Let's turn to Genesis 46. I'm
thankful the Lord's give me a mild infirmity. much better for you. I think
this will be okay. Bullion. It says better than
Bullion. It's same as any other. I think
it should be better than Bullion to you. I pray so. I do. I earnestly pray. God will take
us on a trail of tears today. Allow us to see that. That's
what I've titled the message. A trail of tears. That's what
we're gonna see. Everybody's gonna cry. Every
man, woman, and child ever come from Adam are gonna weep. It's
either gonna be in this life or it's gonna be after. It's
gonna be one or the other. And I pray God breaks somebody's
heart today and make them weep. Make them weep. I wanna look
at that journey that the brethren of Joseph took. And when they
started getting a little bit convicted of sin, maybe we done
something wrong. And then we've sinned against
our brothers. And there's a bunch of weeping on their part, weeping
on Joseph's part, and then Joseph and Jacob are reunited, and they
fall on one another's necks, and they weep a good while. It
was a long weeping. Comparing scripture with scripture,
I'd say it took about 30 minutes. Nobody spoke. Nobody spoke. I read a bulletin this morning,
a bulletin article from Don Fortner, and he said, Jesus wept. At Lazarus' tomb, not because
he was weak, unbelieving, or discontent with divine providence,
but because he was and is a real man, touched with the feeling
of our infirmities, moved by that which moves us. He wept
with his weeping friends because he felt and shared their grief
and sorrow. Jesus wept. The Lord here in
Genesis 46, the Lord had spoke to Jacob. He says in verse three,
he said, I am God, the God of thy father. Fear not to go down
into Egypt for I will there make of thee a great nation. I will
go down with thee into Egypt and I will also surely bring
thee up again. And Joseph, shall put his hand
upon thine eyes. Remember us looking at that?
Lord, every time he healed those blind people, it's Joseph's picture
of Christ. He touched their eyes. Lord said,
this is gonna happen to you, Jacob. So Jacob had a response
to the Lord's ability. Verse five, and Jacob rose up
from Beersheba, and the sons of Israel carried Jacob, their
father, and their little ones, and their wives in the wagons
which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. And they took their cattle
and their goods, which had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came
into Egypt, Jacob and all his seed with him, his sons and his
sons' sons with him, his daughters and his sons' daughters, and
all his seed brought he with him to Egypt." We have a genealogy
from there down of Jacob. And we could spend a lot of time
on the names and what they mean. And as religion says, we could
have a word study on all these things, but I want to sprint.
I want to run as fast as I can to Christ and what he does for
sinners. That's what I want to do. Verse 26, Genesis 46, verse
26. All the souls that came with
Jacob in Egypt, which came out of his loins, besides Jacob's
sons' wives, all the souls were threescore and six. And the sons
of Joseph, which were born him in Egypt, were two souls. All
the souls of the house of Jacob, which came to Egypt, were threescore
and 10. Some cut this, that's 66 people.
Now if we count those, it's seven. Well, if you count the two that's
Joseph's sons, it's 72. And when we finally got the numbers
sorted, Stephen tells us in Acts 7 that there was 75 of them. We can deal with that another
day. But for later on, we'll look at the end, there's an accounting
of what Jacob knew about. That's what I thought was precious.
I can look at them, I count them. And there was an accounting of
what he didn't know about. That's some that the Lord had
he didn't even know. He had two grandchildren there.
Didn't even know about him. Didn't even know Jacob or Joseph
was alive for a long time, 23 years. When we arrive in glory, there's
gonna be brethren there we didn't even know about. What this is
here in chapter 46, this is a picture of believers finally going home.
When this trial of life, when the Lord has come to us, and
abounded towards us, and showed us our sin, and then we have
trials in this life, and we mourn in this life, and we have a hard
time, finally that's over. And we see Him face to face.
We see this trail that we're walking on, this life, and it's
from Him calling us, the trials, and to us going to glory. Verse
28, Genesis 46, 28. And he sent Judah before him
unto Joseph to direct his face unto Goshen, and they came to
the land of Goshen. You see the gospel in that verse?
