Well, our text is going to be
in Genesis 46. However, I'm going to read two
verses in Hebrews 13 to begin. Hebrews 13, verses 8 and 9. Here we read that Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday and today and forever, And the Apostle
tells us to be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines,
for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace,
with grace, not with meats which have not profited them that have
been occupied therein. And these meets here speaks to
the doctrine, it speaks to the form that men get taken up with. And all the little things that
really have no bearing on anything. That's what men get focused on
and taken up with. Instead, the scriptures, what
he's saying here is the scriptures set forth him who we are to hear. The Scriptures declare the voice
of our Lord and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the whole
purpose of Scripture. It is to bring us to Christ,
to show us our need of Him to save us, that He alone is the
Savior and that we cannot save ourselves. There are many doctrines
that men draw forth from the scriptures and focus on those
doctrines and those meats, as it were, those worthless things,
things that don't really add any value at all. And in the
focus of the form of religion, there's what? There's darkness.
There's confusion. There's a focus on dead things
that cannot save. And so we're looking for Christ. We want to hear his voice. I'm
very mindful of that scripture in the New Testament where the
Greeks came saying, sirs, we would see Jesus. Show us Jesus. Bring us to Jesus. And so wherever we are in the
scriptures, we want to get to Christ. We want to get to Christ
because he's the Savior. He's the Savior. Now with that
understanding, let's look at the portion of meat, that good
meat, that nourishing meat that our Lord gives to us today in
Christ. So in our text, back now in Genesis
46, there are three meetings that
we're going to look at here. There's three meetings, some
very brief here. Three meetings, one that had
happened, one that was currently happening in that day, at that
moment, And then there's a third one that Joseph speaks of that
shall happen, that will happen. And so of these three, we see
something of Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.
And I know that it's saying that he is immutable. He does not
change. But there is a sweetness here. There's a relevance here
in that very thing to Christ, who provides everything for us,
yesterday, today, and forever. Everything, brethren. Back in
Genesis 46, our text is in verses 28 through 34. 28. So the first thing that we're
told here is that Judah is sent before his brethren and the house
of his father. He's sent before in order to
prepare their way in coming to Goshen. So let's read just verse
28. This is the first meeting here,
if you will. And he sent Judah before him
unto Joseph. This is a meeting that occurred
that we don't hear much about, but this happened. This occurred
first to direct his face unto Goshem, and they came into the
land of Goshem. Now, We've been seeing some things
about Judah. He's the fourth born, the fourth
born son of Leah and Jacob. And first, if you remember, Judah
became shorty for Benjamin, right? He became shorty for Benjamin.
He laid out the terms to his father, Jacob, and Jacob accepted
his terms. and sent Benjamin with Judah
into Egypt because they couldn't go before the ruler, the governor
of Egypt, without their younger brother Benjamin. And what's
amazing about that is when these boys got back the first time
from Egypt, Reuben, the firstborn, said, I'll be shorty for him.
I'll be shorty for Benjamin. I'll go and do this. And what
did Jacob do? He refused it. His father said,
absolutely not. My son Joseph went out to you
guys, and he's dead. I'm not sending Benjamin with
you, Reuben. You're not going to be able to keep your word.
You can't do this thing. It's a picture of of the firstborn
of man, that is Adam. Our Adam nature cannot be depended
upon. And so, Reuben was refused, but
Judah was accepted. Judah said, I'll be surety for
him. He was accepted, and he did that very thing. He kept
his word. He brought Benjamin back safely. Here again, we have another nod
which is made to Judah, that royal tribe of Judah, that kingly
tribe of Judah through whom the Savior was to come, through whom
the Christ would be born, through whom the King of Israel would
come. through the tribe of Judah. And so here he's sent on ahead
by the father to show the way of the family into that land
of Goshen, to prepare the way, to open the way into that land
of Goshen there. So don't, I hope you're getting
the picture, don't let this picture pass you by without noticing
here what's being established in relation to the Lord Jesus
Christ. who was sent before by the Father to prepare the way
for the people of God to come into the presence of God, holy
God almighty, and be accepted and received of Him and allowed
into the land, into that heavenly promise, that heavenly inheritance
of ours, that we may be received of holy God and dwell in light
with the saints of God. Our heavenly Judah, our Lord
Jesus Christ, the lion of the tribe of Judah has gone before. So he sent Judah before him is
that word which testifies of the Lord Jesus Christ being sent
by his father beforehand. And to direct his face unto Goshen
speaks to what Jesus Christ should accomplish for his people by
his blood redemption. to make an atonement for the
sins of his people. Therefore, as Jacob sent Judah
ahead to ensure their, that family, their safe passage into Goshen,
so the scriptures tell us, reveal to us, that the father sent the
son beforehand to open the way into heaven, to open the way
into the presence of God being received of him. It says in John
3, 16 and 17, that God so loved the world, that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish,
