Well, as I said, Jacob, of course,
has now met Rachel and they've fallen in love. As I've stated,
Laban tricked Jacob. Jacob was serving seven years
for the privilege of marrying Rachel. And there's certainly
a very dear verse in verse 20 Jacob served seven years for
Rachel and they seemed unto him but a few days for the love that
he had to her. Our Lord Jesus served our Father,
His Father, for the privilege of having us as a bride. Consider that to be sort of a
dowry that He paid to the Heavenly Father. And it was What was the
price of redemption? It was His own sacrifice upon
the cross of Calvary. And He bought us. His service,
His dowry to God was a life of obedience. It was a life of perfection. And more than that, it was a
death that paid the debt for all of His people. Oh, bless
the name of our dear Redeemer. We are debt free. We owe nothing
to the justice of God. Let the people of God rejoice. Let those who know of redeeming
grace shout hallelujah. For the Savior has settled our
account. We owe God nothing but thanksgiving. What shall I render to the Lord? The psalmist said, for all of
His mercies to me. Oh, let us thank Him and praise
Him. Rejoice in finished redemption
by our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, our Savior came to do
a work. He spoke one time in the Gospel
of John. He said, I must work the works
of Him that sent me. And the works were, first of
all, to humble himself to come into this world. Well, he did
that. And then there's the work of
obedience, of being made under the law, to redeem them that
were under the law. And of course, he obeyed God's
law in every jot and tittle. But specifically, the work was
the work of redemption. It was the work of salvation,
the work of reconciliation, the work of removing our sins, the
work of establishing righteousness for an unrighteous people that
our Lord loved with an everlasting love. You will remember, I'm
sure, in John 4, our Lord went through... He must needs go through
Samaria. And the disciples were amazed
that He would go through Samaria. And even more amazed that He
would spend any kind of time with an adulterous woman. But she was a vessel of mercy.
She was one of those for whom He came into this world to save.
He had covenanted with the Father and with the Spirit to redeem
her. So He must needs go through Samaria. And He taught her who He was. And she went into the city to
tell men and women and all who would listen to her that she
had found the Messiah. And as she left, the disciples
came back from going to town to the grocery store. And they
said, Master, eat. He said, I have meat to eat that
you know not of. My meat is to do the work of
the Father, the work of God, and finish it. What is that work? The work of saving His people
from their sins. He said, that's my meat. You
see, what food is to a hungry man, what water is to a thirsty
man, doing the will of God was to Christ Jesus and laying down
His life for us. And that which He did for us
is portrayed at least to a degree in those words that says that
Jacob, he served Laban because of his love for Rachel seven
years, and it seemed to him but a few days. He was delighted
to do the work. And behold, brethren and sisters,
our Lord Jesus did the work of redemption to save us. He was
delighted to do it. This was His meat. This was His
drink. This is what perhaps we could
say gave Him strength. He was energized to do this work. He wasn't hesitant to do it. He was delighted to do it because
of the love that He has for His people. You remember when Our Lord told
them He had this work to do, told His disciples, Master, eat! Master, eat! But He didn't rebuke them. And I thought, as I worked on
this message today, I thought the reason He didn't rebuke them,
because I'm remembering the words of Psalm 103, Like as a father
pitieth his children, So the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. And don't you rejoice in these
next words, too. He knoweth our frame. He remembereth that there's nothing
to us. We're just dust. That's all we
are. We're just dust. But we have
a perfect Savior. A perfect Savior. You remember
in His high priestly prayer in John 17, He said, I have glorified
Thee, speaking to the Father. I have glorified Thee on the
earth. I have finished the work that
Thou gavest Me to do. He came to render to the Father
the work The work which God gave Him, the work that was required
for Him to have the Bride. For Him to have us. For Him to
have us with Him for all eternity. There was this work. And he was glad to do it. And he didn't cease his pilgrimage
in this world until he could say fully upon the cross of Calvary,
it is finished. I have finished that work. So
Jacob had a work to do in order to have his bride, the bride
that he loved, even as Christ did. But, he was tricked. We talked about that in our last
message. Laban deceived him. But even
in the deception of Laban, the Lord sets forth a vital gospel
truth. Look again here at what Laban
says in verse 26. And Laban said, it must not be
so done in our country. In other words, it's absolutely
wrong to give the younger before the firstborn. In other words,
we have a law and it's got to be honored. It's got to be honored. You can't have Rachel unless
you honor this law. That's the reason I brought to
you Leah. The law had to be satisfied.
