And he pleaded his father's love,
and then he finally pleaded himself as a substitute for his brother.
He said, take me, let me be a bondman to my Lord forever, instead of
the lad. And this, you can see so plainly,
is God's, the Spirit of God has given us this vivid picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ that's so plain that we see it clearly
and it's moving too. It also moves our emotions as
we read it. So many times I've read this
and tears well up in my eyes just because of the the sensitivity
that Joseph had to the pleadings that Judah made and the willingness
of Judah to be a surety for his brother Benjamin to his father.
It's a moving passage and it's especially moving because we
realize, as Joseph surely did, that what Judah was doing here
was telling forth what the Lord Jesus Christ not only had done
in eternity when he pledged himself in blood to his father for his
people, And pledged that he would not let one of them escape. Not one of them would be lost,
that he would bring them all to him again, or he would bear
the blame forever. And so we're absolutely certain,
because of this and so much else in scripture, that the Lord Jesus
Christ could not fail. He's the son of God, God cannot
fail. And the Lord Jesus as son of
man could not fail, because God poured out the spirit Without
measure upon him he had God's spirit. He could not fail in
his mission that God gave him to do. He set his face like a
flint. He came to do the will of God and he did it. And said
from the cross it is finished. Complete and perfect. And so
he saved his people from their sins as his name says, Jesus.
Which if he didn't do, his name could not be Jesus. Jehovah saves,
that's his name. And he couldn't be the Lord God
Almighty if he didn't, in his almighty power, save everyone
the Father entrusted to him from eternity to bring them back to
his Father. And so all of this had a marvelous
effect on Joseph. He broke forth in tears of compassion
and love because he heard, in Judah's pleading, he heard his
own substitutionary sufferings at the hand of his hateful brothers.
And he heard of his own separation from his father. And he heard
Judah's willingness to do all of this for his brother Benjamin
and his love for his father in fulfillment or in prophecy of
what the Lord Jesus Christ would do in fulfillment. And so we
see in this scripture that the Spirit of God Himself shows us
Joseph weeping in unrestrained love and joy over his brothers,
weeping in compassion for them, and his reaction to Judah's plea
as the Spirit of God shows us in all of this the consummate
joy and grace of God. that he has towards his people
in bringing him, in obligating the Lord Jesus, obligating himself
for them to stand for them before God and answer every charge.
And so Joseph is rejoicing in this. He's rejoicing because
in Judah he sees how the justice which he represented and the
love of his father for Benjamin both came together in the surety.
Judah was that surety and Joseph rejoiced in that with such a
great love for his brother and it broke forth. God's justice
and mercy met in our mediator and both were satisfied. In Psalm
85 verse 10 it says mercy and truth have met together. Mercy
and truth have met together. How could that be? We think of,
if you're going to be just, you have to uphold the truth of the
law and show justice. There's no flexibility. The punishment
must be given to the guilty. And yet mercy finds a way to
satisfy justice. And they're met together now
in Psalm 85, they've kissed. They've come together so near
in justice and mercy in the Lord Jesus that righteousness and
peace have kissed each other. And so we see in that scripture
that God delights in mercy. God delights in mercy. There
are several mistakes that we make as sinners, several wrong
thoughts we have about God. One of them is that God is that we don't have to do. We
don't have to pay attention to God. We can be indifferent, live
our lives to ourselves. That's pretty much the most common
attitude I see. I noticed some people out front
today as we were getting ready, and it seemed to me that that
was the case, completely indifferent. Using language that intermingled
God's name with the most foul language with absolutely no impact
on them. And I think about that, that's
the way I am by nature, indifferent. And then there's the other bad
thoughts we have about God is that God is unfair to us because
he is so just. And so we begin to have hostility
towards God in our mind and we hide. Another example, I saw
some kids playing in the homes near where they're building,
building near a house. And I went over and warned them
that it was not dangerous to be there. They immediately came
up with ten different reasons why that they should be there,
an excuse. We justify ourselves, naturally.
