I'm gonna ask you to take your
Bibles and turn with me to the book of Genesis chapter 46. Genesis
chapter 46. I don't usually start a message
with an illustration, but I feel impressed to do so today. While I was watching last night,
I was watching a documentary on the history of, well, the
flood. Then I watched one concerning
the trials that the nation of Israel went through while they
were struggling in Egypt. And I began to think about, as
these documentaries were setting forth, many, many truths. They were talking about the,
like, not only the flood, but they were talking about the plagues
in Egypt, And there was so much similarity that I noticed in
all of these, you know, the Syrophoenicians, you know, they had a report and
they had a documentary, not a documentary, but they had history of these
things that we're familiar with. They were talking about the accounts
that were given. And I began to think of the,
the history of, like the American Indians, they had a record of
the great spirit in the sky. And I thought about how all these
similarities are found in so many different countries, nations,
and old records You know, and they were talking about how all
of these things were known to so many people. And as I listened to what was
being said, and I noticed how many things were accurate. They were accurate. So many of
these accounts. But then it hit me. Where was
the message of the glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ. There was a lot of historical
accuracies. But where was the blood? Where
was the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ in these things? They
talked about worship and they talked about this and that, you
know, on and on and on. but there was no gospel in it. There was no gospel. And I thought
to myself while I was watching these documentaries, this is
the issue today. There's so many similarities,
but what deception by Satan to send these false prophets And
they're saying a lot of good things. They're saying there's
so much. But you know, you've heard it.
It doesn't take but just a little bit of poison in rat food to
kill. Just a little bit. Just a little
bit. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. And I thought,
this is the problem. People are going all over this
world and they're going to worship services. They call them worship
services. And they go and they listen to
someone that's saying 99 and 44 100th percent pure stuff. Oh, but what they're not saying
is the issue. What they're not saying what
they're not setting forth. Where is the glory of God in
the face of the Lord Jesus Christ? That's the problem. That's the
problem. Now, I've prepared a message
in our study in Genesis, Genesis chapter 46. And what we did last
time we looked at this passage is I looked at all of the at
the genealogy, we looked at all of that, all the names of those
that came in and the scripture sets forth and we finished here.
I finished in verses 46 and 47 of Genesis chapter, I mean verses
26, 27 and out of Genesis 46. And it says, all the souls that
came with Jacob, into Egypt, which came out of the loins,
besides Jacob's sons, wives. All the souls were threescore
and six. And the sons of Joseph, which
were born him in Egypt, were two souls. All the souls of the
house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were threescore and 10. That's the accurate record of
what happened But the issue is this, of all these that came
on, where is the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ in this passage? This is what I want to deal with
today. I want to look and see what God has to say. And let
us ask the Lord, speak to my heart today. Let me see the Lord
Jesus Christ. We're getting ready to deal with
a warm and blessed meeting of Jacob. and his son, Joseph. We're gonna see this dad and
this son, and they're gonna see each other. They're gonna look
at each other. They're gonna see each other. They're gonna
embrace. But this meeting is more than
just the history, the record of a reunion of a dad and a son
after years of separation. but rather it is a marvelous
picture and type, a reminder of the glorious grace of God
that would bring His people, who He everlastingly loved in
Christ, and how He's gonna bring them to Himself eternally, loved
them in His blessed Son, redeemed them by the blood of the Son.
