It's kind of a lengthy passage,
but Brother Cody's asked us to read this morning, so Genesis
chapter 37. And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein
his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. These are
the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years
old, was feeding the flock with his brethren. And the lad was
with the sons of Bilhah and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's
wives. And Joseph brought unto his father
their evil report. Now Israel loved Joseph more
than all his children, because he was that son of old age, and
he made him a coat of many colors. And when his brethren saw that
their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated
him and could not speak peaceably unto him. And Joseph dreamed
a dream, and he told his brethren, and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Here I
pray you this dream which I have dreamed. For behold, we were
binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf arose and also
stood upright. And behold, your sheaves stood
round about and made obeisance to my sheaf. And his brethren
said to him, Shall you indeed reign over us? Or shall you indeed
have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more
for his dreams and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream.
And he told it to his brethren and said, Behold, I have dreamed
a dream more. And behold, the sun and the moon
and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his
father and to his brethren. And his father rebuked him and
said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall
I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves
to thee to the earth? And his brethren envied him,
but his father observed the saying. And his brethren went to feed
their father's flock in Shechem. And Israel said unto Joseph,
Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? Come, and I
will send thee unto them. And he said to him, Here am I. And he said to him, Go, I pray
thee, see whether it be well with with thy brethren, and well
with the flocks, and bring me word again." So he sent him out
of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. And a certain
man found him, and behold, he was wandering in the field. And
the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou? And he said, I
seek my brethren. Tell me, I pray thee, where they
feed their flocks. And the man said, They are departed
hence. For I heard him say, Let us go
into Dothan. And Joseph went after his brother,
and he found them in Dothan. And when they saw him afar off,
even before he came near unto him, they conspired against him
to slay him. And they said one to another,
Behold, this dreamer cometh." come now therefore let us slay
him and cast him into some pit and we will say some evil beast
hath devoured him and we shall see him We shall see what will
become of his dreams. And Reuben heard it and he delivered
him out of their hands and said, Let us not kill him. And Reuben
said unto them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that
is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him, that he might
rid him out of their hands to deliver him to his father again. And it came to pass when Joseph
was come to his brethren that they stripped Joseph out of his
coat, his coat of many colors that was on him. And they took
him and cast him into the pit, and the pit was empty, and there
was no water in it. And they sat down to eat bread,
and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and behold, a company
of Ishmaelites came from Gilead, and their camels bearing spicery,
and balm, and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt. And Judas
said unto his brother, What profit is it if we slay our brother,
and conceal his blood? 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. Then there passed by Midianites,
merchantmen, and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit
and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver. And
they brought Joseph into Egypt. And Reuben returned into the
pit, and behold, Joseph was not in the pit. And he rent his clothes. And he returned unto his brethren
and said, the child is not. And I, whither shall I go? And
they took Joseph's coat and killed a kid of the goats and dipped
the coat in the blood. And they sent the coat of many
colors and they brought it to their father and said, this have
we found. Know now whether it be thy son's
coat or no. And he knew it and he said, it
is my son's coat. An evil beast had devoured him. Joseph is without doubt rent
in pieces. And Jacob rent his clothes and
put sackcloth upon his loins and mourned for his son many
days. And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort
him, but he refused to be comforted. And he said, for I will go down
into the grave into my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him,
and the Midianites sold him into Egypt, and to Potiphar, an officer
of Pharaohs, and a captain of the guard." Good morning. Let's lead in prayer here. Our
gracious God and Heavenly Father, we thank you for bringing us
here this day, this beautiful snowy day. We know that it's
of your hand and we thank you for bringing us safely here and
we pray that you would bless our hearts this morning. We've
come here to hear from you. And we need to hear from you.
Father, speak to us through your word, I pray. Bless our hearts
with the knowledge of Christ. Bless our time together. Let
us not meet here in vain. But Lord, speak to us, please,
I pray. Bless us with Christ. Oh, Father, we need you to speak
to our hearts. Thank you again, Father, for
this beautiful day. Please speak to us. For Christ's sake, amen. If you will turn your Bibles
with me to Genesis chapter 50. I had Craig read Genesis chapter
37 because that is going to go right with my message. We'll
be looking at Genesis chapter 50. And before I forget, as some
of you are aware, Dennis Savitzen, he's my best friend other than
my wife, and he's down preaching for a group in Sarasota, Florida
today. He'll be here next week, and he just wanted me to let
you know that they need a pastor as well, and to pray for them. Certainly we pray for him as
he's speaking now also. And it's my honor and my wife's
to be here with you guys and we sure love Rupert and Betty
and we're thankful for what the Lord did here for many years. Anyway, so Craig just read a
passage about Joseph. Now Joseph is, without a doubt,
one of the best pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Scriptures.
