Now we're going to read from the scriptures. This morning we're reading from Genesis chapter 42 and verses 1 through 28. When Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, Jacob said to his sons, why do you look at one another? And he said, indeed, I have heard that there's grain in Egypt. Go down to that place and buy for us there, that we may live and not die. So Joseph's 10 brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. But Jacob did not send Joseph's brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said, lest some calamity befall him. And the sons of Israel went to buy grain among those who journeyed, for the famine was in the land of Canaan. Now Joseph was governor over the land, and it was he who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brother came and bowed down before him with their faces to the earth. Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he acted as a stranger to them and spoke roughly to them. Then he said to them, where do you come from? And they said, from the land of Canaan to buy food. So Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. Then Joseph remembered the dreams which he had dreamed about them and said to them, you are spies. You've come to see the nakedness of the land. And they said to him, no, my Lord, but your servants have come to buy food. We are all one man's sons. We are honest men. Your servants are not spies. But he said to them, no, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land. And they said, your servants are 12 brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. And in fact, the youngest is with our father today and one is no more. But Joseph spoke to them. But Joseph said to them, it is as I spoke to you saying you are spies. In this manner you shall be tested by the life of Pharaoh. You shall not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here. Send one of you and let him bring your brother and you shall be kept in prison that your words may be tested. to see whether there is any truth in you or else by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies. And so he put them all together in prison three days. Then Joseph said to them the third day, do this and live for I fear God if you are honest men. Let one of your brothers be confined to your prison house, but you go and carry grain for the famine of your houses 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, we are truly guilty concerning our brother for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us and we would not hear. Therefore, this distress has come upon us. And Reuben answered them, saying, did I not speak to you? Saying, do not sin against the boy, and you would not listen. Therefore, behold, his blood is now required of us. But they did not know that Joseph understood them, for he spoke to them through an interpreter. And he turned himself away from them and wept. Then he returned to them again, and talked with them, and he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes. Then Joseph gave a command to fill their sacks with grain, to restore every man's money to his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. Thus he did for them. So they loaded their donkeys with the grain and departed from there. But as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey feed at the encampment, he saw his money. And there it was in the mouth of his sack. So he said to his brothers, my money has been restored, and there it is in my sack. Then their hearts failed them, and they were afraid, saying to one another, what is this that God has done to us?" The reading of the word of the Lord. Well, now we continue to look at the story of the 12 sons of Israel. These are the founding sons of the patriarch Jacob, and they would become a nation, and they would become the people of God. But these men, these 12 men, they are anything but noble or wholesome people. We've seen in the story of their lives lies, prostitution, murder, and massacre. greed, abuse, but God chose their family. God chose this family, these people, to become his people. He treasured them. He treasured them. And because of God's commitment to these people, when they do evil, he must address it. And in this case, God is going to here start to address this abuse of their brother Joseph. Years ago, because of their jealousy towards Joseph and their hatred of Joseph, they abused their own brother. They stripped him, they bound him, and they sold him into slavery. Now, originally some of them wanted to kill him, but instead they sold him. And then they went back home after they sold him, And they went back home with money in their pockets and they lied about their brother. They lied about Joseph. They deceived their father into thinking that a wild animal had attacked and killed Joseph. And for all of these years, if you do the math, it's at least 20 to 27 years now, their abuse has remained secret, blanketed by a lie. But God is not going to let their secret stay a secret. And so God has very big surprises in store for them. And it teaches us that God, when he looks at us, his people, he will not let our past stay dormant. We see three things in our text. First of all, when we sin, we see this, when we sin, our past pursues us. Our past pursues us. Secondly, when we sin, our consciences trouble us. Our consciences trouble us. And then thirdly, when we sin, God's compassion tests us. So when we sin, our past pursues us, our consciences trouble us, and God's compassion tests us. So first of all, when we sin, our past pursues us. This is in verses one through five. Now, you're