We just read, we're just saying, just and holy is thy name. That's so of our God. Just and
holy is his name. This is true of us. I am all
unrighteousness. So how can a God who is just
and holy, how can he be just to justify unrighteous sinners
like us. You see, that's what the gospel
is. It's the declaration, the proclamation,
the manifestation of how holy God can be just to save sinners
like you and me. That's the preeminent purpose
of the cross. Yes, God loves. That's manifest
in the cross. All God's attributes are manifest
in the cross. His mercy. But see, God loves
and He's merciful in a way that's absolutely, perfectly holy. absolutely holy. He's holy. He's just. He's righteous. And
the way He does so is this right here. Here's the gospel in 2
Corinthians 521. He hath made Him, the Lord Jesus,
sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. That's how God is just and how
he is the justifier of his people. He sent his only son, his innocent,
spotless, holy son, and he made him sin for his people. And by
doing so, the Lord Jesus made us the righteousness of God in
him. That is our gospel. Christ Jesus,
our righteousness. 10 years ago, I went to this
chapter and I had on my heart to preach about Judah being the
surety and a picture of Christ being the surety of his people.
And the Lord, As I read those first 17 verses of Genesis 44,
the Lord just opened up something to me I had never seen. And that's
what I want to preach to you today. My subject here is Benjamin,
a type of Christ. And what I want to show you here
is Joseph being a picture of God, our Father. Benjamin, a
picture of the Lord Jesus. The steward, an illustration
of God the Holy Spirit, and Benjamin's brethren here, a picture of God's
elect for whom Christ died. Benjamin, a type of Christ. Now let's begin here, and the
first thing we see in these first few verses, and I'm just gonna
go a little at a time here. The first thing we see in these
first few verses gives us a good picture of how salvation is the
free gift of God given to his people. It says there in verse
one, he, Joseph, commanded the steward of his house, saying,
fill the men's sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and
put every man's money in his sack's mouth. God gives salvation
to his people. Salvation is a gift of God. He
commanded the steward of the house, fill the men's sacks.
They were in a famine. Jacob and his sons were in a
famine. And this is a good illustration of how backward we are by nature.
They needed to go down to Egypt where Joseph was to get bread. And so when they went there the
first time, they took money And they took some almonds, a few
things, to try to get Joseph to give them bread. They don't
know Joseph. They don't know that's their
brother. But they take him money and some almonds to try to get
him to save them out of a famine. God does not need your almonds.
He's not interested in you bringing him your money or your almonds
or anything you have. Salvation is the gift of God.
Who hath first given to God and it shall be recompensed to him
again. Nobody has. We've never given first, given
anything to God. For of him and through him and
to him are all things to whom be glory forever. Everything
is of God. The wages of sin is death. That's what we've earned. But
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Two, we see here that it's through the Holy Spirit. It's through
the preaching of the word, through the minister Christ sends, that
the Holy Spirit makes known the truth of the gospel to us. He's
commanded the steward of his house to fill the men's sacks.
Christ's preacher that he sends, he's a steward. That's what he
is, he's a steward for God. But we can't reveal anything
in the hearts of anybody. It's the Holy Spirit that has
to reveal the work in the heart of his people. Paul said, account
of us as the stewards of the mysteries of the gospel. But
he also said, these mysteries are freely revealed to us by
the Spirit of God. That's the only way we know anything
of God is by the Holy Spirit. See, everything is of God. Another
thing we see here is when God gives to his people, he gives
abundantly. Joseph said, fill the men's sacks as much as they
can carry. And when the Lord gives you these
free gifts of salvation, He gives abundantly, abundantly. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. That is, sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign unto righteousness, unto eternal
life in righteousness by Christ Jesus our Lord. God said they
should be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house.
