Alright, we'll read Genesis 45, verses 1-4 to begin. It says, "...and he commanded the stewards." This is where Joseph can't take it anymore. He's heard enough from his brother, and he's just getting to the point where he recognizes, I believe, he recognizes their sincerity. He sees a lot of change of heart from when he was a boy to where they are today. So he's breaking down, and he commanded the stewards of his house, saying, fill the men's sacks with food. Oh, I'm in the wrong chapter. Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him, and he cried, cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept aloud, and the Egyptians in the house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph. Doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him, for they were troubled at his presence. And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom he sold into Egypt. Now we'll stop right there. And you can imagine if you were there, the emotion that might be overwhelming Joseph and just the scene. It had to be just all that Joseph could do to contain himself, to not reveal himself up to this point. But to make application between him and Christ, if you look on your sheet, on their first trip, Joseph was hidden from his brethren. They didn't recognize him. It was many years later. They couldn't have possibly, probably recognized much of his features or anything, but he is revealed now on their second trip. And that's important for the typology. It's just like Jesus. If you go to 1 Corinthians 2, in verse 8, I have these references on your paper. The first reference I gave you was John 14, 9. We won't go to that one, but that's where Jesus is saying, have I been so long with you and have you not known me? Even his own disciples, when he came the first time, didn't really recognize who he was. We recall the story where he was out with them in the boat, and he was asleep in the boat, and the winds and the waves, and they were crying, and he's asleep. And then he just wakes up and says, peace be still. Or I forget if that's what he said exactly, but the winds and the seas obeyed him. The disciples were like, what manner of man is this? And here they are with him, they're following him, they're disciples. So they never really did know at his first coming who he was, just like the brothers here. 1 Corinthians, I didn't get to it, I was talking, 1 Corinthians 2 verse 8. It says here, which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. So there's something about that we'll deal with here in the next couple verses, not right here, but there's something about the foreknowledge of God, too, that we'll get into today. Pastor and I were having a conversation yesterday about this, about the foreknowledge of God, and I'll hold my comments for just a minute. Had they known this, had they known who he was, they would not have crucified him. Had they known, had the brothers really known who Joseph was and what his dream were about, they would not have sold him either. And so this is just a picture of Christ. Now go over to Zechariah, because we'll be talking about the Jews today. There's a lot of typology for the Jewish nation here, but go to Zechariah. It's just before Malachi, which is the last book of your Bible. And look at chapter 12. And verse 10, the brothers are being confronted with Joseph. They don't recognize who he is. He's revealing himself to them. They didn't recognize Jesus for who he was when he first came. And he's going to reveal himself in Zachariah 1210. You get a prophecy. It says, and I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications. And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced. and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for his only son and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. There's going to be a point in time where the Lord is going to reveal himself to the children of Israel, and that's going to be often to the tribulation time. And they're going to have a chance to know that that is the one that they crucified. And it says there, it tells you, they shall look upon me whom they have pierced. So they will be recognizing that we're guilty of the blood of Jesus Christ. He actually was the Messiah, and they'll have a choice at that point what they want to do. And we'll get into more of that as we go through the lesson. But just as that, we could look at Revelation 19, 11, you got the reference, we won't turn to it. But in the future, the Jews will be face to face with the one they considered to be dead and buried, just as the brothers of Joseph are here. There was no doubt in my mind that the brothers thought, whatever happened to Joseph, he couldn't be alive. Of course, Jacob, his father, thought he was torn of beasts, thought he was dead already. But the brothers knew, you know, they knew. But still, after all this time and what he had gone through, was he still alive? And the Jewish people today, if you talk to a Jew, they're some of the most difficult people to ever witness to. You're going to have a very tough time talking to a Jewish person. Now, the Bible says go to the Jew first, right? But that's a dispensational statement. That's what happened. That's where we're going to go to the jail this weekend. And we're going to teach those gentlemen about that, where the Bible does say to the Jew first and also to the Greek. But the reason why you go to the Jew first is because the signs that come with going to the Jews were present. And that's why you had the tongues and that's why you had the healings and that's why you had the special baptism going on in Acts chapter two. and all the things that, what happened to the Jew. Now, today, and we'll get into it, I keep alluding to what we're gonna get into, we can go over and turn to it now. Go to Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11. Right now, you're gonna have a tough time. That was the best time for a Jew right there. The Jew should have recognized, based on Moses and the giving of the Sabbath day, the Sabbath day was the greatest sign ever given to the Jew. The Sabbath day was the idea that there is coming a day of rest. And if there was ever a looking forward to something, you know, your Baptist brethren and evangelicals, Christians, they'll say that, you know, the Old Testament saints were looking forward to the cross, and now we're looking backwards to the cross. Well, that's not true, and we don't wanna get into that this morning. They weren't looking forward to the cross, but what they should have been looking forward to is a day of rest. The Sabbath was given to the Jews for a sign. And that's exactly what it's for. So anybody observing the Sabbath today is observing a Jewish sign that has nothing to do with today. We can go to Colossians chapter two and we can dispel that in one verse, that there's no observing of Sabbaths anymore. But Romans 11, you get one of the seven mysteries given to Paul, given to the church, Romans 11 and verse 25. And it says, for I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery. lest ye should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. So you say, well, when is the Lord coming back? Have you figured out the date when the Lord's coming back? Well, no, I haven't. I've tried. I have some ideas. I have a couple of ideas for you. I'm not gonna give them to you now, but for sure, for sure, the Lord is coming back when the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. Now, when is the fullness of the Gentiles gonna be come in? Well, we can go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and we can see that there will be a great falling away first. As you look around, what I think you can