There remaineth therefore a rest
to the people of God. That word rest is Sabbath. The
Lord Jesus Christ is our Sabbath. For he that is entered into his
rest, he also has ceased from his own works as God did from
his. We cease from our works and rest
in the finished work of Christ. That's our hope this morning.
The Lord will give us that grace to be there in our hearts. We
have a very special treat today. Dan Culver, Dan and Jonna are
here from Ohio. Dan is Lauren's dad and he pastors
a church in Wheelersburg, Ohio and they're here on vacation,
visiting with the kids. And so we're just glad, Dan,
that you're here. And after Lauren's going to do
special music and then after she sings, Dan, you come up and
share with us what the Lord's put on your heart. Appreciate
this brother and looking forward to what the Lord has to show
us through his preaching. So Tom's gonna lead us in the bulletin,
hymn on your back, you have a bulletin, let's stand together. ? For unto us a child is born ?
To us a son is given The government shall rest on Him, the Anointed
One from heaven. His name is Wonderful Counselor,
the Mighty God is He, the Everlasting Father and the Humble Prince
of Peace. The increase of his government
and peace shall never end. He'll reign on David's ancient
throne as ruler of all men. Upheld with justice, righteousness,
forever his reign will last. The zeal of the Lord God most
high will bring these things to pass. Please be seated. Good morning. Can you please
turn with me to Genesis chapter 37? And we will read verses 2
through 20. And I'm so thankful that the Lord
shows us Jesus Christ throughout all of the Bible, the Old Testament,
you know, in the volume of the book it is written of me. That's
what he says, that the prophecies all testify of him. And I pray
that he'll be pleased to reveal himself in these words right
here. So starting at verse two, these are the generations of
Jacob. Joseph being 17 years old was feeding the flock with
his brethren. And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and with
the sons of Zilphah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought unto
his father their evil report. Now Israel loved Joseph more
than all his children because he was the son of his old age
and he made him a coat of many colors. And when his brethren
saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they
hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him. And Joseph
dreamed a dream and told it his brethren and they hated him the
more. And he said unto them, here I pray you this dream which
I've dreamed. For behold, we were binding sheaves
in the field, and lo, my sheaf arose and also stood upright.
And behold, your sheaves stood round about and made obeisance
to my sheaf. And his brethren said to him,
Shalt thou indeed reign over us? Or shalt thou indeed have
dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more
for his dreams and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream
and told it his brethren and said, Behold, I have dreamed
a dream more. And behold, the sun and the moon
and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his
father and to his brethren. And his father rebuked him and
said unto him, what is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall
I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves
to thee to the earth? And his brethren envied him,
but his father observed the saying. And his brethren went to feed
their father's flock in Shechem. And Israel said unto Joseph,
do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? Come, and I
will send thee unto them. And he said to him, here am I.
And he said to him, go, I pray thee, see whether it be well
with thy brethren and well with the flocks, and bring me word
again. So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came
to Shechem. And a certain man has found him,
and behold, he was wandering in the field. And the man asked
him, saying, what seekest thou? And he said, I seek my brethren,
tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks. And the man
said, they are departed hence. For I heard them say, let us
go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren
and found them in Dothan. And when they saw him afar off,
even before he came near unto them, they conspired against
him to slay him. And they said one to another,
behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now, therefore, and let
us slay him and cast him into some pit, and we will say, some
evil beast hath devoured him, and we shall see what will become
of his dreams. All right, let's pray. Merciful Heavenly Father, Lord,
we're thankful that you've drawn us here this morning. We pray
that you would be pleased to reveal your Son, Jesus Christ.
Please open our ears to hear Please open our hearts to believe,
Lord. I pray that you would increase
our faith. Pray that you would cause us to look to your son,
Jesus Christ. Pray that you'd be pleased to reveal him in your
word this morning. Pray that you'd be pleased to
bless us with your presence. Thank you, Father, for your will.
Thank you for your grace and love. We pray that you would
lift your son up here this morning. In your name we pray, amen. Let's stand together once again.
