I'm going to ask you to turn in the New Testament to begin with to the book of Acts, Acts of the Apostles, chapter 2. We're going to read just a brief portion of Scripture there, then we'll be turning to our next study in the book of Genesis. I must say that there is not a more fitting hymn than the one you have just heard sung to capture the message of today. God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform. He plants His footsteps in the sea, rides upon the storm. as we think of God's marvelous and mysterious providence. Let's read together from Acts chapter two, beginning in verse 22. This is God's living and inerrant word. Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know, this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. For David says concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced. My flesh also will dwell in hope. You will not abandon my soul to Hades or let your Holy One see corruption. You have made known to me the paths of life. You will make me full of gladness. And now in the book of Genesis, we come this morning to chapter 45. Now from what I've heard from a couple of you, it's about time we got to chapter 45, when Joseph reveals himself to his brothers. We're here this morning, we're going to make a start with this chapter, but I'd like for us to read it together in its entirety. Genesis chapter 45, beginning in verse 1. Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him. He cried, make everyone go out from me. So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept aloud so that the Egyptians heard it and the household of Pharaoh heard it. Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph. Is my father still alive? And his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence. So Joseph said to his brothers, come near to me please. And they came near and he said, I am your brother Joseph whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here. For God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors. It was not you who sent me here. but God. He's made me a father to Pharaoh and Lord of all his house and ruler over 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 be near me, you and your children and your children's children and your flocks, your herds and all that you have. There I will provide for you. There are yet five years of famine to come, so that you and your household, all that you have, do not come to poverty. Now your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth that speaks to you. You must tell my father of all my honor in Egypt, and of all that you have seen, hurry and bring my father down here. Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept. Benjamin wept upon his neck. He kissed all his brothers and wept upon them. After that, his brothers talked with him. When the report was heard in Pharaoh's house, Joseph's brothers have come. It pleased Pharaoh and his servants. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, say to your brothers, do this, load your beasts and go back to the land of Canaan and take your father and your households and come to me and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and you shall eat the fat of the land. And you, Joseph, are commanded to say, do this, take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives and bring your father and come. Have no concern for your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours. The sons of Israel did so. Joseph gave them wagons according to the command of Pharaoh. Gave them provisions for the journey. To each and all of them, he gave a change of clothes, but to Benjamin, he gave 300 shekels of silver and five changes of clothes. To his father, he sent as follows, 10 donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, 10 female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and provision for his father on the journey. He sent his brothers away. As they departed, he said to them, Do not quarrel on the way. He knew his brothers, didn't he? So they went up out of Egypt, came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob. They told him, Joseph is still alive and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt. His heart became numb. He did not believe. when they told him all the words of Joseph which he had said to them. And when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. And Israel said, it is enough. Joseph, my son, is still alive. I will go and see him before I die. This is God's everlasting truth. Father, as we come to your word this morning, may we read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest your truth. Grant the help of your Holy Spirit for the preaching and hearing of the Holy Scriptures. Pray this in the Savior's name. Have you ever lost hope? Have you ever lost hope? Have you ever done something that so plagued you with guilt that you feared life could never be put right again? Has someone ever sinned against you so greatly that you descended into a very dark place of depression? and you felt you would never see the light again. No doubt this is the way Joseph felt when he begged his brothers for mercy and they turned to him a deaf ear to listen to the Ishmaelites as they doled out their payment for his soul. Can you imagine the depression that Joseph felt as he suffered from Mrs. Potiphar's lies and languished in Pharaoh's prison? Or what about the hopelessness that his brothers felt? Plagued with their guilt for what they had done to their brother Only for Joseph Steward to find the silver cup in Benjamin's sack. How hopeless and helpless that experience must have been. It seems to have reached a crescendo with Judah when we get to the end of chapter 44. And he says, now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my Lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers. For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father. when things were at their darkest, when it seemed nothing could get worse, in a moment, everything suddenly and dramatically changed. In a burst of