should not perish in the way, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him
might be saved. The Father did that. It testifies
of the love of the Father for His people, because without a
perfect redemption, which our Lord made on the cross, willingly
shedding His blood for the forgiveness of the sins of His people, to
bear their sins in His own body, on the tree, under the wrath
of God, in their place, without that blood redemption, we cannot
be saved. We cannot save ourselves. We
could not come into the presence of God. We would fall down dead
on the way to Goshen, as it were. And so that passage in John 3
declares that, what that's saying is that there is one Savior,
one Savior whom the Father sent for both Jew and Gentile, that
none are saved except by the blood of Christ. And so were
it not for Christ being sent to the Father to go before us,
we would perish. We would perish. And let me just
add what the Apostle John added in 1 John 4 on this very thing. 1 John 4 verse 9 and 10. In this was manifested the love
of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten son. into the world that we might
live through Him. He's the Savior. Look to Christ. Look to Christ. Don't look to
your works, you'll only be troubled. If God's gracious to you, you'll
be troubled and you won't be satisfied and you won't find
any help in your works. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
cry out to Him. He's the Savior. Herein is love,
not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son
to be the propitiation, the forgiveness of our sins. That is, He turned
the wrath of God away from His people and put it against Himself
to put away that wrath from us forever. And so Christ has come
before the chosen people of God, as Judah before the family of
Jacob, to finish the work, to do that work necessary to bring
us into the promised land, our promised, our habitation, eternal
habitation in heaven. This redemption was accomplished
beforehand. It speaks to that redemption
of what Christ has accomplished for us beforehand. That's been done. The work's
done. Now we turn our attention to what occurs today. In our day, today is the day
of grace when the Lord brings salvation to his child. when
he makes known to you what he has done for you. All right,
let's go to verse 29. And Joseph made ready his chariot,
and went up to meet Israel his father, to Goshen, and presented
himself unto him. And he fell on his neck, and
wept on his neck a good while. Now, we've seen language like
this before. It was just in the previous chapter, in chapter
45, when Jacob, when Joseph revealed himself to his brethren, it says
in verse 14, Genesis 45, 14, that Joseph fell upon his brother
Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck.
And then in verse 15 it says that he kissed all his brethren
and wept upon them and after that his brethren talked with
him. So what did we see in the picture
then? It was a picture of all the spiritual
blessings of God given to us in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. It's a picture of the new birth. of him expressing, showing his
love to us, of what he's done for us. It's a picture of our
God giving us the Holy Ghost to reveal and make known to us
who he is. And that all our sins, all our
offenses, all our past offenses against him have been put away.
He's not holding them against us anymore. He's receiving us
to himself. He's assuring us of his love.
You think about Joseph doing that, how that had to communicate
to his brothers who hated him and who sold him into slavery
to get rid of him. And yet here he is receiving
them, kissing them, and hugging them, and weeping on their neck.
to assure their hearts, I don't have any ill toward you. I'm
holding nothing against you. You're my brethren. I love you.
And God has done this and provided this for your salvation, for
your deliverance. That's what Joseph was showing
them. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ does in giving you the
spirit, in removing the darkness, in giving you light and understanding
of who he is, why he came, what he accomplished in his coming.
That's what he makes known here. He's revealing it to us in the
new birth. He's removing that veil over
our hearts by nature, that fleshly veil, so that it's gone and we
now see and believe and receive the things of our God. And with
all that done, it says, after that, his brethren talked with
him. That's how it is for the people
of God. After our Lord reveals himself
to us in love, in salvation, in glorious grace and salvation,
then the people of God speak to him. Then we cry out to him
in the spirit of grace and supplication which is poured out upon us.
And so first Christ sent to the Father accomplishes our redemption
and reveals this salvation to us and then we speak to him.
Here's a verse in Galatians chapter 4, Galatians chapter 4 verse
4 through 6. Let's read this. Galatians 4.4,
but when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth
his son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them
that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption
of sons. Being brought in, received into
the family of God. Now listen closely here. This
is what redemption results in. This is what God does as a result
of redemption, verse six. Galatians 4.6, And because ye
are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father. When your child, if you had a
child, when your child was born, that child comes forth and there's
a point at which the snot and stuff is sucked out of their
nose and they begin to cry. There's a cry. It's the cry of
life. And as they grow, they cry, Daddy,
receive me. Save me. And when they're a toddler
and they're coming, they have a bottle, right? They're just
starting to learn how to feed themselves. And what do they
do sweetly? They lift up the bottle to you. You take the bottle.
