And thank you, Lord, that you have been gracious unto us to gather us here today to study your word and to learn from your word and to receive advice and principles for living. Not just advice, but commands, direction. And so we pray, Lord, that by the power of the Spirit working in us, that your word would have effect in our lives. that we would grow in our understanding of you, but also grow in the likeness of Christ. And in doing so, that we would grow in our willingness to submit our lives fully to you, under the authority of Christ, for the glory of Christ. So we pray, Lord, use this time to accomplish your work in us. In Jesus' name, amen. If you have your Bibles with you, go ahead and turn to Genesis Chapter 45. Genesis Chapter 45. I think we have about 8 more lessons left in the book of Genesis before we're done. So Lord willing, about 8 left. The essence of the Christian life is union. First and foremost, it is union with Christ. It is becoming unified with Him by grace, through faith, in Christ. We are united with Him. But secondly, there's a second type of union that is vital to our life in Christ. And that is union with the body of Christ. Union with fellow believers, with what you would call the invisible church. And that is believers, true believers, true regenerate Christians from throughout history. There is a union that we have with them. And essential to both is forgiveness. In our union with Christ, we need to be forgiven. We need to be reconciled to God. And in our union with the body of Christ, there will be multiple times when we need to be the ones doing the forgiving. It's been said that one cutting bitter word given in summer can last all winter. Can anybody attest to that? Oh man, I know that I can. In a world that's filled with fallen, sinful people, every single one of us, just so you know, every single one of us can expect to be sinned against in multiple ways, not only by people outside the body of Christ. but also by people inside the body of Christ. You've probably, if you've been walking with the Lord long enough, you've probably been sinned against by someone who is a member of the invisible church, someone who is an authentic regenerated Christian. And I often tell people that God's wisdom is often seen in this, that we are united with people who are gonna sin against us. And that applies to marriage as well, if you think about it. What a great God, what a wise God would conceive of an institution in which two people would dwell together under one roof in very close proximity without killing each other, but no, to the opposite, to the contrary, they would accentuate, they would be a means by which we're sanctified, by which we are grown in our likeness to Christ. Doesn't that sound ridiculous? Put two people together and let them serve as a means of sanctification unto one another. And yet, that's one of the purposes that marriage serves in God's economy. Now, I obviously wouldn't say that it always works out, unfortunately, because the world is fallen. People sin, and people struggle to forgive. And sometimes people absolutely refuse to forgive. And so divorce happens. I understand that. It's far, far too common, I would argue. But if you live with somebody long enough, they will sin against you. In fact, they'll do it repeatedly. And guess what? You'll also sin against them. Think of it this way. Cosmonaut Valery Ryumin wrote this in his personal diary, which was published in 1980. He said, quote, all the necessary conditions to perpetuate a murder are met by locking two men in a cabin of 18 by 20 feet for two months, end quote. So what prevents one from killing the other? There's only one thing that can prevent somebody from being murdered in that situation, and it's the same that would prevent somebody in a marriage from being murdered, I would have to imagine, and that is forgiveness. Forgiveness. The truth is that marriages are destroyed by unforgiveness and churches are even destroyed by unforgiveness, often because there was some type of offense and there was a failure to adequately or properly or rightly or biblically respond to that offense. In a world that seems like people are always looking for a reason, looking for an excuse to see themselves as being a victim or a justification. People are looking for a justification for taking offense, which is a dangerous trend that we'll be addressing today. You can count on the fact that people are always able to find a reason to be offended, to feel hurt, to feel sinned against. because everyone has been wronged in some way or another. And sometimes that's intentional, and sometimes it's completely accidental. Either way, the question is this, what are you going to do about it when you are sinned against? What are you going to do about it? Some people will do everything within their power to keep their wounds as open and as fresh as they were the day that the proverbial knife was thrust into their hearts. Some people will sit and simmer as toxic and embittered people who are unwilling to forgive. And as time passes, the more time passes, the more angry they become, and their expectations of what would be necessary for reconciliation become less and less reasonable. And so they essentially condemn themselves to a life without the blessing of experiencing forgiveness. That is the blessing of being able to forgive somebody else. So they shackle themselves to the offenses that were perpetuated against them. Anyone who is truly a victim of being sinned against, or