If you would, turn with me in
your Bibles to Ephesians chapter three. I'd like to open our service
reading Ephesians chapter three. For this cause, I, Paul, the
prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if you've heard
of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you,
how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery, as
I wrote afore in few words, whereby when you read you may understand
my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was
not made known unto the sons of men, as is now revealed unto
his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles
should be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of his
promise in Christ by the gospel, whereof I was made a minister
according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by
the effectual working of his power. Unto me, whom less than
the least of all saints is this grace given, that I should preach
among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make
all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the
beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things
by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now, under the principalities
and powers in heavenly places, might be known by the church
the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which
he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness
and access with confidence by the faith of him. Wherefore,
I desire that you faint not of my tribulations for you, which
is for your glory. For this cause, I bow my knees
unto the Father, of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole
family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you,
according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with
might by his spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in
your hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded in
love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth
and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ,
which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the
fullness of God. Now unto him that's able to do
exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according
to the power that worketh in us. Unto him be glory in the
church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. All right, Sean, come lead
us in our singing, if you will. Okay, if you would, turn to song
number 464. 464, and we'll sing I Will Praise
Him. When I saw the cleansing fountain
open wide for all I obeyed the Spirit's wooing
when He said, Will thou be clean? I will praise Him. I will praise
Him. Praise the Lamb for sinners slain. Give Him glory, all ye people. For his blood can wash away each
day. Though the way seemed straight
and narrow, All I claimed was swept away. My ambitions, plans,
and wishes at my feet in ashes lay. I will praise Him, I will praise
Him, praise the Lamb for sinners slain. Give Him glory, all ye
people, for His blood can wash away each stain. Then God's fire upon the altar
of my heart was set aflame. I shall never cease to praise
Him, glory, glory to His name. I will praise Him, I will praise
Him, praise the Lamb for sinners slain. Give Him glory, all ye
people, For His blood can wash away each stain. Blessed be the name of Jesus,
I'm so glad He took me in. He's forgiven my transgressions,
He has cleansed my heart from sin. I will praise Him I will
praise Him, praise the Lamb for sinners slain. Give Him glory, all ye people,
for His blood can wash away each stain. Glory, glory to the Father. Glory, glory to the Son. Glory, glory to the Spirit, glory
to the three-in-one. Okay, if you would now turn to
song number 118. 118, When I Survey the Wondrous
Cross. When I survey the wondrous cross,
On which the Prince of Glory died, My riches gained I count
but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should
boast, save in the death of Christ my God. All the vain things that I sacrifice them to His blood. See from His head, His hands,
His feet. Sorrow and love flow mingled
down. Did e'er such love and sorrow
meet? O'er thorns composed so rich
a crown Were the whole realm of nature mine That were a present
far too small Love so amazing ? Being so divine ? Demands my
soul, my life, my all Okay, let's open our Bibles now
to the book of Genesis, chapter 45. Genesis 45. We'll begin reading
in verse 9 and read through the end of the chapter. Haste ye, go up to my father,
and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made
me Lord of all Egypt. Come down unto me, tarry not.
And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be
near unto me, thou and thy children, and thy children's children,
and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast, and there
will I nourish thee. For yet there are five years
of famine, lest thou and thy household, and all that thou
hast, come to poverty. And behold, your eyes see, and
the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it's my mouth that speaketh
unto you. And you should tell my father of all my glory in
Egypt, and of all that ye have seen, and you shall haste and
bring down my father hither.' And he fell upon his brother
Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck.
Moreover, he kissed all his brethren and wept upon them, and after
that his brethren talked with him. And the faint thereof was
heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, Joseph's brethren are come. And
it pleased Pharaoh well and his servants. And Pharaoh said unto
Joseph, Say unto thy brethren, this do ye, laid your beast and
go, get you into the land of Canaan and take your father and
your households and come unto me and I will give you the good
of the land of Egypt and ye shall eat the fat of the land. Now
thou art commanded this do ye, take your wagons out of the land
of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives and bring
your father and come and regard not your stuff for all the good
of the land of Egypt is yours. And the children of Israel did
so And Joseph gave them wagons according to the commandment
of Pharaoh, and gave them provisions for the way. To all of them,
he gave each man changes of raiment. But to Benjamin, he gave 300
pieces of silver and five changes of raiment. And to his father,
he sent after this manor, 10 asses laden with the good things
of Egypt, and 10 she-asses laden with corn and bread and meat
for his father by the way. So he sent his brethren away
and they departed. And he said unto them, see that
you fall not out by the way. And they went up out of Egypt
and came into the land of Canaan under Jacob, their father, and
told him saying, Joseph is yet alive and he is governor over
all the land of Egypt. And Jacob's heart fainted for
he believed them not. And they told him all the words
of Joseph, which he had said unto them, And when he saw the
wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob,
their father, revived. And Israel said, it's enough.
