I want to read the last verse
to you from the 49th chapter. When Jacob had made an end of
commanding his sons, and as you know, here in chapter 49, he
has addressed all of his sons, speaking to them and to those
that would come forth from these sons, the things that God would
have them to hear and know. So he makes an end of commanding
his sons, verse 33. He gathered up his feet into
the bed, and yielded up the ghost and was gathered unto his people."
I want you to notice three things out of this last verse of chapter
49. Number one, Jacob did not die
until he had finished everything that God gave him to do. Here's
what it says, when he had made an end of commanding his sons. All of the things that God had
ordained for Jacob to do, they now come to an end. And now he's going to die. In
other words, he's not going to leave this world until he finishes
the mission that God sent him to accomplish. accomplished, speaking the words
that the Lord gave to him concerning his sons, that's when he died.
So it wasn't until his work was done. And in this, he's a picture
of our Lord Jesus because our Savior, he could not die until
he finished the work that God gave him to do. Those who hated
Him, those who despised Him, they sought to take His life
on many an occasion, but they couldn't do it. And the reason
they couldn't do it was because He could not die, He would not
die until He had finished accomplishing all that God ordained for Him
to do in life. establishing righteousness for
His people by His perfect life, and then laying down His life,
dying for us to put our sins away. Only then did He die. He
must finish the work that God gave Him to do, and He did. He
said that in John chapter 17. He said in his high priestly
prayer, I have finished the work you gave me to do. Now listen,
not only is that true of our blessed Redeemer, but that is
true of all of us. We will not leave this world
until we have accomplished in our life whatever it is that
God has ordained for us to do. Jacob is an excellent example
of that. He had words to speak. And after
he had spoken these words which God the Spirit gave him to speak
to his twelve sons, after he had finished speaking those words,
his work is finished. There's nothing else for him
to do. all that God had appointed, all that God had ordained, all
that God had predestinated for Jacob to accomplish throughout
his lifetime, those things have now come to an end. And when
they came to an end, that's when he died. I want you to look at
a verse of Scripture with me in Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 12. And look at verse 1. Hebrews
chapter 12 and verse 1. As you know, Hebrews 11 is called
the faith chapter. And we have all of these saints
that are listed for us, and many names that are not given, people
who lived and walked by faith, and they died in faith. The reason they died in faith,
because they lived in faith. You want to die in faith? I do. Well, may God give us grace to
live by faith and in this life to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ, to embrace Him by saving faith, God-given Spirit-given
faith. If we live in faith and live
by faith, feasting upon the Savior, then we will die in faith. And
so he lists all of these people in chapter 11 who lived and died
in faith. And then he makes reference to
them in chapter 12 in verse 1. Wherefore, Hebrews 12.1, wherefore
seeing we also are encompassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses. What does that mean? Does that
mean that they're watching us? No. They're not watching us. They're looking at the Savior.
They're occupied with a far more glorious object than us little
sinful people down here on earth. What this means is we're compassed
about with a great cloud of witnesses. They witness to us of the faithfulness
of God, the grace of God, and the goodness of God in taking
them home to glory and perfecting them in Christ Jesus. Now, he
says, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does
so easily beset us, and I believe it's the same sin for all of
us, for all of God's people, lack of faith. That which we ask for, that which
we seek God for, is faith to walk with Him. Oh, to walk by
faith, not by sight. And we all know our how limited we are in believing
God. God, forgive us. It's an awful
sin not to believe God, not to trust God like we should. Don't
shrug that off. Say, well, we're all alike. We
don't believe God like we should. It's a terrible thing not to
believe. That's awful. Would you glorify
God? I'm asking you just in your own
heart, in your own mind. Would you glorify God? Just believe
Him. That's a monumental task. Just believe Him. This is the sin that easily besets
us. And then He says this, and let
us run with patience the race that is set before us. We have
a race. We have a course. that is set. It's fixed. When we were born into this world,
we began life's journey. And all of the things that would
happen to us, befall us, all the ups and downs and the ins
and outs, all of those things were factored into this race. It was set before us. Your course
has already been set. I was talking with one of Joe's
grandsons, Sunday, and he had run cross-country race Saturday
down at Central Park. And he was telling me, I said,
did you just run the sidewalks? He said, no. He said, we ran
through places where there were roots. He said it was rough running. You know why he had to run over
those roots? It was set. That course was set. And I'm going to tell you something.
