We are looking in the book of
Genesis tonight, Genesis chapter 47. Now I chose to read Hebrews chapter
12 because he tells us to run the race with patience. Run the race that is set before
you with patience. In Genesis chapter 47, we have
a confession that comes from Jacob. And last week I preached
about Jacob as well. So this was actually the message
I was going to preach last Wednesday and I hadn't completed it, but
the Lord had given me the other idea and Lord gave us the message
then. So I was able to finish this
up and I'm thankful that the Lord hasn't
left me to myself thus far. He keeps revealing his face.
I keep seeing him and I don't take, I hope we don't take that
for granted. I have to have him to show me.
I can get up here like a man in false religion and just say
words. That's not what I want. I want a message from him. And
I believe he's giving me a message tonight for us. Every child of
God that God has elected and ordained and saved by his purpose,
his power, wash them in his blood are made a pilgrim and a stranger
in this world. Now a pilgrim. or a pilgrimage
is a journey to a sacred place. A journey to a sacred place.
And I'm gonna go ahead and tell you the title. It's Purposed
Pilgrimage. So a pilgrimage is a journey
to a sacred place. Are we not journeying to a sacred
place in our mind? Are we not trying to get to Christ,
trying to get to where he is, hoping that he keeps us until
the finish line? Certainly. And it's a sacred
place that he is. Wherever he is is a sacred place.
Thank God he's everywhere, isn't he? He's not limited. But in
life, and especially being a young man, I thought that I started
out blazing trails. I started out as a pioneer. I'm
reminded that I think Daniel Boone's birthplace is close by
or something like that. Yeah. So I thought, man, that
guy was a pioneer. He was ready to blaze trails.
He was going a certain direction. Not even sure. I don't think
he was really sure where he was going. He was just going. And
by God's grace, he teaches us that no, we're not pioneers,
we're survivors. We end up being survivors, don't
we? Especially the older we get, we're surviving this world. We're
not blazing trails through it, are we? No. We learn that it's
one step at a time, one day at a time. And the believer, to
the believer, it's one glimpse of his face at a time. That's
what we're after now. I got to have one more glimpse
of his face, one more breath from his Holy Spirit, one more
refreshment from the fountain of living water, one more piece
of manna. That's what we're pushing towards now. That's what we're
hoping in now. Not to have a legacy, not that
our name would be remembered. I don't care after I die, if
anybody remembers my name or remembers who I am, I want to
be found in Christ. That's my hope. That's my only
hope. We learn in time by his grace. Life is a marathon. It's not
a sprint. It's not a quick race or a run
to the finish. It's a marathon. It's about 60
or 80 years, give or take a few. Isn't that right, brother Al?
It's a marathon. And in a marathon, you have to have water. That's
one of the most important things in a marathon is if they're not
hydrated, they're going to cramp up. They're going to fall by
the wayside. They won't be able to endure. Guess where our water
comes from? It's not what we do, and it's
not what we have gotten based upon efforts that we have done. No, it's Christ is our living
water, isn't he? It's a glimpse of him and a drink
of the refreshment of him. And this oasis that we've been
given, this building, this congregation, this candlestick, if you will,
in a dark and dreary land, in a desert, a dry desert, he's
given us a place where we can come and take of the water of
life freely. while we're running through our
marathon called life. Now, to him, it's less than a
blip, but to us, 80 years at first seems like a long time,
but I know some of you will agree with me, as you look back over
your life, it's a vapor. It's a vapor. That's what James
called it. He said, marvel not what shall be on the morrow,
for what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for
a little time, then vanisheth away, James 4, 14. We see that we endure based upon
His grace, His grace, His purpose, His strength, hoping in Him.
Isaiah 40 says, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew
their strength. They shall mount up with wings
as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk
and not faint. They're not gonna faint, why?
Because they're waiting upon the Lord. Because He gives them
the living water that sustains them. He gives them the bread
of life that sustains His people. Philippians 3 tells us, Brethren,
I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those
things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize
of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. And this pressing
towards the mark, that's not a one-time thing, is it? We didn't
just get saved and that was the end of it. No, we're pressing.
