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Bro. Bill Nichols
It was one of the versions of the parable of the sowers, and it's where he is explaining to his disciples what the meaning of the different kinds of sows are, and he's talking about the thorns. They hear the word, but the cares of the word, the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness and the lust enter in and choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.
This morning, we're going to focus on Genesis 44 and 45, but I thought in keeping with the spirit of the season, I would list some things to be thankful for. This is Thanksgiving, right? Everybody have a good Thanksgiving?
Everybody eat too much? Maybe that's one of the things we should be thankful for, antacid tablets. Well, I listed, first of all, the election, and I'm not talking about the presidential election, although I'm thankful for that, but there's a far more important election that we should be thankful for, and that is for election into the family of God.
We should be thankful for substitutional atonement. We are incapable of paying for our sins, but Jesus is, and he did. We should be thankful for double imputation, our sins imputed to the account of Jesus, and he paid the price for them, and Jesus' righteousness imputed to us.
We should be thankful for a living God, a Holy Spirit to guide us into a closer walk with the Lord. Those are things that we should really be thankful for. We wind up thanking God too much for the big turkey, and the turkey dressing, and the fact that we slept all Thanksgiving afternoon, all of those things, but these are the things we really should be thankful for.
Now, I promise you I'm going to get to Genesis today, but we're going to take a quick walk with two of the disciples from Jerusalem to Emmaus, a town about 7 1⁄2 miles away. I want to do that to kind of bring into focus the kinds of things that we need to know, or some of the things we need to know, and also where we will find those things.
This is Luke 24, and I'm going to pick it up at verse 13. Peter and John have already run to the tomb and seen that Jesus is not there. The women went earlier and saw that Jesus was not there, and the angel spoke to them and told them that he was alive.
But these are two other disciples, one we get his name and the other one we want, and they're walking from Jerusalem to Emmaus. It says it's about three score furlongs. Did I tell you where this is? 2413?
Three score furlongs, about 7 1⁄2 miles. They talked together of these things which had happened, and it came to pass that while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near. But their eyes were holed that they should not know him, and he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that you have one to another as you walk and are sad?
And one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered and said unto them, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days? And he said unto them, What things?
And they said unto him concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty indeed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priest and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and have crucified him.
But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel, the Messiah. And besides all this, today is the third day since those things were done. Yea, and certain women of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre, and when they found not his body, they came, saying they had seen a vision of angels, which said that he was alive.
And certain of them which were with us went to the sepulchre and found it even so as the women had said, but him they said they saw not. Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.
You couldn't quite get away with that now, could you? That is one sentence full of politically incorrect statements. Fools, slow of heart, this statement requires a little bit closer look. Fools means not understanding, unwise, or foolish.
Slow is stupid, slow to apprehend or believe. The heart is the center and seat of spiritual life, of the soul or the mind as it is the fountain and seat of thoughts and passions and desires, appetites, affections, purposes, and endeavors.
It is the seat and center of spiritual life. It is the center and seat of understanding, the faculty and seat of intelligence. It is the seat of will and character. It is the seat of the soul so far as it is affected and stirred in a bad or good way or of the soul as the seat of sensibilities, affections, emotions, desires, appetites, and passions.
And then to believe, to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, to place confidence in the thing to be believed. So what are these guys? The guys walking on the road to Emmaus. They are unwise men if you want to be generous, fools if you don't.
There are fools whose hearts are slow to believe, but things are soon going to change. Then he said to them, O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory.
I just had a whoops moment. One of the things that I'm going to mention later is right there just for me. Well that's always going to be the case, but here's what really is the fact. Even though the scripture was available to them and even though they studied it and read it, they studied it and read it like they would study and read a physics book or a history book.
Well, they believed. These guys did believe, but what had not happened to them is the scripture had not been opened to them. Well, it's like the father said, I believe, help thy mind unbelieve. Now they didn't have to say that about Jesus' belief.
When Peter was walking on the water for just a few minutes, he had Jesus' belief and then he had his own. And when he had Jesus' belief, he walked on water and when he had his, he sunk. And we can get in and out, but in any case, let's go on.
Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory. And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto himself in all scriptures things concerning himself. So what was the Old Testament all written about?
Him. Him. And they drew nigh unto the village where they went, and he made as though he would have gone further, but they constrained him, saying, Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent.
