That's good. All right, hold
your place there at Genesis 50 and then turn to Hebrews chapter
11. Hebrews chapter 11, this is really
my text, but as we've been going through Hebrews 11, I've been
going back into the Old Testament on each of these, and just one
verse, verse 22 of Hebrews chapter 11, it says, emphasizing their
faith as a noun, the promise of God. That's what that means,
that faith. Faith means what God says. He
says, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Our believing is based upon God's promise. That's the foundation. And that's what this is talking
about. By faith, Joseph, whom Mark read about, When he died,
he made mention of the departing." Now that word, made mention,
when it says, it means he remembered. By faith, when he died, in other
words, Joseph was in the process of dying, he made mention, he
remembered. So this is something that he
had been told before. And what did he remember? He
remembered the departing. That word departing there is
the word exodus. He remembered the exodus of the
children of Israel and gave commandment concerning his bones. So he knew,
based upon a promise that God had made before, and we see,
go back to Genesis 50 now, Verse 24 talks about Joseph dying. Joseph said unto his brethren,
I die, I know I'm dying, the way of all flesh. God will surely
visit you, talking about the children, the Hebrew children,
and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware.
Now this is where the information came from. The covenant God made
with Abraham 400 and some years before the actual event of the
exodus the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to
Jacob." And understand now, when God swears, you know, there's
a scripture over in the book of Hebrews that talks about God
swearing an oath. You know, when men and women
swear oaths to each other, they make agreements, strike covenants,
they swear by something or someone greater than themselves. But
when God swears an oath, there's nothing greater than God. So
what does He do? He swears by Himself. Now what does that mean?
That means God engages every attribute of His character to
fulfill that promise. In other words, Joseph looked
at it, this is a sure thing. This is going to happen. Didn't
happen in Joseph's lifetime because he talked about, when you leave,
take my bones with you. And in fact, it says here that
Joseph, it says in verse 25 of Genesis 50, Joseph took an oath.
He swore an oath of the children of Israel saying, God will surely
visit you and you shall carry up my bones from hence. That's
what's said in Hebrews 11.22. So Joseph died being 110 years
old. They embalmed him and he was
put in a coffin in Egypt. And that lasted until the Exodus
later on. Now, you know the story of Joseph,
most of you do, and I'm not going to go over the whole history,
but I want to say some things concerning this. The title of
this message is this, Where God Places His People. Where God Places His People.
Now let me show you where I got the title from. You know, Joseph
is talking about places here. Here he is in a place called
Egypt. And he knew he was going to die and be buried in that
place called Egypt. He put in a coffin. And he said,
now take me away from this place to that place of promise. But
the key to it is, and this is where I got the title from, is
verse 19. Now here's Joseph standing before
his brothers and his brothers were afraid thinking that Joseph
was going to exact retribution, revenge upon him for what they've
done to him years before. What does Joseph say? Look at
verse 19 of Genesis 50. Joseph said unto them, fear not
for am I in the place of God. Now you might notice in the,
if you have a King James version there, the word am is in italics
means it was supplied by the King James translators and that's
okay but it seems like that Joseph is asking a question for information
here and that's not what he's doing it would read this way
and Joseph said unto them fear not for I in the place of God
am I not where God put me that's what he's saying to his brethren
And how do I know that? We'll look at the next verse,
verse 20. Now, as for you, you thought evil against me. What
Joseph's brethren did, they did it out of evil. Sinful motives. Sinful goals. They wanted to
get rid of him. Instead of loving their brother,
they hated him. Now you meant it for evil. But
God meant it unto good. God put me where I am. That's what Joseph is saying.
