It matters greater than all our
sins. Thank you, Robin. It says grace
that will pardon, not might. Will pardon. Because where sin
abounded, grace did much more abound. That's the story right
here, isn't it? The story we're reading right
now, this story, the story of Jacob, his sons, and Joseph,
Lord in Egypt, one of the greatest in all of Scripture because it's
one of the greatest pictures of salvation by the sovereign
mercy and pardoning grace that's in Christ Jesus our Lord. Not
a more touching story in the Scripture. I don't know if you've
gone ahead and read through it. I couldn't resist. And I was
reading today when Joseph could not refrain himself anymore.
Oh my, and I couldn't refrain myself. Heartbreaking, but heart
rejoicing. It is full of tears, it's full
of laughter, it's full of great fear and distress, great joy
and deliverance. It's a story of sin, a story
of hatred, malice. wickedness, betrayal, denial,
guilt, shame. It's a story of love, mercy,
grace, pardon, forgiveness, great salvation and redemption. This
is the gospel, isn't it? That's the gospel. The story
of Jacob and his twelve sons. He had one son, legitimate son,
firstborn, Joseph. You go ahead and read the story,
Jacob says that. He said, I have one son. He treats
Joseph like he's the only boy, the true son he had. What a picture
that is. He's the firstborn of his legitimate
wife, Rachel. And then Benjamin was his mere
kin. Benjamin's the type of the church.
Not here, but he is a type. But Joseph is a picture of Christ,
the firstborn, the only begotten, well-beloved son of the Most
High God. And he's the firstborn of many
brethren who were all born in sin, like Joseph's brethren. Hated him, rejected him, despised
him, but he didn't despise them. Oh, he's not ashamed to call
them brethren. What a story this is. What a
story. Oh boy, all right. This is the gospel to the praise
and the glory of God's grace. Look at verse 21 in our text. It says, They said one to another
after Joseph had them put in prison. And the Spirit of God began to
work on them, began to make them feel guilty. They'd make them
feel their unbelief against their brother. And they all said, every
one of them said, we are very truly guilty concerning our brother
in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us
and we would not hear. Therefore is this distress come
upon us. We're in prison. We're in bondage. All this trouble and distress
is upon us because we heard about our brother, his anguish, and
we didn't care. Now isn't that us? Isn't one
of us? There was a time when everyone in this room, before
the Lord revealed Christ to you, what great things the Lord had
done for you, you'd heard this story. You heard Christ and Him
crucified. It didn't mean a thing to you.
You didn't bother to come hear it, did you? You didn't care.
It meant nothing to you. His Word, you may have had a
Bible. You didn't hear it. You didn't read it, did you?
But God. But God. And here's what our
Lord said that the Holy Spirit does to everyone that belonged
to the Lord. He says, when He's come, He'll
reprove of sin. of righteousness and of judgment. That's what these brethren all
understood. We're guilty of sin because they
believed not on me, Christ said. I'm the way, the truth, and the
life, and they didn't believe me. Of sin because they believed
not on me. This is what God does hold this
whole world guilty for. They said, let His blood be on
us and our children. Okay, it is. And His blood does
God require, either at your hands or it is on you for the redemption
of your soul. Of righteousness, because I go
to my Father and you see me no more. Of judgment, because the
Prince of this world is judged, our Lord said. And they're going
to see, they're going to know, they're going to find out that
the one that they rejected is the Lord over all. I read that
today, when he first said, I'm Joseph. Do you know how they must have
felt? I'm the one you sold. But he
said it in such... Well, that's another story. But
this is what the Lord brings every... Child of God, everyone
that He purposed to save, He brings them to this point where
they're guilty. They all say, we're guilty concerning Christ
and Him crucified. We're guilty. We didn't believe
God concerning His Son. He said, this is my beloved Son.
Hear Him. We didn't. So, this distress
has come upon us. Now, verse 23, it says, they
knew not that Joseph understood them. He's listening to them.
His ear is open to their cries. He's hearing every word that
his sorry brothers are saying. You hear what he's doing? He's
touched, deeply touched and moved by one act of repentance. Our Lord even said this one time.
