this morning, it's much appreciated. If you turn with me please to Genesis chapter 42, our Bible reading. Genesis chapter 42. In our previous studies, in the life of Joseph, we considered how he was taken from the prison and made prime minister, all in the matter of one day. It was one of the most radical turnarounds that we read about in the word of God. And from that state of humiliation as a prisoner to his state of exaltation as the prime minister, he reminded us of our heavenly Joseph, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who reigns and the one who exercises all power and all authority in the name of his father. Joseph, of course, is a wonderful type of Christ. It's good to look for Christ, no matter where you read the Bible, but as you read the life story of Joseph, you come face to face with the glories of Christ. In his advancement and in his preferment, we see him raised from the prison, from his state of humiliation to an estate of exaltation, and thus we see Christ the one who is Lord of Lords and King of Kings. And to his knee, remember, every knee bowed to Joseph in Egypt. And to his knee, the knee of Christ, one day everyone is going to bend and bow because he can meet the needs of all. The seven years of plenty that Joseph had predicted to Pharaoh in chapter 41, soon came to an end. I think that's something men and women are apt to forget very quickly. The plenty is not always forever. And they came to a time of famine. And in that time of famine, Joseph's planning was to come into its own. And the people we read in the eighth year, you would have thought they would have put by something. But in the eighth year, they were famished. And they cried to Pharaoh, for bread as their ruler. And what did Pharaoh simply tell them? Go unto Joseph and do as he says unto you. And again, the parallels between Joseph and our heavenly provider, they're just so striking. To those who have spiritual hunger, to those who are famishing in their soul, the simple direction today is just go to Jesus. There's nobody else, none other than our heavenly Joseph. To him has been given a name that we were singing about, which is above every other name. And it doesn't matter what your need is today, be you saint or sinner alike, God commands you, go to the heavenly Joseph. And whatsoever he says unto you, believe it. And whatsoever he says unto you, obey it. And if you believe it and obey it, you'll survive the famine, the great judgment that is to come. We've been reading chapter 42 and it records for us the pathway that brought Joseph's brethren, his brothers down into Egypt to eventually kneel before the one that they sold into slavery. Some of those steps along the pathway were very painful for those men. and caused them great personal sorrow for their own past misdeeds. And what were those steps along the way that brought his brothers to repentance? I believe, in an equivalent manner, they're the exact same steps that bring us to faith and repentance in the Lord Jesus Christ. And again, the parallels are very striking and are very obvious, and we're going to consider them with you in our study of Genesis 42, verse 1 to 28, that was read to us, because that pathway to repentance is still the same pathway, the same pathway, to faith and repentance in the Lord Jesus Christ. So we're just going to look at these verses as a whole and very quickly go down them. Somebody said to me this week, how are you going to manage with your voice? I said, I don't know how I'm going to manage with my voice. But they said, could you not just say a wee word? So maybe it's just going to be a wee word, but I hope we'll get through all the words and the voice will hold up. So firstly, from verse one to verse five, I want to suggest to you, that God often uses unexpected circumstances to revive our consciences. Joseph's family didn't realize in Canaan that the famine was also severe in Egypt. And little did Joseph realize in Egypt that the famine that he had predicted would not only affect the River Nile all of the plains of the River Nile, but the whole countries round about them were not exempted. And eventually, hunger pangs drove Jacob to call his clan, his family together, and they had to do something about it. Verse 1 tells us that Joseph saw that there was corn in Egypt. Now, of course, the word that is used here for saw is the word for heard. And when Jacob saw, when he heard, because that's how the word is used in Exodus chapter 20 and verse 18. When he saw, when he heard that there was corn to be had in Egypt, he brought his sons together. It's amazing that the old man had to bring the sons together and to advise them. You'd have thought it'd been the other way around. Father, we'll go and get it. But no, the old man had to organize the sons. And he said to him, why do you look upon one another? And the suggestion there is, why do you look upon one another like lazy, careless, helpless people? There's something you can do about it. You can go down into Egypt, and you can buy corn, and thus we can live. And so, though he was aged, his son still had to obey him, at least outwardly, at least nominally. So get you down to Egypt and buy, he said, that we may live. This was life or death. The usual routine would never be the same again for those men. God broke the mold when he sent the famine to Egypt. He broke the mold also up in Hebron. And now something that had no connection with their family whatsoever was going to change their family forevermore. And I just want you to visualize the scene, 10 men leaving Hebron. Can you imagine all the families gathering together to say farewell to those men as they left? They had never traveled very far before. They were herders. They kept their father's flocks. But they had to leave behind their family, and they left behind their youngest brother, Benjamin, because Jacob would not allow them to take Benjamin with him. And now they're traveling down into Egypt. And as I've read down this passage in the past weeks, I have thought to myself, surely, surely it struck the hearts of those men, that this was the same route that we sent Joseph on. some 20 years previously. Over the