I was thinking about the Lord saying,
I am the way. And the only way I am going to
get to the Father is if I'm in Christ and he brings me into
the Father's presence. And the only evidence that I
am in Christ is faith in Him. Believing and relying on Him
bringing me to the Father. This thing of coming to the Father,
well, I come to the Father when Christ comes to the Father. I
came to the Father when He ascended back to the Father. And the evidence
that I'm in Christ is believing the Gospel. And I hope this will
be even more clear after this message. I've entitled this message,
Wagons for Jacob. Wagons for Jacob. Now, 22 years before this had
taken place, if you'll turn with me to Genesis chapter 37, this is after they had sold Joseph
to the Israelites for 20 pieces of silver. Verse 29 and Reuben returned
under the pit and behold, Joseph was not in the pit and he rent
his clothes and he returned under his brother and said, the child
is not. And I, whether shall I go? And they took Joseph's
coat. You remember that coat of many
colors that he was given as the favorite son. They took his coat
and killed a kid of the goats and dipped the coat in the blood.
And they sent the coat of many colors and they brought it to
their father and said, this we have found. Know now whether
it be thy son's coat or not. And he knew it. and said, it
is my son's code, an evil beast hath devoured him. Joseph was
without doubt rent in pieces. And Jacob rent his clothes and
put sackcloth upon his loins and mourned for his son many
days. And all his sons and all his
daughters rose up to comfort him. It's kind of strange, isn't it?
They sell him, and then they rise up to comfort him. These
men could almost be cold-blooded. And he said, for I will go down
into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him,
and the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer
of Pharaoh's captain of the guard. For 22 years, he had believed
that a lion or a bear or some kind of animal had torn his son
into pieces. And he believed him to be dead.
And this is the time he's going to find out Joseph lives. Can you imagine that? Thinking
your child has been dead, dying of a violent death for 22 years,
and then finding out he lives. Verse 16 of chapter 45. And the fame thereof was heard
in Pharaoh's house. And this is what we considered
last week, Joseph forgiving his brothers. And it was a famous
thing. Everybody heard about it and
everybody was touched by it. There's something powerful in
this story, this thing of forgiveness. And Pharaoh was touched by it. You know, the story, I think
it's interesting that Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote a Broadway
play that was very popular for many years called Joseph and
the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Okay. I've seen the play and
it really is good, but there's just something very touching
about this story. And the fame thereof was heard
in Pharaoh's house, saying, Joseph's brethren are come, and it pleased
Pharaoh well and his servants. Pharaoh was excited about this
because he loved Joseph. You look at what Joseph had done
for that land. They'd all be dead. They wouldn't
have anything to eat if it wasn't for Joseph. And he had great
respect for Joseph. Verse 17, and Pharaoh said unto
Joseph, saying to thy brethren, This do ye, laid your beasts
and go, get you under the land of Canaan and take your father
and your households and come unto me. And I will give you
the good of the land of Egypt and you shall eat the fat of
the land. Now, thou art commanded. This
is not an option. This is not something you can
do if you want to. Thou art commanded. This do ye. Take your wagons
out of the land of Egypt for your little ones, for your wives,
bring your father and come. Now this is when he's going to
bring 70 souls into Egypt. And we're going to consider that
in a couple of weeks about how the 70 were brought in and Thou
art commanded, this do ye, take your wagons out of the land of
Egypt for your little ones, for your wives, and bring your father
and come. Also, regard not your stuff. And my marginal reasoning says,
spare not your stuff. Don't worry about bringing stuff
with you. Don't spare it for the good of
all the land of Egypt is yours. You don't need to worry about
the stuff you're going to be leaving behind. You're going to be coming
into a much better position. Don't worry about your stuff.
