All right, now, if you would,
open your Bibles with me to the book of Genesis. Genesis chapter 42. We'll read
the first 35 verses of Genesis chapter 42. Gary, after I read
this, would you come and offer prayer for us, please, sir? Now,
when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto
his sons, Why do you look one upon another? And he said, Behold,
I have heard that there is corn in Egypt. Get you down thither,
and buy for us from thence, that we may live and not die. And
Joseph's ten brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt. But Benjamin,
Joseph's brother, Jacob said not with his brethren, for he
said, Let's put venture mischief before him. And the sons of Israel
came to buy corn among those that came. for the famine was
in the land of Canaan. And Joseph was the governor over
the land, and he it was that sold all the people of the land.
And Joseph's brethren came and bowed down themselves before
him with their faces to the earth. And Joseph saw his brethren,
and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them and spake roughly
unto them. And he said unto them, whence
come ye? And they said, from the land of Canaan to buy food.
And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him. And Joseph
remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, and said unto
them, ye are spies, to see the nakedness of the land are you
come? And they said unto him, nay, my lord, but to buy food
are thy servants come. We are all one man's sons, we
are true men, thy servants are no spies. And he said unto them,
nay, but to see the nakedness of the land are you come? And
they said, Thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man
in the land of Canaan. And behold, the youngest is this
day with our father, and one is not. And Joseph said unto
them, This is it that I have spake unto you, saying, Ye are
spies. Hereby ye shall be proved. By
the life of Pharaoh ye shall not go forth hence, except your
younger brother come hither. Send one of you, and let him
fetch your brother, and ye shall be kept in prison, that your
words may be proved. whether there be any truth in
you, or else by the life of Pharaoh, surely ye are spies. And he put
them all together into a ward three days. And Joseph said unto
them the third day, This do and live, for I fear God. If ye be
true men, let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your
prison. Go ye, carry corn for the famine
of your houses, but bring your youngest brother unto me. So
shall your words be verified, and ye shall not die." And they
did so. And they said one to another,
we're very verily guilty concerning our brother and that we saw the
anguish of his soul when he besought us and we would not hear. Therefore,
as this distress come upon us. And Reuben answered them saying,
spake I not unto you saying, do not sin against the child
and you would not hear. Therefore behold, also his blood
is required. And they knew not that Joseph
understood them, for he spake unto them by an interpreter.
And he turned himself about from them, and wept, and returned
to them again, and communed with them, and took from them simeon
and bounding before their eyes. Then Joseph commanded to fill
their sacks with corn, and to restore every man's money into
a sack, and to give them provision for the way. And thus he did
unto them. And they laid their asses with
corn, and departed thence, As one of them opened his sack to
give his ass provender in the end, he aspied his money, for
behold, it was in his sack's mouth. And he said unto his brethren,
my money is restored, and lo, it is even in my sack. And their
heart failed them, and they were afraid, saying one to another,
what is this that God hath done unto us? And they came unto Jacob,
their father, unto the land of Canaan, and told him all that
befell unto them. saying, the man who is the Lord
of the land spake roughly to us, and took us for spies of
the country. And we said unto him, we are
true men, we are no spies. We be twelve brethren, sons of
our father, one is not, and the youngest is this day with our
father in the land of Canaan. And the man, the Lord of the
country, said unto us, hereby shall I know that ye are true
men. Leave one of your brethren here with me, take food for the
famine of your households, and be gone. and bring your youngest
brother unto me. Then shall I know that ye are
no spies, but that ye are true men. So will I deliver you your
brother, and ye shall traffic in the land. And it came to pass
as they emptied their sacks, that behold, every man's bundle
of money was in a sack. And when both they and their
father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid. We'll end our
reading there. All right, Gary, if you would
come lead us in prayer, please, sir. Our dear and most precious Heavenly
Father, we thank you, Lord, first and foremost, for giving unto
us this place in which we have to worship. It's a blessing and
a privilege to know and to have preached unto us the truth each
and every time we enter into this place. Thank you, Lord,
for giving us a pastor who teaches and preaches us your word, perfecting
us in that in which we have been given. perfecting us in your
grace, and by that same grace giving us the faith in which
we have to believe. All these things we have been
made perfect by the perfections which is in Christ Jesus the
Lord, only in him. It's his perfect righteousness
and holiness, his sanctification and redemption are we perfect.
