The scripture reading will be
taken from Genesis chapter 50. Genesis chapter 50. We'll begin reading in verse
14. And Joseph returned into Egypt,
he and his brethren and all that went up with him to bury his
father after he had buried his father. And when Joseph's brethren
saw that their father was dead, They said, Joseph will per venture
hate us and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did
unto him. And they sent a messenger unto
Joseph saying, thy father did command before he died saying,
so shall you say unto Joseph, forgive, I pray thee now the
trespass of thy brethren and their sin for they did unto the
evil. And now we pray thee, forgive
the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And
Joseph wept when they spake unto him. And his brethren also went
and fell down before his face. And they said, Behold, we be
thy servants. And Joseph said unto them, Fear
not, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you thought
evil against me, but God made it unto good to bring to pass
as it is this day to save much people alive. Now, therefore,
fear ye not. I will nourish you and your little
ones And he comforted them and spake kindly unto them. And Joseph
dwelt in Egypt, he and his father's house. And Joseph lived in 110
years. And Joseph saw Ephraim's children
of the third generation. And children also of Makar, the
son of Manasseh, were brought up upon Joseph's knees. And Joseph
said unto his brethren, I die. And God will surely visit you
and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware
to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. And Joseph took an oath of the
children of Israel saying, God will surely visit you and you
should carry up my bones from hence. So Joseph died being 110
years old and they embalmed him and he was put in a coffin in
Egypt. Let's bow together in prayer. Our great God and our holy sovereign
and merciful heavenly father, Lord, we bow before you this
morning with hearts that are full of thanksgiving. How we
thank you for all the numberless blessings that you've so freely
bestowed upon us. Chiefly, most of all, how we
thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank you for
your amazing love and pity to sinners that you would send your
son to be our substitute, to be the sacrifice for our sin,
to be our righteousness. Father, how we thank you. And
it is our earnest desire this morning that you would enable
us by your spirit to worship you this morning, in spirit and
in truth, that you would enable us to lift up and magnify the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, that you'd give us
faith to believe that You give us eyes of faith to look to Him
and to cling to Him. Father, we beg that You give
us, each heart here this morning, the precious gift of faith in
Your Son, that we might leave here this morning believing Him
and rejoicing in Him. Father, I pray You'd bless Your
Word as it's preached. Father, be with me in this hour. I beg of Thee that You'd uphold
me with Your Spirit, speak to my heart that you'd open my mouth
that I might rightly divide the word of truth to glorify and
magnify in plain and simple terms the Lord Jesus Christ in terms
we can all understand. Father, we need more than a human
understanding of the words and the concepts of the gospel. We
need faith. We need God given faith. to believe
the Lord Jesus Christ. And we beg this morning that
you, as we speak of the faith of dying saints, that you'd give
faith to the hearts of your people this morning. And Father, sustain
it, sustain that faith through this life until it comes to our
turn to lie on our deathbed, that by your grace we may die
in faith. As these all that we've read died in faith, cause us
to die in faith. Father, we thank you for this
place that you've given to us, a place we can meet together
and worship. And Father, I thank you for your people that you've
called out of this world and gathered here together in this
place. And Father, I pray you'd bless.
