Part 45
the first–and so it shall be to the end. He cannot alter! He cannot
deny Himself!
So let us sweep the furrows from our brow and wipe the tears
from our eyes! Jesus goes before us and the Spirit is with us. All
things shall not be against us, but in them all shall be the life of our
spirit, and our lasting good shall be the outgrowth of all.
III. I close with my third text, and I think you may almost guess
it, it tells of THE TRIUMPH OF FAITH. Turn now to the 8 th
verse. "In all these things we are more than conquerors through
Him that lovedus." "All these things are against us." Very well, we
could not conquer them if they were not against us–but they are the
life of our spirit–and as Samson found honey in the lion, so we,
though these things roar upon us, shall find food within them!
Trials threaten our death, but they promote our life. I want you to
be sure to notice the uniform expression, "All these things are
against us." "In all these things is the life of my spirit," and now,
"in all these things we are more than conquerors." The list is just as
comprehensive in the best text as in the worst. No, poor Jacob's,
"All these things" only referred to three. But look at Paul's list:
tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword–
the list is longer, darker, blacker, fiercer, sterner–but still we
triumph, "In all these things we are more than conquerors."
Observe, then, that the believing Christian enjoys present triumph
over all his troubles. It is not, "We shall be more than conquerors,"
but, "We are." "We are today." As afflictions come we conquer
them and before they come we overcome them. Over anticipated
trouble, Faith wins a glorious victory. She believes that when trial
comes it shall work her good, and so the bitterness thereof is gone
forever, swallowed up in victory. When the trial comes she meets it
as a conquered enemy, and after it is over she looks upon it as what
she did foreknow, for she counted it not a strange thing when the
fiery trial overtook her.
We are conquerors, Brothers and Sisters, at this very hour! We
often talk of the crown which we are to wear, but we are kings and
priests unto our God even now! He has crowned us with loving
kindness and tender mercies. We say, "One day, thank God, I shall
be able to rejoice in these troubles," but Faith rejoices in them now.
We rejoice in deep distress, leaning on all-sufficient Grace. To
come out of the furnace and walk calmly is nothing. To walk in the
furnace with the Son of God–this is the miracle! To sing after you
have left the bed of pain is nothing. To sing God's highest praises
on the bed of sickness is the music that glorifies Him–and by faith
we mean to excel in it!
It is no small thing to see the dearest one you have on earth struck
before you, and yet to bless the Lord. And when adversity comes,
still to praise Him. And when sickness follows, still to let the note
rise higher. And when death draws near, to lift the song yet more
high, and be more exultant, still. "Though He slay me, yet will I
trust in Him." I tell you, the praise God receives from His poor
bereaved or sick children is much sweeter than anything which
ascends from angels, from cherubim and seraphim! Who would not
praise the Master when He scatters, liberally, His daily favors? The
devil found an opportunity for speaking against Job from that very
thing. He said, "Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not set a
hedge about him and all that he has? But put forth, now, Your hand
and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse You to Your
face."
And God is so pleased with the praise He gets from His children
when their bone and flesh are touched, that He said, "He is in your
hand, only save his life." What glorious music it was when Job
said, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him"! It rolled up into
Jehovah's ear with a sweetness such as cherubim and seraphim
never could have yielded. What a glorious conqueror Job was in the
very midst of his worst griefs! It was not that he received twice as
much as before–that was not the greatest triumph. The triumph was
that while in adversity he said, "The Lord gave and the Lord has
taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord." May we have such
faith as that, to be now, "in all these things more than conquerors."
What does Paul mean by saying that Believers are more than
conquerors? Is it not this, that with the conqueror there is a time
when his triumph is in jeopardy? But it is never so with the
Believer! He grasps the victory at once by an act of faith. No "ifs,"
"buts," "perhaps," for him! He is conqueror at once, for God is on
his side. A conqueror, too, who wins by a battle and suffers by the
battle. He has to endure wounds, and toil, and faintness–but by all
our troubles we are not sufferers but gainers. It is not merely the
reward of the suffering which is good, but the suffering, itself,
works patience, and patience experience. Brothers and Sisters, if a
wise Christian had his choice, he would not choose the silken joys
of prosperity and uninterrupted happiness because such a thing is
poverty. Our sufferings and griefs, and losses, and crosses bring
with them inevitably, through Divine Grace, an abundant wealth!
I hear some Brethren rejoicing that perhaps the Lord will come,
and therefore they will not die. I would sooner die, had I my
choice. I see no comfort in the hope of not dying. "They that are
alive and remain shall not prevent them that are asleep." They shall
not have preference over them that die. And, indeed, it is written,
"The dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and
remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet
the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord." So that
some kind of priority is even allotted to the dead in Christ. If I die
not I shall have lost what thousands will have who die, namely,
actual fellowship with Christ in the grave.
Let me have it, let me have it, my sweet Lord! Let me wear the
clay-cold shape of death that once was Yours and sleep within the
sepulcher as You did! To die and rise again, and be with You
forever is to complete the circle of the perfect! Those who think
that to be alive when He comes will be so great a glory, will
perhaps find it no such great thing compared with death and
resurrection in the likeness of the Lord Jesus. As the warrior of the
olden time dreaded peace and longed for the garment rolled in
blood, so may the Believers rejoice in afflictions. As before the
engagement the captain stimulates his soldiers by reminding them
that, "the sterner the warfare the greater the honor," even so may
we nerve our spirits.
"Gentlemen in England now in bed will think themselves
accursed that they were not here, and hold their valor cheap that
went not with us on this glorious day"–so spoke the hero–and so let
us, also, welcome persecution and tribulation! We should hold
ourselves defrauded of honor if we avoided tribulation! We should
look upon ourselves as being so far impoverished for eternity in
being spared affliction upon earth–up yonder to relate the triumphs
of Divine Grace in us–to tell of the faithfulness of God in poverty
and affliction. To make known to principalities and powers forever
the wonderful and eternal love of God as we have discovered it in
the furnace and amidst the flames! This will be everlasting wealth
for which we may be grateful, now, that God is putting us in the
way of gaining it. So that in these things we are more than
conquerors, since to the conqueror it is a disadvantage to fight, but
to us, even the fight itself is an advantage over and above the
victory.
But see how this last text of mine opens up the great source of
comfort. "We are more than conquerors through Him that loved
us." Did you notice Jacob said nothing about Him that loved us?
No, he could not have been unbelieving if he had thought of Him.
