The Pattern of Salvation

Mosaic Boston - Sermons

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Heavenly Father, we praise you that you do not leave us in despair, carrying the guilt and shame of our sin by ourselves. Lord, you are a father standing at the entrance of this household with his arms open wide, hoping for us to turn back to you from our folly. And Lord, we are children prone to wander. We're children prone to blatantly rebel against you, but further we are children who would prefer to do anything they can but admit our need to come back to you. Holy Spirit, we pray, show us today where we need to humbly submit our lives to you. Show us Lord, where we need mercy. Reveal to us our tendency to conjure up our own righteousness at the cost of receiving that which you offer in Jesus Christ. Bless the preaching of your word. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

We've been taking a look at the brothers of Joseph very closely the past few weeks. The sermon series began when we learned in chapter 37 that 10 of the brothers minus little brother Benjamin, sold innocent and unsuspecting Joseph into slavery. What we've covered in thorough detail over the past few weeks is that while nobody else in the world knew about this sin of selling Joseph, God knew and he was dealing with these brothers and he's dealing very directly with them to try to expose their sin and invite them back into loving relationship with him, to bring healing to their hearts and lives. How has God been dealing with them? We talked about in the previous chapters. He's used famine, unjust imprisonment, undesired circumstances, and a whole lot of tender love and kindness and affection. He's used tensions with an Egyptian ruler who the brothers don't know to actually be Joseph, the one who they sold into slavery. He's used these tensions while Joseph has hit his identity to try to get the brothers to direct their attention to him.

We talked about how the exposure of the brothers to these tensions, those in the natural world and those in engagements with the Egyptian ruler as actually acts of mercy by God some severe, some tender, that the Lord is using to try to awaken their consciences to get them to see their need for him. We've mentioned that the text has given us glimpses that the hearts of the brothers were softening and they're beginning to see that God has not left them abandoned to the guilt and shame of their sin. We see their heart soften, but they have not blatantly confessed and acknowledged their sin to their father, to God at all. And so every time their conscience starts talking, they find a distraction, they push it away. They suppress the truth that they need to deal with this, that they're guilt ridden because of it.

But today's chapter, it actually begins in a narrative where the brothers still with their sin unaddressed, sin against Joseph unaddressed. They actually are in a position where they're at a high. Of all the moments in the last 22 years, they have an opportunity to congratulate themselves, pat themselves on the back for passing the character tests of the Egyptian ruler. But what we see is that while they're at a high, God strikes them with an unforeseen blow, demolishing all self-confidence and ability to avoid their guilt. Out of this death blow to their self-confidence, God saved these men and they're finally spiritually reborn. And so to elaborate on what transpires in Genesis 44, I want to break down my sermon into two sections. The pattern of salvation and the pattern of transformation. The pattern of salvation and I give this section this title because in these verses we see the pattern that God uses to actually save people, to bring them into true, saving, eternal, peaceful relationship with him.

This is the pattern that we see all throughout scripture. And to understand how God, what this pattern is, we need to first understand and remind ourselves of the mindset of the brothers entering this morning that Genesis 44 starts on. So remember last week we talked about how the brothers were really apprehensive about going back to Egypt for the ruler who received them and gave them the grain the first time, really put them to the test upon their visit. First the ruler questioned their word. When they told him they were simply there to buy grain, he didn't believe them, then he didn't believe their story after further questioning that they were all brothers of the same father and that they had one brother who was lost and the youngest brother was still at home with their father. Second, the ruler questioned their integrity altogether. He calls their whole appearance affront.

He accuses them of being spies of a foreign land there to scope it out for a ruler, for an attack. He goes on to press the brothers to vindicate their story. He demands proof. And Genesis 42:19, the ruler says to the brothers, "If you're honest, men, let one of your brothers remain confined where you are in custody and let the rest go and carry grain for the famine of your households and bring your youngest brother to me." So the men are forced to leave one brother, Simeon, travel back to their father with the grain and what do they do? They put off the return trip as long as possible. They go through to the grain to the point that they're desperate and they have no other choice but to beg their father to let them take his cherish son Benjamin back to Egypt with him.

