Genesis chapter 41, and I just
want to look again just for a minute at verses 55 through verse 57. And I wanted to finish this this
afternoon, but I thought, well, why be in such a big hurry about
it? We'll look at it again tonight
and maybe next Wednesday night also. Just such a beautiful story,
I hate to leave. And as we said in the last couple
of our studies, Joseph here had been exalted from the pit that
his brother had put him in. Joseph had been exalted here,
and Pharaoh had put him on the throne. He had Pharaoh's ring on his
hand. All authority had been given
to him. He was riding in a royal chariot
and dressed in his royal apparel. And everywhere he went, people
was bowing the name, LG Joseph, LG Joseph. He had been given
a wife. We saw that here in chapter 41. Had two beautiful children. They
went on to inherit a portion of the land. that the Lord gives
to the children of Israel. And Joseph was a happy man. He was a very happy man. Come
on in, folks. You're all right. You're fine.
We're over in the 41st chapter of Genesis, if you ladies want
to follow. Chapter 41. We're studying on Joseph. And
Joseph was a happy man. His sufferings were over. He
was having it easy now, enjoying his children, and he had absolute
reign over Egypt. It's something, it's amazing
that you take a man out of prison, he was a prisoner for years,
and you set him over your princes to bind them at your pleasure
and to teach your wise men your counselor's wisdom. And he was
just a brilliant man, a ruler, a governor over all this land. And we saw here that the main
reason that this happened to him is found here in our text
that we're looking at in verse 56, to keep people alive,
to feed people. He was exalted to save much people
alive. And here in verse 55, you can
imagine this scene. And when all the land of Egypt
was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. And Pharaoh
said unto all the Egyptians, Go unto Joseph, whatsoever he
saith unto you, do it. Just imagine that scene, all
the hungry Egyptians, I mean, coming, begging Pharaoh for food,
and what does he tell them to do? Go to Joseph. Go to Joseph. And he commits all his kingdom,
all the citizens of his kingdom, he commits them to Joseph's trust. I mean, he didn't just exalt
this man, he had confidence in this man that he would treat
his citizens fairly and rightly. Whatever he says unto you, do
it. Do it. And here in verse 56, look at
this. Joseph opened all the storehouses.
And the famine was over all the face of the earth. And Joseph
opened all the storehouses and sold them to the Egyptians. And
the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt. All the grain
that Joseph had laid up in his storehouses. Now it was enough
to feed all the land of Egypt. Everybody could eat from Joseph's
storehouses. So he wasn't just a sovereign
to rule over all the people. He was a man that was exalted
of God to feed all the people, to maintain all the people, and
nourish all the people. He'd be enough to be a ruler,
wouldn't he? But he was such a smart ruler, such a wise ruler,
such a generous ruler, such a generous ruler. And verse 57 tells us
this. Look at this. Boy, this famine
here got extreme. And all countries came unto Egypt
to Joseph for to buy corn, because that the famine was so sore in
all the land. All of them came from everywhere
to buy corn from Joseph. They came from all over the world.
The famine reached to every city and every town and every country.
This famine was so bad. Countless people came to this
one man and they ate of his provision. And don't you imagine that his
fame went worldwide? Because people come there and
they bowed before him in reverence, got all the grain that they could
hold and went back and were sustained. And what do you think the conversation
was about as they sat around the kitchen table? Boy, you wouldn't
believe, sweetheart, the man that we saw today. I heard tell
of him, how wise he was and how Pharaoh had exalted him. I heard
of what a pearl he wore. I heard about all of his servants.
I heard about all the provisions that he had stored up. But I'm
telling you, the hype has never been public. And they found themselves
talking. Neighbor across the fence talking.
Did you go to Egypt? Oh, you bet I went to Egypt.