I can imagine the lady that was pushing to get to Christ that
had the issue of blood, if I could but touch the hem of his garment,
it was a desperation press, wasn't it? She had to get to him, whether
it was on her hands and knees, a belly crawl, whatever it was,
I've got to get to him. He's the mark, I've got to press
to him. Thanks be to God, he brings us
to him. It's him keeping us all along, isn't it? It's him that's
sustaining us all along. And he gets all the glory in
it. We would have it no other way as his people. That's the
good news of the gospel. He says unto us, come, and we
come. He says unto us, seek ye my face. And our heart says, Lord, your
face will I seek because you said that. Lord, save me now,
and save me now, and save me now. We never grow past that.
We never grow past that. We're babes in that regard. needing
our heavenly father, daily crying out for mercy, daily seeking
new manna. The picture is not a strong man pushing through
and making paths, blazing trails. No, we're surviving by his grace
and mercy and him drawing us unto himself as a child is being
drawn, as a lamb that's lost, him seeking them out and bringing
them back into the fold. That's what he does for his people
over and over again. It's all by great designs of
mercy and grace. He makes us pilgrims and strangers,
makes us ever needy. This is why I've titled the message
Purposed Pilgrimage. It's all by His purpose. It's
all by His design. We would not need a different
place if He allowed us to be content here. But we're not content
here, not really. There's happiness that we have
that fleets here and there, but where's our joy found? Is it
not found in the finished work of Christ alone? Where's our
rest in this life? Is it not in the completed work
of what the Lord did on the cross of Calvary alone? There is no
rest in this life. We'll have moments of blips of
happiness here and there, and we'll be on top of the mountain,
it'll feel like, and we're just rejoicing, and then we'll find
ourself in the lowest valley again, won't we, Lord? Lord,
I need you to bring me up out of this miry clay pit of sin
again that I found myself, put myself into. Save me again, Lord.
I've done that which I would not, like Paul said. And by his
grace, he does. Here in our text, it's a familiar
passage of scripture prior to this point. It's the account
of Joseph. And what has happened is, is
Joseph was sold into slavery, as you know, by his brothers.
And he finds himself being sold to Potiphar, which was the captain
of the guard of Pharaoh. And Joseph was promoted to be
over all the other servants in the house of Pharaoh, but Pharaoh's
wife, I'm sorry, Potiphar, Potiphar's wife, lied on Joseph, didn't
she? Said that Joseph tried to force
himself upon her. It's not true. She was the one
after Joseph and Joseph said no. And because of that lie,
Joseph spent three years in prison. Upon his time in prison, he interpreted
two dreams. And those two dreams are from
the butler and the baker. And the butler was to squeeze
the cup back into Pharaoh's hand and the butler was to be executed. And that was the interpretation.
That's exactly what took place. But the butler forgot about Joseph,
didn't he? Forgot all about Joseph. And
he stayed down in prison for three years. Don't you love the
Lord's timing? We can look back at Joseph here
and we can see, okay, well, that was all by great designs of grace,
but what about our life? Do we rejoice? We just read the
chastenings of the Lord are not joyous when they happen. Do you
think Joseph was enjoying being in prison? Certainly not. But
we can look back and see that it's goodness and mercy. Everything
that happens in the believer's life, we look back and say, Lord,
even if I don't believe, That it was good for me. I know it
was. Faith says it was. Goodness and mercy. That's what
it has to be because it came from your hand and you promised.
And if the Lord promised, that's exactly what's going to take
place. Well, in God's time. And I love
the fullness of God's time. He says that throughout scripture
and the fullness of time. That means when every tick had
to happen, finally happened and the Lord purposed it, that's
when it happened. I love that. He's the author of time. He's
the absolute end time. It's his time. He created it.
When the fullness of time came, Pharaoh was troubled by dreams.
