This morning, we turn in the Bible to the first book of the Bible, the last chapter, chapter 50. And this is really exciting. For me, I find it to be such an accomplishment to finish a book. And here we have finished 50 chapters. So I think it's just great. I had somebody say to me years ago when I preached through an Abraham section, They said, I heard through the grapevine, they said, well, pastor, I can't believe this pastor is finally getting Abraham into the grave. We have gotten Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and now Joseph into the grave. So again, quite an accomplishment this morning. Genesis chapter 50, and we will be looking at verses 15 to the end of the chapter of Genesis chapter 50. Let's give our attention to the word of the lord when joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead they said it may be that joseph will hate us and pay us back for all that the evil we did to him so they sent a message to joseph saying your father gave this command before he died say to joseph please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin because they did evil to you and now please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father, Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, Behold, we are your servants. But Joseph said to them, Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me. But God meant it for good. To bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. So do not fear. I will provide for you and your little ones. Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. So Joseph remained in Egypt, he and his father's house. Joseph lived 110 years, and Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation. The children also of Macur, the son of Manasseh, were counted as Joseph's own. And Joseph said to his brothers, I am about to die, But God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here. So Joseph died, being 110 years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word. They embalmed him, and they put him in a coffin in Egypt. That's how this book ends. I'm on the edge of my seat, you know. I mean, I want to say, no, no, no, no, that's wrong. You can't end the book like that. I mean, this is the kind of feeling I get when I'm watching a great movie, and I'm captivated, and it just stops, and then it says to be continued. I'd love to grab that person by the neck. Who did that? The hero was put in a coffin, and he's left in Egypt. I mean, what an ending. I would never, ever, ever inspire it that way, by the way. I would never leave it like that. And yet, that emotion that you feel, if you feel anything that I feel when I read the ending of that, I mean, that last sentence, they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. There's no amen. what emotion does that raise raises something it's the feeling here that the lord wants you to have as you end the book of genesis he did this on purpose he did this so that you would feel stunned joseph's left there it can't be you can't just leave the guy in egypt he doesn't belong there how could how could the book end with him outside the land and dead far away from god in a coffin why did the lord end the book this way well it's not that hard to figure out genesis began with a man in a garden and it ends with a man in a coffin isn't that a thought begins with a man in a garden and ends with a man in a coffin and that is intentionally given to trouble you i hope it makes you irritated did it work god was serious when at the beginning of genesis he said to adam and eve in the day that you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you will die and then when the curse fell the curse to from dust you were taken to dust you will return last week i went through all the struggles that we go through at death and what we face at death and how we are to regard death and and and that we live in a society today that is is trained to overcome it we looked at death being we live in a death defying in a death denying culture and that everyone is now driven to avoid every kind of sigh that they have to go through they don't have to feel the pain of this. And I confronted that somewhat. I confronted that. I confronted that we're obsessed with everyone's aches and pains today as if that is abnormal. And how did you feel about that? It troubled me. I immediately want to lessen the load on you. I really want to give you some hope today for a good long earthly life. I really do. I want desperately to say God's design for you, dear Christian, in the American life is to live the long American life and have every kind of good medicine under the sun and to be comfortable. He'll heal everything that you ever go through. You'll never have to feel this struggle. You'll never have to sigh. And if I did that, well, I'd be a really good false prophet, by the way. I'd be exactly what Jesus just warned against. Here's what I'm saying this morning. You're all going into a coffin six feet under. Does that bother you? I hope so. Well, I guess the question is, is why would that bother you? Once you've accepted that you're going into a coffin and once you've accepted that you're going to be buried and that you're going to die, when you've accepted that, I believe then you're really ready to listen to God's plan of how he is going to get you out of that coffin. then you you'll begin to realize that this life is not about counting it dear to myself but that i'm willing to listen to god's way out and how he can bring me back back home back to a garden back back to the tree of life back to enjoying him back to bliss back to joy back to no more suffering no more sorrow no more sin in a kingdom where there's no more opposition with a king that never