What do you think of Joseph? I've never seen anybody like
him. Man, we're going back. We're going back. You think he
can sustain us? Oh, if you've seen his warehouses,
yeah, he can sustain us. He was just a brilliant, exalted,
generous, all-sufficient sustainer of the life of people from all
over the world. Now, what are we saying? Well,
the same thing we said the last time. that God has exalted the
Lord Jesus Christ from the tomb, from the dead. And He's made
Him Lord over the great, the Lord over the small, Lord over
men, Lord over devils, Lord over angels, Lord over all this earth. He's Lord over all. That's what
Peter said with Him. Preaching peace by Jesus Christ. He is Lord. He's a prophet just as Joseph
was. Joseph taught Pharaoh's counselors. Jesus Christ is the one who teaches
us. He can teach us more in the blink
of an eye than all the counselors and all the princes can in this
lifetime. He is a teacher, if so be that
you've been taught of God. And he not only opens the storehouses,
he is the storehouse. Joseph had a bunch of them. He had to have a bunch of them.
We only got one, and that's all we need. In Jesus Christ our
Head, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, all the mercy
that a poor sinner needs, God has put it in His Son. All the
grace, all the saving grace, all the sustaining grace that
we need, God has put abundance of it in Jesus Christ. And he
says, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. The storehouse. Life is in Christ. He that hath
the Son hath life. Everything that we need, redeeming
love, the love of God, where is it? It's in the Lord Jesus. He put everything in Him. He
is indeed the storehouse. And there's not a country, there's
not a land, There is not a city, there is not a state, there is
not a hamlet or a village or Pueblo, or there is not a heart
where this plague, this famine of sin has not reached. Every
place in this world, it has waxed sore spiritual famine. And men and women and boys and
girls from all countries and all lands have come to the Lord
Jesus Christ. to buy wine and milk without
money and without price. And they have eaten that which
was good for their souls and have delighted themselves in
fatness in the provision of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a beautiful
picture this is, then, of Jesus Christ. He not only fed those
who were near the Egyptians, but when the Famine waxed sore
in all the earth. They came from all the world,
all lands. They made that journey to Egypt
and bowed before Joseph and were sustained. And you remember that
great message that Peter preached in Acts chapter 2 when he talked
about that they had crucified the Lord? Peter said, You have
taken by wicked hands, have crucified the Lord, and God hath highly
exalted Him. and made Him both Lord and Christ. And remember the message he preached
to them? They were heartbroken when they heard this. They were
pricked in the heart and said, what shall we do? He said, repent. Repent and be baptized in the
name of Jesus Christ. For the remission of sins, you
shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is
to who? To you and to your children. and as many as be aforeall, even
as many as the Lord our God shall call." I mean, it's not just,
it didn't just start there at little Jerusalem. That's where
it started at. But boy, I tell you, it's spread, ain't it? The
fame of the Lord Jesus Christ has spread all over this world. Jews and Gentiles have come to
Him. Those who were there at Jerusalem
were nigh, but Paul said, He's reconciled us to God. both Jew
and Gentiles by His cross, and He came and preached peace to
you which were far off and to you which were nigh." I'm looking
at some people tonight. We were far off. I mean, not
just geographically. Boy, we're a long ways from Jerusalem,
aren't we? I don't know how long it takes to get over there on
a jet plane, but it takes a long time. But it wasn't just geographically. Boy, spiritually, we were far
off, weren't we? I mean, far off from God, far
off from hope, without God, without hope in the world, spiritually
dead, far from righteousness, and couldn't bring ourselves
back, could we? But we heard of his faith, and we come, and
he sustained us. He's been feeding us now for
a long time, hasn't he? Some things that these fellows
had in common, I thought about this as I was looking at this,
Some things that everybody that came, I don't care if you were
an Egyptian, I don't care if you were a Babylonian, I don't
care if you were from Syria, everybody that came to Joseph
had some things in common. Everybody that came to him was
in the same condition. They were starving to death.
They were starving to death. Can you just see it in your mind's
eye? See all these people coming? And every last one of them started
to eat. I mean, man, their ribcage, you
know, is showing. They're peaking. Their countenance
is falling. I don't care if you were a king.
