What we have in this chapter is a real conviction of sin. This is what we find in this
chapter. Before Joseph reveals himself
to his brethren, they are first going to be made to cry and acknowledge
their guilt. We will see this in this chapter,
how that God brings sinners to himself, how he convicts of sin. No sinner is ever saved without
a true conviction of sin. That's not even possible, not
possible. We must be brought to the place
where we cry guilty, guilty. Look in verse 21. Joseph had charged them with
being spies, and they got off to themselves there within earshot
of Joseph. And they said one to another,
we are truly guilty. You see, they had put this thing
behind them. What they did to Joseph 22 years
ago, that was history. But now they're made to relive
it. Now they're made to face it. They say we're guilty, and
that's what happens. We have to come to the place
where we cry guilty without excuse. We don't even try to blame Adam. If Adam hadn't fallen, I assure
you I wouldn't. I wouldn't. And it's only through a true
conviction of sin that a sinner, a fallen son of Adam, a wretch
as Paul said, O wretched man that I am. It's only through
a true conviction of sin that a sinner can love You cannot, you cannot understand or love the good news of the
gospel until you hear the bad news. And I mean hear it in your
soul. You hear it echoing in your very
soul. The gospel is only good news
to the guilty. It's not good news to everybody. You couldn't contain the people
that would be in this room. This room wouldn't contain them.
It's not good news to everybody. Pardon doesn't mean much to anyone
until they're guilty. It doesn't mean anything. But boy, I tell you what, it
means everything to the one that's guilty. Now, we know, and we've
looked at the story of Joseph. Joseph was beloved of his father. And that has shown all things
to him. The love between the Father and
the Son. just like him. He's going to populate heaven
with a people just like him. And Joseph had a dream. And all
his brethren bowed down to him. And we know that that represents
Christ. And every knee is going to bow
to him, especially all his children. They are going to willingly bow
down to him. But his brethren hated him for
it because of the love of the Father to him. and because of
his dominion over them. And you know when Christ came,
he came unto his own, and his own received him not. They despised
and rejected him. And then his brethren put him
in a pit, and they sold him to some Ishmaelites, and they sold
him to an Egyptian named Potiphar. And he ends up in prison for
a sin that he did not commit. And after a few years in prison,
you see, he put his brethren in prison for three days. He
was there for years, for a few years. But then he's taken out
of prison and he ends up on the throne of Egypt. And Pharaoh
declares that by his word shall all his people be judged. All his people shall be ruled
by his word, by the word of Joseph. Then in his wisdom, he prepares
the storehouses for the coming famine. He said there's coming
a famine, and he has the wisdom to prepare the storehouses, and
he does so. And then at the end of it, in
chapter 41, all must go to Joseph for food. He's put over the storehouse. come to an end. And they are
followed by seven years of famine. Seven years of deep, deep famine. And it says the famine was sore,
it was severe, that word sore means severe in all lands. And I thought when Adam The fall of Adam is severe in
all lands. And the fall of Adam is severe
in all hearts. In all hearts. The Scripture
says there is none good, no not one. Even creation itself groans
under the burden of sin. Creation groans under it. That's
what it says in 2 Corinthians 5. And even God's elect are affected
by this famine. This fall. In Ephesians 2, it
says, we were children of wrath by nature, even as others. It's written in Romans, all have
sinned and come short of God's glory. There's none righteous,
no, not one. There's not a just man on the
earth that doeth good and sinneth not, not a one. We don't have any. We don't have
it. We have a famine of truth, and
we have a famine of life, spiritual life. When Adam fell, he lost. He lost the way to God, the truth
of God, the life of God. He lost righteousness. He lost
all that. However, God has a people, a
multitude of sinners that no man can number, the Scripture
says. He loves them because they're
in His Son. And He's going to save them. He said, Jacob have
I loved. And I can assure you if God loves
a man, I mean loves a man, He's going to save that man. He's
going to save that man. And you'll remember that God
revealed Himself to Jacob at Bethel. And He gave him a promise
that He would keep him and bless him and be like the sand of the sea.
