Now let's turn to Genesis chapter 42 for
our scripture reading.
We are in that part of the book
of Genesis that has to do with the
life of Jacob and Joseph.
Joseph has been sold into captivity and by
the providence of God, Pharaoh has had a
dream or two that Joseph was able to
interpret and therefore Joseph has been exalted to
be the equivalent of the prime minister of
Egypt.
He has made preparation for the years of
famine that were prophesied through the dreams of
Pharaoh.
And now the famine is extending over all
of that part of the earth.
In fact the last verse of chapter 41
reads, And the people of the earth came
to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because
the famine was severe in all the earth.
And so Jacob back in the land of
Palestine was beginning to feel the crunch just
as were many others.
So chapter 42 begins at that point.
Now Jacob saw that there was grain in
Egypt and Jacob said to his sons, Why
are you staring at one another?
And he said, Behold I have heard that
there is grain in Egypt.
Go down there and buy some for us
from that place, so that we may live
and not die.
Then ten brothers of Joseph went down to
buy grain from Egypt.
But Jacob did not send Joseph's brother Benjamin
with his brothers, for he said, I am
afraid that harm may befall him.
So the sons of Israel came to buy
grain among those who were coming, for the
famine was in the land of Canaan also.
Now Joseph was the ruler over the land.
He was the one who sold to all
the people of the land.
And Joseph's brothers came and bowed down to
him with their faces to the ground.
When Joseph saw his brothers he recognized them,
but he disguised himself to them and spoke
to them harshly.
And he said to them, Where have you
come from?
And they said, From the land of Canaan
to buy food.
But Joseph had recognized his brothers, although they
did not recognize him.
And Joseph remembered the dreams which he had
about them and said to them, You are
spies.
You have come to look at the undefended
parts of the land.
Then they said to him, No my lord,
but your servants have come to buy food.
We are all sons of one man.
We are honest men.
Your servants are not spies.
Yet he said to them, No, but you've
come to look at the undefended parts of
the land.
But they said, Your servants are twelve brothers
in all, the sons of one man in
the land of Canaan.
And behold, the youngest is with us, with
our father today, and one is no more.
And Joseph said to them, It is as
I said to you, you are spies.
He reminds us of a good communist interrogator,
because that's what they keep saying.
They keep saying the same thing over and
over again, hoping to convince you by the
repetition of it.
You can offer them all kinds of rational
reasons why a certain thing is not so.
But they just keep repeating it.
And so that is the way Joseph is
treating the brothers now.
And he says in the 15th verse, By
this you will be tested by the life
of Pharaoh.
You shall not go out from this place
unless your youngest brother comes here.
Send one of you that he may get
your brother, while you remain confined, that your
words may be tested, whether there is truth
in you.
But if not by the life of Pharaoh,
surely you are spies.
So he put them all together in prison
for three days.
Now Joseph said to them on the third
day, Do this and live, for I fear
God.
If you are honest men, let one of
your brothers be confined in your prison.
But as for the rest of you, go
carry grain for the famine of your households.
And bring your youngest brother to me, so
your words may be verified, and you will
not die.
And they did so.
Then they said to one another, Truly we
are guilty concerning our brother.
They're referring to Joseph.
Because we saw the distress of his soul
when he pleaded with us.
They refer all the way back to the
time when they put Joseph in the pit.
Twenty years before this, and heard his cries
from the pit.
Because we saw the distress of his soul
when he pleaded with us, yet we would
not listen.
Therefore this distress has come upon us.
And Reuben answered them saying, Did I not
tell you, do not sin against the boy.
And you would not listen.
Now comes the reckoning for his blood.
They did not know however that Joseph understood,
for there was an interpreter between them.
And he turned away from them and wept.
But when he returned to them and spoke
to them, he took Simeon from them and
bound him before their eyes.
Evidently he turned and went off into a
small room by the side.
Because it says he returned to them.
And he went and he wept in the
room.
And then he came back.
Then Joseph gave orders to fill their bags
with grain and to restore every man's money
in his sack.
And to give them provisions for the journey.
And thus it was done for them.
So they loaded their donkeys with their grain
and departed from there.
And as one of them opened his sack
to give his donkey fodder at the lodging
place, he saw his money.
And behold it was in the mouth of
his sack.
Then he said to his brothers, my money
has been returned.
And behold it is even in my sack.
And their hearts sank.
And they turned trembling to one another saying,
what is this that God has done to
us?
They realized that now they were laid open
to the charge of theft.
And that is why they are so concerned.
When they came to their father Jacob in
the land of Canaan, they told him all
that had happened to them.
