Genesis chapter 41. I'm going to read from near the end of the chapter. I've been thinking and praying in our season away and have some thoughts at least toward a new series for us in the Lord's Day evenings. But I want to wait at least through this week to announce and begin looking at that. So I want to read tonight from Genesis 41 and primarily 42. As you know, the campers this week are going to be studying the life of Joseph. And all the messages from today through the week are going to be taken from Joseph's story. Joseph has been, if you have any history at least, some of the younger folks may not reach back as far. It's been a little while. But we actually more than once have looked at the life of Joseph. I think the patriarchs and the record in Genesis, particularly Joseph's story, is a powerful story. Theologians, commentators, preachers wrestle. There was an ongoing, I trust humorous, debate between Dr. Cairns and Dr. Barrett years ago when they both were in Greenville as to whether Joseph was a type of Christ. According to some strict criteria, which you might be taught, say, in an Old Testament Bible class, Joseph might come a little short of being a full type. He was not a prophet, or a king, or a priest who would have been types by their very office. So there are pieces of that that are up for debate. But the, and I think I announced it when preaching on Joseph Watson Greenville. The striking parallels between Joseph's life and the ministry of Christ cannot be missed by any real observer. And I want to read to you the portion that I've been assigned to bring to the young people on Wednesday evening. I appreciate your prayers, I think and trust and hope that what I bring to them will be somewhat different than what I bring to you this evening, most notably, with your maturity as a congregation, your experience in such matters, I may actually read you a paragraph or so from Robert Candlish this evening. Here's one that, being dead yet, speaks to my soul. But let us read together from Genesis 41 and verse 53. And the seven years of plenteousness that was in the land of Egypt were ended. And the seven years of dearth began to come, according as Joseph had said. And the dearth was in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread, and Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, Go unto Joseph, what he saith to you, do. And the famine was over all the face of the earth. And Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold them to the Egyptians. And the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt. And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn, because the famine was so sore in all lands. And when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, Why do you look one upon another? And he said, behold, I've heard that there's corn in Egypt. Get you down thither and buy for us from fence that we may live and not die. And Joseph's 10 brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt. But Benjamin, Joseph's brother, Jacob sent not with his brethren. For he said, lest peradventure mischief befall him. And the sons of Israel came to buy corn. I might just pause. It's translated corn, and you'll see some in italics. It's supplied there. It's really more just grain that is in view here. The sons of Israel came to buy grain among those that came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan. And Joseph was the governor over the land. And he it was that sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brethren came and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth. And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them. But he made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly unto them, and said unto them, Whence come ye? And they said, From the land of Canaan, to buy food. And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew him not. And Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, and said unto them, Ye are spies, to see the nakedness of the land, ye are come. And they said unto him, Nay, my lord, but to buy food are thy servants come. We are all one man's sons, we are true men, thy servants are no spies. And he said unto them, Nay, but to see the nakedness of the land, ye are come. And they said, Thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. And behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is not. And Joseph said unto them, That is this that I spake unto you, saying, Ye are spies. Hereby ye shall be proved. By the life of Pharaoh ye shall not go forth hence, except your youngest brother come hither. Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother, and ye shall be kept in prison, that your words may be proved, whether there be any truth in you or else. By the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies.' And he put them all together in ward three days. And Joseph said unto them the third day, This do and live, for I fear God. If ye be true men, let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison. Go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses, but bring your youngest brother unto me. So shall your words be verified, and ye shall not die. And they did so. And they said one to another, we are very guilty concerning our brother, and that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us, and we would not hear. Therefore is this distress come upon us. And Reuben answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child, and you would not hear? Therefore, behold, also his blood is required. And they knew not that Joseph understood them, for he spake unto them by an interpreter. And he turned himself about from them, and wept, and returned to them again, and communed with them, and took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes, Then Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with corn and to restore every man's money into his sack and to give them provision for the way. Thus did he unto them. Well, we'll end reading in verse 25. Again, trusting the Lord to bless the public reading of His Word. Let's bow our heads together. Lord, we tonight come and I moved even at the rehearsing of this familiar story. Lord, it touches the heart as we think of it in its own setting and reality. Lord, it touches the heart as we think of your providence and what you were doing in the very history of the world. And even in those little windows that it provides for us and to your love, and your dealings with our own souls. So grant us grace tonight and prosper us as we consider something of the story. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Again, I don't have to remind you here tonight of the story of Joseph. But the highlights of his story are precious indeed. He was the favored son of his father. only to be hated by his brethren for that very thing. He was sent to these brethren when they were out laboring in his father's work. And in their envy, they looked upon him. They despised him. Some suggested, and they really corporately sought to slay him. He was delivered from being slain, but they delivered him, we might say, into the hands of the Gentiles. And he was mistreated by the Gentiles. only to be brought out of his prison and exalted. And now the eyes of the world are upon Joseph on his throne. If I can beg your patience and read a few lines from Robert Candlish. The chosen family in Canaan visited by the famine are in sore straits looking as Jacob plaintively expresses it, looking helplessly upon one another. They hear of corn in Egypt and of embassies going thither from all the surrounding countries to obtain, if possible, a share. For themselves they may have tried to put off the evil day and to husband their resources, effecting a self-sufficient independence, while their neighbors have feigned to bend the knee to this new ruler in Egypt who holds, as it would seem, the destiny of the world in his power. but it will not do. These proud sons of Jacob must give in at last, and like others, bow a suppliance before this prince in whose hands alone fullness dwells. They are in want. Themselves and their little ones like to perish. The father's voice, too often unheeded in their prosperity, is now heard in their distress. Behold, I've heard. There's grain. in Egypt. Well, these are but a few lines of many that could of course take our minds far from the historical Joseph to the ascended Jesus. But this incident, this first of the two visits of Joseph's brethren, I think is filled with instruction for us. It's filled with gospel truth. And it is a story that it tugs upon the heart because we see, we've been told, we follow the story along. I don't know any of us, if you're like me at least, I cannot with ever growing familiarity with the lines of the closing chapters of Genesis, not still read them year by year with tears. as we think of the wonder of this story. But just think with me in these few moments tonight. Pray with me that the Lord will give application for our young people in the Wednesday evening service to come. But think with me first of the extremity of these brothers. What have they done? We can't rehearse the whole story, but you know when we're children, The Betty Lukan flannel graphs, the coat of many colors. It perhaps was not just some coat with scraps pieced together, but a coat that had colorful embroidering. A coat that would have been reserved and given, say, to one set apart as a prince in this fledgling nation, the children of Israel. And these other brethren are envious of Joseph, this younger but favored son. And he is sent to them, and we know the story as he goes to find them. We see something of their irreverence and other pieces of that part of their story. Joseph, a trusted emissary from his father, goes. He finds them. They mistreat him. They sell him into slavery. They take that coat. They dip it in blood and come and bring his story, his father, the story that we found this coat. And I always think of that line. We can't tell if it's Joseph's or not. I mean, what an amazing lie. They're envious of this coat. It's almost an example, an emblem of everything that they despise about Joseph. We don't know if it's his code or not. And of course, allow the lie to go forth that he's certainly been consumed by some beast. It's been 20 years since that awful event, certainly in Joseph's life, but that awful event in the lives of these brothers. There's a line in the books of Moses Often it's taken out of context, but I think it is one of those texts that has a context broader than its immediate one. Moses' words to the tribes that would settle on the east of Jordan, if they would not worship, if they would not fulfill their promise to gather with their people and stay true to the true God, that to be sure their sin would find them out. I actually heard a sermon on that text one time. It was entitled, The World's Greatest Detective. Be sure your sin will find you out. Well, here it is with these brothers. They are oblivious for all they know Joseph is dead from mistreatment as a slave. It would not have been an uncommon thing for him to have been long dead before 20 years were finished. They're free from having to see him again. Their lie is somewhat holding its place, although from what we've read here tonight, Jacob probably had his suspicions about the story that his sons told him. Perhaps that's behind some of his hesitancy to send Benjamin with them. alone on a journey. But the