Joseph No.14 Redeemed - Forgiven

Thank you for joining us for this evening's lecture. Thank you for joining us for this evening's lecture. We're going to turn to God's word.

I invite you to open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 45. Genesis chapter 45, beginning to read from verse 1. Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, Make everyone leave my presence. So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers.

And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh's household heard about it. And Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph. Is my father still living? But his brothers were not able to answer him because they were terrified at his presence.

Then Joseph said to his brothers, Come close to me. When they had done so, he said, I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.

For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be ploughing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God.

He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household, and ruler of all Egypt. Now hurry back to my father and say to him, this is what your son Joseph says. God has made me lord of all Egypt.

Come down to me, don't delay. You shall live in the region of Goshen, and be near me, you, your children, and your grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have. I will provide for you there, because five years of famine are still to come.

Otherwise you and your household and all who belong to you will become destitute. You can see for yourselves, and so can my brother Benjamin, that it is really I who am speaking to you. Tell my father about all the honor accorded me in Egypt, and about everything you have seen, and bring my father down here quickly.

Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept. And Benjamin embraced him, weeping. And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them.

Afterwards his brothers talked with him. Amen. Father, we ask as we look into your word right now that you'll speak to our hearts.

We thank you that this book remains up to date, encapsules historically our incidents with which we can identify ourselves, because in effect human nature doesn't change very much. The problems and challenges of yesteryear remain exactly the perplexities and the great demands that are placed upon people today. So we ask that from your timeless word you will speak to our hearts right now, enable us to apply what you say in your holy scriptures to our lifestyle in the late 1980s.

For the Saviour's sake. Amen. I warmed to my topic this morning.

After all, who wouldn't? The best news in the whole world. The best news in the whole world. Billy Graham says this.

In these days of guilt complexes, perhaps the most glorious word in the English language is forgiven. Did you hear that? The best word in the English language is the word forgiven. That's Billy Graham, a contemporary preacher.

Here's one who was as good as Billy Graham, but lived many centuries ago. His name was Ambrose, a man who had great eloquence. And he said this, I will not glory because I am righteous, but because I am redeemed.

Not because I am clear of sin, but because my sins are forgiven. What I want to do by God's grace is to quote-unquote will you. Use whatever persuasive power I may have.

By the gift of God's Spirit taking the words that I utter from the pulpit and applying it to your experience, I would will for you what it means to be forgiven. If perchance you come along to the tab Sunday morning by Sunday morning, and you've never really understood the full content of all that's wrapped up in that good biblical word forgiven. Because that's what God wants you and me to experience.

I love Monday nights, because Monday nights means discipleship class nights. And we have several groups who meet here at the tab. And it's been my privilege in more recent days to take along with another brother the leadership of discipleship one.

And we go through a basic course on Christian doctrine, a dozen or so, perhaps a few less. Meet in my vestry, and there are other folk who meet in other rooms in our complex here. We go through in a conversational fashion the basic ABC of the Christian faith.

And we learn a memory text. We all love to do that. And check ourselves on it and see who's got the best memory.

And how many times I get tripped up because theirs is better than mine. But last week's was a super class, a super text. If, I can only say it in the authorized version, if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

Or rather, another verse that comes in just alongside that in terms of forgiveness. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You know that? Say it with me.

You know it in the authorized version. Some of you older friends, you'll be much more at home. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Now isn't that nice? Immediately it makes you feel good. Because it enables you to realize this, as I was trying to teach last Wednesday evening to a larger group of people, that God is for us, not against us. Basically, the Father heart of God is for us, for humanity.

And for is the first three letters of the word forgiven. Not so. I don't care what sin it is that you have committed, there is only one sin that God cannot forgive.

And that is those who deny his Son as being the Son of God and the death of Jesus on the cross, having atoning value for the sins of the world. Now if that's not your state, and I can't think you'd be in the tab this morning if it was. If that's not your state, it means that anything that you have done in your life, however rotten, however sour, however unpleasant to your recall, whatever it is, and the concentrated mass that all of us can contribute towards this ugly lot of sin, all that can be dealt with, or has been dealt with, by our Lord Jesus Christ.

