We're in Genesis chapter 30 this
morning. The previous chapter we find
that Jacob had went and fled from Esau. and found himself
by the purpose of the Lord at Laban, his uncle's house. That
would be Rebecca, his mother's brother. And he loved Laban's
daughter named Rachel and desired Rachel, desired to marry her.
And it was of the custom that he would work for seven years
in order to obtain her as his wife. He does so, but the morning
after they were wed, he wakes up to find Leah beside of him
and not Rachel. And so Laban had tricked Jacob
into marrying his oldest daughter. And when confronted by it, Jacob,
Laban's response was very simply, it's not of our custom to do
that. You must marry the older first. It seems like that would
have been good communication up front, doesn't it? But that's
how, that's how men are by nature. We're, Always looking out for
that which we want or what that which we have desired. He worked
seven more years for Rachel and he weds Rachel and he loved Rachel
dearly. And during this time he's still after the 14 years
he's still in the household of Laban. Leah has many sons and
a daughter by her servants, her handmaids and herself. And Rachel
has children of her handmaids because the Lord had shut up
Rachel's womb. Finally, at the end of the, during this chapter,
the Lord caused Rachel to be able to conceive and have Joseph. And that was the son, you know,
the story of Joseph, the account that the Lord gives us thereof,
the truth about Joseph of going into Egyptian, being sold into
slavery and all that. I think we discussed that last
Sunday. So here we are now, Jacob is still at Laban's house and
Jacob approaches, he approaches Laban to ask him, he wants to
depart. He desires to go back to his
homeland. He desires to go back to where
his father Isaac was. The promised land is Canaan.
Even then it was promised unto Abraham that I'm going to give
you this place. It was promised even then that that was the place
that the Lord had given them. So that's where Jacob desired
to go back to. Now Laban desires Jacob to stay with Laban for
Laban's sake. So what the Lord had done is
he increased Laban abundantly. He made him very wealthy with
flocks and herds and cattle that he didn't have prior to Jacob
coming. So we see the blessing of the Lord is being given unto
Laban on behalf of Jacob. Laban is increasing good. So
Laban doesn't want to lose Jacob, even though he's tricked him
many times and different things. The idea is that Laban wants
to hang on to Jacob. Now, Jacob says unto him, give
me my wages. I've earned these wages. And
let's read Genesis chapter 30, verse 31. And it says, and he
said, Laban speaking, he said, what shall I give thee? And Jacob
said, thou shalt not give me anything. If thou wilt do this
thing for me, I will again feed and keep thy flock. And I will
pass through all the flock this day, removing from thence all
the speckled and spotted cattle, all the brown cattle among the
sheep, and the spotted and speckled among the goats, and of such
shall be my hire. So shall my righteousness answer
for me in time to come when it shall come for my hire before
thy face. Everyone that is not speckled
and spotted among the goats and brown among the sheep, that shall
be counted stolen with me. And Laban said, behold, I would,
it might be according to thy word. And he, Laban, removed
that day the he goats that were ring straked and spotted, and
all the she goats that were speckled and spotted, and every one that
had some white in it, and all the brown among the sheep, and
gave them unto the hand of his sons. And he set three days journey
betwixt himself and Jacob, And Jacob fed the rest of Laban's
flock. So we have this account given
unto us and it begins with a covenant. Now, there's only two covenants
ever been made by God. the covenant of works and the
covenant of grace. We see that throughout the entire
scripture. The covenant of grace is strictly
between God, the father and God, the son. And it was before time
ever began God, the father and God, the son entered into a covenant
to redeem his sheep. If the covenant of grace was
not strictly between the father and son, then it would be of
works because it would be something that we would have to do or something
that we would have to produce. But it's the covenant of grace
because it's bestowed upon us. We see that the first covenant
given unto man, the Adamic covenant, was a covenant of works. do not
eat of the fruit. It was that simple. And we see
that every time man has been given a covenant of works of
any kind, he cannot fulfill the law of God. He cannot keep the
most simplest of rules. Man fell in the garden all the
way down to the bottom, completely and utterly sinful. This covenant
that we hope in is not the covenant of works. It's not the covenant
of do and live. It's the covenant of grace. It's
the covenant of God's free electing grace, the everlasting covenant.
Something to mention is that there has never been a covenant
between God and Satan. Not one time in the scripture
will you find that God made a covenant with the devil. That's not true.
