Thank you, John. I can't tell
you. Group hug. This is great. So many, so many friends. It's a delight to be here. Turn
to Genesis chapter 50 with me. Turn to the last book, the last
chapter, I'm sorry, of the book of Genesis. The word visit is defined as
to go to stay for a short period of time. Y'all have all gone
to visit somebody or you've had somebody come visit you in your
home. God visits his people. In fact, no one will depart this
planet, no one will, without having had a visit from God.
And I'll make good on that here in a few minutes. But I want
you to read with me a few verses beginning in Genesis 50, verse
14. We read that Joseph returned
into Egypt, he and his brethren and all that went up with him
to bury his father after he had buried his father. And when Joseph's
brethren saw that their father was dead, They said, Joseph will
peradventure hate us. They've done some bad things,
as we'll see in a few minutes, to their brother Joseph. And
they now thought, Daddy's dead. He's not here to protect us anymore.
Joseph's going to judge us now. And it says, and he will certainly
require us. He's going to require now payment
for what we did. He'll require us of all the evil
which we did unto him. So they sent a messenger unto
Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,
So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive I pray thee now the trespass
of thy brethren and their sin. For they did it unto thee evil,
and now we pray thee, forgive the trespass for the sin of the
servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake
unto him. And I want us to begin to see
here that Joseph is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
as Joseph wept when his brethren, his brothers said, ìForgive us.î
Our Lord Jesus Christ weeps with joy when his people, the people
of God, come begging forgiveness for their sin. Verse 18, ìAnd
his brethren also went and fell down before his face, and they
said, ìBehold, we be thy servants.î And Joseph said unto them, Fear
not, for am I in the place of God. But as for you, you fought
evil against me, but God meant it unto good to bring to pass,
as it is this day, to save much people alive. Now therefore fear
ye not, I will nourish you and your little ones. And he comforted
them and spake kindly unto them. And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he
in his father's house, and Joseph lived a hundred and ten Joseph
saw Ephraim's children of the third generation, the children
also of Matre, the son of Manasseh, were brought up upon Joseph's
knees. Here's another picture. How many times in the New Testament
do we find that our Lord took up a little one and put it on
his knee? He loves his little ones. I'm glad I'm such an infantile,
immature little babe in everything. I'm glad he loves his little
ones. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am going to die,
and God will surely visit you and bring you out of this land
into the land which he swore to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob.
And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God
will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from
hence. And you can go and look up in the Scriptures 400 years
later when Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt up to
the Promised Land, they took Joseph's bones with them. So
Joseph dies being 110 years old, and they embalmed him, and he
was put in a coffin in Egypt. Did you notice in verses 24 and
25, two times, not just once, two times Joseph declares, and
he makes an oath here, which means that he swore a declaration,
he promised that God would visit his brethren. It's there two
times. And the purpose of this visit was to bring them out of
Egypt and take them back to Canaan, the promised land. Joseph didn't
declare that God might visit them. He didn't declare that
God could visit them or even that He should visit them. What
he declared was God will surely visit. This is a promise. And He'll do it on purpose. Now,
if you came here tonight looking for some good news, this is the
best I got. If you are brethren, as these
boys were to Joseph, he didn't promise to bring all of Egypt
up, did he? No, this promise was to his brethren. If you're
a brother or sister of the Lord Jesus Christ, one day real soon,
God will visit you and take you out of this place. He'll take
you to heaven, the promised destination of God's children, the brethren
of the Lord Jesus Christ He's coming for. And God's Word declares,
it swears by itself because it can swear by no greater. The Word of God declares that
He will surely visit you and bring you out and carry you up. That's the best of God. Right
there. Now, some things happen. in Joseph's
day before these events that we just read about. Notice that
Joseph said to his brethren, You thought evil against me.
