Let's be turning to Genesis chapter
42. Genesis 42. The last time we
were here I was covering about four chapters. Four chapters
showing how that the Lord deals with his erring brethren. How the Lord saves his people. But I want to take a little more
time to go through these details more particularly and show you the work of our
Lord. So we're just going to be looking at verses 5 through
20, seeing these four things. We see the need that we have,
and who it is that gives us that need, how he gives us that need.
Then we see the fulfillment of the word of our Lord for us,
to us, then the salvation, which he accomplishes in us and for
us, and then God's revealed grace in us by the new birth. So first, our need. Let's begin
in verse 5. And the sons of Israel came to
buy corn among those that came, for the famine was in the land
of Canaan. Now it was the Lord who brought
about a famine in the land of Canaan where his chosen people
dwelled. He put the famine there, he extended
it to that land, and he did so to turn the heart of his people
for good. He did this on purpose. It's just like we see in Genesis
1 verse 2 where the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the
deep and he moved upon the waters. And the Word of God describes
us. It's a picture of us in Adam
who are, what is it, we're without form, we're void of understanding
and knowledge, we're without form, we're not in the body.
And we're in darkness. We have no understanding of the
true and living God until the Spirit of God moves upon us. And this is a picture of the
Spirit of God moving upon the people in the land of Canaan
to stir them up for good. A famine. I've never suffered
or endured a famine. I don't know, but we do know
it's very trying. It's very painful. A famine makes
a man know his mortal need, that I'm a man. I'm going to die if
I don't get bread. I don't feed, if I don't get
some food in me, I'm going to die. I'm going to expire and
pass away. And so with death as the alternative,
a man is moved. He begins to seek and search
out some remedy for that famine that he feels, that hunger, that
pain. Now the scriptures speak of The
scriptures speak of a spiritual famine. It's not just a carnal
famine of bread and water. The scriptures also describe
a spiritual famine that the Lord speaks of bringing. In Amos 8.11,
for example, he says, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord
God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of
bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the
Lord. The people will not hear the
words of the Lord, and the scriptures speak of the word of the Lord
as bread. The way that bread is necessary
for our life and sustenance, so the word of the Lord is bread
to the inner man. to your soul. It is food for
the inner man, that creation of Christ. And so, well, turn
over to John 6. I want to show you something
there in John 6 where we're to understand this is, we need bread
in the inner man, the new man. And the bread which the Father
gives is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's that strengthening, that
nourishment, that salvation, the one who satisfies hunger
of the needy sinner who feels the famine in their soul. John
6, picking up in verse 30, the Jews had just asked Christ for
a sign. They said, we want to see a sign.
If you're who you say you are, show us a sign. that we may see
and believe. Verse 30, what sign showest thou
then that we may see and believe? What dost thou work? Those are peculiar words for
a peculiar people. We hear those words. What work,
Lord, do you do that we may see and believe? Our fathers did
eat manna in the desert. There was a display of God's
power and providence. As it is written, he, and they
were speaking of Moses, an angel, a mediator of the covenant given
to them. He, Moses, gave them bread from
heaven to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, verily,
verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from
heaven, but my father giveth you, right, right now, giveth
you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which
cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord,
evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am
the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. That famine will come into this
body no more. No more. You have the bread of
heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ, and are made satisfied with him. So first, let me just say on
that, that the sign that our Lord works in His people is spiritual
life, which is given to you, communicated to you, revealed
in you, manifest in you by the giving of the Holy Ghost. That's
the sign. That is the miracle of life. That's the miracle that Christ
works, the giving of the Holy Ghost. It's by the Holy Ghost
that we may see and believe. They ask for a sign, you're given
it. You that believe Christ now see
and believe that He is the Savior. So the giving of the Holy Ghost
to a man is the sign of God that your profession of faith is true. He gives you the Holy Ghost,
and that is the sign that that hope in you is born of God. That God hath done this. That
I see and believe Christ, not because of my works, but because
God has done this. My faith is not of this flesh,
but of His Spirit. You're a new creature in Christ. And then second, regarding this,
in this life which Christ accomplishes in all his people, Jesus Christ
is the remedy for the famine in your soul. If you are hungering
and thirsting for righteousness, if you are running to this thing
and that thing, trying to find some peace, some comfort, some
satisfaction, some quiet, something to quiet forever, the hunger
pangs of famine in your soul, Jesus Christ is it. Jesus Christ
is the remedy for the famine in your soul. In Adam, we're
void of this. We're in darkness. Jesus Christ
is the light of God given unto you, whereby you may know him
and have peace with God. And so when the Lord makes his
people to feel the famine, that we suffer, right, when he moves
upon us, our hearts are stirred, right? And we see this, right?
