Good evening to everyone. If
you would open your Bibles with me to Colossians chapter one. Colossians the ninth chapter.
As you're turning, I'll make this announcement. Juanita Thompson
passed away on Monday. The visitation is right now. And I'll be preaching the funeral
tomorrow at noon at Steen's Funeral Home on 13th Street. We want
to remember that family in prayer. And I got the Bibles in for our
three graduates this year, so if you want to sign them and
beat the rush, you're more than welcome to do that this evening.
All right, Colossians chapter one, we begin our reading in
verse nine. Paul, in verse eight, talked
about their pastor Epaphroditus, who had also declared unto us
your love in the spirit. In verse nine, he says, for this
cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to
pray for you and to desire that you might be filled with the
knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding,
that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being
fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of
God, strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power,
unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness, giving thanks
unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the
inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered us
from the power of darkness, hath translated us into the kingdom
of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood,
even the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn of every creature. For by him were all things created
that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers,
all things were created by him and for him, and he is before
all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of
the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence.
For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell.
and having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him
to reconcile all things unto himself. By him, I say, whether
they be things in earth or things in heaven, and you that were
sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works,
yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unapprovable
in his sight, if you continue in the faith. grounded and settled,
and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you
have heard, and which was preached to every creature, which is under
heaven. Whereof I, Paul, am made a minister. We'll end our reading there.
Now we're going way down to the end of the bench for a song leader
this evening. So if you would, turn with me to hymn number 352.
Jesus, lover of my soul, 352. You are holy, Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly. While the nearer waters roll,
while the tempest still is high, hide me, O my Savior, hide. Till the storm of life is past,
Safe into the haven guide, O receive my soul at last. Other refuge have I none, Hangs
my helpless soul on thee. Levi, leave me not alone, still
support and comfort me. All my trust on thee is stayed,
all my help from thee I bring. Cover my defenseless head with
the shadow of Thy wing. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in Thee. I find. Raise the fallen, cheer
the faint, heal the sick, and lead the blind. Just and holy is thy name. I am all unrighteousness. False and full of sin I am, Thou
art full of truth and grace. Plenteous grace with Thee is
found, Praise to cover all my sin. Let the healing streams
abound. Make and keep me pure within. Thou of life, the fountain of
art. All right, now if you would,
turn back to page number 209, Grace Greater Than Our Sins. Marvelous grace of our loving
Lord, Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt, Yonder on
Calvary's mount outpoured, There where the blood of the Lamb was
spilled. Grace, grace, God's grace, Grace
that will pardon and cleanse within. Grace, grace, God's grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin. Sin and despair, like
the sea waves cold, threaten the soul with infinite loss. Grace that is greater, yes, grace
untold, points to the refuge, the mighty cross. Grace, grace, God's grace, Grace
that will pardon and cleanse within. Grace, grace, God's grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin. Dark is the stain that
we cannot hide. What can avail to wash it away? Look, there is flowing a crimson
tide, Whiter than snow you may be today. Grace, grace, God's grace, Grace
that will pardon and cleanse within. Grace, grace, Grace,
grace that is greater than all our sin. Marvelous, infinite, matchless
grace, freely bestowed on all who believe. You that are longing
to see His face, Will you this moment His grace receive? Grace, grace, God's grace, Grace
that will pardon and cleanse within. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that is greater than all
our sin. If you would turn your Bibles
to Genesis 49, we'll read verses 24, 22, I'm sorry,
22 through 26. Genesis 49. Joseph is a fruitful bough, even
a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall. The
archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him.
But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were
made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. From thence
is the shepherd the stone of Israel. Even by the God of thy
father, who shall help thee, and by the Almighty, who shall
bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the
deep that lieth under, blessings of the breast and of the womb,
The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings
of thy progenitors. And to the utmost bound of the
everlasting hills, they shall be on the head of Joseph and
on the crown of his head of him that was separate from his brethren. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we're so
thankful, Lord. We're such a thankful people
because you have truly blessed us here at this place of worship.