We justify ourselves in our own conscience, so much so that we
cede propaganda to others about ourselves. We begin to believe
it about ourselves, that we're not that bad, we have every reason.
every excuse as sinners, and so we justify ourselves and our
minds. And this attitude of justifying ourselves carries us all the
way up to the throne of God, and we think that somehow God's
going to let us go. He won't. He's just. But the
knowledge of that is deep-seated in our conscience, and we know
it's true, and so that knowledge of God's justice won't allow
us to see that God is also good. But it says in Proverbs chapter
20, I mean, first in Psalm chapter 89 verse 14 it says that God's
throne is established in both justice and mercy. This is amazing
that God is both just and merciful. Listen, Psalm 89 verse 14, justice
and judgment are the habitation of thy throne. Justice and judgment
are the habitation of thy throne. That's where they rest. That's
where they reside. Where is justice? It's in the
throne of God. Everything He does, He rules
in justice and judgment. And then He goes on, He says,
Mercy and truth shall go before thy face. That's in Psalm 89,
14. And then in Proverbs, listen to this surprising statement
in Proverbs 20, verse 28. Mercy and truth preserve the king, not just mercy
and not just truth, but mercy and truth preserve the king,
and his throne is upholden by mercy. That's a phenomenal thing. How could God both be merciful
to the guilty and just to the guilty? Well, he says here that
his throne is upholden by both justice and mercy. And so we
see that somehow God Himself is going to reconcile these two
things when it comes to His people who are sinful. Just like Joseph
received his brothers who had hated and envied him and thought
to put him to death and sold him as a slave and never could
speak a kind word to him. And yet, He's gracious to them. And so we read in Micah chapter
7 that God delights in mercy. He delights in mercy. And Jesus
even told the Pharisees, go and learn what this means. Learn
about this. Learn what God is like. That's
what we need to do. It occurs to me that famine,
remember in the book of Amos, it says that there would be a
famine for the word of God. What is the definition of famine?
We're right in the middle of this famine right here in Genesis.
There is going to be seven years of plenty, then seven years of
famine. But famine in scripture is actually the deprivation of
the truth of God disclosed from heaven. It's the lack of God's
word, the revelation of God. The lack of the knowledge of
God is famine in the soul. In Psalm 14, it says, the fool
has said in his heart, there is no God. They're corrupt. They've
all gone out of the way. There's none that understandeth.
That's the condition of our natural hearts. We don't understand God.
We're without the knowledge of God. We don't know who He is
and we don't see His goodness either in His justice or in His
truth or in His mercy and His grace. And so we live hiding,
justifying ourselves, in hostility in our minds toward Him, hating
God and hating one another. And this is depicted here by
Joseph's brethren. And it's evident in them, they
were deceitful. They deceived their father. They
claim to be true men when they were the very opposite in Joseph's
presence. And Joseph showed them that he
searches the hearts like God did. He searches the heart. He
knew them before they knew him. And so even though he sat in
the place of judgment and had the power to exercise vengeance
over them, He does something they did not expect. He has mercy
upon them. And here we see that God delights
in mercy. The Lord Jesus Christ in Hebrews
chapter 1 and verse 8 and 9 says He loves righteousness and hate
iniquity. And there's never is this seen
more in the way that Joseph treated his brothers because of the pleadings
of Judah. He loved righteousness and hated
iniquity, and yet because of the surety, he treated them with
the greatest possible grace at his own cost. That is God's mercy
to sinners. The Lord Jesus Christ magnified
God's law. He made it honorable in his own
obedience that led to his own death. He fulfilled God's law
and made satisfaction in every demand of God's law for justice
upon us, the sinners. And that's the way he did it.
In Isaiah 42, 21, he says he would make his law honorable.
He would magnify it. And so he restored what he didn't
take away. Psalm 89, verse 4 and 5. And
he did it by his blood in righteousness. He restored the glory to God's
law. He upheld God's justice. He did
all this in his own obedience unto death. And so, because he
did this, what happened? The throne of God now becomes
a river of life flowing out in love and grace to sinners. In
Revelation 22.1, out of the throne of God there flows a river of
the waters of life, an unending river of water out of the spring
of God's own heart. love to sinners in Christ and
that's what that's what Joseph is doing here and so what we
see here in this account is when Joseph made himself known to
his brethren what we're seeing here is that in Joseph making
himself known to his brethren he's actually making God known
to his brethren in his mercy and his truth in his justice
and in his grace Sinners can't see it. We're hiding, we're in
fear, we're in doubt, we're in hostility towards God. Something
has to happen. That hostility towards God has
to be removed for us to be reconciled. But first, before God's goodness
and His grace disarms us as sinners, Something else has to be disarmed,
the wrath of God against us. And in our mediator, the Lord
Jesus Christ, he first disarms the wrath of God by making satisfaction
to his justice. And then he turns to the sinner
and declares to us, he hath made him to be sin for us who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
Therefore, be ye reconciled to God. This is phenomenal. It's all seen here in Joseph.
