Now, if you'll take your Bibles
and turn back with me to Genesis chapter 50, this is going to be the last
of our lessons in the book of Genesis. And the Lord willing,
we'll begin next Wednesday night in the book of Exodus. My subject tonight is taken from
verse 20. In this verse, Joseph says to his
brethren, but as for you, you thought evil against me. But God meant it unto good, to bring to pass as it is this
day, to save much people alive. That's the title of the message
tonight, God meant it for good. Now let me see if I can set the
stage with all these characters so that we can put the words
of this verse into its proper light. I read through the chapter
a while ago, but I read through kind of hurriedly. But the old
patriarch Jacob had died. Now you think what a man Jacob
was. This man called Israel, a prince
with God. A man who had power with God. Jacob called in scripture God's
elect. God said of this man before he
was ever born, before he ever did any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand that his elder brother
was going to serve him. Because Jacob have I loved. What a life he lived and what
a death he died. He came to the end of his days
in the fullness of faith and blessed his children, and then
gathered his feet up into the bed and gave up the goats for
the death to die. Jacob died, and Joseph, because
of the oath he swore to his father, carried him up into Canaan to
be buried with his beloved fathers Abraham and Isaac. And it says,
a great company of men went up with him. And it lists these
things. The Holy Ghost don't put things
in here just to fill up space. Listen to what a caravan went
up into Canaan out of Egypt. All of the servants of Pharaoh's
house. Now I've watched some specials
on the TV, on the History Channel and different Discovery Channel
and things about Egypt. When you're talking about Pharaoh's
servants, you're talking about hundreds if not thousands of
men. And all of the servants of Pharaoh's
house, the elders of his house, and all the elders of Egypt,
and then all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and all of
his father's house. And plus that, then we have chariots. and horsemen, some kind of a
royal guard, I'm guessing here. I'm just trying to read between
the lines. But Pharaoh's not going to let the Lord of Egypt
go up there unguarded. And he's certainly not going
to turn loose all of his elders and all of his servants and all
these elders in Egypt to go up here without some kind of royal
guard, an army that accompanied them along. And so there were
chariots and horsemen and it says in the Scripture, a great
company of men. And then when they get up there,
their seven days was a mourning held over Jacob, the like of
which even the Canaanites took notice. Even the Canaanites,
they saw this great company of men. It must have looked like,
I mean, we're talking about dirt roads here, and we're talking
about chariots and horsemen and foot soldiers and servants and
all this company of men coming up and dressed to the hilt, you
know that they were, with banners and flags and carrying this man
and everybody's looking to see what's going on. And they come
into this little place there and then a seven-day mourning
is held over this man that they're burying. And the Canaanites took
notice of it. And after that, they began their
journey back home. And Joseph's brethren looked
over at him and this great company of Egyptians. And they began
to think on just how much majesty They're reminded again. See,
they've been down in Goshen. It's been a while since they've
been up in his presence. And they're reminded again. They
see this huge company of men and people running. If he got
a stick of dust on his foot, somebody was over there wiping
it off. And he's riding in comfort. He's not walking with his brethren.
He's riding in comfort. He's the Lord of Egypt. And he's
over here in this band of men. They're waiting on him hand and
foot and they see all these soldiers and all this great show of Egyptian
power and glory and majesty and they're reminded of who their
brother is. Who he is in his majesty. And they know that this great
Egyptian presence was not for them and it wasn't for their
dead father but it was in honor of Joseph. And then they started
thinking about what they'd done to Joseph. Joseph told them when
he was just a child that one day they were going to bow down
to him and they made fun of him. And they ridiculed him. And then
when the time come, they took him and stripped him of the coat
that his father gave him. Stripped him of the glory that
the father put on him and threw him into a pit. Wanted to kill
him, but one of the brothers interceded for him. And rather
than kill him, they sold him into Egypt as a slave. They got to thinking about what
they'd done to him. And they began to Think about how they'd made fun
of his prophecies and how their jealousy had stripped him of
his glory and they'd thrown him into this pit and sold him into
slavery and gotten rid of him and then lied to his father about
his death and was glad that he was gone and lived many years
at ease and at peace at home while old Joseph was suffering
down in the dungeon, down in the prison. And Joseph had revealed
himself to them. and made provision for him and
gave him a place in his kingdom to live. But now that Jacob had
died, they got to talking among themselves and they said, there's
just no way that Joseph could forgive us. No way. He'd been kind to us for Jacob.
