Why Joseph is Not the Star

As we start, let me say a couple of things. First of all, how grateful I am for this opportunity. I, like I said, have looked forward to this for a while for quite some time, and have been grateful for the way that I've been received here, definitely among friends. Amen. Secondly, many of you are asking about the videos that we're doing here where Actually this is the first time that we've done the Joseph Conference, and as you may have noticed on our table, we have some of our conferences in video in DVD form, so this is going to be the next one of those that we'll have in DVD form. It'll take a while to finish it and edit it and do all of that, but if you go to Votebakom dot org order our church website Grace Family Baptist dot net, it'll probably be easy to remember vote blocking dot org. They're both of the same website. But if you'll go there and just sort of keep your eyes open, we'll make an announcement as we get close to having that done. So I appreciate all of your cooperation with that as well, and just pray that it hasn't been too much of a distraction. But we like to get these things recorded. We like to put these things in people's hands. It's been a blessing to hear how many of you have found out about our ministry because of things like that that have been put in your hands. So we're continuing to do that. We haven't done anything like that in a while. The last one we've made is several years old now, so we're really excited to be able to do this as well. So that's your answer for that. All the rest of the stuff that's downstairs you already know about. You might not know, though, that all the proceeds for everything that you buy at our table. I don't know about the Reformation Heritage table. But all the proceeds that you from everything you buy at our table goes to feed hungry children. And I have nine of them, all right. So if you have your Bibles with you, open them to Genesys chapter forty two. And in Genesis chapter forty two, there's an amazing event and it is essentially a test of faith. Joseph comes face to face with his brothers again, but he does not reveal who he is, and they do not recognize him immediately. Remember when he left he was seventeen years old. Now he's a forty year old man, and he probably has, you know, all of the attire and everything else of an Egyptian. He looks like an Egyptian, he speaks like an Egyptian, he wears his hair like an Egyptian, his facial hair like an Egyptian. And he is a rugged, old man, man who's had a long, very eventful life. They assume that their brother is dead after all these years, and yet he doesn't do one of the two things that he could have done. He could have immediately pounced on them and had them killed for what they had done to him immediately, and no one would have questioned his authority or his right to do so. No one would have. But he doesn't do that. Secondly, he could have been overwhelmed emotionally like he will be later on, and just introduced himself to his brothers, but he didn't. Instead, he tests them. He tests them, and he does this intentionally, and I believe he does it for several reasons. I believe that he's testing them to see where they are spiritually. He's testing them to see if they're the same men who put him in the pit. He's testing them to see what kind of response they require, and based on what he finds, I believe he determines how he will respond to them. If things had come out differently and they had responded to him as the hardened, murderous, vicious men that they had been twenty some years ago, I don't believe there would have been a tearful reunion. Yeah, he has to test them. Testing of faith, by the way, is not something that's isolated to the Book of Genesis. We'recalled upon to examine ourselves, werecalled upon not to assume things about ourselves or others. Listen to this in Matthew chapter seven, in verse fifteen, Beware of false prophets who come to you in cheap's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Our grapes gathered from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles. So every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the disease tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a disease tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. He's testing their fruits. He's testing their fruits. It's appropriate to do so, and also examining ourselves, which is what we need to do tonight. We need to examine ourselves. That is why this is important. We're not here tonight just to watch Joseph examine his brothers. We're here to examine ourselves with the same examination that he uses for his brothers. Sawo Corinthians thirteen to five. Examine yourselves to see whether you're in the faith. Test yourselves or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you fail to meet the test. We don't have to worry about examining ourselves because Christ is in us. Amen, Or do we have to worry about examining ourselves Philippines two twelve and thirteen. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. That last phrase is very important. Don't work it out with fear and tribling. Because you're depending upon yourself. It's God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. And finally, one John two twenty nine, if you know that He is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. It's important to test faith. Listen to this from Lorraine Bettner. The objection is sometimes made that this system encourages men to be careless and indifferent about their moral conduct and their growth and grace, on the grounds that their eternal welfare has already been secured. This objection is primarily directed against the doctrines of election and the perseverance of the saints. Nexus careless, let us not examine ourselves. The objection, however, Betner continues this objection, like the one to the effect that this system discourages all motives to exertion, is completely answered by the great principle which we hold and teach, namely that the means as well as the ends are foreordained. God's decree that the earth should be fruitful, but included the sunlight, the showers, the tillage of the husband, that etc. If God has foreordained a man to have a crop of corn, He has also foreordained him to plow and plant and cultivate, and to do all other necessary things to secure the crop. Just as a purpose to build includes the hewing of stone, the squaring of timbers, and the preparation of all other materials which enter into the structure, and as a declaration of war implies arms, ammunition, shifts, and all other necessary equipment. So the election of some to the eternal enjoyment of heaven includes their election to their holiness. Ear it is not the individual as such, but the individual as holy and virtuous that is predestined to eternal life. See, the doctrine of predes nation does not make us lazy in our pursuit of holiness. To the contrary, it makes us passionate about our pursuit of holiness. And so there is this question of our assurance of salvation, and there are those who struggle with this assurance of salvation. Our confession addresses this question. We don't have time to deal with the entire chapter, but I just want to make a couple of observations from the Second London Confession, which is the confession of this church. Here the confession of our church, the Convention of all reform, notis churches. Listen to this paragraph one. Although temporary believers and other unregenerate men, timporary believers are not Christians. They're not Christians who are Christians and then stop being Christians. Think about the parable of the soils. Not everything that springs up is going to bear fruit, and everything that springs up is real and genuine and authentic. Phrase temporary believers. That's the people who respond outwardly but have not truly been converted, may vainly deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presumptions of being in the favor of God and state of salvation, which hope of theirs shall perish. Yet such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus and love Him in sincerity, endeavoring to walk in all good conscience before Him, may in this life be certainly assured that they are in the state of grace, and may rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, which hope shall never make them ashamed. Amen, Hallelujah, Praise the Lord. We can have assurance, but our assurance is based on the fruit that God produces in us in keeping with our salvation. So I say again, just as these men were tested, we need to be tested. In chapter forty two, we see Joseph's examination of his brothers. We see Joseph withholding trust from his brothers. He doesn't automatically trust them just because they're, you know, part of this covenant family. There are seven questions that occur in four different categories, and there are incredible similarities with First John. This is what struck me, you know. And as we were preaching through I showed you before, as we preach through books of the Bible, especially large books of the Bible, we'll preach through a segment and then go preach through another book, and we go Old Testament back to New Testament, and so on and so forth. One of the things we did during our journey through Genesis was we preached through First John. Preaching through First John, and then coming back to Genesis forty two, it was like sirens went off because of the similarities between the tests that we find in First John and the tests that we find with Joseph and his brothers. And they are beneficial to all believers and to all those who think their believers in arn't and to all those who aren't believers. It is beneficial to us all first category, do the sins of your past continue to characterize your present? There's the first category of tests. Is its test designed to ask a single question? Do the sins of your past continue to characterize your present? Not? Have you, ever since you've been a Christian committed a sin that you committed before you were a Christian? Listen carefully? Do the sins of your past continue to characterize you're present? Are you characterized by it? Do you continue to walk in it? Is it continuing to define who you are? That's the question. The first test is Benjamin alive? That's what he wants to ascertain, and so he tests them in that regard. We see that in Chapter forty two, verses twelve through sixteen. Look with me there. Beginning of verse twelve, he said to them, no, it is the nakedness of the land that you have come to see. And they said, we, your servants, are twelve brothers, the sons of one man, and the land of Canaan. And behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is no more. But Joseph said to them, it is as I said to you, you are spies. But that by this you shall be tested. No, he's clear here testing you. He's honest about the fact that he's testing them, but he's not revealing everything to them. By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here. Send one of you and let him bring your brother, while you remain confined, that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you or else? Are the life of Pharaoh? Surely you are spies? And he put them all together in custody for three days. What's this about? These men show up and he recognizes them. He'll never forget them. And he looks at him, and they come and he counts one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, who's not there? Can you imagine the pit in his stomach when he recognizes