YP Address—C.D. Andersen
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#139.
This world is a wilderness wide. We have nothing to seek.
Choose. We've no thought in the ways to abide. We've not to regret nor to lose. The Lord is himself gone before He has marked out the path that we tread. It's as sure as the love we adore. We have nothing to fear, nor to dread. 139.
This world is a wilderness.
1.
Future nor to choose.
With all thoughts in the way.
We are not you.
Perhaps this hymn that we were just singing.
Goes over the heads of most of us.
Perhaps we don't know much about.
Looking at this world as a wilderness wide, it makes me think of a story of.
A brother who's in fellowship with us.
He said that when he was a young man.
This world looked very bright.
And there came a time when he got himself a new automobile.
As a young man and all when he got that automobile.
The world looked especially bright to him and he thought this world was a wonderful place.
In which to live.
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He went to meeting.
That night.
And this very hymn was given out.
This world is a wilderness wide and he said. I just couldn't sing it.
I couldn't sing it because it really wasn't a wilderness to me. It wasn't a desert bearing place to me.
It was a bright looking place.
I wonder.
How we feel about it this afternoon.
Does this world look like a bright place?
A place that we like to stay in. We like to stay here forever. Is that our thought?
There is so much that is attractive about this sea.
But when we get a glimpse of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The one we sing about hearing this hymn, the one who's been here, passed through this world and has gone to glory when we get occupied with Him and find our joy in him.
In the measure we find joy in him and we are attracted to him.
In that measure, this world becomes a wilderness. It becomes a dry, barren place.
And we can really say we have nothing to seek or to choose. We have no thought in the ways to abide.
We have not to regret or to lose.
Is there anyone here this afternoon that feels that there might really be something?
To lose in leaving this world, would you have any regrets?
What is God after?
He wants to wean us away from this scene and how is he doing it?
By occupying us with the Lord Jesus Christ, teaching us to find our joy.
And delight in him.
Now if your joy and the light is not in the Lord Jesus Christ, you will have to find your joy and delight somewhere, I know.
But when you find yourself drinking at that, well.
You will find that the cisterns of this earth are broken cisterns.
They can't hold any water. They can't hold any joy or satisfaction for you.
I thought this afternoon.
That we might look together.
At the accounts of several young men in Scripture.
I don't know how many of them we might be able to cover in the short time that we're together.
But I was thinking of 1A young man who got saved.
In the 9th of Acts.
I'm thinking of another young man in Ecclesiastes.
The thought only of serving the lusts of the flesh.
And then I was thinking about a young man in Genesis, Joseph.
Who had something before him, evidently a vision of reward.
And.
Perhaps a vision of glory?
And how devoted he was to God and how he got the reward.
At the end.
Shall return to Acts Chapter 9.
Now we know Saul was a young man.
Because back in the 7th chapter, at the end of the chapter.
He's mentioned there is a young man in verse 58.
And we have the record there.
That Stephen was being stolen and it seemed that Saul.
Was the leader in this?
And here in Chapter 9.
The story opens with that very thing and Saul yet breathing out threatening and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord.
Went unto the high Priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues.
That if he found any of this way, or the way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.
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And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven. And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul saw, Why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I'm Jesus, whom thou persecute us? It is hard for thee to kick against the brakes. And he trembling, an astonished said, Lord.
What will thou harm me to do? And the Lord said unto him.
Arise and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.
And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from the earth. When his eyes were opened, he saw no man, but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink. And there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias. And to him the Lord said the Lord in a vision, Ananias.
And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord And the Lord said unto him.
Arise and go into the street, which is called straight, and inquire in the House of Judas. For one call Saul of Tarsus. For behold he prayeth, and I've seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight. Then Ananias answered, Lord, I've heard by many of this man how much evil he hath done to thy Saints at Jerusalem. And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.
But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me.
To bear my name before the Gentiles and kings, and the children of Israel. For I will show him how great things he must suffer from my namesake. And Ananias went his way and entered into the house, and putting his hands on him, said Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way, as thou camest has sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes, as it had been scales.
