Alright, now if you'll turn with
me to Genesis chapter 35. I'm going to come back and read
those verses to you here in just a little bit. Well, let me just
go ahead and read them to you. Genesis 35 verse 15. Now this
is where Jacob went and worshiped and built their memorial on the
altar. And he called the name of the
place where God spake with him Bethel. The word means house
of God. And they journeyed from Bethel,
and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath. And Rachel
travailed, and she had hard labor. It came to pass when she was
in hard labor that the midwife said unto her, fear not, thou
shalt have this son also. It came to pass as her soul was
in departing, for she died, that she called his name Ben-Oni. But his father called him Benjamin. And Rachel died and was buried
in the way to Eprath, which is Bethlehem. And Jacob set a pillar
upon her grave that is the pillar of Rachel's grave unto this day. Now last week in our study, I
did the best I could do to show the believers walk. Believers walk as he's enlightened
at the house of God. He comes to the house of God.
God calls him there. He called Jacob to Bethel. He found him in his mess. He
found him in his trouble. And he said, here's where you
need to go. And he sent him to Bethel. And
he came there. And each time he come to Bethel,
Henry had a message years ago, Brother Henry Mahan, and the
title of it was, Back to Bethel. Back to the house of God. And
that's where the believers called, time after time, back to the
house of God. Because this is the house of
revelation. Believers go there to worship
and to learn of Christ. And faith, when we talk about
faith, faith is the light that determines the walk. That's what
faith is. You want to know what a man believes,
watch him. Just watch him. He'll tell you
what he believes. It's known by the light that
determines the walk. And we only believe a thing insomuch
as what we believe both orders and alters our life. Now, we
can confess a thing, but I'm talking about believing a thing. If you tell me there's a brick
falling, I'm going to get out of the way if I believe. If I
don't, I'm just going to stand there. Same thing when it comes
to these truths of God. We understand them up here, but
we don't rest in them. We don't really believe them
until it begins to alter and order our life. Here's what John said over in
1 John 1. Listen to what he said. He says,
if we say we have fellowship with Him, but walk in darkness,
we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light,
as He is the light, as Christ is the light, if we walk in that
light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of
Jesus Christ God's Son cleanseth us from all sin. Now, here's
the second thing. The light believers walk in is
the light of grace. It's the light of grace. We walk
by that revelation of Christ and that revelation of grace.
We don't know. We're not born knowing anything
about Christ. We're not born knowing these
things. These things are not natural to men. They're totally
contrary to men. Well, how come you ask to know
them and somebody else don't? Why do I know it and my neighbor
don't know it? Why is that? The free grace of God. What have you gotten, Paul said,
that you haven't received? And if you received it, why do
you act like you didn't? The light believers walk in is
the light of grace. We're not saved by works, but
no man will be saved without them. Grace is followed by works. Turn with me over to Ephesians
chapter 2. I'm not going to dwell on this
too long, but I want to recap. It's impossible for me each time
to go all the way back to the beginning of our studies on Jacob
because we've been studying him now for months. But I want you
to see this because it's so important to the message that I have to
talk to you about tonight. Over here in Ephesians chapter
1 and early in chapter 2, and especially in verses 4 through
6 of Ephesians 2, Paul tells us that all that God has accomplished
in his son's appointments, in his offices, in his appearance
in this world, in his suffering, in his death, and in his resurrection
from the dead, God having quickened us together with Him, considered
us in Him, and sealed us in Him, raised us up with Him, and set
us with Him in heavenly places in Christ. He did all that before
you were born. Now listen to what He says. To
this end, that all those quickened in him should know what he did
and receive by his accomplished work the full revelation and
benefits of what he did." In other words, he says now in ages
to come, in the ages to come, he's going to show the exceeding
riches of his grace. See it there in verse 7? He might
show the exceeding riches of his grace. He's going to show
it. And here's what He's going to
show. He's going to show His grace. And here's how He's going
to show it. In His kindness toward us. It's
not so much in our seeking Him and our deep feelings for Him,
but in His kindness toward us. And here's how He's going to
do it through Christ Jesus. You see that? He's determined
to show to us the righteous obedience of Christ, fully honoring the
law of God and exalting that law to its highest position. He exalted the law and honored
it. That's what the scripture says.
