The scripture reading this morning is found in
two chapters of the book of Genesis, Genesis
chapter 45 and 46.
Now, since we have a section in which
there is a long list of names, I
will this time, and this time only, pass
over those verses in order to read the
entire section.
Now, will you turn with me then to
Genesis chapter 45 and verse 16, and remember
in the context in the preceding section, Joseph
has finally revealed himself to his brethren and
they have had a reconciliation, each falling on
one another's neck and weeping over the fact
that they have been separated for so many
years.
Now, in verse 16 we read of chapter
45, now when the news was heard in
Pharaoh's house that Joseph's brothers had come, it
pleased Pharaoh and his servants.
Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, say to your
brothers, do this, load your beasts and go
to the land of Canaan and take your
father and your households and come to me
and I will give you the best of
the land of Egypt and you shall eat
the fat of the land.
Now you are ordered, do this, take wagons
from the land of Egypt for your little
ones and for your wives and bring your
father and come.
And do not concern yourself with your goods
for the best of all the land of
Egypt is yours.
Then the sons of Israel did so and
Joseph gave them wagons according to the command
of Pharaoh and gave them provisions for the
journey.
To each of them he gave changes of
garments, but to Benjamin he gave 300 pieces
of silver and five changes of garments.
And to his father he sent as follows,
ten donkeys loaded with the best things of
Egypt and ten female donkeys loaded with grain
and bread and sustenance for his father on
the journey.
So he sent his brothers away and as
they departed he said to them, do not
quarrel on the journey.
Then they went up from Egypt and came
to the land of Canaan to their father
Jacob.
And they told him saying, Joseph is still
alive and indeed he is ruler over all
the land of Egypt.
But he was stunned for he did not
believe them.
When they told him all the words of
Joseph that he had spoken to them and
when he saw the wagons that Joseph had
sent to carry him, the spirit of their
father Jacob revived.
Then Israel said, it is enough.
My son Joseph is still alive.
I will go and see him before I
die.
So Israel set out with all that he
had and came to Beersheba and offered sacrifices
to the God of his father Isaac.
God spoke to Israel in visions of the
night and said, Jacob, Jacob.
And he said, here I am.
And he said, I am God, the God
of your father.
Do not be afraid to go down to
Egypt for I will make you a great
nation there.
I will go down with you to Egypt
and I will also surely bring you up
again and Joseph will close your eyes.
Then Jacob arose from Beersheba and the sons
of Israel carried their father Jacob and their
little ones and their wives in the wagons
which Pharaoh had sent to carry him.
And they took their livestock and their property
which they had acquired in the land of
Canaan and came to Egypt, Jacob and all
his descendants with him, his sons and his
grandsons with him, his daughters and his granddaughters
and all his descendants he brought with him
to Egypt.
Now there follow the names of those who
went with Jacob into the land of Egypt,
inclusive also of those that were already there
who had already come.
So we'll skip to verse 28 and conclude
the reading with verse 28 to the end
of the chapter.
Now he sent Judah before him to Joseph
to point out the way before him to
Goshen.
That is that Joseph might point out the
way before him to Goshen and they came
into the land of Goshen.
And Joseph prepared his chariot and went up
to Goshen to meet his father Israel.
As soon as he appeared before him he
fell on his neck and wept on his
neck a long time.
Then Israel said to Joseph, now let me
die since I have seen your face that
you are still alive.
Joseph said to his brothers and to his
father's household, I will go up and tell
Pharaoh and will say to him, my brothers
and my father's household who were in the
land of Canaan have come to me.
And the men are shepherds for they have
been keepers of livestock and they have brought
their flocks and their herds and all that
they have.
And it shall come about when Pharaoh calls
you and says, what is your occupation?
That you shall say your servants have been
keepers of livestock from our youth, even until
now, both we and our fathers that you
may live in the land of Goshen for
every shepherd is loathsome to the Egyptians.
I will not say anything about these last
verses because I'd like just to say right
now, this was very wise advice for Joseph
to give to them.
The Egyptians did not regard very highly shepherds
and Joseph was anxious that there be an
honest frankness about their occupation.
