Would you turn back to Genesis
44? The last event that was recorded
before the betrayal of Joseph by his brothers was the birth
of Benjamin. So Benjamin was an infant. when
this took place. He didn't have any part in the
betraying of his brothers. And Joseph has seen him for the
first time since he left. He's grown up, a teenager, I
suppose, at this time. And he is so excited about seeing
his little brother, Benjamin. Look in Chapter 43, verse 33,
this is when he set the brothers in birth order. And they sat
before him, the firstborn according to his birthright and the youngest
according to his youth. And men marveled at one another.
They didn't yet know that this was Joseph. And they were amazed
seeing him put them in birth order. And he took and sent messes
unto them. from before him, but Benjamin's
mess was five times as much as theirs. And they drank and were
married with him. Now they're going to go back
to Canaan where their father is with food. And he commanded
the steward of his house saying, fill the men's sacks with food
as much as they can carry and put every man's money in a sack's
mouth. He's not gonna let him pay a
dime. He puts their money back in, this is not from their payment. And then he does something that
almost seems deceitful. And he, and put my cup, the silver
cup in the sacks mouths of the youngest and his corn money. And he did according to the word
that Joseph had spoken. He had this silver cup planted
in his sack. And as soon as the morning was
like the men were sent away, they and their asses. And when
they were gone out of the city and not yet far off, Joseph sent
unto his steward up, follow after the men. And when thou does overtake
them, say to them, wherefore have you rewarded evil for good
is not this it in which my Lord drinketh and whereby indeed he
divineth. He can foresee the future. He
can see what's taking place now. I'm not really sure that he could,
but that's what he said about this cup. I can see everything
through this cup. You've done evil and so doing.
So the steward goes after him and he overtakes them. They're
headed back to Canaan and all of a sudden their steward overtakes
them and he spake unto them these same words. He gave the words
exactly as Joseph gave him to give. No variation. And they said unto him, wherefore saith my Lord these
words? Evidently he said, one of you has stolen the cup. Wherefore saith my Lord these
words? God forbid that thy servants should do according to this thing. Now we can sell our brother.
We can fool our father and lie to our father and make him think
his son is dead. But God forbid we do this. Oh,
oh. They go on and say, behold the
money which we found in our sacks mouths we brought again unto
thee. Remember the first time that he sent them back, he put
the money in their sacks. He said, we've brought that money
back to make sure you knew that we were being fair and square. We were not doing anything dishonest. Behold the money which we found
in our sacks mouths 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? With whomsoever of thy
servants would be found, both let him die. And we also will
be my Lord's bondman. Now, remember the cup of guilt was placed in the
sack of him who didn't have anything to do with that sin. That's very
significant. It did. He didn't do anything. He was an infant yet. The instrument of guilt is placed
in his sack and Joseph placed it in his sack. And Joseph was
doing this in order to make sure that Benjamin stays with him. They say with whomsoever verse
nine of thy servants, it'd be found both. Let him die. And
we also will be my Lord's bondman. And he said, now also let it
be according to your words, but with whom it is found shall be
my servant, be my slave and you shall be. What's the word? Blameless. Blameless. Then they speedily took down
every man, his sack to the ground and opened every man a sack.
They were going to prove that this did not happen. And he searched and began at
the eldest and left at the youngest and the cup was found in Benjamin's
sack. Now do you remember how Judah
had stood as a surety for Benjamin and said, I'll take complete
responsibility for him? He's saying now he's in trouble. Because the cup was found in
Benjamin sack. Benjamin is going to be the one
that's held behind and they're going to go blameless. How do
you think he felt about that? Verse 13, then they rent their
clothes and laid it every man's ass and returned to the city. They were so upset. They'd failed
their father. They knew Benjamin was in trouble.
And Judah and his brethren came to Joseph's house for he was
yet there. And they fell before him on the
ground. Now, this is something that took
place a whole lot. As we read this story, you remember
his dreams. They're going to be falling on
the ground before me. Well, here it happens again.
It's going to happen more after this too. There they are falling
on the ground, knowing that their destiny is in this man's hand. And Joseph said unto them, what
deed is this that you've done? What ye not that such a man as
I can certainly divine? Well, yeah, I guess he can. If
he put the silver cup in the, uh, he was the one that had planted
there. Sure. He could see it, but I don't know whether he's
trying to scare him at this time or whether he did have some kind
of supernatural power to see what was going on. Maybe he did.