The law said you cannot marry the younger until the firstborn
is married. This law must be honored. And when it comes to our spiritual
union with the Lord Jesus, this marriage of the Savior to His
bride, God's law had to be satisfied. It had to be. There cannot be
any marriage of this spiritual bride of our Lord Jesus until
God's law is honored. And that's something that very
few people know anything about. The satisfaction of divine justice. Our Lord did not die on the cross
of Calvary to just set an example of how we should be submissive
in death. How we should trust the Lord
when it comes time to die. how we should be willing to go
when He says it's time for you to leave this world. He was the
perfect example of many things. There's no question about that.
But He came to honor God's law. Satisfaction had to be done to
justice. This is what Laban is saying. It can't be done. It's not right
that we just set the law aside and you go ahead and marry Rachel.
There's a law that has to be kept before you can have the bride. One of the oldest questions is
asked in Job. How then can man be justified
with God? Or how can He be clean that is
born of a woman? The joining of our Lord Jesus
and our everlasting salvation in Him, the joining of our Savior
to us and our everlasting salvation in Him is fully dependent upon
Him honoring and satisfying the legal requirements of God. So Jacob serves another seven
years for the hand of Rachel in marriage. Now he's got two
wives and of course Laban gives to these two wives, gives to
each of them a maid, a handmaid. A handmaid. So Jacob now has
two wives and he has two maids. And then we get into the names
of the sons of Jacob. And we started on this in our
last message. Reuben was the firstborn. Which
means, see a son. Look a son. Behold a son. Behold the Son of God. Behold
the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. It's a
message of John the Baptist. It's a message of all of God's
preachers. This is the one we direct your attention to. Not
us. Not the church. Not the ordinances. We direct your attention to that
Lamb who was slaughtered. Who died. By whose blood we're
redeemed. And then there's Simeon. Leoborhim,
Reuben, and then secondly, Simeon, which means hearing. Aren't you
thankful God gave you ears to hear the Gospel? And gave you
the wisdom to understand and hear what is the truth and what
isn't the truth. You can discern the difference.
There are some people, if a preacher gets up and he preaches in such
a way that they like the tone of his voice, or he's very loud
and they like loud preachers, or he's very soft and they like
soft-spoken preachers, they just say, well, boy, that's my kind
of preacher there. Without even considering the
content of the message. But the Lord comes to us, to
His people, and He gives us the gift of hearing and discernment. My sheep, what does the Savior
say? They hear My voice. And the voice
of another shepherd, they won't hear. They just won't listen
to Him. And they have the discernment
from God to know truth from error. Whereas there are some people,
they just take in everything. They swallow everything. Well,
he's a good preacher. Or like a preacher in the church
that I'm very much acquainted with, at least was years ago,
and one of the members said, well, he's not much of a preacher,
but he's a wonderful pastor. He's a wonderful pastor. Isn't
that what he said? Simeon means hearing. Faith cometh
by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. Not just hearing with
these ears. Yeah, we do hear with these ears.
This is the hearing gate, the ear gate. But there's another
kind of ear that God has to give, a spiritual ear. And I'll tell
you, if He gives you a spiritual ear, if He gives you spiritual
hearing, that spiritual hearing, it will detect any error in the
gospel that's proclaimed. And it will only grasp that which
is the truth. And you know exactly, most of
you know exactly what I'm talking about because you've heard preachers
on the radio or on the television, and you'll say something like
this, well, he said some good things. You're trying to be... Nice. He tried to be kind. But He didn't say the good thing. He didn't set forth the Gospel
of redeeming grace. He didn't set forth sovereignty
and effectual redemption. And you heard what He had to
say and you said, He's wrong! I'll listen to that man no more.
