May it please God to bless our
souls this evening as we meditate in his word. Let us turn to the
book of Genesis chapter 50, the last chapter in Genesis and reading
verse 20. The book of Genesis chapter 50
and reading verse 20. But as for you, ye thought evil
against me. but God meant it unto good to
bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive. We have so many examples in the
Word of God of God's wonderful plans which do not appear to
begin with. But as things proceed and come
to a conclusion, we see how wonderful God's plan is and how perfect
that plan is in being worked out. And really often from what
appears to be a very impossible situation, But without any doubt
the result is that it brings honour and glory to God. And it's a good thing if all
of us realise that our lives, if we are God's children, is
for the honour and glory of God. And therefore we shouldn't be
surprised if it appears things are not working out well at all.
It may appear sometimes that things are working very contrary
to us, in the opposite direction. And it seems perhaps that God
is against us. Well, we can be sure of this,
that God is not against his people. And as we know, as Paul said,
and he had a tough life, that's Paul the Apostle, and he tells
us, and we know, that all things work together for good to those
who love God and to those who are called according to his purpose. And we should realise that that
word is gloriously true and it's been proved and worked out in
so many times in the past. And then we come into situations
And we think, well, this is very strange and this is very difficult
and we often want to ask the question, why has this come into
my life? Well, if we are the children
of God, we can be sure of this, that it's working for God's honour
and glory and for our eternal good. We lose sight so often
of the fact that we are pilgrims on this earth this is not our
home so often we concentrate on the things of time and we
look for natural prosperity in the things of time what a blessing
it is when we're able to look beyond time to eternity to look
to that time when by the grace of God we shall be in that perpetual
place of happiness where there is no opposition, where there
is no sin, no sadness, no sorrow, but peace and happiness and joy
eternally. Now when God gives us that right
understanding and that right grace, to view things in God's
light than it is it puts a right complexion on so many things. Now we have here in this 20th
verse, in this 50th chapter of Genesis, what Joseph is saying. His father had died, Jacob, he'd
buried him, and now his brothers had come to him, and they were
fearful of what reprisals Joseph may have for them. And they were
rightly nervous. And so they came to Joseph, and
were told they fell down before his face. And they said, Behold,
we be thy servants. Now, it's very interesting, isn't
it? to remember and I hope you do remember that of course Joseph
many years before that many years before that some 80 years or
so before that had had two remarkable dreams and in those dreams he
dreamt that his brethren would come and bow down before him
and in the second dream likewise his mother and father And of
course his brothers were very angry because Joseph was almost
the youngest, Benjamin was the youngest, but Joseph was next
to him. And here was this Joseph having
these dreams which indicated that all of the brothers would
bow down to him and they didn't like it. In fact, they hated
Joseph because of it. And as you may follow the life
of Joseph, you know that his brothers caught him when he came
to look after their welfare, and sold him to the merchants,
who took him down into Egypt, who then sold him on to Potiphar,
and there he was, put in prison. Not for doing anything wrong,
but for doing things which were right. And that's more and more
difficult, isn't it? So there was Joseph then put
in prison and he was there for many years until a remarkable
thing happened. Firstly, he was able to give
the interpretation of the dreams to two people who were servants
to Pharaoh, the butler and the baker. And he gave accurate interpretations
and it came to pass. And what came to pass was The
butler was restored to his position before Pharaoh and the baker
was hanged. And Joseph made this remark to
the butler. He said, when you come before
Pharaoh, remember me. You think he wouldn't possibly
forget, would you? There he'd had his dream, which he'd had
interpreted correctly. And we find that two years elapsed,
another two years. Poor old Joseph's there, stuck
in the prison for a further two years. But what was happening
was, all God's plans, glorious plans, were being worked out. And that's really the bottom
line. To realise that God's plans will
be worked out. And we may wonder sometimes why
things are perhaps taking so long or perhaps why things aren't
occurring at all. Well, eventually, Pharaoh had
a dream which he couldn't interpret. And he got all his wise men around
and they couldn't interpret. And then the butler remembered
the dream. And he told Pharaoh, I remember
my sins this day. And he said there was this man
who could interpret dreams. So Pharaoh called him, and of
course he interpreted the dream. He gave God the honor. That's a great important aspect.
