We're going to finish up a little bit of last week's lesson, but it's all on your paper from this week or for this week, and we're in Genesis 43. Genesis 43, and we'll begin in verse 15. We'll read 15 through 23, and it says. And the men took that present and they took double money in their, am I in the right chapter? Yes, in their hand. And Benjamin and rose up and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph. Now, just a reminder, they were having the discussion with their father. And you go to verse six, and we're gonna deal with verse six a little bit more again today in a different, little bit of a different angle, but we're gonna deal with the idea that they spilled their guts to Joseph on the fact that they had a brother back at home and that they had a father yet alive and they're just 12 brothers and one was gone and demeaning him, he's dead, they presumed. And so here they are convincing their father and he gets to a point where he says, you know, go again, verse two, to go backtrack a little bit, go again and buy us a little food. So when you get hungry, the point was last week, when you get hungry, when you get desperate, The resolve that you think you have at this moment, being in church today as I prayed, strengthen us, give us what we need for today. You almost need to have that all the time. I noticed that with me, one of the things that helps me, and I'm just segue for just a little bit, is that I have a lot of music on my phone. and I put my earbuds in and I listen to music, and I have the same music on my computer, I work a lot at my desk, and even when I'm cutting the lawn or whatever I'm doing, I've learned a long time ago to use that time. And Final Fight Bible Radio has been a blessing to me as well. I can put that on and just about anything they have going on in there is good. And the preaching and the teaching and the lessons, what I mean is, it's like taking a steroid shot. And it's like just getting that uplifting, that encouraging, that strengthening that comes from the Bible or from spiritual music. You know, if you go to Ephesians 5, one of the ways you get strengthened by the Spirit, and if we're going to walk in the Spirit, how do we do that? Well, you get that through preaching, you get that through singing, you get that through right music. And so, when you get yourself weak, and you get out in the world, and you're having a stressful day, and, you know, the job is really weighing on you, you're tired, we've talked about that before, and it's late at night, and the devil wants to take you late at night, and when you're weak spots, your moments, and he wants to take advantage of you, and in the tribulation time, we made the application last week, in the tribulation time, it's going to be sorrowful for the people that I think about, I don't know what you think about, but I think about all these things, that somebody is going to be in the tribulation time. They're going to know that I'm not supposed to take that mark. I remember being Bible Believers Baptist Church in Port St. Lucie and they were preaching on a Sunday morning about don't take the mark. Well, I didn't get saved in that church, but I'm here and they're gone. And I know I'm not supposed to take that mark, but I'm hungry and I don't have anything. And I'm on the street and the sun is so hot and it's raining. And all I gotta do is walk over there into the Civic Center, in Port St. Lucie Civic Center, and they're handing out that mark for free. And can you imagine, can you imagine, I can't imagine, this is the part I can't imagine, can you imagine being in hell for all of eternity because you wanted a hot dog, or a sandwich, or a beverage, or because you were wet by rain? And here I am in hell because I took that mark. All I'm saying is we get to those points in our lives every day. We make decisions every day. It's not taking a mark or heaven and hell necessarily, but it's decisions on what should I do right now? You know, should I do this for the Lord or should I do this for me? And we can get weak like that. Well, he got to the point in verse two, and we'll just get back to where we were now. He got to the point in verse two where he says, go again and buy a little food. Go ahead, take your brother. I'm at that point where you can take your brother and take everything. And it's just, and the Lord, this is another good lesson out of it. The Lord was working on Jacob. He's working on the whole family, and Joseph was doing it, but it was the Lord doing it, too, where he's whittling them down a little bit, bringing them down as we prayed for the salvation of others today to the place of repentance. You don't want to ever, and I'm going to sidetrack a little bit more, you don't want to ever be in the parents, grandparents, friends, you don't ever want to be in the position where you're always bailing somebody out. where you're always, oh, well, they're such in the dire strait and you're borrowing money out of your bank account or your good credit line to give to them to bail them out because, oh, and maybe God's trying to do what he's doing to this family right here. Maybe God's just trying to bring them down lower. Say, well, that's pretty low. I couldn't imagine. And maybe God says, no, that's not as low as they'll go. The prodigal son had to go all the way down eating the pig's food to where he came to himself. And nobody was there, thank God, to intervene in him and lift him up. All his friends forsook him. What a terrible situation he was in. But that's what it takes sometimes for people to be saved. That's what it takes sometimes for us to serve the Lord. And those moments are defining moments in our lives. And so here we are back to verse 15 again. We'll read 15 to 23. And the men took the present that they had agreed on and took double money in their hand. And Benjamin and rose up and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph. And Joseph saw Benjamin with them. And when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the ruler of his house, bring these men home and slay. He's going to make food and make ready for these men shall dine with me at noon. And the man did as Joseph bade and the man brought the men into Joseph's house. And the men were afraid because they brought into, they were brought into Joseph's house. And they said, because of the money that was returned in our sacks at the first time we are brought in. that he may seek occasion against us and fall upon us and take us for bondmen and our asses. And they came near to the steward of Joseph's house and they communed with him at the door of the house and said, oh sir. And this is where these brothers, you know, like it or not, good or not, they're always confessing at this point. They're just always ready to give their story. Be careful, by the way, with that. You don't always have to defend yourself. I'm just throwing out another little life lesson. You don't always have to defend yourself, especially this guy's a steward. What's he going to do? You know, you watch people always, you know, you might be at the store, in