And so I'm going to ask you to open your Bibles this morning to the book of Genesis. For those of you who don't know, that's the first book of the Bible, right after all those explanatory notes that are in your Bible and maybe a topical index or some other things at the beginning. It's really the first book of the canon of Scripture, the great book of Genesis. And I hope you've all read it. And I hope you've read these passages that I'm going to speak about today from chapter 45 of the book of Genesis. And I've got down here to read the whole chapter, so I'll do that. And so it begins, And he cried out, make everyone go out from me. So no one stood with him while Joseph made himself known to his brothers. I hope you know the story. I'm just going to comment for a minute. Joseph had, some 22 years earlier, been sold into slavery by jealous brothers. Through a series of incidents, he became elevated in the land of Egypt to the very highest realms of authority there. And now, in need and in famine, his brothers came to Egypt from Canaan to seek for food, not knowing he even lived. And here he is, the one they come to him, and he's revealing himself for the first time. And that's for those of you who do not know the story. And so it says, verse 2, and he wept aloud and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard it. And Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph. Does my father still live? But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed in his presence. And Joseph said to his brothers, please come near to me. So they came near. Then he said, I am Joseph, your brother whom you sold into Egypt, but now Do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For these two years, the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God. And he has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his house and ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up 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 tarry. You shall dwell in the land of Goshen and you shall hear, or rather you shall be near to me. You and your children and your children's children, your flocks and your herds, and all that you have, there I will provide for you, lest you and your household and all that you have come to poverty, for there are still five years of famine. And behold your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, see that it is my mouth that speaks to you. So you shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt and of all that you have seen, and you shall hurry and bring my father down here.' And he fell on his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck. Moreover, he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. And after that, his brothers talked with him. And now the report of it was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, Joseph's brothers have come. So it pleased Pharaoh and his servants well. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, say to your brothers, do this. Load your animals and depart. Go to the land of Canaan. Bring your father and your households and come to me. I'll give you the best of the land of Egypt and you will eat the fat of the land. Now you are commanded, do this. Take carts out of the land of Egypt for your little ones and your wives. Bring your father and come, and do not be concerned about your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours. The sons of Israel did so, and Joseph gave them carts according to the command of Pharaoh, and he gave them provisions for the journey. He gave to all of them, to each man, changes of garments. But to Benjamin, he gave 300 pieces of silver and five changes of garments. And he sent to his father these things, 10 donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, 10 female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and food for his father for the journey. So he sent his brothers away. And they departed. And he said to them, see that you do not become troubled along the way. They went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to Jacob, their father. And they told him, saying, Joseph is still alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob's heart stood still, because he did not believe them. But when they told him all the words which Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the carts which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived. And then Israel said, it is enough. Joseph, my son, is still alive. I'll go and see him before I die. Father, we praise you for this awesome story of deliverance, of salvation, of applied forgiveness, oh Lord. And such a wonderful type and picture of what awaits us in heaven, though we are sinners, Yet the best of things in all eternity await us in your kingdom, as they are given here to the sons of Israel in their time, O Lord. We ask you to make the teachings of this word known to us, Father. Apply them to our hearts, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. And so I just want to point out a couple of things about the reading if you're not familiar with the story, and that is Jacob, by the way, Jacob, and Israel are the same person. God renamed Jacob Israel. So the state of Israel is named after this great patriarch who had 12 sons, one of whom was Joseph. Now, why does Benjamin keep getting mentioned? Well, Benjamin keeps getting mentioned