Let's pray for the Lord's help to understand his word together, please. Lord, we confess to you that we are in great need of the enlightening work of the Holy Spirit of God. As Paul prayed for the church at Ephesus, that you would fill them with that spirit of enlightenment from your Holy Spirit upon their minds. And we ask that you would do that for us as we read and walk through this very last chapter of the book of Genesis. We have been blessed and we're thankful for the wonderful things You have shown us in this great book of the Bible. And we pray that You would help us to understand this final scene in it. In Jesus' name, Amen. Please turn to Genesis chapter 50. Genesis chapter 50. I appreciate everyone holding on. This is the 77th sermon on this book of the Bible. Genesis 50. This is God's Word. Then Joseph fell on his father's face and wept over him and kissed him. Then Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. Forty days were required for him. For such are the days required for those who are embalmed. And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days. Now when the days of his mourning were passed, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the hearing of Pharaoh, saying, My father made me swear, saying, Behold, I am dying in my grave, which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan. There you shall bury me. Now, therefore, please let me go up and bury my father, and I will come back. And Pharaoh said, Go up and bury your father. as he made you swear. So Joseph went up to bury his father, and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, as well as all the house of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's house, only their little ones, their flocks, and their herds they left in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen, and it was a very great gathering. Then they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and they mourned there with a great and very solemn lamentation. He observed seven days of mourning for his father. And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, this is a deep mourning of the Egyptians. Therefore, its name was called Abel Mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan. So his sons did for him just as he had commanded them. For his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite as property for a burial place. And after he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers, and all who went up with him to bury his father. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, perhaps Joseph will hate us and may actually repay us for all the evil which we did to him. So they sent messengers to Joseph saying, before your father died, he commanded saying, Thus you shall say to Joseph, I beg you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin for they did evil to you. Now please forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father. And Joseph wept when they spoke to him. Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face and they said, behold, we are your servants. Joseph said to them, do not be afraid for am I in the place of God. But as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. Now, therefore, do not be afraid. I will provide for you and your little ones.' And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them." So Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father's household. And Joseph lived 110 years. Joseph saw Ephraim's children to the third generation. The children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were also brought up on Joseph's knees. And Joseph said to his brother, and I am dying, But God will surely visit you and bring you out of this land to the land of which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Then Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here. So Joseph died, being 110 years old, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt." May God bless the reading of his infallible word. We have come to the final scene. of this great book of beginnings. And we have come a long way, 15 chapters. We saw the most amazing week in the history of the universe, the first week. And what a week it must have been. It is impossible for us to imagine what the eyes of Adam and Eve beheld before the fall happened. We still see the amazing beauty of a creation that is groaning under the pain of the curse of God because of our sin. But what did that world look like before the fall? What did it look like even after the fall, but before the flood, back when people lived to be nearly a thousand years old? We have washed with sadness as post-flood humanity's lifespans have rapidly grown shorter and shorter. The world we live in is a dangerous and sad place because of human sinfulness. And let us never forget Why the world was flooded globally and destroyed except for eight human beings and the animals on the ark. Remember this passage from 44 chapters ago in Genesis six, then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth and he was grieved in his heart. So the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast. creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them." Thankfully, God had promised Adam and Eve that one day the seed of the woman would come. The Lord Jesus Christ would come and do away with the fall, do away with the effects of sin in the world. And after the floodwaters receded and the nations were dispersed, after God confused people's languages there at the Tower of Babel, God chooses one very non-remarkable, idolatrous man, Abram, and establishes the beginning of the visible church on earth in him and his family. We saw Abram's great acts of faith and his great failures and then his death. Then we watched Abraham's