God's Word: Righteous and Rewarding

Thank you so much that you dwelt among us What an amazing thing to realize that God would become man And that, Lord, you would experience what we experience every day Pain, loneliness, heartache, trouble, temptation And in so doing, become our faithful high priest who can sympathize with our weaknesses So we can truly come to you in our time of need and ask for help And you grant us that help, Lord, through your grace and through your mercy

Today, as we look once again at the beautiful story as outlined in the scriptures of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, may we lead this place not as we came May we leave a different kind of people with a deeper commitment to our God We pray in Jesus' name Amen To begin our time together this morning, I would invite you to turn with me to the Gospel of Luke The Gospel of Luke We're going to continue our study in Jacob's family by examining each of the boys and their name and the significance on how they were used to provide for us the pathway of redemption

But what I want to show with you this morning is something, or introduce to you this morning, is something I think is very important for us, especially during this time of the year, to lead us into our study of Jacob's family And that is this, you know, there are a lot of us who are going to miss the significance of this season There are a lot of us who are going to miss the solemnity of the season, the celebration of the season And why is that? Christmas is going to come, and Christmas is going to go, and for most of us, you know, it's just going to be something we completely overlook

There are so many things that come into our lives, so many things that happen to us in our lives One of them is in the realm of activity We become so busy at this time of year that we don't spend much time reflecting upon the birth of Christ Activity seems to consume us We have Christmas parties We have them at the office We have them at the church We have gifts we have to buy Long lines we have to stand in We have Christmas cards and letters that need to be sent on time so that people get them on time We have all kinds of places to go Christmas musicals to attend

Christmas Eve services to go to And we find ourselves becoming very, very busy In Luke chapter 2, there was a man who was busy He was the innkeeper He was so busy making money, he didn't have time for Mary and for Joseph He didn't have time to find a place for them He didn't have time to make room for them Because it was about money for him It was about making more money There are some of you who will probably get a second job during the holiday season Maybe your wife will work or maybe you'll take on a second job in order to get more money to buy more things at this time of year

Is there anything wrong with that? No, not at all But let me caution you You can become so busy, so focused on getting more money to buy more gifts, to accomplish more things, that this season will come and go, and you'll miss the significance of the season The endkeeper missed it No, he missed it altogether, because he was about money-making The activities around him were more important than the activity before him Jesus Christ, our Lord Another thing that I see in the story in the Gospel of Luke is a story of religiosity This time of year we become very religious people

We'll have a lot of people next Sunday morning because it's Christmas Sunday We'll have people who come to a Christmas musical because it's Christmas We'll have people who come to a Christmas Eve service because it is a Christmas Eve service And so you have those two Sunday a year people who come, Christmas and Easter, and they'll show up and be here, and others will come and, you know, bathe themselves in religiosity They'll attend church They'll be at church But outside of those people, there are those of us who come every week and are ingrained in religiosity

In Luke chapter 2, there was a man who went to the temple, along with thousands of other people who went to the temple But he was the only one. who saw the Messiah Everybody else was into their religion They were into doing the religious thing They were into doing the religious sacrifice They were into doing the religious rituals of the day They were into doing the singing, doing the giving, doing the praying kind of thing because that's what they always do So much so that they miss the one who came that day Simeon, he didn't miss him

No, he took the Lord God in his arms and said, Now, Lord, thou dost let thy bondservant depart in peace according to thy word, for my eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light of revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people, Israel Simeon did not miss the son Simeon understood the significance of the birth of the Christ child And although there were many people in the temple that day, there are many, many more people in churches today, all across America, all around the world, who are into religious rituals

And they're going to miss the solemnity of the season altogether And that's a sad thing, isn't it? I mean, after all, if anybody should focus in on the Lord Jesus Christ, it's those of us who call him Lord But it's easy to be sidetracked, isn't it? Because of activity Because of religiosity But for us, probably more importantly, because of familiarity We are so familiar with the story We've read it thousands of times We get it on our Christmas cards