And then the next thing, their arms are up. Pick me up and you
feed me. They still want to be loved.
That's what the Lord does in that spirit of adoption that
he gives us. He gives us a heart for our God,
a dependence upon our God, a joy to be in the arms of our God. He does that. We don't make that
for ourselves. But His Spirit does work that
in us because He drives the enmity away. He drives the darkness
away and the fear away so that we know He loves me. Just like
your child knows if they come to you and ask you for love,
you're going to give it to them. You're going to receive them.
You're going to pick them up and hold them. You're going to love
them and love on them. That's what we see a picture
of here. And the coming of the Holy Ghost
is the promise of our Savior to us. That's what he said to
his disciples just before he left them to go to the cross,
to prepare the place for them. He went before them, saying,
I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter,
that he may abide, dwell, live with you forever. And then he
said, and when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto
you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth
from the Father, he shall testify of me. And his testimony is in
you that hear this gospel, you that delight to hear this gospel,
you that delight to feed upon Christ, and receive Christ, and
receive the Christ of this word and gospel. It's a testimony
that God has done this, that he is your God, that he's drawing
you to himself. And he's stripping away the vain
outward form of religion that we're used to, that we've grown
up with, the baggage that we bring of religion. He takes that
away, removing that from us, and draws us nearer to himself,
in spirit and in truth. He does that, brethren, because
the flesh doesn't come to Christ for salvation. But when the Spirit
of God bloweth where it listeth, meaning where it goes where it
wants to go, when he comes, there's life. There's the breath of life
blown into our nostrils, just as Adam was when he was nothing
but dust. And that breath of life comes,
and you live and cry, Abba, Father, Daddy, Lord, my God, my Savior. We cry out to Him in truth, crying,
Abba, Father. And that's where the sinner is
asking, Lord, save me. Lord, have mercy on me, because
all the works I've been doing and that's been helping me before
don't help me anymore. Lord, draw near to me, and don't
leave me. And now that you've shown yourself
to me, when I go out that door, please don't let me turn back
to the world, going again the same old course of the world,
and the same old dead things, and just living and loving this
world. Lord, draw me near to you, and
stay near to me, and keep me near to you. There's a real desire
there for Christ and His salvation. It's the cry of the living. Now,
I'm telling you this because if we're his chosen sheep, then
we're made satisfied with Christ above all. We're made satisfied
with Christ above all. And when he shows himself to
us, we want to be with him. We want to be with him. This
world quickly fades of all its once joyful things and the shiny
things that once charmed our hearts begin to fade. And they
don't mean anything. And we love him less and less
and less till we love him no more. And we want to be with
him. And this is expressed in Jacob's
response to his son Joseph, who's wept upon his neck. Verse 30,
Genesis 46, 30. And Israel, prince with God,
one who's blessed of God here, said unto Joseph, now let me
die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive. What an amazing thing when the
Lord shows you, is kind enough to convince you that He is the
true and living God. That this is not just a dead
letter form of religion, but that God lives and has given
you life to know Him. What a joy that is, what a transformation
that is when the Lord gives life. birth and and and light and salvation
in our hearts to know that he is the risen Savior and he gives
everything that he's promised in his word and he provides it
all and he does not fail and he's shown himself to me It's
a glorious thought. It's a glorious sight of Him. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts for to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. When we've seen His face, we've
seen enough. Lord, I'm ready to come home.
As soon as you're ready, take me. It's OK. I'm ready to go.
I want to go. had enough of this place, right?
So if Christ is your Redeemer, He will give you His Holy Spirit,
and His Spirit will reveal Christ to your heart, because if we
don't have the Spirit of Christ, then we're none of His. So He
reveals Himself to us. And that all speaks to the new
nature, the new creature, which He forms in His people, born
of the seed of Christ. It's Christ's work in you. It's
what He accomplishes in His people. If any man be in Christ Jesus,
he is a new creature. Old things, in contentment with
the old things, in the practice of the old things, passeth away.
