For those of you who have been
following along with us, as our elder said, we've been actually
going through the book of Genesis, and we're going through the book
of the Old Testament. One of the objectives in going
through the Old Testament is to demonstrate, as God enables
us to demonstrate, the primary purpose for the Old Testament,
and that is to reveal to us the coming of Jesus Christ in the
volume of the book. You probably have never heard
that concept before, that the scriptures were designed to reveal
to us the redeeming work of God in Christ. And a lot of people
ask the question, well, since we are in the New Testament age,
does the Old Testament have any relevance to us? And we often
confuse the concepts of covenants with scripture. God has dealt
with the human race in two primary dispensations, the old covenant
dispensation and the new covenant dispensation. You and I live
in the new covenant dispensation. But when we talk about covenants,
we are talking about the way God dealt with us. When we talk
about the Bible, the word of God from Genesis to Revelation,
it is God's word. It is God's complete revelation
to mankind. And every word from Genesis 1
to Revelation 22 and 21, listen to this now, is God's relevant
truth to our life. So you have to be able to make
a distinction when you talk about, well, I'm not under the old covenant,
I'm under the new. Well, if you're under the new
covenant, this is what you do with the Old Testament. You take
the Old Testament, ask God the Holy Spirit to help you comprehend
the New Testament in the Old Testament. Did you hear that?
The goal is to understand the gospel in the Old Testament is
to be able to see Christ coming in the volume of the book is
to understand how God operates in terms of his redeeming grace
in the life of his people all the time. You know what the Bible
says in the book of Malachi around chapter 3 verse 6. I am the Lord. And I change not, that's what
he says. You know what that means? God's program in redeeming sinners
has been the same from the foundation of the world. He saves sinners
today the way he saved sinners 10,000 years ago. Did you hear
that? the way he saved Abel, the way
he saved Noah, the way he saved Abraham and Isaac, the way he
saved Sarah, the way he saved Rebecca and Rachel and Leah,
the way he saved Rahab the harlot and Ruth the Moabitess, the way
he saved David and Solomon and Jephthah and all those brothers
of old, the way he saved Paul, the way he saved me is the way
he saves and he saves by his pure free grace alone. That's how he saves. So they
know the gospel just like we do. My goal over this series,
which will last until about April or May, perhaps June of the year
2006, is to help you understand how to read the Old Testament
and see our Savior's redeeming work. Now I'm gonna tell you
now that you don't have that privilege in most places because
most men, most women are not taught to look for the savior
in the volume of the book. Secondly, the only way you're
gonna comprehend him is if God the Holy Spirit helps you see
today the message of redemption. There are a number of things
here in chapter 44 that are an immense challenge. I don't know
if you're gonna see it. I hope you see just a little
bit. If you do, it will suffice. I hope you young people can see
just a little bit today. I'm gonna be talking to you as
well. If you do, it will suffice. We talked last time about Joseph
and how that God had raised him up to be a premier, premier type
of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. And that is the case. Today's message is the revelation
of Joseph. the revelation of Joseph. You'll
see that in your outline, part one. I put that in about seven hours ago, part one, because
as I was dealing with chapter 44, I said, you know what? I'm
gonna have to deal with this in at least two parts, because
there's so much there. Now, this is how this works.
The title, the revelation of Joseph is what is called a double
entendre, follow me. A double entendre is a truth
or a statement that has dual meaning, two meanings. And when
we regard the statement or the title, the revelation of Joseph,
the first thing we wanna see is how Joseph is working influencing
the exposure of the nature and character of his brethren as
he brings them to himself. We've already seen this in chapter
43 and 42. You notice Joseph's brethren
are coming to him, isn't that right? Joseph's brethren are
coming to him just as the scriptures said they would in the dream
that God had given to Joseph. So they're coming. And as they
come, however, God is dealing with them. God is dealing with
them in terms of who they are and what they've done. And this
all is descriptive of the work of the Holy Spirit as he draws
you and me before the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope
that you can bear some record. So in the first sense, we are
dealing with not the revelation of Joseph subjectively, but objectively. Joseph is exposing the life and
the heart and the character of his brothers. Secondly, we're
gonna see how that Joseph reveals himself to his brethren. I want
you to know this. When you come to God, as you
come to God, God exposes you to you. Isn't that true? And
as you come to him, him exposing you to you is exposing you to
him. See, there is a corresponding
truth there. The more that I learn about God, the more that I learn
about myself. The more I see his glory, the
more I see my corruption. The more I see his purity, the
more I see my impurity. Now that's called sanctification.
You've heard folks talk about progressive sanctification. You
get born again, you're saved, you grow more and more in holiness,
and you get better and better, and you get purer and purer.
Then one day, your feet not even touching the ground, you're so
holy. That's a delusion. I want you to know that. I want
you to know that's a delusion. The believer in Christ gets holy
one time. He gets holy at the same time
he gets justified, at the same time that he's made righteous,
and that's in Christ. From the moment we are born again,
we are fit for glory. Do you know that? From the moment
we are born again, we can go to glory. The rest of your life
is icing on the cake. But from the moment that God
quickens you from the dead and gives you life and faith in Jesus
Christ, you are fit for glory. That's why we read of that magnanimous
account of our Savior hanging on the cross, dying for the sins
of his people, reaching over to that thief on the right side
and said, today you'll be with me in glory. That thief was fit
for glory because he was chosen in Christ. He was clothed with
Christ's righteousness, and he was just as holy as he was going
to ever be. The experience then, which is
so critical to you and me, is this. What is happening when
God is drawing me to Christ? What is happening? What is happening
when God draws the sinner by his spirit to the savior? That's
what our account is dealing with. And we saw last time how that,
when Joseph finally saw his brother and they came to him, they came
to him and in your outline, we are dealing with this and you
can follow your outline with me just so that you can know
how this goes, pastor's commentary and outline. The first point
of that outline is how is it or why is it that they are coming
to Joseph? Well, the reason they're coming
to Joseph is because Joseph is the only one they can come to.
Did you get that? So you don't miss that. We already
learned that last week, didn't we? We learned that God had highly
exalted Joseph and made him the vizier of Egypt. God had placed
Joseph at the right hand of Pharaoh. Pharaoh in Egyptian language
means God. Joseph stands as second in command.
As our Lord Jesus stood as second in command over all the universe
under his heavenly father. You see the typology? God had
highly exalted him and given him a name above every name that
at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow. So everyone in Egypt
and in the world, according to Genesis 41, they had to come
to Joseph, didn't they? Everybody had to come to Joseph.
