Genesis chapter 50. Christ alone is able to cast
fear out of His child. Only Christ is able to cast fear
out of His child. The Apostle John wrote in 1 John
4.18, Perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. Now the natural heart, the sinful
heart that's in man has no reverential fear of God, but is full of a
sinful tormenting fear of God and a fear of death. That's all
that's in the natural heart, the fallen, depraved heart, is
a tormenting, sinful fear of God and fear of death. If left
to ourselves, that's all we would be. We would continue, left to
ourselves, we would continue, unable to call on God, unable
to cast that fear out. Totally unable. But perfect love
casteth out fear. Perfect love casteth out fear. And Christ Jesus, the Son of
God, is that perfect love. He is that perfect love who casts
out fear. That's what we're going to see
in type in Joseph in our text. Verse 14. Joseph returned into
Egypt, he and his brethren, and all that went up with him to
bury his father after he had buried his father." So they come
back after they've buried Jacob. Verse 15 says, "...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 did unto him." Now the first thing we see is
our sinful nature. We see our sinful nature when
we look at these brothers here. Now you remember these brothers
had rejected Joseph. They threw him in a pit and they
sold him into slavery. Way, way, way, way back there,
years and years and years before this. But they had been sent
a famine, and God brought them to Joseph, and they bowed down
to Joseph, and Joseph forgave them. He forgave them, freely
forgave them, and showed them much grace and much mercy. And
he had done this for these boys for over 17 years now. He had
put them in the land of Goshen where they had the best of everything
in Egypt. And Joseph was responsible for
all that. He did that for them now for
17 years. And yet after all Joseph had
done for them, after everything Joseph did, after all the mercy
and grace Joseph had shown to them, here they are now fearful,
fearful that Joseph is going to go back on his word and take
revenge on them. Now, these thoughts they had,
they came from their sinful nature. That's where they came from.
They were afraid Jacob would go back on his word because lying
was their nature. They were fearful he would betray
them because betrayal was their nature. They feared Joseph's
anger because anger was their sinful nature. You see, what
comes out of the sinful heart is just sinful. That's all it
is. Now that's the sinful nature
of every sinner as we're born the first time into this world.
Every sinner can only produce sin. And here's the fact, even
believers now that are given a new nature, we still have that
old nature that often causes us to fear and to doubt. God
cannot lie. He cannot lie. His word is true. Everything God says is so. And
because our sinful nature is to lie and to break covenants,
that's unbelievable for a natural man. To believe that God cannot
lie and that every word He speaks is true. It's unbelievable because
that's not our nature. God saves entirely according
to His Word, and His Word is true. I've preached over 1,100
gospel messages in this place since I've been here. Over 1,100.
And some still don't believe on God. They still don't believe
Christ. You know why? Because to a sinful
heart who lies and lies constantly every day, all the time, God
being true is just too good to believe to a sinful nature. He can't do it. He can't make
himself do it. That's why a man don't believe
God. And yet scripture says, God's
not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he
should repent. He's not going to go back on
his word. Hath he said it, shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken,
and shall he not make it good? He's able to make every word
He speaks come to pass. He's God. He does not lie. God
saves by grace. Unmerited. No cause in the objects
of His grace at all. And to a sinful nature, that's
too good to believe. You know why? Because we don't
do a thing from our sinful nature. We do nothing without a cause. Nothing. God the Father gave
His only begotten Son. And Christ came and laid down
His life for sinners that hated God and blasphemed God. And we
can't believe that by nature, not according to our sinful nature.
Why? Because we wouldn't do anything for somebody that hated us by
nature. God freely, totally forgives His people for the sake of Christ.
And a sinful nature can't grasp that and can't believe that because
A sinful nature won't forgive anybody. That's just so. It totally goes against our nature.
