Now, if you would open your Bibles
with me to Psalm 36. Psalm 36. The transgression of the wicked
sayeth within my heart, there's no fear of God before his eyes,
for he flattered himself in his own eyes. until his iniquity
be found to be hateful. The words of his mouth are iniquity
and deceit. He hath left off to be wise and
to do good. He deviseth mischief upon his
bed. He setteth himself in a way that is not good. He abhors not
evil. Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the
heavens, and thy faithfulness reacheth under the clouds. Thy
righteousness is like the great mountains, Thy judgments are
a great deep. O Lord, Thou preservest man and
beast. How excellent is Thy lovingkindness,
O God! Therefore the children of men
put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings. They should be
abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house, and Thou
shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures. For with
Thee is the fountain of life, and in Thy light shall we see
life. O continue thy loving kindness
unto them that know thee, and thy righteousness to the upright
in heart. Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let
not the hand of the wicked remove me. For there are the workers
of iniquity fallen. They are cast down and shall
not be able to rise. Let's bow before our Lord together
in prayer. Our Father, bow before you this
evening, coming into your courts and seeking a word from thee.
Father, I pray that you would enable us by thy spirit this
evening to worship you in spirit and in truth. And Father, that
we might be enabled by your spirit, by your mercy, and by your grace
to hear a message of Christ our Savior from thee to our ears
and to our hearts. Father, enable us to hear the
message this evening with the ear of faith and be pointed to
Christ our Savior. And Father, I beg of you that
you'd cause faith to be mixed with what we hear. Enable us
to hear of Christ our Savior and believe on him. Rest in him. Hang the entirety of our soul
upon him and him alone. Father, how we thank you for
a place that you've given to us we can meet together and worship
in peace and unity. Father, I pray that you would
continue to bless us in the future as you have in the past. Don't
leave us alone now, we pray. And Father, we freely confess
you've blessed us beyond all people on the face of the earth.
We are still in this flesh, a poor and a needy people. Father, we
pray that you'd be with your people that you brought into
the time of trouble and trial. We're thankful that you have
said in your word that you remember where but dust. Father, we pray
that you'd give grace that's sufficient for the hour. We pray
that you'd be with our brother Cecil Thornberry and his family
in a special way. Father, be with them, give calmness
and assurance and comfort their hearts. We pray the same blessing
for the family of our brother D. Parks, Father, that you'd
comfort their hearts at this dark, dark time as only you can. Again, Father, we beg of you
that you would speak to us through your word this evening, that
you'd strengthen and edify our souls by the preaching of your
word. For it's in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, for his
sake and his glory, we pray. All right, now if you would turn
back with me to Genesis chapter 36. We're gonna continue our
study in the book of Genesis this evening. And I did not read
my text on purpose because it's 45 verses long and much of it
is a genealogy. So we're just gonna kinda go
through it tonight as we get there. Now my goal this evening
is for us to see the results of two very different genealogies. That's why I've titled the message,
Two Very Different Genealogies. It's the genealogies of Esau
and Jacob. Now Jacob and Esau, they're brothers,
they're twins, but these are two very different men from the
moment of their conception. From the womb, they were very
different men. God loved one and hated the other. God chose one, passed the other
by. And at the same time, both of
these men are responsible for their actions too. I can't explain that, only God
can make that so. God chose one and passed the
other one by. Yet Jacob and Esau are both responsible for their
actions. And their actions have very different
effects in their genealogies and the people who are their
descendants. So first I want us to look at
the genealogy of Esau. Esau's genealogy here is 43 verses
long. I'm not gonna attempt to read
all those verses and stumble over all those names, but let
me give you a few specific things here that are important lessons
being taught to us in the genealogy of Esau. Now you know Esau. The writer to the Hebrews says
Esau was a profane man. And the evidence that Esau was
a profane man is he sold his birthright for one morsel of
meat. He would rather have a bowl of
beans than the blessing from God, than the birthright from
God, a relationship with God. And Esau represents the natural
man, the natural nature of the flesh that's in all of us. Esau
represents the natural man that God's left to his own devices,
his own will, and his own way. Now, the only thing the natural
man cares about is things of the flesh, because that's all
he knows. He only has a nature of the flesh,
that's the only thing he knows about is the flesh. That's why
Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of beans. The natural
man doesn't know anything about the spirit. He doesn't know anything
about spiritual blessings. He doesn't desire them, he doesn't
love them, he doesn't know anything about them. Those kinds of things,
because God hadn't given him a spiritual name, a new nature.
