Now if you will, turn back with
me to Genesis 45. I want to read just these last several verses here in the chapter,
which kind of sum up and give you some idea of where I'm going
to be coming from with my comments. Beginning with verse 24 where
it says, So he sent his brethren away, and they departed. And he said unto them, see that
ye fall not out by the way." Boy, I think we can preach on
that, don't you? I stopped when I read that while
ago, and I thought, man, there's a message all by itself. All by itself. I can almost hear
Paul saying over there, Where Hebrews 12, where he said, he
said, lay aside every weight. You remember reading that? Lay
aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us,
and run with patience the race that is set before us, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Fall not out by
the way. Don't get distracted. There's
a lot of things. to distract. There's a lot of
things that'll take you away. A lot of things. Don't let anything distract you.
Don't let anything take your mind and heart away from this
mission. This is the Lord of all Egypt.
Now, He's their brother, but He's their brother glorified.
And they trembled in His presence. They never thought that'd ever
happen, but they did. I used to hear when I was just
a kid, I used to hear men talking about trembling before the Lord
and things like that. And I used to wonder because
I believed that He existed. I believed all those things.
I believed that Jesus was a real person, that He came, that He
died, but I didn't know anything at all about His glory. And I
couldn't understand what they were talking about. That's the
way His brethren were. And so, verse 25, they went up
out of Egypt came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father,
and they was excited. They could hardly get a breath. Man, they come running into the
tent, and they said, Dad, Joseph is alive. Now, I'm going to try to put
myself in Joseph's shoes. These are the same boys that
came to him with the coat with the blood and said, do you know
whose coat this is? Like they didn't know whose coat
it was. We don't know what happened to
him. But they knew what they wanted him to think happened
to him and held up that coat. This is them same boys. These
are these boys who have a history. They've got some history. You
remember back there in the city when they raped Dinah, what they
did. Old Simeon girded on that sword.
He whopped off every head of every male in that city. He killed
everybody. They were covered with blood.
Covered with blood. Oh, he said, you've ruined my
name. I can't even dwell in Canaan
now. The Canaanites are going to come
down here and kill me. They had a history. So do I. So do you. But we want folks
to believe us now, don't we? Because we see. But this is the
same guy, same guy that used to tell lies. Thank God. So let's
don't get too hard on folks if they say, well, I better think
this over. Let's don't get too upset. So
these fellas, they run in and they said, Joseph is yet alive. And not only that, he's governor
of all the land of Egypt. And he said, Jacob's heart fainted,
for he believed them not. And they told him all the words
of Joseph which he had said unto them. And when he saw the wagons
which Joseph had sent to carry, the spirit of Jacob their father
revived. And O Israel, He said, it's enough. It's enough. Joseph, my son,
is yet alive, and I'll go see him before I die. I titled the
message tonight, From One Doubter to Another. I believe old Jacob
speaks to you and me, and he speaks as one doubter to another.
He's a very clear picture here of God's elect, who'd been sold
a rotten bill of goods. He'd been hearing lies for years. Do you realize, as we've gone
through this thing, that Joseph has been down in Egypt for 13
years? He'd been gone for 13 years. For 13 years, these boys have
lived out the lie that they told their father. And they hugged
him and they comforted him. And the whole family gathered
around and hugged him and comforted him. And the circle was unbroken. They all loved each other and
hugged one another. And we're going to get along
just fine. I know he's dead and we miss him, but we're going
to get along all right. We'll depend on one another.
We're going to stay a family. And all this time, all this time,
they've left their father deceived. All this time, he's been living
and laboring with a false impression of Joseph's disappearance. All
this time. And this is exactly what religion
does with the righteousness of Christ. Now they told, they brought
that old bloody coat in with the blood of that beast. They
took the covering of the Father's love and tainted it with that
old beastly blood. And this is exactly what religion
does. It does this with the righteousness of Christ. They set it before
men mixed with an unsanctified offering. And they set it before
the world and they leave them to draw their own conclusions.
