Genesis 45 and we'll Pick up
in verse 12. We've been going verse by verse
through this chapter because there's so many beautiful Truths concerning our Lord in
this we see the language of our Lord to us in the language of
Joseph to his brothers And concerning his father He said now to these brothers
of his who were guilty, and if he had taken revenge on them,
it would have been right. But he said, don't be grieved
or angry with yourselves. This was God that did this. He
did this to save you. And then he said, make haste
and go tell my father. There's still somebody whose
troubles are over, but he don't know it yet. Jacob's not ever gonna have another
need unsupplied in his life But he didn't know it yet. Go tell
him and hurry up and do it Go down there and tell him that
I'm on the throne and to come here where I am In verse 9 and it says tell him
this when you come You're gonna dwell in the land
of Goshen That word means nearby and that's what he's saying here.
Thou shalt be near unto me. You're going to dwell near me. You remember when God spoke to
Moses, he said, there's a place by me and I'll set your feet
on a rock. I'll hide you with my hand in
the cleft of the rock and you'll see my glory there. That's Christ. You're going to dwell near me
and I'm going to nourish you. I'm going to give you everything
you need. There's going to be five more
years of famine. Now there's going to be famine, but not for
you. And behold, look at verse 12.
Now this is where we are now. He said, behold, you brothers
here, your eyes see in the eyes of my brother, Benjamin. That
it's my mouth that's speaking to you. This is me talking. Our Lord speaks that way to us,
doesn't he? Thus saith the Lord. Look at Ezekiel 34. This is beautiful
to me. In all of Joseph's language,
we see our Lord. Ezekiel chapter 34, verse 11.
Look what God said. He said, for thus saith the Lord
God, behold, I, even I, this is my mouth talking to you. I
will both search my sheep and seek them out. As a shepherd
seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep
that are scattered. So will I seek out my sheep and
will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered
in the cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from
the people and gather them from the countries and will bring
them to their own land and feed them. I'll bring them to the
land of Goshen and I'll nourish them. And this is the Lord saying
this now. That's what he said. Upon the
mountains of Israel by the rivers and in all the inhabited places
of the country, I will feed them in a good pasture. And upon the
high mountains of Israel shall their foal be. There shall they
lie in a good fold. They're going to rest. We're
just going to lie. He maketh me to lie down. He that hath entered into his
rest hath ceased from his own labors. And his green pastures are always
green. You're going to lie down, and
in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel.
I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith
the Lord God. He just said, thus saith the
Lord. We know who's talking. He reminds
us along the way, thus saith me. Can you picture Joseph saying
that? You tell my father that you witnessed
me saying these words. Let's get down to verse 30, in
Ezekiel 34, 30. Thus shall they know that I,
the Lord their God, am with them, and that they, even the house
of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord God. And ye, my flock, the flock of
my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord God. And let me remind you this morning,
Joseph told his brethren, you be sure and tell my father that
these are not my words. I'm reminding you that these
are not my words. This gospel is not just me talking. This is God Almighty. This is
the one who sits on the throne. Joseph told his brother, you
tell my father, the one who sits on the throne, And I remind you
that this gospel came from the mouth of the one who sits on
the throne. It's not just my opinion. Aren't you glad that
all of your hope does not rest with the God of religion who
tries to do things and has done all he can do and now is waiting
on man. He needs the cooperation of man. It's the sovereign Christ It's the one who's given all
authority in all of the world, who says to us, as the father
raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the son quickeneth
whom he will. I give life to whom I will. There's
comfort only at the feet and in the care of the sovereign
Christ. The one who has everything and wants to give it to you and
has the authority to give it to you. That's my comfort. That's my
rest. I'm just lying down in his pasture. Go tell my father Jacob that
by the grace of God, it is in my power to save life and you're
in on it now. You're in on it. Why was Jacob
in on it? Well, we keep coming back to
this, don't we? It's simple. There were some
that died in the famine and committed horrible acts, I'm sure, to survive
the terrible seven years, seven years of famine. Why was Jacob in? Why were his
troubles over? Because the one who says come
loves him. That's just it. It's the love
of Joseph. It's salvation for him. It really
boils down to that, doesn't it? Why? Well, because he's on the
throne. He's able to. Well, but why is he going to
do it? Well, because he wants to. But why does he want to?
