Brethren, let's open our Bibles
to Genesis chapter 49. Genesis 49. What we need is a King and a
Savior. We need one who is Lord and Christ. That's our need. That's our one
need as sinners in need of salvation. We need a King. and we need Christ. That's what
we see here and there's a couple of pictures in this text that
shows us Christ as the Savior and Christ as the conquering
King. Now, Jacob is blessing his sons
before he dies. And we could preach the gospel
by looking at each of these sons. For instance, in verses 1 and
2, I'm not going to read it, but you can read it at your leisure,
but Jacob there is the head of the house. And he calls his children
to himself, and he blesses them, and he declares what shall come
to pass. Do you see Christ in that? Christ
is the head of his house. He calls his children to himself. He blesses his children. He declares
the end from the beginning. And then in verses 3 and 4, Reuben
is the firstborn son who had his birthright removed because
he sinned against his father. It reminds us of Adam who sinned
against God and plunged all mankind into sin and death. But Christ
is God's firstborn and He's the excellency. He's the beginning
of God's strength and the excellency of His dignity and the excellency
of God's power. And then in verses 5 and 7, Simeon
and Levi, we could preach the gospel from this. They were both
cursed because of their cruel murder in that incident involving
their sister. They were cursed because of that.
They were considered an angry and vicious people. Both of them
were cursed. And yet later, what do we find?
God chose Levi. Called him and his tribe to be
priests unto God. What a beautiful picture of the
grace of God. We all fell under the curse in
Adam. But by His pure grace, God chose
some to salvation in Christ. And He calls us to Himself. And
through Christ's blood, He makes us priests unto God. But I want
us to focus this morning on Jacob's word to Judah in verses 8 through
12. Judah is a type of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Let's read this text together.
Verse 8. 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. You see a conquering a conquering
savior in that. 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? You see
a savior in that. He took the prey, devoured the
prey. And then we see him as a king.
Look at verse 10. The scepter The dominion shall
not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver, nor a governor from between his
feet, until Shiloh come, until him who it is, whose it is, comes. Unto him, until Christ, who is
the sovereign governor, comes. And unto him shall the gathering
of the people be, binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass
his colt unto 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. Now, Judah means
praise. And Jacob says here, verse 8,
Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise. Christ is the one
whom all His brethren shall praise. There's no doubt in my mind about
that. I don't have to worry if God will bring that to pass.
I know God will bring that to pass. All Christ's brethren shall
praise Him in faith, in saving faith. I know that. You know
how I know it? Because whom God did foreknow,
whom He did foreordain, He also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of His Son that Christ might be the firstborn
among many brethren, that Christ might be that firstborn elder
son whom all His brethren shall praise. And God always brings
to pass His will. He never fails to bring to pass
His will. Now one reason we don't preach
salvation by the will and works of man in any degree, we don't
preach that in any degree, Because that gives man room to glory.
That gives man room to be praised if he contributes one degree
to his salvation. So we don't preach that. We preach
that salvation beginning to end is the work of Christ Jesus,
the Son of God. That no flesh should glory in
His presence, but of God Is He made unto you wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption, that as it is written, He that
glories, He that praises our elder brother, let him praise
Him alone. None else. That's why we preach
Christ. That's why we preach Him as the sovereign, effectual
King and Savior of His people. because he will get all the praise.
Another reason Judah would be praised by his brethren is because
he was preeminent in interceding with their father. You remember
what we've seen. Every time that they needed to
convince Jacob of something, Judah was the one who went in
and prevailed. Reuben tried to one time. Remember
when they were trying to get Benjamin to go back down to Egypt
with them? Joseph demanded that and they
wanted Benjamin to go and Reuben went in and tried to get him
to go. Jacob said, I wouldn't let him go with you for nothing.
You're unstable as water. But Judah went in and prevailed.
