Let's go to the book of beginnings,
the book of Genesis, which is the book of beginnings, Genesis. And let's go next to the last
chapter, Genesis chapter 49. Genesis chapter 49. Last Lord's Day, we dealt with
the subject of God's great salvation. We did so in the AM service and
then once again in the PM service. And I hope that God instructed
us and that he was magnified through the messages. And I just felt like it'd be
good to keep with that subject this evening, and to go to the
very first instance in the Scriptures where this great word salvation
is used. Genesis chapter 49 and verse
18. Where Jacob says, Genesis 49
and 18, I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord, I have waited. I've lived in expectation of
Thy salvation, O Lord. It's a very interesting chapter,
Genesis chapter 49. It brings us to the end of the
life of Jacob. We're introduced to Jacob back
in the 25th chapter. This is a man who according to
Romans chapter 9, God loved him. God ordained that he would be
his own. The Lord said of Jacob, Jacob
I have loved and Esau have I hated. The Lord said the elder shall
serve the younger and indeed Esau did serve Jacob. Now Jacob is on his death bed.
This is it for Jacob. He has lived his allotted days
upon this earth, and now he gathers all of his precious boys around
his bedside, as it were, and he's going to speak to them about
things that are going to happen to them in the last days. unusual men, twelve sons of Jacob. They each, of course, are the
heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. And these, obviously,
according to the Scriptures, are greatly to be regarded. Look at verses 1 and 2 of Genesis
chapter 49. And Jacob called unto his sons
and he said, gather yourselves together. I think this is an effectual
call. Here's dad. He gets the message
out to these twelve men. He says, gather yourselves together
that I may tell you what shall befall you in the last days. Gather yourselves together and
hear, ye sons of Jacob, and hearken unto Israel your father." Back in Genesis chapter 32, God
gave to Jacob a new name. As you will remember, I'm sure,
he was born with the name of Jacob. God met him, the Lord
Jesus met him, and gave him a new name, Israel. One who prevailed
with God. One who is indeed a royal one. One who is a prince who prevailed
with the Lord. The Lord Jesus met him. He wrestled
with him. It doesn't say that the Lord
Jesus was unable to prevail against him, but he didn't prevail against
him. This is an illustration in the Scripture just how serious
a man is about the things of God. Is Jacob going to be satisfied
with just a brief religious experience or does he mean business with
the Lord? Does he want God's salvation? Does he want this
redemption that is in the Lord Jesus? Is he interested really
in the God of Abraham and in the God of Isaac? Does he want
to worship? Does he want to know God? Or
does he just want to be religious a little bit? The Son of God
met him and wrestled with him. Jacob meant business. He was
serious. Oh, don't take the things of
God lightly. We're talking about your undying
soul. We're talking about the glory
of God when we talk about salvation. Jacob wanted to be blessed by
God. And he's not going to settle
for anything less. Lord, I want You and I want Your
blessing. And so he wrestles with the Lord.
And the Lord says, I'm going to give you another name. He
still had the name of Jacob. He's one who tried to supplant
his brother Esau. He's one who tried to grab his
foot and keep Esau from going out of the womb first. And so
thus, Jacob is his name, Jacob being the planter. But the Lord
said, I'm going to give you another name. You're Israel. You're Israel. You are indeed
a prince with God. And in this, he's a picture of
our Lord Jesus, who is often called a prince with God in the
book of Acts. He's called the prince of life.
That's in Acts chapter 3 and verse 15. In Acts chapter 5,
it says God has exalted him to be a prince and a savior. And in Revelation chapter 1 and
verse 5, he's the first begotten of the dead, the prince of the
kings of the earth. And so in that sense, Israel
is a picture of the Lord Jesus. And I think he's a picture of
the Lord Jesus here in Genesis chapter 49. As He says to His
sons, gather yourselves together, I've got something I want to
speak to you about. He says it another time, He says,
gather yourselves, I want you to hear. I want you to hearken. As I read over this Scripture
today, just in preparation for speaking to you from verse 18
about waiting for God's salvation, I was thinking that Jacob, in
a sense, is a picture of the Lord Jesus here. I think about
the Savior in John chapter 13, 14, 15, 16, where He gathered
His twelve apostles, eleven apostles, and Judas was gone. As He gathered
them together, He had some things that He wanted to say to them.