They're not going to tell them what this thing says. That's
the first thing that upsets folks when I talk to them. They say,
no, wait a minute, wait a minute, you're being way too dogmatic
on this thing. We got an opinion, yeah, but
we're not talking about opinion. Opinions are like noses. Everybody's
got one. That don't amount to a hill of
beans. What I want to know is what this book says. And this
book says something. It don't say everything. It says
something. When you find out what that something
is, that's all you have to say. I don't... I'm not going to listen
to your opinions. I don't want you to listen to
mine. I'm going to tell you what God said. You know that's what
the prophet said? Thus saith the Lord. Well, who
told you what the Lord said he did? He did. Well, I don't believe
it. Then roll the dice. Just roll
the dice. Take your chances. Old Moses
told them. Cora, Dathan, and Byron came
out there and they said, we've been thinking about this thing,
Moses, and you got way too much on you. Now, we're going to take
the pressure off of you. And we've been studying this
thing through, and we think the godly thing to do, and we know
it's so because we had everybody vote on it, and we got the majority
vote, and everybody thinks we ought to take some of this authority,
and I'm going to take a little bit, and Cory's going to take
a little bit, and Byron's going to take a little bit, and you
can have the rest. And Moses said, OK, we'll settle
this thing. Everybody that's on the Lord's
side, get over here. Everybody that believes that
I'm the Lord's messenger, line up right here. Everybody that
believes that God called them to preach and you believe that
God has his hand on them and has anointed them, everybody
that believes the Lord's on their side, gather right over there
behind them. Everybody come over and get in
a spot. And God opened up the earth and took those rebels to
hell with their shoes on. I've got no way to prove to you
any more than his brethren had to prove to Jacob that they were
the messengers of God. None whatsoever. Just my testimony
and the message I carry. But that's what religion does. They present this thing to the
world and they leave them to their own conclusion. Old Jacob
has labored for years that his son's death had no glory whatsoever. It was a death with no purpose.
Where's the purpose in a bloody beast running out and grabbing
Joseph, tearing him to pieces? He labored about a death with
no godly reason. A death with no victory. It didn't
accomplish anything. It didn't say anything. It didn't follow anything. And
all his life, Jacob had seen things confirmed of God. I read
it to you in Psalm 105. God confirmed His covenant and
made it a law in Jacob. He made it a rule. Everything
Jacob did was confirmed of God. God confirmed His covenant with
him his whole life and with his children. But here was a death with no
glory and no purpose and no godly reasoning and no victory. And
for 13 years Jacob labored under the wrong idea of Joseph's disappearance. And now hearing the good news
from the same ones who brought him the bad news is not enough
to overcome their doubts. Not enough. Are not we all just like the
two disciples walking along the road to Emmaus who said, we thought,
we thought. What did the Lord tell them?
He said, oh, fools and slow of heart to believe all that the
prophets have spoken of me. Slow of heart. Oh, that's us.
That's Jacob. That's you. That's me. Slow of
heart. Slow of heart. Jacob just could
not bring himself to believe the visions of God when Joseph
told him. He told him exactly what God
was going to do in the beginning. Seventeen years old. Here's a
seventeen year old and all these old men and this patriarch of
God and none in the whole outfit believed God's messenger. He
stood there and told them exactly what was going to happen. Well, but Jacob, they bring in a bloody
coat. Now this is us. We're prone.