So first, this is the first thing I learned from the genealogy
of Esau. Esau is of the earth. And that's all Esau ever will
be. Verse one of Genesis 36. Now these are the generations
of Esau who is Edom. Now Moses says Esau is Edom. He doesn't say he's from Edom.
He says he is Edom. Says that three times in this
one chapter, verse one, Verse eight and verse 19 he says Esau
is Edom. Now the word Edom means red and
that represents the flesh. Remember Esau sold his birthright
for a bowl of red beans. He despised the blessing of God.
He despised the grace of God. He despised the promises of God
and he sought after this red stuff, the stuff of the flesh
and the stuff of this world. That's all Esau ever did, because
that's all he knew. Esau despised the promise of
God's grace. He rejected the presence of God. He rejected the leadership of
God and the blessings of God. He rejected those things to go
after whatever it is that the world had to offer him. And Esau
was damned for it. Esau was a reprobate. God hated
Esau from the beginning and Esau didn't care because Esau hated
God too. Now this is also true of the
man Esau. He's a very admirable man. If you and I knew Jacob
and Esau, every person in this room would choose Esau to be
our friend. Every one of us would. He's an honest man. He seems
to have many very admirable characteristics. Jacob didn't really steal the
birthright from him. Really, did he? I mean, Esau
sold it to him, but he felt like he accused Jacob of stealing
it from him and was so mad he wanted to kill his twin brother
for it. But when Jacob came back years later, Esau ran to kiss
him, not run to stab him with his sword. He forgave Jacob. He found in his heart to still
love Jacob, even though Jacob cheated him out of that birthright.
He acted kind and caring toward his brother. A little while later,
you find out that these two brothers, they both had become so rich
with animals and different things, just like Abraham and Lot, they
couldn't live together. The land could not support them. Esau didn't pick a fight. Esau
didn't say, you know, I'm the older one, I get the, Esau just
left it to Jacob. I mean, you know, he seems to
be a honest, you know, It's what we would say, good man, he's
liked by people that knew him. But God hated Esau. Esau was
a reprobate because salvation is by God's grace, not our works,
not our merits, not our personality. Salvation is by grace. Now I said all that about Esau
to say this, Esau represents the nature of flesh that's in
every last one of us. We have this very same nature
of flesh, even a believer does. When we're regenerated, we're
born again, we still have that nature of flesh that's unchanged. It's the nature that Esau had.
And that's the nature that God hates. He hates that nature of
the flesh. And if Almighty God leaves us
to our way, to our will, to our decisions, to what we want, we'll
be deemed the same way Esau was. All right, here's the second
thing about Esau. And this is generally true of everybody.
Esau got what he wanted. Typically speaking, people get
what they want because they just go after it until they get it.
Esau got what he wanted. Remember when he found out that
his father Isaac had blessed Jacob, he said, well, father,
don't you have a blessing for me too? Just give me any blessing,
some blessing. And Isaac blessed him with physical
things. He gave Jacob all the spiritual
blessings, didn't he? But he gave Esau and his blessing
material things. And that's what Esau wanted.
Esau was satisfied with that because that's what he wanted.
Esau ended up with a very large, very wealthy, very successful
family. His genealogy takes up 43 verses. Man, that's a lot of people.