It was an effectual call of grace to those men, and I think about
the Lord addressing us through His Word, by His Spirit, when
He speaks to us in overcoming grace, in irresistible grace,
when He brings us to Himself, when He has some things He wants
to say to us, He will indeed gather us with an effectual call
of grace. It's a wonderful day when God
irresistibly speaks to us and He gets our hearts' attention.
Does He have your attention? Jacob says to his boys, boys,
I've got some things I want to say to you about what's going
to happen in the last days. I want you to come here. Boys,
listen up. I have some things I want to
say to you. I could almost hear the Lord Jesus speaking to us
and He says, You children, come to me. I have some things I want
to say to you. I want to say to you some things
about grace, about this great salvation, about my mercy, and
about forgiveness. Gather yourselves together. Gather
yourselves unto me. Unto me. And so just before his
death, Israel gathers all of his sons around him, and he has some things to say
to them. And from the third verse, beginning
at verse 3, and going through most of the rest of the chapter,
Jacob does indeed speak to his 12 sons about the things that
are in store for them, the things that God has purposed that would
come to pass in their lives. But then he gets down to verse
18, and this is where I want to go, and there's so much more
here, of course, in this chapter, but I want to look at verse 18
of Genesis chapter 49. He says, I have waited for thy
salvation, O Lord. Now, picture the scene. He's
on his deathbed. Here he's got his, all 12 sons
are gathered around him. He's got some very serious things
He wants to speak to them about. But this is a man who's facing
death. This is a man who before chapter
49 is over, he is going to be dead. He is going to be absent
from this body. He's going to be present with
God. That which weighs on his mind,
therefore, is rightfully the subject of salvation. Salvation. If we have any understanding
of the brevity of our lives at all, No matter what it is we're
dealing with, speaking about, whatever the subject is at hand,
we must always be aware of this. We're going to face God. And
this is what is on Jacob's mind. This is what is on his heart.
He knows this is the end. This is all the days that God
has allotted him. And in just a very brief while,
just a few hours, he is going to breathe his last and go out
into eternity. And so in the middle of blessing
his boys, in the middle of giving these predictions about all of
the things that are going to happen to them, he says, after
he speaks to Dan, he begins to speak to God. And he says to
the Lord, I have waited. I have lived in expectation. I have anxiously awaited. I have
hoped. I have hoped for Thy salvation. Thy salvation. Oh Lord, I have
looked for it. I have been looking for Your
salvation. That which is of interest to him is the salvation of his
soul. It's the very first time in the
Bible the word salvation is used. It's used by a man who's ready
to die. Ready to die. And he is ready. He is ready
to die. Because he's a He is one beloved
of God. He is indeed begotten of God. He is one of those for whom the
Son of God will enter into this world and lay down His life.
This is one who is justified by the grace of God given to
him in Christ Jesus before the world was ever made. This is
a man who lives in expectation of being with the Lord. He loves the Lord. And more,
even more, the Lord loves Jacob. Jacob have I loved. That's what
God said. Jacob have I loved. And as it
is written in John chapter 13 in verse 1, the Savior said,
or it is said of the Savior, having loved His own, He loved
them unto the end. And the Lord loved Jacob with
an everlasting love. He loved him with an electing
love. He loved him with a redeeming
love. He loved him and so he visited
him in grace. Back there in the 32nd chapter
of Genesis, he named that place Penuel. He said, I have seen
God face to face and I live to speak about it. He could have
crushed me like a worm, but I have seen God face to face. I have
had an encounter, a living, loving encounter with the God of glory. Have you? Have you had an encounter
Blessed Redeemer? It was the Lord who came to Jacob. It was the Lord who blessed Jacob. It was the Lord who spoke to
Jacob. And as a result, here is Jacob. Israel! Here is Israel! And He uses both of His names
in the second verse. He is both Jacob and He's Israel. Jacob in His nature, in Himself. Israel by the grace of God. And that's the way it is with
you and me. We're Jacobs by nature. There is in the name of Jacob
the idea of deceitfulness, of one who defrauds another. Jacob the splatter. Jacob who
grabbed hold of his brother. I want to get out first. And
he lived his life like that. He's just a whole sinner. That's
who Jacob is. That's what he is. That's what
you are. We're all Jacobs by nature. That's
the reason the Scripture speaks of us in the book of Malachi
as being sons of Jacob. We're sons of Jacob. We're just
like him. But by the grace of God, we're
Israel! We're God's Israel! We are royal
people. When it says of Israel, he's
one who prevailed with God, another meaning of that is one with whom
God has prevailed. God has prevailed over Jacob.
