Turn to Genesis 46. Genesis chapter
46. Let me read the first seven verses. And Israel took his journey with
all that he had and came to Beersheba. and offered sacrifices unto the
God of his father Isaac. And God spake unto Israel in
the visions of the night and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said,
here am I. And he said, I am God, the God
of thy father, fear not. Fear not to go down into Egypt,
for I will there make of thee a great nation. I will go down
with thee into Egypt, and I will also surely bring thee up again,
and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes. And Jacob rose
up from Beersheba, and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their
father, and their little ones, and their wives, and the wagons
which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. And they took their cattle
and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan,
and came into Egypt. Jacob and all his seed with him. His sons and his sons' sons with
him, his daughters and his sons' daughters, and all his seed brought
he with him into Egypt." Our Father, bless your word that
we've just read and enabled us this morning to see Christ in
this, in the scriptures, Feed us, nourish us out of your word.
Be our teacher this morning. Enable me to rightly divide the
word of truth. I pray that you would give me
liberty of thought and speech. I pray that you would grant us
a spirit of worship and we would give unto you the glory due unto
your name. Thank you for all your mercies,
Father. All the temporal blessings you've given us and all the spiritual
blessings that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you
for. Pray for those in this congregation
that are sick, those who are under heavy trials, we pray for
them. What we pray for ourselves, Father, we pray for all your
children throughout this world and all who stand this day to
preach the gospel, Lord bless. For Christ's sake and in his
name we pray and amen. I titled this lesson, Jacob's
fear removed, removed. You know, the gospel, the promises, the gospel promises
that we have in the word of God, when applied by the Holy Spirit,
they are the only things that can remove fear. The only thing
that can really remove our fears are the promises of God that
we have. God promised Jacob that he would
be with him. He said, I am God, and I'm the
God of your father, and I'll go down to Egypt with you, and
I'm gonna bring you out a great... That's a promise. Now, Jacob
went into Egypt with that promise. And we have many promises in
the gospel. Come to me, all you that labor
and heavy laden, I'll give you rest. He that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. These are promises. Cast all
your care upon him, for he careth for you. When the Holy Spirit
takes the word of God, the promises of God, and applies them, they
relieve our fears. So I want us to look at this
this morning. Now, in the close of chapter 45, we read where
Jacob revived. He heard this good news about
Joseph. He was faint at first when he
heard the news, but when he saw the wagons and he saw all that
Joseph sent to fetch him, it says his spirit revived. He said
in chapter 45, it is enough. My son Joseph is alive. I will go and see him before
I die. So they load up the wagons, all that he owned, everything,
lock, stock and barrel that he owned, all his family. I did
not go on and read all those difficult names in the rest of
that chapter, but all those names are the descendants, are his
descendants. And everyone went to Egypt with him, every one
of them. They went into Egypt with him. So he loads his wagons,
he moves, he puts everything he has, all of his family, every
family member, they load up and they head toward Egypt. And as
you know, wagons move slowly. And that gives you time to think.
And as he started heading in that direction, He started to
become apprehensive. He started to become fearful.
And the reason I know this is that in verse 3, God says to
Jacob, fear not. He knows his heart. God knows
what's on my heart. He knows what's troubling me.
He knows what I'm afraid of. He knows what's causing me fear.
And he says to Jacob, fear not. And you and I, You and I can
take this same word, fear not. We have nothing to fear. What
do we really have to fear? Nothing. Nothing. No matter what God puts us through,
he may uproot somebody here. He may uproot you and move you
to the other end of the earth. But you still have this, this
same promise that Jacob has, fear not, I'll be with you. I'll
be with you. Now on his way to Egypt, on his
way to Egypt, Jacob stops at Beersheba. Now Beersheba is the
border town of Canaan, which is the promised land. And he
stops there. And this is where he worshiped
God freely. But now he's going to an unknown
place. Egypt he's gonna go down to Egypt
a place where he knows that God is not worshipped and It appears
to me that he made the decision to go there Probably in haste
And now he realizes after he loaded up the wagons, you know
You've loaded up the car and everybody's got in and you're
taking off. You're thinking. Oh, wait a minute We're going to
Egypt. We're going to Egypt And I think that's what's happened
here. In haste, he made the decision to go, and he realizes he needs
to seek the Lord in this matter. And so on his way, he says, hey,
stop this train. We've got to go over here to
Beersheba and worship, offer sacrifices, and seek the Lord. Seek the Lord. What we see here
are the two natures of a believer. His name Israel means prince
with God. His name was changed to Israel
because as a prince, the angel said, thou has power with God.