And his brethren admitted that they had trespassed and sinned
and done evil. Turn back a little bit to Genesis
37. Now let's read some of what they did to him. What was done
to Joseph. In chapter 37, verse 1, it says
that Jacob, these boys' father, dwelt in the land wherein his
father was a stranger in the land of Canaan. Verse 3 says,
Now Israel, or Jacob, 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. He cut up Pat's work and stitched it together and
made him this coat. And when his brethren saw that
their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated
him and could not speak peaceably to him. And Joseph dreamed a
dream, and he told it to his brethren, and they hated him
yet the more. The dream was, you know, you
kids, Halloween's coming. And you know when they go out
in the field and they cut these corn stalks down and they tie them
together? They call that a sheave. And Joseph dreamed that he was
a sheave in the field. And he dreamed that his brothers
were sheaves also. And all of a sudden, all eleven
of them bowed down to his sheave. They didn't much like that idea
of bowing down to Joseph. Sort of like we by nature don't
much enjoy bowing down to the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he
dreamed another dream. And all he did was tell them
what he dreamed. He said, I dreamed I was a star in the heavens.
And he said, and you boys were too. Now, I'm sure they liked
that part, but then he said, and I dreamed that your stars
bowed to my star. Man, they were upset with him
about that. And if you look here in verse 11, it says, ìAnd his
brethren envied him over that, but his father observed the same.î
He took note of it. ìAnd his brethren went to feed
their fatherís flock in Shechem. And Israel said unto Joseph,
Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? Come, and Iíll
send thee unto them. And Joseph said, Here am I.î
Does that sound familiar to you? The father said to the son, Iíve
got some sheep down there. Theyíre a mess. I need...somebody's
got to go down there and do for them what they can't do for themselves.
And our Lord Jesus Christ said, Here am I. I'll go. Verse 14,
And he said to him, Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well
with thy brethren, and well with the flocks, and bring me word
again. So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came
to Shechem. And a certain man found Joseph, and, behold, he
was looking in the field. And the man asked him, saying,
What seekest thou? And Joseph said, I seek my brethren. Tell me, I pray thee, where they
feed the flocks. His brothers, they weren't where
they were supposed to be. Does that have a familiar sound
to you? They weren't doing what they
were supposed to be doing. In the garden, Adam quit doing what
he was supposed to be doing, tending the trees there. And he did something he wasn't
supposed to do. He took the fruit in the center of the garden and
he ate it. And you see here in verse 17, the man said, there
departed hence. where I heard them say, let's
go to Dothan. Now, I don't know what was in Dothan, but it wasn't
good. And Joseph went after his brethren and he found them where
they weren't supposed to be. And when they saw him afar off,
even before he came nearer to them, they conspired, they planned
against him to slay him. They saw him come over the hill
and they said, there's that wicked little brother of ours who thinks
we're going to bow to him. Let's put an end to this. Let's
just kill him. Verse 19, And they said one to another, Behold,
this dreamer cometh. Come now, therefore, and let
us slay him and cast him into some pit. And we'll say some
evil beast hath devoured him, and we shall see what will become
of his dreams then. If he's dead, this dream won't
come true. And Reuben heard it, and he delivered
him out of their hands and said to them, Let's not kill him.