That's why he showed mercy to us for Jacob. He couldn't possibly
forget all that we'd done to him. He couldn't possibly love
us. In spite of all that we've done to him, it just can't be. You know why it couldn't be?
Because they couldn't do it. That's right. They couldn't do
it. There's just no way a lifetime
of pain and suffering and rejection and hatred could just be forgotten. And so they reasoned among themselves
that Joseph had been kind to them for Jacob's sake. And so
they made up this little story. And they said, here's what we're
going to tell you. And so they called a servant. They agreed
on the story. And they called a servant over. And they said,
now you go tell Joseph that before he died, his father commanded. And he said, forgive your brothers. Forgive your brothers. Jacob
didn't say that. Jacob didn't instruct any such
thing, nor did Joseph need it. But they made it up. They made
it up. And they sent him. And listen
to how, so shall you say unto Joseph, forgive, I pray thee
now, the trespass of thy brethren and their sin. For they did unto
thee evil, and now we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants
of the God of thy father. Now they want to identify with
God in this. They never considered God in
anything they ever did. Not in their marriage, not in
anything that they did. Everything they did had been
contrary to God. And now, all of a sudden, they
want to identify. They want Joseph to believe that
this was the will of Jacob. And for Jacob's sake, have mercy
on him, because he commanded. That was his will when he died.
And besides that, we'd be servants of the God of our father. And
it says, Joseph wept when they spake unto him. I do not believe
he wept because of his love for his father. And I don't believe
he wept because they played on his sympathy. I believe he wept
because they doubted his love for them. And he loved them. He loved them. As a type of Christ,
I look ahead at the Redeemer himself coming to another funeral. And he was sent for, but he didn't
show up right away. He waited instead until his friend
had died. And then when he came to the
funeral, there was mourners all around. And his friend's two
sisters, who were also servants of Christ, they were friends
of Christ and disciples of Christ. And they saw him coming, and
they ran to him, and they fell down at his feet. But they looked
up at him, and they said, if you'd been here, our brother
had not died. And the mourners all looked at
Him as these two sisters with tears in their eyes accused Him. Here's their accusation. You
didn't love Him. Because if you'd loved Him, you'd
have been here. And if you'd been here, He wouldn't be dead.
And you know what they said? Jesus wept. He wept. Why did He weep? Because they
doubted His love for them. You think of what this man suffered
in his lifetime for them. And on one occasion, they doubt
his love for them. And I was thinking in this of
Joseph's love for his brethren and what this young man had suffered. The false accusations and the
criticism and suffering for crimes that he didn't commit, suffering
for somebody else's crimes, and he's down there in that dungeon
and all those things. And yet, yet, and he's made provision
for them. Here they are. He sent up. He
sent up from Pharaoh. And for his sake, Pharaoh accepted
them into the land and made provision for them, put them down in Goshen.
And now yet, they do not believe that he loves them. And Joseph wept. There's not
a clearer type of the Lord Jesus Christ that I can find in all
of the scriptures than Joseph. If you look at the overall life
of Joseph, it is just such a clear picture of Christ and so many
things about Christ is pictured in his life. I've tried to bring
some of those things to you as we've gone through the scriptures.
But everything in his life nearly pictured the suffering, resurrected,
exalted, redeemer. And I believe Joseph knew that.
I believe he knew that. And I believe Jacob knew that.
