I'm going to turn the speaker
up a little bit because my throat feels scratchy from this morning. With the Lord's help, I'm going
to state from the scriptures how a man or woman a boy or girl
can actually be accepted and embraced by the living God. Now, one response I hope none
of us have is, I already know that. And I hope we all have the response
I need to know that. I've entitled this message, Benoni
or Benjamin? This is the story of Benjamin,
the second son of Rachel, Joseph's little brother. After Jacob thought
that he had lost Joseph, All he had left as a son of Rachel
was Benjamin. And Benjamin took the place of
Joseph as Jacob's favorite son. And this is about his birth.
It took place in the town of Bethlehem. You remember someone else who
was born in Bethlehem, Actually, this was prophesied of him in
the book of Micah, chapter five, verse two. You can turn there
if you want, but I'll read it. But thou Bethlehem, Ephrathah,
that's where Benjamin was born. 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. The eternal Son of God was decreed
to be born in Bethlehem. Now the name of this city is
significant. Ephrath has two meanings. ash heap, and place of fruitfulness. Out of Christ's death, what fruit
came? And Bethlehem means the house
of bread. Christ said, I am the true bread
that came down from heaven. In Genesis 35 verse 16, And they journeyed from Bethlehem. Look in verse one, and God said
unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel, and dwell there. Stay there.
Remain there. Jacob did not do that. He journeyed from Bethel, and
there was but a little way to come to Ephrath, the place of
Bethlehem. And Rachel travailed. And she had hard labor. A birth that would end up costing
her her life. She would die from this labor.
And I can't imagine how painful. I've never seen anyone do it.
Obviously, I've experienced it. But what pain must be involved
in dying through childbirth? What pain. What is the cause of death? Sin. Not cancer, not childbirth, sin. Sin is the cause of death. Verse 17, and it came to pass
when she was in hard labor. I don't know anywhere else in
the scripture where this is described like this, this hard labor that
she was going through. I don't know what was involved
in this, but it came to pass when she was in hard labor that
the midwife said unto her, fear not thou shalt have a son also. Verse 18, and it came to pass
as her soul was in departing, for she died, that she called his name, Benoni,
son of my sorrow. Now, that's taken from the word
that is used 78 times in the Old Testament. Only once is it
translated sorrow. 47 times it's translated iniquity. And the next greatest amount
of times that the word is translated is wickedness. She called this
young male child the son of her sorrow. But Jacob says, no, his name
is gonna be called Benjamin. That name means son of my right
hand. The place of strength, the place
of honor, the place of dignity. Son of my right hand. And I think it's interesting.
Some have suggested that Jacob changed his name because he didn't
want him to be saddled with that name all his life. Son of my
sorrow. Every time the fellow would hear
his name, he would remember that he was the one who was used to
kill his mother. And Jacob didn't want him to
remember that. Now, somehow I just doubt that.
I just doubt that. I know that Jacob was inspired
of God to name this man, this young child, Benjamin, the son
of my right hand. Now, the reason being is this
young man, this child, called by two different names, born
in Bethlehem, is he who is called in Psalm
80, 17, or he represent him who is called in Psalm 80, verse
17, the man of thy right hand. We have a beautiful type of the
Lord Jesus Christ in this boy, Benjamin. The son of my sorrow,
the son of my right hand. Verse 19, and Jacob died and
was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is Bethlehem. That's where
she was buried. And Jacob set a pillar upon her
grave, that is the pillar of Rachel's grave, and to this day,
evidently, when Moses wrote this passage of scripture hundreds
of years later, that pillar was still standing. And he knew exactly
what it was. Now, the fact that this birth
took place in Bethlehem tells us of the birth that this birth
prefigures. that would take place centuries
later in Bethlehem, and these two names on one person are fit
for only one man. One of the things I love with
regard to the Old Testament is if you wanna know who Jesus Christ
is and what he did, he is exactly what the Old Testament presents
him to be and to have done. I love the Old Testament. You
know, there are preachers that don't even preach from the Old
Testament. They call it the Old Bible. And they do character
studies on it. But you know, when the Lord opened
their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures,
guess what? The New Testament had not yet been written. And
this was speaking strictly of the Old Testament Scriptures.
