Let's be turning to Genesis chapter
42. Actually, before you go there,
let's go over to Ephesians chapter 1. Before we ever knew God, before
we ever knew him or sought him in spirit and in truth, our God
has been sovereignly working all things. It's not our awareness
of who he is that enables him to do something for us. He's
always doing that which is right. He's sovereign. He's perfect. He's able. And so the scriptures
show us that there's none that understandeth. There's none that
seeketh after God. No, not one. The scriptures show
us that it's God who seeks out his lost sheep. they're lost
when he finds them it's God who seeks them for the father seeketh
such to worship him right so now in Ephesians 1 we see that
salvation began in eternity when God ordained all things according
to the good pleasure of his own will And it shows us that we
only believe God because he causes us to believe him. He calls us
out of darkness. He fits us in Christ. He put
us in Christ before we ever believed on him, before the foundation
of the world. And we see that here in Ephesians
1, beginning in verse 4, that it's according as God hath chosen
us in Christ 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 own will, not your will, not my will. but God's free, sovereign, omnipotent
will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath
made us accepted in the Beloved. He made us accepted in the Beloved. He did this, brethren, wherein,
or in whom, verse 7, in whom we have redemption through His
blood. the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his
grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according
to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself. I don't
read anything in there about man's will and about man's participation
in how he saves himself. Rather, what we read is how God
saves his people entirely, freely, by his sovereign grace. Now, my primary point in coming
to this passage to begin this morning is that we don't know
God until God reveals himself to us. But that doesn't prevent
God from doing wondrous works for our good. He is working at
all times for the good of his people. He provides for us and
cares for us even when we are ignorant of Him, when we are
in darkness, when we are forgetful of Him, God works all things
together for our good. So now let's be turning over
to Genesis 42. And here we have a picture of
these things that we see between Joseph and his brethren. Joseph and his brethren. Now, last week, let me just back
up a little bit here. Last week we looked at the Lord,
a picture of how the Lord draws his people to himself. And now
he does a curious work in his people. in dressing us down and
stripping us down through, A, bringing a famine into our souls
that moves us out of our place, that causes us to seek relief. He brings that famine in our
souls, a picture of our hungering and thirsting for righteousness
that causes us to begin to seek the Lord in the first place and
to seek relief of Him. And God does this all on purpose
to reconcile us to our spiritual Joseph, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Just like those brothers would never have gone to Egypt, they
never would have seen Joseph, they never would have been reconciled
to him, except God brought this famine to pass. Well, so it is
that the Lord stirs up a famine in your hearts to move you out
of your comfort, out of your death, out of your grave, to
bring you on your way, to bring you to Christ. It's all ordained
and purposed of him. And then we saw how Joseph spake
roughly to his brethren. A picture of how the Lord questions
us, brings us this questioning in our soul where we are troubled
and trembled and stripped down of our vain confidences, all
the while being taken down from this proud, arrogant, cocky person
down to a low, humbled person brought low in himself. We would
hear our Lord And then at last, Joseph said to his brethren,
in verse 20, and this was our last verse, verse 20, he said,
but bring your youngest brother unto me. Because they were saying,
our words are true, we're true, we're true. And he said, all
right, bring your youngest brother to me, so shall your words be
verified, and he shall not die. And they did so. And we saw how
that the youngest brother is a picture of that which is brought
forth second. The new birth that the Lord brings
forth in his children, that pictures that work of Christ in you. We don't dare stand before the
throne of God except we come in the new birth. And we saw
how the Lord, this picture is the new birth whereby no man
shall stand before God's throne except he's born again, except
he stand in Christ. Except we come in the person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it's a picture of how
the Lord works in his people, how that he makes us new creatures. He brings us low in ourselves,
and he raises up that new man, which is the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And it's not by our words that
verify, because a lot of people say a lot of things. I'm a Christian.
I believe. Well, the Lord testifies in those
to whom he has saved and redeemed them. The kingdom of God is not
in word, but in power. And that's the power of God to
accomplish in you life and salvation that we can't affect or do. We
can't do it. But if Christ has redeemed you,
there shall be an evidence of His grace in revealing faith
in you that looks to the Lord Jesus Christ, that has no confidence
in this flesh, that doesn't want to be found in our own righteousness,
but in His righteousness. He works all that. He must work
all that, else we will come short of that which we seek in the
Lord. Now, it was after Joseph spake
of this youngest brother there that we saw in verse 20 that
we see here that they are even more troubled now. They're even
more afraid now than they were troubled by this famine because
they know this is not possible for us to do. We can't bring
our youngest brother here. Of all things to ask for, he
has to ask for that one thing that is impossible for us to
do. We can't do it. It reminds us of when Nicodemus,
who came to our Lord by night, heard our Lord say in John 3,
3, he said, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And Joseph's saying,
you won't even see my face, except you come with your youngest brother. You won't even see me. And what
did Nicodemus say? How can a man, when he is old,
be born again? You're asking for the impossible,
Lord. You're asking for the impossible. What is the Lord doing in that?