He has determined to show to us the awful suffering and death
of Christ as accomplishing the full satisfaction of divine justice. Now here's your obedience and
here's your justification. all together in Christ, and it's
all together by the grace of God. It's all accomplished. All accomplished. Being quickened
together with Christ by an eternal election of God and by an eternal
covenant union, the believer is seen all together in his representative
and substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the perfect spiritual
unbroken obedience that God demands from us, he accomplished in his
son. It's already done. Paul said
he, Israel that he prayed for was going about trying to establish
a righteousness and had not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God. This righteousness is already
accomplished. It was accomplished in Christ 2,000 years ago. The
infinite debt of our sins, this debt that our sins has incurred
upon us, was charged to Christ, who paid for us. Paid for him
in full. Paid everything that was owed
by his suffering and death on the cross. on the cross. And when God raised Him from
the dead, He raised all those who were in Him also. He raised
them up. And when God received Him, He
received us. Received us in Him. And this
is what the Spirit of Christ shows to all those who are brought
to faith in Christ. He brings them to see this righteousness
accomplished. He brings them to see their sanctification
accomplished. He brings them to see their justification
accomplished in Christ. And they embrace Christ. And
embracing Him, they embrace all the benefits. Everything that
God purposed for His elect. He shows to them the exceeding
riches of His grace. Ephesians 2 verse 8, 4, for this
reason, by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man
should boast. Four, now here's what I want
you to see. We are His workmanship, now listen,
created in Christ Jesus. That's where it's created. It ain't created in you, it's
created in Him. Created in Christ Jesus unto
good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. Now, the good work of the believer
is the work of faith. Don't ever believe that you can
do something to please God. You can't do it. Now you just
flat can't do it. And you're fooling yourself if
you think you can. The good work that God commands
and has foreordained in all His elect is the good work of faith. They all believe. They all believe. He walks with an understanding
that in this flesh dwelleth no good thing. Isn't that what Paul
said? Nothing. There's nothing good. Why do
I look for it? It ain't there. It ain't there. I'm disappointed when I look.
I'm saddened when I look. I'm depressed when I look. Don't
you? Why can't I look? Because the love ain't in me.
It's in Him. Why can't I do that? Because
it ain't in you. It's in Him. He walks with an understanding
that in his flesh dwelleth no good thing. He walks in the understanding
that when he would do good, evil is present with him. Always.
Always is. And he's been brought to the
place where his flesh offers no hope, no potential, and he
cries with Paul, O wretched man that I am. Who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? If I would do good, but I can't
do it because sin's present in me, who's going to deliver me
from this? Where's the deliverance? I thank
God through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's where it's at. That's
where it's at. And it's this mystery that God
answers him through Jesus Christ the Lord. And so, he says, the
law of faith is established with the mind of faith. the revelation
of Christ, I serve the law of God. That's back in Romans chapter
7. But with the flesh, this physical
corrupt body, the law of sin. Now that's the two laws, the
two principles of the believer. Now in the light of what I've
said, listen to Romans 8.1. That was the last verse in Romans
7. Listen to the first verse in
Romans 8. Now, right now, in the believer,
no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. They walk in the
light of this revelation of Christ, this revelation of His righteousness,
this revelation of His shed blood. Now that's how they walk. It's
the only footing and foundation they have. And that's how they
walk. How they walk. For, he said,
the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made us
free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could
not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin
in the flesh. He exposed the nature and secret
sins of the flesh. He exposed the total depravity
of man, the absolute ruin of his nature. the utter corruption
of his heart and mind, and the absence of any and all affection
for the God of all grace. And he not only exposed it, but
he condemned it and justly poured out his wrath upon it on the
cross. Believers walk in the full revelation of Christ who
was set forth of God in both the Old Testament and the New
Testament as a propitiation for our sins through faith in his
faithfulness and shed blood. You can find that in Romans chapter
3. In order that God may be just in His justification of those
sinners who believe on Christ. Romans chapter 7, if you read
through it, it tells us about the present state of sin in the
believer. All the way through Romans chapter
7. Now Paul has already established and included in Romans chapter
6 what this justification of faith is. Justify. Just as though you'd never sinned.