The gospel is how that. Christ died for our sins according
to the scriptures, the Old Testament scriptures, and was buried and
was raised again the third day according to the scriptures. If you want to know who Jesus
Christ is, now you and I won't know him apart from him revealing
himself to us, I realize that, but we'll know him from the Old
Testament scriptures. And this is such a beautiful
type of the Lord Jesus Christ that tells us how somebody like
me and somebody like you can actually be accepted and loved. embraced and loved by God as
one without guilt, actually deserving and meriting the love of God
in Christ Jesus. Who knows what agony Rachel went
through in this childbirth, this travail, this hard labor. And as she is departing, she
knows she's dying, That must have been a strange feeling.
She knows she's dying. And as she's departing, she gives
her son the name Benoni, the son of my sorrow. And we sing that hymn, Man of
Sorrows. What a name. For the son of God
who came, ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah. What a Savior. Lifted up was He to die. It is
finished was His cry. Now in heaven exalted high. Hallelujah. What a Savior. Turn with me to Isaiah 53. Isaiah, the 53rd chapter. Verse one. Isaiah is making a complaint
at this time. Who hath believed our report?
Seems like very few. Who hath believed our report?
And he answers that question with his next statement. To whom
is the arm of the Lord revealed? That's who has believed the report.
Those to whom the arm of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ,
has been revealed. Salvation by revelation. I can't know him except he reveals
himself to me. Verse two, for he shall grow
up The arm of the Lord shall grow up. What a mysterious scripture.
He grew in wisdom and in stature, in favor with God and with men. Glorious. I love scriptures that
there's no way I can explain. I guess I can't really explain
any of them as far as that goes, but who can get ahold of that,
that he grew in wisdom He grew in stature, he grew in favor
with God and with men. For he shall grow up before him,
his father, as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness. I don't know what he looked like,
but evidently he was Not impressive to look upon. If you would have
seen him, he wouldn't have got your attention. He has no form
nor comeliness. And when we shall see him, there's
no beauty that we should desire him. Nothing impressive. You know, I think that's glorious,
don't you? The Lord doesn't need that which
is impressive to the flesh. That which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination in the sight of God. Verse three, he is despised and
rejected of men, a man of sorrows. Acquainted, deeply acquainted
with grief. And I think of the 33 years he
walked upon this earth, not just the grief of knowing men and how they treated him,
that no doubt was grief. But this is speaking of the grief
that he would experience in being separated from his father. Cut off. He knew that every day
of his life. And what did we do? We hid, as
it were, our faces from him. When we saw him coming, We would
go hide in a corner because we didn't want to have any connection
with him. We didn't want to have any, we just wanted to stay away. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. No esteem for the son of God.
Surely he had borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. There's the word again. He had
borne, he hath borne our griefs. He bore our sins in his own body
on the tree. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God and afflicted. Look in verse 10. Yet it pleased
the Lord to crush him, to bruise him. Now, that doesn't mean that the
Lord got some kind of sadistic pleasure from doing this. But
when it says the Lord was pleased to do this, well, number one,
it was his will. And he's always pleased to do
his will. And number two, he got complete
satisfaction out of this so he could ask for nothing else. Every sinner Christ died for,
he's satisfied with. He hath put him to grief when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. And that word offering
for sin is also simply translated sin. Guiltiness. This is the Old Testament version
of 2 Corinthians 5.21. Exactly. When thou shalt make
his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall
prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand. Whatever he does prospers. He
shall not fail nor be discouraged. Our Savior is a prosperous Savior. He's a successful Savior. He
never fails. He's incapable of failing. What
a glorious Savior He is. Now turn with me for a moment
to Lamentations. That's right after Jeremiah,
the book of Lamentations in Jeremiah. We're considering Ben-Oni. the son of my sorrow." Look in
verse 11. All her people sigh, they seek
bread, they've given their pleasant things for me to relieve the
soul. See, now here the prophet cries, see O Lord and consider
for I am become vile. Now this is the Lord speaking.
As a matter of fact, if you read the book of Lamentations, every
word is the word of the Lord first person. And he's the only
person who's ever been able to say this. I have become vile. I was born that way. You were
born that way. That's all we've ever known.
