Brethren, let's turn in our Bibles
to Genesis chapter 42. Genesis 42. The title of the
message is, Get You Down. Get You Down. Now, at the end
of verse 41, the last phrase there says, the famine was sore
in all lands. And we know this famine is a
picture of our sin, a picture of our depravity. God overruled
this famine. He brought it. It was of His
predetermined purpose. And everything that took place
in the garden was of God's predetermined purpose. We fell in Adam. And because of that, Romans 3.23
says, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The famine is in all lands with
all men. Now, verse 1, we began in chapter
42, verse 1. Now, when Jacob saw that there
was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, Why do you look
one upon another? And he said, Behold, I have heard
that there is corn in Egypt. Get you down thither, and buy
for us from thence, that we may live and not die. Now have you
heard? Jacob said, I have heard there
is corn in Egypt. Now if you were Jacob, and you
were in a land that had no bread, no life, no way to get life,
and you heard there was corn in Egypt, would you seek that
life? Would you seek that bread where
it is to be found? Well, there's corn in Egypt.
There's bread. There's life. And it's in Christ
alone. He's the one you must get to. And to come to Him, you must
get you down. You must come down. It must come
down. Look at verse 3. And Joseph's
ten brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt. But Benjamin,
Joseph's brother, Jacob sent not with his brethren, for he
said, Lest perventure mischief befall him. And the sons of Israel
came to buy corn among those that came, for the famine was
in the land of Canaan. And Joseph was the governor over
the land. Joseph was over the whole land. And he it was that sold to all
the people of the land. And Joseph's brethren came and
bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth."
Now, do you remember the dream that Jacob told his brothers?
Back at Genesis 37. And look at verse 7. Everything
came to pass exactly like God said it would. This was God's
revelation to Joseph in this dream. And everything came to
pass just as God said it would. In verse 7, it says, He said,
Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, My sheaf
arose, and also stood upright. And, behold, your sheaves stood
round about, and made obeisance to My sheaf. Your sheaf bowed
down to my sheaf. And his brethren said to him,
Shalt thou indeed reign over us? Or shalt thou indeed have
dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more
for his dreams and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream,
and told it his brethren. And they said, Behold, I have
dreamed a dream more. And behold, the sun and the moon
and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his
father and to his brethren. And his father rebuked him and
said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall
I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves
to thee, to the earth? And his brethren envied him.
And his father observed the saying. That dream is a picture of God's
covenant word from eternity. Christ is going to have the preeminence.
Christ is going to reign over all. And all his true brethren,
all those God chose to save are going to come and bow down before
Christ. This came to pass exactly like
God said it would. Exactly like God said it would.
Now, here's the point I want you to get. The broken, the contrite
sinner who takes the lowest place at Christ's feet will receive
all the abundance that Christ has to give. You have to come bow down, you
have to come contrite to His feet and you will receive all
the blessings, all the abundance that God has to give. Now first
of all, here's what we see. Christ knows us before we ever
know Him. We wouldn't come otherwise. Now
look here in verse 7. And Joseph saw his brethren.
Genesis 42, 7. And Joseph saw his brethren,
and he knew them. There's a whole bunch of people
coming to buy bread from Joseph. There's a lot of people coming.
