[0:00] As we now come around the word of God, let us seek his blessing upon his word. Let us pray. Eternal and ever-blessed Lord, thou art the one who is sovereign over all things, and our times are in thine own hands. And we give thee thanks, O Lord, when thou in thy providence have given us this privilege of being around thine own word, in coming to worship thee and to acknowledge thee as our God.
[0:44] We give thee thanks, O Lord, for all the tokens of thy goodness and kindness, that thou in thy mercy and in thy grace doth so abundantly outpour upon us from day to day.
[1:00] But we pray, O Lord, that we may come to some understanding of the greatness of the privilege of being around the word of God, being able to read thy word and to hear and to meditate upon thy word.
[1:19] And we pray, O Lord, that it may be applied to us by thine own spirit to our hearts, and that it may bring forth evidence in our lives to the glory of thy name and to the eternal good of our souls.
[1:38] We are, O Lord, dependent upon thine own spirit, so we pray that it may please thee to grant to us thy spirit, to open our hearts to receive thy word, and that it may be lodged deeply into our hearts, so that the influence of thy word may prevail upon us, not only today, but in the days, the weeks, and the months that lie ahead.
[2:12] We give thee thanks, O Lord, for thy goodness to us over the past year. Although things may seem to be so strange and confusing to us, nevertheless, thou art the one who is sovereign and who is working out thine own purpose.
[2:32] And so we, in the midst of all the strangeness and confusion, we rest in the fact that we know that thou art the ruler in heaven and on earth, and that all things are in thine own hands.
[2:48] We pray, O Lord, thy blessing upon our community, upon every home and every family. And we would seek, O Lord, that this year may be the year that we would look unto thee in a special way, in a way that would bring us, O Lord, to a place of repentance, a place where we would sorrow over our sin, and where we would turn unto thee and seek thy mercy, that it may be a day wherein we would be revived within ourselves, and a day when others would be awakened from their slumber of sin, when they would be, O Lord, brought to see their need of the salvation that thou hast provided for sinners such as we are in Jesus Christ, that it may be a year of thine own right hand.
[3:49] We pray, O Lord, that thou would bless those who are confined to their homes, those who may be feeling lonely today. We pray that thou would draw near to them, that they may know that there is one that sticketh closer than any other.
[4:08] And we pray, Lord, for those who mourn, that thine own comfort would fill their hearts today. Remember our young people and our children. And if it pleaseth thee, O Lord, to raise up a generation among us that would fear thine own name.
[4:27] Remember those who are indifferent and careless to the claims of thy word. O Lord, may thou through thy spirit draw them to thyself. And we pray, O Lord, that as we come now to meditate upon thy word, that it may please thee to enlighten our understanding through thine own spirit in leading us into thy truth.
[4:51] That we may, O Lord, be exhorted and encouraged through thine own word. That it may indeed be a means of strength to us that our faith may increase.
[5:05] and that we, O Lord, would come to in awe thy dependency upon thee more and more, leaning upon thee. And that we may be as the church of old in coming up through the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved.
[5:23] And we pray that that would be true of us today and every day, that we would lean more and more upon thee. Waiting upon thee, O Lord, for it is a blessed thing to wait upon the Lord.
[5:41] We give thanks to thee, O Lord, today for the ministry of thy Son, Jesus Christ, on our behalf, at thine own right hand, in the intercession that he makes on our behalf.
[5:54] And we give thanks for the great promise that he shall return, and that he shall return not to offer himself again as a sacrifice for sin, but to ungather his people and to bring them to be with himself in the inheritance that he has prepared for them.
[6:12] And may we today have that living hope. We pray, O Lord, that thou would continue with us now as we come to wait upon thee. And O Lord, we ask with the forgiveness of our sins, in Jesus' name, and for his sake.
[6:28] Amen. We shall now read from the Old Testament and from the book of Genesis and chapter 45. Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him.
[6:50] And he cried, Cross every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept aloud, and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard.
[7:05] And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph, doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him, for they were troubled at his presence.
[7:18] And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold unto Egypt.
[7:29] Now therefore, be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither. For God had sent me before you to preserve life. For these two years hath the famine been in the land, and yet there are five years in which there shall neither be eerie nor harvest.
[7:47] And God sent me before you to prepare you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God.
[8:01] And he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, the lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. Hesce, and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt, come down unto me, tarry not.
[8:22] And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me thou, and thy children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast.
[8:34] And there will I nourish thee, for yet there are five years of famine, lest thou and thy household and all that thou hast come to poverty. And behold, good I see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you.
[8:54] And ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen, and ye shall haste and bring down my father hither. And he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck, and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck.
[9:10] Moreover, he kissed all his brethren, and wept upon them, and after that his brethren talked with him. And the fame thereof was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, Joseph's brethren are come.
[9:21] And it pleased Pharaoh well on his servants. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, say unto thy brethren, this do ye, let your beasts and go get you into the land of Canaan, and take your father and your households and come unto me, and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the fat of the land.
[9:43] Now thou art commanded, this do ye, take your walkings out of the land of Egypt for you little ones and for your wives, and bring your father and come. Also regard not your stuff for the good of all the land of Egypt, this doers.
[9:58] And the children of Israel did so, and Joseph gave them walkings according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way. To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of raiment.
[10:17] And to his father he sent after this manner ten assets laden with the good things of Egypt, and ten she has is laden with corn and bread and meat for his father by the way.
[10:28] So he sent his brethren away, and they departed. And he said unto them, See that ye fall not out by the way. And they went up out of Egypt and came into the land of Canaan and to Jacob their father, and told him, Saint Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt.