And he received sight forthwith, and a rose, and was baptized.
And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples, which were Damascus, And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues that he is the Son of God.
Well, we know this was a young man.
And perhaps.
This young man might seem as though he were in another world.
And we might not be able to put ourselves in the same place as this young man, but remember, this young man was flesh and blood, just like any young person here this afternoon.
Here is a human being. He was not a super human being, but just an ordinary human being. And he was a Sinner like anyone else. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and Saul was included in that statement. He was one of the all.
And.
Paul himself, in his Epistle to the Romans, said.
There is no difference, and he includes himself in that there is no difference.
All have sinned. So don't look upon Saul this afternoon as somebody different from yourself.
Just try to fit yourself into the picture this afternoon.
And put yourself in Saul's place. Oh, I know that.
You haven't done the same things as Saul did, but you have the same kind of a heart as he had.
And that heart expresses itself in different ways.
But I believe if we meditate upon this portion of Scripture, trusting God to lead by His Spirit, that you will be able to fit yourself in here and perhaps get some profit from this account of Saul's conversion.
Now everyone needs to be saved. God wants all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
Everyone needs salvation.
And if you haven't been saved.
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Remember, God is looking down upon you and he wants to save you. God's eye was on Saul. God's eye is on you.
And maybe you think you can hide from God, but you can't.
Saul couldn't hide from God. It's true that Saul was not really conscious of how terrible the thing was that he was doing.
But God had his eye on him, and maybe you don't realize how bad you are.
Maybe you think you are all right.
Maybe you think you are doing just what God wants you to do, just like Saul did.
But God has his eye on you, and he wants to do something for you.
He wants to save you because Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. He was buried and he rose again the 3rd day according to the scriptures. That's the gospel and it's the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's the one that you must trust.
It says here in verse 2.
That if he found any of the way he was to bring them bound to Jerusalem, the way he was going after those who belonged to the Jesus way, after those who belonged to Christ, those who were known as being attached to Jesus.
And Saul thought that it was a worthy thing. It was his duty to go after these people.
Because here was something springing up that was contrary to Judaism.
And it was always.
In Israel that way that anything that was contrary to Israel must be destroyed. And so Saul was out to destroy that which he felt was against Israel.
But it says in verse three as he journeyed, that means as he was going his way, and we might think of Saul as going his own willful way.
What happened?
God is watching him as he's growing his own willful way.
And a light shines from heaven on saw.
That light shined on him, and it shined into his heart.
And he fell to the earth.
He is compelled to take the low place.
He is compelled to humble himself.
He falls to the earth.
I trust everyone of you has had.
A similar experience. I trust that you have had to do with God.
And you've come into the light of the gospel, of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that it shined into your heart.
And that you are saved this afternoon.
Well, the gospel has been.
Out here at these meetings three nights already and it's been referred to on other occasions.
The gospel light has been shining out. God has been speaking to hearts. I believe God was speaking last night.
And I trust you don't turn a deaf ear to the pleading of the Spirit of God.
But that you will fall down before God and own yourself a lost Sinner.
All your conscience tells you you are a Sinner, but the word of God tells you you are a lost Sinner.
And will you bow before God?
And before his Word, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
That you might be saved.
This voice from heaven says to him, Saul, Saul, why persecute us thou me?
Why persecute us down? Me. Perhaps that was the first thought Saul ever had, that what he was doing was persecution. He didn't know that. But that's what the Lord calls its persecution. You're persecuting these people that you're binding, putting in prison, beating.
And he says it's me you're persecuting. That voice from heaven says it's me.
Well, Saul knew what that voice was. He couldn't mistake that voice.
Men of all had heard that voice. Now Saul hears that voice.
And he knows it must be the voice of God.
And he says, Lord, who art thou? Lord says I am Jesus.
Whom thou persecutors. Now he finds out that Jesus, that he thought was still in the grave or dead somewhere.
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Is up there in the glory.
I am Jesus. He learns that Jesus is God. Jesus is in heaven. Jesus is divine.
