I want you to take your Bibles
and turn with me to the book of Ecclesiastes chapter three. Ecclesiastes chapter three. We've been looking at this book
of Ecclesiastes verse by verse, and we're in a chapter, chapter
three, that is speaking of time. time and its relationship to
God's people. Now time is that which brings
God's eternal will and purpose into view. All things with the Lord is eternal. Everything with the Lord is now. But to finite creatures like
us, time is that which the Lord has ordained to methodically
unveil His eternal will and purpose. Now, knowing that everything
that is brought about in time has been ordered by the Lord. Now, whatever happens, whatever
happened. Almighty God providentially ordained
whatever happens. And it's all for His good, our
good and His glory. I say Romans 8, 28 is always
Romans 8, 28. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. Now, today I'd like for us to
look at the first half of the seventh verse, and I want us
to consider this verse as it reveals something of our need
and with the wise dealings of Almighty God with His sheep,
the sheep of His pasture. Living in a world and in time,
as time unfolds, as the Lord unfolds time, we're being taught
of His mercy and His grace toward us, beholding all of these things
around us that are going to be dissolved We ought to be made
to contemplate what manner of persons we ought to be, the scripture
says, in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and
hastening unto the coming of the day of the Lord. So everything
that's happening, the Lord is revealing His will for His people,
but He shows it to them in time. Things that were taught day by
day. First half of the seventh verse
says, there's a time to rend and a time to sow. Now, we all know, but I'm gonna
say it anyway, just like in the book of Proverbs, there's always
a natural, there's a natural meaning to all this. And it's
written naturally so that those that are not the Lord's don't
understand. Why do you speak in parables?
Because it's given unto you to know the mystery of the kingdom
of God, but unto them it's not given. So these scriptures, the
Lord told the Pharisees, he said, you search the scriptures, and
in them you think you have life, because they see some things
in there that they can do. They can act. They can perform. They can think that they keep
them. He said, you think that you have eternal life, because
you read scriptures, and what you read naturally, you think
that you're doing that. And he said, these are they that
speak of me. So I want us to look at this,
and I'm going to just tell you right now, I'm going to tell
you the natural meaning of these words, but if we don't see the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, And we didn't see it. We just,
we saw a natural meaning that any man, woman can understand. There's a time to rend and a
time to sew. Now the word rend there, it actually
means to tear, to tear in pieces. If I could take this paper, I
could tear it. It's to rend, it means to tear. And many times in the scriptures,
we find that this word, rend, is associated with when one actually
tears his clothes, many times in scripture, one tears his clothes,
and they do so in an expression of grief, anxiety, anguish, and
the brothers of Joseph back in the, Hold your place in Ecclesiastes,
turn to Genesis. Now, I'm gonna tell you right
now, we're gonna be in Genesis, pretty much this message right
here. And knowing that we're going
through the book of Genesis, there's gonna be some things
that I'm gonna just touch on today. And Lord willing, as we
go through and come into this latter part of Genesis, we'll
look more deeply. But I wanna make the point of
this message to show the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and
the benefit of his people. I'm going to be in Genesis for
a while. Genesis 37. The brothers of Joseph,
except for Reuben, he had one brother, the brothers of Joseph
were jealous of him because he was Jacob. Jacob was their daddy. And they were jealous of Joseph
because his dad had shown him some favoritism, and he was a
beloved son of his father, Jacob. And Joseph had a couple of dreams,
and he dreamed that in this dream that he was going to be kind
of, you know, exalted, and they were gonna bow down to him, and
they didn't like him, didn't like him because of that. And
they wanted to kill him, wanted to kill him because of their
jealousy of him. And Reuben convinced his brothers
not to kill Joseph, but rather, he said, let's put him in a pit.
And he did, scripture says, and for sake of time, this is found
in Genesis 36, 37. He did it, so he said put him
in a pit because he wanted to come back. Reuben wanted to come
back later and get him out. He didn't want to kill his brother. But before he could get back,
Joseph was sold. Genesis 37, I'll read verses
29 to 34. It said, Reuben returned, Genesis
37, 29, unto the pit, and behold, Joseph was not in the pit. And
he rent his clothes, and he returned unto his brethren. He said, The
child is not, and I, whither shall I go? He's not there. That's where he was supposed
to be. I was going to get him out. And they took Joseph's coat and killed
a kid of the goats and dipped the coat in the blood, and they
sent the coat of many colors, and they brought it to their
father and said, This we have found. Know now whether it be
thy son's coat or no. And he knew it, and he said,
It is my son's coat. An evil beast has devoured him.
is without doubt rent in pieces. And Jacob rent his clothes and
put sackcloth upon his loins and mourned for his son many
days. 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.
