Well, it's good to see you all
out tonight. Remember those who requested prayer. I remember
Melvin. He's back in the hospital with running some serious sugar. I think the pancreatitis has
kicked back in again. So they're trying to find the
ICU room for him somewhere, but they haven't been able to find
anything yet. So continue to remember him in your prayers.
Also, Pat Forkiller and Perry Schell. He was going in the 14th
to have another portion of his other lung removed. So remember
him in your prayers. And also, Inez Huskey. I remember her. The fellow I
was telling you about that had the operation, I talked to him
today. He's doing real good. They did
something called a blood patch. I don't even know what that is.
But they actually took blood out of his arm and shot it right
at there where the injury the last of the injury the lung was
and evidently when the blood coagulates it stops up the hole
and it allows the lung to heal he's back home and doing well
so I never heard of that before that was a new one okie doke let's uh you know worship
service with hymn number 228 my faith has found a resting
place 228 My faith has found a resting
place, not in device nor creed. I trust the ever-living One,
His words for me shall plead. I need no other argument, I need
no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died
and that He died for me. Enough for me that Jesus saves
this, it's my fear and doubt. A sinful soul, I come to Him. never cast me out. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that I My heart is leaning on the Word,
the written Word of God. Salvation by my Savior's name,
salvation through His blood. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died
and that he died for me. My great physician heals the
sick The lost he came to save For me his precious blood he
shed For me his life he gave I need no other argument I need
no other plea It is enough that Jesus died
and that he died for me. Hymn number 517, On Jordan's
stormy banks I stand. On Jordan's stormy banks I stand. a wishful lie to Canaan's fair
and happy land where my possessions lie. I am bound for the promised
land. I am bound for the promised land. ? Will come and go with me ?
? I am bound for the promised land ? ? All o'er those wide
extended plains ? ? Shines one eternal day ? ? There God the
sun forever reigns ? ? And scatters night upon night ? I am bound for the promised land. I am bound for the promised land. Oh, who will come and go with
me? I am bound for the promised land. No chilly winds nor poisonous
breath can reach Sickness and sorrow, pain and
death are felt and feared no more. I am bound for the promised
land. I am bound for the promised land. Oh, who will come and go with
me? When shall I reach that happy
place and be forever blessed? When shall I see my father's
face and in his I am bound for the promised land. I am bound for the promised land. Oh, who will come and go with
me? I am bound for the promised land. If you have your Bibles turn
with me to Genesis chapter 49, I'm going to read verses 16 and
17. It's part 2, the Son is disclosed
and described. Verse 16 says, Dan shall judge
his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent
by the way, an adder in the path that biteth the horse heels,
so that the rider shall fall back with you. Let us pray. Our
Father, we bless you and thank you for your great mercy for
ruined and wretched sinners who, without hope and without help
in this world, cannot look to themselves for anything, for
there's nothing in us that is worthwhile. We're altogether
vile and unclean. And yet, Father, you have shown
grace to us. You have poured out your mercy
upon us. saved our souls, forgiven us
of our sins, put our sins away. What can we say but thank you,
Father, for all you've done for us. Father, we would remember
those who were sick, especially Melvin, who's, again, had a problem
with his ketoacidosis. And Father, we ask, Lord, you'd
be with him and to be with the doctors that they attend to and
watch over him, Father, bring him back to a good measure of
health. We pray also for the others who've requested prayer,
Pat Swaney and his fourth killer and the others who've asked for
prayer. Lord, we remember Fred as he's
facing this thing and Perry as he is facing another operation
on his lung. We ask, Lord, you be with him
and fill us as he ministers to him. Father, be with us tonight
as we gather here that you might be pleased to open up your word
to us and teach us. Cause us to walk in your statutes
and do your judgments. Father, we thank you that you
have given us your word. We trust your word. We know that