He gives you as much as you can carry. And another thing we see
here is it's all free. It's all free. He said, give
them their money back. Our Lord said, ho, everyone is
thirsty. Everyone is thirsty. Come to
the waters, he that hath no money, come ye buy and eat, come buy
wine and milk without money and without price. Without money
and without price. Now, here's our main point, and
I want you to pay close attention to this. God the Father made
Christ sin for his people. This is how God is just. This
is how He is the justifier. He made Christ's sin for His
people. Verse 2 says, Joseph commanded
the steward, put my cup, my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's
mouth of the youngest and his corn money. And he did according
to the word that Joseph had spoken. God the Father put His cup in
Christ's hand. He put his cup in Christ's hand. In the Garden of Gethsemane,
the Lord Jesus Christ fell on his face, and he prayed, saying,
O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as thou wilt. It was not possible that that
cup could pass from him. There was no other way God could
be just and justify His people than what He did through Christ
on the cross. No other way. No other way. It's called in Isaiah 51, 22,
the cup of trembling. We just can't imagine what it
was. The cup of trembling. It's called
the dregs of the cup of God's fury. Ezekiel 23, 33, it's called
the cup of astonishment and desolation. That's what justice demanded
of all those God saved. God our Father put that cup into
the Lord Jesus' hand. What was this cup? It was the
cup of bearing all the sins of his people. It was the cup of
justice poured out on him in place of his people. See there, it's called the silver
cup. That reminds you of the betrayal
of Joseph's brethren. goes back there when they betrayed
Joseph. They were going to just throw
him in a pit and leave him there. But here comes these Midianites
and they thought, we can make some money off of him. And it
says, they sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of
silver. And you remember, Judas betrayed
the Lord for 30 pieces of silver. You see, Our sin is betrayal
of God. That's what our sin is. And that's
what Christ had to bear. He had to bear the betrayal that
we committed against God. That's what he had to bear to
save his people from our sin. And notice here, Joseph commanded,
put my cup, my cup, a cup that God gave to his son is God's
cup. What do I mean by that? Well,
Romans 3.26, you're probably familiar with it if you want
to turn there. Romans 3.26 tells us why Christ came. He came to manifest the righteousness
of God. And He tells us what that is.
Romans 3.26, To declare, I say at this time, His righteousness,
that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. This is what the gospel is about. This is why when you hear men
preach that Christ died for all men without exception and now
it's up to you to make his blood effective. This is why that is
such a blasphemous message. It's because it declares Christ
really didn't accomplish anything. He made it possible, but Christ
did accomplish something. He came to declare and manifest
and make God just as he justified his people, and that's what he
did. That's what he did. God will not show mercy at the
expense of his justice. There's no judge on this, in
this earth that can show strict justice and show mercy. And if he shows mercy, he's not
gonna show strict justice. You and I can't make those two
meet in harmony. God is a God who will have mercy,
but he won't do it at the expense of his justice. He declared to
Moses, this is his glory. He said he keeps mercy for thousands. He forgives iniquity and transgression
and sin and that will by no means clear the guilty. How can I put
this in simple terms? What does your sin deserve? Your
sin deserves death, eternal death under the just judgment of God.
That's what our sins deserve. Here's what it means. How can
God kill you and give you life. How can He
kill you under justice and show you mercy and forgive you? That's
what I'm talking about, about making mercy and truth meet in
harmony. How can he be just and justify
you? That was Darius' dilemma. He
wanted to show Daniel mercy, but he couldn't and be just. He didn't know how to do it.
He labored all night trying to figure out how can I do it. He
couldn't do it. Only God can show mercy and be just. He's the just judge. And all his judgment is just. All his ways are just. He does
everything in judgment. You know, the way God commanded
the judges to judge in Israel is how God judges. This is how
God judges. Now listen to Deuteronomy 25.1.
He told the judges, if there is a controversy between men,
and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them.
then they shall justify the righteous and condemn the wicked." We can
understand that. If you go into a court of law,
here's what a just judge is. If a man's guilty, he imputes
to that man and sentences him to whatever the penalty is. That's
a just judge. If a man's innocent, he imputes
righteousness to this man and lets him go free. That's a just
judge. Well, God is the just judge and
he judges righteous judgment. Now, listen carefully. He imputes,
he charges, he reckons, to a man what he has been made by a prior
act. That's what imputation is according
to the scripture. God said, he that justifieth
the wicked and he that condemneth the just, even they both are
an abomination to God. We understand that in a court
of law. If a judge has a man come before him and that man
is innocent, proven innocent, everything, all the facts are
brought forth, the man's innocent, and the judge imputes guilt to
that man and charges him, you'd say that judge's not just. or
vice versa. If the man is guilty and the
judge imputes innocence to him and lets him go free, you say
he's not just. God said they both are an abomination
to him. That's not how God judges. Imputation,
according to the Imputation according to the scripture. I'm not going to debate this
with men. I'm not going to discuss this with men. It's plainly declared
in the scripture. Imputation according to scripture
is God imputing to a man what the man has been made by a prior
act. Let me give you an example. Adam
sinned in the garden. He transgressed against God,
took the fruit God forbade him to take, transgressed against
God. Only then did God come to Adam
in the garden and say, how'd you know you're naked, Adam?
