It is good to see you. And we
do thank our Lord, our God, for his unmeasurable mercy and compassion. As these men were reading, I
was thinking the necessity of hearing the
word of God. You've heard me say this before.
We need to hear what God has to say first. First, let's hear
what God has to say. Let the Lord himself speak. May the Lord be blessed in that
which we do. Blessed to his glory and our
good. I'm gonna ask you to take your
Bibles and turn back to that first reading Brother Bear read
out of Genesis chapter 45. Genesis 45. I had him read where
we had looked before. I wanted to actually pick up and speak out
of verses 21 and 22 of Genesis chapter 45. But I couldn't help,
beginning tonight, my portion here of this message, and reiterate
what was said by Pharaoh as he was speaking to, well, he was
speaking to Joseph, but he was speaking to Joseph's brothers.
He was speaking to Joseph's family. But this word from Pharaoh is
a word actually from the Lord to all of us, his people. We're in this world and we're
not of it. We have needs and one need. I pray that tonight that the
Lord might be pleased to speak to our hearts and teach us something
over these next few minutes of our true need. I entitled this message, The Need
That He Gives. I've said before, We've got some
needs, I understand that. I appreciate all the bountiful
supply of the Lord. We live in a world and we need
some things. We need food, we need air, we
need clothing. We have needs. But one of these days we're gonna
take our last breath. And when we take that last breath,
we're gonna have one need. Need Him. Because we're gonna
leave this world and we're gonna enter eternity. And in that day, Christ will be the only need
that we have. I want to take this scripture
for a few minutes and just kind of look and see what God has
to say about meeting the need of his people. You'll find that
there's needs in here, but we're going to, before I'm done, Lord
willing, I want to talk to us about our need. Now, in our last
study, Pharaoh had learned the true identity of of Jacob. That's Joseph's daddy. He realized, you know, the real
person of who Joseph's father was, Jacob. And when Pharaoh
saw, beheld, the love that Joseph had for his brethren, for his
daddy, Pharaoh just opened up the storehouses and he told him
concerning the meeting of the needs of Joseph and his family. He said in verse 20 of Genesis
chapter 45, regard not your stuff for the good of all the land
of Egypt is yours. Don't look with compassion. Don't
look with compassion on your stuff. Now, boy, right here,
we can enter into this. Now, we do. We've got our stuff,
don't we? We've worked hard for our stuff.
We need our stuff. We got our stuff. All these things,
but really, when it comes right down to it, we know this. There's gonna come
a time when we regard not our stuff. When there's no pity. That's what it is. When you regard
pity, don't pity it. Don't pamper it. Don't look to
it. Regard not your stuff. Why? For the good of all the
land of Egypt is yours. How would they get it? That's
what Pharaoh told them. Don't pity your stuff. Don't
regard your stuff. Because all of the land of Egypt,
everything that could possibly be supplied for your physical
needs, really, is yours. And Pharaoh did this because
of his love for Joseph. And Joseph who loved his daddy. Now Pharaoh loved his daddy,
and Joseph loved his brethren. Now Pharaoh loved his brethren.
Pharaoh loved Joseph. And when he saw that here was
Joseph's family, he said, don't regard your stuff. Everything
you need, I've got. Everything needful to his family,
to Joseph's family is gonna be provided. And let me ask you
this, do we not see a beautiful picture here? Here's Pharaoh, picture of the
father, his Joseph type of Christ, his Joseph's brethren, type of
his family, type of the Lord's family. Everything you need is
going to be provided. That's what scripture says. But
my God, shall supply all your need according to his riches
in glory by Christ Jesus. Pharaoh reckoned everything. Now, where did Joseph's family,
where were they from? They were from Canaan, Canaan. It wasn't a lot of stuff in Canaan. Going through a drought, they
just, he done made numerous trips back you know, Egypt for supplies. I mean, Egypt was a beautiful picture
of God's means of supply for everything. But there's so many
types in this. But I don't want to get off this
too much because I'll start going where I shouldn't go. But Pharaoh
reckoned. When he told him, don't regard
your stuff, Pharaoh reckoned Everything in Canaan, that's where Joseph's family's
from. That's where the need is over
there. Don't look to that because everything
in Canaan, as far as Pharaoh was concerned, is just stuff. They're just stuff. Don't regard
your stuff I'm going to take care of you. I'm going to meet
your need. All the good of Pharaoh. I think to myself how marvelous
is the revelation of the scriptures to us. How God has just poured
out his blessing upon us. And concerning the needs and the need of God's
people. Eye hath not seen or ear heard,
neither hath entered into the heart of man the things which
God has prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed
them unto us. I looked at that again today.