Everyone that's born of God is a prince of God and has power
with God. The Word of God tells us that Christ has made us kings
and priests under God, but when God speaks to him, God says,
Jacob, Jacob. God calls him Jacob. This is
his name his father gave him. This is his name of weakness.
Remember he called him in one place, thou worm, Jacob. Christ has made us kings and
priests. And we have, we really do have
power with God. But at the same time, we're still,
I'm still John. We are sons of God, but I'm still
John. I'm still John. I still have
my fears, and I still have my doubts, and I still have my troubles.
And Jacob realized this. He realized this. And he stops
there at Beersheba. Beersheba is a place of significance. It means the well of the oath.
This is where Abraham was told to offer up Isaac. This is where
Isaac lived is at Beersheba. It really was a place of significance
to Jacob. Now it says in verse 1, And Israel
took his journey with all that he had, and he came to Beersheba,
and he offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac.
He stops here at Beersheba to worship God. The first thing
he does is to offer sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac,
the covenant God, the God of all grace, and seek his face. Seek his face. But he offers the sacrifice.
The sacrifice has to be offered. If God is to be worshipped, if
we are to seek the Lord, if we are to find Him, the sacrifice
has to be there. There has to be a sacrifice.
There has to be blood. God can only be worshipped. God
can only be sought. through the sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ. If we are to worship God and
seek His will, find out His will, it is always going to be through
Jesus Christ and no other way. No other way. If God is pleased
to speak to us as He did to Jacob, you'll notice He spoke to Jacob
here after He offered the sacrifice. If He's pleased to speak to us,
it'll be through His Son who was sacrificed for us. Never apart from Christ. God
never communicates to us apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. Never.
And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night and
said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I. Not only is this his name of
weakness, but it's also a name of endearment. Jacob have I loved. Jacob have I loved." Jacob, Jacob. And he says, here I am. How blessed
it is when God speaks to our hearts personally, when He speaks
to us in power. That is such a great blessing.
And Jacob answers him and he says, here am I. Jacob was ready
and willing to listen to the Lord's will in this matter. Jacob,
Jacob. And he said, here I am. I'm Lord
speak, Lord speak. I'm willing to listen, willing
to listen, willing to do your will. That's what Isaiah said,
Lord, what would you have me to do? I have no doubt Jacob was afraid
of what lay ahead. He was going down to Egypt. And
the key word here is going down. He was going down to Egypt. Every
time Egypt is spoken of, because Egypt represents the world, it's
spoken of as going down. It's always going down. This
world is always going down, never up, never up. It's always going
down. And he spoke here of going down
to Egypt and taking his whole family with him. And I thought
about this when I was looking at this. I thought about this.
And I want you to think of this. What if God told you to pack
your bags or me, pack my bags, my family, everything I've got,
and go to Iran or Iraq this morning? If I'm going to go there and
I'm going to preach the gospel, if I'm going to go there and
I'm going to take my family, you know how dangerous that place
is? They hate us with a passion. Jacob is going to Egypt. God is not known in Egypt. God
is not worshipped in Egypt. Jacob knew he was going to a
heathen place. He knew that. He knew that. But now listen. Listen. God speaks
to Jacob. Because God never sends His children
or His servants anywhere that He is not with them. He does not send them anywhere
where He is not with them. And he said, in verse 3, and
he said, I am God, the God of thy father. He grew
up in a godly home. He grew up in a home where God
was spoken of. He grew up in a home where the
sacrifice was offered and he was taught what that sacrifice
was all about. I am the God of thy father. Jacob
grew up knowing and watching Isaac and watching how God dealt
with his father throughout his life as a child growing up. He identifies himself first as
God. I am God, the only God. I am
God Almighty. I am Elohim. There is none beside
me. I am Jehovah. There's none beside
me. I'm God, and I'm the God of your
father. Fear not to go down into Egypt.