He said, there's joy in heaven over one sinner that repents.
You know, repenting is not doing anything great, is it? Just acknowledging
that you're guilty, is that... And yet the Lord says, heaven
erupts. And the Lord God of glory smiles. His ears are opened unto the
cry of every sorry sinner, every guilty sinner, every one, every
time. Did these fellows quit being
sinners? No. Far from it. Oh, Joseph. Our Lord is so compassionate.
Verse 24, Joseph turned about from them. He turned and wept,
returned to them again, communed with them, spoke with them. I don't think he was speaking
roughly this time. He says he communed with them. You don't
speak roughly when you're communing with someone. They're guilty. They're feeling it. He's saying,
fellas, through an interpreter, it'll
be okay if you just do what the Lord said. Just do what the Lord
said. I bet you this interpreter is
saying, he's very merciful. He's very gracious. And he won't
lie to you. You just do what he said. You
go home, and you get that brother, and you bring him back. And if
he said that when he sees that brother, he's going to let you
go, he'll let you go. He'll do what He said. He's a
man of His word. Commune with them. I love this. I thought
of our Lord in the garden here when it says He turned and wept
and returned to them again. Let me just read Mark 14 if you
want to turn there. Mark 14. This is such a picture
of this. When our Lord was in the garden
of Gethsemane. Verses 33. Mark 14, 33. He says, he took with him Peter,
James, and John and began to be sore amazed and be very heavy. He's crying. He said unto them,
My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death. Tear ye here and
watch. And he went forward a little
and fell on the ground and prayed that if it were possible, the
hour might pass from him. And our Lord down in verse 40
says he returned again. He kept coming back to them.
They found him asleep again. Their eyes were heavy. And another
place said they were so sorrowful. And he had such compassion on
them. They couldn't even watch with him in his most sorrowful hour. But he knows
our frame, you know that? The Lord knows our frame. He's
our brother. He's our brother, man. He's touched with the feeling
of our infirmity. They're sorry, brothers, aren't
they? But He's merciful. He's gracious. He's loving. And
Joseph knew they were praying. He knew what they were because
he's a man too. And our Lord, Scripture says,
is touched with a feeling of our infirmity, tempted in all
points like as we are, yet without sin. He knows He couldn't fall
to sin. He knows we will. He knows. He knows us. He saw Adam. And Eve were perfect. And they fell. Where does that
leave us? He knows that. He knows that. And you know,
I thought about this. We ought to be more like that,
shouldn't we? Shouldn't we love as brethren? Yes, we should. That's the one thing that our
Lord gave commandment. He said, now this is it. I'm
not telling you to keep the law. I'm just telling you, you love
your brethren like I love you. That's the least you could do,
isn't it? The least you could do. We ought
to because we ought to know their frame. We ought to know that
they're just like us. Just like that. You ought to
have compassion on them. The Lord demands it. Verse 24,
it says, He took from them Simeon and bound him before their eyes.
He took Simeon and bound him before their eyes. Now Christ
is everything in this picture. He's all and He's in all this. He's everything. But this is
certainly a picture of our Lord being bound that we might go
free. But Benjamin is a better picture of that later on. But nevertheless, our Lord was
bound that we might go free. And I thought about this. This
is a picture of how we have brethren right in our midst. Right before
our eyes that are still bound. Still bound. And our heart's
prayer and our burden for them is, Lord, loose them. You know
there's one way they're going to be loose? When they see the
Son. When the Lord of the place sees
the Son and tells them to go free. We have brethren bound by sin
and unbelief. We have brethren bound by fear.
We have weak brethren bound by fear and constant distress. You
know how they're going to get rid of that fear and distress?
