This is a wonderful opportunity
for us to meet together and worship the Lord. You at home and us
here. You at home and us here. Shirley
put up on Facebook today, and if you look on it a few hours
before we come, you'll know what my text is, where I'm going to
be preaching from, and what my subject is. Tonight I'm going
to be preaching from Genesis 47, still dealing with Old Testament
pictures of Christ, and Joseph the ruling prince. Joseph the
ruling prince is what I'm going to speak on tonight. But before
we go and read the scriptures, let's go to the Lord in prayer
together. And ask God's blessing upon the service and upon our
dear saints that's not able to meet together. Our Father, the
precious name, blessed name, glorious name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, how thankful we are, how blessed we are, how joyful
we are that we can meet like this We can't be together physically,
but we can still be together spiritually. Which shows us,
Lord, that our union and our fellowship and our worship's
a view. We can't be here together to worship, but we still gather
to worship. We can't be here together to
hear preaching, but we can still hear preaching. And so, Lord,
we thank you. God bless our dear brothers and
sisters. Pray for Don and Shelby, Bruce
and Joe, and dear Bruce Daly, God bless these dear saints,
Rick and Helen, Lord Jesus, and others that are having a struggle,
and though I don't know who they are, you do. So Lord, meet with
us tonight, bring glory to yourself, for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Alright, Genesis 47. Genesis 47. You know, I'm not going to read
any verses and the reason being is because I'm going to just
deal with two or three verses. But I will read a couple of verses
here. Verse 11 and 12. We'll deal with these two as
much as anything. And Joseph placed his father
and his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt,
in the best of the land, in the land of Ramesses, as Pharaoh
had commanded. And Joseph nourished his father
and his brethren in all his father's household with bread according
to their families. And there was no bread in all
the land, for the famine was very sore, so that the land of
Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine. Now we've said it many times,
there was a famine in the land. There was a famine in the land.
But in that one that God exalted and raised up, Joseph, There
was enough to spare in His hands, whom God had raised up and exalted,
that one who carried the royal seal. He had enough and to spare,
even while this famine was going on. And our Lord Jesus Christ,
He's been given out since eternity, and He's as wealthy as He was
the day He started. And everyone who had a need,
everyone who was hungry, everyone who was affected by the famine
had to go to Joseph. Had to go to Joseph or else starve
to death. And so this dire need that they
had, this dire necessity that they had of being in this family,
in this famine, excuse me, when they had this dire need, this
dire necessity, when they came into the presence of Joseph,
it only helped to show forth the unsearchable riches of this
great deliverer. Here they come, he's got everything,
they have nothing. He's got all the food. They're
starving. He's got all the glory. They
have none. He has all the wonderful clothes
on. They have none. They're beggars.
They're there as beggars. And there's enough in our Lord
Jesus Christ to satisfy, satisfy, Every soul that's in need, every
soul that's in a dire strait, every person who is hungry and
needy and knows that there's a famine in their soul, there's
a wonderful, there's enough to satisfy every soul in the Lord
Jesus Christ. When there was a multitude that
was walking with our Master, And then a bunch of them, when
he says, you know, said, as I told you, no man can come unto me
except the Father give it to him. And they heard these things,
and they talked about he was the bread of life, and except
you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you.
And they said, this is a hard saying. Who can hear it? And
our Lord Jesus said, I then told you that if it's not given of
you of my Father to come to me, you won't come. And a multitude
turned around and walked away from him. It says the disciples,
many disciples turned from him. They did not have enough need.
They weren't in enough straits. They weren't in enough pain.
They weren't in enough need. They wasn't hungry enough. That
they would take him as the bread. They wouldn't take his blood.
that all He looked to His disciples and He said, looked at the twelve
and said, will you also go away? And they said, Lord, to whom
shall we go? Where are we going to go? Where are we going to go that
can feed us and meet our needs? Where are we going to go? Lord,
you've got the words. You've got the food. You're the
one that we need. You're the one that we have to
have. And I tell you, beloved, there's enough in Christ to satisfy
every soul on the face of the earth that ever has been and
ever will be. But if you don't come to Him,
He can't satisfy you. And most people are very satisfied
where they are, and with what they've got, and where they go,
and what they believe, and how they act. They're very satisfied
with themselves. But those who are not satisfied
with themselves, or nothing this world, or nothing in it, They
come to the only place like these people did. They came down to
Egypt to get food from Joseph. We go to Christ to get our food. Our Lord Jesus said He's the
bread of life, He's the water of life, and He's the light.
