Genesis 42. All right, the boys had gone to get some food, some corn, some grain. They made their trek to Egypt. And verse 6 says, And Joseph was the governor over the land, and he it was that sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brethren came and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth. There's that dream fulfilled. Remember when he was a kid? And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly. unto them, and he said unto them, Whence come ye? And they said, From the land of Canaan, to buy food." The title of this message today is Rough Treatment. Joseph, again, we see him here as a type of divinity, not always just Christ. I see him more here, the Father, a few weeks ago, we saw him more as the Spirit, but the perfect type of divinity, I think, the best type in the Old Testament. An enormous, an enormous number of people came from all over the known world, it would appear. It would appear from what I can read, that every one of them must deal with Joseph. And that's the type of Christ, isn't it? Every lost, hungry, needy sinner gonna have to deal with Christ. Not the preacher, not mom and dad. Gonna have to deal with Christ. But I see that in verse 57 of chapter 41. It says all the countries came into Egypt to Joseph. They came to Joseph for to buy corn, because the famine was so sore in all the lands. And then verse six of this chapter, and it was he who sold to all the people of the land. But of all those millions of people that he dealt with, it doesn't mention him treating any roughly except his own brethren. Is that strange? Well, if you didn't know the end of the story, it would be strange. Well, even so, I think it's the providence of God. Millions in this world He deals with in the way of what we call common grace, wisdom, takes care of. He took care of us last night in those storms, but nobody in your subdivision was hurt either, was there? It's common grace, common wisdom. And we know all people bear trouble. We know. Like I just said, Kim's family is bearing some trouble right now. We know all people. What the scripture tells us that. It says, man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. But some have more troubles than others. And those are often sent to those that are nearest the Lord. I think they call those sanctified trials. David turned over to Psalm 73. David talks about this. He says it better than I can, so let's just read what he says, Psalm 73. He said, truly God is good to Israel. He owns that. He's a believer, David does. Even to such as are of clean heart. But as for me, I was having trouble. My feet were slipping. I was a little bit put back, confused. My feet had almost gone. My steps had well nigh slipped. Here's why. For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there were no bands in their death, but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men. But then he looks at himself in verses 12 through 14. Here it is. Here's the rub, the roughness. Behold, he said, these are ungodly. He's talking to God now. He said, these are ungodly who prosper in the world. They increase in riches. He said, verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain. and wash my hands in intimacy. For all the day long have I been plagued and chastened every morning." Rough treatment from his brother. Scripture says, through much tribulation they shall inherit the kingdom. This is our promise. This is the believer's promise. We have somebody's hundreds of them, but here's one of them. from our father, our loving father, he says, in this world you will have tribulation. Like our text story, like I was just saying, if we didn't know the end of our story, we'd think it's some sort of strange providence of God, wouldn't we? A bit rough, a little unkind to his brothers. that he fills the sacks of the world, we'd think sometimes, along with ours, but we got to deal with a rougher passage. Well, let's look at two or three things. Have you ever noticed, have you ever noticed, just before we receive a great blessing, some rough trial comes along? I'm sure you've noticed that. Joseph brothers at the end will receive the greatest of all the blessings. But first, they're going to experience a rough road from their brother here in Egypt. So too with us believers. And it actually goes back to our initial salvation, doesn't it? Jacob, the old preacher, the dad, tells them, he said, there's corn in Egypt. get to the supplier, go to the supplier. Well, our preachers say now, the bread in Christ, get to him. So we go to Christ. We go to Christ. And he will save us, but first, first, he tells us stuff like this over in Luke, Luke chapter 14, verse 25. And he said, there went great multitudes with him. And he turned and said unto them that most preachers today wouldn't turn to say anything if they had great multitude following them other than try to build them up. This is what he tells them. If any man come to me and hate not his father and his mother and his wife and children and brothers and sisters, yea, in his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. That ain't a, that's not a, we wouldn't think that's a good soul winner, would we? Hmm? It's whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which if you intend to build a tower, here it is. Don't sit down first and count how much it's going to take. Have I got enough money? Have I got enough time? Well, that's sort of rough, isn't it? You know, we come to the Lord for salvation and that's what he tells us. It's going to be rough. Have you thought about it? You sure this is what you want to do? And then, then we get by that part. and then he convinces us of our sin. He shows us that we're no