Alright, brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to Genesis chapter 39. Genesis chapter 39. I have one desire above all when
I preach, and it's for each person to whom I preach to be brought
to the feet of Christ, to rest everything, all their hope in
the Lord Jesus. And with that being my preeminent
desire, if you will listen carefully, I'm going to give you the sum
and substance of our gospel in one brief statement. The Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came down to this Egypt in which
we live. He came down to faithfully become
a servant of God his Father. He came down in order to glorify
God in the salvation of his people. And he accomplished it. And now
Christ is at the right hand of God and he's using this gospel
to call out his people that he redeemed. And he won't fail to
call every one of them and save every one of them through faith.
Now that's the gospel we preach and that's what we see in type
here in Genesis chapter 39. Now the first thing we see looking
at Joseph as a type of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what God
was arranging everything that took place here so that in this
man Joseph we would see a picture of what his son would do when
his son came into this earth. And the first thing we see with
Joseph is he's brought down to Egypt. Genesis 39 verse 1. And Joseph was brought down to
Egypt. Now, before this, Joseph was
in his father's house. And he had glory with his father. His father made him that coat
of many colors. He had glory in his father's
house. He was the choice of his father.
And he had glory with his father. And we read here now, Joseph
left his father's house. He left that glory with his father.
And he comes down now to Egypt to be a slave, to be a servant. Now, Joseph's condescension was
nothing compared to the Son of God. The Lord Jesus Christ willingly,
Joseph did this unwillingly, the Lord Jesus willingly left
the glory he had with the Father. He said, he spoke in John 17
of the glory which I had with you before the world was made.
And he left that glory and he came down into this Egypt in
which we live to become a servant. to serve God like none of his
people could serve God. The very fact Christ came down
to serve God teaches you and me we couldn't serve God. Not
like God requires us to serve him. So Christ had to come down
and serve the Father in the place of his people, representing his
people as the substitute for his people. Christ came as the
head of his people and served God in the place of his people. That's what he came for. Look
over Philippians 2. Philippians chapter 2. And read verse 5. It says, Let
this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Now this
is the mind of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the lowliness
of mind. Back up there, he said, back
up there in Verse 3, he said, "...don't let anything be done
through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind let
each esteem other better than himself." This is the lowliness
of mind of Christ. This is how He esteemed God His
Father and His brethren as better than Himself. What did He do? Verse 6, and also remember who
this is. Verse 6, "...who being in the
form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God." Christ
is God, the Son of God, God the Son, the second person in the
Trinity, equal with God. He said, if you've seen me, you've
seen the Father. And here He is, look, verse 7,
but He made Himself of no reputation. He's God, but He came into the
earth and made Himself of no reputation. He came down. And
took upon Him the form of a servant. He came down even more. and was
made in the likeness of men, He came down even more. And being
found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient
unto death." Oh, He came down when He did that. But look at
how far He came down. Even the death of the cross. Not just any death, the death
of the cross. He came down, down, down. And the reason Christ did this
is because He entered into a covenant with His Father to glorify His
Father and save all God's people from our sins. And He fulfilled
that covenant. He's the God-Man. And as God,
He fulfilled it towards His people. And as man, He fulfills it towards
God. You know what you read in Acts 7? The end of everything
we see in Joseph, at the end, this is what's going to happen.
Joseph calls his father to him and his brethren. And in Joseph, they're fed and
rejoice and meet together. And that's what Christ came to
do, to bring God the Father and His people together. By God's
grace, every believer, now it's only by God's grace, but every
believer is going to be made a servant of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the righteousness, Christ our righteousness. We're going to
be made a servant of righteousness. We don't come into this world
a servant of righteousness. We come into this world a servant
of sin, a servant of our will, a servant of our fallen fleshly
nature. We come in here serving ourselves.
that all God's children, all those Christ-redeemed, are going
to be made the servants of Christ. And what that tells you and me
is, is the servant's not greater than his Lord. Christ is our
Lord, and if He came down, He's going to make His people come
down. Because that's the whole purpose for which Joseph was
coming down into Egypt. You see, Joseph told his brethren,
you're going to bow to me. And his brethren said, no, we're
not going to bow to you. And they threw him in a pit and
sold him into slavery. But the whole thing God was working
is, Joseph came down into this Egypt. So that, when it's all
said and done, we're going to find over in Genesis 50 and verse
18, it's going to say this, His brethren also went and fell down
before Joseph's face. You see, they're going to have
to be brought down, just like the Gospel declared to them.
