I have a couple of verses that
I'm going to read to you in a few minutes, but I don't have a specific
text tonight. What I have to say to you concerns
the story of Jacob as he goes down by the instruction of God
and by the assurance of God down into Egypt. When God spoke to
Jacob at Beersheba in Genesis chapter 46 verse 4, remember
we read that last week and talked about it a little bit. He plainly
told Jacob to go down into Egypt and there to live and there he
would die. But he said, fear not for I'll
bring thee up again. And Joseph, the Lord of Egypt,
is going to lay His hands on your eyes. Now, to me, the first
application of this text is as God revealed it to Abraham in
Genesis chapter 15, and I think it's verse 13, where He appeared
to Abraham and He said, your seed, you remember the story
I told you last week, how Abraham divided the sacrifices and protected
the sacrifices as the sun went down from the buzzards and drove
them off away from the sacrifice. And then a great horror of darkness
fell on him as he began to tell him about his children going
down into Egypt. And he said, they're going to
go down there and they're going to be a stranger in a land that's
not theirs and they're going to serve that Egyptian bondage. They're going to serve that master
down in Egypt, that taskmaster, for 400 years and be afflicted. That's a horror of darkness,
isn't it? But he said, at the end of that
time, I'll bring them up with a great hand, a mighty arm. I'm going to bring them up out
of Egypt, and I'm going to judge that nation. So that's the first application
of what's going on here. This thing that God revealed
to Abraham, clear back here in Genesis 15. Now we're toward
the end of the book of Genesis. And now Jacob's communing with
the Lord. And the Lord's telling him he's
going down into Egypt. This is the beginning of those
things that God had declared clear back in the beginning.
You see, he said, I'm God. That's what he told Isaiah. Because
he does this, and I'm going to point this out to you over and
over. He said, I am God, and here's how you know it. I declare
the end from the beginning. What I told you in the beginning
is exactly the way it's going to be. I'll do all my pleasure. But
what I want to do this evening is to make the spiritual application
of this text. I want to make the spiritual
application, and I believe a very present application, as to how
this living and dying of Jacob in Egypt affects us. What this
has to do with our living and our dying in this world, that's
what I want to point out to you. So before we get into all that,
let's just talk a little bit about this man, Jacob, and try
to put ourselves in Jacob's shoes. Jacob is God's elect. You know,
he's one of the few that God ever said, this is my elect,
Jacob. before he or his brother were
ever born. That's what the Scripture said.
He pointed this out to them. Paul did in Romans chapter 9.
Told this to those Jews who believed strongly in election. Believed
themselves to be the children of God. He said before he or
his brother were ever born, before either one of them had ever done
any good or evil. You think about that. These two
weren't born. They weren't even conceived yet
in the mother's womb. They hadn't done anything good
or evil. They weren't circumcised or uncircumcised. They'd done
nothing. These two boys. That the purpose
of God according to election might stand or be established
or be set in its proper order. That it might stand. Not having
to do with our works or wills or ways, but of God who calls
whom He will. Justifies whom He will. Be gracious
and merciful to whom He will. God said to their mother, the
elder is going to serve the younger. Jacob have I loved and Esau have
I hated. Jacob was God's elect. God's
elect. And all his children, called
the children of Israel, were also called God's elect. You
know, my wife said, I hate reading genealogy. And I do too. That's why I didn't read them
to you tonight. But I told her, I said, you know the most important
thing about that genealogy? You know what he's telling you
there? Oh, there wasn't any of Jacob's children left out. That's
what he's telling you. They all went down with Jacob.
And they all came out, didn't they? Jacob represents all God's
elect, as did his father Isaac, back in Romans 9, 7. And Isaac
shall thy seed be called. And Abraham, back in Romans chapter
4, verse 11, the father of all them that believe. These men
stood for all the elect of God, all them that believe. And as
a believer, God had predestinated this man, I know this from the
scripture, he predestinated this man unto the adoption of sons
by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will.