And the life of our spirit in trouble very much lies in remembering
Him that loved us. It is through Him we conquer because He has
conquered! I think I see Him at this instant wearing the crown of
thorns, His hands still ruby with the marks of the nails and His
heart all opened with the spear. And He says to me and to His
servants, "Children, I am with you. You are filling up in your
bodies that which is behind of My sufferings for My body's sake,
which is the Church. Be conformed to Me. Ask patience, and I will
give it to you. Ask the Spirit's help and you shall receive it. And
after you have suffered awhile you shall be with Me where I am, to
behold My Glory."
Brethren, here is our joy, indeed! Now the furnace grows cool, for
He is at our side. The lake of trouble tossed with tempest becomes
a sheet of glass, for He walks the billows, and we hear Him say, "It
is I." The winds are hushed, and the coolest, softest zephyrs fan our
cheeks while yet, again, He says, "Let not your heart be troubled:
you believe in God, believe also in Me." "Peace I leave with you,
My peace I give unto you: not as the world gives, give I unto you."
"In the world you shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I
have overcome the world." The Lord bless you, my tried Brethren,
in all these things, for His name's sake. Amen.
Ge 45:1-5 • Jesus and His Brethren
ERMON 2516
Jesus And His Brethren
"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 and the
house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am
Joseph; does 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 you sold into Egypt.
Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you
sold me here: for God did send me before you to preserve life."
Genesis 45:1-5
I NEED not say to you, Beloved, who are conversant with
Scripture, that there is scarcely any personal type in the Old
Testament which is more clearly and fully a portrait of our Lord
Jesus Christ than is the type of Joseph. You may run the parallel
between Joseph and Jesus in very many directions, yet you need
never strain the narrative so even much as once. I am not about to
attempt that task on the present occasion, but I am going to take
this memorable portion of the biography of Joseph and show you
how, in making himself known to his brethren, he was a type of our
Lord revealing himself to us.
It seems that, at last, Joseph could bear the suspense no longer.
He knew who his brethren were, he knew which was Benjamin and
which was Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah and the rest, and he
remembered all the story of their early days together. But they did
not know him. They thought him some mysterious potentate, some
great ruler of the land of Egypt–as indeed he was–but they did not
know so much about him as he knew about them. Consequently,
there was a distance between him and them and his loving heart
ached to bridge that gulf by manifesting himself to them. It is the
way of love to desire to make itself known.
Now, in a still higher sense, the Lord Jesus Christ knows all about
those in this place whom He has redeemed with His precious
blood. The Father gave them to Him from before the foundation of
the world and He took them into Covenant relationship with
Himself before the earth was. Often has He thought of these as His
beloved ones. His delights have been with the sons of men and He
has looked forward and foreseen all that would happen to them.
Ever since these redeemed and chosen ones have been born into the
world, He has watched them so carefully that He has counted the
very hairs on their heads! They are so precious to Him, as the
purchase of His heart's blood, that they have never taken a single
wandering step that His eyes have tracked the mazes of their lives.
He knows them altogether–knows their sins, knows their sorrows,
knows their ignorance of Him, knows how, sometimes, that
ignorance has been willful and they have continued in the dark
when they might have walked in the Light of God–and now, at this
moment, speaking after the manner of men, the heart of Christ
aches to manifest Himself to some of them! He wants to be known.
He thirsts to be known. He can only be loved as He is known and
He pines for love and so He pines to manifest Himself to His loved
ones!
Yes, and there are some of them who know Him already, in a
measure, but their measure is a very little one. It is but as a drop
compared with the great deep sea. I have been praying and am still
praying, and I am not alone in the prayer, that this very hour the
Lord Jesus may be pleased to manifest Himself to His own blood-
bought ones! To all who have been already called by His Grace and
to many not yet called to Him, may He come in the fullness of His
own glorious revelation and make Himself known! For know you
not this–that the revelation of Christ in the Word will not save you
unless Christ is revealed in you and to you personally? No, more
than that–the Christ born at Bethlehem will not saveyou unless that
Christ is formed in you the hope of Glory–He must Himself come
to you and make Himself known to you. It will not suffice you to
read about His healing the sick. He must touch you with His hand
or you must touch the hem of His garment with your hand.
Somehow there must be personal contract between yourself and the
Lord JesusChrist, or else all that He did will mean nothing to you.
Let this be our prayer now–that to each man and woman and child
here the Lord may graciously make Himself known.
Notice, first, that THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, LIKE JOSEPH,
REVEALS HIMSELF IN PRIVATE FOR THE MOST PART.
Joseph cried, "Cause every man to go out from me. And there
stood no man with him while Joseph made himself known unto his
brethren." It would not have been seemly for this great ruler to lose
all command of himself in the presence of the Egyptians. His heart
was carried away with love to his brothers and the cry that he lifted
up was so loud that the people in other parts of the palace could
hear that something strange was going on! But he could not bear
that they should all stand around and gaze with curious eyes upon
their ruler as he revealed himself to his brothers. They would not
have understood it. They might have misrepresented it. At any rate,
he could not bear that the scene of affection which was now to be
enacted should be witnessed by strangers, so he cried, "Cause
every man to go out from me."
My dear Friends, do you really want to see and know the Lord
Jesus Christ savingly? Have you ever beheld Him by the eye of
faith? Then, permit be to exhort you to be literally much alone–
searching the Scriptures–and much alone in private, secret prayer.
That gracious revelation of Himself to you as bearing your sins and
putting away your guilt, will nor be likely to come to you until you
get a little time in private, where you can quietly meditate upon
your Lord and His great atoning work. The mischief of this busy
London is that we are fretted and worn with incessant occupations–
we would, all of us, be much stronger and better if we saw less of
the faces of men and more of the face of God. But for a penitent
sinner who desires to behold his pardon written in the smiling
Countenance of Christ, there must be solitude. You must rise earlier
in the morning and get a half-hour to yourself, then, or you must sit
up later at night, or you must steal out of bed at the dead of night,
or you must even resolve that you will not go to your business until
the first business of finding Christ is ended once and for all! I feel
persuaded that with some of you, at least, there will be no peace to
your heart and no comfortable sight of Christ until you have gone
upstairs and said, "Here, alone, with every man put out and every
wandering thought excluded, will I bow the knee and cry, and look,
and hope, and believe until I can say, 'I have seen the Lord! I have
looked to Him whom I have pierced and I have seen my sin put
away by His death upon the Cross.'"