Many people feel the beginning pangs of this famine, right?
And so a lot of people turn to religion. A lot of people turn
to this word or that word and they run to and fro. Some people
turn to the law. Some people turn to this schism
and to that faction and to that sect over there. Some people
turn to different religions trying to satisfy this famine that they
feel in their soul. But it's not yet known. It's
not yet known whether God has set his mark, giving you his
sign, his testimony, that you are his. There's many people
that start off going to the land of Egypt, because they've heard
there's bread there, that there's corn there, and they head on
down, and many people come short, and they fall in the way, and
they die in the desert on the way through the wilderness, and
they come short of it. But if God is in it, you shall
not come short. You shall be led out of darkness,
out from this schism and that faction and this word and that
word, and brought to Christ to know He is the Savior. He is my righteousness. He is
given by the Father for my salvation. He's all I need. God did that. You that believe Him. You that
have come to Christ. God did that. He's the one who
does that for His people. But when it begins, we don't
know. We're fearful. We're afraid.
I'm dying here. I'm dying here. Lord, teach me. Help me. Show me. Give me life. And so this famine was sent into
the land of Canaan by the hand of God to reveal Joseph to his
brothers, to reconcile them one to another, to him who was sent
by God beforehand to save many people. And not only to reconcile
them, their brother whom they sold into slavery, but to reveal
God's power and glory to save his people to the uttermost. These brethren were going to
learn. just as you today learn that with God nothing is impossible
and he'll flip the whole world upside down. He'll send you from
one end of the earth to the other or he'll send someone else from
one end of the earth to where you are. He's able to do marvelous
things. Things that would never even
enter our mind that God is able to do and they're gonna see What
is this that God has done? We won't see all that today,
but they're gonna know. This is the beginning of it. They're
gonna see, with God, all things are possible. Nothing's impossible
for Him. And so the letter of this word
here, given in Genesis 42, it serves as a spiritual picture
of the hand of our God who sends the famine into our souls. that
we would begin to seek that true bread, that we would be stirred
and moved to know something's wrong. Something's missing. I don't know. I don't understand.
Something's gone off. And he does that, that we would
be reconciled to our brother, the Lord Jesus Christ, who we
despise, who we rejected, and went off in our own rebellion,
but that he does it, that we would be reconciled to him, and
that we might know the sovereign grace and power of God. For whatsoever
things were written aforetime were written for our learning,
that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might
have hope. And so there's no limit to what
God can do for his people, in Christ Jesus. Now reading again
then with that thought let's just read verse 5 and then down
to verse 6. The sons of Israel came to buy
corn among those that came for the famine was in the land of
Canaan and Joseph was 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." Just as our Lord showed us in that word from Isaiah
45 and 46, where we bowed down to him. We're going to bow the
knee and bow down to the Lord. And so this brother, whom these
Joseph, whom these brothers hated, and sold him into slavery. Despised him, rejected him, threw
him out. They've got to come to him to
get bread. They've got to come to him for
salvation and satisfaction for their souls. They've got to bow
down to him and hear him. They're going to him. that he
might be gracious to them and allow them to take of the stores
that he has saved up and stored up for them. So this type with
Joseph's brethren extends to us. There is one to whom we wayfaring
sinners have rejected, have despised, closed our ears to, put our fists
up in his face, so we thought and tried to do what we would,
do our own thing. But now the Lord has stirred
us up, moved upon us, given us a hunger in our soul, and it's
to this one that we must go and ask, Lord, have mercy on me. Lord, be gracious to me. Lord,
don't deal with me as my sins deserve. Please, Lord, open the
storehouses to me and give me that living bread which comes
down from heaven that I may find satisfaction for my hungry soul. So our coming to him now we'll
see is of the wisdom of God. When God leads you, he's going
to bring you low in yourself. You're going to come a humble
sinner. You're going to come humbly to God. Not boasting,
and glorying in self, and gaining an audience, and getting your
way. Not at all. God's going to bring you low