the line at the store, in the return line. I learned a long time ago, they don't care why you're bringing it back. They just take it back, and they don't want to even hear from you, you know. But you've got the guy in front of you, and you're waiting, and you're waiting, because he's like explaining, well, this happened, and this happened, and this is why I'm returning it. And they're like, just, do you have the receipt? Right? And a lot of times we bare our soul to people, and we should never do that. And we give out too much information to people, and we do that. You say, well, I don't do that. Yeah, you may do that when you don't even realize it. Are you on Facebook? Are you on Instagram? Are you on whatever I can name, right? And you're out there telling everybody where you are right now, where someone else is, because you're taking their picture, too. And they didn't give you permission to do that. You realize, let me give you another piece of advice. Do you realize that people don't want their children's picture on the internet? Well, I'm with this family right now. Look at all their kids. And you post it online. And so some predators out there are like, yeah, those are nice looking kids. Go ask the police about that, okay? They're out there. And you don't have permission, you don't have my permission, right, to take pictures and put my kids out there. Now, my kids are grown now, but, you know, that's a real deal. And so we're always trying to tell everybody everything about ourselves because we're so whatever that is. I mean, I don't want to make too many accusations. I'm just saying that, you know, these guys were doing this. They were like, oh, sir. We came down indeed, verse 20, we came indeed down at the first time to buy food. None of this is in the lesson, by the way, this is all just stuff that's free for you. Uh, and it came to pass when, uh, we came into the end that we opened our sacks and behold, every man's money was in the mouth of his sack and our money was in full weight. And we brought it again into our, in our hand. There's 22 and other money have we brought down in our hands to buy food. We cannot tell who put our money in our sacks. Now they were speaking to the right guy in this case, because he says in verse 23, and he said, peace be unto you. Fear not your God and the God of your father. That's interesting for him to say, hath given you treasure in your sacks. I had your money and he brought Simeon out unto them. So he's the one that Joseph said, go put the money back in the sacks. And he knew all about it. So he had heard that and he comforted them hopefully a little bit. And they're probably thinking, what? Now maybe a little relief has come over them from the initial shock of, you know, being pulled into the house and not knowing why. But let's read from the sheet. This journey must have been a sobering, must have been sobering and convicting, one of most sobering and convicting experiences of their lives. Here they're going back thinking that they're going to be bondmen, they're going to be servants, they're going to just take their chances. I got my younger brother. My dad may be bereaved of all his children right now. We may never go back. He may starve to death back there. Our lives are over, but we're putting it all on the line to go back and to get some food. And it's illustrative of a repentant sinner coming to Christ. Now we'll switch gears on it. At this point, you can look at the story this way and say that when you come to Christ, you just lay it all out on the line. And when I got saved, I remember what I said when I got saved. I said, Lord, I'm taking my hands off the wheel. And I had heard that expression and it sounded good at the moment. And I realized that that's what I have to do. No more are you steering the ship of your life? No more are you saying, well, we can get by with all the little extras we found around here where we are, you know, back in their homeland. We can't make it on that. We have to go. We have to go where God is. We have to go where the sustenance is. We have to go where plenty is. And that's where God is. And sometimes God, like as I said, brings us down to a point where we need to get down in the mud. We need to be groveling. We need to be on a hospital bed. We need to be in a shelter somewhere. We need to be in a rescue mission. We need to be on our face. We need to be whatever condition God puts us in, in order for us to seek Him, especially for salvation. So, it's a picture of a sinner coming to Christ. Look at the sheet again. Reuben was willing to lose his sons. Now, there's a lot of parents aren't willing to lose their children, and they won't get saved, because if I do, it'll put odds between me and my children, and vice versa. The children won't do that, because they don't want to be ostracized from the home. And you know what? Again, I can't imagine someone being in hell, because I needed a drink today, and so I got that mark. I needed food today, I needed shelter, so I got that mark. I knew better, they told me not to do it, but I was so hungry. And can you imagine being in hell and saying, well, where are my parents now? Where are my brother and sister now? Where are my best friends now? I chose them. The Lord was trying to get my attention, but I chose them. And I knew the Lord was gracious. I knew he would be there for me tomorrow. But tomorrow never came. And so here I am in a devil's hell. And where are they? The ones I chose. The ones I chose for that moment and that day. And literally, you chose them for eternity. Because there you are. So Reuben, he was willing to lose his sons. Judah was willing to take the blame forever. Now we'll get to Judah in time here at the end of the lesson. But Judah is a type of Christ here because he was willing to take the blame forever. Jesus came out of what tribe? Judah. And so Jesus took the blame forever. And that's what Judah said about himself. I'm willing to take the blame forever. Benjamin was willing to leave home. So he was a child who was willing to never see his dad again and realize how much it tore up his dad to lose Joseph. He probably heard about that over and over every year. At every holiday, at every gathering, he probably heard the story of Joseph. And Jacob placed his entire family in the balance. So all I'm saying is we call that repentance. When a person decides to accept Jesus Christ, Jesus said, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Right? And it's more than just, you must be born again. Of course you must be born again, but how must I be born again? Well, you might want to repent, because that's what he asks you to do. And so in order to repent, what does that mean? Are you willing to forsake everything? Now, you may not. You're not going to be the perfect Christian day one, right? There's a difference, and we may get to this a little later. There's a difference between a disciple and somebody who's a believer and a disciple. You know, a disciple was called a Christian in Antioch. It says the disciples were called Christians. So those are people who