Well, I love that man right there.
I know you do. I love Gabe Stoniker, dear friend
of mine. I often tease and say that Gabe
and I have a lot in common. We're both old musicians. We've been pastoring about the
same length of time. Both have pretty wives. Gabe's
tall, dark, and handsome. And I'm tall. I want you to turn back with
me tonight to the Gospel of Genesis, if you would, chapter 45. Turning,
I want to remind you what the Apostle Paul wrote to the church
at Galatia. He said, but when it pleased
God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
His grace. I love the fact that God calls
His people by His grace. Now why did it please God to
separate Paul from his mother's womb? Well, Paul said this, to
reveal his son in me. That's the only way that any
sinner will ever be saved. If he reveals Christ to me and
in me. I want you to listen to me. Salvation
comes only one way. This is a very narrow way. Broad is the way that leads to
destruction, but narrow is the way that leads to life. Salvation comes by the revelation
of God. That's it. If God doesn't reveal
the gospel to you, you'll never ever hear it. You'll never see
it. That shuts us up to His mercy and His grace. But that's a good
place to be, isn't it? Amen. You remember when the Lord
Jesus asked His disciples, He said, who do men say that I am? And they all began to answer
and said, some say that you're Jeremiah. Some say that you're
Isaiah. Some even believe that you're
John the Baptist reincarnated. And the Lord Jesus looked them
in the eye and He said, who do you say that I am? That's the
issue. I ask you tonight, who do you
say that he is? Peter answered the Lord, and
he said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And the Lord's response to Peter
should be so revealing to us. He said, Simon Bar-Jonah. Flesh
and blood hath not revealed this unto you, but my Father which
is in heaven. God has to reveal this gospel
to us. Flesh and blood can't reveal
Christ to you. Young folks, hear me tonight
when I tell you your parents cannot enable you to see this
gospel. Trust me, if they could, they
would, but they can't. a preacher. As much as this man
loves you, he cannot reveal the truth to you. He can preach it
to you, but he can't reveal it to you. Only God, which is in
heaven, can. The Lord Jesus said, and this
is life eternal. Well this is There's nothing
hard to understand about this. The gospel is simple and plain
and direct. This is life eternal, that they
might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou
hast sent. Now is there anything about that
that you don't understand? It's just so plain and so simple. In order for us to have eternal
life, we must know the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom God
sent. Everybody today professes to
know God. Everybody today professes to
love Jesus. Folks say stupid things like,
me and Jesus, we have a good thing going. I kind of doubt
it. I kind of doubt it. Or you wouldn't
talk that way. You don't have to talk to folks
long to discover that their God and their Jesus are not the God
and the Jesus of this book that you hold in your lap. Not at
all. Doesn't resemble him at all,
does he? Paul said he pleased God. The God of the Bible. The God who confirms all things,
who works all things after the counsel of his own will. That's
the God with whom we have to do. Not a God that's trying. Not a God that wants to do. That's
no God at all, is it? The God of the Bible. Only God can reveal God. Paul said, I'm determined not
to know anything among you other than Jesus Christ and Him crucified. What must I know to be saved?
Well, that's the wrong question. The question is, who do I have
to know to be saved? I have to know Him. I have to
know the Lord Jesus Christ. You have to know who He is, and
you have to know what He did. I'm going to tell you who He
is. He's God. And I'm going to tell you what
He did. He died on the cross to satisfy God's holy law and
God's holy justice that condemned you and I. We're born condemned. God's going to have to do something
for us. The wages of sin is death. And because of our sin, death's
what we deserve. As Gabe said last night, God
is too holy to clear the guilty. He can by no means clear the
guilty, the Scriptures say. By no means. He's too holy. He
must punish sin. He has to punish sin. But here's
the good news for sinners. It's true that God's holy justice
will not allow him to clear the guilty. But you know what? It's
equally true that God's holy justice will not allow him to
condemn the innocent. That's the best news I ever heard.
