Attitudes on Bitterness — Jim Logan

The material that we're sharing tonight, we've been doing in our church. You're up-to-date with my church now. We've been doing this particular material now for about five weeks. So I'm going to give you tonight, you know, five weeks.

I'll never do it. But what we're sharing tonight, I think it's all important, but what we're sharing tonight is extremely important. A lot of things have happened as a result of learning insight from this particular material.

I was sharing this in a Sunday school class. I think I'm on. To me, I sound so loud and everybody says, I can't hear you. I said, you've got to stand up here. I can hear me good. I can hear me too good.

But I was sharing this in a church in Kansas City. And in the church was one of the top ten artists for Hallmark. I've mentioned the fellow before, Hallmark Greeting Card. He has a position in the penthouse there as one of the top designers for Hallmark.

This fellow, since the time he was 14 years of age, had serious migraine headaches at least once a month that caused him to miss three or four days of work since he was 14 years of age. He went to the two top neuro centers in the United States for help.

One in New York and one in Chicago. He was taking the strongest medication that you could take for migraine headaches, but it would still knock him off his feet. He listened to the material that I'm sharing tonight, applied it, and was healed.

He waited for four months before he got up before the church of around a thousand people and shared how God had healed him. Physically, when he applied spiritual truth. Now, he didn't do it to get healed.

A lady that I knew in the same church had bone cancer. She was dying. Her daughter was at Calgary as a freshman and listened to this material that I'm sharing tonight, shared in a freshman class. She knew that this problem was her mother's problem and it burdened the girl because she knew she couldn't go home and say, Mother, do you know what your problem is?

Here, her mother was dying of cancer. You go to a mother dying of cancer and say, Mother, you've got a spiritual problem. But she loaned her none of these diseases. The mother read that book and realized her problem was the one we're dealing with tonight.

And when she confessed it and dealt with it, she began to be healed of her cancer. And she got up in Calgary's chapel and shared how all the cancer treatments had absolutely no effect until she dealt with it and then the cancer began to go away with the treatments that they were giving her.

And the doctor was amazed because they had given her up for dead. They told the girl her mother was dying and there was no hope because she was not responding to chemotherapy or radiation treatment. Let's see, I was going to give you one more.

Give me a hand. That was two. Okay, we had a friend of ours that we hadn't seen for a long time. And the husband said, When you see my wife, you won't believe her. But she has crippling arthritis. And when we met her, we couldn't believe it because she looked like her husband's mother in a year and a half's time.

They were in our church, hadn't seen her for a year and a half, and she looked like his mother. She could only take one step at a time. The doctor said there was nothing more they could do for her. She realized that her problem was spiritual.

And she dealt with her problem. And today, you would never know that this woman had crippling arthritis. I was sitting in my office one day at the college and a fellow called me on the phone. He says, I'm out of state.

Do you ever see people from out of state? And I said, Yes, I do. If I feel I can help them, there's no point. I said, If you come, I would give you like three or four hours. But there's no point in you driving and making a trip to the college if I don't think I can help you.

He said, Well, it's not for me, it's for my wife. The doctor says that my wife's problem, she has a physical problem, but he said, the root of it, and he wasn't even a Christian, is spiritual. He said, Woman, you have a spiritual problem because you are not responding to treatment.

And she had crippling arthritis. The doctor said, Assume a position. And that's what you take. You know, you want to be stiff laid down, you want to be stiff sitting, but you just take a position. In fact, Wilma would know this woman because the people in Gerrard knew her and they knew that she had been healed.

So the fellow told me, I said, What's your wife's problem? She has crippling arthritis, she's 34 years of age, and she can barely walk. I said, I am positive I can help her. Does your wife have this spiritual problem?

He said, Yes. I said, Bring her in. I know I can help her. And he brought her in. I shared insights with her. She confessed, followed the scriptures, she went home, and I heard nothing. I heard nothing from her.

And so I got a call from my husband, we should have called you beforehand, but my wife has been sharing here in Bible study what God has done in her life. There's a lady down here that just attempted suicide and was in, almost died, and was in intensive care.

Could you help her? She has the same problem my wife had. She has a problem with this particular sin. I said, Yes. Bring her in. And they brought this woman in. And now both these women are sharing in the area where Wilma's from, but God, how God had freed them from the problem.