When they see the sign. I'm telling you, this is the
sign. I'm not telling you anything different than Manoah and Saul
and Gideon and Saul. This is it. One sign for sinners. We've got brethren bound by legal
bondage. Brethren still think, I've got
to do something, surely. No. No. This is free. Just bring the
Son. Bring the Son. Oh, my. Our Lord and our Brother, our
Savior. Oh, my. When He's revealed to
us, we all go free. Verse 25, so Joseph commanded
to fill their sacks with corn. I hope you're with me, because
it really gets good now. Well, how could it have gotten
any better than what I've just said? But anyway, verse 25, when Joseph
commanded to fill their sacks with corn, as we've said before,
these fellows don't deserve a crumb, no, but Joseph's merciful. One time, Brother Scott Richardson,
you ever hear this story? had a friend who was up before
a judge, a main judge, being tried, and the judge threw the
book at him. And Brother Scott went up after
it was over and said, Judge? He said, Is there no mercy? Can there be no mercy for this
man? Pleading for mercy? And the judge said, He doesn't
deserve mercy. And old Brother Scott said, well,
isn't that what mercy is? You don't deserve it? That's right. These fellows didn't
deserve this. But God is merciful, full of
mercy. He's so merciful, He delights
to show mercy. He takes pleasure in them that
hope in His mercy. He takes great pleasure in those
that say, I'm guilty. Would you show mercy? Be delighted
to. Isn't that, that's amazing. Somebody write a song, Amazing
Mercy. Then Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with corn,
not just a little bit, not just give them a little Like that
woman that came and said, I just want a few crumbs. Has the Lord
ever given anybody crumbs? No. Fill their sacks and restore
every man's money into his sack and give them provision for the
way. And it says, Thus did He unto them. He did it all. He did it all. Fill their sacks. I don't know about you. Well,
I do know about you. I've known you a long time now. Our cups
run over. The Lord has given to us in such
a way, pressed down, shaken together, running over with mercy. That's
true, isn't it? Where sin abounded though, you
can't out-sin God's grace and mercy. It's an exhaustive supply
of mercy. We think that all the time, don't
we? Like these brethren. We're going to see that. These
brethren are just thinking it's all too good to be true. Fill
their sacks. Restore every man's money. This
corn is not going to cost my brethren a dime. From the worst, remember Judah? From the worst to the best, if
you want to call Reuben that, the best, from the worst to the
best, it's not going to cost any of them a dime. Salvation
is by grace, people, 100% by grace. He said, come, buy wine,
that's the blood of Christ, and milk, the milk of His Word, without
money and without price. Don't spend money for that which
is not bread. If you come and just hearken
and hear, your soul shall live and eat that which is Fill him. I'll fill you with peace and
joy. Don't try to find it anywhere else. You can't find it. And
he said, provide for them all they need. Joseph gave commandment. He gave his men commandment to
fill up their sacks, put their money in their sack, provide
for them by the way. It says he did this. Whatever
was done to them, Joseph was the doer of it. He did it, you
see. He did it. Salvation is up to
the Lord. And do you reckon, I thought about this, do you
reckon that as they were leaving, that they were heading out? This
is a time of famine. People without. It's hard to
come by. It's been two years now. Lots
of danger out there, isn't it? Robbers. Thieves, they've got
sacks full of grain, sacks full of money. I kind of think that
Joseph said, put some fellows in the hills with bows and arrows. Ain't nobody going to touch them.
Make sure they make it all the way on. Do you reckon? Oh, he's not going to provide
for them and say, I hope you make it. No, sir. Neither does our Lord. Neither
does our Lord. And look at what they said. Now,
after all of this, they opened their sack. When they left, they
laid in their asses with corn, departed fence, verse 27, and
one of them opened his sack to give his ass provender in the
inn. They're staying in a nice inn, Stan. They're not in a tent.
They've got so much money, they can stay in an inn. Sacks full. One of them opened his sack to
feed this precious corn to a mule. I don't know about you, but my
dog lives high on the hog. I do know about you, Bonnie.
Our dogs eat better than some third world countries, don't
they? Oh, do our sacks run over or what? What have we got to
complain about? Why would we complain ever? We're
sorry, aren't we? Oh, the Lord is so gracious. One of them opened his sack and
spied the money in his sack. In his sack's mouth he said to
his brethren, My money is restored. He said, My sack. And their hearts
failed. They were afraid. They were fearful. They said one to another, What
is this that God hath done unto us? What's He doing to us? This is the title of this message.
