I'd like to ask you this morning to turn in the New Testament to 2 Corinthians chapter 7. I'm going to change our New Testament reading this morning to 2 Corinthians chapter 7. We're going to read from verse two down through verse 11. 2 Corinthians 7, beginning in verse two, hear the word of God. Make room in your hearts for us. We have wronged no one. We have corrupted no one. We have taken advantage of no one. I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts to die together and to live together. I'm acting with great boldness toward you. I have great pride in you. I am filled with comfort in all our affliction. I am overflowing with joy. For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn, fighting without fear within. But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more. For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment. At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter. And now we're back in Genesis 42 this morning. Genesis chapter 42. This passage records for us the first trip of Joseph's brothers to Egypt to fetch grain. We looked last Lord's Day morning at the first half of the chapter, focusing on verses one through 17. We're going to pick up at verse 18 this morning and read down to the end. So we're at Genesis 42, and we're beginning our reading at verse 18. On the third day, Joseph said to them, do this and you will live for I fear God. If you're honest men, let one of your brothers remain confined where you are in custody and let the rest go and carry grain for the family of your households. And bring your youngest brother to me so your words will be verified and you shall not die. And they did so. Then they said to one another, in truth, we are guilty concerning our brother in that we saw the distress of his soul when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us. Reuben answered them, did I not tell you not to sin against the boy, but you did not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood. They did not know that Joseph understood them, or there was an interpreter between them. Then he turned away from them and wept. And he returned to them and spoke to them, and he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes. And Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain and to replace every man's money in his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. This was done for them. Then they loaded their donkeys with their grain and departed. And as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the lodging place, he saw his money in the mouth of his sack. He said to his brothers, my money has been put back. Here it is in the mouth of my sack. At this, their hearts failed them. They turned trembling to one another saying, what is this that God has done to us? When they came to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them saying, the man, the Lord of the land spoke roughly to us and took us to be spies of the land. But we said to him, we are honest men. We have never been spies. We are 12 brothers, sons of our father. One is no more and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan. Then the man, the Lord of the land said to us, by this I shall know that you are honest men. Leave one of your brothers with me and take grain for the famine of your households and go your way. Bring your youngest brother to me then I shall know that you are not spies, but honest men, and I will deliver your brother to you, and you shall trade in the land.' As they emptied their sacks, behold, every man's bundle of money was in his sack. And when they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid. And Jacob their father said to them, you have bereaved me of my children. Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more. And now you would take Benjamin? All this has come against me. Then Reuben said to his father, kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my hands and I will bring him back to you. But he said, my son shall not go down with you. For his brother is dead, and he's the only one left. If harm should happen to him on the journey that you are to make, you would bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to show. The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever, and this is his inspired Inerrant, living, and life-giving truth. Let's pray. Teach us your truth today. Guide us in your ways that we may know your word, and through your word we may know you. The one whom to know a right through Christ is life everlasting. Show us Jesus today. May our hearts and minds be turned to him. Change us today, O Lord. Work in our hearts that we might be more like our Savior. Grant, O Lord, the unction of your Holy Spirit now, both the preaching and the hearing of your scriptures. We pray for Jesus' sake, amen. The old saying, Rome wasn't built in a day, applies to the Christian life as well. Our transformation into the likeness of Jesus Christ does not occur in a single moment of time. Regeneration is the instantaneous work of the Holy Spirit. In regeneration, the Spirit speaks life to us. The Spirit brings us from death to life