We'll sing hymn number 12 from your Spiral Gospel Hymns hymn
book, number 12. Upon my great and sovereign God,
I cast my soul and rest. My Father's hand controls the
world, and what he does is best. So be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth,
and power combine to make thee blessed. In raging storms and
fiery trials, He keeps me from all harm. He walks with me and
holds me in His everlasting arms. ? So be still my heart and doubt
no more ? Believe and find sweet rest ? God's wisdom, love and
truth and power ? Combined to make thee blessed ? My God with
skill in faith And great designs of grace, With power and love
that never fail, Shall order all my ways. So be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth,
and power combine to make thee blessed. Midlife's most minute
circumstance is ordered by my God Who promised that in all
things He will ever do me good So be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth,
and power combine to make thee blessed. Please be seated. Lauren, Joanna. Jannah. ? Like me ? ? I once was lost but
now am found ? ? She was blind but now I see ? ? She has grace
that taught my heart to see ? ? Beneath the leaves ? ? How precious
did that grace appear ? ? When on my first day here ? ? Then
in tender song ? ? I have already come ? ? Till
grace hath brought me safe thus far ? ? And grace will lead me
home again ? We've been there ten thousand
years, bright shining as the sun. We've known those days to
sing those words. We're going to go back to Genesis. than four years since I spoke
here. I mean, what's the deal? Well, if you were offended, I
hope it was something I said. I will tell you that. We read a few moments ago about
the history of Joseph, and I hate it when people say, well, that's
an old Bible story, but there's nothing in the Bible that's a
story, okay? And there in that chapter, we
find a man who goes from obscurity to the right hand of the power
in the world. And that man, he was loved of
his father, greatly loved. He was a father, he's called
the son of his father's old age. Now that doesn't mean he was
his youngest son. There was a younger boy. It means that he was the
one that the father leaned upon. And he was given a very special
garment, a coat of many colors. You know that irked everybody.
all his brothers. Matter of fact, there would not
have been another coat like that in the world. And here's a picture of the one,
a man from obscurity that went to the very right hand of the
father on high. And he was given a coat of many
colors, different than anybody on this earth. He was given a
body. It says, when he came into this world, a body thou hast
prepared me. And I'm telling you, that was
a glorious thing to see. Grace was poured into his lips.
Never a man spake like this man. And everywhere he went, his brethren
hated him. Just like Joseph's brethren did.
Envied him. Envied him. You think just about
all the things here. The father sent Joseph. The father
sent Jesus. Joseph said, here am I. The Lord
said, here am I, lo, I come in the volume of the book that's
written in me. To do thy will, a body thou hast prepared me.
All these things, similarities here. You can just Google this.
Every preacher in the world that's ever stood in a pulpit, whether
he's a real preacher or not, has spoke about Joseph and his
brethren, spoke about this type and this picture. And these people,
they sold him. They sold him. Judah had the
idea, let's sell him. Okay, what are we going to get?
Twenty pieces of silver. Well, over in the New Testament,
we got a man named Judas, which is the exact same name, selling
the Lord for 30 pieces of silver. And what was the purpose? Well,
his brethren didn't, they wanted him dead, but they didn't want
to kill him. They didn't want to be the ones, so they sold
him into the hands of the Israelites, and our people, the Jews, sold
our Lord into the hands of the Gentiles to do that dirty work.
That's, the parallel here is just amazing, and it's not, it's
not a, it's, It's not anything that you couldn't see. He goes,
they send him down to Potiphar's house, Potiphar, he keeps him
there and everything prospers, you know, everything. Everywhere
Joseph went, it prospered. He's a picture of the one of
whom it is written, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hands. Everywhere he went, he was faithful. You couldn't
get him to tell a lie. You couldn't, I know he was a
sinner, but you couldn't get him to do these things. He was
falsely accused by Potiphar's wife, and our Lord was falsely
accused. These things all, and you'll
also, if you read the entire account, when Joseph was accused
by Potiphar's wife, he made no, made no attempt to excuse himself. He was like a lamb before his
shears was done. He opened not his mouth. Opened
not his mouth. I tell you that because I want
to speak to you about Joseph and his brethren because the
fact is it says, go check on your brethren. They're supposed
to be tending the flocks. Joseph was not sent to find out
what was going on in Egypt. Joseph was sent to find his brethren. That's exactly right. Now you
say, well, boy, that's awful particular. I am awful particular
because this book is very particular. And here finally after he's gone,
he's come before Pharaoh. He's taken from the prison. He's
cleaned up brand new garments. He comes in and he tells Pharaoh
what his dream's been about. And Pharaoh looks and says, let's
look in verse chapter 41 for a second. Verse 38, Pharaoh,
he turns to everybody and says, Pharaoh said unto his servants,
can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit
of God is? That's a good, wow, isn't that
a coincidence? And then over here, when he finally
tells him his dream, Pharaoh took off his ring and arrayed
him in vestures of fine linen and made him to ride in the chariot
next to him, right-hand man telling everybody, bow to Joseph. You bow to Joseph. He later on
tells them when it's time to go to the storehouses, don't
bother Pharaoh. You go to Joseph, he'll tell
you what you should do. And you know, he had a name change when
this happened. It says here in verse 45 in chapter
41, Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zeph-nath-pa-nia. Boy, that's, how'd you like to