But look at Isaiah 55. Look at Isaiah 55. This is why
God says things like this right here to us. Isaiah 55 verse 7. He says, let the wicked forsake
his way. That's you. That's me by nature,
the wicked. Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord,
and he will have mercy upon him. And to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon. For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. God is totally opposite to how
we are by nature. Now sinner, get that. That's
why you can't believe God in your dead nature. God's totally
different than you and you can't believe that God would do things
as good as our God will do because you don't have it in you to do
it. It's totally contrary to your nature. But for us to whom
God has given a new heart, we do the same thing because we
still got that old nature. We doubt God and we fear God
because we got that old sinful nature in us. Do you doubt God
sometimes? Do you fear God sometimes? Are you full of fear and doubt?
You notice why this happened to them? Their father died. God did something in providence
and all of a sudden it stirred up all the fear and doubt of
their sinful nature. How many times has that happened
to you? Something happens in your daily life and it's against you. Somebody
brings accusation against you. Somebody charges you. Somebody
wants to take you to court. Something like that. And all
of a sudden you have all these fears and these doubts. that
God's not going to provide and care for you. Just because some little, least
little complication comes up in life. That's what started
up in them. You remember after Christ was
crucified. You remember those two saints.
Here's two men sanctified by the grace of God, created anew,
given a new heart, a new nature, and they're on the road to Emmaus
walking along. talking amongst themselves. They
are depressed, they are down, they are doubting, they are full
of fear from that old nature. They knew Christ had to be lifted
up on a cross. They had heard that. They had
heard the word of the prophets and knew the word of the prophets.
They knew Christ on the third day was going to rise again.
The Lord appeared and He withheld their sight so they couldn't
see who He was, and He walked along with them and listened
to them. He did that for our benefit so we could see what's
still in us as believers. And they walked along, and knowing
what they knew, they said, but we trusted that it had been He
who should have redeemed Israel. They're doubting who He was.
They're doubting His Word. They're doubting what He told
them. And they said, and here it is the third day. And our
women came and they astonished us. Because they said his body
wasn't in the sepulcher. On the third day. He said he
was going to rise on the third day. You know what Christ said
to him? Oh fools and slow of heart to
believe. Ought not Christ to have suffered
and to have entered into his glory? We know these things,
but then we have some act of providence that God's ruling
and we get fearful and we doubt. That was what we see in Joseph's
brethren. And that's why Paul said then,
see we got these two natures. One believes God and has a reverential
fear for God because God created that man in you. And then there's
another man in you that's of Adam and he has a sinful, tormenting
fear of God and a fear of death. Paul said, I delight in the law
of God after that inward man. But I see another law in my members,
in my fleshly body, warring against the law of my mind and bringing
me in captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. Oh,
wretched man that I am! Who's going to deliver me from
this?" Well, John said, perfect love casts out fear. So that
means I'm going to have to really start working and striving in
myself and I'm going to have to cast out that fear. Paul said,
I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. That's who's going
to deliver me. That's who's going to cast that
fear out. Christ who is perfect love. That's who's going to cast
that fear out. So God has to create a new nature
in us and He has to continually renew the new man. He has to
continually teach us and continually Christ has to be formed in our
hearts so that that old man is cast down and that fear is cast
out. He's the only one that can do
it. Only one that can do it. Now secondly, we see some things
about approaching Christ. And all this has to do with how
God is going to cast that fear out. It all has to do with how
God is casting that fear out. Now when we look at these things
about approaching Christ, we will see some negative things.
How not to approach Christ, we will see some positive things.
Now first of all, it says in verse 16, they sent a messenger
unto Joseph. They sent a messenger unto Joseph.
Now, they've been with Joseph for 17 years. Genesis 50, 16. They've been with Joseph for
17 years. They'd gone in and out amongst
Joseph. They'd walked with him, talked
with him, knew him for 17 years now. And now, this fear and this
torment's got such a hold on them that they don't even go
into his presence themselves. They send a messenger to go to
him. Now first of all, remember this,
Christ is the only mediator between God and men. He's the only mediator
between God and men. But now listen, there is no mediator
between men and Christ. We don't call somebody to go
and represent us to Christ. Christ is the mediator. Nobody
else can repent for you and for me, and nobody can approach Christ
but me and but you. We have to do that individually
ourselves. Christ is the high priest who
represents God's elect to God. That's the job of the high priest.
