Genesis 43. If you notice the
bulletin title of this message, the subject is dining at Joseph's
house. Joseph's house is mentioned several
times throughout this story. Joseph's house is a picture of
God bringing us into His kingdom, His church, God's house, through
Christ, through the Holy Spirit. Joseph, in this story, is a picture
of the Lord God, God the Father. Stuart, the man who brought them
there, is the picture of the Holy Spirit through the preacher
of the gospel. The brethren, of course, are
the sons of Jacob, all the people of God. Benjamin is Christ. When Joseph sees Benjamin, He
says, bring these men in. Bring the men. Genesis 43, look
at verses 2 through 5. It came to pass, when they'd
eaten up the corn they brought out
of Egypt, their father said unto them, Go again, buy us a little
food, and all that the Father giveth Christ shall come to him.
Judas spake unto him, Saying this, the man did solemnly protest
unto us, saying, You shall not see my face, except your brother
be with you. If thou wilt send our brother
with us, we'll go down and buy thee food. Every one of God's
people, they'll all be taught of God. That's what our Lord
said, didn't He? They shall all be taught of God.
And every man that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh
to cry, cometh to God by cry. They all know we can't go to
God. except by Christ. He that cometh
to God must believe, what? That He is, that He is God and
that Christ is the way to God. And we'll go there, verse 5,
that if thou wilt not send Him, we will not go down. For the
man said unto us, You shall not see my face, except your brother
be with you. Every one of God's people know
this. God is holy. We can't come into His presence
except by A substitute, a mediator, a representative, a covenant
head, that's Christ. Look at verses 11 through 15.
Their father Israel said unto them, if it must be so now, do
this, take the best fruits in your vessels and carry down the
man a present, a little balm, a little honey, spices, myrrh
and nuts and almonds. Take double money in your hand
and the money that was brought again in the mouth of your sacks,
carry it again in your hand. Peradventure, it was an oversight.
Take also your brother, arise and go unto the man. And God
Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away
your other brother." That Simeon was in captivity, was held there. And Benjamin, if I be bereaved
of my children, I'm bereaved. So the men took that present
and they took double money in their hand and Benjamin and rose
up, went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph. So the Lord, our
God, says we're not to come to Him empty-handed. We're to come
to Him bringing the sacrifice of our lips, aren't we? Praise
and thanksgiving. But one thing is required of
us. One thing is needful. We're accepted
in one way. Joseph didn't see all the things
they brought and said, you're good fellows. No, they're sinful
sons of Jacob. He didn't look at those things
and say, well, come on in. He saw Benjamin. So we come to
God and we bring, we give, we support, and we've been created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, but it's not by works of righteousness
which we have done. It's the Son. We're accepted
in the blood. That's it. So we come to God
by Him, accepted. Verse 16 says, when Joseph saw
Benjamin with them, when Joseph saw Benjamin, he said to the
ruler of his house, to the Holy Spirit, God says, when he sees
Christ in us and us in him, he says, bring these men home. Bring these men to my house.
Slay. Make ready, these men will dine
with me at high noon." And the sun's at its peak. One look at
Benjamin, and he said, bring these fellows in. Did not our
Lord God say to those children of Israel in Egypt, in those
homes, when I see the blood, when I see the Son accepted in
the blood, only those who come unto God by Christ. will be received
by God into His house, into His kingdom, into His church, into
His church. Joseph and Benjamin are one. Joseph and Benjamin are blood
kin. You know, Rachel only had two
sons, don't you? Joseph and Benjamin. They're
one. They're of the same essence.
They're the same person. Didn't Christ say, I won. I won. So when Joseph saw Benjamin, he accepted them. They won. Our God says, this is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. And all who come to God by Christ,
He is well pleased. Sorry sinners though they be. Alright, here is the command
of Joseph to his ruler, to the steward. Verse 16, he said, bring
these men home with me. Now the Holy Spirit speaks through
his preacher. Do you remember how Joseph spoke
through this interpreter? Joseph didn't speak to them personally. Remember that? He didn't speak
to them personally and he spoke hard things. Remember that? The
first way in which Joseph spoke to these sons of Jacob was in
a rough manner, because they have to see their guilt. They
have to see their sin, their shame. They have to see how that
they were despised and rejected their brother. They have to see
that they're unworthy to come before Him. They have to see
that it's of the mercy and grace of their brother that they be
spared. But they don't deserve it. It's
all for His sake. They have to see that. And that's
how He had this interpreter of His speak to His brothers, to
the sons of Jacob. And that's the way God, the Holy
Spirit, speaks through His preachers. The first thing, the first way
that people hear the gospel, though it's good news, The first
thing they hear is the wrath of God, the judgment of God,
their sin, their guilt before God, the fear of the Lord is
the beginning of wisdom. And every true God-sent preacher
through whom the Spirit of God speaks, this is the way he preaches. He, no she's. He. But then once they confess their
guilt and their sin and their shame and their unworthiness
and are amazed that they're in His house. Then He speaks peace
to them. We're going to see that. But
God speaks through His Holy Spirit through the preacher of the gospel. And when He causes a believer,
a child of God whom He's chosen to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. They're justified from all things. They're accepted. And they're fetched, the Spirit
of God, whom He did foreknow. Did Joseph know these men? Oh,
yeah. For whom He did foreknow. He knew them first, didn't He?
