Now, Jacob is giving his prophecies
concerning his sons in this chapter, and I think it's interesting
if you read this chapter. I've read it over and over and
over again. When he mentions his first three boys, Reuben,
Simeon and Levi, he says nothing good about them. We'll consider
Simeon and Levi next week, and then he gives that prophecy regarding
Judah. which is nothing less than a
prophecy concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. And then, after
that, he speaks of the rest of his boys, and he speaks of them
in glowing terms. Now, there's a message in that.
He talks about the first three boys, and that represents the
flesh. Then there's Judah, Christ, and then he talks about the rest
of them in these glowing terms. But this evening, we will consider
Reuben. Reuben was the best Jacob's flesh
had to offer. He was the firstborn, and he
was the best Jacob's flesh had to offer. I want you to notice
the wording of this, and this is very important. Reuben, thou
art my firstborn, and look how he says, you're my might. You are the beginning of my strength. Reuben represents the best of
Jacob's flesh. And how good is that? It's not
very good, is it? Jacob then mentioned something
that had taken place some 40 years before. Look at it in verse
4. He says, Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel, because
thou wentest up to thy father's bed. Then defiled Saliath, he
went up to my couch. Back to Genesis 35. Verse 22. And it came to pass
when Israel dwelt in the land that Reuben went and lay with
Billa, his father's concubine. He went and had a relationship
with his father's concubine. And Israel heard. Nothing else
said about it to this point. But this is an act of perversion.
This is an act of immorality. And now, 40 years later, it's
being brought up so much for the dignity and strength of Reuben. As a matter of fact, this act
cost him his birthright. Turn to First Chronicles, Chapter
5. I didn't know this until preparing this message this week. There
was no land given to the Reubenites because of this act. Look in
1 Chronicles 5. Verse 1. Now the sons of Reuben,
the firstborn of Israel, for he was the firstborn, but for
as much as he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given
unto the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel, and the genealogy
is not to be reckoned after the birthright. He wasn't given his
birthright. He lost his birthright because of this perverted action
that is mentioned here. And you remember in Genesis 48
when Jacob says to Joseph, your two boys are mine. They're going
to be given a birthright. He knew at that time that Reuben
had lost his birthright. Now, let's look at what's actually
said concerning Reuben. And you're wondering, how's he
going to preach the gospel out of this passage? Well, I'll get
there. I promise you. But look in verse
three. He says, Reuben, Genesis 49,
verse 3, Thou art my firstborn. Firstborn. The eldest, the chief,
and notice he says you are my might and the beginning of my
strength. Now, my might, he represents
the ability and strength of Jacob's human nature. You are my might. You are the beginning, the genesis
of my strength, my ability to exert myself. He says you're
the excellency of dignity and power. And on the surface, that
sounds good, doesn't it? You're the excellency of dignity
and power. Well, the word excellency, I
looked up all these words and I thought it was very interesting
to find out what they meant. The word excellency means that which juts
out. That which overhangs, that which
you can see, what's obvious. Now, he says you're the excellency
of dignity. Dignity means to elevate oneself. I want to show you a very interesting
verse of scripture in Leviticus chapter 13. Leviticus chapter
13, and this actually, once you see this, it sheds quite a bit
of light on the meaning of this excellency of dignity. Verse 1, ìAnd the Lord spake unto Moses
and Aaron, saying, When a man shall have in the skin of his
flesh a risingÖî Remember how I said ìdignityî means ìrisingî?
This is the exact same Hebrew word translated ìdignityî, and
it is a leprous scab. It represents something about
sin, doesn't it? A rising, self-elevation, a leprous
scab. You're the jutting out of a rising,
of a swelling, of a leprous scab. All right? Sounds a little bit
different than God bringing that on the surface, doesn't it? He
said you're the excellency of dignity, and you're the excellency
or the jutting out of power or harshness or cruelty or Now,
that's really not much of a resume, is it? One of the things that's
amazing about the Scriptures is the descriptions it gives.
We wouldn't talk about our kids like that, but the Bible does.
It never exaggerates. It gives the truth concerning
who these people are. When he speaks of Reuben, you
see what he says about him. We see that Jacob was really
not complimenting Reuben at all, although it appears that way
upon the surface. Now, look what he says about Reuben in verse
four. He says, unstable as water. Thou shalt not excel. And this sums up the might, the
strength and the dignity of Reuben. He was unstable. Unstable. Because of your instability,
you shall not excel. Now, the word unstable means
literally a boiling, a bubbling froth, bubbles that are just
so temporary. They come up and they're gone.