Now you're to blame because you meant it for evil. And that's
a bad thing. But God's in control and he put
me where he wanted me to be and for this purpose as it is this
day to save much people alive. This is how God determined to
preserve the Hebrew people. Because had he not brought them
there, they would have died. They would have died out as a
nation. Now, there's several considerations that I want us
to look at in these verses. And the first thing I want you
to see, the first consideration is, if you look back over there
in Hebrews 11, just like his father Jacob had
dying grace, Here's another great example of dying grace in Joseph. Verse 22. You remember back up
in verse 21, by faith, Jacob, when he was a dying, what did
he do? He blessed both the sons of Joseph. Now we dealt with that. Well,
verse 22, by faith, Joseph, when he died, at his death, he expressed
dying grace. Listen, dying grace is a gift
from God. And it was all based upon a promise
that God made to Abraham. The exodus had not yet happened
yet, but Joseph believed it. He said, when you depart. He
didn't say, if you depart. He didn't say, well now if you
all do your part, and God will do His part, and then you will
depart. No. When you depart, you're not
going to stay in Egypt. You know, Egypt in the scripture
is a metaphor, a symbol, for what? Bondage. Sin and bondage. You're not going to stay in bondage.
Now, at the time Joseph made this statement, they weren't
in bondage. But what happened? Well, look down the page there
at Exodus chapter 1. It says, in verse 8 of Exodus,
Chapter 1, now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which
knew not Joseph. Now this was later on. And you
read the rest of that. We'll come back to that in just
a moment. But this new king, this new Pharaoh, he didn't know
Joseph, and all he saw was the Hebrew children multiplying,
and he thought, well, they're going to outnumber us, we better
make them slaves, and they were put in bondage. That's what happened. But here's Joseph on his deathbed
saying, when you depart, take my bones with you. Joseph knew
the God who made the promise. He knew his purpose to save.
And you know, in the book of Hebrews, the point that's being
made there is not just the preservation of the Hebrew people in and of
itself, but God's purpose to raise up the Savior of His people
unto His elect, Jew and Gentile. It all leads to Christ. That's
why God preserved the Hebrew people. Oh, I knew Moses came
later. He was the deliverer of the Hebrew
people. But through that nation, God was going to send His Savior,
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to save much people alive. So that's where it all ultimately
leads to. That's the point that the writer of the book of Hebrews
is making. That's what Joseph, I believe, had in mind. Messiah,
in the future, is going to come through this nation. And therefore,
God's going to preserve us until His time. Somebody said, faith is trusting
in the Word of God and the God of the Word and obeying Him implicitly
regardless of the circumstances or consequences. Faith is a gift
of God. Dying grace is a gift from God. Somebody said, even while staring
death in the face, Joseph did not suffer dimming of his spiritual
eyesight, for by God's grace he kept his mind firmly fixed
on the future in Christ. That's who's coming. His body
was dying, but God gave him dying grace, which perseveres unto
the end. So that's the first consideration. Another example
of dying grace. God give me dying grace. I want
to die in the faith, die in the Lord. Blessed are those who die
in the Lord, scripture says. Here's the second consideration,
and it has to do with the place of God. Genesis 15 verse 19, Joseph virtually
said, I am in the place where God put me. This is all God's
doing. This is all the providence of
God. God's power and grace and God's providence. Giving Joseph the gift of faith
is even more remarkable when we consider the life of Joseph
and how he was brought to this place and why he wanted to be
buried in that other place. You know, Joseph, when his brothers
kidnapped him, and that's what they did, you know, they kidnapped
him. And remember they threw him down
a well and then they brought him up and then they sold him.
He was about 17 years old. And it says in Genesis 37, they
placed him in a pit. Now nobody wants to stay in that
place or even be in that place, but that's where they placed
him, in a pit. And then they brought him up out of that pit
and they placed him in the hand of Ishmaelites who placed him
in Egypt, sold him. And you remember he was placed
in the house of a man named Potiphar who was captain of Pharaoh's
guards. And you know how the story, how Potiphar's wife tried
to seduce him but Joseph would not give in and therefore he
was falsely accused and then he was placed in a prison. And
it just so happened, I love the way this, we won't turn to all
these scriptures, I love the way this goes, but you know,
in the next chapter, after he was falsely accused and placed
in prison, it says that, and it so happened, that there were
two men there, a baker, and then there was someone else who was
in Pharaoh's, a butler, that was in Pharaoh's service. It
just so happened. Well, that's the way we kind
of look at things, doesn't it? It just happened to be there. This just happened, or that just
happened. And that's not the way it happens
at all. God is in control. God is moving. You know, a lot
of our, some of our forefathers that founded this country, they
were deists. Have you ever heard that term?