If you wanted corn, you better come to Joseph. And you know
what 1 Timothy 2, 5 says? There's one mediator between
God and man. you know who that is the man
christ jesus do you see the typology there see they had to come and
we all got to come before jesus do you know that it's whether
you come now or whether you come later whether you bow now whether
you bow later you're coming to christ because God has set him
up to be just that way. So the first reason for which
these brethren had come to Joseph was because Joseph was the mediator.
He was the one whom Pharaoh had set up to disperse the corn in
that famished period. If you were going to be fed,
you got to go to Joseph. You gotta go to Joseph. Is that
gospel or what? No man comes unto the father
but by me. Isn't that what Jesus says? I
am the way, the truth and the life. He says, I am the bread
from heaven. If you want bread, you gotta go to the son to get
bread. Did you know that? And so if you go anywhere else,
you'll starve to death. Now here's the second reason
why they came to Joseph. Remember, it was a famine in
the land. You guys remember that? It was a huge famine in the land.
Genesis chapter 41 and 42, Joseph, he had interpreted Pharaoh's
dream. the seven fat kind and the seven
thin kind cows. Remember the seven thin cows
ate up the seven fat cows. And Joseph said there would be
seven years of blessing and then seven years of intense famine.
We are right now in the second year of the famine. We are in
the second year of the famine and Joseph's brethren have come
to him a second time because the first time they came he received
corn and he received it. They received it freely and we'll
get into that in a moment. They went home. They ate up the
corn and they're hungry again. So when you get hungry again,
where do you go? You go to the same person that fed you the
first time. I wish people would understand that. I wish people
would understand that you don't leave Christ. You don't go get
a little full from Christ and then go back to the world and
engage in all the indulgences of the world. And then when your
soul get famished again, you got to go back to Christ. Just
stay there. Stay there and eat the corn from heaven and you'll
never be hungry. Isn't that true? All right then,
so we're dealing with a famine. We're dealing with a famine,
that experience that draws a man to have to contemplate eternity.
I'm talking about the famine of the soul. That experience
that causes you and I to realize how frail life is, how empty
and vain it is. You know when you're fat and
full, we think there's something to this world, don't we? When
we have plenty and we are sufficiently provided for, we actually esteem
this world very highly. But once we are stripped of those
things that cater to our flesh, and we are found facing nothing
but the real me, which is my soul, then we begin to think
about God, isn't that so? That's if God is merciful to
you. If God's merciful to you, you'll start thinking about your
soul. And so in that sense, listen to this, famine is good, isn't
it? In the sense that famine drives you to contemplate eternity,
famine is good. Blessed famine. Matthew chapter
five, verse six says, blessed are they that what? Hunger and
thirst for righteousness. And I'm here to tell you, God
has to give you a hunger. You and I are not born hungry
for God. We're born hungry for sin, but
we're not born hungry for God. And when God gives you a hunger
for Him, then He's going to draw you to Himself through that desperation,
through that famine. And I'm praying that you get
it today. I'm praying that you contemplate
what's going on. We're not speaking of a physical famine. We're speaking
of a spiritual famine. And if you recall in Amos 8,
verse 11, you don't have to go there. It's about the only passage
in the Old Testament that speaks specifically about the character
of famine. God says in Amos 8 11 and I will
bring a famine into the land in those days. You remember that
in those days? I will bring a famine in the
Old Testament. God was the one who brought famine.
Did you know that when the children of Israel were in the promised
land, one of the covenant stipulations was that if you obeyed me, I
would cause it to rain, bless your corn, bless your harvest,
bless your going in and going out. But if you disobey me, the
heavens will become brass. and I will bring dearth and famine.
So we find a number of accounts in the Old Testament where God
brought a famine to teach his people a lesson. And as we go
through the Old Testament, you and I are gonna look at some
of those famine circumstances so that we can learn a truth
too. Here's what God says, Amos 8 11. I'm gonna bring a famine
in the land, not a famine for food, physical food, not a famine
for thirst of water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.
You guys remember that? a famine of hearing the words
of the Lord. He says, and in that day, there
are going to be people running to and fro to seek knowledge and
will not find it. The fair virgins and the young
men will fail for thirst. And you can ask yourself the
question today, are we in a spiritual famine? To me, it's redundant. It's certainly the case. We are
in a spiritual famine. We are in a famine, not in the
sense that we don't have a religion. We got a bunch of religion. We've
got tons of religion. What we don't have, listen to
me, is the gospel preached. What we don't hear is Christ
exalted. See, what I'm talking about is
not form. I'm not talking about things
that are external in nature. I'm talking about substantive
things. See, when God talks about feeding his people with manna
from heaven, you remember the old typology, he was talking
about feeding them substantively, feeding them substance. And the
substance you and I are to feed on is Christ himself. See, real
whole wheat bread. with all the minerals in it,
is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I've said this before, when you
grow up in the hood and you're broke and poor like we were when
we were little, we spent 25 cents for what was called balloon bread.
Anybody know what balloon bread is? It's that cheap wonder bread
that we used to buy. And that wonder bread, that wonder
bread was so light and without nutrition that one of us, me
and my brothers, I could eat a whole loaf of it. You still
wouldn't be nourished. You still wouldn't be filled.
That's called balloon bread. Much of what goes on in preaching
today is balloon bread. Much of what you hear in the
pulpits is balloon bread. Much of it is humanism. Much
of it is self gratification. Much of it is worldliness. Much
of it is balloon bread. Christ is not preached. Do you
hear me? That's what you're dealing with today. And that's why many
of you, many of you, after you go through that entertainment
phase of religion, you leave the church starving to death
in terms of something substantive. There is a huge famine in the
land because Christ is not preached. He is not preached. And I hope
you hear him today as we set forth the word of God. We saw
last time that as the brothers of Joseph had come to him, there
was a fundamental flaw. There was a fundamental flaw
that had taken place. Listen very, very carefully to
this. There was a famine in the land and his father told them
to go down to Egypt to do what? Buy corn. Do you guys remember
that? Buy corn. They went down to purchase
corn. First flaw, in the human heart. A fatal flaw in the human heart
is to think that you can purchase salvation by something you bring.
Did you get that? I want you to follow me now.
The first flaw, the fundamental error, as we noted before, was
their coming to God for life, for salvation, represented in
the corn, and they were seeking to obtain it with what they had. And you recall when Joseph entertained
them, that he stuck all the money back in their sack. Remember
that? He put all the money back in the sack. He just loaded up. He gave them all the corn they
needed. Then he stuck all the money back in the sack. And as
they were headed back home, we learned that one of the brothers
had a sack of money that fell out and it apprehended him. And
he stuck that money back in there. He thought he was the advantageous
one. The rest of my brothers bought their corn. I got mine
free. And then they get home and we learned that as they stood
before Father Jacob, all of them opened their goods and every
one of them had money fall out. Isn't that right? You guys remember
that? And you know what the text says? They were afraid. You guys
remember that? They were afraid. Look back with
me at Genesis 42. I want you to see that. In Genesis
42, verse 35, And it came to pass as they were emptying their
sacks, that behold, every man's bundle of money was in his sack.