And you remember the dreams and I'll have to kind of hurry through
this a little bit, but Joseph interprets it and it comes down
to it being seven years of plenty and seven years of famine. And
Pharaoh says, what should we do? And he says, well, during
the seven years of plenty put back that way during the time
of drought, during the time of famine, you'll be able to draw
that back out. So he's saying, make a savings
accounts, what he's telling him basically, right? A storehouse. Now understand, Pharaoh exalts
Joseph and he becomes second all over Egypt. So he's over
Egypt, save Pharaoh, who was higher. Whatever Joseph said
was law, unless Pharaoh said otherwise. He was the only one
that can test Joseph at this time. Now, if it hadn't have
been for the famine, Joseph would have never been exalted. If it
hadn't have been for the prison, Joseph would have never been
exalted. And if it hadn't have been him being taken from his
father and sold into slavery, Joseph would have never been
exalted. Joseph's a picture of Christ
in that, isn't he? He was sold just as 20 pieces
of silver was Joseph, 30 pieces of silver was the Lord. We know
the Lord was sold into slavery, if you will. He became a servant. unto the Father, bearing our
sin in bonds according to the covenant of grace. We see the
picture there, don't we? And he had to be put into prison
or counted with the wicked so that you and I could be set free,
taking the prison of our sin unto himself. And then what does
the Lord say? I've highly exalted him and given
him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus,
every knee shall bow and every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So we see he's
a picture, Joseph is. If it hadn't have been for these
things, Joseph would have never been exalted. Now, goodness and mercy,
as I mentioned, doesn't always appear as goodness and mercy,
but all is ordered and sure of the Lord. All things are purposed
according to his will. Did you know that the word control
is not in our Bible? The word control is not in our
Bible. Now I'm guilty of saying this
too, but I say the Lord's in control. I say that sometimes.
I don't think there's really necessarily anything wrong with
saying it that way, but to make it proper, it actually It actually
should be purposed. The Lord has purposed all things. See, control is in time. It's
present. It's due. The Lord's doing something.
That's how you have to control something you have to do. But
purpose, it's finished. It's already done. We see the
difference. I rejoiced when I saw that because I realized it's
not necessarily wrong. Sure, He's controlling all things
according to His purpose, but it happened in eternity, didn't
it? Now it's coming to fruition in time according to His will. Purpose is timeless. Scripture
tells us, the purpose of God standeth sure, having this seal,
the Lord knoweth them that are his. It takes God to rest in
his purpose, especially in the storm, especially in a trial,
especially when you find yourself in the prison house being falsely
accused. That's what happened to Joseph.
Was our Lord not falsely accused until he drank of the cup and
bore our sin? We see the picture there. It's
easy to see if the Lord permits us. I won't say it's easy, but
it's glorious to see Joseph as a picture of Christ, our Redeemer. It does take God to reveal faith,
to give us faith to believe this. Now we're at the point where
Joseph, the years of plenty have passed and they've made the storehouses.
They have their barns full, so to speak. And Jacob and Jacob's
brethren, in the famine in Canaan. Nobody knew this was coming unless
they had heard of coming from Joseph. And so it'd only been
the Egyptians that would have been preparing for it, obviously,
because of what transpires afterwards. But during the famine, it's interesting
to think that once you find somebody has bread and you have no bread,
you're going to try to go and get that bread. Is that not true?
If you hear that somebody has food, just as this, these Jacob
heard of Egypt having food. Word gets around. Word gets out. And is that not the same in gospel
churches? When we hear that the Lord, that there's a church being
raised up, do we not rejoice in that? There's a new manna
house, if I can say it that way. That sounds silly, but you understand
what I'm saying. There's a place where the gospel is being preached.
Another storehouse that the Lord may be pleased to reveal his
truth in. Another candlestick, another
gospel church. We rejoice in this. I love the
thought that everyone needing bread had to come to Joseph. Every single person, they had
the only bread. We'll find this out in this chapter
later on that we're about to see. They had all the bread in
that area. They were the only ones that
had the bread. Anybody needing bread had to come to Joseph. Is that not true with the Lord
Jesus Christ? If you're hungry, He's the only
one that's got the bread. If you're thirsty, He's the only
one that's got the water. You must come to Him. Only those
who need will come. And God is the doer of it. God
is the doer of the physical picture here in Egypt of famine and the
bread that's there. And then God's the doer of the
spiritual picture where that we're hungry, we're famished,
we're in a wilderness and we've got to get to Christ, our Joseph,
who has the bread. the bread of life, he is the
bread of life. And for the sake of time, I wanna
sum up the rest of this before we get to this chapter. Basically
what happens is Joseph's brothers come, they don't recognize Joseph.
And after a couple of events take place, Joseph finally reveals
to his brothers who he is and they rejoice together, they weep
together. And Joseph says, go fetch my
father Jacob. And he does. And Jacob and his
entire family, all of his flocks, all of his herds come down to
Egypt to stay under the protection of Joseph. Now, this is where
we find ourselves here. Jacob and his family are now
in Egypt. And at the beginning of chapter
47, they've entered into the throne room of Pharaoh. So Jacob,
Joseph, and some of his brothers are in the throne room of Pharaoh.