Further, I want you to notice not only the excellence of solitude in
general, but the benefit of a kind of mental solitude. Brothers and
Sisters, if in the House of God, in the midst of the assembly, the
Lord Jesus Christ is ever to manifest Himself personally to us, it
must be in a kind of mental and spiritual solitude. I believe that the
preacher will never succeed in winning a soul if he tries to make
himself prominent in his own preaching. An old man who was
accustomed to catching trout in a certain stream, was asked by one
who had been fishing in vain, "Have you caught any fish today?"
"Yes, Sir," he said, "I have a little basketful." "Oh," said the other,
"I have been fishing all day long and I have taken none." "No,"
said the man, "but there are three rules about catching trout, which,
perhaps, you have not observed. The first is–Get quite out of sight.
And the second is–Get still more out of sight. And the third is–Get
still more out of sight than that–and you will catch them."
And I believe that it is just so in preaching. If the preacher can get
quite out of sight, still more out of sight and yet still more out of
sight, then he will be the means of bringing souls to Christ. And
you, dear Friends, will only see Him well in any kind of preaching
when you try to forget the man. I mean that remark to apply in two
ways. Perhaps thepreacher is one whom you dearly love and you
expect much from him. Well then, forget him! Expect nothing from
himand look away from him to your Lord! Or, perhaps, the
preacher's voice has no particular charm for you. The man is not
very bright in his utterances. Well, forget him and try to see his
Master! Forget the preacher for good and for bad, for better and for
worse–and get to the Lord, Himself.
There is a story told of Mr. Erskine having preached on one
occasion before the communion and a good woman, a child of God,
heard him with such delight and was so much fed and satisfied, that
she left her own pastor and went some miles on the next Lord's
Day to go and hear Mr. Erskine again. That morning he was
dreadfully dry and barren, or at least she thought that he was. There
was no food for her whatever and, being not a very wise woman,
she went in to tellhim so. She said, "Oh, Mr. Erskine, I heard you at
the communion with such delight! You seemed to take me to the
very gates of Heaven and I was fed with the finest of the wheat. So
I have come this morning on purpose to hear you and I confess that
I have got nothing out of you!" So he said, "My good woman, what
did you go for last Lord's Day?" "I went to the communion, Sir."
"Yes, you went to the communion. That was to have communion
with the Lord?" "Yes," she said, "I did." "Well," said Mr. Erskine,
"that is what you went for and you got it–and the Lord blessed my
word to you, and you had communion with Him. Now, what did
you come here for this morning?" "I came to hear you, Sir." "And
you have got what you came for, there is nothing in me."
Think of this story when you are remembering the Lord's servants
and forgetting their Master, Himself. I believe that as you are
sitting here, you whose eyes have already been opened by the Spirit
of God, if you will but say, "Cause every man to go out from me.
Shut the door, I have entered into my closet even while in the pew.
I am alone, now, and I desire to see no man but Jesus, only." You
shall see Him, for He manifests Himself to His people all alone!
Oh, that each one here would say, "There is nothing but Christ that
I desire to see, there is nothing else I wish to remember, I would
think only of my Lord Jesus. May He be pleased to reveal Himself
to me!"
II. The second remark I have to make is this–when the Lord Jesus
Christ reveals Himself to any man for the first time, it is usually in
the midst of terror. And THAT FIRST REVELATION OFTEN
CREATES MUCH SADNESS.
When Joseph made himself known to his brethren and said to
them, "I am Joseph," "they were troubled in his presence." Judah
had made a very plaintive speech when it was threatened that
Benjamin should be detained in Egypt and all the brothers were in
deep trouble, so that when the great ruler said to them, "I am
Joseph," they were not filled with joy by his words. So we read,
"His brethren could not answer him, for they were troubled at his
presence." He was Joseph, their brother, and he loved every one of
them–yet, "they were troubled at his presence." It was the best
thing that could have happened to them, to be in the presence of
him who was sent of God to save their lives with a great
deliverance. Yet, "they were troubled at his presence."
And you and I recollect, perhaps, when, under a deep sense of sin
and sorrow when we had our first perception of Christ's salvation–
instead of being glad at it, we were "troubled at His Presence."
"Why," we said to ourselves, "this Christ is He whom we have
despised, rejected and crucified." There did not seem, at first, much
comfort for us in the manifestation of Christ. One said, in order to
cheer us, "He died for sinners." "But," we answered, "surely not
for such sinners as we are." Even the very sound of that blessed
word, "salvation," grated on our ears because we thought we
should be like the fabled Tantalus–up to our necks in water which
we could not drink, or surrounded by fruit which we could not
pluck. "He may have died for others," we seem to say, "but
scarcely for us." "We were troubled at His Presence." Even the
House of God, to which we continued to go, was a place of terror
to us and we cried, like Jacob did at Bethel, "How dreadful is this
place!" In the worst sense of that word, it really was "dreadful" to
us–full of dread although we believed it to be "none other but the
House of God, and the gate of Heaven."
We said, "What right have we to be in the House of God? How
can we expect to enter Heaven even though its gate is so near to
us?" We heard that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by, but we
sorrowfully exclaimed, "Ah, that is only too true! He will pass by
but He will never stop to look at us." We heard that precious text,
"God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting
life," but we said, "What is it to believe in Him? How can we
believe in Him?" The Light of God seemed shifting all around us,
but our eyes were blind to it! The music of Heaven was sounding in
all its sweetness, but our ears were closed to its melody!
Everlasting love was coming near to us, yet our hearts did not open
to receive it and, therefore, we could not answer Christ, for we
"were troubled at His Presence."
Dear Friends, if any of you are in this sad state, do not, therefore,
be driven away from our Jesus, our greater Joseph but stand still in
His presence, even though you are troubled at it, for that
experience, though it is bitter, is a bitter sweet! There may be
trouble in Christ's Presence, but there is a far greater trouble in
being driven from His Presence, and from the glory of His power.
So keep standing just where you are, even though you stand
trembling, for, by-and-by, and perhaps this very hour, He will
graciously reveal Himself to you and you shall no longer tremble at
His Presence, but, on the contrary, you shall rejoice with
unspeakable joy and full of glory, as you perceive that this Joseph,
this Jesus, is your Brother, your Savior, your Friend, your All in
All!
II. Now, thirdly, though the first appearance of Jesus, like that of
Joseph, may cause sadness, THE FURTHER REVELATION OF
THE LORD JESUS CHRIST TO HIS BRETHREN BRINGS
THEM THE GREATEST POSSIBLE JOY.