And they all seem to be successful and rich and just Eight kings
and 32 dukes came from Esau mentioned in this one chapter. Esau got
what he wanted. He got the blessing of material
things. That's what he wanted. That's
the blessing he wanted from his father. And that's what he was
going after. And he got it. Now hold your
finger there. Look over first Corinthians chapter
one. I want to be very careful that
nobody thinks I'm just ating on Esau here. I point all this
out because, remember, this is the nature that's in all of us.
If we're honest with ourselves, all of us would say, you know,
I really would like to be a very successful person, a very rich
person, a very, you know, you drive by these houses people
build today and you think, my goodness, how does somebody pay
for all that? I'd like to do that. You think that. Be careful
now. Be careful that you don't start
chasing it. Esau got what he wanted. And in the process, he
missed Christ. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 26. For you see your calling brethren,
how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called, but God has chosen the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise. And God has chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.
and base things of the world, and things which are despised
have God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to naught
the things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. Now just be careful going after
the things of this world. You know this. I don't want y'all
to take a vow of poverty. I hope you're successful and
have a nice, comfortable home, a nice thing. I mean, you know,
but just be careful that you don't chase those things so much
that you become so high and mighty, you don't need God. I mean, this
is a scary thing. God blessed Esau with so much,
so many riches, so many physical blessings that Esau felt like,
I've got to leave the land of promise. He knew he was living
in the land promised by God to his father and grandfather. He
got so much material stuff he felt like he could leave the
land of promise. God gave so much material blessings
to Esau, it pushed Esau away from God. I've seen that happen today,
and you have too. Esau knew about the promise of
God, same way Jacob did, but Esau left the land anyway. He
thought he was so blessed of God, he didn't need God anymore. Look at verse six back in our
text, Genesis 36. And Esau took his wives, and
his sons, and his daughters, and all the persons of his house,
and his cattle, and all his beasts, and all his substance, which
he had got in the land of Canaan, and went into the country from
the face of his brother Jacob. For their riches were more than
that they might dwell together. And a land wherein they were
strangers could not bear them, because of their cattle. Esau
left the land of God's promise, because God had promoted him
out of it. He became so important and so rich, he didn't think
he needed God. Now, let me ask you a question. Remember, I'm not just trying
to say, look how bad he saw it. This is the nature that's in
all of us. Now you answer this question in your own heart. Have
we taught our children, by example, that we really don't need to
be in a public worship service? Because there's other things
that are more important. Have we taught our children that
the most important thing in every week is the blessing to go hear
from God? To go hear the gospel. Have we
taught them that? Or have we taught them, eh, if there's something
else going on, you should go do that first, you know? Have
we taught our children? We might say the right words.
We might say the right words. I mean, you know, we got the
right doctrine. We got the doctrine down cold, don't we? But by our
example, Have we taught our children we need things of this life first
more than we need to hear from God? Have we taught them that
by our example? Have we taught them we need to
get stuff from this world to be our security more than we
need God's saving grace? Have we? I thought a lot about that this
week. My firstborn is here. visiting
with me this week. She's working in town visiting
this week. I thought a lot about that. I sure hope not. I sure hope not. That was very
important to me and your mama. That brings me to my third point.
Esau's children were taught to be just like Esau. Esau had a large family. Eight
kings. 32 Dukes, I mean a large, successful
family. And there is no record that one
of them ever sought mercy and forgiveness from God. Not no
record of one, now there might be, but there's not record of
one. There's no record of any of the descendants of Esau ever
worshiping God, ever. All this large, powerful family Only two accomplishments, this
is so interesting to me, only two of their accomplishments
are listed in the word of God. One of them is in verse 35. A
man named Hadad won a military battle against the Midianites.
And in verse 24, a man named Anna found mules in the wilderness. Now how would you like that to
be recorded as the accomplishment Something you did, the accomplishment
of your life. You found some mules in the wilderness.
