If you will, let's turn to Genesis
45. I have a card here, a thank you
note from Brother Frank Tate. I'll set that on the back table
for you all to read. at your convenience, that was
awful kind of him. I told him I was gonna write
a letter and thank the brethren there, and I asked them, because
they've provided for this work since we've, since I've been
here. And I wanted to thank them. And
he said, you ain't gotta do that. And I said, yes I do, I want
to. And little did I know, two days later, I got his card. So
he must have wanted it. Come on in, have a seat. Genesis
45. His first message, a picture of Christ saving sinners. through
his providence and his messengers, breaking the hearts of his people.
And I pray he'll do that this first hour. Thought about it
a lot. I pray he saves somebody in this
room this morning. And then, the second hour, because
you're going to have some tears. You're going to cry. It's going
to break your heart. Next hour, we'll look at what
he does with those tears. A believer's crying. But this
morning, I want to look at the witnesses and the wagons. And
there enough, Genesis 45, this gospel's going, it's hit me,
I got a text message about 20 minutes ago. This gospel's going
forth today. The Lord's word, is that important
to you? God's word through his messenger
is being proclaimed in a lot of different places on this globe
this morning. And my heart's breaking. People don't care for
it. They're flippant about it. They
make a mockery of it. And this is eternal life of death. Sleep through it if you want.
Laugh at it if you want. Mock it if you want. But my heart
breaks for those. And I pray the Lord will break
somebody's heart today. I do. Lord, give us ears to hear
and hearts to believe our Redeemer and teach us. It's been impressed
on me hard this week. One, I'm just a hypocrite. That's
all I am. I'm a worthless sinner. And two, I can't teach anybody
anything. I could set you down, grab you
by the shoulders and shake something into you and it won't go into
you. I can teach you how to change a tire on a car, or work on an
air conditioner, anything. I can't teach it. God has to. I don't know if I'm diligent
or foolish, I keep trying. I'm gonna give it all I got.
Didn't work today, well we'll do it again tomorrow. It ain't
returning to him before, I'm gonna try again. I'm gonna teach
him how to change a tire, I'm gonna teach him again tomorrow
too. Sooner or later it's gonna soak in. In this book we've been
looking through in Genesis, Joseph's a picture of Christ throughout
it. A picture of Christ. He wept,
his heart was in pain, and then he revealed himself to his brethren
here in chapter 45, and only his brethren. I don't want the preaching of
the gospel to be magnificent. I don't want the fact that the
gospel is here to be magnificent. I don't want the preacher to
be magnificent. I want Christ to be magnificent. Joseph drew near to him. He said,
come here, come here. And they came, look here in verse
four, Genesis 45, four. And Joseph said unto his brethren,
come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said,
I am Joseph, your brother. Not your judge, not your executioner. I'm your brother whom you sold
in Egypt. He goes on, he says, you've been in two years of famine.
There's five years left. It's going to get worse. That
in verse seven. And God sent me before you to
preserve you a posterity in the earth and to save your lives. By great deliverance. So now
it was not that not you that sent me hither, but God. And
he hath made me a father to Pharaoh. How could Joseph be a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ if he'd been made a father to Pharaoh?
Isn't that what the father said of Christ? He gave his names,
wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the prince of peace, the
everlasting father. Lord of all his house and ruler
throughout all the land of Egypt. Haste ye. Now, right now. Not next week, does it say haste
ye? Hey, right now, right now. Get
up and go to my father and say unto him, thus saith thy son
Joseph, God hath made me Lord of all Egypt. Come down unto
me, tarry not, and thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen,
that's the best land, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou,
and thy children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and
thy herds, and all that thou hast, and there will I nourish
thee, For yet there are five years of famine. You're gonna
need nourishing. Lest thou and thy household and all that thou
hast come to poverty. And behold your eyes see, and
the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that this is my mouth that speaketh
unto you. And ye shall tell my father of
all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen, and ye
shall haste and bring down my father hither.' And he fell upon
his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon
his neck, and moreover he kissed all his brethren. and wept on
them. And after that, his brethren
talked with him. Remember, he said, where's my
father? Is my father alive? And they could not speak. There was the conviction of sin.
They were shut up to sin, guilty, guilty, until their brother kissed
them. Now, when he kissed, he said,
I'm your brother. He kissed him on the neck. Peace is made. That's a holy kiss, isn't it?