And then we come here to chapter 42. And when Jacob, and Jacob
to me in these first two verses is the preacher. He's the preacher. And when Jacob saw that there
was corn in Egypt, he learned. Jacob learned that there was
corn in Egypt. The next verse it says, he heard. He heard and he learned that
there was corn in Egypt. And he directs his sons to go
down to Egypt. They were not particularly happy
about going to Egypt. He said, you go down to Egypt,
there's corn there, there's life there. That's what they needed
to live. They needed food. You can't live
without food. You can't do it. And he said, you
go down to Egypt, there's corn in Egypt. And he said to them,
why do you look one upon another in despair? They were in this
famine, this severe famine. They had families. There was
nowhere to turn. There was absolutely nowhere
to go for food. They had to have it to live.
And their old father said, There's mercy in Christ. There's
forgiveness in Christ. There's pardon in Christ. There's
forgiveness in Christ. Go to Him. Go to Him. You don't need to look at each
other. We have no help. We can't do anything about it.
But He can. He can. If you'll notice, this
whole journey is down. He said, you go down to Egypt,
look at verse 3, and Joseph's ten brethren went down to buy
corn in Egypt. The whole journey is down. They
went down to buy corn. We have to be brought down. We
truly have to be brought down before we can be raised up. God
has to kill us before he gives us life. He has to. And this
is what happens when the Lord saves a sinner. He must bring
that sinner down. I mean, to the dust. To the dust. The sinner must be humbled. He
says, Zacchaeus, come down! Today, I must abide at your house. Today, salvation has come to
your house. God brought the famine in order
to bring them down. Everything that God does providentially
is for us. It's for us. It's for His children.
Everything He does. He brought this famine, and it
was in all lands. It was throughout the world.
The whole world suffered from it. But it was for one purpose. Down to Egypt, as he might say, 66 people brought
him into Egypt. That's what the, that whole famine
was for that. If he must bring a famine on
the whole world in order to bring his people to himself, he will. It's his. He's the fodder, we
are the clay. He will do as he will, but I
can tell you this. He'll do it in infinite wisdom,
and it's right. It's right. The ten brethren, they go down
to Egypt. When they get down there, they
meet Joseph. They meet the governor. And he it was that sold to all
the people of the land. They had to go to him. And Joseph's
brother came and bowed down to himself before him with their
faces to the earth, brought to the dust. Well, they had no claims on him,
did they? They put their face in the dust before this man,
before this governor. They didn't know who he was at
this time. And everybody has to go to him.
All they knew was that he had the power over what they needed. That's all they knew at that
time. But here's the beauty of it.
Here's the beauty of this. In verse 7, And Joseph saw his
brethren, and he knew them. You see, when this matter of
salvation begins in the soul, and God brings conviction of
sin, that sinner doesn't really understand what's going on. He
does not understand what's going on. He doesn't know what's going
on. He doesn't know God's at work
at that time, but God knows him. Joseph knew his brethren. He
recognized them. He knew them. But they didn't
know him yet. That's not going to be It's a lifelong thing, it's what
it is. But they didn't know it, but
He knew them. The Lord knows them that are His, the Scripture
says. I don't know who they are. I stand up here and preach, and
I say to everyone, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou
shalt be saved. But God knows who they are. He
knows them that are His. He's always known them. They've
always been His brethren. They've always been His. says he made himself strange
to them and spake, listen, this is how it happens when it first
begins. When God first begins work, work
it in the soul. This is how it begins. He made
himself strange to them. He didn't reveal who he was at
that time because there's some issues that have to be dealt
with. And he spake roughly. Hard things it says. He spake
hard things to them. That's how it happens when it
first begins. When the Lord began to work in the soul, that soul
does not recognize the Lord at first. It doesn't recognize Him. And the means is not pleasant. Not when He starts bringing His
first convictions of sin. Who and what I am must be exposed. It's got to be dealt with. You'll never love Christ, or
appreciate grace, or taste and see that the Lord is gracious
until He exposes who and what I am. And you are. Not until
then. He knew then, look at verse 8,
And Joseph knew his brethren. He knew them. More than just
recognize them. He knew them. These are my brethren.
These are my blood. These are my blood. But they didn't know him. Not
yet. Not yet. Salvation comes by revelation.