He's stirring up his child. He's showing us, I don't know
anything as I ought to know. I thought I knew something. I
thought I knew something of the Lord. Now I'm afraid. Now I'm
troubled because I've got a problem. I can't do this perfect righteousness
which the Lord requires. I can't accomplish my salvation. He shows us this. He tells us
these things to show us the impossibility of us saving ourselves. All right, so with that understanding
now, with that background refreshing us here where we see this, Joseph's
words here had that same intended effect on his brethren. When
he said, you bring me your youngest brother. All right, verse 21. And they said one to another,
we are verily guilty. All right, they're trouble now.
They went from saying we are true to saying we are guilty.
We're 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." They're reflecting now, they're remembering their
hatred of their brother, and their rejection of their brother,
and that they hardened their hearts against him. And they're
remembering now, we sold him to the Gentiles. We gave him
over to the Gentiles to let them shed his blood. We saw that. Again, another picture of how
the Jews turned Christ over to the Gentiles, to Pilate, for
him to be crucified. And so now they said, we saw
the anguish of his soul when he besought us, and we would
not hear. All right, let's go back and
see what Joseph said there. Turn back to Genesis 37. Genesis
37, in verse 26, After they threw him in the pit,
Judah says to his brethren, why should we slay him and then have
to cover up his blood? Why should we do that? Verse
27, come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites. And let not
our hand be upon him, for he is our brother in our flesh,
and his brethren were content. That sounded good to them. Verse
28, Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen, and they drew and
lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites
for twenty pieces of silver, and they brought Joseph into
Egypt. Now wait a minute. What did the Spirit record that
Joseph said? The spirit recorded exactly what
they heard. Nothing. Their hearts were shut
up to him. They were hard. They would not
hear him. They refused to hear him. And
so that's exactly what they heard. Nothing at that time. But now
they're stirred up. Now they remember. We were hard. We were wicked. And they're pricked
in their hearts now. Only after Joseph was risen and
exalted on high, now they hear that word. It's a picture. Just
like when the Jews rejected Christ, they wouldn't hear him, but once
he rose from the dead and exalted on high, that's when the word
went forth and it stirs the people. They're pricked in the hearts
to know what they have done. against Christ, against the anointed
of God. They shall look upon him whom
they have pierced, they shall mourn for him as one mourneth
for his only son. That's what the Lord does. He
makes us to hear that word and to be troubled by that word,
to know that I'm guilty, I'm the sinner, I've offended holy
God. And so we see here that this
truth is being recorded. The Lord is laying down these
gospel tracts that picture and show the Lord Jesus Christ, that
picture and show how he saves sinners, how he strips us down
that we might hear him. And then it's repeated again
by the prophets, and it's repeated again then in the gospels, where
we see this is all Christ. This is our Lord here. This is
his work here. Now back in verse 22. And Reuben
answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not
sin against the child, and he would not hear. Therefore, behold,
also his blood is required. All right, now if Benjamin, the
youngest brother, is a type of the new man, born of the spirit,
then Reuben, the firstborn, is a type of this old man of flesh.
