This morning, we turn in the Bible to Genesis 42. As you're turning there, I was talked to by a few of you about time. I didn't do so well the first half of the service here. I don't know what to say. I'm trying. I'm really trying. So don't be mad at me, Sunday school teachers, if you're a few minutes late. Genesis chapter 42 this morning, and we will hear the entirety of the chapter. Consider it. When Jacob learned that there was grain for sale in Egypt, he said to his sons, Why do you look at one another? And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is grain for sale in Egypt. Go down and buy grain for us there, that we may live and not die. So ten of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with his brothers, for he feared that harm might happen to him. Thus, the sons of Israel came to buy among the others who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan. Now Joseph was governor over the land. He was the one who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground. Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke roughly to them. Where do you come from? He said. They said, from the land of Canaan to buy food. And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. And Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed of them. And he said to them, you are spies. You have come to see the nakedness of the land. They said to him, no, my Lord, your servants have come to buy food. We are all sons of one man. We're honest men. Your servants have never been spies. He said to them, No, it is the nakedness of the land that you've come to see. And they said, We, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. And behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is no more. But Joseph said to them, It is as I said to you. You are spies. By this you shall be tested. By the life of Pharaoh you shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here send one of you let him bring your brother while you remain confined that your words may be tested whether there is truth in you or else by the life of pharaoh surely you are spies and he put them all in custody together for three days on the third day joseph said to them do this and you will live for i fear god if you are honest men let one of your brothers remain confined where you are in custody and let the rest go and carry grain for the famine of your households and bring your youngest brother to me so your words will be verified and you shall not die and they did so then they said to one another in truth we are guilty concerning our brother in that he we saw the distress of his soul when he begged us and we did not listen this is why this distress has come upon us and ruben ruben answered them did i not tell you not to sin against the boy but you did not listen so now there comes a reckoning for his blood they did not know that joseph understood them for there was an interpreter between them then he turned away from them and wept and he returned to them and spoke to them and he took simeon from them and bound him before their eyes and joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain and to replace every man's money in his sack and to give them provisions for the journey this was done for them then they loaded their donkeys with their grain and departed and as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the lodging place he saw his money in the mouth of his sack he said to his brothers my money has been put back here it is in the mouth of my sack at this their hearts failed them and they turned trembling to one another saying what is this that god has done to us when they came to jacob their father in the land of canaan they told him all that had happened to them saying the man the lord of the land spoke roughly to us and took us to be spies of the land but we said to him we're honest men we've never been spies we're 12 brothers one of our sons of our father one is no more and the younger is this day with our father in the land of canaan then the man the lord of the land said to us by this i shall know that you are honest men leave one of your brothers with me and take grain for the famine of your households and go your way bring your youngest brother to me then i shall know that you are not spies but honest men and i will deliver your brother to you and you shall trade in the land as they emptied their sacks behold every man's bundle of money was in the sack and when they and their father saw their bundles of money they were afraid and jacob said jacob their father said to them you bereaved me of my children joseph is no more and simeon is no more and now you would take benjamin all this has come against me then reuben said to his father Kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my hands and I will bring him back to you. But he said, my son shall not go down with you for his brother's dead and he's the only one left. If harm should happen to him on the journey that you are to make, you would bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word. What a story, huh? I love this story because we know the outcome. I love this story because we know that at the very end of this, Jacob's sons and Jacob will be preserved. And at the end, Joseph will even tell all of them that God sent me ahead to deliver you. That was his plan. I mean, who doesn't like a story like this? This is phenomenal. But I was