And third, the brothers would've been apprehensive about returning to Egypt, not just for the treatment they received by the ruler, but because upon returning from Egypt, they realized that they didn't leave any of their money for the grain back in Egypt. It was in their money sacks. And so they realize that if they go back to Egypt, they have to get right before the ruler regarding this money situation. And finally, the brothers would've been apprehensive about returning to Egypt because it was Egypt going there. The ruler actually before they returned, forced them to stay in prison for three days. And that sparked for a moment a thought that maybe God is doing this to them for the sin committed against Joseph. They leave it as a question, but that's short-lived and they don't want... when they get home they forget that thought, they don't want to go back to Egypt and trigger that memory again.

So that's the context that we start with last chapter. And so what happened on the first day that these fear ridden, guilt ridden, anxious, and insecure men return to Egypt. They bring Benjamin, the youngest brother, they bring double the money and what do they find? All their fears and worries were unnecessary. Last chapter we saw, in chapter 43, that their word was accepted. The ruler accepted them as honest men. He doesn't question their story for why they returned. He doesn't question their update about their father, the identity of Benjamin. This would've been a sense given them a feeling of vindication. They start to feel good about themselves. Imagine engaging with a foreign diplomat worth billions and having him receive you in such a manner and especially in a culture, an honor culture where commitment to your word is a high cultural value like these men.

Handshakes, deals are made by handshakes in this culture and word. We saw that their offered money was accepted. After returning with the money they bring double the money along with some many local delicacies from their homeland and the ruler receives them. He lets them buy grain again. And you can imagine they're extra careful on this trip to make sure that the money was transferred to the Egyptian ruler from their money sacks to his money sacks. And you can almost hear them boisterously and smugly counting the money out loud, 1001, 1002, 1003 just to make sure and show the ruler his servants that they were there, they were good for their money. So there's this buildup of they're starting to feel good about their self. And so chapter 44 begins when they're departing Egypt and they're taking great confidence overall in their integrity.

That which was questioned is shown to be good in this trip but the steward of Joseph follows them once they hit the road. He shows up shortly after their departure and he accuses them of having his stolen master's silver drinking cup. And these brothers feeling good about themselves, showing that their character checked out on the last day are just astonished at this accusation. He says in verse four, the steward says, "Why have you repaid evil for good by stealing my master's cup? They say, why does my Lord speech such words as these far be it from your servants to do such a thing? Behold the money that we found in the mouths of our sacks, we brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then could we steal silver or gold from your Lord's house?" So self-confident that everything just checked out the day before with the ruler so they go even further to say this is completely unnecessary. It's a bold and rash statement in verse nine. "Whichever of your servants is found with it shall die, and we also will be my lord's servants."

After what happened on the first trip where they unknowingly returned with the money, isn't it astonishing that they offered death and enslavement if any one of them is found with the silver cup? After they sold their brother into slavery for a pass, isn't it ridiculous that they present their character in this moment after one day of showing themselves to be good? It's kind of ridiculous to the point of... it's like my son's engagement with my daughter. My daughter's birthday was last week. She got a new toy, whenever we'd walk away. She's playing with it. He would go over and just take it from her and steal it, take the prize possession and he probably took it from about five times but the one time he consciously opted to not do what he intended to do, he came over to me and told me how proud of him I should be, "Daddy, I didn't take her toy."

And so there's this self-confidence that can well up in a child very quickly. And of course I say, "Praise God, good, but let's see it over and over again," to my son. But that's how these guys are. The brother's lofty view of themselves is more apparent in that they don't think anything about how the steward checks the money in verse 12, remember the night before they're seated from oldest to youngest, perfectly, properly arranged by a foreign ruler who doesn't know them. That mathematically the chances of that happening are almost impossible. And here it happens again, the steward shows up, tells him of the cup and checks their bags one by one from oldest to youngest. And these guys in their self-confidence, they're blind to God's involvement in the situation. Last night, he lined you up seemingly randomly from oldest to youngest. Again, he does it and they're not thinking, they're not seeing God's hand. God's direct intervention in this moment.

