Well, if you would, go back to
the book of Genesis and we'll once again visit toward the end
of Genesis chapter 42. I must correct something that
I said last Wednesday. I said I would be speaking this
evening on surety ship. But along the way toward that
message, I feel like the Lord kind of led me in a little different
direction. And so, the Lord willing, I'll
talk about assurity for Benjamin next Wednesday evening. But this
evening, I want to talk to you about a subject that I just became
very impressed with it. burdened with it, and that is,
here's the title of the message, A Despondent Jacob. A despondent Jacob. As you know, and you've been
here, all of you have been here, good many of you are watching,
have kind of kept up with us, Jacob's 10 sons, have now come
back from being interviewed by Joseph, whom they did not know.
He disguised himself, spoke in a different language, and Joseph
kept Simeon, their brother. And he said, you go home, you
tell me you have a younger brother, and you bring your younger brother
to me, and I'll know that you're not spies. And so here, As we
break into the reading in chapter 42 in verse 29, we find the ten
of the sons of Jacob come back. And so we read in 42, 29, and
they came unto Jacob their father unto the land of Canaan, and
told him all that befell unto them, saying, The man who is
the Lord of the land, that's Joseph, he spake roughly to us. He took us for spies of the country. And we said unto him, we are
true men. We're telling you the truth.
We're being honest with you. We have nothing here to hide. He said, we're not spies. It's what the men said. Verse
32, we be twelve brethren, twelve brothers, sons of our father. One is not. The youngest is this
day with our father in the land of Canaan. And the man, the Lord
of the country said unto us, Hereby shall I know that you're
true men. Leave one of your brethren here
with me. and take food for the famine
of your households, and be gone, and bring your youngest brother
unto me. Then shall I know that you're no spies, but that you're
true men. So will I deliver you your brother,
and ye shall traffic in the land.' And it came to pass as these
men emptied their sacks, that, behold, every man's bundle of
money was in his sack. And when both they and their
fathers saw the bundles of money, they were afraid. And Jacob their
father said unto them, and you can hear the despondency now
in his voice, as it were, He says, me have ye bereaved of
my children. Joseph is not, and Simeon is
not, and ye will take Benjamin away. All these things are against
me. And Reuben the elder, of course,
the firstborn son of Jacob, he spake unto his father, saying,
Slay my two sons, If I bring him not to thee, deliver him
into My hand, and I will bring him to thee again." Kind of an
off-the-cuff statement. And Jacob said, My son shall
not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he is left
alone. If mischief befall him by the
way into which ye go, then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with
sorrow to the grave." He said, you've done enough. You've done
enough. You're not going to take Benjamin
into Egypt. Now we know that the Lord has
sent a feast to Egypt and to that part of the world And now
he has sent a famine. He sent a great harvest, and
now he's sending a time of dearth. This is in fulfillment of the
dreams that Pharaoh had, which were interpreted by Joseph. And with the exception of Joseph,
who told Pharaoh all about the dreams, who advised his people
to, Pharaoh advised his people to take heed to the instructions
of Joseph, Zaphnath, Paonea, the revealer of secrets. With
the exception of them, nobody else knew about the bounty, nobody
else knew about the seven years of Great harvests that the Lord
had purposed and planned. Nobody knew anything of a great
end-gathering, of a record-breaking harvest that would be followed
by seven years of famine, seven years of food shortage. Outside
of Egypt and outside of those who were knowledgeable of exactly
what was going on, the people just enjoyed the abundance of
crops and probably said, we've never had it so good. My garden's
doing the best this year it's ever done. And then the next
year it's even doing better. And this went on for seven years
without most of them even knowing that which was the purpose of
God and that which had been predicted by Joseph. I think this is a beautiful picture. I know it's a beautiful picture
that there are glorious times when the preaching of the gospel
and the harvest of souls is wonderful and it's great. I looked after
our Lord's resurrection and then 40 days later, He ascended back
to heaven. There was an abundant harvest,
a spiritual harvest. People feasted on the Word of
God. People fed on that Bread of Life,
Christ the Lord, Christ the Savior who came down from heaven. And
preachers were called out by the Lord, instructed by the Savior
Himself just before His ascension, go ye into all the world and
preach the Gospel. And here they go, first of all
in Jerusalem, then in Judea, and then in Samaria, and then
the uttermost parts of the earth. influx, a great harvest for the
glory of God. Souls were saved. People were
listening to the gospel of grace, the gospel of substitution, the
gospel of what God has to do for men. And men and women and
young people were brought to the point to say, men and brethren,
what shall we do? What shall we do? We're in trouble
with God. And it was a great time of a
harvest as thousands of people were suddenly converted by the
sovereign, omnipotent grace of the Lord. And there have been
seasons like that even in our country. The Great Awakening
with Edwards. You know, I was thinking about
it today. Not too many years ago, in the
Baptist denomination, and I'm more prepared to speak about
Baptists than I am any other denomination because I've been
a Baptist all my life. But I know a little bit something
about Baptists. The history of the Baptist denomination
is a history of believing the gospel of God's sovereign grace.