Verse 21, and the children of Israel did so. And Joseph gave them wagons,
according to the commandment of Pharaoh and gave them provision
for the way. This was a long trip to all of
them. He gave each man changes of raiment,
new clothing. But to Benjamin, he gave 300
pieces of silver and five changes of raiment. He's showing his
favoritism toward Benjamin. Even then, that was his blood
brother. They had the same mother. And we're going to come back
to that. There's significance to those numbers used. And to his
father, he sent after this manor, 10. asses laden with good things
of Egypt and 10 she asses laden with corn and bread and meat
for his father by the way. Now there's significance to that
number 10 and I'm sure you can think of it as we're considering
this. So he sent his brethren away
and they departed And he said to them, see that
you fall not out by the way. You know, he knew there would
be finger pointing. This is your fault. You did this. Why did
this happen? He knew exactly what they were
going to be doing. And he thought they could be
getting in all kinds of accusations against each other. He said,
see that you didn't fall out by the way. Remain brethren,
remain good one to another. And they went up out of Egypt
and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father, and
told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive." Now, can you imagine
how this would have shook him up to hear this? Your favorite
son is alive. And he is governor over all the
land of Egypt. Now that talking about shocking,
this was the most powerful place in the world. This is the place
where you get food. And he found out that not only
is Joseph alive, he's the governor over all the land. He's in charge
of everything. And Jacob's heart fainted for
he believed them not. I can understand that he believed
them not. Well, what did it take for him
to believe verse 27? And they told him all the words
of Joseph. You know, no one's ever saved
by half a gospel. You got to hear the whole gospel.
They told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto
them. And when he, Jacob, saw the wagons,
that was the means of transport. That's how he was going to get
to his son. When he saw the wagons, which
Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob, their father,
revived. He saw the wagons. He heard all
the words. And that soul that had fainted
in unbelief was revived. And Israel said, it's enough. It's enough. Joseph, my son, is yet alive. I will go and see him before
I die. That's my one desire. to go and
see him before I die. historical narrative in the Old
Testament is something that actually took place. This is not a fairy
tale. This is a historical narrative
of events that literally took place. And it's important for
us every time we read anything in the scripture to remember
this is given to teach us the gospel. Every one of these stories,
and you know, I'm, you know, I hear a lot of times I'll hear
preachers make good illustrations out of life and so on. I, for
whatever reason, I don't have much of a gift for that. I wish
I did, but I don't. But I tell you what, we have
better illustrations in the Bible than any man made illustration.
That's what the Old Testament is all about. It's given to teach
us something of the gospel. And the prominent feature in
this story is wagons. Wagons. Pharaoh hears this wonderful
story of Joseph forgiving his brethren. And he loves Joseph
and he's excited about this taking place. And when he hears of Joseph's
father and his extended family in Canaan, he says, I'm going
to give you wagons laden with the good of the land. You go
back up to Canaan. Get Jacob and all of his family
and bring them back, lo, I have commanded you to do this." Now
in this story, Pharaoh, the supplier of the wagons, typifies the father. Joseph is a type of Christ, as
he always is. Jacob is a type of the believer,
And the wagons that bring him to Joseph are a type of faith. That's true. We come to the father
by Christ. Like we just heard that song. He said, no man can come to the
father, but by me. But how did they go to the father?
Through these wagons. These wagons brought them and
wagons, these wagons typify faith. That's how we lay hold upon Christ.
Now. read the passage again and we're going to look at the gospel.
This will be the third time we've read it and now I hope by the
grace of God we'll see the gospel clearly in this touching passage
of scripture. And the fame, verse 16, and the
fame thereof was heard in Pharaoh's house saying, Joseph's brethren
are come And it pleased Pharaoh well and his servants. Do you
know that it pleases God to save sinners? He delights in mercy. He is pleased. It's His pleasure
to save sinners by His grace. Don't ever forget that about
the Lord. He's so glorious. You know, we'll have a tendency
to think about election or Christ's effectual redemption for His
elect, and we'll think, well, that means there's gonna be people
that aren't gonna be saved. Well, yeah, it does, but that's not
the point. He saves sinners. Nobody deserves to be saved.
but oh the mercy and grace of God that he is pleased to save
sinners. He's well pleased. Verse 17,
and Pharaoh said unto Joseph, say unto thy brother. Now, I
love to think of the father saying to Christ, say to your brother. When he's talking about believers,
every believer is his little brother. Both he that sanctifyeth
and they who are sanctified are all of one for the which cause
he is not ashamed to call them brethren. Brethren. Christ calls every
one of his people, my brother. Whom he did foreknow, then he
also did predestinate to be conformed to his image, that he might be
the firstborn among what? Many brethren. When the Lord
is raised from the dead, the disciples of all forsaken him
and fled. He is raised from the dead. He says to Mary, go to my brethren. James and Peter, all these men
who denied me, were in hiding, afraid to confess me, go to my
brethren. And saying to them, I go to my
father and your father. I go to my God and your God. Oh, the relationship between
Christ and his brethren. There's a There's a true family relationship
between Christ and every one of his people. He said, as the
father loved me, so have I loved you. That's what the Lord said.
