Last night, I went to bed convinced that I was going to preach out of Genesis 49, verses 8 to 12. I got the notes that I've worked on for that passage of scripture. But as often the case is, with me, and I know with all God's preachers. The lot is laid in the lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. And it is a marvelous thought to me that Almighty God rules in heaven and earth. God is in control. Like Scott always said, who's running this show anyway?

And Lord willing, I do want to make some comments out of Genesis 49, but I want to just look at verse 8. And if you wanted to, you could turn to Genesis 8 and just hold your finger there. But before we begin, I thought this morning about all of us assembling ourselves together today. And I thought about what we were doing, coming together as an assembly that has been raised up by Almighty God and has been allowed to remain in this place all these years. Now I'm just gonna share my heart with you a little bit.

Like I said, Lord willing, I'll say some things out of Genesis 49, eight. But before I do, stick a piece of paper in there or something if you wanna hold your place there, but I want you to turn with me to Exodus. This is what got on my, Exodus 3. Exodus 3. And I want to read verses 1 to 6, but I want to read it in light of why we're here today. Exodus chapter 3.

I want us to understand that coming together as an assembly of needy sinners, we are blessed beyond measure to be able to be here. I'm telling you. Now, listen. I mean what I'm saying. We don't know We don't know how blessed we are to be here and to be able to look in God's Word and to hear what God has to say.

I want to look at the first six verses of Exodus 3. Moses was a man that God was going to use mightily in calling out God's people out of the bondage of Egypt. And God is going to speak to Moses. Moses is God's chosen servant to speak on behalf of the Lord. Moses is up, we'll find here in verse one, I'll just go ahead and read it. Moses, Exodus, 3 verse 1, Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and led the flock to the back side of the desert, and came to the mountain of God even to Horeb.

And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush. And he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire. bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses.

And he said, here am I. And he That is, the Lord said, draw not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover, he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid. to look upon God.

Beloved, what we're about to consider in Genesis 49 verse 8 is holy ground. I'm just as serious as I can be. If we've ever done anything coming together this morning to hear what God has to say. If you want to talk about holy ground, this is it. We're not here to play games. I'm not here to, you know, try to get some folks in and do rally or anything like that. I'm here to tell you what God has to say. Because this truth What does the Lord have to say? That's the only thing that matters. And one day, we're going to all know that a whole lot more than we know it right now.

The Lord told Moses, I want you to take off your shoes. That was a way, and Moses did. He physically took off his shoes. Now, I'm not saying that when we come together, we take off our shoes. Let me tell you what he was telling him. You know, when you go to somebody's house and you walk in, I had someone come over to my house one time, and they'd been out in the mud.

They had mud on their shoes. And they walked into the house, and they just walked around, had mud on their shoes, and there was mud all over the carpet. And I don't think they even thought anything about it, just, you know. And after they left, we had to start scrubbing the carpet clean it up a little bit, you know, it was a mess. It was ground into the carpet and we had to spend a few hours cleaning it up. And this thought went through my mind. It was out of either ignorance or just sheer disrespect for someone's property.

God told Moses, you take your shoes off because the place where you're standing is holy ground. Now here, let me tell you what made that piece of ground where Moses was. He was on a mountain called Horeb. It was a mountain. It was just, it was a rock. That's what it was. Humanly speaking, it was just nothing more than a rock. It was just, it was a mountain. But here's what made that place holy. God was there. God was there. I thought to myself, the Lord has called me to preach the gospel. The gospel of God's free grace.

I'm not here to offer you anything. I'm going to tell you right now. Man by nature doesn't have a free will to decide whether or not he's going to accept what God has to say. That's the most disrespectful thing I have ever heard in my life. And I used to, I used to hold to that truth or that lie. Let me say it like that. That's not true. People will say, well, you, you, everybody's got a free will to decide whether or not they want to accept what the Lord offers. That is a lie. I'm going to tell you something.

God Almighty rules in heaven and earth. And He has the right to either call out a sinner like me and you. He has the right to do that. Or He has the right to leave a man or a woman to themselves. He has the right. And I tell you why He has the right. Because He's God. Moses asked the Lord one time, show me your glory. And here's what the Lord told him.

I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom I'll have compassion. The Spirit of God moved on Paul the Apostle to, from that passage of Scripture to say in the New Testament, so then it's not him that willeth, nor him that runneth, but it is of God that shows mercy. The Lord told Moses, I'm going to talk to you, and I want you to show some respect.

That's when he told him to take his shoes off. You show some respect, because I've got something to say, and you show the utmost respect for what you're about to hear. where two or three are gathered together in my name, the Lord said, I am in the midst of you. So I'm going to give us all a word of advice.

