Well, this morning we continue our study in the book of Genesis, first book of the Bible. We won't go back to the first chapter. I'm tempted, though. Genesis chapter 44 this morning. And we are in the heart, if you're a visitor this morning, of our study in this narrative of Joseph and his brothers. Let's give our attention this morning to Genesis chapter 44. I'll read the entirety of the chapter. Then he commanded the steward of his house, fill the men's sacks with food as much as they can carry and put each man's money in the mouth of his sack and put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest with his money for the grain. And he did as Joseph told him. As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away with their donkeys. they had gone only a short distance from the city now joseph said to his steward up follow after the men and when you overtake them say to them why have you repaid evil for good is it not from this that my lord drinks and by this that he practices divination you have done evil in doing this when he overtook them he spoke to them these words they said to him why does my lord speak such words as these far be it from your servants to do such a thing behold the money that we found in the mouth of our sacks we brought back to you from the land of canaan how then could we still silver or gold from your lord's house whichever of your servants is found with it shall die and we also will be my lord's servants he said let it be as you say he who is found with it shall be my servant and the rest of you shall be innocent then each man quickly lowered his sack to the ground and each man opened his sack and he searched beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest and the cup was found in benjamin's sack then they tore their clothes and every man loaded his donkey and they returned to the city when judah and his brothers came to joseph's house he was still there they fell before him to the ground joseph said to them what deed is this that you have done do you not know that a man like me can indeed practice divination and judah said what shall we say to my lord what shall we speak or how can we clear ourselves god has found out the guilt of your servants behold we are my lord's servants both we and he also in whose hand the cup has been found but he said far be it from me that i should do so only the man in whose hand the cup was found shall be my servant but as for you go up in peace to your father and judah went up to him and said oh my lord please let your servant speak a word in my lord's ears and let not your anger burn against your servant for you are like pharaoh himself. My Lord asked his servant, saying, Have you a father or a brother? And we said to my Lord, We have a father, an old man, and a younger brother, the child of his old age. His brother's dead, and he alone is left of his mother's children, and his father loves him. Then you said to your servants, Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him. We said to my Lord, The boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die. Then you said to your servants unless your younger brother comes down with you you shall not see my face again when we went back to your servant my father we told him the words of my lord and when our father said go again buy us a little food we said we cannot go down if our younger brother goes with us then we will go down for we cannot see the man's face unless our younger brother is with us then your servant my father said to us you know that my wife bore me two sons one left me and i said surely he's been torn to pieces and i have never seen him since if you take this one also from me and harm happens to him you will bring down my gray hairs and evil to shale now therefore as soon as i come to your servant my father and the boy is not with us then as his life is bound up with the boy's life as soon as he sees that the boy is not with us he will die and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to shale for your servant became a pledge of safety for the boy to my father saying if i do not bring him back to you then i shall bear the blame before my father all my life now therefore please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord and let the boy go back with his brothers for how can i go back to my father if the boy is not with me i fear to see the evil that would find my father may the lord bless the hearing of his word one of you said to me last week you said pastor how striking it is and how long this is taking for joseph to just reveal himself to his brothers i mean they're really being put through it and i thought to myself i thought that's a That's a really correct feeling and emotion that you're getting reading through this because I believe that's the very intention of this entire story. Why is this taking so long to reveal, Joseph to reveal himself to his brothers? Why is he putting them through this? And I believe that if you can answer that question this morning, it'll greatly help you to understand the Christian life. why do i say that the brothers after doing all of these terribly terrible things to their father and joseph they really have been the imagery that we have they really have been living a life of absolute misery and in the course of