He represents his people to God. He's the intercessor and the
advocate and the mediator to God. Scripture says, every high
priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining
to God. To offer gifts and sacrifices
for those men. And that's who Christ is. Christ
came here that he might represent his people to God. That's his
first job as a mediator, as the high priest. He is the one who
presented himself as the spotless Lamb of God for his people. He's the one who had the sin
of his people laid on him to represent his people. He's the
one who bore the stripes of God's justice for his people so they
wouldn't have to bear those stripes. And he reconciled his people
to God, and now he sits at God's right hand, ever living, to make
intercession to God for his people. And then Christ does something
else towards his people. There's a second job of the high
priest towards his people. Because he is a man, like those
he saves, and he's been touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
he knows everything about us, so he can have compassion on
the ignorant. and on them that are out of the
way, doubting and fearful, and in need of that fear being cast
out. He can have compassion on us because He knows our infirmities. He was touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. Now that's what a mediator does, but he's
the only mediator, the go-between, between God and His people. That's
a mediator. That's what he does. He mediates
between God and His people. But there is no mediator between
His people and Christ. Nobody can represent me to Christ. Nobody can go to Christ. Nobody
can repent for me and believe for me and approach Christ for
me. I have to do that myself. A preacher can't do that for
me. No so-called priest can do that for me. Not even my mother
and my father can do that for me. I've got to go to Christ
myself. So this is not going to work
for them just to send a messenger to Joseph. They're going to have
to go to Joseph. But see, that fear and that doubt, that's what
causes you, instead of you going to Christ and falling on your
face and asking Christ to help you and save you, that's what
causes you to call up the preacher and go, hey, will you pray for
me? I'll be happy to pray for you,
but I can't take you to Christ. I can't represent you to Christ.
My answer to you is, you go to Christ. You go to Christ. You
go to Christ. For we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was at all points tempted like as we are. Let us, therefore,
us, each individually, come boldly, not fearful and doubting, come
boldly, believing, to the throne of grace, that we might find
grace to help in time of need. If any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is the
propitiation for our sin. Go to Him. Now, we recognize
here that these brothers are doing what they're doing out
of fear and unbelief. And I don't know if their father
said what we're about to see before he died or if he didn't
say this. I have no idea. But what we see
here though are some true things about how it is that we're going
to be made to really approach Christ. And let me show you that
in chapter 50, verse 16. They said, Thy father, Thy father,
they said this to Joseph, Thy father did command before he
died, saying, So shall you say unto Joseph. You see, sinners
come to Christ in spirit and in truth only one way. There's
only one cause that makes any sinner come to Christ in spirit
and in truth. You know what it is? God our
Father. God our Father makes us willing
to come to Christ in spirit and in truth. Remember Christ said
in John 6, verse 44, no man can come to me except the Father
which has sent me draw him. And I will raise him up at the
last day. And he said again, I said this to you, no man can
come unto me except it were given him of my Father. They came to
Joseph because they said, our Father said, come to you. And
the only way you and me are going to come to Christ is if our Father
speaks affectionately and says to us, go to Christ. Go to Christ. That's when you'll believe Him.
Go to Christ. Go to Christ. You see, when God
commands, we have the commandments of God. That doesn't mean God's
commanded you in the heart yet. Those are God's commandments.
But when God speaks and commands you, with that commandment comes
the power to obey and you will obey. And then coming to Christ
now is to completing the everlasting covenant Word of God our Father. Do you hear me now? Coming to
Christ is to completing the everlasting covenant of grace, the covenant
Word of God our Father. Verse 16 says, They came and
said this, thy father did command. This is the word of the father.
