Well, it's good to see everybody
this evening. I'm gonna ask you to take your
Bibles and turn with me to the book of Genesis chapter 47. Genesis
chapter 47. Last time we were in this book
versus just prior to where we'll be this evening, We've seen the
marvelous display of God's grace, mercy, in type and picture, as
the Lord is pleased to remove those things that hinder the
walk of God's people. We're in a world that's just
filled. You've heard me say this so many
times. There's so much things and mess
and stuff in this world, it's always hindering God's people. And the Lord knows how to mercifully
remove those things. Man by nature thinks that having
stuff calls that blessing. Oh, I've been blessed of the
Lord. The greatest blessing that we'll
ever receive in this life is for the Lord to take the preaching
of the truth of the gospel of God's grace, bring it to a needy
sinner. That's what we all are, needy,
helpless sinners that need to be told from the scriptures what
we are by nature and the Spirit of God bless that to our hearts
and realize I need some help. I need for God to do something
for me. Now the people that we've been
dealing with in this chapter right here, the Ephesians, not
the Ephesians, the Canaanites and the Egyptians, we're going
to see again how the Lord has been pleased to call his people
out of darkness How does God save sinners? Here's how he does it. We have
these scriptures, and these scriptures we preach what God has to say. And if the Spirit of God is pleased
to bless that, he blesses it to the salvation of God's elect. He calls them out of darkness.
Now, these Egyptians that have been spoken to by Pharaoh and Joseph, they've come
to a point where there's no bread. There's no bread in Egypt. That's
what verse 13, chapter 47, verse 13. There was no bread in all
the land, for the famine was very sore, and that the land
of Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the
famine. They were beside themselves.
Now, again, you realize this is not just history. This is
not history. If you don't see the glory of
Christ in this, where does that passage of scripture right there
bring us? I'll tell you where we are. By
nature, born into this world, man is born in this world in
a spiritual famine. There was a famine in all the
land. Men come forth thinking that
they can have the ability to be able to understand and know
God. Man is born in this world dead
in trespasses and sins. He's spiritually dead. From birth,
man is not born with the ability to be able to understand these
scriptures. Almighty God is going to have
to do something for a man or a woman that they cannot do for
themselves. God's gonna have to open their
eyes and cause them to see. Now let me tell you where we
are. We're in a famine. We're born in a famine. Some,
by the grace of God, has been called out of darkness. So here's
Joseph. He's in this, he's in a position
of being second in command to Pharaoh only. And the scripture
says, Verse 23, this is where we'll read just a few verses
tonight, look at this. Then Joseph said unto the people,
behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh. Now you remember what happened
last week when we looked at this. It was famine, they didn't have
anything. They ran out of money. So Joseph said, well, you give
me a cattle. And they gave him the cattle.
And he's come to the point and he said, we don't have anything
left. We'll give you our lives. We'll
sell ourselves out to you. Was that just to inform people
that there's a bad state of the economy over in a land named
Egypt? No, this is what it's saying.
Almighty God is going to remove everything that is a hindrance
to the welfare of his people. He's going to take it away, not
out of hate, resentment, but out of love for his elect. God's
got an elect people in this world. He got a people, Ephesians chapter
one said, that was chosen from before the foundation of the
world, that they should be holy and without blame before him
in love. So God's got a people. I don't
know who they are. I don't know who they are. But
I know that God's going to call them out of darkness. And what
He's going to do, He's going to take the preaching of this
scripture and call them to Himself. He's going to bless it to their
heart until they realize by the grace of God that they're nothing
without Christ. They think they're something. And on the television, I can
hear people all day long telling people, now you're somebody.
No, you're not. No, you're just like me. We're
just needy sinners that need for God to do something for all
of us. Verse 23, then Joseph said to
the people, behold, I have bought you this day and your land for
Pharaoh and lo, here is seed for you and you shall sow the
land and it shall come to pass in the increase that you shall
give a fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your
own, for seed, for the field, for your food, for them of your
household, 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 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 priest only, which became
not Pharaoh's. Now, you read those verses of
scripture and you think, well, that sounds biblical. It sounds scriptural. That sounds
like scripture. What does it mean? Well, let's
look at it for just a few minutes. Knowing that we all need to be
weaned from the things of this world, from the love of this
present world. We looked last time how these
things were being removed from these Egyptians. God was removing
them. He would tell them, say, you
bring me your money, I'll give you bread. Bring me your cattle,
I'll give you bread. What they needed was bread. What
bread represent? It represents Christ. The bread
of life. The Lord said, I am the bread. Come unto me, all you that labor,
heavy laden. I will give you rest. We need some bread. We need to
eat. Yes, physically we do. Yes, I know that. But we have
a greater need than a loaf of bread. I need the bread of life
himself. I need him who is my life. I need him to do something for
me. So here's Joseph, wisely under the direction of God's
spirit. And he's telling the people, Bring me this, I'll give
you life. Bring me this, give you life.
