Genesis 47, let's look at verse
27. And Israel dwelt in the land
of Egypt, in the country of Goshen. And they had possessions therein,
and grew and multiplied exceedingly. And Jacob lived in the land of
Egypt seventeen years. So the whole age of Jacob was
an hundred forty and seven years. and the time drew nigh that Israel
must die. And he called his son Joseph
and said unto him, if now I have found grace in thy sight, put,
I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly
with me. Bury me not, I pray thee, in
Egypt. But I will lie with my fathers,
and thou shalt carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying
place, And he said, I will do as thou hast said. And he said,
swear unto me. And he swear unto him. And Israel
bowed himself upon the bed's head. The time drew nigh, it says, that Israel must die. How near is your time. How near is mine? We don't know how near, of course.
Only the Lord knows that, but we know this. We know it's drawing
near. Paul said your salvation is nearer
than it was when you first believed. I'm thankful for that. I hope you know this, that it's
drawing near, and this is important. We don't harp on death all the
time. We're not harbingers of doom. But I pray also that we
don't live like we're going to live forever. That's the tendency. That's the tendency, especially
when we're young. We begin to think about it when
we get maybe 40 years old and maybe beyond that. We begin to
realize that maybe we're on the downhill side. But that's just,
you know, that's just the way we think. I've been to funerals,
as I've told you before, where the casket wasn't much longer
than this pulpit is, wide, just this part of it. And then, of course, I've seen much, much older folks die
in a good old age. A pastor in Texas, Jack Shanks,
told me he used to talk to his grandchildren There were two
of them who were teenagers that he was talking about. And he
would ask them, what are you going to do? What are you going
to do? And they'd say, well, looking forward to graduating
high school, planning on going to college. And Jack would say,
what then? And they'd say, well, I don't
know. You know, I'll graduate from
college. I'll get a good job. I'll hope to get a good job and
make some money. And Jack would say, what then?
And I'd say, well, maybe get married. Maybe start a family. What then? I don't know. I guess I'll retire
and enjoy, you know. enjoy my life, retired from work. And Jack would just keep saying,
what then? Until they finally said, I just
don't know. I don't know. That's a good question, what
then? And the truth is the only thing that we know that we're
going to do in this life is die. Isn't that right? It is appointed
unto men once to die. And after this, the judgment.
Turn to Ecclesiastes chapter 2, verse 14. The wise man's eyes
are in his head, but the fool walketh in darkness. And I myself
perceived also that one event happeneth to them all. The wise
and the fool, one event happens. all of them. Then said I in my
heart, as it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even to
me. And why was I then more wise? Then said I in my heart, that
this also is vanity. For there is no remembrance of
the wise more than of the fool forever, seeing that which now
is in the days to come shall all be forgotten. And how dieth
the wise man? as the fool, exactly like the
fool does. Therefore I hated life because
the work that is wrought under the sun is grievous unto me for
all is vanity and vexation of spirit. Solomon was a very wealthy and
well respected, a great man, a great king. And he says in the book of Ecclesiastes
that he tried everything that man can do to find satisfaction,
to find fulfillment in life. And he declared all things to
be vanity and vexation of spirit. And he concluded his book, Ecclesiastes,
by saying this. This is the conclusion of the
whole matter. Fear God. and do what he says. Isn't that
what he said? Every accomplishment and the
glory of all of Solomon's life, when he looked back upon it,
vanity and vexation of spirit. The Apostle Paul, after he had
recounted it there in Philippians chapter three and look back upon
all the accomplishments and all the glory of his life. He concluded
the same thing that Solomon did. He said, it's all done. And it's
done for a reason that I may win Christ and be found in him. I've said to you before that
I've lived long enough to see some death. I've seen believers
die and unbelievers. The Lord has made an impression
upon me with those experiences. I've seen one die screaming for
help for weeks, screaming for help
with every waking breath. And I've stood by the bed while
another died, asking me to pray that they might die in a way
that would be honoring to their Lord. To the unbeliever, death is as
Paul described it in Hebrews 10, 27. He said this, if there
remains no sacrifice for sin for you, if you sin against Christ,
if you reject the one hope for sinners, the crucified, risen,
victorious, effectual redeemer. There remains no more sacrifice
for your sin. There is none other name under
heaven, after all, given among men, whereby we must be saved.