You know why? Because in Christ, I'm perfectly
innocent. In Christ, I have no sin. And
that's the good news. He's done for me what I couldn't
do for myself. He kept God's law and He satisfied
God's justice. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. God sent His Son into the world
to save sinners. How does God save sinners? He
becomes sin for them. Christ wasn't a sinner. Folks
want to argue about that. Well, you believe Jesus was a
sinner? No, I don't believe He was a sinner. I believe God made
Him to be a sinner. But He might make me, the sinner
that I am, perfectly righteous in Him. And that's the message
that we preach. You and I are not righteous.
We are made the righteousness of God in Him. Christ became
what I was so that I might become what He is. It's called substitution. The very righteousness of God.
Oh, I can't get over that. I'm as righteous as God himself. That's difficult for us to fathom,
isn't it? Because we live with ourselves.
We know what we are. But it's nonetheless true. Nonetheless
true. Now, there's no better story
in all the scripture to illustrate how Christ reveals himself to
his brethren than the story of Joseph and his brethren. So I
want to kind of continue along the themes of last night here
in the book of Genesis. God's got to reveal this gospel
to us. We're shut up to the mercy and
grace of God. Now as we considered last night,
Joseph was loved by his father, he was distinguished above all
his brothers, he was hated without a cause, he was taken by wicked
hands, he was discarded and left to die, sold into slavery, wrongly
and falsely accused, thrown into a hellish prison, then raised
to an exalted throne. That's exactly what happened
to God the Son. And the real question is, the
real concern tonight, has God revealed that to you? We call it divine revelation. We call it that because it takes
the divine one to reveal it. And that's what the 45th chapter
of Genesis is all about. Now the best that I can calculate,
it's been 22 years since Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery
in Egypt. Joseph, as we saw last night,
was 17 years old when they did. He was 30 years old when he translated
or interpreted Pharaoh's dreams. So that means 13 years have passed. They had just gone through the
seven years of plenty, and they're now two years into the time of
famine. So that means nine more years
have gone by, and Joseph is now nearly 40 years old, and 22 years
have passed by. 22 years. You think about that. For 22
years, his brothers had lied to their father Jacob about Joseph
and how they had dealt with him. 22 years. For 22 years, they
had justified in their own minds and hearts what they had done. After 22 years, they had successfully
erased from their minds the evil and the wicked actions that they
took against their brother. Oh, it's so easy to justify our
sin, isn't it? Lord, help us. We just justify
our sin so easily. And although Joseph had served
13 years in prison, his brothers had lived on with their life.
They'd started families. They lived a relatively normal
life. But not Joseph. He's in prison.
You know what a man in prison thinks about? He thinks about
being in prison, and he thinks about getting out of prison. You might ask, how do I know?
Well, I talk to a man once a week that's in prison, and our conversations
are always the same. He talks about being in prison,
and he talks about getting out of prison. And I can assure you,
he doesn't want to be there. That man's my son. Every man
and woman born of Adam, friends, is in prison. The law of God represented by
Potiphar as we saw last night has put us there. We remain under
the bondage of sin. The law and justice of God keeps
us bound. Unless God is pleased to give
us pardon, we'll never be free. Out of sight and out of mind,
Joseph was to his brothers until God sent a famine. Make no mistake,
it was God that sinned. It was God that sinned. Shall
there be evil, the scripture says. Shall there be adversity?
Shall there be calamity? Shall there be affliction in
a city? That's what the word evil there
means. And the Lord hath not done it. David said in Psalm 119, it's
good for me that I've been afflicted. You know, the world doesn't understand
that, do they? It's good for you that you've been afflicted.
That's what David said. It's good for me that I've been
afflicted that I might learn thy statutes. That word statutes
there means appointments. It's good for me that I've been
afflicted that I might learn your appointments. God, you're
the one that sent the trouble. You're the one that sent the
calamity. You're the one that sent the adversity to teach me
that you're my God. and you're in control of everything.
Oh my. God's really strong, friends.
He sends trouble so that we might learn and know that He sent it. And the troubles that we face
in this life are by His appointment. Don't you ever forget that. That's
why that they're always good. They're always good. Any adversity, any affliction
that God sends is for the good of his people, Romans 8, 28.