Joseph, my son, is yet alive. I will go and see him before
I die. Thank God for his word. Let's
bow together. Our father, we've gathered here
together this evening with joyful, thankful hearts. Thankful that
you've seen fit to give us one more opportunity to worship your
matchless name. We thank you. You've given us
one more opportunity to open your word, to read it, to study
it. And Father, we pray that you'd
enable us to see the Lord Jesus Christ in it, that you'd give
us faith to believe the gospel of your son that we hear preached.
Father, how we thank you for such a blessed opportunity What
a blessing you've given us to be able to live in a place where
your gospels preached. Father, I pray you'd make us
faithful to preach this gospel to our generation, to the generation
of children coming up after us, to the people of this community
that you might bring to hear your word, both here and on the
internet, on the radio. Father, we pray you'd bless your
word and that you make us faithful to preach it. Father, I thank
you for this family of believers that you've brought together.
Father, I pray you'd bless each home, that you continue to be
with us and watch over us and lead us and guide us. Father,
you blessed us for so many, many, many years. And how we beg of you that you
not leave us to our own devices now, but that you continue to
guide us and lead us and protect us from ourselves most of all.
Father, we pray for the sick and the hurting of our number,
those who are in times of deep water and recovering from surgery
and different ailments. Father, we pray you'd bless your
people. We do pray that you'd heal, that you'd deliver. But
Father, above all, that you'd give grace for the hour, that
you'd comfort the hearts of your people with your presence till
such time as you see fit to deliver them. Now, all these things,
Father, we ask and we give thanks Oh, how we give thanks that we
can bring all these cares, our thanksgiving, our praise, and
bring them to thy feet and know that we're heard for Christ's
sake. Father, it's in his name. For his sake, we pray. Amen. I've titled the message this
evening, A Message for God's Family. I have a message for
the family tonight. In our text, Joseph has finally
revealed himself. to his brothers. He's shown them,
it's me, I'm your long lost brother. But not only has Joseph showed
them, it's me, it's your brother, he showed his brothers what kind
of man he is. He showed them his character.
Joseph is king over Egypt. You think of the power this man
has. He has the authority over all
the food source in the world. It's all his. And this king is
also a forgiving, kind, a gracious man. He has freely forgiven his
brothers for everything that they did to him. And now Joseph
has a message for them to take home to his father. And Joseph's
message is a picture of the gospel of Christ that God's given us
to preach. And you'll notice Joseph's message, it's all about
him. who he is and what he promises
that he'll do. Isn't that the gospel? The gospel
message is a person. The gospel message is not the
correct set of doctrines. The gospel message is a person.
It declares the Lord Jesus Christ who he is. It tells us about
his character. It tells us about how he forgives
sinners. It tells us how it is he saves
sinners. It lays out to us all the precious
promises of God's grace and mercy to his people. Now this message of Joseph's
is just for the family. It's for his father. Now the
message of the gospel is to all men. We're supposed to go into
all the world and preach the gospel to all men, aren't we?
But the only people who are going to care about our message, the
only people who will believe our message, is the family of
God. And that's who I want to talk
to tonight, the family of God. God has a message for us, the
family of God. Number one is this, the gospel
message declares the Lord Jesus Christ is king. In verse nine,
Joseph says, haste ye, go up to my father, and say unto him,
thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me Lord of all Egypt. Now come down unto me, tarry
not. Now Joseph tells his brothers, you go home and tell my father
that I'm in charge of all of the land of Egypt. Joseph was
second only to Pharaoh in all of the world. But just to show
you how powerful Joseph is, I mentioned this ago, you think about this.