because Jacob had two wives and two concubines by which he fathered the 12 children. The favorite of all of them was his wife, Rachel. And Rachel was the mother of Joseph and Benjamin. So out of all the brothers, Benjamin is Joseph's true full-blood brother, you see. So he loves him best. And Jacob loved Joseph best because he was the first son of Rachel, who incidentally died in childbirth with Benjamin. So just a little history there. Joseph being Jacob's favorite son is really what started the whole problem. The other sons got jealous, and they designed a way to get rid of their brother. And so go back and read these chapters. Well, just the best reading in all of the scriptures, really. It's in a narrative form. It's just a beautiful story. And it's essential to our understanding of the gospel, to understand the types of Christ here, or the type of Christ in Joseph, and the type of salvation we have in his forgiveness to those who wronged him so grievously. And so I'm calling this a new sermon series, Forgiveness Part 1. This section is titled, I am Joseph. And I'm going to begin with verse 5, where we read, but now do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. If you've been following anything that I've just said about the grievous sins against Joseph by his brothers, it is almost unbelievable that he's concerned that they don't feel bad anymore about that. And so the story of Joseph becomes the quintessential story of forgiveness. He was sold to a nomadic tribe of Ishmaelites, by his jealous brothers when he was 17 years old. They went back to his father Jacob and told him that he was dead. And he was bought by an officer of Pharaoh's guard. He was falsely accused by the officer's wife of accosting her. He was cast into Pharaoh's prison. He was forgotten by Pharaoh's chief butler, whom he aided in prison, who promised to use his influence with Pharaoh to get him released once he was released. And he was finally sought out for his spiritual insight, specifically the power to interpret dreams, And he's led before Pharaoh himself, who is tormented by frightful and recurring dreams of his own, and his own magicians and his own soothsayers could not tell him the meaning of those dreams. That in itself is an awesome story that you should re-familiarize yourself with. And so, as Joseph showed great wisdom and a great gift and prophetic insight, he is quickly elevated to noble status. Isn't it interesting? And others have made a great point of it, which I won't do in this section, but I hope to in further sections, is that Joseph is really the high priest of Egypt. A pagan nation now has, for all intents and purposes, a follower of the Christ of the Bible as their spiritual head. And wasn't it interesting when Pharaoh found out that Joseph was sad, that's all it took for him to give the best of his land to Joseph's offspring, even knowing how badly they wronged him, but being grateful to Joseph's God that they did because now they have the benefit of all his great spiritual gifts and wisdom. It's just an amazing thing how God works in something so contorted and so really meant for evil. by men's evil, selfish, prideful, jealous designs. And so when we come to this chapter in Joseph's life, it's been 22 years. Now I calculated that. Others calculate it differently. But 22 years since the brother sold him into slavery. He was sold at age 17. Genesis 37.2 says that plainly. At age 30, he was brought before Pharaoh. Genesis 41.46 says that plainly. There were five years of plenty, we know that, if we know anything about the dreams of Pharaoh and the interpretation of the dreams by Joseph. So the five years of plenty have come and gone, and he says to his brothers that two of the seven years of famine have already passed and there's five years left. By my calculations, he's 39 years old when the brothers arrive. So he's been missing for 22 years. Jacob's favorite son of his favorite wife, thinking he was devoured by wild beasts, when really he was devoured by the jealous envy of his blood brothers. So he reveals himself to them in this scene. And they're overwhelmed by the fact that he's not only still alive, but that somehow he's become the most prominent authority in Egypt next to Pharaoh himself. And friends, that really means he's the most prominent man in the world at that time. And so they're overcome with guilt and the sins of the past 22 years have overcome them. They can't possibly know what to expect from this man who holds their very lives in his hands, who nobody would have thought badly of him if he had them all executed or tortured or some such thing. And yet, it doesn't even enter into Joseph's mind. They're overcome with guilt, they're speechless, and this verse is the first statement he makes to them after he reveals himself. And what's most remarkable about the exchange from our perspective, and especially from theirs, is he doesn't recite the roster of their sins against him and the things they caused him to suffer. He does not accuse them, nor deride them, nor threaten them. Rather, he finds the inner strength to counsel them not to be, quote, grieved or angry with themselves. For the sin that kept him from his father and his clan these many years, I am Joseph, he tells them. And he has but one question to ask, does my father still live? How could he know? And it must have, and