The Answer of Conscience

Well this morning we begin chapter 42. We will not complete it this morning.

In fact, there's So many things to say just about the first 28 verses. I hope we'll have time thing a little under the weather today

So I hope I also Preserve my voice tried my best not to belt out hymns for that very reason

But as we begin chapter 42, we're reminded that Joseph has now been in this place of prestige

He now is next to Pharaoh Governor perhaps more than governor over all the land of Egypt and indeed all of the earth is coming to Joseph that they might receive grain as these seven years of severe famine began to set in We're reminded over the course of several weeks that Joseph has been enduring the rollercoaster of God's providence in his life

At times very difficult providence in his life by keeping faith in what

God had revealed to him Joseph was keeping faith in God's revelation.

And so he had humbled himself While he was in the roundhouse the course of well over two years

He humbled himself under the mighty hand of God and therefore God exalted him in due time

And as the interpretation he gave to Pharaoh declared seven years of abundance quickly turned into seven years of devastation and of course

God is moving through this event as it flashes across the ticker tape at the bottom of MSNBC or CNN God is actually in the details of this crisis affecting this

Reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers that was the vision that Joseph had received his own family would come and bow

Before him chapter 42 begins to take a step in that direction It will be the central focus for the next five chapters.

We begin in verse 1 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 is grain in Egypt go down to that place and buy for us there

That we may live and not die Most likely this is occurring toward the very beginning of the famine in chapter 45 verse 11

We read there were still five years of the seven -year famine remaining so they didn't have grain that lasted very long

Maybe they made it through one season if that and they realize we're not gonna make it now.

This is critical We need to get down to Egypt to get grain So the narrative has shifted away from Egypt for the first time in five chapters.

We're back now in Canaan Notice that Jacob is brought into view and Jacob is still exercising responsibility for his family

Jacob hears about the grain and Jacob tells his sons what must be done his sons are grown men His sons have wives and households of their own but Jacob is the patriarch and so he still especially in times of a crisis

Exercises his fatherly authority over his family Notice how unified the family is as a result of this all of his sons come to Jacob Jacob is able to say

I want You to go to Egypt all but one son will go and so we see this picture of unity within the family

Maybe a unity that's been forged in a time of emergency And of course that's also setting up the contrast with Joseph who is far from unified with his family

Jacob mentions the grain in Egypt and he notices as soon as he mentions it that they all sort of look down Cough shuffle their feet look at each other side to side and what's going on with that?

Why are you looking at each other in this way? It's like as soon as he mentions the word Egypt There's this prod perhaps the first pangs of conscience

We're gonna be looking across these first 28 verses at the matter of conscience this morning

Whatever looks they give the sons recognize We really do have to go down to Egypt.

This is life or death We've tried to barter with our neighbors We've we've gone quite a ways in search of food and Egypt is about all the hope we have

Jacob says by for us there that we may live and not die. That's how

Pressing this need is verse 3 So Joseph's ten brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt But Jacob did not send

Joseph's brother Benjamin with his brothers for he said less some calamity befall him Most likely didn't say that out loud that the

Hebrew there could be he thought or give an insight into his understanding Well, you know less something happened to him on the way or when he gets there

He somehow doesn't come back to me and the sons of Israel went to buy grain among those who journeyed for the famine

Was in the land of Canaan Right in the land of blessing a curse has come notice what verse 3 says

It doesn't say so they went down to buy grain in Egypt It says

Joseph's ten brothers. We already know these are Joseph's brothers So why have it emphasized in verse 3?

These are Joseph's ten brothers going down to Egypt again We're having this relationship that's been severed

Emphasized before us why all ten brothers? Why would Jacob risk sending ten brothers all the way down to Egypt?

That's practically his whole legacy his whole heritage He's sending down to Egypt. The only one he keeps by his side is

Benjamin Well, most likely he understands the grain is gonna be doled out per capita

So one man can't go down and say yes I need this many hectares of grain to feed about 800 people nice try pal

You'll be selling it in the in the back alley. No, no, no per capita This is the amount you're allowed to have and so he has to send anyone that can be sent to bring back this grain

Benjamin remains We of course remember that to Rachel Jacob's beloved were born

Joseph and Benjamin Benjamin being the youngest within the family of Jacob and it seems that Benjamin is now taking

Jacob's place in his father's affections Surely he would have been reminded of Joseph as the years rolled by even as Joseph reminded of Rachel as the years rolled by so you see

The pain is still there even 20 years on and if he ever clung to Joseph as the beloved son

How much tighter has he clung to Benjamin? Benjamin is all he has left as far as he is concerned and he is the one brother that must not go even in this life -and -death situation

You could almost say he'd rather starve than lose Benjamin Now that's gonna set up next week some rather discouraging dynamics that we've seen in Jacob's family and the favoritism he plays and how

Destructive that is to his relationship with his sons and the way that the sons relate to each other

And so we're looking at signs of God's grace Through this narrative and we'll see that though Jacob's sin of favoritism is still alive and well

God's grace is working in the lives of Jacob's sons verse 6 Now Joseph was governor over the land and it was he who sold all the people of the land

And Joseph's brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the earth the prominence of Joseph again

Emphasized and when the ten brothers finally come, of course, they're probably Looking for where is this grain supply given?

They're finally pointed toward Joseph Joseph must have had quite a retinue before him But he's the type of leader that likes to have his hands on the field

He's a leader that likes to lead by doing and so I think quite literally he is there

Exercising the dispensary of the grain and they come before him and recognizing his status

But not recognizing him they bow down We remember that when

Joseph's brothers plotted murder against him and sold him into slavery They were specifically trying to overthrow the dream that Joseph had shared with them

Brothers, I saw in my dream interestingly. It's a grain dream, isn't it? We were all bundling together sheafs of grain and your sheafs bowed down to my sheafs

Well here they are in the midst of the grain crisis and they're bowing down before him they murdered him

Effectively cast him into the pit They didn't care what happened to him as long as he was dragged out of their lives and they thought well so much for that dreamers dreams

But in doing that they actually have begun the fulfillment of that vision that God gave to Joseph They provided the very way the dream would be fulfilled.

This is not just high Literary glory. This is the truth of God's providence

He can and does allow evil actions of men in order to establish his good

Overruling purpose never in a way that excuses the evil of men as we'll see in chapter 50 but in a way that Establishes the goodness and the wisdom of God's purpose which accords with even the evil of men

Psalm 76 10 surely even the wrath of man shall praise you Lord The brothers bowed down to him

Can you imagine the cyclone of emotions that Joseph felt in this moment It's been 20 years 20 years.

