All right, let's open our Bibles
together now to Genesis chapter 46. Genesis 46. Beginning in verse one, and Israel
took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba
and offered sacrifices under 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 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 in the wagons which Pharaoh had
sent to carry him. We'll end our reading there.
Let's bow before our Lord together. Our Father, we come into your
presence this evening with a grateful and a thankful heart. How thankful
we are so thankful that human language can't express it. The
sinful men and women, such as us, can come into your presence
and call you our Father. We know it's only because of
our Lord Jesus Christ, and we dare only plead his obedience
as our only righteousness. We dare only plead his blood,
his blood alone, as the atonement for our sin. And Father, how
we thank you for a Savior who saves, completely and utterly
saves his people from their sin. And Father, how thankful we are
that you've given us this opportunity to come together in the middle
of the week and to have a refreshing from your word to one more time
hear the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I pray you'd
bless your word as it's preached. Bless it to your glory. Bless
it to the hearts of your people. for the good of your people,
for our life, for our comfort, for our instruction, to increase
our faith by enabling us to see more of Christ our Savior. Father,
we're so thankful for this opportunity to worship and beg of you that
you'd bless it. Father, we pray for those of
our number who are in times of great difficulty, Recovering
from sickness, we think of our sister Peg Wooten. Father, that
you'd be with her in a special way, continue to heal and strengthen
her, we pray. Others, Father, need you especially. We're thankful to know these
things have not come by accident, but according to your eternal
will and purpose. Father, we pray that you'd heal,
comfort, and deliver your people as soon as it could be thy will.
Father, we're thankful for the many many, many blessings of
this life, how richly that you blessed us. We pray that you'd
always give us a grateful and thankful attitude for everything
that you so freely given to us. Father, again, we beg of thee
that this evening you give us an hour of true worship, that
you send your spirit upon us and able to worship you in spirit
and in truth. First, in Christ's name, for
his sake and his glory, we pray. I've titled the message this
evening, Fear Not, Jacob. Our text tonight gives us a sweet
promise of the gospel to every believer. The promise that we
just read, that's a promise of the God of Jacob to Jacob personally. But it's also a promise to all
of God's Jacobs, all of his objects of mercy, grace, and love. Now, Jacob is 130 years old. I should have counted up, I don't
know how many years he thought Joseph is dead. And now suddenly
he hears, not only is Joseph alive, but he's king down in
Egypt. And this 130-year-old man is
getting ready to make a long journey from Canaan all the way
down to Egypt. Now, you know, these stories
that we read in the Old Testament, they're pictures of Christ. But
we have to remember, these things happen to real people. A 130-year-old
man, is worried about making that journey. I mean, he worries,
can his body take it? Is he going to live long enough,
you know, to get there? I've never been 130 years old,
but I just bet you when you're 130 years old, you don't count
on tomorrow like a young person does. And there also had to be
some fear and some doubt in Jacob's heart about Joseph. He spent
years thinking Joseph is dead. And now he hears Joseph is alive.
I mean, is he? I mean, really, is he really
alive? Maybe this man's an imposter. Maybe he fooled the brothers.
I mean, after all these years, Jacob's gonna wonder, can I tell
for sure when I see this man if he's my son Joseph or not?
I've heard about a child, a young boy. He was very young, and he
was abducted from his family. Many years later, he was an older
teenager. He was found and returned back
to his family. And the family wondered, now is this really
our son? Is this really our child? You know, after all these years,
his looks have changed. His looks have matured. His personality,
the way that he would think is different because who raised
him. Jacob must have worried, could that be going on here?
