Let's turn in our Bibles to Genesis
chapter 49. Jacob is blessing his sons before
his death. And he comes now to bless Joseph. Now verse 24, Verse 24, there's a little phrase
there, it says, from thence, from Joseph, from all these things
that happened to Joseph, is the shepherd, the stone of Israel,
Christ. He's saying to us there that
not only did Christ come through Judah and that lineage, but also
all these things here picture Christ. Now, that's what I want
us to see. Joseph is a type here of Christ. Now, first of all, Joseph's fruitfulness
pictures Christ. Verse 22 says, Joseph is a fruitful
bow. Is that? It's bow, right. It's
a fruitful bow. Even a fruitful bow by a whale
whose branches run over the wall. Fruitful. And then the rejection
Joseph suffered typified Christ. Verse 23, the archers have sorely
grieved him and shot at him and hated him. And then thirdly,
Joseph's faithfulness pictures Christ. We see faithfulness here
because he trusted the Father. Look at verse 24. But his bow
abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong
by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. Verse 25, Even by the
God of thy father, who shall help thee, and by the Almighty
who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of
the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breast and of the womb.
The blessings of thy Father have prevailed above the blessings
of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hill.
They shall be on the head of Joseph and on the crown of the
head of him that was separate from his brethren. You know why
Joseph was separate from his brethren? Unlike his brethren,
Joseph trusted God and depended on God through everything he
suffered. Now in that, he's a picture of
Christ. Christ did it above every one
of his brethren. Christ is separate from his brethren.
He trusted the Father and by the Father was made strong. Now,
I want to get to this third point because I have some very practical
instruction here. that's needful for us and for
all who listen. So, I'm going to try to hurriedly
go through these first two points. First of all, Joseph's fruitfulness
pictures Christ. He says there, verse 22, Joseph
is a fruitful bough by a well whose branches run over the wall.
Joseph is described here as a fruitful vine. A fruitful vine. Loaded down, his branches loaded
down with fruit. He's by a well, gets all his
sustenance from a well, like a vine by a well. So his branches
even run over the wall. You can picture it. Joseph had
many children. Many children. He had a son named
Ephraim. And Ephraim's name means doubly
fruitful. Doubly fruitful. And Ephraim
became a great, mighty tribe full of children. And those were
Joseph's, that was Joseph's fruit. That was his children. And then
Manasseh was another son. He had many children. Those two boys became the heads
of tribes in Israel. They were very fruitful. So Joseph
was very fruitful in the number of children he had. In addition
to that, Joseph was fruitful in temporal things. We've watched
Joseph now for several months. We've looked at Joseph and everything
Joseph did prospered. Even though he went through much
adversity and many trials and even suffered prison and all
these different things he suffered, yet through all of that, Joseph
was fruitful in all these temporal things. God made him fruitful.
And then Joseph was fruitful spiritually by the grace of God. Now all of that pictures our
Lord Jesus Christ. In his fruitfulness, Joseph pictures
Christ the vine. Look at John 15 with me. John
15. It holds your place there. John
15. The Lord was speaking and He
said this. John 15, 5. He said, I am the vine. I am
the vine. And you are the branches. speaking
to His disciples. I am the vine, you are the branches.
He that abideth in Me and I in him, the same bringeth forth
much fruit. For without Me you can do nothing. Christ is divine. And all God's
elect. It's a number too vast to even
number. So fruitful. He's so fruitful. Because God gave Him all these
children. And Christ kept them all. And
He's so fruitful. And those children are His branches. Just like a vine has branches. And He's loaded down with all
His redeemed children. And there won't be any branch
broken off. Not one of His will be broken
off because God elected them to salvation by grace. God's
grace never changes. This is the glory and goodness
of salvation by Christ alone, by grace alone, is that His grace
never changes. God never changes. He chose them
by His grace so they won't be cut off. Christ redeemed them
by His blood, justified them. That can't be undone. The Spirit
will regenerate each one of them. And he said, I'll never take
my spirit from them. He will preserve them. He will
bring every one of them to glory because the purpose in all of
this is that God's going to have a people for all eternity to
give Him and His Son all the glory and all the praise for
this whole work. That's the purpose of salvation.