We have nothing within ourselves to offer or to give. So we come
to you this evening, Lord, as poor, depraved, needy sinners
in desperate need of a savior. We pray you bless our pastor
that he give us these words this evening, Lord, in an effectual
way. We see and understand and clearly
understand the love in which you have for your people, the
love in which you first loved them, gave your only son for
them. That is a blessing beyond our
comprehension. We're unable to truly understand
these things, but we know these are the things of eternal life,
and that is our constellation here this evening. And we pray,
Lord, for those in whom are going through the troubled times, those
difficult times, these trials and tribulations of this world,
the infirmities, the afflictions of these fleshly bodies, all
these things we know don't happen by chance. These things, as in
all things, has been ordained by you and are coming to pass
in that perfect order. So we pray these things, Lord.
We pray these things in Christ's name and for Christ's sake, amen. Amen. Hopefully you still have your
Bibles open there to Genesis chapter 42. I've titled the message
this evening, From Famine to Abundance. The years of famine
had come on all the earth just like Joseph had said that they
would. And now Joseph's family's hungry. In our text this evening,
that hungry family goes from famine to abundance. This is
a picture of how God's elect go from a spiritual famine to
spiritual abundance. How we go from nothing to abundance
of mercy and grace and righteousness in Christ. But you know, going
from spiritual famine to spiritual abundance, It takes a process. There are steps that must be
taken, and you can't skip any of these steps. It takes all
of these steps to make us trust completely in the Lord. I've
got five or six points here on this I want to give you, but
first one is this. These are the steps I see here
pictured in this chapter. Before God saves us, we've got
to be in a spiritual famine. Verse one, now when Jacob saw
that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, why
do you look one upon another? He said, behold, I've heard that
there's corn in Egypt. Get you down thither and buy
for us from thence that we may live and not die. Now verse 57
of chapter 41 says, all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for
to buy corn because the famine was so sore in all the land. That word sore means that the
famine was strong, had a strong grip on all the land. And it
made the situation urgent, urgent for everybody. You know, that
was a very distressing situation for Jacob and his family to be
in. I mean, can you imagine? We can't really imagine this
land of plenty being in a place where there's a real famine.
I mean, there's nothing to eat. Nothing's growing, there's nothing
to eat. That's a distressing situation. But you know, it had
to be that way, had to. Something had to make the situation
urgent. Something had to make the situation
so desperate or else they never would have gone to Egypt. Something
has to make them so desperate that they'll go to Joseph. Now,
they don't know Joseph is down in Egypt yet, but that's where
they gotta go. They don't know it. But the situation had to
be dire to make them do that. Isn't that a picture of what
God does for his people? I can't tell you how many people
have told me this story, that they were in false religion and
quite happy to be there. And suddenly, for no apparent
reason known to them, they became dissatisfied with what they were
hearing. They started to starve, spiritually. They used to be happy, nothing's
changed, but then, now they're miserable. Now that's an uncomfortable
feeling, isn't it? To be dissatisfied with what
you're hearing and not know why. But you know, the Lord had to
do it that way. He had to make them miserable. before they'd
ever leave the comfort of their false refuge. He had to make
the situation dire before they leave. Lord had to make them miserable
where they are, so they'll go looking for something else. See,
the Lord used that misery to draw them to Christ, didn't he?
Had to be that way. See, we will only go looking
for salvation in Christ when we find out we don't have any
hope in ourselves. That's why Jacob told his boys,
quit sitting right here looking at one another. There's no answers
to be found in each other. We can't be looking at each other.