If you look at this passage when you are at home, you will
perhaps say to yourself, "The second time that Joseph spoke to his
brethren, he had not much more to say than he said the first time.
For then he said, 'I am Joseph; does my father yet live?' And the
second time there was as much the same burden in his language, "I
am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt." So, when
Christ reveals Himself in Grace to any poor heart, the revelation,
for substance, is much the same as at the first, yet there is a great
difference. When, for the first time, I heard the Gospel to my soul's
salvation, I thought that I had never really heard the Gospel before
and I began to think that the preachers to whom I had listened had
not truly preached it. But, on looking back, I am inclined to believe
that I had heard the Gospel fully preached many hundreds was the
difference–I then heard it as though I heard it not–andwhen I did
hear it, the message may not have been any more clear in itself than
it had been at former times, but the powerof the Holy Spirit was
present to open my ears and to guide the message to my heart!
O dear Friend, if you have heard me preach Christ crucified and
you have not yet seen Christ to your soul's salvation, I pray that
you may do so now! I do not suppose that there will be any
difference in the sermon, or in the Truths of God proclaimed. The
difference will be that in the one case it has not reached your heart
and in the other case it will. O blessed Master, speak comfortably
to the hearts of sinners and to the hearts of Your people, too! Make
the old, old Gospel be new to us by clothing it with a new power
within our hearts and consciences, and throughout our lives!
Yet, there were some differences in the words which Joseph
uttered to his brethren. If you turn again to the narrative, you will
see that he began his second speech by saying to them, "Come near
to me, I pray you." There was a longingfor nearness to those he
loved and that is the point of my sermon at this time. I want you
who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, but who are,
nevertheless, His elect, His redeemed ones, to come near to Him,
now, by an act of faith and trust Him with yourselves, your souls,
your sins and everything else! Stand not back through shame or
fear, you chief of sinners, for He says, "Come near to Me, I pray
you. 'Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest.'" As for you who are already His Brothers and
Sisters, come near to Him, for to you, also, He says, "Come near to
Me, I pray you."
Oh, if our Lord were actually here in bodily Presence–and I can
almost picture Him in the loveliness and glory of Divine Majesty–
if He were to stand here and say to us, "Come near to Me, I pray
you," we would, with solemn reverence, bow before Him and we
would, with joyful obedience, come near to Him and try to hold
Him by the feet and worship Him! Would not each one of you press
forward to come near to Him? I am sure that you would! Well, that
is what you have to do in a spiritual fashion. We know not Christ
after the flesh, but we do know Him after the Spirit. So, come near
to Him, dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ! Believe in Him, again,
as you did at the first! Look to Him again as if you had never
looked before! Worship Him as your Lord and your Redeemer.
Prostrate yourselves before Him and adore Him as the Son of God
revealed in our midst–come near to Him!
Then talk to Him. Tell Him all that is in your inmost heart.
Unburden to Him your cares and your doubts. Yes, and come near
to Him with your fondest affection and say to Him, now, in the
silence of your spirit, "Lord, You know all things. You know that I
love You." Come near to Christ with all your tears of penitence.
Come near with your alabaster box of gratitude. Come near with
the kisses of your lips of love. Come near with your whole heart's
purest affection and come now, for that is what He invites you to
do! It is a part of His manifestation of Himself to you that you
should endeavor to come near to Him. Cry, "Stand back, O self!
Stand back, O devil! Stand back, all care for the world! Stand back,
even care for the Church just now! My heart must come near unto
her Lord and sit like a dove on His finger and be satisfied to look
with her gentle eyes at the beauties of His Countenance." God help
us to do so in response to our Lord's gracious invitation, "Come
near to Me, I pray you."
Then, as if to help us to come near, our Lord, in this revelation,
declares His relationship to us. The speaker in thetype says, "I am
Joseph your brother" and the Lord Jesus Christ, though He is Head
over all things to His Church and King and Lord of death and Hell,
yet says to everyone who believes in Him, "I am your Brother; I
am your kith and kin; Head of the family, but still of the family and
touched with the feeling of your infirmities, for I was in all points
tempted like as you are." Do not imagine, concerning the Lord
Jesus, that there is only a fanciful or sentimental brotherhood
between Him and you. It is a real brotherhood–there is no such
brotherhood under Heaven so complete and true as thatwhich exists
between Christ and every blood-washed soul, for it is not a
brotherhood according to the flesh, but an everlasting, spiritual
brotherhood. An eternal union of the closest and most vital kind is
established between Christ and everyone who believes in Him.
We do not reckon it hard, do we, to win a brother's heart? If we
have been a little cold towards a brother, his heart soon warms to us
again and, as for our Lord, if we have not seen Him of late, if any
of us have not loved Him as we should, if we are saying, "We are
troubled at His Presence. We hardly dare come to His table," may
He say to us, "Come near to Me, I pray you. I am your Brother.
Come near, come nearer, nearer still. I am pleased when you are
near." Come with your sin and your lukewarmness. Come just as
you are, as you came to Him at the first, and He will receive you,
and will manifest Himself unto you as He does not unto the world.
In addition to revealing his relationship, which was a great motive
for Joseph inviting his brothers to come near, he also told them a
secret. He said, "I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into
Egypt." I think he mentioned that to show them that he must be
Joseph their brother, for who else in all the world knew of that
shameful action on their part? I do not suppose that the Midianite
merchants who bought Joseph knew that he was sold by his own
brothers, or if they did know, there were none of them in Pharaohs
palace, for they were Ishmaelites and they had gone their way to
traffic somewhere else. All who knew of that wicked transaction
were Joseph and his brothers, so by this password he lets them
know that there was a sort of freemasonry between them. This was
the sign, "I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt." It
made them blush, I dare say, and it must have made them mourn.
But it also made them feel, "Yes, that is our brother. Nobody but
Joseph would know that we sold him into slavery."
And, dear Friends, have you ever seen your Well-Beloved as He
reads your heart? I have known Him read mine from the first
thought in it to the last and I have thanked Him as He has read it,
for I have said, "Lord, You have read that book right through, and
now You know all things, You know that I love you. Alas, I did sell
you into Egypt! There was a day when I chose Egypt and its
pleasures rather than You and there have been days since when I
have sold You again into Egypt by treating You with lukewarmness,
and giving myself up to other lovers. Yes, Lord, I have sold You to
the Ishmaelites by doubting You and mistrusting You. And by my
sins I have stripped You of Your many-colored garment. And by my
own folly I have let You go away from Your Father's house and
from the chamber of her that bore You. You know all this, my Lord,
but I know You, too, because You know me so well."
