If you wouldn't open your Bibles
with me to Genesis chapter 49. Genesis chapter 49. We'll read the first 12 verses. And Jacob called unto his sons
and said, gather yourselves together that I may tell you that which
shall befall you in the last days. Gather yourselves together
and hear, ye sons of Jacob, and hearken unto Israel your father.
Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of
my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of
power. Unstable as water, thou shalt
not excel, because thou wentest up to thy father's bed, thou
then defilest thou it. He went up to my couch. Send
me in, and Levi, our brethren, Instruments of cruelty are in
their habitations. O my soul, come not thou into
their secret, under their assembly. Mine honor, be not thou united. For in their anger they slew
a man, and in their self-will they dig down a wall. Cursed
be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel.
I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. 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. Judah is a lion's wealth. From
the prey, my son, thou art gone up. He stooped down, he couched
as an old lion. Who shall rouse him up? The scepter
shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his
feet, until Shiloh comes. And unto him shall the gathering
of the people be. Binding his foal unto the vine,
and his ass's colt unto the choice vine. He washed his garments
in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes shall
be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk. We'll end our
reading there. Let's bow before our Lord together. Our Father, we humbly reverently
come into thy presence this evening, seeking a blessing from the storehouses
of your mercy and your grace that you have reserved for your
children. Father, we dare only come into
thy thrice holy presence, pleading the obedience of your son as
our only righteousness, pleading his blood as the only cause for
the cleansing and forgiveness of our sin. We dare only come
to thee in his name, pleading his name, his glory, his merit. And Father, how thankful we are
that you've promised us that your people would be accepted
in the beloved. How thankful we are to know that
you accept your people because of everything that the Lord Jesus
Christ has accomplished for us. And that you condescend to hear
our prayers and our thanksgiving, our praise, and the cries of
our hearts. And Father, I beg of you this evening that you
would send your spirit upon us, and Father, that you would enable
us tonight to worship you in spirit and in truth. Speak to
our hearts through your word, we pray. Enable us to see the
Lord Jesus Christ in awe and wonder. Enable us to follow his
feet in worship. Father, what we pray for ourselves,
we pray for all of your people, wherever they may be found, that
you bless them with this same blessing we ask for ourselves.
Father, in this dark, dark day in which we live, how we pray
you get glory to your name, that you let your redemptive glory
shine forth in the preaching of Christ and that you'd call
your people to yourself. Father, we pray for those of
our number who are sick and in these difficult times. This flesh is poor and it's needy. You blessed us beyond all measure,
but Father, in this flesh, we're a poor and a needy people. And
you know the weakness of our flesh better than we do. You
know what we need better than we do. And Father, we pray for
your hand of healing, comfort, that you be with your people.
Father, that you deliver as soon as it could be thy will. All
these things we ask and we give thanks in that name which is
above every name, the name of Christ our Savior, amen. Now
I've titled the lesson this evening, The Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Tonight I want us to look at
the promise that the Savior would come through the line of Judah. I have read and read and read
this blessing to each of Jacob's sons and I know beyond a shadow
of a doubt, Christ is in each one of these individual blessings,
but to me it seems like this is the way it is. Jacob blessed
all of his sons, gave them this blessing on his deathbed so you
and I could hang on and hope in this blessing that he gave
to Judah, that Christ is coming through Judah. The blessing he
gives to Judah is the point of all the blessing of his sons
as far as I can see. And this blessed promise that
the Messiah will come through Judah. You know right off that
tells me that all of salvation is by grace. You think of Jacob's
12 sons. The Messiah is going to come
through Judah. Not not not Benjamin is not come through Joseph. Through
Judah. Despite all of his sins, despite
all of the things that he had done. You remember how Judah
Went with Tamar. Tamar played the harlot with
Judah, and after he dealt dishonestly with her. It was Judah's idea
to sell Joseph into slavery, so they make some money off this
deal, you know, getting rid of their little brother. Judah is
far from the honorable, sinless big brother. But salvation is
by grace, not by man's merit. Grace, not merit, is the reason
that the Lord said he's gonna send the Messiah through the
line of Judah. Now you know the scene here.