Peace is made. Then after that, his brother
talked to him. Now they could speak. Now they could speak. Verse 16, and the fame thereof
was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, Joseph's brethren are
come. And it pleased Pharaoh well and his servants. Physically, Pharaoh was happy.
Why? I told some of y'all a story about my father-in-law had a
job and he was trying to get my mother-in-law to move up there
where he was. Why? If you get the bride, you get
the man. Joseph's got a lot of family somewhere else. He may
go be with his family. He's a pretty studious and ingenious
man. He's able to get a lot done. Knows a lot of stuff, doesn't
he? Pharaoh's tickled to death. He said, yeah, get his brothers.
Get them here. He'll stay longer. We like him. What's that a picture
of? Pharaoh is the father. A picture
of the everlasting father. That's what our Lord told us
in Luke 15. I say in you that likewise joy shall be in heaven
over one sinner that repenteth, moreover than the ninety and
nine just persons who need no repentance. We're so prone to
be happy about the ninety and nine, ain't we? I don't need
repentance. but heavens rejoice over the
one." Pharaoh rejoiced. He said, this is good. His brethren
are come. All of Egypt rejoiced. Now I
want to read from verse 17 to verse 28. And then at the end
of that, we'll just read it through. I'll give you the main characters
and then who represents who. And then we'll go back through
this text and read it again with that understanding. Okay. Maybe
the Lord will teach us something. Verse 17. And Pharaoh said unto
Joseph, This is Pharaoh speaking to Joseph. He's commanding Joseph.
He's telling Joseph what to do. Say unto thy brethren, this do
ye, laid your beast and go, get ye unto the land of Canaan and
take your father and your households and come unto me and I will give
you the good of the land of Egypt and ye shall eat the fat of the
land. Now thou art commanded, this
do ye, take your wagons take you wagons out of the land of
Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your
father and come. Also, regard not your stuff,
for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours." That's what
Pharaoh told Joseph to tell his brethren. Verse 21, And the children
of Israel did so. And Joseph gave them wagons according
to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the
way. To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment, but to
Benjamin he gave 300 pieces of silver and five changes of raiment.
And to his father he sent after this manner, 10 asses laden with
good things of Egypt and 10 she-asses laden with corn and bread and
meat for his father by the way. So he sent his brethren away
and they departed. And he came unto them and he said unto them,
see that ye fall not out by the way. And they went up out of
Egypt, and came unto the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father,
and told him, saying, Joseph is 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 had said unto them, And when he saw the
wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob
their father revived. And Israel said, it is enough. Joseph, my son, is yet alive.
I will go and see him before I die." We've been looking at
this story for a long time and we've said there's like it's
like a mosaic, right? We can take a couple verses out
of this. We'll see Benjamin for a second. Benjamin's picture
of Christ in this, but just for a paragraph or just for a verse. But this is all painting the
picture of the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This isn't a history lesson. This isn't just a record of family
history. This is the gospel. I pray, Lord, give us eyes to
see it, and ears to hear it, and hearts to rejoice in it. Give us tears of happiness in
this. Pharaoh here pictures God the
Father. Joseph, that's God the Son. That's Christ our King,
who he is, what he did. These brethren, his brothers,
that's the messengers of Christ. He commands them to go, what
did he command us? You that know him, you that he's
your elder brother, go into all the world and preach the gospel,
baptize them and teach them my words. That's what he's told
us to do. He's gave us that. These wagons that are sent with
them, that's the means of providence. Our God is a God of means. A God of means. We don't just
lay on our back and show our white underbelly and just be
fatalistic and, well, if the Lord wanted me to walk over that
door, he'd just pick me up and move me over there. He walks
in us. But he does that through means.
Through means. I've heard this preached before,
and rightfully so, that these wagons are faith. And that's
true. That can be preached correctly
that way. So if you hear somebody else is respected, that's a good
faithful preacher preaching, say it's something different.