But he's speaking of being made sin. He says, I have become vile. Verse 12, is it nothing to you
all ye that pass by? Behold and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me. wherewith the
Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger." Those
are the words of Christ from the cross. From above hath he
sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them. He
has spread a net from my feet, He hath turned me back. He hath
made me desolate, faint all the day. The yoke, now listen to
this. The yoke of my transgressions. is bound by his hand. They are wreathed, they are twisted,
they are entwined, and come upon my neck. He hath made my strength
to fall. The Lord hath delivered me into
their hands, for whom I'm not able to rise up. Now this is
the Lord speaking from the cross. Now how can this be? How can
he say, him who never sinned, How can he speak of himself? The yoke of my transgressions
is bound by his hand. Now turn with me to 2 Corinthians
5, and I want you to imagine that you've never heard this
verse before. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. 2nd Corinthians chapter 5, verse
21. For he, God the Father, hath made him, the Lord Jesus Christ,
to be sin. And you'll notice to be is in
italics. It was supplied by the translators.
It's not in the original. Literally, for he hath made him
sin. for us who knew no sin. You and I know sin. We know it. He didn't. He never sinned. He knew no sin for he had made
him sin for us. who knew no sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. Now I want to look at this verse
on face value. What this verse actually says. It does not say God made Christ
to be a sinner. Doesn't say that. I've heard people say, well,
if you say he was made sin, you're saying he was made a sinner.
I never said that. Bible never said that. Nor does it say God made us to
be righteous. It does not say that. It does not say that God infused
sin into Christ. It doesn't say that. Nor does
it say that God infused righteousness into us. The text does not say that God
imparted sin unto Christ. It doesn't say that at all. The text does not say that God
imparted righteousness unto us. Now hear this. The text does
not say that God imputed sin unto Christ. Nor does it say God imputed righteousness
to us. The text does not say any of
those things. What does the text say? God made
him sin. God made him to be what he was
not seen. That's what the text says. And we are made to be what we
were not. The righteousness of God. The righteousness of God. I wouldn't dare say something
like that if it didn't say it in this book. God made Christ sin. Now, we don't know how he did
it. He doesn't tell us here how he
did it, but we know he did it. He made Christ sin. that we might be made the righteousness
of God. Now that is the righteousness
that every believer possesses, the righteousness of God. Turn with me to Philippians chapter
three. Paul says in verse 8, yea, doubtless,
and I count all things but loss, garbage, refuse, for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things and do count them but dung. I don't think Paul was thinking
I've really suffered in what I've lost. What I've lost I count
as nothing more than dung. that I may win Christ and be
found in him, not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law. I do not want to stand before
God in any way, to any degree, in my own righteousness. And
let me tell you why. I know this for sure. My righteousness
is as filthy rags. That's what the scripture says. I want to be found in him, not
having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith. the faithfulness of Christ, the
righteousness which is of God, by faith. We become what we were not, the
righteousness of God, because he became what he was not, And that is profound, transcendent,
glorious, yet simply the only way you and
I can be righteous before God. Now who knows the pain the Lord
experienced as the son of my sorrow. Greg touched on this in his message,
and it was so poignant to me. When he took my guilt upon himself,
what happens when you feel guilt? You feel shame. You feel shame. If you're accused
of something you didn't do, you don't feel shame. You might feel
kind of noble that you've taken somebody's punishment for them.