This man is in charge of all the food source in all of the
world. I mean, if you want food, you've
got to come get it from Joseph. You've got to go to him. I don't
care how much gold you got. Gold doesn't do you any good
if you don't have food to eat. Can't eat your gold. If you don't
have food to eat, pretty soon you'll die and have all your
gold with you, because that gold didn't do you good. I don't care about
your house and your clothes and your position in society. I mean,
none of that matters if you don't have food to eat. I mean, very
shortly, you'll give everything you have for a crust of bread
if you go without food for very long. You'll trade everything
for it. That's what Joseph's in charge
of. The one thing we've got to have to live. And Joseph tells
his brothers, now haste ye. Don't dilly dally around. Haste
ye. You have to hurry and get to
my father because the message that I have is urgent. And when you get there, first
thing you tell my father is I'm king. King of Egypt. And you'll
die unless you come where I rule. This is an urgent message. And
that's our gospel, the gospel God's given us to preach and
to believe. This is an urgent message. It's urgent. I hope we never forget that. We're really kind of spoiled,
aren't we? I mean, Henry was our pastor for 50 years. We've been at this about 20 years.
I mean, the gospel's been here just as long as any of us can
remember. Back when our parents and grandparents,
it's been here as long as we can remember. I think, well,
if I miss it, I'll just come Sunday. If I miss Sunday, I'll
just come Wednesday. Let's remember, this message is urgent. There's
an urgency to this thing. It's urgent that we go tell people
that Christ is king. He's king. Now you come to him
for life. You can't overstress this. You
can't overemphasize this too much. The Lord Jesus Christ is
king. He's sovereign over everything,
over everything, everywhere. John Chapman said this one time.
It's one of my favorite quotes. John said, God is sovereign everywhere
there's a where. God's sovereign. He's sovereign
over everything. The Father has put everything into the hand
of the Son. And he does with it as he pleases.
You and I can't do anything without his permission. That includes something as simple
as taking the next breath. We can't do it without his permission.
And absolutely nothing can happen to us that he does not permit
and send our way. Absolutely nothing. He's the
sovereign potentate. He has the power to give life
and to withhold life. It's his to give. He has the
power to give mercy. He has the power to give grace,
and he has the power to withhold it. He has the power to save,
and he has the power to leave us alone. He is in charge of
everything that our souls must have in order to live. You know,
our Savior is not just like Joseph. Joseph has got some bread. Our
Savior is the bread. He is the bread of life. And
he has a commandment for us. As the king, he gives command.
You know, kings don't make suggestions. Kings give commandments. And
the commandment of the king is, come bow to him. Submit. Submit yourself to his righteousness.
Come beg him for life. Beg him for mercy. Beg him for
grace. He's got the sovereign power
to give it to you. Now Joseph's message is all leading
up to a conclusion. His conclusion is this, you trust
me and come to me for life. You come to me. Well, the same
thing's true of the gospel we preach, isn't it? The goal of
the gospel is that God's people trust Christ. Now trust him and
come to him. You know, the reason we try our
best anyway to exalt Christ and magnify him is so you'll see
how trustworthy he is and you come to him. Now the first thing
Joseph says is, you tell my father I'm king. This is the first thing
I believe we should do when we preach the gospel. Christ is
king. He's the sovereign savior of sinners. Can you think of
a better reason to come to Christ begging him for mercy other than
this? He's got the sovereign power
to save your soul. He's got the power over everything
that can touch your body too. I can't think of a better reason
to come to him. He's got the power to do what I need. Now
you trust him, because he's got power over everything. All right,
number two, now this is a message for the family. This should comfort
your heart. This should draw you to Christ.
The message of the gospel is Christ gives life to his people.
Verse 10, Joseph says, and thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen.
That was the best part of all the land of Egypt. and thou shalt
be near unto me, thou and thy children, and thy children's
children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou
hast, and there will I nourish thee, for yet there are five
years of famine, lest thou and thy household and all that thou
hast come to poverty. Now here's Joseph's message to
his father. You come to me, come where I am, come to me. I'll
give you everything that you need so you can have a good life.
I give you the best land to live in. I give you the best food.
I give you the best clothes. I give you the best houses. I'll
nourish you. I'll nourish you so you have
a healthy, strong life. Well, that's the message of the
gospel. Come to Christ. He's the one who gives life.
