Open—R. Thonney, B. Prost, D. Rule
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To read Brethren a verse in First Peter chapter 5.
Verse 10.
But the God of all grace.
Who have called us unto His eternal glory.
By Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, Make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Just like to speak about that little expression for a few minutes, brother and.
He has called us unto His eternal glory.
We have a calling like nobody else in this world.
Call to eternal glory. There's glory in this world, and it's interesting to see it sometimes.
But we're not called to any glory in this world. We're called to eternal glory. Tremendous to get it. Let it get a grip on your soul.
I must say, brother, and that's why I felt led to stand up.
Just been down in Bolivia.
And each time I go to see what the Lord has done down there.
Through the work of our brother Eric Smith.
And others, of course, many native brethren have been used of the Lord.
One of the things that we did on the way back from the South of the country.
And a brother's pick up to Porto Sea. Brother Eric Smith arrived in Potosi in 1921.
To start his work in Bolivia, we stopped in a little town called Vitichi.
To the South of and in that town there's a cemetery, and we went into the cemetery.
Because brother Eric Smith's first wife was buried there, I didn't really have too much hope.
And she was buried there in the 1930s, so I didn't have too much hope that her grave would be visible any longer. But to our surprise, we found it, and still in fairly decent shape.
I don't think anybody here in the States knew his first wife. Her name was Rose, she was from England and he was only married to her for about 5 years before she got cancer. The brain.
And he took her to England to see if he could get treatment.
And when she realized what it was and how extensive it was, she says, please take me back to the Indians in Eulog. They're called Pukachumpis in the Quechua Indian language. It means red belt because they have a sash around their middle. That's their that's their typical dress. So they call the Pukachumpi Indian tribe and take me back there. She said to him, I want to die amongst.
My Indian brother. So he brought her back and that's where she lived her final days. And then she was buried there in this town called Vitichi. Well, there is a lot of suffering in brother Eric Smith's life. He lost two wives in Bolivia and one up here during his life. And, uh, there was suffering in connection with it. But what impressed me about our dear brother.
Was the call that was on his heart.
He was from New Zealand, I think many of you know, but I'll say this for the younger people.
And, uh, when he got saved, his father wasn't a believer at that time.
But he after some time.
In this Christian life, he decided he was going to go to Bolivia to preach the gospel, and he came and told his father. And his father was a very prosperous businessman, had a lot of connections, a lot of opportunities for his children to take up to do well for themselves in this light.
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And so when brother Eric Smith told him about his decision to go to Bolivia, he says.
Son, if that's your decision, out of my house.
And so he had to go and make his own way. He took two years of medical school. And because of that, he's known as El doctor in, in Bolivia, the doctor. But, uh, he really didn't practice medicine very much, but he's known as that because he did treat some people.
But what impressed me was.
The call.
That he had from the Lord to go. And I just want to present it to especially other young people here, but it's something we all need to be exercised about. Are you living for the brief moments of time or are you living for God's eternal day? Remember, you were not called to anything down here.
You are called to eternal glory, that is if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus.
And to me, it is a tragedy to see how many so-called believers get sidetracked into simply making good for themselves down here in this world.
In fact, one of the tragedies to me.
When we go into a nursing home to see somebody.
Perhaps prosperous in this world.
Maybe has a lot of material goods, a big bank account, homes and money.
And there they sit. What are they doing? They've lost it mentally. They're they're sitting in a wheelchair.
With absolutely nothing in front of them. They're unbelievers, of course, I think you understand. I mean that.
And.
They have lived full to the hilt down here in this world. And what do they have in front of them?
Nothing. Blackness of darkness forever. That seems to me one of the.
Most terrible tragedies that there can ever be.
Deceived by this present world to living for present advantage.
And young people. Scripture says the time is short.
Doctor Buchanan and I and Clem Buchanan went down the first time to Bolivia in 1968.
44 years ago, I can't hardly believe.
That it's been that long ago.
The time is short.
Time is very relative. We've been talking a little bit about time and eternity. It's hard to explain eternity. We think of eternity in the realms of time, thousands and millions and billions and billions of years.