And he went in to tarry with them, and he came to pass, as he said it meet with them. He took bread and blessed them. And by the way, that's the role of the homeowner. That's not the role of the guest.
It is not the role of the guest to take the bread and break it and bless it. But he did, and gave it to them, and their eyes were opened, and they knew him, and he vanished from their sight. And they said one to another, Did not our hearts burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?
They had these scriptures. They probably had memorized them, but they weren't open to them. They weren't open to them until now. And so what's the first thing they do? They rose up the same hour. They had just walked seven and a half miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus.
They turned right around within the hour, returned to Jerusalem, walked back, and they walked back in the dark. They walked back after whatever time from when it was late in the day, and they decided to, Jesus decided to tarry with them, and then have their meal, and they recognize him, and he disappeared.
They headed back right away. So they walked back in the dark. Why would they do that? Their souls were on fire. Their hearts were burning within them, because the scripture had been open to them. And they found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.
So they also had some information, and they told, this is the two disciples, they told what things were done in the way, and how it was known of them in the breaking of the bread. There's a lot we could do, we could talk about why they didn't recognize him, but if we did, we couldn't get to Genesis.
Now here's what I like to point out. The disciples on the road were slow of heart to believe. Then Jesus came, and after Jesus opened the scriptures to them, they described their hearts as burning within them, so much so that they immediately went back to Jerusalem to share with the other disciples.
And one thing I think we can all ask ourselves, and I can certainly ask myself is, does my heart burn within me with that same fervor? If it doesn't, maybe there's something wrong with the way you're reading.
Maybe there's something wrong with the way you're studying. If when you read, you don't want to share it. A couple of more things about the scripture. I went to this thing to start with because I wanted to kind of think about what we should be looking for as we go through this passage in Genesis.
He said it beginning with Moses, that's Genesis. In John 5, verse 39, it says, Search the scripture, Jesus says, search the scripture, for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me.
He's talking about the Old Testament because when Jesus was alive, there was no New Testament. He was the New Testament, but there was no written testament. So what do I find when I search the scriptures?
If my heart burns within me because the Holy Spirit has opened the scripture to me, I will see Jesus revealed on every page. I think as we go through this morning, we're going to see Jesus revealed on every page.
Something about Jesus on every page. Then in Acts 17, 11, these were more noble than those in Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily whether those things were so.
So you need to ask yourself, and I'm going to ask myself, do I study daily? Do I search daily or I just search on a Sunday morning? Well I do a better job now than I used to. Georgia gave me her dog to take care of, and my dog wakes me every morning before daylight.
This morning included. This morning was 5 .30, sometimes it's as late as 6. But I don't have to go to work until 10. And that gives me a lot of time. And it's quiet. And it is a good time. And I have spent more time.
This sounds like, I don't want this to sound like it's something great that I have done. It's just that this quiet time is a good time. So once in a while I sit down and when I get over my anger by being awakened at 5 o 'clock, I give the Lord a quick prayer of thanks for getting me up so I can focus on Him instead of me.
So we're going to begin our search this morning in Genesis 44. And in this passage we'll continue to look for Jesus as well as some of the great doctrine or themes of the Bible. I want to remind you of some of the themes that we will find in the Bible.
We talked about these last time. The depravity of men. We'll see that in this passage. Election. We'll see that in this passage. Salvation. The justification part. The sanctification part. And I didn't start glorification, but that was there, not in this passage, but what we just read.
Love. And not love like brotherly love or sexual love. But agape love. Love without merit. We'll see that. Substitutional atonement. We'll see that. These are the things that we can look for as we go through Genesis 44 and just kind of highlight when you see it.
Now Joseph's first test we dealt with last week in chapter 43. Benjamin, when they gathered together after a meal, was given five times as much as the other brothers. He should have had the least. Reuben should have had twice as much as everybody else, and the rest should have had equal portions.
But not Joseph. Joseph gave Benjamin five times as much. And the question is, the question he was testing is, was, were there any signs of resentment? Did the brothers show any resentment to Benjamin?
No, they just laughed and celebrated and had a good time. There was absolutely no signs of resentment. So they passed their first test. Now we're to 44. And he, that's Joseph, commanded the steward of the house saying, fill the man's sack with food as much as they can carry and put every man's money in his sack's mouth.
