Let's go back to Genesis 45. Genesis 45. Joseph is going to reveal himself
now to his brethren. It's time. It's time. There's a time for everything
under the sun. Purpose and a time for everything
under the sun. And now He's going to make Himself
known to them. And it's going to be shocking.
See, they know Him as Zaphnath-Paneah. That's who they think they've
been dealing with. This Egyptian name that He was given. But all
along, they've been dealing with their brother, Joseph. not knowing the love and compassion
that he had for them as his brethren, his family. And he's going to
save them, he said, by great deliverance. He said, God sent
me before you to preserve you of posterity in the earth and
to save your lives by great, great deliverance. Salvation
that we have in Christ. is nothing short of being a great
deliverance by what He has delivered us from. The salvation that we
have in the Lord Jesus Christ is beyond measure. You can't measure it. It is greater than tongue can
tell. The more I preach the gospel,
the more difficult I find it to find words to express His
glory and what He's done for us. What He's done for us. Now, verses 1 and 2, Joseph makes
himself known to his brethren. He even weeps before them. Did
you just see the compassion here? Oh, his heart just yearns for
them. Yearns for them. And I'm sure
they were thoroughly confused by his actions, standing there
weeping. They just didn't know how to
take it. But what this shows here is the love and the compassion
that he had for his brothers, even though they treated him
so wickedly. real rogues here, some real rascals. But you know what? Joseph was
not ashamed to call them his brethren. Here came those Israelites,
and they were not wearing suits. They were some shepherds down
there in the land of Canaan. And here Joseph is dressed in
royalty. Joseph is Lord over all the land
of Egypt. At his word, the people of Egypt
are ruled. And he looks at these men who
treated him so wickedly, and he loves them. He just loves
them. He has compassion. And he's not
ashamed to say, he's not ashamed to even say to Pharaoh, these
are my brethren. Even as Christ is not ashamed
to call us brethren. I tell you what, He has every
right to be ashamed, but He's not. He's not. Our Lord loves
His brethren, even though He was treated so wickedly. And
we've treated Him that way before we brought to faith in Christ,
before we were born of God. We treated Him wickedly, ignored
Him, thanked everybody else but Him. That's the way we treated Him.
But the Scripture says His compassions fail not. Our Lord's compassions
fail not. They are new every morning. Every morning. And as we will see, Joseph attributes
all that has happened to him as being from the hand of God. Joseph says God did this. He
wasn't upset with him. God did this. And then he says in verse 3,
I am Joseph. I'm Joseph. When he revealed himself to them,
their first reaction was one of fear. I can understand that. I can understand that. They remembered
what they had done to Him years before. Guilt brings fear. And they understood now, or at
least they thought, we're in trouble. We are in trouble. This is Joseph. They were guilty
of hating Joseph, and they knew that He knew they hated Him.
Oh, He sees my heart. The Lord sees my heart. He sees
every thought, every motive. He sees it. And in the beginning,
that's a scary thing. It says they were terrified.
They were absolutely terrified. They were so terrified they could
not speak a word. Have you ever been that terrified
that you couldn't open your mouth? They couldn't speak a word. They
knew they had been found out. This is Joseph, the one whom
they put in the pit and sold and treated so wickedly. This is Joseph. And they didn't
know what Joseph was going to do to them. Here they stand guilty. They stand there guilty. At that point, they did not know
what he was going to do to them. This is usually our reaction
when we first see Christ. What's he going to do to me?
When we first hear the Gospel and the Holy Spirit of God convicts
us of sin, we understand we're guilty. And
He can do with me as He will. He's sovereign. He's sovereign. He's holy. He's God. He can do
with me as He will. And I'm sure they understood
that. Joseph is Lord of the land. He's the Lord of Egypt. behead
us right here. He can destroy us right here.
And they were so gripped with fear, they couldn't even speak. It made me think of a time when
I was a boy. I must have been about eight
or nine years old. And we were living on a farm and I was upstairs
in the second story of the farmhouse. And I walked into one of the
bedrooms. I don't remember why, but I'd
walked into the bedroom. And I was standing there by the
bed. And the closet door just popped open. I kid you not. I fell back on the bed. Couldn't
holler for help. Couldn't open my mouth. I was
so terrified. I was so terrified I couldn't
get a word out of my mouth. Once I realized nothing came
out, I was able to get up and I ran downstairs. And when I
read this, they were terrified. This is Joseph. This is the one
we sinned against. You know, salvation, when the
Lord saves a man, he realizes who he sinned against. He has
sinned against the Lord. He has sinned against God's Christ. He has sinned against God. And
they were terrified. But Joseph, Joseph now is going to express
his love and his compassion and his mercy to his brethren. They're
guilty. He ought to put them in prison.