injustice, and struggles to forgive as a result, has a lot to learn from the story of Joseph. Joseph was absolutely hated by his brothers just several chapters back. who sold him into slavery in Egypt at a very young age. He was still a young man. And while a slave in Egypt, he became the head servant in the house of a powerful man named Potiphar. That is until Mrs. Potiphar falsely accused him of trying to get a little bit too fresh with her. And at that point, Joseph was thrown into prison. It was injustice. And he was not only thrown into prison, but he was thrown into prison for years. And while in prison, he met two people. He met the royal baker and the royal cupbearer of Pharaoh. And he interpreted a dream for both of them. The one for the cupbearer gave the cupbearer hope. And Joseph's only plea for the cupbearer was to mention him with Pharaoh so that he could be released from prison since he did nothing to even deserve to be there. But the cupbearer forgot about him. And so Joseph was stuck in prison for an extended stay. Until one day Pharaoh had two dreams that none of his wisest men were able to make even the smallest amount of sense over. And suddenly the cupbearer remembered this guy Joseph who had interpreted this dream for him while he was in prison. And so Joseph gets called before Pharaoh and he tells Pharaoh that his dreams, that Pharaoh's dreams were a foretelling of this great famine that was coming. which will be preceded by seven years of prosperity. There will be seven years of prosperity followed by seven years of famine. And on the spot, Joseph devises this strategy for adequately preparing for the famine during the years of prosperity. And Joseph was then promoted to second-in-command viceroy of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh. But listen, if anyone in all of history has ever had a reason to be bitter, to feel the temptation to be unforgiving, to feel oppressed, to feel the weight of vengeance that could be stored up in his heart, it was Joseph. If anybody's ever faced this temptation, it was Joseph. And yet, when his brothers showed up to buy food from him in Egypt once the famine hit, Joseph was only gracious unto them. He's shown only love for them. He tested them, yes. He came across as harsh as part of his disguise so that they wouldn't recognize him because he needed to see if they were the same men who had sold him into slavery so many years ago. but he's never shown them even the smallest hint of real animosity. Even though they had never done anything to warrant his forgiveness, they'd never even asked for his forgiveness. And friends, the Christian life is about union, but union requires forgiveness. It requires reconciliation when things go wrong. Reconciliation with God, yes, but also reconciliation with people. And today, as we continue our study of the book of Genesis, we're going to be in Genesis chapter 45, where we'll see Joseph and his brothers be reconciled to one another after 22 years. And if you're wondering how that could happen, This chapter is going to show us very clearly. The point of this chapter is this. The point of this chapter is that forgiving others freely is made possible by keeping a right perspective of God's sovereign providential care for us. Let me say that again. Forgiving others freely is made possible by keeping a right perspective of God's sovereign providential care for us. So we start where we left off. We'll start with Genesis 45. Let's look at verses 1-8. It says, Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him. And he cried, Have everyone go out from me. So there was no man with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. He wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. Then Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph. Is my father still alive? But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence. Then Joseph said to his brothers, Please, come closer to me. And they came closer. And he said, I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. Now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here, for God sent me here. God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land for these two years, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. Now therefore, it was not you who sent me here. but God. And he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt. You'll remember that in the previous passage, as the brothers were leaving Egypt, Joseph ordered his servant to put his chalice, his silver chalice in the bag of Benjamin. And then he sent his servant chasing after the brothers so that he could find the chalice and accuse Benjamin of stealing the chalice. But all of this was really an elaborate, very calculated test of the character of the brothers. The test was really this, if you were to boil down, what was Joseph doing there? The question that he had to answer was this, would they allow Benjamin to be taken as a slave in the same way that they had sold their brother, Joseph, off 22 years earlier as a slave? And of course we saw that the answer was, no they wouldn't. They wouldn't abandon Benjamin. Even though Benjamin was Jacob's favorite, as Joseph was Jacob's favorite, they had come to terms with the fact that Benjamin was the favorite son of Jacob. They had come to terms with it with Benjamin, and they had come to terms with it with Jacob. And so they did not abandon their brother. They had repented of their sinful ways. They were transformed into totally different men by