Turn with me to Genesis chapter 49. All right, Genesis 49. Now, let's begin with reading verses 1 and 2. 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."

Jacob is about to gather his feet into his bed and give up the ghost. But first he's going to speak to his sons according to the spirit of prophecy. According to a spirit of prophecy, and he's going to tell them how God is going to deal with them in the future. How God is going to deal with them and their tribes in the future. He even says in the last days, in the last days, signifying that he's going to speak of Christ. He's going to speak of Christ.

Now I'm going to make a few comments on the first three sons, but our focus is going to be on what Jacob said concerning Judah. So there's very good things that are spoken of Judah, but first he goes through some things regarding Reuben and Simeon and Levi. And because he addresses them first, it actually makes for a very good backdrop in the sense that it shows how excellent the blessing of Judah is against the backdrop of his three brothers.

So with Reuben, it begins in verse 3. Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power. So far, that sounds great. But then it takes a turn. It immediately drops off the cliff here, as it were. 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. You can imagine Jacob not even looking at him when he said that. He was just disgusted at what his son had done.

He was the firstborn son of Jacob. He's the firstborn, which would normally, according to the rule of things and the way things work, he would normally have stood to inherit the blessing. from his father, he should have received a double portion from his father. However, he committed incest with his father's concubine wife, Bilha. This was the mother of his two half-brothers, Dan and Naphtali. And he went and slept with her, his father's wife. And therefore, he did not inherit the blessing of Jacob, nor was a double portion given to him. Those were given to Judah and to Joseph respectively. Judah received the blessing, and to Joseph was given the double portion in his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh.

Now, rubin is likened here to the instability of water. And it's more than just the fact that you can't step on water or go over it the way we would on the ground here, that it's weak in that sense. This has something more to do with, or the sense of it seems to be, with the swelling up of pride in the sense of you can picture a fountain where the water bubbles up and blows out of a fountain. It rises up and then it hits the ground and goes for a little while until it falls off over a cliff. It just drops off over a waterfall and smashes down and comes to nothing. It goes low again. And that's the sense here in which Reuben is unstable as water.

And it's kind of interesting to note that no one, no one of any reputation ever comes from Reuben. There's no prophet, there's no king, there's no ruler, no judge that comes from the tribe of Reuben. Reuben in a lot of ways is like Adam, the firstborn. Reuben in a lot of ways is like this flesh, this weak, foolish, ignorant, rebellious flesh, which had so much promise, and yet sinned and rebelled in Adam, and brought great trouble upon himself and all his posterity." Reuben is a picture of this old man of flesh.

Then in verses five and seven, or five through seven, we read of The next two brothers together, Simeon and Levi, are brethren. They're like-minded. They're a lot alike, Simeon and Levi. Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. And what he's referring to is their evil deed in the misapplication and the misuse of the law to deceive and to destroy men. This goes back to Genesis chapter 34, when Shechem raped their sister Dinah. And they deceived Shechem, bringing him under the law, and used it to destroy him and all those in his city. All right, and abuse there of the law. When they were wounded by the law, they put him to death.

O my soul, he says, come not thou 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. And that's what we see even today in the use of the law, a self-will, a voluntary humility and a desire to bind men with the yoking of the law. you know, not because there's any righteousness in that, not because there's any good, any eternal good worked in that, but that they may glory in your flesh. 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." And that's exactly what happened. Simeon, his inheritance in the land of Canaan, was dropped right in the middle of Judah. All of Judah surrounds Simeon, the whole thing. They were separated from their brethren. And then Levi, the tribe of Levi, from which they got the priesthood, the Aaronic priesthood, they were scattered throughout all of Israel in the various cities which were given to them. And they had no inheritance but in those cities. And they received tithes of their brethren for their living.

And so if Reuben is a picture of the old man of flesh, then we see Simeon and Levi who took the law and misused the law to judge and to destroy men with that law, with that binding and yoking of the law from which no man can be justified before God.

But then Jacob's words change significantly. Once he comes to his fourth born son Judah, the whole tenor of his speech changes very much. And from this I want to show you seven things that were said to Judah, seven things that speak of what Christ would accomplish for his brethren, seen in the things which Jacob, which Israel, prophesies concerning Judah.

