So Lord may graciously help me I'll turn your prayerful attention to the epistle of Paul to the Romans and chapter 8 and reading verse 15 for our text today. Romans 8 verse 15. I'll start reading from verse 14 for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. of God, particularly the 15th verse. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. In this verse 15 we have two spirits spoken of, the spirit of bondage and the spirit of adoption. And as the Lord helps me this morning, I want to really focus on the first part of this verse. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but have received the spirit of adoption, whereby ye cry, Abba, Father. What is the spirit of bondage, and what is the spirit of adoption? Well, this is why I've read to you in Genesis because I think a very good illustration of the spirit of bondage is what we see in Joseph's brethren as they start to become convicted of their sins. and all that bondage and the reaction and the interplay that there is between them and the governor of the land of Egypt that they can only see is against them, can only see that he has their punishment in his sight. And yet, as you know in that precious account, there comes to that point After Judah has come as a surety and stood in their place as we see something of substitution, we then come to something of reconciliation. Reconciliation between sinners that were terrified of what would happen to them because of their sin. And the governor of the land of Egypt only showing them love and mercy. And this is the second part of our text. But ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. It's an endearing name to speak of God as our father and we adopted into his family. We which were far off, we which were rebels, we could only consider that this God is against us and separation is the only way forward. So let us look firstly at what is this spirit of bondage. It is God, I believe it is God's work, you see, to bring us into this state. God was working in these brothers of Joseph to bring them to that point at which they could not forget and could not continue to ignore sin. And that is an absolute vital thing in all of our experiences. To come to that point where sin cannot be brushed under the carpet, it cannot be ignored, it has to be faced, it has to be confessed. And we can only think that when that's confessed and when that comes out into the open that we will receive all that anger of God against us because of it. And that's that sense of that spirit of bondage. Now this is true of the Lord's people when they come for the very first time to have their confession of sin and to start to lay hold upon that hope of mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ. And they come out of that bondage to something of the liberty of the gospel. But as you notice with Joseph's brothers, they didn't always stay there. When Jacob died, then Joseph's brothers were back where they were thinking now he will surely punish us for all the evil we did to him. They suddenly lost, they jumped out of this spirit of adoption and came back into that spirit of bondage to think that now all their wickedness was now going to be repaid to them. You see, and this is a picture of how we are so often. Christians can be brought into that spirit of adoption and to speak to God as our father and to truly feel that we are forgiven. And yet, you see, we can slip back into that spirit of bondage. And so it is not just true, what I want to preach today, and I think As you look in Romans 8, it's both somewhat of an exhortation, for you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. Paul speaking to the Galatians, he says, don't go back to that old way. Don't go back to that way of keeping of the law and thinking that that's how you gain God's favor. For you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. So I really want to look at these two sides, and they're both the work of God. The work of God to bring us into conviction, and yet, you see, we are then not to stay there, but to come and come to the Lord Jesus, and to recognize something of the freeness of the mercy of God in Christ. So let us look firstly then at these brothers. These brothers that had for some 20 years ago, they'd sold their brother into slavery. And I think they told themselves that, as I understand, it was common people that were sold into slavery didn't live very long because they were treated so badly. And in their minds, probably Joseph was dead. probably Joseph didn't exist anymore. And so all traces of their previous sin would be gone. However, they were very reluctant, we read, in Genesis 42 to go to Egypt. Their father, Jacob, was the one that suggested they go. They didn't suggest it. Generally speaking, the younger people know more what's going on as it were on the ground than the older people often. And they would have said, their father was very old, remember, they would have said, well, why don't we go to Egypt? But surely, did Egypt have something of a connotation for them? Egypt, our brother Joseph, keep away, keep away. And you see, that is the message, that is the idea of how we cope with sin. We've sinned against God, Keep away. Keep away from God. If we get too close to him, he's going to punish us. He's going to judge us for it. Keep away. But you see, this spirit that works and draws his people. He draws his people. And Joseph, you see, had come to that place where he could forgive his brothers. In naming his sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, Manasseh I have, God hath made me to forget all my father's house, all my, and he had been able to forget that, and able to come to be fruitful in the land of his affliction, in the name of Ephraim. Joseph had thoughts of love to his brethren, but they still were far off and they were happy to be far off and if God had not intervened they'd have stayed separated for the rest of their lives. And you see that is true of us by nature. We're sinners and if we can keep separate from God then we're never come to be accounted for. We never have to deal with this God and we keep away from him but of course what is so false about that doctrine