This lovely 49th chapter of the book of Genesis, it brings us to the closing chapter of Jacob's earthly pilgrimage. Before he passed away, he called together his 12 sons. Can you imagine that scene? This aged patriarch, and he's about to depart this scene of time and go out into God's eternity. And before he does, he calls his sons together, and they're all around his bedside. and he prophesies concerning the blessing of God that was to be bestowed upon them. Many years prior to that, God had promised Abraham that he would give to him the land of Canaan. And he would give not only to him the land of Canaan, but to his descendants. And that promise was renewed to Isaac. It was renewed to Jacob. And now it's renewed to Jacob's children and their succeeding generations because we learn again that God is a covenant God. And all of the promises that God gives to us in his word, they are applicable to our children and our children's children's children. And we should hold on to that. Those of us who have family and children, even if your children are growing up tonight, even if you've got grandchildren tonight, even if you've got great-grandchildren tonight, there are promises that you hold on to from the Lord. Even until your deathbed, you can hold on to those promises. As he came to die he was many miles away of course from the promised land of Canaan. He was in Egypt where he had come down to sojourn with his son Joseph but he made them promise that he would take his body back again up into the promised land. He knew he would get to the promised land and in summoning his sons together beside his bedside for these final benedictions of an aged father to his sons and to their succeeding generations. We have some of the most amazing prophetical utterances in all of scripture. Our text in verse 10 is found in the prophecy concerning Judah from verse 8 to verse 12. And ultimately, this prophecy finds its fulfillment not in the sons of Judah, but in Judah's greatest son, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah. We're told in verse 8 that he would be praised by his brethren. And of course, this is just more than a claim, family acclaim. This is worship. This is the word for praise, which is used of God. So something special going on here. This ultimate son of Judah was going to be worshiped. He was going to be praised. Then verse eight tells us too, he was going to have dominion and rulership. Now we know that Judah was the dominant tribe and from Judah sprang the greatest kings of Israel. But this was something more because this was a kingdom that would have no ending. So we have here a prophetical projection to one who was yet to come. This was not just a son of Judah according to the flesh. This was a son of Judah according to prophetical utterance. And then in verse 9, it's like unto a lion. And now we're getting the key. Because in the book of Revelation chapter five, and we'll come to that later on, we read there about the lion of the tribe of Judah. And we know as we often sing that lovely hymn, the lion of the tribe of Judah shall break every chain and give us the victory again and again. And then we come to verse 10, our text. And verse 10 introduces us to this mysterious ancient figure from the days that have gone before. And he comes with the name of Shiloh. There was no precedent for this name. He wasn't called after any of his ancestors. We don't find any records of the ancestors taking the name of Shiloh. This was a prophetic allotterance as a reference to Genesis chapter 3. And verse 15, the first gospel promise in all of the Bible, where God spoke to Adam and Eve and to Satan. That was the sermon that all of mankind and all of the spirit world heard at one go. And the Lord, at that moment, he spoke about the promised seed, the promised seed of the Messiah. And that promised seed of the Messiah, all of the ancestors, they looked for it. And now we learn it was going to come through the line of Judah. You'll recall in Genesis 3.15 that promised seed was given to Adam and Eve and it was said in Genesis 3.15 that the promised seed would bruise Satan's head, though the promised seed would have his heel bruised. And this promise, see, we know, is none other than the only Redeemer of God's elect, the Lord Jesus Christ. And though Adam and Eve had fallen into sin, and through their sin they had justly left their first estate, the promise of God concerning a Redeemer was given right there and then at their fall. How good is God. Man falls into sin. God gives man the answer to his sin. And it's just the same. Man in his sin has an answer. And the answer to sin is the Lord Jesus Christ. Though they could no longer live in paradise, God promised that he would protect them. He would provide for them, and because of this promised seed He would come at the end of their pilgrimage, He would take them to the Eden above and to glory above. So the whole story of redemption is how those early patriarchal families believed and received the truth of, not John 3, 16, but Genesis 3, verse 15. Genesis 3, 15 is the unfolding of God's redemptive plan. And from the godly line of Seth, to the calling of Abraham, to his descendants, they all died in the faith. Notice that, Hebrews 11, it says they all died in the faith. What faith? The faith that believed, Genesis 3 and verse 15, concerning the promised seed that was to come. There are six titles given to the Messiah in the Pentateuch, and you should know them, because they're all foreshadowings of what was to come. The seed, Genesis 3.15. Shiloh, Genesis 49.10. The scepter, Genesis 49.10. The shepherd and the stone, Genesis 49.24. And the numbers 24 and 17. Wonderful as we thought about that this morning. The star is given as one of those early patriarchal names to the Lord Jesus Christ. So at the gathering of Jacob's family around his deathbed, it's not surprising that Jacob and faith would reference the promised seed that would come into the