Now here in Genesis 45, verse 1, we read, Ben Joseph could
not refrain himself before all of them that stood by him. And
he cried, cause every man to go out from me. And there stood
no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept aloud, and the Egyptians
in the house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said unto his brethren,
I am Joseph. Doth my father yet live? And
his brethren could not answer him, for they were troubled.
I bet they were. I bet they were. Now that word
trouble here means terrified. They were terrified at his presence. And Joseph said to his brother,
come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said,
I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. Can you imagine how they felt
when Joseph cried, I am Joseph, your brother? They couldn't answer. They were terrified. And he's
not just any man named Joseph. He's the Joseph they hated. He's
the Joseph that they despised. He's the Joseph that they rejected. He's the Joseph that they desired
to kill. He's the Joseph that they lost
and before. He's the very one with whom they
had to do. You hear what I'm saying? Joseph hid himself in plain sight
from his brothers. You know, I was thinking about
that recently. For many years, Christ hid himself
from me. But when the fullness of time
was come, fullness of THE time, the scripture says. You know,
I've been quoting that wrong for years. Sometimes we read
over the scripture so quick that we miss little words that mean
something. It says, when the fullness of
THE time was come. time, a specific time, a designated
time, a determined time, a particular time, the time that God determined
and purposed. God sent forth His Son, made
of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under
the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. That's
daughters too. Paul goes on to tell us how he
was redeemed. He said, I neither received it
of man, neither was I taught it of man, but by the revelation
of Jesus Christ. That's the only way. God divinely
intervened in my life. I know each of you can say the
same thing. I was on my way to hell as fast
as I could go. As they say, I had one foot in
hell and the other on a banana peel, ready to slip right on
into hell. But God intervened. That's right. God divinely interrupted. God revealed His Son to me, and
God revealed His Son in me, and Christ in me is the hope of glory.
He's the only hope that I have, the only hope that you have.
Has God revealed that to you? Oh, how I pray He has. Our only
hope of glory is that God will accept Christ's righteousness,
and He will. He will. If you ever truly see
your need of Christ, if you ever truly believe and rest in the
gospel, if you ever see that salvation is to be in Christ,
it'll only be by the revelation of Him and by Him. It's just
that simple. Oh God, reveal Yourself to us. Show us You more and more. Well, we said it last night,
Jesus Christ is the revealer and he is the revelation. As the sons of Jacob here stood
before Joseph and terrified they were, for the first time they're
confirmed by the very one that their sin was against. You know,
I remember that day very well. That day that I realized, as
David did, that against thee and thee only have I sinned and
done this evil in thy sight. Our sins against him. All of
it. All of it. The very one that
they betrayed is now the very one who has their lives in his
hand. Oh, it's the same with us. One
day, every son and daughter of Adam will do the same. They'll stand before the very
God that they betrayed and sinned against. We're gonna give an
account. The scripture says, for the things
done in this body. Now, are we gonna stand before
God and say, but Lord, haven't we? Haven't we? Haven't we done
this? And haven't we done that? No. Because all we've done is sinned
against Him. And God is justified. He's right when He speaks against
us. Salvation is taking sides with
God against ourselves. It takes God's grace to do that,
and it takes a revelation from God. Oh my, He's justified. He's clear of any wrongdoing
when he condemns us of our sin. Why? Because we're guilty. We
are guilty. The verdict is in. We're guilty. He's the one that we've sinned
against. Now Joseph had the right to bound his brothers hand and
foot and cast them into the darkest dungeon that Egypt had. How much more fearful, dear friends,
is it to fall into the hands of the living God? How much more
fearful is it to fall into the hands of an angry God? God's
angry with the wicked every single day. But not the righteous. Has God revealed to you that
in Jesus Christ you're made the very righteousness of God in
Him? That's the issue. That's the issue. Well, what did these brothers
do under the conviction of their sin? They began to plead for mercy.
Nothing makes a convicted sinner pray like a sense of sin and
guilt. When God reveals to you what
you are and what you deserve, you'll begin to plead for mercy.
