Genesis 48. Let's read the first two verses. It came to pass, after these
things, that one told Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick. And
he took with him his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim. And one
told Jacob, and said, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee. And Israel, that's Jacob, strengthened
himself, and sat upon the bed. Now, this is the passage where
Jacob adopts Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, and he
blesses them. And we're told in Hebrews chapter
11 that this was done by faith. In Hebrews 11.21 it says, By
faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph
and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff. Now the believer
worships God by faith. We worship God by faith. We do
not worship by carnal sight. We do not worship by carnal understanding. We worship by faith. And it's
far better than any carnal sight and any carnal reason. Scripture
says faith is the substance of things hoped for. Faith is the
evidence of things not seen. And that's so because of the
object of faith. When we read that, what we call
the roll call of faith in Hebrews 11, it's not so much to exalt those believers of old
as much as it is the God who they believed. It shows us why
faith is the evidence and the substance because our God is
sure to bring to pass His promised salvation. Now the example today
is an example of faith not in the prime of life, in the strength
of youth, it's when a man's dying. It's when he's dying. He's believed
God to the end. And if we're in our right mind
when it comes time for us to die, if we're in our right mind
when it comes time for us to die, we're going to find faith
is better than any carnal sight and any carnal reason. Your carnal
strength and your carnal understanding and your carnal fleshly abilities
are going to do you no good that day when you press that dying
pillow. And if you don't have God, and
rest in God, and trust God, that'll be a terrifying time. But we
see here a man who believed God to the end, even when he was
dying. And we learn a lot of lessons here from Jacob's faith.
Now, we have quite a few points here, and I'm going to give them
to you as I read. We're going to read the whole chapter, and
I'm going to give you each point. We're not going to deal with
each of these points in depth. We're going to just touch on
a couple of them, and a couple of them we're going to look at
a little more fully. Now let's just start here. If you want
to jot these down, these will be our points. First of all,
faith believes God's word, God's promise. Faith believes God's
promise. Verse 3, Jacob said to Joseph,
God Almighty appeared unto me at Luz, in the land of Canaan,
and blessed me. And he said to me, He made a
promise to me. He gave me his word. Behold,
God said, I will make thee fruitful, and I will multiply thee, and
I will make of thee a multitude of people, and will give this
land to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession. Jacob
believed God's promise. That's what faith does. Then
secondly, faith obeys God. Faith obeys God. By faith, Jacob
adopted Joseph's sons to be his own sons. Because he saw the
glory of Christ in this by faith. Now let's read it, verse 5. Now
Jacob said, Thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, which were born
unto thee, unto Joseph, in the land of Egypt, alienated from
the commonwealth of Israel. From Jacob. These boys born in
Egypt, outside of the land of Canaan, outside of the land of
promise. He said, they were born before I came unto thee in Egypt.
He said, now they're mine. He adopted them. He said, as
Reuben and Simeon, as my firstborn and my secondborn son, they shall
be mine. These two boys will be mine just
like my other sons that were born in Canaan. And thy issue,
those children which thou begettest after them shall be thine, And
they shall be called after the name of these two boys right
here. These two boys are going to be
the heads of tribes and everybody else that's born in the house
of Joseph and in their houses will be named after Ephraim and
Manasseh. Because now they're going to
be sons of Jacob. Some of those that make up the
twelve tribes of Israel. Now verse next, we see here another
third thing. Faith believes God even when
carnal sight appears to contradict God's Word. Even when carnal
sight and carnal reason would contradict God's Word, faith
still believes God. Verse 7. As for me, when I came
from Padan, Rachel died by me in the land of Canaan in the
way. When there was but a little way to come unto Ephrath, I buried
her there in the way of Ephrath, the same as Bethlehem. I buried
her there in Bethlehem. Now how in the world is Jacob
going to have a multitude of sons and daughters when his beloved
Rachel has died? Yet he believed God, trusted
God. And fourthly, faith in God never
leaves us ashamed. You believe God above all else. carnal reason, carnal sight,
you'll never be confounded, you'll never be ashamed for trusting
God. Verse 8, Israel beheld Joseph's sons, and he said, Who are these?
And Joseph said unto his father, They are my sons, whom God hath
given me in this place. And he said, Bring them, I pray
thee, unto me, and I will bless them. Now the eyes of Israel
were dimmed for age, so that he could not see. He couldn't
see physically, but he could see by faith. And He brought
them near unto Him, and He kissed them, and He embraced them. And
listen to what He said. Israel said unto Joseph, I had
not thought to see thy face. The carnal reason said, I'll
never see your face again, Joseph. But I believe God. And lo, God
hath showed me not only your face, but also your children.
