Hi, brethren. Genesis 45. Throughout this time we've spent
in Genesis, we've been looking at Joseph. He's a picture of
Christ in so many ways. And like that mosaic, we're looking
at each little piece every time we come in here and open up this
alabaster box. And I pray he'll do that for
us today. But this is a picture of what
I will look at this morning. is Christ revealing Himself to
His chosen people throughout time. This is the way He did
it then. This is the way He does it now.
That's the way He's going to do it. And by that, Him revealing
Himself to us, our trembling at it. Our trembling at it. Not jumping up and doing cartwheels.
Our trembling at it. and us being drawn near to our
elder brother. And then him speaking comfort
to us that only he can speak. He's the only one we've offended.
And we believed on him and this salvation's all by God's will
in his hand. And we are eternally preserved
and shall dwell and be nourished with our loving brother who is
king. He's the ruler. That's the bottom
line up front. I hope I can hit all those things
this morning. We remember those dreams that Joseph had, those
ones he told his brothers. He said, your sheep's gonna make
obeisance to me. You're gonna bow down to me and
you'll thank me for it. They got mad. And then he had another
one dream, didn't he? He said, the moon and the stars,
they made obeisance to me. And his mommy and daddy got mad.
Who do you think we're talking to? I thought about that all
week. David said, the Lord said to
my Lord, and our Lord asked some Pharisees, how did he say that?
That's going to be his offspring. The power of God did that. The
power of God's gonna work in Joseph and bow to his ruler,
bow to his son, that happens to be his son. And I've seen
that come to pass in our life. I saw a faithful man of God used
more moderately on this continent than I've ever seen anybody else
use. And he got old and he couldn't stand up no more. And he went
and sat underneath his son as his pastor. And he would tell
the congregation, he said, our pastor tells us these things.
Now our pastor told us to do this and that's what we're gonna
do. How could that be? God can do it, can't he? That
was the problem with mankind when Christ walked this earth.
We like him miracles. That's great. You make a whole
bunch of wine. We like wine. That's good wine,
too. You make a whole bunch of fishes and biscuits. Those things,
they're delicious. I've eaten a lot of sardines
lately. They're really good. We like that. You healed some
sick folks. We like being, I want to be healthy. I want all my
joints not to hurt. You start saying you're God,
we got a problem. Because if he's God, we got to bow to him.
The God, not a God. Kill him, get him out of here.
We're going to start giving up all the things we love and all
the things we bow to and all the things that we hold so dear.
And we're going to have to start worshiping. That's what it says there in
verse one. Leads us to verse one. Then Joseph
could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him. And
he cried, cause every man to go out from me. Depart. And there stood no man with him
while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. He kicked
everybody out. And he said, I'm just talking
to my brethren. He's going to reveal himself
to his brethren. I want to ask you a question.
Who did Joseph reveal himself to? His brethren. His brethren. He sent everyone
else away, and he just spoke to them alone. He did not reveal
himself to the Egyptians. He did not reveal himself to
everybody that happened to be standing around. He revealed
himself to his brethren. Several times, he's healed some
people in the New Testament, our Lord did. And it said he took
them from the multitude, didn't he? Took them out of that city,
took them off to the wayside, took them over here. He got them
alone. Not in a big production, and we got to get out a bunch
of kiddie pools, and we're baptizing people left and right. That's
an emotional event. This is a hard work, and he got
them by themselves, didn't he? Joseph was the only one that
could reveal Joseph to them. Pharaoh couldn't say, that's
your brother Joseph. He didn't even know they was related. He'd
already gave him a new name. He didn't even call him by Joseph's.
I can't pronounce that name. I'm gonna give you a name I can pronounce.
Which, that's a name I can't pronounce. I don't care about
where you come from, I like you. I'm gonna call you Bob from now
on. Call you Jimmy. You're gonna
work for me. He couldn't reveal that to him.
Those servants, they even spoke the language. They had translators
that translated from the Egyptian language to the Hebrew tongue.
That's the ones we looked last time. They said, hey, he's a
good master. Let me tell you about him. Do
what he says. But they couldn't reveal that.
They didn't know who the brethren was. They didn't know that was
his bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. Who knew that?