familiar with the expression that we have in English about the past catching up with us. We talk about how the past can catch up with a person. When a candidate, for instance, runs for office, the opposition, if they've got time and money, they will do deep investigation into the opposition, and if they can find something Maybe something that you posted back when you were in high school. If they can find and dig up maybe some former boyfriend or some former girlfriend from college, any dirt that they can discover, they're going to sniff it out. and your past will catch up with you. Now, for some people, it's something like this. It's a pregnancy, a child. For other people, it's criminal activity that was never caught. Maybe it was racist words, racist actions. They were hidden, but then on that day, they all come to light. Now for these 10 men, these brothers, a lie catches up with them. A lie. It was a lie that they told their father. It was a lie that they told their families. It was a lie, the lie, about their abuse against Joseph, their younger brother. And this lie covered all of their evil acts. But now two decades later, maybe close to three decades later, God determines to expose their past evil actions. Now let's talk about how he does it and why he does it. How God exposes their past sin and why God exposes their past sin. How God exposes their past sin, and it's just very simple. He does it. It's the hand of God. The hand of God will move the world to expose his people's sins. God will even use global events to expose his people's past sins. In the case of these brothers, God engineers these global actions. He engineers Egyptian years, national years of prosperity, and God also engineers global years of famine, years of global famine, in order to expose the sins of his chosen family. He will overturn mountains. He will unearth and dig up mountains to uncover the sin that they have buried. Now, this worldwide famine, it affects Egypt, and it affects not only Egypt, it affects also the surrounding nations. Chapter 41, verse 57, the food shortage was severe in all lands and countries. And because these 10 brothers were sitting there starving in Canaan, they need food also. And the hand of God moves them to travel to the country where they do have food, Egypt. And that country, providentially, that country is the country where in all the workings and the mysterious ways of God, their brother Joseph yet lives. And so the hand of God has worked the famine that sends them into this inescapable meeting with Joseph. the hand of God worked the prosperity that put surplus food into his hand. Now, that tells us that there are no coincidences in our lives. Every detail works out. Every detail is working out the will of God. And he's a God who's all wise, all good, and just. And so the Bible says of God, all his ways are justice. All his ways are justice. And so this great injustice that was committed against Joseph, committed by God's people, the lie covering it, It's the will of God to expose it because all his ways are justice. And so, especially for his people, he will expose it. God is going to move the world to expose his people's sin. Now, think about how the nation, this shows up in other instances in scripture with this very same people. Think of how later on for Israel, the nation loses. They go to war and they lose what was to have been an otherwise easy military battle at Ai, but they lose it. They completely cannot lose this battle, but they lose it at Ai. Why? It was because one man among God's people, one man's sin brought disaster to the entire nation. The hand of God turned the entire battle against his own people in order to expose the hidden sin of God. of one person, Achan. That's just the way God works, especially with his people, with us. Think about the many prominent Christian leaders whose sins have come to light in these recent weeks, in these recent years, even this past month. A man who was a professor and a pastor, He was removed for polygamy, and that was within our denominational seminary. There was another writer, another preacher, another pastor, who many of you have heard. At the age of 73, he was just removed for his secret affair. Nothing done, the Bible says, nothing done in darkness, nothing is done in darkness that will not be brought into the light. Jesus says in Luke 12, there is nothing covered that will not be revealed nor hidden that will not be known. Now that's the how, it's the hand of God that will uncover our sins. Now why does he do it? Why does God expose their past sin? Well there are two reasons he has. He does it to forge holiness and he does it to heal division, to forge holiness. He is making within his people holiness, it's going to be strong, it's going to be durable, it's going to be thorough. Because God created human beings, he created people in holiness. That's what we were made to have, to be. But we rejected holiness and God didn't give up. God chose a people from the fallen human race and he is restoring holiness in his people. Exodus 9, 19, 5. you," speaking to his people, "'you shall be a special treasure to me,' says the Lord, "'above all people, and you shall be to me "'a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.'" God set us apart, set his people apart to be holy, to become holy, to reflect his holiness, to live lives of goodness, not darkness. And so when we sin and we keep it secret, It poisons the holiness that God is working in us and among us. It infects the holiness that he plants in us, and it's got to come out. The sin has got to come out of us. So one of the ways that we work in this dynamic of God forming holiness in us, making us to be holy, it's how we even do our regular time of approaching God. In my own times of daily prayer, my time of communing with God, I try to always make time for self-examination. I try to spend some time asking God, God, would you show me? Would you show me if I have sin, my own sin, that you want to have addressed? It comes from places like Psalm 139. Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxieties and see if there is any wicked way in me. and lead me in the way everlasting. Now as you pray that, as we do that regularly and ask God to reveal, is there something in me that needs to be confessed, that I need to repent of? Don't turn it into morbid introspection, but do leave space, do leave silence for God to remind you, to speak to you. Maybe someone that you wronged, maybe someone that you need to go to them You need to confess what you did and you need to ask forgiveness. I can recall times when I reflected over the past day and then I remembered. I remembered some some unkind word that I spoke to someone in my family, to someone that I was working with. Or I remember, as I reflected over it, an accusation I made to one of my kids, but it was unjust. I accused them wrongly, and I realized I need to go back. It was wrong for me to accuse them. I need to go back to the person, admit it, and ask for their forgiveness. Now, why does God expose their past sins? It's to form in them, to forge in them holiness. Their lie, their abuse against Joseph, to this day remained unaddressed. It was unresolved injustice. Now, the other reason that God here exposes past sin, not only to forge holiness, he also does this to heal division. to bring his people back together, to reconcile parties who are estranged from one another. These men, these brothers, 12 of them, for about 25 years, these 10 were estranged from their brother. And as we're gonna see in further chapters here, God, it's his purpose in doing this, in exposing the sin, he's doing it to bring this family back together. That's part of why he exposes the sin. As raw as it is, as ugly as it's going to get, his purpose is to bring back this family into one. God exposes sins. to heal divisions, and that's hopeful, because exposing the sin, admitting the sin, that hurts, but it's one of the necessary steps to healing the community. And so you can ask yourself this, well, is there a division in my life, or is there a rupture in a relationship? Is there somebody you won't talk to? Is there somebody who will not talk to you? There's a division. but you need to know that God is in the business of healing divisions. And the hand of God will disrupt the entire world to heal divisions among his own people. But it can require the exposure of sin, someone's sin, maybe it's on one side, maybe it's on the other side, maybe it's on both sides, maybe it's just the enemy has sown the division. God is going to bring his people back together. Now, next, when we sin, we also see this. When we sin, our consciences trouble us. Our consciences trouble us. This is in verses 6 through 23. Now, today, conscience is undervalued. Conscience is undervalued. What is conscience? I mean, I don't even know if you're going to public school if they'll even talk about conscience. Conscience is the voice in your head that accuses you when you do wrong. When you do wrong, conscience is the voice inside you that says, you should not have done that. You shouldn't have done that. If you cheat, if you cheat on an assignment, if you cheat on a form, if you cheat on a spouse, If your conscience is working, conscience accuses you and says, you cheated. You should not have done that. It was wrong. So conscience is the voice of guilt. But today we undervalue conscience. You want to think of conscience this way. It's on the dashboard of your life. Conscience is the check engine light on the dashboard. Now we hate seeing that light come on. But we need to know the truth. A car will not do well if we ignore the need for repair. And our souls will not do well if we ignore the need for repair. Now, for these 10 men, they have suppressed their consciences for something like 25 years. It's like they've taken a piece of duct tape and just put it over the light so they don't have to see it. The light is on, but they have suppressed it. Somehow, in their minds, they have justified their abuse of their brother. Somehow they have lived with the lie that they told their father. They lied to their father, Jacob, and they've lied to themselves over all these years. Look at how they lied to themselves. Verse 11, this is what they say about themselves. This is the lie they told themselves. We are honest men. That's the lie they've told themselves. And maybe to some extent, they've become very scrupulous about telling the truth. Maybe after that lie that they told to their father that has just sat and grown stronger, they have become the very best kind of truth tellers. They've become very strict with their own kids and saying, you must not lie. They've been very meticulous in making sure in all of their business transactions, they're men of their word. And that's what they say about themselves before this governor. We are honest men. Now, what we see in this passage is how troubled conscience can lead to the next step that's needed. Troubled conscience can lead to conviction of sin. The Bible teaches that what a person sows, that they will reap. Proverbs 22.8, he who sows iniquity will reap sorrow. And in the case of these