Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 22. By faith, Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel and gave commandment concerning his bones. Now you may be saying, or may not say it, but you may be thinking this morning, Brother Tom, we are sure going slow through the book of Hebrews. But I would say to you and confirm to you that we are going at warp speed through the book of Hebrews. As a matter of fact, I'm going so fast, I feel like I'm trying to put out a forest fire with a blanket. That's what I feel like. For instance, for several weeks I've been trying to give a faithful exposition of just one verse at a time. One verse at a time. No stories, no rabbits. I try not to do that. Just the text and its surrounding implications from the Word of God. And I've had a very difficult time containing that to one hour. At least one time I didn't contain it in one hour. But may the Lord help us to see what a miracle that is in itself. May the Lord help us to see what a miracle His Word is. May He help us to see how good He is. Because here is the reality of what we've been seeing. I have tried and been trying and will continue to try to keep before us the reality of who this letter was written to, the context of the passage, the context of the letter itself, who it was written to. It was written to struggling, weak, wavering Hebrew Jewish saints. If I could use that terminology, Jewish saints, it's a little bit of an oxymoron, but you understand what I mean. And let's be sure that we get the right perspective on their weakness. Some of them gave everything they knew. Some of them died for this faith. So weakness is relative, and we need to bring that relativity to it. But the Word of God is so wonderful. His Spirit, His instruction, His comfort is so wonderful. And what I mean by that, it is so precise. He knows our every need. Our God knows your need this morning. He knows your every need. He knows our weaknesses. He knows our failures. He knows our needs. And He comes right to them. He doesn't do things. Our God does not do things in general. He is very specific and very precise. Because, I mean, we've been looking about faith, right? We've been learning about faith, right? True, biblical, saving faith. But know this, Just what the Lord, what the Holy Spirit is doing right before our eyes in this text, just in the text, in the context of the text itself, should teach us and encourage us in this faith so wonderfully. Just what He's doing in the surface of the book here, what the Lord is doing. Just think about this. These people, these heroes of faith that the Lord built this list upon, if I could put it like that, These Hebrew people, the people that the letter was written to, these people that were reading the apostle's letter, which is the book of Hebrews, they were reading it. These people knew the people on this list intimately. They knew them intimately through the Torah, through the Pentateuch, the first five books of God's Word. But even more, they knew them through God's Word, but these people in this text were the heroes of these people. The heroes, Joseph here for example, he is a hero of the faith, is he not? Even to us Gentiles, Joseph is a hero of the faith. And just think, just think, if this man Joseph and the history of his life was your own family's history. And that's what it was for these people who were reading this letter. Just think if this man and his life had been studied under a microscope by you for all of your life and retold and retold and even retold by you hundreds and hundreds of times, you would know this man Joseph intimately. You would love this man. He would be a hero. He is a hero of God's Word. But notice, behold the intimate care and love of God for his people. Verse 22, By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel and gave commandment concerning his bones. Of all the things that the Holy Spirit could have recorded about the faith of Joseph, Of all of the things, if you've read the chapters in God's Word that concern the life of Joseph, of all the things the Holy Spirit could have recorded here in verse 22 of the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews, things like his faith that remained even though he was hated by his brethren, even though it remained, even though they had viciously sold him into slavery, which by the way, after they beforehand really wanted to kill him, but one of the brothers talked him out of that idea, said, no, let's just throw him in a pit, and they left him down there for a while. No, no. We feel a little bad about that. We wanted to kill him at first, now we've thrown him. Let's get him out of there. Hey, there's some money involved here. We can get some money off of him. They sold him into Egyptian slavery. But the faith of Joseph continued. And then he was falsely accused, lied upon, and falsely accused by Potiphar's wife, and then imprisoned by her husband Potiphar, of whom Joseph had been a faithful servant for years. But yet his faith remained. And his faith remained even though he was forgotten by the butler and the baker, even though he helped one of them out of their situation. The man was released. He forgot all about the man who helped him. So Joseph stayed yet in prison for a couple more years. But yet his faith continued. His faith endured. Of all the