Today we'll be looking in Genesis
chapter 47 again. Last study we left off at verse
12 of Genesis chapter 47. And the verses from Genesis 47,
13 to 26 are a detour from the history of the Patriarchs and
serve only to manifest the wisdom and prudence of Joseph's government.
So we're gonna move down past those. And we do find one sweet
lesson though within those verses. and I touched on it last week,
when it's spiritually considered what a famine our nature has.
Our natural state, we have a famine. We have a great famine in our
natural state. And until our Almighty Joseph,
the Lord Jesus Christ, grants us a supply of the living bread
of who he is, We will be in a state of spiritual famine in our natural
state without Christ, without hope and lost, lost. And let us never overlook we
who are the people of God, how God supplied Jacob and his family
while the Egyptians were perishing in their own land. We'll see
that clearly in our text today. Let's read verses 23 to 31. John
Joseph said unto the people, Behold, I have bought you this
day and your land for Pharaoh. Lo, here is seed for you, and
ye shall sow the land. So the Egyptians were so hungry
and so famished, they started to sell their land to Pharaoh. They were starving, beloved,
in their own land. And Joseph purchased the land
from them by giving them corn, sustenance to keep them alive.
But a fifth, a fifth of what they were to grow was to go to
Pharaoh. So after that's occurred, we
see Joseph here in verse 23. Then Joseph said unto the people,
Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh.
Lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land, and it
shall come to pass in the increase, that ye shall give the fifth
part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of
the field, and for the food, and for them of your households,
and for food for your little ones. And they said, Thou hast
saved our lives. Let us find grace in the sight
of my Lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants. And Joseph made a law
over the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have
the fifth part except the land of the priests only, which became
not Pharaoh's. And Israel dwelt in the land
of Egypt, in the country of Goshen. Now, this is important. The Egyptians
were starving in their own land. Here's a picture of how God provides. for his people see the people
the world are starving spiritually starving spiritually whether
they know it or not but we who are God's people who are born
again are feasting on the Word of God remember how Goshen the
church even is a picture of Goshen a place where we can come an
oasis where we can come and we can feast on the Word of God
right look at in Israel dwelt in in Egypt in the country of
Goshen And they had possessions there and grew and multiplied
exceedingly. So in the midst of the Egyptians
starving, the Israelites are well fed and they're growing
and they're multiplying. So it's a picture, beloved, of
how we We feast on the Bread of Life, which is Christ. We
come here, we worship together, we feast on the Word of Life,
which is Christ, the Bread of Life, and we grow, beloved. We
grow spiritually. Now, we don't see our own growth.
I have to stress that. If a person thinks they see their
own growth, well, they're boasting. But we do grow. I see your growth. Others will see your growth.
Others will. But we never usually see our
own. And so the Egyptians are starving and the Israelites are
increasing, are increasing. So we see God's bounty and how
God takes care of his people. And Jacob lived in the land of
Egypt 17 years. So the whole age of Jacob was
140 and seven years. And the time drew nigh that 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, and deal kindly and truly
with me. Bury me not, I pray thee, in
Egypt, but I will lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry
me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying place. And he
said, I will do as thou hast said. And he said, Swear unto
me. And he swore unto him. And Israel bowed himself upon
the bed's head. Now look at verse 25. And they
said, Thou hast saved our lives. This is the Egyptians speaking
to Joseph. They said, Thou hast saved our lives. Let us find
grace in the sight of my Lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants.
The people of Egypt knew. They knew that Joseph was treating
them with great fairness during the time of famine. They knew
that. And we see that in the text, they knew that. And they
proclaim that Joseph has saved their lives, and we see they
are thankful that they found grace in the eyes of Joseph and
in the eyes of Pharaoh the king. And beloved of God, have we not
been saved by our heavenly Joseph, the Lord Jesus Christ? Is it
not he who has saved us by his grace? Is it not he who's done
this? Have we not found grace in the
eyes of the king? Have we not found grace in the
eyes of Christ Jesus our Lord who is the bread of life? Have
we not? Oh, we have, haven't we? And we know that it's Christ
and Christ alone who saved us. And we know that it's only in
Christ we have eternal life. We know that for a fact. We've
been taught that, haven't we? There was a time when we didn't
know that. But praise be to God, we know that now. We need water
to survive, don't we? Turn, if you would, to John chapter
4. We need water to survive. Without water, we'll perish.
You know, Christ is the water of life to his people. Not only
is he the bread of life, but he's the water of life. We need
water to survive. We need it. John chapter four,
look at verse 13 and 14. The Lord's talking to the woman
at the well, notorious sinner. Oh my, I'm so thankful when I
see passages like this. God has grace on his people.