But at the same time, he was also
anxious that they be able to be isolated
in the land of Goshen, which was very
fertile and would provide them not only with
fertility for their flocks, but also would provide
them separation from the Egyptians.
And he would like to have Pharaoh approve
of their being in Goshen.
So he very discreetly speaks, you must be
frank.
And we may entrust, we may trust that
Pharaoh will be favorable to your being in
Goshen because shepherds are loathsome to Egyptians.
And he would want to please me as
well as please the Egyptians.
It worked out fine.
And that's where they were and that's where
they grew into a great nation in numbers.
May the Lord bless this reading of his
word.
Last week I was over at the seminary
and while I was looking at some books
in one of the stacks, one of the
young men that I know came up to
me is a tall, nice-looking young man
that I've known for several years.
And he is a good believer in the
doctrines of the grace of God, which he
calls the doctrines of sovereign grace.
And he came up and engaged me in
conversation.
He speaks the language of Canaan because he's
from the southeast, as also I, and he
has a heavy southern accent.
And I asked him when he was graduating
and he said he was graduating this summer
from the seminary.
And I asked him what he wanted to
do and he went on to say what
he's been saying all along, that he wanted
to be an evangelist and travel around in
itinerant ministry.
I thought also of the young man who
went to an older Bible teacher and told
him that he wanted to be a platform
man, in which he was speaking about such
an entire ministry, but he was not a
very humble young man.
And the older preacher said afterwards that God
was going to have to tear a plank
out of his platform and beat the daylights
out of him until he became a good
preacher.
But this young man is not like that.
And he said he wanted to be an
itinerant preacher and that he wanted to preach
the doctrines of the grace of God with
the fire out of heaven.
And I thought afterwards a little after that,
because what he was saying was that he
wanted to preach the doctrines of sovereign grace,
election, predestination, and the other doctrines that have
to do with the grace of God, he
wanted to preach them with fervor.
And that, of course, is a worthy motive.
But I thought afterwards, well, he will not
only, if he preaches the doctrines of the
grace of God, he will not only have
fire out of heaven, that will be the
valuable thing, but he also will have some
fire come up from below, and he will
discover too that there will be some fire
from others down here on the earth who
don't like those doctrines of the grace of
God, not even in the Christian congregations.
And I didn't realize that on this Sunday
morning we would also have some fire from
the atmosphere in the congregation.
As you can tell, something's happened to the
air conditioning, and if you feel a little
hot, it's not because the Word of God
is getting ready to be expounded to you,
it's because the air condition is not operating.
So get out your programs, that's right, and
fan, and good Christians fan also the person
next to them as well.
So let's turn now to the book of
Genesis, chapter 45, and the subject for this
morning is Jacob Surprised, Sustained, and Satisfied by
the God of Isaac.
Three of the greatest and most comforting of
the themes of the Bible are before us
again in this section of the book of
Genesis, and that familiar one which we have
seen so often here, the sovereign purpose of
God, is again before us.
But there are some further steps revealed in
God's dealings with Jacob and his family, some
steps that he apparently did not fully realize,
though they were implicit in the words that
were spoken to Abraham, his grandfather, many, many
years before this.
One of the things that God had said
to Abraham was that they were going to
have to be out of the land for
a while, and they would be in another
land over a period of centuries until the
iniquity of the Amorites should be fulfilled, or
filled up.
And now here God speaks to Jacob and
tells him that he is going to make
of Jacob and his family a great nation
there in Egypt.
It illustrates the importance of taking large views
of the purpose of God.
We should not look at our immediate circumstances
and the things that happen to us around
our particular time for evidences of the guidance
and providence of God, but also look at
things from the long view.
And so over the centuries Israel will be
in Egypt in order that there they might
be made into a great nation.
We have also illustrated the comforting promises of
God, and again Jacob is assured of the
constant presence of the Lord.
And we have the reality of the guidance
of God again coming before us, for Jacob
seeks guidance from the Lord God as he
has been urged to go down into Egypt
because he remembered that when Abraham went down
into Egypt it evidently was not the will
of God and he suffered from it.
So he asks for guidance and God gives
him guidance.
