Wouldn't that be wonderful if
the Lord answered that prayer tonight? Just revive the spirit
of grace in our hearts. I want to read for our scripture
reading tonight from Genesis chapter 45. Genesis 45. While you turn there, I guess
everybody has heard that Mary Ann and Jerry and Rich have made
the decision to put Terry in hospice. She's not able to swallow
and she's not receiving any nourishment. So if you want to see her, she's
in a hospice right behind the Winter Park Hospital. and she'll
probably only be with us another week or so. So pray for the family
and if you want to see her before the Lord takes her home, now
would be a good time to do that. Okay. Isaiah chapter 45, I'm sorry,
Genesis chapter 45. What a glorious picture of Christ
Joseph is. as the Lord used him to save
the children of Israel. And in Genesis chapter 45, we
have the event of Joseph revealing himself to his brothers. And
it's a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ revealing himself to his
people. It's the only people he reveals
himself to. And it says, verse 1 in Genesis 45, Then Joseph
could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him. And
he cried, cause every man to go out from me. Now Joseph had
some things to say to his brethren that no one else could hear.
And it's the same today. The Lord speaks to his children
and those that aren't his have no ears to hear. And there stood
no man with him while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept aloud." Oh, he had
such compassion for them in spite of the way they treated him.
Isn't that still the case? And the Egyptians in the house
of Pharaoh heard, and Joseph said unto his brethren, I am
Joseph. Joseph's name means God shall
increase. And whatever increase of grace
we have will come through our Joseph. I am Joseph, doth my father yet
live? And his brethren could not answer
him, for they were, and that word troubled is the word terrified,
They were terrified at his presence. There was a fear that gripped
their hearts when they realized who he was. You know it's the
same fear that grips our hearts when we realize who it is that
we're standing before. But the Lord Jesus Christ does
the same thing for us that Joseph did for his brethren. He embraces
us, he speaks peace to our hearts, and he tells us to fear not.
Look what he says, Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near
to me. Oh, come near to me. Draw nigh
to me. And I pray you. And they came near, and he said,
I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. Isn't that what we did? We sold
the Lord Jesus Christ, the firstborn among many brethren, to the law. and the law had its way when
it found our sin on Christ the law executed its justice against
Christ now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that
you sold me hither for God did send me before you to preserve
life you meant it for evil he goes on to say in chapter 50
remember after Jacob dies The brothers now, that's an amazing
part of this story. After Jacob dies, Joseph's brothers
are afraid that he's going to exact revenge against them after
many years of providing for them. But isn't that the way we are?
You know, the Lord provides and we still think sometimes that
he's going to exact revenge against us. He's going to punish us for
our sin. No, our sin's been punished.
It's been punished. God sent me before you to preserve
life. The Lord has never taken any
of his children anywhere that the Lord Jesus Christ didn't
go there first. That's true. That's true. He always goes ahead of us. He
always prepares the way. For these two years hath the
famine been in the land, and yet there are five years in which
there shall neither be earing nor harvest." You live in a drought-stricken
land of famine, but it's not over yet. It's not over yet. There's still more famine to
come. And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity
in the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance."
What a deliverer we have, who laid down his life for the sheep
and suffered the judgment of God for our sins, going before
us. And he's gone before us into
glory, hasn't he? He's gone before us. He said, I go and prepare
a place for you. I'll come again and receive you
unto myself, that where I am there you may be also. Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we find such great comfort in knowing that you are gentle and
loving toward your children to provide for us a deliverer and
to always go before us to prepare the way. We thank you that we
have an advocate, Jesus Christ the righteous one who's seated
at your right hand and who intercedes on our behalf. We're so very
grateful that because of him there is a throne of grace that
we can approach with boldness, confidence, to find grace and
help in our time of need. Our Heavenly Father, our dear
sister, your child is in need of your tender mercies now. We
ask, Lord, that you'd be gentle with her. We pray that you would
take her to yourself quickly and easily. We ask it in Christ's
name. Amen. redeemed. I can't think of that word without
thinking about those old green stamp redemption stores. I know
I'm showing my age, but we'd collect those stamps and then
go trade them in. Redeem something out of there
with those stamps. The full price of a sinner's
redemption is the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's
satisfied with Christ. He's not satisfied with you.
