And with holy hymns shall their temples
adorn, Like lambs they shall steal in my bosom before. The soul that on Jesus hath bleed
for eons, That fifth verse was not in our
old book, and it's a good one. Even down to old age, all my
people shall prove my sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love, which
is part of the message that we make. And he also said, like
lambs, even when they have hoary hairs, they're like lambs to
him. Little lambs. Let's go to Malachi 3. What a great passage this is. This one verse is our subject
context. Malachi 3, verse 6. I change not. Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are
not the same." The Lord God calls himself by
that name more than any other. Did you know that? When he refers
to himself as the God of Jacob. more than anything else. And
David wrote in the Psalm, how happy, how blessed, how happy
is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help. He said, May the
name of the God of Jacob defend thee. He said, My praise shall
be to the God of Jacob. On and on he goes. This book, the vast majority
of the Old Testament speaks of God's dealings with the sons
of Jacob. Jacob. And we're going to look
at that. Who is Jacob? Who are the sons
of Jacob? Why does God say, I'm the God
of Jacob? And if you're a son of Jacob,
You'll not be consumed. We're going to look at a few
things. Sons of Jacob are not going to
be consumed by God's wrath. Sons of Jacob will not be consumed
by sin. Myself, sons of Jacob, will not
be consumed or overcome by this world. Sons of Jacob will not
be consumed by guilt, by fear, by their enemies, by trials,
by tribulations, by grief, by sorrow, by death, because he
said, I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, if you're a son
of Jacob, you'll not be consumed. Okay. I am the Lord, he said,
Jehovah. Self-existent. Eternal. Jehovah. He revealed himself
to Israel. Jacob, to Israel. By that name. I am Jehovah. I need no one. I need nothing. Dependent upon
no one. And no thing. No one and no thing
can change me. I change not is person, God,
the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 13a says the same, yesterday,
today, and forever. The Lord who is speaking here
is the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God, who was manifest in the
flesh. He says, I change not. We use
a big word, immutable. Puritans, the old writers, use
that word. I guess it's a good word. It's
a fancy word, but it just means He changes not. Doesn't mutate,
doesn't transform, change. If you change, if anything changes,
it even changes for the better. For the worse, doesn't it? God
is perfect. Changes not. forever, O Lord,
thy word is settled." Let's change his word. I change not. He changes
not in his person. He's just. And we will someday,
well, I hope we are now glad that he is just. That he is just. He's right.
He does what's right. Every time. He's holy. He's righteous.
Always will be. Always has been. Will ever be. Forevermore. He's unchanging
in His love. Whoever He loves will be loved to the end. Will
be loved forever. Whoever He has mercy upon, He
says, it endureth forever. Why? Because I'm the Lord. I
change not." He said, you may give up, your father and mother
may give you up, you may forsake one another, but I will never,
no never, no never forsake my people. Why? Because I am God,
he said, not man. I am the Lord. I change not my
mercy. His salvation, His grace, He doesn't change in His will.
His purpose, His covenant. If He made a covenant concerning
you, He's not going to change it. That's the sheer mercies
of David, who said that God of Jacob is my salvation. If He willed and purposed and
chose you, If He chose you, you are predestinated. If He predestinated
you, you will be called. If you will be called, you will
be justified. If you will be justified, you
will be glorified. Because He said, I've changed
my life. Oh, and the Lord Jesus
Christ is the one who says that. And the promise here is to the
sons of Jacob. Sons of Jacob. Look back at chapter
1. Who are the sons of Jacob? Well, who is Jacob? Because his
sons are just like him. They come from him and they're
just like him. Well, who is Jacob? Well, I'll
tell you who Jacob is. Well, I won't. The Lord will.