the man who started the Southern Baptist Convention and the Southern
Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville. Brother Boyce. He was a sovereign
grace preacher. James Pettigrew Boyce. And he not only founded that
seminary, he was the first president of that seminary. And they believe
Sovereign Grace just like we do, just like I preach it, just
like you're used to hearing preached. You've always heard Sovereign
Grace preached here. But there was a time within the
Southern Baptist Convention that all the Baptist churches preached
this Gospel. It was a glorious time of feasting
on the Word of God. And men bragged on God. They
had nothing good to say about the sinner. They had everything
good to say about God who's saved by His sovereign grace. And they
spoke about election. They spoke about redemption.
They spoke about that successful work of reconciliation by our
Lord Jesus Christ, of His substitutionary death, of His satisfaction of
divine justice. They talked about how precious
His blood was and how it was effectual to the saving of all
of those in whose stead He died. And they preached about the irresistible
grace of God. It's the Spirit of God who breaks
down the barriers. He takes away the hard, stony
heart. and gives a heart of flesh. And
they talked about the perseverance of the saints because we're preserved
by the power of God in faith. This was a constant theme coming
forth from the Baptist pulpits. It was a great time of feasting
on the Word of God. But now, it's like we're in a
famine. You don't hear it too much anymore. Oh, here and there, there are
voices who lift up our God in praise and adoration, who preach
His gospel, who tell people our God sits upon His throne. He
does His will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth, and nobody can stop Him from doing what He has
set out to do. Preachers who tell people that
God's a God of purpose. It can be frustrating. There
are a few of them, but they're scattered abroad. It's like we're
in a spiritual famine now. Some of you have been out of
town, as I have been on occasion, and
look in the yellow pages, make a few phone calls. Can't find
anybody who tells the truth. I hear from people on a regular
basis, every week. I hear from people who say, in
our community, there's nobody preaching this message. And insofar
in that area that they're from, it's a famine. It's a famine. Now, I know this, God will have
his word to be preached so as that his elect will hear the
gospel. There's no question about that.
But the word, the faithfulness of the preaching of the word
is not like it has been in days gone by. In fact, the very church
that this one, a good many, what, a hundred people or so came out
of was a church that originated believing sovereign grace, and
then ever so slowly became Arminian, and then Brother Barnard preaching
sovereign grace, Brother Mahan preaching sovereign grace, and,
well, that didn't work out too good. Not for a lot of people. And so Brother Mahan left, and
whoever left with him. Because it wasn't the message
that was very popular. Many years ago, in the late 70s,
my mother's dad, my grandfather, passed away, and my grandmother
asked me if I would preach the funeral. It was at a Southern
Baptist church in Bassett, Virginia. First Baptist church in Bassett,
Virginia. I'm guessing 77, maybe, 77, 78, but anyway. And so I
went and I preached, and I preached Sovereign Grace. And an old-timer
came up to me after the service. He was telling me how he knew
my grandfather and so forth, because he ran Bassett Taxicab
Service, owned it, and most everybody knew him. And he said, you know
what you preached today? He said, I remember many years
ago, we used to have that kind of preaching here. but we don't
have that anymore. He said, I hadn't heard that
in a long time. He said, in fact, I didn't know it was anybody
preaching that message anymore. I said, there are a few of us.