And I'm declaring to you in this Gospel, you're going to be brought
down to Christ. And you, in your own natural heart, think, I'm
not going to be brought down to Him. But if you're God's,
you're going to be brought down and fall at His face, before
His face. He's going to be brought down.
Alright, secondly, Genesis 39, Joseph was brought under the
rule of the Egyptians. He was brought under the rule
of Egypt. Look here at the end of verse
1. It says, And Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh,
captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought Joseph of the hand of
the Ishmaelites, which had brought him down thither. Now, who brought
Christ down? The Ishmaelites brought Joseph
down. You know who the Ishmaelites typify? Do you remember who they
came from? Ishmael. Ishmael. Ishmael is
the son of the curse. Isaac, I've chosen. Not Ishmael.
Ishmael has to be cast out. He's the son of the bondwoman.
He pictures the law. And the Egyptians, you know who
they came from? They came from Ham. They're the
descendants of Ham. That son of Noah that discovered
Noah's nakedness. And so God cursed him. And this
represents, it's a picture here of Joseph coming under the power
of Ishmael and under the power of the Egyptians, under the power
of Potiphar, under the power of Pharaoh. It's a picture of
Christ who willingly came down under the law, who came down
under the curse that his people were under. He came down under
the power of death. And this He did to redeem His
people, to purchase His people from being under the law, and
from being under the curse of the law, and from being under
the power of death. That's the only way we could
be delivered out from it, was for Christ to come down and make
Himself to be under it and deliver us out from under it. Look at
Galatians chapter 4 and verse 3. Can you believe this? I prepared
this message, and I totally didn't even see this second part of
verse 1, and I totally skipped this, and I just was reading
it right here, and I thought, I missed the most important part
of the whole thing. And so I sat down here and wrote
some notes out real quick, because this is the most important part
of the whole message. Look here, Galatians 4 and verse
3. Even so, when we were children, speaking of God's elect, we were
in bondage under the elements of the world. We were under the
law, we were under the curse, we were under death, dead in
sins. And look at this, but when the
fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a
woman, made under the law. Under the law, under the curse,
and the curse and fulfillment of the law is death. If you've
sinned, you've got to die. And so Christ came down and took
the sin of His people and was willingly submitted to God, poured
out justice on Him. So that now justice, the justice
of God is satisfied. And God's the justifier of His
people. All in one person. All in Christ. God was slaying
His people in Christ under the justice of the law. And in grace,
making His people to live forever. All in that one sacrifice of
Christ. Now look here. But when the fullness
of He sent Him to be, verse 5, to redeem them that were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. 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. You're not a servant of the law, the servant of the
curse, and a servant of sin and death anymore. Now, you're a
son. We're servants of our God. But
we're servants who are sons. Do you know how much better it
would be for a son to serve his father than it is for a slave
to serve his master? And we're sons serving our Father,
gladly, because we want to. Because of what Christ did. Now
go back to our text. Here's the third thing we see.
Genesis 39 and verse 2 says, God was with Joseph. When He
came down to Egypt, God was with Joseph. Verse 2. And the Lord
was with Joseph. Whenever Christ came into this
world, God was with His Son. Look at 2 Corinthians 5 and verse
19. Everything that was taking place
with Joseph, God was with Joseph accomplishing God's will. And
the picture there is, is when Christ, His Son, came into this
world, God was in Christ accomplishing His will. Everything Christ was
doing, He said, I came, Lord, to do Thy will. Sacrifice and
offering you've had no pleasure in. Men think that they look
at the law and they think, well, all I've got to do is sacrifice
and offer some things to God and He'll receive me. No, God
never had any pleasure in that. That never satisfied God. He
said, lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. Christ came, He took away
that old covenant of works that He might save His people in the
covenant of grace. Look here, 2 Corinthians 5.19,
and that was the will of God. God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. Well,
see there, it means Christ died for the whole world. Look at
the last part. That tells you who this world
is. It's those to whom God will never impute trespasses to. That means they can't die. They
can't perish in their sins. They can't perish in unbelief.
