If you would, turn to John chapter
10. I love these old verses. Mom said to tell everybody how
she loves y'all. John chapter 10. John chapter
10. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth
up some other way, the same as a thief and a robber, but he
that entereth in by the door, is the shepherd of the sheep.
To him the porter openeth, and the sheep hear his voice, and
he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. And when
he put forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep
follow him, for they know his voice. And a stranger will they
not follow, but will flee from him." For they know not the voice
of strangers. This parable spake Jesus unto
them, but they understood not what things they were which he
spake unto them. Then said Jesus unto them again,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All
that ever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the
sheep did not hear them. I am the door. By me, if any
man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and
find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for
to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I am come, that they
might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. But he that is a hireling, and
not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, saith the wolf
coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth. And the wolf catcheth
them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling, seeth, fleeth,
because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am
the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine.
As the Father knoweth me, even so I know the Father. And I lay
down my life for the sheep. and other sheep I have which
are not of this foal, them also I must bring, and they shall
hear my voice, and there shall be one foal and one shepherd. Therefore does my Father love
me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No
man taketh it from me, I lay it down of myself. I have power
to lay it down, And I have power to take it again. This commandment
have I received of my father. There was a division, therefore,
again among the Jews for this saying. And many of them said,
he hath a devil and is mad. Why, hear ye him? Man. Others said, these are not
the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of
the blind? And it was at Jerusalem, the Feast of the Dedication,
and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple
in Solomon's porch Then came the Jews around about him, and
said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou
be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you,
and you believe not. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because you're
not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice,
and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hands. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
my Father's hands. I and my Father are one. Let
us pray. Lord, good songs tonight. Good
songs. I want you to open your Bibles
with me, if you will, to Genesis 50. Last week we talked about
Jacob and his peaceful, peaceful passing. Now we're going to talk
about Joseph getting to be an older man. Remember they took
Jacob down and buried him, took him down into Canaan, put him
in the tomb that he wanted to be put in. And Joseph here in
his later life, and I'll wait and read the scriptures kind
of as we go. After a parent passes away, whether
it's a father or a mother, it's inevitable that life takes a
different aspect. Life really changes. It really
does. A middle-aged man knows that
as long as his father is alive, he's only a son. But when the
father passes away, he moves into a different position. He
becomes the one head of the family. He becomes the only son maybe
left. And Jacob here was head of the family. Jacob was head
of this family, led this family. And Joseph now takes the lead.
Joseph, he takes his father past. Joseph steps up, takes the head
of the family. And he begins to lead the family.
And everything with his family, no doubt, was influenced by his
position. You know, he's the prime minister
there. He's got all the power. He's got such authority. He's
got such glory. And he has such a wonderful home.
And so everything with his family was influenced by his position.
And he takes the place as the head, and he becomes responsible
for the welfare of his brethren. And that's the way our Lord Jesus
Christ is. He takes the welfare because
of his position, because of his power, because of his wealth,
because of his authority, and because of his love for his brethren. He takes responsibility for the
welfare of his children. And I've often said this, that
the shepherd And James read it tonight. The shepherd's responsible
for the sheep. I can't even hardly be responsible
for myself. So if the shepherd wasn't responsible
for you, he's the one that bought you. He's the one who laid down
his life for his sheep. He's the one who gave it all
for his sheep. And so he took upon himself the
responsibility of the sheep. And I tell you what, he takes
very good care of his sheep. And as James said, they shall
never perish. This body is going to go, but
they themselves, their souls, their lives, their eternity shall
never perish, never perish. But here's the first thing I
want us to look at. Look at the fear that his brethren
had after Jacob, their father, died. Look what it says here
in verse 15. after Joseph returned from burying
his father, and he went back up into Egypt. And when Joseph's
brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will
peradventure, or perhaps hate us, and will certainly requite
us all the evil which we did unto him. They said, oh my. They
began to think, daddy's gone, the father's gone, and as long
as Jacob was alive, Joseph would treat us good. We mistreated
him so evilly. We hated him, we despised him,
we sold him into slavery. And then we get down here and
find out he is who he is. And they said, now that our father's
gone, he's gonna requite us for all the evil we've done him.
And they did him evil. Oh, my soul, how they did him
evil. They did their father evil. And
so they were fully conscious of their sins. And they began,
their sins came alive to them again. They began to realize
all that they had done. And they says, now, Joseph, you're
gonna really, really get even with us now. and they were fully
conscious of their sins and they dreaded the consequences of them
they felt the guilt of them and it says in verse 16 and they
sent a messenger they didn't go themselves they sent a messenger
unto joseph saying here's what our father commanded before he
died this is what my father commanded before he died Oh, they were, oh, they were
scared to death. So they used their father's name.