things that these people would have been familiar with concerning the great faith and faithfulness of Joseph, but instead of all that, Of all that, in this hall of faith, in God's great list of the hall of faith, great faith, the Holy Spirit reminds them and us of Joseph's dying faith. As a matter of fact, you'll notice the last three people listed, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, the record has been of their dying faith. Why? Why? because our God knows our needs. And our God knows our needs intimately. And our God knew the needs of these people that this letter that he was sending it to them through the apostle and the great need of these Hebrew people, of these believing Jews and ours as well is a faith that produces, listen, a faith that produces endurance. Endurance. And saints, Verse 22, this is ultimate. This is the ultimate in endurance. The ultimate in endurance. By faith, Joseph, when he died, when he died, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel and gave commandment concerning his bones. Dying faith. Dying faith. The ultimate in enduring faith. And listen, realize this. Let us learn this. If we do not possess this enduring faith that is here given to us and here qualified for us and here shown to us, if we do not endure this enduring faith, this faith that leads us to and into death itself, we will have never possessed true saving faith. We will not. We will have not. This is why God's Word constantly commands and constantly urges us as professing believers to examine ourselves, to make sure that we are not being deceived by ourselves, to make sure that we are not being deceived by our religion, that we are not being deceived by Satan, but that we are in and we will continue and are continuing in the faith. the faith once delivered to the saints. Jesus said in John 8, 31, He said, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed. If you continue, not if you had been there at one time, not if you had believed at one time, not if you had professed at one time, if you continue in my word, then you are my disciples indeed. If you endure, If you possess an enduring faith, then you are my disciples indeed. Really, the last three accounts, verse 20, verse 21, verse 22, if we see it in its fullness, what we have been shown here is in these men's dying faith, We've been shown this enduring faith is God's faith in Isaac that endures over the affections of the flesh, as we talked about. God's faith in Jacob endured above the interference of man, all the meddling of him and his mother even. But faith endures above even the interference of man. And Joseph, this faith endures and is of more value than the highest positions of the world. In other words, God's faith is superior to all of these things. All of these things. It overrides and overcomes all of these things. But do we possess God's faith? Do we possess this enduring faith that endures through all of these things, even to death itself. Do we possess it? Do we really possess it? That's the question. The most important question. The most urgent question. So today, in Joseph as well as in Isaac and Jacob, but mainly in Joseph today, I want us to see God's faith, it produces, what faith produces here, it produces endurance. God's faith produces endurance. It is, God's faith is enduring faith. God's faith will and shall endure to the end, even in and through death. We need, we must have this enduring faith. So to that end, may the Lord help us, may the Holy Spirit help us to see it in Joseph, this enduring faith, so that by God's grace and the power of His Holy Spirit, we will see it in ourselves as well. This is recorded in Genesis chapter 50 and verse 24. Listen closely. You can write the text down, but I'll read it for you. Genesis 50 and verse 24. Listen. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die, and God will surely visit you and bring you out of this land unto the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you. Remember those Hebrew repetitive words and phrases. God will surely visit you. There's emphasis there. God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from hence. So Joseph died, being 110 years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. Concerning that account, concerning that reality, our text in Hebrews 11.22 says, By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel and gave commandment concerning his bones. So first, as we look at this enduring faith to see if indeed we possess this enduring faith, as we look into the life of Joseph, into the dying faith of Joseph here as God would have it, as God the Holy Spirit has put it into His Word for us, meaning what it meant to them should mean to us as well. Number one, we see that enduring faith remembers, remembers the promises. Enduring faith remembers the promises of God. You see the phrase here in verse 22, He made mention of the departing of the children of Israel. The Greek literally says He remembered the exodus of the children of Israel. Keep in mind, this was 200 years before the exodus. He remembered the exodus of the children of Israel. This word remembered here is not, well, he has lived his life and one day it just pops into his mind and he remembered it. No, that's not this word. This word is in the Greek aorist tense, which indicates something continuous. Continuous. This