And we're thankful, Lord, that we have the truth, been made
to know the truth according to your Son, our Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ, only in Him. Can these things be made to know
and understand that we are must be in Christ in Christ by your
electing love and Christ in us through and by your generating
spirit. These things are things in which only you by your all
omniscient power, omnipotent grace and your omnipresent spirit
can send forth to us to make us to know him, the one in whom
we must look to continuously for all things. We thank you,
Lord, for such a blessing as this. We pray that you bless
our pastor this evening, Lord, in your word. Bless these words
that you laid on his heart to bring to us in a fruitful way,
that you can bless us, Lord, in these things that we hear
and have preached to us. So we pray these things, Lord,
in Christ's name and for his sake only. Just keep your Bibles open there
to Genesis chapter 49. I've titled the message this
evening, The Blessing of Christ, Our Joseph. Some weeks ago when
we left off here in Genesis chapter 49, Jacob is on his deathbed. He's giving a blessing to each
one of his sons before he dies. Each blessing that Joseph has
for his different sons, they're a picture of Christ. But Jacob
has the most to say to Judah and to Joseph. Jacob prophesied
the Messiah is gonna come through Judah. He's the lion of the tribe
of Judah, the kingly tribe. And then when Jacob got to Joseph,
he prophesied of all the blessings that are found in Christ. Jacob
describes the blessings that are in Christ, and all these
blessings are given to Joseph, but you gotta look past Joseph.
All these blessings, they're blessings that are found in Christ,
and they're blessings that God's elect have by being joined to
Christ. Really, the blessing to Joseph
sums up all the blessings that were given to all the other brothers. They're all put here in one place,
just like God's blessings to his people. They're all put in
one place in Christ. So the first thing Jacob prophesies
as he's talking to his son, Joseph, is Christ the fruitful Savior.
Verse 22 of Genesis 49, Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful
bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall. Now Jacob
uses beautiful imagery here to describe the coming Savior. Now
again, this did apply to Joseph. Joseph must have had a very large
family descend from him, because that's what Jacob says here.
I don't care how many children Grandchildren, great-grandchildren.
How many people came through Joseph? That's nothing compared
to the number of children that Christ has. Jacob says the Savior's
gonna be like a fruitful bough. That's the main part of the vine.
He says Christ is gonna be like a vine that's planted by a well
of water. It's always gonna have plenty
of water to keep it lush and make it grow full. And it's gonna
grow up one side of the wall, and then just cascade down over
the other side of the wall, just fruit hanging on it all over
the place. Just a fruitful bout is spreading out over this wall.
Now that describes the fruit of Christ's death as a sacrifice
for the sin of his people. The sacrifice of Christ bears
much fruit. It has produced so many children. He's given life to so many people
by his death. You can't count them all. Isaiah
told us the same thing. He said he shall see of the travail
of his soul and he'll be satisfied. He's going to have all the people
that he died to save. Look over at Psalm 22. This is
the Psalm of the cross. And we're talking here about
the fruit of what happened when Christ died on the cross. The
offering for sin has been made. Justice has been satisfied. So
now, Life has to be given to everyone for whom Christ died.
And that's what Christ died knowing. They say that the Savior quoted
this Psalm 22 from the cross. And look at the end of it, verse
30. A seed, those who are coming after him, his seed, his children,
shall serve him. It shall be accounted to the
Lord for a generation. They shall come and shall declare
his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath
done this. That's what's gonna happen for
all of God's children, everyone for whom Christ died. Now that
blessing is in Christ. But Jacob's prophecy now, it
also describes the blessedness that God's elect have in Christ.
Do you know all of God's people, every one of God's children,
they all bear the fruit of the Spirit, every one of them. Now
some maybe bear more than others, some 30, some 60, some 100 fold,
but they all bear the same fruit because it's the fruit of the
Spirit. The same spirit that dwells in all of us, that spirit
causes its fruit to grow in God's people. Love, joy, long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Every believer
has those fruits to one degree or the other. That's because
we're joined to Christ. That's what the Savior told his
disciples. Remember he told them, I'm the
vine. I'm that bough. I'm the main bough planted by
that well of water growing up the wall. I'm the vine. And you're
the branches that I've ordained to bear fruit. And this is not
just some little bitty fruit. I mean, this is a giant bough
just cascading over the wall so full of fruit. And you know,
we hear that, that every believer bears the fruit of the spirit.