it is what we need in this world today, that one thing that will
not change in an ever-changing world. We know that you are in
control, and we do bow to your wisdom in all things. We dare
not trust the sweetest frame that we face, but only trust
in the name of Jesus Christ. Help us, Lord, tonight as we
gather here to worship you as we consider these things that
are before us. Give us grace to understand and
know and appreciate what we have been given by you. In Christ's
name we ask these things. Amen. Now in these two verses, Jacob
speaks of the future of the tribe of Dan. And Dan was the firstborn
of a concubine wife, the handmaid of Leah, And the tribe of Dan
was notable for one thing especially. They were notable for their bent
to idolatry. In the 18th chapter of Judges,
it was the Danites that stole the idols out of Micah's house
and also absconded with Micah's Levite priest that he had hired
for a pittance so he would have some hope with God. see that the falseness of religion
he had all kinds of terror for him in his household all kinds
of little statues and things that he said represented God
here's a picture of false religion I'll never forget the story that
Walter Groover who's gone on to be with the Lord now our missionary
in Mexico for 50 years he was down there said one day a young
man come to know Jesus Christ, who was strong in the Catholic
faith. And down there, it's a lot different, the Catholic faith,
below the border and above the border. Two different, whole
different types of situations. Strong, powerful influence of
the priest and the church down there. And his father had a bunch
of statues for different saints in the house, and little alcoves
he had them placed. And his father, he told his father,
those things aren't anything but idols. anything but idols. And his father said, no, we pray
to those saints. And one day his father come home and found
them crushed on the table with one idol standing. And he says,
you've destroyed the saints. He said, well, pray to that one
there. Maybe he'll restore them all. This is what Micah was doing
in the 17th chapter of the Judges. He went out and hired a firstie
stole some money from his mother and bought a whole bunch of little
gold statues to put in his house. Then that wouldn't satisfy his
conscience enough so he found a young priest who didn't have
anything to do because then the worship of God had pretty much
gone off the kilter altogether and his young priest was just
without a job so he hired him for practically nothing. But
he was proud then. He felt like he was okay with
God because he had a bunch of idols in his house and he had
a priest of his own. to intercede to God for him and
then the Danites come along and stole his gold and statues and
his priest and went off with them and they were big in idolatry. The Danites were in fact the
historical record of the beginning of the times of the judges is
found in the last part of the book of Judges rather than the
first part. Generally you have the history
in the first part and then what happens But verses 17 and 18
of Judges is a historical account of what began with the Judges,
when the Judges were began to be appointed in Israel. It was
a time that was defined by a single and oft-repeated phrase that
defined the error of the Book of Judges, and that was, There
is no king in Israel, and the people did what was right in
their own eyes. That phrase is repeated time and time again
in the Book of Judges. Now what was right in the people's
eyes was evil in the sight of God, as it was a display of blatant
and blasphemous idolatry. Later in the area of the Danites,
where the Danites took up a home, Jeroboam would build a replica
of the golden calf that they built at the bottom of Sinai,
which was the impetus, I believe, for the Ten Commandments that
was written in the Table of Stones. What our Lord wrote about in
those commandments was going on at the bottom of that hill.
thou shalt have no other gods before me." And they were down
there making a golden calf. No image of anything. They were
down there making a golden calf. So those Ten Commandments were
almost caused, if you will, in God's mind by what was going
on down at the bottom of the hill. But Dan, if you look him
up in Scripture, the Danites, they were no torch for an idolatry.
They were just idolaters. Now the name Dan means judge.
You see it says here in verse 16, Dan shall judge his people. Now Dan means judge. So you have
almost, you have a, I forget the term that you use, the language
term, but it doubles up on a single theme or a word. And it comes
off as judge shall judge. That's what this actually says.
