This is an old story, the book
of Genesis, the very beginning, as old as Abraham. But first, go with me to Hebrews
11. And we'll go back to Genesis
48. Hebrews 11, as most of you know,
is a chapter that speaks of God's people who lived by faith and
died in faith. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham. And it speaks of what faith does. Abel offered
blood. Enoch walked by faith with God. Noah moved with fear. Abraham went out. It just mentions
Jacob one time. 147 years. And many things happened, and Jacob's
life didn't. But it just mentions him here
in one verse. Well, it says he was with Abraham
and Isaac in tents, but verse 21. says, by faith, Jacob, when he
was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph and worshiped,
leaning upon the top of his staff. And that's it. That ended his
life. What a way to end your life.
What a way to die. Worshipping, blessing your sons,
leaning on the staff. The staff. Now go back to Genesis
48. His dying testimony. This is
his dying testimony. And it's an old believer dying
words to his sons and grandsons. Let's read verses 1 through 7
again. It came to pass after these things
that one told Joseph, Behold, thy father is sick. And Joseph
took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. Joseph wanted his
sons to visit their grandfather before he died. And one told
Jacob, Behold, thy son Joseph cometh unto thee. The issue strengthened
himself. Made him sit up in the bed, wanting
to see his beloved son. And Jacob said unto Joseph, the
first words of his mouth, God Almighty appeared unto me at
Luz in the land of Canaan. You remember, that's where he
wrestled with it. Who? God Almighty came down as
a person. Yeah, Jesus Christ wrestled with
him and blessed me. God blessed me. And he said unto
me, he spoke to me, promised me, behold I will make, told
me what he was going to do with me. This is the gospel isn't it people?
What we do, what he does for us. Behold, I will make thee
fruitful and 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. And now thy two sons, Ephraim
and Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of Egypt
before I came unto thee unto Egypt, they're mine, as Reuben
and Simeon, they shall be mine. I couldn't help but think of
our Lord's prayer to his Father. Thine are mine, mine are thine.
Other sheep I have, I must bring, and they shall be mine. Verse
6, And I issue which thou begettest after them, sons, daughters,
whoever you have after them, they shall be mine, thine, and
shall be called after the name of their brethren in their inheritance.
God blesses, son, whoever God brings forth from you and your
seed shall be blessed and inherit the land. That speaks of Christ,
doesn't it? The Father's blessings upon all
his seed through Christ the Son. That's what that is. And he reminisces here. He says,
as for me, When I came from Paddanurim, Rachel, your mother, this is
Joseph's mother, you know, he didn't see her. She died when,
I mean, he was taken when he was 17 years old. He never saw
her again. It gives him comfort concerning
his departed mother. Rachel died by me in the land
of Canaan, in the way, she was in the way. She's in the way. She died in the way. Here's a
little way to come unto Ephrath. And I buried her there in the
way of Ephrath, the same as Bethlehem. She's buried in Bethlehem. So Jacob is reminiscing to Joseph
of the Lord's purpose and providence in his life. And he talks about
the good and the bad. that God blessed me, God made
promises to me, God gave me an inheritance, and now God's given
me your sons to be my grandsons and my seed. But my beloved wife
died along the way, but she was in the way, and she's reminiscing
about happy times and sad times. He's reminiscing of the Lord's
hand and purpose in all the good and the bad. And what he's saying here is
what Eli said. It's the Lord. It's what Job
said. The Lord gave. That's how he
started it. God Almighty blessed me. The
Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of
the Lord. This is an old man talking. He's
dying words, talking to his son, and his two grandsons are standing
there listening to him. And what he's talking about is
God and the blessings of God. And this is the whole message,
people, that this is a dying believer's testimony before his
children. This is what he wants more than
anything for his son and his grandsons. He wants them to hear
and be blessed with the same blessing that he was blessed
with. He doesn't wish them money and things. He doesn't bring
up one solitary thing. He doesn't complain. He doesn't
moan and groan about world affairs. He doesn't complain about living
in Egypt and, oh, what terrible society we live in. He's talking
about God with his dying breath. Well, Joseph brings his two boys
out from between his knees. Don't you love that scene there? Can you picture this? They're
real young boys. Nine, ten. They're lads. Boy,
nine, ten years old, whatever. And he brings them and he sits
down before his dad. His dad is on the edge of the
bed sitting there. Dad gets up. He's bedridden.
