I've never looked at it. Genesis
30. Next week, Lord willing, we're
going to deal with this story of the ring-streaked, spotted
and speckled sheep. There's a real blessing there.
A real blessing. But this morning, just three
verses that really stood out. Verses 25 through 27. Let's read those. And it came
to pass when Rachel had born Joseph, that Jacob said unto
Laban, his father-in-law, Send me away, that I may go unto my
own place and to my country. Give me my wives and my children,
for whom I have served thee, and let me go. For thou knowest
my service which I have done thee. And Laban said unto him,
I pray thee, if I have found favor or grace in thine eyes,
tarry. For I have learned by experience
that the Lord hath blessed me for thy sake." Now, Mike, you know what this
is about. The Lord hath blessed me for
thy sake. I have learned this. What Laban
realized about Jacob, every child of God realizes and knows from
their heart about the Lord Jesus Christ. I've learned by experience
that the Lord has blessed me for Christ's sake. For Christ's
sake. We've learned that. All the blessings
of God, Scripture says, are in Him and are yea and amen to the
glory of God by us. All the love of God is in Christ.
All the mercy of God. All the grace of God, all of
the pardon, the peace, the reconciliation, all salvation is in and through
and by and because of and to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. I've learned by experience. Haven't
you? Now, once again, what a terrible thought struck
me that What a terrible and fearful thing it is the way men and women
use this phrase in blasphemy. For Christ's sake. You've heard
that for years, haven't you? For God's sake. For God's sake,
man. You've heard it a lot, haven't
you? It's just a common phrase that
men don't give a thought to. What a terrible and fearful thing
that is, like they use now. Oh, my God. And it's a profound
irony, the Lord, men's mouths shall condemn them. Like when
the Lord one time said, was it Pilate that said, Art thou the
Christ? And our Lord said, Thou sayest. In other words, the word that
just came out of your mouth is going to condemn you. And how
ironic, profoundly ironic it is that the only way men and
women and young people will escape the wrath and judgment of God
is by pleading those words, Oh my God, for Christ's sake, have
mercy on me. And who makes us to differ? Why do we cry that? Why do we
say that from the heart with a need for mercy and knowing
and realizing from our heart that God has truly blessed us
for Christ's sake? Why? Why me? Why us? It makes
us different. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
all that is within me for putting His fear in us. and for teaching
us by experience that the Lord hath blessed us, O how he hath
blessed us, for Christ's sake. And so that's why we meet in
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to bless our God, to worship
our God, to thank our God, and to remember. how that God hath
blessed us, for Christ's sake. For Christ's sake. This do, Christ
said, in remembrance of me. To the praise of the glory of
his grace, for Christ's sake. Now the actual story is of a
sinful man named Jacob. Why does the Lord spend so much
time on the life of Jacob? He does. And more is spoken of
Jacob's life than Abraham and Isaac put together. I know that
more chapters are devoted to Jacob than most of Genesis. The reason being is because God
is the God of Jacob. And he said, You sons of Jacob,
I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not concerned. And what a story this is of all
of God's people. It's a picture of the life, the
story, salvation of God's people who, like Jacob, God loved, God
chose, God revealed Himself to, God wrestled with, God blessed,
God promised, God hedged about, God took out, brought Him in. Jacob. Here's a story this morning.
God blesses this world for the elect's sake. God blesses this
world because His people are in it. God preserves this world. He said, you're the salt. Salt
preserves that. You're the salt of the earth.
And God blesses this world for His elect's sake. When the last
elect is removed, Like Joseph was born. As soon as Joseph was
born, Jacob said, we're out of here. God blesses this world
for Jacob, for his people's sake. Jacob was a sinful man. Jacob was nothing special. Jacob
was chosen by God, loved by God. But he belonged to the Lord.
He was no better than anyone else, was he? but he was chosen
and loved. That's Jacob's hope, and that's
my hope, your hope. Jacob was living in a heathen,
idolatrous land at this time. He came to this land where Laban
was, and that's a heathen, idolatrous land. And God blessed the whole
land where Jacob was living for Jacob's sake. Everybody in it. Go back to chapter 12 of Genesis. Do you remember this? Chapter
12 of Genesis began with Abraham
who is called the father of the faithful. That is, he is a picture,
he is a type of every believer, chosen of God. God revealed himself
to Abraham who was an old man, an idolater. Brought him out
of idolatry. into the covenant mercies of
God, and he was blessed of God, and everything about him was
blessed, and everyone around him was blessed. And God said,
I'll bless them that bless you. Look at it, verse 1 through 3.