And I know what every one of us thought. If I'm anything, I'm that 30-fold,
or I'm the lesser one. I'm not the 60 or 100-fold for
sure. We'd all like to bear more fruit
of the Spirit. How I would love to have more
love, and joy, and peace, and long-suffering, and gentleness,
and goodness, and faith, and meekness. I would love to bear
more of that. Would you like to bear more of the fruit of
the Spirit? Tell you what to do. Hang on as tight as you can
to the vine. because that's where it comes
from. It comes from him to us. Then the second thing Jacob prophesies
is Christ the hated man. Back in our text, verse 23, the
archers have sorely grieved him and shot at him and hated him.
And boy, that's Joseph, isn't it? Joseph was hated by his brothers
without a cause. I mean, what they made him suffer, just
hated him without a cause. But isn't that a picture of Christ
our Savior? The Lord Jesus was a man hated
without a cause. He came unto his own, and his
own received him not. But it wasn't just that they
wouldn't receive him. It wasn't just that they wouldn't
listen to him, that they wouldn't believe what he was saying. They
hated him. They hated him. They just thought
every way they could to get rid of him, how they hated him. He
came to do them good. He came as a fulfillment of all
those Old Testament prophecies. And they hated him. Well, that
tells you about man's nature, doesn't it? The Savior came to
save us from our sin. The only way we can be saved,
and what do we do? We hated him without a cause.
The scribes and the Pharisees and the self-righteous of that
day hated the Savior so much, they were just blinded by their
hatred of him. These men claimed to love the
scriptures. And our Lord said they did search the Scriptures.
These men were students of the Scriptures. They were in the
Scriptures all of the time. Yet they did everything the Old
Testament prophesied that they would do. Everything the Old
Testament Scriptures prophesied they would do to Christ, they
did. And it never once occurred to
them that they were fulfilling the Scriptures that they said
they loved so much. It's because they were blinded
by hate for the Savior. They lied on Him. They grieved
his soul with their unbelief. They put him to death on trumped
up charges. They put him to death based upon
charges that were made by men who agreed to lie on the witness
stand, and the judge knew they were lying. The judge was the
one trying to get them to lie, and that's what they used to
put him to death, because they hated him so much. Now, just like believers, we
have blessings by our union with Christ, don't we? Well, we're
also gonna be hated by the world. The same way he was hated, we'll
be hated because of our union with Christ. Remember how our
Lord told us, a servant's not greater than his master. If they
hate your master, they're gonna hate you too. But you know what? That's all right. That's all
right. Peter said this in 1 Peter 3,
verse 14. If you suffer for righteousness'
sake, Now, it's not that if you suffer because you broke the
law or you suffer because you're being a jerk, but if you suffer
for righteousness sake, for the righteousness of Christ, Peter
said, happy are ye. Happy are, if you're persecuted
and hated for righteousness sake, that tells you you're united
to Christ. So happy are ye. Paul said in
Romans eight, verse 17, if we're children, then heirs, heirs of
God and joint heirs with Christ. Boy, that sounds good, doesn't
it? Oh, I want to be a joint heir with Christ. But Paul goes
on, if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified
together. See, if we suffer with him now,
happy are ye. We'll be glorified together with
him later. See, that's the blessing that we have in Christ. And you
say, well, is suffering a blessing? It is if it's an indication you're
tied to Christ, it is. Then third, Jacob prophesies
of Christ the strong Savior. He says in verse 24, but his
bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong
by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob, from thence is the
shepherd, the stone of Israel. Now Joseph, he was superior to
his brothers in every way, wasn't he? I mean, maybe not brute strength,
maybe not, but in every other way, Joseph was superior. He
is superior to them in wisdom. He was superior to them in graciousness,
in love, in forgiveness. Remember, he revealed himself
to those brothers. Oh, they were so scared because they thought
Joseph was going to wipe them out now. But Joseph forgave them. They would have done that, but
he did. He's superior to them. He's superior to them in patience
and just almost every way you can think of. But Joseph wasn't
superior to his brothers because there was something naturally
different in him that wasn't in them. He had the same fallen
nature that his brothers had. Joseph was made superior by God's
grace to him, by the grace that God put in him. It was the Lord
who enabled Joseph to endure the hatred of his brothers, to
endure the suffering and the trial that they caused him. It
was the Lord that enabled Joseph to be loving and kind to his
brothers, even when they hated him so much they couldn't even
bring themselves to speak to him. Yet Joseph was still loving
and kind to his brothers. It was the Lord who enabled Joseph
to endure being sold into slavery. I really can't imagine anything
worse. I mean slavery. Wasn't that a movie, 12 Years
a Slave or something, where a free man was sold as a slave? Just
what a horrible, horrible, horrible experience. The Lord made Joseph
endure that. He gave him the strength to endure
it. The Lord, when Joseph was a slave, not only did the Lord
enable Joseph to endure that, he made him prosper in the house
of his master Potiphar. Then the Lord enabled Joseph
to be thrown into the king's dungeon. I mean the worst part
of the dungeon, the king's dungeon for a crime he didn't commit.