Saying, the man, the Lord of the land
spoke harshly with us and took us for
spies of the country.
But we said to him, we are honest
men.
We are not spies.
We are twelve brothers, sons of our father.
One is no more and the youngest is
with our father today in the land of
Canaan.
And the man, the Lord of the land
said to us, by this I shall know
that you are honest men.
Leave one of your brothers with me and
take grain for the famine of your households
and go.
But bring your youngest brother to me that
I may know that you are not spies
but honest men.
I will give your brother to you and
you may trade in the land.
Now it came about as they were emptying
their sacks that behold every man's bundle of
money was in his sack.
And when they and their father saw their
bundles of money they were dismayed.
And their father Jacob said to them, you
have bereaved me of my children.
Joseph is no more and Simeon is no
more and you would take Benjamin.
All these things are against me.
In the Hebrew text at that point there's
a great deal of stress resting upon Jacob.
Me ye have bereaved of my children.
Joseph is no more and Simeon is no
more and you would take Benjamin.
All these things are against me.
And even in the position of the words
in certain of the clauses.
Stress rests upon the fact that Jacob is
thinking primarily of himself.
So his remark is self-orientated.
And of course it is very, very irrational
for a believer to ever say all these
things are against me.
We shall see he was terribly wrong right
at this point.
Then Reuben spoke to his father saying you
may put my two sons to death if
I do not bring them back to you.
Put him in my care and I will
return him to you.
That was an extravagant strange kind of thing
for Reuben to say.
Why would the death of two grandchildren more
console Jacob for the loss of his son.
But Jacob said my son shall not go
down with you for his brother is dead
and he alone is left.
If harm should befall him on the journey
you are taking then you will bring my
gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow.
May the Lord bless this reading of his
word.
The subject for today in the exposition of
the book of Genesis is the persistent power
of a guilty conscience.
Chapter 42 records the first visit of Joseph's
brethren into Egypt.
And that of course is not an especially
notable matter.
On another score however it is a very
notable chapter.
It's one of the Bible's greatest on the
overwhelming power of a nagging guilty conscience.
One of man's greatest punishments comes from guilt
from past sinful deed.
As most of us who have experienced this
know.
These very ordinary events of chapter 52 the
visit into Egypt, the appearance before the Lord
of the land, and then the return to
the land are just ordinary events.
But they combine to recall with great intensity
an old sinful deed on the part of
the brothers of Joseph.
I think even the very name of the
land to the south Egypt must have spoken
fear into their hearts.
And then when they went down into the
land and the Lord of the land spoke
harshly to them.
No doubt that had an influence upon them
also.
When they were put in prison they could
hardly help but remember the events of twenty
years before when they had so shamefully treated
their brother Joseph.
The Bible says be sure your sin will
find you out.
And God gives us guilt and a guilty
conscience because well be sure your sin will
find you out.
And therefore we may expect that when we
have sinned and if there is no reconciliation
we may expect that God will continue to
deal with us until there is a resolution
of that particular problem.
They came finally to the conclusion that it
was retribution for this great crime of their
lives.
And so they expressed that.
Now comes the reckoning for his blood.
Therefore is this distress come upon us they
say.
It's rather interesting to observe in the Bible
what is said about conscience.
Now conscience is something that hardly appears in
the Old Testament at all.
But it certainly appears in the New Testament.
Someone has said conscience doesn't conscience does not
tell us what is right and wrong.
But whether we are what we are doing
agrees with the principles we know.
Now since we do know a great deal
of the principles of right and wrong conscience
does at times speak of that which is
right as over against that which is wrong.
But primarily it tells us whether what we
are doing agrees with the principles that we
believe are correct.
The Bible speaks of a weak conscience.
The Bible speaks of a defiled conscience.
The Bible speaks of an evil conscience.
The Bible speaks of a sacred conscience.
The Bible speaks of a pure conscience.
It speaks of a good conscience and it
even speaks of a beautiful conscience.
That last point I think is something special.
There is a conscience which while intrinsically good
is not very outwardly attractive to others because
it's filled with scruples.
We all know individuals who are in bondage
to certain little scruples.
They are not taught necessarily in Scripture.
But there are things that they have thought
are in Scripture.
But the Bible speaks of a beautiful conscience.
That is an individual who is guided by
the principles of the Word of God and
not by a handful of scruples which he
himself may have interpreted as being scriptural principles.
The Bible speaks of a conscience being seared
and so it is possible for the conscience
to speak wrongly to us.
Therefore it's not an unfailing guide.
So perhaps it is true to say that
conscience does not really tell us what is
right and wrong primarily, but it rather tells
us whether what we are doing agrees with
the principles that we know.