That's really not what eternity is. Eternity is where there's no more time.
But the challenge that comes to my own soul is to live our lives for that which will last for all eternity.
And not just for a few brief moments of time down here, because.
The time is short.
Don't waste your time on just mere material advantage. Don't do it. You'll lament it in the end. That's the way this world lives. That's the way they're encouraged to live.
Don't let this world rob you of what is real and lasting.
When I went the first time, that first time with Clem and Doug to Bolivia, I remember we flew into the city of Potosi, which is a city of about 13,000 feet altitude.
And from there our brother came in his truck and picked us up and took us to the place where Brother Eric Smith started his work amongst the Indians, a town called Eulog, to the South of Porto Sea.
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And remember, Brother Smith was up in the cab of the truck with Brother Alarcon, and I think the rest of us were all on the back of the truck there.
Jostling over those rough roads, at the end of the day we came to where those brethren were waiting for and they knew he was coming and there was a group of them waiting on the road there.
Singing hymns and the brother was driving the truck, turned off the engine and posted to a stop.
I looked through a little porthole there to see Brother Smith and dear brothers Hedges down.
Tears were streaming down his face.
And let's say it was a tremendous challenge to me at that time, Brother Smith turned his back on all earthly advantage in New Zealand that he could have had. What does he have now? Does he have a mass wealth down here? No.
That all the results, the eternal results.
That will last for all eternity, I said in my own soul to the Lord. Please, Lord, help me not be deceived by the material things of this world. Help me to live for that eternal day.
And those things that will last for that eternal day. And I just want to go briefly to Luke chapter 16, where we get the question of stewardship.
God has put into our hands certain things, and I'm not talking merely about money.
You young people may not have too much money, but you certainly got a lot of good facilities, good mind.
Strength. How are you using it? Are you using it in view of this life?
Or of that life to come. Here we have a story that the Lord tells.
Of an unfaithful steward.
Let's read it a bit, verse one. And he said unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man.
Which had a steward, and the same was accused unto him, that he had wasted his goods.
And he called him and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? You have an account of thy stewardship, for thou mayst not be no longer steward. And the steward said within himself, What shall I do? For my Lord taketh away from me the stewardship. I cannot dig to beg. I am ashamed. I'm resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses.
So he called everyone his Lord's debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much OST thou unto my Lord?
And he said in 100 measures of oil, and he said unto him, take thy bill and sit down quickly and write 50. Pretty good discount, 50% discount, well worthwhile taking the advantage of. Then said he to another, And how much owest down? He said in 100 measures of wheat, he said unto him, Take thy bill and write 4 score. There's a 20% discount.
Well worthwhile at taking advantage of a 20% discount.
And the Lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely. For the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness.
That when ye really it should read, it fails.
You may be received into everlasting habitations. He that is faithful in that which is leashed is faithful also in much, and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If, therefore, ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another man's?
Who shall give you that which is your own?
Just wanted to call attention especially to this verse 8. The Lord commended the unjust steward. Now why did he commend him? He didn't commend him for being unjust.
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What did he commend him for? Because he had done wisely. In what way had he done wisely?
Before his Lord took away his stewardship.
Why he used that which was still in his possession in view of that time in the future.
When he would no longer be steward to his own advantage. And then the Lord says the end of verse 8, Because for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. And this is a hard place to understand, but I think it is an important principle.
How are the children of this generation wiser than the children of Light?
This is the way I understand it.
The children of this world look forward to retirement up ahead and they plan for it. They look forward to that and they're making plans according to what they have in their vision.
The children of Light, what is their vision? Their vision goes into all eternity.
And are we planning in view of eternity? Are we planning to view just of a few brief moments down here in this world?
In general, the Lord says here, the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light. They are acting.
In relation to their vision properly and the children of Light who have all eternity before them.
Are not acting according to the vision that's before them. Everything you have, your intelligence, your time. Time is a tremendously important commodity. Scripture tells us to redeem the time. What does it mean to redeem the time?
Can you buy back some of those moments you've lost in life? No, I don't think that's what it means.
But reading means paying a price to buy something.