God gives guidance in many ways, sometimes by
circumstances, though not always.
Sometimes circumstances are deceiving, actually.
But then occasionally in supernatural ways or ways
that are unusual, all guidance I presume we
should call supernatural, but in unusual ways.
And so here Jacob is given a vision
and the Lord appears and speaks to him
specifically concerning the trip down into Egypt and
says that that trip has his approval.
Someone has said you can always tell the
way of God by the fact that the
path is smooth before you because the scriptures
say that he will make the crooked places
straight and he will make the rough places
smooth.
When the apostle Paul was in trouble in
Corinth, God appeared and assured him that the
ministry there was in his will, for he
had much people in that city and the
apostle, even though detained in prison, had the
assurance that the Lord was really directing him.
Now all of these themes that we've mentioned
there contribute to the overall theme of the
wisdom of Jacob's great merciful God.
For it was a very wise thing that
God had them go down into the land
of Egypt.
They were preserved from the iniquity of the
Amorites, so they gave up temporary possession of
the land of Canaan in order that in
the distant future they might have permanent possession
and in a way that would be 100
fold more of blessing than if they had
stayed.
Further, they were isolated in Goshen and that
enabled them to grow and also to be
prepared for under a nation that had a
measure of law and order for their future
ministry as a redemptive people among the peoples
of the world.
And I think that most of all they
went down into Egypt in order that when
this friendly pharaoh passed off of the scene,
they might come under the domain of a
pharaoh who was not friendly to them and
they might come to know the experience of
bondage.
And finally the bondage became so heavy that
they cried out for deliverance and then they
were given those marvelous exhibitions of redemption by
blood through the Passover lamb and by power
when God brought them by his right hand
through the Red Sea.
And these experiences of bondage and then redemption
by blood and power were designed to prepare
them for the future and also to illustrate
for us the things that ultimately would be
ours through the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know we have in our congregations today
people who are the nicest, kindest, sweetest kind
of people, but in our Christian churches there
are so few who know what it is
to have been under bondage to sin.
They do not know the despair of desiring
deliverance.
They do not know what it is to
suffer because they have come to see their
sinfulness and wish deliverance from it.
And they do not know what it is
to be saved by the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
So this experience was designed to prepare Israel
and also afford us an illustration of the
way in which God works in the spiritual
sphere.
And very often in the Old Testament Israel
was called to remember those days when they
were in Egypt and what God did for
them in Egypt.
John Newton's favorite text was Deuteronomy chapter 15
and verse 15 in which the Lord spoke
to Israel and said to Israel that they
were to remember that they were born men
in the land of Egypt and that the
Lord their God had redeemed them.
And that's something that we need to constantly
remember too that we too spiritually were enslaved
to sin but by the grace of God
he has brought us to the knowledge of
forgiveness through the Lord Jesus Christ and we
have been redeemed and we are never to
forget that.
It has a practical effect in our daily
lives for it means that we are to
treat others in the light of the great
manifestation of mercy that God has shown to
each one of us.
Now we have just read in chapter 45
of that magnificent reconciliation that took place between
Joseph and his brethren amid many tears amid
loud lamentation characteristic of the orientals there had
been reconciliation between the brothers who thought perhaps
that Joseph was dead and now they were
suddenly confronted with the one against whom they
had sinned.
Now Joseph must have been very widely esteemed
in Egypt and he certainly was a favorite
of the Pharaoh of the time for the
moment that Pharaoh came to an understanding of
what had taken place.
Why he demands that Jacob that Joseph go
after Jacob and bring his whole family down
into the land of Egypt and he would
give them the fat of the land.
So Joseph must have been widely esteemed for
the Pharaoh to do this for him and
furthermore the knowledge of this reconciliation would have
increased the status of Joseph in the land
because so far as they knew so far
as the text is concerned he had been
simply a former slave who had been taken
out of prison because he was able to
interpret the dreams of the Pharaoh and now
they know him to have come from an
honorable family of free nomads which was a
class that was held in high regard among
the ancient people.
This is a kind of historical turning point
then in the history of Israel because now
they will not only know that they are
called of God but through the experiences in
Egypt they will come to know that they
have been redeemed as well.
