All right, thank you. All right, back to Chapter 41.
Let's read a couple of verses again. Now, let's read verses 55 through
57 again, Chapter 41 of Jensen. And when all the land of Egypt
was famished, people cried to Pharaoh for bread. And Pharaoh
said unto all Egyptians, Go unto Joseph, what he saith to you. And the famine was over all the
face of the earth. And Joseph opened all the storehouses
and sold unto the Egyptians. famine waxed sore in the land
of Egypt. Now all countries came into Egypt
to Joseph for to buy corn because famine was so sore in all lands. This is such an appropriate message
for this time, isn't it? Though these are the most affluent
times, yet these are Paralysed times, a
spiritually dry time, dead time. There's a famine, which Hosea
prophesied a famine, not of bread, but of the hearing of the word.
It says you have to go a long ways to find it. So we're in
that time. We're not in that time. The world
is in that time. We are blessed. We're eating
fat things and drinking wine on the leaves. How blessed we
are. While the world is feeding on mere husks of religion, we
eat five coarse meals every time. Five, mind you. And it says that famine was over
all the face of the earth. All the places, no place where
this famine did not reach. And the scripture says in Adam
all die. All men are dead, born dead in
sin. Scripture says all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. Scripture says they're all
together become unprofitable. And it says that the king of
Egypt, Pharaoh, said, if you want something, you've got to
go to Joseph. He told everyone, all over, whoever it was, the
whole world, was to report to Joseph. If he wanted something,
anybody wanted something, it doesn't matter where they were.
There's only one person that had it. Joseph. And what a picture this is, the
Lord Jesus Christ, whom God hath made Lord over all, whom Christ
said, he's given me authority over how much, how many men,
what part of the world? All flesh. Didn't he say that? As thou hast given him authority
over all flesh to give eternal life to as many as thou hast
given him. Listen to Colossians. It says,
In Christ, all things were created in heaven and earth, visible
and invisible, thrones, dominions, principalities of power, and
all things were created by him and for him. And he is before
all things, and by him all things consist. Whether men and women
know it or not, everything they receive is by the grace of God
in Jesus Christ. It comes from the hands of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who opens the storehouses
to all flesh. Whether they know Him or not,
whether they acknowledge Him or not, they're getting it from Christ.
And they're accountable to believe Him. Paul said, have they not
heard? Yes, they have. The sound is
going all over. And all men are accountable to
the Lord Jesus Christ. God's going to judge this world
by that man. whom he hath ordained, and given
all things into his hand." So this is such a clear picture,
isn't it? It says the famine was sore. You see it? Verse 56. The famine was sore, waxed sore
in the land of Egypt. Verse 57 says in the last line,
famine was so sore in all the land. In other words, it was
a matter of life That's what that meant. It was
so sober. People were dying. And this thing
of the gospel was a matter of life and death. Things are desperate in this
world. They really are. And sick and sore times. All right. I have two points
to this outline. I didn't give you an outline
this time. Number one, nobody say anything
about the other one. So, besides the fact this was only
two points. Two points. I don't need to write them down.
All right, number one is our desperate need. You're taking
notes. Our desperate need. And the second
point is the good news. All right, our desperate need.
Look with me. It says his famine was sore in
all the land. Look over at Luke chapter 10
very quickly. Luke chapter 10. And I sure don't
want to go as long tonight as I did Sunday morning. It's sure hard to know what to
leave out, though. It's just everything's so good. Like you
ladies, that's why you prepare so many courses and so much food. Luke chapter 10. We're poor and
needy. We're all poor and needy. We're
born that way and we'll be that way till we die, spiritually
poor and needy. We don't have wisdom, we don't
have righteousness, we have nothing. We're the only animal on earth
that can't make it on its own. We're the only animal on earth
born without a company. We're barefoot and naked. We
couldn't live a minute. Without a parent, without help.
Can't walk till we're well up in age. So we're poor. We don't have what we need. We're
needy. All our days we're needy. We
need a handout from our God. We're cherry cases. But there's one thing needful.
Truly, one thing that we all need all the days of our life.