He said it was God that interpreted dreams. He was just the tool
that God used. But what Joseph interpreted the
dream, came to pass seven years of plenty, seven years of famine
and Joseph was in charge and then of course you will remember
that Jacob's sons needed food and they came to Egypt and they
found Joseph and didn't know it was Joseph but Joseph knew
it was them and what happened there was they eventually did
come and bowed down to him. And Joseph then told them who
he was. And as I expect you know, Jacob
was then brought up from Egypt and united with Joseph, and they
all were brought to live in the land of Goshen. And that's where
they continued living until this time. Well, they continued, of
course, for many years afterwards. Until this time when Jacob died. And Joseph is there, and the
sons are before Joseph, and they're now really worried what's going
to happen to them. But the important thing that
we've read together is that the brethren, they came, and they
fell down before Joseph. They bowed down, you see. That
was Joseph had dreamed all those years ago had come to pass. But Joseph said then, fear not. for am I in the place of God? And then he speaks this wonderful
truth and it's good for us to ponder this truth this evening. As for you, ye thought evil against
me, but God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this
day to save much people alive. God had, as already said, a perfect
plan. And of course it came to pass
that through Joseph being sold into Egypt and eventually come
before Pharaoh and to interpret Pharaoh's dream and to be put
in charge of all that was needed in this time when famine came
and before when there was prosperity for those 14 years. Yes, and
then for these brothers to come and bow down. Now what do we
see? We see that the brothers meant
it for evil. They thought they would get rid
of Joseph. They hated him. They no doubt
thought he'd gone and he was sold, they'd never see him again. But it was part of God's great plan to deliver,
deliver the many people who were in this place of famine and also
to bring Joseph's brethren back to Joseph. So it was a most amazing
turnaround really. And it was God's plan which had
wonderfully come to fruition. So what we must learn from this
is that sometimes in our lives things seem to be going in the
opposite direction. And it may be that God has spoken
to us. It may not be in a dream. It
may be from the Word of God. It may be a word of direction. It may be a word of comfort,
a word of strength. And as we stand today, things
appear to be going in the opposite direction. There doesn't appear
to be any possibility of that which we believed would come
to pass, coming to pass. Well, if it emanates from God,
you and I can be sure it will come to pass. The only difference
is, we got the wrong time scale. The Word of God tells us, your
time is always but my time is not yet we should not be therefore
despondent if God has spoken to us, if God has directed us
about something and that has a wide range doesn't it? it might be our spiritual standing
it may be our natural life if God has spoken and it emanates
from Him we can be sure It will come to pass, but it will come
to pass in accordance with God's timetable and not ours. And that is the great difference. Well here, Joseph is able to
tell his brethren, really to comfort them. He says, but as
for you, ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good. to bring to pass, as it is this
day, to save much people alive. And now therefore, fear ye not."
Well, perhaps we're fearing, I don't know. There may be something
in someone's life they're fearing. They may fear perhaps they've
got it all wrong. We're told of Joseph when he
was in prison, when he was in chains. Yeah, he wasn't just
dossing around there, he was in chains, in prison. And there was this, these two
dreams he'd had, no doubt, passing through his mind perhaps every
day. And we're told They tried him. He was tried in his mind.
And the trying was this. Did those dreams emanate from
God or not? Were they real? Were they true? Well, he was tried. In prison. As many years. But, eventually,
it came to pass. What a great blessing. What a
great favour it was. and so we're told but God meant
it unto good God meant it unto good you see God had many things
which were to be done before it came to pass yes many things
had to be done many years had to pass by but you see with God
time has no issue really his plan moves on We are so hidebound
with time, aren't we? We expect everything to happen
now. But you see, God has his time. And it's good, therefore,
if God gives us patience. to wait for his time. It surely
is a good and a right and a proper thing. Now of course it's not
always there is a long time lag like there was in this case.