So much so that when you get the Christmas card, you don't even read the front of the story anymore because you've seen it so many times, right? You just open it up and see who wrote a check to you And so it's the familiarity that is something we need to be aware of, isn't it? That's also in the Gospel of Luke, fourth chapter Christ had come and preached, giving forth the word of the Lord He quoted from the prophets, Isaiah, talking about why he had come It says in verse number 18, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor

He has sent me to proclaim release of the captives or to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind to set free those who are downtrodden to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord And he closed the book and gave it back to the attendant, sat down, and the eyes of all of the synagogue were fixed upon him And he began to say to them, Today the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing And all were speaking well of him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from his lips And they were saying, Is this not Joseph's son? They saw him as Joseph's son

Who was this guy? They knew him from his birth They knew all about him But they didn't know him as a beloved son of God The text goes on, and he said to them, no doubt you will quote this proverb to me, physician, heal yourself Whatever we heard has or was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well He said, truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome. in his hometown You see, he was so familiar to them, he meant nothing to them He's Josephson The Bible tells us that his own family didn't even believe him His own family didn't They're with him every day They ate with him

They played with him They drank with him They conversed with him. they didn't even believe him Familiarity And I guess that's one thing that I as your pastor want to caution you on We are so familiar with the Christmas story It makes no impact on our lives anymore That's a sad thing. I mean, I study the Christmas story from October to December every year And every year I learn something new. I gain new insight God opens the Word of God to me. I learn something new every single year We read the story, it becomes so familiar Let me give you an example

You're in Luke, Luke chapter 2, verse number 15, you know the story? Shepherds came, or the angel came and gave word of the announcement that the Christ child was born, the shepherds heard it And it says this in verse number 15, and it came about, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, That the shepherds began saying to one another, let us go straight to Bethlehem then and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us This thing What's that? That's very important to understand Let us go and see this thing

What's the thing? The thing in the Greek translation can be interpreted two ways The word or the reality Very important The shepherds believed that what they heard was the word of God And the reality of it was manifested in a stable in Bethlehem And so the shepherd said, let us go see this word and the reality of it Because of what was just spoken to us is from God And because it is from God, the reality of it is going to transform our lives So let us make haste and go and see this one See that? That's important

But so many times we become so familiar with the words of the text, we just read right over them and don't spend any time taking note of them That's why last night and the night before, we looked at the angelic announcement and looked at each of those different phrases to help you understand the significance of that announcement On the night Christ was born. I say all that because what we're saying in the book of Genesis about the boys and the significance of their names is familiar to a lot of you

And you've got to be careful that that familiarity does not hinder you coming to know the one of whom we speak, the Lord Jesus Christ We need to be able to examine the text and understand the text and glean from the text those things that will change our lives So with that as an introduction, go back with me if you would to Genesis chapter 29 and chapter 30 As we look once again at the family of Jacob, we began looking at the first son, Reuben, whose name means see, a son, and saw how that was indication of the person of redemption, that the Son of God would be given to man

You'll note that in Isaiah 9, verse number 6, it would be the child who was born and the Son that was given The Son was not born The child was born But the Son was given because the Son always existed That's important for us to grasp, right? The Son wasn't born The Son is God The Son is eternal No, the son always is because the son always was So the son would be given And so we need to see that son And Reuben, his name, see a son, prefigures the person of redemption

When Leah and Rachel named their boys, they had no idea that each of their names would help us understand God's plan of redemption And it all begins with a person, the person of Jesus Christ our Lord And all throughout the Gospels, and then all through the epistles, it's all about seeing the Son of God for who He truly is So Reuben prefigures for us the person of redemption We move from him to look at Simeon, whose name means hearing or to hear And that signifies to us the preaching of redemption

How shall they hear without a preacher? And if man is going to come to saving faith, then we need to be faithful to preach the Word of God to people And last week we took you to the book of Revelation to help you understand that in the very end of time, the last seven years, before Christ comes back to set up His earthly kingdom, God is going to restore the nation of Israel He's going to do that by using the nation of Israel, the 12,000 men from every tribe

And that's why the significance of the boys in Genesis 29 and 30 plays a major part in the end in Revelation chapter 7 as God chooses 12,000 from every tribe to be His witnesses and protects them throughout the tribulation because God's not done with Israel God's going to use them to preach the truth so that people will hear the truth about who the Son is So Simeon signifies for us the preaching of redemption Reuben, the person of redemption And then he went and looked at Levi Levi's name means to be joined to, to be attached And his name signifies the peace of redemption

