Well, if you would, and your
Bible's open with me to Genesis chapter 42. Genesis 42. And as you're turning, let me
one more time express my thanksgiving. Thank you all for hosting this
and for all the work that's gone into this conference, the time
we've had together. I thank you for your fellowship
and your friendship. It means a great, great deal
to me, Janet. And I certainly thank our Lord
that he allowed us to have this time to worship him together.
I will tell you, it's been very refreshing for me. I hope it
has been for you too. Now I titled the message this
morning, From Famine to Abundance. You know the story of Joseph,
the years of famine have come upon all the earth, just like
he told them that it would. And it's over all the earth,
not just in Egypt. Now Joseph's family back home,
they're hungry. They don't have any food. In
our text, what we'll look at this morning, Jacob's family
goes from famine to abundance. And that's not just a heartwarming
story. This is a picture of how God's
elect go from spiritual famine to a spiritual abundance. Abundance
of grace, abundance of mercy, abundance of righteousness, abundance
of everything that there is in our Lord Jesus Christ. But going
from spiritual famine to spiritual abundance, It takes a process. I don't know if that's the right
word or not, but there are just steps that are taken from famine
to abundance. And you can't skip any of these
steps because each one of these steps teaches us to trust in
the Lord. The Lord teaches us these things
so that we will come to Christ, so that we'll be forced to see
we have no option but coming to Christ and resting in him.
So the first thing I want us to look at, this first step,
if you will, in this process. Before God saves us, there's
got to be a spiritual famine. Verse one of Genesis chapter
42. 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'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 the previous
chapter, verse 57, says that, end of the verse, that the famine
was sore in all the land. And that word sore means that
the famine was strong. It had a strong grip on the people. It means that the situation was
made urgent for everyone. That's what that word sore means.
The situation was made urgent And you know, that was a, I mean,
I just think what a distressing situation that had to be for
Jacob to look at his family. The famine is so sore, they're
urgent, they don't have any food. I mean, you think how that made
him feel. But you know, it had to be that
way. It had to be that way. Something has to make the situation
urgent. Something has to make the situation
desperate. or Joseph or Jacob, excuse me,
never would have sent his family to go to Egypt. Something had
to make them desperate enough to go where Joseph is. Now they
didn't know Joseph was there yet, but something had to be
so urgent to drive them to where Joseph is. And you know, so many
people have told me that they spent many years in false religion
And for some reason, unbeknownst to them, they don't know why
it happened or they didn't know at the time, they became dissatisfied
with what they were hearing. They started to realize they're
starving spiritually. They used to be just real happy
where they were, but now they're miserable. And that's an awful
feeling, isn't it? But the Lord had to make them
miserable. or else they never would have
left the comfort of that false refuge. Something had to drive
them out of it. Now, they don't know the Lord
yet. They didn't even know exactly what they were looking for. They
didn't know exactly what they wanted to hear. They just knew
they're miserable. The Lord made them so miserable,
they finally went looking for something else. See, the Lord
sent that misery to draw them to Christ. That was a good thing,
wasn't it? See, we'll only go looking for
salvation when we, salvation in Christ, when we realize we
have no hope in ourselves. Jacob told his sons, why are
we just sitting around here looking at one another? There's no hope
in us. What were you bothering looking
at each other for? There's no hope in us. We've got to go somewhere
we can find some hope. Now that's what the Lord has
to do to you and me. Before we'll ever seek Christ, he's got to
make us see I'm hopeless. I'm hopeless in myself. And to
no point me sitting around looking at you and you looking at me.