You might feel resentment that it happened, but you wouldn't
feel ashamed. Christ felt all the shame of
sin, much more acutely than you or I know anything about. He
experienced the separation My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how he could love me, a sinner,
condemned, unclean, He took my sin and my sorrow and made it
his very own. He bore the burden to Calvary
and suffered and died alone. Just as Rachel died in that travail
of hard labor, the Lord Jesus Christ died. We sing that Him and can it be,
here's one verse that's not in the hymnal. Tis mystery all,
the immortal dies. Who can explore this strange
design? In vain the firstborn seraph
tries to sound the depths of love divine. Tis mercy all, let
earth adore. Let angels' minds inquire no
more. Now, this man is also called Benjamin, the son
of my right hand. You know, this was prophesied
of him in Psalm 110, verse 1. Sit thou at my right hand until
I make thy foes thy footstool. This was also quoted in the book
of Hebrews. To which of the angels said he,
at any time, sit thou at my right hand, till I make thy foes thy
footstool. The scripture says, or speaks
of his, the saving strength of his right hand. At thy right
hand are pleasures evermore. Thy right hand is full of righteousness. He's called the man of thy right
hand, whom thou hast made strong for thyself. Turn with me to
Mark 14 for a moment. Mark 14, verse 60. And the high priest stood up
in the midst and asked Jesus, saying, answerest thou nothing? What is it which these witness
against thee? But he held his peace and answered
nothing. Again, the high priest asked
him and said unto him, art thou the Christ, the son of the blessed? And Jesus said, I am. And you shall see the Son
of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds
of heaven. I think of that scripture in
Romans chapter 8 verse 33, who shall lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? It's God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea, rather
is risen, who is even at the right hand of God. That's where he is right now,
at the right hand of God. But what's he doing there? Turn
to Hebrews chapter one. God, who at sundry times and
in diverse manners, spake in times past in the fathers by
the prophets, hath in these last days. I love the fact that we're living
in the last days. Don't you? Now, I have no idea
when the Lord will return. Some say, well, these are the
last of the last days. Well, I hope they are. I hope they
are. You know, I would be so pleased
if he'd come back right now, wouldn't you? But the day and
the hour, no man knows. But the last days, when people
make predictions regarding the last days, or try to make foolishness. The Lord, and here's something
else I don't, no man knows that time, not even the Son, only
the Father. Somebody says, explain that to
me. I can't. But these are the last days,
and He's spoken to us by His Son, whom he hath appointed heir
of all things, by whom also he made the worlds, who, being the
brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person,
and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had
by himself purged our sins." He did this. He purged our sins. Who's meant
by the hour? Everybody whose sins are purged.
Everybody he died for. All of the elect of God. All
who believe the gospel. When he had by himself purged
our sins, he sat down. The only reason he sat down is
because the work was finished. Finished. Completed. Turn with me to Hebrews 10. Now this work, the scripture
says he did by himself. You didn't have any hand in this. No man had any hand in this.
He did this by himself. He didn't have the Father helping
him. He didn't have the angels helping him. He didn't have me
or you helping him. He did this by himself. What does that mean? That means that there's nothing
I need to do for my sins to be purged. He did it. That's exactly what that means. By himself means do not think
about what you need to do. If he by himself, purged my sins,
there's nothing I have in this thing of purging sins. If the purging of my sins is
ultimately dependent upon my faith, if it's ultimately dependent
upon my repentance, if you Purging of my sins is ultimately dependent
on my ability to stop sinning or any particular sin. Or if
the purging of my sins is dependent upon my holy living, I have no hope at all. But what does the text say? He
said down, now look in Hebrews chapter 10, this is what we're
going to close with, verse 11. Benjamin, the son of my right
hand, and every priest, verse 11, Hebrews 10, standeth daily,
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can
never take away sin. But this man, I think it's interesting,
in the original, the word man is not there. This God, this
Lord, this man, this holy being, It's almost as if the Holy Spirit
didn't have a word that would sufficiently describe the glory
of this man. You remember when they said,
with regard to the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, that holy
thing? They couldn't even come up with
a name for him. But this man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever sat down on the right hand of
God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool for by one offering he hath perfected forever. Now do you hear that? Do you hear that? By this one offering, having
sat down, he perfected forever. There's nothing you can do to
add to this. There's nothing you can do to make this better.
Don't even think it'll be better from here on out. Don't think
anything like that. Don't make any resolve. Don't talk about
what you're gonna do. Rest. He that entered into his rest
has ceased from his own works, as God did from his. I entitled this message, Benoni,
Benjamin, or Both? Both. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you that your
son is Benona Benjamin. The man of sorrows. Who is the
man of thy right hand? our glorious, altogether lovely,
sufficient Savior, give us grace to rest in Him who by Himself
purged our sins and sat down at Thy right hand. In Christ's
name we pray. Amen.