I don't know. But at any rate, he's the one who put the cup
at the cup put in Benjamin sack. And he says, don't you know that
I can see what has been taking place. And Judah said. We've been framed. He didn't say that. Did he? Somebody
planted this in his sack and he didn't do it. We didn't do
it. We've been framed. He didn't say anything like that.
What should we say into my Lord? What shall we speak or how shall
we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity
of thy servants. Behold, we are my Lord's servants,
both we and he also with whom the cup is found. And Joseph
is speaking again. And he said, God forbid that
I should do so. But the man in whose hand the
cup is found, he shall be my slave. And as for you, get ye
up in peace to your father. The Lord said with regard to
the scriptures, they are they which testify of me. All of them, all of them. And the purpose of this story
is once again in a very clear and poignant manner to teach
us the gospel. Now, I fear Uh, looking at the
scriptures and almost making a game of it to see how we can
find the gospel in it with, uh, I don't want to do that. I want
to, I want to see the gospel as taught by the Holy spirit
and believe the gospel. And this is such a beautiful,
beautiful type of the gospel. Now in this story, Joseph is
a type of the father. The steward is a type of the
Holy Spirit. Benjamin is a type of Christ. And Judah and his brethren are
types of the men that Christ saves. This story begins with his command. This is Joseph's Command, and
my dear friends, the gospel begins with God's command. And understand
this, the will of God and the command of God are the same thing. I love it when David said, thou
has given commandment to save me. And Lord, give commandment
to save me. This begins with his commands. Now salvation is of the Lord,
it begins with him. It doesn't begin with man and
the things God can do for him. It begins with God and his command. And he, Joseph, commanded the
steward of his house, saying, fill the men's sacks as much
as they can carry and put every man his money in his sack's mouth. Fill their sacks with food, fill
them to the full. Now, when God saved you, do you
know he made it to where you can't get any more saved than
you are? You're full. You are full. You are complete. The word literally
is full. In him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily and you are full. in him. You can't get any more loved.
You can't get any more holy. You can't get any more accepted.
You can't get any more justified. You can't get any more redeemed.
You're complete in the Lord Jesus Christ. Your sack is full. Now you may have all kinds of
things going on in your mind that trouble you. I understand
that. It's called being flesh. It doesn't
take away from this truth. Your sack is full. You're accepted in the beloved. You are well pleasing to the
father. First Corinthians one 30 says
of him. Are you in Christ? Jesus, who
of God is made under us wisdom. and righteousness and sanctification
and redemption. Your sack has been filled. And he also said, put every man's
money in a sack's mouth. I'm not gonna take their money.
They're not gonna earn any of this. They're not going to pay
for any of this. This is all my gift. Salvation is by grace. It was the grace of God that
chose me. It wasn't because he foresaw I'd be a preacher or
before he foresaw I would be anything. He did it as an act
of his own sovereign will. His grace gave his son to redeem
me from all my sins. It was his grace that justified
me and made me stand before his holy law, sinless, without blame. It was his grace that called
me and gave me life. It was his grace that preserves
me. I didn't pay a thing. You put the money back in their
sacks. This is the gift of my grace. I want to give something. What do you have that he would
accept? Salvation is of the Lord. Verse two. and put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's
mouth of the youngest and his corn money. And he, the steward,
did according to the word that Joseph had spoken." Now, Benjamin
was the only one who was not guilty of the betrayal of Joseph. He was an infant. Joseph knew that. The last event
that's recorded before the story of Joseph's betrayal is the birth
of Benjamin. He was still an infant when this
took place, yet he is the one Joseph selected to be the guilty
one. And have the silver cup, the
one who did not participate in this wickedness that his brother
had participated. His brother brethren had participated
in. He is the one that Joseph gave
the cup to now. The Lord Jesus never sinned. He did not participate in our
sin. And this is one of the glorious
things of the Lord. While he never sinned as a man,
he experienced everything with regard to sin, except for the
commission of it. He never sinned, but he bore
the weight, the guilt, the shame, the disgrace of sin. When he was made sin, he never
sinned. But the father, just as Joseph had this cup placed
in Benjamin's sack, the father gave his son this cup to drink. Just as Joseph had the cup put
in Benjamin's sack, it was the father who gave Christ the cup
of our sins to drink. I think about the Lord saying
the cup, which my father gave me to drink. Shall I not drink
it? Now, I don't know how to speak
on this as I ought to, nor does anyone else, but what was in
that cup in Gethsemane's garden that the father brought before
him, that he sweat great drops of blood when he saw it. Don't
think it was just the horror of the physical pain he was going
to bear. It was the horror of knowing
he was going to drink the cup of the sins of the elect. All
those sins were going to be brought into his body. Now you think
of the most nasty thing that you could think of and putting
it in a cup that your soul would recoil at and think of that going
in that cup and you drinking it. That's nothing compared to
Christ drinking in the sins of his people in his own body on
the tree. And I feel like so ignorant,
even talking about it. I know it's so. He drank the cup of my sins. Second Corinthians 5 21 says
for he had made him sin. Not he made him guilty and subject
to punishment. He made him sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. The only one who is not guilty
became guilty. The silver cup was placed in
Benjamin's sack. Verse three, and as soon as the
morning was light, the men were sent away, they and their asses.