this entire story what we see is that the lord has really been working on them hasn't he it's encouraging we really see how the lord is working to bring real change to these brothers and it's happening but none of that has come quickly have you noticed that none of the change that we've been studying none of that has come quickly in fact this has been really really slow and the mystery you might say of sanctification or when we look at stories like this and we try to put all this together with the christian life we're so programmed especially living where we are to think that everything happens kind of whiz bang right now i mean that's what we were taught with the whole walk the aisle model for years it happens right then and there make the decision it's good it's changed but really what we have here is a study in the patience of god a study in the patience of god in bringing his sheep to repentance what does that look like what is the whole story of our lives and God's patience what does that look like well if you kind of survey the whole thing the scene has gone back and forth because it's a case study in the hardness of the human heart that's what this is it's a case study in the hardness of the human heart and what is before us this morning is a scene displaying exactly where the Lord is bringing us as you're seeing it progress and as you're seeing real progress being made the kind of place the kind of broken heart the kind of contrite heart that that we studied that we saw already from singing out from psalm 32 this morning that we considered with the paralytic the man dropped before him the kind of broken and contrite heart that actually produces the godly sorrow that leads to repentance what's the issue then before us this morning well it's this while the brothers are being dealt with while we've seen a progress of them learning repentance and sorrow for what they've done the issue is this they've yet to be reconciled with their father their brother and their God that's what the issue is reconciliation's not occurred and that says a lot it's taking a long time for that to be prepared that's the point here in this long study you can generally be sorry for your sins in life oh we say that well i'm sorry for what i've done and you may generally feel that you're sorry for sins or you can generally feel sorry for what things you've done to someone or or or you might have let go things that people have done to you but that's not necessarily the same thing as reconciliation that's not reconciliation you could say well i forgive them i let it go but you still they're way at a distance and this is what we're seeing this morning uh god wants reconciliation god wants that god's working that he'll accomplish that but that's why the process has been so long to make them prepared to receive that reconciliation with their brother and what a great preparation sermon for the supper as we anticipate meeting with us and joining at the table first things first be reconciled to god be reconciled to god be reconciled then with your brother evidence of that of reconciliation with god is evidenced in how you are reconciled with your brother so with those things in mind in the first scene of chapter 44 what we have is a massive confrontation that takes place the biggest of them all in this story in the first five verses joseph commands them to fill their sacks with as much food as they could carry and money was put into the sacks i mean this is this is a really amazing situation he commands them to fill the sacks and then to take his silver cup the one uh imagine this guy right here i didn't plan on this but this is a nice silver cup boys and girls it's not silver it's cheap but imagine if this was real it's what it probably looked like put it in the sack of benjamin's and so what happens Well, it's an amazing scene. As soon as they're outside the city, the servant is to bolt and to come with his Egyptian chariots and charge them for stealing the cup. I want you to put yourself in their shoes for a moment. It had been a rough go of it. It had been a rough go of it for these men. I mean, they had come to Egypt. They had been accused of being spies. I mean, you look at the hard life these men have lived so far. Nothing's gone well for them, which is also a good message in and of itself. They had said, we're honest, we're honest men. And that had been the greatest, the farthest thing from the truth. There was nothing honest about their lives. And remember what Joseph did. Let's test that, let's test that. He already put a test in front of them. Okay, take the silver back. I bind up Simeon. I take one of your brothers and then you can come back. Until you come back, you've got to bring your youngest brother with you. I want to see him. That last favorite son of your father. So they head back. A son is left behind, bound up. And the story last time, you kept wondering, why didn't they bolt back to get their brother? Why didn't they take him? The agony on Jacob's life to have to send Benjamin is what held this whole thing up. Now what's amazing about it is it was a scene recreated by Joseph that first time that began to portray the very scene of his own betrayal. Remember this? They had sold their brother down to Egypt for silver and they sat and