See, you'll never be ashamed for trusting God. Then fifthly,
faith sides with God. even over our dearest loved ones."
When a loved one, your dearest loved one, would contradict God's
Word and contradict God's promise and contradict that which is
honoring and glorifying to God, faith sides with God even over
our dearest loved ones. Now look here, Joseph thought
Jacob was making a mistake, and so he tried to correct his father.
But Jacob knew what God's will was, and even though he loved
Joseph, He sided with God. Watch this. Verse 12, And Joseph
brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself
with his face to the earth. And Joseph took them both, Ephraim
in his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his
left hand toward Israel's right hand, and he brought them near
unto him. And Israel stretched out his right hand, and he didn't
put it on Manasseh's head, which is right here in front of him.
He reached over here, put it on Ephraim's head. who was the
younger. And then he put his left hand
on Manasseh's head, guiding his hands wittingly, understandingly,
for Manasseh was the firstborn. Verse 17, And when Joseph saw
that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim,
it displeased him. And he held up his father's hand
to remove it from Ephraim's head unto Manasseh's head. Because
Manasseh's the firstborn. What's he doing putting his right
hand, the blessing of the firstborn, on Ephraim the younger? That
displeased Joseph. And Joseph said to his father,
Not so, my father, for this is the firstborn. Put thy right
hand upon his head. And his father refused. He said,
I know, my son, I know. He also shall become a people
and he also shall be great. But truly, His younger brother
shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude
of nations. And he blessed them that day,
saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee
as Ephraim and as Manasseh. And he sent Ephraim before Manasseh. He made him the firstborn son.
Verse right now, sixthly. Faith gives God all the glory
for all things. All things in salvation, all
things temporal, all things spiritual. Faith gives God all the glory.
Jacob blessed these sons. Now listen to what he said, who
he glorified as he put this blessing upon these boys. Verse 15. And he blessed Joseph and he
said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, my
covenant God, the God which fed me all my life long until this
day, the angel which redeemed me from all evil. Bless the lads. He gave all glory to God. He
let my name be named on them and the name of my fathers Abraham
and Isaac and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the
earth. Faith gives all the glory to
God. Now lastly, seventhly, faith
believes God until the end. Faith believes God until the
end. Jacob believed God to the time he died. Verse 21, And Israel
said to Joseph, Behold, I die. But God shall be with you, and
bring you again into the land of your fathers. Moreover, I
have given to thee one portion above thy brethren, which I took
out of the land of the Amorite with my sword and with my bow.
Now let's just look, we'll look at a few of these points briefly,
and we'll look at a couple of them a little more in depth.
First of all, faith believes God's promise. Faith believes
God's promise, His Word. Jacob believed God's Word to
him. He said there, Jacob said to
Joseph, God, verse 3, God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the
land of Canaan and He blessed me. And God made me a promise
there, he said. He said, Behold, I will make
thee fruitful. He said, I will multiply thee.
I will make of thee a multitude of people. I will give this land
to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession. That was the gospel that Jacob
heard God declare in his heart. That was God's everlasting covenant
promise to Jacob. Jacob said, he promised him this
at Luz. Remember when Jacob was at Bethel?
And he saw that ladder reaching between heaven and earth. That's
where God made this promise to him. Now God saves his people
by promise. When we're here now, the word
of God is God's promise. And the gospel that's declared
is God's promise. And God's word is the promise
of how He and He alone will save His people. He will make His
people to be born. He will save His people. He will
cause His people to be brought to Him in that promised land
of heaven. God's salvation is by promise. He said, I'll make thee fruitful.
That's what He told you. I will. I will multiply thee. I will make of thee a people.
Everybody God saves is going to be saved one way. By covenant
promise. Everlasting covenant promise. It's all by grace. It's not of
our works. It's all by God's grace. God
didn't have... Jacob was a scoundrel. Jacob
was... He was that conniving, scoundrel
son. Men say, I don't know how God
could love Jacob and hate Esau. I don't know how God could love
Jacob. except by grace. I know how he could hate Esau.