I Look back on photos of Elsie four years ago, and it's shocking to me

Can you imagine looking at brothers that you haven't seen in 20 years? The pain must have immediately rose to the surface

Mingled with hope but then fluctuating back to to rage That thirst for justice

But then that recognition that God has been merciful to you and and this place that you have now in Egypt That you never would have had it

He must have been wrestling with this vortex Very intense emotions and and I think we have that on the page look at verse 7

Joseph saw his brothers recognized them, but he acted as a stranger to them He can't even know how to reveal himself and he just speaks roughly to them.

I Wonder what the servants of Joseph thought. Here's this man who's so wise so Self -controlled so diligent and gracious meek and all that he does

This is all that they've seen year after year after year in seven years of plenty They've watched as their master has very calmly but very sternly warned these seven years of abundance will not last

Prepare yourself and prepare your field prepare your storage jars hard years are coming

But don't lose heart God has a plan and if you come seek me in the years of crisis

I will provide for you and your household and they saw this man that was so meek and wise and perhaps for the first time

They saw him lose that self -control He speaks roughly to them

We don't have the rough words But you get the sense that it's very abrupt

He spoke roughly to them. We read then he said to them So he spoke roughly to them before we have the dialogue recorded here

You get the sense that he's restraining the pain the rage the aggression

But he can't break the disguise quite yet, they don't know it's him They probably didn't even know and they this is just what

Egyptian governors are like They don't recognize that Zapnot Panea is actually their brother

Joseph. He said to them. Where do you come from? And they said from the land of Canaan to buy food

And so again, it's repeated verse 8. So Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him

There were countless things he could do to them He has all authority underneath Pharaoh No questions

No trial needed if he wants them taken away They will be taken away if he wants these ten brothers never to be heard of or never seen again

They will never be heard of and never seen again He has all the power all the authority of the

Egyptian Empire at his disposal He's in pretty good with the butcher. He knows all of the guards in the roundhouse

He can make any arrangement that he sees fit but what remember what we said what we've seen all along Joseph endures the rollercoaster of God's Providence by keeping his faith in God's revelation and He remembers verse 9.

He remembers the dreams This is not coincidence fancy meeting you here after all these years

He knows the hand of Providence is at work and He recalls the dream that God had given to him the same dream that he's been keeping faith in for these 20 years

He remembers the dreams and then he says you are spies the wisdom of Joseph he

He almost makes this plan up on the fly He knows the effect he wants to have he knows he has the upper hand and that he knows who these men are

But they don't know who he is. He concocts this plan on the run.

It's incredible really No wonder he was such a a brilliant administrator

No wonder he could work his way up in whatever starting place you gave to him. He says you are spies

It's a false charge. He knows they're not spies You've come to see the nakedness of the land.

The whole world is naked by this famine And I 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 You've come to see the nakedness of the land. He just won't hear any of their protests any of their countering evidence

He just keeps repeating the accusation. No, you are spies. No, you've come to see the nakedness of the land

Now this is a baseless charge Now the brothers know what it's like To be dealt with so harshly so cruelly without any basis whatsoever

They came they were honest men. That must have been painful for Joseph to hear. We're honest men He must have had to swallow pretty hard on that one.

But at the same time look at how they ingratiate themselves to Joseph They call

Joseph Lord. No, my lord They refer to themselves as his servants

No, my lord your servants are honest men whatever rage he feels in that moment he's tempered by Well, we're already on the way to the fulfillment of this dream now

The dream was that all of my brothers would bow down to me and only ten are here So where is the 11th brother

Joseph has to work this out in his calculation, but perhaps he's already detecting

There's there's something of God's hand in the midst of even their response to him Verse 13

Your servants are twelve brothers the sons of one man in the land of Canaan And in fact, the youngest is with our father today and they must have trailed off at this point and one is no more

Don't don't ask on that. Please don't press on that one They spend all this time talking about their relationship to their father

Their brother is all from the same fatherland of Canaan. The youngest is still with our father one is no more

Let's just get past that chapter in our lives and in our family history They want to spend more time talking about the missing brother

Benjamin One is no more this was a lie the brothers know it is a lie

Perhaps he's no more last they knew he was being dragged away as a slave into Egypt Which is why they were so nervous when

Egypt was being mentioned They had every reason to believe that Joseph was not dead. He would have been a valuable slave at this age

He was a hard -working honest intelligent diligent young man, even his brothers knew him in that way

But perhaps they had repeated the lie so often. They just thought this really is the case. He's no more

Effectively, he was no more as far as their lives were concerned Verse 14

Joseph said to them. It's as I spoke to you again, just endless incessant repeating of the charges

You are spies, but now he concocts a plan How will I get the 11th brother to bow before me 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. This is a plan that will change but for now send one of you

Let him bring your brother You shall all be kept in prison so that your words may be tested to see whether there is any truth in you

That's Joseph's concern What really is inside of you after these 20 years if you're capable of that 20 years ago?

What remains in you today? Or else by the life of Pharaoh surely you are spies

He doesn't have to trail off and explain the consequence of that if you are spying on the nakedness of the land

That's an automatic death sentence So he put them all together in prison three days.

All the brothers are together there in prison for three days Perhaps these three days were given to them so they could examine themselves

To just force them on the spot wouldn't be an act of wisdom on Joseph's part to get them in a secluded place where they could be with each other and Actually begin to examine their selves to look at their situation.

All right, that was an act of wisdom on Joseph's part He had already said one of you will be sent

In order to bring back the youngest brother No one else will be allowed to leave or even live unless that youngest brother is returned to me

So now these brothers have to work out who is trustworthy among us who will not abandon us here.

They're all terrified Who will go and actually come back? I will we don't trust you.

I will no way. You're the last brother. We're gonna send Who are you gonna send on this mission?

It seems like a kamikaze mission for the first time they would get a short taste of What it would be like to be utterly hopeless

Urging and desiring for a brother to come and rescue them. This seems to be the whole point of these days and nights

But it also gives Joseph time to think through to pray to plan

To understand Lord, why have you allowed this Providence to unfold in my life? And for three days you get the sense that Joseph is working these things over in his own mind and heart with the

Lord Trying to understand how should he act and move to get Benjamin and and begin to walk in the fulfillment of God's plan

He recognizes the hand of God in this moment. And so he comes back three days later and this helps us understand

He's really sort of planning on the fly But now he's had three days to create a plan and that the terms change verse 18

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 you all the other nine

Go and carry grain for the famine of your houses and bring your youngest brother to me

So that your words will be verified and you shall not die and they did so He comes to them

And the first thing he says to them is do this and live He comes to them really as a bearer of hope whatever they thought might happen.