And those moments you have in your life, how do you use them?
Do you use them in view of eternity?
Or do you use them for the way any worldly might use them? You know, we have 24 hours a day basically. We sleep about 8 hours. That leaves you about 16 and you go to school. I don't know how much that might might be up to 8 hours that you go to school. You have another eight hours in there. How are you using those?
Moments. Are you buying them back for God and for that eternal day? Are you using them just for something that you enjoy down here?
That's what I saw as a young person, the life of our dear brother Eric Smith, and it was a tremendous challenge to me. And I don't lament having reflected that way. And I just want to pass the challenge on to you, dear young sisters and dear young brothers.
Time is short.
Your young sisters that are pretty.
Physically, right now. How are you gonna look in 50 years? The Lord Lise is here.
Are you gonna be thinking about how pretty you look? I don't think so.
You young guys that think you're strong and able for things.
Let me tell you, strength runs out after a while and you start getting aches and pains in your bones.
I proved it.
But let me tell you, while you have those things in your power, use them.
For God and for God's eternal day.
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First of all, let me say how much I agree with and how much I appreciate what our brother Bob has just brought before us.
I too remember our late brother Eric Smith very well and can attest to what an effect he had on my life.
Quite some years ago now, along the same lines as what Bob has talked about, I'd like to add to that remark by turning back, please, to the 49th chapter of Genesis.
Something here that I have enjoyed for many years, but it was brought home to me a fresh just recently in reading through the book of Genesis.
And we'll readjust the first part of the blessings of Jacob here in chapter 49.
You'll see what we are going to bring out in a moment.
Genesis 49 and verse one. And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.
Gather yourselves together and hear, ye sons of Jacob, and hearken unto Israel your father.
Now, we're not going to go into the.
Prophetic meaning of what we have here, but more look at the moral aspect of it and notice what Jacob says.
Verse 3 Reuben, thou art my first born, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the Excellency of dignity, and the Excellency of power.
Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel because thou wentest up to thy father's bed. Then defile us, thou it. He went up to my couch.
Oh, here Jacob talks about his first born son.
And he looked at Reuben as being the beginning of his strength.
The first foreign was supposed to have the 1St place and as it were to get the double portion.
But something had happened here. There had been failure in Reuben's life. There had been immorality. And as far as we can tell from the history and Scripture, there was never any straightening out of that matter. We don't read that Reuben ever repented of it, or that he ever made it right with his father, or, more important, that he ever made it right with the Lord.
And so we find here that at the end of his life, Jacob as an old man.
Lays that sin at the door of Reuben. Very sad.
Let's go on verse four, or I should say verse five. Simeon and Levi are brethren. Instruments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul, come not thou into their secret unto their assembly might honor be not thou united. For in their anger they slew a man, and in their self will they dig down a wall. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce and their raw, for it was cruel.
I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.
Here were the second and third sons of Jacob, and once again we find that Jacob has to say something rather serious about.
Oh, what had happened all way back in their history.
You can read about it how that, sad to say Jacob when he was not really walking with the Lord as he should.
Wenon bought a piece of property and built himself a house, neither of which Abraham ever did, nor Isaac as far as we know. And as a result his daughter Dinah or Dina went out and got involved with the daughters of the land. And that resulted in immorality on her part. And the result of all that was that her two brothers, particularly Simeon and Levi, although the others were doubtless involved to some extent.
Use the seat against the whole city of Shechem.
And went and killed them all in an underhanded way.
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And so far as was recorded in God's Word, once again we find that.
Those two brothers never repented of that act of cruelty, that act of treachery that they had committed, and as a result here that sin is laid upon them when Jacob pronounces the blessings on his son.
But now look at verse 8.
Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise. Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies. Thy father's children shall bow down before thee.
Judah is alliance. Well from the prey, my son, thou art gone up. He stooped down He couched as a lion and as an old lion. Who shall rouse him up?
The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. We'll leave the rest of it for the moment.
You and I might look at this and say, how can that be? How can that be?