Your course, you who are believers, you who are the children of God,
you have a course to be run, and I promise you, you're going
to have many a root to trip over. and you're going to have to be
careful. We have a course that is set. It is fixed. The Lord Himself has ordained
these things. Let us run with patience, knowing
who has set the course. Our lives are not governed by
fate. or luck, either good luck or
bad luck, God has ordained our course. And may He give us grace to run
with patience. Patience. The race that is set
before us. Everything in your life has been
set by the Lord. Just like it was for Jacob. You see, unlike that race your
grandson ran cross country in Saturday, he knew when he was
coming to the finish line. But we don't. We don't. So we run with patience. The race that is set is fixed
before us. And we do so, look at the first
three words of verse two, looking unto Jesus. Gemma, how am I supposed to run
this race? How am I supposed to continue
in my life looking unto Jesus all the time? Looking unto Him
who is your all in all. Looking unto Him who is your
life. Looking unto Him who is your
God. Looking unto Him who is your
Savior. Before He ever made this world,
He ordained you. He put you in the covenant of
grace. He has loved you with an everlasting
love. He ordained when you would be
born, to whom you'd be born, when you would hear the Gospel,
the voice of His Gospel, through the lips of a preacher of the
Gospel. He ordained when the Spirit of
God would do a mighty work in your soul. Take away the stony
heart. Give you a heart of flesh. Give
you life. Give you light. And He had ordained
all the things that you're going to encounter through life. So
run with patience. And run with joyful contentedness. Knowing who has set your race. See, it's an awful thing that
we do, and we're all guilty of it, and that is murmuring and
complaining. We can get negative-minded. But
remember who has set your race. And you must run that race, and
you will finish it by His grace, just like Jacob finished his. See? And when you reach the end line,
and you don't know when that's going to be, but just keep running
with patience, and keep your eye of faith on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Look to Him. That's how you began
this journey. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all ye ends of the earth, for I am God, there's none else. You looked unto Him. You heard
a preacher of the Gospel say, Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. You beheld Him and you're still
looking, aren't you? You're still looking. And one day we'll finish our
race just like Jacob finished his and we shall behold the face
of the Lord Jesus. We'll look on Him in glory. Isn't that what is recorded in
2 Timothy chapter 4 by the Apostle Paul. He said, I have finished
my course. I finished my course. The Lord
laid it out there. He ordained all things. It all
happened by accident. God help us not to murmur or
complain. The Lord knows exactly what's
best for you in your situation. When something happens to you,
don't just kind of kick the dust and say, well, it's the Lord's
will. May God give you grace to rejoice
in your heart and say, this is the will of God concerning me. If it wasn't God's will, it wouldn't
have happened. I tell you, we've got a long
ways to go, don't we? In learning the things of God.
Paul said, I've finished my course. So, as we go back to Genesis
49-33, that's the first thing. Jacob didn't die until he finished
his work. And that's the way it is with
everybody. When you finish what God has
ordained for you to do, you're leaving. That's the finish line
for you. Here's the second thing. It says
here, last statement, he was gathered unto his people. Gathered. That means removed from one place
to another place. Gathered. gathered by the unseen
hand of God. He was gathered unto His people.
Who are these He calls His people? He had referenced them back up
in verse 29. He told His sons, I'm to be gathered
unto My people. Who are His people? Well, they're
God's people. They're the family of God. Your
brothers and sisters. Somebody asks me, and I get asked
this from time to time, do you think we'll know one another
in heaven? Why, certainly. We'll know our brothers and sisters. It says mighty big family. I know. But we'll know Abraham. We'll know Isaac. We'll know
Jacob. We'll know all the saints of
God. Well, why do you say that, Jim? Because we're all family.