He has grace on sinners, doesn't he? Praise his name. Jesus answered
and said unto her, verse 13, whosoever drinketh of this water
shall thirst again. Now he's talking about the well.
Whoever drinks of that well water, they're going to be thirsty.
We get thirsty, don't we? And when we're thirsty, what
do we do? We drink. I ask you, are you thirsty for
Christ? Are you thirsty for the things of Christ? Because God
makes his people thirsty for the things of Christ. The world's
not thirsty for the things of Christ. There was a time when
we weren't thirsty for the things of Christ. But oh now, give me
that water. Give me that water. Look at this.
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall
never thirst. What are we told? That God's
people hunger and thirst after righteousness. We're told that
in the Scriptures. Well, those who drink of this
water, Christ who is the water of life, they're never thirst
again. Oh my! And rejoice, beloved, if you're
thirsty for the things of Christ, it's God that's given you that
thirst. It's God who's done that. It's
a miracle of grace, beloved. It's a miracle. Look at this.
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall
never thirst. And the water that I shall give
him shall be in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting
life. Now turn, if you would, to Revelation
21. Revelation 21, we'll look at one more verse about Christ
being the water of life. Again, we need water to survive,
beloved. Look at this verse here, Revelation
21, verse six. And he said unto me, it is done,
it's done. Salvation's accomplished, isn't
it? It's finished, look at this. I am alpha and omega. That in
the Greek is the beginning letter of the alphabet and the ending
letter of the alphabet. Alpha is the beginning and Omega
is the ending. We know, beloved, He's everything
in between, isn't He, for the believer. He says, I'm Alpha
and I'm Omega, beginning and the end. He's the beginning of
our salvation. He's the end of our salvation.
He's the author of our salvation. He's the finisher of our salvation,
beloved. That's our King. That's our Lord. That's Him, Jesus Christ. And
look, he says, and he said unto him, it is done. I am Alpha and
Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that
is a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. Are
you thirsty? Has God made you thirsty for
the things of Christ? Oh, I pray he will. He made this
poor sinner thirsty. There's a time when I wasn't
thirsty. Now, oh my, I'm thirsty. I pray God will make it so for
you if you don't know him. Oh my. And we need bread to survive
too, don't we? Bread used to be a staple in
biblical times. Well, our Lord says this, I am
the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Oh
my, John 6, 35. Never hunger, never thirst. Isn't
that wonderful? It's wonderful. So we see how
the Egyptians, they were starving in their own land, And the Israelites
were fine, and they were increasing. It's so for God's people, beloved.
It's so for God's people. And the people of Egypt, they
knew. Look at verse 25 again. They knew Joseph was treating
them fairly. And they said, Thou hast saved
our lives. Let us find grace in the sight
of my Lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants. Oh my. You know, and over there in John
6, 35, when he says, I am the bread of life, that's one of
the great I am statements too. That's one of the great I am
statements, which is so characteristic of John bringing that forth.
But it shows that Christ is both the water and the bread of life
for his people. John 6, 35. He's our eternal
life. In him and through him alone
do we have eternal life. Outside of Christ is no eternal
life, none. Well, people say, well, that's
pretty narrow-minded, Wayne. Well, let's quote the words of
the master. Let's quote the words of God
incarnate in the flesh. I am the way, I am the truth,
I am the life. No man, no man or no woman, no
man, no one, cometh unto the Father, but by, that's the words
of God incarnate in the flesh. That's not my words. I believe
them, though. I believe them. by God's grace,
and you do too by God's grace. We'll see today the only one
who's made us to differ from the sheep and the goats, beloved.
We're gonna look at the very end, and the only one who makes
us to differ. is God, amen, is God. He's the
one who separates the sheep from the goats. He's the one who's
made vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor, giving away half
my message. But he's the one who's done that. He's the one
who's done that. Not us, he's done that. And he
even does it at the end, which we'll see today at the Great
White Judgment. My, oh my. Christ is given by God to be
the satisfier, the reliever, and the physician of his people's
spiritual needs. Again, I'll read that again.
Christ is given by God the Father to be the satisfier. We know
he satisfies the justice of God and the law of God, and he satisfies
our hunger too, doesn't he? He satisfies our hunger, beloved.
The revealer, he reveals himself to us. And the physician of his
people's spiritual needs. He is the great physician. We're
healed by his stripes, beloved. By his stripes, oh my. And in
Him, in His meditatorial office, in Him, in His atoning death,
in Him, in His priesthood, in Him, in His grace and love and
power, in Him alone will empty souls find all their wants supplied. Supplied. Because life alone
is found in Him. Spiritual life alone. He's the
bread of life. He's the water of life. Only
in Him do we find that. And every believer has found
grace in the eyes of the King. Never forget that. Every single
believer has found grace in the eyes of the King, in the eyes
of Jehovah. How? We are accepted in the blood
for Christ's sake. Isn't that wonderful? Warms your
heart, doesn't it? Listen to the words in Genesis
6a. Scripture says, but Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord. The only thing that made Noah
to differ, it wasn't Noah saying, well, I'm gonna follow Christ
now and I'm gonna, although he did, didn't he? He did. And we
do follow Christ. I heard a great message by Tim
James this week and he said, we do make a decision for Christ
in the sense that we're made willing and we run to him. We
do. We ought not to downplay that.
