to grant thy blessing on treatment there, and healing,
health, and strength. O Lord, we do commit them unto
thee. Be with our dear friends in Canada
and in America, and to remember our churches there and also in
Australia. We do seek that thou should remember
thy people throughout this world and to grant, Lord, that thou
who knowest where every one of them is might grant those answers
to prayer and helps that only thou canst give. We thank thee
for every mercy and favour, thy kind provision, thy care, thy
keeping. We thank thee for one another
in the Lord. We thank Thee for the house of
God, we thank Thee for Thy word, and we thank Thee for the preaching
of it and Thy promised blessing upon it. And Lord, for every
review of Thy goodness and mercy to us in time past, we do thank
Thee. Thou art a good, a faithful,
a gracious God. Help us to look back and help
us to look forward. And Lord, as that forward gets
shorter, Lord, may the looking back afford such a rich and sweet
review of what Thou hast done and how Thou hast appeared for
us. Do remember us then this evening, be with us on Thy day,
and next Thursday. We do seek Thy blessing on each
gathering where we gather here. We ask, Lord, these mercies through
Thy name, Lord Jesus. Amen. God willing, we hope to meet
for service next Thursday, Boxing Day, in the evening, as we do
this evening. Hymn. 330, Tune, Carlyle 243. Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Genesis chapter 49, and reading
for our text, verse 18. I have waited for thy salvation,
O Lord. Genesis 49, verse 18. Jacob knows that he is at his
journey's end. He knows that the time of his
departure is at hand and so he gathers together his sons and
he prophesies to them what shall happen to them or to their tribes
in the latter days. Some of the prophecies are very
easy to see how applicable they were, how they were brought to
pass. We think of Simeon and Levi,
and what they did to those at Shechem, and their cruelty there,
and no doubt also the cruelty that Simeon did to Joseph. I believe shown in that Joseph
chose Simeon, that he should be kept in prison until Benjamin
should come. And we think of how they were
then settled in their promised land. Levi, indeed, was scattered,
never had its own part of the land. They were scattered amongst
the other tribes and to serve the Lord. And of course, in the
sacrifices, the cruelty there, you might say, in the slaying
of the sacrifices, the shedding of blood, that came to pass. Simeon, the tribe was right in
the middle of Judah, as it were, enveloped around with Judah. It is a solemn thing as well
when we think of Jacob here going back over his life and the sins
of his sons are remembered in these blessings. Reuben especially
must have been very painful to heal here. And we think how Reuben's
lot was not over Jordan, but was before they went over. But Jacob in the midst of telling
what shall befall them in the latter days, he suddenly ceases
from speaking to man. And we might say, speaking to
man on God's behalf, because These are inspired prophecies. This is God's word to Jacob's
sons, the tribes of Israel. And he suddenly ceases and he
then speaks unto God and utters the words of our text, I have
waited for thy salvation, O Lord. How many times we may be in a
situation where we are speaking to men, but at the same time
our heart is ascending unto God, and we're making intercession
for Him. Sometimes it might be like Nehemiah
before the king, and silently, unknown to the king, he's crying
unto the Lord for help. May we each not be far off and
far away from prayer, and not be afraid to suddenly, as it
were, make our petitions unto the Lord, and to, as it were,
change. And we do it in our services,
of course, in the preaching of the word, the preacher, we speak
on God's behalf to you, And when in prayer, we speak on your behalf
to God. And so in a service of worship,
we have the mixture that we have here, the speaking to men and
the speaking to God. And our worship is to worship
God. Well, Jacob here, he is approaching
death and the comfort that he has in death is really summed
up in the few words of our text. I have waited for thy salvation,
O Lord. A blessed thing when we come
to be in Jacob's position that we can look back over life's
journey and have a testimony of what we have done and especially
what has been relative to salvation. To be on the point of departing
from the day of grace, to be in the presence of the Lord,
and to have a testimony like Jacob has here. Really, he is
on the point. of entering into one aspect of
God's salvation. I have waited for thy salvation,
O Lord. So I want to look this evening,
with the Lord's help, firstly at thy salvation. The Lord's salvation, that is
Jehovah's salvation. And then secondly, Jacob's review
of his life. Because really that is what is
summed up when he says, I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord. He's looking back over his life
and saying, this is what I have done. I've waited for thy salvation. So I want to look at Jacob's