Or what a revelation to him. Have you found that out?
That Jesus is the Son of the living God.
All necessary is to believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and in believing you might have life through his name.
No, Jesus is not a mere man. He is God. He is the Son of God.
That's why he's our savior. If he were a mere man, he couldn't be our savior.
But He is the divine Son of God become man, and it is because of what he is.
That gives value to his work because he is the Son of God.
That's why we believe in the precious work that he's done on Calvary's cross.
The person, what he is, gives value to his work.
All that you might get your eyes upon Christ and trust in him.
He trembles. He's astonished.
He says, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
He's converted. Now he addresses Jesus as Lord.
He follows his own scripture in Romans which says if thou shalt confess with thy mouth.
The Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead. Thou shalt be saved. I believe that's exactly what he did here. He confessed Jesus as Lord and believed in his heart that he was actually risen from the dead, and there he is in the glory.
When you believe something, when you believe the gospel, you're believing.
Something that's real Christ died, was buried, Rose again, has gone to glory.
That precious story is made light of Indiana many places today, and you may come in contact with those people who make light of it.
Some of you are going to school. It used to be that only in the colleges.
Was Christ made light of and the gospel made light of?
And that talk, which is contrary to the word of God, but we find it's come down into the high schools and it's even coming way down to the grade schools and our dear children, even the young children.
Are faced with that kind of thing?
Oh, don't let anyone shake you from that simple faith you have.
In the Lord Jesus Christ and in a simple gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the inspired word of God that we have here in our hands.
Just trust simply in the word of God. Trust simply in the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust simply in that gospel of your salvation. Don't let anyone take it away from you.
Psalms says, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? There's submission there, he says. What do you want me to do, Lord? Here I am now I'm ready to do what you want me to do.
Well, the Lord tells him, I will show you what you are to do.
He didn't find out right away. And maybe you have asked that question to Lord. What wilt thou have me to do? But you haven't found out yet exactly what the Lord wants you to do. But I believe the Lord does show you day by day what you ought to do.
Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? Perhaps we ought to ask that every morning.
As we arise, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do today? I believe it's a good thing to make contact with the Lord every morning.
Not get up.
Like.
A brute beast.
As an animal, as soon as they're up, they're around.
Trying to find something to eat.
Would let us get up as human beings.
And have a soul.
And especially as those who have been saved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and have divine life, let us arise as those who've been brought into God's presence, brought to God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and let us talk to that one who is saved us, who is our Father, talk to the Lord Jesus Christ who loved us and gave himself for us.
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Let us remember to seek His presence, that we might have His guidance.
And you know, he loves to have a stop, to have a little visit with him, a little talk with him.
It's good if we come into his presence and ask him for this and that.
But you know, God hasn't saved us to be simply beggars.
He has saved us that we might have fellowship with himself and he likes for us to have.
Communion with him. That is not only to have him talk to us.
But we should talk to him and thank him, thank him for what he has done for.
Don't forget that we can always thank Him for saving us, bring us to Himself, washing us in the precious blood of Christ.
That's that's what gives the heart of God joy to have us thank and praise Him for what He has done for us.
Down in verse seven we read that he's lost his sight. He doesn't see any man.
He saw no man.
Well, that might speak of getting his eyes off, man.
I'm sure that Saul was that kind of a person. He had his eyes on men.
And no doubt very much occupied with himself, but now he sees no man.
And in verse eight it adds, they led him by the hand, He's not dependent upon man now.
He loses sight of mine and he is the dependent 1.
He has to depend upon someone else to lead him.
That should be our experience as Christians, being cut off from seeing any man not being occupied with mind, cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils, and be completely dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ, who has saved us, says in verse nine he was three days without sight.
And neither did eat nor drink.
He's cut off entirely. He's cut off from this earth.
He's cut off from the natural what he can see by sight.
Now he's not to walk by sight anymore. He's to walk by faith. That's what characterizes Christianity. Walking by faith, not by sight. Or we like to walk by sight. We like to plan and know just how everything is going to come out.
But Abraham is spoken of as a man of faith, and it says he went out knowing not whether he went.