Now, men may make covenants with death, as we're going to hear
in just a minute. They may make covenants with the devil, they
think, or whatever it may be, but God has never negotiated
with the devil over anything. Why did I bring that up? Well,
because Laban here represents multiple things at one time.
He doesn't just represent Satan trying to steal away the sheep
like Satan attempted to do in the Garden of Eden. And I put
emphasis on attempted. He didn't steal any sheep away,
maybe for a time in his mind, but the Lord always had his sheep.
And it was by divine providence that these sheep were taken,
Adam and Eve. But Adam was an elect sheep.
Therefore, he was predestinated to be conformed to the image
of his son, and it was going to come to pass. And we see the
interjection of the gospel there, and that's what we hope in, is
that the Lord did the work in redeeming Adam, and he's mentioned
in Hebrews as a believer, so we know our brother Adam, even
though he fell, he fell in the garden, and death by sin entered
in, we have hope in the finished work of Jesus Christ in redeeming
his people. So the devil thought, okay, I'm
gonna steal these sheep from God. The devil can't steal the
Lord's sheep. They're in Christ. They're in
Christ. So we see him as being Satan
in that regard, trying to steal away the elect. We see Laban
as the father having a covenant with his son, having a covenant
that he's entered into, because the devil's never entered into
a covenant with God. So we see the covenant of grace at work
here, but we know that this covenant that he entered into with Jacob
was just to trick him or just to try to trap him. So we also
see that it was the law. He could be representing the
law here. He's holding those who are under it because of their
transgression or because of their trespass. So he's taken the sheep
away from Jacob just as the law separated us because of our sin,
the law separated us from God. And so we had the, we have to
have the interjection of the gospel. We have to have the interjection
of the gospel. And I want to show us that turn
with me, if you will, to Ezekiel, Ezekiel chapter 16. In order for us to be redeemed, it is important that we understand
we can't contend with Satan. We can't fulfill the law. And
we can't please God. It's impossible. It's impossible
for man to please God. So we have this interjection
of the covenant of grace, the Gospel of God's free grace, found
in Ezekiel 16. And look at verse 60 with me. He says, nevertheless, I will
remember my covenant. So whose covenant is it? Is it
ours? Certainly not. It's God's covenant
with his son. I will remember my covenant with
thee. So he made it a covenant with
his son, and we are the benefactors of that. In the days of thy youth,
and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant. Now
we talked about everlasting before, but I want to touch on that just
for a moment. We understand that everlasting means it never had
a beginning and never had an end. There was never a starting
point and then it moved forward. It was always, has been, and
always will be. That's the everlasting covenant.
Verse 61 says, then thou shalt remember thy ways and be ashamed.
And when thou shalt receive thy sisters, thine elder and thy
younger, and I will give unto them thee, given to thee four
daughters, but not by thy covenant, I will establish my covenant
with thee. Thou shalt know I'm the Lord, that thou mayest remember
and be confounded and never open thy mouth anymore because of
thy shame. When I am pacified, now that
word pacified means to make atonement, to make atonement. When I have
made atonement toward thee for all that thou hast done, saith
the Lord, then your mouth will not open because of the shame
that you have, because it's not there. He bore it in his own
body. Before time, God made an everlasting
covenant in eternity. The father and the son made a
covenant to redeem all of the Lord's elect people, to save
his people from their sin. Jacob has fulfilled his end of
the covenant up till this point with Laban for working seven
years to marry Leah and working seven years to marry Rachel.
Jacob has kept his end of the bargain, so to speak. And after
being tricked multiple times, he comes to Laban for his reward.
He says, send me away that I may go back home. Laban asked him,
he said, well, what do you want me to give you? And he said,
I don't want you to give me anything, but I want to take care of the
sheep. I want to tend to the flocks that you have. I'm not
asking for the righteous sheep that are worthy of sacrifice,
the ones without spot and without blemish. I'm asking for the ones
that have spots. And that's what I've titled this
message is the spotted sheep of his election. Jacob's asking
for his inheritance to be the spotted sheep, the ring-streaked
sheep, the ones that have blemishes, the ones that are different colors
all over the place, the ones that are freckled, the ones that
cannot be offered for a sacrifice. This is what Jacob's requesting.