Anna was keeping donkeys, his father's donkeys. That's what
he was doing. And he found these mules. I noticed Anna wasn't
keeping sheep like Jacob was, as a type of Christ. He wasn't
keeping sheep like Joseph did, who's a type of Christ. He was
keeping donkeys. And while he was out there, he
just so happened to find some mules out in the wilderness,
and apparently this was a big deal. But you know what a mule
is, don't you? It's the offspring of a donkey
and a horse. And that mule is sterile. A mule can't produce
life. That mule is a picture of man's
religion, trying to mix grace and words. It's a mule. It's a stubborn mule that cannot
produce life. And that's all scripture says
that the descendants of Esau accomplished in their lifetime.
They won a military battle and they found some mules. But you
know what? I'm not surprised. That's all
they could accomplish. Because that's all the flesh
can accomplish. And that's all the flesh is trying
to accomplish. Our flesh, the nature of our
flesh will never decide to seek God and seek mercy. Never, because
it's incapable. It cannot do it. The nature of
the flesh can only do fleshly things. It can never do spiritual
things. That's why our Lord told the Pharisees, two things are
true. You will not come unto me that you might have life.
And you cannot. You cannot, because the nature
of the flesh can not do it. And maybe Esau was just kind
of, you know, indifferent to Jacob and indifferent
to Jacob's family. Just, you know, he didn't hate
him anymore, but just, you know, apparently he wasn't seeking
to worship with him or find out anything about God from him,
you know. He's just indifferent, just indifferent. He just went
from Jacob's face to go to a land where, you know, could support
him and his large successful family. He was just indifferent. But you know, as time went on,
what happened? Esau's descendants went from indifferent to hatred.
They became hateful of Israel. They became hateful of the descendants
of Jacob. When Israel left Egypt, you know
the very first people to ever attack them? The descendants
of Esau. Indifference in one generation
grows to hatred in another. I go back to what we've taught
our children, not by our words. I know everybody here, you hadn't
told your children be indifferent to God. I know better than that.
But what have we taught by our example? I'm telling you, be
mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty careful. Indifference in this
generation is gonna lead to hatred in the next. Unless God's merciful,
that's what'll happen. Now here's the fourth thing,
and I think this is also very important. That's what we know
about Esau, about the descendants of Esau, about the nature of
Esau, about the nature of the flesh. Well, you know what else
is true? It's my fourth point. Esau was
still Jacob's brother. That's all true. Everything I
said about Esau is true. He's still Jacob's brother, isn't
he? You know, don't ever forget this. The unbelievers out there
in the world, Let's not just start thinking how high and mighty
we are and start looking down our nose at them. Let's not forget
we're related to them. They're related to us. Don't
forget that. Brother Scott Richardson. If you're of a certain age, you
remember Brother Scott. And if you knew him, you loved
him. Brother Scott had a habit to call almost everybody he met,
brother. Brother. The guy down at the
grocery store, the guy down at the filling station, whatever,
he just, you know, his brother's at church. Everybody call everybody
brother. Somebody ask him about it one time. And Scott said,
well, they're my brother. They're either my brother in
Christ or my brother in Adam. Either way, I got them. They're
my brother. That's good advice. And if you
hung around Scott very much, you know what? I thought about
that, I thought about this this week too. He treated them that
way. He treated people like they were his brother. He cared about
them, he wanted them. If it was his brother and Adam
down there at the filling station, Scott wanted that man to come
here and preach. He did, he cared about them.
Let's remember that. Let's pray for our brethren.
They're out there in the flesh with the same nature of flesh
just like we got. Now who made you different? Huh? God did, didn't He? Let's strive to be kind and understanding
to unbelievers in the world. I know they do crazy stuff, but
we ought to understand why they do it, because we're related
to them, huh? Let's find an opportunity to preach Christ to them, to
invite them to come hear the gospel. It's the kindest thing. we could ever do for them, because
if God leaves them alone, they're gonna perish just like Esau.