Joseph only. Even those brethrens didn't know
that was him. He had a different haircut, different clothes, different
accent. Only Joseph knew it, and only Joseph could reveal
Joseph, and only Christ knows who our brethren are, and only
he can reveal it. We can talk till we are blue
in the face, and it ain't gonna amount to a hill of beans. He's
gotta do it. Come hear about a man. Well,
that takes all my doing out of it. Well, good. Good. Get your hand out. Get my hand
out of it. I'll tell you, I get phone calls
from around this globe, people say, thank you for that message,
boy, that was good. And I said, I can tell you with
a clear conscience, it's absolute proof to me that the Lord did
it. Anytime I think, well, I'm real prepared, I wanna preach
this, this is gonna be good. People's like, all right, we'll see you
next week. You gonna fish anytime soon? And I know it, Lord proves
that to me. It ain't of me. He has to reveal
it. Joseph said back in chapter 42,
he knew his brethrens, but they knew him not. Ain't you thankful
that it's not on us to know Christ? It's on his thoughts towards
us. You've got to sort this out. You've got to lock yourself in
a basement with a bunch of old dead men commentaries, and you've got
to figure this gospel out. You ain't going to do it. He's going
to have to come to me, draw me near and reveal himself to me.
It's going to have to happen that way. Only God can reveal
God to a sinner. Isn't that what he asked? He
took those aside. He got them by himself, didn't
he? His apostles. And he said, who do men say that
I, the son of man, am? And they said, some say you're
John the Baptist. You're one of the Old Testament prophets
that's risen up sometime. Some say Elias. Others say Jeremiah's
cause you cry. You're the weeping prophet. Or
one of the other prophets. And he said, that's nice. Who
do you say that I am? I know you told me what man says.
Now, what about you? I've heard people say about preachers,
I follow the teachings of so-and-so. You said right, that's their
teachings. You said right, that's their teachings. He said, now
what do you say? What do you say? And Simon stood
up, Simon Peter, and he said, thou art the Christ, the son
of the living God. You're everything. You're the
ruler, the creator, the sustainer, the one that's going to get all
the glory, plumb, and teetotal. You're him. righteousness, salvation,
redemption, justification, everything, Jew. Go ahead. And our Lord said
to him, blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jonah. You know what comes
next, don't you? For flesh and blood hath not
revealed this unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
This is a work of God. God revealed God to a sinner. God says so. Well, ain't no well. That's a deep subject, you fall
in it. God reveals God to a sinner. I know it probably seems like
I'm laboring that a whole lot. How many people has Christ not revealed
to this morning? He's all over. I didn't touch
on that, but Caiaphas, whenever he had said that one man must
die, the rest of it, he said that not of himself. He didn't
believe that. He just said it out loud. Sometimes
bad men will say good things. 99% of rat poison is real good rat
food. Isn't it? Is that a little bit of leaven
okay for you? Well, they say some good things. There's some
other people I wish to hear this today. They say some good things. Would you
bound up with them? Why does God do that? Why does
the Lord allow somebody to say something that's a truth? To
hold them accountable. That ain't me being mean. I don't
wanna yell that. I wanna cry. People's facing
it in eternity against a God they've offended. Outside of
Christ, that's a scary, terrible thing. A musician died last month
and I cried. I never met the man. I wished
I could have preached the gospel to him. And then I think back
of people that we know that's died. Did I tell them? Had a bunch of friends died.
Did I tell them the gospel? I want to. There's so many people that
Christ has not revealed to this morning. They have Bibles and
suits and churches and everything else and good, good, better doctrine.
I got good theology. He's come to us. He's got a little,
just a few of them out of those millions of people in Egypt.
Millions of them. Joseph kicked every one of them
out and said, I want them right there. Give me them 11. I'm going
to talk to them. Lord may have 11 in here today.
Maybe more than that. Special, isn't it? Special. I
told you last hour, if our gospel be hid, what Paul told Corinth,
it's hid to them that are lost, whom the God of this world hath
binded, the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of
the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine unto them. How many people hear the name
Jesus? How many people hear the name Christ? How many people
hear the name Lord? How many people hear the word
God this morning? And the whole time they're hearing
that, the Lord Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, is head to
him. It's sad to me. Joseph revealed
himself to those 11. Paul said there in 1 Corinthians
2, he said, We speak the wisdom of God in the mystery, even the
hidden wisdom, which God hath ordained before the world to
our glory, which none of the princes of this world knew. For
if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of
glory. But as it is written, I hath not seen, nor ear heard,
nor hath entered into the heart of man the things which God hath
prepared for him that love him. But God hath revealed them unto
us by his Spirit. What's all the particulars? Sometimes
it's good to don't be focused on the minor. Just get the major
points, you know what I mean? The small particulars of things.