Now there are other lessons here in this
chapter besides that one, a persistent power of
a guilty conscience.
For example there is again taught here with
very great emphasis this continuing lesson that we
see in almost every chapter, the providence of
God.
God is interested in bringing the nation of
Israel down into the land of Egypt in
order to preserve the nation from the evil
of the land of Canaan.
But when they come down into the land,
those eleven brothers and Jacob, they must come
down there as a unified family because if
they enter into the land of Egypt not
unified then disintegration will follow and there will
be loss of racial identity and absorption into
the Egyptians and consequently Israel will not remain
a people that are alone and separate from
others as they have done down to this
present day by the providence of God.
And the one thing that might disturb their
unity and cause this disintegration is this great
sin of which the brothers are guilty against
Joseph.
And so this family shattering sin against Joseph
must be settled by reconciliation.
And so that is, it seems to me
what God is doing by bringing the brothers
down into Egypt, bringing them into contact with
Joseph who is now the prime minister in
order that the questions that remain between them
may be settled.
Therefore we see not only the persistence of
the divine purpose that is the fulfilling of
the decrees of God, but we also see
some other lessons as well.
I don't want to pass by that fulfillment
of the decrees or promises of God because
you can see how in all of these
events he is working out his purposes.
Griffith Thomas has written a rather helpful little
book on the book of Genesis and he
has said in these days when law is
said to reign supreme, when science can only
speak of cause and effect, and when Christian
people are apt to concentrate attention on methods,
principles, and laws rather than on the source
of all these things, it's particularly necessary to
hold fast the old foundation belief that there
is a divinity that shapes our ends.
Refuse them how we will.
It is important we remember that it is
God personally who is controlling all of these
events and making them ultimately conform to the
purpose that he has in the life of
Joseph and in the life of Jacob and
in the life of those brothers.
One of the other lessons that you learn
is that true repentance involves not only the
recognition of our sin, but a conduct in
accordance with it.
Now the repentance is the change of mind,
but the change of mind is manifested in
the forsaking of the evil works.
Mr. Thomas goes on to say that in
our childhood's days many of us learn what
are still the very best definitions of repentance.
One is in the church catechism.
He speaks of the Anglican church.
Repentance, whereby we forsake sin.
And he said the other was in our
hymn book, though it is not often found
in children's hymn books today.
It is not enough to say I'm sorry
and repent and then go on from day
to day just as we always went.
Repentance is to leave the sins we loved
before and show that we in earnest grieve
by doing them no more.
So repentance is not simply awareness of sin.
Repentance is awareness of sin, confession of sin,
conviction over our sin, and then the forsaking
of that particular power.
And I guess the last lesson and the
one I want to emphasize in the conclusion
is the blind irrationality of a believer's human
reasoning.
Jacob says all these things are against me,
but oh how wrong Jacob was, as we
shall see.
Now let me remind you of the situation.
Joseph is in the land of Egypt.
He's living in lavish circumstances.
We know from archeology that the Egyptians at
this time were a great people.
The walls of Egyptian palaces still exist, and
they attest the magnificence of the life of
the pharaohs of Joseph's day.
Even the furniture which exists shows that it
was an elegant kind of life in which
Joseph had now found a place.
There were the choirs of musicians who were
singing everywhere.
There were rare perfumes that rose from vases
of gold and bronze and alabaster, and they
had very thick carpets that the feet sank
deeply into as they walked upon them.
They lived in very luxurious times.
Jacob of course was in the land, and
the famine was beginning to touch the land.
And the brothers were brothers who now twenty
years after the time that they had put
Joseph into that pit were nevertheless still deep
down within their hearts feeling guilt over what
they had done.
They had never told Jacob, their father, what
had really happened.
So far as he knew, Joseph was dead.
And so far as they knew, he may
well have been dead, but they did not
know it definitely.
So here we have Jacob thinking that things
were going against him.
The brothers who were hiding guilt over their
sin.
And Joseph now living in very lavish circumstances
in the land of Egypt.
A very important man in one of the
greatest kingdoms of that time.
Well when the famine began to touch the
land, Jacob having heard a report that there
was grain in the land of Egypt said
to the brothers as they were standing around
evidently in perplexity, go back and buy us
a little food.
So he said to them to do that.
He referred to the fact that they were
standing around perplexed and looking at one another
and said, why are you looking at one
another?
Go get us something to eat.
Still Jacob is a man of decision and
so he tells them to go down to
Egypt.
Egypt, that word must have struck terror to
their hearts because it brought back all the
memories of what they had done to Joseph.
But Jacob specified, now don't take Benjamin with
you.