really get a big gauge on this with is you can look around and you can see where there's a falling away of Christians. There are people that are claiming to be Christians today that aren't Christians. There are churches that are popping up everywhere that are claiming to be Christian churches that don't even remotely resemble scriptural Christian churches, and there's a great falling away. And that means to me that the times of the Gentiles are waning. That the times of the Gentiles that are spoken of here, that the Lord is waiting for to save them, to provoke His children to Israel, to jealousy, that He said in the Gospels that I have sheep that you know not of, or people of the fold that, I forget how the verse goes, that you know not of. He's talking about the Gentiles. When that all gets to the point where the Lord can't do much more with you and the Gentile world, then He's going to close this thing up and He's going to go back to working with the Jews again. And that's what He's saying there in the beginning or in the middle of the part of the verse, He was saying, you read the chapter and you get the context. You don't wanna boast of the fact that, well, hey, we're ahead now, we're God's people. We're not like that. He's just using us as a means to, for God so loved the world. that he gave his only begotten son. He didn't just die for the Jewish people, he died for the world. But that's the mystery of what's gonna, it's happening right now, that blindness apart has happened to Israel. But additionally, there will be 12,000 men from each tribe. There's 144,000 people that are gonna show up in this world one day, but they're gonna be all Jewish male virgins. Now that's something that I'm curious about. When we get to the last, if you go all the way down to the last part of your paper, if we get there today, you'll see some information there about the Jewish Bible and the Jewish Bible being not in the same order as our Bible. And one of the things that, let me spill the beans now, go to 2 Corinthians chapter 36, 2 Chronicles, what did I say? Okay, go to 2 Chronicles chapter 36. Now understand that if you talk to a Jew, they don't have any, they would even tell you there is no Old Testament, there's the Bible. They don't have a New Testament because they don't believe in a New Testament because there was no Messiah yet. And so as you talk to them, they're gonna talk about the Torah. And the Torah is not the entire Bible. It's five books of the Bible, but they're going to talk to you about the entirety of their Bible is called the Tanakh. And the Tanakh, I won't get into all the terminology of how they get to that, but the last book of their Bible, they don't have 1st and 2nd Kings, they don't have 1st and 2nd Chronicles, they have Kings, they have Chronicles. It's all one volume. And so 2nd Chronicles in our Bible is the last book of their Bible. And so you go into 2 Chronicles chapter 36, and look at the very last verse, and look what it says there. And we're talking about a lot of things right now. The times of the Gentiles being fulfilled, right? And what the Lord, the last thing the Lord told a Jew in his Bible, if he's still reading his Bible, it is 2 Chronicles 36, 23. Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given me, and he hath charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who there among you of all his people, or who is there among you of all his people, the Lord his God be upon him, and let him go up." So the last thing that the Jewish Bible tells a Jew is there's going to be a king, he's going to try to put, he's going to put a temple in Jerusalem, and you can go up. And so what's going on since 1948? You've got Jews that are going up. You've got Jews that are leaving all around the world. The Balfour Declaration came from England, it came into play, and they said, we want the Jews to have their land again. And so the Jews started coming back, migrating back freely. They weren't in fear of war because they had They had England behind them to back them up, that no one's going to come in here and destroy you. We're going to let you come back and settle in your country. And so they've been doing that since 1948. Now we can go into that deeper. I would love to right now. I don't have any more notes to get into. I don't want to get even confused myself. But Jesus was talking about this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. And I believe that's a reference to what's been happening since 1948. So you've got the idea that there's a generation that will not pass till that gets fulfilled. What fulfilled? This idea here in 2 Chronicles 36, 23, that they're going to go up and they're going to be in their land and they're going to build a temple. And of course, we're all looking for that too. When are they going to build their temple? And when they build their temple, of course, 2 Thessalonians comes into play. And the guy sits in the temple and says, that's the Antichrist. And he says, I am God. and the world, and so, but while that's going on, when that goes on, you're gonna have a bunch of Jewish male virgins, this is where I'm getting to, as they're migrating back since 48, as they're getting in there, there's a couple questions pops into my mind, I didn't intend to get into any of this this morning, but I'm on it, so, how is it, at this point in time, when you've got 2,000 years since Christ, right? And you've got the Jews saying, his blood be upon us and upon our children, and ever since that happened, they have been scattered throughout you know, the earth, right? Jews are everywhere. And you've got them over in Europe, you've got them over in South Africa, you've got them everywhere, right? And so what you've got is people coming back to the country. Now, how in the world do they know what tribe they're from? That's one of my questions. But yet, when you read Revelation, you've got 144,000 male virgins that are from every, one from each tribe. One from each one of these brothers, so go back to the story here, as they're looking at Joseph and they're being revealed for the second time, they're being face to face with their brother, he's revealing himself to them as Christ will reveal himself to them in the tribulation time. They're being revealed and they're saying all of the brothers are representative 12,000 of their children. males, virgin males, are gonna know who Christ is and they're gonna go through the tribulation and they're gonna preach the gospel. Now, I would love to have a room full of Jehovah's Witness right now, because I would love to dispel their religion, you know, just like that, that these are not, you are not part of the 144,000. You know what they say? They say, yeah, we used to say that, but, well, wait a minute, if your religion is infallible, how is it that you used to say one thing and now you say another? So you know what they say now? I taught this before, I don't know if you remember, I don't know if I remember exactly, but there is an elite group of them now that they say that, and they meet, I think, annually or so often, they meet regularly, and the echelon of the Jehovah's Witness, they're the 144,000, but you know, they're not all male virgins either. And so they got some real problems, but anyway, I need to get back here. The mystery, bottom line, is right now they don't know about Jesus Christ. They're blinded to it. I have talked to several Jewish people, and they are very difficult to talk to. And they will take you back to the Holocaust, and they'll say, if there's a God, then why the Holocaust? If there's a God, then why this? If there's a God, then why that? A lot of them are atheists. They don't even believe in God at all