Genesis 49. I'd like to read verses 22 through 26.
I've entitled this message. Separate from his brethren. Begin reading in verse 22. Joseph. is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful
bough, or vine, by a well, whose branches run over the wall. The
archers have sorely grieved him, and shodded him, and hated him,
but his bow abode in strength. And the arms of his hands were
made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. From thence
is the shepherd, the stone of Israel, even by the God of thy
Father, who shall help thee, and by the Almighty, who shall
bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the
deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb. The blessings of thy Father have
prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost
bound of the everlasting hills They should be on the head of
Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate
from his brethren." Separate from his brethren. Now, this word, separate, has
something to do with the vow of the Nazarite. the instructions regarding the
Nazarite, he was to separate himself. And he was not to cut
his hair. He was to give himself wholly
to the things of the Lord. It was a vow of separation or
consecration, complete commitment. Very much like Paul when he said
he was separated unto the gospel of God. And you can look at any
local assembly, any church, and see different levels of separation
and commitment, can't you? When you look at a group of people,
you can look at that group of people and you can see different
levels of separation and commitment. Some are very faithful, very
faithful to attend worship services. You'd be very surprised If they
weren't there, you'd miss it. They're always there. And there
are some who miss more than they attend. There are some who are
truly sacrificial in their giving, very generous. To others, giving
doesn't much come across their mind. If they've got some left
over after all the bills are paid and after entertainment
is taken care of, they'll give. There are some who seem to be
taken up with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're truly
taken up with him. And yet there are others who
seem to be taken up with this world. So you know exactly what
I mean when I say there are different levels of commitment. Now, Joseph
stood head and shoulders above his brethren. And you can't help
but notice that when you read the life of Joseph, he stood
head and shoulders above his brethren. Now, before we go on,
I want to ask you a question. Do you want to be like Joseph? Or do you want to be like one
of his brethren? Now, I'm not talking about competition
where, well, I want to be better than my brother. Not talking
about competition at all. But if we can be content. And
satisfied with a lower level of separation. And commitment. All I can say is. That is disgusting. That's unthankful. and that's
evil. And if I can be content, I don't
believe the grace of God is in my heart. You know that, sir. May God give
us the grace to be just like Joseph. If you love the Lord
Jesus Christ, your desire is complete and unreserved separation
and commitment to Him. Now, if you love Christ, that's
what you want, isn't it? You want to be completely His, altogether
His, locked stock and barrel. You want to be completely under
His reign. That's what you want. That's
what you desire. Now, what was the key to Joseph's
separation? It says he was separate from
his brothers. Separated. What was the key to his separation? Well, let's look what Jacob says
about him in verse 22. He's talking about Joseph. He
says, Joseph is a fruitful vine, even a fruitful vine by a well
whose branches run over the wall. Now, he was fruitful. And what this is a reference
to is the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit. Now, every believer possesses
the fruit of the Holy Spirit. There's no such thing as a believer
who does not possess the fruit of the Holy Spirit. In some,
it's more apparent than others, though, isn't it? Turn to Galatians
chapter 5 for a moment. Here, Paul talks about the fruit
of the Spirit. Now, the fruit of the Spirit
Is the product of life. If God's given you life, if he's
giving you a new heart, you have the fruit of the spirit. It's
what you have. Look in Galatians chapter five,
Paul speaks of it here. Verse 22, but the fruit of the
spirit, it's not the fruit of human nature. No natural man
has any of the fruit that's spoken of here. This is all supernatural. It's the gift of God's grace.
It's the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit. But the fruit of the
Spirit is love. And this is what, how Joseph
is described. He's described as a fruitful
vine. The fruit of the Spirit is love. Where somebody has the
fruit of the Holy Spirit, they truly love God as He is, as He's
revealed in His Word. They love Him as he makes himself
known in his word. They love his gospel. They love
his way of saving sinners. Do you love the way of salvation
by grace? Is it something that you rejoice in? They love the
Lord Jesus Christ. They love his people. They love
men. The fruit of the Spirit is love.