Malachi 1, verses 1 through 3. This is the burden. The burden
of the Word of the Lord to Israel. To who? To Israel. by Malachi. I have loved you,
speaking in Israel, and it used to be Jacob, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, wherein hast thou
loved us? Was not, and the Lord answers,
was not Esau Jacob's brother, saith the Lord. Yet I loved Jacob,
and I hated Esau. It doesn't mean love less. God
can't love less. His love is perfect, isn't it? He can't love anyone less than
another. His love is perfect. Well, who
is Jacob? He is loved by God. Jacob have
I loved? He's so. Have I hated? No. The sons of Jacob are like Jacob,
chosen by God. Romans 9 is where he quotes this. Would you turn there very quickly,
Romans 9. Most of you know these verses by heart, but I'm not
taking it for granted. Everyone does. But Romans 9,
look at verses 11 and following, speaking to or concerning Rebekah
and Isaac are children, they're two children, verse 11, children,
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election, his election, according to election,
might stand, not of works, but of him, but of God, that calleth.
It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger, as it
is written. Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. What shall
we say then? Verse 15, I will have mercy
on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. The amazing thing is that God
has mercy. We're going to see. The amazing
thing is not that he hated Esau. Esau didn't want anything to
do with God. The amazing thing is that God had
mercy upon Jacob. Jacob didn't either. Jacob didn't
want anything to do with God either at first. But God chose
him. So then, verse 16, it is not
of him that willeth. Not free will, not of him that
runneth, that worketh, but it's of God that showeth mercy to
whom he will. To whom he will. Verse 18, he
hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. And he goes on to bring up the
objections of some. Well, thou wilt say then, who
can resist his will? What do you say to these things?
That's what Paul asks there. Shall we say to these things?"
What do you say to these things? I ask every one of you who read
that with me. God's Word, thus said, belong. What do you say to these things? Someone may say, I don't like
that. Someone may say, I don't believe
that. Well then, you're not a son of
Jacob. Because all the sons of Jacob,
they're so thankful. Oh, they're so thankful that
God said, Jacob hath under him. Every one of them know that they
didn't choose him. Every one of them. Sons of Jacob,
they're the elect. Who was Jacob? He was God's elect. I'm the God of Jacob, and therefore
you sons of Jacob. sons of Jacob, chosen of God,
elect of God. He says, you will not be consumed. All right, let's look at Jacob,
all right? Let's look at Jacob and his sons. Genesis 27. Go
back there. Genesis chapter 27. Oh, you're
going to see, happy to see that, the God of Jacob for his help. The unchanging God. Genesis 27. This is where we see his name, Jacob. The Lord
later changed his name from Jacob to Israel. I'm quite sure that
Jacob never really thought of himself as an Israel. Israel
means Prince of God. I just know that Jacob never
called himself that. But God did. Jacob's name means
supplanter. Jacob's name means one who tries
to get ahead by walking all over somebody else. One who's out
for himself. That's what Jacob meant. Out
for himself. Because you remember when those
twins were born, Jacob and Esau. When they were born, Esau was
the firstborn. But Jacob, he was still in the
womb, and remember, it says, his hand reached out and grabbed
him. He saw by the heel, like, saying, not you, not you first,
me first. From the womb, he came forth
from the womb, seeking for himself. And he walked all the way, brother,
to Jacob. That's Jacob. I look at this in chapter 27,
verse 35. When he heard, verse 34, Esau
heard Isaac say that Jacob had come and deceitfully gotten the
blessing, he cried, Bless me also, verse 35, and Isaac said,
Your brother came with subtlety, hath taken away thy blessing.
And Esau said, Is he not rightly named Jacob? That's his name, that's what
he is, a cheat. No good, selfish, thinking all
of themselves. And people, if God has revealed,
has brought you to yourself, like that pot. Remember, it came
to himself. That's the first thing the Lord
revealed to him. I'm a Jacob. Remember when the
Lord wrestled with him later on in chapter 38? The Lord wrestled with him. and
said, what's your name? He forced old Jacob to say, my
name is Jacob, that's what I am, that's what I am. And all the sons of Jacob are born
like that. David said, I was shaken and
iniquity. He said, in sin did my mother
conceive me. He said, I came forth from the
womb speaking lies. Our little children are precious
there. James Harper, dear and precious, he's precious in our
sight, isn't he? But is he without sin? No, why
not, Patrick? He's your son. And so are the sons of Jacob.