miracle child, Isaac, marry and have children of his own, one of whom was Jacob. And then Isaac died. Last week, we watched Jacob die. And thus, humanity as a whole has continued to watch the fulfillment of God's solemn warning that he gave to Adam. And the day you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will surely die, he told them. And as you remember from Genesis 5, and so and so lived hundreds and hundreds of years and had sons and daughters, and he died. And so and so lived hundreds of years and had sons and daughters, and he died, and he died, and he died. And what are we still seeing right now in Genesis 50? And what do we still see today? We still die. Even those who know the true God are still going to die. And the final undoing of death will have to wait until the second coming of Christ. And the scriptures tell us plainly in 1 Corinthians 15, 26, that the last enemy to be destroyed is death, but God will most certainly destroy it. And so like Abraham, like Isaac, like Jacob, like Joseph, all of us will die. And I pray that all of us together truly know repentance unto life and saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, so that our deaths will be peaceful and full of hope. It'd be painful enough to live without hope, but how could anyone die without it? The Word of God teaches us concerning all mankind. Listen to this carefully. Ecclesiastes 3.11 says about all of us, He has put eternity in their hearts. Think about that. God has put eternity in our hearts. God set eternity there in us, in every person. Death is not part of life. When people say, yes, death is part of life. No, it is not. Death is the unnatural ending of what God created to live forever. When God created this world that first week, when he created all these animals and human beings and created These soulless creatures, they were not supposed to die. They were not designed by God to die. They were designed to live forever, for eternity. Death is not part of life. Death is not natural. Life is supposed to last forever. And we all know it. We all know it. Everyone everywhere knows that. Believer and unbeliever alike, in their hearts they know, I'm heading somewhere. There's a destiny before me. We know we are eternal creatures. All of us awake, all of us move around, all of us go about our business with a profound sense of a coming eternal destiny that is always there in our hearts. God put it there. He put eternity in human beings' hearts. We know death is coming. Even if we try to put it far from our minds, even if we are successful in doing what the Psalms describe, the wicked, God is in none of his thoughts. And yet eternity is still there. Not everyone here is going to die like Abraham. Not everyone here is going to die like Isaac, like Jacob, like Joseph. At the end of a very long life, some of our lives will probably be a lot shorter than theirs. But for the Christian, our great comfort is that our sins, all of them, are forgiven by the shed blood of Christ and that we are justified before God's judgment throne through the imputed righteousness of Christ to our account in the divine books. Knowing that Jesus obeyed the law for us and fulfilled all righteousness and fulfilled the entire satisfaction of God's justice for our sins. That is our great hope. That is our consolation in the face of death that will surely overtake every one of us, whether we're ready for it or not. No charges can be brought against us because Christ, our substitute, was condemned for us. The eternity that is set in the heart of a believer is an eternity in heaven with God finally free from every last effect of sin. We've watched God make and fulfill promises in Genesis, but the grandest fulfillment at this point in the story of redemption in Scripture is yet to come. The Lord Jesus is still not going to come for many more centuries in the history of the world. And this final scene in Genesis 50, when I read it and re-read it, it seems rather anticlimactic. What happens? Well, everybody dies and everybody's buried now. But the stage is set with this generation now in the ground for a pharaoh to arise who did not know Joseph. And instead of seeing the presence of the ever-growing Israelites as a blessing, he would come to see them as a great threat to Egyptian national security. But let us walk through this final chapter of Genesis here together. Genesis chapter 50. Let's walk through this. I've given you an outline. And I've given you some thoughts for Sabbath meditation. And I apologize for getting a little carried away with that. Push it down into microscopic print. So if you need a magnifying glass, I can let you have one if you want to read those today. So let's look at point number one, Jacob's burial. Verses 1-14. Look at just verse 1. Then Joseph fell on his father's face and wept over him and kissed him. Okay, stop there. We often hear of those who die unwept and unsung. Such ought not to be the case with those who have tried to live godly lives. No one is perfect, but the believer who has spent his or her days being sanctified by the gracious plan of God and providence of God in their lives has been enabled more and more to die unto sin and more and more to live unto righteousness in their life. And this living unto righteousness will be characterized primarily by a love for other people. We are to love God and our neighbor. The primary arena of our sanctification is the way we treat other human beings in our lives. Remember that glorious and all-important passage, I've quoted it several times in previous sermons. 