Genesis chapter 45. The chapters
we covered last week and this chapter are perhaps some of the
most touching words in all of scripture because of the emotion
that is evident between Joseph and his brethren. I want to look
at this with you, so we're just going to go through this verse
by verse. It says in verse 1, Then Joseph could not refrain
himself before all them that stood by him. He couldn't refrain
himself. If I could just recall for you
what had happened in the chapter before this and what led up to
it. Joseph had this pent up desire
for his brethren, like a dam holding water back. And at this
point, the dam broke, and he couldn't hold it back anymore.
He had been with his brethren as a young lad, and they had
only hated him and envied him and tried to kill him and eventually
sold him as a slave. They did nothing good to their
brother. They couldn't even speak peaceably to him. Have you ever
lived or been with someone who just can't speak peaceably? Or maybe yourself, you got irritated
and you couldn't speak peaceably. It becomes a festering thing
and it's not pleasant. Well, that's the way it was between
Joseph and his brethren, but he didn't hold this hatred towards
them. All of his young life up to that
point, he was obedient to his father and true to his brethren.
But then he was separated from them. It says in Genesis 49 that
their father Jacob in his closing days in his life said that Joseph
was separate from his brethren. And nothing pained him more than
to be separate from his brethren. And so you can see that that
compelling desire of Joseph to be with his brethren and to have
them with him. was, and his father, was what
caused him great pain all these years. He was sold at 17, he
stood before Pharaoh at 30, that's 13 years. There had been seven
years of famine, there's another seven years, 37. And now, two
years later, after the famine had been there for two years,
he's almost 40 years old and had been separated from his brethren,
living in a strange land. And so it was a great thing,
but that wasn't necessarily the greatest part of this. What compelled
Joseph here in the most recent context was that his brethren
had come to him and he had to make them feel and know that
they were not as they claimed. Remember what did they claim?
We're true men. But they weren't true, were they?
And he had to make them know that. And the way he did that
was he held them as spies. Now a spy is someone who pretends
to be on one mission, a friendly mission, but he's actually looking
to take advantage. A spy is just a hypocrite, pretending
to be one thing when he's another. These men were hypocrites, they
were deceitful, they were cruel, they were hateful, and yet Joseph
loved them. And so they were sent home with
food, they were sent home with the money that they first brought.
and they ran out of food and they had to come back. But Joseph
put a requirement on their return. You can't see my face, which
meant they couldn't have any food in famine, unless you bring
your youngest brother, Benjamin, with you. And so they went home
and they waited until they ran out of food and their father
Jacob would not let Benjamin go, you remember? And so they
were betwixt two things, a rock and a hard place. They couldn't
go back, they couldn't get food from Joseph, and they couldn't
stay home, they would die of famine. What were they going
to do? And Reuben at first offered to take Benjamin and to take
care of him. But Jacob refused Benjamin. He
couldn't trust Reuben. I'm sorry. He wouldn't let Benjamin
go with Reuben. He couldn't trust Reuben. Reuben
had already lost Joseph. He wasn't going to let Benjamin
go with him. And then, and remember, Reuben
was the one who suggested they put Joseph in the pit instead
of killing him. Now that seems like a mercy,
but still, couldn't you stand up to your brothers? No, he suggested
they put him in a pit and that was, while he was gone, they
sold him into slavery. So Reuben wasn't trustworthy,
but then Judah stepped forward. Remember, he approached his father
and he said, send a lad with me. I will be surety for him. An assurity, if you recall, is
the one who takes full responsibility for another. And Judah took full
responsibility for Benjamin to his father. At that point, Judah
gave up his own life. He said, if I don't bring him
back to you, then I'll bear the blame forever. That's giving
up your life forever. Judah made himself the surety
for Benjamin forever, to bring him back to his father. And that
is the Lord Jesus Christ for his people. And so Judah and
his brethren come to Joseph to get the food. And you recall
that Joseph had his servant put all the grain in their sacks,
and put their money in their sacks, and then put his silver
cup in Benjamin's sack, the youngest son, the one that Joseph wanted. And they went away, and then
the servant was sent after them, and he found them, and he searched
all their sacks. He said, who stole my master's
cup? And they said, we didn't do it,
we're innocent. Again, they didn't understand
how to plead yet. And so they were dragged back,
not dragged, but they were brought back to the place where Joseph
was in the seat of judgment. And they came back to him, and
they fell down before him. And they didn't know what to
say. In fact, they said, how shall we clear ourselves? How
shall we clear ourselves? They couldn't clear ourselves,
and that was in chapter 44, verse 16. And Judas spoke up first. He said, what shall we say to
my Lord? We don't have anything we can
say for ourselves. What shall we speak, or how shall
we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity
of thy servants. He understood with his brothers
that he was being held by Joseph for a former sin against his
brother. And so Joseph, it seemed, had
knowledge of this. He was a man, he told them, I
fear God. And he seemed to have knowledge
of everything. What they were thinking and what they were saying.