Same way we would have done if God had left us alone. All right,
that's the generation, the genealogy of Esau. I got something that's
gonna be a blessing to you. Now I wanted to look at the genealogy
of Jacob. This is the man God chose, and
the man God loved, here is, The genealogy of Jacob, I'm gonna
read it all. I'm not gonna read all 43 verses
of Esau's genealogy. I'm gonna read the entire genealogy
of Jacob. Chapter 37, verse one. And Jacob
dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger in the
land of Canaan. These are the generations, the
genealogy of Jacob. Joseph. Joseph. End of story. Now, isn't that
funny? We know Jacob had 12 sons. He had daughters. He had grandchildren. But when Moses lists the genealogy
of Jacob, he says Joseph. Joseph. The most important thing
to Jacob is Joseph. The genealogy of Jacob is the
story of Joseph. The genealogy, I told you I was
gonna read every word of it, really I'm not, not going to
tonight. The genealogy of Jacob goes from chapter 37 to the end
of Genesis. It's the story of Joseph. That's
his genealogy. That's the generations of Jacob.
And this is given to us as a type of Christ. Joseph is one of the
preeminent pictures of Christ in the Old Testament. And here's
the picture for the believer. This is what Joseph tells us.
Jacob's genealogy is Joseph. The story of Joseph tells you
and me this. For the believer, Christ is all. Here's our hope,
Christ. Here's our salvation, Christ.
Here's our righteousness, Christ. Here's our sanctification, Christ.
Here's our doctrine, Christ. Christ is all. He's all that
matters. The only thing that matters to
us is the story of the Lord Jesus Christ that takes up the whole
Bible. That's it. These are the generations of
a believer. Christ. Now we have other relationships,
but Christ is all. Christ is the relationship I
must have. We have other needs, physical
needs, mental needs, emotional needs, we do. We want to have
those things met, but Christ is all. Christ is the person
I must have. He is that one thing needful. One thing. We have other things
to enjoy. Aren't you thankful God's given
us other things in this life to enjoy? I'm thankful for them,
but Christ is all. All that thrills my soul is Jesus. He's more than life to me. He
is what I must have. Now, Arthur Pink, who wrote several
commentaries in scripture, this man, he must have been a prodigious
studier. He is a prodigious writer. The things that he wrote, and
the man must have had a brilliant mind. I mean, this guy is just
off the charts. Halftime, I don't understand
what he's writing. I had to read it several times
before I understand what the man's saying. In his commentary on the book
of Genesis, he gave 101 pictures of Christ that are seen
in Joseph. 101! Well, we'll spend the next
few Wednesdays looking at a lot of those things, looking at the
life of Joseph, seeing various pictures of Christ there. But
I want to give you a little preview of what's coming. I want us to
see, for tonight's message, this is what I want us to see. I want
us to see how Christ is all. Your believer, your genealogy
is Christ. Let me give you a few examples.
Everybody knows the story of Joseph. Joseph was Jacob's favorite
son. I mean, there's no comparison
to his other sons. And you read that and you understand
why the other brothers hated him, don't you? Of course they
did. I mean, this was a horrible parenting
on Jacob's part, but he just made it obvious. He loved Joseph
more than the rest of you boys. He just did. I mean, and he made
no bones about it. Now, Jacob was wrong to do that,
but in that way, boy, he sure gave us a good picture of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
son of God. He's the beloved. He's the delight
of his father. The father loves the son with
a love that is eternal, that is incomprehensible. The human
mind can't begin to scratch the surface of God's love for his
son. Now, if you and I come to the
father in Christ, we will be loved and as accepted as the
son of God himself. Now the father will never accept
us for our works, but he'll accept us in his favorite son, in Christ. We'll be loved and accepted of
the father. That's how much the father loves the son. And Joseph
was a shepherd. He kept his father's sheep. That
was his job. For the Lord Jesus Christ, he's
the great shepherd of the sheep. He keeps his father's sheep and
he saves every last one of his father's sheep. Christ is the
good shepherd. The Savior told us he's the good
shepherd. Here's how you can tell he's the good shepherd.