exodus of the children of Israel, this exodus of His family, His people, has been constantly at the forefront of the mind of Joseph. That's what this is revealing for us. He remembered the exodus of the children of Israel. They had been upon His mind. And this is how it got there. In Genesis 15, verse 13, it is written, And He, God, said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them four hundred years. and also that nation whom they shall serve will I judge, and afterward shall they come out with great substance." So while Joseph was still in the loins of Abraham, God made this promise to Abraham, and Joseph knew this promise. What was this promise? What was the promise? It was the word of the faithful God. And Joseph knew this God, Joseph knew this promise, and he believed this promise. He knew it and he believed. But we also need to see here the Greek word for mention in our text is that word remembered, but nearly every faithful translation renders it just as we have it here. Why? That he mentioned. Why? Well, because this faith, this enduring faith that you and I must possess, It does more than just know something. It does more than just remember something. This enduring faith moves its possessor to action. moves its possessor to action. Isn't that what James says about God's faith in chapter 2 of his epistle? Listen, in verse 17, even so faith, he's talking about God's faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, thou hast faith and I have works, show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show, I will declare to thee my faith by my works. God's faith is not just believing But God's faith is also action. What James teaches about faith and grace and what Paul taught about grace and faith were not two different things. They were the same thing. They were the same faith. Yes, it is faith. It is a gift of God that He gives it to us by His free, sovereign grace. He gives us this gift of faith that's clear in God's Word, but that faith just doesn't sit. That faith moves. That faith works. That faith doesn't just, we just believe, we just believe, and I'm just gonna sit over here and wait for it to happen. No, it moves. God's faith, this enduring faith, it is believing, but it is also action. It moves and it motivates our life and our existence. The language in our text is telling us this promise of God. concerning the exodus of the children of Israel, it was an integral part of Joseph's mind. It wasn't just as he was laying on his deathbed, all of a sudden he just remembered that promise. No, this had been an integral part, the Word of God, the promises of God had been an integral part, the guide, the comfort, the hope of Joseph's life. That's what this is expressing to us. Loved ones, if you believe, if you think you have faith, if you think that you have this faith, but it does not, the promises and the Word of God does not have a bearing upon your mind, and a bearing upon your life, if God's Word does not move you or motivate you, if God's Word is not at least becoming your light and your lamp, there is no reason for you to insist that you own this faith. Because look at Joseph. Enduring faith, God's faith, saving faith moved him. He remembered, he believed and made mention, he acted upon the promises of God. the promises of God concerning the exodus of the children of Israel. If we possess true faith, the true faith that saves us from our sin, the true faith that is in God and through and by Christ. This book, God's Word, becomes an integral part of our life. We come from it and we go to it. That is our life. This is a continual circle. I'm not saying this is perfection, and I'm not saying that we've come to perfection or we've come to the place where we arrived, but we've got to be going there, brothers and sisters. This enduring faith is going there. God's Word means something to us. We have God's Word before us. In this book, in the 66th book, this is God's Word. And it means something. We go to it to find out where we're going. We go to it to find out what we do. We go to it to find out how we should think. This book arranges our mind and it arranges our life to the things of God. If it does not, and if it is not, If this book is take it or leave it, you don't have this faith. If this book is, well, I know that's what it says, but I'll do this. If you continue in that mindset, you don't have this faith. I know all of us do that, but we got to be growing. We got to be moving forward to this end. This enduring faith, it remembers God's promises. And number two, it maintains a right perspective. It maintains a right perspective. Understand here, whenever Joseph died, at the time of Joseph's death, humanly speaking, humanly speaking, this would have been the last thing that we might have thought that would have been upon his mind. This exodus. from the land of Egypt. I mean, the children of Israel at this time, at the time of His death, they were living as welcomed guests in the lap of the luxury of Egypt. There was no affliction, there was no suffering, not at the time of Joseph's death. As a matter of fact, it had not been so long, just a few years, that the whole nation of Egypt mourned for 70 days over the death of Jacob and Joseph's father. That tells you the high esteem that this nation held for Joseph and his family. This Egyptian nation that hated outsiders, they hated shepherds, if you remember we read, I believe it was last week, the Egyptians, they normally wouldn't have had anything to do with a shepherd, because they hated shepherds. That was one of the reasons that the nation of Israel came to live in Goshen. We know it was under the providential hand of God. But listen, at the time of Joseph's death, they weren't suffering. No, they were living in the lap of luxury and acceptance. And besides that, it would still be another 200 years. 