world. And how did he reference it? This is the second reference that is given directly to Christ in the Old Testament Scriptures. And he takes the name of Shiloh. Shiloh. So in our time around the word of the Lord tonight, I want to just stop with you and unfold what this name of Shiloh means. I pray it will help the people of God. If the gospel doesn't bless and help the people of God, it can help or bless nobody. And for those that are in unconverted, I pray that it will give you a deeper knowledge vision and clarity of the one alone who can save you and take you to the aid and above. So let's first of all think for a little moment or two about the mystery behind this name. When we name children usually there's some reason as to why they are named with the names that they're given. So I was called after my father He was called after his father. So just in my own name, there are three generations all wrapped into one name. And you'll find it right scattered across the congregation, the boys and girls. If you ask your mom or dad when you go home, well, who am I called after? I'll guarantee you there's some ancestors, some family relation there that that name is given with mind of. But amongst biblical commentators, There's common agreement here that this name was given just with one ancestor in mind. And that was with Genesis 3.15 in mind. And this was Jacob's dying name for the Savior. He was dying. I want you to keep that in your mind. He was giving his last words to his family. And upon his last words was the name of the Savior. As he knew him, Shiloh, the promised seed of Genesis 3 and verse 15. Hebrew scholars agree that this name, it is mysterious, but it has great significance. I was looking up some of the studies at home. In Wilson's Old Testament word studies, the word Shiloh is traced on this derivation, gives it, of course, various meanings. Let me share with you some of them. This word, Shiloh, can mean the pacifier, the pacifier, or the prince of peace. What a lovely picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who is God manifest in the flesh, and because he's God manifest in the flesh, he is able to reconcile man who is at enmity with God and bring peace between the two. He's the great reconciler. There are many today across the world, and they're in this ministry, they're called the Ministry of Reconciliation. And what they want to do is to reconcile one warring group with another warring group. And all of that's good and proper, I have no issue with it. But true reconciliation is only had with God through Christ. He is the great reconciler. It signifies one who is quiet, one who is prosperous, one who is honorable, one who is happy. Strong translates it as one who is tranquil. Tranquil. When you come to die, you want to know peace in your soul. You want to have that peace that passeth all understanding. And you'll only have that peace that passeth all understanding when you have the God of peace with you on that deathbed. The Newberry reference Bible gives it as the pacificator, or whose it is. And I think Isaiah had that prophecy in mind when he wrote those lovely words of Isaiah 9 and verse 6, and it'll be quoted and be read hundreds of times. over the next few weeks, thousands of times over the next few weeks, and I wonder how many will ever trace it back to Genesis 49 and verse 10. And it goes like this, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. The government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Pacifier. That's what it means, the Prince of Peace. Brethren and sisters, what took place at the incarnation? It was a mystery. So, therefore, when we come to Genesis 49 in verse 10, and we have the mystery of this name Shiloh revealed to us, we have just to stop and think of that mystery of God manifest in the flesh. Paul took it up in 1 Timothy 3 in verse 16. Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. And what does it say? was manifest in the flesh. That's a mystery. How the one who is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, he was confined to a space in the womb of the Virgin Mary. He became the incarnate son of the living God. And though this was all mysterious It was the very mention of the name of this person that brought peace to Jacob when he was dying. That's the important thing to remember tonight. Old Matthew Henry puts it lovely. He said, thus dying, Jacob at a great distance saw Christ's day, and it was his comfort and support on his deathbed. There's a lesson for life here tonight, and there's a lesson for eternity here tonight, and I want you to learn it. There is only one name that will give you peace when you come to die. There are many people, and they're great at dropping names into the conversation, and sometimes I just have to smile at them. They drop this name in, and they want you to know that you know that person, And I don't care who they know really, but they want you to know, they want me to know that they know that particular person. You know, you're not name dropped when you come to die. When you come to those final moments on the journey of life, are you going to gather around your loved ones and say, I met such and such a one. I was introduced to the king, the queen, whoever it is. Will it make any difference when you come to die? There's only one name you need to know when you come to die. That's the lovely name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you don't know that name, whatever other name you can rhyme off, it'll mean absolutely nothing to you. That name of Jesus had meant so much, the angel revealed it to Joseph all of those years ago. Thou shalt call his name Jesus. Why? because he'll save his people from their sins. And just to take that name upon my lips and to say this, Jesus is mine. I'm enabled to say he saved me from my sin. When I come to die, what a blessing to be able to say he saved me from my sin. Now can you say that tonight with assurance? Is that the