And we see right here just how impotent this old man is, how
powerless this old man is, who speaks his word and tries to
affect things, and he couldn't do it. He couldn't deliver his
brother Joseph from their hands. He tried. He tried to do what
was right, and he came short of it. For all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. And we see the impotence of our
flesh in Reuben here. All he can do is talk, talk,
talk, and he has no power to back it up. No ability to save
himself. And that's because God has a
purpose. and a will to save his people
by grace, not by works, not by our skill, not by our eloquence,
not by our ability, but in grace by the Lord Jesus Christ. God sent Joseph down into Egypt
to save much people alive, to bring them through that famine
and to provide for many. Well, so it is that the Lord
purposed that His Son should come forth into the world. Roved
in the weakness of this flesh, yet He fulfilled the law of God
perfectly for His people. to make us to know, to hear Him. He accomplished redemption. He
accomplished our salvation by Himself, not with the help of
man, not with the abilities of this flesh. He did it entirely,
brethren, and He saved many by His righteousness, the Lord Jesus
Christ did. Now, in verse 23, were told,
and they knew not that Joseph understood them, for he spake
unto them by an interpreter." Now, here it is that we see a
picture of God's sovereign hand, that even when we, brethren,
were in darkness both then and now, Even when we're troubled
and we don't see or understand what the Lord is doing, we see
his sovereign hand providing for us, doing all for us, that
though we're ignorant and impotent to work any good, yet the Lord
designs and purposes his curious work for us. As we see here with
Joseph and his brethren, Joseph's working much good, Whether he
understands it fully or not, he's doing much good for his
brethren. And they knew him not, for he
spake unto them by an interpreter. And it just reminds me, I can,
when I began to seek the Lord, I was ignorant. It was much folly. I was in all
kinds of different religious churches, different pews, and
trying this thing and that thing, and trying to find some relief
and some mercy. All the while, it's a picture
of how the Lord speaks to us by an interpreter. That is the
Holy Ghost. That wasn't the truth that I
was in. And I didn't know the truth then, but the Lord led
me through. Not here, not here, not this. Keep going, keep going. And the
Lord, in grace, brought, brings his people through much sorrow,
much darkness, many faults, many dangers. He brings us through
these things, but he has provided an interpreter for us to bring
us through that, to get us out of that death, that we don't
stop and settle there and become content in death. No, he draws
us out till he brings us to Christ to be reconciled to him. And so they still didn't know
Joseph. He spoke to them by an interpreter.
But how many times can you reflect back now and see how the Lord
has been very gracious, very patient with me when I was there,
when I was going through that. He was patiently bringing me
through that and bringing me on this way to reconcile me to
his son. so that we don't remain in dead
things. He doesn't leave his people in
death. He brings them out, even when
we're not even hearing the truth. It could be absolute lies, but
the Lord will, by his interpreter, lead us out of that and bring
us out that we might come to Christ and see that he's all,
and then reflect back on it and see he knew exactly what he was
doing. He knew exactly what He was doing
in providing for me. Listen to what our Lord said
in John 16, verse 12. He said, I have yet many things
to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. And there was
a time when we could not bear the things of the Lord at that
time. How be it when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He
will guide you into all truth. You're not going to be left in
darkness. The Lord doesn't leave those whom he loves and whom
he's redeemed in death and darkness. He leads them out. He brings
them out. He brings them to Christ, to
behold Christ, to have a hope in Christ Jesus, our righteousness. He will guide you into all truth,
for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear,
that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come." Referring
to the redemption that our Lord would accomplish. Those are the
things to come. We're witnesses of these things,
of Christ. who loved us and gave himself
for us, and who rose again on the third day, exactly as he
said. He shall glorify me, for he shall
receive of mine and shall show it unto you. And that's what
the Lord does. He brings you into the inn to hear the gospel,
and the Spirit takes the things of Christ and shows them unto
you, effectually, in your heart, and gives you faith to receive
this word and to hear that's Christ. That is my hope. That is my redemption. That's
my salvation. And you see then all those dead
works that he drew you out of and brought you out of that death,
not leaving you behind in it. And so while in this darkness,
we have no understanding of even the sufferings that we've caused
the Lord. And we see that again here for
us next in verse 24, at the beginning of that verse where it says,
and Joseph turned himself about from them and wept. And I was
thinking about that. How does this picture Christ
here? Well, in Luke 19, we're told
in verse 41 that when our Lord was come near to Jerusalem where
he would be crucified, he beheld the city and wept over it. Not
for all men, for his people. We don't know the sufferings
that are, we can't even fully fathom the depths of suffering
that our Lord bore for us. And how patiently we see Joseph
bearing with his brethren. Bearing with them, just patiently
bringing them along. The way the Lord patiently brings
us along, very gently and very mercifully, how he does it, till
we are brought to be reconciled to him. But it says in verse
42, our Lord said, if thou hadst known, even thou, at least in
this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace, but now
they are hid, from thine eyes." And there's much that we don't
even see the fullness of the beauty and glory of our Lord
and what he's accomplished for us. But when we do, then we see
his beauty and his glory and his grace for us. There's a day
coming, brethren, when we shall see it fully. Now we see through
a glass dimly. Now we have darkness and we don't
fully understand. But there's coming a day, brethren,
when we shall see him face to face and understand fully in
that day. The rest of verse 24 says, and
he wept, and then returned to them again, and communed with
them, and took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes. Now, when we last were going
through this at a very high level, when we were looking at chapters
42 through 45 together, you remember that Simeon means hearing. In
the picture there when he bound Simeon, it's a picture of how
the Lord bound their ear. He captures the ear of his people
so that he has our attention. When he works upon us, he gains
our attention. He has our ear. And he said to
them, you'll not see my face until you come with your youngest
brother. And he took them and he had their
ear then. There was no way they were coming
back into Egypt except they came with the youngest brother. But
there's also something symbolic about this binding of Simeon
in that, if you recall back, well, in chapter 29 and 30, when
it's speaking about the sons born to their mothers, and Leah
and Rachel are naming the boys, each of the boys, and they give
some word as to why they chose that name. Why did they choose
that specific name? Well, Simeon is Leah's second
born. And Leah bare the second son,
and said, because the Lord hath heard, I was hated. The Lord
hath heard, I was hated. He hath therefore given me this
son also, and she called his name Simeon. And it's a picture
of how we saw Joseph was hated by his brethren, and he was bound
by them, and sent off into slavery, just as our Lord was hated of
his brethren. and bound of his brethren. And
he allowed himself to willingly be led to prison and then taken
from that prison and crucified for the salvation of his people.