And again, as we said last week, justification is not something that can be earned. No matter how hard they tried, Joseph refused to take any money. They brought it. He sent it back. They brought twice as much the second time.
He sent all of it back. And now the stage is being set for the final test. Will the brothers defend Benjamin at the risk of their own lives? Joseph loves his brothers. And my question is, why does he love them?
What have they done to deserve Joseph's love? Not one thing. All they've done is threw him in a well to starve, drag him out and sold him into slavery, put animal blood on his jacket and told his father that he was dead.
They've not done one thing to deserve Joseph's love. So why do they have it? Because God put it in his heart to love them because they were one of his family. They were one of the elect. They did bad things.
We do too. Judah did a really bad thing. It was Judah's idea. Well maybe he wasn't as bad as the ones who were going to let him die in the well. But Judah's thing was, let's turn a quick buck and sell him to the slavers, send him to Egypt and let him live a life of slavery.
He who thinks he's going to rule the world, what could he know? But the question remains, how much do his brothers love Benjamin? Joseph loves his brothers, but does his brothers love Benjamin? That's what he's going to find out.
And put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth of the youngest and his corn money. And he did speak according to the word that Joseph had spoken. And as soon as it was morning, as soon as morning was light and the men were sent away, they in their ashes, and when they were gone out of the city and not yet far off, Joseph said to his steward, Up, follow after them.
And when thou overtakest them, say unto them, Wherefore have you rewarded evil for good? Is this not it, in which my Lord drinketh, and whereby indeed he divineth? Ye have done an evil thing in doing so.
So the steward heads off. And he overtook them, and he spake unto them these same words. And they said unto him, Wherefore saith my Lord these words? God forbid that the servant should do according to this thing.
Behold, the money which we found in our sack's mouth we brought again to thee out of the land of Canaan. How then should we steal out of the Lord's house silver and gold? They remind the steward that they had returned the money from the last trip.
And they suggested that that should be reason enough against this claim. But they didn't stop there. They continued, With whomsoever of thy servants it be found, both let him die, and we also will be my Lord's bondsmen.
So they agreed to this. They suggest this. If you find that cup in any of our possessions, go ahead and kill the one that has it, and we'll all be your slaves. Now considering what happened the last time with their money, I don't think I would have been quite so bold.
I think I would have been a little bit more cautious. But nevertheless, the steward said to them, Now let it be according to your words. He with whom it is found shall be my servant, and ye shall be blameless.
So he's accepting the proposal in a modified version. The thief will become a slave, that's not as bad as being killed, and the rest are set free. Now all the rest of them are in a position that when the money shows up, they're all going to be okay, except the one that took it.
Well that's putting a pretty big contrast, isn't it? I become a slave or I'm free. So the search begins. And they speedily took down every man his sack to the ground and opened every man his sack. And he searched, the steward searched, and began at the eldest and left off at the youngest.
And you might wonder how he knew. And you might wonder why the brothers didn't. I guess they were too concerned about the search. And the cup was found in Benjamin's sack. The money was not mentioned.
I guess the steward didn't care about the money. Then they rent their clothes and laden every man his ass and returned to the city. And Judah and his brother came to Joseph's house, for he was yet there.
And they fell before him on the ground. And Joseph said unto them, What deed is this that ye have done? What ye not that a man such as I can certainly divine? Don't you know that I know what you're doing?
And Judah said, What shall we say, my lord, and what shall we speak? Or how shall we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants. Both we and thy lord's servants, both we and he, and also he with which the cup is found.
I left out something. No, I didn't. We are the lord's servants. So they are agreeing now to be slaves. Both we and he also with whom the cup is found. So they're saying we'll be slaves too. What iniquity is he talking about?
It is not Benjamin stealing the cup. Benjamin didn't steal the cup. So what is it? When they threw Joseph into, sold Joseph into slavery. That's the iniquity. They knew what it was. Joseph knew what it was.
They just didn't know that this was Joseph. And he said, God forbid that I should do so. I'm not going to put you all in slavery. But the man in whose hand the cup is found, he shall be my servant. Ask for you, get you up and go in peace unto your father.
They don't want to do that. Then Judah came near unto him and said, O my lord, let thy servant, I pray, speak a word in my lord's ear, and let not thy anger burn against thy servant, for thou art even as Pharaoh.