And when both they and their father saw the bundles of money,
they were afraid. Now I wanna help you understand
something here, because this is very important in terms of
comprehending what salvation is and what the gospel is. We
noted last time that this fear was not based upon God's wrath
on them. but God's goodness. That's what
our elder was talking about at Sunday school. Know ye not that
it is the goodness of God that leads you to repentance? I want
you to hear me now. Grace, when it's properly preached
and taught, causes your heart to fear. Do you hear me? When one has been taught the
grace of God properly, you fear God. Now I want you to understand
where the fear came from. Here's where the fear came from.
And here's where our fear comes from when a person preaches the
gospel of God's free grace in Christ. Here's where our fear
comes from. Our fear comes from when we try to give God something
for us to be right with God, God throws it right back in our
face. That's where our fear comes from. When we try to purchase
his salvation, his favor, his grace, and his mercy by our own
marriage, by our own good works, you know what God does? He throws
it back in our face. The spirit of God will not accept
your works. The spirit of God will not accept
my works. And the money symbolized our works. Isn't that so? We
go out, we work, we labor, we obtain income, and we use that
income to purchase what we need. This is a common process in the
world of humanity, but you can't get saved by going up to God
and giving him something. Do you know what Romans 11 says?
Who has given unto God that it should be said that God has to
repay him again? No one, no one. The strange thing
is, however, when you are taught that you can't give God anything
for his salvation, the first thing that strikes us is fear.
And I want you to know why. First of all, it's because our
money, our works represent who we are. Everything we do represents
us. So when you tell people, and
I've seen this happen many times, when you tell people, you say
you're saved, and you say, well, yeah, I'm saved. And you say,
well, how is it that you got saved? Well, I prayed the sinner's
prayer. And then you tell them, well, the sinner's prayer can't
save you. They get apprehended by that. What do you mean the
sinner's prayer can't save me? God's not obligated to save you
because you prayed the sinner's prayer. Do you guys know that?
And then, well, you know, I was baptized. Well, that didn't save
you. Now, all of a sudden, they apprehended
because I thought you had to be baptized to be saved. No,
no, no. Baptism doesn't save you. You know, well, I grew up
in the church. I know the doctrines of grace.
The doctrines of grace can't save you. Do you hear me? The
doctors of grace cannot save you and will not save you if
you're gonna stand before God to give him your five points
of Calvinism as the basis of your confidence to get into heaven.
God will not save you with that. So when you start telling people,
your works will not work, they get afraid. But I want you to
hear me now, your work will not work. So I want you to examine
yourself and ask yourself, what is the foundation? What is the
basis upon which I am confident I have a right relationship with
God? If it's anything you do, listen to Titus chapter three,
verse five, it's not by works of righteousness, which we have
done. Did you get that? It's not by
words of righteousness, which we have done. Now follow what
I'm about to say, because this is what Paul says, but according
to his mercy, he saved us. Do you know what the grounds
for grace is and always will be? The mercy of God. Did you
get that? The grounds for obtaining the
grace of God is the mercy of God. In other words, if you ever
meet a person that's saved, you know why they were saved? God
was merciful to them. God was merciful to me. The Lord
was merciful to me. I think I recall in Ephesians
chapter two, verse four, but God who is rich in mercy, wherewith
he loved us. You got that? wherewith he loved
us, even while we were in trespasses and sins, hath he quickened us
together with Christ, for by grace are you saved. Did you
get that? See, the grounds for obtaining
grace is not what you bring to the table, but it's the mercy
of God. So that's the first problem.
These men feared because Joseph threw their works back in their
face. Their works represent who they are, and they're stuck. They got a problem now, don't
they? You know what that problem is? You ready? See, if I think
that I can put away my sins by saying the sinner's prayer, or
being baptized, or by going to church, or by learning certain
doctrines, and then I find out that that doesn't work, I've
still got my sin with me. I still have my sin with me.
You got that? Man, I'm stuck because my money, my money is
bad. It came back insufficient funds.
This government institution does not recognize this tender. Do
you hear me? And now I'm stuck because now
my sin is still with me. So where am I to go? What am
I to do? How am I to obtain this grace
since I can't purchase it and I'm still stuck in my sin? Isn't
this an important doctrine? You better know what it is. You
know what Isaiah chapter 55 verse one says? Come, listen to me
now. Listen, everyone that thirsteth,
everyone that's hungry, come, come, buy corn, buy wine, buy
milk, buy honey. Watch this, without price. and
without money. Do you hear it? You can buy it,
but you can't pay for it. You can have it, but you can't
give tender. I want you to get that now. We have to understand
what grace is. Because if we don't, we will
be ultimately surprised in the day of judgment. So that Joseph
is dealing with his brothers in terms of grace, and it's producing
fear in their hearts. I've said this before, and it's
not original with me. Like a lot of things, they're
not original with me. My sin's original with me, but
nothing else. Somebody thought this beforehand.
and I'm sharing it with you. When you and I have not been
properly taught of God, when we have not learned the truth,
all right, there are three areas that we always, always are at
fault in our understanding of. First is the fall of man. The
fall of man. We get the fall of man wrong.
Most people will say when Adam and Eve failed, they kind of
stubbed their toe. They kind of wounded their conscience.
They got their feelings hurt, or kind of got directed out of
the way. That's not what happened when Adam and Eve fell. When
Adam and Eve fell, they fell into an irreparable death. They
were completely destroyed spiritually, completely bankrupt spiritually.
They were completely lost spiritually. We call it totally depraved.