They're going to see him face to face. This is more than history. This is more than just a record
of a family. Show me Christ. Show me the glory
of Christ. Oh, it rejoices our hearts. when we're able to see through
a glass darkly, you that know him. Isn't it wonderful when
you open the scriptures and you see Christ, you see the Lord
Jesus in these things, you see the glory of God in them, and
your heart just rejoices when you see the gospel of the Lord
Jesus. Oh, we know this. According to
God's precious promise, the Lord Jesus Christ, one day, By God's
good pleasure, we're gonna see Him when He appears. We'll be
like Him, see Him as He is, our Savior, our Savior. Well, knowing
that the scriptures set forth the glory of God, in the face
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want us to ask the Lord to
speak to us today. Now let's just look at it. And like I said, historically,
correct. But if I don't see the gospel
in it, and I missed it, pray that the Lord would teach us
the gospel, the power of God unto salvation. All right, now
let's start in verse 28 and go, Lord willing, to the end of the
chapter. And he sent Judah before him unto Joseph to direct his
face unto Goshen. And they came into the land of
Goshen. Now here we see that Jacob is
sending Judah. Jacob is gonna send Judah before
him. Now here, the family of Jacob,
Israel, is coming to the promised land. They're coming. And so
before he goes in to the promised land, the dad, Jacob, he sends
his son, Judah. He's got a son. And he sends
him before his face, that is before Jacob's face, to meet
Joseph. Now they were going to a place
called Goshen. Okay, it's a place, it's a place
there in Egypt, Goshen. And it required some leadership. It required somebody that knew
where they were going. Now Judah had been going back
and forth. Remember that, these boys been going back, they go
back and get some corn back and forth. Judah knew how to go to
Joseph, to Goshen. Judah was one of the sons. He
knew how to go to Goshen. He knew how to go to Goshen.
But we need to see that Judah here is more than just a knowledgeable
son to get to a certain place that his dad and family was going
to. He needed to bring his dad there. But we need to see that the rest
of God's people, the rest, joy is to set forth that there is
a way of leadership. There's a way of direction to
the place of rest. Goshen would be a place of rest.
That was a place of God's blessing. It's a land. Yes, it is. And
Jacob, the dad, he's getting old now. He's coming to Egypt. But Jacob doesn't know the way. He needs for his son, Judah,
to be a guide, be a director. So here's what's gonna happen. Judah is one that fits the demand
as a guide. Judah here, Judah the son, he's
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's a picture of the Holy Spirit.
Here's the dad. The dad, the family, they're
going to Goshen. It's more than just history. This is saying that God's people
need a guide. We need direction. Goshen's a
place. It's a place, but it's a place
of rest. It's a place of comfort. It's
a place of God's providing. But Jacob, the dad, he didn't
know how to get there. So here we see all this son,
Judah, he's a God, he's gonna show his dad the way, but we
look past that. I've heard of the glory of God. I've heard of God Almighty. But
to get to him, how do I get to him? How do I get to the Lord? I know it's not my works of righteousness
that I've done. I know that. I need to know the
way. And here's a picture. Look past
the obvious, the natural obvious, and look to the spiritual. Whenever
Jacob, the dad, is going to send his son Judah to show him the
way, we need Christ who is the way. We need the Lord Jesus Christ. We behold Judah here as being
a picture of the Lord Jesus, the Lord of glory, the way, the
truth, the life, one who is the only way to the Father. If Jacob
is going to get to to Egypt, and he don't know where to go.
He'd just be wandering. I need a guide. I need a direction. I need one to direct my way who
is the way himself. So here it says, and he sent
Judah before him unto Joseph to direct his face to Goshen,
and they came into the land of Goshen. Verse 29, and Joseph
made ready his chariot, and went up to meet Israel, his father,
to Goshen, and presented himself unto him. And he fell on his
neck and wept on his neck a good while." Now here's Jacob, dad. He's coming to Joseph. And Joseph
is making all things ready. Joseph is gonna receive his daddy.