He gives his life for the sheep. Christ is the good shepherd who
lays down his life for his sheep. Nobody took it from him. Nobody
overpowered him. He laid it down for his sheep that they might
have eternal life. Remember, our genealogy is Christ. If Christ is our shepherd, we
must be saved. He laid down his life for us.
We must be saved and we can never perish. That's our genealogy. That's our description. Then Joseph was a man of impeccable
character. He was obedient to his father.
I can't think of, and I haven't read every word of this, Thinking
about it, I cannot think of a single sin that is recorded that Joseph
did. I mean, I know the man's sin.
What I'm saying is it's not recorded in scripture. And the reason
for that has to be to give us a picture of Christ. The perfect,
holy character and nature of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ
was perfectly obedient to his father. He obeyed God's law perfectly. And he did everything that the
father commanded him to do. Everything. Part of what the
father commanded him to do was to establish perfect righteousness
for his people. Then be made sin for his people
and suffer and die and put it away. The Lord Jesus was obedient
even unto death. That's how strong his need was
to please his father. He laid down his life to satisfy
God's holy justice against the sin of his people. The Lord Jesus
Christ is righteous. That's his nature, he is righteous.
He's holy, he cannot sin, and he never did sin. And he established
eternal righteousness for his people. Now remember, if you're
a believer, Christ is our genealogy. If Christ is the only righteousness
that you have, you're righteous. If Christ is all you have, you
have everything. And you'll always be accepted
by the Holy Father. Then poor old Joseph, despite
the fact that he didn't do anything wrong, was sold into slavery. sold into slavery by the brothers
that hated him. He came to them out there in
the wilderness, being obedient to his father. He came to them
because he cared about their wellbeing and they hated him
so much they sold him into slavery. Well, that's such a clear picture
of Christ our Savior. He became a servant. He's equal
with the father, isn't he? But he humbled himself to become
a servant to his father, to accomplish his father's will of the redemption
of his people. The king of glory actually became
a servant even to his people. Remember when he girded himself
with a towel and washed the disciples' feet? That's the lowest job. That's the lowest the servant
would have to do that job. The king of glory did that for
his, washed the feet of his disciples. And he told them, now you've
seen what I've done. Now you do that for each other. You take
the lowest place to help each other. The point is, he became
a servant, even to his people. He went to work as a servant,
the bond servant. He said, I willingly bored my
ear, the willing bond servant to his father, to provide everything
his people would need. Now remember, Christ is our genealogy.
If the Lord Jesus Christ became a servant for you, you have everything
God will ever require. Then Joseph, again, even though
he didn't do anything wrong, was thrown into prison for crimes
he did not commit. Down there in the prison, numbered
with the transgressors, wasn't he? Well, that's a picture of
Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ was crucified
for sins he did not commit. He died for the sins of his people
that were laid on him. Now remember, if you're a believer,
your genealogy is Christ, period. If Christ was taken and he was
crucified for you, God's law says you must live. You must be given eternal life. God will see to it that you're
given eternal life because Christ, the substitute, already died
the death that you deserve. Then Joseph was the revealer
of secrets. Joseph could tell the hidden
meaning of dreams. Well, again, that's Christ. He
knows the hidden, secret will of the Father. And you know how
that will is revealed to you and me? Look to Christ. He came to reveal the Father's
will by coming and accomplishing the salvation of His people.
