Okay? Relations, Chapter 1. Before we go over to Genesis,
Relations, Chapter 1, I want you to see something that's so appropriate to the story we're
going to study. When is a human being saved? When is someone saved? Well, it's not according to modern
religion when they accept Jesus or make him Lord. You've heard
those things before. Listen to the Apostle Paul about
his own salvation here in Galatians 1, verses 13 and 14. Now, Paul
was religious. Saul. Saul was religious. And he said in verse 13, you've
heard of my conversation and my life in time past in the Jews'
religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted
the Church of God. In other words, he was religious,
but he hated the truth and wasted it. Verse 14, and profited, profited
in the Jews' religion. I was religious and it was profitable
to me. above many my equals. I was zealous,
being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my father."
You notice he keeps saying, I, I, I, I. About his form of religion, I,
me, my, I. Was Paul saved? Was Saul a believer? No. Now here he says this is
when he was saved. But when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb and who called me by his
grace to reveal his Son in me, to reveal Christ not just in
my head, he said, but in my heart, to really know him. So when is
a man saved? When is a woman saved? A young
person saved? When it pleases God. Not when
they're pleased to make the decision. No, when it pleases God, in God's
good time. When God is pleased to reveal
Christ to that person. And not just to them. You know. For they love the gospel of Christ. Salvation is to hear of Christ,
see your need of him, and believe him, love him, love the gospel. That's when and that's how. Call
the gospel, all right? Now go back to Genesis chapter
42. Genesis chapter 42. And this story illustrates that. This story illustrates that.
There are ten brothers, ten brothers, Joseph's brothers, a certain number, ten, a certain
number. Now, these fellows, they're known
by the Lord. He's both their Lord and their
brother. He's known by them. They're known by him, but they
don't know him. See, he knows them. He knows
who they are. He knows all about them, but
they don't know him. These ten brethren are known
by him, but unknown to them. And it's a time of famine in
the land. It's a sober time. Scripture says it's a sore time.
hard times, difficult times, famine. People were dying. I
mean literally dying of starvation all over the world. It says it
was in all the land. It was a sore famine. In other
words, the whole world was dying of famine. But these ten brethren, by the
grace of God, heard from the Father. That there's corn in
Egypt. There's food in Egypt. You don't
have to die. There's a place you can go to
get corn. And they came, like the rest
of the world did, to this place to get corn. And little did they
know, their brother is on the throne. I mean, their brother is reigning
and ruling. But he hides himself from them.
He makes himself strange to them, that they don't know him. He
hides his identity from them. He knows all about them, but
they don't know anything about him. As a matter of fact, he's
not even speaking to them personally, but through an interpreter. All
right, are you with me? All right, this is our story. Let's read verses 1 through 5
again, all right? Now, when Jacob saw that there
was corn in Egypt, Jacob said to his sons, why are you looking
at one another? I've heard there's corn in Egypt.
Get down there and buy for us from the fence that we may live
and not die. You better get to Egypt. We're
dying here. Go to Egypt and buy corn or we're
going to die. And Joseph's ten brethren, a
specific number as we said, they went down to buy corn in Egypt. But Benjamin, now this is the
eleventh brother, Benjamin, Joseph's brother also, Jacob, that is
the father, didn't send with his brethren because he said
less peradventure mischief befall him. Something's going to happen
to him. I'm not going to send him now. He is going to come,
but not until the Father's good time. And we're going to see
more about that later. All right, in verse 5, so the
sons of Israel, Jacob, sons of Jacob, they came to buy corn
among those that came. In other words, everyone came,
and they did too. to buy corn, for the famine was in the land
of Cain everywhere. This whole story is a picture
of who God is, of what man is, his condition, of someone on
the throne that we answer to, someone on the throne who gives
us all that we have, someone we must know, someone who must
rather know us or we're gone. Now, the whole
world—I hope the Lord will open this up and give you ears to
hear—the whole world is sustained by God through the Lord Jesus
Christ. I mean, every human being on
this planet receives all that they receive from Jesus Christ. That's just like the whole world
at this time received everything they got from Joseph, according
to Pharaoh's decree. And that's as it is. God, the
scripture says, has given Christ authority over all flesh. He's
the head over all flesh, all things, principalities, All human beings receive everything
they receive—life, breath, food, clothing, jobs, whatever it is—from
Jesus Christ. He doles it out. He owns the
storehouses, and he opens them. Whether men know him or not,
he is Lord. Nobody made him that, and nobody
makes him. made Jesus Christ Lord, except
God. And he is every man's Lord. For
these ten men, we're going to see salvation comes when they
realize it, when he takes notice of them.
