Let's be turning to Genesis chapter
45. Genesis 45, now following, remember
Joseph had proved his brethren to see whether they loved Benjamin
and their father Jacob, whether they cared for him and had regard
for him unlike they had done to him. And he sees that they
do. I mean, Judah speaking as the
shorty of his brother and the representative of his brethren
shows Joseph the work that God had done in their hearts. And
so now he can contain his emotion no longer. Let's read our text,
which is the first five verses here. Then Joseph could not refrain
himself before all them that stood by him. And he cried, cause
every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him,
while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren." He had no
more interpreter. It was just Joseph speaking to
his brethren directly. And now there begins a warm reconciliation
between them. And he wept aloud, and the Egyptians
in the house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said unto his brethren,
I am Joseph. Doth my father yet live? And
his brethren could not answer him, for they were troubled at
his presence." They're trying to process this. And Joseph said
unto his brethren, come near to me, I pray you. And they came
near. And he said, I am Joseph your
brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now therefore, be not grieved
nor angry with yourselves that ye sold me hither, for God did
send me before you to preserve life. So there's a lot here,
so that's why we're just going to look at these first five verses
to see how that the Spirit of God is testifying to you, revealing
to you Christ. He's the one whom we must hear. He's the prophet of whom the
Father hath chosen, who the Father hath raised up and sent to you,
he's the one that's going to lead you into the promised land,
Christ Jesus. So first, we're gonna see, I'll
give you our three points here. First, we'll see how that Christ
reveals himself to his brethren in the sacrifice of himself on
the cross. When he sacrificed himself He
stood alone. He did this alone for his people.
And this is how we know our brother. This is how he makes known to
us who the Christ is and why we need him. Then, secondly,
we'll see how that Christ made himself known to his brethren
in his resurrection from the dead. To make known to us that
this is the Christ. Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ,
the Son of God, sent of the Father to save us from our sins and
to know what he has accomplished for us. And then finally, we
see how our Lord comforts his people, his brethren, with the
revealed sovereign will of God in the whole matter. How that
this is the will of God for you, brethren. So, first, we see how
Christ revealed himself to his brethren in his work of redemption
on the cross. Let's read verse 1, because this
is where I'm taking this from. Verse 1, Then Joseph could not
refrain himself before all them that stood by him. And he cried,
cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with
him while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. Now nothing is so compelling
about our Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing reveals him in so compelling
a manner as when our Lord Jesus Christ sacrificed himself on
the cursed tree in the room instead of his people as our substitute,
as our surety. to obtain our life and salvation,
to obtain the forgiveness of our sins, when he satisfied the
debt of his people, to deliver us from the hand of justice. And so in the sacrifice of Christ,
it ultimately reveals to us, it makes known to us, the love
of God, our Father. For God so loved the world, that
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son
into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through
him might be saved. The sacrifice of Christ reveals
to his people the love of God for us, the love of Christ for
me, a sinner, that he would do this for me. Now, it wasn't understood
at first when the disciples, Christ had just been baptized
by John the Baptist, and John sees Christ coming, and he has
some disciples standing there, and he said, behold, the Lamb
of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. And they didn't
fully understand what that meant, that he is the Lamb of God, but
they went after him. And man doesn't know what is
meant by these things, but Christ came as the servant of God to
accomplish our salvation. He came weak and lowly in humility
to fulfill the will of God on the behalf of his people, for
his people. And then he comes. And as the
time approaches, he's doing all these wonderful works. And as
the time approaches, he begins to declare these things unto
his disciples. And his disciples are thinking,
Lord, are you now going to establish the kingdom? Lord, when are you
going to establish this kingdom that we've been looking for and
expecting? Where is this kingdom and establishment of the Jews
in the world? When is this going to happen?
Now, let's see this in Mark chapter 8. Mark chapter 8 in verse 31
through 33. We're told he began to teach
them. that the Son of Man must suffer
many things and be rejected of the elders and of the chief priests
and scribes and be killed and after three days rise again."
