Let's go back to the Old Testament
tonight, and we'll go back to Genesis chapter 49, where we
have been studying, if you're keeping up with it, this is like
our fourth message on Jacob's prophecies. And I'll have at
least one more I had thought that I would finish out, but
as I I got into some things today. I realized that I needed to labor
a point here. I needed to dwell on something. And if the Lord wills, we'll
get through Genesis 49 next Wednesday night and then get into chapter
50. but Jacob is speaking from his deathbed. He's called all
of his sons to him. The Spirit of God has laid out
for us a good bit of the life of Jacob, and we have, as we've
been studying page by page, event by event, that the Spirit of
God would have us to study, we've seen Jacob, we've seen him in
great triumph, and we've seen him in his failures. And his
life is much like your life and my life. It's a mixture of those
times of when he honored God, when he was thankful and remembered
the goodness of the Lord, and then he had his episodes, his
times, as do you and I, when he seemed to forget the Lord
And yet the Lord always looked upon him with love, kindness,
and was always forgiving to his servant. Jacob was certainly noble. That
night when he dreamed, he was at Luz and he dreamed and he
saw a ladder. that stretched from earth up
to heaven, and he saw the Lord, that is, the angel of the covenant,
standing above the ladder. It was a glorious experience,
and Jacob recognized he was in the presence of the Lord, and
he said, this is the house of God. This is the gate of heaven. He had seen the angel of the
covenant, that is, he had seen our Lord Jesus Christ who appeared
to him in some sort of recognizable or physical form. so that Jacob could see him,
and the Lord spoke to him, and Jacob recognized it. He said, this is the house of
God. And indeed, Christ is the house of God, because we read
in 2 Corinthians that God was in Christ, reconciling the world
unto himself." And he said, this is the way to God. This is the
gate to God. And of course, our Savior said,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. And so Jacob made some wonderful
statements here on that occasion at Luz. In fact, he changed the
name of the place from Luz to Bethel. And he made a noble statement,
this is Bethel, this is the house of God. And we marvel at how
God instructed Jacob on that account, and we say, Jacob, you're
right, that is the house of God. That is the gate to heaven. On
another occasion, the angel of the Lord wrestled with Jacob.
The angel initiated this wrestling match and after they had wrestled
for a little bit, the angel of the Lord, that is our Lord Jesus
Christ, he basically said to Jacob, now let me go. You've
had a religious experience here, and this is more than most people
would want, so it's time for you to let me go. But Jacob speaks
again very nobly. And he says, I will not let you
go until you bless me. And indeed, God did bless him. God said, I'm going to give you
a new name. Israel. Israel. You're a prince with God. You're
royalty. You're one who has power with
God. And Jacob, he speaks again and
he says, the name of this place is Peniel. What a noble thing
to say. This is Peniel. I've seen the
face of God and God has looked on me. Jacob, he experienced
many noble things in his life, but of all the great things that
he spoke, none were as great, none were as glorious as Genesis
chapter 49. Because these are his dying words. I was thinking about it today,
we could have, I could have named this Jacob's, I'd call it Jacob's
Swan Song. That's kind of what it is. You
know what, you know, they say a swan doesn't sing or sings
very little during its life until it gets near death. And then
it sings a beautiful ode. It sings a beautiful song just
before death. That's what Jacob is doing. He
has never spoken more gloriously, especially of our Lord Jesus
Christ in such length, with such enthusiasm, with such knowledge,
of the Savior as he did here in Genesis chapter 49. He calls
all of his sons together to speak to them about the things that
are going to happen, not so much to them individually, but things
that are going to happen to the tribes that will take the names
of these sons. And we know God preserved these
tribes. The reason He preserved these
tribes, the reason He preserved Israel, was because in preserving
them, God was preserving the Gospel. He gave the Gospel of
Grace, the Gospel of Substitution, the Gospel of Satisfaction to
Israel. He didn't give it to any other
nation. He didn't declare it to various
Gentile nations how He could be just and yet justify, but
He did teach Israel that. And Israel was entrusted by the
