Come Near Now

The book of Genesis 44, chapter 44. Most of us would be familiar with the background of the story. Joseph's brethren, his brothers, have treated him so despitefully.

They have hated him. They have mocked him. They have put him into a pit.

His father even was incredulous at the dreams that Joseph had. No one, no one understood him at this point. No one sympathized with him at this point.

He didn't have a wife. Of course, he didn't have any children. He didn't have anyone at that time.

And as his brothers sit at the top of the pit that he is in and he cries out, they don't listen. They mock. And the traders come along and they sell him.

And they watch him. Good riddance. Joseph goes away, sold as a slave.

And while he's there, one thing leads to another and he even ends up in prison. And again, innocent. Actually trying to get away from doing wrong.

And he goes to prison. And in prison, you remember the dreams, the butler and the baker and so on, and they talk to him and he says, please remember me. Remember me.

Here's finally one person he has done good by. I know he found favor with the chief, with the captain and so on, but and the man gets out and he forgets about him. And finally, with the dream again, he gets out.

And he rises to power, to place, to position. The right hand of Pharaoh. He is the savior of the world.

He is the one who is going to deliver. And his brothers now, they're in famine, time of famine. They need help.

They need survival. Do you not think, just before I read this, do you not think that through the years, their consciences pricked them? The memories came back. The calls of Joseph from the depths of that pit.

Maybe at night, sleeping, a dream. Now they have a dream, maybe. And they are remembering Joseph.

Trying to put it out, but they can't. And now, they come before Joseph, but they don't know it's Joseph. So, let's break in and say what you will about Judah and his event with Tamar and other things.

I believe what I'm going to read to you now is one of the greatest, most touching passages of the Bible in terms of a man who is willing, who is admitting, who is reliving. And as he stands before Joseph, we'll read these words. Verse 15, sorry, 14.

And Judah and his brethren came to Joseph's house, for he was yet there, and they fell before him on the ground. And Joseph said unto them, What deed is this that ye have done? What ye not know ye not that such a man as I can certainly divine? And you picture this now. Here is Joseph, tanned and browned by the Egyptian sun.

He would be able to speak in Hebrew as well from his background with them, and he speaks in Egyptian as well. He is sitting there with the robes of regalia and power, and he is speaking to these men. And notice it says what Judah said, verse 16.

And Judah said, What shall we say unto my Lord? What shall we speak? You ever feel like that? What can I say? How shall we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants. Behold, we are my Lord's servants, both we, and he also with whom the cup is found. And he said, God forbid that I should do so, but the man in whose hand the cup is found, he shall be my servant, and as for you, get you up in peace unto your father.

Then Judah came near unto him, Joseph, and said, O my Lord, let thy servant, I pray thee, speak a word in my Lord's ears, and let not thine anger burn against thy servant, for thou art even as Pharaoh. My Lord asked his servants, saying, Have you a father or a brother? And we said unto my Lord, We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one, and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and his father loveth him. And thou saidst unto thy servants, Bring him down unto me, that I may set my eyes upon him.

And we said unto my Lord, The lad cannot leave his father. Of course, this is a reference to Benjamin. The lad cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.

And thou saidst unto thy servants, Except your youngest brother come down with you, you shall see my face no more. And it came to pass when we came up unto thy servant, my father, we told him the words of my Lord. And our father said, Go again and buy us a little food.

And we said, We cannot go down if our youngest brother be with us. Then will we go down, for we may not see the man's face, except our youngest brother be with us. And thy servant, my father, said unto us, You know that my wife bear me two sons.

And the one went out from me, and I said, Surely he is torn in pieces, and I saw him not since. And if you take this also from me, and mischief befall him, you shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. Can you sense the pathos, the feeling, the depth of emotion, the sorrow, the tearing? Now therefore, when I come to thy servant, my father, and the lad be not with us, seeing that his life is bound up in the lad's life, it shall come to pass when he see it that the lad is not with us, that he will die.