they had a meal and without a care there went their brother to Egypt and they went back to their father in peace. Remember? Telling the lie. No care in the world. Well, not really. What strikes me about the whole narrative is this miserable group of men, they've been living with this misery. They haven't come clean. All of this reconciliation that has not occurred has made them miserable people. But their first response to the test was what? Their first response was, why is God doing this to us? That's not right. I've thought about that a lot. That's challenging God, isn't it? In the first scene, they're guilty. But then God really begins, we see, and He's been doing it the whole time, to work on their consciences. They weren't there yet to be reconciled. Which is so amazing to think about because you want to say, Go do it right now. But some hearts are so hard. They don't listen. They won't do it. And God's got to intervene. God has got to intervene. So what happens? Well, as I look at this narrative and I think about life and I look at how we look at people, sometimes in our own course of our own lives, we see nothing progress. we see such little movement it seems and nothing seems to change and sometimes people are miserable because of the life they've chosen to lead and because they let these things fester and and and you stand back sometimes from people you know like this and you say well well can't they see you can't they see you ever asked that uh question about anyone else i'm sure as i've been preaching, a lot of you have thought about, I sure hope so-and-so is listening to this sermon. You ever thought about the question, do you see? Do you see? We don't ask that as often as we should. What's fascinating to me again is Joseph recreates the whole scene again, but now it's filled with more intensity, more clarity. He builds again another scene similar to the first one but this one's becoming really clear as to what he's doing first one was somewhat now it's intense now it's precise now it's intentional and imagine this imagine the scene the brothers head out from a night of festivities and they had a good time that night full of wine had a great time sacks are full of grain all the brothers are with them this is this is a victory march back to the land isn't it this is a victory march back to dad got benjamin got simeon and all of a sudden they turn around and here comes those egyptian chariots israel is going to have a similar scene at the sea they are deadly afraid this is like the old western movies and there comes the posse the egyptian chariots powerful horses coming after them and so we read in verse 6 that that that this servant commanded by joseph overtook them and spoke to them these same words why have you repaid evil for good you've taken the cup how do they respond what are you saying why would you ever charge us with something like that listen Would we bring the money back the first time if we were going to come back and then steal the cup off his table? Let's look. Let's look. Let it be as you say. He who is found with it shall be my servant. The rest of you can go. The rest of you can go. So from the oldest to the youngest, they each let down their sack and he starts exploring. And remember, you're looking at Reuben, who had done some really bad things with his father's concubine, and there's nothing there. And then he goes to the brothers who had slayed the Shechemites, and one by one they go right down, nothing there, nothing there. And you can imagine them feeling so vindicated, feeling so right. And then they come to Benjamin, and he lowers the sack, and there it is. What had just happened? The scene was all created. The brothers now, now think about this, have stolen silver in their possession. And it's in the sack of their father's last favorite son, son of Rachel. Servants say, go ahead, you can go. We're taking him. You can go to your father in peace. And this is the whole story of Joseph when you think about it, of what they had done to him. But the question first that you have to think about is this. Can they really now go back to their father in peace? Can they go back? Can they go back in peace to their father? It's a provocative statement. Go back now in peace. You go ahead. Can you do it? They did it with Joseph. They feasted after they sold him. They did that. You say, Pastor, this is cruel. Why is Joseph doing this to this man? I mean, the silver was planted. They didn't steal it. It's all false. And if you're feeling that, you've missed it. They stole their father's favorite son. They sold him for silver. And none of that had been reconciled. And in the face of a recreated, a repainted scene, what you have here is they're being forced to see their own theft, which they won't see. the theft of their lives. Could they do it again? Could they go back? Could they give away this son? Could they go back in peace? The issue is not that they were being falsely accused in this little thing. The issue is they had never come clean in the most important thing. And all of this, all of this was a giant test of their hearts whether they would come clean about what they did to Joseph. now you've come across this in the bible before haven't you does god ever recreate scenes for people to help them see