that Benjamin is the one who's not there? Why is this significant? One of the reasons that Joseph was favored because he was a child of the favorite wife. Remember, Jacob goes to get married and Laban deceives him, and all of a sudden he finds one one and he works for seven years so that he can have her, and he gets married, and he wakes up after his wedding night next to the other one. He has to promise another seven years in order to get the wife that he wants. Now he has two wives, Rachel, the one that he wants, and Leah, the one that he never wanted in the first place. Rachel is Baron in this book about Seed. She's barren, and Leah proceeds to give birth to Ruben, Simeon, Levi and Judah. There are two concubines that are set with them when they're married, and even the concubines bear children. But his favorite wife, the one that he loved, the one that started at all, could not have children until eventually she gives birth to Joseph, who becomes the favorite boy, and then gives she disbirthed to Benjamin and she dies. It was the dreams, make no mistake about it, that turned his brothers against them. But it was the favoritism, I believe that established a boot of a root of bitterness in them. And so now here he is. There's only two of us from the wife that my father loved. I was sold here and the other ones not with them. Where's Benjamin? Where's Benjamin. I'm not telling them anything, I'm not showing them anything. Until I find out where Benjamin is. Yeah, we're twelve ones with our father the others. No more. I don't believe you bring him here. I want to see him. I want to see if you did to him what you did to me. I want to see if you continue to be characterized by the sins of your past. In the rest of the Bible, do we not see this? First John one five through ten. If we say we have fellowship with him, while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus's son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. And we confess our sin. He is faithful and justin But give us of our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, And this word is not in us. We are his. We are changed. If any man is in Christ, he's a new creation. All things are passing away, new things have come. As the old saying goes, I may not be what I ought to be, But praise the Lord, I'm not what I used to be. Amen to the sins of your past continue to characterize your present. Do you continue to walk the exact same way you walk before you claimed to be a Christian? If you do, there's a problem if you do this first test and this first category is a failure. But there are two more categories. Category number two. Have you learned to love the brothers? Have you learned to love the brothers? There are three tests here, Test two, three, and four? Test one. Category one only had one test, Test one. Where's Benjamin? Test two, three and four? Test two? Will someone volunteer to go? If you love the brothers? You don't want all your brothers to be confined. These men all have families, These men all have grandkids. Some of them may be great grandkids by now. It's a long journey to go back and get Benjamin and come back. Is somebody gonna volunteer to go? And if they volunteer to go, will the rest trust him to come back for him? Secondly? Test three, will someone volunteer to stay? You guys go, I'll stay here? Chest three? Will someone come for Simeon? Just by the way they don't pass the first two tests, so Joseph has to volunteer. Simeon, listen to this forty two, sixteen and seventeen. Send one of you and let him bring your brother while you remain confined, that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you or else by the life of Pharaoh. Surely your spies, and put them all together in custody for three days. Send somebody. He didn't pick somebody, He said, send somebody. So this is for Will somebody volunteer to go? They didn't test number three? Will somebody volunteer to stay? Verse eighteen. On the third day, Joseph said to them, do this and you will live, for I fear God if you are honest. Men, let one of your brothers remain confined where you are in custody, and let the rest go and carry grain for the families of your households. And bring your youngest brother to me, so your words will be verified and you shall not die. This, by the way, is brilliant, and it's a very important test. But what does he know that they're guilty of. They're guilty of abandoning one of their brothers. Amen, So how does he test them? Is someone going to volunteer to stay if they're changed, if they're not the same men, if God has gotten the hold of them since they did what they did, then there will be no problem with one of them saying I'll volunteer to stay because I know these men, they'll come back and get me. But if they're the same rotten scoundrels they used to be, they're gonna be sitting in the cell going on, I'm not staying. I know. Please, you leave, and you're never coming back from me. I'll be just like Joseph. I'm not saying you stay. You want somebody to stay, you stay. The realms say he's the oldest. Nobody volunteered to go, and nobody volunteered to stay. So finally, there's test number four. Will somebody come for Simeon? Then he turned away from them and wept why because they failed their tests. They don't trust each other, and they don't love one another enough to sacrifice for each other. They haven't been changed. And he returned to them and spoke to them and took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes. Here's the test, the last test in the second category, have you learned to love your brothers. Are you going to come back for him? Well, somebody volunteer to go. Nope, nobody volunteer to go. Well, somebody volunteer to stay. Nope, nobody volunteer to