review of his life, what some of those things would be that
he had reviewed. And then thirdly, salvation before
him. So going, looking backwards,
now looking forwards to the path that he's about to enter upon,
which really, like it was said to the children of Israel going
into the promised land, you have not walked this way heretofore. But firstly, thy salvation. I've waited for thy salvation,
O Lord. It is spoken of here as a salvation
that is belonging or unique to the Lord. Salvation is deliverance
from sin and from its consequences. In the fall, when sin entered
into the world and death by sin. The consequences of that were
separation from God, it was death spiritually, death physically,
which Jacob was just about to enter into, and then eternal
death for all of those that did not know God's salvation. The salvation of the Lord deals
with sin and its consequences in those three parts of it. Spiritual death, physical death,
and eternal death. It also deals with the fruits
of sin here below. Because, we read in Psalm 25,
not only As in verse 5, lead me in thy
truth and teach me, for thou art the God of my salvation,
on thee do I wait all the day. But also at the end of that psalm,
redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles. And the salvation
of the Lord extends to that as well, because sin has marred
the whole creation. Thorns, thistles, sorrows, deaths,
troubles, tribulation, great tribulation. He must do much
tribulation. All is marred. Man is born unto
trouble as the sparks fly upward. But Israel, God's people, the
spiritual people, are to be redeemed out of their troubles. So this
salvation of the Lord includes deliverance from consequences
of sin in that way. But it is on the Lord's terms
and not on our terms. And one aspect of that then is
that it is a salvation that is a sovereign salvation. Now Lord says your time is always
ready but my time is not yet and the very putting of waiting
for thy salvation implies that it is not in the power of the
one that is waiting to bring or to help themselves to that
salvation whenever it comes. It must be on the Lord's terms,
on the Lord's time and in the Lord's way. Now the first main
aspect of the salvation that is the Lord's, is that which
is bound up with the coming and promise of the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Spoken of under Judah in verse
10, The Sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from
between his feet until Shiloh come. Shiloh, a name given for
our Lord, given for the Savior. Unto him shall the gathering
of the people be. It is the Lord Jesus Christ that
is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. And dear Jacob, he was one of
those that by faith was looking for the promised seed, looking
for that which God himself had said would be the one that brought
salvation, that bruised Satan's hand, and that in doing that
would have his own heel bruised. That was the expectation, right
at the Garden of Eden, that God himself would appear. God himself would deal with Satan. God himself would deal with sin. It would be his plan, on his
terms, in his way, on his time. And we have it more clearly given
when Abraham said to his son, going up the mountain, when Isaac
asked, my father, where are the fire and the wood? Where is a
lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, my son, God
will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. God's own son
himself would be the offerer and the offering. He was to be
the church's great high priest. He was to be their surety. He was to stand in their place. Of course, we think of Judah
standing surety for Benjamin and standing in his place when
the cup was found in Benjamin's sack. Judah says that he engaged
to be a surety for him. He would take that cup. He would bear what was joined
to that cup. And we think of our Lord. If
it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not
my will, but thy will be done. The terms of salvation. We must
ever be mindful of this. You know, we're all used to having
perhaps insurance policies and there'll be a terms and conditions,
virtually anything you do today, business transaction, whether
it's buying a house, whether it's renting a house, whether
it's going to college or school, whatever it is, there will be
terms and there will be conditions. And if we are to hope to have
the benefits of either insurance or whatever we're going into,
we must abide by those terms and by those conditions. It seems
strange that Men seem to have no fault or no trouble with that
with man's documents when it comes to that which is God's
Word and that concerns not just something of time but eternity. Then they pick and choose as
to what parts they will look at and what not, and we must
be careful we do not do the same. Turning away from part of the
Word of God, taking it away, Or like our Lord charged those
in his day, you do make the word of God of none effect because