And he's declaring his redemption. He's making known to his disciples
what he's come to do and will soon do. And he spake that saying
openly. And Peter took him and began
to rebuke him. And I can understand Peter. I
think that you can understand Peter and the blindness that
he had to these things, not understanding these things. He's wondering,
well, If Christ has come and he's come to rally the people
to himself, if he's come to gather the people to himself in order
to establish the kingdom of God, well, why are you talking about
these things that sound like you're being defeated by your
enemies? Don't talk like that, Lord. You don't want to discourage
people from coming to you if you're going to die. Don't talk
like that. But when he had turned about
and looked on his disciples, who were standing and nodding
with Peter, like, yeah, yeah. He looked on his disciples, he
rebuked Peter, saying, get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savest
not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men. And so the disciples had their
hearts set on fleshly things, a fleshly, earthly kingdom. Thinking
that this was the coming of the Messiah. This is how he would
establish his kingdom for his people. So Peter thinks he's looking
out for the Lord, but Peter's speaking according to the flesh.
Because he doesn't yet understand the purpose of Christ's coming
as detailed by the prophets. who spoke of his coming in humility,
who spoke of his suffering, who spoke of what he must do for
his people, and now he was accomplishing that. And it shows us that Peter,
like we by nature, didn't understand how a man may be just with God,
that it's not according to fleshly things, but according to his
grace and purpose for us in the Lord Jesus Christ, which he manifests
and makes known to us. So our Lord had a work to do
for his people because we cannot save ourselves with our good
works or our law keeping or our religiosity. We can't do it. And naturally we think that's
how it works. This is what pleases God. But the Lord by Christ Jesus
in the gospel shows us that our salvation is by grace through
faith. revealed, given to us, manifested
in us by God's work, made known to you by the giving of his spirit
and the preaching of the word, the gospel word. That's how he
reveals Christ to your hearts. I know it seems absurd. Paul
even called it the foolishness of preaching. That's how God
saves them that believe. And we'll see example of that
a little later. So, for this purpose, the Son of God came
in the flesh and fulfilled all righteousness, all things written
of him in the law and in the prophets, that he might be the
fit sacrifice for his people, to save us from our sins. But
first, Christ had to go to the cross, and that he must do it
alone. He must do it alone. We're not
gonna go and bear it with him. He bears this salvation, this
redemption alone for his people. And so when Joseph cried, cause
every man to go out from me, and there stood no man with him,
we're seeing a type of Christ who negotiated the salvation,
the liberty, the freedom of his people to go out. out from under
the wrath of God, out from under the punishment that we deserve,
pictured when he stood for his people, when he went forth and
met the enemy and said, if you're looking for me, here I am, let
these go. That's what we see in John 18,
seven and nine. They come up to him and he says,
whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. And he answered, I told you that
I am he. I am he. I am he. If therefore ye seek
me, let these go their way. That the saying might be fulfilled
which he spake, of them which thou gavest me, I have lost none. And then for three days, for
that night and three days more, the people didn't understand,
they were confused that Christ, the Savior, was taken from them
and that he was put to death. And they were confused by this.
They didn't understand this. They didn't hear his words. They
didn't understand what he had taught them and told them beforehand.
And we know that they were confused because those men on the road
to Emmaus, with whom the Lord joined himself to when they broke
bread, They admitted to Him. They confessed to Him. We trusted
that it had been He which should have delivered Israel, which
should have redeemed Israel. They didn't understand that that
was a blood redemption with His own blood purchasing His people,
saving them from their sins. They didn't understand that work
which He was come to do. But now, but now we know that
it was at the cross that our Lord Jesus Christ obtained our
eternal redemption for us. Not by the blood of bulls and
goats, according to the Levitical priesthood. That's not how he
redeemed us. He didn't redeem us by conquering
the Gentile nations with an army of flesh carrying swords to conquer
and shed the blood of the Gentiles and make them slaves, no. With
His own blood, He conquers His people, He saves His people,
He delivers His people. With His own blood, the Lamb
of God saves His people from death and damnation and destruction
and condemnation in and by Himself, so that now God is just. to pour
out his spirit. God is just to be gracious to
us who are sinners, who don't have our lives perfected and
righteous and perfect in all that we do. God is just to forgive,
to be merciful, to be patient and long-suffering and kind toward
us, and to give us all provisions that we need to bring us safely
to himself, which will come later in the chapter. We'll see more
of those those provisions, but first Christ must redeem. Christ must stand alone and shed
his blood for the salvation of his people to make known unto
us who he is, what he did, and why he did it. All right, that
we are redeemed not by blood alone, not by water alone, but
by water and blood. A picture of him coming and establishing
who he is from the baptism, at which point he did all those
miracles and wonders. of grace, which the people saw. But it wasn't just with miracles
of him demonstrating that he's of God, but also with his own
blood. By the sacrifice of himself,
by water and blood, we are delivered. We see that this is the Lord
Jesus Christ. And that miracle has worked in
our hearts, as sinners saved from our death. And so We're
made to know what he has done for us freely. And this salvation
is not just for the Jews, but it extends out to the Gentiles. Because there is one Savior and
not another. You can't just say, well, I don't
like that one. I'm going to let him pass by,
and hopefully there's something better coming down the road.