He's just been pulling us along We're actually on the execution slate. He comes to them. He says if you do this you live do this and live

It's a command. It's an entreaty do this so that you may live I'm sure after three days in the

Egyptian penitentiary system The brothers were willing to do anything to live anything to get out of the roundhouse

They'd only been there for three days. They actually were there with each other. That meant something

At least they could rely upon one another and comfort one another in those dark days and nights

Remember that Joseph was alone in that pit for years And so even here as we think typologically were reminded that our

Lord faced a depth of suffering that we could never comprehend We experienced the equivalent in our lives in the most difficult pains three days

Where the Lord in his earthly life experienced years And so it's no wonder we can trust him when we look to his nail -scarred hands and he says to us do this and live

I've already gone the way of suffering ahead of you. You can trust me We can say to him you alone have the words of life when he says to us do this and live

It's not as an abstract detached arbitrary governor But it's as the suffering

Savior who came and suffered beyond our depth in our place These brothers have tasted the dread of being lost of being abandoned

Now they have to depend upon One another to restore the brother that will be bound that the plan has changed now they all can go

This is a merciful adjustment to Joseph's plan He must have been concerned that their households would be met with supplies

They can all go but one They can all go and bring back grain and supply their families in the midst of this famine

Joseph shows No heart no stomach for retribution he would not have these brothers nor their families starve in the land of Canaan and The brothers now being released all but one faced this temptation that they had faced with Joseph Would they abandon another brother as they had once abandoned

Joseph? Will they go to their father and tell the truth or will they cover it over and say we're never going back to Egypt We got our grain and let's just pray for a better harvest next year

Notice the testimony of Joseph also he says to them I fear God That's something they would not expect out of an

Egyptian viceroy's mouth It almost comes with the implicit charge.

Do you fear God? They're Canaanites. They're coming as as those who actually ought to proclaim the

Living God to this Egyptian governor But it's the Egyptian governor who proclaims God to them.

I fear God. Do you fear God? Are you honest men? Will you do what is right?

Do this in live he says toward the end essentially do this and you shall not die

He's confronting these ten brothers with matters of life and death. This is what will get you death

This is what will get you life whenever we're confronted with matters of life and death do this and live

This is the way to life do this and die This is the broad and wide path toward destruction when we're confronted with that Existential moral ethical fork in the road.

God is moving in us to awaken our conscience We'll spend a lot more time in application talking about that Joseph is wisely confronting his brothers with matters of life and death

Presenting for them a narrow difficult path that will lead to life or the broad and easy path that leads to destruction

They can abandon their brother and make it one more year and then starve in the following year to come

There's only one way to live Joseph begins to pain their conscience

Think about what these brothers have experienced. They've been in the roundhouse for three days They've perhaps asserted.

Yes. Okay. This is the brother that we're going to send to go we trust him Maybe it was Reuben being the eldest in that roundhouse

But now Joseph comes and he's totally changed the terms of the plan now they can all go but one Perhaps they'll have to slowly walk away

While they hear that one brother who's been left behind cry out

Don't leave me. Don't abandon me brothers. Come rescue me. Please come rescue me

All of this would have been a haunting memory of what had happened 20 years prior

Joseph is now making them reenact the experience that he had faced

They can all go but one and for the second time these brothers must return to the tent of their father and say

One of your sons is not with us No wonder

The conscience now is fully awakened verse 21. 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 wouldn't hear therefore this distress has come upon us and Reuben answered and said didn't

I speak to you saying don't sin against the boy and you wouldn't listen Therefore behold his blood is now required of us

But they did not know that Joseph understood them for he spoke through an interpreter They're speaking to one another and Joseph is able to understand everything

Remember what they had said when they first entered and stood before Joseph. We are honest men

They said but now what is Joseph here? We're all guilty. How do you get an honest man who's protesting his innocence?

To then say I'm truly guilty It's the power of the conscience

It's the power of the conscience It's the power of the illumination of God upon man's contorted and repressed conscience

Sometimes the conscience has been compared to a sundial If you think of a sundial in the darkened soul of man, what what good is that sundial?

Go to a sundial out in the park. Sometimes they make them out of cement and if it's nighttime, what good is that to you?

It's useless If anything the moonlight the park lights will only scatter that and point you in the wrong direction.

It won't be accurate You need the light you need the illumination for that to function as it was designed to We see the illumination now begin to dawn in the hearts and minds of these brothers and for the first time these honest men say

We are truly guilty They not only understood they felt the guilt of what they had done to Joseph Their minds immediately go back 20 years in time to vividly

Experience what they had done to their brother. They're no longer in the present. They're not concerned about their growling stomachs

They're not rushing back because the most important thing is getting the grain on the table. They're frozen in their steps and saying

Our brother Joseph, this is why this distress has come upon us our brother

Joseph. Surely we are guilty This is why we're being punished our brother Joseph and notice.

He's not that dreamer anymore. He's our brother our brother 20 years ago.

He wasn't their brother, but the light of conscience has moved in a way that now they understand

He was our brother He was our flesh Reuben protests he wants to say not not me

Maybe all of you but not me and that that bears out in chapter 37 Remember he he had a secret plan that he was gonna kind of go along with the boys and he'd sneak back and deliver

Joseph up out of that pit But he was complicit he didn't directly act against it

He he allowed that injustice to begin to unfold It didn't really matter what his secret plan was what his secret thoughts were

He went with the flow when it mattered most he went with the flow when he could have made a difference

He could have pulled out that inside waistband and said get back all of you Joseph's going home with me pulled out his

M &P shield or something But he didn't he just went with the flow And because he went with the flow and he did not do what was right did not do what he ought to do

His fates the same as theirs. He ends up in prison just like them He faces the same crisis just like them.

He has the same guilt just like them There's a lot of people who think my fate will be different my guilt will not be the same

Because I secretly disagree with what society's doing I go along with it, but really that's not my plan

That's not how I feel about it. And because I have the secret plan my fate my guilt is somehow different in God's eyes

No, it's not it doesn't matter how you inwardly feel

It doesn't matter that you're only outwardly approving The fact that you're outwardly approving is guilt enough before God and thankfully

Ruben recognizes this He says now his blood is required of us.

He doesn't say I'm out of here. That's on you In fact, I'm gonna go talk to this zapnap Pena guy about how I wasn't really part of it

He understands the blood is now required of us. We are truly guilty until now

Joseph Probably assumed Ruben being the oldest brother was the one that had led

Everything that had happened to him those 20 years ago Ruben was the one that planned to murder him and then sell him into slavery.