Well, brethren, we praise Christ because He always prevails as
our intercessor. He prevailed when Adam sinned
in the garden. You know, if it wasn't for Christ's
intercession for God's elect, God would have destroyed this
whole world when we sinned in Adam in the garden. But for that
one reason, because Christ was there as our intercessor in the
presence of God, God spared this world. Christ interceded for
us when He went to Calvary's cross. That's what was taking
place on the cross. Christ interceding for His people.
And the Scripture says, He's able also to save them to the
uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing that right now
He ever liveth to make intercession for us. When you think about
the intercession of Christ before the Father, don't think of Christ
before the Father pleading with the Father like Judah had to
do with Jacob. Don't think of it like that because
that's not how it is. It's Christ being in God's presence. Him being there, the successful
Redeemer in God's presence. His person is our intercession.
That finished work is our intercession with God. Listen to this scripture.
Christ has not entered into the holy place made with hands, which
are figures of the true, but he's entered into heaven itself
now to appear in the presence of God for us. That's how he
intercedes for his people, just being in God's presence. And
then another reason Judah was praised by his brethren is because
he became surety for Benjamin. Remember when he agreed, take
my life. If I don't take Benjamin down
there and bring him back to you safe, you can take my life. That's
what Christ did for all God's elect before the foundation of
the world. He agreed to be surety for his people. Not a surety
like we become a surety. You know, when we purchase this
building, we're going to probably have some guarantors that are
going to sign that if the church doesn't make the payments, we'll
help make the payment on it. Which is kind of redundant because
we are the church going to be making the payment on it. But
at any rate, that's what it says, if, if, if we don't make the
payment. That's not how Christ became
surety. Christ said, I know they won't pay you, and I'll pay everything. I'll pay it all. That's the kind
of surety he became. Then Judah was to be praised
because his grandsons were the first ones who came with gold
and silver and made an offering to God in the dedication of that
tabernacle. That tabernacle that was built.
God gave them the wisdom to build it. Judah's the tribe of Judah.
And then they were the first to come and offer offerings in
dedication to it. Christ is the one who built God's
temple. He's the one who takes us and
makes us living stones and fitly frames us together and builds
us up into His holy temple and makes us a habitation of God
through the Spirit. Christ does that. And He's the
first one who made an offering to God for His people. It says
He's the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world.
Before anybody made an offering, even before Abel made an offering
in the garden, Christ made an offering to God. He agreed and
right then when He struck hands with God, He became the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. And we praise Him
because He didn't offer the corruptible things that Judah's brethren
offered like silver and gold. He came forth and offered something
much more precious than that. For you know, brethren, that
we were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold,
but with the precious, precious blood of Christ. This is why
we praise Him. All the excellencies of His person,
all the accomplished redemption, all the fullness of His grace,
all the goodness of His providence, these are all reasons why we
praise Christ and Christ alone. Isn't it good, brethren? Isn't
it good to come into a place and sit down and know that all
of us together are going to praise Christ alone? We're going to
hear Him declared, Him exalted, and together we're going to praise
Him alone. Wouldn't you hate to come into
a place and sit down and hear man exalted, sinful man exalted
and praised And that's all you hear in modern day religion.
I'm so glad God's given us grace to come in and hear and rejoice
and praise Christ only. Alright, look at this second
thing. He says, Jacob said to Judah that his brethren would
praise him because, verse 8, thy hand shall be in the neck
of thine enemies. Thy father's children shall bow
down before thee. On Calvary's cross, that's what
Christ was doing. He put his hand in the neck of
his enemies. You put your hand in the neck
and that's the end right there. You can snap the neck. That's
it for your opponent. And that's what he did on the
cross. Christ put his hand in the neck of his enemies and he
destroyed every one of them. Satan kept us in bondage through
a fear of death all our lifetime. You sitting here right now that
don't have Christ, you fear death. You might be bold right now and
say, oh, I don't fear death. Well, you might be young and
think you're a lot of years from it. But I guarantee you if this
afternoon you got struck down and was in a bed and the doctor
said you got hours to live, you'd be trembling. I guarantee you. Why? Because you know you're
a sinner. And the devil keeps you knowing
you're a sinner. And it keeps you in bondage telling
you, you got to do something about it. You got to do something
to fix it. So you just stay in that bondage
trying to do something to fix it. Never do it enough. Christ
came and finished the work of redemption so that now when He
makes Himself known in the heart of His child, we know we're delivered. We're delivered. We don't have
to fear death anymore. We're delivered by Christ. because
He defeated our enemy. And because He justified His
people on the cross, He guaranteed by that that He's going to save
all His people from our enemies, the enemies of false preachers.