The fruit of the Spirit is joy. There's an actual joy in the
gospel. Does it make you rejoice to know
that all your sins are put away by the blood of Christ? Is that
something that makes you filled with joy? You may have miserable
circumstances, but you still have joy, don't you? Oh, the
joy of the Lord is your strength. Peace. Knowing that Christ put away
my sins, that I never have to stand before God and give an
account for my sins, I get such peace from that. The peace of
knowing that He is my righteousness before God. My righteousness
right now, seated at the right hand of the Father. That's my
righteousness. I get peace from that. I'm at peace with God's
providence. He's in control. Whatever he
sends is right. It's best. I'm at peace with
you. I'm not, no conflict. No conflict. I'm not in competition
with anybody. Peace. Peace. Peace. The fruit of the Spirit is, he
says, that's long suffering. That's the patience. that comes
as a result of really believing that God is on the throne. Therefore,
you're patient. And a lot of times you're not
patient. I realize that. But when you remember that God's on the
throne, you're patient, aren't you? And then the next thing
that is mentioned is gentleness. Kindness. Kindness. Goodness, that's a merciful attitude,
good and merciful. Faithfulness. That means you
believe and you can be believed. You trust and you can be trusted.
Faithfulness. This is the truth of the Spirit.
Meekness. Meekness is that attitude before
God that believes that whatever he sends my way is right because
he's the one who sent it. I may not understand it, but
if he did it, it's right. That's meekness, a meek spirit
before God. Temperance. control from within. That's by the grace of God, not
controlled by other things, not controlled by the things of this
world, but it's a control from within. Now that's the fruit
of the Holy Spirit. And we read that Joseph, this
one who stood separate from his brethren, was a fruitful vine. And notice this back in our text,
in Genesis 49. Joseph is a fruitful vine, even
a fruitful vine by a well. Here's the key to his fruitfulness.
He was by a well or a spring. The roots, the parts of the vine
that you could not see, drew their nourishment from a well. Now, who is the well spoken of
here? You know, this is the Lord Jesus Christ, the grace of the
Spirit, a well of water, the grace of Christ. Now, there would
be no fruit at all without this well, would there? You take away
the water, the vine is going to dry up and die. The nourishment
for this fruit comes from being planted by this well. The roots go down and draw nourishment
for something you and I can't see. He's a fruit. He's a fruitful
vine planted by a well. Look what it says next. In verse
22, even a fruitful vine by well whose branches run over the wall. Now, you think about a vine.
This bough is a vine. What is the weakest plant? A
vine. A vine can't grow up. It's totally
dependent on hooking on to something else and leaning completely on
something else. A vine can't stand up at all
by itself. It's just going to lay there
in the ground, isn't it? Now, Joseph is a fruitful vine. His
branches spread out as long as he's on the wall. The wall completely
supports him. The wall holds him up. And what
that's a reference to is the Lord Jesus Christ holding me
up. This is where fruitfulness is found. The Lord Jesus Christ.
As long as I'm supported completely by the wall. I can't support
myself in any way. I'm supported completely by the
Lord Jesus Christ. I bear fruit. You know the key
to bearing fruit is knowing you're completely dependent upon the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's the key. Now Joseph's
a fruitful vine. His roots go into the well and
his branches run along the wall. Verse 23. The archers have sorely
grieved him and shot at him and hated him. You know, what if
Joseph did have a hard time? I want you to think just for
a few moments about the trials of this man's life. The jealousy
and hatred of his brothers. They betrayed him. They sold
him into Egypt. He gets into Egypt. And he starts
burying himself while he's there. He gets a job for Potiphar. And
you remember, while he was a servant in Potiphar's house, you remember
what happened in Potiphar's life. Kept tempting him, kept tempting
him. And he, in integrity, refused
her temptation. He said, how can I sin against
God and do this thing? And you know what? How he was
rewarded out of his faithfulness? He was thrown into prison. Now
can you imagine the things that must have ran through his mind?