emotion, Joseph revealed his true identity. He told his brothers what had happened to him. He revealed that God had sent him and that God had a purpose for him. God was at work. God was sovereign over sin. God was sovereign in salvation. This was the good news that he announced to his brothers. This was the hope that he offered them. The hope that could anchor their souls as both the guilt ridden and the victim. This was the good news. It changed. Brothers and sisters, however you may have sinned, however someone may have sinned against you, the revelation of Joseph's identity to his brother, offers us a message that can anchor our souls. A message of hope. We can find courageous hope in the good news that God sovereignly and providentially overcomes our sins. for our salvation. I want you to hear that again. We can find courageous hope in the Good News that God sovereignly and providentially overrules sin for our salvation. Now to find that hope, you must both hear and believe the good news. The gospel message, therefore, has two components to it. It's made up of both proclamation and invitation. In the proclamation of the good news, We hear the basis of our hope. If you look at verses one through eight, you'll notice that when Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers, he told them both of God's plan and of his role in that plan. When the chapter opens, Joseph is overwhelmed with emotion. This is now the third time we read of Joseph weeping. On the first two occasions, he had turned away from his brothers. He had, on one occasion, fled to his chamber to weep alone. Joseph had to maintain a courtly demeanor, a dignified demeanor, a composure in the presence of his servants. Now overwhelmed with emotion, now on this third occasion with a lump building in his throat and with tears welling up in his eyes, he orders everyone except for his brothers out of his sight. He demands that his servants leave the room. Standing before his brothers, including young Benjamin, he begins to weep. sob. So loud was his weeping that the rest of the house could hear it. There was no doubt of his emotion. But not only could the Egyptians in his home hear his weeping, the nearby home of Pharaoh could hear it as well. So great were his groans, so great were his sobs. Brokenhearted and yet joyful. In this burst of emotion as Joseph wept, he choked out the words, I am Joseph. And the men could not believe it. They were startled. They were dismayed. The NIV translates it, terrified. This passage reminds me of that scene in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night of Jesus' betrayal when they came to arrest Him. The Savior says, who are you looking for? Oh, we've come for Jesus of Nazareth. The Lord says, I am He. He fell backwards to the ground. We're not told that Joseph's brothers literally fell to the ground, but can you imagine how their hearts sank when they heard those words, I, Joseph. Then noticing the startling look on their faces, noticing their dismay, Joseph invites them to come closer. As they approach him, he reiterates his identity. Expanding on it, he says, I am your brother, Joseph. Those words that touched it all. The one soul. Now there was no doubt. If they had wondered, if their ears were deceiving them, if they had wondered what they had heard between the sobs and the tears, now they had no doubt whatsoever. The boy they had sold into slavery now stood before them as the Lord of the land. Joseph not only revealed his identity to them, He also spoke to them of God's purpose. He already knew how his brothers felt about their sin. He had heard them confess their guilt back in chapter 42 in verse 21. They said, we should have listened, we should have never treated our brother this way. That was the first occasion when he turned from them in tears. He had witnessed the dramatic transformation that had occurred in their lives, especially the transformation in the life of Judah the instigator. So he could say here in verse 5, come near and now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here. This is the first of three purpose statements that drive us to the theological core of this passage. Each statement emphasizes both divine initiative and divine plan. The brothers had sold Joseph into slavery. There was no doubt about that. There was no denying it, either on his part or on theirs. But there was more happening than them selling him into slavery. Yes, they had sold him, but God had sent him. He reiterates that in verse seven. You'll notice there the text says, and God sent me before you. Then to emphasize the point, he states it in the negative in verse eight. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. Now these declarations introduce us to the doctrine of divine concurrence. The doctrine of divine concurrence teaches that God is active in the events, the deeds that men and women carry out so that he works in and through their actions to accomplish his will even when they do not have a divine purpose, even when they may have a sinful purpose in mind. Now, let's look at this situation with Joseph. When his brothers sold him into slavery, they were motivated by anger. This young upstart and his dreams. He thinks we're going to bow down to him. Well, he's got another thing coming. We're sick and tired of hearing from daddy's favorite little boy. Anger motivated. But it was greed that motivated the Ishmaelites. Joseph was young, healthy flesh for the slave market. To the Ishmaelites he was a commodity, a product to be bought and then sold to the highest bidder. They looked at him purely in commercial terms. But God was motivated by grace. Because God sent Joseph to Egypt. There have been two years of famine. There were five more to come. Five more springs with no plowing. Five more autumns with no harvest. And so the Lord, Joseph said, has put me here, verse five, to preserve life. He restates that then in verse seven. God sent me here before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth. That's an astounding statement because it's