He just, he couldn't outsmart him. He was a very wise man because
he could hear what they said and the Spirit of God was with
Joseph. And so Judah began to plead. He stepped forward out
of his brethren, out of the crowd of his brethren. He drew near
to Joseph and he began to plead with Joseph, who was the judge,
the governor. And Judah reminded Joseph that
he's the one who told him to go bring Benjamin back. You told
us to go back to our father and bring our youngest brother. So
the judge required their brother. But he also said, but my father
wouldn't let my brother go. Because he thought he would die
if he let his brother, his youngest son go, the son of his old age
go and something happened to him. And his father would go
to the grave with sorrow. So he wouldn't let him go. But
then Judah also pleaded with Joseph, but I made myself a surety
to my father for my brother. And so my father agreed to let
him go. And now here we are before you,
and he has been found guilty. And at this time Judah had no
idea that this was his brother. He only knew him as the one who
required justice because the cup was found in Benjamin's sack.
And so Judah then not only pleaded that he was the surety for his
brother to his father, But he pleaded himself in answer for
Benjamin, he gave up himself to his father in pledge, and
now he gives himself up to justice for his brother Benjamin. This
is our Lord Jesus Christ. And all of this was happening.
And remember why Joseph sent, I mean, yeah, Joseph sent his
brothers back to get Benjamin because they had taken their
brother Joseph and had sold him as a slave. So he sends them
back to bring their other brother and to protect him. because they
had no idea what love was. So he's showing all these things
to them through what he's doing here. And so when Joseph hears
the pleadings of Judah, and he hears his love for his father,
and his love for his brother, and his willingness to give himself
forever, to hold that blame up against himself forever for his
brother. Then Joseph, I'm confident, who
understood God's will, saw the answer of his savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ, in his brother Judah. And he knew it was his
brother Judah. And remember, it was Judah through
whom the Lord Jesus was eventually born and came into the world.
He was of the tribe of Judah. And so all this built up in Joseph's
heart. And he had this strong, compelling
desire for his brethren. a desire to be with them and
to make himself known to them and that's what's leading up
to this so it says in verse one I'll read it again then Joseph
could not refrain himself before them all that stood by him and
he cried cause every man to go out from me everyone except his
brethren And there stood no man with him, none of the Egyptians,
none of his servants, just his brethren, while Joseph made himself
known unto his brethren. And so I've entitled this message
just that, Joseph made himself known, only I've changed it,
not Joseph, but Christ makes himself known to his brethren.
We could just say it this way, love is made known here. the love of God in Christ is
made known to his people, his brethren, Joseph's brethren.