Innocent before God. Perfectly righteous before God.
But then he deals with this thing of sin. There's sin present in
all believers and all the way through. Romans chapter 7. That's
what he's dealing with. He suffers daily because of its
influence. He has doubts and fears and problems
and troubles. And he has them until he dies.
Romans chapter 8 deals with the presence and power of the Holy
Spirit of Christ who works in us faith, which takes away doubts
and fears and helps us through our troubles and shows us that
we stand perfectly justified and righteous before God in Christ,
even helping our prayers because we don't even know what to pray
for. All the way through that chapter, he talks about the victory
of faith because this faith lays hold on the sovereign Christ.
It lays hold on the remedy. The believer's life is a life
ordered and altered by faith. What am I talking about? I'm
saying this, that faith sets the tenor of all that it does,
all that it says, and all that it thinks. Somebody says something
and what's the first thing you tell them? Well, that can't be.
Why not? Because that's not according
to the grace of God. You see what I'm saying? What
you believe sets the tenor of how you think, what you say. and how you act. It sets the
tenor. It sets the course as to how
and where he worships God. Once you know these things that
I'm preaching to you, you can't go in the average church and
worship. You can't do it. It'll make you sick at your stomach.
I can't hardly stand to attend a funeral. It makes me sick listening
to them. I know what they're saying is
a lie. It's a total lie. And I know
that thousands of souls are on their way to hell believing those
lies. And here they are trying to comfort
people who are equally on their way to hell with the one who
just died. And they're up there feeding
them lies. It makes me sick in my stomach. Faith sets a course
as to how and where we worship God. How he conducts all the
affairs of his life, what you believe will determine that.
Where this man is satisfied to live, what you believe will determine
that. How he divides his time and effort,
how much he's willing to commit to Christ and the ministry, how
much he how he lives and talks before this present evil world.
And faith sets the tenor of his life and it especially dictates
the company he keeps. You see a man come here and worship
and then spend 99% of his time out here with a bunch of, well,
I won't even say the word, but you know what I'm talking about.
He's got a problem. He's got a problem. You prefer
their company over the worship of God, you've got a problem.
Faith sets that tenor, especially it dictates the company it keeps.
And this is how the believer walks. He walks in the light.
Think of the glory of this one statement I preached on this
week before last. God revealed Himself to Jacob
and He said, I am God Almighty. Think of the glory of that one
revelation. If you didn't have any other
revelation except for that, Think of it. If you and I could just
glean in that field, I think we'd find handfuls of purpose.
Don't you? Ordering all things, governing
all things, arranging all things to the predestinated end of the
perfection of Christ and the full inheritance of His sons. Think about it. Almighty power standing between
you and your enemies. Almighty power to overcome your
rebellion. Almighty power to create in you
a new man. Almighty power to regenerate,
convince, convert, preserve, and perfect. Almighty power to
call out of darkness and death. If you and I could fully enter
into just that one revelation, we'd never, ever have another
complaint. Never would. We'd never, ever
have another anxious thought. Worried, pacing the floors. Not
if you could enter into this, you wouldn't. You'd never have
another doubt or fear. We'd be able to say with Eli,
they'd come in and said, Eli, your two sons are dead. He said,
it's the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him right.
Let us say with one of the old saints like Job, it's the Lord. All your children's dead, and
all your substance is gone. And there you sit in leprosy.