And this probably refers to him being a ruler. A ruler among
his people. and the first of a kind and really
he's the first one born of the concubine who was so exalted. Now the description of his character
in verse 17 is more than likely a symbolic picture or representation
of false and subtle evil religion that relies on the wisdom and
the will of men to manufacture their own deities and hire their
priests in order to soothe their consciences in a vain hope of
actual salvation. It says of him, Dan shall be
a serpent. and she'll be a serpent by the
way, and add her in the path that bideth the horse heel, so
that his rider shall fall away backwards." So that's not a very
complimentary thing, is it, about Dan? And like I said, it probably
represents religion. That religion, by the way, the
one which every son of Adam is born into, is subtle as a serpent,
lying by the way, camouflaged and unseen, whose entire existence
is to strike, bite, and poison and kill anybody who passes by. The serpent in the garden is
the father of that religion, and you know what he did. You
know what he did. He's the sire of all who practice
it. It's false religion. What is
that religion? It's any and every religion that
teaches and propagates that a man by himself and of himself can
reach a right standing with God. Any religion that does that is
a false religion. And there ain't but one religion
that doesn't do that. And that's the true religion.
That's the religion that God has set forth in His scripture
that says man can do nothing and is nothing, can produce nothing,
and his only hope is found in what Jesus Christ has done for
him. That's it. That's the other religion. All other religions, regardless
whether it's so-called Christianity, which involves Presbyterians,
and Baptists, and all kinds of Methodists, and Moravians, and
all these others, or cultured religions like Seventh-day Adventists,
or the Mormons, or Jehovah's Witness, or the Muslim religion,
or Christendom, which is all religions that fall under the
pale of Romanism or Catholicism, all of those have the same way
to get to God. It's by their will, by their
works, and by their efforts. Only one religion says no to
that, and that's the true religion that God has set forth in Scripture.
He says everybody else is of the devil. Now I know what we
think of the devil. We think people have made him
out to look like a goat with horns and a forked tail and carried
a trident and just awful ugly. He's not. He's beautiful. The
word serpent in the original language in Genesis is a bright
and shining, illustrious character, a light. Remember, his servants
and his ministers, according to Paul in 2 Corinthians 11,
are angels of light. and ministers of righteousness
he's an angel of light he's beautiful he's beautiful but he's the devil
and his his way of teaching you is that you can as he told Eve
you can if you actually disobey God be more like God you can
be saved if you disobey God you say well that can't be nobody
teaches that the gospel is set forth clearly in this book And
when men are told to disobey the gospel and trust their own
will and their own works, that's of the devil. Our Lord said that
in John chapter 8 when He was talking to the Pharisees who
practice a meritorious religion. In John chapter 8, our Lord said
this in verse 42, He said, Jesus said to them, If God were your
Father, which is saying God's not your Father, If God were
your Father, ye would love me. Now, that's true in every case. That's one of those things that
could turn into a motto and put on your wall. If God were your
Father, you would love Jesus Christ. For I proceeded forth
and came from a mother, and neither came I myself, but He sent me.
Why do you not understand my speech? Even because you cannot
hear my words. Now, were they hearing them with
their natural ears? Yeah. They were hearing what
He was saying. but he couldn't hear with the
ears of faith because they didn't have faith he says you are of
your father the devil and the lust of your father you will
do what was his lust Isaiah 14 his lust was to be to set himself
on the throne of God that's what every man does if he believes
in salvation is by his own power he was a murderer from the beginning
killed the human race and abode not in the truth, because there
was no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh
of his own, for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because
I tell you the truth, you believe me not." Now did you see that?
Because I tell you. If I told you a lie, you'd believe
me. But because I tell you the truth, you believe me not. This
is the devil's religion that's being spoke of. That religion
is the practice of overt disobedience. Remember, Eve was deceived, and
it says of Adam, four words, and he did eat. It didn't say he was deceived,
because he wasn't deceived. When that fruit was offered to
him, whatever that fruit was which brought forth the knowledge
of good and evil, it says, and he did eat. So this religion has to do with
disobedience. This religion has to do with
fig leaf covering, trying to cover your sins. This religion
has to do with hiding from God. This religion has to do with
blaming someone else or something else for your sin, which Adam
did. Once he got caught, he blamed Eve, and Eve blamed God. It is the prevalent religion
of every age since Adam, the natural religion of man, culminating
in Babylon the Great. And this is the illustrious and
idolatrous history of this tribe of Dan. This is their history. But there is more than meets
the eye here. There was indeed a judge from
this tribe of Dan whose life and deeds picture and typify
the Lord in the salvation and deliverance of his people, the
destruction of the enemy. The gospel is pictured in the
life of this man. The preacher of the gospel is
pictured in this life. The sinner saved by grace is
pictured in the life of this man. And the subtle and sure
providence of Almighty God is set forth in no uncertain terms.
