Open—J. Sacks
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I'll look at a couple of verses. One verse that just.
Came into my mind this morning.
Haven't really been able to get it out of my mind.
Maybe the Lord would have us to look at it.
Genesis chapter 49.
So the scene here we have Jacob.
Whose name was.
Jacob, as we know, was.
The grandson of Abraham.
Abraham is called God.
Out of the.
Chaldeans out of an idolatrous.
Culture and was called to.
For places we read in Hebrews that he did not know, he did not know where he's going.
But it was called my God to be so that God could make him the Father.
Of the nation.
No, Abraham walked by the faith. It's a beautiful.
Beautiful accounts that we've often enjoyed and I think will be one of this everyone in this room.
Familiar, not speaking to an audience of people who aren't familiar with the scriptures. It's a wonderful thing in itself.
And then we know his son Isaac.
There's a.
Sort of the recipient of much blessing. His father had gone.
Obey God and Isaac was brought into.
Much blessing.
As you know, it's a wonderful thing to be raised.
In a home.
In which the knowledge of God is known.
And Isaac had that.
Great privilege. And you know his father was careful.
Careful to the way he.
Bride for his son.
He was careful.
With his son.
We know that, Isaac.
He too had to labor. He had to believe he was had to retake.
Well, I'm sure maybe take some wells.
He had to also exert some spiritual energy.
That there's always.
Energy in the path of faith and we had two boys and we can look at Abraham or Isaac.
We can find failure in them, but we also see that.
Which is the faith, the beautiful thing.
And then we know Isaac had two sons. He saw her and Jacob.
He was deceived.
My son Jacob.
And Jacob, as we know.
He sort of had a.
Way of taking things into his own hands times.
And yet God's desire was to bless him from his right, from the home. God's desire was the blessed Jacob had.
Jacob sort of had this struggle.
And his whole life really was.
That was.
Much There's a lot of struggle in his life despite God's blessing, and we know his name was changed to Israel.
They wrestled with the Angels. Amazing. These are real men, you know, These aren't just stories.
The little Steve, the real men.
So I want to read. We know that Jacob had.
And 12 tribes of Israel came from him twelve sons.
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And so here this scene.
Genesis 49 We have Jacob, now an old man.
An old man in Egypt.
His sons gathered around him.
And then finally in a, you know, in a place in his life.
I believe he can say he was really resting.
You know, he had finally come to a place where he was able to.
Stop that struggle just characterized so much of his life.
Such a beautiful story piece. You know, I hate to use the term stories because they apply as if they're made-up, but these accounts.
That the Lord gives us in His word.
So in Genesis 49, it's blessing.
Children.
So I'm just going to start with.
Verse 8.
Judah.
Thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise.
A hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies. Thy father's children shall bow down before thee.
Judah is a lion's wealth from his prey. My son, thou art gone up. He stooped down and couched as a lion, and there's an old lion who shall rouse him up.
The scepter shall not depart from Judah.
Nor a lawgiver from between his feet.
Until Shiloh come not to him.
Shall the gathering of the people be?
And that was the verse that.
Sort of. I haven't been able to get out of my head.
Until Shiloh come.
And unto him shall a gathering of the people be.
If we read it in the Darby translation, it's interesting, it says.
Until Shiloh come and unto him.
Will the obedience of peoples.
Will be the obedience of peace.
And so.
As Jacob blesses his sons.
Each one, Each one has a distinct blessing.
And Jacob also understands, you know.
Knows his son, so he describes her characters.
But we have this prophecy. Really.
And it's towards Judah, and it says that there's going to be the.
The scepter will not depart. So Judah has a rule, a rule in ruling.
And then we have.
This name seems it seems as if it is a person Shiloh. So Shiloh come. So who is Shiloh? Who is Shiloh so we know if you go over to judges.
Chapter 18.
The judges.
First one.
The whole congregation of the Children of Israel assembled together as Shiloh.
You set up the Tabernacle of the congregation there.
What was the reference again? 18 chapter one, chapter 18 verse one.
