Turn with me to Genesis chapter
31. Genesis chapter 31. And we heard
the first hour, Genesis chapter 30. So this is an immediate continuation
of what we just heard and what had transpired. Genesis chapter 31. We know that
in chapter 30 we saw that Rachel and Leah had their children according
to the Lord's promise and that Rachel had finally been able
to give, Lord gave her a child and they named him Joseph. And
so Jacob was ready to depart at that time back to his homeland
after working for 14 years for Laban. And we're going to find
in this chapter, we found that he was going to stay with Laban
for some time, but we'll find in this chapter, he worked six
more years. So that's a total of 20 years that he worked for
Laban in order to have two wives and all the flocks that were
promised to him. The promised flock that he received, as we
saw in the last hour, was the spotted sheep, not the ones that
were considered good or could be offered up for sacrifice,
but it was the ones that were spotted. He set the rods in the
watering trough, and I'm just kind of giving you a recap of
what we just heard. He sets the rods in the watering
trough and causes them to see the spots in the ring streaks
and the stripes that he had put into the rods to reveal the white
underneath it, which is his gospel. That's what we're doing right
now is peeling the bark away. He did this. He set the rods
in the watering troughs where the Lord meets his people. We
come to this place to hear the gospel, and this is where the
Lord gives us to drink. And all we see is the finished
work of Christ. In Christ, because he has done
this and caused us to see these things, the what is produced
at that time is the sheep that the Lord has promised unto his
son, which is the spotted sheep and the striped sheep and not
the ones that are good, but the ones that see their self having
their righteousness as filthy rags. Now, in verse 31, verse
one, we see that Let's read the previous verse,
and this is talking about Jacob. And the man increased exceedingly,
and had much cattle, and maidservants, and menservants, and camels,
and asses. And he heard the word of Laban's son, saying, Jacob
had taken away all that was our father's, and of that which was
our father's, hath he gotten all this glory? And Jacob beheld
the countenance of Laban, and behold, it was not toward him
as before. And Jacob sent and the Lord said
unto Jacob, return into the land of our fathers and to the kindred,
and I will be with thee. Jacob sent and called Rachel
and Leah to the field and to his flock and said to them, I
see that your father's countenance, but it is not toward me as before. But the God of my father hath
been with me. We see that the countenance of
Laban had changed because of the wording of the sons as they
were angry with Jacob in order of getting the flock. And we
know from the previous hour that the ring-streaked and the spotted
ones were supposed to go to Jacob because of their covenant. And
we know that the ones that were not spotted or ring-streaked
or had any blemishes went to Laban, but the Lord had made
it so that the ones that were flourishing by God's word and
by what he told Jacob to do, Jacob had much flock and cattle
as we see in verse 43 of the last chapter. So the Lord had
blessed him exceedingly. And we see that the sons of Laban
were jealous and angry and whatever kind of emotion you want to call
it. It was all purpose because when Jacob saw Laban, he saw
that his countenance had changed towards Jacob. Now, in the last
hour, we mentioned that Laban could represent the law and he
could represent Satan and he could represent the father as
a covenant with his son and different things like that. But I have
no doubt in this chapter that Laban represents the law. Very
clear to me. And I trust the Lord will cause
us to see that together this hour. The first reason I believe
that that's the case is because it says that his countenance
had changed towards Jacob. I'm reminded of our savior who
became sin for his elect people. I'm reminded that the law demanded
justice when it saw sin upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore,
that countenance had to change towards the Lord. It was no longer
the countenance of being pleased or satisfied. But once he saw
sin, once the Lord saw sin upon his son, justice was demanded. The Lord turned his face away
from his son. His countenance changed towards
his son. The sort of justice was unsheathed
and pierced into the heart of the Lamb of God. The Lord's countenance
had changed. So we see the law demanded justice. Just as Laban here, countenance
had changed towards Jacob because something had changed. So Jacob
gathers his wives and his flocks and he plans to leave. He mentions
to them all the things that he had done for Laban. And in verse
7, says, and your father has deceived me and changed my wages
10 times. Well, that's another example,
I believe of Laban being the law is 10, the 10 commandments,
the law 10 normally represents the law. And so he tells them,