All right? The whole world. But now, the
whole world came to Egypt to get something, to get corn, all
right? The ten men, ten specific men,
Joseph's brethren, got more than corn. They were family, it turned
out. They ended up, when this story
is over, they're going to be sitting at the king's table. He's going to have his arm around
personal communion, they're going to stay with him from then on.
Everybody can get that treatment. And this corn, what all they
received, these brethren of Joseph, didn't cost them one dime. His brethren, they were his.
You see, God says, I know my sheep." The foundation of God
stands assured, having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are
his. God has an elect people. God has chosen people, a certain
number, like these certain number of brethren. God has a certain
number. No man can number them, but God has. He's chosen them. He knows them. He loved them,
and he sent Christ to this earth to save them. And they've got
to come before him, though, and bow to him, and he's going to
have to reveal himself to every one of them. All right, and he's
going to give them, through Christ, God gives them this eternal life
that they live with him forever. All right, verse 6, look at verse
6. It says Joseph was the governor
over the land. He it was that sold all the people
of the land. So you see there? He it was. Joseph's the one. Everybody answered
to Joseph. Everybody had to come to Joseph,
whether they knew him or not. Let me just read to you from
the book of Isaiah. This is so good. Isaiah 45. Listen to this. It says in Isaiah
45, verse 22, Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of
the earth, for I am God, and there is none else. Who's that
talking about? Talking about the Lord Jesus
Christ. Look unto me. This is the same voice that cried
one day while he was on this earth, Ho, everyone that thirsteth,
for come unto me, all ye that labor and have Look unto me,
and be ye saved," all the ends of the earth. If any human being
is going to be saved, it's going to be by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look into him. I read on, I'm God, there's none
else. He says, I have sworn by myself,
the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not
return. Listen, unto me every knee shall
bow. Every knee shall bow to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Every knee, Muslim, Hindu, whatever,
every human being will someday bow and every tongue confess
or swear that he's Lord, that he's God. And salvation is for God to make
Christ known to us now, in this life, so that we bow to him now. Because every knee is going to
bow to him someday. Every human being is going to someday acknowledge
that that's Jesus of Nazareth, and he is indeed Lord of the
universe, isn't he? But salvation is to know that
now, to bow now and confess with the heart man believeth that
the mouth confession is made. And surely shall one say, And
the Lord have our righteousness. And all that are incensed against
him will be ashamed. And the Lord shall all the seed
of Israel be justified." All the seed of Israel will bow
before the Lord Jesus Christ. All the sons of Israel will come
before the Lord Jesus Christ and will be saved, every one
of them, all ten of them. And so will God's people. They
shall all be taught of God, and every man that hath heard and
learned of the Father cometh unto me." They'll hear of Christ. All right, back in our text.
Genesis 42. All right? And they came, it
says in verse 6, and they bowed themselves before him. They bowed
down themselves before him with their faces to the earth. Now,
I believe this was just a formality. People were very respectful of
authority back then, and this was just the formality. These
men, you've seen them in the movies, they bow down themselves. It's just the formality they
go through. Anybody is a ruler, Lord. And these men, these sons of
Jacob, were doing this as a mere formality, and they were religious. They were religious. And they
were bowing down, but they were lost. They were lost. All right? Now, verse 7 says,
And Joseph saw his brethren. Oh, there's so much here. In
other words, Joseph looked on his brethren. Joseph was looking
on his brethren. Now, they're not looking at him.
They're bowing down like this. They're not looking up. They're
not paying much attention to Joseph. After all, they're really
not interested so much in him. They want corn. And they're religious. They're
good men. In a little bit, they're going to tell him how good they
are. These guys are worthless, but
they're good religious Jews, you see. And they're bowing.