Now this is what we got to have. We got to have water, and we
got to have bread, and we got to have light. And our Lord Jesus
Christ is all three of them. So bless his name. And I tell
you what, you know when this famine came to an end? For everyone,
you know when this famine came to an end? Only when the people
had no more to give. When that famine ended, when
they said, we ain't got anything else to give, so Ab-Joseph had
to give it to them. When they had nothing else to
give. No money to buy with. No cattle to trade with. Nothing
to bargain with. And when the famine ended, for
everyone that came to Joseph, when they had nothing else to
give. And that's the way it is with
the Lord Jesus Christ. When people have nothing, come
to the place where they have nothing. nothing to give come
to the end of themselves that's when that's when God saves a
man and delivers a man and so here in this chapter we see that
Joseph is honored and served by those who once denied him
and once persecuted him And it also shows us our relationship
to our Lord Jesus Christ as his servants in this world. First
of all, look at the great, great privilege that they had. In verse
11, and I want you to notice this now. First thing I want
you to notice is Joseph placed his father and his brethren.
That's the first thing that happens. They have to be placed. They
don't know where to go. They don't know where they're
supposed to be. They don't know what they're supposed to be doing.
And that's the way it is with us. God places us where we need
to be. He puts us where we ought to
be. You know, I'm in Tennessee because
God placed me in Tennessee. I'm at Lantana Grace Church because
God placed me at Lantana Grace Church. I thought I was coming
on my own will, and I thought this was going to be a wonderful
place to live, but God placed me. And that's the way God does.
He places His people where they are supposed to be, and where
He will get the most glory out of. And you know our Lord Jesus
Christ, and here's the thing about us, we want God to put
us where we're supposed to be. And you know one place He places
you? He places you at the feet of
His blessed Son. He places you as a beggar before
His blessed Son. He's got to put you in a place
where you will not do and you cannot but help come to the Lord
Jesus Christ. So He placed them in the land.
They didn't know where to go. They didn't know where to live.
They didn't know what they're supposed to do. Well, how in
the world are they supposed to know? Joseph's done it for them.
And that's the way it is with the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't
know where we should be. Don't know what church we're
supposed to be. Everything about us, God places
us there. Places us there. And I tell you
what, look what it says there. Not only did He place them, His
Father and His Brother, but gave them a possession in the land
of Egypt, and listen to this, and the best of the land. They had the very best. You know,
Egypt was a big, big, big, big country. And he gave them the
best there was in the land of Egypt, the best there was in
that place, which we call it the world. Joseph gave them the
best land. And ain't that the way it is
with our blessed master? Does he not give us the best?
My he gives us more, you know When you have they just had the
best of an earthly place. We've got the best of You know,
I can't even say best I said what we have in Christ is so
much more so much more glorious So much more precious so much
more rich than they can have in the best of the land But still
yet Joseph put them in the very best place Put them in the best
of the land And in coming out of Egypt, when they came to Egypt,
they were brought under Joseph's rule. Joseph's the ruler now,
see. He's the one that Pharaoh said,
you take care of this whole country and everybody in it. The only
person you answer to is me. And so when his brethren come
into Egypt, and anybody else came into Egypt, they were brought
under the rule of Joseph. And I tell you what, when they
came into Egypt as brought under the rule of the kingdom of Joseph,
and what a gracious, gracious rule he gave them, and the gracious
rule he had over them, he gave them the best. And I tell you
what God did for us. Paul said this in Colossians
1.12, he says, We give thanks unto God who hath
made us fit, able to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints
already in light, already in light, already in glory. And
he said, and God hath delivered us from the kingdom of darkness
and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. And
we're under the rule of the Lord Jesus Christ We have His yoke
upon us and we're so thankful, so blessed, so grateful to have
a Lord. And is anybody more gracious
as a Lord than our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ? Anybody kinder? Anybody more compassionate? Anybody
more tender? Anybody more caring? Anybody
more concerned for His children than Him? Who in the world is
like our Lord Jesus Christ as a King to rule over His people? He rules with love. He rules
with tenderness. He rules with gentleness. He
rules with grace. And oh my, He rules every one
of us and oh we're so thankful. Thankful to have His rule. Grateful
to know that our Lord Jesus Christ sitting on His throne and ruling
our lives and ruling everything about us. And I bless Him for
that. And then look what else happened
to Him. He says there in verse 12, And Joseph nourished his
father and his brethren, and all his father's household with
bread, according to their families. And in the margin it says, when
it talks about nourishing them, as a little child is nourished,
according to the little ones. So when it says he nourished
them, that means he's taking care of eating the babies, taking
care of the little ones. And our Lord Jesus Christ, that's
what he says, God has my little flock, oh little flock, my flock. little flock he said there's
a kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world so
he nourishes them and who nourishes us who feeds us who takes care
of us the Lord Jesus Christ does and then look at their confession
what an honest confession they made down here in verse 25 down
here in Genesis 47 25 and they said thou hast saved our lives Oh, they confessed. You saved our lives. We was going
to die. We was going to perish. We was
going to starve to death. We didn't have anything. And
He said, Thou hast saved our lives. You know how He saved
their lives? He had everything ready to feed
starving people before the famine ever came. And Christ had everything
for his people before the world ever began. As Joseph made provision
and filled the storehouses full before the first day of the famine
started, he had everything prepared for all these people that would
come and for his brethren that would come long before the famine
came. and before God ever created Adam
in the Garden of Eden our Lord Jesus Christ God had a Savior
for his people and Savior for sinners before he ever put Adam
in the Garden of Eden. God, that was no slip up on God's
part. No, no, God had Christ as the
Lamb slain before the foundation of the world. And He had us a
Savior before the world ever began, before Adam was created.