call him to lunch? That word in the original Latin
is, in Latin, is the savior of the world. In the original, it's
not translated here for us, but in some of these, some of your
Bibles will just tell you here it means the man in whom the
secrets are, the revealer of secrets. This is the one we speak
of when we speak of Jesus Christ our Lord in John chapter 1 verse
18. No man hath seen God in any time.
You and I are never going to hear from God. We're not going
to see God. The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of
the Father, He hath declared Him. That is the revealer of
secrets. And I love this too. Pharaoh
called His name Zephnath-paneah and he gave Him a wife. He gave
Him a wife. My goodness. A bride. Gentile. Gentile, Brian. Can I get a show
of hands, how many Jewish people are here today? The Lord's church
has been predominantly Gentile. That's right. Abraham was a Gentile,
as the Lord called him. That's right. Oh, listen to me. So what happens here in the experience
of the Lord's brethren? Here, that's what I want to deal
with you. Chapter 42, Jacob Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt,
and Jacob said unto his sons, Why do you look one upon another?
Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt. Get you down,
hither, and buy for us from thence that we might live and not die."
What are you doing, brother? This is what happens to the Lord's
brethren. One day they're sitting there
starving to death. That's right. Starving to death. And they're looking at each other.
Adam, you got anything to eat? You got anything? There's no
sense looking one upon another. You don't have one thing that
you can offer me. But there's corn in Egypt. I gotta get up
and get where it's at. That's right. Either I do that or I starve.
Get down and go. And Joseph knew there was corn
there. And when he got there, when they
went down there to Joseph, now they don't know it's Joseph that
they're talking to. 7. 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,
Well, from the land of Canaan to Micor. And Joseph knew his
brethren, but they knew him not. No, they didn't know him. Listen
to me. When you come to Christ, don't
you ever think for a minute that it's a surprise to him. I grew
up in stupid religion when every time somebody come to the front
and prayed, prayed through, they'd all sing, there's a new name
written down in glory. No, there's not. He's not looking
for new names. He's looking for his brethren.
That's a right now. Say, well, that sounds awful
Calvinistic. I'm tired of him getting the credit. That's Culveristic,
okay? Just because somebody found a
mountain range years ago doesn't mean you name it after him. It
was here before the foundation of the world. It's just God's
truth. It's God's people that he's looking after and going
after here. Now, he knew his brethren, and Joseph remembered
the dreams which he dreamed of them, and said unto them, You're
spies. You've come to see our nakedness.
That's why you've come. And they said, No, no, no, my
lord. We've come to buy food. Our servants are coming. We're all one man's sons. We're
true men. We're no spies. We're all one
man's. What man would send all his kids down here to spy on
this land, knowing that if they're caught being spies, they're all
going to die? What kind of man would do that? No, no, no, no.
We're true men. Really? Really? Well, you can run that by Joseph.
You're never going to run that by the Lord Jesus Christ. And
Joseph knew better. You guys sold me. Well, he remembered his dreams.
He remembered his dreams. Remembered his dreams. What does
that mean? Well, it means that in his dreams there were 11 brethren
that bowed before him. And then his father and mother
would bow before him. And there's only 10 sitting there
in front of him. So what does that mean? It means they're not
all here. And this is all about Joseph
and his brethren. Here's a scripture, look at,
yeah, turn to 2 Peter 3. This text, it aggravates a lot of people,
but I love it. It says here something that is
so commonly quoted in our day. The Lord's willing, He's not
willing that anyone should perish. It says here in 1 Peter chapter
3, 2nd Peter chapter 1. No, I was right. That's what
I get for trusting my notes. It says in chapter 3 verse 8,
But beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day
is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as
one day. Everybody's asking, where's the word? Why hasn't
the Lord come? You people keep talking about the Lord coming.
