Blessings All Mine

Please take your Bibles and open them up this morning to the book of Genesis.

! Our passage this morning will take us from Genesis chapter 48 all the way through chapter 50 verse 14.

Genesis 48 · chapter mention

! I told you that these narratives in the Joseph section of Genesis kind of run a little bit longer

and so it's harder for us to break them up into smaller chunks.

And normally what we do is have you stand up in honor of the reading of God's Word,

but I will be merciful to you in these longer sections and you may remain seated.

And I won't read the whole section ahead of the sermon.

Instead, as we've done over the past several weeks, I will instead read them in the content of the sermon itself.

We've been working our way through Genesis for about a year and a half now.

This is sermon number 45, I think, out of 46.

Lord willing, we will complete this series next week.

And we have seen so much of who God is and His great faithfulness and His sovereignty.

All of these things that we've been praying about and singing about this morning, even.

A big look at who our God is.

So as we prepare to hear from the Word of the Lord this morning,

would you bow with me and pray once more?

Great is your faithfulness.

Oh God, my Father, there is no shadow of turning with Thee.

Father, You are good and You are sovereign.

You are faithful to all Your promises.

And You have chosen by Your grace to bless us in so many ways in Christ.

And so we pray now, Lord, would You open our eyes to see how deeply we are blessed by You.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thomas Chisholm wrote the now famous hymn,

Great is Thy Faithfulness, towards the end of his life,

as he looked back and reflected on all the many ways that the Lord had been with him and blessed him.

If you know anything about Thomas Chisholm and his life,

you would know that his life was not easy.

He dealt with constant sickness.

He dealt with great loss.

He dealt with financial hardship and struggle as a result of his ongoing sickness.

It put a great burden on him and his family.

His life, like many of ours, was filled with a lot of ups and a lot of downs.

His were mostly a lot of downs.

But as he looked back and reflected towards the end of his life,

he was able to say that in all of it, he was blessed.

I love the last verse of the hymn where he lists out several blessings in particular.

Knowing his faithful God, he says,

Now I wonder, as you look back and reflect on your own life,

as you look at your own circumstances even this morning,

do you consider yourself to be blessed?

This morning, as we look at our passage this morning,

we come to the end of Jacob's life.

And what we've seen over the past several weeks is that Jacob's life was not easy.

Jacob suffered tremendous loss.

Jacob has been tested.

And yet, through it all, the Lord has been faithful to Jacob.

And the Lord has blessed Jacob tremendously.

And now we see in his old age, right before he dies,

he passes that blessing on to his children.

So here's the main idea for us this morning.

I hope you've caught it already in the songs that we've sung

and the prayers that we've prayed.

This is all about the blessing of God.

And the main idea for us this morning is that there is incredible blessing

for those who are in covenant with our faithful God.

There is incredible blessing for those who are in covenant with our faithful God.

To say that another way, if you are in Christ, you are blessed.

So let's take a look.

And this morning, we'll see three ways God blesses his people.

This is going to be our outline this morning.

I know it's a longer passage.

This ought to help you follow along this morning.

Three ways that God blesses his people.

First, we see that God blesses his people in surprising ways.

God blesses his people in surprising ways.

Look there to chapter 48.

It says, after this, that is sometime after Jacob and his family come into Egypt,

now towards the end of his life,

after this, Joseph was told, behold, your father is ill.

So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim.

And it was told to Jacob, your son Joseph has come to you.

Then Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed.

I've heard it said before that last words are meant to be lasting words.

You think about what you might want to share with your own family members,

your own children, in your final moments.

Whatever those last words will be for you,

I'm certain that you'll want to think carefully and share what's most important to you,

what's most important for them to hear.

Well, Jacob, in his last moments, here at the end of his life,

he shares about the most significant moment of his life.

He shares about how God has met with him and spoken with him.

Verse 3, Jacob said to Joseph,

God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me.

And he said to me, behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you,

and I will make you a company of peoples,

and will give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession.

He says, God appeared to me.

I need to share this with you, Joseph.

God appeared to me, and God spoke with me, and God blessed me,

and God made promises to me just like he did with my father Isaac and with his father Abraham.

But now I need you to understand I'm coming to the end of my life.