your father changed my wages 10 times, but God suffered him
not to hurt me. He begins to speak to them. And
he tells them, as we heard in the last hour, he tells them
about what had happened in Bethel, whenever he slept upon the rock
and saw the angels ascending and descending into glory. He
tells them that the Lord appeared unto me even then and said, I
will be with you. And the Lord hath appeared unto
me again and says, it's time for me to go back to Canaan,
to the promised land, promised of my father, go back to where
Isaac was before Isaac died. And so after he had done telling
them all of the work that he had done for Laban, everything
that he had been through in order to redeem them, in order to have
what he had, he tells them that it's time for us to leave. And
the daughters of Laban have this to say, they are counted strangers
unto Laban. Laban had more or less wrote
them off. And so they said, you need to follow the Lord, whatever
he's told you to do. Now we see Jacob, he's taking back his people. his wives that he hath redeemed
by the works of his hand, the cattle that was born unto him
by the promise that he had made in the covenant with Laban, He's
bringing all of them back unto the promised land. And we can
see Jacob as being the Lord Jesus Christ. We can see Rachel and
we can see Leah as being the old and new man. We can see them
as being the Lord's bride, if you will. We can see all the
flocks and herds that he's bringing as being the sheep of the Lord,
the chosen people. All these are types and shadows.
And so here we are going back, journeying with our Jacob right
now. This is where we're at. As far as God is concerned, it
is finished and we are seated in Christ. Our sin hath been
put away. Now we are going through this
journey called life and the promises of God are unfolding in front
of us. The purpose of God is coming to pass in front of us.
Time has to be fulfilled according to the words of the Lord. And
so here we are journeying back with our Jacob. We already know
that our Lord successfully brought back his people, but because
of this, because in the fullness of time, the Lord sending forth
his son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin
in the flesh, time had to happen for the Lord to redeem his people.
So we're going through this process now of this journey. You and I see it as a journey
often, don't we? The trials, tribulations and
afflictions that we may endure, the things that overwhelm us,
the sin that does so easily beset us of unbelief. We see it as
a journey. Our life is a vapor that appears
for a little time to vanish at the way the scripture says. So
we see the journey plain and clear. God doesn't see it that
way. He sees it as it's finished. Your sins been put away. You're
already there with him right now. No man can take you from
my father's hand. You're in, you're, you're in
the, my father, Lord Jesus Christ said, my sheep, hear my voice.
And I know them and they follow me and I give them to them eternal
life. And no man is able to pluck them
from my hand. My father which gave them me is greater than
all, and no man is able to pluck them from my father's hand. I
and my father are one. We can't get out of Christ's
hand, and Christ is in God's hand. There's no way, who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? We are already there
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I don't understand
all of that, but I believe it because he said it. Look at verse 17. It says, Then Jacob rose up and
set his sons and his wives upon camels, and he carried away all
his cattle and all his goods, which he had gotten in the cattle
of his getting, which he had gotten in Paddan Aram, for to
go to Isaac his father in the land of Canaan. Now, this wording
used here, gotten in Paddan Aram, that word means the field, the
field. What he had gotten in the field,
and they were going to go back to Canaan. So he's going to take
everything he got from the field and go back to the promised land
is what he's saying. The Lord said in Matthew chapter 13, 44,
again, the kingdom of heaven is likened to treasure hid in
a field. The witch, when a man has found,
he hideth and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all he hath
and buyeth the field. Again, the kingdom of heaven
is likened to a merchant seeking goodly pearls who, when he had
found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had
and bought it. Christ Jesus found his hidden
treasure in the field. In order to have His treasure,
in order to fulfill the covenant of grace, He bought the field. The earth is the Lord and the
fullness thereof. Do we see that the field here
is talking about where you and I were held captive and the Lord,
becoming a man, came to this field and redeemed us back to
the Father. He bought the whole field. He
bought the whole field for his people. He bought the pearl of
great price. That's what he's referred to
as. Now, you and I see the Lord Jesus Christ as being the pearl
of great price, but he declares us as the pearl of great price.
