we turn in the scriptures this morning to genesis chapter 45 genesis chapter 45 i have to make one comment before i begin last week i was talking about benjamin's joseph's silver cup that was planted in benjamin's sack and i made a comment that our cup was cheap and a few of you walked up to me afterward and says do you realize reverend camminga gave that to the congregation as a gift after he left. I checked that and he didn't confirm that. So, if it is his, we'll look for the silver marking under it later. Genesis chapter 45. Genesis chapter 45. Let's give our attention this morning to the Word of God. Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him. He cried, Make everyone go out from me So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept aloud so that the Egyptians heard it and the household of Pharaoh heard it. So Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph. Is my father still alive? But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence. So Joseph said to his brothers, come near to me, please. And they came near. And he said, I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here. For God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh and Lord over all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me Lord over all Egypt. Come down to me. Do not tarry. You shall dwell in the land of Goshen and you shall be near me. You and your children and your children's children and your flocks, your herds and all that you have there I will provide for you for there are yet five years of famine to come so that you and your household and all that you have do not come to poverty and now your eyes see in the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my mouth that speaks to you you must tell my father of all my honor in Egypt and of all that you have seen hurry and bring my father down here then he fell upon his brother benjamin's neck and wept benjamin wept upon his neck and he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them after that his brothers talked with him when the report was heard in pharaoh's house joseph's brothers have come it pleased pharaoh and his servants and pharaoh said to joseph say to your brothers do this load your your beasts and Go back to the land of Canaan and take your father and your households and come to me and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and you shall eat of the fat of the land. And you, Joseph, are commanded to say, do this. Take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives and bring your father and come. Have no concern for your goods for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours. The sons of Israel did so and joseph gave them wagons according to the command of pharaoh and gave them provisions for the journey to each and all of them he gave a change of clothes but to benjamin he gave 300 shekels of silver and five changes of clothes to his father he sent as follows 10 donkeys loaded with the good things of egypt and 10 female donkeys loaded with grain bread and provision for his father on the journey then he sent his brothers away and as they departed he said to them do not quarrel on the way we're going to end the reading of god's word there tonight we're coming back and looking this this is so moving at jacob's hearing of this and returning because we have little faith as jesus often pointed out to people you have little faith we don't take his words of gospel and comfort that he announces to us all over the scriptures as seriously as we should and because of that we really struggle believing that god has a good intention for us when we have been so terrible to him every redeemed heart struggles with that every redeemed heart struggles with that you're coming to his table this morning and i want you to ask what is god's disposition to those who come in faith what what does god think of them how does god receive them is he angry does he stand back and say i don't know i don't know about that one a lack of knowing and a lack of believing leads to discouragement and patterns of sin that even follow and that really does get to the heart of the story this morning i think what has been most meaningful to me about this story is is not that i identify with joseph i don't really identify with joseph but i have a master storyteller this morning in the lord telling me a story that i look not so much like joseph but a lot more like these brothers and you know that jacob and his brothers have lived in absolute misery and there's been nothing model about jacob's life there's been nothing model about his son's lives i mean if they were in the church you'd say man what went wrong there that's what you'd say web of confusion they were miserable they were angry they're bitter and questioning why life turn out this way why did god do this to us they're us we're not so much like joseph Are we? I want to be. And when we see our lives bound up in this story before us, and we see our lives come out in this story, it leads to the question, what was God's then intention for them? Because if you struggle with the intention of God toward you, then you can look at this story and discern what God's intention was toward rebels like this. Look at what they did. When they asked the question in this whole mix and in this whole struggle, what is God doing to us? Weren't they struggling