He's not satisfied with me. It's not by works of righteousness
which we have done. It's through the shed blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ that our sins are put away. What great
hope we have in that. Just to rest in Christ. We're going to be looking at
a passage of Scripture in Genesis chapter 41 and 42. And I've entitled
this message, What to do in a time of famine. What to do in a time
of famine. Now Amos said that God was going
to send a famine to the land. God was going to send a famine
to the land. Now there's been many famines over the history
of the world. There's famines in the recent
history. there's been famines in china
and ethiopia and north korea famines by which millions of
people have died and what a horrible thing it would be to go through
that sort of thing where you just were just hundreds of thousands
of people starved to death because of lack of food we don't think
about that much in america do we not much chance that happened
and us is there probably not yet Amos goes on to say, "...not
a famine of bread, nor of lack of water, but a famine of hearing
the Word of God." There is a famine in America that's worse than
any famine of bread that this world has ever known. And that's
the inability that men have to hear what God is saying. They
just can't hear it. Just can't hear it. I was listening
On the radio last night to a Jewish rabbi, a Muslim imam,
and some Christian preacher. And they all had their PhDs,
multiple PhDs. And it was the most foolish conversation
I've ever listened to. I mean, none of them had a clue. None of them had a clue. And
it was just representative of where we are in this country
and in this world. Men just can't hear. And that's
the picture here. That's the picture of the famine.
What do God's people do in a time of famine? Where do we go? We
don't worry too much about our next meal. Not much trouble there. But oh, that God would feed our
souls with the bread of life. Where do we go? What do we do?
Do we recognize the fact that there is a famine in the land?
And has the Lord created a hunger in our hearts for Christ? Joseph
is such a glorious picture of the Lord Jesus Christ in so many
ways. One of the things I appreciate
about the scriptures is that it's the only book of scripture
that any religion has that doesn't seek to hide the faults and sins
of its heroes. you won't find you won't find
anything negative about about muhammad in the koran even though
he was a pedophile and had all kinds of problems he he just
you won't see you won't read any of that about him uh... you you won't find anything in
uh... in the book of mormons about joseph smith anything negative
about him though he was the same way yet when gives us the gospel
through these characters of scripture, we find that they're men of flesh
just like us. Just like us. And they all are. And yet, when
they're described in Hebrews chapter 11, they're described
as perfect, aren't they? Because that's the way God sees
us in the Lord Jesus Christ. As He is, so are we. In Him dwelleth the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, and we are complete in Him. So that
when God looks at sinners, He sees us in the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and accepts us in the Beloved, we're perfect
in the sight of God. What a glorious truth. Now that
having been said about the characters of the Bible, Joseph is the only
character that I know of, that I can think of in the scriptures
that not one negative thing is said about him. Now I'm not suggesting
that he wasn't a sinner or that he didn't have, but the Lord
chose to present him as such a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ
that we see in him a picture of the perfection of Christ as
well. We see him as the favored son, of Jacob, born of his favored
wife, Rachel. What a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ, as the father said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm
well pleased. And he's born into the family
of God and into the world through the ministry of Rachel, the church,
the bride of Christ. He was hated without a cause. His brothers hated him. They
were jealous of him. They despised him. They sold
him into slavery. What a picture of Christ. And then once he got to Egypt,
he was falsely accused and thrown into prison. And yet, even there,
he rose to preeminence and was given charge over all the prisoners
and was given by God the ability to discern dreams and to interpret
the Word of God and to declare the message of the famine that
was about to come to Pharaoh. He was later elevated to the
position of Prime Minister of Egypt. He was given preeminence
above everybody else. And all for the purpose, as we
just read in Genesis chapter 45, all for the purpose of saving
his people. All for the purpose of saving
his people. And that's exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ came
to do. Now we're going to find also
in this passage of scripture that Joseph was the one who had
the keys to the storehouse and what he opened no man could shut
and what he shut no man could open. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
has the keys to the kingdom, doesn't He? He has the keys to
our hearts. He has the keys. When He's ready to make us willing
