Alright brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to Genesis chapter 45. Today we get to see what
happened to Jacob when they come to him and bring him out of Canaan. I've titled this message, Christ
is Enough. Christ is Enough. Let's start
in verse 25. Genesis 45, 25. It says, "...and they went up
out of Egypt, and they came unto the land of Canaan unto Jacob
their father." Now, these were Joseph's brethren. These were
those that Joseph revealed himself unto. These were those that Joseph
equipped, gave full provision, and then sent them with this
good news. These were those that Joseph
would use to call his father and the rest of his brethren
to himself. Now, the elect chosen of God,
that God put in Christ, that's who God calls. That's who Christ
calls. And Christ calls them and reveals
Himself unto them. And Christ makes full provision
for us, and then He sends His child, His people, together. I'm sent to preach, and this
whole congregation of believers here, we're sent. We're preaching
and supporting the gospel together. And then he's going to use his
church, going to use his preacher and his people and use his gospel
and Christ will speak effectually and he'll call out those people
that he's redeemed that are scattered around the world. Turn over to
Romans chapter 10. It was the wisdom of God that
this world, by its own wisdom, never could find out God. That
was by the wisdom of God. That was on purpose. And it was
because it pleased God that after that, after He showed that this
world could never come to God by our own will and our wisdom
and our searching and our finding, after that it pleased God, this
is the pleasure of God, to save through the foolishness of preaching.
Now, right here in Romans 10, 13, he says, Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. What a glorious
declaration. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord Jesus shall be saved. How then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed? You see, this call has to do
with believing. You can't call on somebody you
don't believe. And he says, And how shall they believe in him
of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, How beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. That's what Joseph's brethren
were bringing to Jacob. They were bringing him good news
and glad tidings of good things. That's what the gospel is. And
that passage there that Paul quotes in Romans 10, it came
from Isaiah 52. And in Isaiah 52.6, just before
the Lord said, how beautiful are the feet of them on the mountains.
Just before that, the Lord said this, therefore my people shall
know my name. Therefore they shall know in
that day, I am He that does speak. Behold, it is I. That's what
he does through this gospel. A man's preaching. He's using
a man to preach it, but he makes you to know when he comes into
the heart. Behold, it's I that does speak. It's Christ that's
speaking. Now, there's our proposition.
Christ sends his messengers preaching the gospel of peace and through,
that means, Christ himself speaks in power calls his people unto
himself. That's what we're going to look
at here as we look at what took place between Joseph's brethren
and his father Jacob. Now, first of all, the message
we preach. What do we preach? What's the
message we preach? We preach Christ risen and reigning. Look at Genesis 45, 26. They
came to Jacob and they told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive. That was their message. Joseph
is yet alive and he's governor over all the land of Egypt. We rejoice that Christ laid down
His life. That's our myth. Christ came
into this world and He laid down His life for all His people. Scripture says, once in the end
of the world, hath He appeared to put away sin." Now that's
what Christ came to do. He didn't come to make it possible
for sin to be put away. He came to put away sin by the
sacrifice of Himself. We rejoice. That's our gospel. He came to put away sin by the
sacrifice of Himself, laying down His life, the just for the
unjust. Do you know how we're assured
that He accomplished that work? Do you know what we rejoice in
and have confidence in and have hope in, knowing He accomplished
that work? He's risen. He's risen. Christ is yet alive. Scripture
says He was delivered for our fences and raised again for our
justification. By raising Him, God says to you
and I, I'm well pleased. There's nothing that remains
to be done for my people. Trust my Son. Hear Him. Believe on Him. Trust Him. God is so satisfied with Christ
that when He raised His Son... Now, I say this all the time. I want you to know this. When
He was as the Son of God, He's God. He owns everything. He has
all power. He's fully in control of everything. When He raised Him, He didn't
go back to glory like He came into this earth. He went back
as a glorified man who is God, the God-man. And it was as the
God-man that God turned over the reins to Him, the government. The government over all Egypt
and all this earth and heaven and earth is His. It's His. Look at Isaiah 9. Isaiah chapter
9. And verse 6. I want you to... I'll just read
it all. Unto us a child is born, unto
us a son is given. Now look at this next line. And
the government shall be upon His shoulder." The government
of heaven and earth, the government of His church, the government
of His people is on His shoulder. And His name shall be called
Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace. And of the increase of His government
and His peace, there shall be no end. Every other government
in this world will perish. It will come to an end. But this
government will increase and increase. He keeps adding his
people, calling his people into his kingdom. And his government
increases, increases, and there will be no end to it. Now watch
what kind of governor he is. He sits upon the throne of David.