Judah was sent before them, that line of the tribe of Judah, our
forerunner, to bring them to the land of Goshen. Judah, the
celebrated one. Goshen, the very best land. A place prepared only for the
family of Joseph. Verse 29, and Joseph made ready
his chariot and went up to meet Israel, his father, to Goshen,
and presented himself unto him. And he fell on his neck and wept
on his neck a good while. Is this about a man being reunited
with his father and they had a warm fuzzy? Moses wrote this,
didn't he? What does the Lord say? He said,
you believe Moses, you'd believe me. If you really believe Moses,
you'd believe me. He said, for he wrote of me.
He wrote of me. This is a picture of our Lord.
He fell on his neck and he wept a good while. Our God is a God
of emotions. Now, hear me. May God make you
hear. He is. The Father, the Son, the
Holy Spirit, it's mentioned of all of them, they have emotions.
The scriptures say that they love. The scriptures say that
they are angry. It says that he laughs. And they
sigh. They have pity. They weep. They rejoice. They hate. Would
to God this generation get a hold of that? God's angry with the
wicked every day. And they smile. And our God's
a jealous God. It ain't good to be jealous.
Yeah, but righteous jealousy. That ain't good either. Who says?
God said he's a jealous God, didn't he? This Jesus of religion. Some dude named Jesus is so sissified,
it's pathetic. He's wringing his hands and begging
and pleading and wishing and just pretty pleased wanting people
to do things. That's not the God of the Bible.
That's a false God. And we reject those things, but
it's so easy to reject that all the way to the other end of the
spectrum, isn't it? And we think that God's some stoic statue
that's not touched with the feeling of our infirmities. That he's
so cold and rigid in his dead letter doctrine. That's what
the Lord said to that one servant in Luke 19, wasn't it? He said,
that servant said, you're an austere man. I said, oh, really? Hmm. If we have a new heart put in
us, if God saved somebody and he puts a new heart in us, we're
going to have emotions and we're going to have the emotions of
our Lord, whose heart it is that put that heart of flesh in us.
We're gonna delight to show mercy. We're gonna be long-suffering.
We're gonna rejoice. We're gonna weep. We're gonna
smile, and we're gonna hate sin, and we're gonna laugh. We're
gonna have some enjoyment. We're gonna have compassion.
I knew a believer that had a dog that died one time, and I heard
somebody else get onto him, and they said, believers don't get
upset over dogs dying. Where'd you get that from? Where
did that one that said that, where'd they get that from? Do
you know what God's word says? They're in Proverbs 12, verse
10. His word says, a righteous man regardeth the life of his
beast. My experience tells me that to be true. I look at that
dog, little Lola's up there, scared all the time, biting when
it ought not to bite. I was like, that's me, terrified,
helpless. And the Lord had compassion on
me. And that makes me regard the life of my beast. Do you
get that? That's what his word says, and
that's what this believer's experience declares. People ought not correct
that way, should they? They ought to do it according
to the word of God. I hope I can do that. I do the best I can to refrain
from emotions while preaching. I really do. It's hard sometimes. It's hard. Mostly I want to rejoice. A lot of times I have pity. I
look people in the eye when I preach to them. And I try my best not
to weep. Because I don't want you to see
my emotions or be affected by that. I want the Lord's emotion
to affect you. But emotions do not mean life.
Esau wept bitterly, didn't he? Judas wept bitterly. The tears
don't mean nothing. But if there is life, there will
be emotion. Some show up more than others,
but it's just so. If we love the Lord, we have
a new heart. We're going to have emotion. We will weep. How could
we not? How could we not? We see what
we are, what he's done for us, the compassion he's had. How
could we not weep? If there's love there, it will.
It will. We'll mourn over what we are,
mourn over our sin. If we love, we will. Some won't. Our Lord spoke of that too, says
like the children in the market. We've popped and you ain't danced.