Give me some bad news, boy, I'll grab it. I'll grab it. They brought
in a coat with some blood on it and didn't say nothing. They
didn't say anything. All they said was, is this your
son's coat? Do you recognize this coat? That's
all they said. Pow! Just like Jacob grabbed
that thing and started filling in all the details. That's what
happens in religion. They hang up this bloody coat
they got. Or they hang up this false witness
of Christ. They hang up this wrong concept. Said it before you, Christ. And
man, you just grab that thing and start filling in the details,
don't you? Huh? Well, you're teaching Sunday
school next week. You can just feel in it. I know what this
means. Here's what it means. Bible, Bible, Bible. Down the
road you go. That's Jacob. That's Jacob. It's just so easy to believe
a lie and so difficult to believe the truth, isn't it? Give me bad news. I'll believe
it without question. Give me good news and a mountain
of evidence. It's not sufficient to convince
me of it. What is it? What is it that makes
us so prone to doubt? What is it that makes a lie so
easy to believe and the truth so hard? Ignorance. That's what it is. Ignorance.
And this ignorance is twofold. First of all, because of a corrupt
nature. This nature has no redemptive
knowledge of God. No redemptive knowledge. It knows
nothing of grace. It knows nothing of love. It
knows nothing of mercy. It knows something about the
power of God. There's no other way to explain
these things. When God covers the world with
water, I guarantee you, you believe something about the power of
God. You ask them folks down there when that water come in
and covered New Orleans up, I guarantee you there's a lot of folks out
there talking about they didn't believe in the in God. But they
believed after that tornado, after that hurricane, they believed
something about His power, but they had no redemptive knowledge
of Him, no knowledge of His mercy, no knowledge of His grace. Our conscience tells us, and
so does creation, but it's mostly our conscience. The conscience
tells us that this God who created all things and maintains all
things, will not tolerate sin. It tells you that. Paul tells
us over in Romans 1 that the wrath of God, the wrath of God
is revealed from heaven against all this unrighteousness and
ungodliness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness because
that which may be known of God is manifest in them, in them,
not to them, in them. Well, God hath showed it to them,
and they're without excuse. You know when you do wrong. Nobody
has to come tell you. You can stand there in the store,
and nobody's looking. Grab something, throw it in your
pocket. Or a man gives you the wrong amount of change, and it's
in your favor, and you look at it down in the pocket. You know. You know. You know when you tell
a lie or a half-truth. You know. How do you know? God showed it to you. He showed
it to you. I don't care the tiniest little
fact. He shows it to you. Wrath of God. I'm not going to
put up with that nonsense. But in all of that, they have
no redemptive knowledge of God. No knowledge of God's goodness
and His mercy. Their conscience will tell them
that things are wrong. But it's totally silent on these
other matters of the heart. It's the nature of man. that's
left him this way. That's why he can believe bad
news. He can believe that because he hears it all the time. Guilty,
guilty, guilty. He knows he's guilty. It ain't
hard for him to believe you are. He can believe bad news. And
then the second thing is this because he's been sold a bill
of goods by his lying sons. He thought these boys loved him.
He thought these boys cared for him. I thought the same thing
when I sat out in the pew and a man stood up here telling me
lies. I thought he cared for me. I thought he loved me. He
told me he did. We love you. God loves you. He was sold a bill of goods.
They stripped Joseph of his coat and took that old token concerning
his father's love and tainted it with the blood of the beast.
Oh, the beastly blood of Satan's lie and testimony, it takes away
all the dignity and purpose and glory of Christ. It makes folks
to believe God had no purpose in His Son, and leaves them to
draw their own conclusions and ideas about God, and leaves them
to believe that all His promises in Him were in vain. Once you understand what Christ
did on the cross, Man, that'll just start whopping the head
off of false doctrine. Well, that can't be. That's what
Paul said. This can't be. Otherwise, Christ
died in vain. You're making the death of Christ
a vain thing. Well, that's what religion leaves
men to conclude. Leaves them to believe that all
the prophetic visions were of no consequence. Left them to
believe that the The preservation and posterity of his seed was
totally dependent on his own strength and works. Man, he wouldn't
take his arm off Benjamin. Why not? Because he thought he
was the one who had to keep him. And he thought he was the one
that caused Joseph. He blamed himself for Joseph's
death too. Well, Paul said, If our gospel
be hid, it's hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of
this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not. That's
what happened to Jacob. They blinded his mind about the
disappearance of Joseph. They blinded his mind in things
pertaining to his beloved. They blinded his mind. He had
wrong thoughts. He was filled with wrong thoughts.