Before they knew Him. For whom He did foreknow. He
did predestinate. Joseph arranged this whole story. Joseph arranged everything in
his wisdom. Don't you marvel at Joseph's
wisdom and everything and all his dealings with these sons
of Jacob? What all he's going to do? The next story is of the
son with the silver cup. How that Benjamin is made guilty. He's not guilty. He's the only
one of the sons that's not guilty. But Joseph made him guilty. Why? For his brother's sake. Don't you marvel at Joseph's
wisdom? Well, this is not Joseph. This is Jesus Christ who is wisdom. This is the Son of God. This
is His story. This is His Word, the Word made
flesh. And Joseph, though, in his wisdom
that God gave him, arranged all of this, all of the things concerning
his brethren, to bring them to himself. And that's what our God does.
through God, through Christ, through the Holy Spirit, through
the gospel, bringing all these prodigal sons, these worthless
home and bringing many sons to glory, Hebrews said. Many sons
to glory. All right, verse 17, so the man
did as Joseph bade. And the man brought the men into
Joseph's house. Joseph directed his steward to
these particular chosen men, didn't it? Anybody else involved
but the sons of Jacob? Anybody else coming to Joseph's
house to eat but the sons of Jacob? Anybody? Did the steward go out and say,
hey, anybody wants to dine with Joseph? This is to Joseph's brethren. This is to the sons of Jacob. This is to whom? He foreknew,
He did predestinate. Whom He predestinated, He called. And they're coming. All that
the Father giveth not shall come unto Him. They're coming to Him.
They're coming to Him. Verse 18. So when they came,
the men were afraid. When they came into this house,
they were afraid. Fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. This is how you know the true
sons of God. They fear God. David said in
Psalm 36, the transgression of the wicked saith within my heart,
there's no fear of God before their eyes. David said, I watched
and beheld as the people came to God with their lips and their
hearts were far from me. I watched and beheld and saw
how people came with no fear, with irreverence, with disrespect,
and almost demandingly, almost like it was their right to come
and how that God owed them something. He says there's no fear of God.
But God's people come. They're afraid. Why? Look at verse 18. They were afraid
because they were brought into Joseph's house. They knew whose
house this was. They knew something of the majesty
and the power of this man, didn't they? That's what their confession
was to their father. Oh, this is the man. The man
that solemnly protested unto us. We're afraid of this man. He spoke with power. He has all
power. We're going to die unless this
man provides for us, unless this man has mercy on us, we're all
going to die. We've got to go back, but we're afraid. And this
is what he said, you bring that son, you bring that son, I'll
accept you. We've got to go or we'll die.
And they were afraid of him. Don't ever lose this fear, people.
Don't ever lose your feeling of complete unworthiness to be
sitting in this pew right now. That's as it were to loathe this
light bread. To ever come and hear this gospel
in any way other than fear and great gratitude and a feeling
of unworthiness, undeservingness to hear this gospel is to loathe
this light bread, is to forget in whose presence we are, is
to forget what we are and the pit from which we were dug and
why we were brought here by the blood of God's Son. Nothing in
us but the blood of God's Son. If it wasn't for that, we'd all
be in hell right now. All of us. Beginning with the eldest to
the youngest. These brethren, buddy, they were
afraid. They were afraid. Have we quit sinning? Then be
afraid. Our guilt and our sin and our
unworthiness, when a person finally hears, this is the first way
we hear, and then we see Christ's of glory, of seeing God's holiness.
And it makes us see ourselves, something of ourselves. These
men are finally beginning to learn something about themselves.
