Well, it's good to see everybody
out tonight. Won't have to call the sheriff
for crowd control, that's for sure. But the Lord said, where two
or three gather in my name, I'll be in the midst of them. So let's
get a hymn on, since there's a trio here tonight, crew, we're
gonna have to sing, we're gonna sing out. We'll sing one hymn,
we'll sing hymn number 127, Rock, Hallelujah, What a Savior. Man of sorrows, what a name for
the Son of God who came, What a Savior! Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
In my place condemned He stood, Hallelujah, what a Savior. Guilty, violent, helpless, weak,
spotless Lamb of God was He. Full of atonement, can it be? Hallelujah, what a Savior. Lifted up was He to die. It is finished was His cry. Now in Him exalted high. Hallelujah! What a Savior! When He comes, our glorious King,
All His ransom won't do. Then anew this song we'll sing,
Alleluia, what a Savior. Here's Crow after the night.
Crow, you can say, well, if they'd have been here, he'd have told
them. Genesis chapter 50. The title
of my message tonight is Our Unbelief. I'm going to read verses
15 through 21. And when Joseph's brethren saw
that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure
hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we have
done unto him. And he sent a messenger unto
Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,
So shall you say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the
trespass of thy brethren and their sin, for they did unto
thee evil. And now we pray thee, forgive
the trespass of the servants of God, of thy father. And Joseph
wept when they spake unto him. His brethren also went and fell
down before his face, and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.
And Joseph said, Fear not, for am I in the place of God. But
as for you, ye thought evil against me, but God meant it for good
to bring to pass as it is to this day to save much people
alive. Now therefore, fear ye not. I will nourish you and your
little ones. And he comforted them and spoke
kindly unto them. Let us pray. Our Father, we come
in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, who is King of kings
and Lord of lords. the subject of this great book,
the Bible. For he said that the scriptures
speak of him. They testify of him. The declaration of the book is
all the prophets gave witness to him. All the law, the book,
and the prophets. We are thankful that we can see
him on every page. Pray, Father, for those who are
sick and going through trials, those who are away from us for
whatever reason. Pray you'll bring them safely back to us.
Pray for Loretta. She's having this head cold. We pray, Lord, that's all it
is. You take care of her and bring
her back to a good measure of health. Pray for those of our shut-ins.
Watch over them. Help us tonight as we gather
here to hear the gospel clear and plain. We pray in Christ's
name. Amen. Now I didn't read it, but what
leads up to this passage is the embalming and the mourning that
follows the death of Jacob. Now the embalming lasted 40 days,
the Egyptian type of embalming did, and involved the removal
of all the internal organs and the immersion of the body into
a pickling solution that served to preserve the body. It works
very well. As you know, they dig up mummies
today and they still have their skin on them, still have their
bones intact. This was not a practice among the tribes, however. The
Jewish tradition was to bury as soon as possible and quickly.
They usually, if they had it near a burial place, they would
merely wash the body and then wrap it and put it in the ground
that day. But like I said, it was not a
practice among them that is as embalming as the Egyptians did,
but was employed for the fact that they were going to make
a long journey from Egypt to bury Jacob at Machpelah along
with Abraham and his wife. It was about 70 days that they
mourned him, according to the passage I haven't read, It is
a great mourning of the Egyptians. They actually named the place,
the place of the Egyptian mourning. And though it is no real record
of the brethren mourning, I am sure they did, but the Egyptians
are mentioned because they had great respect for Joseph because
of what he had done in Egypt. And after Jacob was buried, we
have the account of the reaction of the brethren in their thoughts
toward Joseph, which I just read to you in verses 15 through 17.
Now their words that reveal their scheming plot are born of guilt
for what they had long ago done to their brother. It says this,
And the Joseph's brethren, in verse 15, saw that their father
was dead. They said, Joseph will peradventure
hate us, and will certainly require us all the evil which we did
to him. And so they sent a messenger
unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died so
shall you say to Joseph forgive I pray thee now the trespass
of thy brethren and their sin for they did unto thee evil and
now we pray thee forgive the trespass of thy servants of the
God of thy father and Joseph wept when he heard them speak
now what is going on here is they're guilty and so they devise
a plan to get Joseph to forgive them their excited conscience
was their problem, and the excited conscience accuses them of wicked
deeds, and as the conscience always does, it proposes a plan
to remedy the situation and remove the fear of punishment. Here's
their plan. They'll tell Joseph that Jacob commanded that he
forgive us of our trespasses against him. Now, there's no
record of Jacob having done this. In fact, it was an all-out lie.