This is what Jacob is asking for. Laban says, sure, you can
have the promised flock that you're asking me for, but then
he tricks him and steals them away from him. Adam and Eve fail
because of Satan trying to take away the spotted sheep. Satan
was trying to take away the same inheritance that Jacob is asking
for. And I've mentioned that already,
I know, but it's important to understand that Adam was a spotted sheep
of his election. When we look at this here, this
type in picture is Jacob being our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
and us being the spotted sheep, the ring straight sheep, the
ones that could not be offered for sacrifice. The Lord will
not take the offerings of our hands. The Lord will not accept
us as we are. We are not good enough for God
in any way, shape or form. We have blemishes. We have spots. We have putrefying sores by birth
in the Lord's eyes. And the Lord saves his people
and robes them in his righteousness, takes away the spots by washing
them in the blood. So all he sees is the perfect
lamb of God when he sees his people. That's our hope. He redeemed
us back to himself. Even though the devil was doing
his best to steal us away, even though we were under the law,
sinners, condemned, convicted, God put away our sin. God put
away our sin and brought us back to him, brought us back to the
father. Aren't you glad that our God
didn't try to do that? He didn't attempt to redeem his
people. It was not an offering to man
and hoping for the best. He offered himself up to the
father One time the father was satisfied. Now the devil has
tried to do many things as we see throughout scripture. He's
tried to be a deceiver. He's deceived many, deceived nations.
The scripture says, if it were possible, if it were possible,
he would deceive the very elect, but it's not possible. Why? Because
we are kept by the faith of Christ. The devil appeared unto the Lord
and trying to deceive him, didn't he? I mentioned this, I think
Wednesday night. After 40 days of fasting, Christ
came down from the mountain And you can imagine how hungry he
would have been at that time. And the devil looks at him and
says, if you be who you say you are, command these stones that
they may be made bread. And the Lord rebukes him and
he says, men shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceeded out of the mouth of God. This is a Luke's account
in verse six of that chapter. He says, and the devil said unto
him, all this power will I give thee and the glory of them for
that is delivered unto me. So he's saying that this glory
and power was given him. Think about that. He's talking
to God, and he's saying, I have this power. Ain't that incredible?
That's what men do by nature, is it not? They believe themselves
to be God. But the devil continues to talk,
and he says, if thou therefore will worship me, all shall be
thine. And Jesus answered and said to
him, get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written, thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Now,
whenever the Lord appeared unto the Pharisees, he called them,
he called them of their father, the devil. So we see Satan is
trying to deceive the Lord and the Lord not able to be deceived,
not able to be sinned, but we see a definitive example of those
who are of their father, the devil, those who can be deceived
and those who are tricked into believing that they themselves
are God. In John 8, 44, he says, you are of your father, the devil
and the lust of your father. You will do. He was a murderer
from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there
is no truth in him. And when he speaketh a lie, he
speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. We see that the spirit of Antichrist
is alive and well in the world. And you know what the spirit
of Antichrist is? In religion, men would talk about how that
there's going to be a being that appears upon the face of the
earth as the Antichrist and men are going to follow him and worship
him and exalt him. Brethren, Antichrist is alive
and well. As we were driving down the road
this morning, I said, girls, up here at this, the devil's
having church up here. We passed a flea market by and
I said, no, that's not where he's having church. Now, there's
plenty of people that's going to miss services. That's not
where the devil is having church. The devil is having church in
every church, every building, every establishment that is not
declaring that Christ is all in salvation. That's where the
devil is having church. He's give them the lie and they've
swallowed it whole. And that is the spirit of antichrist.
Anything that does not declare Christ successfully saved his
people. And you and I didn't have anything
to do with it. If it doesn't declare that, it's not the everlasting
covenant. It's not what God has said. It's
what man has said. But God said Christ is all in
salvation. Our belief is made evident by
our confession. If our confession is that there's
something we must do to be saved, that is the spirit of Antichrist,
and it is evident that we've been deceived. If our confession
is Christ is all, then the Lord hath revealed that unto us by
giving us repentance towards God and faith toward the Lord
Jesus Christ. Either we are Christ's spotted
sheep of his election, or we're of our father, the devil, or
our father, Adam, that we fell in. That's the only two options.
Either we have our own righteousness, just as the Pharisees did of
their father, the devil, or we've been robed in his righteousness
and he's put away our sin. In verse 34 and 35, Laban takes
these promised sheep away just as Satan thought he was doing
in the garden. And the Lord purposed this. Don't you love that the
Lord allows these things to come to pass, to show us and to teach
us and to cause us to understand. that he is God and he hath purposed
all things, all things. The devil thought, well, I've
made the whole human race. I've destroyed every one of them.