famine comes. They can't just stay in Canaan. They can't content themselves with their ordinary affairs. God orchestrates that they meet Joseph again. Commentators wrestle with some of Joseph's actions, that he doesn't immediately reveal himself to his brothers, that he plays the part. Well, there are, I think, many ways of understanding that. Canlis, I think, perhaps just hits the simplest and most profound one that Joseph is. Here comes our typology question. He is a prophet and acting as one. He's received revelation in his dreams as a child. He remembers them at this point when he sees and recognizes his brothers. God doubtless is directing his steps. And so he doesn't immediately tell his brothers who he is. And we'll see more of that in a little bit. But I say, God sends the famine. It's unexpected. It's unusual. It's severe enough that they can't wait any longer. I love that little paragraph we read. Perhaps they would try and affect. We don't use the word that way anymore. But they would put on a self-sufficient independence. Others were already going and petitioning this new prince. But they delay until Jacob, or Jacob tells them, we can't delay anymore. There's grain in Egypt. We're about to perish. We must go. Of course, God has ordained that the one to whom they must appear, the one before whom they would bow, is this brother whose dreams they mocked, and yet now they fulfill. Famine brings them to the end of themselves. And this speaks to us, does it not, of conviction? That gracious work of the Spirit of God that brings, whether it be by a brokenness of heart, by a sheer knowledge of who we are and what we've done, or if our hearts are hard enough that we don't surrender to those movings that are merely internal, to bring external circumstances upon us. To bring things we can't push aside. We can't ignore. to bring circumstances that have to be dealt with. How often is that the testimony of those whom he loves? That he will orchestrate our circumstances to the point that we must bend the knee. And so the famine reaches to Canaan and these guilty brethren are compelled to appear before Joseph in Egypt. But as we consider the extremity that the famine was and brought to them, we follow the story and we also now see their humiliation. How have the tables turned? How have these men now unwittingly fulfilled the very revelations of Joseph's youth that they mocked? They would not, if we can bring forward the words of the Jews in the life of the greater Joseph, they would not have this man to rule over them. That can't be. How can this younger one of our number, Why not the eldest? Sadly, you can go through the line of the 12 sons of Jacob, sons of Israel, and see sins and failures that disqualified them. The eldest just pushed, as it were, out of the way. I often think of those incidents in Scripture where the eldest, the firstborn, the one to whom position should belong. It's not given. How many of those scriptural seconds, the second ones, are blessed? All a picture of that second man. But here, this one to whom they poured scorn, upon whom they poured scorn and mockery, We won't have this one to rule over us. Now their very survival depends upon bending the knee to Him. Their very survival depends on receiving from Him what only He, what no one else in the world can supply. The last time they saw Joseph, they stripped him of his noble dress. Now they see him even more gloriously arrayed, and they must bow before him." It's interesting, and I want us to be very careful here. It's interesting how Joseph treats them in this first visit and the first half of their second visit. We know, we see plainly in reading the narrative, that his heart yearns for them. He loves them. For all the riches, for all the power, for all the exaltation, the notoriety that he has received in Egypt, his heart is in Canaan. His heart is on the promises of God. And he has to pull away from his brothers to find a place to weep. His heart yearns for them. But he does not, and he cannot at this point tell them, who he is. He must discover something about them. Apparently, it's not stated explicitly, but after they've all been put in the prison for three days, they either appear before him again, or more likely, he goes to the prison to meet with them. And he speaks with them and he's had a change of heart. He's not going to keep nine of them there in the prison and send one back to bring Benjamin. He's going to just keep one. And he's going to let the rest of them go home and go free. And they begin discussing, who's it going to be? How do we figure this? And they speak among themselves, and it is evident that the Spirit of God is convicting them. Because their conversation immediately goes back to the sin of 20 years ago against a brother that they don't know is there. Joseph understands their deliberations. They confess, we're very guilty of the blood of our brother. Again, if you would bear with me in the words of Candlish. In this respect, Joseph Fitley represents a greater than himself. One raised to a higher glory for a wider purpose of grace. Jesus is exalted, a Prince and Savior, to give repentance unto Israel and the remission of sins. Not the remission of sins only, but repentance and the remission of sins together. Joseph could have no difficulty about giving his brothers remission of sins. He'd forgiven them long ago in his heart, and right gladly would he assure them of that at once. but acting under divine guidance he must deal with them as to force upon them a deep and salutary exercise of soul which is the end to be blessed for their more complete peace, their more thorough unity and prosperity in a day when full reconciliation is to be experienced. I say we