1 John 4, 7 and 8 says, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. And so whether you're an Old Testament believer or a New Testament believer, if you're indwelt by God, you will be characterized by a love for the people around you. Those who lived their lives indwelt by God will love the people around them. Those who love are born of God and know God and are indwelt by God because God is love. It is His nature to be loving. And those loved ones will be the ones who fall upon our faces and weep and kiss us when we die. If we know God and we're characterized by the love the same kind of love with which he's loved us, there's going to be people who are really hurt by our passing, by our death. And some people die and few people care or even notice. What a tragedy. But those who love strong will be wept over and will be missed. But think about the person who dies who does not love anyone in sincerity. What is there to miss about them? Will anyone cry when we die? Joseph loved his father. Jacob. It was Jacob who taught Joseph to love the one true God. That's what carried Joseph through all of his trials. Jacob was so special to his son Joseph. Joseph loved him so much. Jacob was anything but a perfect father. But he did try to do the right thing when it was in his power to do it. And he loved his children. Look at v. 2-3. And Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. Forty days were required for him. For such are the days required for those who are embalmed. And the Egyptians mourned for him 70 days." OK, stop there. The purpose of this was not because they had embraced the Egyptian view of religion or the afterlife. They weren't trying to make a mummy here, as if they believed the Egyptian religions, but rather because Joseph had promised Jacob that he would bury him in Canaan. That's a pretty long trip from where they are there in Egypt. And that would not have gone well had not the body of Jacob been embalmed. And so Joseph had his own physicians do this so that the body of his father would not decay and stink as they took it that long distance over there towards Canaan. Now look at verses four through six. And when the days of his mourning were passed, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh saying, if now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the hearing of Pharaoh saying, my father made me swear saying, behold, I am dying in my grave, which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan. There you shall bury me. Now, therefore, please let me go up and bury my father and I will come back. And Pharaoh said, go up and bury your father as he made you swear. Okay, stop right there. Joseph, ever loyal to doing his duty, gets the permission of the Pharaoh to fulfill his oath to his father. And the Pharaoh, knowing that Joseph was entirely trustworthy and was a man of his word, gives him leave to go do what he promised. And notice at the end of verse five, Joseph promises, you see the very last part of verse five, and I will come back." All nations recognized the validity of solemn oaths and the importance of fulfilling them. So when Pharaoh knows that this great man that was used to save his entire nation from starvation, that he made a promise to his father to bury him, Pharaoh says, yes, go do exactly as you said. I completely trust you that you will come back no problem. And Joseph, recognizing that he and his family are still an important part of the Egyptian nation, promises that he will come back, and Pharaoh has every confidence that he will do so. Now look at verses seven through nine. So Joseph went up to bury his father, and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, as well as of the house of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's house. Only their little ones, their flocks, and their herds they left in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen, and it was a very great Gathering, okay, stop there. Imagine how big of a group of people this was that went all the way to Canaan. We're not just talking about Joseph and his brothers and their families. We would look at verse seven again. And with him went up the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, of Pharaoh's house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt. So you have this massive, huge group of people, Egyptians and the people of Israel, Joseph and his family, his brothers, their families, only the little babies, only the little tiny ones in their livestock, Don't go with them. It was a very great gathering, we're told in the text, of Egyptians and of all the house of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's house are part of this long funeral procession going all the way into the land of Canaan. Notice the great clout that Joseph has with the Egyptians. That which is a great loss to Joseph is considered to be a great loss to the Egyptians. It is amazing to see how easily This great love the Egyptians had for Joseph and the Israelites turned into suspicion and then into murderous hatred in just a few generations. But for this time, even these Egyptian unbelievers put into practice the New Testament concept of weeping with those who weep. Joseph was a very important man. He saved Egypt from starvation. And this family is very important to the Egyptians. And so all of Egypt is going to mourn the loss of the patriarch of this family. of Jacob. They wept with those who wept." Isn't it amazing to see the influence that the people of God, that the church of the Old Testament was having on the Egyptians? This is remarkable to consider, given that the entire way of life lived by Joseph's family was considered an abomination to the Egyptians. Remember, the Egyptians did not like people who were shepherds. They lived pretty much separate from them, and yet, the way that the Israelites lived their lives could not help but bring about the admiration and the love