This is a good lesson this morning. All that we've seen going on with Joseph's brothers and what
happened to Joseph, now it's coming to its climax. It's the whole purpose of God
sending the famine and sending Joseph even ahead of that into
prison to bring all this to pass so he could bring Jacob and his
family, which is Israel, into Goshen and save them alive during
this famine. And then it comes down to this
Joseph revealing himself to his brothers. I titled the lesson,
Joseph Reveals Himself. This is when a person is saved,
when Christ reveals Himself to the heart, when He makes Himself
known. Salvation always comes by revelation,
always. Salvation doesn't come By education, and what I mean
by that, we are not educated into the kingdom of God, we're
born into it. We're born into it. And when
we are born again, that's when we receive a revelation of who
Jesus Christ is. He doesn't reveal himself or
make himself known to dead people, but to the living. You notice
that when there in verse one, that when he was about to reveal
himself to his brothers, that he made everyone else leave.
He's going to commune now and reveal himself to his brothers,
but not to the world. Not to the world. He doesn't
commune with the world. He communes with his brethren.
Now, the salvation that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ, is
beyond measure. It's beyond measure. We can't
put it into words. I find the older that I get and
the more I preach, the more difficult it is to find words in our vocabulary
to really tell you what we have in Christ and to set forth His
glory. You know, when Paul went to the
third heaven, he came back and he said, I saw things that were
unlawful. In other words, it wasn't wrong
for him to repeat them or say what he saw, but there was no
words. He said, there's just no words
to put in our vocabulary to tell you what I saw. And it seems
to be that way in preaching, the more I study and read and
grow older, it just seems to be harder to try to set forth
the glory of Jesus Christ. It's greater than tongue can
tell. Now in this chapter, this chapter is a continuation of
chapter 44, where Judah is speaking to Joseph as the surety of Benjamin
and Joseph could contain himself or restrain himself no longer,
and he makes himself known. In verses 1 and 2, Joseph makes
himself known to his brothers. I'm sure, I'm sure, when he's
told everybody to leave and he tells them to draw up near, they're
like, uh-oh, uh-oh. What this shows here is that
they did not recognize him until he made himself known. The Lord can be preached here,
the gospel preached here week after week after week. And if
he does not make himself known, you and I will not know him.
He has to make himself known. And that's what he did here. And I'm sure at this time when
Joseph made himself known, they were confused. They were confused
at first. But what this shows also here
is that the love that he had for his brothers, even though
they treated him so wickedly, had not diminished. He loved
his brethren. He loved them. Our Lord loves
His brethren even though He was treated so badly. And even though
we, before conversion, have treated Him so badly, treated His name
so badly, treated His grace so badly, His mercy so wickedly. But the Scripture teaches us
that His compassions fell not They are new every morning. And
I'll tell you why they're new every morning. I thought of this
in the study when I was reading and writing this down. I thought
they are new every morning because we leave none of it unused. We
leave none of his compassions unused. We leave no grace unused. We use it. Now he says in verse
three, I am Joseph. Here's the revelation. I am Joseph. And when he revealed himself
to them, their first reaction was one of fear. When I first
heard the gospel, now, I want to be careful we don't compare
our experiences with each other, but when I first heard the gospel, my first reaction, my first reaction
was, God does not have to save me. You know, I was sitting under
Arminianism, And I believed that he wanted to, you know, the Armenian
gospel, God wants to save you if you'll let him. Well, when
I was 20 years old, I let him by their standards, by what they
say. And then when I was 23, I heard
the gospel. And then I realized for the first time, and I'm telling
you, it struck fear in my heart. It struck fear. God does not
have to save me. And for the first time, I'm telling
you, for the first time, I became a beggar. And you know what I'm
talking about. A.W. Pink said, no one will worship
God until they first worship Him at a sovereign throne. All
others they will bargain with. And when he revealed himself
here, I have no doubt their first reaction was one of fear. They
remembered what they did to Him. This is Joseph. This is the one
we put in the pit. This is the one we sold. This
is our brother. Guilt brings fear. They were
guilty of hating Joseph. And they knew that he knew how
much they hated him. And that was terrifying to them. They were so terrified. They
couldn't speak. They couldn't speak. When he
made himself known, they couldn't speak. They knew that they had
been found out. They did not know what Joseph
was going to do with them, and that's usually the reaction we
have when we first hear the gospel, when we first hear it in power,
our first reaction is, Lord, what are you going to do with
me? It's not, what am I going to do with Jesus Christ? It's,
what is Jesus Christ going to do with me? When you realize who He is and
what you are and that your sins, our sins are against Him, it
becomes, Lord, what are you going to do with me? Are you going
to save me or damn me? He can do either one and be a just God.