gets thrown off the throne. Miss that, and you'll live a life frantically trying to hold on to this life, never, ever being able to prevent the fact in our health-conscious culture, in our gym-driven culture, in our CrossFit culture, you'll never prevent that you're going into a box. What we have at the close of Genesis this morning is not just the struggle of death. It highlights that struggle, but it highlights the struggle that we all face in life too. It's the struggle of life. The whole scene here to close out Genesis is they are in Egypt, far away from the land, far away from what God originally in the Garden of Eden, where they were struggling now, struggling to survive, struggling to live, struggling to know what's coming next, struggling to know all these things, and then realizing that they're all going into a box. And the reason I'm so moved by the end of Genesis is that in their struggle, the Lord here at the very end gives the answer in the midst of all of this. I mean, this is the stuff that Oprah and Dr. Phil get paid big bucks for for all these years to try to figure this out. And I'm giving it to you this morning. This is amazing that the Lord here in all of this, in the midst of Joseph, the great hero of Genesis, going into a box, going into a coffin, the Lord gives us the answer. He gives us hope. He gives us joy. He gives us confidence, promising us He's not going to leave us there. Not leaving us to figure this out on our own. He wants us to enjoy peace. He wants us to have confidence in Him and hope that He is going to bring our bodies out of Egypt. Well, here's the scene this morning. They have traveled the long journey back. Jacob has been buried. Remember, the whole thing was dress rehearsal. They didn't go the normal route to Canaan. They went the long route to carry his body up the eastern side of the Dead Sea, crossed the Jordan. It was all dress rehearsal for the future, the whole thing. And they would bring, as they brought Jacob's body, it was a testimony, one day you're going to walk this path, one day God's going to do it for you. It was an encouragement to them. Well, now they've all returned back to Egypt, but we really do find something shocking at the death of Jacob. What we find is that as we close out Genesis, the brothers are really struggling with something. They're really struggling with something great. what are they struggling with they're overcome with a severe struggle of depression fear and doubt jacob's dead their father was the glue their father was the pillar their father was the one through whom they knew joseph would never harm them they thought because dad's still alive jacob afforded them a real sense of security being alive but now he's gone and they what they do at the end of genesis here is they begin to doubt whether joseph has really good intentions towards them they're really struggling with joseph's intentions toward them will he turn on them verse 15 when joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead they said perhaps joseph will hate us and may actually repay us or hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him perhaps joseph will harbor animosity towards us perhaps he will hate in the sense of hold an accusation here maybe he'll even fully did you catch that fully repay fully demand a payment back because of what we have done that's the issue that closes out genesis isn't it interesting will we have to pay it back will we have to it's fascinating that god chose to end the book this way and i i'm really not sure when we go back and rehearse everything that had happened that you could have done anything worse to your brother than what we studied in this section of what they did to joseph taking an innocent 17 year old and stealing him away from the father and lowering him and beating him and putting him down into the pit and selling him in human trafficking away from the father away from the land forever that was real evil that was awful i mean they didn't just hate in the heart they fully acted on it and what we see here at the end of Genesis is that guilt and pain for their sins against him actions being so terrible they're going through did you notice there they're going through it says it may be or what if they're going through the what ifs people just don't let this go I mean people just don't let something like that go further he's the most powerful man outside of Pharaoh in Egypt. Kings don't just pardon that way. There's no way he's going to let that slide. It really is a moment because fear and anxiety has overcome them. I was reading the other day, David, when he died, he calls in Solomon and he gives instructions on his deathbed right at the beginning of 1 Kings. And it's really fascinating. David, as he's giving dying instructions i want you to listen david gives a series of things that solomon must do here's what solomon must do solomon you know joab he's ruthless shed his blood i don't you dare let his hair go down to the grave in peace shamae he maliciously cursed me don't hold them guiltless bring down his gray hair to the grave with blood in any kingdom of the world now you're looking at the mightiest egypt in any kingdom of the world when there's a threat to the throne look at history look at history when there's tyranny when there's injustice the principles of that kingdom are eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth you get away with a lot in the united states it's not like that it wasn't like that throughout history. I don't know if we feel this here, the struggle. Fear has overcome them. And it's the general struggle of humanity that we don't really trust people. We don't really trust the intentions of people. We're always standing