They're not born. without saying they're born dead
in trespass descent, born selfish. We don't have to teach our children
to fend for themselves. We try to teach them not to be
selfish, don't we? It's an ongoing thing, isn't
it, Hannah? To teach them, don't be selfish. If we let them alone, if we let them alone, He knows that. He knows it from
experience. And you know, the Lord says in his Psalms, he said,
Lord, look down from heaven on the sons of men, and that means
the sons of Jacob, to see if there were any that didn't understand,
if there were any that didn't seek after God. He said they
all together become filthy. Selfish. Sinful. He said the
Lord in Genesis 6, before He destroyed the world by flood,
He said the Lord saw that the earth was full of violence. What's violence? Violence means
you want something and you'll take it at the expense of another.
Violence. Doesn't that describe our day?
Full of violence. Why is there violence? Men want
things for themselves. They don't kill anybody to get
it. And the wrath of God is certain. But God, the God of Jacob, said, you sons
of Jacob will not be consumed. When my wrath comes down, and
it shall, you will not be consumed by it. Because you, like Manoah
and his wife, know that the sacrifice was consumed. Right? God wouldn't have showed
you these things. He wouldn't have told you these
things. He wouldn't have consumed his son and had you worshipping
him if he was going to consume you. The wrath of God will be
sure that it abides upon John 3.36, which very few people know,
most know, But it says, He that believeth
not the wrath of God abided on him, but not the sons of Jacob. Not the sons of Jacob. When God
chose to save and gave them to Christ, the cross is the center of the
truth. It is the truth. The cross of
Christ, Christ crucified the salvation. There I preach without
mentioning Christ crucified. Heaven, the first thing we're
going to see is a lamb as it had been slain. Why? Because
as soon as we walk in, the Lord is going to show us, this is
why you're here. Barabbas, when he walked out
of prison, somebody pointed and said, that's why you're free. The thief on the cross, right
before he died, he beheld Christ, and he crucified. That's why
I'm going to heaven. A lamb, as it had been shown,
and the sacrifice was consumed. This is not doctrine. This is
salvation. Christ is our salvation. Why
will we, the sons of Jacob, be saved? Because I am the Lord. The Lord by righteousness. the
Lord thy salvation, the Lord thy shepherd, the Lord that healeth
thee, the Lord that cometh to thee, the Lord thy peace, the
Lord, I am the Lord, thy Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, and I
change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
will not be consumed by my wrath. The Lord Jesus Christ came the
first time in mercy, grace, love, salvation, longsuffering, gentleness,
meekness, humility, Compassion is not coming my way the next
time. What's our hope? He said, Jacob of Adonis. And I don't change. I don't change. Not consumed by the wrath of
God. Will not be consumed. The sons of Jacob will not be
consumed by sin. Listen, this is so good, this
is good news. And I'll be consumed myself.
Jacob was born a sinner, as we saw. And his sons are born that
way. And Jacob grew up to be a sinner.
Jacob grew up to be a cheat. He cheated his brother. Later
on in life, he was probably in his forties by then. He cheated
his brother, and so did his sons. Don't think. Huh? This is to the sons of Jacob.
Just another word for sinners, okay? Just another word for sinners.
All the sons of Jacob. Jacob cheated his brother, deceived
his father. Deceived his father. So did his son. Jacob left home,
his father's house, the house of Abraham, the house of Isaac,
where God dwelled, where the blessings were, where the worship
of God was. He said, I'm not interested.
All I want, like a prodigal, is what I can get. Give me what's
coming to me. And he left. What about the gospel,
Jacob? What about the blessings of God?
What about the presence of God? Aren't you going to worship God,
Jacob? Are you going to leave and go
to either land? Why not? I'm not interested in that old
stuff. My dad, Abraham and Isaac, I'm
not interested. That's what Jacob did. As do
all the sons of Jacob. Right? Jacob was sinful, left
home like a prodigal, forgot God, forgot his father, headed
out into a life of sin, ended up married to a godless woman,
Leah, and Rachel. Rachel was an idolater, Tammy.