He made himself known to them. And notice, and this is something
we're going to spend some time on, but notice what happened
in verse 2. And Joseph wept aloud and the Egyptians in the house
of Pharaoh heard. He was talking to his brothers
and as he's talking to them he's weeping so his voice is breaking
up and it's lifted up high and they could tell the emotion in
his voice and the intensity he had. And they could hear something
was going on. Of course it was all spoken in
Hebrew at this point. He was speaking to them in their
mother tongue. Can you imagine what they thought suddenly? The
governor sends everyone out and he starts speaking to them in
their own language? the governor, the one who held
us as spies, bound Simeon and put him in prison, and threatened
us with death even as spies, who has the power of all and
Egypt, all the food, all the power of Egypt, that one now
speaking to us our brother he is speaking only they didn't
know it at this point it doesn't say they knew it but the house
of Pharaoh heard him in this voice of weeping and pleading
with his brothers they heard it something's going on in there
but they weren't allowed in because Joseph is with his brethren making
himself known to them there is a private revelation of Joseph,
of himself, to his brethren. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
makes himself known to his people, and only to his people. In such
a way, in John 14, Judas, not Iscariot, asked Jesus, he said,
how will you make yourself known to us, but not to the world? And so this thing of being made
known is something that Christ does for his brethren. He makes
himself known to them. And notice, it leaves us the
question, what did they learn about Joseph? What did they know
about him because he made himself known to them? Look at it, it
says in verse three, And Joseph said to his brethren, I am Joseph. Can you imagine what they thought
at that point? Can you imagine the ones who
laid their hands on him and wanted to kill him, and while he was
17 said, let's kill him? before he even came to them. He was sent by their father,
Jacob, to find them, and when he found them, before he even
came to them, they conspired to kill him, and they conspired
also to cover it up. We'll kill him, and then we'll
take his coat, and we'll shred it, and put blood on it, and
give it to our father. And then they also went back
to their father after this, and they tried to act like they were
comforting their father. Such hypocrites, such cruel wickedness
and deceit. And he knew it. And they sold
him to slavery. And while he's in the pit without
water, he's crying to them in his anguish, and they would not
hear him. And he said to them, hear, I
am Joseph. And they could only think one
thing. We deserve what is about to come upon us. This man has
power to hold us as slaves, like he was held for the last Let's
see, calculated 13, at least 13 years before he was brought
to the throne. And they didn't know. He was
separate from his brethren. And they thought, what can he
do to us? He can take us and beat us. That's
what they do to slaves. They whip them. And then they
make them work. And they don't give them anything.
They thought that, oh, we could be put in prison. What's going
to happen to our father and our family? We can't go back. He's going to hold us as bondmen.
Our family is going to die. Our father is going to die because
we can't bring him food. And he's going to find out before
his death that we were unfaithful. All these things began to whelm
up in their minds, and the guilt of what they had done was such
a heavy load upon them. In those words, I am Joseph. Joseph. And they had to feel
that. They had to feel that because that's the only thing a guilty
sinner can do. Guilt in the conscience breeds
only fear. There's no way we can know grace
while we are guilty. in our conscience without the
revelation of Christ and Joseph was making himself known to them
in this way. And at this point all they are
now is terrified because of the guilt. They think, they can only
think that Joseph is going to do to them what they did to him. They can only think that he will
be like they were. just like they are. You see,
a corrupt sinner can only think of others and think of God more
especially. A corrupt sinner, a guilty sinner
can only think of God as he thinks of himself, which is a sinful
person. We think God hates us unjustly
because we hate others and we hate God. We only project on others what
we are ourselves. And so these brothers thought
of Joseph only as he's going to hold us. He's going to hold
us here. He has to do right. He's going
to do just. And he's going to punish us according
to God's will, bringing us here, holding us captive. And he's
going to bring down now upon us the whole weight of the law
and the wrath of Joseph. They didn't get it, did they?
They didn't understand he was not like them. They didn't understand
that all those years, the reason they hated him was because he
was good. They didn't understand that.
They could only think that the hatred they had for him somehow,
they were justified in it. He's treated better than us.
His father honors him with his coat of many colors. And so they
hated him and they now were terrified. It says, Joseph said to his brethren,
I am Joseph. Does my father yet live? And
his brethren could not answer him for they were troubled at
his presence. They were terrified. They were
guilty and they could only think they're going to get what they
deserve and Joseph at Joseph's hand who has all the power of
Egypt behind him. And this is where the revelation
that Joseph makes of himself comes in so sweetly and so tenderly. Because while they're afraid
all this time of what's coming upon them because of their sin
and Joseph's power over them, all the same time, Joseph wants
only one thing. He wants them to be reconciled
to himself. He wants to make Himself known
to them. And more especially, He wants
to make God's will and God known to them. And in fact, they're
going to see something about the nature and character of God
in Joseph. Because we only see and know
God in Jesus Christ. And so Joseph is going to teach
us this. And so he says in verse four,
Joseph said to his brethren, while they're in this state of
terror, come near to me, I pray you, because they were withdrawn.