in yourself. And that's pictured in what Joseph
does with his brethren here. And we see in this the work of
our Lord for us. This is a picture testifying
what God does for us. Verse 7 and 8, and Joseph saw
his brethren, and he knew them. He knows them that are his. but
made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly unto them. And he said unto them, Whence
come ye? Where are you guys from? And
they said, From the land of Canaan, to buy food. And Joseph knew
his brethren, but they knew him not. They knew not him. And now,
when I read this, I'm reminded, because we've recently been going
through 1 John, and John tells us God is love. God is love. Yet it is the wisdom of God to
deal with his people in such a way so as to deliver us from
our death. to deliver us from that filth
of pride and arrogance that rebelled against God in the garden. It's
his wisdom to deal with us in such a manner so as to draw his
elect children out of debt, out of the course of this world,
to humble us, to bring us humbly before our God and to seek his
grace. He does it in such a way so that
our pride is humbled, our flesh is stripped and broken and torn
down and made to have no part in salvation. No part in what
we do. And only after we've been abased
of our pride, only after our faces have hit the ground and
we are humbled before our God, that's when he lifts us up and
speaks graciously to us. Right? Right now, Joseph is speaking
roughly to his brethren. They're troubled. They're afraid. They're made to know. We need
what this man has, and we just can't come in there demanding
and getting our way. We've got to go to him, and he's
humbling them. He's bringing them low. Peter tells us, be clothed with
humility, for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the
humble. We're not doing nothing for God.
God's doing everything for us. Humble yourselves, therefore,
under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due
time. And when a proud, ignorant sinner
thinks, oh, I'll show him. I'll show him. You ain't going
to be showing him nothing. He'll show you if he's gracious
to you that you can do nothing, nothing to save yourselves. You're
not going to get your way with God. And if you're his, he's
going to break your heart. He'll break you. He'll bring
you all the way down to depths you never knew you could go to.
You just keep on being yourself and being proud and ignorant,
and he'll show you. He'll show you. I don't recommend
that, but he is able. And so the picture here that
it serves is our first revelation of the Lord here. What do we
see with Israel? They were first brought to Mount
Sinai. God spoke roughly to them. When
the Lord our God made himself strange unto them and spake roughly
to them with thunderings and lightnings and earthquakes and
tremblings, not even Moses cried exceedingly quake in fear. He
was afraid. But what happened, the Lord did
that because the people cried out for a mediator. Don't let
him speak to us directly. We need a mediator, right? And
it's a picture. It's showing us, it's a testimony
to us. We need a mediator between God
and men. whom the Lord would send, right?
It's preparing us to see our need of the Lord Jesus Christ,
so that in the fullness of time, when it pleased God, He sent
forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, right? So that it would become, right?
After it was exceedingly clear that the testimony of Scripture
is Lord, they're all sinners, right? We've been here on this
people for thousands of years, and they're all sinners. Every
one of them. There's not a single one that
is righteous. There's none that seeketh after God. They've all
gone out of the way. Their tongues speak wickedness
and deceit and corruption. All are sinners, right? It shuts
us up by the application of the law. And that's when he sent
forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law, fulfilling
all righteousness, that he would be the just and faithful high
priest for his people, suitable to save those that he came to
save. So God makes us to know our need,
this famine. It may not be a famine physically,
but it'll be something else. That is the moving of God, and
you'll begin to seek him. And if God's in it, And you're
going to hunger and thirst until he brings you to Christ. And
you're going to come humbly. Secondly, God keeps and fulfills
his word to his people. These are like the same points
as I made in the last message, too. Verse 9. Verse 9, it says, and Joseph
remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, referring to
his brothers, right? Bowing down to him. He sees,
wait, I told my brethren this dream. Back in Genesis 37, in
verse 6 and 7, he said to them, here I pray you this dream which
I have 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. They bowed their
faces down to the ground before mine. That's what's happening here.