There is one salvation, one Savior, one mediator between God and
men, the Lord Jesus Christ. And He is the Savior of the world. That's how He's the Savior of
the world. Jew or Gentile, there's one Savior, even Jesus Christ. And that's seen back in our text
in Genesis 45, verse 2. And He wept aloud, and the Egyptians
and the house of Pharaoh heard. And that is so, brethren, even
to this day. His word, His voice is heard,
not just among the Jews, but even extending out. to the Gentile
nations. It goes out and into the world
so that we here, by faith, we believe. That's pictured. That's
shown to us in the scriptures. When the centurion, a Roman centurion,
which stood over against Christ on the cross, saw how that he
cried, saw that he so cried out and gave up the ghost, he said,
truly this man was the son of God. Even the Gentiles here,
even the Gentiles are made to know that this Jesus is the Savior,
sent of God. Then, that's the first point
there, he makes himself known to us in his sacrifice. That's
the first thing, he makes himself known to us that he is the Christ. And it's not just for the Jews,
it's for the Gentiles too. Second, we see more how that
Christ made himself known unto his brethren in his resurrection
from the dead. That's how we know this is the
Son of God. He's raised from the dead. He didn't just die, but he died
and rose again. And that's pictured here in verse
3. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I Just like our Lord stood forth
in the face of his enemies, I am he. I am Joseph, he says. Doth my father yet live? And
his brethren could not answer him, for they were troubled at
his presence. So let's deal with that. Doth
my father yet live? This, brethren, is the effectual
call of the gospel. Right? Who's going to answer
this question that Joseph asked? Does my father yet live? Who's
going to answer that question? His brethren. Right? His brethren
are the ones that are going to hear and know the answer to that
question. They're the ones that are going
to respond to him, yes, your father lives. And so the gospel
goes forth, the voice of Christ. Is there any here that are sinners?
Is there any here who hear the voice of God? Is there any here
who have the Spirit of God, who hear and know that Christ is
the Savior, that you're the sinner, and that you need Him? Who answers
that call? The brethren. The people of God
are the ones that hear that call, that are drawn to His voice and
answer to His call, right? Effectually answer to Him. They hear and they follow. Now,
think of how this must have been for these brothers. They were
troubled at his presence. They didn't know what happened
to Joseph. They just figured he's probably dead. We hated
him. His owners probably hated him.
They probably put him to death in hard service. Or certainly,
he's in a position that's so far beneath them, he's out of
the picture. He's gone. One is not. One is
not, they kept saying. One is not. He's no longer even
a thing. But suddenly, here stands a man
before them, declaring that he is Joseph. And he's not just
any man, but he is the most powerful man in all of Egypt, next only
to Pharaoh. That's quite a rise from being
a dead servant. All right, someone, a dead slave
that's gone long ago. And so it's as though Joseph
was brought back from the dead. Right? He was gone as far as
they were concerned. And yet here he is. It's as though
he's brought back from the dead. And they heard his dreams, right? Think back of the things they
heard him say. And they said, that's impossible.
We're never going to bow to you. But having been brought back
from the dead, they now know everything he said is established. It's already accomplished. He
accomplished everything he said and told to us. Look, all his
words are true. We even came and bowed ourselves
before him. All right, we bowed before him.
And so they saw that all these things are true. And even Benjamin,
the mother of his son, representing his mother there, so his mother
and father, and those boys all bowed down before Joseph. And Jacob coming, all bows down
before Joseph. All his words came to pass as
he said that they would come to pass. And so that which was
impossible, when Christ returned from the dead and appeared himself
to the disciples, that which is impossible is now possible
with God. All right, what we can't do,
God is able to bring to pass just as he said that he would
do it. And so this troubling by his
brethren is just like the reaction that the disciples had when Christ
appeared to them, when he rose from the dead and came to his
disciples. Let's see this over in Luke 24.
Go to Luke 24 there. He comes and appears to them
in a room behind a closed door, right, for fear of the Jews.