So it's clear that after all these years
he still distrusts these brothers.
Dr. Barnhouse in his commentary on the book
of Genesis says the word Egypt like the
word rope must have sounded like the word
rope in the house of a man who
hanged himself.
So when he said to them go down
to Egypt.
There was this sinking feeling that came into
their hearts.
One of the ways in which God deals
with us is to touch the point where
we need it most.
The thing that we try to hide up
and hide and cover up from him is
the thing that he will touch.
And so occasionally he just comes in and
he just shakes the nest.
And the thing that really was the controversy
between the Lord God and those brothers was
what they had done to Joseph.
And so now after all these years he's
going to speak the word and the men
are forced now to deal with the problem
of their lives.
It's the way that he deals with all
of us.
And he afflicts us when we refuse to
confess our sin and to make it right.
The psalmist says before I was afflicted I
went astray but now I keep thy word.
Afflictions are God's ways of bringing us to
obedience when we will not obey through the
convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Well when the brothers come down to the
land of Egypt there is Joseph.
I wonder the Bible doesn't say so far
as I can tell anything about Joseph's mind
but I wonder if Joseph had really planned
this.
I wonder if he had said to some
of his servants now when Hebrew men come
down I want you to tell me because
I want to be there when the Hebrew
men come to buy grain.
He knew that ultimately they were going to
have to come down to the land.
So it may well have been he planned
all of this.
And so when those brothers appeared word was
sent to the prime minister some Hebrews are
here and you said that we should notify
you when they're here if you want to
see them.
They're going to meet with us at 10
o'clock this morning and they're going to
make arrangements for buying grain.
So Joseph was there.
Now whether it was because he had planned
it or whether it was simply the providence
of God that he happened to be there
that morning the Bible doesn't say.
And it may well have been just that
he happened to be there that morning and
there the brothers were.
But at any rate he came into touch
with the brothers and we read in the
sixth verse of chapter 42 and Joseph's brothers
came and bowed down to him with their
faces to the ground.
Now remember he had had those dreams earlier
which he had told to his brothers and
that their sheaves of grain had bowed down
to him.
And they had interpreted it and so had
he as a time is to come when
you're going to bow down and worship me.
And so here we have unconscious fulfillment on
the part of these men of those early
dreams.
But so far as Joseph was concerned those
early dreams were of all the brothers bowing
down before him.
One of them is missing here.
And so Joseph remembered those dreams and he
may have remembered there are only 10 here
but all of the brothers were to bow
down.
What about the 11th?
And that may have brought to his mind
the question of Benjamin.
At any rate when he sees them he
recognizes them.
They don't recognize him because he was only
a young boy of 17 when they put
him in the pit and they were grown
men.
Grown men don't change a lot between the
ages of 25 and 50.
Now when they get beyond 50 the change
is fast.
And also when they're below 25 the change
is fast too.
You all have seen young boys 15 and
when you see them at 20 you wouldn't
recognize them.
They look so bad when they're 20 as
over against 15.
But at any rate there's a lot of
change in the early part of the life.
Not much change in the middle part of
the life.
A lot of change later on.
So when Joseph now a man of 37
years of age met these men.
They were much older.
He remembered them because they have not changed
that much.
But he's changed a great deal.
And so when they look at him they
don't recognize him.
Joseph is speaking to them by means of
an interpreter too.
And he's speaking the Egyptian language.
And in addition he was dressed like the
Egyptians.
He was clean shaven.
And they had these long beards because they
were men who came from the land of
Canaan.
So you can understand then this interview.
And as he saw them he recognized them.
He saw to it they would not recognize
him by continuing to speak to them.
And he spoke to them harshly.
Now we should not feel sorry for these
brothers because Joseph gave them some rough handling.
In the first place it was not vengeance
on his part.
The context makes it plain that he has
a great deal of warm affection for them
and much mercy is exhibited to them.
He doesn't even charge them for the grain.
He moves out of the room and weeps
over his feelings for them.
And then we should remember that they were
hard men.
These are the men who had massacred a
whole village.
And not only that they are the men
who had put Joseph in prison and sat
down to eat a meal.
Tantalized him.
Sitting down to eat a meal while he
is in the pit crying to let them
out.
Let him out to show some mercy to
him.
So we shouldn't feel sorry for them.
And in addition no doubt Joseph whether intentionally
or whether guided by God is going to
test the mettle of these brothers to see
if there is any change in them since
twenty years when they put him in that
pit.
The methods that he uses with them Luther
says are the same methods that God uses
when he deals with us to bring us
to repentance.
He must deal roughly with us at times.