it did, fill him with joy when he found that his father does indeed still live. Now, I've not taught on forgiveness for some time as a subject. It comes up, of course, all the time because our whole salvation is based on it. But as a topic, as a doctrine, as a attribute of God, and as a command to peoples of God to offer it, it's time. It's, in fact, always a good time to remind the saints of the blessed responsibility of forgiveness. It's never too late to look again into the power of forgiveness to put the glory of God on display in the earth. Nothing could do it quite like forgiveness. I've heard so many unfortunate stories of unforgiveness that I'm urged in my spirit to speak again on the life-sustaining power of this heavenly medicine that alone can restore fellowship with God and fellowship with the church. Let's consider something. It seems to me that life as we know it, could not even continue apart from this heavenly potion of forgetting the sins of others and laying aside their offenses to us. Why do I say forgetting in this context? Because God relates forgetting your sins with forgiving them. I will remove your transgressions from me. As far as the east is from the west, so have I removed your transgressions from me. And go through the scriptures and find out how many times he talks about their sins and their trespasses and says, I will remember them no more. They can't be brought up again. They have been dealt with. That's one of the great aspects of forgiveness when it's genuine. So it seems to me there could be no lasting friendships without forgiveness. Could there be? How about marriages? Marriages would quickly disintegrate without forgiveness. I don't even see how political bodies could operate. In fact, I see some that aren't operating very well because of unforgiveness. How could there be any human interchange for any appreciable period of time if we did not have the power and the will to forgive the many offenses that we cause one another in our lives? Really, on a periodic, if not daily basis. We're bound to offend someone in this life. Surely, friends, without forgiveness, there could be no church. And I mean that, of course, literally. The church could not operate apart from forgiveness. Firstly, because there would be no church, because no one's sins would have been atoned for. And secondly, there could be no salvation, because there's only one person who needs no forgiveness, and he's already at the right hand of the Father. And I would add, there could be no Old Testament beyond this point, because these are the tribes of Israel. And without them being some unison, purpose between them, there was no point in carrying on. We would have never got to the place of Moses without this point in their lives coming together. If the forgiveness of Joseph did not reunite the tribes of Israel in this one seminal momentous episode, of what's really at that time not inter-tribal but intra-family pardon. It's really just one family for the grievous trespasses of one against the other. So let me say at the outset that we as a local church, I just want you to know this, we're not undergoing some sort of turmoil that needs to be resolved. A lot of times when you preach strongly on forgiveness, people say, I wonder what's going on. I don't think anything's going on. I think, on the contrary, that we're in a state, so far as I can see, of blessed fellowship between the saints. I've seen times of venom and backbiting. It's always a thing that destroys. There's nothing so disruptive to the purposes of God and the earth as brother against brother or sister against sister. I've seen it before and it's been my experience that by the time a series of sermons intended to heal is preached, it'll be too late for some. And they might dismiss it as a partisan volley aimed at those who disagree with me or whoever the speaker is at that time. It can be seen as a call for surrender of an agenda that's perceived to be contrary to the agenda of myself or church leaders or another party in the church. Unforgiveness carries with it this spirit of suspicion, makes us suspect of someone else's purposes. It's a mistrust of stated purposes. By the time a church body gets to that place, a series like this one, apart from a conspicuous intervention of the Holy Spirit being poured into our hearts, it can be too late. It can be too late to trust. It could be too late to reconcile, too late for humility to reign, too late for love to be restored. But thankfully, we have a mandate before God to head off such things by not attempting to build our house in the storm, but rather to build it when all things are calm, and when fellowship prevails, and when each member is pleased to esteem others better than himself. It's a good time. So it's my hope that we'll have in this series, or rather have this series in our hearts, not as a pill to cure an illness, but as a meal that nourishes us and feeds our souls and strengthens us against an illness, future illness. It's my intention that God's word on the subject of forgiveness will fortify us against satanic machinations that disrupt and dismantle what God has assembled. And so I give you Joseph. Let me tell you why. First, let me say that I've preached on forgiveness many times in my 24 years of pastoring. I've preached it here. I've even preached it elsewhere. And as you know, my