of your traditions. And how many times there'll be
parts of the word of God. And those professed theologians
will say, well, it doesn't apply now because that was only the
culture of the day. And we don't need to abide by
that and don't need to walk in that way. And yet the simple
ones that believe if God meant there to be something to be taken
out of his book, he would show it in his book, rather than have
to rely on some other books to show what we shall cut out and
what not. The Word of God is sufficient,
and yes, there are parts of it. The ceremonial law, for one,
is to be done away because it is fulfilled in Christ. It was
the gospel in their day, but it doesn't apply now. But we
can see from the word of God itself that that doesn't apply
now. But the moral law of God, that
does apply now. It's for sinners by the law is
the knowledge of sin. But for those that are believers,
those that are under the priesthood of our Lord as the Melchizedek,
change of priesthood, a change of law, not the Levitical law,
but the law of love, God's law. The love of Christ constraineth
us, not under the law in that sense, but under the Lord Jesus
Christ. The salvation then of the Lord,
how he deals with sin, how he has made a provision that he
can be just and yet the justifier of the ungodly, how he can be
righteous and yet save some and not others, how he can be fair
and right in all his ways, saving sinners unto the uttermost, bring
them from hell to heaven, to be with Him in His throne, how
it can be. His salvation, right from the
start, was sealed in blood, and without the shedding of blood
there is no remission. Reinforced again and again, later
on when the children of Israel were to come out of Egypt, when
I see the blood I will pass over you in the Passover, And with
the Lord Jesus Christ, that blood that was shed at Calvary, that
is shown forth and remembered in the ordinance of the Lord's
Supper. It is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that pardons,
blots out our sin. It is Christ that died, yea rather
risen again. It is his righteousness that
clothes us, not our own. not by works of righteousness
that we have done. And God's salvation, it is to
save unto the uttermost all that come unto God by Him. It is vital
for us to realise the extent of God's salvation. And to do
that, we must know the extent of the fall There are some that
believe that the Fall was not so great as to make us incapable
of receiving salvation and as a duty accepting the Lord or
exercising a faith that we are supposed to still have. I read
my Bible that the Fall was utterly complete and that man was left
dead with no capability of receiving spiritual things at all. Our
Lord testifies that the natural man receiveth not the things
of God, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. The salvation of the Lord is
not to meet man halfway. It is to be a complete salvation. is based upon God's choice, God's
provision, God's decrees, God's everlasting love, and the drawing
of a sovereign triune God, and of one that knows his people,
the kingdom of God. Stand assured, having this seal,
the Lord knoweth them that are his. The people of God are chosen
in Christ before the foundation of the world. They were loved
with an everlasting love and therefore with loving kindness
has he drawn them. It is God that provided the Saviour
and the certainty that everyone for whom he died, I lay down
my life for the sheep, I have power to lay it down, I have
power to take it again. that he shall see the travail
of his soul and be satisfied, is not left up to the will of
man to save himself, and if that was the case, the possibility
would be, the certainty would be, that none would be saved. None would choose him. We have
gone every one our own way, and he had laid upon him the iniquity
of us all. all the people of God. He says,
of those that hurt him, you are not of my sheep, therefore you
hear not my word. The redemption of the Lord is
a particular redemption, a particular people. Israel of old was a typical
people, and when we picture them going through the wilderness,
the Lord said, you only of all people have I known of all nations
of the earth. And yet man will find it difficult
to think that he can have a people of every nation and kindred and
tongue that are just as particular, just as personally chosen and
loved eternally, a people known by the Lord, suffered by the
Lord for them, and then drawn them. No man can come unto me.
Except the Father which sent me draw him, I'll raise him up
at the last day. And that salvation then is of
the Lord. What power had Jonah in the whale's
belly as he cried unto the Lord, as he looked once more unto the
Lord's holy temple, and the Lord spake unto the fish, and he vomited
it out on dry ground. Salvation, he says, is of the
Lord. And so when we read this word,
thy salvation, O Lord, we need to be very careful what defines
that salvation. Who is our Lord and Saviour,
Jesus Christ, the eternal God made flesh dwelling among us?