Won't you just curse God and die? Old Joe said, the Lord giveth
and the Lord taketh away. You reckon he'd believe what
I'm telling you right now? Sure he did. If we believe this,
we can say with Paul, if God be for us, who can be against
us? Huh? Who's going to be against
you? I used to listen to them Arminian
idiots tell me, well, you can be against yourself. Jacob journeyed in the full revelation
of faith. Now, I made much of this revelation
because it's through this revelation that we understand the history
and prophecies of this book. If we don't understand what I've
just told you, it's impossible for you to enter into these mysteries
in this Old Testament. It won't make any sense to you.
You'll read it and you'll look at that and you'll say, well,
what's that about? What's that saying? You enter
into these mysteries, these things come alive. All of these things
begin to take on a meaning. Jacob takes his journey from
Bethel, and the Scriptures tell us that it was but a little way
to Ephrath. Ephrath means fruitfulness. Fruitfulness. Genesis chapter 35. And there
Rachel travailed, and she had hard labor. And it came to pass
that she was in this hard labor, The midwife reminded her of a
promise that God made to her back yonder in Genesis 30, verse
24. Told her that you'll yet have
one more son. You're going to have another
son. And so the midwife reminds her of the promise and tells
her, you're going to have this son, too. You had one. You're going to have this one,
too. But it come to pass as her soul was in departing, for she
died. that she named this second son,
the son of God's promise, Ben-O-Ni, but his father called him Benjamin.
And Rachel died and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which
is Bethlehem. I want to give you a couple things
tonight about this birth and death and these two different
names given this child by its parents. And the first thing
I want you to see is that in Rachel's death and the birth
of Benjamin, how these things fit into the scheme of natural
Israel. This was a child of Israel. God changed Jacob's name to Israel,
and these were his sons. And all the rest of the way through
this book, you're going to hear God talking about the twelve
tribes of Israel, or the children of Israel, and that's who He's
talking about. He's talking about this nation.
These sons, these twelve sons of Jacob. Now, Jacob had two
wives. He served the same, exactly the
same years for both wives. And I told you when we did our
study on this that I believe these wives revealed the church
as she is revealed in both Old and New Testament economies.
You talk about the church, you're talking about in the Old Testament,
you're talking about the old Jewish church state as natural
history. Not that everybody who was a
son of Abraham was a redeemed man. That's not what I'm talking
about. But all God's redeemed were represented in these people
in natural Israel. And so all these promises that
he talks about, you go back and see these promises that he made
to Israel. He's making them to spiritual
Israel because spiritual Israel was represented in the old economy. And then in the New Testament
as both Jew and Gentile who make up spiritual Israel who are the
true Israel of God. Now God promised Rachel a son,
a son that would win her husband's heart. And she did in fact have
two sons, Joseph and then at her demise she had Benjamin. Now what I want you to see here
is Israel whose womb had been sealed up of God for 400 years. Not a prophet. Not a preacher. Nobody. Proclaiming this gospel
of God's sovereign grace. Nobody telling Israel about God
for 400 years. Her womb was sealed up. And here
she sits. And all of a sudden, on the scene,
comes a man named John the Baptist. John the Baptist is the last
prophet in the Old Testament and the only prophet in the New
Testament. And he stood and he proclaimed the coming of Christ.
And Christ was in fact born. Out of her dead womb is produced
a son. But his birth makes and marks
her death. Now hear me. I'm talking about
natural Israel. When he was born, she died. It marked her death. Marked her
death. Birth marks her death, and old
Israel must die in order that the son of God's promise be born.
But seeing the son she produces, and she did, old Israel, looked
upon the son that they longed for. They looked for the son
that God had promised. They looked for this coming redeemer.
They looked for the Messiah. They looked and looked and looked.
And then when they saw him, all they could see in him was their
death. And they called him Ben-Oni, son of sorrows. Rachel does not rejoice in the
birth of her son because his birth does not accomplish what
she wanted him for. What she wanted him for was to
draw her closer to her husband, to please her husband. Everything
that she wanted this child for was wrapped up in a natural sense. In a natural sense. And so she
doesn't rejoice in the birth of her son because it doesn't
accomplish what she wanted him for. All her desires for children
were to satisfy the flesh. Now the hope of the Jew represented
in her in the Old Testament economy, that hope of the Jew was altogether
a fleshly hope. They hoped for an earthly kingdom.
