Our scripture reading is from Genesis 45. Hear now the holy word of God. Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him. And he cried, cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him while Joseph made himself known to his brethren. And he wept aloud, and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph, doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him, for they were troubled at his presence. And Joseph said unto his brethren, come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph, your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now, therefore, be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that ye sold me hither, for God did send me before you to preserve life. For these two years hath the famine been in the land, and yet there are five years in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve you of austerity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now, it was not you that sent me hither, but God. And he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt. Come down unto me, tarry not. And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou and thy children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast. And there will I nourish thee, for yet there are five years of famine, lest thou and thy household, and all that thou hast, come to poverty. And behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you. And ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen. And ye shall haste, and bring down my father hither. And he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept. And Benjamin wept upon his neck. Moreover, he kissed all his brethren and wept upon them. And after that, his brethren talked with him. And the fame thereof was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, Joseph's brethren are come. And it pleased Pharaoh well and his servants. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, say unto thy brethren, this do ye, lay to your beasts, and go, get you into the land of Canaan, and take your father and your households, and come unto me, and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land. Now thou art commanded, this do ye, take you wagons out of the land of Egypt for your little ones, and for your lives, and bring your father and come. Also regard not your stuff, for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours. And the children of Israel did so. And Joseph gave them wagons according to the commandment of Pharaoh and gave them provision for the way. To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment, but to Benjamin he gave 300 pieces of silver and five changes of raiment. And to his father he sent after this manor ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt, and ten she-asses laden with corn and bread and meat for his father by the way. So he sent his brethren away, and they departed. And he said unto them, See that ye fall not out by the way. And they went up out of Egypt, and came to the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father, and told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not. And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them. And when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob, their father, revived. And Israel said, it is enough. Joseph, my son, is yet alive. I will go and see him before I die. Amen. May God bless the reading and now the preaching of his word. You may be seated. What a blessing it is on a Sabbath day like this one to be fed from Christ and to feed on Christ Himself. Feeding on Christ as we hear about Him through the Word and feeding on Christ as we take of the Lord's Supper through the bread and the cup. And Joseph's brothers received a wonderful pardon, a wonderful blessing from this one, their brother, who signifies, who typifies Christ to us. You think about how Joseph reveals himself. He revealed himself in order to pardon them, just as Christ has revealed himself to us, how he came to earth, and how he makes himself known to us even now in his word, in order to pardon us. You can think of how John 3, 17 tells us that Christ did not come into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved. through Him. And so God, Christ, has revealed Himself to His people throughout the ages, speaking to them at certain times in dreams and visions and prophets, and also through Scripture. He has revealed Himself 2,000 years ago in the person of Jesus Christ on the earth. And now we have Scripture. We can look at what the record of God's Word tells us about Christ. So we can speak of these two words. We can speak of the Word of God and God the Word. We believe in God the Word. We are saved by Him. Through Him we have pardon. And we know this through the Word of God. Well, I believe that we see Christ pictured for us today in his pardon with this message that is titled Joseph's Pardon. the Lord's help, we will go through this chapter and note some things of exposition, of doctrine, and then of application. What are some things we can learn in terms of exposition in this chapter? Well, simply, we can divide this chapter in two parts. First of all, Joseph's revelation to his brothers. So we see here Joseph's pardon, and first he reveals himself and orders a pardon. So Joseph reveals himself to his brothers in verses 1 through 15. And first of all, we see here the revelation itself. We see the revelation itself in verses 1 through 3. So what has Joseph just experienced? He has tested his brothers. His brothers have proved themselves through this test. And Judah stands up. He makes this elegant, eloquent, and powerful speech, this gesture of atonement on behalf of his brother. And Joseph sits there, and his brothers don't know who he is. And at this point he cannot contain himself. Verse one says he, Joseph could not refrain himself before all the net stood by him. And he cried, cause every man to go out from me. said Joseph, is overcome with emotion as he witnesses this scene. He can't