Let us turn again to the epistle of Paul to the Hebrews to chapter 11 and reading again at verse 22 by faith. Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the Children of Israel and gave commandment concerning his bones. And we should consider these words in the context of Genesis as the Lord is pleased to enable us. This is the great particular about Joseph, which is highlighted in the New Testament. Not so much his life, but what happened and what he said at his death. The book of Genesis is the book of beginnings, literally. And it begins with man found in paradise and it ends with man in a coffin in Egypt. And it begins to explain to us how this happened and the consequences, how paradise was lost. But it also begins to explain to us how paradise would be regained. And such as the the glory and the magnitude of the person of Christ, all the types that the Lord uses are not sufficient to explain fully. Nevertheless, there are indications in these types of how it would be done. For example, Adam was clothed by God from an animal after he sinned. So there you have the shedding of blood, in a sacrifice and also the covering that comes from that sacrifice. And there are other sacrifices and there are other people like Noah and the Ark and then Joseph and his person. Someone who was sent ahead to deliver the people of God from death. And we come to how he died here. And let us look at this immediately. First of all, he died as he lived, by faith, Joseph, when he died. He died as he lived, by faith. Someone once went up to D.L. Moody and said, I don't believe. No, I don't believe, he said. And Moody said, you don't believe who? You don't believe who? And that puts the whole matter into perspective here. You're involved in a self-contradiction here when you say, I don't believe God. Because that's who you're talking about when you say, I don't believe. It's not, I don't believe this, or I don't believe this man. When you say, I don't believe, you're saying, I don't believe God. But if you believe God, And that belief is from the heart and not just from the head or the lips. As Paul says, if thou believest in thine heart, then that is faith. And faith is defined in the very first verse of this chapter. And the rest of the chapter, having given the definition, goes on to tell about how faith is in action. The rest of the chapter is about how faith is moving the person to do certain things for the glory of God. Faith is more than just simply accepting a creed. More than just saying, well, I agree with the Westminster Confession, or I agree with the Shorter Catechism, or even more than I agree with the Bible. The devil believes the Bible is true. That's why he hates it. He has that advantage, you might say, over the unconverted. The devil actually believes it and believes it's going to happen. And it's his job to keep everybody else from not believing it, although he believes it himself. But that's not faith, because faith is faith in Christ. Faith always has an object. We sometimes speak to people and they say, oh, I have faith and if I only had more faith. But they never seem to talk about the object of faith, which is Christ. There's only one kind of saving faith and it's faith in Christ. That rests on Christ alone as the only hope that God has given to us. Now this Faith, which Joseph had in his life, was a looking away from the things of earth. Faith is the looking at things which are not seen. And some of these things, of course, are not seen as yet. They will be seen. And faith travels towards the vision of this. And that's why the person who has faith is called a pilgrim. These all died in faith. They were living in the land of Canaan, or they were living in the land of Egypt, but their souls were restless. The body could lie down, but the soul was continually in motion and reaching out to what God had promised. And as it says in the gravestone of Samuel Rutherford in St. Andrews, Now he has the full fruition of that which he had seen in vision. He'd seen these things by faith afar off. He had the mark, as Paul said, pressing towards the mark, and he followed his vision. What was his vision? Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. They were looking for something permanent, a city built by God. You know, the first city in this world was actually built by Cain. He departed from the presence of the Lord, he went into the land of Nod and he built a city. And every other unbeliever has from that time settled down in this world. Now, as Joseph was coming towards death, his body was getting weak and he was dying. But his faith wasn't dying. His faith was getting stronger. And it was getting more and more pure because it was jettisoning all the things that had accrued to it, like alloy, that belonged to this world. He was no longer looking around him. He was no longer even looking forward. He was on his back and he was looking up. And they say that every sickness is a foretaste of death. Why? Well, because it puts you on your back. And there's only one way you can look when you're on your back, and that's looking up. It's not to this world. And sometimes God has to remind us of where we're traveling to by putting us on our back. so that we will think about it. When people are strong, they don't think much of heaven. They have the energy for this world, and they go into the world. But the person who is weak and who has been stripped of absolutely everything, health, wealth, et cetera, well, that person only has one hope. And that person may be empty of the world, but is full and rich in Christ Jesus. Joseph withstood temptation, not only in suffering and affliction, but in prosperity, wealth, and exaltation. And that's a great trial as well as poverty and affliction. He died in faith, and that means he died in peace with God. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God. We don't fully enjoy it in this world. There's a sovereignty in God about how much comfort we will be given, but sometimes we also, of course, destroy our comforts by our sin. Not that anybody is perfect in this world and doesn't sin, but the deliberate presumptuous sin, that destroys your comfort. When you're mulling over something in your mind and you're tempted day by day, that deliberate sin, that takes away your comfort. It's far different from being surprised into something. We might call that an infirmity, although it's still sin. But David writes in Psalm 19, keep back thy servant from presumptuous sin. And he calls this the great transgression. not just a transgression. As your catechism reminds you, some sins are in the sight of God more heinous than others. So he lived with peace with God through Christ, the mediator, and he died in peace, and he died in hope. You know, there are some people, and we don't know where they're going to at death, and the main reason is they don't know themselves. If they don't know, how can we know? Joseph knew where he was going to. He was, as Peter tells us, able to give a reason, to give an answer for the hope that was in him. But if a person doesn't know where he's going when he dies, how can we know? Joseph left a testimony behind. He told them. He gave them, in fact, further revelation from God. You see, he didn't just give dreams and interpretation to the people. This is a revelation from God he gave about his bones, and God will surely visit you. And that was a testimony left behind to those who would follow after. We'll come to the bones shortly. So he died in faith, and faith has this power to detach you from this world, and to detach you from the things of time and sense, and to detach you from the praise or even the disapproval of the world, because in the end, literally, that does not matter. It's simply a matter between you and God, and through the mediator Christ Jesus. And faith understands that. John Owen once asked a person who was seeking the Lord, he said, do you understand yet what it means to pray to God through a mediator? It's interesting, we have questions about marks of grace to find out someone standing. That was John Owen's question. And John Owen was one of the greatest and most godly theologians who ever lived. And that was his question. Do you understand what it is to pray to God through a mediator? Which is, of course, Christ Jesus. So faith detaches you from what is seen. It reduces the power and effect that it has on you. It lessens the attraction of the world, until at the end, You have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better. And you're able to say, by faith, for me to live as Christ and to die as gain. People sometimes talk about a loss in death. Well, it's no loss to the Christian. To die as gain. Do they want to stay here all their lives? Would we wish them back? No, we would not. and they wouldn't want to come back anyway. So he lived as he died by faith. Now, we are looking this week at the parallel between Joseph and Christ, especially in their death this evening. And Joseph gave a commandment regarding his bones when he died. Now, Christ also gave a commandment regarding his bones. Joseph's commandment was, when God visits you, now you see there's faith. He knew God's promise to Abraham. They would be in Egypt hundreds of years, but God would come and bring them out. When God visits you, he said, take up my bones with you. And that's why he didn't have them buried in Canaan. He wanted them to remain in Egypt. And it was a sign and a pledge of God's faithfulness to his promise. But Christ gave commandment regarding his bones and his body. And his commandment was, after three days, I will rise again. That was his commandment. In other words, Joseph's bones were to be carried. Christ would resurrect his own bones. And you see there a difference between Christ and Joseph. And yet, they both died with confidence and hope that what was promised to them, and notice both promises came from the Father, one to Joseph, one to Christ, and Christ says in Psalm 16, my flesh shall rest in confidence, in hope. They lived and they died in faith. And indeed this verse 22 here, you could really title it a promise for the future. It wasn't just a promise to Joseph that he would go into the land which Canaan typified, the promised land. It was a promise to the people who would follow Joseph and come out. And Joseph, of course, in his body would go with them when they came out of Egypt. So what's Joseph doing here by faith? He's uniting himself to his people. And that is exactly what Christ does. He unites himself with his people. And when Christ is resurrected, his people are resurrected with him because he unites himself to his people. Another parallel is that they were thinking of their people when they died. Joseph was thinking of his people. Don't bury my bones, it will be a reminder to you. Christ was thinking of his people. And when he said, into thy hands I commit my spirit, and notice he didn't say, for thou hast redeemed me. Only a sinner can say that. When he rose, his people rose with him because they were united to him. Now someone might say, well, some of them haven't risen yet. Well, no, but where the head is, the body must go to the same place. And even mystically in Ephesians chapter one, we are told we are already seated in heavenly places with Christ and in Christ. So there is a remembrance of their people when they died. They identified with the people And Joseph was going to the same promised land as his people, and Christ is taking his people to the same promised land as well. They lived and they died in faith. And this chapter is about the acts of faith. What