Well, I want to look with you
this morning, and this is probably the last one that I'm going to
be doing from the book of Genesis, I think. We'll see, but that's
the way it feels at the moment. I want you to look with me at
a few verses in Genesis chapter 49, the chapter in which Jacob,
who is about to die, he's 147 years old, he's lived a good
long life, and he's about to die, and he gathers his 12 sons
to him, and he prophesies concerning them. He prophesies what the
state of them will be, these who would be the leaders of the
tribes of Israel, the 12 tribes of Israel. You know, This is,
we're talking about 4,000 years ago from where we are now, about
4,000 years ago, 2,000 years before Christ came. These patriarchs of Genesis,
you know, Adam, Eve, Seth, Noah, so on and so forth, they had
no written word of God as far as we know. Maybe, we think possibly
Job was contemporary with Abraham, and there's the book of Job,
perhaps that was written down at that time, and they had that,
I don't know. Nothing would tell us for sure
that that was the case. And yet without the written word
of God, God revealed to them redeeming grace. I mean, He revealed
to them how He justifies sinners and qualifies them for His heaven.
This is the thing, you know, Job's question, how should a
man be just with God? That was a burning question.
It should be a burning question still today. How should a man
be just with God? A man who is a sinner, how should
that man be justified with God and therefore qualified for the
kingdom of God, for it's appointed to man to die once and then the
judgment. And I know where I want to be on that day. I want to
hear those words, come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world. I do not want to
hear those words, depart from me. you know, thinking that you've
done this and that in his name. Depart from me, I never knew
you. No, we want to be justified from the curse of the law. We
want to be justified from our sins that would condemn us. And
God revealed 4,000 years ago, and before, he revealed to them
redeeming grace. We read in Hebrews 1 verse 1,
God, who at sundry times, different times, and in divers manners,
different ways, spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets. God spoke. God spoke. The natural man does not receive
the things of the Spirit of God unless God, in grace, reveals
them to him. The truth of God is a truth which
is not deduced by logic, It isn't deduced by intelligence. It isn't deduced by university
degrees. It is the gift of God. God reveals
truth and he revealed truth to these patriarchs. He revealed
truth to Adam and Eve. Do I believe in a literal Adam
and Eve? Of course I do. God's word says it. I don't disbelieve
him. I know this is true. Adam and
Eve, the ones that he created. You know, if you say who's believing
the most outrageous thing, then those who believe that we're
the evolutionary product of random processes coming from some primordial
slime. That is by far, by far, intellectually,
the biggest leap of nonsensical trust in that which is just clearly
impossible. Of course I believe God created
Adam and Eve, and they understood redemption because God taught
them. When He banned them from the Garden of Eden and direct
access to the Tree of Life in their state of innocence, when
they sinned they had to go out of that, for sinners could not
have access to the Tree of Life, but He showed them the way to
the Tree of Life. And they understood grace. He
showed them that it was by sacrificial blood that the way of peace was
made. The way, the truth, and the life
is Christ. No man comes to the Father, no
man comes to the tree of life but by Him. And they taught it
to their children, and some believed and some didn't. And Abel believed,
and Abel knew. He didn't have written scriptures,
but he knew the need for blood sacrifice. And we read of Enoch,
who walked with God and was taken. And we read in Jude's epistle,
by Holy Spirit inspiration, Jude writes that Enoch, all those
years before, prophesied of the return of Christ in judgment. Enoch understood about Christ
and redemption, and how Christ would return in judgment. Abraham,
at Mount Moriah, when he was told to go and sacrifice Isaac,
Abraham there was shown Christ at Calvary. Do you know, I think
it's highly likely that Mount Moriah was Calvary. I really
do. I think that's where it was.