Then notice that when Joseph thus revealed himself to his
brethren, he did not say more till he had sweetly put awayall their
offenses against him. They had been troubled because they knew
that they had sold him into Egypt, but he said to them, "Now,
therefore, be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold
me here." So Jesus says to His loved ones who have grieved Him
by their evil deeds, "Be not grieved, for I have blotted out, as a
thick cloud, your transgressions and, as a cloud, your sins.' Be not
angry with yourselves, for I will receive you graciously and love
you freely. Be not angry with yourselves, for your sins, which are
many, are all forgiven. Go and sin no more. For My name's sake
will I defer My anger. Therefore, 'Come now, and let us reason
together: though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as
snow; though they are red like crimson they shall be as wool.'"
Many of you know the way our Savior talks. I pray that He may
just now make every Believer sure that there is not a sin against
him in God's Book of Remembrance. May you, dear Friends, be
clear in your conscience from all dead works! May you have the
peace of God which passes all understanding to keep your hearts
and minds through Christ Jesus and in the clear white light of your
Savior's glorious Presence. May you see the wounds He endured
when suffering for your sins! Then will you sing with the disciple
whom Jesus loved, "Unto Him that loved us and washed us from
our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests unto
God and His Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and
ever. Amen."
Last of all, Joseph was not satisfied with thus revealing himself to
his brethren, and assuming them of his forgiveness, but he
promised them rich supplies for the future. To my mind this was
the next best news to his message of forgiveness. He said to them,
in effect, "You have had two years of famine. It is only through me
that you have been preserved alive. You have come down to Egypt
with your donkeys and your sacks, and you have taken home
provender to my father and to your households. But there are yet
five more years in which there will be no plowing and no harvest.
What will become of you? What little you had in store is already all
consumed. God has sent me here that through those five years I
may nourish you. You shall come down and live in Goshen, on the
fat of the land of Egypt, and you shall never have any need, for all
the treasures of the land of Egypt are mine and I will take care of
you. You shall never know any need."
In like manner, Beloved, your Lord stands and says to you, "You
will have many more troubles." Some of my dear Brothers and
Sisters in Christ who are here will be in Heaven before five more
years have expired. They have good reason to be very grateful to
God. But to some of us who are younger, it may be that God has
appointed many a year to abide here. But our Savior lives!–
"He is at the Father's side,
The Man of Love, the Crucified"
and the arrangements of Providence are in His hands and all that
Providence shall be overruled for us. "No good thing will he
withhold from them that walk uprightly." You will be in Egypt for a
while longer, dear Friend, but you will be in the Goshen of Egypt
and the good of all the land is yours! Oh, what a blessing it is to
think that we have a Brother who reveals Himself to us as the
Universal Provider who will not let us have a need, but will take
care that, before our need comes, the supply shall be ready and we
shall have nothing to do but to rejoice in Him who cares for us!
Let not that sweet thought take away from your minds what I
want to be the center of all the meditation, namely, that you should
come near to your Lord. We never use a crucifix–we would think it
sinful to do so. Neither do I want to have an imaginary crucifix, by
trying to set Christ before you so that you should picture Him
mentally! But I want your faith to do much more than imagination
can. The Lord Jesus Christ is spiritually here in the midst of us,
according to Hisgracious promise, "Lo, I am with you always, even
unto the end of the world." And He hears me speaking these words
at this moment–I am as sure of it as if I saw that mystic Presence
with my natural eyes. If I did see Him, I know that I would fall at
His feet as dead, and the rest of this service would have to be spent
in awe-struck silence by everyone that did behold Him!
But, O Son of God and Son of Mary, Jesus Christ our Savior, we
trust You wholly and alone to save us and we love You with all our
heart, mind, soul and strength. And as we live by toYou, to live like
You! We could almost wish that we might now fall down and
kissYour dear feet, but You are not here in visible Presence, for You
have gone up into Glory. But You are here spiritually and we come
to You and say, "Lord, You are ours, and we are Yours. We will
hold You and will not let You go."–
"Sun of my Soul, Savior dear,
It is not night if You are near."
Come, stay with me while yet the evening shade shall linger, till
death's dark night comes on and then, instead of night, let the
morning break upon my gladdened eyes because it is You that has
come, the Life, the Resurrection, and not death at all!
Come, Beloved, can you not get nearer to your Lord? Can you not
speak familiarly with Him? Can you not whisper into His ear the
story of your love?–
"Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove"
and help us now to come near to Jesus! Amen and Amen!
EXPOSITIONS BY C. H. SPURGEON:GENESIS 45:1-13; SONG
OF SOLOMON 1:1-7; 3:1-5.
Genesis 45:1, 2. Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all
them that stood by him: and he cried, Cause everyman to go out
from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made
himself known unto his brethren. And he wept aloud. Emotion long
pent up grows intense and when, at last, it bursts forth, it cannot be
restrained. "He wept aloud."
2, 3. And the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard. And
Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph; does myfather yet live?
And his brethren could not answer him for they were troubled at
his presence. What a rush of thoughts must have passed through
their minds when they remembered all their unkind behavior
toward him! There is no wonder that "they were troubled at his
presence."
And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you.
He pleads with them. He who was far greaterthan they–a prince
among peasants–now prays to them! And is it not amazing that the
Lord Jesus, our infinitelygreater Brother, at times pleads with us,
even as He said to the woman at the well, "Give Me to drink"?
Joseph said unto
4, 5, And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother,
whom you sold into Egypt. Now therefore be notgrieved, nor angry
with yourselves, that you sold me here: for God did send me before
you to preserve life. "You did very wrong, but I say nothing about
that, for I want you to notice how God has overruled your action,
how your sin has been made to be the means of your preservation
and the preservation of many besides. 'God did send me before you
to preserve life.'"
For these two years has the famine been in the land: and yet there
are five years in which there shall neither be eating nor harvest.
There were to be five more dreary years of utter desolation and
need.
And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the
earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.How
wonderfully those two things meet in practical harmony–the free
will of man and the predestination of God! Man acts just as freely
and just as guiltily as if there were no predestination whatever. And
God ordains, arranges, supervises, and overrules just as accurately
as if there were no free will in the universe! There are some
purblind people who only believe one or other of these two Truths
of God, yet they are both true and the one is as true as the other. I
believe that much of the theology which is tinged with free will is
true and I know that the teaching which fully proclaims electing
love and Sovereign Grace is also true–and you may find much of
both of these Truths in the Scriptures. The fault lies in trying to
compress all Truth of God under either of those two heads. These
men were verily guilty for selling their brother, yet God was verily
wise in permitting him to be sold. The inference which Joseph
draws from their misconduct is, of course, an inference of love.
