All right, brother, let's turn
to Genesis 50. Genesis 50. I wanted to let y'all know that
Brother Colin had sent his warm regards down from Australia.
I was chatting with him this week, and the brethren there,
they pray for us often, and I'm thankful for that. And I talked
to Brother Andre, too, and he's doing well. And hopefully, here
in a few weeks, he may be with us couple services. They'll be
doing some work down here and I'm I look forward to seeing
just I'm sure you are too. Genesis 50 We see the story of Joseph coming
to a close as we see this book coming to a close. We remember
Joseph was the preferred brother. He was the preferred son of his
father, his father Jacob, and there was some suffering for
that. His brothers were mean to him to the point that they
wouldn't have him reign over them and have him reign over
their father and their mother. And so they sold him off and
faked his death and it was a terrible thing. Be forsaken by your family,
be thrown into a pit and then sold into slavery. Well, he went
on and did well, and then he was in Potiphar's house, and
he was wrongly accused, falsely accused of a crime, and was cast
into jail, and that would have been hard. And he had interpreted
some dreams, the baker there, and why he was in there, and
ended up, he was the number two man in all of Egypt. He had a
new name, he had a new language, he had a new place of living,
a new culture and way of doing things, and he was fine with
it. He was fine with it. When a famine
came, he'd interpret that dream about the famine. We'll have
seven thick years and seven thin years. Seven years of good, of
plenty, seven hard years. That's what's gonna happen. How
many people got mad at him? Why not eight years? I don't
think you're right. He said, well, you don't matter
what I think. No matter what you think, if I think I'm right,
that's what's gonna happen. And so time came, famine came.
He put up in the storehouses And his brothers and his father
and his family that had rejected him and cast him away, they got
to where they was wanting corn. No, that ain't the word. They
needed corn. And there was corn in Egypt.
And if you was gonna eat, if you were going to be alive in
a foreign land with a foreign language, with a foreign name,
foreign culture, you gonna have to deal with Joseph. And so Joseph
spoke to his brothers, and he spoke harshly to them, didn't
he? Didn't he talk mean to them? That was in loving kindness,
wasn't it? He knew what needed to happen.
They couldn't just go in. Then the excuses would have come.
They'd have excused everything. and blame it on somebody else
instead of taking ownership and them being the one that was at
fault. But he let this go on and he went through this process
a couple times of sending them back to their father. And then
he revealed himself. He was good to them the whole
time. Good to them the whole time. And he revealed himself
to his brethren. And they said, I'm your brother.
I'm not your enemy. I'm not your executioner. I'm
not your judge. I'm not here to condemn you or
hurt you or harm you in any way. I'm not here to do something
bad to you, I'm here to do something good for you. I'm your brother. What's that? Fear not. Fear not. And they said, you go get daddy,
I'll send some wagons down there, all the provisions provided,
and you go tell him what I said, I'll give you the message and
the means. You bring Jacob home. You bring him here where I am.
And I'm gonna put y'all down in Goshen, and it's gonna be
wonderful. Pharaoh just so delighted that
all this is going to happen and you're gonna be in the land of
playing with 17 years pass 17 years that's a long time in 17
years pass and Jacob dies Jacob dies and those brothers didn't
go those sons of Jacob Didn't go to Joseph and say That was
a beautiful service, wasn't it? Do you remember them gospel messages
that was preached there? It was precious. I forgot I was
even at a funeral. Didn't you? I was halfway through
that message. I didn't know I was in a funeral.
They didn't rejoice with him. They were scared to death. They
were scared to death. And they wanted to hear from
Joseph one more time. And you know, we hear from the
Lord, fear not, and he speaks peace in our hearts. He, I can't. People want me to, and it might
happen, might not. If the Lord's the only one who
can speak comfort, he may use me, I hope he does. But he speaks
comfort in the heart of his child for the first time, and then
he's gonna do it again, and then he's gonna do it again, and as
long as we're in this body of death, it's gonna have to keep
happening. If we're up on a step like they
are on a boat, if we're up on a good plane, and we don't have
no fears, and everything's fine all day, every day, there's problems.