Reuben had the good sense to know If we kill him, somebody
is going to have to answer this to our dad. We're going to have
to go back and say something happened. And Reuben said to
them, let's shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is
in the wilderness and lay not our hands upon him, that he might
rid him out of their hands to deliver him to his father again. And this is pretty ridiculous
on its face value. It's like me handing Micah gone
and saying, you know, John's after you. He's going to do bad
things to do. So you shoot John. And I go, I didn't have anything
to do with this. I didn't do anything with this. Does that
make him innocent if they throw him in the pit and he dies of
thirst there? You say, of course not. And you
see, they said then in verse 22, and Reuben said to them,
shed no blood, but cast him into the pit. and lay no hand upon
him that he might rid him out of their hands to deliver him
to his father again. And it came to pass when Joseph
was coming to his brethren that they stripped Joseph out of his
coat, his coat of many colors that was on him, and they took
him and cast him into a pit. And the pit was empty and there
was no water there. They thought, well, he'll die
first in that pit. Does that sound familiar? Our Lord on the
cross said, I thirst. I thirst. Verse 25, ìAnd they
sat down to eat bread.î Now this shows the hardness of the heart. These guys had just determined
to kill their brother, thrown him in a pit, and hoped heíd
die first, and they sat down to have a nice meal. Boy, this
is cold, isnít it? ìAnd they lifted up their eyes
and looked, and behold, a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead
with their camels, bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to
carry it down to Egypt And Judah said unto his brethren, What
profit is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood? Oh, now
we're getting to the root of the issue. Do you all remember
this? What's the root of all evil? The love of money. He said,
why should we just kill him? Let's make a buck on this thing.
Let's sell him. And then what will happen is
if we sell him into slavery, they'll take him somewhere and
he'll work himself to death. Or they'll beat him to death
down there, chain him up somewhere and he'll die. And then we can
say we didn't do anything. Verse 27, Come and let us sell
him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for
he is our brother in our flesh, and his brethren were content
with this idea. Then there passed by Midianite
merchantmen, and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit
and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver.
and they brought Joseph unto Egypt. Twenty pieces of silver.
Oh, it was thirty pieces of silver that Judas wanted for our horse,
right? Verse 29, Reuben returned unto
the pit, and behold, Joseph was not in the pit, and he rent his
clothes. And he returned unto his brethren and said, The child
is not there. By the way, Joseph is seventeen years old here.
Can you imagine taking a seventeen year old boy and doing this to
him? And the child is not. And I whither shall he go? Where
did he go? And they took Joseph's coat. They ignored him and killed
a kid of the goats and dipped the coat in the blood. And they
sent the coat of many colors and he brought it to his father
and said, This have we found. Know now whether it be thy son's
coat. You know, the blood of a lamb
was slain. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. And that's the picture here of
what was done. And of course, Jacob knew the coat. It was unique. The death of Christ. Totally
unique. Never been one like it before.
So look what happened then in verse 36. And the Midianites
sold Joseph into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's and captain
of the guard. You know what Potiphar's real
job was? He was the executioner in Egypt. And somebody broke the law and
Pharaoh said, that's enough. Potiphar would take him out and
kill him. One time, God put His Son in the hands of men and we
became His executioner. This is a complete picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the story continues from
there. Even more evil befell Joseph as a result of what his
brethren did. He prospers in Potiphar's house. Potiphar finds out pretty quick
that Joseph is a wise fellow. He handles things well and he
began to run his lands and his farms and his household and everything. He's really doing fine. Well,
then Potiphar's wife tells a lie and Joseph gets thrown into prison.
And down in prison, pretty soon the prison keeper finds out it's
Joseph. He's a wise fella. And he puts
him in charge of the whole prison. Now, that still wasn't exactly
a nice time or a great job, if you could put it that way. But
he's down there in prison for years. And then two fellas in
Pharaoh's house, the baker and the butler, they do something
to upset Pharaoh, so he throws them in the prison. And these
two fellas have a dream. And nobody can tell what the
dream means, but Joe says, well, what it means, he says, is that
you're going to get your head cut off and you're going to get
to go back to Pharaoh's house. And he said, and by the way,
when you get back there, will you tell Pharaoh there was a fella
down here who did you a service? See if you can get me out of
this place." Well, the dreams came true. The baker got his
head cut off, and the butler went back to Pharaoh's house.