Remember later on, Rachel kept her daddy's idols? Remember,
she got her daddy's idol and didn't want to let go of them?
She wasn't some sweet woman. Read the story, Rachel and Leah. All they wanted were children. They were heathen. Jacob went
out and married a heathen woman, and I doubted him. He wasn't
interested in what God had to say about marriage. He wasn't
interested. Same, same. No, we're all the
sons of Jacob. Right? He ended up out in the world,
a life of sin, married to an ungodly woman, but God. God hadn't left Jacob. He said,
I'll never leave you. I've chosen you. I have loved
you. Jacob didn't love God, but here's
Jacob's salvation. God loved Jacob. But he's unlovely. I know that. But I don't change. I don't change. I set my love
on him. He shall be loved. He shall be
blessed. But God will not forget his Jacob
or his sons. He will not forsake him. God
will reveal himself to this Jacob. God will wrestle with this Jacob. God's going to change this Jacob.
Now listen to me. Listen to me very carefully. A man can believe everything
I've just said and even preach it. If God doesn't change him, he's no son of God. He's lost. If God doesn't make a man merciful
and gracious and loving, if God doesn't make a man like Jesus
Christ, that person doesn't know Jesus Christ. I say that to myself, I say that
to every son of Jacob. God wrestled with Jacob, and
after God wrestled with him, he walked differently, didn't
he? He changed. He walked with a limp. God broke
him. God broke him. Was he still a
sinner? Oh yes. Did he still fall? Oh
yes. Terribly. But was he a man, a
merciful man? Oh, yes. Was he a humble man? Oh, yes. Was he a loving, caring,
kind man? Oh, yes, ask his wives. That's
it. No change, no son of Jacob. That needs to be said. A man
can believe God is sovereign. The devil believes that. God doesn't change. But He does
change His people. He does. It's slow. God is long-suffering, aren't
you glad? This growth and grace, this change
is slow. It really is. But it's real.
It's real. Our Lord says, Sam shall not
have demanding of you. He won't. I know you feel like
it does, Jacob. Jacob did. If you ask Jacob,
he'd say, I don't see any change. We're going to see that in a
little bit, I don't. But everybody else did. See, God never lets us become
self-righteous. He does, but not for long. How
He does that is He shows us our rotten self. And it scares us to death. And we say, Lord, I don't want
to be a Jacob. I don't want to be a Jacob anymore.
Make me an Israel. Well, sin and self shall not
consume you because God said, I'm the Lord. I'm your Lord. It will not consume you. Didn't
you just tell it? Huh? Cheer up! Sons of Jacob,
cheer up. God says, you'll not be consumed. You'll not be consumed by the
world. Go to chapter 30 with it, Genesis
30. You'll not be consumed by the
world. Oh, my. Any Sons of Jacob in
here worry about that? And look around. Go out there
and look in our parking lot. Is there a sixty two Chevy or
Falcon or some of them, I think, that would be a great car to
have. But there's nothing out there older than whatever, 88.
All rode here in nice, beautiful chariots. Go home to nice homes
full of food, clothing, look at us. live 70-some years, 80-some years
in generally good health? No way. How are there people
in nursing homes right now? We're so blessed, aren't we?
So blessed we have more than we could possibly wish for, or
even ask. No way. Food, every one of our
cupboards, refrigerators, freezers are full. Our closet's full. He said, food and rain. And we
got a lot of it. A lot of it. Jacob, in chapter 30, verse 43,
it says that Jacob increased exceedingly. He had much cattle
and maidservants and menservants, and camels and asses. He was
rich, Teresa. He was rich and increased with
goods. They really had need of nothing
at all. This is the next chapter, chapter 32, where Christ came
and blessed them. You know, before that, he had
it all, but he was unhappy. He was in a mess. He was a mess.
His life was a mess, Dan. He was unhappy after his 11th
son was born. He's now in his fifties or sixties,
maybe even his seventies. His eleventh son is born. All
of a sudden, he said, he thought, I want to go home. What? I need to go back
to Bethlehem. What? You have it all. No, I really don't have anything
at all. Our dear Virgin, 65 years old,
wasn't she? Without God, without Christ,
she was religious. Had a home, family, and all that.