But Joseph saw, these are mine. These are my brethren. He saw
them. But he made himself strange unto
them, and he spake roughly unto them. And he said unto them,
Whence come ye? And they said, From the land
of Canaan, to buy food. And Joseph knew his brethren,
but they knew not him. Joseph saw them, and he knew
them, but he made himself strange to them. He did something so
that they wouldn't recognize him. They wouldn't recognize
who He was. When Christ first begins a work
in the heart of His child, He knows us. He's known His people
from eternity. And He knows us before we know
Him. And we don't know. We don't see Him and know Him
and understand that it's Him that's doing the work. We don't
know this is Christ, the Elder, the Preeminent One that's doing
this work. And the same for believers with
trials. A lot of times, usually when a trial comes and he begins
working in the midst of that trial and we don't know it's
Christ. We're slow to understand. But He always knows us before
we know Him. Now, Joseph knew they were bowed
down outwardly. But they got to be made to bow
down inwardly. And that's our problem. You know,
you can bow down outwardly and put on a good show of humility
when inside, you're so proud that you're bowing down. And
all that is is just self-righteousness and self-exaltation and just
glory in that, look at how good I'm coming to God by my will,
by my works, by my will. God's going to receive me. And
we're so proud. One of the things we're most
proud of is our humility. But they've got to be made to
see their sin. That's how you're going to be
made contrite. And so Joseph spoke roughly with them. And
the gospel comes to us in the beginning roughly. Because we
have to see we're worthless. We have to see we have no ability.
And that's a hard pill to swallow. That's a bitter pill to swallow.
For a proud, arrogant, self-righteous sinner to know I can't save myself. But we have to be made to know
that. Notice this though. All the while, Joseph remembered
his dreams. Look at verse 9. It says, And
Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them. Now
that dream is not like our dreams. That dream was God speaking. That dream was God's revelation.
That dream was a picture of God's covenant word with Christ from
eternity. A picture of the covenant of
God's grace from eternity. And when Christ is dealing with
those that God chose and gave Him from eternity, the whole
time He's dealing roughly with us and teaching us our sins,
Christ remembers that covenant. He remembers that covenant He
made with the Father to save His people. That's why He's doing
what He's doing for His people. Verse 9, And He said unto them,
Ye are spies. Ye are spies. That means a tail-bearer. You remember what they did when
they threw Joseph in the pit and then they sold him for 20
pieces of silver and stripped him of his coat and all that?
They took his coat and dipped it in blood and took it back
to their father and told a lie. A beast devoured your son. They
were tail bearers. They were spies. That's what
they were. That's what they were. Here's
what it is to be a spy. You came to see the nakedness
of the land. That's why you come. To see the
nakedness of the land. They stripped Joseph of his coat,
stripped him down to his nakedness. This is the picture of a sinner. You know Adam sinned and he saw
his nakedness. But he had to be made to see
it. And they got to be made to see their nakedness. Now watch
this. Verse 10, And they said unto
him, No, my Lord. Oh, no. No, no. We're not that. Isn't that what we say when Christ
reveals what we are against reveals something? Oh, no, no, no, no.
I'm not a sinner. No, no. That's not me. Oh, but
to buy food are thy servants come. We come to you for life.
We're all one man's sons. Now watch this, verse 11. We're
true men. We're true. Thy servants, thy
servants are no spies. They were Liars. They didn't know who they were
talking to. They were talking to the man they had stripped
naked. They were talking to the one they'd thrown in the pit.
They were talking to the one that they had told lies on. And
he knew what they were. And that's what we've done to
Christ, and Christ knows what we are. You can say, no, I'm
a true man. No, no, no, I'm not a tailbearer.
Say it all you want to. Christ knows you. He knows what
we've done. He knows us. Look here now, verse
12, and he said unto them, No. Joseph said to them, No. But
to see the nakedness of the land, you are come. We can make our
rebuttals and say, No, I'm not. No, no, no. Christ says, No,
you are the sinner. You are the sinner. Now look
at verse 13, and they said, Thy servants are twelve brethren.
Here now, see, watch what's happening. They began to confess what they
are. This is a slow process, but now
they're going to start confessing what they are. Look at verse
13. And they said, Thy servants are twelve brethren. And now
that's true. The sons of one man in the land
of Canaan. That's true. And behold, the
youngest is this day with our father. That's true. And one
is not. Now that's true. That one is
the one they were talking to. Now they didn't say it, and we're
the cause that that one is not. They didn't say we're to blame
that that one is not. They just confessed one is not.
You see, you can talk about Christ being crucified all you want
to. You can talk about Christ going into the grave all you
want to. But until we've been brought to see, I'm the one that
put him there, and confess I'm the one that put him there, we
haven't confessed what we are yet. He said, when the spirits
come, He's going to convict you of sin. Why? Because you believe not on Me.
