Let's turn to Genesis chapter
31. Now our God has given us the
gospel because through the gospel he makes the mind of God known
to us. He makes us to know God's gracious
purpose for his people who desperately need his salvation. And he makes
his mind known to us through the gospel because this is how
God saves his people. I want to read something that
Paul said in Romans chapter 10. And it speaks to the necessity
of preaching the gospel. Romans 10 verse 13, For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now listen closely to what he
says, How then shall they call on him in whom they have not
believed? And how shall they believe in
him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. So our God from the foundation
of the world from the patriarchs, and even earlier than the patriarchs,
our God has been proclaiming, preaching, declaring the gospel. You know, the promise that he
made in the garden when Adam and Eve fell, God was preaching
the Gospel, right there. He's declaring His Word to our
ears. And with that understanding,
you can go back to the first chapter of Genesis and see it's
declaring the Gospel. The whole thing is declaring
the Gospel of Christ to us, of our Redeemer. And so He preaches
the Word, and when He preaches the Word, He speaks of the believers,
kinsmen, Redeemer, who is the Lord Jesus Christ. And in this
chapter here, in the beginning of this chapter 31, Genesis 31,
we see how that the Lord reveals his gospel to Jacob, and then
Jacob calls his wives, a picture of the church, And he proclaims
the gospel to them. And that word is made effectual
to them. And they see exactly what the
Lord taught and showed Jacob. They confess, that's our hope
too. What God has shown you, he's
shown to us. He's taught us by that same word. So I've titled this message,
Jacob Preached the Word. So the Lord makes clear to Jacob
at this time. He's in Paddan Aram, which is
basically Syria. He's been there for a long time.
And he says, Jacob, it's time to go. It's time for you to leave. And when Jacob leaves Syria,
when he leaves Laban's house, he's going to leave now with
an understanding of God's provision for him. He's going to leave
with an understanding of who his redeemer is. Jacob had been in servitude to
his uncle Laban for 20 years. Now, 20 years. For each daughter's
hand, he served Laban seven years. And then he tacked on another
six years where God purposed to bless Jacob and ensure that
Jacob would not leave Laban's house empty. having not done
any provision for himself, and so it's time now, and the Lord's
showing Jacob, he's teaching Jacob the gospel. We don't read
a lot of, we don't read of anything, really. of the Lord of Jacob
worshiping God. There's no altar there in Padan,
Iran. The last he's seen of God that's
recorded for us is in Bethel, when he was fleeing Esau's face
and going to Laban's house to spend a little time there, perhaps
find a wife there. And the first time that God is
even brought up again is when Laban said, I have seen that
God hath blessed me for your sake, which is a picture, a testimony
that we, the church, is blessed for the sake of another. God's
always declaring the gospel through the whole scripture there. And
so I want to show you first, before we see Jacob preaching
the word, The Lord does three things to prepare Jacob for his
departure from Paddan Aram and to go home. First, he had a desire. The Lord had laid a desire on
his heart while in Paddan Aram to go home. Look back in Genesis
30, verse 25. Some of this is review from last
week, but it's good to see it. Verse 25, and it came to pass. when Rachel had born Joseph,
that Jacob said unto Laban, send me away, that I may go unto mine
own place and to my country. Well, there's a picture of how
the believer longs for home, longs for his heavenly inheritance
when Christ is formed in us. When Christ is formed in the
heart, we begin to desire to go to that inheritance. I want
to go home. I want to go home. Second, circumstances
began to change for Jacob. And these circumstances, these
changes through these things, he began to know that things
are very different between me and this world now. They don't
look at me the same. They don't treat me the same
anymore. And so the Lord was showing him
how that he puts a divide between his people and the world. Look at Genesis 31 verse 1. And he heard the words of Laban's
sons, saying, Jacob hath taken away all that was our father's,
and of that which was our father's hath he gotten all this glory. He heard the words. He understood. These fellows don't like me. They don't treat me the same
anymore. And there's a spiritual lesson in that verse for God's
people, and it's showing us the glory of Christ here. There's
a picture of the gospel in this verse. When it says, It's speaking
of Christ. Jacob hath taken away all that
was our father's. They said, of that which was
our father's hath he gotten all this glory. And what it shows
us is that men of flesh, men who are enemies of God, yet in
darkness, yet trusting their flesh, we see who their father
is. The Lord's making known to us
that his people, their father is God. But those of the world,
those remaining in darkness, those going the course of the
world, are under the prince of the power of the air. Their father
is the devil. Now, most people don't go around
with that kind of confession. Very few people would say that
the devil is their father. And yet, they're of the flesh.