Here I've done what I should and here I'm in prison. While
he's in prison, the Lord blesses him there. He becomes the head
of the prison. As far as while he's in there,
I mean the prison keeper put it all in his hands and he was
able to interpret dreams and you'll remember how he interpreted
the dream of the baker and the butler. He gave the true interpretation. As soon as the butler gets out,
he forgets about him. He doesn't even tell about Joseph.
And there he is, rotting in that jail. Now, you want to talk about
somebody that had trials. He had a whole lot more trials
than any of us know anything about. I'm sure of that. But
look what it says about him. It says the archers have sorely
grieved him and shot at him and hated him. Let's talk about his
brothers, really. But his bow abode in strength. He didn't quit. He didn't give
up. He didn't become disheartened. He didn't retire. His bow abode
in strength. How did his bow abide in strength? His bow abode in strength, and
the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty
God of Jacob, from Genesis to Shepard, the stone of Israel.
Now, while we're giving a picture up here, his hands remained strong. I haven't shot many bows, but
I tell you what, it takes a lot of strength to get that thing
back there. But his hands remained strong, and you know why? It's
just like a father teaching his son to shoot a bow and arrow. He puts his arms around him.
He puts his hand on his son's hand. He puts his other hand
on. He pulls it back for the little boys pulling him back.
But it's the strength of the father that's doing it. Now,
it's my hands, if I'm a believer, my hands are made strong, but
we know whose strength it is. Now, is there any reason for
you and I to not be fruitful if it's the strength of God that
enables us to be fruitful? Is there any reason whatsoever?
I mean, that little boy, he couldn't get the ball back. But so when
his father, his hand was strengthened by the mighty God of Jacob. But that's a reminder for us
who this God is, the God of Jacob. That's the title that he gives
himself more than any other title, the God of Jacob. Now, you and
I know that Jacob was just wasn't much to him, but God loved him
and that made him special. That made him special. Jacob
was a very special man. God said, Jacob have I loved
out of you, hated Esau, but I've loved Jacob. God's discriminating
sovereign grace was special on Jacob and his hands were made
strong by the mighty God of Jacob. From this, the God of Jacob is
the shepherd, the stone of Israel. Now you think about Joseph, what
a shepherd he had. I was thinking about Psalm 23,
probably most of us can quote it. But isn't it a blessing when
you can truly say the Lord is my shepherd? Lord's my shepherd, I shall not
want. What can I want if my shepherd
is the Lord? He makes me to lie down in green pastures, the green
pastures of the Word. He makes, leads me beside the
still waters. the still waters of peace, not
bubbling waters of conflict, but still waters of peace. He
restores my soul. He forgives me. He leads me in
the path of righteousness for His namesake, for Christ's sake.