I don't care if you were a pauper. You had this in common. You were
hungry. I mean, there was a famine over
all the land. That's why they came, wasn't
it? That's why they came. That's why men come to Christ
today. There's a famine. There's a famine. There's a famine
of this sin and all its darkness and the sickness and sorrows
of it and finally death. Famine. Famine of eating any
bread that will sustain us. Having any water of life. And
we all come starving. We all come in need. That's what
they had in common. Secondly, they had all this in
common. They came to one person. With but one place in all the
world to get bread and to be sustained, and that was Joseph. But you know, it wasn't just
any Joseph. It was Joseph on that throne. Joseph sitting on
that throne. And everybody that left there
had the same opinion of this man. They said, he's on his throne. Boy, he's the Lord of the country.
Everybody said that. What do you and I have in common
as we come here? Where do we have our unity at? Is it not
in Jesus Christ who is on the throne? Yes, it is. It sure is. And lastly is this. Everybody
that came was fed from the one and selfsame source. Joseph's storehouse. No food
in any place else turns but in Joseph's storehouse. If you ate,
if you stayed alive, there's but one place to get food. That's
Joseph's storehouse. Ain't but one source of life
from God. One access to God. One way to
obtain mercy and grace and life eternal. And that's in the Son
of God. It's nowhere else. Children, listen to me. We're
hearing a lot of ways today. People telling you a lot of ways
to be saved. A lot of ways back to God. And
we're hearing this, one way as good as another. There's many
ways. There's one way. If you and I
would be saved, it's in one person. And that's the Son of God. And
you think, you think, I thought of this, you think Potiphar came? Remember Potiphar that got mad
at Joseph and put him in the dungeon? You reckon he came? You reckon his wife came? I thought about that as I was
thinking about this. Can you just get a picture of that in
your mind? Here Jacob is sitting on his throne, and all of a sudden,
here comes Potiphar and his wife. Potiphar wants to put him in
prison. I wonder how he looked when he bowed down before Joseph.
What about Potiphar's wife that accused him of rape? Man, I wonder
if she came. Maybe she said, I ain't going.
I'd rather starve. Maybe Potiphar said, boy, I'm
not going. I'm scared to death. I don't know what he may do to
me. But if they came, and they came and humbled themselves before
Joseph, you know something? He fed them. He fed them. Can you imagine those fellows
down in those guards? The Bible says they hurt his
feet in the stock. Can you imagine some of those
guards that were so cruel and they tightened those chains down
around his leg? The Bible said his legs swollen
and bled. They hurt his feet in the stock.
Can you imagine some big soldier tightening them things down?
And Joseph was, please, please don't tighten them like that
there. Oh, shut up. Shut your mouth. Can you imagine
that big guard coming now? Can you imagine him bowing his
big body before Joseph on the throne? Looking up, will He feed
me? Yeah. Yeah. Come and humble yourself
before Him. You want the bread of life? You
want the Son of God to have mercy upon you? Then come and bow down
before Him. I've never known Him to turn
a want away. Look here in Psalms right quick,
the whole chapter 42, because we're getting ready to go on
to chapter 42. Look in Psalms chapter 18. You children with the Bible,
you young people with just a few Bibles, you'll find that on page
645. Psalms chapter 18, and look in
verse 43. Look in verse 42. This is speaking of the Lord
Jesus And God raised Him from the dead
and exalted Him over His enemies. And look in verse 42, Then did
I beat them small as the dust before the wind. I did cast them
out as the dust in the street. And look what He says. Look what
the Lord Jesus Christ says to His Father. Thou hast delivered
Me from the strivings of the people. Well, remember that.
Crucify Him. Crucify Him. What do you want
me to do with this Jesus and Mary?" This father said, crucified.