Because he tells me that in Ephesians chapter 1. As a believer, Christ
would be sent forth of God, Romans 3 verse 25, to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood to declare God's righteousness for
the remission of his sins which he committed long before Christ
ever come. That's when he's talking there
in Romans 3.25 about sins which are past. He's talking about
Jacob's sins, Abraham's sins. Talking about all his sins that
were committed and forgiven in the Old Testament through faith
in the blood of Christ. So as a believer, Christ was
set forth of God to us. He was called with a holy calling,
not according to His works, but according to God's own purpose
and grace given Him in Christ Jesus before the world began.
And He was set apart. Jacob was called of God and providentially,
spiritually, any way you want to look at it, set apart. God
set him apart. That's the only way you can be
set apart. Now, I'm telling you the truth.
That's what, when men talking about, I'm going to make my peace
with God, that's what they're saying. I'm going to get my,
I'm going to separate myself now from these fellas I used
to run with, and I'm going to start running with them. Only
God can set you apart. You can't set yourself apart.
You can change clothes and cut your hair different. You can
wash and clean up, but you can't do a thing about this in here. God set him apart from other
men, revealing to Jacob things that even the princes of this
world were not able to see or hear. Glorious things, mysterious
things, eternal things, spiritual things. His life become a life
of faith, a sojourn in the earth. He dreamed of green pastures.
He laid out there on them rocks. And he dreamed about that ladder
with old blessings coming down from heaven. those prayers that
they took back up. He dreamed about green pastures
and he dreamed about a city that had foundations whose builder
and maker is God. That's what Paul said of them
over there in Hebrews chapter 11 about him and his father and
his grandfather and Sarah and all of them. Now, can you put
yourself You see what I'm trying to do here tonight? I want you
to put yourself in Jacob's shoes. Here he is. He's a vessel of
mercy. He's an object of grace. He's
a man chosen for no other reason than the good pleasure of God's
sovereign will. There was nothing good in Jacob.
Nothing good in him. Nothing special in Jacob. But
he was a vessel of mercy. He was an object of God's sovereign
grace. And God set him apart and chose
him and adopted him and arranged all the means and all the methods
to bring him to himself. And his mind, Jacob's mind was
on Canaan. He lived for Canaan. He looked
for Canaan. He desired Canaan. His heart
was in Canaan. His desire is to live in the
heavenly Jerusalem. And to this man, to this man,
God says the way into Canaan lies through Egypt. And that's
as far as you're going to go. That's tough, ain't it? Huh? You're not going to walk into
Canaan. You're going to walk into Egypt. That's as far as
you can go. God comes to him and He tells
him in more or less, this is what He says, you put yourself
in My hands. I'm going down with you. That's
what God's talking about when He said, I'll go with you. Saying,
you put yourself in My hands and go down and take your place
in this cursed place down here in Egypt. And down there, give
up the ghost. Give up the ghost. And I alone
will bring you back again. That's what faith's all about.
That's what it's all about. My prayer in Egypt represents
everything that Jacob despised. Now listen to it. Idolatry, immorality,
lasciviousness, greed, uncleanness, witchcraft, revelings, and drunkenness. If ever the broad road appeared
on this earth, it was in Egypt. It was in Egypt. You know, there's
only two places where God openly, physically manifested His judgment
on places in this earth, on individual places. Only two times. Sodom
and Egypt. Did you know that? Sodom and
Egypt. In Revelation chapter 11, and
you may not be familiar with that chapter, but he's talking
about the gospel age. Each one of those seven visions
given to us in Revelation is a revelation of the gospel age
from beginning to end. Each time you read this new revelation,
it has to do with that gospel age from beginning to end. And
it was given to give us assurance that what Christ had done was
sufficient and efficient enough to take us through to the end.
And that's what He gives us in these. But in Revelations chapter
11, He's talking about that great apostasy that's going to come
in this final age, in this gospel age. And God's witnesses, that's
pastors and missionaries, it always has been. Always has been. God will raise up a man in a
place and there in that place he'll give light and instruction
and teach God's people. And then others he lays upon
their hearts to be missionaries and they go into foreign lands
and preach. These are the two witnesses in Revelation chapter
11. He is not talking about two individual men. He is talking
about the church all the way through that age. Okay? And here they lie dead in the
street. Apostasy has gotten to such proportion
that God's witnesses are like dead men laying in the street.