You reject Christ, and here's what you can expect. This is
the rest of your life. A certain fearful looking for
of judgment and fiery indignation, fiery anger, which shall devour
those who oppose God. That's the unbeliever in life
and death. But for the believer, death is
the beginning of true life. It's deliverance from the body
of this death. Paul didn't say that wrong. He
didn't say this body of death. This is a body of death, but
he said the body of this death. This is death that we're experiencing
now, really. especially the unbeliever, of
course, but we live in the body of this death. And it's deliverance
from that. What men call death is deliverance
from this body, the body of this death, into the very presence
of the Savior. He said to be absent from this
body is to be present with the Lord. That's life. What we call life is really death. this world calls death for the
believer is life. It's the beginning of life. Paul
said, if you live in sin, you're dead while you live. And by God's grace, we know what
life is, but we still cry out, we groan and travail in pain
together, waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of this
body. The Lord has redeemed our body just like he redeemed our
soul. Jacob here in our text is dying and we've had occasion
already to look back on Jacob's life a couple of times. What
a life he lived. He experienced all the things
that all believers do who live in a considerable time on this
earth. And it says the time drew nigh that he must die. He must
die because it was appointed. He must die exactly when, exactly
where, and exactly how God had ordained before God ever gave
him life. That's a comfort to me. I know we worry about things
and we go through experiences that scare us and we wonder about
death if we think about it at all. And I don't know what's
going to happen to me, but I know that whatever it is, my gracious
father has ordained it. Before he ever gave me life,
he ordained the hour and the means by which he would take
it, this earthly life. He kills and he makes alive.
And that's a comfort to me. In Psalm 3115, David prayed to
God and he said this, My times are in thy hand. That word times is interesting.
It means events, fortunes, experiences. Mine are in God's hand. No wonder David said, I will
both lay me down in peace and sleep. For thou, Lord, only makest
me to dwell in safety. He must die because he's a sinner. At every funeral, we're reminded
the wages of sin is death. Whether it's a believer or an
unbeliever, we're reminded of that, aren't we? There's a corpse
sitting there in front of our very eyes. reminding us of that. And that corpse in that casket
is just a symbol of eternal death. Death is not just a cessation
of breath. And if a funeral is conducted
and nobody talks about the fact that we as sinners deserve the
eternal wrath of God, and doesn't talk about how a
sinner can be saved from what we've earned by our sin. Death. Eternal, spiritual, infinite
death. Then it's just a blatant refusal
to acknowledge what is crying out to be acknowledged. There's
a dead body in the room and nobody's going to talk about sin and how
sin can be put away. I've been to a few like that.
I'm sure you have too. It's fashionable now to tell
jokes at funerals because, you know, everybody needs to be cheered
up. No, everybody needs to know that the wages of sin is death. We're going to meet our maker
and it's not going to be long. Do we stand alone? Will we stand
there and say, look what we've done? Or will we stand there in the best robe? Will we stand
there in the righteousness of Christ Himself? Will we stand
in Him? Will we stand spotless, without
blame, before Him in love? He must die. The believer wants
this old body to die, don't you? You want to live forever in this
body? Why do we want this body to die,
Chris? That don't sound right. Well, it is right. You know why
I want this one to die? So I can put my new one on. That's
what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5. Turn there with me tonight.
2 Corinthians 5, 1. 2 Corinthians 5, 1. For we know that if our earthly
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building
of God. And house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly
desiring to be clothed upon with our house, which is from heaven. If so be that being clothed,
we shall not be found naked. You see, that body that we're
going to have, it's not just all about having a body that
doesn't suffer pain and that doesn't, you know, that's not
going to grow old and things like that. If that's what you
delight in, that's just earthly stuff. That's wonderful. But
you know, we're gonna be wearing, we're gonna be like Christ, exactly
like Christ. I can't explain that to you,
but I'm gonna awake with his likeness. I'm gonna see him as
he is because I'll be like him. That's what this is about. Waiting for my body that will
never sin. I desire to be clothed upon,
Paul said. I don't wanna be naked. before
God. I want to have a sinless, spotless,
holy body. For we that are in this tabernacle
do groan, being burdened for all kinds of reasons. We'll talk
about some of them in a minute. Not for that we would be unclothed,
but clothed upon. We don't just want to die just
for the sake of dying. We want this body to die so we
can put our new one on. We want to be clothed upon with
that with the righteousness of Christ, with his perfect body. That mortality might be swallowed
up of life. You see, we don't die as punishment
for sin at all, because Christ died in our place under God's
wrath. He bore the punishment for our
sin. He bore our sins in his own body
on the tree. And so he bore the consequences
for my sin, the death that I deserved. He suffered all of the consequences
of my sin and yours, if you know him, all those that are his,
and we are never punished for our sin, at all, ever. That's not what death is for
the believer. Jacob must die and I must die because this mortal,
in order to be with my Lord forever, must put on immortality. Mortality got to be taken off
first so we can put on immortality and we can't see him any other
way. Look at 1 Corinthians 15. That's why we must die because
he redeemed our bodies and he prayed, Father, I will that those
you've given me be with me where I am and we can't go there the
way we are now. Look at 1 Corinthians 15, 50.