Why? Because whenever you are joined to God, you are at peace with God Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ Romans 5.1 Jesus Christ becomes the avenue by which we obtain peace with God There is one mediator between God and man Who is that? The man, Christ Jesus, 1 Timothy 2.5 tells us So therefore, we are able to have peace with God because of who Jesus Christ himself is That's why when the angels came, what did they say? Glory to God in the highest Peace on earth

Peace has come to earth in the form of a child who's called the Prince of Peace Zacharias understood that In his Benedictus, he said this. that when the sun rise from on high shall visit us to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace The Messiah has come My son John is going to prepare the way for the Messiah And this Messiah is a horn of salvation, is the strength of salvation Horns represent strength And this Messiah is the strength of salvation And he is going to come and guide our feet in the ways of peace

Finally, we're going to obtain peace because we have no peace That's important, isn't it? I mean, after all, if we know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, We of all people, we of all people need to look for ways to help people who have no peace understand the Prince of Peace, understand why he came, who he is You see, the peace comes only to those in whom God is pleased with That's it It doesn't come to those who don't please God Isaiah 57, 21 says, there is no peace for the wicked None No peace Psalm 147, 11 says it this way

The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his mercy The Lord takes pleasure The Lord is pleased with those who fear him You will note that when the angels had came and the glory of the Lord shone round about the shepherds, the shepherds were what? They were terrified They were in fear And they feared because the presence of God had come down to them in the form of light And the angel would say to them, do not be afraid Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of a great joy Peace has come to earth to those in whom he is pleased That's important

The Bible tells us in Ephesians chapter 2, excuse me, Ephesians 4 verse number 18, that we are alienated from the life of God We are apart from the life of God So we need to be joined to the Lord, 1 Corinthians 6, 17 How are we joined to the Lord? We are joined to the Lord through Jesus Christ, his son And he brings us into relationship with the living God that we might have the peace of God And once we have the peace of God, then we are able to live in peace and harmony with those around about us

But there's no peace on the earth. I think of the words of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who over 150 years ago said these words. I heard the bells on Christmas Day, their old familiar carols play, and wild sweet the word repeat of peace on earth, goodwill to men But in despair I bowed my head There is no peace on earth, I said, for hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth Goodwill to men He's right There is no peace on earth Why isn't there peace on earth? Because the Prince of Peace isn't ruling on earth at this time

He is ruling in the hearts of those who have given their life to him And those people have peace in their lives But those who don't have Christ's residence in them, they have no peace And that was the mystery of God that was concealed in the Old Testament but revealed in the New Testament Colossians 1.27, the mystery was Christ in you, the hope of glory Christ in you, that's the peace of God And so Levi signifies for us the peace of redemption

Peace comes to those who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. I love how Paul closes his letter to those in Thessalonica. 2 Thessalonians 3, verse number 16 Now may the Lord of peace himself continually grant you peace in every circumstance Isn't that good? May the Lord of peace himself grant you his peace in every circumstance We need to have that And that only comes through being joined together with the Lord God of the universe The world is at enmity with God The world is alienated from God The world is in darkness

And so God sent forth his son, who is the light, to shine in the dark hearts of man, that somehow man would respond in a way to be joined to, joined to the Savior, joined to God So as Leah named her first three boys, she had no idea the significance of those names. the fourth son Remember, Leah had tried to obtain favor with Jacob She so badly wanted to have a relationship with him, but she did not have one She thought that Simeon, or excuse me, Reuben would bring that relationship, but he didn't She thought that Simeon would

She thought for certain that Levi would, but she still was not joined to Jacob in the way that she wanted to be joined to him Then she had a fourth son, and that boy's name was Judah For Leah was finally learning that no matter what happens around about her, she needed to praise her God So she named her fourth son, Judah, which means to praise Praise And this is so good Why? Because this son signifies the praise of the redeemed Simply as that The praise of the redeemed It would be this son, through this tribe, that would come the Messiah Whose name is greatly to be praised