So in the first, there's three points out of the first verse, verse eight. So the first point is that first phrase, Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise, shall praise. The name Judah means praise. And the sense of it is in that, that God was praised His mother Leah thanked God and praised God for the giving of Judah. She praised God for his conception in her womb. She praised God for his birth. And this, therefore, it speaks to Christ. Men praise God for the Lord Jesus Christ. God's people are thankful for the Lord Jesus Christ. Without Christ, there is no salvation. We'd have none of this without Christ. We'd have all been destroyed in Adam, then and there, and eternity in hell just for the sin and the rebellion of Adam.

But now we give thanks unto God. We are made a thankful people that praises the true and living God for Christ's sake. Mary, when Christ was conceived in her womb, she said, my soul doth magnify the Lord. She praised God. She gave God thanks for the conception of the promised seed in her womb, him that was promised to come. When our Lord was born in Bethlehem, the angels appeared unto the shepherds at night, saying, Good tidings of great joy are to you and to all people." To all people. It's a good thing. And men praised God for the Lord Jesus Christ. Simeon, not the son of Jacob, but another man born many generations later, Another, an older man named Simeon rejoiced to see Christ in his day. When he came in to be circumcised at eight days old, when his parents, or when Mary and Joseph came in with him into the temple to have him circumcised, he saw the child. And he knew, he understood that this is the promised seed. And he gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake, or rather, he praised God for that. Sorry, I'm getting ahead. And then Anna, Anna was there, a prophetess was there, whose husband had died many decades earlier. and she lived in the temple. She came in and says that she gave thanks likewise unto the Lord and spake of Him to all them that looked for redemption in Israel."

The Lord Jesus Christ brings forth praise and glorying and honor in our God, not in ourselves, but in Him. By looking to Him, we worship God, we rejoice in God, we're made thankful for what God has done for me, us, a vile sinner, an undeserving sinner. We see the grace and mercy of the Lord.

Our Lord, since his coming and all his healings, all the good which he did, all that he spake of, turned men's hearts from death, from dead things that cannot save, from trusting in themselves, to behold him whom the Father hath sent to save us from our sins. And since his resurrection, he gave gifts unto men, whereby we received the Spirit of God. And we're given an understanding into the mystery of God. And now by his grace and power, we are born again, born anew, whereby we worship God in spirit and in truth.

Apart from Christ, we don't have any of that, none of that. And so this is whereby we glory in the Lord. We praise him on earth, saying, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake.

Before Christ, we gloried in ourselves. We looked at what we were doing for the Lord. Now we speak of and rejoice in what Christ has done for us. And we shall praise him in heaven above, singing a new song, saying, thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof, for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation, and hast made us unto our God kings and priests. And we shall reign on the earth for Christ's sake, all for Christ's sake.

He is the way, the truth, and the life. And so God's people have much to praise their Lord for, and we are made to be a people of praise and thanksgiving to our God for His darling Son, Jesus Christ.

Now the second thing is found in the middle of verse 8. Judah, thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies. And the sense here is that Judah shall defeat. He shall conquer all his enemies, all who oppose him. And the picture there is he has them by the neck. They're not going to escape. They're not going to outmaneuver him. He's conquered them. He's conquered all his foes. He's defeated his enemies.

And so it is with regard to our Lord Jesus Christ, all that oppose the truth of God, all that oppose him are defeated and are conquered. He is risen. He has triumphed gloriously over all his enemies. He is the King. He is Lord of all. All things are given into his hand. The devil tried to defeat him and thought he had him, and yet he's defeated. And all his accusations are silenced. He's got nothing to say. He's booted out of heaven. He stands before the throne of God no more to accuse the brethren. He's silenced. He no longer has an audience before God.

Death and the grave are defeated by him. They could not hold him. They could not keep him. No man ever defeated the grave. All men die. But when Christ died, he rose again by his own power. By the power of the Father and the power of the Holy Spirit, he rose again, triumphing gloriously over the grave, over his enemies. And he rose from the dead, never to die again.

and all the wicked of the world are defeated by him. Turn over to Psalm 2, the second Psalm. I'm not gonna read it all, but the second Psalm speaks of the victory that Christ has. speaks of the victory of you that hope and believe in Him. God is declaring you're justified for trusting Christ. You are justified in believing in Him. It's right for you to believe Him because He has triumphed gloriously, brethren.

Psalm 2 begins with a question. Why did the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us.