In other words, when Adam and Eve fell, they were helpless
to save themselves. Isn't that so? Helpless, that's
the first thing. You got to know that. And in
order to know that happened to Adam and Eve, you got to be able
to see your own heart. The second thing is, most people who have
not comprehended the gospel get the cross work of Jesus Christ
wrong. See, a lot of people think that the crosswork of Jesus Christ
is like an example. He did a great thing. He died
on the cross. Oh, how he loved us. But you
still have to do something to affect your salvation, thereby
denying that what Christ did on the cross was both sufficient
and infallible in the saving of his people. In other words,
you have to add something to affect what Christ did on Calvary,
and that's wrong. See, when he hung on Calvary,
listen to me. When he hung on Calvary Street and said, it is
finished, guess what? It was finished. See, Matthew
chapter 121 says, and they shall call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. I want you to get this. When
Christ said to Telestai, I was saved. You missed that, didn't
you? When he said to Telestai, I was
saved. because Christ hung on the tree
for me. And I died on that tree with him. He died in my place,
me and him. And when he died, I died. And
when he said it was finished, it was finished for me too. Even
though I didn't have a being, even though I wasn't in the world
at that time, even though it would take 2000 years for God
to bring me into life and let me go through a little bit of
hell and then reveal his love to me in Christ. When he revealed
his love to me in Christ, guess what? It was a done deal 2000
years ago. All we're talking about is revelation. I didn't
affect anything when God saves the sinner. All you do is agree
with God. Did you get that? All right. I just want you to
get that now and and I'm talking now about the third thing that
people get wrong. The third thing that people get
wrong is what salvation really is. People think salvation, again,
is something that you do. This worst thing will send us
to hell. This is your Pelagian doctrine that came up during
the time of Augustine. Well, man is bad, but he's not
so bad that he can't work his way out of his condition or his
problem. Man is worse than that. Not only can he not work himself
out of his condition and problem, listen to me, he doesn't want
to. Do you hear me? He doesn't want to. See, we don't
like to face truth in this world, but you and I got relatives and
friends who are still lost in this world. And they are so lost.
They don't know they're lost. and they don't even care that
they're lost. Even if you tell them they're
lost. We got relatives laying on their death bed right now
and they're dying lost. And they don't care that they're
lost. See, that's how depraved the
heart is. Did you get that? That's how depraved the heart
is. And no one is different. If there is any difference in
you, it's the grace of God. That's all. Get this now. When
God saves, he saves completely and he saves all by himself. And in doing so, he gets all
the glory. Am I clear? Good. See, because that's what
we're dealing with, with the Genesis account. These brothers
have received tons of blessings and it has caused them to fear. They began comprehending something
of the love of God for unworthy sinners. I've struggled with
that, haven't you? How can God be so good to me
when I'm so bad to him? You might as well say it because
it's true. How can God be so good to me when I'm so wicked,
so vile, so corrupt? How can he be? That's his nature.
Do you hear me? That's his nature. That's just
God's nature. God delights in showing mercy.
That's part of his name. Do you know his name is gracious? When Moses had to bring the children
of Israel out of the land of Egypt into the wilderness, he
realized he was dealing with a stiff neck group of people.
And he said, Lord, look, if you don't go with me, I'm not going.
These folks are too bad. Reminded me of you guys. I'm
kidding. I'm kidding. They were bad. They were bad. And Moses knew that the only
way that he was going to successfully get these folks to the promised
land is by the grace of God. And he said, Lord, look, if you're
with me, show me your glory. And you know what God had to
do? He had to take Moses and hide him in the cleft of the
rock. You remember that? See, that rock was Christ. See,
cause you can't see God apart from Christ. So you got to be
in Christ to see God's glory. Do you hear me? And if you see
God's glory outside of Christ, you're going to die. So God has
to place you in the Christ so you can see God's glory. And
as Moses saw the backside of God's glory, his afterglow, God
walked past him metaphorically speaking, and he began to proclaim
his name. And as he proclaimed his name,
which is his glory, God's name is his glory. He proclaimed the
Lord God, merciful and gracious and kind and tender. and plenteous
in forgiveness. That's his name. So you see when
God saves, he's simply acting according to his nature. Do you
hear me? He's acting according to his
nature. And when he punishes, he does the same. By no means
forgiving the guilty, overlooking transgressions. That's where
you and I are. And that's where these men are
right now. They're sitting around marveling, marveling at what
God has done for them in Christ. Now, chapter 43. and chapter
44 really sort of repeats chapter 44 however is a slightly different
than 43 in that it has benjamin little brother benjamin i want
us to look at this for a little while and then i'm going to share
with you seven points in chapter 45 that will prepare us for the
next message In chapter 44, we have a repeat of the brethren
receiving corn. And if you look at verse one,
I thought when the elder Rick was reading this, I said, this
is so fabulous the way the spirit of God opens this up. Look at
verse one with me. And he commanded, that is Joseph
commanded the steward of his house saying, fill the men's
sack with food. Fill the men's sack with corn.
I remember my elder said this about a month ago. Whenever God
promises blessings to his people, he always promises them in lavishness
and abundance and fullness. God's never stingy with his people.
He never talks about just giving you a little bit. He never talks
about just, you know, breaking you off a little corner. Whenever
God does something in terms of his grace and his mercy and his
goodness to us, he always pours it upon his people. And I know
that from experience. He just pours it on his people.
God likes to just pour his grace on us. That's why Paul said he
was rich in mercy. And so we already see in the
opening of chapter 44, Joseph just being abundant. Look at
what he does. He not only fills the men's sack
with food as much as they can carry, but put every man's money
in his sack's mouth again. This is the second time around.
You know what he wants him to get? Salvation is free. He wants
him to get that. You guys understand, you can't
pay for this corn, my brethren. He wants us to understand that.
Now look with me over at verse four, because verse four will
enter us into the next phase of the drawing work of the Spirit
of God. As you know, Joseph had told
his steward that after they filled the sacks with money and with
corn, that they were supposed to, the steward was supposed
to take his special cup, his silver cup, and to place it in
little Benjamin's bag. You guys remember that, right?
And we're gonna talk about that here in a little bit. He goes
on to say, but as soon as the morning was come, the men that
were sent away with their asses, when they were going out of the
city and not that far away, Joseph said unto his steward up, follow
after the men. And when you overtake them, say
unto them, wherefore have you rewarded evil for good? Now was
Joseph being mean? I don't think so. You know what
Joseph was doing? Joseph was testing his brethren.
Let me see if I can help you. I want you to get this. I hope
you can give me an hour of your time because this really is important
to understand. You can't understand this chapter
unless you understand the gospel. You cannot understand this chapter.
If you don't know something about the gospel of the grace of God
and Jesus Christ, you can't comprehend this. If you haven't been taught
justification, if you haven't been taught the doctrine of surety
ship or substitution of the principle of advocacy, you can't understand
this. It's very important that you
see this. What Joseph was doing, however, was making sure that
his brother's hearts were fit for a revelation of himself to
them. Do you hear me? See, Joseph, when he saw them
the first time, he was happy, but he wasn't all that happy
because you remember what they did to him, right? Yeah. He wasn't
all that happy. And he was a smart man. It's
been 22 years. Joseph had grown about six more
inches. He has put on about 50 more pounds. he's probably six
inches taller than all of them now they didn't recognize him
you guys get that they didn't recognize him he knew them but
they didn't know him and i want you to know when god's dealing
with us he knows us but often we don't know him way before
we come to the revelation of who he is in his glory with a
precise comprehension of the gospel god has been a long time
dealing with our soul Long time dealing with that. And this is
why you'll hear me pray about, Lord, put the handcuffs of grace
on our teenagers. Put the handcuffs of grace on
our teenagers. Take out your spiritual tow truck and hook
them to the back. Cast out your line. God's a good
fisherman. Get that hook in those young
people and let them run for a while, because young people are going
to run. They're going to act a fool because they don't believe
you, mom and dad. They just don't believe you. So they're gonna
run and we can't do much about that. All we can do is pray that
God puts his grace on them. So as they run out there like
that, Marlon will run. Me and brother Steve go out there
fishing and the tuna be running. And brother Steve said, just
let it run. Just let it run. Just let it run. And so we let
that tuna run. And I'm saying, man, we're gonna
run out of line. He says, it's gonna be all right. As you get
close to the line going out, he says, tighten up the drag
just a little bit. So you start tightening up the drag. And what
that does is it gets the fish tired. He's going, he gets tired.