God's work in their personal circumstances. And we saw that Judah actually went privately to Joseph, begging Joseph to let Benjamin return home to their father. He also offered to be Benjamin's substitute. that he would stay as a slave instead of Benjamin. Benjamin was their father's favorite son, and Jacob would die of grief if they came home without Benjamin. And so the change in the brothers is made evident. It's made clear when he points out that not only would they care about their father having grief at losing Benjamin, but they themselves would take their grief over losing their father to the grave with them. And so after hearing Judah's pleas and seeing how profoundly God's work in the lives of the brothers had changed them, had transformed them into these selfless men, he gave orders for all of his servants to leave the room. And it's undoubtedly an order that's given with great emotion. Chapter 44 ended at an emotional peak, and the emotional peak extends into chapter 45. He gives this order, and it's undoubtedly charged with emotion. And the brothers are just standing there, wondering what's going on. Is he angry? Is he full of rage? What is this emotion that's overflowing in this viceroy? who holds our lives in his hands. The brothers can't tell exactly what's going on and so they sit in silent fear in the presence of this muscular, powerful, and emotionally charged leader of Egypt. And so we can imagine that in their minds, They're probably preparing themselves for the worst, as they have in every other situation that's led up to this situation. We can imagine, and it would be justified for them to be absolutely terrified at this point, to be left alone in the room with this Egyptian lord. And as the room empties out, Joseph just starts wailing. in front of them. He's weeping with such power, with so much emotion that all the Egyptians are hearing Him. All the Egyptians in proximity are hearing Him, including all of Pharaoh's household. They hear these screams, these wailing screams coming from Joseph's quarters. And what do the brothers do? They just kind of look at each other. They're perplexed. They're confused, but they don't say a word. But you can imagine that they're wondering, what's going on? They're looking at each other like, what is he doing? And then they get absolutely rocked by what Joseph says to them. He finally cries out to them, I am Joseph. Is my father still alive? Which is a weird question to ask, isn't it? Because he's already asked that question. In the previous chapter, he asked, how's my father doing? We saw that the question was, does my father have peace? And they said, yeah, yeah. He didn't say, does my father? He says, how's your father? But now he's saying, is my father still alive? And we're told that the brothers are still in such dismay that they can't even speak. They say that there are two reactions when a person feels threatened, fight or flight, right? Everybody's heard that? It's not true. There are actually at least three. You can fight, you can flight, or you can freeze. And people do. People are sometimes like a deer in headlights when they feel threatened. And that is the response of the brothers. They freeze. They're absolutely frozen. They don't know what to do. They're absolutely terrified. But they don't move. They don't fight. They don't flight. They freeze. This is the brother that they had plotted to kill. This is the brother that instead they had taken 20 pieces of silver for, 22 years ago. And this brother that they had so greatly sinned against, now has their lives in His hand. And through the tears, through all the emotion, Joseph can see that his brothers, they're not quite scared to death, but they're 99% of the way there. And so he calls them to come near to him. And as they draw near to him, he assures them that they don't need to be fearful and they don't need to be angry with themselves about what they had done. Why not? Because Joseph has a perspective that we must learn from. Joseph has this perspective. He has this faith in God and an understanding that God is both good and sovereign. And so this understanding of God enables him to forgive his brothers freely before they've even asked for forgiveness. Joseph understood that all along it was God. He understood that all along that his life was ultimately in God's hands, not in his brothers' hands, not even in his own hands. That it was God who held Joseph and the events of Joseph's life in His hands. And that it was God who sent him down to Egypt in order to preserve the lives of his brothers and the members of his family. This was all God's good, sovereign providence unto His people. And Joseph understood that. That even though there was this great wrong that God had allowed, God was nevertheless sovereign over it. And because God was sovereign over it, he was able to use it for a great good. That is a wonderful, wonderful perspective of God to have. He's been so greatly wronged by these guys. There's nothing in the world that they can do to make it up to him. What do you do to compensate somebody for 20 years of being in Egypt, of being in a foreign land? What do you do? How do you apologize for that? There's nothing they can do. But here's the thing. He doesn't need them to do anything, and He doesn't want them to do anything, because He's got the right perspective. He knows that God is good, and He knows that God is sovereign. And He knows that God is faithful to His promises. He knows that God is faithful to all of His