anymore, let alone Jesus Christ. We were door knocking back here, I told this story one time, and we were going back in this neighborhood back here, and we were going door to door, and a lady opened the door, and I was with somebody, I won't name their name, and they decided to stay silent, and I said, we're with Bible Believers Baptist Church, and we wanna give you this. And she just looked at it, and she goes, oh, you're a Christian? And I said, yeah. She goes, hard pass, boom. And she slammed the door, literally slammed the door in our face. And I never heard that phrase before, hard pass. But that's what she used. And she was a Jew. Before we got the door slammed in our face, she let me know, well, I'm a Jew, hard pass. And then she slammed the door. And that's the way they are. But they will have a chance, and they will see the Lord one day. And at that time, they'll be in Jerusalem and they'll have a chance to obey the Lord and to flee. And we'll get to that here, it's in the lesson too. But we'll get to the point where they said, was it Pharaoh who said this? Regard not your stuff. It's in the chapter 45, regard not your stuff, but get out and go get your father and then come back. And just, we got plenty here for you here. And the command will come to them in that time, don't go back into your house, regard not your stuff and get out and I will take care of you in the wilderness. I'm getting way ahead of myself. So these 12,000 who will believe in Jesus will be sealed in their foreheads during the time of Jacob's trouble. You can read that in Revelation 7, 4, and Jeremiah 37 is a reference to that phrase, the time of Jacob's trouble. But to this day, Jesus is still concealed from the Jews in large part. That's one of the mysteries we just talked about. In verse 3, Joseph announced and he said, I am Joseph. But his appearance was not as the same as they had remembered him. And the same thing we're looking at, as we go through this study in Genesis here, we're looking at all the types of Joseph and Jesus Christ. And the same thing they said to Jesus, they were troubled when he rose from the dead. To them it was his second appearing, because they knew him as a man, as a Messiah, as God in the flesh. But then he rose from the dead, he's in his new body. And they were troubled at his presence, the Bible tells you in Luke 24, 16. Paul didn't recognize Jesus either in his glorified state. He saw a bright light, remember? And he said in Acts 9, 5, he said, who art thou, Lord? He didn't recognize the voice. He didn't recognize the light. Of course, he didn't get to see. I don't think Jesus, in an image, he saw that bright light. And Jesus responds to him that I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. Joseph then says, come near to me. It's the same thing you have in Luke chapter 24, verse 36 through 40, where they were terrified at his presence. And he said, come near to me, handle me, touch me. Right. And he said, stick your hand in my side and all that. And so this is the same scene that's going on here as what is the type of Jesus Christ going on in the gospels. Look at verses five through eight now. I have to get back to Genesis. Genesis 45 verse five. It says, now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that ye sold me hither. For God did send me before you to preserve life. For these two years hath the famine been in the land, and yet there are five years in which there shall be neither earing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God. And he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and Lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. So this is where we're talking about the foreknowledge of God. The foreknowledge of God was at work in Joseph's life, and Joseph was wise enough and spiritual enough to recognize it. We might want to really dwell on that for a little while in our own lives, just looking at what we're going through at the moment. A lot of us can be in varying places of our lives. Some people in this room could be He laid it in so happy, and God just blessed you, and you're high on the mountaintop, right? And some of us in this room could be way low in the valley. And it was Brother Sluder that was here. He preached on the storm that was in the sea, and he said, you're either heading into a storm, you're in a storm, or you're coming out of a storm. And so that's the way life goes. At some point, you're going to hit a storm. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. Right, and we ought to be ready and preparing ourselves in the good times, in the good times, and even in the not so good times, we ought to take the time to get to know the Lord, to get close to the Lord, to commune with the Lord, so that when the really bad, tough times show up, and believe me, I've been there. Have you ever been in a point in your life when you just only really can't even open the Bible? I have. Like, Lord, I know you're there, And I know you want me to read and hear from you. I know you even want me to pray and I'm praying right now, but I don't want to talk to you much more than this. And I don't really feel like reading right now. And even if I do, it's just going to be academic. It's not going to be, I'm not going to look for any spiritual blessing here. I'm really not open to it. I'm just depressed. I'm just, I'm just down. I don't know why this is happening to me. I don't, I don't like this. And you know, I'm not saying that you're blaming God. I'm just saying that this flesh can overwhelm you sometimes. And it can have the cares of this world. The Bible talks about that. The cares of this world come in and they choke out the Word of God. And it's, you know, one day you're amening and you praise the Lord. Look at what I saw in the Bible. You're calling somebody and say, Hey, did you ever see this before? And the next day it's like, I don't even, you know, it's not even on my list of priorities today. In fact, nothing's on my list of priorities today. And that can happen. But Joseph, he realized, and this is what I'm saying, we ought to prepare ourselves for those times because they're coming. They'll be there. And when those times come, that is not, we never want to throw in the towel. Okay, you just decide right now, listen, if you're a parent, you don't ever have the option of throwing in the towel. You can't. You don't have the option of just saying, well, you know what? I don't want to be a father anymore. I don't want to be a mother anymore. Get, get out of my house. You just don't have that option, right? If you're a man in here and you have, and you're supplying the needs of your house financially, you don't have the option, by the way, you don't have the option to not work. You don't have the option to say, well, I'm just tired of the boss. I'm just tired of the job. You know, I'm physically worn out. I just don't care. Well, you won't eat tomorrow and don't expect anyone else to feed you. All right. You just, there are some things in life that you just don't have an option. And that's just the way it is. And I can't wait. Some of these are the reasons why I can't wait to get raptured out of here. I mean, I'm not saying I enjoy any of that. I'm just saying, God, get me out of this sin-cursed world. Bring me to heaven where everything is there, where you supply all, where it's nothing but joy and peace and love and harmony and grace and everything is wonderful. I can't wait for that. I realize that this world is not does not provide, it does not satisfy, okay? But there are some things in this world that you have to prepare for because you have to do. There are no options. And so Joseph realizes that about the Lord. He goes through