the first time we have any indication of the Bible's remnant theology. Now this is all through the prophets. The prophets preach about a remnant of God's people. The people who will be restored from the Babylonian exile. The people who will come back to the land of promise to bear the name of Israel and to see the promises of the covenant fulfilled. Now this remnant manifested here first of all in Genesis. Because in this land of Egypt, this land of exile for Joseph, God was preserving, making a way of salvation. Later in verse 7, he will say, not only is this to preserve for you a remnant, but it is to keep alive for you many survivors. Joseph's brothers, the Ishmaelites, and God were all involved in Joseph becoming a slave. Anger motivated the brothers. Greed motivated the Ishmaelites. Grace drove the loving heart of God to send him. Now when we see these elements come together, brothers and sisters, Then we begin to see how this passage is such a message of hope and courage for us. We see how the mystery of providence working as divine concurrence gives us hope. God is working here, sovereign over all things, including sin. I want you to listen to me very carefully. God is not the author of sin. James is crystal clear. James 1.13, For no one can say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and He Himself tempts no one. God is incapable of committing an act of sin because He is pure, unmitigated holiness. That is His character. That is His nature. And He cannot go against, He cannot violate His holy nature. Sin does not exist outside of the decrees of God. It exists by His divine allowance and permission or it could not exist. God does not sin, but as we see here in the story of Joseph, he works in and through and in spite of sin to accomplish his plans. Now we could go to other places in Scripture to see this at work. The opening chapters of the book of Job. Satan comes before the Lord. The Lord says, Satan, where have you been? He says, I've been up and down throughout the earth. That is the devil's flippant way of saying, I've been around. I've been around. I know about your man, Joe. And Satan is motivated in those chapters out of anger. Anger primarily against God, but anger against Job. It is his goal to discredit the faith of Job and thereby discredit the God, he thinks, Job trusts. The Sabians, they fall upon Job and his family. They're just motivated out of greed. They just see livestock for the taking. But then we know as we read those first two chapters of the book, God's at work. God is at work to vindicate His servant as He tries him and molds him and makes him into the man He's designed him to be. But of course, the greatest example of this in all of Scripture That of the Lord Jesus Christ. The parallels between Joseph and Jesus are remarkable. Joseph's brothers betray him. They sell him to the Gentiles. And through that sinful act, God saves his people. Does that sound vaguely like the New Testament? Judas, one of Jesus' own, his brother if you will, one of twelve, betrays Him. As Joseph was sold to the Ishmaelites for a few shekels of silver, Judas agrees for thirty pieces for the life. son of God. Sold, betrayed to the hands of the Jews, Caiaphas, the elders, the scribes. But the Jewish authorities were incapable of executing the death penalty. So they hand him over to the Gentiles. They're the sinful act betrayal, and the sinful, the wrong, the unjust condemnation and death of Jesus results in salvation. God is at work. The Jews motivated by anger, right? We're going to get rid of this upstart. Who does he think he is that we're going to bow down to him? That every knee will bow to him and every tongue will confess that he's something special? We'll show him a thing or two. Judas, motivated by greed, yet in it all, a loving heart and the powerful hand God so loved the world that He gave. So the most heinous criminal act ever perpetrated on planet earth, the crucifixion of the innocent and pure Son of God, becomes the greatest act of love ever displayed. As Jesus hung on the cross, he could look down at his enemies and say, you put me here, but God sent me. So Father, forgive them. This is not only the story of Jesus, folks, it's the story of the church. The story of the church. When the early church first faced persecution, how did they deal with it? How did they handle it? Well, they gathered to pray. What gave them courage and hope? They trusted in the sovereignty of God. They express that faith in prayer. Listen to the church. Acts chapter 4. They lifted their voices together to God and said, Sovereign Lord who made the heaven and the earth, the sea and everything in them, who threw the mouth of our father David your servant said by the Holy Spirit, why did the Gentiles rage and the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed for truly in this city they were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus. Now listen, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, they were gathered against him to do whatever your hand and your plan determined to take place. You see folks, the early church read their story through the lens of the cross. He had learned to do this from the Lord Jesus. Remember how He explained His own crucifixion? In Luke 22 He said, But behold, the hand of Him who betrays Me is on the table with Me. For the Son of Man goes as it has been determined. But woe to that man By whom do you betray? This was Peter's perspective. We read it earlier, didn't we? In Acts chapter two, men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus, who was attested to you by God, who did all of these marvelous things, this Jesus was delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. But he was killed and crucified by the hands of Paulus. This was the perspective of the early church. This was the lens through which they read their own situation, their own circumstances. They looked at everything through the lens of the cross. And if God could overcome the sinful and wicked deeds of men to accomplish the