There was indeed a judge in Israel, a man of might, endued with God's
Spirit, a man of like passions as we, a sinner saint, and a
savior of the people. One whose name was Wonderful
announced his birth. We know who that is, don't we?
That one whose name was Wonderful came from heaven and then ascended
in the flame of a fire. The one born was a Nazarene from
his birth. What does that mean? He never
cut his hair and he never shaved his beard. Never shaved his beard. He was said to be from the time
he proceeded to the room a servant of the Most High God until the
day he died. He was a Nazarene. What was his
name? His name was Samson. The judge,
the final judge mentioned in the book of Judges. I'll tell
you, it was hard for me because I pulled out my commentary on
Judges and I read it and I think, well, maybe I ought to go with
this game, but I'm not going to. It'll just take too long. But
you've got the book, starting with Chapter 13, read through
by Chapter 16, you'll find out who I'm talking about. Samson.
Samson. The mighty hero whose exploits
are the stuff of legend. His name to this day is synonymous
with strength and power. Michael Landon. You remember
him? Little Joe, little house on the
prairie, touched with an angel or by an angel. He never cut
his hair. You know why? He thought that's
where his strength was. He took that from the Bible.
See, Samson's hair was long, but he was strong, which is what
Samson told Delilah. But it wasn't his hair that was
long that made him strong. His hair was long because he
was a Nazarene, and when it was cut, He was disobedient to the
Nazarene Creed and therefore he could not have the spirit
of the Lord while he was like that. This great man was a flawed
man. He was a flawed man. But he delivered
Israel from the captivity of the Philistines. He died a voluntary
death after his hair grew back and they burned out his eyes
where he could not see. He had to walk by faith. They
put his hands between the pillars of that temple and he tore down
that temple and he killed himself and the Philistines that day.
But it was a voluntary death. Nobody made him do it. And it
was the destruction of the enemy and the deliverance of Israel.
Doesn't that sound familiar, Don? One who voluntarily died and
saved his people and destroyed the enemy. Of course it sounds
familiar. And in that final act, he pictured
the salvation of the elect. What happens when God reveals
salvation to His people? They die to the world, and the
world dies to them. The language employed in the
description of Dan in verse 17 is a description of the mysterious
and wondrous providence of God. Unless one knew of the providence
of God, the predestinated steps that brought about Samson's ordained
occasion with the Philistines, one would simply wonder at the
riddles the slain lion whose carcass yielded honey, the decimation
of an army with the jawbone of an ass, the cutting of Samson's
hair, the blinding of his eyes, all of it would just be a confusing
morass of an indefinable incidence. But with the subtlety of an adder,
the camouflage of a viper, the Philistines were unhorsed when
the providence of God bit them of an invisible potency. Philistines
scratched their heads as Samson's riddles dumbfounded them, even
as the parables of our Lord confounded the Pharisees. And each one of
those riddles and each one of those parables was an arrow in
the quiver that would ultimately pierce their souls and end their
existence. Dan shall be a judge. Indeed he was. Indeed he was. Dan shall judge his people, and
it is said of the Lord in Psalm 9 in verse 8, but the Lord shall
judge the world in righteousness. He shall minister judgment to
the people in His uprightness. Now He judges the world in righteousness,
but for His people He ministers judgment. To who? To Himself
for the benefit of His people. Who is Dan? An idolatrous nation,
but one man out of that whole outfit. one lone heroic person
saved Israel. That is a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Father, bless us to understand Him, we pray in
Christ's name, Amen.