Nobody hears them. Nobody's affected by them. Nobody's
worried about them. They're just dead men. Here,
let's count them dead, but you're dead. Ain't that what folks think
right now? Well, that man, he's dead in
a hammer. He don't have anything to say. He don't have anything
to say. Now, here they lie in the street. Where's the street? In a place called Sodom and Egypt. That's where it's at. That's
how he describes this world. Sodom and Egypt. Egypt is what
Jacob despises. Egypt is the last place he wants
to go. The last people he wants to be
seen with. The last people he wants his
sons and daughters to be exposed to is down in Egypt. And God
tells this old saint he must take his place in Egypt. And
in Egypt, is as far as his sojourn is going to go. That's where
you're going to die. That's tough, ain't it? Egypt's where God acquaints his
people with their mortality. Jacob before the sovereign in
Egypt When old Pharaoh said, how old are you? I don't think
Pharaoh ever seen anybody as old as him. He was 130 years
old, I believe, at that time when he stood before Pharaoh.
And they brought him in a little chair, and he sat down there
in front of Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said, how old are you, old man?
And Jacob didn't give him an answer. All he told him was,
he said, my days are few and evil. Few and evil. And this, I believe, is the confession
of all those that God sends down to Egypt. It doesn't matter if
you're 50 or 500. When you come to die, I guarantee
you look back over your life and your days are few. They're
just few. We just married last week and
had little kids. Now my kids have kids. And some
of them got kids in a few more years going to be having kids.
Man, it's like, my life is like, I'm 61 years old, my life's a
blur. It's just a blur. It was just
yesterday, it was just last week. It's just a moment. It's gone. It's gone. And somebody said
this, the fact of our mortality is the evidence that it's evil.
Now you think about that. Isn't that what he says in Romans
chapter 5, I think it's verse 21, or verse 12, ain't that what
he says? By one man, sin entered into the world, and death by
sin, and so death passed upon all men. Worst evidence. They
all died. Huh? Ain't that what the old
writer's saying? Your mortality, the fact that
you're mortal, the fact that you are going to die, is that
witness that sits on the stand every day and puts his finger
in your face and says you're guilty. You're guilty. Evil. That's all you can produce. I
tell you, this life promises what it cannot deliver. I look
back over Jacob's life and I tried to put myself in his shoes and
I tried to go back to his beginning and look at all of these things
that life promised that boy. That boy started off with a bang,
didn't he? Huh? Oh, life promised Jacob
favor in his father's house, but it ran him out of there with
an angry brother. And it promised him Rachel and
gave him Leah. It promised him honor and raped
his daughter. It promised him peace and gave
him bloodshed. And it promised him the fruit
of Canaan and gave him Egypt in a drought. That's right. And it promised him life. And
then it sent him down to Egypt to die. Huh? Turn with me to Colossians chapter
3. There are two great lessons to be learned here from Jacob. And if the same God who was pleased
to teach Jacob is pleased to teach us, I think we can learn
something. And the first thing that I think
we can learn is that all who believe have to be brought down
to Egypt to die. Every man, every son of Adam
is dead as he was judged of God in his father Adam. That's what
it says. All the way through Romans chapter 5, he just keeps
asserting that fact. You know why he keeps repeating
it? Because nobody believes it. Nobody's listening. He says over there, for the judgment,
the judgment, in Romans 5 verse 16, the judgment was by one,
the condemnation. Just hold your place there in
Colossians. I'll just read this to you in
Romans. By one man's offense, verse 17, death reigned by one. By the offense of one, judgment
came upon all men to condemnation, verse 18. And verse 19, by one
man's disobedience, many were made sinners. We all died now. Brother Mahan said one time,
Genesis tells the whole story of man. It began in the garden
with a fall, and it ended in Egypt in a call. You read the
first and the last part of Genesis and that's the whole story of
man. Right there. Ends in a coffin
in Egypt. Man's dead in his father Adam
and he lives and talks and thinks and walks as one cursed of God.
