Morning. Let's be turning to
Genesis chapter 43. Genesis chapter 43. Now at the
beginning of this chapter we're given a recounting of the gospel
themes that we had seen from the last chapter, that we were
in last week. And so let's briefly cover these
looking at the first three verses. We're told there that the famine
was sore in the land. The famine was sore in the land.
And so there is a remnant of God's people there in Canaan. That little body is the church. That body is Jacob and his family,
about 70 souls. And it came to pass, when they
had eaten up the corn which they had brought out of Egypt, Their
father said unto them, Go again, buy us a little food. So this
is the second year of a seven-year famine that Jacob and his family
don't know. They don't know how long this
is going to go. Joseph knows because the Lord
revealed it to Joseph. And the Lord knows how long this
famine is going to last because the Lord has given it. It's of
the Lord's hand that this famine is sore upon the land. It's in
Egypt, it's in Canaan, it's in all the lands all around there. And this number seven we know
is the number of completeness. It speaks of the perfection.
And that means that God has given this famine for a purpose, and
that purpose has not yet come. It's not come to its end. God has a purpose in giving this
famine. And so this corn that they had
received from Egypt, it's been sustaining them for a certain
amount of time, a determined amount of time. But now it's
running out, and they require a fresh supply, a fresh supply. And this isn't unlike the spiritual
nature of our needs, brethren. The Lord supplies a portion of
meat to us in the gospel for a season. And then we need a
refreshing of that gospel word. We need to feed upon the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is the bread and the wine of his people. He
is the portion of the people of God by whom we live, by whom
we have acceptance with holy God. He is our portion. And so believers are sustained
through fiery trials with this portion. We're sustained through
difficult times, through various afflictions and sorrows and sufferings
with a portion of Christ to sustain us. And we find relief of him. And then there comes a time where
the trial picks up again. And the heat gets hotter again.
And the Lord has a purpose in giving it, because it's to bring
us or to take us deeper in faith, to see more and more of the faithfulness
of our God. And so we see how the tribulations
that the Lord gives us of his hand is to work in us patience. In the new man, to work in us
patience. And patience works experience.
And experience works hope, hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
a proving of what his word teaches us. It's a proving to us that
he is God, that he is faithful, and that we need him. It's to
show us our weakness and to show us the sufficiency of the Lord
Jesus Christ. God has a purpose of good for
his people in all these things, in this work. Now, Jacob. He's the patriarch of the family. He's the head of the family.
And he speaks for the whole family here. And he goes and tells his
sons that it's time now for them to return to Egypt to get more
food. Now, my sense in reading this
is that the sons already knew it. They knew that this day was
coming, that they needed to return back to Egypt. However, they
couldn't go back to Egypt without Benjamin. They were told, do
not go back here to Egypt. Don't come back here unless you
have Benjamin, the youngest son, with you. So they knew this.
They knew this. But Jacob had to be made willing. Jacob wasn't willing to send
Benjamin. Jacob said he didn't want to
send Benjamin, so he had to be made willing before he would
go. So verse three, Judah, that's
the fourth born son, he spake unto Jacob saying, the man, and
he's talking about Joseph. He doesn't know it's Joseph,
but he says, the man, the governor of that land, did solemnly protest
unto us. Protesting, protesting, he made
this abundantly clear to us, saying, ye shall not see my face
except your brother be with you. And so Benjamin, the youngest
brother, is the very thing that's required. The very thing required
for Jacob and all his house to live. Without Benjamin, they
will not live. They will not live. Benjamin
must go. Benjamin must go. Without Benjamin,
Jacob's house cannot stand before Joseph and be accepted of Joseph. Without Benjamin, they cannot
be accepted. Without Benjamin, they cannot trade in the land
and get food for their lives, for the sustaining of their lives.