contain his emotion anymore, and so all of them go out. And Joseph's brothers don't know what's going to come. They see all of Joseph's servants leave the room. And they are left in this one room alone with this man who is the Lord over all Egypt, with this man who has spoken to them harshly, who has imprisoned them, who has kept Simeon in prison for a while. And now they find themselves face to face with this man who has commanded everyone else to go out. Perhaps they had no idea what was going to come. Perhaps who knows what was going through their mind. Maybe they were expecting more judgment, a fierce judgment to come down from Joseph. But what happens? He wept aloud in verse 2, or if you have a marginal note like my Bible does, he gave forth his voice in weeping. It appears like before he utters any words, he is weeping, he is sobbing profusely. The brothers have no idea what is going on. until he speaks. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph, doth my father yet live? And how can you imagine what is going through the mind of his brothers? We can't. We can't. Most of us, I'm sure all of us, have never experienced anything even like this. How can we even picture how they could process something like this? As one preacher said, it's like all this data in their minds that they have built up to describe this person and the way that they have thought of him suddenly comes crashing down as he says, I am Joseph. And also notice for the first time he speaks to them in the Hebrew tongue. Chapter 42 tells us that he spoke to them through an interpreter. But now he speaks to them in the language that they spoke growing up. The language of Hebrew. The language of their fathers. this great ruler that had been known to them by the name Zaphnath-haneah, begin speaking to him with the words, I am Joseph. In the Hebrew language, what a powerful, what a magnificent revelation this is of Joseph to his brothers. And as the text says that they could not, it says that they were troubled at his presence or that they were terrified at his presence. Of course they would be. How could they process such a word as this, such a revelation as this? So there's the revelation itself in verses one through three. Then secondly, under this, there's Joseph's reassurance. So the revelation, and now the reassurance. And I'll also note, I'm following another preacher's outline somewhat loosely through some of these points. So his reassurance in verses four through eight. Now, when Joseph begins speaking to his brothers, how does he begin? What does he say? He comes at them with love. He comes to them with love and kindness. He emphasizes God's sovereignty and God's goodness in this plan. Does Joseph begin by indicting them for their sin? And what a wicked sin they committed by selling him to slavery. Does Joseph begin by even divulging to them the depths of his own suffering, as he could have talked about how terribly hard it was, that journey to Egypt for the first time, how he suffered as a slave in Platyphor's house, how he suffered in prison, how he suffered a false accusation from Platyphor's wife. Does he go through all those things as he begins to speak to his brothers? No. Joseph comes. The first words out of his mouth after he reveals himself are about God's goodness, the words of love, words of kindness, words of reassurance. And we have noted as we've had a few sermons on Genesis how Joseph and Judah figure prominently here. and how both of these men are really prominent, important figures in the book of Genesis. We have seen how Judah has acted as a head of his brothers, kind of stepping up and acting on behalf of the group. And we saw in chapter 37, as we noted this morning, how it is Judah's plan to get Joseph sent to Egypt. But why did Judah get Joseph sent to Egypt? What does Joseph say in verse seven? And God set me before you to preserve you of posterity in the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. And so Joseph is recognizing that I was sent here to save you. So perhaps we can say that Joseph, excuse me, Judah sent Joseph to Egypt so that Joseph could save Judah. And in general, these brothers sent Joseph to Egypt so that Joseph could then save them. We see God's greatness, God's goodness in a plan like this. And certainly, as Joseph will say later, what they meant for evil, God meant, God intended for good. We can also note how Joseph uses the word remnant in verse seven. Now, perhaps your translation doesn't say the word remnant in verse seven, even as mine does not, but the word for posterity is a word for remnant. You can translate this to put for you a remnant in the earth. Now, does that word sound familiar, the word remnant? I believe it's covenant language, because the prophets are going to use this word pretty often to describe the faithful people of God. And I have a number of texts here that are written down. I'll give you two. In Micah 2.12, there's a prophecy about Christ who will gather his revenant. And in Micah 7.18, it says that Let's see, what is the language in Micah 7.18? It speaks about the remnant of God's heritage and how He does, how He passes over their transgressions. So this is a covenant term. It describes God's special people. And it's found here. This is the first place in scripture that this word remnant is used. As a matter of fact, it's the only occurrence of the word in the entire Pentateuch. In all the books of Moses, from Genesis to Deuteronomy, this word for remnant, for God's people, is used only here. The prophets will pick up this word and use it to describe God's people. I think that's an important thing here to note. We're looking at the church and how God is preserving the church through Joseph, and even through the means of getting him sold into Egypt. So we see Joseph's revelation, the revelation itself, and then Joseph's reassurance as part of how he reveals himself to his brothers. And then thirdly, Joseph's summons in verse 19. And now in this section, we