Abraham was shown Christ at Calvary, dying in the place of his people,
as his only Isaac was under the knife about to be slain when
God provided himself a sacrifice with the ram in the bush. All
of those things, all of those pictures, show that God spoke
in those days, in times past, in sundry times and at diverse
manners, by the prophets unto the fathers. Then there was Isaac,
and the truth that he learned, and Jacob, and Joseph. The chosen
family, the chosen family, because think, you know, we're in the
days when there was the powerful, mighty Egyptian empire, there
were the peoples of Gog and Magog, there was a big population. But
there was only the descendants of Abraham, the chosen family. And here they are, they're about
to go down into Egypt. For why? For material salvation. They're about to die like the
rest of the world with starvation, but God has sent a Saviour in
Joseph to make provision, and so they go down into Egypt for
salvation from starvation, which would certainly kill them. They
go down there. Why do they go down there? Why
do they go there? Well, immediately to get food,
but they go down there in order to be saved from bondage out
of Egypt. Four hundred years later, they
would be a people who were slaves in Egypt, under cruel taskmasters,
under bondage. and they went down there so that
God could show salvation of a people out of bondage. They pictured
the elect in this world called by irresistible grace to God's
kingdom. That's what God does by preaching
of the gospel. He pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save those who believe. Saved by God sending
Joseph down into Egypt first to accomplish salvation from
starvation, exactly as God sent His own Son. God sent His Son
into the world. God sent His Son to be humbled,
to be a servant, to die the death of the cross that He might save
His people out of the kingdom of Satan. Why is the chosen family
in Egypt? that they might experience bondage,
slavery, and be saved out of it 400 years later. And all that
to picture, to teach his people, to picture God saving his elect
out of the bondage of sin in this world. So Jacob and his
family, about 72, 73 souls, I can't remember exactly but it's there
or thereabouts, they settled in Egypt in the time of Joseph.
They settled in comfort. They had food to eat. They had
prosperity. They thrived in Egypt. With Joseph
of their family, the second one in Egypt, second only to Pharaoh. And here they are in a lovely
settled condition with the brethren reconciled, the brethren that
had treated Joseph so badly, repentant of what they did and
reconciled to Joseph. And there's warmth and there's
love and there's fellowship and it pictures so much Christ and
the people who were alienated from him being reconciled by
the blood of his cross. Jacob is soon to die. He gives
order that Joseph must make sure he doesn't get buried in Egypt,
but he must go where his fathers have been buried, in the land
of Canaan, in the land of promise that God said, I will give you
this land, you and your descendants. But before that he speaks God's
Word regarding his sons in chapter 49. Before he dies he speaks
God's Word and we have it recorded because Moses recorded it 400
and odd years later. And how did he do it? By divine
inspiration. by the Spirit of God teaching
him and showing him. And he wrote, holy men moved
by the Spirit of God, as the Catechism says. These are the
heads of the tribes that are to follow. Oh, what sinners they
were. The Word of God doesn't paint
any shiny picture. He tells us who they were and
what they were like. Reuben, Reuben, oh, what a deceitful
man. Simeon, what a violent man, and
so on. Sinners. But those from whom
the Messiah would come, and those who, what benefit is there in
being a Jew? Much every way, says Paul, for
to them were committed the oracles of God, the word of God. This
was the only family that had the word of God in Old Testament
times. They were symbolical, these 12
brothers were symbolical of the Old Testament church. You read
in Revelation of the 24 seats around the throne of God, 24
elders, 12 plus 12, 12 patriarchs, these sons of Jacob, 12 apostles
in the New Testament. It speaks of the church of God
in all time, 24 of them. But in this prophecy about the
different sons of Jacob, one stands out. It's Judah, the fourth
son. The fourth son of Leah. There
was Reuben, and Simeon, and... oh gosh, who was next? I can't
remember, it doesn't matter at the moment. But Judah was the
fourth son of Leah. So just look at verse 8 of Genesis
49. Just read these next few verses
with me. Jacob says, remember the old man he can barely see,
he's about to die, and he's pronouncing what God has told him concerning
his sons and what would come from them. Judah, 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 whelp. 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? The scepter
shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his
feet, Until Shiloh come, And under 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. He spoke this
4,000 years ago. He spoke it 2,000 years before
Christ would come. How will God qualify his elect
multitude for citizenship of his kingdom? Answer, a Redeemer
must come. The infinite God must be made
man to satisfy his own offended justice, offended by the sin
of his people, to make his people the righteousness of God in him.
so that they might enter into the kingdom of God as qualified
citizens. They've got their approval papers
to be citizens of the kingdom of God because of what he would
do. This is not speaking of Judah himself. He was just one of the
12 brothers, but one who would descend from his tribe. Jacob
speaks under divine inspiration to identify the one who will
come 2,000 years later to redeem. To redeem? To pay the release
price. To pay the ransom price. The
ransom price? The curse of the law. The law
says the soul that sins it shall die. Christ said, I will come.