You know we can remember similar things. We can remember the Apostle
Paul when he was commanded of God to go into Macedonia to come
to Philippi and well he was blessed wasn't he in obeying God but
you see what happened was that He was, and Silas, they were
beaten, they were put in prison. And the wonderful thing was,
at midnight they sang praises because they realised they were
doing God's will. And again, that's good to note,
isn't it? There were these two, obeying God, and yet coming into
really tough times. But God was with them. And God
brought about a wonderful deliverance. He sent an earthquake. The prison
doors were opened and they could have escaped, but they didn't.
But the great blessing was this. The jailer who was in charge
of them through this was converted. What a great blessing that was.
And so, things you see didn't perhaps work out as no doubt
Paul and Silas anticipated. But they did work out in the
end. They did work out. And what a blessing it is when
these things come to pass. Now then, we have of course a
more wonderful example. And that of course is the example
of our blessed Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, he came
into this world with a divine purpose to redeem his church,
to redeem those who'd sinned and disobeyed the Word of God,
who'd turned their back upon God. And yet, those who were
to receive the great and wonderful favour and mercy of God to be
converted. Well, it was a wonderful work
and a wonderful commission that the blessed Saviour was given
and He didn't falter. He didn't falter. How hard and
difficult the situation was and it was. He didn't falter. And we have there, for us today,
a wonderful example. You see, the great truth was
that God the Father meant it for good. And it was for good. It was the divine way that Almighty
God had decreed whereby unworthy sinners should be saved, whereby
unworthy sinners should have all their sins taken away. It was through that great and
glorious death of the Lord Jesus Christ. But those people were
allowed to crucify the Lord of life and glory. Yes, the Lord
Jesus was caused to pass through that agonising death in order
that he might redeem his church. Now then, he did die upon that
cross at Calvary. And there were those who were
indeed so pleased because of it but they totally didn't realise
the wonderful significance of the great plan of Almighty God
to save rebellious man from all their sins. And so, we know that in accordance
with prophecy, the Lord Jesus rose from the dead He had to
die. He did die. But he rose from
the dead. There were many, no doubt, who
thought, well, he's now gone. He's dead. There's no possibility
of any of the things which he said would come to pass. He didn't realize the power of
God. It didn't realise the Lord Jesus
would be raised from the dead. The prophecy would be fulfilled. And that death was so necessary
in order to redeem His people from their sins. It came to pass
that which had been prophesied. But you see those who crucified
Him at least it would appear most of them didn't realise or
definitely didn't realise until afterwards what had occurred
but you see the wonder of it was that God's plan again His
perfect plan was being fulfilled and it came to pass We have then
that wonderful scene, don't we, of the suffering saviour finishing
that work that his father gave him to do and indeed rising from
the dead as a victor. Conquered. Oh my friends, what
a blessing it is. We have that wonderful example
before us. Realise that of things which
appeared to be going in an opposite direction. It appeared that Jesus
Christ had died. It appeared that he'd been defeated. And it appeared that Satan had
won the victory. But no. Oh, bless God. God never fails. God is always
victorious. And so it came to pass that the
Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Indeed, the tomb could
not hold him. Because if Christ had not risen
from the dead, then our faith would be in vain. Because there
would be no savior today. Jesus would have come and he
would have died and he would have failed. in that commission
that his father gave him to do. And so we can think of these
words that we read here tonight. But as for you, ye thought evil
against me. And there were so many that thought
evil against the Savior, but God meant it unto good. What good there was. in the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ, to bring it to pass. Naturally,
man would not have envisaged that. In actual fact, the disciples
couldn't comprehend it. The disciples didn't believe
it. Nonetheless, it was true. And
nonetheless, the Lord Jesus Christ did rise from the dead. and he
was a conqueror. He'd satisfied the holy and righteous
law of Almighty God. And so it's a wonderful truth
and a wonderful thought for us as we think of the blessed Lord
dying and rising again as he did. To think that there we have,
we might say, the perfect example for us to encourage us today
when things may appear to be going in a contrary direction and yet God is working out His
great plans His great plans so many places there are really
in the Word of God like this we can remember of course in
a similar situation nothing like the death of the Savior but David