You know, with the news and the internet and things that we can see now, we hear of all kinds of things, all kinds of maneuvers of men and governments and things that we scratch our head and wonder, why are they doing that? That seems so foolish, so ignorant, so darkness, such darkness. And they're just warring against their own souls there. But they don't see it. It's such a rebellion and a sin against the true and living God, and all that is right and good. It's just utter rebellion against it. And it can drive us to question and weary us and wear us out as to the wickedness and the darkness in this world.

And yet here we see, verse 4, he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. What they're attempting to do, what they're saying they're going to do, is not going to come to pass. They shall be brought down into hell. They shall be destroyed. The Lord shall have them in derision. Even they, though they are united in evil, can't even agree among themselves. Because each one wants what the other one has, and they're jealous of one another. They want the glory, the power, the wealth, everything. And so they fight against each other. And their thoughts come to nothing and gets undone.

Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. And there our Lord sits. who was dead and rose again, and has ascended up to the Father, where he sits at the right hand of God's throne, of his Father's throne, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.

And as he defeated all his enemies, so you who hope in him, you who have no confidence in your own righteousness and your own works under the law, you whose righteousness is the Lord Jesus Christ, you who come and pray to God, asking him for mercy, forgiveness, for grace, your hope is fixed in the Lord Jesus Christ. He says all your enemies are defeated. Trust him. Believe him. What you and I cannot do, he has done faithfully. Wondrously, powerfully, he's done it all. He's overcome all our foes by his grace and power, by his spirit and his mercy in us.

The serpent's head which is against us, he's crushed that head. He's delivered us out of the strong man's house. He's taken us out of that kingdom of darkness and planted us in the kingdom of light of his dear son. The law which was against us, which we could not do, is silenced against us. It's satisfied, and we are delivered from the hand of God's justice by the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We overcome the world through the Lord Jesus Christ, and death has lost its sting. You that trust Christ have nothing to fear in death. If you die, it's to be with the Lord. You have nothing to fear. O death, Paul asked, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

That's exactly as he said. What you hear is what he says. Our victory is the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how we triumph over all our enemies.

Alright, the third thing here is mentioned at the end of verse 8. Judah, thy father's children shall bow down before thee. Now, this had its immediate effect in David and in Solomon, when the kingdom was given to Judah in David. But don't let that take your eyes off of Christ. Don't miss the Lord Jesus Christ, whom this prophecy glorifies.

The Lord Jesus Christ, of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who was over all God blessed forever. Amen. And again, thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he hath put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. And again, for to this end, Christ both died and rose and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and the living.

And so, even now, by his grace and power, it delights the Lord to give faith, to give rise to faith and hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, so that we here now bow to our Lord. We bow to Him. I'm not up here talking and boasting of what I do or motivating you to do what you need to do so that I may glory in your flesh. I boast in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm so confident in Him, as Paul said, we preach Christ to the people, knowing that He is able to save to the uttermost them that come to Him for grace and mercy and salvation.

He is able, brethren, to turn the heart, because he gives a new heart, to give us his spirit, to give us a hearing ear, to give us understanding of the mystery of God, to know him and to rejoice in him, brethren, to rejoice in him. And so we confess with our mouths, the Lord Jesus. And we believe in our hearts that God hath raised him from the dead, that at the name of Jesus Christ, as we have bowed, so all shall bow to him. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth. and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Now fourth, look at verse nine here. 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 this foretells of our lord who is called the lion of the tribe of judah the root of david right that's what he's called in revelation 5 5 he is the lion of the tribe of judah

And these descriptions of Judah as a lion's cub here, it speaks to the humility of our Lord Jesus Christ who stooped, who condescended, who brought himself low in order to serve for his bride, in order to accomplish the redemption of his people as their sacrifice. He took the lowest place as a servant to save and deliver His people who sinned and rebelled against Him.

I mean, you think about that. The grace of our Lord for us, He came meek and lowly. He came in the weakness of the flesh and submitted Himself, humbled Himself to the will of the Father in order to accomplish the redemption, the salvation of His people. And so now, as a wise and an old lion, he couched himself. He made himself look low and weak in order to obtain eternal redemption for his people, in order to defeat his enemies, in order to deliver us from death.

And he hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof. None of us can do that. There was weeping in heaven. when that book was brought forth because no man was found worthy to open it until Christ came. He's the one worthy to implement the will of God in all the earth. Opening the book, opening the seven seals, a picture of him implementing the will of God in all the earth. He's doing that right now, right now, brethren.