Judges, I'm sorry, Joshua.
Long, sorry about that eighteen one.
Joshua 18.
So we we have this place Shiloh. So in Genesis it seems to be a person.
But in judges is a place.
There's a place associated with the.
A place where they set up.
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A place where God.
Well.
And then if we go over to judges, I'm sorry, Samuel.
I'm not familiar with this.
We see Shiloh again. We see Shiloh a number of places through the Book of Judges.
But it says.
Samuel.
Chapter One.
I.
In verse 3.
I will start with start with chapter verse one. Now there was a certain man of remix theme Zopium of Mount Ephraim and his name was Alcana the son of Jehovah realm, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu the son of Zuff and Ephra type.
And he had two wives. The name of one was Hannah. The name of the other was Pinanina.
Nina had children, but Hannah had no children, and this man went up out of the city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord, the Host and Shiloh.
So we see Shiloh.
Hannah goes out with his her husband to Shiloh to worship. So this is a evidently, even now, so many years after what we read in Joshua, we see the Tabernacle still here because they're going up there for more ships in the same place in Shiloh.
And you know, we know the.
We know the story here that Hannah goes to Shiloh.
And.
She eventually she expresses her sadness to Eli, who makes a false priest there, who makes a really a false.
You know, thinks she's drunk, she's hot, she's overcome with sorrow.
Because she has no son.
She but she goes there.
And the Lord gives her a son, and she brings that boy Samuel.
Shiloh.
And we know that Shiloh.
Was where the Tabernacle was. The care of the Tabernacle was given to the priests and the Levites.
And this man, Eli, is the.
Priests there.
You know, there's great failure, great failure.
Says that the lights would would go out at night and it was dim. You know, they're supposed to keep these lights going all the time. So there was a lot of failure in Shiloh.
And it was failure with Eli's family.
That's still where Hannah went, and it's still where she brought her son. She brought him and she left him there.
And she left there with you, I.
So this place was a place recognized, and certainly Hannah recognized it.
As the place.
For the Tabernacle and what God was.
Despite all this failure.
It's kind of amazing.
So now I just want to.
Connections with some of the comments that we made yesterday, over the last couple of weeks we've been reading the revelation.
And we'll tie it to again versus surely are familiar with.
Matthew, 1820.
Matthew 1824, where two or three are gathered together in my name. They rely on this event.
And so we have.
The connection. I think most of us in this room are probably familiar with this, but we have.
The Tabernacle being the place where God is on earth.
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And then the disciples, we know, they recognized that Jesus was the Christ, and they were.
Looking for him to set up his Kingdom.
They could never quite understand.
Really where where he was coming from, As we would say in today's vernacular, they didn't understand.
That it wasn't going to be.
Setting up his Kingdom where he would rule and reign.
Then we have this verse. This verse really is a verse that we.
Understand, I think.
We understand, I think those of us here understand, that the Lord does not have a physical.
Place from which he.
Rules in the earth inside Rome. Some people say it's not in Constantinople.
It's not in.
Some Bible school down South.
Where there's a lot of scholarly research.
Or there's some big TV stations that broadcast all over the world.
It's not where the Lord.
Where his authority is.
Authority or two or three are gathered together. I'll take his name.
And we connect that with the fact that in Shiloh there was that place.
And so.
And it's interesting again in the King James, it says.
To him the gathering of the people should be, but in the new translation it clearly.
Also implies that his authorities there, it's an authority. And so, you know, we've talked a lot we've had in our Latin meetings recently about authority.
Already in the world.
And that all authority.
Is of God.
And.
Yet we have here an authority that is.
Most important part for us to understand it is God's authority directly.
The highest authority.
In the world today is already.
And.
The assembly.
Is in a state of ruling.
Just like it was in the days of Shiloh.
God was faithful to His own word.
The scriptures don't change.
And it's amazing.
And so I just say this by ways of you know, and and I remember as a young Christian.
To give a personal reference.
Having been saved out of the world with no Christian background, you know wasn't.
That second generation, like Isaac.