It's going to be found in Ecclesiastes. I thought about this this morning concerning the reverence that we owe the Lord. Ecclesiastes 5, 1 and 2, keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear than to give sacrifice of fools."

When I was reading over that this morning early, I thought, okay, now, I want to know exactly what that meant when he says, sacrifice of fools. I looked it up, read it, and I paraphrased it so I could, for the sake of time. I said this, what is the sacrifice of fools? The best way that I can understand it would be to see that which is the true sacrifice before God. To see it.

Whenever someone starts talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, him dying, he died in order to make salvation possible. When they start talking about His death, His sacrifice, and they start making it to be effectual only if man accepts it. Brethren, that is the sacrifice of fools. You're lowering, you're making the sacrifice that Almighty God made concerning the giving of His Son, the Lord Jesus, to be left in the hands of punks like that, yeah, that's exactly what I mean, just punks. Just nobodies that thinks that they're gonna talk about Lord's sacrifice as being something that's gonna be left in my hand or your hand to accept it whether or not we decide we're going to. No, sir. No, sir.

Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God. Be more ready to hear and give than to give the sacrifice of fools. Here's what Psalm 51, 17 says. The sacrifices of God is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. I think to myself, to sacrifice unto the Lord, if it's a broken and contrite spirit, Lord, break my heart.

And teach me. To just think a right and be respectful to you. And not. Act the part of a fool. And disregard what you have to say. Continuing back and please yes, please, for they consider not. That they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God, for God is in heaven, and thou upon the earth. Therefore, let thy words be few. Be careful, just be careful.

I want us this morning for a few minutes, I'm gonna deal with one verse. Let's just say a few comments about it, even come close to being able to exhaust what I'm about to read. But I want us for a few minutes, now turn with me to Genesis 49. Genesis 49, verse 8, that's all I'm going to do, I'm going to look at verse 8 for just a second.

49.8, now we know that the Lord has moved upon the sons of of Jacob, to hear what Jacob, their daddy, has got to say. Now he's, God's getting ready to take Jacob. He's getting ready to die. And he knows it. And so he's got, he's got something that is gonna be said. You know, when a man gets ready to die, as the general rule, if he's got some wisdom to him, best we listen to what he's got to say. He's gone through some things. God's taught him some things. And it's best to listen to what he's got to say.

He said in Genesis chapter 49, in verse 8, Jacob talking to his son Judah, he says, Judah, thou art Thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise. Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies. Thy father's children shall bow down before thee. You know now, as the case often is, I'm just as guilty as anybody. We read some scripture, and we know it's scripture because it sounds scriptural. It sounds biblical. It's got a biblical sound to it. But what does it mean? What does it mean? That's the issue.

Jacob, the daddy, has called his sons together and he's going to relate to his sons what is going to befall them. And now he's He's going to talk to Judah. Judah is the next one in line. Now, before we consider Jacob's words, we remember that these words, this is not just a daddy talking to his boys. This is a picture of what God Almighty is saying to his people. You look at these words as God's words. That Jacob, the daddy, he just spoke to three of his boys before that. We looked at that just a while back. He talked to Reuben first, and he told Reuben something. Reuben was the firstborn. He deserved the birthright. He deserved double portion. He deserved to rule the family. The firstborn, you know?

But Jacob told him something. He told Reuben that he was unstable as water. He was the oldest boy, but he told him, he said, you're unstable as water. And what this is telling us, I told you that these words of Jacob to his boys is God Almighty speaking to us. Just take these words as words to us. He told Reuben, he said, your unstable is water. What did he do? Well, we can go back for sake of time. I won't read it. You know what he did. He defiled his father's bed. He lost the birthright. He lost the inheritance of the firstborn. Well, what was that saying when he told Reuben?

Now again, remember, this is the word of God to us. I'll tell you what it's saying. We're all spiritual adulterers. All of us. All of us. What we've done is we are all by nature unfaithful to God. If I asked for a show of hands, which I won't, but I'd ask everybody said, you just be honest with me and just tell me this. Tell me what you think, but concerning yourself. Do you see yourself as unfaithful before God? Now, if anybody's got any sense and be honest about it, nobody is going to say, I think that I have, as long as I can ever remember, I've always been faithful to God. No, you have not. You know you have not. I've never thought a bad thing. I've never said anything wrong. I've never been sarcastic. I've never been disrespectful to God in any way, shape or form. We're all liars. We're liars. Reuben, you're unstable as water.