By his own blood begat he us. That was the price paid. We are
his treasure. Think about that. We are God's
treasure. The elect of God are his treasure. I would not believe that unless
he said it. And he did so in Psalm 135 verse
four. For the Lord hath chosen Jacob
unto himself and Israel for his peculiar treasure. His peculiar
treasure. How? How did he do that? He satisfied God's law. He redeemed
us back to him by his own blood. We are his peculiar treasure. I wish I could enter into that.
to the fullest, we wouldn't worry about anything if we could enter
into that. Being God's treasure, being a prized possession. We
have treasures as human beings. Every treasure that we're going,
that we have or we value is gonna go back to where it came from.
It's gonna burn up in the fervent heat. But the Lord Jesus Christ
calls us his treasure. Us his peculiar treasure, his
particular people. What rest there is brethren in
knowing that the Lord declared us as his treasure. Now in verse 22, it was told
Laban on the third day that Jacob was fled. And he took his brethren
with him and pursued after him seven days, seven days journey. And they overtook him in the
Mount Gilead. And God came to Laban the Syrian in a dream by
night and said unto him, take heed that thou speak not to Jacob,
either good or bad. Now the word Gilead means the
rocky region. Seven days he's pursuing after
Jacob. Jacob had left three days prior
to that, so he's three days out by then. It took him seven days
to catch up to him. But I see the number three here as being
significant as the three days and three nights of the Lord
Jesus Christ being in the heart of the earth. I see the number
seven here as the number of perfection, the number of the law. The law
called up to Jacob. Just like the law demanded justice
on the cross of Calvary, when the Lord was made sin for us,
the law called up. Do we see that the law demanded
justice right then on the spot, they met at the rocky region,
the Lord Jesus Christ and the law. The rocky region was called
Gotha. Was it not Mount Calvary? This
is where Everything that was to come to pass for the salvation
of the Lord's people would be executed, would come to pass.
Christ and all of his elect are pursued by the law, making its
demands, demanding justice. We're pursued by Satan, falsely
accusing us. Did you know? Whenever Satan
appeared before the Lord, anytime that he appears before the Lord,
the scripture says that he falsely accuses the brethren. Do you
know why his accusations are false? Because God does not see
sin upon his people. He does not see sin upon his
people. So when the devil says, Steve is doing this and Steve
is doing that, only thing the Lord sees to the believer is
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our hope. Whenever I'm
accused, The Lord Jesus Christ put away whatever that accusation
was and he bore it in his own body so that when they accused
him, he kept his mouth shut. He opened not his mouth but went
as a lamb before the slaughter is done. He opened not his mouth
because he was bearing the sin of his people. We can't conquer
the flesh, we can't conquer Satan, we can't conquer the law and
all of them we contend with, but our Savior did perfectly,
perfectly. There was a young man in the
scripture named David. He was a lad. He had been anointed king
over Israel by Samuel. And there was a giant that had
made war. The nation, the Philistine nation,
had made war against Israel. And they were on two different
mountains, if you will, with a valley below in between them. Jesse was David's father. Jesse
said, I want you to go down. And by the way, Jesse, just so
you know, the book of Ruth, you can find the lineage there. Boaz
was the one that married Ruth. Boaz was the great grandfather
of David. Boaz was the grandfather of Jesse. Obed was Jesse's dad. So Boaz
begat Obed. Obed begat Jesse. Jesse begat
David. David means, David's name means
beloved, beloved of the Lord. So Jesse tells David, I want
you to go down to meet your brothers that are warring against these
Philistines. I want you to bring them bread. I want you to bring
them cheese. I want you to look after them. Let me know how they're
doing. Come back and tell me. And so David does so. David goes
down and he hears that this giant had came out, Goliath of Gath,
which by the way, Gath means a wine press, a wine press. Goliath means splendor or splendid. So David comes down and he hears
about this giant that had came out for 40 days. And he said,
send your champion out that he may face me. And if he kills
me, then we'll be your servants. But if it goes the other way,
then you'll be our servants. And so for 40 days, this giant
was making a mock. I'm reminded the number 40 was
the number that God chose for the rain to fall upon the earth,
40 days and 40 nights, the wrath of God. And so there's so much
in this story, this account of David that I can't, I cannot
elaborate to the fullest. I just kind of hit the high spots
if I can say it that way. Whenever he comes up and hears
about this giant, hear him mocking God, he goes up and tells the