And now, son, it's time for me to pass that blessing on to the next generation.

Now, all of this, up to this point, all of this makes a lot of sense, doesn't it?

But then he does something surprising.

Look there to verse 5.

He says,

And now your two sons, who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt, are mine.

Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are.

And the children that you fathered after them shall be yours.

They shall be called by the name of their brothers and their inheritance.

As for me, when I came from Paddan to my sorrow,

Rachel died in the land of Canaan on the way.

And when there was still some distance to go to Ephraim.

And I buried her there on the way to Ephraim.

That is in Bethlehem.

Did you catch what just happened?

Jacob formally adopts Ephraim and Manasseh as his own children.

And he gives them the status of his two oldest sons, Reuben and Simeon.

Jacob claims them as his own.

And so now these two children of Joseph, who were born to an Egyptian mother, born in Egypt,

they're now being formally brought in to the blessings of the covenant that God made with Jacob.

And we see it play out here in verse 8.

When Israel saw Joseph's sons, he said, Who are these?

Joseph said to his father, They are my sons whom God has given me here in Egypt.

And he said, Bring them to me, please, that I may bless them.

Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age so that he could not see.

So Joseph brought them near to him and he kissed them and embraced them.

And Israel said to Joseph, I never expected to see your face.

And behold, God has let me see your offspring also.

And then Joseph removed them from his knees and he bowed himself with his face to the earth.

See, Joseph realizes the magnitude of this moment.

Putting these two children on the knees of Israel is a sort of formal adoption ritual.

And he knows that the blessing is coming.

He knows that this moment of imparting the blessing is near.

And so what does Joseph do?

He sets them up in the way that makes the most sense to him.

He puts the oldest towards Jacob's right hand and the youngest towards his left hand.

Because the right hand would ordinarily go with the older as the sign of the greater blessing.

But look what happens.

Verse 14.

Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger.

And he takes his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands.

For Manasseh was the firstborn.

And he blessed Joseph.

He really is blessing him through this blessing of his two children.

And he said,

Ephraim and Manasseh said,

This is an incredible grace.

But Joseph is confused by all of this.

Verse 17 says,

When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him.

And he took his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head over to Manasseh's head.

He thinks that this is all a big mistake.

I mean, maybe it's because his father is going blind.

And maybe it's just because it's a slip up of old age.

So Joseph said to his father,

It's not this way, father.

This one's the firstborn.

Put your right hand on his head.

But his father refused and said,

I know, my son.

I know.

This is no accident.

Accident.

This is entirely intentional.

He says,

He also shall become a people,

and he also shall be great.

Nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he,

and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations.

So he blessed them that day, saying,

By you Israel will pronounce blessings,

saying,

God make you as Ephraim and Manasseh.

Thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh.

And then Israel said to Joseph,

Behold, I am about to die.

But God will be with you,

and will bring you again to the land of your fathers.

Moreover, I have given to you,

rather than to your brothers,

one mountain slope that I took from the hand of the Amorites

with my sword and with my bow.

He's still not done playing favorites, is he?

Do you see how God blesses in surprising ways?

Did you notice the surprising ways in which God blesses here?

I see three here that I want to draw your attention to here

before we move on to the next point.

Three surprising ways that I see God blessing here.

And I want you to see these,

because you should know God still blesses in these three ways.

In fact, if you are in Christ,

then he has blessed you in these three ways.

For one, we see God blesses through adoption.

Ephraim and Manasseh were not Jacob's kids,

but now they are.

Why?

He has adopted them as his own.

They once had no claim to the blessing,

but now they have full claim to the blessing.

They once had no share in the inheritance,

but now they have a full share in the inheritance.

Do you realize, Christian,

the same has happened with you in Christ.

You were strangers,

and you were aliens.

You had no claim to the blessings of God,

but God by his grace.

What he's done for you in Christ

is he has taken you from being an outsider,

and he has adopted you into his own family

as sons and daughters of the living God.

That's what it means to be a Christian.

The Apostle John says,

see what kind of love the Father has given to us

that we should be called children of God.

And so we are.

Are you surprised by this?

Another surprising way we see God blessing here,

we see that God blesses through election.

God blesses through election.