Now we would be wise to read the Old Testament often and look
for Christ in the Scriptures. I said it earlier, this is a
hymn book. It's all about Christ. We must see Him. You're interested
in eternal life? Well, we need to know Christ.
We need to see Him. Now I hope to show you Joseph in the Scriptures
this morning. First, I'll give you a few examples
of how he was a picture of Christ. First, he was the beloved son
of his father. The Lord Jesus Christ said, this
is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Joseph, because
he was the beloved son of his father, was hated by his brothers.
Well, we read that the Lord Jesus, He came unto His own, and His
own received Him not. His brothers sought to kill Him.
And scriptures tell us, you hate your brother, you've killed them
in your heart. You've committed murder against
them in your heart. The Lord came here, we crucified Him.
We crucified Him. Everything constantly seemed
to be against Joseph. His brothers hated him, sought
to kill him, put him in a pit, sold him as a slave. He goes
to Potiphar's house, ends up getting thrown in prison. Everything
seemed to be against him. But the Lord was with Joseph,
the Lord Jesus Christ. People hated him as soon as he
was born. King Herod tried to kill him. The Pharisees constantly
took counsel together how they might put him to death. But the
Lord was with him. No one could touch him until
his appointed hour. The Lord blessed Potiphar's house.
Whenever Joseph came to his house, we read that the Lord blessed
that house for Joseph's sake, because Joseph was there. Where
are the blessings of God to be found? In Christ. Where Christ
is, there's the blessing. We're blessed with all spiritual
blessings for Christ's sake, in Christ. And Joseph, when he
was in Potiphar's house, you may remember his wife tried to
tempt him. She said, lie with me. He didn't. He said, how can I
do this great sin against God? There's no greater in this house
than I. He resisted her temptation. So the Lord Jesus Christ was,
as in all points, tempted like as we are, yet without sin. And
she set him up and he bumped up against her and she took his
shirt and went to Potiphar and said, look, he tried to lie with
me and got Joseph unjustly thrown into prison. Again, the Lord
Jesus Christ, there is no reason why we should hate Him. Even
Pilate, who delivered Him to be put to death, he said, there's
no fault, I find no fault in this man. And yet we all hated Him
without a cause. Talked about it in the first
message. Natural man hates God. Hates God. But when he was in
prison, we read that all the prisoners were put into Joseph's
hand. He was in charge of all the prisoners.
So it is, the Lord Jesus, as He walked this earth, everyone
who sought to put Him to death, I heard your pastor, Rupery,
I heard him preach a message once about they took up stones
to kill him, walked right through the midst of him. They could
not touch him. They were in his hands. And when
he was in prison, a baker and a butler got thrown into the
prison and they each had a dream. Joseph interpreted their dreams
and it came to pass exactly like he said. God knows all things. The Lord Jesus Christ, while
He was here, it says He knew what was in man. He often answered
the Pharisees' thoughts. They simply thought something
and He answered them out loud. And Joseph interpreted their
dreams. And it came to pass. All the Lord has done for us.
He's done everything for us. He saved us by His grace. And
you know what? That butler, the butler forgot
him. He beseeched the butler, remember
me when you go to Pharaoh, you remember me. He says he forgot
him. All God does for us and we forget Him daily. He'll never
forsake us and yet we forget Him moment by moment. Then Pharaoh
had a dream. He dreamed about the seven ill
kind and the seven well-favored kind, and he couldn't interpret
his dream. And then the butler remembered Joseph. He remembered
Joseph. Pharaoh, he sent for all the
magicians, all the wise men, that they might interpret his
dream. Nobody could tell him what it meant until Joseph. Then Joseph interpreted his dream. And Joseph, Pharaoh, his spirit
was troubled. It says that because he couldn't
interpret the dream, his spirit was troubled. And when the butler
brought Joseph, Pharaoh said to Joseph, he said, please give
me an answer. Tell me what this means. I hear
you can interpret, James. Joseph said, it's not in me.
He said, but God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace. Brethren,
whenever we are troubled, we have a troubled soul, only the
Lord Jesus can give us an answer of peace. Only He can calm the
troubled soul. He is our peace. He is our peace. The story goes on. Joseph interprets
his dream. Pharaoh says, I see it's good.
He gave me an answer of peace. I'm going to set you over all
the land of Egypt. He said, only I am higher than you. He committed
all things unto Joseph. God had made this same Jesus,
whom we crucify, both Lord and Christ. He has made him Lord
over all. And when the famine came, he said there's going to
be a famine, seven years of famine after the seven years of plenty.