He's not honoring God. And then there's Levi and that
means joined. We're joined to the Lord Jesus
Christ by eternal union. A union that cannot be dissolved. Those who say that we can be
saved today and lost in the morning know nothing of effectual grace. They know nothing of the work
of God. that He who hath begun a good
work in you will finish it to the day of Jesus Christ. He won't
desert you. He won't leave you. This is a
union. Why it would bring disgrace upon
the name of the bridegroom if he forsook the bride. He will not be disgraced. All of those that God gave Him
in the covenant of grace, He will have them. He has bought
them. He will draw them. He will fetch
them unto Himself. And one day He will say to the
Father, Behold, I am the children that Thou hast given Me. And
not a one of them is missing. Not a one. And then Judah means
praise. We praise the Lord for His full
salvation. Now these are the four sons that
were born to Jacob by Rachel's maid Bilhah. Or excuse me, these
are the four sons that were born to Leah. But then we get to two
sons that were born to Jacob by Rachel's maid Bilhah in chapter
30. And when Rachel saw that she
bared Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister. And I'll tell
you what, Rachel does not come out as a nice person in this
story. She doesn't. I know Jacob loves
her. But she doesn't come across as
a nice person. During the space of about four
years, we'll say, that Leah bore Jacob four sons, Rachel can't
get pregnant. And who did she blame? She blamed
Jacob. But Jacob understood that which
Rachel did not understand. that the Lord is the sovereign
ruler over all things. Rachel didn't understand that.
In fact, Jacob answers her in verse 2 and he's angry. He's angry against Rachel. And
he said, am I in God's stead? Do you think I'm God? Do you
think I'm in charge? Do you think I control all things? Do you think I have the power
to make you pregnant? Life comes from God. It comes
from God. And it's the Lord, watch His
language, it's the Lord who has withheld thee the fruit of the
womb. Honey, I love you, but the reason
you're not bearing any sons is because God has willed that right
now you bear no sons. You see, Jacob, he's ever learning. And he has learned it's God who
sits on the throne. And all life, even physical life
that is formed in the womb as the result of the union of a
man and a woman, that life is ultimately due to God's power. And as it is in the physical
realm, so it is in the spiritual realm. And you hath He begotten
by the Word of His power. You're quickened by His power.
We're born of God. Born of God. It's a work only God can do.
And people don't understand that today. You listen to these preachers. They're preachers on the radio
and on the television. They're all the time putting
the cart before the horse. Believe on Jesus and get born
again. Faith is not the route to the
new birth. The new birth is the route to
faith. Don't put the cart before the
horse. If you do that, if you put faith being as that which
initiates a relationship with God, you believe in the unborn
again, you've got false doctrine. That's what you've got. You've
got heresy. You've got man doing something
for God, and then God responds with life. That's not the way
it is. Oh, God, save us from that. Lord, give us life. And that's
so simple to anybody who's been given the seeing eye and the
hearing ear and the believing heart. Lord, give us life. Then we'll believe. You who believe
the Gospel. You who've studied the Word of
God. You know I'm telling the truth. You know this is what
the Word of God says. Well, Jacob, he's perturbed with
Rachel. Because she doesn't understand
that all things are of God. So, when God is not pleased to
give her life in her womb, she just blames Jacob. Well, Jacob knew what Rachel
didn't know. Psalm 127 verse 3, Lo, children
are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is
His reward. That's His reward. Rachel says in verse three, take
my handmaid Bilhah. She just pushes Bilhah to Jacob. Here Jacob, take this woman. And have sons by her. And she gave him, verse four,
Bilhah, her handmaid to wife. And Jacob went in unto her, and
she conceived and bared Jacob a son. And Rachel said, now watch
this, Rachel said, God hath judged me, God has judged my case, and
He's vindicated me. I'm doing the right thing. Because my handmaid got pregnant. She's twisting this around. God has judged me, God has examined
me, and He knows that I'm lying on this. He's heard my voice,
and He's given me a son. Therefore called she His name
Dan, and Dan means judgment. God has given a sentence concerning
my case. Rachel, bless her heart, she's
guilty of envy, guilty of pride, guilty of nagging, guilty of
conniving jealousy. And she threw another woman into
the arms of Jacob. And when that woman became pregnant,
she concluded, God has vindicated me. I'm right. See there? I knew I was right,
Jacob. What have you got to say now,
Jacob? Oh. Tell you something about the
people of God. Dan's name means judgment now. Something about
the people of God. We do judge ourselves. We look
into the mirror of God's Word. And we judge ourselves to be
fallen creatures. And we need the grace of God.
And we judge, we examine ourselves to see if we be in the faith.