So Pharaoh asks for the wagons.
Now wagons were rarer in Palestine than at
that time than a jet would have been
in the African bush 25 years ago so
when Jacob saw those wagons come filled with
things from Egypt he knew that this that
they really had seen something in Egypt that
was different and Pharaoh had also said don't
concern yourself with your stuff or with your
goods in the 20th verse he says that
because he was going to provide them with
the fat of the land.
That verse incidentally suggests to us the fact
that often our materialistic things are really impediments
for us.
Someone has said this is the Old Testament
equivalent of Philippians chapter 3 and verse 13
where the apostle Paul says that we are
to forget the things that are behind and
we are to press forward to the things
that are before us for the prize of
the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Many of us and many Christians are affected
are interested only in the things that we
have and the things that we may acquire
but more important things exist in this world
than that.
Well the brothers depart from Egypt and they
go back and as they go back Joseph
gives them a piece of good advice.
He says don't get into a quarrel on
the way.
That might seem to be a strange thing
to tell the brothers but reflect on the
circumstances now they have had this marvelous experience
of being reconciled to Joseph and they have
acknowledged the iniquity of the way they have
treated him but naturally some of the brothers
were more guilty than others and you can
imagine that as they made their way back
and it was a journey of a number
of days that when the sun came out
and it was hot when men tend to
get a little irritated because of the physical
circumstances that they might get irritated and might
discuss who particularly was guilty for the selling
of Joseph into slavery and the tendency would
for them to get into strife over the
relative guilt of the brothers so he said
don't quarrel on the journey.
When they come to Jacob they say Joseph
is alive and he's the ruler of Egypt
and these two facts that he's alive and
that he's the ruler in Egypt remembering that
Joseph that Jacob didn't completely believe these brothers
because they were not paragons of honest frankness.
These two facts stunned the patriarch so much
that he did not believe them and did
not until he saw those wagons come to
accept the fact that Joseph was still alive
but when he saw the wagons Jacob's faith
is still the kind of faith that is
strengthened by the things that it sees but
when the wagons are seen he finally says
it is enough.
Joseph is alive I will go and see
him before I die.
One cannot help but reflect on the experiences
of Jacob.
He was a man who had many many
experiences of adversity.
He himself speaks later on of how all
of his days have been few and evil.
There is a text in the Psalms that
I think is apropos at this point.
It's a text that is translated in the
authorized version and it may be rendered this
way.
Thou hast known my soul in adversities.
One of the great comforts and assurance of
knowing the true God is that the knowledge
of God is very thorough.
He knows us completely and when someone has
been with us through adversities that individual truly
knows us because it is in the adversities
of life that we really reveal ourselves to
be the kind of person that we truly
are.
There is a sonnet written by a man
named White in which he develops the thought
that were it not for the night we
should never know the beauty of the stars
and he goes on to speak about how
in the winter time when the harsh winds
blow and the leaves are off of the
trees we see things that we never see
when the summer foliage is out.
There is a revealing power in adversity and
Jacob's adversities reveal that fundamentally in this man's
life there is a true trust in the
Lord God.
One of the expositions of that particular Psalm
contains an illustration of an experience that occurred
and it is recorded by a well-known
German religious writer.
He speaks about a very wealthy man who
had fallen on evil days and finally had
lost all of his money.
And one day the depths of his depression
were reached when he walked down the street
and one of his old companions passed him
by without even giving any token that he
had recognized him.
And so he spoke to the writer and
he said told him the experience and the
writer took him by the hand and pointed
him upward and said thou hast known my
soul in adversities and went on to speak
about how it is true that there are
rats in our circle of society who make
all haste to leave sinking ships.
And furthermore moralists have always pointed out that
the world courts prosperity and shuns adversity but
one of the blessings of the Lord God
is that in the adversities of life he
is with us and it is then that
he really comes to know us and sustain
us.
Jacob would have been able to give a
great discourse on the sufferings and adversities of
life and the things that God had done
for him.
Well now he's called upon to go down
into the land of Egypt and incidentally at
this point you cannot help but reflect on
all of the things that God has brought
to pass in order to bring this about.
