Genesis 45 I always love that
line in that song since he bids me seek his face And believe
his word and trust his grace I'll cast on him my every care.
I Wish I was better at that Look at verse 8 now in Genesis 45
so now this is a Of course, Joseph speaking to
his brothers, he's revealed himself to them. He said to them, don't
be grieved, don't be angry with yourselves that you sold me hither,
for God did send me before you to preserve life. He sent me
before you to preserve a posterity, a remnant. God has always had
a remnant. to the election of grace. And
he preserves them. He watches over them. He cares
for them. He keeps them. And that's so
beautiful. And in verse eight, so now, seeing
that this is true, we know this is right. We know that this is
God that does this. It was not you. It was not you
that sent me hither, but God. And he hath made me a father
to Pharaoh, and Lord of all of his house, and a ruler throughout
all the land. What is Egypt again? Always in
the word, the world. Who's ruler of all the world? It is Christ that sitteth upon
the circle of the earth, and all of the inhabitants thereof
are as grasshoppers. We see Christ so beautifully
in Joseph, We tend to think this universe revolves around us. Are you aware of the fact, as
you move through life, as you act and react, as you decide
and choose and proceed, that God is in absolute, unhindered,
sovereign control of everything? It's not you. It's God. Joseph
said it was not you. This doesn't remove the guilt
of their evil, of course. We know that. The Lord uses our
evil. He uses Satan's evil. He uses
everything to accomplish his purposes of grace toward his
elect. The Lord Jesus said in Matthew
18, 7, it must needs be that offenses come. It's purpose that
they're going to come. It was spoken before. It was
prophesied of old that Judas would betray the Lord Jesus Christ
it must be needs be that offenses come but woe to that man by whom
the offense cometh his guilt is not removed and it would have been woe to
these brothers and they knew it they said in
chapter 42 verse 21 we are verily guilty concerning our brother
and that we saw now you listen to this and here Our Lord Jesus
Christ and us in this. They said we're guilty concerning
our brother. What do you mean? We saw the
anguish of his soul and we would not hear. Is it nothing to you
all that pass by? Behold and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow. There was none that did lift
his hand or voice to defend the Lord Jesus Christ, we forsook
him and fled. We saw his anguish and we didn't
hear him. And our guilt in that is not
removed by his gracious purpose. But our guilt is removed by that
blood. And that's what we see here.
Likewise, our Lord asks us, is it nothing to you? We see his
sorrow, his anguish, and what do we do? We mocked him and spit
on him. It would have been justice if
Joseph would have thrown them in a pit like the one that they
threw him in, wouldn't it? That'd just be right. An eye
for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. But here was their salvation
and ours. The very one that they offended
loved them and forgave them. He said, don't you be grieved. Don't you be angry at yourselves.
This was done to save you. The love of Christ is salvation. The love of God is salvation.
Whoever God loves is never going to be punished for their sin,
whoever that is. And this is our hope that the
one we offended, the very one that we nailed to the tree, Peter
said, you killed the prince of life. You crucified the Lord
of glory. But the very one that we nailed
to the tree while he got home there, he cried, Father, forgive
them. They don't know what they're
doing Now think about this why was
Joseph in Egypt What was he doing in Egypt? What caused him to
be there the sin of his brothers He never would have been there
if it hadn't been for their hatred of him and they're throwing him
in that pit What was the result of Joseph coming to Egypt I Their
salvation. You see the Lord Jesus in that.
His exaltation. And our salvation. Joseph on
the throne now. And we're saved. Now, why was Christ in Egypt?
Why was Christ in this world? First Timothy 115. This is a
faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. that Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He's here because
of our sin. That's what he's doing in this
world. That's why Joseph is in Egypt, because of your sin. He must come into this wicked,
sin-wrecked world because of our sin, because his people,
his sinful people were here. What's the result of his coming
into the world? His exaltation and our salvation. Why was Christ
on the cross? Sin. It was my sin. That songwriter wrote, it was
my sin that held him there. That's true in a great sense
of it. There's a real great sense in
which that's true. What was the result of him crucified? The redemption of all of his
people? The salvation of our souls? And also like in our text
when we did the terrible thing that we did This is true in the
same sense joseph said it here it was not you it was god I've
heard people argue in person and i've seen it in writings
I've actually sat in on an argument where people were talking about
was it the jews that crucified the lord or was it the You know
the romans whose fault is it? It wasn't either one, it was
God. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. Of course we're guilty,
all of us. It's all of us in that sense. As far as guilt is concerned,
Jew and Gentile, we're gonna read that in a minute. The rulers
of this earth and the Jews and the Gentiles and everybody rose
up against our Lord. It was not you, it was God. Let's
look at it now, look at Acts chapter four. You're familiar
with this, but we want to see in the context of our study each
time these passages that we may be familiar with, but you see
them from a little different perspective in the Word of God,
and the Lord teaches us that way. Verse 23 of Acts 4, And
being let go, the disciples were persecuted, and when they let
him go, they went to their own company and reported all that
the chief priests and elders had said unto them. And when
they heard that, when the others, you know, heard the report of
all that had happened, all the affliction and the persecution
that they had gone through, and that the gospel was preached,
and some believed, when they heard that, they lifted up their
voice to God with one accord and said, Lord, thou art God. That's a good thing to say, isn't
it? Well, that's obvious that he's God. Not to very many, is
it? Not to very many. You're God. It's good to say that every once
in a while, isn't it? Because we go around thinking
we're God a lot of the time. You're God. Be still and know
that I'm God. Confess that I'm God. which has made heaven and earth
and the sea and all that in them is, who by the mouth of thy servant
David hath said," and we know that this is Psalm 2, isn't it?