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God. You and I are going to inherit
the kingdom. It's your father's good pleasure to give you the
kingdom. And our Lord Jesus Christ prayed in his high priestly intercessory
prayer for us. This is my will. And all of heaven,
earth and hell will align to accomplish his will. This is
my will. that those that you've given
me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory. Paul
says we can't do that like we are now. Behold, I show you a
mystery, verse 51. We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed. Your body may not die in this
life, but it is going to be changed one way or the other. In a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye, after all these years and decades and
centuries that have gone by and men have mocked and scorned,
where's the promise of his coming? In a moment, he's gonna wrap
this up. At the last trump, for the trumpet
shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we
shall be changed. For this corruptible must put
on incorruption. Why? We can't inherit God's kingdom
being in this corruptible body. And this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on
immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,
death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting?
Oh great, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin, and
I don't have any sin. The Lord's put it away. The strength
of sin is the law, but thanks be to God which giveth us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus was victorious
on the cross. The death he should accomplish,
he accomplished. And the victory is ours because
he won it. We're just getting in on it. Not just getting in on it, we're
getting in on it. Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be ye steadfast, unmovable. Boy, if anything will make me
unmovable, it'll be that. It'll be the Lord and pressing
that up on my heart and putting that down in my heart to where
I won't fear and I won't despair and I won't be discouraged. Why
are you cast down on my soul? The Lord's your rock. You know your labor's not in
vain in the Lord. We know who wins. We know He
always gives us the victory when the Gospels preach. Our labor
here is not in vain, oh no. It's part of God's glorious purpose
of redemption. And that's the end of it right
there that we just read. All of his people, because of
what's happening right here, right now, because of the labor
of his people that he has ordained and that he blesses and that
he uses for the salvation of his elect, he gonna be with every
one of them soon. We're gonna be in his presence
soon. We're gonna be changed soon. The Lord Jesus Christ, as I've
said, has redeemed our body just as he has redeemed our souls.
And we will have a perfect body. And so we're going to have to
bury this old one for long. Or at least cast it off and be
changed. Be changed. Let me ask you a
question tonight. Now, honestly, are you ready
for a change? I got to thinking about this.
I'm ready for a change. I don't want to be me anymore.
Not this me. I don't want to be so selfish
anymore. I don't want to be so proud.
Are you ready for that to change? That's going to change. The lofty looks of men shall
be humbled, mine and yours, and those of the lost, too. And the
haughtiness of men shall be bowed down. And oh, David said, how
long, Lord, how long till this happens? It seems overdue to
us. It's just right on time, though.
But doesn't it seem overdue that the Lord alone shall be exalted
in that day? the Lord alone shall be exalted.
There's going to be one who's going to be praised and glorified
by every tongue and every knee. The Lord of glory, the King that
we mocked and spit on, the King. We're going to bow before his
throne and we're going to exalt him. I don't want to be unsatisfied
anymore. Are you frustrated much in this
life and with the things of this life? It was interesting to me in thinking
about this to remember that in Luke chapter 16, you remember
the rich man and Lazarus? That rich man, even in hell,
he was wanting things. Send Lazarus with, just have
him dip his finger in some water and touch my tongue. He was still
unsatisfied. He wanted to go send somebody
from the dead to tell my brethren. He kept asking for something.
Lazarus never said a word. You know why? He had everything
he needed. Abraham put it this way. You're
tormented, but Lazarus is comforted. I want to be there. I don't want
to be so limited. anymore. I want that to change. And I don't want to be ungrateful
in this. I don't want to sound like, well,
I don't want to be like the Lord, you know, is dealing with me
now. But I think this is right. I think we should desire to be
changed in these things. I look forward to that day. And
I don't want it to happen a moment sooner or later than our Lord
has ordained, because he does all things well, and I don't
know anything. But we can say with John, can't we even so,
Lord Jesus, come quickly? Is there anything wrong with
that? I don't want to be so limited.