years, their secret had lain dormant. Nobody had talked about it. Perhaps there'd been times when their consciences were smitten, but you know, life went on. And maybe really they thought they had gotten off with their evil deeds. And now as life had moved on, what had happened in the past would not catch up with them. But as they traveled down into Egypt, it all began to unravel. Perfect timing. And I'm sure as they traveled down into Egypt, it would have been less than human if they didn't wonder, well, what did happen to Joseph? And where is he? Egypt was full of slaves. Slaves that the Egyptians kept from all over the known world of those days. And as Joseph's brethren went down into Egypt, they would have saw those slaves and maybe they looked at them and they thought to themselves, I wonder is Joseph amongst them? If they never collectively dealt with the guilt and came to terms with their crime, well then maybe perhaps individually, Those men thought about it. Did Judah not think about it? Did Reuben not think about it? Men who tried even to spur the bloodshedding of Joseph all of those years ago. You see, consciences which are dull and dead, God can quicken them. And God can bring light in the old dark places. And if these men were going to be the founding patriarchs of the nation of Israel, their lives had to be brought from the dark out into the light. And their lives had to be put right before God. And if you and I are going to do anything for God in the days that lie ahead, well then, men and women, our lives have to be right with him. And God brought them back. the same road that Joseph had traveled 20 years previously, to bring them to repentance. The pathway of repentance sometimes is painful. It's hard for us to admit that we're wrong. And especially it's hard for us to admit that we're wrong before God. And if it's hard to admit that we're wrong before God, as an impossible aim to get forgiveness. In fact, this process is so hard, it's so difficult, I'll put this caveat in here today, you'll never do it by yourself. You need the help, you need the enablement of the Holy Ghost if you're to come down this road of repentance and truly repent before God. The word of God reminds us in Romans 2 and 4, that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. So here were these 10 men on the road down into Egypt, and little did they know it, but God in his goodness was bringing them down the same road that they had sent Joseph all of those years previously. Why? Because he was leading them to the place of repentance. It was unexpected, it was in an unusual way, but those consciences which were seared, dulled by sin were going to be awakened, awakened and brought into the light of the truth of the word of God, as what God does in regeneration. God brings those who are dead and sin, and he, as it were, awakens them, and he makes them aware of their need before him, and those that were happy dwelling in the dark now are brought to the light. This is the whole process that God brings sinners in. We sang that lovely opening metrical psalm, Psalm 119. The psalmist said before, I was afflicted, I went astray. Maybe the Lord will have to bring famine to some of your lives. Maybe the Lord will have to break you. I can think of examples in my own life where I said of individuals that God would have to put them on the broad of their back before they would look up, and that's exactly what happened. They were put on the broad of their back. God uses unexpected circumstances to renew consciences that are sullied and seared by sin. In Proverbs 20, 27, we read about the conscience. The conscience is a God-given faculty in all of our lives. And we read that the spirit of man, that's your conscience, The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts of the belly. I think that's a wonderful picture. If you have a conscience that's troubled today, maybe even troubled with something that happened 20 years ago, that happened as it was in the life of the brothers of Joseph, it's the candle of the Lord. And God is taking that candle, and he's putting it in the dark places of your life. Why? To lead you to repentance. Don't be afraid of a sensitive conscience. A sensitive conscience is a gift from God. And I would say to parents, do not try to extinguish a sensitive conscience in the life of your children, but rather bring them to the light of the gospel, which alone can meet the needs of a sensitive conscience. So the pathway of repentance is one upon which God shines light. And it's as if he puts a light into our soul. The same candle in the lives of Jacob's brethren would lead them to repentance and reconciliation. And it's exactly the same in our own lives today. that candle is often lit and put into the souls of individuals when unexpected circumstances turn their lives upside down, and something that happened years ago was brought to the light, and they repent of it, and reconciliation is enabled thereafter. So then secondly, notice with me, verse 6 to 8. The pathway that Sinners are brought to repentance. It is one upon which Christ confronts them, even though they don't recognize him. Look at verse eight especially. Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him. Historical records show us that even in ancient Egypt, the borders were not kept open. Open borders always bring problems and difficulties. So checks were kept and records were made of those that were arriving in the country. And I cannot imagine that a group of 10 Hebrews from Canaan coming into Egypt, crossing the borders, would not have been flagged up to Joseph, who was the prime minister in the land. What are they doing here? There were many other outsiders coming in, remember that. They were coming to trade, they were coming to buy corn. But these 10 men would have been of particular interest to Joseph. And he was expecting them. I believe he was expecting them. It was no surprise when they came because they had no option. They had to come or they had to die. And it's not the same with you today. You have to come to the heavenly Joseph and buy corn off him or die. There are no alternatives. The brothers came and they watched what