They come to him and they bow before him. Well, this speaks
to, when I read this thing, and Lord bringing it to pass, this
reveals the election of God for a people that he would send forth
their brother, Joseph, before them into Egypt to save many
people alive. All right, that this is speaking,
because it testifies, this is where it is. They're coming to
him for life. They're coming to him because
they need it. Well, God has done this. He purposed this before
it ever came to pass. God purposed this to save this
people here. And it speaks to that God has
a people chosen that he would redeem out of the world, and
that in the day of his power you'd be made willing, willing. willing to come to him. Not that
these brothers knew or understood what God was doing yet. They
still didn't even know who was speaking to them. as it's unfolding,
but Joseph knew, and he made connection. And you think, what
an encouragement it must have been for him to see God's Word
being fulfilled unto him. And from Joseph's perspective,
not as a type of Christ, but how it had to soften his heart
as he really reflected on this, because he did eventually come
to know God did this. Don't be bitter about this anymore.
Don't be ashamed about this. God did this. He purposed this
to save much people alive, to save you alive and your families
as it is. And so it is. I show you this
because as you reflect on the Word of God and bad things, hard
things, difficult things happen to you, It's of God's hand that
you are given these things for your good, that you may not be
bitter, but have a softened heart about it and be able to thank
him for it and not beat yourselves over it for some decision you
made that was foolish. We all make foolish decisions
and do stupid things. But God is able to overcome those
things. I'm not encouraging you to keep
on doing silly, stupid things, but he teaches us. And in his
word, it's to show us and to soften our heart that we may
be gracious to one another, seeing how that God is gracious to us.
And how he speaks to us, that we may speak to our brethren.
That we may love our brethren the way he loves us. That we
may go and do likewise. And so it says over in Joshua
23, 14, ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not
one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord
your God spake concerning you, all are come to pass unto you
and not one thing hath failed thereof. What a comfort. to know that he who accomplished
this redemption and promises to come again for us, not one
thing has ever failed of the good which our God spake to his
people. Be assured, brethren, and rest and rejoice in that
joy and comfort he gives us. All right, so our Lord makes
us to know our need, and he always brings his word to pass for our
good. Third, we come to the salvation
that he has accomplished for us and works in us, right? We're stirred up and we begin
to come to the Lord. If he's in it now, he brings
us to the salvation of his people to see and behold the salvation
he accomplishes. Now, this is gonna begin, I'm
just telling you right now, it's gonna begin with Joseph questioning
his brethren. And this is part of that rough
speech when they went back to Daddy, and he said, he spoke
roughly to us. This is what the Lord does for
us when he stirs us up. He questions us. He speaks roughly to us. And you can imagine how Joseph
was feeling toward his brother. Because at this point, he doesn't
know how who these guys are like what kind of people they are
because the last the last site he added them at least you know
speaking of joseph here these guys were cruel you can imagine
how when he drew them out of of the pit and he sees ishmaelites
and they're dealing him off to the ishmaelites he was begging
them to not do this thing. And they just shut their hearts
up toward him and were hard toward him. You know, he's wondering,
is Jacob alive? And what about my younger brother
Benjamin? Did they do the same thing to him as they did to me?