actually had, they were following, but not everybody who believes the Lord follows the Lord. And you may not be perfect from day one, but you better strive to be. You better strive to be. I laid it all on the line. And Paul's first statement out of the gate was, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And so it's not radical, it's not fanatical to be saved and instantly be in church and instantly be reading the Bible and instantly being in prayer and instantly being hungry for the things of God. That's not radical. That should be normal. You're radical if you don't have those things going on in your life. And we have the right as believers to question you because by their fruits you shall know them. And if there's no fruits, if there's no desire, boy, we're concerned. It's not that we're judging, it's just we're concerned. And so anyway, it's a great picture. They brought gifts, double money, and were willing to stand before the governor and face the consequences. You know, I'd rather stand before God and ask, because God, if I'm right about what the Bible says, He's merciful, He's long-suffering, He's gracious, He's kind, He's gentle. He's all these things that the Bible tells you he is. I'd rather stand in front of him and say, would you forgive me? And we know he will. Right. The Bible says, come on to me, all you that labor and heavy laden, I will give you rest. So he so they were willing to stand before the governor. They needed grace and they knew it. And that's what, that's really the idea. When a person gets saved, they ought to be a place where they're broken. Spiritually, they're broken and they realize they're guilty sinners before God and they need God's grace. And that's what these men were willing, that's where God finally brought them to. He brought them to a place where they were humbled to a point where they were willing to bow down. And they bowed down to Joseph several times as you read through these chapters. They were constantly bowing down to him and asking for favor and grace and be merciful to me. And here's the great part. Little did they know that the man they would face was more than ready to forgive. You know, I can't go to God. I'm not worthy. I can't get saved. I mean, He would never accept a person like me. You don't know what I've done. I've had that conversation with people. And what would our response be? He will forgive you. He will receive you. He will take you. As long as you have life and breath in you, He will do that. If you're willing, He's willing. And the Lord is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to what? Repentance. So you come to that, and here's Joseph, Romans 5a, we won't turn to it for sake of time, but I think it is, while we are yet sinners, Christ died for us. So while you were already a sinner, and before you were ever born, Christ already died for you. So that's the great message. Here they were, scared out of their boots, and were gonna come and stand before Joseph, not knowing, and just place our fate in his hands and whatever it is, because we're gonna die anyway. You could take that one or two ways. I'm either gonna do that with the Savior, or I'm gonna do that one day in the tribulation, just a picture of this, a picture of all that, and I'm gonna take that mark and trust that everything's gonna go okay. Or am I going to trust that world that everything's going to go OK? I'm just going to put my... You have a decision to make. It's either God or the devil. It's either God or the world. It's either God or myself. And so they needed grace. He was ready to forgive. He loved them as a brother. Proverbs 18, 24 talks about there is a friend that's closer than a brother. Do you realize you may not think of Jesus this way, but he is a friend. He's your friend. You know, Jesus, oh yeah, He has a belt, and He's ready to smack me with that belt, you know, and He's ready to just cut me down every time I do wrong, and He doesn't know what I go through, and He knows everything you go through. The Bible says He's closer than a brother. You know, we always, I talk against being blood thicker than water. You know, you don't do everything just because it's your family. But God, if God's your family, blood is thicker than water in that case. And he is there for you to be there for you. And he loved them. Joseph loved them. They didn't know this. But Joseph loved them. He loved them like a brother. He loved them with no greater love. No greater love have a man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. Do you realize that God calls you, when you're saved, His friend? I mean, think about the best friend you have, and how much you want to spend time with them, and how much desire you have towards them, and how much you love being with them and talking with them. That's Jesus to you, but we distance ourselves from Him. And we don't think of Him like that. He had a feast waiting for them. It said, we're going to eat at noon. Did you remember reading that? We're going to slay because we're going to eat at noon. So he had that ready to go. Revelation 19.9 talks about that for us, and had been preparing a place for them. John 14 talks about, I go to prepare a place for you. And he had a land called the land of Goshen there in Egypt, and he was going to put them in that land, and they were going to be separate, and they were going to have their own place, and they could prosper and grow. And so he had all these things ready if they would just come. But here they are. So this brings us to understanding. Help us bring understanding to Romans 2, 4, which is written out on your sheet. We talked about it last week. The goodness of God and the forbearance and longsuffering brings us to repentance. It's the goodness of God. You know, if God, I said it last week, if God wanted to, he could kick you, he could flick you right into hell right now. He could spit you into hell. He could step on us. I mean, we're nothing in His, when it comes to Him and His power and His ability and His holiness versus who we are. And to think, that's how good God is. Have you ever had mercy on anybody? Have you ever had compassion on anybody? Have you ever looked at somebody and they're so filthy and rotten and good for nothing, but you still, there's something in you that says, I care about that person. And that's what God, if you could do that, imagine how much more God can do that. And here he is, his long-suffering, not willing to any, so it's his goodness that leads us to repentance. That repentance hurts, yes, it hurts, but it's for your own good. It's so that you will have the best friend you've ever had, and so that you could be actually bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, and have a place prepared, a feast prepared, a brother waiting for you, all these things that Joseph was to them, God is to us. And so the Lord's not willing that any should perish. He's willing to allow difficulty into our lives to accomplish that end. But look at the last verse of the chapter, just jumping ahead, look at verse 34, and look what happened at the end of the