It comes back to that. He loves him. And you trace all
of your mercies back to their source, to the fountainhead,
and you'll find it's the love of God for you. Joseph loved his father, but
more importantly, God Almighty said to Jacob's mama before Jacob
was ever born, Jacob have I loved. The words that I tell you tonight
came from the mouth of him who said, God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son. that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Has he
ever come to you and said, you're in on that? And I'll tell you this now. Jacob
had the authority. Pharaoh said, you take care of
it. And when somebody came to Pharaoh, he told them, go to
Joseph. Joseph had the authority to dispense
life. Corn and water, food and water,
life and famine. And he had the desire to give
it to Jacob particularly and all of his family, all those
that he loved. But he had something else too. He not only had the
authority to give life and not only was he willing, but he actually
had water and corn to give. It wasn't an empty promise. By His authority and wisdom,
there was life to be had. And in my Lord Jesus Christ,
in Him, in Him alone, are all spiritual blessings to be found. Every spiritual blessing is mine. We see in this physical story,
in this physical dilemma, this famine, and the love of Joseph
for his family, we see these spiritual truths. There was no
greater physical blessing in the earth at that time than the
water and corn that Joseph had. I'm sure, and that's the way
it is, isn't it? When there's plenty to eat and
drink, we have all kinds of concerns and worries, don't we? But when
you don't have anything to eat, it kind of narrows it down, doesn't
it? You kind of forget about a lot of other things that you
thought you needed. That's how it is spiritually,
too. When you find yourself thirsty, and we don't really know what
it is to be thirsty physically, do we? Have you ever been lost
for three or four days in the woods? Me neither. Have you ever been thirsty? spiritually I have. And every other need kind of
goes by the wayside and reveals itself to be more of a want than
a need. Doesn't it? And then so spiritually
speaking, what do I need? I need the blessing of God. I
need the favor of God and all of his blessings and favor are
in Christ like every hope for survival was in Joseph. Go to
Joseph. And we who have come to the Lord
Jesus Christ find in Him every spiritual blessing. Colossians
119, it pleased the Father that in Him, Christ His Son, should
all fullness dwell. You know what that word fullness
is in that verse? I know you've heard that verse
many times. It pleased the Father that in Christ all fullness should
dwell. That word fullness means abundance. Abundance of what? What do you
need? Everything you need. All abundance is in Christ. Everything. Do you need mercy? David said
the Lord is merciful. and gracious, slow to anger,
and he not just merciful, he's plenteous in mercy. All abundance
of mercy is in Christ. Do you need grace? And now, let
me caution you. I know that we sometimes, I say
some of the same things when I preach, but this is not, these
are not just talking points. Do you need grace tonight? This
is real. This is where we live. Do you
need God's grace tonight? Paul said the law entered that
the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. Where? All abundance is in Christ. Where there was an abundance
of sin, there was a super abundance of grace. And all abundance is
in Christ. All fullness dwells in Him. John said the law was given by
Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. That's where
it is. I'm asking you straight up again
tonight, too. Do you need redemption? Do you
need a lamb, a sin offering? Psalm 130 verse 7, let Israel
hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy and with
him is plenteous redemption. An abundance of it. He's able to save to the uttermost
those that come to God by. So Jacob, there's one who has
Everything that you need in abundance. Come. Come and live in a place
near me, the land of Goshen, and I'll nourish you. What do
you need, Jacob? Food? Got plenty. You need some water? Been storing
it up for seven years. Not gonna be any waterfall for
seven more years, but we got plenty. Place to live, you need somewhere
to live. Can you imagine in the famine? They'd probably broken
up all their furniture and burned it for firewood to stay warm
because they couldn't afford to do anything else. You need
a place to live, you need some clothes. Probably hadn't been
to men's warehouse in a while. I bet his clothes were worn thin.
You reckon Joseph had something for him to wear. How about a
little spending money? Let me ask you this, does God
just give you what you need to scrape by? In this world, or
spiritually speaking? Either one? Or do you have a
little jingle in your pocket? He doesn't just supply all of
our needs, but most of our wants. As long as they're not bad for
us. He gives us what's good for us. If you got a little jingle,
where'd that come from? Who gave you that? I bet you
Joseph. took care of Jacob and then some,
don't you imagine? We thank God for that, for every
mercy, every blessing, temporal and eternal. The famine is over
for you. It's not over for everybody,
but it's over for you. And then look at what Joseph
said in verse 13. He says, look at what he said, you tell my
father of all my glory. Wow. Where to begin? Where would you start talking
about the glory of Christ? Where would you start? Tell him
all that you've seen. You remember what was it John
that said, we've told the things that we've seen and heard. We're
not just making things up. We've witnessed what we're talking
about. I know firsthand. that there's rest in Christ.
You know why? Because I'm laying down in the green pastures. I know that he's super abundant
in mercy because he had mercy on me. And you shall hasten,
bring him down here. I don't know how to talk about
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, but I see his glory in his word.