So if we're trying to boast in something we've done or think
something's up to us to accomplish salvation, we're going against
the whole purpose for which God made this world and saves His
people from our sin. The whole purpose of it is that
He would get the glory. Now look here what He says here. He's divine and those that are
in Him bear much fruit. All life in His people is from
Christ, temporal and spiritual. It's from Christ. All spiritual
fruitfulness in His people is from Christ. And all temporal
fruitfulness in His people is from Christ. It's because Christ
is the fruitful one. He's the fruitful one. The fruitfulness
of the branch is not attributed to the branches. The fruitfulness
of the branch is attributed to the vine. To the vine. That's where the branches get
all their life and all their sustenance. And so Christ says,
without Me you can do nothing. I was making that point to you
in that message about uncircumcision avails nothing. And my point
in speaking about how God hated Esau with a just cause, because
Esau sold his birthright. Esau rebelled against God. Esau
would not believe on God. And the point that was being
made there over in Romans 11, Paul said to those Gentiles that
God had called and grafted into the vine, he said, don't be high-minded. Don't start boasting against
the branches thinking that you know something they don't know
and that they're not up to par with you and what have you. Don't
boast against the branches because you'll say, well, they were broken
off. And he said, well, they were broken off because of unbelief. And the only reason you were
grafted in is by grace. So boast not against the branches,
he said. If thou boast, remember this,
you don't bear the root. The root bears you. You're not
bearing Christ divine. Christ divine bears you. In other
words, He that glories, you want to boast? Glory in the Lord. Glory in the Lord. Christ is
not only divine, He's the well. He is the well. So all fruitfulness
comes from Him. Now, if we believe this by grace,
then by the same grace we're going to abide in Him. Everybody
that believes this, by His grace, will abide in Him. They'll cleave
to Him, they'll cleave to His Gospel, they'll wait on Him,
they'll trust Him, they'll look to Him, because they know, they
see what sinners they were and how all their salvation, all
their life, all their fruitfulness comes from Christ Divine. And
they will abide in Him. And if any are broken off, it's
because they never were really in the vine. I've told you this
illustration before, you know, when you got a tomato plant,
you'll have what's called, we call them suckers. They look
just like they're part of the vine and they grow out from between
the branches, but they, you let them grow out because you want
to let them grow and watch them. They won't produce any fruit.
They're getting natural life from the vine, but they're not
getting any fruitful life from the vine. And when you break
them off, it's just easy. You just touch them and they'll
just snap right off. The other branches are hard to
get off. Those suckers, you snap them, they'll come right off.
Because they're not really connected to the vine. Not in the sense
to where they'll bear fruit. And that's true. Everybody gets
life from Christ. You wouldn't have temporal life
if it wasn't from Christ. But there's a difference in having
temporal life and being grafted in that vine and having spiritual
life. Those that are in him won't ever be broken off. Alright,
now secondly, the rejection Joseph suffered typifies Christ. He
says there in Genesis 49, 23, the archers I'm sorry, I didn't even read
what my point on that was. If you abide not in me, he said,
a branch is cast forth and withered, and men gather them up, cast
them in the fire. And he says, if you abide in
me and my words abide in you, you ask what you will and it
will be done to you. Because you're one with Christ, you see.
But those branches broken off, it's just like you go around
and prune your bushes at home. You don't hang on to those branches.
You gather them up, take them out, throw them away. They're
fit for nothing. to abide in Him. Now secondly,
the rejection Joseph suffered. The archers, he says, Genesis
49, 23, the archers have sorely grieved him and shot at him and
hated him. You remember how Joseph was rejected by his own brethren? Those of his own house, he was
rejected by them. Rejected by them. Well, Christ
was rejected by His own brethren of his own house, those in that
house of Israel. He was of the house of Israel
and he came unto his own, Scripture said, and his own received him
not. That was pictured in Joseph.
