I've entitled this message, Joseph
Forgiving His Brothers. Other than the story of the cross,
and in reality this is the story of the cross, there is not a
more touching moving passage of scripture and all the word
of God than this passage before us. You'll notice after Pharaoh
heard about this, look in verse 16, and the fame thereof was
heard in Pharaoh's house. This was such an amazing story,
it became famous very quickly and Pharaoh heard of the fame
thereof that is depicted in this story. In spite of the cruel and inhumane
way that his brothers treated him, In spite of the fact that
they never asked for forgiveness. That's very important. Somebody
says, can you forgive somebody if they haven't asked for your
forgiveness? Joseph did. If you're forgiven by God, it
wasn't because you asked for forgiveness. He forgave you before
you asked. Joseph forgives them. And this is seen so clearly in
verse four, when Joseph said to his brethren, come near to
me, come near to me. I pray you. When we have not forgiven someone,
we punish them by silence. by distance, by holding ourselves
away from them or holding them away from us. After all, look
at the way they hurt us. Look at the pain they've caused
us. I certainly didn't deserve this,
the way they have treated me, and we punish. You ever done
that with anybody? Sure you have. But Joseph says, come near to me. He's not holding
them off. Come near to me. I pray you. How important is forgiveness? Well, I won't be saved if God
doesn't forgive me. That's how important it is. How
important is it for me to forgive? Turn to Matthew chapter six. When the Lord is teaching us
to pray, he says in verse 12, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. This is the only part of the
prayer he commented on. He said, but if you forgive not
men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your
trespasses. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
18, verse 23. Therefore is the kingdom
of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account
of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon
one was brought unto him, which owed him 10,000 talents. Now just think of $25
million. This was a amount owed that they
wouldn't be able to pay back. But for as much as he had not
to pay, his Lord commanded him to be sold and his wife and children
and all that he had and payment to be made. The servant therefore
fell down and worshiped him saying, Lord, have patience with me and
I will pay thee all. He couldn't do that, but that's
what he's saying. Then the Lord of that servant
was moved with compassion and loosed him and forgave him the
debt. But the same servant went out
and found one of his fellow servants, which owed him a hundred pence,
$15, two meals at McDonald's. And he laid hands on him and
took him by the throat saying, pay me that thou owest. And his
fellow servant fell down at his feet and besought him saying,
have patience with me and I will pay thee all. And I remember
this guy was just forgiven a $25 million debt, but look at how
he handles this situation. And he would not, but went and
cast him into prison. till he should pay the debt.
So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very
sorry and came and told unto their Lord all that was done.
Then his Lord, after they had called him, said unto him, O
thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt because thou
desirest me. Shouldst not thou also have had
compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on me? And
his Lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors till he
should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly
Father do also unto you, if you from your hearts forgive not
everyone his brother their trespasses. Now Joseph had not forgotten
what his brothers did. I've heard people say, you don't
really forgive unless you also forget. Well, Joseph didn't forget.
Look at his language. Verse four, and Joseph said unto
his brethren, come near to me, I pray you. And they came near
and he said, I am Joseph, your brother. Who you sold into Egypt. He remembered
it very clearly. Joseph didn't forget, but he
forgave. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 32
says, Be ye kind, tender hearted. forgiving one another even as
God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." That's the only reason
that's needed to forgive. God for Christ's sake hath forgiven
you. Look what Joseph says to his
brothers. I think this is so amazing. Verse 5, Now, therefore
be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither.