Christ came unto His own, like Joseph came to his brethren,
and we didn't receive Him. We stripped Him. And we nailed
Him to a cross. And we sat down to eat bread.
We went back to our religion, just like His brothers did. And
men all over the world ever since then have been saying, oh yeah,
We're of Israel, we're twelve brethren, and we're of one Father,
and we got one surety, and one is not, but we come short of
confessing, and we're the reason he's not. It's our sin. Until we brought to confess that,
we hadn't confessed our sin. Well, he's not going to stop.
Watch verse 14. And Joseph said unto them, That
is it, that is it that I speak unto
you, saying ye are spies. Hereby you shall be proved. Now
here's how you're going to be proven true. True. Here's how you're going to be
proven to be true liars in yourself, to be a true spy in yourself,
and you're going to be proven to be true in that you confess
your sins and you cast all your care on another. Here's how it's
going to happen. Now watch this. He says, Verse 15, by the life
of Pharaoh, he's swearing, by the greatest one in the land,
by the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go forth hence, except your
youngest brother come hither. Now here we're going to start
seeing some aspects of Christ and what He had to do to make
His people, to prove His people, make His people acceptable to
God. Accepted, cleared of all our
guilt, all our sin. This is pictures of Christ right
here. Alright? Joseph swears by the life of
Pharaoh. Well, there was none greater
to swear by. And the scripture says this,
when God made promise to Abraham, and God who made promise to Abraham
was Christ, God the Son, who made promise to Abraham. He's
the mediator between God and men. And He's the one that made
promise to Abraham. And when He could swear by no
greater, He swore by Himself. And that's what we see pictured
here. Joseph's swearing by Pharaoh. He could swear by no greater.
And He said to him, not one of you is going to be loosed. till
your younger brother comes here. And we couldn't be loosed from
our sin and our rebellion against God until Christ, the last Adam,
the younger brother, till He came here. Till He came to this
land where we are. Now look, Christ is the one chosen
by God from among His brethren and He's the one sent of God.
Look at verse 16. We see that picture. Send one
of you, Send one of you, one from among your brethren, send
one of you, and let him fetch your brother, and you shall be
kept in prison, that your words may be proved, whether they be
any truth in you, or else by the life of Pharaoh, surely you
are spies." You see, God's the one that He chose Christ from
among His brethren, and He sent that one. He's that younger brother
that has to come into the land of Egypt, and He had to come
into this Egypt to save His people, or we couldn't be loosed. Now
look, here's another picture. When Christ was bound on that
cross, all His people were in Him, and they were all bound
together in Him. Look here, verse 17. He put them
all together in ward three days. Christ suffered that cross. He
laid down His life. He said, it's finished. He went
in a grave and three days later He came out. And all His people
were together with Him when He did that. And then as our substitute,
Christ was the one who was bound in our prison. Look at verse
18. Joseph said unto them the third
day, This do and live. That's what God said to Christ.
He doesn't say that to His people when He makes covenant with us.
He says, live and this do. But with here, this
was a covenant of works that had to be fulfilled and Christ
came to fulfill the covenant of works for His people. This
do and live. This is the picture. Joseph said
unto them the third day, This still live, for I fear God. If
you be true men, let one of your brethren be bound in the house
of your prison. And that's what Christ came to
do. He was that one brother from amongst his brethren that was
bound in our prison. That's what you see on the cross.
And this gospel is what we go forth with as bread. Look here
for our famine, verse 19. Go ye, carry corn for the famine
of your houses. And those called by Christ come
to God without one brother. They come with what God requires.