For Jacob, for Jacob's sons and even for Benjamin. They'll all
die if Benjamin doesn't go. Now Jacob and his house here,
they give us a picture of the chosen people of God. Each of
us, each of the children of God is pressed with a famine that's
given of God in their souls. We are pressed with a famine
so that at the beginning that famine is given to drive us from,
out from under the bondage of the law of sin and death, and
to drive us to Christ, to show us our need of him. And the Lord,
through that famine, makes us to see and to know the sufficiency
of Christ to forgive us of our sins, and to give us an acceptance
with holy God, to be received of him, though we're sinners
in ourselves, to be accepted of holy God. and to be given
an inheritance of eternal life in the Lord Jesus Christ. All
right, so he gives that famine in our souls, and then later,
he uses that famine, as it were, a picture of the trials and the
difficulties that he gives to his people to drive us further
in Christ, that we would not have a confidence in this flesh
like we do by nature. We're all very proud, we're very
confident in our abilities, our skills, our wisdom, our righteousnesses,
but that's not what pleases God. And so he drives us from that
confidence in the flesh that we would find our all in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Because Christ is all and in
all, and God's people are made to know that, to know that truth,
to see that. God purposes that for his people. So God has sent the famine. that presses us in ourselves
so that we feel that hunger and thirst for the righteousness
which only comes by Christ. And he makes us to know that
very thing. He gives it a measure, right?
He gives it a measure. He doesn't destroy us. He could, but he gives it a measure
to press us out from our comforts, to drive us from self, and to
drive us to Christ, to find our all in Him, because He is the
salvation of God. There's not another name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. He is the salvation
that God the Father has provided for the salvation of His people.
He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh unto
the Father but by Jesus Christ. So this is about us being reconciled
to Him who is salvation through free, sovereign, almighty, powerful,
wondrous grace. These trials that we go through,
God's purpose. Everybody goes through trials.
Everybody goes through difficulties. But they're sanctified to God's
people because they turn us to Christ. They're made precious. And we see the goodness of God
in them oftentimes when he's bringing us through them and
out the other side. Then we see often how our God
gave it for good. to drive us from self, to drive
us to Christ. And so Jacob here is frustrated. He gets angry with his sons because
he doesn't see God's hand in this providence. All he sees
is you want to take Benjamin from me, and you guys are the
problem. You're the ones who did this. You're the ones who
brought this on, and I don't want to send Benjamin. He's my
youngest. He's all I have. Rachel's taken
from me. Joseph's taken from me. And now
you want to take his brother from me. And so there's a great
reluctance on his part to let Benjamin go. Now, we've seen
how this Benjamin, this youngest brother, pictures the new birth.
Joseph is a picture of Almighty God, who says, except you come
to me in the seed of Christ, in the blood of Christ, with
that new man born of Christ's seed in you, you won't see my
face in mercy. You'll see it in anger, in wrath,
and in judgment. So don't show up before my throne
without your youngest brother, without that new man, that new
birth of the Lord Jesus Christ." And the picture there, what he's
saying to us, the spiritual truth there is, ye must be born again,
not of the flesh, but of the spirit of God. I can't do that. You can't do that. We can't do
that for each other. We can't do that for ourselves.
We need the grace of God. And that stirs the people of
God to cry out to him, Lord, save me. If I must be born again
and I can't do it, have mercy on me, Lord. He stirs that cry
up like a newborn baby just being born. He gives that breath. And
they cough, and they cry, and they They live, and that's what
he does. He stirs us up to cry for the
grace and mercy of God in Christ. If I can't do it, Lord, do it
for me. Save me. That's what he's teaching us
in this thing. And so Benjamin pictures all that the sinner
stands in need of for eternal life. And yet Jacob here, as
the old man of flesh, what we are by nature in Adam, is fearful
and fearful of God's intentions in this thing. He's afraid. I
don't want to let Benjamin go. This is my comfort. This is my
life. This is my happiness. This is my joy. I don't want
to let him go. By nature, we will not come to
Christ that we might have life. We will not believe except God
make us willing. And this is why he tells us this,
to show us our need. Lord, make me willing. Help me. Save me, Lord, because I won't
come. I won't let Benjamin go. Whatever
your Benjamin is, that's your life and your hope. You won't
let it go. Except God make you willing and give you a new heart
and a new spirit and a tongue to confess the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace reveals thy people shall
be willing in the day of thy power. He makes it so. He makes
it so. Trust him. And yet Jacob here,
he's gonna die of this famine. He's going to die in the famine
and his whole household, including Benjamin, if he doesn't let Benjamin
go, if he hangs on to him. And like Jacob, we will die in
our sins. Body and soul will die an eternal,
horrible death if we do not come to Christ, if we do not trust
Christ and commit everything to Him, trusting Him to save
us. All right, so that's the picture.