purposes. He knows that God is faithful to His people. God didn't allow this great wrong, this great injustice to happen for nothing. He allowed it to happen in order that God's people would be saved from themselves and from the wrath of God. See, until the famine hit, these brothers were on a very bad trajectory. The trajectory of the brothers' lives was right on par with the world. They loved all the things that this world has to offer. All the sensuality, all the power, all the riches, everything that the world has to offer. Before the famine hit, that's what these brothers were living for. They were not a group of godly people. Their hearts were far from God. In fact, God was the furthest thing from their hearts and their minds. They did not love God. They did not worship God. They did not serve God. They didn't want God. And yet, God had promised all the way back in Genesis 3, verse 15, that He would send a Redeemer. And He promised Abraham that this promised seed, this blessed Redeemer, would come through Abraham's line. God needed, therefore, to preserve Abraham's line. Who makes all this happen? On the surface, it looks like the brothers, doesn't it? But it's God. God is the one who makes all of this happen. He's the one who caused the famine. He's the one who allowed Joseph to be sent down to Egypt. And he used the famine to drive the brothers 20-something years later down to Egypt, where they would be chastened. Yes, they were disciplined. They would be confronted with their sin. But it would also be where they would be weaned from their sin, where they would be weaned from self-reliance or autonomy or a sense of goodness that they might have had within themselves. They would be confronted with the absolute wickedness of their sin, of the sin that was filling their hearts while they were down in Egypt. But it was only as a means of causing the brothers to turn to the Lord, that they would receive grace and forgiveness. In all of this, Joseph sees, and we too must see, that God was the one who had caused it all to happen. God was the one who was working all things for the good of his people and for the glory of his name. But notice once again that there's this tension between the workings of man, that is the brothers and their actions, there's this tension between the workings of man and the workings of God. Who sent Joseph down to Egypt? Now, if you were to be in a courtroom, for example, and present the evidence, I would say the evidence would be overwhelming, that the brothers would be rightly convicted They took the money, right? They came up with the ideas. I mean, how much deliberation time would this jury actually need to come up with a guilty verdict for every single one of the brothers? Maybe two minutes. Maybe they'd need two minutes of jury deliberation. And yet, scripture tells us, these passages tell us that it would be wrong to ultimately attribute this action to the brothers. Joseph notes in verse four, he says this three times, which means we better be paying attention. Anytime you see repetition in close proximity like this, you want to pay close attention because there's a very important message. Look at verse four. Look at what Joseph says in v. 4. He says, God sent me before you to preserve life. Now look down at v. 7. He says it again. He says, God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. Look again in v. 8. It was not you who sent me here, but God. V. 4, v. 7, v. 8, same thing. It was God who orchestrated all this. And that is so difficult for us to understand and apply to our lives, isn't it? I can honestly say that when you're dealing with the issue of this tension between the workings of God and the workings of man, man, it took me years and years of struggling to understand the sovereignty of God as it relates to the works of man. And yet, Joseph could not make it more clear for us, could he? That it was God. And so maybe it's not that it's that hard to understand. Maybe it's that it's just a big pill to swallow. The Heidelberg Catechism explains it this way. Question number 26 of the Catechism says this. It poses a question, and then it gives us the answers. So let me read the question to you, and then I'll read the answer to you. The question is, what do you believe when you say, I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth? Does everybody here believe that? Could you say that about God? Okay. From a biblical perspective then, what does that mean? The answer, is provided by the Catechism, and it says this. It says that the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who out of nothing created heaven and earth and all that is in them, and who still upholds and governs them by his eternal counsel and providence, is, for the sake of Christ, his Son, my God and Father. And this is the important part. In him I trust so completely as to have no doubt that he will provide me with all things necessary for body and soul and will also turn to my good whatever adversity he sends me in this life of sorrow. He is able to do as Almighty God and willing also as a faithful father. Now for the purpose of our study here today, let me focus our attention in on this particular thought. In Him, in God, in Him I trust so completely as to have no doubt that He will provide me with all things necessary for body and soul and will also turn to my good whatever adversity He sends me in this life of sorrow. You see, Joseph had experienced great sorrow. He could relate to what the catechism says here. He'd