And the Lord enabled Joseph to endure that and he made him prosper
again. So that Joseph was in charge
of all the prison. Whatever they did, Joseph was
the doer of it. Then the Lord brought Joseph
out of prison and set him on the throne of Egypt. And the
Lord gave Joseph the grace and the wisdom and the ability to
deal with success too. This didn't go to his head and
he'd become hard to live with. The Lord gave Joseph wisdom and
humility to prepare for this coming famine so he could save
the whole world alive by having enough corn saved up for them
all. See, the Lord gave all of that to Joseph. None of that
was in Joseph naturally, was it? The Lord gave that to him.
Well, all of that's a picture of Christ. Now as God, the Lord
Jesus, he didn't need any help. He didn't need to be strengthened
at all by his father because he's God. He's got all strength.
He's got all power. But as a man, as a man, he needed
strength from his father. The man Christ Jesus prayed to
his father for strength, for help. That's why he prayed so
often. Sometimes he prayed all night
long. He's praying for help to accomplish this awesome mission
that the father sent him to accomplish. the righteousness and redemption
of his people. As a man, Jesus Christ needed the Father to strengthen
him, to be able to endure 33 and a half years clothed in this
flesh, in the weakness of this flesh. This was the Son of God,
the Prince of Glory, the one who spoke everything into existence,
has limited himself to human flesh for 33 and a half years.
Now that had to be horrible for him. And he prayed to his Father
to give him strength to do that. And when it was time to go to
the cross, what did our Savior do? He fell down in the garden
and said, Father, I'm gonna die right here if you don't strengthen
me. And the Father sent those angels to strengthen him, to
enable him to go to the cross, to accomplish the redemption
of his people, to pay the price for the sin of all those that
the Father gave him, to save. The father strengthened the son
to be able to endure that. Now the picture that Joseph or
that Jacob is using here is of a father teaching his young son
how to shoot a bow and arrow. I meant to ask Wayne when you
taught your girls to shoot a bow and arrow if you did this, but
this is what the picture that Jacob is using. Here's just a
little guy. Now he's not strong enough to
draw back that big bow and hold it still and aim it and fire
an accurate shot. So the father stands behind him
and he holds his hands. The father gives him strength
to hold that thing steady until he can shoot, until he gets big
enough to do it himself. The father gives that young boy
strength or that young girl strength. Well, that's a picture of what
the father did. He was in his son. He is God, He strengthened
His Son, giving Him the strength of God Almighty, so that as a
man, He could save His people from their sin. Now that's a
blessing that's found in Christ. But do you know the Father gives
that blessing, to a lesser degree, but the Father gives that blessing
to all of His people too. There's not one of us that are
strong enough to do anything on our own. Not one thing. We can't do anything on our own. There was a day, and we got some
horrible news. It was a dark, dark, dark, dark,
dark day. I looked at my wife and said,
what am I going to do now? And she said, you're going to
do the same thing you were doing before. You're going to look
to Christ. You're going to look to Him. You're going to depend
upon him. We don't have the strength to believe. Here I'm up here
telling you, Eric and Jonathan, these other men that come through,
they're calling on you to do something you cannot do. Believe
on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Quit trusting yourself.