It's truly a marvelous thing to behold the beauty and the
meeting here. of this father and son. Here's Joseph. Joseph is getting ready to see
his dad after all these years, these many, many years. His dad,
as far as Jacob, the dad knew, for so long, his son was, as
far as he knew, his son was dead. Jacob had just heard that Joseph
had been torn up by animals and it's what, that's what his, you
know, Joseph's brothers told him. They told their dad, he
said, well, here's this cold, here's the blood and all this
kind of stuff. And as far as Jacob knew, but when Jacob heard
that his son, Joseph, was alive, he wanted to go see him. He wanted
to go and be where he, where he is, it's where he was. And
the scripture says that he, he, he says in verse 29, Joseph made
ready the chariot. Oh, at such a, what a, what a
beautiful promise here. He made ready the chariot. Joseph
made ready the chariot. Here's Joseph as a picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever is needed, whatever
is needed to meet his dad, Joseph's gonna take care of it. What comfort
it is to the child of God to know whatever is needed for me
to meet the Lord himself. I love these beautiful pictures
of these, I mean, I love these stories here of this truth, but
oh, to see the blessed picture of that which the Lord is doing
for us. I don't know what to do. Somebody said, do you want
to meet God when you die? Yeah, but I want everything to
be prepared. I want everything to be made ready. I want to make
sure everything is done. To hear that blessed promise,
my God shall supply all your need according to his riches
and glory by Christ Jesus. I can go to bed at night and
sleep. I mean, can you imagine To a believer, a believer can
imagine this. The thought of trying to go to
sleep without all things being made ready to meet God would
just, I couldn't handle that. If I knew I had to go to bed
at night and my heart's not right before God, I need an intercessor. I need an advocate. I need a
mediator. I need a savior. I need for the
Lord to do something for me I can't do for myself. And that blessed
promise. And Joseph made ready his chariot. And he went to meet Israel, his
father, to Goshen, and presented himself unto him, and he fell
on his neck and wept on his neck a good while. Oh, how that touches
my heart. I am so sure that whenever Joseph,
the son, saw Jacob, his daddy, Israel, his daddy, after so long,
his daddy thought he's dead, as I said before, but when he
saw him, he just, he fell on his neck and he just, he wept
And he wept, and he wept a long time. It was so beautiful to
me because what it says was, look who was doing what in that
29th verse. And Joseph made ready his chariot
and he went up to meet Israel, his father, to Goshen, and presented
himself unto him and fell on his neck. This is Joseph, Joseph. He fell on his neck and wept
on his neck a good while. Everything, all the affection,
all the, you know, turn with me, Song of Solomon. Song of Solomon chapter four. Song chapter four. All of that
blessed affection. It was Joseph that was doing
that. I just, I thought how touching.
Song of Solomon. Chapter four, verse eight. Come
with me from Lebanon, my spouse, with me from Lebanon. I'm sorry,
let me start over. Come with me from Lebanon, my
spouse, with me from Lebanon, and look upon the top of Ammanah,
the top of Shinar and Hermon, from the lion's den, from the
mountains of the leopards. Thou hast ravished my heart,
my sister, Now listen to this, this is the Lord speaking. This
is the Lord. Thou hast ravished my heart,
my sister, my spouse. Thou hast ravished my heart with
one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck. How fair is thy
love, my sister, my spouse. How much better is thy love than
wine and the smell of thine ointments and all the spices. I was reading,
I was reading that this morning how the Spirit of God moved upon
Solomon to write these words and how the Lord was talking
about how wonderful it was to meet his bride and smell her,
to smell her. You know, it's, it's, you, you
know this, but it's an amazing thing, this how there's a, for
each of us, and especially to our spouse. There's a smell. They have a distinctive smell. Have you ever noticed that? There's
a smell of your spouse. And I don't know if I need to
relate that to their, you know, cologne, but just their fragrance. The fragrance of their love.