And so Joseph is dealing roughly with them
from that standpoint.
He tells them that they are spies.
You've come to look at the undefended parts
of the land.
They say no we have come to buy
food.
We're the sons of one man.
And that was true.
They were the sons of more than one
woman but they were the sons of one
man.
And furthermore the youngest is with our father
today.
And then they say and one is no
more.
Now their honesty tails off into vagueness here.
Because of course that's a reference to Joseph.
And when they say one is no more.
That's all they've ever said evidently to Jacob.
They've never told him the truth and they
do not tell Joseph the full truth here.
They say one is no more and the
impression one gets is well he must be
dead.
But they are not telling the truth.
John Ruskin has some very good words about
truth.
Mr. Ruskin points out that a person can
lie even by saying nothing.
Because the essence of lying is in deception.
Not in words.
A lie may be told by silence.
A lie may be told by equivocation.
A lie may be told even by an
accent on a syllable.
A lie may be told by a glance
of the eye that attaches a peculiar significance
to a sentence.
All these kinds of lies Mr. Ruskin goes
on to point out are worse and baser
by many degrees than a lie plainly worded.
So the essence of lying is not in
the words that we use.
The essence of lying is in the deception
that we practice.
Now they are practicing deception.
They say one is no more.
That's true as far as they go.
As far as they know one is no
more.
But that does not tell the real truth.
And they have never told Jacob the real
truth since that time.
Well Joseph in a stroke of genius says
I think that you boys need to be
confined.
And so he confines them.
And again God uses this confinement because this
is precisely what they have done to Joseph
so many years before.
And therefore they have three days in which
to remember their crime.
Now Joseph is a very merciful man because
he himself spent three years in prison.
They spend three days.
And so every opportunity is given for them
to reflect upon the fact that they're in
Egypt.
This is the place to which they've sold
Joseph.
And they're in Egypt.
And they're in prison.
And as far as they know Joseph is
a slave in the land.
So they're getting an opportunity to think over
their past.
Well Joseph comes on afterwards and makes a
new offer to them.
He had made an offer.
Now I'm going to put all eleven of
you in prison and let one of you
go back and get your younger brother.
And if you bring him down well then
that will show that you're honest men and
you're not spies.
You can sense his excitement in this situation
even in the account because you see him
wavering in what he's going to do.
He comes back after three days and says
no we're not going to do it that
way.
We're going to put one of you in
prison and we're going to let the rest
of you go home.
And then you bring the brother down and
we will release the one.
And he takes Simeon of the eleven of
the ten brothers.
And he binds Simeon right before their eyes.
So again they are caused to reflect upon
what they did to him twenty years before.
He thought evidently three days was enough to
start their conscience working.
So he makes this new offer.
Well their conscience has been awakened and so
they say to one another truly we are
guilty concerning our brother because we saw the
distress of his soul when he pleaded with
us yet we would not listen.
Therefore this distress has come upon us.
So their conscience is awakened.
This incidentally so far as we know is
the only acknowledgment of guilt in all the
book in all of the book of Genesis.
Isn't that an interesting thing?
The only person who has the only persons
who have acknowledged their guilt in the book
of Genesis are these men who say
we are guilty concerning our brother because we
saw the distress of his soul.
So their conscience is awakened.
Their memory recalls their deed and their reason
explains why all of this is happening.
Therefore this distress has come upon us.
Well Reuben speaks up at this time.
Now Reuben is a very weak one.
And so weakness reproaches badness which is always
not so good.
So Reuben's statement which is to the effect
did not tell you.
I told you so.
He's had 20 years in order to right
the wrong and he's done nothing about it
and so he reproaches the others.
Well as they leave they leave with their
grain and Joseph has the money put back
into the sacks.
Later on a day or two later when
they one of them goes to one of
the sacks in order to get some of
the grain.
He opens it up and there in the
mouth of his sack is the money that
he had paid for the grain.
That strikes terror into his heart because now
he says the man down who's the Lord
of the land is going to think that
I'm a thief.
And so they all trembling look around at
one another and they say what is this
that God has done to us.
That by the way is the first mention
of the Lord's name by these brothers here
in this chapter.
Well when they get back they tell the
story to Jacob.
This is the first time that they're ever
honest with Jacob so far as we can
tell.
And it's not surprising that Jacob has a
hard time believing them because he's had 20
years of dealing with these brothers and he's
been suspicious the whole 20 years that they
have not told him the full truth about
Joseph.
And so he listens but he listens very
suspiciously to the things that they say while
they are finally being generally honest with him.
Well as they reach and record what has
happened they open up their sacks and they
discover that every single individual who went down
there has their money in their sacks.