Did he need it? No, he didn't need it, but they
didn't need it. That's a problem. God's gonna
show us what we don't need. I tell you what, I tell you the
greatest need, something just went past me, the greatest need
for me, I can remember. How many times have I related?
I've been around long enough to come up with a few things
that I can remember, not many, but a few. And I was thinking
about coming up under false religion, how I'd hear man say, listen
now, God wants to, he wants to save you. If you'll let him,
if you let him, he'll save you. If you'll give him your heart,
you know, he died for everybody's sins. Show me that in scripture. Show me in the scripture. The
Lord said, I laid down my life for the sheep. Some of the Pharisees
over in John 10 said, how long are you going to make us doubt
with these sayings of yours? How long are you going to make
us doubt? Tell us the truth. He said, I told you. He said,
but you believe not because you're not my sheep. My sheep hear my
voice. I know them. And they follow
me. And so the need of these people,
they needed these things that they thought they could depend
on. And by the grace of God, they
were taken away from it. Just exactly like I needed for
the Lord to remove from me the false notion that I could save
myself. I have the ability to pull myself
up by my own bootstraps You know, that I can do good for myself.
No, you will not find a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ that
believes that he can pull himself up, no. So the Lord shows it
in type and pictures. You remember when the disciples
said, why do you talk in parables like that? You need riddles or
whatever you're doing. He said, because it's given unto
you to know the mystery of the kingdom of God. To them it's
not given. So here, somebody would say,
well, he was just talking about taking away some food from them
there for a while. No, no. He was talking about
removing the things of this world that are needless and hindrances. So the Lord has promised his
people. He said, I'll never leave you. I will never forsake you. We may not possess excuse me,
all of our wants. I got a lot of wants. But I have
one need. I have one need. The apostle Paul was moved in
Philippians chapter four, verse 19. But my God shall supply all
your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. All
your need. I looked up that word. What it
means is necessity. Necessity. My God shall supply
all your need. Went a little deeper and it says
that which you cannot do without. You cannot do without. There's only one, one that we
cannot do without if we're gonna have life with Christ, life with
God in Christ, and it's the Lord Jesus. I cannot do without him.
God may take my food, my housing, my, he may take my life, but
I still have one need. I still have a need, because
when I leave this world, I still have one need. I need for him
to answer for me. I can do without anything else.
I can do without anything. All I can do, take everything
away from me, take everything away, all I can do is die. But
if I have him, I'll never die. I need God to do something. So
here's in our passage right here. Verse 43, Joseph said unto the
people, behold, I have bought you this day. Oh, when I read
that today, I went over there and I thought, oh, I could just
preach on that passage right there. I bought you. I bought you. This is the message
of the Lord Jesus Christ to a people of his choosing. I bought you. I bought you. Borne all of my guilt, in his
own body. He said, I laid down my life
for the sheep, laid down his life and paid their debt. I am a sinner. You are a sinner
against God. Let me tell you what I need. I need somebody to pay my debt
for me, my spiritual debt before God. We're not our own, the scripture
says. We're not our own. As particular
vessels of God's mercy, Almighty God has, as I said a moment ago,
chosen a people in Christ before the foundation of the world.
They should be holy and without blame. What's their problem?