I've separated them from God forever. I believe that's what
he thought. But we see that it was all part of the Lord's purpose
to show mercy, to redeem his elect. That's why Adam fell.
That was the whole, didn't take God off guard. I was talking
to, I think a couple of you met about this recently, but men
liken God unto someone that's playing a chess game where they
move a pawn or they move a king or they move a bishop or they
move a horse or whatever it is. Our God is not playing chess. He's not moving anything around. He has purposed all things from
the foundation of the world. The devil is God's devil. He
can't do anything without permission from the Lord. That's why he
appeared unto the Lord about Job, didn't he? He said, the only
reason Job's serving you is because you have a hedge about him, and
the Lord had to remove that hedge in order for the devil to do
anything to Job. It's the same now. He is God's
devil, and the Lord will do with him whatsoever he hath purposed. Notice verse 31 with me. Laban said, What shall I give
thee? And Jacob said, Thou shalt not
give me anything. Salvation, just as the devil
is God's devil, salvation is the Lord's salvation. He hath
wrought salvation for his people. This salvation is not It is ours
only because it's been bestowed upon us. When David in Psalm
chapter 51, David was crying out after his sin with Bathsheba.
He said, have mercy upon me according to thy loving kindness. According
to the multitude of thy loving kindness, blot out my transgression.
Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall
be made whiter than snow. David says, restore unto me the
joy of thy salvation. Salvation is the Lord's. Salvation
is something that he accomplished. Salvation is something that he
merited. Salvation is something that he hath won for his people.
I'm so thankful That I don't have anything to do with that.
I love the electing grace of God. I love that salvation is
of the Lord and not of me. And it's not of the will of man
nor of the works that we do, but it's by his grace alone,
by his mercy alone, what he hath done. He said, I don't want anything
from your hand. I don't want anything. It's not
by the hand of Satan or the will of man or by man's hand. It's
not even I want to say this carefully, brethren. It's not even of the
father, because Christ was forsaken. He was alone on the cross. I say that reverently. I say
that fearfully. But we know the scripture says
Hebrews chapter one, verse three, when he had by himself purged
our sin, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.
He fulfilled the covenant of grace for his spotted elected
sheep before the foundation of the world. Hebrews chapter 10
verse 16 says, this is the covenant that I will make with them after
those days, sayeth the Lord. I will put my laws into their
hearts and in their minds will I write them and their sins and
iniquities will I remember no more. The word covenant means oath. The word covenant means oath.
Did you know the word covenant is in the Scripture over 200
times? Over 200 times the word covenant
is written. The word covenant means oath,
and you and I cannot keep an oath. We cannot keep a promise
unto God. We can't. But the Lord kept His
oath, didn't He? In Psalm 25 verse 14, He says,
The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. Now, brethren,
there is not some great mystery that we are holding here amongst
ourselves and not declare. The mystery is the gospel. It must be revealed. Do we see
that we believe things that we don't matter of fact, we don't
understand anything we believe. But that being said, we're not
holding some secret. and not handing it out to men.
We're declaring the full counsel of the mystery of God. Every
time that we proclaim the gospel, that is the mystery. And Christ
says the secret, the mystery of the Lord is with them that
fear him. And he will show them his covenant, his oath. He will show it unto them what
he hath promised by himself. Hebrews chapter 6 verse 13 says
when God had promised made promise to Abraham because he could swear
by no greater he swear by himself. All that God promised unto Abraham. The apostle Paul was talking
and he said, all those that are Israel are not of Israel. What
is he saying? Well, the promise was not to
a bloodline people. It's not about creed. It's not
about your blood. Your blood is polluted. Jew,
Gentile alike. It doesn't matter. We needed a substitute for us
as the spotted sheep. We needed the lamb slain before
the foundation of the world. So what was Paul saying? He's
saying it's a spiritual matter of faith. The children of promise
are of faith and all that God promised Abraham. He could swear
by no greater. He swore by himself all that
he swore Christ accomplished for his people. Christ accomplished
it. In verse 33 in our text. Genesis 30, verse 33 says, So
shall my righteousness answer for me in time to come. When
it shall come time for my hire before thy face, everyone that
is not speckled and not spotted among the goats and brown among
the sheep, that shall be counted as stolen with me. The Lord Jesus
Christ did not steal one sheep. He bought them. He bought every
one of his speckled sheep of election. Every one of them he
bought. What was the purchase price? Without the shedding of
blood, there is no remission of sin. When I see the blood,
I will pass by you. It was his precious blood. Christ's
reward for his sacrifice, for his fulfilling the covenant,
is a bunch of speckled, spotted sheep of his election. He had
to redeem those sheep unto himself. He had to rescue them from the
hand of Satan. Sure. He had to rescue us from
being under the law. and restored them completely
unto the Lord, unto the Father. And he did so. When did he do
that? While we were dead in trespasses
and in sin. Before the foundation of the
world was ever laid, he saw his spotted, deformed, decaying sheep,
and he saved them before the foundation of the world. These
spots and speckles are our blemishes. We're not solid in color. We
are blemished. We are unable to be sacrificed
unto the Lord. Men go about seeking their own
righteousness of the law. They don't see themselves as
being spotted, do they? They see themselves as being
a spotless lamb, but they're not. Only the Lord's people see
themselves as spotted. That's the good news of the gospel.
