Jacob is a very interesting man to me. His life is just full of captivating experiences. You all might not be like me, but it seems to me like that one day kind of runs into the other. I have an exciting experience every once in a while, but most days are kind of the same. Jacob had a lot of unusual experiences. I just read to you from John 20 about Mary, one of the sisters of Lazarus. She has gone to the tomb, broken hearted and grieving, but when she learns that her master is alive, she suddenly is full of joy. As we come to this 28th verse of Genesis 45, we find that Jacob, was also full of joy. Joy to learn that his beloved son is alive. Wouldn't it be great news after 24 or 25 years to hear that somebody related to you or somebody who was a friend that you thought was dead was alive? But not only is he alive, but he's doing right well. He's sitting on the throne of Egypt. second in command to Pharaoh over the entirety of their empire. Now Jacob can serve us very well as a type and an emblem for troubled souls, for people who in their distress are made to hear God's good news of mercy and grace in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Before we move on to chapter 46, I decided to spend tonight dealing with the idea of doubting souls like Jacob. And I want to speak to you, if the Lord will help me, a message that I have entitled, It is Enough. It is Enough. I want us to think for just a few minutes about Jacob's life. This man had an interesting life. I started so I could write a book about it, but several people already have, so I don't guess it's necessary. But one of the things about Jacob that you learn is that he was a man, and I know several people like him, he was a man that was always ready to believe everything bad. Somebody told him something good, he might not pay any attention to it, but if they said something bad, he'd catch right on to that. When his sons, 25 years ago, had brought to him the multicolored robe that he made for Joseph as his favorite son, and it was torn and stained with blood and dirt, he made the assumption he must be dead. Nobody told him that. He just assumed it. There are a lot of people that believe bad news. even if there isn't a word of truth in it. I'm always amused at people who watch the news on television or read it in the newspaper and they just accept it face value, no questions asked. The man that I had at his funeral today, he was just a down to earth fella, but he had a whole lot of wisdom about it. And he and I would have conversations about things that were going on, and he would just laugh. He'd say, people believe anything. He'd wrap it up in a newspaper in a TV report, they'll believe anything. That was Jacob. Tell them it was going to snow on the 4th of July, and he'd start worrying about it. They only remember the scriptures, and Jacob was bad about this. When there's condemnation coming, when there's cloudy skies are present, then they believe the scriptures about judgment but they ignore the scriptures about grace. One of the greatest things God can teach you and teach me is to weigh the evidence in all things before we make decisions before every event. I think the internet's made it worse for people. There's a commercial on television, I don't even know who it's for. And this fella's talking to this young woman and she said, well of course it's true, it can only be true if it's on the internet. You all seen that commercial maybe? It's hilarious, everything in it's an absolute lie. Including her French boyfriend. But people like that. Jacob would only believe good news if he either had to or if God gave him special grace. He would give anything to believe some unknown truth. Something he'd never heard before and he'd hear it. He'd just give anything to believe it if he could. But here he says it's enough. His heart longed to receive what his mind probably couldn't accept. And he found this truth to be utterly incredible. Your son's alive. I know you heard for 23 years that he was dead, buried and forgotten about, never to be found, but I'm telling you he's alive. He just could not grasp this, that Jacob is not only alive, he's healthy. And he's doing real well for himself, too. There's some people that just hug the spare until they can't get rid of it. It gets on them, they can't get rid of it. The 107th Psalm, the 18th verse says this, Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat, and they draw near unto the gates of death. Something that's not true. No matter how long you believe it. It's still not true. I have a friend. I think she's a friend. I know a lady and she's like that. Anything comes on, she just grabs it. She just believes it. And I ask her, I say, are you sure that's true? Oh, it's got to be true. It was on TV last night. Are you sure that's true? Well, it was in the newspaper the day before yesterday. And I keep telling her, you can't necessarily believe everything on TV and everything's in the newspaper. You can't believe everything people tell you. It doesn't do much good, but I tell her that. But this news appeared to be too good to be true. I don't know if you all ever heard anything that you thought was too good to be true, but I've heard a few stories like that. I've gotten a few letters from people and a few emails from people and I thought, wow, this is too good to be true. You know what? In every occasion without exception, it was too good to be true because it wasn't true. That's just the way it is. Joseph is the ruler over Egypt? Could that be? Too good to be true. Perhaps another, maybe someone else was found over there and got them confused. They think it's Joseph. It couldn't possibly be Joseph. The Israel said it's enough. When showers of blessing begin to flow, some people can't hope for a single drop. That's just the way they are. It's