He can put them to death and be right in doing it because
of what they did to him. But Joseph said unto them, unto
his brethren, he's not ashamed to call them brethren. In verse
4, he says, come near to me. Come near to me. Draw nigh to
me. Listen, does this sound familiar?
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. I'll give
you rest. What about this Scripture? This
is one that I've held on to all my, well, ever since I've heard
the Gospel. It starts with all my life. That
wouldn't be right. But ever since I've heard the
Gospel. He that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. That's been an anchor for me.
I will in no wise cast out. He that cometh to me. And Joseph
says, come to me. Come near to me. You know, the
Lord said to His disciples one time, they were afraid. They
were terrified when they saw Him walking on the water. And
He said, it is I. Be not afraid. Be not afraid. Can you imagine
what it would be like to stand before the man whom you once
hated? sold into slavery, and is now
the most powerful man in the known world? Look over in Acts chapter 2.
In Acts chapter 2, Look in verse 36. Therefore,
this is Peter, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that
God hath made that same Jesus whom he hath crucified, both
Lord and Christ. Now when they heard this, they
were pricked in their heart and they said unto Peter and to the
rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we, what
are we going to do? We are in trouble. We crucified
the Lord of glory. And they were terrified. They
were terrified. And Peter said to them, repent
and be baptized. Every one of you in the name
of Jesus Christ with remission of sin. And you shall receive
the gift of the Holy Spirit. Oh, they realized that when they
heard the gospel, when Peter preached that gospel and he said,
God has made that same Jesus whom you crucified. both Lord
and Christ, they said, we're in trouble. Now, in a few pages
over, it said pretty much the same things. And you know what
it says? They were mad. They got angry. They got angry
when Peter said that God had made him Lord and Christ. They
got angry at it. But not these guys. God did something
for them. When they heard it, they said,
oh, we're in trouble. And that's what these men, when these men,
these ten 10 or 11 men here, when they found
out it was Joseph, they were terrified. But Joseph said, now
come near to me. Come up here. Come to me. I'm Joseph. Now listen, I am Joseph whom
you sold into Egypt, whom you crucified. That's what Peter
said, whom you crucified. I'm Joseph. He lets them know
who he is and what they did to him. He doesn't say, forget about
it. He lets them know who He is.
I'm Joseph. The one you sold into slavery. The one you sold
to Egypt. If you'll notice here in verse
5 though, He shows His compassion for them. He says, don't be angry. Don't be angry with yourselves. Don't be angry with yourselves.
Don't beat yourselves up. Don't beat up on one another.
Listen, this is of God. This is of God. God sent me before
you to preserve life. What happened to the Lord Jesus
Christ was ordained of God. It was not a mob out of control. It was a mob under control, under
His control. That's what it was. God the Father sent the Lord
Jesus Christ into this world to preserve life. That word preserve
has the same meaning as the word make in verse 9. Has the same
meaning. To make. To make. God sent me to make you a posterity. To make you a remnant. That's
why He sent to make you. If you look over the margin,
that posterity is remnant. To make you a remnant in the
earth. God sent me. God sent His Son to be a propitiation
for our sins. He sent His Son to make you righteous
by imputation and impartation. God sent His Son to do that.
He is made unto us. It says over in 1 Corinthians
1. He is made unto us Wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. He made those things unto us.
Then he says here in verse 6, For these two years hath the
famine been in the land, and yet there are five years left.
And this famine here is a very good representation of sin and
what it has done to us. He says, In the width there shall
neither be earring nor harvest. This is what sin has done to
us. It has made us unproductive in righteousness. You and I,
together, working hard at it, couldn't produce one act of righteousness
by ourselves. We couldn't do it. We couldn't
even have a righteous thought by ourselves. That's how depraved
we are. That's how depraved we are. Totally depraved. Dead in trespasses
and sin. Barren, unfruitful. It would
take God to show you that. Because until then, we think
we're mighty fruitful. But we are totally unfruitful.
The famine, this is what sin has done to us, made us totally
unproductive. Unprofitable servants. Unprofitable. But listen, here's the good news.