of the Egyptian people around them. And as much as the Egyptians did not appreciate those whose primary occupation was to shepherd livestock, they couldn't help but notice these people are special. They're different. Living by and around Joseph and his family for just a few years had increased the Egyptians' respect and affection for them in a remarkable way. And brothers and sisters, that ought to be the case with all believers, no matter how surrounded they are by unbelief. As much as we may experience the hatred of those in our societies and cultures whose worldviews are opposed to ours, those unbelievers that we have the most contact with ought to see a great difference in us. So much so that they can't help, as much as they oppose us and what we stand for, they can't help but recognize the reality of God. the reality of truth that is in us. That's a New Testament concept as well. 1 Peter 2.11, Peter said, Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak of you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. Isn't that remarkable to think about? They'll speak of us as evil doers, but they can't help but notice the good works that they observe. Let us learn from this, that our lives as Christians are always being observed by someone. Our co-workers observe us. Our neighbors observe us. People are watching us. They may oppose us religiously and in their worldview, but because they're created in the image of God, they still can't help but notice good when they see it. In principle, they may be violently opposed to us for righteousness sake, but they ought to be able to see our good works and glorify God. Remember, no matter how opposed to God an unbeliever might be, they're still created in God's image and they cannot escape the reality of what they are. They can still recognize our good deeds and recognize that we are different. They ought to be able to see this in us. And because of that, the entire court of Egypt goes to Canaan with these goat herders, with these people who were an abomination to them. They go with them. Why? Because they love them and they respect them. They know these people are something special. It was because of them that we're still alive. We still have food in our stomachs. Remember the famine that happened? Hadn't been for this guy who came here, we'd all be dead. And so they love those Israelites and they wept with them. They mourned the loss of Jacob with them. Now look at verses 10 through 14 to close out point one. Then they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and they mourned there with a great and very solemn lamentation. He observed seven days of mourning for his father. And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atah, they said, this is a deep mourning of the Egyptians. Therefore, its name was called Abel Mitzrayim, which is beyond the Jordan. Just stop it right there for a second. The Hebrew word for Egypt is Mitzrayim. And so the people of Canaan saw this as Egyptian mourning, even though they didn't fully seem to recognize that there were a bunch of people that used to live in Canaan among them. Now look at verse 12. So his sons did for him just as he had commanded them. For his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre, which Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite as property for a burial place. And after he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers, and all who went up with him to bury his father. Okay, stop there. Notice that they observe a great mourning and a solemn lamentation. And even the inhabitants of the land of Canaan, notice this, so much so that they gave a new name to what's called the threshing floor of Atah. We don't know who Atah was, it was just someone's name that was the name of the place where they were. They changed the name of it. So great was this gathering of Egyptians and Canaanites These people that used to live there mourning for somebody, that they changed the name of that location to Abel Mitzrayim, which means the mourning of the Egyptians. And again, it's difficult not to notice the irony here. I want you to notice the irony here. The Egyptian courtiers, the higher ups of Egypt, the most important people in that great empire, they put themselves out at great expense to travel all the way to Canaan to pay respect to Joseph's father. How fickle are the hearts and minds of men who could have anticipated that it would be the Egyptian court which would soon be throwing Israelite baby boys into the Nile River to die. Amazing. As much as they express their affection here, they are about to turn on them. Just a few generations later, when the people become very numerous and the Egyptians begin to fear them, They're going to enact mass murder against those very same people that they were standing there mourning the loss of the great patriarch of this family. Little did anyone realize the descendants of those Egyptian courtiers and the descendants of the children of that patriarch they buried there, where they were all mourning together, that the ones would engage in mass murder and oppression of the others for a long, long time. Look at point number two, Joseph's guilt-ridden brothers, verse 15. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, perhaps Joseph will hate us and may actually repay us for all the evil which we did to him. Okay, stop right there. Very important verse. This is one reason parents work hard to instruct their children to avoid serious sin in their youths. This is one of the reasons parents pray and work hard And they worry, and they lose sleep, and they cry, and they pray. So their children don't live the rest of their lives doing this. Guilt-ridden for things they did in their youth. Even Job, one of the greatest men who ever lived, he entertained the idea that while he couldn't think of anything big he had done as an adult, maybe what was happening was the result of stuff he did in his youth. In Job 13.26, Job says, in a prayer for you write bitter things against me and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth." I mean, who here doesn't have iniquities of their youth that they'd be embarrassed for people here to know about? The psalm writer said the same thing, Psalm 25, 7. Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions. There is a reason why J.C. Ryle wrote that marvelous little book called Thoughts for Young Men. Thoughts for Young Men. He says in the opening paragraph of the book, I am growing old myself, but there are a few things that I can remember so well as the days of my youth. I have a most distinct recollection of the joys and the sorrows, the hopes and the fears, the temptations and the difficulties, the mistaken judgments and the misplaced affections, the errors and the aspirations which surround and accompany a young man's life. If I can only say something to keep some young man walking in the right way and preserve him from faults and sins, which may hurt his prospects both for time and eternity, I shall be very thankful." He said, I'm willing to write this book if one guy reads it who's 13 or 14 or 15 and says, you know what? Maybe I shouldn't go down the path of utter foolishness and do anything dumb that's going to haunt me for the rest of my life. Ryle says, that's good enough for me. If I can save one guy from having to live like Joseph's brothers did the rest of their lives, all the better. It's worth writing the book. Alas, Joseph's brothers finished their youthful days standing on top of a self-made mountain of sin. And it haunted them for the rest of their days. Think of a congregation. How much time has gone by now? How much time has gone by since they sold Joseph into slavery? We're talking decades and decades on end here. And they still can't get what they did to Joseph out of their minds. They just can't get rid of this. Matthew Henry said, quote, a guilty conscience exposes men to continual frights, even where no fear is and makes them suspicious of everybody, end quote. Have they forgotten their brother, Joseph? His grand testimony to the sovereign providence of God back in Genesis 45. Do you remember that amazing scene? Joseph can't restrain himself any longer. He catches up to them. They find the cup of divination in Benjamin's sack. And he hears them talking, God's getting us back. He's getting us back for what we did to Joseph. And it says he can't restrain himself any longer. And he says, I am Joseph. Does my father still live? And I love the next verse there in Genesis 45. It says, they were struck out of their minds, is what the Hebrew word means, and they could not talk to him. They basically stood there with their jaws on the ground. What did he just... Who is that? It's Joseph. And Joseph says to them, in verses 5 and 7 of that same chapter, But now do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here. For God sent me before you to preserve life. And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth. and to save your lives by a great deliverance." Brothers and sisters, it was still too much for them to believe that anyone could actually forgive such a sin. They still had a hard time. Decades and decades later, they still would think about it. How can he seriously have forgiven us for this? Maybe it's just because our dad's still here. Now he's gone. Now he's going to get us. Joseph had not only forgiven them, he had accepted them back into his favor. Joseph provided houses for them. Joseph provided food for them and for their children. He had put the entire event behind him. It was Joseph's brothers, not Joseph himself, who couldn't let go of what they had done. Joseph had buried it a long time ago. And so look at what they do. Look at verses 16 through 18. So they sent messengers to Joseph. Okay, notice first, they don't go to him themselves first. They send messengers to him saying, Before your father died, he commanded, saying, thus you shall say to Joseph, I beg you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin, for they did evil to you. Now please forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father. And Joseph wept when they spoke to him." And so when these servants from his brothers come, they tell him this story. Now, the text does not indicate if this is actually done or not. I have a sneaking suspicion this didn't happen, that Jacob did not tell The brothers beg Joseph to forgive you. Jacob knew what kind of a man his son Joseph was. So this seems like they're making this up because they're terrified. They're terrified. And notice what Joseph does. Look at the last thing in verse 17 again. You see the last sentence of verse 17? Joseph wept when they spoke to him. In verse 18, then his brothers also went and fell down before his face and they said, behold, we are your servants. Notice Joseph's response. He weeps. He weeps probably for several reasons. Number one, he's hurt that they think he's now gonna punish them. He's insulted by this. Why would they think this? After all we've been through together as a family, after all the restoration, we wept on each other's necks. Remember that, those wonderful moments? We've lived here together for years and years. We've prospered together. We're a family again. Why would they think I'm gonna do this to them? How could they think so low of me? Secondly, it might also be because Remembering the whole incident probably brings back some painful memories, don't you think? Being shackled in chains in prison. Being left in that pit by