They used their father's name. They used his, Joseph's love
for his father. And they said, oh, so shall you
say unto Joseph, this is what our father told you to do. Joseph,
forgive, I pray thee now the trespass of thy brethren and
their sin. For they did evil unto thee,
now we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the
God of thy father." And look what Joseph does, Joseph wept
when they spake unto him. And beloved, if it hadn't been
for our Lord Jesus Christ on that cross, saying, Father, forgive
them. They know not what they do. There
would have been a multitude of people that perished, but just
as sure as Christ on His throne. When our Lord Jesus Christ, all
those people around the cross, except for those Pharisees and
those, but I tell you the people who did it ignorantly in unbelief,
our Lord Jesus says, Father, forgive them. They know not what
they do. 50 days later, 3000 of them people
were converted. by our Lord Jesus Christ. And
that's what these men have said. Now our father said, our father
said, they used Joseph, Jacob's name. Now we don't know if Jacob
said that or not. These fellas are scared to death.
They're absolutely, their past is caught up with them. And they
think since father's gone now, that Joseph is going to really,
really, He's going to kill us. He's going to destroy us. He's
going to make us pay for what we did to Him. He's going to
make us pay for our hatred of Him. He's going to make us pay
for our despising Him, for rejecting Him, for selling Him, for going
back and lying to our Father. He's going to make us pay. And
you know what Joseph did when it happened? He wept. He cried. You mean to think that you think
I would treat you in such a way? Is that how little you think
of me? After all these years? After
we've already been reconciled back there in Genesis 45 when
He revealed Himself unto His brethren? And he said, I am Joseph
thy brethren. And he said, don't be angry with
yourself. Don't grieve with yourself. Don't be angry. Don't grieve.
He said, the Father, God sent me before you. You did it, but
God sent me here. And that's what Christ did. He
said, men took with wicked hands and crucified the Lord of glory,
but our Lord Jesus. And God said, but he was delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. God sent
Joseph by the hands of wicked men, his own brethren down into
Egypt. But we put him there for one
reason, to save them. Christ came into this world for
one reason, to save us, to save us. And there's two reasons why
they feel this guilt. Joseph wept when they spake unto
him. Oh, it just hurt him, it grieved
him. And oh my, can you imagine how our unbelief and our guilt
and our sins, when we began to worry about them and ponder them
and think, did Christ really forgive them? Are we really saved? Oh, to doubt our master, to doubt
our Lord Jesus Christ, to call his precious blood and to call
his power into question? And there's two reasons these
men felt their guilt. And the first reason is they
measured Joseph by themselves. They said, if we're this bad
and we're this, then Joseph has to be, at least he got to be
partly like us. They measured Joseph by themselves
and their weak natures found it hard to believe that this
man could be this kind and this gracious and this loving and
this forgiving. hard to believe, huh? They thought
he was harboring resentments against them and was just biding
his time. Said, he's surely going to record
us now for our sin. And oh my, they were suspicious
of Joseph. You know why they're suspicious
of Joseph? Because they thought Joseph would be like them. And
beloved, when we're suspicious of other people and suspicious
of their motives and suspicious of what they do or why they do
it or that, we, beloved, oft we reveal ourselves when we're
suspicious of other people. When the scriptures tells us
plainly that love covers a multitude of sins. And our Lord Jesus Christ,
and if there's, you know, you just look at Simon Peter. Simon
Peter's a perfect illustration of how our Lord Jesus Christ
views his people. Simon Peter, the Lord told him,
he said, when the Lord said, I'm gonna go and I'm gonna die,
and I'm gonna be crucified, Peter said, oh, Lord, I'll go with
you. If I go with you, and I'll even die with you. And our Lord
looked him square in the eye. And he had every intention of
doing that. He wasn't just blowing. It was in his mind. It was in
his will to do that. And that's why Paul meant the
will is present with me, but how to perform, I don't know
how. But oh, Simon Peter, he said,
Simon, Simon, tell you exactly what you're going to do. Before
that rooster crows in the morning, going to deny me three times.