When the famine came, Joseph's brothers had nowhere to go but
to Joseph. That's important. Joseph was
the only one with corn. Their father said, why are you
standing here looking at one another? Go to Egypt. There's
corn in Egypt. And they didn't know what was about to happen.
They had no idea. When they came to Him, we read that Joseph knew
them. He saw them and he knew them,
but they knew not Him. You know, we all think we know
God, but the fact is we don't know Him. But even if God saves
us, you know this to be true, God knew us long before we ever
knew Him. He says, I girded thee, though
thou hast not known Me. We didn't know Him. But He knew
us. He told Jeremiah, He said, Jeremiah,
I've ordained you a prophet. He said, before I formed thee
in the belly, before you were even a thought, I knew you. I
knew thee. And then his brothers come, Joseph
gives them the corn, and they try to pay him for the corn.
And we read that they were terrified when they went home and saw that
their money was back in their sacks. They were scared to death.
They thought, why did he do this? I'll tell you why he did it.
Because God gave it to him. It's the free gift. Salvation
is a free gift of God. We can't pay. We must come buy
our wine, buy our milk without money and without price. And
lastly, Joseph commanded his brothers, he said, you go home,
you get your father, you regard not your stuff, because all the
land of Egypt is yours. You're going to come here and
you're going to live with me. You're moving to Goshen. We're completing Christ. He provides it all. Now, I know
that was quite the mouthful, but the point is, Joseph is a
great picture of Christ. Now, now we're to the point in
Genesis chapter 50. All this has happened, and I
left out a lot, but all this happens. And then their father
dies. Jacob passes away. So what's
going to happen next? Well, I'm here to tell you what
happens next is a picture of a sinner's salvation. And that's
what we're going to look at this morning. Look with me in Genesis
chapter 50, and we'll start reading in verse 15. Genesis 50 verse 15 says, And when Joseph's brethren saw
that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure
hate us and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did
unto him. And they sent a messenger unto
Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,
So shall you say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the
trespass of thy brethren and their sin, for they did evil
unto thee, they did unto thee evil. And now we pray thee, forgive
the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father, And
Joseph wept when they spake unto him. And his brethren also went,
they followed this messenger. And they fell down before his
face, and they said, Behold, we be thy servants. And Joseph
said unto them, Fear not, for am I in the place of God. But
as for you, ye thought evil against me. But God meant it unto good
to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. The title of the message is,
God meant it unto good. God meant it unto good. Now I
want to show you a few things. Again, this is a picture of our
salvation. The first thing that we see here is that Joseph's
brothers were guilty. They were guilty. They knew they
were guilty. They knew that they were guilty
of wrongfully hating Joseph. In verse 15 they said, "...Joseph
will peradventure, requite, or return unto us all the evil that
we did to him." And thank you, Craig, for just reading. He read
that they hated him for several reasons. First, we read that
Joseph told their father of their evil report. He said, they're
up to no good. You know what the faithful man
of God says? You know what this Word says about you and me? Every
imagination of the thoughts and intents of our heart? Evil. Nothing but evil. None good nor
not want. We're evil. We don't like that. We don't
like to hear that. We try to defend ourselves. We
try to justify ourselves just like the Pharisees. Justify themselves
before men. We hate to be told the truth
about what we are. Second, they hated Him because
they saw that their Father loved Him More than them. Well, I wouldn't like that too
much either. I'm the baby though, so my parents love me. But I can understand why they
would be upset to see that their father loved him more than them.
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Man, that'll ruffle
someone's feathers. You talk about rubbing somebody
the wrong way, you tell them that God is sovereign. You tell
them that God has mercy on whom He will. God loves whom He will.
It ain't up to you. We don't like that. It's not
fair. It's not fair for God to do what
seems good unto Him to do. The Lord prayed to His Father.
He said, Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast hid these things. You've hidden the Gospel from
the wise and the prudent. You've hidden the mercy of Christ
from those who don't need it. And You've revealed them unto
babes. You've revealed this good news of the Gospel unto babes.
And He said, Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy
sight. He goes on to talk to His disciples. He said, Many
prophets and kings have desired to look into and to hear the
things that You've seen and heard, He said, but blessed are your
eyes. They never saw. They never heard, blessed are
your eyes. God, our God's in the heavens. He does whatsoever
He's pleased. And that's right. That's right.
Third, his brothers hated him because of that coat. That coat
of many colors that their father made for him. You remember that
prodigal son? He said, Father, give me my inheritance. And he went and wasted it. Wasted
it all. And he came home and what did
his father do? He said, nope. He said, I'm going to go home and
tell my father I'll go work in the field. I'll earn my living.
His father said, come here son. Put the best robe on him. Put a ring on his fingers, shoes
on his feet. Let's kill the fatty calf. But you remember the other son?