He reveals himself to his brethren. They could not believe it. When
he told them, it's Joseph, it's me, your brother. You sold to
Egypt. They were terrified. They could
only think he would do to them what they thought to do to him.
Take vengeance upon him for what they'd done. They could only
think evil of Him because evil was in their heart. And He had
to actually labor to convince them of His grace. And that's
what He's doing here. In fact, He labors so much so
that He shows them in the process not only what God is like, but
He shows them God's eternal will to save His people. And in doing
that, He absolutely sets aside all possibility that they contributed
to their salvation. Because God had determined to
use their evil against Joseph to save their souls alive. How
could they have contributed to that? All they contributed to
it was hate, envy, conspiracy against Joseph to take his life.
not speaking peaceably to Him, plotting, deceit, lying, everything,
thinking only of themselves. And all the time God was preparing
for them a Savior. Through their evil and their
wickedness He was turned falsely into prison, suffering in prison.
accused by his master's wife and then he was delivered from
prison by the providence of God according to God's eternal will
and exalted and honored in order that by his exaltation he might
save his brothers and then he himself comes and tells them
this he says you meant it for evil God meant it for good and
he has to labor and convince them don't he says he says it
here in in verse Five, now therefore be not grieved nor angry with
yourselves that you sold me here. For God did send me before you
to preserve life. Stand still and see your wickedness,
but see God's grace in Christ. That's what he's telling us.
It's phenomenal, isn't it? And in all of this, what do you
see about Joseph? And what do you see about our
Lord Jesus? And in him, what do you see about the heart of
God? Because that's the purpose of this. Joseph made himself
known to his brethren, and in doing so he made known Christ
to us, and in Christ making himself known to us, he makes the Father's
heart known to us. What do we see? What do we see
in this? First thing we see here is the
humility of Joseph. The humility. Have you ever been
wronged? Has someone ever hated you, maybe
even without a cause? Have you ever been the object
of another person's hostility toward you unfairly? And you
felt, you felt to be a victim. You felt as if, why would they
do that? And your reaction is everything
but grace towards them, isn't it? You feel a sense of wanting
to get even. You were the one wronged. Why
should you take the first step to make up for this? They're
the ones who attacked you. And yet Joseph, in his humility,
he's in the place of power and honor, and he steps down from
the place of honor and power, and he calls his brothers near
to him. Come near to me, I pray you.
I'm Joseph. He didn't take his position of
authority and power in order to condemn them and hold them
to the justice they deserve, did he? No, in his humility,
he actually entreats them. He beseeches them. He compels
them to lower their hostile, self-justifying, hiding pretense
before Him and admit themselves to be wrong, but see in even
their wrong God's grace that used their evil to bring about
their salvation. That's humility, isn't it? We
are not inclined to do that. We are not inclined to step from
the place of being in the right and help that person who is in
the wrong be reconciled to us. That's just not in our natural
character. It is just not there. But that's
exactly what Joseph did here. And how much more, the Lord Jesus,
how much more is this in the heart of God who, when we were
enemies, reconciled us to himself in the death of his son. He disarmed
his own wrath by satisfying his own justice, by plunging the
sword of that justice in the heart of his own son. And what
kind of humility, condescending grace is that? How can we understand
that? How can we begin to describe
it? We stand absolutely spellbound in surprise at this amazing grace. Because this is the heart of
God, to be humble. He who is high, he who is high,
is humble. And what does that mean about
us and our pride? We're completely opposite of
God by nature, aren't we? We are just naturally proud.
We will not bow. No, I have my rights. It's right
there in the Bill of Rights. Look, I've got all these rights.