Jacob's gathered all of his sons around his deathbed. He's gonna
bless them before he dies. But before we get to Judah, they
have three other brothers. And in these three brothers,
we see the fall of man. Look here at verse three. Reuben,
thou art my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength,
the excellency of dignity and the excellency of power, unstable
as water. thou shalt not excel, because
thou wentest up to thy father's bed, then defilest thou it. He went up to my couch. Now Reuben
was Jacob's firstborn. The birthright and the double
portion should have belonged to Reuben, shouldn't it? Reuben,
he should have been honorable. He should have brought honor
to his father's family. He should have been the best
of Jacob's excellency, the best of his dignity. This firstborn,
He should have brought Jacob honor and dignity. He should
have earned respect for his whole family. And he should have been
the pillar of strength for his family. This is the one that
should get the birthright. But instead, Jacob tells him,
Reuben, you're never gonna excel because you're unstable as water.
You may remember what Reuben did. He went and lay with Billa,
one of Jacob's concubines. And Jacob says, nobody does things
like that. You're not gonna excel. Now isn't that a good picture
of what happened to Adam and his race? God created Adam perfect
and upright. Of all of God's creation, Adam
should have been the most honorable. Adam should have been the one
who had been a display of God's glory. But Adam never excelled. Because Adam's just like Reuben,
he's unstable as water. You know, the very first time
that we read of Adam being tempted with sin, he fell. It just took
one try and he fell. He's unstable as water. And when
he did, he plunged all of his descendants into ruin, spiritual
ruin and darkness and death. And his race has never excelled
from then on. Well, the next thing we see about
the nature of man is the effect of our fallen Adam. Verse five.
Simeon and Levi are brethren. Instruments of cruelty are in
their habitation. My soul, come not thou into their
secret. Under their assembly, mine honor,
be not thou united. For in their anger they slew
a man, and in their self-will they dig down a wall. Cursed
be their anger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel.
I will divide them in Jacob, and will scatter them in Israel."
What he means there is eventually These two tribes, Simeon and
Levi, they're gonna be all divided up and they won't be a tribe
anymore. That is what happened to them. Now Jacob calls Simeon and Levi
cruel men. Here's why he said that. There
was a day their sister Dinah wanted to marry a man named Hamor. And Hamor, he loved Dinah. I mean, he would do anything
to marry her. He was just head over heels in
love with her. He'd do anything to marry her. but he'd already
lain with her. And his brother, the way his
brother and her brother saw that, he defiled her. But Jacob agreed
to the marriage. He agreed that they should be
married. He wasn't real happy about it, but he agreed to the
marriage. But Simeon and Levi did not like that. You remember
this story? So they went and told all the
men, without their father knowing it, now before Diana, our daughter,
our sister, can marry Hamor, all the men of your town have
to be circumcised. And Hamor, he talked all the
men into doing it. They all did it. Hamor was willing
to do anything. That's how much he loved Dinah.
And after they were circumcised while they were recovering, Simeon
and Levi went in and killed every last man in that village, in
that town. Just cruelty, just violence. They were deceitful. Jacob says,
these two cannot be trusted. Don't you turn your back on them
now. They're deceitful, they're violent. Now, these are the first
blessings Jacob gave to his sons on his deathbed. Buddy, that's
harsh, isn't it? I mean, that's harsh. I feel
pretty confident in this. Those sons did not expect to
hear that. They thought they were gonna
get a blessing. They thought they were gonna get patted on the back, you know,
but they didn't. This is harsh words, but it's
true. It's true. And isn't that the
result of Adam's fault? You know, we talk about our sin,
our sin nature. I mean, it's harsh words. I mean,
you just, you can't go too far. You can't paint the picture just
as black as it really is. I mean, you just get as harsh
as you want talking about our nature. You know, you probably
have left stuff out. All of us have become just as
unstable as water. Just pour us out, we'll run everywhere.