Well, here. But the Lord is not slack concerning his promise,
as some men count slackness, but he's long-suffering to usward.
To usward. Who? Usward. Not willing that
any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Now
that usward there, people say that God's not willing that any
should perish. You write it down, if God is not willing that any
man should perish, he would have never made hell. But He is long-suffering to us
where He is brethren. And He's not willing that any
of us should perish. We're all going to be brought
to repentance. Every one of us. That's what this entire story
here, this book's about. And we're not true men. And He
says, well, you're going to have to prove this to me. Prove it
to me. Back in Genesis chapter 42, I'll
prove you. I'll prove you. Verse 15, hereby
shall you be proved. He's going to send him. He's
going to keep one of them and send all the rest back to bring
that one boy with him. Now, why is that? As I said a
moment ago, it's because all of his brethren have got to be
brought to him. Every one of them. So they're
troubled. They're troubled. You go get
your brother. In verse 16 it tells us, you
send one of you and let him fetch your brother and you shall be
kept in prison and your words may prove whether there be any
truth in you or if you are by the life of Pharaoh surely your
spies." He put them all together into a ward three days. Now there's
something going on here. He says to them, he says down
in verse 24, and as he's listening to them speak, he says, he turned
himself away from them and wept and returned to them and communed
with them and took from them Simeon and bound him before their
eyes. He hears him speaking. He's crying. Think about that.
Joseph, that brother, our long lost brother's crying in the
back room listening to us talk. And I'll tell you what he's crying
about. It says here, he separated them. And this is something else
I was telling you about what happens in the life of a child
of God. He separates them. And he tells
them, like in verse 18, Joseph said to them the third day, now
you listen to me, you listen to me, do as I, this do and live,
I fear God, you have no reason to doubt what I'm telling you
and all the plans that I've made. And he said, if you be true men,
let them, let one of you stay. And here, verse 21, this is an
experience. I hope you've had this. You've
been separated. You're separated. And you say, they verily said one to another,
we're verily guilty concerning our brother. In that we saw the anguish of
his soul. When he besought us, we would
not hear. Therefore, this distress come
upon us. Ruben answered and said, Spake
I not unto thee, saying, Do not sin against the child? And you
would not hear. Therefore, behold, also his blood,
his blood is required. Now I'm telling you, when God
starts dealing his children, they feel, they feel their responsibility
towards the death of Jesus Christ. There's a scripture in Lamentations
Chapter 1. I'll read it to you because I
know that Jeremiah here is talking about the distressful situation.
in the city of Jerusalem after all that came upon it. But this
is something that could really be said by any man who's ever
seen the death of Jesus Christ in truth. He says this in Lamentations
1 verse 12. Is it nothing to you All ye that
pass by, behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow,
which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in
the day of his fierce anger. From above hath he sent fire
into my bones, and it prevaileth against them. He hath spread
a net for my feet. He's turned me back. He hath
made me desolate and faint all the day. The yoke of my transgressions
is bound by his hand. They are wreaths that come up
upon my neck. He hath made my strength to fall. The Lord hath delivered me into
their hands from whom I'm not able to rise up. Is it nothing to you? Well, you
don't mean a thing to an Egyptian. See, Egyptians will never feel
the guilt And Joseph is hearing them, and he says here, listen,
he's weeping there in verse 24. But verse 23, it tells us something
here. They knew not that Joseph understood
them, for he spake unto them by an interpreter. He spake unto
them. God always does that. I know there are people who say,
well, if I'm one of God's elect, I'll be walking down the street
one day and I'll go, oh, I guess I'm saved. No, sir. No, sir. Look, turn over to Romans 10,
verse 13, Romans 10. While you're going there, I just
want to say that when Paul wrote the church in Corinth, they were
having a lot of problems arguing about who the best preacher was,
and my goodness, what a stupid thing to argue about. But he said to them in 1 Corinthians
3, 5, Who then is Paul? People were saying, I'm a Paul.