There's no hope to be found in us. We've got to go somewhere
else. We've got to go somewhere where
there's some hope. But the Lord has to make us hopeless in ourselves
before we'll go looking for hope in Christ. Now, like I said,
that's a miserable feeling. but it's necessary. You can't
skip this step, the Lord making us miserable in ourselves, because
the only way we'll ever trust Christ completely is if we learn
that we can't trust ourselves in any way. See, we can't skip
that step, can we? Then the second thing is this.
Before God saves his people, we're gonna have to hear of Christ. Now somehow, I don't know how,
but somehow Jacob heard, there's bread in Egypt. He said, let's
go there and get some before we die. Now that's a picture
of the Holy Spirit crossing our path with the gospel, making
us hear of Christ, making us hear there's life, there's forgiveness,
there's righteousness in Christ. Go to him. The Holy Spirit crosses
our path with the gospel, makes us hear. Now, pretty good chance
when we first hear it, we won't believe it, but the Lord's gonna
save us. He's got to make us hear. of
Christ. He's got to. He's got to be that
way, doesn't he? You can't trust Christ if you don't know Him.
You can't trust Christ if you don't hear. Somebody's got to
tell us who He is. Somebody's got to tell us what He's done
for His people. So we're trusting. See, if God's going to save us,
I promise you this, somehow, He's going to make us hear of
Christ. And there's so many different ways that the Lord does that.
It could be a child. Born in a family that takes us
to hear the gospel all their lives long. We spend our whole
lives long being taught the scriptures. We start in the Sunday school
roles at age three in that little room over there, you know. All
our life long being taught the scriptures. Now, we're gonna
hear for a long time before we hear. We're gonna hear for a
long time before we hear with the ear of faith. But if the
Lord's gonna save us, he's gonna make us hear of Christ. Isn't
that a blessing that the Lord do that for a child? so that
they don't ever remember learning. Oh, Christ is the savior of sinners.
They don't ever remember learning all this. It's just what they've
always been taught. The Lord did that for them. Faith
cometh by hearing. Like the example I used a little
bit ago, maybe we spend a long time in false religion and something
happens. We hear something from a family
member, a friend or coworker. And maybe it seems like such
a small thing, such an insignificant thing, but it's something that
the Lord uses to make us hear of Christ. I tell you, don't
ever quit inviting your lost loved ones and your friends and
your neighbors to come hear the gospel. I know you can't beat
them up with it, but always make it known to them, I'm inviting
you, come with us, come here. You just never know what some
seemingly small thing the Lord will use to bring his people
to come hear of him. But then it also could be this,
maybe it's a small way. Boy, the Lord may move the whole
earth. He may do something great to bring one of his children
to hear of Christ. A man told me this recently.