Unstable as water. We're full of deceit and violence.
We can't be trusted. That's us. Now Jacob paints an
awful dark picture here of his son's nature, doesn't he? And
he tells the truth. It's a dark picture of the mess
that's gonna be created down through their lives because of
their weak and sinful nature. But here after this, painting
this ugly picture, giving these harsh words, Jacob's got some
good news. He said, now don't you worry,
the Redeemer King is coming. The way out of this mess that
we're in is through the Redeemer, the King that's coming through
Judah. I want us to read about this Redeemer King. I want you
to take note about this. Jacob didn't have anything good
to say about Reuben, did he? He didn't have anything good to say about
Simeon or Levi. Really, he doesn't say anything
good about Judah. He's just talking about who's
gonna come through Judah. He doesn't have anything good
to say about them, but Jacob doesn't have anything but praise
for the Redeemer King who's coming. And the first thing he says is
Christ the Redeemer, he's gonna be praised by his people. Verse
eight, he says, Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise. Now there's no reason to praise
anything about us. We're just like Reuben. We're
as unstable as water. We're just as hateful and deceitful
as Simeon and Levi were. We're unstable as water. We can't
keep God's Word. We don't have the ability to
keep God's Word. If you just took a glass of water and poured
it out on the table, it's just going to run everywhere. Because
water is unstable. It doesn't have the ability.
It doesn't have the nature to stay in one place. It can't stay
stacked up like it was in a glass because it's unstable. That's
you and me, that's our nature. We're unstable so that we cannot
keep God's law. It doesn't have the capacity
to do it. And by nature, we're just as hateful and deceitful
as Simeon and Levi. By nature, we hate God. Now, I know that sounds like
a shock to a lot of people, But scripture says the carnal mind's
enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can it be. It doesn't have the nature to
obey God and it hates God. Now, I know everybody will say,
oh, I don't hate God. Well, I'll grant you, we don't
hate the God, little G, the idol of our imagination. If we're
gonna make up a God, we're gonna make up one we like, right? But
we hate God as he's been pleased to reveal himself in scripture.
And we're just as deceitful as Simeon and Levi are too. You
know, it is our goal, you know, to put our best
foot forward, and you know, there's nothing wrong with that. But
you know what really is at the heart of that, especially with
the religious folks? We want to deceive people into thinking
that we're more righteous and we're more pious and we're better
than we really are. But here's what's worse. You
know what's worse than that? We've deceived ourselves. We
are so deceptive. We've deceived ourselves into
thinking we've done good enough to please God. See, there's nothing
about us to be praised, is there? Everything about us is to be
pointed out as sin. There's no good in us. But when
Christ comes, now he's going to be praised by his people.
When our Redeemer King comes, his people are going to see that
he is worthy of praise, and he will have praise from you. He
will. All he's got to do is show himself
to them, and they'll praise him. And all of his people, they'll
be happy to do it. You don't have to twist the arms
of God's people to praise God. They'll be happy to do it. We
praise him for his person. He's both God and man. He's the
God man, which makes him able to be the Lord, our righteous.
We praise him for his sacrifice. That sacrifice is the only way
God's people can be cleansed from their sin. And in that sacrifice,
we're cleansed from all sin, forgiven of all sin. We praise
him for that sacrifice, for his blood. We praise him for his
mercy. God must be merciful. He must
be. He showed mercy to me. He showed
mercy to you. Mercy is the only way we could
ever hope to stand before God accepted. Don't you praise him
for his mercy? I mean, there's few things you
can think of you love more mercy and grace. We praise God for
his keeping grace. Even after God saves us, he keeps
us. You know why he has to keep us?
Because even today, we wander off and he keeps us by his grace
anyway. Look at Hebrews chapter two.