They're of Adam. And Adam yielded. to the devil. He yielded up his dominion to
the devil, and so when men are left to themselves, their confidence
is in this flesh. Their confidence is in the flesh.
We see it in John chapter 8. We see the religion of the Jews,
and you can turn there to John chapter 8. We'll come back to
Genesis 31 in a moment, but John 8. These Jews were practicing
the law of Moses, which spoke of and pointed to Christ. They
boasted that Abraham was their father. In John 8, verse 40,
our Lord, speaking to these Jews, verse 40, he tells them, but
now ye seek to kill me. He's having trouble, just like
Jacob was having trouble with Laban's sons. He said, Ye seek
to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard
of God. This did not Abraham. You see, God was blessing Jacob. He was making sure that Jacob
would not go out of Laban's house empty, and he's blessing him,
and that blessing of God was speaking volumes of truth to
Laban's sons. They're looking at that saying,
wait a minute, all the glory is going to this fella. He's
getting all the glory, and we're getting nothing. Nothing. Well, same thing with the Jews.
They're looking at Christ and saying, All the people are going
after Him. Where's our glory? Where's our
fame? You're making us look like fools.
You're telling people that our words are false and that we don't
know the truth. Verse 41, our Lord says to them,
ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they unto him, we be
not born of fornication. We have one Father, even God.
Jesus said unto them, if God were your Father, ye would love
me. You'd rejoice in the glory that
the Father gives me. You'd rejoice, for I proceeded
forth and came from God. Neither came I of myself, but
he sent me. Why do you not understand my
speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your
father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He
was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because
there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh
of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it." The rejoicing
of Laban's sons was that of the flesh. They rejoiced in their
father Laban. And they're looking at all this
glory of God blessing Jacob. They didn't know the promises
given to Abraham. They didn't believe the things
that Abraham was taught of God, that through his seed, the promised
seed would come, and that all nations will be blessed in him.
And so they weren't rejoicing. in the Lord blessing Jacob, they
were angry. They were angry at it. Now back
in verse 2, Genesis 31-2, And Jacob beheld the countenance
of Laban. He saw his face, and behold,
it was not toward him as before. And so the more God blessed Jacob,
the more the world hated Jacob. They saw it and said, no, we
don't go for this. Why is he getting all the glory?
Why is he being blessed so richly? Where's our blessing? Where's
our boast? And then this foreshadows the
coming of Christ. This was the behavior of the
Jews toward Christ because he was being blessed of God. Now,
in Christ, we see how God blessed Jacob through He was blessing
him because through him Christ would come. Look at Genesis 30
verse 43. And the man, this is the previous
chapter, and the man increased exceedingly and had much cattle
and maidservants and menservants and camels and asses. He was
getting all those sheep, and he's going and trading them in
and getting camels and asses for the long trip home, getting
new fabric for his tents and blankets and pillows and all
the things that the kids needed and his wives. And he's bringing
all this provision. And they're looking at this stuff
marching by every day. Jacob's going to town with the
sheep and the wool. that was supposed to be our father's,
but it was his, because it was ring-streaked and spotted and
whatever the agreement was, and he's selling it and getting all
these things, all these blessings, so he wouldn't go home empty. And they're seeing that, and
they're saying, Jacob hath taken away all that was our father's.
Of that which was our father's hath he gotten this glory. And that's the truth of the gospel. When we declare that God is sovereign,
God saves whom He wills, it's not by my works. It's not by
my will. It's not because I've made a
decision to follow Jesus and given my heart to Him. If I have
any hope or need of Christ, it's because God has given that to
me. It's His glory. And if you declare
that God saves whom he wills, the flesh of man, yet remaining
in darkness, will hate you and despise that word. Why are you
giving God all the glory? Where's my glory? If you listen
to someone, there's two confessions in the so-called church, right?
One glorifies God, the other one glorifies the flesh. Man
says, I did. I walked the aisle. I gave my
heart to Jesus. I accepted the Lord. I let go
and let God. I did all these things. Where's
my glory? But the believer says, God has
done this for me. God saved me. He had mercy on
a vile, filthy, wretched sinner who was in darkness, bound in
chains, shut up to the things of God, unbelieving, glorying
of myself. And he destroyed all those works
and brought me out of death and darkness into the light of Christ. The child of God boasts in Christ.
Listen to Paul's boast. He didn't say what he did. He
didn't glory in his works. He said, but of God are ye in
Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption, that according as it's written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. You don't ever hear
Paul saying, I, except he's talking about his sin. I persecuted the
church. Who shall save me from this body
of death? I thank God for Jesus Christ,
because he gives his children a heart and a boast in Christ. Not in what I've done, but in
what he's done for me, for Christ's sake. All in Christ, all in him. And so the glory is in Christ. And that's what the Lord does.