For God did send me before you to preserve life. The reason
I'm here is not because you betrayed me. It's because God sent me
here. He gets even stronger. Verse
six, for these two years hath the famine been in the land,
and yet there are five years in which there shall be neither
earing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to
preserve you a posterity. I have no doubt this is a reference
to the Christ that will come some centuries later. God sent me before you to preserve
you a posterity in the earth and to save your lives by a great
deliverance. So now it was not you that sent
me either. but God. He didn't say God in his permissive
will allowed this to take place. He said, you didn't do this. God did. And he has made me a father to
Pharaoh and Lord of all his house and a ruler throughout all the
land of Egypt. Now, he believed God was God. He believed God is the first
cause of everything. I have no doubt there were probably
times when he was in Potiphar's home that he resented what his
brothers did. I have no doubt that when he
was in prison, having been unjustly accused and thrown into prison
when all he did was the right thing. He may have questioned,
why did this happen? And anytime we're mad, there's
one we're mad at. We're mad at the Lord. Every
time he did it, he did it. And if we're mad, we're mad at
him. Now, He believed the God who is absolutely sovereign
and he trusted Him knowing that He always brings good out of
evil. He believed God. Let me remind you of the history
that led up to this glorious event that even Pharaoh called
it a thing of fame. When Pharaoh, that hardened,
powerful man heard the fame of this story. Joseph was his father's
favorite and his brothers were insanely jealous. He told them about a dream he
had that they were all going to be at his feet, worshiping
him. Now that threw gas on the fire.
They hated him yet the more. And so when they see him coming,
sent from his father to see how they were doing while they were
out tending the sheep, he said, let's kill him. And we'll see
where his dreams come. Let's put him to death. And then
Judah comes up with an idea. We're not going to make any money
out of this. Just let's just sell him as a slave. And some
Midianites came down who were merchant men going down to Egypt
and they, uh, sold them to the Midianites and they took him
down to Egypt. Now you think he didn't know the language he
was done horribly wrong and here he is a slave in the house of
a man by the name of Potiphar and He was there for a long time,
years and years. And he did such a good job as
a slave for the glory of God that Potiphar made him the head
over all of his house. Potiphar didn't even know what
he owned. He only knew that Joseph knew. That's how much he trusted
this man. And you know the story of Potiphar's
wife coming at him time and time again, trying to elicit some
kind of sexual sin with himself, and he refused her, and he refused
her, and he refused her, and then she accused him of rape,
and he is thrown into prison. You reckon he questioned things? You reckon he was upset? I imagine
he probably did. But the scripture says with regard
to him being in Potiphar's house and with regard to him being
in prison, the Lord was with him. The Lord was with him. If the Lord's with you, everything's
good, isn't it? And I have no doubt that he believed
that even as he sat in prison. And he did so well in prison
that they made him the head of the prison. And whatsoever was
done in that prison, he was the doer of it. There's a gospel
message there. We saw that several months ago,
but he was in charge. Everything he did, the Lord prospered. Now you'll remember the Two men
who had the dreams, he interpreted their dreams, they came to pass
while he was in prison. And the one that was set free,
he said, remember me. Well, he didn't remember him,
did he? Another two years pass and he's still in that prison.
In the meantime, Pharaoh had two dreams. He dreamed about
a skinny cow eating a fat cow. And the cow remained just as
skinny. And then he dreamed of a skinny
ear of corn eating a fat ear of corn. And it remained just
as thin. And he didn't know what it meant.
He called for all the magicians and sorcerers and wise men in
Egypt. They couldn't tell him what it meant. And then that
man that he interpreted his dreams says, I remember my fault. There's
a man in prison right now named Joseph. He interprets dreams. Pharaoh calls him. He interprets
the dreams. Those seven skinny cows eating
seven fat cows and seven skinny ears of corn eating seven fat
ears of corn. Here's what this represents.
There's gonna be seven years of plenty. the most plenteous time
you've ever known. And after that, there'll be seven
years of famine that are so grievous that you won't even remember
the seven times of plenty. Now here's what you need to do.
You need to get a man to oversee this time of plenty and make
sure he saves enough food so when the time of famine comes,
you'll have something to eat. Joseph was put in charge of that.