absolutely you know one really well remember when david committed his sin with basheba and nathan comes and nathan recreates the scene with a parable and he recreates the scene and a man he says had this remember the parable a man had this little ewe lamb and then this rich man came and he took from this poor man he took his one little ewe lamb and remember what david says you would think that david right then and there said man i just did that to uriah he didn't even see it he didn't see any of it but instead what does david do david pronounces judgment on the man who would do that that god should judge that man let that man be judged nathan looks at him nathan points the finger and says you're the man brothers stand there joseph recreates the scene they say our self-confidence is so strong With whomever of your servants the cup is found, let him die. Whoever is guilty is deserving of death. Haven't they figured it out? I mean, haven't they figured it out yet? One more question. Have you? Have I? Have I? How could you not see that? how could you not see what's right in front of you? I've been shocked at times in my own life and in people's lives as a pastor how God convicts people through the unfolding of events in front of us that are very similar, if not the same circumstances of our own past sin. I remember one particular lady who for years spoke of denial about what she did in her life and then all of a sudden she saw that same path, that very same path unfold in the life of her daughter. And as that very same path unfolded in the life of her daughter, she said, all I could do was go to the Lord for mercy. I couldn't believe what was happening. I never wanted to see that before. I see it now. It's the principle that your sin will find you out. But what a place to be. I mean, this is a great place to be. Where God has opening up the heart and mind to see. Think of the imagery of the text. Their heads are down. They're in complete distress. And here's the moment of real change. It's the Nathan and David moment of Genesis chapter 44. David confesses and he's reconciled with God. Thus you have Psalm 51 and Psalm 32, which we sung out today. We read in verse 13 that what did they do? They ripped their clothes. When you ripped your clothes in that time, this was intense sorrow. This is great mourning. You were in utter despair and distress. They're all heading back. And when you ripped your clothes, you're weeping. Can you see this? They're weeping back to Egypt. They're holding Benjamin. How are we going to get out of this one? Benjamin's now going to be a slave. And now they have to present themselves with no plea to the man whom is given, Listen, all authority in Egypt, everyone is ruled by his word. He's given the name above every name in Egypt. They must bow to that name. What are they going to do? They have two choices. You could stand there and you could try to convince the man you're innocent. Right? You could say, we didn't do it. But they've got the silver. That's one choice. Or, they could come clean about the real deceit of their heart. You really get a sense here of what judgment day will be like. You know, people on the last day are going to try to do what I just described. Revelation says books are going to be opened. There's the Lamb's Book of Life. And remember, in the Lamb's Book of Life, there's nothing written except names. There's no deeds. And whoever has their name written in the Lamb's book of life, just a name. Then there's another book and everything's recorded. Ten Commandments is why we read it. Every breaking of the law. Every thought, word, and deed. And on that day, there will be those who will stand there and they're going to say, listen, we didn't do that. We weren't that bad. I mean, you get this in how many forms today when you try to tell someone about their need for Jesus. And the first thing they say is, I'm good. I don't do those things. It's not that bad. You're painting it way worse. You guys are such, you Christians are such downers on this sin thing. Come on. I am good. And the Lord's going to say, what? Depart from me. You who practice lawlessness, you live in it. I've got a record of it. they never in the course of their lives came to a moment and a place where they stopped with all the superficiality of life and they said you know I'm guilty I am guilty of judgment I am guilty of what I've done and here's why I love the passage look what God does for his sheep God comes and he says let's go ahead and look in your sacks let's go ahead and look in your heart Let's lift up the lid of the heart for a moment. I don't have the cup in my hand. Come on. It's not in my hand. Let's lift up the heart. Is it there? You see where God brings us? Now, they come and they stand before Joseph. And one man shines in the narrative. One man. The least likely of all of them. Who is it? Judah. The one who had run away. The one who had lived the most notorious, rebellious, perverse life among them. And the heart of everything God is teaching us now shines here about his gospel. Since we're them. And you say, finally we get to a moment here of honesty. Finally we have the kind of response that pleases God. Then Judah says, what shall I say to my Lord? You feel this? Feel the sincerity of this. What shall