Look at Luke chapter 10. It's a matter of life and death,
one thing will meet our need. Verse 38, it came to pass as
they went, they entered into a certain village, a certain
woman named Martha received him into her house. She had a sister
called Mary, which sat at Christ's feet and heard his words. But Martha was cumbered about
much serving. She was fine serving, but the
problem was she was cumbered about it. Nothing wrong with
serving. It's a good thing. Our Lord commends
serving, but not when you're cumbered with it. And it says, she came to him
and said, Lord, and this is what being cumbered about with anything
will do to you. Start complaining to the Lord. Even charging him. Lord. Don't you care. I get you in a bad shape. If you
leave off the one thing. And be covered about with any
other thing no matter how. Needful it is no matter how.
Possible it may be no matter how. Virtuously, my dear, if
you leave off the one thing, you get in a bad shape. And she
said, Lord, don't you care my sister had left me to serve alone? Bid her, tell her to help me. Christ answered and said unto
her, Martha, Martha. He said it with such compassion,
I know, yet gentle rebuke. Thou art careful in trouble,
about many things. But one thing. It's. One thing. And Mary had chosen that. Area. And it's not going to be taken
away. What's that what was married. Listening to Christ here in the
gospel one thing is. And everything else must take
a backseat to the. One thing is needful to hear
the gospel. It's a matter of life or death. Everything and
everyone else needs to be put aside for this, because this
is the one thing needful. If you don't, if anything else
takes the place of this, you'll get just like Martha. Troubled
and full of care. All right, so this is the one
thing needful. David said it, and Saul turned back to the text.
David said it in Psalm 27, he said, One thing have I desired
of the Lord, and that's what I'm going after. That I may dwell
in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold
the beauty of the Lord, and inquire in his temple. One thing has
caught my eye, he said. One thing has my affection. One
thing needful. I had a woman call me on the
phone. As I was preparing this message
yesterday, a 52-year-old widow, and I feel poor, I really do.
She said she was on disability, and I get these calls every single
day. And she wanted some assistance,
said the fire company was going to cut her heat off Monday or
something like that. After she had children, said,
Yes, I have a son. I said, What kind of son is he? He let his mother go without
heat. Anyway, said, Do you go somewhere? Do you go to church?
Oh, yes, I go somewhere. I said, What kind of church is
that? Let one of their members go without
heat? You know, well, anyway, I finally said to her, in the
course of this conversation, I said, Well, What I tell them
all, we don't have much silver and
gold, but what we have, we'll give unto you. I said, you come
down with us, we'll do you good. You come here, you come here
and you'll hear the one thing. I said, I guarantee you, we get
to know you, you'll never be forsaken or beg and pray. Huh? Anybody in here about to have
your heat turned off, please let me know right now. Sad, isn't it? Sad. Well, one thing, people. Our
Lord said, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds
from the mouth of God. Every word is meaningful. One
thing, people. God's words, God's gospels, God's
truth, and every word is the truth. You can't live without
any of them, the whole Council. Well, Christ is life, and he
that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son hath
not life. I don't care how much of this life they have, if they
don't have the Son, they don't have life. So this is life. He
that hath the Son hath life. Well, all right. Now there was
a great need of breath. here in our store. It was a desperate
condition. They were all in a desperate
condition. They had one thing needful. And it was a great need
of bread. Much bread was needed. Jacob's
family, by this time, was very large. He had, well, eleven sons
at home. Twelve, really. And they had
sons, and their sons had sons, grandchildren. they said that
you and John I was talking about how sorry the sons of Jacob were. Apparently they were all still
living at home. And Jacob was taken care of. What a sorry bunch,
the sons of Jacob are. And anyway, there were over 70
people in Jacob's house. He needed a lot of bread, didn't
he, huh? A lot of bread. Jacob's family's
a lot better, and they all needed one thing. One thing, bread. And they needed a lot of it.
They needed every day, every day's worth, you know. One helping
wasn't going to get it. You see the picture here. And
everyone in here needs one thing. We all need Christ. Young or
old, all of Jacob's sons, grandsons, male, female, they all needed
the one thing. Young, old, male, female, we
all need Christ. One thing. And there's much mercy
and much grace needed. Not just today, but tomorrow
and all the days of our life. And there's only one person who
has it. One person. Much bread needed,
and Joseph had it. Look at chapter 41, and he had
a lot of it. Look at verse 49. Chapter 41
says, Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea. How much?
Very much. Until what? He quit counting
it. It was without number. How much
corn did Joseph have? Did he have enough to spare for
Jacob's son? Where do you see what they go home with? Where
do you see what they go home with? He had enough for anybody
that wanted it. And it appears to me, Steve,
it appears to me that whatever you bought, he'd fill it up.