Esau was just like me and you. I know he could hate Jacob for
the same reason, because there was no difference in them, except
the difference grace made. And that's how God saves. And
he says to his people what he said here to him. He says to
you and me, I'm going to make you a multitude of people. I'm
going to bring forth sons and daughters from you. It's not
talking about our natural sons and daughters. We've been seeing
this in Isaiah 66. He's talking about His spiritual
seed. He's going to birth them through
our gospel by His grace. God's going to do that. God's
going to do that. God was declaring the gospel
to Him like He does to us. Look over at Romans 9. I want
you to see this in the New Testament. You see, He declared this same
thing to Abraham. Remember that? This was the same
promise he made to Abraham. This is the gospel. I will. I will. I will make my children
to be born. I will save my children. That's
God's promise. Look here at Romans 9, 7. They
made that promise to Abraham. Did he mean that every child
that Abraham had was going to be a child of God? No. No, he's
talking about children of promise, elect children, chosen children,
children that'll be born of God. Be God's creation. Be born by
redemption and by quickening grace. Look here, verse 7. Neither
because they're the seed of Abraham are they all children. You see
what I'm doing? I'm going back to Jacob's father
was Isaac, and Isaac's father was Abraham, and I'm going back
showing you this is the same promise God made to Abraham.
But he didn't mean all Abraham's children were going to be his
seed. He meant the spiritual elect children born of God. Watch
this. Verse 7. Neither because they're
the seed of Abraham are they all children. But, this is what
God told Abraham, in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Remember, Abraham and his wife
Sarah, she said, go take Hagar and try to bring forth some children
from Hagar because I'm old. This promise is not going to
be fulfilled. I can't have children." So she went, they tried to have
children through Hagar. That's a picture of works. Of
a man trying to produce this life and this salvation by works. He appeared to Abram, he said,
that's not going to be the child. No, he said, in Isaac shall thy
seed be called. That is, here's what he means,
verse 8. They which are the children of the flesh, natural born sons,
these are not the children of God. Abraham had two sons, Ishmael
and Isaac. God said, Ishmael is the son
of the works of your hand. Cast him out. The son of the
bondman, he can't be heir with the son of the free woman. And
he cast him out. Isaac was the chosen child. He
was the elect child. These are not the children of
God, not the children of the flesh, but the children of what?
The promise. God's promise that counted for
the seed for this is the word of promise at this time God said
will I come and Sarah shall have a son and then Jacob I saw Isaac
was born remember then Isaac had he had two sons he had Jacob
and Esau we're looking at Jacob now Jacob he had Jacob and Esau
well were they both children were they both these promised
children look here now Romans 9 10 Not only this, but when
Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by her father Isaac,
the children being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God, according to God's sovereign
election, might stand. And here's the purpose. Salvation
is not of works, but of him that calleth. It's of God's promise. It's of God's choosing, God's
redeeming, God's quickening. It's God's promise. It was said
to her, it was the promise, the elder shall serve the younger. Esau was the elder. God said
he's going to be rejected. He's going to serve the younger.
As it's written, Jacob have I loved. There's my promise, son. But
Esau have I hated. So God taught Jacob the same
truth He taught Abraham, same truth He taught Isaac, same truth
He teaches you and me when He saves us. Salvation is of God's
promise. So then, look at Romans 9.16.
So then, it's not of him that willeth. It's not of man's will
by which we say. It's not of him that runneth.
It's not of all your running to and fro and trying to make
things happen. It's of God that shows mercy. Of God that shows
mercy. God said to Jacob, He said, I'm
going to freely give you, your children, this land that I've
promised. Not only am I going to give you these children and
birth these children, I'm going to determine the land they're
going to inherit. I'm going to determine their inheritance.
I'm going to give it to them. He said, I'll give this land
to thy seed after thee for an everlasting possession. We all
know that Canaan was a picture of heaven. Canaan was a picture
of heavenly glory. God's promised his people that
they shall inherit eternal glory with Christ. We're going to be
brought there because God's determined the end from the beginning and
he's going to freely give it to his people and nobody's going
to hinder him bringing to pass his promised salvation. And now,
all these promises, you know where they're made? One place.
in Christ. All of them are made in Christ.
