Okay, turn with me to Hebrews
11. Hebrews 11, we'll go back to
Genesis in a moment. But Hebrews 11 is our text. Let's read verse 21 as we look
at another part of this chapter. Hebrews 11, verse 21, By faith
Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph and worshiped. leaning upon the top of his staff. There's not much said here. It doesn't reveal too much to
us, but nevertheless, God put that there alongside with Abraham
sacrificing his son, Noah building an ark by faith. By faith, Jacob, when he was
dying, He was a dying man. This is a story of a dying man. Look at verse thirteen here.
That's what really this whole chapter is about. Those who died
in the faith. Verse thirteen. These all died
in the faith. Not having received the promises.
And neither have we. But they saw them afar off. Saw them with the eye of faith.
And were persuaded of them. persuaded hearts and mind embrace
them. Love the promises look forward
to and confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on the
earth. These all died in faith. Now Joseph Jacob is dying. Jacob
is dying. That's what this story is about.
This is his testimony. That's significant. This was
brought to my attention. that we have three dying men
here in a row. Isaac was dying when he blessed
Jacob and Esau, remember? Jacob's dying now, and the next
verse, 22, is the story of Joseph when he died. So three men, Isaac,
Jacob, and Joseph, all old men on their deathbeds. Does that interest you? what they
had to say what they did and I want to die like they died.
I want to die the death of the righteous don't you and that's
why this is written that's what these stories are about and why
they were written as Psalm thirty seven thirty seven says mark
the perfect man the end of that man's piece the righteous. Behold
ye upright." The end of that man is peace. Now, these all
died in faith. They believed God. They trusted
God's word, God's promise. They looked to God's Son, and
they looked for a better country. And they died believing that.
And they died and received it. They finally received it. So
by faith, Jacob, it says, was dying. And he blessed both the
sons of Joseph and worship, leaning upon the top of his staff. I now go back to Genesis 47. Now, as we saw last Wednesday
night, we studied Jacob's life. Jacob's life was a troubled one,
wasn't it? So troubled. Jacob had been through
a lot. A lot of ups and downs. A lot
of good times. A lot of bad times. A lot of
happiness. Had his share of sadness. Mostly blessings. A lot of casements. Which are blessings. But such
is the life of all the sons of Jacob. That's the way God would
have it, all the sons of Jacob, so that they find here no continuing
city. Our Lord Jacob's God said this,
in the world you shall have tribulation according to design. And Jacob
did. As an example to us, he had more
than his share. That's a bad sign and he had
exactly his share, but more than perhaps we will be called upon
to endure. However, look at chapter 47 verses
7 through 9. Now this is Jacob
in Egypt before Pharaoh. Chapter 47, Joseph brought in
Jacob, his father, and sent him before Pharaoh and Jacob blessed
Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto Jacob,
How old art thou? He saw he was an old man and
curious. How old are you? And Jacob said
unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are a
hundred and thirty years, few and evil. Have the days of the
years of my life been? And have not attained unto the
days of the years of the life of my fathers and the days of
their pilgrimage? Few Compared to. Compared to
Abraham lived one hundred and seventy five years Isaac more
than. Somewhere around that so as few
compared his father he lived as we saw all his days were one
hundred and forty seven. But he says a few. Few. But they were exactly the number
that God and a lot of them weren't And evil, he said, few and evil.
Now, he's not complaining, he's just stating the fact. And evil
here doesn't mean that my life's been a bad one. What he means
are they've been full of troubles. The scripture is like Isaiah
45, 7 says, I create, make peace and I create evil. And God said
that, I make peace and I create evil. He's not saying, he's the
author of sin. But he's saying those calamities
and traumas and disasters and things that men and women think
are terrible things that happen to them. They're called evil
many times in the Scripture. So this is what Jacob's saying.
My days have been few and full of trouble. That's what Job said,
didn't he? Man who's born a woman is a few
days and full of trouble. full of trouble, not the world. David said that in Psalm 73,
didn't he? He said, they don't have any trouble like I have.
God's people, though, they've got nothing but trouble. Well,
that's the goodness of God, really, keep us from wanting to stay
here. And, but much of Jacob's troubles
were his own doing, weren't they? And that's perhaps, I know he
had that on his mind, my days, my life, I hadn't accomplished much. I
hadn't done much good. Now, for our comfort, for the
comfort of every son of Jacob in here, our text last Wednesday
was, Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help. And
we looked in detail at the life of Jacob, all those ups and downs,
good times, bad times, troubles and trials and We concluded that,
oh, Jacob sure had a good God, didn't he? A merciful God, a
sovereign God, a God who provided and took care
of him. And you have to be a son of Jacob
to be thankful for Jacob's God. You have to be a son of Jacob.