You know what happens when God is dealing with you and you running
around in your sin? You get tired, don't you? You
say, man, I'm tired. And then you remember the proverb
which says the ways of a transgressor are hard. You're still going that way,
but in your mind, you say, man, I need to turn around. This is
getting too hard. Isn't it so? You know what God
is doing? God's dealing with you. God's getting ready to turn
you around, bring you back. See, you know what Jesus says? All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. Do you believe that? John 6, 37. All that the
Father gave me in eternity past shall come to me. That's an infallible
promise from God the Father to God the Son. This world is not
big enough for you to run from when God has put his mark on
you. He can get you easy. He gets folks way over in Japan,
way over in India, way over in Pakistan. This globe is just
too small. God turns it around like a little
thimble and shakes you out of it and says, come home. That's
how that works. That's how that works. You're
not running from God. And then he draws you in infallibly
by his grace. And as he's drawing you in, as
Jesus says, and all that he gives me, I shall lose nothing, but
I'll raise it up at the last day. See, we call this the security
of the believer. outside of the believer in Christ
because of the love of the father for the son. You better listen
to that because of the love of the father for the son. I'm saved
not because of how much God loves me. It's another doctrine you
hear on the radio and all the time. God loves you so much that
he saved you. You know why God saved you? Because
he loved his son. I know you missed that one, but
I want you to get this. God saves us because he loves
his son. See, there was a covenant between the father and the son.
See, if you really notice in the story, this story is about
the father and the son. This story is not about you and
me. It's not even about the brother in here. They're simply the beneficiaries
like we are. The story is about the father
and the son. As we listen to Judah here in
a moment, Judah's gonna be talking about the father and the son.
And there's twice Joseph is gonna be asking the question, does
my father live? Do you hear me? Does my father
live? And the father way back there,
Jacob, way back there has been wondering, does my son live?
See, this is about the father and the son. That's what the
gospel is about. The father and the son. And so he raises the
question as they are overtaken, wherefore have you rewarded evil
for good? And the test is on now. The test
is on. I want you to see how this works.
Follow me with verses six through nine. And the servant overtook
them, that is the brethren of Joseph. And he spake unto them
these same words. Oh, I love this. These are the
precise words that Joseph told the servant to say to his brethren,
correct? The servant here represents God,
the Holy Spirit. He's the one overtaking sinners.
He's the one bringing sinners into captivity. He's the one
bringing sinners back to Joseph. He's the one saying precisely
what Joseph tells him to say in order to bring you back. We
learned this in the men's study last night, as we were talking
about how to understand the gospel. In John 16, verse eight through
11, Jesus says, when the Holy Spirit shall come, he shall guide
you into all true. He shall take the things of mine
and show them unto you. He will not speak of himself.
I say this all the time in those churches where everybody's talking
about the Holy Spirit this, the Holy Spirit that, the Holy Spirit
the other thing. If the Holy Spirit is not speaking
of Christ, the Holy Spirit's not there. I know that's tough,
but it's just true. The goal of the Holy Spirit is
to exalt the son. The goal of the son was to exalt
the father. These three glorious persons
of the Godhead work subordinately in a humble role, pointing to
the other, never to themselves. When Jesus came, he says, I was
about my father's business. Isn't that right? And when the
Holy Spirit comes, he says, I'm about the business of the son.
I'm about pointing to the sun. So getting all wrapped up in
the Holy Spirit, if you want to really know whether or not
you're under the ministry of the Spirit, do you see Christ? Do you comprehend Him in His
glory? Are you learning more about Jesus Christ? Is God confirming
the person and work of Christ to your soul? That's how you
know the Spirit's working. Do you hear me? Am I making some
sense? Very important, very, very. See,
if you don't have this framework as a means of comprehending the
work of the spirit, you're in this vague, foggy world of mysticism
and pagan idolatry. Then you got all of these ideas
and concepts going around that you are listening to and people
telling you the Lord said this and the Lord said that, and you
don't know what the Lord said. Cause you guys are way outside
of a paradigm that God set up by which we can know that God's
dealing with us. We can know that God's dealing
with us when we can look in the scriptures and see through the
life of the people of God, how God was bringing them to Christ
and say, am I being brought to Christ the same way? Yes, I am.
That gives me good hope for glory. See, because the goal of the
spirit is to bring you to Christ, show you Christ and conform you
to Christ. Did you get that? So then when
you go to church and you listen to the preaching, here's the
question that you wanna ask is, did he preach Christ? Did he
preach Christ? Verses six through nine. Listen
to what it says. Having overtaken them speaking
the same words, he said unto them, wherefore saith my Lord
these words, God forbid that this is the brethren speaking.
Now this is interesting, verse seven. After the servant overtakes
Joseph's brethren, somebody says, Wherefore is my Lord saying these
words? God forbid that thy servant should do according to this thing.
The servant has accused them of stealing, hasn't he? Someone
has said, you know what? We didn't steal anything. You
got that? You remember what we learned
last week. Every way of man is right in his own eyes. Every
man will proclaim his own goodness, but a faithful man who can find.
I want you to hear me now. This is a fault that I have and
you have. You still think that there is some goodness in you.
You still think that there is some nobility in you. You still
think that, listen to me, that there are some qualities in you
by which you can say to God, I know who I am. You do. This is a flawed view and a flawed
estimation of ourselves. Let me say this very clearly.
You and I, if we judge ourselves, we might think we're all right.
But when God puts the spotlight on us, that blistering, pure
spotlight of his holiness, everything about us is corrupt. All of our
good motives are absolutely stained. Do you hear me? That's what will
happen. But see, these boys don't know
that yet. The servant has overtaken them, accused them of something.
Had they been smart, they would have said, somebody did something
wrong. But notice what they go on to say, because I want you
to see how this works. Whoever it was that opened his mouth
said this. In verse eight, behold the money which we found in our
sack's mouth, we brought again unto thee out of the land of
Canaan. How then should we steal out of thy Lord's house silver
or gold? Verse nine, with whomsoever of
thy servants it be found, both let him die, and we also will
be my Lord's bondsmen. Don't miss that verse. Some very
pompous, Self-righteous, confident brother, because it was 11 of
them, right? Stood up and says, look, we're good men. We're good
men. We came to do what was right.