They go through the four mountains. call him Lord, and so forth. But it says, now Joseph looked
on them. There's so much here. He's looking through them. He
knows them. He knows everything about them.
Then he knows their hearts. He knows what they are. He knows
what they've done. He knows what they are now. He
knows what he's going to do with them. He saw them. That means he looked on them. Oh, my. But they didn't know
him. It says he made himself strange
to them. See it? Verse 7? But he made
himself strange unto them. And he spake roughly to them. They didn't know him, but he
knew them. And they weren't looking to him. They really weren't interested
in him. They wanted corn. That's it. That's it. Get a little corn
and we're out of here. He knew them. And he was strange
to them. He was strange. You know, in
this story, now, in this story, many years had passed since before
the Joseph was sold when he was seventeen years old, and now
he's thirty years old. Thirteen years had gone by. Many
years had passed, and Joseph spent many hours in prison, many
years in prison. Joseph was longing for his family,
right? Joseph loved his father. Joseph
loved his brother Benjamin. And wonder of wonders, he loved
these sorry fellas. I didn't love him, I hated him.
He loved them. How could he do that? We wouldn't
have. He thought on them for years.
For thirteen years he was thinking about his father, he was thinking
about his brethren. He knew his thoughts of them,
thoughts of peace. Thoughts of love, thoughts of
mercy. And he thought, now I had these dreams and they were of
God, that my brethren someday are going to bow down to me.
And I don't understand how it's going to happen, but they are.
I believe it was of God. And if they, whenever they do
come to me, I'm going to forgive them. I love my brethren. They don't
love me, but I love them. And they're going to come someday
and I'm going to forgive them. I know why Joseph was that way.
Because he's a type of Christ. He's a type of Christ. He thought
of them, and he purposed to forgive them. Ah, my. And so it was with our Lord Jesus
Christ. Huh? Before time began, God foreknew
his own. It says, "...for whom he did
foreknow," that means forelove, think upon. "...for whom he did
foreknow, he did predestinate." He did purpose. He did determine
that all those he loved, these sons of Jacob, sorry though they
were, worthless though they were, though they would hate him and
reject him, yet he knew his thoughts of them. Thoughts of peace, thoughts
of mercy, thoughts of love, thoughts of grace. And that someday, God
knew this, God purposed this, that someday they would come
to Him and bow the knee to Him. And His purpose was to forgive
them of everything. Forgive them and save them, much
people, alive. That's the whole story. For whom
he did foreknow, he did predestinate. And whom he did predestinate,
he called. And whom he called, he justified. And whom he justified,
he glorified. All of this happened to these
sons of Jacob, and all of this happens to all the sons of Israel. Joseph's brother. As we noted
Wednesday night, these fellows are called sons of Jacob for
a long time. And now, for the rest of the
story, they're called Joseph's brethren. Sons of Jacob. That means they're worthless,
just like their daddy. But Joseph's brethren now, that
makes them special. Joseph's brethren. Verse 7 says
this. Now, so they didn't know him.
He made himself strange unto them. And he spake roughly to
them. Now, I guarantee you, everyone
in here who When you first heard the gospel, when you first heard
of the God of the Bible, when you first heard that God is so
different than the God being preached today, small g, when
you first heard the truth, you thought, this is strange, didn't
you? Just like those people at Mars
Hill, when they heard Paul preach, they all said, well, he's setting
forth some strange God. Who's this strange God? His God does as He pleases. His
God's will is free, not ours. His God does the choosing. His
God does it all. His God is God. Well, that's
a strange God. Our God does what we let Him.
Our God is subject to us. Our God's just waiting to do
something for us in our good time, while His God does things
in His good time. His God is purposed on. What
a strange God. Didn't you, when you first heard
this gospel, you thought, I've never heard this before. This
is strange. And that's the way it is when
God begins to reveal himself to every single one of his elect.