It just testifies to the grace of our Lord to suffer willingly
for his people as the servant of God in serving for his bride
to deliver us fully from our sins and our death. and to give
us life in himself. But in doing that, then we see
our Lord's grace in providing every provision that we need
here. And we see this now back in verse
25 and 26. This provision here is a picture
of the Lord's gracious provision to provide for you in the way
on your journey home, to provide for you in the famine, to provide
for you in the hardships. He gives you everything you need
because he's undertaken for us all our salvation from beginning
to end. It says, then Joseph commanded
to fill their sacks with corn, and to restore every man's money
into his sack, and to give them provision for the way, and thus
did he unto them, and they laded their asses with the corn, and
departed thence. We see something of ourselves
in the journey of this people, of these men here, how that we
are on our way. We're in the famine. We're in
the hardship. We're in the difficulties here
in this flesh. But our Lord takes nothing of
our works. It's not dependent on your money,
your sacrifices, your labors. He's giving everything freely. It's all in grace that you are
fed and given your portion of meat in due season, which is
the Lord Jesus Christ. so that you're on the road. And
the Lord provides for you, giving you the gospel, feeding that
new man, nourishing and strengthening us in that new man which he gives
to us. He provides for us, and it's
all free by his grace. You can't pay for it. You can't
buy it. He gives everything that we need. Verse 27 and 28, when
they saw this gracious thing, they were troubled. They didn't
even understand it yet. They were still troubled. He
doesn't receive my works. He doesn't receive my righteousness.
He doesn't receive my payment. He's refused it. Look at verse
27 and 28. As one of them opened his sack
to give his ass provender in the inn, he espied his money,
for behold, it was in his sack's mouth. And he said unto his brethren,
my money is restored, and lo, it is even in my sack. And their
heart failed them, and they were afraid, saying one to another,
what is this that God hath done unto us? All that Joseph gave
them was a freewill offering of his grace. And it just reminds
me of when I was a young man, beginning to seek the Lord, trying
to be very religious, trying to be very good, trying to do
all these good works, and the Lord just refused them. And I was so troubled and so
afraid because I thought, He won't receive my works. But I
was coming to Him in self-righteousness. I was coming to him in my own
works of flesh, and the Lord refused that, because he won't
receive our works. We can't justify ourselves. I
was trying to sanctify and justify myself by my works, and he won't
receive that. If we do anything for the Lord,
it's in gladness and in thankfulness that we do it, not because it's
justifying us or earning us any favor with God. And so he won't
receive that, because it's all by grace. He says in Isaiah 55,
1, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. And he that
hath no money, come ye and buy and eat. Yea, come buy wine and
milk without money and without price. And so the Lord does that
for his people. We're going to learn. that He's
our Savior, we're gonna learn that it's all by grace, that
we cannot save ourselves, that we don't add to what Christ has
done. He's not gonna allow us, the
Spirit will not allow us to despise Christ in that way. We're gonna
know it's all of His grace and mercy, apart from our works,
that we might find our all in Him. Then in verse 29, They got
home, and they came unto Jacob, their father, unto the land of
Canaan, and told him all that befell unto them." And they told
him everything that we were looking at last week, all that happened,
that Joseph showed and declared concerning the redemption of
Christ. It was picturing. And it says,
verse 34, that the last thing that you were told to bring your
youngest brother unto me, then shall I know that ye are no spies,
but that ye are true men. So will I deliver you your brother,
and ye shall traffic in the land." You'll buy and sell freely in
the land. Now, everything about Joseph
that Joseph has said seems so unbelievable to these brethren. They just can't believe it. And they don't even know how
they're going to do it. They have no idea how they're
going to please this ruler here. in this land, and just when they
think it can't get any worse, it actually gets worse, because
then all the brothers see, wait a minute, all of us have our
money back. Because the Lord is gracious,
not to one or two of his people, he's gracious to all his people. Salvation is free and full for
all the family of God, for all his people, none excepted. There
is one salvation, one savior, there's one faith, And it's for
all by grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. Some are not coming one
way and others coming another way. It's free in the Lord Jesus
Christ unto all. And so this pictures the provision
that our God has made for his people. But they're troubled
by this. They still don't understand they're
troubled by all this full free provision of Joseph. And it speaks
to how we are so often in darkness and don't understand what the
Lord's doing. And we get troubled by his providence
and the things that we see and how we interpret them according
to our flesh. And we think this is bad, this
is not good, this is really bad. But no, it's actually for our
good. You think of the disciples. When our Lord was crucified and
lay in the grave for those three days, how troubled they were. All the while, our Lord was accomplishing,
He accomplished their redemption. He was obtaining and providing
all blessings, all spiritual blessings for his people in that
work of redemption. Though to them, it looked bad. To them, they were sad. To them,
they were terrified by what had happened. And yet the Lord accomplished
in it our greatest salvation, our great salvation, the greatest
blessing that he could give us in what he had done for us. You
think of those two men on the road to Emmaus. And they're going
on that way. And the Lord drew near to them.