Not for my sake, but for His namesake. Yea, though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for
Thou art with me. Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort
me. Thou preparest a table for me
in the presence of my enemies. My cup runneth over. Surely,
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and
I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. You know, Joseph could sing that song. The Lord's
my shepherd. If the Lord's your shepherd,
then you have every reason to be fruitful, don't you? This is the stone of Israel,
and that's a quotation from Isaiah chapter 28, where he's called
it pride, precious cornerstone. Our Lord is the foundation. He's
the foundation upon which I stand. This is the shepherd, the stone
of Israel, verse 25. Even by the God of thy father,
the covenant God who shall help thee, Here's why Joseph is a
fruitful guy. God helps him. The Lord's his helper. You all
love that passage of Scripture in Hebrews chapter 13. It says,
Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content,
be plumb satisfied with what you have. And here's why. He
has said, I'll never leave thee, nor forsake thee, so that we
may boldly say, The Lord's my helper. I will not fear what
man will do to me. The Lord's my helper. Let us
come boldly under the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need. I tell you what, I don't
know the time of need when there's not a time of need, do you? Let
us find grace to help in time of need. And this is why Joseph
is such a fruitful vine. He has the Lord as his helper,
the one who aids him, the one who strengthens him. Let's go
on reading. Even by the God of thy father
who shall help thee, and by the Almighty. Oh, His help is, you
know, I could try to help you, but it won't do you any good,
because I don't have any strength at all. The Almighty, the Omnipotent
One, what help He gives. He delights in giving help to
His people. It says, He shall bless thee
with the blessings of heaven above. Blessings of the deep
that lies under and blessings of the breast and blessings of
the womb. Now, I looked at the commentaries
on that. And it talked about how Joseph
was going to have these blessings of water coming down from heaven
that's going to cause fruit to come out of the earth, food is
going to come up out of it. He's going to have these physical,
temporal blessings and he's going to have the blessings of having
children and the blessings that are involved in having kids and
so on, and I'm sure that that has an application, but that's
not the meaning of this. First of all, notice it says,
the Almighty who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven
above and so on. He shall bless thee. Now, these
are talking about certain blessings. Blessings that you shall have. These are blessings that every
believer shall have. This is not just for some select
few. These are the blessings of God that he gives all of his
children. You know, it says he has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings and heavenly blessings in Christ Jesus. All spiritual
blessings. Now, these are certain blessings,
and the reason they're certain is because God is the God of
all grace. That's why they're certain. Salvation is by grace,
free grace, unmerited favor. Therefore, they're certain. Now
look what he says. He talks about the blessings
of heaven above, the blessings of the deep that lies under,
and blessings of the breast and of the womb. With the blessings
above, that's not talking about rain. That's talking about the
spiritual blessings that every believer has in Christ Jesus.
Do you know you already have them all? What if anybody in
here really believes that? I'm asking, do I really believe
that? He had blessed me with all spiritual blessings. That
means every one of them. Every one of them. That's the blessings
from above. And what are the blessings beneath
that lies under? I don't have any doubt that what
that's a reference to is the blessings that we receive because
of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was brought under. They put him in a tomb. He went
under the earth. And what he accomplished by his
death. His death, and this is the blessings
of His death. His death accomplished the complete, full salvation
of everybody He died for. And that is absolutely certain. There's nothing about this that's
going to miscarry. It's when He died when He said
it is finished. The salvation of everybody He
died for was finished. Is that a blessing? Oh, what
a glorious blessing this is. The blessing of underneath the
earth. And then what does he say next?
The blessing of the womb. The womb is where life comes
from. This is a reference to the blessing of God, the Holy
Spirit giving me life, giving me life from the dead, giving
me the grace to see the glory of Christ, giving me faith, giving
me repentance, giving me love to Him. That's the blessing of
life that He gives me. And then he says next, the blessings
Of the breast or the bread, the bread, the bread, the womb is
life and the breast is our food. What's our food? Christ Jesus himself, he is the
Word of God and I and that's that's the blessing that we we
live off him. We is newborn babes. Crave that pure milk of the Word
that you may grow thereby. Now these are the blessings that
every believer has. This is what the Lord helps us
with. Verse 26, he says, The blessings of thy
father hath prevailed above the blessings of mine. He's talking
about that progenitor of my other kids. Unto the utmost bound of
the everlasting hills these blessings are superior and will be to the
vanishing point all the way to the end. And they shall be on
the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that
was separate from his brethren." Now, the blessing that Jacob
conferred on Joseph was greater than the blessings of his brothers.
And they're all going to be on the head of Joseph. He's crowned,
he's made a king and a high priest to God, or a king and a priest
to God, not a king and a priest. Now, and he ends by saying this,
he is the one who is separate from his brethren. He was indeed worthy. He was
separate from his brethren. Is there any reason why you should
not be the most committed believer to
ever live? I want us all to ask ourselves
that question. Is there any reason for you to
not be just like Joseph, the most committed believer to ever
live? Now, the same grace that Joseph
had, you have. The same God that Joseph had,
you have. The same Savior that Joseph had. You have. The same blessing that
Joseph had. You have. Now, Joseph was nothing
more than a sinner, just as weak and sinful as you are. It's hard
to believe, but it's the truth. It's the truth. He had flesh.