Behold, all things are become new, in and by the Lord Jesus
Christ. these next verses here of what
our Lord is accomplishing for us is a picture of what our Lord
does from heaven above in the intercessors thrown there in
that seat there what he's working in us right he's accomplished
our yesterday he accomplished our redemption Today in the day
of grace, he makes it known to us. He brings it home to our
hearts. Well, what lies ahead? What lies ahead so long as the
Lord is pleased to leave his children here as a church, as
a beacon, as a declaration to the world of the Savior, of the
living Savior who died and rose again? Well, picking up now in
verse 31, let's just read the rest of this chapter, all five
verses here. And Joseph said unto his brethren, and unto his
father's house, I will go up, and show Pharaoh, and say unto
him, My brethren in my father's house, which were in the land
of Canaan, are come unto me. Amen. What a sweet picture of
the Lord testifying to the Father that all my house, all my brethren
have come unto me. I've drawn them to myself. Behold,
I and the children which thou hast given me, none is lost. They've come unto me. All right? And so our Lord is testifying
of what he's done in the hearts of his people. And the men, he
says, are shepherds, for their trade hath been to feed cattle,
and they have brought their flocks, and their herds, and all that
they have. And it shall come to pass, when
Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say, What is your occupation? That ye shall say, Thy servant's
trade hath been about cattle from our youth even until now. In other words, we've always
been this way. What we are confessing to you, we've always been this
way. Both we and also our fathers
that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen. You say this, that
you may dwell in the land of Goshen for every shepherd is
an abomination to the Egyptians. Every shepherd is an abomination
unto the Egyptians. Now, here is where we see in
this the light of the gospel. What is he saying here? Why is
he instructing them in this way? Because this is Joseph instructing
his brethren. This is what you shall say to
Pharaoh when you come before him. This is what you're to say
to him. So again, Joseph's gone before his brethren. And he's
opened the way unto heaven. He's opened the way unto heaven
that we may come into the presence. Here it's pictured and they're
coming into the land and presence of Pharaoh to be accepted of
him, to be allowed into the land, to dwell in the land, and to
live there. to be there to traffic in the
land even so our Lord Jesus Christ has gone before us right when
he reveals himself to us he says I I'm going to the father I've
given you my spirit I'm giving you my word and this is what
you say while you're dwelling here in this land of Goshen right
this is what you're to say in other words what our Savior has
done is he's opened the door to heaven He has opened that
door to heaven. He's prepared the way. He's made
the way clear for us to enter into the presence of God, being
received of Him, to obtain that eternal inheritance. That inheritance, which is Christ's,
is the inheritance of His brides. What He has, She has. Everything
that's His is yours, brethren, and it's all Christ's. You have
all things. And the picture here is what
John said when he looked. He said, behold, I look, and
behold, a door opened in heaven. Before, in dead letter religion,
that door was closed. We're going about, feeling about,
groping about in darkness, because the way to heaven was closed
to us. We tried, we labored, we strove, we spent, we sacrificed,
and we're nothing the better for it. just bouncing off of
each other and having trouble and difficulty and were afraid
and locked out of heaven. It was shut. But now you that
see Christ and hear what He's done and what He's accomplished,
how the works are finished, and you believe Him, that's an open
door. You see it's done. He's not turning
it to me now and said, now don't mess this up. I'm going to let
you finish it off now. No, don't let me finish it off,
Lord, because if it's now on me, I'm going to fail. I'm going to come short. I'm
not going to enter through that open door. I'm going to fall
in the way before I get there. No, Christ has done the whole
work. What he began, he finishes. He's given his word. What the
Lord begins, he completes it. He finishes that work entirely.
And so we enter through the door, having therefore, Hebrew says,
having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by
the blood of Christ. Not because your works are good
now, not because you've improved and fixed yourself, not because
you've repented of that sin and started doing all the good things.
No, we enter in boldly because through the blood of Christ,
what he's done, not what you or I did, what he has done, by
a new and living way, not by the law, not by church form and
doctrine, but by Christ, a new and living way which he hath
consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, through
his flesh. Everything we needed to do, Christ
accomplished. Every jot, every tittle of the
law was fulfilled in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our
righteousness. We're not looking, we're not
under the law. We're actually delivered from
the law. We're not even under it. We have the spirit and life
of Christ in us that teaches us and instructs us, that keeps
us, that bears fruits of righteousness in us in ministering and serving
the church and his people and being kind and gracious to others,
even as the Lord has been gracious and kind to us. There's a love
there that we walk in. There's faith that we walk in,
not the law. I'm not looking to the law. I'm
not looking to offend anybody, but I ain't looking to the law.