Our Lord tells us that whosoever will save his life will lose
it. And if you're going to save your
Benjamin, you're going to lose it. But whosoever will lose his
life for my sake, they shall find it. And so this is what
the Lord's driving us to, to Christ, from self to Christ.
If you believe not that I am he, our Lord said to the Jews,
you will die in your sins." And that's what He says to us. Apart
from Him, we'll die in our sins. Jesus Christ is the surety of
His people, meaning He paid the debt that His people owe, the
debt of righteousness that we owe to God. He paid that debt
to obtain the forgiveness of our sins with Almighty God. and
to give us the gift of eternal life by the giving of His Spirit
as a down payment to make this known in our hearts, to see all
in Christ. That's what he's doing. He is the surety of his people. And that's what we're going to
see pictured in the next few verses. We're just going to look
at a few more verses here in this chapter where we'll see
Judah is made a surety for Benjamin. Picturing Christ who is a surety
for his people to provide everything we need to stand before Almighty
God and be accepted of him. So Benjamin here is a picture
of our life, our joys, our hopes, everything that we're hoping
in for peace and comfort in this life. But if Benjamin remains
in our hand, our Benjamin remains in our hand, we will die that
eternal death. But in the hand of Christ, there's
everlasting life. In the hand of the surety, there
is life. And so all that we fail to do,
which we fail to give ourselves life, Christ has done it for
his people. It's an accomplished work I'm
speaking to you now. It's not an if, and, or maybe.
It is accomplished. And if God be gracious to you,
you'll hear it. And you'll believe him. And you'll
trust him. And you'll cry out, Lord, save
me. Have mercy on me by your grace
and power in Christ. We're told in Romans 8, verses
2-4, that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath
made me free from the law of sin and death. By nature, we're
born into that law under bondage to the law of sin and death,
and we cannot free ourselves from that. for what the law could
not do, right? That law of Moses, what it could
not do to deliver you from the law of sin and death, in that
it was weak through this flesh right here, our 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 which was required
of us might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit." Trust Christ with your life. Commit
everything into His hand. Cry out to Him. Seek Him for
this. He says, I will be sought by the house of Israel for these
things. He tells us this and gives us a spirit of grace and
supplication to seek him for this grace. And he tells us,
he that hath the son hath life. He that hath not the son hath
not life. So here again, Judah says now
in verses four and five to his father Jacob, if thou wilt send
our brother with us, we will go down and buy thee food from
Egypt. We'll go down there. But if thou
wilt not send him, we will not go down. For the man said unto
us, ye shall not see my face, except your brother be with you. And so this younger brother,
Joseph had told them, if your words are true, you'll come back
with your younger brother. If it's true, you'll come back
with him. Otherwise, I'll know that you're
spies. You're hypocrites. You're liars.
You're not true. You're not true. And so it is. If we come in the blood and righteousness
of Christ, trusting him, in that new man, in that youngest brother,
as it were, that's all that the Father looks for, is the blood
of Christ. That's all he's looking for. That's what makes us true. Not
what you and I do, because we're weak. We're fools. We're in darkness. We don't follow through. We are
hypocrites by nature. We're sinners. We're sinners.
But you that come in the blood of Christ, trusting Him, that's
how we're accepted with the Father, with holy God, because He doesn't
see our sin in Christ. If we trust ourselves, He sees
our sin, and we'll pay the price. You that trust Christ are received
and accepted of the Father. So God's children are made new
creatures. We come in that Benjamin, as
it were, in that youngest brother, we come trusting Christ, trusting
him. And letting Benjamin go is a
terrifying thing. Trusting Christ to save us to
this flesh is a terrifying thing, as we see here with Jacob, verse
six. And Israel said, or Jacob, Israel
said, wherefore dealt ye so ill with me? as to tell the man whether
he had yet a brother. He's bemoaning his situation.