Here's something that's just so astounding. We praise Christ
our Savior for. We praise him because he's made
us his brethren. He's made us the little brothers
of the Son of God. Hebrews chapter two, verse 10. For it became him for whom are
all things and by whom are all things in bringing many sons
unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
sufferings. For both he that sanctifyeth
and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he's
not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren in the midst of the church while I sing praise
unto thee. The son of God is not ashamed
to call his sinful people his brethren. And you know why he's
not ashamed? Because his sacrifice made his
people holy and righteous. His sacrifice, the blood of his
sacrifice took away all of the sin of his people. So there's
nothing for him to be ashamed of because of what he made them. He made them the righteousness
of God in him. That's what God did for us. That's
what God did for his people. I mean, I know we're kind of
a reserved group, but don't that make you want to shout a little
bit? I mean, my soul. I'm ashamed of myself most of
the time. I mean, I don't even want to be around my own self
most of the time. And I'm a sinful man. And the Holy Son of God
is not ashamed to call me His brother because He took all that
reason for shame away. Praise the Lord. Isn't that something
to praise Him for? He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. Amen. All right, here's the second
thing. Christ our Redeemer, he will
defeat every enemy. He says here that Judah, thou
art he whom thy brethren shall praise, thy hand shall be in
the neck of thine enemies. Jacob describes Christ here as
the victor. He's pinned his enemy down by
the throat. He didn't just, you know, they
weren't just wrestling. He pinned his shoulders to the
ground, you know, one, two, three. He pinned him. He grabbed a hold
of his neck and pinned him to the ground. I mean, he's got
a hold of his neck. He can choke his blood supply
off. He can choke his air supply off. He's in complete control.
He's got his enemy by the neck. Total control. He has crushed
every single enemy that he has. He's crushed every enemy that
his people will ever endure. Now, you just don't need to fear
them. Now, the enemies of God's people, they've not been cast
into hell yet. They're not in chains yet. They'll
still roar. They'll rattle their sabers.
They might try to scare you after death, but they'll never be able
to harm the souls of even one for whom Christ died, because
he's already defeated. I'll give you a few examples. We've been talking about our
sins. Well, you can't get rid of it, can you? Can't quit it. Sin is going to demand the death
of all of our bodies unless Christ comes first. I mean, it's just
the undefeated enemy. But sin can't touch your soul
if you believe Christ. Christ, the mighty conqueror,
he's already defeated the sin of his people. He was made sin
for them at Calvary. And by his sacrifice, he put
it away. It's gone. There's no more sin
that the holy God could charge you with if Christ died for you.
The enemy's defeated. Christ has defeated Satan. At
Calvary, he crushed Satan's head by taking away Satan's power
to accuse. There's no sin left that Satan
can accuse you with. He can't make one charge stick.
Christ took away his power. He crushed his head. Christ has defeated the world.
My oh my. This world gets crazier and crazier
and crazier every day. I mean, it's just gone so far.
Plum off the rails. What looks like dust. Our Lord
told his disciples, now, don't you fear in this world, you shall
have tribulation, but you be of good cheer. Even when you
have tribulation. I mean, trials and heartaches
and hard times in this world is just just become such an awful
place to live, the Savior said, you be of good cheer. Lord, why? I've overcome the world. I've
overcome the world. Christ has even defeated death
for his people by dying in their place. Oh, and when one of our
dear brethren, dear sisters, when Lord calls them home, we
sorrow. We miss them, don't we? But there's
no sting in it. There's no sting in it. Christ
took the sting of death away. So there is no condemnation for
anyone who trusts in Christ. All the death of a believer,
the death of our body, you know all that can do? The only thing
it can do is take us from this sinful world into the presence
of Christ our Savior. To look at Him in the face and
have eternal joy and peace. That's all the death of this
body can do. Because Christ already died to
the lost of man, so it can't condemn us. That's complete victory. Now Jacob says, boys, this is
the one's coming. Don't you try to fight this battle
yourself. You hide in you. All right, then thirdly, Christ
will be the king who will be bowed to. At the end of verse
eight, Jacob says, thy father's children shall bow down before
thee. Now the dominant theme of Joseph's
life, we've been looking at his life for weeks and chapters,
haven't we? The dominant theme in all of
that is this, Joseph's brothers do not want to bow to him. That's
the theme. When Joseph told them about his
dreams and said, you know, y'all are going to bow down to me.