Jacob is bedridden. That's of the Lord. But he's
strengthened and gets up in his bed and sits there on the edge
of the bed. And Joseph comes up and pulls
up a stool and sits there by his old dad. And he has these
two boys between his knees, you know, right there in front of
his old dad. And Israel, verse 10, says, his
eyes were dim. He couldn't see. He couldn't
see. He was just practically blind. He saw two boys standing
there, sitting on Joseph's knees. And he said, who are these? And
Joseph said, these are my sons that God hath given me. You hear
the language of a believer? Do you hear the language of Abraham's
sons, sons of Jacob? It's all about God. God hath
blessed. God hath given. It's of the Lord. Someone said to my wife recently,
said, you sure are lucky to have a family that loves you and a
church family. She said, no. It's not luck. The Lord's blessed me. God hath
blessed me. God hath given me these sons.
See that? And Jacob said, bring them, bring
them. I pray thee unto me. Bring them.
Bring them. So I can bless them. Oh Lord, bless the lad. Isn't that what you want, Jennifer,
more than anything in this life? Bless that lad. Bless that lass. Bless them all. Bless them all. His eyesight
was bad. That means his hearing was probably
gone too. They usually go together, don't
they? Hearing, eyesight, leaning on
a staff. He can't walk, he's crippled,
his body is failing, but his faith is not. His body,
his old man is passing away, but his new man is being renewed. His eyesight's gone, his physical
eyesight, but he sees clearer now than ever God on the throne. His hearing has failed. He can't
hear what men are saying. He can't hear this noisome pestilence. Thank God! Boy, he can hear the
voice of God speaking to his heart. And he can't walk anymore, but
he's still walking by faith. Dad, Brother Britt Worthen, Terry
Worthen's son, preached from this passage, Blessed Message.
If you don't get this, get it, okay? If the Lord doesn't bless
this, get that. But he said, he brings up Dad
all the time. He loves to hear him preach,
still loves to hear him preach, and quotes him a lot. And he
said, Brother Henry, his eyesight's going, his hearing's real bad,
and Brother Henry wonders why he's still around. He said, Brother
Henry wonders why he's still in this earth. And Brother Britt
said, it's so I can see his faith. So I can see his faith. Because
that's how I want to die. Not murmuring and complaining,
but blessing God. Attributing all things good and
bad. It's the Lord. Blessed be the
name of the Lord. Don't you? So I can behold His faith. It
does me good, Brother Henry Soard and Roberta, to see you all here
sitting right there like you've been sitting for years. That
does me good. And I want to. When my time is
over and I can't preach, let me sit right there and let a
man stand up here and let me listen with all my heart. and
tell him like you do me all the time, come back there and say,
thank you, brother, for preaching that gospel. Thank you, Lord,
to these people and their testimony. John, Earlene, and just on and
on I could go. Testimony to God's goodness.