Get the broad strokes. Let's get the principle first.
What kind of door handles are we going to have in glory? Who
cares? What's glory? It's a person and that's who
we're going to be. He told us that. We're going to be with
it. We're going to be made like him. What's that mean? I don't really
know, but I like it already. He already smells good. So whatever
he smells like, it's going to be great. I'll tell you later. You'll tell me too. God's revealed those to us by
his spirit. It searches all things, even
the deep things of God. He's revealed that to us. We
read that in John 6, he said, but I said unto you, you have
also seen me, but you believe not. Let's turn over to that,
John 6, 36. He talks a lot about seeing,
maybe we ought to see, look at it. John 6, 36. We'll start at verse 35. They
told him that their fathers ate manna in the desert. He said,
what are you talking about? He said unto them, barely, barely.
I'm sorry, verse 35. Jesus said unto them, I am the
bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. And he that believeth on me shall never thirst. Right
there is the bread of life in front of them, the living waters.
Verse 36, But I said unto you that ye also have seen me, and
believed not. All that my Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out. Your physical eyes have looked
on my physical presence, and you didn't believe. But all that's
given to me shall come to me. Look down at verse 40. And this
is the will that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son,
and believeth on him, may have everlasting life, and I will
raise him up at the last day." He's going to have to be revealed.
How does he do that? Through the preaching of the
gospel. How are they going to hear? How are they going to believe
unless they hear? How are they going to hear unless they preach? How are they going to preach
unless they be sent? They know they're nothing too.
Lord will send them. The only way God saves sinners
is through the preaching of the gospel. It's foolishness to the
world. I told y'all I had a bunch. They
said, why, what do you, you ain't from here. People said, where
are you from? I said, East County. I'm from Hamoul. They said, no
you ain't. Why in the world would you come from all the way over
there to come all the way over here just to preach? There's billions of
people around this world. Why would they get you? I don't know.
Lord put me, Lord put me here. Because it pleased Him. They
said, that's foolish. That's what He said you'd say. Back
in our text in Genesis 45. He got them all. He cried for
everybody else to go away. Genesis 45 verse 2. And he wept aloud. How aloud. And the Egyptians in the house
of Pharaoh heard real loud. He cried out loud. I wondered
why that was a verse by itself. That thought made me think of
another short verse. Lazarus had died, and there's a whole
bunch of people came to go cry and mourn him, because he had
favor among all men. Everybody in the town liked him.
He's a good guy. What we would call a good guy. The Lord's dwelled
in him. He lived peaceably with all men.
And a whole mess of them showed up. The Jews were there, and
they was crying too. They was upset. And it says in
John 11, 35, Jesus wept. loud enough for the Jews to hear.
Then said the Jews, behold how he loved him. Behold how he loved
him. They witnessed the love of God
towards one of his sinners, one of his chosen elect, one of those
that he was gonna make righteous. And they said, boy, he loves
him. Boy, he loves him. Verse three, and Joseph said
unto his brethren, love's the cause of all this. 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. They did not start dancing in
an aisle. They didn't start jumping pews. Did they stand up and start
clapping? This is great news, woo! They didn't put on a show. They were troubled. They trembled,
just like every saint of old, just like every saint in that
day that this was taking place, just like every saint now. We
fall down and we make obeisance. I auto-corrected to obedience,
and that's good. I was glad I auto-corrected that.
We made obeisance and obedience by bowing to him. They were shut
up. They were shut up. This is the
one we killed. That's a good place to be. They
don't stay that way. It ain't always that. We don't
just walk around wearing hair suits going, oh, look at my sin.
I'm so sad. No, they're going to move on
from that, but that happens. That happens. They had an understanding. This was the one that they hated.
Remember whenever you hated him? Now it would come in the form
of, well, I went to church and I had a Bible and I read about
God and I did these things. You hated him. You'd have killed
him if you got a chance. He has to reveal that in us.