He grew up in false religion, very happy in it. And he went
to war in Afghanistan. And he became, while he was there
in that war, he became dissatisfied thinking about the message he'd
heard all his years growing up. And he was there in Afghanistan,
and there was a man in his troop, or whatever it was, a friend
of his, that told him, he said, come up here on Tapas one evening,
on Tapas House, he said, he's got something I want you to listen
to. And he could connect to the internet,
and he played that man a message, on Sermon Audio by Greg Youngquist. And that man said, that's it. If I've ever heard the truth,
that's it. He said, you got any more of those? The man said,
yeah, I got quite a few. The Lord saved that man. The Lord made that man hear of
peace in Christ, sent him to the middle of a war zone. Isn't
that something? He said, I don't know all the
reasons we went to war, but one of them is this. That's the way
the Lord's pleased to reveal Himself to me. I mean, it just
makes your hair stand on end, doesn't it? We don't ever have
to worry. Something's going to happen in
this life to keep God's elect from hearing of Christ. They're
going to hear. They're going to hear. I promise
you that. Our job is to just keep preaching Christ. Just keep
preaching Christ. Because we can't believe on a
Savior we've never heard of. So you can't skip this step,
can you? You can't skip this thing of hearing. Then third,
before God saves us, he's gonna have to draw us to Christ. We're
not coming on our own. He's gonna have to draw us to
Christ. Verse three says, and Joseph's 10 brethren went down
to buy corn in Egypt. But Benjamin, Joseph's brother,
Jacob sent not with his brethren, for he said, let's put venture
mischief befall him. Now it says here the brothers
went down to Egypt. And I know that means they went
south from where they were. But the picture here is of what
every sinner has to do before God saves us. God's got to bring
us down. We've got to go down. I mean,
we've got to go down until we can't go any lower. We've got
to go down until we see there isn't a worse sinner anywhere
than me. Nobody's more guilty, nobody's
more vile, nobody's more hell deserving than me. The Lord just
has to strip us. He's got to lay us low For this
reason, we've got to be completely dependent on God to do all the
saving. And we just won't be completely
dependent until the Lord lays us low. I mean, as low as we
can go. Now that's a tough thing for the flesh, isn't it? To be
humiliated. To be laid low like that. It's miserable. It's scary, if
that's the right word. To get a glimpse. If Lord gives
us a glimpse of just how wretched and vile we really are. Oh, it's miserable when the Lord
shows us that, isn't it? But you can't skip this step
of being brought low. Because we'll never beg for mercy
until the Lord lays us low. He's got to show us how helpless
we really are. And that brings me to the fourth
thing, the fourth step. Before God saves us, He's going
to make us beg for mercy. Verse five, and the sons of Israel
came to buy corn. Among those that came for the
famine was in the land of Canaan. And Joseph was the governor over
the land. And he it was that sold all the people of the land.
And Joseph's brethren came and bowed down themselves before
him with their faces to the earth. And here Joseph's brothers came.
They're begging. When you bow yourself down with
your face to the earth, you're begging. You're prostrating yourself.
They came down, bowed themselves down to the earth. just exactly
like Joseph's dreams told him they did. It's been 20 years,
but sure enough, it happened. Here they came, bowing themselves
to the earth. Now that's a picture of God's providence for his people. Before time began, the father
elected a people that he would save out of Adam's fallen race.
He set his love on those people. He chose to save those people.
In the fullness of time, the father sent his son into this
world as a man to redeem those people by his obedience and by
the blood of his sacrifice. Now redemption, it's been purposed. It's been purposed, or purposed
and purchased by the will and doing of God. God did it all,
it's done. The great transaction is done. But before God gives
mercy in the heart of his people, he's gonna make them beg for
mercy. And you know, that's the way it should be. A guilty man
should beg for mercy, shouldn't he? I mean, we don't deserve
mercy. The guilty should beg for mercy.
That's the way God does things. And in case you've ever missed
it, let me tell you one more time. You and I are guilty. Tell you
what to do. Come to Christ. Come beg Him
for mercy. Now let me tell you about this
thing of begging for mercy. God doesn't have to show us mercy
just because we begged for it. Now, he will, but he doesn't
have to. God does not have to show us
mercy just because we begged for it. If that were so, that
would make our begging a work that God was pleased with. Now,
that can't be so. That can't be so. Well, that's
impossible. God does not have to show mercy to any of us. But God is going to show mercy
to somebody. He is. He must, because that's his nature. God's nature is mercy. So he's
going to show mercy to somebody. It just doesn't have to be me.