And the scripture says that they quit counting through his wise
management, all the food that they came up with. And Joseph
became the most powerful man in Egypt. If you're going to
have food, you had to go to Joseph for it. And my dear friend, if
you're going to have mercy, if I'm going to have grace, I'm
going to have to go to Christ for it. There isn't any anywhere
else. Now, in the meantime, the famine is over all the earth
and it's in the land of Canaan and Jacob and his sons are hungry
and Jacob hears there's corn in Egypt and he sends his 10
sons to go to get corn in Egypt having no idea that Joseph was
the head of all of Egypt. If you were going to get food,
you were going to get it from him. He thought he's dead. Remember how
his boys took the coat of many colors and put blood on it and
gave it to the dad to, whose is this? Well, they knew whose
it was. And he thought he was dead. Oh, he was mourning so
He said, I'm gonna go down to my grave in sorrow. But at any
rate, he sends those 10 boys to Egypt to get food. He wasn't gonna send Benjamin,
lest mischief should befall him, the scripture says. It's okay
if it hits these other 10, but not Benjamin. He leaves him behind.
And he sends those 10 boys, and they come in, and they do not
recognize who this is. It's Joseph. He recognizes them. As a matter of fact, he speaks
to them through an interpreter. They don't hear him speak in
the Hebrew language. He recognizes them. And he asked
them of their family, he said, do you have a father? Do you
have a brother? And they told him about Jacob. They told him
about Benjamin. And he said, here's what's going
to take place. You're gonna go back. And when you come back
for more food, if you don't have Benjamin with you, don't come
because you won't get anything. Well, they run out of food, and
they go back, and they wanted to take Benjamin, and this is
when Jacob says, I can't let him go, and Judah agreed to be
a surety. He said, of my hand shall you
require of him? What a beautiful gospel type,
Christ is our surety. I'll bring him back and set him
before thee." So they send him all down. And Joseph is so moved
when he sees Benjamin, his true birth mother's other child. He's
so moved. And he still doesn't let him
know what's going on. And when he sends him back, He
plants a silver cup in Benjamin's sack so Benjamin could be framed
and he was going to be arrested and kept back and he wasn't gonna
send him to Joseph. And this is when this speech
begins by Judah. Look in verse 29 of chapter 44. And if you take this also from
me, Speaking of Benjamin, and mischief of all him, you shall
bring down my gray hair with sorrow to the grave. Now, therefore,
when I'm come to thy servant, thy father, and the lad be not
with us, seeing that his life is bound up in the lad's life,
it shall come to pass when he seeth that the lad is not with
us, that he'll die. And thy servant shall bring down
the gray hairs of thy servant, our father, with sorrow to the
grave, for thy servant became surety for the lad unto my father,
saying, if I bring him not unto thee, that I shall bear the blame
to my father forever. Now, therefore, I pray thee,
let thy servant abide in the stead of the lad, a bondwoman
to my lord, a bondman to my lord. Let me be a substitute and let
the lad go up with his brethren. For how shall I go up to my father
and the lad be not with me? Lest peradventure I see the evil
that shall come on my father. Now, when Joseph heard this,
Joseph could refrain himself no longer. He couldn't refrain himself. And then he tells everybody to
leave. Before all them that stood by, he cried, cause every man
to go out from me. And there they, there stood no
man while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. You
know, he started speaking Hebrew then. He started speaking the
language they could understand before he spoke to an interpreter.
But now they know who he is. He makes himself known. And look
in verse two, and he wept aloud. This is how moved with joy he
was at seeing his brethren, these same people who had sold him.