and I will stand surety, and I will pay that price in their
place, that they might go free, with the law having nothing against
them. So the one Jacob spoke of, coming from Judah, is the
very one that the Old Testament saints looked for. You know,
throughout the Old Testament time, and increasingly towards
the time when Christ came, the ones who were truly, truly shown
the truth by the Spirit of God, like Simeon in the temple, and
he's waiting and God's told him, you're not going to die until
you see the Christ, the Messiah, and Mary and Joseph come in with
the young child, eight days old, and Simeon holds the young child
in his hand, and everything he's been taught in the Scriptures,
and by the Spirit of God, he sees fulfilled before him. He's
here, he's come. to accomplish his salvation,
the salvation of all the people of God. Well what then under
divine inspiration does Jacob say here concerning the descendant
of Judah who would come? Because think of this, this is
the gospel pronounced without a written word of God written
down 400 and odd years later by Moses, this is the gospel
pronounced 2,000 years before Christ would come by Jacob, who
is given. that sight of the soul, that
faith, that divine inspiration to see these things. And there
are seven things that he says in these few verses, seven things
that he says. He says firstly, that he who
shall come from Judah shall be the one who his brethren shall
praise. There it is in verse 8. Judah,
thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise, I've said once
or twice in recent weeks, that verse in Hebrews 2 verse 11,
that Christ, speaking of Christ coming to save his people, his
people that are sinners in this world, but it says he is not
ashamed to call them brethren. Surely the holy God would be
ashamed to call sinners his brethren, but he's not. Why not? Because
he's redeemed them from the curse of the law. He's died in their
place. Their sins are washed away. The
sins of Judah and of Jacob are looked for, Jeremiah 50 verse
20, but they shall not be found. Why not? For Christ has taken
them away. He's paid for them with the blood
of His cross. He's redeemed His people from
the curse of the law on the cross. So He's not ashamed to call them
His brethren. his brethren, sinners, his brethren,
they have redemption revealed to them. And the reaction to
that revelation of redemption, if you're a saved person listening
this morning, you know this. You remember a time when you
knew nothing of Christ, and then you knew the salvation that He
had accomplished, the sins from which He had saved you. And the
reaction to it is praise. He is the one whom his brethren
shall praise. His people are there, for they
shall be, says Ephesians 1 verse 12, to the praise of the glory
of his grace. What is the greatest glory of
God? It is his grace. I will be gracious and compassionate
to whom I will be compassionate. We should be to the praise of
the glory of his grace. This is what Ephesians 1 says.
Judah's descendant shall be the object of his people's praise.
And he is. Praise him, praise him. Jesus
our blessed Redeemer, praise him, praise him. Praise flows
from the heart that knows what it is, to be saved from sin. It's the theme of heaven in Revelation
5 and verse 12. Having identified the Lion of
the tribe of Judah as the lamb as it had been slain in the midst
of the throne of God, unloosing the seals, the seven seals of
the purpose of God to save his people from their sins. The cry
goes up from the elders and from the church and the assembly in
heaven, worthy is the lamb that was slain. Christ is worthy. Worthy is the lamb. The descendant
of Judah is worthy that was slain to receive power and riches and
wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. so that
the psalmist cries out, Psalm 115 verse 1, not unto us, O Lord,
not unto us, not unto us. but unto thy name give glory. All the glory goes to Christ,
for Christ and Christ alone has accomplished salvation. In 1
Corinthians 1 verse 30 we read, for Christ is made unto us wisdom
from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
Therefore, let him that glories, oh, look what I am, look what
I've done, I thank thee that I'm not as other men. No, that's
not what the people of God say. Let him that glories, glory in
the Lord for what he has done. What is worship? People have
very funny ideas as to what true worship is. Do you know it isn't
anything liturgical, it's not the rituals and the rites of
formal churches as they call themselves, it's not outward
form that we do this, oh what a lovely service, we all dress
up and we carry emblems around and blah blah blah, no. That's
not worship. This is worship. Praise and gratitude
overflowing from the heart of one saved from condemnation. It's a demeanor of life all the
time is worship. Worship of God is a demeanor
of life. Yes, we set aside time once a
week, specifically, formally, to come together in this way.
But if this is the only time you worship, I tell you, you
don't worship. True worship is that which is in the heart all
the time, a demeanour of life. He is the one, the descendant
of Judah, says Jacob, is the one whom his brethren shall praise.
Secondly, he's he who shall subdue his enemies. Thy hand shall be
in the neck of thine enemies. The enemy of Judah's descendant,
who is Christ, is the one who would destroy God's kingdom.