Quit trusting your works. Believe Christ. Well, we don't
have the power to make ourselves believe. We don't have the power
to make ourselves love God or love one another. We don't have
the power to remain faithful. I'll fall away in a heartbeat
if God let me. We don't have the power to endure
any trial. We don't have the strength or
ability to help anybody else who's in time of trouble and
trial unless the Lord strengthens us to do it. He's got to give
us the power to believe. He gives his people the power
to love. He keeps his people faithful. So we pray, don't we? Just like the Savior did. We
pray that the Lord will strengthen us, that he'll keep us. And his
promise is he'll do that for all of his children. He'll keep
you. Do you want the Father to keep
you faithful, to keep trusting Christ? Pray and ask him. He
will. Do you want forgiveness of sins for Christ's sake? Pray
and ask him. He'll give it to you. This is
his promise to his people. I will never leave you nor forsake
you. Never. And my grace will always
be sufficient for you. It'll be sufficient to save you,
it'll be sufficient to give you faith, it'll be sufficient to
give you love, and it'll be sufficient to keep you all the way to the
end. And once you get to the end, it'll be sufficient to glorify
you with Christ. Now you just trust him. You trust
his strength. See, all of God's people will
endure because of what Jacob says here. From thence is the
shepherd, the stone of Israel. All of God's people, you know
why they're gonna endure? You know why they're not gonna
wander off the cliff? Because Christ the Good Shepherd's gonna
keep them. His rod and his staff will keep them from wandering
off where they don't belong. All of God's people, they're
gonna endure. They're gonna endure all the storms and the wind and
the waves because they're founded, they're built upon Christ, the
rock of our salvation. That stone that the builders
refused, that's the foundation of faith for all of God's people.
Every believer, they're going to be kept. They're going to
be kept. Not by their strength, by the
power of God. Now, isn't that good news? Doesn't
that let you rest in Christ? You know, if I had to stand up
here on Wednesday nights and give you a pep talk to get through
the week and you gotta do better, you gotta be stronger, you gotta,
phew, you and me both would be wore out by the time we left.
That's not any good news. But if the promise is the believer
is gonna be kept by the power of God, that lets us rest. That's good news. Then forth,
Jacob talks to us about the blessing of help in time of need. In verse
25, he says, even by the God of thy father, who shall help
thee. Now remember, I mentioned this
earlier, when the Savior prayed for help in the Garden of Gethsemane,
the father helped him. He sent those angels to minister
to him and to strengthen him physically so that he could go
to the cross as a substitute for his people. Now I thought
about that. There's so many things that our
Savior did that are not recorded. John said, he said, I suppose
if they were all recorded, the earth couldn't contain the books
that would be written. But the Holy Spirit had that event recorded
in scripture so that we learn something. So we learn how difficult
the salvation of our souls, how difficult that was for the Savior
to accomplish. Now He went to the cross willingly.
Don't mistake that. He went willingly. He went there
for the joy that was set before Him. The joy of redeeming His
people from their sin. But that does not mean that the
cross was no big deal for the Savior. Just because he knew
the outcome of his sacrifice on the cross, he knew what was
gonna happen, he knew the outcome of it. That didn't mean he did
not dread enduring it. The suffering of his body and
soul, he couldn't have endured unless he's God. So we know that
now when the Savior prayed, the Father helped him. And that's
for our benefit, so he could go accomplish the salvation of
our souls. And like I said a minute ago,
the Father, He'll always help His people the very same way.
We can always, at any time, at all times, approach His throne
of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of
need. Now, do you need grace to help in time of need? Go to
the throne of grace. Go to the source of all grace.
Go to Christ. We can only have that blessing
of being told Sinful men and women like you and me could go
to the throne of mercy. Now, only sinners need a throne
of mercy. This is a throne for sinners
to approach God, the throne of mercy. We can only have that
blessing. You can come anytime you want
and the Father will accept you. The only way we can have that
blessing is in Christ because of what he accomplished for us. Then fifth, Jacob tells us about
Christ, the fountain of all spiritual blessings. In verse 25, he says,
even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee and by the
almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above.