assurance that you'll put your head on the pillow with tonight? Because that's the mystery of it all. We often sing that lovely gospel hymn and one of the verses goes, there's a light in the valley of death now for me since Jesus came into my heart. What's the light in the valley of death? It's just that Jesus is in the heart. And is he in your heart and is he in your life tonight? Because without him, it's all doom, it's all darkness. There's no light where Jesus is not to be found. I want you to notice secondly the ministry that's revealed through his name. There are many commentators in this and they give various interpretations of this name, Shiloh and what it means. Mr. Spurgeon, he puts so many of them together and gives us various renderings. Shiloh means the sent one. I was connecting that with John 9 and verse 7. Remember that place that the Lord Jesus visited in Jerusalem? He said, go and wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation, sent. He went his way therefore and washed and came saying. It's hard to miss the likeness between Siloam and Shiloh. And some biblical commentators Linguists, they argued these words have the same meaning. Shiloh is the sent one. And what a ministry did the Lord Jesus exercise. He was sent. He was sent into this world. He came on an errand. He came from the Father, and he was sent by the Father on a mission to save his people from their sin. He was the sent one. People will remember Christmas time, Christmas for a hundred different reasons, but as Christians, we remember this season as the time when we thank God that God sent his Son into this world. He was the sent one. He was the Son. Jacob, of course, was looking at a son, Judah, and his descendants, but he had a special eye of faith to what we call the anti-type, the greater Judah, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the sent one. Unto us a child is born, Isaiah could say, and unto us a son is given. And the son referred to there is none other than the son of the most high God. He's the sent one. A further rendering of the verse is, until he come to whom it belongs. What does that mean? Well, the scepter, the verse tells us, will not depart from Judah until he shall come whose scepter it is. And I know the scepter belongs to Christ. The scepter's the emblem of power. We saw that magnificently portrayed at the funeral of our late Queen Elizabeth II. That royal scepter was laid upon her coffin, and when they came to bury the coffin ceremonially, the scepter was taken off the coffin because the power now had been taken from her. But the scepter still belongs to Christ. All scepters belong to Christ. All rulers rule by permission of Christ. And when he comes, he will take all of the scepters, and he will take all of the power, because all of the power and the glory belongs to him. And so, when the last and the greatest of all the monarchs come for a second time, the Bible tells us he'll come without sin unto salvation. He will reign. He is reigning, but he's coming to reign. He is the King, born to be King. And Kings need citizens. And I want to ask you this evening, have you acknowledged your allegiance to the King of Kings, the Lord Jesus Christ? A few months ago, when the Queen died, Queen Elizabeth, it struck me that people were very quick to sing, God save the king. The queen was only in the coffin, and people were already singing, God save the king. And I know there's a symbolism in that, and I know there's ceremony in that, and all of that other stuff. But I thought of the many. I thought of the many who would take those words of our National Anthem upon their lips and sing it from the heart with such meaning and feeling, but they've never given their allegiance to King Jesus. Never. And maybe you have been numbered amongst them. You've been singing, God save the King, and we make it not just our National Anthem, we make it a prayer of our heart. But have ye given your allegiance as yet to the King of kings and Lord of lords, the Lord Jesus Christ? The one further interpretation I'll give you is this one, and I will come back to it just a little bit. Shiloh's the reconciler. He's the go-between. He's the mediator. And when you're at peace with the Son, you're at peace with God. But if you're not at peace with the Son, you can't be at peace with God. I can't think what it would be like to come to your deathbed and not be at peace with your family. Not be speaking to your son, your daughter, your brother, your sister, your father, mother, whoever it is. What a deathbed that would be. But oh, what a deathbed it'll be if you come to it and you're not at peace with God. What a meeting that'll be. When you go from time out into eternity and meet a sin-hating God. The gospel calls you to trust in the Lord. Why? Because in him is everlasting peace. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace. In Isaiah chapter 26, peace, peace. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stead on thee. I want you to notice as we close out this evening, the missionary application to this name. I just love this, verse 10, it says, Unto him shall the gathering of the people be. The scepter of authority, of course, never departed from Judah until Shiloh came. and through the long reign of David. And David's reign and his successors went on for some 450 years through the captivity, right even to the days of the incarnation and the Lord Jesus Christ and his birth of Palestine. Judah was still the dominant tribe. But remember when those religious leaders cried on to Pilate to put to death the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ at his trial, they had to ask Pilate to do it because they had no power any longer to do it. And that's why he was crucified instead of been stoned to death. Judah's kingdom in which Shiloh wood rain was but a prophetical foreshadowing of the reign of King Jesus. There's no end to his reign. This sovereign reign of Christ, it transcends