They must be brought to the feet of Christ and saved. That's who
it is. Because God won't impute trespasses
to them because He imputed our trespasses to Christ. Alright? That's what we see here. God
was in Christ. Now, as God was with Christ when
He came into this world, and God worked His will in Christ
when He was in this world, whenever God calls His child, God is formed
in the heart of His child. Christ, our God and our Savior,
is formed in the heart of His child. So that God is now with
His child. He's always been with us in His
covenant of grace. We just didn't know it. But then
He makes us to know God is with us. He makes us to behold Emmanuel,
God with us. He makes us to behold what Christ
said in John 17, I in them and thou in me. You see those, what
do they call those, nesting bowls that go inside of one another? Well, this is the glorious nesting
bowl right here. This is Christ in you and God
in Christ. Why? That they may be made perfect
in one. In God, in Christ. That's the
purpose of it. And that's where He's going to
bring His child. That's why He's going to bring us down. He's
going to bring us down. He's going to bring us to see
we're under the law and the curse until He makes us to see no more. We're brought out from under
it in Christ. And He's going to make us see God is with us. God's with us. Now look, fourthly,
Joseph prospered. When Joseph came into Egypt,
Joseph prospered. Verse 2, Genesis 39, 2. And he
was a prosperous man. And he was in the house of his
master, the Egyptian. And his master saw that the Lord
was with him, and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper
in his hand. The Lord made Joseph prosper,
and the Lord made this man who thought he was Joseph's master,
and for all practical purposes was, but he made him see that
the Lord made everything Joseph did to prosper. He made everything
he did to prosper. Well, who's the prosperous man?
Is the prosperous man you and me? No. The prosperous man is
Christ Jesus, the God-man. He's the only prosperous man.
There's only two men, remember, Adam and Christ. You're going
to be found in Adam, the first representative, or Christ, the
last head, the last Adam. One of the two, are we going
to be found in our works or are we going to be found under grace?
Are we going to be found in our self, in our flesh, in our sins
or are we going to be found in Christ's righteousness and holiness,
redeemed forever by Christ? One of the two places. Christ
is the prosperous man. God was with Christ and He made
Him to prosper. Listen to this. Isaiah 53.10
says it pleased the Lord, it satisfied the Lord, it satisfied
divine justice to bruise Christ. And it says, when thou shalt
make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he
shall prolong days. He's going to see all His children
in Christ redeemed from the curse. And He's going to prolong their
days forever in Christ, whose days have been prolonged forever.
And here's why it's going to happen. Because the pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in Christ's hand. There's where
the pleasure of the Lord prospers. Not in my hand, not in your hand.
God didn't make us for that reason. God didn't make you so that you
could save yourself and glory in yourself for everything you
did for you, for God. That's not why He... No, God
created you and created me and allowed us to fall in sin so
that when He saves His people, we're going to all confess Christ
is the glory of God. We're going to give God glory
for Him being the prosperous man. And I'll tell you this,
everybody's going to give Him that glory. Everybody's going
to bow to Him and give Him that glory. either by grace or in
judgment. But we are all going to do it.
Because that's what God made us for. He's going to be glorified
in them that are saved and in them that perish. That's what
He made us for. Listen to this. Psalm 45. Let's
turn to this. Psalm 45. This is David writing, but this
is Christ speaking. Listen to this. Well, this is
David writing about Christ. Listen to this. Psalm 45, 2.
Thou art fairer than the children of men. That includes me and
you and everybody else. Christ is fairer than the children
of men. Grace is poured into thy lips.
Therefore God hath blessed thee forever. Gird thy sword upon
thy thigh, O Most Mighty, with thy glory and with thy majesty. And in thy majesty, ride prosperously. because of truth and meekness
and righteousness. And thy right hand shall teach
thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the
heart of the king's enemies, whereby the people fall under
thee. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. The scepter of thy
kingdom is a right scepter. Here's His prosperity right here,
verse 7. Thou lovest righteousness and
hatest wickedness. Therefore God, thy God, hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. All
thy garments smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of ivory
palaces whereby they have made thee glad. He rides majestically
and prosperously. Look back at Psalm 1. Psalm chapter
1. Now you didn't think this was
about you, did you? Look at Psalm chapter 1. You
didn't think this psalm was about you and something you're going
to do for God. This psalm is all about Christ.
He's the blessed man. Listen to Psalm 1-1. Blessed
is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly. You
ever done that? Have you ever of your own will
and your own power ever done that? Walked not in the counsel
of the ungodly? That's how we came into the world.
Christ never did. Look at this. Nor standeth in
the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
Christ never rejected a word from God. That's what to be a
scorner is, is to reject the grace of God, reject His gospel,
reject His word, stand and question it, and think you're better than
everybody else because you don't believe this. That's a scorner.