If we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sin, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Here are Joseph's brothers, and they're a great illustration, you see, of this one principle. They stand in front of Joseph, and you see here that they're most uncomfortable.

The reason why they're uncomfortable is, well, they've got so many things that they have done in their lives that are wrong, and particularly they've got one skeleton in the cupboard, in regard to the maltreatment that they offered their younger brother years ago. And it seems as though when they have dealings with this unknown Prime Minister of Egypt, in an uncanny fashion, that ugly sin of yesteryear seems to sweep over their minds to the extent that they've been driven on two occasions, you remember to say, that the fallout in Egypt has been relatively unpleasant because of what they did yesteryear. So they stand in front of a man who's physically able to save them, because famine ravages Egypt and Palestine.

And although he's kind in one area, he also seems to handle them so roughly that they ask themselves, why is it we're being treated like this? And back comes the answer, because of what you did a long time ago. And in the presence of the Prime Minister, they feel utterly uncomfortable. We prayed for many people in Worthing, 90% who have a very loose relationship with God.

Why do some of them not come to church? Not simply because they feel that church is dour and old-fashioned, and does not relate to their circumstances. That perhaps goes as part of the reason, maybe a large slice of the reason. But there is that about ordinary people that makes them feel uncomfortable in the presence of God.

When Peter is in the presence of Jesus, you remember on the seashores of Galilee, on one occasion, because he's so aware that Jesus is all that he is not, he says to Jesus, depart from me, I'm a sinful man. And here are Joseph's brothers in his presence, though they don't know who he is, and they feel uncomfortable. But Joseph doesn't want them to feel uncomfortable.

And in one sense, you can see from the very traits, from the very character of Joseph, something of a disposition of our Lord Jesus. Joseph hasn't got all that our Lord has, but in a very uncanny fashion, he seems to personify perhaps more than most characters in the Old Testament. Something of the loving heart of Jesus.

Now Jesus is of the Father, the essence of the Father is shared by the Son, which is shared by the Holy Spirit. For God is one and God is three. And in the Old Testament, you read of God, that if you bring your sins to Him, He will abundantly pardon you.

It is not God's will for you to go through life feeling guilty. It is not God's will for you to enter into His presence and feel uncomfortable. The one thing that God wants of you is the same that Joseph wanted of his brothers, to feel relaxed in his presence.

But they can never feel relaxed in Joseph's presence until that skeleton has been brought to the forefront and the whole issue of their past transgression has been dealt with. So Joseph, it seems to me, he couples two particular callings. He's a brother and a pastor.

As a brother, he must often have longed to have revealed himself to his own brothers and sent a telegram to his father. But he knows full well that if he preempts this business of their guilt and dealing with it, then they will never enjoy the relationship that they ought to enjoy with him. And don't you see, my friend, that's why God cannot just blink His eyes towards your sin.

He can't say it doesn't matter. What He can say is that it matters enormously. But out of the lavishness of my heart of love towards you, I have dealt with that sin, so that no longer need you feel uncomfortable in my presence.

I think that one of the most dramatic moments in the whole of history, and I don't think I'm exaggerating in making the comment, occurred in the palace rooms of Joseph. On that occasion, when his brothers now, who were so prepared to admit their guilt, you remember that Judah has spoken on behalf of them all, and he has brought to the attention of Joseph the problem of the aged father back home in Palestine. Joseph, who can contain his emotions no longer, clears the whole of the area of Egyptians.

And when everyone has gone, in the Hebrew language, Joseph says, I am Joseph. I identify myself before you. And I would love to have had a TV camera crew present at that moment and seen the expressions on the faces of all those 11 brothers, wouldn't you? I am Joseph.

I am the one that you dealt with so badly years ago. You see, just before that incident, if it were possible for you to have been present and someone to have put the question to you, what did these brothers need more than anything else in life? Imagine something beyond your wildest dreams could actually come into reality. What would you have opted for? And my answer is this.