Now let's look at Genesis 47 verse five. Pharaoh spake unto
Joseph saying, thy father and thy brethren are coming to thee.
The land of Egypt is before thee. In the best of the land, make
thy father and brethren to dwell. In the land of Goshen, let them
dwell. And if thou knowest any men of activity among them, then
make them rulers over my cattle.' Joseph brought in Jacob, his
father, and set him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And
Pharaoh said unto Jacob, How old art thou? And Jacob said
unto Pharaoh, the days of the years of my pilgrimage are 130
years. Few and evil have the days of
the years of my life been and have not attained until the days
and the years of the life of my fathers and the days of their
pilgrimage. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and
went out before Pharaoh. And Joseph placed his father
and his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt,
and in the best of the land, in the land of Ramses, as Pharaoh
had commanded. And Joseph nourished his father
and his brethren, and all his father's household with bread
according to their families." Of all the questions that Pharaoh
could have asked Jacob. He asked him, how old art thou? That struck me as interesting. Why did he ask him how old he
was? We know that everything written
in this book is for God's elect. This Bible is not written to
the world. It was written to the Lord's people. So why did
he ask, how old art thou? everything in the scripture,
is it not to reveal the gospel to God's people? Is it not to
point us unto Christ? Is it not to show us that Christ
is sovereign in all things and that he gets all the glory in
all things? It's to point us directly to
him. Pharaoh's question was because God chose for us to hear these
words. The days of my pilgrimage, my
journey to a sacred place, my journey to a holy place, my journey
to a holy land have been few and evil. And notice he says
every day, the days of the years of my life, the days, 365 of
them, and then on leap year, 366 of them, they are all few, and every one of them are evil.
See, this is an acknowledging of the same exact confession
of every single believer. Every single elect of God will
see that they are utterly evil every single day. There is not a day that goes
by that we see ourself as good, is there? Do you ever look in
the mirror and think, boy, I'm doing a lot better than I used
to? No, if anything, we're saying, well, I'm a lot worse than I
used to be, but boy, he sure is a lot more beautiful than
he used to be also to me. He's revealed himself more so,
and the more I see of him, the less I see of myself. Is that
not your confession as well? This is why he's confessing this.
We're utterly evil every day, and we're in a strange land that's
not our home. Is it not true that every day
that goes by, The glitter of this world loses its luster more
and more. The happiness of this world loses
its luster more and more. And we long for home. We long
to have that new body. And if some of the younger ones,
the older you get, the more pain that you feel and the more suffering
that you feel and the more struggle that you have in this flesh.
And you desire to have that new body, fashion like unto him and
be found in his likeness. Is that not true? We're in a
strange land on a pilgrimage, a journey to a sacred place,
and every breath we take is one more breath closer to seeing
Him. Every second that the clock ticks, that's one more moment
closer to seeing Him, more nigh unto Him revealing His glory
in us. We are pilgrims and strangers in a strange land, and it's all
by His purpose. Now, Christ tells us this regarding
our pilgrimage. In the world, you shall have
tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. Mark
it down, write it down, seal it, put it on a wall in gold
letters if you want to. Either you're in a trial. If
you're the Lord's, you're going to be chastened. You're going to be
chastised of the Lord. He's going to draw out this confession
of us over and over and over. Mark it down, brethren, that
we're either in a trial, coming out of a trial, or we're going
into a trial. And the Lord gives us little
tiny lull periods in between, but for the most part, either
we're in a trial, we're going into a trial, or we're coming
out of a trial. And what is it that we struggle with so much?
We read it just a moment ago in Hebrews, the sin that doth
so easily beset us, our unbelief. Do you think Joseph rejoiced
when he was in prison? Certainly not. Certainly not. Maybe towards the end, the Lord
gave him peace on it, and he was content to, because he was
over the prison house, so we don't know exactly, but no, he's
a man just like you and I are. He was crying out, Lord, Lord,
this isn't fair. He was a spoiled lad of his father. He was the favorite child. He
had a coat of many colors. None of the other brothers had
that, so he would have been, Spoiled, wouldn't he say? He would have
been very upset about being in the prison. Is that not us? How
spoiled are we with all the things that the Lord's given us in this
life? And yet we lose one little thing. Somebody dings our car
in a parking lot. Do you not become upset at that? I do. I certainly do. Who purposed
that? Well, why did he purpose that?