There's an ocean below us and we don't know it. There's problems. And these brethren had to go
through this. And this is not just reconciliation after a funeral. This ain't how to have good family
government. Again, this is how the Lord saves sinners. And this
is their experience, and this was my experience, and this has
been some of y'all's experience, and it's gonna be somebody else's
experience. And this is precious. Look here, Genesis 50, verse
15. And when Joseph's brethren saw
that her father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure
hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did
unto him. And they sent a messenger unto
Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died saying,
So shall you say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the
trespass of thy brethren and their sin, for they did unto
thee evil. And now we pray thee, forgive
the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And
Joseph wept when they spake unto him. And his brethren also went
and fell down before his face, and they said, Behold, we be
thy servants. Joseph said unto them, Fear not,
for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil
against me, but God meant it unto good to bring to pass, as
it is this day, to save much people alive. Now therefore,
fear ye not, I will nourish you and your little ones, and he
comforted them and spake kindly unto them." That's a unique way
of wording things, isn't it? Especially after a funeral, after
17 years of peace and joy, and the crops coming in, and we're
going to church services together. He says in verse 15, Joseph's
brethren, when they saw their father was dead, they said, Joseph
will perventure hate us. He's going to hate us. And will
certainly require us all the evil which we did unto him. Like
everything's been fine because daddy was there, but now that
daddy's gone, he's going to hate us and he's going to requite
us of that evil that we did unto him. Hate us. He's going to hate
us. Remember Joseph is a picture
of Christ our Lord. that we've been looking at over
and over, every facet of that diamond, right? He is here too. And would it be right for Joseph
to hate his brethren? He's been put through a lot.
His brethren was mean to him and evil to him and did a whole
lot of bad stuff to him. Would it be right for him to hate them?
Is it right for the Lord to hate somebody? He does. People, with God's love, how
could you say that his word says he hates people? It says in Psalm
45, thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness. Therefore,
because of that, God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil
of gladness above thy fellows. Because you loved righteousness,
because you hated wickedness, God's gonna honor you. That's
what he said to the son. How can hate be good? Would you
talk not to use that word when he was a little kid? Hate's a
strong word. Don't say hate. Don't use that
language. I was taught that. And I hate all kinds of stuff. I hate peppers. I say it all the time. We don't
learn good, do we? But how can hate be good? The
Lord says in Psalm 139, I hate them with perfect hatred. I count
them my enemies. That's how. He has perfect hatred. We have self-serving hatred. He has perfect hatred. With that
perfect hatred. That's what we read there in
Romans 9. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I
hated. The Lord loved righteousness,
he hates wickedness. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid. That's us being judges,
right? He's the judge. And if he loves
something, it's worthy of his love. And if he hates it, it's
worthy of his hate. Because it's a perfect hatred
and it's a perfect love. Is there unrighteousness with God? God
forbid. For he saith to Moses, I'll have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom I'll have compassion.
The electing love of the Lord is hated by natural man, by so
many people. What ought to shock us is that
he will have mercy. If we know what we are, if we
know we're guilty, he's going to have compassion. That's amazing. Why would he design it that way?
So it's not of him that willeth, nor him that runneth, but of
God that showeth mercy. Well, he don't deserve mercy. That's the point. It's not deserved. You deserve death. You're not
getting something you do deserve. That's mercy, and he gets all
the glory for that. That's perfect hatred. I say
amen. I may not understand it, but
that's right. If he's pleased to teach me later,
he'll teach me later. It does not mean that God loves
less. I've heard that a lot. I say,
well, the translation there ought to be, well, it's translated
the way it's translated and we ought to read it as it lays.