in judgment about intentions and sincerity and whether we really believe that person and so we put on an artificial front but we really don't trust people we we have a hard time trusting people i remember a pastor telling a story years ago of it's like uh the young city boy who was driving along on a country road at night and his car breaks down and he's in the middle of nowhere and it's two or three in the morning and in a distance he sees a little farm house and so he starts to think well this farmer will have a wrench for me for sure he's a farmer He has a wrench for me to fix my car. So he starts walking. It's cold. It's wet. He starts thinking, I've seen movies about these guys. These farmers late at night, they're crazy. They have shotguns. They hang over the door. I know what's going to happen. If I go up and I knock on that door and it's late, he's going to shoot me. It's the big idea of you coming on my property at this hour. And so he starts getting angry. What right does this man have to treat me this way? I'm stranded. this guy's selfish. He gets to the door, he bangs on the door, and then the first thing he says to the farmers, don't play that game with me, you can keep your wrench. I wouldn't borrow it from you if you were the last person on earth. And he walks off. All of that was built up in the mind. You do that all the time to people. We build up all sorts of that against people. Guilt drove them. Now for years, they transferred the same unforgiving spirit that they had toward their brother to him. Because, you know, he had every right to punish them. What do I believe we have here? If I were to capture your struggle of life, what would it be? How would you summarize your fears? Being honest this morning. How would you capture your fears? You have two of them. First one's death. How do I know that? Well, if you live in a death-defying, a death-denying culture, you're doing everything you can to avoid that. Who wants to talk about that? But there's another struggle deep down that you're facing. There's another struggle that we all go through. If you have any sensitivity to your life and you have any idea of who you are and what you've done, it's your ongoing struggle with sin. that really, really gets to you. It's the inward battle that you face, that you continue to do things that you hate and you're ashamed of it and it's guilt. If you ever have that severe struggle and you've been through that severe struggle and you look back at the past, the lingering question over your life maybe is just maybe, maybe, maybe, God is angry. Maybe God is angry with me. I don't struggle that he's a forgiving God. No, he's a forgiving God. He tells it all over the scriptures. But I'm not sure about his disposition toward me. I'm not sure. Maybe he will, when it's all said and done, repay. Maybe he will demand another payment. Does that capture at all anything you've ever felt? Do you have absolute confidence when you go to death where you're going to go? We enter this life sinning terribly. God awakens our conscience. We're introduced to death. We live in it shadow daily. Daily. None of you knowing whether you really are going to wake up tomorrow. And then we go through life in constant worry and fret and fear and anxiety. How much anxiety is filling us right now? Unsure and often scared of ultimately what's going to happen to us and then we die. And the more we get around and we understand and I read the scriptures of what I read this morning with Jesus, that wasn't so helpful for a moment, was it? That was rather painful to listen to. Understanding the holiness and the justice of God can actually increase my struggle, can it? I believe you have all that captured at the end of Genesis. That emotion, that struggle. All leading us to what doctrine? All leading us to what great question at the end of Genesis as bodies are going into boxes. All leading us into all of this struggle at the end of Genesis with what great question. Is there true forgiveness? That's the question that ends Genesis. I was reading the other day about Charles Spurgeon, pillar in the faith. Anyone who speaks of Spurgeon sees him as a pillar in the faith. Do you know the man went through severious periods? Serious periods. of depression and doubting i quote i am the subject of depressions of spirit so fearful that i hope none of you ever gets to such extremes of wretchedness as i go to who am i reading about he later describes his depression as a seething cauldron of despair First, fits of depression come over the most of us. Cheerful as we may be, we must at intervals be cast down. The strong are not always vigorous. The wise are not always ready. The brave are not always courageous. And the joyous are not always happy. It is not necessary by quotations from biographies of eminent ministers. Is it not necessary by quotations from the biographies of eminent ministers to prove that seasons of fearful prostration have fallen to the lot of most, if not all of them. The life of Luther must suffice to give a thousand instances. And he was by no means of the weaker sort. His great spirit was often in the seventh heaven of exaltation and as frequently on the borders of despair. Luther. His very deathbed was not free from tempests. Listen to this. And he sobbed himself into his last sleep like a greatly wearied child. Luther. I read that because the men you think are strong and joyful and up are not always that way. In fact, I've faced these same periods of depression and doubt. And I'm an up guy, I think. And I believe this is an ongoing struggle of God's children in the present. All with this lingering question. Has God really forgiven them? Has God really forgiven them? So what happens? They