What is God doing to us? I'll tell you. He's saving you. He's saving you. He's being merciful
to you. He spared their lives. Joseph
did. He showed mercy. They had found
grace in His sight, and they couldn't recognize Him. They
couldn't recognize Him. Our Lord has spared our lives
how many years? I could tell you, you've heard
a little bit, but you sure hadn't heard half of it. what all the
Lord has brought me through, how He's spared my life, miraculously. You haven't heard any of it? Well, I know something. But I
don't even know the heck of it. We don't even know what the Lord
has spared us from. We don't even know what close
cause with death we had that the Lord someday may show us.
Look at this. I was hedging you about. The
angels. If He'd open up the hills, we'd
see. Chariots of fire. Angels keeping watch over them.
Yes, that's so. That's not a fairy tale. The
Lord can't lie. And, you know, He's shown mercy. Mercy. We sin. He shows mercy. We sin. He shows
mercy. We sin. He shows mercy. We go away. We
come back. He receives us. We go away. We
come back. He receives us. Huh? How much? When are we going
to believe Him? When are we going to believe
that He's merciful? When are we going to believe? What's God
doing to me? He's saving your soul. He's being
merciful unto you. You've found grace in His sight.
Why? For Christ's sake. These brethren didn't know Joseph
yet, but they know they're guilty. And before, oh, the Lord is so
good to me. And even when I was under conviction,
you know, I did not feel like Christ died for me. I didn't
feel like I really knew Him, but, boy, He knew me. He knew
me. How often we look at all our
provisions and think, why has God done this to me? Why is God
so good to me? Anybody? Why has God been so
good to me? He hasn't been better, more good
to anybody than me. Why is God so good to me? Why
me? I don't deserve all this. I feel
so guilty. Well, surely He's going to take
it all away. Surely. He's fattening me up
for the slaughter. Have you ever thought that? I ought to have more troubles
than I have. Oh, you don't have to wish for that. It's coming.
God's so good, He doesn't bring it all at one time. Have you ever thought that? You know,
the Lord is going to take it all away. But when He does, you'll
be ready. Are we ready? Are we ready? The Lord gave. You'll say, the Lord gave. Lord,
take it away. Don't we see, do we not see that all this is not
to damn us? It's to save us. It's to show
us that He loves us. That He delights to show mercy.
He's not going to let us be in want. He promised us that, didn't
He? David said, I've been young, I'm now old, and I've never seen
the righteous forsaken. Who are the righteous? What does
it mean to be righteous? Can you make yourself righteous?
What does it mean to be righteous? Give me one word that describes
being righteous. Christ. He's made unto us righteous. Do you believe that? He said,
I've never seen a righteous forsaken. I've never seen one person ever
trust the Lord Jesus Christ for his salvation and God in the
end say, no, you can't come in here. Not one. And David said, you don't understand. You're looking at the worst man
on earth, David said. You don't understand. Paul said
that. He said, I'm a pattern. Paul
said, I was injurious. I was a blasphemer. I was a murderer. He said, this is a faithful savior. He said, I'm a chief. That's
who Christ came to save. Why can't we believe Him? Huh?
Why can't we believe Him? Oh, and even when the sacks start
emptying, and there have been times like that for all of us,
haven't there? And there may be times in the future when the
sacks start emptying, and we might not have a nice inn to
lie in. We might have to be in a tent.
But you shall not want. You remember when you were first
married, don't you? You didn't have near what you
have now, did you? Huh? Me and you and I lived in
a little 500 square foot apartment. Happy as hogs in mud. Didn't
have anything. Old, broke down furniture. We
had food, right? I bet yours was much poorer than
that. You see, my parents, but even
when the sacks start emptying, You shall not want. He's given
commandment. The Lord, who is our Shepherd,
has given commandment. You shall not want. The sack
might not be full, but if you'll reach down in the bottom, the Lord guarantees it, you'll
get a handful for the day. You'll get just enough for that
day, won't you? How many years? How many years? Some of you more
years than me, like Margaret. Sixty years that the Lord has
been merciful to you and provided for you. The sack, the barrel
has never wasted. The meals never run out. The
oil has never run dry. Ever. You thought it was going
to, but you reached out. There it is. Don't have enough
money for your house payment. Where'd that check come from?