That was the very one they killed, that was the very one they threw
in that pit, and they also understood with that. It wasn't just like,
well, we threw him in the pit once, we throw him in the pit
again, can't we? Oh, no, uh-uh, we have a full picture now. Hold
on, that very one that we hated, we were at war with from birth,
from conception, he's on the throne. That very one we offended,
he has all the power. The very one we wanted to murder
and put his blood on his coat and fake his death or whatever. Just get him out of the picture.
Slavery or something. He gets all the recognition.
He has all authority. He's just to kill us immediately,
right now. You been there? I pray you have. I pray you have. Until there is something to be
saved from, there's no need of a savior. I know a good church going people
has been saved forever and ever. Until there's something that's
to be saved from, there is no need of a savior. He's gonna save us from something.
That's his name. We have his hymns, and you can't
rewrite all of them. Oh, it's just from a little kid. It doesn't
sit good with me. Oh, Jesus did this. Say curse words or something,
or talk about rap music. I don't know, something else.
Oh boy, it crawls all over me. He says call his name Jesus.
The scriptures say that, so it's right, but there's reverence
there. That's the Lord. That's the king.
That's the master. That's God Almighty. The Lord
Jesus Christ. But the scriptures say, you're
gonna bring forth a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for,
that means because, he shall save, who? His people, from something. From their sins. I know some
people just got so holy they don't sin no more, I guess. And
I said, you're gonna have a hard time praying to God, what do
you mean? I said, he told us to pray, forgive us our sins
as we forgive others. When you ain't got no sins to
be forgiven, you ain't gotta worry about praying to him. I guess
you got this all by yourself. I'm a sinner. Tell me all the good
things you did. I can't talk. I'm like his brother.
Where's the father? That's groanings. That's a good place to be. Groanings
that can't be understood, huh? When we first see the Lord Jesus
Christ, the first thing that engulfs a sinner is guilt. It's
trouble. It's fear. We're in trouble.
We have a need, right? We're hungry, just like in bones,
valley dry bones. Whenever they had life and the
Lord had saved them and there's a new creation in them, they
said, we're gonna die. You just was dead. You're actually
alive now. You thought you was fine when
you bunch of whited bones, bunch of whited sepulchers. That's
what happened to Peter. When the Lord first came to him,
we looked last hour and saw how the second time he come to him,
told him to cast their nets, didn't he? When the Lord saw
Simon Peter, he fell down at Jesus's knees and said, depart
from me, for I'm a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished. And all that were with him at
the draw of the fish is what they had taken. And so also was
James and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were with partners with
Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, fear not. You hit the ground,
buddy. This is eternal life and death. We ain't playin' church on Sunday
mornings. This ain't just what we do. We ain't goin' to church.
This is eternal life and death, and we see what we are, and we
fall down and we're speechless. Depart from me, I'm a sinful
man. And the Lord spoke to Peter, only to, just as Joseph spoke
only to his brethren, didn't talk to him. He didn't talk to
everybody. He said, that's good, we heard some stuff. He talked to
those that were in bowing, that were brought low, and he says,
fear not. Fear not. That's good news. I could say, don't be afraid.
And my word ain't good for nothing. If God speaks to the heart of
his people, fear not. That's good. That's good. He's the only one who can do
it. He said, from henceforth, thou shalt catch men. I'm going
to put you to work. You're mine. I bought you. I'm
yoking you up. I'm putting a yoke on you. When that trouble and
that fear and that guilt comes to us in totality, we need comfort. I do. I need comforted. I got bad news, and now I need
good news. I wouldn't know there's no need of good news if it didn't
have the bad news. I think everything's mediocre, lukewarm, and all right.
I need good news. We need to be told to fear not,
not to be troubled. It says there in Genesis 45,
verse four. And Joseph came unto his brethren. He said to them,
Joseph said unto his brethren, come near to me, I pray you.
Come near. And they came near. What a sentence. And he said, I am Joseph, your
brother, whom you sold into Egypt. He says, fear not. Come, come
close. You're all right. Come here. I'm your brother.