God Almighty, the God of Jacob, came to her through the preaching
of the gospel and revealed to her, you have nothing. You have
everything, but you have nothing. You don't have nothing. And God
just wrestled with her. Michael Jacob, the Lord Jesus
Christ wrestled with her through the preaching of the Gospel.
And He brought him back to Bethel where he belonged. Let me ask
you this. Can we, even as believers, get
caught up in this world? In family and possessions? Absolutely. If you're a son of
Jacob, you're very prone to that. Very prone to that. He made horrible
mistakes. Terrible. Didn't seek the will
of God. I believe by this time he knew
Him. The Lord spoke with him before
then. But you young believers, let
me just say this to young believers. Never say, I will never do that. Young believers, do not become
self-righteous. Do not look at the falls and
the failures of older believers and say, I never knew that. Don't
ever say that. You haven't lived. Why don't
you live another 30 or 40 or even 50 or more years? And then
wait. Let's just see what you are capable
of doing. And hopefully you'll be like
old Jacob. You'll know, oh God, the God
of Jacob. It's my salvation. The only reason
I wasn't consumed by everything I owned and all this world. Only
reason. That I was not consumed by this
world. That I wasn't given to it. That
I wasn't driven by it. That it wasn't my life. The only
reason that God turned me around and brought me home to see what
I really need, Him, was Him. But He's the Lord. My Lord. He
loved me. And He said, you'll not be consumed
by this world, Jacob. I am your portion." That is the God of
Jacob for his salvation. Jacob will not be consumed by
guilt, by fears. Jacob brought most of his troubles
on himself. Jacob, read the story. You have,
brother. He brought most of his troubles
on himself. Read the article by Brother Chapman. Did you read that on guilt? That's
a great article. Guilt is because we're guilty. Jacob felt guilty about Esau.
He never got over that. He was guilty. He felt guilty,
Stan, about what he did to Esau. And he feared that Esau would
reprisal, that Esau would inject vengeance on him. We ought to
fear. It's a sorry thing he did to
Esau. He ought to feel bad about that.
Laban, he cheated his father-in-law. He not only cheated his father,
he cheated his father-in-law, Laban. You know the story, don't
you? How he got the best cattle for
himself? By conniving? And he feared Laban. He feared
Laban was going to give bodily harm. John, you've read the story. He feared that. He brought it
on himself. He's guilty. But God. We'll not be consumed by this
guilt. You know, right after Isaiah 42 is when the Lord wrote
Isaiah 43. Isaiah 43, John, begins this
way. Fear not, old Jacob. Fear not. When you pass through
the waters, it will not overflow you. The rivers, the fire, fear
not. Isaiah 42, and Isaiah 43 begins,
Jacob, fear not, you will not be consumed by guilt. Why? The
Lord laid on him. The Lord said to Jacob over and
over again, the iniquity of Jacob shall be sought, and it won't
be found. Jacob is guilty for God's sakes. Not guilty. I have cast, God
says, the God of Jacob says to Jacob and his son, I have cast
all thy sins behind my back. As far as the east is from the
west, so far have I separated thy sins from thee. I will not
remember your past, present, or future anymore." Because I
am the God of Jacob. And that's what I said, Robin,
and that's what he means. He said, I've changed. Nah. And our guilt, it stays with
us. Brother John Chapman said, there's
only one way to get rid of it. Three ways. This is one. Go to Christ. Look to Christ.