Bless each person, bless each home. Father, how we need thee every
hour, every second of every day, how we need thee. Father, bless,
I pray. Keep us faithful. Keep us knit
together with one heart's desire for the glory of Christ our Savior. Father, for the sick and afflicted,
we pray for them. We pray a special blessing for
our brother Cecil and fathers to others who are hurting and
need you especially, how we pray for them. We pray for Joe Crabtree
and Bruce and that whole congregation there that you would bless in
a mighty way. Pray for Brother Fortner as he
keeps going through these treatments that you continue to heal and
strengthen him. Father, as others that need you
especially, meet the needs of the hearts of your people, we
pray. Father, all these things we ask and we give thanks in
that name which is above every name, the name of Christ our
Savior. I entered once a home of care,
For age and poverty were there, Yet joy and peace withal. Our helpless widowhood's defense,
She told me, Christ is home. I stood beside a dying bed Where
lay a man with aching head Waiting for God to call I saw his smile,
it was sweet And he whispered, Christ is all. Sing it with me. Christ is all. He's all in all. Is Christ is all in all. I saw the gospel preacher go
to Island Sands and Greenland Snows. He heard his master's
call. He counted dear in wants and
trials, He owned no fear, He knew that Christ is all. And I saw the martyr at the stake,
The flames could not his courage shake, Nor dead his soul upon. I asked him whence his strength
was given. He looked triumphantly to heaven,
and he answered in pride. Christ is all, all in all. Christ is all in all. I dreamed that time and years
were fleeting. Stopped their dead and the fire
dissolved this home. the church's ransom throng. I heard the singing of this song. They were singing, Christ is
born. So come to Christ. Oh, come today. The Father, And the bride repeats the call. For He will cleanse your guilty
stains. His love will soothe your weary
pains. For Christ is all in all. Christ is all, He's all in all. Christ is all in all. Christ is all, He's all in all. Christ is all in all. I've been thinking a lot this week
about death, reading about these dying words of the saints. Mike singing that song made me
think, someday, I hope the Lord gives me a long ministry for
some of our young ones here, will come and pass by my casket. Some of them I ask, did you know
that fella? They say, yeah, I knew him. What did he preach? He told
me, come to Christ, because Christ is all. He told me that all the
time. Christ is all. I come to him. Well, anyway, Hebrews chapter
11. The title of the message this
morning, Dying Faith. The writer to the Hebrews tells
us these all died in faith. All these Old Testament saints
that he mentions and talks about here, he says died in faith.
The faith in Christ that God gave them. sustained them all
through their lives. They lived looking to and believing
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that very same faith sustained
them in death. They died looking to and believing
the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, death is not something
that we all like to think about. But you know, we should. We should. It's coming. I like it to be
said of me, he died in faith. Now we talk about dying in faith.
I'm not saying every believer is going to die in peace, peace
of body, peace of mind. Some of us are going to die in
great pain, pain of body, fears of mind. But every believer will
die believing God. And it's not their faith that
will see them through. Don't be careful. Don't make
an idol or work out of faith. It's not their faith, per se,
that will see them through. It's the Savior that will see
them through. They'll find on their deathbed
He never failed them in life. And He's not going to fail them
in this hour of death either. There's no reason for any believer
to fear death. We should welcome it. Even if
our body's fighting it, we should welcome it. We consider a person's
dying words to be important words. A person who knows they're dying,
they're not going to waste words on it. They're not going to waste
words talking about something that's not important. Dying words
are used to talk about true things and important things. And this
morning, we're going to look at the dying words of Jacob and
Joseph and their dying words expressed faith in God. Hebrews
chapter 11, verse 21. By faith, Jacob, when he was
a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph and worshiped, leaning
upon the top of his staff. Now Jacob died in faith. He died depending upon Christ. And what a blessing that is to
die trusting Christ. And only faith can give that
blessing because only faith can look to Christ and depend upon
Christ. Jacob couldn't look, lay there on his deathbed, look
back over the course of his life, and he couldn't find anything
he'd done to give him any hope or any peace in this hour of
death. Poor old Jacob usually didn't act like a believer, did
he? Often, Jacob just didn't act like he believed God at all.
So he couldn't look to his conduct. Jacob was not a high character
kind of guy. I mean, he was a cheat and a
supplanter. He just couldn't look to his
nature and his honesty and his character the way that he couldn't
look to that. But Jacob died like he lived,
believing God, trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's my first
point about dying faith. Dying faith depends upon the
word of God. Jacob died Worshipping God. Oh, I just can't imagine a better
way to die than worshipping God. He died, the writer tells us
here, leaning upon the top of his staff. And that staff represents
the word of God. David said, Thy rod and thy staff,
they comfort me. That's God's word. It's his it's
his word that corrects us. It's his rod of his word that
keeps us straying off the path. It's his rod that keeps us. It's
a word. It's God's Word that comforts the hearts of God's
people. Jacob died leaning upon this staff. I can just imagine
he took that staff with him. He left his father's house, running
for his life from Esau. And he walked across that desert,
leaning on that staff. And he kept it with him everywhere
he went his whole life. And now he's dying, leaning upon
it. And that is what every believer
does. We live and we die leaning upon
the Word of God, trusting it. You know, I can lean on this
podium. I can trust it. It's not going
to topple over. It's not going to let me fall
down. I can lean upon it. That's leaning our soul upon
the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting His Word. His Word is good enough
to die by. I can put all the weight of my
soul upon it. Everything in God's Word, every
promise of forgiveness, every promise of salvation, even though
I don't deserve it, I can depend upon it. Trust it, that God's
going to keep his word. Everything we believe about God,
everything we believe about ourselves, everything we believe about salvation,
all comes from the word of God. If we don't find it in the word
of God, we don't believe it. But if we find it in God's word,
by God given faith, we believe it. Why is it that we believe
that God's sovereign in salvation? Are we just trying to be, you
know, a hard nut? I mean, you know, hard to get
along with? Why is it we believe that God saves whom he will?
