don't know who I am, I'm on the back of the bulletin here where it says Reverend Rob Amsler, Associate Pastor Emeritus, which means I'm retired, but still helping out and thankful to be. I want to thank Dan and the session for allowing me to be in the pulpit, asking me to be in the pulpit this morning, and actually for continuing to allow me to really function here, which I very much appreciate. We are in the book of Genesis, Genesis is the first book of the Bible, and we are in Genesis chapter 49, which is right at the end of, it's one chapter from the end of the book. Genesis 49, I'll read the last verse and then I'll read, we'll skip to chapter 50, verse 15. So I'll skip over the part of the narrative of the burial of Jacob. So Genesis 49-33, you can follow along with me. I'm in the English Standard Version. Or you can do what people in the church for centuries have done, which is simply listen to the Word. When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people. Now 50, 15, verse 15 in chapter 50. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, it may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him. So they sent a message to Joseph saying, your father gave this command before he died. Say to Joseph, please forgive the transgression of your brothers in their sin because they did evil to you. And now please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.' Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, Behold, we are your servants. But Joseph said to them, Do not fear, for am I in the place of God. As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. So do not fear, I will provide for you and your little ones. Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. Here ends the reading of the word, let's pray. Father, this is a very familiar text to many of us, a wonderful story, how marvelous that these children knew it so well. And many of us know it well also, but teach us new lessons today. Your Word has depths that are insondably, that we cannot plumb. And so we pray by your Holy Spirit that you will work through us so that we are not just hearers of the Word, but we do what it says, as James tells us. And we pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. Well, Joseph believed in the providence and purposes of God. That's my first point for those of you who are taking notes. Joseph believed in the providence and purposes of God. How do you react when you've been wronged repeatedly or deeply, or even when somebody's whacked you with a lacrosse stick? How do you react? What do you say to God? Do you ask him, why are you doing this to me? Do you complain it's just not fair? Do you seek revenge and say, I won't get mad, I'll get even? Or do you and do I see God's providential plan in our lives in such situations? Now in the Reformed world, the Reformed Presbyterian world, we use the word providence a lot. It's a wonderful word, we should. But as one of my language teachers told me many years ago, we need to make sure we know what we're saying. So what is providence? Well, the Shorter Catechism provides help. Question 11 says, what are the works of providence? the Westminster Shorter Catechism, one of our standards. God's works of providence are His most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all His creatures and all their actions. His most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all His creatures, that's us, and all their actions. Providence refers to God's control of all creation. Every aspect of life, it means that God rules absolutely and sovereignly over all things, and nothing happens without his knowledge. God knows everything. He controls everything. Joseph believed in the providence and purposes of God. Joseph's life, as those of you who've read the account, it takes up the last 10 or 12 chapters of Genesis. Genesis is a book, as you know, of generations, Abraham, short section on Isaac, then Jacob, and then the account of Joseph, Jacob's son. And he has a life of ups and downs, ups and downs, right? Now, there are at least three times where Joseph is wronged, and in each case, God intervenes. Very important for us to step into Joseph's world. I realize this is 3,900 years ago. But we need to step into his world. During my time of recovery, we had gotten, you can tell how technologically illiterate I am. I think it's called a fire stick, right? A fire stick with Amazon. So I called Dr. Buddy White to help me to set it up because I'm not very good at these sorts of things. And we found some mysteries that we were watching. And sometimes I would look on the internet and cheat. And Julie says, don't tell me the end of the story. I don't want to know it. Well, we know the end of the story and what that does sometimes is we don't get into the story because we know the end. Right? So we need to sort of jump into where Joseph is and think about what it was like for him. So the first thing was his brothers committed the first wrong. If you look back to chapter 39, I think it is, the brothers hated him. He said, you'll bow down one day to me. What's this dreamer? Who is he? Jacob, he was Jacob's favorite son. And as we know, and as I think it was, Jack told us, he was sold into slavery. Imagine that. sold into slavery. What a wickedness. What a wicked deed. Sold into slavery by these scheming brothers. But what happens? He ends up in Egypt in command of the house of Potiphar, captain of the guard. Genesis 39 tells us the Lord was with Joseph, so he became a successful man. He prospered. The second wrong was Potiphar's wife. She had a, I'll just say she had an eye out for Joseph. She had an eye out for Joseph, right? And went after him. He ran away and she falsely accused him. Remember that? And what did her husband do? Well, he put Joseph in prison. Joseph rose to be in charge of the prison. Genesis 39, 21 tells us the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love, gave