chapter. After all this fearfulness coming to him, it says, and he took them, and he took and sent messes unto them from before him, but Benjamin's mess was five times so much as any of theirs, and they drank and were merry with him. You understand one day when you get to heaven, you have not had any joy on this earth that will surpass the merriment and the joyfulness that you will have when you get there. And if you want to bring yourself out of the doldrums, you need to think about that a little more often. Quit focusing on this life and the problems of this life, and think about what's to come, because your life is just a vapor. Now, we've got to move forward. Look at verse 24. through 31. And the man brought the men at Joseph's house and gave them water and they washed their feet and he gave their asses provender and they made ready for the present. It made ready the present against Joseph came at noon. for they heard that they should eat bread there. And when Joseph came home, they brought him the present, which was in their hand, into the house, and bowed themselves to him to the earth. And he asked them of their welfare and said, is your father well? The old man of whom you spake, is he yet alive? And they answered, thy servant, our father, is in good health, and he is yet alive. And they bowed down their heads, there they go again, and made obeisance. And he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin and mother's son and said, this your younger brother of whom you spake unto me?" And he knew that. He said, God be gracious unto thee, my son. And Joseph made haste for his bowels did yearn upon his brother. And he sought where to weep, and he entered into the chamber and wept there. And he washed his face and went out and refrained himself and said, set on bread. We'll stop there. So one of the first questions Joseph asked them, is your father yet alive? Now, can you imagine what they might be thinking at that point? I mean, how many, how does he remember about our father? This guy really has our number, you know, like he's been dwelling on us. There's there's going to be some issues going on here. They haven't yet, you know, experienced everything, the forgiveness and everything. But but of the thousands of people that come to Egypt, how could he remember? Right. And so what that brings to mind is that is Jesus is as intimately involved in the believer's life. Do you know that we just talked about Jesus? There's a friend that's thicker, closer than a brother. And Jesus is right. Not only is he right beside you, he is in you. The things that I hear, he hears. Things that I see, he sees. The places I go, he goes. You know, the Holy Spirit never leaves me. But you know what? The Holy Spirit can be grieved. It can be quenched, but it never leaves me. It's always there. He's intimately involved in our lives. Now, I give you some verses, but I'll give you one to look at. Psalm 139, verse two. You probably know this verse. Of course, the other one there in Luke talks about the hairs of our head are numbered. So God even knows that much about you. But David is talking here and he says, Psalm 139, two, he says in verse one, Oh, Lord, thou has searched me and known me. You know, the Bible talks about in Proverbs that the spirit of the Lord is like a candle. It searches the inward parts of the belly. God knows everything going on. He knows not only that, and I pray like this, He knows my emotions. He knows when you're sad. He knows when you're happy. He knows when you're doubtful. He knows when you're indecisive. He knows when you're between things. He knows when you're making choices. He knows all of it. And it says in verse 2, Thou knowest my down sitting and mine up rising. Thou understandest my thought afar off. Say, well, where is God? Well, He's right there. If you're a believer, he's right there. He knows everything that's going on. And that's a sobering idea. And so he asked him, how's your father? And then he and then it says he yearned in his bowels for Benjamin. And to yearn is to have an earnest desire or to long for something very deeply, you know, inside of you to where it hurts. You know how it just physically hurts when you think about that person and missing that person or losing that person or whatever the situation could be. And he saw his brother and he yearned in his heart and Jesus, he has the same care for those he loves. Go to a John 11, John 11 and verse 33. Now, I would I'm I like to do this for my own sake. I like to think about Jesus in this way. You know, I the liberal church out there, all they want you to focus on is the fact that Jesus is long suffering, he's caring, he's kind. He'll never, you know, you're already in Christ and all these things, and you can do whatever you want, get away with whatever you want. And, of course, Romans 6 says, God forbid. But we don't want to lose sight of who God really is. God is love. And God does love you. He does. And He cares for you. And He has been touched with the feeling of your infirmities. And He does weep. John 11, we see that, you know this famous passage of the Bible, it's Lazarus dying, and look at verse 33. John 11, 33, when Jesus therefore saw her weeping, And the Jews also weeping, which came with her, he was groaned in the spirit." Now imagine Jesus being groaned in the spirit. What are we reading here in Genesis 43? He's yearning in his bowels. He's a type of Jesus Christ. You can imagine Joseph seeing his brother, never having seen him for all those years, and how he must have felt. You can imagine that. But you can't imagine sometimes how Jesus looks at us and does the same thing. And the question always comes up, and Brother Gordon brings it up every time, too, is, you know, what is man? Thou art mindful of him. Why do you even care about me? Why does the Lord care about me? I don't know. There's a song I like to hear, and it talks about that. Ask me why he loves me, and I don't know what to say. I don't. Why would he love me like that? But he says here, Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping, which came with her. He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. He said, where have you laid him? And they said unto him, Lord, come and see. And then the famous verse in the Bible, this puts a little context to it, in verse 35, Jesus wept. You ever dwell on that? Jesus, why are you weeping, Jesus? He has groaned in the spirit. A friend of his died. He knew where that friend was. That friend is with him today. But he saw the people and he saw the heart condition and he cares. All I'm saying is he cares. Joseph cared about his brothers and Jesus cares. He cared enough. He was weeping for him. Now, there's other verses there. We won't, for sake of time, get into them. But the Bible clearly shows you that God, Jesus, cares about us. Yes, it's true. If we sin, you know, he'll chastise us. But why does he chastise? The Bible even tells you why. Because he loves you. He cares about you. You know, if somebody cares about us that much. Somebody died for me. Gives me a home in heaven, prepares a meal