He long since buried his son. He long since gave up on his
son. You know why he gave up? Because
those boys led him to believe that his son was torn into pieces
by beasts and devoured. Nothing left of him. Nothing
left of him. No evidence. Nothing left to
bury in the ground. Nothing left to carry back to
the cave and put with his mother. Nothing left. They told him a lie and let him
draw his own conclusions. This world will not receive the
good news of Christ because they've long since believed in a Christ
that died in vain. He's buried and dead. He fought
a good fight. He did the best he could do,
and then he died. Fought the good fight, did the
best he could, and left the rest up to us. left men with a false view, a
false impression. You know, it's not so much, I
was thinking about this the other night, it's not so much what
men say is what they don't say. The boys didn't say anything
untrue to their father, but everything they said was a lie. because
they said it in pretense. They took something that they
knew he would recognize and then doctored it up to give this false
impression. They added to the coat that blood
and held it up and said, we found this. Do you know what it means? Oh, he said, I know what it means.
I know what it means. And they didn't say no. They
just let him go. They let him go. Christ died. God raised him from
the dead. The Jews paid large sums of money
to the two soldiers that lay on the ground trembling after
the angel of God had rolled back the stone. I ought to tell you
something about the depravity of men. These two men saw the
angel of God come down, probably just took his little finger and
rolled that stone back away from that tomb, and them two men just
lay down on the ground quivering, quivering, shook that whole place
with a shaking when he moved that stone. Them two guards just
fell down. Them Jewish high priests come
along and said, boy, look here, we're going to write you a check,
going to take care of you the rest of your life. All you have
to do is say this. When they come to ask you what
happened, you tell them his disciples came and moved the stone and
took the body. false impressions. Satan's ministers
appear as ministers of righteousness and run to and fro in the land
saying to everybody that'll listen, look at the bloody coat. Look
at it. They leave you with this impression
that Christ came only to inspire. He came to encourage. He came
to example. He came to attempt to do something.
He came to make something possible. But as the Lord who rules, He's
dead. As the heir to inherit, He's
dead. As the Savior to save, He's dead. As the surety of God's covenant,
He's dead. As the revealer of God's sovereign
will, He's dead. He's dead. Old Jacob could pity
poor little Joseph for it in pieces. He could stir up some
old affections and emotions, and Jacob could on occasion blame
himself for his death. He could mourn his loss, but
he could not vision his son sovereign over Egypt. He couldn't do it.
He could not do it. He couldn't bring himself to
embrace the concept of Joseph being alive and Lord of the land
and Savior of his own soul. He just fainted and could not
believe it. Because of the falling nature
of men and the lying testimony of those who said they loved
him. He just couldn't believe. And
men can't believe either. The same difficulty that you
and I have. It's the same thing that blocks
the way to joy and happiness. We just cannot fathom one who
is close to us. This was his son. This was something
tangible that he could touch and embrace and hug. This was
one close. This was one with him. I don't
care when he was going to face his angry brother. He put people
in line, but he took Benjamin and Joseph. Put him over here
with him. Way over here, way in the back. Trying to protect him. Loved him. Oh, how close he was. And this one so close who loved
him, who was one with him. He couldn't fathom this boy being
sovereign of Egypt. He just couldn't know it. He
thought he was dead. He thought he was long gone.
He didn't know he accomplished anything. Now listen to me. Old Joseph reconciled these liars. He reconciled them. He made them to see God's
purpose of grace in him and made them to taste of his goodness
and mercy. And then he sent them to tell
what they knew. Then he sent them to tell what
they had experienced in their own hearts to God's elect. When
I close my eyes, I see that great procession out there. They ran
in the tent. And they said, Joseph is alive. And old Jacob just shook his
head. Here we go again. And they said, come and look. And I could just close my eyes.