sermons are all transcribed. They're recorded. They're chronicled. I was tempted to go back into the archives and pull out a juicy message that will surely satisfy and will save me some time. That doesn't always save me that much time. I have to read them and bring them up to date and do all that. It occurred to me, why should I reinvent the wheel? If I've preached on it before, it hasn't changed. Let's preach on it again. Forgiveness is what it's always been. There's nothing new under the sun. And I thank God that His forgiveness still reigns in our hearts and in my own heart. And I thank God that I can know that He has atoned for my offenses and has restored fellowship between me and He by the shed blood of His only Son, our Lord. And so that fact alone gives us the first element of forgiveness, which is the cost of it. Forgiveness costs us something, like salvation. It is free, but it's not cheap. The reason I didn't pull an old sermon is because, well, I'll get into how I came about to realize the way forgiveness acts on every aspect of our lives and of church life. And so I thought better of that plan and I turned to one of those wonderful helps that have been for me a way to recall and to organize and to categorize my thoughts on such an important subject as this one. And I turned to my topical index. It's interesting that Reformed preachers are always warned about preaching topical sermons as opposed to, quote, expositional sermons from Scripture, where presumably we choose a topic and then we go hunt down some scriptures that make our point, which is really the backwards way of doing it. But the fact is that every time a Reformed preacher at a convention or something warns us about that, it's in a topical sermon that he's doing that. He's talking about preaching. So it isn't wrong to do. In fact, it's very helpful at times. And so my topical index is a reference tool in the front of my Bible that if you don't have one, maybe you ought to look one up. It's just a really helpful tool. And it helps me find a passage quickly in some instances. And in this case, it helped me recall not only all the facets of life that forgiveness is shown to be a healing elixir for, but it offers ready references of Bible passages that treat the subject and put it on display for our quick recovery. And let me show you what I found. First, the definition. It says forgiveness. All right, this is from the lexicon. Forgiveness is an act of pardon. Now, pardon is an English word, right? By the way, the Greek for forgiveness is aphiemi, and it means to send forth, to put something away from you. Interesting. connection, isn't it? But the dictionary definition of pardon reads like this. The verb form of pardon is number one, to release a person from punishment. Number two, to pass over an offense, again, without punishment. Number three, to make courteous allowance for or excuse. All right? Now, God didn't excuse our sin. I want you to know that. He paid for it. There's a huge difference. The noun form is number one, the act of forgiving is forgiveness. Number two, as a matter of law, it's A, an exemption from the penalties of an offense or a crime or B, the official document declaring an exemption. That's why our president has the power to pardon people in an official document as well as an official act. And so something that's not declaring their innocence, it's declaring forgiveness or pardon for a crime of some kind. And then came the significant categories of scripture references. A, it said synonyms of. So the first section is the synonyms for forgiveness are number one, blots out. Number two, remission. Number three, pardon. Number four, remember no more. It does have to do with forgetting. And each category comes with respective scripture references. The next category is the B category, and it says that forgiveness is the basis of God's nature. It's an attribute of God's grace. The basis of forgiveness, it says, is shedding of blood, is Christ's death, and the Son's power. And repentance is also a basis for forgiveness. See, it said, the significance of forgiveness is one, it shows God's righteousness, number two, and get a hold of this, it makes salvation real. Forgiveness makes salvation real. It's the application of salvation. And then finally, the topical index notes that a primary biblical significance of forgiveness is that it, quote, must be preached, right? Forgiveness must be preached. And it gives us the verses from Luke 24, 46 and 47, where Jesus said this, thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer. and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. Remission of sin, pardon, must be preached. And so we preach. And so the index refers us to the definition of forgiveness as well as to the need, the power, and the basis of forgiveness. So you see, it's a very helpful tool to categorize your thoughts. It refers us to the fact that forgiveness displays the nature of God. It's really, I think, the most powerful way to display the nature of God, is to absorb a wrong done without an act of retribution or vengeance. It's based on the shedding of blood. It reveals godly righteousness in the person that forgives. And salvation itself is the very application of forgiveness. For I said many times, there'll be no one in heaven who's unforgiven. You have to be forgiven to be there. You can't be