God had a Savior, God had someone and beloved and we confess as
they did an honest confession our Lord Jesus Christ saved our
lives, saved our souls, saved us from our sin and over in Exodus
chapter 3 it says this that the Lord keeps mercy for thousands
and thousands of generations So you know what that means and
that was back in Exodus. He keeps mercy for thousands
of thousands of generations. So there's generations and I'm
a generation that he kept mercy for. And he kept mercy of generations
from Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and right on down through
the history of time. Christ has kept mercy for his
people. And there's people not yet heard
the gospel, but Christ has mercy for thousands of generations
not born yet. If he tarries, he's coming. And
I tell you what, and he's the one who saved our lives, and
that's what we confess. Lord, you saved our lives. You saved our lives. Not just
for eternity, but saved them now, even now. You look at your
life before God saved you. You might have been a religious
person. You might have went from church to church. You may not
have had any religion at all. May have been like me. Didn't
know a thing in the world about a Bible or anything. And you
look at your life and how you lived your life. I look at mine. I was a self-righteous, Pharisee,
fundamentalist. That's the life that I lived.
But God saved our lives. Saved them from false religion. Saved them from sin. Saved them
from tradition. Saved them from the deceit and
self-deception of ourselves. He saved our lives. Huh? And
oh my, look at them now. Not only has He saved our life
then, and He saves our life now. And if He lets us live tomorrow,
He'll save our life again tomorrow. You know why he does that? Because
he's a Savior. He's a Savior. No wonder the
Apostle said, oh my, for by grace are you saved. Through faith,
and that's not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. To God
be the glory, great things he hath done. Oh my, God did it. God did it. And I tell you what,
we confess, we confess, Lord you saved our lives. We couldn't
save ourselves. We would have destroyed ourselves.
And all he had to do was just let us alone. But he wouldn't
let us alone. He wouldn't let us alone. And
then look what else here in verse 25. Now in order to have an honest
confession. And Joseph gave him the very
best. But look what they said in the last part of verse 25.
Let us find grace in thy sight, in the sight of my Lord, and
we will be favorable servants. Lord, if you give us grace, and
if you give us grace in your sight, we'll be your servants. And let me ask you this. If the grace of Joseph, an earthly
man, they said, if we found grace in your sight, If they were willing
to give themselves up as a servants to Pharaoh, and being his servants,
how much more should the grace of Christ, and the love of Christ,
and the glory of Christ constrain us? Constrain us. We've already
been given grace. We already have been blessed
with an abundance of grace. How much more should the love
of Christ constrain us? Constrain us to give ourselves
to the Lord Jesus Christ, lock, stock and barrel. You know, Paul
told the Romans, he says, Brethren, I beseech you, I beseech you
by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living
sacrifice. Now under the Old Testament and
under the law they slew the sacrifices and they offered the blood of
those dead sacrifices. But what Paul is saying, I beseech
you brethren, present your bodies, you, who you are, your body,
everything about you, present it as a living sacrifice. not
a dead one, a living one, a person who's alive has a heart, he has
a will, he has affections, he has desires, and he willingly,
he comes and gives himself away to the Lord Jesus Christ. I heard
a man say one time, that we ought to get up every day, every day,
and give ourselves away to the Lord Jesus Christ every day. Say, Lord, here I am. I'm yours. You do with me as seemeth good
in your sight. And I tell you, give ourselves
up to the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, what a blessed thing it is.