his brothers. Being sold away. Crying. Crying out to those brothers who had mercy on him and they wouldn't. Those are things Joseph would rather forget. And thirdly, maybe he weeps out of compassion for them. Because of their destroyed consciences. But notice what he says. Verse 19 is highly significant. Please notice verse 19. Put a star by it, highlight it if you're into writing in your Bible. Joseph said to them, do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? Think about that statement. Is this not a remarkable demonstration of this man's godliness and maturity as a believer? With no copy of the New Testament, Joseph knows full well that vengeance belongs to God, not to him. Besides this, Joseph really and truly had forgiven them. That might be also what he means. Am I in the place of God? How could I hold a grudge against you? Well, I've already forgiven you. This is part of the past. Joseph saw the bigger picture. As much as it hurt him to be treated so atrociously, Joseph understood God's plan to save his family through it all. But the next verses are pure gold. Look at verses 20 and 21. Joseph continuing to talk to his brothers. Verse 20, But as for you, You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring it about as it is this day to save many people alive. Now, therefore, do not be afraid. I will provide for you and your little ones." And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. Here again, we have the grand demonstration of the way in which God's sovereignty works. Joseph's brothers sinned when they sold Joseph into slavery. It was a great evil that they had committed and their intention had no good in it at all. Their intention was only evil. They meant evil against Joseph. When they sold them into slavery, they wanted to hurt their brother. And that's what they did. And in that self same action, Joseph recognizes in that very sin, God meant it for good. The sinful actions of men are often the means by which God brings about good. What is critical for us to understand here is this. Joseph's brother's actions were considered sinful by God, even though they had been predestined and decreed by God to happen. They were still sins. Secondly, Joseph's brothers are accountable to God for those sins they committed. Thirdly, and yet God decreed those sins for his own good purpose, to save the lives of Joseph's family and of their families. And as a theological application, I'd like to make the same point of application I made in a sermon a few weeks ago, the distinction between primary and secondary causality. Now this may sound like something for theological eggheads, but it's actually very important stuff. Sometimes in the way that God has decreed events in time to unfold, God acts directly as a primary cause, such as the parting of the Red Sea, the miracles of Christ, the creation of the universe, the flood of Noah, Other times, God's decree, his plan, involves the sinful actions of human beings, like the selling of Joseph into slavery, and indeed, even the crucifixion of Jesus upon the cross, which was the greatest evil ever committed by human beings in history. In Acts 2.23, when Peter preached at Pentecost, he said about Jesus, him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God. The crucifixion was predestined by God. The early Christians prayed in Acts 4, about Jesus, Him being crucified, they prayed to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before or predestined to be done. God never sins, but the sinful actions of human beings are decreed by God. And they always act, human beings always act in full accord with their own nature as sinners and with their desires as sinners. And therefore God is not accountable for what they do. God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. When sin occurs, it is always committed by human beings who are acting in full accord with their own fallen natures and their own sinful desires. And therefore, they are absolutely accountable to God for what they do. And if we object to that, here is God's answer, Romans 9, 18. Therefore, He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills, He hardens. You will say to me then, why does He still find fault for who has resisted His will? But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, why have you made me like this? Does not the potter have power over the clay from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? Isn't it remarkable to think that Joseph already understands that in the book of Genesis? What you intended for evil, God intended for good. In the very same action, in that sin that was committed, God had a good purpose to bring it about as you see it now. All of us didn't die in the famine. Let us remember, brothers and sisters, please hear me. Let us remember that man is never to be considered the poor, innocent, neutral creature who would really like to do good and please God. That's not what man is. No, the sinner, apart from the powerful and effectual application of the saving work of Christ, hates God, is unable to come to Christ, is unable to understand the things of the Spirit, he invents ways of doing evil, he despises authority, and is hell-bent on doing his own thing and living as a law unto himself. And he would be delighted to be left by God in that state, to die in his sins and to perish eternally. Man is not to be considered this innocent Creature being pushed around by the big bully God. Man is a rebel who hates God and wants nothing to do with Him. If God decrees that the sinful actions of such creatures will be turned for His own glory, then we ought simply to bow before God's sovereignty and praise Him for this and not be pots that sit and complain against the potter that made them. That's