We've got to look to Christ. And something's got to make us
desperate enough to look away from ourselves. Can you think of anything people
like to see more than themselves? Like they like to see themselves
in the mirror. They like to see pictures of themselves. Well,
something's got to make us miserable enough to look away from self. I mean, people like to look at
themselves in the mirror, look at themselves in a picture. Well,
we like to look at our righteousness, don't we? We like to look at
all the good things we've done. Something's got to make us miserable
enough to look away from self so that we'll go to Christ. All
right, number two, before God saves his people, he's gonna
make them hear. He's gonna make them hear of
Christ. Now somehow, I don't know, maybe it's travelers passing
through, but somehow Jacob heard there's corn in Egypt. Now that's
a picture of God the Holy Spirit crossing the path of God's elect
with his gospel and making them hear it so that they have life
and they have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody's gonna
come tell this miserable seeking sinner there's forgiveness in
Christ. There's peace in Christ. There's
righteousness in Christ. There's redemption in Christ. And you know what? More than
likely, I mean, some people believe the gospel the first time they
hear it, but that's uncommon. More than likely, we won't believe
it the first time we hear it. Probably because we'll think
it's too good to be true. That just can't be true. That's
not what I've always heard, you know. But if the Lord's gonna
save us, he's going to make us here. And he's gonna make us
here and here and here and here until he's pleased to open our
eyes and give us faith in Christ. You cannot, you just can't know
the Lord apart from the preaching of Christ. Isn't that obvious? How can you trust Christ if you
don't know Him? If we don't hear who Christ is
and what He's accomplished for His people, how could you ever
trust in Him? Somebody's got to come tell us.
We've got to hear of Christ. And you know, the Lord doesn't
use any set form or pattern. All of God's people hear of Christ,
but how the situation that comes that brings them to hear Christ
is as different as many people, you know, as there is. Maybe
you heard of Christ because you were born in a family. The mom
and the dad, they love Christ. They believe the gospel. And
they're going to bring you to the services, and you spend your
whole life long being taught the scriptures. They start you
in the Sunday school roles at three years old. You start just
that little three-year-old. Start learning the scriptures. Now, more than likely, you're
gonna hear a long, long, long time before you hear with the
ear of faith. But the Lord's gonna save you.
He's gonna make you hear of Christ. And I know there's a lot of children
here, there's a lot of people like me who grew up under the
sound of the gospel. Isn't that a blessing? Oh, what
a blessing it is. Bless your hearts. I remember
being a teenager. I know you don't know it yet,
but what a blessing that God has put you in a family that
brings you here every week. That's such a blessing. But you
know, it could be. We hear of Christ after spending
a long time in false religion. We hear something that seems
insignificant from a friend or a coworker or something. And
the Lord uses that small thing, it seems like a small thing to
us, to make us come here of Christ. A man told me recently, he worked
with this fella for years, and he would tell him about the place
that he went to church and would invite him to come hear the gospel.
And they both got old enough, now they're retirement age, and
this man told me, he said, you know, my coworker, he was retiring,
I thought, kind of for a retirement present, you know, I'll throw
him a bone and go to service with him. He said, I came and
I never left. Isn't that something? You know, I tell you, don't ever
quit inviting your loved ones to come hear the gospel. Your
friends and your neighbors, don't ever quit inviting them to come
hear the gospel. You just never know what small
thing the Lord might use to bring one of his elect to hear the
gospel of Christ. It could be a cute boy or a cute
girl. How many of us have come to service
because of a cute boy or cute girl? Years ago, Brother Henry
was baptizing this man, and dear brother, and he said, sometimes
our young ladies are our best missionaries. He came to hear
the gospel because he was dating a cute girl. It could be just
a small thing, who knows? The Lord could move the whole
earth. So that one of his elect will
hear, he moved the whole earth here, didn't he? Man, another
man I was talking to recently told me he grew up in false religion
and just, I mean, he swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. And
the Lord had to send him to war in Afghanistan. God started a
war. So that man could go to Afghanistan
and hear a buddy of his play him a message on Starman Audio
by Greg Elmquist. And this man heard that message
and he said, That's it. He said, you got any more of
those? He said, yeah, I got a few. I got a few. The Lord made that man hear peace
in Christ in the middle of a war zone. You just never know how
God's going to do it, but he's going to do it. He's going to
make his people hear the gospel. They're going to hear of Christ.