Reuben was an immoral man, but as far as we can tell he was not a violent man, in fact, rather the opposite. And you will remember that when Joseph's brethren had settled on the fact that they were going to kill Joseph and had put him into a pit, kind of just to keep him until they carried out that awful act.
It was Ruben who had suggested putting him there with the idea that he would come and rescue him later on, probably on the fly, and let him go home to his father. So Ruben was not a violent man.
Simeon Levi were violent men. Treacherous, underhanded, cruel, all of that. But so far as we can gather from the history, there is no record that they were immoral men.
But if you read the history of Judah.
Oh, you say Judah. You're the worst one of the bunch.
He was the violent one of the bunch. He was the one that suggested selling Joseph into Egypt. And in those days, of course, to sell a man as a slave was tantamount to a death sentence. And his idea was we don't need to kill him. Let's not let our hand be upon him. Let's just sell him. We'll accomplish what we want to do. We'll get some money in the bargain, and it won't be we that is responsible directly for his death.
But then if you read the 38th chapter of Genesis, which we won't turn to.
We find that Judah was also an immoral man.
And in the worst way, and as was fairly common in those days, he lived by a double standard. It was OK for him to go out and commit adultery and get involved with someone whom he thought was a harlot. But if his daughter-in-law, as he thought she was, did that, then he was going to impose very severe punishment on her.
So Judah was the worst of the bunch.
How then is it that here we find Jacob not breathing one word about any of his failure?
But rather in every way telling him that he was the one whom his brethren would praise.
And more than that, he would have strength. Bob has been talking, and it's true, about how that as we get older, we get aches and pains and we don't have.
The strength that we used to have. But he says, Judy, you're going to be like a lion. And if you read the Darby translation, it's not as if it's an old lion who's so weak and played out that who can rouse him up. No, that's not the thought.
The thought is and it used to be this way.
Among the natives of Africa, that if a lion lay down under a tree after he'd had a good meal.
Oh boy, nobody disturbed them. Neither man nor beast disturbed that lion. Why? Because neither one was capable of resisting his strength and fury. And that's the thought here. Who shall rouse him up? In other words, who would dare to meddle with him? To use the vernacular that is current today, Who would dare to mess with them? Nobody.
How did all that come about?
Well, what happened? Oh, it was the grace of God. The grace of God.
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I believe there was a time in Judah's life after Joseph had been sold into Egypt.
And when they went down to Egypt to buy food from Joseph and you will remember the way that Joseph.
I believe with the mind of God used roughness to his brethren, and sought by that means to bring before them.
They are for sin that they had committed first of all in.
Hating him and secondly and selling him down into Egypt, I.
I suppose at that time Joseph knew nothing of the deceit involved in killing a kid of the goats and dipping his coat of many colors into it and taking it back to their father. He wouldn't have known about that. But he seeks to reach their hearts and consciences with what they had done. And I believe that above all of his brethren, Judah profited by that. And although it is not recorded in the word of God, what do we find? Oh, go back and we won't take the time because I want to leave time for some other brother, but.
Go back and read the history, you will find that when Jacob wants his sons to go down to Egypt the second time.
What happens? It's Judah that comes forward and says, Father, we can't go unless Benjamin comes with us. That's what was said.
And somehow Judah.
Reaches into Jacob's heart. Reuben tried, couldn't get anywhere.
And I don't say it dogmatically, but I suggest that it was because.
Somehow, someway, Ruben had not settled things with his father the way he should. The sin was still there. There was a wall a distance between him and Jacob. And as a result, when Judas says let let him go with me, slay my two sons if I don't bring them back again, Jacob says no way.
But then Judica he pleads with Jacob. This time Jacob listens.
Somehow there's a bond between them. Why? Oh, I believe Grace was working.
I believe on the one hand, Judah was realizing it was I that.
Laid those plans to sell Joseph. It was I that was the most guilty of the bunch.
And no doubt in Jacob's heart there was the feeling. And where did they learn it? Where did they get all that idea of underhanded dealing and subtlety and treachery and lying and cheating and all that?
You had no nowhere to look but his own life and his own character, didn't he?
What happens later on? The truth comes out.