God's answer to people who have a problem with this. I've had people say that to me. Well, I would never worship a God that does that. A God that raises up people, that hardens whom He wills, and has mercy on whom He wills, and uses people for His own desires and His own pleasure. Do you actually believe that stuff? I would never worship a God like that. And my response is, I know. And apart from His grace, you never will. And let us remember that. Man is not innocent. Man is vile, sinful, evil, rebel. But as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring it about as it is this day to save many people alive." What a mature man, what a great man of God Joseph is. Thirdly and finally, we come to the death of that great man, the death of Joseph. And here's the last section of our passage this morning, the last section of the whole book of Genesis. Verse 22, so Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father's household. And Joseph lived 110 years, and Joseph saw Ephraim's children to the third generation. The children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were also brought up on Joseph's knees. And Joseph said to his brethren, I am dying, but God will surely visit you and bring you out of this land, to the land of which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Then Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here. So Joseph died being 110 years old and they embalmed him and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. The time had finally come for Joseph to die. And like his father before him, Joseph desired to have his bones taken up from Egypt to Canaan. Notice the path, the book of Genesis ends with Joseph's embalmed body being put in a coffin in Egypt, but not buried anywhere. He wants eventually to be taken to the same place that his father was, where he was buried when he died. He wants to be buried in the land of promise with Abraham, with Isaac, with Jacob. And Joseph knows God will surely visit you and bring you out of this land to the land, which he swore. Notice that there. Did you see that in the passage as he's dying, he says, God is going to visit you all here in Egypt. And he's going to bring you out of this place. He's going to bring you into that land. And Joseph wants his bones to be preserved. and to be brought up to that land when the time comes. And we're told in the New Testament that that was a great act of faith on his part. Hebrews 11, 22, by faith, Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel and gave instructions concerning his bones. It was by faith. It was faith in the promise of God. The only reason that Joseph knew that one day all of those people, all of his descendants would come out of that place is because of the promise. He believed that promise and said, I want my bones brought with you. When you guys leave, when God comes down here to get you out of here, take me with you to the land of promise. That's where I want to be buried. Remember way back in Genesis 15, before Abram's name had even been changed to Abraham, before the Hagar affair that gave birth to Ishmael, before Isaac was born, when God brought Abram out and showed him the stars. Remember what God said to him? In verse 13 of Genesis 15, God told Abram, know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land, not theirs, and will serve them and they will afflict them 400 years. Although there was no written scripture in the hands of God's people at this time, Abraham had no doubt passed those exact words onto Isaac. Isaac had passed those exact words onto Jacob. And Jacob passed those exact words on to Joseph. Joseph knew about this. That's why it says in Hebrews 11, 22, by faith, he gave instructions concerning his bones. When our time in this land in which we are strangers is over, God is going to bring us out into this land. They knew about that 400 years of affliction that would one day come upon their descendants. Think about that. God told Abram before he ever had a child, no, Certainly your descendants will be strangers on the land, not theirs, and they will serve them and they will afflict them 400 years. And although the Egyptians to this point had been so very welcoming, so very accommodating, so kind to Joseph and his family, it seems that Joseph realizes that his family will be afflicted in that place. This is the place that's going to be fulfilled is here. And that this is what God was referring to in that prophecy made to his great grandfather, Abraham. And therefore Joseph says, it should give you the chills to think about this, says on his dying words, God will surely visit you. He's telling his sons and his grandsons and all these people who are there with him when he's dying, God will surely visit you and bring you out of this land, a prophecy of the Exodus, which is of course the next book of the Bible. But the affliction of the people of Israel was yet to begin at this point. So God tested Joseph greatly. But he allowed him, like he allowed Jacob, to finish his days in peace while enjoying his family. Isn't that a wonderful expression? He saw the children, his great-grandsons on his knees. Isn't that a beautiful picture? Joseph, who had probably cried so hard and experienced so much heartache, to have a loving family surrounding him when his days were over. We're told that he was enabled to do that, to see his great-grandchildren. He died in faith and hope and friends. That's how God wants you to die. If you're a Christian and you know the Lord, He wants you to die like that, with confidence and with happiness that the best is yet to come. So my final words to you on the book of Genesis. We have seen the foundations of Earth's history. The Earth was created about 6,000 years ago. God