I'm looking to Christ and made thankful for Him and what He's
done. That's how you live. You want
to live to God? Look to Christ. That's what He's
given us is Christ. Christ is all, a new and living
way through His blood. So he sacrificed himself for
us so that we come to him in Christ, not the old things that
we once trusted in when the door was shut and we were blinded
in darkness. There's light now. Look to Christ. And so in addition there, there's
a division that Joseph put between his family and the world. There's
a division that he puts there. by putting them in Goshen, right? So it is that the Lord divides
his people from the body of sin and death. He does it. You that
look to Christ and love Christ, there's gonna be a natural division
put there, all put there by Christ. You don't have to try. Try to
be loving, kind, gracious, call sinners to the feast, to your
home, to supper, to dinner, declare to them Christ, desire to eat
with them, but they'll separate from you. There won't be anything
there if they're not the Lord's. But his salvation is made evident
in us, and that's because it's Joseph's family, right? And what
did they do there? They owned what they were. They
owned that they are shepherds. And the picture here is, and
that was an abomination to the Egyptians, right, that they owned,
that they were shepherds. They thought that is the lowest
of the, that was the lowest caste. They had like a caste system,
and that was the lowest of the low, to be shepherds, to care
for animals. It was low in there. So what
is the Lord teaching us here? Christ's people confess their
sins. Christ's people own that they
are sinners. Christ's people own what they
are, that we are needy, hopeless, helpless sinners, and therefore
we are an abomination to the self-righteous. We own, we confess,
I have no righteousness of my own but Christ's righteousness.
I have no audience with God but through Christ. We own what we
are by nature, and because we are an abomination to the self-righteous,
to those who are the Egyptians and have all that they are contented
to have in this world, because that is so, we gladly take our
place outside the camp. Goshen wasn't in the cities and
in the metropolises of Egypt. Goshen was a land outside. It was as you were approaching
there, then you'd come into the land of Goshen, a good land for
sheep and cattle and such. And so Goshen is outside. Turn
over to Hebrews 13. Hebrews 13. And we see this related to us
in gospel terms here. So Hebrews 13, verse 10 through
16. The Apostle says, we have an
altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle. And he's saying that religious
bunch who had the temple and were sacrificing bulls and goats
and sheep and oxen, they have no part in this altar. where Christ is the altar, and
Christ is the sacrifice on the altar, and Christ is the high
priest who offers the sacrifice on the altar, and Christ is the
temple in which the altar is. Christ is all. And those that
are in the form of religion, in the meats of religion, focused
on that form and those church doctrines and stuff that they
get caught up in, thinking this is their life and salvation,
rather than Christ, and the doctrine of Christ, they have no part
in this altar here. For the bodies of those beasts
whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest
for sin, where are they burned? They're burned without the camp.
outside. Wherefore Jesus also, that he
might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without
the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto
him without the camp, bearing his reproach." Just as Joseph's
family bore the reproach of the Egyptians gladly, gladly, because
it kept them out of it. For here we have no continuing
city, but we seek one to come." We seek one to come. So our Lord
has provided everything we need. That's what Christ is promising
here in the picture of Joseph, saying, I'm going before you,
and when you come, this is what you say. And that's what our
Lord does. He brings us to see that we always
continue to come as needy sinners, owing what we are, or owning
what we are by nature, as guilty sinners before him. And so don't
look and ask, have I done enough to come into his presence? I
can tell you right now, no, you haven't. You've not done enough.
I've not done enough. None of us have done enough to
earn a place before God. Look to Christ. He's the one
who's opened the door to heaven. He's the one that leads us into
heaven. He's the one that guides and
instructs us and keeps us by the giving of the Holy Ghost.
Look to Him. By Him, therefore, let us offer
the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit
of our lips, giving thanks to His name. But to do good and
to communicate, forget not, don't put them aside, for with such
sacrifices God is well pleased. That is, by the grace of God
and the giving of His Spirit, He draws forth that love, that
desire, that trust in Him. Walk in that light. Walk in the
faith of Christ. Cry out to Him, Abba Father.
He's given you His Spirit. You walk in that truth, bearing
the fruits of His Spirit to others. or adorning the gospel of our
God and Savior, being gentle, kind, loving, faithful, generous,
good, right? And doing those things because
the Lord is well pleased with those things. But that's not
our justification. That's not what saves us. We
do those things because we are saved. So the salvation of God's
people is a complete salvation. It's provided in full. When our
Lord came and accomplished our redemption. Then he comes to
us in the day, today, in the day of grace. And he promises
to forever be with us unto the end. To bring us to himself forever.
And that's where we see Jesus Christ. Yesterday, today, and
forever, brethren. The same yesterday, today, and
forever. He does all things. Amen.