Many of you here are and have been, and that's wonderful. I really didn't know.
I just didn't know what was right and wrong really regarding so many things. And I got saved and so excited that there was this guidance, there was this light, there was these clear answers to questions that I just didn't think was even possible.
And then after two or three years of getting after being saved, that just got so confused.
Because I get an answer here from some Christians, an answer there from other Christians, and everything was big and.
And I started getting confused, feeling like there's no practical way.
There's no practical way to put these these verses into my life and walk them. I don't know how to do it.
Because there seemed to be no authority, because the word of God, there was no authority and.
By God's grace.
I believe.
He answered that.
He yearning in my own heart desire.
To see the clear authority of the Lord on earth, and it was through His scriptures.
And you know, remember us began to come to a place where the Bible, the Word of God, was held as the authority and the confidence that the Lord would.
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What guy? According to the word of God?
And Christian friends would say, oh, yeah, you found the church. Oh, you don't have a pastor. Oh, well, that's not going to last very long.
And then a few years later, oh, he's still going on that shirt. Yeah. Oh, that's interesting. 10 years later, still going that church. Yeah.
And, you know, having conversations that you know.
I could be wrong, maybe maybe this is not the place, maybe maybe we're wrong, but I know the scripture says there is a place.
It's always good to know because we can be wrong in our judgments, but the Word of God is not wrong.
But there is a place.
We're God's authority is the same.
Where two or three are gathered together.
So that's an amazing thing. And I says till Shiloh comes, so we know.
Real fulfillment.
Of you know when the Lord comes.
Then he will reign over the earth.
And his authority will be known.
Throughout the earth, as we had this morning in Philippians 2, every knee will bow.
Every day, not just believers means.
Every needle bow, very humble, fast there'll be no question, but in the meantime.
We have privilege.
Of understanding these things that God is.
The Lord Jesus is.
You know he is the Christ, He is the King.
And he is the ultimate authority, and in the assembly we have.
That responsibility and that privilege to own it.
And to expect that he will work according to his work.
So I was just thinking of these things till Shiloh Cosby had me again in Revelation reading there.
And we know.
Read chapter two and three again each assembly.
Has a lot of issues.
So to speak. God knows there are issues.
But their assemblies.
And so.
As far as on there?
That's a very important principle, if you can look around and we can see problems.
You can begin to.
Lose the sense that the Lord is there.
Now we do know candlesticks can be taken out.
That's up to God.
The Lord.
That's the sets them out. The Lord takes them back.
It's really his assembly.
Anything. But it's also a wonderful thing, so.
It's just wonderful that he has not left us here.
Rudderless.
He has given us His word and He has given us His authority here in this world.
And it's really a liberating thing.
So you could say #35 in the appendix.
#35 in the appendix.
All the path the Saints are turning.
Honey.
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Our gracious God, our loving Father, we.
Thank thee for the understanding that.
Whether individually as believers or corporately as an assembly.
That Christ is the focal point that he is.
The occupation for our hearts is the guide. He's the pattern.
He's the one through whom we are tapped and preserved.
Through whom we go on to the.
Thy desired end for those who are called thy people.
Or thankful for the times that we've had together this evening, today and this weekend, we just commit ourselves to the.
For.
The exercise that would come from.
Thy word as we've heard it, whether it was in the question and answer period or.
Any other point this weekend, we just look to the there would be those things both for young and old that would be memorable and helpful to us for our glory. We look to leave for those who come from afar and will soon this coming week be traveling.
The Renaults and Generuga and we just committed, commit them to thee for safety.
For their travels and.
We.
Thanks to our Father for all our gracious, gracious provision this weekend. And we think of Jeff catering. Jeff in particular, who seems to take an interest in spiritual things. And yet I.
Seems uncertain as to whether he truly is thine.
Though in a sense he professes it, it seems like there's a hanging back. So we just looked at it for any contact that might be had with him that that was good wisdom.
And a word in season.
And we pray for his workers too, for their souls, and are thankful for their laborers on our behalf. In Jesus name we give thee thanks, Amen.