Now, this is his commandment. Come to me that you might have
life. Come to me that you might live. I want to say this, well I'm
getting ready to say the true statement, but I want to say
this in a way that doesn't sound being spirited or hard, but this
is just a fact. If you don't have spiritual life,
I know why that is. I know why it is if you don't
have spiritual life. You know why? It's because you refuse
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's exactly right. If you believed you needed him,
you'd trust him. If you don't trust him because
you don't think you need him. I can make good on that. Look
at John, the gospel of John chapter five. John five verse 39. Our Lord says, search the scriptures,
and he means you do search the scriptures. For in them you think
you have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me,
and you will not come to me, that you might have life. The
reason men don't have spiritual life is they will not come. They
refuse to come to Christ. It's not that they haven't heard
him. It's not that the word hasn't been opened to them. It's that
they will not believe. Well, what is it to come to Christ?
To come to Christ for life? What's to believe on Him? Coming
to Christ is to believe on Him. That's all it is, is to cast
your soul on Christ and depend on Him to save you without you
helping Him out any. That's coming to Christ. Coming
to Christ is to believe the gospel of Christ. I hear who He is. I hear His promises, and I come
to Him believing He'll do what He said He'd do. That's coming
to Christ. I can show you that in John chapter
six. Here it is, here's having eternal
life, verse 47. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. Those that
believe are those who come to Christ for life. They come because
they believe Christ. And this life that Christ gives,
It's a whole lot better than anything Joseph could give. Joseph
told his father and told his family, this is a message for
my family. Come here to Egypt to me and I'll take care of you.
I'll give you the best of the land, I'll nourish you, I'll
just set you up to have a wonderful life here. And he did, didn't
he? He did. And that people, the
children of Israel, all those descendants of Jacob, they flourished
in Egypt, didn't they? until there arose a pharaoh that
knew not Joseph. Then they became slaves. Joseph's
plan kind of fell apart there years later, didn't it? That
won't happen with the life that Christ gives. The life that Christ
gives is spiritual life. It's life that the flesh can't
take away from you. Scripture calls it everlasting
life, eternal life. The life that Christ gives is
a life that God's justice will never take away from you. And
you know why God's justice will never take it away from you?
Because Christ already gave his life for you so that you would
live. Now he says, come to me for life. Life's in Christ. Isn't that
good news? You don't have to conjure that
up yourself. Christ is our life. All right, here's the third thing.
This is a message for God's family. I want this message to comfort
and fill your hearts. The message of the gospel is
the glory of Christ. Back in our text, Joseph says
in 13, verse 13, and you should tell my father of all my glory
in Egypt, and all that you've seen, and you shall haste and
bring down my father hither. Now Joseph says, you tell my
father all my glory that I've showed you. See, the brothers
can't go home and tell their father anything Joseph didn't
tell them. They can't go home and tell their father anything
Joseph didn't show them. Joseph has to show them first. Now they
got something to tell, right? Look at 1 John 1. That's what
preaching the gospel is. Preaching the gospel is simply
telling others about the glory of Christ. It's telling others
what God's been pleased to reveal to us. We can't tell you something
God hasn't showed us. It's simply telling the glory
of Christ that God has showed us. 1 John 1, verse 1. That which was from the beginning,
which we've heard, which we've seen with our eyes, which we've
looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life,
for this life was manifested and we've seen it. We've seen
it because God showed it to us. And we bear witness and show
unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested
unto us. That which we've seen and heard,
that's what we declare unto you. That ye also may have fellowship
with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his
Son, Jesus Christ. The only thing we can declare
unto you is what we've seen and what we've heard. What the Lord's
been pleased to show us and what he's been pleased to tell us.