He's going to call everyone of them out. Satan can put his gates
up and he can try his best to keep the people in. You've experienced
that. They called me up. Every name
in the book. Some of you have told me about
the things that happened when you tried to come out a cult
leader and everything else. He can put those gates up all
he wants to. The gates of hell will not prevail against Christ.
Christ will send forth His gospel in there and He'll snatch His
people out of there every time. Because He justified them. They've
got to be called. God's glory demands it. And right
this minute, He's reigning and He's head over everything in
the universe, in heaven, earth and hell. He's the head right
now. And everything's happening in poverty is just for his people.
God said to him, sit here on my right hand till I make thy
enemies thy footstool. And the scripture says he must
reign until he's put all enemies under his feet and the last enemy
that will be put under his feet is death. We don't even have
to fear death. He defeated all our enemies.
And so all God's children are going to bow down before Christ.
All his father's children are going to bow down before Christ.
Now let me tell you something. Everybody is his children. And they were all going to bow
down before Christ. Some are going to bow down by God's grace
and be saved in Christ. The rebels are going to be made
to bow and confess they were dead wrong and God was right. Christ is the salvation of His
people. Now, sinner, this is the day
of grace. This is the day of grace. This
is the day God is sending forth His gospel and quickening His
people and calling out His redeemed. Now, will you hear God, hear
what He said? Everybody is going to bow. You
will bow to Christ. There is no doubt about that.
Everybody will bow to Christ. And everybody is going to confess
Him to be Lord of lords and King of kings. Everybody is going
to do that. Sinner, why don't you bow now?
Kiss the Son. Be saved by His grace rather
than trying to fight against Him. Because you're going to
bow. You're going to bow. There's just no doubt about that.
If you confess your sin to Him... You know, when we confess our
sins to somebody we've sinned against, we don't do that. We don't usually do that. Why? Because that person we've sinned
against is going to take vengeance on us most of the time. Well,
God's not like us. He says, you come to me and confess
your sins to me, and I'll have mercy on you. If thou shalt believe
in thy heart... Let me back up. If thou shalt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine
heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be
saved. There's just no doubt about it. You know how I know
that I'm one of my Father's children? Let me tell you how I know I'm
one of my Father's children. I'm one of my Heavenly Father's
children. Here's how I know. I bow to Christ. And I delight
to bow to Him. When it says you bow to Him,
here's what I mean. I don't attribute any aspect
of my salvation to myself. I'm a sinner. That's it. I'm
a sinner. And Christ, He is the Savior. He has, is, and shall do all
the saving. And He alone will be praised.
That's how I know I'm a child of God. Sometimes I don't feel
like I'm a child of God. Sometimes I don't act like a
child of God. And I certainly don't look like a child of God.
But when I look over my life, the one thing that keeps me from
doubting is this. I know without a doubt and I
delight in the fact that Christ is all my salvation. Faith is
the only evidence of salvation. That's it. Try to find some other
evidence in you. I tell you what's going to happen.
You're either going to be lifted up in pride or you're going to
be cast down in despair. Don't look to you, look to Christ.