Who is that? It is Satan. He started in the
Garden of Eden, in the fall. his attempt to destroy the kingdom
of God at the fall. To keep Christ's brethren in
bondage to sin. You see, Satan has a point. God is holy. God cannot tolerate
sin. He's of purer eyes than to behold
iniquity. Therefore, how can God have these
sinners in his eternal presence? How can he have a kingdom that
is populated? And Satan keeps them in the bondage
of sin. telling them, you are sinners,
and keeping them there with the desires of their hearts towards
sin. He keeps them in that condition. But the seed of the woman is
coming. The seed of the woman, promised to Eve in the Garden
of Eden, Genesis 3.15. The seed is coming to bruise
the serpent's head. The serpent will bruise the seed's
heel, it'll be painful, but he will bruise his head. This is
a crushing fatal blow. Jesus said himself in Matthew
chapter 12, he's talking about, you know, they said he was casting
out devils by the power of the devil, and he said that kingdom
divided against itself, cannot stand. He said, I'm coming in
to spoil the strong man's house. And how is he going to do it?
I must first bind the strong man. I must first tie him up,
so that he cannot make valid accusations. How did he do it?
By the blood of his cross. He tied up the strong man who
is Satan, and thereby he spoiled his house, by taking those who
are sinners out of it, and making them the righteousness of God
in him, and thereby qualifying them for eternal glory. Christ
met Satan, his enemy, and defeated him. The seed, the offspring,
the descendant of Judah that Jacob spoke of met Satan and
defeated him. He met him in the temptation
in Matthew chapter 4, Luke chapter 4 also. He met him and he defeated
him. He met him in Gethsemane when
Satan would have him shy away from the cross and he overcame
there, for he said, not my will, Father, but thine be done. And
on the cross itself, when Satan thought he was triumphant in
killing the child of the woman, Revelation chapter 12, there
in that time, Christ was triumphant. For in that time he bound Satan,
he took away his ability to accuse, the accuser of the brethren had
his ability to accuse the brethren taken away from him at the cross
of Calvary. And so in John chapter 12 verse
31 Jesus says, just before he goes to accomplish that, now
shall the prince of this world be cast out, and he is cast out.
His people's sins are nailed to the cross. He nailed them
to the cross. Colossians 2 and verse 14, blotting
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his
cross, and having spoiled principalities and powers, the devil, his enemy,
he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. And
then in Revelation, you know in Revelation chapter 12, read
about the defeat, you know, Michael and the devil warring. There was war in heaven. Why?
Because the devil was saying, these Old Testament saints are
not qualified to be here. They're sinners. and Christ dies
and Michael triumphs and shows him that Christ has died, that
the penalty is paid, that the accuser of the brethren is cast
out. How did he defeat them? It was by the blood of the Lamb
it says, I think in verse 11 of that chapter. Look in 1 Corinthians
1 Corinthians chapter 15, just let me read these words to you.
1 Corinthians 15 verse 54. So when this corruptible, this
body which is going to die and decay, when this corruptible
shall have put on incorruption, a new body like him, and this
mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written, death, is swallowed up in victory. Christ
is victorious over his enemy. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is victorious. These are the words of Jacob,
all that time ago, Israel, regarding Judah's descendant, the Lord
Jesus Christ, and they were perfectly fulfilled. Holy Spirit inspired,
Holy Spirit breathed, given to Moses to write down 400 years
after he'd prophesied, the confidence of believing people now, 4,000
years later. Is it not? Is this not what we
look back at? Then the next point, he whose
father's children shall bow down before thee, the end of verse
8, David was a child of Judah, a descendant of Judah. Solomon
was David's son. These were the great kings of
the united Israel nation. Before whom the people bowed,
the brethren did indeed bow down before them. But you know what
Jesus said? He was talking to the disciples
about the Queen of Sheba coming to Solomon to see his glory and
his majesty. And Jesus said, you think back
to these things with awe and wonder, but he said, there is
a greater than Solomon here. He meant himself. Of course,
there is a greater than Solomon that's there. His father's children
shall bow down before him. Romans 14 verse 9 says this,
for to this end, for this purpose, Christ both died and rose and
revived. Why? That he might be Lord of
both the dead and the living. He is Lord. You know the charismatics
sing, he is Lord, he is Lord, he is risen, because they like
the tunes. Do they know it in their hearts
that he might be Lord of both the living and the dead? The
one who was God, in the form of God, thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. and
laid aside that glory and came down and humbled himself as a
servant and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross, to accomplish that salvation in such humility and shame. What
humility and shame there must have been in that scene there.
but he's now exalted. He's now exalted as therefore
God has given him a name which is above every name that at the
name of Jesus every knee shall bow. Look what it says in Isaiah
chapter 45, Isaiah 45, the same theme, this is where Paul writing
Philippians was quoting effectively in verse 21. Tell ye, and bring them near.
Yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient
time? Who hath told it from that time?
Have not I, the Lord, and there is no God else beside me, a just
God and a Saviour? Just and justifier. Romans 3.26,
a Saviour. There is none beside me. Look
unto me and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth, I
don't care who you are, Jew or Gentile, from wherever you come,
for I am God and there is none else. I have sworn by myself,
the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not
return, that unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall
swear. Surely shall one say, in the
Lord I have righteousness and strength, even to him shall men
come, and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed.
This is Christ that Jacob was prophesying about. Then verse
9, he is a young lion. Judah is a lion's whelp, a young
lion, a young, fit, strong lion. 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? He's a lion. He is the lion
of the tribe of Judah. Do you remember? I know I've
said it many times in Revelation 5, when there's the seven seals
scroll on the hand of God and the challenge goes out, who is
worthy to unloose the seven seals, to implement God's plan of salvation,
to populate His kingdom? that his kingdom should come
in all of its glory. And none is found, none is found,
and John weeps much. And the elder sister, John, look,
the lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed. He's the one who
has prevailed. The lion of the tribe of Judah
has prevailed. And John looks, and what does
he see? not a lion, but he sees a lamb as it has been slain in
the midst of the throne of God. The lion of the tribe of Judah
has prevailed, strong and fearless, but triumphant, and now he's
like an old lion. He's couched, and that doesn't
mean he's about to die, it means he's couched and he's resting,
because he succeeded in his mission to redeem as a lamb as it had
been slain. How complete was the salvation
accomplished by the offspring of Judah that Jacob saw and prophesied. He cried on the cross, it is
finished. It is finished. The work is done. Redemption
is accomplished. The veil of the temple that kept
sinners out of the holiness of God was torn from top to bottom,
and he, Christ, as it were, has gone through there, through the
veil, as the priest went on the day of atonement with the blood
of an acceptable sacrifice. Christ went, not with the blood
of animals, not with the blood of bulls and goats, but with
his own precious blood has he gone into that holy of holies.
And the way is open that we sinners, all of God's people, all those
to whom he has shown this truth, have access into the Holy of
Holies. We can come and we can cry, Abba,
Father, in the Holy of Holies, because of what he has accomplished.
And then, he shall come, he who shall come, and end the worldly
scepter of Judah. Look in verse 10, the scepter
shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his
feet until Shiloh come, and unto him shall the gathering of the
people be. The scepter is the symbol of
civil power, it's the symbol of government. The civil rule
over the house of Judah remained right down to the time that Christ
came. You say, well what about the
exiles and the Babylonian conquests and all that sort of thing? Well,
even by permission of Babylon and Medo-Persia, they delegated
to local rulers. There was a scepter. Even in
the days of Rome there was Herod the Tetrarch, the various local lawgivers with a degree
of power to exercise rule, local government in their area. That
scepter stayed there until Christ came. And then in A.D. 70, God took it away. When Jerusalem
was destroyed, the temple was destroyed, exactly as Daniel
had prophesied. Shiloh, who would come, is Christ. Shiloh means the ruling son who
is sent to establish peace and prosperity in God's kingdom.
He is going to come. He is the seed of the woman who
is going to come. When he had come and accomplished
redemption by his death on the cross and his resurrection and
his ascension back to glory, The scepter now is not an earthly
scepter in Israel, the scepter is heavenly, in the church of
God. It is in heaven that the rule is established. He is king
of his church. He, Christ, is king of the Jews,
of the true Jews. He is not a Jew who is one outwardly,
but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, taught by the Spirit of God.
This is universal. This is triumphant rule. This
scepter is a heavenly scepter now. It's departed from between
the feet of that which was physical in the land of Israel, the land
of Canaan. It is now a heavenly kingdom.