It's irksome to the flesh when we can't plan our pathway through this sea and we can't see where we're going.
God wants us to walk by faith, not by sight. Maybe you don't know what you're going to do. You don't know what the future holds for you. You're trying to figure out what your life work should be.
I wouldn't be too concerned about it except in this way. Be before the Lord about it, and I'm sure in the Lord's time he'll show you what he wants you to do.
Or be dependent.
We need, that's the lesson. We need to learn, is dependence. In the Garden of Eden, man became independent.
Now we are saved, brought back to a point where we can learn dependence.
Upon God.
And in the measure we learned dependence upon God. In that measure we are going to be happy.
Man got away from God, became independent of God, and he became very unhappy and miserable.
But souls that come back to God through the Lord Jesus Christ and become dependent their happy souls.
All Saul had a wonderful life ahead of him now, a life of dependence.
And we're glad to see that there is much said about that dependence.
In other parts of the Word of God.
And Saul was one that imitated the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what his desire was, to imitate Christ. And he could even say, be followers of me as I am of Christ. Oh, that was his heart's longing to be an imitator of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it was all right for anyone to imitate Paul in the measure that he was imitating Christ. And if you find any of your brethren.
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And of the older brethren seeking to imitate Christ.
Well, it's alright to use them as a pattern, but oh, watch out that you don't get your eye upon them. In as much as they follow Christ, you follow them. But if they're not following Christ, you continue to follow Christ.
There is something in verse 11 That must be dear to the heart of God.
Otherwise it wouldn't have been put in here.
God says in his word.
Because it is by his Spirit that has been put here in the end of verse 11.
It says about Saul of Tarsus. Behold, he pray.
Behold, he prays the Spirit of God, indicted that be holy Praise that was precious to God.
The Lord Jesus Christ up there was looking down, and he saw Saul pray.
Does he see you on your knees praying?
Perhaps sometimes you pray in public to give the impression that you can pray.
But do you ever get along with the Lord, where the Lord alone sees you pray?
I believe that's the praying that counts.
Enter into your closet, be alone with the Lord, and pray. We need to know more about secret prayer. I find that Satan is trying to get us away from that all the time. He gets us so busy with things of this life that we forget about it. We don't intentionally forget to pray.
But we're so busy that we just don't do it. And it tells in our lives too.
I was talking to a young man not very long ago.
He was married and I asked him.
Do you and your wife read the word of God together?
He had once in a while.
I said, Do you ever pray together?
Noises. We never pray together, I asked him. How are you getting along in your life?
Well, he said. It just seems like I'm not making any progress. Instead of going forward, I'm going backward.
Well, I believe you can put these two things together, can't you? There's a reason for not making progress.
There was not the reading of the word. There ought to be. There was not the prayer life there ought to be.
And all how nice it is for young couples and older couples too, to read the word together and to pray together.
I like to see young folk just married, beginning to read the word together and pray together, and then when the little ones come.
To gradually bring them in on it, to have that family reading, family prayer, all how necessary it is to make a sanctuary out of our homes, that there might be some influence brought to bear upon the dear children.
And it's a way of edifying ourselves. Oh, how needful it is.
Behold, he prayed. Do you pray?
In verse 15, Ananias is told that he is a chosen vessel.
While you may not be the same kind of a vessel as the Apostle Paul.
We can't do that work. He was a vessel for a special work that God had for him.
But each of us is spoken of as a vessel over in Second Timothy Chapter 2.
That was referred to this morning in the reading there were spoken of as being vessels, and we can be a vessel unto honor meet for the master's use. Wouldn't you like to be a vessel meet for the master's use?
What's necessary or in that chapter it speaks of purging ourselves from the vessels to dishonor.
Are you fraternizing with the world? Are you keeping company with those who don't love the Lord Jesus Christ?
Are you intimate with them? Are you associated in a way with evil that's dishonouring to the Lord Jesus Christ? As long as you are, you can't be a vessel to honor and meet for the master's use. There will have to be separation from it. You'll have to judge that and then go on with the Lord to please the Lord. And you'll be a vessel. Meet for His use. He'll use you. Yes, the Lord wants to use every one of us.