When God made this promise to Jacob, He made it at Luz in that
ladder. Remember, that ladder reached
from God down to Jacob and brought them together. And those angels
ascended and descended. They ministered between God and
Jacob, and that ladder is a picture of Christ. There's one mediator
between God and man. One, the Son of God, the God-man,
who's God in heaven and who has made His Jacobs in earth. He's
brought them together by His work. And so now all God's promises,
all God's blessings are to His people in the Lord Jesus Christ. God had to send His Son to justify
us, to redeem us, to make us fit to enter into glory, and
He did it by His Son. And now God gives all His promises
to His people through Christ that ladder, that mediator between
God and man. Go over to Romans 3.13. Why is
it this way? Look at Romans 3.13. Why is it this way? For the promise that he should
be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed
through the law. Remember, the same covenant promise
God makes to us, He made to Christ first. I'm going to give you
this seed. I'm going to multiply this seed
and I'm going to give you this land. His son had to come forth
to fulfill a work to receive it. Romans 3, 13. His son had
to come forth to fulfill a work to receive it. Remember when
Paul said in Galatians, he said the promise was made to Abraham
and to his seed. Not to many, but to one, to Christ. God made this covenant promise
to Christ. That's why it's a sure promise to you and me. and to
all his seed, because Christ fulfilled all righteousness."
Look, it's not to us through the law, Romans 3.13. It's not
there? Romans 4.13. I know where it's
at. Romans 4.13. See it there? The promise that
he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to
his seed through the law. Not through the works of the
law, but through the righteousness of faith. Believe in God. Being
made righteous by trust in Christ. For if they which are of the
law be heirs, here's the problem with works salvation. Faith is
made void. Faith is made void. And the promise,
God's everlasting covenant promise, the whole of salvation is made
of none effect. Paul said in Galatians, in Christ's
blood he's counted a vain thing, to have been shed in vain. Look,
therefore it is of faith that it might be by God's grace to
the end, to this end, that God's promise might be sure to all
the seed. Not to that only which is of
the law, not to God's elect call out from among the Jews only,
but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham who was
a Gentile. Me and Scott were laughing last
week. The first Jew God ever called was a Gentile. He was,
Abraham. A true Jew made one inwardly
circumcision of the heart. He was a Gentile by flesh, in
the flesh. Because Israel didn't even exist
yet. Israel don't have a thing. Natural Israel has nothing to
do with it. This is by God's promise. He makes us His true
Israel. You see that? That's why it's by promise. Alright,
now secondly, faith obeys God. Joseph adopted those boys because
God told him to. God told him to. This was part
of God's promise to picture something, and Jacob was shown something
of the Gospel in this, and so he believed God. He saw the glory
in it, and he believed God. Look back at Genesis 48, 5. He said, Now thy two sons, Ephraim
and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt
before I came unto thee into Egypt, they're mine. just like
Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine." Now here you've got
two different sets of boys. You've got Ephraim and Manasseh,
who were born of Joseph in Egypt. And then you've got Reuben and
Simeon, just like the rest of Jacob's son, who were born in
the land of promise. Two different folks. One was
alienated from all those common blessings Jacob had. Those Manasseh
and Ephraim, they were born down there in Egypt. And these other
boys, Reuben and Simeon, they're born in the land of promise,
right there with Jacob. You see, in Ephraim and Manasseh,
we get a good illustration of you and I who are Gentiles, born
in Egypt, born outside of Israel, natural Israel, born, alienated
from the commonwealth of Israel. But just like those sons in Egypt,
in Israel, and just like those sons in Egypt, you know how we're
made sons of God? By adoption. by adoption. He said, they're going to be
my sons. They'll be my sons. When God
chose us in Christ and made that covenant promise to Christ to
multiply His seed when He had finished His work of redeeming
His people and promised Him that all His seed would inherit that
land with Him and be joiners with Him, God also predestinated
us. He predestinated us. determined
our destiny, every one of His children, to the adoption of
children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure
of God's will. Why did He do it that way? God
would. To the praise of the glory of His grace. That's why. To
honor and to bring glory to His grace. He predestinated us all
to the adoption of children. Now go to Galatians 4. Galatians
4. The reason adoption is by Christ,
is through Christ, is because God sent His Son to redeem us
out of bondage by His blood. We've been seeing that pictured
in Joseph here, how Joseph went forth and he saved. He saved his brethren. If it
wasn't for him, they'd have starved to death. And if it wasn't for
Christ, we'd have starved to death. Christ saved us. Just,
He saved His brethren that was in under Jacob that were like
the Jews, God's elect among the Jews, and He saved His elect
among the Gentiles, like these two boys that were down there
in Egypt. He saved all His people by His redeeming grace. And then,
because we are sons, because we are chosen of God and redeemed
by Christ, God is going to send the Spirit forth of His Son into
the heart of each one and make us cry out to God as our Father. He is going to adopt us to Himself.