Now, all the blessings of heaven above, they were brought to earth
by the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you look over at Ephesians
chapter one, there's too many of those blessings to list them
all in a lifetime probably, but I'll show you a few examples
of these blessings that were in heaven that were brought to
earth, brought to men by the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians
1 verse 3, blessed be the God and father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Now these are things,
heavenly spiritual blessings in heaven according as he hath
chosen us, elected us in him before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy and without blame before him
in love. God's electing love is eternal. It was always in heaven. It was
always with God, but man knew almost nothing of it. Not until
Christ came and revealed God's electing love to men. The Lord
Jesus Christ, here's how he revealed God's electing love. The Father
gave him a people to save, and Christ came and sacrificed himself
to put away their sin. All those that the Father gave
him. I pray not for the world, but for those that thou hast
given me, for they're thine. That's what the angel told Joseph.
He shall save who? His people. All those people
that the Father gave him, he'll save his people. from their sins. Why does he have a people? The
father's electing love. He chose a sinful people and
gave them to his son to save. Then verse four, at the end of
verse four it says, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love. God didn't choose a people because
they were holy or they were without blame. He chose a people that
were unholy and full of blame that they should be, that they
should be made holy and without blame before Him in love. You
know, before Christ came, men had the law of Moses. And they
thought, well, in order to be holy, in order to be righteous,
in order to be blameless before God, I've got to obey the law. I've got to at least do my best
to keep the law. That's what men thought was holiness
and righteousness. But when Christ came, He revealed
true holiness and true righteousness, true blamelessness. It was Him. Not just in Him, it is Him. If
you would be holy, you have to be as holy as the Son of God
Himself. If you would be righteous, you must be as righteous as the
Son of God Himself. There's no degrees of holiness.
There's no degrees of righteousness. You're either holy or you're
unholy. Only two choices. Well, holiness and righteousness
can't be accomplished by us, can it? So holiness and righteousness
was accomplished by Christ for his people, as a representative
of his people. He obeyed the law. He established
a perfect obedience, a perfect righteousness to the law, and
then he gave it freely to his people. by his grace. That's
the only way we could ever be holy without blame before him.
Then verse five, Paul says, having predestinated us unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good
pleasure of his will. Now, before Christ came, men
thought you've got to be a descendant of Abraham through Isaac, not
through Ishmael, not through one of those other children.
You've got to be a descendant of Abraham through Isaac. if
you'd be a child of God. And then Christ came, and he
revealed God's adoption of sons. Almighty God, in his love for
his people, he adopts children into his family and makes them
just like his son, makes them joint heirs with Christ. It's
got nothing to do with the flesh. It's all got to do with God's
adopting love, that he would adopt people like us, into his
family. Then verse six, Paul says, to
the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us
accepted in the beloved. Now again, before Christ came,
men thought, well, I've got to make myself acceptable to God
by all my works and my ceremonies and my morality. And then Christ
came and he showed us there's only one way sinners can be accepted.
It's in him. and being accepted in Christ, his work is perfect. He is perfect,
his work is perfect, his righteousness is perfect, his salvation is
perfect. Being accepted in Christ is a whole lot easier than me
trying to earn it by what I do. And you know what? It's a whole
lot sweeter too. The gospel is sweet. What a sweet, what do you call it? A sweet
love, a sweet joy, a sweet pleasure that the father would accept
you and me, not in what we do, but in who his son is. Oh, that's
why Paul says all this is to the praise of the glory of his
grace. I tell you, if you see the sweetness of redemption in
Christ, you have no problem praising him, will you? Then verse seven,
Paul says, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness
of his sins, according to the riches of his grace. Now, before
Christ came, men thought their sin was forgiven them by observing
the ceremonies and different things, you know, of the law,
the sacrifices, the ceremonies, the feast days and all those
things. Many years ago, I was working with a young lady And
you work with somebody, I guess, long enough, these types of conversations
start coming up. And this is what she still thought. Well, no, God will accept you
if you just do your best, you know? And I said, well, what
about all those Old Testament sacrifices? What about that?
This was before Christ. How were those people saved?
And she said, oh, well, she knew the answer. She had the answer
prepared. And she said, they came up to
the day of the Passover, and they made a sacrifice, and atonement
was made for all their sins, and that put them all away. So
the slate was wiped clean. And you spend the next year,
build them up again, and then you have the Passover. Sacrifice
the, you know, the scapegoat and all those things, and sins
rolled away, you know, for a year. I said, now you would agree that
you must be perfect. for God to accept you. She said,
oh yes. I said, then what if you died six months? Right in
between those two Passovers, what are you gonna do about those
sins then? And she didn't know. And she said, well how do you
think a person's saved? And I told her. And she said,
that's the strangest thing I've ever heard. She couldn't give
up those ceremonies of the law, those ceremonies of religion.