Stan and Sheriff have been there all these years. Testimony to
God's goodness. It's His faithfulness. His keeping
power, His grace, His unfailing promises, a testimony to His
unfailing promises. He said, I'll keep you. I'm with
you. I'll not forsake you. I'll bring
you all the way home. And you're almost there, aren't
you? In Christ you are there. A witness to us, an exhortation
to us, like Hebrews 10 says, hold fast the profession of your
faith without wavering. For He is faithful that promised. And exhort one another. And that's
what you do without, by just sitting there. Exhort one another
so much more as we see the day approaching. And all believers,
especially older believers, all believers though, need to exhort
and testify and witness a good profession before our children. Before our children. They're
the ones that we have the most influence over. They're the souls
that God has put in our house. And that's what Jacob did. That's
what he did. He feels a complete failure concerning
his sons, you know, the early part. But it's not over, you
see. And he's dying. And he says,
Lord, with my dying breath, let me tell these boys The truth,
if I failed up to now, that's what Lot said, you know. I seem
like one that mocked all these years, but blessed God, I'm going
to tell them, I'm going to warn them, and may God bless them
with my dying breath. Us older believers, us, I said
us, we need to exhort and testify so much more as we see the day
approaching. Where's our conversation? What's
our speech about? It's over, isn't it? And for
these young people, they don't think it. They can't even enter
into the brevity of time and all that. They think, you know,
they've got 30 or 40 years left. Thirty years, just bam, it's
gone. They can't enter into that. So
we need to keep that ever before them, the brevity of life, the
vanity of life and the true blessing, the one blessing. That He that
blesseth Himself into earth, the only real blessing on earth,
not things, it's one thing. And bless Himself into God of
truth. Did Abraham talk to his sons? Yes, sir. God said he did. He said, I know Abraham. He'll
instruct his sons. Did Isaac? Sure he did. We read
about it. Did Jacob? Yes, he is. Yes, he
is right now. And as I said, it's never too
late to start it. He's dying breath. He's going
to tell them. He's going to tell these boys where the true blessing
is. The blessing. Now here, we're going to look
at the blessing here in verses 15 and 16. But first, you read
with Brother Ron where it says that Joseph, verse 13, took Ephraim
and Manasseh and put them, Ephraim on his right hand and Manasseh
on his left. You know what that means? Some
of you do. But anyway, the oldest one he
put on Jacob's right hand. He can't see and put him on his
right hand, the oldest, because the right hand was the blessing
of the older one. And the ephraim he put on his
left hand, the younger, that he might give the greater blessing
on the older, elder, and the blessing on the younger. Okay. He said, which boys are these?
And Joseph said, that's Manasseh on your right hand. And this
is Ephraim on the left. And Jacob went. And he pronounced this blessing.
And Joseph said, Dad, Father, don't do that. Don't cross your
hand. Look at verse 18. Not so, my
father. That's the firstborn. Put your
right hand on his head. Manasseh, his father refused,
said, I know it, my son. I know it. I know what I'm doing. I know what I'm doing. You know
why I knew? Because that's what his dad did. What's happening here? What's
being more than a prophecy? This is more than a prophecy
of one nation greater than another. But this is a testimony to God's
sovereign electing grace. This is a testimony, a dying
testimony, that God chooses whom He will. And Jacob says, that's what happened
to me. This is exactly what the Lord did to me. I had an older
brother, a twin, Didymus. I had a twin. Esau, you remember? Your uncle Esau, maybe. Joseph,
you remember? Esau, your uncle Esau. He sold
his birthright. He didn't care about God. And
I do. Esau doesn't know God, and I
do. Joseph, Esau doesn't call on God, and I do. Joseph, Esau
doesn't care anything about Christ and the blessing, but I do. And you know why, Joseph? Because
God chose me. Because God chose me. Because
God said, Jacob have I loved. before the children were born,
having done either good or evil, that the purpose of God according
to the election might stand. It was said to my mother, Rebecca,
the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, Esau have I hated. What do we say to these things? Jacob said, bless God. And He chose me. I wouldn't have
chosen Him. It's not of Him that will. It's of Him that runs. It's not by right. It's not by
right. It's by choice. You see that? It's not by right. We don't have
a right to be saved. Everybody doesn't deserve a chance
to be saved. It's by sovereign electing grace
and choice. That's what that says. And there's
so much more there, but all right, here's the blessing of Jacob.
