Good evening. Let's all stand
together and sing hymn number 61. Hymn number 61. O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
vast, unmeasured, boundless, free, rolling as a mighty ocean
in its fullness over me. Underneath me, all around me,
is the current of thy love. Leading onward, leading homeward,
to my glorious rest of love. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus
Spread his praise from shore to shore How he loveth, ever
loveth, Changeth never, nevermore Now he watches o'er his loved
ones, Dying to call them all his own. Now for them he intercedeth,
Watcheth o'er them from the throne. O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
love of every, love the best. Tis an ocean vast of blessing,
tis a haven sweet of rest. O the deep, deep love of Jesus,
Peace of heaven that comes to me, And it lifts me up to glory,
For it lifts me up to Thee. seated we'll sing hymn number
256. 256. When peace like a river attendeth
my way When sorrows like sea billows roll Whatever, my Lord, Thou hast
taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Though Satan should buffet, though
trials should come, let this blessed assurance control. that Christ hath regarded my
helpless estate, and hath shed his own blood for my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. My sin, O the bliss of this glorious
thought! My sin, not in part, but the
whole! is nailed to the cross, and I
bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. And, Lord, haste the day when
my faith shall be sighed, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll. The trump shall resound, and
the Lord shall descend. Even so, it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. If you have your Bibles with
you this evening, if you would open them with me to the book
of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ
by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to
the faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace be to you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having
predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, for the
praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted
in the beloved, in whom we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, wherein
he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence Having
made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his
good pleasure, which he hath purposed himself, that in the
dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together
in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and
which are on earth, even in him, whom also we have obtained an
inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will,
that we should be unto the praise of his glory, who first trusted
in Christ, in whom ye also trusted after that, who heard the word
of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after
that ye believed ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise,
which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased
possession, unto the praise of his glory. We see a common theme
here, unto the praise of his glory, Wherefore, I also, after
I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all
the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention
of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom
and revelation in the knowledge of him, the eyes of your understanding
being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his
following, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints. what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us
who believe according to the working of his mighty power which
he wrought in Christ, who raised him from the dead and set him
at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all
principality and power and might and dominion in every name that
is given, not only in this world but also in that which is to
come. put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the
head over all things of the church, which is his body, the fullness
of him is filled with, all in all. And you, Happy Quicken,
who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past you
walked according to the course of this world, according to the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in
times past in the lusts of our flesh, filling the desires of
the flesh and the mind, who were by nature the children of wrath,
even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love were with
you always, even when you were dead and since, have put you
best together with faith. For the praise of his glory,
Lord God Almighty, we come to you in blessed son, Lord Jesus
Christ. Thank you for causing us to be gathered
here tonight. Thank you for your precious word. Lord, it is our hope to gather
tonight here to praise you. Lord, Father, Holy Name. We ask that you would call this
group just that. Call this group, peace all time again. Lord, there are many weak and
weary going through trials and tribulations. You know their needs. You can
supply them. Lord, through the grace you do
much for them. Gracious under them. Praise the Lord. Lord, we pray for our
lost loved ones, our dear friends and family. to keep them all the days of
their lives. Pray that for Brother Cody, as he prepares to stand
here and proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Speak through him. Give us ears
to hear and eyes to see. Minds to understand and hearts
to love. Lord, for those who are listening and
watching, Word to go forth all over this
world. Conquer hearts. Conquer souls.