They're always changing. I mean, changing, going this
direction, that direction, always change. That's the idea that's
given to us of instability. You're always Changing, there's
nothing rock solid there, there's nothing that remains the same,
they're always changing. Unstable as water, thou shalt
not excel. And I can find three places in
the Bible where this word is used to describe a man. And the
first time it's used in Judges chapter 9, verse 4. And I find
this so interesting, if you want to understand what an unstable
person is, in Judges chapter 9, verse 4, we read in the Bimelech,
hired, vain and light. There, the same word is translated
light. Fraudy, not solid. He hired vain and light persons
to follow him. Now, what that tells me is an
unstable person is somebody that can be bought. Now, he hired
these fellas and they followed him when he gave them the right
price. Somebody that's unstable is somebody that can be bought.
They'll sell out for something. They're not going to stay the
same because they're always going to be selling out. Whoever gives
them the highest offer, wherever they can get the most benefit
out of. You know, people hop from church to church like that.
You know, they're looking for the church that they think will
help them the most or benefit them the most. There's no really
rock solid stability there. He says you're unstable as water. You can be bought. You can be
hired. Balaam would follow whoever paid
him the most and advanced him the most. Unstable people will
always sell out for the right price. And that's why they're
unstable. That's why you never see them
remaining the same. And then we read in Zephaniah
chapter 3 verse 4, her prophets are light and treacherous persons. Light and treacherous. Treacherous
means to act covertly, to be covered, to deal deceitfully. An unstable person is a dishonest
person. He always deals in deceit. He will not show you what he
really is. There's always a cover up. That's
an unstable person. He's always a deceitful person.
And then you're familiar with the scripture in James chapter
1, verse 8, where he says a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways,
literally a two-souled man, somebody with divided interests. He says
he loves God, but he loves the world. He says he believes in
grace, but only to a point. He's always straddling the fence.
He's double-minded. He can't really stand for anything.
He goes in this direction. He goes in that direction. He
is unstable. Now, Jacob says to Reuben, because
of your instability, you shall not excel. That doesn't mean
that you should not do well or succeed, although he won't, but
that's not really what the word means when he says you shall
not exceed. It's not talking about how you're not going to
be victorious and do well. The word is generally translated
in the scriptures, you shall not remain. You shall not be
left standing. When God's judgment comes through,
you're not going to remain. Reuben is the best old Jacob
could produce. He's the excellency of dignity
and power. And look at him. He's a wicked
pervert and he shall not remain. That's what he says regarding
his firstborn son. He shall not remain. Was Reuben
a believer? Somebody's asking. Was Reuben
a believer? I don't know. I kind of doubt
it because his birthright was taken away. And I think this
is something else that's very interesting about Reuben. You'll
read, remember when Judah guaranteed to be a surety for Benjamin? Do you know Reuben guaranteed
to be a surety for Benjamin too? And you remember Jacob refused
him. He said, I'm not going to leave my son with you. I'm not going
to do it. Now, was he a believer? I really
don't know. But you know, it's really immaterial
as to whether or not he was. He teaches us something about
human nature, the best Jacob's flesh could produce. shall not
remain. Unstable, that's the word, unstable
as water, thou shalt not excel. Something that is unstable is
always changing. Now look around you. A lot of changes, aren't there? Look inside of you. I'm not talking
about somebody else right now. You're thinking about, well,
I know this unstable person, that unstable person. Now hold
on, no doubt they are unstable, but what about you? What about
you? Look inside. Look at all the
changes that go on inside of you. Look around you and look
at all the changing. How unstable, how changing is
our existence? Now, you think about this just
across the board. We're living in a very unstable
planet, aren't we? You got people worried about
the oil running out? It's different. The weather changes,
the greenhouse effect, and all the problems that's supposedly
calling. There was a big documentary on that recently. Earthquakes,
volcanic eruptions, all the plates moving, moving the position of
the continents and so on. The earth is always changing. We live on a changing planet
that's very unstable. There's nothing really stable
about it, except as God leaves it in place. It's an unstable
place. We live in unstable bodies. You
know, we who are adults, I guess this is so, I've read it several
times, we who are adults, we don't have one original cell.
They're all gone. I mean, we've had other cells
replace them. We live in changing bodies. There was a time, you
look at some of these kids in here, there was a time when I
was that age. I was just a little kid, a little toe-headed kid,
blonde-headed, happiest could be, as far as I could tell. Really,
I can't even remember being a kid. I don't even know what I'm talking
about. I got a terrible memory. I don't remember anything about
it. But I was a kid at any rate. And then I was a teenager and
all the stuff that's involved with being a teenager and got
to be an adult, I guess. I hope I am. And getting old
now, I feel it. And some of y'all are a lot older
than me, and you feel a lot more than me. I mean, old people. Look how different your bodies
look. I mean, look how different. I mean, there's a big difference,
isn't there? I mean, you go from being a 20-year-old to 75, 80,
90 years old. I mean, it changes, doesn't it?