reflecting on this story, and I was thinking this past week of how really shallow we are in understanding what God is teaching us about all this. And I'm the first one to admit that. God wants to preserve their physical lives from famine. That's how the general reading of this goes. That's how people think when they think of this story. God's going to save them from famine. That's certainly part of it. But we often miss how God preserved their spiritual lives through this whole thing. Have you thought about that? What do I mean? Problem is, you've seen no spiritual life. Let me rehearse the family of Jacob. Son number one, Reuben, has already committed incest with his father's concubine. The whole goal of trying to assert power and take the position as the number one son. Sons number two and three, Simeon and Levi, had already slaughtered an entire city. Remember the Shechemites? Led a genocide against them. Son number four, Judah, has left the land at one point, joins himself to a prostitute and tries to get rid of her permanently. Finds out that he's the guilty one. And then all of these sons together conspire against dad's favorite son, hurl him into a pit, strip him of his clothing, sell him in trafficking, human trafficking, to Egyptians. And then they come and they lie to dad about this. And he's been bearing this for how long? This is your holy family. You say, you've got to be kidding me. Those are the skeletons I'd never want out of the closet in the family tree. and you should know your Lord well enough by now you should know the Lord and studying Genesis well enough by now he doesn't let this stuff go God doesn't let stuff go and you see in the course of our lives the reality is is that we're constantly doing things and we're hurting people and we do things and we separate from others and if I asked you today the simple question are there any with whom you don't speak, or are there any with whom you have conflict, or you have been sinned against, or you have sinned against them, and there remains no reconciliation? Maybe that would be a much greater problem here than we realize. And what kind of damage to others have we done in the past? What kind of damage have we done to parents in telling lies to them? what kind of damage fills our pasts what kind of real damage that we've done to hurt people i raise this today because the lord shows us that he is accomplishing something in their lives he cares about his sheep and the ultimate story being how much he cares about reconciliation with him and with neighbor it's right here the story shows us that god is ever working in his deliverance to bring people to a place of peace because the reality is we go through life and we think we have it but when these things are going on you really don't have it you struggle with it and all of this teaches us this morning how dependent we are upon our lord to know his grace to know his forgiveness and then to go and demonstrate that to others it'll never happen this morning if your conscience has not been opened it'll never happen if you've not been awakened to see your past to see the course of your life and that's one of the great purposes of genesis chapter 42 we left off last time and it was a really fascinating scene in chapter 41 joseph had been lifted out of the pit and he was given the name there you'll notice zephanath which could be translated there's debate but it could be translated and it has been sometimes savior of the world he's been given a name above every name in egypt every knee is bowing to him everyone's being ruled by his word i mean this is really powerful what we call typology and showing us the lord jesus christ but when we come to verse 56 now the scene is really directing us to show us what god's intention is for the family of jacob and so we've been introduced to this glorious figure but what is happening in them what is happening with them we've been sort of taken away from them for a while well now we're back and we read in verse 56 that this very severe famine has hit the land. And this famine had come so terribly upon the land that Jacob says to his sons in verse 1, I have heard that there's grain down in Egypt. I want you to go down there and I want you to buy grain or we are going to die. The whole thing should strike us here that they are going to Joseph. So already we're seeing God working behind the scenes and we're seeing his fulfillment beginning to take shape that god is bringing now these sons these sons to joseph and joseph has no idea of this the sons have no idea of this and the scene is really intense isn't it all the sons then pack up and they head down to egypt benjamin is the only one that stays behind remember jacob is still in great pain and over he thinks what happened to joseph Benjamin was the last son of Rachel. There is no way he's letting that son go down. So in verse 6, this is where we pick up this morning. Now Joseph was governor over the land. He was the one who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground. I don't know if you realize what a moment this is this morning. This was the scene that inaugurated the conflict, remember? Back in chapter 37, Joseph had presented his dreams. And in those dreams, you remember, he had two dreams where all the brothers and the father and the whole household are bowing prostrate before him. And the brothers were furious at this. Remember what they said. And his brothers said to him, shall you indeed reign over us? Or shall you indeed have dominion over us? So they hated him for his dreams and for his words. They hated him because of his claims over them, that he would reign over them and have dominion over them. Here we are. Fast forward now to chapter 42. That scene has been orchestrated, designed, and fulfilled by your Lord. They have no idea. They're not able to look up. Joseph is standing there. They have come. They have bowed the knee. Remember, everyone has to bow the knee to this man, Savior of the world, if we accept that. Now, the one thing I want you to think about, they've come for bread. Famine has been severe. You know how long this has been at this point since they last saw Joseph? 