He's not fit to live. Crucified. He said, He's delivered
me from the strivings of the people. And has made me the head
of the heathen. Yeah, the heathen. Everybody
under His feet. A people whom I have not known
shall serve me. Oh, He knows them because He
knows everybody. And He knew these people too. He didn't know
them experimentally. He didn't know them in his adopting
grace. But I tell you, he knew them
before they was ever born. Other sheep I have which are not of
this folk, them I must bring. And look here what's going to
happen in verse 44. As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey
me. The strangers shall submit themselves
unto me. That's what they did with Joseph,
and that's what we do with the Lord Jesus Christ. When we hear
of Him, when we hear there's corn down in Egypt, when we hear
there's grace being ministered from the throne of God, we come
and obey Christ, bow to Him. Look back over now, let's go
on in chapter 42, and let's look at some more things concerning
Joseph and being exalted. And here in the 42nd chapter
now, he's going to get just a little bit more specific. Because now
his brethren are going to come. Joseph's brethren are going to
come now. And they're going to bow down. And you remember in chapter 37,
Joseph's dream? Remember that? Well, that ain't
been fulfilled yet. I don't know if it's ever come
across Joseph's mind, but these fellows are going to have to
come and bow down. Because Joseph had a dream a
number of years before this that they were out gathering wheat
and his sheaves stood up and all of his brother's sheaves
came around and bowed down to his sheep. And he had another
dream that the sun and the moon and the eleven stars bowed to
him. That's got to happen. Well, that's
what is going to start here in verse 42. And verse 42, beginning
there, we have some specifics. Look here in chapter 42, and
look here in verse 5 and verse 6. Look at this verse. And the
sons of Israel came to buy corn among those
that came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan. And Joseph
was the governor over the land, And he it was that sold to all
the people of the land, and Joseph's brethren came and bowed down
themselves before him with their faces to the earth." I tell you,
if God has a purpose, that purpose is going to be fulfilled. They had forgot about this. They thought, surely he'll never
come to pass now. Joseph is either dead, or he's
in slavery, or something's happened to him. But all his dreams that
he told us, we might as well forget about that. Brothers and
sisters, God has a purpose. And He is going to bring those
purposes to pass. These men forgot about it. Most
men don't recognize it. But God's got a purpose. And
in time, And in His own way, His purpose is ripened fast. And you can't stop it. You can't
stop it. And they tried to stop it. Put
Him in a pit. Sell Him down into Egypt. Let
them put Him in a dungeon. Accuse Him of awful crimes. It
ain't going to hinder God's purpose. Nobody, no angel, no devil can
hinder God's redemptive purpose. I have purposed it, and I will
also Do it. And what does he do? He'll use
legitimate means to bring his purpose to pass. All means are
available to him. And he can use every means he's
pleased to use to bring a sinner to himself. He'll shut off the
rain. He'll send bad health. He'll
shut down a factory. He'll do whatever he's pleased
to do to get to his people. The authorities went out one
day. were told and they arrested a fellow. And they took him in
and tried him. Found him guilty. Found him guilty. And they said, what should we
do with this fellow? They said, let's crucify him. Let's crucify
him. All right. Got another fellow
over here. Going to crucify him too. Got another man over here.
Let's crucify him too. Three guys going to be crucified
that day. They hung Jesus Christ on a cross. And who did they
hang by? One of us is left. One of us is left. Was that God's
purpose? Ain't it amazing? You go out
for Him that man today. He's tricked you authorities
a lot of times. He's escaped your hand. You've
looked for Him. You can't find Him. I'll tell
you where He is. He's hiding out over here in
his grandmother's house under the bed. Go get Him. and bring
Him up here and try Him. He's guilty. Put Him on a cross
because I'm going to save Him today. Ain't that God's purpose? It's amazing. And I tell you,
nobody will stop it. He'll use some of the strangest
means. He'll even use the wrath of man
to bring His purposes to pass. So that's the first thing we
see, isn't it? Boy, the famine extended all the way up to the
land of Canaan, the land of promise. And what did it do? It's going
to start all these wheels turning to bring Joseph's brother down
here to himself. And in verse 7, look in verse
7, Joseph didn't make himself known to his brethren right away. Look at it in verse 7. And Joseph
saw his brethren, and he knew them, but made himself strange. He made himself a stranger to
them, and he spake roughly unto them, and he said unto them,
Whence come ye? And they said, From the land
of Canaan, to buy food." Now notice this. I think this is
very important. Why did he speak roughly to them? Why did he conceal
himself from them? Why didn't he speak peace to
them to start with? Why didn't he just fall upon them, start
kissing them, tell them how much he loved them, forgive them?