brother and he said, well, send me, I'll go down there and fight
him. And word gets back to Saul and Saul brings David in. David says this, he says, for
who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies
of the living God? And Saul says unto David after
David says, I'm going to I want to go fight. I want to go. Send
me is what David said. Send me that I may fight against
him. Now, Saul's response to David is that thou art not able. And when I remember thinking
of the scripture that tells us the Lord Jesus Christ, there's
no beauty in him, that we should desire him. There is nobody that
was betting on David. They were taking, they were casting
lots. If they were gambling in any
way, shape or form, there's nobody betting on David. Everyone. I'm
like, well, let's bet on the giant, this little, that he was a lad,
14, 16 years old. He was a lad. So by everybody's
standards, by all men's standards, there's no way that David could
defeat Goliath. It was impossible to everybody
else. But with God, all things are possible. Aren't you glad
for that? David, our David, this is not to teach us that
David, that through David, you and I can learn to try a little
harder. Or that you and I can be more brave and face the giant
of this life and overcome it. That's not what the Lord's teaching
us here. The Lord's teaching us that we are included in this account
because of Christ conquering what he conquered. It's not us
at all that's facing any of these things. It's the Lord Jesus Christ
and what He hath done. The story of Daniel in the lion's
den, that's Christ for His people. The story of Shadrach, Meshach,
and Abednego, that's Christ for His people. The story of David
and Goliath, that's Christ for His people. Every account, Joseph,
that's Christ for His people. Jacob, that's Christ for His
people. And yet, they were men that really did those things
as well. Our hope is that we see Christ in these passages
of scripture, not just as stories, not in something to cause us,
if you're thinking about sports, men will rally, won't they? They'll
get excited, they'll get hyped up. They're like, yeah, now we
can go do something. We're ready, even though we're down in the game,
whatever it may be. That's not what this story is
about. This account of the gospel is to point us to David being
Christ. Well, what did he do as our substitute? When David begins talking to
Saul, he says, I was watching the sheep and a lion came and
took one of the sheep and I took the lion by the beard and I took
the lamb out of the lion's mouth. I saved the sheep. I saved that
lamb. He said, and again, another account,
there was a bear that came and tried to devour one of the sheep
and I slew the bear. So what does that represent?
The lion represents Satan, doesn't it? He walketh about as a roaring
lion, seeking whom he may devour. What about the bear and his strength?
That's the law. The law had a claim on you and
I because of our sin, because of our trespass against it. The
same law that's in our text here in Genesis chapter 31. So we
see that David answers and said unto Saul, the Lord hath delivered
me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear.
He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. Saul
said unto David, go and the Lord be with thee. So what does Saul
do for David? Well, you can't face him by yourself
like you are as a shepherd. You're going to need to put some
armor on. He takes his armor that Saul has tried, that he
had confidence in. Saul's a big dude. You can imagine
King typically was a big guy and everybody kind of looked
up to him. That's not always the case, but that's kind of
how it is. He was the strongest looking, maybe the most handsome. You
know, I don't know, but I know that the armor that he put upon David,
he had tried and knew that it would protect David if he would
allow him to wear it. David said these words unto Saul. He says,
I've not proved. Your armor. Brethren, I'm reminded
that the armor of the Lord. When the scripture talks about
the armor of the Lord, it's the breastplate of righteousness.
It's the helmet of salvation. It's the feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace. It's the sword of the spirit.
Those are the things that the Lord equips his people with.
It's all Christ, Christ, Christ, every bit of it is Christ. That's
what he equips us with. That is our only defense. The
shield of faith, it's the faith of Christ. That's our only line
of defense against the wiles of the devil, against the fiery
darts. So when David looks at Saul, he says, I've not proven
these. He goes to face the giant with a rod, with five smooth
stones and a sling. Now we've already heard this
morning, first hour, and from Psalm 23, thy rod and thy staff,
they comfort me. The rod represents power, the
king's power. The rod is what the Lord uses
to correct his people. It is the gospel. That's how
we correct the sheep. That's how the Lord corrects
his sheep, is through the preaching of the gospel, period. That's
it. That's how he calls his sheep. That's how he feeds his sheep.