If you bought a wagon, it didn't matter. It didn't say everybody
was allotted one homer of grain. It just said he opened the storehouses.
It depends on how hungry you were. It depends on what you
asked for. I bet Joseph would have been
honored and flattered if somebody said, hey, I want five tons.
Sure. You do honor me. I wish I could
think of that story right now. Oh well, don't have time. Anyway,
so he had much grain, much food, and our Lord has much mercy.
Much mercy, enough to go around, and more to spare, isn't it?
It endures forever. Well, look at Chapter 42. There
was no food anywhere with anyone, anywhere or anything. There's
no food anywhere. There's only one place to find
this food. And look at Chapter 42, verse 1, says, Well, when
Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his
sons, Why do you look one on another? Apparently, And like
we were saying, John, they were there all just standing around
doing nothing. But you and he were talking, just looking at
each other. What a bunch. Looking at one
another. Levi said to Simeon, you got
any bread? No. Simeon said to Reuben, you
got any, huh? Ask Benjamin, he doesn't have
any either. What about old Zed, John? Don't
think so. They tried everyone. Nobody had. No one could help
each other. Story with Prodigal Son. Prodigal
Son said after he wasted all he had, and he began to be in
war, he went to his friends. That's that. Went to all his
old cronies. And none of them, none of them
would help him. None of them could help him. There was only one place he could
go. It goes back to the problem. It had to come to himself. And
you know, man, it says here in chapter 51 that they all cried
to Joseph for bread. Man gets in strife, doesn't he?
Man gets in trouble, all kinds of trouble. They call on God. And quite often, well, whatever
man receives, he receives from God, doesn't he? Everything's
mercy. But too often, man calls on man
to help. I saw, I was watching a show
the other night, some woman was in one of these confessional
booths, you know, pouring out her, confessing her sins and
stuff to a little man sitting behind that booth. What a shame,
isn't it? He can't do anything about his
own sin. As a matter of fact, he's enjoying what he's hearing. But men, women call on men, or
even women to help. They call on the priest, call
on the minister, psychiatrists, counselors. Big business. Psychic, psychic readers. I even heard one time, you're
not going to believe this. a so-called grace preacher. This man claimed
to be a grace preacher, and he started having a nervous breakdown. That immediately made him suspect
to me. Anyway, he called on a Christian psychiatrist. A Christian psychiatrist. Would
somebody tell me what that is, please? A Christian psychiatrist. But anyway, our problem's too
big. Here's the problem. Our problem's
too big and too great for any mere mortal man to take care
of. Our problem's a heart problem. Our problem's a sin problem.
And there's only one that can take care of it. Only one. Sin's our great problem. Our
great need is mercy. Number one, mercy. Our great
need is grace. God's the God of all grace. Our
great need is salvation. We need a great salvation. Salvation
is of the Lord. So we have to go to Him. And
we're going to have to be like the prodigal. We're going to have
to come to ourselves, come to our senses, to see our desperate
condition and our great need, and go to the only one that can
do anything about it. Go back to the Father, confessing our
unworthiness, confessing our sins, and you know what He'll
do? He does it for all prodigals.
Every time he kills a fat calf, he brings the best brother, puts
a ring on the finger, shoes on the feet, every time, for every
problem. Yes, he does. So we've got a
desperate need, a desperate condition. There's only one that can meet
it. Our Joseph, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's no accident or mere
coincidence, brother, that the names sound familiar. Joseph,
Jesus Christ. All right. Here's the good news.
It's our desperate condition. Here's the good news. Now, Jacob
is like a gospel preacher here. Jacob represents a gospel preacher. Look at verse one again. When
Jacob saw that there was corn in the earth. Who saw it? Jacob. Paul said, I delivered unto you
that which I also received. In 1 Corinthians 15. I'm preaching
to you what I've heard. I'm going to declare unto you
what I heard, what I've received. Like my pastor always said, you
can't tell what you don't know any more than you can come back
to where you ain't been. And those who only you're going
to hear Christ from someone who's hurt Christ. You're going to
see Christ, someone who's seen him, seen his glory. Jacob saw
that there was corn in Egypt. He understood. Jacob saw, now
here's what Jacob, representing the gospel preacher, here's what
he saw. He saw that they all needed corn. Didn't he? This is what he saw. This is
what he talked about. This is what he told him to do.