And he didn't, did he? He hid himself. He was a stranger.
They had no idea who he was. And boy, he got real rough with
them. He got rough with them. Let me give you three reasons
why he does this. It's here in the text, I think. One is, all
of them weren't there. All of them wasn't there. Look
back over here in the same chapter and look in verse 3. And Joseph's
ten brothers went down to buy corn in Egypt. Ten brothers.
He got eleven. Ain't he? Remember what Joseph's
dream was? All eleven of you are going to
come and bow before me. Ain't that what he said? Well,
ten of them went back down there. Ten of them went down there to
buy corn. Why didn't Benjamin go? Look in verse four. But Benjamin,
Joseph's brother, Jacob sent not with his brethren. For he
said, Lest preadventure mischief befall him. He didn't send a
little Ben. He's going to protect a little
Ben. That's my little darling. He's going to protect him. He
ain't sending him. Well, you ain't going to know
Joseph. He ain't going to make himself real to you, to all eleven
of you guys who are on your faces here at this present. Might as
well go back and get old Benjamin. That's what's got to take place
and that's what we'll see before this is over with. He's going
to have to bring Benjamin. Every idol, every door that we've
shut, everything that we count dear to ourselves, all our ambitions,
all our wishes, everything, we're going to have to lay at His feet
in ashes, aren't we not? I sacrifice it to His blood. Well, there's ten of them. Well,
you ain't going to know Joseph. Ain't going to know Joseph. Left
a little being at home. And secondly, he didn't make
himself known to them at this time for this reason. Joseph
was the sovereign lord of this country. He didn't have to be
in any hurry. I mean, he knew that there was
a purpose behind all of this. And nobody had him over a barrel. He wasn't frustrated at all.
He had been looking forward to this day for a long, long time. But he knew, he knew that it
would come to pass in God's own time and in God's own way. He's
no hurry. He could have just fell on his
brother and said, man, I'm glad this is all finally settled.
I begin to wonder about where this is all going. No, no, no,
no. God is not frustrated in His
purpose, brothers and sisters. Nobody's got his hands tied.
He's not wringing his hands hoping and praying everything's going
to work out. I'm telling you, sometimes, often, almost always,
in our experience, God is in no hurry. We are. And sometimes we're just ready
to throw up our hands and just quit witnessing, quit praying.
We say, well, this ain't going to happen, is it? But He's going
to bring it to pass in His own time, in His own way. He's in
no hurry, you see. He don't have to be. He's the
Lord. You know if it had been me and
I had purposed to save Saul of Tarshish, the Apostle Paul, you
know when I would have saved him before he ever killed Stephen? I would have saved him before
he ever went out and gathered up a bunch of the Lord's little
children, men and women, and put them in prison and testified
in court to them against them when they were put to death.
I would have saved him before that, wouldn't you? God didn't. God didn't. And Paul told us
why in Galatians chapter 1. He said, I was a blasphemer.
I was injurious to the Lord's church. But when it pleased God. When will a man be saved? When
it pleases God. Not before then. Not after then. Not when you want him saved.
Not when I want him saved. But when it pleases God in heaven,
that man will be saved. Why didn't Joseph reveal himself
to them when they first come down there? It wasn't his purpose. It wasn't his purpose. He does
everything according to purpose. That's our God. Thirdly, he didn't
make himself known unto them, and the Bible says here he spake
roughly to them for this reason. Before honor comes humility. Somebody said, the Lord spoke
peace to me. Oh, the Lord lifted me up. Did He ever bring you
down first? The Lord gave me life. Did He
kill you first? Oh, the Lord healed me. Did He
wound you first? These men had betrayed their
brother Joseph. They had sold him down into Egypt.