good at all. No good at all. He squeezes every bit of the self-righteousness out of us, don't he? I mean, I'm talking about if you're truly seeking, truly seeking. The last thing a true seeker's gonna receive from a true Christ is that he's worth anything. You see that in our text, verse nine through 11. Look at how these boys. Then Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them and said unto them, you're spies. To see the nakedness of the land, you're come. And they said unto him, nay, my Lord, but to buy food are thy servants come. We're men, we're all one man's son. We're true men. We're somebody. We're somebody. And then he tells them, he tells them in verse 21, and they said one another, that's where he gives them, he says, no you're not, you're spies, you're spies. You're up to no good, you're not true men. And it gets to them. And that's what being honest with men will do, it gets to them. Verse 21, they got together and they said, we are guilty. We are guilty. Concerning our brother in the we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us and we would not hear therefore This distress has come upon. That's where a sinner gets is what he's done to Christ, right? Hmm No good to Christ Killed him just like the Jews and the Romans killed him Guilty, that's where he's gonna get you Rough treatment, isn't it? Well, like I say, it started this rough treatment at conversion and just has continued ever since then. You know, we sort of learn to dread our joys, don't we? And we start thinking, oh Lord, what's coming? What's coming, don't we? And it sort of comes in waves, don't it? Knocked down and then this wave. What's coming? And then we also learn, though we've been around long enough, to learn to expect a blessing at the end of all the sorrow. Why is this? Why does he do this? Why does he treat us so rough? Moses asked that. Moses said in Numbers 11, he said, why do you deal thus with your servant? He's not the only one that asked. Elijah asked. David asked. I just read Jeremiah asked. Well, the first thing it does, it keeps us sober and grounded. You know, if we stayed in a controlled environment, if we stayed at church all the time, we'd get pretty spiritual, wouldn't we? Wouldn't we? We'd be pretty spiritual, pretty high. We'd sort of remain in a spiritual state. What would that do? Well, that blinds us of our rotten, depraved nature. Paul wrote about that. He said, there is given unto me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to what? To buffet me, to keep me grounded, to not let me forget that I'm the chief of sinners, just how rotten I am. You know, we can go for days sometimes. I mean, every morning you get up, the first thing you do is you think about the Lord and you say a good prayer, you know, thank you, Lord, for the day. Passage through night, you have some good devotions. But then something come along. Some trial come along and it just reveals, no, you're still the same old ugly rotten you. You're not spiritual. Only grace. Only grace. It's still there. That old ugly me is still there. It's gonna always be there. You take a child. I've watched our grandkids time and time again. You take a child You know, give them gifts, gift after gift. We had a birthday party here a week or so ago. And Jax, Jax was opening presents, just opening one after another. He has a ton of presents, like Christmas again, you know. But you watch him, and we all know it's true. He didn't even know who it was from, huh? Are we any different? We get spiritual gift after spiritual gift. What we do, we forget the giver and start looking at us, don't we? What a good boy I am, what a good woman I am. I've sat down here now six days in a row and had a good devotion. Who gave you that? Well, he'll remind you where it came from. He'll give you some rough sessions. He'll put you in a place where your neighbors won't even think you know God from left field. That's a wet old ugly neighbor of mine. Spiritual highs are gifts, but they can lead to spiritual pride. And I need humbling. I need humbling. I need to remember who the giver of the good things is. It's not anything I've accomplished. We get that way, I'll sit and read and I'll think, boy, Brett, look what all you've learned today. Now, who taught me that? I'd be as unconcerned about reading this as anybody out there if it wasn't for God's grace. So the Lord, our heavenly Joseph, he'll checker our lives, won't he? Believers have a checkered life. That just humbles us. It's good for us. It's good for us. It's what he told those people in Israel. He said, I've led you around this world for 40 years, in this wilderness for 40 years. There's been highs, the manna, the water, and there's been lows. There's been hunger and thirst. Why did he do it? What did he say? To humble you. To prove you. And to know what's in your heart. Checkered lives. Checkered lives are good for believers. These true men that we just read about were humble when they got put in prison, weren't they? And their guilt came out and they acknowledged their wrong. They acknowledged how they had offended their brother. just how needy and rotten they were. Another reason for our brother to deal so roughly with us is he keeps us coming to him. I'm sure, I'm sure pride would have kept these boys from ever going back to that guy again. I'm sure they'd have said, we're not going back to that jerk. Wouldn't they? Isn't that our nature? Why'd they go back? They were hungry. They were hungry. He didn't give them enough for the duration of their walk, did he? We don't get all the blessings without some troubles along the way. Makes us appreciate him. Keeps us coming back. Keeps us clinging to that