He would have never known until now that Ruben had actually protested had actually said don't sin against him had actually planned to deliver him

Joseph Must have been struck by that there was something in Ruben something in Ruben That still had conscience

Maybe this is why Ruben is not the one that is bound as chiefly responsible But the next in line

Simeon he is the one that is bound For the first time these brothers acknowledge their sin against Joseph notice how they acknowledge it.

They don't mitigate it They don't extenuate it. They don't flatter themselves They don't rationalize it and say it wasn't really that bad if you actually knew him drew you guys are just forgetting what he was

Like that pest who said his older brothers are gonna come bow before him. No. No. No, he got what was coming to him

Hopefully he didn't learn to run his mouth as a slave in Egypt All they can say is we are truly guilty

They have come to the right conclusion about their guilt about their sin that they don't let time try to ebb it away

They admittedly say what we did was worthy of death. His blood is now required of us

They can't help but see God's justice unfolding in their Providence And unless they had come to this point

They could not participate in the reconciliation that will follow if they had not come to this point in chapter 42 to say we are truly guilty no more

Rationalizing no more ignoring no more avoiding. I'm owning the evil of it I'm saying it's worthy of death unless they had got to that point

Joseph would have never moved them toward reconciliation Unless we get to the point where we can own and confess our sin a right and have an accurate dealing with God There can be no movement toward reconciliation

We cannot be made right with God When we're justifying and excusing the sin the evil within our crooked lives

For Joseph to hear this confession For Joseph to be moved

By this confession of guilt to hear them say we did this to our brother with the sense of remorse in their voices

That none of the other Egyptians could understand but Joseph he's so totally overcome

He has to abruptly come up from off his his second chariot or golden throne or whatever

He was on he has to hide himself and weep. He comes back with red puffy eyes

Egyptians tended to wear the black eyeliner, right? So he probably had like a Like a grieving teenager.

He probably had an eyeshadow running all down his cheeks and he returned to them again and he talks with them notice

It began with him speaking roughly to them. Now he talks with them

Reconciliation is already beginning to creep forward In this family

And he took Simeon from them and he bound him before their eyes and I can't think of that as something violent and aggressive

If it was meant to be that way, I don't think we would read that he actually did it Remember we're going to read that he gives commands.

Let their sacks be filled with grain Let them have their silver restored. He gives orders and men go do it when it comes to this he himself does it

And I don't think it's because he rolled up his sleeves and said I've been waiting 20 years for this moment I Think he's been so disarmed in his wrath

By hearing the confession of that guilt that even when he comes to to move this plan forward.

He very tenderly binds Simeon What a contrast between the way they bound him

When against his cries in his confusion they thrust him into the arms of the Midianites to be dragged away forever

Joseph is doing everything So that his brothers would need to take responsibility to come and retrieve

Simeon Have these men really changed? Will they just let another brother die in the pit or will they actually do what is necessary to rescue him?

Have these men actually changed will will their compassion and desire for Simeon?

Over rule their their anxiety and their fearfulness and their guilt So Joseph verse 25 he commands for their sacks to be filled with grain

Every man's money to be restored to the sack This is setting us up to move into chapter 43 and to give them provisions for their journey.

This is what he did for them So they loaded their donkeys with the grain and departed from there

But as one of them opened you'll wonder whatever happened to those camels There was a whole fleet of camels that seemed to move from Abraham to Isaac and Jacob but here they were riding donkeys

Maybe that's emblematic of just how severe the famine was. I don't know Maybe those donkeys had to be sold time to sell the old

Corvette and hop in the Camry, you know would be the equivalent perhaps They loaded their donkeys with the grain and departed from there

But as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey feet at the encampment He saw his money and there it was in the mouth of his sack

And he said to his brothers my money has been restored there It is my sack and all of their hearts failed them.

They were all afraid saying to one other What is this that God has done to us? So Joseph orders his brother's bags to be filled with grain.

That was the whole reason they came to buy grain from Egypt But in order to continue his plan, he also orders that their money be restored to the sack.

All their silver is hidden Back in their grain sacks This is going a little too far but to paraphrase

Matthew 5 First be reconciled to your brother then bring your gift We're not done here yet One of them we don't know who finds the silver

Maybe maybe the canvas tears on the side and some grain seeds spill out and all of a sudden he notices something shiny

What's what is this? Maybe they drop it on a rock and they hear a loud clang and they're like, what kind of grain is this?

However, they find it When he announces it we read their hearts fail them

We read what we'll see next week in verse 35 when they get home and they all empty their sacks They realize this was true of all of them all of their hearts fail them

Again, remember Joseph is now testing their resolve to save their brother He's causing them to reenact what he had to experience they will need to go back and report this to Joseph to Jacob and they will need to undertake to rescue their brother or Otherwise abandon him to a fate of death essentially what they did to Joseph But he problematizes it

It's gonna make it a little bit harder Easy enough to say dad.

We're gonna go play some football with Ben. I'll be back before you know it then book down to Egypt Sorry dad had to do it.

It's the only way to get Simeon back that would have been easy enough But by putting silver by putting their money back now they'd have to come back as the accused spies also now accused thieves

Whoa, how'd you get that money back? Why are you coming back with money? You stole you come into my land as spies and you steal

You steal our grain you take your money back So now they have every reason not to want to go back to Egypt They already did not want to go back, but they were gonna do it because they have changed.

Well, have they really changed? Now more than ever they're being tempted to abandon their brother to the pit

But already we see signs of change in their lives.

God's grace hasn't just been working in Joseph It's been working in this family as well Notice when one of them found the money in his sack they all

Were afraid They didn't say we're marching you back. We're not going down for this.

You're on your own man. They don't do that. They're all afraid They don't even know at that point in time that they all have the same money returned in their bags

They they could have easily just said that's on you. We'll have nothing to do with you. You're on your own from here on out They could have used that to get cred under a zap not

Pena look Yeah, one of our brothers was a thief. See how honest we are. We told you we're honest men There's unity here solidarity

Well, no matter what brother. We don't honestly you keep saying you didn't take it. We don't really know How your money got back in your sack.

I hope you're not that foolish But if you're going down we're gonna go down with you we're not gonna let anything happen to you

And They begin to attribute also God's hand. What is this that God has done to us? They've been silent about God this whole exchange

Joseph's been the one that's been talking about God. They finally in around the the donkey feed.

They finally can say what is God doing? Why would God allow this? So they're not blaming their brother.

In Fact their guilty conscience is in joining them with their brother. What is God doing to us?

They're unified in their guilt they're unified in their need Joseph so wise he put silver back in their sacks 20 years ago.