all this turmoil in jail and suffering and being sold and being outcast and wondering where his father was, how come he didn't ever come looking for me? And now he's learning that he's alive. He's breaking down in front of his brothers. And he's all this culmination of things is now it's coming all to, you know, full circle. And he's thankful at this point that he never gave up on God. You know, you don't want to, you know, because you're going to see that God didn't just bless Joseph here. God blessed the brothers. The ones who sold him into slavery, the ones who said, get rid of this guy. We hate you. That's what they said. They hated him. They lied to the father for 20 plus years that he was dead and torn of beast. They let that story ride. And yet they're the ones, they're the beneficiaries, they're the ones he's saying, come on into the land. Pharaoh's even saying, I've got it all prepared for you. Can you imagine being those guys? Can you imagine what they felt versus what Joseph felt? Now they're getting the blessing and they're getting an undeserved blessing. They're getting the grace of God. But Joseph, I'm saying this from a human standpoint, Joseph is getting what he deserves. Joseph stayed faithful. So the difference between, they both got blessed, but the difference between, you know, how they were able to receive it is much different. Joseph was able to get it because he was faithful. He saw the foreknowledge of God. Now that's where I was getting to. The foreknowledge of God was at work in Joseph's life, just as it was in Jesus. Go to Acts chapter two in verse 23. We could stop and park right here and never get off this point. I'll try not to do that. But Acts 2 and 23, when we're talking about the foreknowledge of God, because it goes into so many areas. You know, God sees the end from the beginning. He already wrote the end in your Bible. So he saw it. Now that will blow your mind if you think about that. It's like a sci-fi movie. Here's God sitting out into eternity. And even though these people, these 144,000 may not have even been born yet, that we talked about. They may have, I hope they have, because that means we're closer to getting out of here. But they may not have even been born yet, but God already saw who they were and what they were going to do. That blows my mind. I don't know about you. Oh, yeah, yeah, sure. No, think about it. God sees all that happening. He sees the future. So here's God. He sees everything's going on. And so the question arises in people's mind, well, if God sees everything that's going on, well, then he must have, he could have stopped it. Well, sure, he could have stopped it. But he doesn't. But people go further. They say, well, surely he could have. Then he caused it. That's where Calvinism steps in, and that's what we call Calvinism. God never causes anything. Look at Acts chapter 2 and verse 23. It says, him being delivered by the determinate counsel. There were men there that were determined. They were falsely accusing. It was a kangaroo court, right? They were falsely accusing Christ. They kept bringing in more witnesses. Come on, somebody, somebody back up our story. Corroborate with us that he's guilty, that he should be crucified. They were determined. Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and for knowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. Now wasn't Jesus Christ as a lamb slain before the foundation of the world? So he knew that he was going to do that, right? But he didn't cause it. The determinant counsel caused it. We already read the verse, I think it was 1 Corinthians 2.8, had they known who he was, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. So you have both sides of the spectrum. Had they known, they would not have, and had they known, because they didn't know, they determined to kill him. But some of them did know, and some of them didn't know, and there's a whole discussion there, but the idea is there's the foreknowledge of God. And it's at play in Joseph's life here. He says, well, I went, all this happened, if you just go back to our text, all this happened, it was not you that sent me here, but God. God saw the future. He saw what would happen. He saw how this play out. He saw that there was a famine coming. He saw that it would escalate me into the palace. He saw that it would cause me to be second in command. He saw that it would bring about the nation of Israel. is what God sees in the future. So God takes what he sees in the future, is what I'm saying, and he uses that. And we know Romans 828, right? It's on your paper. All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. So God's going to make sure, for sure, in a Christian's life that all things work together for good. Thank you. That all things work together for good. but he never causes it. It's just the foreknowledge of God and he uses what he can in his foreknowledge. So what you're going through right now, bring it back to what we were saying, what you're going through right now, one of the little things of hope that might shine in your head today is that, well, God may be using this moment to bring about something better in my life. And if I fail him now, then the course is going to turn and it may take longer. and it may never come to pass. God's going to just have to keep working on me until, you know, or I can just say, well, this is of God. And so I'm going to allow God, God, I don't like this. I don't want to even read my Bible today. I don't even want to continue praying anymore. But here's what I'm going to tell you. If this is what you're doing, I'll sit and I'll allow it. And I'm going to just be like Joseph. And I'm going to hope that at the end you've got something for me. Now listen, the Bible even tells us if it doesn't happen in this life, don't you know that this is not your life? Don't you know that this is the worst part of your life? That this is the worst you'll ever see? You have an eternity ahead of you. That's what you're looking at. It's almost as if you have not been born yet. You are only two thirds saved. You are not fully saved yet. You haven't received that new body that's been promised you. That glorified body, that glorified mind, that glorified understanding. And once you do. then you won't even want to remember the past. You won't even look backwards at all. You'll be looking so forward. Paul's the one who said, I press toward the mark. Well, if he's pressing toward the mark, of course, that's what we all need to be doing, forgetting those things which are behind. How much more accelerated would that be when we get our new body, and we're in heaven, and we're away from this sin-cursed world, and we look back at the infestation. We were talking yesterday about cockroaches, and we have a little cockroach plastic one that we put around the house, and we scare people with it. And we put it in things so when they open a drawer, they see the cockroach. And one of us said, well, out on Nettles Island, I used to live out there, and my parents live out there. And one day, I went down, and there's these manhole covers there. And they have their own sewage system, and they have their own water system over there. And so I lift up the manhole cover, and it was like, you want to see cockroaches? You've never seen as many cockroaches in one place, and they're just like all over the place. It's like a horror movie. You don't want to be there. They'll fly up and be all over you, and you slam the lid. And you know what? To me, that was an illustration of when I get to heaven, if I get to look back, it will look like that to me. I lived there. I wanted to stay there longer. I wanted more of that. I mean, that's