And thy servant shall bring down the gray hairs of thy servant, our father, with sorrow to the grave. For thy servant became surety for the lad unto my father. Jude is saying, I said this to my father.

I said this to Jacob. If I bring him not unto thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father forever. Now therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide.

Let me remain. Let me stay instead of the lad, a bondman to my Lord. Let me serve you.

Let me remain here. And let the lad go back. Let him go up with his brothers.

For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad be not with me, lest peradventure I see the evil that shall come on my father? Chapter 45, Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him, and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. Can you imagine? Here is the man at the right hand of Pharaoh, the head of the entire nation, the known world at that time, and he is weeping. He puts everybody out, and he wept aloud.

It says here, And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren, and he wept aloud, and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard, sounding through the walls of that palace that day. They heard the weeping of Joseph, filling the noise of the halls. Joseph said unto his brothers, his brethren, I am Joseph.

Does my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him, for they were troubled at his presence. Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near.

And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither, for God did send me before you to preserve life. I don't have a lot to say as this conference closes, but I was thinking of this passage sitting there, and I was thinking of these words that came into my mind as Joseph looking at his brothers, knowing everything that they had done, the history, the pit, and the domino effect of that event that had set in motion, from what he went through to where he is now, and he is telling them, and this is what touched me, come near now, come near now.

And I thought of myself, and I thought of my brother, and I thought of all of us, and I thought of our Joseph, who was made higher than the heavens, and I thought at times of the times that I have failed him, and the times that I have let him down, and the times that I had good intentions and didn't succeed, and I thought with all that he knows all about me, and as he looks down, we have been looking to him. Our brother William reminded us early, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith in that chapter, but I want you to think as this conference ends, that he is looking down upon you and me, and you know what he is saying? Come near now, come near now. Don't, don't, listen, past failures, don't think about it.

Good intentions that you didn't succeed, don't think about it. Now, Joseph says now, you come near to me. He has listened to Judah.

It has brought before them the reality of the Father, the reality of love, the reality of the sovereignty of God. One thing that Joseph chose us, as well as the book of Genesis, in a very marked, miraculous way, is the sovereignty of God. And here now is Joseph, and he says, God sent me to preserve your lives.

That is exactly why the Lord Jesus came, to preserve your life, to save your life, your soul. And as this conference ends, I want you to think, I want you to grasp that the Lord Jesus is saying to everyone here, everyone, come near now, come near. Today, everything changes.

Today, God has brought you to me, and I to you, so that you will know the hand of God is for your good, to give you life. Come near now. I thought of Gethsemane.

I thought of the Lord Jesus standing, looking over Jerusalem, and as Brother Joel was speaking about gathering from Psalm 50, no doubt a psalm of judgment, a psalm that, as God is speaking to his people, telling them he is going to gather them for judgment, because they have failed. Yet, Jehovah saying that in Psalm 50, now look at the Lord Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, and he's looking at that same people and those same nation, and he's saying it again. How often would I have gathered you, but you would not.

So I end this conference with a challenge, an emotional one, yes. A mercy-driven one, yes. A grace-laden one, yes.

A redemptive-bound one, yes. Will you come near? Will each of us come near, being drawn unto him, and say no matter what, no matter what the failure, no matter what the weakness, no matter what the lack, oh God, I come, I come. Not in salvation, of course, if there are any here that are not saved, absolutely, but in sanctification, in devotion.

We've heard varied ministry in this conference. Any here not in the assembly? Any here that have not been gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus? You're saved, you can nod in a conference, you take notes, but you're not really, you haven't done that, you haven't taken that, come near, come near. Any not baptized? You're saved, you know you should be, come near.

Any moving in things, maybe associations, participations, maybe at school, maybe at work, maybe whatever, and you know you're not really living and doing, come near. Listen, come near now, and know this, that the Lord says, I have been sent, and you have come for this moment, at this conference, to preserve your lives. May God touch our hearts with the reality of that message.