Back to Genesis 44. Title of the message, the innocent
one becomes guilty and the guilty ones become innocent, become
blameless. Now there's two things going
to happen in this chapter that we are going to look at. One
is the innocent one, Benjamin, He's going to be held responsible. He's going to be held guilty.
And of course, his brothers are going to be held blameless. And
as he said, Joseph said to them, go in peace. Go back home. I have nothing against you. Go
back home. And then the other thing we will
see is that his brothers are brought once again to acknowledge
their sin. You'll see in verse 16, Judah
said, God has found out the iniquity of thy servants. God has found
it out. God has exposed our iniquity. God's dealing with us now. This
is the hand of God. Now, Joseph is a wise man. He represents the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is the wisdom of God. There was none in the land
of Egypt as wise as Joseph. He knows what he's doing. He
will prove their sincerity. They said, we'd be true men.
Remember that? And he said, well, if you're
true men, you go get your brother, your younger brother. And he's
going to prove their sincerity by what he does here. Now, I'm
going to liken Joseph here to the father. the steward to the
Holy Spirit in Benjamin Christ, the innocent one. So Joseph commands
his steward here, the servant, to fill the sacks with corn and
to put their money in their sacks. He says, give them their money
back and fill their sacks as full as you can get them. The
Lord has always taken care of His own, The Lord has always blessed His
people even before they knew Him. Let me read a scripture
to you. I just remembered and marked
it here over in Hosea chapter 2. You remember that story of
Gomer? He says here in verse 6, Therefore,
behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns and make a wall that
she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her
lovers, but she shall not overtake them. And she shall seek them,
but shall not find them. Then shall she say, I will go
and return to my first husband. For then was it better with me
than now. For she did not know. She did not know that I gave
her corn. Long before, long before we knew
him, he knew us. We've seen this in Genesis here. When his brothers came to Joseph,
it says they didn't know Joseph, but Joseph knew them. She did
not know that I gave her corn and wine and oil and I multiplied
her silver and gold which they prepared for Baal. She thought
her lovers did that. But no, it was her husband. It was Hosea. The Lord has forgiven
us all that we have. And in times past, before we
knew him, we attributed those things to our intelligence or
somebody else, but not to him. But he's the one who's always
provided for us. Always. And you'll notice also
here that nothing is left to chance. This is all purpose. Notice how Joseph purposes and
plans every minute detail, even to the point of what the servant
is to say. Our Lord said, As I hear, I speak. Well, the Holy Spirit does the
same. As he hears, he speaks. And he says nothing more than
what the Father has said and what the Son says and what the
Holy Spirit says they say. They never act independently
of each other. Never. So nothing is left to
chance. God has purposed not only those
whom he will save, but also the means in which he will use to
bring them to himself. You know, I'm looking at people
here who believe the gospel. God has used different means
along the way to bring you to the point to hear the gospel. He's purposed it all. Nothing
is by chance. The Apostle Paul did not meet
the Lord on the road to Damascus by chance. He was waiting on
Him. He was waiting on Him. Paul's
going down that road just angry and upset and he's going to just
destroy the church. Hatred in his heart. And here's
the Lord just waiting on Him. Just waiting. Then Paul shows
up and the Lord strikes him to the ground. Nothing is left to
chance. Not at all. Nothing. And then
another thing we learn here is that salvation is of the Lord.
He will not accept our payments for any part of salvation. You
notice He put their money back again? See, the first time He
put their money back, well, they just brought it back, and Jacob
sent some presents and they doubled it, and He gave it back to them
again. You and I are not going to pay for any part of salvation.
