And He Yielded Up The Ghost

God also has many laws but His laws are always enforced. For example, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” is a law that almighty God put in place. It is not a law that is applied to some people; it is a law that applies to everyone.

Jacob’s sons lived an ungodly life.

• In Shechem, they killed a lot of people. And it looked like they got away with it. But decades later, their sins caught up with them.

• They sold their own brother into slavery. And over twenty years have gone by and it looks like they got away with it. But as we will see in Genesis 49, their sins have caught up with them.

They sowed a lot of bad seeds; so many that their father did not trust them when they spoke to him. But now, many years have gone by and those seeds they sowed are beginning to sprout.

Just because God does not pay each Friday, many think they can sow bad seeds and get away with it. This is the subject of this passage of scripture in Genesis 49.

In this chapter, Jacob, on his death bed is not calling all of his other sons to his bedside. As he spoke to them one at a time, he spoke to them prophetically letting them know some things they were facing in the future. Everything he spoke prophetically came to past as he said they would.

Today we are beginning to hear people from some denominations claiming they are prophets and some claim they are apostles. But these two offices no longer exist.

APOSTLES NO LONGER EXIST

• There is no longer a need for Apostles because God created Apostle’s to be men who could verify the RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. You see, everything hinges on the resurrection of Christ, that proves Christ is who He said he was. To be an apostle, you had to be able to say after the resurrection… “I SAW HIM.”

Illus: Even today, if you went into a courtroom and said, “Someone told me this or that,” that evidence would not be admissible. But if you could say, “I was there and I saw the resurrected Savior.” That would be allowed.

If there was no resurrection, everything in this Bible would be no good. There had to be men and women who could say, “I SAW THE RESURRECTED SAVIOR.”

On repeated occasions, the apostles gave witness to their personal observations of Jesus, making such statements as we read in Acts 10:39-40, “And we are WITNESSES of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree: Him God raised up the third day, and showed him openly.”

No biblical evidence exists to indicate that these apostles were replaced when they died. After the apostles’ deaths, other offices besides apostleship, not requiring an eyewitness relationship with Jesus, would carry on the work. Today there is no need for having apostles, that foundation has been laid.

PROPHETS NO LONGER EXIST

In the Old Testament they did not have the Word of

God as we have today. God spoke through the prophets. Through the prophets, God said everything He had to say to mankind.

In Revelation 22:18-19, we read, “For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”

God calls men today to PREACH THE WORD!

In Genesis 49, God showed Jacob things that applied to every one of his sons, and they happened just as he prophesied they would. Remember, he is on his death bed and he has already spoken to Joseph, in Genesis chapter 48. Now, in Genesis 49 he is going to speak to his other sons.

We see . . .

I. THE CALLING

Jacob called his sons together in verses 1-2. We read, “And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall BEFALL YOU in the last days. Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.”

Once they were gathered together, he began to tell them some things they would be facing. He did not hold back, he told them in this prophetic address what would BEFALL THEM.

We see THE CALLING and . . .

II. THE PROPHECIES