And if you're going to see it, that's where you'll see it tonight.
Turn to Isaiah 6 and let's look at this. goes right along now with our
lesson tonight. Because you look at what God
said when God showed his glory to Isaiah. Then look what he
said to him. Isaiah 6, 1 through 8. In the
year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a
throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. If you see Him, you'll see Him
in the same place that Isaiah saw Him. You're not going to
see Him in the manger now. You're just not. Not if you really
see Him. We know that He was there. We
thank God that He was there. But He's not there now. That's
not where He's at. And He's not on the cross now.
He's on the throne. And Isaiah saw Him on the throne.
And John did too. He said, I beheld a throne and
somebody sitting on it. You know who it was? It was the
Lamb. It was the Lamb of God. And above it, above the throne,
stood the seraphims. Each one had six wings. With
twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet,
and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another. They
weren't talking about themselves. They weren't even talking about
what God had given them to do whatever it is, but that's what
they do. They do the will of God. They're messengers that
come and do the will of God in having mercy on his people. He
assigns his angels to every one of us. They're watching over
us. It's God watching over us, but
he sends them, doesn't he? But they weren't talking about
that. You know what they were saying? Holy. I got a feeling if we were in
his presence, we'd be saying the same thing. Holy, holy. The Lord of hosts. The word he is is not even there.
Just holy. The Lord. The Lord of hosts. The whole
earth is full of his glory. Did you hear what they said?
Joseph said, go tell my father of all my glory in the land of
Egypt, which is the world, the earth. And Isaiah said, the angels
were saying the whole earth is full of the glory of the Savior.
Isaiah saw the Lord Jesus Christ and the angels flew in his presence
and covered their faces and their feet. and cried holy and declared
that the whole earth is full of his glory. Have you seen it?
Can you see his glory in this earth? You gotta know where to
look, don't you? But more importantly, you have
to have eyes to see. The whole is leavened. The whole
earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved.
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. And then I said, I'm in trouble. That's our first reaction, isn't
it? When we see holiness as he is, we'll say, I'm in trouble. Until
he speaks peace to us as he does here to Isaiah. He said, woe is me. I'm undone.
I'm cut off. There's no hope for me. I can't be in the presence of
someone like him. I'm cut off. Because I'm unclean. You're not going to see your
uncleanness till you see his glory. And I'm not either. And everybody
around me is unclean, too. How do you know, Isaiah, mine
eyes have seen the king? How come you weren't crying ten
minutes ago? I'm undone. Because now I've seen the king. The Lord of hosts. And he would have been cut off,
and us too, with him. Because we're those that dwell
in this same place. But one of the seraphims flew
unto me, he said, having a live coal in his hand, which he had
taken with the tongs from off the altar. What's the altar? That's where the sacrifice is
offered. That's where the blood is spilled. He took that coal,
no doubt with blood on it. You read what happened on that
altar. There was blood covering everything. And he took that coal from off
the altar of sacrifice, the altar of burnt offering, and he laid
it upon my mouth. And said, lo, this hath touched
thy lips. And that may seem strange, and
why did he touch his lips with a coal? And we could wonder about
that. Here's what you need to know
about that. Your sin's taken away. That's why he did it. That's why the altar is there
to begin with. There was a sacrifice offered
there. A sacrifice acceptable unto God. The Lamb of God which
taketh away the sin of the world. And he said, your sin is taken
away. Your sin, your sin. Oh, I believe
in the doctrine of limited atonement. Yeah, I do too. But let me ask
you this. Has he taken away your sin? You
see what I mean? It's one thing to believe in
a doctrine. It's one thing to experience
the forgiveness of sin, which comes by the blood sacrifice
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the effectual blood atonement of
Christ being applied to me. He touched me with it. And he
said to me, your sin is gone now. Thine iniquity is taken away
and thy sin purged. And then I heard the voice of
the Lord saying, who shall I send? You see our, our lesson in this,
who's going to go, somebody got to go and tell about this, how
sin is taken away. Who shall I send? And Isaiah
said, I'm right here. He showed Isaiah his glory and
then said, now who's going to tell my family about my glory? Who's going to tell my family
how iniquity is taken away and sin is purged? I'll tell you who, by God's grace,
the one who just a couple of seconds ago was saying, I'm cut
off. I'm cut off. I'm done for. Isaiah said, I'll go. What a
privilege, what a joy it is to tell. Who shall I send? And he said, go and tell. And
it's a privilege to do that. That's our business in this world.