200 years, about as long as this nation has been in existence. It would still be that long before this exodus would occur. But Joseph, in God's faith, looks past all that what if and all that I hopes. He looked right past all the human and all the humanly and all the worldly to what will be. He looked right past all of that, all the worldly, all the earthly to the heavenly. He lived and is dying here in our passage in a right, in a heavenly, in a Godward perspective. In a Godward perspective. He obviously knew that he and his family, their citizenship was not in Egypt. He wasn't detoured by the present circumstances. He wasn't blinded by their present circumstances, either positively or negatively. He wasn't blinded in faith, in God's faith. He looked right past all of that to God, to the promises of God, to the Word of God. What a blessing this faith is. how gracious our God is that he would grant to us this faith. Do you understand how terrifying life would be without it? Without faith? We might look around us today We might look around at all of the world living in excess, all even wicked people living in excess and seeming prosperity. We might look at them and it looks like they have not a care in this world and that may be so much different than you, child of God. Your situation may be so much different than that. It may be the opposite of that and you may look out here in this world and you know that this person over here is a wicked person. Even they profess themselves to be wicked. You don't even have to judge them, they judge themselves. And yet they live, it seems, without a care in the world. They live in prosperity, or what looks like prosperity. We may be inclined to cry out like many of God's people have, and many of God's servants have, Jeremiah, the psalmist, and others, and say, wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper, God? Why do the wicked prosper? Lord, I'm trying to serve you, and I'm struggling. I'm trying to serve you, and I have pains and struggles and needs that I feel I need, wants anyway that I feel like are needs. But I look across the street and look at theirs. They make no intent to serve you at all. They are in their own admission, they're wicked, and they prosper. Why do the wicked prosper? Wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously? We do that, don't we? We're not the only ones that have. We're not the only ones that think that way at times. But saints, they are soon to die without faith. And it's not if, it's when. And it's not maybe, it's when. They are soon to die without faith and they are soon to die without God. Don't you know that the real truth is when they lay upon their pillow alone with the Almighty, they're terrified. But not us saints. May that not be us. We have the promises of our great, gracious, merciful, saving God, and we have a heavenward, we have His perspective, don't we? Don't we? Saint, if you are a true saint of God, if you own this faith that God has given you, if you are having a problem with a heavenward perspective, this Word is not what it ought to be in your life. That's the problem. For us saints, we know, we know for us life is about to begin. Life is about to, we are about to lay down that which is holding us back. We are about to lay aside that which is holding us down and we are going to fly to glory. Someone has said it, replied to a book, that if I said who he was, you'd know, you'd know when I said the book, The Best Life Now. If you're living your best life now, you're going to hell. That's the reality. That's the reality. Let us plead for God's perspective. We have such a hard time. I have a hard time with this. I know you do too. We need God's perspective. So much of the time we do not see reality. We do not. How we so desperately need God's perspective. Because look at Joseph's life. It is a trait. This Godward perspective is a trait of God's enduring faith. There was no concerns in Joseph's mind for Egypt. None, not even for Joseph's brothers in Egypt. The only thing that was upon Joseph's mind in God's perspective was the promised land, the promises of God, the Word of God. I'm gonna tell you, saints, we may grasp and hold on to a lot of different things right now, but when it comes time to draw our last breath, if we do not have God's Word to hold on to, we are going to be empty handed. Now let's make sure we don't miss this. Number three, this enduring faith also has a reconciling purpose. A reconciling purpose. These Hebrew saints that Paul was writing this letter to, I believe it was the Apostle Paul, We know by the context of the letter that they were weak, they were wavering. And you know what causes the Lord's people to be weak and wavering? Too much focus on self. That's what it is. I would write down to the nitty gritty, that's what it is. If we