with? Was God getting even at them for what they did to Joseph? If God wanted to destroy these rebellious sons, and this is what I want you to ponder as we open up this text this morning. If God wanted to destroy these rebellious sons, He already would have. If he wanted to do that and put an end to their sad lives, he could have put an end to their sad lives a long time ago. If God wanted to put an end to your sad life, he could have a long time ago. But here you are. And here you listen. And this morning, what does God put on display before you? He didn't inspire this to make no connection to your own lives. He didn't inspire this for you to see painted into this. woven into this the story of your own lives and the story of your redemption is right here the story of gospel and grace is right here and you see a giant plan unfolding this morning of god's preservation of them that it was always at work that it was predetermined that it was decreed before they had ever hurled joseph into the pit the plan was put in motion ahead of time you know how much comfort that speaks to us today before they did any of these things that god had already planned their deliverance through it it is the truth isn't it while you were yet sinners christ died for you it is that truth when you were dead in trespasses god had already had a plan unfolding from Genesis 3.15 that had already been pacted in eternity. This pact between the Father and the Son before you ever even sinned. If that's understood, the table's a pretty exciting place to come this morning, isn't it? That's where I want you to work through as we're looking at this text this morning and ask, do I have that kind of confidence and joy? In the last scene, the final test had come upon them. For 22 years, they hadn't come clean. And so Joseph had recreated the very scene of his betrayal. When he was sold into slavery, he recreated it and held back the father's last favored son and sent them on their way with the silver, filled their sacks with money. They had everything they ever could need, and he sent them on the way, and then the test came. As soon as they were outside the city, he sent his servant. The servant comes and accuses them of stealing the cup. So, at first when the servant came, how did the brothers respond? Far be it from your servants that we could do such a thing as that. With whomever it's found, let him die. And last time I said, you see how hard the human heart is to see things the human heart doesn't even know it's beating you don't even feel it but what had joseph what he did here to expose their hearts all of a sudden it starts to set in and judah sees it and judah got it and led his whole brothers in a moment of confession to the lord and it was amazing because right then and there you saw consciences opened you saw guilt awakened like we hadn't seen it before and he says remember what do i say to my lord what shall we speak how shall we clear ourselves god has found out the iniquity of your servants here we are my lord's slaves both we and he also with whom the cup was found and then he goes on into this painful plea because he loves his father and he can't see his father go through this again he's not totally thinking about the cup he's thinking about joseph and his dad god found us out here we are we can't clear ourselves this is where we pick up there's no more restraint joseph can't do it any longer at this point in the narrative in uncontrollable emotion the burden now so great everything accomplished that needed to be accomplished it all had come about he clears the room everyone out and face to face he stands there they still have no clue and the text says that he weeps out loud so that everyone in the house everyone out in the halls is hearing their master breaking out and weeping. And as they stand there, broken, humbled, scared, thinking God's judging them for what they did, come the words, I'm Joseph. What a moment. Put yourself there. Feel what they're feeling right now. all the emotion what do you think they did they gazed on him the minds are trying to process in one second and i'll think of the 22 years of burden and guilt of what they've done and now the fear all of the fear everything falling apart and right now trying to process this imagine their faces i'm your brother but what i want you also to think about the issue of the stolen cup is not what they believe they did they know right then and there on their hearts was the terrible treachery and the suffering that they had inflicted on their brother and now he's the lord of egypt they had just confessed it we're guilty we've done this god has found it out what do you think is going through their minds nothing but confusion do you think it's joy let me ask that question do you think it's joy or do you think it's terror right now think of the scenario if i murdered somebody and i got hauled off to jail for that and 20 years later the new president comes down to my cell and says I'm the one you murdered what would you do you think you're done what's he going to do to me we read they're dismayed in his presence they couldn't even answer him they can't speak they're frozen the one they delivered to death is living he's living and so at this moment joseph recognizing this he says please he says come near me come i am joseph your brother whom you sold into egypt it had