And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar and an officer
of Pharaoh's and a captain of the guard. So here's what they
did. They took their brother and they
sold him and they knew that Jacob was his daddy. What are we gonna
tell him? What are we gonna tell him? a kid of the goats will dip his
blood and give it to dad and say, you know, would this happen
to be the coat? We found this. And he said, that's
my son's coat, an evil beast. And that was the cruelest, hardest,
that was the most insensitive thing. These boys, they lied,
they sold their brother and then told their dad, he's dead, he's dead. And let
his dad, they let their dad believe that. The cruelest thing they
could have done. So there's a time to rend. And
normally you'll find in scriptures talking about in grief and anguish,
anxiety, that's what they did. That's what Reuben did, that's
what Jacob did. But then the scripture also says
there's a time to sow. And actually the word means to
sow, to sow together. But again, looking past the natural
usage of physical sowing, We want to look at how does this
sowing tie in or set forth the spiritual meaning, the repairing
or the sowing together when the time of mourning is over, when
the Lord has accomplished His will and purpose in providential
dealings with His people. So there's a time to rend, a
time to tear, you know, and speaking of tearing apart
of clothing, but the scripture speaks of the rending of another
nature. And it's found in the book of
Joel. I'll read this for you. Joel chapter 2, verse 12 and
13, same word here. Therefore also now, saith the
Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart. and with fasting,
and with weeping, and with mourning, and rend your heart, and not
your garment, and turn unto the Lord your God, for he is gracious
and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth
him of the evil. So there's a time to rend, there's
a time to tear, and of grief, and anguish, but the Lord said,
now I want you to rend your heart, not your garments, but your heart. Now, these two truths of rending
and sowing, they were beautifully set forth really out of the very
family that we were talking about just a few moments ago, family
of Jacob and his sons and what had happened. And this son, Joseph,
he was a despised brother. He was hated. He was hated by
his brothers. But this son Joseph, and you
can turn over, I'm going to be back in Genesis 41 for a minute,
he was providentially placed, he was sold into He was sold
into Egypt, where he is, and there were many things that he
went through, and Lord willing, we'll look at all of them. He
said, you know, he's gonna be in Potiphar's wife, and he's
gonna be lied on by Potiphar's wife, and he's gonna get thrown
in prison, but providentially, in time, he was elevated by the
Lord to a position of power, and he was placed in a position
that if somebody in Egypt, he was second in command to Pharaoh,
he was, you know, and he was one that was, if anybody was
hungry, there was a famine in the land, and if anybody was
hungry and they needed to buy corn in Egypt because of that
famine, if you wanted something to eat, you're gonna have to
come to Joseph. And oh, what a beautiful picture
of the gospel. I mean, I could just, I could
stop. I'm gonna read a scripture right here and you'll see just
in a moment out of starting there in Genesis 41, then we'll look
at Genesis 45. But this beautiful picture of
the gospel. But here's what happened. He's elevated now, there's a
famine in the land. And in Genesis 41, I'm gonna
begin reading in verse 55 and then read down through the first
couple of verses of chapter 42. Genesis 41, verse 55, 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 what he saith to you, do. And the famine was over all the
face of the earth. And Joseph opened all the storehouses
and sold unto the Egyptians, and the famine waxed sore in
the land of Egypt. And all countries came unto Egypt
to Joseph for to buy corn, because that the famine was so sore in
all the lands. Now when Jacob saw that there
was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, why do ye look
one unto another? And he said, behold, I have 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, what happens is, all right,
Joseph is hated by his brothers. They lied, they lied to their
dad. treated him with such disrespect,
treated Joseph with such disrespect because of their pride and arrogance
in him. And now the Lord has put Joseph
in Egypt and exalted him to the position, Joseph is a beautiful
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. If somebody was hungry, you gotta
go to Joseph. If you're in need, you go to
Joseph. I mean, you can see the gospel
here. I'm trying, Neil, to just kind of stay on course here.