Bob, it doesn't have to be you. I mean, it doesn't have to be
us, but it's going to be mercy for somebody. That's why we beg
for mercy. We've got to come and beg for
mercy. Here's how this thing of mercy works, and here's how
pretty much everything God does works. The Father has purposed
mercy for His people. Our prayers, our begging, it
doesn't change God's eternal purpose and will, does it? No,
God's purposed mercy for His people. The Son purchased that
mercy by His sacrifice for His people. But left to their own
devices, those people never seek it out. They'll never come begging
for mercy. So you know what God does? He
is the one that puts it in their heart to beg for mercy. He makes
them beg for mercy, and then God gives them mercy, just like
He purposed to do all along. See, whenever God is getting
ready to do something, He always puts it into the heart of His
people to pray for it. And then He does it. And then
He does it. You know, whatever it is that's
on your heart, tell you what, pray for it. Whatever it is on
your heart, pray about it. Whatever it is. The Lord put
it there, pray for it. Now I know that God has purposed
mercy for his people. I know they're gonna have it.
But you can't skip this step of begging for mercy, can you?
Now God, in his time, he's gonna make us feel our need of mercy. He's gonna make us feel our guilt.
He's gonna make us feel our need of mercy. And he's gonna make
us beg for it. And then he'll show us mercy.
And here's why all of God's people willingly beg for mercy. It's
my fifth point. Before the Lord saves us, he's
going to expose our guilt. Our guilt has got to be exposed.
Our sin must be exposed. That's what happens beginning
in verse seven. And Joseph saw his brethren and he knew them,
but made himself strange unto them and spake roughly unto them.
And he said unto them, whence come ye? And they said from the
land of Canaan to buy food. And Joseph knew his brethren,
but they knew not him. And Joseph remembered the dreams
which he dreamed of them and said unto them, you're spies,
to see the nakedness of the land are you come? And they said unto
him, nay, my Lord, but to buy food are thy servants come. We
are all one man's sons, we are true men, thy servants are no
spies. And he said unto them, nay, but
to see the nakedness of the land are you come? And they said,
Thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land
of Canaan. And behold, the youngest is this day with our father,
and one is not. And Joseph said unto them, That
is it that I spake unto you, saying your spies. Hereby you
should be proved. By the life of Pharaoh you should
not go forth hence, except your youngest brother come hither.
Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother, and you should
be kept in prison, that your words may be proved. whether
there be any truth in you, or else by the life of Pharaoh,
surely ye are spies. And he put them all together
into ward three days. And Joseph said unto them the
third day, this do and live, for I fear God. If ye be true
men, let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your
prison. Go ye carry corn for the famine of your houses, but
bring your youngest brother unto me, so shall your words be verified
and ye shall not die. They did so. And they said one
to another, we are very guilty concerning our brother. And that
we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us and we would
not hear. Therefore, that's the reason
this distress come upon us. And Reuben answered them saying,
spake I not unto you saying, do not sin against the child
and you would not hear. Therefore behold also his blood
is required. And they knew not that Joseph
understood them for he spake unto them by an interpreter.
Now here's how Joseph is going to expose the guilt of his brothers.
He accuses them of being spies. Now spies, they go behind enemy
lines. They don't belong there. They're
not friends with the people that they pretend to be, but they're
not. They're spies. And they try to take what doesn't belong
to them. They try to unlawfully take and steal what doesn't belong
to them by tricking people. Now that's most religious people.
They're spies. They're trying to get what doesn't
belong to them. They're trying to trick God into thinking that
they're righteous enough that God might give them eternal life.
Religious people or spies are just trying to get something
in an unjust way. They're trying to get salvation
by their works, even though scripture says salvation is not by works.
They're trying to get something in an unjust way. They're trying
to do something to make God obligated to save you. God has to be merciful
to me. God has to bless me because I've
done A, B, C, and D. They go through religious ceremonies. They walk an aisle. They go and
they pray through it. They get baptized. They change
their lives and live an outwardly moral life. Now, all the time
they're doing that, they completely ignore the law of God. And you
know why they ignore the law of God? Because they can't keep
it. They know they can't do what the law requires. So they make
up their own version. They make up their own religious
code, you know, their religious standard, and they make salvation
dependent on their standard, not God's standards. What they're
trying to do is take salvation instead of receiving it from
the hand of God, receiving it by his grace. Now that's unjust,
but that's just exactly what a spy will do. Spies, they're
sneaky people. They're just trying to sneak
around God, trying to find a way to sneak around God and get in
the back gate of heaven. That's what they're trying to
do. And Joseph's brother said, no, no, no, no, we're not spies.