Suddenly Joseph is revealed to his brethren and they have to go home.
And they tell their father Joseph is yet alive and he is governor over all the land of Egypt.
We don't wanna say anything where scripture is silent.
But again, if I could fall back into the vernacular, I would love to have been a family on the wall.
When those brethren went back to Jacob with that story.
Oh, you think what had to come out?
Oh boys, is it true, after the wonder of it and the joy of it had settled down.
All things had to come out. What about that coat of many colors, fellas? How did that? How did that happen? How did he get down to Egypt there? How is Joseph in Egypt? You led me to believe he was eaten by wild beasts. How did he end up in Egypt? Surely he didn't walk there all by himself. How did all that happen? It had to come out.
But then what do we find? Oh, we find that as Jacob goes down into Egypt, we find.
Prior to that, when Joseph is dealing with his brethren.
It's Judah that comes forward and pleads for Benjamin. It's Judah that comes forward and pleads for Benjamin. Oh, he pleads and says, let me remain a bondman instead of Benjamin. How easy it would have been for them to say, well, Benjamin, we don't know how that silver cup got in your sack, but.
I guess we're off the hook. So you stay as a slave and we're off home.
Oh no, Judah comes forward, the worst one of the bunch in fleet for him. What a picture of Grace working. And then when Jacob is going down into Egypt, he sends Judah ahead of him to prepare his way. Before, oh, there was a bond there between them, A stronger bond, perhaps than it ever existed before.
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Why? Oh, because there was real repentance in a getting hold of the grace of God.
And Jacob realized that in spite of all his bad character, his scheming, his planning, his lies, his trickery, everything that he had practiced most of his life, there was a God above who wanted to deal with him in love and grace. And he kept trying to get the blessing in his own strength. And as a result, here was one of his sons in the person of Judah, who had been the worst of his family. But he too gets before the Lord.
How do we connect that with what our Bob said, with what our brother Bob said?
I suggest in this way, these are days of wonderful opportunity. These are days, I believe, when there are more opportunities to serve the Lord and to live for His glory than there ever were before. And I can only re echo what was said that may you and I, and especially those that are younger be exercised to use the energy and whatever the Lord gives you for him. What do you say? But I there's nothing that I can do.
What do we do?
We do what's right in front of us, do the next thing, do what's right before you, and if you do what's right before you, before the Lord.
The Lord will enlarge your scope soon enough. He'll give you plenty to fill your life and fill your time.
But sometimes you know there is failure.
And sometimes we may look at our lives and say, but what I have done and the way I have lived my life has not been according to the way the Lord would have it. And I am not suggesting for a moment that there is not a government in the House of God. There is. And Joseph, or rather Jacob, felt the effect of that government in his own life. There were things in his life that were very, very hard to bear and even at the end of his life.
In spite of all that the grace of God had done.
He has to say to Pharaoh, few and evil have been the days of the years of my pilgrimage.
And I have not attained under the years of my fathers. Oh, he recognized that the walk that he had been characterized by.
Had not been the same as that, for example of Abraham, but at the same time there was a profiting by the way God had worked with him.
And I suggest to you and to me that if there's any blessing in our lives, it's not because of anything that we are, but it's all going to be because of the grace of God. And Judah came in the blessing not because of anything that he was, but because there was real repentance in his life and the getting before the Lord. And even though no doubt he was a very mature man when he came to that point, as it were, he said, as Peter gives us in his epistle, there was the rest of his time. That's in first Peter chapter 4.
There was the rest of his time and as a result.
He becomes the prominent one, he becomes the tribe from which the kings came, he becomes the one from which King David sprung. And of course, eventually, and it's wonderful because there's an illusion to it here, until Shiloh comes, and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Oh, that blessed prophecy looked forward to Christ.
The one who would fulfill all of God's heart, and who in perfection would be everything that man is not.
But in the meanwhile, there is God's grace that is there for each one of us.
And so let me say to my own heart as to each one here, perhaps our lives have gotten to such a point where we feel that we can't go back.
And we can't go back. And sometimes we feel I've gone so far that I can't change now.
That is not true. That is not true.