others were doing in trading and in buying corn from the, I suppose, the equivalent of the civil servants in Egypt, and they were quick to follow suit. Hunger will drive you to do desperate things. And these men came and bowed down before an Egyptian overlord. They didn't know him, but he knew them. They were all the same men. Same in dress, same in style, same in character, just some 20 years older. He knew them. Oh, he knew an awful lot about them, didn't he? but they didn't know him. He was the last man that they expected. The last time they had saw him he was just a strapling of a teenager. But now he stood before them dressed like an Egyptian, looking like an Egyptian, speaking like an Egyptian, and receiving unquestioning obedience from other Egyptians. They didn't know him, but he knew them. I think that's a frightening scenario, isn't it? A very frightening scenario. To his brothers, as is clear from verse 13, Joseph was dead. They'd heard nothing from him. They heard nothing either of him or from him. And that might seem strange. considering the closeness, really, geographically of Egypt to Canaan. Some commentators have questioned why Joseph did not make an attempt to find out about his father, especially when he was released from prison. One of the older commentators that I have, William Taylor, even goes as far to say that this was a great weakness in the character of Joseph that he didn't try to find out about his father. Matthew Powell, on the other hand, he argued when they heard nothing from Joseph it was because he was in prison. Remember he spent most of his time in prison. Then afterwards He had great and high employment. Maybe it was from his own loathsness to open up that book again, to open up that story again, to bring such sorrow to his father as undoubtedly it would have caused his father to discover what his brothers had done in the circumstances. But I think Matthew Poole just summarizes it beautifully. He says, this is principally from the overruling providence of God for its own glorious design. disposed of Joseph's mind and affairs so that he either did not send to his father's house or even that the messages were intercepted. There being not then those conveniences for mutual correspondences which neither are. Over the weekend here in Morn we'll discover just how reliant we are on our mobile phones. What do you do if there's no mobile phone, if the network is down? What do you do if the internet is down? Well, what do you do if there was no mobile phone, no internet, no post, no ordinary communication that modern mankind is known by? You stay distant and you remain silent. And that's what happened. And as Joseph stood before his brethren, he knew them, but they didn't know him. And as you're in this meeting today, you're before the Lord Jesus Christ. And he knows you, and yet some of you don't know him. He knows you. Joseph knew about the malice of his brethren. He knew about their backstabbing. He knew about their evil intentions. They were going to kill him after all. He knew them, but he was still prepared to give corn to them. That's amazing. There is nothing hid from God's all-seeing eye today. You can try to cover it up in Sunday dress, but it'll not work. God looks direct into all of our hearts, and he knows you, and he knows me. The psalmist said in Psalm 139, verse one, O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. He knows you and me. everything there is to know about you and me, he knows. And yet he stands in our midst and he's still prepared to give corn. As you read down chapter 42, I think that's one of the great things that has really struck me. These men were brought to repentance, but all along Joseph was still, still willing, wanting, desirous to give them corn that they might live. And Christ, he's prepared to give you mercy and grace and pardon today that you might live. What a wonderful Savior we really have. Joseph, knowing the heart and hearts of these men, verse seven says he spoke roughly on today. Some have taken umbrage at this. Surely, surely the Lord wouldn't speak roughly to us. Well, sometimes soft words just don't cut it with people. There are some people whose soft words mean nothing to you. These rough, ungodly men who were his brothers needed to be treated in like manner, and they had to be confronted. Whatever it takes, God will do it, be it a soft word, a hard word. Sometimes God moves gently, softly and tenderly, Jesus is calling. But at other times it's in a whirlwind. But whatever it takes, God will do it. And God was doing it here. And whatever it takes to bring you that road of repentance, be it soft words or rough words, may God do it to bring you to an end of yourself and bring you to himself. Thirdly, From verse 9 to 14, I want you to notice that this pathway to repentance, it reminds us of our sinful past and forces us to accept our own personal culpability. Joseph remembered the dreams he had as a young man. His brothers bowed down before him, and it tells us here, verse nine, he remembered. Joseph remembered. Remember, those dreams were not just abstract dreams. They were revelations. Divine revelations that God had given to Joseph as a young man in his teenage years. He remembered the dreams. He remembered their infamy. He remembered their betrayal. He remembered they wanted to murder him. He remembered it all. God never forgets, brethren and sisters. So God charged them, as it were, through Joseph with being spies. There was a reason for this. It has been suggested. 