You know, the things we say, we wouldn't dare say him or even
think him unless the Bible said him. But he said this, as the
father, you think of the way the father loved the son. He
says, as the father hath loved me, so have I loved you, my brethren. Verse 17, Pharaoh said unto Joseph,
say unto thy brethren, this do ye. He's not giving him advice
at this time. He's not giving him an option.
He said, this do ye. Aren't you glad the gospel is
a command? If I believed the gospel was
an invitation. And I know sometimes it kind
of sounds like an invitation. You know, he says, come into
me all you that labor and heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Um,
and I'm thankful for the way the Lord presents it. But if
the gospel was an invitation, I know what I think. I think
I'm not invited. I just know that I so much more
love the gospel being a command. not you're invited to come to
Christ, you're commanded to come to Christ. And the right comes
with the command. If he commands you to come, the
scripture says, God commanded all men everywhere to repent. Well, you're in that group, aren't
you? I'm in that group. That means I'm commanded. I'm not
to try to figure out, oh, I wish I could say this with the proper
emphasis. I'm not to try to figure out
whether or not I'm elect. I'm not to try to figure out
whether or not Christ died for me. I'm commanded to come to
Christ and that's what I'm called on to do. Come, this do ye. This do ye. Laid your beasts, verse 17, and
go get into the land of Canaan and take your father and your
households and coming to me. You know, the continual message
of the gospel is come. That's nonstop. It's never get
your life straightened out first. It's never make sure you get
rid of this sin or that sin before you dare come. Come. Right now. It's not wait and wait to where
you feel better and you feel like you're, you're more in a
fit position to come. You're more spiritual. You're
not. No, right now. Come to the Lord. Jesus Christ,
the spirit and the bride say come right now. Let not conscience make you linger,
nor of fitness fondly dream. The only fitness he requires
is to have a need of him. This he gives you, tis the Spirit's
rising beam. Oh, the message of the Lord Jesus
Christ to every one of his people is come to me right now. Come to me, verse 18, and I will
give you the good of the land of Egypt. You shall eat the fat
of the land. You come to me and you're getting
everything. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with him also
freely? You hear that word? Freely. Give
us all things. Come right now. You're going
to have the fat of the land. You're going to have the absolute
best. Is Christ the absolute best?
If you have him, you have the absolute best. And he repeats verse 19. Now,
thou art commanded. This do ye. You're commanded. I repeat, don't try to figure
out whether or not Christ died for you. You're commanded to
believe on him right now. And your right comes with a command.
It's not wrong for you to do something that he commands you
to do. You're commanded. This do ye, verse 19. Take your wagons out of the land
of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives and bring
your father and come." There's that word again, come, come,
come and welcome. And I love this also, regard
not your stuff. Now, maybe they accumulated a
bunch of stuff. Evidently, he was pretty wealthy
because he had money to send the sons down to the land. I don't know what all he had,
but I know this. He said, don't regard your stuff. Don't spare
it. Don't bring it with you. It's not needed. Now, with regard
to your stuff, all your experiences, don't bring it. All your religion,
Don't bring it. All your stuff, all your baggage,
all your things that you think are good, things that you're
glad to leave, whatever it is, don't spare your stuff. Don't
say, well, I want to keep that. You know, you come to Christ
empty handed, don't you? You don't come bringing anything.
If you bring anything, he won't have you. You can't get through
the straight gate if you have anything but Christ. You can't
walk along the narrow road if you have anything but Christ.
If it's not all you have is Christ. Spare not your stuff. It's what
the scripture calls repentance from dead works. Wouldn't it be a blessing to
just don't spare any of your stuff? Come to Christ empty handed
and find him to be all. The good of all the land of Egypt
is yours. You have all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ. There's nothing you do not have.