purpose of God to keep the knowledge of God, the way of God, and the
Word of God, the truth of God alive. And that's why God preserved
Israel. That's why God especially preserved
Judah. We know that when Israel was
taken into Babylonian captivity, the ten northern tribes, they
lost their identity. And those ten tribes existed
no more. But God maintained His presence
in Judah and Benjamin. And the reason He did that was
because out of Judah, one would come forth called Shiloh. To Him would the gathering of
the people be. Judah's symbol was a lion and
our Lord Jesus came forth from Judah. He's the lion of the tribe
of Judah. So the Lord preserved Judah in
order to keep alive the hope, that great promise of the incarnation
of the Son of God. And Judah and Benjamin existed
until our Lord Jesus came, and then you know what happened? They virtually ceased to exist,
at least their identities as nation, or as different tribes,
that ceased. So that today, and this has been
true for the better part of over 1,900 years, maybe even 2,000
years, no Jew, no national Jew can with any degree of certainty
say, I'm from the tribe of, be what it may, name any of the
tribes. And the reason is because God kept them going until the
day Messiah came. And when the Lord Jesus came
into this world, then Israel as a nation had served its purpose
to keep the truth alive, to keep the gospel going, to keep the
knowledge of God in the forefront, and to preserve that tribe from
whom he would come forth, even the tribe of Judah. And then
in 70 AD, the Roman emperor Titus, under his forces, they destroyed
Jerusalem. And Israel has never been the
same since. You say, you're not anti-Jew,
are you? Of course I'm not. But you see,
the church of our Lord Jesus is made up of both Jews and Gentiles. There aren't two churches. There's
not the Jewish church and the Gentile church. There are not
two Gospels. One for the Jews and one for
the Gentiles. The Gospel of the grace of God
to the undeserving through the doing and the dying, the accomplishment
of redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ is powerful enough to
save Jew and Gentile if it's God's purpose to do it. And our
Lord brings Jew and Gentile together so that in the Lord Jesus Christ
there is neither Jew nor Gentile, male or female. We're one in
Christ Jesus. But up until the time our Lord
Jesus came, God preserved this nation for the reason to keep
His Word going. From them came forth the very
prophets that God sent. And ultimately, all of the apostles. He preserved them because salvation
would come forth from the Jews. I'm sure you recall in John chapter
4 when our Lord Jesus spoke to the woman at the well, He said
to her, salvation is of the Jews. What did he mean? Salvation is
coming forth from the Jews. The Savior is coming forth from
the Jewish nation. Therefore, they were preserved
until he came. And then when he came, then they
were virtually dissolved as a nation. And it's interesting as we think
about salvation that Jacob, Jacob, as he's talking about
his sons and what's going to happen to their offspring, Jacob sort of comes
to a stop. considered several of these sons
and Jacob's words to them. But he says this in verse 18.
He just sort of, he ceases. He stops talking to his sons
and he has a word for God right in the middle. He says, I have
waited for thy salvation, O Lord. Here he's been talking to, well,
Reuben and Simeon and Levi and Judah and Zebulun and Issachar
and Dan. He's been talking to these fellows
and all of a sudden, it's like he looks up. He looks up toward
the heavens. And he says, I have waited. I've
been waiting. Literally, I am continually waiting
for Thee, O Savior. O Savior, O Jehovah who saves,
I am waiting for you. He was waiting for the first
coming of our Lord Jesus. All of the Old Testament saints
were. That's who they look for. And we look back to the coming
of our Lord Jesus as they look forward to the coming of the
Lord Jesus. And now we look forward to His second coming, the second
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Even so, come Lord Jesus. We
wait for Him to come back. We stand upon the tiptoes of
faith. Jacob is simply saying, I'm standing
upon the tiptoes of faith. I wait for You, O Jehovah Savior. But salvation, that salvation
that is ultimate freedom from sin would come to Jacob right
shortly. Right at the end of the chapter.
And he will experience what every child of God experiences when
we cross over The river Jordan, as it is symbolically put in
the scriptures for death. He waited for salvation. And
the Savior came and took him unto himself. And Jacob entered
in the glory. I have waited for thy salvation. Here's an interesting thing.