21 years earlier when he found his brothers at Dothan that they had wrongly assumed and accused him of spying for their father Jacob. And his accusation that they were spies, it has been suggested by some, were the last words that he remembered his brothers saying before they took him, bound him, put him into the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites and into slavery in Egypt. Oh, they protested their innocence. Oh, but didn't Joseph do that as well? And despite his pleas for help, they cast him into a pit. Do you see what Joseph was doing? He was making them to face up to what they had done. They couldn't run from it anymore. And so Joseph took them, and I hope you see in the passage it tells us here, they were cast into a ward. In other words, they were put into prison for three days. And here they tend to reflect. It's good to reflect. God brings you aside, it's for a reason, and those men were put in the prison cell for a reason, that they would reflect upon their past. And as they reflected, God started to work in their lives. Joseph's methods were working. If you move down quickly to verse 21, they admitted their guilt amongst themselves. That was a big thing. We never read of that before. We are verily guilty concerning our brother. Guilty. Their own verdict. Guilty. They'd never owned up to that before. They'd covered up, but they'd never owned up. But now they're guilty. And in verse 22, Reuben openly states that they had sinned against the child. Guilty sinners. And little did they know Joseph was listening at all. He understood every word they said. Guilty sinners before Joseph. And that's how God sees you and me today. We're just guilty sinners in his presence and before his throne. They confessed their wrong, they admitted their guilt, and not knowing even that the one whom they had wronged was listening. Was listening as they spoke, he was listening. Verse 23. I was thinking about this in the past week, and remember a few years ago, The academics in Boston University in America came over here and they made tape recordings of people who were involved in the Troubles. Some of the most heinous crimes were recorded. And of course, it was just for an academic purpose, wasn't it? But little did those men realize that the long arm of the law would reach to Boston And those tapes would be required, and their confessions would be heard in open court, and they would be indicted upon it. Way back there in Egypt, in the open courtroom of Pharaoh, before Joseph, the sacred crimes of years gone by were heard, and the guilty judgment was brought in because of their But what happened to the heart of Joseph? Did the stern judge then intervene and pronounce judgment? Verse 24 tells us the very opposite. It tells us he turned himself away from them and wept. He wept. Despite their betrayal, he still loved them. Despite all that they had done, he still loved them. And his patience toward them was rewarded when they confessed and admitted their guilt before him. Even though they didn't know him, he knew them. And they accepted their own culpability, their own accountability, their own responsibility for what had happened to Joseph. Now they weren't finished on the journey, but they were on their way. They had been brought to the end of themselves. I'm glad there's a process still in which God brings sinners, a pathway to repentance. And I would say to all of you today, stop blaming others. Accept your own accountability, your own culpability, your own personal guilt and blame before Almighty God. But oh, I want you also to know that when you accept your own culpability and responsibility for your own sin before Almighty God, there's a God who is willing to forgive and to pardon. Joseph, in response to what he had heard, the Bible tells us that he found Simeon in their presence. It would not allow him to go back to Hebron until they returned to Egypt once again with his younger brother, Benjamin. And on the way back, what did they discover? They discovered that the money that they had paid for the corn was now in the sacks of corn that they brought back to Hebron. And previously they may have thought to themselves they were smart fellas. Because they had outclassed the Egyptians. They had got the corn for nothing, really. But instead they were afraid. And in verse 28 they said, what is this that God has done unto us? God was never mentioned in the language of these men up to this point in time. But now it's what God has done. And when sinners come in repentance, not only are their consciences tender and smitten, but they see God in things that they never saw God before. And maybe that's where you are. Tender conscience. Tender conscience that overreacts. Conviction of sin that weighs heavy upon your soul. Why? I'll tell you why. Because those who have those tender consciences and conviction of sin, they don't know as yet that there's one ready to forgive, ready to pardon. I want you to understand before you leave today that there is forgiveness for you. The Bible tells us in Colossians 1.14, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. So we look to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we see the great sacrifice of God's Son on the center tree. We know that through his blood, There's pardon. There's forgiveness of sins. I love all of those good cheers in the Gospels. You know what the first good cheer of Matthew's Gospel is? It's found in Matthew 9, verse 2. It was the words of Christ to the sick of the pole. He didn't say, be of good cheer and rise up and walk and don't be sick again. He said, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee. The first and most important good cheer to hear from Christ is, your sins are forgiven. God has brought you in this road of repentance. Even if it's the things that have happened all of those years ago, if he's brought you in that road to repentance, I want you to leave that doorway today with that good cheer ringing in your heart. There's a Savior who forgives those who repent. There's a Savior who forgives The guilty, the guilty sinner condemned in the courtroom of God, there's forgiveness for you today. What a difference when the heavenly Joseph speaks those words into all of our lives. May you hear them today. A forgiveness given when you repent and when by free grace you embrace the pardon of God. Oh, the pathway's not finished for these brethren. It was going to be further up ahead, and Joseph would be revealed to them in all of his glory. But they were already on that road that would bring them to that place. May you be on that road today. Do not allow hardened hearts and guilty consciences to take you further from God. But may that conscience that is smitten today, may it bring you to the heavenly Joseph and to the assurance of pardon, pardon with God through the blood.