That's faith in Him, bowing to Him, trusting Him for all. That's
the assurance of salvation. Then Jacob said this, verse 9,
he said, Judah is a lion's whelp. 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? Now you get
this picture. The picture is of a lion approaching
his prey. And first, you've seen them,
you know, they're approaching their prey and first they stooped
down. Just ever so low, just in the
line of the of the brush. And they began to creep up on
their prey. And when they get close to their prey, then they
couch. They lie down. There's two going
downs. They stoop and then they lie
down. And then they pounce on the prey. And when they've devoured that
prey, they go back up to their den and they lay down and rest. And who's going to dare go and
wake up the lion when he's resting? Well, that's all picturing Christ. Our Lord here is compared to
a young lion for His strength and He's compared to an old lion
for His wisdom. To those who are called, Christ
is what? He's the wisdom and power of
God. He's the young lion and the old
lion. He's the lion. He stooped the first time when
God the Son came down from glory and took off human flesh and
became a servant to serve God for His people. That's when he
stooped. And then he couched, he lied down when he laid down
his life on Calvary's cross. And right there, when he laid
down his life on Calvary's cross, that's when he devoured the prey. He devoured the prey. Listen
to this from Isaiah 31, verse 4. Thus hath the Lord spoken
unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his
prey when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him.
You see the lion there and he's backed into a corner and there's
all these hunters, these shepherds protecting their sheep and they're
all coming out against him. He said, Christ will not be afraid
of their voice. nor abase himself for the noise
of them, so shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight for
Mount Zion and for the hill thereof." And he devoured the prey. He
succeeded. See these first two pictures
here is of him succeeding as our Savior. And now, where is
he? From the prey, he's gone up to
God's right hand and he's sat down because the work's finished.
He's finished devouring the prey. Remember what John saw? One of
the elders said unto him, Weep not. Behold, the Lion of the
tribe of Judah hath prevailed. That's Christ. He hath prevailed. Now let me ask you a question.
You see that lion there says, now who's going to rouse up a
lion? That's resting. He's gone up from His prey now
and He's resting. He's taken the spoils back to
His dead. Who's going to dare go up and
try to face that line and square off against Him? Now let me ask
you this. Who here thinks they have righteousness
and holiness enough in themselves by their works to go up to Christ
and meet Christ and square off against Him in the day of judgment?
Anybody that foolish? You would have more success going
barehanded, naked before a lion and try to square off against
a fierce lion than you will against Christ. Don't be that foolish. Don't be that foolish. Then fourthly,
he says this. Now we start talking about the
king. Watch this. The scepter shall not depart
from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh
come." Jacob declared to Judah God's promise. God promised that
the government of earthly Judah, of natural Judah, that tribe,
would continue until Christ came. That's what God promised. He
used Judah as a picture of Christ. That's where King David came
from. It was a picture of Christ. And so He preserved that tribe
and their dominion and their government over Israel until
Christ came. Because Christ is shallow. That
word shallow means He whose it is. He's who it is. And it's very close to the word
shalom which means peace. And shallow means peace and prosperity. Now get what it says there, the
scepter, the sovereign power, the sovereign dominion, the sovereign
authority. Nor a lawgiver, a governor, a
sovereign governor who has dominion. None shall depart from Judah
until Christ to whom the scepter and the government belongs shall
come. You see, the dominion, and the
authority and the power belongs to Christ, our King. He's the
governor. Look over at Isaiah chapter 9.
This is that verse that you hear so much at Christmas. It's so
sad. You hear this verse at Christmas
and then they portray Him as the little baby Jesus in a manger,
helpless and persecuted. And that's not at all what it
declares. Look at what it declares. Remember when the wise men came?
They said, we come to see Him who is the King. Watch this. Verse 6. Unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon His
shoulder. The government of what? Of all
God's house and of all this world. His name shall be called Wonderful,
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, Shallow the
Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government
and peace, the increase of the peace of His government, there
shall be no end upon the throne of David. That means He's the
real King David. He's the one King David of the
tribe of Judah pictured, Christ the King. And upon His kingdom,
it's His kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment
and with justice. Go into that cross that He established
His kingdom in judgment, satisfying justice for His people. He'll
do this from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord
of hosts will perform this. Look at Ezekiel 21. If you can
get there, this is just a good verse. I want you to read it.