He makes his children to see that. And to see this third and
final thing here, he makes us to know that this place is not
our home. There's a difference. This world
doesn't rejoice in my God. They don't rejoice in sovereign
God. They're rejoicing in themselves. They want the glory and they
don't like the glory going to God. And so they boast in man's
free will. And if you tell a man who's boasting
in his free will that your will is corrupt and defiled, you're
in prison, and shut up to the things of God. You need God to
deliver you from that will and bondage. They hate it. They hate
it. And so the third thing, it makes
us to know we're not of this place. And this place is not
of us. There's a division here. Verse
3, and the Lord said unto Jacob, return unto the land of thy fathers
and to thy kindred, and I will be with thee. So that's what
the Lord showed Jacob. taught Jacob this truth. Now
once the Lord had spoken this truth to Jacob and convinced
him of his grace and showed him what he was doing, what he had
purpose to do for him, and it's time for him now to get out of
Paddan Aram. He's blessed him and he's sending
him out of Syria there, out of the world. We're given now an
example, an early example in God's Word where where a man
stands forth and preaches, proclaims the gospel to the church. It's
a type right here of Jacob standing up, calling his wives, and declaring
to him all that God had showed to him and taught him of these
things. So, verse 4, Genesis 31, verse
4. And Jacob sent and called Rachel
and Leah to the field unto his flock." So here's Jacob, a picture
of a pastor faithfully communicating God's word to God's flock, to
God's people. Jacob sent and called Rachel
and Leah to the field unto his flock. These two women coming
together here. are a picture of you that are
called out of darkness. That's the church. The church
is a called people, a people assembled, a people gathered
together to hear God's word. You're here today and we emphasize
the preaching of the word because that's what we're to do. We're
called to preach the word. That's how the Lord blesses you
and instructs you and strengthens the new man and comforts you
and delivers you from your troubles. And he speaks peace into your
heart, that you are a daughter or a son of the Most High God,
and that God is at peace with you for Christ's sake. That's
a blessing. That's why we're gathered and
assembled here. And so he called them together.
Our Lord said, where two or three are gathered together in my name,
there I am in the midst of them. In the midst. just because that's
what pleases our God, to bless you through the preaching of
the word. So Jacob, as Jacob declares God's word to his wives,
my prayer is that we hear the gospel and what he says, and
how he's declaring to them what God has taught him, and he's
declaring to them, and you'll see, they identify with it. They say, that's our confession
too. That's what God has shown us
through the preaching of the word. So verse five, he said
unto them, I see your father's countenance. that it is not toward
me as before, but the God of my father hath been with me."
He's declaring to them exactly what God had revealed to him,
what God had showed him. He's saying, I can see here that
God has put a division between me and this world. We're not
one anymore in this world. Verse six, and ye know that with
all my power, I've served your father. In other words, he's
saying, I'm not trying to give any offense to anyone. I'm doing
my best. I'm doing exactly what your father
and I agreed would be the wages for me to stay on these six years
here. We agreed on it. Your father
agreed. He loved it. He said, yep, so be it. And that's
what we're doing. And God is blessing me. But I'm
not trying to give him any offense. When you declare what Christ
has done for you to another, to your neighbor, your family
member, a friend, whoever it is, when you tell them, you're
not trying to offend them. But there are people who get
offended. and will hate you for it, whether
they show it on their face or not at that time. But you'll
find something's wrong. They don't want to talk to me
no more. And because you've told them the truth. And so there's
a division there. And Laban changed toward Jacob. And Jacob's saying, I'm not trying
to be offensive to you. I'm just trying to declare, share
what Christ has done for me. What he's done for me, verse
7. And your father hath deceived me and changed my wages 10 times,
but God. But God suffered him or allowed
him not to hurt me. And so now he's beginning to
declare the gracious works of God for his people. The enemy
would destroy you. The enemy hates you. This world
is not your friend. It has no love for you. You that
are blessed of God, there's no love for you, and they would
destroy you. But everything, every fiery dart
of the enemy, every javelin he throws, everything he casts at
you, every accusation he makes against you, sinner, vile, wretched,
how can you call yourself a Christian? Everything he throws at you,
Christ has made provision. Look unto me. Believe only. Trust me. Look to me. Look to Christ. That's what he's
saying. Look to the Lord, whom the Father hath sent. He has
put away all your sins. Trust him. Believe him. Don't
look to this world. Don't try to find your kingdom
here in this world. It's not going to happen if you're
Christ's. He's going to keep you, and you're going to endure
to the end. and he'll keep you, and he'll strip away those things,
but he makes provision for all the attacks of the enemy. Wherever
he comes around you, Christ is the one protecting you. Christ
is the one providing. Sometimes he'll suffer you to
feel it to a degree for your good. And he'll strip you more
and more of the flesh and take off those grave clothes that
are blinding you. And he'll strengthen you with the word, but he's going
to keep you. And you're not going to fall away. You're his. And so that's what he's saying.