We've mourned and you ain't cried. Those that followed our Lord,
two women, a great company of people and women came and they
bewailed and lamented him. They wept bitterly as our Lord
went to that cross. And he said, daughters of Jerusalem,
weep not for me. I'm the king. You think it's
happened by accident? You think somebody pulled the
wool over my eyes? I'm in control of every bit of this. Don't you
weep for me. This is the king winning the battle, winning the
war. Don't you weep for me. He said, you weep for yourselves
and for your children. He said, the day's coming when
they're gonna say blessed are the barren and the wombs that
never bear and the paps which never gave suck and they shall
begin to say to the mountains, fall on us and to the hills,
cover us. You weep for those that don't
know me and you weep for yourselves because you're stuck in this
world and you're stuck in this body of sin. Cry over that. Kevin,
that ain't right. God just said it. Go read it.
It's in Luke 23. You'll cry over something, cry
over that. He said so. I emailed myself. That's how
I keep notes when I'm walking or traveling or whatever. So
I don't forget things. I put a stoic arrival as a subject.
I'd sent y'all pictures years ago of whenever I come back from
deployment and Johanna's a little baby and she was crying and she
didn't know me. I was a stranger and she was
weeping and I was weeping too. And I grabbed a hold of her and
kissed her and hugged her and held her tight. I didn't care if she
didn't like it. I loved her. I showed you that picture. I
sent it to you, didn't I? And I thought of that whenever
I come back. There was some weeping. If I
had arrived home from that deployment and Kimberly said, you are here.
You were not here before, but you're here now. You are on time. You arrived on the flight you
said you were going to arrive on. We will now take a motorized
carriage. She'd speak in old English, so
it'd sound fancy, right? We will now take a horseless carriage
to our dwelling and abode. We will prepare a three-course
meal. I will watch the evening pass
with you. If that's how she greeted me when I come back, I'd turn
around and go back to war. Wouldn't you? That's just cold
and dead, isn't it? Ain't no love there. That's just
routine. And check the block, that's right,
that's right, that's right. And that's dead as a gun barrel
too, isn't it? Turn over Genesis 42 a little
bit. Let's look at this big picture. how these brothers of Joseph
were prepared, brought to repentance, and brought through a trial,
and brought home all the Lord's providence. We must shed some
tears of repentance. God must work this in us, and
I pray he does today to somebody. Genesis 42, verse seven. Genesis
42, seven. And Joseph saw his brethren,
this is when they came there because of the famine in the
land, came to Egypt. Joseph saw his brethren, he knew
them, but made himself strange unto them, and he spake roughly
unto them. He said unto them, which come
ye? And they said, from the land of Canaan to buy food. And Joseph
knew his brethren, but they knew not him. Isn't that a picture
of our Lord? He knew us and we didn't know
him. I know some people just known God from birth and that's
too long. They've just been saved forever. Hmm. That's your John
the Baptist. I don't. Joseph knew his brethren, but
they knew him not. Look down verse 23, Genesis 42, 23. And they knew not that Joseph
understood them, for he spoke to them by an interpreter. They
didn't know he spoke Hebrew. He was speaking the language
of the Egyptians. And he turned himself about from them, and
he wept. And he wept. You remember our
Lord said, this is written about him. Why did Joseph weep? Why do we weep for our wayward
families? Why do you weep for your children
that don't know God? Why? I know the pain I went through. If the Lord's pleased to break
the heart of someone I love, I weep for joy, but I weep for
their pain too. And I weep for his mercies. How
great he is. Have you ever heard, you think
that's all over this nation? You ever heard a non-believer pray
that the Lord's just rough on his children? I pray the Lord's
rough on my children. I pray he breaks their hearts.