Bitterness as the Root of Resentment

What is the problem? Do you have any idea? There's a correlation between this sin and the bones and blood disease. It's bitterness. You see it as resentment. You never want to tell a Christian, Do you know that you're bitter?

And they'll say, Oh, no, I'm not. And you just get put on the list. So you never go to a Christian and say, You're bitter. But, you know, they can't handle that. They say, Well, I have a few resentments.

But resentments come from a character deficiency of bitterness. The Scripture says, Bitterness dries what? The bones. Now, just because someone has arthritis, you don't say, Aha! Now I know. You old bitter thing.

No. That's not necessarily so. But if they have arthritis and are bitter, it will get worse and worse and worse and nothing will help. Do you see? Because bitterness causes a chemical. When you're bitter, I don't know what happens.

But what happens is, because you have these resentments, and you review these resentments over and over and over again, it causes a chemical imbalance in your body that puts some type of certain gland, secrete, whatever it is, that gets in the bloodstream, that causes problems in the bones and with arthritis.

And so leukemia and a lot of these things. Because, see, where is the blood manufactured? In your bones. And you should do a study in the Scripture about bone marrow and bones. It's an interesting study.

And what God says about the bones. And what is the health of the bones. And what isn't the health of the bones. I mean, God knew before people knew that your blood cells were, you know, manufactured in bone marrow.

Especially in your sternum and other places. Now, let us look in Scripture at bitterness. And I say we really can't go into it in detail like I would like. But I really, we need to see insights. If there ever was a problem today that is destroying Christians, it's the problem of bitterness.

It is just devastating. There are so many bitter Christians in churches. It is terrible. It's just unbelievable. You know, and like divorces in the church. And you got the family that dislikes this family because their daughter divorced their lovely son.

How could you do such a thing to such a fine boy as that? And this family is upset because how could such a lousy boy marry our lovely daughter and treat her the way he did? It's just awful. All the bitternesses that are in church.

And we've got to deal with bitterness. Why is bitterness devastating? Bitterness will destroy child evangelism. Bitterness will destroy this center. How do you know it will? Because the Scripture says it will.

The Defiling Power of Bitterness

Let's go back to Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13. Bitterness will destroy the church I passed in. Bitter people will eventually see that place totally ruined. Hebrews, did I say, what chapter did I say?

Well, you won't find it there. You might try 12. Hebrews 12, 15. Look diligently. He says, you keep a very watchful eye on God. Lest any man fail to draw from the grace of God, and he's using the illustration here to forgive.

If you refuse God's grace to forgive, what will happen? Lest any root of bitterness spring up, and what will it do? It'll trouble you, but what else? Thereby what? Many be defiled. Let me tell you this.

There is not one bitter person on this ground that hasn't already shared it with others. Now, I don't know who they are. But they've shared it. You can rest assured. They'll share it. And they'll be murmuring and complaining.

There'll be an independent spirit, and eventually there'll be a fraction caused, and you trace it back to who? Roots of bitterness in a person that was what? Unwilling to forgive a decision that was made, the way somebody was treated, what should have been done and wasn't done, what they owed me and didn't give me.

You know, the whole route. And it will just literally destroy any Christian organization. And that's one of Satan's ways of destroying an organization. Not gross immorality in the camp, but what? Murmuring and complaining and resentment against fellow believers.

And those seeds are planted in the heart, and they take root down, and then they spring up and they defile. Now, and it all comes when I refuse to forgive. Remember we made a statement, and it's so important.

God is more concerned about my response to situations than He is my situations. God is more concerned how you respond to an offense than He is that you were offended. Because if you are offended, that's an opportunity for you to draw of the grace of God to what?

Forgive. What is the only message that we have that we want to give to a lost world if you would take the whole message from Genesis to Revelation, and you'd boil that message down to the simplest term, what is the message that God wants us to give to the world?

Forgiveness. That's it. The Bible is a story of how God forgives. What does Satan want? He doesn't want you to forgive. Because that, you know, how can you preach forgiveness and be unforgiving? You can't.

You just can't do it. And you can sit there and say, yeah, okay, Logan, that's fine, but you don't know what I've been through. I didn't tell you what that lady had been through that had crippling arthritis, did I?