Don't be afraid. Don't be afraid. For I will there
make of thee a great nation. I'm God. I'm your God. You know,
this will determine whether or not our fears can be removed. Who is your God? Everyone has
one. Everyone has a God. A few have
the God, the only God there is, the Lord Jesus Christ. A few
have Him, but every person on this world has a God. They have
something they worship. They have something that has
a hold of them, that just controls them. He said, I'm God, I'm your God.
and therefore you don't need to fear. Daniel, the king asked,
is that God able to deliver thee? Is the God you worship, is the
God that's preached from this pulpit able to deliver you? Not just when you die and you
stand before God, but right now. Is he able to deliver you right
now through whatever trouble? through whatever heartache. Is
he able to deliver? Absolutely. If God is God, he's
able, he's able. And I'm the God of your father.
Here's what this also means. I'm the covenant God, the covenant
God, the immutable God, the one who never changes, the same God
who guided and kept your father. I'm the same one. He says in Deuteronomy 7, 9,
"'Know therefore that the Lord thy God, He is God, the faithful
God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him,
and keepeth His commandments to a thousand generations.'"
This God is our God. This is Jacob's God. Jacob's
God is our God. "'Therefore fear not. Scripture says, if God be for
us, who can be against us? All of Egypt and all the evil
that's in Egypt, all the darkness in Egypt is not gonna touch you,
Jacob. You're mine. You're mine. I'm
gonna send you down there, but I'm gonna bring you out a great
nation. I'm gonna bring you out with a great deliverance. Even in this strange land, you
don't have to worry. And I have no doubt for us to
be successful In the work of the Lord, fear has to be removed. It has to be removed. Fear will
shut you down. Nothing will shut you down faster
than fear. And it's this thing of the fear
of being removed. You say, well, we can't afford
this. We can't do this. We can't do
that. That's when fear sets in. What can God not do? That's the
question. What can God not do? You know,
it never comes down to, what can we afford to do? What can
we not? It never comes down to that. It always comes down to
this. Lord, what is your will? Whatever
his will is, he will provide for. Every time. Every time. And here's a promise to Jacob.
For I will there, there in Egypt, make of thee a great nation."
God took Jacob where he was comfortable. Life was comfortable. Life was
good, so to speak. And God just removed all that
and took him to Egypt. And he said, right there is where
I'm going to make a great nation out of you. There, listen, in
the furnace of affliction, is where I'm gonna mold and make
Israel. That's where I'm gonna mold and
make Israel. Is that not what God's doing
now, making a great nation of believers through his son in
this furnace of affliction in this world? Is that not what
this is? I'm 63 years old, and I have
learned, and I have believed the gospel since I was around
the age of 23. And I've learned this life, is
a life of affliction. Now there are times when it's
smooth. There are times when it's smooth.
There are times when it's just like the sun is shining. But
just as sure as that sun's shining, those clouds are coming, and
there's gonna be a thunderstorm. I look on my phone, I look on
the weather for the week, and sometimes it'll show thunderstorms,
chance of thunderstorms the whole week. That's our life. That's our life. There's a chance
of a thunderstorm in your life all week long. But fear not. Fear not. That's what he said.
Fear not. You have nothing to fear. That
thunderstorm is his. The scripture says he has his
way in the whirlwind and in the storm. It's his storm. It's easier to say than it is
to do it, I know. I know it's easy for me to stand
here and say that, but it takes the grace of God to enable us
to go through it graciously. He has to enable us to do it.