there and be guilty, right? But I want us to know this, and this is why we preach it. There's no one there either who's unforgiving. There's no grudges in heaven. You can't go there with them. Forgiveness is a salvation requirement of God to us and of us to one another. There are no grudges there and we're not allowed there so long as we hold one. Jesus' very words on the subject from Matthew say this, should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant just as I had pity on you? Remember the parable? Man borrowed money from another man, and then someone in turn borrowed from him. And he asked mercy for the payment that he couldn't make, and the master gave him mercy. And then the man that borrowed from him came to him, and he took him and shook him and cast him down and treated him badly. And when the master found out, he was not pleased with that. I gave you forgiveness. You should have had pity on him, he said. And so we read at the end of the parable here, and his master was angry and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. So my heavenly father will also do to you if each of you from his heart does not forgive his brother his trespasses. That's fearful. It's so easy to utter the phrase, oh, I can never forgive that. It's just so easy for us to do. Don't make that part of your vocabulary. Jesus said the same more succinctly just after he teaches the disciples the Lord's Prayer. He said, and try to remember, this teaching is based on conditional clauses. And what do I mean? It's always based on an if. If this happens, that'll happen. If this doesn't happen, that won't happen. So when you see if, beware. If you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive them their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses. So there's a couple things we know here. Forgiveness is in our power to give. If we're saved and have the Holy Spirit's power in us, it's in our power to forgive, and it's not a matter of discretion. We don't even get to say, well, I'm going to forgive this one and not this one. That's not what it says here. We're not at liberty before God to withhold forgiveness, at least not forever. The above verse is a didactic verse. In other words, it's intending to teach us something. And if we receive anything from it, receive this. It is a salvation verse. We're not saved apart from forgiveness. And the fruit of that spirit is that we're forgiving of those who act out against us. in some way that hurts or offends us. Apart from forgiveness, there's no assurance of our salvation. We'll not enter in with a persistent grudge. Oh, father, I'm so glad you let me in and didn't let him in. We're not going to have that spirit when we come before Jesus. And I, I got a feeling that seeing him wipes that out of us anyway. But there's another important category of forgiveness that the topical index makes reference to. First, you look up forgiveness, and it says all these things that I've just said. Then there's another category. It says forgiving one another as a biblical topic, which I found very instructive. So again, A, the measure of forgiving one another. Jesus famously said to Peter, 70 times 7. Elsewhere, it's unlimited. as God in Christ forgave us. And B, it says the benefits of forgiving one another are it's the means of our forgiveness. It restored Christian fellowship, it's spiritual cleansing. And then finally, and that's something we've got to remember, and I want you to know modern psychology has tapped into this uniquely Christian belief that forgiving is good for you. It's good for your soul, it gives you calm and peace. I have known people who all their lives held a grudge against somebody and it never hurt the person they held the grudge against. They didn't even know they were hated and unforgiven. All it did is disrupt you and wreck your life. And every thought you had about that person was always bad continually. But to forgive freed you. And to unforgive didn't hurt anybody else. It could have, but in some cases, they don't even know. But God knows. And so finally, we're pointed to what, for me, was the most powerful statement of forgiveness in the Bible. It said, see the examples of forgiveness in the Bible. One is Esau and Jacob. You know, we think of them as enemies. But Esau forgave Jacob in a very moving account. Go back and read it. And of course today, Joseph. Moses had to forgive. David received forgiveness and was forgiven. Same with Solomon. Jesus, Stephen, Paul, all great examples of forgiveness. We should begin to become, what should begin to become obvious to us is that the great examples of faith in the Bible are also the great examples of forgiveness. I don't think there's a more noble roster of biblical people than those I just mentioned. The most faithful are the most forgiving. Each person listed is not only a significant example of the power of God's forgiveness to them, but of their forgiveness of others. We think of Jacob and Esau as the most volatile sibling rivalry in history since Cain and Abel, right? But the Scriptures features them in one of the most moving forgiveness scenes of all time, where Jacob's running and running and striving to get away from Esau with his great armies who was approaching, and he's certain his brother's gonna kill him, and his brother gives him gifts and hugs him and forgives him. Esau wasn't