just the way they're made, the way they think, the way they act, the way they deal with situations. Jacob First of all, he didn't believe his other sons. They weren't the most honest and trustworthy fellows he ever had any dealings with. But he soon grows weak in the spirit. He's an old man. He's 130 years old. And there's nothing that so quickly dulls our spirit and weakens our heart as does unbelief. I know some people who will believe anything. I believe Bullfrog would jump over the New York skyline. But I know just as many people that don't believe anything. I used to pastor a church and there was a lady in that church. I don't know why. She did not believe that we ever landed on the moon. And she would give you every theory that she'd ever read, heard, or anybody ever told her about why we hadn't landed on the moon. She just didn't believe it. We'd get talking about it, and she'd say, and I finally just said, well, you know, Miss May, you're just going to have to believe whatever you believe, I guess. Every one of us, every one of you, and this preacher, too, have been stung by this curse of unbelief. Sooner or later, it hits us. We hear about somebody or something or some event, and we just, I can't believe that. Later on, we find that to be true. But the Spirit of God stirs the heart to acknowledge God's hand, to acknowledge our Savior to make us believe. But soon, here in this 28th verse, we find that Jacob rises out of his doubt and out of his despondency And he ends it all by saying, it's enough. It's enough. You know, sometimes God sends us so much grace to make us cry the same thing. I've had moments in my life, and I dare say you have too, when it seemed like God was a million miles away, and the sky had turned to brass, I'm praying God's not here, and I'm wondering if I'm really praying. There have been times, I have to be honest with you, when I wonder, is God still there? But there have been some times, too, when God has sent grace in such floods. I was talking to a preacher friend of mine one day last week. He asked me about a preacher, and I said, yeah, I know him real well. I said, he preached two or three meetings for me. I'd known him for a long time. I knew him until he died. He said, he preached a sermon one time that I heard about. I heard a tape of it. And I said, I was there. I heard him preach it. And he said, it sure did sound good. I said, I'll tell you one thing. I don't know what kind of tape you've got. There's no way you could capture that sermon on tape. I told them, I said, the glory of God came down on people in that whole building. It just filled people. It's worthwhile to leave anything. It's worthwhile to go anywhere to experience this. It's enough. It's enough. I'm not foolish. And I know that what we believe and what I preach is kind of strange bread to a lot of people. But boy, I sure do wish they knew God the way we know Him. A young fellow had some words to say at that funeral this afternoon. And he was pretty exciting to listen to. Every once in a while, he'd make a statement. I thought, oh, if he knew God. If he knew God. Then secondly, in this verse of Scripture, I see that Jacob is given enough evidence. God provides him enough evidence to convince him. Israel said, it is enough. The real question that must regard our hearts, each and every one of us, is not about Joseph, it's about Jesus. He died on the cross, but he's still alive. Now we say that, and religious people say it. A lot of people say it, but let somebody question it. See how many of them are serious about it. The evidence that Jacob received was a personal testimony to him from God. You know, there's not anything in the world that's more properly documented than the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He appeared to Mary. He appeared to the angels. He appeared to His disciples. He appeared to 500 people at one time. He appeared to two people at Emmaus. He appeared to folks all over the place. He appeared to Saul of Tarsus. He appeared to many people. Believe me, there's many, many things that your children and grandchildren are taught in schools every day as fact that don't have one drop of evidence. That's just the truth. The early saints died horrible, horrible deaths because they refused to deny that fact. I read Fox's Book of Martyrs sometimes and I think to myself, I hope my faith is strong enough and if I have to go through that, I'll go through it and rejoice in it. Men and women boiled alive in pots of oil cut open, corn poured into their bodies, thrown into a hog pen, put on a rack, and stretched until their joints come apart. For what? What terrible crime did they do? They won't deny Christ. The Holy Spirit came and empowered such men and women to be His witnesses, and He still empowers people to be His witnesses. I know men and women have sacrificed greatly for the gospel of Christ. Now we've received pardon. I think all of you here tonight have some faith in Christ. We have pardoned. We've been forgiven. We've been cleansed. We've been made righteous in the blood of the Savior. I don't know of any more reliable witnesses that God could have given us in the resurrection of His Son. I drove through that cemetery today. I looked around me at all those stones. And I thought, I wonder how many of these folks knew Christ. Now Jacob also had a testimony of some accurate reports. Jacob Said Joseph, my son is yet alive. He traced God's providence in all of Joseph's words. Words that he shared with his brothers. Words that he shared with the folks that drove the wagons back from Egypt and prepared to take the children of Israel back down to Goshen. God had been good to Joseph. Yeah, he'd been sold into slavery. He'd been sold into bondage to Potiphar. He'd been lied on by Potiphar's wife and put in prison. He'd been