20 years. 20 years. My question when I look at Genesis 42 And the question that we should all have is something like this. Have they confessed anything in these last 20 years? Have they confessed anything? I mean, anything of what they did. I mean, they went through this misery for 20 years and they put dad through it. Had they asked God for forgiveness? Had they come to the God of Abraham and said, Lord, forgive us for what we did to our brother? Answer, any kind of remorse, none. None. I don't know how you live like that. That's my first application, right? How do you live 20 years of your life not confessing stuff like that? And the imagery of the house in verse 1 of chapter 42, did you hear it? Misery. When Jacob learned that there was grain for sale in Egypt, he said to his sons, why do you look at one another? What are you hearing now? An old, bitter man. I have heard there's grain for sale. Go down there and buy grain for us so we may live and not die. What do you hear? The house is in shambles. One pastor said it this way, get some food, you lazy, good-for-nothings. That's right. I think that's the spirit of the first verses there in chapter 42. Do you know the hardening effect of sin in people's lives and misery? Do you know how it affects them? I came across a few statements on bitterness, madness. Forgiveness and holding a grudge are like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die. A sinful commission stabs the soul. So sinful omissions will starve the soul. Think about hearing today. Think about hearing. If your soul's being starved, you're not hearing. You're not hearing. It's absolute misery to live this way. Misery. And people do it all the time. All I see in the first verses of 42 is a sad, bitter group of men. I don't know if you have any pinned up sorrow and guilt for what you've done or damaged someone. But if this kind of madness fills the heart and accompanies the heart, you still have no release. And deep down, you're a miserable person. That's what you have. That's the opening scene. and this is important because as we read the sad story we're reminded here that the one who is working to delivers the lord and joseph has gone ahead and we think this is just about saving them from physical starvation are you kidding it's not just about saving them from physical starvation they've got a bigger problem they have to be delivered from something far greater than that and that's the scene that's that's the scene here joseph sees them and it's important to say joseph has no bitterness in his heart towards them i want to say that up front because what i'm about to go through may seem like that he has none in fact he named his son i've let it go i've forgotten remember manasseh's name means forgotten i've let it all go i will not harbor anger i will not do that it's over for me so that's the scene that's the painted scene here comes these miserable men and here comes a brother who's totally free so there joseph is sitting on his throne in egypt and all the multitudes all the nations are coming to him and he is bowing they are bowing the knee before him hailing him with the great name and it's fascinating as he is sitting there he looks down and imagine the scene he uh he recognizes them how does he recognize them well they have beards hebrews have beards the egyptians are clean shaven whatever you want to do with that i saw a picture last week all the false prophets are clean shaven and all the true ones throughout history have had beards i tried to try it out here for a little bit he sees them. And he begins to think, and this requires questions, doesn't it? Had they changed? Were these still the same brutal murderers as before? Were these still the same heartless men who could do something like this with no care? So what does he do? It's a really shocking scene, isn't it? In verse 7, Joseph recognizes them. It says he acts as a stranger. So he's dressed as an Egyptian king, if you will. And he speaks like an Egyptian. Notice he has an interpreter. So they don't hear his voice. Everything's well. It goes through the interpreter. And notice the way he speaks to them. Rough. It's a fascinating word. He is harsh. How do you capture that? Where do you come from? And he makes a charge against them in verse 9. You're spies and you've come to see the nakedness of the land. You think, why is he doing that? Come on, Joseph, you know, is this revenge for your brothers doing this to you? I know they're ruthless killers, but come on. This is like, you know, this is pouring fire or gas on fire here. That's not the issue. A king can't just exonerate somebody