So the brothers stand there boldly and confidently with chest up as a steward looks for the cup in the money bags of Reuben, of Simeon, of Levi, of Judah, of Dan, of Naphtali, of Gad, of Asher, of Issachar, of Zebulun without the cup appearing. And then the ruler gets to Benjamin, if they had any slight worry that any one of their brothers took the cup, they wouldn't have suspected Benjamin, little Benjamin as a suspect. But the steward gets to Benjamin, searches the money sack and slowly lifts the cup, the ruler's special silver cup. And so despite the brothers' insistence, despite their projected ridiculous sense of self-confidence considering the history, the ruler's cup is found among them. How did this happen? How did the cup get there? You can imagine these questions quickly rising in the heads of the brothers. But these questions only last for a moment for finally, finally, finally, the brothers see what is going on. In an instant, they all start to see that the situation of the discovered cup, of the ruler and whatever treatment is to come is of a little importance. Finally, they see.

So what is happening? Forget the cup. God is showing them that he's dealing with a much more grievous sin. The brothers immediately tear their clothes and guilt and sorrow, return as a group to Egypt with Benjamin. And what does Judah say before the Egyptian ruler? Verse 16 and Judah said, "What shall we say, my Lord? What shall we speak? What shall we say? What shall we speak?" He's saying there is nothing to say, nothing to speak. Our word. Our integrity has been shown to be worthless. We have nothing to stand on before you right now. Then he says something really interesting, "What shall we say? What shall we speak or how can we clear ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants; behold, we are my lord's servants, both we and he also in whose hand the cup has been found." Judah professes that God has found out the guilt of his servants, but it's in a confusing way. How can we clear ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants. The NIV Bible translation says, how can we prove our innocence? God has uncovered your servant's guilt.

So how can innocence and guilt be proclaimed right next to each other? The answer is that both statements are true. Judah and his brothers are innocent regarding the ruler's cup, but before God, they were guilty of the grievous sin that they tried to push down for the last 22 years, the horrible sin of selling their brother Joseph into slavery. Finally, they see that. They see very clearly that the Lord was bringing the sin of the past to light through the situation with the cup. Beyond that, what is happening right now? The brothers are being saved. Judah and his brothers are all being spiritually reborn. They are actually experiencing godly grief for their sin and they're inflated sense of self-righteousness and they see their need to be given mercy. The Lord, through this story, he's showing us the pattern of salvation, how he saves his true children. God shows us that only he can bring life to the dead consciences of sinners and he does so by chipping away at their own sense of self-worth.

He reveals the folly of attempting to build up a righteousness on our own in order to try to come to terms with the guilt and shame that marks our soul for our sin. Even Judah and his brothers, the crudest of men, the most rebellious of sinners, had a tendency to want to convince themselves that they're not as bad as they think. God is showing the folly of doing so. What did these guys want? They wanted to have their day. They knew they were bad dudes, but their hope was in having days like this where everything checked out. Their word, their honor, their integrity, their money. And how many of you are just waiting for that day? That day when your spouse admits to you yeah, you're right all the time. You were right on this one. That day that your children say, "Yes dad, thank you for this wisdom. I'm going to do what you ask right away." That day your boss says, "Thank you. You are so good. We couldn't do this without you."

Anything that we place our hope in like this, it doesn't really matter before God. But functionally, a lot of us practice such idolatry of placing our hope in these moments, trying to build a sense of righteousness around these moments. And God has shown us that before him those best moments don't matter. What matters are what we do in the worst moments when our guilt and sin is revealed, how do we turn to him or reject him? The pattern of salvation is a process by which God mercifully brings abou our own humiliation. He takes away all reasons for us to boast before him and he leaves us vulnerable to his mercy alone for salvation and restoration. So if you personally want to be right before God, you have to let God work on you, deal with you, humble you. A lot of people frame it as break you as he has with Judah and his brothers.