Here's the blessing of Jacob, all right? And all believers
die in prayer. Would you give me a few more
minutes? In verse 15, he blessed Joseph
and said, has his hands now, he has his hands on those boys'
heads, and he blessed Joseph and said, Now, I thought he was going to
bless the lads. He is. But you know what the
greatest blessing that God could bestow upon Joseph would be? To save his boys. He's going to bless the lads,
all right, but it's the greatest blessing The greatest blessing
that we can ever experience is for God to save us. God reveal
Christ to us and in us. The next greatest blessing is
to save our son or daughter. He's blessing Joseph all right
by blessing his lads. Bless Jacob, or Joseph, and he
said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the
God which fed me all my life long unto this day, the angel
which redeemed me from all evil. Bless the lands." God. God has blessed me, Joseph. And
oh, your little Ephraim and Manasseh are listening to this, and the
first words out of this old man's mouth are, God blessed me, God fed me, God
kept me, God redeemed me, and my heart's desire and prayer
to God for my sons, Israel's sons, my grandsons, is that the
Lord would be pleased to bless them as he's blessed me. That
they would be named among the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and me,
Jacob, the sons of Israel, sons of God. Oh, may God bless you
as he's blessed me. God hath blessed me. Turn with
me to 2 John, real quickly, 2 John, 2 Epistle of John. It's just
one chapter. 2 John. You know, it does not matter
what our children become in this life. It does not matter whether
a garbage man or a physician. It does not matter what they
attain in this life, what they accomplish in this life. It does
not matter one whit. Isn't that what the Lord said? Vanity of vanity. In fact, as
not many wise men at the flesh, or mighty or noble, are called. It does not matter what they
accomplish. It does not matter what they
accumulate. You're going to lose it all. It does not matter. There's one thing that matters. That they know the Lord Jesus
Christ, or rather, are known by Him. That's the only thing
that matters. 2 John 4. You have it? John writes
to this elect lady. Verse 1, unto the elect lady. Verse 4, he said, I rejoiced
greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth. He didn't say,
oh, I rejoiced that your children became this or became that or
are successful in life. Did he? He didn't mention that. It's usually a detriment. I rejoiced greatly. Oh, I was
so happy to hear that your children walk in in truth. Look at 3 John. He writes another letter unto
another fellow. 3 John 3, I rejoiced greatly
when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee,
even as thou walkest in the truth. And I had no greater joy than
to hear that my children walk in truth." Somebody sent him a letter and
said, this may be. Somebody sent him a letter. The
elect lady sent John a letter and said, my daughter, got as low as she
could go, was walking the street, and she didn't have anything.
But the Lord brought her to hear
the gospel. And you know, the Lord saved her soul. She still
didn't have anything. But she has Christ. And John
wrote back and said, praise the Lord. Go with me to Deuteronomy 4.
Deuteronomy chapter 4. And our greatest responsibility
as parents' people is not to provide them with things, but to have them under the gospel
that the Lord might bless their souls. That's the one thing they
need. Give them a good education, but
this is a better one. Provide all you can. That's what
love does. I just love to lavish my children
with things, Boy, I tell you, Lord, my daughter
has given me great joy over the years, none more so than when
she got in that Baptist school. And I mean it. When your daughter
got in there, thrilled my soul. Deuteronomy 4. Listen to these
blessed, blessed exhortations to all the sons of Jacob. Chapter 4, verses 9 and 10. It
says, Take heed to thyself, keep thy soul diligently, lest thou
forget the things which thine eyes have seen. Lest they depart
from thy heart all the days of thy life, but teach them thy
sons and thy sons' sons." Jacob didn't forget this, by God's
grace, especially the day that you stood before the Lord your
God in Horeb, and said, I say to it, thou stood before the
Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said unto me, gather me
the people together, and I will make them hear my words. They
heard. They may learn to fear me all
the days that they shall live upon earth, and teach their children."
One more, would you please, Deuteronomy 6. Deuteronomy 6, you know, Moses
said to all the people, this is not a vain thing, this is
your life. What we're doing here, you know, everything else is
vain. Everything else is vain. This is not. This is not. This is not. You know, I learned
reading, writing, and arithmetic when I was growing up. Reading,
writing, and arithmetic. That's all you need, honestly.
But anyway, reading, writing, and arithmetic. I learned three
R's that are a lot more important than that. Because I don't always use reading,
writing, and dictating. I've forgotten all the algebra
I ever knew. I had lost the thing. Ruined, redeemed, and regenerated. That's my life story. And I'm
going to be singing about that through eternity. Ruined, redeemed,
regenerated. The Lord will do the counting. You've got them all numbered.