experienced great sorrow, especially, I imagine, during his time in prison. He had every right, didn't he, to be absolutely simmering with rage. Who could deny that? He had every right to be simmering with anger over the injustice that had been done to him. Because he'd experienced what looked like such great injustice. So how is it that he forgave his brothers so freely? Answering that question in light of what the Heidelberg Catechism says here. He was able to forgive because God provides us with all things that are necessary in this life for body and soul. So let me ask you, is it necessary for your body, health-wise, to forgive? I think you could make a very, very, very strong argument that it is extremely unhealthy, physically, just in a physical sense, to hold on to unforgiveness, to hold on to resentment and bitterness. Unforgiveness is like endlessly walking around holding a 10 pound rock. Now, at first, that 10 pound rock doesn't feel very heavy, does it? But try carrying it around for an hour. Try carrying it around for a day. By the end of the day, it's crazy heavy. 10 pounds, that's it. It starts feeling like an anchor. Holding onto unforgiveness, simmering with rage for a prolonged period of time can absolutely affect one's physical health. If nothing else, it makes your blood pressure go up. I mean, you can scientifically prove that. But more important than our physical health is our spiritual health. So is forgiveness necessary for our souls? If there's one thing that can impede spiritual progress, spiritual growth, it's unforgiveness. It's letting rage simmer in the depths of your heart. Maybe you once remember, I think it was in this series, how I likened unforgiveness to running a half marathon with just a small pebble in your shoe. And the kind of damage that even the smallest and smoothest pebble would do to your foot over the course of 13.1 miles is huge. This one little pebble is all it would take, could do all kinds of damage. God gave Joseph everything that he needed for his body and soul. Everything that he needed, all the strength, all the wisdom he needed to put down that ten-pound rock or to get the proverbial pebble out of his shoe. First, God gave Joseph the dreams. that his family would one day bow down before him, a foretaste of the fact that God had a definite purpose for Joseph's life. But then God also allowed Joseph to have this front row seat in which God would actually use Joseph to effect a transformation, a deep heart transformation of his brothers right in front of him. Front row seat. He got to witness it. Joseph understood the way that God's goodness and sovereignty worked together. He understood that while it might have seemed on the surface, it might have very much appeared that his brothers sent him down to Egypt, it was actually God who did it. There was no conflict in Joseph's mind. There was no tension in Joseph's mind between man's evil actions and God's sovereign ordering of all things for his glory and for the good of his people. Consider what the Proverbs say. Proverbs chapter 16 verse 9. The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. Or how about this one? Proverbs 2024 man steps are ordained by the Lord. How then can man understand his way? And we can say, you know that this is this is great, but we've got a Bible that can tell us these things. What about Joseph? Well, God taught Joseph all these same things. Through his experiences. And thus Joseph himself could have affirmed, in him I trust so completely as to have no doubt that he will provide me with all things necessary for body and soul and will also turn to my good whatever adversity he sends me in this life of sorrow. Here's one of the things that we need to understand. Every one of us is gonna face adversity. Nobody gets a pass on that. If Christ didn't get a pass on that, we certainly don't get a pass on that. Every single one of us will face adversity. But we must understand that God is sovereign even over the trials and the adversities and the calamities that we experience in life. So with that said, let me move on to question number 27 of the Heidelberg Catechism. It asks the question, what do you understand by the providence of God? Since the previous question and answer had told us we trust in the providence of God, what do you understand by the providence of God? In other words, it asks essentially, what do you mean when you say that you believe that God provides you everything necessary for your body and for your soul? And the answer again is very simple and biblical. It says God's providence is his almighty and ever present power. Whereby, as with his hand, he still upholds heaven and earth and all creatures, and so governs them, that leaf and blade, rain and drought, fruitful and barren years, food and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, indeed all things, come not by chance, but by his fatherly hand. Not his hand as a judge. who condemns, but as a father who loves. Our God is a God who governs all things. And Joseph clearly came to understand that through his circumstances. If he hadn't, if he hadn't come to understand these things, the trajectory of the brothers would have remained the same. They would have remained worldly, destined for hell. It was the grace and the providence of God that sent Joseph to Egypt. It was the grace and the providence of God that caused the famine. It was the grace and the providence of God that the brothers repented and grew in faith and godliness and that Joseph