Deism. That means they believed in a
sovereign creator God, but that he's not really directly involved
in the affairs of this world. He just kind of walked away.
One old writer called it the watchmaker God theory. He made
the watch, he wound it up, and then he walks away. But that's
not the God of this book. That's not the God of the Bible.
Everything is moving here according to God's purpose and God's plan.
He's the God who works all things after the counsel of His own
will. So here's Joseph in that prison. And you know the rest
of the story. Joseph was placed by God's providence
before Pharaoh. Remember, interpreting the dreams.
And then Joseph was placed by Pharaoh as second in command
in Egypt. Later on, his brothers were placed
before him. We're reading about that in Genesis,
the last chapters of Genesis. They thought he was dead, and
here they were placed before Joseph, and they were afraid.
And he says, nah, don't worry, fear not, I'm where God put me.
I'm in the place where God put me. So think of it, that's the
place of God. You know where I am? I'm where
God put me. You know where you are? You're
where God put you. Isn't that right? You say, well,
I haven't always done right. Well, in one sense, you've never
done right. In the sense of righteousness, we've never done righteousness.
Sometimes I make good decisions. Sometimes I make terrible decisions.
Sometimes I make good decisions and things still don't work out.
Sometimes I make terrible decisions and they always seem to work
out eventually. But sometimes I feel the consequences
of it. God's still in control. I'm not
controlling God. But here's the third consideration.
Look at Joseph as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what
he is. He's a type. Because just as
Joseph was sold into slavery and bondage in Egypt, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, He became incarnate, God in human
flesh, without sin, and He went into bondage of sin, our debt
imputed to Him, charged to Him. Now, He wasn't falsely accused. He was falsely accused by His
enemies. But before God, He had our sins,
the sins of God's people, charged, accounted, reckoned, imputed
to Him. And He came into this earth and
went into that bondage of this world and He came out victorious
just like Joseph. And just as Joseph was placed
in Egypt and then down into prison, Christ was placed on this earth
as God in human flesh. The Word became flesh and dwelt
among us. He walked the earth in perfect
obedience, Christ did. in perfect obedience to the will
of his father, and he went where it was determined by God that
he would go. Every step he made, it was predetermined
by God. You remember one time he told
his disciples, as they were going from one place to another place,
he said, I've got to go through Samaria. That place? Anywhere but that place. That
place that was hated by the Jews. He said, no, I've got to go that
place. Now why? Because one of his sheep
were down there. He must need to go through Samaria.
That's the way the New Testament puts it. One time, he went to
a place where he ate with publicans and sinners. And the Pharisee
said, your master ought not be in that place. And you know what
the master said? He said, that's the kind of people
that need a savior. You all don't need one. He's
talking about their own self-righteous thought. He said, these folks
need a savior. Aren't you glad that the Son
of God, the Word, came to this place and walked among publicans
and sinners and ate with publicans and sinners? Well, eventually
our Lord came to a place called Gethsemane, where He agonized
and prayed in the garden out of His sinless humanity. And then He went to a place called
Golgotha, and on a cross. Do you know something? The cross was His rightful place. Even though He was falsely accused
by men, He was rightly accused by His Father, for it pleased
the Father to bruise Him. Why? Based upon our sins charged
to Him. In that transaction, you know
what he did? He took my place. He's my surety. He's my substitute. He suffered
in that place all the wrath of God, which I earned and deserved. My sins were imputed. He was
made sin. That was his place. My debt became
his. And as a result, His righteousness
is mine. And the thing about it is, on
that cross, He satisfied justice. In that place, He satisfied justice. People talk about at the cross,
at the cross. Yes, at the cross, He redeemed
me from my sins. He shed His blood, and He died
on that cross, and then He went to a place called a tomb. And
he laid there for three days, and when they went to find him
in the tomb, here's what they said, he's not here, for he's
risen, as he said, come see the place where he did lay. And what happened to him? Where is he now? Well, the Bible
says, that he was taken up and received in a cloud and is now
in his place seated at the right hand of the majesty on high ever
living to make intercession for his people." That's his place. The right hand of God. What's he doing in that place?