They had sinned against him and rebelled against him and lied
about it. went on their merry way and thought
they'd live happily ever after. But now, now, Bud, they're going
to have to start confronting this. They're going to have to
face it. And Joseph's going to make them know it. No, it wasn't
time to speak peace. It wasn't time to make yourself
known to them that I'm your brother that loves you and I'm here to
save you. It's time to speak roughly. Time to speak roughly. And boy, they knew it too. In
this same chapter, chapter 42, look in verse 21. Look what they begin to say. Look at this. Chapter 42 and
look at verse 21. They said one to another, we
are verily guilty concerning our brother. Well, that's what
they need to say. That wasn't what they told their
daddy, was it? They told their daddy, some beasts
eat him. Some beasts eat him. Was that a lie? Yeah, that's
a lie. They're going to face it now, ain't they? They're going
to face it now. We're guilty. "...in that we
saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us, and we would
not hear. Therefore is this distress come
upon us. And Reuben answered them, saying,
Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child,
and ye would not hear. Therefore, behold, all his blood
is required." And they knew not that Joseph understood them,
for he spake unto them by an interpreter. And he turned himself
about from them, and wept, and returned to them again, and communed
with them, and look at this, and took from them Simeon, and
bound him before their eyes." Boy, I bet you when he did that,
they thought, man, this is serious. This is serious business here.
This guy ain't playing around, is he? Right before their eyes. He didn't take him in the back
room and invite him back there and bind him and come back and
say, we're going to put your brother in jail for it. No, he
throwed him on the floor, called in his soldier and said, bind
him and tear him off and put him in jail. Right before their
eyes. Why did he do that? He wanted
them to know, fellas, I'm serious. This ain't no game. You guys
are guilty, and I'm going to make sure that you know, the
next time you see my face, every one of you is going to be here
in front of me. Every last one of you is going
to be here, bowing down before me. And what does he do? He takes
one of them, and boy, he keeps them. He keeps them. Look here
in verse 29. I'm telling you, he made an impression. He made an impression on these
fellows. Look in verse 29. And they came back to the land
of Canaan. They came back to their dad.
They came back to Jacob, their father, and to the land of Canaan. And He told him all that befell
unto them, saying, The man who is the Lord of the country, he
spake roughly to us, and took us for spies of the country. And they remembered it. He said
in verse 31, And we said unto him, We are true men, we are
not spies. We be twelve brethren, sons of
our father. One is not, and the youngest
is this day with his father in the land of Canaan. And the man,
the lord of the country, said unto us, Hereby shall I know
that ye are true men. Leave one of your brethren here
with me, and take food for the famine of your household, and
be gone. and bring your youngest brethren
to me, then shall I know that you are no spies, but that you
are true men. So will I deliver you, your brethren,
and you shall traffic in the land." And look down in chapter 43.
I just want to show you what impression this made. Look in
chapter 43 and verse 1. The famine was sore in the land,
and it came to pass When they had eaten up the corn which they
had brought out of Egypt, their father said unto them, Go and
buy us a little food. And Judas spake unto him, saying,
The man did solemnly warn us, Ye shall not see my face, except
your brother be with you. If you will send our brother
with us, we will go down and buy you corn. But if you will
not send them, we will not go down. For the man said unto us,
You shall not see my face. except your brother be with you."
I mean, he was serious, wasn't he? He was dead serious. And buddy, they knew it. It made
an impression. They never forgot a thing he said. I mean, it stuck
into their mind. That journey hundreds of miles
back home. They told their dad everything
that he said. I mean, his words burned into
their hearts. And one of the reasons it did,
Darlene O'Sinion, bound. They said, man, this guy's serious.
It's serious. I tell you, it's a blessed day,
brothers and sisters, when the Lord comes to you and He comes
to me. And He makes us honest. He makes
us serious. And we realize, boy, He's not
playing games. This ain't a game. This ain't
a Billy Graham crusade where two little teeny bobbers hold
their hands and walk the aisles and smile and blow their bubble
gum and receive Jesus as personal Savior. This is the Lord of glory
teaching our conscience of its rebellion and letting us know,
man, we better be honest with this one. This is the Lord of
glory. I tell you, that's a blessed
time when that happened. A blessed time. Boy, Jacob was stubborn. Bless
his heart, he's stubborn about Benjamin. He just wasn't going
to let go of Benjamin. Look here in chapter 42. Look
here in verse 38. And he said, My son shall not
go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he is left alone.