The government's supposed to uphold them. That was not Christ's
attitude, was it? He had rights. He was more humble
than any man. He was brought to humiliation
more than any man. In Isaiah 52, it says He was
more marred than any man. Isaiah 52, 14 and 15. He was
marred more than any man. He is the Son of God and yet
He was hated more than any man. This is our Lord. And yet He
Himself showed the greatest humility more than any man. And so we
see in Joseph and in Christ and in God our Father, the humility
of God's condescending grace to sinners, that he would in
humility bring them and reconcile them to himself, removing, disarming
their hostility, how? By preaching to them full, free
forgiveness in the blood of his son. Forgiveness made for sinners,
justification for the ungodly. When we were yet without strength,
Christ died for the ungodly. These are the things we see here
in Joseph and in Jesus and our Father. And so he says these
things to them. God's predestinating eternal
plan removes all possibility for grace, I mean for our works
and our salvation, removes all possibility for our contribution.
It establishes God's eternal purpose that Christ's death was
a willing death. that all of the opposition of
the world and our sin and hell itself could not stop God from
achieving His will to save His people from their sins. Christ
obligated Himself to bring us to God by the death of Himself,
bearing all responsibility to God. He cannot fail in all these
things. We see our salvation is certain
because Christ sits in glory. Now, how can we have any doubt
about our Savior considering this? See the compassion of Joseph
towards his brothers. See his humility and his compassion
and his forgiveness and his love for them. You know what he wanted
more than anything? His brothers to be with him.
His father to be with him. Bring him to me. And what is
Christ's inheritance? Is it not his people? He has all things. He's the heir
of all things. He's loved of the father and
God has put everything into his hand. But what is that one treasure
that he was willing to shed his own life's blood to have? He
loved the church and gave himself for it. That was the treasure,
his people. And so we see that here in Joseph.
He hears the pleading of his surety. He sees himself, the
Lord Jesus Christ, pleading before his own throne. He's the lawgiver
and the judge and the judge has made himself the one who bears
the guilt of the condemned and bears their punishment too. And
does it out of a heart of love and then pleads his own mercy
and grace to disarm our hostility and to bring us to God. Can we
see how highly God has honored him and why? Why would God honor
and exalt his son so high? Because he's worthy. Isn't that
what Revelation 5 is all about? Who is worthy to open the book? No one in heaven and earth was
found. And then steps forward, the Lamb of God, and takes the
book out of him who sits on the throne, and he removes the seals
and reveals God's eternal will, and he himself fulfills it. That's
the Lamb of God. And all the host of the redeemed
and heaven's angels around the throne are singing, worthy is
the Lamb that was slain. He's worthy to receive blessing
and honor and power and glory. They see it now. He's the one
that's worthy. He's done all this. And so his
father has highly exalted him because he shows in his heart
that his heart beats one with his father. God searched to find
a man after his own heart. It was his son. Just like me. The express image of his person. The brightness of his glory seen
in the brightness of how he saved sinners according to the justice
of God and righteousness of God by his grace. He's worthy. And they see this. And they're
spellbound. They stand before his throne,
speechless. And so Joseph goes on, he says
in Genesis chapter 45, he says in verse nine, haste ye, he says,
hurry up, go up to my father and say to him, thus saith thy
son Joseph, God hath made me Lord of all Egypt, come down
to me, tarry not, don't wait, don't delay, come right away.
That's what he's saying here. Tell my father, come. Tell him
I'm alive. He thought I was dead. Tell him
I'm alive. To Jacob, this was a resurrection,
wasn't it? This news coming from Joseph. He was raised again. It's like,
how could this be? He was dead. Now he's alive.
And now he sits in glory. In Egypt, he's been made Lord
of all of Egypt. Come down to me and don't wait.
Isn't this the call of the gospel? Christ is risen. He sends the
word to his people and he says, come to me and don't wait, come
now. Aren't you attracted by the compassion
that Joseph had for his brethren? Who among us would not want to
be one of his brothers and have this compassion? of Joseph towards
you that would lower the barrier, remove the barrier that you had
put up, remove it and bring full forgiveness and then tell you
to come near and even describe God's will in using your sin
to bring Him to the throne of power in order to save you from
famine and save your lives. Who would not want to be a brother
to this man? Who couldn't trust him? He has
all power, he can do whatever he wants, and yet he doesn't
use his place of power to condemn them, because God did not send
his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world
through him might be saved. And so, the world of God's elect,
given to Christ from eternity, all of them have to be saved.