I'm of Apollos. I'm Cephas. Oh, he's my favorite
preacher. Who then is Paul and who is Apollos
but ministers by whom ye believed even as the Lord hath given to
every man? When a man hears the gospel, there's always going
to be a preacher involved. He may have been a message that
was heard. You might have heard a message 10 years ago, 15 years
ago, and you might not think, well, the preacher's got nothing
to do with me. Sooner or later, that life that was put in you,
that incorruptible seed is going to show up. Sometimes it's got
to break through some clods. We're a pretty cloddy bunch,
aren't we? Yeah. But it says in Romans 10, it
says this statement, very familiar. In verse 9 and verse 17, it says
this, faith cometh by hearing. So then faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the word of God. Most people in this world think
I'll believe things when I see it, but that's not the way faith
comes. Faith comes right through these ears, goes right down in
the heart. Faith cometh by hearing. Now look back up at verse 10,
excuse me. Verse 13, for whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. You've got to
call upon the name of the Lord. How then shall they call on him
of whom they've not believed? You've got to believe on him
before you ever call on him. And how shall they believe in
whom of whom they've not heard? You're going to have to hear
before you believe. And how shall they hear without
a preacher, an interpreter, an interpreter every time? And it's
no big deal. Did you find the name of this
interpreter here? I don't. He spoke to an interpreter. What
does an interpreter do, really? If he's doing it right, if he's
doing it right, he simply takes the word of Joseph and puts it
into a language the people there can understand. That's right. I don't have to
go to a seminary to be able to do that. to be able just simply
to take the things that God has said and put it in the words,
the words. I don't want to add anything
to it. I'm sure the guys that were translating for Joseph knew
better than to ever do anything like that. They just simply interpreted
the word. So anyway, off they go again.
They're gone. Verse 27, they're going, they're
taking the corn home and when they get out there, they open
their sacks over in verse 27, to give proviner to one of the
donkeys or something. And he saw the gold in the sack
and this troubling. So they all get the gold out
of the sacks and they're looking at it. It goes, oh, we're in
a world of trouble. How are we going to go back? We've got this
corn. We haven't paid for it. How in the world are we going
back? So they go home with that and spend so much time waiting
and wasting away trying to figure out how they're going to get
back there knowing that it appears that they're thieves. And in
chapter 43, verses 11 and 12, they're hungry again. Their father
Israel said unto them, if it must be so now, do this, take
the best fruits of the land and your vessels and carry them down
to the man a present, balm, little honey, spice, myrrh, nuts, almonds,
and take double money in your hand and the money that was brought
again in the mouth of your sacks, carry it again in your hands.
Pervention was an oversight. They go down. Verse 15, the men took the present
and they took the double money in their hand. And Benjamin,
he rose up and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph. And
when Joseph saw Benjamin with him, he said to the ruler of
the house, bring these men home and slay and make ready for these
men a great dinner for them. We're going to dine at noon. I shall come back on that. But listen to the apology in
verse 20. Oh, sir, we came indeed down at the first time to buy
food, and it came to pass when we came to the inn that we opened
our sacks, and behold, every man's money was in the mouth
of his sack. Our money is full weight, and we brought it again
in our hands. And other money have we brought
down in our hands to buy food. We cannot tell who put this money
in our sacks. And he said unto you, said unto
them, this is Joseph talking to an interpreter. Peace be unto
you. Fear not. Your God and the God
of your father hath given you treasure in your sacks." Grace. You read this. Joseph's brethren
will never pay a penny for the corn. He hath put treasure in your
sacks. Wow. Yeah. Peace be to you. Well, if I'm
going to have any peace at all and not fear at all, it's going
to have to be because of the grace of God who's put treasure
in my sack. Now, I'm telling you, the Egyptians
and everybody else in the world, they had to pay. Today, people
all over this world are meeting in religious meetings like this,
and everybody's trying to gather. They're taking a collection.
They're taking a collection, not to keep the lights on. They're
trying to come up with some way to merit the blessings of God.