I mean, will I know for sure? If this is my son Joseph, you
know, when I see him, it just had to keep going through his
mind. How can this be? that he's alive when I thought
he's been dead all these years. There's so many real fears and
concerns for Jacob to think about, wasn't there? And you know the
same thing is true of you and me. Now there are a lot of legitimate
concerns that we have about the future. We worry what's gonna
happen for our children. I worry a great deal, spend a
lot of time in prayer about it, what's gonna happen to the next
generation. of this church. What's going
to happen to our country? You know, we're always just sure
our country's on the precipice of democracy falling apart. What's
going to happen? We worry about ourselves. Will
I remain faithful? Will I remain faithful to the
gospel? Will I remain faithful in trials and heartaches that
are promised to me? They're sure to come. When they
come, will I remain faithful? Or will I turn away? No, I know. I know this. In reality,
The believer has nothing to fear, do we? We have nothing to fear.
David said, I will not fear what flesh shall do unto me. I won't
fear it because God's my God. Brother Marvin Stoniker famously
says over and over again, Romans 8.28 is always Romans 8.28. Now we know that, don't we? And we believe that. Now we do,
we believe that. Every person here believes that
to be true. Yet still, the believer's mind is often troubled. Isn't
that right? Our minds are often troubled.
Of course it is. Anybody that says different probably
ain't telling you the truth. And that's why the Lord tells
Jacob, fear not. He knows these fears are in Jacob's
heart and in his mind, and he says, fear not. Don't excessively
worry about these things. And I see four things in our
text that will help us Fear not, and we'll calm our fears when
we do fear. Number one is this. When you fear, worship God. Verse one, Genesis 46, and Israel
took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba
and offered sacrifices under the God of his father, Isaac. Now Jacob begins his long journey,
and he begins it by worshiping God. He begins it by offering
a sacrifice. You know, I think it's interesting
just in these six verses, both of Jacob's names are used repeatedly
in this. Jacob, that's the picture of
the flesh, the picture of the old man. That's the man that
fears. And then there's Israel. He's
a picture of the new man, the new man that worships God and
trusts God. But now since Jacob and Israel
are both here, there's gonna be fears. There's gonna be doubts.
There's gonna be a time that we need God to tell us, fear
not. And I see this in scripture and
it's something that I have experienced for my own self. I can tell you
when we fear, the best thing for us is to worship God. And Jacob's offering a sacrifice
because God can only be worshiped by the sacrifice through the
sacrifice of Christ. Jacob, just like Abel, just like
Abraham, just like Isaac, they worshiped God with animal sacrifices.
They're pictures of Christ. They offered those animal sacrifices
knowing what they were doing, knowing they're looking forward
to the sacrifice of Christ, the Lamb of God. Now today, we don't
offer animal sacrifices. The time of offering animal sacrifices
is over. because Christ, our Passover,
has been slain for us. So today, we worship God. It's
still through the sacrifice. It's through the preaching of
the sacrifice of Christ. It's the preaching of Christ
and him crucified. We worship God by telling people,
reminding each other about the sacrifice of Christ. What did
Christ accomplish when he was sacrificed for the sins of his
people? By faith, we look back on the sacrifice of Christ only.
But whether it's us here or Jacob then, we're all looking to Christ. We're all looking to that blood
sacrifice because God can only be worshiped by a blood sacrifice. The blood of Christ is everything
a guilty sinner needs. It's the blood of Christ that
atones. Leviticus 17 verse 11 says, for it's the blood that
maketh an atonement for the soul. The blood of Christ atones. It's
the blood of Christ that redeems us. Ephesians 1.7 says, in whom
we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins
according to the riches of his grace. Oh, God's gracious. Oh, he's gracious to sinners,
but they can't be redeemed without the blood, can they? It's the
blood that cleanses us from sin. 1 John 1 says the blood of Jesus
Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. The great disinfectant,
the blood of Christ, cleanses us from all sin. It's the blood
that justifies, Romans 5, 9, being now justified by his blood. We should be saved from wrath
through him. It's the blood of Christ that
honors every attribute of God. The blood honors God's justice
and at the same time honors God's mercy. The blood of Christ satisfies
God's justice so that God can now show mercy to sinners and
still be holy when he does it. The blood of Christ satisfies
both God's need and man's need. You think of that, the blood
of Christ satisfies God's holy, just, merciful character. At
the same time, it's the blood of Christ that satisfies man's
great need for mercy and redemption and grace. Now there are a lot
of things that I worry about, but Charlie, I never worry about
the sacrifice of Christ. Never. I never fear that the
blood of Christ will not be enough to redeem me or cleanse me from
my sin. Verse two, God spake unto Israel
in the visions of the night and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said,
here am I. Now God speaks directly to Jacob.