was there to witness it all. So how did Joseph forgive them so freely? because Joseph was not ignorant of God's ways or God's promises. If you see who God is, as Joseph was able to see who God was, and if you love the way that God has this deep love for sinners, who have only rebelled against him as Joseph saw the way that God has this love for sinners, then you can forgive. because you understand that if God can forgive you, he can affect forgiveness in you toward others. In our day and age, forgiveness is not trending favorably. It's not the end thing right now. In fact, I would say the exact opposite of forgiveness is what is culturally in vogue right now as America and the West experience what I can only describe as this totally irrational quest for victimization. I don't know what else to call it. It is a quest for victimization. That is, people are being encouraged to see themselves as victims. How so? there's this movement called intersectionality. And maybe you're not familiar with what intersectionality is, but you will recognize the things that it promotes when I describe it. If you go to dictionary.com and look up the word intersectionality, this is the definition you'll get. It's defined first. as this, quote, the theory that the overlap of various social identities as race, gender, sexuality, and class contributes to the specific type of systemic oppression and discrimination experienced by an individual. The second definition is a little bit more succinct, maybe a little bit easier to understand. The second definition is, quote, the oppression and discrimination resulting from the overlap of an individual's various social identities. Some of you guys starting to recognize that? So how do we see this playing out in our culture right now? Radical feminism. Women are oppressed, they say. What about racism? Yeah, that too. It's creating all kinds of racial tension. What about the whole pride movement? Yep, that too. What about this growing animosity toward Christianity? It's hard to miss. See, intersectionality encourages us to base our identity on our social attributes. to base the identities of ourselves on our social attributes and the identity of everybody else on their social attributes as well. And so what it does is it breaks classes down to degrees in which a person has been victimized, degrees in which a person has been oppressed. And the majority class becomes the oppressor. And so this involves making these broad, very general, overly general generalizations. For example, it assumes that all people from one class become oppressors, and that's their common experience. And it assumes that all people of a different class have become the oppressed, and everybody here has the same exact experience. But this explains why the worst thing to be in our day and age is to be a straight, heterosexual, male Christian. I'll add one more, and have no hair. Talk about oppression. That's why. That's why, because that's the majority class. And so, the majority class is the oppressor, according to intersectionality. And when intersectionality reaches its logical conclusion, what you see is people who constantly, and around every corner, feel oppressed. And so they're holding on to resentment. They're holding on to bitterness. They're letting it fester. They're holding on to unforgiveness. Intersectionality is completely opposed, diametrically opposed, to the idea of freely forgiving somebody. It's aimed at storing up vengeance instead. It's aimed at shaming anyone who has done you wrong, taking justice into your own hands. And so you get ridiculous things like one well-known theologian saying that his white brothers and sisters need to acknowledge that their parents were the ones who killed Martin Luther King Jr. Even though My parents didn't know Martin Luther King Jr., much less get close to him. But they were part of the system. And so we need, in his opinion, in this prominent theologian's opinion, we need to repent of being white. These are not biblical categories. This guy has a loud voice in the evangelical world. But these aren't even biblical categories. I mean, what would it even look like for me to repent of being white? At what point would my repentance be enough? I don't even know what that would look like. These are not biblical values. This is a worldly philosophy that is rooted firmly in Marxism, which is an atheistic worldview, and ultimately promotes the very antithesis of forgiving freely. It encourages someone to base their identity on the degree to which they have been a victim or to which they have been oppressed. And so it promotes class warfare, not forgiveness. And this is the system that leads one doctor, I saw in a documentary just a couple of weeks ago, to say that the milk industry is guilty of participating in systematic racism. The milk industry. It's why there's so much tension in our culture right now. Gender tension, racial tension, all kinds of tension because everybody is focusing on the injustices and they're digging up all the injustices that they may have buried in their lives at some point. Joseph teaches us so much about the beauty and the necessity of forgiveness and the means that God has provided, which enable us to not only forgive, but to do so freely, without conditions and without stipulations. Whatever your portion in life may be, friends, God is sovereign over it. It's what God has ordained. And I know that every single one of us has sustained injustices. Every single one of us. No exceptions. We've