This is the word of our father. Forgive I pray thee now the trespass
of thy brethren and their sin for they did unto thee evil.
Now God the father forgives his people. The believer that he
draws, he forgives us for Christ's sake. because Christ's blood
has reconciled all His people to God and put away our sins
so that God forgives us now for the sake of Christ, through the
blood of Christ. That's why Scripture says to
us, be you kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one
another, even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. And because God Because God the
Father and God the Son are one. And because it's the everlasting
covenant of God fulfilled by the Father and the Son and the
Spirit, it's their covenant word. And because God the Father forgives
His people for Christ's sake, so does Christ the Son forgive
His people according to the word, the covenant word of God the
Father. Did you know Christ forgives
His people too? Listen to the Word of God. Colossians
3.13 says, Forbear one another, forgive one another, if any man
have a quarrel against any. Why? Even as Christ forgave you,
so also do ye. See, God the Father and God the
Son, God the Father and Christ the Mediator are one. What the
Father does, the Son does. What the Son does, the Father
does. God the Father forgives us. God the Son forgives us.
Now notice they say that their father also commanded them to
confess their trespass and their sin against Joseph. Verse 17,
So shall you say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee, the trespass
of thy brethren and their sin, for they did evil unto thee. And so this is what they said.
And now we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants
of the God of thy Father. You see, the only way a sinner
will truly confess our sins and truly ask forgiveness from God
is when God our Father effectually commands us to do so. All of
this is of the Father. We won't come to Christ except
the Father commanded. And when we come to Christ, we
don't know what to pray except the Father give us the words
to speak. And when we come to Christ, we won't confess our
sin unless the Father commands us, confess your sin. He gets
all the glory is what I'm saying. He said in Hosea 14.1, O Israel,
that's His elect, that's His people, O Israel, return unto
the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with you words. God's not
interested in your sacrifice and my sacrifice. Take with you
words and turn to the Lord and say unto Him, take away all iniquity
and receive us graciously by your grace. That's rendering
the calves of your lips. Instead of trying to offer a
bull and a goat, instead of trying to do some work and do some religious
activity to get God to forgive you, He says, go to God and take
words with you. and confess your sin and ask
God to have grace on you, to save you by His grace. We won't
do that until God the Father commands it. That's when we'll
do it. And then we see here now there's
a lesson in humility. How do you come to Christ? When
you do come to Christ by God the Father, how is it we come?
Verse 17, they said, Now we pray thee. Now we pray thee. You see, coming to Christ is
not me doing God a favor. That's what the world preaches.
Won't you let God save you? Won't you do God a favor? Won't
you make Christ blood-effectual? That'd be so good for you to
do. That'd be nice of you to make Christ a success by believing
on Him. No, that's not coming to Christ. Coming to Christ is not you doing
God a favor. Coming to Christ is not letting
God save me. Coming to Christ is begging that
if He will, He can have mercy on me. Now, we pray thee. That leper that was full of leprosy,
he knew better than to come to Christ and come in there arrogantly
and haughtily and say, I'm going to let you heal me of my leprosy
today. How foolish. You ever been to
a doctor, sick and about to die and say, I believe I'm going
to let you heal me? You come in there asking him, is there
anything you can do? And that leper came to Christ
and he said, if thou wilt, Lord, if thou wilt, now I pray thee,
if thou wilt, you can make me clean. That's coming to Christ.
And then coming to Christ is not me accepting Jesus as my
personal Savior. That's not coming to Christ.