We're true men, true men. Now, true men are honest, aren't
they? True men, true women, they're honest with God and honest with
themselves. They're not trying to take credit
for something they didn't do. True men don't try to take salvation. They're not trying to do something
sneaky in order to get it. True men operate out there in
the open for everybody to see. True men beg for mercy because
they're guilty. True men receive mercy from God's
hand on God's terms by his grace and the merit of Christ, not
their own. Joseph accuses them of being spies And here's how
he exposes their guilt. He's been laying this trap for
them. He's playing chess, they're playing checkers. I mean, he's
just laying this trap out for them. And he said, no, no, we're
true men. And Joseph says, all right, if
you're true men, you produce this younger brother and father
of yours. Let's see. Then they remember Joseph. Then they did. Then they remembered that one
that is not. Now you notice they didn't say
he is not because we sold him into slavery. They didn't say
he is not because we nearly killed him, but they remember. They
remember what they did. Their conscience is bothering
them. They say God has waited 20 years
and now he's gonna get us. Now he's gonna get us for what
we did to our little brother and we deserve it. They're not
one of them saying to each other, we don't deserve this. They're
all saying we deserve it. We deserve to be in jail. We
deserve to never go home again. We deserve to die. God's gonna
require our blood because of what we did to our little brother. Now you see the picture? If God's
gonna save us, he's gonna make us beg for mercy, and we'll willingly
beg for mercy, because he's gonna expose our sin. He's gonna expose
our guilt. He's gonna expose not just what
we've done. He's gonna expose what we are.
so that I see I deserve God's wrath. Now, when that happens,
when God, when He exposes our sin, He exposes our guilt, a
spy will try to find some way to wriggle out of it one day.
True men and true women are honest. They're honest with God. They
say, Lord, you're right. You're right, I'm guilty. Lord,
if you would damn me, you'd be right and just. That's exactly
what I deserve. but true men beg for mercy. Lord,
you're right, I'm guilty, but would you be merciful to me?
Lord, I'm begging you, would you forgive my sin? Lord, would
you forgive me? Do you want me to show you something
that'll comfort the hearts of those who beg God for mercy?
Look at verse 24. And Joseph turned himself about
from them and wept, and returned to them again and communed with
them, and took from them Simeon and bound him before their eyes."
Now these brothers had showed such open hatred of Joseph. They hated him so much they couldn't
even speak to him. They hated him. Oh, they hated
him. And he's just their kid brother. He just wanted them
to like him. He just wanted them to love him.
They hated him. They treated him in such a hard-hearted, just
mean way. They threw him in a pit where
there wasn't any water and sat down to eat lunch and ignored
his cries, begging for water while he's in the pit. They just
ignored him. They're so cold hearted. Oh, cold hearted. I mean, how just rotten do you
have to be to sell your brother to ISIS? That's who's passing
by. And then to take an animal and
put that animal, kill the animal and put the animal blood on his
coat and take it to his father and say, is this the coat of
your son? Telling their father an animal killed your son when
they'd sold him into slavery. And what a life, what you think
of the repercussions for the next 13 years, what Joseph suffered
living as a slave in a land where he didn't know anybody, didn't
know the language, Then getting thrown into prison for a crime
he did not commit. Telling the butler all about
the dream and telling the butler, now remember me to Pharaoh, the
butler forgot about him for two years. I mean, you think the
misery this man went through for 13 years. Then these seven
years he's been so busy preparing for the famine. And here them brothers come,
those cruel, vicious brothers, begging him for food. Everybody just thought what we'd
do if we were in Joseph's shoes, didn't we? You know what Joseph
did after all of that? When he saw the anguish of his
brothers, he was moved to tears. I tell you what, Almighty God
delights to show mercy to sinners. He delights to. He said, I have
no pleasure in the death of the wicked, He doesn't please God
to send the wicked to hell, doesn't please his justice, it doesn't
make him feel good, he doesn't find pleasure and that's what
they deserve, his justice is gonna do it, but his justice
is never satisfied. He's had no pleasure in the death
of the wicked, but you know what I had delight in? Showing mercy
to sinners. After all of our sin, after all
of our rebellion, after all of our open hatred of God Almighty,
his heart is still moved. when we beg for mercy. His bowels
of compassion are moved when a sinner begs him for mercy. Now, if that doesn't break your
heart and cause you to run to Christ, I don't know what will.