But I will. It's not very pleasant. She was raised in a Christian family. And her father was quite a bit older than her mother. And so the grandparent, he was such a neat grandpa, and she was such a neat grandmother, that they would love to take the children periodically on the weekend so the couple could, you know, just go out and have a date or something, you know, and they just leave the kids with grandpa and grandma.

Well, the kids were little. They left them with grandpa and grandma. Grandpa had retired first, so he would have them all day Friday, and grandma would come home Friday night, and they'd have them the weekend.

They'd pick them up Sunday and bring them home. Well, a tragedy happened. Grandpa died. And finally, grandma retired. And so the mother one day, and the kids were all, I think, maybe four and seven when grandpa died.

The seven-year-old was now about 12. And one day she said to her mother, Mother, why did you take us down to grandpa and grandma's? And she said, well, because you know, they wanted to have you and you liked being down there.

She said, no, we didn't. She said, why? She said, I don't want to tell you. She said, honey, why? She said, grandpa made us take off our clothes and did bad things to us. Now, would you resent your father that would molest your daughters?

Would you resent that? Isn't it understandable why this woman would be bitter? Isn't that understandable? I can't even begin to tell you. I don't think you're aware of how prevalent molesting in the family is today.

I know when I would teach a freshman class at Calgary on molesting, I would think there's probably at least 10 girls out of 150 that were molested by their father, grandfather, uncle, or brother. At least 10, if not more.

It is so common and it's becoming more and more common because you have these men who are not related to these girls living in the home with these teenage girls because of these split homes. And it's going to get worse and worse and worse.

You're going to have many girls in your clubs that are being molested at home by a brother who's not a brother. Just some guy that's living in the home. It's her stepmother's son. It's so prevalent you just can't believe how prevalent it is.

And I know in this group there's probably at least one girl here or more that was molested in this group right here. And has had some real struggles with it. It really is a devastating and devastating effect on a person.

I got I won't go into that one. That is so bad I won't even share it with you. I'd share it at the college but I won't share it here. This is so bad. But I had to deal with a girl and talk about bitterness.

And this woman, when she shared this with me and her dad was already dead. She found out after he was dead. And she just you know, you talk to her about forgiving I had to show her that I understood. But it was wrong.

That her response to this was wrong. And to be bitter was wrong. And then she thought. And then she dealt with it. And so I want to share some insights. And I just don't know how many we can share tonight that we really have to see this thing from God's perspective.

And it's very, very difficult. Because most Christians that are decent Christians I mean really a growing Christian that's still struggling with bitterness has some real reasons why. I mean they're genuine reasons.

And they're still bitter. And as they rehearse those reasons the hurt. I mean this woman, every time she thought about jumping her kids off down there and thinking about what that grandfather did to those girls and the far reaching consequences of that, she got deeper and deeper and deeper in a bitterness.

This woman that committed tried to commit suicide found out her husband was having an affair with a younger woman and left her. So she found that the only way to handle it is to kill herself. And so she took pills and her kids came home from school and found her on the floor nearly dead.

Wasn't that a wonderful way to handle that? With these teenage kids and they already have enough problems with the dad running around with the younger woman to come home and find mother nearly dead on the floor.

In fact she just barely pulled through. So when you talk to a bitter person this mother that had the arthritis so bad that would not respond to treatment this woman that came to our home that was in our church was bitter towards her son for what he was doing to God.

And he wasn't living for the Lord. And he was just giving them heartaches and she was just so bitter and he married this girl that they were not in favor of. And she says, how can this boy hurt us more and more and more?

They were third generation Christians. Those kids were fourth generation Christians. How could this boy do this to them? And boy when she dealt with it and got things squared away then, well you wouldn't know if she ever had arthritis, either would you know those other ladies that had the bitterness towards their father.

When she came back in to see him, when she came to the college she shuffled like this. She was just 32 or something. She shuffled. She came back in, you'd never know if she had arthritis. She just walked right in.

I said, I can't believe it. I just can't believe it. Her countenance was different. She was free of this bitterness and her body was free of this. That's right. It was just thrilling. Well let's look at some insights here in the Word of God.

Remember you and I may not be able to control what happens to our life or comes into our life but we are responsible for our responses. We've got to see that. You are responsible for your response. And if you resist God's grace to forgive what will you have?

Bitterness. And it's going to trouble you and you will defile men. Let's turn and I want to tell you this and I think it's important that we realize that forgiveness deals with my emotional response to a situation.