He's saying, your father came at me every way he could, and
yet God would not allow him to destroy me or to hurt me. He
protected me. And so that's the gospel, brethren,
that we preach. that there's nothing, you don't
need anything more than the Lord Jesus Christ and His righteousness.
Everything you need to stand before God's throne with holy
God on the throne is given to you fully, freely, sovereignly
in the Lord Jesus Christ. so that you don't stand before
God's throne having some need that you forgot that you can't
do because we can't provide any righteousness. Christ has provided
everything for us. Trust him and believe him. He's
done the whole thing. So we stand before God's throne
faultless. Now, we're made to see this corruption
of our own flesh, we're made to see the separation between
us and God, and we're made to hear God's gracious word in Christ. So Jacob then, he continues this
sermon to his wife, to his wives. He says, verse 8 and 9, if Laban
said thus, the speckled shall be thy wages, then all the cattle
bear speckled. And if he said thus, the ring
strait shall be thy hire, then bear all the cattle ring strait.
He was trying to take advantage of Jacob but God kept overcoming
every attack. Thus God hath taken away the
cattle of your father and given them to me." And there we see
a picture of Christ's redemption. The Father has taken away that
which was the devil's and given them to Christ. All that the
Father chose and gave to Christ before the foundation of the
world were taken from Him and given to Christ. It's His glory
through His gracious redemption. Our Lord's redemption is made
known to us now through the preaching of this gospel. And sinners,
by that word, sinners who are bound in prison, who are shut
up in darkness and shackled to the wall and can't set themselves
free from Satan's bondage, are delivered by the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, what does he, let
me see if I can find it in Isaiah 49, I think it is. Isaiah 49.9, that thou mayest
say to the prisoners, go forth to them that are in darkness,
show yourself. That's Christ who says that.
He opens the door. He loosens the shackles and says,
come here, come into the light. I'm the one who saved you. And
he reveals himself to us. He makes this, he takes away
the darkness by shining forth the light of his glory in in
our hearts. And so he makes it known to us
through the preaching of the gospel of what he's done. And
what he's saying here, he's describing in type to his wives that we
have a savior. We have a deliverer. We have
one who has redeemed us, who prevented your father from destroying
me and letting me be empty and taking everything from me. We
have a redeemer. And that's the one who I'm telling
you, God has done everything for us so that your dad couldn't
get one over. Everything he tried and twisted
and turned and lied about and tried to destroy, God kept outsmarting
him and providing it all. And you see, it wasn't Jacob
saying, this is what I did, and then I did this, and then I did
this, and I kept getting over on him. No, he kept boasting
of God. He said, God did this. God shut your father down from
doing what he would do. And so he's delivered us from
the devil. And he's delivered us from the
corrupt works of Adam in our own flesh. We would destroy ourselves
if God left us to it. And we would bring ourselves
to absolute utter ruin. Our Savior said, no man can enter
into a strong man's house. And he's talking about the devil's
house. No man can enter into that house and spoil his goods,
except he will first bind the strong man, and then he will
spoil his house. He's not talking about what you
and I do. We're already in the house locked up. We're already
prisoners and we cannot set ourselves free. He's talking about what
Christ did as the Redeemer who went to the cross and saved his
people from the devil's house. By his redemption, the strong
man's bound and shut up and can't stop him. And he comes and just
takes his people out as it pleases him in the day of his grace and
mercy for them. He does. That's why it says,
1 John 3, 8, he that committeth sin is of the devil. That's us. We are of the devil. He that
committed sin is of the devil. And we've got a problem. For
this cause, for this cause, Christ was, the son of God was manifested
that he might destroy the works of the devil. He did that. He did that. And so our savior
is the one who delivers us from the devil. Now let's see further
what our Lord communicated to Jacob. Genesis 31 verse 10. And it came to pass at the time--"
this is Jacob still preaching. "'It came to pass at the time
that the cattle conceived that I lifted up mine eyes and saw
in a dream. And behold, the rams which leaped
upon the cattle were ring-streaked, speckled, and grizzled.'" Now
look, he says, "'And the angel of God spake unto me in a dream.'"