Chosen in the same election. Redeemed by the same blood. Saved
by the same grace. Called by the same Spirit. Kept
by the same power of God. Preserved in faith. We'll know
one another in heaven. We'll know all the families. And mainly, we'll know our elder
brother, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who we're looking for. I hear people talk to me every
once in a while about when they get to heaven, they're going
to be looking up to see if they can find so-and-so. I wish people wouldn't say foolish
things like that. I'll tell you who you're going
to see when you get to glory. If you get to glory. If you make
it. Because if you make it, it will
have to be by the grace of God. I'll tell you who will fill your
vision. The Lord Jesus Christ. You'll
see the King upon His throne. I'll tell you in Revelation chapter
4, John saw heaven open. First thing he saw was a throne.
And then he said he saw Him who sat on that throne. The King
of Kings and the Lord of Lords. We're going to be gathered to
our people. To our people. And to our God. Our God. And thirdly, Jacob, he died an
easy, peaceful death. Picture the scene. just like you do at night, most
likely. He sat down on the side of the
bed, took his bedroom slippers off, put his feet up in the bed,
grabbed the covers, pulled the covers over him as he laid back
in the bed, put his head upon his pillow. He just died a peaceful death. No fear. No worry. I like that song you sang. Peace. Because we're in the arms
of the Lord. Peace. And Jacob knew he was in the
arms of his beloved Heavenly Father. And He just closed His
eyes in peace here. Next thing you knew, He's in
glory. He is in glory. Easy, peaceful
death. Psalm 37, 37 reads this way. Mark the perfect man. Mark the
man who's innocent. Mark the man who is whole. Mark
the man who is himself wholesome before God. How can we be whole
before God? In Christ. We're whole. He's the Great Physician. He
makes us whole. And behold the upright. Behold
the just man. For the end of that man is... You know what that next word
is? Peace. The end of that man is peace. No wonder Simeon said in Luke
chapter 2, having looked into the face of the beloved Savior,
he said, Lord, now lettest thy servant depart in peace. You know why there's nothing
but peace between the children of God and a holy sovereign God? Because of what the peacemaker
did. He made peace by the blood of
His cross. Jacob just goes on to paradise. He just goes on to glory. May the Lord give us living grace
now. And dying grace when it's called
for. Well, as we get to chapter 50,
I've read it to you. The first 14 verses, we see that
the death of Jacob broke Joseph's heart. God's people sorrow. We sorrow. a loved one is taken away. But
we sorrow not as others who have no hope. We have a good hope. Jacob had a good hope, so Joseph
did not, he didn't sorrow. as one who was concerned that
his father did not have a good hope. He had a good hope. What
is hope in the Bible? Is that a sanctified wish or
something? No. It's a confidence in the
Word of God that God will stay true to His promises. We have
a good hope, the Scripture says, through grace. Through grace. But he wept for his father. Was
Jacob a perfect father? Of course not. He is a sinner saved by grace. But this is Joseph's father.