really, so understand when you're going through something down here, it's not always, it's not, I shouldn't say it this way, but it's not always God's fault. Most of the time, probably 99% of the time, it's not God's fault. It's God's allowance. It's his foreknowledge. He sees what you're going through. He didn't cause it. Either the devil caused it, your flesh caused it, circumstances caused it, this world caused it. All right, but anyway, I get back to the topic here. So the actions of evil men will not stop God from working all things together for good. You've got the brothers who sold him out, hated him at all the things I said, and yet what they did to him, as bad as that seemed, is never gonna stop Romans 8, 28 from happening. No matter what's going on in your life, no matter what other people are doing to you or causing you to go through or what yourself, what you cause yourself to go through, but you put it under the blood and you confessed it before God and said, I'm sorry for that. Even though the circumstances are playing out, God, I want this to work together for good and he will allow it. We have to wait. We're the ones that have to wait to get out to the other side. And if that other side ends up being when we get to heaven and we see the reward there, then so be it. That's where we will see the end result. We may not always see it in this life. So, just as a totally different note, in verse 8, Joseph says that God hath made me a father to Pharaoh. Now, I'm just going to mention that because it comes up in the text and it's an odd statement, but it's there. So, you could have one or two things in my mind. Number one, it could either be that Pharaoh was very young and Joseph was like a father to him because he was just older than him and had more wisdom than him, obviously. I think it had more to do with the fact that Joseph had more wisdom than Pharaoh. But we don't know, the Bible doesn't tell us how old Pharaoh was. So it could be that, or it could be that he was taking on the role of a worldly priest. You know, didn't we just read in the former chapter that he was, don't you know that I have the power to divine? And he didn't have the power to divine. He was not a witch. He'd never practiced witchcraft. He was just using that as a role. Now, obviously, if you go to, just go to Judges chapter 17, A father in the Bible is not a good thing, and I'm talking about religiously. Judges chapter 17. So if Joseph was playing this, understand he's in a pagan country, Egypt is a pagan country. And Egypt worship all kinds of gods. And a lot of what you read about the plagues was God using the same things they worship to be a plague unto them. You know, the frogs and the lice and all that. But in Judges 17, 10, you've got, I believe it is, the first mention of this idea of a religious father, and you've got, let's see, I'm in Joshua, so that ain't gonna work for me. Judges, what'd I say, what's the verse? I had 10, 17. I know. Judges 17, 10, and Micah said unto him, dwell with me and be a father and a priest. And I will give thee 10 shekels of silver by the year and a suit of apparel and vittles, and thy vittles, so the Levite went in. And so what's happening here is you've got this independent Levite and this guy comes along, Micah, and he says, I want to pay you to be a father to me. And so basically this is, and we could get into Roman Catholicism, and we have in the past, and the Bible speaks a lot about Roman Catholicism. They have a lot of their pagan roots are listed for you in the Bible, and that's one of them. And Jesus is the one who said, I gave you the reference on your paper too, because now I lost my place in my sheet here. But didn't I give you the reference? Yeah, Matthew 23, and I don't have to turn to it. That's where Jesus said, call no man your father. Why did he say that? Well, I mean, you know, he talked about David being his father. Right. And Joseph was his father, of course, in the worldly sense. And there's nothing wrong with being called a father. But the idea is that you don't want to be. And so all I'm saying is we don't want to get into all that. All I'm saying is that Joseph could have been playing the role of a father. I'm like a father to Pharaoh. Well, maybe like I'm like his priest. that he comes to me now for the religious advice and even the idea of divining and things like that may have been at work already, but obviously Joseph is always going to give godly advice and good advice. So let's get back to our text, chapter 45 and verse 9 through 15. Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt. Come down unto me, tarry not. And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou and thy children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast. And there will I nourish thee, for yet there are five years of famine, lest thou and thy household and all that thou hast come to poverty. And behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you. And ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen. And ye shall haste, and bring down my father hither. And he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck, and wept. And Benjamin wept upon his neck. Moreover, he kissed all his brethren, and wept upon them. And after that, his brethren talked with him." So this is a wonderful picture. I'm just going to use this section here to show you it's a wonderful picture of the conversion of a sinner into the family of God. He's laying out for them what he wants them to do. Go back to my father and all these things that he's gonna do for them. And so because of the death and burial and resurrection of Jesus, the revelation basically of Jesus, now the command to the whole world for this time is be reconciled to God. That's 2 Corinthians 5.20 and Romans 8.21. And we're asking people to be reconciled to their creator. We're not religious, by the way. I hope you don't ever think of yourself as religious. You are an ambassador for the creator. You're an ambassador for Jesus Christ. It's far beyond religion. You know the one who made all things. You know the one that the business world is out there writing books about the universe and about karma and all the principles, the laws of nature and all the things that they use to try and get wealth, to try and build lives in this world. You know the one they're really talking about. And that's our job is to go to reveal him to them, to that lost world and say, hey, do you want to know who made you? Do you want to know why you're here? And we're ambassadors for that. We're asking people, be reconciled to him because right now your back is turned to him. Right now, you're going this way and God wants you to go this way. And so that's the idea of reconciliation. And so that's what's going on. He wants to be reconciled. Joseph wants to be a family reunion. He wants reconciliation. He wants his father to come. And so the invitation is limited until the times of the fullness of the Gentiles become. And we looked at that. The invitation to be reconciled to God is limited. We are at the tail end of that. Of all people in the history, I think as time goes on, I think this is how God works, that there's, maybe you could use the term progressive revelation. All right. I think today in 2023, we know more about the Bible than the people even knew in 1611. And I believe we definitely knew more, know more about the Bible today than they did prior to that, when the Bible was in fragments and it was all over the place and they only had pieces of it. All right, and so we have full revelation. And even with the full revelation, the Bible says, in the last days, knowledge shall increase. I think Zechariah is where you read that. Knowledge