And God sent me before you to preserve you of posterity in
the earth and to save your lives by great deliverance. Boy, here comes the good news.
These men are standing there terrified. They are absolutely
terrified. And He is calming them down now.
You see, if all we ever had was conviction of sin, without the
application of grace and mercy, we would go into despair. But
now He's applying mercy. He's applying His compassion,
His love to them. He's revealing it. He said, God
sent me. God said, you did what you did
by your wicked hands, I admit. But God has a purpose in it.
He has a purpose in it. Listen to this in Acts 4, 27
and 28. I'll read it to you. For of a
truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed,
both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people
of Israel, were gathered together to do whatsoever God's hand. God's hand. Joseph is saying
to his brethren, God's hand is in this. To save much people
alive. That's what he says over in,
I think it's chapter 49. To preserve life. To preserve a remnant. A remnant. For to do whatsoever
thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. This whole thing's saddled, isn't
it? This whole matter of salvation was settled before God created
the first thing. It's all settled. It's all determined. God sent his son into this world
to save sinners, not condemned them who were condemned already.
Those disciples one day, they said, you want us to call fire
down out of heaven and burn these guys up? Not realizing they were
just as bad as the guys they wanted to burn up. He said, I didn't come to destroy
life, but to save it. Joseph said, I came here, God
sent me here to preserve life, to save it, to save it. Christ
was sent as the forerunner of his elect. He sent him as the
lamb to be slain. To give His blood as the blood
of atonement. Himself as a sacrifice for our
sins. To be the sin bearer. He sent Him to be the prophet.
To reveal to us the Father. He sent Him to be the priest.
To represent us before God. And He sent Him to be the King.
To rule over all. Go to sleep tonight. The Lord
is ruling this thing. Don't lay there in false attorney.
He's ruling over all now. And to save your lives, he said,
here's the purpose, to save your lives by great deliverance. Let
us consider, first of all, the greatness of this person. This
was Jacob's beloved son. This is a son he loved and made
it known. That's why his brothers hated
him, because they were jealous of their father's love to him.
This is the one he made a coat of many colors for. He made a
distinction between this one and the rest of them. Great person. And then he goes down to Egypt,
where nobody knows him, and he still becomes a great person.
Lord of all. Our Lord came into this world.
Came into His own. His own received Him not. Where is He now? Seated at God's
right hand, Lord over all. Lord over all. Great. He's God manifested in the flesh.
Christ is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. He is the eternal Son of God.
That's who this man is. That's who He is. And His work
was great. He kept the law perfectly. Perfectly. His sufferings were great. His
soul was made an offering for sin. He suffered the wrath of
God against sin. The sins of all His elect. His sufferings were great. His
accomplishments were great. He conquered death, hell, and
the grave. He conquered it. He took the sting out of it.
He took the curse away. He conquered it. His resurrection
was great. He was delivered from our offenses
and raised again for our justification. We are justified in Him. Justified. Cleared of all charges. His intercession
is great. He makes intercession for transgressors
and He's heard. He is heard. His salvation is
great. Then those who come unto God
by Him, He says, He saves them to the uttermost. Uttermost. Our lives have been saved by
a great deliverance. Someday we'll see it. Someday
we'll see it. And He says, God sent me here,
not you. God sent me there in verse 8.
So now it was not you that sent me hither. God did it. Joseph didn't have one ounce
of animosity toward his brethren. No more than Christ has any animosity
toward his brethren. He said, God sent me here. Christ
came from God. And listen here. So now it was
not you that sent me here, but God. And He hath made me a father.
He's put me above Pharaoh. He's put me above Pharaoh and
Lord over all his house and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.
You don't have anything to worry about. He's telling his brother,
he's comforting them fellows, just pay attention. He said, I'm Lord over all. You
don't have anything to worry about. I've taken care of it.
You're under my hands. You're under my control. Nothing
is going to move against you without me. Nothing. God sent me here. Over in Acts
2.36, he said, Therefore, let all the house of Israel know
assuredly that God has made that same Jesus whom you crucified
Lord and Christ. He said, I'm Lord over all. Rest
in me. Rest in me. Now, he's revealed
himself to his brethren. They are terrified. He says,
now you come near to come near, come here, come here, come to
me. God sent me here to save most
people alive. This is of God. This whole thing
of salvation, of saving you, my brother, brethren, is of God. This is the work of God. Now you go home. In verse nine,
you go home and you tell this good news. You go home and you
spread the good news. Look over in Mark chapter 5. Mark chapter 5. Let me see where I want to start
reading at. Let me start reading verse 2.