Why did the heathen rage and the people imagine vain things?
The kings of the earth stood up and the rulers were gathered
together against the Lord and against His Christ, 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. That pretty much covers everybody.
They were all gathered together against the holy Lord Jesus Christ. What were they doing? It wasn't
you, it was God. For to do whatsoever thy hand
and thy counsel determined before to be done. They're doing just
what God purposed that they would do. Guilty of crucifying the Son
of God. But we need to understand too
that it wasn't you. It was God. It was God. Listen to the words of our text
again and think not of Joseph and his brethren, but of Christ
and us. Listen to verse 7 and a in the
first part of verse 8 God sent me before you to preserve you
a remnant in the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance
So now it was not you that sent me hither but God You see us
and our Lord in that that's so clear, isn't it? And look what
he said then And he hath made me a father
to Pharaoh, and Lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout
all the land of Egypt." Ruler of all the land. Philippians
2.5, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus,
who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be
equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon
him the form of a servant. Joseph was a servant for a while,
wasn't he? He pictured our Lord in that
too, in his humility. He was nobody when he came to
Egypt, a slave, a bondman. He was made in the likeness of
men and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself.
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a
name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow. Do you remember what happened
there in Egypt? Joseph rode through the city in a chariot, and they
ran in front of him and said, bow the knee, bow the knee. He's
highly exalted. Every knee bow of things in heaven
and things in earth and things under the earth and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of
God the Father. He's highly exalted. Do you see
what God is doing in all of this? He sent His Son into Egypt, into
this wicked world. Not so that you'd feel sorry
for Him, And so you'll bow to him. That's what we're going
to do. That's exactly what we're going
to do. We're going to bow. You and I. We may think we're
something now, but soon we'll know that he's everything. And
that we're nothing. We're going to worship him together.
I pray that that's true. I know those who know him will
bow together and worship him together. And look at verse nine. He said,
God did this. He did this to save you. And
then look what he said. Haste ye. I want you to do something.
I want you to do it in a hurry. You go up to my father and say
unto him, thus saith the son, thy son, Joseph, God hath made
me Lord. Isn't that beautiful? Is that
what happened to you? The son sent a messenger to you,
saying, here's what the son has to say. God made me Lord. Now what did he reveal to you? He didn't come with a message,
God loves everybody. He said, I'm on the throne. That's
what he said. Come down unto me, tarry not. These brothers had gone From
the time of morning, Solomon said, there's a time to mourn,
there's a time to dance. Well, they're dancing now. There's
a time to laugh, and this is that time. They're laughing.
And they have great joy. Tears of joy are streaming down
their face. But there's somebody who hasn't
yet heard the good news. There's somebody down there.
You remember when they left, Jacob was miserable, wasn't he?
He didn't much want him to go, but they were starving to death.
They had to go and he was scared for his sons and mourning his
sons that he already had counted himself to have lost. Joseph
is not and Benjamin or Simeon, he's a goner too. And now Benjamin
is in peril. He's miserable and worried and
afraid. That's you and I in this world. somebody that Joseph loves. But who does not yet know that
all of his worries are over. Jacob doesn't have a thing in
this world to worry about. But he don't know it yet. That was us, wasn't it? That
was us. Oh, and Joseph said, hurry up
and go tell him. Go tell him. All of his fears are unfounded. All of his miseries are because
of untruths. Joseph's not dead. Simeon's not
dead. Haste ye. Isn't that beautiful?
Haste ye. What does he need to hear? Well, first we see he needs to
hear what the son has to say. You don't need to hear stories
of the road. You know, oh, we were traveling back to Egypt
and you won't believe what happened. Who cares what happened? He needs
to hear the message that the son has for him. Tell him thus saith the son.