Religion's taken that and destroyed it and made it, but no, we do.
We're turned to Christ, beloved, by the power of the Holy Spirit
of God. And we run to Christ, don't we? We run to Him. Willingly. Willingly, beloved. Mine, in
our prayer as believers, is if you do not know Christ and do
not believe on Christ, that God would make you willing. in the
day of His power. That's all He's done for us.
We found grace in the eyes of God. When? From eternity. That's
the part that just sends you just, oh my God. Oh my, turn
to Exodus 33. Look at this, what Moses says
here. Exodus 33, verse 13, and we'll
read verse 14 to 16. Exodus 17, we'll go, look at
this. Exodus 33, now therefore I pray
thee, If I have found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way,
that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight and consider
that this nation is thy people. And then look at this. Look what
God says. And he said, my presence shall
go with thee and I will give thee rest. That's true of every
believer. We found grace in the eyes of
God and has he not given us rest? And has he not ever gone before
us? Absolutely. I can look back even before I
was saved and I know you can I can look back at multiple times
I should have been dead. Multiple times. Like I'm talking
once over a 50 foot cliff and we didn't know it because it
was pitch black at night and we were supposedly having a good
time. And if I hadn't tried to get
out of that truck and literally crawling over my buddy and opening
the door, we'd have all died. And I look at that and say, look
at the grace of God. before I was even saved. And I know you can
look in your lives and see points and places where possibly you
could have died, but it wasn't the appointed time, was it? But
we can look back at that and see God's preserving grace even
before we were saved, beloved. It's incredible. And so look
at this. He's he says, my presence shall go with thee and I will
give thee rest. God is ever with his people below.
He didn't just start watching over us when when we when we
turn to him by by the power of the Holy Spirit of God. No, his
love has been set upon us from eternity, from eternity. That's
what makes it so incredible. And look, I love Moses response
here in verse 15. And this is something that we
should pray all the time. And he said unto him, if thy
presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. Lord, don't
let me go. Henry Mahan put it this way.
Lord, don't let me go anywhere where you don't go before. That's
what we should pray. Amen. Lord, don't let me don't
let me take a step without you going before me. Oh, my. For
wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found
grace in thy sight? Is it not in that thou goest
with us? So God's people, in the fact that Christ goes with
us and before us, we know that we found grace in the eyes of
the Lord. Isn't that wonderful? So we can look at those things
and those events in our lives before and after the Lord has
saved us. And we can see his hand and that
he's went before us. And it just absolutely makes
you shout for joy in your heart. It does. Oh my, it's incredible. So shall we be separated, I and
thy people. God's people were in the world
just like the Egyptians were in Goshen. They were in the borders
of Egypt, but they were separated, beloved, from the world. We are
separated from the world. There's no doubt about that.
We're made holy in Christ. Now, we don't think we're holy,
do we? John, you told me sometimes some
guy come in here and say, boy, you guys are good folks. Remember you told me that? And
John says, we're just a bunch of sinners here. And we know
that. We know that. We are sinners saved by grace,
mine. And we're separated, though,
from the world. So shall we be separated, I and thy people,
from all the people that are upon the face of the earth. And
the Lord said unto Moses, Look at this. I will do this. I will
do this thing also that thou has spoken. For thou has found
grace in my sight, and look at this, and I know thee, what? Now contrast that with the New
Testament where it says, even the very hairs of our head are
numbered. He knows us. There's not one thing that happens
in our life that the Lord doesn't know happens. Remember the stones
being made ready? Remember they were made ready
afar off, and then they were taken and placed in the temple
without a hammer or anything? Well, we are on this earth, beloved,
we're being chiseled. And then when we go home to glory,
we fit right in that spiritual temple, right where God wants
us. And there's no chiseling in heaven, not a sound of a hammer,
is there? Isn't that wonderful? Oh, what
a picture, my. But here, we're going through
trials and tribulations, we're being chipped at and made into
the stone, and then we're stone made ready. Oh my, it'll be wonderful. Turn to Judges chapter 6. Judges
chapter 6. And all this is to show that
Jacob had found grace in the eyes of the Lord. In Israel they
increased while the Egyptians were starving. And the Egyptians
even realized though that they found grace in the eyes of Joseph
and Pharaoh too. My, look at this in Judges. We're
reading the account of Gideon bringing forth these same words.