What a painful thing it is to have your love scorned and questioned. But isn't that exactly what brings
doubts to our minds? Isn't that exactly where our
trouble is? Isn't that where the fear enters
into our own hearts? Joseph's brethren couldn't believe
that he could love them and forgive them and take care of them because
they couldn't picture themselves being able to do it. And that's
exactly where our problem comes in. We begin to doubt His love
for us. How could He love me? You look
at yourself and you begin to consider who you are. And you
look at His majesty and His exaltation into glory. And He's seated at
the right hand of God. There's not a servant of God
who's ever seen Him like Daniel. His comeliness melted into corruption. Isaiah grabbed his face and said,
I'm a man of unclean lips. Unclean, unclean. I dwell among
a people of unclean lips. John saw Him and fell at His
feet like a dead man. And on and on and on with the
people who saw the Lord. We see Him in His exaltation
and His glory and seated at the right hand of God and victorious
over all things. And we look at Him and then we
begin to think about what we are. and what we've done, and
what we have done today, and are doing right now this second.
Huh? How could he love me? How could
he love me? I'll tell you how he can love
you, because he ain't like you. That's how he can love you. He
ain't like you. But that's the problem. How could He forgive me and love
me and provide for me? That's our problem. We just can't
imagine a grace so free and a love so great that it can and does
include the chief of sinners. Paul said, He saved me, the chief
of sinners, that He might show forth in me a pattern, that He
might show forth in me just how far down He'll go. He saved me,
the chief of sinners. And I tell you this, God's mercy
and love do not come because we deserve it. That's the first
thing. If these boys had just thought,
if they had just thought about it, these things didn't come
to them because they deserved it. It didn't come because Jacob
deserved it. God's mercy and love do not come
because we deserve it, but because God in sovereign grace chose
us to it. That's what he tells us about
Jacob before he's ever born. He tells us over and over, where
sin abounded, grace did much more abound. That's what it's
about. It's not about you and what you do. It's about Him and
what He has done and what He's yet going to do. Let me give
you three things tonight concerning what Joseph said here and concerning
their doubt for His love for us. And the first thing I want
you to see is this. He looks at them and he said,
but as for you, he said, I'm going to talk about you first.
You meant it for evil. I know that. I'm the one you
did it to. I know that. As for you, as for
you. So let's just get that out of
the way. As for us, let's just put ourselves in that place. Just insert your own name there
when Joseph's talking to his brethren. Ask for us. Ask for
you. Oh, the Lord said, the carnal
mind's enmity against God is not subject to the law of God,
neither indeed can be. And left to ourselves, we'll
reject and rebel against all light, the light of conscience,
the light of creation, and especially the light of the gospel. The
preaching of the cross is to them that are perishing foolishness.
That's what it is. It's just foolishness. You brought
in somebody here the other night. Just what I got up here and said
to him was foolishness. And we had visitors here all
the time, and they come in and they sit down and listen. And
some of them get mad, and some of them get glad, and some of
them leave and say, we'll hear you again. It's just foolishness. It's not foolishness. But it
is to that man who's perishing. The preaching of the cross unto
them that are perishing is foolishness. He said, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness
unto it. He said, the philosophers seek after wisdom, and the religious
of this world after signs and evidences. You meant it for evil. That's what he said. You meant
it. Boy, we won't make excuses, though,
don't we? Call somebody up. Now, I wouldn't
have done that except, yeah, you would have. You meant it
for evil. Just own up. Ask for you. That's what he's
telling you. Ask for you. Don't you hear that in the preaching
of the Lord Jesus Christ when he talked to them about who they
were? Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts and ask for you.
He said, I don't need any of you to tell me what's in man.
I know what's in man. I know what's in him. Ask for
you. Let's just get that out of the
way. Everything we ever did, everything we ever said, everything
we ever thought, everything we ever believed in, we meant it
for evil. We meant it for evil. Oh, I'll tell you what. I was
sitting here thinking about old Joseph. You thought evil against
me." And he said, God chose me, God enlightened me, God set me
apart from you, and you didn't even consider God's hand or purpose
in me at all. Not one time. All the preaching
I did to you, all that my father had done, all that God's providence
had that surrounded my walk and sent me to you and all of these
things you never considered one time. And then I come down here
into Egypt and God exalted me to the throne and I saved your
ornery hide. You were starving to death up
there in Canaan and I brought you down here and gave you my
corn and gave you the chief place in the whole of the land of Egypt.