a prisoner for several years. Men that he interpreted dreams for didn't do what they said they would do. But in God's time, and in God's place, and in God's way, God spoke. Jacob knew that Joseph, from the time he was a small boy, had always lived in the fear, the reverence, and the love of God. And Joseph spoke to him of power. Before they ever sold him into slavery, when he was still in Jacob's house, Joseph told him that God had given him his spirit and God had given him his gifts. There's a distinct majesty about the glorious words of Christ that penetrates our hearts and changes the destiny of our souls. It was one day, the last two or three days, I was sitting at the kitchen table reading the Bible every morning like I do. I was reading something I've probably read it a hundred times. And just that day, God turned the light on. And I thought, wow, what great power, what great majesty God's given us. Now, Jacob was also convinced by many tokens of faith that God had given him. In the last part of verse 27, when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob, their father, revived. You know, when Christ seeks sinners, He gives them every necessary token that they need to come to Him in grace. When God saved me, I hadn't believed in Him for many years. I didn't know anything about Christ. I knew I didn't want anything to do with Him. I didn't think I was a sinner. I thought I was just fine. The world was messed up. When God came, He came with power and He came with force. But He gave me tokens of faith and grace to believe. He'll send us a preacher. A preacher with a message of hope to despairing sinners. I don't know. I think preachers who evaluate themselves are fools. I don't know what the people who attend this church think about me, really, in their hearts. But I know what I hope. I hope that they all believe the gospel and go to heaven. But if they don't, I hope they can stand on the front porch of hell and say, I'm not here because of that preacher because he told me the truth. That's what I want to be. I don't care. I don't care if I preach to three or thirty or three hundred or three thousand. I just want to preach the same message. Christ is set before many who refuse to hear him, refuse to taste the sweet bread of life. But the Word of God has abundant teachings and abundant principles for every one of us. It's like these wagons that Joseph sent up there. The Bible is a wagon to bring you to God. It's a wagon to bring you to Christ over and over again. And the evidence brought to Jacob was sufficient for this old man to the point that he said, it's enough. It's enough. It's enough. I've heard people say that. I've sat by the bedside of men and women who've suffered through long weeks and months and years of sickness and say, I've suffered enough. I've heard a few people who God's blessed providentially in this world say, God's given me too much. It's enough. I've known people who have relationships with other folks that are just so blessed The company of those people, they just said, it's enough. But here's this old man, over 20 years of mourning, distressed by the loss of his beloved son. And all of a sudden he looks up and there's a wagon train sitting in the front yard. And he says, it's enough. Now let me look at one more thing here. There's a conviction here that God uses this message and the symbols and the tokens to produce conviction that's strong enough to move Jacob. Jacob said, I'll go. If you'll remember in the last chapter, he said, I ain't going. He didn't want Benjamin to go. he told his other sons you need to go down just go down and get us a little corn you don't need to get too much just get a little bit but you don't have to take Benjamin with you and I'm not going but you boys need to go on and get some food and bring it back we're hungry and now all of a sudden this old man says I'll go I'll go I'll go how many people in this world we live in are frequently heard to say, well, I know there's a Savior. It's like saying I know there's Tide, or I know there's popcorn, or I know there's automobile tires. They say it, but they're never saved. And I really think that I was somewhere today, I don't know where I was, and I thought, Mercer County's got another church. Saw the little storefront churches started up. I thought, well, some churches had a split. And somebody started another one. There's a lot of people that know about the Savior that aren't saved. A lot of people that know about the Bible don't know what it means. A lot of people know about religion that have never experienced it. I like that old song that was written that says there is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunge beneath its flood, lose all their guilty stains. There is an inconsistency in many people in our daytime. People believe in their heads, but they don't believe in their hearts. They believe in their heads, but not in their hearts. We trust Him with our mouth, at least, to save us, but we prove it by how we act, how we live. It's a popular misconception in the religious world of this day and time that men and women who are religious can live any way that they want to. I'm telling you, this Bible says it's not so. Just not so. This old man believed Joseph's testimony. He believed the tokens. And because he believed it, he obeyed it. First verse of the next chapter says Israel took his journey with all that he had. Took his journey with all he had. All he had. You see, Jacob agreed to go to Egypt because he wanted to see Joseph. If you live somewhere and you like where you live, the only reason you go somewhere else is because there's something there that you love as much or more as where you live. A good friend of mine, a good pastor friend of mine up in West Virginia, his wife had an operation. I didn't know about it