this story stopped there he would have had every right then and there to bind them to beat them to throw them into the dungeon to get a taste of of what they did to him and then to put an end to their miserable lives, right? What would you do? What would you do? Let me be a little bit open here. Do you know what one of my struggles with as a pastor is? It's being criticized. I hate it. It's pride. I hate it. And when I'm criticized, it's easy for me. And as a pastor, you get it. Easy for me to keep people who criticize me way over here. Easy. And you want nothing to do with people who do that. The least offenses. I mean the least offenses. If someone attacks me, if someone undermines, hurts, I can keep them distant. It's all pride. Now, the greater the offense, the more the anger. instead of loving them, instead of proactively going after them, I can eliminate them from my life. And today it's even easier. You can delete them from Facebook. I just read the awful story of a man who was falsely accused by someone who hated him of arson. Imagine that. He went to jail for 10 months and lost in the course of the 10 months, wife was gone, lost his family lost his house lost his savings and when he was finally acquitted the man was homeless and one false accusation listen to what he says one false accusation took my whole life how could someone just take and ruin someone's life under false accusations and walk free wilson said i need answers it took my whole life this guy's last name was wilson it took my whole life all my life savings i'm homeless and i have to start everything over i'm not free this person wrecked him with one accusation think of the scenario here they took him away from his father they ripped off 22 years of his life with his father they stole that away how would you feel kind of puts the trivial stupid complaining against somebody else in a little bit of perspective doesn't it the whole scene is immersed in his compassion for them he has the authority he has all authority to end their lives he has all authority to put them on the stocks he has all power to strike them and what does he do come to me i'm your brother and then he says this i'm your brother whom you sold don't be grieved or angry with yourselves that you did this to me who says something like that i mean who says something like that i know you're burdened i see it on you guys i see that you're so troubled in conscience about what you did to me. I don't want that for you. I don't want that. I mean, I would at least, if I were going to be nice, I would at least say something like this. What you guys put me through, listen, I'll forgive you. But here's my list. None of it. All he cares about is their distressed heart. And you stop and you ask, what is God showing you here? Well, Joseph is representing someone. Who do you think Joseph's representing? Don't be grieved. There's a time for grief. Ecclesiastes says that. There's a time for grief. There's a time to weep. There's also a time for joy. And here's where I'm not always sure we've communicated what God's purpose is in the Gospel. That there have been, you know, it's been the most difficult challenge to get anyone to weep for their sins today. and that's why we have the law. But when you do that, I'm not talking about just tears. There are many here who become so burdened with their lives because as believers, they're sensitive, sensitive hearts. And you're grieved over your lives. You know this. You're grieved over your lives because the Lord has done a great work in that heart. And great conviction comes over you and you have sins of the past and you feel defiled and you feel dirty and you feel condemned. And there's this question mark that hangs over the life. It's a question mark. Wondering about your life. Does God really, really love? And a lot of Christians live with guilt. And I'm so taken that Joseph sees this and reads this on them, and he doesn't want them to live that way. I've seen some Christians so oppressed, they never get out of their misery. They never get out of it. We're about to partake of the supper, and it kind of leads us to the next question, then what do you think your approach should be? Sometimes I wonder in our tradition if we think that the sufferer is just about feeling how bad we are. I've often thought that. Oh, you're bad. You should feel that. But is that where the Lord wants you to be? Did you notice how many times Joseph mentions God here? God did this. God did this. He's so driven by an understanding of this whole event that it was so ordered by God to bring about what? Good news to these sad men. Remember I said it's the most difficult thing, and I've quoted this a few times here, the most difficult thing to make the wicked sad and the righteous happy. Joseph believes he's representing the Lord. Don't be grieved with yourselves. They'd confess. I mean, the whole previous section was confession. This is the whole paradigm. This is the whole model of 1 John that if you confess your sins, He's faithful and just to do what? To forgive you your sins and to cleanse you. Does He cleanse you so that you stay down? No. Oh, He's working hard to recover their joy. He is working hard to recover their joy. It's been gone a long time because of what they did. 22 years. God is setting a table before you this morning and what does He want? He