Huh? How many times? What's God doing to us? Isn't
God going to kill me? What's wrong with us? Has He
been so long time with us and we don't know Him? See, this is all to the praise
of the glory of His grace. If the Lord were pleased to kill
us, He wouldn't have received a burnt offering. Christ wouldn't
have come to die for sinners. What kind of sinner? Mary Magdalene,
the thief on the cross. He wouldn't have come to die
on that cross if it weren't so. He wouldn't have showed us all
these things and keep showing us and keep showing us. He'd
be done with us. And He wouldn't have told us such things as these.
If you just bring the Son, I'll let you free. Go free. And He said, I'll deliver your
brother and you'll sojourn in the Lamb. For what? Just bring your brother. He didn't
tell them to climb Mount Sinai. Listen to Psalm 103 in light
of all of this. You may be reading it for the
first time in light of this story. I did. This all is related to
this story. Well, every gospel story, isn't
it? They're all the same. Bless the Lord, O my soul, all
that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O
my soul, and forget not all His benefits." What benefits, David? Here it is, He forgiveth all
thine iniquities. First and foremost, chief principle,
the thing we need the most, He forgiveth. Heals all your diseases,
redeems your life from destruction. These sons of Jacob would have
died, wouldn't they? They'd have either killed themselves
or somebody else would have killed them. Wasn't it? And that would
be me. That'd be me. That'd be me. Oh, He redeems your life, finally
makes your life worth something, and crowned up thee with loving
kindness and tender mercy, satisfied thy mouth with good things. Do
you delight to give thanks to your children? I mean, do you? Does anything
give you more pleasure? You don't need anything from
them to every day. You don't need a thing. You're
60, pretty much. What can we get from here on? What do we need from here on?
Nothing. So now we spend our lives giving,
don't we? Giving. And nothing gives us
more joy and pleasure. Nothing. How much more? If you being evil, there's not
an evil bone in our Lord's body. It's all good. How much more? Read on. He loads us with benefits. He executes judgment, verse 6,
righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed. Who?
Christ did this, the law. He made known His ways unto Moses,
His acts unto the children of Israel. The Lord is merciful
and gracious and slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. He will
not always chide. We need chiding, don't we? We
need a lot of chiding. Chastening. And whom the Lord
loveth, whom He loveth. Do you feel guilt? Do you feel
shame? Are you brought low because of your sin? Good! It means He
loves you. Oh, what's He doing to me? He's
going to kill me. No! He loves you. That's why you're
brought low like that. If you weren't brought low, you
wouldn't repent. If you didn't repent, you wouldn't
show mercy. He won't always chide, He won't
keep His anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after
our sins. He hath not, He never will, never
has, never will, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
As far as, well, I could keep reading, but I've got to, you
know, go read it for yourself. The Lord said, my word is settled
in heaven. It's settled in heaven. You can
believe me. You can trust me. No one has ever trusted me. It's
been put to shame. Oh, my, my, my, my. How merciful.
Oh, how merciful. Blessed Lord, thou art to me.
Isaiah 40 says this, We've received of the Lord's hand double for
all our iniquity. Not only pardoned these sons
of Jacob, not only were pardoned, they were not only pardoned, they were given great grace.
They were given sacks full. We're going to see, if the Lord
doesn't come, we're going to see at the end of the story,
they go home with wagon loads. No more sacks, wagon loads. And yet, they said, why is God
doing this to us? They all said that down to verse
35. Oh, my. They were all afraid,
saw every man, his money in his sack. You know, look at, I'll
quit with this, verse 36. It hasn't been too long. Anyway,
verse 36, it says, Jacob, their father, said unto them, Me have
ye bereaved of my children. Now, he's blaming his sons. Joseph
is not. This is your fault. Simeon is
not. This is your fault. Are you going
to take Benjamin away from me? This is all against me. It's
all going against me. It's your fault. Now, Jacob's just being Jacob
again. He never has been too strong
in the faith, has he? He's over a hundred years old.
When's a man going to learn not to quit blaming everybody and
everything and start seeing, the Lord did that? No, this wasn't even his fault.