If a man brings his works, his works are going to be thrown
right back at him. That's what he does. He says, give it back
to them. They're going to pay me. These are my children. These are my children. These children don't pay to live
in the house. The parents take care of them. Mom and Dad take
care of them. Our Heavenly Father takes care of His own. We're
not going to pay Him for it. He's not going to let us pay
Him for it. Now, he says in verse two, and he does this on purpose. Now, this is all purpose. Put
my cup, my cup, the cup I drink out of, the silver cup. Just
so there'll be no mistake, this is my cup. Don't just get in
the cup. Just don't go over in the cupboard and get a cup. No,
you take my cup, the silver cup, the one I use. And they thought
that he divined out of it. In other words, he could tell
the future because of the dreams that he revealed to Pharaoh and
that butler, they understood that Joseph was able to tell
some things if the Lord gave him the understanding. And he
said, you take the silver cup and you put it in Benjamin's
sack. You put it in Benjamin's sack. Remember, everything that Joseph
is doing is for the good of his brethren. Everything he's doing
here, it looks like to them, you know it looks to them like
this is going to turn out to be a disaster. But everything
is purposed and detailed right down to the jot and tittle for
their good. For their good. And then he instructs
them here. And he said, and put my cup,
the silver cup in the sack's mouth of the youngest and his
corn money, and he did according to The Spirit of God does according
to the will of the Father. He does the will of the Father
just as the Son did the will of the Father. And you do it
according to the word that Joseph had spoken. And so they head
home. In verse 3, as soon as the morning
light came, they were up and they were sent away. They were
headed home. They were happy. They got what
they came for. So they thought, and they were
headed home. And then the servant, he's sent
to fetch them. Joseph says, now go get them.
It's like the Father saying to the Holy Spirit, now bring them.
That's fetching grace. You go get them. There's a time,
there is a time appointed by God the Father for every one
of his children to be fetched. for every one of his children
to be born again. And this is what he's going to
do. The servant is going to go and he's going to fetch them
and bring them back to Joseph. He's going to bring them back.
Sinners must be overtaken by the Spirit of God if they are
to be saved. He has to arrest us. We won't
come on our own. We are darkness. God is light. He's everything we are not. And
we love everything that He's not. We love darkness. He loves
light. He's light. He's righteousness.
The righteous Lord loves righteousness. And so the Holy Spirit of God
has to come and fetch us and arrest us and bring us. Bring
us to the point of repentance and then bring us to Christ.
Reveal Christ. He'll take the things of mine
and show them unto you. That's what he will do. Then here in verse 5, is not
this it in which my Lord drinks and whereby indeed he divines
ye have done evil and so doing? And so, what's going to happen,
he's going to expose, he's going to expose their sin. Not necessarily
this, see Benjamin's going to have to take the guilt of this
cup. But their sin's going to be exposed because they say over
there in verse 16, God hath found out our iniquity. God has found
it out and He's dealing with it. He's going to deal with our
iniquity. So in verse 6, and He overtook them, the servant,
just as the Holy Spirit overtakes every sinner whom God's chosen
in Christ. He overtakes them and arrests
them and He brings them. He brings them. And then here in verse 7, And
they said unto him, Wherefore saith my Lord these words? Why
are you accusing us of this? God forbid that our service should
do according to this thing. God forbid that we should do
such a thing. You know, I realize this as I've
gotten older. You can take a day and pick a
sin. Guilty. Guilty. That's why Paul said, Oh, wretched
man that I am. Oh, wretched man that I am. From
head to toe. From head to toe. They said in verse 8, Behold
the money which we found in our sack's mouth. We brought it again
to thee out of the land of Canaan. How then should we steal out
of thy Lord's house silver or gold? We're innocent men. We're innocent men. And this in here, in verse 9,
they were so sure of their innocence that they even put a death sentence.
They were so sure of their innocence that they put a death sentence
on the one who had the cup. If you find that cup among any
of us, let him die. Let him die. That's what they're
saying. With whomsoever of thy servants
it be found, Both let him die and we'll be your servants."
And he said, he said, all right, it'll be according to your words.
You remember the scripture says, by thy words thou shalt be justified
and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. He said, all right,
that's what we'll do. Let it be according to thy words.
Whoever has the cup, that will be the guilty one. That will
be the one that will be my servant. That will be the servant. And
the rest, and the rest, listen here, in verse 10, and he said,
Now also let it be according unto thy words. He with whom
it is found shall be my servant, and you shall be blameless. There's
only going to be one person in this group that's going to bear
the blame, and it's the one with the cup. And the rest of you,
blameless. The rest of you didn't go home.
You just go on back home. And they were so cocksure that
they were innocent, they said, well, they just hurried up. And it says here, they speedily,
they hurried up. Then they speedily took down
every man his sack to the ground and opened every man his sack.
They were in a hurry to prove their innocence and justify themselves. That's typical human nature.