wants you to understand something. There was an understanding that's driving Joseph. And that's where the heart of this whole story comes alive for us. You say, well, what can give a man that kind of perspective to love rebels like this? You hear it in the way that he responds. What does he say to them? He says, I don't want you to be grieved that you did this to me because, here it all is, God sent me ahead of you to preserve life. Look, there's a famine on the earth. You're only two years in. You've got five more to go. joseph stands back and he looks at the whole picture of what's happened and he says god sent me to preserve posterity for you in the earth and to save your lives and give you a wonderful deliverance you didn't do this god did mind blown and he made me a father to pharaoh for your sakes this is so crucial to the life of faith dear christian i don't know if i can get in any passage better to show you the life of faith here's what you should understand something had happened a famine in the land had been decreed satan of course had an intention to wipe out satan wanted the holy family gone the whole picture of the old testament is he wants to eliminate the seed But God had an entirely different purpose. And we don't understand how important this is. The promise to Abraham right now stood in jeopardy. Everything was in jeopardy. Everything right now was in question. Everything was under attack, under assault. The nations of the peoples were promised to Abraham so that you would be here. But if this line was wiped out, none of you would be here today. And what Joseph is seeing is God working through these awful circumstances of life that happen that we don't understand why. We don't get that. Working through these awful circumstances with the goal of not just saving them, but preserving their family so that ultimately God's only begotten Son would come. The plan was much bigger than you. The plan was much bigger than them. And that's marvelous that God in all the twists and turns of life, you know, is working. And even when you look at things and say, I don't see it, look at the evil, look at the mess before us. It's one thing after another. Look at the godlessness. Look at what's caving in on us as a church. I mean, you can just go right down the line. And God tells you in the scriptures, before all that even happened, when the fall happened in Genesis 3, God got up again and started working. But Jesus said, my father's been working and I've been working. And he's so ordering all the events in the midst of the chaos to bring the good that he intended. And that's where we are wrestling to get to what was the good intended. Well, what I see in Joseph was so much trust in God's goodness that whatever was happening to him in life, whatever it was at that moment in life, God had already had a plan in motion working itself out through their selling of Him that He's able to look beyond the sinful actions of one another and believe that God's greater plan was working itself out. It's providence. If you accepted that, wouldn't that change fundamentally how you deal with one another and how they sin against you? Wouldn't you realize a greater plan then is being worked out? Lord's Day 10. What do you understand by the providence of God? God's providence is His almighty and ever-present power. Ever-present. Whereby? With His hand, He governs everything. And He upholds heaven and earth and all creatures and so governs them that if there is what? No rain, or there is rain. Food, or no food. Freedom to proclaim Christ freely, or no freedom. Sickness, health. If I'm sick with cancer, if I'm healthy, if I'm full of riches, if it's all taken away. None of it's by chance. All of it's from His fatherly hand. Now when you embrace that and you see that, that what's happening is coming from His fatherly hand, you're going to look beyond all the offenses of people. You're going to look beyond all of that and see and believe through it, even though you may not see it at the moment, that God's greater purposes are being worked out. And you know what that does? It frees you to love. That's the most freeing place you could ever be to forgive, to embrace. People who are constantly angry and bitter and keep people over there, which I've told you is my own struggle. What is that? It's a lack of faith in God's workings. And belief that He is working in the larger intention for the good of this sheep. You have so much more compassion on people when you look at things this way. Because you understand their misery and you understand your own. This is why Paul said when he was in prison, I've learned in whatever state I am to be content. If God gives me all these material blessings, I'll be content. Don't judge people for that. If God takes it all away, I'll be content. Don't judge people for that. God's working. And that drives Joseph. You soul, God sent. Not you, but God. And that's a way to view life. That will change your way you view life. And that's why I said that understanding is driving Joseph. That he's inviting them now to share in God's greater plan of redemption for them. And that ultimately, though, they had intended it for evil that God decreed it all for good so that now confessing their sins, they can see the greater purpose. and with that understanding Joseph reassures his brothers of his love