God did this. God's doing all this. He said,
this is all against me. Everything's working against
me, Joseph said. He's a hundred years old. He's
lived a hundred years under the mercy and the grace of God. God
came to him, Jacob, I love you, not your brother, you. Open his heart and his mind and
reveal his covenant to him. Jacob, I'm not going to... I'm
going to keep you all the days of your life. I'm not going to
destroy you. I'm going to save you. And I'm going to bring you all
the way home. I will perform this. I will, because I am God. I will not forsake thee or leave
thee, no matter what, Jacob. You will forsake me, but I won't
forsake you, because I am God." When is Jacob going to learn
that? He hasn't learned it yet, has he? He said, all this is
against me. Jacob, the opposite is true.
It's the opposite. Do you see how blind we are?
Everything we think is against us, the Lord said, no. All things work together for
good to them that live now. All of them. This is against
me. No, it's not. It's completely opposite. You
know that verse in Psalm 50 where He said, Thou thoughtest I was
altogether such a one as Thyself. I'm not. We think He's like us
and He's going to punish us. He's going to punish us. No,
He's going to pardon us. He's not like us. He's not going
to exact revenge. We just read that, didn't we?
The Lord hath not dealt with us according to our sins. He
dealt with Christ. Do you understand that? Please
understand that. Whatever your sins, conviction,
cry out for mercy and ask the Lord to pardon you for Christ's
sake. And you know what? He will. He already has. He's already done it before you
ask him. He's ready to pardon. I told you that story about Isabella
writing in my Bible years ago. She probably doesn't remember
that. But she was upstairs, had my Bible open, and she was doing
with a pen on Paul Paul's Bible. Oh, man. You know, these things.
I prize this, don't you? They're very expensive. And,
oh, I saw her doing it. You know, I knew what I was going
to do before I talked to her. I'd already pardoned her. I'd already pardoned her. I love
her. I don't want to kick her out
of the house. That's my child. But she's got
to know she's guilty. She's got to know she's done
something wrong, doesn't she? She's got to be sorry. She defaced
the Word of God. And I had her sitting in front
of me like this. You don't remember this, do you? I hope the Lord puts you in front
of Him one day like this. I had her right in front of me
and said, Isabella, look what you've done. Oh, she hung her
head. She hung her head. And before
she could get the words out, I'm sorry, her lip quivering,
I said, it's okay. It's okay. It's alright. Baba will forgive you. Don't
do it again. Don't do it again. And you know, I still have those
marks. It's not this Bible. It's not this Bible. It's another
one I have. But those marks are still there.
You know what happens whenever I turn to that page and I see
those marks? I smile. Our sins nailed Him to the crowd.
And He looks at those and smiles. See, the opposite is true. He's
not exacting revenge. He's having mercy. He's not going
to make us pay. He's going to pay it all. He's
not going to take everything away because He hates us. He
might take something away because He loves us. Keep us from hanging
on. We've got to let go. We've got
to let go. We've got to let go. If there's anything or anyone
we're hanging on to, it's idolatry, and that will damn us. So the
Lord is going to take it away in His good time. And their worries
and their fears, verse 37 and 38, and I close, Reuben spake
unto his father and said, Slay me. Slay my son if I don't bring
him back to you and deliver him into your hands. I'll bring him
to you again. Jacob said, No, my son shall not go down with
you. His brother's dead. Oh, no, he's not. Oh, no, he's
not. Oh, Jacob, you just don't know.
You just don't know. Just wait. His brother's dead. He's left alone. Simeon's down
there alone. You reckon Jacob was checking
on Simeon? How much food? You know, it's
prison. You reckon he's giving him something extra? If mischief befall him by the
way in which you go, then you bring down my gray hairs with
sorrow to the grave. You're going to go down to the
grave, not in sorrow, with a heart full of joy, unspeakable, and
full of glory. No, it's not like you thought.
Not at all like you thought. Because God's not like we think
He is. He's much greater. He's much
greater. And all this is befalling them.
For their good. For their good. And for God's
glory. For God's glory. Okay, stand
with me.