He never stood in the stood with a scornful. Look at this. But
his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in his law doth
he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted
by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither. And whatsoever he doeth shall
prosper. That's Christ. That's Christ. And it can only be said of you
and me in Christ. In Christ. All right, now, the
way that He's going to make you prosper, the way He's going to
make me prosper, all His elect, is He's going to bring us to
rest all in Christ. all in Christ. He's going to
make us to see Christ establish righteousness for His people.
Christ is the holiness of His people. Christ is the redemption
of His people. Christ is the wisdom of His people.
And He's going to bring us to the feet of Christ. He's going
to bring us down. He's going to bring us to behold
Christ, His redeemingness from the curse and condemnation of
the law and delivered us from death. Number three, He's going
to make us behold God is with us in Christ. Number four, He's
going to make us see that all God's elect prosper in Christ. We're made accepted in the Beloved. This is what God does. You see,
the Gospel all revolves around and is in its sum and substance
the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything is about Him. Now
look at fifthly. Potiphar entrusted everything
into Joseph's hands. Look here, Genesis 39.4. And
Joseph found grace in his sight, in Potiphar's sight, and he served
him, and he made him overseer over his house. Potiphar made
Joseph overseer over his house, and all that he had, he put into
Joseph's hand. Everything he had, he put into
Joseph's hand. God the Father entrusted everything
He had into the hand of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God the
Father didn't entrust you and me with anything, brethren. This
is the difference between the message we preach and the message
this world's religion preaches. This world's standing up today
and they're saying, now Christ has done all He can do, and He's
done this and that, and you're saved in Him, as Brother Eric's
pointed out, but now you've got to do A, B, and C. That's mixing
grace and works. And when you go into those places,
this is what you discover. It's phony. It's phony as a $3
bill. And you sit there and you think,
this is phony. That preacher hadn't done what
he said and those people hadn't done what they're saying. And
it turns men against religion. It makes men leave that place
eventually if they're fortunate enough to leave it. And they
leave the church like that, and then they say, when a true church
comes along, they say, I don't want to have anything to do with
it. I've been around religion. I've seen how phony it is. Listen
to me. I have never done anything that
commends me to God. I'm not doing anything right
now that commends me to God. My commendation to God is Christ
His Son only. And that's true of his people.
That's why when you come into God's house, you're not going
to find his people walking around and acting like they're better
than you and looking down their noses at you because we're just
a bunch of worms saved by God's grace and that's it. That is
all. You'll find a peaceful place
in God's house where it's not phony and where people be honest
with you about who they are and who God is. Now you might not
like that by nature. You might hate that by nature
till he brings you down and you will. But that's going to be
the case with God's people. Now, let me give you some Scripture
to show you God entrusted Christ with everything. Luke 10, 22. Christ said, all things... Luke
10, 22. Christ said, all things are delivered
to me of my Father. All things are delivered to me
of my Father." That means God the Father entrusted everything,
this whole work of salvation, into Christ's hand. And he says,
"...and no man knoweth who the Son is but the Father, and who
the Father is but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal
Him." You mean if I'm going to know God, I have to be brought
to know Him by the Son revealing God to me? That's right. He to
whom the Son will reveal Him. John 16.15 Christ said this concerning
the Holy Spirit. John 16.15 He said, All things
that the Father hath are Mine. That means God delivered everything
to His Son. All things that the Father hath
are Mine. Therefore said I that the Holy
Spirit shall take of Mine. and shall show it unto you."
That doesn't mean that God the Holy Spirit, all things don't
belong to Him. That just means God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are one. And it means
everything that belongs to Christ belongs to God the Father, and
God the Holy Spirit is going to come and take those things
and show them to His people. God has entrusted everything
to Christ. Now, why did He do that? Why did He do that? He did it
for two reasons. Number one, it was for God. God
was doing something for Himself when He sent His Son. He was
glorifying Himself. God's justice had to be satisfied. So He sent His Son to satisfy
divine justice. God has to pour out... We all
have sinned. Do you think everybody here can
agree on that? We've all sinned and come short of the glory of
God. So therefore, justice demands, the justice of God demands every
soul that sinneth must die. So we're going to all die. We're
going to all die. And here's what's going to make
the difference. God chose some people in His Son before the
world was made and He sent His Son forth to die for them. And
Christ laid down His life for them. He saved them. He satisfied
justice for them. So God's going to pour out justice
on everybody. Just like He did in Noah's day.