You say, well, I bet he told the Pharaoh, and Joseph got out
of there, right? No, no. Two more years went by. He forgot
all about Joseph down there. Well, then the Pharaoh had a
dream. And you know the dream. He dreamed of seven really fat
cows and then seven really lean cows, and none of his wizards
or anybody could tell him what it meant. And the butler was
listening and said, Pharaoh, there's a fellow down there in
prison who's really good with dreams. Pharaoh said, clean him
up and bring him to me. And they brought him and Joseph
told him exactly what the dream meant. And Pharaoh said, Joseph,
you're a wise man. He said, I think I'll make you
king of Egypt and put you in charge of everything. You take
care of this mess, will you? And all of a sudden, Joseph is
gone from the dungeon to the palace. I tell you, our Lord
Jesus Christ, He came down here for a while and dwelt in this
pit, in this dungeon. But when His time was done and
He accomplished the purpose He came for, He went back and He
sits on the throne now as the King of Kings. Do we see what
a picture this is of our Lord Jesus Christ? And if you look
back at Genesis 50, All of this evil done to Joseph
at the hands of his brethren. Now they meant it for evil. They
actually enjoyed it. But God had other plans. You
see in Genesis 50 verse 20 when it says, But as for you, you
thought evil against me. God meant it unto good to bring
to pass as it is this day to save much people alive. And that
actually happened in this day and time where there would have
been untold thousands who would have starved to death if Joseph
had not done as God had enabled him which is store up all that
grain during the plenty and then give it back out when the lean
times came. You see, that's a picture. All the suffering that the Lord
Jesus Christ did, we meant it for evil. As we crucified Christ,
we meant it for evil. God meant it for good. What He
did, what that picture is, He saved an untold number of His
children the brethren of the Lord Jesus Christ from eternal
death by the sacrifice of himself. Just as Joseph suffered great
evil, even at the hands of his brethren, that one day he could
show mercy to them. Christ was made sin and punished
for our sin and his brethren could be saved alive. Had Joseph
not endured all he did, he never would have been in in the place
to be the king, who could save his brethren from dying. And
Christ endured death, even the death of the cross, that his
brethren could be saved from their sin." You know what Joseph's
brethren were treated? The time came, of course, when
they had to come down there. The famine came and their dad
said, we've got no food. He said, they've got it in Egypt. You go down there and get food
for us. And they walked in to this place. Here they come. And they don't
know what to expect. They've got a donkey carrying
a bag full of money. And they walk in there. Have
you ever seen the Discovery Channel or History Channel and seen what
those places looked like down in Egypt when Pharaoh was who
he was? And I'm sure here's Joseph sitting on this huge throne with
gold and silver everywhere and all these people fanning and
treating him like who he was, the king of Egypt. Buddy, they
walked in there. And you know what they did? They
vowed. Imagine that, the dream came
true. All the promises of God, they
come true. And all of this had to happen
before Joseph declared his oath, God will surely visit you. And I said earlier, God visits
everyone, all men and women. The word visit here is very unique. It means the same thing but in
two different ways. You say, I don't understand that.
I didn't either at first. But here's what it means. God
can visit, come for a short time in two ways. He can come in a
benevolent, kind, merciful way. Or He can visit in judgment and
in wrath. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. God can visit He visits everybody
one of two ways, in judgment or in mercy. And if God visits
with hostile intent, it's a very short visit indeed. I want you
to turn to Jeremiah 50 and let me show you. If you want to take
the time, I looked up so many, I thought, man, I can't show
them all these. All the visits in judgment. recorded
in the Scripture, but I'm going to show you one so you know I'm
telling you the truth. In Jeremiah 50, this is what's
recorded about what happened in Sodom and Gomorrah. In Jeremiah
50, verse 31, we read, Behold, I'm against you, O thou most
proud, saith the Lord of hosts. For your day has come, the time
that I'm going to visit you. And the most proud shall stumble
and fall, and none shall raise him up. And I'll kindle a fire
in his cities, and it shall devour all around about him." That's
a picture of the judgment of God, and that visit is very brief. Now, nobody here wants that visit,
do you? Nobody wants to be visited that
way. And most religious folks say,
well, I never did that stuff they did in Sodom and Gomorrah.