I know that many of you have had this experience. When we practice membership, when we people become members, they give a sense of life before Christ, life after Christ. And the story that comes up over and over again is I tried to build my identity around this. I tried to build a sense of righteousness by this, by religion, by following society's rules, by conjuring up an identity that would draw me acceptance from God or people and I was backed into a corner, through a trial, through a conflict, through a layoff, through an illness, and I was left to cry out to God that I have nothing. I had to call upon him for mercy and that's the pattern of salvation. If it were not for God's merciful and persistent probing to keep our consciences alive and chip away at that which makes us proud, we'd all be like the brothers in the story before this moment. We'd be self-deceived, we'd be wrongly settled and content in our short-lived moments of doing right.

Fools self-confidence that spells of good behavior, right adherence of God's law can make us right before him, dull to the ways that God is whispering to us and shouting to us that he is calling us back to him, offering us a righteousness from Christ full of fear or full of fear and insecurity that God and others will find us out. And so this like us, we are like the brothers. Aren't the brothers at the start of the chapter men of their word? So are we, we tend to say, we tell the truth, we don't lie. We're good for our word and have a sound profession of faith. If you want to know something about me, ask me. At the start of the chapter, chapter, aren't their brothers good for their money? So are we. We won't be beggars in this life and the life to come. We bring our money to the table as is expected. We go to church, we give to the church, we pay our taxes to Caesar and even go beyond that which is necessary to give to the church and nonprofits.

We work hard for our money and our status. At the start of the chapter aren't the brothers confident in their integrity? We're not hiding anything from ourselves, God or other people. We're not like spies with rebellious or vindictive motives against God and his authority. We're upstanding citizens of our church and land. We have no reason to not claim innocence or righteousness before the law. We tend to think functionally day to day, even when we're united to Christ that we need to build a righteousness of our own. Do you claim innocence like the brothers? Remember their sense of confidence, their sense of righteousness in all these areas came at the cost of being honest to themselves about the sin that plagued their heart. It led them to justify the act of selling off their brother into slavery and convincing their father he was dead for a couple of decades, that's how self-deceived they were.

Or maybe you're not claiming innocence but to be mostly innocent and I think this is most people. You admit that sometimes you do wrong, but that you're still good. Yes, you sin, but you're not doing as much bad as the person sitting next to you in the pew. Your neighbor, your spouse, your colleagues, your classmates, all the people out there. Such a mindset is filled with pride. It's sin before God. It's just as heinous in the sight of God as any rebellious sin.

It's full of self-denial and one self-denial that one has sinned. It's full of self idolatry, placing yourself in the position of God, of claiming you know yourself better than God and others better than God himself. This text clearly shows that God destroys the self-confidence of the 10 brothers but I really want to focus the detail of in verse 16, he doesn't leave Benjamin out. God has found out the guilt of your servants. Behold, we are my lord's servants, both we and he also in whose hand the cup has been found. He also in whose hand the cup has been found that makes it clear God is dealing with Benjamin in addition to the 10. Benjamin wasn't a part of the selling of Joseph, the abandoning of Joseph, but there apparently was self-confidence that he was bringing to the table, that God had to deal with right now as he dealt with it with his brothers.

The lesson to takeaway is that even the people, the most innocent in the eyes of the world need to be purged of self-confidence. This is Boston, some of the nicest non-believing people in the world. A believer can really come into conflict here with the tension of sometimes I think my non-believing friends are much better people than me, but God, even those people need to have their pride dealt with. So what is the pattern of salvation? God like the Egyptian ruler seeks out and destroys the temptation to come to him with any self-confidence, any self-righteousness and receives us and builds us up anew in his mercy. Taken further, there's no true Christianity that separates itself from confessing that all people are individually guilty of sin against God and our brother Jesus Christ. God has created us and Jesus is our Lord, but we have rejected their claims on our lives and have gone about life boasting in our own self-confidence, our own self-righteousness.

So the pattern of salvation, the crushing of our self-confidence and turning to receive mercy. Now after God has dealt with the brothers self-confidence and they actually get saved, what happens? The brothers are transformed, they're changed. This is too the pattern of transformation. What always happens when someone gets saved? Two things always happen. Their relationship with God has changed. Their relationships with other people change. When one is saved by God, they get peace with God on the vertical level. What is salvation? It is God saying, I know everything about you, the good, the bad, and the ugly and I am choosing to love you. I am choosing to bestow upon you a righteousness that is not your own, a righteousness of Jesus Christ. I am not loving you because of anything you've done to earn it. You haven't done it.