He heard music and dancing and he said, what's going on? And
they told him, they said, your brother's returned. He refused
to call him his brother. He said, oh, my father's son
is back. Well, he took his inheritance. He wasted his living. He made
a fool of himself. He's nothing. He's not worthy. They killed
a fatted calf for him? They did that for him? Again,
it's not fair. He thought he deserved something.
He'd been the good son. A little Pharisee, I'm the good
son. You know what that coat represents?
That coat is the righteousness of God. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And we all despise that righteousness. Every single one of us. We despise
the righteousness of Christ and go about to establish our own.
And they hated Him. They hated Him. They hated Him
for His dream. He told them a dream. Again,
I can understand the hatred. I wouldn't like that either if
my brother said you're going to bow to me. I hated him for his dream and
for his words. Did you know every one of us
must bow to Christ? Every single one of us. We want
to bow to ourselves. We want people to bow to us,
to look to us, to give us some praise and honor. There's no
praise and honor due unto us. We must bow to Christ. And we
will bow to Christ. But we don't want to hear that.
We don't want to hear we have to be broken and brought down
to nothing and bow to a Savior. We don't want to hear that. And
just like they despise Joseph's words, we despise God's words.
We despise the Word of God. To hear that salvation is not
our choice, it's outside of us, it's apart from us, we have no
part in it, the free gift of God. We don't like to hear that.
Just like Joseph's brothers. They were guilty in wrongfully
hating their brother. You and I are guilty in wrongfully
hating God, wrongfully hating our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Second, they were guilty in seeking
His hurt. They sought to kill Him. And Reuben said, don't kill
Him, put Him there and I'm going to take Him back to the Father.
Well, I don't know where Reuben went, but he came back and saw
that they sold Him as a slave. And he knew that it was going
to upset his father. Joseph, his father sent him to check
on them. He said, go to your brother and
see that it be well with them. And they sought to kill him.
God sent His only begotten Son into the world to save His people
from their sins. We sought to kill Him. And we
did kill Him. We put the Son of God on a tree.
They said, we'll see what's going to become of His dreams. The
dreamer cometh. They didn't know. And so it was, you and my cry
was, away with this man. Give us Barabbas, that murderer.
Crucify him. We won't have him. That was us. That was us. His brothers stripped
him of his coat, that coat of many colors. The soldiers at
the cross, they took the Lord's clothing off and put on him a
scarlet robe and put on him that crown of thorns and they said,
Hail, King of the Jews. They mocked him. They mockingly
hailed him. Joseph was put into a pit alone. The Lord Jesus, He tread the
winepress alone. He was in a pit. He was in a
pit of sin. Made sin to make us righteous. He was in a pit
with no water. Joseph was. The Lord Jesus, He
hung on that cross. He said, I thirst. And they gave
Him vinegar. They sold Joseph as a slave.
for 20 pieces of silver. Judas betrayed, sold to the Lord
Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Do we see the picture? Do we
see that they were guilty? You and I are guilty of much
worse than they were. We're guilty of hating God. Joseph's brothers were guilty
of seeking his hurt and murdering them in their heart. We're guilty
of killing the Son of God, crucifying the Lord Jesus. And you know
what Pilate, he said, he washed his hands, he said, I'm innocent.
I'm innocent of the blood of this just person. But you know
what they said, the soldiers that took him? His blood be on
us and on our children. Not only are we guilty, we're
proud of it. That's the sad thing. We refuse
to acknowledge our guilt. We're so proud. But here, Joseph's brothers,
they were brought to the point where they felt their sin. They
felt the weight of their sin. They felt the burden of their
sin. They knew what they deserved. They said, Joseph, he's not going
to be kind to us now. Now that our father's dead, they
thought, well, we deserve his wrath. We're going to get exactly
what we deserve. If God ever shows us that we're
guilty, if God ever shows us what we deserve, we'll say what Job said. Job
said, behold, I'm vile. I'm vile. What shall I answer
thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth. A guilty person has nothing to
say. We must face the fact that hell is what we deserve. That
thief on the cross, he said, we receive the due reward of
our deeds. We're here because we deserve
to be. You and me, we're thieves. We deserve to be here. God, the
Lord revealed Himself to that man miraculously on the cross.
He caused him to see Jesus Christ crucified, salvation Himself.
But we deserve to be here. You and I deserve God's wrath. And so the sin, if it shall die,
God will by no means clear the guilty. You and I have sinned
against God. We must face the punishment of
our sin. And Joseph's brothers, they were
brought to the point where they knew we're guilty. Guilty of
hating him. Guilty of selling him as a slave.