immediately and gives us faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But sanctification is a process, a lifelong process of repentance and faith. I have to confess, I am not a very big fan of bumper sticker theology. But there is one that captures the essence of this truth. It reads, please be patient. God isn't finished with me yet. If the Lord has begun a work in you, he's not finished with you yet. He is in the process of molding you and shaping you, of testing you and trying you, of refining you so that you shine like the stars in the sky, so that you reflect the glory and the honor and the beauty and the majesty of your Savior. As we saw last Lord's Day morning, that transforming work that occurs in a believer's life occurs by steps or by stages. Now, when we come to Genesis 42, a lot has happened. Joseph's jealous brothers have sold him into slavery. He was exalted in Potiphar's house, but lied against and thrown in prison. But it was from the depths of that prison that he was elevated to Lord over the land. Why? Because he was able to interpret Pharaoh's dreams and to reveal that there were going to be seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of devastating famine. When this chapter opens, the famine has begun. When this chapter opens, we encounter Joseph's family once again. We've not seen them for several chapters, but here they are, hungry, guilt-ridden, and fearful. When we come to chapter 43, God willing next Lord's Day morning, we will observe that a tremendous change has taken place, exemplified in the lives of Judah and Jacob. What is it that accounts for this change? What accounts for this transformation that occurs over these verses and over these days and weeks that transpire? It is the work that God was doing in them through Joseph to take them through a series of tests, a series of trials that revealed their guilt, but that also showered them with goodness and with grace. What the Lord did for these men through Joseph He does for you and for me through the Lord Jesus. You see, Christ works in our lives, brothers and sisters, to reveal our guilt, but also to show us his grace so that he might change us and move us as he did these men. from fear to faith. Now that process of change as it's laid out in this chapter occurs in a series of six stages or six steps. Last Lord's Day morning, we looked at the first three. We began with need. These men were hungry and that need drove them to Egypt, but they went to Egypt still under the cloud of Joseph's demise as they supposed. We saw how often the Lord will use our needs, both physical and emotional, to drive us, to push us to Jesus, to meet those needs. When they arrived in Egypt, they didn't recognize their brother. And that was the second stage in this process, the incomprehension. And so often you and I encounter the Lord Jesus and yet we don't recognize Him, do we? Because we're not looking for Christ as we ought to be. It's only as we're looking for Christ and looking to Christ that we are changed. Beholding His glory with unveiled faces, Paul says. that that transformation occurs and you and I go from one degree of glory to the next. And then there was the third stage, the stage of testing. In verse 15, Joseph says, by this you will be tested. In verse 16, by this your words will be tested. He was going to send them back for their younger brother. And they could prove thereby, if they brought him back to Egypt, that they were not spies. Testing, of course, is a major part of the Christian walk. God takes us through trials, through hardships, to wean us from this world, to teach us to hold loosely to the things of this world. to cling with a death grip to Him. Now this morning, I want us to look at the last three is in this journey of transformation. We move from need and incomprehension and testing to the fourth stage in verses 18 through 22, the stage of guilt. Joseph had determined to test his brothers by sending one of them back to Canaan to fetch Benjamin. The other nine would stay in the land of Egypt, and so he shut them up in prison for three days. Those three days were in themselves a test and a trial because these brothers time to think about their circumstances, to contemplate what they had been through in their lives, what they had done to their brother when they threw him in the pit before they sold him into slavery. They gave them time to think about and decide which of the 10 would they send back, which one would have the moxie, if you will, the temerity to tell their father that the rest were in prison in Egypt, awaiting their youngest brother's arrival. But when we get to verse 18, we discover there has been a change of plans. Joseph now says, I tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to reverse those numbers. I'm going to allow nine of you to go back home and only keep one of you bound here in prison. He did this because one brother alone would not be able to carry enough provisions back for this large family. Sending one brother alone would have seemed cruel and hard-hearted, so this change of plans is actually a merciful act. But what was it