You pray that the Lord breaks your children's hearts? I mean,
crush them, be hard on them, speak roughly to them, show them
what they are, then reveal yourself to them. That's called Lord saving
somebody. They have to be shown what they
are, ain't they? Pray he crushes them. That's not harsh. When Joseph spake, I told you
that before when we was there, when Joseph spake roughly to
his brethren, that's not harsh, that's loving. That's loving,
that's great mercy. They go back home and they tell
Jacob they got to bring their youngest brother, Benjamin. So
they did. And here in chapter 43, verse 15. Genesis 43, 15. And the men took that present
and they took double the money in their hand and Benjamin. and
rose up and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph. And
when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the ruler of
his house, bring these men home and slay and make ready for these
men shall dine with me at noon. I'm going to break bread with
them, those that I've gathered, and it's going to be in my house.
Does that say somebody else's living room? He said, bring it
to my house. We'll go break bread together.
That's what it says, isn't it? And the man did as Joseph bade.
And the man brought the men into Joseph's house, the house of
God. Come, eat. Come, drink. Not go. Not hang out all by yourself
and be worn by your own fire. Come. Come. And the men were
afraid because they were brought to Joseph's house. And they said,
because of the money that was returned in our sacks, At the
first time we were brought in, that he may seek occasion against
us and fall upon us and take us for bondmen in our houses.
And they came near to the steward of Joseph's house, and they communed
with him at the door of the house, and they said, oh, sir. It's
so easy to read through this, and you think there's emotion
when they said that? They came to that representative
of Joseph, and they said, oh, sir. Oh, sir, we came indeed
down the first time to buy food, and it came to pass when we came
into the inn that we opened our sacks, and behold, every man's
money was in the mouth of his sack, and our money of full weight.
And we have brought it in again in our hand. We brought that
back to you. And other money we brought in our hands to buy
food, we cannot tell who put the money in our sacks. We don't
know the full extent of it, but what do we confess to men? the doctrine of election, or
that I'm guilty in God save sinners. I don't know my full guilt, I
really don't. But we're all guilty, all flesh is grass. And we need
him. And he said, verse 23, who said? The steward did, right? What's
he a steward of? Nothing's changed. People talk
about stewardship. I had a man get on to me one
time about stewardship, because I showed him my chicken coop.
God says we got to be good stewards. You know what God says about
stewardship? It says we are stewards of the mysteries of God and we're
stewards of the manifold grace of God. And you know what's required
of a steward? That he's faithful. Not that
he has a ministry that lasts at least 10 years. Not that he
baptizes at least 25 people. Not that he's got a good run
or he's very articulate in expressing things. It's required of a steward
that he's faithful. That's what I want to be. I want
to be faithful. Here's what that faithful steward
did, verse 23. And he said, Peace be unto you. Fear not. Your God and the God
of your father hath given you treasure in your sacks. What
does that faithful steward say? Behold your God. Look to him. Look to him. I had your money.
And he brought semen out to them. He freed their brother. And the
man brought the men into Joseph's house and gave them water, and
they washed their feet, and he gave their asses, provender,
fed them. And they made ready the present
against Joseph came at noon, for they heard that they should
eat bread there. They brought a present to Joseph at that dinner. You get that. Here, I mean, this
is the head honcho that's over everything. A wealth unimaginable. And they're going to bring him
presents. That's offensive to most people, wouldn't it be?
But if it's brethren, if it's brethren, I've got some paintings.
Somebody could offer me $10 or they could offer me $10 million.
I don't care, you ain't getting them. Because I know the one
that painted them. That's special to me. My children gave me gifts
before. And those gifts are precious
to me because they're my family and I love them. You understand
that? We think Joseph thought about that present, that unmentioned
present. That's what you shouldn't have.
Thank you. Put that up on a mantle for later. Verse 26, and when Joseph came
home, they brought him the present, which was in their hand to the
house and bowed themselves to him to the earth. And he asked
them of their welfare and said, is your father well? The old
man of whom you speak, is he yet alive? And they answered,
thy servant, our father, is in good health. He is yet alive
and they bowed down their heads and they made obeisance. They
bowed down and worshiped. They didn't have a lot of understanding
yet. It was starting wasn't it? And he lifted up his eyes, Joseph
did, and he saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son. And he said,
is this your younger brother of whom you've spoken to me?