When Peter began to sink, he prayed, Lord, save me. That Syrophoenician
woman begged, Lord, help me. Help me. Oh, listen. God's not
interested in long, eloquent prayers. Lord, save me, or what? Lord, help me to get the job
done. That thief on the cross said, Lord, remember me. You
know what? The Lord remembered him. He said,
today you'll be with me in paradise. Oh my, if you're in trouble,
you'll pray, you'll beg, you'll cry. When you're in trouble,
you will. But that's the problem today
with men and women. Men and women are doing okay
on their own, aren't they? Doing okay on their own. Men
and women don't need God. Those that are well. have no
need of a physician. They don't see that they're critically
ill. You see, we've got a bad, bad
disease. We've got leprosy of sin. Starts on the inside and works
its way outward, doesn't it? And we're dying. We're dead. Oh, may the great physician have
mercy How does God reveal these things to a chosen sinner? Only
one way. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching. What the world calls foolishness,
it ain't foolishness to you, is it? No, sir. It's the foolishness of preaching,
foolishness to the world, what we do. But not to the child of
God. It's the very means that God
uses to save us, that enables us to believe. But David, there
are churches on every corner, everywhere you go. Preachers
are saying thus, saith the Lord. There are young preachers, and
there are old preachers, and there are men preachers, and
there are women preachers. There are funny preachers, and
there are serious preachers, and there's singing preachers,
and there's crying preachers, and there's preachers that are
entertainers, and there's preachers that are financial experts. And there are preachers that
are professional counselors. We don't have a famine of churches
around every corner of every town and every state. We don't
have a famine of preachers. We don't have a famine of opinions.
We don't have a famine of doctrines. We have a famine of hearing the
word of the Lord. We have a famine of preaching
the gospel. Not a famine of entertainment.
Not a famine of emotionalism. We're the famine of preaching
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Well, in verse 5, Joseph said
this. He said, You saved me, but God
sent me. It's the same with us. We sowed
ourselves into sin. Sowed under sin, Paul said. But
God sent His Son to redeem us. To buy us. To purchase us. God
was behind it all. Over and over again in these
chapters of Genesis, we read these words, The Lord was with
Joseph. When was He with him? before
the foundation of the world. Before he done any good or evil
that the purpose of God according to election might stand. Not
of him that works, not of him that anything done by the sinner,
but by the grace and the mercy of God. over there again, in
the pit in which his brother stood, the Lord was with Joseph.
Taken by the Nimrodites, sent to the Ishmaelites, the Lord
was with Joseph. Bound in chains and sent as a
slave to Potiphar, the Lord was with Joseph. Falsely accused,
thrown into prison for something he didn't do, the Lord was with
Joseph. Now on the throne of Pharaoh,
the man is still with Joseph, and what does Joseph do? He determines
to be merciful and gracious to the very ones that hated Him
without a cause. Is that not the gospel? How much
more is it true of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Again, verse
5, Joseph said, God sent me to preserve life In verse 7, he
said, God sent me to preserve you of posterity. That word means
remnant in the earth. God's got a remnant. It's here
tonight. Yes, God has a remnant. God sent
me to save your lives, he said, by a great deliverance. And oh,
what a great deliverance it was. Friends, our sin is great. Our guilt is great. Our need
is great and nothing less than a great deliverance will do. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation? What makes it great? I think you know the answer. To neglect so great a salvation
is to neglect Christ who is our great salvation. And verse 8,
Joseph says, you didn't send me here, God did. God made me
a father to Pharaoh. The king's heart is in the hand
of the Lord. He turns it out so ever he sees
fit. And again, verse 8, Joseph said,
God made me Lord over Pharaoh's house. Beloved, hear me when
I say, Jesus Christ is Lord over every house, whether they know
it or not. He's Lord. He's the Lord of Lord. But to some he reveals that too. And they're the ones that have
rest and comfort and assurance. Do you have that tonight? Oh,
that God might reveal it to you. Joseph was a ruler throughout
the land of Egypt. Jesus Christ is the sovereign
ruler over the universe. And he loved me and gave himself
for me. The greatness of Joseph was revealed
to his brothers. The greatness of Christ is revealed
to his brothers. I used to think that I had to
give Jesus my heart. That's what I was told all my
life. Just give Jesus your heart. Well, one thing I learned is
he don't want that wicked thing. It's deceitful above all things
and desperately wicked. God revealed that to me. I used
to believe that I had to let the Lord have His way in my life.