And they didn't even recognize him. They didn't see him. Their
eyes were holding that they should not know him. And they're so
sad, saying, but we had trusted. We thought that he would redeem
Israel. Well, he did. That's exactly
what he did. And when you and I go through
dark times, and when you and I go through difficulties and
adversities, through trials and temptations, though it seem dark
and difficult, the Lord is in it. He's in it, brethren. He's sovereign and able, providing
for your every need, even though you don't recognize it. He's
able. Soon their sorrow was turned
to joy, just as this day of joy was coming for these brethren
of Joseph. And so, though you're troubled,
trust the Lord. Though you're struggling and
suffering and tried and tempted, trust the Lord because He purposes
it for your grace and for your comfort. He's not forgotten you.
He's not left you nor abandoned you. He's in it. Just keep trusting
the Lord. Look to Him. Cry out to Him.
Seek Him for grace and mercy. He tells us to do that. But trust
Him. He's able, brethren. He'll not
fail you. Even when we don't trust Him, He'll never fail you,
nor forsake you, nor leave you. That's His word of promise in
Christ. In closing, let me say one more
thing where we see again that we are not saved by this old
man of flesh. He's not going to save the people. Our old man, our works do not
save us. Look at verse 37. In Reuben,
the picture of that old man of flesh, Reuben spake unto his
father, saying, Slay my two sons, if I bring Benjamin not to thee. Deliver him into my hand, and
I will bring him to thee again." Right? And trust me, Lord, with
my salvation, never. It'll never happen. And the Lord
won't do it. He will not entrust our salvation
to this old man. If it required anything of me,
if my salvation depended on me for one thing, I would fail in
it. The Lord must do the whole work. And as it is with me, so it is
with you, brethren. Thank God that it doesn't come
down to something that's dependent on you. Anything that's necessary,
our God looks to the Son. his son to provide everything
that we need. And Jacob said, my son shall
not go down with you. For his brother is dead, and
he is left alone. If mischief should befall him,
by the way, in the witchy go, then shall you bring down my
gray hairs with sorrow to the grave." And so our Lord doesn't
put anything into the hand of this old man of flesh. Our salvation will be by the
well-beloved son, by Joseph. And as we'll see here, that new
man born of grace, pictured in Benjamin, will not be accomplished
or wrought in us by the strength of this old man. It'll actually
be taken down by the line of the tribe of Judah, right? He'll
do that. He'll bring him and he'll bring
him back as the shorty of his people, picturing the Lord Jesus
Christ. So trust the Lord, even when
we don't see him, even when we're in darkness, even when we're
in blindness, our Lord is sovereignly working. It says Joseph is sovereignly
working, even though his brethren didn't see it or know it or recognize
it. or give him any thanks for it,
he was still accomplishing this work. I'm reminded of this, of
dear William Cowper, the hymn writer's hymn of God Moves in
a Mysterious Way, in that one verse when he said, judge not
the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind
a frowning providence, he hides a smiling face. He knows exactly
what he's doing, brethren. And so last week, They were so
caught up in defending themselves, but we see how the grace of God
strips us down and brings us to nothing in ourselves to bring
forth from us a confession of our guilt that we might recognize
and see our need of his grace and mercy. And he does that,
brethren. I pray the Lord bless that word
to our hearts.