We're talking about my emotional response to a situation. Pardon deals with the consequences of the crime. You and I may not be able to pardon but we can always what? Forgive. Pardon may be out of us, out of our hands.

Someone may have done we had a kid that sprayed my car with paint. The guy said, you know, some kid sprayed your car with black paint. I could have went out there and looked at the car and put a curse on this boy.

I mean I don't know who it was but I could have put a curse on him. You know, what kid has the right to spray my car? Well it's not even my car, it's God's car, I'm mad or yes. Was he spraying God's car with black paint?

You know, it didn't even face me. It wasn't my car anyway. And I just didn't get all upset about black paint. This big S on my car or a Z on the door and this spray black paint he put around on the car.

It just wasn't a big deal. I mean to me. But it could have been. If I was building my life around that car and someone sprays it then I could have really it was an opportunity to see, you know, what does this car mean to me?

It doesn't mean anything to me. Cars don't mean anything to me. If you understand. I'm not into cars, you know. As long as they get me there and back that's okay. It doesn't have to be you know, whatever.

Just any kind of a car. And so I had an opportunity. Forgive me, I forgive the kid. But I had to make a police report. If they catch him, what can I do? I can't do anything. It's out of my hands. The police will decide what will happen to this boy because he happened to spray some other cars.

And they're not exactly as excited about forgiving him as I was. And so I had to report it for insurance purposes. I didn't want to report him. I was hoping I could find the kid and talk to him. Rather than get in trouble with the police and get a record.

If they ever find out who did it. But you see, pardon me, in that situation I have no control over it. He broke the law and he's going to have to deal with the police. But I can forgive him. And there's some tremendous books written on it.

I mean, there's so many books written on forgiveness. You know, The Hiding Place, On and Out. You know, people families have been murdered. That Japanese family, did you read that? I mean, the Korean family.

Where the two boys were murdered by the Communists. And then they took over that area and caught the fellows that murdered. And the father went and adopted the murderers of his son and loved them. Fantastic books.

Did you read the Moody Monthly? Of the guy who raped the girl and murdered her? And the parents began to write him in prison and then visited him and shared Christ with him. Let me tell you. You know, something on forgiveness.

I mean, there's some tremendous illustrations. I mean, from what I can get, a lot of good books on forgiveness. But let's look at some scriptural insights on forgiveness. Let's turn to the book of Job.

You know, Job is really a better book than what you think. I mean, you know, when I think of Job, I go, oh brother, 50 chapters of moaning. You know, I'm just not into Job. I'm so glad that I force myself to read the Bible through every year.

You know, because there's so much I wouldn't read. You know, I like to feel like they had tonight. You know, the salad buffet thing. I really enjoyed that. You know, a little of this, a little of that.

You know, a little of my favorite. You know, it's really good. I went to the line and she had spinach. Is the cook in here? Well, Brussels sprouts is worse. Broccoli is second bad, and spinach is third.

But I thought, well, that dear soul, she's been slaving over those hot steam kettles all day. You know, and she cooks spinach. If she cooks it, you know, I can get it down. I didn't want to offend her and say, you know, hold the spinach.

You know, I just thought, I know what she'll do. She'll give me a genuine high speaker, you know. But she didn't. I got about the same as everybody else, and I said, Lord, I'm going to eat it. But, you know, that's what we had to do with the Scriptures.

Oh, I love Ephesians, and I have a little lot of Matthew, and oh, I've got a favorite place in John. You know, we do a little of this, hitting that, and a little here and a little there, and, you know, no thank you, Job, and, you know, Chronicles, you know, I'll skip that.

And, you know, we forget that all Scripture is profitable. We don't believe, we quote it, but we don't believe it. And so I hope you read the Bible through every year, because it forces you to read through it.

Every time I read through Job, I say, I can't believe how much good stuff's in this book. And it really is. It just, I don't know. Do you have that same Job complex I am? You know, someone, it just, I don't know.

And every time I read it, I just am amazed. But, you know, here's Job. You look at Job. Job shows us how to respond to losses. What did Job lose? Everything. I mean, he lost everything. You know, I don't, I've never had much.

And so if I lost it, it wouldn't be so bad. You know, if you don't have much, and you lose it. We always, our house is always furnished with this early nothing. You know. Now we've got some real pretty furniture.