The Lord had said unto Abraham, Get thee out. That's the only
reason he came out. God said, Come out. and from
thy kindred, from thy Father's house unto a land that I will
show thee, and I will make of thee a great nation. I will bless
thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing.
And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curseth
thee, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be bled."
And we've looked at this as a type of Christ, and no doubt He is
a wonderful type. But He's also a picture of every
believer. Every child of God whom God blesses
and everyone around him or her is blessed because they are there.
Lot, the next person in this story was Lot. He wasn't the finest man around,
was he? Oh my, you wouldn't even know
he's a believer if the Lord hadn't said so until after a while he
showed it, didn't he? He began to witness to those
Sodomites. But the Lord didn't destroy Sodom until He brought
Lot out. And then Lot went to a little
city, Zoar. That's the name there. He said,
let me go to this little city. We were talking about how fearful
Lot was some of us the other night. He said, I don't want
to go to the mountains. A bear or something might eat
me. I pulled him out of Sodom and
destroyed the whole city. Oh, I can't go up there. What
a faithless man, huh? Well, he said, let me go to this
little place, this little village called Zoar. So he did. The Lord
put him in Zoar for a little while. A little village. And
the Lord said, I can't do anything. I'm going to destroy this place
too. God said, I'm going to destroy all of them. But I can't do anything till I bring you out. Is he worth saving? No, he's
not. But God's promise is at stake. God's power is at stake. God's
love is at stake. God's covenant mercy is at stake. I will not destroy this plane,
though it deserves it, until I bring you down. For Lot's sake. You're thinking, what about me?
The Lord said this one time. He said, Except those days should
be short and there should no flesh be saved but for the elect's
sake. Christ said. Isaac, Abraham's
son in the covenant, dwelled in a place called Gerar. Remember?
Flestine. Pagan. Idolatrous, heathen place. The Lord blessed the whole place.
King Abimelech on down. He blessed them all for Isaac's
sake. Jacob, now Jacob. And then later,
Joseph. Listen to this. Joseph went to Potiphar's house.
He worked for a man named Potiphar. Now listen. It says the Lord
blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake. And the blessing
of the Lord was upon all that Potiphar had in that house and
in the field for Joseph's sake. Blessed comfort. Comfort, in
fact. that where the gospel is, where
the people of God are, the blessings of God are on that place. And
I'm glad we've got a few young people in here this morning.
Do not leave the gospel. Do not go where no gospel is.
It cannot be promised. There is no promise that you
will be spared, that that place will be spared. I have told you this before.
Ashland, Kentucky. Though it's not a large city
by any means, it seems large to me now. When I was growing
up, it was about 40,000 people. Now it's about 25,000. But at
the time, there was a large steel mill there. It still is. Armco
Steel employed thousands of people. At one time, they had the largest
blast furnace in the free world. The largest. The church at 13th Street where
I grew up had many, many, many men that worked there, didn't
they? Through the years. Many men worked there over the
years. And back in the 80's when the
steel industry just plummeted, 1980's I believe it was, the
oil and all that, and the steel mills, big steel mills. Bethlehem Steel in Pittsburgh.
A huge, long-time steel industry in the north all crashed. Everybody lost their job. Not
Arnco Steel. Didn't miss a nick. The Lord
kept it going. None of those men lost their
job. None of them. You understand? None of them. Through all that
recession, through all that time. And this little town, what about
this little village? What an insignificant little
place this is. All these industries and things
where various ones here have worked, you know, and oh my,
how the Lord has blessed our little village for the gospel's
sake, for Christ's sake. That's why, that's why, our little
village. Now Jacob represents Christ. Here's the story, verse 25 and
26. 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. Give me my wives and my children
for whom I have served thee. I came here to get a wife. Now
I've got her. I'm leaving. That's why I came. Let me go.
You know my service I have done to thee." This is a picture,
what a picture this is of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's elect,
like Jacob. God's well-beloved. Jacob have
I loved. Oh my, Christ is the well-beloved
Son. He's sent to this heathen land.