The fifth thing speaks of the timing when Christ, who is our peace, would come into the earth. He says in verse 10, The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come. And he's saying that the kingdom would continue with Judah until the coming of our peace, until the coming of Christ. And when he came, that civil government ended. That civil government in Judah ended from Judah, ruling over Israel.

Listen to a few scriptures. In one sense, we know that when Christ was born, Herod the Tetrarch was king over Jerusalem at that time. But there's even another sense in which we see this. When our Lord was taken and being led to the cross to be crucified, the Jews answered Pilate, saying, we have a law. And by our law, he ought to die. And we have a law. We have a rule here. We have a rule of the law here. and by our law he ought to die because he made himself the Son of God."

Well, in that same moment, they betrayed that law. They turned away from the rule of Judah. There, in this sentence here, it says in John 19, verses 14 and 15, and it was the preparation of the Passover, and about the sixth hour, about noontime, and Pilate saith unto the Jews, Behold your king." Your king. Christ descended from Judah. Behold your king. But they cried out, Away with him. Away with him. Crucify him. They wanted him put to death. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.

Shiloh had come. Shiloh means tranquility. It means peace, and our Lord Jesus Christ is the peacemaker between God and men, between God and the people whom the Father chose before the foundation of the world and gave to his Son for his inheritance, for his people, for his bride. He has made peace for us, brethren. He has made peace for God's people.

that a sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. He is Shiloh, and Shiloh has come, and he is the ruler over all.

Now the sixth thing is at the end of verse 10. unto him shall the gathering of the people be." So this is the purpose for which Christ came into the world. It's not just to make us better citizens and better people and more religious people. He came into the world to save sinners who cannot save themselves, who cannot work a righteousness for ourselves. Christ came into the world to redeem that which was lost in Adam. He came. Man could not redeem himself. None are righteous, the Scriptures say. No, not one. Therefore, Christ came into the world and fulfilled all the law for righteousness to be the fit sacrifice for His people, the Lamb of God, to save His people from their sins, to purchase His people once and for all.

for himself, to put away iniquity, to end the sin and the iniquity, to end the transgression, to put it away forever, to make satisfaction for their sins and obtain forgiveness. Because it's not the blood of bulls and goats that puts away sin. It's not our form of dead letter religion that puts away sin. It's not our works and our actions and our tries and our attempts and our strength and our ability that puts away sin. It's not our dedication or our sincerity that puts away sin. It is the Lord Jesus Christ. And we hope in him that he gives us a new heart and His Spirit to turn us from death, and from having confidence in this flesh, to find our all and our confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone.

Therefore, none for whom Christ died, because He did this, and He is the faithful Savior whom the Father has sent, none for whom Christ died shall perish, shall fall to hell, shall die in their sins, none, none, It's his word of promise that we shall, all for whom he shed his blood, shall be gathered to Christ. He cannot fail. He is the triumphant Lord and Savior. He cannot fail. All that the Father giveth me, he said in John 6, 37, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

for I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. All will be gathered.

Now finally, the seventh thing here that we read of, it speaks of Christ's fruitful redemption. he shall be fruitful." Glorious, triumphant. Verses 11 and 12 say, binding his foal unto the vine and his ass's 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 This speaks to the blood redemption of our Lord, who triumphed gloriously over our enemies, who put away the sins of his people by himself, none helping him. And Isaiah, I'll just read verse three. It's from Isaiah 63, and you can read the first six verses at home, but let me just read verse three. He said, I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with me. For I will tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment."

Brethren, all that needed to be done, everything that God required for our righteousness has been accomplished. It is finished, Christ said on the cross. The work is done. There's nothing more to be done. All that must be done in us and wrought in us, He shall accomplish it. He shall finish the work. That which God has started, He promises He will finish it unto the end, faithfully. faithfully as our Lord and Savior. Everything that's necessary, He did it. And because He did it, He blesses His people. He works this salvation in His people. He gives His Spirit. He pours out heavenly blessings upon His people, working in us love, faith, gentleness, kindness, long-suffering, for bearing with one another, serving one another in the light and truth of our God in the face of Jesus Christ. He does this, brethren. He does it.

Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man, The Lord Jesus Christ is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. He is the Savior. He's the Savior, and Israel prophesied of him when Jacob's time to die had come. He spoke of the Lord Jesus Christ triumphing gloriously for his people, pictured there in Judah. I pray the Lord bless that.