Why did they envy Joseph? Why did his brethren envy him
and hate him so badly? They envied him because he was
the beloved son of the Father. And they envied him because he
was righteous, more righteous than they. And every time he was around
them, it reminded them of it. The scripture says back in Genesis
37, 3, Israel loved Joseph more than all his children. That is
Jacob. He loved Joseph more than all
his children. And verse 4 says, And when his
brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren,
they hated him, and they could not speak peaceably unto him.
All these boys that we've been looking at in Genesis 49 that
Jacob was sitting there blessing now, they hated Joseph when they
were younger. They couldn't speak peaceably
to him. Well, Christ is the Son of God's love. He's the firstborn. He's the holy one. He's the righteous one. He's
the express image of God. He has all preeminence above
all. And for that reason, men hate
Him. Natural man hates Christ. Natural man envies Christ and
hates Christ. He reminds the natural man of
his sinfulness. Have you ever noticed you can
be around a crowd of people and they'd be just jabbering away,
talking about just the most meaningless, worthless stuff. And if you bring
up Christ and you begin to speak a word about Christ, anything
about Christ, the conversation goes silent. And an uneasiness
comes over the crowd. Why is that? There is a natural
enmity, a natural hatred in the natural heart towards Christ
because He's the firstborn Beloved. He's the only one accepted of
God the Father in Himself, by Himself. And His acceptance and
holiness and righteousness reminds the natural man of his sinfulness. That's what it is. That's what
it is that makes you get up on Sunday morning if you don't know
Him. Or even if you do know Him, the fleshly part of you that
groans and wants to not go and wants to just stay in bed. And
that's all you are if you're not born of Him. It's that old
man. And what is it that causes that? Your parents didn't teach
you that? I haven't taught you that. What makes you do that
then? that natural heart of sin and enmity against Christ. That's
exactly what it is. And so the rejection that Joseph
suffered, he came and told his brethren this dream he had about
how they were going to bow down to him one day. And they hated
him for that dream. They hated that dream. But him
telling them that dream is an illustration of the gospel of
Christ being preached to sinners. It says, His brethren said to
Him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? You remember that parable
Christ preached where He gave the parable of what men's reaction
was to Christ? We won't have this man reign
over us. And they said, Shall you have
dominion over us? And they hated Him the more for
His dreams and for His words. Turn over to Matthew 21 just
a minute. Matthew 21. Look at verse 33. Christ gave this parable. He
was describing Himself and He was describing the children of
Israel who rejected Him. He's describing all sinners who
reject Him. And listen to this. He's talking
about those who trust in their self-will and their self-works
and their self-knowledge and their self-preservation in trials,
how they're going to fix everything and work everything out by their
hand. It doesn't matter if you've been
called and sent to church for 30 years and you start trying
to fix everything and correct everything and compel everything.
There's no difference than the man who is rejecting the gospel
saying, I can regenerate myself by my own will. I can make myself
righteous by my own will. There's no difference in that.
No difference. It works. It's legalism. That's
all it is. No difference in it. Listen to
this. Now watch how they responded after this parable. Matthew 21,
33. Here another parable. There was a certain householder
which planted a vineyard and hedged it round about and digged
a winepress in it, built a tower and let it out to husbandmen
and went into a far country. That's what God did in Israel.
He gave the gospel. He gave every benefit they could
have and he waited. Let's see what they'll do. And
he went, and when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent
his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits
of it. And the husbandmen, they picture all the people in Israel,
they picture folks in religion today who are supposed to be
preaching Christ and gathering up the fruit. They took his servants,
his true servants, and they beat one, and they killed another,
and they stoned another. Again, He sent other servants, more
than the first, and He did unto them likewise. But last of all,
He sent unto them His Son, saying, They'll reverence My Son. That's
what God did. He sent His prophets, and they
killed His prophets, and stoned His prophets, and finally He
sent His Son. They'll reverence My Son. But when the husbandmen
saw the Son, they said among themselves, This is the heir.