It was for silver that they said our brother's life is meaningless. This bag of money means more to us than him the temptation again

Does this money mean more than the life of your brother? Joseph's not willing of course that their household should starve and they don't realize this is actually part of the blessing and mercy of Joseph Not only does he not want their households to starve.

He doesn't even want them to take a dip in their bank accounts You have your money back. I don't your money's no good here your your family.

You don't realize it yet despite the trauma despite the agony of Looking his grown brothers in the eyes and and vividly recollecting all that they had done to him

He does not react to to them with seething vengeance

He doesn't poison their grain or hamstring their donkeys He doesn't leave them in the prison to rot.

He doesn't torture them What does he do? He gives them provisions for their journey.

Here's grain and here's more than grain Yeah, here's an espresso maker, you know when you get to the campsite

Here's some these are the best cookies in all of Egypt we used to have a baker He lost his head the new

Baker's been great. Let me tell you all about him He gives them provisions for their journey.

This is the opposite of vengeance. This is blessing. Here is the

Lord of the land Who is not yet reconciled to his enemies and yet though he is not reconciled to his enemies.

He is loving them He is blessing them He is benefiting them Does that sound familiar to you as a

Christian Though they have not yet been reconciled. They don't even recognize him all they feel is their guilt and Yet the one that they need to be reconciled to is just blessing them

The one that ought to smite them in revenge is actually blessing them for their journey He's concerned about how difficult the way may be.

He wants to make sure they have more than enough for their households and themselves And when they call this out in the next chapter as we'll see in several weeks

Joseph connects this blessing to God's fatherly care God has blessed you

God your God has provided this for you And we see Joseph doing what is perhaps the most challenging instruction that's ever been given to a

Christian in Luke chapter 6 when the Lord said Love your enemies

Something radically challenging about that I'd I'd venture to say it's the most difficult command the

Lord ever gave his people Love your enemies and do good. Why why why should you love someone who's persecuting you afflicting you someone who's wronged you?

Who spitefully cruelly harshly? Why should you love them love them? They're lucky if you don't take revenge on them that you are loving them.

You're not taking revenge. Why would I actually do good to them? Jesus says because when you do that, you're like your father on high

That's how God is every day to the people that he has made

Who cruelly? Abuse and misuse all his good gifts and fatherly care who are rebellious hour after hour who love their sins and hate his laws and yet he does good to them and When you love your enemies you are sons of the

Most High For he is kind to the unthankful and the evil therefore be merciful

Just as your father also is Merciful Joseph does what?

Christians only can ever hope to do he does it He blesses those who pursued him to death

Money is not what he's seeking They can have it back. He doesn't want silver

He doesn't want good deeds He wants honest repentance They're terrified at the implication of this silver.

They don't recognize that this kindness is designed to bring them to repentance as Always God's kindness

God's mercy is designed to bring us to repentance To be honest with ourselves before him

To give an honest account of our standing before him to own the guilt

Not maneuver around it, but to own it And to accept his grace

But for now, we leave them all they can do is stutter.

What is God doing? What has God done? Why has God allowed this?

At last they're confessing God Though in a terrified way They are rightly understanding that God is at work in their midst at work in their

Providence Illuminating their evil act their conscience is now sprung to life

And that takes us really to the application this morning, which is the conscience Can't recall that we've ever spent much time talking about the conscience.

I spent way too much time Reading books and articles about conscience this week, and I hope

I'm not too scattered in what I recollect from that it's a fascinating Fascinating study in the

Bible and in church history in in the Puritans Especially how they understood and used and appealed to the conscience

J. Packer a wonderful set of Essays that were published after yearly conferences began in the late 60s in England J.

Packer Martin Lloyd -Jones several of the notable English Evangelicals would hold these yearly conferences and they they would talk about the

Puritans and sort of recover that heritage the reformed heritage there in England and they were trying to to influence and resource the the

English Evangelicals the English non -conformist to connect to their past We take it for granted as if there had never been a dip or a neglect of that rich soil of the past of the

Reformation the Puritans But in the 50s and 60s and 70s in America and in England, it was almost unknown

Lloyd -Jones was so unique because he would walk to an obscure little library and he would he would rent out these

Puritan books that nobody wanted. These are grandfather Stewart's books get rid of these old musty nasty books

They wanted the things that were hot off the press and some man made it his life's mission To create this library where he preserved all these these

Puritan works from the 16 and 1700s So Lloyd -Jones would go there and it was just a treasury for him.

Well, the church needs this You know, these guys are Giants. We are infants. What is going on?

so they they hosted these conferences to try to reintroduce the value and the insight of these fathers of the faith and Packer in one of these conferences

Wrote a tremendous article about the Puritan conscience And this is how he begins to define conscience in this article

All Puritan theologians from Perkins, that's William Perkins sort of one of the godfathers of the

English Puritans They are all agreed in conceiving of conscience as a as a rational faculty so an aspect of the the human being an aspect of our

Inner dynamic our inner self the rational faculty a power of moral self -knowledge and judgment

Dealing with questions of right and wrong of of duty and desert and dealing with them authoritatively conscience to them signified a man's knowledge of himself as standing in God's presence subject to God's Word and exposed to the judgment of God's law

So conscience, let me just it's a great definition conscience Signified a man's knowledge of himself.

It's a rational faculty. It's how I understand myself how I examine myself as standing in God's presence

Subject to God's Word and Exposed to the judgment to the accusation of God's law.

That's the conscience Get the echo of Romans 2 14 and 15 there the conscience either accusing or excusing them you get that in that definition and yet if a believer justified and accepted through divine grace the

Conscience became the court the the forum not not the law court But the forum like the meeting place in which

God's justifying sentence was spoken to them So so now the conscience rather than saying guilty says justified to the believer

Conscience therefore became the soil in which alone faith hope

Peace and joy could grow Let me repeat that conscience was the soil in which alone faith hope peace and joy

Could grow brothers and sisters, are you lacking faith? Hope peace and joy this morning.

It might have something to do with your conscience before God vital

Christianity Christianity that's alive Was rooted directly in the exercise of conscience under the searching address of God's Powerful word and the illumination of his

Holy Spirit This is what the Reformers held and this is what the Puritans held, too So the conscience again this the self -knowledge our understanding of ourselves as in the presence of God subject to the

Word of God Exposed to the law of God right found guilty by the law of God But then through faith in Christ the conscience becomes the meeting place of all that justification means to us and therefore the soil of true faith justification by faith and true, hope

Hope that God has begun a work that he will continue in true. Peace peace between God and man There's there therefore now no condemnation and joy

My joy I give to you that your joy may be complete This is what it means in part for man to image

God Man as an image bearer of God Has a conscience

Therefore every human being has a conscience by virtue of the fact that they were made in the image of God Now that image has been corrupted by our sin by the fall we come into this world

Distorting that image of God through sin and Yet where that corrosion where that distance between the image of God's perfections and the distortions

We we introduce that distance that gap is where conscience begins to come to life.