created animals and plants which reproduce according to their kinds. God created man in his image, in his likeness, with the special ability to have fellowship with God. But man fell from that estate. Man fell from that wonderful condition our first parents walked away from God and sinned against Him and were thrown out of the Garden of Eden. And that's where we've all been born and lived and died ever since. And God has been establishing and building His church ever since then. And brothers and sisters, why have we seen the faith of Abraham, the faith of Isaac, the faith of Jacob, the faith of Joseph, Judah, and the others in the book of Genesis? Why have we seen that? Why has there been men and women of God Because of what the scripture says, Ezekiel 36, 26 and 27, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them. Just as Jesus said, no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day. Why have we seen these people of faith who have lived in faith and died in faith? Because God has been establishing and building his church. The reason we have watched the development of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament is because of God's covenant of grace and his supernatural and powerful regenerating work. Why did Abraham believe? Because he was irresistibly drawn by the father. Why did Isaac, Jacob and Joseph believe? Why were these men godly? Because God took out their hearts of stone and gave them hearts of flesh. God put his spirit within them and caused them to walk in his statues and to keep his judgments. Why have these precious men and women of God died in peace and hope? Because God has chosen to be gracious to some people. To people who are utterly unworthy and undeserving of that grace, that's what makes it grace. And so, what is Genesis besides the book of beginnings and the starting point of time, space, matter, and energy? It's the beginning of the manifestation of the Gospel to the world. That's what it is. Galatians 3.8 tells us that the Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham. What did Abram hear? The gospel. What did the people of Israel hear? The gospel. Hebrews 4, 2. For indeed, the gospel was preached to us as well as to them. It is a sad reality that the rise of dispensationalism in the early 19th century has created so much confusion among Christians about the unity of the gospel the unity of the covenant of grace across the Testaments. A careful analysis of Scripture ought to make this confusion disappear. As you've watched the lives of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, his family, Joseph, and all of them, what have you noticed? What have you noticed? Aren't they so much like us? Don't you look at these people and say, they're me. Abraham struggles to believe God. Isaac struggles to believe God. The falling on your face with your family. All the dysfunction, nothing's changed. It's just like us now. Their struggles, their victories, their failures, they're our struggles, victories, and failures. People haven't changed. The Gospel hasn't changed. God's covenant of grace hasn't changed. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David, you, me, and every other person born after the time of Christ, all of us have had the exact same hope. The exact same hope. The person and the saving work of Christ. In Genesis, they looked forward to it in history. Today, we look backward to it in history. But it's the same gospel, the same justification of sinners through the forgiveness of sins and the imputed righteousness of Christ. Listen to the way Paul describes this in closing in Romans 4, 1. What then shall we say that Abraham, our father, has found according to the flesh? And I would say by extension, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Joseph, and Judah, and David, and all of them. What have they found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. But to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works, Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. And Romans chapter 4 goes on at the end of that chapter to say, it was not written just for their sake, for Abraham's and David's sake, but for us as well, who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was risen from the dead, it shall be imputed to us too. There is one people of God. It's not Israel and the church. one people of God, one gospel, one hope, one destiny. That has always been true. It always will be true. We are the children of Abraham through faith in Jesus Christ. Let's close in prayer. Father in heaven, we thank you for your gospel. That as Paul teaches us was preached to Abraham, was preached to Israel and bless. God has been preached to us. And we praise you that that gospel has not been unaccompanied by faith, but that your spirit made it come alive in our hearts, that we see our sin. We see how bad it really is. And therefore our hope is only in Jesus Christ. And we know that your word teaches us the reason he came to do what he did is precisely because we can't be good enough to go to heaven. We can't do anything to earn your favor. We are utterly hopeless and lost. And so it is by faith alone in Christ alone, apart from works by which we are justified, not because of anything we have done, but because Christ, our savior has given us a perfect salvation. His cross work has fully discharged the debt that we owe you for our sins and his righteousness covers our disobedience so that we stand before you justified and reconciled. That was Abraham's hope. That was Isaac's hope. That was Jacob's hope. That was Joseph's hope. That's our hope. We pray that it would be the hope of everyone here and all of our descendants as well. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.