They were behind a closed door, and this is where he reveals
himself to them. So, Luke 24, and we'll be in
verse 36. Now, this is after our Lord appeared
to those men on the road in Adimaeus and revealed himself at Adimaeus.
Those men, it says that they went back to Jerusalem that night,
immediately, And now they're telling the disciples what they
had seen, how that they had seen our Lord risen from the dead.
Verse 36, and as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst
of them and saith unto them, peace be unto you. You know,
as I was looking over the notes, my notes this morning, it hit
me, that is a picture of the preaching of the gospel. Those
men were testifying, we have seen him. He's risen from the
dead. And as they were saying these
things, Christ appeared to the disciples and said to their hearts,
peace be unto you. And isn't that what he does?
when he ministers the gospel to your heart by his spirit,
he stands forth and testifies peace to you, peace to you, child,
peace to you, and reveals himself to you in that sweet, blessed
manner. But they were terrified and affrighted
and supposed that they had seen a spirit. How could it be that
this man is raised from the dead? And yet what is impossible for
man to do is now possible. They can see with God all things
are possible. Nothing's impossible for Him
because He is life. He can do as He pleases. And
the scriptures tell us that When they had fulfilled all that was
written of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and putting Him to death and
all the things that they had done leading up to His death,
according to the scriptures, according to the prophets, they
took Him down from the tree and they laid Him in the supplicar,
but God raised Him from the dead. Believe it, brethren. Christ
is risen. He came. He accomplished all
that was necessary for our salvation. He obtained eternal redemption
by the death of himself, and he was buried. Being dead was
buried, but God raised him from the dead. Be encouraged, brethren,
that this life is not it. Your Lord liveth. and you live
because of Him and are drawn to Him by the grace and power
of Almighty God. Christ, being raised from the
dead, dieth no more, and He has ascended up to the heavens, the
Lord telling us that God hath set Him at His own right hand
in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and
might, and dominion, right, things describing all the powers on
earth, all the crazy we see going on with government and powers
and politicians, Christ sits above all of that, above all
principality and power and might and dominion and every name that
is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to
come. Believe it, he lives, he sits
enthroned on the throne of God, doing that which pleases Him,
implementing the will and purpose of God in the hearts of His people,
in the earth, on heaven and on earth. in heaven and in earth.
All right, so our Lord reveals himself to his people in power,
even though we by nature are like these disciples, shut up
in a room, doors closed for fear of this world and the things
going on. Christ enters that room, barred
and shut up against him. He comes in. sovereignly, powerfully,
wonderfully, and reveals himself to you. Am He. Peace be unto
you. Peace be unto you. Peace be to
your hearts. Believe Him. Rest in Him. Trust Him. Rejoice in His salvation. And so Joseph, seeing the trouble
on their faces of his brethren, speaks tenderly to them to assure
them that he is their brother, that they are his brethren, that
he receives them sweetly, lovingly in himself here. You ready? So verse four, and
Joseph said unto his brethren, come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said,
I am Joseph, your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. He says, come near. And they
did. And there he repeats himself. I am Joseph. And there he assures
them, I am your brother. I am your brother. You're my
people, our Lord says. And he specifies the crime that
had separated us from him. whom ye sold into Egypt." Our
sins are the cause why Christ came into this world, the Son
of God taking upon Him flesh, and why He went to the cross.