The fragrance of their presence. There's a distinctive, and here's
the Lord speaking, and he said, you've ravished my heart with
one of your eyes. Take it. And the smell of your,
you know, the smell of their presence. And here's Jacob, and
he meets Joseph, and Joseph, the scripture says, falls on
his daddy's neck and weeps and weeps and weeps, and I think,
Lord, How can it be that you would show such affection? One
like myself. And the tenderness of that meeting,
what mercy we behold as we contemplate that glorious day when faith
shall give way to sight. All these things that we've looked
at and studied concerning the Lord. and we physically never seen
him. We anticipate seeing him. But to see him by sight, Jacob,
Jacob had his son Joseph come and Joseph just fell on his neck
and kissed him and kissed him and kissed him. And I thought,
Lord, how can it be? How can it be? Verse 30, and
Israel said unto Joseph, Here's Israel. Here's Jacob saying to
Joseph, his son, Jacob says, now let me die, since I've seen
thy face, because thou art yet alive. Jacob, he's gotten there with his family,
all of his family's with him, all those three score and 10
came with him. And he sees his son, and his
son, Joseph, he says, falls on his neck and kisses him. Kisses
him great wild. And Jacob, the daddy, said, let
me die now. Let me die. It can't get any
better than this. Nothing will top this. Nothing
will top this meeting. Oh, let me now die. Why? Because I've seen thy face. Now I've seen you. Now I've seen
my eyes have looked on you. Oh, for so long he thought he
was dead. He's dead. I'll never see him
again. And there he is, he sees it.
And he said, let me, let me die. Why? Because you're alive. Thought
about when I read that this morning, I've seen pictures in my mind,
pictures and types of the Lord. He's alive. He's risen from the
dead. That's what scripture says. Three
days later, after his crucifixion, he was raised from the dead.
He was alive. His disciples saw him. This one
saw him, that one saw him, many saw him. They saw him, he's alive. But by the grace of God, when
I'll be able to see him, when I'll be able to see him, when
I can see him, that's what Job says, these eyes, with these
eyes, I'm gonna see God. And I think to myself that that
scripture, Half, half, half, half of it's not been told me.
To be able to see the Lord, to see him, to see him as he is. And then the scripture says to
be like him. Jacob said, Israel said, verse 30, let me die since
I've seen thy face because thou art yet alive, you're alive. I mean, we look upon the Lord
in that day and just be able to look at him and say, you're
alive. You're alive. I knew he was alive, but now
I know he's alive. To see it. Oh, what our attitude. The joy
to behold him. Then verses 31, 32. And Joseph said unto his brethren,
to his father's house, I will go up and show Pharaoh and say
unto him, My brethren, my father's house, which were in the land
of Canaan, are come unto me. And the men are shepherds, for
their trade hath been to feed cattle, and they've brought their
flocks and their herds and all that they have. Now, here's Joseph,
because of his love and respect for his family, says that he's
gonna go up. He said, I'm gonna go up. and
I'm going to make preparation for you. I'm going to approach
Pharaoh for you and I'm going to tell him that you're here
and that you're with me. You're with me. You didn't just
come in here by yourself. You didn't decide that you would
just come. Oh, what a beautiful picture
of that day when whenever the Lord Jesus Christ shall say unto
the Father, here, here they are. These are the ones that you've
given me. He prayed in his high priestly
prayer. Turn over to John 17. John 17.
John 17, verse 24. I have priestly prayer. Father,
I will that they whom thou hast given me be also with me where
I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given
me, for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. There was the great promise of
the Lord's intercession, preparing for the reception of his people.
Father, I will. This is my will, this is my desire,
that those that you've given me be with me where I am. Again, here's this story of Joseph
and Jacob, they're meeting together and what does Joseph say? Joseph was Pharaoh's right-hand
man. He was the one that Pharaoh said,
you need anything in Egypt, you go see Joseph, you see Joseph,
whatever you need. And here's Joseph, a picture
of our precious Savior saying to his family, to his brethren,
I'm gonna go talk to Pharaoh for you. I'm gonna go tell him
that you're here, all the blessings. of knowing that all that's needed,
all that's required to be with the Father. Turn over to Hebrews
chapter two. I will try to wrap this up. Hebrews
chapter two. Hebrews chapter two, verses 11
to 13. Listen to this precious passage
of scripture and think about, think about that blessed meeting.
Hebrews chapter two, verse 11. He that sanctifieth, and they
who are sanctified are all of one. For which cause he not ashamed
to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto
my brethren in the midst of the church. I will sing praise unto
thee. And again, I will put my trust
in him. And again, behold, I and the
children which God has given me. Joseph said, I'm gonna go and
I'm gonna talk to Pharaoh. I'm gonna tell him you're here.