And you can't skip that step, can you? How can you believe
on one that you've never heard of, that you don't know? All
right, number three. When God saves his people, he
always draws them to Christ. He's not drawing them to doctrine,
he's not drawing them to the five points of Calvinism, he's
drawing them to Christ. Look what happens here in verse
three. 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 prevent your mischief, before him. Now it
says here the brothers went down to Egypt. Now I know that means
they went south from where they were to go down to Egypt, but
that means a whole lot more than that. This is a picture of a
sinner coming to Christ. And I'm telling you, when God
brings one of his children to Christ, he's gonna bring us down.
I mean, he's gonna bring us down, all the way down. We have got
to get off our high horse and come down. I mean, down into
the dust. We've got to go down so low,
we can't go any lower. We've got to go so low that I
finally see There's no worse sinner than me. There's no worse
sinner than me anywhere. The Lord's got to strip us. He's
got to lay us low. If he doesn't, we'll never be
dependent on Christ to do all the saving for us. If he doesn't
lay us low, I mean to the very bottom of the barrel, we'll think
I can help a little bit. We've got to be made hopeless,
helpless. He's got to bring us low. Now that's miserable, isn't it?
To be brought low like that, that's miserable. To get some
glimpse of how vile and how wretched that we are. To get some glimpse
of how offensive our sin is against the holy God. The God that gives
us life and breath and all the blessings of this life. To get
a glimpse of that. I mean, I heard someone say one
time, God doesn't show us all the depths of heart of pride.
If he did, we'd go crazy. But just a glimpse of it, that
brings us so low. That's miserable, isn't it? Miserable. But you can't skip this step
of being humbled. You can't skip this step of being
brought low because we'll never beg God for mercy until he brings
us low. God to bring us to his feet.
He's got to show us how helpless we really are. That brings me
to my fourth point. Before God saves us, he's going
to make us beg for mercy. Look at 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 to all the people of the
land. So Joseph's brethren came and bowed down themselves before
him with their faces to the earth. Now Joseph's brothers came and
they bowed themselves down, their faces in the dust, just like
Joseph's dreams told them they would. It's been 20 years, been
20 years since Joseph told them about those dreams, but sure
enough, sure enough, it happened just like God said it would.
They came and bowed themselves down. Now that's a picture of
God's providence for his people. This is how God leads his people
to Christ. Now before time began, God the
Father elected a people unto salvation. He chose those people,
he chose to save them out of Adam's fallen race, gave them
to his son to redeem. In the fullness of time, the
son of God came as a man and he redeemed those people. He
redeemed those God's elect, those that God gave him to save. He
redeemed them by the blood of his sacrifice. Now redemption
that was purposed and accomplished, it's all been done by the will,
doing, and purpose of God. The father purposed it, the son
purchased it. Transaction's done. But before
God applies that mercy, that salvation to the heart and gives
mercy to the heart, he's going to make his people beg for mercy.
He's gonna make us beg. And isn't that the way it should
be? That's the way it should be, isn't it? Guilty sinners
ought to beg, shouldn't we? I mean, we don't deserve mercy,
so we should beg for it. It's only right. I mean, the
only proper relationship between you and me and God Almighty is
us at His feet begging for mercy. It's the only proper relationship.
Now, let me say it one more time. I try to say this every time
I preach. I beat this anvil at home every
service, Gary. You know it. Let me tell you
this. You and I are guilty. We're guilty. You know what that means what we
ought to do? Come to Christ. Come to him. Come to him, beg
him for mercy. Come beg him for mercy. Now let's
get this straight. You know, people in false religion
make salvation like a decision. Like, you know, you come ask
God to save you and he will. Like it's something God's got
to do because you asked for salvation. Let's get this straight. God is God and we're creatures
of the dust. God doesn't have to show us mercy.