That's how he waters his sheep. That's how he keeps his sheep.
This is the rod that's represented here. He took five smooth stones,
also five is the number of grace. Did the Lord Jesus Christ need
five times to conquer Goliath? No, Lord didn't try, did he?
But he gave us the number five so that you and I could see that
it was all by grace that Goliath fell, all by grace. I love the
account because the Lord, you have the picture in your head
of a 10 foot, almost 10 foot man versus a lad that's 14, 16
years old that brings a stone as his weapon. a stone as his
weapon. This is the same stone that Jacob
slept on, was it not? The same rock of ages that Jacob
was allowed to rest upon. David's faith was completely
in God, in the rock of ages, in the Lord Jesus Christ, and
that's why the giant fell. So what does the giant represent?
We have the lion of Satan, we have the bear as the law, and
we have, I'm sorry, we have, yes, the lion of Satan, the bear
as the law, We have Goliath, the giant as our flesh, our flesh. We cannot conquer our flesh.
It is bigger than we are. It is boastful. That's what splendid
means. Splendid flesh. This man, his
righteousness, his splendor was going forth. And David, our David,
the Lord Jesus Christ, conquered him, conquered our flesh, put
away our sin as the good shepherd with the stone, with the rock.
with the rock that the builders disallowed, the head, the chief
of the corner. That's what the Lord did. He defeated him as the good shepherd.
He drew near unto the Philistine, Goliath of Gath. He drew near
to the wine press. the winepress of God's wrath.
This is where they're meeting at right now in Genesis, in Gilead.
This is where all this is happening right now. Christ defeating the
giant of the sin of our flesh, laying down His life for the
sheep. He says in Isaiah 63, verse 3, I have trodden the winepress
alone, and of the people there was none with me. He goes, our
Lord Jesus Christ went to face this giant by himself, by himself,
and by himself hath put away the sin of the Lord's people.
He hath saved his people from their sin. He conquered Satan,
fulfilled the law. He chops off the head of the
flesh. He chops off all our unbelief, puts them away, puts away our
sin. He saved his people from their sin. The scripture says
in verse 50 of this account in first Samuel. So David prevailed
over the Philistine with a sling and a stone, a sling and a stone. That's the gospel of God's free
grace. Did you know that? That's what we come to declare
is the sling and the stone of the Lord Jesus Christ, the sling
and the stone. Every time we come together,
all we're doing is declaring the finished work of Jesus Christ.
and the stones will hit right in the head of the giant that
we have in our flesh. The gospel, the sling and the
stone goes forth and it chops off any righteousness that we
have. It chops its head clean off,
doesn't it? It does. The Lord Jesus Christ brings
us to himself by the preaching of his gospel. He saves his people
with the sling and the stone. Now, in closing, I want us to
look here in verse 29 of our text. Genesis 31, verse 29. Laban had overtook Jacob in Mount
Gilead, and it says in verse 29, it is in the power of my
hand to do you hurt. But the God of your father spake
unto me yesterday night, saying, Take thou heed that thou speak
not to Jacob, either good or bad. Why could the law not speak? because it had been satisfied.
Why is the law not speaking against the Lord's people anymore? Because
they have been made perfectly righteous before the Lord. That
is our hope. Go back to verse 19 quickly,
and it says, And Laban went to shear his sheep, and Rachel had
stolen the images that were her father's. It was necessary for
us to go back to understand why Laban says the next thing that
he says in verse 30. Look at verse 30. Laban says,
and now though thou wouldest needs be gone because thou soar
longest after thy father's house, yet wherefore hast thou stolen
my gods? Now we know that all these are
types and shadows of different things. And I have declared unto
you that Laban represents the law here right now, but there's
other ways that he could be considered as well. And so we see that the
representation of Laban accusing Jacob of taking gods away from
him. When Rachel had left, she took
the gods of Laban. We see that the law is showing
us that we are idol factories from birth. We are born idol
factories. So what do I mean by that? Very
simply put, we are born believing that we are God. We don't need
a cross around our neck in order to have a false idol. We don't
need a picture of Jesus in order to have a false idol. Every time,
by nature, we look in the mirror, we love ourself. We love ourself. The law shows us that we are
idol factories, that we worship ourself. We took the images of
our father. Well, who's our father? Well,
the scripture is very clear that Adam is our father and he fell
in the garden. We took the image of our father.