I want to be able to worship like he's worthy of. Don't you? Honestly. I know you do, you
children of God. I preach a message and I'm ashamed of it. I know He uses it. I know He
receives our praise. I know He hears our singing and
He's delighted by it, but I don't know. I don't know what it is to worship
right. I don't even know what it is to exalt Him like He's worthy. The things that the new man would
do, I want to be able to do them. Paul said, I can't do them. I
can't either, Paul. I don't want to see anymore through
that dark glass. Don't you? Do you pray to God that that
glass sometimes would be a little less dark? Well, It won't be long, Paul
said then face to face. I don't want to be afraid anymore.
Seemed like when I was younger I wasn't scared of anybody or
anything. And I ought not to be now for different reasons.
But it seems like anymore I'm scared of just about everything. And it's not a good place to
be. But our Lord, it seemed like
in the scripture, every time he appeared to one of his sheep,
he said, fear not. I'm the first and the last. And
I love what he said to John there in Revelation. John said, I fell
at his feet as a dead man. And he laid his right hand upon me.
Can you imagine that? And he said, fear not. And then
he gave good reason why John shouldn't fear. It's not just
idle worry. I may tell you that. I may tell
you if you're going through something, I may say, it's going to be all
right. I don't know if it's going to be all right or not. I want
to comfort you. But really, the only comfort
we have is the word of God, the promises of God. I know if you're his, it'll be
all right. I mean, let me say that. I know that. Oh, but listen to him. He says,
fear not. And then he backs it up. He said, I'm the first and
the last. If I tell you fear not, you've
got no reason to fear. I'm the alpha and the omega.
I am he that liveth and was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore. I'm the living son of God that
died for your sins and rose from the dead victorious over sin,
Satan, hell, death, and every enemy I have. And he said this,
the keys of hell and death are in my hand. And I'm telling you
this, you've got nothing to be afraid of. Does that help you
believer? I don't want to be scared anymore. I don't want to be sorry anymore.
Do you have any sorrow? I know I don't have as much as
I ought. Sometimes I'm thankful the Lord
doesn't really shine a light on me. And I don't see myself
as I really am because I'm afraid I would despair completely. I
just want to see his light and I want to see the light of the
glory of God in his face. And He'll reveal to us enough
of our sins so that we'll look to Him, to look to His face,
see the glory of God there and trust Him and not lean on our
own flesh. I don't want to be sorry, weep
and be sorry in my heart over my sin. Every time that I pray,
I think, I tell God that I'm sorry for my sin, and sometimes
I really am. And that's good as a sinner to
be sorry, but aren't you tired of it? Being sorry and being
what you are? Oh, I want that to change. I don't want what I'm sorry for
to be what I am anymore. We weep over disappointments,
over loved ones, and our hearts break over them. And that's why
it's such a blessing to read in God's Word, God shall wipe
away all tears from their eyes. Oh, my. He's not going to send
an angel to do it. He's not just going to make them
dry up. He's going to wipe them away with that hand that made
me. that hand that I'm in right now,
and he said, nobody can pluck you out of it. The almighty hand of God, he's
going to wipe my tears away. And there'll be no more death,
neither sorrow. We won't be sorrowing over sin
anymore, over disappointments, over heartaches, over trouble,
over those that we love being, being godless and blind and foolish. their godlessness, blindness,
foolishness, nor ours. We won't sorrow over anything.
No crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former
things are passed away. That's a good name for all that
stuff, isn't it? The former things. And then, of course, it follows
upon that, I don't want to be sorry anymore, and this It's
really the same thing. I don't want to be evil anymore.
I'm tired of being a wicked wretch, aren't you? And that's by God's
grace. We revel in that by nature. Wouldn't
be anything but. Proud of it. I want everybody
to know how wretched we are. I'm not proud of it now. By God's
grace. I'm just not. And I like what Jude 1.24 says,
Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling and to
present you faultless. Are you ready for that? Are you
ready for that kind of change? We don't know what change is
yet. Present you faultless before the presence of His glory with
exceeding joy. God is going to, the Lord Jesus
Christ is going to rejoice over you. It's going to give him joy
to present you as his spotless bride. To the only wise God, our Savior,
be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever.