We keep seeing this over and over and over again

in Genesis, don't we?

God chose before they were even born

to put Jacob before Esau.

God chose to make promises to Abraham,

this pagan man out of all the men of the earth.

God elected Abraham.

He chose to make promises to Abraham.

And so now, yet again,

God chooses Ephraim

to receive the place of preeminence over Manasseh.

This is election.

God chooses.

And Christian, if you are in Christ,

it is because God chose to bless you in him

from before the foundations of the world.

This is election.

Ephesians 1 tells us,

In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons

through Jesus Christ,

according to the purposes of his will.

Christian, are you surprised that God has chosen you?

You should be.

We're not the obvious choice.

But that's because one final way,

one final and third surprising way that God blesses here,

God blesses according to his wisdom.

According to his wisdom,

which is almost always contrary to the wisdom of this world.

And we should really stop expecting God to work

according to our ways, shouldn't we?

He loves to run contrary to our expectations.

Why?

Because in so doing,

he magnifies his power,

his glory,

his wisdom,

his knowledge.

Where do we see this most clearly?

Beyond the cross of Christ.

Who would expect that the greatest blessing to the world

would come through the death of the Son of God?

Who would expect that in this moment of apparent victory for sin

and victory for the grave

and victory for the devil himself,

that that exact moment would be the moment of their undoing?

Who would ever expect that he would become sin for us

so that in him we would become the righteousness of God?

This is not man's wisdom.

The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing,

but to us who are being saved,

it is the power of God.

And so we see, first,

God blesses in surprising ways.

Not only this,

second,

second,

we see God blesses in sovereign ways.

God blesses in sovereign ways.

Look there to chapter 49.

Now, chapter 49 is incredible.

And it shows us all of these blessings

that Jacob gives to his children.

And in each one,

in each one of these,

these blessings are prophetic.

And they speak of future blessings

that will come on these children

that we can look back in history

and see that these have all come true in time.

And just like with all the other biblical prophecies,

skeptics of the Bible will look at this and say,

this is all too realistic sounding, right?

This describes things a little bit too well,

and so therefore,

it must have been some later addition, right?

Somebody years later must have just come back in

and seen how all these tribes developed,

and then they went back

and they added in this little bit

to explain the history of these tribes.

That's the only explanation, right?

That's one possibility, I guess,

outside of there being no evidence whatsoever

of that sort of thing happening here.

May I present another possibility,

one that we've seen all throughout the book of Genesis,

is where the book of Genesis begins,

and it's the fact that our God

is totally and completely sovereign over all things.

And therefore,

He is able to speak blessing

well in advance of it ever coming true in time.

Because our God is the sovereign author of human history,

He is able to reveal the future.

That's what's happening here

through these promises,

these blessings that Israel gives over His children.

I want to just look at each one here briefly,

and you'll notice they're not in order of birth order,

they're actually arranged here by birth mom,

and the first six are Leah's kids.

So let's take a look here.

Chapter 49.

Then Jacob called his sons and said,

Gather yourselves together,

that I may tell you what shall happen to you

in the days to come.

I mean, wouldn't you like for somebody to do that for you?

Assemble and listen,

O sons of Jacob.

Listen to Israel, your father.

First up is Reuben.

Reuben, you are my firstborn,

my might,

and the first fruits of my strength,

preeminent in dignity,

and preeminent in power,

unstable as water.

You shall not have preeminence,

because you went up to your father's bed,

and then you defiled it.

He went up to my couch.

You notice there is no blessing here for Reuben.

And the reason why is because apparently Reuben,

Jacob's firstborn,

slept with his concubine, Bilhah.

And so this becomes his legacy,

and that phrase actually,

the first fruits of my strength.

Do you see that there?

Reuben is the first fruits of my strength.

That can also mean the first of my pain.

He's the first of my suffering.

Reuben was a source of great pain for Jacob.

And so as a result,

he is not blessed.

He's essentially left out of the blessing.

And eventually,

we can look ahead and see,

eventually,

Reuben's tribe would settle east of the Dead Sea.

And they're basically,

they just kind of fade out of history.

They're really not a part of Israel's story.

You all maybe have that one family member

in your own family, right?

Maybe more than one.

Maybe you are that one.