Now, if our Lord Jesus Christ was ever going to mistreat a
man and forgive a man and cast a man off, He would have cast
that man off. But what did He do? When He rose from the dead,
do you know what He told Mary? He told Mary, He said, Mary,
I'm going to go meet my brethren in Galilee where I told you before,
and you go tell my brethren and Peter. I'll see them over there. And then when our Lord was out
fishing, they was out fishing one night, and our Lord looked
at them. He asked them, said, children,
you caught anything to eat? They said, nothing, nothing,
nothing. He began to talk to them, and oh, John said, that's
the Lord, that's the Lord. Oh, Simon Peter, now here's a
man that denied Christ. Here's a man who had fell so
far, but when he noticed the Lord Jesus Christ, they was well
out in the water. get to Christ. Now that tell
you what, that shows us, now they didn't feel like that about
Joseph, but that's the way we feel about Christ. If they understood
Joseph and his love and his compassion and his strength and his grace
and his ability and his power and his glory, they would have
never questioned that you're going to get even with us now.
God got even with us, but you know where He got even with us
at? In His Son. He got even with Oh my, and all
in our suspicions of others, we often reveal ourselves. And I'll tell you a second reason
why they felt this guilt, because their sins were ever before. Look with me at Psalm 51. Look
in Psalm 51, because their sins were ever before. This is one
of those contradictions that believers have. We're full of
contradictions. We know that all our sins are
gone. God doesn't even remember them
against us anymore. But yet there's times when our
sins are ever before us. And that's why we always, always
look to our master, look to our Lord Jesus Christ. Look what
he said here in verse three of Psalm 51. For I acknowledge my
transgressions and my sin is ever before me. And this is what
those fellas felt when they stand before Joseph. Against thee,
the only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight, in your
sight, that you might be justified when you judge me and justify
me and be clear when you judge me. And so these two men, these
men, they were, They judged Joseph by themselves. Now back over
here again with me now. And oh, they sent a messenger
there in verse 16. And they used their father's
name as a plea. They appealed to Joseph in his
memory of his father. And it says down there in verse
18, and when Joseph wept, look what happens now. After this
message that they sent, and in verse 18, and his brethren also
went, and fell down before his face, and they said, Behold,
we be thy servant. We be thy servant. Oh, they were
servants of the God of their father. Joseph wept. Our master
wept. Two times our Lord Jesus cried.
Two times. Can you imagine Christ crying? We often get tears in our eyes,
we often get so emotional, but could you imagine the Lord, you're
standing watching the blessed Lord Jesus Christ, who is God,
and yet so moved in his heart, so moved in his soul, over what
someone else is going through, that he'd cry tears of it. Can
you see this holy eyes that could see into heaven and see his Father,
those holy eyes, and that blessed glorious face, tears coming down
his face when he stood outside Lazarus tomb. And the scripture
says he wept, didn't just cry, he wept. He made some noise.
He was weeping and people could hear it. And I'll tell you why
he was weeping like he was. He had to bring Lazarus back
into this world to face it again. Would you bring anybody you know
that you love back into this world? No, no, no, 10,000 times
no. When your mother's gone, your
sister's gone, your wife's gone, your daddy's gone, if they're
going to be with Christ, you would never even think of bringing
them back into this world. It never enters your mind. You
look forward to going there, but you never want them to come
here. Oh, he wept. And then our Lord
Jesus Christ wept. He looked out over Jerusalem,
stood up on the mountain, looked out over Jerusalem, and he began
to weep again, began to weep, looking over a lost generation,
looking over a lost nation, looking over a lost place where he did
these mighty works, where he was gonna be crucified. He stood
and looked over Jerusalem, weeping, and said, how oft would I have
gathered thee as a hen to gather her chicks? but great would have
been thy peace, but thou wouldest not. Thou wouldest not. All right,
now I want you to go back here and look with me now. So Joseph,
he wept. There in verse 19, he wept. But
look what Joseph did. Why did he weep? Well, they misunderstood
him and they mistrusted him. They misunderstood him and they
mistrusted him. He no doubt had the deepest pity
and sorrow that they still felt this way after all these years. that they, after all these years,
years had went by, years and years and years had went by,
and he's wept and had great sorrow that they still felt this way
after all these years. Is this really the way they feel
about me? Do they think that I would mistreat
them now? After we all just went down and
buried our father? Well, look how he answers them
in verse 19. And Joseph said unto them, fear not, How many
times has our master told us that? Fear not. Fear not, thy
little flock. It's your father's good pleasure
to give unto you the kingdom. Fear not when he catches you
in a storm. Fear not. And his answer was,
fear not. And listen to what he says now.
Am I in the place of God? Am I in the place of God? And
what he's saying is, it's not my place to deal with you over
your sin. It's not my place to judge you.