Jacob went to this heathen land. Laban was a heathen. The people
there were heathen. Rachel and Leah were heathen. Lost. We're going to see the
story of Rachel stealing her daddy's gods. She was still an
idolater. Stealing her daddy's idols. Didn't
want to put them away. But our Lord came to this heathen
land to marry a heathen bride. And this is what God the Holy
Spirit reveals to all His elect, that Christ came down. I love
that verse in Exodus 8. He said, I have come down to
bring thee out, to bring you up, Oh my, Jacob came to this
place sent by God to find a bride. Remember the story of Isaac and
God sending a servant to get a bride for Isaac? Same thing
here. Jacob came to find a bride and he found her and now he's
leaving. He's not going to leave without her. He's leaving. That's what this whole world
is all about. You know that? It's all about
The praise of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, the great
Bridegroom who came to this earth to find His Bride. And once He's
found the last one, we're leaving here. We're all leaving here.
He's taken His Bride with Him. We're all going back to His Father's
house. That's where Jacob was going.
I'm taking my Bride back to my Father's house. Isn't that what
our Lord said? I'm coming back to receive you
again unto myself to my Father's house. In my Father's house are
many mansions because I've got many brides. And I've come and
I've served all these years for my bride. For this cause, Christ
came into the world. And that's what this whole thing
is about. And we're here together. We're here to hear the bridegroom's
voice, aren't we? Now, hopefully, I'm the friend
of the bridegroom, like John. He rejoices to hear the bridegroom's
voice and points to the bride. There's the bride. I'm not the
bridegroom. There's the bridegroom. There
was a wedding yesterday. Some Sam and Hannah went there. Mindy went there. I don't know.
But people from all over went to this wedding of Tony Moody's
daughter. the Wayshees' son, Jared Wayshee,
fine young man, fine, fine, fine young man. Well, the Wayshees
came all the way from Lexington, Kentucky. Greg Elmquist came
from Orlando, Florida. Mindy and the Park came from
far and wide, east and west, north and south. Why? To the
wedding, to the marriage. I wasn't there. I always felt,
and many say, it's just not the same when we're not there together.
And I know I felt left out. There's a marriage, people, I
don't want to be left out. I don't want to be left out either.
And this is the rehearsal. This is a rehearsal. And someday,
and that's what this is all about. The bridegrooms come for his
bride. That's why he came to serve.
He said, Son, a man came not to minister, but to be ministered
unto, and give his life a ransom for, not all, but many. Many
brides. Jacob had four. Solomon had 700. Christ came,
the covenant head, to redeem his bride, to serve for them.
Give his life for them. And he's taking them out of this
heathen land back to his father's house. And when the last elect
is born, like Joseph, we're leaving. It's over. There's no more use
for this blame. Jacob never went back to this
blame. And so Laban said this in verse
27, Laban said unto Jacob, I pray thee, if I have found favor or
grace in thine eyes, Terry, stay." Does that sound familiar? Like
the disciples of old. Terry. And he did. He stayed
forty more days on the earth. Forty more days. And he said
this, and this is our testimony, and I have learned by experience that the Lord hath blessed me
for thy sake. I have learned by experience. And all the mercies and grace
and blessing of our God have come upon us for Christ's sake. Amen. Manifold mercies for Christ's
sake. All that we are and have is for
Christ's sake. Paul said this, by the grace
of God I am what I am. What's the grace of God? Who? Who is the grace of God? Christ
is the grace of God. The unspeakable gift. The grace
of God. The mercy of God. We are loved
for Christ's sake. Romans 8, we just looked at all
those blessed promises, didn't we? All those blessed promises. Nothing shall separate it. Because Christ died. God justified
and Christ died. The Spirit of God that bears
witness with our spirit. The Spirit of God that leads
us and that teaches us, takes the things of Christ and shows
them shows every one of God's people, you're blessed for Christ's
sake. And the very last verse in Romans
8, the very last line, it begins with, no condemnation in Christ,
and the very last line says, nothing and no one can possibly
separate you from the love of God which is in Christ. If you're in Christ, if you're
in that ark, If you're in that ark, like Noah and his family,
how'd they get there? The Lord put them in there. The Lord shut them in. John was
shut up by faith. To Christ in the ark. He's our
hope. He's our everything. Christ is
our hope. Christ is our hope. And if we're
in Him, nothing and no one can separate you. Shut up, sealed,
pitched, you're not coming out. until you land on that promised
land, to a new creation, a new heaven. We're loved for Christ's
sake. We're accepted. Where? In the beloved. We are redeemed. Why? How? How are we redeemed? Not by our
vain conversation, but by the precious blood of the Lamb. We're
pardoned. We've been forgiven. Turn to
2 Samuel 9. You know we had to go there,
don't you, Stan? We had to. The greatest example
in the Old Testament of something done for someone else's sake.