He sits upon the throne that David's throne typified. That
is, he sits upon a throne at the right hand of God, and upon
His kingdom, His spiritual kingdom, His true Israel, His new Jerusalem,
and He orders it. He orders it. There's nothing
out of order in His kingdom. He orders it. He establishes
it with judgment. That's what He did at the cross.
That's what He does in our hearts. He establishes it with judgment
and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the
Lord of hosts will perform this. You know the passage, I got on
a stretch there where I kept quoting Ephesians 1, talking
about when God raised Him from the dead and gave Him all power
over all things to be the head over all things to the church.
And Christ feels all in all. If you take that chapter division
out, just read it as it is, it declares He's the It's the church,
it's His body, it's the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.
And you hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin.
Because He lives, we live. This government, this power,
this life is our hope because it was because He reigns that
He sent this gospel to us and gave us life and made us to behold
Him and made us to rest in Him. Because He lives, we live. He's
quickened us by His power. So this is our gospel. Christ
lives. He lives. And He's the governor
over all. Now look, this is important too. We preach all the words that
Christ gives us to preach, and we preach only the word Christ
gives us to preach. Look at verse 27, Genesis 45,
27. And they told Him all the words
of Joseph which He had said unto them. They didn't come there
speaking their own thoughts and their own words and what they
wanted to say. They came there speaking what
Joseph told them to speak. And that's what we do. The righteous
servant of God walked this earth. And as he walked this earth,
he was serving the Father. And as he served the Father,
he did not preach. Christ did not preach His own
words. It's His Word, but He didn't
just preach something that He came up with. He preached what
the Father sent Him to preach. He said this, My doctrine's not
mine, but He is that sent me. And He said, He that speaketh
of Himself, the man that comes speaking His own Word and twisting
the Word and making the Word to say what He wants it to say,
He that speaketh of Himself seeketh His own glory. That man seeking
glory for himself. But he said, he that seeketh
his glory that sent him. A man that Christ was seeking
the glory of the Father that sent him. He said in that man
the same is true and there's no unrighteousness in him. That's
true of Christ. He's the truth and there's no
unrighteousness in him. He came to glorify the Father
and everything he said when he walked this earth preaching the
gospel, he glorified the Father. And now, Christ is risen, Christ
is governor, and He's given this word to His ambassadors and sends
us forth. And He tells us now, you go and
you preach whatsoever I have commanded you. And if we're born
of Christ and we truly are seeking His glory and His glory only,
you know what we're going to preach? Only what Christ says
and all of what Christ says. And that's what they did. That's
what they did. Now, that's our message. It's
all Christ's words, all Christ's doctrine, and it's all of Christ.
He's risen and He's alive, reigning and ruling. Alright, now secondly,
what's the effect the gospel has upon those He calls? Well,
in our natural heart, we don't have strength to believe or we
don't have strength to lay hold of Christ because we do not believe.
Now understand, in our natural heart, we do not have any strength.
And the reason we do not have any strength is because we do
not believe on Christ. Look at verse 26. Jacob's heart
fainted, for he believed them not. Now, Jacob, when he heard
this news, it says his heart fainted. And maybe he had some
physical, he lost composure physically or something like that for a
long period of time. I don't know. This is what I do know. It says here that he had no strength
in his heart, and here's why. Because he believed them not.
His heart fainted because he believed them not. Now, one,
it was because he believed them not. Think about who that was
preaching this to him, telling him this good news. These were
the same boys that came to him with that coat dipped in blood
and said, your son died. He's dead. He's dead. They died
in vain. He was just out there. He didn't
accomplish anything. He's dead. And that's what they
had managed to have their father believe all this time. He's dead. He's dead. And then these were
the sons also, remember, whenever their sister was raped. These
were the boys who played a trick on those men and went down there
and took vengeance on them, which wasn't their place to do. Vengeance
belongs to God. These boys were in their natural
state. What we look at right here at
these boys, they were rejecters of Christ and they were sinners. Now, that's who God uses to preach
the gospel. He chooses the worst of the worst,
the least of the least, and He sends them forth to preach the
gospel. And some of you, I guarantee you, some of you that don't believe
the Lord, when you sit here and you hear me preach, one of the
reasons and one of the arguments you'll hear men use, and maybe
you've used this, for not believing is, that's just another sinner
up there preaching. That's just a man up there preaching.