We really do. So if you came to our house, our house is not early nothing. Our house is really very beautiful right now. God has given us a beautiful home, and very, very beautiful furniture. Most of it Ethan Allen.

It's gorgeous. One couple, two years ago, this guy, we met him. We knew his wife. He came home, and he said, honey, we haven't given anything away at Christmas time. This Christmas, we haven't given anything away for a long time.

What do you suppose we should give away? He says, you go in the living room, you write down what we should give, and I'll write down what we should give, and then we'll decide what we'll do. So there's one thing my wife has always wanted all of her life.

And that is an Ethan Allen beautiful hutch. She's always wanted one of them. He wrote, let's give away the hutch to the Logans, and I've never met him. His wife wrote, let's give away the hutch to the Logans.

So they gave us the hutch. We went in Ethan Allen's store just to see what they gave us. You know what they're going for? Somewhere around $1 ,600. So right now we've got more than early nothing. We've got early American.

We've got early American. But we had early nothing for years. Don't sit on the couch. You'll bend the cover. But Job lost it all. I mean, just everything. And you know, he said something so tremendous.

He could have become so bitter. That's what happens when you trust God. I knew it. As soon as you trust God, you know, they pull a rug out from under you. That's what happens. Look at verse 21. And he said, what chapter?

Chapter 1. Pardon me, verse 20. Job found out he lost everything, including his kids. Now let me tell you this. If you don't read that chapter very carefully, you don't realize that Job was not a very good father.

Job was not a good father. Job did not restrain his children. He was making spiritual sacrifices his kids should have been making. And he made them because he didn't think they were. You know it doesn't work?

It didn't work either, did it? He did for his kids what they ought to be doing for themselves. You study Job and it's very interesting. You find out that his kids were not what they ought to be. And God brought a judgment.

Anyway, Job arose and he found he lost everything. He rent his mantle, shaved his head, fell down on the crown, and became bitter. What did he do? He worshipped. He worshipped God. And can you imagine?

Just think about that. And here this guy didn't know anything about the grace of God. He'd never read Hebrews. Isn't that fantastic? He had a real walk with God. He fell down and he worshipped. He lost everything.

And don't you think he loved his kids? Why was he sacrificing for them if he didn't? And he said, "...for if naked I came out of my mother's room, naked I shall return thither. The Lord gave, and the Lord took away.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.". And look what it says, "...in all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.". And how many people charge God foolishly when they suffer a loss of temporal things?

And kids are more than temporal things. You know, there's only two things that you can take to heaven with you. The Word of God, because it's eternal, and your children. The only two things I know you can take to heaven with you.

And Job lost them. And I know it was difficult for him, but he didn't charge God foolishly. Job teaches us something really tremendous in the area of responding to losses. Do you know one of the reasons people get bitter?

It's because they feel like God owes them so much. And if God does not fulfill what they feel He owes them, they become bitter for what they don't get. Now let me explain this. I was sharing forgiveness in one of our churches.

This lady came to me, a dear saint of God. This woman's living with an unsaved alcoholic. They live in literal shack. She has terrible arthritis, and she has to carry water from a creek in a bucket for the water in the house to drink or cook with.

And I'm talking about a lady in her seventies. She's not bitter about that. She has a wood stove. This winter, she's hoping they'll have enough wood to keep the place warm. And you should see the place.

I mean, you should see this place. In good snow, the whole thing would just fall down. Living out under the pine trees. Just really a struggling thing. She's trying to love Jesus. The guy says, I don't want to see you read your Bible.

So she has to read the Bible secretly in her home. This dear old saint. You know why she's bitter towards God? Not because she has an alcoholic husband. Her dad was a doctor. She's living with an old, old, old repubate.

I mean, they're married, but you know, this guy's just a repubate. You know why she's bitter? Because her son died at seven. I didn't realize that. I didn't know she even had a son. You know why she's bitter?

Because she thought that God should have given her 63 more years. And she was bitter towards God because she didn't get 63 more years with her son. After all, how many years did someone live? Three score and ten.

And she didn't get the full three score and ten with that boy. And I said, shame on you. You should be grateful to God for what? The seven years he gave you. Instead of being bitter about the 63 you didn't get.