When I heard Henry saying that in the message and in preaching,
that scared me. That scared me. He could leave me alone. He can
leave you alone. And be a just God and be glorified, He can
be just as glorified in sending me to hell as He can be in saving
me. One's to the glory and praise
of His grace, and the other is the glory and praise of His justice.
Either way, He's gonna get the glory. But Joseph said to his
brethren, come near to me. You know, our Lord said to His
disciples one time, it is I, be not afraid. He knows their
fear. Joseph can see it written on
their face. Our Lord can see it written on the heart. He can
see the heart. But He can see in their face
they weren't just afraid, they were absolutely terrified. They
were terrified. But the Lord said to His disciples
one time, it is I, be not afraid. Be not afraid. I can only imagine
what it would have been like standing before the man whom
you once hated, sold into slavery, and now he's the most powerful
man in the world, and your life is in his hands. Peter, one time
preaching to the Jews, he said that, you have crucified, you
have taken him by wicked hands, you have crucified the Lord of
glory. In Acts chapter 2, and they said,
What shall we do? We are in trouble. What shall
we do? When they realized that the one
they crucified was the Lord of glory, they said, we're in trouble. Trouble. What shall we do? And Joseph here, he says there
in verse four, I am Joseph whom you sold into Egypt. He said
to his brothers, come near to me. I'm Joseph, I'm your brother. I'm the one you sold into Egypt.
He lets them know who he is and what they did to him. This is
why we always preach Jesus Christ and him crucified. We never preach Christ apart
from His crucifixion, apart from His substitutionary work. We
never preach Him apart from that. I am Christ whom you crucified. But Joseph, like our Lord, is
very compassionate. He says, don't be angry with
yourselves. Don't be angry with yourselves.
Don't beat yourself up over this. Can't you just hear the compassion?
Here they are, terrified. They're pretty confident that
he's going to take their head off, that he's going to finally
get even. And he says, don't be angry with
yourselves. This is of God. This is of God. Listen, I'm glad, I'm glad that
Jesus Christ died for my sins. No one else could put them away.
No one else could satisfy justice. I'm glad God sent Christ into
the world to be the savior. I'm glad he sent him in here
to bear our sins in his body on the tree. He said, don't beat
yourself up over this. This is of God. God sent me before
you to preserve life. God the Father sent Christ into
the world to give and preserve life or we'd all be dead. We would
all die and remain in hell if He did not send Christ. The word
preserved means the same as the word made in verse 9. And what
he's saying is this, God sent me to make you a posterity in
the earth. God sent me to do this. God sent
Jesus Christ into the world to give life, to preserve life,
and to make a posterity in the kingdom of God on that new earth,
that new heaven, new earth. Everyone there will be there
because of Jesus Christ and no other reason, no other reason. He's the one who has preserved
us. The Scripture says that you are
preserved where? In Jesus Christ. You are preserved
in Christ. And God sent His Son to preserve
us and bring us to glory and establish that new heaven and
new earth wherein dwells righteousness and we're going to be there forever
and ever and ever. And he says here in verse six,
listen. Verse five, he said, God did send me before you to
preserve life. For these two years hath the
famine been in the land, and there's yet five more years.