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But we hinder that so much, and we are not meat for the master's use.
Down in verse 17 he is called brother Saul.
Well, everyone who belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ is a brother or a sister.
In the Lord, one big family, isn't it nice to belong to the family of God?
And to be brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ, Does that mean anything to you?
It should. It should mean something to you as young people. When you are together. Fellowship one with another. Think of your think of one and another.
As a brother or a sister in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Belonging to one big family. Not only that, we're members of the Body of Christ. If you really belong to the Lord this afternoon, you're a member of the Body of Christ too. There are two relationships there, your child and the family of the Father, and you're a member of the Body of Christ. No other St. in any other dispensation had such a wonderful dual relationship.
Now it tells us in the end of verse 17 that he got his sight.
And he was filled with the Holy Ghost. He got sight and got the Holy Ghost. He got the thing that is called sight or vision. But he also got the power of sight, the power of vision.
Now, if you belong to the Lord, you have sight. You have seen yourself as a Sinner. You have seen the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.
You have that spiritual sight.
But you know, the power of that site can be hindered.
If you are the Lord this afternoon, nor your sins forgiven, you have the Holy Spirit dwelling in your heart.
Now he is a divine person dwelling in your heart.
The third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Ghost, is living in your heart.
And he is the power of that new life that you have.
And he is the power of that vision too, that spiritual sight that you have. But.
Paul tells us in his epistle to the Ephesians, grieve not the Holy Spirit.
Where by your shield until the day of redemption, don't grieve the Holy Spirit now if you grieve the Holy Spirit by carelessness in your life.
Sinning against him and going on with it, unjudged. You're grieving him and you lose the power.
You don't lose the sight, no. You may still know that you are a child of God and you are on your way to heaven.
But you lose spiritual power. You don't have the power of sight.
You lose discernment.
And the thing seems to get worse and worse. Oh, let's keep short accounts with the law, and let us seek grace to judge ourselves daily. As soon as it comes to our attention that we've done something to grieve the Lord, let's confess it. Because if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
And when we get the cleansing, let the Holy Spirit is free again to work in our hearts, and we'll find that we get the power of sight back again.
Says in verse 19, Well in verse 18 he was baptized, he submitted to baptism which is a symbol of death, and he recognized he had died with the Lord Jesus Christ. He recognized that identification with Christ in his death which is so important.
Dead to everything in this scene. Dead to sound. Dead to the world.
Dead to everything around, but alive only to God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
But in verse 19 it says he was with the disciples in the mouth. Are you with the Lord's people?
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Do you like to be with them? Have you taken your place at the Lord's table with the Lord's people?
If you're one in Christ with the Lord's own, you ought to be expressing it.
By taking your place at the Lord's table, where you express that fact by partaking of the one loaf.
Would you like to express that fact not only that you remember the Lord in death?
When you break bread, that's what the Lord has requested us to do.
And that's the one part of it. But the other part is that you express the fact that you.
Are a member of the body of Christ. When you partake with us of that loaf, that's on the table.
It's your privilege to express that.
Then we find he is preaching. He is giving forth a testimony that Jesus is the Son of God.
Or you see how many things in the life of Saul they are not something that.
Is foreign to us? No, That can be our experience too.
All of these things in our measure we can enter into, well, I want to go on to another.
Young man over in Ecclesiastes.
Ecclesiastes.
Next to the last chapter.
Ecclesiastes, Chapter 11.
Verse 9.
Rejoice.
O young man, and thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes.
All that seems to be strange instruction, and it would be strange if it were not for what follows now.
But know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.
Rejoice, O young man, in Thy youth, who is writing this.
Solomon.
And no doubt he did that very thing. He rejoiced in his youth.
And let his heart cheer him in the days of his youth, and he walked in the ways of his heart and at the sight of his eyes.
But he tells us it's all vanity and vexation of spirit.
And he says, the end of it is know thou that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment.