Look here in Galatians 4.3. Even so, when we were children,
we were in bondage under the elements of the world. All of
us, whether you was an elect Jew in Israel, if you was an
elect Jew in Israel, you were under the bondage of all that
law given at Mount Sinai and under those natural elements
and that touch not, taste not, handle not, you were under that
bondage. And by nature, you're dead in your sins. And if you
was a Gentile elect child of God, you was in bondage under
all your vain idols and your vain imaginary ways that you
imagined God to be, just dead, just like those elect children
in Israel. We are all the same way. But,
verse 4, when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth
His Son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them
that were under the law, to redeem us from that curse that came
under in Adam. In Adam. That, here's the reason
He did it, that we might receive the adoption of sons. That God
might say, you're My children. Now look here in verse 6, and
because you are sons, you see, you don't become God's son when
He adopts you. You don't become God's son when
you're born of God. You don't become God's son when
you believe on God. That's all the result of being
God's sons. God made you his son by divine
election. Christ made you his son by redeeming you out. And
now he's going to send you that spirit of adoption to make you
see you're my son. Watch. And because you are sons,
God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts,
crying, Abba Father, wherefore thou art no more a servant but
a son. You're not in bondage anymore.
And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. Just like
Jacob adopted Ephraim of Manasseh, God calls His children out wherever
they are. And He says, you're mine, you're
mine. And He makes you see you're His
child. And you cry unto Him, Abba Father.
That's when you'll start crying to God. Believe in God, trust
in God, and see what great, gracious things He's done for you. Now,
I want you to keep that in mind about Manasseh and Ephraim, because
we're going to see something about that in the second hour. It's
very important. Alright, now faith obeys God.
I'm not going to get through all this, but let me just touch
on some of these others. Thirdly, faith believes God even
when carnal sight would appear otherwise. When carnal sight
appears to contradict God's Word, faith believes God. There, God
makes this promise to Jacob and tells him, I'm going to make
you a multitude of children. Next thing God does is he takes
his wife Rachel. You know what God's telling Jacob? His children ain't going to be
born by you. They're going to be born by me. It's not by your
power in your mind. It's by my spirit. That's what
he's showing us. So when you believe God's word,
he's told you this promise, and then as soon as God calls his
child to believe on him, I guarantee you something he's going to do.
He's going to present you with a trial, and he's going to make
you put you in a position where you've got no ability to overcome
the obstacles in your path, no ability, you don't know what
to do to turn to the right hand or the left, and what he's going
to do is he's going to prove the faith he's given to you and
make you see the only way you're going to be saved ever from beginning
to end is by God. And He brings you to trust Him.
And so you trust Him by His grace, even when carnal sight appears
to contradict everything He said, you trust Him. You trust Him. Because faith is the substance
of things hoped for. Faith's concrete. Because you
look into God and you say, I believe God's able. That's what faith
is saying. The reason it's the evidence
and the substance of things hoped for is because faith believes
God's able. I'm not able. I couldn't redeem
myself. I couldn't give myself life.
I can't do one thing in my life. You can't make your will come
to pass. Every now and then something you plan comes to pass. And we
think, boy, we really, well, we pat ourselves on the back
like we really did something. But in just a little while, God
will show you, make your plans, and God will just bust them wide
open. You realize you didn't bring that other thing to pass.
If it's not God's will, it's not coming to pass. So we trust
God even when it doesn't appear, because we believe God's able.
Alright, fourth thing. Faith in God never leaves us
ashamed. When you trust God, you're not
going to be ashamed. He says it over and over through
the Scriptures. Those that believe on me shall not be confounded.
He's not going to make His people ashamed. And His saints pray
to Him and say, Lord, don't let me be ashamed because I trust
You. And God's not going to call His people to trust Him. and
then betray our trust. He's not going to do that. He's
not going to give you faith to life and faith to trust Him and
then betray that trust. God's faithful. Our faith is
the fruit of God's faithfulness. If you've got faith it's because
Christ the faithful one dwells in you. And really and truly
the power and the strength of your faith is Christ in you keeping
you looking to God. And when you trust God, you're
never going to be ashamed trusting God. You're never going to be
ashamed. I'll tell you what will happen even. You see there, Joseph,
he told verse 11, he said, I mean Israel, he said to Joseph, I
didn't think I'd see your face again, Joseph. But he believed
God. He continued to believe in God.
He said, now I've not only seen your face, I've seen your children.
Just like God said he would. Just like God said he would.