And I'll tell you, God's prevailed over you. If you believe the
Gospel, He's prevailed over you. He got the victory over you.
As we've already studied in Revelation chapter 6, He is the rider in
the opening of the book, sealed with seven seals. In the opening
of the first seal, He's the rider on a white horse who goes forth
conquering. He has brought us down, just
like He brought Jacob down. Jacob, I give you a new name.
You're a prince with God. And you know what we are? Kings
and priests unto our gods, what it says. Those of us who are
by nature Jacob's, we're God's Israel. Galatians chapter 6 and
verse 16, that's another name for the people of God. The Israel
of God. We're the Israel of God. We're
His family. We've got to be royal because
our Father is the King. And his son, our Savior, is the
king. And Jacob says, I have waited,
I have lived in expectation for thy salvation. I want God's
salvation. I don't want the salvation of
the church. I don't want the salvation of
baptism. I don't want the salvation of
taking the Lord's Supper. I don't want the salvation of
good works. I want God's salvation. I want
God's salvation. And that's a real salvation.
What does salvation mean? Well, it means rescue or deliverance. Rescue or deliverance. When you think of being rescued,
Who needs to be rescued? Somebody who's in danger. Somebody
who's in trouble. I spoke a little bit about salvation
during Bible school, and I use this illustration. I used to
be a lifeguard back many years ago, and you know, people, they
think they can swim, they act like they can swim, they say
they can swim, and then they start swimming, and then find
out they can't swim, they get panicky, and they start to go
under. I was standing one day, this
dad, he was standing, he was talking to me, and I'm looking
at all these kids swimming. He had two boys swimming. All
of a sudden, one of them began to go under. And I dove in and
got him, just a little fellow. It wasn't difficult to pull him
in. But I got him up, of course,
got him up, and he was okay, and his dad still froze right
there. His dad just absolutely froze. He said, thank you for
saving my boy. Thank you for saving my boy.
Who needs saving? Somebody who's in trouble. Somebody
who's in danger. That's us. We're in danger. We're
in a great deal of trouble. And we can't get ourselves out
of it like that little fella. We're just going under for the
third time. All we're doing is just swallowing
water. That's all we're doing. And the thing of it is, we're
in such danger. Danger of perishing. But we don't
even know it. Now that little fellow, he knew
he was in trouble. But we don't even know we're
in trouble. And you know what God by His
convicting Spirit does? He shows us we're in trouble.
He shows us we need a Savior. He shows us we need this great
salvation. Hebrews chapter 2. How shall
we escape if we neglect? So great salvation! It's got
to be a great salvation because we're great sinners. He shows us we're in big trouble. I just don't believe there's
been a visit of God in His saving mercies unless you've been made
to realize you're in danger. But you need rescuing and you
can't do it. You can't save yourself. I don't
want to put too much emphasis on an experience, but on the
other hand, I don't want us to neglect the experience of grace. The Lord has to deal with us
and when He deals with us, it hurts, it's painful. And we realize
we're lost, we're in bad shape, I've got to be rescued. I can't
do it myself, only the Lord can. Oh God, show me mercy! That's
what we're driven to. We are like the leper who met
the Savior. The Savior had finished His great
sermon on the mountain. The leper was waiting for Him
when He came back down. The Savior had been up there
speaking. He had been preaching and teaching. That poor old leper,
he is ostracized from the company of all the people. He just waited
there. He waited because there was only
one who could help him. And that is the Savior. The Lord
Jesus came down off that mountain. He said, Lord, if you will, you
can make me whole. And that's another meaning of
salvation. To be made whole. To be made well. To heal us. We've got to be healed. Yes,
we've got to be delivered, got to be rescued from every aspect
of sin. But we've also got to be made
better. We're sick. We're sick. Well, Isaiah says the whole head
is sick. That's what he said. The whole
head is sick. The whole heart is faint. He said there's no soundness
in us. Do you know what salvation means?