So that I would end up at the end, putting my hand over my
mouth and saying, truth, Lord, you do all the things well. That
ding in my car, it needed to be there. Lord, I believe you,
not this flesh, not myself. I have no confidence in this
flesh. I believe you because of the faith that you've given
me. You've made me believe. These trials are twofold by design. Number one, they make us flee
to Christ. See, understand that the new
man hates the world. It hates sin. The sin of the old man,
the self of the old man, the flesh, the new man hates that.
We're made to hate Satan as well. We're kept by the power of God,
but when we're At our most vulnerable state, is it not so easy to revert
back to the flesh's mindset? It certainly is. It's a warfare.
It's where Paul said, I wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities and powers. Well, what is it, the
influence causing you to do to flee away from Christ, not to
Christ? So why do we come here? That
he might refresh us with the living water, that he might give
us another taste of the bread of life and that we would be
turned back to him again. Have the same confession. Lord,
my days are evil. Every single one of them. I'm
evil. Oh, I need you to save me. I need you to save me again
and again. It's true, life is a struggle.
One trial right after another. But aren't you glad God's grace
is sufficient? God's grace is sufficient. I had a Me and my wife decided we had
a brilliant idea one time. And I say that sarcastically,
uh, we were trying to get into shape and we decided that we
were going to run a couple of races. And one of them was a
5k. One of them was a 10 K and one
of them was a 15 K. And if we did that, then we would
be able to get this trifecta medallion thing that probably
in a cardboard box in a closet at my house now, because we actually
got it, but it means nothing. But we thought we would try to
do that just to get ourselves in shape, motivate us. We'd be
training for that and whatever else. And so the first race that
we ran, and by the way, there were obstacles throughout the
whole race. It wasn't just a race. It was obstacle race and whatever.
And that's where I learned that life is not a sprint. It's a
marathon because you had to pace yourself on that. You couldn't
just sprint through it. You didn't have the endurance.
We don't have the endurance to make it through life like that. The Lord's
made us dependent upon him. Well, the first one we did was
in Florida and we had trained in Florida. We were ready to
go in Florida. It was good. It was in the spring. So it was
cool. And we were, uh, the weather was cool. It was nice. And so
we did very well in that. I was a little bit overconfident.
I don't care to tell you. I'm like, well, I got this. That was the
easiest thing I ever did. The next one was in a place called
Asheville, North Carolina. And I'm sure you know exactly
where that's at. It's in the mountains. And I believe the mountain was
called Black Mountain. They named it right. That was the darkest,
ugliest mountain I have ever been on in my life. When I first
looked at the obstacle course, it looked like it was all flat
and everything was good, but I didn't see that little trail
off to the side that made us climb up 1500 feet up and back
down or however many. She'll tell you it's probably
more than that. During that time, I said to her, it can't get much
worse than this. We had just passed the two mile
mark. And I thought, man, I thought we should be at least at five
miles by now. I look at her and I say, it can't get much worse
than this. And the Lord said, I'm going
to make it rain on you. So it started raining. And I
was like, I shouldn't have said that. So it started raining on us.
And as we're going up this mountain, I slip and I bust up one foot
and it's bleeding. And then I twist my other leg
and I took my shoe off. It's blue and purple. And I was
reminded of a book by Dr. Seuss called One Foot, Two Foot,
Red Foot, Blue Foot. And I realized that that is how
we get through life. One step at a time limping, just
like Jacob did. Now remember, he said, Lord,
I'm not letting go to you. Bless me. And it cost him the
hollow of his thigh. It withered. And he limped the
rest of the days of his life. That's exactly what you and I
do. We come limping into church with one foot that's bloody,
one foot that's bruised up, trying to get to the fountain of living
water that he may give us another drink. When we got to the finish
line of our endeavor, It had started lightning, and so they
had shut everything down. I have never been so disappointed
at crossing a finish line in my life. It was not about us.
There was no one there to greet us. There was no praise. There
was no clapping. There was nothing about us whatsoever. Is that not, though, what our
heart's desire is when we cross the finish line into glory? That
we get no praise, that he gets all the praise, and we look back
and say, the only way I made it over that mountain and that
mountain and that mountain and through that valley and that
valley is by God's grace alone. and he gets all the glory for
it. This is what Jacob had come to realize when he stood before
Pharaoh. My pilgrimage, my journey every day has been evil. Over
and over I loathe myself, the trials that I bring upon myself,
this flesh that I, and this dead carcass that I'm carrying around
on my shoulders, on my back. I loathe my person. Jacob was made to see that it's
just a purposed pilgrimage by God's grace. He come limping. He had to come
limping into Pharaoh's throne room, didn't he? He still limped.