God was talking about a king in Israel, but this is a prophecy
of Christ. Look here. Ezekiel 21, 26. Are you there? Ezekiel 21, 26.
Thus saith the Lord God, Remove the diadem and take off the crown. This shall not be the same. It's
not going to stay on the same one it's been on. Exalt him that
is low. Who's that? Christ humbled Himself
lower than any man ever did on that cross. Exalt Him that is
low, and abase Him that is high. I will overturn, overturn, overturn
it, and it shall be no more until He come whose right it is, and
I will give it Him. That's Christ, brethren. He's
the King. You know, I've told you this
before, I don't worry about the government of this church because
it's not on my shoulder. And it's not on your shoulder.
You know, we're not these people who say, you see, we hold one
another accountable. Christ holds us accountable.
He makes us accountable and He holds us accountable. And He
governs. And He does it like no man can do it. He does it
in the heart, in spirit and in truth. You know, it's so simple
what He sent us to do is to overlook one another's sins and shortcomings
and bear with it and declare Christ. And through that message,
it doesn't matter how you've turned out in this way or that
way, Christ through that message is going to call His people and
keep His people in the way and preserve us and bring us to glory.
Isn't that just simple? overlook one another's sins,
bear with it, bear their burden, and just preach Christ to them.
When they fall, when I stumble, don't come and whip me. That's
not going to do anything. If I've stumbled and fallen,
I've had people call me and so ashamed, tell me about some sin
they've committed or whatever, I'm not going to whip them. It's
obvious they're shamed enough by that. I'm not going to whip
them because of that. I'm going to remind them of what
Christ has done for them. Because that's how He's going
to comfort His people and strengthen His people to trust Him only. That's our charge here. That's our charge here. He's
the King. Now catch this next thing. Genesis 49, verse 10.
Genesis 49, 10. And unto him shall the gathering
of the people be, binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's
coat unto the choice vine." Now, we've seen him as the successful
Savior. He put His hand in the neck of
His enemies, and then we saw Him as the Lion of the tribe
of Judah, successful Savior, devouring the prey. And we see
Him now as the King. He's the One to whom the sovereign
authority and dominion belongs. He's the Governor who governs
the whole house of God and all this world. And He shall not
fail. He's the Prince of Peace. We're
going to see Him call His people to Himself. Watch this. Christ said to Himself, He said,
If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all unto Me. He's going to draw all His people
unto Him. Don't doubt that. To doubt that is to doubt His
success as our Savior and our King. Remember that ass's coat
He rode into Jerusalem? Remember that? And ash is cold. One time I had a friend of mine,
and I thought I was something. I was about 13 years old, and
I'd been riding on one of them. We rigged up a barrel out in
the yard, and I'd been riding that barrel, and my uncle would
be bucking that barrel, you know, and I rode that barrel, and I
was getting ready. I was going to go to the rodeo, and I was
going to ride me a calf. Thirteen years old. And I had
a friend come down to my mom's shop, And he said, I've got a
colt up there that needs to be broke. Why don't you come up
and ride him? I said, alright, I'll do it.
First chance I got to break a colt. I'm excited about it. If I could
ride a calf, I could surely ride a horse. And I got up there and
that colt was bigger than I was. That thing was big. And he put a saddle on that colt
and the colt stood there. And I crawled up on that colt.
The colt just stood there. He led us out to a big old field,
handed me the reins, and the colt just stood there. And I
spurred the colt. He made one jump as high as he
could make, made one straight down, and I came over the top
of him, landed on my head, and my earlobes touched my shoulder.
I went to the doctor in 2010. You know the first thing he asked
me? Have you ever broken your neck?