I Should not have said that I should not have acted that way. I should not have done that Now we all know by Scripture and by experience what it's like to repress to Smother that gap that alarm that something's not right here.

I feel bad about this I'm guilty about this and we learn very quickly in life how to silence the cries of conscience how to Maneuver past the guilt of our conscience and so Romans 1 talks about how we repress through unrighteousness that that voice

That that charge that God has made us with and therefore that conscience even in someone who's never heard the claims of Christ Never heard

God's Word that conscience is there because as image bearers We have the moral law of God written on our hearts and that moral law though We repress it and distance ourselves and avoid it

There's times that we can't help but feel the guilt of it the intensity of it.

The Puritans gave primacy to conscience in The way that they preached in the way that they understood preaching in the way that they encountered

God's Word They understood God's Word is Uniquely given to man that it might awaken and enliven and by the

Spirit Illuminate their conscience so that the conscient may help them examine themselves are rightly

And also open up their affections and so move their will Toward the free grace that can be found in Christ Helping them to avoid the terrors of the law if the conscience isn't awoken to that then you're preaching to dead bones

Dry bones in a desert they understood that They understood that it involved the Spirit of God.

They did not preach. Please hear me. They did not preach to the will of man as An Arminian might for those who have ears to hear

Because the will of man is dead God doesn't begin to regenerate through the will the will is actually sort of the caboose in that train

They addressed uniquely the conscience because the conscience is what the spirit begins to illuminate

And when the spirit illuminates the conscience through the ministry of the Word that conscience begins to make an impact on the affections the emotions of dread of horror the affection of hope and the beauty and glory of Jesus and the gospel and it's those

Affections enlivened by the conscience that move the will yes, I will come forth in repentance.

Yes I will commit my life to my Savior So we don't preach to the will we following the

Puritans preach to the conscience the same Luther Who said it is neither right nor safe to go against conscience at the

Diet of Worms the famous quote also said as A believer you should not believe your conscience or your feelings more than the word which the

Lord who receives sinners is preaching to you So because our consciences can distort and repress and twist the reality of ourselves and the reality of our

Situation there's ways in which we cannot trust the conscience JC Rahel says a conscience has never saved the man.

In fact conscience has led many men astray You don't trust your conscience more than the

Word of God But neither do you ignore your conscience because the spirit Illuminates and works with the conscience of a human being as an image bearer of God No wonder that Paul could say in 2nd

Corinthians 4 speaking of his ministry as an apostle along with his his Co -laborers we have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty not walking in craftiness like not scheming

Not handling the Word of God deceitfully but by manifestation of the truth

Commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God that is short in short

It's how Paul understood the ministry of the Word of Truth the ministry of the

Word of Truth is Manifesting the truth of God and if it's illuminated and blessed by the

Spirit of God it impacts someone's conscience It commends the fact that this is true in the sight of God.

They say there's no escaping this. This is true and Therefore they can say like Reuben and his brothers.

We are all truly guilty If this is true We are guilty if this is true

There is no other name under heaven by which men might be saved The ministry of the

Word is always appealing to the conscience We can't coerce these things the church has zero leverage

To coerce a response to the Word of God go to the graveyard and coerce a response to God's Word What we do is we appeal to the conscience and we pray that God would bless it by his spirit

And that God would so move in the conscience that the reality of how they understand themselves would align with how

God sees them and They would drop to their knees in repentance and say guilty

Herman Bovenc the great Dutch theologian says the church has no means of coercion Can't coerce zombies

You have to be made alive by the Spirit of God born again It can only bear witness

And it can only manifest the truth of God's Word it can only bear witness and make this witness suitable to man's conscience

Right bear witness and make that witness suitable aimed at impactful to man's conscience

Perhaps the greatest expression of this is John Bunyan's Holy War You thought I was gonna say Pilgrim's Progress Holy War, which is a sadly neglected work another

Allegory that Bunyan wrote later on after Pilgrim's Progress, which is just tremendous Years ago,

Joshua Harris introduced it to me and I don't think we ever made it quite through brother but we did enough of it and I spent some time studying it and did did a few papers on it and I love how

John Bunyan describes the conscience and you you understand how he views the conscience as Central to man's response to the

Word of God in the allegory You have the town of Mansoul and Mansoul was made by the king

To be this goodly city on a hill reflecting his goodly care his righteousness his justice everything that is true of his glory and yet this this town of Mansoul is deceived by Diabolus devil and Leads this rebellion against the king and so the king to respond to this rebellion sends his son

Prince Emmanuel to retake the city and this allegory becomes more and more rich as As the son the

Prince Emmanuel Jesus uses the word and conviction and the conscience and all these things to recapture the city of Mansoul and so you get a picture not only of the the plight of man and his fall and even the redemption of man, but also

What sanctification looks like through the allegory? well, I have to restrain myself here because there's so much

I'd love to say about it, but Conscience is mr. Recorder Bunyan's great with names. Mr.

Recorder Think of a town clerk that's always making records So Bunyan says in Mansoul, there's one.

Mr. Recorder. This is the conscience Under sin and under grace we see these differences between the conscience

So remember first Mansoul's created uprightly. This is Bunyan. Mr. Recorder was a man well read in the laws of his king

That's how Adam was created He implicitly intuitively understood what it would mean to walk by God's law as it was written in his heart

There was no confusion. No doubt Mr. Recorder the conscience was perfectly aligned.

Mr Recorder was a man well read in the laws of his king and also a man of courage and faithfulness To speak truth at every occasion and he had a tongue as bravely hung as he had a head filled with judgment now that's under creation original glory now the fall

He was much degenerated from his former king, but he would now and then think upon should

I that's the king and he would have Dread of his law and he would speak with a voice as great as the devil when the lion roars

And he had terrible fits that would make the whole town of Mansoul shake with his voice His words were like rattling thunder like a banging drum

So that's under sin Now when he hears that law It's not this

Faithful inspiration rise to courage Not a natural response because he's an image bearer, but now it's terror dread

You see that big blue drum off the side it's like you bang that thing around That's after the fall you look at it when you're in the lunch line in due time in redemption

Emmanuel comes the king's son and listen to how he breaks through listen to how bunion is understanding the role of the conscience in a man's conversion and In due time the king's son broke through ear gate sent these captains

Boer energies the sons of thunder conviction judgment To take possession of mr.