But there is preparatory work that has to be done before that
happens. Before that revelation of Christ. And you see Him. And you love Him. And you go
to Him. And you worship Him. And Joseph now, verses 9-18, he charges
them with being spies. He says, you are spies. They
said, we're not spies. We're true men. We're honest
men. We are here. We are here on an honest journey.
We came to buy corn. And at this point, they are true.
They're telling the truth. They are telling Joseph the truth.
We are here to buy corn. We need corn or we're going to
die. But he charges them. He said, no, you're spies. You came to spy out the land.
He keeps charging them and he keeps plugging at their heart.
And he says, he proves them. And then he condemns them. He
puts them in prison. He said, well, I'm going to find
out if you're true men. I'm going to find out if you're honest
men. I'm going to put you in prison, and I'm going to let
you go back, and you bring that young man, that young boy you
was talking about, Benjamin, you bring him back, and that
will verify what you're saying, and I'll believe you. I'll believe
you. They're getting a taste of their
own medicine. What they did to him, and what they did to Jacob,
making Jacob think that he had died by being eaten by a wild
beast, now they're getting a taste of their own medicine. His word is law. Remember that?
His word, Joseph's word is law. They're bound down by the law.
He puts them in prison. And he does all this, all of this, for verse 21. And they said one
to another, we are verily, we are truly, We're guilty concerning
our brother. It's come back now. It's come
back. They had forgotten about it.
They had put it in the past. Jacob had no doubt had moved
on. He quit weeping over Joseph,
and he accepted the fact. And they said, we're guilty. We're guilty of what we did to
our brother guilty. We have sinned against our brother. Listen, we have sinned against
our brother, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our elder brother. We denied
him. We despised and rejected him.
We crucified him. A true conviction of sin has
to do with my sins being against Christ, being against Him. They will
mourn when they look on Him whom they pierced. And listen to hear what they
say. We are verily guilty concerning our brother here in verse 21
in that we saw the anguish of his soul. The Lord said, Behold
me, all ye that pass by, behold me. Is there any sorrow like
my sorrow? He said, we saw the anguish of
his soul when he besought us and we would not hear him. We
would not hear. We went our own way. And Reuben answered them saying,
didn't I tell you? There's always somebody that's
going to say, I told you so. There'll always be somebody in the group
that's going to say, I told you so. And Reuben says, I told you
so. Spake I not unto you saying,
do not sin against a child that you would not hear? Therefore,
behold, also his blood is required. And they knew not. Listen, here's the work of the
Holy Spirit. Here's the work of the Holy Spirit.
They knew not that Joseph understood them. How many times did our
Lord know the thoughts of the disciples? How many times did
he know the thoughts of those Pharisees? They knew not that he understood
them, for listen, he spake unto them by an interpreter. That's the Holy Spirit. He's speaking to them. Joseph
is speaking to them. He understands Hebrew. They do
not understand Egyptian. And he understands everything
they're saying. They think he doesn't. Because
Joseph, in wisdom, is using an interpreter. You see, the Holy
Spirit is the one who convicts of sin, of righteousness, and
of judgment. The Holy Spirit is the one who takes the things
of Christ and reveals them unto us. He's the one who does that. In other words, he says, there
is an interpreter between us, a mediator. That's another word
for a mediator. One who could understand both
parties and mediate. That's his work. And then it
says there, and Joseph turned himself about from them And he
wept. All his compassion, his bowels
yearned for his brethren. He loved his brethren. He wasn't
upset with them. He wasn't speaking roughly to
them just because he was upset with them. He turned himself
about from them and he wept and he returned to them again. Again, he turned to them again
and communed with them. Over in verse 7, listen, and
Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but made himself
strange unto them, and he spake roughly, roughly unto them. But if that continued, they'd
be in such despair. If the Lord continued to speak
roughly, we wouldn't make it, wouldn't we? Now, when you get
down to verse 24, it says he communed. He began to just speak to them
in tones of compassion and grace. He loved them. Joseph loved them,
yet he must prove them. where they will bow to Him willingly,
where they will submit to Him willingly, and they will love
Him. They will love Him. Joseph was not angry with them
for what they did to him. He understood. He understood. God did this. God sent me here. God put me