In other words, Jacob had one message. Corn. It was a simple message, but
it was the best news they had ever heard. He saw they all needed
corn. Jacob needed corn. He needed
to eat that corn, didn't he? I need corn. And Jacob heard,
when he saw it means he heard. He didn't see, he didn't go there.
He didn't actually go there and see the coin. But he heard this
news from somebody, he said. And he understood the good news.
There's coin in Asia. He believed it, Brother Sam.
He believed it. Somebody told him. Jacob. Now Jacob was a faithful father.
Had to stay with that family, that being. Faithful father. Faithful man. Took him years
to get this way. Old Jacob. You remember old Jacob,
don't you? Well, now he's finally, he's
a good man. He's a faithful man. Father of
many. And they came to him at this
time, you know, the big family, you've got various problems,
right? You're having sons and daughters-in-law
and grandsons and grandchildren, all kind of problems. And they
all were coming to him at this very same time with various problems. You know, you got problems, corn
problems. Dad, my tent's about to break
down, I need a new tent. Dad, my chariot, I need a new
wheel. If I could just get new wheels on my chariot, things
would be so much better. Dad, my boss is just about to
get the best of me down at the grain mill, because there's no
grain. And, you know, they had various
problems at this time. And they were coming to Jacob
with all these problems. He said, boys, we all got one
problem. We just get this one problem
solved. We need corn. And what Jacob heard. Jacob,
when he saw it, said, it means he heard. What happened? This
is what happened. Someone was passing by one day.
He was down in Canaan. And somebody was passing, Jacob
was out on his porch or out in the garden or out looking at
the fields or up on the mountain or something, you know, looking
around. Praying, I'm sure he was, calling on his God. And
all of a sudden he sees a fellow going by with an old mule or
something, or a horse, and pulling a mule that's got sacks of grain on that mule. And Jacob saw that,
and he went running down there and said, hey, hey, what you
got there? He said, grain. Grain? Yeah, corn. And he said, Jacob said, where'd
you get it? Who'd you get it from? Where'd
you get it? The fellow said, I got it in Egypt. Well, you just went out there
and got it. Who's giving it? There's a lord
on the throne, a great king. He's a great man. He's a fearful
man. But he's a good man. And he'll
give corn out. You reckon he'll sell it to anybody?
I mean, we meet corn bags. You reckon they got enough to
go around? He said, well, all I can say is go up there and
try. So he heard the good news, didn't
he? That's what happened. That's exactly what happened. I bet he thought, I wonder if
there's any left. So here's the good news. He tells
the good news to these sons of Jacob, these sorry worthless
sons of Jacob. And you know, it's like someone
said years ago, gospel preaching, all it is, is one beggar telling
another beggar what he got to do. Right? So Jacob heard it too. Now I bet these things went through
his mind he's a man. And I bet several things went
through his mind he thought Egypt. And he looked at my map when
I made. Canaan and Egypt you know how
far that is? Egypt. I've got to go all the
way to Egypt. That's the only place there is
going. Egypt. He thought, well, it's a long
waste, but we won't die without it. He thought, now there's a great
lord on the throne down there, a great Egyptian lord, a great
Egyptian master, king, lord on the throne. And I hear they're
hard taskmasters. I know they are. I've heard the
story. And we're just a bunch of no-good Jews. Surely he won't
set grain to a bunch of Don't get you. This very long last
year on the problem is surely not. But we need it. And he thought even if we do
go down there we won't be able to afford it. It'll be too much
money it'll be great cost. But he thought we're going to
die without it. So we're going to venture if
we have to we'll sell everything we've got. And I don't care if
it's in the ends of the earth. We got to have cause. So here's
Jacob's announcement. Are you getting the picture here?
Here's Jacob's announcement. Jacob told everybody. Now this
happened. I know this happened. One day,
when he heard the news, Jacob told everybody, he said, gather
yourselves together. I don't know who he told, the
head or maybe Reuben, the oldest, said, get everybody together.