Because God's word says so. God said, I'll have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. And whom I will, I harden it.
That's what God said. That's why we believe that. God's
sovereign in salvation. Well, why is it we believe that
man is dead in sin? We believe man cannot save himself. We believe man cannot be saved
by deciding to accept Jesus as his personal savior. We believe
that man can't get God to save him by doing something that will
make God feel compelled to save us. Why do we believe that? Because the word of God says
so. There's none righteous, no not one. We're all, every son
of Adam is dead in sin. And we can't do anything to save
ourselves. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, Paul said, shall no flesh be justified in his sight. Our
Lord said, you will not come unto me that you might have life.
And you can't come unless the father which sent me draw you.
That's why we believe man's dead in sin, incapable of saving himself. Well, why do we believe that
the Lord Jesus Christ is the savior of sinners? And when I
say the savior of sinners, I mean God's elect. Why is it we believe
Christ died? He didn't die for the whole wide
world now. He didn't die for every son of Adam. He died for
God's elect and those people and those people alone shall
be saved. Why do we believe that? Because
God's word says so. Our Lord says, as thou hast given
him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to
who? As many as thou hast given me. He said, I pray not for the
world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they're thine. That's who I'm dying for. And
everyone, without exception, for whom Christ died is saved
from all their sin. And now let me tell you one more
time, I told you I'm going to tell you this so many times,
this is what you're going to think about when you hear Frank Tate
died. He kept telling me, come to Christ. You come to Christ. Right now, where you sit, you
come to Christ in your heart. You come to Him as a sinner,
needing a Savior. And you know what He said He'd
do? He said, He'll save you. And you come to Him. And some
will say, now wait a minute, wait a minute. What about this
matter of election? God's not going to save me unless
I'm one of the elect. Well, that's true. But the question for you
and me is not, are you one of the elect? The question is, are
you a sinner who needs a Savior to do all the saving for you?
Does that describe you? See, nowhere in God's word does
it say, all you elect come unto me. The Savior never said that.
What did he say? Sinners come unto me. Are you
thirsty because you don't have any righteousness in yourself?
Come unto me. I'll give you I'll put a well of water springing
up. Are you dead? Come unto me. I'll give you life.
Come. You come to Christ as a sinner
because he's the savior of sinners. And you know what you're going
to find out right quick? Oh, I came because he chose me first.
Oh, you know what you're going to find? I mean, you're going
to find this out right quick. Oh, I came because God's loved me
with an everlasting love and He's been drawing me the whole
time. Now you come. You see, you and I are responsible
to come to Christ. That's exactly right. We're responsible
to come to Christ. And if we refuse to come to Christ,
God's going to damn us for our sin and it's going to be our
fault. That's right. It's not going to be God's fault
for not choosing me. It's not going to be Christ's fault for not
dying for me. It's not going to be the Spirit's fault for
not calling me. It's going to be my fault because God told
me to come to Christ and I didn't. That's why God will damn me.
But if we come to Christ, God will save us. And that'll be
all His doing. all his doing, all by his grace,
all by his love, all by his wisdom. It'll be all God's doing and
none of ours. And somebody said, now, wait a minute. How can you
make those two statements? How can you reconcile that? I don't
have to. That's what God's word says.