He will save them, not to condemn, but to save them by his own life
and death and resurrection and enthronement and his intercession
for them in glory. And so he tells them, go to my
father, tell him that I'm alive. Tell him it's your son, Joseph,
and that God has made me Lord of all of Egypt. In verse 10,
and thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen. and thou shalt be
near to me, thou and thy children, and thy children's children,
and thy flocks and thy herd, and all that thou hast, come
to me, and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and
you will be near to me." What is this? This is the inheritance
of all of God's promises put in Christ, given to his people. We have all things in him, don't
we? We're complete in Christ, and he's given us all things,
whether it's life or death, the world, things present, things
to come, everything is ours, and we're Christ's, and so everything
is given to us. I'll just read this to you again.
In 1 Corinthians 3, he says in verse 21, Paul's trying to instruct the
Corinthians. They were looking upon one another
and trying to compare themselves and say, well, I was a disciple
of Apollos, and I was of Paul, and I was of Peter. And he says,
no, verse 21, let no man glory in men, for all things are yours,
whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death
or things present or things to come, all are yours. You are
Christ, that's why they're yours, because you're Christ's, and
Christ is God. And the Lord Jesus is not going
to be deprived of any part of his inheritance. We're his, all
is ours, so we will have all that is his and given to us because
of his grace, because of the purchase that he made with his
blood from eternity, fulfilling God's everlasting covenant with
that testament, which is our eternal inheritance. And so he
says, come and I will give you the best of the land, Goshen,
and you'll be near to me. Isn't that what Jesus prayed
in his high priestly prayer? He says, Father, I will that
they also whom thou has given me be with me where I am. Why? That they may see my glory, which
thou has given me. Come and see my glory. What grace, there is nothing
greater than to see the glory of God. There's nothing greater.
Here in the famine, the famine of God's word, the famine of
knowing God, the Lord Jesus Christ, in this historical account, in
the fulfillment of it, the Lord Jesus Christ has made himself
known to his brethren. Isn't that what he said in John
17 three? This is life eternal, that they
might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou
hast sent. How can we know the only true
God? In Jesus Christ, whom he has sent. And so, knowing him,
we have eternal life. We're saved from famine. He feeds
us with the knowledge of himself. And so he says, come to Goshen,
you'll be near to me, thou and thy children and thy children's
children and thy flocks and thy herd, all that you have, it's
all mine, and you'll have it all. And he says in verse 11,
and there will I nourish thee, for yet there are five years
of famine, lest thou and thy household and all that thou hast
come to poverty. If you stay where you are, if
you continue to hold and cling to what is yours in Canaan because
of the famine, you're going to lose everything, even your own
lives, your family, your posterity. It'll all be lost. There is salvation
in none but Christ. There's salvation in nothing
that is ours now. All that we have, our homes,
our cars, our 401k, or whatever it is, our Sundays, our Saturdays,
and every other day, everything that we have, the life, the breath,
the legs, the arms and hands, our eyes, everything that is
ours. our wives and our children, it's all the Lord's. It's all
given to us in order that we might see it as a blessing from
God and with that grace of God that he's given to us, seek the
Lord Jesus Christ and his kingdom with all that we are and find
our all in him and have a delight in him so that all those things
are of no account because we have him. He says, he's going
to show us his glory. I'll nourish you. There's yet
five years of famine. Lest thou and thy household come
and all that thou hast come to poverty. If you don't come to
Christ, if Christ is not your treasure, then you're going to
come to poverty. Verse 12. And behold, he tells
his brethrens, your eyes see. And the eyes of my brother Benjamin,
they see it also. That it is my mouth that speaks
to you. You see what faith does? Faith
is hearing the word of God. But when God gives us that grace
of faith, it's like having eyes. Now we can see, I can see Christ
now. He's conquered death. He's obtained
eternal redemption for his people. He's made reconciliation. He's
made an end of sins. He's forgiven us for his, God
has forgiven us for his namesake. And now the Lord Jesus tells
us of that forgiveness. And we hear it and then we see
it with those eyes of faith. I see now. It's clear to me. This world is passing. Life is
short. Nothing matters except Christ
and his kingdom. And so we give ourselves to it.