But I've heard man say, well, he loved Esau less. That's not
so. That's not so. The scriptures say the Lord loves
righteousness and he hates wickedness. That's one or the other. We're
either saved from our sins and have eternal life in him or you
don't. You're gonna perish and die in your sins and have eternal
damnation. Either a man preaches the gospel or he doesn't preach
the gospel. Either somebody's faithful or
they're unfaithful. You either pay your taxes or
you don't pay your taxes. It's one or the other. He does not love less. Remember,
look back at Genesis 29 real quick. Genesis 29 verse 30. And he went in also unto Rachel,
and speaking of Jacob, he went also to Rachel, and he loved
also Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other
years. Remember how Jacob went down,
he wanted Rachel, and so he served seven years, and he woke up next
to Leah, and he said, well, I want Rachel, so we gotta serve another
seven years. And because he loved Rachel more, this is Jacob's
wording, right? So what's that mean? He loved Leah less. He
loved Rachel more, and he loved Leah, but he just didn't love
Leah as much as he loved Rachel. That's how we think. Look at
verse 31. When the Lord saw that Leah was
hated, because her womb was dried up, he opened her womb, but Rachel
was bare. Jacob said, well, I love her,
and I don't love her quite as much. And God said, Leah's hated.
It's one or the other. It's one or the other. The problem
that natural man has with election is not that Jacob was loved,
but it was that Esau was hated. We've heard that a lot, ain't
we? Have you ever met Esau? Does anybody walk in this earth?
Like, oh, yeah, me and Esau went to high school together. We played
on the wrestling team together. Nobody knows Esau. They don't
care about Esau. Why do they have a rub with that?
Because they think they're good. If God could hate Esau, that
means he could hate me, and I'm good. I'm righteous. I'm not all bad.
I may not be perfect. God saves perfect sinners. T-totals. That's like them lepers. Whenever
they were pronounced clean, they had to be completely covered
in leprosy. Like, well, I'm a leper, but
you know, this elbow's doing okay. Well, you ain't clean yet. Get
out of here. You still holding on to something that's yours. There's a new creation born of
God. There's an old man that can't
believe that God would hate Esau. And there's a new creation that
knows its sins, had sin revealed to it, and it's amazed that Jacob
could be loved. That's amazing. We all deserve
death. God's right to kill everybody and send us all away and do whatever
he wants to after that, start a new worth or whatever he feels
like. He's right to do that. I can't
believe he would save Jacob. I can't believe he'd save me.
That's amazing. It's amazing, isn't it? Look
here, Genesis 50 verse 15. And when Joseph's brethren saw
their father was dead, they said unto Joseph, they said, Joseph
will perventure hate us and will certainly requite us all the
evil which we did unto him. What's requite mean? That means
to make appropriate return for either doing right or doing wrong.
That's another way of saying justice. Justice is going to
be carried out. We've done him wrong, and we've
got coming to us what we've got coming to us. And this is going
to take place. Mankind ain't really scared of
judgment, because that's down the road. That's in the future. That ain't come yet. We ain't
got to worry about that yet. But it's in us. That's why they're
afraid to die. They might push it to the back of their minds,
and they don't want to think about it, and they don't want to see
it. But everybody, you see ambulances go up down this road all the
time, don't you? Why, get him to the hospital quick. Oh, I
can't die. Mankind knows when it's hard. And they said, they'll
hate us and he'll requite us. And that's because the father's
dead. They had somebody as a go-between. That he'll sort about, he'll
keep him from killing me, right? They had a go-between. I had
experienced that. Jacob's dead and they don't have
a covering anymore. That's what it was. We have no
covering of our own. He's gonna hate us, and if he
judges us and kills us, he's doing right. That's justice.
I worked for a man that was really high up in the Army, and I never
did anything wrong to where I'd have to call in a favor. You
know what I mean? Like, hey, I'm in trouble, can you help
me? I hadn't done anything, but in the back of my head, that
was my get-out-of-jail-free card, you know? And I knew the boss. Well, then the boss moved and
took over another part of the world, and I was Didn't have
that no more. And all of a sudden, I was like,
uh oh. Like I hadn't done anything to get in trouble, but I had
a guilty conscience. I thought, I don't have an out.
I have no, there's no backups. There's no backups. There's no
golden parachute. I'm just uncovered and naked. And it'd be right to be hated
and to be judged, wouldn't it? That's what these brethren were
coming. They knew that. They knew it.
They didn't think it, they knew it. It was in their hearts. And
so I was thinking, would God be right? Would he be just to
hate me for the evil that I did against him and him only? They did evil. They did evil. And you know, only an evil person
can do evil. Only a thief will steal, right?