and their thinking is that we've all got to come and stand before our judgment seat of Christ when we die. We've all got to give an account of what we've done, whether we manage to keep away from him all our lives, we've got to stand before his face then. And so it's a great mercy if God brings us to that time in our lives where we do not, we cannot just get away with it. We cannot just live separate from God. We read that Joseph's brothers came and Joseph in verse 7 of the chapter that we read and Joseph saw his brethren he knew them but made himself strange unto them and spoke roughly unto them and said whence come ye and from the land of Canaan to buy food he questioned them he recognized them they didn't recognize him And then he's going to challenge them. And you see, to start with, they've been, their testimony was, in verse 11, we are all one man's, we are all one man's sons. We are true men. We're true men. We're genuine. That's how they thought. And perhaps if you look in your pathway we can left to ourselves we say we're good citizens, we're honourable people, we're not spies, we're not troublemakers. We're all one man's sons, we're all true men. You see we've just read about, sorry we've just sung of this, Jesus is a wise physician, skilful and exceeding kind. You see, they told Joseph, we are true men, thy servants are no spies. Well, if he wouldn't have been so skillful, if he wouldn't have known so much as he did, he might have said, oh, these are genuine people. They're good people. But no, he knew that they were sinners. He knew what they had done, and he then drew them out so that they came to confess, you see. He knows how to make your sins come before you, and show you, not so everybody else can laugh at you, but so you, it becomes you and God, and God can bring you to that place. And the question is, is that, is he doing that in love? Is he doing that to ruin us? And of course, if you'd have asked the brethren of Joseph, was Joseph loving? I think they would have said no. No, he's got it in for us. He's questioning us, he's calling us spies and that was a serious allegation. To be a spy even today, you're often killed if you're found to be a spy. So they didn't think that this man was for them. But you see, he deals with them, he brings them, puts them into ward, into prison for three days, we read. Um, and then, um... Yeah, and... And then they come out, and then they speak to him, and again, if ye be true men, let one of your brethren be bound. And then, after he deals with them, you see, they come to verse 21, and they said one to another, we are verily guilty. concerning our brother. I don't think they'd said that for 20 years. 20 years they'd carried on and they'd buried their sin. They thought nobody knew and probably Joseph was dead so nobody would ever find out. We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us, and we would not hear. Therefore is this distress come upon us. The realization that we're sinners, and have you come there in your experience? It's a vital place to come to. All the time you can declare that you're true people, you're good respectable people, well then, You don't need a saviour. This physician is unnecessary, but this physician is exceeding wise and he doesn't take no for an answer. He doesn't say, oh, well, you're fine then, you don't need anything. Oh, he digs, he digs, he digs and finds out you do need something. You're not well. There is sin lies at the door and each of us will be separate in how we have done that in our lives. But these particular boys had sold their brother into slavery, a very wicked thing to do. And they said one to another, we are verily guilty concerning our brother. The guilt of it suddenly came right up before them. And so they became guilty before this governor of the land of Egypt. They feared him greatly because this governor had said that he considered they were spies, that he could have ordered their execution. And I don't think any questions would have been asked. They were in a very vulnerable, very dangerous situation, and they realized it. We're very guilty concerning our brother in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us, and we would not hear, therefore is this distress come upon us. And then in verse 23, we read these beautiful words, and they knew not that Joseph understood them. They didn't have any idea that the governor of the land of Egypt could speak their language, because he spoke to them through an interpreter. He didn't come clean that he could speak their own language, the Hebrew language. He was obviously speaking in Egyptian language and then through an interpreter, but he kept on speaking through this interpreter to start with. And speaking through an interpreter gives a distance, doesn't it? You have communication, but you don't really have communion. There's a breakdown, there's a separate, there's a middle man. It doesn't flow as well, does it? And they knew not that Joseph understood them, for he spake unto them by an interpreter. So, he did understand them, he understood what they said, we're verily guilty. And what was the effect of that? We read that in verse 24. And he turned himself about from them and wept. He didn't rejoice that now he had his opportunity to have his own back on his brothers. That was not the spirit of Joseph at all. And he turned himself from them and wept. Well, we see here something of what we read in Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1 verses 4 and 5, according as he has chosen us in him, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Father has chosen his people in Christ, according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. So we see here, we're told in Ephesians that the love of God to his people is not something that, well when they come and ask, and come with repentance, suddenly he has some emotion toward them of love, and it began at the point at which they come in confession, no. We see here, you see, for many years Joseph had been filling storehouses. All those seven years of plenty, the storehouses were being built, the provision was being made, the brothers were carrying on, haters of