are weak and wavering, we are the center of our purposes. We are the center of our attention and our affections. So here the Holy Spirit, that's what these people were. They were weak and wavering. So here the Holy Spirit shows them and us His great, true, enduring faith in the dying desires of this man, Joseph. This kind of faith that we must have, that we must have. Here we have it. These people were weak and wavering. Their attention was on themselves, thinking about all the hardships and the affliction and family issues and all the things that they were truly suffering. Now, some of them even unto death. Their families, like we've said in the past, they had a funeral for them. They were dead to their families. And we know we're human beings. We know how these things affect us. And these saints were weak, and they were wavering, and their attention was on themselves. But the Holy Spirit says, here, here is the man Joseph, your hero. Look at him and his dying mind. Look at this enduring faith of the faith. Here it is. Joseph, the second in command of the free world. Joseph, the hero of the world. He was the hero of Egypt. He was the hero of the Jews. He saved the whole world from the great famine. And so Joseph says, men, I'm about to die. Build a great pyramid and a great golden statue to my arm and build me a great city so my name will go down throughout history. That's not what verse 22 says. By faith, Joseph, this hero, who owned by God's grace this enduring faith, when he died of the departing of the children of Israel and gave commandment concerning his bones. not build me a great pyramid and a golden statue, not build me a great city so my name will go down through history. No, instead, brothers, brothers, come here to me. Come here to me. Brothers, you need to know you're going home. You will. You are going home. It's not if you're going. You are going home. And when you're going at the right time, it's going to be right at God's time. He's already got it appointed. Be sure, brothers, be sure to take my bones. Notice he says, not his body. It's going to be a while. Be sure to take my bones with you. You're going. Take me with you. Bury my bones with my father's in my father's grave. What is that? What is it? What is the Holy Spirit showing us here? Everything He said and everything that He did, it was not for Him. It was not for Him and His glory. What was it for? It was for God's glory and His people's profit. That's what it was for. God's glory had a reconciling purpose. There is a reconciling purpose behind the faith of Jacob, Joseph, this faith that believed and moved. There was a reconciling purpose. God's glory and His people's profit. His enduring faith witnessed to the greatness and the faithfulness and the trustworthiness of God and of God's Word before His brothers. I mean, the man's dying, this great, prominent man. I mean, when you're dying, when you've got some words to say at your death to your family, they're going to be words of import, are they not? Here are the last dying words. They're going to be important words. You're not going to be dealing with the peripherals. No. No. He's about to draw his last And what did he want them to know? He wanted them to know the faithful promises, the faithful word of his faithful and able God. You're going home, brothers. You're going home. Saints, we're headed for glory, are we not? We're headed for glory. We have the promises of God, and we know that we are headed for glory. We know the reason why we are headed for glory. It's the free grace and mercy of God. God loved us. He set His love upon us, and then He sent His Son in the demonstration of that love. But God, that would not be denied, sent His Son, who came to live to be our righteousness, because we had none. And then in that act of obedience, but then also in passive obedience, He went to Calvary to take upon Himself our sin and to pay our sin debt because we were bankrupt by our sin and had no ability to pay, nor did we want to pay it. But God would have us to be His people. So He sent His Son to shed His blood as our sacrifice, to shed His blood and take our place as our substitute. He sent His Son to take our place under the wrath of God that was due for our sin. He sent His Son instead of us. He took that cross, my cross and your cross, to Himself. There upon that cross, He died. under the wrath of God. He was crushed by the wrath of God with my sin and your sin upon Him. He died, was buried. But then in victory, He arose over our death to live forevermore. as our great High Priest at the right hand of God. God has done this great thing for us, has He not, saints? Christ has done this great thing for us to save us from our great sin and to reconcile us to God, to reconcile us unto Himself. And today, this moment, we have the Holy Spirit who witnesses to us that we indeed are the sons and daughters of God. Yes, absolutely, this is true. Is this not true, saints? We are headed to glory because of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, because of His beauty, His glorious person, His complete and satisfactory and sufficient work. We are headed to glory. We are going to God because of Him and by Him. That's absolutely true. That is the truth. We are headed for the presence of God and His Christ. We gotta get our minds off of ourselves. And we