He's the God of Jacob. He said, I am the Lord, I change
not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. God's going
to consume all Esau, but every son of Jacob would not be consumed. No condemnation. Jacob was full
of contradictions. His life was full of contradictions,
weren't it? Yet, listen, yet his heart now
was for his God. Yes, it was. He schemed and connived
for that birthright, but he did want it, didn't he? He wanted the blessing
of his father, and he went about it all wrong, but he wanted the
blessing. Huh? Take heart. You're full of contradictions.
Jacob was so sinful, but Jacob loved God now. Yes, he did. You
could not, you cannot disprove Jacob's true love for his God.
He wanted God's blessing. Jacob's old nature came out so
often, did it? Didn't it? His old nature came
out all the time, but every now and then his new nature would
too. I venture to say most of the
time. Jacob lived a hard life. He lived a hard life. That's
what he's saying here. My days have been few and evil, but he
died a peaceful death. And after all is said and done,
what else matters? What else matters? He died in
faith. Happy is he that the God of Jacob
for his help. Our Lord said this. This is what
he said. He that hath begun a good work in you, he'll perfect it. He'll perform it. Take Jacob
as an example. God wrestled. The Lord met Jacob
and wrestled with him. And, you know, it was a wrestling
match, a war from then on, of troubles and trials. But the
Lord, in the end, the end of this man was peace. That's what
his confession shows us. The Lord will perfect that which
concerneth me, David said. Yes, he will. Why? Because he's
the God of Jacob. Listen to this. I want you to
listen. If you want to turn with me, you can. Psalm 145. Men, if you want to read next,
whenever. I think somebody did read this
not long ago. Psalm 145. This was a fresh blessing
to read this. Psalm 145 verse 18, the Lord
is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, all that call upon
Him in truth, that's Christ, in Christ. He will fulfill the
desire of them that fear Him. Do you fear Him, Jacob? He also
will hear their cry and will save them. The Lord preserveth
all them that love Him. Do you love Him, Peter? Yes, Lord. My mouth shall speak
the praise of the Lord. After thinking about that, David
said, My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord. Happy is
he that the God of Jacob for his help. All right? Be taking
notes. Here's Jacob's dying faith. Back
in chapter 47, Jacob's dying faith. Number one, he's fearless
of man. He's dying. And so his faith
was fearless of man. Look at it again. He was brought
before Pharaoh, verse 7. Joseph brought in Jacob, his
father, and sent him before Pharaoh. Now who's Pharaoh? You've read
and looked at the stories of these Egyptian pharaohs. Why,
these men were the most powerful men on the planet. They were
gods upon the earth, feared by everyone. Weren't they? Feared by everyone. Not Jacob. Jacob comes in before the most
powerful man on earth, the most fearful, powerful man on earth.
He did not bow. It does not say he bowed to him.
Just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Remember? We will
not bow. Well, then you'll go in the furnace.
Well that's all right somebody will go in with me. Right. Like Daniel. You will not pray
to your God. Oh yes I will. Well then we'll
throw in the lions then. Well they won't eat me. Because God's with me. So he Jacob comes in before the
most powerful man on earth. He didn't bow, didn't scrape.
He doesn't ask this Pharaoh for anything. What's he need from
Pharaoh? What does he need from Pharaoh? He's a dying man. What
does he need? But it says, look at this. This
is amazing. It says, Jacob blessed Pharaoh. That struck me. Jacob blessed Pharaoh. You see?
This world can't bless us, this world can't do anything for us,
this world can't give us anything we really need, but God's people
are a blessing to this world. You know, this world, they can't
do anything for you, but we're the salt, God's people are called
the salt of the earth, the light of the world. God blesses them through God's
people. I sure do. I was reminded of Psalm 27. David
said, The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my
life, of whom shall I be afraid? Now, Jacob was not always so
bold, was he? He was running from his brother
Esau for years. He wasn't always so bold, and
neither am I. Aren't you ashamed of your cowardice?" But when
it really counted, when it really counted. Remember,
Peter was not always so bold, was he? He stood before a little
maid, I mean, a little young girl who was out of fire. And
she said, Well, you're one of those. I am not. And started
cussing and carrying on and on. Later, he so regretted it. One
time he stood before kings who said, We'll take your head off
if you preach in his name. Should I obey you or God? When
it really counted, may God make me bold and you
bold when it really counts. Make us bold, especially when
we get old. Less fearful of man, that's what
I want to be. The older I get, less fearful
of man, less caring. I want to be like the Apostle
Paul who said, let no man bother me. Let nobody bother me. And I want to fear God more though.