Did you eat of the tree I told you not to eat of? He imputed
sin to Adam. He charged sin to Adam. Why? Adam had sinned. By Adam's disobedience, he made
all his children whom he represented, he made us all guilty because
he was our head. And only after Adam sinned and
made us guilty did God impute sin to us. Go with me to Romans
5.12, Romans 5.12. Somewhere along the way, and
I don't know why or how, but sin, imputation became this thing
of God just imputes, charges you something and treats you
as if that's what you are. That's not what imputation is.
God's just, God is just. God is just. Romans 5.12 says,
wherefore as by one man, sin entered into the world and death
by sin. And so, for that reason now,
and so death passed upon all men. For, because that all have
sinned. And Martin says, because in Adam
all have sinned. You see that? Why did God impute
sin to all Adam's race? Because in Adam all have sinned. That's why. It was a just charge. Now look at the next verse. This
next verse is what really just settled this thing for me. Look
at this next verse. For until the law, sin was in
the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law. That tells
you how God imputes. God will not reckon sin to a
man unless a man has been made sin by a prior act according
to the law. You got to be guilty or He won't
impute sin to you. You got to have been made sin
under law or He won't impute sin to you. Now what's this mean? Until the law, sin was in the
world. Well, God didn't give another
law from the garden to Mount Sinai. God didn't publish and
make known a law to men like he did to Adam. It says, nevertheless, death
reigns. from Adam to Moses, even over
them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression.
That means even over them that hadn't broken a known law that
God expressly gave to them like he did Adam and said, don't eat
this tree. They didn't have, God didn't
do that to Mount Sinai with some exception. He did give Noah some
except, but I mean, By and large, he didn't give another known
law until Mount Sinai. Nevertheless, God did impute
sin to men from Adam to Moses and they died. You see this verse
is declaring the reason God was just to impute sin to men is
because in Adam, all have sinned. We really sinned in Adam. So
when God gives his elect faith in Christ, Oh, this is the good
news of this. This is where you, this is what
makes your heart jump right here. When God gives you faith in Christ
and God imputes righteousness to you, it is because Christ
really made us the righteousness of God in Him. Look down there
at Romans 5, 13, at the end it says, Adam was the figure of
Christ. He was the figure of Christ in headship. Verse 18,
therefore as by the offense of one, judgment came upon, God
imputed to all men who Adam represented, condemnation. Even so by the
righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all who Christ
represented unto justification of life. How so? For as by one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners. God imputed sin to us because
we've been made sin by a prior act. Even so, by the obedience
of one, shall many be made righteous. When God imputes righteousness
to you, child of God, it's because you've been made righteousness
by the prior act of our Lord Jesus Christ, by his obedience. Do you get that? It's a just
charge. God's the just judge. Now, behold
the Lord Jesus in our text. The Lord Jesus was innocent.
He's holy. He's without sin. He's the only
man since Adam. Adam was created upright in the
garden. The Lord Jesus is the only man since the fall that
ever walked this earth, came In his mother's womb, he was
holy. And he came forth perfect, holy, righteous. Everything he
did was righteous. Pleased God in all his ways. He's the only man that ever walked
this earth that did that since the fall. And the only one that
ever will since the fall. In and of himself. So that's
what we see in Benjamin. Why did Joseph put this cup in
Benjamin's sack? Why did he choose Benjamin and
put this cup in Benjamin's sack? Benjamin was a baby when his
brothers betrayed him. Benjamin didn't betray him. Benjamin
was innocent. Benjamin did not do the sin. It was his brothers that did
it. Christ Jesus is spotless. He's perfect. He's holy. He's
the only one that could do this for His people because He was
the only one who was innocent. Nobody else. You can't lay down
your life for anybody else. You're guilty. And I'm guilty.
Christ was innocent. He's spotless. He's perfect.
He's holy. But before the just judge of
heaven and earth would impute sin to Him and make Him a curse
for His people, The Lord God had to put His cup in Christ's
hand. And what He did, I don't know
how He did it, but that don't matter. What matters
is God says He did it. God's Word says He did it. He
hath made Him sin for us who knew no sin. That's what God
did. Scripture says, all we like sheep
have gone astray. And the Lord laid on Him the
iniquity of us all. He took all the sin of all His
elect and He laid it on Christ. Christ was made the sin of all
God's elect. That's what He did. I'll tell
you how, I mean, this is going beyond, this is, as Brother Henry
used to say, this is beyond my pay grade. But, you know, when Adam, when Adam
really was made sin in the garden, now we're not, we're talking
about before the law, when he transgressed, he became guilty,
but in himself, the way he was made sin was, God didn't put
something in Adam. He took something from him. He
took his spirit from him. And on the cross, it all came
about this way. God forsook our Lord Jesus on
the cross. He withdrew his spirit. I don't
know, that's beyond me. But I know this, on that cross,
the Lord Jesus Christ bore that all by himself, separated from
God. That's the purpose for which
God sent his son, to declare how God's perfectly just, perfectly
righteous. Now, in our text, Benjamin was
not a willing participant in this. That's the difference.