that motivated Joseph to do this? He says at the end of verse 18, for I fear God. What would he have meant by those words? His brothers knew what they had been taught. They knew what the fear of God was, at least in theory, but very little did they know it in practice. Jacob had raised them to worship the only true God. He had raised them to reverence God's name, to honor Him. He had raised them to turn from sin and to hate sin. What would they have assumed Joseph meant by these words? Well, they would have naturally assumed that as an Egyptian, he worshiped the many gods, the pantheon of Egypt. But one thing was clear to them, that his piety, however pagan they may have assumed it to be, had an impact on his decisions. and his piety led him to be merciful. You and I know what the brothers didn't at this point. We know Joseph in his heart is not a pagan. We know he only appears to be an Egyptian, but is actually a part of the covenant people of God. We know that his fear of the Lord was genuine and heartfelt. And that's what led him to be merciful to these men who had sinned against him so grievously. Think of that for a moment. All the power in his hands to do with them as he wished. They had thrown him into a pit intending to kill him. And then they had sent him off, sold into a life of bondage. How would you respond to people who had treated you that way if you could do anything you wanted to do? Joseph wanted to be gracious and loving because he feared God. Folks, if you and I fear the Lord, It will make us merciful people as well. In fact, if you fear God, it will change everything about your life. In the years from about 1949 to 1953, the Isle of Lewis off the coast of Scotland experienced something of an awakening. a revival, the Lewis revival that's often referred to with numerous people being saved in the various towns and villages around the island. The main preacher during that revival was the Reverend Duncan Campbell. And when he arrived on the Isle of Lewis in 1949 at the invitation of one of the churches there, the minister and the elders met him at the ferry dock. And as they greeted Mr. Campbell, one of the elders said, sir, I have a question for you. Are you walking with God? To that question, Mr. Campbell replied, well, sir, I believe I can say that I fear God. The old elder said, well, Mr. Campbell, if you fear God, that will do. Because he realized that if he were a God-fearing man, that would shape everything about his ministry in that local congregation and on the entire island, and it did. Now the question this morning, brothers and sisters, is this, do you and I fear God? Do we? That question requires, it demands some self-examination. How do you know if you fear God? Well, answer these two questions in your own mind. What is my attitude toward the Lord? And what is my attitude toward my sin? Not sin as a theoretical concept. Not his sin or her sin, but your sin, my sin. What we're guilty of. Do we dread it? Do we hate it or do we coddle it? Do you fear God? When you look at the events in the chapter up to this point, you'll notice that they bear a striking similarity to the way in which the story began back in chapter 37. There, Jacob sent Joseph to his brothers. Here, Jacob sends his brothers to Joseph, albeit unknowingly. In chapter 37, the brothers throw Joseph into a pit. But then after a time, they change their minds and enact a second plan. Here, Joseph throws his brothers into prison. Quite literally, it may have been a pit. Don't think of a nice, so-called nice correctional facility today with heating and cooling and entertainment and all the rest. But a pit, a dungeon. And after three days, he has a change plans. In chapter 37, it's clear that the vengeful brothers are in charge. But in chapter 42, it's the merciful brother who is in control of everything that happens. Now the parallels between these two situations could not be clearer, nor the contrast more startling. These men still did not realize that they were dealing with Joseph or rather that Joseph was dealing with them, but they couldn't miss the pattern that's so evident here. The similarities were not lost on them. And we know that, we know that because this change of plans led to an agonizing sense of sin. Look at verses 21 and 22 again. Then they said to one another, in truth, we are guilty concerning our brother in that we saw the distress of his soul when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us. And Reuben answered them, oh, isn't this a classic, I told you so? This is classic. Reuben answered them, did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you did not listen, I told you. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood in a moment. in a moment, all of those years of attempting to suppress the memories of Joseph, of attempting to keep their consciences at bay, in a moment, these men experienced together the reality of Numbers 32, 23, be sure your sin will find you out. They couldn't escape the reality of what they had done. They felt the weight of a guilt-ridden conscience weighing down on them. What is your conscience? It's not a thing like a hand or a foot. is rather a function of your soul. It is that in sense that you and I have about our actions, our decisions, our motivations, as to whether or not they are right or wrong. Now, that's a good thing, but here's the problem. Our consciences, just like the rest of us, our minds, our emotions, our wills, our consciences are fallen. Now it's true that there remains the image of God, remnants of that image on our conscience, so it's fairly universally accepted that murder is wrong and you would feel terrible if you killed someone, or that theft was wrong and you would feel terrible if you stole from someone. But just look at what people do. Look at what you are willing to do and not feel any pangs for it at all. You see, our consciences are fallen. And that is why they need to be trained and they need to be shaped by the word of God through the power of the spirit of God. And that's what's happening here to these brothers. Spirit of God is at work. They knew what they had done was sinful and wrong. Now it comes crashing down on them, it seems like, with a vengeance. For those of you who are familiar with Pinocchio's little buddy, Jiminy Cricket, you'll know his counsel is let your conscience be your guide. Well, he was Pinocchio's conscience, and so he thought that was pretty good advice. But Jiminy Cricket's counsel is only sound if your conscience is captive to the Word of God. That's why you and I need to have our consciences honed to a razor-sharp edge by the truth. And we need to be able to say, as Luther did when he stood at the Diet of Worms, that his heart was captive to the Word of God, therefore he could not sin against his conscience. These brothers not only felt the weight of their consciences, But they also confessed their belief in divine retribution. Do you notice what they said in verse 21? We heard our brothers distress. This is information we don't have from chapter 37. Joseph begged them, please, please don't do this. But they turned a hardened heart deaf ear to him. Now, these men who had heard his distress have distress, very same term, distress coming upon them. What they had dished out to Joseph, they now had to choke down for themselves. Scripture does teach the doctrine of divine reciprocity. Exodus 21, for example, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Now that doesn't mean that justice should be a blind vengeance done in a rage. No, the law of reciprocal judgment means that the punishment should fit the crime. In other words, someone should not receive the death penalty for petty theft, nor should first degree murder be treated as a misdemeanor. They believed that they were receiving back exactly what they had dished out. And in a sense, they were. But it is this belief in divine reciprocal judgment that takes us to the heart of the gospel. The Lord said to Adam, the day you disobey, the day you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will die. When Adam disobeyed, a death had to occur. He died spiritually, but for him to be redeemed, for him to be saved and rescued and his life preserved, a death had to occur. There had been a cosmic treason against God that deserved death. Therefore, there had to be a sacrifice. And Joseph in his shame and the guilt of his conscience, he had attempted, or Adam rather, in the shame and guilt of his conscience, had attempted to clothe himself with fig leaves, but God came with the skins of animals, animals that had died. in Adam's place. So it is when the Lord Jesus suffered on the cross, the distress, the death that you and I deserve for all of the sin we have committed, He took upon Himself and bore it there. These men, after their confession, prepared to leave for home. They didn't understand that Joseph knew everything they were saying. He had heard their confession. And though he had been speaking to them through an Egyptian interpreter, he was still fluent in Hebrew. And with a broken heart, he turned from them and wept and came back and said, give them grain. Give them provisions for the trip back and restore all of their money to their sacks. And those instructions in verse 25 lead us to the next stage, the fifth stage in the transformation in verses 26 to 34. And that is fear. Guilt is followed by fear because when they came to the lodging place that night, one of the brothers opened his sack and there was his money. There was his money. And you can imagine what went through his mind. We've just been accused of being spies. Now we're accused of being thieves. Things were going from bad to worse. He turned to his brothers and said, look, look what I found. And all of them were greatly afraid. Their hearts failed them. Literally their hearts went out of them. They lost heart. And they ask, what on earth is God doing to us? They made their way back home. And you'll see in verses 29 to 35 that when they arrived home, they reported to their father everything that had happened. They told him that they'd met this man, he'd accused him of being spies, but they had maintained their innocence. They told him about how Jacob or Joseph rather had said, you're going