Will you please be with us, I pray, and do as much as I say. I ask that thy will be done in all things for Christ's
sake. Number 30 in our course book. Number 30 in the course book. Once my soul was astray from
the heavenly way, and was wretched and vile as could be, yet my
Savior in love Take me peace from a cup When he reached out
his hand for me When my Savior reached out a hand for me reached
down for me. I was lost and undone without
God or His Son, when my Savior reached down for me. I was near to despair when he
came to me there. Then he showed me that I could
be free. Then he lifted my feet gave me
gladness complete when he reached out his hand for me. When my Savior reached out for
me, when my Savior reached down for me. I was lost and abandoned without
God or His Son, when my Savior reached down for me. How my heart does rejoice when
I hear his sweet voice. In the tempestive hymns I've
been fleeing, fear to leave When my Saviour reached out for me when my Savior reached out for
me. I was lost and undone, without
God or His Son. When He reached out, He said, We've got Brother Cody Henson
with us again this evening. I see a new face in here, so
I thought I'd introduce you. A dear friend of mine, I've known
him for many years. I thought she was going to get away this
weekend, but... She comes to us from Kingsport. I don't know
if she's going to cry, but it's... It's been... Very thankful for
you guys. Come up here and let the Lord
sit on your heart. Good evening. I invite your attention
tonight to Genesis chapter 37. Genesis chapter 37. I think most of you are aware I've
been studying the story of Joseph, but I haven't preached from chapter
37 yet. That's where it all began. It
skipped right ahead. Not for our text, we're just
going to look at verse 1 down through verse 4. I'm going to
take my time, but I'm going to try not to take too much of your
time. Here in Genesis 37, let's look at verse 1. And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein
his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. Now Canaan
was the promised land. Now I find it most interesting,
that's where the story started. Now the Lord used Joseph to get
his father and all his brothers out of Canaan into the land of
Goshen in Egypt. Well then from there, the children
of Israel left Egypt, went into the wilderness for some 400 years.
Know where they were headed? Africa. So it all comes full circle. And I thought of this tune. We're
about to read of Joseph here in the Land of Kells. You know,
it usually says, these are the generations so and so begat so and so begat
so and so. It just says Joseph. That's also interesting, isn't
it? Nobody else was worth mentioning. Just Joseph. Let's ask ourselves
this question. Who is the family of God? Who's
Joseph picture? Jesus Christ, who's the family
of God, the generations of God, if you will, Jesus Christ and
all in him, all his people, all his brethren in him. And I thought of this too, people
are proud of their family name. I don't see an issue with that.
But here's the thing, your name in mind is sinner. That's it. There's just one name
in heaven. Everybody there shares one name. And here's what that name is,
the Lord our righteousness. Everybody there, no matter where
we came from, no matter what we went through to wind up there,
one name we share, and it's his name. giving us his name. I love
that. I'm a poor sinner and nothing
at all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all. It's all about him,
and it's all unto him, and it always will be. Verse two again,
these are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being 17 years
old, was feeding the flock with his brethren, and the lad was
with the sons of Bilhah and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's
wives, And Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. He told on him. He's out here
feeding the flock with his brothers. He goes and tells dad what's
going on. You know, it seems from this
verse that Joseph was what we would call, and I've been called
this, believe it or not, a goody two-shoes. You do no wrong, but
you love to tell on others. Hope I'm not the only one. Now, as a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ, we don't read of Joseph's evil report. We don't
read of Joseph's sin, though he was a sinner too. There's
only one man who never sinned, and that's Jesus Christ. It doesn't
matter if we read about Joseph's sin or not. He was a son of Adam. He was a son of Jacob. spitting image of his dad. We're
sinners. That's what we inherit, sin.
That's what we are. Jesus Christ, the God-man, is
the only sinless one to ever live. But God has recorded what he
has about Joseph here to give us a glorious illustration, a
glorious picture of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Verse three, now
Israel loved Joseph, more than all his children. I titled this message, Israel
Loved Joseph. Did he love his other sons? He
had 11 other sons. Did he love them? I'm sure he
did. Many of you have children. I shouldn't say this. You might have your favorite. But you love them all, don't
you? You love your children. He loved Joseph more. You say,
well, that's not right. It shouldn't be that way. Well,
it was. That's the way it was. He loved Joseph more. Why? Well, it tells us here, he loved
Joseph more than all his children because he was the son of his
old age. Joseph was the first of two sons,
the first of the only two children that he had with his beloved
wife, Rachel Rachel is the wife whom Jacob loved. She's the one
who was truly his wife. All right Rachel he loved her
if you're not familiar with the account. He saw her It's the
first time the word beautiful is mentioned in the Bible when
he saw Rachel And I especially like that because I married Rachel And he thought, what do I have
to do to get her? I need her. I want her. And Laban, her dad,
said, you're going to work for me for seven years. So we did.
And then that mean old father-in-law tricked him into marrying Leah,
her sister. He wasn't too happy about that.