I want to fear God more than man. I'll tell you what happened
recently. This will be a blessing to you.
Brother James Watson, a pastor down in Arkansas who passed away
recently. A small, humble Meek man, wasn't
he? You knew him. Meek and humble
and soft-spoken, just a sweet, tender, gentle, Christ-like man. Just so tender and gentle. Wouldn't
hurt. How harmless is a dove? Harmless
is a dove. Well, in his dying days, there
was a man in the church there who was causing some trouble. and day before he died day before
brother Watson died and he was laying on his bed and his wife
told me this on the phone just this morning. She said this this man in the
church had been causing troubles and so forth came to visit brother
James. And she said, all of a sudden,
James got more strength than he'd had in days. And he kind
of raised up in bed. He'd been bed fast for a long
time. He said, Brother so-and-so, you're
acting like a stingy, selfish, rotten, no-good, unbeliever. Your life's not right. Your conduct's
not right. He said, your speech is not right. He said, if you don't straighten
up, You got trouble. Call that old man's head. Shocked
that fella. His wife told me that, well,
it shocked him to hear that out of that little meek fella. But old Jacob here standing before
this powerful man is fearless. He's fearless, fearless of man.
Jacob's dying faith, fearless of man and fearless of death.
Fearless of death. He's dying and he knows it, and
he's not afraid. Look at it. Verses 29 and 30
of chapter 47. Verse 29 and 30. The time drew
nigh that Israel must die, and so must we, every son of Jacob. Right? It's appointed unto man,
wants to die. Every man, these all died in
faith. All right, it came time, Israel
must die, and he called his son Joseph and said unto him, if
now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy
hand under my thigh, deal kindly and truly with me. Bury me not,
I pray thee, in Egypt, but I will lie with my fathers. And over
in chapter 48, he said it again, verse 21, Israel said unto Joseph,
Behold, I die. I die. Matter of factly and fearlessly. I'm dying. I'm dying. Israel must die. And so must
you and I. Right? He said, I will lie with
my fathers. I will. And so will you. And so will I. Right? Now, listen
to this now. For your comfort, you need not
worry about dying grace until you're really dying. We all worry about that, don't
we? We all do. Every one of us. We worry about
dying grace. You need not worry. Like right now, the thought crops
up in your mind about dying, and you think, honestly, everyone
else thinks, I'm not ready. I don't want to. Be honest. I love my wife. I love my children. I love my
brother. Be honest now. Well, you need
not worry about that until you're dying. When it comes time, like
Jacob, and you know you're dying, you have that grace. Not too
long ago, in my own experience, I was experiencing some severe
health problems and had some tests run. We thought it was
very, very, very serious and had some cancer tests run. And there were about three or
four days there where we were waiting on the results. And I'm
telling you, it was an anxious time, wasn't it? Scary, real
scary. But I didn't need dying grace,
I don't have cancer, I'm not dying. But if the time comes,
when, when the time comes, you'll have that dying grace. It's always
so. I've beheld many believers die.
I sat there and listened to Brother James gasping for air, telling
me how gracious God had been to him with a smile on his face.
And on and on I could tell you the story. You too. You could
tell them too. But he doesn't fear it. He doesn't
fear it. Jacob's dying. He knows it. He
doesn't fear it. But he faces it. The next thing,
Jacob's, he's faithful, he's believing. Verse 30, here in
chapter 47, verse 30 says, I will lie with my fathers and thou
shalt carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burying place.
He's pretty confident in it. I will lie with my fathers and
you'll carry me out of this place. I will die as my fathers did,
that's what he's saying. I am trusting the God of my grandfather
Abraham, my father Isaac, and I will be carried out of here
and rest with them. I'll be buried as a believer.
Yes, I will." How can you be so sure, Jacob? How can you be
so sure of yourself? I'm not. I'm so sure of my God. How can you be so sure? God said. Because God said. That's why.