That's what I did. I tried to take myself today
and just put myself in Jacob's shoes. Been lied to. I was lied to. I understand that. I understand that. I had no concept. They let me
draw my own conclusions. I had no concept of God's sovereignty,
no concept of an election, no concept of having a particular
people that God was sending something to on purpose, sending his gospel
to on purpose. I had no concept of that. They call old Jacob out and he
comes out there to the front of that thing and he looks and
as far as the eye can see, there's ashes loaded. I mean loaded to
the brim. There's 20 of them stretched
out there in a line. Loaded. All they could carry. meats and drinks and wine and
corn and changes of raiment and silver and all the good things
from Egypt is just lined up on these things. 20 ashes out there. And it don't even tell you how
many wagons, but there were 70 people that came down to Egypt
with Jacob. So there was a bunch of wagons.
And all of these people and all of their cattle and all of their
herds and everything had to go back and Pharaoh said, you take
enough wagons to move the whole outfit. Huh? Jacob stood up there
and he looked and here's all of these beasts of burden loaded
to the hilt with good things and back behind the ashes and
back behind that is wagons and behind those wagons is more wagons
and they're going out over the hill. He can't even see all the
wagons. Huh? Somebody comes to you and tells
you Christ is alive. That don't mean nothing, does
it? Don't mean nothing till you see
the wagons. Wagons. Huh? wagons of promises, and wagons
of accomplished redemption, and wagons loads of the Holy Spirit
of God, and wagons of promises, and you go back into the Old
Testament, and there's more wagons, and there's one wagon after the
other as far as the eye can see. And all of these wagons, what
are they there for? To carry you back to Joseph.
That's what they're there for. Pharaoh said, you tell them.
You tell them. This day, you go get these wagons,
and you load these asses, and Joseph did exactly what Pharaoh
told him to do. Huh? You think I stand up here
on Sunday morning, Wednesday night, expecting people who've
been sold a false bill of goods to come in here and just, on
my testimony, say, that's right, that's right. It ain't gonna
happen till they see the wagons. But let them sit in here a while.
Let them sit and listen to all Joseph's words. Did you see that
back there in his birth? They told him all the words of
Joseph when he said, I don't believe you. They said, you sit
right there. Let me tell you something. Let
me tell you what your son told me to tell you. They told him
all the words of Joseph. Let me read you something over
here in the book of Luke. Oh, this will bless your heart.
Lord will give you some understanding of it. Over here in Luke chapter
24. As they spake, verse 36, Jesus
stood in the midst of them, and he saith unto them, Peace be
still. and so on. And he ate with them
and talked with them. And then down in verse 44, and
he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto
you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled
which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets,
and in the song concerning me. Then opened he their understanding
that they might understand the Scripture. They went back there
and looked and saw the priesthood and the sacrifices, and they
saw that labor there where they was washed, and they saw all,
just wagon after wagon after wagon, all these wagons had great
big letters under the royal seal. Grace, grace, grace. You know what carries us back?
The wagons. It's the wagons. Oh, we see these
wagons and these wagons. Oh, I'm telling you, you get
strength. You get established. That's what
Paul said. These things that I'm teaching
you are a benefit. These means of grace God uses. He's not going to go out. God
can. He can have those rats raise up children under Abraham. But
it didn't please him to do that. Please God, through the foolishness
of preaching, to save them the blood. Please God, he told those
disciples all powers given unto me in heaven and earth. That
means he can do what he wants to. But he said, go teach them. Huh? How can I teach them? There's none that understand
it. They will. They will. They'll understand when they
hear you. When they hear you. You see what
I'm trying to preach in this? You see what I'm trying to say?
All of these means that God has established, they're important.