Our Lord Jesus Christ did what he did willingly. He willingly,
you know, Adam was made sin by disobedience. He disobeyed God. The Lord Jesus was made sin by
obedience. He went to the cross. It's all
pictured in the law. They brought a spotless lamb
and then they killed that lamb. Nope. They brought a spotless
lamb and then in ceremony and type, the sin of the people was
put on that lamb. Then they killed that lamb. Our
Lord Jesus Christ is the spotless lamb. He came to the Father and
presented himself the spotless lamb. And the Lord made him sin
for his people. And only then did God number
him with the transgressors. Only then did God impute sin
to him. Only then did God make him a
curse for his people. He poured out the fierce fury,
the dregs of the cup. He poured out the justice of
God on him and he separated him. And he bore that on his own. And on that cross, here was the
cup Christ poured. Number one, you know how it feels
when you personally are guilty. You know how that just, oh, that
just, it weighs on you. You can't find peace, there's
no rest. Your sins just weigh on you when
you know you're guilty before God. Our Lord Jesus Christ, on
the cross, owned the sins of his people to be his because
they became his. This was an exact It was an exact transference
of our sin. They became His, and He owned
them. In Psalm 40, verse 12, He said,
"'Enumerable evils have come past me about. Mine iniquities
have taken hold of me, so that I'm not able to look up. They're
more than the hairs of mine head, therefore my heart faileth me.'"
That's the cup He drank. really and truly owning our sins
to be His and they were His and He's just laying down with the
guilt of before and the shame. He endured the cross despising
the shame. You and I have never done that.
We've never done that perfectly. We've never even owned our guilt
and confessed our sin of perfection. You know that? Your confession
of sin's got enough sin mixed with it to damn us to hell for
eternity. Our Lord Jesus owned our sin
and confessed His sin to God perfectly. He's the perfection
of our confession of sin. And then, The curse. He cried out, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? And he justified God. He said,
but thou art holy. And I'm a worm and no man. Brethren,
I'm telling you, I understand fully men not wanting our gracious,
holy Lord Jesus. We don't want to say anything
that would tarnish his glory whatsoever. But this is his glory. This is how he glorified God
to the highest. And he said that. That's his
word. He said that for our information. Why did God forsake him? He said,
because God is holy. And as he bore our sin, he said,
I'm a worm and no man. And bless God, he finished the
transgression. He put away all the sin of his
people. He was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace,
the chastisement that resulted in us having peace with God was
upon Him. And with His stripes, we are
healed. We are healed, brethren. How are you and me going to be
made to rejoice and submit to God and trust Christ and find
this to be all our salvation and what He has accomplished
for us? How are we going to be brought there? Alright, here's
our last thing. Joseph sent his steward to speak
his words and fetch these brethren. It says verse 4, Genesis 44 verse
4, And when they were gone out of the city, and not yet far
off, Joseph said to his steward, Up, follow after the men, and
when thou dost overtake them, say unto them, Wherefore have
you rewarded Eva for good? It's not this in which my Lord
drinketh, and whereby indeed He divineth. You've done evil
in so doing, and He overtook them, and He's spoken to them
these words." Our Lord Jesus said, when the Holy Spirit has
come, He said, He will guide you into all truth. He will not
speak of Himself, He will glorify me, He will receive of mine,
and He will show it unto you. And what's He showing to you?