Right? The Lord Jesus Christ So you have the praise of the redeemed Psalm 40 records it this way. I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined to me and heard my cry He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, making my footsteps firm And He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God Many will see and fear and will trust in the Lord The psalmist said that when God redeemed me, what He did was put a new song in my mouth He gave me a song of praise Listen, when a man or woman is redeemed, they become a person of praise

And they praise the name of God for what God himself has done in their lives Because they were unable to do anything It was the Lord God who brings you up out of the miry clay It was the Lord God who takes you and redeems you back from the slave market of sin It's God who does all those things And therefore, the response of the believer is to praise the name of God It says over in Psalm 69, Psalm 69, verse number 30 and 31, I will praise the name of God with song and shall magnify him with thanksgiving and it will please the Lord God is pleased with our praise

Why is that? Because his name is to be praised That's what he wants Charles Wesley has written over 8,000 different hymns It's a lot of hymns And one of the significant ones he wrote was entitled, Oh, for a heart to praise my God It goes like this. I'm not going to sing it for you. I'm just going to read you the words

Oh, for a heart to praise my God, a heart from sin set free, a heart that always feels thy blood so freely shed for me, a heart resigned, submissive, meek, my great Redeemer's throne, where only Christ is heard to speak. where Jesus reigns alone. A heart in every thought renewed and full of love divine, perfect and right and pure and good, a copy, Lord, of thine God has given us a heart of praise to praise Him for what He's done

And as Leah would learn to praise God for giving her the boys and recognizing that it's God who's in control and recognizing that God rules her heart and mine should be focused on God That should be us because his name, Judah, signifies the praise of the redeemed And this time of year, I mean, we should be in the highest element of praise for our God Hebrews 13 tells us in verses 15 and 16 that the sacrifice of praise offered to God is well-pleasing to him He wants us to praise him Psalm 50 tells us that whoso offereth praise glorifies the name of God

And whenever I think of praise, I can't help but think of that great chapter in the book of Revelation, Revelation chapter 4, where John is taken up to heaven's throne And what does he see? He sees four living creatures with eyes all over their bodies and wings And what are they doing? They're praising God incessantly, day and night Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who is and who was and who is to come And they just keep praising the name of God And the Bible tells us in Revelation 4 that the 24 elders who are the church in heaven see what's happening

And they too fall down and begin to praise the Lord And listen to what they say Worthy art thou, O Lord, our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou didst create all things And because of thy will, they existed and were created So the church in heaven is praising God Why? Because of who he is You see, the book of Revelation teaches us in Revelation 4 that worship is something that is very instinctive to new creatures It's just a natural instinct of the creation to praise God So in heaven, that's what happens We praise God It's the natural instinct of the new creation to praise Him

And not only is it instinctive, but it is incessant That is, it comes all the time It never ceases Day and night, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty And also it tells us that the praise of God is very instructive Why? Because Revelation 4 tells us that God is in control of everything And because God's in control of everything, God is the center of everything He created all things, puts them in control He is the God who is and who was and who is to come He's the center of all things Therefore, He needs to be celebrated not only in this life, but in the life to come

And so we understand that God is to be praised So when you get to heaven, what do you have? You have the great praise orchestra And you'll notice that in Revelation chapter 5, as the Lamb of God takes from the right hand of God the Father the scroll that's there, that there is a crescendo of praise You've got the four living creatures You've got the 24 elders You've got myriads and myriads of angels praising God for His plan of redemption That's why we praise him, because of what he did, because of who he is He is the Savior, who is Christ the Lord So important

So Judah teaches us about the praise of the redeemed The fifth son was born through the maidservant Bilhah. which was Rachel's maidservant As you recall the story, she was bitter She was jealous Give me children or I die, she said to Jacob So she decided to have her maidservant go into Jacob and bear children And the first son that was born was named what? Two new notes Dan, you guys taking notes? You guys awake out there? That's why we keep it cold in here so you guys stay awake You know what I'm saying? It's Dan His name means judgment His name means judgment God has judged me