That Joseph was still alive. That Joseph didn't have a grudge towards his brothers. And that God was still involved in the welfare of those sons of Jacob.

Somebody once put a question to a journalist. And said to him, if you could interview one historical character and just put one question to him, who would the character be and what would be the nature of your question? The response was this. I would like to interview Jesus of Nazareth.

And my one question would be this. Did you come back from the dead? I am Joseph. The most wonderful news that these brothers could ever have heard, the one that they dealt so treacherously with, is still alive.

And what's more, as they were to discover, there was no grudge. And even additional as a bonus, God who had seen all that they had done was still for them. He was still working out his plan and his purpose in their lives.

Who are you Lord? Says the man charging recklessly on a horse towards Damascus. And the answer comes back from the clouds. I am Jesus whom you are persecuting.

The most wonderful news that Saul was going to hear was also the most terrible at first listening to. The one who he had directed his venom against, Jesus of Nazareth, was indeed God's own Son who had been raised from the dead. And the implications of that Paul was to work out later in the oncoming weeks as he made an ever deepening commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ.

The most wonderful news my friend is this. Jesus is alive. I am Jesus.

And what's more, he doesn't bear a grudge. And what's more, God has a plan and a purpose for your life. That to me is utterly wonderful.

It's the essence of the best news in all the world. The day will come and it will cap this one for drama when Jesus Christ shall be revealed in great power and glory and he shall say to his own people I am Jesus. Who you pierced.

And they will respond with tears and with contrition that for so long they denied the very Lord of glory who bought them. I am Joseph. But it didn't seem chock-a-block full of good news to these brothers on first hearing because they needed to discover what the heart of Joseph was like.

After all, if he is Joseph and they have done what they have done to Joseph years ago then maybe the reckoning day has come. And so they are utterly terrified as a result of the news which they have just heard. His brothers were not able to answer him because they were terrified at his presence.

Verse 4 Then Joseph said to his brothers come close to me. How do you know that you are redeemed? How do you know when someone has dealt in a genuine fashion towards you and granted you forgiveness for what you have done to them? I'll tell you. First of all they will endeavour to guarantee privacy.

The Egyptians are banished from the court of Joseph at this time. What is to happen is for no prying Egyptian eye to see. A resolution of a family dispute has to be enacted.

It will not be through the indiscretion of Joseph that the Egyptians ever come to realise what his brothers did to him yesteryear. Joseph's heart of forgiveness is this that he wants to keep the sin of his brothers as private as possible. And that's how God deals with you.

The confessional is between you and him. And that is how you are to deal with other people. Are you listening to me? Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Not to publicly parade what others have done that is wrong to us in the hearing of attenders so that they may sympathise with us and rejoice or congratulate us because of the greatness of our heart. The Egyptians will never know that which Joseph forgave his brothers for. Privacy.

And what's more, intimacy is a part of forgiveness. Come near me. You're afraid at the moment but there's no reason.

See the contours of my face. See the expression of my mouth. See the colour of my eyes.

I am not who you think I was. I am not just an Egyptian prime minister. I am Joseph.

How's my father? You see the psychology of that question? He speaks of his father because that identifies these people to whom he's directing his remarks as his brothers. Jesus Christ is not ashamed to call us his brothers. He wants us to be at home in his presence.

The essence of the gospel message when you boil it down to its essentials and its practicalities is this. Come unto me all you who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Jesus' concern is for you and for me to feel at home in his presence.

Jesus' concern is to contain as privately as possible those things that you have done that I have done that are wrong in the eyes of himself and his father. That it seems to me, my dear brothers and sisters, is what redemption and forgiveness is all about. They knew these brothers as perhaps Nigel Lawson has from time to time.

It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry prime minister. It's even a more fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. But when that God is for you and you have accepted the forgiveness that he offers then the terror becomes a delight and what you would shrink away from you run towards.