can note how as Joseph is speaking to them, he begins and he ends with the mention of his father, of bringing his father down. So here, Joseph is summoning, he's giving a summons for his father to come. In verse 9, the beginning of the section of this speech, We read, haste ye and go up to my father and say unto him, thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me a ward of all Egypt. Come down unto me, tarry not. And in verse 13, the end of Joseph's speech, how does he end the speech? And ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt and of all that ye have seen. And ye shall haste and bring down my father. hither." So here, Joseph is very concerned with his father. We noted this morning at the end of Judah's speech, he speaks about his father, and the last word in his speech in the whole chapter is father. And here also, Joseph is very concerned with his father and ends the speech talking about his father also. And I can see an ironic reversal here. Now, how does Jacob, earlier in Genesis, describe what is going to happen to him with the news of Joseph's death, or what he thinks of Joseph's death, or as he thinks about the possibility of Benjamin not coming back. What is the language that he uses? But going down to Sheol, of going down to The grave. And here we have some similar language that's used. The words grave and shield are not used here. This is a very positive image. But nevertheless, the language in verse 9 and 13 is that of Jacob coming down. And first, in chapter 37, he speaks of coming down in mourning over Joseph's alleged death. And now, in chapter 45, you have the idea of Jacob coming down in joy over Joseph's life. We see something similar in chapter 42, verse 38, which I alluded to when he speaks about Benjamin. And he says, if mischief befall him by the way in which ye go, then ye shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. So we have a contrast, I think, between the way that Jacob sees what would happen to these beloved sons, and now that he sees that his beloved son is alive, he is indeed going to go down, to go down to Egypt. And these two ideas are connected, although his going down is a good thing. The Lord even tells him to go down in the next chapter. In scripture, in the Old Testament, Egypt is a picture. It is a symbol of the grave, a symbol of Sheol, from which God's people need a resurrection. Just as a person, an individual, would need a resurrection from the grave, God's people need a resurrection from Egypt. And that is exactly what is going to happen as the story unfolds. So as Joseph reveals himself to his brothers, we see the revelation itself, Joseph's reassurance, and then his summons. But we not only see his revelation to his brothers, but also to his father. We see this in verses 16 through 28. First of all, here we see Joseph's resources in verses 16 through 24. So as you read through this section, you'll read all of these things that Joseph commands be taken up to his father. And why are all of these things to be taken up for Jacob to see? There to be a testimony that stands behind his summons, a testimony to the truth. So Jacob will not only hear this report from his sons, but he will also see the proof the proof that is there behind all of these things. We see this in verse 27. And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them. And when he saw the wagons, which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob, their father, revived. So it's here as a testimony. And also note how Joseph gives them clothing in verse 22. To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment, but to Benjamin he gave 300 pieces of silver and five changes of raiment. You can see how fitting it is because in the previous chapter the brothers tore their garments. out of sorrow and repentance. And now Joseph is clothing them. He is giving them garments. But we should also note how the brothers treated Joseph. What did they do to him in chapter 37? They stripped him of his cloak, of his coat. And how does he respond? Does he strip them also of their cloaks and keep that property for himself? No. The one who was stripped of his coat now gives them clothes. He clothes them. And doesn't this show us the Lord Jesus Christ or show us something about him? He also was stripped of his garment when he went to be crucified. And what does he do to sinners, to repentant sinners? But He clothes them with the garment of His righteousness. Isaiah speaks of this. Isaiah 61 10 gives us the image of being clothed with the garment of righteousness. And this is what happens with the Lord Jesus Christ. This is how He treats sinners who come to Him. And then Joseph gives them a wise warning when he says, see that ye fall not out, by the way. And even in our own language today, falling out with someone is, that depicts a relationship or a friendship that has gone off course somewhat. And Joseph knows something of their character. He knows that they're not perfect. He knows that conflict is possible. So he gives them this wise warning. And so even after this great moment of forgiveness and restoration, He gives them the warning that they will be kind with each other. He has shown them kindness and he wants this kindness to be with them. So Joseph's resources and then Joseph's resurrection. Verses 25 through 28. Why do I say this shows us Joseph's resurrection? Because the text says that Jacob tells us, Jacob says, Joseph my son is yet alive. So in the mind of Jacob, he has seen Joseph as having been dead, and now he sees Joseph as being alive. And it says also that Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not, verse 26, which reminds me of the resurrection of Christ. Luke 24, 41 says, they still did not believe for joy. He had a hard time believing this word that was given to him. So Joseph's resurrection, or maybe we can also say this is Joseph's resurrection of Jacob, and also Jacob's resurrection. The text tells us the spirit of Jacob, their father, revived. So