Rachel looked at it as a vindication In her mind, it was And so when we look at Dan's name, we begin to understand the pardon of the redeemed How is a man pardoned? Because he is justified by God He is declared right by God And so we understand that his name helps us see the plan of redemption by helping us see the pardon of the redeemed The sinner is set free The one who is guilty is acquitted The one whose soul is full of sin is now pardoned So what do we have? We have our judgment taken place at Calvary's cross And that's where our sins were judged

Because it was a son of God who bore in his body our sins Right? 1 Peter 2.24 On the tree, the prophet Isaiah said it this way Isaiah 53, verse number 4 Surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried, Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted But he was pierced through for our transgressions He was crushed for our iniquities The chastening of our well-being fell upon him And by his scourging, we are healed All of us like sheep have gone astray Each of us has turned to his own way But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him

The iniquity of us all fell upon him. there at Calvary, and there our sins were judged God treated His Son as if His Son was us For all His wrath was poured out on His Son on that day And the Son bore the wrath of God upon Himself so that you wouldn't have to And that's why it says over in John chapter 3, the very familiar verse, verse number 16, For God still loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life And then it says this, verse 17, For God did not send His Son into the world to do what? To judge the world

When Christ came, He came as a Savior He didn't come as judge He came to save man from his sins And he who does not believe has been, excuse me, to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him And verse 18, he who believes in him is not judged And he who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God And then over in John 5, verse number 24, it says these words

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but is passed out of death into life That's the pardon of the redeemed God has judged our sin at Calvary And therefore we believe that the sinless Son of Man took upon Himself our sin in order that we might be set free from that one element that would keep us from getting into heaven, and that is our unrighteousness So the Bible says, he, he knew no sin, became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him So Dan signifies the pardon of redemption

The second son, through Bill Hall, the maidservant, his name was Naphtali, which means to wrestle, which means to struggle This is the pathway of the redeemed This is the pathway of the redeemed Let me explain it to you Turn, if you would, in your Bible to Luke chapter 13 This is the pathway of the redeemed Remember, Rachel had struggled with Leah for the affection of Jacob Struggled with Leah over the prominence in the family And this son, Naphtali, would signify the struggle that they had in their relationship

Not knowing that what the son prefigured was the pathway of the redeemed, the pathway of a constant struggle The Bible says in Ephesians 6, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against what? The principalities and powers of darkness, the evil forces of wickedness The pathway of the redeemed is a pathway of struggle, a pathway of wrestling that begins the moment you decide to follow Christ Let me illustrate it for you through looking at several passages of Scripture Luke 13, verse 22

And he was passing through from one city and village to another, teaching and proceeding on his way to Jerusalem And someone said to him, Lord, are there just a few who are being saved? Now, what would prompt that question? What would prompt that question is that there were, the longer Christ went in his ministry, the less people he had following him When he began the ministry, everybody was excited Everybody was in the Jesus movement But the longer he went in his ministry, the less people he had followed him

And so someone, smart enough, what's the word I want to use? coherent enough, observant enough, said, Lord, are there only a few who are going to follow you? Because that's all that's happening. I mean, it's getting fewer as the days go on And Christ said these words, Strive to enter by the narrow door For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able Oh, strive to enter? The word agonizomai, which means to wrestle violently Interesting word Same word used over in 1 Corinthians 9.25 of an athlete who battles and wrestles for victory

An athlete just doesn't go out in the field and say, okay, I'm the winner today. I'm bigger. I'm prettier. I'm stronger. I win You lose That's not the way it works He's got a battle for victory It's a struggle Same word used Colossians 4.12, it talks about Epaphras who wrestles fervently in prayer for those whom he loves Same word used over in 1 Timothy 6.12 of a man of God who fights the good fight of faith Christ says, strive to enter Fight to enter Because many will seek They will not be able to What does that mean? Let me shed some light on that by helping you look at another verse Luke 16

Verse 16 Christ says this The law and the prophets were proclaimed until John Since then, the gospel of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone is what? Forcing his way into it Well, what are you, whoa, are there only going to be a few that follow you, Lord? Well, let me tell you something If you want to follow me, you've got to really agonize to get in Not only that, you've got to force your way in Wait a minute, that sounds like a lot of works to me, man. I've got to force my way into heaven? Turn back with me, if you would, to Matthew chapter 11