in the pit. God put me in the prison. God
put me on the throne. God put me over all of this for
you. For you. Our Lord, our Lord was
glad. He was glad to suffer. He was
glad to die in our place. He was glad Brethren, glad to do it. Glad to do it. Not upset. He
loved them. Joseph loved them and communed
with them. And he proves his love for them
and his grace in verse 25. Then Joseph commanded to fill
their sacks with corn and to restore every man's money into
his sack and to give him provision Not only just to give them corn,
but provide for them, provide for them for the way. And thus
did he hunt them. He fills their sacks with good
things. Good things. He gives them, and
listen, he gives them their money back. Salvation is free. Salvation. We have in Christ the bread of
life. It's free. You're not going to
pay for it. It's free. He didn't give the
money back to the other countries and lands, but he gave it back
to them. They didn't pay for it. Those
66 people that came out of the land of Canaan into Egypt didn't
pay a dime. Everybody else out there trying
to pay for it. Everybody else gave up their lands. We'll see
this as we go on. They gave up land property. Joseph
bought for Pharaoh the whole land of Egypt. But the land of
Goshen was given to the Israelites. And the bread that they needed
was given to them. They never bought it. We don't buy it. It's free. It's
the free gift of God. For the way! Who's providing for you right
now? Who provides for you? You say, well, I do. I've got
a good job. I have a good education. God's providing for you. He has
made provisions for you on our way home. And He'll not fail. He'll not
fail. all that the sinner needs to
stand before God. He's provided it, a time in eternity. And in verse 27, and I'll wind
this down, in verse 27, what we have here is grace revealed,
yet not understood. Grace is revealed, but it's not
yet understood. And as one of them opened his
sack to give his asked provender in the end, he spied his money,
for behold, it was in his sack's mouth. And he said to his brethren,
My money's restored. What in the world is going on?
Who did this? Well, Joseph did it, but he doesn't
know it yet. It is even in my sack. And their heart felled
them, and they were afraid, saying one to another, What is this?
And listen. or that we would recognize God's
hand in everything that comes our way. They didn't say, what
is this, Joseph or some other gentile? Who did this? They said,
what has God done to us? What's God doing? What's going
on here? They knew God was at work. They knew it. They came
to Jacob their father into the land of Canaan and told him all
that befell unto them. And even Jacob, over here in
verse 36, and Jacob their father said unto them, Me have ye bereaved
of my children. Joseph is not, and Simeon is
not, and you will take Benjamin away. All these things are against
me. God revealed himself to Jacob
at Bethel. Gave him the promises. Jacob
knew God. But Jacob's an old man here,
and he's saying, all these things are against me. But we know the
story, don't we? If God be for us, who can be
against us? No, Jacob, all these things are
not against you. It's for your good. Just give
it time. Just give it time. It's for your
good. Jacob said, it's all against me. sons if I bring him not to thee.
Deliver him into my hand and I'll bring him to thee again."
He's saying he'll be surety for him. Jacob refuses, verse 38, and
he said, My son shall not go down with you, for his brother
is dead and he's left alone. If mischief befall him by the
way into which you go, then shall you bring down my gray hair of
sorrow to the grave. Jacob refuses to bow to God's
providence. But he will. He will. In a little while, we'll see
in the next chapter, they eat all the corn up. They eat all
the corn. They need more corn. They need
more corn. That famine will last as long
as it needs to last to bring them to the place where God would
have them be. It will last that long. He will bow. He doesn't know everything. We're
all men and women of like passion. I don't care how old one is in
the faith. We still have those times that
we say, no. God says, oh, yes. It's just
a matter of time. A matter of time. There's glory in Egypt. There's
grace. There's mercy. Christ, but there must be, there must
be a real conviction of sin before you and I will truly bow and
kiss the Son and receive Him and love Him as we ought to.
Without that, it's not going to happen. Not going to happen. But that's what's in that chapter. There must be a real conviction
of sin before there's a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we'll see this continue, Lord willing, next week as we go into
the next chapter and they come back. And he continues this conviction
until finally it's to the point where he reveals himself And
you know what it says? Joseph falls upon every one of
them and kisses them. He doesn't try to take their
head off of what they did to him. He falls on them and kisses them.
Okay, Mike.