men, these brothers, because God is committed to them in the covenant, because of God's commitment to them, they are going to reap what they sowed. They are going to experience what they inflicted. The abuse that they inflicted on others, now it's going to be inflicted on them. And the lie they told the others, a lie is going to be pushed on them. And that is going to serve to bring conviction, not just troubled consciences, but then conviction. It's going to awaken their conscience. It's gonna convict them of their sins, and it will begin the change process in their characters. Look at how these men receive on themselves the abuse that they inflicted on Joseph. They arrive in Egypt to purchase food, to purchase grain, and then the governor of the land, who's dealing out and selling grain to all these people from all lands, It's this man, some Egyptian, named Zafnath Penea. Zafnath Penea. And when they arrive as foreigners to request the purchase of food, they're foreigners. There's a translator involved because in Egypt, they speak Egyptian, and these are Hebrews. And so they have to speak to Zafnath Penea through an interpreter. And when they come as foreigners to request purchasing food, they get this terrible shock. This Egyptian governor, Zafnath Penea, They're there just to buy food, and he accuses them of lying. He accuses them of spying. Verse nine, he says, you are spies. You've come to see how weak the land has become with the famine. And then the Egyptian, he treats them harshly. He speaks to them harshly, he treats them harshly. He insists that they are spies, and he locks them up in an Egyptian prison, and they beg him. They're pleading with him, they say, We're honest men. We're not spies. We're brothers. We're blood brothers, all of us. And we've got two other brothers. One is no more. The youngest is back in Canaan with our father. And so this fearsome governor, Zaphnath Penea, after locking them in prison for three days, he says, I'm going to give you a chance. leave one man here, go back to your father, if you actually have a shared father, and bring back this youngest brother that you've been telling me about, and then I'll see that you are telling the truth." And so this Egyptian, in front of all of them, takes one brother, Simeon, and he ties up Simeon, and this Zaphnath-Penea takes Simeon, binds him in prison, and he sends the remaining nine brothers back to their father. But he says, okay, we'll play through your charade. Here's food, here's food, take it back. And you come back with this younger brother. But what they don't realize, what these 10 men do not realize is that Zaphnath-Penea, the Egyptian governor, is also Joseph, the brother they abused, the brother they lied about. And in these actions, the abuse that they did to Joseph, it gets mirrored back on them. Remember, back in Genesis 37, Joseph was sent by the father, was sent to spy on the brother's bad behavior. And now here, Joseph accuses the very same brothers of being spies when they were sent by the father to him. Back in Genesis 37, they, these brutal 10 brothers, they stripped Joseph of the robes of honor. And now Joseph stands over them in robes of Egyptian honor. Back in Genesis 37, they handed their brother Soldam, Joseph, over to Egypt. And now Simeon is bound and tied up in Egypt. Back in Genesis 37, they returned home to their father with silver for selling Joseph into slavery. Now here they are again, returning to their father with silver in their sacks. And by being accused by the Egyptian leader and by themselves having to taste what they had inflicted on their brother 25 years earlier, their consciences are starting to prick them, starting to make them uneasy. They begin to ponder what they have long suppressed. Verse 21, this is what they start saying to themselves in Hebrew, in their mother tongue. We are truly guilty concerning our brother. For we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us and we would not hear. Therefore, this distress has come upon us. They gave Joseph harsh treatment. Do you see how they needed to receive harsh treatment before they could start to admit their evil? They say to one another, remember how we saw the anguish, the agony of his soul when he was pleading with us, when they were plotting to kill Joseph, when they abused him, when they stripped him. Joseph, we're learning here for the first time, he cried out to them and they heard his voice. They heard his anguish. Maybe he was saying, please, please stop. Please don't kill me. don't do this. And they say, we ignored him. And in the same way, Zaphnath-Penea ignored their anguish. And because of that conviction of their sin, it begins to dawn on them. They begin to admit it, to accept it. And it's really supreme irony, but we understand why It has to work this way sometimes. Sometimes our own hearts, they're so self-justifying. It's like it takes a hammer to get through our giant, thick stubbornness. Sometimes it takes a taste of what we've done in order to humble us and to get us to admit and to recognize what it is that we've done. You know, sometimes you might have a situation at work or at school, and you've got a supervisor or you've got a professor who's harsh and overly demanding, and it's miserable. And then you suddenly realize, as miserable as it is, you realize back at home, you realize towards your own kids, you are harsh, you are overly demanding. And note this about their confession, the confession that they make among themselves. They're very specific. They're specific about what they've done. They're not vague. And not