such a bad guy after all, was he? Moses' brother and sister accused him before God. They went before God. Remember, Aaron had access to God. as Moses' spokesman, and they went before God against Moses for an unlawful marriage policy by Moses with an Ethiopian wife. That was Miriam and Aaron, right? Miriam was turned into a leper by God for presuming to tell on Moses. And go back and read it because it's powerful. God said, wait a minute, I speak to Moses face to face and you're bringing his sins to me like I don't know them. And he, God was offended. And Aaron was overcome with the fear of God and God's justice when he saw that happen. But Moses pleaded for their forgiveness before God. Please heal her. Oh God, I pray. And so God did after a few days. David forgave the whole house of Saul that tormented him all through the early part of his life, sought him out to kill him, right? Falsely accused him. And he sought out, when the house of Saul was completely conquered and David was elevated to the throne, uniting all the tribes of Israel again, he sought out the last surviving man. Remember, Saul was his enemy, but his son, Jonathan, and Jonathan had died in battle. And there was one man of Saul left, Mephibosheth, who was a son of Jonathan. And because of David's covenant with Jonathan, he thought to honor it by forgiving Mephibosheth as the last member of that dynasty that opposed him. And it's just one of the most moving stories. 2 Samuel 9, go and read about Mephibosheth. He's the grandson of Saul. He's the son of Jonathan. He was lame in his feet. Couldn't walk. And he made him as one of the king's own sons who ate continually at the king's table. Not only forgiven, but blessed. Restored. Such a picture of salvation. Jesus famously pleaded with God as he died on the cross for his tormentors to be forgiven. He said, Father, forgive them. They do not know what they do. And then the verse ends with this. And then they divided his garments and cast lots. They didn't even repent of their sin. Stephen, of course, did likewise at the moment of his own death by stoning. Father, do not count them with this sin, he said. We have so many monumental examples of forgiveness even while their enemies are still taunting them. We see that forgiveness is not earned because it can't be earned. That's the whole point of it. You can't make it right all the time. Sometimes the sins are bad. How would the sons of Israel ever have atoned for what they did to Joseph? And not only that, but the stress and agony they put on Jacob. So it's always a gift when you offer it. It's a gift that costs the giver and it frees the offender from guilt and shame and debt. It only costs the giver. Forgiveness is a benefit that could never be deserved. Don't wait for someone to be deserving of it. And we love to see repentance in an offender. And that's really, in some cases, where it's most effective, where someone sees their sin and you're greatly moved by their recognition of their trespass against you or against God or whatever the offense might be. So we're moved by the sorrow of a former enemy or just someone who offended us. And their sorrow moves us, and we take pity on them, and we restore them to a place of love and our affections. We engender compassion upon a person who tearfully apologizes for personal faults and offenses. But the scriptures show us another side to forgiveness than that. It's offered to those who are not humbled by inner conviction or fault. We see that it's commanded to those who will continually offend us. He says to Peter, 70 times 7. I mean, that's 490 times, if anyone's counting. He fully expects that chronic offenders are going to continue to offend. The Lord says to Peter in Matthew 18.22, forgive them 70 times 7, which essentially means it's unlimited. You know, when Saul of Tarsus was saved by God, he was not on a path of repentance. God just struck him down, showed himself to him, and changed his life. The repentance came after the forgiveness. Forgiveness is in the hand of the person offended. It's in the power of the one falsely accused. Friends, I've been falsely accused. It is a horrible thing to get out from under. And the more you defend yourself, the more guilty you look. You ever been there? I mean, it's really difficult. It's the property of the aggrieved party. The one who's wronged, and wouldn't it be like God to just reverse everything? The one who's wronged is the one that has the responsibility in this. Go back to Matthew 18. The offended brother is the one that has to go to the brother who gave offense. And we say things like, yeah, well, sorry isn't enough. Sadly, it's all we have. What else do we have? Yeah, there's remittance and restitution. And we look for those things, particularly in our children. We want our children to really be sorry for an offense. And we want them to change something in their character as a result of it. We want it to be a real heartfelt thing. And so it should be. But in the end, forgiveness absorbs the debt. They couldn't make it right with Joseph. He had to absorb all that torment and all that pain of all those instances and of the grievous nature of it. The blood of Christ which is the origin of all genuine forgiveness in heaven and in earth is a priceless thing. We could never pay it back. We cannot restore to God the son of his love crucified for our