That's what somebody told me one day. And I can't quite get
over that. The grace of God to send his
gospel to me, to me. Somebody stood up one day and
asked me a question. Are you thirsty? Are you thirsty? And by God's grace, I was. I
was. And they said the same thing.
Joseph said, then come. Come down here. Not to the front
of the church. Come ye to the waters. Come ye
to the river of life, clear as crystal, that flows from the
throne of God. Christ is the river. Come to
him. Come unto me, all ye that are
thirsty, and drink, and you'll never be thirsty again. And then look at the next phrase.
He said, you tell him what, what the son has to say. And then
he said this, tell him who's on the throne. That's the message
of the gospel. It's the message of a sovereign
Christ, isn't it? He comes and tells us who's on
the throne. The one who loves you more than
anybody in the world. Do you remember when you found
that out for the first time that your brother was on the throne?
that the God who's so loved that he gave his only begotten son,
that even a wretch like me that lays hold of him will have everlasting
life. He's on the throne. He's on the
throne. A would-be savior for all of
his pity and all of his well-wishing that's not on the throne can't
save a flea. the Savior that this world talks
about, that this religious generation speaks of. He wants to save you,
but he can't get it done. I'll tell you who can. Go tell
Jacob, that worm Jacob, that the Son is on the throne. God said, I've set my King upon
my holy hill. And you know what he said later
in that song? Kiss the sun. That's the one that's sitting
on the hill. He's sitting on the circle of the earth. And
everybody else is a grasshopper now. He's the king of glory. He reigns and rules. And he said
in that high priestly prayer, he said, you've given me authority
over all flesh for a purpose that I might give eternal life
to those ones you gave me. Oh, that's my savior. That's
the message that came to me. I found out who was on the throne.
How about you? And if nobody else in the world
cares about you, if nobody would give a plug nickel for you in
this world, the one that sits on the throne loves you. And he's lower over all Egypt. And here's his message to you.
You come here to me. And that what he said there.
You tell him. Come here to me. Hey, she and
go tell him. Don't Terry. Come. And isn't this our message to
sinners? The spirit and the bride say come. And let him that here
is a calm. And let him that's thirsty come. And whosoever will, whosoever's
thirsty, whosoever needing a drink, whosoever the famine has made
desperate, take of the water of life freely. You don't need
any money. You don't need anything. Just come. Just like you are. What was the problem where Jacob
was down there? Famine. Famine. come and take the water of life
freely. Why is it free and abundant for me when so many
others are dying of starvation? These famines were horrible.
You remember where we read that a little bit of bird poop would
sell for a great price because they didn't have anything to
eat. There's maybe a little bit of nutrients in that. And people
were killing one another and cooking their children. But the one on the throne is
calling for me to come. And I'm going to take care of
you. You're not ever going to lack for anything again in your
life. Why me when everybody else? So many are starving. Because
the one on the throne loves you. That's why. And always has. Are you thirsty? Come and don't
tarry. Don't tarry. Isn't that what
he said? Look at it again there. Genesis
45. What are you waiting for? Haste
ye and go up to my father and say unto him, Thus saith thy
son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all the world. All Egypt,
come down unto me, Terri not. That's the message, come. And
then look at verse 10, and I don't even have to listen to the language
here. And you shall dwell, you come
to me, and you'll dwell in the land of Goshen. And you'll be
near unto me, you and your children, and your children's children,
and your flocks, and your herds, and all that you have. And there
will I nourish thee. Oh, that's what I need. That's
what I need. For yet there are five years
of famine. Lest thou, now here's a warning,
and all that you have come to poverty. The Lord says, warn
my people. Warn them, lest that come upon
you, which the prophet prophesied that Somebody will stand up and
tell you the word of God, and you won't hear it, and you'll
perish. Beware lest that come upon you. But come and don't tarry. There's
plenty. The one on the throne loves his family, his own. Doesn't even need to come in
on that. I'll nourish you there. I'll
take care of you. You'll never lack for anything.
And you know our Lord Jesus used this same language to his disciples.
He said, quit worrying about what you're going to eat or what
you're going to drink or what you're going to wear. Seek ye
first what? The kingdom. Jacob, there's a
kingdom. I'm on the throne. And you come
into this kingdom. And I'll nourish you. I'll give
you everything you need. Don't worry. Don't take any thought
about what you're going to eat. I know what you need. You think
Jacob ever lacked for anything to wear after he came there?
Or any of the brothers? Or for anything? He said, I know
what you need and I'll give it to you. These things will be
added to you. Seek my kingdom. Christ provides
all of our physical needs and all of our spiritual needs. Our
business is not to provide for ourselves. Our business is to
honor him. Isn't the language here beautiful? I want to stop there tonight.
I want to take our time through this chapter and see the beautiful
language here. God did this to save you. Now
you come. The one on the throne says come.
Let's bow in prayer.