The Lord Jesus said, I will pour out the spirit of grace and supplication,
and they will look upon me whom they have pierced. And they'll
mourn for me as one mourns for his only son. The Holy Spirit's gonna convince
us of sin by making us behold the Lord Jesus Christ, bearing
our sin and his body on the tree. You don't behold your sin by
just simply looking at the letter of the law or even just hearing
the letter of the law. Where you really behold your
sin and are made to acknowledge and confess your sin is when
he makes you behold Christ Jesus and what he bore in the place
of his people. Verse 11, they speedily took
down every mannish sack to the ground and they opened every
mannish sack and he searched and began at the eldest and left
at the youngest and the cup was found in Benjamin's sack. Then
they rent their clothes. You know what's going to happen
when you see Christ Jesus the Lord and God makes it personal
to you and makes you know you pierced Him and He's bearing
your sin on that cross. All those garments of good works
and self-made righteousness that you claimed that you had, you're
going to rent them all. They're coming off. And it says, and they laid it
every man his ass and they returned to the city. They turned around
there on their way Headed on their way, they turned around
and headed straight back to Joseph. You know what the Lord's gonna
do when He makes you seek Christ? He's gonna make you turn. That's
called repentance. He's gonna make you return to
the Lord. He's gonna make you come to His
house, to Him personally. And Judah and his brethren came
to Joseph's house. He's gonna bring you to His house
where His gospel's preached, but He's gonna bring you to Him
in glory, right to the Lord Himself. between you and him, between
your heart and the Lord. And it says, and they fell before him on the
ground. That's what beholding Christ
is gonna do. It's gonna bring you down. It's gonna bring, that
publican smote upon his breast. He wouldn't even lift his eyes
up to heaven. He smote upon his breast and
he said, Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. Gonna bring you
down to the ground. And Joseph said, what deed is
this that you've done? Wilt you not that such a man
as I can certainly divine? The margin says, don't you know
I can try? I can try, I can try the case
and God can try the case. He knows, He knows all about
us. And Judas said, what shall we
say unto my Lord? What shall we speak or how shall
we clear ourselves? He's saying there's nothing we
can do. God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants. That's where we gotta be brought.
We gotta be brought to say, to plead no contest. I can't try
to justify myself. I can't try to, I'm guilty. That's where we gotta be brought,
guilty. Have you ever been brought there
just guilty? I'm talking about before God,
guilty. Nothing you can say, nothing you can do, guilty. Guilty, guilty, guilty. That's
where we've got to be brought. Verse 16. They said, Behold,
we are my Lord's servant, both we and he also with whom the
cup is found. But listen to this now. Because of what Christ did, when
He brings you to this place, and brings you there on your
face before God confessing your guilt, confessing there's nothing
you can do. Confessing God, you're just good
to condemn me. Like David in Psalm 51. Lord, you're just in your judgment. I've done the wickedness. I've
done the sin. All I am is sin. You're just
when you judge me. When he brought you there. I
need mercy, Lord. I need mercy. Verse 17, and Joseph said, God
forbid that I should do so. But the man in whose hand the
cup is found, he shall be my servant. and asks for you, get
you up in peace unto your Father. That's where the Lord's gonna
bring His child. See, Christ took the cup and He bore the
justice and God won't pour out justice a second time. He won't
pour out justice a second time. Christ settled judgment and when
He brings you to see Him, This is what the old hymn writer said. If Christ has my discharge procured
and freely in my room endured the whole of wrath divine, payment
God cannot twice demand. First at my bleeding surety's
hand and then again at mine. Joseph said, this is what God
the Father say, my son bore the cup, it's in his hand, he bore
the cup, and he say to you, I've taken out of your hand the cup
of wrath, I've taken out of your hand the dregs of the cup of
my fury, you will not drink it again. And I've given you this
cup of sweet wine to remember the New Testament in my blood.
I've given you this cup. Now you can go to your father's
house in peace. Peace with God. Have you ever
been brought there? You sitting here that have never
been brought to this place to acknowledge to God what you are.
Listen to this now. Listen to this now. It was not
written for Abraham's sake alone that it was imputed to him, but
for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him
that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification. Sinner, has the Spirit of God
made you behold you are the guilty one? Has He made you see Christ
bearing the sin of His people? Has He made it personal to you
and made you see that you pierced Him, that Christ was bearing
your sin on Calvary's cross? If He's brought you there, thus
saith the Lord, the Lord, thy God, that pleadeth the cause
of His people, Behold, I've taken out of thine hand the cup of
trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury. Thou shalt
no more drink it again. He says, get you up in peace
to your Father. Romans 5 says, therefore be justified
by faith. We have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Christ did for His
people. And it's just. When God imputes
righteousness to His child, it's because Christ has made us the
righteousness of God in Him. You can't get more emphatic than
Romans 6 when Paul said, Reckon ye yourselves, impute ye yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. God's imputation is right and
just, and that's what Christ made His people. I pray God bless
you with that. Thank you so much. And when we
take this bread and this wine, remember, when you take that
cup, God has taken that cup of wrath out of your hand and put
that sweet cup of wine in your hand to remember that's the New
Testament. Christ said, this represents
the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you. It's done. Oh, thank you. Thank you so much,
Brother Rick.