It was an all-out lie. The thing about the conscience,
it never operates in the realm of mercy. It never operates in
the realm of grace and therefore has no place in the forgiveness
of sin. It always works in the realm
of fear and punishment. It always proposes a plan and
a remedy that never works. If conscience is found in the
realm of grace in scripture, it is there as a silent witness
to the effectual work of Jesus Christ, which removed any ground
upon which the conscience can accuse. If you're not guilty,
then there's no room for accusation. The plan that conscience instigated
was simple with these boys. When they found fear, they're
afraid that Joseph might retaliate for what they had done. They
basically said, let's lie to Joseph. They sell Joseph a lie. They plotted to use the name
of their dead father since he could not challenge their words
to gain forgiveness for what they had done to Joseph years
before. They even brought in the name
of Joseph's God. Forgive us in the name of your
father's God, they said. This flawed strategy was born,
as all are, of unbelief. Joseph had long before forgiven
these brethren. back in chapter 45 verses 1 through
5, it says, Then Joseph could not refrain himself before them
that stood by him, his brethren before him. And he cried, Cause
every man to go out from me. There stood no man with him,
while Joseph made himself known to his brethren. And he wept
aloud. The Egyptians in the house of
Pharaoh heard, and Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph.
Doth my father yet live? and his brethren could not answer
him, for they were troubled at his presence. And Joseph said,
Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near, and he said,
I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold to Egypt. And they thought,
Be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that ye sold me hither,
for God did send me before you to preserve life. So Joseph is
already forgiving them, but they don't believe that. They have
a problem with the idea that they can't be forgiven, because
they are guilty men, and they're full of unbelief. The words of
Billy Shakespeare was, conscience makes cowards of us all, and
it rings very true. And believers are often plagued
with doubts when they recall their former rebellious sinful
state. Have we all not at times wondered how we could possibly
have been forgiven when we look at our life and regurgitate our
sin and frailty and weakness and untoward thoughts? What I've
found about introspection, that is, looking inward, it is a gateway
to despair. And it's always a gateway to
despair. It never, ever does any good. What has happened before
is gone and nothing can be done about it. Scripture says if God
should mark iniquities, Psalm 130, if God should mark iniquities,
nobody would stand. So that means if anybody stands
before God, accepted before God, the truth is that He doesn't
mark their iniquities. That's the truth. It goes on
to say in Psalm 130, if God should mark a nigger, who shall stand?
But there is forgiveness with thee. God has forgiven you. And when Joseph heard their ploy,
he wept. It doesn't say why, but probably
these tears were tears of exasperation. Their unbelief in the face of
his obvious kindness was amazing. Sometime our Lord got exasperated
with the disciples at their lack of faith and lack of belief. They were Joseph's brethren,
and he loved them, his beloved brethren. And when they saw his
tears, they carried their scheme to the next level. They bowed
down before him and put themselves, put themselves before him as
servants. We are thy servants. This was
manufactured humility to gain pity and save hides. It's been
used as a ploy many times. The prodigal son coming back
to his father's house, assuming that his father didn't love him
anymore because of what he had done, came back and said, I'll
be your servant. The father said, you're not going
to be my servant. You're my son. It says of the children of God
in Galatians that we're no more servants. We're sons. and if sons, then we're heirs,
and heirs of God." This manufactured humility to
gain pity and say their hides didn't work. You see, they're
bowing down before Joseph intimated worship, and Joseph would have
none of that. Twice in the Revelation, John
bowed down to angels. In Revelation 19.10 and Revelation
22.9, And the angel said, don't do
that. I'm a servant of God, like you are. I'm a creature. Worship
God. Worship only God. Joseph answered
them this way. In verse 19, Joseph said to them,
fear not, for am I in the place of God? That's a question he's
asking. Am I in the place of God? Joseph said, basically, am I
God? Am I God? Are you falling down
before me to ask forgiveness of me and claiming to be my servants,
trying to keep me from showing vengeance upon you? Am I God
to whom both forgiveness and vengeance belong? No man can
forgive but God, Scripture says. Jacob said the same thing to
Rachel when she blamed him for her barrenness. Rachel didn't
have any children. She was upset about it. She blamed
Jacob. Here's what he said in chapter 30, verses 1 and 2. It says, When Rachel saw that
she bared Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister, and
said unto Jacob, Give me children, or I'll just die. Give me children,
or else I die. And here was Jacob's answer.