Nothing. If you have Christ, you have
all. If all you have is Christ, all you have is all. All the
good of the land of Egypt is yours. And the children of Israel did.
So they got those wagons that were provided for them loaded.
And Joseph gave them wagons according to the commandment of Pharaoh.
Oh, this is all according to the commandment of God. This
is not men's ideas or men's way of getting to God. You get wagons,
fill them up with my provision, bring them to Jacob and bring
him back and give them provision for the way. Verse 22, to all
of them, he gave each man changes of raiment. Now throughout the
scripture, the righteousness of Christ is compared to raiment. What a glorious raiment we have,
the righteousness and merits of Jesus Christ. Don't you love
the parable of Matthew chapter 22, where the man comes in without
a wedding garment. Everybody else had a wedding
garment on, but he didn't. Now he had something on that
he thought probably was just as good as everybody else's.
You see, the wedding garment was supplied, and you were given
the wedding garment. That's what you came into. But
this man thought, mine are okay. And what did the ruler of the
feast say? Bind him hand and foot and cast
him into outer darkness. The wedding garment, to all of them, arraignment of
righteousness. To all of them, he gave each
man changes of raiment, but to Benjamin, he gave 300 pieces
of silver and five changes of raiment. Now, there's always
significance to every number in the scripture. And I've given
this before, five is the number of grace. All the The tabernacle is all
multiples of five. Five represents the number of
grace. Now, I found this interesting.
When I looked up this word 300, I thought, well, what's the significance
of 300? Why not 299? Why not 301? What's the significance
of 300? Well, do you remember when Gideon had his army of 10,000? And God said, that's way too
much. We'll let down the 300 people. Do you remember the 300 foxes
that Samson had put their tails, they burned the fields. I never
have figured out how they did that. You know, the 300 foxes going
through the barley fields, putting it on fire. 300, according to the scripture, is
always associated with victory. Every time, it's in the word
30 times, that 300, and it is always associated with victory. Now, what this lets me know is
that my righteousness is a gift of grace. And my righteousness
is my victory. The righteousness of Jesus Christ,
my covering, the Lord our righteousness. And the one thing that I somewhat
regret about using the, but it's scriptural so I shouldn't regret
it, but thinking of righteousness being a garment. If all righteousness
is is a garment, I'm still the same on the inside. I'm still
Todd. And I feel that way, I realize
that, but if I have the righteousness of Christ, scripture says the
king's daughter is glorious within. Needlework of wrought gold on
the inside. In Christ, I'm righteous on the
outside, I'm righteous on the inside. If somebody says, well,
I don't feel that way. Who said anything about feeling
that way? We believe it by faith. We believe what God's Word says. It's faith is the evidence of
things not seen. I sure can't see that I'm holy
inside and out. That doesn't line up with my
experience the way I feel, but I believe what God says. Faith
is the evidence of things not seen. So to all of them, he gave
each man changes of raiment, the perfect righteousness of
Christ, but to Benjamin, He gave 300 pieces of silver and five
changes of raiment. Those two numbers let us know
that this change of raiment is a gift of grace and it is our
victory. This is our victory. I hate it
when I've heard preachers say they're living defeated Christian
lives. There's no such thing as a defeated
Christian life. There's no such thing. Thanks
be unto God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ. The scripture says we always
triumph in Christ. Always. 2 Corinthians 2, 14.
We always triumph in Christ. Verse 23. And to his father,
he sent after this manner, 10 asses, laden with good things
of Egypt, and ten, she asks, laden with corn and bread and
meat for his father by the way." Now, I know some of you thought
about this, but that ten must have something to do with the
Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments, God's law being honored in every
respect, justice satisfied, the the punishment that was due,
any breaking of God's law, the law had to be kept, the honor
of the law. It's kind of like there in Ruth,
remember, where there were 10 people that had to be satisfied
before Boaz could be the right to be the kingdom
and redeemer. 10 represents the law of God. And the only way
I'm going to have the good things of Egypt, And the only way I'm
going to have corn and bread and meat for the way is if the
law is honored. The 10 commandments are kept. With regard to the law of God, I've kept it. Somebody says, I'm trying to
keep the law. That won't do you any good. If all you're doing
is trying to keep it, that means all you've done is broken it.