Something went down,

and they're just never heard from again.

They disappear, right?

That's Reuben.

Next up is Simeon and Levi.

They're grouped together here.

Verse 5.

Simeon and Levi are brothers.

Weapons of violence are their swords.

Let my soul come not into their counsel.

No, my glory be not joined to their company.

For in their anger,

they killed men.

And in their willfulness,

they hamstrung oxen.

Cursed be their anger for it is fierce,

and their wrath for it is cruel.

I will divide them in Jacob,

and scatter them in Israel.

Simeon and Levi,

they're the only ones that are grouped together.

And why is that?

It's because of their actions of vengeance

in that whole horrible episode with their sister Dinah.

Do you remember that?

Dinah, their sister, was defiled,

and so how did they respond?

They responded by tricking those who sinned against her,

having them circumcised,

so that when they were sore,

they went in and they destroyed them all.

Do you remember that?

And do you remember what we asked at the end of that?

We asked,

was that the right response?

Jacob seems to answer that question pretty strongly here,

doesn't he?

He says he doesn't want anything to do with these two sons.

He says,

let my soul not come into their counsel.

I don't want my glory with their company.

He curses their anger.

That's the same curse language that God uses against the serpent in Genesis 3.

Jacob speaks some heavy words here against Simeon and Levi.

And as a result, he says,

you are going to be scattered and divided.

And again, as you look ahead in history,

their descendants,

they basically just filter into the other tribes.

Simeon is essentially absorbed into the tribe of Judah.

Levi, on the other hand,

you probably know,

Levi, they don't get an inheritance of land,

but the Lord does seem to restore them.

He makes them the priests of the people of Israel.

The Levitical priesthood will come from the people of Levi.

Judah,

Judah's the first one to actually get some real blessing here.

Look there to verse 8.

He says,

Judah, your brothers shall praise you.

Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies.

Your father's sons shall bow down before you.

Judah is a lion's cub.

From the prey, my son,

you have gone up.

He stooped down.

He crouched as a lion and as a lioness.

Who dares rouse him?

The scepter shall not depart from Judah,

nor the ruler's staff from between his feet,

until tribute comes to him.

And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

Binding his foal to the vine

and his donkey's colt to the choice vine,

he has washed his garments in wine

and his vesture in the blood of grapes.

His eyes are darker than wine

and his teeth are whiter than milk.

Now this is a beautiful promise of blessing for Judah.

The promise of praise.

It's a play on words with the name Judah,

which means praise.

He says his brothers will praise him.

He'll dominate his enemies.

He'll be like a lion.

Kingship will come from Judah.

The peoples will obey him.

He's so prosperous and successful

that he's washing his clothes with wine.

It's an incredible prophecy of blessing

for the tribe of Judah.

Zebulun, verse 13,

they're the low country people.

They dwell at the shore of the sea,

shall become a haven for ships.

His border shall be at Sidon.

Issachar is a strong donkey

crouching between the sheepfolds.

He saw that a resting place was good

and that the land was pleasant,

so he bowed his shoulder to bear

and became a servant at forced labor.

Issachar is incredibly strong.

He's a strong donkey, but he's lazy.

Y'all have friends like that?

I've had friends like that.

They had all the natural gifting in the world

to just be some awesome athlete,

but they wouldn't pick up a weight

or run a mile if you paid them.

Issachar is a strong donkey

that lays down with the sheep.

And as a result,

he winds up in lower Galilee,

where it's nice and cozy and fertile

and green and peaceful

until, just like is prophesied here,

until they wind up enslaved to the Canaanites

and just as Jacob says,

they become servants at forced labor.

Dan shall judge his people

as one of the tribes of Israel.

It's a fitting job for someone

whose name means judge, Dan.

And Dan shall be a serpent in the way,

a viper by the path

that bites the horse's heel

so that his rider falls backward.

He'll be like a serpent in battle.

But Jacob reminds him, Dan,

that your salvation ultimately comes

from the Lord.

Verse 18,

I will wait for your salvation,

O Lord.

For Gad, he says,

raiders are going to raid him,

but he's going to raid back at their heels.

Gad's name means good fortune,

but it's not all good.

He's got raids going back and forth constantly.