They were back and he's perhaps on a seat of judgment and they're
withdrawn from him and they're holding back and they didn't
want to approach. You don't approach your judge,
do you? A guilty person doesn't come near. He said, come near
to me, I pray you, I pray you. He's begging them, isn't he?
I beseech you, come near to me. What is he doing here? Look at
2 Corinthians chapter five. I want to read this with you
in this context because this is what God has done in Christ. In 2 Corinthians. Chapter 5,
in verse 18, it says, all things are of God. Well, Joseph is about
to tell them this, because as they're terrified before him,
and he tells them, come near to me, I pray you. He tells them,
not only did you sell me into Egypt, into slavery, into Egypt,
but it was God who sent me here. And so here in verse 18 of 2
Corinthians 5, it says, all things are of God. You see how that
disarms us sinners who are enemies of God in our minds and in our
hearts? All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself
by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. Paul the Apostle is saying, God
reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and he's given us this
ministry as his servants now to go out. What reconciliation? To wit, this is how he did this,
that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them, and hath committed to us the word
of reconciliation. God was in Christ. We often think
that, we only think that things happen because people do it.
But God was in Christ. God was in Christ reconciling.
That's why he came. He had a purpose in it. This
didn't happen accidentally. Jesus didn't come into the world as an afterthought. Men didn't
put him on the cross of their own will. Well, they did in a
sense, but ultimately it was God's will. It was God's doing.
It was his purpose. Nothing happens that doesn't
bring about God's purpose, you see. And that's important that
we know that for several reasons. First of all, it's important
that we know that because we know that God's will is going
to be done. God will always do His will.
Secondly, because whatever happens is always brought about by God's
will in order to show us that God doesn't ever lose. He always
wins. He's never taking the second
place in his purpose like we do. You know, we get frustrated.
It didn't work out that way. I guess I'll have to do something
else. Or I fell short of my goal. Not with the Lord. Everything
always comes to an ultimate fulfillment. That which he really wanted to
happen. And so he brings about his will in spite of our sin,
in spite of all of the opposition of hell in the world and everything.
And so it's important that we see that God was in Christ. God
was in Christ. This was God's will. It was not
something that men thought up. God did this. It was His will
from eternity. It didn't start in time. In fact,
God made this reconciliation of Himself to sinners and sinners
to Himself. He made this His chief business
from eternity. The one who was offended, that
we offended by our sin, He took it upon Himself. He was under
no obligation to do so. He was the offended party to
go to the offender. and remove the reason for the
offense in God, so that He might reconcile the offender to Himself. And how did He do that? When
we were enemies, He reconciled us to Himself by the death of
His Son. And so it says so here in verse 19, To wit, that God
was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. Now those that
God reconciles are reconciled. He says not imputing their trespasses
to them because He imputed them to Christ. So if their sins were
not imputed to them, those all in the world to whom their sins
were not imputed, then they have no sin. God accepted the payment
of Christ's sacrifice for them and having received that payment,
He can't refund it. And he's not gonna bring justice
twice, once on Christ and another time on the sinner. So all those
for whom Christ died are the ones God did not impute their
sins to in all the world. Throughout the world, all over
the world, all kinds of people of every station and race were
reconciled to God in the death of his son, but not every individual
in the world, because some are held for their sins And so he
says, and he has committed to us the ministry, the word of
reconciliation. Think about it, the king has
made, he made a full and complete removal of the offense. The wrath,
the just wrath of God against us for our offenses against him,
that wrath has been completely removed by the death of his son. And now that word is given to
those who have been reconciled to go out into this world of
people who in their minds are at enmity with God to tell them
what Christ has done. And that is a word of reconciliation. That's a word of peace. That's
what reconciliation is. Peace has been made. There's
no more wrath. The offense has been removed.