There's a time to this, isn't there? You know, famine here
represents sin. It represents sin. And what the
famine did to the land, it just, It parched the land. Nothing
grew. Everything was dead. There was
no green grass. There was no green trees. There
was no nothing. Nothing grew for seven years. Nothing grew. Nothing grows where
there's sin. Nothing grows there. It's barren. It's unproductive. And that's
like us by nature. Unproductive. We are spiritually
unproductive by nature. totally depraved, dead, the scripture
says, in trespasses and sins. But there's an end to this. He
said there's five more years. Five more years to this famine
and it's over with. God has put a time on this world And then he's gonna say, time
shall be no more. So it says over in Revelation,
when he shall declare time shall be no more, and then it'll all
be gone. And then sin will be totally,
totally gone. It will be no more. God sent me before you to preserve
you a posterity in the earth and save your lives by great
deliverance. And this famine is gonna go on
for another five years. and I'm gonna take care of you.
I'm gonna take care of you. We live in a sinful world. We
live in a sinful body. We have had old nature that's
still with us, but our Lord has promised that he's gonna take
care of us. And he's gonna bring us out of
this world, and he's gonna bring us home. I go and prepare a place
for you. If I go and prepare a place for
you, I'll come again and receive you to myself, that where I am
there you may be also. God sent me, God sent Christ
to preserve us, to keep us. He said, what you did, you did
by wicked hands, but God's purpose is in it. Listen
to Acts 4.27-28, against thy holy child Jesus,
whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with
the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together
for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done. Now, what was done to Christ
was done by wicked hands, but it was all according to God's
purpose. I'm so thankful for the purpose of God. God has a purpose in all this
from beginning to end, and it's to glorify His Son and populate
heaven with a people just like His Son, and to think that I'm
one of them. That ought to astound us. We
should never get over that. You know what amazes me is how
cold, how cold I can be, how cold my thoughts can be when
I consider what the Lord has done for me. You know, he told
Samuel, I think it was Samuel, I can't remember that he was
the one he told, but he said, go home and tell them what Samuel
said to Israel. He said to, trying to think of
exactly how he said it. Consider, consider, sometimes
it takes a while to get the computer going. Consider what great things
the Lord has done for you. Every day, every day, consider
what great things the Lord has done for you. He's brought you
from death to life. He's brought you from condemnation
to acceptance with God. He's brought you from being in
prison to out of the prison. He said, set the captives free.
What great things He's done for us. If we could just get our
minds off of this earth and these earthly things, if we could just
get our minds off of these earthly things and set our minds on things
above, I think we might be able to worship Him. I think we might be able to worship
Him. If we would always keep that before us. God sent me here, not you. See, they were just like, oh
my, you know, they remember what they, you know, and that's part
of repenting. That's part of repentance is that guilty, guilty. But he says, God sent me here,
not you. I'm come, our Lord came from heaven and he came sent.
He said, the Father has sent me, sent me. God sent me here. I am come from
God, and He's made me greater than all the kings of the earth. There's no one compared to Jesus
Christ. There's no king, because He is
the King of kings and Lord of lords. He is. It is written in
Acts 2.36, Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly
Assuredly, without doubt, that God hath made that same Jesus
whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ, both Lord and
Savior. Lord and Savior. Now, you go
home. In verse 9, he's saying, you
go home and you tell the good news. I can't imagine, I cannot
imagine Jacob's when they went home and said Joseph is alive,
all those past years, he believed he is dead. And he believed that
he had been torn apart by a beast. And those brothers let him believe
that. They never did tell the truth.
But God exposed them. And now here's what happened.
They've got to go home. They've got to go home now. And
now they're going to have to confess. What happened? They're going to have to confess.
The scripture says, he that hides his sin shall not prosper. So
they've got to go home and now the truth's going to come out. Nobody gets away with anything.