Stealing don't make you a thief. You use a thief and then you
stole something. They had a heart problem. And
these brothers of Joseph, these sons of Jacob, believed themselves
to be evil and to be worthy of justice. It's right. It's right. So what'd they do? Verse 16 says they sent a messenger
unto Joseph. Did they say, I'll go up there
and I'll sort this out all by myself? No, I need an advocate.
I need somebody to speak on my behalf. I can't even go in his
presence. They sent a messenger unto Joseph saying, thy father
did command before he died saying, we'll tell you what Jacob said. For 17 years they've been with
Joseph, 17 years. And they're so afraid of justice
because of their sin, because of their evil, because of what
they are, they had to have a mediator. They had to have an intercessor.
They were naked, they were guilty, and they needed a mediator. That's
a work of God. That's having ears to hear and
eyes to see and hearts to understand. We're in trouble. We come in
this world thinking everything's fine. Well, it's all gonna work
out. We'll be okay. This is heart trouble. This is
heart trouble. Verse 16, And they sent a messenger
unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,
So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the
trespass of thy brethren and their sin, for they did unto
thee evil. And now we pray thee, forgive
the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And
Joseph wept when they spake unto him. You look at that confession.
What's the first thing that's there? Begging for mercy. Forgive. Forgive. Well, there has to be
something to be forgiven, right? That's what we need. Forgive. Forgive what? The trespass of
thy brethren and their sin. Both of those are singular. Both
of those are singular. This ain't, well, I've done a
bunch of bad stuff. Oh, there's one problem. There's one problem. What they did unto them, it says
they did unto thee evil, singular, and new. Now we pray thee, forgive
the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. We're
children of God, forgive us. Forgive, we sinned against him.
Remember, this is a picture of Christ and Joseph, isn't it?
Look here in Psalm 51. Psalm 51. When David had sinned, he thought
everything was okay, and sin was revealed to him. He penned this, Psalm 51, verse
one. in thy sight, that thou mightest
be justified when thou speakest, and clear when thou judgest."
David had been convicted of this, and he said, what I've done was
wrong, and I am wrong. And what I've done is sin against
you. That's what that prodigal son
came home saying, wasn't it? He had his whole thing rehearsed.
He was going to tell his father, but he didn't say, Daddy, I did
you wrong. He said, I've sinned in the sight
of God, and you watched it. I've sinned against God. I said,
what is that sin? What's that sin? We don't believe
him. We don't love him, that goes hand in hand. He said he'll
send the Holy Spirit and the first thing it's gonna do is
convict of sin because they believe not on me. They didn't believe
on me, they didn't believe what I told them, and they didn't
love me. They didn't adore me. That's
a sin. Part of the law, Paul said, you
hear the law? It ain't just if you could do
it, but you have to agree with it and say this is good. That's
a law, agree with the law. If we believe Christ, do we love
him? If we believe on him and in him and through him, of course
we do. Of course we do. And the Lord said, that's the
problem. That's the problem, that's a sin. And that's what
his people cry out. I grew up in church. I grew up
in a faithful gospel church, one of the best preachers this
country's ever seen. But I was doing it all for me. And I hated
God and I was at war with him. And I didn't believe him. And
then he saved me one day. He showed that to me. And that's
what I cried out. I was wrong. I was in it for
number one. And he broke me. He broke me.
Not that, well, I decided that Henry wasn't preaching just as
good. And so I found this guy over here. I agree with him a
little bit more. No, God broke me and he saved
me. He gave me life. Into verse 17,
back in our text. It says, And Joseph wept when
they spake unto him. They sent this messenger. Joseph
cried and you know, I was thinking as a man Joseph had his had to have his
feelings hurt I Had to hurt his feelings just as just as one
brother to another brother one human to another human It had
to hurt for 17 years. I didn't chop your heads off.