I don't need to. But Deuteronomy 6 verse 4 says this, it says,
Here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, with
all thy might. And these words which I command thee this day
shall be in thine heart, and thou shalt teach them diligently
unto thy children. and shalt talk of them when thou
sittest in thine house, and thou walkest by the way." And when
you lie down, especially if you have time on your deathbed, when
you lie down, there's one thing they, and when you rise up, In
verse 12, go down there to verse 12, it says, Beware lest thou
forget the Lord that brought thee forth out of the land of
Egypt from the house of Mandu. And you know that's exactly what
they did. They forgot Him. How? How did they forget the
Lord? How did they forget the great
blessing? How did they forget the mercies of God? Psalm 107
says that they quickly forget the mercies of God. He said he
sent great prosperity. And they forgot. They forgot
the one thing, the leanness of soul. And you know, our attitude
and our conduct is as important as what we say to our children. The gospel we preach, the gospel
we teach, the Word of God that we profess and tell and teach
our children, our attitude and conduct. is equally as important. It glorifies
God and bears fruit. And that's just the way it is. They're not going to believe
us if we don't do what we say we believe. It's
not. Now here I close with this, okay,
just about five more minutes. Seven, eight, five. Here's a
true blessing. Jacob talks about past blessings,
present blessings, and future blessings. Verse 15. Jacob remembers
how his fathers walked, and he says, God before whom my fathers,
Abraham and Isaac, did walk. My fathers walked. God chose
my fathers. They were strangers and pilgrims.
And I dwelled with them in tents. And they taught me. And I watched
them. See, that's what I was just saying. Old Jacob watched Abraham and
his grandfather and Isaac, his father. And you know good and
well Isaac told him about going up on that mountain with his
father Abraham and God providing that lamb, that ram. Don't you
know good and well Isaac said, Jacob, did I ever tell you that
story about your granddad Abraham and I going up Mount Moriah?
Yeah, Dad, you've told me that many times. But I want to hear
it again. Because that was his life. The Lord saved his life. His life was spared by a Redeemer,
by a substitute, by the Lamb. He couldn't help. He always told
that. Joseph, my fathers walked with
the Lord, Abel, Enoch, Abraham, Isaac, my grandfathers, and so
am I by the grace of God. So am I. And oh, Joseph. I believe
you are too, thank God. And Joseph, oh, what I want more
than anything for your sons is that they will walk with the
Lord too, that they'll be strangers in this earth. I want more than anything for
them to be strangers and pilgrims in this earth. And the Lord will
not let them die in Egypt, bury them in Egypt, but will take
them out like He's promised to do all the sons of Jacob. Oh,
Joseph. Your fathers walked with God
and were strangers and pilgrims. And I do, by the grace of God.
And I believe you do, Joseph. I know you do. Oh, may your sons. Oh, may the Lord give them the
faith of God's elect. The faith once delivered to the
saints. Go walk with us. Huh? Walk with
us. What a blessing. What a testimony
to our children, older believers, still walking with the Lord all
these years. Huh? Isn't that a testimony? Testifies,
gives thanks unto God and testifies of His great blessings upon His
people. Then the next thing He says,
and He fed me. Passed mercy. Verse 15, He fed
me. All my life long, unto this day,
He fed me and He's still feeding me. Now you know He's talking
about more than just bread. You know that. He fed me. See, the Lord told us to always
pray this way. Give us this day our daily bread. And then He, by example, showed
them one day he wasn't eating. And they said, eat. He said,
I am. He said, I have meat to eat that
you don't yet know of, that you need. This is the meat and the
bread that you will live on. The meat you eat in this world,
whatever you accumulate, is going to go out in the draft. Now this
will stay with you forever. This meat. This will give you
inward joy. Oh, outward bread will make you
Fat and sassy, but it's the inward bread that makes you humble and
meek. It's the inward bread that feeds your soul. And Christ said,
I am the bread. He said, this is the true bread
that cometh down from heaven. He said, I am that bread. If
a man eats, he'll never hunger. He'll never want for anything.