I catch these little words, that little word, which is a big word,
us. That's a big word. That word right there contains
the heart of God Almighty. God loved us. Christ gave Himself
for us. Laid down His life. God hath
revealed them unto us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth
all the things, yea, the deep things of God. Think about that. That last statement
right there. The deep things of God. Things
that this world talks about and just talks about like they're
easily understood. The love of God. Can you contemplate being without
the love of God? Being without the mercy of God? The mercy of God, the deep things
of God. These deep things that we use
these words, we talk about these things, but oh, the indescribable
depth. Electing grace. What do we do
to get elected? We didn't do anything. He has chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without
blame. Can you just contemplate for
a moment the deep things of God? Being loved of God, chosen of
God, redeemed by God, called by God, kept by God. All these
deep things. And now, Pharaoh was telling
Joseph, don't regard your stuff. Everything that's found in Egypt,
Everything that's found where all the food is, the plaza, it's
yours. Joseph's family must forsake
something in Canaan. They're going to have to leave
Canaan. But what was in Canaan? Poverty. Poverty, that was what
was there. There was nothing. If they had
to forsake something in Canaan, They were encouraged to don't
despair. Why? Because where the bounty
was, where God's blessing was. I know Egypt, there's a lot of
things in Egypt that pertains to things that rebellious and
everything, but not in this case right here, not in this picture.
Everything, this was God's blessing upon God's people. They would
have it all. Oh, the provision, the provision
that's given. And the scripture says, and this
is where I want to read a couple of verses. I'm going to make
a few comments on this, and I'm going to look at a passage of
scripture in Zechariah. That's just toward the end of
the Old Testament. But right here, verse 21 and
22, here in Genesis chapter 45. That's what Pharaoh had told
him. He said, don't regard your stuff,
verse 20, for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours. And
the children of Israel did so. What did they do? They didn't
regard the stuff. They didn't regard the stuff
that was found there in Canaan. That's what Pharaoh told them.
Don't regard your stuff. Why? Because all of the land
of Egypt is yours. So the children of Israel did
so. And I want you to notice something
here. I was reading over this this afternoon, and I kept noticing
a word that came up in verse 21, 22. And Joseph gave them wagons, according to
the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way. And to all of them he gave each
man changes of raiment, but to Benjamin he gave 300 pieces of
silver, five changes of raiment. Did you pick up on a certain
word there that kept being repeated? It was G-A-V-E, gave, he gave,
he gave, he gave. God so loved the world, he gave
his only begotten son. He gave. Salvation is by the
grace of God. God gives salvation. He gives his people. We don't
earn it, we don't work for it, we don't deserve it in ourselves. He gave it to us. Now, in this
country where the family of Joseph was traveling, oh, how needful
would be the supplies for the journey. They're gonna have to
make a journey. They're gonna have to go through this place. They're gonna
have to have fresh supplies. And how needful. would be that
need. I mean, if you see this picture
right here and you just look at it through spiritual eyes
and see the blessing of it, who was receiving the benefit of
Pharaoh? Joseph, his family. Who was moving
on Pharaoh to bless him? The Lord, the God of heaven and
earth. Who was? would say, who's running
this show? The Lord was blessing them. And so he told them, don't regard
your stuff, and here's what I want you to do. He said, you know,
he gave them wagons, he gave them provision, he gave them
changes of raiment to Benjamin, he gave silver, 500 pieces. Consider the blessings that the
Lord has bestowed upon us. We're here tonight, by the grace
of God, able to fellowship with one another. Isn't that sweet?