I didn't do anything wrong you I Reveal myself to you. I took care of you. I gave you
the best land that there was here and For this whole time,
I had 17 years of chances to do something to you if I was
going to. And you think now I'm just gonna cut your heads off
and cast you away? I've experienced that. Someone I'd known their
whole life, Kevin, well he's afraid he's gonna sue them people. Have you known me? What in the
world would ever make you think that I'd do something like that?
That hurt my feelings. That's a sad thing. And then I thought,
this isn't just man here. This isn't just picturing that
one person's wounded by another person. I can't believe you'd
think I'd do something like that. Why would I do that? That's not
one person to another. I thought of the Lord. When I
doubt Him, when I forget His promises, and
when I'm unfaithful, and has He ever done anything wrong by
me? I'm his, he bought me with the price. And there's some trials
I went through, some pain I went through, and it was hard, and
it wasn't fun. But was it wrong? No. No, it
was good. Has he ever done anything against
his word? Has he said one thing and done
another? Has he failed to ever do anything that he said he was
going to do? Well, that's where we got the New Testament. Old
Testaments, Christ is coming. The Gospels are, He's here. And
all the epistles are, He's coming again. How quick I am to forget
that. Turn over Numbers 23. This is
really precious. Numbers 23. Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers. Went to Deuteronomy, went too
far. Kierma was teaching the children.
books of the Bible when they was young and Josiah was too
young to really be in school and I think he's three but he's
he was there didn't have nowhere else to be so he learned his
colors and his letters earlier most people did he ain't here
I can take on him and uh Cameron's going through the big three teaching
him books of Bible and his reciting it back and Josiah didn't have
a turn, so he kind of stuck his hand up, and Kiram said, well,
go, son. He said it was Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and
Mitt Romney. He said it was on elections at
the time. It's close. Close, buddy. It's good to teach
them. Pray God teach them these things.
God's never failed to do anything good for me. He's never failed
to keep his word, and he's never failed to follow through in anything
he's promised. Look here at Numbers 23, verse 19. God is not a man
that he should lie. neither the son of man, that
he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not
do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall
he not make good? Behold, I have received commandment
to bless, and he hath blessed, and I cannot
reverse it." I've received that commandment to bless people with
the hearing of the gospel. And if he blesses, if he takes
that message and he comforts somebody or he saves somebody
or whatever he does, rebukes somebody, that's a blessing for
him to do that. If he's blessed it, I can't reverse
it. But that's good news to me right
next to it. That gives me comfort. I can't
mess it up. I can't undo it. I can't undo
it. You can't undo it neither. That's what's blessing too. He
hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness
in Israel. But we're guilty. I don't see
it. I'm seeing it's been removed as far as the east is from the
west. Because he bore it. He bore it. He's put it away.
It's dealt with. Is it ever before us? Yes. Do
I know what I am? Yes. But that only makes me turn
to him. If I'm just wallowing in sin,
I might as well wallow in anything else. Mud or riches or something. Ain't gonna do no good. That's
what Jacob, or Job, he tore his clothes off and he was just screaming
and crying out, but he cried to God and he worshiped. There
was something with that. It wasn't just wallowing in sin.
He called to God. He called to God. Back to Genesis
50. Lord wept for us too, didn't
he? What a thought. Genesis 50 verse 18. And his
brethren also went and fell down before his face. And they said,
behold, we be thy servants. We be thy servants. If the Lord
conquers a sinner. And gives them makes them a new
creation and gives them sonship. We're a child of God. If we are
saved by the king, we serve the king. all there is to it. If we're saved by the king, we
are that unprofitable servant. My brother Gabe preached on that
recently. The five talents, the two talents, and the one with
one talent, the one with one that buried it. He said, you're
an austere man. You reap where you don't sow. And we always
think, well, I might be the five talents. I've done a whole bunch
for the Lord and for the gospel sake, ain't I? But if I ain't
the five talents, I'm at least the two talents. That's at least
me, right? No, we're all the unprofitable servant. He's the
profitable servant. He is, he is. But if we've been
saved by the King, we're made to serve the King. And Joseph
here, he's a picture of Christ, but he's not a perfect picture.
He's not a perfect picture. This is a human, just like us.
Right? And after this colon, we're going
to read, it's just an older brother. He says, verse 19, and Joseph
said unto them, fear not. You ever come pleading for mercy?