He's not happy with what's going on. And we've all had something
like this in our lives, many times in our lives, where we're
stressed and distressed and we're troubled by the situation, how
it's developed, and we're looking to blame somebody else and find
fault in other things. But God has purposed it. God has purposed it for us to
go through it, to go through it, to see the hand of God in
it. For unless we overcome in Christ,
we will die in our sins. God has purposed this. All God's
children are being pressed into Christ by the hand of the Lord,
removing us to him, removing things that would keep us from
falling to our knees and crying out to him. And the Lord knows,
as we'll see here, the Lord knows exactly what to do for each one
of us. He knows where to touch in each
one. It's different for each one.
And here for Jacob, it's Benjamin. Of all the sons, he had to pick,
it was Benjamin, right? And so verse 7 says, they said
the man asked us straightly of our state. We didn't just offer
this up. He was asking us specific questions about our kindred,
saying, is your father yet alive? Have you another brother? And
we told him according to the tenor of these words. Could we
certainly know that he would say, bring your brother down?
We had no idea that this is how it was going to turn out. We're
just answering the guy's questions, trying to be honest with them.
And he's pressing us. Well, so it is that the Lord
knows the tenor to use on each one of his people. He knows exactly
what to say, where to press, where to touch, how to bring
us to our knees, how to make us weaken ourselves. There's
a lot of things we'll endure. A lot of things we'll put up
with and be hard-hearted about it and stiff-necked. But he knows
right where to touch because he knows the tenor of the words
to use. He knows how to touch us and
get our attention. And he will have our attention.
He knows exactly what he's doing. And so God has providentially
shut Jacob up to what he would not do, or what he would do. He'd turn and run and turn to
his own way. He would keep Benjamin and figure
something else out, but God has shut up every other door. Every
other path is now closed to him. And so this now is when he hears
the words of Judah, his son, and it comes to us as the gospel,
the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ. To you that are sinners,
to you that are weak, to you that are being humbled by God,
he says this word and it's the gospel. It's the gospel of Christ
to us. Genesis 43, verse 8 and 9. And
Judah said unto Israel his father, send the lad with me. And we will arise and go, that
we may live and not die, both we and thou, and also our little
ones. I will be surety for him. Of
my hand shalt thou require him. If I bring him not unto thee
and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. I'll bear the blame if I don't
bring Benjamin back. Benjamin's about 32 years old
right about now. He's actually an older man, and
Benjamin won't let him go. He doesn't want to let him go.
And Judah's saying, I'll bear the responsibility. I'll bear
the blame if I don't bring him safely back to you. And so in
this, Judah is made an eminent type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what he's done, what he said
to the father, When God the Father chose his people in Christ before
the foundation of the world, Jesus Christ agreed. The Son
of God agreed, I'll go and I'll be a surety for them and I will
bring them back safely. I will do everything that they
need. I'll provide everything. I'll
pay every debt that they rack up. I'll pay it and bring them
back safely to you. If you notice this, it's not
entrusted to the old man of flesh. Reuben said almost the exact
same thing at the end of 42. He said, give me Benjamin, I'll
get him back safely, and if I don't, you can kill my two sons. You
can put them to death. That would be killing the body
and the soul, right? That would be killing all hope
of salvation, entrusting, if God entrusted salvation to the
hand of this flesh, to me, to you, to this old man of flesh.
Instead, we see him entrusting it to Judah, who is a type of
Christ, and through whom Christ would come through the tribe
of Judah. as the savior of his people.