But everything that was needed, you go see Joseph. Well, here's
Joseph. In the process of time, according
to the will of the Lord, the Lord is pleased to cause the
brothers of Joseph to discover some things. Genesis chapter
45. Now, I've just gotten to the
point now where I'm gonna talk, there's a time to rend and a
time to sow. I said all of these things to
bring it back to that point, back in Ecclesiastes. Here they
are, the brothers of Joseph had made numerous trips and he knows
who they are. He recognizes it, but they don't
recognize him. And he'll come back and he'll,
they'll buy some corn and they'll, you know, Joseph, what he does,
he puts their money back in their bags and then they send them
home. They don't know he puts their
money when they pay for it. They're going on back home. And
so Joseph says, go out there. I think they stole the money. I think go get them. So they
get them and of course Joseph was the one who told them, put
the money back in there. And they get him, they say, look
here, look what you did. You cheated. Now you got to come back to Joseph
again. Joseph kept getting them back, getting them back. And
he was, he was getting, he's going to get his brothers there.
He's going to, and he's being kind to them and he's protecting
them and watching over them. And they don't know it. They
don't even know it. Been so long, they sold him.
They think everything's swept under the rug. The scripture says now, Genesis
45, which is one to three, then Joseph
could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him. Cried,
cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with
him while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. Everybody
else, get out of here. I want me These, my brethren. And he wept aloud. The Egyptians
in the house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph, and here they are,
he said unto his brethren, I'm Joseph. Doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer
him, and they were troubled at his presence. Now Margin said
they were terrified. He told them, I'm your brother. I'm the one that you sold out. I'm the one that you lied about.
I'm the one that you put in the pit, that you treated so disrespectfully. And now here they are, they're
standing before second in command only to Pharaoh. The one that
Pharaoh has said, you need anything, you go see Joseph and whatever
he says, that's what you do. Joseph was a powerful man. And when he revealed himself
to them, the scripture declares they were troubled. They were
terrified. because now they're standing
before one who holds their life in his hand. Now you try to put
yourself in their shoes, and here's the one that has been
hated and despised and rejected, lied about, caused so much grief
to their family, their dad, making him believe that he was dead.
And just as the Lord commanded that one should rend his heart
not his garments, rend his heart. Now surely these men did that
very thing. They were exposed. The rending
of the clothes was nothing compared to the rending of the heart,
the expression of realizing or the understanding of realizing
where they were and before whom they stood. Now they were standing
there in horror They were terrified. They stand before one who is
an authority. Right now, there's the time to
rend. There's a time to rend. When the Spirit of God moved
upon Joel to say, rend your heart, let me tell you something. That's
not something that a man can do. You can put on an outward expression.
You can make it look good. But the rending of a heart is
something that only God could do. And just as they were terrified
at the word of Joseph, when he said, I am Joseph, I am your
brother, your brother. They were terrified now. What's
gonna happen? That's the same reaction that
happened when one of God's own, when Saul of Tarsus, turn over
to Acts 9. Hold your place there in Genesis
45. Acts 9, Acts 9, verse 6. Now here's Saul of Tarsus,
breathing out threatenings. Pharisee, proud, arrogant, just
thinking he's somebody. Acts 9, 3, And as he journeyed,
he came near Damascus. And suddenly there shined round
about him a light from heaven. He fell to the earth. He heard
a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord?
And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. Now that's exactly, this is what
Joseph's brothers did to Joseph. Saul was threatening, threatening
out, you know, come to get those who were of the way, that believed
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's going to get them and bind
them and take them back to prison. Who art thou, Lord? He said,
I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. It's hard for thee to kick against
the pricks. Look at verse 6, and he trembling
and astonished said, Lord, What will thou have me to do? What do you want me to do? He
was trembling. Only the Lord can rend a heart. Only the Lord can rend a heart.
There's a time to rend, and that time to rend is whenever Almighty
God comes in power, and by His Holy Spirit, reveals himself
and makes a vessel of his mercy to know who he is and who you
are, who I am. Well, back in Genesis 45, just
like there's a time to rend, and that time is, again, it's
wrought by the Lord. The Lord, remember, the Lord
said, without me, you can do nothing. Somebody said, rend
your heart, Well, I'll just rend my heart and make myself all
guilty and astonished. No, you won't. No. It's by the
grace of God that God breaks anyone's, tears anyone's heart. Just like there's a time to rend,
there's a time to sow, or to sow together. Together. Back in Genesis 45, I'm going
to pick up in verse 4 here. It says, And Joseph said unto
his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near, and he said,
I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. Now, I want to just think of
what he just said to them. They cast him out. Sold him. We don't have anything
to do with you. We're done with you. Here He is. He loves them. He loved them.
And He says to them, and they're terrified. They're standing there
and thinking, whatever He says, that's what's going to happen.