have to be careful here It is an error that gospel preachers and Christians in their witnessing can fall into to present to people that forgiveness is somehow based upon the level of our conviction. It's actually an error into which hyper-Calvinists often fall. Hyper-Calvinists, just like Arminians, lack assurance while the Arminian is constantly examining his faith as the work that he's done that's added to the work of Christ. Did I do it right? Did I mean it? Was I sincere enough? Did I say the right words? Maybe I should do it again. Perhaps many of us have seen and experienced some of that sad lack of assurance, that weakness of doctrine in the Arminian system. The hyper-Calvinists do the same on the other side of those two pieces of conversion. It's not a perfect faith that they want to examine and find within themselves. It's a perfect repentance. Is there enough evidence that I've been changed of heart? That I can hate my sin enough and claim to be regenerated and be a child of God? Many in these circles. I remember hearing some years ago of a large conservative church. I think it was five or seven hundred people. And only had about twenty that would take communion. Something wrong there. There's a lack of real understanding and rejoicing in the fullness of Christ. It's not a perfect faith or a perfect repentance that saves us. We need genuine faith and genuine repentance, but it's a perfect Christ that saves us. And so I say we have to carefully take Canlis' words and this thought on board. But yet it is true that the normal operations of the Spirit are to bring conviction of sin. that repentance and remission of sins go together. It's the believing soul. And again, the priority of faith even to repentance. To believe. To have such a right scriptural view of God. To believe that He forgives penitent sinners. to believe that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. We're going to have to understand and believe that before we come penitently to His presence. Believe that He can be approached. And we can't even insufficiently and imperfectly repent of our sins. And I think that's what's at the heart of the psalm. Lord, cleanse me from secret faults. One of the things that is true we pursue often and from different directions here in this pulpit is the spirituality of the law of God. It's what Christ preached in the Sermon on the Mount that was such a shock to the Jewish pharisaical ears. The law touches my thoughts, not just my actions. Well, that's pretty convicting. And that's what we need. It strips us of self-righteousness. How often there's a fear that comes up that should never come. Because if we fear the spirituality of the law of God, If we fear the truth that Jesus brought in the Sermon on the Mount, then it just shows that a legal spirit still resides within us. Because we just see the demands of that law raised infinitely higher. How can I finish and check off all of those boxes? But it's a fear that's dispelled in the Gospel heart. to know that I could never repent enough. I can never serve with purity of heart enough. My acceptance is found in another. It's found in the person and work of Jesus. But for all of Joseph's harsh words and apparently harsh treatment of these brothers. There's a loving gospel purpose. There's a loving gospel end that's in view. And you read of how he retains in the prison but one of them. Just really to assure their return and to keep up the image of the office that he held, But He tells the servants, fill their sacks. Give them provision for themselves, for the journey back. Put their money back in their sacks. And ultimately, when they return, they tremble at His generosity. How can this be? Who is this man? Well, it's on their return visit. Obviously that they find out. Joseph has the banquet prepared. He has a servant seat them in their birth order. He has Benjamin's, is the word in the A.V. there, his mess, his food, multiple times greater than the rest. How his heart yearns for them when he tells the Egyptians to leave and says, I'm Joseph. And they initially are overwhelmed with fear. Wow. I mean, you just think. He told us. Those dreams, those remarkable dreams that probably were even difficult for him to tell us about. We've got to bow the knee. But he says, don't be afraid. God meant it for good. You think of the day. We'll wrestle with this a little when we come to Romans 9 to 11. You think of a day for Israel. having entered into covenant with a man of sin, an antichrist. And yet the strivings of God's spirit to convince them of the true Christ. And they look, they will look upon him whom they have pierced. And Jesus will say to them, don't be afraid. God meant it for good. Salvation might come even to those that slew Him. These brothers were awful sinners. They came face to face with the very one they had so sinned against. And they were met with grace upon grace. It is a gospel story. It is a precious one indeed. Let's bow our heads together. Our Heavenly Father, tonight we come, and even just thinking a little of this historical picture, We look ahead to a final day of fulfillment when every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Lord, we yearn for that day and say even so, come Lord Jesus. But in the time in which you will tarry, Help us to be faithful. Help us to be, as the Thessalonians we read of this morning, joyful even if afflictions come upon us, that we might bear testimony of just what this gospel of grace really is. And so, give us those gospel thoughts and gospel hearts, not only as we leave one another this evening, but as we go forth to our varied labors this week, prosperous with thoughts of our Jesus. Lord, we pray these things in Jesus' worthy name. Amen.