I may need it. Need it. In the heart. What does God say? Well, you're
going to have to do some stuff. You're going to have to have a six month improvement
program. He says, fear not. Calm down. Fear not. That's why he spoke
more than anything, not more than anything, but frequently
in the New Testament to his people, isn't it? Peter said, fear not.
Went to him on the boat, fear not. That's why he speaks to
us, why? Because we're afraid all the time. I do. Jump in like a small child. Calm
down, fear not. He has a colon there. Joseph
said to them, fear not, for am I in the place of God? Joseph
couldn't, they're saying forgive our sin. Forgive us for being
bad brothers and what we sinned against God. This is the brother
talking. I've sinned against God and you've
seen it and I need you to forgive me. Have mercy on me, please.
70 times seven, right? That's what I need. And Joseph
said, I mind God's place? I can't do nothing about your
sin. You talk to him. That's the Lord's business. That's
the Lord's business. The Lord said there in Luke 5,
He saw their faces and He said unto them, Man, thy sins are
forgiven thee. And the scribes and the Pharisees
began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies?
Who can forgive sins but God alone? He's God alone. Just Him. I forgive you, brothers. Somebody's
wounded me and done me wrong, and that's a lot of wrong. I've
never been cast in a pit and sold into slavery and bondage
and put in prison, falsely accused, and all those things. He said,
I forgive you, but I don't forgive sin. That's the Lord's business.
That's the Lord's business. There's no confessional needed.
Do you know that? We confess our sin one to another.
That's what the scriptures say. People take that and be like,
you gotta tell me all the dirty things you've ever thought. Don't you
dare do that. Don't you dare do that. That ain't our business.
I don't own a confessional booth. I ain't going in it, and I ain't
listening to nobody in it. That ain't none of my business.
That's between you and the Lord. But we know we're sinners. When
we talk brethren, I hear brethren talking to other brethren, and
I say, yeah, I just didn't believe the Lord, that was the problem.
I know that. I was scared, I was nervous,
or I was big headed, or whatever, what was the problem? I'm the
problem, and it's me not believing the Lord. He says it right there. Is he gonna fail to do what he
says? Of course not! But I forgot that 10 minutes
ago. I got nervous. There's no specific confession
needed between believers. I can prove that. Somebody wants
to get up in front of your brethren and tell all the things you've
done wrong, well, you go first. It won't happen, will it? But
scripturally, can I prove that? Paul wrote that letter to Philemon
about a certain servant, Onesimus. That's one of my favorite stories. And Onesimus was an unprofitable
servant, and he ran away because he'd done something wrong. And
he finally found Paul, and he's with Paul for an extended period
of time. And Paul writes to Philemon, and he was telling him, he said,
you forgive him if you count me a brother. And oh, what a
picture of the intercession Christ has for us and all those things.
But he says in there, he says of Onesimus, that unprofitable
servant that is now profitable both to me and to thee, Philemon,
He says, if he's wronged thee or owe thee, put it on my count. Well, did he wrong him or did
he owe him? Paul didn't know. Let me tell you what I did wrong,
Paul. Hush. Take that to God. I know you did wrong. You're
just like me. We're sinners. I don't need to hear all your
dirty laundry. Take that to the Lord. Yeah, but it was bad. You either wronged him or stole
from him or something, I know. They told Philemon, he said,
if I wrongly or owe the art, whatever it was, you put it on
my account. Verse 20, this is precious. But as for you, He thought evil
against me, but God meant it unto good to bring to pass as
it is this day to save much people alive." Not just us 12 sons of
Jacob. That's a bunch of Gentiles. Remember
that big funeral procession we was looking at last week? Jacob
lived there for 17 years. Joseph's been there longer than
that. Even if they weren't holding church services with a pulpit
of wood and declaring the text, the gospel was going to come
out of their mouth. Lord saved some folks there. And he saved
some folks throughout time through this story that he's recording
in his word. You did all that stuff to Joseph so people in
2024 in a January in San Diego County could hear about Christ
bared our sins for us. He's God meant it for good. All
things work together for good. For everybody, no, to them that
love God, to them who are thee called according to his purpose.