come up with a plan. Probably not true. We're going to send a messenger and we're going to say to Joseph, we're going to say to Joseph, your father wanted you to know that you should forgive us. You should forgive us. Beg him. Beg him, messenger. You tell him, forgive our sin and the evil we did. We're not denying it. It's evil. It's sin. It's so moving, isn't it? Their hearts are contrite. Hearts are broken. When Joseph hears this, it says he wept. When he first revealed himself to them, He had said something. Remember what he said? Do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here. For God sent me before you to preserve life. He had only treated them well. He had loved them. He had embraced them. He had fed them. He had clothed them. He had provided for them. I mean, there was nothing that Joseph had not done for his brothers. In the evil that he received, he returned nothing but goodness. how could his love be questioned they've returned all of that love they've returned back to him the saying he'll hate us and won't forgive us i mean can you imagine this is like a husband saying to a wife who has been there for him 50 years bore children been faithful been glorious to him godly exemplified everything of proverbs 31 the husband comes along one day because of his own sin and attacks her and says you don't love me imagine the pain of that goes on all the time by the way i'm moved the genesis ends on two bright notes the first is the issue of forgiveness because this whole scene of the brothers sinning against their father and joseph And this is what I can't get away from. It's a greater story and representation of our sin against God. In the New Testament, the Bible attributes the delivering over of our Savior to be crucified, casting His garments, hanging on Him a crown of thorns, on His head, pinning Him to a cross. The New Testament says, your sins did that. The supreme act of betrayal you committed against God's beloved son. It was Peter who said to the multitudes, you delivered Jesus over. We pierced him. Our sins pierced him. And so what is the thought? Well, if we've hated God that way, and we continue to do things that we're sick of, surely God is going to hate us. Surely God will fully repay us. Surely God is going to demand another payment. We struggle with this. We struggle with ultimately His love. We wonder, you know, what will death bring? What am I going to see? Am I dropping or going up? You have this fear. Sometimes it'll be really alive in you and other times you'll be dormant to it. But it will come for every Christian. Will God hold it all against me and do something to me? What's going to happen? And then we begin to transfer to Him what we know should be the just response and we do this contrary to everything that He's ever called us to believe in and to trust in. That's my point. And it gets to the issue of assurance. You bet Genesis gets to the issue of assurance at the end of the book. How has he been to you? Does he expect you to live like that? Does he want us to live like that? Is that how it should go now? Now that you understand the cross, now that you see, now that your eyes are open, you see your sin, he has these made promises. Are they for you? See, if it really comes down to I'm having a hard time with grace. What does he do for us? You know, this is why every Sunday is so special when we come to this time in worship where we confess our sins together. Because anyone who is sensitive to this struggle, do you realize he gives you a time out of your weeks because you're so distracted, doing your own thing, avoiding thinking about these things, to come and really be serious about confessing sin with the goal that he forgives you. That's the assurance of forgiveness Joseph provides you. In verse 19, Joseph said to them, Do not be afraid. Or am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil for me. But God meant it for good in order to bring about, as it is this day, to save many people alive. Now therefore, do not be afraid. I will provide for you and your little ones. And he comforted them and spoke, kindly to them he he ministers comfort there's one statement i can't get over you meant it for evil god meant it for good it was in all of your evil actions it was god's intention to override and work through those things so that he could return upon you not cursing but blessing on your heads that's romans 8 and we know that all things work together for good to those who love god to those who are the called according to his purpose the thing is he had forgiven them already he'd been nothing but kind to them saving them loving them washing them and here's what they return to him the return of fear and we really do see i believe at the end of genesis what the lord wants from us here all of our lives think about if you've been raised in the church or you've come in later either way since then he has done nothing but proclaim to you the gospel he has been nothing but raise you and nurture you on his word he wanted you as little children trained in sunday school about the death on the cross he at some point granted you faith to believe this he filled your hearts with all kinds of joyful benefits and and assures you i've forgiven i cleanse you i wash you i heal your diseases we can surely pray for that and ask that and then you say, I don't think we can have assurance. What an awful thing to return to Him, isn't it? And how about this one? I think because of my fear and because of my own life, my own sin, I'm not worthy to come to His table. You know you're not. You never were. You're not listening to the gospel. Has He done this all in vain for us? Whose table is it? Yours or the Lord's. And on what basis