in the day of His power, He just unlocks the door. And what He
opens, no man can shut. And when He's prepared, when
He's ready to make the truth of His gospel known, He just
breaks the bread of life and causes us to hear. He feeds His
children. that's what we have a picture
of here in Genesis chapter 41 will begin
reading in verse 53 and the seven years of plentiness that was
in the land of Egypt were ended now i know that typically when
we think of egypt we think of the taskmasters of egypt we think
of god bringing his children of israel out of egypt uh... and uh... a picture of our salvation
in that regard uh... delivering us from the demands
and the rigors of the law and that's all very true And yet,
in our text now, Egypt is where Joseph is. And God's going to
send his people to Egypt in order for Joseph to be able to provide
for them. If you go back in the book of
Genesis, there was a famine in the day of Abraham, there was
a famine in the day of Isaac, and in both cases they had to
go down to Egypt. So here we have a picture of
us going to where the Lord Jesus Christ is in order to be fed. What do we do in a time of famine? What do we do? We come to the
place where he's pleased to dispense food to his children, to feed
the souls of his children with the bread of life. And that's
why we're here tonight, isn't it? Verse 54, And the seven years
of dearth began to come, according as Joseph had said. And the dearth
was in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. There was bread there. Joseph
had stored it up, hadn't he? during the seven years of plenty
he had he had made sure that there was plenty of bread stored
up uh... to to feed all the children of
egypt and now the children of israel during the seven years
of famine he had sufficiency for his children still does he
still does he's sufficient for every need he told the apostle
paul he said my grace is sufficient for you You may be going through
a time of famine. You may be going through a time
of difficulty. My grace is sufficient for you. You may have a thorn
in your flesh. You may have a trial, a trouble that I've ordained
for you. Jacob, the last time we read
of Jacob in the book of Genesis, now the last several chapters
has been about Joseph and about his brothers. But if you go back
with me to Genesis chapter 37, Genesis chapter 37 at verse 34,
here's the last mention of Jacob now prior to what we're reading. And Jacob rent his clothes and
put sackcloth upon his loins and mourned for his son many
days. He was mourning over the death
of Joseph. Joseph wasn't dead. Jacob thought
he was. Jacob was convinced he was. In
fact God had sent Joseph down to Egypt to prepare for the famine
that was going to come and to save Jacob and his sons and all
their families. And all his sons and all his
daughters rose up to comfort him but he refused to be comforted
and he said for I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him. So there's the last mention of
Jacob now, he's weeping over the loss of Joseph. But the Lord had designed this
trial as a blessing in disguise. Is that not always the case?
It is, it's always the case. All things work together for
good. For them that love God and those that are the called
according to His purpose. I hear so many people all the
time say, well, I know something good gonna come out of it. You
hear people, irreligious people say, well, it all happens for
a good reason. No, not for the unbeliever does it. Not for those
who haven't been called out of darkness into His marvelous light.
No, it's not good at all. It'll be judgment for them. But
for God's people, He's working. He's never done anything for
his children that wasn't for their best. He treats them with
mercy and with love and with grace. And that's what he's doing
for Jacob. Though Jacob doesn't know it.
Jacob's grieving over the loss of Joseph. and all along god
is elevating joseph to a place of preeminence in order to provide
salvation for jacob listen to uh... jeremiah chapter sixteen
verse thirty three these things have i spoken unto you that in
may i'm sorry john chapter sixteen verse thirty three the lord said
these things i've spoken unto you that that uh... that in may you might have peace
in the world in the world you shall have tribulation but be
of good cheer for I have overcome the world there's our hope there's
our hope in the world you're gonna have tribulation you're
like Jacob God's gonna ordain some dark clouds for you there's
gonna be times when the tone of his voice isn't as sweet as
you'd like for it to be and yet he's doing it all for our good Isaiah chapter 33, speaking of
the believer, he, the believer, shall dwell on high. Now that's where we dwell right
now. We're in the heavenlies in the person of our Lord Jesus
Christ, our advocate before the Father. When we look to Christ,
we're dwelling on high. When we set our affections above,
we're dwelling on high, aren't we? And believers the only one
that can look at this life and look at this world from an eternal
perspective in truth. His place of defense shall be
in the munition of rocks. That's what Isaiah said. Our
place of defense is in the munition of rocks. In other words, the
Lord has hid us as he did Moses in the cleft of the rock and
covered us up. And that's a safe place to be.