transgressions. Our transgressions are on record, they're real. We can't make them go away. Only the one wronged can make them go away. Thank God he did. It's the wronged party that pays the price of restoration. If you come to my house and break my stuff, which some of your kids have done, by the way, I forgive you. But I have to go out and buy more stuff? I mean, that's just an example of how it costs the giver forgiveness. And by the way, just so you know, no thought came to mind. I was totally joking. I don't remember anything that you kids broke. But it's likely to happen. Let's just put it that way. We cannot restore to God the son of his love crucified for our transgressions. Only the wronged party can make them go away. And so that brings us to Joseph and to our verse. In his magnanimous affections, he let his love overcome his offense. And let me note that as I'm well aware that being asked to forgive can be seen as offensive in and of itself. You know, when you counsel in serious cases of offense, people can be very offended and think you don't understand the nature of their pain when you ask them to forgive. They think you don't know the nature of it. And you know what? Maybe they're right. But God knows the nature of it, and the scripture stands. And when you think someone doesn't know the nature of how grievously you've been treated, the only antidote I can think for that is think how grievously Christ was treated. And if that doesn't work, think how grievously Christ was treated by you in your life and in your sins and in the sins you'll commit against him tomorrow. And so Joseph doesn't bring that up. He lets his love overcome his offense. And let me note again that I know that it can be very difficult to ask someone to forgive. I've been with situations where someone was tormented really their whole lives by someone, maybe a loved one, maybe a parent. Difficult to go away. Difficult to find a place of forgiveness for those things. But it's the only healing thing for you to go on. How could Joseph be asked to forgive the many grievous offenses against him? Let's list them. His brothers conspired to kill him, right? Judah stepped in. I think it was Judah that stepped in and said, no, I'll not be party to this. And so he compromised and decided to just get rid of him and not kill him, right? Just get him out of here. So they inspired to kill him. Instead, they conceived a plot to remove him without killing him. And they put him in a pit for safekeeping until they could sell him to the Ishmaelites, right? Remember he had that coat? I think the Bible calls it the Technicolor Dreamcoat. Or someone called it that. But no, the coat of many colors, the tunic of many parts or many colors, depending on the translation. It was a gift given to him by his father, a great gift. It was sort of a noble robe, a robe of a nobleman. And he used it to tell his brothers that in the future, based on a dream, he would stand before them as their leader. And they resented him for it. Of course, it was true. And so they sought to get rid of him. And so rather than kill him, they sold him to a traveling band of Ishmaelites. Who were they? Well, they're the tribes of, well, Ishmael and Esau. They smeared the blood of an animal on the coat so they could present it to their father with the story that wild animals must have devoured poor Joseph. And they let their father grieve. the loss of his favorite son, the son of his beloved Rachel. And then they went on about their business for the next 20 plus years until this moment. Friends, it's a verse in numbers. If I'm correct, it's numbers 32, 23. Do you know it? Be sure your sin will find you out. Frightening verse we think I'll just I'll just keep it quiet. No one will know Well, God knows and their sin found them out and there they were at this moment I Suggest to you there is no just recompense that could even come close to making such a thing right again. I I think of that when someone's falsely condemned to life in prison, and then we've heard stories of someone 30 years later, these things have just happened, and they're released. What a wonderful thing. Where's my 30 years though? Where's my sons and my grandsons? Where's my wealth I might have created in that time, right? You take a man who's still in the, and the health of his body and he comes out after 30 years, justice has no way of paying that back. I suppose you can make a big monetary payment and that might help, but the years of your life, think about it. You only get one of those. Justice has the power only to punish the guilty. It has no power to award back 20 years of life. It cannot return a murdered son. Forgiveness becomes the only remedy if you want life to go on. And just so we're clear though, I may not ask a person to forgive grievous wrongs against them. I would and I am reminding the children of God that neither would God ask such a thing. He doesn't even do that. He commands it. He would, and He does, command it. When we separate forgiveness from its connection to Christ, we tend to forget that it's the most sublime quality of God Himself. It's what makes us like God so far as we can be. It's we who offend. It's He, it's God, who is offended. And yet the very definition of forgiveness, the only application of it, is that not the offender, but the one offended is the party that's entrusted with