This is, as Amos says in Amos chapter eight, a time of famine
now. But know this, both those seasons
when God sends down the bread from heaven, and gives people
a hunger and a thirst after righteousness, and He feeds them with that bread
of life, both those times and those lean times when you have
to go a long ways to hear the Gospel, both of them are of the
Lord. And you've read that passage
in Amos chapter 8. It talks about a famine, not
for literal bread, but for the gospel, for the very truth of
God. You see, in Joseph's day, who
was it that sent all the harvest? Well, the Lord did. Well, who
was it that sent the seven years of famine? The Lord did. Now, I don't know how their weathermen
were back then and the people who, I don't know, climatologists
or whatever. I don't know what they blamed
the famine on. I'm sure they blamed it on something. Just
like they blame things like that on something today. But it never,
it seems to never enter into the minds of people today. In
times of famine, I heard a congressperson say that if things keep going
as they are, that I guess in 12 years the earth's going to
be ruined. Don't listen to that foolishness. Don't get caught. Listen, our
God controls these things. I wish we would remember that
and not get caught up in all that tomfoolery. Well, you know,
we're causing this, we're causing that. I'm sure there were people
who said, seven years of famine, what have we done? Now, wait
a minute. The same God who sends a years
of plenty, He sends the years of leanness to fulfill His purpose. Always remember that. Don't listen
to these, what I call fear mongers. And they're all out here. They
want to frighten you. Listen, hope thou in God. There's nothing to be fearful
of. There's nothing to be afraid of. All that happens is under
the government of our sovereign God, our Heavenly Father, who's
too good to make a mistake. He's too wise to bring anything
to pass in this world that will not be ultimately beneficial
to His people. It's natural for the lost man
to blame all of these things on other circumstances. Well,
this brought this about, and this is causing that. And it
doesn't dawn on them, but it must be always in our minds and
in our hearts. Whatever happens, God did it. That's the way we've got to look
at things, and you'll worry yourself to death. Oh, is the sun going
to burn out? Are we going to destroy the ozone
layer? How big of a carbon footprint
am I leaving in this world? All of that foolishness. Let's
talk like and think like people who know God, who know who governs
all things. who know who rules the world
and who's bringing all things to pass according to his purpose
to fulfill his will. Of course, it's the Lord who
did these things. It's the Lord who brings literally
the wonderful harvest, starting your gardens out, Hope the Lord
blesses you with a harvest. He might send worms, or He may
send some kind of disease. What are you going to do? Kick the dirt? Get mad and angry? Well, I'm not going to do this
anymore. Or you're going to say, well, I don't know why the Lord
just... He didn't have my garden prosper
this year, but you know what? He blesses me abundantly in Christ
Jesus. We need to look at things totally
different than the men and women of the world. That's what we
need to learn. You see, here's Jacob. Did you notice this? Look at
verse 36. And Jacob their father said unto
them, me ye have bereaved of my children, Joseph is not, and
Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away, all these things
are against me. Guess who he didn't even mention? The Lord. He didn't even mention
the Lord. First of all, he mentions his
sons. And it's, to me, He's suspicious
of them. You bereaved me. I wonder how
much he knew. I wonder if he didn't know something
about them trying to sell his favorite son Joseph. He doesn't
come right out and say it. But he said, you bereaved me.
Something has happened or He's experienced or maybe overheard,
because he knows a little bit of their history. In fact, he
knows a whole lot of their history. He knows how these men have conducted
themselves in murder, in wiping out a whole city of men. He knows them. You have bereaved
me of my children. But he didn't say the Lord did
this. Oh, Jacob, you talk the same way we do so often. And we leave God out of it. I was trying to think of an illustration
today. Maybe this will... You ever see this behind somebody's
name? Professor Emertus. Means he used to be a professor.
He's not anymore, but we're going to let you keep your title. That's
basically it. Immortus. To most people, it's
God Immortus. We'll let you keep your title. But to them, that's just an empty
title that God wears. He's God. But wait a minute. As you consult the Word of God,
you find that God is not God Immortus. He's not sitting on
the sideline. He's the God who is involved
in every single thing that happens throughout the vastness of His
universe. I know you can't comprehend that
and I can't comprehend it either. But I don't have to comprehend
it. I just believe it. and He is my Heavenly Father
who wrote my name down in the Lamb's Book of Life. Why should
I ever worry about anything? Why should I get anxious? Why should Jacob, why should
his soul be distraught? And like David said in the psalm
that I read, Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Have you forgotten
who your God is? He's not God Immortus. He's not
God in title only. He's the God who is involved
in every single thing that happens in this world. We would do well to remember
that. And, you say, but aren't we in
a spiritual famine? Yes. Who is it that withheld the bread,
the harvest, during these seven years? Blame it on whatever you want
to blame it on. It's the Lord. Somebody was talking this morning
on the news about, I guess they've discovered a couple of bodies
in Lake Mead as the water level is going down, drought conditions. What are we going to blame that
on? I'll just say this, the Lord's just holding back the water.