God did this on purpose. Do you think he does things that
ain't on purpose? He did it on purpose to save his people and
to glorify himself. Now look at verse 21, I'll close.
Now therefore, with all that said, fear ye not, I will nourish
you and your little ones And he comforted them and he spake
kindly to them. He says, I will nourish you and
your little ones. That word means measure and maintain. Tell you what I'm going to do
for you. You're scared. You did wrong.
Lord comes to us and says, I'll provide everything for you. That's
his name. Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will
provide. I need a righteousness. I need
forgiveness. I need mercy. I need to be sustained. I need my feet kept. I need to
be attentive and awake. I need everything. And he says,
I'll provide it. Just like Alex said, Daddy, we got the wood
and we got the fire and we got the knife. We got all these things.
Where's the lamb? The Lord will provide himself a lamb. I'm gonna
nourish you and you will have needs you don't even know you
needed and I'm gonna provide that need to You may not even
know it They speak kindly to him kindly That's the same words
using Isaiah 40 comfort you comfort you my people saith your God
speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem that speak to their heart It's
the same word there speak kindly to the heart speak to the heart.
I want to speak people's hearts. I can't I I can hold you down,
speak in your ear. I can capture them boys that
come to my house the other day. They may try to stick their tail
in their ear like that adder. I can pull that tail back out.
Tell them what I have to say, but I can't speak to their hearts.
I can't. This will be the means which
God uses. I can't do it. He can, if he's pleased to. So
we ask him. Ask him. That's a good practice.
Wake up Sunday morning and say, Lord, this benefits both of us.
It benefits me too. Give Kevin a message from my
heart. I'll be thankful to have the
message to give you and ask the Lord to bless it. Bless it to
you. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
speak kindly, speak to their heart, and cry unto her that
her warfare is accomplished, and her iniquity is pardoned,
for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for all her sins."
Just like that spear going to the side, and water and blood
come out. What's that? Redemption and sanctification,
made holy. That's what we need. I need bought,
and I need be kept. That's got to be spoken to the
heart. A friend of mine said this, and it was just too good
not to steal. I got to tell you, I got to tell you this. The charismatics,
Pentecostals and all that, what do they speak to? They speak
to emotions. It's emotionalism. Why do we need to feel warm and
fuzzy? So they give warm and fuzzy experiences. The reformed,
they speak to the intellect, to the mind. The wheel worker,
and that covers everything, the emotionals and the reformed and
all that stuff too. The will worker, they speak to
the actions. There's something you gotta do
or don't do. That's in the body, right? So all this falsehood,
they speak to emotions, they speak to the head, they speak
to the body. What's the gospel speak to? The heart. heart and
they didn't say well if you don't mess up no more i'll speak kindly
to you he says now therefore fear ye not i will nourish you
and your little ones and he comforted them and he spake kindly unto
them what was like that's quiet he was the one doing the talking
The Lord doesn't save people apart from their minds, but he
speaks to the heart, but it's got to go through the head to
get to the heart, don't it? We're not going to be mindless robots.
But I need to be spoke to the heart and you need to be spoke
to the heart. And I pray he does that. I pray he does. I hope
that's a blessing to you. Let's pray together. Father, what a friend we have
in Jesus. What an elder brother, a firstborn that we have. Who's a God like unto our God?
Mercies and compassions for us that don't deserve it at all. Evil and wicked. But Christ came and bore that
and revealed himself to us and he preserves us and nourishes
us and comforts us and is kind. Kind to us. Thank you for this
salvation. Thank you for our Lord and our
God, our King. Lord, preserve us as you promised
you will. Make us remember your word and your promises in Christ
to undeserving people and keep us and keep us looking to him
until we're made like him. And Lord, haste the day, come
quick. We may be home. Thank you for
this day. Thank you for the gathering of
your people together here and throughout this world. Thank
you for letting us know our brethren in other places. We can rejoice
with them and pray for them and mourn with them. Lord, forgive
us for what we are. It's because of Christ we ask
it. Amen.