And they're beginning to loathe themselves. And they're going
to know when this is all over, they're going to know it's only
by the mercy and grace of our brother that we're here. Nothing
in us. Beginning with the oldest. To the youngest, they all know
it's a miracle of God's grace that we're sitting in this house. Alright, now they're afraid in
verse 18, they said, because of the money that was returned
in our sacks at the first time we were brought in. He's going
to seek occasion, our margins say. He's going to roll Himself
on us. He's against us. He's going to fall on us. He's
going to take us prisoner. Take everything we own. That's
what they all said. That's the way they ought to
feel. That's what Joseph ought to do,
shouldn't it? That's what Joseph ought to do.
There's only one Son amongst them all that doesn't deserve
to be falling on. Benjamin! Only one Son without
guilt, without sin. Christ! And we deserve for Him
to fall on us, don't we? Did not our Lord say to those
Pharisees, the stone, this rock, the builders rejected, if you
fall on it, you'll be broken. We need our hearts broken and
they need to stay that way or else we won't appreciate Him.
But upon whom that rock falls, you know, grinding to powder.
And they all to a man, every one of them said, He's brought
us here. He's going to fall on us. No, brethren, that's not why
He's brought you here. He's brought you here for the
mercy and grace of God to fall on you. They thought, He's brought us
here to take us prisoner. No, you're prisoners now. He brought you here to set you
free. He's brought us here to take
it all away. No. He brought you here to give you
unsearchable riches that you never knew about before. He's going to kill us. No. He brought you here to save you
alive, save you from yourself. If He had left you alone, you
sorry sons of Jacob, you'd have perished. You'd have killed yourselves
or somebody else would have done it. God would have. No, He brought
you here not to kill you, but to save you alive. Somebody smile. Verse 19, So
they came near to the steward of Joseph's house, and they communed
with him at the door of the house. When God starts speaking to a
sinner, they start communing with God. They start calling
on the Lord. They start calling. That's how
you know they've been called. Whom He did foreknow, He did
predestinate. Whom He predestinated, He called. How do you know He
called them? They called on Him. Whose service shall call on the
name of the Lord? Who calls? Oh, it's the Lord our God called.
And they called. These men began to commune with
the steward. This was just a man, and this
is what every sinner that God deals with, they begin to call
on God, and they begin to consult with and talk to His preachers
and His people, and they commune with Him. They commune with the
Lord. They commune with the Holy Spirit. They begin to talk with
Him, and He with them. And here's their confession,
okay? They make confession. Verse 20, Oh, sir! Oh, sir! You know what the word sir is?
Lord, oh Lord, oh sir, we came indeed
down at the first time to buy food, came down to buy food. You know, God's people, the people
God brings, they always come, the first time they come is for
the wrong reasons. for the wrong reasons. I was
talking the other day about you, Jill, and your sister, how that
you all would only come, you know, you remember, Easter or
Mother's Day. And as a young preacher, I had
the wrong spirit and attitude. I remember getting just aggravated. I didn't want to see you. Amy
said that. She saw me at Franklin Restaurant
after the message and I wouldn't hardly speak to her. That's the
wrong attitude on my part. The fact is, God brings everyone
for the wrong reason, the first time. I mean, He brings them
for the right reason, but they come for the wrong reason. They
don't know what they're looking for. But the wonderful thing
is, God's bringing them. He's been looking for them. And
we come in search of something and end up staying. And our sacks get filled. We see the sun, and then on and
on it goes. And we end up staying. And it's
still a mystery to us, like these brethren, why am I here? They're
all going to look at one another and marvel. Would you look at
us? Just amazed that they're in Joseph's
house. And they all confess, they all
confess. Verse 21, it came to pass, we
came to the end. We opened our sacks. Behold,
every man's money was in the mouth of his sack, our money
in full weight. We brought it again in our hand.
And other money have we brought down in our hands to buy food.
We cannot tell who put our money in our sacks. Now I've been looking
at this for weeks now. I looked at it before and you
know how many times it talks about their money being in their
sack's mouth? Over and over it kept saying
that, and I kept thinking, what is this talking about? There's
something here. Why did God write this down that
He put their money in their sack's mouth? And every time they opened
the sack, the mouth of the sack, there was their money. And it just struck me this morning
that when God... Out of the heart are the issues
of life. With the heart man believeth unto salvation. But with the
mouth confession is made. When God fills the heart with
grace, when God fills the heart with fear of the Lord, when God
fills the heart with His truth, with His Word, with the belief
in Christ, you open the sack, you open that sack, what's the
first word out of their mouth? Blood. Their redemption price
was in their sack's mouth. Somebody saw that with me. If I asked you right now, give
me one reason why you're saved. Open your heart. Tell me right
now. One word. Give me a word. Somebody. Go ahead. Blood! Every son of Jacob, you open
up his heart, his sack, his container, that which the Lord has filled,
his mouth will say, it's the blood. Who put that there? They said, we don't know who
put that there. I do. The steward. He said, I had your
money. I had the price. You belonged
to the king. He told me who you were. I came
with the price of redemption. I came with the blood of Christ.