And he said, God be gracious unto thee, my son. And Joseph
made haste, for his bowels did yearn upon his brother. And he
sought where to weep, and he entered into his chamber and
wept there. He wanted to see his brother,
that one born of his mother, that one that's bone of his bone
and flesh of his flesh, and his bowels yearned within him. Benjamin didn't know what was
going on. Aren't we thankful? You think that's thankful for
Joseph? Are we thankful for our Lord, whose bowels yearn for
his brethren? Chapter 44 is the trial. That
cup of Joseph, he had to put it in Benjamin's sack, and then
the search party came. They said, you all go on home
and go get your father. And they put that cup in Benjamin's
sack. He said, you'll hide that. And then you go search him, and
you find that in Benjamin's sack. That search party came, they
inspected, what was that? That's a picture of the law,
isn't it? We're found wanting, ain't we?
Look here in Genesis 44, verse 11. Genesis 44, 11. Then they speedily took down
every man his sack to the ground, and opened every man his sack,
and they said, you go through all our stuff, you find this
thing, you kill whoever it is that has it. They brought their
sacks down to be inspected, and he searched and began at the
eldest and left at the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin's
sack. And they ripped their clothes
and laid it every man his ass and returned to the city." That's
what we see here. Benjamin, a picture of Christ.
When we see that our guilt, that our sin is found on our brother
who was the least esteemed. That was just their baby brother.
They didn't think much of him, did they? Just a little old Benjamin,
mama's boy. When all of our guilt, we see
our guilt put on. When we see it's cause of me,
he was nailed to that cross. We rent our clothes. What's that? We tear off our righteousnesses.
Everything I thought was good in me gets ripped off. We repent
in sackcloth and ashes. And we say, I did that. He did
that for me, but that's because of me. There's wailing in there. And what we do, we flee to the
king. That's a hard thing to go, there's snot involved, but
we flee to the king, don't we? There's true repentance, true
repentance. That's when we truly weep, isn't
it? When we see what we are and we see who he is. Judah speaks
on behalf of the other brethren there in verse 18. Genesis 44,
18. And Judah then came near unto
him, and said, Oh my Lord, let thy servant pray. I pray that
you speak a word in my Lord's ear and let not thine anger burn
against thy servant. For thou art even as Pharaoh.
I thought that's Judas doing it. That repentance is the Lord's
doing. That's Christ doing. Then in
Genesis 45 verse one, Joseph could not refrain himself
when he saw this true repentance, this true guilt. could not refrain
himself before all them that stood by him. And he cried and
caused every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with
him. And Joseph made himself known
unto his brethren. And he wept aloud. And the Egyptians
and the house of Pharaoh heard everybody heard. Everybody heard. Everybody knew something happened.
And Joseph said unto his brethren, I'm Joseph. Doth my father yet
live? And his brethren could not answer
him, for they were troubled at his presence. Is this real? This got to be too good to be
true. Do we know what entity we were? I was at war. We threw
you in a pit and sold you and faked your death to our father
and lied to him for 23 years. And you're going to be this kind
to me and call me a brother, not an enemy? Isn't that what
Paul wrote about there in Romans 5? He said, God commended his
love towards us, that compassion, that love, in that while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us. Verse four, and Joseph said to
his brethren, come near to me, I pray you, come near. And they
came near. And he said, I'm Joseph, your
brother. Not your judge, not your jury, not your executioner,
I'm your brother. whom ye sold in Egypt. Verse
five, let's read it. Now therefore be not grieved,
nor angry with yourselves that ye sold me hither, for God did
send me before you to preserve life. For these two years hath
the famine been in the land, and yet there are five years
in which there shall be neither earing nor harvest. It's been
bad, it's gonna get worse. And God sent me before you to
preserve you a prosperity in the earth, and to save your lives
by a great deliverance. The Lord did this. This is the
foreknowledge of God. This is his determinant counsel
at work. Why are we here? Why are we on
this earth? So God could save his people and receive all the
glory for it. That's an easy answer, isn't it? Mankind's writing
books upon books about it. Well, then Joseph, he sent them
to go fetch Jacob. Pharaoh said, you take some wagons
with you. Remember that? The witnesses and the wagons come
to Jacob. Genesis 45 verse 25. And they went up out of Egypt,
and came into the land of Canaan and Jacob their father, and told
him, saying, Joseph's yet alive, and he is governor over all the
land of Egypt. And Jacob's heart fainted, for
he believed them not. And they told him all the words
of Joseph, which he said unto them. And when he saw the wagons
which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their
father revived. All things are made possible
by God. He sent this providence. And Israel said, it's enough.