Serving the lusts of the flesh, the lust of the eyes.
Giving ourselves to those things, what will it lead to?
It will lead to that one thing, the judgment of God. We'll have to meet God about these things.
As was brought before us yesterday, whatsoever man soweth that shall he also reap.
He that saw to his flesh.
I lay emphasis on the word his.
Not just the flesh, but to his flesh, he that souls to his flesh.
Shall of the flesh reap corruption.
That's the government of God. He that souls to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
Which kind of a sewing are you making?
May the Lord give us grace to sow correctly, sow to the Spirit, that we might have the Spirit reap life everlasting.
But how often we reap that other sowing, the sowing to our flesh?
Reaping corruption? Well, let's not forget it. May the Spirit of God impress that upon us.
Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart. Oh, you think I am going after just what I want? I am going to please myself.
I'm going to get out of this world what I like.
But all God wants you to remove sorrow from your heart, put away evil from thy flesh.
For childhood and youth are vanity.
Well, it's hard for youth to enter into these things after we get older and have had some experience along these lines and we've had grievous experiences and things that have saddened us. Why?
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We can speak.
From experience in these matters, but young people haven't had much in the way of experience along these lines.
But here you have it in the word of God.
Listen to what God has to say about That's something of walking by faith. You say, well, I don't know anything about this. I haven't had any experience. You don't have to have experience in these things. Sometimes young people think that they ought to be allowed to go out into the world and have that experience of being in the world.
Well, perhaps that's the only way some of the young people.
Or any of us, for that matter, can learn being allowed to have our own way and go our own way.
But you know, there's another way we can learn, and that is by being submissive to the word of God.
David said, Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.
By the words of thy mouth have kept me from the paths of the Destroyer.
All of you would take heed to the word of God.
If all of us would do that.
Oh, how much sorrow we would save ourselves.
Now let's go back to Genesis.
In Genesis.
Chapter 37.
The first young man we considered was a young man that got saved.
We see how he went on.
The next young man we've considered is one thought only of serving the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and pleasing himself.
Now we come to a young man, a remarkable young man.
And this young man, dear young people, has been a challenge to myself.
For years when I was a boy.
I read this story of Joseph.
Know what a challenge the story of Joseph is? Have you read it?
Read it. Read it over again.
Here's a young man, we might say, that gets a vision.
Of a reward ahead.
Here is a young man that fears God.
Here is a young man that is afraid to sin against God.
Then you see the place he gets, he gets a place next to Pharaoh.
In Egypt, while Egypt speaks of the world.
That is where Joseph was taken down into Egypt, which speaks of the word.
Well, let's look at a few things about Joseph.
It tells us in the 37th chapter what we're not going to read any portion, but just to refer to a few things.
Verse three of chapter 37. Israel loved Joseph more than all his children. Now I like to think of that in this way, that the Lord loves you. He has a special love for you, a special concern for you young people.
Have you realized how the Lord loves you? All of you knew how the Lord loved you.
Why? You would find that the things of this world are just nothing.
Walk in the sunshine of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. Be occupied with His love for you.
And you'll learn to love him more. And you'll learn to love the world less.
Another thing I notice further down in the chapter in verse 13.
Israel, his father tells him to do something.
He says, Do not thy brethren feed the flock? And Shechem, come, and I will send thee unto them.
Does Joseph say no, I don't want to go. I don't like to do that.
He said to him, Here am I.
Here am I simple obedience to his Father.
Well, we know some of the history of Jacob and how he carried on how he behaved himself.
And maybe some of these things.
Weren't hidden to Joseph.
Joseph was 17 years old now, and he could probably see plenty of things in his father to criticize.
But when his father says you go and do this, he says, Here am I.
That's obedience.
Doesn't that speak to your heart?
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We as parents have failures.
We make mistakes, but yet the Lord has put us in a place of authority.
Over our children, our households, and when we ask you to do something, there should be that submission there.
Just like with Joseph.
Oh, we admit our failures. We're not perfect, and you can you could shoot us.
Full of holes, it's true, but nevertheless God expects that obedience.