We deserve his wrath. We're in His hands. We have no
power to get out of this situation. We can't save ourselves. Did
you know that you and I are in God's hands? There's a hymn little
kids love to sing. This is my father's world. He's
got the whole world in His hands. That's true. And you and me are
part of that world. We're in His hands. And it's a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God. People think
they're ready to meet God. Only God can judge me. I'd be
very careful with what we say. Very careful. It's a fearful
thing to fall into His hands. You and I, whether we like it
or not, are at the mercy of God. Joseph's brothers, what could
they do? They couldn't help themselves. What did their will do for them? Joseph, we're here for you to
let us go. I don't think so. That's foolish. Are we going
to let God save us? No. There is no free will. Our
will is bound by our nature, and our nature hates God. Every
one of us. He is the potter. We're the clay. The Lord told Jeremiah, He said,
go down to the potter's house. You see him working a work on
the wheels, and he took a lump of clay and made it as seemed
good unto the potter to make it. You and I are the clay. God's
the potter. If God is pleased to make one
vessel into honor, take the same lump of clay and make a vessel
into dishonor, God has the right. God has the right to do what
He will. Joseph's brothers were faced with reality. We're going
to die. We're going to die. Their only
hope was that Joseph would show mercy to them. Mercy that they
did not deserve. Brethren, we're guilty before God, and our only
hope is that He would show mercy to us. We can't do anything to earn
it. We must cry for mercy. There's
no other hope. Now look here in verse 16. Look
here in verse 16. It says, And they sent a messenger
unto Joseph. They sent a messenger. You know,
the publican and the Pharisee praying, that publican stood
afar off. He was ashamed. Well, his brothers here, they
were ashamed to stand before Joseph. They knew what they deserved.
And they sent a messenger. Their father sent the messenger
for them. They followed that messenger. I can just picture
them. But you know, let's read what
that messenger said. The messenger, he said, I pray thee now, forgive,
I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren and their sin,
for they did unto thee evil. And now we pray thee, forgive
the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. Did you know that we have a messenger? Likewise, we have a messenger.
If we belong to God, we have a messenger. I love that verse.
If we sin, should when we sin, we have an advocate with the
Father. We plead guilty, we have an advocate with the Father.
Advocate is someone who pleads on your behalf. They plead for
you. You sit down, they do the talking. When we sit down and
God does the talking, God does the saving, the Lord Jesus is
our messenger. And I love this, they sent the
messenger and He prayed for them. He begged their forgiveness.
I love this. Long before you and I ever cry
out to God for mercy, long before we ever begged for forgiveness,
do you know the Lord Jesus prayed for us? We talk about we're the
ones that crucified Him, and yet while we drove those nails
in His hands and feet, stuck the spear in His side, put the
crown of thorns on His head, you know what He was doing? Father,
forgive them. Who? Those ones sticking that
spear in my side. Those ones sticking the sponge
of vinegar in my mouth as I thirst. Forgive them. Forgive them. They know not what they do. He pleads our forgiveness. He
wasn't crying for everyone's forgiveness. He prayed for His
people. He said, I know whom I've chosen. I pray not for the
world. I pray for them which Thou hast given Me, for they
are Thine. We know who He prayed for. He prayed for His people,
His elect. But did you know that this messenger that came and
pled Joseph's brother's case, they pled forgiveness for them.
They didn't deserve it. But you know what? In Christ,
Christ earned our forgiveness. God doesn't just wink at our
sin and say, well, Christ died, I'll forgive you. No, no, no. That's not how it works. He pleads
our forgiveness because He finished the work. I said earlier, His
blood bought mercy for sinners. He hath made Him to be sin for
us. He didn't just charge Him with
sin. He made Him to be sin. Now I can't explain what that
means. But all I know is if He merely charged Him with sin,
God is just. He can't charge something that's
not real. If He just charged him with sin,
is He just going to charge me with righteousness? No, He made
him to be sin. Who knew no sin? That we might
be made, not simply charged. That we might be made. This is
so important. The righteousness of God in Him.
God's not just going to charge you as righteous. God must make
us righteous. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die." Why did Christ die? Because God made Him to be sinned. Forsaken by God. We read that
when Joseph, when his brothers returned to his father and his
father saw that Joseph wasn't with him, he wept. Oh, he was
devastated. The Lord Jesus was forsaken by
God. By God the Father. Made to be
sinned to make us righteous. I'm so thankful. You know, God
is just. He must punish sin. He either
punished our sin in Christ or He's going to punish our sin
in us. Someone has to suffer the wrath of God for our sin.