remember when he was at Ziklag he'd had conquests and he he
was given Ziklag to live in and his wives and all the men with
him and all their wives and then they left it and it came back
and they found it had been ransacked and all the people and all the
flocks and everything taken Well, desperate situation. Well, what
did David do? Did he give up? No, he prayed
to his God. He prayed to his God. There was
his refuge. There was his strength. And no doubt Joseph here in the
prison house, yes, with everything against him, would not have given
up praying. pray to his God. And so my friends,
in our little lives, there may be those things which we have
expected and do expect, don't seem to be coming to pass. Well, the Lord has ordained,
as the Lord says, I will be inquired of by the house of Israel to
do these things for them. And so if God has given us a
promise, given us perhaps a dream, and it hasn't come to pass, and
we might think, well, why is this? Perhaps it is that we have
to commit it unto the Lord, perhaps more faithfully, more sincerely. You see, prayer can become very
superficial. it can be that well we we think
we should pray and so we do pray but when the Lord comes and really
blesses us with a burden and a real concern it is then that
we receive the favour of the effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man not righteous in ourselves but righteous because
of what the Lord has given to us. And it's a blessing then
when God gives us the effectual fervent prayer. Well, again,
we can speak of the blessed Saviour. And it is holy ground, and I
wouldn't speak lightly of it. But the Lord Jesus Christ, firstly
in the Garden of Gethsemane, He pleaded, Father, if it be
possible, Let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not my will,
but thine be done. Now, in the blessed Lord's case,
he had to endure. He had to pass through it. He
had to come where he had to die that sinatonian death. He wasn't
delivered from it, but it was a divine purpose of Almighty
God to bring him that position and even to bring him to that
place on Calvary's cross where his father forsook him and he
cried out, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? It was all so that God's purpose
should be gloriously fulfilled. It's a good thing, isn't it,
if God gives you and me that right understanding of such things,
because it did work out indeed for his honour and glory. When Christ died, no doubt, it
seemed everything was finished. But it wasn't. It wasn't. That's why we should never give
up. We should never think, well,
there's no point in praying anymore. No, the Lord will be inquired
of by the house of Israel to do these things for them. And
of course, in this case that we've had here and we're told
God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day and
the reason to save much people alive. To save much people alive. And looking at the case, of course,
of our blessed Saviour, to save many people's souls so that they
had deliverance from their sinful condition and their sinful nature. By themselves, they could never
save themselves. We can never save ourselves. We are lost and ruined in the
fall. No hope naturally. We had to
have a saviour. And what a wonderful thing it
is to know today that Jesus Christ died to save sinners. As the Apostle Paul said, of
whom I am chief. The Apostle Paul was greatly
blessed. The Apostle Paul knew his true
position before a holy God. And it's so wonderful when the
Holy Spirit of God directs us so that we don't think we are
an important person. We don't think. We shouldn't
think that we have any right to be blessed over anyone else.
And it's a great blessing when the Holy Spirit convinces us,
like he did the Apostle Paul, less than the least of all saints
and the greatest sinner. What is that? It's the grace
of God. it's not what natural man wants
it's not what natural man thinks natural man would say well I'm
not too bad there's plenty of people worse than me but when
the Holy Spirit works we don't look around for other people
we don't point fingers and say well I'm not as bad as that person
and I wouldn't do that and the Holy Spirit works in our hearts,
we realise we're capable and in fact we do, in our mind, commit
every sin so that before a holy God we are indeed a guilty sinner
and we therefore rejoice in a great Saviour. A great Saviour who
as the Apostle knew and he was able to declare when he wrote
to the Hebrews He saves to the uttermost. The uttermost, that
means the very worst of sinners. So tonight is a good thing. If
you and I can trace out this word and see how it's relevant
to us in our lives and to thank God that if he's brought us to
that condition and that position that he brought the Apostle Paul
as the chief of sinners. Not a little sinner, not a big
sinner, but the greatest sinner. You won't be able to pat yourself
on the back and say, well, I'm not too bad, really. Because
when the Lord opens our hearts to see what's inside us, shows
us our thoughts, We won't be able to throw any stones at anyone
else and say, well, that person's worse than me. But understand
what the Apostle said. And what did the Apostle do? He rejoiced in Christ his Saviour. Rejoiced in Christ his Saviour.