How do we examine ourselves? What does this examination entail? All the works that you're doing?
The examination is the very basis or the foundation of your hope. And I would call upon each of
you who are here tonight and those of you who are watching,
do a thorough, honest investigation and judgment of your hope of
glory. Why do you think a holy God will
accept you? Can you find a reason in the
Word of God when you look into the Scriptures that reveals you? And then as you examine the footing
upon which you think you stand secure in the eyes of God, why
do you think God's going to accept you? What's the basis of your
hope? Well, Jim, I've read my Bible
every day. God knows. God knows I prayed
to Him. I've been faithful in church.
Is that the basis for your hope? Or can you say honestly with
the hymn writer, my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood
and His righteousness. Oh Lord, tell me to judge a righteous
judgment just to be honest. Self-deception is an awful thing. Oh Lord, give me honesty as to
my standing before You. Why do I hope to be in the presence
of God? You've probably heard the story.
I heard Henry tell this about John Jasper, pastored in Richmond,
Virginia, black preacher. And somebody asked him one time,
said, John Jasper, when you get to the gates, and asked you,
why should the Lord receive you, John Jasper, into God's holy
heaven? He said, I'm just going to say,
I believe the Lord will receive me, though a sinner, will receive
John Jasper based on this, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Not because of anything I've
done. What are you going to say? What are you going to say to
God when He says, why should I let you in? Why should I let
you into my holy heaven? You're going to start reciting
the verses that you've quoted and all the things that you've
done? That's what a lot of people are
going to try to do. And in Matthew 7, there's a lot
of folks who are going to say, look what we've done for you.
He said, depart from me. I never knew you. I never loved
you. I had no regard for you. And you've had no regard for
me. Why should I let Jim Byrd, James Ferguson Byrd, why should
I let a sinner like you, a scoundrel like you, born in sin, deceived,
wicked by nature, why should I let you into my holy heaven? Lord, I know you can't let me
in for anything I've ever said, done or thought. Let me in for
Christ's sake. Your Word says He died for sinners. Lord, I sure am one. I sure am
one. And He's the only hope I got.
Your beloved Son. His faithless unto death. He's
my hope. And like John Jasper, I say,
I believe the gates of heaven will open wide open. He said,
come on in. Come on in. That's not complicated, is it? Don't let anybody rob you of
the simplicity of the gospel of Christ Jesus. Dan means judgment. And then, look here, let me go
quickly. Verse 7, and Bilhah, Rachel's
maid, conceived again and bared Jacob a second son. And Rachel
said, with great wrestlings have I wrestled. She sure does draw
attention to herself a lot, doesn't she? And she reminds me of the
natural man who's all the time talking about what they've done.
With great wrestlings have I wrestled with my sister. And I've come
out on top. I bested her. I have prevailed. That's what she says. Bless her
heart. and she called his name Naphthali. Naphthali means wrestling. Wrestling. I'll say again, Rachel doesn't
appear lovely in this at all. She's jealous over her sister
and now her maid becomes pregnant and Rachel names the baby Naphthali
and she takes credit for it. Well, that's the natural man
in the things of religion, isn't it? Takes credit for it. But we can learn a spiritual
lesson here. Another spiritual lesson. Our
Lord wrestled with all of our enemies. He wrestled and you
know what? He prevailed. And that's exactly
what it says in Revelation chapter 5. The line of the tribe of Judah
has prevailed. He wrestled with all of our enemies. And He defeated them all. He
pinned them all. He slew them. He overcame and He conquered. He prevailed. And I tell you,
if you prevail, if you conquer, It's on account of who your great
conqueror is. As it says in Romans 8, we are
more than conquerors through Him who loved us. It's not you. It's not me. And, you know, as
I look at this passage of Scripture, and especially Rachel's attitude,
you know, strife begets strife, doesn't it? These two sisters
opposed each other. Rachel opposed Leah and now Leah
says, I'll get even with you. Because we're going to get into
something else here. Look at verse 9. And when Leah
saw that she had left bearing, she took Zilpah her maid and
gave her Jacob to wife. She said, well, you're not getting
the advantage over me. I've got a maid too. Jacob, here,
take my maid. And he does. And Zilpah, Leah's
maid, bared Jacob a son. And Leah said, a troop cometh, or a great company. And she called
his name Gad. Gad. Gad presents the idea of
a company or a group. A company or a group of people,
a whole troop. And we get a little bit more
insight into this if you'll bear with me and go to Genesis chapter
49. And look what verse 19 says because
it not only means, Gad not only means troop and group or company,
But it means one who is the head of the group. One who takes the
lead. Chapter 49, Genesis. Well, what's
this all about? These are the last words of Jacob. He calls his 12 sons and he pronounces
blessings upon them. And we'll get into this eventually.