Secondly, own up to it. If you own up to it, the Lord
will call you to look to Christ. And thirdly, go back to Christ. Every time you start feeling
guilty, go back to Christ. Back to Bethel. That's the house
of God. Go back to the house of God,
John, and hear that gospel of Christ and Him crucified. Only
that will keep you from being consumed by guilt and fear. It's going to get me. It's going
to get me. My enemies, enemies, Satan has desired you, old son
of Jacob, to sift you like wheat. Yes, he has. What's your help? The Lord. The Lord faced him
when he was here on the earth. He said, if you seek me, let
these go. God of Jacob, not be consumed
by enemy, not be consumed by trials, tribulations, grief. Genesis 42, very quickly. How
long have I been? 37 minutes. Could you give me
one more? It gets better. It really should. Once I said sins are gone, Brother
Marvin said this to me. He said, you know, when that
doctor gave me that report and said, you're clean. There's no
cancer. He said, you can't put it into
words unless you've had it. He said, you can't understand
what that sounds like to you. Clean. No cancer. None. Not one trace of it. It's
not there. Marvin said, I can't be thankful enough. That's better than no cancer.
Huh? If you're a sinner, if you're
a son of Jacob, it is. That's why this gospel doesn't
mean anything to the average person. There are sinners. Other
people are, and they've had some falls. But the sons of Jacob,
Jacob, oh Lord, Glory is because you loved me. It's because you
saved me. It's because you gave yourself for me. It's because
you kept me, washed me, redeemed me, brought me all the way home.
That's why, and that's the only reason why. Because He doesn't change. My wife's brother said of me,
you know, when the Lord began to deal with me, she said, He'll
change. I've seen Him go through changes. We were old buddies.
And he had. And this is just one more change,
he thought. It'll change. And sad to say, yeah, I've done
this and done that. Here's my hope. My God doesn't change. And I believe he's revealed himself
to me. That he is God. And he loved me. Gave himself
for me. That's all my hope and all my desire that God has made
with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things that's
sure, it will not change, and this is all my hope and all my
salvation. How about you? That's what the
sons of Jacob say. Well, Jacob will not be consumed,
nor his sons, by trials, tribulations, grief, sorrow. After these things,
Jacob went through so many things, so many things. The Lord, by
now, he's in his 70s or 80s. The Lord really tried him. Really
tried him. He had to leave home. When he
left Laban, his father, after he was rich and all of that,
he was in his seventies. Tough to leave home when you're
seventies or eighties, isn't it? But the Lord did that to Jacob
because all of the sons of Jacob, Abraham it says in Hebrews 11,
dwelled in tents. with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with
him or from him." Jacob never traveled with Abraham. He wasn't
born yet. But he did travel with him. As do all of the sons of Jacob.
We're sojourners. We're strangers and pilgrims.
We're sojourners. Passing through. We've got to
pick up the money. We've got to leave. We can't
stay here. Jacob gets moved. Do I have to? Wow. Jacob had to leave home
when he was 70 or 80. His older sons gave him horrible
grief. Horrible. Reuben, those fellas,
sorry sons of Jacob. They were sorry. Gave him grief. He lost his favorite son, Joseph,
at this time. He thought he lost him. He didn't
lose him. Are you with me? He didn't lose
him. Nancy, he didn't lose him. He thought he lost him. No. He's
someplace else. Oh, he lost his old friend of
the family, Deborah, the nurse of Rebecca, Rebecca's personal
nurse had been with him all their lives. Old dear friend of the
family, lost her. Oh, it was a great grief to Jacob. Rachel, his beloved wife, of
all those years, died at this time. Oh, can anything worse happen?
My son's given in grief, lost my favorite son, lost one of
my old best friends, lost my wife of my youth. He's dead now. And I see that. You sons of Jacob will not be
consumed. Jacob wasn't consumed by grief.
He was full of it, but he wasn't consumed by it. Our Lord said, in the world ye
shall have tribulations, but be of good cheer. One could say
that. I don't know where it's coming
from. Jacob, now after all of this
happened, he's 130 years old. He has to leave. He has to move again. Go to Egypt. But he heard the
good news. Somebody said, Joseph's alive. And he's waiting on you in Egypt. Pack the things. I'm ready to
go. Oh, and that's another story
I had written down here to tell the story of Joseph. We don't have time to do it.