He still limped. He come limping up into Pharaoh's
throne room. Pharaoh said, how old are you?
How old are you? You think it was because of his
limp? I don't know. I know that it was so that we could hear
the confession that he had. There's no doubt about that. He come
limping into the throne room. Turn with me to Psalm 84. Psalm 84. How amiable are thy tabernacles,
O Lord of hosts. That word amiable means beloved,
lovely. How beloved to the Lord's people,
how lovely are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts. My soul longeth,
yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my
flesh crieth out for the living God. Yea, the sparrow hath found
a house in the swallow, a nest for herself, where she may lay
her young Even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and
my God, blessed are they that dwell in thy house. They will
be still praising thee. Is that not us? Do we not long? He says longing. My soul longeth. That's continual, isn't it? My
soul longeth because it fainteth. My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth
for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh crieth
out for the living God. Every day we see ourself is getting
worse and worse. Do we not cry out, Lord have
mercy upon me? Lord, you've ordained all things
and we bow to it. My heart, have you ever been
in a situation and you realize that it's a Wednesday night and
you're like, I get to go to service tonight. I remember doing that
often in Florida. I was so discouraged, disappointed
and everything that was on around me. And I was like, I get to
worship tonight. And it seemed like whenever I
had that joy that our adversary tried everything he could possibly
do to detract my mind, to discourage me from going or to mess something
up. We burnt supper and had to figure
out what to do and whatever else it may be, but oh, getting there.
And the Lord reveals his face. We rejoiced. Never been one time
I've went to service, not one time, and regretted it. When
the gospel was preached, there's never been one time. Why? because
it is the refreshing that is necessary to the child of God. We must see him. Why? Because
our heart fainteth in this world, because we see ourself as evil.
We see the world as evil. We see our sin ever before us.
Lord, we're just trying to limp through this marathon of life
and hope that he gives us a drink as we go along. You know, the
good news of that is it's already finished. We've already limped
through life. We just can't see it. In His
eyes, we're already there with Him. We're seated right beside
Him right now. We're seated in the heavenlies with Him, all
of His people. What a comfort in a dark world, a world of darkness,
that we have light. In a world of fear, I saw people
concerned with this smoke that we have in the air like that.
And I don't want to detract. I'm sure it's not good for us or
whatever else, but we don't have to fear that. It's the Lord.
He's going to take care of his people. And I don't recommend
going out and running outside right now. But you understand
what I'm saying. In a world of fear, they have nowhere to run to.
We have peace in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have a place to run
to. He is finished work. In a hopeless world, we have
hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. In a dry and thirsty desert,
we have water. God's people have Christ and God's people have
to have him. God's people have Christ and
God's people have to have him. He is the one thing needful.
We've been made pilgrims and strangers. Abraham was the same
way, wasn't he? Abraham was called out of his
homeland. Hebrews, listen to Hebrews 11. He says, by faith,
Abraham looked for a city with hath foundations, whose builder
and maker is God. Abraham never had a permanent
place of rest in this world. It was all designed by the Lord's
grace and mercy to cause him to be a sojourner, a pilgrim
and stranger. He sought for a city who had foundations, who builder
and maker was God. He lived in tents. And even the
children of Israel were going through the wilderness for 40
years, living in tents, weren't they? By definition, it was a
tabernacle, which means that it was taken down and it was
erected again. And that's how they had to worship
God. But the Lord fed them the whole time, didn't he? The Lord
gave them water the whole time, did he not? Their clothes never
wore out. Their shoes never wore out. The Lord keeps his people. He keeps them fed with the bread
of life and he keeps their thirst at bay with the fountain of living
water. Now, what does that, what does
the tents have to do with us? I wrote that down to ask that
question. What does tents, what are you talking about? Tents?
Are we not in a tent right now? Not this building, this flesh.
This flesh is a tent. This, our old man, we live in
a tent, an earthen vessel, a dead corpse strapped to our back on
our purposed pilgrimage. We're in a foreign land, just
dwelling in a tent. Hear the message of the Lord,
that he speaks into his people who are dwelling in a tent, who
are in a strange land in the darkness. He cries out and says,
I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Every step has been ordered.