master. Oh, we pray. We pray. And then when real trouble comes in, we really pray, right? We've all been there. Troubles from God keep us near God. And isn't that when prayer's the sweetest? When life's the roughest? Why is that? Because there's absolutely no pride in them then. None at all. And then a third thing, it follows then that this roughness makes us see how truly dependent we are for his blessing. Joseph could have, had he wanted, Joseph could have locked them up, all of them. He kept Simeon, could have locked them all up. He could have executed them. Pharaoh said, you're the one, do whatever you want. He could have executed, nothing would have ever been said. He had every right to do it. And don't you see Christ in all this? Hmm? He could have sent them away with nothing. What I'm saying is they were entirely in his hands. Well, are we all just potter or clay in the potter's hands? He do with us what he wants. I wish people would understand that more. We can't offer people this world around us a religion they think they bring so much to Christ and God. We're nothing to Him. We're not a thing to Him. Our life's in Christ's hand. If it wasn't for Christ, there ain't a man or an angel out here. If He takes His hand off me, Ain't a man or angel that gonna help me. You're gone. We're gone. Ain't a doctor. Ain't a cop. Ain't nobody out here can help you. If he takes his hand off you, you're gone. Whether natural or spiritual. Remove that hand and I'm dead. You're dead. Yeah, believers will persevere. We will persevere. We believe that. Scripture says the righteous shall hold on his way, but only in the hands of the righteous one. It's the only way. Take then the trials, this rough usage, and know, know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they're sent from Joseph. He says in 45, for I am your brother. I am your brother. He says, come near me. And that rough usage makes us draw near him, don't it? All right, now the second thing, they're going to get the best blessing at the end. But along the way, thankfully, provisions are provided, just enough sometimes to keep them from despair. It'll be given grace that we'll be able to endure the rough trials. We are, we are as believers. Just about the time we think, I can't, I can't take this, he'll send a provision. Joseph, in our text, had been very austere, hadn't he? And he had been, he jailed Simeon. But, but the eight other brothers left with, with full sacks in verse 25. They left with money. They didn't take their money. And they left with food to eat on on the way back. Never does a believer go through a rough trial without provisions for the need. God is faithful. Paul writes, he will not let you be tried beyond what you can bear. But when you're tempted, he will provide a way out so that you can endure it. What do these include? Well, they include a sense of his love. Over here in John 11, John 11 is a good example of that, what I'm talking about. Raising of Lazarus, remember Lazarus had died. Here's some rough treatment he gave those sisters. In the first four or five verses he establishes how much he loved Lazarus and how much he loved Mary and Martha. He talks about that two or three times in those, so there's no doubt he loved them. Love was proven. Then in verse 11 he says, oh how he loved him when he was wept for Lazarus. People said, oh how he loved him. But there was some rough treatment. Mary said, well Martin, what if you'd have been here? If you'd have been here, our brother Lazarus wouldn't have died. Why'd you do that? I know you got word. Rough, wasn't it? But at the end, we have this, oh how he loved him. Here's another thing, a realization of daily grace. Scripture says, give us this day our yearly bread. Give us this day our daily bread. Our daily bread, daily grace. Lamentations 3, we sing this song all the time. His mercies are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness. Isn't it? Great is his faithfulness. We recall past mercies. I've been here before. And I got through. The Lord's grace got me through. And I'll be here again. So we recall past mercies. My God, my soul is cast down within me, David said. I'm going through one of those bad times. Well, what'd he say? Therefore, well, I'll remember thee. I'll remember thee. All right, I said, the best is the end blessing. He gives the very, we know the story. We know the story. Everybody knows the story. He gives the very best at the end to those brothers. The biggest thing he gives them is forgiveness, isn't it? Could they ask for anything greater? But he does so much more. And that's coming for us. It's true. It's true. He only spoke rough to those brothers. Think of all those millions of people. And his brothers were the only ones he fell upon and wept in chapter 50. The only ones he said, I will preserve thee alive. He didn't tell everybody else that. Just his brothers. The only ones, he said, regard not your stuff. Don't worry about that stuff you left there. For the whole land of Egypt is yours. He didn't tell those other millions that, just his brothers. The only ones he brought before the king, he said, behold, my father and my brothers, nobody else. Believers. Believers. We're soon going to have the best. Right now, right now, presently, you're the only one who the Lord calls brother. The only ones for whom Christ prayed. Think about that. He didn't pray for the world, he prayed for you, his brothers. The only ones he said all things work together for your good. Yeah, our path is rough. It's rough sometimes. But we're the only ones who have him as our captain. The only ones. And soon, and soon we will be, as John Newton wrote, forever with the Lord. Amen. So let it be.