only that, they are able to get outside of their own anguish and they're able to get into Joseph's anguish. They acknowledge the emotional impact on the person they harmed. They said, remember. Remember his anguish, how he pleaded with us, and we would not hear. How must that have felt to him? Now we're feeling it. They acknowledge the emotional impact on the person harmed. And at this point, they're beginning the process of conviction of sin. It's partial, it's a process that's playing out, but it is dawning, it is happening. And there's more that's required. They need to be convicted of their sin, they need to confess their sin, and they need to be changed. Now, we call this whole process, the conviction, the confession, and the change, we call this repentance. That's the Bible's word for it, repentance, confessing the sin, turning away from the sin to God, being converted, and having a changed heart. Now, all that can be a lengthy process, and for them, it's understandable. After all, it's been 20 to 27 years of living with this lie, and for us, For those of us, we who are the people of God, when we sin, we, we are the ones who must turn. We are the ones who must confess. But sometimes, before we start down that road, it requires hard strokes from the hand of God to tenderize us, to soften our own hardness. Sometimes he has to give us a taste of what we have done to others. to get through to us, to change us. And you know, one of the ways that can happen, you could be in this kind of all shocking situation like these brothers, but sometimes it's just the Bible. It's just hearing the word, reading the word, the Bible can do that to you. Sometimes you read the Bible, and sometimes as you read the Bible, Or as you hear the word of God preached to you, sometimes it comes down hard. Verse Jeremiah 23, God, speaking of his word, says, is not my word like a fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? You know, you could be reading the Bible and you come across something like this in the word. The word tells us to be intreatable, to be people who are easy, to entreat. When someone's coming and trying to say, I wonder if you shouldn't have said that, I wonder if you shouldn't have done it that way, the Word tells us to be entreatable. And you read that, you think, ouch, I'm stubborn, I'm not entreatable. The Word tells us, you might read it in the Word, speak not evil of one another. You read that, and then suddenly it just hits you. I have spoken evil of others. I've spoken evil of my brothers and sisters. Or you come to the places in the Word that say to be, to be kind and to be tender-hearted to one another, to put the needs of others above my own concerns. And maybe you read it, and as you read it, it just suddenly, it exposes you. You see yourself. You see what you're not. You see what you've done. And so the word cuts you and convicts you. I wanna invite you this morning, if you're a Christian, and you know that there is something unresolved from your past. And now, maybe it's even years later, the chickens are coming home to roost. I want to encourage you to soften your heart, not harden it. To soften your heart, not to resist. And if you know that you have something that you need to confess, to confess to God, to confess to other people, do it, don't delay. And if you find yourself in a situation now where you realize, I'm tasting exactly what I've sown, receive it, don't resist it. And in verse 28, as these men saw more and more of their own past sin returning on their own heads, they realized that it was God God was humbling them. They realized that it was God who was uncovering what they had hidden, that God was working something. And in fear, they can only say about it, verse 28, what is this that God has done to us? And you see what's happening here. You see how this can apply to us, not just to them. Your troubles, your troubles today, Perhaps your troubles are not Zafnaf Penia coming down on you, and it's not the government, and it's not whatever political party is getting the prominence, and it's not your difficult supervisor, it's not your spouse, it's not your family. Perhaps God is troubling you to turn you, to convict you, to call new changes from you. So when we sin, our consciences convict us, trouble us. Finally, when we sin, God's compassion tests us. When we sin, God's compassion tests us. You see this in verses 22 through 28. These 10 brothers are very bothered, very troubled. They're pointing fingers at each other. Verse 22, Reuben says, didn't I tell you not to sin against the boy? Now his blood, is required of us. We're having to pay for this. We are in trouble. We have blood on our hands, and now our blood is required of us. What's going on not just with these brothers, though? What is going on with Joseph, the victim of their lie, the victim of their abuse? What we see in Joseph is remarkable. We see in Joseph this remarkable spiritual maturity. What do we see in Joseph here in this situation? And there's more interactions coming up as this plays out. What we see in Joseph is caution, but tenderheartedness. Joseph is cautious and at the same time, he is tenderhearted. He remains hopeful, not bitter, not vindictive. And Joseph, what we see here and in the text to come, Joseph plays a constructive role in testing and weighing his brothers. And so Joseph is cautious, and he should be cautious. It's right for him to be cautious. It's wise for him to be cautious about them. He knows that his brothers are dangerous people. But even though they abused him, and even though they sold him into