Love may not be always logical, but it is sweetly consoling, as it
must have been in this case.
So now it was not you that sent me here, but God: and He has
made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all hishouse, and a ruler
throughout all the land of Egypt. See how Joseph traces God's hand
in his whole career?
Hasten you, and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus says
your son Joseph, God has made me lord of allEgypt: come down
unto me, tarry not. See how love attracts? Joseph must have his
brothers near him. Now he wants to have his father, also, near. "Go
up to my father, and say unto him, 'Come down unto me.'" See
how great love turns pleader again? He who said to his brothers,
"Come near to me," sends to his father the message, "Come down
unto me."
And you shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near
unto me, you, and your children, and your children's children, and
your flocks, and your herds, and all that you have. Our common
saying, "Love me, love my dog," is very true! Love me, love even
my flocks and my herds. So the blessing of God extends to all His
chosen people have–not only to their children, but to all that they
possess.
11-13. And there will I nourish you; for yet there are five years of
famine; lest you and your household, and all thatyou have, come to
poverty. And, behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother
Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaks unto you. And you shall
tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that you have
seen; and you shall hasten and bring down my father here. Love is
impatient to have the object of its affection brought near. Now we
will read two short portions out of the Song of Solomon from
which you will see how love evermore craves for nearness to the
loved one. The Song opens thus:–
Song of Solomon 1:1-4. The song of songs, which is Solomon's.
Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth: forYour love is
better than wine. Because of the savor of Your good ointments Your
name is as ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love You.
Draw me, we will run after You. Still is love pleading, you see, but
here it is the other side pleading for nearness, the lowly one crying
for help to get nearer to the Heavenly Bridegroom. "Draw me, we
will run after You."
4, 5. The King has brought me into His chambers: we will be glad
and rejoice in You, we will remember Your lovemore than wine:
the upright love You. I am black, but comely, O you daughters of
Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon. The
spouse was black in herself; sunburned through her toil and hard
suffering; yet lovely in the sight of her Beloved, and comely to
look upon "as the curtains of Solomon."
6, 7. Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun has
looked upon me: my mother's children were angrywith me; they
made me the keeper of the vineyards, but my own vineyard have I
not kept. Tell me, O You whom my soul loves, where You feed.–
Still is there that same craving for nearness to the Beloved. Since
we love Christ, we desire to be with Him. We cannot bear His
absence. "Tell me, O You whom my soul loves, where You feed."
Where You make Your flock to rest at noon: for why should I be
as one that turns aside by the flocks of Yourcompanions? See, dear
Friends, how this same seeking after the Beloved comes out in
another shape in the third chapter of the Song.
Song of Solomon 3:1. By night on my bed I sought Him whom
my soul loves: I sought Him, but I found Him not.Sometimes, the
most eager search does not at once obtain its end. For wise reasons,
Christ sometimes hides Himself from His seeking people.
2-5. I will rise now and go about the city in the streets, and in the
broad ways I will seek Him whom my soul loves: Isought Him, but
I found Him not. The watchmen that go about the city found me: to
whom I said, Saw you Him whom my soul loves? It was but a little
while that I passed from them, but I found Him whom my soul
loves: I held Him and would not let Him go until I had brought
Him into my mother's house, and into the chamber of her that
conceived me. I charge you, O you daughters of Jerusalem, by the
roes, and by the hinds of the field–"By everything that is timid, and
delicate, and pure, and full of love, I charge you, O you daughters
of Jerusalem."–
That you stir not up, nor awake my love, till He pleases. "I have
found my Beloved, and I would not lose Himagain. He has come to
me, so I will not grieve Him and drive Him away." That is the one
strain of our reading–"Comenear to me, I pray You; and when You
come near me, stay by me still."
Ge 45:3-5 • Joseph and His Brethren
ERMON 0449
Joseph And His Brothers
"And Joseph said unto his brothers, I am Joseph; does my father
yet live? And his brothers could not answer him. For they were
trembled at his presence. And Joseph said unto his brothers, Come
near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am
Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. Now therefore be
not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here: for
God did send me before you to preserve life."
Genesis 45:3-5
JOSEPH is a very eminent type of Christ. When he was hated of
his brothers because he protested against their sins, and when they
sold him for twenty pieces of silver, he was doubtlessly a portrait
of the despised and rejected of men whom His disciple betrayed.
Afterwards in his temptations in the house of Potiphar, in the
slander and consequent imprisonment in the round house of
Pharaoh's prison, in his after advancement, till he became lord over
all the land of Egypt, we clearly see our blessed Lord right well
portrayed.
Indeed, so well is the picture drawn, that there is scarcely a stroke
even though it should seem to be a mere accidental incident of the
picture which has not its symbolic meaning. You shall read the
history of Joseph through twenty times and yet you shall not have
exhausted the type. You shall begin again, and find still some fresh
likeness between this despised son of Rachel and the Son of Mary
who is also God over all, blessed forever. Amen.
It is not, however, my business this morning to enter into a full
description of Joseph as the type of Christ. I have a rather more
practical object in hand. I shall endeavor, in the Lord's strength, to
deal with tried and troubled consciences, and if it shall be my
happy lot to be the means of cheering some sorrowing heart and
opening some blind eye to see the personal beauties and the intense
affection of the Lord Jesus, I shall be but too glad to have been
God's messenger to your hearts.
To tarry no longer, but to proceed at once to so good an errand,
hopeful that God will help us to accomplish it, I shall direct your
attention to the picture before us as being a representation of the
way in which the Lord Jesus Christ deals with His erring Brethren,
those whom His Father has given Him and whom He has purchased
with His blood.
It seems to me that the condition of Judah and his brothers is a
very notable picture of the state of sinners when they are awakened
by the Holy Spirit. Secondly, the disguise which Joseph assumed
when he dealt so roughly with them is a master representation of
the manner in which Jesus Christ, the loving One, seems to deal
harshly with poor coming Sinners. And thirdly, the manifestation
which Joseph afterward made to his brothers, is but a faint
representation of the declaration of love which Jesus makes to
repenting spirits when at last He reveals Himself to them in mercy.