He speaks audibly to Jacob. God doesn't do that anymore,
but this night he spoke audibly to Jacob. But you know, God's
still speaking. He doesn't speak audibly anymore,
but he still speaks, doesn't he? He speaks today by his word. He speaks to his people by the
preaching of Christ. And I tell you, if you want to
hear from God, if you want to hear from God, him telling your
heart, fear not. I tell you, I'd make it a point
to be here when the gospel is preached. because this is how
God speaks to his people today. It's by the preaching of his
word. And God's message to Jacob was fear not. The message of
the gospel that we preach today, fear not, fear not. There's nothing
to fear if we trust in Christ, absolutely nothing. Now you should
fear if you're trusting that your own works will be good enough
for God to accept you. If that's your hope, you should
fear. But you don't have to fear anything
if you're trusting Christ. His obedience is perfect and
you'll always be accepted in him, always. And when I worship
God and I hear the preaching of Christ crucified, at least
for a little while, all my fears vanish away. How can they not
vanish away in light of the Savior, in light of Christ crucified. When I hear of him crucified
for me, I'm reminded there's nothing to fear. All right, number
two. When you fear, trust the covenant
God. Verse three said, and he said,
I am God, the God of thy father. Fear not to go down into Egypt,
for I will there make of thee a great nation. Now God identified
himself to Jacob as the God of your father. I'm the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac. Now that's the covenant God.
God who made a promise to Abraham. Abraham, you're going to have
a son. And the Messiah is going to come through that son. The
savior of sinners is going to come through that son. And that's
what thrilled Abraham's soul. That's the promise that he was
hanging on to. The Messiah is going to come through his son.
And God also promised Abraham that he'd give the land of Canaan
to his descendants. And God confirmed that promise
to Isaac. And then he confirmed it again to Jacob. This is God's
covenant. This is his promise. God was
telling these men in advance what he was going to do. This
is my purpose. I promise you I'm going to do
it. Now, God is a covenant God. And what that means is God does
what he promised to do before time began. God is never reacting
to what we do and constantly correcting the course to keep
his purpose on track. God is doing what he promised
to do. Now you can count on this. If
Almighty God made a promise, he will keep that promise. He
will. There's too many to count, but
to list, but let me give you a few of God's promises. God
has promised to save a sinful people by the obedience and by
the sacrifice of his son. God's promised to do that. He's
gonna do it. He's gonna do it. God has promised
that he's gonna call people out. He's gonna give his people life
and faith in Christ and he's gonna do it by them hearing another
sinful man preach Christ crucified. They're going to hear the gospel
and God's going to make sure that they're going to believe
it. He promised to do that. Now I'm telling you, he's going
to do it. He's going to do it. God has promised to keep those
people. He promised to keep them by the power of faith through
grace. That's his promise. He's going to do it. I know every
believer constantly fears I'm going to fall away. And you know
why we fear that? We start looking at ourselves, we start looking
at our strength, we start looking at the strength of our faith.