What are the terms of That salvation, how is it obtained? It is through the preaching of
the gospel in these days that hath pleased God, through the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. We do not
know who the elect are. We do not preach to the elect. We preach to every creature. And it is the Lord that owns
the declaration of the gospel and seals that word upon the
hearts of his people. Some believe the word spoken
and some believe not, as many as were ordained unto life believed. It is the Lord that gives the
word and gives the increase. We are to use the means. We are
to seek that we might be hearers of the word, doers of the word,
not hearers only, and that we might be obedient unto the faith. that we might walk according
to the light that God gives us and that we might not resist
his word or resist his spirit or put again conditions of our
own as to whether we believe or not. His salvation in every
part, in the provision of him and in the making of it effectual
in the soul So that is the most important and of course central
is our Lord Jesus Christ, who at this time of the year we remember
his coming and what an event and what a blessing when the
Church of God realised that God was on his way. If Israel rejoiced
when Moses came to them and said to them that God had sent him,
how much more when our Lord came. and was testified as the Messiah,
as the King of Israel, as the Babe of Bethlehem. And yet, as
with Moses, when he first appeared, there was much trial, many things
they had to go through before they were released. So there
was 33 years before our Lord was then to lay down his life,
take it again. But all those years, it was needful. a righteousness brought out,
the Scriptures to be fulfilled, and the time of the Lord's offering
to draw nigh. The Lord's salvation then is
Christ alone, and his salvation through time. As we said from
Psalm 25, in every tribulation, our Lord backing that up In me
shall have peace, in the world ye shall have tribulation, backed
up also in the name given to our Lord Jesus Christ. His name
shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their
sins, from the power and dominion of them, from the consequences
of them, from eternal death, from banishment from God. He
shall take away their power and the power and rule of Satan,
the Lord's salvation provides for everything for his people,
so that sin shall not have dominion over them, because they're not
under the law, but under grace and under the grace. By grace
you are saved through faith and not of yourselves. It is the
gift of God. Thy salvation May we bear this
in mind when we hear the messages, especially of this season. When
we hear the preaching of the word, when we read the word of
God, we're reading about the salvation of Jehovah, Father,
Son and Holy Ghost. We're reading the terms of it,
the descriptions of it, how it works and how it applies to us. And if we are to be Like Jacob
waiting for the Lord's salvation, we need to wait in a right way
of expectation. So I want to look secondly at
Jacob's review of his life, because our text says, I have waited
for thy salvation. What things would he have been
looking at? What would he have been going
over in his life and say that was an instance of a time when
I was waiting for thy salvation? The first part, 60 years you
might say of Jacob's life, you don't read much of. But when
he comes to a similar time as this or what was thought was
that, when Isaac is to bless his sons, and then Jacob supplants,
and he makes out his Esau, and he takes the blessing. Of course, before that, Esau
had sold him his birthright for a mess of pottage, despised his
birthright. But then we have Jacob, with
Esau plotting to kill him. And so his mother sends him and
speaks to Isaac to send him away to Laban for a few days, she
said, but we don't read that she ever saw him again. Jacob
leaves home and he goes in the way that really he knew not which
way he was going. And then we have one Mark that
seemed to really apply with Jacob right through his life, where
he ventured, he began to go, and then the Lord met with him.
And we wonder, this is one of those things that the Lord says,
my sheep, they hear my voice, they follow me, they know the
shepherd's voice. And though the Lord deals differently
with each one of his people, I believe that every one of us
that know him will notice that the way he deals with us will
be in a pattern that is recognizable through life. And when he appears
for us again, we recognize the pattern, his voice in his word,
his voice in providence, how he appears, how he delivers us.
One thing with Jacob was in the venturing, he ventures out, we
don't read of any blessing that he had before he ventured out,
but the very first night, stones for pillows, then the Lord appears. And then the Lord gives him,
he promises that he will be with him in all places where that
he went. You know, Jacob would have, as
he'd gone through that time with Laban, Laban changed his wages
10 times twice or once, he might say the most tenderest things
to deceive him regarding where he thought he was going to have
Rachel, but he was given Leah instead and had to serve those
seven years again. And that Jacob would have always
had in mind what the Lord had promised him, that he would be
with him. He would help him. He would bring
him again. back to that land. And he would
have been looking for the Lord to appear. Was it to be after
seven years? Was it to be after 20 years? Well, the Lord did appear. The
Lord did speak to him, return. And he put a thorn in the nest
as well when he saw Laban was not towards him as before. And so then Jacob returns. But then there comes a fresh
trial with Laban. pursuing after him. And the Lord
appears and delivers him there. Then he hears of Esau coming
with 400 men. And we read how distressed that
Jacob was, how he wrestled with the angel. Many times that Jacob
was waiting for the Lord's salvation. Lord, deliver me in this trial.