They hated him so much for telling him that they wanted to kill
him. Matter of fact, they did. They tried to kill him. They
just laughed and laughed. They threw him down that pit
and said, yeah, he's down there without any water, crying for
water, didn't have any food. Yeah, we're gonna bow down to
you, aren't we? Sold him off into slavery, watched
him go, so at last we'll see him. We're not bowing down to
him. Well, what a foolish thing to say. Boy, those brothers sure
spent a lot of time bowing down to Joseph, didn't they? They
bowed down to Joseph in fear. They were afraid Joseph would
seek revenge on them. And I reckon that was a good
thing for them to fear because who could have faulted Joseph
for taking revenge out on him? Nobody could blame him, but he
didn't do it. He didn't do it as a picture
of Christ. But those brothers, now they're forced to bow down
to Joseph. But when Christ the King comes, his people will bow
to him joyfully. God's people bow to Christ in
worship. We bow to Him in praise, not
because we're afraid He's gonna strike us down, but we bow to
Him in worship. We bow to Him because that's
what we want to do. God's people are all made willing
in the day of our King's power. He gives us a new want to, so
we want to bow to Him. I tell you, the place we want
to find ourselves is at the feet of Christ. Isn't it? He's sitting
on the throne of grace. Don't you want to find yourself
at his feet down in the dust of the throne of grace? God's
people bow to Christ because we want to, and that's what we
want to be. And while I was preparing this message, a pastor friend
of mine called, and we talked about a situation that he's facing,
his congregation, and he was kind of telling me, he said,
I've been praying about this for months, and I think this
is what I'm going to do about it. And he told me, but I don't
know. I don't know what to do. He said,
the only thing I know is I'm at the feet of Christ begging
him for help. And that's the best place for
me. That's the best place for me. It's the best place for all
of us to find ourselves bowing to Christ in total dependence. That we're depending on his grace.
We're depending on his mercy. We're depending on Him to provide.
We're depending on Him to lead us and guide us, and not depending
on ourselves at all. That's what every child of God
wants, just to be dependent on Christ. We bow to Him, willingly. Then fourth, Christ, when He
comes, you'll see Him as the King of the jungle. Verse nine,
Judah is a lion's wealth. From the prey, my son, thou art
gone up. He stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an
old lion. Who shall rouse him up? Now this
lion's wealth means a young lion. It's not talking about a cub.
It means a young lion who's in the prime and the strength of
his life. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's eternally young.
He's eternally in the prime and strength of his life. And he's
the king. But you know, he stooped down.
He stooped down low. to be made flesh, to become a
real man, made under the law, so he could be our representative.
He had to stoop down to do that. He stooped down to obey his own
law. We can't obey it, so he made
himself under his own law, and he obeyed his own law. I challenge
you to find a king who obeys his own law. Kings always see
themselves as above the law. This king obeyed his own law
because his subjects can't do it. And then he stooped way down
low to take the sin of his people away from them and make it his
on Calvary's tree and to suffer and die. The king suffered. Life himself died for the sin
of his people. But he stooped down, but he's
not stooped down anymore. Now he's risen up from the prey.
He's risen up as a victorious king. You know, I love lions. I like watching these documentaries
on lions and stuff, and go to the zoo, and I just, I could
stay in that lion house all day long, you know. I've seen a video
of this lion, big old male lion, and I reckon he chased down,
they didn't show the chase, but this is what they show him. He's
got that animal there, and he's just eating that thing away.
I mean, just eating, and he's got his, you know, and he just
lifts up, and that blood's on his mane and stuff, you know,
he just lifts up. and looks around, kind of sighs.
He's not worried about somebody coming and taking his dinner.