him favor and the sight of the keeper of the prison. Finally, there was a third wrong, and the cupbearer. Remember the baker, the cupbearer have a dream. They have dreams and they need an interpretation, and Pharaoh's court is unable to provide the interpretation. So they go down, Joseph interprets the dreams correctly, the baker a few days later is hanged, as Joseph has predicted, and the cupbearer prospers. But what does the scripture say? Three short words, the cupbearer forgot him. The cupbearer forgot him. Two years, two years, day after day after day, Joseph thinking, what's happened? Where did the cup bearer go? Did he remember me? But there's a neat ending, isn't there? Pharaoh requests the interpretation of the dream about the famine, the shortage of food. Nobody in the court can do it. He's gone to the best seers in the land. They're unable to interpret the dream. And what happens? The cupbearer says, today I remember my shortcomings. It's like, oops. There's this guy down in prison. His name's Joseph. He's a Hebrew. He knows how to interpret dreams because he interpreted this dream two years ago. And so Joseph comes up, right? And what does he say? He says, I cannot do it. Or he says, literally, it is not in me. Joseph replied to Pharaoh when asked to interpret the dream. But God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires. Wow, what a statement of faith. Again, jump into the story. He's coming before the most powerful man in the ancient world. Nobody in this court's been able to do this. It's like, are you going to be able to do this? Well, I can't, but God will. So Joseph expressed his faith clearly, even in the midst of a very different culture. Joseph with his Hebrew background was about as different from the Egyptians as you can imagine. When I took about 18, 20 years ago now, when I took Old Testament at Reform Theological Seminary, my professor spent the first day talking about the difference between the geography in Egypt and the geography in Israel and what the Israelites, how different it was going to be for them coming out of Egypt after 400 years. And going to Israel, Egypt was a completely different country. Agricultural system was different. The agricultural system depended on the flooding of the Nile, not on rainfall. Different gods, different language, different foods. We have examples in our own congregation. There are undoubtedly things that Mariana Warren misses about Mexico. The Pele family from Cameroon, very different culture, different language, different place. Michelle and Ben Price, who will be here next week, a little advertisement, stay to hear them on the 25th. Michelle and Ben Price ministering in another land. Ana Maria Atchison. from Ecuador, very, very different place. And here's Joseph sold into slavery, having to learn their language, their customs, learning everything, and yet clearly, clearly from the biblical narrative, maintains his allegiance to Yahweh, to the Lord, right, the God of Israel. So it's also clear that he remembered and missed his home. I reread through the whole account in preparation for the sermon, and when he names his children, he references where he once was. Joseph understood the purpose of God in his role as the preserver of the covenant line of Abraham during the time of the famine. What do I mean by that? God promised Abraham, right, his descendants would multiply and be like the sands of the sea, right? But we're in a time of famine. There's no food in Israel. The brothers go down right from Canaan to Egypt. So Joseph plays a key role in that. And when he reveals himself to the brothers, do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here for God sent me before you to preserve life. Wow. You talk about having a view of the sovereignty of God. God sent me ahead to preserve life here. So as the preserver of the Israelite covenant family, Joseph points toward the ultimate preserver, Christ, who understood perfectly the providence and purposes of God, as did Joseph. Now, the second thing, Joseph showed the forgiveness of God. So first point, Joseph believed in the providence and purposes of God, Joseph showed the forgiveness of God. Please forgive the transgression of the servants of your God, your Father, says Joseph, wept. And then, what do you do not fear? I'll provide for you and your little ones, that section that I just read, beautiful there in 15 to 21. What a wonderful picture of forgiveness. And don't we delight in the forgiveness shown to us by God through Christ? Now it's interesting, in Hebrew, the word to forgive means literally to lift the transgression. To lift the transgression. Joseph forgave his brothers for the wrong done to him. Why? He had an eye on the big picture. He had an eye on the big picture. Joseph's righteous conduct contrasts with the wicked actions of his brothers. What would our reaction have been? What would our reaction have been? Now, I may be the only person in the room with this reaction, and if so, I am willing, very willing to have additional sanctification because I need it. But I confess, I think I might have said, the old man's gone. Here comes the payback. Probably not the only one in here who might have thought that. But not Joseph. He had his eye on the big picture. And he realized God had a purpose for all that. What does 1 Peter say about Jesus? It says, when they hurled insults at him, he did not retaliate. Some versions have. Some versions say he didn't threaten. But what did he do? He entrusted himself to the one who judges justly. Who's that? God. God will be absolutely fair. If you're looking at your news feed or all the noise and distractions in the culture around us, don't worry. God's in control of all that. He'll be absolutely just. He'll be absolutely fair. We've got to keep our eye on the big picture. We have to keep our eye on Jesus. And Joseph kept entrusting himself to the one