Recorder's house an event with event which shattered the old gentleman drove him almost to despair So here's the conscience now and and the claims of the gospel are thundering in Boer energies

All right sons of thunder and here comes conviction and here comes the dread of God's judgment, and he's almost despairing

I can't survive this. What will I do? But in due course Emmanuel made him the messenger of a large and general pardon

And I'm actually not gonna smite this city I'm going to forgive it. I'm going to redeem it and Mr.

Recorder conscience you get to bear that good news Here's the pardon now you get to preach it to the town you get to speak it to man's soul

So now the conscience that had a dreadful condemnation is the deliverer of the gospel the deliverer of the good news of grace

Not only was he a messenger He was then put into an office as preacher to reinforce the king's laws and all that he had learned from the

Lord's secretary the Holy Spirit So now the conscience is illuminated and led by the

Spirit becomes a preacher in man's soul your conscience

Moved by the Spirit of God to be a preacher to your soul What a way to think about conscience

This is the Puritan emphasis on the role of conscience a study

Packer Summarizing a study of Puritan sermons will show that their constant concern in all of their very detailed detection of sin

Was only ever to lead their hearers into the life of faith and good conscience

Which they said was the most joyous life any man can know in this world

Puritans get a bad rap as Straining at gnats and trying to find 30 points on every known sin and you have an encyclopedic compendium of man's depravity

That's what the Puritans are known for. But why did they go to such lengths to do that? well Not only because everyone was a

Christian in the 17th century and they knew that probably half of the English people in their congregations weren't

They could see it Though we probably wouldn't detect it if we went back to the unregenerate in the 17th century.

You probably thought these are super Christians That's how far we've fallen but the reason they did that was to lead their hearers into a life of faith and a

Keeping of good conscience before God. Why why does that matter? Because this is the most joyous life that you can know in this world

Calvin says somewhere that Man's distortion of his image in terms of defiling his conscience is a way of living hell in this life but defiled conscience is is life in hell a

Good conscience toward God and man is the most joyous life you can experience in this world.

Do we keep our conscience clear? It's very hard to understand how the

Old Testament wants to depict conscience If you were to do a word search for conscience among various English translations

You'll find a few hits in the Old Testament, but those are almost always translators decisions There's no one

Hebrew word that we just across the board translate conscience It's usually at times for certain reasons translating man's heart

But you can't equate the heart with conscience Because the heart is always a lot more than that and sometimes conscience is quite separate from matters of the heart but I think back to Genesis 20 and How a

B Malik said When the Lord came to his a dream and said you are a dead man and he says in the integrity of my heart

I've not touched her. I've done no wrong to her and I think that's a right place where you can translate.

I've got a clean conscience Do we have a clean conscience? We have integrity

Have we been loyal to what God has shown us? Have we submitted to the preacher in our soul?

Can we be like Hezekiah in Isaiah 38 when the

Lord said? Get your house in order you're going to die, which is something the

Lord may not reveal To any one of us, but it's something we all know is coming And what is

Hezekiah do he lays down and he stares at the wall And he says Lord don't forget that I've I've walked uprightly and I've been loyal to you and I've loved you and I've served you with the integrity of my heart

In other words, he says I've kept my conscience clean before you don't forget that and he weeps bitterly

But that must have been a comfort to him It's bitter to face affliction.

It's bitter to face death How infinitely bitter it is when your conscience is not clean.

I came across I don't know where to include this I'm just gonna say it now because it's so fascinating to me. I Don't think so The conscience fund is actually a legitimate fund that's maintained by the

US Department of Treasury And it was established in 1811 by a former quartermaster for the

Union Army during the Civil War and He wrote a letter to the treasurer at the time

Francis Spinner with the $1 ,500 check for previously Misappropriated funds and this is what he wrote to the treasurer

Suppose we call this a contribution to the conscience fund In other words, I don't feel good about how this $1 ,500 was

Found and so I don't want anything to do with it. I'm returning it to the Treasury I don't know where you're gonna put it how you're gonna account for it.

So let's just say it's part of the conscience fund. Well Spinner said, okay, let's actually make a conscience fund and then they advertised it and they said, you know

You've got something on your conscience that you need to make make right with the US government You know something on your tax returns or whatnot you can you can donate that send it anonymously do what you will you can send

It to the US Treasury. So from time to time there'd be newspaper articles about what was happening with this conscience fund one article from 1844 said a nine -cent donation was made by a person from Massachusetts who had reused a three -cent postage stamp

I don't know that there's a soul in Massachusetts that has that level of conscience today in 1908 another newspaper article a person from Jersey City sent $40 ,000 in 1908 money.

This is big bucks Person in Jersey City sent $40 ,000 in several installments for $8 ,000.

He had previously stole Something about that number that I recognize don't you

I'm not very good at math But if you have 8 ,000 that stolen and you take 8 times 4 you have 32

So 32 plus the original 8 is 40 $40 ,000 Someone must have been hearing about Zacchaeus in Luke 19

See Lord if I've taken anything I restore fourfold the power of conscience

There's an answer of good conscience but as we see with these brothers There's also an answer of bad conscience and the answer of bad conscience must come before there can ever be an answer of good conscience

You don't get a clean conscience unless your conscience has been cleansed And that takes us to the gospel and the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ time does not blot out sin

It's been 20 years. You think these brothers would have just forgotten about it all. It's more vivid than it ever was

It's more powerful than it ever was they feel more guilt than they've ever felt in their lives Time does not erase guilt time does not cleanse conscience

In fact time would only seem to deaden the conscience calcify the affections

Become more and more estranged from the call and the light of God Joseph's brothers lived with a terrible secret for over 20 years.

They never spoke about it Perhaps it never was shared even among them. It was just something they didn't want to go down didn't want to recall to memory

Certainly their father never would have heard a word about it But it was gnawing at them

When the word Egypt came up at the very beginning of the chapter they couldn't help but look around nervously

It was gnawing at them any mention of Joseph any mention of Egypt any mention of pit any mention of robe

It must have just triggered them What kind of impact does that gnawing guilt make on a person's life?

There was an article from 2016 in the Guardian about a court case in Germany of a 94 year old man

Who was being tried for his role as a guard at Auschwitz and it made the news because he spoke out 12 days into the trial.