He's making intercession for his people. What does that mean?
That means this, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ. It means that No one can lay
sin to my charge and condemn me because my Savior, my Lord,
my righteousness is in that place. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth righteousness without works. Now he's coming back to this
place. He's coming back as judge and jury. And when he does, Then
there's only one, one place of safety and salvation, and that's
to be in Him. Outside of Him? Well, that's
a bad place to be, folks. Paul wrote, he said, Oh, that
I may know Him and be found in Him. And that leads me to the
fourth consideration. Where is my place in God's order
of things? Let me give you these three things
under that consideration. Number one. Here's the truth
about God's people. Before the foundation of the
world, God placed His people in Christ. The everlasting covenant
of grace. Paul spoke of it in 2 Timothy
1, of that great salvation which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the foundation of the world. Christ was made our surety. All of our sins, the sins of
God's people, were charged, accounted. The debt was given to Him. He
was responsible. He's always been responsible
for my debt. And His righteousness imputed
to us. God chose us in Him, justified
us in Christ based on His righteousness imputed. And that's where we've
been, even before we knew it. Somebody asked the question,
were we not placed in Adam in the fall? Yes, we fell in Adam
into sin and death, but God's elect were not taken out of Christ
when we fell in Adam. In Adam we fell into sin and
death, but we were always the vessels of mercy which he had
aforeprepared unto glory. How? Because he placed us in
Christ. Here's the second thing under
that consideration. Having been placed in Christ
before the foundation of the world, we were placed into Him
in His death. As surety and substitute, Paul
in Romans chapter 6 said, we were baptized into His death.
That word baptized means to be placed into, literally. I'm talking about water baptism.
We were baptized when we confessed Christ, placed into the water,
immersed. But at the cross we were placed
into his death. He died for me. He didn't die
for himself, he died for his people. He suffered and bled and died
as our surety and substitute because God determined to save
sinners, justice had to be satisfied. The debt had to be paid. Righteousness
had to be established. God must be just when He justifies,
and there's only one place that He can do that, and that's in
the person and in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
No other place. He can't do it in the church. He can't do it at the altar.
He can't do it in the baptistry. He can't do it on the field of
ministry. He can't even do it behind the pulpit. It's at the
cross, at the cross. Christ finished the work. Christ
established it all. Christ redeemed me by His blood.
And then here's the third thing under that consideration. Having
been placed in Christ before the foundation of the world and
having been placed into His death on the cross, we are at some
point placed into Christ by the Holy Spirit in new birth when
He brings us to faith in Christ. Paul said in Galatians 3, we
put Him on. We put on Christ. And you know,
to accomplish that, providentially, God places us on this earth,
wherever and however He sovereignly chooses to do for His glory and
our good. For some of us, it was in Albany,
Georgia. For others, it was, for me, it
was in Ashland, Kentucky. Some of us, it's in Jerusalem. Some, it's here, there, everywhere. The Bible says God has a people
out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. But here's the thing. Somewhere or another, God's going
to bring them and place them under the preaching of the gospel.
Because it pleased Him by the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe. So the question then is this.
Am I in Christ? Just like Noah was placed in
the ark, am I in Christ who is my ark of safety? And if I am,
I'll know it when Christ takes His place in my heart. That's the new heart. That's
the regenerate heart. How? How does Christ dwell in
me? By His Spirit and by His Word. That's how. The gospel is the
power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth for therein
is the righteousness of God revealed. The Bible says that the new heart,
the new life that's given by the spirit will evidence itself
when the light of the knowledge of the glory of God is revealed
to you in the face of Jesus Christ, 2 Corinthians 4, 6. And then what happens? Well,
then we'll take our place. Believer, take your place. And
stay in your place. Well, where is my place? Well, it's the lowest place. Whosoever shall exalt himself
shall be abased, and he that shall humble himself shall be
exalted." That's what Christ said. Zacchaeus, come down. We talked about this morning,
being poor in spirit. Listen, take your place before
God. The Holy Spirit makes His people
humble. He brings us down.