Did they hate him and treat him the way they treated me? Joseph
didn't know whether he should be kind to these men or despise
their image. And so he accuses them of being
spies. And that's a crime for which
they could be killed, put to death, either by him just saying,
get out with nothing, and they would just die of famine, or
he could put them to death right then and there. That's the letter
of what's going on. But we see in his questioning,
it reveals the motive of the heart. It reveals the motive
of the heart here. And that's what the Lord does
for his people. He reveals the motive that is
in our heart. whether this seeking Him and
coming to Him is true or no. Let me read it first and then
we'll break that down. In verse 9, Joseph remembered
the dreams which he dreamed of them and said unto them, ye are
spies, to see the nakedness of the land ye are come. And they
said unto him, nay, my lord, but to buy food are thy servants
come. We are all one man's sons. We
are true. They said, we're true. We're
telling you the honest truth here. We're being very straight
with you. We're true. Thy servants are
no spies. And he said unto them, nay, but
to see the nakedness of the land, ye are 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, Ye are spies."
Right? Here's how we're going to settle this. Here's how we're
going to resolve this to know if you're true or not. "'Hereby
ye shall be proved by the life of Pharaoh, ye shall not go forth
hence, or from here, except your youngest brother come hither.'
Now, there's a picture here. This shows how the Lord deals
with us, how he proves the faith which he gives, how he proves
his work in his people. When the spear moves upon us,
we're shaking, we're troubled. The Lord speaks roughly to us,
and we don't know. We're not sure. And he's speaking
roughly to me. And I'm not finding that peace
and comfort. I'm trembling. I'm afraid. I'm
being broken down. And it shows what the Lord does
in revealing the motives of the heart. He does it. He knows the
end from the beginning. But you don't. You don't know
whether the Lord is your savior and will be merciful or gracious
to you or not. And so he sends manifold temptations
and trials, afflictions, difficulties, hardships, oppositions, contrary
winds, right? And they reveal to us a lot about
ourselves. I'm found to be a hypocrite.
I'm shown I'm not perfect. I was making my story to God,
and he showed me, you're a hypocrite. You don't love me. You had designs
to consume these things upon your flesh. Through these difficulties,
I'm reminded of my sinful deeds. Don't they come back into your
mind? And you remember some wicked things you've done, and you're
troubled by them. I'm a real sinner. filthy sinner
with a black heart. I haven't been faithful to the
Lord. I'm weak and troubled and failing
and coming up short constantly. We're reminded, we're tried,
we're weighed, and I'm always found wanting. Always found to
be coming up short of the Lord. And as he presses us through
these trials and difficulties, through these temptations where
we see what we are, he breaks us. We're being broken. And you
can see as he's pressing them, you're spies. You're spies. You're
not true. You're not true. They're saying
more and more. They're confessing more and more
to him. No, no, no, no. We're the sons of one man. No,
no, no. He's back there in Canaan. And you were 12. And there's
a younger brother. And one's no more. We're true. We're true. And we speak more
and more to the Lord, pouring out our heart before him. And
so that's what the Lord does. Why are you come here before
the Lord this day? Are you true? Is your heart true? Why are you here? Do you need
them? Are you hungering? Are you thirsting for righteousness?
Have you come to worship the Lord, or have you just come to
get a little satisfaction that you may go out and consume that
comfort upon your lusts? Once again, why are you here? Why have we come before the Lord? Or are you here because you hunger
and thirst for righteousness? And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the bread of heaven given of the Father to feed your souls,
to feed that life which he's given to you. Because Joseph
is letting us know that it's one thing to say we're true,
but God is going to prove it in you. Not to himself. He knows. He's going to prove that you
are his. And he's going to strip you down of all fleshly comforts. So there's one true mark that
proves the validity of our confession, that hope that we profess to
have in Christ. There is one true mark. And Joseph said it
here in verse 15. Hereby shall ye be proved by
the life of Pharaoh, ye shall not go forth hence except your
youngest brother come hither. The youngest brother. This, brethren,
is a picture of the Spirit's vital work. This old man of flesh, he's the
elder. He's the old man. He came forth
first. The youngest brother is the Spirit
which is given unto you, that life. That's the new man. The old man is this flesh. And
the Lord says, the youngest brother must come. He must come forth.
And the Lord does that. He gives the youngest brother.