But here's another reason not to fear. I will go down with
thee into Egypt. God doesn't send us somewhere
and wait on us to come back. He said, I will go down with
you into Egypt. Look in verse four. I will go
down with thee into Egypt. You're not going down by yourself,
Jacob. I wouldn't send you where I'm
not. I wouldn't do that. God, now
listen here also, God is not confined to borders of the promised
land. It's not like he can't cross
over. God, listen, Almighty God has no borders. You know, we
fight over this immigration. We fight over these borders.
You know, we have all these laws. God has no borders? You go down
to Egypt, you know why? Egypt is mine also. Egypt is
mine, America's mine, Africa's mine, China's mine. And if I
want to send the gospel there, I will. If I want to send one
of my servants there, I'll send my servants there. And no one
can keep that servant out if God sends him. Egypt doesn't
realize it, but God is sending his servant into Egypt. And he's
going to use Egypt to mold his servant into the Image of Christ. That's what's going on right
now. God is molding my life, me, you, into the image of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's conforming us to the image
of Christ in this furnace of affliction, in this world. And
when He's done with that, He's gonna take us home. He's gonna
take us out of it. Our time will be done. It'll be done. I'll go down with
you into Egypt. I am with thee always. Our Lord
said this, I am with thee always, even to the end of the world.
I'm always with you. Our Lord never leaves us behind.
He never forsakes his children. He's always with them. He said
in Isaiah 43, when you pass through the waters, I'll be with you. And through the rivers, they
shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. That's a promise. That's a promise. God said, I'll
be with you. If we could just lay hold of the promises of God,
maybe I should say lay hold of the one who gives the promises.
That's maybe the problem, is we're not laying hold of the
one who gives the promises. Lord, you said, you said. That's laying hold of the promise
when you look to him and say, you said. You said, call upon me in the
day of trouble, I will deliver you and you shall glorify me.
Lord, you said that. Now, to me, that's really laying
hold of it, is when you lay hold of the one who gave it. And I will also, he says, I will
also surely bring thee up again. I will surely, truly, don't doubt
this. Don't doubt my power. Don't doubt
my word. I'll bring you out. I'll bring
you out. God's promised to keep his children.
He said he'd lay nothing on us that we couldn't bear. But I
tell you this, whatever he lays on us, he will enable us to bear,
no matter how difficult it is. I will surely bring thee up again,
and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes. Boy, can't you see the gospel
in this? I'll give you life from the dead, and the Lord Jesus
Christ will put his hand upon your eyes, and you're gonna see.
You're gonna see how I can be a just God and a savior. You're
gonna see, you're gonna understand who I am. You're gonna know that
I am the Lord. When Joseph puts his hands upon
your eyes. Look over, I had to think of
this verse, look over in Mark chapter eight. Mark chapter 8. Let me start in verse 22. And he cometh to Bethsaida, and
they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. And he took the blind man by
the hand, and led him out of the town. And when he had spit
on his eyes, That's offensive, isn't it? That's offensive, really. Somebody
spit in your face. He spit on his eyes. The gospel
is offensive. The gospel's offensive when it
comes. First time it comes, it's offensive. He spit on his eyes
and he put his hands upon him. And then he asked him if he saw
odd or what he saw. And he looked up and he said,
I see men as trees walking. For the first time, the Lord
gave him sight. And he said, I see men as trees
walking. He had a distorted view of men.