slavery, Joseph has hopes that he has changed, that they have changed. Joseph has hopes that they have changed. And for most of us, if we are ever in that role that Joseph is in, we tend to fall into one of two errors. We either fall into a cynical bitterness, a cynical bitterness thinking, those people who did that to me, they could never change. They will always be vile. We tend to fall into cynical bitterness or we tend to fall into this other error, this kind of naive optimism. You know, well, oh, Well, they said the words, they said, I'm sorry. I guess I could just like rush right back into their arms and everything will be just fine. That's naive optimism. But Joseph doesn't do either of those. He remains tender towards them and he also remains wisely cautious. So look at how he's tender towards them. Did you notice how he's tender towards them? He hears them, he overhears them speaking their language. It's a language that's foreign to Egypt. But they don't realize that Joseph, Zaphnath-Penea, he knows their language. And Joseph overhears them confessing guilt for the first time. He hears them pained over the pain they inflicted on him for the first time. And when he hears their anguish, and when he hears this early conviction of sin coming out of them, Joseph is not vindictive. It breaks his heart. Verse 24, Joseph turns away and Joseph weeps. He weeps for their pain. He weeps for all that he's lost for these last 25 years. He weeps for his own pain and the memory of how they hurt him so long ago in that hole. Joseph has a tender heart and a tender heart towards them. He's tender, but he also remains cautious and wise. Verse 15, Joseph tests them. And it's not just one test, it's gonna be an ongoing test that plays out. This hard treatment, this hard face that he sets before them, speaking as Zaphnath-Piniah, it's not revenge. He's not saying, you hurt me, now I'm going to hurt you, I'm gonna make you pay. He is testing them. He even says that, he's proving them. He's detecting if they are still cruel people. And so Joseph, he wisely reconstructs the same situation where they abuse him. But this time it's not going to be him, it's going to be Simeon, or it's going to be Benjamin. And Joseph's going to watch how they treat the weak person. Joseph's also going to assess how they treat their father. And so all of that is cautious, and all that's wise. Because when there are strong character flaws, It takes time. It takes time for the old person to be put off. It takes time for the new person to be put on and kept on. And it's a foolish naivete that thinks that tears and a confession mean that trust is to be fully restored. Tears, when someone comes to you with tears and someone comes to you with confession, that means forgiveness can be offered immediately. Tears and confession mean forgiveness can be offered immediately, on the spot. But trust, trust takes time. You're looking for demonstrated long obedience, demonstrated long obedience. You're looking for, sometimes they call it, you're looking for long faithfulness in the same direction, long faithfulness in the same direction. And so for Joseph to get onto this path with them, there's a huge risk. A huge risk for Joseph in this. Remember how last week Joseph said, I have finally gotten to the point, finally forgotten the pain and the hurt from my family. But now these brothers have come back into the picture, come back into his life. And you know, Joseph could have easily just said, you know, I'm actually in a good place now. I've forgotten all that they did to me. He could have just as easily given them their food, sent them off, and just, I'm done with them. Or he could have just thrown them in prison and let them rot there, as they did to him. But instead, Joseph recognizes that God is at work in this. He comes back to that. He says, I fear God. And Joseph has compassion on them because he fears God. Verse 18, he takes the risk of reengaging once more because he fears God, because he respects that God will have his ways, because he believes God may not only deal with the injustice, but God may be making them holy and God may be healing the division among my people. And so Joseph is willing to take the risk of reengaging. Are you willing to take the risk of re-engaging? You know, maybe Joseph does it because he's got this vision that God gave him of God beginning to reunite them, his chosen family, by working in their conscience. Remember the vision that Joseph is remembering. The vision that they were all together. The sheaves bowing down all together. The stars and sun and moon all bowing down together. And maybe he's got that in his mind. God is going to bring this to pass. And so maybe Joseph has compassion and not wrath because of that. And Joseph maintains a tender heart, not a hopeless heart. But how is God going to do this? How will God reunite this family? Well, one necessary step, it's not the only step, but one necessary step is their confession and their change. These men must confess what they have done. They've got to stop promoting the lie that they've spread. They've got to stop believing the lie that they were telling themselves, and they've got to confess to the world what they did. They've got to confess to God what they did, and they're on the way. But confessing your sin is the first step, the necessary first step towards becoming holy, something that you care about if you're a Christian. And confessing your sin can be the first step towards repairing a division in broken relationships. But confession is hard, confession is risky. Confessing that you