This is the father of the other eleven men. So, in order to preserve Jacob's
body, Joseph instructed his physicians
to embalm his father's body. Now this was a process of soaking
the body in a salt solution for at least 40 days, which they
did for Jacob. Sometimes the Egyptians actually
soaked him for 70 days in salt preserve. Then they, in Jacob's
case, then they washed his body with the salt. And then they
put all kinds of aromatic perfumes and fragrances and spices over
the body. Then wound his body with fine
linen. And over that they put a rosin
that would eventually, it would harden. so as to mummify the
body. The body is going to travel a
long ways. They wanted the body to be preserved. So they go. Jacob had already
made arrangements where he was going to be buried. Where his
family was buried. And they take the journey. And
Jacob is buried. Well, then we get to, and I've
read that to you, and I don't need to go verse by verse on
those things, but then we get to verse 15, and verses 15 through
21. This is where Joseph's brothers,
they still thought that Joseph had the same kind of attitude
toward them that they had toward him. They figured he carried a grudge. They assumed that since their
father had now died and been buried, Joseph would now get
his revenge. They thought Joseph was just
like them, but he wasn't. He wasn't. He held no grudge against them. He bore them no ill will. When they came to him for food,
he didn't step out back and say, well, those guys, they wanted
to kill me. Sold him to slavery. Just let
them starve. That's probably been what we've
done. Had been our attitude. But no, he wasn't like that at
all. He's a beautiful picture of our
Savior. For years and years we had no
interest in the Son of God. Then the Spirit of God began
to work. And then we cried out to Him.
Oh, God, show mercy to me. I'm the sinner. Be propitious
to me on the basis of the blood sacrifice. I'm the sinner. Show mercy. Give mercy. The Lord didn't say, well, you
had no interest in me for all those years. Why shall I even
listen to you? Oh, no. Nothing like that. Nothing
like that. You see, God got vengeance on
our sins at the cross. That's where His wrath was poured
out. There was a cup. The cup of God's
wrath. The cup of God's vengeance. The
cup of God's fury. And our Lord Jesus, our sins
laid on Him. Our sins made to meet in Him. And then the Savior had to drink
that cup of wrath Himself. And He drank it to its last bitter
dregs. And He did that because He loved
us. He loved us. He came to satisfy
justice for us. The law said, kill him! The law said, death! He said,
take me. Remember what he said when the
soldiers came to arrest him in the garden? First time he knocked
them down. He said, I am. Who are you looking
for? They said, Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I am. They all fell
back. They got up and dusted themselves off. Who are you looking
for? Jesus of Nazareth. If you seek
Me, let these go their way. You can't have Me and them. Take Me. Let these go their way. That, my dear friends, is substitution. Substitution. Joseph has no ill will toward
these men at all. The Lord has no ill will toward
these people. He's not angry with us. He's
angry with the wicked every day, but He's not angry with His people.
He can't be. Because He sees nothing in us
with which to be angry about. He sees us in Christ. Can you grasp that? Can you get
a hold of that? A holy, righteous God sees me
in the beauties of His Son. And when we get to glory, I say,
well done thou good and faithful servant. Well, how can He say
that? He sees us in His Son. It's unbelievable how many people
don't have a grasp of that very fundamental truth. that God sees us in Christ. His brethren, they sent a messenger. They wouldn't even go see him.
They sent a messenger. Forgive us. We're sorry. We sinned against you. That's what the messenger said
to Joseph. Your brother said to tell you they're sorry. He
just cried. He cried. Don't they understand
brotherly love? I'm not mad at them. I'm not
angry with them. I'm not out to get even with
them. Joseph wept. And then his brethren
went and fell down before his face and said, will you serve?
Will you slaves? And he said to them, when they
came to sin, don't be afraid. You've got to love this. Verse
19, don't be afraid. Am I not in the place of God?
Isn't this where God would have me to be? How can I get mad at
you when it's God who put me here? He just used you to accomplish
His will. You think of the Jews and the
Gentiles who ganged up on our Lord Jesus Christ? They did exactly what they wanted
to do and in giving vent to their venom and their hatred toward
the Lord Jesus Christ, they were just fulfilling the will of God
because God ordained that he would die. Now you can't figure that out.