In fact, you've sinned but I'm blessing you with righteousness and it's a love that is freeing. He loves us because he loves us, because he loves us. And that experience of that love brings true peace, true joy, and it enables us to then engage the horizontal relationships that we have on Earth with security, with stability, with peace. So first we see the brother's relationship with God has changed. In Genesis 42, during the first trip they acknowledge that God is doing something. They say, "What is this that God has done to us?" But notice this acknowledgement is framed as a question. And the text between this statement and now shows that it was only a short-lived question as I said earlier, from when they got relief from the pressure of their circumstances, they didn't ask the question anymore. But here they proclaim a fact in verse 16, "God has found out the guilt of your servants."

It's a fact that God is dealing with them and their sin. They can escape it and they accept it. Until this moment, the brothers couldn't see they were all what we call unregenerate, dead to the movement of the spirit of God in their lives because of their sin. They couldn't see God working on them when he dished out severe mercy in previous chapters through the famine, through prior dealings with the ruler, through hard circumstances, they couldn't see God working on them when he dished out tender mercy to them through the ruler's kind treatment, through his kind greeting, his forgiveness of the mix-up with the money, his generous meal to them where they were seated in perfect order. But now that God has stripped them of their self-importance, their sense of self-righteousness, their integrity through this cup situation with the ruler, they're broken.

They can see God's hand at work in their lives. They acknowledge their neglect of him as Lord and they accept that their future is contingent upon reception of his mercy. So we see transformation in their relationship with God. And second, we see evidence of the transformation of the brother's relationships, with Benjamin Joseph's younger brother as well as their father. This is what the whole second half of the chapter Judah's long speech shows us. This is what the Egyptian ruler who we all know to be Joseph, the brother sold into slavery, was waiting to see in his treatment of the brothers during this process of the visit of the last two years, Joseph knows God gave him multiple dreams saying that there's going to be a seven-year-long famine and he knows that upon their arrival, the first time he knows that he has time to deal with them, to test them. Are these guys repentant? Are they changed?

And so the whole chapter, the situation with the planted cup at the beginning, the conversation with the ruler back in Egypt, it's none other than a reconstruction of selling Joseph into slavery again, contrived by God through Joseph. So what the Egyptian ruler is curious to see is how the brothers would treat Benjamin. The scene is reconstructed such that now that Benjamin is found with the Egyptians cup and his life is on the line, Joseph is wondering how the brothers will take advantage of the chance to leave him as a slave or not. They could leave him now just like they left Joseph and they would get off free. They would be able to make up another story about their father and even more honestly say we were forced into this situation where we had to sell our brother as a slave or they could take another path and act differently than before. And praise God what we see is that the brothers choose the latter.

The text doesn't give any evidence that the brothers consider abandoning Benjamin as they did Joseph. This is shown in that they all went back together when the cup is found, even though in verse 9 the steward says, "Only the man in whose sack the cup is found would have to return as a slave," they all go back. And when nobody protests, when Judah offers that, they all become the Lord's servants, the ruler servants in verse 16 because of the found cup. Furthermore, Joseph even tests them by saying in verse 17, "Far be it from me that I should do so! Only the man in whose hand the cup was found shall be my servant but as for you, go up in peace to your father." But Judah and the rest of the brothers do not accept these terms going back with fake peace to their father, going back with fake peace on their consciences at the cost of Benjamin's freedom will no longer suffice.

All of the brothers show the resolve to stand before the Egyptian ruler until another option is identified, until Benjamin is released. So these are changed men, changed before God, changed in their relationships by the mercy of God. Most astonishing is Judah's engagement in verses 18 to 34, he provides one of the most stirring speeches in all of scripture. In the speech, Judah who was the one who facilitated the deal to sell Joseph for 20 pieces of silver 22 years ago, offers himself as a substitute in Benjamin's place. Furthermore, the primary thrust of what he has to say is that if the ruler keeps Benjamin, it'll be the cause of his father's death. To return to his father, to see him die in grief at the loss of Benjamin would be far worse for him than to become a slave in place of Benjamin. Judah shows that he has changed.