God's promise is he's going to keep his people by his power,
not ours. That's his promise. Now he's
going to do it. He's going to do it. God has
promised that he's going to strengthen and edify his people, just like
the shepherd takes a sheep to a meadow to feed so they can
grow and be healthy and be fed. God has promised he's going to
feed his people. I'm going to feed them. I'm going to take
care of them all the way home. He's going to do it. God has promised that when his
people have fears, he's going to comfort them. And he's going
to do it by the preaching of Christ. It's his promise. He's
going to do it. And he promised ultimately he's
going to take his people out of this world. He's going to
glorify them together with his son. That's God's promise. and you can bank everything on
this, he's going to do it. He'll not fail to bring one of
them home. Now, again, there are a lot of
things I worry about, but I never worry about God keeping his promise. If Almighty God is purposed to
do something, he's going to do it. And none can stay his hand
or saying to him, what doest thou? If God is purposed, to
save my sorry, sinful soul. He's gonna do it. I'll be saved. And the same thing holds true
for all of God's elect. Not one of them is ever gonna
be lost. Not one of them. Because God
promised to save them. And when you fear, a great cure
for our fears is trusting God. to do what he said he'd do, to
keep his promise. He's the covenant God. Then thirdly, when you fear,
when you fear and you don't understand, well, that's a big problem with
us, isn't it? I wouldn't fear if I understood where this thing's
gonna end up, how God's gonna work all this together. When
you fear because you don't understand, trust God's providential dealings
with us. In verse three, he said, I'm
God, the God of thy father, 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. Now, like
I said earlier, Jacob had to have some fear about this trip. There are things about this trip
he feared because he didn't understand. Jacob had to think, now wait
a minute, God promised my granddaddy that he'd give this land of Canaan
to his descendants. He promised my grandfather Abraham
that. He confirmed that promise to
my father. He confirmed that promise to
me, and my grandfather, my father, and me have all gotten in trouble
whenever we left this land. I mean, it's just never turned
out good for us when we left this land. But now God's leading
me out of this land leading me to Egypt, leading me to the picture
of sin and bondage to sin? Jacob didn't understand that.
He, on purpose, left Laban's house and came back to Canaan,
back to the land of promise in faith, because he believed God.
God said, you go back home to the land of Canaan, and Jacob
did it in faith. He'd been there a long time now,
hadn't he? And now, he's leaving the land that the Lord promised
to give him Jacob had to think, how can that
be right? Is this really the right thing for me to do? I don't
understand. God told me to come here. Now
he's telling me to leave. I don't understand. There was a, when I was a kid,
I had a album of some musician and it was a live recording.
And in that album, He was introducing the members of the band. And
he introduced some fella. And he said, he's from the great
state of confusion. Boy, that's me. I mean, I'm confused
most of the time, aren't you? The great state of confusion.
What is God doing? I don't understand. That makes
me fear. It's sinful doubt. I shouldn't fear no matter what,
I fear because I don't understand how, how can this be? How can,
how, how can this be right? That's what's going through Jacob's
mind. And God comes to him and he says, fear not. And here's
why you fear not. I'll be with you. Now, Jacob,
I'm going to be with you. I'll keep my promise to you.
I'm the one that's going to bring you down to Egypt and I'm going
to bring you back out too. I'm going to make of thee a great
nation down there. And I'm gonna bring your descendants
back to this land and give it to them just exactly like I promised. I'll be with you. I'll be with,
that's why you fear not. I will be with you. I don't have
to understand. This is something I remind myself
all the time. I don't have to understand. Nowhere in the word
of God does he tell us understand. What he says is trust me. Believe
me. The Lord's promise is I'll be
with you. What are you afraid of then?
Huh? Things happen to us and we're
like Jacob. We think this can't possibly
be the right thing. This can't, why is this happening?
I don't see how this can possibly be God's purpose. And God's promise
to all of us Jacobs is the same promise he made to Jacob all
those years ago. You fear not. I'll be with you. In Hebrews 13, the Lord made
this precious, precious promise to his people. I will never leave
thee nor forsake thee. Never. The Lord's going to be
with his people every step of the way, no matter where they
go, no matter where. God's promise is I'll go with
you down into the valley. And while you're there, I'll
be with you and I'll be with you and I bring you back out
to I'll bring you back to the mountaintop. I'll be with you
there too. I'll be the one that brings you there. Fear not, I'll
be with you. Now again, there's a lot of things
I worry about, but I don't ever worry about God's dealings with
me. I never have to worry about this.