This is the first time the word salvation is used in all the
Bible. Now, it's used a bunch of times. And we know, those of you who
have studied the word of God for any length of time, you know
that there's such a thing as the law of first usage. What do we know about salvation? Well, we know it means a rescue,
It means a deliverance. Well, who does the rescue? Who
does the delivering? Who does the saving? Well, Jacob
is very specific. I'm telling you, this is the
greatest, in my opinion, of his messages, of his gospel words
in all of the book of Genesis. I have waited for, watch it,
thy salvation. And that is a rule that you must
always go by as you study the doctrine of salvation, which,
here's a long word, if you want a long word, soteriology. The
study of salvation. You don't need to remember soteriology. That's just, I just wanted to
show you, I know a few of these big words. I just, I choose not
to use them. Our Savior spoke in language
that people could understand. He didn't use them, what we'd
call foul all the words. Jacob said, I have rejoiced in
thy salvation. Isn't that what we preach? This
is God's salvation. It's God's salvation. It's His
property. And it's His prerogative who
He gives it to. It's by salvation. If you own
something, if it's yours, it's your prerogative if you want
to give it to somebody. And it's your prerogative which
one you want to give it to. You don't have to give it to
everybody. Give it to who you want to. That's
what God's done. It's His salvation. He gives
it to whom He will. It's His salvation from old eternity. Of this salvation we know it's
God's by purpose. He purposed salvation. Learn the purpose of God. It'll
open up the book to you. God's the God of purpose. He
saves on purpose. Another word starts with P. Salvation
is by purchase. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You were redeemed, Peter said
in 1 Peter 1, by the precious blood of Christ, the Lamb of
God. His blood purchased us. Salvation
by purchase. Salvation by power. It comes
to us by the power of the Holy Spirit. Salvation by performance. Who does the work? Who performs
the work of salvation in the heart of a sinner? Is the Lord
knocking on your heart's door waiting for an entrance? Who
performs salvation? Does He wait for the sinner to
make the move toward Him? If He waits, now He'll wait forever
because that'll never happen. Well, what then does he do? He
performs salvation. He comes into the heart and makes
a welcome for himself. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. This is thy salvation. It's his
salvation by preservation. He keeps us safe. And it's His salvation by perfection. It's a hall of grace. It's all
about God. It's all for the glory of God.
And He won't share His glory with anybody else. And if you're bound and determined
to get some kind of credit for your salvation, I promise you
this, it won't be God's salvation. Because if it's God's salvation,
He will convince you salvation's of the Lord. Jacob says, I have waited, I am waiting for
thy salvation, O Jehovah who saves. And then we get to verse 19. Gad, here's that word, Marty,
that I was mentioning to you when you came in, you mentioned
it. Gad, a troop shall overcome him, but he shall overcome at
the last. Gad's name means troop. So he's saying, troop, a troop
shall overcome him. But this troop shall overcome
at last. Two things are said of Gad. One, lest he be filled with self-confidence
and arrogance. Gad a troop shall overcome him. You're gonna be overcome by a
troop. Lest you be, lest your ego be
inflated, lest you think more of yourself than you ought to
think, a troop, an enemy, shall overcome him. But to encourage him, he says, but he that is Gad,
a troop, shall overcome at last. You'll be overcome first, but
at last, you'll overcome. You'll overcome. This is true of all the people
of God, really. We were overcome at first by
sin. That's our problem. We were overcome
by sin. Even the Israel of God, even
the true people of God, we were conquered by the treachery of
an enemy. A troop came in and overpowered
us. Our father Adam, he was overcome. A troop came after him, a troop
of one, the enemy. And he was overcome and he fell. And the enemy got the victory
over him and getting the victory over him got the victory over
us. And it appeared our defeat was permanent. But somebody came
to our rescue. You see, this salvation that
Jacob was waiting for is not only something, it is somebody. The Lord is my light and... What does it say then? My salvation. My salvation is the Lord, Jehovah
who saves. That's what Simeon said there
in Luke the second chapter. Mine eyes have seen thy salvation. What did he see? Oh, that's the
wrong question. Not what did he see. Who did
he see? He saw somebody. He saw Messiah. He saw the Christ. He saw the Son of God. He said,
I'm ready to die now. Let's go ahead. Take me on home,
Lord. Take me on home. Dad, you'll be overcome to begin
with, but you'll overcome at last.