One thing for sure, He's not making any more water. He's not
sending it in that direction. That's the way it is. He sends
it where He wants to. Our God does His will in all
places. He sends the time of harvest. He sends the time of famine.
And I was thinking about this as I worked on the message today.
Of course, we meet twice every Lord's Day and we meet on Wednesdays.
And we enjoy feasting on the bread from heaven in here. There's
no famine in here. There's plenty of bread. There's plenty of bread. In fact,
I would say, and not due to who the preacher is, but just the
fact that we stand for the gospel of God's sovereign grace, after
the service is over, we can have twelve baskets of leftovers.
In fact, we take leftovers home with us in our minds and in our
hearts. There's no famine in here. There's
bread and nothing to spare. Come and dine is what we say
to people. But out there, once you walk
out the doors, it's a famine out there. And we try to tell people where
they can get a good meal, where they can get some bread, and
it's in here. Jacob, he's distraught. He's despondent. But in all of this, he leaves God out and he said,
these things are against me. First of all, things aren't against
us. In fact, there's nothing that
will ever happen to you as a child of God that will ever be against
you. Because your heavenly Father
is causing all things to work together for your good. For your
good. You see, Jacob, he reached a
wrong conclusion. He felt like the weight of bereavement
was upon Him and He couldn't stand it any longer. Too heavy
for Him. He's about to be crushed by the
load. But you know, it's not a heavy,
whatever God sends our way, It's not a heavy affliction, Paul
says in 2 Corinthians 4. It's a light affliction. There's
only been one man who knew something about, knew everything about
bearing a heavy affliction. That's the God-man. He bore the
heavy load of our iniquities which God made to meet on Him.
He knew he experienced the heaviness of the wrath of God. The judgment
of God. He knew that. He felt that in
his soul. Our afflictions, they're light. And nothing is against you. Romans 8, if God be for us, who
can be against us? He's for us in eternal election. He's for us in particular redemption. He's for us in effectual grace. He's for us in preserving us
in the faith. He's for us. You see, Jacob Jacob
kind of momentarily loses sight of the very promise of God when
the Lord said, I am with thee and will keep thee in all places
whither thou goest. He forgot that he was blessed
of God at Peniel. And here in chapter 42, it's
like God is not at all in his thoughts. He's driven to despair. And right at this point, there
doesn't seem to be any difference between him and an atheist, because
he leaves God out. But there's a great difference.
But you see, even the people of God can sometimes act and
speak as if there were no God. That's to our shame. And we want
to say to Jacob right here, Jacob, do you really feel like the Lord's
against you? Jacob, don't you think that the
Lord was ruling when Joseph went away? You forgot about that,
Jacob? Was God on his throne then? Was
God ruling then? Jacob, when that man in Egypt
kept Simeon, had God stepped off the throne for a little bit?
Did that kind of slide by God and he missed that? Have you forgotten, Jacob, you're
a child of the King? We do forget more often than
we want to admit. And if we're honest, Brother
Barnard said, honest people don't wind up in hell. If we're honest
in our minds and in our hearts, we kind of blush with shame about
how little we really believe God. But the Lord didn't forsake Jacob. He doesn't forsake us. You see, Jacob could have handled
this situation much better. Just like we could handle situations
in our lives much better. Wouldn't it have been nice if
it had said something like Eli said when Samuel told him what
God revealed to him, and Samuel said, God told me He's going
to kill your boys. He's going to kill your sons.