That's what he begins to say in the next chapter. Because
God told me. But Jacob, you've been so sinful. Jacob, your life
has been so sinful though. But my God is merciful. He said
His mercy endureth forever, didn't He? But Jacob, you've been unfaithful
to your God so many times. Unfaithful, yes, but my God is
faithful. See, all his assurance is based
on his God. That's where you get your comfort. You can have full assurance if
you keep looking to Jacob's God. You know what? You look at yourself. Jacob looked at himself one time.
For one moment, he had despaired of himself. But if you look to Jacob's God,
oh, happy is he that the God of Jacob presents. You've been
so sinful, oh, but God's so merciful. Jacob's God. But you've lied,
you've cheated, you've acted at times like you didn't even
know God. Yes, but He, God knows me. That's all my hope. I like what Paul said to the,
was it the Thessalonians? He said, and after you had known
God, or rather, are known of God. You see, God's going to say to
a multitude of people someday, I never knew you. I never knew
you. That means I never loved you.
I never That set my affection on you. I never united with you. You're not my
child. I never knew you. And that's
all those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. That's
all those who thought they'd done God a favor by being His
child and doing all these things for God, right? all those wonderful
works for God. It's all those who had gloried
in themselves in some way or another, even in their faith.
But for an old son of Jacob who finds nothing in himself to glory
in, nothing in himself, no good in him anywhere, nothing good
in his life, nothing commendable about himself, all the days of
his life, nothing, God says, for whom he did for, no. He did
predestinate. When he did predestinate, he
called. When he called, he justified.
When he justified, he glorified. That's the sons of Jacob. Happy
is he that the God of Jacob for his help. What God hath promised
concerning me, I believe with Abraham. He's able to perform
that. He's able to perform it and willing.
Jacob's dying faith, his confession, look at this. Verse 30, he said,
I will die and you'll carry me out of Egypt. He'll carry me
out of Egypt." Now, if you noted there, Jacob lived 17 years in
Egypt, and it says that they accumulated a lot of things,
didn't it? He lived in Egypt. He lived in the richest country
in the world, and so did we. We live in a combination of Egypt
and Rome. Put both those together and you've
got America. The richest, most affluent culture and society
in the history of the world, without a doubt. Is it not? We
live in it. Babylon, yes we do. Rome, Egypt. Jacob lived there and accumulated
things. He was in the midst of the luxuries
of Egypt. He was in the house of Pharaoh. Do you know what that house looked
like? It was the best the world had to offer. But he says, I
want out of here. Get me out of here quick. Then that's what he's saying.
I want out of here and I want my sons and everybody else to
join me. This is not my house. Chapter
48, verse 21, he says this to Joseph. Israel said unto Joseph,
Behold, I die, but God shall be with you and bring you. It's
not my house, Joseph." He's talking to his son Joseph. He said, this
is not my resting place. This is not where I want to stay.
I want out of here. I want to go and be with my father.
And Joseph, it's not yours either. It's not your place either, Joseph. You're a prince here and you
have all these things. You have all this world has to
offer. But Joseph, this is not your
dwelling place. You weren't born for this. You're a prince in Egypt, but
you're much higher than that with God. Like that, it was an old missionary
years ago. Some of you have heard this story.
An old missionary years ago, his son was on the mission field.
It's a true story. I forget his name, but his son
was also on the mission field somewhere, and the country from
which, where he was ministering country called that son to be
ambassador to that country, American ambassador to that country. And,
oh, he was so elated and went to tell his father, and his father
said, you've taken a demotion. You
were an ambassador for Christ. So, well, we're Prince, we're
Israel was the Prince, was he not? Joseph was a prince in Egypt,
but who's the prince with God? Jacob. Oh, he's just a dying
old man. He's going to sit at the right
hand of the majesty on high, is he not? With the prince of
peace himself, of whom Joseph is a type. Why would he want
to stay there? So he tells Joseph, it's not
my house, not yours either, son. Don't ever forget that. Keep
your mind where it ought to be. Keep your affection set on things
above, the rightful place. We're strangers and pilgrims
here. Do you remember Noah, don't you, over in chapter 11 of Hebrews?
Noah, it says, by building that ark, it says he condemned the
world. Didn't it? By building that ark, he condemned
the world. And when we come and hear this, we come and hear this
gospel, of Christ, Christ our Savior, yet Christ our art, Christ
also the destroyer of mankind. We believe that, too, don't we?
We believe we're safe in Christ, we've come to Christ for salvation.