All things required has been provided for, for the Lord's
people, for their salvation. Christ hath provided it unto
his Father. Just like these we've heard about. We hang everything
we believe on his word because we've received his promise. I
was going to have his turn, but we don't have the time. Let's
take the time. Hebrews chapter 11. I don't want us to miss this. Hebrews chapter 11, and he goes
and he's speaking about all the patriarchs and matriarchs that
the Lord has given faith. And speaking of all of them in
Hebrews 11, 13, he says, these all died in faith, not having
received the promises, but having seen them afar off and were persuaded
of them and embrace them and confess that they were strangers
and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things
declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they
had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they
might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire
a better country, that is an heavenly, wherefore God is not
ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them
He said they hadn't received the promise, but they saw it
afar off. We've received the promise, brethren. We have the
fullness, the fullness of the promise of God completely revealed. We're not looking at it afar
off. We're looking back to the cross now. It's all been accomplished.
It is finished. That's the hope that we have
in the Lord's finished work is that there's nothing left for
us to do. We've received the promises of
the Lord. How much more should we be persuaded
than they were? How much more should we embrace
the promises of the Lord now that it's came to pass? Do we
not have the same confession that they had that we're strangers
in pilgrims? Now that the faith of Christ
has been bestowed upon us, now that he has called us by his
grace, he makes us desire the heavenly place now. We no longer
desire to stay in these tents. What were the children of Israel
going towards? The land of promise. What did
he keep telling them? A land flowing with milk and
honey. A land flowing with milk and honey. They desired this.
They desired to freely worship the Lord. They desired this place
of rest that the Lord promised them. and what rest there is
in that heavenly place that the Lord hath prepared for his people. He said, if I go away, I will
come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there
you may be also. In my father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to
prepare a place. Where is that place? It is the
cleft of the rock at the right hand of the father. That's the
place for the Lord's people. The right of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the place, isn't he? He's the destination. He's the
finish line. He's the reward. He's all our
hope. He's all our hope in this world
and in the world to come. Because the Lord's given us this
plea, God is pleased with his faith bestowed. He says, I'm
not ashamed, not ashamed to be called your God because I've
given you the faith of Christ. If he's not ashamed, what does
that mean? What's the opposite of being ashamed? Wouldn't that
be proud? We're proud of the finished work of Christ. He done
a beyond exceptional job. It was perfect. His finished
work was perfect and he's proud of that finished work. We are
too, aren't we? And it's not a different faith
that was in the Old Testament. I would remind us that. I've
talked to men recently that were saying about how that there was
the covenant of works, yes, in the Old Testament, but it was
all by grace that the Lord kept his people then and gave them
faith even then and now. And it's the faith of Christ.
The Lord's very specific. There is one Lord, one faith,
one baptism. From Genesis to Revelation, there
is one Lord, one faith, one baptism. So if anybody ever says anything
otherwise, it's not true. The same faith in the Old Testament,
what they died by, the same faith in the New Testament, what we
hope to die by, the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. No wonder Jacob said, I won't
let go till you bless me. I've got to have you. I've got
to have this promise. I got to have this, this birthright,
this promise that a Messiah will come and save me from all these
evil days of my life. My brother's going to kill me
if you don't do something, Lord. We heard about that last Wednesday,
didn't we? He said, I can't let go of you. And it's not an arrogant
man wrestles with God like you're in prayer and you're agonizing.
And no, it was like a child clinging for dear life. unto their father
who's afraid. That's what Jacob did with the
Lord. Can't let go of our heavenly father. And what does the Lord
say to those who's given faith to cry out like that? Fear not,
Abraham. Fear not, child of God. I am
thy shield. Who's going to come against us
if God is our shield? He's our defense. Fear not, Abraham. I am thy shield and thy exceeding
great reward. Now in closing, go back to Genesis
47. Genesis 47, look at verse 12. And Joseph nourished his father
and his brethren and all his father's household with bread
according to their families. And there was no bread in all
the land for the famine was very sore so that the land of Egypt
in all the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine." That
word nourished means provided. Joseph provided everything for
his father. They did not have to pay for
their bread. Joseph paid for their bread.