And then they are truly dismayed because all
of them now face the charge of thievery.
And they realize that this may mean even
dire punishment for them.
You can see that they misunderstand the intentions
of Joseph.
They do not understand that this is really
something that is a reflection of the mercy
that he has for them.
This past week I was reading of a
reading about a preacher who went to a
minister's conference that was his first mistake.
But anyway he went to this minister's conference
and that morning they had four long hours
of unproductive discussion.
And finally he arose in the meeting for
the first time.
And the man who was the moderator said
the chairman recognizes the standing minister.
And he said brother chairman I'm not standing
for recognition I'm standing for recreation.
Intentions are often misunderstood and they did not
understand the good intentions that Joseph had.
And so Jacob when he hears the story
says I'm bereaved of my children.
Joseph is no more.
Simeon is no more.
And now you want to take Benjamin.
I want I'm in danger of losing three
of my sons.
I'm not going to do it.
His sober courage fails him.
And so he says all these things are
against me.
Now that is most irrational.
And it's not surprising now that Jacob refuses
for the moment because he's not in a
very good state of mind.
Now let me close by just pointing out
two or three of the lessons that stand
out here in this chapter.
The first is the one that I've used
as the title of this message.
And it is the persistent power of a
guilty conscience.
You can see it in the mention of
the word Egypt.
They have to go down into the land.
They are in prison.
They must face Joseph.
All of these things are designed by the
Lord God to bring home to them their
guilt.
Even when they speak and have to say
one is no more.
They are caused to reflect upon the story
of Joseph and their relationship to him.
Bring the youngest to me is also a
reminder to them of their guilt.
And the return of the money exposes them
to further difficulty with this man in Egypt.
So the whole situation has become very, very
difficult for them.
It's not surprising then that in the midst
of it they blurt out not having been
asked about this.
Truly we are guilty concerning our brother because
we saw the distress of his soul and
yet we would not listen.
Therefore this distress is come upon us.
Reminds me of King Herod.
King Herod had a feast and at his
feast Salome danced.
And in the midst of it in the
midst of his cups he said to Salome
I'll give you anything you ask up to
a half of my kingdom.
She rushed home to Mama and the mother
said I want the head of John the
Baptist on a platter.
And so John the Baptist's head is brought
on a platter because Herod says he must
keep his word.
That was a very evil thing.
When something is against the will of God
one should never keep his word.
It's more important to keep God's word than
man's word.
But nevertheless John the Baptist's head was brought
and Herod didn't like it.
But nevertheless in order to be faithful to
his word he had John's head cut off.
Wasn't long after that till reports reached King
Herod.
King Herod of a man who was going
about in the land and performing mighty miracles
and preaching with great power and conviction.
And he said John the Baptist has been
raised from the dead.
His conscience spoke before his mind had had
an opportunity to marshal arguments against the resurrection
of Christ.
I remember the story of a man who
was debating with another man about the existence
of hell.
They had this long lengthy discussion.
He kept insisting no there is no such
thing as a fiery hell.
And so far as he was concerned he
had won the argument.
That night he went home to his hotel
room and in the midst of the night
about two o'clock and he was on
the front of the hotel.
There was a street and then some buildings
on the other side.
One of those buildings caught on fire.
And in the middle of the night he
was awakened from his bed and he saw
the windows just covered with flames.
He said afterwards my first thought is I'm
in hell.
And again his conscience had spoken before his
mind had had a chance to marshal all
of those good arguments with which he had
won the argument the night before.
And the conscience, the persistent power of a
guilty conscience.
And I want to say to you ladies
and gentlemen that there is nothing that is
more of a divine punishment for our sin
than a guilty conscience.
Be sure your sin will find you out.
Now the next thing that this chapter stresses
to me is the nature of true repentance.
They have confessed their sin.
But confession of sin is not repentance.
The acknowledgement of guilt is not repentance.
Judas himself said I have betrayed an innocent
man.
Went out and committed suicide.
Judas never repented.
He regretted what he had done.
But there is a great deal of difference
between regret and repentance.
And the nature of true repentance is such
that it is more than the confession of
sin.
True repentance is manifested in works of repentance
that follow.
As John the Baptist said bring forth works
meet for repentance.
It's not enough to say I have sinned.
But there must be the forsaking that follows.
That is the evidence of genuine repentance.
Repentance is a change of mind with respect
to the Lord.
With respect to our form of life.
But if it is true it will manifest
itself in fruit.
This past week I read a very short
treatise on the life of Thomas Chalmers.
He was one of the greatest of the
Scots in the 19th century in the preaching
of the word.