That's just ingrained in the flesh, what the flesh thinks.
But then Christ came. Then Christ the Lamb of God came.
There was a reason John the Baptist identified him as the Lamb of
God, which taketh away the sin of the world. There's no more
of this rolling it over for a year and pretending like it's gone
for a year. He taketh away the sin of the world. Christ showed
us there's one way sin can be forgiven. It's in his precious
blood. It's not the blood of bulls and
goats. And those sacrifices, they're just a reminder every
year. We're sinners. Our sin hadn't
been put away. Here's how I know it. We got
to offer another bullet. We got to offer another ram.
We got to offer another Passover lamb. But when Christ came, he
offered one sacrifice for sins forever and sat down. And there's
never been another Passover. Never been another one. Christ
accomplished it. His blood blots out the sin of
God's elect, so there's nothing to charge Him with. God says,
what sin? There's no sin to charge Him
with. The blood of Christ pays the
sin debt of His people. So the Father says, there's no
debt, it's been paid. The death of Christ makes the
Father just and right when He forgives the sin of those people
He chose to save. Now we wouldn't have any of those
spiritual blessings. All those blessings were in heaven.
They're with the Father, they are in the mind and purpose and
heart of the Father, and Christ brought them all to earth so
we could see them, so we could rejoice in them, so we could
lay hold on those blessings. And the only place we're gonna
lay hold on them is in Christ, isn't it? Then six, look back
in our text, Genesis 49, in verse 25, He talks about the Almighty who
shall bless thee with the blessings of heaven above and the blessings
of the deep that lieth under. Now I'm just sure that Jacob
here is talking about the burial of Christ after he died. And
boy, that's a mystery to us, isn't it? Something that's deep,
that lieth under. What a mystery. For those three
days, what was Christ doing? Where was he? What was he doing?
I don't know, because scripture doesn't tell us. But here's what
I do know. The burial of Christ showed us
he actually died for the sin of his people. And the death
of Christ accomplished something very, very, very deep. Justification. The death of Christ made his
people without sin. And here's how I know that. He
was raised from the dead. Three days later, as the evidence
that his death, his sacrifice justified his people. If the
father made him sin for his people, and then he killed him for it.
If that sin was still there, if that sin had not been paid
for, if that sin had not been blotted out, the Savior had to
stay dead, didn't he? God's justice demanded it. If
there's sin, there has to be death. But there was no sin. The blood of Christ took it away.
So the father raised him from the dead as proof positive. His death justified everyone
for whom he died. If Christ died for you, you have
no sin. It's not like you don't have
any sin. You have no sin. Romans 4.25,
who was delivered for our offenses and he was raised again for our
justification. He was raised again because he
justified his people. Now, I saw this again last week, and in the strongest possible
way, let me tell you this. I'm going to warn you about this.
I know this is right, and you stay away from it. Don't get
caught up in the whys and the wherefores and the exact moment
in time that God's elect were justified. Don't get into it. I told you I don't get caught
up in it, but let me tell you the answer. It's not just one answer. If somebody tries to trim this
thing down to one answer, they're wrong. They're wrong. When were
God's elect justified? At the very moment the Father
elected them and put them in Christ, they were justified. And the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. When were God's elect justified?
At that moment, Christ gave up the ghost. and died, satisfying
God's justice. God's people were justified. When are God's people justified?