He came for the sins of His people, the wicked works of His own people. He knows all about His people. He knows us. He knows everything
that we've done. There's nothing hid from the
Lord. There's nothing that we can hide or need to hide from
the Lord. Confess your sin. He knows it. He makes us to come
to Him in truth. We're the sinners. We don't come
to Him because we're righteous, because we're good. We come to
Him because we're His, purchased possession. Though we be sinners,
we are freed from it, delivered from it, to know Him and have
His life and spirit in us. Our Lord made similar overtures
to His disciples when He appeared to them in Luke 24, Luke 24,
verse 38. And He said unto them, Why are
ye troubled? And why do thoughts arise in
your hearts? Behold, all right, he's revealing why he was there. Behold my hands
and my feet that it is I myself. Handle me and see for a spirit
hath not flesh and bones as you see me have. And when he had
thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet. And so Joseph showed to them
the things that transpired, I'm he whom you sold into slavery
in Egypt. And so our Lord comes and shows
us the miracle of his sacrifice and what he did for us in putting
away our sin. And he's not angry with them,
but he draws unto himself. He's not mad that he had to do
that work. He did it willingly, lovingly
for you. that believe him. He gave himself
willingly for his people, and he makes sure that this is true,
that it's not just a spirit that he rose, but that he rose in
a new body, in a heavenly body. And so it says, verse 41, while
they yet believed not for joy and wondered, he said unto them,
have you here any meat? And they gave him fish. Fish
and a honeycomb and he ate it before then. To show it's not
just a spiritual apparition you're seeing, I am he that was dead
and now lives. And so because Christ lived,
because God raised him from the dead, so we are assured and know
you that believe him, you too shall live again. You may die,
they may kill the flesh and put you back in the dust, but you
shall rise again by the word of Christ, who will raise us
up from the graves to be forever with the Lord in a new body,
a new body. All right, just as we see with
him. And so when our Lord reveals
himself to a sinner, he draws us near to himself with his word
to remove all fear and doubt from the sinner and to know that
we are justified before holy God, not for our works, but because
he is gracious and merciful and has shed his blood to make us
righteous in himself. so that now in Christ Jesus,
ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of
Christ. And so our Lord is making known
to us there's no need to hide from him. There's no need to
hide your sin. There's no need to continue to
try and make yourselves better. Go to him. He's the Savior. He's the one who gives a new
heart and a new spirit and a heart that loves Him and strives to
be with Him. in love, in joy, and in gladness. And then finally, to give comfort
to his brethren, Joseph reveals the sovereign will of God in
the whole matter. Look at verse five. Now, therefore,
be not grieved nor angry with yourselves. All right, because
we can do that. We can be very, we are disappointed
in ourselves. But he says, don't be angry with
yourselves that ye sold me hither, for God did send me before you
to preserve life. It's because of our sins that
Christ was sold into this. And he went willingly. He did
this willingly for his people. And that's why he came in humility
and in weakness. And as the sin-bearing sacrifice,
to put it away, he came in that manner to save us, to give us
life in himself. But there's a purpose in it.
According to the mystery of God made known to you through the
preaching of the gospel that it had to be this way. We cannot
save ourselves. Christ must come. And we are
the people of God who believe him. chosen of God before the
foundation of the world, but given to you, revealed to you
now in the preaching of Christ to settle your hearts, to comfort
you, to make you to know that He is, that He lives, and that
He is your salvation. You keep looking to Him, and
He's provided all. He was given to make full provision
for you. And in ourselves, we'll come
short, but Christ will never let that happen. He'll keep drawing
you nearer to himself, and he'll bring you safely to our eternal
home. And so we see in this, we see,
just as the apostle said, him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken him with wicked
hands, have crucified and slain. You did wickedly, I did wickedly,
but our Lord had a purpose in it. And he accomplished the redemption
of all whom he chose in Christ, whom God hath raised up, having
loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should
be holden of it. And so this is to give you trembling
sinners hope in Christ, peace in him, rest in him, in Him. And as He lives, so you shall
live." So these proofs, these pictures here in the Old Testament
that declare to us, I keep going back to them and showing you
over and over and over, they're all speaking of Christ. They're
all given to testify of the Lord Jesus Christ because He's salvation. It's not dead letter religion
that saves. Christ saves and it's testifying
of Him. It's all revealing in glimpses
and pictures and types and shadows of Christ. Of what He would and
did accomplish for us by the death of Himself to assure you
that here that Christ is salvation. Don't be turned. Don't turn back. Don't be satisfied with the deadness
of religion. Let your satisfaction be found
in Christ alone. And keep looking to Him and persevere
in Him. And so I'm going to close with
Romans 8, verse 1 through 4. that you may rest and know, that
you may know and rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says
in Romans 8, the first four verses, verse 1. There is therefore now
no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh, not being satisfied with the outward form
of religion. Lord, didn't we heard you speak? We ate with you and drank with
you and heard you speak. We're not satisfied with the
outward form. We want to feed upon Christ. We want to know
him. And so, not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. New creatures, for the law of
the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, where he makes us new
creatures, in him hath made me free from the law of sin and
death, which is do this and live, don't do it and die. And that's
the law of sin and death there. For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in
the flesh. that the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us. Who? In us who walk not after
the flesh, but after the spirit. That is, by faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ, knowing that God hath sent him in the flesh to
save me from my sins, and he's given us faith in our hearts
that God hath raised him from the dead, and I too shall be
raised in him according to his will and purpose. And so shall
you that believe him. Continue in him, brethren. Amen.