The brother's support of him in the moment, show that they've changed, they show a great love and regard for their father and he's mentioned 14 times in the speech and Benjamin, the kind of love and regard that was not shown to the father and Benjamin when they sold Joseph into slavery. And so I say all of this again to show that a tremendous transformation happens when people are saved. Tremendous transformation in one's relationship with God and tremendous transformation in relationships between man and man. And that's really how our text ends today. And you probably all know the start of next chapter, there's a question of, well, did the Egyptian ruler receive them? I'm going to force you to read your Bible this week or wait until the sermon next week, but I really want to spend some time closing out the sermon, getting really practical.

This has been a lot of... done a lot of teaching, really long chapters. I know some of you're sitting there and you didn't realize that you signed up to go to a sauna this morning, but I want to spend some time engaging some of the takeaways that we should be refinding as we engage on this story of the brothers and their salvation and their transformation. And this is just a rich piece of scripture. I named my son, Andrew Joseph. Joseph, man the Lord adds to because I just love the goal that's in this story. So first practical lesson, God is going to find us out. This passage teaches us that whatever we do to try to alleviate our conscience in life, God is going to find us out. We can run but we can't hide. As he did with the brothers, he's going to search us and probe us in this life in order to get us to truly acknowledge our sin before him and cry out for deliverance that only he can offer. That's his treatment of every true child of his. Second.

We need to learn to listen when we feel like God is being silent. Remember that in the past couple of chapters in Genesis, God was trying to speak to the hearts of the brothers through quieter, less dangerous means. Through earthly calamity, challenging the famine, challenging relationships with people, hard undesirable circumstances and trials, but the brothers didn't listen. He had to use the ruler to bring them to a situation where slavery or death were the only options to get them or their father's death at the selling of Benjamin to hear them.

So many people think that God only talks to us in the extreme highs and lows. We are in the cacophony of busy church life, evangelistic meetings, Christian conferences, but as I established really thoroughly last week, we can see that God is often speaking very blatantly to us in the day-to-day life, through providence if we have the eyes and ears to see it and notice when we don't hear him speak in what seems to be silence, he often takes drastic means to get us to hear like he did with the brothers and the situation with the cup. So we can choose the easy way or the hard way. We can take him at his word, receive him as Lord and Savior or we can have him force us to that point. Third, prideful sin is just as dangerous and blinding as blatantly rebellious sin, seeking peace of conscience in doing right while leaving sin unaddressed will only breed greater pride within us making it harder to see our realization of our need to seek peace in God's mercy.

Sin all throughout scripture, what's its effect? It's blinding. Rebellious sin, prideful sin, the same. We when we are not turning to the Lord, confessing it and calling out for mercy that blindness can grow and grow and grow to the point that we're lost all together. But we need to see both prideful sin, rebellious sin, make it hard for us to see our need for God. Fourth, God changes people. In Genesis 38, Judah was a man willing to sell his brother into slavery, an adulterer, a hypocrite, a liar, and now he's a man willing to take the position of his brother as a slave. What does God do? He changes people. He finds us out, but he doesn't leave us in our despair and folly. He takes difficult people, makes them new.

Scripture talks of the apostle Paul, a proud religious Jewish scholar who stood over the murders of early Christians, who persecuted the church and his incredible instantaneous conversion and ministry thereafter, he's the second most influential Christian in history after Jesus Christ. Paul himself talks in first Corinthians six about how people consumed by self, enslaved to pride and sin come into the family of God, of adulterous, drunkards, fornicators Paul says, "And such were some of you. You were cleansed. You were transformed by the blood of Christ." Praise God that our church has some Judas, some Reuben, some Levis, some Benjamins. Church history talks about the famous songwriter John Newton, the writer of amazing grace. He was a former slave trader who was transformed by Jesus.