Joseph, wishing and believing that probably he was dead and pleased that he was. But, you see, he was going to come and make himself precious to these brothers. But to start with, you see, they're going to feel their sin. And this is what Paul in writing to the Romans is saying, for you've not received the spirit of bondage again. You had it to start with. That was the first work, that was what God had brought you, you see, to that place. You see Romans lays the axe at the root of the trees in Romans 3, just to put things in context. Romans 3 verse 20 it says, therefore by the deeds, or verse 19 perhaps, now we know that whatsoever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. This is God's aim. to bring the people to realise that they need a physician. Therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. And you see this is the great message of Romans, you cannot be right with God by the works of the flesh. And you see, then that brings a spirit of bondage as we feel that we are debtors, we are enemies, we are unworthy. And all these feelings of separation were so in the hearts of Joseph's brethren. He spoke through an interpreter. But actually, he wept. He loved them. And he loved them, you see, before They even came to Egypt, even while he was laying up those storehouses. Surely he had an eye to his own brethren. He had an eye to his people. And so in Christ, you see, when he sent his only begotten son into this world, he had an eye for his people. He had an eye for you and I, if we are truly the people of God. Back then, in eternity past, he chose his people. And he was going to make a provision for them. It wasn't that when these brothers came to Joseph, and he suddenly realized that there was this big family of perhaps 70 persons, we read eventually came to Goshen. He doesn't suddenly say, well, quick, we better put some more food in these barns because we've got a whole load of new people turned up. Jesus said, it is finished. The provision of the church is complete. Joseph didn't have to suddenly quickly put a bit more corn in a barn so that he had enough for these brothers. No, you see, it was a provision that had already been made. And this is part, you see, of this revelation that comes to us when we come to the Lord Jesus and realize that instead of Him being just a fearful judge, He's actually our Heavenly Father. And He's actually made provision already for all His people's sins. And therefore, instead of meeting Him and expecting Him to destroy us because of our sin, we start to come to realise that he is the one that we come to love. And our emotions and our affections for him completely change. And therefore we have this turning point in our verse, for you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. God doesn't want his children to constantly come back to this bondage of fear. But you've received the spirit of adoption. to be adopted into the family, to be part of that family, and to be made reconciliation with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. So Joseph wept, showing his love to his brothers. Not in front of them, but we see that he did have love to his brothers. And then he gives a command to fill every man's sack with money. He returned the money. Now that was a providential thing to do. It was a kind thing to do. It was a blessing, really, for these men. But you see, when we recognize that we're guilty, we can misread all the providences that come into our pathway. We misread them all to be God is against us. And it seems that all parts of our life, whether they're in one sense positive or negative, we read them all as God is against us. God is angry with us. We've got to flee away from this God. We've got to run away from him. But you see, These providences were drawing, showing his love, but also bringing out their realization of their own sin. You see, he's demanded Benjamin. Benjamin was the favorite son after Joseph had died or Joseph had gone off the scene. Jacob took Benjamin as being the favorite. And that favourite now had to go. That favourite was demanded. Bring back Benjamin. Now there's going to be this test. Who are we going to listen to? Who's going to be the most important in our life? You see, God demands that he is number one. He is going to be worshipped. He's going to be the top thing in your life. And you say, no, no, I can't, I can't. No, he is going to be. And you see, he's going to work in your heart to bring you to that place where he is everything to you. God is working, and he is working in the hearts of these men. And so Joseph was asked for Benjamin to come, and then they find that all of the money, all of them have their money sent back. And when Jacob sees this, they could only read the providence as negative. They were Jews, they were known to like their money. They were good businessmen. Surely if they'd gone to Egypt and got the corn and hadn't paid any money for it, that was a good deal. But oh, they couldn't see it like that at all. They could only read it as a negative. And you see, when we're under conviction of sin, we can only see that God is against us. This one who is mighty, and also when we come into When we backslide and when then things come in our pathway, negatives, we can only read them if we're not careful as negatives. God is against us. That's why it's amazing when David, when he sinned with Bathsheba and then the sword shall not depart from thy house and all that difficulty that brought David. When David was forced to leave his throne because of Absalom's seeking to usurp his kingdom. David goes up that hill, across the Brook Kidron, and walks up Mount Olivet, weeping as he went, foreshadowing the Lord Jesus Christ, who would go that same way some thousand years later. And yet we read he worshipped. He worshipped. You see, he went back to that God. Job understood it. He said, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. You see that tenacious holding on to God with all the things shouting that God is against you and if you've got a God that's against you then keep away from him. No, but secretly you see Joseph was drawing his brothers. They had to come back. They were hungry. They