Mr. Chalmers was not a great theologian.
Although he was a professor of divinity at
New College in Edinburgh.
But he was a man who was used
of God in a remarkable way.
He had been in a little country parish
in Fifeshire by the name of a little
town by the name of Kilmarney.
And there he had been as so many
of the Scottish ministers of the 19th century
in the early 19th century.
He had just been going through the motions.
People were coming to church.
The glory of the Church of Scotland had
departed.
They had many ministers but most of them
were moderate and liberal.
Mr. Chalmers himself said that the ministry was
a great thing to be in because all
you needed was a couple of hours of
preparation on Saturday night for the sermon on
Sunday morning and you had the rest of
the week to yourself.
And he also was extremely interested in science
and in other matters and became rather expert
in some of those things during those days.
I can remember years ago at Dallas Seminary
after the fall semester began at the end
of about ten days or two weeks a
young man came up to me and said,
Dr. Johnson I have a question I'd like
to ask you.
He said, what does a minister do?
Well that really floored me.
I thought that a man who was coming
to seminary might have some idea of what
a minister might do.
I said, what do you mean?
Well he said you're responsible to preach a
sermon on Sunday morning which will last about
an hour the total service.
But what do you do the rest of
the week?
And I remember saying I don't think you're
going to be very long here at Dallas
Theological Seminary.
In fact I'm wondering exactly how you happen
to get in.
Well I tried to answer him as best
I could and two weeks later he was
no more as the brother said about Joseph.
Where that fellow is today I don't know.
But I hope he's got a better idea
of what it means to attempt to minister
the word of God.
Well Thomas Chalmers had a very interesting experience.
He came into a deep relationship with the
Lord God.
Finally became very much disturbed about his own
spiritual condition.
He later spoke about how he had thought
about eternity from the standpoint of silence.
But now came to think about eternity from
the standpoint of the word of God.
He became one of the outstanding ministers in
Scotland with a great personal relationship to the
Lord God and communicated that to many people.
He was not a great theologian, though he
was a very learned man.
But he was an extremely influential man in
the Church of Scotland and many of the
greatest of the preachers in the 19th century
studied under Thomas Chalmers.
One man who also was at New College
in Edinburgh the same time that Chalmers was
there was a man by the name of
John Duncan.
He taught Old Testament.
And they called him in Scotland Rabby or
Rabbi.
They pronounced it Rabby.
Rabby Duncan.
And he was a very influential man.
When I was studying at the University of
Edinburgh some of the faculty members occasionally would
quote John Duncan or Rabby Duncan.
A man once went to Mr. Duncan and
said to him how he asked him how
he got along with Mr. Chalmers who was
very influential in the in the Church of
Scotland.
He said oh nobly though very inferior I
took the liberty of differing with him sometimes
about doctrine.
One day when he came down to my
house for a little refreshment.
That means tea among the Scots.
I found fault with his definition of faith.
My doctrine about faith was better than his.
But he went to prayer and his faith
was better than mine.
It is possible to have a better doctrine
of faith but not have a better faith.
And Rabby Duncan acknowledged that Thomas Chalmers had
a better faith.
Now Mr. Chalmers has a great sermon on
1st Corinthians chapter 2 in which he talks
about the importance of moving from dead orthodoxy
into living faith.
And he speaks about congregations such as this
congregation right here that begin the year under
the ministry of a man who teaches the
truth of God.
He comments upon the fact that there are
often congregations that love to come and hear
the exposition of the word of God.
They agree with the things that they hear
because the things are orthodox.
But at the end of the year they
are no different from that state in which
they began the year.
They are not seeking to know the law
of God in a more in a deeper
way at the end of the year.
There is no real earnest humbling produced by
the word of God.
There is no growth in piety.
No growth in the understanding of the word
of God in an experiential way.
That's a great challenge.
You know that's a great challenge to a
congregation and a great challenge to an individual.
Is it true that we finished last year
listening to expositions of the word of God
that are orthodox and true in general to
the word of God but we are no
different?
Is it possible that after all of these
Sundays together hearing the word of God and
the days in between thinking about the things
of the Lord that we are no better,
no farther along the road of a relationship
with the law of God that is experiential
in growth, in piety, and worship, and love
for God, and love for the lost?
Is it possible in the chapel where we
hear the word of God that that is
true?
True repentance involves the forsaking of our sin.
It's possible to be convicted of our sin,
convinced concerning things in the word of God,
but the effects are missing.
May the Lord God give us those effects.
Now I must say one last thing.
Jacob was a very irrational man when he
said all these things are against me.
Now Joseph he took for dead.