He makes his children new creatures, a regeneration, a new birth by
the seed of the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 8, 9 says, but ye are
not in the flesh, right? The believers, you're not in
the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you, if so be that the younger brother has come, the
youngest brother has come. Now, if any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, he's none of his. You're not going forth from
hence, from this bondage, except your youngest brother come, except
the Spirit be given in the new man, born of his grace. Now let's
see this more. Now again, Joseph, Joseph's a
type of Christ, but I don't know that even he knew the gospel
pictures that he begins to declare here to these brethren here.
But it is, right? This letter reveals the spirit
to us here. It says, verse 16, Genesis 42,
16. Send one of you, send one of
you, and let him fetch your brother. And ye shall be kept in prison,
that your words may be proved, whether there be any truth in
you, or else by the life of Pharaoh, surely ye are spies, liars, and
hypocrites. All right, send one. So first, one must go and accomplish
salvation for the whole body. Send one. One must go. One must go and accomplish this
salvation in order that the Holy Ghost be sent unto you, brethren,
to give you life and to set you free. That one who goes for us,
for the whole of the people, is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's
the one. He's the one that goes. And the
way that one saves his people is by his redemption, which is
wrought for us when he died in the room instead of his people
on the tree, making sacrifice to the Father to propitiate his
wrath, which was against us." Right? God's angry. We see that
anger here in Joseph and how Joseph's speaking to the brethren.
You're not going. You're not going to live. You're
not going to leave this bondage except your brother, your youngest
brother come. And the only way he's coming
is one must go. one must go, that he may send
the Holy Ghost back to you. Once that one returned to the
Father, as one brother going back to Jacob, when he returned
to the Father, who came? The youngest brother. The Spirit
is then given. He sent the Holy Ghost. pictured
here in this youngest brother, picturing this new birth, which
is ministered unto us in Christ. And so this word, ye shall be
kept in prison, that your words may be proved, whether there
be any truth in you. There's two gospel pictures in
here that bless my heart. One, if you take this chronologically,
as Joseph's saying these things chronologically, in order here,
It speaks to Israel first being shut up under the law to a schoolmaster
till Christ came and finished the transgression, and then ascending
to the Father sends the Holy Spirit. And then we're free.
Then we hear the liberty of the sons of God and are set free
from that bondage under that yoke of the law. That's how Christ
said it in John 16, verse 7. I tell you the truth. It's expedient
for you. It's good. It's necessary for
me to go for you that I go away. For if I go not away, the comforter,
the youngest brother who makes us true, who reveals this true
work of God in us, will not come unto you. But if I depart, I
will send him unto you. It's a picture there. And then
the other thing is we see, so we see that just in the whole
of the body, right? First among the Jews and then
the Gentiles, right? We see it in the whole of the
body, and then in particular, in each of our hearts. If we
hear this as more of a bouquet of the gospel, right? Pictures
and beauty, beautiful flowers blooming before our eyes of the
gospel. Here it speaks to our remaining in this flesh, in this
prison of this flesh, where we now walk by faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ, staying upon him. who is truth, and our truth,
and he reveals his truth in us, brethren, proved by the outworking
of his grace in us, when he gives us a spear and brings forth that
confession of Christ in us there. Both of these interpretations
are further affirmed as we go through here. Look at verse 17
now. And he put them all together. All right? Whoever that one was
was still with them. He put them all together into
ward. Three days. Three days. A picture
of the body of Christ with their head going to that cross where
we are put to death in Christ that our sins be put away forever. All right? And then that work
being done, verse 18, Joseph said unto them the third day,
this do and live. For I fear God." Right? He comes. He comes. And it speaks to the
witness of our resurrected Lord. on the third day that comes to
his brethren and says, this do, hear me, look to me, I am your
salvation, I am your savior, and I give, the sign I give is
the Holy Spirit. I work among you to reveal this
truth in you, to make you true, to make you to worship God in
spirit and in truth. And so it testifies of his redemption
work and the resurrection from the dead, making us witnesses
of these things which he's accomplished for us. So hear his word. He's the Savior whom the Father
sent to save you from your sins. Apart from him can no flesh live,
can no flesh be saved apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what Joseph's saying here. You hear this. You hear Him,
the Father said, in whom I'm well pleased. I've sent Him,
I'm pleased in Him. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. This is why He was sent. Through
the faith of Christ we live. and the faith whereby we believe
Him, that is the gift of God given unto you, revealed in you,
given by the Spirit of God, manifest in you by the Spirit of God,
showing you what Christ accomplished and did it for you to save you
alive. Now this hope is traced out for
us in verse 19. If ye be true men, Now listen to what he says, right?