Were they responsible for what they did? You betcha. Peter said,
you with your wicked hands, you slew the Son of God. The just one, he said. And all the while, the will and
purpose of God was done. I'm right where God would have
me to be. That's what Joseph said. And he says this in verse 20,
he said, now as for you, you thought evil against me. That's
on you. But what you did to me, though
you meant it for evil, God meant it for good. To bring to pass as it is this
day, to save much people alive. All that happened to the Lord
Jesus Christ. All the evil in the hearts of
men, God meant it for good. To bring
to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. His name
is Jesus. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sin. I ask you this,
did He save His people from their sin? Yes, He did. Amen, He did. He saved much people. Much people. More than any human can count. But God knows all of His elect. A number which no man can number,
but God knows all our names because our names are written down in
the Lamb's Book of Life from before the foundation of the
world. Christ came and saved His people alive. So He says to them again, verse
21, Fear ye not. Don't be afraid. And He says
this, I'm going to nourish you. I promise you I'll take good
care of you. And isn't that what the Lord Jesus Christ says to
His people? I'll take good care of you. I'll
nourish you. And I'll not only nourish you,
I'll nourish your little ones, your babies too. I'll look after
all of you. Such is the glory and the omnipotence
and the omniscience of our mighty Savior. He nourishes all of His
people, including our little ones." And so the Scripture says,
He comforted them and He spake kindly to them. And he stayed in Egypt, he and
his father's house. He lived 110 years. In fact,
he saw Ephraim's children of the third generation and the
children also of Macher, the son of Manasseh, while he put
them up on his knee, like you do your grandchildren. And sometimes
your great-grandchildren, as the case may be, he did. ride the hobby horse on grandpa's
lap, grandpa's knee. And then he told his brethren,
he said, now I'm gonna die. But he said, God will surely
visit you. He'll stay true to his word. And he'll bring you out of this
land. He'll bring you out of Egypt. to that land He swore
to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He'll be true to His covenant.
He said, now, listen, when God visits you and you just pass
this down from one generation to another, you take my bones
with you when God fulfills His promise and you leave this land
of Egypt and you go back to the land of Canaan. You make sure
you take my bones with you. So, verse 26, Joseph died. He was 110 years old. They embalmed
him, put him in a coffin in Egypt. God gave him a long life, 110
years, and he died. Abraham lived 175 years and he
died. But the Lord had somebody appointed
to take the work over. Isaac. And Isaac lived 180 years. And he died, but the Lord had
somebody to take over the work. Jacob. and he lived 147 years,
and he died, but the Lord had somebody to take over the work.
Joseph, and he lived 110 years, and he died, but the Lord had
somebody to take over the work. Ephraim and Manasseh, and when
they died, the Lord had somebody to take over the work. Eventually,
eventually Moses and Aaron, and so forth and so on, would get
up to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I know God still removes
His messengers. When our race is run, we must
leave. But God doesn't leave Himself
without a witness. He's going to have somebody preaching
His glorious gospel. I told you the other day, or
a few Sundays ago, The Lord buries His workmen, but He continues
the work. Just because preachers die, that
don't mean God dies. That don't mean the work dies. It goes on. Let me give you this
quickly. How does Genesis begin? In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. And he'd go on down and it says,
God created man and he breathed into his nostrils the breath
of, what's the next word? Life. But something happened in chapter
3. Adam sinned. Introduced something that all
of us are going to have to face unless the Lord comes back pretty
soon. Death. Genesis begins with life and
it ends, look at the last few words of verse 26. It ends in
a coffin in Egypt. You say, well, that's the end,
isn't it? Oh, no. Oh, no. Because then you get
into Exodus. You know what the word Exodus
means? Going out. Going out. There's a way out. There's a way out of death. What's that? By the blood of
the Passover lamb. Oh yeah. Not to worry. The lamb has died. and raised
again. And God gave him power. And one
of these days, He's going to raise these bodies, the body
of Jacob, the body of Joseph, the body of Abel, way back yonder. The first man who died in grace. He believed grace. And all the
saints of God who've died and who will die until the time Christ
comes back and our bodies are buried, our Savior's coming back,
and with His voice, He will raise all of us from the grave. And our souls will join back
to those glorified bodies. And so shall we ever be with
the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another
with these words. No. In a coffin in Egypt, that's
not the end of the story. We're going out. We're going
out. Exodus. Well, may the Lord bless
His Word. Let's close in prayer.