Don't say one's right and one's wrong. That's right too. But
I don't look at faith. I possess it. I possess it. These wagons were there and he
looked upon them and he remembered something and that meant something
to him and it revived Israel. That's the providence of the
Lord. We would look back on the providence of the Lord, if we're
His. Instead of just bellyaching and
murmuring all day, we'll say, the Lord did that. And maybe
if He grows us in grace over the decades, and it takes a whole
lifetime, and then we see that providence coming, not just what's
already parked in the parking lot, we see those wagons coming,
Bob. And we say, that's the Lord bringing them wagons. It revives
you. You don't know what's in the
wagons, but it's his doing. He grows us a little bit, don't
he? And we stop flapping our wings like heads with our chickens
cut off. He calms us down. Israel, Jacob, that's us. Pharaoh's the God the Father,
Joseph's Christ, God the Son. These messengers are the messengers
of Christ that come to just tell what he said. The wagons, that's
the means of providence, the provision, And Israel, that's
us. That's us, that's me. This whole
nation and this whole world is wrapped up in Israel right now,
ain't they? Turn the news off, read the scriptures.
Why don't you do that? Paul said, for he's not a Jew,
which is one outwardly, neither a circumcision, which is outward
in the flesh, but he's a Jew, which is one inwardly. Circumcision's
the out of the heart, in the spirit. That's where that takes
place. The outside don't matter. This
is not a historical event only. This isn't just a family tale
of being reunited. This is the gospel. This is Christ
saving an unworthy people and Him getting all the glory because
of what He has done and because of who He is. And it's right.
Verse 17. Now knowing that, I gave you
the characters. I'll try to keep it to 15 minutes.
We'll go through this quick. So Donnie says, I got the clock
going, we'll be okay. Verse 17, and Pharaoh said unto
Joseph, this is the father speaking to Joseph, Christ our Lord, say
unto thy brethren, this do ye, laid your beasts and go, get
you unto the land of Canaan. Go to where my people live. Take
your father and your households and come unto me. Come unto me,
and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye
shall eat the fat of the land." That's what Pharaoh's telling
Joseph to tell the messengers, his brothers, right? What did
our Lord pray to the father? He said, I have given them thy
word. You told me, I told them, and
they have it. It's in them. He said, you tell
them. He said, you take your father
in your household and you come unto me, I'll give you wonderful
things. And this is not a suggestion. I want to put an end to anybody
that ever has a salvation plan that's sharing. Thank you for
sharing that. I ain't sharing nothing. This
is what it is. This ain't an invitation. And
I tell all men, come to Christ, come now. But that's a command. Repentance isn't a good idea.
Repentance is a command. Is that right? Whoever tells
stuff like that is lying. They're heretics. Don't listen
to them. This is a command. It's not a suggestion. The king,
Joseph, is telling his brothers, just as Christ our elder brother
tells us, isn't it? Verse 19, now thou art commanded. Is there any question if it's
a command? Now thou art commanded, this
do ye, do it. Take your wagons out of the land
of Egypt for your little ones, for those that can't walk a long
way, for those that are weak and weary and tired and tire
easily. And for your wives and bring
your father, your old father and come. It's a commandment. Our Lord said in Matthew 11.
It says, At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from
the wise and the prudent and has revealed them unto babes.
Even so, father, for it seemed good in thy sight. All things
are delivered unto me of my father. And no man knoweth the son but
the father, neither knoweth any man the father save the son,
and he to whomsoever the son will reveal himself to." Who
did Joseph reveal himself to? His brethren. His brethren. And he commands them, come unto
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you
rest. Take my yoke upon you. What do you reckon them asses
had on them to pull them wagons? Yokes, right? Did them kids have
the yokes on? No, this was provision, wasn't
it? Take my yoke upon you. Learn of me, for I am meek and
lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For
my yoke's easy, and my burden's light. I've sent these wagons
for you. Come. It's a command. It's not a suggestion. Not on
your time frame. He said haste. Do it right now.
Well, I have come. Good. Come. Do you ever stop
coming to Christ? Does it ever become old hat and
it's just a theological dissertation we go through every Sunday? No,
this is a person we're coming to. Our brethren won't send them
to a statue of Joseph, a statue of Pharaoh. They're going to
live in people. I'm getting ahead of myself. Our God liveth. Verse 20. Also, regard not your
stuff. We got a lot of stuff, don't
we? Well, I can't leave this. That's the best outhouse in Canaan.
I can't leave my outhouse. It's all it is, a pile of dung,
isn't it? I can't leave my children. I can't leave my grandbabies. Said come. Those that don't forsake mother
and father and children and lands and aunts and uncles and cousins
and jobs and everything else and old homestead ain't worthy
to be my disciples. That's the cost of discipleship.