Brother Bob, how old was Eric Smith's father when he got saved?
In his 50s at least, wasn't he? I believe so. Eric Smith's father kicked him out of the house, as Bob has been telling us. But there came a time when the grace of God reached down to that man and grabbed hold of him.
Can I tell you the story? Can I take a minute? Some of you know it, but it's worth telling.
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His father couldn't handle the gospel, even though his wife and his children were all saved.
One day a preacher came.
And he was like our late brother Bob Baum, and he had Bible verses plastered all over his horse and buggy.
And he came to the house and his father said, get that man out of here, what nonsense Bible verses all over his horse and buggy, get him out of here. So he left.
Big ranch in New Zealand.
But Eric Smith's older brother, Hugh, went out after the man to the gate as he left, and he said, come on back, come on back. After a while, don't quit. After some months, he came back. And Eric Smith's father at least agreed to be polite. He said, well, give him a room, but just keep him out of my hair.
Well, of course, when somebody is a guest in your home, you can't ignore him completely. And one evening they were sitting there and Eric Smith's family, for those that remember him, was extremely musical. Eric Smith himself played the violin very beautifully, and most of his family were capable in that respect, but whether with the piano or other instruments.
So in the living room, 1 evening, Eric Smith's father, just to make conversations, said.
The visiting preacher, he said. Do you play anything?
No, he said. I don't. But he said if you don't mind, I'll sing you or him.
Hmm, alright, so one of Eric Smith's sisters sat down at the piano.
And the brother, who evidently had a good voice, started to sing.
The glory shines before me. I cannot linger here.
And so on he went down all the way to the end.
By the time the last verse was being sung.
Eric Smith's father was sitting there with the tears running down his face.
I can't give you the details, but that night he accepted Christ as his Savior.
And Eric Smith's only comment, and this was if I can say it to me personally in conversation, he said.
Brother Bill, my mother had 30 happy years.
He lived to be up into his 80s. He says. My mother had 30 happy years. I say that to everyone of us here. Not that I suppose that there are those out there who are resisting the gospel, although there may be some. And not that I'm supposing that there are those out there who perhaps have wasted their lives, or that there are necessarily those out in the audience here who have led a life that is not pleasing to the Lord. I'm not suggesting that.
But I am saying that the grace of God is able to reach out to us whether we are saved or whether we are lost, and to enable us, like Judah, to use the rest of our time not to live under ourselves, but unto him that died for us and rose again.
Turn with me to 2nd Corinthians chapter 4.
15 where all things are, for your sakes.
That the abundant grace might through the Thanksgiving of many.
Redound to the glory of God.
For which 'cause we think not, but though our outward man perish, at the inward man is renewed day by day for our light affliction, which is but for a moment.
Worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. For we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
I'll turn it over to Revelation Chapter 7.
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Notice as we read these verses the similarity in them to what we have been reading in Revelation chapter 21 That we had in the morning reading.
Revelation Chapter 7.
And verse 13 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? And whence came they?
And he I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said unto me, These are they which came out of the great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him night and day in his temple, and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.
Now these are like Revelation 21. And they shall hunger no more, neither shall they thirst anymore, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any beast. And the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of water, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
Brother and I, I wanna say, in view of what we had this morning and what we've had this afternoon, I wanna encourage you to thank God for your afflictions. I want to encourage you to thank God for your tears.
God is using them for your eternal good and mine.
They are for your sake.
They are brought into your life.
With the purpose of good for you.
I wanna go back just to make a footnote on what Bill just said to illustrate the point.
He said it, but I'm gonna amplify it on it for a moment.
Judah.
Took the lead.
In selling Joseph.
A type of Christ.
Later on, Joseph tested the brothers.
On the point.
They had brought Benjamin back with them as he required of them.
And Jonathan Joseph tested them.
Would they sell Benjamin like they had sold Joseph?
And Judah wouldn't do it.
When we fail in life, God in His grace, because He has an eternal good for us in view.
Will often bring us, No, we can't backtrack. No, we can't go back to the same failure in itself, but in the ways of God. All things are for our sakes, and God will often bring us into a circumstance in our life that He tests us on the point.