We think that the condition and posture of Judah and his brothers
at the feet of the throne of Joseph, trembling in alarm, well describe
THE CONDITION AND POSITION OF EVERY TRULY
AWAKENED SINNER.
By different methods Joseph had at last awakened the consciences
of his ten brothers. The point which seemed to have been brought
out most prominently before their consciences was this–"We are
verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of
his soul when he besought us and we would not hear. Therefore is
this distress come upon us." And though, in the speech which Judah
made, it was not necessary to accuse themselves of crime, yet in
the confession, "God has found out the iniquity of your servants,"
Joseph could see evidently enough, that the recollection of the pit
and of the sale to the Ishmaelites was vividly before their mind's
eyes.
Now, Beloved, when the Lord, the Holy Spirit, arouses sinners'
consciences, this is the great sin which He brings to mind–"Of sin
because they believed not on Me." Once the careless soul thought it
had very little to answer for–"I have forgotten and forgiven." But
now, all of a sudden, the conscience perceives that the soul is guilty
of despising, rejecting and slaughtering Christ. What a sin is this,
my Brethren! And what pangs we endured when first this crime
was laid to our charge and we were compelled to plead guilty to it!
O Lord Jesus, did I accuse You to Your enemies? Did I betray
You? Did I adjudge You to the Cross? Were my cries virtually
heard in the streets, "Crucify Him, crucify Him"? Is it true that my
sins were the nails which fastened You to the tree? Is it so, that I
had a share in Your bloody murder–a tragedy by which the world
became a deicide, and man the murderer of his own Redeemer? It
is even so. If our conscience is in a right state, we are forced to
acknowledge it. Do you not know, Sinner, every time you prefer
the pleasures of this world to the joys of Heaven, you spit in the
face of Christ? Every time, when to get gain in your business, you
do an unrighteous thing, you are like Judas selling Him for thirty
pieces of silver.
Every time you make a false profession of religion, you give Him
a traitor's kiss. Every sermon which you hear, which makes a
temporary impression on your mind, which impression you
afterwards blot out, makes you more and more Christ's despiser
and rejecter. Every word you have spoken against Him, every hard
thought you have had of Him, has helped to complete your
complicity with the great crowd which gathered around the Cross
of Calvary, to mock and jeer the Lord of Life and Glory.
Now, if there is any sin which will make a man deeply penitent, I
think that this sin, when it is really brought home to the conscience,
will affect us. To slay Him who did me no hurt, the holy and the
harmless One! To assist in hounding to the tree the man who
scattered blessings with both His hands, and who had no thought,
nor care, nor love, save for those who hated Him. To pierce the
hands that touched the leper, and that broke the bread, and
multiplied the fishes! To fasten to the accursed wood the feet which
had often carried His weary body upon painful journeys of mercy!
Oh, this is base, indeed. But when I think He loved me and gave
Himself for me, that He chose me, before the stars were made, or
the heavens fixed upon their everlasting arches, and that I, when He
came to me in the Gospel, should have rejected and despised, and
even mocked Him–this is intensely, infinitely cruel. Jesus, You do
forgive me, but I can never forgive myself for such a sin as this.
Dear Friends, has the Holy Spirit made you feel that you are
guilty? If so, I am glad of it, for when we once feel guilty
concerning the death of Jesus, our Brother, it is not long before He
will reveal Himself to us in mercy, blotting out our sin forever.
A second thought, however, which tended to make Joseph's
brothers feel in a wretched plight was this, that they now
discovered that they were in Joseph's hands. There stood Joseph,
second to none but Pharaoh in all the empire of Egypt. Legions of
warriors were at his beck and command. If he should say, "take
these men, bind them hand and foot," or, "cut them in pieces," none
could interpose. He was to them as a lion and they were as his prey,
which he could rend to pieces at his will.
Now to the awakened sinner, this also is a part of his misery, that
he is entirely in the hands of that very Christ whom he once
despised. For that Christ who died has now become the Judge of
the quick and dead, He has power over all flesh, that He may give
eternal life to as many as His Father has given Him. The Father
judges no man, He has committed all judgment to the Son. Do you
see this, Sinner, He whom you despised is your Master?
The moth beneath your finger, which you can crush, and that
cannot escape from you, may well fear. But you are beneath the
fingers of the crucified Son of God. Today, He whom you have
despised has you absolutely at His will. He has but to will it and the
breath is gone from your nostrils–and while yet in your seat you are
a corpse. And more, at His will you are in Hell amidst its flames.
Oh, what an awful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living
God, for even our God is a consuming fire.
Remember, Sinner, you are in His hands in such a way that unless
you repent and receive Him–unless you "kiss the Son," at once, He
may be angry, and you may "perish in the way when His wrath is
kindled but a little." For lo, He comes riding upon the clouds of
judgment. Jesus of Nazareth comes, robed in majesty. The books
shall be opened, and He shall divide the nations as the shepherd
divides the sheep from the goats. Then in vain shall you ask the
pitiless rocks to give you shelter in their flinty hearts, or the stern
mountains to conceal you in their hollow caverns!
You shall seek to hide from the face of Him that sits upon the
Throne, but neither Heaven nor earth, nor Hell, shall afford you
shelter. For everywhere, the eyes of Him that wept shall follow you
like flames of fire–and the hands of Him that were once nailed to
the tree shall crush you as a cluster in the hand of the gleaner of
grapes. You shall feel that it is an awful thing to have turned long-
suffering mercy into righteous hatred. You shall know that to have
rejected mercy is to have drawn down upon your head the full fury
of the justice of the Avenger.
Yet, further, there was another thought which combined to make
Joseph's brothers feel still more wretched. Being in his hands, they
felt also in their souls that they deserved to be there. We are verily
guilty, they said. They offered no apologies, nor extenuations, for
that one sin–that crying sin. They might for the matter of
Benjamin–but they said, we are verily guilty concerning our
brother. Oh, my Brothers and Sisters in Christ! You know what it is
to have the Holy Spirit in your heart, making you plead guilty!
Well do I remember when I stood at the bar of God's justice and
heard the accusation read out against me. Nothing could I answer
but guilty. Indeed, my guilt was so plainly before my eyes that my
lips could not frame a denial, and had the judge put on the black
cap that day and said, "Take him back to the place from where he
came and give him his portion with the tormentors," I should have
been lost–and the great God would have been most just and
righteous.