Just think of the way in which he's
had to order history and how he has
even had to bring about upheavals in nature
itself.
There was the jealous hatred of the brethren
when Joseph told them of his dreams.
There were the dreams of the youth of
Joseph and there was the passage of the
caravan into Egypt just at the time that
he had the experience with his brothers and
told them of the dreams so that he
could be sold into Egypt, specifically Egypt.
There were the strange dreams of those prisoners,
the baker and the butler in the prison
and God giving him the ability to interpret
them and thus bring him to the knowledge
of Pharaoh.
There was the experience with Potiphar's wife that
put him in the prison in the first
place and then God had to deal with
changes of rainfall in the upper part of
the continent of Africa in order to bring
about the famine and the prosperity and all
of these things.
And finally, Pharaoh's dreams themselves in order that
he in prison might be given an opportunity
to interpret them, all of the things that
God has to do in order to bring
about his purposes.
There are occasionally people who do not really
believe the word of God when it says
he works all things according to the counsel
of his own will.
They rather think that God is responsible for
the big things of life but he allows
the little things to just happen as they
may happen and that man is responsible for
the little things and God is responsible for
the big things.
Well, I think if you will think about
this very deeply you will see that it
is necessary for God to think about the
little things in order to bring to pass
the big things.
But the facts of Scripture are that he
works all things according to the counsel of
his own will and that all things means
precisely that.
And so consequently we are to think of
the providence of God here and all of
these little things, apparently insignificant things, are things
that have to do with the providence of
God in order that his purpose might be
realized, that Jacob and his family might be
in Egypt and there prepared for their great
future that they have.
Well, Jacob of course has known that God
wanted to give Canaan to Israel and so
naturally when he is asked to go down
into Egypt he is a little concerned about
it.
He wants to have some assurance from God
that this trip down into Egypt is his
will and so as one might ordinarily do
he went to Beersheba which had been the
place where Isaac had especially identified himself and
there he offered sacrifices, verse 1 of chapter
46 says, to the God of his father
Isaac.
Sacrifices incidentally suggests the humbleness of Jacob, suggests
also his theology.
He understood that there is no approach to
God except on the basis of blood sacrifice.
He knew the truth without shedding of blood
is no remission just as there is no
salvation today apart from the blood of our
Lord Jesus Christ shed on Calvary's cross.
And so there he offered the sacrifices to
the God of his father Isaac and God
responded in the visions of the night and
spoke to Jacob and said, Jacob, Jacob.
And after he responded here I am he
said, I am God, the God of your
father.
Do not be afraid to go down to
Egypt for I will make you a great
nation there.
Now that adverb there is the thing that
is important because this is the additional factor
beyond the promises that God had made to
him earlier at Bethel.
They are to be isolated down there and
they are to be prepared there by the
protection of God.
They are to experience bondage and they are
also to experience redemption.
Frequently on Saturdays I have usually prepared the
message for Sunday in the earlier part of
the week and on Saturday I make up
a few notes which I use when I
preach the message on Sunday morning as I
am now.
And usually on Friday and Saturday I will
do just a little reading which there may
be some other things that I may have
overlooked or some things that I am just
interested in doing that have to do with
the exposition of the Word of God in
a general way.
And occasionally I read something that is useful
for the Sunday message which is not in
that bulletin.
That is why incidentally the things that I
may say on Sunday are not always in
the Believer's Bible bulletin.
Well in the past day or two I
have been doing a little reading again in
one of my favorite authors and this author
has a series of books in which he
expounds certain texts of the Bible.
He has a chapter in which is entitled
John Owen's Text.
And it is a chapter about John Bunyan
and the relationship that he had to John
Owen and also about John Owen's favorite text.
I had not realized but Bunyan and Owen
were very good friends and as a matter
of fact John Owen who was probably the
greatest English theologian and certainly the premier Puritan
theologian, they not only were good friends but
Owen had often listened to Bunyan preach.
And since Owen was the Vice Chancellor of
Oxford University and very close to the Kings
and also to Cromwell, to Parliament and other
important leaders, he was recognized as perhaps the
most learned man in England at the time.