I put you over in Goshen and blessed you. And a whole time,
everything you thought and everything you said and everything you did,
you meant it for evil. But God meant it for good. And that second thing I see here,
he said, but God. That's what Joseph said. But
God. God's not like us. We're evil. God's not evil. Job said man
drinks iniquity like water. Solomon said, the heart of the
sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart
while they live. And after that, they go to the
dead. Man's evil. Just get that in your mind and
heart. Quit looking in there for something good. There's nothing
good in there. In me dwelleth no good thing.
Isn't that what it says? There's none righteous. Then
why do we keep looking for righteousness in there? There's none righteous.
There's none that understandeth. Oh, I can do this. I can understand
this. No, you can't. If He don't reveal
it to you, you're not going to understand it. He's not like us. And you can't
know God by searching your own heart. Now, that's the first
mistake. They start searching their own
heart saying, I just, He couldn't do that. He
couldn't forgive me. Not if He's like you. He can't.
But He's not like you. Listen to this, Job 11, verse
7. He said, Canst thou by searching
find out God? Is there something or somewhere
in you that you can look, somewhere that you can go in there and
find out God? Can you find out the Almighty
unto perfection? Can you go in there and learn
the perfections of His character, the perfections of His holiness
and justice? of His love and His mercy and
His grace. Is there something in you you can go in there and
compare to God? God said, you thought I was altogether
such a one as yourself. But He said, I'm going to set
you in order. Job said, it's high as heaven.
What can you do? It's deeper than hell. What can
you know? The only way for a sinful man
to know God is for God to reveal Himself to him. Let me tell you
something. The only people that God will
reveal himself to are those that he has, by sovereign grace, chose
and set apart as objects of his love before the foundation of
the world. And that love never changes.
It didn't change in the fall. It didn't change when he destroyed
the world. It didn't change when you was
born. It didn't change when you was out there jumping up and
down and shaking your fist in his face. It didn't change. That
love never changes. It never loses sight of that
object. That's who God reveals himself
to, those for whom he appointed a mediator and a covenant surety
and a federal head and a representative. A preacher, can you make good
on that? I think I can. Look over with me at Ephesians
chapter 2. Let me show you something over
here. Ephesians chapter 2. In Ephesians chapter 2, he tells
us that we're all dead in trespasses and sins. When did we die? We died in Adam, as in Adam all
died. That's what scripture says. It
says we're all dead in trespasses and sins, that we all walked.
We were born. God gives us an existence on
this earth. God gives us a mind and reason. He gives us light. He gives us
the light of conscience and creation. To some, He gives the light of
gospel truth, the light of law. There's all kinds of light. And
so man has a walk before God. But we walked according to the
course of this world. We didn't walk with God. We didn't
walk in the light. We didn't do that. We walked
according to the course of this world. We walked according to
the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh
in the children of disobedience. And we were all children of wrath. That is, all having the same
blindness, the same sickness, the same sin, the same Leprosy
is every other son of Adam born into this world. Verse 4, But
God, you see where Joseph was coming from? But God, who is
rich in mercy, now watch this, for his great love wherewith
he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ, By grace ye are saved. And has raised
us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus. God did this, not because we
deserved it, not because we obeyed him. He did this before we was
ever born. But because he loved us is what it says. He loved
us. Sovereignly chose to bless us
and show us mercy and grace just like He did Joseph's brethren
down in Egypt. They couldn't see it, but they
were received in Joseph. Loved in Joseph. Accepted in
Joseph. Exalted in Joseph. And He says
here in Ephesians 2, verse 7, He did all that in order that
in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of
His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For
by grace are you saved. Huh? Not by merit. By grace. By grace. Not one consideration of who
you are or what you did. Ain't you glad salvation is by
grace? Boy, I used to fight it tooth and toenail. Not when God opened my eyes.