Come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.
And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and
slew him. And when the Lord thereof of the vineyard cometh, what
will he do unto those husbandmen? And they said unto him, they
said unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and
he will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which
shall render him the fruits in their season. Jesus saith unto
them, Did you never read in the Scriptures the stone which the
builders rejected? The same has become the head
of the corner, and this is the Lord's doing. It's marvelous
in our eyes. That's Christ. The one rejected
was Christ, but He's the head of the corner. God's exalted
Him. Verse 43, Therefore say I unto
you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given
to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever
shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever
it shall fall it will grind him to powder. Now they heard that,
just like men hear the gospel preached today, exalting Christ
and abasing the sinner. And if God graciously gives you
a heart, you know what's going to happen when you hear that
message? You're going to bow and say, that's me. I have rejected Him
up to now. Lord, I'm bowing to you. Save
me. I need grace. Save me. But if
man doesn't give you that heart, you do what Joseph's brethren
did to Joseph and do what Christ's brethren did to Christ. What'd
they do? Verse 45. When the chief priests and Pharisees
heard his parable, they perceived that he spake of them. Very perceptive,
wasn't it? He couldn't have said it more
clearly. I'm talking about you. They perceived that he spoke
of them, but when they sought to lay hands on him, they would
have killed him right then and there if they could have. But
they feared the multitude because they took him for a prophet.
Took him for a prophet. That's what happened to Joseph.
That's what happened to Christ. He pictured Christ in his rejection.
So finally, what happened to Joseph? His brethren got the
opportunity and they said, we're going to kill him now. We're
going to kill him. They're going to kill him. But Reuben talked
them into throwing him into a pit. Stripping him naked and throwing
him in a pit. And then they did that. And then after they threw
him in that pit, they sat right down by the pit and sat down
and ate lunch. That's their brother. That's
their brother. They're going to leave him there
to starve to death. And they just sat down and ate,
filled their belly full. When Christ walked this earth,
we stripped Him. We threw Him in a pit, threw
Him in prison. Then we nailed Him to a cross.
And we sat down and watched Him. We got up after that was all
over and went back to eating our vain, dead religion, our
molded, stale bread. When a company of Ishmaelites
passed by, Judah sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces
of silver. Judas sold Christ for 30 pieces
of silver. And everything Joseph suffered
was according to God's will. And everything Christ suffered
was by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Everything
he suffered. And Joseph endured separation
from his father. Through all that trial he went
through going to Egypt and to prison and all that he endured
was separation from the father he loved. And he endured all
of that for the sake of his brethren. Those very ones that threw him
in the pit. He was doing it for them. That was God's will in
the matter to save them. To save them. That's what Christ
was doing on the cross. We rejected Him all our lives,
we despised Him, we crucified Him and knew all our lives and
yet what He was doing on that cross, He was doing for all His
people. Bearing separation from God to
save His people from our sins. But Joseph's separation and all
that suffering that he endured, that was the means by which God
put Joseph at Pharaoh's right hand so that he could open up
the storehouses. And when his brethren came to
him, bowed down in a famine, unable to provide, unable to
save themselves, Joseph opened those storehouses and saved them
by the bread, giving them bread. And you see, everything Christ
endured, That was the means by which God put Christ on His right
hand, the Son of God, the God-Man. as our mediator, as the one who's
in charge of the storehouses. God put Him there at His right
hand through the means of that cross, that separation. What
looked like a total forsaking was God working everything together
for good for His people to put Christ there on that throne so
that in His season He draws you to see your famine and draws
you to bow to Him and He opens the storehouse of grace and saves
you fully all by Himself. That's what was being pictured
there. He made Him sin for us who knew no sin. When you behold
Christ forsaken by the Father on that cross, the reason it
was is that He might make His people the righteousness of God
in Him. He was saving His people by that.