I've not done that kind of stuff. That's really vile and evil and
terrible. Maybe we haven't. But everybody
in this room has done something a lot worse than that. We crucified
the Son of God. And some TV preacher, you may
remember this years ago, John, some TV preacher got on TV And
he was just really waxing eloquent. And he said, I can't believe
what they did to the Lord at Calvary. He said, if I'd have
been there, I'd have stopped it. Oh, bless his heart, if he'd
have been there, he'd have knocked the Roman soldier down and grabbed
the hammer out of his hand, wanting to be the first in line. He'd
knock the guy down to get the spear. And so would have we. We've got to know who and what
we are by nature. Terrible consequence. of Adam's
fall and our sinful nature, it left us in such a condition that
we don't heed the warning. The Scriptures are full of warning.
If I don't visit you in mercy, I'll visit you in judgment. And
what happened in the garden, you see, is not just that Adam
had to leave the garden. No, Adam was left so spiritually
blind, he couldn't see the warning of God. Why didn't they all run
out of Sodom and Gomorrah? They didn't see the storm coming.
What happened to Adam? He was left totally spiritually
deaf. When the angels came there and
said, God's going to send a firestorm into this city, why didn't they
all leave? They couldn't hear by nature the warning of God. They were determined not to bow.
What was wrong with his brothers? All they had to do was bow to
him? No. We're full of hatred just as
we are for God's Son by nature. We'd rather die in our sin than
ask God to visit us in mercy. That's a simple truth. But thank
God, He does visit some in mercy. He does. Turn to Acts chapter
9 and let me show you an example of that. It really bothered me
at first when I read that God visits there in this in Genesis
50. I thought, I don't want a visit.
That's short. A visit's not long enough. I want more than just
a little visit. And then I realized that God's
Spirit can accomplish more in a millisecond than you and I
could in a lifetime. And I'll give you an example
of that. How many of us as parents... I know you moms. I know what
you do with your children. You give yourself completely
to, I'm going to bend them. I'm going to turn them. I'm going
to change them. I'm going to make them say, thank
you. I'm going to make them say, I'm
sorry. You give your whole life to it,
don't you? And you know what happens? Sometimes
it's completely to no avail. I don't know what the difference
is Some seem to care less, and things work out fine. They're parenting the absolute
best they knew how, doing everything they could, and they can't turn
them. Well, I can tell you this. We
can't. We absolutely can't. It's not
in us. And I'll tell you this. God's Spirit
can change one of God's children in a heartbeat. Eat and come. and change his children right
now. You see, in Acts 9, here's an
example. Saul, who became the apostle Paul, was breathing out
threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord. And
they went unto the high priest and desired of him letters to
Damascus, to the synagogues, that if he found any of this
way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound
unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came
near Damascus. And suddenly there shined round
about him a light from heaven. And he fell to the earth and
heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? And Saul said, Who are you, Lord? He'd never had a visit from God
before, but he got one right now. And I tell you, he knew
right now he was talking to a Lord. He was talking to the Lord of
Lords and the King of Kings. And the Lord said, I'm Jesus
whom you persecute, and it's hard for you to kick against
me. You can't resist me. And Saul, trembling and astonished,
said, Lord, what do you have me do? And the Lord said to him,
Arise and go into the city, and there shall be told thee what
thou must do. And the men which journeyed with
him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul rose from the earth,
and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man. But they led him
by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days
without sight, and neither did eat nor drink. Now, the fellows
with him, they heard a voice, but they didn't hear from anybody.
They didn't get a visit. But he did. He got a visit in
mercy. And the Spirit of God comes for
just a short visit, and the results will be these. They'll be permanent,
everlasting. The visit is in mercy. They won't
go back. And they'll be profound, this
visit will. The visited in mercy are never the same again. And
then those who are visited in mercy, there's an immediate change. The visited, they turn, they
repent, and they're baptized. Paul is the perfect example.