And when they were gone out of the city and not far yet far
off, Joseph said unto his steward up, follow after the men. And
when thou dost overtake them. You know, we heard that song this
morning. Hail sovereign love that first
began the scheme to rescue fallen man. Hail matchless free eternal
grace that gave my soul a hiding place. Against the God who ruled
the sky, I fought with hands uplifted high, despised the mention
of his grace, too proud to seek a hiding place. But thus the
eternal counsel ran, almighty love, arrest that man. Over taking grace, irresistible,
invincible, saving grace. Oh, he came and he overtook them. Aren't you glad the Lord overtook
you and didn't leave you to yourself. Follow after the man. And when
that does to overtake them, saying to them, wherefore have you rewarded
evil for good? Is not this it in which my Lord
drinketh, this cup you have wickedly taken away and stole, whereby
indeed he divineth? You've done evil in so doing.
And he overtook them and spake unto them these same words. Now there is a good lesson with
regard to preaching. I better be preaching the same
words he preaches. I better be giving his words
and only his words. Verse seven, here's their reply. And they
said unto him, wherefore sayeth my Lord these words? God forbid
that thy servant should do according to this thing. You know, that's
almost comical, isn't it? I mean, this was a wicked bunch
of guys. You look at all the things that they had done previous
to this. Murder, just on and on. I mean, these guys did a whole
lot of bad things. But yet, when they brought this
message, God forbid that we should do such a thing. You know, you're
really never convicted of sin truly until you hear the gospel.
That's when you find out what sin is. You'll say, just like
these people, God forbid that I should do something like that.
I wouldn't do anything like that. I mean, sure, I make mistakes,
sure, I'm bad, but I wouldn't do anything like that. No, you'd
do worse. And they, in fact, did, had done worse than this.
But they said, God forbid that we should do according to this
thing. Behold, the money which we found
in our sacks mouths, we brought again unto thee out of the land
of Canaan. Now, he's talking about initially, when they first
came, In chapter 42, and went back, Joseph had the money placed
back in their sacks again. You see, in this thing of salvation,
and that's what was, it was salvation to them to get this food. We're
not going to pay anything. This is the gift of God. And
they find it, they're scared. They don't know how it got back.
And they come back and said, we gave that money back. We're
completely above board. 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 the Lord's house silver or gold? We wouldn't do anything
like that. Now they're so sure of themselves. They say, with
whomsoever of thy servants be found, both let him die and will
be my Lord's bondman. They were sure they hadn't done
this. Um, whoever did it, if that happens, let him die and
we will be your slaves forever. We haven't done this. Verse 10. And he said, now, let
it be according to your words, but with whom it is found should
be my servant and you shall be blameless. Now, the ones who are guilty
of selling their brother is the ones who are going to be blameless. Now, don't miss that word, blameless. According as he hath chosen us
in him that we should be holy and without blame before him. Blameless. that he might present you holy,
Colossians 1, 22, that he might present you holy and without
blame, without blame, perfect in Christ Jesus. Now, how can
that be? Well, the sin was taken from
me and Christ drank the cup and
he became guilty. And because of what he did, Every
believer is blameless. Now I want you to meditate on
that for just a moment. I, I have some awareness, not, not
near as much as I ought to have, but I have some awareness of
my personal sin against God, my continued sin. And yet this passage of scripture
tells us. Blameless, holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in his sight. Blameless. It's what the Bible
calls justification. That's what blamelessness is.