What were they guilty of? They were guilty of wanting to
be God. Adam and Eve were guilty of wanting to be God. That's
exactly what we do by nature. The law is demanding justice
here for the transgression of our false gods. Now many different
things can be your God. It doesn't matter. Scripture
talks about the love of money is the root of all evil. Brothers
and sisters, I'm going to tell you, I truly believe that the
God that we so much wrestle with is this one right here. It's
our flesh. And the Lord hath put away those
false idols for his people. The only way that we will look
to Christ as our substitute is if the Lord takes that false
God and destroys him and give us faith to look to Christ. Then
we repent. That's not God at all. This is
the Lord Jesus Christ. We see him high and lifted up.
So we see that the law is demanding justice for these false gods
that's been taken. Taken unto Rachel. Now read with
me, if you will, verse 32. Jacob as Christ is saying unto Laban, with whomsoever
thou findest thy gods, let him not live. For our brethren discern
thou what is thine with me and take it to thee. For Jacob knew
not that Rachel had stolen it." Now, Rachel knows that she's
taken the gods, but she doesn't mention that to Jacob. That would
have probably been a very interesting piece of information to relate
to your husband, especially since Jacob just said, if he finds
the gods, whoever you find it with, we'll kill them right now
on the spot. And that is the justice that is demanded by the
law. As soon as sin is saw, it must be destroyed. It must be
destroyed immediately. Verse 33 says, and Laban went
into Jacob's tent and into Leah's tent and into the two maidservant's
tents, but he found them not. Then went he out of Leah's tent
and entered into Rachel's tent. Now Rachel had taken the images
and put them in the camel's furniture and sat upon them and Laban searched
all the tent, but found them not. And she said to her father, let
it not displease my Lord that I cannot rise up before thee
for the custom of woman, the custom of women is upon me. And
he searched, but found not the images. The hope that we have is that
as the law examines us, it finds no graven image in us because
the images have been put away. The images here represent, sure,
false gods, but it's also our sin. It was the sin, the transgression,
the trespass of stealing is what's happening right here. Well, what
do men steal by nature? They steal the glory of God.
At least they try to. So we see the law is searching
the old man, the new man. We see that we searching Christ
as our substitute. That's Leah, Rachel and Jacob
right there. And all that he says, is justice must be executed
if I find one sin. If I find one thing, justice
must be executed upon you. And so he searches all the tent
Laban does. Christ said justice has being
executed upon them already. As our surety, the Lord Jesus
Christ took the punishment of his people, took the execution
for his people, took our sin into his body. And as the law
demands justice, justice was satisfied in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Did you know that justice cannot demand to be satisfied ever again
because it was satisfied once and forever? The justice of God
was satisfied once and forever. The Lord Jesus Christ has taken
the false gods of our heart, our unbelief, the sin, everything
that we are, and put it away, given us a covering. The covering
that they're talking about here, the covering of the camel's pouch. He's put all that underneath.
So what has he done? He's cast our sin as far as east
is from the west, never to be remembered again. Now notice
verse 35. It says it's the custom of women.