If you see yourself as spotted, it's because God's made you a
sinner. And the Lord came to save sinners, came to save sinners. The Lord Jesus Christ left the
99 solid sheep for one spotted elect sheep. And he redeemed
them back to God. God saved his spotted sheep before
time. Did you know that spotted is
the qualification? You must be spotted in order
to be God's sheep. If you're solid in color, it
doesn't matter what color, but the Lord, he says, without spot
and without blemish. God is no respecter of persons. He saw the sin upon His Son and
put Him to death because of His sin. So unless you see yourself
as a spotted sheep, you have no hope of being in His righteousness. You have no hope of meeting a
Savior. Being spotted is the qualification
of meeting a Savior. Seeing yourself, your righteousness
as filthy rags is the qualification. You must be made a sinner in
order to meet a Savior. I'm reminded of the scripture
talking about leprosy. In Leviticus, the Lord dealt
with leprosy. If a man was to appear to be leprous, he would
have to be outside the camp for seven days and the priest would
look at him again and determine if it had spread and if it had
indeed was considered leprous and he must be put out of the
camp. If it didn't appear to be spreading at that time, he
would let him go another seven days and look at it again and
determine whether the leprosy was spreading or if it was not
or if it was just a boil or what it was. But anytime a man had
leprosy, he was to be put out of the camp completely, except
for one thing, one reason the man would not be put out of the
camp. It's found in Leviticus 13, verse 12. And it says, if
a leprosy break out abroad the skin and the leprosy cover all
the skin of him that have the plague from his head, even to
his foot, whether so ever the priest looketh and the priest
shall consider and behold, if the leprosy have covered all
the flesh, he shall pronounce him clean. that at the plague
it is all turned white, he is clean. So how can spots be seen
as perfect by God? And how can a man that hath leprosy
from the top of his head to the bottom of his feet be considered
clean? It's because we have been made
sinners and the Lord has made it so clear Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners. He said, I come not to call the
righteous, but I come to call the sinners, the speckled sheep. I come to call the one, the ring
straight sheep, the ones that nobody else wants. Everybody
wants pure bloods, don't they? Everybody else wants more attractive
looking sheep. Look at my sheep, they have no
spot, no blemish whatsoever. That's what men would say. Look
at me, I have no spot, no blemish. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only one that can take a spotted sheep and make him unspotted,
to make him without blemish and without spot because we are seen
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He makes you a sinner. He's made
you a spotted sheep. We must be made spotted sheep. We don't see. The sheep don't
know whether they're spotted or not. Think about that. The
sheep aren't looking around seeing who's spotted and who's not.
They're just sheep. They don't know the difference between one
another. You and I don't know which one of us are believers or not.
Our confession is Christ is all and we pray the Lord would keep
us. I have more confidence I have confidence in that man that we
read about from Mark on Wednesday night when the Lord said he loved
him. I have full confidence that man's in glory. But the scripture
doesn't say that he loves Caleb Hickman. It doesn't say that.
It says if Caleb Hickman is in Christ, he loves Caleb Hickman.
But I have no hope outside of meeting the Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ, and continually begging, Lord, save me. Lord,
cause me to see my spots and cause me to see the Savior. That's
what he does for his sheep. He's constantly showing us by
the preaching of the gospel, you're spotted and you're blemished
and you're naked and you're unfit. But I've made you worthy. I've
made you perfect. I've made you spotless in the
person of Jesus Christ. That's the gospel. That's the
gospel. Spotted sheep of God's election
look only to Christ. We don't look to our covenant.