Ever. Ever. God's on the throne. He's the
judge. That's why David said, against thee and thee only, thy
sin done is evil in thy sight. It wasn't hid. Can any hide himself
from God? He said that the night is just
like the day before him. So they've got to go home and
they've got to tell him Joseph is alive. And I have no doubt
they're going to have to explain. What do you mean Joseph's alive? Well, I'm sure they had some
explaining to do. But he said, you go home and
you tell the good news. Here in Mark chapter 5 verse 19, listen
to this. How be it Jesus suffered him
not. Remember that demonic? that nobody could do anything
with. They had to bind him with fetters. He'd break it. And the
Lord came over there and healed him, cast out all those devils.
And when he did, he was sitting at the Lord's feet in any right
mind. And when the Lord was going to
leave, he said, I want to go with you. I want to go with you. He said, no, no, you go home. You go home to your friends and
you tell them how great things the Lord's done for thee and
has compassion on thee. It'd be great to go home right
now, wouldn't it, with the Lord and go and be with the Lord?
It would be. But it's still this for us right
now. We are still alive, it's still
this. You go home to your friends and you tell them what great
things I've done for you. And in verse 10-11, you shall
dwell in the best land near me, I'll take care of you. That's
what he's saying. The Lord is never apart from
His people. He's never apart from His people.
He said, you're going to dwell in the best land. You know where
you're going to dwell? Heaven. Paradise. When that thief said,
Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom, the Lord said
to him, today shalt thou be with me. And what a word he uses in
paradise. Paradise. You're going to dwell
in the best country, and you're going to dwell with me. You know,
Goshen was the best part of that country, and it gave him the
best. And he says, you're going to
be near me. We're not going to be separated. I'm not going to separate you
from me. And this thing that you did to
me is over. It's over. The one thing I really am thankful
for is that when the Lord chastens us for something, He deals with
us over something, it's over. And with this, I guarantee you,
Joseph never brought this up again. This issue of what they
did never came up again. And he says there in verse 12,
basically, you are eyewitnesses to me, now go and tell it. You've
seen me, I'm Joseph, I'm standing here in front of you, now you
go tell it. That's what I'm doing this morning. I'm telling it
one more time. We sing that song, tell me the
old, old story. Tell it to me one more time. And you tell of my glory. In
verse 13, you tell of my, don't just tell him I'm alive. Tell
Him of my glory. I'm over all the land of Egypt.
I'm the greatest there is in the world. There's none compared
to me. There's none compared to Jesus
Christ. He's the greatest. He's the greatest. And in verse 14 and 15, I want
you to notice one thing here. After He revealed Himself and
talked to them, He kissed them. My, I mean, I would to God that the Lord
Jesus Christ would make us like him, himself, to be able to kiss
your enemy. They were his enemies. They hated
him. But he had no ill feelings toward
them whatsoever. Listen, where love is, where
love is, it drives out hate. Where love is, it drives out
envy. You know, parents whose children
are successful do not envy their children. I don't believe so.
Not if you love them. If you love them, you don't envy
them, you're thrilled for them. You're thrilled. You'd much rather they got along
better than you ever got along. Am I right? You'd much rather they got along
better than you got along. He kissed them. What's this showing here? He
revealed his love to them. And it says he talked with them.
He talked with them. When a sinner is convinced of
his love to Him, he's convinced of God's love to him in Christ,
that's when he will finally commune with the Lord. Because, listen, love puts away
all differences. Love puts away all differences.
The love of God does. Human love doesn't. But I want
you to notice a process here. From the time they came and they
met him and he spoke roughly to them and did what he did to
them, here seems to be the process. Conviction, revelation, then
communion. That's how that goes. And then
Pharaoh here in verse 16 and 17, I'll wind this up. Pharaoh
is a good picture of God the Father, who for Christ's sake
blesses His brethren. These are Joseph's brethren.
He says, I'm going to bless them. I'm going to take care of them.