It's the only safe place to be. Bread shall be given him and
his water shall be for sure. For sure. I'm the bread of life. We're to pray to the Lord to
give us our bread. daily. Sometimes it may seem
that our Lord is treating us roughly. Sometimes the tones
of His voice may seem more stern than sweet. Sometimes they may
be silent altogether. Sometimes His hand may seem more
heavy than it is gentle. Sometimes the clouds of trouble
can shadow the light of His countenance. But in those times there's always
a purpose. There's always a purpose. Turn
with me to Hebrews chapter 4. Look at verse 14. seeing then that we do have a
high priest, a great high priest. Oh, we don't look to a man. One
of the things that Jacob is going to say in this, you still have
your finger in our text? Look over there in Genesis chapter
42 and look at verse 1. Now when Jacob saw that there
was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, Why do you look
one upon another? Why do you look to a man for
your deliverance? Why do you set up a man as your
intercessor? Why would you call a man your
priest? We have one great high priest.
That's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. We don't get to God
through a man. Why do you look one to another,
he said? There's corn in Egypt. Get up
and go down to Egypt. That's where Joseph was, and
Joseph was the one that was gonna provide for them. So look what
Paul says in Hebrews chapter four. Seeing then that we have
a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the
Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. What is our profession? That the Lord Jesus Christ is
all. He's all our righteousness before
God. He's all our justification before
God. He's all our sanctification before
God. He's all our wisdom before God. He's all our redemption. Christ
is all. He is our profession, isn't He?
Paul said, I am persuaded That He is able to keep that which
I have committed unto Him against that day. The Lord Jesus Christ
is our profession. We profess Him to be everything. For we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. Our high priest, he was made
in the likeness of sinful flesh. He was born of a woman under
the law. He suffered all the trials and
troubles that you and I suffer in this world and infinitely
more. And then he bore a burden that
we know nothing of when he took upon himself all the sins of
all of his people and suffered the full wrath of God's judgment
for all those sins putting them away once and for all he suffered
hell on the cross we don't know anything about that separation from God We have not a high priest which
cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in
all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." Even in
his temptations, he never knew sin. Never knew it. Until he bore it in his body. until he was charged with and
imputed with the sins of his people and suffered the judgment
of God for that. He knew nothing of the commission
of sin himself. Let us, in light of this, in
light of the fact that though he has ordain difficult things
for us let us come with boldness and that word doesn't mean to
be cocky it means to be confident confident and the Lord Jesus
Christ is our confidence we have no confidence we are the circumcision
which worship God in the spirit and have no confidence in the
flesh we have no confidence in ourselves All of our boldness,
all of our confidence is in knowing that we have an advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ, who himself is the righteous one. And he's saying here that we
can come before the throne of grace. Aren't you glad it's a
throne of grace? It's not a throne of wrath. It's
not a throne of condemnation. It's not a throne of judgment.
It's not a throne of law. It's a throne of free grace. and that's a redundancy I know
but we have to say that don't we because people talk about
grace I don't know what grace means grace is free it's just
free stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you
free don't be entangled again with the yoke bondage don't go
back to the law we're free I love that it's just I'm becoming
more and more sure of how free the gospel is. And I'm more and more convinced
that I can't make it free enough. Just can't make it free enough. That we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in time of need. Now there's a famine in Canaan. Canaan is a picture of heaven.