Everybody died. The difference was Noah was put
in the ark. And so the ark bore the rain. It bore the flood in Noah's place. Christ bore that flood in place
of His people. That's the difference. That's
the difference. And so, therefore, God's just and God's the justifier. Now, don't sit there, sinner,
and say, well, that leaves everybody else out. Everybody ought to
have a chance. You want salvation to be by the roll of a dice?
You want salvation to be by chance, really? You're a fool if you
do. I want salvation to be on purpose
by God. There's not a possibility it's
going to fail. And that's what God does. And
when you put yourself on the side of God's elect, see there
and say, well, if that's true and Christ died for me, I can't
be lost. I cannot perish in my sin. There's
where you'll find true rest, brethren. I pray God will do
that for you because it takes God to put you on Christ's side
and on the side of His elect to say, God's done it all for
you. There's nothing about you better
than anybody else that made God choose you. There wasn't anything
about me that made God choose me. It was grace! That's what
grace is. Unmerited favor. Grace. Grace. Now brethren, that's what
God's going to bring us to see. He did it for God and He did
it for His people, and He's going to bring us down to His feet.
And this is what He's going to make us see. The Father loveth
the Son, and hath given all things into His hands. Now listen to this, "...and he
that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." All things
are delivered into the hand of the Son. And whoever believes
Him, everything that belongs to Christ belongs to you. We're made joint heirs with Christ. All things that are Christ's
are ours. But now there's another side
to that. He said, And he that believeth not the Son shall not
see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Christ is the
only way. He's the only way. He's the only
righteousness, the only holiness, the only redemption. The only
one God accepts is Christ and those who believe on His Son.
All right now, sixthly. that from that time that Potiphar
trusted Joseph, God blessed Potiphar for Joseph's sake. Now look here,
verse 5, Genesis 39, 5. And it came to pass from that
time that Potiphar had made Joseph overseer in his house, and over
all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptians' house
for Joseph's sake, and the blessing of the Lord was upon all that
he had in the house and in the field." Now, when God trusted
Christ with all that he had, before the world was made, Scripture
says the works were finished. The works were finished. from
the foundation of the world, because God trusted Christ with
everything, and Christ shall not fail. Christ shall not fail. And when God brings His chosen
child to trust Christ with all, with all, when God brings His
child, when God brings His child to trust Christ with all, from
that time forward, We behold that all the blessings God has
for us are freely bestowed upon us for the sake of the Lord Jesus
Christ. For His sake. And God blesses
us from that day forward. And He makes us see He's been
blessing us. He didn't let us die in our sins.
He heads me about all the days of my rebellion when I look back
and think about the motorcycle wrecks and the three-wheeler
wrecks and the just the absolute total recklessness of my own
self and the things I did. Who saved me from dying and all
that? Who would not take no for an
answer and brought me to hear the gospel and brought me to
the feet of Christ? God did. He was blessing me that
whole time. And now I've been blessed I see
from the day I was called. I see I've been blessed by God
in every way all the time. But it's not because of anything
I did. It's for the sake of Christ.
For the sake of Christ. Scripture says, Be ye kind one
to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for
Christ's sake, has forgiven you. That's it. That's it. The Lord
will not forsake His people for His great name's sake. And Christ
is God's great namesake. That's right. He's God's great
namesake. Now, there's something else to
hear too about this. You notice it says he blessed
the Egyptians for Christ's sake. Everything that's taking place
in this world right now, and everything that's happening in
this world right now is for Christ's sake. It's all for Christ's sake. And the reason that God has not
destroyed this world right now is because Christ has a people
in it. And He's not going to take no from them. He's going
to bring them to life and faith in Christ, because He's going
to have His Son glorified. That's what the Scriptures tell
us when it speaks over there in 2 Peter 3, verse 9. It says,
The Lord's not a slacker. Don't attribute that to the Lord.
He's not slack concerning His promise. The Lord is bringing
past all His promises. But it says, The Lord's longsuffering
to everybody, no, to us, His people. Everything he's doing,
he's doing for Christ's sake. And everything he's doing, he's
doing for the sake of those he put in Christ. Usward. For Christ and for his people.
Everything he's doing, he's doing for usward. Because he's not
willing that any of the usward shall perish. But that all shall
come to repentance. And he says, therefore, you can
count on this. The longsuffering of the Lord
is salvation. If God's not willing for something
to happen, it's not happening. And God's not willing that any
of his people will perish, but they come to salvation. So next
time you're out there and you don't believe Christ, you don't
believe this gospel, and you're patting yourself on the back
and saying, well, God's blessing me because I did so and so and
so and so. Hear me in your heart when you think that. No, he ain't. No, he's not blessing you because
of that. If God ever blesses you or he blesses me, it's going
to be for Christ's sake. That's what he's doing. What
about all the good things that are happening to these evil people
in the world? Scripture says they're just pigs being fattened
for the slaughter. Our pigs, when I grew up, we
had pigs. And our pigs ate better than
a lot of animals in this world. We fed them constantly every
day. And they were fat and sassy. But we didn't do it but for one
reason. To slaughter them and eat them. That's it. God saves
His people. He's not fattening His people.