He was weeping with joy because he'd already forgiven them. Oh,
the love he had to his brethren. You see, this was a relationship
that could not be dissolved. These were his brothers. These
were his brothers. And he was so happy to have them
back. And Joseph said to his brethren,
verse three, I am Joseph. Does my father yet live? And
his brethren could not answer him for they were terrified at
his presence. You see, as a man he is, so he
thinks others to be. And Joseph's brethren thought,
I know what we do, and he's going to do the same thing. They thought
he was going to put them out of business. They were scared
to death. They couldn't even speak. And
Joseph said to his brethren, come near to me. Come near to me. He wasn't punishing them. That's
what I would've done. I'd try to make them sweat. I'd do something to let them
know how wrong they had done me, and there would be something
that I would, some way I would act to keep them, to let them
know, I'm in control of this situation, and I want you to
feel my pain, my wrath, my anger, Not Joseph. He said, come near
to me. I pray you. And they came near
and he said, I'm Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. You
didn't forget. Now, therefore be not grieved
nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither. I'm sure
that they were grieved at this point. As a matter of fact, I'm
sure that they had remembered this 22 or 23 years ago that
this took place. And I'm sure from time to time,
they thought about it. They thought about the way they
did their father. They thought the way they did Joseph. And
I'm sure there are times guilt would come and even remorse and
grief. But look what Joseph said to
them, be not grieved. nor angry with yourselves that
you sold me hither. For God did send me before you
to preserve life. God did this. For these two years hath the
famine been in the land, and yet there are five years in which
there shall neither be earing nor harvest. There's going to
be five more years without food. God sent me before you to preserve
you a posterity, the promised seed that was going to come through
Judah. God sent me before you to preserve
you a posterity in the earth and to save your lives by a great
deliverance. So now it was not you that sent
me, Heather, but God. Now notice the language. He does
not say, God permitted this to happen. He says, God did this. That's true of everything. God did this. I know people will say, are you
charging God with sin? No, I'm just saying God did this.
That's what God says. And you know the way He says
it is the best way to say it. God did this. That's true with regard to everything. And He made me a father to Pharaoh,
and Lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land
of Egypt. Haste ye! Go up to my father
and say unto him, thus saith thy son Joseph. God hath made
me Lord of all Egypt. Come down unto me, tarry not,
don't wait for anything. And thou shalt dwell in the land
of Goshen. Thou shalt be near unto me. Thou and thy children
and thy children's children and thy flocks and thy herds and
all that thou hast. And there will I nourish thee
for there are yet five years of famine. Lest thou and thy
household and all that thou hast come to poverty. behold your
eyes see and the eyes of my brother Benjamin then it's my mouth that
speaketh unto you I'm the one speaking and you he tells the
brethren what to tell and you should tell my father of all
my glory in Egypt and of all that you've seen and you shall
hasten bring down my father hither And he fell upon his brother
Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck.
Moreover, he kissed all of his brethren and wept upon them.
After that, after that, his brethren could talk to him. Not before
then, but after that. Now, there is not a clearer picture
of the gospel than right here. I love the way he says, you go
to my brethren, my brethren. I love the way the Lord said
about the disciples after they'd all forsook him and fled. Where
were they at the cross? They weren't anywhere to be found.
They were in hiding. And he said to Mary, you go to
my brethren. You go to my brethren. You see,
every believer is the brother of the Lord Jesus Christ. Both
he that sanctifyeth And they who are sanctified are all of
one, for the which cause he's not ashamed to call them brethren. He says to Mary, you go to my
brethren and tell them, I go to my father and your father. Brethren have the same father.
and to my God and to your God. He sent them to his father. I love verse two of chapter 45,
and he wept aloud. He was so moved with compassion,
so moved with joy in seeing his brethren. Now the last time he'd
seen them, you can, I can, you think about this when he, his
last vision of his brothers was when they sold him. There it
goes down into Egypt. He remembers that, but now he
looks at these men who had treated him so cruelly and he wept with
joy. And Joseph said unto his brethren,
Christ says to his brethren, I am Joseph, he is our Christ,
Doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer
him, for they were troubled at his presence. You know, when
someone first sees who Christ is, they're troubled. They're troubled. You see, there's something called
sin that troubles. But what does he say? And this
is what the Lord says unto us. And Joseph said unto his brethren,
come near to me. Now the message of the Bible
is either, I don't remember if it was in the study or here,
somebody read Revelation 22. The message of the scripture,
the spirit and the bride say, come. Not go and do, not go and
make yourself better, not go and make up for all your faults
and failures. Right now, come. Right now. come. He says, come unto me all ye
that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Not go and do, come. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise,
for no reason whatsoever cast out. This is our message. Come. Come, not make yourself better,
not get this straightened up first or get that straightened
up first. Come to the Lord Jesus Christ empty-handed just as you
are. Come near to me. I pray you,
and they came near. And he said, I'm Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. I'm
Christ, who you crucified. I'm Christ, who you crucified.