So he said, what can I do to get Rachel to work for me seven
more years? So he did. And it was nothing to him, because
he loved her so much. She had his heart. Now, Jacob
had, I believe, 11 children with Leah, her handmaid, Zilpah, and
Rachel's handmaid, Bilhah. There were 11 sons and a daughter,
I believe. But it tells us that Rachel,
her womb was closed. It's believed for 26 years. I can only imagine how that must
have grieved them. Some of you may have experienced
something along these lines. I know people do. You know, we read a verse this
morning, looked at it a couple weeks ago, Jacob said, all these things
are against me. He went through a lot. He went through a lot. This was
a great trial for them. When he got tricked into marrying
Leah, you know how many children he had with Leah? Seven. Seven children, and yet Rachel
couldn't have any. I wanna show us a couple verses
here. Turn back to Genesis 29. And let me say this, it wasn't unfortunate
that it was this way. This is the way God ordained
it to be. Genesis 29, verse 31. Genesis 29, 31. And when the
Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel
was barren. Why? Why? That just seems to
go against the way we would have drawn it up, doesn't it? Didn't
God know Rachel's the one he loved? Yeah, it just told us
that. He knew that he hated Leah and
loved Rachel. And he said, I'm going to open your one and close
hers. God's ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our
thoughts. Here's the thing. God didn't
make a mistake here. God did what was best. Explain
that. I can't. I really can't. I'm
telling you, this goes against my carnal reasoning. It just
does. But God's ways are better. God's
ways are higher, no matter what the circumstance. They just are. Now concerning Rachel being barren
and them wanting children desperately together, I must acknowledge
this. And I acknowledge this before
Rachel and I ever had a child, and Lord bless us with three.
God must give life. We can try to have a child all
we want to, but God must give life. Plain and simple. You know that. We know that.
It's his to give, and it's his to take. is to take and he gives
it and he takes it in his time according to his will. I look
down here at Genesis 30 verse 1. And when Rachel saw that she
bared Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister and said unto
Jacob, give me children or else I die. And Jacob's anger was
kindled against Rachel. Let me say this, this morning
I kind of picked on Jacob saying he's just faithless, just like
me. This is a really good statement
he made right here, verse two. He said, am I in God's stead? Who hath withheld from thee the
fruit of thy womb? Am I in the place of God? You
know, it does us no good to start blaming each other. Because at the end of the day,
who are we blaming? And if it causes us to butt heads
and be at odds, that certainly isn't glorifying to our God. Trials are real, trials are tough,
but we're not in God's stead. He's working His counsel, you
just read it. We would do well to always remember, and please
remind me, Whatever God is doing is right
and he knows what he's doing. He has a purpose in it. We may
not see it. We don't have to. God knows what he's doing. Let's
trust him. Oh, Lord, give me faith to trust
you. Look down here at verse 22 and
let me. There are times when we pray
for things and it seems like our prayer isn't answered. Because
God doesn't give us what we want. But if we're truly praying, we're
praying in His name, and we're praying for His will, and God
does answer our prayers. He may not give us what we want,
but He'll always give us what we need. We experience that,
don't we? It's hard, but it's been my experience. And would we rather have it any
other way? When the trial's over and God,
may give us a glimpse of as to why he did it. I think we could
say, let me say this. When Jacob and his children wind
up in Goshen with Joseph, you think they'd have had it any
other way? You think he still thought all these things were
against him? Look here, Genesis 30, verse 22. And God remembered Rachel. And
God hearkened to her and opened her womb. And she conceived and
bare a son and said, God hath taken away my reproach. And she
called his name Joseph and said, the Lord shall add to me another
son. God remembered Rachel. Lord,
remember us. Whether he grants us our petitions
or not, is that not our hope? Lord, remember us. Be mindful
of us. Now, we're going to come back
to this, Joseph. Let me translate that for us.
God the Father loves Christ the Son, all right? That's my message
for us tonight. God the Father loves Christ the
Son. We're gonna, I'm gonna quote
some scripture, we're gonna turn, you can go ahead and turn to
Matthew 3. But Isaiah 42.1 says, this is God the Father speaking,
no doubt, behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom
my soul delighteth. In whom does God the Father delight? Christ the Son. Now look here
in Matthew 3, verse 16. Matthew 3, 16. And Jesus, when he was baptized,
went up straightway out of the water, and, lo, the heavens were
opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like
a dove and lighting upon him John 3.35 says, The Father loveth
the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. Whom does God
the Father love? Christ the Son. Christ the Son. I don't want us to be mistaken on this. That's who
God loves. His Son. Proverbs 8, verse 30.