He doesn't know what he's talking about any more than I do. Why
am I going to believe what he's saying? And so you have this
natural prejudice, not only against the gospel you hear, but against
the man that God's using to preach it. Because you know, he's a
sinner. He was a man one time that said
he didn't believe Christ was alive. He didn't believe Christ
reigned. He didn't believe Christ accomplished
the salvation of his people. Why am I going to listen to him? But you see, when God makes you
to hear through a man like that, then He makes you to understand
it's obviously God's power doing it and not the man. And that's
the whole point of using sinners. Foolish things to confound the
wise. Now notice, it also says his heart fainted because he
believed not. Jacob didn't have strength in
his heart because he didn't believe Him. He didn't believe Him. I like that. That's a profound
statement. His heart fainted. You just picture
you getting some news from somebody about something like this. If
you thought your son was dead and you got news that your son
was alive, and your heart just faints because you don't believe
him. You don't believe him. You just
break down. How could you possibly be fooling with me like this?
Why would you dare come to me and say something like this to
me? when I know my son's dead." That's cruel. His heart fainted
because he didn't believe Him. Well, apply that to the Gospel. It's the same thing with the
Gospel. The natural heart doesn't believe God, doesn't believe
the Gospel, doesn't believe what you hear it. And so when you
hear it, what does the natural man do? He faints. He loses all strength. He has
no strength to believe because he don't believe. He has no strength
to lay hold of Christ because he don't believe Christ. He hears
this and he thinks, that's just cruel to be talking about, telling
me I'm a sinner, telling me that some man years ago died and put
away sin for his people that you expect me to believe he's
alive now? You see, it's Christ is the strength. But he's the
strength of the regenerated heart. Actually, He's the life. The
new man in you is Christ in you. And when He enters in, there's
the strength of the new heart. And actually, this gift of faith
that God gives is Christ the faithful one in you. When He
comes in and enters you, He's the strength of your faith. You
can't lay hold of Him until He's laid hold of you. And then as
you believe God and you trust Christ, you see Him and He teaches
you more and more and more and strengthens you more and more
and more. You see, this faith is the conduit through which
Christ comes and strengthens us. But He has to come first
and give us life and give us faith so He can strengthen us
through that faith. All of Him. All of Him. Now, here's something else we
notice here. Even though Jacob believed them
not, Judah and all the rest of these brethren, they did not
stop telling him what Joseph told them to tell him. Look here
in verse 27. It says, And they told him all
the words of Joseph which he had said to them. They didn't
stop. They didn't stop. They just kept telling him. They
just kept telling him. I sit here and preach. Friday
night I was coming home with Will. And I got to telling him
about things that were on my mind. They were some heavy things.
And it's had to do with this. You sit and preach and preach
and preach. And there's so many that just
don't believe. And wherever you go, I'm talking
about here and other places too, folks that just sit and look
at you like not on a log. Just have no interest, they have
no care for their souls, they oppose themselves, Scripture
says. And, you know, you have all the
same problems that every other believer has. You've got personal
sins that just eat you up and make you think, how in the world
could I stand up and preach the gospel? Look at me. Look at me. Well, would you feel
better about it if you put those sins away yourself? You feel
like you made yourself worthy to get up and preach the gospel? See, God's going to keep His
preacher on a very low limb. Because He's going to show you
the only worthiness you have for doing anything in My name
is Me. And He keeps you there. And you've
got personal sins, you've got personal trials, you've got family
responsibilities and family difficulties. One of the worst things in the
world is to drive up. Have you ever driven to come
to the church service, heart and family, you've got a war
going on in the van? And then you're going to try
to come in and sit down and hear the gospel preached. What if
you had to preach it? You've got all the same difficulties
that every other believer's got. And then add to that, you've
got the weight of souls. You've got eternal souls that
Christ has brought under the sound of your ministry. And you're
caring for them. You've got to get a word from
God for them and preach it to them. And you see so many perishing. And even then you see some that
just sit for a long time and then they just go out and find
them another preacher. And just won't even listen to
sound doctrine. And you think, what do I do? With all this, what do I do?