Go and preach. Go and preach. Who shall I send? As my father sent me, so send
I you. That's who. My disciples, my
people, my church. And it's a privilege and an honor.
I don't go around apologizing for my savior. Avoiding portions of his word. Joseph said, tell Jacob of all
my glory. And Paul said, I have not shunned
to declare unto you the whole counsel of God. The whole, I'm
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. This gospel is offensive
to this world, but it's the power of God and the salvation of them
that believe. And so we preach without equivocation,
without compromise. And we preach, what do we preach?
That which is offensive, but that which is glorious to those
that believe. The power of God unto salvation.
You know what you need to hear? That you're cut off. By nature,
you're undone. You're a man of unclean lips,
and you dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. You
can't even be in the presence of this holy God. Isaiah was
God's prophet, and he said, I'm done for. Why? Holy. Holy. So we preach. without hesitation. The total depravity of man. Total
depravity. From the top of your head to
the sole of your feet. There's not any soundness in
you. And so you're cut off from God by nature. Man is completely
and utterly corrupt. And here's the important part
of it too. We're utterly incapable of doing anything about it. Most
in religion will admit that man is completely sinful. You can't
hardly read the book without admitting that. But they think
they can make a decision and get out of it. That's a problem. Because you see, if you read
this book and God gives you eyes to see, you can't say that either.
Utterly incapable of doing anything about it, shut up to the mercy
of God. Every picture of salvation in God's word has man unable
to help himself. Every one of them. Can the Ethiopian
change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then you can do good. A leopard can't just decide to
be striped instead of spotted, and you're not going to decide
your way out of your sin problem. Dead in trespasses and sins,
you must hear the voice of power say to you, come forth. You're
four days stinking nasty dead, and your only hope is the almighty
son of God, who speaks in power and it's done. life is given. And we preach unconditional election
and know and love and rejoice in the unconditional electing
grace of God. We're bound to give thanks to
God always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. We thank God
for you. through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth. If he had not chosen us, we would
never have chosen him. That the purpose of God according
to election might stand, God said before Jacob or Esau were
ever born or had done anything good or evil, Jacob have I loved. And we preach the unconditional
electing grace of God. There's no difference in any
of us by nature. The only difference is the love
of Christ. The distinction is made by God,
by His almighty grace in choosing a people out of this wicked world
to be His peculiar, His very own. And in redeeming love, He
came. Because He so loved us, He gave
His only begotten Son. and that we might have everlasting
life by grace through faith in him. Jacob have I loved and Esau
have I hated before they were ever born. And if you love him,
it's because he first loved you. We believe in limited atonement,
who God loved and chose, he redeemed by the blood of his son. Every
one of them, every last one of them. His atonement, his blood
sacrifice was not a best effort to save everybody. It was an effectual redemption
for everybody that he redeemed, everybody that he loved, everybody
that he chose whom he did for no, he also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of his son and whom he did predestinate
them he called And then he called, he justified every one of them.
Every one he foreknew is predestinated. And everyone that's predestinated
is called. And all of those are justified
by the precious blood of Christ. And every one of them are glorified
in Christ. Our Lord bowed in Gethsemane
and said to the father in his high priestly prayer, If your sin is going to be forgiven,
you must have a high priest to offer sacrifice for you. And
our high priest came into this world, and he prayed unto the
Father, and he said, I pray not for the world, but for those
you've given me. And then he went and did what
he said he was going to do in John 10. He laid down his life
for his sheep, the same ones he prayed for. those given him
by his father, the same ones he interceded for. The high priest
went into that holy place and he made intercession for a specific
people and he offered sacrifice for those same people. And our
Lord Jesus Christ in the garden interceded for us and redeemed
us with his precious blood. He laid down his life for his
sheep. He gave himself a ransom for many And if you believe not
on Him and never do, it's because you're not one of His sheep.
John 10, 26. We believe and declare the irresistible
grace of God. Paul said the same God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness. The God who said, let there be
light, and there was light. That same God has shined in my
heart." What for? To give light. Same reason he said, let there
be light, so there'd be light. And that's why he said it to
my heart, so there'd be light. To give light. What light? The
light of the knowledge of the glory of God. What Isaiah saw. Word of Isaiah, he saw the face
of Jesus Christ. That's what he saw. To give the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of my
Savior. He spoke to my heart, let there
be light. Irresistible, powerful, almighty,
invincible grace. What a joy it is to declare. He said, go tell my family. Tell
them of all my glory. You must hear the creative voice
of irresistible power and grace. And by that power and grace,
you must behold the face of Jesus Christ. That's salvation. Also, that's what happened to
me. And then, of course, the perseverance
of the saints of God. You know what verse I think of
when I think of that now? I didn't used to, but this is
what I think of now when I think of the perseverance of the saints.