He said, forsake not the ascending of yourself together. So many
times I called, you don't come. You better come this time. Every
one of them. You miss out, you'll die. Is
it that serious, Dan? That serious? Now, I bet you
some of them made excuses. Sammy said, Dad, I'm sure it
pisses you. Send your son. You better hit that. Levi said,
that little wife's not feeling good today, and I doubt it. Levi,
you pick her up by the leg. You've got to hear this message. Get on down here, all my sons. Were they all there? Everyone. All the sons were there. They're
going to hear and they're going to learn about it. And they're
going to be sent to the brothers. Oh, I love this story. Don't
you think? Hey, get your children together. You don't want to miss
this. You'll die if you don't hear it. All right? Verse 2.
And verse 1, he said, Now don't confine you to standing around
looking at one another. Now, I just know that a shout
went out of that crowd. That there wasn't a hungry son
of Jacob. There wasn't a hundred-dollar
jacket. And when they heard the mention, corn, their eyes lit
up and their mouths opened wide. Is that right, Dad? Yes, it's
right. There's corn in Egypt. You chief
of sinners, hear these words. There's forgiveness within you.
There's forgiveness with God. You laboring and heavy laden,
hear these words. Come, and I'll give you rest. You hungry and thirsting for
righteousness, hear these words. You'll be filled. And all these
things added to you. Hear these words, you men of
Israel. There's a man on the throne,
and he just delights to open the door. Christ has made all
things, yes, there's corn, there's mercy, there's our God, grace. And look at his advice, again,
verse 2, he said, in verse 2, here's what you need to do, he
said, get you down. Get down. All of you, go down. And he said,
get down thither. Sounded like an urgent message,
didn't it? And he said, and buy for us from them that we may
live and not die. All of you, get down. All of
you, get to Christ. All of you, come down. All of
you, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God. All of
you, bow the knee to the Lord Jesus. Right now. It's life or death. Get now. Right now. Why will you die?
Buy. Come. Buy wine and milk. Now,
they took price. They did. But we're going to
see that it didn't cost the sons of Jacob anything. Joseph's brother. Let me let you in on a little
something. Up to this point, they're called
the sons of Jacob. But now that Joseph's on the
throne, from here on out, they're referred to as Joseph's brethren. Up to this point, there's no
good work with sons of Jacob. They're not a one-of-many count.
But since Joseph's on the throne, they're called Joseph's brethren. Joseph's brethren. Look at verse
3. So it says, and Joseph's ten brethren. Went down. Every one of them. Every one
of these sons bowed down. Went down. It's no accident that
Hainan was located up here in Egypt, that they had to go down
to get there. No mere geographical coincidence.
No, it's the spiritual truth. Everything, this is God's Word,
isn't it? It's too marvelous not to be. God's Word. And it says they went to buy
corn in Egypt, went to buy corn from a man they didn't know,
but he knew them. And he saw them coming. And they
come to him to buy wine and milk, cost what it made, no matter
how far it was, no matter how much they feared this great and
mighty king, they said we're going to die without it. So they
ventured, they went on a venture. But as we're going to see in
the rest of our story, it's free to family. It's free to family.
All you can hold. And you know something? That's
the end of it. Look over chapter 43. Chapter
43. Now, this is after they went
the first time, came back, went, came back. Chapter 43, look at
verse 1. And the famine was over in the
land. There was still a famine. Still a famine going on. And
verse 2 says, And it came to pass, when they had eaten up
the corn which they had brought out of Egypt, their father said,
You'd better go again. You'd better go again. Where? I just don't want a place to
go. He said, let's go again. They're out of bread. Let's go
back again. Same one. He'll give it to us
this time. I expect he will. Go anyway. We're going to die
without it. We're going to need this bread the rest of our day.
And stay tuned. It gets better. Sunday morning,
God willing, We're going to look at Joseph unknown his way. So read the rest of Chapter 42
in preparation for Sunday morning. And I hope we'll look at that
Sunday morning. All right, let's stand. Now, Father, thank you
for your word. We have indeed feasted upon it. Just one verse, two verses are
so full of our feasts of the Lord Jesus Christ, that
every truth, every truth, the whole counsel of God, when you
open it up to us, is seen, is understood in one line, one verse
of your marvelous word. I would thank you for it. Thank
you that we, that our elder brother, his king, his lord, master on
the throne. We need great mercy and grace
all the days of our lives, and we ask that in Christ's name
he'll continue to be merciful and gracious to us, and we believe
he will. We pray all these things in his name for his honor and
glory. Amen. You're dismissed. Thank you. Thank you.