It's all picturing us, to us, Christ, Christ, Christ is salvation. And Judah became a shorty for
his brother Benjamin. So our Lord Jesus Christ is the
shorty of his people to fulfill all righteousness for his people. We are justified freely by the
grace of God through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. He has
come to obtain the forgiveness of sins so that We are sent to
preach this word to you that through this man, through the
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God come in the flesh is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins. All your sins, those things that
you're ashamed of and embarrassed of and would hate to answer to
God for, Christ has paid it all and put them away for his people. And he accomplished the redemption
of his people so thoroughly that none can be lost. None can be
lost and succumb to that law of sin and death, that is having
a miserable death, a miserable day of judgment. None of his
people shall be lost. They must be saved, otherwise
he has failed. He will bear the blame forever
if one of his people dies in their sins. Our Lord assures
us in John 10, saying, my sheep hear my voice. And I know them,
and they follow me." And if you're his, you hear the voice of Christ. You shall hear his voice, not
audibly. You'll hear his voice believing
him. You'll have faith in your heart that confesses Christ and
believes in your heart that God hath raised him from the dead.
And he said, I give unto them eternal life, and they shall
never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
My Father which gave them me is greater than all. And no man
is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." And so there's
a reason we call this gospel good news. Because it is good
news to the sinner's ear. Christ didn't die for all men.
All don't believe. If he died for all, all would
believe. All would call upon him for grace. Our Lord is saying,
you don't hear my words because you're not my sheep. And you
that hear my words, it's because you are my sheep. I was chosen
of you. You were given to me by the Father
before the foundation of the world. And so he sends this word
and he sends a spirit to stir us up, to trouble us in ourselves,
that we would hear the grace of God, that we would hear Christ
and cry out, Lord, save me. Have mercy on me, the sinner.
Save me, Lord. Otherwise, I must die in this
famine. I must die in my sins. Lord,
save me. And so the Lord has sent this
grace, this word of grace, that we may say to the prisoners,
go forth. To them that are in darkness,
show yourselves. Come into the light. Come into
the light of God. Don't be afraid. Christ has cleansed
us. his people come into that light
they shall feed in the ways and their pastor shall be in all
high places they shall not hunger nor thirst right you're going
through the famine you won't hunger or thirst neither shall
the heat nor sun smite thee for he that hath mercy on them shall
lead them even by the springs of water shall he guide them
he promises salvation to all in Christ and he calls them by
his grace and power, by his spirit, he calls his people to faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ, to confess him, and to believe in
the heart that God hath raised him from the dead, and they follow
him, they continue in him. They must have this portion of
meat of this gospel given to them continually, in due season,
to strengthen them, to comfort them, to fill their bellies,
as it were, in the new man, to quench their thirst in the new
man with Christ. with Christ crucified and Christ
raised from the dead, forevermore, to live forevermore and to give
me life in Him. And so this salvation of the
Lord, we read in Hebrews 2, 13, where our Lord says, behold,
I and the children which thou hast given me, none of them is
lost. all for whom Christ laid down
his life, all shall be found, all shall be healed, all shall
be delivered of death and brought to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through
death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that
is, the devil." So all our hope of eternal life is bound in Christ.
In his work, he's the youngest brother. He's the one that takes
this work and accomplishes this salvation. Gains us an entrance
with holy God and gives us that food, that bread of life by which
we live in him. He did not fail. He's obtained
eternal redemption for all that he's laid down his life. And
he sends his spirit to reveal these things in us, to reveal
Christ in us. And he shall return to this earth,
and he shall raise us up incorruptible at the end of the age. Now then,
why do you linger? Why do you linger? What keeps
you holding on to Benjamin? If you hang on to Benjamin, If
you hang on to your own life, trying to save yourselves, you
will die in your sins. Trust Christ. Trust your life
to the Lord Jesus Christ, our spiritual Judah. He is the surety
of his people. He is the surety of our life
for his people. Call upon Christ to have mercy
upon your soul. Believe him. Plunge into the
fountain of his blood, open for sinners. to cleanse us of our
sin. Be washed of your sins in the
blood of Christ through faith. Seek him for all his saving grace,
for his promise of life is to them that seek him, that search
for him with all their heart, that cry out to him for grace
and mercy. It's what he works in you. If
you do, it's because he's put it in you. If you need him, it's
because he puts the need there. It's because he puts the famine
in your soul to drive you from self, to drive you to Christ.
And so in the last verse, verse 10, Judah said to Jacob, and
this word is to us, for except we had lingered, surely now we
had returned this second time. We'd have already heard and been
following Christ and walking in him. For whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved and not ashamed. Amen.