Men have made covenant with death. Did you know that? That's what
men do in these churches, in these false churches. They've
made a covenant with death. They see themselves as being good
enough to offer themselves to God. And with death, they say,
we've made a covenant. The Lord said, I'm going to disannul
your covenant and it'll be trotted down. We don't, we don't look
to the covenant that we have made. We look to our surety. We look to our Jacob to redeem
us. We look to our Jacob to keep us and bring us to the father. Jacob had fulfilled his oath,
entered into a covenant with Laban. Our Lord kept his word,
didn't he? He kept his covenant with the
father. And he was trodden down in the overwhelming scourge,
the wrath of God. He conquered death. He conquered
hell. He conquered Satan. He conquered
the flesh. He conquered sin, fulfilled the
law, kept the covenant promise of God for his people. He did
it all in one blow, didn't he? He did it all in one fell swoop. He did it for his people. He
saved the spotted sheep of his electing by grace. Are you saved
through faith and that not of yourselves? It is a gift of God,
not of works, lest any man should boast. Now, in closing, I want us to
notice verse 37, Genesis chapter 30, verse 37. Now, understand,
this is very important that Laban had said, sure, you can have
all of the spotted sheep. You can have all of the ring
straight sheep. And then immediately goes and
takes all the spotted sheep and ring straight sheep. So all that's
left is the ones that are considered without spot, without blemish.
And Jacob recognizes this. He had to. The Lord appeared
unto him and tells him to do something in verse 37. And Jacob took him rods of green
poplar, and of the hazel and chestnut tree, and piled white
strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the
rods. And he set the rods which he
had peeled before the flocks in the gutters, in the watering
troughs, when the flocks came to drink. They should conceive
when they came to drink. And the flocks conceived before
the rods and brought forth cattle, ring-straped, speckled, and spotted. Jacob did separate the lambs
and set the faces of the flocks toward the ring strake, and all
the brown in the flock of Laban. And he put his own flocks by
themselves and put them not into Laban's cattle. And it came to
pass, whensoever the stronger cattle did conceive that Jacob
laid the rods before the eyes of the cattle in the gutters,
that they might conceive among the rods. But when the cattle
were feeble, he put them not in. The feebler were Laban's
and the stronger Jacob's. And the man increased exceedingly
and had much cattle and maidservants and manservants and camels and
asses." Now, if we just take this at face value and say, okay,
he took these three different kinds of trees and he cut them,
he would make streaks in some, he would make spots in some,
and he would put them in the watering troughs. That doesn't mean by
nature that those cattle are gonna see that and produce ring-streaked
and spotted offspring. But it was according to the word
of God, as we'll see in the next hour, in the next chapter, the
Lord told him to do this. And so by his word, these blemished
cattle, these without spot, without blemished cattle and sheep and
herds started having these offspring that were spotted, that were
ring straight, just as according to promise. And they belong to
Jacob at that time. Now, the first thing he does
is he takes three different kinds of tree, the poplar, The hazel
or the almond tree and the chestnut tree, and he cuts them into rods.
Now I'm reminded of the scripture in Psalm 23, but Lord through
David said, thy rod and thy staff comfort me. The rod is a symbol
of power. The rod is something that the
king would hold, is it not? The rod is something that belonged
to the king and it showed his glory. He cut the rods of these
three trees, exposing what was on the inside, exposing the underside,
the white of the under. He peeled the bark away. Do you
know what we're doing right now? We're peeling the bark away to
see what's on the inside, to declare the gospel, to declare
it freely unto all men. The three different trees here
have very significant meaning. It's all about God's gospel.
The white poplar, the white poplar, it's the same exact meaning as
the name Laban. The white poplar is the same
exact definition as the name Laban, and it means white. This
poplar tree is a tree that secretes milky white liquid. What's the
Lord saying there? Well, in spite of Laban trying
to deceive Jacob, in spite of sin, in spite of Satan, he's
going to bring his spotted sheep to the promised land, to the
land flowing with milk and honey. He's exposed the white milk on
the inside, and he is going to bring his people to the land
of milk and honey. Hosea 4, verse 13 says, they sacrifice upon
the tops of mountains and burn incense upon the hills under
the oaks, under the poplars, and under the elms. Do you know
why? He tells us because the shadow thereof is good. So not only is he telling them,
even though Laban tried his best, even though he tried to deceive
you, I'm going to bring you to the land of milk and honey under
the shadow of my wing. That's what he's saying in the
poplar. The hazel, also referred to as the almond tree, is the
second tree. Remember when Jacob goes down
to the place called Luz, he changes the name to Bethel after the
account that takes place. He fell asleep. And what did
he use for his pillow? He used a rock. Remember the
story? He was fleeing from his brother. He needed a pillow.