He often went to hear Bunyan preach and
he was chided by the King for listening
to Bunyan as a vulgar man, that is
as a common man.
And Owen said once he'd give all of
his learning away if he could learn to
preach like John Bunyan.
Well Bunyan's favorite text was, there is forgiveness
with thee that thou mayest be feared.
And John Owen's favorite text probably came to
be that.
He gave on, he is in the sixteen
volumes of his works, there is an exposition
of that passage from Psalm 130 verse 4
of 260 pages.
There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest
be feared.
And in that exposition he speaks of the
truth of the redemption expressed in that word,
there is forgiveness with thee.
He comments particularly about the expression there is
forgiveness with thee and then goes on to
explain where we do not have redemption.
We do not have redemption or the forgiveness
of sins in nature.
We do not have redemption or the forgiveness
of sins in conscience.
The law of Moses has no promises of
the forgiveness of sins.
And also natural religion has no offer of
the forgiveness of sins.
There is forgiveness only with the Lord God
who is the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
Then Mr. Owen goes on after having labored
that point thoroughly.
Someone has said about him, Mr. Owen writes
200 pages and the average man might be
able to condense it into ten very clear
pages.
But nevertheless it's good theology.
And expounding the latter part of the text
that thou mayest be feared says, there is
forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared
means that we should have a great awe
of the Lord God because of the forgiveness
that he offers.
And further he means a great wonder.
That is that we should be astonished at
the fact that there is forgiveness with the
Lord God.
And then also it means admiration that we
ought to have admiration for the fact that
there is forgiveness with the Lord God.
And finally he said he means a great
love and there should be a great love
for the fact that there is forgiveness with
the Lord God.
Well this is one of the things that
Israel learned in the land of Egypt.
They learned bondage and they learned forgiveness and
deliverance and then they came, those that were
spiritual in their midst to understand the awe
and wonder and admiration and love that should
be the response to the knowledge of the
forgiveness of sins.
Now in addition to the fact that God
is going to prepare them, he gives some
other promises to Jacob.
He says, I will go down with you
to Egypt and I will also surely bring
you up again and Joseph will close your
eyes.
I will go down with you and I
will bring you up again.
He has the promise of the abiding presence
of the Lord God with him.
So he will have all of the guidance
necessary through those experiences.
And I love that expression at the end
of the fourth verse, and Joseph will close
your eyes.
Anybody who knows anything about the experiences of
death knows that one of the most comforting
things that can happen to any individual at
the point of death is to have his
own family around the bed.
And many have known what it is after
a loved one has departed to go over
to the bed and take one's finger and
close the eyes of the one who has
passed out of this existence into the broader
and wider existence of the presence of the
Lord God.
I'm speaking about believers, of course.
And so here Jacob is given the wonderful
promise that when the time comes for him
to leave this existence, Joseph.
Now that meant a great deal to Jacob
because Joseph was the son of Rachel and
Rachel was his beloved wife.
And Joseph is the son over whom he
has bewailed and lamented for many years.
And it is Joseph that will close his
eyes.
Well they travel down to Egypt and after
the description of the family we read in
the latter part of chapter 46 of the
union of Jacob and Joseph.
It's one of those happy meetings that the
scripture has set forth.
In fact it's one of the most beautiful
moments of the book of Genesis.
Jacob is now with Rachel's firstborn.
Notice that no words are spoken.
Joseph comes into the presence of Jacob and
he falls upon Jacob's shoulders and he weeps
over Jacob and Jacob weeps on Joseph's breast.
No words are spoken, no words are needed.
Feelings are too deep.
I have no doubt that those men could
not have formed their lips in such a
way as to say anything.
Finally it is Jacob who speaks and he
says, now let me die since I have
seen your face that you are still alive.
Now you cannot help but reflect if you
know much about the terminology of scripture that
those words are reminiscent of some interesting words
spoken in the New Testament.
They are spoken by Simeon.