But there's other ways that this death, other ways when he talks
about being dead that are beneficial to us. It's beneficial to us
to know that. God wouldn't have told this to
him to hurt him. He was God's chosen man. He loved
Jacob. I love Jacob. He didn't say that
about many did he? But he did about old Jacob. He
said, I love him. I love him. Look here in Colossians chapter
3 verse 1. If you then be risen with Christ. Now I'm going to stop. as I read
this, and I'm going to make some applications, so don't leave
Colossians here. If you then be risen with Christ,
Jacob's hope fainted at the testimony of his sons. His sons come and
start telling him about Joseph being alive and his heart fainting. But when he saw the evidence
of his reign, an undeniable gift and means to carry him back to
Egypt. Saw the wagons of grace and all
these provisions and all these things. Those boys didn't have
the ability to bring that back. They had to be telling the truth.
And it said his heart was revived. Now that's what Paul's talking
about. God revives a man's spirit when he hears the gospel and
he sees himself raised up in Christ. He sees the resurrected
Christ. He sees His life in Christ. He
sees the glory of God in Christ. He sees hope in Christ. That's
what it means to believe. That's what it means to be raised.
You hath equipped them who were dead in trespasses and sins.
You are not equipped until you see Him. You are not living until
you see Him. Oh, His Spirit revived. If you
then be risen with Christ, He said, seek those things which
are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Is
this not what Joseph is doing down there in Egypt, sitting
at Pharaoh's right hand? Lord over all, nothing moves,
wiggles, or walks in Egypt without Joseph. Set your affection on things
above, not on the earth. Get your mind set on heavenly
treasure and heavenly hope and heavenly fellowship, heavenly
pleasures, heavenly purpose. Now watch this, verse 3, Colossians
chapter 3. For you are dead. Right in the middle of this,
you are dead. And your life is hid with Christ
in God. Now how can we be dead and yet
alive? How can that be? What in the
world is he talking about? Jacob was dead except for Joseph's
corn in Egypt because the same famine that fell on everybody
else fell on him. He was dead. Wasn't he? Oh, he might have lived a few
more days, but that about it. Jacob was dead in Egypt except
for Joseph because he didn't have any friends down there.
He was a stranger in the land. Who was going to give him corn?
They wouldn't have gave him corn if they had a house full. Who
were you? Don't you know there's a drought
going on? Don't you know you shouldn't have ate two grains
last week? You should have saved one. We don't know you. And Jacob
was dead spiritually knowing certainly that except for a divine
intervention, his children couldn't stand Shechem, let alone Egypt. What are they going to do in
Egypt? How are they going to resist that? They couldn't live in Shechem
in a little farm community without getting taken down and bloodshed
tempted away into all kinds of stuff. What are they going to
do down in Egypt? Man, I mean, this is the focal
point of evil down here. This is every kind of pleasure
and every kind of temptation known to man down here. He was
dead as far as he's concerned as far as this thing of spiritually. He knew certainly that except
for a divine intervention, his children could not resist the
pleasures and treasures of Egypt. They'd be swallowed up by the
great dragon down in Egypt. And I tell you this, he was dead
forcefully because God told him, you're going to die. I'll tell
you this, if God tells you you're going to die, you're dead. You can write it down. I tell
you, when God establishes faith in a man's heart and he believes
God and opens this book, God said, you're a dead man. You're
dead. Hmm? You're dead. Jacob had only one
source of life in Egypt in the light of those gospel promises
given to him, and that was in Joseph. Well, ain't that what
God is saying over here in Colossians? Our life is hid with Christ in
God. Verse 4, when Christ who is our
life shall appear, Then shall you also appear with him in glory,
mortified, therefore your members which are upon earth." That is,
see the mortality in these things. See the death that accompanies
these things. See the death that surrounds
these things. Consider the deeds of fallen,
depraved men, both in their religious imaginations and in their worldly
lust as judged of God, dead while they live. That's what God said
about them. View this world and all of its
vain promises and vain goals and vain ideas as fuel for the
fire of judgment, because that's all it is. See the old man dead
in Adam, dead in his own works and will and dead in his heart
and ways. This going down to Egypt is to
see our mortality. That's what it's all about. It's
to take your place where you belong. That's what it is. To see our mortality in Adam
that God might shut us up to our immortality in Christ. That's
where we have life in him. Our hope's not in the old man,
Paul says there in Colossians. Our hope's not in that old man.