who judges justly. He saw God's sovereign plan in his life. You see, Joseph points toward the work of forgiveness and reconciliation that Christ will do. Like Joseph, Jesus was mistreated unjustly, wronged by those around him, hated by many, but he was completely innocent. It was the most unjust execution in history. And those who crucified Christ meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. For what? For the saving of us. His remnant. Just the way Joseph was there for the salvation of that remnant, Jesus is here for the salvation of all who trust in Him. Joseph's forgiveness of the brothers clearly has in view Christ's forgiveness of His people. The forgiveness of the brothers was undeserved, unconditional, and complete, just as the Lord forgives us. Joseph's forgiveness meant forgetting what the brothers had done to him and reconciling himself to them through God. It meant caring for his brothers in Egypt. It meant not just forgiving from here, but from down here. What does the book of Micah tell us? That God takes the sins and what throws them into the depths of the sea. Micah chapter seven, last few verses there. Well, that's what God does. God demonstrates His own love for us in this, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, Romans 5, 8. How readily do you and I forgive others who have done something to us? Do we rely on God to enable us to show the kind of Christlike forgiveness Joseph showed toward his brothers? Or do we simply harbor resentment toward those who have wronged us? There's an interesting parable, probably many of you know, in Matthew 18. It has various names, and the particular Bible I read, it's called the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant. I don't know if you remember it or not, but the servant comes before his master and has a debt that he can't possibly pay back, and the master forgives it. And then what does the servant do? Well, he turns around and tries to collect debts from people who owe him. And in fact, one, he strangles a guy, Verbal says in one case, to get the money back. So he's totally unmerciful. And do you remember how that ends? Because we all need to hear this, because I think all of us probably at one point or another have had this in us. Then his master summoned him and said to him, you wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you? And in anger, his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly father will do to every one of you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. Wow. I'm getting ready for the sermon and reading this and it's sobering, isn't it? It's sobering. But Joseph showed to his brothers that kind of forgiveness. He forgave out of the heart. And that's really what the call is to us, my brothers and sisters, is to forgive out of the heart. Joseph points us toward the goodness of God in Christ. Joseph points us toward the goodness of God in Christ. God may not choose to give us the prominence that Joseph had in the court of Pharaoh of being the second in command of the entire country. And he may not work in our situations as directly as he did with Joseph. But what this passage does teach us is that God is absolutely trustworthy and dependable. He has shown that in many ways, but especially by sending his son and by sacrificing him on the cross for us. This is what the Joseph narrative points to. God used Joseph to demonstrate his providence, his purposes, and his forgiveness. Joseph is, in every sense, a type of Christ. The late Dr. James Boyce, who's been in heaven probably 20-some years now and was a pastor at 10th Presbyterian in Philadelphia, some of those of us who are older remember him as a commentator, very good preacher. And here's what he says about Joseph. Joseph knew God. In particular, he knew two things about God. He knew that God is sovereign, that nothing ever comes into the life of any one of his children that he has not approved first. There are no accidents. And he knew, that is Joseph knew, that God is good. Therefore, the things that come into our lives by God's sovereignty are for our benefit and others' benefit and not for our harm. Do you know these things about God that there are no accidents and that what he brings into our lives is for our benefit? And not do you just know it, but do you believe it? Do I believe it? You see, we are in a much better position than Joseph. We have the entire Bible. Let's not forget where we are. We haven't even gotten to the Exodus yet. Certainly, we haven't gotten to the law. We haven't gotten to the monarchy or the divided kingdom or the exile. We're way before any of that. Oh, my brothers and sisters, how much better a view do we have? How beautiful the Bible is, no matter what language you're reading it in. And what a gift it is to us to have God's revelation right there in the Scriptures. So we're in a much better position than Joseph was. Do you believe that everything comes into your life through God's providence? There are people in this congregation who have lost spouses, parents, siblings, children, Brothers and sisters in Christ and friends, are we trusting God's sovereignty and providence in that? We have people with long COVID, people being treated for cancer, people who have other illnesses, some of them unspoken. People with financial difficulties, we all are aging. Some of us have found that retirement ends up being different from what we thought it might be. And as Matthew said, during this last six months, we've had quite a ride here at Heritage Presbyterian. Again, it's our eye on God and his providence and all of that. Do you and do I trust God's purposes in our lives even when they don't make sense? I believe I read that it was Elizabeth Elliot who lost her first two husbands, one in the jungle down in Ecuador, the second one from a virulent form of cancer, who said, well, you know, if you looked at this and God didn't exist, you