They didn't have to go and earn their bread. Joseph had earned
their bread for them. Everything needed, Joseph had
provided. Now, for the sake of time, I'm
gonna summarize the rest of this just a bit, and we're gonna read
the end of the chapter, so just give me your focus just for a
brief moment. They didn't have any bread in the land except
for in Egypt. And it says very clearly in the
next verse that Joseph got all the money that was in Canaan
and in Egypt. Why? Everybody needed bread. They had to come and buy the
bread from Joseph. He ended up getting all the money. Whenever all the money ran out,
they came back and said, we have no more money to give you, but
yet we still need bread. What else can we give? And he
said, give me your cattle. And Joseph acquired all the cattle
of the land. After the cattle was gone, they
said, what now can we give? Joseph said, your land. And they
gave their land. And after they had given their
money, given their cattle, given their land, they had nothing
left to give. And they said of themselves,
we can sell ourself to you. will be your servants." And that's
exactly what happened. So that Joseph owned all the
cattle, all the money, all the land, and all the people, and
he gave it to Pharaoh. And then he says, of all the
things that you get from now on, because of that servitude,
everything that you get from now on, a fifth belongs to Pharaoh. I've complained recently about
my taxes here in Pennsylvania compared to other places that
I live, but they're not taking 20%. I don't believe, but that's
exactly what Joseph said is required. 20% unto Pharaoh. We have a beautiful picture of
what the Lord Jesus Christ did for His people in being sold
into captivity, being put into prison, being accused with the
guilty, yet opened not His mouth, laying down His life freely for
His people. And when the iniquity of us was laid upon Him, God
was pleased to make His soul an offering for sin and was satisfied.
Once Christ Jesus died and was resurrected, did He not purchase
everything with His own blood? Did he not purchase the, he owns
all the money. He owns all the land. He owns
all the cattle. He owns all the people, doesn't he? And where
did he do with it? Did he brag about what he had
done? No, he gave it to the king. He gave it to his father. Now,
Jacob here does not represent Jacob. He represents all the
elect of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Pharaoh doesn't represent,
he represents the father here. He represents the king. And what
does Joseph, our Joseph, the Lord Jesus Christ do? By the
word of the father, the father says, no, bring your people,
those whom you've purchased, those whom are yours, that you've
bought with the price, put them in Goshem. That was the land
of Ramses. That was the land of the king. That was precious
land under the king. He said, no, give them the best
because of what you've done, Joseph. This is what the Lord
Jesus Christ has done for his people. Do we work for our bread?
Joseph did it for us. The Lord Jesus Christ did it,
didn't he? Do we work for our land? No, the Lord did it. He
gave us a place prepared in glory by his finished work. This is
what the picture is here. Jacob didn't have to do anything.
Jacob limped all the way over there. When he got there, everything
was provided for him. And he realized that the Lord
had provided for him the whole journey, didn't he? The pilgrimage. The Lord had provided for him
his whole life. Now he's at the end of his life, isn't he? He's
at the end of his life and look in verse 27 and closing. And
Israel, now I love how he called him Jacob to begin with, but
now he's calling him Israel. See, that's the name of promise.
That's the name of the covenant, Israel. 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 17 years. So the whole age of Jacob was
140 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 favor, if 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 has said. And he said,
swear unto me. And he swear unto him. And Israel
bowed himself upon the bed's head. Is that your hope? Is that the Lord would not leave
us in Egypt, that we would not die in this wilderness, but that
he has put us upon a purposed pilgrimage and swore unto us
that he would bring us unto the land that he has promised us,
the place that he has prepared for us. Is that your hope? That's
my hope. At the very last breath that
I draw, the Lord will say, enter in thou good and faithful servant.
I've done everything, and I've made you a good and faithful
servant in the process of it. I've provided all the bread.
I've provided all the nutrients. I've given you everything that
you need, the life-giving manna, the water of life freely. Enter
in, thou good and faithful servant." Everything needed, Joseph provided.
He brought his people safely home. They go, they leave there
later on, don't they? They take, they get the bones.
He says, they take the bones back with them. They take the
bones back with them. Nothing was left behind that
the Lord purchased. Brethren, this purpose pilgrimage,
this journey to a sacred land is to bring us safely home to
him. He's already provided all in Christ. The mystery to you
and I is as we're looking through the glass darkly, we must pause
for a brief moment and realize that he says that we're already
glorified. He's already brought us safely
home. Now we're just going through
the ticks of time that he's ordained. Rest in Christ. This is a purposed
pilgrimage. He said, I'll never leave you
and I'll never forsake you. That's our hope, isn't it?