Joseph, my son, is yet alive. I will go see him before I die.
Now, in chapter 46, they journeyed. Joseph arose like we were in
the beginning and went towards Egypt. The Lord said he's going
to be with them. And he sent Judah out ahead to bring them
in the land of Goshen to be their eyes. And here in chapter 46,
verse 27, And the sons of Joseph, which
were born, him and Egypt, were two souls. All the souls of the
house of Jacob, which came to Egypt, were threescore and ten."
Jacob didn't know he had two grandchildren there. This is
a picture of us going home. When this life's over, we go
to see our Lord face to face, our savior, our kinsman redeemer.
We see him as he is. We know as we are known. That's
what this is showing. And there's two babies there
they didn't even know about. There's been some people that's
had miscarriages. That's a blessing. The Lord gave you a believing
child, didn't he? David's son, he experienced that
with his son. He said, he can't come to me,
but I can go where he is. And through that, we see the
Lord may be pleased. I was down there this week and
I saw the sands of the sea. And the Lord says, because my
people are like more than the sands of the sea. Now, he said
it. That's a lot, isn't it? All those
abortion clinics all around this nation, should we go out and
pick at them? It's evil, they mean it for evil, but there might
be some believers that show up to glory and they see some of
their aborted children there and say, Lord saved me. He just
brought his children home. Makes us bow to him and not be
so fiery and fighting evil, isn't it? Lord fights your battles
for you. And he sent Judah, verse 28,
before him and Joseph to direct his face into Goshen. And they
came into the land of Goshen. And Joseph made ready his chariot. His chariot. How did they all
get there? How was it that Jacob got to Goshen? On wagons, right? Does it say that Joseph made
ready his wagon? It says he made ready his chariot
and went up to meet Israel, his father. For us to go through
this life, the days are so long and the years are so short, isn't
it? We're on this wagon that the Lord sent to bring us to
Him. And it just seems so slow, doesn't it? He comes to us hastily
on a chariot. Revelations 22 20 says surely
I come quickly. That's the last thing was recorded
of him saying He comes quickly That's what we read for a scripture
reading that prodigal son come home and that father. He was
a great way off He saw him and he had compassion. He wasn't
waiting like we wait like I hope he comes He knows he's dry he's
a one draw patiently waiting, and he ran and fell on his neck. That's what Ephesians 1 we read.
It said, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness
of sins according to the riches of his grace, wherein he hath
abounded toward us in all wisdom and imprudence, having made known
unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure
which he hath purposed in himself. Joseph come to him in a chariot,
hot and in a hurry. That prodigal son's father ran.
That Holy Spirit abounds towards us at just the right time. What does it say there in Genesis
22? Even so, Jesus come. Come. Verse 29, and Joseph made
ready his chariot and went up to meet Israel his father to
Goshen and presented himself unto him and he fell on his neck
and wept on his neck a good while. A good while. You know, turn
over Revelation 21. I want you to look at this. Revelation 21. We read in Revelation 8, it said
when that seventh seal's open, there's gonna be silence in heaven
for a space of about a half hour. We may be weeping a good while,
maybe a half hour. Revelation 21, look at verse
four. I just wonder if this is what
takes place in that half hour. Revelation 21, four. And God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. Well, what's in their
eyes for him to wipe away? Tears. There's tears there, and
he's gonna wipe them away. And there shall be no more death,
neither sorrow, nor crying. There'll be no more, no tears
in heaven. I don't care what Eric Clapton said, there ain't
no tears in heaven. No more crying, but he's gonna
wipe away their tears. They might be 30 minutes there,
a good long while, we're gonna fall on his neck and just weep.