All barriers have been taken away. There's no reason for you
to hold hostility anymore against God in your mind. God isn't like
you. You thought he was going to take
vengeance in punitive damages out of anger, which would have
been just on his part, but in an unfair way. And so you held
this attitude of wrath against him in your own heart. Like Joseph's
brothers, you were the ones who committed the crime, you were
the hateful ones, the envying ones, the conspiring ones, the
murderous ones, the ones who sold me as a slave, and the lying
ones, and the deceitful ones. The hypocrites, you were those,
but here Joseph comes and God comes in Christ and he goes with
his messengers to sinners. As he says here in verse 20,
now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech
you. Beseech, that means to implore
you. Be ye, he says, we pray you in
Christ's stead, like Joseph was pleading with his brothers. We
pray you, the Lord Jesus is in heaven on the right hand of God,
so in Christ's stead, we're sent as his messengers, be ye reconciled
to God. And this is the basis. For he
hath made him sin for us, he who knew no sin, that we who
knew no righteousness might be made the righteousness of God
in him. That is reconciliation. That's a word of reconciliation,
isn't it? And so Joseph is pleading with
his brothers, yeah, I'm Joseph. In Genesis 45, come near, be
reconciled to me, I pray you, be ye reconciled to God. We pray
you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled to God. And they came
near because he had commanded them to come near. They still
didn't know what was about to happen. And he said, I'm Joseph,
your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. He wants them to know
who he is. He reveals himself to them. I am your brother. He could have
said, you are not my brethren. You thought you were my brethren,
but you didn't act like my brethren, so you have been rejected as
my brother. No, he's not ashamed to be called their brethren.
He's not ashamed to call them his brethren. Hebrews 2 verse
11. This is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so there he, listen to how he comforts them now. This is
what, this is the mercy of God. This is the grace of God. What
do they see in Joseph now? They see the judge stepping from
the throne of judgment. He didn't step down, he drew
them near to himself. But as it were, humbling himself. He who has the right to take
vengeance, every right, He himself humbles himself and takes the
posture of one imploring the guilty sinner to be reconciled. And so he says, after he tells
him, I'm your brother, you sold me to Egypt, now therefore be
not grieved nor angry with yourselves. That's what happened. Remember
when they were there talking to themselves, they didn't know
Joseph could understand them. Reuben said, I told you not to
sell him. There was a strife between them because they knew
they were guilty. When you're guilty and you can't
see God's grace in Christ, and you're in a relationship with
others who are guilty like that, you know what, there's always
strife. The strife has to be taken away in Proverbs 10, verse
12. Let me read this to you, Proverbs
10. And verse 12, it says this. Listen to how the wise man Solomon,
by the Spirit of God, says this. He says, hatred stirs up strifes,
but love, what does love do? If hatred stirs up strife because
they were hateful and hating one another, they had this this
attitude of hatred toward Joseph and the guilt of what they had
done towards Joseph. They held this fear in their
minds of Joseph taking vengeance on them. They could only think
ill thoughts of one another. There was strife between them.
There's constant tension and terror in their mind because
they knew that God was angry at them. And so it stirs up strife. But he says, but love covers
all sins. Love covers all sins and Joseph
now is revealing himself to them. And in revealing himself to them,
he's revealing God to them. He's revealing Christ to them.
Not that he is God, but as a type of Christ. Christ the Lord, it
says, he who is the word of God was made flesh and dwelt among
us and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the father, full of what? law and justice. No, grace and
truth. Grace is first and truth because
it's grace from God, rich and free, but according to truth.
It's founded on truth. It's grace. This is what Joseph
is doing here. This is grace. Grace from God
to his brothers. I hold nothing against you. All
that you've done for me was by the will of God, and I have absolutely
no animosity. I'm taking no vengeance. Everything
is forgiven. I want to be reconciled to you. Could you see the humility in
the reconciling attitude of Joseph and the grace of Joseph toward
his brethren? Can you see his love for them?