He was a weak, sinful human being, just like you are. But look what
the grace of God did to him and for him. And every one of us
ought to be encouraged. This is not a ball out, oh, we
need to bear more fruit. This is not trying to ball anybody
out. Everybody here ought to be encouraged and optimistic.
There's no reason why we can't be exactly as Joseph. Because it's
all by his grace. Are you a vine planted by a well? on the wall, your hands made
strong by the God of Jacob, then you and I are to be this fruitful,
fruitful vine. Now I'm going to close by turning
to John 15. The Lord says, I am the true vine, and my father
is the husband. Every branch in me that beareth
not fruit, he taketh away. There's all kinds of different
views as to what that means, but I know this, it sure doesn't
sound good. It sure doesn't sound good. But he says every branch that
beareth fruit, he purges it. Your Lord is going to purge.
He's going to send trials. He's going to cut you down, cut
you down, and it's going to be for your good. It's that you
might bear more fruit. Aren't you thankful for the Lord's
chastening? I don't want to be chastened, but I sure am thankful
for it. I sure am thankful for it. He says in verse three, now
you are clean. This is every one of his fruitful
vines. This is every one of his children.
You are clean. You may feel dirty, but you're
not. You really are clean. You really are perfectly holy
in God's sight. It's not, he doesn't look at
you as dirty, but he tolerates you for Christ's sake. He sees
you as clean altogether. Now you are clean through the
word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can you, except
you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I
in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me, apart from me,
severed from me, what can you do? Not very much, hardly anything,
absolutely nothing. If a man abide not in me, he
is cast forth as a branch, and is withered, and men gather them,
and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide
in me, and my words abide in you," and here's the evidence
of abiding in him, his words abide in you. You shall ask what
you will, and it shall be done unto you. Now, here it is, my
father glorified. that you bear much fruit, just
like Joseph did. Are you ambitious for this? I want to bear much fruit. So shall ye be my disciples, as the Father hath loved me.
Now, how did the Father love the Son? There isn't any way
I could describe that answer. There's no way I could define
it. I know it's all together glorious. It's above me. What
can I say about it? But yet, he says, as the Father
has loved me, so have I loved you. Now, that said, the ever
believer. You want to talk about a reason
to feel good? He loves you. Completely. Continue ye in my
love. If ye keep my commandments, ye
shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments,
and abide in his love. Now, these things have I spoken
unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might
be full. Now, this is my commandment,
that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love
hath no man this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
You are my friends. Friends of the Lord Jesus Christ,
where he would actually call me his friend? Yes, sir. This is true of every believer.
You are my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you, if
you believe my gospel, if you love one another. Henceforth
I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what
his Lord doeth, But I've called you friends for all things that
I've heard of my Father, I've made known unto you. Now, everybody
in here knows what it is to feel like you're kind of shoved away. You don't feel like you get to
enter into whatever somebody else is getting into the intimacy
of. You know what it is to be held
off. You feel like you're kind of
looking in the window. But you know, the Lord says that's
not true of any of my people. I've let him know the very most
glorious things, whatever my father showed me, I've shown
him. That's the heritage of every
believer. Henceforth, I call you not servants, for the servant
knoweth not what his Lord doeth. But I've called you friends for
all things that I've heard of my father. I've made known unto
you. Now, you've not chosen me. Well, I chose him, but it's because
he first chose me. The Lord doesn't say that, does
he? He says, you did not choose me. Don't you know that so? You
know, if you're saved, it's not because you chose him, it's because
he chose you. You know that. You've not chosen
me, but I've chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring
forth fruit and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever
you shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you."
Now has that said to every believer? Has it said to you? Whatsoever you ask in his name, he says he's going to give it
to you. These things I command you that
you love one another. Let's pray.