That's right. Scratching, scratching. I told
a tale not long ago when I was a kid. I used to put pennies
on the railroad track and let them, you know, mash them. And,
you know, back in my day, you could buy some bubble gum with
that. But once you put that in, it won't turn. It's worthless
currency. And our merits are worthless
currency. We're never going to get anything from that. It's
by grace. The Lord hath put treasure in
our sacks. I love that. And he brought these
men into Joseph's house. They brought him in. They brought
him and sat before him, verse 33. And they sat before him,
the firstborn according to his birthright, the youngest according
to the youth. And the men marveled at one another.
You imagine going to dinner and having somebody set up a table
and you don't know this man. And it turns out that he's got
the oldest son over here and that's because Joseph knows everything
about all of his children. He knew you before you ever knew
him. He knew the order of your birth. He knew your day of your birth.
For unto us, the scripture says, known unto God are all his works
from the beginning. We don't surprise him. And he
sets them all down, and they're marveling at this. And, well,
they're all sitting there looking at each other, and he sent messes
unto them that were before him. He sent dinner out there. He
sent Benjamin's mess. It was five times as much as
any of the others. They drank, and it was merry. Benjamin's
mess. That's food. He's sending the
food out to these men, and he's making sure that every one of
them has something to eat. He's giving them all a blessing.
And the fact is that some of them might have been mad about
Benjamin having five times as much to eat. But I'm telling
you, the spirit giveth his gifts severally as he will. He does. He's not only sovereign in salvation,
he's sovereign in everything else. There might be a Benjamin
out here today that's a man called to God to be a great preacher
and have five times as many gifts as anybody else. Well, they're marveling. Look at chapter 44. This will be your reading assignment
this week and Greg will have a test next week. Chapter 44, look at verse 22.
They're on again, they're on again. They're all
trouble. The problem is, as I said earlier,
Benjamin remembered it. Joseph remembered his dreams.
He's got the 11 there. Father's got to come. He's got
to have that one last child, Abraham. Not Abraham, Jacob. And if he's still married, she's
going to have to bow too. Many believe she had died at
that point in time. But he said unto the Lord, the
lad cannot leave his father for if you leave his father, his
father would die. This goes on, goes on. They're concerned, verse
31, it'll come to pass when he seeth that the lad is not with
us that he will die. He was trying to get them to
leave Benjamin, but that can't happen. That can't happen. They've
got to come, all of them. And so this is what happens.
All of this trouble, all this goings on. The fact is all these
things simply mean, what we read today, all things work together
for the good of them. All things, all things working
together for the good of them. So I talked to you a moment ago
about how the Lord always speaks through interpreters when He's
dealing with His people. But there comes a day when He
goes way beyond that. That's what's talking here in
chapter 45. Suddenly the interpreter is done away with. Joseph could not refrain himself
before all them that stood by him. And he cried, cause every
man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him
while Joseph made himself known to his brother. And he wept aloud.
The Egyptians in the house of Pharaoh heard this. Joseph said,
I'm Joseph. Does my father yet live? You
got to get him. Does my father yet live? And
the brethren could not answer, for they were troubled at his
presence. And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near, I pray
you. And they came near, and he said,
I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold in Egypt, bringing it
home. I am Joseph, your guilt. Ah, Benjamin said
he wouldn't. Not Benjamin, it was the one
of them that said, I told you not to do that. He was just as
guilty as everybody else because he hated him. He hated his words.
He hated his dreams. He hated everything that he said
about him. You see, in those dreams, you see a man, a man
who was to be raised up. He's on the earth. He's working
in the field. He's got a sheaf. His sheaf stands
up. Wow. And then these other sheafs do
obeisance. It just simply means they obey. They bowed themselves
before him. and that troubled Him. In the next dream you see
this one who is a star in the heavens and there are 11 stars
and they are all obeying Him. And the sun and the moon are
bowing to Him. You know what this is? Joseph fits this because
Joseph did become a Lord of people on the earth. But only Jesus
Christ can fit that second description, Lord of heaven and earth. And
all His brethren bow to Him. They are coming. They're coming. Listen to me. Verse 5, now therefore
be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that you sold me. You know that. For God did send
me before you to preserve life. These two years has the famine
been in the land and yet there are five years in which there
shall be neither earring nor harvest And God sent me here
before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, to preserve you,
to give you a remnant. Do you have that in your Bible? To give you a remnant. Joseph's
brethren, a remnant. That's all he's concerned with.