It means to be sound. It means to be well. It means to be healthy. And we're
anything but that by nature. Jacob said, I've waited for thy
salvation. I need to be rescued. I need
to be delivered from sin. I need to be delivered from Satan. I need to be delivered from the
world. I need to be delivered from myself. And I need to be
healed. I need to be healed. I'm sick. Hold your place there. Look at Psalm 38. Look at Psalm
38. Well, I'll just start at verse
1. Psalm 38 verse 1, O Lord, rebuke
me not in thy wrath, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. For thine arrows stick fast in
me, thy hand presseth me sore. There's no soundness in my flesh
because of thine anger, neither is there any rest in my bones
because of my sin. My iniquities have gone over
my head as a heavy burden. They are too heavy for me. Have
you been made to realize that? They are too heavy for me. I
tell you what, if God doesn't show mercy, if He isn't gracious
to us, this heavy burden is going to sink us all the way to hell.
And nobody could bear that burden save one, and He's equal with
God in every way. But He's also bone of our bone,
flesh of our flesh. Look at verse 5. My wounds stink. They stink. And are corrupt because of my
foolishness. I am bowed down greatly. I go
mourning all the day long. For my loins are filled with
a loathsome disease. There is no soundness in my flesh. A loathsome disease. That's our
problem. And the loathsome disease is
leprosy. It's sin. We need to be healed. Who can heal us? The Lord Jesus. How does He do that? With His
stripes we are healed. He is the Lord who heals us. Children of Israel came to the
bitter waters of Marah. God said, cast a tree in, healed
the waters. He said, I am the Lord that healeth
thee. And He is the one who heals us
of our spiritual diseases. That is what salvation is. It
is to be delivered, it is to be rescued, and it is to be healed
of our spiritual diseases. The psalmist said, Bless the
Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy
name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
forget not all His benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities,
who healeth all thy disease. How many of them? All of them.
All of them. How did He do that? He did that
by the blood of His cross. That's how He did that. Salvation. I tell you, it also means to
preserve and keep us safe. And Jacob says over here, back
in our text in Genesis 49, I've waited for thyself. Thyself. I need God's salvation. I don't
want the salvation of the church because there is no salvation
in the church. That's the reason we spell church
with a little c. A little c. I'm thankful for
God's ecclesia. I'm thankful that God has a called
out assembly. But this, our church, the Baptist
denomination, hey, this is not the Savior. This is not the Savior. Our Savior is the Lord of Glory
who sits upon His throne, and His is a great salvation. A great
salvation. Here's a man staring at death,
and he's thinking about this vital subject. And I'll tell
you what, stare at death right now. Take a look at death. Take a good look. It's coming
for you. And for the people of God, we
can say even as we behold death coming for us, we don't know
when it will arrive. But we can say to the Lord, I
have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord. Let death come. That's
why Jacob at the end of this chapter, go at the end of this
chapter. Look at the end of the chapter.
Look at verse 33. Genesis 49.33. When Jacob had
made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet
into the bed. This is a beautiful scene. It
isn't something he's dreading. He's not fighting it. He is not saying to the doctors,
oh, don't let me die, don't let me die. He is not saying to all
his grandchildren, probably gather around his boys, his sons. He
is not saying to all his family, I don't want to leave you all
behind. No, very peacefully. This is a peaceful scene. To
have the deathbed of a child of God, it is a peaceful scene.