Do you not desire to be in on that kingdom? Do you not desire
to inherit a portion in that kingdom as a joint heir with
Christ of all that is God's? God tells his people, his believing
people, that you are heirs of God, heirs, joint heirs with
Christ because of all that Christ has accomplished, to inherit
the kingdom of God. Come ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. He is the one who is going to
come. Remember, keep it in mind, 4,000 years ago, 2,000 years
before he came, no written word of God that we know of available
to Jacob, yet under inspiration, under the teaching of God, he
said, he prophesied concerning things flowing from his fourth
son that would come about fulfilled in Christ, the gospel of sovereign
grace and particular redemption. Verse 10, unto him shall be the
gathering of the people. He shall gather all his people
unto him. The objective of redemption,
paying that freedom price, is the kingdom of God populated
with a multitude qualified by redeeming blood. What is it that's
paid the price? The blood of Christ has paid
the price of sin for his people. He qualifies them by paying for
their sins and making them the righteousness of God in Him.
God's righteousness. How righteous do you need to
be to go to heaven? As righteous as God. Christ makes His people
the righteousness of God in Him. called by the gospel, preached
as God says it, pleased God through the foolishness of preaching
to save those who believe. Made willing to come, those who
are stubborn as mules when it comes to believing spiritual
things. But if God makes you willing,
he makes his people willing in the day of his power. His grace
is irresistible. If he opens your eyes and shows
you, you cannot but come. and blessed by God's unchangeable
purpose. God has an unchangeable purpose
that he will not fail in. He shall not fail, says Isaiah
42, is it verse 2 or 3? Christ shall not fail. Behold
my servant, he shall not fail, he shall accomplish it. God's
unchangeable purpose. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest, says Psalm 65 verse 4. Blessed is the man, blessed
of God, favoured, divinely favoured by God, is the man chosen by
God, who causes that man to approach unto him, doesn't he? Willing
in the day of his power, that he may dwell in thy courts, exactly,
in fulfilment of God's will. Jesus said, John 6, 36, the will
of my father, this is the will of my father, that of all that
he has given me, all the people he has given me, before the beginning
of time, chosen in Christ, the elect of God, I should lose nothing,
but should raise it up at the last day. John 10, verse 27,
my sheep, he has a flock of sheep. A flock that no man can number,
from every tongue and tribe and kindred. My sheep shall hear
my voice, and they shall follow me." They won't hear the voice
of a hireling, they'll follow me, says Christ. I give, John
17 verse 2, he says, I have power to give eternal life to as many
as the Father has given to Christ. The ultimate result of it, Revelation
19 verse 1, John says, and I beheld much people in heaven. Much people
in heaven. God accomplishes his purpose
and it's all accomplished exactly as prophesied. He, this one,
this descendant of Judah, is he who shall come exactly as
prophesied and accomplish redemption. Look at verses 11 and 12. He's
still talking about the descendant of Judah. 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.
Just look at Zechariah chapter 9. Zechariah chapter 9 and verse
9. Rejoice greatly, rejoice, rejoice
greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout! O daughter of Jerusalem,
behold thy King cometh unto thee, he is just and having salvation,
listen, listen to this, lowly and riding upon an ass, upon
a colt, the foal of an ass. Is that not exactly what this
Word of God says, exactly as Jacob prophesied. Matthew 21
says exactly the same. You know, they strew palm branches
in front of Christ the week before they crucified Him. Palm Sunday,
as the religious folk call it, when He rode into Jerusalem,
exactly as the Scriptures prophesied. on the cult of an ass. A young
ass's cult. He rode. The king of kings and
lord of lords. He rode into Jerusalem, exactly
as said. His garments are washed in wine. That speaks of being blood-red. It speaks of two things, I think.
Clearly, it speaks of the blood he shed to pay the price of sin
on the cross of Calvary. But it also speaks, as Revelation
14 talks about judgment, garments stained with blood, which is
the blood of judgment, the blood of the justice of God, which
is coming. Both of those things, His own
blood that redeemed His people from the curse of the law, but
the blood of those who must pay the price of the justice of God
with their own blood because of their sin in the judgment
of God. This is what the scriptures teach.
I ask you this, you say, this is quite amazing, this was written
4,000 years ago, who could make this up? Who could possibly make
this up? Who could reveal the end from
the beginning other than the one who is the Alpha and the
Omega? You know the first and the last
letters of the Greek alphabet, who is God? It's the name of
God, I am Alpha and Omega. Who else could reveal the end
from the beginning? These words of Jacob, spoken
4,000 years ago, regarding his fourth son Judah, these words
encapsulate gospel truth, the gospel truth of redemption accomplished
in Christ, do they not? Truly, as Jesus said, these words,
these scriptures are they which speak of me. They speak of Christ. I ask you, in closing, can you
dismiss these words as cleverly contrived, as a lucky chance,
or will you seek to find the truth of gospel grace, and in
finding it, find peace with God? Amen.