And now it's been revealed to me that whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did He in heaven and in earth and in the seas and in
all deep places. This is a good place to say amen
there. Has that been revealed to you?
Has it? Paul said in Ephesians 1, may
the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give unto
you. That's the only way you're gonna
get it. If he gives it unto you. May the Father of glory give
unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation. And the knowledge
of him. That's the revelation we need,
the knowledge of him. Oh, that we might grow in the
grace and in the knowledge of Him. God make it so for Christ's
sake. That the eyes of your understanding
be enlightened. That you may know, know what's
the hope of His calling. That's talking about divine revelation.
It's all about Him. It has to be revealed to you.
And no matter how wise or educated or experienced a man or a woman
might be, God has mercy on whom He'll have mercy. God reveals
His Son to whom He wills. God enlightens those whom He
pleases. Sounds to me like salvations
of the Lord. Had Joseph not revealed himself
to his brothers, I'm convinced that they would have never known
who he was. Has that been revealed to you?
If God doesn't reveal himself to you, you'll never know him.
God could have and he should have passed us by. You know,
a wealthy man leaves this life and he has a will and his greedy
children say, I just want what I deserve. I just want what I
have coming to me. Listen, I don't. No, I don't. Not me. I want that which is
undeserved. I want that which is unmerited.
I want God's mercy and His grace and His forgiveness. I don't
know what I deserve. Did you notice that Joseph revealed
himself to his brothers secretly, it says? He said, cause every
man to go out from me. And it says there stood no man
with him. When Christ saves a sinner, He's going to remove everyone
from the equation except for Himself and the sinner. We're
going to stand alone before God. to give an account of our obedience
to his holy law and justice. Mr. Forbes once said, sinners
go to hell in bunches, but sheep come to the shepherd's fold one
by one. He leaves the ninety and nine
and he goes after the one sheep that's lost. I remember that
day. Oh, we're so prone to wander.
So prone to leave the God that we love. But my good shepherd,
he left the 99 and he came and he found me. And he picked me
up and he put me on his shoulders and he carried me all the way
back to the fold. Has God revealed that to you?
In verse 3, the first words that sons of Jacob heard here was,
I am Joseph, but my Father yet liveth. And through the preaching
of the Gospel, friends, the child of God hears these words, I am
the Christ, the Son of the living God, and I am the proof that
my Father lives. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall. Don't you like that word? That
He might. but he shall save his people
from their sin. There is no other man under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved. Blessed day it is when
Christ speaks to our hearts and says, I am Jesus Christ. Look to me. Trust in me. Put all your confidence in me.
It's I who opens the storehouses of grace. It's I who washes all
your sin away. And we confess salvations of
the Lord. I hope that hadn't just become
a slogan, something like a bumper sticker that we put on our car.
Salvation really is of the Lord. It really is. We're so evil,
so desperately wicked, as I said, our hearts so deceitful. Only
God can know how wicked they are. If I asked each of you here
tonight to conjure up in your mind some disgusting, repulsive,
obnoxious thing, I'm sure that each of us could come up with
some pretty horrific things. But I'm sure that none of us
would have thought of ourselves. Our hearts deceitful. The Scripture says above all
things. I can think of some pretty deceitful things. But my heart
is more deceitful than all of them. Desperately wicked the
Scripture said. Not just wicked, but desperately
wicked. Well, I'll hold it here. The
next thing Joseph reveals to his brethren is His unknown relationship
to them. He said, I am Joseph, your brother. Blessed is the man and the woman
who sees Christ as their brother. Bone of our bone and flesh of
our flesh. And being His brother means that
we have the same Father. being His brethren means that
we're heirs of God. And Jonah is with Christ, that
we might also be glorified together. What grace and mercy our Lord
shows to us. Then we get to verse 4. In love,
Joseph says, Come, marry to me, I pray you. The Lord Jesus stood on the last
day of the feast. He said, come unto Me, all you
that labor and are heavy laden, laboring with your sin, heavy
laden over your guilt. He said, I'll give you rest.