Careless sinners may talk about the hardness of God in
condemning man to punishment, but once let the Holy Spirit show
man the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and you will never hear a
word about that. No! The sinner cries, "Lord, whatever You do with
me, You can not chastise me more than I deserve. Though You
should crush me beneath Your feet, or though you should pile up
the fires of Tophet and Your breath should be as the stream of
brimstone to kindle it, yet You could not curse too heavily or
consume too fiercely your traitorous, rebellious, depraved and
infamous creature. I deserve everything except Your love and Your
pity. And if You give me these, I shall be compelled to say, forever
and ever, that You gave Divine Grace to the most undeserving–the
most unworthy rebel that ever profaned Your universe."
Brethren, when conscience goes against a man, he has a stern
enemy to contend with. When it is written, "David's heart smote
him," such blows come home. So is it with every sinner that is truly
led to see his own state. He will feel that he is not only guilty, and
that he is in the hands of One from whom he cannot escape, but he
will feel that it is right he should be so, and the only wonder he will
have in his own mind is that he has been out of Hell so long–that
the longsuffering and mercy of God have been so marvelously
extended to him.
Under a sense of all these things–note what the ten brothers did.
They began to plead. Ah, nothing makes a man pray like a sense of
sin. When we stand before God guilty, then our groans and sighs
and tears make true and real supplication. I fear there are some of
you present who have from infancy repeated a form of prayer who
have never prayed in your lives. Yes, and some of you, too, who
use an extemporary utterance and yet who never pray. I do not
think men generally pray as a matter of duty.
When men fall down in the streets and break their limbs they do
not cry out as a matter of duty–they cry because they cannot help it.
And it seems to me that such a prayer God hears–that comes out of
a man because he cannot help praying–when the deep agony of his
spirit makes him groan. When he cannot be kept from his secret
chamber, when he would sooner pray behind a hedge, or in a field,
or in a garret, or even in the streets, than not pray at all. If there
were an edict issued that no man should pray at all, the really
praying man would go into Daniel's lions' den, for he could no
more cease to pray than cease to breathe.
Can the hart in the wilderness cease from panting for the water
brooks? Can a sick child cease from crying for its mother? So the
living soul cries after God because he cannot help panting after
Him. He must pray or he must die, he must find Divine Grace or
perish, and therefore in his sore extremity–from an intense and
awful agony of heart–he cries again and again, "God be merciful to
me a sinner!" This is the prayer that God hears. Such are the
petitions which are acceptable to the Lord Jehovah.
Brethren, will you look at yourselves, and at your own experience
this morning, and see if you ever were brought down to the spot
where Judah and his brothers stood? For I fear we have never been
brought rightly unless we have been brought here. He that was
never condemned, I think, was never forgiven. He who never
confessed his guilt cannot have had a pardon. And if we have never
trembled before Jesus the Judge, we can never have rejoiced before
Jesus the elder Brother.
II. We turn, however, now to remark that THE SINGULARLY
ROUGH BEHAVIOR OF JOSEPH IS A NOTABLE
REPRESENTATION OF THE WAY IN WHICH CHRIST DEALS
WITH SOULS UNDER CONVICTION OF SIN.
Joseph always was their brother, always loved them, had a heart
full of compassion for them, even when he called them spies. Kind
words were often hastening to his lips, yet for their good he showed
himself to be as a stranger and even as an enemy, so that he might
bring them very low and prostrate before the throne.
My dear Friends, our Lord Jesus Christ often does this with truly
awakened souls whom He means to save. Perhaps to some of you
who are today conscious of guilt, but not of mercy, Christ seems as
a stern and angry Judge. You think of Him as one who can by no
means spare the guilty. Your only idea of Him is of one who would
say to you, "Get you behind Me, Satan, you savor not the things
that are of God." When you read the Scriptures, your mind, perhaps
is led to dwell upon His denunciations rather than upon His
promises.
Such dreadful chapters as the twenty-fifth of Matthew are more
upon your mind than those blessed portions in John, such as, "Let
not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in Me."
When you do think of Jesus, it is not as of one who is saying,
"Suffer the little children to come unto Me and forbid them not, for
of such is the kingdom of Heaven." But you rather think you hear
Him say, "Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites." Poor
Hearts, you discern all the sternness of His upbraiding but not the
softness and gentleness of His compassion. You see Him dealing
fiercely with Pharisees and reason that He will be even more severe
with you.
No, you think you have had some proofs that the Lord is not
willing to bless you. As Joseph took Simeon before their eyes and
put him in prison, as he laid heavy things to his brothers' charge
and said to them, "You are spies, to see the nakedness of the land
are you come, by the life of Pharaoh surely you are spies." And as
he demanded of them to bring Benjamin down or else he would
never see their face again, so you think that Jesus Christ has treated
you.
You went to Him in prayer. But instead of getting an answer He
seemed to shut up your prayer in prison and keep it like Simeon
bound before your eyes. Yes, instead of telling you that there was
mercy, He said to you as with a harsh voice, "It is not meet to take
the children's bread and cast it unto dogs." He appeared to shut His
ears to your petitions, and to have none of your requests, and to say
to you, "Except you renounce a right-eye sin, and a right-arm
pleasure, and give up your Benjamin delights, you shall see My
face no more," and you have come to think, poor Soul, that Christ
is hard and stern. But He is ever the gentle Mediator receiving
sinners and eating with them. His usual voice is, "Come unto Me,
all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
But to you He seems no such Person, for He has put on a disguise
and you understand not who and what He is.
But you will perceive, Brethren, in reading the narrative, that
even when Joseph disguised himself, there was still much kindness
discoverable in his conduct–so to the awakened sinner, even while
Jesus appears to deal harshly–there is something sweet and
encouraging amid it all. Do you not remember what Joseph did for
his brothers? Though he was their judge, he was their host, too. He
invited them to a great feast. He gave to Benjamin five times as
much as to any of them. And they feasted even at the king's table.
And so, poor Sinner under an awakened conscience, you have
occasional feastings at the table of hope. I know while I was under
distress myself, I did have some glimpses of hope. Oh, there were
times when His name was very sweet! There were seasons in the
thick darkness when some few rays of light flashed in. When, like
the dog that eats the crumbs under the table, now and then there fell
a big crust and my soul was feasted for awhile. So has it been with
you. Christ has rebuked and chastened you, but still He has sent
you food from His royal table.
Yes, and there is another thing He has done for you. He has given
you corn to live upon while under bondage. You would have
despaired utterly if it had not been for some little comfort that He
afforded you. Perhaps you would have put an end to your life–you