needed food. They had to come back. There was no alternative. He kept Simeon back. And so in the pathway of God's people, God so orders it, you see, so they have to come back. You see, because he's drawing his people. So that, and that is a word that we read in Jeremiah. I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Oh, but these brothers were being drawn. But if you ask them, was it in loving kindness? Was there loving kindness in the hearts of this governor of the land of Egypt? They would have said no. loving kindness there. If only he wouldn't be there, if only it had been somebody else in that position but this man is against us and he's got everything, he's got all the power because we haven't got any food and we're absolutely at this man's mercy and we don't understand altogether why but he's probing us for our sin and we cannot see a way forward at all. I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. You see this realisation, it's a completely different way of looking at the same situation. To see that the Lord Jesus is doing this with his people, to bring them to himself. As we've read, for ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear. God does not want his people to remain in this spirit of bondage. Joseph didn't keep his brothers like this all their life, did he? That would have been cruel. No, he brought them to repentance. And then you see, there was this issue. Jacob was unwilling for Benjamin to go. He said, no, you will not, I will not let Benjamin go. Then Judah. Judah, and we read earlier of the things that Judah got up to, and it wasn't good, earlier in the book of Genesis, but here Judah stands for the first time as a foreshadowing of the lion, the tribe of Judah, the Lord Jesus Christ, who would stand in a guilty people's place. speaks to his father and says he would be surety for Benjamin. That means if Benjamin got into any trouble, Judah would pay the price. Judah would stand there in Benjamin's place. If Benjamin got put in prison, he would go in prison for Benjamin and Benjamin would be free. Now when Judah took on this responsibility, I don't think he thought it was necessary. I don't think he thought Benjamin would get into any trouble. But to reassure his father, he said he would do that so that his father would allow them to take Benjamin. Of course, as things turned out, and Joseph orchestrating all these things, he made it happen that exactly The thing that they feared exactly happened. Benjamin got accused of owning and stealing the cup, the silver cup, and it was just Benjamin that needed to go to prison and to be a bondman forever. And then Judah, you see, he comes. And he pleads with Joseph. He pleads on behalf of his brother Benjamin. So opposite to what he was some 20 years before. 20 years before he was recommending that they sell Joseph to get some money and it would be better than killing him. That was Joseph's, it was Judah's recommendation to sell Joseph into slavery. And now Judah is in love to his brother, his father Jacob, in love to his brother, Benjamin was prepared to stand as surety. And then when Benjamin was accused of having the silver cup, Judah comes and gives a great speech before Joseph pleading for their lives and honouring his suretyship. You see, that's the difference with the Lord Jesus Christ. When he became surety for his people, he knew that they would defect. I don't think Judah thought he was necessary probably, just to reassure his father. But when the Lord Jesus took on being surety for his people, he knew they would need it. He knew that would get into difficulties, that he would have to stand in their place. But then if you look at this in Genesis 44, Verse 32, Genesis 44 verse 32. For thy servant became shorty for the lad unto my father, saying, if I bring him not unto thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father forever. And here's a beautiful picture here, you see. So if Benjamin did not come back to his father, Judah was forever to bear the blame. Is there not some sweetness here for the Lord's people? If he's covenanted and covenanted with his father to stand in the place of his people and to make sure that they will get to glory, then if they do not, then the Lord Jesus Christ himself will bear the blame forever before his father. Of course, the Lord Jesus has said, he said when he was on this earth, None of them shall be plucked out of my hand, and none of them shall be plucked out of my father's hands. There's a security here. For thy servant became shorty for the lad unto my father, saying, If I bring him not unto thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father for ever. Now, therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad a bondman to my lord. and let the lad go up with his brethren. Benjamin, you go back. No accusations against Benjamin at all, although there was this accusation of the silver cup and Judah would stay as a slave or as a bondman to this ruler of the land of Egypt all the time. You see here we have substitution, Judah in the place of Benjamin. And you see if we are going to be right in our souls, if we're going to come from under this spirit of bondage, how is it going to happen? It's going to happen if there's substitution. If somebody takes our place, if somebody stands in our place, then there can be reconciliation. Well, in the case of our story, it was Judah that very honorably took this role on behalf of Benjamin. but it's pointing to a greater, the Lord Jesus Christ. It was the same if we think of the ten plagues as they came out of Egypt. There was all these plagues and many of them mercifully, Israel was preserved from, they didn't actually get, with the darkness they didn't have and some of the other plagues were specifically told that they were not subject to those troubles, those plagues themselves, the Israelites. But the last play, The Death of the Firstborn, the one that actually liberated them from Egyptian slavery, there was a picture of substitution. There was the paschal lamb, there was the death of the lamb, so that every household that was not had anyone dead was because they had the death of the lamb. substitution