Because first he said, one must go, and that one is Christ. And
now he says to us, if ye be true men, let one of your brethren
be bound in the house of your prison. Go ye, carry corn for
the famine of your houses. Now, I want you to turn over
to, save your place here, and turn over to Ephesians 3. And
this speaks of what it means for one to be bound in the prison,
in your prison, to be bound in your prison. Ephesians 3, verse
16 through 19. Paul prays that God would grant
you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened
with might by his spirit in the inner man. that Christ may dwell
in your hearts by faith." All right, as we're here in the prison
of this flesh, what brother is bound for us in this prison? Christ, in this heart. Though
this flesh is yet weak and sinful and putrid and vile and stinks,
yet Christ is bound in the heart of his children. to testify,
to go with you, that you might go free and take this corn, right? Well, let me finish it, that
ye being rooted and grounded in love, right, that he's in
this body with us, that we're redeemed, that we may be able
to comprehend with all saints what is the breath and length,
and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which
passeth knowledge, that bars of iron cannot stop from crossing,
and that word going forth, that ye might be filled with all the
fullness of God. And so with the hope of what
Christ has done for us, binding himself to die for us, and then
dwelling in our hearts, fixed in us, we carry our corn, as
it were. We carry that gospel seed with
us for ourselves, to feed us, and to feed our brethren, to
comfort the people of God, to satisfy the hunger of this famine,
brethren. Now, finally, the fourth thing,
there is a new birth, That must be revealed in us. There's a
new birth and this is critical because without the Holy Ghost
We're not regenerated. We don't know Christ. We're not
known of him. We don't know why he came. We
don't understand what he's doing, what he's accomplished for us.
Not in truth. Not in truth. We're but liars.
We may be religious, but we're religious liars. We're religious
hypocrites without the new birth, without the spirit regenerating
us. But the spirit gives us a new birth. Not of the flesh, it's
that new birth, that second birth. The older brother goes forth
first in the flesh, then the youngest. That work of the Lord
in sending you his Holy Ghost. First cometh that man of flesh,
then the new man born of the Spirit, and this is manifested
in the coming of the younger brother here. Genesis 42, 20. But bring your youngest brother
unto me. So shall your words be verified,
and ye shall not die. And they, the family of God there,
did so. They came in the Spirit. That's
how we come, brethren. It's a spiritual work. That's
the sign that we read of in John 6. That's the sign that Christ
works and that he gives to you, whereby you may see and believe
and live. That's the sign. That's what
he does for his people, testifying that you are his child. And then
the rough speech stops, and he speaks kindly to you, as we'll
see eventually how he embraces them and receives them in grace
there. Listen to this, Galatians 6,
15, and 16, and then we'll close. For Christ Jesus, for in Christ
Jesus, neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision.
You can talk, talk, talk, and say all you want. I do this,
I do that, I did it this way, I think this, and I think that.
None of that matters, but a new creature, don't come here without
the youngest brother, don't even show your faces. You're liars.
without the youngest brother. So shall your words, you come
with the spirit, a new creature, so shall your words be verified
and ye shall not die. And as many as walk according
to this rule, peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel
of God." There's the gospel, brethren. These are gospel tracts
that the Lord is laying down deep tracts for our comfort and
our hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all there. It's all testifying
of him. And that's the word of truth
whereby you testify. God loved me and gave himself
for me. Amen.