And look, I'm confident that there's no one, there must be
a mistake here. We're not sinners, see? We're
not sinners. So you can come and check us and you'll see that
there was a mistake here. And more than that, here's what
I want to say. If anyone is found with this
cup you're talking about, look, take him, do with him what you
want to, and we'll be your slave. Boy, he's boasting, isn't he?
Is he boasting? Yeah, he's pretty confident.
Now notice what the next verse says. This is very interesting.
And the law said in verse 10, and he said, now also let it
be according to your words. Do you hear me? You better shut
your mouth when you stand before God's law. Do you hear me? You, you better don't try to
justify yourself. You're going to be in trouble.
Now watch what it says in verse 10. He said, now let it also
be according to your words. He, whom it is found, he with whom
it is found shall be my slave, shall be my slave. Watch this now, I love it. And
you shall be blameless. See what I mean by understanding
the gospel? The way you see the gospel in the scriptures is predicated
upon how much you comprehend the teachings of Jesus Christ
in him crucified, understanding the doctrine of substitution,
understanding the doctrine of imputed righteousness, imputed
sin, understanding atonement, understanding justification,
understanding what Christ did in the place of sinners. Do you
hear what I'm saying? Understanding the doctrine of
trading places. Because what the law just said is this, whosoever
is found with the cup, He's going to be guilty and all of you will
be let free whether you know it or not. That's gospel. That's
straight pure gospel. Oh, that's gospel. I love that
because that's the only way I could be saved. That's the only way
you could be saved to now watch how this works out. This is so
interesting and search began verse 11. Then they speedily
took down every man is sack to the ground and opened every man
is sack. They hurried up verse 12 and search and began at the
eldest, do you see that? From the oldest one and left
at the youngest and watch this, and the cup was found in Benjamin's
sack. I was listening to our elder
deal with the adulterous woman in John chapter eight, where
the master was standing in defense of that adulterous woman, she
was guilty, wasn't she? She was guilty in the eyes of
the law, wasn't she? She was guilty in the eyes of men, but
in the eyes of Christ, she was innocent. Do you hear me? In
the eyes of Christ, she was innocent. And from the oldest of them to
the youngest, they all walked away. You know why? Because they
were guilty. They were guilty. Now, why was
she innocent? Not because of who she was, but because of who
he was. See, he stood there as her advocate.
He stood there as her substitute. He stood there as her surety.
When he told this woman to go, it was because he took her sins
onto himself. Do you get that? See, now that's
what we call the gospel. Now, what's interesting about
this account is little Benjamin is stuck with the cup. Now, no one would have ever thought
Benjamin would have been indicted in the scam that these 10 knucklehead
brethren had committed 22 years ago. You remember the elastic
count when they got the coin first and then as they were dealing
with Joseph, guilt had come upon the conscious of Reuben and he
told his brother, look, we're guilty. I told you we're guilty
of what we did to Joseph. We're guilty. So the spirit of
God was already working on their mind as to the thing that they
had committed 22 years ago. 22 years ago, when they went
home and Jacob saw all the money, his mind went immediately back
to little Joseph. And he still remembered, these
boys, they didn't tell me, but something happened. They did
something wrong. Do you hear me? They did something
wrong. See, you and I are wrong by nature, even if we don't know
it. now something happens here which is really going to be difficult
and this is going to move us into the next phase of our message
and that's this little joseph our little benjamin has been
made to be the guilty one when in fact little benjamin was not
guilty at all Are you hearing me? Little Benjamin is now made
to be the guilty one, the cup bearer. See, I don't know if
you know that in the scriptures, the cup signifies suffering. The cup signifies the wrath of
God. The cup signifies the curse of
God upon the one who has the cup. Do you know that? Remember
what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 18? I have a cup to drink. My
father has given me a cup to drink. We're talking about the
atoning work of Jesus Christ. The person that's the cup bearer
has to bear the curse in the cup. And so now little Benjamin
is about to bear the curse. He's innocent, they're guilty,
but according to the law now, he's guilty and they're innocent.
Do you get it? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That's just one gospel picture
there. And it's a good glorious gospel picture because you see
what's working in their conscience is they're being brought back
to what happened 22 years ago when Joseph was innocent and
they were guilty. See little Benjamin represents
brother Joseph because you see brother Joseph and Benjamin are
the children of Rachel who has died. These are the two sons
that the father loved. Do you hear me? These are the
two sons that the father loved. And these 11 brethren, or these
10 brethren, are now faced with the same situation that they
were in the first time. See, this out of the mouth of
two or three witnesses, let every word be established. So now little
Benjamin is going to shake up things because he has to suffer
now. And so somebody stands up. You know who stands up? Judah.
Oh, this is good. because see it was Judah and
Reuben who were the ones that were the guilty culprits 22 years
ago. 22 years ago, Reuben and Judah. I can imagine these two
for the last 22 years arguing every week over why'd you do
that? Why'd you do that? That's how we do. That's how
our children do. Don't they argue? Why'd you do that? But see, I
want you to learn something with me and I'm gonna talk to the
young people here in a moment. Judah, Judah was a wicked man. Judah was a wicked man. And Judah
is speaking up here because prior to their leaving, Judah had told
his father, we got to take Benjamin because we can't get corn unless
we take Benjamin. The man said, we got to bring
Benjamin. And here's what Judah said. I will be a surety for
Benjamin. Do you hear me? Now I want you
to understand how a surety works. A surety is a person who takes
another person's place legally in an obligatory fashion concerning
a contract that they made. This is not a co-signer. I keep
telling you this, a surety is not a co-signer. A co-signer
is somebody that says, I will pay for them if they can't pay
for themselves. A surety says, I'm gonna pay
for them, period. Do you hear me? See, that's why
Christ is our surety. See, Him becoming my surety made
Him the one obligated to pay for my sins, not me. Once He
told the Father in heaven, I will pay for Jesse Gisten's sins,
Jesse Gisten was good to go. See, I've got a surety. According
to Hebrews 6, He is our surety. He is our surety. And so Judah
is going to become a surety for Benjamin. Now this is a strange
thing. Follow me. Cause Benjamin was
one of the most selfish boys out of the bunch. In fact, he
was the one who has suggested, let's take Joseph and sell him.