You see, things aren't like what they appear to us naturally,
are they? I wish we could get that about everything that happens
in our lives. I wish I could get this. Everything
that happens that's a negative, that looks like it's going against
me, it's going to be trouble, it's going to cause much pain
and sorrow and suffering and all that. That's working together
for my good. Just like that cross was. Every
bit of it. So our Savior has told all His
children now, you behold Joseph suffering rejection from his
brethren. Picture Christ suffering that rejection He suffered from
His brethren. And so Christ has told me and you now who believe,
expect it, expect you will suffer rejection from your brethren.
You're going to suffer rejection from those you love dearest.
He said this, remember the word that I said unto you now. Now
remember this, don't forget it. The servant's not greater than
his Lord. You're the servant, he's the Lord. I'm the servant,
he's the Lord. We're not greater than our Lord.
If they've persecuted me, he said, they will also persecute
you. And if they've kept my sin, they'll keep yours also. However
a man regards Christ, that's exactly how he's going to regard
you. Just know that. If a man You know, kind of lukewarmly,
doesn't really object to your gospel, but he doesn't love your
gospel. He doesn't really, he don't bow, he don't believe God.
Well just know, he may not reject you, he may not be viciously
objective to you, but he has nothing to do with you. Because
he don't have anything to do with Christ. And same goes for
that one who viciously objects you. He's doing it to Christ. But those that receive Christ
and love Christ and trust Christ, they'll receive you and love
you too. Because you're won by His Spirit. Love it, think it. Now it's strange concerning the
fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing
happened to you. Don't we act like that? As soon as something
happens to us that is a trial, what is going on? Like, I never expected this. Don't think it's a strange thing. Rejoice inasmuch as you are partakers
of Christ's sufferings. Now, He's not talking about suffering
that we bring on ourselves. He's not talking about suffering
where we're the ones who's caused it. He's talking about when you've
bowed and waited and trusted Christ and yet you suffer for
the sake of the gospel. Rejoice because that's what happened
to Christ. And you're getting to suffer like He did. And when
His glory shall be revealed, then you'll be glad with exceeding
joy. exceeding joy. Now lastly, and
here's what I want to get to. This is so important. Now when
we see all this, now we see that Joseph's faithfulness to trust
God, to look to God for all his strength, that pictured what
Christ did as the servant of God. In all that rejection, all
that he suffered, look here, verse 24, his abode in strength, Genesis 49, 24, "...his bow abode
in strength. The arms of his hands were made
strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob." Verse 25, "...even
by the God of thy father, who shall help thee by the Almighty."
who blesses you with the blessings of heaven above, the blessings
of the deep, the blessings of the breast, the blessings of
the womb, the blessings of your father have prevailed above the
blessings of my progenitor. All the blessings come from God.
He's our life, our strength, our righteousness, our holiness,
our preservation. He's everything. He's the breath
you breathe. He's the strength to bat your
eye. He's the strength to take a step. He's the strength to
believe. He's the strength to lay hold of Him. He's the strength
to continue in Him. He's all the strength we have,
brethren. You are a puppet with God's hand
in you, making you speak what He'll have you to speak, move
in the direction He'll have you to move, and do what He'll have
you to do. And if He moves that hand of His strength, you've
got none. You're as lifeless as a puppet laying on the ground.
That's so. Now listen to this. Through all
that rejection that Joseph endured, he trusted the Lord. He trusted
the Lord. How do I know that? Because in
every situation he came into, he was faithful to the man that
was over him in that immediate position. That's how you manifest
you trust God. Do you think that he loved Potiphar?
Do you think that Potiphar was like, you know, he didn't even
really know Potiphar. But he was faithful to Potiphar.
Why? Because he was trusting the Lord. He was faithful to the Lord.
The Lord was his strength. Potiphar wasn't his strength.