both of these men in some way are depicted as having been dead and now alive, even if for Jacob, I believe, it just says the spirit of Jacob, their father, revived. And note how the text tells us in verse 28, and Israel said, it is enough. The text has called him Jacob. even in the previous verse. But what is he called in verse 28? Is he called by his old name? The name that he was given, the name that he was called as a rascal, as one who worked mischief. He is called by his new name, Israel. He is acting in faith. It is enough. Joseph, my son, is yet alive. I will go and see him before I die. So the text shows us Joseph's revelation to his brothers, and Joseph's revelation to his father, and he reveals himself as one who grants pardon, as one who grants forgiveness. As for doctrine, what can we learn from this text? What are some doctrines that we can go through? Let us speak again about Christ. We cannot speak too much of Him, can we? So for the doctrine of Christ, we confess that He is one divine person with two natures. This is a classic formula. We have known this since the days of the ancient church, and we have said that Christ is one person with two natures, a divine nature and a human nature. Jesus Christ was manifested in the flesh. He also shows himself to be God, and this is pictured so well on the mountain of Transfiguration. The disciples had known Jesus in the flesh. They had seen him as a man. And he doesn't, in his human nature, he doesn't stop being human on the Mount of Transfiguration, but something of the splendor of his divine nature shines forth to them. So Joseph reveals himself, something of his true character, of his true person to his brothers. And Jesus reveals something of his true nature, of his divine nature to his disciples on the mountain of transfiguration. So we have the formula that Christ is one divine person, one person with two natures. a human nature and a divine nature. And we can also ask the question, how do both of these natures relate to the person? That's a good question. As we speak of one person and two natures, do each of those natures, the human nature and the divine nature, relate to the person in the same way? Can you say that they are symmetrical or are they asymmetrical? Well, they do not relate to the one person in the same way. And that is because from eternity, Christ is God. There was never a time in which Christ was not God and beyond time, outside of time, he is God and always never will cease to be God. But in time, He took to himself a human nature and the one divine person operated on earth and now operates in heaven. We can speak that way. It sounds a little bit clunky, but he does through the human nature. And so Christ is one divine person with two natures and the two natures do not relate to the person in the same way. But we can also ask the question, what is the relationship of each nature to each other? How does the divine relate to the human? We have an answer on this in our confession. Perhaps my favorite paragraph in the Westminster Confession of Faith, I said this to a friend recently, is chapter 8, paragraph 2. This is the chapter on Christ, the mediator, and it tells us that these two natures were inseparably joined together in one person without conversion, composition, or confusion. Now, what is the basic understanding of all three of those terms when you put them together? And it is this, that the two natures are distinct. They always have been distinct. As long as the human nature has been there, they always will be distinct. So the divine never stops to be divine, and the human never stops to be human. The divine never takes on the properties, the attributes of humanity, and the human nature is always true humanity. It never becomes divine. And so we have that distinction that is there. And then we can also ask the question, what does this look like? Or in other words, more simple terms, how does this work with one divine person with these two natures? Obviously he is divine nature and also a human nature. Let's look at a couple attributes of God. One of these is His eternity, which I mentioned a moment ago. And God is eternal. God is autemporal, which is where the word eternal comes from. It's outside of time. And this must be the case. But this is not true for humanity. This is not true for any creature. And so this is impossible for us to comprehend, but at least we can state that the divine nature of the sun, the second person of the trinity, always outside of time. While the human nature was walking on the earth inside of time as true humanity, the divine person which upholds the human nature is outside of time. We can't comprehend that. It's a great mystery. That is a deep truth. But it's true, and we should confess it. This should cause us to worship God, to appreciate what He has done in the incarnation. But what about the doctrine of God's immutability? The fact that he cannot change, which includes the fact that God cannot suffer. God cannot die. God cannot undergo suffering. This is true of all three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. And it is true of the Son, that he could not change, that he could not suffer, even as the human nature of Christ. underwent the suffering of the cross. God the Son, the divine nature of the second person of the Trinity, completely unchanged, unmoved, unmovable, unchangeable, even as his human nature suffered immensely on the cross of Calvary. What an incomprehensible, marvelous truth that is. What a great God we serve who has ordained our salvation to take place in this way. We can marvel and meditate upon the incarnation, the great truth of Christ. God become man for the rest of our lives, for the rest of heaven's everlasting days. And never come to the end of it, can we? And never fully comprehend it. We can't. And we shouldn't. We are creatures. These things are above us. But God has revealed to us truth about this, and the truth that we can know. Let us lay a hold of