By grace. Are you saved through faith?
A gracious faith, a faith given to you. And that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should vote. He said, as for you, you meant
it for evil, but God. God meant it for good. Oh, I tell you, with man it's
impossible. But with God, he said, all things
are possible. Here's the assurance. That's
what we want, ain't it? Huh? I want some assurance. Where's
the assurance? If God be for us. Huh? If God be for us. Who can be
against us? Is He for us? That's the question,
isn't it? Is He for us? How can we have
confidence that He is? How can this sinner whose all
his life long meant everything for evil, learned whether or
not God meant it for good. How can I know that? Well, I
believe there are several things involved here. First of all,
Jacob was a prophet of God, and these boys knew it. And they
listened to everything he said. Now, they didn't always obey
everything they said, but they knew he was a man of God, chosen
of God. They knew God communicated to
him, and he communicated to them. And they looked to him for that,
but they never one time considered Joseph. And when his father died,
Joseph was the prophet. And that's the first thing. We're
going to have to listen to that man who in God's providence has
been sent to us. That's the first step. Who is
that man? I don't know. I don't know. Might
be me. Might be Don. Might be one of
these other men that God's appointed to preach the gospel. Might be
David Fletcher. I don't know who it is. But you're
going to listen to whoever it is that God crosses your path
and sends your way, or he's going to send you to hell, one or the
other. Write it down. That's the first thing. They're
going to have to listen to Joseph. Nobody else in Egypt has a word
of encouragement for them or comfort for them or can tell
them anything at all about God that's going to give peace to
their heart except Joseph. That's why God put him there.
And that's what he tells them. You meant it for evil, but God
meant it for good as it is this day, right now today, he said,
to save much people alive. Now listen to him. And watch
this. Now therefore, fear ye not. Who said that? Joseph. Joseph. I will nourish you and
your little ones, and he comforted them, and he spake kindly unto
them. I'm going to tell you something.
You can't submit yourself to God and reject God's ways and
means. You just can't do it. You're
just spitting in the wind. Submission to God is to willingly
put yourself in His hands. That's the hand of His purpose.
God had a purpose. From all these years back, He
had a purpose. Can't you see God's purpose when
the Lord opened your eyes? Couldn't you begin to see His
purpose going back in things? I can't. God, you're putting
yourself into His hands of purpose. What's out there for me? I don't
know. Would you feel more comfortable if you was in charge? Uh-uh.
No. I'd rather He be in charge. Because
I meant everything for evil. God meant it for good. Let's
leave it in His hands. You're going to have to submit
yourselves into His hands of purpose and His hands of providence.
Whatever God brings your way, it's of God, isn't it? Who sits
on the throne? Who arranges these things? Who
puts these things? How do circumstances get here?
I get so sick of listening to these people on TV talking about
how lucky they were. You're going to have to put yourself
in his hands of preservation. God meant it for good to save
much people alive as it is this day. in his hands of means. You just
can't walk with God and dictate how you walk. I just don't want
to do that. I'm going to do this. You better
not. God put Joseph in his stead before
his brethren and they had to submit themselves to him or walk
without God. Secondly, they had to find assurance
in his testimony. It was Joseph that said, and
Joseph that comforted, and Joseph that spoke kindly, and Joseph
that provided, and Joseph that fed them the whole way and time
that they were down in Egypt. And what a heart of grace he
put in Joseph to speak to his brethren the way he did. How
they rejected him, and despised him, and hated him, and now even
in this day after he proved himself to them through every kind of
trial God could lay in his path. And he's proved himself faithful
to God and faithful to them and loved them and provided for them.