Typical of it. They were in such a hurry to
do it. And then in verse 12, he searched. Oh, I tell you what, it's the
Spirit of God that searches the heart. He knows what's in the
heart. He knows what I am. He knows
what I am. And he searched. And he began at the eldest, at
Reuben. And he did this on purpose. He began at the eldest. He knew
where that cup was. He put it there. He put it there. He began at the eldest and he
left at the youngest and the cup, the cup was found in Benjamin's
sack. And they were horrified. They
rent their clothes. The innocent one here, this is
Benjamin. This is Benjamin. From all the
writers that I was reading, Benjamin wasn't even born when his brothers
did what they did to Joseph. They put him in the pit and they
sold him. Benjamin hadn't even been born yet. This is the innocent one. And
now he becomes guilty. And he becomes guilty through
no fault of his own. He didn't put the cup there.
Joseph put the cup there. He put the cup there. Benjamin
didn't do it. Benjamin didn't steal the cup
no more than Christ committed any sin. Christ knew no sin. Innocent. He was a spotless Lamb of God. Yet, he becomes guilty. Sin is imputed to him, charged
to him, laid on him. He's given this cup, and this
cup that he's been given has brought on him guilt, a sentence
of death. Made him a servant. Made him
a servant. Turn over to John 18. In John chapter 18, look in verse 11. Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put
up thy sword into the sheath, the cup which my Father hath
given me. Shall I not drink it? This cup was given to him. This
cup of suffering. This cup of shame. This cup of
becoming guilty. Because of this, he became guilty
in our stead. It's given to me by my Father
on purpose. The innocent one is now made
the guilty one. Look over in Matthew 26. Well, we'll see something in
the cup here. Matthew 26, look in verse 39. Look in verse 38. Then saith he unto
them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful. It's beyond description. It's
beyond describing. It's exceeding sorrowful. Even
to the point, if something doesn't happen, I'm going to die right
here. That's how exceedingly sorrowful his soul became over
this cup. Over this matter of being made
sin. Over this matter of shame. Over this matter of guilt. Tear
ye here and watch with me. And he went a little further
and he fell on his face and he prayed saying, Oh my Father,
if it be possible, let this cup This is the innocent one. This is the innocent one. This
is the one who knew no sin. This is the pure, spotless Son
of God being made sin, literally becoming guilty in our stead. Listen to that cry. Oh, my Father. You know, he said in one place,
I know that you always hear me. I know you do. And he is crying
from the depth of his soul. Oh, my Father, if it be possible,
if it be possible for my brethren, those scoundrels, I mean, there's
not a good one in the lot, but if it be possible for them to
be saved any other way, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as thou wilt." And he drank that cup. He drank that cup. The innocent
one became guilty, and he drank the cup. And you and I know what
happened. He went to the cross and suffered
the wrath of God. He suffered my hell in just a
few hours. And I could have never satisfied
God throughout eternity in hell. Couldn't do it. That's why it's
eternal. You can't satisfy. But he did. In a few hours, he did what no
one could do. Satisfy the justice of Almighty
God. The innocent one became guilty
that the guilty ones might become blameless. He's going to present
every one of His children blameless before the throne of His Father.
That's what He's going to do. Before the world began, our Lord
was given this cup to drink by His Father. His Father gave it
to Him. Innocent. Pure. You know, we can't even comprehend,
we can't even begin to comprehend what it would be like to be absolutely
pure and holy and then to be made the worst thing that could
ever be thought of, sin. But that was given to him by
the Father. In that cup was the fury of God's wrath against the
sins of His people. The innocent one becomes guilty
and the guilty ones become innocent. I'm telling you what, if you're
in Christ, if you believe the gospel, God has saved you, you're
innocent. Blameless. Go home in peace.
I'm telling you the truth. Go home tonight in peace. Because the innocent one has
put away your sins. Put it away. That's something in there in
verse 17. Look in verse 17. Joseph said, and he said, God
forbid that I should do so, but the man in whose hand the cup
is found, he's my servant. God spoke in Isaiah 42. And he said, behold, my servant,
mine elect. This one will be my servant.
And as for you, get you up in peace until you're a father. Go on home. Go on home. What's the result of this? What's
the result out of all this? Well, first of all, satisfaction
to God's law. You know, God's law is very real.