In which we had previously failed.
And if necessary, he's a very patient teacher.
It may be a third time, and a fourth and a fifth if necessary, but and each time, the intent of God is for our sakes.
He has an end result that is to himself and for his pleasure that he's going to work out in our lives so that he can rest in it and the results of what he's doing in our individual lives. We had in this morning in the prayer meeting or not in the prayer meeting, but in the beginning Matthew 18 and 20 was read.
Come unto me, all ye that labor.
And are heavy laden and I will give you rest.
You'll never hear the words. The Lord Jesus will never say that to you in heaven.
You'll never have the opportunity to know him in that way if you don't learn him that way now.
We thank God for those circumstances of life that would draw us to Him in that way, so that He might come and speak to our hearts and say, Come unto me.
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And I will give you rest.
That's only now.
But what is the end result of it? It will be for your blessing forever. The end result of it will never be lost. It's part of the eternal weight of glory that will be yours.
God shall wipe away all tears.
From their eyes.
The Lord Jesus the Lamb In Revelation Chapter 7 there were those that identified themselves with the Lord Jesus.
In the Tribulation.
Did he value it? Yes, he did.
Did he express it to them? Did he identify with them later? Yes, he did.
You'll never go to Bolivia in heaven.
You'll never go to your next door neighbor in heaven.
To tell them about the Lord Jesus.
You'll never speak to the person that you work with or you go to school with in heaven.
But if you do now.
The Lord will remember with you forever, forever it.
Will never cease to be precious to his heart.
We aren't all going to pass through the same circumstances of life.
But what we do pass through, we want to remember it's for our sakes. It's for our sakes.
It is God. We may not always live life as we should, as Bob encourages us to do so.
But on God's part, he never forgets.
We may live for the moment, we may live for the now, and in some cases God may stop us and say, no, I'm going to bring something into your life that will force you to stop.
May be pain, it may be sorrow, it may be something you bring upon yourself.
But the heart of God in it.
Is for your good, because he never forgets the eternal view.
He never forgets the eternal weight of glory. That is His purpose for your blessing and mine.
And so he encourages us.
To accept it.
If I could add the word embrace it.
And give thanks for it. It's his purpose of good.
And he will bring out of it that which honors himself and fulfills his purpose.
Just wanna add 1.
Final remark I've added. I've said it before to perhaps many here, but it's very precious to me in this connection.
Turned back to Genesis or Genesis chapter 45.
Genesis 45, verse one. Then Joseph could not restrain 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 to his brethren, and he wept aloud.
This is the Lord Jesus prophetically in the Tribulation.
In the process whereby he is, his brethren of Israel are restored to him.
And here it says he wept aloud.
Your tears, I don't believe are going to stop when the rapture takes place.
Because you are having formed in you now.
An identity of relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And if I may put it this way, your tears won't stop until His due.
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That's why it's those words take place in eternity, not in time.
Do you weep over something now?
The day will come when you will see the Lord Jesus weep.
In this process of being restored to his brethren and.
You'll weep with them.
That we've been sympathy with his own heart.
You can't learn that in heaven. You're learning it now.
You are learning now.
To enter into that which he enters in.
And be able to can I put it in this figurative way to put your arm around the Lord Jesus?
And feel with him, you know what we do at a funeral or a difficult time sometimes with someone we're close to and in the measure in which your heart is being drawn close to the Lord Jesus. So when he goes through seven times actually in these latter part of Genesis.
It says he wakes because it will be a process for them to be brought back to him and he'll feel that as a man and you'll feel it with him, but when there's no longer anything to produce tears.
God wipes away all tears from their eyes, and in Revelation 7 is the Lamb that does it in the character of when they pass through it themselves, and then they wait for what they did to him.
And are restored to him.
Then not only does he weep for them.
But then he removes their tears as well. And so the Lord Jesus, in some ways our God, in some ways he may produce the tears, He may bring us into that which produces our tears, but it would be also the one that gives the answer to it that will remove them. And what will be left? A worship, a praise, an adoration to our God.
Forever.