That's the cost. That's the terms of surrender. That's strong,
isn't it? What we do? I'm going. Get in
the wagon with me. Let's go. I'm coming. Come. We tell people come, don't
we? Come. Regard not your stuff. That's
as plain as it gets. For the good of all the land
of Egypt is yours. The Lord told us through Paul,
the apostle. He said, if you have been risen
with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ
sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things
above, not on things on this earth. Adore him. Commit yourself to him. Turn
yourself over, lock, stock and barrel. For you are dead, and
your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our
life, shall appear, then we shall appear with Him in glory. We'll
be in this land of plenty with Him. Our Lord said in Matthew
6, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,
and all these things will be added to you. Don't worry about
your stuff. Don't worry about your stuff. Verse 21, there was
a commandment, and you know what happens when the boss commands
something, when a king commands something, when one that has
the ability to command commands? Genesis 45, 21, and the children
of Israel did so. I know that seems like a very
simple point. That's how God teaches us who God is, a capital
G God. If he wants it done, it's done.
If he commands it, we'll look next hour. If he writes it down,
he wills and purposes it, it's done. There'll be means he uses
to do it. Take it to the bank. This is
a sure thing. We ought to read his promises
and dwell on them. It'd be a good thing, wouldn't
it? And the children of Israel did so. And Joseph gave them
wagons according to the commandment of Pharaoh and gave them provision
for the way. All provision was given. Go tell Israel, my spiritual
Israel, about my glory. I'm on my throne. and come, and
you ain't gonna need nothing. You go do it. The Lord commanded
him in Luke 10, he sent the 70 out, and he said, carry neither
purse nor script nor shoes. You go into a house and you say,
peace be unto you. And it was always the same. The
message didn't change. If those people said, starve
them out and get rid of them, don't come in my house, I can't stand
them, or we'll just ignore them. Because there's two by two, wasn't
there? You ignore one, you ignore both of them. He said, look them
dead in the eye and say, the kingdom of God's come nigh unto
you. And if they say, peace, yes,
come on in. Tell us about this gospel you
have. Tell us about this Christ. What has he done? Where's he
at now? He said, you look them dead in the eye and say, the
kingdom of God's come nigh unto you. I hope that's important to people.
I pray so. Later on, he said, Take neither
purse nor script nor shoes. I'll provide everything." Later
on in Luke 22, he asked them. He said, when I sent you without
purse and script and shoes, lacked ye anything? Have you lacked
anything? And they said one word, nothing. Nothing. Been a long time. I took my wife
to the movies Friday night. Been a long, too long, too long.
We went and watched a movie. We watched a picture show. We
got a big old thing of popcorn and shared it. I got to take
my wife on a date. We lacked anything? Nothing. And those that he sends forth
with all provision to go tell about Christ and Him crucified,
here he is now to preach this gospel, you won't even need words. You won't have to memorize some
religious garbage, that's some script to teach people to repeat. He said in Matthew 10, and you
shall be brought before governors and kings for my sakes, and for
a testimony against them and the Gentiles. You won't go up
and say all flesh is grass. But when they deliver you up,
take no thought of how or what you shall speak, for it shall
be given to you in that same hour of what you shall speak
for you, for it is not you that speak. You ain't gonna make up
your own words, but the spirit of your father, which speaketh
in you. You're a voice. Ain't nothing
but a mouthpiece. That's it, I'm gonna talk through
you. How am I gonna get there? He says, I will walk in them.
I'm gonna provide, that's provision. I'm gonna feed you, I'm gonna
give you something to wear, I'm gonna walk in you, I'm gonna
give you words to say, and my word ain't gonna return to me
void. You know how Paul waited on the Lord? He ran. Do you know how Paul
sat still and waited on the Lord? He fought. He fought a good fight. He ran a good race. He wrestled,
didn't he? Verse 22, Genesis 45, 22. To
all of them, he gave each man changes of raiment. His Lord
gave us a change of raiment. That's our gospel, how we dress.