To be able to come here and just, you know, I've seen you guys
and gals before, but I need to see you again. I need to be with
you again. Why? Because we're family. We're
family. We're gonna spend together. This
is what Joseph is doing, his family. is in need and the Lord
is meeting that need through Pharaoh, but who's doing it?
He does as he will in the army of heaven among the inhabitants
of the earth. But this blessing, in obedience to Pharaoh's command,
Joseph gave them. He gave them wagons, he gave
them provision, he gave and he gave and he gave. And whenever
there is a need, When there's a need, there's a provision. I just quoted that. My God shall
supply, what's the next word? All, all. Again, I realize we got a lot
of wants. A lot of desires. But when it comes right down
to need, need, these needs, my God shall supply all your need. The scripture says in verse 22,
to all of them he gave each man changes of raiment, but to Benjamin,
He gave 300 pieces of silver and five changes of raiment.
Now, I want to say something here. I did not come into this passage
of scripture right here late this afternoon. I made that statement
on purpose because of what I'm getting ready to say. There were
many, I've looked at commentaries, commentaries, commentaries. Blue
Letter Bible, looked all these words up, you know, tried to
find everything I could possibly find out about these scriptures
right here. And when I came to that portion
of that last portion I just read, verse 22, all of them he gave
each man changes of Raymond. I want to say something about
that in a second. But I want to say this, but to Benjamin,
he gave 300 pieces of silver and five changes of raiment. All of the commentaries that
I could find, I read what they had to say on that latter part
right there. And they talked about the greatness of that provision and the special
love that was found for Benjamin. And I don't doubt any of that.
I don't doubt any of that. I believe it. I'm convinced of
it. Benjamin was the youngest. He
was the one that was surely greatly loved, maybe more so than the
others because of his situation that he came up in and his daddy's
actual relationship to the mother of Benjamin. I read all of these
things and this is just a confession
from me to you. I know that all of these scriptures
are concerning the person and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I know that. I know that. But here's my confession
on that last part. To Benjamin he gave three 300
pieces of silver and five changes of raiment. I'm going to say
something about the raiment in just a minute. But I could find,
as much as I looked, I could find nothing that I was reading
that satisfied my need to behold the glory of the person of Christ. Now, I've told you before, when
I go into these scriptures, Let me tell you what I'm looking
for. I'm looking for Christ. I'm looking for the glory of
the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm looking for him. I'm looking
for him. I'm not looking for something
cute. I'm looking for Christ. And as
I read these different commentators on what they were saying, well,
you know, Benjamin was the, he was the one that was the most
beloved, youngest and everything. And he was always wanting to
be careful. And I agreed with whatever they
were saying. But when I don't see the glory of Christ in it,
this is what I'm gonna remember. I want you to turn with me to
Deuteronomy 29, 29. Deuteronomy 29, 29. I told you, I know Christ is
here. I know that the glory of Christ is here. But if the Lord
is pleased to withhold anything from me, and I'm not going to
say that he doesn't, hadn't revealed this to somebody else, but I
myself, Charlie, couldn't find anything that satisfied my heart
concerning what I should say on that particular portion of
that scripture. Here's what Genesis 29, 29 says.