It's going to happen. And He says, come near to Me. And He says, I pray you. And you look those words up.
And it says, come to Me now. Come to Me. Please. Oh, how sweetly we behold the
glorious gospel and constraining grace of Almighty God. We're
his brethren that hated him. We hated him. The carnal mind
is enmity against God. We were all children of wrath
against him. even as others. And that which
we did, we did willingly. We hated him. We despised him
because of sin. And he has always loved his people. He said, I've always loved you.
Never been a time I didn't love you. And he loved us when we
didn't know who he was. His brethren, they didn't know
who he was. until he revealed himself to them. They just kept
on going back to Guy, the guy over in Egypt, to go back and
tell their daddy Jacob. Well, he said, Benjamin got up,
he said, I'm your brother. I'm the one you sold. Here we
are before the Lord's pleas to rend our heart and to reveal
to us that the sowing back together, coming back together, the sowing
was of Him. He rent the heart and he sows
together. And he ever cared for us because
he loved us, even when we treated him disrespectfully. Joseph calls
him to himself. He said, I'm Joseph, your brother.
Oh, now their hearts are broken. I'm guilty, guilty. How could
I have done that? How could we have treated him
so? And that guilt, and he told him in verse five to seven, he
said, now therefore, be not grieved or angry with yourselves that
you sold me thither, for God did send me before you to preserve
life. And these two years hath the
famine been in the land, and yet there are five in which there
shall neither be earing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to
preserve you a posterity in the earth and to save you, save your
lives by a great deliverance. Don't be grieved, which you say
of. Don't be hurt. Don't be displeased,
pained, tortured. For God sent me. You thought
you did it. You thought you were the one.
What you did, you did because you wanted to do. But all you
did was accomplish the will of Almighty God. And did not the
Father send the Lord Jesus Christ to save the lives of His people? Save our lives by a great deliverance?
Came into this world to seek and to save that which was lost? The Lord said in Matthew 15,
24, I'm not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Let's read the last parts of
this in Genesis 45, verses 8 to 15. So now it was not you that
sent me hither, but God. And he hath made me a father
to Pharaoh and Lord of all his house. Just think of this as
a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. All power has been given unto
the Son, and he should give eternal life to as many as the Father's
given him. That's what it says. Here in type we see, so now it
was not you that sent me hither, but God. He hath made me a father
to Pharaoh, and Lord of all his house, a ruler throughout all
the land of Egypt, haste ye. Go up to my father and say unto
him, thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me Lord in all
Egypt. Come down unto me, tarry not,
and thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen. Thou shalt be near
unto me, thou and thy children, thy children's children, thy
flocks, thy herds, all that thou hast, and there will I nourish
thee, and yet, There are five years of famine, lest you, thy
household, and all that thou hast come to poverty. And behold,
your eyes see, and your eyes of my brother Benjamin, that
it is my mouth that speaketh unto you. Did not the Lord say,
My sheep hear my voice? I know, they follow me. And you
shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt and of all that
you've seen. You shall haste and bring down
my father hither. And he fell upon his brother
Benjamin's neck and wept. And Benjamin wept upon his neck. Moreover, he kissed all his brethren,
wept upon them. And after that, his brethren
talked with him. Oh, oh, the blessed picture of sewn back
together. Reconciliation. Joseph told his
brethren, you go home to our father and let him know. You
tell him I'm here. You tell him I'm here. You tell
him where the Lord has placed me. Do not we preach the Lord
who ever liveth. You go back and you tell my dad.
You go tell him that you're gonna be here with me. Father, I will. that those that you've given
me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. You
go tell my father of my glory here. And it's what we do. We proclaim the glorious victory
wrought by the Lord Jesus Christ. We proclaim his glory, the one
who's promised. He said, you can tell, he said,
you can come back right here and you're gonna be with me. I'm
gonna nourish you, I'm gonna take care of you. You're not gonna want for anything.
I'll take care of you. Don't worry about it. I'll be
here. The scripture declares that Joseph told him in Genesis
50, verse 20, he said, but as for you, you thought evil against
me, but God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this
day to save much people alive. There's a time to rend, and that
rending is by the grace of God, but God breaks a heart. Astonished
him. Brings him to a knowledge, somewhat
of a knowledge of themselves and who he is. Time to rend.
And there's a time to sow. And all the rending and all the
sowing is of the Lord. I pray God bless this to our
hearts. Amen. All right, let's take a break.