all been sinned against. We've all experienced some type of injustice. But we're also taught by our Lord how to pray. And one of the things when the disciples asked Him this question, how should we pray? He said this, forgive us of our trespasses. How completely? as we forgive those who trespass against us. And if the degree to which we forgive our debts, those who have sinned against us, if the degree to which we forgive reflects how much God forgives us, then Joseph was forgiven greatly by God. Do you see that? Because he's forgiven his brothers completely and freely. Let's continue, verses nine to 15. This is a rich passage. I wanted to get the whole chapter out today, but it wasn't gonna happen. Verses nine to 15, Joseph continues. He says, hurry up and go to my father and say to him, thus says your son Joseph, God has made me Lord of all Egypt. Come down to me, do not delay. You shall live in the land of Goshen. And you shall be near me, you and your children, and your children's children, and your flocks, and your herds, and all that you have. There I will also provide for you. For there are still five years of famine to come, and you and your household and all that you have would be impoverished. Behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth which is speaking to you. Now, "'You must tell my father of all my splendor in Egypt "'and all that you have seen, "'and you must hurry and bring my father down here.' "'Then he fell on his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, "'and Benjamin wept on his neck. "'He kissed all his brothers and wept on them, "'and afterward his brothers talked with him.'" So Joseph sends the brothers back to Canaan to retrieve Jacob, their father. And they're to tell Jacob what has become of Joseph. All Jacob knows is what the brothers have told him, and that is that he was devoured by some type of wild animal. But he's supposed to go, they're supposed to go back and tell him he's down in Egypt. And they will come back and that they will dwell in the land of Goshen, which is near Joseph. There Joseph can bless them. There Joseph, while they're near to him, can provide for them through the rest of the famine, which still has five years to go. We should understand that Goshen was located in the Eastern Nile Delta, which would have been a place where the land was still sort of fertile. It would have been a good place. It would have been a place that in normal climates would be very fertile. As one commentator notes, quote, the picture of Joseph is a picture of restoration, not just the restoration of the good fortune of Jacob, but as a picture, the restoration of the blessing that was promised through the offspring of Jacob. So Jacob hugs his brother. It says he falls on Benjamin's neck and weeps on his neck. He grabs him and he embraces him and he kisses his brother. He kisses all of his brothers. He could have allowed all this bitterness that he justifiably could have had to fester, and it would have completely destroyed him, and it would have completely destroyed the family. But instead, he forgives the ones who had treated him so unjustly, and he forgives them freely. They still haven't apologized, but they didn't need to. The process of reconciliation is complete. And in that, God is glorified. There's no guilt, there's no shame, there's no condemnation, there's no hostility, there's no animosity. There's only love and forgiveness and sweet, blessed union. The idea is that the brothers are more than forgiven here. Joseph not only forgives them, but he promises to continue blessing them and providing for them into the future. And really, in a sense, this is all a foreshadowing of the grace and forgiveness and blessed union that we have with God through Christ, isn't it? James Boyce. He was a great preacher of yesteryear. He outlines four parallels between the way that Joseph forgave his brothers and the way that Christ forgives us. The first is that Joseph knew his brothers before they knew him. When they came down to Egypt with their long, bushy Hebrew beards and their thick Hebrew dialect, Joseph was able to identify them immediately. How long did it take for them to finally know him? to know that this viceroy was him. We don't know, but he didn't just know them. He also knew their sin. In the same way, you have to know that Jesus knows us before we know him. He knows all the sin that we've tried to hide. He knows all the sin that we've tried to bury. He knows all the sin that we've tried to just forget about it, and he is aware of it. Secondly, Joseph loved his brothers, and he loved them before they loved him. They hated him. It specifically tells us in the text when we are first introduced to Joseph and his brothers that they hated him, but he loved his brothers before they loved him. In fact, he loved them while they still hated him. And in a similar way, 1 John says, we love because he, because God first loved us. If Joseph hadn't loved his brothers, he could have either ignored them or punished them for what they had done to him. He treated them harshly, yes, but only as a means by which God would grant them repentance. And in the same way, Hebrews tells us that God disciplines those whom he loves. So learn from Joseph's example that God uses discipline and God will use harsh trials and circumstances to express his fatherly care for us because those things are meant, intended to turn us from our sin and toward his grace in Christ Jesus. Third, Joseph saved them before they were