He doesn't have to. He doesn't have to even if we
beg for it. He doesn't have to show us mercy. If that were true,
God had to show us mercy, because we begged for it. Well, that
would mean our begging was a work that God's pleased with. And so he had to save us. Well,
salvation is not by our work. So God doesn't have to show anybody
mercy. Now, we should beg for it, but
that doesn't mean God has to show us mercy. See what I'm saying?
God doesn't have to show mercy to anybody, but God does have
to show mercy to somebody. He has to, because God's merciful. Just like His character is just,
He must be just. He must be holy. God also must
be merciful. He's gonna be merciful to somebody.
Now, it doesn't have to be me. It doesn't have to be you. That's
why we beg for it. See, that's why we come begging
Him for mercy. Now, this is just the way God
does things. The father has purposed mercy for his people. The son
has purchased mercy for his people. But left to their own devices,
those people will never seek that mercy out. They'll never
come begging God for it. So you know what God does? He
puts it in the heart of his people to beg for mercy, and then he
gives it to them. That's the way God does it. It's
just the way God does practically everything. Whenever the Lord's
getting ready to do something, he puts it in the heart of his
people to pray for it. And then he does it. That's the way he's
pleased to do things. Now, I know this. I know this
from reading this book. God has purposed mercy for his
people, but you can't skip this step of begging for it. I don't
know who first coined the term mercy beggars. That's our whole
life long. That's our whole life long, continually
before Him, being mercy beggars. And the good news of the gospel
is, God gives mercy to everybody that begs for it. Not everybody
that bargains for it. Not, well, Lord, I'll do this
if you do this. He gives mercy to everybody that begs for it.
You'll never find an example in this book of someone coming
begging God for mercy and Him turning them away. Never. And
you're not so special, you'll be first. come to God begging
for mercy. And here's why God's people willingly
beg for mercy. This is the fifth thing. Before
God saves his people, he's gonna expose our guilt. Verse seven,
and Joseph saw his brethren and he knew them, but he 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 he 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're all one man's sons, and we're 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 12 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, you're 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 war
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 and 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 verily guilty concerning our brother, "'in that we saw
the anguish of his soul "'when he besought us, and we would
not hear. "'Therefore is 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 here's how Joseph is going
to expose the guilt of his brothers. He accuses them of being spies.
Now, spies are dishonest people, aren't they? They're not showing
who they are, what they're really trying to accomplish. A spy is
trying to get what doesn't belong to him. A spy is trying to help
himself and help his cause by tricking other people and stealing,
you know, information and things from them. Spies are dishonest
people. We know most people in the world today are religious
spies, aren't they? They're trying to get what doesn't
belong to them, what doesn't rightfully belong to them. They're
trying to trick God into thinking that they're righteous enough
and they're good enough to be accepted of Him. Most religious
people are spies in this sense too. They're trying to get things,
things from God, spiritual things from God in an unjust way. They're
trying to get salvation by their works. They're trying to make
the eternal God obligated to save them. because they did something
for him. They went through some religious
ceremony. Maybe they walked an aisle, or they prayed through
it, or they were baptized, or they changed their lives into
something more moral than it used to be. And when they do
that, they're completely ignoring the law of God. They're completely
ignoring that the law requires perfection in everything. Now they know they can't do that,
so what they're trying to do is make salvation dependent on
the works of their own religious code. You know, they try to take
God's law and grade on the curve, you know, lower it down to something
maybe I can do. They try to take salvation. They try to take it instead of
receiving it from God's hand, by God's grace. Now that's so
unjust. That's so unjust to try to take
salvation that you haven't earned, it doesn't belong to you. But
that's exactly what a spy will do. Spies are sneaky people. They're just trying to sneak
around God. That's exactly what they're doing. What Joseph's
brother says, no, we're not spies. No, we're true men. We're honest
men. Well, true men are honest. They're
honest with God. And they're honest with themselves,
too. They don't try to take credit for something that they didn't
do. True men don't try to take salvation. True men don't try
to be sneaky and sneak their way around God. True men are
out in the open. We're being transparent about
this thing. True men beg for mercy. See, I'm true, honest
with myself. I'm a sinner. I can't do anything
for myself. I need God to do everything for
me. That's why I beg for mercy. True men receive mercy from God's
hand on God's terms. They're not trying to take it
and be sneaky. Well, see, Joseph has accused him of being spies,
and he's leading them up this point. They have no idea what's
coming. He's leading them up this point
to expose their guilt. He says, well, if you're true
men, let's see this younger brother and this father of yours. I mean,
they didn't know what hit them, did they? And when he said that,
then they remembered Joseph. Joseph is the one that they said
is not. Now, you'll notice they didn't
say, we've got a brother who is not because we tried to kill
him and we sold him into slavery, probably died in slavery somewhere.