What a freedom it is. Religion makes coming and doing, serving God
and doing things for the Lord, a hard duty, a hard task master. But do you find it hard to serve
the Lord Jesus Christ, to be his servant? Do you find him
a hard task master? No, no, no, no, no. He's a good master, wonderful
master, blessed master. And I tell you what, beloved,
when He gives us His grace, we get up and say, Lord, here I
am, I'm yours. I'm yours. And when a man owns
another man, he can do with him what he wants to. And one thing
I know about every believer, everyone who knows Christ and
loves Christ, I know this, that they give their heart, their
soul. You know, I've often said this,
if a person's got your heart, they got you. Now you can give
a person your body. You can give a person your time.
And you can give a person some effort. And you can do a lot
of things for a lot of people without having any love in it.
But you cannot, you cannot know Christ and sacrifice, give yourself
away to Him unless you've got love. And if He's got your heart,
He's got you. He's got you. And when a person's
got your heart, they got all of you. Ain't that right? They
got you. They got more in your body. They
got more in your money. They got more in your time. They
got you. They got you. And then look here. Let me show
you another thing about Joseph being a beautiful picture in
our relationship with Christ. It says here in verse 23, Then Joseph said unto the people,
Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for favor. I bought you. I have bought you. And I bought everything you've
got. I bought you land. I own everything you got. And oh my beloved, we've been
bought with a prize. Oh, what a prize. With the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ as a lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. And look what he said here. And
not only that, but he said there in verse 23, And here is seed
for you, and you shall sow the land. Joseph not only bought them,
but he turned around and gave them a handful of seed, good
seed, to sow the land that they lived in. And he did this that
they may become fruitful laborers. You know, you look in Genesis
47 and look in John 15. Look in John chapter 15. You
remember the parable of the sower, don't you? That parable of the
sower. Our Lord Jesus Christ said a
sower went out to sow seed. And he sowed seed and he sowed
four different seeds. He had seed and it fell on four
different types of ground. But that that fell on good ground,
the scripture said it brought forth fruit. Some thirty, some
sixty, some a hundred percent. But it brought forth fruit. And
I'll tell you what, and that seed, our Lord Jesus Christ said,
the seed is the word of God. And I'll tell you, look what
it said here in John 15 in verse five. I am the vine, ye are the
branches. He that abideth in me, and I
in him, listen to it, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye can do nothing. Now I tell you what, if Christ
says you're going to bring forth good fruit, you know, we don't
see any fruit, but as long as He sees it, I can see fruit in
other people, but I can't see it in myself. But look, here's
another one down here in verse 16. Look what our Master said. You have not chosen me, but I
have chosen you. And listen to this, now, and
ordained or predestinated that you should go and bring forth
fruit. And listen, and that your fruit should remain, that your
fruit should remain. I don't know what to say about
that. I really don't. But I know that the Scriptures
talks about having the fruit of the Spirit. It don't say fruit,
it says the fruit of the Spirit. Then our Lord said, you shall
know them by their fruit. And I tell you what, the fruit
that I look for more than anything else. It's the love of Christ,
the generosity of Christ, and the faithfulness to Christ, and
the faithfulness and love of His people to one another. You
know, that's what boils down to, that's what our Lord Jesus
Christ said. He says, a man may be as a sounding
brass and a tinkling cymbal, and have the voice of an angel,
but if he has not charity. He's just a sounding brass and
a tinkling cymbal. And he said he'd give his body
to be burned at the stake. Give everything he's got to the
poor. But without charity, without love, it'll profit him nothing.
And I think that's the fruit that our Lord's talking about.
And when he talked about the fruit of the Spirit, the first
thing he says is faith, meekness, gentleness, goodness, long-suffering,
mercy, All these wonderful things are
the fruit of the Spirit. And that's what he's talking
about, the fruit of the Spirit. And our Lord said this. You know,
He talked about men who said, I like Paul better than I like
Cephas. And I like Cephas better than I like Paul. And I like
Apollos better than I do either one of them. You know what Paul
said about all them preachers? He said, One soweth, and the other waters but it's
God that gives you increase so it don't make no difference who's
doing what as long as God gives the glory because only God can
give the increase and he says you know that if a man sows to
the flesh he's going to reap of his flesh if he sows to the
spirit he's going to reap of the spirit And he that soweth
sparingly shall also reap sparingly. But he that soweth bountifully
shall reap bountifully. And I tell you what, beloved,
and let me tell you something else about this seed that he
gave them. You notice he said it's his seed. It's his seed. He gave it to him. It belongs
to him. And I tell you what, he's the only one who can fill
our hands. And before we can get anything
from God, we got to come with empty hands. We can only get
seed that He gives us. We can only sow seed that He
gives us. We can only labor with the seed that He gives us. And
how we got to come with empty hands before we can be filled.
and all filled with his fullness divine oh what a blessed blessed
glorious mind now look here in verse 6 look at some blessed
blessed privileges that he gave them that they had look what
he says in verse 6 the landless is Pharaoh speaking now The land
of Egypt is before thee, and the best of the land make thy
father and thy brethren to dwell. And the land of Goshen let them
dwell, and if thou knowest any men of activity among them, make
them rulers over my cattle. Now he talked about men of activity. make them rulers over my cattle."