And now they question his love. And even after that, he speaks
kindly to them. And then here's the third and
final point of the message tonight. Joseph pointed his brethren to
the saving character of God. God meant it for good. Now, it's
utterly impossible for a sinful man to imagine a God that's good
and gracious and merciful and loving to a creature like himself. There's no way he can do it.
A God whose heart is to show this glory, this glory of His
mercy and this glory of His grace. There's no other reason. As we
begin to do our study in Ephesians and we go through Ephesians chapter
1. You're just going to keep running
on to this according to the good pleasure of His will. Because
He wanted to. Because it made Him happy. Because
He's good. It's the goodness of God that
turned men. Did you know that? The goodness
of God that leadeth thee to repentance. It's His goodness. Oh, that old leper came up there. stinking, smelly leper and his
skin falling off of him and scabs and pus running and he threw
himself down there at the feet of the Master and he said, Lord,
if you will. He said, I will. Huh? Goodness. Goodness. Love. Mercy. Oh, he said, this is the
Father's will which has sent me, that every one which seeth
the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life. Our
God's more willing to save than we are to be saved. He's more
willing to love than we are to be loved. We're just like them. We just cannot be, because we
can't see ourself doing it. Boy, somebody does something
mean to me, I remember it till I die. Every time I see them,
it's like flashback, isn't it? Playback, whatever they call
that on the news. They go back and there it is. There it is again. I see them
and hear that name. People did things to me in my
childhood. Boy, we was looking through the yearbooks at the
school on this thing Kathy's got on the internet, and I see
somebody back there did me wrong. I'd see it clear as if it happened
yesterday. He puts our sins behind His back. We can't imagine that, can we? That's love. That's true forgiveness. That's true mercy. We can't do
it, so we can't possibly imagine that He did it, but He's not
like us. He's God. He's God. And his love is unchangeable.
Joseph's brethren thought they could coerce their brother into
loving him for Jacob's sake. Isn't that what men and women
are being told today? But the truth is that God's love
is before all things. It's the wellspring of all things.
You want to talk about his purpose? You want to talk about his predestination?
You want to talk about all those things? Go on back past that,
past that, and past that until there's nothing else. And here's
what you're going to find. It's the wellspring of everything
that God did. It's the wellspring behind every
blessing. And the love of God, don't make
this mistake, the love of God did not come to us because Christ
died. Christ died because God loved
us. We can't imagine that, can we?
He loved us. Listen to this. In this was manifested
the love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten
son into the world that we might live through him. He manifested. The love was already there. Herein
is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent
his son to be the propitiation for our sin. God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten son. Oh, I tell you, Joseph's brethren
wanted more. They wanted more than they had,
but they didn't know what they had. They didn't know what they had. God had long ago sealed him up
in an everlasting covenant. He'd long before appointed for
them an everlasting surety. God had long ago established
the way of salvation in the earth, spoke about the woman's seed,
and He'd come to the this old childless heathen named Abraham,
their great-grandfather, and demonstrated that way in his
son Isaac up on Mount Moriah. And God in sovereign love and
grace had arranged all things together for their good and His
glory. And this is how we come to find
assurance when we discover by faith the love of God and the
goodness of God and His resurrected King. And that's what Joseph's
telling us. You meant it for evil against
me, against me. But he said, God meant it for
good. Meant what? Meant Him. Meant Him, His presence,
His throne, His glory, His magic, all the things that they feared.
God meant those things for good. He meant it for good. Oh, God
was in Christ, Paul said, reconciling the world unto Himself. Not! Let that sink in. Not! Not imputing
their trespasses unto them. That unchangeable, eternal, everlasting,
effectual love of God that Paul said he could not be separated
from over in Romans chapter 8. Nothing could separate him from
it. Not things present, nor things to come, nor life, nor death,
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Oh, God help
us to see and rejoice and not doubt His love. Perfect fear,
I mean perfect love, John said over in I John, he said, perfect
love casteth out all fear. I'll tell you why we fear. We
just can't believe He could love us. He could love us. And the
only way you can believe Him is to look to His Son.