We tell about the glory of Christ. That's our job. Now, I know we
can't tell it all, can we? But we tell what the Lord showed
us. The gospel tells about the glory of God's sovereign grace
and mercy to sinners. When Moses asked the Lord, Lord,
show me your glory. The Lord told Moses, here's my
greatest glory. I'll have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy. I'll be gracious to whom I will
be gracious. Now that's sovereign grace. God
giving it to whom he will, that's his sovereign grace. And God
says, that's my greatest glory. Now a rebel may not think that's
glorious, but you know who thinks that's glorious? A guilty sinner. A guilty sinner hears, God will
be merciful to whom he will be merciful. He'll be gracious,
to whom he will be gracious. You know what that means? I don't
have to do anything to deserve God's grace. Doesn't that take
all the pressure off? I don't have to do anything to
deserve God's grace. I can beg for it, but I don't
have to do anything to earn it in order to receive it. God gives
it freely just because he will. That's glorious. The gospel tells
us about the glory of Christ's sacrifice. The sacrifice of Christ
is so glorious it did what thousands of years of animal sacrifices
never did once. It takes away sin. And here's
the glory of Christ's sacrifice. He completely and utterly saved
everybody he intended to save. Everybody that he died for is
redeemed. Their blood is put away. His
sacrifice is so glorious it can't fail. Well, that throws your
heart if you're trusting him, don't you? Then the gospel tells us about
the glory of Christ's love for his people. He says it's an everlasting
love. It's a love that doesn't have
a beginning. It doesn't have an ending. I can't do anything
to make God not love me. Can't do anything. He says he's
loved his people with an everlasting love. Therefore, because of that
love, with loving kindness have I drawn I've drawn you to me. Now to a sinner, that's glorious
news. I don't have to do something
good enough so God'll love me. He loved me before I ever existed. He loved me before I ever knew
him. He loved me and chose me and he'll never quit loving me. The gospel tells us about the
glory of Christ's faithfulness. You know, we're saved by his
faithfulness, by the faith of Christ, the faithfulness of Christ
to do everything it takes to save his people from their sins.
He's so faithful, the job's done. Now that's glorious. You don't
have to finish the job. It's done because of his faithfulness. And because of his faithfulness,
he'll never leave his people. This is one of his precious promises.
I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee, never. Now to a sinner,
That is glorious news. That gives such peace to our
hearts. Keeping my salvation does not depend on me or my faithfulness. It all depends on God's faithfulness.
Now I rest in that. Can't you on God's faithfulness?
And this glorious message is a pleasing message. In verse
16, it says that the famed thereof was heard in Pharaoh's house
saying Joseph's brethren are come And it pleased Pharaoh well
and his servants. This pleased Pharaoh. They were
so pleased to hear this. Doesn't hearing the gospel of
Christ please you? I mean, it does the family. Oh,
it pleases God's people. If the Lord ever really lets
us hear the glory of Christ, we'll be so pleased to come to
him. You and I need some preacher
begging you to do something. I mean, ain't nobody keeping
you from Christ. If you ever hear of his glory, you'd be so
pleased to come to him. Then here's the fourth thing.
This is a message of comfort for the family. Don't regard
your works. Verse 19, Pharaoh says, now thou
art commanded, this do you, take your wagons out of the land of
Egypt for your little ones and for your wives and bring your
father and come and regard not your stuff. For the good of all
the land of Egypt is yours. Now I love the way Pharaoh says
this, don't regard your stuff, your stuff. You know if you say
stuff right, you know exactly what it is, it's stuff, it's
junk. Just leave your stuff, leave it where it's at and come
to me. I'll give you everything you need. And Pharaoh wants us
to make sure, he says this is a commandment, now this do ye.
Don't regard your stuff and come to me. That word regard, it means
to have pity on or to look with compassion on. My dear wife, I don't know why
she's afraid of this, but this is just us talking. She's afraid
she's going to become a hoarder. I mean, she's not. She throws
more stuff away than anybody I know. But every once in a while,
she'll watch that show on TV, Hoarders. You ever seen this
show? You know, she watches it to fire up, you know. So she
won't have regard. She watches that show, so she
won't have regard for our stuff. If you have regard for your stuff,
you say, somebody could use this someday. I better hang on to
this, you know. Or, this has so much sentimental
value to me. I mean, it's worthless. I can't
do anything with it, but I can't throw it away, because I've got
so much sentimental attachment, you know, to this. Regard not your stuff. Don't
look on it with any pity. Don't look on it with any compassion.
Look on it for what it is. It's worthless stuff. That's
the message of the gospel. Don't regard your stuff. Don't
regard your works of righteousness. Those things that you produced,
that you're so pleased with, that you thought made God happy
with you, don't regard them. Don't look at them with any pity.
Don't look at them with any compassion. Just heartlessly throw them away. and come to Christ. He'll give
you the best of everything. Regard your works for what they
are. They're evil. Don't look at them
with any compassion and come to Christ for everything that
you need. Just throw all those wicked works
of righteousness away. You notice what I said there?