and let them go and cast the truth aside. Joseph's a man of integrity. They're traitors in his kingdom. They're traitors. And a political officer of Pharaoh sworn to adjudicate and to take these matters into his own hands and matters of treason and to judge. Listen, if they have treated him terribly and wickedly, Such actions of the past are not just over. And the issue comes out then is what do you do with dishonest people? What do you do with dishonest, murderous men in the kingdom? Look at what they did to Him. What does God desire for us to do with our pasts? And all of us here could probably tell a lot about our pasts if we were going to be honest. Painful providence might drop us to the knee because we have some physical knee. But our real need's much greater than that. And the issue of our guilty lives, very guilty lives, needs to be dealt with on the king's terms, not our. Today, of course, if this is our mindset today, they need to be built up. I mean, positive self-esteem. The situation's bad enough. Poor guys starving to death, living with sore consciences. Look what they've done to their brother and father you know what they need right they need kindness they need mercy and the answer is not yet not yet not yet something powerful is shown here how do you deal with the past you resurrect guilt you resurrect guilt a past that's not been done with dealt with and so the whole section here focuses on a main thing that Joseph says. I want you to notice in verse 10 what happens. They said to him, this is after the charge, No, my Lord, your servants have come to buy food. We're all sons of one man. We're honest men. Your servants have never been spies. And you should stop and say, Are you kidding me? You're honest men? There's nothing honest about your lives whatsoever. There's never been anything honest about your lives. You've got to be kidding me. Like the honesty you showed in deceiving the Shechemites? Like the honesty you showed in deceiving dad with Joseph's bloody robe? Are you kidding? How could you say that? And the irony here, the sad irony is, they're saying it to the one they sold. We're honest. Something wrong here? It's the prevailing theme of the Bible. that it's the most difficult thing for a sinner to see his own heart. It is the most difficult thing for you to see your own heart. You might be here today bowing and you want physical food from the Lord. You want this situation solved and you want that situation solved. What about your heart? We're honest. I remember one of my favorite statements reading years ago a certain author and he said it's the most difficult thing to make the righteous happy and the wicked sad. And it's so true. He's rough. Speaking roughly lays a charge and now what does he do? Verse 14. It is, as I said to you, you are spies. By this you shall be tested. So here comes the test. By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go from this place unless your younger brother comes here. Send one of you, let him bring your brother while you remain confined, that your words may be tested, whether there's truth in you. See the issue here? Is there truth in you? Or else, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies. And he put them all together in custody for three days. On the third day, Joseph said to them, Do this and you'll live. I fear God. If you're honest men, let one of your brothers remain confined where you are in custody and let the rest go and carry grain for your famine of your households and bring your youngest brother to me so your words will be verified and you shall not die. And they did so. One of your brothers is going to be left here. Here's what's happening. Here's your test. One of your brothers is going to be left here. I'm going to bind him in shackles and you're going to go get that favorite son of your father. Now think of the irony of this whole scenario. You're going to go get that favorite last son of your father and you're going to bring him down to me. Then he takes all of them, cuffs them, throws them in prison for three days. To think about this. But here's the test. They had delivered their father's favorite son, Joseph, over and they sent him to Egypt and they, Human trafficking sold him out and what did they do? They took money. They took all this money and did they ever care? Did they do anything about that? Did they go back to try to get him? Did they tell dad? Nothing, none of that. Well, here's what Joseph's done. He's arranged the same circumstance. I mean, it's fascinating. The very same one. Would they now abandon Simeon? He's left there. They've got money. As a matter of fact, I'm going to fill all their sacks back with money. Would they say, wow, we got the money? Do you see the test? Would they abandon since they had the money? Were they really dishonest? Would they ever confess the great thing that they did to their brother Joseph? Would they complain about their lives? I want everyone to notice the little phrase by Joseph. Did you catch it in verse 18? Do this and live. Do this and live. Are you familiar with that? Why is that so important? Because that's the whole principle of the Mosaic law. Remember what Moses said? The man who does these things shall live by them. If you're not familiar with that, Galatians picks that back up. And Galatians says, and the Heidelberg Catechism quotes it right out of Galatians, Cursed is the