No words spoken. Jacob didn't say nothing to Joseph,
and Joseph didn't say nothing to Jacob. He just fell on his
neck and wept a good while. There'll be no more death, neither
sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain. And you know what's, what's so selfish of me I'm not
gonna feel any more pain. But bless God, I won't cause
any more pain. Don't that hurt you? Don't that
make you weep? The pain that you caused, the
pain I've caused to others, that ain't gonna be a possibility.
It just, it ain't gonna be a possibility. There'll be no more sin, no more
crime, no more pain. I ain't gonna get hurt, I ain't
gonna hurt you. You ain't gonna hurt me, I won't be hurt. Is that worth weeping over? He's
good, isn't he? Do we deserve it? That's called
grace. We don't deserve it. Unmerited
favor. Boy, who's a God like our God? Remember that parable of the
wedding feast? That's the last time we'll cry.
We'll cry all through this life. We'll have tears of joy and tears
of pain, tears of sorrow, tears of rejoicing. We'll have all
those things. And then that day comes, we'll close our eyes and
instantly be with the Lord, and we may fall on His neck. That's
just what His word says, and that's what He's revealed to
me. We may fall on His neck and weep a good while for 30 minutes
as He holds us and just wipes our tears away, and then that's
it. Never another tear. Our tears ended. And those that
don't dance when we sing, and those that don't mourn whenever
we mourn, and they don't weep when we weep, and this isn't
special to them, it's just factual, their crying's gonna start and
it ain't never gonna end. That's a difference. The Lord
said several times, so that's the New Testament, several times
of Matthew alone. But he told that king's servant,
He said, that one servant, you bind him hand and foot and take
him away and cast him into outer darkness. There shall be weeping
and gnashing of teeth. Four, many are called. This gospel
goes out. Come, that's calling, isn't it?
Come, cast the net. Come to Christ. Leave all your
stuff. Leave all your righteousnesses
and all your good decisions. And you finding Christ and you
doing this and you doing that, knock that off and come to him
and bow, make obeisance. Many are called. The Lord only
sends wagons for a few. Few are chosen. That's what that
means. That's the context. Many are called, few are chosen.
Did you know that? The weeping. Some are going to weep here and
then never weep again and others are just going to start weeping.
I pray the Lord will bring us on that trail of tears. through
his providence, come to us, show us what we are, show us his just
tenderness, not his stoic, cold, dead letter statue. He's touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. We can come to him, bring our
sorrows to him and our needs to him. He'd break our hearts
now. instead of an eternity of breaking
hearts. And then, oh, how precious that'll be. If he does that,
how precious that'll be the day when this life's over. I look
forward to preaching the funeral believers. I do. That's a joyous
occasion. All the bad stuff's over. They're
just starting. Isn't that good? We wait for
us. We'll be sad and miss folks and all that. I was thinking
about my parents the other day. I miss them. But I ain't miserable. I just come off, see him later.
And just like whenever Jacob got there, he knew Joseph was
his son. And they said, these are your grandchildren. He said,
well, I know them now. We'll know one another. We will. What happened on Mount Transfiguration?
And they said, well, that's Moses, and that's Elias. Well, that
was hundreds of years. How'd they know? We're going
to know. I know that's my wife. I know she's Kimberly. I won't
be husband and wife with her no more, and we'll be OK with
that. You know that? There'll be many there we didn't
think was gonna be there, and many not there we thought would
be, and we'll praise God for them. That's a miracle, too,
isn't it? Isn't that amazing? How? I don't know. But he said
so, and I believe him. Don't you? Brother Mark.