He knew the Lord had Potiphar in his hand. And Potiphar was
just doing what the Lord would have him to do for Jake, for
Joseph's good. He was faithful when he was in
that prison. When he was falsely accused by Potiphar's wife, he
was faithful. When Pharaoh exalted him, he
was faithful. He never fought his brethren.
He never spoke an evil thing against them. He never spoke
an evil thing against Potiphar. He never tried to defend himself
against Potiphar's wife in her false accusations. He trusted
the Father to defend Him, and to deliver Him, and to put down
whoever needed to be put down, and exalt whoever needed to be
exalted, and save whoever needed to be saved. He trusted the Father
to do that. He was just a vessel in the Father's hand, and He
was to minister to whoever was in His sphere of influence, in
faithfulness to them, in kindness to them, Subjection to whom he
was to be in subjection, and ruling with faithfulness over
those he was supposed to rule over. And that's what he did,
because he trusted the Lord to work in everybody's lives around
him and in his life. He trusted Him. Now that's a
picture of Christ. You see, when Joseph was at his
weakest point, all his strength was still the Lord. And that's
a beautiful picture of Christ. Christ came to this earth and
the Son of God took a servant, a form of a servant, and served. That means He trusted the Father
to provide for Him to be His strength in everything He was
doing. And He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened
not His mouth. He was brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so he opened
not his mouth. Was the accusations false? Absolutely! He opened not his
mouth. What, was the deeds being done
to him unjust? Yes! He opened not his mouth.
Did he deserve to be nailed to a cross in himself personally?
No! But he opened not his mouth.
Men call you up, want to talk to you about another brother
and a problem they got with this brother or that brother or how
they've been treated ill or whatever they've been, whatever's happened
to them. Tell them this, the only thing I need to know about
the whole situation is this, have you opened not your mouth? And that ought to make them say,
I'm sorry, let me let you go. When he was reviled, he reviled
not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not. He committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.
You see, this is the issue. This is always the issue when
men begin to wrangle with the preacher, wrangle with the brethren,
and wrangle with their enemies and try to get in all this mess
they get into. Something gets in their craw.
This is the issue right here. This is the issue right here.
It's not the he said, she said. It's not that circumstance and
this circumstance. It's none of that! None of that
matters! Christ, as the servant of God, did not revile again. He did not threaten. He did not
open his mouth. He suffered as he waited on God
the Father to judge righteously. That's the issue. That's the
issue. This is what we're to do rather
than being like Uzzah and putting our hand to the heart. God needs
my help. God can't do this without me.
He can't correct that preacher without me. He can't correct
these brethren without me. He can't put down those enemies
without me. He can't do anything without
me. I've got to put my hand to it. I've got to bring forth my
strong arguments. I've got to bring my objections.
I've got to go and rally up a bunch of people to be on my side. I've
got to do all this because God can't do it by Himself. That's
what we're saying when we do all that stuff. Putting our hand
to the ark. God killed him. I don't need
your help, little puny man. I don't need you. But if I'm
defending myself and my position and my argument and my doctrinal
stance against whoever it is, I'm denying that I ever heard
of the sovereignty of God, much the less trusted him. And I'll
tell you what, most men that do that, that want to argue and
claim they got some real reason to divide and wrangle and cause
all this fuss and fighting, they always do it because they're
so staunch defenders of the glory of God. Well, if a man was being preached
the gospel, and that man said, but I need to help Christ out,
I have to come to Him by my will, and I have to partly do some
works to earn part of a righteousness, and I've got to sanctify myself
and make myself holy, and it's up to me now to keep myself,
and all these things. That very same man would say,
you're trusting in works. You're a legalist. You don't
know the gospel. Well, what about the fact that
this man is doing the exact same thing by what he's doing? See what I'm saying? That was
my whole point in that message of uncircumcision avails nothing. There's no difference in being
a legalist on the front end or on the back end. No difference. Christ's strength was the mighty
God of Jacob. He waited on God. He looked to
God. He trusted God. You think about
this now. Everything that happened to Joseph,
Joseph knew God was in full control. And so he trusted the Father.