At that very moment that the Holy Spirit puts life in you
and you believe Christ. There's a new man born. He's
justified. He has no sin. He will never
sin. He can never sin. He's justified. Fourth, when were God's people
justified? At that moment, we awake in glory,
and Christ's likeness will be justified. It's all four. It's all four. If you trim it
down to one, you've missed the gospel. You've missed the eternality
of the gospel. Don't get caught up arguing somebody
about that now. If they want to argue about it,
just walk away from them. You're arguing with them, ain't
going to convince them, and don't let them make you miserable,
argue with you. Just walk away from them. Don't get caught up
in the whys and the wherefores and when. Get caught up in this. God in his power, in his mercy,
in his grace, in his compassion for his people justified them
from their sin. So they have no sin and they're
accepted. Not acceptable, accepted in him. That's the reason we praise the
Lord. We don't praise the Lord for when he justified us. We
praise the Lord for the fact he justified us at all. That's
why we praise him. Then seventh, Jacob talks about
the blessings of life in Christ. At the end of verse 25, he says,
blessings of the breast and of the womb. Here he's talking about
the Savior being born in the flesh. God became a man. The Holy Spirit put the life
of God in the womb of the Virgin Mary. Isaiah said, that baby
is the eternal father. He put the life of God in her
womb. And that baby was born. God gave Mary the son. He gave her the power, whatever
you call it, the ability. He caused her to give birth to
the son of God in the flesh. And that teenage girl nourished
him. She breastfed him. She nourished
him. She kept him alive. She kept him from getting all
kinds of diseases and sicknesses. She kept that child alive. nourish
his physical life. All the while she's getting the
power to do it from him. All the while. Will you think
of that power of the Holy Spirit that came upon her to put what
the angel called that holy thing in your womb. Do you know the
Holy Spirit uses the very same power to put life in the new
birth in the hearts of all of God's elect. And the Holy Spirit
nourishes and strengthens that life through the preaching of
Christ. He gives life through the preaching
of Christ and he strengthens it by the preaching of Christ.
Sinners like you and me could not have spiritual life any other
way, no other way. But because of our Lord Jesus
Christ, eternal life can never be taken away from us. You think
of that. And then last, there's the blessing
of Christ, our mediator. Verse 26, the blessings of thy
father have prevailed above the blessings of thy progenitors
under the utmost bound of the everlasting hills. They should
be on the head of Joseph and on the crown of the head of him
that was separate from his brethren. Now the father, he's been pleased
to bless all his people with all these blessings in Christ's
name. All of God's children are blessed. All of God's children
are his children, but God has one son, and he blessed the son
above all. The father put the crown on the
head of his son because he did everything that the father sent
him to do. He's wearing the crown right
now, and you know what he's doing right this very moment. He blessed
above all the other children of God, and right at this very
moment, The son who's blessed above everything in God's creation
is seated at the father's right hand, making intercession for
his people. Now, if the son, the son of God,
the one who pleased the father, the father says, I'm well pleased
with him. If that son is making intercession for you, he's making
intercession for your sin by pleading his sacrifice. Did my
brother or my sister, I want to tell you something, You're
blessed of God, blessed of God. Everything is yours. Everything God has is yours in
Christ. Now that's a blessing, isn't
it? All right, let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for this prophecy, such a clear picture of Christ our Savior. How can we even begin as we look
and read and study it and see it in Your Word to be able to
comprehend the full glory and majesty of Christ our Savior? But Father, with what heart You've
given us to believe and what faith You've given us to see,
all we see is glory. Father, cause us to rest in Him,
to trust in Him, to believe in Him, to cling even more tightly
to Him than ever before. How we thank you that you've
purposed not to bless us for what we've done, but because
of who Christ is. Father, how we thank you. I pray
you'd bless your word to the glory and honor of your son.
First in his name, for his sake we pray, amen. All right, now
let's stand together. We'll sing hymn number 446. 446. All my life long I had panted
from some clear spring that I hoped would clinch the burning of the
thirst I felt within. Alleluia! I have found Him whom
my soul so long has craved. Jesus satisfies my longings,
through His blood I now am saved. Feeding on the husk around me,
till my strength was almost gone. Longed my soul for something
better, only still to hunger on. Alleluia, I have found Him
whom my soul so long has craved. Jesus satisfies my longings,
through His blood I now am saved. For I was and sought for riches,
Something that would satisfy. But the dust I gathered round
me Only mocked my soul's sad cry. Hallelujah! I have found Him Whom my soul
so long has craved. Jesus satisfies my longings,
through His blood I now am saved. Well of water ever springing,
bread of life so rich and free, untold wealth that never faileth,
my Redeemer is to me. I have found Him whom my soul
so long has craved. Jesus satisfies my longings,
through His blood I now am saved.