That's the nature of redemption. That's the nature of forgiveness as is taught in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. What's more, when you're forgiven God doesn't want you to think badly about yourself.

Now that's an incredible thing but the principle I get from the whole of Scripture and illustrated here particularly sharpened for us in this fifth verse. Joseph speaking, and now do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here. You might have thought that this required almost an unhuman delicacy on the part of Joseph.

To say that the greatest difficulty is not that I would forgive you. That's taken for granted. But rather to deal with the problem that sometimes you and I face.

The problem of forgiving ourselves. Do not be distressed. The Hebrew there, do not be angry, is very strong.

I don't know that you can get it into English. Do not burn yourself out with guilt and with remorse. You see, God wants to deal with our own unforgiving heart towards ourselves.

Did you hear that? Maybe you don't understand it. I've been a pastor too long not to understand it. Be of sin the double cure.

Was that Isaac Watts' hymn? Anyway, whether or not it's an old hymn. Be of sin the double cure. Save me from its guilt and power.

You see, I know pastorally what it is for people to be saved from the power of sin. But it's the guilt. That's the rub.

That's the difficulty. Can you imagine Judah, and Reuben, Levi, Natali, a lot of them constantly engaging in tortuous regret that we did this, that we allowed that to happen, that we didn't speak up, that we were all involved in this terrible act of selling our brother to slavery? Well, you see, this marvelous act of forgiveness and redemption that's directed by Joseph to the brothers has also as a target their own unforgiving nature towards themselves. He tries to make them feel not so bad.

Do not be angry with yourselves. And then, if you can believe it, you find words here that would almost be blasphemous if it was not that they were mouthed by Joseph. He tells them three times, we'll take verse seven as our example, that the fallout in his life had God at the back of it.

God sent me ahead of you. You purposed evil in your heart, but God in His sovereignty took your evil, dilutes it, turns around the circumstances, and without condoning your sin, He makes your evil part of the process for which His redemptive purposes for my father and yourselves and for the people of Israel as a whole are realized. Now, Joseph is not here condoning sin.

He's not saying that what his brothers did was in any way justifiable. Poison does not cease to be poison because the doctor can make it part of a healing medicine. But when Joseph tells them that God was involved in this particular situation, even though it did not make their guilt less serious, it did make God more attractive.

With murderous intention, the Jewish clergy, the Roman soldiers combine to have done to death the carpenter from Nazareth. But that murderous intention is to be seen within the broader back cloth of the purposes of God. At the human level, Caiaphas, Pilate, the whole motley crew are responsible.

No, because at the broader level, the one who takes the initiative is none other than the Father God who allows His Son to be delivered into the evil of men who think only murderously in regard to Him. But ultimately, their evil turns out to be for the good of the whole world. Not so? And even of our blessed Lord, the principle is true.

All things work together for the good of those who trust God. He's coping with every aspect of their psyche, of their spiritual condition in order for them to enter into the abundant peace and joy of having this particular problem in their past dealt with. And this is what our Lord Jesus wants for you and for me.

Joseph speaks more personally as he refers to what has happened since the days when he entered Egypt. Verse 8, It was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh.

What a thought. Pharaoh's life depended on Joseph. That was true.

It wasn't purple passage journalist language. It was exactly the case that because of Joseph's advent and the wisdom that he had, Egypt has been saved. And in this respect, he's become as Pharaoh, as Pharaoh's father, Lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.

And so, Joseph tells the brothers who are forgiven to do one more thing. And in one sense, this is what must have worried them more than anything else. You see, it seems to me that the hardest thing for these brothers whose sin has found them out but have now entered into a state of forgiveness, the hardest thing must have been to go back to Jacob and tell the old man what they'd done.

But do you notice Joseph doesn't ask them to do that? All he asks them to do is to go back to Jacob and not say what they had done to Joseph but rather what God in his grace had allowed to turn out in the circumstances of Joseph, the prime minister of Egypt, father to Pharaoh, savior of the known world. All these heaped up blessings, responsibilities and privileges they in a remarkable fashion have fallen on Joseph. Go and tell my dad that.