We put off that old man. But it's in the new man of faith.
And we put on the new man, Colossians 3, verse 10, which is renewed
in knowledge after the image of him that created him. Old
Jacob died in Beersheba. He died to his family, and he
died to himself, and he died to Egypt, and he died before
God. And then he lived because God hid his life in Joseph. And
he lived. We put on the New Man Colossians
3.11 where Christ is all in all. I tell you. All in all. And Egypt with all of its gold
and wealth and wisdom and pleasures was just a cemetery to Jacob.
He was going down to the cemetery. Going down to the cemetery to
take his place. Our Lord said, what would it
profit a man if he gained the whole world? Lost his soul. What would you gain? There's
nothing in Egypt but death. And Paul tells us in Ephesians
4, 17, not to walk like other men walk because they walk in
the vanity of their mind. They believe themselves to be
alive while they're dead. They believe themselves to be
righteous when they're unrighteous. They believe themselves to be
clean when they're unclean. They believe themselves to be
at peace when everything in them is enmity against God. They walk
in the vanity of their mind. But believers have the mind of
Christ, and they see themselves dead to the world and dead to
the law and dead to sin, but alive unto Christ. You see what
I'm saying? That's why the scriptures keep
telling us over and over and over. He that hath the Son. He's talking about your faith.
That man whose faith has the Son has life. But now if you
ain't got Him, you don't have life. Now that's just the way
it is. You don't have life. You just got doctrine. Believers
have the mind of Christ and believers take comfort in this. Take comfort in this. Before
God sent His servant down into Egypt to die, He hid His life
in Joseph and made Him Lord over everything down there. You know, this going down into
Egypt, God has to bring us there. You know, we think, well, we're
born in sin. That's true enough, but that's
not where you're at. That's not where you're at. You're
still in Canaan. That's where Jacob was. He was
over here in Canaan. That's where he saw himself.
That's where he wanted to be. He thought he was in the right
place. God said, you're not in the right place. You got to come
down here, and I'll take you into Canaan. Huh? Isn't that what the problem is
right now, today? Everybody's in Canaan. They don't
need Satan. They don't need God. What do they need God for? They're
right where they want to be. where they want to be. This world
and this flesh and all that's in it has been set apart in the
Word of God for destruction. The old prophets had one message
to cry to this world. All flesh is grass. Judgment's
coming. Judgment's coming. It's coming. We had a man came here. This
has been a long time back. Seen me a lot. And he heard me
preach, and Brother Winston asked him later on, either that day
or later on during the week. He said, well, what did you think
about the message? He said, just like all the rest of them I heard
down there, gloom and doom. You remember that? Gloom and
doom. Brother, that's all there is
in this world. Ain't nothing here. Gloom and
doom. Apart from Joseph, everything.
in the known world was gloom and doom, wasn't it? Wasn't any stickers on the Ark
saying, smile, God loves you. They were just gloom and doom
outside them doors. Wasn't any preachers preaching
free will when the door closed on the Ark, was there? Wasn't
anybody talking about free will then. Wasn't anybody talking about
decision and walking isles in Sodom when the fire fell? No. We're all dead. Dead. Listen to this. Peter said, the
heavens and the earth that now is is kept in store just like
Egypt was under Joseph. Reserved under fire against the
day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. And the only
thing that keeps the fire of God from falling Right this second,
the only thing that holds it back right now, I tell you, I
can see the torch in his hand. He's ready to burn his whole
outfit up. And there's only one thing that
holds back his hand, just one thing. And that's his purpose
of grace in Christ to save all his elect. And that's what Peter
tells him, don't be ignorant of this. This world's ignorant
of this. They're running around here talking
about all things being the same from the beginning. All things
ain't the same. God destroyed this place one time with water,
and he's fixing to do it again with fire. The only reason it's
not is because God is long-suffering to us. We're not willing that
any should perish, but that all should come under repentance.