gotta live for something else than ourselves. We should have a reconciling purpose to our life. Look, look at the faith, the enduring faith of Joseph, the saving faith, the only kind of faith that God gives. It has a reconciling purpose. We should be living for God and His people. Listen, our God rules and our God reigns and our God is coming in just a minute to fulfill His everlasting kingdom. And right now, this moment, He is mercifully, graciously pardoning and saving and rescuing sinners. Sinners like our moms, sinners like our dads, sinners like our friends and our enemies, sinners like our schoolmates and our workmates, sinners upon our streets, sinners in our communities, sinners in our states, sinners in our nation, sinners in our world, and they need God's forgiveness, they need God's salvation, and they need us to tell them about our God and His faithfulness and His ability that He is mighty to save. They need to hear the gospel from us. They don't need to hear Like Joseph, they don't need to hear about our greatness. They don't need to hear of the world's philosophy. Oh, there is no hope in this world. If you think there is, God is absolutely certain in His Word that He's going to destroy this world. He's going to burn it up with fire. They need real and lasting hope. We've got to stop living for ourselves because God's faith, true faith, look, it has a reconciling purpose. It lives for the glory of God and the profit of His people. It lives for the glory of God and the profit of His people. We've got to get our minds off of ourselves. I hope we're all struggling. and wrestling with this in our lives, because if you're not, you've got serious problems. John the Baptist said it like this in John 3, 30, he said, he, Christ, must increase, but I must decrease. That's what enduring faith does. Is that what you want? Christ, I gotta be less and Christ has got to be more. I got to be humbled and Christ has got to be exalted. For me to live is Christ. All of those people I mentioned, all the people that come through our lives on a daily basis, they need Christ. They don't need you, they need Christ. How will they have them if all they have is you? They need Christ. For me to live is Christ. I must decrease, Christ must increase. Christ can say only one can save them. You can't. I can't. I tell you this morning as I stand before you, I know, I know the biblical things that I teach and preach to you. I know, I know, I know the glory of them, but I don't have the ability. even though I may want to, even though I may plead with God for that ability to bring that into your life, that it would change you, and even me for that matter. I don't have that ability. See, you need more than just me. You need Christ. If I get up here and I preach me, what have I done to you? Nothing. Nothing. Because Christ must be all. He must be all of our hope. Listen to 2 Corinthians 5.17, Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are new. That's us, saints. That's us. That's not something that's going to happen. It's in a progression. Yes, there's going to be more to it. But right now, we are new. We have been born again. We have become new. We are a new creation in Christ. That's us. That's the reality of us. Well, what does that mean? Listen. All things are of God who have reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ. That's the gospel that I just gave to you. Talking about the glory of Jesus Christ and Him saving our sins. But listen, that's not where it stops. If that was where it stopped, the focus would be on us, right? I'm saved, I'm a new creation in Christ. Christ has reconciled me unto God. Me, me, me. No, that's not where it stops. All things are of God who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and have given to us, you and me, the ministry of reconciliation. What does that mean? Verse 19, to wit, or that is, he's gonna tell us exactly what it is. That God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us. So we have the gospel, and then we have us. He's committed unto us the word of reconciliation. He's given us the ministry of reconciliation and it's the word of reconciliation, the gospel of Jesus Christ, but that's not where he stops. Now then, because of these things, we, you and me, child of God, are ambassadors for Christ. Ambassadors for Christ, what does that mean? Well, look, as though God did beseech you by us, that God did beg you, plead with you through us, we pray, we beg you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. You understand what that's saying? Children of God, saints of God, we own this enduring faith. We're to put on the sandals of Christ. And we're to be His mouthpiece and His representatives in the world. This life that we are to live now, this new life, is not about us any longer. Yes, He saved us. Praise God, He saved us. But for what? So that we might say, oh, I'm a Christian. Look at me. I'm a Christian. I'm a Christian. I'm so glad I'm a Christian. Oh, I do this and I do that. No, He saved us so that we might go forth begging as in the stead of God and Christ, as in the place of God and Christ. Be ye reconciled. begging those people around us, begging those people in our life, you need to be reconciled unto God. You must be reconciled unto God. How? Verse 21, For He, God, hath made