Do I stop preaching? Do I change the message? What
do I do? Look at 2 Timothy 4. 2 Timothy 4. The apostle Paul said to Timothy,
I charge thee, 2 Timothy 4 and verse 1, I charge thee therefore
before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick
and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom, Preach the Word. Be instant. In season, now that's
not too difficult. When everything's going good,
and you feel confident, and the Lord's giving you comfort, and
you feel like you really have a message to preach, in season,
it's pretty easy. He says, but also preach it out
of season. when you feel dead as this pulpit
right here, when you feel like sins are so heavy on you that
you can't even lift your head up, when you feel like that it's
useless and that nobody's even paying attention and nobody's
believing what you're saying, just keep preaching. Reprove,
rebuke, exhort, look at this, with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they
will not endure sound doctrine. You see men like that. But after
their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers. Go out
and find them a new teacher because they have itching ears. And they
shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned
into fables. So just quit preaching. Nope. But watch thou in all things. Endure afflictions. Do the work
of an evangelist and make full proof of thy ministry. They just
kept preaching to Jacob. They just kept telling him this
good news. And he is glad tidings. God says,
you just keep telling them the good news. Alright, now look. Go back to Genesis 45 and look
at verse 27. Well, what happened? They kept
declaring Joseph's word. Well, suddenly, Jacob began to
see. We had to see all this abundant provision that Joseph had sent
to him. Genesis 45, 27. It says, "...and
when he saw the wagons, which Joseph had sent to carry
him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived." you put yourself
in Jacob's shoes. And he's sitting there listening
to these boys tell him that his son's alive and his heart's fainted
and he thinks, oh, what are these boys? These boys, I can't, Reuben
is unstable as water. Here he is telling me this mess,
lying to me about my son again. And he looked, and there is a
wagon over here full of provision, a wagon over here full of provision,
a wagon over here full of provision, Every one of these sons has a
wagon full of provision, full of gifts. There's all these livestock
that was sent. There's all these gifts that
were sent. There's these wagons. There's
all this abundance that was sent. And Jacob starts thinking, I
know my boys. They didn't go down there and
earn all this and buy all this. This is not of my sons. This
has to be of Joseph. This has got to be from Joseph.
And he saw that abundance, and his heart began to revive, and
he began to be alive, and he began to have some joy in his
heart. Well, brethren, that's what happens
in this Gospel. We preach it, and preach it,
and preach it, and men don't hear, and men revile, and men
rebel against you, and say all kinds of things, and then all
of a sudden, out of the blue, One of those very same rebels
sees. And he sees what Christ has done.
Christ has sent full provision. He sent the wagons of grace in
abundance to him. He begins to behold Christ there
on that cross and he begins to see Christ laid down His life
for me. Christ became me on that cross. Christ took my sin on
that cross. Christ took my punishment on
that cross. Christ bore my justice on that
cross and satisfied my justice on that cross. And he begins
to see these things. And now he sent this gospel to
me, telling me this good news. Now he sent all this provision
of grace. I've got free justification.
I've got free justification through simply believing on Him and trusting
Him. And He's even given me the faith
to do it. I've got a total, thorough, complete righteousness provided
for me. A robe woven from top to bottom
without a seam in it. It's a perfect robe that He's
woven for me. Righteousness to come into the
King's chamber and be accepted of the King of kings and Lord
of lords. Perfectly robed in the righteousness that He requires. And here you start seeing these
things, brethren, and you can't help but believe. The heart's
revived and the Lord gives you life and regenerates and gives
you a spirit to lay hold of Him. You can't help it. You're revived.
He did this. This is all done through the
good news. Through the good news. And then look at this. Through
this good news, through this work in the heart, Christ gives
His child faith to follow Him. Christ gives Him faith to believe
Him. Now look here at Genesis 45, 28, and just look at these
first three words. And Israel said, something happened. The verse before this, He was
called Jacob. But when he saw this abundance
of grace, when he saw all of this that was sent to him, and
his heart revived, now he's called Israel. Why is that? Well, you remember whenever Christ
wrestled Jacob? Remember when he wrestled Jacob?
Jacob was trying to prevail in the power of his own strength.
You know, just Jacob was trying to do what men take that text
and preach from it. Oh, the power of wrestling Christ.
Well, that's why he wasn't prevailing. He was trying to wrestle, get
Christ in a headlock, make him do what he wanted him to do.
And Christ saw he wasn't prevailing, and so Christ touched him. And
when he touched him, he knocked him out of joint. He brought
him to the end of himself so that all Joseph could do was
hold on to Christ and say, Lord, I'm a sinner. All I am is a sinner.
Bless me. Please bless me. My name is Jacob,
supplanter, scoundrel. Save me, Lord, by your mercy.
And Hosea said, That's exactly how Jacob prevailed. He wept and he made supplication
unto the Lord. See, how was he brought to prevail? Christ brought him to prevail.
That's what Christ is going to do for all these people. He is
going to bring you to prevail with Him. And how are you going to prevail
with Him? Begging mercy. Confessing your sin and begging
mercy. And when he did that, the Lord
renamed him Israel. Israel. And whenever Jacob said,
now what's your name? When the Lord said, why do you
ask me my name? The Lord is saying, what's the point of you asking
me my name? I just gave you my name. Your
name's my name. He said, my people should be
called by my name. And that name is Israel, as a
prince. Thou hast power with God and
with men, and hast prevailed. Christ is the Prince. Christ
is the power of God. He's the God-man who's had power
with God and with men. He's the righteous, successful
Savior that has succeeded and prevailed in establishing judgment,
declaring God just and justifier, and establishing judgment in
the heart of His people, making us to discern that all our salvation
is Christ. That's who He is. He's Israel.