This will shed a little bit more light on it for you Verse number 12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence And violent men take it by force Now when was the last time those three verses were used in an evangelistic campaign? I never heard them Let me tell you something We have made it so easy for people to believe in Jesus that we have perverted the gospel The Bible says that those who enter have to strive to enter And those who want to enter the kingdom of God are violent kind of men because the kingdom of God suffers violence

That's why Paul said, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of wickedness You see, we forget that when someone comes to saving faith, listen carefully, all hell is against them Satan doesn't want people to come to Christ So he prevents in any way he possibly can for that to happen Now, before I go any further, let me explain it to you this way Turn with me to Revelation chapter 12 Someone said last week, you know, you were in Revelation more than you were in Genesis. I said, yep, I know Just bear with me If you know the end, you know everything

So you better know the end Know how it all comes out Revelation 12 gives us the history of the world Let me tell you how the kingdom of God suffers violence, and those who enter it are violent Those who enter it are forcing their way into it They are striving, they are agonizing to get in, because all hell is against them Listen to what it says And a great sign appeared in heaven Mega sign, great sign For those of you who are with us in our study of Revelation, you know that that word is the key word in Revelation. 84 times it's used Great sign

Revelation is the great book, because it's about the great God It says, a great sign appeared in heaven, and a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, And on her head, a crown of 12 stars And she was with child And she cried out, being in labor and in pain, to give birth You say, what is that? John gets his vision. A great sign in heaven And there is this woman Now, there is several women in the book of Revelation There's a woman Jezebel in Revelation 2 That's not her There's a scarlet woman in Revelation 17 That's not her But the woman signifies Israel Israel

If you're with us in our study of the book of Revelation, you understand what that means If not, you can always get the tape on Revelation 12 and we explain it in great detail But as you recall, Joseph's vision of everyone bowing down to him, the parallels here speak of the nation of Israel And this is the woman, Israel And this woman has a crown of 12 stars on her head Stephanos, crowns that come through great suffering, great hardship And it says, she was with child, and she cried out being in labor Who was crying out when the Messiah was born? It was Israel

People say, well, the woman's Mary No, the woman's not Mary The woman is Israel And all Israel was crying out for the promised Messiah There had been 400 silent years since Malachi chapter 4, when Malachi the prophet promised that the day star would arise and shine in the hearts of man And there was nothing for 400 years And ever since Genesis 3.15, there was a promise of a seed that would come For 4,000 years, they had anticipated the promise And they were crying out, Israel was, for the Messiah to come, Because they were under the rulership of Rome And Rome was beating down upon them

And they were under their authority And they were tired of it And they wanted their Messiah to come And so the woman cried aloud in childbearing Verse 3 And another sign appeared in heaven And behold, a great red dragon Who's the dragon? Look at verse number 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old, who is called the devil, Satan So John sees another sign in the heavens And a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns Horns symbolizing authority and power and strength

Seven heads representing all the empires of the world, all the empires in the past and all the empires in the future This dragon is in control of all the world empires of the world We're on his head and we're seven diadems His tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth so that when she gave birth, he might devour her child Now, did that come true or not? Sure it did Remember, this is the history of the world When Satan would take a third of the angels with him when he fell from glory

And he had always been trying to make sure the child was never born He wanted that child devoured So what did he use? He used Herod, the king, to destroy all the babies in Judea so that that child would not be born And if born, would not live You can go to Luke chapter 4 and read where the people tried to throw Christ off the cliff You can see where in Matthew chapter 4, the tradition of Christ, When Satan came to him and said, throw yourself off the temple Go ahead He has sent his angels a charge over thee He'll save you Just throw yourself He wanted the Messiah to die

He wanted to die before the cross He wanted to devour the child Now you understand? Those who enter strive to enter Though the kingdom of God suffers violence because the red dragon, Satan himself, is against the redemptive plan of God And he is doing all he can to squelch that He is doing all he can to stop that, so much so that he stood over the child when the child was born in Bethlehem that night looking for a way to devour the child, to kill the child And ever since then, that's been his plan And it says in verse number five, that she gave birth to a son, a male child