shall increase. And so, as you get closer to the time of the end, you're gonna get more understanding, right? And so, we are getting so close to the time of the end, of all people in history, is what I'm saying, we have the greatest obligation to win people to Christ. And we may have the hardest time because there's that great falling away we talked about. And Jesus said, when I come, shall I find faith on the earth? But we have the greatest obligation to do it. All right, and so it's just a picture of all this. And you have until the times of the Gentiles we come in to do it. That's the one thing we really have to do, by the way. What other thing do you have to do? Now I'm preaching to myself now. What else do you have to do? Well, I've got to repair the house. I've got to finish my education. I've got to work my way up the corporate ladder. I've got to put away for my retirement. Everything that we say we've got to do, think about is it this way or is it this way? Do we've got to do anything for God? No, I got, I've got this to do and this to do it boy by this weekend and I've got a deadline and I, if I don't finish this by that time and, and, and all the things we talked that we've got to do, it's all down here as if this world is going to go on forever as this, this is where we're laying up our treasures. And so we ought to think, just think about it. The one greatest responsibility we have to do, the one reason we're left here for is to lay up treasures for ourselves in heaven and to please the Lord. And what pleases the Lord? Well, he died for the world. And he commands us, he said, be reconciled. So how are they going to hear Romans 10 without a preacher? Say, well, they'll hear, well, are you a Calvinist for real? They won't hear without a preacher, the Bible says. Well, they've got creation, and they've got nature, and they've got a conscious. Yeah, I know all that. I know, I even say that. But the Bible puts it on me that I'm supposed to tell them. Philip told the eunuch, do you understand what you read? How can I, he said, except some man guide me. Well, who's gonna guide him if it isn't the Christian with all the knowledge? Right, the one who knows, I know so much of the Bible. Well, good for you. What are you doing with that? Well, I need to know Christ. Yeah, he wants you to know him, and I wanna know him, and he wants you to know him, but others need to know him. So I'm just doing a little preaching on that. So we have until the time the Gentiles come in, we have until the appointment of one's death. That's when we, it's appointed when a man wants to die, but after this, the judgment. So when we die, it's over, right? There's no more chance. So we must not tarry or fall out by the way, which is what Joseph told his brothers. Don't fall out by the way. Listen, I've given you the gospel commission. Don't fall out by the way. I told you what to tell my father. The words of Joseph are equated here to the words of God. It's like giving him the scripture. I've given you the words, you tell my father all the words that I'm telling you, and don't you fall out by the way. And so what we do is we come to church and we're like, you know what, I've decided I am going to do what the preacher said. I like what I heard today. I'm inspired. You know, God convicted me. That spoke to me. I really know that that's the right thing to do. And we get out of here like I do every Sunday and I get in my car and I go to the restaurant, whichever restaurant, and I sit there and the next thing you know, the world is upon me. and everything that I, just not even within an hour's time. Just when I get there and just, I'm hungry, where's the waitress? I've been here too long. I'm supposed to be taking a nap. I've got choir practice, by the way, today. We've got choir practice at five o'clock, and boy, I'm gonna be tired, and those people are gonna be late like they always are, and they're gonna. And, but, you know, and the world just starts to become, and your mind just starts to go. And Joseph said, don't fall out, by the way. Don't fall out by the way, don't let that happen to you. So afterward the believer awaits the return of Christ, that's what we're doing now, while he dwells in Egypt, or the world, and remains in the care of the Lord. We already talked about all that, we just remain in the care of the Lord while we're here. You know, that's really what we're doing. We're here. We're ambassadors. We're pilgrims. We're strangers. We're foreigners. We don't belong here anymore. If you're a Christian, you might have found out by now, you just don't fit in anymore. You don't fit in at the job. You don't fit in with the friends. You don't fit in with the entertainment. You don't fit in with most Christians, by the way. I mean, you just don't fit in because you're an outcast now. You've got revelation, and this world doesn't want to hear it. They don't want to hear your message of be reconciled. You're going to have to fight against that, but you just won't fit in. But you're in the care of the Lord. Don't ever forget that. You're dwelling in Egypt. That's where these brothers are going to end up. They're going to come into Egypt, and they're going to dwell there, because that's where the food is. And for some odd reason, the Lord is, I'm still alive. I literally ask the Lord every day. Do you? I ask the Lord every day, why am I still here? I'd like to be one of those Christians that gets saved and just gets raptured immediately. Why am I still here? Because I don't like it here. Say, what's wrong with you, John? I'm not going to tell you what's wrong with me. But I'm going to tell you, I don't like it here. I don't like what I see every day. I don't like this world. I don't like what it does to me. And I don't know what, you know, and they don't want to hear my message. So, Lord, why am I still here? But while I'm here, I have to always remind myself, I'm in your care. All right, if I'm here, it's because you made me. This is one thing God, I'm a Calvinist on. You made me be here today. You're keeping this heart beating and you're keeping these lungs breathing and you're keeping this mind going, so you're making me here. So as long as I'm here, Lord, then you better help me out. And so anyway, we're in the care of Lord. He can confidently place his trust in this because his eyes have seen the plain words on the matter. Now, you know, 1 Peter 1.23 is one that I really like, so I want you to look at it. 1 Peter 1.23. They had the words of Joseph. They had the instruction to go tell my father. And he trusted that if you tell these exact words to my father, he will listen and he will come, and he did. They did what he admonished them to do. And we have those same surety, 1 Peter 1.23, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. We have the word of God on the matter. All right, we know that we're born again. We know that we're on the right track. We know that we're not being deceived by some religion or some, you know, just of our own thinking. We have the words of God to back us up. Pastor Noe, my former pastor, used to say this. He said, do you all have a birth certificate? And we would say, yeah, we have a birth certificate. And he'd say, well, where's your birth certificate for being saved? And he said, this is your birth certificate. You, anytime you doubt that you're saved, anytime that you doubt what you're really doing, if God is really, you open up the Bible and you read it one more time, and you remind yourself, because we constantly need that, and you say, I have the word of God on it. That's where you place your faith and your trust. Then verse 15 says, his brethren talked with him. And so, that's an