Works of righteousness. All the what the world calls
evil sins. Nobody's arguing that we ought
not do those. Of course you ought not do those
things. But that's not really our problem. That's not the thing
that's keeping us from Christ, is it? What's keeping us from
coming to Christ is our works of righteousness that make me
think I don't need Christ's righteousness. Those works of righteousness,
there's nothing more wicked than that. Throw that stuff away and
come to Christ. He'll give you all the righteousness
that you need. He'll give you the only righteousness
that God will accept. Now come to Him. Don't hang on
to your works because you've got some sentimental attachment
to them. Not only are our works worthless, they'll damn our souls
if we hang on to them. Now regard not your stuff and
come to Christ. Just trust Him alone. And this
will help us regarding to not regard our stuff. Remember the
gospel message is the glory of Christ. If we hang on to our
works, we're trying to hang on to some glory for ourselves.
This is not about my glory. It's about his glory. That's
the gospel message. If we want some glory for ourselves
in this thing, I promise you this is true, we'll never see
the glory of Christ. If we want to hang on to some
of our works, the Apostle Paul says we're fallen from grace.
and we're bound to keep the whole law. And if that happens, we'll
be damned. Now that's how important this
thing is, of not regarding our works. Don't regard them. Just
throw them away. Trying to hang on to our works
will keep us from coming to Christ. It'll keep us from depending
on Christ. And trying to hang on to our works, get some glory
for ourselves, you know what else that'll do? That'll cause
us problems between each other. That's what Joseph was afraid
of for his brothers. Verse 24. So he sent his brethren
away and they departed. And he said unto them, see that
you fall not out by the way. He tells his brothers, now I
know how you are. Don't start fussing and fighting with one
another along the way. Don't regard your stuff. Don't
regard your glory. Don't start arguing about who's
the most guilty and who's the least guilty. Don't start saying,
oh, no, none of this would have happened if you'd listened to
me. Joseph said, don't do that. If you do that, you're going
to fall out by the way. Your job is to get to my father as
quickly as possible. Tell him this message that I've
told you to tell him and to bring him to me. That's your job. Don't
let anything delay that. Don't start fussing and fighting.
So you get your eye off the ball and don't do what you're supposed
to be doing. Don't delay. I tell us the same thing tonight. Let's not get our eye off the
ball. Let's pray that the Lord not let us take our eye off the
ball. The ball is Christ and his glory. Now let's not get
off that. Don't start trying to figure
out who's the most orthodox or who's the most knowledgeable
or who's the best. If we're trying to do that, start
comparing ourselves to one another, see, you know, is there a pecking
order here, you know? We're gonna start fussing, and
we're gonna fall out by the way. You know, there's no need for
us to try to figure out who's the best anyway. We're all worthless.
Christ is the best. See, his glory, his person, that's
what matters. The message of the gospel to
worthless sinners is don't regard your worthless works. Just trust
Christ. Trust him to be everything you
need. He said, now this is his commandment, trust me to be everything
you need. Doesn't that make you want to
run to him? Doesn't it make you want to hide in him? What a glorious
commandment. Then here's the last thing. The
message of the gospel is come to Christ in faith. Verse 25
says, they went up out of Egypt and came into the land of Canaan
unto Jacob, their father, and told him, saying, Joseph is yet
alive. He's governor over all the land
of Egypt. And Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not. And
they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto
them. And we saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him.
The spirit of Jacob, their father, revived. Now, when Jacob first
heard Joseph's message, he thought, I can't believe this. It's too
good to be true. My son's been dead for 20 some
years. But his sons kept telling him. They kept after him. They
kept telling him everything Joseph said. And finally, he believed
him. Isn't that how it is for most
of us when we first hear the gospel? You know, when you first
hear the gospel, Yeah, you may not have any interest in it whatsoever.
I mean, this might bore you to tears. But if you're gonna eventually
believe it, if you're gonna eventually believe on Christ, somebody has
got to stand up on his hind legs and keep preaching Christ to
you. That's what we're doing. That's what we're doing here.
We're trying to do it the best we can, best the Lord enables
us, just keep preaching Christ. If we keep preaching Christ,
somebody's gonna believe him. If we keep preaching Christ,
his people are gonna continue to be fed and strengthened and
encouraged. For some, when they first hear
the gospel, they think, that's not right. That's not true, it
can't be. It can't be true because it's
too easy. It's too good to be true that I don't have to do
something to get God to save me, you know? I just don't believe
that. But if you're gonna eventually
believe the gospel, if you're gonna eventually believe on Christ,
somebody's got to do for you what we've been trying to do
here. Keep preaching Christ, keep telling you that, I know
you don't believe, but this is what God's word says. This is
what it says here, and this is what it says here, and this is
what, just flip to any page you want. This is what, this is God's
word. Now believing, believing. God's word says salvation really
is that easy. Easy for you. It wasn't easy
for the Savior, was it? It cost Him everything. He had
to come and be made in the flesh. He had to come obey the law.