to have to leave a brother here so that you can be tested. They related their family circumstances that they were all brothers of one son and not a network of spies. They gave a truthful account to their father of everything that had transpired. but it was not a complete account of all of the events. You'll notice that they left out some details. They failed to mention that they had been put in prison for three days. They failed to mention the threat that they would be executed if they did not take Benjamin back with them. They also omitted the fact that Simeon had not just stayed behind in Egypt, but he had actually been bound and put in prison himself. And they also left out the part about one of the brothers finding the money in their sacks, or in his sack rather. All of this was to soften the blow that they knew their father would experience. But then, in the presence of their father, they all began to open their bags. And suddenly, it wasn't just one brother who would be accused of thievery, but all of them, because all of them had had their money returned. What indeed was this God was doing to them? You see, at this point, with discovering the money in their sacks, these men who had felt such guilt for what they had done to Joseph are actually starting to fear God. They were starting to develop the kind of fear that Joseph had, the kind of fear that can change your life. It's the kind of fear, brothers and sisters, that you and I need. It's the fear that the Holy Spirit is in our hearts when he does regenerate us. And so this morning, if you do not fear God, it is because you do not know God. You're not yet a Christian. If the EMS arrive on the scene of an accident and they find you unconscious, one of the first things they're going to do is check for a pulse. They're going to want to know, is this person alive or not? If they get a pulse, okay, they're alive, let's work, let's do what we can. What is the pulse of the Christian? What is the heartbeat of the Christian? It is the fear of God. Without it, reveal that you are spiritually dead. But if you are a Christian this morning, how is it that you develop, how do you cultivate and grow and deepen that fear of God? It's through a regular encounter with His Word, through prayer, and through the sacraments. Because you see, God has given us these means of grace. And we cannot ignore worship, either private worship or corporate worship, and expect to grow in our Christian experience. It just won't happen. There's simply no substitute for it. How do you know when you're growing in the fear of God? Well, it's when you begin, like Joseph's brothers, to hate your sin and what you have done against a holy God. Well, briefly, let's look then at the sixth and final step that comes to the surface in verses 36 through 38. These men move from guilt and fear, finally to sorrow. Witness here the deep sorrow on both the part of Jacob and of Reuben. Jacob begins with an accusatory tone. All of these things have come against me, he says, because you men, you have deprived me of my children. Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you would take Benjamin from me. Jacob believed everything was against him. And it certainly felt like everything was against him. Only because he was looking with the eyes of flesh and not yet with the eyes of faith. He still felt control that he could protect Benjamin. Rather than letting him go, trusting him into the hands of God. But then we see Reuben and the sorrow that Reuben faced. Here are my two sons, take them, he says, if I don't bring Benjamin back to you, you can kill these boys of mine. Now, that's a ridiculous offer, it's absurd. But it does reveal the deep that he and his siblings felt. for what they had done, not only to their brother, but what they had done to break the heart of their father. You see, not only have they been stricken now with a fear of God, but their consciences that felt so much guilt are now smitten with a deep and godly sorrow. But that's a good thing. Why is it a good thing? Not because sorrow is a wonderful experience, not because feeling the pangs of a guilty conscience is a delightful thing, but because God has designed the guilt of our consciences and the sorrow for our sins to drive us to Jesus. You see, it's that godly sorrow, 2 Corinthians 7, we read it this morning, that leads to repentance. and it's repentance that leads to real and lasting transformation. So this morning, as you observe these six stages, everywhere from need to sorrow, from incomprehension to fear, from testing to guilt, Let the tests and the trials that you experience in your life be used of God. Be sensitive in your conscience. Be scripture shaped in your conscience. So that all of these experiences take you to Jesus. Confession or cleansing. to experience the joy and the power of his life-changing grace. Let's pray. Father, we do thank you this morning for your word. And oh Lord, we ask that by your Holy Spirit, you will seal this word to our hearts, that its truths may remain with us that the experiences it describes may be ours. Through Jesus Christ our Lord we ask, amen.