Sin. God's just. He's gonna deal with
it. And the Lord Jesus Christ bore all the debt, all the sin,
all the penalty of his elect and laid down his life. He said,
I bought you, I bought you. You go to store and you look
at something, you wanna buy something, whatever it is, got a price on
it, how much is it? $27. How much am I gonna have
to pay? $27. You're gonna have to pay the
amount to get it. Out of that store, you're gonna
have to pay the debt. I have bought you. I want you to turn with me over
to 1 Corinthians chapter six. 1 Corinthians chapter six, verses
19 and 20. 1 Corinthians chapter six, verse
19 and 20. Paul is talking to a group of
people in Corinth, and he says, what? Know you not that your
body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you which
ye have of God, and you're not your own? For you're bought with
a price. Therefore, glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are God's, we're the Lord's,
God's people are the Lord's. He owns us, chose us, owns us,
bought us, paid for us, and will have us. What Joseph said, Joseph
said, I bought you, I bought you this day, paid the debt. Then he told him in verse 24,
it shall come to pass in the increase that you shall give
the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your
own for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them your
household, and for food for your little ones. What's it gonna cost? Well, according
to Joseph right there, what's it gonna cost them? 20%. Is that a law? No. Is that a, what is that for? It was the price that was set
forth by Joseph, picture of the Lord Jesus Christ setting forth,
in type and picture, what would be given as a offering of thanksgiving,
20%. Somebody says, well, 20%? Are you kidding me? That's a lot. 20%? Well, okay,
well, let me ask you something. Where did you come from? You
were starving. You had no food. You have no cattle. You're down
to being slaves. Down to being nothing. And the
Lord has set forth this 20%. It was for the good of the people
that they would get back. I read in the commentaries it
was for the welfare of the upkeep of the kingdom, true, very, very
true. But let me ask you this. You
know, when the Lord has set forth and we give a gift, we give a
gift or something, You know, we're going to give this back
to the Lord. This is what we're going to give to the Lord. The
cattle on a thousand hills is the Lord's. The earth is the
Lord's and the fullness thereof. But out of appreciation, thanksgiving,
absolute setting forth of that which is demanded of Almighty
God for our good and His glory. He said, you'll bring, you'll
take one part If Abraham will get one part, you'll get four
parts for your seed of the field, for the food, and for your little
ones. And instead of raising up his
head, Joseph, you know, when people could have said, you know,
that's too high a price, that's too much, I can't give that.
Look what they said in verse 25. And they said, thou hast
saved our lives. Let us find grace in thy sight,
my Lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants. Beloved, our God is so merciful. When I first read that, I'll
be honest with you, when I first read it, I was just reading it
a couple of days ago, and I thought, 20%, that's, you know, that's,
wow, you know. And I thought to myself, Marvin,
are you an idiot? It belonged to God. He didn't have to give
me any of it. But think of the mercy and grace
of almighty God, that God would allow me the privilege to know
him and to worship him. He doesn't need the money. I
need, I need the discipline. For the good of God's sheep.
As a pastor, we're living in a world He said, you've dealt
good with us, you've dealt well with us, thankfully. And Joseph
made a law over all the land of Egypt unto this day, that
Pharaoh would have a fifth part, except the land of the priest
only, which became not Pharaoh's. Oh, what a confession of thankfulness,
kindness, and the mercy of God. What they said to Joseph was
this, we owe our life to you. We had nothing. You think about
the things that we go through, the things that the Lord removes
from us. What if the Lord does remove
our health? What if the Lord does bring us
and put us flat on our back? What if he does take your money
and saves your soul? You know what a believer's gonna
say? Lord, you've done that which is right. It's good that I've
been afflicted. That's what they were saying.
You've dealt well with us. Lord, thank you for not leaving
me to myself. Let me go through this world
thinking that I needed things that were so distracting to me.
Thank you for showing me the importance of that which I must
have. You have saved, thou hast saved
our lives. I've looked up that word, saved. You preserved us. You've let
us live. You've let me live. Lord, thank
you for allowing me the blessed privilege, the believer in the
Lord Jesus Christ know that he has of himself nothing. Nothing. You say, well, you don't know
me. I've worked hard. I worked hard. Well, who gave
you the strength to do it? Well, I've been industrious.
Who gave you the brain to figure it out? Lord, you've dealt well with
me. You've allowed me to live on this earth. You've blessed
me to be able to come to this place. Here, as I've said before,
where in the world is Katy, West Virginia? Where's Katy? Lord, you've dealt well with
me and bring me to a place that gave me hope and life in Christ
and you gave me a group of people that I can fellowship with that
realize we don't have anything but ourselves on the back. The
believer knows that he has and is nothing. and that the Lord
has saved him from destruction, from the penalty of his sins.
He knows by the revelation of God's Spirit that the Lord chose
to show mercy to him, chose to give him life, chose to preserve
him, put him under a message of hope that honored God and
didn't honor himself. I pray that God be pleased. to
cause us to realize He's dealt well with us. He's given us hope. I pray God bless us to our hearts.