They didn't say that, but they remembered it. They remembered
what they did to their brother. And they're talking amongst themselves.
Joseph, he understands them, but they don't know it. And they're
talking amongst themselves saying, Boys were guilty. God's waited
20 years, but he's finally given us what we deserve, because what
we did to our little brothers. We deserve to be in jail. Look
what we did to our brother. We deserve to never go home again.
We deserve to be put to death. You see the picture? If God's
going to save us, he's going to make us beg for mercy, because
he's going to make us realize I'm guilty. I'm guilty. I'm the sinner. And I tell you,
if God ever shows me my guilt, if he ever shows me what I deserve
because of my sin, I'm gonna honestly beg him for mercy. God
saves true men, true women, who can honestly say, if God damns
me, he's given me exactly what I deserve. Now, I deserve for
God to cast me into hell. but I'm gonna beg for mercy anyway.
Until he does it, I'm gonna beg for mercy. Now I've already told
you, you come to Christ. You come to Christ right now,
right where you sit. You come to Christ in your heart,
believing it, trusting him, begging, you come to Christ. Do you want me to give you something
real encouraging for mercy beggars? Look at verse 23. 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 bound him before their eyes. Now Joseph saw his brothers,
and he remembered them. Joseph's had a tough 20 years.
He's had a tough 20 years. And he remembered the last time
he saw his brothers. They treated him with just open hatred. They made no effort to hide their
hatred of him whatsoever. They hated him so much, Moses
said they couldn't even speak peaceably to him. Oh, they hated
him. I mean, how they treated him
with such hard-hearted hatred. They stripped him of his coat
and threw him in a pit where there wasn't any water. And when
he was begging for water, they ignored him. There's their little
brother. The little brother is supposed
to be the one the big brother's protecting, isn't it? They threw
him in a pit, and he's begging for water. You know what they
did? They sat down to eat lunch. Just ignored him. Just ignored
his cries for help. And then, they're so cold-hearted,
they sold him into slavery, into ISIS. Bunch of camels going through,
and it's ISIS. That's who they are. They sold
him to slavery, to ISIS. How hard-hearted do you have to be?
And then they killed a kid of the flock and dipped the brother's
coat in and went back and told their father, an animal must
have killed your favorite son. And Joseph's so brokenhearted
and they're all there just trying to comfort him, acting like they
care about his miseries. They caused it. I mean, how hard-hearted,
how cold-hearted, how dead do you have to be? And Joseph spent
time as a slave. He spent time in prison. He spent
time with the shackles hurting his hands and his feet. And after
all of that, what they did to Joseph. If you were Joseph, what would
you do? I'm afraid I know what I'd do.
You know what Joseph did? He is so moved with love for
his brothers, he turned around and cried. He cried at their
anguish. That's a picture of Christ our
Savior. This is what God says about himself. I delight to show
mercy to sinners. I delight to do it. He said,
I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Now God will be
just. He'll damn the wicked, but his
justice will never be satisfied in that. He has no pleasure in
the death of the wicked, but he has pleasure in showing mercy
to sinners. After all of our sin, after all
of our rebellion, I thought about in my case, as I grew up hearing
the gospel, after all those years I spent refusing to believe it, that a sinner in his rebellion
would beg God for mercy and would move his heart with compassion. If that doesn't motivate you
to want to come to Christ, if that doesn't just break your
heart and just want you to fall at His feet, I don't know what
will. I honestly don't. Well, here's the last thing.