interesting thing in there, that, well, now they just sit and talk. You know what they're doing? They're catching up. They're having fellowship. And so fellowship with the Lord is made possible through the restoration of the believer's spirit, and he has direct access. Now, I won't get into that because I'm looking at the clock and I don't have time. I'd rather go on in the sheet. But 1 Corinthians 6, 17 tells you what happens to your spirit when you get saved. Your spirit, it becomes one with God's spirit. You know, back in the garden, back in the beginning of Genesis, we read about Adam. Adam ate the fruit and he died, right? And we all know he died spiritually. And so spiritually, we're born dead. And so we need restoration. God does not communicate with the lost world. He doesn't give them revelation. He doesn't give them understanding of things. He doesn't give them spiritual truths, I should say, according to Corinthians. He doesn't do that. But he does give that to the born-again believer. Why? Because your spirit now is joined with the Spirit of God. Your spirit has been born again. And your spirit now can communicate like it was intended to always do with God. And so we need to do what his brethren did with Joseph. We need to sit and we need to talk to him. and that's called prayer. You say, well, how do I pray? Well, you talk to God. You don't say, well, I'm no good at prayer. How can you not be good at prayer? I've heard you talk. You don't get good at prayer, you understand? I think churches do a disservice to prayer when they say, Brother Gordon, would you please stand up and pray for us? Now, I've asked him to pray for us many times. But he'll stand up, and you listen to Brother Gordon pray. He's just talking. If I ask Brother Anthony, I ask any of you men to pray, you're just going to be, it's just going to be like talking. But you know, I've heard some men, you know, I've been at places where some men get up, dear God. And they go on and on with, you know, all these 10 syllable words and they go on and on with all these things and they recite poems and they, you know, scripture, nothing wrong with writing scripture verses or anything to God like that. But you know, you're just talking to God. And that's what they did here. You're talking to God. And you know what? Don't be irreverent with God, but tell him what you're thinking. God, I don't understand this. I just told you what I pray every day. Lord, why am I still here? I'm not trying to say that irreverently or blasphemously, if that's a word. I'm just being real with God. I'm talking to God. And you want God to answer you, right? And so that's what they're doing. They're talking with God, having fellowship with God. You have that ability. There's only one mediator between you and God, and that's Jesus Christ. You have direct access. That's what he's sitting there waiting for. And so we ought to do it. Verse 16 through 20, And the fame thereof was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, Joseph's brethren are come. And it pleased Pharaoh well and his servants. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Say unto thy brethren, This do ye, laid your beasts, and go, get you... Now this is Pharaoh talking. Get you unto the land of Canaan, and take your father and your households, and come unto me, and I will give you the good of the land, and ye shall eat the fat of the land. now thou art commanded this do ye take you take you wagons out of the land of Egypt they get new wagons for your little ones and for your wives and for your father and come also regard not your stuff for the good of the land is of Egypt is yours all the good of the land is yours so Pharaoh was pleased with the reunion Luke 15 we won't turn to it but Luke 15 is the reunion between the prodigal son and the father And so it's like that. When we come to Christ, when we're a sinner, we come to Christ. It's like, you know, we're being reconciled. We're getting that thing right. We're coming into fellowship. God will receive everyone who does that. And so he was pleased with it. In this case, Pharaoh is a type of God. And Egypt is a type of heaven. You get to come to heaven. You get to come where all the provisions are. And that's why I want to go. This world doesn't have all the provisions for me. I found this world, I've tried this world and weighed it in the balance and I found it wanting. Haven't you? Haven't you found this world wanting? I mean, there's nothing that will ever, you can just sit and think, what's the next thing? He preached it on Thursday, I liked it. Then there's the next thing, and the next thing, and the next thing, because nothing is going to be, there's always going to be a next thing. because this flesh is never going to be satisfied. But I can't wait to get to a place where I'm completely satisfied. Like I'm eternally satisfied. I don't want any more. This just keeps coming. It's just, it's all there. I mean that to me, that's, that's where you want to be dwelling. That's where you want your thoughts to be. That's when the Bible says, think on these things. That's where your mind needs to be to keep saying, I'll tell you what, I'm this far from insanity sometimes. and breaking down, and you'll never see John Albrecht again. He'll just be gone. Where's John? I don't know he's gone. Don't try to call me, because I won't have that either. But I'm just saying, I come this close. And the only thing that keeps you, sometimes the only thing that keeps you sane is right here. Amen. Is knowing the reality of things. This world, as you look around, is not real. Amen. It's not. Oh, this is real. I feel it. It's real. It's not real. It's real in the sense that it is here, but it's gonna be gone. It's gonna be burned up, taken away. It has to be recreated, don't you understand? It's a mess. It's a big jumbled mess. And the God of this world has made it that way. There is never gonna be right. And for us to think that we could ever get satisfied, I know I'm on that theme this morning, but for us to think we ever get satisfied in this world, So Pharaoh says he's a type of God and he's in Egypt's type of heaven. He says, come bring everybody here. So he has this invitation and notice the wording. I bolded it for you on your sheet. Come unto me in verse 18 verse 19 and commanded to take the wagons and get your wives and bring your father and come. So this is not unlike the last invitation in the Bible and in the last chapter of the Bible where the spirit and the bride say, come. The last thing that happens here, we looked at the last statement in the Jewish Bible, right? And that was to come up, to go up and get, and that's what's been going on since 1948. They're going up into their land. Prophecy is being fulfilled right before your eyes. The Bible is playing out before our eyes to look at this world and want anything more from this world. When the Bible is actually playing out in front of you, you have to deny that, uh, and be willingly ignorant of what the Bible is saying to go on in this world and find peace and satisfaction here. You'll never find it. look towards the things of God. So he's saying, come. So the Bible says, come. He's the type of God. It's a type of what Pharaoh was saying to the people left back in the land of Canaan, come to Egypt. Come to, in this case, it would be like going to heaven. The last admonition he gave was to regard not your stuff, for the good of the land of Egypt is yours. Now that's what we've been saying. Why do we regard our stuff? You know, there's the picture, it's a comic, and you've got somebody, I think Dr. Ruckman is the one who drew it, and you've got the rapture taking place. And some people are like, you