is the last act of faith? Into thy hands I commend my spirit. David said that in the psalm. Christ said that on the cross. Paul said that before he died. And again, it's an act of faith. He said, I know whom I have believed. That's faith. And I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. What was he committing unto him against that day? Not only his soul, but his bones, which were going to be buried. and the dead in Christ, their bodies are still united to Christ and do rest in their graves until the resurrection. Because he promised, where I am, there shall my servants be also. He said, I am the way, the way to heaven, the truth, you have to believe the truth, and the life, and the life of your faith. And if you believe that, then he says, I go to prepare a place for you. But where I am, there shall ye be also. So you see, faith follows Christ not only through this world, but right into the world to come, right to the footstool of the throne of grace to which they were praying all their spiritual lives. Faith, they say, is a simple thing. Well, it may be simple, but it does bring an abundance of things with it. There are so many actings of faith in the soul, and there's defenses, and there's the fighting, and there's the running, and there's the pilgrimage, and it's all done through faith. And that's why it's attacked by the devil. The old divines called it the chiefest grace because when a faith is affected, so is everything else. If your faith is low, well, so is your love and your hope. You can always tell a person who is lacking hope, you can tell it by their movement. They become sluggish and their energy goes. And it's the same spiritually. When a person's lacking hope spiritually, their energy goes, and they become sluggish in prayer, and they don't feel as sensitive as they used to, and the word doesn't have the same effect on them as it used to, and they just trudge along, so to speak. But when faith is energized, When faith says, this is what God says, and despite how I feel, it's true. And it doesn't matter how I feel. That's not going to affect God's truth towards me. Hope is energized. Movement picks up. The word of God is read. Prayer is made. Meetings are attended. Now you can see this even in the visible church. There's a lot of discouragement about in the visible church. And a lot of it has to do with lack of faith, trust in God. There's a lot of people who say they have faith, and they're quite genuine, they have faith, but they're impatient. And because they're impatient, they're trying every man-made gimmick that comes, trying to fill the church with who knows what. But as was mentioned this morning, the church rejoices over numbers. Heaven rejoices over one sinner that repenteth. Just one. The church isn't happy nowadays unless they've got dozens. But just one sinner that repents causes rejoicing in heaven. So we should be rejoicing over the ones, and the twos, and the threes. And sometimes it's only twos and threes that are gathering, but they're gathering in faith, and faith wants to be found faithful when the Lord comes. And we don't know that day. And as Augustine said, therefore we should be ready every day. And that's another effect of faith, ready to die in God's time. Ready to depart. As Calvin says, having the soul in the hand and ready to give it up to God when he calls for it. Friends, if we're not ready to depart even today, then there's something lacking in our faith. Because faith believes that to be with Christ is far better. And yet, the feeling sometimes doesn't equate with that. Well, faith must not follow feelings. Feelings must follow faith, remember. So leaving the coffin in Egypt was a pledge that God would keep his promise. It was an encouragement to others. It was a sign they were going to leave because things were about to change in Egypt. There would arise a Pharaoh who knew not Joseph. It's possible the change had already begun. And the reason why I suggest that is, if you notice, Joseph had to go through intermediaries to get a message to Pharaoh. Now that doesn't sound like the way things were done many years ago when he was raised to be the governor. But in Genesis 50, he has to speak to the servants of Pharaoh. and bring a message, you might say, through them to Pharaoh. It's as if he didn't have direct access anymore. And of course, this would be perhaps many years after he first came to power in Egypt. The symbolism was here in the coffin. that God would return to them. It was a promise for the future. And unlike his father, he didn't want his bones to be buried in Canaan yet. It was a sign that they were not to settle down in Egypt, in the world. It was a sign that they were not to lose heart and be discouraged because of the taskmasters and the slave drivers which were coming. It was an encouragement to believe that what God had promised he would surely fulfill in his own time and in his own way. It was a monument to the past work of God because obviously anybody looking at the coffin of Joseph would be reminded of how God through Joseph delivered them and fed them and nourished them and gave them hope. But it was also a sign for the future. This same God will return and bring them out of the house of bondage. So it was a sign of God's faithfulness and a pledge for the future. Now how can we compare that to Christ? Well, the pledge for the future for the people of God is not a coffin in Egypt. It is an empty tomb. It is the empty tomb that is still there to this day somewhere. And that is a pledge for the future. It's a sign of God's faithfulness in the past, but it's a pledge of God's faithfulness in the future. And so if we are discouraged, we are to remind ourselves there's an empty tomb and it's been left empty. to remind us, just like the people in Egypt, we're