Wisdom is speaking. Read the context. This is wisdom
talking. Who's wisdom? Christ. He said, I was daily His delight,
rejoicing always before Him. Daily His delight. That's Christ. Daily the Father's delight. Now
Israel loved Joseph. God the Father loves Christ the
Son. God the Father loves Christ the Son. Now let me throw in
a side note here. They're not degrees of God's
love. Well, surely he loves Brad more
than me. Not God. Here's the thing, God
either loves me or he hates me. Jacob, have I loved? But Esau, have I loved less?
That's what people think. Have I hated? Hated. It tells us that not just in
Romans 9.13, it tells us in Malachi, right? Same thing, hated, left
his land desolate, hated. Think of all the nations and
people God destroyed in his wrath and fury. Did he love them? Of
course not. Noah, eight souls made it through
in that ark, and that ark is Christ. Everybody else perished
under God's wrath. Did God love them when he killed
them? Some love that would be. I'll
tell you where his love was. His love was in the ark. His
love was in Christ. That's the only place where God's
love is, is in Christ. And those who are in Christ have
this love and can never be separated from it. The end of Romans chapter
eight. We're back in our text. Genesis
37 verse three again. Now Israel loved Joseph more
than all his children because he was the son of his old age,
and he made him a coat of many colors. Now, I venture to say
just about everybody on this earth has heard of this coat
of many colors. Do you know the purpose of this coat of many
colors? When Jacob made this coat for Joseph, he put it on
him, and Joseph's walking around in that coat. Something had distinguished
him from all his brothers. It wasn't that he was a goody-two-shoes.
It was the coat. That was a token of his father's
love for him. That made him stand out. God the Father has very clearly
differentiated the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, from
all men. Religion says to be like Jesus.
That sounds nice, though. Here's the problem. We can't.
He's not like us. We're not like him. I'm going
to quote you a few things here. He went about doing good and
healing all that were oppressed of the devil. I can't do that. He said unto the sea, peace. And the wind ceased and there
was a great calm. Go ahead, try sometime. We can't
do that. We can't do that. He made the
blind to see. He made the deaf to hear. He
made the lame to walk. He cleansed lepers. He raised
the dead to life. We do that? Be like him? We can't do any of that. One
of the best things anybody ever said concerning our Lord was,
never man spake like this man. That'll never be said concerning
you or me or any other son of Adam. Only Jesus Christ. Because there's no man like this
man. There's none like him. He stands
alone. He's the preeminent one. He said this in John 17. I have
glorified thee, speaking of God the Father, on the earth. I've
glorified thee on the earth. I've finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. We certainly can't say that.
That's his work and his alone. You know, when people try to
take his glory and glory in himself in some
capacity, God loves me because this, or God sees me doing this,
I'm not like I used to be. I don't do that. I'm different.
I'm better. I've changed. That's false religion. God won't have it. I'll tell
you what God will have. God will have his son. When he
said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased on the
Mount of Transfiguration, he said, hear ye him. We need to hear him. When the
dead hear the voice of the son of God, they shall live. He must
speak life. And that's what he does. When we start to give ourselves
some credit for our salvation, again, that's what false religion
is all about. What they're doing is they're taking that coat and
putting it on themselves. That coat belonged to Joseph.
That coat did not belong to anybody else. It belonged to Joseph. Now his brothers are gonna take
that coat off of him and rip it to pieces. But we can't take Christ's glory.
Can't do it. Can't do it. He's the favored
one. He's God's chosen. He's the glorified
one. He's the one and only object
of God's eternal love. That's whom God loves, Jesus
Christ. The other day we were at Vanderbilt
and I walked out to go take a little walk and find some food. Huge,
really nice looking building. Unfortunately, it was a church
building. You heard me right. You know what that sign said?
It had all these pride colors, you know? defecating God's rainbow. God loves you. Everybody welcome. I'll tell
you that sinners are welcome here. Our Lord ate with publicans
and sinners. Sinners were comfortable around
him. But you know who wasn't? The self-righteous. Those who
look down their noses at other people. But here's the thing,
God is holy and He can't look upon sin. God loves sinners whose
sin has been washed in the blood of the Lamb. And we played no
part in that. All we did was the sinning. And
God did the cleansing. God loves Christ and those in
Christ. And those in Christ are those
whom God chose before the foundation of the world and put in Christ.