They hit their face. And they called themselves, in
verse 17, look at this, they called themselves the servants
of the God of thy father. Servants of God. Verse 18, And
his brethren also went and fell down before his face, and they
said, Behold, we be thy servants. Coming to Christ is God irresistibly
making me willing to own God the Father and His Son as my
Lord. And it's coming and asking God
to accept me as being His willing bondservant. It's not you accepting
the Lord. It's God asking God to accept
you. It's owning Him to be your Lord,
your Master. It's asking Him, Lord, let me
be your willing bondservant. I want to be your servant. This thing of salvation is not
us saving God. It's God saving us. It's God
having mercy on us, not us having mercy on God. Somewhere along
the way, men turned that upside down and started preaching. They put the sinner in the position of the lawyer
and the advocate, and made Christ to be the one sitting there who's
guilty, and made the sinner to be the lawyer who's pleading,
let Christ Let Christ save you. Let Christ be free. Let Christ be a success. That's
upside down. We're the ones seated there guilty
and Christ is the one who's our advocate who pleads for us with
the judge and says, have mercy on them and we just sit there
and say, Lord, please, if you will, you can save me. We cast
ourselves on the mercy of the court and not the other way around.
Then lastly, When He's brought us to Christ and He's brought
us to come there, bow down and ask in mercy and ask in grace,
Christ is the only one who can cast out that fear. Here's how
He does it. Well, let's read verse 17 first.
It says there at the end, Joseph wept when they spake to him.
Now you consider this right here. Imagine if somebody you loved
with all your heart, you had no heart towards them that was
anything but love. And you had told them, you forgave
them, you were providing everything for them, they had no reason
to doubt you or fear you. And yet, after all these many
years, they come to you expressing all this fear and this doubt
in what you've told them. How would that make you feel?
How does a parent feel when our children doubt what we're telling
them and fear us instead of believing our word? But you notice here,
Joseph didn't get angry with them. He wept. He had compassion on them. He
didn't get angry with them. Why? Because he knew his brethren.
He knew those boys. He didn't expect anything else
from them. But it broke his heart because of what they did. You
see, Christ is a compassionate Redeemer towards His people because
He knows what we are. He knows us. You remember at
Lazarus' tomb? Our Lord purposely waited four days before He went
to that tomb, on purpose. He did it on purpose. He's going
to show he has the power, he's the life, he has the power to
raise his people from the dead. And he purposely waited four
days to go there. So when he starts getting there
now, Lazarus is dead, he's been in the grave four days. Here
comes Martha, so full of fear and so full of doubt, just jabbering
away, all the stuff she knew and everything else. And that
was bad enough, but then when he got a little closer, here
comes Mary. Here comes the one that sat at
his feet. Here she comes now, full of fear
and doubt. Lord, if you'd have been here,
our brother wouldn't have died. And Scripture says Christ got
so angry with him. No. Scripture says he groaned
within himself and he wept. That whole scene was so full
of fear and unbelief. That scene was exactly like what
was going on with Joseph's brothers and Joseph. And Christ wept. What does that teach you and
me? It teaches us the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to
anger, and plenteous in mercy. It teaches us, like as a father
pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him. For He knows our frame. He remembers
we're just dust. We're just dust. And so, just as Christ spoke
and He raised Lazarus from the dead, Christ is the only one
who can speak into our hearts and raise that new man. put down
that old man and cast out that fear and that unbelief. He's
the only one that can do it. He's saving us every day, multiple
times a day, showing us that He is our eternal salvation.
He has to do it every day. We have to be renewed in the
heart every day by Christ. And He's the only one that can
do it. And how does he do it? Here's how. Three things that
we see here. First of all, he casts out fear by speaking into
our hearts and reminding us who he is. Look at verse 19. It reminds
us who Christ is. Joseph said to them, Fear not,
for am I in the place of God? Now understand this. Get the
point of this. Joseph told them not to fear by telling them who
he is. He told them, Don't fear. I'm
not in the place to be the judge. So I'm not in the place to take
vengeance. Vengeance is not in me. I'm not
in that place. That's not who I am. Well, you
know what Christ does to cast fear out of us? He tells us who
He is. He reminds us who He is. He is
the judge. He is the judge. And He comes
to you and says, I am the judge and there's no fury in me towards
my people. Because Christ suffered the fury
of God's wrath and he put that fury away so that there's no
fury in God towards his people anymore. He's not going to take
vengeance on his people anymore. He teaches us that in our heart.