Asher, which means happy,

he says,

Asher's food shall be rich

and he shall yield royal delicacies.

Asher's tribe will settle in the hill country

over to the west

and Galilee, again,

where it's very fertile.

And so he's able to provide royal delicacies,

that good food and rich drink

that makes him happy

and it makes others happy as well.

Naphtali is a doe let loose

that bears beautiful fawns,

verse 21 says.

I got no clue what that means.

Outside of probably he's just going to have

some beautiful kids, I think.

But then we come to Joseph,

verse 22.

And y'all know,

Jacob has some more to say

about his favorite son, Joseph.

He says,

Joseph is a fruitful bough,

a fruitful bough by a spring.

His branches run over the wall.

The archers bitterly attacked him,

shot at him,

and harassed him severely,

yet his bow remained unmoved.

His arms were made agile

by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob.

From there is the shepherd,

the stone of Israel.

By the God of your father

who will help you,

by the Almighty who will bless you

with blessings of heaven above,

blessings of the deep

that crouches beneath,

blessings of the breast

and of the womb.

The blessings of your father

are mighty beyond the blessings

of my parents

up to the bounties

of the everlasting hills.

May they be on the head of Joseph

and on the brow of him

who was set apart

from his brothers.

And Joseph faced great obstacles,

didn't he?

Like a wall.

And yet his branches ran over the wall.

Joseph faced great enemies

like archers bitterly attacking him

and shooting at him.

Enemies like his own brothers,

his bitter brothers.

Enemies like the temptations

of Potiphar's wife.

And yet he remained steadfast.

How?

How did Joseph remain steadfast?

In the hands of the mighty one of Jacob,

the shepherd,

the stone of Israel,

sustained him.

Lastly, we come to Benjamin.

Verse 27 says,

Benjamin is a ravenous wolf

in the morning devouring the prey

at the evening,

dividing the spoil.

Historically, we can look and see

Benjamin would settle

between Ephraim and Judah

and his area was basically

always a war zone.

They were always in conflict.

But as a result,

Benjamin,

he becomes skillful in war

and that little boy

becomes a ravenous wolf.

Verse 28 says,

All these are the twelve tribes of Israel.

And this is what their father said to them

as he blessed them,

blessing each with the blessing suitable to him.

Then he commanded them

and said to them,

I am to be gathered to my people.

Bury me with my fathers

in the cave that is in the field

of Ephron the Hittite,

in the cave that is in the field

at Machpelah,

to the east of Mamre,

in the land of Canaan,

which Abraham bought with the field

from Ephron the Hittite

to possess as a burying place.

There they buried Abraham

and Sarah his wife,

and there they buried Isaac

and Rebekah his wife,

and there I buried Leah.

The field and the cave that is in it

were bought from the Hittites.

When Jacob finished commanding his sons,

he drew up his feet into the bed

and breathed his last

and was gathered to his people.

Then Joseph fell on his father's face

and wept over him

and kissed him,

and Joseph commanded his servants,

the physicians,

to embalm his father.

So the physicians embalmed Israel.

Forty days were required for it,

for that's how many are required

for embalming.

And the Egyptians wept for him

seventy days.

And when the days of weeping

for him were passed,

Joseph spoke to the household

of Pharaoh, saying,

If now I have found favor

in your eyes,

please speak in the ears

of Pharaoh, saying,

My father made me swear,

saying, I am about to die

in my tomb that I have hewed out

for myself in the land of Canaan.

There shall you bury me.

Now therefore let me please go up

and bury my father,

then I will return.

And Pharaoh answered,

Go up and bury your father,

as he made you swear.

So Joseph went up

to bury his father.

With him went all the servants

of Pharaoh,

the elders of his household,

and all the elders

of the land of Egypt,

as well as all the household

of Joseph,

his brothers,

and his father's household.

Only their children,

their flocks,

and their herds

were left in the land

of Goshen.

And there went up with him

both chariots and horsemen.

It was a very great company.

When they came to the threshing floor

of Atad,

which is beyond the Jordan,

they lamented there

with a very great

and grievous lamentation.

And he made a mourning

for his father seven days.

When the inhabitants

of the land,

the land of the Canaanites,

saw the mourning

of the threshing floor

of Atad,

they said,

This is a grievous mourning

by the Egyptians.