Jacob spoke to his next two boys, Simeon and Levi. You remember what those boys did? Their sister had been abused, been taken, abused by some people there in the place where they were. I tell you what Simeon and Levi did. They took it upon themselves. We're going to handle this. Nobody, nobody treats our sister like that. They went in there in a conniving way. They went in there and led the people, the father of the family of the man that had abused the sister. Kind of told them, said, look, we want to be friends with y'all.

And so we're going to, you know, but y'all got to be circumcised now because we can't associate with, you know, evil people like y'all. Y'all are uncircumcised. Y'all need to be circumcised. So they talked them into it and said the third day when they were all sore, these two boys, Simeon and Levi, went in there and wiped them all out, killed them, killed them all, killed them all.

Well, he said, well, it seemed like to me they probably deserved it. Oh, I don't doubt that. I don't doubt that they deserved it. But the scripture reveals that whenever Jacob was talking to his boys, he brought that event up to Simeon and Levi and told them. He said, you've taken upon yourself to do something that was only belonging to God. What it was? Let me just, you know. Remind you this, these two boys, I'm sure they had good intentions, I don't doubt that.

But they slew a whole city of people because what they had done to their sister. Well, here's what God has to say about taking upon ourself to avenge Romans 12, 19, dearly beloved, Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord. Vengeance is mine. Vengeance is mine. Vengeance is mine. I'm the world's worst.

It's just me by nature. By nature. This is you by nature. If you do something to me, I've told people, I said, I'm from South Louisiana, and there's just enough Cajun in me. By nature, if you do something to me, I'm gonna get you. I'll get you. I'll do the best I can to get you, I promise me. But really, who does vengeance belong to? The Lord. The Lord. I think about how David handled vengeance. Whenever he was going through that city, remember this?

And this guy, Shimei, I believe was his name, Shimei, this guy came up there and he was throwing rocks at David. And he called David everything but a milk cow. And one of the mighty men of David said, would you like for, you want me to go over and take his head off? I can take care of this. What did David tell him? He said, no, leave him alone. He said, the Lord told that man, throw rocks at David. He said, you just leave him alone.

And God, you read the story, God took care of him. But see, what we are, we're all spiritual thieves. We want to handle it. That's the hardest thing in the world for me to do, just settle down, just settle down. Somebody does something to me, The best thing for me to remember is this, Marvin, God sent that. He sent that for my good and his glory.

Well, today, I want us just to consider, like I said, the next son of Jacob, Judah. Judah. And Judah is a beautiful picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Judah is a picture of Christ. These first two boys, they were showing us what we are by nature. But Judah, he points to the glorious Son of God himself. Verse 8, Genesis 49. Judah, now I'm going to say something again now.

Judah is a picture of Christ. You say, well, I thought he was one of the boys of Jacob. He is, he is, but he's a picture, he's a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, keeping that thought in mind, read these words and you think Judah is a picture of Christ. Verse eight, Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise. When you look at it in the light of Judah being a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, thou art he whom thy brethren will praise. Can we not behold the glory of Almighty God to reveal to us that the Lord Jesus Christ, He's not trying to be God, He's not trying to be, He's God. He's God, and he's worthy of praise.

Judah's name, I looked this up, means praise. That's what his name means. That's what his name means, praise. And then I looked up the meaning of praise. You know, I think growing up in religion, If somebody was going to say, well, we're going to praise the Lord, I told you, this is my foolish thinking, but this is what it is.

What do you mean when you're going to praise the Lord? Well, it means, first of all, you've got to lift up your hands. You've got to cock your head back about 15 to 18 percent, you know, degrees. Close your eyes and sway back and forth. That's the way you praise the Lord. Well, that just means I know how to raise up my hands. I can do that. I can close my eyes, you know, and I can sway back and forth.

But is that praise in the Lord? I looked up the word praise, and here's what the word praise means. To give thanks. To give thanks. I'm going to tell you right now. I don't know how to thank the Lord as I ought to. I don't know how. I try as much as I can, and I don't know how to thank God for his mercy to me. I don't know how.

I wish I did. I've got to go every year after having cancer in my bladder. I've got to go every year now. have to be checked. I gotta get checked. And every time I go to get checked, just out of the frailty of my flesh, I get anxious, I get, you know, I have anxiety and I'm just, and I find myself, that's when I start finding myself calling on the Lord. Lord, you're God, you do anything. And I go and I get checked. And to hear that doctor say, well, everything looks good.