This man in Jerusalem who was righteous and
devout and who was looking for the consolation
of Israel and the Holy Spirit was upon
him was in the spirit in the temple
when the parents of the Lord Jesus brought
in the child Jesus and they wanted to
carry out the customs of the law for
our Lord Jesus lived under the law of
Moses.
And so he took the child in his
arms and he blessed God and Simeon this
faithful devout man said, now Lord let thy
servant depart in peace according to thy word
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.
You cannot help but think that he had
reflected upon these words that Jacob spoke when
he saw Joseph and said, now let me
die since I have seen your face that
you are still alive.
Someone has said this in Genesis chapter 46
is the nunc dimittis.
That means now let and we would supply
or the words for servant or devout now
let thy servant depart.
The nunc dimittis the first words of the
Latin translation of those words of Simeon.
But someone has said this is the nunc
dimittis of the Old Testament.
Incidentally have you noticed this about these accounts
here?
There is a great deal of stress upon
the emotions.
There are some evangelicals who think and some
people I think accuse us in Believer's Chapel
of being like that.
That the important the only thing in spiritual
life is the mind and the spirit.
Now we want to say right at the
beginning that it is certainly true that it
is our mind and our spirit for the
mind and the spirit are identified in scripture
as closely related.
It is the mind and the spirit that
should determine our relationship to the Lord God.
We are related to him not by our
feelings but we are related to him by
the understanding that the Holy Spirit gives us
of the truths of Holy Scripture.
We have in the Bible the propositions of
divine truth.
These propositions are propositions however of spiritual realities
and our minds are to grasp them and
we are to be guided and directed by
our minds.
But God has also given us emotions and
it is not only biblical but it is
desirable for our emotions to have free expression
under the guidance and direction of our minds
and our spirits.
And we notice that there is a great
deal of weeping and lamentation here as God
brings these the reconciliation between the brothers and
then finally the brings Jacob into the presence
of Joseph.
There is nothing wrong with shedding tears in
the experiences of life and if we are
to fully understand divine truth and fully appreciate
it there should be some expression in our
emotional life.
And one of the ways I think in
which you can see the expression of the
emotions is when the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ is proclaimed.
And occasionally you'll notice the tears of some
in their eyes.
Their eyes become watery as the grace of
God is expounded and what he has done
for us who were in bondage to sin
and how by virtue of what he's done
the burden has been rolled off of our
shoulder and rolled down into the grave at
the foot of the cross.
Some of the greatest experiences in life are
the experiences of the emotional appreciation of what
the Lord God has done for us.
Heaven is going to be a place in
which there is a full expression of the
emotional life.
And the closer I get to it I
must say the more I do long to
get there and be there.
I'm sorry folks but the company in heaven
is more significant and more to be anticipated
than even the wonderful company of you saints
and a few sinners in Believers Chapel.
But the emotional life is part of our
life and we should not fear to express
it.
Well let me conclude.
I know you're warm.
I notice that we have almost total use
of the hand in the audience.
It's very good.
I hope you're at least surviving.
Let me conclude however by with just a
renewed sense of the greatness of the purposes
of God that are wise and merciful and
sure to be seen when we take the
long view of them.
The promises of God expressed to Jacob are
marvelous supports and find their greatest expression in
the promises that the Lord Jesus Christ gives
us in the New Testament.
When God says to Jacob I will go
down with you to Egypt and I will
surely bring you up again.
He's saying just exactly what our Lord Jesus
Christ said so beautifully in Matthew 28.
Lo I am with you always even to
the end of the age.
That was John G.
Payton's favorite text.
Mr. Payton was the great pioneer missionary to
the New Hebrides in the middle of the
last century.
He was a Scottish lad who grew up
in Dumfries Shire in a little cottage.
His father was a very godly man he
said.
Whenever his mind went back to Dumfries Shire
he thought of that little cottage and he
thought of his father because the cottage was
so small that he grew up hearing his
father pray.
His father would go into a room and
he would spend time in the presence of
God and he would call upon the name
of the Lord God and he would call
upon him so fervently that he could be
heard over the house.
And he said my childhood is a childhood
redolent with the prayers of my father.
He said I can remember him getting up
and coming out of that room and walking
out and going out among the village.