would say, no, it doesn't make sense. But she said, it does make sense. Joseph was 17 when he was sold into slavery and taken to Egypt. He was 30 when he became viceroy, that is the second in command. So 13 years passed. That's a long time. 13 years passed of his being in an alien culture. Think about that. That's what I say, get into the story. Think about that, looking all around where, you know, there are all these gods, pantheistic, that is a multi-god culture, right? And he's looking around and where's Yahweh? But he never lost sight, never lost sight. I used this illustration a few years ago, so just bear with me if you've heard it. I think there are enough new people in here who probably have it. But I got a telephone call, I don't know, seven or eight years ago now. And it was a former colleague at the bank. I had a, for those of you who don't know, I had a career for about 20 years in commercial banking before Heritage graciously hired me as a staff elder and they put me through seminary and I was ordained in 2008, so this is a number of years ago now. And this woman's husband called me. And I don't, he had such an old business card when I saw it, I didn't even recognize it. He told me that his wife was in the hospital and she had pulmonary fibrosis. And if you know what that is, it's just this fibrous material sort of takes over your lungs and you can't breathe and it's a terminal illness. And she was very close to the end and actually could barely speak. She was talking to me in a whisper. So I went over, and I had seen her, you know, a couple of times since Julie and I had moved out to Warrington in 1993, but we had not been particularly close at the bank, and I certainly didn't know her well. And she knew she was not far from the end, and she said, Rob, I need to be saved. And I said, well, you've called the right person, but more importantly, you've called the right God. And so gospel presentation there in the room, she confessed Christ as Lord and Savior. Two days later, when Dennis DeMauro from Trinity Lutheran Church was in her hospital room, she was taken to heaven. Now, Joseph had a good and a right Pharaoh, but he had a better God and he had the right God, you see. God sovereignly worked. I never in my life thought I would have gotten that phone call. And it had an impact on me for just continuing to pray for people and taking seriously that parable, right, where Jesus says, be persistent in prayer. Brothers and sisters, we just, we can't slack off. Got to keep going. But it also told me, wow, God is sovereign, and he does as he pleases. And he saves some people from the moment they come out of the womb, and others, he saves, from our point of view, I'm talking about, he saves at the last minute. And that's how he works. God is good and loving beyond what we can imagine. He providentially orders all of his creation to glorify himself as he cares for his creatures. God has forgiven us through Christ who has reconciled us to the Father through his life, death, and resurrection. Our lives as Christians should be characterized by forgiveness of others. Here's the thing, if you're having trouble forgiving somebody, ask the Holy Spirit to help you. And what you might have to say is what I've had to say on a couple of occasions, which is, I don't want to forgive this person. Make me forgive him and change my heart. Sometimes we just have to say that. Read the Psalms. I've been, Kevin referenced the Psalms a couple weeks ago, I think, when he was up here. I've been reading through, we were given a gift at Christmas, Dean Ortlund's book on the Psalms. I highly recommend it. It's a devotional book. He said, look how David cries out and says, where am I? Help me, where are you? But we need to look toward God and trust him to change us. Steve Hohenberger stood up here one time and said, I don't want to change, change me. I don't want to forgive, make me a forgiving person. Joseph, as wonderful as he was, and as great as that forgiveness was that you saw here in the text, as great as that was to his brothers, the brothers who sent a messenger because they didn't want to face Him personally, did they? As great as that was, Christ's forgiveness is even better. So Joseph points us toward that. Our Savior has poured out His mercy and grace on us. Do we trust God that His providential plan is absolutely perfect? May he grant us the faith and grace necessary to believe in his sovereignty over all human affairs, so that we do indeed believe that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Will you pray with me? I'm gonna give you a couple of minutes in silence just to ponder that question. Do we trust God that his providential plan is absolutely perfect? And am I a forgiving person? And then I'll pray. Our Father, there is so much in this text. It's so rich. It's just such a beautiful picture of who you are. There's lots more we could say. But I'd ask you to make us a loving and forgiving people here at Heritage. I'd ask you to make us a grace-filled people. I'd ask you, as we hear often, that we need your grace, but no one in here today, no one in here is so far away that your grace cannot touch that person. We see this powerful account of forgiveness and it points us to the forgiveness while we were still sinners. That is, when we had no interest in you whatsoever, Christ died for us. These are familiar verses and these are familiar accounts, especially to those of us who are growing older, but continue to renew them in us. so that we are refreshed, and we are restored, and we are changed, and we are transformed, and we are different people when we walk out of here today from who we were when we came in. Oh, Holy Spirit, you're well able to do that. So we pray that would be the case. Thank you for this text. We thank you, triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And it's in the name of the great Lord Jesus that we pray.