He just looks around and starts eating again. That's our Savior. He stooped
down, but now he's risen up and there are no worries. There are
no worries. He stooped down. He suffered
and he died. He went to the grave, but he
rose from the grave. He's ascended back up on high
where he sits on the throne of heaven. And I'm telling you,
he's sitting there in complete ease. There's another video I
remember watching about this lion, been trotting all around
his, you know, domain and his pride and all those females and
all those cubs that he just strutting around, you know. And he just
walks up on this shade tree and just plops down and dust just,
you know, kind of flies up here. He just plops down, taking a
nap. He's not worried about somebody
coming up on him. He just laid down taking a nap.
Who's gonna mess with this guy? That's our savior. He's on the
throne and he is completely unworried. I don't know, is that a word,
unworried? He's completely unworried about any, he's just at ease
on his throne. He doesn't have to worry about
anything because all of his enemies have already been defeated. Now let that sink in for me. You and I would be wise to remember
that. It's too easy for us to get ourselves
in a frenzy about stuff that's going on. We should only be as
worried about that as our king is worried about it. He's not
worried. If he's not worried, I shouldn't
be either. I shouldn't be either. When our daughter, Holly, was
just a little toddler, there was a, I don't know where Janet
was, me and Holly were alone at home, and there was a bad,
bad storm, thunderstorm come up, just rattling the house. And at first she didn't hear
it. And then she started hearing it. And she looked up at me and
I said, honey, there's nothing to worry about. And she said,
oh, okay. And that storm raged, and I thought,
maybe I should take this kid to the basement. I don't know
how bad this thing's gonna get. She didn't hear that thunder anymore
because her daddy said, I'm not worried. Our king's not worried
that his subjects shouldn't be either, should they? All right, here's the fifth thing.
Christ will be the eternal king. Verse 10, the scepter shall not
depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh
come. Now I would say even a spiritually
blind person has to see this is a prophecy of Christ. Now
you just think of the kings that came through the line of Judah.
Some of them were bad, some of them were good. Just think some
of the good kings. There's David, Solomon, Josaphat, Uzziah, Hezekiah,
These men all came, good kings, came from the tribe of Judah.
But you know, after Christ came, the tribe of Judah never produced
one more king. No tribe did because there was
no need to. There's no need for them to produce
another earthly king because the king of kings had come. When
Christ came, the civil government of Israel ended. They didn't
govern themselves anymore. No more kings because Christ,
the king of kings had come. Just like they didn't have any
more Passovers, Christ our Passover had come. Just like they didn't
have any more, Christ had come and fulfilled it. And Jacob said,
till Shiloh come, all the kings are gonna come from Judah. Now
that word Shiloh, I looked that up, it's kind of a mysterious
thing. People don't really exactly know
for sure what it means, but this is the definition in Strong's.
That which belongs to him, is tranquility. Christ our King
makes all of his people dwell in tranquility, in peace and
prosperity. Shiloh also means prosperity.
The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in the hand of Christ
our King. Our Redeemer King will save all
of his people. He'll have no stillborn children.
He'll have them all alive. He'll have them all with him.
Nothing can stop him from saving glorifying them together with
him. He has a prosperous kingdom. And Shiloh also means God's abundant
gift. God's abundant gift. In that,
our Savior, Paul said he's the unspeakable gift, the abundant
gift. God's gift of grace and mercy
and salvation came to all of his people by the Lord Jesus
Christ coming as the Savior and King of His people. There is
no need to look to anyone but Christ. There's no need to look
anywhere else. I only want to worship Him. I
only want to hear from Him. I only want to be ruled by Him.
He is the eternal King. Judah's kingship is going to
end. Christ never will. Then here's the sixth thing.
Christ the King, He will gather all of His people to Himself.
The end of verse 10 says, And unto him shall the gathering
of the people be. Christ came to earth to redeem
his people from their sin. And he came to gather his people
to himself. He's that shepherd who goes out
and finds all those lost sheep and he gathers them to himself. And you know how Christ gathers
his people to himself? It's by his sacrifice for them.