The secret things belong unto the Lord our God. But those things
which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever,
that we may do all the words of this law. I can tell you what
it is. Though I could not find personally,
somebody say, well, you ought to have been able to. Well, okay,
maybe I oughta shoulda. But if the Lord is pleased to
withhold something, it's the Lord's glory to withhold. God
Almighty, when the Lord Jesus Christ was praying, He said,
Father, I thank you that you've been pleased to hide these things
from the wise and prudent and reveal them unto babes. But if
He hides something, if these secret things that God reveals,
to me there's wonderful glory. I see glory when he hides himself,
when he conceals himself. It makes me consider him with a spirit of
awe. So Lord, as you say it is, it
is. What was the fullness of that
portion of that scripture right there when it says, verse 22,
And to all of them he gave each man changes of raiment and hit
this part. But to Benjamin he gave 300 pieces
of silver and five changes of raiment. I'm going to say something
about this beautiful raiment. We say, well, that's the raiment
that robes the people of God. And he gave five times as much
to Benjamin. and the raiment is always the
glory, the honor, the holiness of Christ himself. There's gonna
be something wrong with that, be careful. Don't try to go deeper
than the Spirit of God reveals. Be careful. If the Lord has placed
something in his book, you know it's gonna be glorifying to the
Lord Jesus Christ, but if he hides it, you bow to him. You say, Lord, it is, it is. That's the way it is. That's
what we do. It's God's good pleasure to hide that which he's pleased
to hide. Benjamin was given more than
the others. We bow to that. Some said, well,
the reason he gave Benjamin more than others was because Benjamin
would be the one that would be wise enough to distribute. All
love in scripture didn't say that. So I'm not going to either. I'm just going to tell you that
God almighty reveals that which he's pleased to reveal. But I will say something about
this. It says in verse 21, the children of Israel did so. Joseph
gave them wagons according to the commandment of Pharaoh and
gave them provision for the way. And listen to this. to all of
them he gave each man changes of raiment. Now I can look at
that and I can see something of God's grace to all of his
people. There's all of God's people.
There's all of the sheep of God. He gave them all changes of raiment,
garments, that's what it means, garments, relief from death,
It's that word changes. That's what it means. Course
of life, he did something for them. Oh, the wonder of that
blessing that God would do something for his people that they couldn't
do for themselves. He gave all of them. They all
had this. What did they have? Changes of
raiment. Now, I want to stop and I want
you to turn to Zechariah just before you get to the Last book
of the Old Testament, Zechariah, I think the next one's Malachi.
Yeah, Zechariah, Zechariah chapter three, verses one to four, and
I'll hurry. Zechariah three. Now here we have a vision, and
it has something to do with this raiment that they were talking
about. Joseph gave them all raiment,
and they all had this raiment. I was reading over my notes here. I came across this passage of
scripture concerning this raiment. Zechariah, chapter 3, verses
1 to 4. He showed me Joshua, the high
priest, standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing
at his right hand to resist him. And the Lord said unto Satan,
The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen
Jerusalem rebuke thee. Is not this a brand plucked out
of the fire? Joshua was clothed with filthy
garments, and stood before the angel. And he said, and spake
unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy
garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold,
I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will
clothe thee with change. We looked at that passage a moment
ago and it was concerning Joseph giving everybody some changes
of garment. You know whenever we start talking
about garments, we can't help, a believer can't help but consider
the glorious garment of righteousness that is given unto the people
of God. Now these four verses right here
in Zechariah, I'm going to make a couple of comments and I'm
going to be quiet. Whenever we see Joshua, high
priest, it's so easy for us to say, well, that's the Lord Jesus
Christ, the high priest. Well, here in this particular
passage, the Spirit of God has revealed something that I think
is true. He showed me Joshua the high
priest standing before the angel of the Lord. Now here's Joshua.