Most of the time His people are poor and needy in this world
because He's not going to let you get too rich to forsake Him
or too poor to forsake Him. He's going to keep you in Christ.
And that's usually against what our flesh would rather have.
But it's where we need to be in Christ. Now here's the last
thing. Potiphar left it in Joseph's hand. You think, well, that ought
to be included in the other point. No, this needs to be included
as a point of its own. He not only trusted him with
everything he had, he left it all in Joseph's hand. Now look
at this, verse 6. This is our last point. And he
left all that he had in Joseph's hand, and Potiphar knew not what
he had, save for the bread which he did eat. You just picture
that. Potiphar trusted Joseph so implicitly
that he did not go around and check up on Joseph. He just trusted
his whole house, all his servants, everything he had into Joseph's
hand. And the only thing Potiphar knew
that he had on a day-to-day basis was the bread that Joseph had
put before him. And that's all he knew he had.
Now, Christ is the bread. And God
don't check up on His Son. He doesn't have to. Christ will
not fail. He put it all in Christ's hand,
trusted His Son to redeem His people, call out His people,
preserve His people, and one day deliver up the whole kingdom
before God. And that's what Christ is going
to do. And God's not going around having to correct His Son and
check up on His Son. No! Christ shall not fail to
do what God sent Him to do. And when God brings you down,
And He brings you down. And He brings you to see that
you've never ever done anything for Him, but Christ delivered
you from the law. And when He brings you to see
that the Lord is with you now, and He brings you to see that
He's made you prosperous in Christ's hand, that's when He'll bring
you to trust everything into Christ's hand. And when He brings
you to trust everything into Christ's hand, God's going to
see to it that you leave it in Christ's hand. We would often
put it back in our hand. And we do try to do that on a
daily basis. And God sees to it by His gospel
and His providence that He makes His child leave it in Christ's
hand. And the only thing you and I
really know we have. We know we have everything in
Christ. We know we have righteousness and holiness in Christ. But do
you see it right now? I don't see it in me. Do you? God says we are righteous and
holy in the new man that's born by Christ being formed in you.
And that righteousness and holiness is all of Christ. That's what
he said. But I don't see that in me. But I trust I have it
because Christ says I have it. But you know what I have on a
daily basis? This is what I have on a daily
basis. Christ the bread set before me. And that's all I need to
know. That's all I need. I don't know
all I have yet. I haven't attained yet. I'm not
perfect. I haven't attained yet. But I forget everything that's
behind. I'm pressing towards one mark. You know what all I
really care about every day on a daily basis? Is that I have some bread to
eat. Everything else is pretty much
gravy. I just need some bread to eat every day. Enough to survive
is all I really need. Christ is the bread. And He gives
it to His people. And let me tell you something,
when He gives you Christ and He makes you believe it all in
Christ's hand, He'll bless you from then on in His house and
in the field. In all spiritual things and in
all temporal things, He'll bless His people. And He'll make you
see that you can trust Christ and you leave it there. You leave
it there. Listen to this, every joy, every
trial, falleth from above, traced upon our bow by the Son of Love. We may trust Him fully. That's
all for us to do. And they who trust Him wholly
find Him wholly true. Do you trust Him? Do you trust
Him? Trust in the Lord with all thine
heart, and lean not to thine own understanding. In all thy
ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy path. Amen. Our glorious Father, we
thank You for Your Word. We thank You that it exalts Christ,
and it brings us to His feet, makes us rest everything in Him,
makes us look to Him, makes us leave it all in His hands. Lord,
we pray now that You do this through Your Gospel, call out
one of Your children, that You may one day finish that work
too and deliver us all up to God, Your Father, and present
us to Him, holy and spotless and without blame, so that every
one of us might fall down at Your feet, even in glory, and
cry out, worthy is the Lamb. You've done it all. You've done
it all. Thank you for revealing this
mystery and this purpose of God in our hearts. We pray that you
do it now, one of your lost children. For Christ's sake, for his honor,
his glory, we pray, amen.