My lord asked his servants, saying, Have ye a father or a brother? And we said, We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one, and his brother is dead. Well, I guess they thought he was dead.
And he alone is left of his mother, and his father loveth him. And thou saidst unto thy servants, Bring him down to me, that I might set my eyes on him. And we said unto my lord, The lad cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.
And thou saidst unto thy servants, Except your youngest brother come down with you, you shall see my face no more. And it came to pass, when we came up unto thy servant, my father, and we told him the words of my lord, and our father said, Go again and buy us a little food.
And we said, We cannot go down if our younger brother be with us, for we may not see the man's face, except our younger brother be with us. And thy servant, my father, said unto us, Ye know that my wife bear me two sons, and the one went out from me.
And I said, Surely he is torn to pieces. And I saw him not since. And if ye take him also from me, and mischief befall him, ye shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. Ne 'er therefore, when I come to thy servant, my father, and the lad be not with us, seeing that his life be bound up in the lad's life, it shall come to pass, when he seeth the lad is not with us, that he will die.
And thy servants will bring down the gray hair of thy servant, our father, with sorrow to the grave. All right, he has related to Joseph all the things that were said to Joseph, by Joseph, and Jacob, in the course of events between the first and second trip to Egypt.
And then he goes on to say, For thy servant, now he's talking about himself, when he says, Thy servant, I became surety for the lad unto my father, saying, If I bring him not to thee, then shall I bear thee blame to my father for ever.
And now he makes his proposal. Now therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad, a bondsman to my Lord, and let the lad go up with his brother. Judah offered to become the substitutional atonement for Benjamin.
Benjamin's sin, Judah was going to pay for. That's the imputation, yes, that's half of the imputation. Jesus is our surety. He is our substitutional atonement. He is capable of covering our sins, we are not.
And so he does. Jacob, not Jacob, Judah was capable of bearing the penalty for Benjamin. And then he goes on to say, For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad be not with me? Lest peradventure I see evil that shall come on my father.
And that's the end of 44, but 45 just keeps right on going. Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him. And he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren.
So why could Joseph not refrain himself any longer? Okay, that's, their love was more than he expected it to be. He is seeing, he is seeing some signs of a walk by them before the God. These were not the same men.
Now, they were the same men, but they're beginning to show some signs of a walk with God, yes. He misses his dad. Yeah, and when I first read that, and I got to the word he cried, I thought that it was physical tears.
I thought he broke down and cried. But I don't think that's what it is. He's going to cry in a minute, but he hasn't cried now. He just cried out, Cause every man to go out from here. He is getting ready to tell them who he is.
And the reason he's ready to tell them who he is, is he's seen some evidence of their walk. And in some, so in some degree, they pleased him. When were they part of the family? When were the brothers part of the family?
All their life, they were born into the family. When were we part of God's family? And for each of us, all of our lives also. When did you know that you were part of the family? When the Holy Spirit notified you?
When did, I don't know how to say this exactly. I don't want to say, when did God become favorably disposed toward you? When did he recognize, when did you show him some signs of walk? When you accepted Jesus, the very first thing you did, he elected you.
He told you were his, and you began your walk with him. Now, it may have been just a few steps, and it may have been halting, and it may have been misunderstood, and it may have been milk instead of meat, but it was a show of some signs of progress, some signs of a walk with him.
And the brothers are showing some signs of a walk before the Lord also, yes. We did, and we had to get in the Word, and we had to understand it before we did any extensive walk with the Lord. But we did do just a little flash, as Brother David talks about it, and then a second after he informed us, we accepted.
And that had to happen, and it was made to happen. It was ordained to happen, and that's what we sometimes forget. I'm going to go to Ephesians 2, 8 for just a second, and you've got this memorized. I actually memorized it all the way down to 10.
A lot of people just memorize it to 9, and if you do, you forget something. You lose something. For by grace are you saved, through faith, and that not of yourself. It is a gift of God. Almost everybody knows that.
And then almost everybody knows, not of works, lest any man should boast. You have nothing to be boastful about. You didn't have anything to do with it. But then look at 10. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
What's that saying? He expects us to walk with him, and he has ordained that we will, and we will. Every elect will walk with the Lord. It'll take some longer than others. Some will take little tiny baby steps all their life, but they're little tiny baby steps.