Him, Christ, to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. You hear the reconciling purpose? What's your purpose, saints? What's your purpose? Your purpose is God's glory and the profit of His people. God's glory and the profit of His people. The Apostle Paul said, I endure all things for the elect's sake. And he also said to know Him, to know Christ, God's glory and the profit of His people. That's our purpose. Are we living up to that purpose? Or are we stuck in the tent of me, myself, and I? All of us, every day, have people come through our life that need Christ. Every day. It's our responsibility. Finally, number four. So God's faith produces endurance, and this enduring faith, number one, remembers God's promises, number two, maintains a right perspective, number three, has a reconciling purpose, and then number four, enduring faith, true faith, God's faith receives the proof. The writer of Hebrews says, oh, Hebrew saints, listen to me now, draw near to me. And he says, oh, present day saints, you and me, saints. He says, come here, let me show you, let me show you the faith of this man, Joseph. When he died, he made mention Not of all the other things that he could have made mention of. If he had a Godward perspective and he made mention of the exodus of the children of Israel, his mind was upon the promises of God, the Word of God. He gave commandment concerning his bones. O saints," he says, old and new, come, strengthen yourselves, establish yourselves, be encouraged, be emboldened, hold fast to the truth. I know you're wavering, I know you're weak. No, hold fast. Strengthen yourself. Be encouraged. Hold fast to the faith. The faith wants to deliver. The faith wants to deliver once and for all to the saints. The faith that is in Jesus Christ. There is no other saving faith. Hold fast, be strong, quit you like men. Why? Why, Paul, why? Well, listen. Our text in verse 22 says, By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel, remembered the exodus, of the children of Israel and gave commandment concerning his bones. That's what Joseph did. And some 200 years later, 200 years later, in Exodus, in Exodus, Exodus 13 and verse 19, this is recorded, and Moses, who's Moses? You know who Moses is. And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him. Where was he going? Out of Egypt. He took the bones of Joseph with him, for he had straightly sworn the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones away hence with you. And then 40 years after that, This is recorded in Joshua 24, 32. And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamar, the father of Shechem, for a hundred pieces of silver. And it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph. Joseph's God kept his promises, didn't he? Yes, he did. Joseph's God, he still does. He still does. Joseph's God, he still will. Our God is true. Our God is faithful. Our God will not fail us. Not if our God is this God. 2 Timothy 1.12, again the Apostle Paul, he said, for the witch cause I also suffer these things, nevertheless I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed. I'm suffering, but I'm not ashamed. Suffered greatly. Man was in prison, about dead at this time. Why are you not ashamed, Paul? For I know whom I have believed. And I am persuaded, I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. I know this God and I know that this God can be trusted. You can trust Him. He will not fail you. I know, I'm not ashamed because I trust this God. He will not fail us. Romans 5.1, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. We rejoice in the promises of God of glory. And not only so, but we glory in this present time in tribulations also. You mean like death? Yeah. Those kind of tribulations. Knowing that tribulation work with patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and listen to this, and hope, expectation, did Joseph have expectation? Brothers, get my bones. Take them from here when you go, you're gone. That was his expectation, based upon the promises and the word of God. Hope maketh not ashamed. That's not where it stops. Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. What does that mean? We know that this God loves us, saints. We know that He loves us. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. If He loves us, if this God loves us this much and did this for us, surely He will never leave us nor forsake us. Surely we can... He would have not made promises to us to begin with if He did not intend to keep them. Because we weren't worthy of His promises. We had nothing to merit His promises or His goodness. No. But because He is so good and He is so great, He will keep His promises and He is worthy. He is worthy of our supreme confidence. He is worthy. Do you have this enduring faith? You must. A faith that remembers and moves upon the promises of God. A faith that maintains a right, a Godward perspective. Faith that has a reconciling purpose. Faith that has lived for the glory of God and the profit of His people. and this faith shall receive its proof. All that God has promised, he will fulfill. Look, Joseph, by faith Joseph, when he died made mention of the departing of the children of Israel and gave commandment concerning his bones. Joseph possessed this enduring faith. This is God's faith. This is God's faith. May the Lord give us all the same faith.