We're going home to glory. We're going home to see the Savior.
Jacob says, I've been waiting for this. I've been waiting for
this. I've lived in expectation of
Thy salvation. This is ultimate salvation to
be with Christ Jesus. And so, when Jacob had made an
end of commanding his son, he gathered up his feet into his
bed. He yielded up the goats. That
was it. They took his body. His body
was buried, but he was gathered unto his people. Where do God's
people go when we die? We go to our people. I'm going
home, going to my people. Going to where our brothers and
sisters are. Going to where Christ Jesus,
our elder brother is. We're going to the Father's house. The Savior said, in my Father's
house are many mansions, many dwelling places. If it wasn't
so, I wouldn't have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
Well, is He up in heaven building a place for us? He made that
place when He died for us. That's when He made our place.
That's when the provision was made for us. That's when we were
reconciled to God and all things that were necessary for our salvation
was finished. He brought in everlasting righteousness
for us. He put all of our sinfulness
away. And He says now, where I am,
that's where you're going to be. Well, I believe if I could remember
this, if a doctor comes in, if I'm halfway of sound mind, he
came in, he comes into the room and I'm sick and he calls the
family in and says, Mr. Byrds, it's just about that time. I tell you, I hope I can gather
my feet up into my bed. Just say, Lord, I've waited for
Thy salvation. I've lived in expectation of
this. You see, every child of God, we want to see Christ Jesus. We want to be with Him. And we
want to be done with sin. I know the sin that's in the
world is awful and it would be good to leave all that behind,
but it would be good to leave my sinfulness behind. Man, that
would be the best thing of all. Just leave us all behind. All
this rottenness, all this filthiness. Leave it all behind and be with
Christ Jesus. Which the Apostle Paul said,
that's far better. That's far better. Jacob said,
I've waited. I've waited for thy salvation.
And let me give you this. This salvation is not only a
thought. a deliverance and a rescue and
a healing and a preservation. This salvation is also somebody. I've waited for somebody. That's
what he said. I've waited all my life, all
my spiritual life, I've waited for somebody. Oh Lord, God of my salvation, The psalmist said, the Lord is
my light, and you know what? The Lord is my salvation. That's what the psalmist said.
I think about old Simeon, Luke
chapter 2. Mary and Joseph went to the temple, and a holy ghost had told Simeon,
you're not going to die. until you've seen God's Christ. And there they brought in the
Lord Jesus. And when He saw that little infant,
and took Him in His arms, and He looked face to face, and in
a way, just like Jacob at Penuel, I've seen God face to face. Simeon
did, and he saw God face to face. And he said, Lord, now let us
thou, thy servant, depart in peace. Why? For mine eyes have seen thy salvation. He saw somebody. He saw somebody. I've been waiting for him. Now
I've seen him. Now I'm ready to die. And you're
not ready to die. You don't want to die until you've
seen God's salvation. I can tell you that right now. But once you've seen God's salvation,
and I know there's a lot in this world we'll hate to leave behind
our spouse and children and grandchildren and friends and so forth and
so on. But you can leave it all because
you're going to see Him who is your all in all and who is all
the glory of heaven. He has all the preeminence. Jacob said, I've waited for thy
salvation. I've waited for your son, and
I'm going to see him. I'm going to see him. And I know that Jacob, he lived
about 1,700 years before the Lord Jesus was ever born. 1,794,
I think, if I did the math right, before he was ever born. But he went home to glory. He went to the Father. And later the Son of God died
for him. But he was there because the
Lord Jesus, he had already borne the responsibility of bearing
the iniquities of Jacob. And the old man could say with
all of his sons around him, with all of his family there. He wanted
them to hear. And I want my family to hear.
Lord, I've waited for Thy salvation. I'm living in expectation of
that day. Like old Bunyan said, when I
die, don't weep for me. Weep for yourselves. You got
to stay here. He said, don't weep for me. Waiting
for God's salvation. That's the title of the message,
waiting for God's salvation. Well, let's sing 489.