deliver me in this exercise, this burden, bring me back, as
Thou hast said, to my own land. Those things would have been
something not far from his mind all the time. And it's a bit
similar to as he's, like, speaking to his sons here, and then suddenly
I've waited for Thy salvation, going through life, doing those
things with Laban, but every now and again, the Lord will
bring me back to my own land again. He'll bring me back to
the land of my birth. All of that is on his mind, so
he's occupying until that time the Lord moves him in providence
and brings him back again to that land. That would have been
with Jacob all the time. And of course, as he's just coming
back, then with Esau meeting him, then we have that special
time, that wrestling, with the angel, with the man. They wrestled
a man with him to the breaking of the day. That's wrestled with
God and with man, Hasbrobal. That's when he was changed from
Jacob to Israel. You see the introduction in verse
two. Gather yourselves together and
hear, ye sons of Jacob, and hearken unto Israel your father. And that blessing, of course,
the name was given to the 12 sons of Jacob, they were called
Israel, and still are to this day, that nation. But as he reviews
his life, he would have reviewed those times. The Lord saved him
from the consequences of his sin. He supplanted, he lied to
his father. He was reaping his sin again
and again. He lied once and said, Laban
changed his wages ten times and his sons deceived him regarding
Joseph. I have waited, he says, for thy
salvation. One aspect may well have been
the perplexities, like with Joseph, thinking that he was dead. You
know, sometimes there's that thought with us that the only
way we will really know how things really stood or what the truth
was in a matter is in time to come. The only way it will be
delivered is that there is, and this is the difference, an atheist,
they only have this life for things to be settled. But for
a believer, they know there is a judgment to come. and there
is a settlement there and men, women may feel they've got away
with things here below but we all must give an account before
God and that deliverance sometimes is we wait upon the Lord in that
but Jacob didn't have to regarding Joseph wait that long at all. Suddenly the Lord comes and suddenly
appears and He releases from that perplexity and that which
he thought was something he'd have to completely let go and
forget and would never again visit it with any view of the
Lord's blessing upon it. A very dark period in his life. Have you got a dark period in
your life? Have I? Those things where you
just cannot fathom it, cannot work it out, it doesn't seem
to fit. And of course, with dear Jacob,
he would have thought, well, what about Joseph's dreams? And
what about those things? Because we read that his father,
he noted these things, he laid these things up in his heart,
he observed the same. Well, if it's said as it is in
Psalm 105 regarding Joseph, that until his time came, the
word of the Lord tried him. Jacob also, in one sense, was
walking with his son in that. Do we then review our lives where
we have waited for the Lord to appear in our trials in Providence? We've waited for the Lord to
come and to bless our souls, to give us faith in him, to give
us liberty, to give us joy and peace in believing, to bring
us assurance of hope in Him, to bless our souls, a set time
to favour Zion when the Lord turns the captivity of His people. When He says to those who have
been a long time at Mount Sinai, which His ancient people were,
And then he says, you have dwelt long enough in this mount, move
away. Paul says the law is a schoolmaster
unto Christ. So we might ask Paul, Paul, how
long does the law be a schoolmaster unto Christ for any individual? An hour? A day? A month? How long? And
he would say, the Lord's time. The Lord determines that. We
don't. We don't say, oh, I'm going to
be under the law for so many days or hours, and then I'll
decide I'm going to be under the gospel, and I'm going to
accept that. No, our times are in His hand. Our blessings are in His hand. The teaching is of the Lord.
He that believeth shall not make haste. They shall all be taught
of God, here a little, there a little. They shall hear word
behind thee, saying, this is the way, walk ye in it, when
ye turn to the right hand, when ye turn to the left. It is the
Lord that prays for his people like he did with Peter. Peter
must go into Satan's sieve. It must be for a certain time,
he must be brought out of it. I prayed for thee that by faith
fail not, part of God's salvation, Peter would have looked back.
He would have looked, he would have reviewed his life. And when
the Lord appeared for him, when he didn't even think he needed
the Lord to appear for him or to pray for him, but he did. What about us? As Jacob reviews his life, it's
not just about the Lord's salvation. It's about him waiting for it. His dependence on the Lord. His utter dependence upon the
Lord's timing. You that are used to waiting
for a bus, can you make that get there any quicker than it
does? Because you're the one that waiting, have you command
over it to tell the driver several miles away to speed up and hurry
up? You can't. You just got to wait. We sang in our hymn, didn't we?