Verse 13. And he tells them, And you shall
tell my father of all my glory in Egypt. Tell my father of all
my glory in Egypt and of all that you have seen and you shall
make haste, hurry and bring down my father here. Tell my father
of all my glory in Egypt. Go to my father and tell him
what you've seen. Tell him about my forgiveness. Tell him how I reconciled you
to myself. Tell him about how God ordained
that through my sufferings, and my exaltation, and my honor,
and glory, and authority, and power over all things in heaven
and earth, that now I send this word of salvation to you. Tell
him about that glory, the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look
at Psalm 21, verse 5. Just one verse in Psalm 21, he
says this. He says, in fact, I'll just read
verse 1 through 5. The king shall joy in thy strength,
O Lord. That's the Lord Jesus. He's the
king. And in thy salvation, how greatly shall he rejoice? Christ
rejoices in his salvation of his people, doesn't he? He rejoices
as a strong man to run a race. He ran the race. He finished
his course. He accomplished all the work
of God. And he saved his people, he did
it by himself, and now he wears the crown, and so he rejoices. His people have been delivered
from Satan and his kingdom, from hell, from sin, from death, even
from the judgment of God's law, verse two. Now has given him
his heart's desire, and has not withholding the request of his
lips, see law. Everything the son asks is given
to him. Because he asks the will of God,
his heart beats with God's heart. Verse three, for thou preventest
him, that means he's gone before him. With the blessings of goodness,
thou settest a crown of pure gold on his head. He asked life
of thee, and thou gavest it him, even length of days, forever
and ever. His kingdom, in other words,
is an everlasting kingdom to rule over his people for their
salvation and their good forever. Verse five, his glory is great
in thy salvation, honor and majesty hast thou laid upon him. Tell
my father of my glory. Each of us go to God in our heart
and we are to speak of Christ's glory to our Father. Look what
He did. He stooped from heaven's glory
to earth. He took on my nature and bore
my sin. He went to the cross and bore
the pain and shame of it all. And he satisfied God's justice.
He fulfilled God's law. He rose from the dead in triumph
over all enemies and sits in glory now to bring me to himself,
making intercession for me. Tell him of his glory. Isn't
he great in your eyes? Because why is he great in God's
eyes? Because he did the will of God.
He made known God's heart. He fulfilled his will. He saved
his people. He declared his glory in all
these things. Tell him of his glory. Rehearse
to God what God has revealed to us. We can't give Him anything
that He hasn't first given. In Revelation 5, the saints are
around the throne. They say, look at this in Revelation
5. Hold your place there in Genesis
45 and go to Revelation chapter 5. Just read this briefly here. I keep referring to it. I want to read this from verse
9. He says, And they sung a new song, Revelation
5, verse 9. And they sung a new song, saying,
Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof,
for thou wast slain. That's why Christ reigns as God,
as the God-man, because He's worthy, because He was slain.
And has redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred,
and tongue, and people, and nation. and has made us unto our God
kings and priests, and we shall reign on the earth. And behold,
and I'm sorry, and I beheld, and I heard the voice of many
angels round about the throne, and the beasts, and the elders,
and the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000, that's a hundred
million, and thousands of thousands, in other words, millions upon
millions, saying with a loud voice, this is what they say,
Remember, tell my father of my glory. And here's what they're
doing around the throne of God. Worthy is the lamb that was slain
to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor
and glory and blessing. And every creature that is in
heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as
are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying,
Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power be unto him that sits
upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. And the
four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders
fell down and worshiped him that liveth forever and ever. What
is this saying? This is what Joseph, go tell
my father of all my glory. And when you give honor and praise
and worship to Christ, you're giving honor and praise to God
in Christ, to God the Father. This is amazing, isn't it? And
what do we praise him for? He saved me from my sins. When
I had nothing to pay, he delivered me from that debt. When I had
no obedience, he fulfilled my righteousness. When I was naked
and filthy and foul, he clothed me in his own garments of righteousness
and salvation. Verse 14. And he fell upon his
brother Benjamin's neck, and he wept, and Benjamin wept upon
his neck. This is amazing. Moreover, he
kissed all his brethren, and he wept upon them, and after
that his brethren talked with him. You know what it says in
Song of Solomon? In chapter 1 and verse 2. Let me read this to
you. Just before the book of Isaiah, this little book, Song
of Solomon, he says, The song of songs, which is Solomon's,
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for thy love is
better than wine. This is what Joseph is doing.