We have so many wonderful words, don't we, in the New Testament
to encourage us to realise that we have a glorious one who was
willing to die to stand in our place. He paid the punishment
instead. He paid that which was due to
me and you. We deserve death. We deserve to lose our life. We deserve to be cast out of
God's sight forever and ever. Now it's good when the Holy Spirit
convinces us of that situation. And we have to realise that all
our righteousnesses, all that we look upon as being good deeds,
all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. They're not as good,
they're not as clean, as we might have thought they were and it's
the blessed work of the Holy Spirit that convinces us of that
and the result is really that that which appeared perhaps to
be against us was not it was for us because it was bringing
us to realise what we are before a holy God. We may have thought
things are going wrong, all my life's upside down. If God is
working in our hearts, it's to bring us to this wonderful position
that we can understand the Apostle Paul, when he said he was the
chief of sinners. David recognized he was a great
sinner. Indeed, the patriarchs realized
they were great sinners. And yet, what do we see in all
their lives? We see God's great grace. We
see his wonderful favor, his unmerited favor to unworthy sinners. what a blessing it is my friends
for you and me tonight if we can therefore look into our life
and understand the essence of these words which we have before
us but as for you as for me ye thought evil against me and you
may say well I don't think I really did well sometimes It's good
when the Holy Spirit shows us what's really in our heart. And when he shows us really what's
in our heart, we will find that we really weren't very happy
with what God was doing to us. We weren't really very happy
with it. And here we have this statement, but God meant it unto
good. God meant it unto good to bring
to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Now therefore, fear ye not. There are many, many fear nots
in the word of God. And this is just one of them. There are many, many fear nots
in the prophecy of Isaiah, which are so encouraging, really, to
the living Church of God and in the 43rd chapter in Isaiah,
he says, he says, but now, it doesn't say tomorrow, but now,
thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed
thee, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have
called thee by thy name thou art mine now we might want to
stop there I think well this is all really good news this
is wonderful deliverance so it is but Isaiah goes on when thou
passest through the waters oh that's not quite so encouraging
is it oh the previous verse was very encouraging this is not
quite so encouraging when thou passest through the waters but
the Lord says I will be with thee and through the rivers they
shall not overthrow thee when thou walkest through the fire
thou shalt not be burned neither shall the flame kindle upon thee
for I am the Lord thy God the Holy God of Israel you see if
God is for us who can be against us Isaiah knew it. Isaiah proved it. And we, by
God's grace, also prove it. We know that if God be for us,
who can be against us? And then he says, since thou
was precious in my sight, thou has been honorable. Now, every
saint of God, every child of God is precious. in the sight
of the Saviour. What good news that is, isn't
it? Since Thou was precious in my sight, Thou hast been honourable,
and I have loved Thee. Therefore will I give men for
Thee and people for Thy life. And then he says, Fear not, for
I am with Thee. There can be no greater encouragement
than that, can there? The Lord is with us. Fear not,
for I am with thee. I will bring thy seed from the
east and gather thee from the west. I will say to the north,
give up and to the south, keep not back. Bring my sons from
far and my daughters from the ends of the earth. Well, let
us realize that we have a very kind and gracious God. And what we often fail to realise
is this. Our life on this earth is a life
of preparation for our eternal home. The Lord is preparing us
for that great day when we shall leave this earth and enter into
glory. And we won't arrive at that day
in a condition which is not ready. No. The Lord has always brought his
people in that right way. We read, don't we, in the 107th
Psalm. And so he brought them to their
desired haven. And of course, that was the haven
at rest. And we're told he brought them
out of darkness and the shadow of death. Yes, it's a wonderful
blessing that we have such a God as that. And to think that the
Lord will not leave us, nor forsake us. In this 107th Psalm, he says,
they reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at
their wits' end. Then they cry unto the Lord in
their trouble, And he bringeth them out of the distresses, he
maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Then are they glad, because they be quiet. So he bringeth them
unto their desired haven. Well, my friends, I hope we all
have a desired haven. And that desired haven is heaven
at last. And to look forward with gracious
anticipation to that time when by the grace of God we shall
be with Christ, which is far better. Well, these words sent
here before us this evening. But as for you, ye thought evil
against me, but God meant it unto good to bring to pass as
it is this day to save much people alive. Now, therefore, fear ye
not. Amen.