So he takes a rock and he falls asleep on it. He has a dream
of angels ascending and descending a ladder up to heaven. When he
wakes up, he names the place Bethel, the house of God, because
God appeared unto him in that dream, and he said, I am, and
you shall. I'm God, and I'm gonna take care
of you, Jacob, because I have made a covenant and fulfilled
that covenant promise. So Jacob received God's promise
there, sleeping on a rock. This is the place where God's
covenant is revealed. The word luz means an almond
tree, an almond tree. or a hazel tree. Now God changed
the name of Luz to Bethel, which is a house of God. And we see
Jeremiah 1 verse 11, it says, moreover, the word of the Lord
came into me saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said,
I see a rod of an almond tree. Then said the Lord unto me, thou
hast well seen, for I will hasten my word to perform it. So what
does the almond tree represent? represents the hastening of the
Gospel of God's free grace. It represents sleeping on the
rock of ages. That's our only rest, isn't it?
His finished work. What the Son did. The Lord Jesus
Christ. Receiving the promise of God
while sleeping on the rock. Is that not what we're doing
right now? Resting in His finished work alone. The last tree is
the chestnut tree. It literally translates plain
tree, a palace, and to be elevated, to be elevated. John chapter
12, verse 31 says, now is the judgment of this world. Now shall
the prince of this world be cast out, and I, if I be lifted up
from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying
what death he should die. The Lord Jesus Christ was lifted
up. That's how Isaiah saw him, didn't
he? In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted
up. The Lord was lifted up on the cross of Calvary for his
people. The Lord shows us that his kingdom
was established in putting away the sin of his people. So what
is all this telling us, brethren? We have these three trees. The
Lord's there. They've been. These three trees
have been cut down. The white's been exposed. They've
been put in the watering trough where the cattle drink. What
is the Lord telling us? He's going to lead us to the
water of life. He's going to lead us to the
fountain of living water and calls us to drink. His spotted
sheep. This is where they're going to
be born. When we're drinking from the fountain of living water
where these rods have been placed, the gospel of God, the rod and
the staff, the gospel of God, his elect will be brought to
safety. They will be brought through this land safely to the
land flowing with milk and honey by his gospel. He will sustain
us. He will satisfy us under the
shadow of his wing. He will cause us to sleep. upon
the rock of ages to rest upon the finished work of Christ alone.
In the house of God is where this will be declared. It was
called Luz before. Now it's called the house of
God. It's called Bethel. This is where
he meets his people. He will hasten his word to perform
it all while exalting his son for the redemption of his elected
spotted sheep. His spotted sheep that are speckled
By man's eye, even when they saw the Lord, He said, we will
not have this man reign over us. You're taking away our righteousness.
You're making us speckled. But the speckled sheep are counted
as righteousness before Him for righteousness' sake, for the
work of Christ, for His finished work, Christ hath redeemed. When we come to the watering
trough, God births His lambs. God births His lambs by His Spirit
through the preaching of the Gospel. Makes us leprous and he cleanses
us. He makes us spotted and he washes
us. We can only see what Christ has
done. You think about an animal, their
face is down in the watering trough. They're not looking around
at anything else, are they? They're literally just looking
in the watering trough. and there's nothing else to behold around
them. So they're shut up at this time to these spotted, to these
ring-streaked, these three different types of tree. That's what he
does in the preaching of the gospel. He shuts us up to Christ.
Therefore, what we produce, all that we can produce, our offspring,
are the fruits of the Spirit. that he's given unto us by his
spirit. That's all that he sees. In Christ,
because of Christ, and for his glory, he says, come now, let
us read them together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be
as scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like
crimson, they shall be as wool. Thank God for electing a bunch
of spotted sheep. Father, we pray that you would
cause us to see that we are your spotted sheep. Thank you for
redemption. For redeeming your people from
their sin. For finishing the work. Bring
us safely into you, Father, as you promised you would. It's
in Christ name we pray, Amen.