That we should be not to the praise of our own glory, not
that we should share in His glory, but to the praise of His glory.
His glory alone. were saved in him and the beloved,
God's beloved. All right, back in our text,
look with me at verse four. When his brethren saw that their
father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him
and could not speak peaceably unto him. Here's something we
need to acknowledge. This is us. This is us. I can just see them just stewing
in anger over how much their father loved Joseph. Don't we
want to be the favorite? I guarantee you their reaction
to that and when he put that coat on him was, that's not fair. Do we deserve God's love? Anybody
here? Well, give me some time. Take
all the time you need. We're never going to deserve
God's love. It's not going to happen. Here's the thing. We've already sinned and we don't
know how to not sin. So lose, lose. God, the father loves Christ,
the son. That's it, only Christ. Is that fair? Do we have a problem
with that? If we do, take it up with God. He knew no sin. We are sin. How do we feel about
God's beloved? I'll tell you how we feel about
him by nature and by choice. The same way Joseph's brothers
felt about him, they hated him. Do we have any idea just how
much we hate God by nature? I know that's an odd thing to
hear in a church. Not in a gospel church. Not where
the truth is declared. The truth of how we hated him
without a cause. All of us. They hated him with every fiber
of their being. They couldn't stand him. They couldn't even
stand to hear him talk. We're not going to read through all
this account for time's sake. Maybe we'll look at it next time. They said,
behold, this dreamer cometh. He told a couple dreams here.
They just hated him all the more. It's undeniable how much they
hated him, not just in what they said, not just in that it tells
us they hated him, but in what they did to him. Is it not obvious
that we hate God and hate the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ,
in what we did to him? Came unto his own, his own, received
him not, rather nailed him to a tree. You know, false religion
is great at pretending they love God. I'm not here to, my goal
tonight isn't to knock false religion, but I just can't help
it right now. So good at pretending to be worshipers of God, when
here's the thing, they make it all about themselves. Make it
all about us. It ain't about us. You trust
the psalmist? He said, not unto us, oh Lord,
not unto us, it's all unto you. Unto thy name give glory, all
glory. When I when I see their hatred here of Joseph, I cannot
help but see myself and my natural, inexcusable hatred of God. We're without excuse. God tells
us that raging against the Lord, raging against God's anointed.
And here's the thing, I can relate to this because we want the glory,
don't we? If this this is probably bad
to admit, but I'm sure that one of my children sees me doting
on another my children and gets jealous that that's. Same thing,
that's how we are. The how we've how we feel, how
this wicked, simple heart feels towards God. It's shameful, and I pray God
would reveal it to us, because naturally we don't believe it.
Hear that? Say, that's not right. I love God. It's just not so. It's just
not so. Now, I want to go back to Joseph's
name, all right? I want to show us something here
in Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2. Israel loved Joseph, and Joseph's
name means God shall add, okay? Now, I pray we'll be enabled
to see this here. Look at Hebrews 2 verse 9. But we see Jesus, who was made
a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned
with glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God, should taste
death for every man, for it became him for whom are all things,
and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory. Now again, don't get hung up
on the end of verse nine, every man. It's the same group of people
here. The every man is the many sons,
okay? And it goes on in the following
verses, which we'll read here in a minute. Now this right here
is what Jesus Christ did. That's what he did. And it's
what we just read. That's pictured in the story
of Joseph and his brothers. He was made lower. Again, he
was the preeminent one. He was the beloved, but he was
made lower. He was cast out. He was robbed
of his glory. He was sold. He was lied about. He was sold twice. He was lied
about. Sinned against, tempted, wrongfully
imprisoned. Even then he was forgotten. Good picture of Christ, isn't
it? But this really caught my eye today. It says, we see Jesus
who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering
of death. You see the next words? Crowned with glory and honor. What happened after Joseph was
forgotten? A couple of years went by and then he was remembered,
wasn't he? God saw to it that he was going
to be exalted over the land of Egypt. He was crowned with glory
and honor, picturing our Lord. He suffered all that over the
course of 13 years. It started when he was 17. And
then when Pharaoh put him in charge, he was 30 years old.
13 grueling years for him. And it was all for his brethren. I can't wait to get to that part.
I really can't. Now, Joseph did not go through
all the things he went through on purpose for his brethren.