He had to be made sin for His people. He had to suffer and
die and be put in a grave, be raised again. I mean, what did
it cost Him? But it's free to you. Salvation
is by grace alone. It's through faith in Christ
alone. If we keep preaching Him long
enough, God's people are going to believe that. They're going
to believe Him. That's why we can't quit. Now that's the message. That's the message that Joseph
sent to his father. That's the message of the gospel. Here's
what I pray for all of us. Same thing what happened to Jacob.
Look at verse 28. And Israel said, it's enough. I've heard the message. That's
enough. That's all I need. It's enough
for me to believe. It's enough. Joseph, my son,
is yet alive. I believe it. and I'm going to
go and I'm going to see him before I die." When Jacob finally heard Joseph
is alive and he believed it, he said, that's all I need to
hear. That's all I need to hear. If the Holy Spirit ever enables
us to hear this message, ever enables us to get a glimpse of
Christ's glory, I promise you we're going to say, that's enough.
That's all I need to hear. That's all I want to hear. I
want to hear more of it, but that's all I need to hear. I
want to hear more of it. The commandment of the gospel
is come to Christ. And that commandment is to every
one of us here this evening. Maybe there's some, you've never
come to Christ. You know what the commandment
of the gospel is to you? Right now, where you sit, come
to Christ. Right where you sit, believe
him. Trust, trust him. Trust that
he's all it takes to save you. And there's many here tonight.
You've trusted Christ a long time, haven't you? You know what
the commandment of the gospel is to you? Come to Christ. Keep coming to Him. Coming to
Christ is not a one-time thing. You keep coming to Him. You keep
believing Him. That's what Peter told us, to
whom coming, coming over and over and over again. The believer
constantly comes to Christ because we constantly depend on Him.
You don't even have to come up with the faith to keep coming
to Christ. You think, well, what if I get
tired of this and I don't come to Christ? This is what, the
third of January? Your New Year's resolution, you
may still be keeping it up. I bet you by Sunday you're tired
of it and you quit it. That's the way we are, right?
Well, what if I just get tired of this and I quit coming to
Christ? Brother Gene Patterson and I
were talking about this this week. You know, the Lord has
a way of making it so we don't regard our stuff and we have
to go to him. The Lord will take care of even
that for us. He'll keep drawing us to him.
He'll keep us dependent on him. So we keep coming to him. That's
the Savior I need. That's the Savior. That's the
Savior. And that's the Savior I need. I pray the Lord will
cause us to hear it and come to him. All right, let's bow
together. Our Father, our hearts are so
softened and broken to one more time hear the glorious message
of your dear son that you have for your family. It's a message
of life, It's a message of salvation. It's a message of your glory.
It's a message of peace and comfort and rest in Christ. Father, how
we thank you. How we thank you for your unspeakable
love for your sinful people that would move you to provide redemption
through the sacrifice, the slaughter of your son. How we thank you,
how you condescend in the person of your spirit to come to us,
to bring this message of Christ to us and give us the faith to
believe him. Father, how we thank you. We're
so humbled. We stand amazed in your presence
and wonder how could you love me, a sinner condemned unclean. Father, I pray you give us the
faith to take your words that's been preached to us and believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Cause us to leave here this evening. with our souls resting in him.
Fathers, for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, for his glory,
his sake we pray, amen. All right, Sean. If you would, turn to song number
255 and stand as we sing Blessed Assurance. you Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory
divine. Heir of salvation, purchase of
God. Born of His Spirit, washed in
His blood. This is my story. this is my
song praising my savior all the day long this is my story this
is my song praising my savior all the day long perfect submission Visions of rapture now burst
on my sight. Angels descending bring from
above. echoes of mercy, whispers of
love. This is my story, this is my
song, praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my
song, Praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission,
all is at rest. I in my Savior am happy and blessed. Watching and waiting, looking
above, filled with His goodness, lost in His love. This is my story, this is my
song, praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my
song, Praising my Savior all the day long.