And some will take giant strides. And it always is amazing to me when I see a young man like Ben, who is taking such giant steps at such an early age, and I'm a little bit fearful for him. And I pray often for the Lord to protect him, because Satan sees that too.
But the Lord has ordained that we walk in his works, and we will. And he also has ordained the pace at which we go. It's not an accident that it took me as long as it did. And it's not an accident that it took Ben as little time as it has.
In any case, I shouldn't have even brought that up properly. And he wept aloud. Now Joseph has wept. And the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said unto his brothers, I am Joseph, dost my father yet live?
And his brethren could not answer them, for they were troubled at his presence. So why? Why were they troubled? He was certainly able to, wasn't he? And Joseph said unto his brethren, come near to me, I pray you.
And they came near, and he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt, just in case they thought he might not know. How could he have known that they sold him into Egypt? Because he was there.
That kind of proof positive to them that that was the Joseph. Now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourself, that you sold me hither. For God did send me before you to preserve life. That's pretty awesome.
God has ordained Joseph every step. And his brothers thought they were doing an evil thing to him. And they were. There was nothing good about what the brothers did to him. And sometimes they are terrible things.
There was a lot of terrible things that happened to Joseph. They're going to come to this same discussion again in chapter 50. I'm going to go row forward and read it. Because this is the one that I thought I was reading when I read this the first time.
In 50, starting at 15. And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, now they're thinking. He is only waiting until the father died before he carries out his judgment. And they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us of all the evil which we did unto him.
And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying, So shall ye say unto Joseph. So here's what he told Joseph. He says, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespasses of thy brethren and their sin, for they did evil.
And now we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of God, of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spoke unto him. And his brethren also fell down before his face, and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.
And Joseph said unto them, Fear not, for am I in the place of God. But as for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass as it is this day, to save much people alive.
So he just reaffirms this same sentiment later on in chapter 50 after his father's died, and now they're worried that he might finally settle his debt with them. I'm sorry? Oh no. All he knows is he is saving the 60 or 70 people that came down with Jacob.
He knows that. He knows he's preserved their lives. He also knows he's preserved a lot of Gentile lives in having all the food available to him. There's another example of an act meant for evil that God meant for good in John chapter 11, verse 47.
And this is the ultimate intended for evil, but God meant it for good. This deals with Caiaphas, the high priest. Then gathered the chief priest and the Pharisees a council, and they said, What do we?
For this man doeth many miracles. Now what in the world is that all about? They're worried about some man doing miracles? Wouldn't you be thankful for that? You see somebody out raising people from the dead, curing sicknesses, healing the blind, casting out devils.
Wouldn't you think the Pharisees would be happy about that? Why do you think they weren't? Take their place. And so here's what they say. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him, and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and our nation.
So they're worried about their place. And I guess they're worried a little bit about their nation. But if they were really thinking, they wouldn't be worried about their nation because if the Lord wanted to, He could certainly defend the nation.
And one of them named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.
And this he spake not of himself, but being a high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation. And not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together and one the children of God that were scattered abroad.
Then from that day forth, they took counsel together for to put him to death. So what they're doing is they're meaning it for evil. They're trying to destroy one man. And the high priest says, Well, it's okay.
It's better that one man die than the nation. But it was more than that. It was a prophecy. That this thing that they intended for evil God meant for good. So Joseph continues to say, Now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that ye sow me hither.
This is going to be a revised version of the or a different version of the same thing. Now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that ye sow me hither. For God did send me before you to preserve life.
For these two years hath famine been in the land. And yet there are five years in which there shall be neither earring nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity in the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
So now it was not you that sent me hither but God. And he has made me a father to Pharaoh and the Lord of his house and the ruler throughout all of Egypt. You see the old Pharaoh has died. There's a new young Pharaoh.
And now Joseph is not just acting as a servant the master servant of the Pharaoh but he is the advisor and father figure for the new Pharaoh. And we're going to stop there and pick up next week, God willing.
Most gracious Heavenly Father thank you for providing us your Holy Word. Thank you for providing us the Holy Spirit to open the Scriptures to us. Thank you for letting us see the things that you want us to see.
Thank you for allowing us to find Jesus and to find Jesus on every page of the Scripture. Protect us and keep us. Go through the services to come. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.