Hurry back to my father and say to him this is what your son Joseph says. God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me.

Don't delay. You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near me, you and your children and so forth. How great is our God.

How great is his name. How marvelous are his dealings with his sinful now contrite children. Joseph doesn't want his brothers to squirm.

That's what you might have wanted. It's what I might have wanted. Yes, I'll forgive you but let me just rub your nose in it a little bit.

And having forgiven you let everyone else know just what a great person I am because of the forgiveness. Not Joseph. He catches the colors of our Lord Jesus as you see in his character the selflessness of the son of God who illustrates to us the father heart of God.

And even the one thing that the brothers must have detested the most in terms of how they would cope letting Jacob know what they'd done. And Joseph doesn't ask for that confession. He just asks tell him what the Lord has done for me.

Do you know my friend that's basically what God is asking for you of you. Ransomed healed restored forgiven. I think that that's the hymn incidentally that they'd have sung as they went back to Palestine.

Don't you got hymns of faith in their hands? Every one Orthodox Christian has hymns of faith. And they turn to number nine and they'd sing it. Ransomed healed restored forgiven.

Who like me his praise should sing? Indeed you go and sing his praise the praise of the God of Joseph and sing it to Jacob. Let him know and let him know that Joseph has got provisions for him and he wants him and you to be near where Joseph is as Jesus says I'll never leave you I'll never forsake you in my father's house are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you and if I go to prepare a place for you I will come and receive you to myself that where I am there you may be also. Joseph's here in Egypt and there's security and there's food but there are those of Joseph's household who are not so blessed so he sends for them and he illustrates the father heart of God as God wants to send for you and be with you and to deal with you out of compassion so the brothers go and tell Jacob of all that's happened to Joseph of all the blessings that there are in the land of Egypt for him and for them.

In these days of guilt complexes perhaps the most glorious word in the English language is forgiveness. I will not glory because I am righteous but indeed I am redeemed not because I am clear of sin but because my sins are forgiven. My dear friend do you appreciate this? Christianity is the religion of the forgiven the religion of the forgiven so I ask you afresh have you entered into the experience of your sins being absolved through the blood of Jesus? Do you realize that as far as the east is from the west so far God can distance himself from your sin? In the privacy of the court of Joseph you have got the context in which God draws near to you in the largeness of Joseph's heart as he shares his privileges responsibilities with his brothers and his father so God wants to share with you the privileges the responsibilities of drawing alongside him and living for him here on this earth I'm forgiven I'm forgiven the best news in all the world but don't just say it enter into it and having been forgiven by him forgive us too and don't bear a crutch We're going to listen to a song being sung I'm accepted I'm forgiven I am fathered by the true and living God I'm accepted no condemnation I am loved by the true and living God There's no guilt or fear as I draw near to the saviour and creator of the world There is joy and peace as I release my worship to you O Lord I'm accepted I'm forgiven I am fathered by the true and living God I'm accepted no condemnation I am loved by the true and living God There's no guilt or fear as I draw near to the saviour and creator of the world There is joy and peace as I release my worship to you O Lord my worship to you O Lord Redeemed how I love to proclaim it Stanley Singer Redeemed how I love to proclaim it Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb Redeemed through His kingdom and mercy This I forever have Redeemed, redeemed Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb Redeemed, redeemed Redeemed, so happy in Jesus The land which my rapture conceals The treasures within the pots in holy glass Redeemed, redeemed Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb Become my blessed Redeemer I think of Him all the day long His love is with me, O my soul Redeemed, redeemed Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb I shall see His beauty that He may put on my eyes That He may lift me up in the night Redeemed, redeemed Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb Redeemed, redeemed Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb That He may bless me That I with the Lord I shall be Redeemed, redeemed Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb Redeemed, redeemed If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness Father, we thank You that ours is the religion of the redeemed Help us as we take bread and wine afresh in a moment or two to pledge again ourselves to our Lord Jesus and thank You afresh for the magnificent pardon which You offer through Him Amen Amen