We also believe He's coming to judge this world, do we not?
Very little talk about that. Nobody's saying anything about
that today, all these Jesus lovers. They've pretty much thrown that
out the window, haven't they? come, you'll be absolutely overjoyed
beyond, well, you'll be changed in a moment. Don't worry about
it. But he's the coming destroyer. And when we believe the true
gospel, we condemn the world. By believing the true gospel,
we say God's going to destroy this world and everybody outside
of Christ. Like Noah said, God's going to
destroy this world. Everybody's outside the ark,
he said. He condemned the world. Condemned the world. So, so,
our text says, back in Hebrews 11, don't have to turn there,
I'll quote it. It says, Jacob blessed both the
sons, it was dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph and worshiped. He worshipped on his dying bed. He was worshipping. That's the
son of Jacob. I mean, that's Jacob, and that's
all Jacob's son. He worshipped, says, leaning
on the top of his staff. Anybody wonder about that? Leaning
on the top of his staff. It doesn't say anything about
that in chapter 47 or 8. It says he leaned on the bed,
leaned on his staff. Well, Paul or whoever wrote Hebrews
said that. The Holy Spirit said that. So
he must have had a staff. And that's significant. That's
significant. A staff, you know, an old man,
when he gets old, he starts using a cane, doesn't he, or a walking
stick. Staff. And Jacob, evidently, the older
he got, you know, he limped. You remember he had a little
limp. You remember where he got that, don't you? All this is
so significant. After the angel of the Lord,
after Christ came to him and wrestled with him, you know,
he left. He wasn't the same man from there on. He limped, physically
limped. And probably in his older days,
you know, arthritis set in or whatever, and it really got bad,
and he needed the staff to lean on. And so this staff was something
that he walked by. Every day he walked with this
staff. This staff was something he leaned on all the time for
support, to hold him up. You know, it's a crutch. He couldn't
make it without it. His staff. What do you reckon
that staff is? Why do you reckon that's in there?
What did you read tonight? Psalm 23. David said, Thy rod
and thy staff, they comfort me. The staff is God's Word. It's
what a believer lives by. It's what supports us. As soon
as Christ comes to you and wrestles with you, where do you turn to?
What do you lean upon? What supports you? Where do you
run to? What are you going to live by from then on? You're
going to lean on it, aren't you? On the staff. The believer's
staff. They comfort me. It's the living
believer's support and the dying believer's support. Right? He worshiped. He leaned on his
staff. Now look at his confession and
his blessing to his son, so I've got to hurry. This is Jacob's
greatest blessings to his son, chapter 48, verses 3 and 4. Jacob said unto Joseph, God Almighty
appeared unto me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and blessed me.
Hasn't Joseph heard that story before? I'll bet you Jacob told
him many times. Here he is dying, what's he going
to say? We'll talk about his God, how
good God's been to him. And here's the greatest blessing
you can give to your children. This is how you really bless
your children. Tell them how good your God is to you and how
they need to keep that in mind. The Lord appeared unto me. Jacob wasn't looking for him.
Bless Jacob's God. He was looking for him. And he
said, Unto me, this is what the Lord said, and He blessed me
and said unto me, Behold, I will. It's what I heard from my God,
Joseph. Behold, I will make thee fruitful and multiply thee, and
I will make of thee a multitude of people, and I will give this
land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting portion. Verse
15 and 16. He blessed Joseph and said, God,
before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, that God
Fed me all my life long unto this day." Joseph, it's just amazing. Now, this
is a dying old man's words to his son. He said, My God's Son
has blessed me. Oh, He called me by His grace.
He blessed me, revealed Himself to me. He spoke the Word to me. gave these everlasting promises
that made an everlasting covenant concerning me, ordered, insured,
all these things. All my days he's fed me. Joseph,
I hadn't fed myself any more than you have. Remember where
you came from, Joseph? Do you remember the pit from
which you were being fed? Couldn't he literally say that
to Joseph? Joseph, don't ever forget you were in a pit. Now
look at you. Joseph, you did nothing to be
where you are now, but God led you and fed you. This is our
God. And the angel, verse 16, I love
this, the angel, capital A. Who's that, John? Who's he talking
about? The angel, capital A. The angel
of the Lord. That's the Lord Jesus Christ
himself. That's the one who wrestled with
him, which redeemed me from all evil. Joseph's son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, if he knew his name was Jesus, he'd have said, God's
angel of mercy, redeem me from all evil. Oh, may he bless the
lads. See that? He's not concerned
about, oh, we'll give my suit of clothes to Ephraim and give
my favorite Give my favorite this to my nice son. And make
sure aunt, auntie, whoever, that's not what he's concerned about. That's not what he's concerned
about. That's the greatest blessing
you can give your children, is it not? May I die, may my children watch
me die, and with grace, and hear me pronounce the blessings of
my God on them. That's the blessing of all blessings,
is it not? And he did bless the two sons, and it has significance,
but we're not going to go into it. We don't have time. Ephraim
and Manasseh. I tell you this, both of them
were of the tribe of Israel, though. They were two tribes
of Israel. This is significant, this part
about it. I don't have time to go into
it, but they're not opposed to each other, Ephraim and Manasseh.