I put it on you. I put it in you. That's what
the Holy Spirit says. I did this because you belong
to Him. I didn't come up with that. It's
clear isn't it though, that's what that's talking about. Or
who and what. The price of redemption keeps
talking about Money, money, money, silver, silver. And we're going
to see how that the youngest son has the silver cup. He's
the one with that in his sack's mouth. The cup... Listen to this
now. We're going to see this in a
little bit, the next message. He's the one that has the cup
by which the King divines everything and determines everything and
judges everything. It's the youngest son that has
the cup. that bears the cup. Christ, the
cup which my Father hath given me, He says, shall I not drink
it? That's another message. So this is their confession.
And He said unto them, now this One who formerly spoke roughly
to them, this One that spoke hard things to them, this One
that made them feel their guilt, Verse 23, now he says, peace. Are you still with me? I lost your
amazement. I should have amazed you. This
is God's Word. We've studied this before, but
it's like I've never seen it. That's the way the Gospel should
be. If you really hear the Gospel as a sinner, as a son of Jacob,
And if the Spirit of God really works on you, that's how you'll
hear it like the first time. You'll be amazed. These fellows stood amazed in
the presence of Joseph. They were brought to his house.
And if we ever quit being amazed by God's grace, and amazed in
the presence of Jesus of Nazareth, and wonder how He could love
me, a sinner condemned unclean, we're like the church at Ephesus. We're like the church that lay
in the sea. We've got too much and we're lukewarm. And God ought
to spew us out of His mouth. And I'm guilty. He says, peace be to you. We
don't understand when Christ said, peace I leave with you,
my peace I give unto you. When Christ said that peace,
you know how peace was obtained? The blood of His cross. Fear not. All the world is going
to tremble with fear when they see Him finally, when they see
Him. All sinners, the wicked on the
rocks and hills shall call. Hide us from the face of Him.
And who maketh us to differ? Why would He say to us, fear
not? The Son. Oh my, it is God that justifies.
Fear not, He says in verse 23, fear not your God and the God
of your Father. You remember when our Lord said,
I go to my Father and I go to your Father. This is after they
all left Him. This is after they all rejected
Him. This is after they all sinned
against Him. After He was made sin and went
to the cross for those unworthy fellows They chose and called
after the fact Christ comes to them all and said, I go to the
Father, my Father and your Father. He's your God. He's my God. He
sent me for you. He's my God and He's your God. Peace. Peace be unto you. Fear not. You know what the Lord
kept saying to His disciples over and over again who were
always afraid? Not. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's Inhabitants? It is God that justifies. Who
is He that condemneth? Christ died. He said, I go to your God, Father,
and you may call Him Father, Abba Father. This is all God's
sovereign grace. He said, I had your money. And
he brought to look at verse 23. He said, He gave you treasure. We have
this treasure, don't we, in earthen vessels. Why? Because of the
excellencies of God, not men. It's all of the Lord. He said,
I had your money. And look at this. He brought
Simeon out. He brought Simeon out. There
was Benjamin. And they made confession and
told him the truth. He told them the truth, and what
did the truth do? Set them free. God is showing us a sign that
He's with us. I thought about this this morning. He's showing us a sign that He's
with us. It's not something new, it's
the same thing. The sign of God's acceptance, God's approval is
the gospel. How He keeps showing us the same
things. How He keeps showing us Christ,
the Holy Spirit keeps you. And because I didn't plan any
of this, I couldn't have. When I chose, the lot is cast
into the lap, but the whole disposing there is of the Lord. I chose
Matthew. And I chose Genesis for our two studies. And we've
been studying these, I don't know, about two years or so.
There's twice as many chapters in Genesis as Matthew. There's
no way I planned for these exact things to come together at the
same time. That Christ just said to His
disciples, go and make ready the Passover. Now Joseph Stewart
said to these fellas, go and make ready, you're going to die
with us. that they're about to see Joseph revealed to them,
and the disciples are about to see Christ revealed in all His
glory. I did not plan any of this. But
this is a sign to us that we're highly favored, that God is with
us. Did you catch that, somebody?