But every son of Jacob knows that the reason the Lord has
saved them alive is because they're Joseph. The Lord Jesus Christ
sits on the throne. And it was all, we thought it
was all evil, all bad, all against us. We thought it was evil against
us, but God did it for good. I thought about that in Romans
8, 28 last night. Quoted it to you that all things
work together for good. All things. Oh, not this. This
is the worst thing that could possibly happen. God is true. God can't lie. Though we don't
see, though we don't understand, we can make Him live by searching,
find out God's perfection. No, He's God. Well, God said,
now here's where we go. Here's where we just must camp
and rest and trust, right here. All things work together. We
know that all things work together for good, Teresa, for good, for
good, good, for good. To them that love God, who? The
God of Jacob. And we love Him. Why? First,
let them. We wouldn't love this God of
Jacob unless He loved us. Second, if you hope, Most people
don't like this message. Most people hate this message,
this God. But you love it. Why? God first
loved you. That could be the only reason. God's sons, the sons of Jacob,
will not be concerned by death. He changes the name death for
his people. He says the second death, he's
going to cast death and hell, and everyone in it, death. Death. Cessation of life. No more. Death. But God's people,
he said, will never taste death. He that liveth and believeth
in him shall never die. Lazarus is dead. No, he's sleeping. He giveth his beloved sleep. All the sons of Jacob will sleep. They don't die. They don't have. They just laid this body down,
and as soon as they're absent from this body, their presence
with life. Him, Christ. Look at Genesis
49, in closing. Genesis 49, old Jacob comes to
the end of his life. Look at verse 33. Jacob is standing
before Pharaoh at this time. Jacob standing before Pharaoh,
presented by Joseph. Joseph presents him before the
throne, and Jacob chapter 49, verse 33, it says he, no, this
is after he's appeared to Pharaoh, but it says in verse 33, he was
gathered, he yielded up the and was gathered unto his people. Can I show you this real quick? Back to chapter 47. This is why
I've got to get myself. Chapter 47, verse 9. Jacob was
standing before Pharaoh. He's 130 years old. And here's
what he said. He said, The days of the years
of my pilgrimage 130 years, few and evil, have the days of the
year of my life been. And I haven't attained to the
days of the years of the life of my father's. I haven't lived
as long. He thought he'd lived a short
life. 130 years, he thought he'd been
few. I haven't lived as long as Abraham, 175 years. Or Isaac,
180 years. And my days have been few. Man that is born of woman is
a few days and full of trouble. He said there's been evil. There's
been a lot of trouble. Nothing but trouble it seems.
But the end of that man is peace. Mark it down. Psalm 37, 37. Mark it down. The
end of that man is peace. He was gathered with his people.
Who's that? Abraham. Isaac. Go back further. Abel. Enoch. Seth. Noah. His people. God's people. Old Jacob. Old
Jacob. Worst of the bunch. God brought
him in. And let me say this. My mother
and I were talking recently about Psalm 37. You know that every
believer doesn't die. Totally. Peacefully. We've seen believers die with
an amazing, amazing testimony. And peace. No bans on their death
whatsoever. But old Jacob here, he said,
I'm at the end. It's all been bad. It sounds
bitter, doesn't it? So that's Psalm 37. And many
people go through, like Jacob, just a life of mima,
misery, sorrow. But the end of that man is peace. The end of his life was miserable,
away from home and living off that. But that wasn't the end. Brother Henry, that wasn't the
end. The end is when he's sat down with the Father and with
the saints, with Abraham in glory. That's the end. Peace. Peace
rests from all of Israel. It rests. No more trouble. No more trouble. Oh, my. And the promise is to all the
sons of Jacob, you're not concerned. They'll
not be concerned. They're full of trouble. They're
full of sin. They'll not be concerned. Because
I'm the Lord. I change not. Okay, let's start
saying in closing, a hymn that goes so well with that. I wrote it down. I can't find
it. 698? All the way in the center. 698. That's all it stands. All right, Sheriff. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace. Once I was foolish, and sin broke
my heart. But all things I put them from
God to depart. Jesus has found me, and healed
my case. The first sinner who's far to
go, loving his Savior to tell what he knows, wants more to
tell it's what I understand.