That one he sold into Egypt, but I'm your brother. You get
that? I'm your brother. Hebrews 2 says,
for he, both he that sanctifies and they who are sanctified are
all of one. We are united with him for the
witch cause. Because he's united himself to
us. And all the things that I was
and still see that I am, the sin that I am, he became that
and made us righteousness of God in him. And because of that
unity, for the which cause, he's not ashamed to call them brethren. I can't get rid of that. Just
as easy as I can call you on the phone and say, hey brother, how
you doing? The Lord could speak to you, hey brother. That make
you weak in the knees? You remember how much gas is
done at Circle K? I don't care. God speaks to your heart, you
know what I'm saying? You'll fill that car up, don't worry
about it. I want to hear him call me brother, saying, I will
declare thy name, thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the
church while I sing praises unto thee. That's what Joseph's about
to do, isn't it? He's come here, I'm your brother. I'm your brother.
I'm not ashamed to call You brethren, I'm ashamed to call myself a
brother most of the time. I'm ashamed to call myself a
brother, but he's not. Think about that. That work's
finished. It's right. Later on in Hebrews, it says,
now they desire a better country that isn't heavenly. Wherefore,
God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared
for them a city. He's not ashamed to be our God.
You ever own something and you didn't want your friends to see
it? Just tuck that away. Friends
are coming over. Hide those things. The Lord ain't
ashamed of us, and we won't be ashamed to trust in him. He's
not our judge, he's not our jury, he's not our executioner, he's
our brother, he's our advocate, and he's our redeemer. Is he
the judge, the jury, and executioner? You better believe it. He got some people. Silas, get
out of here. I'm talking to these. Come here. You don't mind. I'm
your brother. I'm your brother. Come near to
me. All that the father has given
me shall come to me and I will draw them. And he says, I will
allure them in the scriptures. And he says, I will speak comfort
to their hearts. And that Hosea, he said, I'm
going to lure her in a wilderness. Verse four says, and Joseph said
unto his brethren, come near to me. I pray you. He didn't
say if you, if you pretty well, please. I just love it. All I want in this world is for
you to come near to me." He did not say that. He had authority. He said, come near to me. And
he was kind about it. He said, I pray you. Look at
what a sentence. Here's a sentence. The Lord's
gonna gather his people together, not scatter them to the four
winds. He said, tell the East, give it up. South, bring forth
my children. Bring them together. What a sentence. He said, come near to me, I pray
you, period. And they came near, period. I hope that sinks in. I hope that sinks in. They came
near. The Lord Jesus Christ ain't a
beggar. You know why I don't chase people out in the parking
lots? He don't chase people out in the parking lots. I say bow
to him. I don't invite people, and I don't share the gospel
salvation program, whatever, to people. I command people,
bow to him. I command people, he's glorious.
Adore him. It ain't harsh, they ain't gonna
do it with a whip, I pray not, but he commands it, and his people
will come. They will, they will. Come near
to me. They came near. They obeyed the
voice of their brother. Verse five, now therefore be
not grieved nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither. Don't
be mad at yourself for doing this. You did it, but don't be
mad at yourself for doing it. Four, God did send me before
you to preserve life. The Lord did this. He sent me
to Egypt, so that way you wouldn't die. This happened so you would
live. Grace for grace, didn't it? Prevenient
grace is the fancy word. Grace that goes before. What
kind of grace is that? That's grace grace. What about
the grace that comes after? That's grace too. Why distinguish the things? Why?
Oh, you want to go with the bucket? You're so wise. You know what
bucket grace comes out of? God's good. He did it. We're
glad. Worship Him. Thank Him for it.
The Lord's prepared. Sit Him before you so you live.
Preserve life. We don't excuse our sin. We don't
ignore our sin. I want to learn from it. I don't
want to do it again. But it's been put away. And the sin I'm
going to commit, whether it's in my driveway or in my heart
or whatever, the forsaken of the Lord I'm going to do, that's
put away. Name it. Get all technical as
you want. However way you want to cut that
pie. The Levitical law, the Mosaic law, the moral law, the this,
the that, the whatever. I broke it all and he put it
all away. His blood covers all of it. Now I'm still here. And what was Rahab's name? Rahab
the harlot. That ain't changed. Who's God
come say? Sinners. That's who he come to
say. That's good news, isn't it? Grace for grace. David knew
that. You know that. Lord, if you gonna
mark iniquities, who shall stand? But there's forgiveness with
thee, that thou mayest be feared, honored. You will grieve now,
but let not your heart be troubled. It's gonna get worse. My mom
used to tell me that. She'd say, oh, you think it's
bad now? Wait till them children grow up. And they're grown. They have
children. It's going to be a boy. I said, could you lie for five minutes? She
said, no, I love you. She told me the truth. You see
your sin now, and that's good. You have to. The Lord finally
working in somebody. Good. And I don't want to tell
you unless you ask, but it's going to get worse. So long as
you walk in this light, the darker this flesh becomes. This world
gets more wicked and more wicked and more wicked. What if I was
the only one on it? Let me tell you a secret. This world gets
more wicked and more wicked and more wicked because I'm on it.