Do you know that? I don't have to teach nobody
how to dress to come to church. That's our gospel, the clothing
that Christ has put on us. He took our filthy rags and he
gave us his robe of righteousness. Now I know that's an outward
picture of something that happens in the heart and it's in totality,
I understand that. But that's a picture. He gave
them Raymond. He gave them Raymond. The Lord saved me, gave me a
righteousness, that's his, and I just go tell people, that's
a nice clothes you have. Let me tell you about the one
that gave it. Let me tell you about the one that owns it, it's his. He gave
it to me to wear. To all of them he gave each man
changes of Raymond, but to Benjamin, He gave 300 pieces of silver
and five changes of raiment. This is that temporary picture
of Christ that Benjamin is in this mosaic of the hymn book,
the Christ story, who he is and what he's done for us. Every
child of God is given the same raiment, but Benjamin, the preferred
one, the one that was one with Joseph, this one that was of
the same mother, bone as bone, five times. He was given five
times the changes of raiment. Don't get wrapped up in numbers.
And so people get into numerology or looking into something that
ain't Christology. Right? If you're looking at that,
you're not looking to him. But this pictures him and this
gives of his glory. Five throughout the scriptures
is grace. Take that. 300's victory. They're in Judges 7, Gideon.
He had all him men. He's going to take the warden.
You're going to have 300. Because I'm going to show I won. They're
in Judges 15, Sampson. He had a mess of foxes around
him. He caught a bunch of foxes. How many foxes was it? 300. and
in his death he will be more victorious than he ever was in
his life. This is victory. So I'll go on. Verse 23. And
to his father he sent after this manner ten asses laden with the
good things of Egypt, and ten she-asses laden with corn and
bread and meat for his father by the way. What's first thing
come to your mind with ten? Ten commandments, huh? Provision. Provision for those ten commandments.
And it says it's laden with the good things. But why ten each? Why not just all the asses, there's
10 of them, and it was laid down. Why 10 of the he asses and 10
of the she asses? We've received double. We've
received double. That's what the Lord commanded
there in Isaiah 40. Speak comfortably to Jerusalem.
Cry unto her. Give it all you got whenever
you talk to her. Make them wake up. Just make,
in your nose, out your mouth. Let's breathe some, let's get
some oxygen flowing. We wanna hear this, cry unto
Him that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquities pardoned
for because she hath received of the Lord's hand. He's done
this, double for all her sin. Double, that real young man.
This is important, stay with me. That real young man, Augustus
Toplady. Lord took him younger than me.
He wrote this, be of sin the double cure. Double cure, save
from wrath and make me pure. Don't just wipe my slate clean,
give me a holy nature that can never sin, ever. What's Joseph sinning? Look what
I'm giving you. Two wagons coming and there's witnesses gonna tell
you about it. That's the witnesses in the wagons. Verse 24, so he
sent his brethren away and they departed. He said, go on. And
he said unto them, see that ye fall not out by the way. Oh,
I need to take this to heart. We're given warnings throughout
the Lord's word, aren't we? Aren't we? He took the time to
pin this and preserve it throughout time to give his children warnings.
Just as a father warns his children, heed them, heed them. Does he
have to keep me? Absolutely. But does he tell
us, see that thou fall not out by the way? Don't get off the
path. Christ is the way, and that's
a command to you. Stay in him. Don't get up lollygagging
off on these other things, on these tangents, these side roads,
these things that don't matter. You stay on him and be diligent
about it. Seek ye the kingdom of God. Seek
it. He commands it, doesn't he? Verse 25. And they went up out
of Egypt and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father.
And they told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive. Christ is yet alive. What do the messengers tell the
Lord's people? Christ is alive. He's risen. All the other prophets throughout
time, they're dead. Mohammed, dead. Buddha, graveyard
dead. You can go look where they're
buried. What about our Lord on His throne? He's alive. He's alive. They told him, verse
26, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the
land of Egypt. He's on the throne. He ain't
dead. He's alive. He ain't wishing
somebody make him alive. He is alive. He ain't wishing
he's on the throne. He's on the throne. That ain't complicated, is it?
Christ is alive. Christ's on his throne. And Jacob's
heart fainted, for he believed them not. That's too good to
be true. You ever said that? You ever
heard, first time you heard the gospel preached? Not a gospel, the gospel. First time you heard the gospel
preached. You said, this, this, that's too good to be true. That's
too good to be true. That's the message. That's it. Christ is alive. He's on his
throne. He's ruling, he's providing, he's judging in his rightful
position. It's right for him to do so in
his glory. In his glory. Verse 12, it said
that. I'm sorry, verse 13. He said,
and you shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt. Well, if we don't see Christ
in this, we're going to think we're something. Look at what I've attained to. No, look at what he's attained
to. He's the one that's ascended, isn't he? That's what Peter preached
in Acts 2. That's what God's preachers preach
today. Christ is alive. He's on his throne. It's his
glory. Message ain't changed. There's an article Brother Henry's
circulating around. I'll try to email it to you later.