And this was her time of month, if you will. And she's considered
unclean. Now, even though the Levitical
law had not been given for purification ceremonies, or the law had not
been given at all at this particular time, it was still custom in
that time that during this time of the month, the women would
be considered unclean. You would have no part with these
women. So the law cannot touch something unclean without executing
it, cannot. As soon as the law sees, as soon
as God the Father in His holiness sees something unclean, it must
be executed. Christ made Himself, brethren,
the unclean thing for His people. Christ Jesus became sin for us
who knew no sin, so that when the law sees us, it does not
see us as unclean. and demand justice. The Father
sees the blood. The Father sees perfection because
of substitution by His dear Son. This was all done that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. That our sin would
be put away. That we would be reconciled back
to God, covered by His blood. Look what Jacob says to this
in verse 36. Jacob was wroth and choked with Laban. And Jacob
answered and said to Laban, What is my trespass? What is my sin
that thou hast so hotly pursued after me? Whereas thou hast searched
all my stuff, and thou hast not found all thy household stuff? Set it here before my brethren
and thy brethren, that they may judge betwixt us both, my brethren
and thy brethren. What is this a picture of here?
It is the believer. The Lord Jesus Christ putting
away our sin whenever Laban representing the law comes into the tents
looking for sin. When he's looking for that which
could be stolen, the glory of God, all that he can see is there
is nothing there. There is no sin there. There
is no guilt there. There is no unrighteousness there. There is just perfection. There
is just righteousness. Laban can't say anything. Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that
justifieth. His law was satisfied. What is
my trespass? The law cannot answer. What is
my sin? The law only sees perfection.
Because of this, we have verse 54 and 55. Then Jacob offered sacrifice
upon the mount. That's the Lord Jesus Christ
offering Himself up for His people and called His brethren to eat
bread. Is that not what we're doing right now? Eating the bread
of the Lord. We're going to take the Lord's table in a moment.
And that's what we're reminded of is the Lord's body being broken
for His people. He calls His brethren to come
together, eat the bread, and they did eat bread and tarried
all night in the mount. Early in the morning, Laban rose
up and kissed his sons and his daughters and blessed them. And
Laban departed and returned unto his place. We are feasting at
the Lord's table right now on the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, on the bread of life, Do you know why the law of God
returned to its place? Now understand something, brethren,
we love the Lord's laws. The Lord hath written his law
upon our heart, but we do not worship the Lord's law. We delight
in the Lord's law because the Lord Jesus Christ himself has
satisfied the law. Do we see that? That's why it
returned to its place, because it was fulfilled. The Lord Jesus
Christ did everything necessary for the salvation of his people.
Romans chapter 8, verse 3 says, For what the law could not do
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sent forth his son
in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in
the flesh. This was all done that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him who walked not after
the flesh, but after the spirit. God will not acquit the guilty.
Therefore, you and I must be made guiltless in order to be
made righteous. You and I have to be made guiltless
in order to be made accepted. Justification, brethren, does
not mean just as if I had never sinned. Todd Norbert says this
pretty often. I love it. Justification does
not mean that you sinned once and then you know, and now it's
as if you hadn't sinned once. Justification literally means
that you have never sinned one time. If you had, then it wouldn't
be justification. The Lord does not see sin upon
his people, not for one moment in time, not not in eternity.
He does not see a single sin because the Lord Jesus Christ
put him away. That's justification. That's the gospel that we hope
in, that the Lord Jesus Christ has justified us before the law
of God. The Lord will not compromise
any attribute In order to save someone, everything must be fulfilled. And it was in the Lord Jesus
Christ so that he is just and the justifier so that he is righteous
and give us his righteousness. The man preaches that there is
something we must do. They're preaching that we must
satisfy God and there is nothing that a man can do to satisfy
God. The Lord Jesus was called the beloved son of the father.
The Lord spoke from heaven and said, this is my beloved son
in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him. That's what we come
to hear is that the law is satisfied. God's law is satisfied for his
elect. It says in Romans chapter 10, verse four, for Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
Normally, you don't give your title out as the very last thing
you state, but I realize I haven't given you the title yet for this
message. I'm so thankful to the Lamb of God. God's law is satisfied. That's the title. God's law is
satisfied. Who is it satisfied? Why? Who is it satisfied for? The
elect of God. God's law has been satisfied. Father, cause us to rest in the
finished work of Christ, knowing that the law has been satisfied,
knowing that we are only counted righteous because of you and
your finished work. Cause us to rest in that and
knowing you fulfilled and satisfied the law of God. And it has nothing
to say against the believer because of what you've done in Christ. And we ask these things. Amen.