Now, you know, there's a lot of times you and I, we don't
see it. God says it's gone. come to pass and we think we're
going to have to put our hand to it to fix it, or we decide
we're going to, just because of the lust of our flesh, we're
not going to wait on God. We're not going to obey God's
Word. We're not going to honor Christ because the lust of our
flesh, I've got to have it fulfilled now. I can't wait. I've got to
have this lust fulfilled now. So I'm going to have my way.
I'm going to go do this and have my way. I don't care what mama
says, daddy says, the preacher says. I'm going to do it my way.
Well, if you're a child of God, I'll tell you what God's going
to do. Make sure that you're never ashamed of trusting Him.
I'll tell you what He's going to do. He's going to order everything
in Providence to take His child, put you over His knee, and chasten
you, just like a mother and a father does their child. He's going
to use everything in Providence to do it. It's going to hurt.
It's going to be painful. It's going to bring you much
sorrow. And what He's going to do by that is He's going to turn
you from your way, make you believe His Word, His promise, and make
you follow Christ like He's told you to do. And He's going to
bring you to see He fulfills everything He said He would,
and you'll never be ashamed for trusting Him. You see, that's
how He's going to make it so you're never ashamed to trust
Him. If it was up to us to not be ashamed to trust Him, we'd
be ashamed a lot because we go our way. He's going to make sure
you follow Christ. The holiness you're going to
have to have, and that purity of heart you're going to have
to have to enter God's presence, It's found in Hebrews 12, 1.
Run this race set before you. Lay aside the sin. Lay aside
the unbelief that would turn you out of the way. And run this
race with patience, looking to that holiness without which no
man will see God. Look unto Jesus, the author and
finisher of your faith. And when you step out of that
way, God's going to keep you in that way. He's going to keep
you in that way. And He'll show you you'll never
be ashamed for trusting Him. Alright, now, fifthly. Faith sides with God even over
our dearest loved ones. You know the picture there that
Ephraim's put on his left side and Manasseh's on his right side
because Manasseh is the firstborn. And he wants that right hand
to go on Manasseh's head. And Jacob reaches over there
and he puts his hand on Ephraim's head because that's going to
be God's firstborn son. And Joseph didn't like that.
And he said, Father, not so! And Jacob refused to remove his
hand. What did he just do when he did that? What did Jacob do
when he refused to take his hand off of Ephraim and put it on
Manasseh? You know he loved Joseph. He loved Joseph dearly. Oh, he
loved that boy. But if he takes his hand now
off of that boy's head and puts it on Manasseh's head, he sided
with his flesh and blood, his son, instead of siding with God. And he's disobeyed God. Well,
preacher, why are we going to have to do it this way? I know,
son, I know. We're going to side with God,
and we're going to do it God's way. Even if it goes against
You I love and you that I hold dearly, we're going to do it
this way that God said do it. Because we're not going to look
Him in the face and say, no God, we're going to do it our way.
We're not going to do that. We're going to trust God and side with
Him. Now it might hurt me, it might
hurt you, it might offend, whatever, and you love that person, you
would do nothing to offend them. But when it comes to siding with
God or siding with men, we have to side with God. And Christ
said, dear, He said, if a man loves father, mother more than
Me, he's not worthy of Me. If he loves son and daughter
more than Me, he's not worthy of Me. In other words, if you
side with your dearest loved one, what they're going to do
is dishonoring. It's not according to God's Word.
It's not going to be good for the good of His people. And you
side with them anyway. Just because you don't want to
hurt them, you want to love them, you love them so dearly. And side
with them instead of Christ. He said, that's not being worthy
of me. To be worthy of me is just, I believe Him, I don't
know how this is going to happen, it's going to hurt my dear loved
one right now, but I'm going to have to side with God because
I know He's going to glorify His name, He's going to save
His people. So I'm going to side with Him. That's what Jacob did.
That's what Jacob did. I'm out of time. We'll look at
the rest of this another time. We'll take the rest of this up
next time. Alright, let's stand together. Father, we thank You for this
Word. Give us this faith. Give us this gift. Make us to
lay hold of the object of faith and trust Him and follow Him. and honor Him. Lord, keep us
and make us follow Him. Make us trust Him. Make us not
be ashamed. Make us side with Christ all
the time, even if it means chasing Him to us and even if it means
it's going to temporarily offend or temporarily hurt our loved
ones. Make us follow Christ. Thank You for Your covenant Word.
Make us trust Your promise. Trust Your gospel and look to
Christ in whom it's all amen and yes. We ask it in Christ's
name, amen.