for them and forgiveness we read in verse 14 of real reconciliation not just saying I forgive real because you can say you forgive and remain unreconciled real reconciliation did you see it they embrace they weep on each other's necks and it says they talk don't you just love that they talk There's something so freeing when brothers reconcile. Have you ever tasted it? It's health, it's strength, it's peace. It displays everything of an understanding of the gospel. In contrast to that, all bitterness and staying away from someone displays no understanding of it. You made me, he says, God has made me Lord over Egypt. Come to me. Don't tarry. Joseph was in the land of Ramses. Here he provides for them Goshen. Goshen was in the land of Ramses in the eastern Nile Delta. It was fertile. It was beautiful. It was some of the best land of Egypt. And as we approach the end of Genesis, do you see the big story? As you approach the end of Genesis, God has already put on display in shadowy form His greater plan of putting them back in a garden-like situation with the Savior. And all the provisions, I'll sustain your lives. I'll provide for you. Go get your father. Bring him here. Pharaoh's entire household hears this. They're overjoyed. They send down the carts. I mean, this is powerful stuff. And the scene in Egypt ends with the brothers being full of provisions. They're going down in the carts of Egypt. And then in verse 24, Joseph says, I have a command for you though. See to it that you do not quarrel along the way. That is so powerful. You agree? Stop fighting. No more. Don't blame each other. No more quarreling. And I've tried to restrain myself with the ultimate application here. here we are in this mess we've created and our hearts are all on edge and we're struggling in this life and we're struggling with the decisions we make and sometimes we feel like we don't even know why we're here or what we're doing and we struggle with assurance and we don't forgive as we should and we find ourselves in hosts of conflicts and we make a bed of misery that we chose to live in that we did in adam but then we just keep it on and we keep living in that bed of misery by our own doing and God comes today and God says listen you didn't ever first love me but I first loved you you didn't ever first seek me but I first sought you while you were yet sinners I put a plan in place and I gave my son and he died for you and that's the basis by which the apostles could say that grace was given to you all before time began and when the disciples were in the room distressed after the resurrection and they didn't know do you remember how our lord revealed himself thomas i won't believe unless i see jesus come near me feel when christ gave his words to them don't fear little flock it's the father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom I don't want you to live troubled. The message the apostles were so gripped with when they went out and they preached the cross to the multitudes. They went out and the first thing Peter would say, remember, men of Israel, listen to these words, Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst. Just as you yourselves know, this man delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put him to death, but God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death since it was impossible for him to be held in its power and he calls all of you. No, no, no, wait. No, he says to all of you, you're done? He says, come to me. Repent. I'll give you rest. Did God put His Son through all that, dear Christians, with the intention this morning of bringing an end to you? Make no sense. If He wanted to destroy you, He could. But those who He commands to repent and they hear and they come, you know what His intention toward you is. The great invitation goes out. Come to me. And here's what I will do for you. Like Goshen, in my father's house are many mansions. We can talk about translation. But here's what I want you to know. I've gone to prepare a place for you. And when I come again, I'm going to bring you there. Yes, what you did was evil. Your lives are evil. Confess that. But I want you to understand this morning that before you even did that, God had planned, says the Lord Jesus Christ, deliver me up the father and in coming to me i don't want you to be grieved anymore you hear god saying that to you this morning god's perfect plan was accomplished and now he wants you to live under his gracious reign and now he wants you to enjoy living under that gracious reign which is the picture here of the sons coming and living under the reign of joseph i'll provide for you i'll care for you i'll fill you with all sorts of good things the best of the land is yours don't think that if you ask me for bread i'm going to give you a stone don't worry about all the things in life all of mine is yours it's all yours he says come to me and along the way no more quarreling no more quarreling stop it love as you have been loved respond as i have responded to you and when you confess your sins i want you to come to me with joy and that's what my table declares he says to you today a place of communing together a place of communing anticipating when you will commune with him face to face and so then seeing that the Lord is good let's come then with the kind of joyful hearts that he wants us to come.