When God saves His people, He releases them from prison freely. Verse 25. And 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
did he unto them. And they laid their asses with
corn and departed thence. And as one of them opened his
sack to give his ass provident during the end, he espied his
money, for behold, it was in his sack's mouth. And he said
unto his brother, my money is restored, and lo, it's even in
my sack. and their heart failed them,
and they were afraid, saying, 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. We said
unto him, we are true men, we're no spies. We be 12 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 you're true men. Leave one of your brethren here
with me and take food for the famine of your households and
be gone. And bring your youngest brother unto me. Then shall I
know that you're no spies, but that you're true men. So I deliver
you your brother, and you 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 his sack. And when both they and their
father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid. Now Joseph
gave his brothers their money back. He's doing this as a picture
of salvation. Salvation is by grace alone. Grace and grace alone. The Lord's
not gonna take any money from a sinner in exchange for salvation. The Lord's not gonna trade salvation
and mercy and grace. He's not gonna trade what his
darling son purchased in his dying agony for our filthy works. He's not gonna trade that. God gives salvation free to a
sinner. It's free. Now salvation is free
to you and me. You know why? Because the Lord
Jesus Christ paid the price. He paid the price in full so
that his people could have it freely. It cost him. He had to sacrifice himself all
that he is, body and soul, to redeem his people, to pay the
price. Now the price is paid. So God justly gives salvation
to his people freely. Because the substitute paid it
for us. And salvation is given to sinners because God commands
it. Joseph commanded their sacks
be filled with corn. He commanded the money be put
back in. He commanded they have all this corn freely. Isn't that comforting to know?
The sovereignty of God is not something that distinguishes
us from false religion and we want to just beat the drum and
say, you know, look at us, we know God's sovereign and everything.
The sovereignty of God is the comfort of the hearts of God's
people. If God Almighty has commanded
your salvation, you're gonna have it. You're gonna have it. The brothers have as much corn
as they can possibly carry. Plus, they got their money, too.
Now, they don't understand what all this means just yet, do they?
They don't understand. They're afraid. They say, what
has God done to us? We're afraid of this. They don't
understand what all this means yet. But here's what they know. This is all I know so far. I'm
laying down with corn, and I have it for free. I know that. You
know, you and I don't fully understand what Christ has done for us just
yet, do we? We know some things, God's been pleased to reveal.
I know this, I know my sin's forgiven. I know it's because
of the blood of Christ. I know it's been given, freed,
I know that. We don't know everything there is to know yet, do we?
But you know what? God's people, he saves them,
he calls them to his son, he sets them under a pastor so that
they'll grow in grace and the knowledge of Christ. He's going
to teach his people. The Lord's going to teach them.
And you know how he teaches them? By what your pastor does every
Sunday and every Wednesday. Opening the word and teaching
the word. Teaching us the scriptures. Teaching
us Christ. And that's what Jacob and his
sons, that's what they're gonna do. You know the rest of the
story. That's what they're gonna do in the coming chapters, aren't
they? They're gonna grow in some knowledge. They're gonna find
out who Joseph is. They're gonna be brought to him.
They're gonna be given the land of Goshen. But it all started
with the misery of famine, didn't it? Don't ever forget that. It all started with the misery
of the famine. And they're gonna grow in knowledge.
They're gonna grow in grace. And that's what I pray the Lord
is pleased to do for you and me. Wednesday night at Hurricane
Road, Wednesday night here, that's my prayer. Lord, open up his
word to us and teach us. Teach us Christ so we grow in
grace and the knowledge of him. Well, let me thank you one more
time. It has been just an honor and a privilege, and it has really
been refreshing to me to worship together with you. I pray the
Lord bless His word. Do you.