They hear something strange. As a matter of fact, everything from
then on is absolute It's all brand new. And look
at this. It says, He spoke roughly to
them. Now, Joseph is not speaking to them personally. Look at verse 23. It says, They
knew not that Joseph understood them. They were talking. They
thought Joseph couldn't. They thought that Joseph couldn't
understand them. Oh, understand them. He knew
their thoughts. But they were talking, you know,
in his presence. And it says, He spake unto them
by an interpreter. In other words, whatever Joseph
was saying, he was saying it in the language of Egypt. And
he had one of his servants speaking to them, a lowly Egyptian. Just a plain little fellow, you
know, I'm sure, just a brown-skinned Egyptian fellow, was talking
to them, repeating. Joseph would say, uh, where do
you come from? They heard that, you know. And the Egyptian, he'd try to
say it like, he'd try to say it like Joseph said, where do
you come from? He wasn't smiling, it's syrupy
sweet and all that Joseph was. And neither was this interpreter. And they said, oh, look at verse
7. They said, well, from the land
of Canaan to Bithu. And verse 8, Joseph knew his
brethren. He knew them. What they said about themselves was not what he knew about them.
Verse 9, Joseph remembered the dreams that he dreamed unto them,
that they would come and bow before him. In other words, he's
considering this whole providence and purpose of God. It's all
passing before his eyes here. It's all on his mind and his
heart right now as he's brethren are before him. He's speaking as a man, and Joseph,
isn't he saying he's marveling, he's rejoicing, All of the purpose
and the glory and the sovereignty and the power and the mercy and
the grace and the goodness, the goodness of God is passing on
before him, Nancy, right now. He's saying, here they are, just
like God said it. And I'm on the throne just like
Him. And he can scarcely contain himself. Joseph reminds me of a good preacher
at this time. He wants to blurt it all out
right there. Now, at any rate, how he first speaks
to them, the way he first speaks to these fellows is roughly,
not sweetly, not kindly, not with a smile on his face. He
doesn't say, Oh, we're so happy to see you men of Canaan. We're
so happy that you've come here. After all, Egypt wouldn't be
Egypt without you. I couldn't be a lord on this
throne unless you decided to let me. Huh? Where are you from? Who are you and what are you
doing here? What are you doing here? As if to say, Brother Dan, who
do you think you are to come here? Rough. And he was speaking through
an interpreter. Now, I bet you these men, these
men, no good men, I bet they got mad at this interpreter at
first. Huh? This interpreter said, Where
are you from? A little Egyptian fellow, and
these are good sons of Jacob, you know. Who's he talking to? Who does he think he's talking to?
I bet they got mad at the interpreter until, after a while, it began
to dawn on them. They began to realize that this thing's getting serious
here. This one we're standing before. But at first, I bet they got
mad at the interpreter. Do you reckon, Jeanette, do you
reckon they got mad at the interpreter? They spoke roughly. And so does
our God. Our God speaks to us, not personally,
but through a preacher. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 20, says,
It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that
believed. It's not of any private interpretation.
The men speak according to the word of God. But nevertheless,
God speaks through men. And when he speaks, the true
preacher of the gospel doesn't speak smooth things, good words
and fair speeches with a smile on his face. It's rough language. First thing, every single brother
of Joseph. Every single one of God's elect,
the first thing they hear from a true preacher is not how much
God needs them, but rather, who do you think you are to come
here? Not, we're so glad to see you, we're so thankful that you're
here, what great things you can do for God. It's, who do you think you are? What are you doing here? It makes
demands of us. See, religion today has got people
making demands of God. It's got poor little beggars
in the pulpit begging for God. God's beggars. He spoke rough to them. Rough to them. Here's what he
said, verse 8 and 9. He said, now, he knew them. They
didn't know him. strange language, and they'd
never been spoken to like this before. Well, these are 40 and 50-year-old
men. Why do you keep talking to me
like that? You're 10 or 50. You get talked
to like that. Verse 9, it says, you're spies. That's what you are. Spies. See the nakedness of the language.