Has God made a mistake? Of course not. Has God done wrong? Absolutely not. Whatever it is
that has brought my way, I know this for a fact, God did it.
God did it. And I have no doubt that God
is working all these things together for good. To them that love God,
to them who are the called, according to his purpose. Now, if I know
anything, I know that. I know that, I believe that,
I trust that. Now, most of the time, I don't see the good that
God's bringing out of this. Most of the time I don't see
it. But I still know he's doing it. I still know he's working
good in this. Because as our brother said,
Romans 8.28 is always Romans 8.28. Now, does this event, whatever
it is, happening to you, happening to me, now or in the future,
whatever event it is that we're thinking about, does that event
fall under all things? Does all, does that cover that?
Does our circumstances, good or bad, now or in the future,
whatever they might be, does that fall under the heading of
all things? Is that part of all? Well, yes,
it does. It falls under that heading.
Well, then God's the one doing it, and he's working it together
for good. I trust him. I trust that. And then fourthly, when you fear,
Trust that when it's time, the Lord will give you dying grace.
Verse four, 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. Now, when the Lord talks about
laying his hand upon your eyes, what he's talking about is when
Jacob dies. Joseph is gonna lay his hand
on his daddy's head and close his eyes in death. That's what
he's talking about. God's promise to Jacob is, I
know you fear this. I know you don't understand how
it can be true. You worry, is it really true? It's true. Joseph
is alive and you're gonna see him. You're gonna see him before
you die and he'll be with you when you do. He's gonna be the
one to close your eyes in death. That's God's promise to Jacob.
This is one of the great things he's worrying about. Is this
really Joseph? Can this really be true? And God told him. It
wasn't Reuben. It wasn't Simeon, it wasn't Judah. Almighty God told him, you're
gonna see Joseph and you're gonna be with him till you die. He'll
be with you when you die. Now you know that made Jacob
feel better, don't you? Well, if you're a believer, let
me tell you about God's promise to you. When you close your eyes
in death, the Lord Jesus Christ himself is gonna put his hand
on your face, he's gonna open your eyes and awaken you in glory
where you're gonna behold his face. Now that's God's promise to you.
If you believe him, that is God's promise to you. Whatever else,
whatever else it is that happens, that's how this thing's gonna
end up, a complete victory, being made just like Christ. Is there anything you desire
more than that? That we may just like Him? That's
what God's gonna give you. That moment that you close your
eyes in death. Well, that makes us feel a whole
lot better, doesn't it? You know, there are a lot of
things I worry about. But you know, I never worry about not
waking up in glory and not looking into the face of the Savior.
and not being completely satisfied because he's woke me up in his
likeness. That's one thing I do not have to worry about because
that's his promise to his people. And Jacob heard that promise
and he rose up from Beersheba, got in a wagon, he and his sons
and his wives and their animals all went down to Egypt because
that was God's promise to him. He trusted God. It took care
of his fears. He got on the road. On the road
again, he was singing. Now that is a sweet promise to
every belief to every son of Jacob. That's a sweet promise. And it's a sure promise too.