From those who are children.
Well, we could say much more about that, but I don't believe it's necessary. Just look at the example of Joseph.
Let us go over to Chapter 39.
We know how Joseph was sold into Egypt.
As a slave and he was brought down. It says he did not go down into Egypt.
Abraham went down into Egypt and got into trouble, but Joseph is brought down into Egypt.
And it isn't long until he's a prosperous man, we read in verse 2.
Tells us the Lord was with Joseph four times in this chapter Tells us the Lord was with Joseph.
Wouldn't you like to have that consciousness that the Lord is with you? But you can't have that consciousness if you're going on badly.
Doing things that dishonor the Lord.
But oh, it's precious to have that sense that the Lord is with us.
Well, he was a prosperous man, and his master saw that the Lord was with him. Wasn't that nice?
Does anybody see that the Lord is with you? Can they sense that the Lord is with you?
That you're walking with the Lord. You're in the presence of the Lord.
And then his master puts him over his goods, over all his house, everything that he has.
And the Lord says in verse five blessed the Egyptians house for Joseph's sake.
Now he's tested, he's a prosperous man.
He is having it comparatively easy. I take it things are coming his way.
Now he gets something that will test his nature, whether he's going to indulge it or not.
And this woman which is an Egyptian.
A woman that characterizes all who are in this world belong to the world.
Lays A snare before this dear young man.
Remember, he is not very old. I don't know exactly how old he is here, but when we start his history 17 years old.
I've, I've been told that.
When a young man gets to the age of 17, he's come to perhaps the most difficult age of his life.
And also that he knows more than than he will ever know.
Makes me think of a story of a young man that felt that way about his father.
About that age and about five years afterward, he said to his father.
You know, Father, it's amazing how much you have learned in the last five years.
Well, I say this in trying to be faithful. I'm not saying this.
To degrade young people, but I'm just saying it to help you because.
If you are made aware.
Of your false, your failures. I found that anyway, that when I've been made aware of my weakness, then I can go to the Lord about it and get victory.
You know you can't fight with an enemy unless you know where he is. They found that out.
In warfare, if they can only figure out just where the enemy is, they can do something about it. And if you know where your weakness is, your failure is just where the enemy is attacking you. You can take that very point to the Lord, and the Lord will give you help and grace to overcome.
And what does Joseph say in answer to this temptation? That's.
Rocked before him and dear young people, I know that these kind of temptations are coming.
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To you every day.
What does Joseph say in the end of verse nine? He says. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?
When any immoral act is committed.
That's not only a sin against yourself and a sin against.
Humanity, but it's a sin against God.
And God says in his word in the 13th of Hebrews.
************ and adulterers, God will judge.
That's God's word.
They are going to come in for judgment. Oh dear young people.
And I speak to my own heart, and I speak to everyone else. How careful we need to be.
In these matters that we might keep ourselves unspotted.
Without a blot.
May God give us grace.
Well, we notice over in.
In chapter 42.
Verse 43 or verse chapter 41 I should say.
And verse 43.
Joseph is made to ride in the second chariot.
And they cried before him, bowed the knee, and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.
Now Joseph in his dreams had visions of something like this.
And you and I, by means of the word of God, have put before us the coming glory when we're going to reign with the Lord Jesus Christ. And I I verily believe that that thing that Joseph had before him, the place that God was going to give him, not something that he was grasping for, but in God's time God gave it to him. He had that before.
And I believe that was part of what?
We're going to reign with Christ. If we suffer, we shall reign with Him.
It may mean suffering to the flesh to resist the temptations that come upon us.
To go on with the Lord in separation from the Word, it may mean suffering.
It costs something to be a child of God. It costs something to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
But look at what's at the end. We're going to reign with Christ.
You want to miss out on the on the reward. The Lord is faithful and he's going to remember every little thing you have done for him. He won't forget it, and there's going to be a reward for it. Let's keep our eyes on the glory, looking off unto Jesus, seeing him there in the glory, knowing that soon we're going to be with him and we're going to reign with him. Shall we pray?
Our gracious daughter.