2 Samuel 9. We're pardoned. We're forgiven. Listen to this. He says, Be ye
kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God for Christ's sake I've forgiven you. That's not a request. It's not advice. It's a command. Our Lord said that the last thing
He said when He was leaving, He said this, I command you,
love one another as I have loved you. If you don't, if you don't
forgive one another, neither will your Heavenly Father forgive
you. Because He's forgiven you for my sake, Christ said. Not
for your sake. Didn't He say that over and over
again to the children of Israel through Moses? Do you not know
this, that the Lord didn't do this for your sake? Because you've
been a stiff-necked and a hard-hearted and a rebellious people since
the day I've known you. He said, God did it for His name's
sake. So you do it too, He said. The
whole creation is created for Christ, by Him and for Him, for
His sake. And a new heaven and a new earth
is for His glory and His honor. Kingdom is for Christ's sake.
Now, 2 Samuel 9. Oh, my, my, my. Is this not your
favorite Old Testament story this morning? David said, verse
1, Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul that I may
show him kindness for Jonathan's sake? David loved Jonathan, and Jonathan
loved David. It says that Jonathan loved David
as his own soul, and so did David Jonathan. That love that passeth
women, it says, sticketh closer than a brother. David was not
Jonathan's flesh and blood brother. He was closer than that. His spiritual brother. His eternal
brother. And they loved each other more
than a man Wife loves each other. Inseparable. And that's a picture. Christ is David. Jonathan is
Christ. They're inseparable, aren't they? But David is a picture of the
Father on the throne. And Jonathan is a picture of
Christ. And how our Lord God the Father and God the Son entered
into a covenant. Covenant long before we were
born, before Mephibosheth was born, David and Jonathan entered
into this covenant together in love to one another, and Jonathan
said, when I'm gone, when I die, would you show kindness to my
house for my sake? David said, I'll do it. I'll do it. Is there any left
of the house of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's
sake? And there was of the house of
Saul a servant named Ziba. They called him and said, Are
you Ziba? Yes, the servant said. And the king said, Is there not
yet any of the house of Saul that I may show him, show the
kindness of God unto him? Ziba said, Yes. Jonathan has
yet a son, and he's lame on his feet. And you know the story,
don't you? The place was being destroyed
and the nurse picked up this little baby named Mephibosheth
and dropped him. He fell and he became crippled,
laying on both his feet. He couldn't walk. And what a
picture that is of bruised by the fall. Man fell in Adam, didn't
he? In Adam, all died, but in Christ. Our covenant heads were made
alive. And here's what the king said. Where is he? Ziba said
unto the king, he's in the house of Maker, the son of Amul in
Lodibar. He's in a place of no bread,
a house of no pasture. But he can't come to you. He
can't come to you. Even if he wanted to. But he
doesn't. He's Saul's son. He thinks he ought to be on the
throne. He has no love for David. He has no need for David. He's
not calling on David, is he? Huh? The rest of the sons of Saul
weren't. David had them killed. Seven
of them. But David. David was so merciful. And for Jonathan's sake, because
of that covenant he made with Jonathan, he said, go get him. Go fetch him. Go down there. Don't ask him. Lay hold of him. And bring him. Make him willing. He will come, won't you? Yes,
I will. I have no choice, do I? And boy,
is he glad that it wasn't up to his choice. Boy, is he glad
that those two men, strong men, came down and picked him up,
laid hold of him like Jacob was later glad that a man wrestled
with him. and brought him, Mephibosheth,
all the way to the throne of David and set him in front of
the king. Look at verse 6. And Mephibosheth,
the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was come to David. He
fell on his face and worshiped, did reverence. David said, Mephibosheth,
called him by name. Christ said, My I know my sheep
and have known of him. I call them all by name. I fetch
them all. I bring them all. All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me because of that covenant. And him that cometh to me, though
he is an enemy, I will know why he is cast out. And Mephibosheth,
behold, I am your servant. And then you know the story,
don't you? What happened to Mephibosheth? He restored unto Mephibosheth
all that he had lost. He restored unto Mephibosheth
all the riches of his father's house. He sat him at his table,
this poor, worthless fellow. He sat him, a former enemy, sat
him at the king's table right beside Solomon, right beside
his sons as one of the king's sons. And he said, he's never
going to be moved. Don't anybody ever say anything. This is my son, the fifth ship.
Why? For Jonathan's sake. And everybody
in heaven knows that they're there for one reason. For Christ's
sake. For Christ's sake. Okay.