Judges 6, verses 15 to 24. And he said unto him, O my Lord,
wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in
Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. Now, Gideon
realizes his inability, you notice that, to save Israel. He says,
I'm poor. Beloved, we're poor, bankrupt
sinners. We can't even save ourselves, can we? Look at these wonderful
words. And the Lord said unto him, surely I will be with thee.
Oh, well, if God before us, who could be against us? Oh, my. Surely I will be with thee. And
thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man. And he said unto
him, if now I have found grace in thy sight, there's that tells
those words again, then show me a sign that thou talkest with
me. Depart not hence, I pray thee,
until I come unto thee and bring forth my present and said it
before thee, and he said, I will tarry until thou come again.
And Gideon went in and made ready a kid and 11 cakes of ephor,
of flour, the flesh he put in a basket and he put the broth
in a pot. and bought it out unto him under
the oak and presented it. And the angel of God said unto
him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes and lay them upon the rock
and pour out the broth. And he did so. Then the angel
of the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in his
hand and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes and there
rose up fire out of the rock and consumed the flesh and the
unleavened cake. Then the angel of the Lord departed
out of his sight. And when Gideon perceived that
he was an angel of the Lord, Gideon said, alas, oh Lord God,
for because I have seen an angel of the Lord face to face. And
the Lord said unto him, peace be unto thee, fear not. Oh my,
angels of the Lord, that's a picture of Christ, that's Christ. And
look at this, peace be unto thee. Is that not what God says to
us through Christ? Fear not. Again, thou shall not
die. Now we're going to die physically,
but we're going to live for eternity, beloved and glory. We've been
given eternal life in and through Christ Jesus, our Lord. Then
Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord and called it Jehovah
Shalom, Jehovah's peace. Oh, he has peace with God, beloved. He has peace with God. The kindness
and love of God has been manifest to we who are his people, hasn't
it? Not by anything we could have done or that or or that
we're ever do. We do not merit this kindness
and this love that God has for his people. We do not merit it.
It's according to God's mercy and according to God's grace.
And it's so vast and it's so depthless that you can never
plummet. You can never plummet. Now oceans are deep. My, they're
so deep. You throw something in the ocean,
you're never gonna see it again. Well, beloved, our sin's been
thrown into the sea. It's all gone. We're washed clean
in the precious blood of Christ. Oh, what mercy, what mercy we
have. So with this in mind, and seeing Jacob and his family have
found grace in the eyes of Pharaoh, having put them in the choicest
land of Egypt, which is Goshen, as we've looked at in our past
studies, what a picture we have of how we found grace in the
eyes of the king. Let's read Genesis 47, verses
27 to 31. And Israel dwelt in the land
of Egypt, in the country of Goshen, and they had possessions therein,
and grew and multiplied exceedingly. Jacob lived in the land of Egypt
17 years, so the whole age of Jacob was 147 years. And the time drew nigh that 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, and deal kindly and truly with me. Bear
me not, I pray thee, in the land of Egypt. But I will die with
my fathers. Thou shall carry me out of Egypt
and bury me in their burying place. And he said, I will do
as thou has said. And he said, swear unto me. And
he swear unto him. And Israel bowed himself upon
the bed's head. Now, remember, in our past studies,
we've learned that Jacob was one hundred and thirty years
old when he left the land of Canaan. and went down into Egypt.
We see in verse 28 that he's 140 and seven years when he when
the Lord delivered him from this body of death. And that's what
occurs when a saint departs from this world. That's what occurs.
We leave this body of death. We leave this body of death.
Oh, and we go to a place where there's no more sickness. There's
no more sadness. There's no more tears. There's
no more trials. There's no more tribulations.
And there's no more struggle with the flesh. None. No more
struggle with sin. No more battle and sin, because
we'll be delivered from this body of death, which Paul called
it, this body of death. What a day that'll be. What a
day that'll be. And Jacob dwelt in the land of
Egypt 17 years. We know that Joseph was 17 years
old when his brother sold him into captivity. So marvel at
this, that Jacob lived with his son the same length of time in
Canaan, 17 years, as he did in the land of Egypt. So he was
blessed with 34 years with his son. 17 years he lived with him
in the land of Canaan, and then 17 years he lived with him in
the land of Egypt, beloved. Oh, it's wonderful. And Jacob
watched his family grow exceedingly during these 17 years. We see
that in our text because God supplied their need, didn't he?
He supplied their need all the time while they were in Egypt.
God supplies our needs all the time while we're here in spiritual
Egypt. He takes care of every one of
his sheep, every one of his sheep. Truly, truly, we who are God's
people, as we've seen today, have found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. And that's so for every single
one of God's people. Every one of them. Glory be to
God.