We've been overcome with sin, but I'll tell you what's going
to happen. A more powerful troop, a troop of three, Father, Son,
and Spirit, They come to our rescue. And therefore, in the end, we
shall overcome. Well, how can it be? Romans 8,
37. We are more than conquerors through
Him who loved us. We have the victory. 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. We have the victory through Jesus
Christ our Lord. You see, when it came to sin,
we lost. We lost. We were overcome. A troop overcame us. But I'll
tell you, the divine troop permit me to put it that way. Purpose
to save us. And at the last, we shall overcome. And though we are converted,
you know, troops still attack us. Oh yeah. You know anything about this
troop? The troop of inward lusts. They attack. Sometimes they overcome
us. What about the troop of inward
corruption? What about the troop of arrogance
and pride? Even with the people of God,
the troop of self-righteousness. This fellow said to me one time,
you know, since the Lord saved me, He took all the self-righteousness
out of me. And I said, not all of it. Not all of it. There's that troop
rising up. There's a troop of vain imaginations. Vain thoughts. And here's a begetting
sin. Here's a truth that attacks all
of us. Lack of faith. You know anything
about that truth? It attacks all the time. There's this body of sin that's
within us. The flesh. It's always on the
offensive against the spiritual man. Always. It never lets up.
And if you think you've gotten the victory, it'll ambush you
again, and you'll find out, well, I'm still as weak as water. How often we have been led out,
led to cry out like Paul, oh, wretched man that I am, who shall
deliver me from the body of this death? And then we follow that
by saying, I thank God through Jesus Christ, my Lord. In Him,
we have the victory. Outside of Him, we can't win. We're losers. And I'll tell you, there's an
ungodly troop of demons and devils that are always after us to annoy
us, to defeat us. Satan and his troops from hell. They surround us. They come up
as it were from the bottomless pit and they never let up. They assault us over and over
again with fiery darts of temptation. They're constant skirmishes without
and within. And we're often were often overcome. Another troop that often attacks
us is discouragement and dismay. Another troop is anxiety and
worry. Has that troop gone after you
lately? Worried? Fearful about things
in this life? You're just overcome by a troop of worry and cares. David said in Psalm 38.8, I am
feeble and sore broken. I have roared by reason of the
disquietness of my heart. And I could go on and on. You
can come up with a lot of troops on your own, can't you? I know
you can. But there's good news. Gad shall
overcome at last. Isn't that good news? Gad will
overcome at last. This is not to be our ultimate
defeat. Here's what is to be our ultimate
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the good news. You see, Christ has overcome
all of His enemies and all of our enemies as well. So that
we are more than conquerors. through Him that loved us. In
Him we overcome. Now, could I give you some five
things to help us in this, by the grace of God and through
the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, that will help us to overcome
these troops that come against us. I give you five things, number
one. How can we overcome? By having a better knowledge
of God. Daniel said this in Daniel 11,
32, the people that know their God shall be strong. That is, shall overcome and prevail. The people that know their God.
Get to know your God. Get to know His sovereignty.
Get to know His power. Get to know His wisdom. Study
God. This religious but lost generation
knows nothing about God. Oh, the ignorance that exists
in so-called Christian circles And I use that word Christian
in a very broad and liberal way. People don't know who God is.
You do, to a degree, study God more. If I could encourage you
in any study, it would be the study of who God is. Learn of Him. Learn of His power. Is there anything too hard for
the Lord? That's what the Lord asked Sarah.
She's laughing. Laughing in her tent. The angel of the Lord, the second
person of the Trinity, said, I'm going to come back about
this time next year. Sarah's going to have a baby.