It's not my place to treat you this way. It's not my place to
do that. I'm not in the place of God,
only God, only God. can forgive sin. Only God can
put away sin. Only God can forgive sin. Only God can deal with a man's
sin. So am I in the place of God that you want me to deal
with your past life? As far as I'm concerned, it's
gone. But I'm in not God's place. I can't do nothing for you. But
look what he says. And he tells them, he speaks
very, very plainly here. But as for you, this is where
you're at. This is what you thought. This
is where you do. But as for you, as for you, you thought evil
against me. Yep. You thought evil against
me. Your thoughts were evil. Your actions were evil. You did. You mistreated me. You were evil.
You mistreated me evil. But look what he says. Indeed,
all things work together for good. He said, but God meant it unto
good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people
alive. God meant it unto good. What
a contrast. They meant evil. They meant evil. They thought evil. They did evil.
And he comes around here saying, but God meant good. You know,
men meant evil when they took our Lord Jesus Christ to the
cross. Surely the wrath of man pleases Him. And I tell you what,
God meant it for good. And it was evil when they took
our Lord Jesus. They meant it for evil. What
did God mean it for? He meant it for good. To bring
to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Men meant
evil when they sent our Lord Jesus to the cross. They meant
evil and they said, give us Barabbas. What do you do with this man
who calls himself the King of Israel? Let him go. I find no
fault in him. I find no fault in him. Crucify
him. Crucify him. Oh, they meant evil. But oh my. What, what uncalculable
good has come out of that cross? A multitude that no man can number
has come out of what men, God made the wrath of man to praise
Him. And oh, He saves much people
alive. And you know, not only are we
alive, but we have eternal life. We have it right now. We possess
it right this minute. We're not going to have it, we
got it. I give unto them eternal life. So the life you have right
now is eternal. That soul that's in you, that
part in you that responds to God, responds to His Word, and
responds to the Gospel, that calls on God, that looks to God,
and trusts God, and enjoys God, and enjoys Christ, and believes
Christ, and trusts Christ, and embraces Christ, that part of
you is eternal. That's why we say when a saint
goes to glory, the first thing we do is say, Hallelujah, bless
the Lord, oh my soul. Yes, when Herman took his last
breath, he immediately went to glory. His body was left here,
but that body wasn't him. This body's not us. It's a tent. It's a tabernacle to hold our
eternal souls in. And we'll shed it like a snake
sheds his skin one of these days. Oh, we're not going to get eternal
life. We got it. That's why I tell you, when I
went to my mother-in-law's funeral and had her, we had her Going
away. Boy, I tell you what, we stood
there sung Amazing Grace, and I walked by the casket the last
time, I patted that casket real hard, and I said, I'll see you
real soon, sweetheart, I'll see you real soon. Oh, we're not going to get it.
We got it. That's why, that's why we're
not afraid. That's not why we're not worried.
That's why we're not trepidatious. And that don't mean that there's
something wrong with you. If you don't, we don't know what
we're going to be like when we leave here. I don't know. But
look at his love and kindness to him. In verse 21, he said,
Oh, I come to save much people alive. Christ. Oh, he came. They meant it evil. God meant
it for good. Now, therefore fear, Oh, look
at his love and his kindness. Therefore, fear ye not. God help
us to act this way. God help us to act this way when
we're mistrusted, when we're mistreated, when we're misunderstood,
when our best intentions are misinterpreted. I know it's easy
to say, but it's hard to practice. But God's grace is sufficient.
It's sufficient. And oh my, what does he say here? He says, oh my, I'm going to
nourish you. I'm going to nourish you. I'm
going to nourish you, and I'm going to take care of you. I'm
going to nourish you, and I'm going to take care of you. That's
what he said. Look what he said. I'll nourish you, and listen
to this, and your little ones. I'm going to nourish you and
your little ones. And oh, listen to this now. And
he comforted them and spake kindly to them. In the margin, it says
he spake to their hearts. Ain't that the way our Lord Jesus
speaks to us? Speaks so kindly to us, so wonderfully
to us, huh? Oh, my. What a blessed, blessed
Savior we have. And this is a man treating these
people this way. It's men. This is a man. God
help us to be this way. Now, I want you to look at Joseph.