He's embracing his brother, Benjamin, and then embracing his other
brothers, and he's kissing them. That's the kiss of peace. That's
a kiss of love and compassion. And it's not just the action,
but it's the words of his mouth. He's disarming all reasons for
them not to trust him, not to love him. That's what the gospel
does. It comes to us by the Spirit
of God. Even though God is almighty and
He could just mow us down, what does He do? He entreats and beseeches
and compels us with the bands of a man, with the cords of love,
and He compels us to look to Christ and see in Him the heart
of God. And so seeing, we're made to
bow and give Him all the praise. Who could not trust Him? Who
could not love Him? We even need grace to see and
trust and love our Lord Jesus Christ. That's how bad we are.
That's how weak we are. We're without strength. Without
me, Jesus said, you can do nothing. So he kissed his brothers and
he wept upon them. And after that, his brethren
talked to him. See how low he came in order
to get them to put down their arms, their doubts and their
fears. He removes their doubts because
they doubted Him. He removes their hatred. He takes
it away. And then He comforts them in
their fears because they know they were under His judgment.
This is what our Savior does. And the fame thereof was heard,
in verse 16, in Pharaoh's house, saying, Joseph's brethren are
here, they're come. And it pleased Pharaoh well and
his servants. What is this? Pharaoh and his
house here, what's going on over here? What happened? What's going
on over there? Joseph is bawling his eyes out. His brothers are here. What's
going on? Joseph has been reconciled to his sinful brethren. And he
himself in the place of power not only saved Pharaoh's household
and all of Egypt, but now his own brethren. And Pharaoh heard
about it. And like in Luke 15, there was
such joy in heaven over one sinner that repented, more than over
99 that need no repentance. And so heaven resounds with the
joy that Christ experiences in bringing his people to God. Who
could not trust Him? Who could not come to Him? He's
removed every reason for us to hold back, to embrace Him and
to confess what we are and say, yes, were it not for Your grace,
I too would receive this judgment. Lord, save me for Your mercy's
sake and so exalt Yourself and Your salvation of me. This is
what we do. Lord, make your glory known by
saving this sinful wretch. Your amazing grace, declare it
for eternity, because I otherwise would be eternally under the
wrath of God, justly so. Isn't it true? When you see the
Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, what do you see? Don't you see
his brow pierced with many thorns? And his hands pierced with the
nails, holding him to that cursed tree. And his feet pierced through,
holding him fast to the tree. And then the spear piercing his
side. Why did they pierce his head, his hands, his feet? And with the crown of thorns
and the nails through his hands and feet and the spear through
his side, why did the Lord do that? Because it was my head,
my hands, and my feet that deserved the curse, and my heart that
was cursed. And God had to bear it, had to pour it out on Him.
He laid my sin on Him, and Christ took it and owned it as His.
And then He bore it. And his hands were pierced, and
he shows his hands to Thomas. He says, reach here, your hand,
and thrust it into my side, and your fingers, and put it into
the prints of the nails of my hands. And he says, oh, Lord,
the Lord of me, God, the God of me, here's the Lord Jesus
now. And Pharaoh's house hears it,
there's rejoicing in heaven over this reconciliation in the blood
of Christ. Seen here in the history, in
the exalted Joseph, because of his sufferings and God's will
to save his brothers. And Pharaoh's house, the king
hears it, and there's rejoicing now in all the land because Joseph's
brethren are here. Won't that be what it's like
in heaven? Jesus' brethren are here. Let the bells ring out. Let praise never end and let
worship go on for eternity in the salvation of Christ. And
so it says next, it says here, Pharaoh speaks. In verse 17,
Pharaoh said to Joseph, say to your brethren, Do this, he says,
this do ye, laid your beasts and go, get you unto the land
of Canaan and take your father and your households and come
to me and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt and
you shall eat the fat of the land. Now, Pharaoh goes on, thou
art commanded this, do ye, take you wagons out of the land of
Egypt for your little ones and for your wives and bring your
father and come. and regard not your stuff, for
the good of all the land of Egypt is yours. Isn't that amazing? Every spiritual blessing in heavenly
places was given to us before the foundation of the world in
Christ. And when God received full satisfaction
from his son, when he fulfilled the will of God in his obedience,
and his law was magnified, And he showed forth his greatness
in his grace towards sinners. And he declares it broadly. He
says to sinners far and wide, all blessing is in Christ for
sinners. He's dealt with all of you in
this one man and in blessing him, in rewarding him with an
eternal inheritance, he's given it also to you. All things that
he has are yours. All is his and you are his. In Song of Solomon, again, in
chapter five and verse one, I wanna read this verse to you. This
is what the Lord Jesus says in Revelation 22 also. Remember
what it says there? The spirit and the bride say
come, and let him that is a thirst say come. And whosoever will,
let him come and drink, take of the water of life and drink
freely. But listen to this, Song of Solomon, he says this. I am
coming to my garden, my sister, my spouse, this is Christ speaking
to the church. I have gathered my myrrh with
my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb with
my honey. I have drunk my wine with my
milk. And listen to what he tells the church, to sinners. without money, without food,
and without drink, thirsting in their souls, he says, eat,
oh friends, drink, yea, drink abundantly, oh beloved. This
is what Pharaoh, God the Father is in agreement. All that is
in your heart, my son, that you wanna give to your church, it's
all been given to you in order that you might give to whomsoever
you will, and he gives it to his people. "'Regard not your
stuff,' he says, "'don't look to anything that's yours, "'because
all that you have, "'the wealth of Joseph is yours in Egypt.