And this was his word over in Genesis 50, 20. He said, as for
you, you thought evil against me. But God meant it unto good
to bring the past as it is this day to save much people alive. Now you think about Christ. Christ
did that to the death of the cross. He was obedient to the
death of the cross. Now I don't like to speak of
Christ as being weak, but in that situation, He made Himself
to be the weakest any man's ever been. He made Himself to be the
lowest any man's ever sank to. How so? He submitted to bear
our sin. He submitted to bear our judgment.
He submitted to be separated from God. He submitted to bear
our death. He submitted to go into the grave. to not put His hand to anything,
to just trust the Father that by all this, He was going to
save His people from our sins and He would be justified and
raised again and exalted as the Father promised. And in that
very weakness, He committed everything to the Father, even to the very
end when He said, Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit.
And He trusted God to judge righteously and do what was right. And He says to all those, His
crucifiers, you've been evil by it. But God meant it to good. To bring to pass as it is this
day to save much people alive. Paul learned this. Turn to 2
Corinthians 12 and I'll be done. Here's what I'm saying. And we
hear this, we think we know this, but I'm telling you something.
We have to be brought down. We have to stumble. And when
we err and we do these things and start defending ourselves
and all that, if we're His, you know what God's going to do?
He's going to slay you. He's going to break you, make
you a broken man. And that's the best thing that
could happen to you. And you'll know that when it's done. You'll say,
thank you, Lord. Thank you. And that's my prayer for folks
in that situation. Lord, slay them. I pray you'll
slay them. Slay them. You think that's mean
to say that, but that's not mean to say that. That's the only
thing that's going to save them. Paul learned that. He prayed
for that thorn to be removed. In verse 9, the Lord said to
me, My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect
in weakness. How is it you are going to perfectly
see the strength of somebody? When they are saving another
person who is so thoroughly weak they can't do anything that needs
to be done and that person saving them does everything for them.
That is going to show you how strong that person is. It's going to be manifest through
that utter weakness of that other person. That's what he's saying
here. Through your utter weakness, I'm showing how great I am and
how strong I am. Most gladly, therefore, Paul
said, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power
of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distresses for Christ's sake. Why? Why don't you rise up and
try to defend yourself? Why don't you fix this thing,
Paul? Because when I am weak, that
I can't even lift a finger, That's when I'm strong. Why? Because that's when I'm trusting
God for all my strength. Here's my point to you. Trust
Christ. Stop trying to be your own strength. Quit trying to be your own savior.
Quit trying to do any of that and depend entirely upon Christ. Oh, you're talking about for
salvation to heaven. That's what I do. I depend on Him for all
things that pertain to life and godliness, for eternal salvation.
Yes. Yes, depend on him for everything
there, because you're utterly weak for any of that. But also,
right this minute in this trial, you're just as weak. In the hour
by hour by hour trials and sufferings and obstacles and things that
we face, we're just that weak. Trust him. Trust him. And when
you come to Him, you've been defending yourself, and you've
been trying to wrangle and do everything, and when you turn
from yourself, and you come to Christ, and broken, weak, and
submit to Him, just like when Joseph's brethren came to Him,
this is what Christ says to His people. Fear not, I'll nourish
you. And I'll nourish your little
ones. And He comforted them, and He spoke kindly to them.
Isn't that a good God? After we show ourselves to be
so rebellious and so unfaithful, when He draws you back to yourself,
to Him, to see what you are and bow to Him, He speaks kindly
and comforts you. He says, I'll nourish you. I
pray that will happen. Amen. Let's stand together, brethren. Father, thank you for this day.
Thank you for the grace. Thank you for being our fruitfulness,
our strength, our everything. Lord, make your people hear this
message. We can't make them hear it. We can't even make them listen
to it. Make them hear it. Break them,
slay them. Make them utterly weak. so they
trust you for all their strength. Speak kindly to us and comfort
us, Lord. We need you to nourish us. In
the name of Christ, for his glory, we ask it. Amen.