What amazing transformations we get to see God do in the hearts of people and what hope for us individually when we're honest with ourselves, we see our sin and see our hopelessness apart from the mercy of God. So maybe you're ridden with guilt. Maybe you've been trying to change in your own power, but not getting anywhere. If you humbly confess your sin, cry out for mercy and forgiveness. Scripture says over and over again, he will forgive you. He will change you.

Fifth application, you need to repent of your sin. That's the word, repentance, that's the word from scripture that describes what's happening in the lives of the brothers in this chapter. It's a complete change of heart and attitude toward God, initiated by the Holy Spirit. As your conscience awakens to your sin, you turn from rebelling against God's lordship of your life and building your own kingdom and turn to Jesus as your savior to receive mercy. No amount of self-loathing will save you. No amount of penitent, self lashing will save you. Doing works, building self-confidence, religion will save you. Only believing in him, in Christ and repenting of your sin will save you. Romans 2 says, "God's kindness, his forbearance and patience, his mercy to you and your sin is meant to lead you to repentance."

If you come to church, you engage the word of God, you engage our preaching and our teaching, our community here, and you are never brought to confront your sin and seek to turn from it and turn to the Lord, you're probably not saved. You need to repent and place your faith in Jesus and note that repentance, it just goes beyond a feeling. A lot of people get this wrong. The brothers in the story experienced some guilty feelings at times throughout the narrative, but they left it there. They felt some guilt. They felt sorrowful. They're the kind of guys that said, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. They tried their best to shake it and leave it unaddressed, this isn't repentance. 2 Corinthians 7:10 says, "For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death." Feeling guilty, feeling sorrowful, just meditating upon that over and over again does not save you. You have to do something about the guilt. You have to turn to God to confess and see that only he can address it and relieve you of it.

Christ exclusively bore the burden for your sin on the cross. Salvation, forgiveness is only in him. Repentance, it needs to go beyond the feeling. The experience of repentance is yes, there is a moment of grief, but very quickly in that conviction, you should be inclined to turn to Christ and receive the grace that God offers. If you're stuck in guilt, you're not receiving that grace. Further, true repentance will lead to a transformation, a lasting change of behavior. A truly repentant Christian will not be able to carry on for two decades in sin and folly like the brothers. These guys were not saved. There's no way they could live with themselves for 20 years as they did if they were true believers. Matthew 3:8 eight says, "Bear fruit and keeping with repentance." You're given a new nature in Christ upon your salvation and when you're truly repentant, you can't bear to live under the dominion of sin anymore.

Though you know how hard it was for God to search you and pursue you before you're saved, you take a new attitude as a true repentant believer. It's an attitude of Let me have it, God please continue to search me. Root out anything within me that is not Christ-like. Psalm 139, 23 to 24, "Search me, oh God and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there'd be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting." You want God to keep squeezing out any remnants of sin, the old man and your being, habits, patterns of thinking that lead to ungodliness and sin. And furthermore, you crave that other people, believers speak into your heart to bring help, bring about that greater refinement of your character.

I had to sister speak some truth to me this week in the conversation in the moment. I wanted her to acknowledge all of the good things that I've been doing in this season but she very pointedly brought up some patterns that she'd seen in me that were not God-honoring, that were sinful. And how did it feel in the moment? Of course, it bit, it stung. It burned a little. I wanted to defend myself, but I'm thankful she did it. She loved me so much and had such concern for me and she wanted me to better honor God with my life. And because she spoke up, I can do so as a husband, as a father, as a Christian, as a pastor. So we need to repent, truly turn from our sin and turn to God, receive the righteousness that he offers us and the power of the spirit to walk anew.

Sixth, we need to receive forgiveness from God. And this is part of repentance, turning from sin, turning to God. First John 1:9 says, "If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Hebrews 4:16 instructs us to with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and fine grace to help in time of need. The way forward, when our conscience is awakened, when we're ridden with guilt, when it's just suffocating us because of our sin, it's actually really easy. It's offensively easy. A lot of people look at Christianity and say, it's too easy to receive forgiveness. How could a God function like that? But we turn and in faith, we confess our sin and we ask God to forgive us and he forgives us. We have to truly believe that this happens.