The only thing the law recognizes is perfect obedience. That's
who God is. And every believer has perfect
obedience before the law because of Jesus Christ, their righteousness.
And because of that, all of God's blessing can come to you, all
of the good of the land. So he sent his brethren away,
verse 24. He sent his brethren away and
they departed. And he said unto them, see that you fall not out
by the way. Endeavor to keep the unity of
the spirit in the bond of peace. You know, one of the Beatitudes
is blessed are the peacemakers. for they shall be called the
children of God. You give every effort to make
sure you don't fall out by the way. Now, he knew these guys.
He knew there would be finger pointing and accusations. He
said, make sure you don't fall out by the way. Oh, how good
and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. See that you fall not out by
the way. Verse 25. And they went up out of Egypt
and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father. And told him saying, Joseph is
yet alive. And he is governor over all the
land of Egypt. Now I love thinking of the Lord
Jesus Christ just in this two fold description, he lives. He's the living Savior. He was
dead, but He's not anymore. He lives, and He's the governor
of the universe. He controls everybody and everything. Why, He even controls every thought
going through your mind right now. He is Lord. He's the governor of all. So what was Jacob's response? Jacob's heart fainted. He just died in his own mind. For he believed them not. He didn't think this was the
truth. Too good to be true. I don't see how this could be
true. He believed them not. Verse 27 And they told him all the words
of Joseph. You see, you can't really believe
when all you hear is a half a gospel. When all you hear is one part
and don't hear the other part. The gospel is one whole. It's
made of many parts, which makes the one whole. And if you leave
out one part, you no longer have the gospel. It's not a simple
message in the sense of, it's very simple, yet it's very profound,
it's very glorious. But the gospel has many parts,
and if you willfully leave out one part, you no longer have
the gospel. If you talk about justification by faith, but never
tell what justification is, you've not preached the gospel. If you
talk about the precious blood of Christ and leave out God's
election and who the blood's for, you don't have the gospel.
The gospel is made of many parts, and to leave out one is to not
really hear the gospel. Now, are you saying you gotta
hear every doctrine? No, I'm not saying that. You know better
than that. But everything we say lines up with the gospel. And when he heard all the words
of Joseph, which he had said unto them. And when he saw the
wagons which Joseph sent to carry him, he found out about faith. He found out about faith. It's
these wagons that are gonna bring me there. Not my works, I'm gonna
be carried in these wagons. This is the way I'm gonna get
there, the wagons that he Now, let me emphasize as much as I
can, faith is the evidence of things not seen. I cannot see
my justification. I cannot see my sinlessness. I can't see how when the Father
said, when the Son said, Thou has loved them as Thou has loved
me. Think of that statement. Thou has loved them as Thou has
loved me. Can you see that? Can you see
how that could possibly be so? Of course you can't in your experience. What is the evidence that I have
these things? Faith. Faith is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. If you believe
the gospel, if you rely on Christ only, you have everything. And the spirit of Jacob, their
father, revived. He felt completely dead, but
it's been revived now. And Israel said, it's enough. Joseph, my son, is yet alive. I will go and see him before
I die. It's enough. I'm now ready to
die. Joseph lives. Christ lives. That's enough. It's enough for
you. That Christ lives before the father. Is that enough? What's
rejected? It's enough. You know, when the
Lord was on the cross, the father said with regard to his death,
it's enough. It's enough. I'm satisfied. I don't need anything else. You believe that? You really
believe that? It's enough. And when I see the
father's satisfaction with the son, you know what I say? It's enough. I need no other
argument. I need no other plea. It is enough
that Jesus died. And that he died for me. Now, may we all with Jacob get
in the wagon. God provided it. Get in the wagon. Trust Christ
only and know it's enough. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
salvation that. You say enough with regard to
your son. It's nothing else is needed to
make us accepted and perfect and holy in your sight. Nothing else is needed. Lord,
we. Simply want to be found in him. Lord, give us grace to come right
now to the throne of grace in our mediator, our savior,
our redeemer. Deliver us from waiting to become
better, but cause us to come in thy son. Bless your word for
Christ's sake. In his name, we pray.