And she said, you're right. And she asked God to forgive her. And now she rejoices that God gave her a boy for seven years. I said, I know women that give anything to have a boy for seven years. Anything to have a boy for seven years.

And I said, that boy's with the Lord. How can you be bitter? And it just crushed her because she was, where was her focus? On what she didn't get. Instead of on what God had given her. And you take a lot of the bitter people you're going to deal with, it's what they felt God should have given them.

And they think God owes everybody wealth. That's the charismatic teaching. If you're walking with God, you're going to have a swimming pool in the hallway. You guys ought to shape up. Wasn't that right?

Now you get saved and you live happily ever after in a mansion. I mean, really, that's almost some of the teaching. The success, whatever, it's sickening. They haven't read all the Scriptures. Well, let's turn to another beautiful example in Scripture of forgiveness.

Joseph Sees God’s Providence in Betrayal

You'd have to go to Genesis, wouldn't you? There happens to be a guy in Genesis that gives us a picture of forgiveness that's just outstanding. Genesis 45. Here's a fellow that God promised tremendous success through a dream and a vision.

And what happened? Everything began to go wrong in his life. I mean, everything went wrong, but it was what? Beyond his control. His brothers, his own brothers said what? Let's kill him. You know, when was the last time your brothers got together and had a little meeting?

Can you imagine your own brothers wanting to kill you? And then, you know, he was sold as a slave. And I thought, oh, I'm a slave. And then he's in Pontiff's house and everything seems to be going real well.

And his wife starts seducing him. And, you know, he didn't say, let's sit down and have a cup of coffee and talk about this. And, you know, the Scripture says that she did it day after day, day after day.

And he would just try to figure out times to be in the house where he wouldn't be around her. And she'd know when he was coming. And she said, come on, Joseph. And one day, all the men were out of the house.

You know the story. And here he was true to God. He stood alone. He stood for virtue and purity. And where did he end up? Prison. That's just what happens when you trust God, you know. See, what could happen?

Imagine what he had a chance to think about. Then a guy says, don't worry, don't worry. I won't forget about you. How long did he forget about him? Two years. How's like sitting there waiting any day to get reprieved?

Two years is a long time waiting for the guys to come down and let you out. Can you imagine the disappointments and heartaches this kid had? Can you imagine? Now, what kept him from getting bitter? If anybody had a right to get bitter, he sure did.

His family failed him. Looked like God forgot where he was. You know, even people made him promises and let down. Why didn't he? Because he saw God in control of his life. And he says it so beautifully in verse 5.

Chapter 45. Now, therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither. For what? You sold me. But what? God sent me. Isn't that neat? You sold me, but God sent me before you to preserve life.

And then look at verse 7. God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth and to save your lives by great deliverance. Look at verse 8. So it was not you that sent me hither, but what?

God. You were just tools in God's hand to place me where God wanted me. If Joseph would have got bitter, what would have happened? These boys would have been dead. It would have been his turn now. Look at chapter 50.

Because they still didn't believe that he really meant it. When their dad was dead, they said, wait till dad dies. Now we've got it. Now. Now. Now he'll really get it. And you know that dad had problems?

Problems. You know, he never did get straightened out. Do you believe that? He never got straightened out in his life. You know, it says in the Scripture that the sins of the father are visited onto the children to the third and fourth generation.

But it also says in Psalms 103 that the righteousness of a father will affect the children to the third and fourth generation. So you can affect your children with your sins or you can affect them with righteousness.

It's your choice. And that's why we have the biographical sections in Scripture to show you that the Scriptures are true and what God says is true. And you have Abraham. Abraham thought it would be a good idea to tell a lie.

His son thought it would be a good idea to tell the same lie twice. His grandson's name meant what? You can't believe what he says. His grandson, this guy, did he get his lying taken care of before he died?

No. Because when the boys came home, remember they went and he says, You got any more brothers? And they said yes. They come home and they said, Dad, remember he kept one and they were supposed to bring Benjamin back?

And the dad said what? You surely didn't tell him. You had another brother, did you? He still wanted to lie. He still had a problem. And here he was, you know, not very far from the grave. If you read it, you see he just struggled with that.

That family had a problem with what? Truthfulness. And they lied when it was convenient. And even almost on this guy's deathbed, he still struggled with that weakness in his life. But in verse 19, Joseph said unto them, Fear not, for I will tell you again, I am in the place of God.