And He's given us His name, Israel. Israel. That's what happens when
He comes and revives you. You see, there's still an old
Jacob. There's still that old unbelieving
Jacob. But now there's a new man named Israel. And that's
who is resting in Christ and trusting in Christ. That's us,
brethren. Now look, when He brings us to believe on Him, and we
behold Christ and all that, All that we need in Him, this is
what the heart says, verse 28. And Israel said, it is enough. Joseph, my son, is yet alive. Now, when Christ satisfied divine
justice on that cross, when He said, it is finished, you know
what Christ was saying? It is enough. Whenever God rolled
back the stone and raised Him from the dead, you know what
God was saying? It is enough. Justice is satisfied. The work's
finished. I'm satisfied. It is enough.
Now, let me ask you a question. Is Christ enough? When He brings
His child to behold Him, He brings you to say just what God said
of Him. It is enough. He brings us into
complete agreement with God. God says, no other work needs
to be done. Is enough. My son, is righteousness
enough? Holiness enough? Wisdom enough?
Redemption enough? Salvation enough for my people?
It's enough. And when He brings His child
to faith, He brings you to agree with God. Yes, I behold Christ. He is enough. Now, is Christ
enough? Is Christ enough? You know, the
word enough means great. And it means it's the same word
that you get the Greek word rabbi or master. Is Christ great to
you? Is Christ your master? Well, if He's brought you to
see that He is enough with God and that in you dwells nothing
good, then Christ will be enough. If He's all to you, He will be
all. If He's all you've got, He'll
be all. Then He gives every believer this one desire, this one hope.
Look here at the end of verse 28. I will go and see Him before
I die. You see, nothing else mattered
to Jacob at this point. This man is a hundred and something
years old. 120, 130 years old. And he's
going to have to go from Canaan all the way through that what's
called that waste howling wilderness down there to Egypt to where
his son Joseph is. But you see, none of that mattered
to him. None of that mattered to him.
Leaving everything behind, that didn't matter to him. He said,
I will go and I'll see him before I die. That's all that mattered. Remember Simeon? Simeon was this
man that the Lord told him, you won't see death until you've
seen the Lord's salvation. And Simeon's in that temple,
and they brought infant Lord Jesus Christ into that temple.
And Simeon was given the eyes by the Holy Spirit to see Him,
and He picked him up, and He held him in His arms, and He
said, Lord, now I can depart in peace. I can die now. It's
just like you said, I've seen your salvation. That's what we have pictured
here. Jacob said, I've seen Him and I can die. I'm going to go
see Him before I die. And I pray this. I do pray this.
I pray that God will bless His Word today and make you behold
Christ. Make you behold Christ. Make
you see Him. Make your heart revive because of Him. And I pray when He does that,
And this is what He will do when He does that. I pray He'll make
you. I'm not talking about the person next to you. I'm talking
about you. He'll make you say, I'm going
to have to leave everything. I'm going to have to forsake
my thoughts and my ways and my wisdom and forsake it all. I
will go and see Him before I die. You're dying. You're dying. And it won't be very long. You're
going to take your last breath and stand before God in judgment.
You're going to stand there and based on the things you've
thought since you've been sitting here today and expect God to
receive you. You're going to stand there and
with all your works you did on Friday night, Saturday night,
while you was out in the club, you're going to trust that to
make God accept you. You need a righteousness and
Christ is that righteousness. Go see Him before you die. I
pray He'll give you that heart. Alright, let's stand together. Our Lord, we thank You for working
the lives of these men in the Scriptures and showing us such
beautiful pictures and analogies of the work of grace you perform
for your people, showing us Christ and what He is to us. Lord, we
are dying people and we're so at such a distance from you,
just like Jacob was from Joseph. And we pray, Lord, you would
keep this gospel in our hearts and keep us revived by the abundance
you've provided for us in Christ and that you would Keep us having
this one heart that we will go and see Him, that we will see
Him by Your grace. And Lord, we ask that You give
that to some poor lost sinner here now. Make them see, make
them delight, make them have a desire and a will that they
just don't have right now. Lord, we ask You that. Pray for
our brethren that are sick and hurting and pray for your preachers
today as they declare your gospel and ask you to give your people
an ear to hear it and a heart to rejoice and make us all understand
Lord Christ is really all. He's really all. Christ is enough. Thank you. We ask it in His name.
Amen.