It was according to God's purpose for his brethren. And it was
for Joseph, too. The Lord was with him every step
of the way, all the way. But Christ came on purpose. Christ came and he suffered on
purpose, made lower than the angels on purpose, tasted death
for all his sons, his many sons on purpose. And I like this. Christ brought many sons, it
says, unto glory. You see that middle
verse 10? In bringing many sons unto glory. Joseph God used Joseph to bring
his brethren unto Glory if you will earthly speaking unto the
glory that he had given to Joseph Christ said this in Isaiah 42
verse 8. He said my glory. I will not give to another Okay,
but that means is all glory belongs to him But he also prayed this
in his high priestly prayer in John 17 verse 22 the glory which
thou gavest me I've given them The glory, the honor, and the
praise is all His. We don't have a problem with that, do we? I
pray we're right and good with that. All unto Him. Here's the
thing. He's made us to be one with Himself.
And everything that He has, He's freely given unto us, including
His glory. That's something. That's grace,
that's goodness. Joseph suffered alone, but he
was not meant to be alone in the end So it was with our Lord. He's the only begotten Son of
God, but it doesn't mean he's Gonna be the only I Don't even
know how to say this. He wasn't meant to be alone God
was pleased to have many sons. We just read it. I Let's go on
right here, verse 11. For both he that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he's
not ashamed to call them brethren. Is that not something? Now again,
think of this in light of Joseph. He displayed great kindness to
his brothers despite all they'd done to him. Again, I didn't
read it in chapter 37, but they literally, Jacob sent him to
go check on them, and they see him coming, and they start talking
about how they can kill him. How much more us to the Lord
Jesus Christ? And yet he is not ashamed to
call them brethren. Oh, my soul. Verse 12, saying,
I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the
church while I sing praise unto thee. And I love this, verse
13. And again, I will put my trust
in him. And again, behold, I and the children which God hath given
me. Does that not bless your heart? We are nothing to be proud of. You know, I understand us rejoicing
in our Lord, but in Isaiah, it also says that he rejoices over
us. It leaves me speechless. Now I want to close with John
17, verse 26. You can turn if you want. John
17, 26. God loves his children perfectly. I wish I could love my children
like that. But I rejoice to know God does.
God loves his children with a perfect love. Now look here, John 17,
verse 26. This is the end of his high priestly
prayer. He said, and I have declared unto them thy name, and will
declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in
them, and I in them. The same love wherewith God the
Father loves Christ the Son. is the same love wherewith God
the Father loves his children. Same love wherewith the Lord
Jesus Christ loves all his brethren. He's the firstborn among many
brethren. Who are his brethren? Those wicked, God-hating, hell-deserving sinners. You know, he made his enemies
to be his footstool. Made his enemies to be his friends. I'm
so glad he did. So glad he did. I pray that might
be a blessing to somebody. Let's have another word of prayer. Gracious God and Heavenly Father,
we thank you again for this time of worship. Thank you for allowing
us to open your word and see the glory within, all about the
Lord Jesus Christ, our only hope, our only life. Please make these
words effectual to our hearts, cause us to rejoice in thee,
Rejoice, rejoice in the Lord always. Lord, please give us
faith and increase that faith continually. Cause us to go through
this life trusting you. Lord, please don't leave us to
ourselves. We're so sinful. Thank you for
the picture of Christ we have in this account of Joseph. Thank
you for your word. It is truly so precious. Please
be with us. Bless us, direct our steps, be
glorified in all things, and thy will be done. Be with Pastor
Donnie and Shirley and bring them back according to your will.
Be glorified in all things, dear God. In Christ's name we pray,
amen. Thank you for that message, brother.
Let's stand together and sing just a couple of verses of hymn
number 464. 464, we'll sing the fourth and fifth verses. Blessed be the name of Jesus. I'm so glad he took me in. He's forgiven my transgressions. He has cleansed my soul from
sin. I will praise him. I will praise
Him, praise the Lamb for sinners slain. Give Him glory, all ye people. For His blood can wash away each
stain. Glory, glory to the Father. Glory, glory to the Son. Glory, glory to the Spirit. Glory to the three in one. I will praise him. I will praise him. Praise the lamb for sinners slain. Give him glory, all ye people. For his blood has washed away
each stain. Just a reminder there'll be no
Wednesday service this week. Lord willing, our pastor will
be back next Sunday.