Do you hear that? But what has happened, Saints,
over these 22 years? How is it that back 22 years
ago, he was the culprit that devised the plan to sell Joseph
into Egypt to the Ishmaelites, and now all of a sudden, he's
going to mediate on the behalf of Benjamin? God has been dealing
with Judah. See, what we're dealing with
is how the Holy Spirit deals with his people. Let me see if
I can help you. In the 38th chapter of Genesis,
there is a horrible, horrible account about Judah. Judah just
basically went buck wild. After they sold Joseph into Egypt,
Judah went on a tirade of sin. He left the family and he went
to the land of Canaan. He married a couple of Canaanite
women and he had Two sons, you ready? He had two sons. Now watch
how God works. Jacob had two sons, Benjamin
and Joseph. And Judah was the one who tried
to get rid of Joseph, right? Somebody should
have said that earlier. Judah's trying to get rid of
Joseph. The only ones left is Benjamin. And I will surmise
to you, if you just bear with me, that when they got rid of
Joseph, Benjamin was not born yet. Benjamin came on the scene
after the departure of Joseph. Okay, so here Judah is seeking
to destroy the sons of his father, the father having loved those
boys more than the rest. Then what God does is let Judah
go out on a rampage and have two boys himself. Judah loved
his two boys. See, the father loves the son.
Isn't that true? The father loves the son. But
what happened? His boys grow up. And one of
the boys was a wicked boy. According to Genesis 38, you
know what the scripture says? God slew him, just killed him,
just killed him. You know that plagued Judah's
conscious, didn't it? Man, he just took my son out.
Judah had another boy too. He had actually three. He had
three sons, but his second boy was Ur and he told him to go
into the wife of his first born and he wouldn't do it. He wouldn't
raise up seed to her. God killed him too. God killed him too. He killed his two sons. Do you
think that worked on Judah's heart? Yes, it did. You know
what it caused Judah to think about? Daddy Jacob. It caused
Judah to think about the love of a father towards his son.
and that how intimate that love is and how important that love
is and how he had tried to strip that love from his father for
his two sons, Joseph and Benjamin, just because of jealousy. But
now it was his turn. See, it was his turn and he suffered
immensely from that. We won't go any further in that
account, but here's what I'm saying. Judah, his heart was
dealt with by the time we get to chapter 44, Judah's heart
is dealt with. As he listens to his father,
plead to the boys, look, when you guys go back to the master,
if you gotta take Joseph, I want you to know, not Joseph, but
little Benjamin, I want you to know, if you don't bring Benjamin
back, I'm gonna die. You got it? I'm gonna die if
you don't bring Benjamin back. So now Joseph, our Judah, plays
a great role of a mediator and an advocate for Benjamin to Joseph,
a great advocate. Verses 16 through 34 gives us
one of the... one of the greatest appeals that
you could ever imagine. It reminds me of what Proverbs
chapter 15 verse 1 says, a soft answer turns away wrath. Remember
that? When you look at this account,
and we're not going to go through it for time's sake, Judah is pleading with
this master. He's pleading with, I want you
to listen to me. Isn't that what he's doing? I
want you to see what he says. Cause now Judah represents all
of them. And more particularly, he represents Benjamin over in
verse 16. Notice what he says. All right,
let me start back at verse 13. When they found out that the
cup was in Benjamin's sack, then they rent their clothes and laid
in every man's ass and they returned to the city. See, they got to
go back to Joseph now and they're all rent. Their hearts are all
rent. They're feeling bad because little Benjamin's in trouble.
Now watch how this works. And Judah and his brethren came
to Joseph's house for he was yet there and they fell before
him on the ground. The dream came true again, didn't
it? They shall bow before me again. Isn't that right? Now
last time they bowed out of desperation because they were hungry. This
time they're bowing out of desperation because they're guilty. See,
this is a more noble bowing. This is the great work of the
spirit of God in dealing with our sin. You know, one of the
one things that we, we, we really fight against what we are by
nature. God has to show us that we're sinners. So they hurry
up and fall down before Joseph and listen to these words. And
Joseph said unto them, what deed is this that you have done? Know
ye not that such a man as I can divine? I can certainly divine.
In other words, I know what happened. I knew that you guys had taken
my cup. I understand all things. This is what Joseph was saying.
It was clear to me. I want you to see verse 16 so
we can move on. And Judah said, what shall we
say unto my Lord? You get it? Watch this. What
shall we speak? How can we clear ourselves? See,
when the law has sufficiently condemned you, there's nothing
you can say. You got it? Nothing you can say.
See, when the word of God has actually exposed our corruption,
all you can do is stand in guilty silence. See, Romans three puts
it this way around verse 20, somewhere around there, 18 to
20. And we know that by the law is the knowledge of sin. And
he says that the whole world will be stopped. The mouth of
the whole world will be stopped. Every mouth will be stopped and
the whole world will become guilty before God. In the day of judgment,
you won't hear all these accusations because the law will stop every
man's mouth. And this interesting because
here, these men are saying we're guilty. You got it. We're guilty. We can't clear ourselves. We
don't even want to clear ourselves. We're guilty. It's over with
we quit. We somehow we're guilty. The spirit has done its work.
And now Judah will speak. And Judah will speak for 16,
17 verses. And there's only two things that
Judah is gonna say. We're gonna wrap the confession of Judah
up this way. Judah is gonna say, thy servants,
speaking to Joseph, thy servants, thy servants, thy servants, thy
servants. See how they have capitulated?
Thy servants. And then the other thing that
he says is this, and thy servant, your father. Thy servant, our
father rather. Thy servant, our father. In other
words, everybody has bowed now. We all are bowing to you. We
all have submitted to you. We all are bowing down to you.
This is a great, a great, a great picture of a complete openness
and confession to God for what's going on in our heart. See, I
want you to know this, and I don't wanna keep you too much longer,
but I want you to know this. You're not going to enjoy the
grace of God unless you just come straight clean with God.
See, if you hide iniquity in your heart, the Lord's not gonna
hear you, but you can come to him. Just confess it. Open it wide up. Lord, what can
I say? I'm guilty. I'm guilty. And when
Judah finished, when Judah finished his confession, you know what?
Listen to this. Joseph broke. Joseph broke. Look at chapter 45 verse one.
Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that
stood by him. You see? And he cried. Now this is the third time that
Joseph cries. See, he sees God working in his
brother's lives. He's ready now to reveal himself
to them. He knows these men that God has
sufficiently convinced them of their guilt, and he's ready to
reveal himself to them. And you know how this works in
your life and mine, children of God? God will hide himself
from you. while you're hiding yourself
from him, while you're playing games and trying to cover and
shroud and manipulate your sin and transgression. But when you
break, there is a fresh revelation of God to you as if you never
saw God ever before. You guys know what I'm talking
about? You know how you go a long ways walking with the Lord, and
then you get into some grievous sin, and then God breaks you
all over again, and it's as if you've been saved all over again.