Paul said in Romans 5 10, if when we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more being reconciled,
we shall be saved by his life. If He redeemed you in the state
that you were in before you knew Him, what in the world makes you think
He'll let you go now? Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? I'll let you answer that question
in your heart. You know the answer because you've
seen it in His Word. Paul made a pretty good list
there of things that might be thought to do that. And then
he said, in case I forgot something, any such thing. Not any such
thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which
is in my Lord Jesus Christ. Now look at verse 14 in our text. Just a final brief thought from
verses 14 and 15. And he fell upon his brother
Benjamin's neck and wept. And Benjamin wept upon his neck. Moreover, he kissed all his brethren and wept upon them. And after that, his brethren talked with him.
The scripture says in Psalm 2, kiss the son lest he be angry. And we must do that. And the
context in which he said that, God said kiss the son in Psalm
2, the context in which he said that is in submission to his
authority. You remember in Psalm 2 where
it says, God hath set his king upon his holy hill. And everybody
in the world has risen up against him. The heathen rage, and the
people imagine a vain thing. But God will laugh at them. He
set his king on his holy hill. Now you kiss his son. You kiss
his son, lest he be angry. And we must do that. Judas kissed
him and went to hell. And a sinner woman kissed his
feet and had her sins, which were many, forgiven. Let me ask
you this. Has the son kissed you? This
picture's the Son of God kissing his brethren. In Luke 15 20, we have the same
picture. When the prodigal son came home
thinking, well, I'll just be a servant. I'm not a son anymore.
I've forfeited that. And he arose and came to his
father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and
had compassion and ran on and ran and fell on his neck and
kissed him. His is the kiss of love. Why do you kiss somebody? Because
you love them. It's an expression of love. And
his is the kiss of favor and blessing. It's the kiss of life. Judas kissed the cheek of Christ
in an expression of love didn't exist. It was hypocrisy. But our Lord Jesus Christ was
betrayed by that kiss and went to Calvary and died for us because
of his love, which can never be described. Paul said to the church at Ephesus,
and I think of this often and I quote it to you often, Paul said, I get down on my knees
and I pray to God for this reason. Because I desire that Christ
may dwell in your hearts by faith. And I ask God for that, Paul
said. And that you being rooted and
grounded in love may be able to comprehend I think about that. There's a lot of language after
this, but it starts with this. I want you to comprehend something,
Paul said. I want you to understand something.
I want you to be able to think on this and understand it. Comprehend
it. What, Paul? With all the saints, all of his
people have some comprehension of this. I want you to have a
deep comprehension of it. And I want to have that, too.
Of what, Paul? What is the breadth, and length,
and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ? Can you imagine that scene when
Joseph is kissing his brothers, the ones who threw him in a pit? The ones who mocked him and said,
will you indeed reign over us? We'll put you in this pit and
we'll see what becomes of your dreams now. But now, He falls upon their necks and
kisses them and weeps on them. His tears fall upon them. Do you know something of the
love of Christ? And the way Paul describes it
is this, I want you to know the love of Christ which passeth
knowledge. I want you to know something
that you're never going to be able to know as long as you live. Do you understand what he means
by that? So that if you know his love, that can't be known. You'll be filled with all of
the fullness of God. I desire that too, for you and
for me. May God give us grace to get
on our knees for that. Our brother is on the throne. And his love for us, though we're
guilty of despising him and murdering him in our hearts. We weren't able to do it, but
that didn't keep us from doing our best. But he said, don't
be grieved about that. Don't be afraid. Don't trouble
yourself about that. I'm on the throne. And he said,
you're going to live with me now. And I want you to go tell
my father to come where I am. He's going to live with me too.
And I'm going to take care of you from now on. And he fell
on their necks and kissed them and wept on them. They knew that
he loved them. And then it says after that,
they talked with him. They had a lot to talk about,
don't you imagine? Do you talk with the one that's
on the throne? He commands us to do it. He commands
us to do. the one thing that's the best
for us, that'll bring us the most joy and comfort, to commune
with Him. And if we have any need, Joseph's brothers, if they needed
anything, he could give it to them. And our Lord Jesus Christ
has said, if you have any need, do you lack anything? Just ask. Just ask. By God's grace, we
were able to talk with the one that's on the throne. I don't
imagine just everybody had an audience in the throne room.
You imagine? But his brothers did. And by God's grace, David said, my cry came into
his ears. Even into his ears. What a privilege. to be able
to talk with the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a lot to talk about in
there. Let's bow in prayer.