are the one who's wrong, that will tear down your pride. It humbles you to have to admit that you were wrong. And confessing your wrong will also expose you. If you confess where you were wrong, it will expose you to wrath. Because people will hear your confession and some of them will blow up. Some of them will rage at you. Some of them will seek revenge upon you. Some of them will permanently just scorn you in public. Ruben says, we deserve to die for what we did. His blood is now being required of us. And for some people, when they confess their sin, if they confess their sin, it will have huge consequences, terrible consequences. It could break your marriage to confess your sin. It could end your career to confess your sin. it could land you in prison to confess that sin. Confession is a death. Confession can bring death. How can you confess your sin when your sin has been buried for decades? How can you confess sin when you know that your sins deserve wrath and may bring death? If you're a Christian, Here's how you can risk everything and confess your sins. Because of the gospel, you can confess your sins because Jesus already confessed your sin and received the wrath. When did Jesus do that? When did Jesus confess your sins? Before the trial and in the examination of Jesus, Jesus was charged with sin. And when he was charged, he was silent. And his silence was his confession of sin. Not for his sins, for he had no sin. Our sins. Mark 15, 4. Then Pilate, the governor, asked Jesus again, saying, do you answer nothing to these charges? See how many things they testify against you. But Jesus still answered nothing. so that Pilate marveled. By his confession, Jesus was executed, hung up before the world, and by his blood that was shed in crucifixion, Romans 5 says, we are justified. By his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. You can confess your sin because Jesus already confessed them and received the wrath. No wrath remains. John 5, most assuredly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death into life. And now if you believe because we are clear before the heavenly judge, the true judge that really matters, now we are free. to confess to lesser judges, to human judges. And we can enter into what James 5 says, confess your sins, confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. In closing, I'm gonna read just, it's a longer quote from an article. It's by a pastor and an author. His name is Garrett Kell. You can look up the full article online, Garrett Kell. Pastor, an author, tells of how when he was a young pastor, he made confession of his sin. He says this, as a young pastor, every two or three months, I would indulge in a binge of pornography. This was followed by grief, private confessions of how much I hated sin and how much I loved Jesus and personal resolutions to never do it again. I remember feeling like the Israelites on spin cycle in the book of Judges, sin, grief, weeping, peace, over and over and over again. During this time, I shared vague confessions with an assortment of friends. I confessed that I was struggling with purity stuff without being specific about how much or how often. Each time I confessed, I really thought this would be the last time and that I could get past the struggle on my own. Instead, the deception only grew darker. No one had a clear view of what was actually happening in my life. Living a lie is tiresome. What made matters more difficult was the abundance of fruit God was producing through me. Our church had several hundred people coming. Lives were being changed. And so I assumed God was overlooking my sin. I assumed I was somehow exempt from the destruction so many others had known. So I composed an account detailing my sexual sins from the time I'd become a Christian up to that day. And about the same time, a friend named Reed and I, we started making plans to plant a church, not in Texas, but in New Jersey. That trip to Jersey began an intervention that I believe saved my soul, my marriage, and my ministry. Carrie and I met Reid at a coffee shop and threw tears. He said, I love you, brother. I love you. But after reading your letter, I don't feel like we can move forward as partners. And to be honest, I don't think you should be a pastor right now. No one had ever gotten in my face like that, or at least I had never listened. Most people were willing to overlook my struggles because of my perceived giftedness or personality, but Reed didn't care about any of that. He loved God, and he loved me. Carrie and I returned home, met with a few trusted friends outside our church, and then set up a meeting with our elders. As I handed them a copy of the letter, I said, my life and my ministry are in your hands. Tell me what to do. Let's pray. We come before you, God, and we tremble because we know that we have sins. Some of them we have fully dealt with. But Lord, we also know that there are sins in the future to come, perhaps that are even worse. Maybe there are sins now that are covered. Lord, we come to the terrific promise of the gospel that the worst kind of sin, our worst sins, Christ carried and was punished, and before you, you can still make us holy. You will forgive. And so, Lord, we come before you for cleansing, confessing our sin, and receiving forgiveness and cleansing of all unrighteousness. We long to be holy We pray, Lord, that you would continue to make us a holy people and to bring together divisions and broken relationships. Make us to be wise, make us to be hopeful, keep us tenderhearted. We ask all of this in Jesus' name, amen.