not going to be here always. And there is a way out of Egypt into the Promised Land, and it's because of that empty tomb. You remember Joseph said, God shall surely visit you. Why does God visit sinners with great salvation? Because of the empty tomb. Joseph said, I die, but God. I die, but Christ is alive. And so our flesh dwells in hope and in confidence in the grave. The other parallels we've touched on over the last few days, one was the fact that before he died, Joseph assured the Brethren of forgiveness. You told them this before, they were back again because they remembered their past sin. And memory will not go away. All the sins of a believer are forgiven, past, present, and future, but the memory is still not healed perfectly. There's a question about whether we will remember sin in heaven. Well, firstly, if we do, it will be without pain. But the question is if we do, because God said, their sins and iniquities, I will remember no more. Now, if God is saying that, it doesn't seem likely that we're going to remember what God has deliberately forgot. And of course, regarding God, that is a metaphor. But the point is, If they're not going to come back into God's mind, why then would they come back into our mind? But that's an open question. Christ will carry up our bones, not people. People may carry our bones to the graveyard. Christ shall carry up the bones of his people from the graveyard into heaven. and they'll not be buried in heaven, they will be more alive than ever, more alive than they ever were on earth. All the limitations and draggings of sin and the world will be gone forever. We will go up with Christ, and that's why he's coming again. When he comes again, the bones of his people will be liberated from the grave, and he will carry them up soul and body this time. Apart from two, Enoch and Elijah, God's departed people are the spirits of just men made perfect. That's in Hebrews. But the body is still to be fashioned like to his glorious body. And he will do that for his people. It is a wondrous gospel that is proclaimed, and it's all encapsulated in what Christ said before he died. It is finished. It is finished. There is nothing for the sinner to do, but there is everything for the sinner to receive through faith in Jesus Christ, not by works. And just like Joseph, Christ gave that message just before he died. And it was a message of hope. A natural man, when he's convicted of sin, and you have several instances in the New Testament, says, what must I do? What must I do to be saved? Well, the answer is you do nothing. You repent and you believe. And these are not works because of their works, you're saved by works. No, you're saved by grace. And these are saving graces. Now, to apply this briefly to ourselves, we have to prepare for death while we're living. It sounds so obvious, doesn't it? God, our God will surely come, Psalm 50, and he's going to find us either with faith or without faith. Now, with faith, we will be with Joseph and all these who died in faith, but without faith, We will be in a place where sin is unrestrained, the wrath of God is infinite, endless, unchangeable. As Moses said, I set before you life and death. And he said that while they were living, and he said, choose life. Now there's only life in one place, and that is in Christ Jesus. How do we get through this world Well, the world doesn't understand this, but we get through this world by thinking of another world. That's how we get through this world. People who don't think of another world give up and they die in despair. They don't die in faith. But people who go on through this world and its trials and sufferings and afflictions by thinking of another world, they will get through because they are thinking of Christ alive, on the throne. And Joseph, in a sense, went up in the midst of his people. His bones were carried in the midst of his people. Well, Christ is in the midst of his people as they go through this world into that better country. And Christ will carry his people through. And he will defend them from all enemies, just like they were defended in the wilderness. A greater than Joseph is in the midst of his people. Greater power, greater promises, greater pledge. And the faithfulness, well friend, you've probably seen it in your past life. It hasn't stopped. You may not be expecting it sometimes, but it will come in his time, remember. The Hebrews didn't know the time when it was time for the exodus, but in God's time, Moses was born. And in the fullness of time, Christ was born, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem those who were under the curse of the law and to bring them out of the house of bondage. God shall surely visit you. That's how a man or woman in faith dies. God will surely visit me until the day break and the shadows flee away. They will lie there, but the sun of righteousness shall arise and he will draw them to himself. Can you live and die with that hope? Is the empty tomb a pledge to you of the resurrection and the life in Christ? You say you don't believe. You don't believe who? Who do you not believe? Faith takes Christ at His word. That's what faith does. If you read this chapter, you will see what faith can accomplish. Out of weakness made strong, dying in weakness, strong in faith. May He bless His word to us. Let us pray. O Lord, our hope and confidence depends on Thee alone. We pray that in Thy mercy, Thou would receive us as sinners. And we thank Thee that the way is open for sinners and that Christ came into this world to save and to receive sinners to Himself. Lord, teach us to pray and to die resting on Thee in all our weakness to find Thee our refuge and our strength and to cast ourselves by faith into the everlasting arms of the Father through Jesus Christ. Amen.