for me, has all this stuff waiting for me, has this long suffering, this compassion. He dwells with me. I mean, what a fool I am if I don't respond in kind, right? And I just turn my back on that. But that's what we do, because that's how messed up we are. And we think, oh, well, you know, if I get saved, then that's gonna be a life of rules. It's just gonna be all rules from now on. I can't live like that. What kind of God, he doesn't really care for me. Yeah, he does, but you're just messed up in the head. We really are. And so anyway, look at verse 32 and through 34. And they set on for him by himself and for them by themselves and for the Egyptians, which did eat with them by themselves, because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews for that is an abomination. Oh, really? Under the Egyptians. And they sat before him. The firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his birthright, and the men marveled one at another. And he took and sent messes unto them from before them, but Benjamin's mess was five times. Five times five is the number of what? Death, if you don't know, five is the number of death. Why did Benjamin get five times more? Well, because he's the favorite brother. Yeah, right, but why five times? Because his mother died in childbirth. That's a picture of death. And they drank and were merry with him. So here I'll just make a simple point that separation is an age-old practice. Notice in verse 32, and they set on for him by himself. and for them by themselves and for the Egyptians which eat with him by themselves." Why? Because it's an abomination to eat with the Hebrews. Why? Well, you can read the commentators and they'll give you a variety of reasons. The most common reason why they would say that you're an abomination as a Hebrew is because You know, just like it is in India right now. In India, they worship their dead ancestors in the cow and in the rat, right? And that's why they don't kill their rats. That's why they're dirty. That's why they don't let their cows walk through the street, because that's Uncle Joe, and we don't want to eat Uncle Joe. And all these things that they believe, their religion dominates them so that they do these things. And the speculation is that the Egyptians felt that way about the Hebrews. The Hebrews would eat anything, and so we wouldn't eat together because you're an abomination. You find out later that they put them in the land of Goshen to separate them because shepherds, they were shepherds by trade, and the shepherds are an abomination to the Egyptians. Now there's a great lesson there, we'll get to it later, but Jesus Christ is the great shepherd, and to the world that's an abomination. And so you get away from us. You separate from us. They don't want any part of that. And so that's what's going on here. And Joseph is partaking because he's still playing the role of being the bad guy here and being the governor. And so separation is an age-old practice and occurs for a variety of reasons. The Egyptians took their separations farther than Jesus did, by the way. You know, Jesus was here and he walked on this earth and what was he accused of by the Pharisees? That he ate with publicans and sinners. Right? And so, you know, we don't want to ever get to the point where above that, you know, you're in this world, you're just not of this world. And so when you get around people and you get around this world, you're going to rub shoulders with people or else you're never going to lead anybody to Christ. And your number one goal in this life, by the way, is not to always lead somebody to Christ. You do need to have separation, but you are going to be around people. You're going to work with people. You can't always just work from home and you can't always just be away from everybody. You're going to be around people. and Jesus was around people. The Egyptians, all I'm saying is they took their separation farther than Jesus. Bible tells you in Matthew 9-11 that he ate, that was the accusation, he ate with publicans and sinners. And so we're gonna have to do that. Now, I have some notes here, and I'm looking at the clock, and I don't know if I'm gonna do it. I don't think I am. But I have some things here from what the United Nations has done. I'll just give you a real quick synopsis. The United Nations, the world hates Jesus Christ. And you say, well, boy, you know, I don't want to separate from them because, you know, they'll think I'm holier than thou, or they'll make jokes about me, or, you know, that's my family. And so if I separate from them, if I say, no, I don't do that, then I'll be ridiculed, I'll be mocked, I'll be ostracized, I'll be, I'll be, I'll be. But you know what the world's going to do to you? They're going to be just like these Egyptians, they're going to say, you eat over there. You stand over there, you go over there, we don't want you at our party, we don't want you at our event, we don't want you, if they see you coming, I've been in the workplace before, it's been a long time, but they see you coming and all of a sudden they all go like this. Let's move over here. Here comes, you know, here comes John the Baptist. And so they're going to move out of your way, right? And so they'll separate from you if you live for the Lord. So you might as well just take the biblical advice to separate yourself. But the United Nations, just real quick, I'll just read this to you. The United Nations passed more resolutions in 2022. The United Nations passed more resolutions critical of Israel than against all other nations put together. You know how many nations there are in the world? I don't know, but there's a lot of them. And they passed more against one little country than all the rest of them combined. And since 2015, the United Nations has adopted 140 resolutions criticizing Israel versus 68 against all the other countries. Now can you imagine, I mean, and this article goes on to talk about the Ukraine, and it talks about Putin, and you, oh surely they're against that, no? But they're against Israel because the Palestinians, they don't want those Palestinians to be suffering, and so all I'm pointing out is the Egyptians, the world, is always against Israel, right? And there's a great picture of it right there for you here in Genesis 43. Let's move forward. So in chapter 44, we'll read verse 1 through 12. It says, and he commanded the steward of his house saying, fill the men's sacks with food as much as they can carry and put every man's money in his sack's mouth. And put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth of the youngest, that's Benjamin, and his corn money. And he did according to the word that Joseph had spoken. As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away, and they in their asses. And when they were gone out of the city, and not yet far off, Joseph said unto his steward, Up, follow after the men, and when thou dost overtake them, say unto them, Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good? Is not this it in which my Lord drinketh, and whereby indeed he