Now, when these fellas first came, as I said, when they first
came, these were hard, these were wicked men. Weren't they? They're sorry. I mean, they're
no good fellas. These are the fellas that took
their brother and stripped him and bound him and threw him in
a hole in the ground and sold him. They all did it. And you'll read
the rest of it before that. Judah, what a wicked fellow he
was, just on and on. These fellows, when they first
came, now they were hard, wicked, no good fellows, and they did
not fear this one on this throne. They didn't fear him. They didn't
know him. They didn't know how powerful
he was. All right? When they see his power, and they're going to see their
own guilt, they're going to come in a process of just a little
while, from hearing Joseph, they're going to be brought down in their own eyes. They're going
to feel their guilt. Just in a matter of a little
while, just from the word of Joseph, They're going to be broken. They're going to see, Brother
Steve, they're going to see we're in His hands. Oh, we wanted a little corn,
and they're going to go away and realize, they're going to
realize, this, we're going to live, we're going to die. He makes demands of us from the
Word, makes us give an account of ourselves, calls us. You know God's Word. The reason grace churches don't get
big crowds is, honestly, on Sunday morning if you stand up and call
people worms, it just doesn't work. You won't
get a crowd that way. You won't. If it's announced
in the paper, good news for worms or dogs. Any dogs, come. All dogs, come. If you wouldn't,
you just would not get a crap. God's Word now, people, it doesn't
say anything good about mankind. Nothing. Not one good thing. No, the Scripture says there's
none that doeth good. Not one. There's none righteous.
Not one. There's not a just man on the
earth that doeth good and sins. Not one. The Word of God doesn't
say anything sweet, anything kind, anything pleasant about
humankind, about human nations, that we're worthy of saving.
No. It says we're unworthy. The Word of God calls us The
Word of God causes nothing, less than nothing, vanity. The Word
of God causes worms, which be interpreted as maggots. Hard things, rough things. Who can hear it? All the brethren of justice. Every one of them. They all hear
it. And they hear it. All right? He said, You're spies. In verse 10 and 11, they said,
No, my Lord, but to buy food are thy servants come. Now look,
if they begin to justify themselves. Well, we're one man's sons. Kind of like a religious family. Well,
we're sons of God. I'm a good Christian and so forth.
Read on. No, no, we're one man's. We're
true men. These guys Oh, we're true men. We're honest. We're good fellas
now. Hey, no, we're not spies. We're good men. We're righteous. Nothing could be further from
the truth. Good. There's nothing true about them,
Dan. From the sole of their feet to the top of their head, there
was no goodness in them. None. Later on, we may see, I
get finished with this message, that when Jacob was dying, he
gave his benediction on all the brethren, all the sons of Jacob. He didn't say anything good about
them. Father's dying words, they weren't good. Called one of them
a snake, two of them instruments of cruelty, another unstable
as water. What's their hope? Why were they
saved? What's all their salvation? That
Joseph owned them. That Joseph knew them. They were
Joseph's brethren. Oh, we're true men. Oh, we're
good men. Yes, we're good. No, he said, you're not. You're
spies. He said in verse 13 and 14, they
said, Well, we're servants, twelve brethren, sons of one man, the
youngest is at home. Verse 14, Joseph said, No, it's
not. It's just what I've been saying
to you from the beginning. I've said it twice. I'll say
it again. You're spies. He didn't change his story, did
he? After all they said about himself. He kept telling them
one thing. I mean, they kept justifying
them and said, no, no, we're true men, we're good men. There's
a brother at home and all, and he said, you're not, you're spies.
Oh no, but we're, you're spies. So no, he can't be, you're spies. Until finally they realized,
it's really worse than that. You know, we're really worse
than that. And that's, God says to all of
us, one thing. He's telling us, "...whatsoever
the law sayeth, it sayeth to them that are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become," what?
Guilty! This is what God's book says
from Genesis to Revelation. Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! That's what it says before
we hear the message of the Son. The only thing God has to say
to men is guilty. And look at verse, I got to hurry,
verses 15 through 20. Now, he said, this is how I'm
going to prove you. You say you're true men. Now
he's still speaking through an interpreter here. Now this is
how you're going to be proved, he said, by the life of Pharaoh,
according to the Sovereign One. You're not going to leave this
place. You're not going to leave this place, you're not going
to live until you bring your younger
brother. He's saying, you're a bunch of
spies. I know you. Now, people to have wasn't told.