Canaan is that promised land that God gave to Abraham and
yet Abraham experienced a famine in Canaan. Jacob experienced,
Isaac experienced a famine in Canaan. Jacob now is experiencing
a famine in Canaan. And in all those cases, Genesis
chapter 12, Genesis chapter 26, and now in our text in Genesis
chapter 41, they had to flee Canaan and go to Egypt. You know, there's only one land
of Canaan that is exempt from all famine. And that's the land
that this land represents. It's the heavenly Jerusalem,
isn't it? It's the place where there will be no more tears,
no more crying, no more death, no more sickness, no more sorrow,
no more suffering, no more hunger. All the streets are lined with
trees that bear fruit 12 months out of the year. And the Lord
Jesus Christ is that tree, isn't He? He's the fountain of water
flowing from the throne of God and He's there to provide every
need for His children. What a glorious land that's going
to be. There's no famine there. Not
like there is here. I keep saying Isaiah, I'm so
sorry. Genesis chapter 41 verse 55,
And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried
to Pharaoh for bread, And Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians,
go unto Joseph, and whatever he saith to you, do it. Isn't that what Mary said about
the Lord at the feast at Canaan? Whatever he says to you, do it. Go get the water. Joseph was given everything in
Egypt. And so the Father, God Almighty,
pictured here by Pharaoh, has given to the Lord Jesus Christ
everything in salvation. And if we're suffering famine
for knowing the truth, if God's put a hunger and a thirst for
righteousness in our hearts, that hunger and thirst will be
satisfied only by the Lord Jesus Christ. Only by Him. so we cry
out to God and God says look to Christ and whatever he says
do that this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased you
hear him hear him and the famine verse 56 was all
was over all the face of the earth as it is today all there's
a There's a spiritual famine in America and in other places
of the world. If we could see people's souls
the way our eyes see starving victims of a famine of bread, they would be more grotesque
than a shriveled up body. It would be. That's just what
the souls of men look like. They're just walking dead men,
aren't they? The famine was over all the face
of the earth, and Joseph opened all the storehouses. He had the
keys. He had access to everything that
the people needed. If you read on you'll find that
people came to Joseph and they bought bread from him. And by
the end of the seven years of famine, Joseph owned everything. Everything. He owned all the
gold in Egypt. He owned all the land of Egypt. And he owned all the people of
Egypt. And they gladly gave it to him.
They didn't do it resentfully. They were happy to give up their
gold. You can't eat gold. They were
happy to give up their money for food. And when the money
ran out, they were happy to give him their land. You can't eat
dirt. And when the land was all out, they gave themselves over
to him. And the scripture says they gave
themselves willingly as his bond servants. So by the end of the
seven years, the entire nation of Egypt and all of its people
belonged to Pharaoh. You know, it's not the way it
is. When the Lord says to us, you
go to Christ and whatever he says, do it. You know what he
says? You know what he says? He says, die to yourself, take
up your cross and follow me. He says, everything belongs to
me. Everything you've got belongs to me. And what do we say? Yeah. Yeah, Lord, we're your
willing bond servants. My money's yours. My family's
yours. My property's yours. My life
is yours. It's all yours. Lord, I need
to be fed. I need bread. I need You to sustain my soul. I need You to forgive me of my
sins. I need You to give me eternal life. I need You to make Yourself
known to me. And nothing that I have is worth
that. Joseph opened all the storehouses,
and sold unto the Egyptians, and the famine waxed sore in
the land of Egypt. And all countries came into Egypt
to Joseph for to buy corn, because the famine was so sore in all
the lands." Now the prophecy that the Lord
had given to Joseph was about to come true. We just read of
it in Genesis chapter 45 when Joseph revealed himself to his
brothers but these next three chapters Joseph almost seems
to be toying with his brothers but in fact he's bringing them
to that place where they're prepared to have him reveal himself to
them. Isn't that what the Lord does
to us? He just gently and wisely brings
us to that place where we need to be in order for Him to make
Himself known to us. By the time Joseph made Himself
known to his brothers, they were bowing at His feet. in fulfillment
of that prophecy that the Lord had given Joseph long ago when
his father gave him that coat of many colors. And you remember
his brothers were jealous of him. Your sheaves are going to
bow down to me and the moon and sun bow down to me. It was a picture of Christ all
bowing down to him. but the Lord's going to he's
gonna fulfill all the promises of God are yay and all the promises
of God are amen in Christ they're all fulfilled in him and he's
gonna do everything necessary in order to bring about their
fulfillment now verse 1 of chapter 42 when
Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt. Jacob. Jacob saw something that
nobody else saw. Jacob knew where the bread was.