I want to show you in closing why this is a sure promise to
every believer. Because this is also the promise
that the father and the son made to each other in eternity before
God created anything. Before creation. the father and
the son entered into a covenant. Now, I don't know how that took
place. Did they have a conversation? Did they just know what their
will was? But if we imagine them having a conversation to enter
into this covenant, they did that. And the father and the
son trusted each other as the covenant God. The father trusted
that God, the son would do what he promised to do. The son promised. that when it was time, he would
become a man. He would take on him flesh and be born of a virgin. That he would become a man, and
as a man, he would live under the law. And he would work out
a perfect righteousness for his people. He'd obey the law for
them, just like Adam disobeyed the law for them. Christ is coming,
he's gonna obey the law for them and make them righteous. And
the son promised that he would sacrifice himself. He's gonna
obey God's law perfectly to make his people righteous, And then
it's something no human being can understand. He's gonna be
made sin for his people. He's gonna take the sin of his
people away from them and it's gonna become his. He's gonna
feel the guilt of it. He's gonna feel the shame of
it. And he's gonna bear the punishment of it. He's gonna suffer and
die, shed his precious blood to put that sin away so that
his people can be brought back to God. That was the son's promise. This is a covenant. Covenant
God, his promise. And the father trusted him. The
father is the first one to trust Christ. He trusted that the son
would do what he promised to do and redeem his people from
their sin. And the son trusted the father, that the father would
do what he promised to do. The father promised that he would
accept his elect people in the righteousness and the blood It
wouldn't be because of anything they did. It would all be because
of what his son did for them. And the father promised that
he would never cast out anyone for whom Christ died. He promised
he wouldn't. And really, if you think about
it, there's no reason for him to cast out someone that Christ
died for, is there? The death of Christ put their
sin away. Well, sin's gone. There's no reason that the father
would cast them out, is there? That was the father's promise
to the son and the son trusted the father. It's the covenant
God that he would do what he promised he would do. And the
father tells his son that don't you be afraid to go down. Don't
you be afraid to go down to earth and become a man because I'll
go with you. Don't be afraid to go down. I mean down, down, down, down,
down and be made Don't, don't, don't, don't fear doing that. Don't fear making yourself a
sacrifice for the sin of your people, because I will make a
great nation of you. By your obedience, by your blood,
you're going to redeem a number that no man can number. I'm going
to make a great nation out of you. And I'm going to gather
them together and bring them all to be with you eternally.
And the father said, son, I promise you, I'll accept your sacrifice. The issue was never in doubt,
was it? If you think about it, before the savior ever finished
his earthly ministry and obeyed God's law perfectly, at the very
beginning of his earthly ministry, the father spoke from heaven
and said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.
There was never any question of his obedience. There was never
any question that the father would accept his sacrifice. He
says, son, I'll put my hand upon your eyes. Now I'm going to be
the one to put you to death. I'm going to be the one to thrust
the sword of justice into your soul. I'm going to be the one
to put you to death, and I'm going to be the one to raise
you back to life again, too. I'm going to lay my hand on you,
raise you back to life as proof I've accepted your sacrifice.
Your death justified all of our people. Now that's God's covenant. That's the promise between God
and God. God the Father, God the Son. And the promise of God's
grace, the sweet promise of grace to all of God's people, it's
sure, it's certain, it has to come to pass. Because that's
the promise that the Father and the Son made to each other. And
since they're both God, they can't lie. That's why this thing
of salvation by grace in Christ is sure it's the promise of the
triune God. I don't know about you. That calms
my fears right down, don't you? It puts everything in perspective. I hope, Lord, you use that to
comfort your heart, just like it did mine as I studied that
this week. All right, let's bow together. Our Father, oh, how we thank
you for this precious portion of your word, this precious promise
to Jacob and all your other Jacobs, the objects of your mercy and
grace. Father, how we thank you. How we thank you that you have
pity on our frame. We're but dust. That's all we
are, dust. We shouldn't fear, but we do.
So how thankful we are that you tell us in your word, fear not. Father, cause us to trust you.
Cause us to look to you. If we're looking at you, we don't
see anything to be afraid of. If we're trusting you, there's
no reason that our heart would ever fear. Father, bless your
word, I pray. Bless it for your glory. And
bless it to the hearts of your people that their hearts might
be comforted that we might always be reminded to look to Christ
and Christ alone. Is it his blessed name for his
sake we pray. Amen. All right, Sean.