salvation of his people, then he could overcome the persecution of the church and strengthen and expand its witness. That's why they go on in Acts chapter 4 to pray this, and now Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus. And when they had prayed, Luke said, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken. They were filled with the Holy Spirit. They continued to speak the word of God. Boldness. Joseph was sent to Egypt to preserve his family's lives, to preserve the church as it existed on the earth in that day. God's sovereignty over sin is what gives us confidence that He will preserve His church and indeed even strengthen and expand its witness in spite of what the world attempts to do. Now let's face it folks, it's discouraging isn't it? To look at our culture. to see its abandonment of biblical truth, to see the ways in which pressure is being put upon Christians. This past Monday, as you and I were waking up to Valentine's Day, prosecution and defense were giving their closing arguments in a trial of two Christians. On trial, for their faith and their stand for the truth. Now, this trial did not occur in a Muslim majority country. This trial was being held in Helsinki, Finland. Päivi Räsänen, a medical doctor and a member of the Finnish parliament, was on trial for three counts of ethnic agitation. Now, if you're wondering, as I was, what on earth is ethnic agitation? Well, here are the three charges against her. In 2004, she published a booklet that defended the biblical view of marriage. Booklet entitled, Male and female, he created them. Homosexual relationships challenge the Christian concept of humanity. Small booklet. In 2019, she appeared on a radio talk show where this was the topic of discussion. And then later, she tweeted a Bible verse. Picture of a Bible verse. that she was expressing her disagreement with her own denomination. If she is convicted, she will be fined a substantial amount of money and could spend up to two years in prison. Now with her is a Lutheran bishop, Bishop Juhanan Poloia, courageous, godly man. He faced one count of ethnic agitation. His crime? He posted her pamphlet on his church's website. He too faces substantial fines as well as two years in prison. The verdict will be handed down at the end of March. This is a brother and a sister. Let's not imagine for a moment that this is just way off in secular Europe. Folks, this is like a soon-to-be-released feature film. It's coming to a theater near you. Just watch the legislation that's being passed. Because the stage is being set for Christians' silence. Oh, it's fine. They will tell you in Finland, it's perfectly fine for you to believe the Bible. They can't control what you think in your mind. But you just can't talk about it. can't stand up in the public square and say Jesus is Lord, the Bible is His authoritative Word and we must all live by it. That, that is a crime. Now we could just throw up our hands in despair Say, if this is happening in a liberal democracy like Finland where everyone is guaranteed the freedom of religion and the freedom of speech and the freedom of expression, whatever it may be, what hope is there? Well, the hope is that God is sovereign over sin. And that's why Jesus would say, I will build my church. The gates of hell will not open. They'll try. In fact, Jesus said that about building His church just before He gave the first prediction of His coming crucifixion. They will try. The gates of hell will give it everything they've got. destroy the work of Christ. That's what they attempted to do on the cross. God will prevail. He is sovereign over sin to accomplish our salvation. I want you to see that the story of Joseph is not just a picture of the story of Jesus and hope or the story of the church, but folks, it's our story. You see, Joseph is not only a type or a figure of the Lord Jesus Christ, he is an individual believer, a man who went through his own struggles. Can you imagine the rollercoaster he rode from Canaan to Egypt, the emotional rollercoaster from the pit to Potiphar's house, from Potiphar's house to the prison, from the prison to Pharaoh's palace. Talk about ups and downs. We don't know where along that route, where along that roller coaster ride it dawned on him that there was something bigger at work here. By this point, he's come to see that God is in charge and God is sovereign and God is working in his life. Folks, if you and I can trust that that's true for us, we can sense that there is a divine purpose and plan and that will give us courage. You see, the doctrine of divine concurrence was not just operative in ancient Egypt or in first century Palestine. God is providentially working right here, right now. Sovereign over everything that's happening You've been sinned against. A co-worker lies about you and you lose your job. A spouse walks out on you and you have no idea what you're going to do. A drunk driver crashes into you and he walks away with a few scratches and you spend weeks in the hospital and you wonder, what's it all about? Where are you today? Maybe life's peachy keen. Maybe it's just wonderful. And if it is, hallelujah. But maybe you're going through some of the greatest stresses and trials of your life. Whatever the circumstance. God sent me. The one who is sovereign over sin. One of the most encouraging passages of Scripture that I know is Psalm 138, verse 8. I have read this verse, quoted this verse, prayed this verse, and shared this verse with more Christians than perhaps any other. David wrote, The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me. Your steadfast love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hand. Dear brother, dear sister, God is sovereign over sin. And He will accomplish His purpose in your life. Let that good news capture your heart and give you courageous hope. Father, we thank you this morning for your Word. And now will you seal it to all of our hearts. Grant that we might have this hope to anchor our souls and to stand in these days for Jesus' sake.