Joseph now, as he gets older, and look at his faith. It says
in verse 22, And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father's
house, That's his brothers in all of his father's house. And
Joseph lived 110 years. 54 years had went by since Jacob
had went down there. And Joseph dwelt in Egypt in
his father's house. And Joseph lived 102 years. Joseph dwelt in Egypt and lived
110 years. and ten years, lived in an ordinary
routine, got up every day, went and done his duties, went and
done his responsibilities, went and done what he was supposed
to do. And you know what enabled him to do that? Faith enabled
him to work loyally. Faith enabled him to worship
his God. Faith enabled him to trust his
Father. His heart had the faith of his
Father Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He had the same faith. He was
looking to the promise. And look at the earthly joys
he had while he was here, too. He had earthly joys. And Joseph
saw Ephraim's children of the third generation. He said he
saw his grandchildren, then he saw his great-grandchildren,
and oh my, he saw his kids grow up, have kids, and have grandchildren,
then great-grandchildren. Oh, he enjoyed, oh, he enjoyed
them. And look what it says, the children
also of Maker, the son of Manasseh, listen to this, were brought
up upon Joseph's knees. He'd take his great-grandson,
lay him on his knees, bounce him on his knees. Oh, that's
something. If you ever have any grandchildren,
great-grandchildren, you know what I'm talking about. You know
what I'm talking about. And then look in verse 24. Faith
didn't fail him when it came time to die. And Joseph said
unto his brethren, listen to this, he just said it so matter
of factly, I die. Joseph said unto his brethren,
I die. Faith didn't fail him when it
came time to die. Faith enabled him to live life,
enjoy life. Now faith in God is going to
enable him to die. And then look what he says, not
only brethren I've died, but look what he says now. God will
surely visit you and bring you up out of this land. unto the
land which you swear to Abraham and to Isaac and Jacob." He said,
oh, he said, I'm going to die. But God's going to visit you.
He's going to come here and visit you. And you know what he's going
to do? He's going to bring you back up out of here. And he's going
to take you back to where your fathers were. He's going to take
you back into the promised land. And all God will visit you, bring
to bring to the land he swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
And listen, I'll tell you something else he said, Egypt will not
be my final resting place. Look what he said in verse 25.
And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel saying, God
will surely visit you and listen now, and you shall carry up my
bones from here. Don't leave me down here. Don't
leave me down here. I want to go where my fathers
are. I want to go where all my, my brethren are i want to go
up to the land of promise and that's where we're going to the
land of promise yes sir and all the patriarch died and what'll
happen to god's word work listen what happens now then it says
in verse 26 so joseph died joseph died being 110 years old, and
they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. Genesis opens up. In the beginning
was God. And God created life. It opens up with life. The beginning
of Genesis opens up with life and it ends with a coffin in
Egypt. It ends up with a coffin in Egypt.
And what came between the beginning and Genesis 50-26? Sin. That's why they died. That's
why they died. But listen to me, that coffin, he was put in
a coffin in Egypt. That coffin spake of life as
well of death. He said, carry me up. When God
comes down here to get you, carry me up. It spoke of, though he
was in a casket, though he was in a coffin, it spoke of carry
me up. It spoke of hope, it spoke of
patience, it spoke of life everlasting. Carry me up out of here, carry
me up out of here. Look what over here in Exodus
13, look in Exodus 13, 19. Look at Exodus 13, 19. Oh, bless his name. Moses took
the bones of Joseph with him. He made a promise. Moses took
the bones of Joseph with him, for he has straightly sworn to
two of the bishops saying, God will surely visit you and should
carry up my bones away. from here." Oh, He made them
swear when He left Egypt that He was carrying a coffin with
Him, carrying Joseph. Oh my, back into the Promised
Land. And let me tell you this, and I'll wind this thing up.
You know, they had the perpetual presence and purpose of God in
these men's lives. Abraham, Isaac, Noah, They had
the perpetual presence and purpose of God. This lesson is written
in large letters upon the lives of Jacob and Joseph. Jacob told
Joseph, he said, Joseph, God's going to be with you, going to
be with you. And then when Joseph got ready
to go, he said, God will visit you. God will be with you, but
God will visit you and bring you up. I die, but surely God
shall visit you. I die, but God will surely visit
you. But this is what I want to say.
God's everlasting name and purpose abides no matter who comes and
no matter who goes. Adam came, Adam went. Noah came,
Noah went. Abraham came, Abraham went. Isaac came, he went. Jacob came,
he's gone. Joseph came and he gone. They
live and they pass away. But you know who remains? God.
His will and His purpose abides ever. Stick your finger in a bucket
of water. See how much water you get out of it. And that's
what'll happen when we're gone. God's work just gonna keep on
going on and going on and going on and going on. And His work
goes on. His purpose is unfolding. And
beloved, amidst all the change, all the changes that we go through
in this mortal life, God abides and He abides forever. God reigns
and God rules and He is our dwelling place and His will will be done
and I'll be carried up out of Egypt one of these days too and
so will you and it won't be Moses carrying you up, there won't
be Moses with us.