We go from health and vigor, so we think, to weakness and
frailty, sickness and disease. That's going to happen. If the
Lord leaves us around that long, it's going to happen. Our beauty
is going to fade like the moth. We're living in these changing
bodies. You think about the unstable
governments, the unstable, you know, every government, you look
through the history of mankind. Everybody thought we're going
to have the best government. We enact these laws and we enact these legislations. We're going to create our own
utopia and everything's going to be great. If we can just live
according to these rules, everything's going to be fine. Show me a government
that's everlasting. They're all gone. Even the ones
that thought they were the best and the most powerful. We live
in unstable governments. Why, look even at churches. Where's the church of Corinth? Now, the gospel was preached
there. Established by Paul the Apostle, what pure doctrine.
But what happened to the Church of Corinth? What about the churches
of Galatia? Where are they? What about the
church of Philippi that was commended so highly by Paul the Apostle?
Where is it? You know, in every church, this
is such a scary, humbling thing to think about. Every church
error is going to creep in. It's going to happen. False doctrine
will creep in. Men will come in trying to draw
away the disciples after themselves. Do you remember how Paul warned
the churches at Ephesus in Acts chapter 20? He said, I know after
my departure, grievous wolves are going to enter in seeking
to draw away disciples after themselves. And I was thinking
about this. This is a very kind of a sobering
thing to think about. But there are churches in Lexington,
Kentucky. Where the gospel is not preached
when once it was. And now. The spirit of God is no longer
there. The gospel is no longer there. It's just the machinery
still going, the acts of whatever the religious bodies do is still
going. But what a change. I mean, the
thing that we would think would be the most stable when we think
of churches. Where are they now? It's going
to happen. I hope I'm dead when it happens to this one. Oh, I
hope I'm dead when it happens to this one. But it'll happen
to this one if the Lord doesn't come back. It happens to every
local church at some time. You take the best believer you
know, the best believer you know, And He'll tell you He goes from
hot to cold, and from cold to hot. Bad attitudes can overcome
them. Sin can overtake them. Listen
to this scripture from Psalm 62, verse 9. Surely men of low
degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie. To be laid in the balance, and
there is a perfect balance, but to be laid in the balance, they
are altogether lighter than vanity. Man in his best state, the Scripture
says, is altogether vanity. Instability changes, you know,
the one of the things that I thought about this thing of instability
and so on. How many marriages started out with red hot romance? I could never think of anybody
and they end up in divorce. What a change, what a change,
how people change, how their affections cool, how they in
one day and out the other. Regarding the best that Jacob
can produce or that any son of Adam can produce, there is an
element of instability, and that which is unstable shall not remain. Unstable as water, he says to
Reuben, and Reuben represents the best of this flesh. My flesh, your flesh, Jacob's
flesh, the best of this flesh. Human nature, fallen human nature
is what Reuben represents. The excellency of my dignity
and my might and my power, the best human nature can come up
with is unstable and it shall not remain. Now that leads us
to ask this question, what or rather who shall remain? Change and decay in all around
I see. O thou who changes not, abide
with me. Who never changes. Well, turn with me to Hebrews
chapter thirteen. This is a precious verse of scripture. I never had figured out what
the connection here is. He says in verse seven, remember
them which have the rule over you, who have spoken to you the
word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their
conversation or the goal of their conversation. And then this verse,
I don't know whether it's connected to verse seven or not, but it
doesn't really. Well, if it is, it's it. Jesus Christ. Is this the end of their conversation?
Maybe this is what he's talking about, but just what it said. Jesus
Christ. The same. That means he never changes.
He's always altogether the same. Jesus Christ. I love his name,
Jesus. I love to say his name. I love
to hear it. Christ, God's anointed. The same. Yesterday, today and
forever. Whatever he was. That is precisely what he is. Right now, whatever he was yesterday,
whatever he was before time began, that's precisely what he is right
now. And whatever it is he is right
now, that's precisely exactly what he will be tomorrow. He never changes. He says, I'm
the Lord. I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. He is immutable. In Him there
is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He's always the same. Look in Hebrews chapter 1. Beginning in verse 8, But unto
the Son He saith, this is God speaking to the Son, but unto
the Son, he saith, thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever. It's never going to be brought
down. There's never going to be a change
of this throne. It's for ever and ever. A scepter of righteousness
is the scepter of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness
and hated iniquity, therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed
thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows, and thy Lord
in the beginning hath laid the foundation of the earth and the
heavens at the work of thine hands. They shall perish, the
heavens, they shall perish, but thou remainest. And they shall all wax old as
doth a garment, and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and
they shall be changed, but thou art the same. Thy years shall not fail." Jesus Christ the same. You know,
His name, Jesus, you know what that means? Savior. Savior. Do you know He's always been
the Savior? There was not a time when He began to be the Savior.
