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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Genesis 42:1-28
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 roller coaster 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's 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 any they this is just what Egyptian governors are like. They don't recognize that Zafnat Penaea 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 roller coaster 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 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. You 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. I 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 12 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 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 his 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 Reuben 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 Reuben being the oldest brother was the one that had led Everything that had happened to him those 20 years ago. Reuben was the one that planned to murder him and then sell him into slavery.
He would have never known until now. That Reuben 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 Reuben something in Reuben That still had conscience.
Maybe this is why Reuben 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, you guys are just forgetting what he was like that pest.
Who said his older brother's gonna come back 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 and 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. Remember 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. We'll be back before you know it then book down to Egypt. Sorry, dad.
I 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 that have to come back as the accused spies also now accused thieves.
Oh. 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 Panea. 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 and 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 enjoining 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 know 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. Here's an espresso maker, you know when you get to the campsite, yeah, 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 you 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. It's something radically challenging about that.
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.
I 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.
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 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're all agreed and 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. You 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 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?
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 conscience may help them examine themselves or 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 a 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.
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 and repentance and say I'm guilty.
Herman Bovenc the great Dutch theologian says the church has no means of coercion. You can't coerce zombies. You have to be made alive by the Spirit of God born again. It can only bear witness. I can only manifest the truth of God's Word.
It can only bear witness and make this witness suitable to man's conscience. All 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. 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 Emanuel 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 is 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.
The 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 beam Alex said When the Lord came to us 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 does Hezekiah do he lays down and he stares at the wall. And he says Lord, don't forget that I've I've walked up rightly 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 Came across a Wikipedia entry about something called the conscience fund.
Anyone hear of this anyone donate to it. 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 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's 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 and 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. And When you persist in that defilement when you keep just Running over the tracks of conscience.
Just guarding over rushing over it and 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 in 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 a friend. Seared people. Oh 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 in 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 work 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. 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 that 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.
We pray in your son's name.
Amen.