we, he includes his brothers what shall we say to my lord what shall we speak how can how can we clear ourselves god has found out the guilt of your servants god did this we know it he found us out we're my lord's servants both we and he also in whose hand the cup has been found we're all guilty now that's a remarkable moment in this study isn't it we're guilty remember nathan you're the man i'm guilty said david i am guilty and then david says that you're blameless when you speak and just when you judge there's this deep awareness now that i'm in this place where there's just no more appeal i i don't i don't have anything that can that can vindicate me when you say to your god how am i going to clear myself this has all the um important elements here of uh genuine repentance and turning to the lord of psalm 51 judah is looking much deeper at his life and the life of his brothers than just the mere cup and that's where the lord wanted it he openly declares the greater reality of what god had exposed and made plain you know what's on judah's mind right now there's two people on judah's mind you know who it is it's joseph and his father i want you to notice it's the transformation that's shown to us here God has been pressing on their lives God has been pressing on their hearts and look at what the chapter now presents I believe this is the point where we're seeing that life come out in them and the fruit of of of a sincere conversion that's taking place how can I say that well remember when Joseph reconstructed the entire scene the question was would they again abandon their brother for silver would they do it again would they save their own necks at the expense of this last last last last love son of their father would they do that and 22 years ago they did without a care in the world now they won't go back without benjamin and judah leads them in confession listen to this confession verse 18 then judah came near and said oh my lord please let your servant speak a word in my lord's ears let not your anger burn against your servant for you are like Pharaoh himself. And he goes on to say, you've asked whether we have a father or a brother. And Judah then tells the whole story. Now keep in mind, Joseph doesn't even know what his father thinks happened to him. Imagine the emotion of this. Your servant, my father said to us, verse 27, you know that my wife bore me two sons. One left me and I said, surely he's been torn to pieces this is jacob and i've never seen him since if you take this one also from me and harm happens to him you will bring down my gray hairs and evil to sheol judah says if i don't bring benjamin back he's done when you're confessing sin and you're made ready for reconciliation, the ultimate recognition comes out that yes, you've offended God, but that He has found it out. He exposed it. And then, you know what the fruit of that is? The fruit of that is it produces in us a clear understanding of how we have hurt those whom we should have loved. How we've hurt those we should have loved. Two things they had done. They showed no love to their father and they cast their brother and sold him in trafficking, you remember. Notice the affection now that has come out for their father. They all stood there. I believe they're changed. What I'm saying is, you know a person's in darkness. You know a person remains in the darkness. and is still in bondage, is still dead in trespasses, if you might say. How do we discern that? Well, you could say it's no reconciliation with God and with neighbor. But here's one of the great evidences of that. The way they respond to parents. I want you to think about that for a moment. The way they treat their family. The way they treat fellow brothers and sisters in the house and in the physical house. When they're in darkness, they don't care who they hurt. And all of you who've led rebellious lives know that. You know growing up, you didn't listen to your parents. And notice now how Judah's heart bleeds for his dad. I just love this. It's so moving. they caused that man 22 years of grief. Painful grief. And they can't go back to him if this son is not with them. They can't see it. They can't face it. They can't face the burden of that. We've hurt him too much. What we did to our father, you been there? realizing that when you walk the path of darkness and you come into the light, you step back and you say, look who I've hurt. I've hurt as a father my children. I've not loved my wife. I've hurt my mother. I've hurt my brother. Ultimately, Lord, I've offended You. We love our Father. Hear it? We love our Father. We can't do this. We can't go through this again. And then, in the most moving twist of the narrative, Judah says, I'll step in. I'll take his place. I'll become the substitute. The man whom Rachel had named for Benjamin, son of my sorrow, was released by the man whose name meant praise. And the man's name then became what Jacob wanted Benjamin to become, son of my right hand. That's just a little twist I came up with. You realize Joseph had no idea all these years his father lived with this like this. And at this point, Joseph loses it. It's over. Reconciliation's ready. You see it? It's ready. It's ready. You want it now. I'm going to give it to you next week for the Lord's Supper. it's