All right, we're going to come back to the angel of God. "'Spake
unto me in a dream, saying, Jacob, And I said, here am I. And he
said, lift up now thine eyes, and see all the rams which leap
upon the cattle are ring-streaked, speckled, and grizzled. For I
have seen all that Laban doeth unto thee. I am the God of Bethel,
that one who appeared to you when you were fleeing from the
face of your brother, who's going to destroy you. that God who
appeared to you, then, and was with you all this time, where
thou anointed the pillar, and where thou vowedst to vow unto
me, now arise, get thee out from this land, and return unto the
land of thy kindred." And so he's laying there a foundation
of our kinsman redeemer. He's saying, this is the angel
who's been watching over us, who's been taking care of me
all this time. and providing for me, and that's
what a kinsman does. The near kinsman redeemer appears
for his relative, he's the close relative who's able, and what
he does is he delivers us. If we've sold ourselves into
slavery, which we did in Adam, it's Christ who redeems us and
purchases us and brings us back. It's him that delivers us and
frees us. It's Christ who is our avenger
and revenger. He takes vengeance on our enemies.
He destroys them. Everything we need, the kinsman
redeemer provides. And that's what Jacob is seeing,
this angel of the Lord This one is the Redeemer. He's the one
watching over us and providing for us. Now look look over at
Genesis 48 because I want you to see this on the angel here.
Why I'm saying he's talking about the kinsman Redeemer. Genesis
48 in verse 15 and 16. This is Jacob describing our
God and Savior. And Jacob blessed Joseph. This is now at the end of Jacob's
life. He blessed Joseph and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham
and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto
this day, The angel which redeemed me from all evil blessed the
last." And so what he's saying, that language there, he's saying,
the one who did this whole thing in delivering me from my brother
Esau who wanted to kill me and bringing me to Laban and gave
me He gave me you two as my wives, and these children here, it's
this God who's redeeming. He's the one who's providing
for me. He's the one who's taken your
father's cattle and given them to me because your father was
doing wrong. He's the one who's blessed me. Time and time and time and time
again. It's this angel. He's my Redeemer. And it's the
same God whom you, this day by His grace and power, believe
and have all your hope in. It's in Christ. That's by your
Redeemer. His salvation worked in your
hearts for you that believe this day. God did that. He gave you
that faith. And so this word was preached
by Jacob to Rachel and Leah for their understanding, for their
comfort, and for their faith. Because faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10, 17. And this is the
outcome here that we find with these women who are a type of
the church, they picture you that believe. These women are
hearing the same word you hear, what is it, like some almost
6,000 years later, 5,000 years later, 4,000, something like
that? Like it's about 4,000 years later and we're hearing the same
word here. First, they confess Jacob's confession. Look at verse
14. And Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him, is there yet
any portion or inheritance for us in our father's house? As I declare what we are in Adam,
you that hear, who hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches,
you that have the Spirit of God, say, yes, that's my confession. God has shown me that I'm a sinner,
that I have no inheritance here in this world. They saw exactly
what Jacob was saying. They understood. And then they
confess, I see the enmity of my father of this world also. Verse 15, are we not counted
of him strangers? For he hath sold us and hath
quite devoured also our money. That's an understanding of what
we are in Adam. Adam sold us for nothing. When he bit the forbidden fruit,
he sold all his seed in him for nothing. We got nothing out of
it except corruption and death and misery and sadness and darkness. And then finally, we see God's
redeeming work. Verse 16, for all the riches
which God hath taken from our father, that is ours and our
children's. Now then, whatsoever God hath
said unto thee, do. Do it. That's the church's confession.
We rejoice, we see what God has done for us in Christ, and it's
all for the praise and glory of his name. And so God provided
for Jacob, they understood that God provided for Jacob, they
understood that he's our kinsman, redeemer, and so it pictures
what the spirit does for us to this day. Now that God saves
us in Christ, and blesses us for his sake, and he's our inheritance. And we're fine with this world
getting no glory and him getting all the glory and praise. The
psalmist said, hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine
ear, forget also thine own people and thy father's house. And so
they confessed what the church says today. Whatsoever God has
said to you, do it. We're happy in that. And that's
the fruit of faith. That's the obedience to God's
Word. And so there, brethren, is a
beautiful picture of how our God saves His people and blesses
His people through the preaching of the Word. these things to his pastor in
his heart, and then the pastor comes and preaches this very
word to the gathered, called, assembled church. And they say
that, yes, that's what God has shown me to. That's my confession
of my hope. He's my redeemer, amen.