You want to know if somebody's preaching the truth? Where your
children are. Y'all been, you've been given
a new talent last week, Mayor Mark. God gave you all, gave
you five talents, Mike, your wife and them four children.
He gave me five talents, my wife and them four children. Some
of y'all ain't got your talents yet. I don't know what he's got
in store for you, but he's given you this. Do you want to know
if your talents are sitting underneath the gospel? Who gets the glory? Does man
get a skosh, a little bit of leaven, a little bit of poison,
or does God get all the glory? Message ain't changed from that
day. Message ain't changed when Peter and the apostles were preaching.
And the message is the same today. He's alive. He's on his throne.
Your God reigneth. He gets all the glory. Glory
is his. Verse 27. And they told him most
of the words of Joseph. How can a faithful preacher tell
you everything? all of it not my words his words i'll tell
you i'll take the time let's sit down i know everybody wants
to hang out after services i'm here the rest of the week come
by on a tuesday we can sit down and talk for a couple hours it'd
be great loved it they tell you all the words i'll tell you everything
he says they told him all the words of joseph which he said
unto them and when he saw the wagons Here's Israel sitting
there, and he's hearing this, and Christ is on his throne,
and this is us, right? And it's too good to be true,
but then you see the wagons. He gives you eyes to see. He
told John's disciples, he said, go tell them what you see in
here, what you've seen done. This is my doing. Go tell them all
the providence I made to come to pass. When he saw the wagons which
Joseph had sent to carry him, The means by which he's going
to carry me, because I'm old. I'm unable. Is Jacob old? I didn't take the time to do
the math on it. He was old when the Lord came
to him. And then he had a long time until he had some children.
Now them children are grown. He's, I don't know, 180 years old or
something. He's old. He can't walk all the
way to Egypt. And he saw the wagons, the providence,
and the provision the Lord sent to bring me to him. I can't walk
that far, can't take a step. It's His doing. And when he saw
that, the spirit of Jacob, their father, revived. When it, true
Israel, when the Lord's people, His church, when they hear the
word of Christ, the victorious Savior, and you see the providence
of His mighty power and hand, And look what the Lord brought
to me. I was listening to the message
of Brother Don, and Bruce had asked him to preach his life
story. I went over, I'm sorry. Preach
his life story. He said, tell us what the Lord's
did for you. And he started at seven years old. and went all
the way to that day. That's all he did. He just talked
about what the Lord's done the whole time throughout his life. He
went through all that stuff and how he went to Bible college
and how he preached up here in West Virginia. Looked out West
Virginia for nine years and what the Lord did there and how the
Lord used that to bring him to Danville. We see that providence. The Lord gives us eyes. The Lord's
done everything right. He's done everything good. Everything's
been for my good and everything's been for his glory. Is that right? Does that revive you? I hope
it breaks some hearts, brings some tears. I got some solutions
for tears next hour. Verse 28, and Israel said, it's enough. Joseph, my son is
yet alive. I will go and see him before
I die. It's enough. I ask you, is that enough? I ask myself, is that enough? Is that enough? If it is, if
he is enough, I will go and see him before I die. Lord's people will go and see
him before they die. He won't lose one. He won't lose
one. Simeon did, didn't he? That's
the first thing I thought of. He said, let your servant live
till I see the Christ. And they brought Christ there
into the temple, as was their custom. Here's this old prophet
there. And he hailed the Lord of glory
next to his bosom, because it's a hard work. And he said, Lord,
I've seen your salvation. I'm ready to go. I'm ready to
go. I pray he'd reveal himself today
as Joseph revealed himself to his brethren. Let's pray. Father,
how thankful we are for the command of salvation,
the messengers you send out declaring it, the provision you provide
to bring us to be near. What an amazing, glorious salvation
it is. Give us eyes to see this, Lord.
Give us hearts to rejoice and understand who Christ is, what
he's done, where he is now, and the glory that's rightfully his
and make us worship. Forgive us for not doing so every
second. Thank you for our brethren. Thank
you for the message you sent in our paths. And we're thankful
for the brethren when we don't yet know. And give us provision
to tell them. Thank you for this hour. It's
because of Christ that we ask these things. Amen. All right, brethren.