And you said, man, how is it that I lost sight of his glory,
lost sight of his face. And I just want to read seven
statements here in chapter 45 and show you how Joseph begins
to reveal himself to his brethren in comfort. And we'll come back
to this portion next time. In verse... One, he tells his
servants to go out of the room. You guys leave. This has been
between me and the family. He calls every man to go out
from him and there stood no man with him. Reminds us of the woman
and Jesus. And while Joseph made himself
known unto his brethren. Do you see that? He made himself
known unto his brethren. That's the first thing I want
you to see. He begins to communicate with his brethren. See, they
were being communicated to through an interpreter before. But now
he removes the interpreter and speaks to them himself in the
Hebrew language. Now they are speaking face to
face with him. We'll develop that next week.
Notice what he goes on to say in verse two. And he wept aloud
and the Egyptians in the house of Pharaoh heard, verse three.
And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph. There's your revelation. You got it? There's your revelation.
I'm Joseph. I'm Joseph. See, that's what
Jesus was trying to say all the time while he walked the earth
with his disciples. I am. I am the one. I am the bread
of life. I am the good shepherd. I am
the door. I am the way. He kept trying to say that, but
you know, they couldn't comprehend that until the Holy Spirit came.
He kept trying to reveal himself to them. Now notice what it goes
on to say. So Joseph said unto them, I am,
doth my father live. See, Joseph wanted to see his
father. Do you see that? Watch how this
works out. We'll develop this next time.
And he said unto them, he says, doth my father live? Let's see
here. Doth my father live? And his
brethren could not answer him for they were troubled at his
presence. They were standing there and
they looked at each other. Is this Joseph? Get this now, what they had just
seen was the resurrected Joseph. Do you hear me? The resurrected
Joseph, because you see for them, Joseph was dead. What they have
just seen is the glorified Joseph. because you see the last time
they saw Joseph he was weak and feeble and men could hold on
to him. Men could grab him, take him,
do whatever they want to with their wicked hands the last time
they saw Joseph. The last time they saw Joseph
he was humble, he was meek, he was mild, he was gentle, pliant,
But this time they see him in his preeminence. They see him
in his glory. They see him in his sovereignty.
They see him as ruler now. They see him as master and Lord.
And see, listen to me, when you see Christ this way, you see
him right. See, a lot of folks see Christ
as a human Christ. They see Christ as a good teacher.
They see Christ as a good brother. They see Christ as someone who
sets a great example, but they really don't see him as Lord.
They don't see him in his glory as God Almighty. They don't see
him in his preeminent resurrected glory. And I'm telling you that's
the Christ that the Spirit of God reveals to sinners. The man
or the woman that says Jesus is Lord is saying Jesus is Lord
because it's that Jesus they see. They see this Jesus. Do you hear me? Now I want you
to hear the comforting words. I'll wrap this up. This is what
he says to them as they are just awestruck. Awestruck, Joseph
says unto his brethren, come near to me. You see that? That's
point number one in your outline. That's the work of the Holy Spirit.
The goal of the Holy Spirit is to bring his people near. You
got that? That's point number one. That's
in your outline. Point number one is to bring
his people near. That's the call of the gospel. I pray you, and
they came near. And he said, I am Joseph, your
brother, and watch this, whom you sold into Egypt. He confirms
for them that it was him by reminding them what they did. This reminds
me of Acts chapter two when the Holy Spirit had come upon the
early church and Peter was preaching and the Jews were standing around
and Peter says, you with wicked hands have crucified the Lord
of glory. You know what they said? Men
and brethren, what must we do to be saved? Spirit of God saved
them when he reminded them that they were the ones that crucified
him. See, that's what you gotta do. You gotta preach the gospel.
You gotta deal with sin. And so it goes on to say over
in verse five, these interesting words. Now, therefore, watch
this now, be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that you
sold me here, for God did send me before you to preserve life.
What he does now is comfort them. I want you to get this. I know
I'm boring you, but I want you to get this. You know what bothers
me? And what bothers you? Our sin. Isn't it true? Our sin
bothers us. When God speaks peace to your
heart, here's what he says, do not be grieved. Do not be grieved. As atrocious as that sin was,
you know what Joseph knew? That was God's providence. It
was God's providence to have him to get to the throne that
way. And what he says to his brethren is, don't look at your
sin, look at me. You get that? See, I tell people,
don't struggle with Christ, look to Christ, trust Christ, let
him deal with your sin. See, if you sit there and wrestle
with your sin, you'll sink. But if you keep your eyes on
Christ and his glory, you can rise above those issues. Are
you following me? See, this is what he's saying.
Don't be grieved. Don't sit down now and wonder and recapitulate
and to think through all of the things you did to me. Understand
that God and his sovereignty allowed this to happen to exalt
me as your forerunner. Remember we talked about forerunner
to bring you into Egypt so that you could live. Now that's exactly
what God does for us too. Christ went to Calvary on our
behalf so that we might live. Verse seven, he said, and God
sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth
and to save your life by a great deliverance. Now notice what
verse eight through 10 says. So now it was not that you had
sent me hither, but God. and he hath made me a father
to Pharaoh and Lord over all his house and a ruler throughout
all of Egypt. Hurry up now and go up to my
father and say unto him, thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath
made me Lord of all of Egypt. Come down and tarry with me,
and you shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall 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 I
will nourish you there, for yet there are five years of famine,
lest you and your household and all that you have come to poverty. Isn't that glorious? Now he's
talking about being committed to them, to take care of them
as Christ does us. See, he's a good shepherd, isn't
he? And one more thing, listen to what it says, verse 12 and
13. And behold, your eyes see in
the eyes of my brother, Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaks
with you. You shall tell my father of all
my glory in Egypt and of all that you have seen. And you shall
haste and bring him down, bring down my father here. Joseph wanted
to see his father and believe you me, the father wants to see
Joseph. And these boys are simply the beneficiaries of it. Now,
I wanna ask you a question as we close and we partake of the
large table. If you can put your feet in these boys' place right
now, and you young people think about this too. These boys are
blessed right now, aren't they? They're highly blessed. On Joseph's
part, he hasn't even once mentioned their sin, has he? All he does
is tell them to come near. and they come near. And when
he draws them near, he gives them promise after promise, after
promise, after promise, after promise. Are they blessed? Are
they blessed? See, the only thing that's gonna
keep you from coming to the Savior is your righteousness. If somehow
you think you're too good, you're not ready. But what the Spirit
of God says is come, come to Christ. Come to Christ. And we're about to partake of
the Lord's table. And anyone here who is a true believer in
Christ, you may partake. If you don't know the Lord, please
don't partake. But as you think about it, as
you think about it, think about what we've said. The gospel calls
you to come and trust Christ as your savior. Amen.