and worship Him for it. The doctrine of Christ. Secondly, the doctrine of salvation. So Joseph's brothers become reunited with their father. They had lived a lie for so long, a lie that I'm sure estranged them in some way from their father. And how is it that they finally become reconciled with him? It is through this man, through Joseph, through Jacob's beloved son, that his brothers could approach their father. And so we also, you can speak of us perhaps as children of the Father in some way, as a somewhat universal Father over all mankind who had fallen. And it is through His beloved Son that we become reconciled to the Father. There is no other way for us to come to God. for us to come to the Father, but through Jesus Christ. He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by me. As we speak of salvation in this text, we can also note how Joseph both suffered the wrong, and he is the one who provides the means of reconciliation. Both of those things, he undergoes them both. Joseph was the wronged party. He was wronged, and yet he took on himself to make provision for this reconciliation. He's the one who sends all these wagons full of goods back to Jacob. And Jesus also is the one who was wronged, who is wronged, and the one who made provision for reconciliation, who suffered as none of us can, And this suffering accomplishes reconciliation for those who wronged him. We can also see this about salvation, that the brothers come, they confess to their father their sin. When they finally come back to him, they have some big explaining to do. But how does the father view them when they come bringing this news? Is he a harsh father? Does the text describe Jacob to us as filled with fury for number one, their lie, but two, and perhaps I would say more importantly, the evil of selling his beloved son as a slave. Do we see any of that in Joseph at all? No, we don't. So the father Jacob, he sees his wayward children confessing their sin, their wicked crimes, but he sees them not through the lens of their sinfulness, but through the rich supply from Joseph and through seeing his life. The Heavenly Father sees us wayward children who come to Him confessing our sin, not as those dressed in our sinful rags, as those about to receive His harsh fury and judgment, but He sees us robed in the pure righteousness of Christ and all of His riches. God does not impute our sins to us. He does not account us to be sinners. If we are in Christ, God sees us as though we were as righteous as Christ, which is why God can let us into heaven. not because of our own good works, which we have earned before his sight, but because of the works, the perfect merit of Jesus Christ and his righteousness. And it is in him, it is through this lens that God the Father can view us and can declare us righteous and through which we could have reconciliation and a restored relationship to him. So we see the doctrine of salvation. Another doctrine, and one that's connected with this, is that of the law and the gospel. The law and the gospel. Now, there is a proper usage of both of these things, and this is the idea that the law gives commandments to obey, and we cannot keep God's commandments perfectly. That's what would be required for us to enter into heaven if God would let us in based on our own works, but we cannot do that. And so when we look at the law, we see ourselves as condemned. But then when we hear the gospel, we hear an answer for us, an answer to that condemnation, the good news that Christ has kept the law and because of his righteousness, we can be saved. A proper usage of both. So with the law, it is used for conviction of sin. There are different uses of the law of God. One of these we call a pedagogical use. A use of teaching. That the law is used to teach us about our sin and misery and how we need a savior, how we need the gospel. We see this usage in the New Testament. Let me read to you from Galatians 3.24. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. So the law shows us Christ. The law is to bring us to Christ for salvation. And the word schoolmaster there can be translated, well, it is a pedagogue, I think. It is one who is leading us, who is bringing us to Christ for salvation. So the law is used in this way in scripture, and there is a reformed catechism that I believe also uses the law in this way. That is the Heidelberg Catechism. How many of you are familiar with this, or at least Heidelberg Catechism question two? How many things are necessary for you to know that in this comfort you may live and die happily? The answer. Three things. The first, how great my sin and misery is. The second, how I am redeemed from all my sins and misery. The third, how I am to be thankful to God for such redemption. In the first of these, when we learn how great our sin and misery is, we see the function of the law to show us our sin and misery. And secondly, we see something of the gospel, which is how we are redeemed from all of our sins and misery. So the law comes as conviction of sin, that's what it brings, and the gospel is offered as hope of salvation. There are several examples of this in scripture. So Jesus gives the law to the rich young ruler, does he not? So the rich young ruler comes to him in Mark 10 and he asks what he needs to do to be saved. Now does Jesus tell him, there's nothing you can do to be saved, you just need to believe in me? Actually, no. Jesus gives him the law, Mark 10, starting in 17. And when he was gone forth into the way, there come one running and kneeled to him and asked, good master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments. Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, defraud not, honor thy father and mother. What this man needed was the law. He needed to be shown his sin. And that's what Jesus does. He gives him the law. We can also see this about the law of Moses. Paul writes in Romans 5.20, moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. It says the law entered that the offense might abound. And also, as we speak of law and gospel, there is a proper balance of both. And it takes wisdom to know when someone needs to hear the law and when someone needs to hear the gospel. So obviously, with Jesus, we don't see him giving the rich young ruler the gospel. He needed the law. He needed to be broken over his sin. And so we should say that there are going to be times today when that is necessary, when people who are self-righteous need to know that they are not righteous, need to know that they are terrible, wicked sinners, that they cannot keep and have not kept God's law, that they are doomed to hell forever. There are also times when you do and must give the gospel to people. If someone comes and he is broken and weeping over his sin, we see the Lord's conviction in his heart. Doesn't someone like this need the gospel? They should hear the gospel and receive it and come to Christ. And in a very practical way, if someone comes to you, perhaps you're in some position of authority. Maybe you're giving someone counsel and you're talking to someone who's broken over his sin. He sees that it's sinful and he is weeping over it. Is this the time to come and to be harsh with him? To show him all the more the depths of his sinfulness? Well, certainly, don't skirt over his sinfulness. Don't make excuses for his sin for him. Don't make light of it. But a person like this needs reassurance. They need to hear pardon if they are a believer that God forgives their sin. As we read this morning from 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So we have a few doctrines that we can learn and also a few applications. So let us look to the one who holds out his arms to sinners. Look at Joseph who pardons his brothers and especially to Christ who pardons all the sinners who come to him. And just as Joseph's brothers are pardoned when they are finally broken, what else could Judah say than that he offers up his own life and slavery in Egypt? And after being broken, Joseph now comes and offers reconciliation. And so also, be the repentant sinner who sees yourself deserving of nothing. And now ready to be forgiven if you have not already and come to Christ and receive his pardon. Another application. is this, not to make God's sovereignty an excuse for your sin. Perhaps this could be a temptation. And perhaps if we were like Joseph's brothers, we would have thought this way also. So Joseph says in verse five and then in verse seven, now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that ye sold me hither, for God did send me before you to preserve life. And he says in verse seven, and God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth and to save your lives by such a great deliverance. So Joseph's brothers couldn't just say that God designed all of this, that this was all a part of God's plan. And look at all the good that came out of it. Look at what the good sovereign hand of God has done. He designed this. We were doing what we were supposed to do in God's plan. Does any of that make a good excuse? No. It may be true, to use Joseph's words later, that God intended it for good, but it's also true that they intended it for evil. So also, we today, we can look at times where our own sin may have brought about or may have been used for some good in this world for others or even for ourselves. But it's still no excuse. We still need to own our sin, to be honest with ourselves and honest before the Lord, and repenting and turning from it, and regretting our sin. A third application here is that of forgiveness. That is, when others wrong you, and when they come to you sincerely for forgiveness, and they are repentant, you should forgive them. This is exactly what we see here with Joseph. It's what also we should do. I think of the parable in Matthew 18 where you have two men who are forgiven of a debt. The man who, let's see if I can think of it. There's a man who's forgiven of a great debt, a massive debt, and he shouldn't have been forgiven of this debt. He couldn't pay it back, but he was anyway. Well, then he had someone who owed him something, and does he forgive that person? It was such a small amount compared to what he had been forgiven. He does not forgive that person. And now that's an illustration of what God does for us and how we should respond. If God has forgiven us of such a great sin debt against Him, of an infinite sin debt, how can we possibly hold back forgiveness from others who come repenting to us? Let us not do that. Let us be like Christ. Let us be like Joseph here, who has obviously been forgiven of God, and now he forgives his brothers. But what if someone else thinks that you have wronged him? What should you do? Well, in Matthew chapter 5, Jesus talks about this. He says, even if you are going to offer your gift on the altar, and then you remember that someone has something against you, You go, and you make things right with your brother, and then you come and offer your gift. So reconciliation goes the other way also. Whether you have offended someone else, or whether someone else thinks you have offended him, you need to go and make things right. And this is true for the church. This is true for you. Let God's mercy in forgiving you now overflow in you, being ready and willing to give forgiveness to others. And as you do this, to use the words of Joseph, see that ye fall not out by the way. May God add his blessing to the preaching of his word. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank thee once more for feeding us from thy word as we read about the pardon of thy servant, Joseph, which he granted. And also remember the pardon which comes through the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us relish in that. Let us meditate upon it. Let us be deeply thankful for the great forgiveness which is found in Jesus Christ. And even as we are fed From the word, let us also feed upon Christ and his holy meal. This we pray in his name. Amen.