Don't miss that. He didn't overlook the magnitude
of their wickedness. I'm Christ, who you crucified. Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves." What I couldn't help but think
about was when the Lord said in John chapter 13 to Peter,
Peter, you're going to deny that you know me three times. You know what he said next? Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. Now, therefore, be not grieved
nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither, for God did
send me before you to preserve life. Now, if I understand anything
about the Lord Jesus Christ, it's this, his father sent him.
His father sent him. He sent him to save. It wasn't
with reluctance the father sent him. He didn't send him to make
a way to love, he sent him because he did love. The Father sent him. God did send me before you to
preserve life. For these two years hath the
famine been in the land, and yet are five years in which there
shall be neither airing nor harvest. You're not gonna have any way
of getting anything to eat at all. And God sent me before you
to preserve you a posterity in the earth and to save your lives
by a great deliverance. Now I want you to think of the
greatness of this deliverance. Not only are all my sins forgiven,
they're gone. I stand before God without sin. I'm justified. Not only am I
forgiven, I'm justified. That means I have a state of
sinlessness before God, having always done that which is right
and having never done that which is wrong. That's the state of
every believer. That's what justification means.
If you're justified, it means you're not guilty. A new heart that He gave me when
God the Holy Spirit gave me life. I have something that I never
had before. What a great deliverance. I'm
going to be perfectly conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
And of course, we don't understand this, but there's going to be
a time coming when I won't even remember what it's like to be
a sinner. I won't even remember sin. Perfectly conformed to His
image. What a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent
me hither, but God. Don't ever hold back on that. Don't say, well, God in his permissive
will allowed this to happen. No, he did it. He did it. Don't hold back on that. Don't
try to keep religion as happy by, well, I'm not going to make
God the author of sin. You can't make God the author
of sin. God's God. So now it was not you that sent
me hither, but God, and he has made me a father to Pharaoh and
Lord of all his house and rule throughout all the land of Egypt,
the high exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's made him
that way, hadn't he? Now here's preaching, haste ye,
haste ye, there's an urgency here. Haste ye and go to my father
and say unto him, thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made
me Lord of all Egypt. Come down unto me. That's a command. Tearing on. Don't wait to get better. Don't
wait till you've improved your situation. Come down right now,
tarry not, and thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen. That's
the best land. And thou shalt be near unto me. Near, so near to God. Nearer,
I cannot be. For in the person of his dear
son, I'm as near to God as he, dear, so dear to God, dearer
I cannot be. For in the person of his dear
son, I'm as dear to God as he. Now somebody says, I don't feel
that way. Well, I don't either. I don't either. I believe it
though. I believe the gospel. Thou shalt be near unto me, thou,
and thy children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and
thy herds, and all that thou hast, and there will I nourish
thee. For yet there are five years
of famine, lest thou and thy household do all that thou hast
come to poverty." And that's what will happen if he doesn't
nourish us. But he gives his promise. I will nourish thee,
and behold your eyes, See in the eyes of my brother Benjamin
that it's my mouth that speaketh to thee." Now, this is what me
and you need. We need Him to speak to us. If all we hear is
the preacher, it's not going to do us any good at all. We
need Him to speak to us. And here's the content of preaching.
And you should tell my father of all my glory in Egypt. And of all that you've seen,
you're going to speak of his glory and you're going to tell
of all you've seen, how he can be just and justify the ungodly. How the doors of mercy are wide
open to anybody who calls the excellency and glory of Jesus
Christ. You're going to tell all you
have seen. You can't tell what you haven't
seen, but you're going to tell all you have seen. And you shall haste and bring
down my father hither. And he fell upon his brother
Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck.
Moreover, he kissed all his brethren and wept upon them. And after
that, when they saw their complete acceptance by Joseph, accepted,
listen to me, accepted in the beloved. After that, his brethren
talked with him and the fame thereof was heard in Pharaoh's
house. You know, you can talk to him. You can pour out your heart before
him through the Lord Jesus Christ. And he hears. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for this. Story. That is so clearly. Written by you. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that we might be forgiven people. And we ask in Christ's name that
we might be forgiving people. Bless this for your glory and
our good. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.