man who does not continue to do all things written in the book of the law to do them. All of it. You have a shadowy presentation here already in Genesis of how God opens up eyes. Of how God teaches you about you. you have men saying i'm honest i'm good to the man that they delivered up and he then sets before them a standard that they have to confess because they can't do this when you put all this together paul said the purpose of the law when he said do this and live The law was given to reveal what? The law was given to reveal the sinfulness of sin. The law was given. That's why we read it, by the way. I know many Christians today think that's archaic and that there's no place for it in the Christian life. And I'll show you the consequence of that in just a moment here. But think about the purpose of that. The purpose of that is exactly what Paul said. I would have never known covetousness unless the law had said, thou shall not covet. I would have never seen it. I would have never seen what was going on in my life. So put it in these terms, I would have never known that I'm a dishonest man unless this test, this principle had been set in front of me. You see, there's no mercy, there's no compassion, there's no love shown to anyone who thinks if by their good, moral, honest life, they're entering the kingdom and receiving from the king. Isn't this just basic Christianity 101? When confronted with the law, when confronted with you have to keep God's law perfectly, either guilt is awakened or you're going to go try to do it yourself. And what happens in this passage? The very thing that should happen. I love this passage. Look at verse 21. Then they said to one another, in truth, we're guilty. Whoa, first time, first time. In truth, we're guilty concerning our brother. They're not thinking about anyone but Joseph. We're guilty in that we saw the distress of his soul when he begged us and we didn't listen. What a good confession, huh? This is why this distress has come upon us. This is why we're being tested this way. We didn't ever even saw it. And Reuben answered them, Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? They are falling apart at this moment. This has got to be the worst moment. Can you imagine it? They are falling apart. So now there comes this reckoning, he says, for his blood. We are being held accountable for this man's blood, our brother's blood. And at this point, Joseph loses it. Joseph books out of there. He is weeping uncontrollably. Can you imagine this? He's lost it. They didn't know it's him. He's speaking through an interpreter. He's so overwhelmed with emotion. He gathers himself. He comes back. And I have to say, every time I've read this, it's emotional. Guilt has filled them. And now this whole time, you realize they've been carrying it. Notice, the minute they're tested, this is what comes out. The burden has just come out of them. They're carrying this thing. And they have not been able to get it off their backs for 20 years. They have been carrying it. all the antagonism and what it's done to their father and what it's done to him. And they say, we're guilty concerning our brother. His blood's required of us. Oh, that's Psalm 51. We can't get out of this. How does God change hearts? He confronts you with the sins of your past that you've left undone. And it comes alive and often you're faced with the reality that your past sins are still undealt with and He loves you so much. This is the beauty of this. Here's the deliverance, beloved. He loves you so much He wants to reconcile you to Him and to your neighbor. Guilt drives you to what? Well, for some, it drives them into further bondage. What should it do? Simeon's bound. They're all on their way. They look in their sacks. All the money's there. All the painful reminder of the past. They have money. I mean, deja vu. They have money. And in verse 28, it says their hearts failed them. You add with fear because fear is right there. Their hearts failed them for fear. What has God done to us? And I don't think that's a charge against God so much as it is God's exposed everything. God's opened up and ripped open my heart and I didn't expect that in any way. I would suggest that the guilt that has come upon them drove them to confession and such a confession has opened their eyes exactly to who was intimately involved in orchestrating all the events of their lives so that they finally saw the God of Abraham again and they hadn't seen Him for a long time. God works on your consciences and then he draws out a real sense of guilt and sorrow. And what does that lead to? What is the goal of that? Never to leave you there. That's where you can go wrong with this. He wants to deal with it once and for all. That's the beauty. And so this is why the book of Corinthians tells us when that guilt is awakened and the sense of despair in us and we feel distressed, godly sorrow produces something. What does it produce? It produces repentance that leads us to salvation. Not to be regretted, the sorrow of the world produces death. For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner, what diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves. Isn't that beautiful? What indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication, and all things you proved yourselves to be clear. That's the goal. And that's essentially what's going to happen. They're