I know the human race thinks nothing of God's law, but He
does. It's pure and holy. David said, I love thy law. There's
nothing wrong with it. Through Christ's drinking of
this cup, God's law, God's justice, it's
not only satisfied, it's honored. He magnified the law and made
it honorable in his redemption, in his redemptive work. I'll tell you the second result
of this. True repentance. True repentance came out of this
to Joseph's brethren. And Judah said, what shall we
say unto my Lord? What shall we speak? I mean,
we don't know what to say. We're dumbfounded. Guilty. The cup was in Benjamin's, our
brother's sack. But listen to what he says. God
hath found out our iniquity. And I told you last, I believe
it was last week, 22 years or so has already gone by. They've
already put this thing behind them. They're saying God is now dealing
with this for what we did to our brother Joseph. They're repenting here. Judah
is speaking here. I mean, he's speaking here from
the heart. God has found out our iniquities.
And then secondly and thirdly, a prophecy fulfilled. You remember back earlier, Joseph
had a dream, and they all bowed down to him, all the stars, the
moon, the sun, they all bowed down to him, and his brethren
hated him for it. They were angry. They hated him,
first of all, because Jacob loved him, and he made it obvious.
Jacob made it very obvious, this is the one I love. He made him
a coat of many colors. And he told them about the dream,
and they hated him for that. Well, twenty-some years goes
by, and guess who's bowing down? Every one of them. When they
came back, it said, look here in verse 14, And Judah and his
brethren came to Joseph's house, for he was yet there. He's waiting
on them. He's waiting on them. He knew what was going on. He
knew exactly what was going on. And they fell before Him, listen,
on the ground just as He said they would. And the Heavenly
Father said every knee is going to bow, every tongue is going
to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. In time, that will happen. Every
knee and every tongue. It's going to happen. Prophecy
fulfilled. It is fulfilled. And then they acknowledge themselves
to be his servants. Now, I'm not going to go through
all these verses, but I want you to notice that they were humbled.
They were truly humbled. When God saves, I mean, when
he saves a sinner, that sinner's humbled. That sinner's humbled. In verses 7, 9, 10, 16, 18, 19,
23, 24, 27, 30, 31, 32, they say, we're your servants. They use that word, we are your
servants, in all those verses. We are your servants. My father,
they can call Jacob, their father, his servant. He says, Jacob is
your servant. We are at your mercy. Well, that's amazing, isn't it? That's what happens when God
saves a sinner. That's what happens. Here's the message. Here's the
message in a nutshell. The innocent one, the one who
knew no sin, was made to be sin for us, guilty. That we, who are the guilty,
might be made the righteousness of God in Him, blameless. That's the message. That's the
message right there in that chapter. That's it. The way Joseph brought his brethren
to himself is the way the Holy Spirit brings us to Christ, convicts
us of sin, makes us to acknowledge our sin, and then, in the next chapter,
reveals Christ. You know what? In the next chapter,
in chapter 45, I saw this as I was reading this week. Joseph's brethren are going to
see a resurrected Joseph. They thought he was dead. They
put him in a pit and sold him. As far as they were concerned,
Joseph was dead. As far as they were concerned. It says in verse 1 of 45, Then
Joseph could not refrain himself before all 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. Those Jews, they put our Lord
to death on the cross, buried Him. But He's alive. He's alive. And He rules and reigns over
all. Joseph revealed himself to them. But this was after This was not
after they had been brought to a conviction of sin. After they had been made to confess
their iniquity. And after Benjamin here, the
innocent one, was made guilty. And after all that happens, then
they see who Joseph is. Now it's time to see who Joseph
is. Now it's time for Joseph. You know, how long have some
of you You were brought up under the gospel. You grew up under
the gospel. You heard the gospel all your
life. Basically, some of you have. You grew up on it. You
heard about Christ and Him crucified. And then one day, you heard about
the guilty one or the innocent one becoming guilty. You've heard
that all your life. And then one day, one day, the Lord reveals Himself. The
Lord reveals Himself. And it's no more just a message.
It's a person. You fall in love with a person.
Joseph made himself known to his brethren. And they wept and
they had fellowship. Well, we'll get into that next
week. The innocent one. The innocent one. becomes guilty
and the guilty ones become innocent, lifeless. That's the gospel. That is the gospel of substitution
right there. All right, Mike.