You're not here as just visitors. You're here with me. You're gonna
reside with me. Oh, what a blessed, blessed promise. And Joseph declared not only
to Pharaoh that his family was with him and gonna be with him,
He was honest. He was honest about him. I read
this last couple of verses here, how the honesty of Joseph, listen
to these verses, verse 33, 34. He's told Pharaoh now, he said,
I'm going to talk to Pharaoh and I'm gonna tell him that you're
with me. Verse 33, and shall come to pass,
When Pharaoh shall call you, you shall say, and shall call
you and say, and shall say, what is your occupation? Now he's
telling them before you get there. He said, I'm gonna tell you this.
This is what I want you to say. I'm gonna go make preparation
for you. I'm gonna go and I'm gonna talk to Pharaoh and I'm
gonna tell him what needs to be heard concerning you and this
is what I want you to remember. When Pharaoh says to you, what
is your occupation? That ye, verse 34, shall say,
thy servant's trade hath been about cattle from our youth even
until now, both we and also our fathers, that ye may dwell in
the land of Goshen, for every shepherd is an abomination unto
the Egyptians. I looked up, I looked up that
word shepherd. I wanted to know exactly what
was being said right here. Shepherd, every shepherd. What it means is those that tend
cattle or sheep. Livestock is what it means. Those that are tenders of livestock,
that's what it means. He said, I want you to know that
whenever You see Pharaoh, and he asks you, what do you do for
a living? What is your occupation? You
be honest with him. You tell him that we're tenders
of cattle, sheep. That word's shepherds. We're
servants. It doesn't mean just cows or
just sheep. It means we're tenders of livestock
is what it means. Both we and our fathers, you
be honest with him. He told him, he said, you be
honest with them because shepherds were an abomination. Those that
tend cattle, those that do what they did for a living were abominations
to the Egyptians. Joseph told him, he said, you
tell them exactly what you do for a living. He wasn't trying
to hide anything. You first read that and you think,
well, he was just trying to tell them, just say a little something,
just kind of slip it under the back door there, let them, so
they might get in there. Uh-uh, that's not what it means.
It means that you tell them exactly what you do for a living. You tell them just exactly. Beloved,
let our answer to those who question our spiritual occupation. What do you do, Marvin, for a
living? I preach the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I preach the gospel of God's
free and sovereign, electing, particular redeeming grace of
God in Christ. Well, don't you believe that
everybody's got a chance? No, I believe that God has chosen
the people before the foundation of the world that he's going
to save. That Christ came into this world
and died in particular for those elect. That's what I believe.
Well, you mean you don't give everybody a chance? I said everybody
died in Adam. Everybody's chance was eliminated
by man's decision, by Adam's decision to disobey God. And
by the grace of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, scripture reveals,
has a people of God's choosing. And he's going to save his elect. Joseph told him, he said, when
he asks you your occupation, you tell him what you do. You
tell him exactly what you do. And don't you back up from it.
The Apostle Paul said, Romans chapter one, verse 16, 17, for
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. to the Jew first
and also to the Greek, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live
by faith. Scripture declares that we're
gonna be hated of all men, for Christ's sake. We know that God's got a people. We know that God's gonna bring
them all home, We're not ashamed of the message that we preach.
Joseph sent for his father, Jacob. And all the household, he brought
them all. And God Almighty moved him to
put them in a place called Goshen. Goshen was the most fertile.
It was the most perfect of all the land in Egypt. Goshen was
the best. It was the best of the land.
Beloved, We're in this world. We're in Egypt. We're in Egypt. I know that. But by the grace
of God, we're in the best of all the land that Almighty God
has been pleased to give us while we're in this world. I wouldn't
trade where I am for anything. Why? Because this is the best
of it in this life. And when it's over, the Lord's
gonna take us home. I pray God bless this to our
hearts. I pray that we've seen the glory of God in Christ for
his glory in our good.