And people often would wonder about the calmness
and the soberness and the general bearing of
Mr. Payton's father and he said but we
learned and we knew that it came because
he spent time in that room.
And his favorite, the favorite text that expressed
his life to me was Lo I am
with you always.
Later on John Payton was called to the
New Hebrides.
He went out with a young wife.
They had just been married just not too
many months before and had a little baby
of just a month or two old.
They had been out in the island which
was a cannibal island.
He said when he arrived he could not
have imagined the kinds of people that greeted
him when he was there.
But he said that he nevertheless settled down
and within just a few days, I think
just about a month, his wife and also
his child had died.
And he was forced to know again the
experience of Lo I am with you always.
And he said that text is the text
that sustained me.
Later on he said in the experiences there
and he had some wild experiences, one of
the chiefs of that particular island on which
he was at that time came to him
and said Mr. Payton we are having some
difficulties and your life is going to be
in danger.
And he said I want to show you
a tree and I want you to go
up this tree and I want you to
stay there until the moon changes.
And he said that he wisely did what
the chief said.
And he climbed up a chestnut tree where
there was a little spot down in it
that he could be.
And there he stayed until the moon changed.
He said he could hear the people coming
by, the cannibals with their spears looking for
him.
And he stayed up there for days.
He said afterwards the text that sustained me
through that whole time was Lo I am
with you always.
This is the promise that Jacob was given.
So we have no fear of entrusting ourselves
to the hands of this God who has
promised to be with us.
And he is with us from the beginning,
from the redemption in blood on to the
completion of salvation in his coming again.
I also was reading yesterday in another little
volume and in it there was a little
conversation that took place between two people.
It was being recorded by the author of
the article and two were speaking, a little
girl by the name of Rosa Lee and
a little boy by the name of Jinx.
And the conversation turned to a picture and
this picture was a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ and it was associated with the
text.
That the text in Luke chapter 19 and
verse 10 where the Lord Jesus says the
Son of Man has come to seek and
to save that which is lost.
And the picture was of a picture of
sheep.
And the woman speaking to the little boy
said you know Jinx there are only three
kinds of sheep.
There are the ninety and nine who never
went astray.
And there is the sheep that the shepherd
found and is bringing back on his shoulders.
And then the sheep that are lost.
And the little boy said is that all
the kinds of sheep?
And she said yes why?
And he said well you see I can't
be one of the ninety and nine because
I've done lots of bad things in my
life.
And so consequently I'm not one of the
ninety and nine who need no saving.
I've got into tempers and I've sworn I've
done heaps of wicked things he says so
that's out of the question.
And I can't be a found sheep because
I don't love the good shepherd.
I never think about him at all so
I must be one of the lost sheep.
That's a dreadful thing to be isn't it?
Yes she said that's very bad.
And then with a sudden flash of illumination.
But she went on to say if you're
a lost sheep you're the very sheep that
Jesus came to save.
For the text says the Son of Man
has come to seek and to save that
which is lost.
Well Israel came to know bondage and they
came to know what it is to be
saved.
And in the New Testament times the ultimate
experience is to know that we are lost
sheep and in knowing that we are lost
sheep to know that it is those very
kinds of sheep that very kind for which
the Lord Jesus Christ came.
So if you're here in the audience and
you're not one of the ninety and nine
righteous sheep you're not one of those already
saved by the shepherd and brought back to
the flock you're one of the lost sheep.
But it is for the lost sheep that
he has come.
May God speak to your heart may you
come.
Let's stand for the benediction.
Father we are so grateful to thee for
the privilege and the opportunity to hear the
word of God to respond to it to
become one of the sheep brought home by
the shepherd.
We praise thee that there was a day
when we were wandering sheep from the foal
because Lord we have come to know what
it is to be lost.
We know the despair of our lost condition
and we thank thee that through that we
have come to appreciate what it is to
be one of the saved sheep.
Oh father if there are some in this
audience who do not know him as the
shepherd who saves lost sheep by the Holy
Spirit bring conviction, repentance and faith we do
pray.
God indirect our steps and may this week
we please our great shepherd of the sheep
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Go with us now for his name's sake.
Amen.