Oh, how refreshing it would have been if Jacob had now said when
he gets the report of Simeon being kept in Egypt, what a blessing
it would have been to his sons. If he had said, it's the Lord,
let him do what seemeth him good in his sight. Because let me
tell you something, he is going to do what seemeth him good in
his sight. Whether you agree or disagree,
whether you are happy about that or you're sad about that, He's
going to do His will and He will always, now listen, He will always
with every single thing that comes across your life, He will
always make sure it works out for your good. He will do that. No matter how dark an incident
may be in your life, remember to wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord. We're not to
be impatient because relief doesn't immediately come as soon as we
ask for it. There has to be, get this, there
has to be a proper time for the providence of God to produce
the effect in you that He has ordained for this trial. Relief doesn't come immediately. We went to Myrtle Beach on vacation,
I got sick, go to Urgent Care, test me for strep, COVID, of course, and then tell
me bronchitis, sinusitis, here's some antibiotics. I had such
a raw throat. I asked the doctor. She's a very,
very pleasant, nice lady. I liked her. I said, because
I couldn't hardly talk, I said, you think I'll be able to preach
Sunday? It was on a Wednesday. I said, you think I'll be able
to preach Sunday? She said, well, I'm going to
give you some medicine. I'm going to say a prayer for you. But
she said, I can't make any guarantees. Go get these prescriptions filled. So I did. I took a pill that
night. I didn't think that I'd wake
up the next morning, man, let's go play golf. I feel great. No. It takes a while. And I'll tell you, some of these
Some of these difficulties of life, they'll last a while. Because the Lord is doing the
work that He set out to do. And we just have to be patient.
Wait on the Lord. That's what the Scripture says.
You see, our heavenly physician, He prescribes with unerring wisdom
That which is best, the best medicine for his children. That song, his eyes on the sparrow. What's the rest of it? And I
know he watches me. I know it, but I forget it. I
forget it. And then rest upon the promises
of God. See, Jacob forgot the divine
promises made to him. How quickly we forget. And then a hope against hope.
In Romans chapter 4. That's what Abraham did. He hoped against hope. The doctor said, you and Sarah
can't have any children. You're living in a fantasy world.
Oh, but God said we would. I hope against hope. Let all the world turn thumbs
down on our God. Let us believe Him with unwavering
faith. And remember the word of the
Lord. Jacob said, these things are
against me. And you want to say to him, you
know, Jacob, that is an absurd statement. Have you lost your
mind? How could anything be against
us if our God is for us? Remembering and believing that,
we can face every incident in life with the certainty It's
for our good. And I'll tell you, our Father's
infinite wisdom and His everlasting love, He calibrates, He calibrates
every single thing that happens to you. He calibrates it just
exactly the way it needs to be for you. Isn't that wonderful? Oh my, how gracious is our God. And of course, Reuben was quick
to speak up, make promise to his father. His father said,
no, it's not going to happen this way. And sometimes I think even the
people of God are tempted in times of trouble to say, Lord,
if you'll get me through this, I promise, I vow. That's useless talk. Because
you see, God doesn't need your promise to fulfill His promise. He doesn't need your cooperation.
He will fulfill His Word and it will accomplish His purpose.
Isaiah 55, in the thing whereto He sends it. Let me give you
one more reference. Look over here in Jeremiah 29
and I'll send you home. Maybe you can take a basket of
food with you. to feast on a little bit later.
Jeremiah chapter 29 and verse 11. Jeremiah chapter
29 and verse 11. The Lord says, for I know the
thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord. Thoughts of peace. Always. Always. Not of evil. God's not going to bring evil
to you. Everything He does for you is
out of love. Not of evil. To give you an expected
end. That is your desired end. What
is your great desire in your hearts? Is it not to be with Christ in
glory? He's going to give you your desired
end. And He's going to do that which is do all of the things
in your life, every single thing that touches you. He will make
sure it's all beneficial for you. It's like a prescription
medicine made out in your name and nobody else has got a prescription
just like you've got. And nobody's got a prescription
like I've got, because the Lord tailor-makes it for each of His
children. That helps, doesn't it? It just helps to remind us of
that. And so we say, Jacob, don't be
despondent. It's going to work out just fine.
See, Jacob forgot, he forgot the Word of God, the promise
of God that the Lord made to Abraham. And I'm sure when Abraham
got that promise from God, he shared it with Isaac, and Isaac
shared it with Jacob. What was that? That your family's
going to wind up in Egypt. But the Lord said, I'm going
to bring you out of Egypt into the land of Canaan. You forgot
that, didn't you, Jacob? Huh? And I tell you, we're forgetful,
aren't we? Yeah. May the Lord trigger our
memories to remember the faithfulness of our God to fulfill His covenant
promises to His children.