He said, therefore, knowing these things, what manner of people
ought we to be? Huh? We ought to be out here building
bigger barns? I don't think so. Egypt's day is coming. It's a
day of plagues and death and judgment. Oh, but for now, God
preserved it because God has a people in Egypt. That's what
he's teaching us. He's showing us there in this
little microcosm down here in Egypt. He's showing us exactly
what he's doing in the world today in this gospel age. That's
exactly what he's doing. He's going to bring his church
out of Egypt. He's going to deliver his church
out of Egypt. He's going to call them out of
Egypt. He's going to do it through the
preaching of the gospel. Not a sword going to be swung.
He's going to pick his man Moses and stand that man up in the
middle, and he's going to preach. And the sovereign of Egypt is
going to let those people go. If he don't, God will kill the
whole outfit. That's right. Oh, I'm telling you, Egypt didn't
offer Jacob anything but death. But here's the second thing I
want you to say. See, Jacob was also told he was
going to live in Egypt. Let me read you something here
in Genesis chapter 47. In verse 5, Pharaoh spake unto
Joseph, saying, Thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee,
Now that's when life begins, isn't it, when we come to Christ?
That's what they did. They come down there to Him.
And old Pharaoh said, your brethren and your fathers come unto you.
Now watch this. The land of Egypt is before you. In the best of the land, make
thy father and thy brethren to dwell in the land of Goshen. Let them dwell. And if thou knowest
any man of activity that is suited for this task, make him rulers
over my cattle. Verse 27, And Israel dwelt in
the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen, and had possessions
therein, and grew and multiplied exceedingly. And Jacob lived,
you see that? He lived in the land of Egypt
seventeen years. Seventeen years. He lived like
he lived nowhere else he'd ever been. Huh? He dreaded this place
worse than death. And God sent him down there and
he killed himself in his mind and he died out to everything
except God's election in Joseph. God's glory in Joseph. The whole
outfit died to him and he said, here I am. God said, I'll go
with you. and took him down there into
Egypt and down there in the land of Goshen in the middle of a
famine. This man lived like he lived
nowhere else he ever been. You read his story. I'm telling
you trouble followed that man everywhere he went. Everywhere
he went except Egypt. Down in Egypt he thrived. Old
Pharaoh said put him right over here in Goshen. You know what
Goshen means? It means a well-watered pasture,
is what it means, without going through five or six different
references. That's what it means. It was
watered. It was a water, a grassland, perfectly suited to cattle. He
lived in the blessing of God, and he lived in the fellowship,
love, and benefits of Joseph, and he lived in the land of Ramses,
and he was spared no good thing. Pharaoh said, don't bother with
your stuff. We got stuff. Huh? What did our Lord tell his disciples?
He said, don't even take two coats with you. You're not going
to need them. I rule over this place. You go
over there, if they won't have anything to do with you, don't
you fret about it. Don't you be anxious about it.
You just shake the dust off your feet and walk out. Huh? I run this thing. I run this thing. Oh, he said,
you live over here. And the famine was sore in the
land, and thousands died. But Jacob and all his seed prospered
and had possessions in the country of Goshen. Oh, the cattle were
fat in Goshen, and the grass was always greener in Goshen
than it was anywhere else in the world. Our Lord said, who
so drinketh of this water that I'll give him? He'll never thirst,
but this water that I give him will be in him a well of water
springing up into everlasting life. Old Jacob lived in Goshen
by the free grace of God, dead to the world and dead to Egypt
and dead to its temptations and its pleasures and dead to its
hopes and promises. But alive in faith, believing
God alone would bring him up again out of that awful place.