all the national boundaries and borders known to man. When Christ holds out that scepter of authority, it's to the north, it's to the south, it's to the east, it's to the west. All things are under his command. All things are under his control. We read Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15, 25, he must reign. And he is reigning. The scepter's working, he is reigning. And he's bringing all things to the fulfillment. And what's he doing? He's gathering out a people from amongst the Gentiles. He's reigning. Literally, the phrase means, unto him shall the gatherings of the people be. The gatherings, what are gatherings? What gatherings are taking place all over the world, even as we speak? People are gathering. Last Saturday evening, for some reason, I was on sermon audio. And before I went to bed on Sunday, on Saturday night, in New Zealand, they were already worshiping God. They were already meeting for the worship of God. 24 hours, seven days a week, God's name is being proclaimed and hallowed right across this world. And there's gatherings, there's people being gathered. been gathered out of the world and gathered into the fold of God. Isaac Watts puts it beautifully in his hymn, Jesus Shall Reign Where'er the Sun. And one of the verses goes, people and realms of every tongue dwell on his love with sweetest song. People and realms of every tongue. On every tongue, they're gonna be there. The past decade, I've had the privilege to chair the mission board of our church. I was looking it up, Just the other night, I've met believers from five different continents, visited different countries, had the opportunity to worship in different formats, meet people of different backgrounds. And what unites us all is just our union with God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. What a wonderful thing it is to be part of the gatherings of the people of God, united to God through faith in Jesus Christ. The Savior told the Jewish religious leaders of his day, About one man he would hold up as an example. He said he hadn't found faith like it in all Israel. And who was the man he was talking about? He was talking about a Roman centurion who was an officer in an occupying army in Palestine. And Jesus said concerning that Roman centurion, that he found nothing to compare with the faith of this man. And then he said to those Jewish religious leaders, and I say unto you that many shall come from the east and the west and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom, that's the Jewish kingdom, shall be cast out into outer darkness. Why? Because they rejected the Messiah, the Christ of God. You know what an awful tragedy it would be for you to hear those awful words cast out, cast out. And others from different countries who haven't had all of the gospel privileges that you've had, they've just had a few and they've grasped them and they've received them. They're gonna be brought in. I was really encouraged and blessed a few weeks ago to meet, of course, over the internet with those dear believers in Lahore, in Pakistan. Different culture, different dress, different approach, different, everything different, but one in Jesus Christ. One in doctrine, one in faith. What an awful tragedy. Dear soul, and on alone, Free Presbyterian Church tonight, that the Roman centurion will go in, the one from Islamic Pakistan will go in, and you who have sat in those gospel pews for years, if you die as you live, you'll be cast out. There is no sovereign compared with Christ. He's the lion, but if we put that title together in Revelation 5, verse 5 and 6, he's also the lamb. The lion has strength, he's the king, but at the same time he was the sacrificial lamb because he had to die. And who do we present? Just the lion of the tribe of Judah who was also the lamb he had to die. And it's this sovereign who wins the hearts of his people. There's nobody else. We're not here to present ourselves. We're not here to uplift ourselves, as our brother Sam said. We're here just to uplift the lion, the lamb, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the lamb slain from before the very foundation of the world. And it's unto him in his strength and in his sacrifice that the people of God gather from all over the world. What a gathering. We read about those gatherings and mundane glory along with the multitudes from every tribe, from every kindred, from every nation. Revelation 5 and 9 will sing the new song. Thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals for thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. That's missionary vision and missionary application. This ancient name given to us by a dying man. Genesis 49 and 10 is one of the earliest foreshadowings of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in the final battle that Jacob had with death and as he would leave time and go out into God's eternity, Shiloh was on his name. It was the name that he took upon his lips. and the testimony that he left behind. Now what testimony will you leave behind? At your funeral will they get up and say, you're a member of this club, of that lodge, of that organization, you did X, Y, or Z? But can they say you left a testimony behind to the saving and keeping power of the Lord Jesus Christ? It's only Jesus. who can do helpless sinners good. There's nobody else, there's nobody else can do you any good. You can send for the preacher, you can send for the minister, you can send for the pastor, you can send for the bishop, but any of those men, they can only tell you of him who alone can do helpless sinners good. I urge you tonight here in the comfort of these seats that you're sitting in, I urge you just to bow your head, and give your heart and your life to him. Maybe you say, well, I did that years ago. We'll do it again tonight. I don't mean you get saved again tonight, but give your allegiance again to him tonight. Isn't he worthy of it? He's our Shiloh. He's our king.