It will either be us or it will be our substitute. One or the
other. And the Lord Jesus was raised again the third day because
God said, I am satisfied. You're satisfied. Lo, I come
to do thy will. He did God's will. He came to
finish the work He gave Him to do. He finished the work that
He came to do. It is finished. He's made us
righteous, brethren. And because of that, because
He made us righteous, He earned mercy for us, that's why we're
forgiven. That's why we're forgiven. You know, in and of ourselves,
we don't deserve God's mercy. Is there a person here that deserves
for God to have mercy on them? Is there someone here that deserves
for God to look your way? Not in and of ourselves, no.
But because of what Christ did, He made us worthy. Joseph's brothers,
they weren't worthy of forgiveness. Christ has made us worthy. By
the blood of the cross, He made us worthy. He earned, He obtained.
He did something to obtain eternal redemption for us. He earned
it for us. I'll try to get back to this
now. Joseph's brother's only hope was free, undeserved, unmerited
forgiveness. You and me, what hope do we have?
Free, unmerited, undeserved forgiveness. To stand before a just and holy
God who must punish all sin, what other hope could a sinner
have? None. We must confess our sin and bow.
Look in verse 19 of our text. I'm sorry, verse 18. They followed
the messenger. Then his brethren also went,
and they fell down before his face and said, Behold, we be
thy servants. We must, like Joseph's brothers,
acknowledge our sin, confess our sin to God. Don't do us any
good and confess our sin to each other. All we've got to do is
judge each other. We confess our sin to God. We
know if we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sin. And his brothers, they bowed
down and they said, we're your servants. We must bow to Christ
and say, Lord, I'm your servant. I'm yours. You bought me with
your blood. I belong to you. Do with me as
you see fit. You know, Joseph's brothers said
back in Genesis 37, shall we indeed come and bow ourselves
down to you to the earth? Yep. They bowed themselves down to
Him. Fell on their face. That's exactly what's going to
happen. God purposed it. God spoke it. It's going to come
to pass. Every knee is going to bow. Every tongue is going
to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. It's going to happen. And we must bow. We're either
going to bow now and be saved, or we'll bow in hell and say,
this is right. This is exactly what I deserve.
When Joseph's brothers first came to him, Joseph accused them
of being spies. He said, your spies come to see
the nakedness of the land. They said, no, we're not spies.
We're true men. We're all brethren of one Father. We're true men.
He said, no, you're spies. He caused them to remember their
sin. They were afraid. They remembered
their sin against Joseph. They feared him. But the fear
that they had then was different than the fear that they had now.
They got defensive. We're not spies. Joseph put the
silver cup in Benjamin's sack. He sends a servant. And the brethren
said, whoever's sack you find it in, let him die. Judah, it
was in Benjamin's sack, Judah had said, I'll be surety for
him. And he begged Joseph, he said, I'm surety for him. We
can't do this to our father. It is going to bring him down
to the grave. It will kill him. And that's
when Joseph could not refrain himself and he revealed himself
to his brethren. They feared him with an ungodly fear. Just like you'd fear a spider,
or them. They feared that something would happen. Now, they fear
Him with a reverential fear. I'm guilty. I'm in your hands. You do with me as you see fit.
I don't deserve it, but please forgive me. Do you see the difference? Over in Psalm chapter 34, turn
there with me if you will. Psalm chapter 34. We read in the Proverbs that
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We're commanded over
and over, fear the Lord. Well, look here in Psalm 34,
verse 9. It says, O fear the Lord, ye His saints, For there is no want to them
that fear Him. The young lions do lack and suffer
hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good
thing." You seek the Lord, you fear the Lord, you're not going
to lack anything. And verse 11 says, "...Come,
ye children, hearken unto me, I will teach you the fear of
the Lord." It's the beginning of all wisdom. You feel the Lord. Lord, what does that mean? Acknowledge
what you are to God. I'm a sinner. You're God. I'm
in your hands. Do it with me as you see fit.
It's recognizing what we are and who God is. That's what it
means to fear the Lord. It's bowing to Him. Not seeking
the world, loving the world. You seek the things of God. You
seek Christ. You seek the kingdom of God and
His righteousness. It's not about me. It's about
Christ. That's what it is to fear the
Lord. And Joseph's brothers feared
Joseph with that kind of fear. because they were broken. They
were brought down to nothing. They were brought to their wits
end. And did you know that it is a great blessing, perhaps
the greatest blessing of all, when God does that for a sinner?
When God breaks you down to nothing, you have nothing to offer, you
shut your mouth. Mercy is my only hope. That is
such a blessing. I pray God would do that for
each and every one of us. I pray that we will not bow when
it's too late. Lord, they'll bow to me then.