ready it's prepared and i love this passage because ultimately judah was not held there was he it's not that joseph said okay you go and i take you and put you on the shackle and the most beautiful truth portrayed here that we all know about by now is that there was a lion from his tribe coming. And he loved his brothers so much and he loved his father so much. Grieved about what those brothers did to the Heavenly Father. Grieved about what we've done to the Heavenly Father. He stepped in. And he said, I'll become the substitute. Peter wanted to drink that cup, remember? I'll drink that cup you can't drink this cup you can't take this cup I'll take the cup Father if there's any other way let this cup pass from me but not what does he say not as I will but as you will and drank the cup of the wrath of God for us becoming the substitute I thought to myself as I close this sermon this morning did christ ever recreate a scene in the gospels did he ever recreate a scene and the answer is yes he did he recreated the scene of the disciples denial of him remember after the resurrection after he revealed himself i don't think we appreciate enough the struggle of the disciples to get over what they did to jesus remember that the betrayal of him i don't think they I think for those moments after the resurrection and that time before Christ ascended, one of his missions was to recover his disciples, to then send them out to become the apostles, remember? But they had to be convinced of his gospel love. They had to be convinced that he was not done with them because of what they did to him. And remember what happened? Peter had stood coals of fire warming himself with the betrayers of Jesus out as Jesus walks by, Becoming the substitute. And they make eye contact. And he's warming himself. Peter runs back to the boat afterward to fish. I'm done. Boat comes to shore. He looks on shore. There's a coal fire. The very scene of his betrayal. Three times he denied him. It's denial, not betrayal. Three times he denied it. And Jesus recreates it. And three times Jesus restores him. Do you love me, Peter? Peter intensely struggled inside. It's all pictured in the words. I love you, but I know my actions didn't show it. But I love you. Yes, I love you. Feed my sheep. Do you love me, Peter? You know that I love you. Do you love me? And Jesus wanted Peter to understand that even though he had denied him, even though he had committed a great sin, this was always God's plan to give his son. And that his work with Peter was not done. And dear Christians, I want to say to you this morning in closing that yes, we offended our Heavenly Father. Yes, we sinned in denying the Son of God. But He wants you to know as we look at this and as we see that what we meant for evil, God meant for good. All of this was set up that reconciliation in this story of Joseph might be enjoyed now. And appreciated for what it is. And I ask you that question. Are you reconciled with God and your neighbor? And do you appreciate what that is? When that takes hold of us, you know what we do? We stop fighting the way that we fight. The bitterness is let go. And we enjoy the grace of God that's announced to us. We enjoy the forgiveness He declares to us. And you're just filled with overwhelming joy. I quoted Alistair Begg last week who said, and was right, when we refuse to forgive our brothers, we maximize their sins against us and minimize our sins against God. When we realize then the magnitude of our offense against God and the depths of His love to us in return, here's what happens. You no longer can go on treating your brothers the way that you used to. You can't hurt them. anymore the way that you used to. It burdens you too greatly. You love them. No longer can we hurt our fathers. No longer can fathers hurt their children. No longer can mothers hurt their children the way they do or whatever. In all these circumstances we see in a broken family today, the Christian life then has a great care that we love fervently with a pure heart because we've been loved with that kind of love, that's when we enjoy reconciliation with God and with our neighbors. In that position, dear Christians, we have true and lasting peace. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for your patience and long-suffering to us, which we do not deserve. And in the course of our lives, the way that we've hurt people and ultimately sinned against You. And yet You returned upon us this kind of love, restoring us and working ever in our hearts that we might enjoy today reconciliation with You and with men. Peace. Are there any who are not changed here, O Lord, convict them greatly. And let us sing Your praises for Your love to us that even though we've done this, You want us to know that we're forgiven. You want us to live in joy. You want us to live in peace. And you desire that we would go forward being your witnesses. So thank you for teaching us what it is to love fervently with a pure heart. And as we come next week and see this great revelation of Joseph to his brothers, may that inspire us, O Lord, by how Christ has saved us and revealed himself to us and given us life so that our whole lives may be directed to Your praise and glory. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.