And by faith, we believe it. By faith, we trust our eternal
soul upon it. I look back at Genesis chapter
48. Jacob died, leaning his whole soul upon the word of God, upon
the promises of God. And I can show you that from
his dying words in Genesis chapter 48, beginning in verse 15. And he blessed Joseph and said,
God, before whom my fathers, Abraham and Isaac did walk the
God which fed me all my life long. And to this day, The angel
which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads and let my name
be named on them and the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac,
and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. Jacob
died depending upon the promise of God, God before whom my fathers
did walk. He died depending upon that promise. Well, here's the second thing,
dying faith. depends upon the covenant of God. There's a specific
God Jacob's talking about here. It's not all the idols of Egypt.
It's not all the idols of the world. There's one God, there's
one savior, and Jacob identifies him, the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. You know who that is? That's
the covenant God. That's God who saves his people
by promise. That's God who saves his people
because he chose to save them by his grace. He's the covenant
God. This is the God who appeared to Abraham. He called Abraham
out of his father's house and said, Abraham, pack up and get
walking. You go to a place I'll show you
up later. And while he's wandering around in the desert, God made
a promise to Abraham. Abraham, you're going to have
a son. You're too old to have a son. Sarah's too old to have
a son, but you're going to have a son. the son of promise. Ishmael
is not going to be that son. Isaac is going to be that son.
And through that son, the Messiah is going to come. All nations
of the earth will be blessed in thee because the Savior is
coming through. This son, I'm promising you, it's Isaac. In
Isaac shall thy seed be called, and he saith not into seeds as
of many, but as of one, and thy seed, which is Christ. The Savior
is coming through this son. The covenant God elected a people
to save. He chose a people out of Adam's
fallen race, and God chose to bless them. And that's what we
see in Abraham. Yeah, we think of Abraham. I
mean, my goodness, the faith of Abraham. But God didn't choose Abraham
because Abraham's ain't good. God didn't choose Abraham because
Abraham chose God. No. Where did God find Abraham? Bound down to an idol. Abraham
was an idolater when God called him. He wasn't seeking God. He
was going the opposite direction. But God chose Abraham and saved
him. Called him out of his father's
house and he revealed himself to Abraham. And he showed Abraham,
the Savior I'm promising you, here's how he's going to save
his people. Through his sacrifices, their substitute. Abraham saw
my day and was glad the Lord said. That's the promise he made
to Abraham. And God confirmed that promise
to Isaac. And then he confirmed it to Jacob.
And Jacob is another example of God's salvation by grace,
by God's promise, by God's choosing, and not by man's works. As I
said about poor old Jacob a little bit ago, Jacob seldom did anything
right the first time, did he? I mean, almost never. But God loved Jacob. Doesn't
that thrill your soul? God loves Jacob. I think believers
mostly, most closely can identify with Jacob and Peter. Both two
men almost never did anything right the first time. But God
loved them. God loved Jacob. God chose Jacob
and loved him and hated Esau. And God gave Jacob faith to believe
Christ. Now we're not saved because we're
faithful. Doesn't that make you glad too?
We're not saved because we're faithful. God's people are saved
because God's faithful. He's faithful to keep his promise.
And that's what this covenant is. This promise he made to Abraham
is God's covenant. He promised to save his people
through the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jacob died leaning on that. He died believing that. Jacob's
hope on his deathbed was God's covenant. It was his hope for
himself and his hope for his loved ones. Jacob knew the only
hope his sons and grandsons had was Christ. He said, let my name
be named upon them. Call them Jacob. Because God's
the God of Jacob. Oh, if they're going to be saved,
they're going to be saved in the covenant of God. He died
pointing them to the covenant of God. What a joy! Isn't that
a joy? To be able to live and then to
die, trusting God's promise, His covenant of grace. Thirdly,
dying faith rests in this. It rests in Christ to keep me. The word fed, Jacob uses here
in verse 15, I told you this a few weeks ago, means shepherded.