They hoped for an earthly king. It was all about earthly things,
a fleshly kingdom, a fleshly king, a fleshly priesthood, with
fleshly ceremonies, a fleshly walk. It was all to do with the
flesh, all together. The birth of Christ marked the
death of old mother Israel. And he was to her Ben-O-Ni. But the father called him Benjamin,
son of my right hand. Listen to this in Hebrews chapter
1 talking about God speaking in these last days in Christ.
And he just tells you over and over and over, he tells you the
glory of this coming son. And he says, to which of the
angels said he at any time, sit thou at my right hand. This is
the son of my right hand. Sit thou here, and I'll make
all your enemies thy footstool. He's the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. Can you see the death of old
Mother Israel? He's the end of that. Israel
sought it. They continued to seek for it.
They continued on trying to mix this. All this Old Testament
economy, they wanted to mix that priesthood and sacrifices and
circumcision and all that legalism. They wanted to mix that in with
the grace of God. And He wouldn't allow it. He
wouldn't allow it. He kept pushing them to the sun.
Look to the Son. Look to the Son. But the Son
to them was Ben-Oni. That Son didn't accomplish anything,
but they rejoiced in Him. He's the end of the law for righteousness. And He's the end of the Old Testament
economy to everyone that believes. And He's the end of ritualism
and holy days and all those things. And as this last Son of Israel
comes into the world, He stands as the completion of the whole
house of Israel. Benjamin was his last son. When
Benjamin was born, the house was complete. And then Rachel, his mother,
dies. Now the second thing I want you to see here is that this
death and birth as it is seen in the... I want you to see it
as it is in the salvation of sinners. I want you to view the
same thing. The same thing is true in the
salvation of a sinner. Every sinner carries in his tent,
as Rachel did, the gods or idol of her father. You remember way
back in the beginning when they left old Laban down there? Laban chased after him angry
because somebody took his idol. That was Rachel. That was Rachel. And then when she was confronted
about it, she said, no, I don't have it. And she was sitting
on it. That's what we do. We sit on our idols trying to
hide them. His hopes and understanding are
twisted at best. I'm talking about the natural
man. He's been told and knows by his conscience that he's guilty
and he needs to be saved. But what he don't know is what
must be accomplished to bring that to pass. He's totally ignorant
of that. He does not know who God is or
what God demands. He does not know his own inabilities
and his fallen nature. He knows nothing of the gospel
of Christ. And this world is steady telling
him, do this and be saved. Do this and be saved. And so
when you come to preach to him, he already has this concept in
his mind the same as Rachel did. This is what this son is going
to be about. And he makes his profession of
faith. And in a sense, this son is produced. But he looks on
this son. And you talk about this son.
And you talk about this man, Christ Jesus, being created in
a man's heart. looks at him and to her or him,
it's been on now. I'm not going to rejoice in that. I can't rejoice in that. Why
not? Because it leaves me dead. It
leaves me dead. It's the child of God. We are
dead. Ain't that what Paul said? You
are dead. And your life is hid with Christ
in God. We're dead. You go through Romans,
I think it's Romans chapter 6. I was going to bring a study
on baptism the other day. The very basis of this baptism,
the very basis of our faith and hope in Christ is that we died
when Christ died. We died. We're dead. This son
is not going to be produced until you die. You have to die. All natural man knows is what
the idolaters of this world have told him. His whole conception
of salvation is based on earthly things, threats of punishment
and promises of reward. And he translates scripture by
human logic and reason rather than by spiritual revelation.