His heart is breaking to have them. and to make known his love
for them. He wants to remove, in their
minds, he wants to remove the impediment that kept them apart. He wants to remove, he was made
separate from them by their hatred, and now he wants to be reconciled
to them. And so he wants to remove that
hatred. And the only way he does it is by making himself known
in this position of the judge having been reconciled to his
brethren. forgiveness and grace. And in this, they know Joseph,
they know something, they're beginning to know it, but they
can't accept it. They can't believe it, it's too
good to be true, their conscience is too guilty. And so he says,
be not grieved nor angry with yourselves, for you sold me hither. Don't be angry with yourselves
that you sold me hither, for God did send me before you to
preserve life. For these two years hath the
famine been in the land, and yet there are five years in the
which shall neither be eerie nor harvest, and God sent me
before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth. You see, the nation
of Israel already had a lot of children to Jacob, and they were
going to become a huge nation by God's promises to Abraham
and Isaac and Jacob. And not only would they become
a nation of many people, but through that nation, through
those people, would be born the Lord Jesus Christ. And through
Him, all the world, throughout the world, sinners throughout
the world, not every sinner, but all throughout the world,
sinners would be justified because of the blood of Christ. And Joseph
is saying, God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity. preserve the one he had promised,
Messiah, and to preserve you that you might be saved. This
is grace, isn't it? God did this. You know you wanted
to do it in hateful envy and murderous attitude, but God actually
was in control even though you were a sinner. Look at chapter
50. We're going to look at that again probably in coming weeks,
but In Genesis chapter 50, at the end of Jacob's life, after
he died, There's still Joseph is still
on the throne. His brothers are still with him. They had been
brought now to Egypt. But they still couldn't let go
of this deep-seated thought that Joseph was not much different
than them and that now he would finally be free of his obligation
of love to his father and he would take vengeance on them.
They thought that. And so this guilty conscience
and this hate that restores up from that. was in them and they
couldn't get rid of it. And so they sent a messenger
in verse 16 to Joseph saying, thy father did command before
he died saying, so shall you say to Joseph, this is a lie
of course, forgive, I pray thee now the trespass of thy brethren
and their sin for they did unto the evil. And now we pray thee
forgive. Now they're asking for themselves.
Our father said this and now we're also asking you forgive
the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And
Joseph wept when they spake to him. Remember what he did when
he heard Judah's plea and he sent everyone out? What did he
do? He wept. Here again, Joseph weeps. He
wept for them. So much emotion in this man.
Why was he so concerned? Was he weeping for himself? Was
he, oh, you guys can't think good of me, can you? I'm feeling
so sorry for myself now. I'm just gonna weep here. put
my thumb in my mouth and cry in a corner. He didn't do that. That's not why he wept. He wept
for them. He wept for them. Doesn't it
say in Ephesians chapter 4, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. Why? Because when we treat one another
with hatred, because of our unbelief, and we hold a guilty conscience,
and we hate God, And we treat one another in that same way,
where we're constantly trying to get the upper hand, or holding
grievances against one another, talking about one another, stirring
up strife. Because that's all we can think
about, because we haven't seen Christ in His justifying work
in our heart. Or maybe the sight of that has
become dim, and strife whelms up. And we forget what we are,
as sinners. We forget what God has done to redeem us and reconcile
us to himself. And so we hold our brother by
the throat, as it were, to pay the debt he owes us. And we forget
we've been forgiven an eternal debt. And God, by the spirit,
by the Apostle Paul, says, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. Let
me read that to you in Ephesians chapter 4. So these brothers caused Joseph
to weep because, and he wept for them. He says in Ephesians
4, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed
unto the day of redemption. And here he explains it. 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, hath forgiven you. You see that? So they asked
him, forgive your servants, or they said, their father asked
them that, and Joseph wept. What do you think I've been doing
all these years? And his brethren also went and fell down before
his face, and they said, behold, we be thy servants. And verse
19 of Genesis 50, and Joseph said to them, fear not, for am
I in the place of God, But as for you, now he's gonna teach
a very important lesson, you thought evil against me. You
are guilty. You thought it against me to
bring, he said, but God meant it unto good to bring to pass
as it is this day to save much people alive. Now therefore fear
not, I will nourish you and your little ones. And he comforted
them and spake kindly to them. What a mercy. In this man standing
before them as the Lord Jesus Christ himself in a historical
picture, he's forgiving his brothers. He's comforting them because
their conscience is guilty and they can only think that he's
going to take vengeance on them. No, I'm going to nourish you.