It's the same thing Joseph said. Jacob's anger was kindled against
Rachel, and he said, Am I in God's stead? Who hath withheld
from thee the fruit of thy womb? Can I make you have babies? Can
I keep you from having babies? I'm not God. I'm not God. Therefore, when these brethren
bowed down and acted, if forgiveness or vengeance was in the hands
of Joseph, he said, I'm not God. That's God's business. And Joseph
settled the matter by declaring God's sovereignty in the sinful
acts of his brethren and the placement of Joseph in this point
of history in the life of his people. He says, but as for you,
in verse 20, you thought evil against me. No doubt about that. But God meant it for good, or
meant it unto good, to bring to pass as it is today, this
day, while you stand before me, to save much people alive." Joseph
is declaring God's sovereignty in all things. Their sin was
real, their act was evil, their deeds were evil against Joseph,
their hatred was real against Joseph, and it was according
to God's plan. is according to God's plan. The
consequence of their hatred and evil was the exaltation of Joseph. And he was cast down by Potiphar's
wife into prison. He was forgotten in prison and
finally remembered. All of that was to prepare him
for the exaltation that he was to have. All of that, all the
occurrences that brought the twelve tribes to this day, this
hour, this moment, are the result of the providential purpose of
God. God does all things well, and He does as He pleases in
heaven and earth and all the deep places. Job chapter 23 verse 13 and 14,
it says this, speaking of God, but he is of one mind, and who
can turn him? What his soul desires, even that
he doeth. For he performeth the thing that
is appointed for me, and many such things are with him. This
is God. He does as he pleases, and that's
what Jacob says. You meant it for evil, but God
meant it for good. Joe said, I'm not God, but as
for me, especially as it relates to you and what you have done,
you thought evil against me, but God meant it to good to bring
to pass as to what has transpired to this moment, this day, to
save much people alive. Then in verse 21, he says this
to them, now therefore, remember they said they were afraid. That's
why they made up the lie. That's what they did. He said,
fear not. That's one phrase that's repeated
time and time and time again in Scripture. And remember, Scripture's
written to God's people. Fear not. Why would God have
to say fear not so many times in Scripture? Because we by nature
are fearful people. We're afraid of things. We're
afraid of things. Fear not. I will nourish you
and your little ones. And he comforted them and spake
kindly to their heart. To their heart. The Lord looked
at his disciples, and they looked at the multitude of religious
men around them, the few twelve that stood with him. And they
were full of fear and wonder as our Lord rebuked the powerful
men of the day. And our Lord looked at them and
said, Fear not, little flock. It's the Lord's pleasure to give
you the kingdom. And he said he spoke to them,
or he spoke tenderly. He spoke kindly. If you have
a marginal reading, you spoke to their heart. In Isaiah chapter
40, this is the job of every preacher of the gospel. This
was Isaiah's job, and it's what the Lord does for his people.
In Isaiah chapter 40, it says, Comfort ye. Comfort ye, my people,
saith your God. Speak ye comfortably. And that
word comfortably means speak to the heart. Speak to the heart. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished. Our warfare
is done. Christ has been victorious. Her
iniquity is pardoned. And she hath received double,
or at the Lord's hand, double for all her sins, payment for
sin and imputation of a perfect righteousness. And this is a
picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, this episode we have in the life
of Joseph. Our Lord Jesus Christ came to
his own. They received him not. He was hated and despised and
rejected and acquainted with grief. He was the stone that
the builders refused as he had become the head of the corner.
He had been made both Lord and Christ. He stood accused before
the court of Caiaphas and the kangaroo court of Rome. We stood in the courtyard and
cried, crucify him, crucify him, let his blood be on our heads.
We nailed him to the cross, mocked him, wagged our tongues against
him, crying, we will not have this man reign over us. We satisfied
our bloodlust, vented our venom on Jesus Christ. And what did
he say? Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do. But as for you, you thought evil
against me. But God meant it for good, to
bring to pass as it is this day, to save much people alive. Father, bless this strong understanding,
we pray in Christ's name, Amen.