They're important to see. These are the wagons. We're sitting back here in Canaan
starving to death and Joseph is up in glory. Christ is glorified. He's Lord of all. He sent the
wagons. You know what he tells us to
do? Get in the wagon. Huh? Ain't that what they told
old Joseph? Get in the wagon. When Joseph
saw the wagons, he said, that's enough! Now I believe. That's enough. He looked out
there. Man, these weren't old farm buggies. These weren't old
covered wagons. This is Pharaoh's wagons. They
had the raw seal on it and the purple velvet seats. And they
had those big old, whatever you call them, Clydesdales out there,
finely groomed in front of them, trotting along, pulling the wagons.
He looked out there at that royal entourage in that big procession
and he said, that's enough. That's enough. Now you think
what God has sent to those down here in this land starving to
death. You think what he, he sent his
Holy Spirit. Can you imagine? That's just
almost too good to be true, ain't it? Huh? God sent his Holy Spirit. You think, well, I can't do that. Well, you can if he comes. Huh? They said, Moses, what we gonna
do? He said, stand still. That's
what you can do. Let me show you what the spirit
of God can do. He raised out that staff and
that whole sea split wide open. That whole white pit crossed
over on dry ground. Huh? God sent his Holy Spirit. He sent preachers. Got the same
problem you got. Got the same doubt you have.
Got the same old man living in him that lives in you. I know
how to talk to people about the old man because he lives in me.
I know him. I know exactly what he does. I know exactly how he pulls and
tugs. I know what trials are. I know
how to minister to men with trials. I'm tried all the time. I know
what it is to fall. I know what it is to doubt. I
know what it is to throw your hands up and say, I quit. I quit. We're going to talk about that
Sunday morning. Peter said, I quit. That's when you fix and learn
a lesson, when you quit, when you throw your hands up. Oh,
he looked out and saw them wagons. He said, it's enough. It's enough. King of kings, lord of lords. Joseph said, don't even bother
with your stuff. You got a half a box of cornflakes,
leave it in the cabinet. You ain't gonna need it. You
got three or four old suits in there that don't even fit you
anymore, just leave them. Just leave them. Don't bother
with your stuff. Don't bring all that stuff. You know we want to bring our
stuff, don't we? You don't need your stuff if
you're going to see Joseph. He said, if I was hungry, I wouldn't
tell you. Cattle on a thousand hills, man,
why would I tell you? You're the one starving. I'm sitting down here with the
silo. You don't need to bring your
stuff, but we want to bring it down. We want to bring our good
works, and we want to bring that old filthy hat we like so well. We want to bring all this stuff.
We want to bring it with you. Got no fishing rod, don't even
work anymore. We won't take it. Got sentimental
value, don't it? Just leave it home. Pharaoh said,
don't bring your stuff. Don't bother with it. You get
down here, we're going to give you the best Egypt has to offer. Because Joseph rules. Joseph
rules. God loves Christ. If I tell you,
if you don't hear anything else I ever say till I die, you hear
me now. God loves Christ, and He loves
everybody and everything that's in Him. He'll spare no good thing
for those who love His Son. Nothing. All things, He said, work together
for good to them that love God. What do I need to do, boys? Get
in the wagon. Climb up in that wagon. And it's
going to carry you all the way back to Joseph. That's what he
tells us. Just believe. Huh? That's what
he tells you. Believe. Believe. Everything's in place. Everything
that All the sustenance, everything that they needed, Pharaoh already
had this thing mapped out and put on and loaded on the ashes.
So when they come home, they're going to have, if anybody got
hungry, there's stuff right there. Just pull it out. It's ready
to go. And more besides. Paul said he
was exceedingly abundant above anything that we could think. already provided. Just get in
the wagon. Get in the wagon. Oh, our God, when we see your goodness, we
see your grace, we see the provisions that you've made for us. Not
only made the provisions, but sent them to us where we were.
We're too weak and too ignorant and too unbelieving to come to
you. We've got to be called. We've
got to be carried. We've got to be brought. Oh, our God, as we attempt in
these last years of our life to preach this gospel, we pray
that you go with us. Pray that you make each message
precious to the hearts of those who hear us. For Christ's sake,
amen.