You thought evil, but God overrode your wickedness in order to bring
about His good. This is the story of history.
We thought evil. Our heart rebelled against God
in our sin. And what is rebellion but hate
for God's rule in our heart? And hatred of God is just murder
in the heart? God is more hated than anyone
by man. Man hates Him more than anyone.
And we hated the Son of God We thought evil against him, but
God brought about our reconciliation through our hatred, not because
it was God's origin. It didn't originate in God's
heart. Our hatred didn't start there. It started in us. But God gave vent to our hatred
in order to accomplish his goodwill. It says in Psalm 76, I think
it's verse 10, the wrath of man shall praise thee. The remainder
of wrath thou shalt restrain. So here you can see that God
is bringing this to pass in Genesis chapter 45. This is how, this
is what Joseph did. He revealed God to his brothers
in revealing himself to his brothers. God in his forgiveness, God in
his reconciling humility to stoop so low from his throne as to
approach sinners and to compel them to put down their hostility
and embrace. the grace of God in Christ. That's
what it's all about here. He made himself known to us.
Do you know God? It's Father's Day. Look at 1
John 2. Here's a verse for fathers. It's
Father's Day. And it's a verse for little children.
You little children, I want you to hear these words. 1 John 2. And I want to ask this question
before we read it. Do you know God? Do you know
our heavenly Joseph? How do you know if you know him?
What's he like? Who is he? I remember when I
was about in the fifth grade, probably smaller than Josue,
but a little older. I was in the fifth grade and
I was in a Sunday school class. In those days, they separated
the boys and the girls. I don't know if they do today,
but I was in a Sunday school class and the teacher asked this
question, what do you think God is like? And I'm thinking, I'm trying to think of something.
Nothing's coming to mind, a dead blank. But someone else spoke
up, I won't say who. Someone else spoke up, not my
brother. But he said, well, I think God's
an old man, like an old man. And I thought, that's weird,
never thought of God. Anyway, point is, is he didn't
know either. But what is God like? Do we know
him? Joseph made himself known to
his brother. Did they know him? Did they come to know Joseph?
How could they not know him? And yet they still had this,
Lack of understanding who he was, didn't they? Do we know
him? Look at 1 John 2. He says in verse 12, I write
unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven
you for his namesake. I write unto you fathers because
you have known him that is from the beginning. They've known,
the fathers have known him. I write unto you young men because
you have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you little
children because you have known the father. How did they know
him? Because your sins are forgiven
you for his name's sake. If we know God, this is the way
we know him. Joseph made himself known to
his brethren in the forgiveness of their sins, in the reconciling
grace of his humility and his love for them for Christ's sake. God hath forgiven you for Christ's
sake. Look at Romans chapter 15. He says in Romans chapter 15, In verse five, now the God of
patience and consolation, that means comfort, grant you to be
like-minded one toward another according to Christ Jesus, that
you may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse seven, wherefore, receive
ye, because of this comfort from God, receive ye one another as
Christ also received us to the glory of God. Joseph received his brethren
to the glory of God, to the glory of God's grace. When we were
enemies in our mind and by wicked works, God, and we were dead
in sins, serving the lust of our flesh and were by nature
children of wrath, even as others. God, who is rich in mercy, for
his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in
sins, quickened us together with Christ, by grace you are saved,
and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might
show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward
us through Christ Jesus, for by grace you are saved through
faith. If you know God, That's the way you know him. It says
in Hebrews 8, verse 11, they shall all know the Lord. And
then shortly thereafter, it says, their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more. Has God spoken to you from his
word in the gospel? And have you seen that for Christ's
sake, entirely for what he thinks of his son, he has received you? by His mercy and His grace and
that in God there's only goodness and it's according to truth.
His grace of God is according to truth. Christ fulfilled God's
law. He magnified it. Grace and truth
are in Christ. Moses told us what we needed
to do. Christ came and did it and made known God's glory in
doing it and saved us from our sins How can we not love Him? Only because we're sinners. We
need grace even to believe Him. Even to believe grace, we need
grace. Let's pray.