If mischief befall him by the way which you go, then shall
you bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. I don't know how many months
that went by. I just figure several months. They went back home.
And Ruben told them, said, you know, if you'll let me take Benjamin
back home, back down there with us, we'll get Simeon and bring
him back home. And Jacob said, no, no. Let him
stay down there. That's basically, I imagine months
going by. They eat all the food they had.
They were hungry. They were starving. And poor
old Simeon down there in jail. I'm telling you, Jacob wouldn't
turn loose a little Benjamin. I ain't doing anything. He said,
if I let go of him, I'll die. If I let go of him, I'll die.
You fellas go back if you want to. He ain't going no place.
Little Ben's standing here with me. I tell you, brothers and sisters,
it takes the power of God to bring a sinner to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And God can warn him. God may
deal with his heart. But just leave Him alone. Leave
Him alone and leave it up to Him, and He'll never see Him
again. He won't be back. He won't be
back. You and I have often talked about
this. We have had so many people that
sat under the gospel here for quite some time, and so many
of them have left. Florence is often requesting
prayer for the people that come here and sit under the gospel
and left. And we wonder sometimes, will they come back? Will they
come back and sit on the gospel? But more than that, will they
come to Christ? And we don't know, do we? But
we know this, they won't if God leaves them alone. What has to happen for a man
to perish is for God to leave him alone. That's it. You're
not going. He's not going. He's not going. Yes, He is, Jacob. This is one
of the Lord's own. And he's going, oh, don't you
bless God, brothers and sisters, for He fetched your cup. Don't
you bless Him that He has some people out here, and they're
stubborn, they're rebellious, and they'll tell you if they're
honest, I'm never coming to Christ. I'm never coming to Him. I'm
enjoying my life. I'm sowing my wallows. I'll never
come to Him. If you want to hear it, you're
coming. You're coming. And look what he says in 43,
verse 1, 2 again. The famine was sore. in the land. It was severe. And it came to
pass when they had eaten up all the corn. Jacob said, Go down
and get us something to eat. I tell you, God's got a way of
getting men to Christ. He's got a way of getting men
to Christ. He's got a way of getting you under the gospel.
He's got a way of cutting off your little simeons and binding
them right before your eyes. He's got a way to bring us where
we're ready to give up our little Benjamins. We want Jesus Christ more than
we want everything else. And that's what he did to these
fellows. One more thing, and we'll close,
and we'll pick up next week, and we'll try the Lord's willing
to finish this next week. One of the reasons I wanted to
look at this in closing is because this comes into play when Joseph
reveals himself to his brother. Here in chapter 42, in verse 36, And Jacob their father said unto
them, Me have you bereaved of my children. Joseph is not, and
Simeon is not, and you will take away Benjamin. All these things
are against me. Now Reuben steps up. You remember
who Reuben was? He was his firstborn. He was
Jacob's strength. That's what the firstborn was.
That's why they blessed him over everybody else. He was Jacob's
firstborn. And look what Reuben said. Reuben
spake unto his father and said, Slay my two sons if I bring him
not to thee. Deliver him into my hand and
I will bring him to thee again. Poor old Reuben. Poor old Reuben. He says, if you'll send little
Benjamin back with me, we'll go back down there and get Simeon.
And if I don't bring Benjamin back to you, then slay my two
sons. Man, ain't that something? Well,
Jacob said, boy, that's a good job. That way I'll lose two of
my grandsons. That's old Reuben, though. He
was stupid. He couldn't do anything. You remember when they put Joseph
in the pit? And they were going to kill him.