I said, I don't know, but there was one time when I could have,
but not Christ. Christ took this ass's coat that
had never been ridden, and tamed it, and rode it into Jerusalem,
and tied it up to the vine, to the choice vine. You know what
Christ does for His people? When He comes in power, He makes
us willing in the day of His power. He breaks His stout-hearted
people. He tames His child. And He binds
us to Christ divine. He binds us to Him because He
is the choice vine. He binds us to Him. See, He's
the successful King and the successful Savior. I don't have to preach
and try to trick you into believing God. I don't have to try to tell
you something you do and put the work in your hand. I can
just sit here and declare the sovereign King and Savior of
His people because He, through that message, is going to tame
His people and He's going to bind us to Him. There's no doubt
about that. How does He bind us to Him? Verse
11. He makes us see Him on the cross
as our substitute. He makes you to see that He washed
His garments in wine and His clothes in the blood of grapes.
He makes you behold Him there suffering in our room instead,
in the room instead of His people. He said, I'll pour out My Spirit
on them and they'll look upon Me whom they have pierced and
they'll mourn for Me as one mourns for his only son. That's where
He makes you behold Him. Covered in the blood, visage
marred more than any man, bearing the justice of God in the place
of His people, being forsaken of God, because that's what you
deserved. That's what I deserve. He makes
you behold that. You see, the man that won't come
to Christ, the reason he won't come to Christ, he don't believe
he deserves that. When you're made to look upon
Christ from that cross and know, that's you there. That's you
there. But it's Christ in your room
instead. When He makes you see that, that's when you'll mourn
for your sin. That's when you'll see your sin
and mourn for your sin. I guarantee it. And look here,
verse 12. His eyes shall be red with wine. You know, when wine makes the
eyes red, it gives joy to the heart. It's just fact. It gives joy to the heart. And
here's what I see in this. We behold Christ and we see His
eyes looking to the joy that was set before Him. Looking to
the time when He would have justified God and declared His righteousness
being the just God and the Savior of His people. And when He would
have saved all His people and He looked to that joy. And that's
what made Him willingly go to that cross and bear that shame
for His people. And we see His eyes looking toward
us with that joy to save His people. That breaks your heart. That breaks the stout heart.
That tames the asses coat. And verse 12, and His teeth white
with milk. When you look to see Him there
and you see Him suffering in your room instead, He makes you
to see that He did that willingly for God and His people. That,
by the way, is the righteousness of God. To love God and your
neighbor as yourself. He's the only one that ever did
that. It requires being forsaken of everybody for your people.
He did that for God and His people. That's the fulfillment of the
law right there. That's the righteousness of the law. That willingness
to do that for His people, to justify His people. And when
He makes you behold that, He whispers in your heart and He
says, My child, It is finished. It is finished. It is finished. The curse is done. Sin is done. Judgment is done. Condemnation
is done. You are accepted with God. You
are complete in Christ right now. You are fit to be made partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in life. And when He makes you
hear Him say that, out of His mouth, from His mouth comes that
sincere milk of the Word. And you taste it. The Lord is
gracious. And you behold Him white with
holiness and faithfulness to God and to His people. And He
makes you to say, I'm His. I'm His. He's bound you to Him. Bound you to Him. And there's
no way nothing or anything can sever you from Him after that.
That's who He is, brethren. As He made you behold Him this
morning. As He made you behold Him. Has
He drawn you to Him? He says this, Take my yoke upon
you. Don't take the yoke of the law
upon you. Take Christ's yoke upon you.
Don't learn of the letter of the law, learn of Christ. Because
He is lowly in heart. And you shall find rest for your
souls. Amen. Let's stand together brethren. We'll take a short break and
we'll come back for the main message, main service. Father,
thank You that You sent forth the Lion of the tribe of Judah
and successfully saved Your people, raised our King and our Savior
to Your right hand. And as Peter declared, You've
made Him a King and a Savior. Lord, break our hearts now. Prick us in our hearts. Bind
us to you. Make us behold you there on that
cross and bind us to you. Lord, if you do that, we don't
need anything else. Whatever else you're pleased
to give us will just be icing on the cake. Forgive us, Lord,
of our sins. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.