going to come back. And are they going to go lie to their father right now? they're not lying they're coming clean and they're about ready to be forced to become clean of everything so they go back jacob boy a guy who started off so badly and look at the hard life the man's led he's at the very end here and you know for 20 years he's lived with this and this last scene is just moving isn't it god is working to repair the mess but he doesn't see any of that He doesn't see any of that as he's going through it. And he here is presented to us. And we're going to see God deliver Jacob in power in a few weeks. Let me close with this today. Do you see what he's showing you? Do you know that all of this points you to Christ? Think about it. Delivered over to his brothers. Thrown into prison. murdered rose the third day calls all peoples to himself given the name above every name that every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that he is lord ever the nations are flowing into him but what is the greatest thing he wants from those coming to him not just physical food right no not just physical he'll give you that he'll provide for you he's told you that but the greatest thing he wants is reconciliation with him and with man and what we did to his son all the guilt we experience in this life all the hardship all the sadness all the broken relationships what is needed for us to see this you see why i react when everything's loved today when everything is love as it is in modern christianity nothing is really love when you have a message of oh god just unconditionally loves you and has a great plan for you and purpose for you well what did that do for people great great have you ever felt in the gospels when you're reading the gospels that jesus is rough have you ever felt opening the gospels that sometimes the modern jesus just doesn't fit are the jesus of the bible and he is rough woe to you woe to you woe to you woe to you i mean if you were here he'd drive out most churches today, I guarantee you, it would not be packed. He drove away 5,000 in John 6. Rough. Why is he so rough? Why was he letting accusations fly all the time against people? And then all of a sudden, in the midst of that, you would get these tender, compassionate calls, come to me. I'm not going to cast you out if you come. Here's why. Because the multitudes of the people had no clue as to what they needed. And they didn't see the heart. Heart being deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? And they thought they were good people. And Jesus had streams of good people coming to Him. Streams of good people. The rich young ruler. Lord, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? Two verbs. Will you tell me what I need to do? Here's what you need to do. Go keep the law. Then come back. What? Just one more minute. Luke 10. And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test. This guy is arrogant. Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said to him, what's written in the law? How do you read it? He answered, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. And he said to him, you've answered this correctly. Do this and you'll live. Direct quote. There it is. Some got really ticked at him and walked away mad. Others were bitter and angry at him, wanted to cast a stone at him. Others came with contrition of heart, beating their chest, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And he says, that one, that one, that's what I want. By the way, this is why sometimes you won't like your preacher. There are times the text demands he speaks a little bit rough. makes accusations. George Woodfield once said, it's a poor sermon that doesn't make you displeased with yourselves or the preacher. There's a goal here. The goal is that when you're confronted and feel the accusation and the weight, the goal is, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. I'll take that burden that you're carrying, the misery that you're carrying, I'll put it on my back and I'll carry it up Golgotha for you. When we come to him like that, the harsh words of condemnation are removed to you, by the way. And he tells you, I want you to know there's no condemnation for you. I love you. And I've broken that spirit of bondage again to fear. The spirit of bondage to fear is done. I've taken that away and I want you to know I freely justify the ungodly. Ungodly. For those who are set free, there are no longer words of fear, but comfort and kind words of gospel to you. And then when you sin, you may hear a rough word every now and then because he's confronting you that you'd come back and be restored. Do you have peace with Christ today? To those who come to him with this kind of heart, here's Jesus' word to you. I will in no wise cast you out. Amen. Heavenly Father, we bow the head in great thanksgiving that you care to confront the darkness of our hearts. And we need that. Keep us from being mad at you when you do that. And let us respond the way that pleases you. Lord, is it I? Could I do that? The answer is yes, you could do that. But you've told us you'll keep us. And you've declared your love to us. And for that, O Lord, your praise is on our lips and in our hearts. For you've redeemed us. You fed us with physical food. And you've renewed us with spiritual food. We praise you today and thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.