The Father judgeth no man, Christ said, but He has committed all
judgment to the Son, that all should honor the Son even as
they honor the Father. And he that honoreth not the
Son honoreth not the Father which has sent him. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, he that hears My word and believes on Him that
sent Me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation,
but is passed from death unto life. There is no more condemnation,
Christ says. I'm the judge. You ever go, if
you went into a courtroom and you were scared to death that
you were going to be found guilty and the judge said to you, not
guilty. You don't get scared and afraid
and doubt that judge. You say, the judge said it. I'm
not guilty. Well, Christ speaks in the heart
and He's the judge and He says, this is who I am. I'm the judge
and I say not guilty. So don't fear. The Lord's vineyard
is His, and He says, I'll water it, and none will hurt it, and
I'll keep it. And He said, because fury is
not in Me. I've taken the cup of fury out of your hand, and
you won't drink it again, because My Son drank it in your place.
That's what He tells His people. And then secondly, He casts out
fear by speaking and reminding us that God works everything
together for our good, for the good of His people on purpose.
He said there in verse 20, As for you, you thought evil against
Me, but God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this
day to save much people alive. From Adam throughout every sinner
in this world all the way down to you and Me right now. Everything
that you and I have ever done has been sinful. mixed with sin
and everything was meant for evil. Everything sinful is meant
for evil. Everything sinful is against
Christ. It was the sin of God's elect that put Christ on the
cross. It was my sin that put Christ
on that cross. It was me that nailed him to
that tree. And yet every sin, everything that's ever taken
place, sin entered in because God decreed that He was going
to glorify His Son in the salvation of His people from that sin.
And so God's worked every bit of it together for the good of
His people and nothing's been outside of His purpose. When
He teaches you that, even whatever you're suffering right now and
the trial you're going through right now, you may be guilty. He said to them, you meant it
for evil, but God's bringing good out of it to teach you who
Christ is and make you bow to Him. Don't forget that. So learn
Christ in it. Learn Christ in it. See Christ
in it. He works everything good for His people according to His
purpose. And then look at this, lastly.
Christ casts out fear by speaking into our hearts the good news
of the gospel all over again. Verse 21, Now therefore, fear
ye not, I will nourish you and your little ones. And he comforted
them and spoke kindly unto them, the word is, into their hearts.
To their hearts. That right there, what he said,
is the exact same good news he spoke to them 17 years before,
almost word for word. Fear not, I will nourish you
and your little ones. That's word for word what He
told them. That's why God saves us by the gospel. It's because
when we hear this gospel, what's happening is, this is why I preach
the same things over and over and over and over again. Because
Christ over and over and over again reminds us of the exact
same good news we heard the very first hour He spoke forgiveness
to us. We're not supposed to be preaching something new. I'm
not looking for something new to say. I'm here to tell you,
put you in remembrance of what Christ has already spoken. And
what He's spoken, and what He's spoken, and what He keeps speaking,
and what He's going to keep speaking. Fear not, I will nourish you
and your little ones. That's how fear is cast out.
By God, through Christ, speaking His Word. Amen. Let's stand together. Lord, thank you for your word.
Thank you for continuing to renew the new man, speak peace into
our hearts, speak love into our hearts, and put down that old
man, teach us that we truly are sinners, that we truly are full
of torment and doubt and nothing but that in the old man. Lord, by your grace, by Christ
abiding within us and speaking this word in our hearts, You
cast that fear out and make us to reverence you with a good
fear and to hold to you and trust you and know that we have free
forgiveness by what you've accomplished. Lord, forgive us our fear and
our doubts and our unbelief. Keep us evermore trusting in
you by your perfect love of Christ abiding in us. It's in his name
we pray. Amen.