until today. She had an operation Monday morning, early. She's been having seizures for the last several years and they're hoping that this will help her. It's interesting that I sent him a note back and I said, Now I understand why God does things. I was planning to come up and see you this week. And I said, the fellow who fills in for me most of the time, he wasn't available. So I said, well, I'll wait until another time. I had no idea that Susie was sick. I hope she gets along well, I prayed for her. There's something for our hearts to rejoice over greatly. There's something for us to anticipate anxiously. I'm excited about my Savior. I still can't hardly believe that He would die for somebody like me. I'm anticipating greatly being with Him in the place where He is. When we look at Christ in this world, the One who bore our sins, the One who gave us eternal hope. There's no true life except that that's gained by looking unto Him. Everything else is just a little space and time. And Jacob wanted to make this trip, even if it was only for a little while. He said, I'll go and see Him before I die. Before I die. See, Jacob was 130 years old. Now, that might not seem old to you young folks, but 130 sounds pretty old to me. And to be honest with you, it sounded real old to Jacob. And he said, I better make a quick trip. I'm going to see my son Joseph before I die. I better get going right now. I'll just go. Now, he lived 17 more years after this. But what he was going to see was too good to wait for. To see Jesus is to live forever. You see, in this earth or in heaven, it doesn't make any difference. Life is in Christ. I'm glad God let me live as long as He has because I don't think I ever saw that as clearly as I've seen it in the last few years. But it sure is good to know what joy there is to cling to our blessed Savior and to have a designated plan to live with Him forever. Another thing about Jacob is Jacob felt that his age, rather than hindering him, ought to drive him. He said, Joseph, my son is alive. I'll go and see him before I die. There's no one who's too old to trust Christ. I remember the oldest man I ever baptized. He was 83 years old. I had to get two fellas to help me dunk him in the pond. And I remember asking him, Mr. Bill, are you sure you're able to do this? He said, the Lord told me to do it. I believe I can do it. And they couldn't walk. He would come to church on a walker and sometime in a wheelchair. We took him down to the pond down there and we rolled him over in there Two fellows carried him out of there and I put him under. The youngest person I ever remember baptizing was a little girl about eight years old. She said she trusted Christ. I think she did. You know, if I had the opportunity to preach to Methuselah, who was 969 years old, I preach the same thing to him. I preach to the smallest child that comes to this church. It's the only message that works. It's the only thing that meets the bill. This is a message for the youngest child and to the most senior of citizens. An 83 year old man needs Christ just as much as an 8 year old does. Now I want you to notice that Jacob was not hesitant. Now this is a long journey. I get in the car and drive 500 miles and I'm pretty tired. I get me a motel and go to bed and sleep all night and get up the next day and drive 500 more miles. They were going to walk 250 miles. A 130-year-old man. I doubt if any of you all know a 130-year-old man that can walk 250 miles. This old man said, I'm ready to go and see Him before I die. Great undertaking for a 130-year-old man. I don't care whether he rode in a wagon or walked. He's still along a big trip. And sometimes when we think about going to Heaven, we think about going to be with Jesus, it seems to me like it's a long, long way. But I say this much, it's a trip worth making. If He calls you, you must go. We do not go with Jacob down to Egypt to seek grain and fellowship. But every one of us is going to leave this world. I tell folks that at every funeral I preach. This is not my first funeral, and it probably won't be my last one. You might be coming to mine, or I might be going to yours. But we're going to leave this world. Thank God we have the opportunity to seek the presence and the prosperity of our blessed Master. I say with the Prophet, even so come. Lord Jesus. Let me give you two or three things and I'll let you go. First of all, I would advise you, don't waste your time bouncing between opinions. It doesn't make any difference what he says and he says, what she says and she says, what they say or those say. The only thing that matters is what Christ says. I'm more sold on this than I ever have been. If the Lord Jesus Christ told me that a mosquito could carry an elephant, I just couldn't wait to get a ticket to see it. You say, that can't happen. I know it can. The Lord told me. But make sure if the Lord tells you, not somebody else because people lie. Procrastination. is the devil's den of unbelief and fear. I pray that God will deliver you and deliver me from all its snares and that He'll teach us to rest in His blessed biblical promises. Every promise, every word of this book is true. The Spirit of God spoke it. to some man or another to write down so you and I could read it. I'll believe it. We ought to leave here tonight trusting Christ. And I'll tell you, if you never have, then come to Him. Come right now. But if you're trusting Christ, then come to Him for comfort. Come to Him for His encouragement. And come to Him for His assurance. And Israel said, it is enough. Joseph, my son, is yet alive. I will go and see him before I die. I don't want to give you any bad news. But you're going to die. And I don't want any bad news, but I'm going to die. And I want to be like Jacob. My Lord is alive. I want to go see him. Amen.