I am the bread of life. The bread from heaven that you
must have to live before God. I am the bread. Except you eat
my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part. You won't be
before God. All that I am and all that I did, I am the bread
of heaven. I am the nourishment for the
soul. I am your life. Jacob said, He fed me. Has He
fed you with this gospel? Are you still being fed? He said,
He fed me all the days of my life and right now. He's still
feeding on it. Some people grew tired of that
light bread, didn't they? That man in the wilderness. And
God grew tired of them and kicked them out. But Jacob, I mean,
Joseph, I mean, Caleb and Joshua both said, time shall we go. This is our life. This bread, this food, this gospel. Christ, I've got to hear Him.
He's still feeding me, still feeding on Him. Verse 16, He
fed me this bread, and He said, The Angel which redeemed me from
all evil. May He bless the Lance. The Angel,
capital T and capital A. Now who is the Angel that redeems
God's people? There's only one Redeemer, the
Lord Jesus Christ, the angel of His mercy. And old Jacob,
though he lived thousands of years before Christ came, he
says, my Redeemer liveth. I know. Well, how do you know,
Jacob? Because he wrestled with it.
He found me in a waste, howling wilderness with nothing. And
he wrestled me down and changed my name, changed my mind, changed
my heart, spoke to me and told me that he had redeemed me, told
me that he loved me, told me what he had done for me, told
me all that he had done, is, doing, and shall ever do, the
angel of his mercy. That's the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Redeemer. Did not our Lord say, Abraham,
rejoice to see my day? He saw it and was glad. Who? Christ up on Mount Moriah
that substituted. And Jacob says, the angel, the
same one, redeemed me, came to me. Redeemer, an angel of His
mercy in whom we have redemption. The forgiveness of sins through
His precious blood wrestled me down to the ground, made me to know what I am. He
made me to know Him and what He had done for me and will do
for me and all the blessed promises that I might escape the corruption
that is in this world through lust and might go and obtain
that eternal redemption and that inheritance that fadeth not away,
the angel. He redeemed me. Oh, may He bless
the lads. May He be there. You see, this
is a prayer, people. Jacob can't confer a blessing
on us, and we can't either, can we? We can't do it. We can't save anybody. We can't.
We can talk to our children, but unless the Lord blesses them,
they won't be there. We can say what we will, but
unless the Lord speaks, they won't hear. This is a prayer. This is what He's saying. May
the Lord bless the lads. May the Lord bless the lads.
And what's the blessing? Now this is what the Lord told
Moses to tell Aaron, to tell the people every time. This is
the blessing. He said, the Lord bless thee
and keep thee, not cast you out, but keep you and preserve you. And the Lord make his face. to
shine upon you. Face? Yeah, Christ. You need
to see His face. And be gracious unto them. Give you the gift of eternal
life that's in Christ our Lord. And the Lord lift up His countenance
upon thee. May the Lord be pleased with
thee by faith. Without faith it's impossible
to please God. And give thee peace in this world,
you're going to have tribulation. Nothing but troubles, lads and
lasses. But if you're in Christ, Christ
in you, peace. Peace. You have peace with God
and He'll give you peace of mind, peace of heart. And if God blesses
your little lad someday, He'll bless your home. He blesses you
with a believing husband, you'll have peace in the house. Or not otherwise. And put my
name on them. You know what Jacob said? Put
my name on them. Oh, may the Lord bless the lads
and call them. You know, my dad's name is going to be
forgotten sometime. It is. The place thereof is going to
know it no more. And you know, Janine, only those
that knew your dad and still listen to his messages and read
it, remember him. Those that love him, remember
him. The world, it's just going to happen to all of us. The place
thereof is going to know it no more. I am so thankful to have
been his son. I'm so thankful. I'm thankful
to be called by His name. But there's one name that we
need to bear. Son of God. When every other
name is forgotten. May we bear that name. Lord,
bless the lads. Bless these little lads. May
Andrew, son of Polk, be named the son of God. That's the one thing they need.
Alright. What are we going to sing, John?
177? Number 30. 30? 30. 30. That's all I'm saying. Number
3.