There's nothing to blame you for. Now it's so ironic. If that's the word that, um,
the fellows who were guilty. or made blameless. And the one
who was not guilty bore the guilt. And it was Joseph who took the
silver cup and put it in Benjamin's sack. And it's God the Father
that took my sin and gave it to Christ for him to put it away. Verse 11. Then they speedily took down
every man his sack to the ground and opened every man his sack.
They were in a hurry to demonstrate their innocence. I'm gonna show
you we didn't do this. And he searched and began at
the eldest and left at the youngest and the cup was found in Benjamin's
sack. My sin was found in Christ. And let me repeat, he never sinned. But he bore all of the guilt,
all of the shame, all of the consequences, all of the horror
of sin. That's why sweat, rape, drops
of blood in Gethsemane's garden, he bore the sin. That cup was in Benjamin's. You know, when I talk about this,
one of the things that I think keeps us from really entering
in, we see it, but I'm ashamed to say that we're used to sin. We're used to sin. It doesn't
seem as shocking to us as it ought to. But he who is holy,
he who is without sin, bore that sin in his own body on the tree. The cup was found with Benjamin. The instrument of guilt was found
in Benjamin sack verse 13. Then they rent their clothes
and laid it every man's ass and returned to the city. They saw
that they'd failed. In delivering Benjamin, as far
as I could tell, we're going to read what Judah said next
week about this, but they had failed in protecting their father's
favorite son. They rent their clothes in anguish
and they returned to the city where Joseph was. Verse 14, and Judah and his brethren
came to Joseph's house for he was yet there. and they fell
before him on the ground. This is the posture of a sinner
when he comes to Christ. You remember the leper? The scripture
says he fell at his feet and worshiped him. saying, Lord,
if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. Now these men knew
that what was going to take place with them was totally up to Joseph. They were in Joseph's hand. And
when somebody comes to Christ, they know their eternal destiny
is in his hand. It's up to him as what is going
to happen to me. They understood this. Verse 15, and Joseph said unto
them, what deed is this that you've done? What ye not that
such a man as I can certainly divine, foresee the future, see
what's going on? Now, like I said, maybe he could,
I don't know. But I know he knew that he had
the cup planted in a sack. And so of course he saw that
the cup was planted in Benjamin's sack, he put it there. But he
says, what did you all think? Did you think you could get by
with this? I can see what's going on. I know exactly what took
place. And these fellows were scared
to death at that time. Verse 16. And Judah said, well,
we've been framed. We've been falsely accused. No,
now is when he sees his sin. Not until then. They were proclaiming
innocence before this took place. Oh, they knew they'd done some
bad things, but they hadn't done this. And now when Judah hears
the gospel and the gospel is so clear in this passage of scripture,
look what he says. And Judah said, what should we
say unto my Lord? What should we speak or how should
we clear ourselves? We don't have anything to say.
And you know, when God saves somebody, they don't have anything
to say that every mouth may be stopped. All self vindication,
all self justification is gone. Don't have anything to say. What should we speak? How should
we clear ourselves? God, I found out. the iniquity of thy servants. Behold, we are my Lord's servants,
slaves, both we and he also with whom the cup is found." I don't
know if he was trying to save Benjamin from being put to death
at this time because he thought maybe he stole the cup, but he
said, we're all in this together. And he said, through Joseph's
words, God forbid that I should do so, but the man in whose hand
the cup is found, he shall be my servant. And as for you, get
ye up in peace. Peace unto God, the Father, unto your Father,
but representing Because Christ had the cup. You know what I can do? I can
go to God in peace. The peace of blamelessness. The peace of no sin. The peace of justification. Romans four 25 says he was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification. Don't ever look at justification
as legal language. If you're justified, that means
you're sinless before God. That sin is gone. It's been expunged
from the universe. It's gone. Therefore, having
been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. You see, He is our peace. Because the cup was in Benjamin's
sack, he who never sinned, The guilty are now blameless and
they can go in peace. That's the message of the gospel.
Peace by Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for the
gospel of your glory. How we thank you that our Redeemer,
that you gave our Redeemer, our sins, that you took them from
us and placed them in him. And he bore the guilt and the
shame of our sin. And he, because of his glorious
person was able to put it away, to purge it away. And to separate
it as far from us as the East is from the West. Lord, how we
thank you for our Redeemer. Lord, we ask in his name that
you, by your grace would give us such grateful hearts and hearts
of love to him. Then our only desire is to follow
him. Bless this word for Christ's
sake, in his name we pray, amen.