Here's one of the vessels of God's mercy. This is one of God's
elect. This one right here. And he's
standing before the angel of the Lord. Now this Joshua right
here is standing before the Lord Himself. The messenger of the
covenant. The angel of the Lord. And this
Joshua right here is a type, he's a picture of all the elect
of God. Of God's sheep, God's church,
that's who this is. You gotta realize, look at the
context and realize what's being said in the context. Don't read
something and just say, well, that's just, that's this. Well,
read it. He showed me Joshua, there he's a picture, he's a
type of all the elect of God. High Priest standing before the
angel of the Lord, God Almighty Himself, and Satan standing at His right
hand to resist Him. Satan, that one that's there
to do nothing but resist the people of God, the elect of God. We're in a battle. We're going
through this world, and I'm telling you, we're in a war, we're in
a battle, We're in a fight. We fight a good fight. And what
is Satan doing? Well, look at verse 2. The Lord
said unto Satan, The Lord rebuketh thee, O Satan, even the Lord
that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuketh thee. And he asked him a question
concerning this Joshua. This high priest, as I said,
was a picture, a type of God's elect. And here's what the Lord
saying, is not this a bran plucked out
of the fire? He's asking about this one that
Satan is resisting. Who is this one? Is this not
one of my own? A bran plucked out of the fire
of God's judgment? And then he tells us how this
Joshua, this one that was standing, this high priest, picture of
God's elect, how he was, how he was dressed. Verse three,
Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and he stood before
the angel. And here we, we see how we are
in ourselves. This is us. This is us by nature.
We're standing, we're, we're, we're standing. How did we get
these filthy garments? Well, we fell in Adam. We fell
in Adam's transgressions and we were ruined in the fall, bruised,
stained with sin, broken in ourselves, unfixable. Scripture says, verse four, and
he answered and spake unto those that stood before him saying,
now look at this, You take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold,
I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will
clothe thee with change of raiment. Is that not the most beautiful
picture of sovereign grace? Where was this Joshua, this vessel
of God's mercy? What was he in himself? Well,
he was clothed in filthy garments. He fell in Adam. But this was
one that the Lord had looked upon in mercy. That's what he
said in verse 2, the Lord said unto Satan, the Lord rebuke thee,
O Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem, spiritual Jerusalem,
rebuke thee. Do you know who this is, this
one, this brand plucked out of a fire? He's mine. He's mine. mine. And he stood before him and he
said, in that last verse again, behold, take, take away, take away the
filthy garment from him. Had to get rid of them. The Lord
bore them. The Lord took them. The Lord
has borne the iniquity. The Lord has borne the guilt.
He bore what We are. He said, take away the filthy
garments unto him. Behold, I've caused thine iniquity
to pass away from thee. How did he do that? For he hath
made him sin, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Behold, I have caused thine iniquity
to pass from thee, And look at that last part, in that last
verse four. And I will clothe thee with change
of raiment, robed in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't
even know how to enter into that. I love it. I love the revelation
of it. I love the truth of it. I love
the certainty of it. Oh, the mercy of God. God Almighty, before the foundation
of the world, saw His people polluted, saw them in their own
blood, saw them in the fall, but they were chosen in Him.
They were His, and they were brands, according to His everlasting
will and purpose, that would be plucked out of the fire. Beloved, from that scripture
right there, we still know what we are in ourselves. We know
what we are. We know that we, in ourselves,
are wearing the garment of unrighteousness, but knowing the reality of who
we are in Adam, we bow to that and we say, Lord, how merciful
you've been to me. I know, Lord, I've never, I've
never deserved it. Not before, not since. You were
pleased to call me out of darkness. Lord, thank you for your mercy.
Lord, for you and you alone, you've washed me white in your
own blood. I've thought on that so many
times. I mean, you know, when you think of blood, how it stains
and how, but the Lord said that we're washed white, white in
his blood. Don't you love it What he says
makes no sense to the carnal mind, but it makes perfect sense
to the spiritual mind. He's caused our iniquity to pass
from us, and he's clothed us in his own righteousness. What
mercy. Don't regard your stuff. Don't
regard. The good of all of Egypt, that
which is the picture type of all God's provision, is yours. And this is the benefit of it.
He's gonna take us for what we are, being found in Adam. And He's gonna wash us white
in His precious blood. He's gonna give us His own righteousness,
robe us in the robe of His perfect righteousness. And soon, very
soon, we're gonna see Him as He is and be like Him. Come quickly,
Lord Jesus. Amen, amen.