He thought too highly of men. This is the first time he was
able to see. And when he saw a man, he said,
it's like trees walking. Look here. After that, he put
his hands again upon his eyes and made him look up. That is,
he looked up to him. And he was restored and he saw
every man clearly. I see men now as men. I see men
as men. You know, the president of the
United States is nothing but a man. He's a sinful man being
used of God. I respect him, I respect the
office, but I'm telling you, he's just a man. And God will
replace him when he gets done with him. We should not be intimidated. You and I should not be intimidated
by any person on this earth. After knowing God, who can intimidate
us? If you really come to know who
God is, how can we be intimidated by anybody? There's none compared
to God. There's none compared to His
power, His wisdom, His knowledge, His understanding. And men in power are empowered
because God put them there and when He's done with them, He'll
remove them. They get up in the morning, they put their clothes
on just like I do. Just like I do. They're just
men. They're just men. The Lord touched
his eyes and he saw clearly. And the Lord says to Jacob here,
he says, Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes. But here's
something else, let me point out. Let me bring this out also. Christ shall put his hands upon
thine eyes and you're gonna die in peace. Jacob died in peace. Joseph put
his hands upon his eyes. He got to see Joseph. He saw
Joseph. Joseph here put his hands upon
his eyes. It's like, I see Joseph, I'm
revived. And Jacob even says, he even
says in one place, now let me die. Now let me die. I see Joseph, now I can die. Oh, you'll die in peace. You'll
die in peace. God assures Jacob that his death
will be a good death. And our death in Christ when
we die will be a good one. It'll be a good one. It'll be
in peace. In peace. Now we see here in verse five
that obedience is part of worship. And Jacob rose up from Beersheba
and the sons of Israel carried Jacob, their father, and their
little ones, and their wives, and the wagons which Pharaoh
had sent to carry him. Now he's ready to go. Now he
has sought the mind of the Lord. Now he's offered to sacrifice.
Now he has worshiped. Now he's heard from God, and
now he's ready to go do what God said to do, go to Egypt and
see Joseph. And they took their cattle and
their goods which they had gotten in the land of Canaan and it
came into Egypt, Jacob and all his seed with him. All those,
if you want to go home and you want to read all those names,
all of them were in the wagon and they went with him. They
went with him. His sons, it says there in verse
7, His sons, His sons' sons with Him, His daughters and His sons'
daughters, and all His seed brought He with Him into Egypt. And God brought them all out
of Egypt. God brought every one of them out of Egypt. The Word of God was fulfilled
which He spoke to Abraham in Genesis 15. And he said unto
Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger
in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they
shall afflict them four hundred years. And also that nation whom
they shall serve will I judge, and afterward shall they come
out with great substance." God foretold this. We read this earlier,
weeks ago. God told Abraham, He said, Your
seed is going to go down there. and they're gonna serve a nation,
and they're gonna be afflicted, and I'm gonna bring them out
with a great deliverance. And then we have had the privilege
of watching this happen. God bringing a famine, God sending
Joseph there ahead of them. Jacob had to go through a great
sorrow thinking that Joseph was dead, that he'd been eaten up
by a beast. And years had gone by, Joseph
goes down there, he's in prison, then he comes out of prison,
then Pharaoh puts him over everything. God sends a famine, then he brings...
All of that is going on. All the people on the earth at
that time, all they could see was, I wish it would rain. They
see a famine, the crops are not growing. Well, wonder why? Because God is fulfilling a promise.
God is fulfilling His Word. God is bringing about His purpose.
And that is still exactly what's happening right now. Everything
that's happening today, God has purposed it, ordained it, and
it's going on for our good and the glory of Jesus Christ. You know, it's like, you know,
you see the news and all the stuff that goes on. I wonder
what's going to happen today. I wonder if they're going to...
I tell you what's going to happen today, exactly what God has ordained
to happen. That makes life easy. That makes
passing through this life easy. When you know that God has ordained
it. The world, all the world sees,
the world sees the weather, they see the sun coming up and going
down every day, don't even think about it. The world sees all
this commotion, all this busyness, but you see, you see the hand
of God in everything. Everything. To the lily of the field, to
the rising and bringing down of a nation, God's hand is in
it. God's hand is in it. Trials in this life never end,
for the husbandman is always pruning his branches. But here's
the message. Fear not. I'll be with you, and
I'll bring you up again. I'll bring you up again. You
know, there's gonna come a time for me and you to die. We don't
know when it is. I'm glad I don't know when it
is. But whenever it is, I am confident of this. The Lord is
gonna bring us up again. And in the end, he's gonna bring
a great nation out of all of this, out of this world. He's
gonna bring a great nation, the church. But until then, until then, fear
not, fear not. Wherever God sends you, whatever
he does, whatever he brings our way, fear not. is fired good
in his glory.