stay. Okay, fine, I'll force your hand. I'm taking Simeon. I'm keeping this guy right here. The rest of you can go and take your grain with you, because that's what they came for. They came for grain. You can go and take your grain. Here's the test. Will they come back for their brother? By the way, they don't, not until the grain runs out and they need some more. Wow, it is the sane. They haven't changed. God hasn't a hold of them. God hadn't gotten a hold of one of them. There wasn't one of them who's willing to say I'll go. There wasn't one of them who is willing to say I'll stay. Not one of them. And now Simeon is being held back. Simeon has a wife, he has children, he probably has grandchildren, He has flocks and herds, and they leave and Joseph's not gonna see him again until all the grain is gone. This tests of loving the brethren is a very important test John thirteen, thirty four and thirty five. A new commandment. I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you. You also are to love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples. If you have love for one another. Isn't that amazing? Think of all the things Jesus could have been done. Here's how people will know that you're my disciples. They of all the things that Jesus could have said right there, here's how people will know that you're my disciples. That you read your Bible, that you pray, that you give, that you that you the he knowing on here it is. Here's how people will know that you're my disciples. That you have love for each other. John picks up on this first John five one to five. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. He loves whoever has been born of him Philippians two three four. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to its own interests, but also to the interests of others. Here's the question. Do you love the brethren? Do you love the church? Don't tell me that you love Jesus and you don't love his bride. How can that be? Hody? I love you, you, my friend. I want us to be aces. I want us to be the best of friends, the closest of friends. But I can't stay your wife. As we'd say down in Texas, that dog won't hunt. Do you see how ridiculous that is? Now? Listen, I love Bridget okay, period, induc I love me some Bridget have not laid down my life and died for her, and yet I wouldn't stand for that. Christ loves the Church, died on the cross for her, and you think you can come before him with I love you, but not your bride for which you've died and shed your blood. Please tell me, please tell me that you're not that simple minded. Please tell me you know better than that. If you don't love the Church and you're not loving Christ, the Church is the body of Christ. And again, don't give me that. Yes, I love the universal Church. I love those theoretical people out there somewhere who agree with me on everything and will never let me down. That's not loving the church? No, no, no. Do you love people who you look at eyeball to eyeball. Do you love people who annoy you? Do you love people who disappoint you? Do you love people who hurt you? That's my question. Do you love people who are not like you? Do you love people who disagree with you? Do you love people who sometimes just wear you out? Not some theoretical people out there somewhere, but do you love the church? Because you see, the Christ is not made up of perfect people, and it's not made up of people identical to you. The Bride of Christ is made up of people who, in many ways are completely different than you are. And loving the Bride of Christ is about enduring with one another. You don't demonstrate your love when there's always agreement and harmony. You demonstrate your love when there's not agreement in harmony. How do you handle that? It's easy to be all in love when you don't know each other. You get married and find out they snore. Now tell me if you love them. Amen. This is what he's testing, and it's the same thing that we see tested in the New Testiny. Category Number one, Are you changed? Have you been transformed, or do the sins of your past continue to characterize your present? Category number two, do you love the brothers? Have you learned to look outside yourself? And do you love the covenant community? That's who this is, by the way, this is the covenant community. Category three, do you exhibit godly character when nobody is looking? Or do you have personal holiness private holiness? See, you can have behavioral modification without having spiritual transformation. You can learn how to behave around the people of God and not be changed. He tests them there. Category number three also has only one test, and that test is where you steal the money beginning verse twenty five. This is the classic test. This is the test that we recognize as a test. Usually. Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, and to replace every man's money in his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. This was done for them. Then they loaded their donkey with their grain and departed. And as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the lodging place, he saw his money in the mouth of his sack. He said to his brothers, my money has been put back here. It is in the mouth of my sack. At this their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, what is this that God has done to us? Notice what they didn't do. They didn't turn around and go back. What are you doing nobody's watching? What do you do when nobody's looking? What do you do when you think you can get away with it? You see, these kinds of sins are actually evidence that we don't believe that God is who he says he is. These kinds of sins are evidence that we believe that God sleeps and slumbers, that we believe that we can actually