Let's read a few scriptures here. And when he was come out of the
ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an
unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs. And no man could
bind him, no, not with chains, because that he had been often
bound with fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked
asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces. Either could
any man tame him. And always, night and day, he
was in the mountains and in the tombs, crying and cutting himself
with stones. But when he saw Jesus afar off,
he ran and worshipped him, and cried with a loud voice and said,
What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the Most High
God? I adjure thee by God, that thou
torment me not. For he said unto him, Come out
of the man, thou unclean spirit. And he asked him, What is thy
name? And he answered and said, My name is Legion, for we are
many. And he besought him much that he would not send them away
out of the country. Now there was there nigh unto
the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. And all the devils
besought him, saying, Send us unto the swine, that we may enter
into them. And forthwith Jesus gave them
leave. And the unclean spirits went out, entered into the swine,
and the herd ran violently down a steep place to the sea. They
were about two thousand and were choked in the sea. And they that
fed the swine fled and toted in the city. and in the country,
and they went out to see what it was that was done. And they
come to Jesus and see Him that was possessed with the devil,
and had the legion sitting and clothed in His right mind, and
they were afraid. They were afraid, and they that
saw it told them how it befell to Him that was possessed with
the devil, and also concerning the swine. And they began to
pray Him to get out of here. Tell the Lord to leave. Leave. They're afraid of Him. They were
probably more upset over losing those pigs. Probably why? And
they began to pray him to depart out of their coast. And when
he was coming to the ship, he that had been possessed with
the devil prayed him that he might be with him. Let me go
with you. He didn't want to stay there. Howbeit, Jesus suffered
him not, but said unto him, No, no, you go home to thy friends,
and you tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee,
and hath had compassion on thee. And that's why he said to his
brethren, you go home and you tell them this good news. You
tell them the good news and you bring them. You bring them. Look
here in verses 10 and 11. Look at this. And thou shalt dwell in the land
of Goshen. That's the best land in Egypt.
That was the best land in Egypt. And thou shalt be near unto me.
Near unto me thou and thy children, and thy children's children,
and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast. And there
will I nourish thee, feed thee, take care of thee." Joseph said,
I'm going to take care of you. Our Lord has said the same thing.
Are you hungry? He says, come and dine. Are you
thirsty? Come and drink. I'll nourish you, for yet there
are five years of famine. You can't live out there by yourself.
You're going to die. If you want to stay out there
and go ahead, you're going to die. He said, lest thou of thy
household and all that thou hast come to poverty. I'll nourish
you. Christ is near His people. He's
so near His people that He indwells them. Can you get any more near
than that? No. You can't. And it is Christ
who gives us our spiritual nourishment Every day. Every day. Who is
it when you go through the day, you begin to think of a Bible
verse, or you begin to think upon the Lord? You begin to have
thoughts throughout the day. You're being nourished. Whether
you know it or not, or realize it or not, you're being nourished.
He said, I'm going to nourish you. And you're not going to
come to poverty. I'm not going to allow that to
happen. Oh, in Christ we are rich. Now in verse 12, And behold,
your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that is,
it's my mouth that speaketh unto you, your eyewitnesses. This is why I say, you are witnesses
to this. Now you go tell them what you
have witnessed. Don't make anything up. Don't
embellish it. You tell them just exactly that
you have seen the Lord. You've seen Joseph. That's what
we do. We have seen the Lord. And we tell him. We tell people
about him. You tell, listen, verse 13, and you shall tell
my father of what? All my glory. Speak of my glory. Don't tell him Joseph is a peanut
down there in Egypt. No, you tell him of all my glory.
You brag on me. You let him know of my glory
in Egypt. And of all that you've seen,
you show up and make haste, and then you bring my father. You
bring him down here. And then listen. Verse 14, 15.
And he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, and
Benjamin wept upon his neck. And look here. Joseph kissed
him. Now, brethren, that is compassion. That's love. That's love. He just reached down and kissed
his brethren. And he did that to assure them
that all was well. And I want you to notice this.
Remember, in the first beginning of this, he said, I'm Joseph.