Now, if you know Christ, if your genealogy is Christ, you know
this. The only reason you know Him,
the only reason you know how can God be just and still justify
a sinner like me? How can God make me clean? How
can God bring a clean thing out of an unclean? How is that possible? If you know the answer to that,
you know this, it's only because Christ has been pleased to reveal
it to you. You could never have figured it out on your own. Christ
had to come and reveal it to you. If you know anything at
all about how God saves sinners, you know why you know that? It's
because Christ taught you. He taught you, He revealed it
to you. Then Joseph, in the blink of
an eye, was exalted from prison to the throne of Egypt. Now that's
a picture of Christ. He suffered and he died. He went
to the tomb, didn't he? But because his death satisfied
the Father's justice against the sin of his people that was
laid on him, the Lord Jesus Christ is exalted on high. The Father,
when he came back to glory, said, sit here on my right hand. I
make your enemies your footstool. Now remember, if you're a believer,
our genealogy is Christ. If Christ died for you, you have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. You
don't want to sin, you hate sin, you're gonna try everything in
this world you can do not to sin, and when you do, this is
your genealogy. You have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. If Christ died for you, you know
what He's doing at this very moment? I mean, at this very
moment, He's ever living to make intercession for you. We're so sinful, the Savior needs
to make intercession for us right now when we're here in the worship
service with God's word in our lap, trying to learn about Him. We make a mess of it. But our
genealogy is our Savior's ever living, making intercession for
us. And this is what I can promise you. If the Son of God is making
intercession for you, you're forgiven and you'll never be
cast out. Then Joseph is the one who opened
the storehouses. In a time of famine, when that
time of famine hit, Joseph opened the storehouses so everybody
wouldn't starve to death. Well, that's Christ. He opens
the storehouses of God's grace for his people. I'm telling you,
if you want access to the storehouse of God's mercy and grace, you've
got to find somebody preaching Christ. Because that's where
they're open. Christ opened those storehouses
by earning the right to do it. By his substitutionary death
for his people, he earned the right to have the key to the
storehouses of all of God's grace for his people. And Christ freely,
opens the storehouses so his people can eat the bread of life.
See, Christ is the one who opens the storehouses and he's the
one we feed on when the storehouse is open. Christ is all. Now,
if you believe on Christ, does hearing him preach, does that
beat your soul? I tell you if it does, the only reason it is,
the Lord Jesus Christ has opened the storehouses of God's grace
for you. Now you know the picture is never
as good as the real thing. We'll see this when we get there.
When Joseph opened those storehouses, he sold to people. He ended up
really enriching Pharaoh. When Christ opens the storehouses
of God's grace, he says, come eat freely, without money and
without price. Come have it freely. And then this is an amazing truth
of God's grace. When Joseph's brothers finally
came to Joseph, they didn't recognize him. Here's this man who's got
their life in his hand. It's the one they wanted to kill,
but they decided to sell him to slavery. You know what Joseph
did with his brothers? He forgave them. He forgave them. The Lord Jesus Christ has forgiven
the sin of his people. And you know how he did it? He didn't take out his royal
pen and just say, we'll forget about this. This debt's here,
we'll just forget about it. He didn't do like our president
does and sign a pardon, let somebody out of prison. Everybody knows
it's guilty. You know what Christ did to forgive the sin of his
people? He paid the debt himself with his own precious blood. That sin that was so hateful
and committed against him, he forgives it by suffering and
dying to put it away. Now, if you trust Christ, that's
your genealogy. The story of your life The story
of your eternity is Christ. That's a mighty good legacy.
Isn't that a mighty good legacy? I pray God be merciful to give
it to us. Let's bow together in prayer. Father, how we thank you for
our Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank you for the gospel
of Christ our Savior. It would be too good to be true
if it wasn't in your word, if it wasn't a message from you
to the hearts of your people. Father, how we thank you. And
Father, we say with our beloved brother Paul, it is our heart's
desire not to be found in our own righteousness, which is of
the law, but that we might be found in Christ, that you might
see us and hear us only. Christ our Savior. Father, it's
in his precious name, for his glory we pray. Amen. All right, Jonathan, come lead
us in a closing hymn.