and so that is at the very heart you see of reconciliation, substitution. And how this is what the brethren needed to come to realise, for you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption. whereby we cry Abba Father. There's going to be this bringing into the family, there's going to be a complete consternation is going to happen at this point. It was so with the disciples, wasn't it? On the road to Emmaus, they had reached their very bad place, hadn't they? They'd reached their sad condition, the one we thought it had been He that should have redeemed Israel. They trusted Him and now that had all seemed to fail. Calvary seemed to speak of their defeat. The one they trusted that would redeem them and be so precious to them, he'd all gone. It seemed. But you see the Lord Jesus was going to appear to his disciples. And there was going to be that fear in those disciples in that little upper room as it was later on or earlier on with these brethren of Joseph. Because they were gonna come to realize that this one they feared so extremely. All along, he loved them. And that's a tremendous thing. It's completely different, isn't it? If you think somebody's against you and somebody's gonna use all their mighty power to crush you, If suddenly you come to realize that that one loves you and is actually using all his power for your good, that's a complete change, isn't it? It's a watershed moment, as it were. A complete change. And this is what Joseph's brethren were going to experience, and it's what the Lord's people experience as they come with all their bondage. As we quoted in Isaiah, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek, to bind up the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives. Because there's a way out of this, there's substitution. So when we come into conviction for our sin, is it kindness? Or is it anger? Is it God against us when he brings us into conviction of sin? Or is it God's mercy? When we come into conviction, it's a forerunner of mercy. It prepares us to receive mercy. You see these brothers, if Joseph had immediately admitted them and said I'm your brother and just carried on, they would have never come to conviction. They'd have never come to hate their sin. They'd never come to realise their unworthiness. But you see, God doesn't deal like that. He doesn't push sin under the carpet. He deals with sin. He brings them to that place where Christ is precious. Conviction is a forerunner of mercy. Instead of thinking that that is against us, but there's a warning here. Don't rest on conviction. Don't rest on conviction. Don't say, well, the Lord has convicted me. I'm very convicted. Well, it's a great blessing if he has convicted you. But don't stay there. Conviction means you're under wrath. That means that, as it were, the divine justice is going to fall upon you. Except there's something done about that. Do not rest in fear. Do not rest in that conviction. But we need to trust the hidden love of God, that actually behind all these actions of Joseph towards his brother, brothers, he was doing it with thoughts of love and mercy. And you think about in your pathway, the dark providences you look back on, those who are not yet made an open profession of faith, but those who have made an open profession of faith, look back on your darkest times and the most troubling times you've walked through. Does it speak to you as an angry God against you? Or do you see the hand of a God that is too wise to err and too good to be unkind? You see, later on in Romans 8, we have these beautiful words, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God. or we have all these woes, one after the other, come into our lives, one upon another, and we think, God, it must be against us. It wouldn't be happening otherwise. Joseph's father said those words, which you can totally understand him saying, but they weren't true. all these things are against me.' We read that at the end of chapter 42. And Jacob their father said unto them, Me ye have bereaved of my children. Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away. All these things are against me. And so they looked. You could understand Jacob saying such a thing. But ultimately they weren't against Jacob. Jacob had an unruly family. Apart from Joseph and possibly Benjamin, all the rest had showed signs of being most ungodly men. And yet God, you see, was going to use this event to bring them to repentance, to bring them. And of course, Joseph, Jacob died with all his children around him, really a happy family. united with all the schisms and the difficulties that had gone on earlier. The Lord was going to be with him. All these things were not ultimately against him, but they seemed it, and they can seem it in our lives. So we're not to read Providence just looking at the outward thing. One of the hymn writers says, blind unbelief is sure to err, and scan God's work in vain. God is his own interpreter. and he will make it plain. To trust God and to come to that place that we, as it speaks of in Romans 8, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Oh we, when we feel condemned, we feel we can never be free, we're always sinners and we always come short but to come and realise that we have a God that is able to be our And Abel has dealt with all the consequences of our sins. And you see this is what happened. We want to look at that this evening. The second part of this verse. But you see, Batchi have received the spirit of adoption. To come into the family when they were expecting to be expelled forever. To realize that they're part of the family of God. that all things have been working together for good, that all the negatives in their lives have been all working together for this one great purpose, that they might come to be reconciled with God. And it's worth it. It's worth it to be reconciled with God, to be right with God for time and eternity. It's worth it. And so we come to realise and thank the Lord for his dealings with us in bringing us into bondage, not so that we can stay there forever, but that we might be brought into the liberty of the gospel. May the Lord have his blessing. Amen.