The Savior said, if I be lifted up from the earth, I'll draw
all. to me. Well, who's the all? It's all
of his elect. It's all that the father gave
him. The sacrifice of Christ draws all of his people to him.
If you ever see Christ crucified, crucified for your sins, not
just crucified. You know, I know he was crucified
to save a number no man can number. We know that, don't we? But let's just get right personal.
I need a Savior for me. For me. You need a Savior for
you. If the Holy Spirit ever shows you Christ crucified for
your sins. He suffered for you. He died
for you. He rose again for you. Your heart
will be broken. Your heart will be moved with
love and thanksgiving. And you'll run to Him. And nobody
will have to beg you to. You'll just run to Him. If I
see Christ, Crucified for me. If I see him lifted up for me
at Calvary, I'm gonna run to him. And the way God gathers
his people together today is by the preaching of Christ. By
somebody preaching Christ and him crucified. And we just keep
preaching the same message over and over and over again. Christ
was crucified and here's what he accomplished when he died
and suffered and died for his people. The glorious wonder that
the son of God would be crucified for the likes of you and me.
We just keep preaching Christ and him crucified. And anybody
that sees it, anybody that believes it, is gonna be drawn to Christ. They will be able to not come
to him. That's how glorious our king is. They will be able to
stay away. They will be able to not come to him. And then
here's the last thing. Christ, our king, will be a fruitful
king. Verse 11 says, binding his foal, unto the vine, and
his ass's colt unto the choice vine. He washed his garments
in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes. His eyes shall
be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk." Now again,
I think even a spiritually blind man can at least see this is
a prophecy of Christ, because isn't this exactly what happened
that weekend of our Savior's crucifixion? He rode into Jerusalem
on a colt of a donkey. He didn't ride in on a big white
horse. He wasn't sitting in a big gold carriage like you see kings
ride in today. He rode in on the colt of a donkey.
He humbled himself. Now this is the king, the king
of kings. He humbled himself to ride into
town that way, to suffer and die for his people. And when
he died, his garments were covered with blood. Those garments being
his flesh. His body, what he clothed, the
flesh he clothed himself in, was covered with blood. Covered
with his own blood as his body was torn and tortured. It sounds
like even his eyes were red with blood. Like his body was being
crushed and his eyes became filled with blood. Christ was made sin. and how he suffered for sin. You and I can never understand
the depths of that. He suffered everything that sin deserves.
He suffered all the fury and justice and wrath of his father.
And even though he was made sin, he remained a sinless sacrifice. His flesh was all red with blood,
his eyes were red. But Jacob points out here, his
teeth are white with milk. He's still pure, holy, sinless,
and righteous. And I'm telling you, that sacrifice
is fruitful. It's fruitful. He came and He
tied that foal to a vine. To a vine. This is the Savior
riding on this colt, tying that thing to a vine. He's a Savior,
but that vine's also Him. He said, I'm the vine. I'm the
true vine. You're the branches. This choice
vine, is fruitful. It's going to make all of His
people holy, righteous, redeemed through union with Christ. Now
that's Christ our King, the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Now why would you not want to
bow to Him? Why would you not want to praise Him? Why would
you not want to trust Him and be found at His feet? Enjoy resting
here. Rest from fear of condemnation. Rest from the works of the law.
Rest from, are kings at rest? Let's us be at rest too, huh? He earned peace and tranquility
for his people. Isaac, he earned that for us.
But don't you reckon we ought to enjoy it? I hope God enables
to. All right, let's bow together. Our Father, we thank you for
your word, this precious, precious prophecy of Christ our Savior.
Father, I pray you bless your word as it's been preached. Bless
it to your glory. Bless it to the hearts of your
people to cause us to find rest and peace in Christ our King. Oh, how we thank you. In your
purpose of mercy and grace, you've made us subjects of Christ the
King. Father, we thank you. Father,
we pray you bless your word, bless your people. Give us a
safe trip home and bring us back together Sunday to have another
refreshing from thee. Father, it's in Christ's name,
for his sake and his glory, we pray, amen. All right, Sean.