You see yourself more and more and more. And then with that,
you see his need, the need of him. You see his grace more and
more and more. Peter was grieved. He was going
to deny the Lord three times. And then he did. And then he
was broken. And then he wept. And then he did it again. We're
sad now. It's going to get worse. You
just look to him. Look to your elder brother. Look
at verse 6. Genesis 45, 6. For these two years hath the
famine been in the land. All this trouble God sent, why?
To bring these brothers together. I mean, the whole world was under
a famine. So 11 brothers would go meet
their other brother that they wanted to kill. That's something,
isn't it? Took a while. There was seven
years of plenty. Well, there's years of him being
in Potiphar's house and everything else. And then there was seven years
of plenty. And now it's been two whole more years and everybody's
real hungry. That's a famine, worldwide. And Joseph said, don't
be angry with yourself. Come here, come near. I'm your
brother. Now, it's been two years since the famine's been to land,
and yet there are five years in the which there shall neither
be earing nor harvest. That's gonna get thin for a lot
longer. That's so. If you only experience two years
of famine, that's going to get worse. But doesn't our sin continues
to get worse on our own side? Doesn't it? Why? Why would the
Lord be pleased to do such a thing? That old songwriter got it. The
hymn writer got it. This world grows strangely dim
in the light of his glorious grace. The more we see him, the
more ready we are for going home. We are. I think People say, I
hope you don't die. Well, I hope I do. It'd be wonderful.
I could go be with the Lord. I think I still have something
for him to, he has me to do on this earth. I have a family to
raise and hopefully a gospel to preach and work to do. I'm going to be a servant, a
profitable servant. If they said you're dying tomorrow, Kevin.
Good. I can't go home. I just can't
imagine another, another 43 years. If I make it to 86, you think
I'll be ready? My dear sister, Doris, tells Paul and Mindy all
the time. She's like, this is the last Christmas. She's 99.
Her birthday's two days after my birthday. She just turned
99. She's been telling them for 10 years. This is it. You better
come over to have Thanksgiving with me. I'm going home. I said,
Mom, would you? Why? That's what she wants. That's
the best thing that could happen to her. If you know God. It ain't. It's the worst thing that happened
to you. We're wired that way instinctively
ain't you? You see a little kid about to jump off in a big alligator
pit? I hope. Nowadays, everybody just holds
a phone on them and records it. They used to. You just instinct. Hey,
my child. Maybe it's a horrible child.
Might be mean. But you just instinct reach out and grab that child
and not let it fall in an alligator pit, wouldn't you? Why? Deep
down inside, we know we've offended a holy God. So. Verse seven. That's bad, but all provision's
been made. Genesis 45, 7. And God sent me before you to
preserve you a posterity in the earth and to save your lives
by a great deliverance. This ain't some mediocre deliverance.
This is a great deliverance. Do you concur? You agree? This
is a great salvation. So now it was not you that sent
me hither, but God. And he hath made me a father
to Pharaoh, and a lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout
all the land of Egypt. That's what was told to us in
Acts 2. Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God, you've taken, and by wicked hands have
crucified. You were the means that was used,
but God did this. God did this for good, for our
good and his glory. Verse 9. Haste ye, and go up
to my father, and say to him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God
hath made me lord of all Egypt. Come down unto me and tarry not.
Thy kingdom comes, what we're taught to pray in. Christ is
the ruler of all. Lord, thy kingdom come. And thou
shalt dwell in the land of Goshen. That's the best land to head.
We'll put you in a choice spot. And thou shalt be near unto me.
I'm gonna be all by myself with him. No, that ain't the case.
Thou and thy children and thy children's children. Well, we're
gonna have some things that's gonna be need to taken care of,
Joseph. Don't worry about that. And your flocks, and your herds,
and all that thou hast. Everything you have will be near
to me. And there will I nourish thee. For yet there are five
years of famine. We still got a long time to go.