"'The good of all the land is yours, "'because Pharaoh has
honored and exalted "'and given to Joseph everything, "'because
he saved his household, he saved the land, "'he saved his kingdom,
and now he saves his brothers.'" This is our Savior. And verse
21, and the children of Israel did so. And Joseph gave them
wagons according to the commandment of Pharaoh and gave them provision
for the way. What is this? This is the obedience of faith.
They finally are convinced. Everything is Joseph's. Let's go. Let's go get dad and
the kids and our wives and everything we have and bring it down here.
Let's go to be with Joseph. Don't regard anything that's
yours, everything that the land of Egypt is ours. That's the
obedience of faith. We run to him. We come to the
throne of grace for all grace through the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's the only way we can come. And in coming
that way, we're given all that's in Christ. Only trust him. Trust his word. Can he lie? Can
he fail? Is his heart not big enough and
his hands not strong enough to give us all that's in his heart?
Eternal salvation, the revelation of himself. And so he says in
verse 22, Oh, and he says, according to the commandment of Pharaoh,
and he gave them provision for the way. This is the Lord Jesus
now while we're on this earth, giving us provision out of his
grace for everything that we need. We have it now by faith. but we're waiting for it in hope
we're expecting it and so we go to his throne of grace and
we ask him to give us all grace even this faith and hope and
love that we might come to him and worship him and so he says
to this in verse 22 to all of them he gave each man changes
of raiment of clothes But to Benjamin he gave 300 pieces of
silver and five changes of clothes. And to his father he sent after
this manner 10 asses laden with the good things of Egypt and
10 she-asses laden with corn and bread and meat for his father
by the way. So he sent his brethren away
and they departed. And he said to them, see that
you fall not out by the way. That amazes me. He knew them,
didn't he? After giving them all this, And
blessing Benjamin and his special brother and his father, he says,
now, don't fight. Let all bitterness and wrath
and evil speaking be put away. Grieve not the Spirit of God,
for God hath forgiven you for Christ's sake. Therefore, be
ye followers of God as dear children. That's what he says, and I'll
just read it to you. I'm not quoting it correctly,
but I want you to hear this again. I read it, I think, last time,
but Ephesians 4, verse 30. Listen to this. And superimpose
this over Joseph's words to his brethren. Be not, don't fall
out by the way. He says here in Ephesians 4,
verse 30. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of
God, whereby you're sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all
bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking
be put away from you with all malice and be ye kind one to
another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God for Christ's
sake have forgiven you. Be ye therefore followers of
God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved
us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet-smelling savor. Let's pray. Thank you, Father. Help us to stand before you with
gratitude clothed in the surprise and wonder of your grace for
the Lord Jesus Christ and his humility and his forgiveness
and his reconciling grace to draw us to himself the cords
of love, the bands of a man when we deserve nothing from you and
had nothing and could do nothing and were not interested in reconciliation. but you brought us to yourself
through the death of your son. He died the just for the unjust
to bring us to God, and having been brought to God in him, we
pray for this blessing of faith that we might see our eternal
inheritance in him and might wait for it and love him for
all that he's done, for all that he is. Give us this grace today,
dear Lord, each one, this eternal salvation, the knowledge of who
you are in Christ. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.