About waiting for the Lord's salvation and that the Lord will
certainly come. And he will. And that's what
Jacob would have viewed in that. It's a blessed thing when coming
to the close of our life, to look back through the life and
think, I've waited for the Lord there and he came. I waited there
and he came, I waited there and he came, and again and again
is reinforced, my times are in thy hand, not mine. And the time of the Lord is always
the best time and right time. And it's good for us to had this
view and to effectively say, I have not been the master of
my own salvation. I have not been the controller
of the times of it or how it has happened. God has. He made
the plan. He ordained the times. He brought
these things to pass. And now I am at a point where
I must look forward I own the point of passing this veil of
tears and all of this review that is behind, it is behind.
And before me now is really the whole culmination of that salvation. Paul says, if in this life only
we have hope in Christ with all men most miserable, whatever
we've experienced through life, If it does not appear and help
us in death, we're all man most miserable." But I believe what
Jacob could view, what God had been with him in life and in
time, was what was now to stay him on a dying bed. So I want to think lastly, just
briefly, on salvation that was before him. He says that he must be gathered
unto his fathers, and we read there of his charge to his sons
and where he should be buried, and reviewing those who had gone
before him and were buried in that field that was purchased
from the children of Heth. And then he gathered up his feet
into the bed, yielded up the ghost, was gathered unto his
people, The Spirit returned to God that gave it. Jacob was to
be brought to his God. Jacob was to see his God. Jacob was to be delivered from
sin completely, from this world, from Satan's dominion, and brought
to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. Before
him was not an earthly Canaan which his mortal body was to
be buried in, but a heavenly Canaan which his soul, redeemed
and loosed from that body of death, was to be forever with
the Lord, and was to be then given at the resurrection a new
celestial body." You know, if we think that we can
order our times here, Can we order the day of our death? No,
that is outside of our time and our dominion and power. No man
hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit. What about
our resurrection? Are we any part in that? Are we any power in that? The
timing of it? How it shall happen? How deceived
people are that think, well, all through my life, I'm going
to be in control. I'm going to believe whenever
I want and I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that. But what about when we die? May we know right through life
that we serve the true and living God that has come in for us again
and again, has proved again and again. When we had been helpless
like the children of Israel were in Egypt, the Lord knew how to
set them free. When they were standing still
at the banks of the Red Sea, the Lord knew how to bring them
through. When they were in the wilderness, they had nothing
to eat, the Lord knew how to give them that bread from heaven,
the manna from heaven. When they had nothing to drink,
the Lord knew how would he do to give them to drink, they drank
of that spiritual a rock that followed them, that rock was
Christ. When they stood at the banks
of Jordan, the Lord knew how to bring them through and stop
the waters. When they stood around the walls
of Jericho, the Lord knew how to bring them down. Salvation
is of the Lord. I have waited for thy salvation,
O Lord. You know those, these two words,
this picture that is put together, a soul, a soul that is waiting,
a salvation that is in the Lord's hand and the Lord's design. Blessed will we be if we join
with Jacob and on a dying bed can have such a review and have
such a hope and really there's nothing in all that he says and
all that he's done, that he's shrinking back from death and
back from the way. He knows he is passing that way,
he knows he must. And there's everything that he's
desiring it, and to be with his fathers, to be with the Lord.
And of course, in the gospel day, we know much, much clearer.
in the whole gospel plan has opened up to us of the salvation
of God. May the Lord then bless us with
Jacob's portion, Israel's portion. I have waited for thy salvation,
O Lord. The Lord help us to wait in every
time of need, wait for him to appear, wait for him to assure
our souls, to comfort our souls, to give us that strength and
faith and help. My help cometh from the Lord,
which made heaven and earth. Amen. Just a reminder of the last verse
of the hymn that we sung in our middle hymn. Blessed is the man,
O God, whose mind is stayed on Thee, who waits for Thy salvation,
Lord, shall Thy salvation see. Hymn, 769. Tune, Handforth 673. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit
be with you all now and evermore. Amen.