What does that mean? That means that there's people,
God's people, called of God, used of God. They're a people
of activity. They're diligent in their business.
They're active in the things of Christ. They, you know, Paul
told them, said, don't, you know, If a fellow's a believer, I think
he's the best worker you'll have. You know, he's the one who wants
to do. He's looking for things to do.
And that's the diligent. The scripture says the diligent
shall be made fat. And I've never yet, you know,
when our Lord Jesus or Paul talked about men being servants, he
said, you know, you may work for another man, but really you're
a servant of the Lord. And you give that man all the
best service you could possibly give him. And don't give him
my service. Don't give him my service. When
he's around, don't act like you're real busy. But I tell you what,
be a servant when he's not looking. And that's what our Lord told
us. That's why He said, if you got some men that know how to
do some things, He said, you call them and let them rule over
my cattle. And I tell you what, God has
people who do things and can do things and they know what
they can do and they gladly do what they can do. That's like
that woman who worshiped the Lord Jesus Christ and poured
that box of ointment over his head and all that and they got
upset about it. Said, oh this is worth 300 pence
if we could have bought a bunch of food and gave it to the poor.
And our Lord Jesus said, you're going to always have the poor. But this woman has performed
a good work on me. And you know what? You know what
else he said about her? She has done what she could. Didn't do any more, didn't do
any less. She just did what she could. That's all God says. Just do what you can. And he said, and you know what
he said there? He said, this will be spoken of a memorial.
of her and here I am I'm talking about it two thousand years later
about that woman he said as long as the gospel is it should be
a memorial and so I tell you what they have special privileges
I tell you men that can do things they they they step up and do
what they can do and then look what a glorious honor glorious
honor that this was placed upon his brethren and his father in
verse 2 And he took some of his brethren, even five, and presented
them unto Pharaoh. He took his brethren and presented
them before Pharaoh. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ,
our kinsman redeemer, Shirley was talking about the other day,
I used it, I think maybe even last week, she said one of the
most wonderful verses of scripture that she likes and loves is in
Jude 24. And we used it last week. Our
kinsmen redeemer, our King, is able to present us faultless,
blameless, without blemish, without spot before Him in love. Jude 24 says this, He said, unto
Him that's able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless
before His presence, with eternal joy and glory. Now I tell you what, they was
presented to Pharaoh. Our Lord Jesus Christ presents
us to His Father. He presents us to His blessed
Father. And He is going to present us
to His Father. You know, when the bridegroom
has the bride, he takes that bride and he walks, you know,
that bride comes walking down through there and the groom takes
her. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ already got his bride. Already
got his bride. And you know, the scripture tells
us that there will be 30 minutes of silence in heaven. Now, I
don't know what that means, but I'm going to tell you what I
think it means. I'm going to quit preaching and tell you my
opinion. for what it's worth and it ain't worth much. But
I'll tell you this, when they talked about that 30 minutes
of silence in heaven, I believe that when the final judgment
comes, and all the saints of God rise the dead rise first
then we which are alive and remain shall be called up together then
and so shall we ever be with the Lord meet Him in the air
and so shall we ever be with the Lord I think when we all
get there at one time when it's all done at one time I think
that there'll be such a silence in heaven because they'll just
be in such wonder There will be such wonder, such glory, such
stillness, such quietness, that even the angels in them will
just stand in awe and wonder and say, this is what our Master,
our God, our Savior, our Redeemer, the One we love and adore and
obey perfectly, this is what He went for, for these. And I tell you what, it'll be
speechless for 30 minutes. And then when it starts, it's
going to be joy unspeakable and full of glory. I'm just telling
you what I think about it. But there we are, beloved, a
wonderful, wonderful, another beautiful picture of our Lord
Jesus Christ and what a blessing it is to know Him and rejoice
in Him. Jesus Christ is made to me All
I need, all I need He alone is all my plea He is all I need
Wisdom, righteousness and Good night and God bless you and Lord
willing we'll see you Sunday morning.