I'm gonna nourish you. And I'm gonna do it. Because if you had
to do it, you ain't gonna make it. I'm gonna do it. Lest thou
and thy household and all that thou hast come to poverty. I'm
going to do that. I'm going to keep you from being
impoverished. There's a lot of blessings that
take place by being the proximity of the child of God. I've watched
that happen for several decades, whether that be in war or business
or a whole lot of things I've lived through. People around
me have been blessed just because the Lord was pleased to put me
there. And he's going to bless me and he blessed them in turn.
And I hope I wasn't arrogant when I told them about it. But
it's so. That's what the Lord told us
in Matthew 5, that ye may be the children of your Father which
is in heaven, for he maketh the sun to rise on the evil and the
good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust. He makes
their corn grow too, because I got corn that needs to grow. We've been nourished greatly,
haven't we? I had that Reagan quote in the
next page. We've been nourished greatly. We better off four years
than we was four years ago. Every time we come in here, that
alabaster box, remember what Judah said, why are you wasting
that? That's a year's salary. Boy, we could use that money
good somewhere else. And the whole room was filled with that
smell. It went everywhere. Couldn't keep from it. I pray,
Lord's with us. Every time we open this together,
we have been given this ministry and we preach Christ and this
right now, That alabaster box is opened up and you smell him.
We get a whiff. It smells good. Smells good,
doesn't it? We've been provided for. He's
nourished us. And those that's been given noses
to smell, they smell. You've been given ears to hear,
you hear. You've been given hearts to understand, you understand,
you believe. You've been given noses, you smell too. And he
smells good. He said, blessed are the poor
in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Is this only about not being
in trouble and being taken care of? Everybody wants that. I've said that to you a bunch,
ain't I? You can never get another speeding
ticket in your life. You're free from the law of speeding tickets.
I won't speed all the time, but I'll do 10 over or whatever.
I'll drive quick. Everybody wants freedom from
the law. Well, I'm going to have needs. And if I found me a sugar
daddy that's going to pay my rent and keep food on the table,
that's good. This is because of love. That's
just necessary things. We need protection, we need provision,
we need to be nourished, and all those things, but the source
of that is love. Look here at verse 12. And behold, your eyes
see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth
that speaketh unto you. This ain't through somebody else,
this ain't read in a book, this ain't saw on a television screen,
this is one-on-one, eye-to-eye. Here's her and you shall tell
my father of all my glory in Egypt and of all that you have
seen and you shall hasten bring it down to my father hither and
He fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept and Benjamin wept
upon his neck That's most important. We get a watch. It's better than
that moreover he kissed all his brethren and wept upon them and
after that his brethren talked with him and He fell upon his
brethren, kissed them, kissed them, kissed them good too. Hugged
them, loved them and they fell on him and they weeped with him
and they kissed him. That holy kiss, didn't they?
Had sweet communion and then they talked with him. I just
think the magnificence it'll be. Adam walked in the garden
with God. Noah walked with God, Enoch walked
with God, Adam walked with Him. I mean, right there. We're going
to walk with God. Sit down and talk with Him. What
communion? Why? Because He loved us. When
we didn't love Him, we were unlovable. He loved us and He provided for
us. He nourished us and He kept us,
protected us. I pray the Lord be pleased to
send His Holy Spirit and reveal Christ to us and show us our
need and our guilt and shut us up to sin, make us bow to the
King and then speak comfort to us and say, come near, I'm your
brother and show us this temporary provision that we have and the
eternal provision by being reunited with the Father. Father's going
to be there with us and being justified and sanctified and
risen in Him. That it's done. That's a land
of Goshen. That's a pretty good patch of
ground, isn't it, to be on? All right, that's pretty good. Father, we see through a glass
dimly, but oh, what a sight. What a king we have, what an
elder brother we have. Lord, thank you for putting us
in Christ before this world was. Thank you for trusting your elect,
the one who is faithful. Thank you for the faith of Christ
you've given us to believe him. Thank you for your nourishment
you give us in these hard famines that we're in right now, Lord.
Thank you for the time to come that we don't yet understand.
Thank you for the brethren that weep with us desire to hug your
neck like all the other ones do. Thank you for these things,
Lord, forgive us for what we are. We ask these things because
our forerunner makes intercession for us and we're thankful for
that. It's because of Christ. Amen.