One day, he despises the gospel, and a few days later, he's going
to start preaching the gospel. One day, he was killing the people
of Christ, and now he's trying to save them. One day he's persecuting
Christians, now he's in love with them. One day he's cursing
Christ, now he worships him. Christ visited fishermen. You know what they became? Fishers
of men. Christ visited a blind man, made
him see. Christ visited a crazy man and
made him in his right mind. Christ visited a leper, made
him clean. Christ visited a palsied man,
enabled him to walk. Christ visited a tongue-tied
man, and then He could talk. Christ visited a cheating publican
and made him a devoted, honest disciple. Christ visited a man
whose daughter was dead, and she arose from the dead. Christ
visited a widow whose only son had just died, and He made that
young boy live. Now I ask you, I just gave you
quite a list there. What's our problem tonight? What's
bothering us that He can't fix? What problems do we have? Well,
if He's paid you a visit in mercy, I can answer that for you. You
don't have any problems anymore. Now, don't misunderstand me.
We've got a lot of trials and tribulations. Man's days are
short and full of trouble. They're not going to stop. The
older you get, the more you find out they just keep coming. But
the real problems are all gone with that one visit of mercy. Now, if you've never had a visit
from God, would you like to have one? Would you like to have one? Let's not do this. Let's not
sit here tonight and deceive ourselves, thinking somehow,
there's some way this is all going to work out when, in fact,
it's not OK. Now, in this world, speaking
just in your everyday life, if we've never had a visit from
God, Maybe we can be made to know
that it's possible we could have one. Philip to the eunuch said,
do you understand what you read? He said, how can I unless some
man show me. May God show us tonight. He does
that when he visits. He shows us who he is, who Christ
is, what he's done, why he did it, where he is now. Can we tell if we've had a visit
by God's Spirit? Well, He'll let you know that
Christ took care of all your real trouble. He put away our
sin of calvary. It's under His blood. He gave
you His righteousness. You're perfect before God. You've
still got trials and troubles, but if anyone here doesn't know
what I'm talking about, if you've never had a visit from God, Let me give you this illustration.
Anybody here never have anybody come over to the house? Never
come visit you? You just sit there day after
day after day? Nobody ever comes to visit. I can tell you why. You don't ask anybody. I promise,
if you pick up your phone and call anybody in this building,
say, would you come out and see me? I'd almost bet my car they
will. But if you never have a visitor,
it'll be because you never asked anybody to come by. You say,
that's too simple. No, it's just too true. It's
just too true. You say, what if I'm not one of God's
elect? Well, true enough. If you're not one of God's elect,
He's not going to visit you in mercy. But it'll still be our
fault because we never asked Him to. Do you get the illustration,
application of that? No one can blame God and say,
you never visited me. Turn over to John 14 and let
me show you. Can a person know if God has
visited them in mercy? That's a good question, isn't
it? Now, let's clear something up. Do I deserve a visit? Oh, listen. When I was talking
about those boys, what a bunch of rascals they were. I mean,
it wasn't enough to them that they could strip him of his coat
and throw him in a pit and hope he dies of thirst. That wasn't
good enough for them. No. They said, you know, we need
to kill him. And they said, well, but we can
make some money from him. So let's sell him and let him
take it down there They'll beat him to death. They'll put him
in chains in a prison somewhere. And then let's take his coat
and kill an animal and put blood on it and take it back to the
dead. I'd say an animal ate him. Oh, how? You say, oh, who could
do such a thing? I've got an answer for you. Those
boys remind me of me. This sounds exactly like something
I'd cook up. If you're honest with yourself,
it's something you'd cook up too. This needs to be enough money
involved. This needs to be enough pride and jealousy involved.
And that's what we'll do. But can a person know? We don't
deserve a visit. But can we know if we've had
one? Look at John 14, verse 15. If you love me, keep my commandments.
Well, now that's a problem for me because I've never kept them.