He knew where the corn was. Jacob was there. There's no picture,
no story of Esau going down to Egypt. There's no evidence that the
Ishmaelites went down to Egypt? Jacob did. Why? Because Jacob
I've loved and Esau I've hated. God showed mercy towards Jacob.
He was revealing things to Jacob that nobody else knew. Jacob
saw something. He saw where the bread of life
was. It's still the case, isn't it? All the Jacobs of this world
They see something that no one else sees. They see the Lord
Jesus Christ. Just as those disciples on the
road to Emmaus, their eyes were opened in the breaking of the
bread and they realized who it was that they had just dined
with. So the Lord, He still does that,
doesn't He? He takes away the scales, He
unstops the ears. He told Nicodemus, Nicodemus,
you can't see the kingdom of God. All of your religious training
and all of your biblical knowledge is going to avail you nothing
unless the Spirit of God comes and breathes life into your heart. You've got to be born again.
You've got to be born from above. You've got to be born by the
Spirit. You've got to be born of God. That which is of the
flesh is just flesh, and the flesh profiteth nothing. But that which is of the Spirit,
now that's something completely different, isn't it? Oh, the
Spirit of God, Lord, give us Your Spirit. Open the eyes of
our understanding. Cause us to be like Jacob, to
see Not only to see, but look at the rest of this. Jacob saw
that there was corn in Egypt and Jacob said to his sons, why
do you look one upon another? Hey, your brother's just as hungry
as you are. He doesn't have any more than
you've got. How's he going to help you? Don't look to a man. Don't look to your right or to
your left. But isn't that what religion's
all about? Religion's all about setting up a hierarchy of clergymen. to dispense their gifts to men. And God says to us, don't look
to your brother. He can't help you. He's in the
same boat you're in. He's just as hungry as you are. He's just as simple as you are.
He's got the same problem you've got. Don't look to your brother. Look at verse 2, and he said,
Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt. He didn't just
see that there was corn in Egypt, he heard there was corn in Egypt.
Now isn't that what the Lord does for us? He gives us ears
to hear and eyes to see. He gives sight to the blind and
hearing ears to the deaf. And He causes us to say, Yes,
Lord. Yes, Lord. He brings us to that
place to where we bow to Joseph. Just bow to Him. 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. And they went with money to buy
the corn, didn't they? What did Joseph do? Joseph put
all their money back in their satchels, didn't he? And they
got back and they realized the money was all there with the
corn, they were afraid. And they came back second time,
Joseph put the money back in the, they didn't pay a dime for
that corn. and when and when finally jacob came up with all
the rest of the of the uh... of the israelites there were
seventy of them the scripture says in all that came down to
egypt seventy four hundred years later there was one half million
of them that left there was just seventy and when they got there
joseph introduced jacob to pharaoh Isn't that what the Lord Jesus
Christ does for us? He introduces us to God. He represents us before
God. And Pharaoh said, for Joseph's
sake, for Joseph's sake, give them everything they need. Give
them everything they need. And Joseph set them up in the
land of Goshen and they prospered and flourished there because
Joseph provided for their every need. There's bread. There's bread
where Joseph is. Look at verse 3. And Joseph's
ten brothers went down to buy corn in Egypt, but Benjamin,
Joseph's brother, Jacob sent not with his brethren, for he
said, Lest, peradventure, mischief befall him." Oh, Jacob's still
afraid, isn't he? He's convinced he's lost Joseph.
Now he's afraid he's going to lose Benjamin. And so he's trying
to protect himself. And all along, God's providing
for him, and he doesn't even know it. He doesn't even know
it. And the sons of Israel came to
buy corn among those that came for the famine that was in the
land of Canaan. And Joseph was the governor over the land, and
he it was that sold to 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 they didn't know him. Aren't you glad that the Lord
knows us before we know Him? He provides for us, He makes
Himself known to us, and He does it all in the midst of a famine. That's where we're at. We live
in a dry and thirsty land. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for Your Word. We ask, Lord, that You would
minister grace to our hearts by Your Spirit and cause us to
reflect, to remember, and to trust Christ as the only one
that's able to feed us with the bread of life, for He Himself
is our bread Lord, we pray that you would enable us now to feast
on him. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. All right, Brother Burt. 176 in the hardback temple, let's
stand together. I love you