And his whole idea of goodness and love and kindness are based
on corrupt relationships and affections. Salvation, they say,
is to be delivered from the fire of hell, and surely there is
some truth to that. But the salvation of Scripture
is to be conformed to the image of Christ. Now there's a difference. There's a difference. And to awake on that resurrection
morning in His likeness. That which God calls good is
not the best we can do, but the best He can do. You remember
the rich young roller come to him, he said, good master. He
just stopped him right there. Why callest thou me good? There
is none good but God. None good but God. He looked
down from heaven, David said, to see if there was any good.
And there was none. This dying flesh sees the Son
of promise set forth in the Gospel, and Christ bent on that. Oh,
but true Israel sees the same Son Are you with me? Jacob is true Israel. He is God's
elect. Isn't that how he is set forth
in Romans chapter 9? He is God's elect. He and Esau
were born at the same time. Esau by all fleshly rights should
have been the son who inherited all things, but God said, I chose
Jacob. And Jacob is going to rule over
Esau. This is God's elect. And God's elect looks at the
same son that she called Ben-Oni. And he said, no, that's not Ben-Oni. That's Benjamin. That's Benjamin. You see, what's being represented
here is God puts faith in you. He creates a new man in you.
And that new man, that same man, that same view, but with a different
opinion. A different opinion. That old
opinion has died. That old economy is dead. That
old religion is dead to the believer. Dead to him. And now he sees
as God sees. True Israel sees the same son,
calls him Benjamin. Every believer must be brought
to see old mother Israel die. He sees it in natural religion.
He must also see in himself one son, a Ben-O-Ni. and another, the Benjamin. They both are there. And they're
both reality. Both reality. Both Rachel and
Jacob were both right when they named that son. Is that right? He is a son of
sorrows. He really is. But he's also the
son of God's right hand. Truly this little one was a son
of sorrows, but yet in the purpose of God he'll be the very one
for whom Judah will stand surety when he goes down to Egypt. Now
let me see if I can illustrate what I'm saying in another Benjamite.
This Benjamite said this over in Philippians chapter 3. He
said, we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit,
Rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Philippians
3 verse 4. Though I might also have confidence
in the flesh, if any other man thinketh he hath whereof to trust,
I more. Circumcise the eighth day, now
listen, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin. Isn't that what he said? Paul
said, I'm a Benjamite. You think you got something to
trust in the flesh? I circumcised the eighth day
of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of
the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisees, concerning
zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which
is in the law blameless, but what things were gained to me,
those I counted lost for Christ. The story of Benjamin is the
story of every believer and therefore all his spiritual children whose
names have been changed by their loving father. And what a place
for this son to be born in the way to Bethlehem. This can be said of every Old
Testament patriarch and his child. They were all born in the way
to Bethlehem. All of these sons pointed. All
of these journeys were headed toward Bethlehem. And just so
you don't think I'm making all this up when I'm talking to you
about Ephrath and these things, I want you to look with me over
in the book of Micah. Book of Micah. Turn over there
to chapter 5, and I'll close by reading this verse of Scripture
to you. If you're having trouble finding
Micah in the Minor Prophets, go to Daniel, and then start
back toward the New Testament. Just a few books over, you're
going to run into Micah. Micah chapter 5, verse 2. But thou, Bethlehem, Ephrata."
See that? Ephrata. Isn't that where she
died? Though thou be little among the
thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto
me, that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been
from of old. from everlasting. Now let me
read you one more scripture if I can find it. I believe it's
over here in Matthew. I believe it's over here in Matthew
chapter 2. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem
of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came
wise men from the east of Jerusalem saying, where is he that's born
King of the Jews? But we've seen his star in the
east and have come to worship him. When Herod the King had
heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. When
he gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together,
he demanded of them where Christ should be born. And they said
unto him, in Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the
prophets, And thou, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art now
the least among the princes of Judah. For out of thee shall
come a governor that shall rule my people, Israel." That same
scripture I just quoted to you over there in the book of Micah.
This is the story. It's the story of old Israel.
It's the story of every believer. And it's the story of all those
in the Old Testament on the way to Bethlehem and it's the story
of Christ. There is no other story except
the story of Him.