divineth? We'll talk about that word divineth in a minute. Ye have done evil in so doing. And he overtook them and spake unto them these same words. And they said unto him, wherefore sayeth my Lord these words? God forbid that thy servants should do according to this thing. Behold, the money which we found is in our sacks. We brought again unto thee out of the land of Canaan. How then should we steal out of my Lord's house silver or gold? With whomsoever thy servant be found, both of them let him die. They should never say that. I'll get to that in a second. And we also will be my Lord's bondman. And he said, now also let it be according unto your words. He with whom it is found shall be my servant and ye shall be blameless. Then they speedily took down every man his sack to the ground and open every man his sack. And he searched and began at the eldest and left at the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin's sack. So we'll stop reading there. Now here's what we'll just mention out of this. These guys, evidently, you know, up to this point, you think, well, they had learned their lesson, right? And they had really, they made obeisance, they were sorrowful, they even were repentant to the steward, and they were spilling their guts, and they were, you know, here they were, but Joseph didn't reveal himself to them yet. And the last verse of the chapter said they made Mary. And in making Mary, sometimes when we get things going and things go merry for us, we kind of think, oh, well, life is good again. You know, I had that moment, but it was just a moment and nothing really happened to me. And everything is OK again. And here we go. We're on our way. And I believe the Lord knew that they needed still yet another lesson. I don't know why. I don't know why Joseph kept doing these techniques. I don't know if the Lord was. I'm sure the Lord was guiding him. I don't know if the Lord was telling him to do this. All I know is that he realized that he was going to let those guys go, but he was going to stop them and he was going to accuse him again. Maybe he didn't feel as if they were fully 100 percent repentant. I don't know. But these guys speak quickly out of pride. And they said, we didn't do that. We brought back, again, don't you remember? And if it's in our sacks, now they should know better. Because it was in their sacks the first time and they didn't know it. If it's in our sacks, let the person who has it die. I wouldn't say that. Just, again, the lesson. Shut your mouth, right? Don't always be ready to speak. A fool is known by the multitude of words, the Bible says. That's what the Bible says. Jesus, you know, God said in the Bible, you want to look, you want to be a fool, just blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Everywhere you go, everyone you see, just tell them everything. And you know what? People, they pick up on that, by the way, too. So they realize. But anyway, Peter did this and still betrayed the Lord. I will never do that. And he still did it. So better off not saying it in so doing. In doing so, they pronounced the death penalty and slavery on themselves. And so now look at this. Look at go to judges. Chapter 11. Here's a guy in the Bible. That did this. And he and he did it in a bad way. This guy's name was Jephthah, and he spoke out of turn. And be careful when you get high up. These men were feeling good on themselves, and we just made merry with the governor. Everything's okay. Boy, we're all set. We got food, and he sent us home, and everything's going well. We got our brother Benjamin. Boy, dad's gonna be happy, and they were not having a care in the world, and so they were spouting off at the mouth. And just be careful. You know, one of the things about Moses, Moses was one of the meekest men in the world. I don't know if he was the meekest man ever, just like Solomon was the wisest man ever, but I think Moses was very few of words. And so, one of the things you want to be is not, you don't want to be like, you know, mute all the time, but you just want to be careful with your words. And this guy, Jephthah, in Judges 11 in verse 30, and Jephthah vowed a vow unto the Lord and said, if thou shalt, if thou wilt fail, deliver the children of Amnon into my hands, Then it shall be that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering. Boy, this guy's high on it, right? Lord, I'll tell you what, if you deliver me in this battle, then when I get home from the battle, whatever walks out the front door, whatever comes to me, and he's probably thinking an animal will come to him, I'm just gonna lay it out on the altar and sacrifice it to you because, you know, I can do that. Well, I don't know if you know the story, but let's keep reading verse 32. So Jephthah passed over under the children of Ammon to fight against them, and the Lord delivered them into his hands. And he smote them from a roar even on. even till thou come to Mineth, even 20 cities and under the plain of the vineyards and very great slaughter. Thus, the children of Amnon were subdued before the children of Israel. And Jephthah came the Mishpah unto his house, and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances. And she was his only child. Beside her, he had neither son nor daughter. Verse 35, And it came to pass when he saw her that he rent his clothes and said, Alas, my daughter, thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me, for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord and I cannot go back. And you know what he does? He sacrifices her and she dies. Now, there's there's more to that story. You know, this is the book of Judges. And by the way, the lesson there is don't open your mouth and don't make promises you can't keep. Don't make promises you don't want to keep. Don't make promises that you regret to keep. Just shut your mouth. The Lord says when you come into the house in Ecclesiastes, I have the reference there. We didn't turn to it. Ecclesiastes 5.1. It's better that you shut your mouth. Let's turn to it. Ecclesiastes 5.1. I remember we talked about pleading the fifth. That's part of our Constitution. You know, when the police handcuff you, they say, listen, I want to tell you something. It's very important. And it's very important that you know this. And it is. And I took a class on this. And I learned this in a deeper way. But they say, you have the right to remain silent. Do you know that's a good thing? Even when they put the bright light on you, and they put you in the prison, and they deprive you of sleep, and all the things, you have the right to remain silent. That's a protection for you. You understand? Look at Ecclesiastes 5.1. Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools. For they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything before God. For God is in heaven, and thou upon the earth. Let thy words be few. Now God knows your thoughts, but I don't know your thoughts. And when you open your mouth, you might, and you do that with the policeman for a practical application, they have that on you. Well, I was just frantic. I was just in the moment. They don't, they don't care about that. They heard you and they'll use your words against you. You ever heard that? So anyway, that's just a little lesson, but here back in judges, this guy, Jephthah, do you realize that he said there, and he said, you have brought me very low. Uh, I cannot go back on what I sold the Lord. Do you realize that he could go back on what he told the Lord? Do you realize that in the book of Judges, the Bible says that every man did that which is right in his own eyes? Do you know why? Because they forsook the Bible. Do you know what will happen to you if you forsake the Bible? You'll make a stupid decision, and you'll say this before the Lord, and I'm going to do this, and the Lord hears our vows, right? But you're going to be like, well, I made that decision, so I have to do this. Well, if you knew your Bible, it might help you out. Well, the Lord, I'm convinced that this is what the Lord wants me to do. Well, I've read my Bible, and I'm convinced the Lord does not want you to do that. And I'm not you, but I'm telling you what I know from the Bible. And you're saying God wants you to do this, and I'm saying God doesn't want you to do this. Who's right? The one who knows the Bible, right? Go over to, let's see. Oh, I didn't write the reference down. It's in Deuteronomy. Well, anyway, it's in the Bible. I didn't write the reference down. The Bible says if you've made a vow and you learned, it's in Leviticus. Oh, does it have the note for you? Go to Leviticus then. What is it, 5? Leviticus 5.4. That's the one. It's talking about this guy right here, if he'd had Deuteronomy in front of him, which he could have. But every man did that was right in his own eyes. So he says, or it says in Leviticus 5, 4, Leviticus 5, 4, or if a soul swear pronouncing with his lips to do evil or to do good whatsoever, it be that a man shall pronounce with an oath and it be hid from him when he knoweth of it. Then he shall be guilty in one of these and in it shall be when he shall be guilty in one of these that he shall confess that he has sinned in that thing. Oh, God, I didn't I didn't realize what I was saying. I'm sorry I was ignorant. I shouldn't have made that vow. He could have gotten out of the vow. But instead, he went through it and he killed his only daughter. Say, why is that in the Bible? To show you what you what you might do without the Bible, how foolish people are religiously without the Bible. Well, I do this and it's going to get me to heaven. No, it's going to get you to hell. Well, yeah, but that's what I think. Yeah, but that's that's your problem. You doing what's right in your own eyes and you don't have any biblical authority whatsoever for what you're doing. And that's that's why I believe that story is in the Bible. Um, so another thing is, and we didn't touch on it and we'll probably just wrap it up right here in the middle of the lesson here. But, um, look at, let's see here. As long as we're on this subject, go to Proverbs 29 11. You know, I've said it before, we go to the jail. I've been to plenty of jails in my life, and I got training on it years and years and years ago by another chaplain. And the chaplain told me one time, he said, don't ever ask those guys why they're in prison. And you know what those guys have been also trained to do? Or not to do? They've been trained not to tell you why they're in prison. And the reason why you don't want to know that is because you will not want to get close to that person. If I find out that guy's a pedophile, I don't want to talk to you. Now, does that guy need to be saved? Does that guy want to repent? Does that guy really feel sorrow? Probably. I hope so. But I, John Albright, I want nothing to do with you because I know now. You don't want people to know everything about you is all I'm saying. They don't need to know. Yeah, but I got to unload on somebody. Well, yeah, maybe there is somebody you can, but maybe there's not. And if there's not, you're just gonna have to bear that thing. And there's always God. And so, where would I have you go? Proverbs 29, 11? I was gonna tell you, it was that guy that came up to me, and it's been on my mind ever since. I told you, he came up to me, and he came up and stood right on the stage, and he just stood with me. And he told me he's from the UP of Michigan, which gave us common ground. I'm like, oh, really? He said, well, I'm in, and I said, well, and I did the stupidest thing. I said, I forgot my training. I said, how long have you been in here? And he says, well, I've been in here for 29 years. I'm like, 29 years? He says, yeah, I have a life sentence. So you know what? You know what? You can only go to life sentence. You know what that means, right? It means you've done something really bad, like really bad. And he said he was saved. But you know what? Next time I see that guy, I'm going to be, I was already like, why do you keep standing here? And now maybe he wanted to be close to the preacher, maybe he just felt good about that, maybe he just, you know, but I, now I'm like, so my point is, right, a fool uttereth all his mind. That's what it says here in Proverbs 29, 11, I quoted earlier. A fool uttereth all his mind, but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards. Afterwards, sometimes that means like after everything has been told. Well, let me tell you what I know about that situation. I heard this, and I heard that, and I'm sure, no you're not, you don't know anything until all the facts come out, and you're not in the courtroom, and you're not privy to all the conversations, and you just might wanna just not utter all your mind. And anyway, go to Exodus chapter one. I really thought I was going to finish today. I think that every week. Exodus chapter one. Look at verse 15 through 17. We've covered this before, but I always say that I covered this before. Yeah, John, check your notes five years ago. Some of you weren't even here five years ago. And so but I always it's always like, you know, but anyway, Exodus one in verse when I say 15. And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shifra, and the name of the other was Pua. And he said, when you do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools, and if it be a son, then ye shall kill him. But if it be a daughter, then she shall live. But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them. but save the men children alive. Now, get the story? Hey, midwives, I hate these Egyptians. Now, we're much later in the story. They've gone from going in the land of Goshen to being now the slaves of the Egyptians. And they're at a point where the Egyptians are getting tired of these guys populating so much, they don't want them to overpower the country. They're saying, so if a men child be born, you kill the baby right out when it comes out. Well, I don't know about you, but I'm not gonna kill for anybody. I'll kill an animal, but I'm not going to kill a human being. Just coming out of the womb, especially. And so they didn't do it. And verse 18, And