That's the incarnation, who is to rule the nations with a rod of iron That's his coronation And her child was caught up to God and to his throne That is his exaltation That's the history of the world in five verses It talks about the world war, the celestial conflict Now you understand the pathway of the redeemed It's full of violence It's full of suffering Why? Because it's against the spiritual forces of wickedness Satan has always been against the plan of God Will do all he can to stop the plan of God, to thwart the plan of God

And so when you go out and preach the gospel and someone's about to give their life to Christ, you look at that person because they have to strive to enter They have to suffer violence because the kingdom of God suffers violence They have to fight their way into it because Satan is doing all he can to keep them out And if it wasn't for the grace of God and the mercy of God that would open the heart of an individual to let them in, they would never be a part of God's kingdom Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world

So you can be sure that if God wants that individual saved, they'll get saved They'll get saved You be faithful You preach the word You give the word And let God do his work through his word But the pathway of the redeemed is one of wrestling Is one of struggling From the time he begins to enter the kingdom Until the time he goes home to be with the Lord That's a perception of the Christian life that most churches don't teach on But that's the truth That's what the word of God teaches

And we need to understand that. there came another son and our time is fleeing to the back our time is gone but let me give you this one last son as you recall Leah would do what Rachel did and she would send her maidservant Zilpah in to Jacob she would give birth to a son his name was Gad his name means good fortune this is the pleasure of the redeemed I didn't want to end on the last point because it was so gruesome and so harsh and then we'll leave you with a downer this morning so we'll look at the son Gad whose name means good fortune good fortune the pleasure of the redeemed how fortunate are we we are the most fortunate people in the world because Jesus is our Savior

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that you through his poverty might become rich That's how fortunate we are. 2 Corinthians 8, verse number 9 Paul would talk about it over in the book of Galatians when he said this in Galatians 3, verse number 26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus Isn't that good? Sons of God You know, I would like to think that the children of my family are glad to be sons of their dad They'd be proud of their dad They'd love their dad

And they'd say, that's my dad. I'm his son. I'm his son You know, I was talking to my father this past week, and he was having a Christmas gathering at his church, and he was speaking on the significance of the birth of Christ And he was sharing with me what he was speaking about. and I was always glad to have my father as my father and to be his son

My dad never made me ashamed, never did. I could sit on the football field, I could sit on the baseball field and say, I'm his son, that's my dad and I was proud of that and I want my children to feel the same thing about me but you know what, in comparison to being sons of God, it means nothing. I'm God's son He'll never make me ashamed. I have nothing to fear He's my father. I'm his son. I'm a son of God, the Bible says He goes on to say in verse 29 of the same chapter, Galatians 3, And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs, according to promise

Chapter 4, verse number 7, Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son, and of a son, then an heir through God The possessions that we receive We are rich in possessions We are rich in power We are rich in plenty because of who God is All the fortune, the good fortune that has come our way because of the grace and mercy of God We of all people are most richly blessed And we should be the kind of people who say, Lord, the pleasure we have at this time of year is about who you are and what you did And therefore, Lord, we take great joy in that We bring you good news of great joy

The gospel produces joy What kind of joy? Ecstatic joy And what's the word I want to use? I can't even think of a word But the Bible says, thanks be unto God for his indescribable gift, for his inscrutable gift, for his unexplainable gift. 2 Corinthians 9.15, Paul says, there is no way I can begin to explain to you the gift of God But we are so fortunate to have it We are so fortunate to have received it that we should be the people who are willing to give it away to somebody else That they might be as blessed as we ourselves are blessed We are fortunate

We've experienced the pleasure of redemption Because we are set free from our sin We are set free from the enslavement of Satan To rule and reign with Jesus Christ our Lord forever because we are his sons Let's pray Father, thank you for your word. and the greatness of it Thank you, Lord Jesus, that as we have had the opportunity this morning just to look at it, we pray that it would have challenged us deeply And we thank you, Lord, for what you've done How fortunate we are to be called your sons And so, Lord, may we walk as your sons, live as your sons

May everybody know that you're our Father and we your children And may they ask us how they can have that same Father for their own sake We pray in Jesus' name Amen Amen.