He didn't know them. They're worse than spies. And he said to them, this is
what's going to happen. This is the only way that I'm
going to accept you, your word, that I'm going to approve of
you, that I'm going to have anything to do with you. The only way
you're going to live and not die And I'm going to put you
in prison for a little while and only wait. And this is all
I'm going to say to you from here on out. This is the last
word on the subject, you bunch of spies. You're not going to
live except you bring that brother back with you. That brother. What brother? Jacob had one innocent
son. He was still with the father.
Jacob had one, the father had one son who wasn't in on the
transgression. He was, holy, he was harmless. He was separate from these sons
of Jacob. He was not like them at all.
He wasn't in on the transgression. And he was at home with the father. You see what's coming up. And the Lord, the king said,
You bunch of no good spies, you sons of Jacob, you're not going
to live, and I'm going to put you in prison for a while. You're
not going to live, and I'm going to kill you, except you bring
that brother back." When I see him, when I see that brother,
look at it. Verse 1, send one of you, let
him fetch your brother. an intercessor, a mediator. Go
to someone, send, call for him. That's your brother. You're going
to be kept in prison. Will there be any truth in you
at all? The only way I'm going to find any truth in you is if
I see that brother, if I see that son. And I'll count you
truly if I see the son. So he put them in a ward, verse
17. He put them in prison for a while.
And Joseph said unto them the third day, the third day, the
third day, this do, this is what you better do, I fear God. Verse
19, if you be true men now, if you're true, let one of your
brethren be bound in the house of your prison. Go, carry corn,
verse 20, but bring that brother unto me. So shall your words
be verified, and you shall not die. You better bring that brother
back. Do you understand what you're
reading? Huh? That we're all guilty sons of
Jacob before God's eyes? God's Word has one thing to say
to us, no good sons of Jacob. And we hadn't heard the half
of what we are. It says we'll die, and we deserve
to die. They did, didn't they? These
were the fellows that despised and rejected Joseph, and would
have killed him. except in God's good purpose.
And they deserve to die. And he's making them realize
what unworthy, no-good brothers they are. And all we like sheep
have gone astray. We all did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God. We all did despise him and reject
him, Isaiah said. Yet the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of the Son. But God hath made him ruler,
Lord over all. as it were to this day to save
much people's lives. And the gospel says to us, the
only way we're going to live with God, the only way we'll
be accepted by God, the only way we'll be accounted men before
God, true men and women, the only way we'll be accepted by
God, accounted righteous, the only way we're going to live
with this holy God someday is to believe the Son. Come to the
Father by faith in the Son. Because God said, when I see
the Son, I'll pass over you. I'll have mercy on you. And when
I see the spotless, innocent Son as your righteousness, as
your sin offering, I'll accept you too, you no good son of Jacob. What'd they do? How long do you
reckon they waited? This is life and death. This
is no mere man. He's going to kill us. We're in his hands, he's not
in our hands. We need more than corn. This thing's more than
corn. It's not just meat and drink.
We're guilty. Look at verse 21, it says we're
guilty. We're guilty. Why? Guilty of
what? Concerning our brother. Did you
see that, Jenny? We're guilty. God holds all men
accountable for this one thing. They don't care anything about
Jesus Christ. They don't believe his son. They're guilty. Well, verse 23, "...and they knew not
that Joseph understood them." They were all confessing. They
were all confessing, every one of them, all ten of them. We
are guilty. Every one of these sons of Jacob
realized we're all guilty. We're getting what we deserve.
What are we going to do? We better go get Benjamin. We
better hurry and go get Benjamin. Hadn't we? life or death. And they did it. They did it. They're guilty. And do you know that that's all
that Joseph had to say to them? That's it. It's the last thing
he said. He spoke through an interpreter,
Brother Henry. The last thing he said to them, he understood
them. He spoke unto them by an interpreter.
The last thing he said unto them was, you're going to die. But I'm merciful. I fear God. I'm gracious. Tell you what, if you come back
for that son, he won't die. He won't die. And that's it.
He said no more to him. Come back for the son, I'm not
going to deal with you anymore. I'm not going to speak to you.
I have nothing more to say to you. That's the last word. The last word. God hath in the
beginning spoken unto us by the prophets, hath in these last
days spoken unto us by his Son. That's the last word on the subject.
You come by faith in Christ, and you'll live. If you don't,
you'll die. You'll die. Here's the song. Let's do the.