They were terrified. They couldn't speak. They couldn't
speak. But he says here, he kissed all
his brethren, wept upon them, and after that his brethren talked
with him. They communed with him. He revealed
His love to them and then they, after He did this, they were
able to commune with Him. Who was it when the prodigal
son came back? Who kissed whom? The father. Ran out there and kissed that
boy. Then on verse 16 and 17, And
the fame thereof was heard in Pharaoh's house. I liken Pharaoh
here to God the Father. The famed error was heard in
Pharaoh's house, saying, Joseph's brethren are come, and it pleased
Pharaoh well. It pleased him well and his servants,
and Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Say unto thy brethren, This do
ye, lay your beast, and go, and get you into the land of Canaan.
Listen, for Christ's sake, we are blessed. We are blessed. Pharaoh was well
pleased. He was well pleased with Joseph's
brethren because of Joseph. Because of Joseph. Even as God
the Father is well pleased with all the brothers and sisters
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now listen, the fame of Joseph
went through all the house of Pharaoh. The fame of Joseph and
his brethren, it went through all the house of Pharaoh. The
glory of Christ and his brethren has filled heaven. It has gone throughout heaven.
It has gone throughout paradise. The glory of the Lord Jesus Christ
and his brethren I can only, you and I can only imagine of
the joy and the rejoicing when God takes one of His own home. When they go home. The rejoicing
that happens. The fame. The fame of another
redeemed entering into glory. The fame of that. And notice here, showers of blessings. This is what I call 17 and 18.
And Pharaoh said unto Joseph now, Say unto thy brethren, This
do ye, lay to your beasts, and go, get you unto the land of
Canaan, and take your father and your households, and come
unto Me, and I give you the good of the land of Egypt, and you
shall eat the fat of the land." Joseph is commanded to bless
his family and bring them to Egypt, even as Christ is commanded
to bless God's family and bring them home to glory. And regard not your stuff. Do
you have some stuff you want to take with you? Do you have
some stuff? I'll tell you what, I like to
leave all my stuff here. Because that's what it is. Stuff.
It's just stuff. Leave your stuff. You'll find
all you need in Him. All things are yours in Christ. And in verse 22, He gave them
change of raiment. You take that garb off you're
wearing. I'm going to give you something to wear that's befitting
the brothers of Joseph. I'm going to give you something
to wear. We are given the righteousness of Christ to wear here and in
paradise. It's the same dress. And the story sounded so good
there in verse 26. And you see, they went up out
of Egypt and they came into the land of Canaan and to Jacob,
their father, and told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive and he's
governor over all the land of Egypt. See, they told him what
they were told to tell. First of all, they spoke of his
lordship. He's lord over all the land of Egypt. He's lord. Can you imagine, come on, can
you imagine? This old man was led to believe
that his son was killed by a beast years ago. And then 20 some years later,
or whatever it is, I think it was 22 years later, his boys
come home from Egypt and they said, Father, guess what? Now you know they have to admit
something here too. And tell them there's good news, they've
got to admit what happened. You know, now it's all come out
on them. It's all come out. And they said, Joseph is alive. And his heart practically stopped. And he fainted. The news was so shocking to him.
It was so shocking. It was so good. It was so good. It was such good news. But he
could hardly believe it, especially coming from that lot. But they
said, it's so, Dad, it's so. And then he saw all those wagons,
all those blessings, all those blessings. And he said his spirit
revived. And they told him all the words
of Joseph. That's what we're preaching.
You know, we preach the gospel. We're just preaching his words. We're not
at liberty to change it. We're just preaching his words. They told him all the words of
Joseph which he had said unto them. And when he saw those wagons,
all those blessings, all those riches, He said, you're right. You're right. You boys couldn't
come up with this. You're right. And the spirit
of Jacob, their father, revived. And Israel said, it's enough. Can you imagine that day, that
man's heart? It's enough. Is Christ enough? Listen. He didn't say it was
enough because of the blessings. He said it was enough because
of the message. He's alive. He's alive. When you really hear of Christ,
you too will say, it's enough. Christ is enough. If you know
Him, He's enough. The blessings didn't mean that
much to Jacob. It was this, Joseph is alive,
and he said it's enough. It is the good news of the gospel
that revived the heart of a sinner, especially when he is enabled
to see the Lord, to really, truly understand he's alive. He's alive when Christ is really
real to you, and not just a story, but He's real. That's when it
will be enough.