But look at verse 19. Gad... He's calling these boys
up one by one. Gad... He says, a troop shall
overcome him, but he shall overcome at the last. Think of our Lord Jesus. He's
the head of a company, the company of God's elect. He takes the
lead. He comes down here to this earth. The religious opposition stands
against him. He goes before a religious tribunal. He goes before a civil tribunal. They convict him and sentence
him to die. It seems like he's defeated. But you know what? Calvary wasn't
his defeat. That was his victory. That's
where He conquered. And He leads His troop. He leads
His company. He leads all of those who are
given Him in the covenant of grace. He leads us all to victory. Victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ. And He's the leader of the company.
He's the leader of the group. And then go back and I'll wrap
this up. I'm going to have to quit. Go
back to chapter 30. And look at verses 12 and 13.
And Zilpah, Leah's maid, bared Jacob a second son. And Leah
said, Oh, happy am I. For the daughters will call me
blessed. And she called his name Asher. Asher means blessed or happy
or joyful. We rejoice in our Savior. For
in Him we are blessed indeed." We're blessed with all spiritual
blessings and heavenly places in Christ Jesus. What does blessed
mean? As the Lord has blessed us, it
means highly favored, one to be envied, one who is happy,
one who is joyful. We're blessed. We're a blessed
people. There's no question about it. Psalm 32, 1 and 2. Blessed is
he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed
is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in
whose spirit there is no guile. And another one, Psalm 33 verse
12. Blessed is the nation whose God
is the Lord, and the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance. Blessed is that country. I'm
thankful to live in the United States of America. I'm delighted
to be a citizen of this great country, and I'm glad I was born
in the South, too. I'll just add that in. Okay? But I'm thankful to live here.
But listen, don't confuse patriotism with Christianity. They are not the same. God does indeed have a nation,
but it's not the 50 states of the United States of America.
His nation is a group of people from every nation, kindred, tribe,
and tongue. That's the nation He's interested
in, not our nation or any other specific geographical nation
on this great earth. It's a spiritual nation. that
He chose it, He redeemed, and He called, and He's preserving,
and He perfects them to the praise of the glory of His grace. That's
why Peter in 1 Peter 1.9 calls it a spiritual nation. That's the way it is. It's a
spiritual nation. That's the nation that is blessed
of the Lord. Here's another one, Psalm 34
verse 8, O taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed, oh
how happy, how joyful, how much to be envied is that man who
trusts the Lord. He's not trying to work his way
to heaven, he just trusts the Lord. And then one more, and
I'll save this one for last. I can give you many, but Psalm
65 and verse 4. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest. A natural man, he's not interested
in the election of God, but David says, oh, how blessed. Oh, how joyful. Oh, how happy
is that man. that the Lord has chosen unto
salvation, and He causes him to approach unto the Lord, that
he may dwell in thy courts. We shall be satisfied with the
goodness of thy house, even of thy holy temple. Asher means blessed. Oh, how
blessed we are in our Lord Jesus Christ. Sure is a lot to learn
from these names of the sons of Jacob. And we'll keep on going
the Lord willing next Wednesday. Let's pray. It's so good of You, Lord, to
teach us from Your Word. You've given us a love for the
Word of God. a desire to look into this book,
to see our Lord Jesus Christ. We search for Him on every page. And Lord, in Your own good time,
You show us these wonderful spiritual nuggets of gold as You reveal
to us Your dear and blessed Son, our glorious Savior. We rejoice
in Him. We're blessed in Him. And indeed,
we have all spiritual blessings in Him. And we're mighty thankful,
very grateful to you, Lord, for giving us eyes to see Him and
ears to hear His voice and a heart to believe Him. Encourage your
dear people. Let us go away this evening rejoicing
in our great Savior, the One whom to know is life everlasting. In His great and glorious name
I ask these things. Amen.