the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men and children alive? And the midwives said unto the Pharaoh a lie. They said, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women, for they are lively and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them. So they just lied to him. And they said, well, you know, they're just so strong and overpowering. The baby comes out. We can't do anything. You know, it's too late by then. It's just how it works. And they lied. You say, well, they shouldn't lie. Boy, they lied. They're in big trouble with God. Well, read verse 20. Therefore, God dealt with well with the midwives and the people multiplied and waxed very mighty. And even verse 21, and it came to pass because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses. So God bless them for lying to Pharaoh. And not, oh, I've just got to be honest, you know, I just got to tell everybody what I really think. I just got to tell Pharaoh, no, you don't. Now, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did, but it was a different circumstance, a different time. It was their own lives at stake. You see, they were willing to go into the fire. They were willing to die for the Lord, but they were not going to kill somebody else. All right, now let me give you another example of this. Go to Joshua chapter 2. Joshua chapter 2 verse 3. Let's just start in verse 1. And Joshua, the son of Nun, sent out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, go view the land, even Jericho. And they went and came into an harlot's house named Rahab and lodged there. And it was told the king of Jericho, saying, behold, there came men hither tonight. of the children of Israel to search out the country, and the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the men that are come to thee, which are entered into thine house, for they be come to search out all the country. And the woman took the two men and hid them, and said thus, There came men unto me, but I wist not whence they were. And it came to pass about the time of shutting of the gate, when it was dark, that the men went out. Whither the men went, I want not. Pursue after them quickly, for ye shall overtake them. But she had brought them up to the roof of the house, and hid them with the stalks of flax, and she had laid an order upon the roof. So she knew exactly where they were, and she lied. Now, if you go over to Hebrews 11, go ahead, go to Hebrews 11. Look who's mentioned in the Hall of Faith, they call it in the Bible. Hebrews 11 is all the faithful people, not all the faithful people, but many faithful people that God highlights. Hebrews 11 31. But by faith, the harlot Rahab perish not with them that believe not when she had received the spies with peace. She's written up in the Bible. Still calls her a harlot. I don't know why God does that, actually. I have some thoughts, but I'm not going to teach on that. But she's written up in the Bible, and her story is told. She's the only one survived out of all of Jericho and her family. And how she did it was she lied. She lied to the government, and she protected the men of God. So the common theme, if you haven't noticed, and we could go through, there's more in the Bible like that. The common theme between both those and all the situations like that, Matthew, when you get to Matthew 25 and you get to the point where Jesus is at the end of the tribulation and he's letting, who gets to come in? Who gets to come into the kingdom? Who gets to come in the millennial kingdom? Well, those who took care of my people. I gave him something to drink, I gave him a place to stay, I took care of him, and you know when you do that, when you hide a Jew during the Holocaust or when you do it during the Tribulation, you know what you're doing to government? You're lying to them. So every time in the Bible, I'm just making a point, what's the common denominator? The common denominator is that every time you're doing that, you're protecting life. You're protecting from killing somebody or someone being killed, and you say, well, it's never right to lie. Well, that's not in the Bible. We're talking about your mouth, and what you do with your mouth, and how much you say. They said to Joseph, they said to the guy who overtook them, oh, who's ever Sackett's in, let him die. Shut your mouth. You know who Sackett was in? Benjamin's. The prized child, the one that you couldn't go back. You stayed probably back for a year back there. You're about to ready to starve again, and now you got Benjamin. And guess who's, you didn't think before you spoke. And I'm just telling you there are if there's a it's a great study in the Bible on what you should say and what you shouldn't say and who you should talk to and who you should spill your guts to. And when you get high on a hog and then you just start to just rant and rave and you say things you shouldn't you can't ever take back like Jephthah and his daughter. And again, he didn't know the Bible, so it was too bad for him. But things can backfire on you real easy. You think, well, I just got to get it off my chest. It just makes me feel good. I just want everyone to know. Yeah, well, it doesn't always work out as well as you would like to think it does when you do that. But there are some things. And it's another study. Maybe we'll get into it another time. We're out of time now. It's another study on how it is that you behave. And just because you're saved, and I'm not saying, I shouldn't say it that way, because you want to do right doesn't mean that you always have to just, well, I'm an honest person. So you know what? Your hair is ugly. I'm just honest. You know, that's an ugly suit you got on there, Brother Gordon. I don't know why you, did she pick that for you? I don't know why, does she pick your clothes? I'm just honest. You know, that's a little too honest. You get that, you laugh about that, right? But you know, just because you know something about somebody, doesn't mean you should say it. Just because you feel like you can take control of situations like these brothers does, doesn't mean you should say it. Just because government comes knocking and says, hey, I heard you homeschooling your kids. Where's your kids? They might be hiding in the bedroom over there. I don't know. They're not home today. They left early this morning on their bikes. That's what I would say. Well, that's not right. That's not honest. Well, you want them to come in and take my kids away from me? I have Bible behind me. What do you have behind you? All right, I'm just telling you, you might want to know your Bible. You might want to be better than Jephthah and know what your Bible says so that you don't just slay your own children on the altar of what the government wants you to do because they, well, the government said, you know, and if I have to obey, we could go to Romans 13 and spend the next hour studying Romans 13 about obeying the powers that be, right, and what the Bible has to say about that. You have, you better know what the Bible has to say about that. All right, so anyway, again, I'm out of time.