Jacob died trusting Christ, the good shepherd. He died trusting
Christ, the shepherd who called him by name. He didn't leave
it to chance. He called me by name. He called
me out. He trusted Christ to lead him
in the green pastures and to lead him beside those deep still
waters. Jacob died trusting Christ to
lead him in paths of righteousness. His namesake. Jacob died trusting
Christ. He lived and he died trusting
Christ to do all the work of a shepherd for him from beginning
to end. Jacob could tell the story about
how I was lost. I mean, I was lost and wandering
around in the desert. And God, Christ, the good shepherd,
met me there at Bethel. He found me. He picked me up
and put me on His shoulders, and I've trusted Him ever since. I've leaned upon Him ever since,
from beginning, that beginning moment when He found me, saved
me, to right at this very moment where I'm about to die. And the
only reason that I know goodness and mercy shall follow me all
the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
forever. The only reason I know that is the Lord is my shepherd. He's kept me, and He's guided
me, and He's protected me all the days of my life. And now,
in this last moment, Christ the Good Shepherd is going to lead
me into glory. And He's going to present me
faultless before the Father with exceeding joy. Isn't that a blessing? To have dying faith that rests
completely on Christ to do everything for me. Alright, fourthly, dying
faith Trust Christ, the Redeemer. The angel which redeemed me from
all evil that he mentions in verse 16, that's not a created
being. He's speaking there about the
Lord Jesus Christ, who's the angel of the covenant, the messenger
of this covenant of grace, the one who came and explained this
covenant of grace to men, the one who came and fulfilled it
for God's people. This is what Jacob's saying.
It is the Lord Jesus Christ who's redeemed me from all evil. And that's all I am. I'm all
evil. I'm all sin. But Christ has redeemed
me from it. From all of it. Salvation is
in Christ. It's in who Christ is. It's in
what Christ has accomplished for His people. And salvation
does not include anything that I do. It doesn't include anything
I do for God. It doesn't include anything I
do for others. It's all Christ. because Christ is all. He is
all of salvation. He's all of my wisdom. He's all
of my righteousness. He's all of my sanctification. He's all of my redemption. I've
been redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. Isaiah talked
about it, and I can tell you from experience, he's right.
My sins were red like crimson, but Christ washed me white as
snow in his precious blood. My sin gave me a debt I could
not pay. A debt to God I cannot pay. But Christ came and He paid it
all with His precious blood. Jesus paid it all. All the debt
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
but He washed it white as snow. And that's what Jacob is dying,
telling his sons and his grandsons. This is how God saved me. The
Lord Jesus Christ is all of my hope. And I'm laying here dying,
worshiping Him, because I'm confident in Him. I'm confident. Now you
trust Him too. You trust Him too. Isn't that
a great legacy to leave to our children? A legacy of God-given
faith in Christ. That we could tell our children,
Almighty God has never failed me. I've trusted Him. Christ
has never failed me. Now you trust Him too. He's not
gonna fail you either. Now hold your place there in
Genesis. Look back in our text again. One verse in Hebrews chapter
11. That was the dying words of Jacob. Now here's the dying
words of Joseph. Hebrews 11 verse 22. By faith
Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of Israel and
gave commandment concerning his bones. Now Joseph died in faith
just exactly like his father, Jacob. He died believing the
word of God. He died trusting the covenant
God. He died depending on Christ,
the good shepherd. I can show you that in his dying
words in Genesis chapter 50. We read them to open the surface. Genesis chapter 50 verse 24. And Joseph said unto his brethren,
I die and God will surely visit you and bring you out of this
land under the land, which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac and
to Jacob. Now, Joseph died trusting Christ,
the good shepherd, too. When he says there, God will
surely visit you. Those words mean take care of
you. God's going to take care of you like the good shepherd.
He'll guide you and protect you all the days of your life. And
Joseph died believing the word of God, believing the promise
of God. Now the writer to the Hebrews
says that as he was dying, Joseph made mention of the departing
of the children of Israel. How did he know that the children
of Israel were going to depart from Egypt? How could he possibly
know that? Because God said so. And Joseph
believed the spoken word of God. Look back at Genesis chapter
15. Joseph believed the word of God
and he believed the covenant God who always keeps his promise. Genesis chapter 15 in verse 13. God said unto Abram,
know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land
that's not theirs and shall serve them and they shall afflict them
400 years. And also that nation whom they
shall serve will I judge And afterward, they shall come out
with great substance. Now he says here they're gonna
afflict them 400 years. And you go into Exodus, you'll
find out the children of Israel were in Egypt 430 years. I'm suspecting 30 years, about
roughly 30 years with Joseph's reign when they were not afflicted
and everything's going great, and Joseph died, and for 400
years, they were afflicted. And they came out of Egypt to
the day, God promised they'd come out. He made that promise
to Abram before he changed his name to Abraham. Before Abraham
even had a son, God said, you're going to have a people and they're
going to be down there in Egypt for 400 years being afflicted
and then I'm going to bring them out. That is how Joseph knew
we're coming out of this place because God made a promise to
Abraham. Abraham told that promise to
Isaac. Isaac told that promise to Jacob. told that promise to his sons,
to Joseph, and every one of them, by God's grace, believed it.