That's what I need. I need rest. I need that peace
of God that passes all understanding. That peace of God that keeps
this heart and this mind on Christ, my Lord. Has God revealed that
to you? Verse 5, Joseph said, be not
grieved. That word means displeased or
angry with yourselves. He said, what you did wrong,
God was behind it all. God did send me to you to preserve
life. And Joseph later tells them,
which Lord William will look at tomorrow, He tells them, you
thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good. Often when God reveals our sin
to us, we hate our sin and we hate ourselves because of it.
You know, the scripture says Job abhorred himself. Isaiah
said, woe is me. Paul said, I'm the last and the
least. A wretched man that I am. But Joseph was out to do his
brother's good. And Christ is out to do us good.
Isn't he? He's out to do us good. In Christ,
God is out to do us good. In verse 9, Joseph said, God
hath made me Lord of all Egypt. That is, God gave Christ preeminence
over all things. Verse 10, Joshua said, and thou
shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me,
yea, and your children, and your children's children. You know,
Goshen was known for its green pastures that were well suited
for sheep. Christ is that pasture that we
go in and out. He's our good shepherd. He's
our great shepherd. In verse 11, Joshua said, And
there I will nourish you, take care of you in this time of famine,
and you will not come to poverty. Well, my father owns the cattle
on a thousand hills. And I'm his heir. Christ is our inheritance. We
get everything in hell. Yes, sir. In verse 15, Joseph
kissed all his brethren and he wept upon them. They talked with
Joseph about all that he had done. The Lord Jesus Christ with
great compassion died in the room and in the stead of his
chosen elect people, taking their sin and giving them his perfect
righteousness. And friends, righteousness and
peace have kissed each other. In verse 16, the fame of Joseph
was heard throughout the land of Egypt, and Pharaoh was pleased
with what Joseph had done. The gospel today is preached
all over this world to every creature, and God is well pleased
with his beloved son who came into this world to save sinners.
And there will be joy in heaven over one sinner that repents
and trusts in Christ. God well pleased. But he's well-pleased
with his son. And the only way he's ever well-pleased
with us is in his son. Has God revealed that to you?
Oh, blessed art thou. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
it to you. In verse 19, Pharaoh gave Joseph
wagons, and he said, go get them everyone. Talking about Joseph's
family. Pharaoh said, tell them to where
Dad mopped their stuff. Regard not their stuff. Bring
nothing with them. They were ready to provide all
they needed for Joseph's sake. Our great God reveals to his
lyric to regard not your stuff. God don't own it. Regard not
your stuff. Some will leave behind your filthy
rags righteousness. Regard not your presumed goodness. Bring out your imagined morality. No skills are needed, no talent
required. Come empty handed. In my hand
no price I bring, simply to your cross I claim. Everything else
is going to be provided. God will give you the good of
the land. Has God revealed to you your
starving condition? Has God revealed to you the diagnosis
of your horrific disease? Do you see your need of the great
physician? Has the Holy Spirit revealed
to you your need of Christ? If He has, come to Christ. You say, well, I'll come to Christ.
Well, keep on coming. Keep on coming. I'm going to
come today, I'm going to come tomorrow, I'm going to come the
next day, because that's my only hope. Come to Christ as Joseph's brothers
came to Him. Come to Christ and He'll give
you rest. Come to Christ, His yoke is easy, because He's done
all the work for you. Come to Christ, His burden is
light. God has accepted His offering
for sin. There's no burden for you to
bear. And to those of you who are yet
without Christ, may God be pleased by divine revelation to reveal
these things to you for His glory, for your eternal good, and for
Christ's sake. Amen. I was greatly, greatly, greatly
blessed by that.