How many times do you think I've told Glenda after I leave in that doctor's office and say this, I don't know how to be thankful. I don't know how to be thankful. I've asked him, I've asked him, I'm getting ready, I'm anxiety, I'm going into that doctor's office and I go in that office and they make all the preparations that has to be made and this, that, and the other. He comes in, and when he comes in, you know, I'm already, okay, I'm right on the edge. And then he checks it, and he, you know, he says, looks good. See you in a year. And I think, I wish I knew how to give thanks. I don't know how. I don't know how. Psalm 50, 150, last word, last book, last chapter of this, Psalm 150. Psalm 150. Psalm 150. Praise ye the Lord. Give thanks. Give thanks unto the Lord. Give thanks unto Him. Boast on Him. That's one of the words I found when I was looking up that word, praise. Boast on Him. Boast on Him.

Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary. Praise Him in the firmament of His power. Praise Him for His mighty acts. Praise Him according to His excellent greatness. Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet. Praise Him with the psaltery, the harp. Praise Him with the timbrel, the dance, with the stringed instruments, organs. Praise Him upon the loud cymbals. Praise Him upon the high sound cymbals. Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. Be thankful. Be thankful. You thank God for that last breath you just took?

That was God's error. That's God's error. And you think to yourself, the Lord allowed me to take a breath. The Lord allowed me, the Lord allowed me to sit here and be with you. God's allowed me, allowed me to get up this morning and get ready, gave me strength. I don't know how to thank God. Psalm 150, no less, I just read that, no less than 13 times I counted in that passage of scripture. Lord, we're exhorted to praise the Lord. How to praise the Lord? Where to praise the Lord? When to praise the Lord? Oh, back in Genesis 49, verse 8, Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise. Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies. Thy hand, that word there, hand, it's talking about power. Your power is gonna be in the neck.

Here again, I looked up the neck. You know what I think of when I read that word neck? I think of this. This right here. This thing right here. Thy hand shall be in the neck, and here's what it means. Shall be in the apostasy. Your hand, your power, is gonna be in the apostasy of thine enemies. Now there's two truths, I'm gonna just read the rest of that verse and I'm gonna wrap this up. He says, thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies, thy father's children shall bow down before thee. Two things about God's hand being in the neck, in the power, or supposed power in one sense, of God's enemies. Two things, God's hands in that, in their apostasy.

God Almighty is going to do one of two things with all of our apostasy. Now, we're all rebels, I already said that. We're all rebels against God. God's gonna do one of two things with every one of us, because we're all sinners. All have sinned, come shout with me. God's gonna do one of two things. He's either going to judge us for it and put us in hell forever, or He's going to put away that apostasy in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and save us by grace and show us something in this life fully in the life to come, what He's done for us.

Thy hand, Judah. Your power. Your power shall be in the neck, in the apostasy of thine enemies. You're going to be in control over that. You'll either deal with it in justice or you're going to deal with it in mercy, but you're going to deal with it. You're going to deal with it. Oh, to deal with it in justice, listen to this, Psalm 18, verse 40, thou hast given me the necks of mine enemies that I might destroy them that hate me." That hate me, that stand against me. Stand against what he said in his Bible.

But also in that same passage there, what we just read, there's a glorious conquering victory over the Lord's enemies, over his enemies. Now here's what it says, Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies. You think about before the Lord called his people out of darkness. We were enemies toward God. That's what scripture says. You were enemies in your mind. We were enemies against him.

But that he would take, the Lord Jesus Christ would come into this world and take the guilt, the debt that is owed toward God. For our, you know, and he would take that debt and deal with it in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. What mercy.

That last little word right there. Thy father's children shall bow down before thee. Thy father's children. Now that little phrase right there, thy father's children, Turn with me to Hebrews 2, and I really will stop. Lord willing, I will. I think you believe when I say that, you should say, he's just kidding. He's not gonna stop. Hebrews chapter 2. Thy father's children shall bow down before thee. Hebrews 2. 10 to 18.

For it became him for whom are all things, by whom all things, bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifies And they who are sanctified are all one for which cause. He's not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name to my brethren in the midst of the church.

I'll sing praise unto thee. And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, behold, I and the children which God has given me. God's got some children. He got some children. They were given unto the Lord Jesus Christ. And back in our scripture, it said that thy father's children shall bow down before thee. Oh, what a word of comfort. What a word of assurance. God's children, those that he's everlastingly loved, they're going to bow. They're going to bow before God. They're going to bow before God as God is revealed in these scriptures. And you just remember this. If somebody tries to tell you that God wants to save people, if they'll let him, you just you get away from there as fast as you can, because God is not trying to do anything. God's ruling.

And he's got some children. According to that word that Jacob gave unto his son, he said, thy father's children, they're gonna bow before you. They're gonna honor you. They're gonna praise you. I pray that the Lord bless these words to our heart for Christ's sake. Amen. All right.