They'll call upon me then, but it's going to be too late. I
will not hear. I will not answer. It'll be too late. Lord, I'm yours. Lord, I'm yours. Now, the last thing I want to
show you here is that all of this was no accident. Everything that happened, everything
that took place that his brothers did to him, it was on purpose. It was on purpose. Look at verse
19 with me. They said, Behold, we be thy
servants, and Joseph said unto them, Fear not. What comforting
words! For am I in the place of God?
Now look here. But as for you, you thought evil
against me, but God meant it unto good. to bring the past
as it is this day, to save much people alive. Though Joseph's
brothers were guilty, Joseph told them to fear not. Joseph,
we're guilty. You have nothing to fear. Do
you know Joseph had already dealt kindly with them? Every time
they came for corn, he put their money back in their sacks. He
gave them all the land of Egypt. He took care of them while the
Egyptians were having to sell their cattle, sell their land.
They had nothing. And here they were freely receiving
everything Joseph had. He did everything for them. He
showed grace after grace after grace. And here they are still. He's
going to get us now. Sometimes you may feel like it's
all against me. All things are against me. If
you belong to Christ, all things are for you. If God be for us,
who can be against us? No one. It doesn't matter. You suffer persecution. God said
we would. He said you're not of this world.
He said they hated Me before they hated you. It's given unto
you not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake.
Everything is not against us, brethren, it's for us. It's for
us, just like God purposed all this to happen, to bring Joseph
to Egypt, to be ruler of Egypt, to bring his brothers back to
him, to reveal himself to them, to bring them to be with him.
The Lord Jesus said, I pray, Father, that those whom Thou
hast given me be with me where I am. That's what happened with
Joseph and his brothers. And that's what's going to happen
with God and His people. We have nothing to fear. You know, when
the Scriptures say, O ye of little faith, That's talking about me. That's talking about me. Oh,
you of little faith. But the Lord said, fear not,
little flock. It's your father's good pleasure to give you the
kingdom. What do we have to fear? Nothing. Now notice, who had
the right to tell his brothers not to fear? Just one person. Joseph. Joseph's the one that
they were guilty against. Joseph's the one they were bowing
to. You know who has the right to tell us to fear not? The one
we're guilty of sinning against God. The one we're bowing to.
Lord, I'm bowing to You. Only He can tell us to fear not.
It means nothing for a man to say, you've got nothing to fear.
I need God to tell me that. We must bow to the Lord Jesus
Christ, the God-man. And when he tells us to fear
not, oh brethren, God help us to believe. Give us faith. Cause
us to believe you. Now, Joseph's brothers, they
meant evil against him. He said, as for you, you thought
evil against me. God let them do the wicked thoughts and intents
of their heart. You better believe he did. They fought. People think that we're for God,
we know God, my will is for God, I'm so godly, I'm religious,
God loves me, I love God. You and I would never choose
God. Not the God of this book, the
God that wants you to save Him that you pull out of your pocket
and you use Him when you need Him. Yeah, that God, sure, that's
not God. That's not the God of this book,
is it, Rupert? That's not the God of heaven and earth. That's
not the God that saves sinners. We do not choose God. We say,
give us Barabbas. Crucify that man. Crucify the
Son of God. We've not chosen God. He chose
us, brethren. Our will hated Him. You know
what God's will for His people is? Full of nothing but love.
Come here. Though they meant evil, God purposed
that to happen. God meant for that to happen
exactly the way it happened. And so it is with us. We crucify
the Son of God, but God purposed it. Listen to this now. You meant
evil, but God meant it unto good. God meant it. You know, that
means He purposed it. He purposed for it to happen. I want to show
you something. Look over in Genesis chapter
45, verse 7. Genesis 45 verse 7. Joseph had just revealed himself,
made himself known to his brethren. And here in verse 7 he says,
God sent me before you, God sent me, to preserve your posterity
in the earth, to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now,
it was not you that sent me, hither, You meant evil, but it
wasn't you that sent me here, but God. You meant evil against
me. You did everything you did to
me because that's the evil of your heart. Do you get the picture?
We meant evil, but God sent me here. God did this. God did this.
God sent Joseph to Egypt. God sent Joseph to Egypt to save
them, to save their lives by a great deliverance. We just
read it. God the Father sent His Son to save us by a great
deliverance. And what a great deliverance
it is. Made guilty sinners the very righteousness of God. What
could be greater than that? What a great deliverance. You think about what happened
in your life for you to come to the knowledge of Christ. We
talked about this last night with Doug and Judy. Sometimes
one message sticks out to you and perhaps God turns the lights
on it, Wow, I never knew God. I never saw God before. He's
not who I thought He was. And praise God, He wasn't. And
sometimes you just find yourself believing. Why are we here? Why
do we have a desire to be here? I'll tell you why. Because God
gave us a new heart. God gave us a new heart that
loves God, that desires the things of God. Whatever it took place
for you to come to Christ, God did it. And He did it that
way because that was the best way. Or else He would have done
it another way. We all know Romans 8.28, right?