He lived. That dead man lived like he never
lived anywhere else he'd ever been. And brother, I tell you
this, this is the message of Christ in the gospel to you and
I. We got to die out to this world. And the deader we are,
the more we live. That's just the truth. That's
the truth. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
2. God took everything that He promised
Jacob, and preserved it, and blessed it, and fulfilled it
in Joseph. And God took from Jacob all hope in this world,
and all hope in Himself, and all hope in His surroundings,
and He shut him up to Joseph. And that is exactly what He does
with us. Look here in Galatians 2, verse
19. Paul said, For I through the
law, am dead to the law that I might live under God. The law
judged me in Christ. The law killed me in Christ.
The law justified me in Christ. And the law demanded my release,
my resurrection in Christ. That's right. I'm dead to the
law, but I'm alive under God. Verse 20. I'm crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me. I'm dead, Paul said, but nevertheless,
I live. I live. But my life is Christ. My life is Christ. You know,
Paul wrote to the Philippians. I don't know if you know this
or not, but the Philippians and the Ephesians, both, when he
wrote those letters, Paul was in prison. He was in prison. He was a prisoner. He wouldn't
admit himself to be a prisoner of Rome. He always said, I'm
a prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he talked
about. God put me in this prison. I'm here for a reason. But he
wrote to these Philippians out of the prison. hearing some distressing
things mixed with some good things, but he wrote these words over
in Philippians. He said, it's my earnest expectation
and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with boldness
as always, so now also, Christ shall be magnified in my body. Whether it's in my life or in
my death, whichever way he decides to do it, I'll be happy. I'll
be content. Now listen, verse 21, for to
me to live is Christ. That's my life. Christ. And to die is gain. Believers don't have to fear
death. Death's an open door to us. Death is the last thing you'll
ever have to suffer in this world, is death. And it's the most precious
thing to our Lord, the death of His Son. We don't have a reason in this
world to fear death. Death is an open door into glory
if you believe on Christ. Now that's what you better settle
in your heart right there. As far as I know, that's what
it means to be dead and yet live. It's to walk in the light of
the glorified Redeemer. to depend on Him for everything,
to obey Him without question, to receive Him with thanksgiving,
and to lay down in my last days, knowing His fingers shall close
my eyes. That's what our Lord, that's
what God is telling Jacob about Joseph. Joseph's not, you're
going to die, but Joseph's not going to die. Not when you die. Joseph's going to be right there,
and when you die, and you stand there and your eyes all bug-eyed,
He's going to come up, take His fingers, and close your eyes. And then he's going to see to
you, and he's going to preserve that body. You know, Jacob, he
gave orders to be embalmed. He said, you embalm me. And then
he carried him up and laid him in the canyon. We're dead, but we live in Egypt.
And we don't live with our head in the sand, and we don't live
here in doubt and anxiety, and we don't live here in defeat
and disgust. We live here by faith in the
living God who sent one before us and then raised him up. Raised
him up in glory to save our undeserving soul. Do you know that right
after the birth of Christ, when they were seeking to kill him,
that he went down into Egypt? You ever read that over Matthew?
He went down into Egypt. You know why he went down there?
Because God said, my son, I'm going to bring my son up out
of Egypt. That's right. And that's what
he's talking about here. When he brought up Christ, he
brought up the whole white people. Brought them up out of Egypt.
Now one more thing, and I'll close. Those who truly believe
this, live and walk in Egypt as dead and yet alive. And those who truly live by faith,
they pursue the the living Christ, the glorified Christ, until they
can hear him say what Jacob called Joseph to say to him. He said,
I want you to swear to me that you're not going to leave me
down here. I want to hear it. I know God promised it, but I
want your oath. I want you to tell me. Tell me. Oh, I know we hear them promises,
but don't you want to hear it? Huh? I want to hear it for myself.
He said, swear to me, don't leave me down here. He said, I'll carry
you out. I'll carry you out. And he did. He did. That's my hope. I don't
have any hope.