Do you know He's called in Revelation 13, verse 8, the Lamb slain. Now that's salvation, isn't it?
The Lamb slain. The Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world before there was ever a sinner. There was a Savior. The Lamb slain. He's always been
in this character as the Savior. He never changes in His love. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? You know, He loves His people. I mean, He loves His people. And He has always loved His people. He said, Behold, I have loved
you with an everlasting love. There was never a time when Jesus
Christ began to love you. Isn't that amazing? I mean, I've
not been around that long, but you know, in His mind and heart
and purpose, I've always been He's always loved every one of
His people. And this is a love that knows
no changes. It never gets cool. It never
gets distant. It never gets... It's always
powerful. It's always glorious. It's always
perfect. Always. You know, my love sometimes,
you can't even see what's there. You know, it scares you. But you know, He's never like
that. He's the same in His love. He never changes in his purposes. If he has purpose to save you
by his grace, save you are, save you were, and save you ever shall
be. How long have you been saved?
Well, how long is eternity in the mind and purpose of God?
That's how long I've been saved. in God's mind and purpose. And
we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are be called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, then
he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his
Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover,
whom he did predestinate, then he also called past tense. Whom
He called, then He also justified past tense. Whom He justified,
then He also glorified past tense. What shall we say to these things?
If God be for us, who can be against us? That's what we say
to these things. If He's purposed to save you,
save you are. saved you were and saved you
ever shall be." Our standing before Him never changes. Ephesians 1, 6 tells us that
He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. He has made us. I love the strength of that word.
He made us accepted. Now listen to me. Our acceptance
before God, the best thing about us, whatever we might think it
is, it's really not much, but we think stuff, you know. The
best thing about us adds absolutely nothing to our acceptance. And
the worst thing about us, whatever we think the worst thing about
us is, that doesn't do anything to hinder our acceptance. Our
acceptance is completely, 100% holy in the Beloved, and that
never changes. Isn't that wonderful? I'm accepted. I'm in the Beloved. That's why God accepts me. I'm
viewed in the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not viewed independently
of myself. I'm viewed in the well Beloved. He's the well Beloved. You think of how the Father loves
the Son. You think of how the Father is
pleased with the Son. That's how He loves and that's
how He is pleased with every single one of His people. Union
with the Lord Jesus Christ, accepted in the Beloved, and that standing
never changes. I certainly understand why Paul
continually cried, that I may win Christ and be
found in Him. Not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faithfulness
of Christ, the righteousness which is of God, which is by
faith. Our standing in Him never changes.
He doesn't change in His power to save. He still says, Is my
arm shortened that it cannot save? And He never changes in
His willingness to save. He still says, Him that cometh
to me, I will in no wise cast out. Now, hold on to this. Right now, if you come to Him,
He promises, I will not cast you out for any reason whatsoever. You come. you'll be received. Who is stable? He is stable. Reuben, there's
not much to him, but oh, there's so much to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I'd like you to turn to
a passage of scripture in Hebrews chapter 12. Verse 25, See that you refuse not him that
speaketh. For if they escape not who refused
him that spake on earth, talking about Moses, Much more shall
not we escape if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven,
whose voice then shook the earth. But now he hath promised saying
yet once more, I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
He's going to shake everything. And this word yet once more signifies
the removing of those things that are shaken. as of things that are made, that
those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Now, what is it that can be shaken?
What is it that's unstable and God shakes it and it's not going
to last? It's not going to remain? What is it? Anything that's made. That's what He says. What is it that remains? Let's read it again. And this
word, verse 27, yet once more signifying the removing of those
things that are shaken as of things that are made, that those
things which cannot be shaken may remain. You know what cannot
be shaken? That which is eternal. Not something that's done in
time. I tell you, anything that is done in time, you give it
a good shake and it's going to fall apart. Anything my hand
is touched, anything your hand is touched, you give a good shaking.
It's going to fall apart. It's not going to remain. The
only thing that remains before the ancient of days is that which
is eternal. Now, here's what remains. Jesus
Christ the same. Now, my standing. Is in him. It's always been in him. And
it ever shall be in him. And that remains what he has
done, who he is and what he has done. Now, can you trust him? Can you let go of everything
else right now while I'm talking to you? Just throw it all away.
Nothing but that which can be shaken and blown away. And trust who he is. and what
he did as your eternal salvation. By his grace, that's exactly
who I'm trusting right now. Look over in Hebrews chapter
9. Neither by the blood of goats
and calves But by His own blood, He entered in, once into the
holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Now, I can hang my hat
there, can you? That's where I'm hanging it.
Let's pray together.