That promise, the gospel, the covenant God was handed down
from generation to generation to generation. There's another
good legacy for us to leave our children. They taught me the
gospel. They couldn't make me believe
it, but they taught me the gospel. They're always telling me, reading
me the word. They're always bringing me to
the service to hear the gospel. They're always making sure I
was in the Bible classes. They're always making sure I
was in Bible school. You know, they always scheduled
their vacation around Bible school, so I'd be in there and they'd
be teaching me these things all my life. They've been teaching
me those things. They've been making me memorize
memory verses from the time I was three years old, making me memorize
these memory verses. You children know why we do that.
Because we want the same thing for you that Jacob and Joseph
wanted for their children and grandchildren. We want you to
know Christ. We want you to trust Him. Well,
this faith we're talking about comes by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God. That's a good legacy to hand
down to our children, teaching them the scripture. Well, here's
the fifth thing. Dying faith does not look to
this world It always looks to the next. When Joseph died, he
told his brethren, his children, his grandchildren, his great-grandchildren,
all gathered around him. I mean, can you imagine this
man, Joseph, what he meant to his family? I mean, besides what
he meant to Egypt, what he meant to the world, do you think what
this man meant to his family? And they're all gathered around.
I mean, they, this, oh, they loved him. They respected him.
You're this man. And he's not talking to them
about Egypt. He didn't mention one thing about
Egypt other than we're leaving this place. And at this time,
everything's going great for the children of Israel in Egypt.
When Joseph brought his family to Egypt, you know what he did?
He looked over Egypt and said, over here in Goshen, this is
the best of the whole land of Egypt. I'm giving that to my
family. in the most fertile, the best
place. They're living in the best place
in the world. They have the best of everything.
And Joseph says, y'all are going to leave this place. And they
think, why would I ever want to leave here? And Joseph reminds them,
this place isn't home. This place is not home. Don't
you hang on to all the riches of Egypt now. Egypt represents
sin, bondage to sin and this world. And y'all remember this.
This place is not home. This world is not home. If you're
God's children, you're leaving this place. You're leaving it.
Now don't set your affection on things of this life. Set your
affection, your heart on things above. Where Christ sits enthroned
in glory. Don't set them on the things
of this perishing world now. You're going to end up with a
pile of dust. Joseph did not talk to his family. about how
to get more of this world's riches and comforts. He said, now I'm
dying. And he didn't tell them how to
scheme and plan and try to take his place, you know, in the seat
of power. He talked to them about what's important. Believing God,
believing God's word and waiting on him, waiting on him to trust
him. Joseph showed us this and so
did Jacob. When Jacob was dying, he made
Joseph promise, don't you bury me here in Egypt. There's nothing
here I want. I don't want to be identified
with anything here. When I die, you take me, bury me at the place
I'm telling you. And he meant it. Nothing in Egypt
impressed old Jacob. When Jacob was brought in, he
finally, oh, he found out Joseph was alive. And he, oh, he just,
the reunion. And Joseph told his daddy, he
said, nah, the Lord made me somebody here. He said, I want to take
you in and introduce you to my friend Pharaoh, the most important
man in the world. Well, it's a power, I shouldn't
say that, that's not important. The most powerful man in the
world. And old Jacob, leaning on that staff, comes in there. He can't stand for very long.
They have a seat brought out for him. And he sat down in front
of Pharaoh. Jacob looked at this situation. I mean, can you see
it in your mind's eye? See these movies of Egypt and
Pharaoh, all his gold, his throne and everything. And there sits
old Jacob, the shepherd. And Jacob assessed the situation
and he did. Jacob blessed Pharaoh. He just
saw the lesser is going to be blessed to the greater. I'm not
impressed. That'd be another good legacy
for us to leave our children. I know we've got to educate our
children. I'm not saying we ought to be
weirdos and hermits. We've got to educate our children.