know, head first, hands first, let's go. You know, Superman, I'm flying out of here. Some people are feet first, and they're holding on to their stuff. And it's like trying to be sucked up from a vacuum cleaner, you know, like in a cartoon, and you're holding on, hoping to not get sucked up. Why would you be like that? You know, if we're like that, if we're thinking, I just want one more day, Lord, I just want one, I want this, or I want this, and I can't, don't come back yet, please, don't come back yet. And some of it's good stuff, you know, because I want to get married, because I want to have this baby. I want to see them grow up. I want to, you know, this thing I've worked all my life for, I want to see it happen. Forget it. Just forget it. It's going to be so much better. Paul said that it won't compare. He used the phrase far better. It's going to be far better. Don't hold on. So when we're down here, then why hold on at all? Pharaoh heard, maybe he heard what Joseph said, you know, or he didn't hear him because this is prior to what Joseph said, but you know, Joseph said, don't fall out by the way. And so here comes Pharaoh, a type of God in this case, and says, and don't regard your stuff. Well, you know, we had such good things back in Canaan and you know, yeah, but all the food is here. I know, but you know, we had our houses set up, and I had my tent laid out just like I like it, and you know, I planted that garden over there, and I had my amp. Don't regard your stuff. It's gonna go to waste. It's gonna burn. It's gonna all be gone. Don't regard your, we have everything. Listen, I have that and more here. Here, I'll even give you the wagons. I'll give you food for the way. I'll even give you money for the way. Just so you know that I have more of that up here. I'm just giving you a little bit now to get you through while you're down there. But you're gonna have to go through this, now I'm gonna steal a phrase from my son-in-law, you're gonna have to go through this journey. Some of you are laughing, because you know what I mean, but anyway, he's smiling, so that's all that matters. You're gonna have to go on this little journey, and you're gonna have to go back and get your dad, because you're left here for a purpose. You're an ambassador now for me. You tell my dad all the words that I gave you. and you get him back here, and don't fall out by the way, and don't regard any of your stuff, you have one mission, keep your eyes single, is what Jesus said. If your eye be single, your whole body will be full of light. That's what he said. What does that mean? Well, it means if your eye is single on one objective in this world, that you're only living for one thing, and that is the Lord, and what he has you here to do, not what you have you here to do, but what he has you here to do, then guess what? Your whole body will be just full of light. And you'll see the bigger picture. You'll see the purpose. You'll see what you didn't see when your eyes were over here and your eyes were over here. And they weren't single. They were like a double-minded man, unstable in all of his ways. So he says, don't regard your stuff. So Pharaoh had enough wisdom to know that people often make poor decisions based on their stuff. You know, I know when I get to heaven someday, I'm going to be the biggest fool. Because I'm gonna look back and I'm gonna say, oh my God. And I mean that reverently. I did, I made such a poor decision because of my stuff. Because of what I was hoping to accomplish. Because of what I was intending to do. And what my plans were. And what I thought was important. And what I needed to do. And here I am in heaven, I got no chance to get anything back now. I can't lay up any more treasures in heaven anymore. And here I am, and I'm such a fool. And you know that prodigal son, that great reunion, and they slayed the kid, and they gave him back his robe, put a ring on his finger, and all that stuff, right? But you know that he must have been thinking, what a fool am I? Look at my brother. My brother has everything. I squandered everything. I got the ring on my finger, and I got the coat, and I'm here. But the Bible says in Corinthians that you suffer loss. So, Pharaoh's giving them really good wisdom here. The Bible repeatedly warns Christians to do the same thing. We won't go into these verses, but they're there for you. One of them talks about being not entangled with the world. I remember as clear as day, Brother Angus sat the first time I met him. We were in the other building down there. And he was living, he was literally living in a truck. You know, he lives in a Class A motorhome now. He stepped up in life. And really, that's a nice motorhome. I've been in it. But he was living in a truck. I mean, a truck. A van. But it was like, it was a truck. Thanks for the water, by the way. I haven't used it yet. And so he was teaching a men's morning breakfast over there, and we were over there, and it was the first time I ever heard him speak. And he was saying that, he was talking about this verse, be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage and with the affairs of this life. If you're chosen to be a good soldier, you're not being entangled with the affairs of this life. And you know, in the Bible, and again, Jesus talked about the sower and the seed, and what happens is some seed falls among the thorns, which represents the cares of this world, and the riches of this world, and the lust of other things, is how it puts it. The lust of other things. And it's so easy to do. It's just so easy for us to do. And those things, what comes in, and the thorns come in, if you have a garden, if you have any kind of garden at home, or just anything ornamental, those weeds come in and what do they do? It just chokes it out. The good that you were trying to produce, the weeds that you let into your life, they just come in and they just choke it right out. And so there's plenty of admonition in the Bible of that. But of course, to make a future application, and we'll stop right here, this will never be more necessary than in the time of Jacob's trouble. We alluded to this earlier. Go to Matthew 24. Matthew 24. We started off the lesson talking about this. Matthew 24, verse 15. It says, but when ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, that's where we began the lesson, right? Come up to Jerusalem, and that's what they've been doing since 48. Stand in the holy place, whoso readeth, let him understand. I think you understand, you're the ones who read and understand. Then let him which be in Judea, and of course they will too, let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains. Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house, neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And it goes on from there. Don't get your stuff. Because if you get your stuff, you're going to be caught. and you're gonna be in the hands of the Antichrist. You just better, as soon as you see that abomination of desolation, as soon as you see it, there is no time to waste. You get and you flee to the mountains and you say, well, what about my stuff, Lord? If I don't have my stuff, how will I ever make it? He's gonna make sure they make it. He's gonna make sure, like in the wilderness, they had manna to eat from heaven, their shoes never wore out, their clothes never wore out. He's gonna make sure, and if he can do that for them, and he told you not to regard your stuff, Hey, maybe he can take care of us. You know, Philippians tells us that he will care for us. Peter tells us he'll care for us. And so we don't have to worry about it. All right, we're going to have to stop there for sake of time.