They were going to kill him. And Reuben said, put him in a
pit. And don't kill him. We don't want to get our brother's
blood on him. Put him in a pit. Well, Reuben
had it in his mind, when they left, he was going to come back
and get him out of the pit and send him home. But while Reuben was
off doing something else, they got Joseph out of the pit and
sold him down into Egypt. Reuben comes back and looks in
the pit and says, oh my soul, he's gone. And started wringing
his hands. And now here he is with this
stupid plan. You know who Reuben represents
to us? This old natural man. How many
times and how many ways have you and I tried to save ourselves? And don't we look back on it
now? It's the most stupidest thing you've ever seen. We're
a bunch of Reubens, aren't we? We're the firstborn, boy. We're
full of strength and wisdom. We ain't got to make sense. Kill my two sons if I don't.
But I tell you Judah, watch what Judah does. You remember which
tribe that Jesus Christ come out of? Can somebody tell me
the tribe that Christ come out of? Judah. Well, listen here
how Judah pleads. Look what he says. He approaches
his dad after they're starving to death. In verse 8 of chapter
43, look at this. And Judah said unto Israel his
father, Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go, that
we may live and not die, both we and thou, and also our little
ones. I will be a surety for him. Of my hand shall you require
him. If I bring him not unto you,
and set him before you, then let me bear the blame. Forever. Don't kill my two children. You
let me, the rest of my life, bear the shame and the blame
because I could not secure Benjamin and bring him back to God. You know this is the first time
this word, charity, is used in all the Bible. And you know how
it's used in the New Testament? Jesus Christ is the charity. of a better covenant. That's why God entrusted His
elect into the hands and the care of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I've said this so many times. There's something more involved
in salvation than whether or not I'm going to be saved. There's
something more than my salvation involved. I mean, if I lose my
soul and you lose your soul, you've lost yourself, you've
lost everything. But I tell you, there's something
more wonderful involved in salvation. And you know what it is? It's
the glory of the Son of God. What if He failed to bring one
of those the Father had given Him, just one, that the Father
entrusted Him with, what if Jesus Christ fails to bring just one
of those and set them before His Father? Who's going to bear
the blame? He is. Who's going to bear the shame?
He is letting me bear the blame and the shame forever. I tell
you, if Judah had not have brought Benjamin back, it would have
broke his father's heart. Do you know that? That's what
he said. He said, if you don't bring Benjamin back here, if
he's lost down there, it's going to bring down my gray hearse
to the grave. How's the father going to feel?
How's the father going to feel? If He chose someone to salvation
and that person is not brought there before His face, justified
fully and freely, made holy in His sight, how is He going to
feel? You talk about having a heavy heart. He will bring down our
heavenly Father's gray hairs. He would cease to be God. That's
what I would claim. How would the son feel? Oh, his
head would be bowed, wouldn't it? It will never happen, brothers
and sisters. Jesus stood a surety for His
people. He cost Him His blood. He cost
Him His sweat. He cost Him His groans. He cost
Him everything. But I'm telling you what, He
stood a surety. And if you're here tonight and He's given you
the assurance that He's for your sins, that He's your surety,
oh man, what an assurance you have. Because He'll never fail.
He'll never fail. No matter what you have to go
through. No matter the long valleys and the high mountains, all the
sickness and all the darkness, no matter what you may suffer
in this life, I can assure you this much, that Jesus Christ,
for His own glory, will have you in heaven. And He'll present
you to His Father. And He'll say, Father, you entrusted
me to take care of Him, to save Him and bring Him back home to
you. Here He is. And the Father will look at Him
and say, My, you brought Him home to me. And look what kind
of shape he's in. When Joseph went down there,
when Benjamin went down there, Joseph fed him. Man, we'll read
that next week. Joseph fed him and gave him all
these garments. And I imagine when he came back
and his dad saw him, he said, son, what have you been eating?
Where did you get those clothes? Got them from Joseph. And boy,
he went over to his dad and went over and hugged you to snack.
And he said, son, you did a fine job. You stood a charity boy. You brought him back. Oh, wonderful. It's wonderful. Any comments?