We bring Christ his Son, Christ the Lamb. Look at verse 20. But
bring your youngest brother unto me, so shall your words be verified,
and you shall not die. And they did so. The only way
you can come to God is to come with Christ. The only way you
can be redeemed from our sin was by Christ laying down His
life. And the only way we can come to God is He's coming in
Christ. That's the only way. Now, when
we behold Christ, when He makes us to behold Him, and He makes
us to behold His work and what He's done on our behalf, when
He makes it personal to you that He's done it for you, That's
when we begin to confess our sins. Christ gets the glory for
revealing our sins to us. Look here, verse 21. And they
said one to another, we're verily guilty concerning our brother. They're talking about Joseph.
They've seen him now. They haven't seen him. They don't
know Joseph's Joseph, but this is a picture of a believer seeing
and beholding Christ by faith. And he says, we're guilty concerning
our brother in that we saw the anguish of his soul. Have you
seen the anguish of Christ's soul? He was pierced through
with the sword of God's judgment. His justice for his people. When he besought us and when
we would not hear him, How long has Christ called and you've
not heard Him? Therefore has this distress come
upon us. We'll be in distress until we've
cast all our care into Christ's hand. Listen to this, verse 22,
And Reuben answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you? Do not
sin against the child. Reuben was the only one back
there when they were wanting to kill Joseph. He's the only
one that said, No, don't kill him. And Reuben says here, and
you would not hear, therefore behold also his blood is required. You know who that is telling
them this? You know who that is revealing this to them? Reuben's
the firstborn. You know who Christ is? He's
the firstborn. You know who's going to reveal your sin to you
and tell you why you're guilty? The firstborn. Christ the firstborn.
Now, if we confess our sins to Him, Scripture says He's faithful
and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.
Now watch this, verse 23. And they knew not that Joseph
understood them the whole time they were talking, confessing
their sin. Joseph listening. For he spake unto them by an
interpreter, And he turned himself about from them and wept. He had compassion on them. And he returned to them again
and communed with them. And he took from them Simeon
and bound him before their eyes. Christ does this. How does He
cleanse us of our sins? How does He purge your conscience? How does He make you behold Him
and make you fall down and confess your sin? The same way He made you to see
your sin. It's Him. It's Him. It's all
Him. He had compassion on us. He came and communed with us.
And He did this. one from amongst them and bound
him right before their eyes. And they sat there and watched
this one brother being bound before them so they could go
free. That's where we got to be brought.
We got to be brought to see Christ was bound so that we could go
free. Now watch what happened. That's
when Christ begins to open the storehouse to us. That's when
Christ begins to open the storehouse to us. Verse 25, Then Joseph
commanded to fill their sacks with corn, and to restore every
man's money into his sack, and to give them provision for the
way, and thus did he unto them. Christ has the authority to give
the command. He's laid down His life and redeemed
His people. Everybody Christ died for, Their
sins are put away. He bore the sins of His people. Like pictured in the scapegoat,
He bore the sins of His people. The Lord laid on Him the iniquity
of us all and He bore the sins of His people into a land not
inhabited. Their sins are gone. And He's
taken care of the transgression that we committed in Adam. He
made an end of it. And brethren, He's entered into
the presence of God. And he's representing his people.
And when he gives the command as the head of his church, his
command is, fill their sack with corn now. I've brought them down. I've brought them to confess,
to see me and confess their sin and to see their need. Now you
start filling their sack with corn, with bread, with life. And he's the life. And restore
unto them their money. He restores unto us everything
we lost in Adam and more. He makes it an eternal restoration
to where we cannot fall again, because He's God and everything
He did was eternal, so we can't fall again. And He gives us provision
for the way. The way to where? The way to
God. You need righteousness, you need holiness, you need redemption,
you need wisdom, you need the glory of God to come into God's
glory. And He gives you all that provision. And every other provision
in his life, if he gives you that provision, he's going to
give you anything you need in this life. He's not going to
lose one of his people, and nothing's going to separate us from him.