the responsibility to make the trespass right again. I remember a time many years ago that I was a new Christian. I told you some of these stories. There we were. Family gathering, I believe it was Thanksgiving at my mother's house. We always gathered there until she passed on. We have it at my house. And I had become a Christian. I was a new Christian. Put forth some of my ideas. The zeal of youth, perhaps. I mean, I take it upon myself that probably wasn't delivered wisely or in a timely manner either. And offended people one at a time until nobody was left and I was there. Got a letter from my little sister quoting some scripture verse out of context that made me look bad. And she told me what a great sinner I was. And I said, oh yeah, you think she's gonna use scripture against me? She doesn't even know the scriptures. I'm gonna go to the scriptures. And then I thought, what am I doing? If I know the scriptures, if there's one thing I know, I know that she's right. I'm a very great sinner. And so I wrote her back. And I began with, I read your letter. You called me a sinner. No one knows your sins like your little sister. But you don't know the half of it. And I gave her another greater roster of all my shortcomings and sins. And it healed us. That's when the pride goes away. It's your enemy. It is Satan's tool to destroy you and keep you. When you think you can't forgive, the weapons of your warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty, and you are under attack. So a final point is that when you feel incapable of forgiveness, there's only two possibilities for such a feeling. It's that either you're not saved, and do not possess the Holy Spirit's ability within you to act upon the commandment of God, or you're merely deceived by satanic counsel. And generally, a satanic counsel doesn't come from a satanic counselor. It comes from your own imaginations, right? I see five, six heads shaking. Yep, that's where they come from. Beware your own imaginations. They are not your friend. You know, it's so, hard to forgive someone who's offended you, who's not there. But when they're there, it's easier. Believe me, it's easier to see the person in the flesh and say, this is a human being who's wronged me. Have I never wronged anyone? Have I never wronged him? Probably have. Friends, this is a high bar. I know it is. And I know right now what's going through people's heads is, that person, I can't do it. Not after what they did. Right now, your imaginations are saying, how could I possibly do that and mean it? You have the power. If you have the Holy Spirit, you have the power. He's the agent of it. If you're forgiven, you have the power to forgive. So you're either not saved or you're deceived. The argument that our tormentors are not deserving of our forgiveness is a specious argument. Of course, they're not deserving. It goes without saying, but neither are we deserving of God's forgiveness. And that's really the whole point, isn't it, that Jesus made in Matthew 24 there, or Matthew 18. Friends, forgiveness allows life to go on in peace. And it comes at a cost. And we pay the cost. We absorb the insult. We absorb the offense. Or we absorb the actual cost. But the cost pays for two things. It pays for the peace of our offender. Notice that's what Joseph was concerned about, their peace. Don't let your peace be disturbed over that. It's almost as if he was about to say, I come with tidings of great joy, right? Don't let your peace be disturbed by your sin against me. I don't count it anymore. So don't you count it. Number two, our own peace of mind and peace with God. So our offender is at peace and we're at peace with our offender and we're at peace with God. And so I'll close with Joseph's most famous statement on this very thing. From chapter 50, that's the last chapter of the book of Genesis. Read all the way to the end on this story. And that's your homework. Do not be afraid, he said, for I am in the place of God. Interesting turn of phrase, right? As long as you're forgiving someone, friends, you are in the place of God. You're the forgiver now. He meant that in a much larger context in the earth. He was the authority, really, in all the earth. But as for you, he said, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring it about as it is this day to save many people alive. Right? Goes right back to a Romans 8 verse, that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are the called, according to his purpose. Hard to believe in the time, but we see it as time goes on. And if not even then, we see it in the end. And Joseph is seeing it now. God meant it for good. As evil as it was, he used it. Therefore, do not be afraid. I will provide for you and your little ones And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. So Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father's household. And Joseph lived 110 years. Joseph saw Ephraim's children to the third generation. Ephraim was one of Joseph's sons. Father, we thank you for your teaching. And we ask, Father, that it might be applied to us individually as it is needed. For there are many offenses, and many offenses will come. Your word assures us of that, O Lord. Give us the power, Father, to show the glory of God in our own lives through the blessed act of forgiveness. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.