We know. This ain't up for debate. We know that all things, everything,
all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are the called according to His purpose. We know. We know
this. We know this! God overruled his
brother's evil for good, and praise God he overrules our evil
for good. The first part is we got to know
we're evil. Do you know that you're nothing
but sin? Do you know that you're evil?
Every ounce of us, by nature, nothing but evil. Just like Joseph's
brothers meant evil with all they had, you and I meant evil
with everything we had. If we were there, we would have
been the ones crucifying Him. We would have been the ones ridiculing
Him, saying, if Thou be the Christ, save Thyself and us. We would
have been the ones spitting in His face. Would we not? We would have. We meant evil. We crucified the
Son of God and we meant it. We meant exactly what we did.
But I've got good news for you. We were simply working out the
purpose of God Almighty. Well, how can you say that? I
don't want to be mistaken. Let me read you a verse. Him,
the Lord Jesus, being delivered by the determinate counsel and
full knowledge of God, you have taken. You have by wicked hands
crucified and slain." That's right. That's right. You and
me. But it was all purpose by God. It was all purpose by God. We did it. Our actions earned
us eternal damnation. There are going to be many. Perhaps
the people that actually stuck the spear in His side, I don't
know if they were the worst people or not. I have no reason to assume
they were. They may be in hell. Our actions earned us that. Our
actions earned us eternal wrath. But God was pleased to show us
mercy. For Christ's sake. For Joseph's sake. We were by
nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who
is rich in mercy. As God purposed, so it came to
pass. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad
for that holy blood of God that was shed to buy mercy for guilty
sinners? Aren't you glad? I can just imagine
the shock to his brothers. It says that they were afraid.
When Joseph said, I am Joseph your brother whom you sold as
a slave, it says they were afraid. I can imagine. And here when
he says, yes, I know our father's dead, but I'm having mercy on
you. God did this. I'm not going to kill you. I'm
not going to put you in prison. Can you imagine the shock? Imagine
the shock. If God ever reveals to you that all our evil, all your evil,
all my evil, which I meant, that He has overruled that evil, that
hatred of God, if He overruled my evil for good, And not just in good. He said,
even for this same purpose that I raise Pharaoh up, that I might
show my power in him. He overruled his evil for good.
All things work together for good, for God's people and His
glory, but here's the kicker. For my good. He overruled my
evil for my salvation. God, if He teaches us that, we'll
be forever thankful. We don't read that his brothers
said anything, and for good reason, they had nothing to say. You
just sit there and you'd be in awe. God did this for me. Paul, I'm the less than the least
of all the saints. God did this for me. Praise God. Praise God. Why did He do it? Why would He do this? Why would
God do this for me? Joseph told his brothers back
in chapter 45 verse 13, he said, you go back to my Father, you
tell Him, you tell Him of all my glory. You tell Him of all
my glory and everything that you've seen in Egypt. God had
mercy on us, overruled our evil for our good, for our eternal
salvation. For Christ's glory, that we should
be to the praise of His glory. to the praise of the glory of
His grace." Oh, brethren, that's why God did this. That's why
God purposed the fall. Yes, God purposed the fall. We're
guilty. We fell. But God purposed it. Yes, we
crucified the Son of God at Calvary. How sad. The Lord marched there.
He went there on purpose. My hour's not yet come. He went
there on purpose. God did this. Aren't you glad? He brought mercy for sinners.
Oh, praise His holy name, that the Lord Jesus may receive all
honor, praise, and glory forever. How glorious. Now one more thing,
real quickly. Look at verse 21. What's going
to happen now? What's going to happen now? God did this. Now
therefore, fear ye not, I will nourish you and your little ones. and He comforted them and stayed
kindly unto them. Fear not." There it is again.
Brethren, you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Fear not. I will nourish you. All things
are yours. He's given us all things. Fear
not, child of God. We're complete in Christ. We
have nothing to fear. Christ is all. Christ our Joseph
will nourish us all the days of our life. My grace is sufficient
for thee, Doug. My grace is sufficient for thee.
My strength is made perfect in your weakness. Christ did it all. Let us be
thankful. Christ did it all. It is finished. He accomplished salvation for
guilty sinners. Fear not. He'll nourish us. Seek
ye the kingdom of God and His righteousness. All these things,
whatever it is, shall be added unto you. Praise God. Brethren, I pray. Believe on
the Son of God. It's our only hope of salvation.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on Him. And thou shalt
be saved. Amen.