We're going to bring them into the best land. They're going
to take care of them. This is Joseph's family. He was well pleased with Joseph's
brethren. Because when he looked at the
brethren, he looked at Joseph and he saw his brothers being
like Joseph because he didn't know them. Now, as a man, he
didn't know them. But when God the Father, he looks
at us, he's pleased with us because of Jesus Christ. God's not pleased
with me because of me. I'll mess it up before I get
out this door. He's pleased because we are brethren to Christ. We
are his brother. He's our elder brother. And Pharaoh pleased with Joseph's
brother, even as God the Father is well pleased with all the
brothers and sisters of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it says that the fame of
Joseph and his brethren went through all Pharaoh's house.
Everybody's going through the house. Did you hear? Did you
hear that Joseph's family's here? That Joseph's brethren have...
These are his brothers. These are his brothers. You know
the glory of Christ and his brethren has filled heaven. These are
all his brethren. Brothers and sisters. And He
just showers them in 17 and 18, He just showers them with blessings. Joseph is commanded to bless
his family and to bring them to Egypt. Pharaoh says, Joseph, take care of your family and
you bring them to Egypt. Christ has a charge to bless
us. He has a charge to bless us because of who He is and our
union to Him. He has a charge to bless us.
To bless us and bring us home to glory. And listen to what
He says there. He says, regard not your stuff.
Leave your stuff. I'll give you all you need. Regard
not your stuff. You know, we have in Christ all
we need. In Him you are complete. Regard not your stuff. And I
like the way He called you stuff. That's just all it is, stuff.
my mother was selling me here not too long ago, was talking
about. She was talking about their will and, you know, dividing
things up. And she said, it's all just stuff.
That's all it is. He said, regard not your stuff,
just I'll provide, I'll take care of you. Are not all things
yours in Christ? All things are yours in Christ.
Don't worry about your stuff. Let's make it our aim and our
heart's desire to know Him. To know what we have in Him.
And just use this stuff along the way. Just use it. And He gave him a change of arraignment
there in verse 22. He gave him all new clothes.
Gave him all new clothes. Do we not have the righteousness
of Christ? Has He not taken away our filthy
rags and given us His righteousness? We stand before God in the pure,
holy righteousness of Jesus Christ. And when Jacob heard this story
in verse 26, he couldn't believe it. It sounded too good to be
true. Does not the gospel sound too
good to be true? If God didn't give you faith,
you would not really believe it. It just sounded too good to be
true, especially, now listen, especially when you consider
who's telling the story. They're not that trustworthy.
These are the ones who lied for years about Joseph, and now they're
saying he's alive. It was just so hard for Jacob
to believe. But so, so he's alive. The Lord Jesus Christ is alive
and well. And in verse 27-28, "...they
told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them. And
when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him,
the spirit of Jacob, it said, Revived. See, they told him the
story, and I'm sure with this, he knows these boys. They're
his boys. He's kind of like, I don't know
about you guys. And then when all these wagons
and all these blessings started showing up, he is alive. When the Lord makes
known to us all the spiritual blessings, and I'm saying He
makes it known, I mean, in your heart, you know it, you believe
it, it's yours in Him. It revives your spirit, doesn't
it? There's nothing that'll revive your spirit like looking to Christ
and finding in Him all you need. Nothing will pick you up like
that if the Lord enables you to do it. And Israel said, it is enough. Now there is real spiritual maturity. When you can look at what you
have in Christ and say, it's enough. It's enough. And you quit craving everything
in this world. What you have in Him is enough. If you're sitting in a dungeon
and all you have is a crumb of bread, And you can say, all this
and Christ too? It is enough, Joseph my son is
yet alive. It's enough, Christ lives. He
said, because I live, you shall live also. I'm gonna go see him
before I die. It's the good news of the gospel
that revives the heart of a sinner. It's the good news. He's alive.
He's alive. And I find in him, we find in
him all that we need. And he said, I'm gonna go see
Joseph. I'm gonna go see him. Christ said, come to me. Come
to me. All your labor and heavy laden,
come to me. I'll give you rest. That's what's
gonna happen to Jacob. And all that famine, he's gonna
go to Joseph, just as Joseph said he would. He's gonna go
to Joseph, he's gonna go to the land of Goshen, and he's gonna
be taken care of the rest of his life. All right.