We don't have to self loath anymore. We don't have to carry the guilt from the past. When we believe an exchange happens, our guilt, when we acknowledge our need for forgiveness of our sin, when we acknowledge it as rebellion against God, whether it's prideful sin, rebellious sin, we look to Jesus. When we look to Jesus, our sin is applied to him on the cross where he bore the full wrath for it and his righteousness is applied to our account and we need to see that we are made new in the moment. Nothing is better for a weary, tired soul just trying to conjure up its own righteousness, to hide from their guilt than to receive the righteousness of Christ. And the greatest part is you don't have to change first to receive it. It's receiving the grace of God, the righteousness of Christ that changes you and helps you to persevere going forward, to lead a life that is honoring to God.

Seventh, we need to seek forgiveness from others. The reconciliation that needed to take place in the story not just between the brothers and God, but between the brothers and Joseph and Benjamin and between the brothers and their father. So much strife, so much trouble, so much guilt could have been avoided if forgiveness was pursued on all sides and much more quickly. When forgiveness is accomplished between the brothers, that's when this family of God, this chosen family of God, blessed with all the promises of Abraham, Isaac, and their father Jacob are positioned to stick together and work together to become a nation that shows the righteousness of God to the world. When forgiveness is extended in the family, in the church, that's when the people of God can work toward spreading the rule and reign of Jesus without getting paralyzed because there's bitterness and pain lingering in the body.

Ask yourself, is the Lord calling you to go to someone? To acknowledge your wrongs, to seek forgiveness in order to bring reconciliation? Are there any situations in your life? Matthew opens up in his gospel. He says, "It's so important to be reconciled to your brothers and sisters in Christ that you should even leave worship and not partake in the Lord's supper before you partake in them." You need to get right with your brothers and sisters before you worship God. That's how important it is to pursue reconciliation, pursue forgiveness, pursue peace according to the word of God in a timely quick manner. Eighth, we need to love others sacrificially and this is where I'll end. We need to love others sacrificially, that's what drew to models in this chapter. He offers to give up himself for his brother. As we follow Christ, great commandments to love God and neighbor we need to love in the way that God loves us, which is to love regardless of the worthiness of our brothers and sisters and neighbors.

For all we know, Benjamin wasn't worthy of such sacrifice. Judah wasn't nearly loved as much by his father as Benjamin, but Judah chose to love Benjamin anyway and all himself in his place. A person who knows their unworthiness before God and contemplate that Christ laid down his life for them, despite full knowledge of their sin, whether it's prideful or rebellious, is going to live in a manner that is much more loving, generous, and kind even toward those who are difficult to love. With spouses, children, family members, church members, roommates, neighbors. It's not a true act of love until it's difficult. We need to love when it's hard. We can do so because Christ did for us. And when we realize how hard it is in the moment, our appreciation of the love of Christ grows all the more. Our appreciation of the love of the Father who sent him grows all the more.

Just close with this classic verse, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life." Believe this message, God love you so much. He has full knowledge of your sin, that he is offering mercy and grace. Admit your need for it. It will change you. You will experience forgiveness. You will experience transformation in your life. You will experience transformation in your relationships. You will truly love God. Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word, your word which convicts us to not seek to build our own identity before you, but to rest and receive in that which you offer to us. We praise you, Lord, for your transforming mercy and grace. We thank you that when we cry out for it, when we acknowledge our need for it, we experience great relief of the guilt due for our sins, the shame in which we walk, and we have full knowledge that you will love us until the end. Lord, we pray right now. We pray for healing in our relationship with you. If anyone right now is resisting your call on their life, Lord, bring them to full submission to your lordship. Give them a heart to receive Christ as their savior. Break them but be gentle.

And Lord, we just pray for restoration, for reconciliation in relationships, for in the folly of our sin, our rebellion, our pride, we've often acted wickedly. Lord, we pray. Let us have peace here as we experience peace in our hearts from your love. Give us peace with brothers and sisters in the church, that we might be a body that works more in sync for your glory. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.