He he had been silent for 12 days. He finally spoke out. His name is Reinhold Hanning He's a SS guard at Auschwitz And he says

I deeply regret Having been part of an organization responsible for the deaths of so many innocent people destruction of countless families

This is the Guardian article in his statement Hanning insisted He was initially unaware of what kind of place he'd been transferred to but it didn't take long for him to realize

What was occurring mass killings? He said people were being shot gassed burned all

I could see were corpses being moved around and around off -site I noticed the smell of burning. I noticed corpses were always being burned

He said of course it didn't take long for me to realize that the trains that came crammed full of people into Auschwitz always left empty

Hanning stands accused of playing a part in the killing of at least 170 ,000 people between January 1943 and June 1944.

This is what stood out to me. Hanning said he had never Spoken about his role at the concentration camp to his wife his children or his grandchildren

No one in my family knew I was at Auschwitz. He said what kind of impact does that have on a person's life?

It must have been a thief of every joy every smile of his grandchild must have been something that tormented him

I don't deserve this Anything that went wrong in his day. He must have said I'm finally getting what's coming to me.

How do you operate? How do you live under that kind of guilt? There's no peace

Even 94 years doesn't cleanse it There's no peace not just meaning rest

But as we say that word Shalom it it means being whole you cannot be made whole

Carrying around that kind of guilt your whole life your personality your behavior your self -understanding

Every relationship in your life every prospect every failure. All of it is tied in with this guilt

Everything yourself the world around you your relationships your work your God Everything is now colored by this filter of guilt

When we apply this to these brothers in Genesis 42 we can we can say even after 20 years these brothers need

To be liberated from the bondage of guilt Their their conscience is day after day being defiled

Paul says in Titus 1 15 to the pure all things are pure but to those that are defiled and unbelieving nothing's pure Even their mind even their conscience is defiled

When You persist in that defilement when you keep just running over the tracks of conscience

Just guarding over rushing over it. You keep doing that. Eventually they wear down And it's not just that you've defiled your conscience.

It goes on to what Paul says in 1st Timothy 4. You've now seared it You've desensitized it

He uses the the imagery of a hot iron speaking lies and hypocrisy He says of a false teachers having their conscience seared with a hot iron.

They don't feel anymore Some of you maybe have animals that you've had to brand you take that searing

Iron out of the fire and you press it into the flesh and you watch that flesh turn white and smoke

And that's all scar tissue dead tissue There's no sense in there anymore doesn't even hurt anymore that's how desensitized it is

This is a dreadful state For any person to be and believer or not no conviction of sin nothing, but excuses and rationalizations self -justifying self -flattery

Thomas Brooks the Puritan said it's better to have a sore conscience than a seared conscience Better to be wounded by the

Spirit of God better to bear with the shame Than to run the risk of searing desensitizing being unmoved so brothers and sisters in summary, we've seen you can have a weak conscience that That's so distorted.

It feels bad for things that God says you shouldn't feel bad about And it doesn't feel bad about things that God says you should feel bad about you can have a weak conscience

You can have a defiled conscience that loses the ability to discern right and wrong It just keeps going over the tracks that the sermons of that inward preacher

You can have a seared conscience. It's completely desensitized. No longer feels bad. No longer feels guilt.

No longer feels anything Was it the the Parkland school shooter? That before he was arrested before they understood who they were looking for He went to I think it was just a

McDonald's and he was just eating with the friend Seared people all mental health issues seared conscience seared conscience weak defiled seared, but praise

God You can also have a redeemed conscience And that's where we're going in Genesis 42 and 43.

You can have a redeemed conscience That is being renewed again so that it can be subject to God's Word Because as it's been exposed to the judgment of God, it's come to that that all -important

Self -acknowledgement. I am truly guilty and when you can say I am truly guilty

You can then receive that free grace that cleanses a conscience from dead works

And that is how you can have the answer of a good conscience before God There is no other way time will not do it a change in your circumstances will not do it

No heap of good deeds will do it You cannot cleanse your conscience unless God provides another to cleanse it for you one who is infinitely pure and infinitely willing and in the

Church of God We ought to reflect that embrace of forgiveness and of mercy when people confess when people

Unload the guilt the burdens of their conscience before us We become as it were little mirrors of God's embracing forgiveness

Every time you go up to someone who's who's confessed and you give them a hug You say you are loved of God praying for you know that God forgives you and he loves you

Know that what was drought is now becoming vitality in your life. And when you do that You are a reflection of the forgiveness of God your father and the growing

Christian When they experience God's forgiveness and then they see it reflected in the forgiveness of the church

That old dead Calcified conscience is beginning to stir and cast off its its ropes and it's beginning to become more and more sensitive to God's Word and God's commands and that's how you can get someone who

Reuses a stamp that wasn't inked out and then mails nine cents to the treasurer

That's how you get there. This is vital to how we understand

How we experience how we grow in grace if you Ignore your conscience if you neglect your conscience if you don't

Run to the cross and plead the free and flowing blood of Jesus upon your dirty conscience

You will not experience grace. You will not grow in grace. This is the way we grow in grace

This is what the ministry of the Horde is designed to bring us to do So notice we've been observing the work that God is doing in and through Joseph for so many weeks now

Now we finally begin to observe the work that God is doing in and through his brothers It is a work that begins in the conscience.

Let me ask the question. What work is God doing in your conscience? What work is he doing in your conscience?

Can you get to a place this morning where you say why have you allowed this Lord? Why have you brought me to this place

Lord? Keep a close eye a close watch a tender heart to your conscience

The English poet John Byram said think and be careful what thou art within Self -examination

But there is sin in the desire sin. Let me restart it This is so beautiful think and be careful what thou art within for there is sin in the desire of sin

Think and be thankful in a different case For there is grace in the desire of grace if you're desiring grace take a close look at Genesis 42

Joseph knows all their evil deeds and they just do not know who he is We're reminded of Jesus our

Lord Sees who we are before long before we ever see who he is sees all of our evil deeds that we did against him

Long before we understand who he is and what he's done for us You are led to respond to this

Lord Just the way these brothers did though they did not think they were being heard you must know that you're being heard

Acknowledging your sin and your guilt Dealing honestly with God so that your conscience can be cleansed from dead works so that you can be cleansed through that baptismal death and resurrection of Jesus and have what first Peter 321 says is the result a good conscience to God Let's pray

Father thank you for your spirits illumination. I pray he would illumine and shine brightly this morning

So move and impact us the the preacher of the conscience to our souls

Lord Let him roar mightily that we might be moved to have consciences cleansed by the blood of our loving

Savior That we might have the answer of a good conscience toward God through his death and resurrection

There's anyone unbelieving anyone lingering anyone hiding May you so move and bless the ministry of your word this morning.