do things that God doesn't see. And if you believe that you can do things that God doesn't see or that God won't judge, you either believe that he doesn't exist, or do you believe that he's not holy? It's your personal holiness? Like, what do you like when nobody's looking? Do you hate and despise the sin in yourself even when nobody is looking? Or do you merely hate that you don't measure up to what people expect. There's a difference between the two. Do you hate the sin in yourself because you're prideful and think you ought to be better than that, or do you hate it in yourself because it reminds you of what Christ paid for on the cross. There's a difference between the two. Do you hate what you see because your program is not working, or do you hate what you see because you desire to be conformed to the image of Christ, even in your innermost being, when nobody's there, when nobody's watching, when nobody's around. This is what true conversion does. It is not mere outward conformity. We are changed, we are transformed, We are made new, and we cannot abide sin even when no one's looking Ephesians five seven to fourteen. Therefore, do not become partners with them, For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord walks, children of light, for the fruit of light is found and all that is good and right and true. And try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them, for it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible. For anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, awake, o sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Amen, Hallelujah, praise the Lord. When we glory in private sin, we love the dark. When we glory in private sin, we hide from those who walk in righteousness. When we glory in private sin, we avoid the company and the fellowship of the righteous. When we glory in private sin, we don't expose it. We don't acknowledge it, we don't admit it, we don't bring it to the light. Oh but when Christ has grabbed a hole of our hearts and we see those things in the darkness, our greatest desire is to bring it to the light and expose it. First of all, because we want it away from us, but secondly because we recognize that sin grows and festers in the dark. And when you keep it in the dark, not only does it grow and fester, but you become more attached to it, You become more affectionate toward it, you get more used to it in the dark, and beyond that, the enemy can continue to use it to beat you down. And so we hold on to it, and we pull it to our bosom. And the next thing we know, we begin to love it and it's my precious and then we're ugly and we're grotesque and we can't be without it. It's killing us and we can't be without it. We feel guilty about it, and even more guilty because we're holding it in the darkness, and yet we still refuse to expose it to the light. Is this you, friend? Are you claiming to belong to Christ and harboring sin in this way? Are you claiming to belong to Christ and yet having this kind of relationship with besetting sin in your life? Oh? May it never be Flee from that sin, Expose it to the light, take it to the cross, kneel it there with Christ. And if this is you, how are you continuing to claim that you belong to him? There is a final category? The first category, you know, do the sins of your past continue to characterize your present? Have you been changed? Secondly, have you learned to love the brothers? Has your focus gone from here to out there? Thirdly? Are you clinging to private sin? Fourthly, do those around you see it change? To those closest to you see a change? If you've been a Christian for ten, fifteen, twenty years, and you go back around people whom you haven't seen in ten, fifteen, twenty years. Are they gonna look at you and say something's different about you? Or are they gonna say same old body? Are you gonna fall right back into the familiar paths? This is what's happening all around us. By the way, I can't tell you how many times I've heard of people who've fallen into adulphous relationships through Facebook. And how it happens is not they find some stranger, but they find an old flame, and all of a sudden, they fall right back into old familiar paths, like a dog returning to its vomit. And the next thing you know, you're walking in the same sin you walked in ten fifteen twenty years ago. Or is the change that Christ has wrought in your life so evident that those around you recognize it. There's two tests and it's final category. One of them is obvious, the other one not so. The first is have they earned Jacob's trust? And the second is have they earned Benjamin's trust? Why? Well, first of all, if they haven't earned Jacob's trust, listen, he counts to ten. Benjamin is not here. Why is Benjamin not here. Why are all ten of these men here but Benjamin's not here? Number one, Benjamin's dead. They've done to Benjamin what they tried to do to me. Or number two, Benjamin is alive. But Dad doesn't trust them, so he wouldn't let them take Benjamin so that the same thing didn't happen to him that happened to me. So, first, have you earned Jacob's trust, because that's the only way he's gonna let you bring Benjamin. Secondly, have you earned Benjamin's trust? Because Benjamin is not sitting on Jacob's knee. Benjamin's a grown man with his own family by now. And does Benjamin, who's been looking into your eyes in the last twenty plus years since you did what you did to me, does he see in your eyes the same thing that I saw on that day? Or does he see in your eyes the change that God has wrought in your hearts? What do they see? What do the people around you see? Verse thirty five. As they emptied their sacks, Behold, every man's bundle of money was in his sack. And when they and their fathers saw their bundles of money, they were afraid. And Jacob said to them, you have bereaved me of my children. Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more. And now you would take Benjamin. All this has come against me. Then Reuben said to his father, kill my two sons. If I do not bring him back to you, put him in my hands, and I will bring him back to you. But he said, my son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead and he is the only one left. By the way, what a terrible statement from a father with twelve sons, one of whom is in peril in Egypt. Let me read that again. My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead and he is the only one left. How do you feel if you're Dad or Asher? Huh? I mean really, how do you feel if you're Dad? Not to lie Zebuline, how do you feel right now? If harm should happen to him on the journey that you are to make, you would bring my gray hairs with sorrow to show. In other words, let Simeon rot. This is the one from the wife I love. But I gotta choose between Simeon and even the possibility of something happening to him. I got two dead sons. Now, this is not the Father of the year. Not only do his sons not pass the tests, he doesn't pass either. But by the way, here's the answer. Does Jacob trust his sons? No, he doesn't. First category, do the sins of your past continue to characterize your present? Obviously they do. Second category, have you learned to love your brothers? No, you haven't. Nobody volunteered to stay. Nobody volunteered to go, and they weren't coming back for sime. Here next category of sins, how are you dealing with private hidden sin? How is your integrity? Here's some money. They get all the way back with the money. They find the money, and they don't turn around and take the money back. They get all the way back with the money. Last category, do the people around you see a change in you? The answer, no, Jacob doesn't trust him, and evidently Benjamin doesn't either. Benjamin is a grown man, probably in his thirties, and he doesn't speak up and say, Dad, I'm going Proverbs twenty three twenty four. The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice. He who fathers a wise son will be glad in him. It's not what Jacob sounds like, right, now, said corinthin Is five seventeen and eighteen. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The oldest passed away. Behold the newest come. We're not seeing that right now. Matthew five fourteen to sixteen. You're the light of the world. A city on the hill couldnot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to wall in the house. In the same way, le, you'r a light shine before others, that they may see your good works and give glory to your father, who is in heaven. That's not worth seeing, not from these guys. This is a dark moment in the Joseph narrative. It doesn't look good at all. But let me quickly hasten to say this. This is forty two. Genesis goes to chapter fifty. Amen, this is not the end. However, up to this point, what we see is that these men haven't been changed. They're not reflecting godliness, they're not reflecting righteousness. They haven't learned to love one another. They haven't earned the trust or their father or their younger brother. There is still this bitterness and this rivalry in their home, and it looks dark, but I want to tell you something. They failed the test, but it doesn't end here. Eventually the test is passed. Eventually, when the grain runs out, Judas steps forward, and Judas steps forward. He doesn't say what Ruben said. Ruben said, kill one of my sons or two of my sons if I don't bring these guys back. Reuben doesn't say that. Judas says, I I will go, and I will be a pledge for the boy. Judas shows up in Egypt, and all of a sudden, in that next couple of chapters, Judah is referred to obviously as the new head of the family. There's another test. Benjamin has things left in his bag, and when they're getting ready to leave with the grain and all their brothers in toad, they stop him. Then they get Benjamin and says, you saw from me, you gotta stay. And Judah, the new head of the family, the one that we read about in chapter thirty eight in the depths of his sin and depravity, stands up on behalf of the son whom his father loves and offers himself as a substitute. Does that sound familiar? It ought to because that's exactly what the lion of the tribe of Judah did on the cross. He offered himself as a substitute for the sons and daughters whom his father loved, in order to redeem them and bring them back to the father who loves them. Because of the love that is shared between the father and the son, we get a glimpse of it. So don't despair here because they didn't pass the test, because eventually the test is going to be passed. And we don't know about everybody, but we know that the Promised Seed rises to the occasion. God saves his people, and he saves them through the Promised Seed. In the meantime, we're left with some questions to the sins of your past continue to characterize your presence. Again, I'm not asking you if you're sinless. I do not believe in perfectionism. We don't come to sinless perfection. That's not the question. But are you characterized by it? Is it you? Is it you? That's the question. There are two ways that we respond to this. The one way we respond is like followers of Christ, like believers who understand the Gospel, and we respond and we say I hate sin in me. I hate every occurrence of sin in me. The other response that makes me question whether not somebody's even saved is nobody's perfect. Nobody's perfect. That's not the answer of someone who has had the life of Christ explode in their hearts. That's not the answer. The answer is not nobody's