And that's what we see pictured here now. Watch this. And so
the child of God is brought to be astonished at God's amazing
grace. Now, I think what I'm about to
read here is a negative, and we're going to see that next
week. Because this came to them in such amazement that their
hearts failed and they thought, God, this was against them. But
what you see here is astonishment. You see amazement. And when you've
made to see Christ and see what He's done for you and brought
to be bowed down His feet inwardly in your heart in true faith,
you see how amazing God's grace is. And it's astonishing to you. It's almost too good to be true.
Look at this, verse 26. And they laid their asses with
the corn, and they departed thence. Christ always makes His people
obedient. That's obedience, what you see, a picture of obedience.
And as one of them opened his sack to give his ass provender
in the inn, he's going to feed his donkey, he has spied his
money. That was the money he paid. You
see, Christ's salvation is free. He's not going to take your money.
He came to give salvation and restore what we lost in Adam.
He restored that which he took not away. So he's not taking
anything from us, he's come to restore to us. And there it was. He said, he aspired his money
for behold it was in his sack's mouth and he said unto his brother,
my money is restored. And lo, it's even in my sack.
Christ not only restored us into God's favor, into God's presence,
into God's holy habitation in heaven. He comes and restores
us in our heart, in the sack, in this earthen vessel. Now watch
this. He says, and their heart failed
them. And they were afraid. That's
a good thing. You know what the beginning of
wisdom is? The fear of God. the fear of God. They were afraid. And they said one to another,
what is this that God's done to us? That's where you're going
to be brought to say, what is this God has done to us? I want to try to illustrate this.
I said to you my main point is this, if you're going to ever
be saved by God's grace, you've got to be brought down to the
lowest place, to Christ's feet, See, Christ condescended lower
than anybody ever in history. And that's the fulfillment of
the law. Love to God and His brethren. Stoop the lowest anybody
could stoop. He said, He that is the least
in the kingdom of God is the greatest, and that's Christ. And if you're going to be saved
by Him, you've got to be brought to the least place. And I said,
His feet. Down. Get you down thither. Let
me see if I can illustrate this, and this is, you might think,
an odd way to illustrate it, but this just occurred to me.
When I was a child, my parents had this big, old, giant, long
car back in the 70s. I think it was a Pontiac Bonneville,
the first car that I can remember them having. And I'm not sure this car had
air conditioner, or maybe we just didn't ever use it, I don't
know. But this car had one of those
vents, you know, down by the, they used to put down by the
leg that would just open up. And that's where, when you turned
it on, vent, that was the vent, air just coming in from the outside.
And so when we would drive home at night in the summer, if you
sat up in that car, it's hot in that car. But my favorite
place to ride, this was before seatbelts, my favorite place
to ride was to get in the back floorboard of that car. and lay
over that hump. You know that big hump? Melinda,
I told Emma this the other day and she said, well we got a hump
like that in our car. I said, no we don't. Everything
was bigger in the 70s. And we'd lay, I'd lay down right
there on that lowest place in that car. In that cool breeze. Just come under that seat. And
that was the most comfortable place in the whole car. If you
sat up and you were up there in that car riding all dignified,
you was hot and miserable. But if you were down there in
that lowest place, it was pleasant. We got to come down to the lowest
place. The arrogant, haughty sinner, it's going to get hot. It's going to get hotter. That
sinner that bows down to Christ's feet, he gets all the comfort
of Christ and His blessing. Amen. Let's stand together, brethren.
We'll be dismissed for a little prayer. Father, we thank You for the
Word. I pray that You'd bless it, make
it effectual, make us to hear it, make us to bow, make us to
see Christ as all in an all. Lord, we really, really need
that. We need You to make it effectual.
And we need You to teach us here, just as we saw this picture of
Christ teaching His people. We need You to teach us, to bring
us down. to robe us, to do everything
for us. And Lord, we pray that You do
this now as You see fit, according to Your eternal purpose, for Your honor and glory. Pray
for Your preachers everywhere today, that You'd give them liberty.
Pray for Your brethren, that You'd make them hear. Pray for
those, Lord, that You're calling right now. We've got so much to be thankful
for. We're so thankful, Father. In Christ's name we pray, amen.