even aware of the fact that they were being saved, or what they were being saved from. They had no idea how long the famine was gonna go. Joseph did though. If God has saved you, if God has poured out his love and his mercy on you, it's because he has ordained your salvation from eternity. The book of Revelation tells us that the book of life, that is the book that lists those who are saved, was written from the foundations of the world. Ephesians chapter one tells us that God chose us in him before the foundation of the world. Fourth and finally, Joseph called his brothers to draw near. when they would have rather just run away and run from run away from him as far as they possibly could. If the choice had been theirs to make, he instructed them to come near to him and they obeyed. In the same way. Jesus calls out to his sheep and he's promised that his sheep hear his voice. And so if you hear his voice and you're one of his sheep. You recognize it. And you come. Joseph had every right to judge and condemn his brothers. And in the same way, Jesus had every right to judge and condemn you while you were in your sin. But instead, He calls you near to Him. John 10 verse 4 says, And the sheep follow Him because they know His voice. You see, it doesn't matter how wrongly you've been sinned against by someone. You've sinned against someone too. And your sin against that someone was unimaginably greater than the greatest sin that anyone has ever sinned against you or committed against you. We have all sinned against the Lord Jesus Christ, haven't we? We've all sinned in thought, word, and deed, and we've all done so not only willfully, but repeatedly. And so the question is, for those who are in Christ, have you been treated unfairly? I mean, fair means reaping what you sow, right? That's what justice is. It's reaping what you sow. Fairness would demand that you pay for all that you have done. But yes, you have been treated unfairly. You've been treated unfairly by God because while you have done nothing but earn His wrath through your sin, He's made the offer of redemption and complete free forgiveness by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. How great, how enormous is the forgiveness that God offers through Christ? It is greater than any other. It is greater than any other. Relationships are actually the most important thing in life. And the reason I say that is because the two greatest commandments, to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and the second, to love your neighbor as you love yourself, both of these two commandments involve having right relationships, first, toward God, and secondly, toward others. I'll close with this. Paul said, God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting their transgressions or not counting their trespasses against him. And he has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, Therefore that the application of that principle therefore we are Ambassadors for Christ as though God were making an appeal through us we beg you on behalf of Christ Be reconciled to God 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verses 19 and 20 See forgiveness is necessary for maintaining relationships And the way to be forgiven by God is to come in faith to Christ Jesus in him alone the forgiveness of God is offered But here's the thing, if God doesn't count our trespasses against us, what right do we have to hold somebody else's trespasses against them? We don't have the right to do that at all. God has granted us all the things necessary for body and soul, including the strength, wisdom, and conviction to forgive. We can forgive and we can do so freely because God has given us all that is necessary in his sovereign providence for us to do so. It's made possible by keeping a right perspective of God's sovereign, providential care for, and grace toward those who are in Christ Jesus. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for forgiveness. We read in your word about how great a salvation we have And we must remember, Father, and we thank you for showing us that a great salvation requires a great forgiveness. And so we thank you that you have forgiven us. Even though there's nothing that we could do to warrant your forgiveness, even though there's nothing that we could do to ever deserve your grace, you nevertheless cover us with the shed blood of Christ. You took our sins away from us and You put them on Your only Son. And You crushed Him in our place. And at the same time, Lord, we praise You and we thank You that You took His righteousness, the very righteousness that You possess, and You put it on us in the place of our sins. That we could stand before You forgiven, innocent, justified. And so we pray, God, that as we come to a deeper understanding of this, that we would be a people who would be characterized by an eager willingness to forgive and to do so freely. Thank you for the union that we have with you in Christ Jesus. And thank you for the union that we have with one another. Give us the strength and conviction to maintain and to even grow those relationships, knowing that one of the things that we'll need is a willingness to forgive. And we thank you that everything that we need for that, you have provided. That Christ will be glorified in every aspect of our lives, including forgiving those who sin against us. So teach us, Lord, to walk in your ways, to love your truth, and to obey, that Christ will be glorified and we will be edified. In Jesus' name, amen.