Therefore,

the place was named

Abel Mizraim.

It is beyond the Jordan.

Thus his sons did for him

as he had commanded them.

For his sons carried him

to the land of Canaan

and buried him

in the cave of the field

at Machpelah,

to the east of Mamre,

which Abraham bought

with the field

from Ephron the Hittite

to possess as a burying place.

After he had buried his father,

Joseph returned to Egypt

with his brothers

and all who had gone up

with him

to bury his father.

You ever wonder

why we need to know all this?

Why do we care

about these kids

and what their grandpa

has to say about them?

It's because

in all this,

God's sovereignty

is on display.

It is stunning,

really,

when you stop

and think about it,

isn't it?

The future

is written

in advance.

Jacob says,

Come here,

let me tell you

what's going to happen to you.

How are you going to,

how can you,

how can you speak

with such certainty

about blessing

that will happen

in the future?

He says,

here's how you're going

to be blessed,

future.

Here's what God

will do in your life.

That's only possible

if God

is truly sovereign.

And we see here,

God is sovereign

over every single individual.

He is sovereign

over their families.

He is sovereign

over their tribes.

He is sovereign

over their countries.

He is sovereign

over all the world.

And in his sovereignty,

he guided Jacob

and his family

here into Egypt.

And just as he promised,

his son Joseph

closes his eyes.

This is God's sovereignty

on display.

Do you realize

that the great faithfulness

of God

depends on his

great sovereignty?

If God is not sovereign

over every detail,

everywhere in his creation,

every contingency,

every second

of every day,

past, present, future,

something somewhere

might swerve him

off of his plan.

Praise God.

We see here,

our God

is absolutely

sovereign.

And because

he is sovereign,

our God

is able

to distribute

blessings

as he sees fit.

How amazing

is it

that he's created

each and every one

of us distinctly

with unique

giftings

and different

abilities

and what a comfort

it is to know

that he's already

planned out

all of our days.

If you have any

blessings in your life

whatsoever,

you have a sovereign

God to thank.

And you need not worry

about what the future

holds.

We have a sovereign God

who holds the future.

We have strength

for today

and bright hope

for tomorrow.

Blessings all mine

with 10,000

beside.

Jacob blesses

his children

and then his story

here comes

to a close.

And you know,

when you read

this,

I wonder if you

wished,

man,

I just wish

I could receive

blessings like this.

I wish

that someone

could just tell

me for certain

the ways

in which I

am blessed

and the ways

in which I

will be blessed.

I mean,

what a privilege

it must be

to be one

of God's

covenant people.

Do you ever

feel like that?

What a privilege

it would be

to have access

to this sort

of incredible

blessing.

I remember

a sweet old lady

that I got

to pastor

and we were

talking about

the Old Testament.

I can't remember

what I was

teaching on that day

but we were

talking about

Israel and all

these promises

made to Israel

and she said,

you know,

sometimes I just

get a little

jealous of Israel

and I get a little

sad and I

wish that I

could be blessed

like that.

I just wish

that some of

these promises

would come to me

and I got to say,

oh,

would you please

sit down for a minute?

Do you have a

couple years to

go through Genesis

with me?

All of the

blessings,

all of the

promises,

all of the

benefits of

being in covenant

with the Lord

are all

ours by

faith in

Jesus Christ.

Christ.

This is our

third and final

point this morning,

third.

We see God

blesses His

people in

His Son,

Jesus Christ.

The great

question that

we've asked

over and over

and over again

as we've walked

through Genesis

ever since the

Garden of Eden,

the question has

been,

how can sinful

man receive

blessing in

place of cursing?

how can we

be blessed

when we

deserve judgment?

And the

glorious answer

that we're

given is that

it's in Christ

that we're

blessed.

It is in

Christ that

we're blessed.

You are

blessed in

Christ.

This is the

eternal plan of

God from before

the ages began.

He planned to

bless you in

Christ.

Ephesians 1

again tells us

blessed be the

God and Father

of our Lord

Jesus Christ

who has blessed

us in Christ

with every

spiritual blessing

in the heavenly

places.