Amen. I want to die the way Jacob did,
too. Look at the rest of our text again. Well, let's just
refer to it, because we're going to look at some New Testament
scripture here. It's not immediately obvious in the language, but
he says without doubt that Jacob and the others will not be staying
in Egypt. He says, when you get up out of here, you take me with
you. You take my bones with you. You're not going to stay there.
Jacob is saying basically the same thing that Joseph said let's
go ahead and turn back there I want you to see what Joseph
said in chapter 50 of Genesis Verse 24 This is Joseph now and it sounds
like to me he was influenced by what his daddy said when he
died listen to verse 24 and Joseph said unto his brethren I die
and And God will surely visit you and bring you out of this
land unto the land, which he swear to Abraham, to Isaac, and
to Jacob. God's going to do what he said
he was going to do. And Joseph took an oath of the children
of Israel saying, God will surely visit you. And it's the same
thing Jacob did. He said, put your hand under
my thigh. That was the method then of a solemn oath. And he took an oath of them saying
this, God's going to visit you. And when he does, when he comes
for you, you carry up my bones out of here. Same thing his daddy
said, wasn't it? Exactly the same thing. So Joseph
died being 110 years old. He didn't quite live as long
as his dad did. But you know, this is what Paul
said about that in Hebrews 11, 21, by faith, Jacob, when he
was a dying. blessed both the sons of Joseph
and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. And the
next verse says, by faith, Joseph, when he died, made mention of
the departing of the children of Israel. Jacob did too. and
gave commandment concerning his bones. Jacob did too. They both
did that. And Paul said they did that because
they had faith in Christ. They had faith in the one who
promised them, you're going to be in bondage for 400 years,
but I'm going to come for you. And he did, didn't he? He said,
I've heard you cry and I've come to deliver you. And they had,
they believed it. They believed what he said. So
I want to die as these men did. These all died in faith, not
having received the promises, but having seen them afar off
and were persuaded of them and embraced them. Have you embraced
the promise of Christ and confessed? If you do, if you embrace the
truth, Embrace the one who spoke the truth, the gospel in your
heart. You'll confess that you're just
a stranger and a pilgrim on this earth. I want to die the way
my friend Tommy Robbins did, concerned for the glory of God.
That's how I want to die. I want my death to be a precious
one. David said in Psalm 116, 15,
precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. Doesn't matter how you go, doesn't
matter when you go, doesn't matter where you go, if you know that. Doesn't that kind of trump everything?
It's precious to God. It's precious to Him. My prayer is what Jacob said
to Joseph. And remember, all through this
study, Joseph has typified our Lord Jesus Christ. And he does
in this too, when his father Jacob said to him, if I found
grace in your sight, deal kindly with me. Oh, that's my prayer
to God. Deal kindly with me. My only
hope in that day is the same thing that my only hope is now.
Grace. Free, sovereign grace. Distinguishing grace. Grace,
the grace of God, the God who loved me before I ever was. The God who said to Jeremiah,
before I formed you in your mama's belly, I knew you. And I ordained
you to be my prophet. Oh, grace. Amazing grace. And he said this, he said, deal
truly with me. That word is reliably, faithfully. Oh, my hope in that day, in the
day that I die, is not my faithfulness, but his. He'll be faithful to
his promises. Though I've been unfaithful to
him every hour. He'll be faithful to his word.
He'll be faithful to his gospel. He said, don't be afraid. I go to prepare a place for you.
And having prepared a place for you, I'm going to come again
and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be.
And that's what's going to happen that day. The day that thief
died, he said, today you'll be with me. That's paradise. And then it says finally there
that he bowed himself on his bed. That's a pretty good way
to die. He didn't die right there, but
he was not long for it. He was evidently restricted to
his bed. He blessed all of his children
from there in the next chapter or so there. But that word bowed
there more than any other way in the Old Testament is translated
worship. He was worshiping right there
on his bed when he contemplated his death, and it says later
he leaned upon his staff as he was abiding and worshiped by
faith, by God-given faith. Thank God for the gift of faith
whereby we can lay a hold upon him whom we've not seen with
these eyes and yet have believed and truly by his grace worship
him. Oh, I want to die worshiping
him. And wake up worshiping him better. Let's bow and pray.