has He invited you? Law or gospel? Works or grace? You answer that. If grace, then it no longer works. If it works, no one can come. His kingdom operates on the principle of grace, and it shows itself in his desire to ever and ever proclaim to you forgiveness to all who come to him. That's my intention, says the Lord. My intention in all of this is to keep many people alive. Do you believe that? Not destroy. It's so fascinating when Joseph says, I will provide for you and your little ones and comforted them. He spoke literally to their hearts. To their hearts. I see no greater anticipation of the way Christ would speak to us when we look at the blessings of the covenant of grace than in this way in the new covenant. Do not fear, little flock. It's the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. I'm not going to leave you as orphans. I will come to you. A little while longer and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also. I'm not leaving your bodies down there. Lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. I'll provide for you. I'll give you the kingdom. I'm always with you. I'll raise you. After we did all that to him. The Lord desires, dear Christian, that you would believe his gospel. That's where Genesis ends us, that God absolutely does not have evil intended for his sheep. And only good, not destruction. Blessing, not curse. Every aspect of life, believing that God has determined to work it for good for His elect. That kind of message will affect my whole way of living. This is what drives forgiveness, by the way. As one pastor rightly said, those who want to spend their time talking about what others have done to them are clueless of their offenses against God. What more can He say to you than what He has said? We sing that. But then he ends Genesis with one last thing. Joseph dies. Sees his grandchildren blessing the third generation. Verse 24. One last thing he does for the children of Israel is we get the greatest highlight and testimony of true faith in Joseph to end this book. Verse 24. And Joseph said to his brethren, I'm dying. I'm about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham. Isaac and Jacob. Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, God will surely visit you and you shall carry up my bones from here. So Joseph died being 110 years old. They embalmed him and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. What did Joseph do? He assures all of his children, his brothers, God will bring you back. God will bring you back and I want you to carry up my bones. This is going to be another sign. Jacob wanted to go back to the land right away to pave out the path for them. Joseph says, you keep my bones here. Joseph's body being in this kind of position would have been given the greatest monumental burial in Egypt. They would have placed him with the great officials of Egypt. He would have gone in one of those buildings to protect it, the body. And years later, in the bondage, the heart of all their afflictions, the children of Israel would be groaning. And one day, there was sitting there the whole time in their groans, the body of Joseph. It was just sitting there, just sitting there. Maybe they had an observatory, I don't know. There was the body. Years later, some 30 generations later, A man by the name of Moses, to draw out, is what his name means, went right in there, and he laid his hands on that coffin. And he picks it up, and he marches down to Canaan with that body. The book of Genesis ends with Joseph's body put in a coffin and left in Egypt. death. The last book of the Bible ends with this. Then angels showed me a river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb. Through the middle of the street of the city also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its 12 kinds of fruit yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything cursed. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it and His servants will worship Him. They will see His face and His name will be on their foreheads and they will reign forever and ever. For now, I'm still troubled. I'm still troubled that a coffin is left in Egypt in my own preaching. That just leaves me no choice. We can't leave them there. We got to go to Exodus and get them out. Let's go get them. Let's see the wonderful salvation of the Lord when he lets this build from one million and then it gets to two million and then he shows the greatest, mightiest deliverance of salvation the Old Testament had ever seen to foreshadow the cross. Let's go study that. I'm ready for Exodus. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, so grateful and humbled that you did put a big to be continued on this. and that you never left that body there. You brought all of them out with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. And when we see the whole picture and we see the story of Christ rising from the dead, conquering death, restoring to us righteousness in life, speaking words of comfort to us, and at the very end, the last book of the Bible, the grand story completed of a multitude no man can number from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation with all the 12 tribes there worshiping around the throne, praising the Lamb day and night, gazing upon you face to face. Oh, we're so thankful that you've given us that hope and that peace. Thank you for the book of Genesis. Most of all, thank you that this story is completed and fulfilled and may joy fill our hearts and confidence and peace that we belong to you. And if any don't have that today, confront them severely. Let them not rest until they know You and the joy of this comfort. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.