perfect. The answer is Christ is perfect, and He's making me perfect, so and so that I hate the imperfection that I see in me, and so I cling to Christ, and I cling to the Cross so that I'd deconformed to his image. That's the answer. That's the answer, is that you Christian? Or have you been deceived? Secondly, do you love the brothers? Do you love the brothers? Do you see church as someplace that you just go to get another shot in the arm so that you can make it through another week? Or do you believe that you are part of a covenant community, that you belong to one another, that your life is in theirs and their life is in yours, and you need them and they need you, and you can't wait to be with your brothers and sisters in Christ. Which one is you? Which one characterizes you? Are you one who gets up and runs away at the first sign of disagreement, Or you one who will endure? Are you one with a chip on your shoulder? Or you one who can allow love to come a multitude of sins. Do you love the brothers? Do you love the church? Are you grateful to God for this covenant community, this covenant body that he calls the church? Do you exhibit godly character when nobody's looking? Or have you merely learned how to play the game when all eyes are on you? Do you have a form of godliness while you deny the power thereof? Or have you truly been changed? Not just guilty, but changed, not just ashamed? Changed? Have you run to Christ? Have you run to the cross? Have you repented of sin? Have you believed Jesus and Him alone for your salvation and for your sanctification and for your glorification? And are you continuing to trust Him? And do you do so even in your private place? Or have you been deceived? Finally, whatever your answer is, do those closest to you who know you best see what you claim to see? Is it confirmed by those who know who you really are? Sir? Does your wife see Christ being formed in you? Ma'am? Does your husband see Christ being formed in you? Young man? Do your mother and father see Christ being formed in you in the way that you respond to them? Young lady? Do your mother and your others see Christ being formed in you and the way that you submit to them and the way that you obey them? To those in authority over you see a change in you since you've come to belong to Christ? Or are you merely deceiving yourself without work conformity? Is he testing yourself is not about being afraid? And I'll tell you why. The only reason you have been need to be afraid of answering these questions wrongly is if you believed you were responsible for making them right. If you're afraid you don't understand the gospel. If you understand the Gospel, you're not afraid even if you've got the wrong answer to these questions tonight, why because you know the right answer. The right answer is Christ. So what you've seen here. If the answers to these questions are wrong, it's not because you haven't tried hard enough. If the answer to these questions are wrong, it's because you're focusing on you making yourself righteous as opposed to clinging to Christ, who can do nothing but make you righteous. There's no reason to fear. In fact, there's reason to rejoice. If you're here today and you've discovered in yourself a false confession, rejoice that God, in his kindness showed it to you tonight. If you're here tonight and you've been trusting in something other than the finished work of Christ, rejoice that tonight God has showed you another way. And if you're here today and the answer to these questions is a resounding yes, rejoice not in yourself but in the Cross. Because God has confirmed that Christ has been done a good work in you, and you know that He has begone that work that's able to see it through the completion. This is good news, friends. This is only bad news if you've got the wrong answers and you're willing to leave here with them. This is only bad news if you hear this tonight and know this tonight and refuse to run and cling and flee to Christ. This is only bad news if you have been led to water as a man dying of thirst, and in your pride refuse to kneel and take a drink, fleet to Christ, fun to him, cling to him, hope in Him and only in Him. That's correct. Oh God, how we rejoice in your truth even when it hurts, especially when it hurts. Like the skilled surgeon who has finally found the origin of our pain and who presses upon it in preparation for healing it. We rejoice. We rejoice, And as we bow before you and ask ourselves these questions, we all recognize afresh and anew our need for Christ, even those of us who answer these questions and the affirmative The answer is yes. But oh how much more had heed Jesus For those who have come into this room and have not answered these questions and the affirmative, Lord God, I prayed that you would crush their pride, and that you would grant them grace to cling to Christ. For the false convert, grant by your grace that he would see this not as humiliating, but as liberating. For the one who has never come to faith in Christ, Grant by your grace that the scales would be removed from his eyes, that her heart of stone would be replaced with a heart of flesh, and that Christ would have the fullness of the reward for which he died. Grant that there might be choicing in heaven tonight, and Lord, we would be remiss not to thank you for Christ and his glory and saving us and keeping us and sanctifying us. We would be remiss not to thank you for the presence and power and work of your Holy Spirit in conforming us to Christ's image, and sealing us, baptizing us, and to uniting us with Christ. We would be remiss not to say thank you for the Triune God who has saved us by his grace and for his glory. And so we say thank you in Christ's name. Amen. Yeah,