Even as He

chose us in

Him before

the foundation

of the world

that we should

be holy and

blameless before

Him.

In love He

predestined us

for adoption

to Himself

as sons

through Jesus

Christ according

to the purpose

of His will

and to the praise

of His glorious

grace with which

He has blessed

us.

in the beloved.

Christian this

was God's

plan from the

very beginning.

Haven't we

seen God has

been unveiling

and revealing

steadily this

plan to bless

His people

in Christ.

When God

promised a

snake crusher

all the way

back in Genesis

3 who will

come and destroy

the powers of

sin and darkness

He promised

His Son

Jesus who has

conquered all

the powers of

sin and death

who has

destroyed the

powers of the

devil at the

cross and at

the empty tomb

when He makes

promises to

Abraham you

will be a

blessing and

in you all

the families of

the earth will

be blessed.

He is promising

His Son Jesus

Christ who is

the blessing to

the world.

And when Israel

here when God

through Israel

gives this

prophetic blessing

to Judah

He is promising

Jesus Christ.

Would you look

there again

with me?

Did you notice

all the ways

this prophecy

promises Christ?

Points us to

Him.

Chapter 49

verse 8

when He says

Judah your

brothers shall

praise you

ultimately we

are looking

ahead to

Jesus from

the tribe of

Judah the one

who is deserving

of all praise.

When He says

your hand will

be on the

neck of your

enemies your

father's sons

will bow down

before you we

are looking to

Jesus who will

crush the head

of the serpent.

When He says

Judah is a

lion's cub from

the prey my

son you've gone

up we are

looking to

Jesus the lion

from the tribe

of Judah.

When He says

the scepter shall

not depart from

Judah nor the

ruler's staff from

between his feet

until tribute

comes to Him

and to Him

shall be the

obedience of

the peoples.

We are looking

ahead to King

Jesus the King

of kings and

the Lord of

lords to whom

every knee will

bow and every

tongue confess

that Jesus Christ

is Lord to the

glory of God

the Father.

When He says

Judah is binding

his foal to the

vine and his

donkey's colt to

the choice vine

he's washed his

garments in wine

and his vesture is

the blood of

grapes his eyes

are darker than

wine his teeth are

whiter than milk

we are looking to

Jesus who's the

rightful heir of

every treasure of

heaven and who by

His grace shares

that inheritance with

sinners like us.

Do you see

Jesus is the

blessing God has

sent to the

world?

Any who come to

Him in faith

any who come to

Him in faith

will be blessed

now and into

eternity beyond

their wildest

dreams.

Your sins will be

forgiven.

You will be

adopted as sons

and daughters of

the living God.

You will be given

an eternal hope

ahead of you that's

guaranteed by the

great faithfulness of

our sovereign God.

God as we read

earlier this morning

Peter tells us

according to his

great mercy he has

caused us to be

born again to a

living hope through

the resurrection of

Jesus Christ from

the dead to an

inheritance that is

imperishable

undefiled and

unfading kept in

heaven for you.

Friend do you

realize how blessed

you are in Christ?

Do you know the

blessing of knowing

God?

Have you come to

Him in faith?

Have you been

adopted as a son

or a daughter of

the living God?

Have you received

blessings upon

blessings upon

blessings in Christ

Jesus?

If not then friend

what would keep you

from coming to Him

in faith this morning?

And if so

in church

would you rejoice

in the blessings

that God's given

you in Christ?

Would you rejoice

in the great

faithfulness of our

God?

You have been

brought into

covenant with

Him at the

price of His

own blood.

Matthew Henry

says as long as

we have an

interest in God's

covenant a place

grace and a name

among His

people and good

hopes of a share

in the heavenly

Canaan we must

account ourselves

blessed.

Father we are

blessed and it's

only in Christ

that we are

blessed and it's

only by your

sovereign grace that

we are in Christ.

So we pray now

Father if there are

any here who are

not in Christ would

you give them the

gift of faith this

very moment.

Would they call

out to you and

ask God please

bless a sinner like

me.

And Father for

this church we ask

that we would

rejoice in the

blessings that

you've given us

undeserved,

unmerited by us

but freely given

by the sacrifice

of your Son.

We praise you for

this in Jesus name.

Amen.

Amen.