Did I say it? No scriptures have any private
interpretation, neither is preaching. He's really blessed. Oh, I marveled
thinking about that this morning. Now that He has brought this
all together for us to see that we're His sons, His brethren. He's not ashamed to call us brethren. We're going to sing that song
a little bit, I Stand Amazed. After this, I hope you'll sing
it with understanding. I stand amazed as I stood in
the presence of Joseph. And then one of the next lines
is, for me it wasn't a garden. And that's our next message. Joseph greatly desired to eat
with these brethren. He was looking forward to eating
with these brethren. This man receiveth sinners and
eateth. And the steward said, go and
prepare. You're going to dine at Joseph's
house. Us? Yes, you're going to dine. And they made ready. Oh, how
we need to make ready to come, to sit. And what an unworthy
privilege, high honor, heavenly calling this is to come and hear
about Christ and eat bread if you're hungry. And Joseph came
home, verse 26. Joseph came home. Oh, he's coming
soon. And they brought the present
unto him. What did they do? They bowed themselves to the earth.
He asked them, verse 27, of their welfare. Peace be unto you, another
word. Does your father live? Tell me
about your father. Oh, he's alive, yes. This is
eternal life, that they might know Thee, the only true God,
the living and true God. Tell me about your God. He's
alive, and in Him we live and move and have our being. That's eternal life. And to know
Christ, they're going to know Joseph. Verse 28, And they answered,
Thy servant, our Father, is in good health. He's yet alive.
And they bowed their heads and made obeisance. They kept bowing,
they kept bowing, they kept bowing. And he lifted up his eyes, Joseph
lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's
son. Is this your younger brother
of whom you spake unto me? And they all, you know, they
all said to him, this man did solemnly protest
and says, I see your brother. And he says, is this your brother
you've been telling me about? Do you remember when Isaac said
to Jacob who was dressed like Esau? Do you remember? When Isaac
said to Jacob who was covered with Esau's skins and had that
savory meat that Esau always prepared? When Isaac said, Are
you my son Esau? What did Jacob say? Yes. Is this my brother? How are you
coming to me again now? What's your hope of eternal life?
Christ." He smiled. Oh, this is my beloved Son, God
said, in whom I'm well pleased. The Lord is well pleased for
His righteousness sake. And you know what else? He's
pleased with us in Him. God be gracious unto thee, my
son." Oh, the grace of God is in him. Joseph made haste. Oh,
my. Wait till you get to chapter
45. You say, well, make haste and
get there. Well, we will. We've got to see the son of the
cup. And his bowels did yearn upon his brother. He sought where
to weep. Entered his chamber and wept
there, my, my. He washed his face and went out
and refrained himself. He said, set on bread. They set on him, on for him by
himself and for them by themselves. For the Egyptians did eat with
him by themselves. Egyptians might not eat bread
with the Hebrew. That's an abomination under the
Egyptians. Joseph's going to change that. Pharaoh's going
to change that. Pharaoh's going to change that.
After this is all over, these Israelites are going to dine
with Pharaoh. They'll come right into the presence
of him before they were abomination to him. But they're all going
to come and live in the best land of Goshen at Pharaoh's order. Now, who could do that but Joseph? And they sat before him. Look
at this. You had to get to death. "...sat before Him, the firstborn,
according to His birthright..." That's Christ. You know, Christ
is all, isn't He? And in all. "...sat before Him,
the firstborn, the youngest according to His youth. And the men, as
they sat there at Joseph's table in that great kingdom..." It
says, "...they all marveled one at another." They looked at each
other. Simeon looked at Reuben and said,
can you believe we're here? And Reuben looked over at Gad
and said, Gad, we were dead men. And Gad looked at Dan and Dan
looked at Gad and they both said, we don't deserve to be here.
This is just amazing. This is just a marvel. They were amazed. This is just
too good to be true. I can't believe I'm here. And Joseph, God the Father took
and sent messes unto them. Oh, of His hand have we received
grace for grace, His grace, Christ's grace. But Benjamin's mess was five times greater, more than theirs, because Christ
did what he did, God hath given him a name above every name."
And look at this, the last line says, "...and they drank, and
were merry with him." And the margin says, "...they drank,
and they drank largely." Oh, people, when a cup of God's
gospel comes to you, you'll drink largely. And then what about
when Christ drinks that cup with us? Frank can't be married. No more
tears, no more sorrow. And we're going to drink largely.
Alright.