Simeon was a prisoner in Egypt.
Mysterious hands were trying to clutch Benjamin and
drag him from the sheltering of home.
In this long and tortuous life of Jacob
he truly had reached a low point so
he thought.
The loss of Joseph when it stood alone
was perhaps not enough to overthrow him completely.
After all he had a noble heart produced
by the grace of God.
But it was the coming together of these
many things, Joseph, Simeon, and now Benjamin, and
it's when all things seem to press down
upon us at the same time.
This simultaneous dark concurrence and incident of the
things, incidents of the things that causes us
to cry out all these things are against
me.
And so in this dark hour Joseph looked
around and said that everything seemed to be
pressing down against him.
Now mind you this is the person who
knows the Lord God who will later say
that nothing can stand against him.
That when we have him we have everything.
What shall we say to these things if
God be for us who can be against
us the scriptures say.
Now the delightful thing about this from the
standpoint of the believer is that Jacob was
so utterly mistaken.
As a matter of fact when he said
all these things are against me all these
things really were for him.
He just didn't know the end from the
beginning.
He took it for granted that Joseph had
been slain but Joseph was the prime minister
in Egypt.
He took it for granted that Simeon was
now in an alien prison and while he
was detained the most important man in Egypt
was his own brother who was longing to
make himself known to him.
And when he shrank from horror for the
loss of Benjamin his full blood brother Joseph.
For they had not only the same father
but the same mother Rachel was yearning over
Benjamin and longing to bless him if he
could just get him down to the land
of Egypt.
And Jacob thinking of the famine and thinking
of the harm that that was working in
the midst of his family.
Little realized that he now had entree into
the source of all of the supplies of
the land of Egypt built up by Joseph
as a result of the sovereign providence of
God.
Things never seemed darker to Jacob and so
in the agony of despair he calls out
all these things are against me.
But at that very moment he didn't know
it but at that very moment everything was
brightening toward the sunrise.
And it's almost as if the Lord God
was all right at this very moment just
about to say beloved it's the morning time
now.
That's not an unusual experience for a believer.
Take the apostle Paul.
He had been called to preach the gospel
to the Gentiles to the Gentile world and
they laid hands upon him and put him
in a Roman prison.
Can you not imagine Paul Lord you said
I was an apostle to the Gentiles.
There are many Gentiles that I'm not reached
yet.
I've got to write letters and so he
wrote letters not thinking about that great commission
which would be fulfilled by those very letters
which he poured out from his warm heart
in the midst of his imprisonment.
So we have Ephesians and Philippians and Colossians
and Philemon.
We have those great epistles which have ministered
to the Gentiles over the face of the
earth brought about by the imprisonment that he
wondered how it could possibly be in the
will of God.
Now you know when we get to heaven
we're going to have some very interesting experiences.
I love the thing that Mr. Moody said
when he got to heaven he was going
to spend one thousand years in the presence
of the Lord Jesus and then he was
going to say where is Paul.
Well there are lots of things that I
want to do when I get to heaven.
But I can imagine that Paul and Jacob
occasionally run into each other in heaven.
You know what I think they say.
We sure were stupid when we were down
here on the earth.
You said Jacob all these things are against
me and all these things were really for
your good.
Working by the will of a father who
works all things together for good to those
who love him to those who are the
called, elected according to his purpose.
And then Jacob said yes but what about
you.
You were in prison and you wondered about
that commission to the whole world and you
were writing letters which God has used since
that time.
We truly were stupid.
And if I was listening to that conversation
I'd say I'd like to tell you how
stupid I've been too.
And I'm sure you'd want to chime in
also because for the saints of God if
God is for us who can be against
us.
There is never a time when all these
things are against us unless we have a
guilty conscience.
And then God works for our good even
then to bring us to face the fact
of our iniquity to confess it and to
forsake it.
If you're here this morning and you have
never believed in the Lord Jesus Christ we
invite you to put your trust in him.
Pass from death into life, receive everlasting life
the forgiveness of sins and join the happy
company of the saints as they make their
way toward the city of God.
Let's stand for the benediction.
Father we are so grateful to thee for
the lessons that come to us from Holy
Scripture.
How wonderful to realize that all these things
are really for us.
Deliver us from our sins.
Bring conviction when we have sinned against thee
and give us oh God the grace to
confess and to forsake our sins.
And for those who may be here who
do not know the Lord Jesus Christ oh
God at this very moment may they lift
their voices in thanksgiving for the blood that
was shed that they might have the forgiveness
of sins apart from works, apart from any
good thing that we might do.
May grace, mercy and peace go with us
for Jesus' sake.
Amen.