We've got to teach our children how to live in this world. We've
got to teach them how to make a living. We've got to teach them how to
function. But here's a warning, we do a grave disservice to our
children when we show them by our words and by our example
that getting more stuff in this life, making a better living,
getting a bigger house and a bigger car and having more friends and
more influence and more happiness and enjoyment from this world
is more important than worshiping the Lord and seeking Him. We
do a grave disservice to their souls. I warn you, do not align
yourself with the way of this world that God's going to destroy.
Let's teach our children that and let's pray God give us faith
to believe it. This place isn't home. No. There
is nothing. Oh, let's believe this and let's
teach this. There is nothing. more important
than knowing Christ. The world doesn't have anything
that could compare to Him at all. If you added all, it wouldn't
compare to Christ. So seek Him now. Oh, cry to Him for mercy now. I tell you, I don't want to wait
till I'm on my deathbed to find out that the riches of this world
have absolutely no value. You, I believe I'd rather start
teaching that now. Well, here's the last thing.
Dying faith believes in the resurrection. Just like Jacob, Joseph gave
commandment concerning his bones. He didn't want his bones left
in Egypt either. So he told them when God, and
if they would have bothered going back and looking at God's promise,
they could have wrote out a calendar and known exactly when God was
going to send the deliverer. They didn't do it, but they could
have. He said, when God comes and brings you out of this land,
You take my bones with you. You're going to leave this place
and go to the promised land. You take my bones with you and bury
me there. And you find out in the book of Exodus, that's exactly
what Moses did. They're getting ready to leave
this place. And Moses said, boys, wait a minute. I got to go get
Joseph's bones, taking them with me. I saw this documentary on
Egypt and the pyramids and things and just Friday or Saturday.
And they're showing these pyramids and they said, this, this pyramid
right here and this, this room, whatever it was, they say, this,
this room we believe is made for Joseph. There was something
carved in there, gave them something about Joseph's name and this
mighty Prince. And they said, this we're sure
was Joseph's tomb where Joseph was buried. And they said, you'll
notice there's no coffin in here. That's proof. Moses took his
bones out of this place. No, it's not. You children be mighty careful.
Don't ever use science to prove this book. This book is true
just because it's so, just because it's written. So here's what
dying faith says. I'm dying, but I'm not going
to stay dead. No, the Savior is not going to
leave my bones in this place of sin and death either. He's
coming again. I don't know when he's coming
again, like they could have known when God's going to deliver them
from Egypt. But I do know this, he's coming again. And when he
comes, he's going to raise my bones in the resurrection. And
he's going to raise me up in a body made just like his body.
And he's taking me out of this place. And he's taking me to
the promised land. Taking me. I don't know where
that is, but I know who's there. I know what makes it glory. Christ
is there. He's going to take me to be with
him forever. I know that's so. And by faith,
our brother Job said the same thing. He said, I don't know
everything that's going on with me in this trial, but I know
this, my Redeemer lives. And I know He's going to stand
in the latter day upon this earth. And even though my skin worms
destroyed my body a long time ago, yet in my flesh, in my resurrected
flesh, it'll be me. I'll see God, whom I shall see
for myself. And He won't be a stranger. I'm
going to know Him. Even though a long time ago,
my flesh went back to dust. He comes, I'm going to stand
on this earth, I'm going to see him too. That's the hope of dying
faith. And that's the legacy I want
to leave. I want to leave that to y'all. I want to leave that
to my children. I believe God always saved me,
kept me. He never failed me once and he
never will. And I don't want to wait until I'm on my deathbed
to say it. God's given me a place to say
it, so I want to say it now. Oh, may God be pleased. to give
us the faith to believe in Him, trust Him and rest in Him. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for these dying words of our brothers who so clearly showed
us their faith in Christ, their dependence upon Him, that He
is all. Father, I know This is a gift
of Your grace. Faith is the gift of God. And
we beg of Thee, we beg You, Father, give us this gift, the gift of
faith, that we be enabled by Your grace, by Your Spirit, to
believe the Lord Jesus Christ, to come to Him and cast our soul
upon Him. That faith, faith in Christ,
is good enough to live by and is good enough to die by. And
we pray you'd keep us by your grace till we come to that point
where we die in faith and depart this old worthless world and
enter into glory with Christ our Savior. In his precious name
we pray and we give thanks.