To preserve you a remnant. that you might be saved, save
your lives by a great deliverance, a great deliverance. So it's
not you, it was God. He brought me here. He made me
a father to Pharaoh and Lord of all his house and a ruler
throughout all the land of Egypt. Haste ye and go up to my father
and say to him, thus saith the Lord, saith thy son, Joseph,
God hath made me Lord over all Egypt. Come down to me, tarry
with me, and thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou
shalt be near unto me, thou and thy children, and thy children's
children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou
hast, and there will I nourish thee, for yet there are five
years of famine, lest thou and thy household all come to poverty."
Come, come to be delivered. Goshen is yours. I'm the Lord
of all. I'll nourish you. Have you found
that to be true? I'll come. Twelve, behold your eyes see,
the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it's my mouth that speaketh
unto you. Go tell my father. Go tell my father. Take your father and your households.
You go get them. Come to me. I'll give you the
good land of Egypt. You shall eat the fat of the
land. You're commanded. You're commanded just to do exactly
that. Verse 20. Also, regard not your
stuff for the good of all the lands is yours. Regard not your
stuff. No need for a rummage sale. I
don't even care if you got a certain fork, an old fork you like the
looks of, don't bring it. Forget about Aunt Donny's china
and all the silverware. Those things are not going to
be of any need to you. Everything that you need is here
with me, Joseph, your brother." That's right. Regard it not. And the children of Israel did
so. They did. They went. And it gave them all
things to to carry it there. And he sent his brethren away
and they departed then. And he said unto them, see that
you fall not out by the way. This is brother, this is Joseph
talking to me, Joseph talking to you, Jesus. While we're here
on this earth, don't fall out on the way. Love one another.
Love one another. That's right. They went out of
Egypt. They went out of Egypt. and came
to the land of Canaan, and unto Jacob their father, saying, Joseph,
Joseph's alive. He's the governor over all the
land of Egypt. And Jacob's heart fainted. He
believed him not. They came there to speak to him
about all the glory of Joseph. And I'm telling you, they wanted
him to come. It's like when our Lord said,
He said in John 17, Father, I will. that those which thou hast given
me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory. That's
Joseph. Behold my glory. I'll nourish
you. And he says here, when he came
and told Joseph this, he did not believe their words which
they said unto them. But when he saw the wagons which
Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father
revived. What kind of wagons you think
these were? You think they're some old book boards? I'm telling
you, those were the best wagons out of Egypt. I know they were
covered in silver and gold. And the moment he saw that, he
knew the man that sent that was worthy of those things he sent.
That is the one, my son, the one I thought was dead, is alive. Huh? Israel said, it's enough. Joseph, my son, He's yet alive. I don't have to translate that
to him. Joseph, my son, is yet alive. The son, the beloved son
of the Father, is yet alive. I will go see him before I die. That's a noble ambition. Matter
of fact, if you're one of the Lord's elect, if you're one of
His brethren, before you die, you will go see Him and you will
behold His glory. You will. You're going to see
him here or you're not going to see him there. Thank you, Dan. That was a blessing,
wasn't it? As you were preaching, Dan, I
was thinking about this article that Frank Tate wrote that's
in your bulletin about the difference between a purpose and a plan. Religious folks like to talk
about God having a plan, but everything our God does is on
purpose. It's on purpose. And all those
events that took place in the life of Joseph were for the purpose
of foreshadowing the one who would come and save his people. Now, that was a great blessing. Tom, we can close with him. Number
296. Let's stand together. Number
296. All the way. you All the way my Savior leads me,
what have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy,
who through life has been my guide? Heavenly peace, divinest
comfort, here by faith in Him to dwell. For I know what e'er
befall me, Jesus doeth all things well. For I know what e'er befall
me, Jesus doeth all things well. All the way my Savior leads me. Tears each winding path I tread. Gives me grace for every trial. Feeds me with the living bread. ? Though my weary steps may falter
? And my soul a thirst may be ? Gushing from the rock before
me ? Lo, a spring of joy I see ? Gushing from the rock before
me ? Lo, a spring of joy I see All the way my Savior leads me,
O the fullness of His love. Perfect rest to me is promised
in my Father's house above. When my spirit clothed immortal,
Wings its flight to realms of day. This my song through endless
ages, Jesus led me all the way. This my song through endless
ages, Jesus led me all the way. Thank you, Joy.