Isn't it? The capacity of Almighty God
to love sinners is astounding, isn't it? Well, here's the last
thing. When God saves us, He releases
us from prison freely. Verse 25. Then Joseph commanded to fill
their sacks with corn and to restore every man's money into
his sack and to give them provision for the way. And thus he did
unto them. And they laid their asses with
corn and departed thence. As one of them opened his sack
to give his ass provender in the end, he spied his money. For behold, it was in his sack's
mouth. And he said unto his brethren, my money is restored, and lo,
it's even in my sack. And their heart failed them,
and they were afraid, saying one to another, what is this
that God hath done to us? And you know, back when we read
it to open the service, when they got back home, they found
out all their bundles of money were in their sacks. Joseph gave
them all this corn. He gave them extra. He gave them
provisions for along the way. They didn't buy that. He gave
that to them anyway. and he gave them their money back. And you
know why he did that? It's a picture that salvation,
the bread of life, is by grace alone, pure grace alone. The Lord's not gonna take any
money from a sinner in exchange for salvation. This thing of
salvation is not a barter system with God. God's not gonna trade
salvation and mercy and grace to some sinner for our good works.
Salvation is free. It's free to a sinner. You can't
have it if you're trying to pay anything for it. It's got to
be free. Now salvation is free to you
and me. And you know why? The Lord Jesus Christ paid the
price for it. With his own life's blood. And
he commands it. Just like Joseph commanded their
sacks to be filled with corn. He commands that salvation. The
salvation he purchased for his people, he commands it. to be given to them freely. And
it is. Now these brothers, they got
as much corn as they can possibly carry. And they got all their
money. They got all their money. Now
they don't understand what all this means just yet. But here's
what they know. They're laying down with corn
and they got all their money. They got that corn for free. Now that's the way it is when
God first reveals himself to us. We don't fully understand
everything that Christ has done for us just yet, but we're going
to grow in grace. We're going to grow in knowledge
because the Lord's going to teach us. And that's what Jacob and
his sons are getting ready to do in these coming chapters.
The Lord's going to teach them. He's going to show them what he's
done for them. And it's my prayer, Lord, be pleased to do that for
you and me too. but he'll start revealing more of himself to
us and what he's done for us, teaching us by his word. That's
the way salvation is. The Lord saves us, he reveals
himself to us, he gives us life. Boy, he ain't done with us, is
he? And aren't you glad? No, he keeps us and guides us
and leads us and teaches us all the way home. All right, let's
bow together in prayer. Our Father, I thank you for this
time that you've given us together to one more time hear the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, human language is so
insufficient. What can we say to properly express
our thanksgiving for your mercy and grace to sinners, how you
would condescend to sinful men and women such as we are? But Father, we do thank you.
Just like Peter said, Lord, you know I love you. Lord, you know
we're thankful. You know we're thankful. Father,
I pray you take your word as it's being preached tonight and
cause it to bring your son glory and honor. Enable us, each heart
here tonight, to see him and believe on him and leave here
tonight resting in him. And then, Father, I pray you
continue to bless and teach Lean and guide and keep according
to your goodness and the riches of your mercy and grace that
you have reserved for your people. Now, Father, all these things
we ask and we give thanks in that name which is above every
name, the name of Christ our Savior. Amen.