Not one of them. But I tell you what, the Lord
Jesus Christ has kept them for me perfectly. And I will pray
the Father, and he shall give you another comforter." Now listen
to this word, that he may abide with you forever. Oh, now it's
okay if the visit is brief. You know why? If the Holy Spirit
of God visits you in mercy, he's going to set up residence. He's
not ever leaving again. Even the Spirit of truth, in
verse 17, whom the world cannot receive because it sees him not."
Those fellows with Saul, they didn't see a thing. They didn't
get a visit. "...because it seeth him not,
neither knoweth him. But you know him, for he dwells
with you, and he shall be in you." And he says, I won't leave
you. And I won't leave you comfortless. Come to you, yet a little while,
and the world sees me no more, but you see me, because I live.
You shall live also. At that day you shall know that
I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you." Do we see
this? God, when He visits by His Spirit,
He comes in and He's not leaving. Now, isn't it good He doesn't
leave that up to us? Because I know the old me. This
is the new man in you. The old me goes, you know, sometimes
I've had enough of this. We'd run him off if we could,
but he's not leaving. Isn't that comforting? He won't
leave you no matter what you do. What you say, what you think. Oh, I'm so glad of that. But I told you, if you don't
get a visit, it'll be your fault. Here's why. Look right above
all this that we just read. Verse 13, it says, Whatever you
shall ask in my name, that will I do. that the Father may be
glorified in the Son. If you shall ask anything in
my name, I'll do it." You want to visit? Ask Him to come. Ask Him to come visit. You say,
that sounds too simple. No! It's the simplicity of the
Gospel. But there's nothing simple about
it. God planned this from the foundation of the world. Knowing
who and what we were, and knowing who and what Christ is. One more
Scripture quickly, 1 John 3. God's people do know when they've
had a visit and mercy. How do they know? Well, the Spirit
came to visit and never left. In 1 John 3, verse 22, we read,
Whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him. because we keep His commandments. And there again, we don't keep
them, but they're kept in Christ. And we do those things that are
pleasing in His sight. And this is His commandment that
we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and
love one another as He gave us commandment. And he that keepeth
His commandments dwelleth in Him, and He in him. And hereby
we know that He abides in us by the Spirit which He hath given
us. I really struggle with how to make that live. How to make
those verses live in us. Here's the best I know to tell
you about it. How does the Spirit manifest itself in God's people? What's the evidence? Well, you
know when you can't find comfort, I mean you're troubled. And we
all got troubles. But when you can't find comfort
in anything, That's the fact. You can't. The one who dwells
in you can comfort you. You ever on a Wednesday night,
you thought, I can't make it. I just can't suck it up and get
there. I'll admit to you, I've been
there. I'll tell you what, that's right, you can't. But the one
who dwells in you, he can get you there. You know, when you
make your little ones believe the Gospel and love the Lord
Jesus Christ, you can't. But the one who abides in you,
you can. When your loved ones are sick,
the doctor says nothing you can do for them anymore, you can't. But the one who abides in you
can. You can take them up and take
them where they want to be. When you lay dying and you realize
you can't even get up anymore, you can't. But He can carry you
up, no matter the case. He that abides in you is able
to do for you whatever you need. When did Joseph's brothers come
to Joseph? When they were starving. I tell
you, when sinners beg Christ to come, He will. When we're
so lost and starving and so helpless and miserable, so disgusted with
ourselves, when there's no hope or help at hand, then and only
then will we do this. We'll be like the publican who
came into the temple and said, Oh God, be merciful to me. He was asking for a visit. And
I know what happened. The Spirit of God flew to that
man. Flew into his heart. Gave him
a new heart and flew in, visiting him in mercy. And he never left. That's why our Lord said that
man went back down to his house justified. What happened? He had a visit from God and the
Spirit was abiding there and never left. You ask. He'll come visit you
on the authority of God's Word. Ask and you shall receive. Now
that's good news to me. I hope it is to you too. May
the Lord bless His Word.