They're brothers, Ephraim and Manasseh, OK? They're not like
Jacob and Esau. They're not like Ishmael and
Isaac. No, these are two brethren. They were never really at odds,
per se, OK? These are brethren. So the significance
here of him blessing the younger as opposed to the older. You
remember, we read how that Jacob, he was blind and Joseph, you
know, brought, he from, I'm not even going to try to, I'll get
it mixed up. Anyway, he brought his two sons
in, the oldest he put towards Jacob's right hand, because it
was tradition to always bless the oldest son with your right
hand. and in the left hand the youngest son. So he put his two
sons, Joseph took his two sons, one was about six or seven, the
other one about twenty, put them where they ought to be blessed
and it says that Jacob, an old blind man, crossed his hands
and blessed the younger over the older. Now we know why he
did that. We know why he did that, because
that's what happened to him. And that's the way God said it
from the beginning. God's sovereign covenant and
purpose and all things. The elder shall serve the younger
and as it deals with Christ and God's purpose concerning Israel
and all of that. But here's this picture. All
right. Here's the picture of these two.
God in his sovereignty, not only distinguished, Jacob have I loved,
Esau have I hated. God not only sovereignly elects
one and reprobates another. That's his sovereign prerogative,
is it not? He not only does that, but in
his sovereignty he makes brethren to differ one from another. He gives grace to his sons As
he seems, sees fit. There's the parable of the talents. Remember when the Lord said the
master gave ten talents to one, five to one, and one to another. As it seemed good to him. You
understand? So the Lord, here's the scriptures
that say that to every man is given the measure of faith. gifts
differing according to grace given. God gives one man many
talents or gifts, right? And another not so many. The
Spirit, listen to this, the Spirit divides to every man severally
as he will, as he will. Every one of us is given grace,
yes, according to the measure of the gift of Christ. So we're
not this and Joseph didn't like this. Joseph didn't understand. And he tried to change it. It's
just not fair, it's not right. Don't know, don't bless him,
bless him. Oh, but he says that Jacob guided
his hands wittingly. He knew what he was doing. He
said, son, I know what I'm doing. I know, I know. And he'll be
great, too, but he's greater. The disciples, I love the story
of the disciples, who all of them, all twelve of them, argued,
who's going to be the greatest? Who was the greatest of the apostles?
None of them. It was Paul later on, and Paul
said, I'm not even fit to be one. So the Lord said, you will
be the greatest. James and John said, we'll sit
on the right hand. James' mother said that. And
Paul said, I'm not even worthy to sit with you. And God said,
you'll be at the chief seat. That's the way he does things.
So we don't say with Joseph, no unfair, no you gave him more
than you gave me. Don't say that. Father guides
his hands wittingly. So old Jacob died in faith. He died in faith. and blessed
his sons, leaning, leaning, not just on an old staff, but leaning
on the everlasting arm, safe and secure from all along. These all died in faith. That old man died in peace, didn't
he? He said, I'm going home. Let's
sing in closing, let's sing a closing hymn. Did we sing number 75, abide
with me? All right, let's sing 359. In
closing, in the Green Book, 359, a good hymn to sing in closing. Stand with me. Number 359. My fake lips suck to Thee, Thou
Lamb of Calvary, Savior divine. Now hear me when I pray, Take
all my sin away, Oh, let me from this day be holy. Verse 3. While life's dark ways
I tread, And griefs around me spread, Be Thou my guide. If darkness turn to day, I'm
gonna feel the way you do. Lord, let me ever stray from
the other side. When ends life's transient dreams. When there's no more to dream. Shallowly over. And take you
in love, here in this country, O'er the plains of the blue and
white. you you you