And Sarah's in there going, yeah, right. He heard the laughter. And he
asked Abraham anything too hard for the Lord. You reckon there's
anything he can't do? The only thing he cannot do is
go against his own holy nature. He can't lie. He can't go against
his covenant purpose and promise. I'll tell you three truths that
always encourage me. Divine sovereignty and divine
providence and divine salvation. Keep those ever in front of you. A knowledge of the sovereign
God. Number two, overcome by faith. I just read that in 1
John chapter 5. This is the victory that overcometh
the world, even our faith. Of Satan we read how to resist
him, whom resist steadfast in the faith. And the word faith
can be either a noun or a verb. We have faith in him as we're
believing him, that is. But also it's a knowledge of
the faith of God's elect, the faith of the gospel, the body
of truth. Overcome by faith. Believe the
Lord. Trust His promises. Get in His
Word. And I'll get to that in a little
bit. Rehearse over and over again in your mind the glorious gospel
of the grace of God to the unworthy through Christ the Savior. Like the Old Testament overcomers,
it says in Hebrews 11, by faith they waxed valiant in fight. They waxed valiant in fight by
faith, believing God. You say, preacher, I really want
to honor God. Jim, I wish I could glorify God. You want to do that? Really?
Believe Him. But I want to do something. I know you do. But here's how you can honor
God. Trust His Word. Just believe. Naked faith. Number three, overcome by prayer. The Savior said, watch and pray
that you enter not into temptation. That's the weapon that the apostle
used when a troop attacked him, that messenger from Satan. He
said, for this I besought the Lord three times. Mark this down. When you are prayerless, you're
going to be defeated. That's a certainty. You're in
for defeat if you're prayerless. I tell you, pray in faith. Put
your foot into the Lord. Trusting His power. Trusting
His grace. Lord, remind me of your gospel. is overcome by prayer. I read one writer today. He said the best way to wrestle
against sin and Satan is to fight on your knees. I thought that's
kind of clever. Not that we put any stop in praying
while you're on your knees. After all, the Bible says physical
exercise profiteth little. It isn't your posture physically. It's the posture of your heart. Prayer. And number four, I want
you to turn to this real quick. Turn to Revelation chapter 12.
And I'll give you four and five right here. How can I overcome
all these troops that are against me? How can I overcome? Well, overcome by the blood of
the Lamb. This is our main weapon, without which all other weapons
are useless. Remember that. This is the key
weapon. The substitutionary sacrifice
of our Lord Jesus Christ that is the blood of the Lamb. Look
at Revelation chapter 12 and verse 11. And they overcame Him. They overcame the dragon. Not by their efforts. Not by their obedience. Not by their skillful wisdom,
but by the blood of the Lamb. Because
you see, Satan hates the blood of the Lamb. And so does false religion. the substitutionary sacrifice,
the successful redemptive work of the Savior, the grace of God
in salvation, that's what the enemy despises. Throw it at them. Just let them have it. It's a
way to overcome by the blood of the Lamb. And then, and here's the fifth
thing, and by the Word of their testimony, that is by the Word
of God, These two go together. Four and
five. These are the two most powerful
things. The blood of God and the Word
of God. How did the Savior resist that
hellish troop that came after Him? when he was driven by the
Spirit into the wilderness for 30 days and 30 nights. How did
he answer him? How did he overcome him? I say,
it is written, it is written, it is written. He used the Word
of God. You better do the same thing.
You better do the same thing. We dare not seek to overcome
the enemy of our souls without these two priceless, priceless
possessions, the blood of our Lord and the Word of our Lord. And by the Lord's grace, though all these troops come
against us, And they'll overcome us from time to time. There's
no question about that. We all admit that. We know what
defeat means. We get bloodied quite often in
these warfares. We get knocked down, but he can't
put us out of business. And in the end, in the end, Oh,
bless the name of our God. We shall overcome at last. For we shall be where our Lord
is. That's where Jacob's at. He said, I have waited for that
salvation. Oh Lord, oh Jehovah our Savior. And his desire was satisfied.
And we wait for His salvation. And one of these days, our desire
will be satisfied. We'll go home to glory.