[10:48] And Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not. And they told him all the words of Joseph which he had said unto them. And when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived.
[11:03] And Israel said, It is enough. Joseph, Joseph my son, is yet alive. I will go and see him before I die. May the Lord bless unto us the reading of that portion of his word.
[11:17] And seeking his help and blessing, let us read from verse 3 of Genesis 45. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph, doth my father yet live?
[11:32] And his brethren could not answer him, for they were troubled at his presence. And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near.
[11:44] And he said, I am Joseph, your brother, whom ye sold unto Egypt. Now therefore, be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that ye sold me hither. For God hath sent me before you to preserve life.
[11:57] For these two years hath the famine been in the land, and yet there are five years in which there shall neither be airing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve you of posterity in the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
[12:15] Now I am sure that most of us are familiar with the story of Joseph. I recall that a few years ago we studied the life of Joseph and we saw that the story of Joseph is not merely the story of a boy who overcome all the odds, survives childhood and the dangers of adulthood to become a great hero.
[12:43] That if we leave the story of Joseph there, then we can miss its real significance significance because it is actually part of a much bigger story.
[12:56] We can look at the story of Joseph as solely a lesson about jealousy and fairism and bad parenting or we may look upon Joseph as an example of how Christians should behave when the going gets hard.
[13:14] No doubt that we can find all that in the story of Joseph. It certainly was wrong for his brothers to bear such hatred against him and he is certainly a shining example of how to remain faithful in difficult circumstances.
[13:35] However, we are to read and understand the story of Joseph in the light of the greater story of God's redemptive plan.
[13:48] Like all stories in the Bible, the Joseph story is part of the wider redemptive plan and purpose of God.
[14:01] We can see that although Joseph himself is not going to be in the genealogy of Jesus Christ, in other words, it was not through the line of Joseph that Jesus came into the world.
[14:16] Nevertheless, Joseph was going to be used by God in a wonderful way to preserve his family and especially his brother Judah, through whom Jesus was going to come into the world.
[14:36] One cannot look at this history without being fascinated at the sovereign hand of God in making sure that his redemptive plan for sinners and the promised seed would be fulfilled through the family of Jacob and especially Judah.
[15:01] However, today we are going to move fast forward to this point for which everything in the life of Joseph was leading towards. His dreams, his brother's hatred, him being sold into Egypt, his time in the dungeon, his exaltation to the second command in Egypt, all that was preparation for this moment.
[15:30] As his brother stood before him, Jesus, or rather, Joseph knew his brothers. He knew everything about them as they stood before him.
[15:45] But gradually he was bringing them to a sincere conviction of their guilt and testing them to make sure that their repentance was a genuine repentance, that they had profoundly changed and only then, as the first word of chapter 45 reminds us, is Joseph ready to make himself known to his brethren.
[16:15] In chapter 43 we find that the brothers are treated like royalty, being washed and cleaned and that they are dining at Joseph's table.
[16:28] It must have felt rather bizarre for them. He had aware, having a good time and enjoying the best of Egyptian food with someone they did not know.
[16:41] What an immense privilege was theirs and yet there was one important factor missing and that is the ignorance of the real identity of their host by whose grace and favour and at whose expense they were now being entertained.
[17:00] they knew that he was a powerful man in Egypt. What they did not know as they feasted at his table, that he was the one against whom they had sinned, that he was their brother, that he was the one for many years they had tried to ignore and to forget.
[17:31] Had they known all that, I am sure the feasting at the table would have been completely different. Now here we have what we may call the shadow of the gospel.
[17:44] For me and you, what a great privilege it is for us to be entertained at the table of the gospel. What a great feast it is.
[17:55] And yet while we are feasting at the gospel, one important factor may be missing and that is our ignorance of the real identity of the person by whose grace and favour at whose expense we have a gospel table to feast upon.
[18:19] If we know him as the one against whom we have sinned and that he is in a close relationship with us, then he is the one whom for many years we may have tried to ignore and forget.
[18:35] Our feasting at the gospel table would immediately change. Well, as you said at the gospel table today, are you ignorant of the host?
[18:49] Are you like the brethren here who were so ignorant that their host was actually their own brother, the one that they had sinned against?
[19:04] Now we read that after feasting the brothers went to sleep and in the morning they found their sacks filled with corn and their donkeys ready for them and they departed very joyfully.
[19:17] And in chapter 44 we read how Joseph sets up another test to see just how much his brothers have changed. Joseph orders that their money be put back in their sacks for the second time and in young Benjamin's sack they were also to be Joseph's own silver cup.
[19:38] Joseph was resolved into finding out whether his brothers were still having hatred towards Rachel's only remaining son whom the father so loved.
[19:51] There are 22 years since they sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites and although they had carried that guilt in their conscience they had never confessed or repented of it.
[20:05] Joseph's concern here is to bring his brothers to confession to repentance and to pardon. To do so he singles out the other son of Rachel whom their father loves and seeks to find out if their attitude towards Rachel's children whom their father loved has changed.
[20:29] The brothers have not gone extremely far on their journey home when Joseph's steward catches up with them and accuses them of stealing the silver cup.
[20:41] so the steward begins to search the sack beginning with the eldest Reuben and he goes through the sacks and the cup is not found and eventually he comes to Benjamin's sack.
[20:56] You can almost hear a brother saying well it will not be Benjamin he is the youngest and if any of us is guiltless it is him.
[21:08] However their self confidence as the steward opened the sack of Benjamin is shattered when the silver cup is discovered in Benjamin's sack.
[21:21] The brothers could not just believe it. They are beside themselves with grief and they tore their clothes. They act as one man and they turn back to Egypt refusing to abandon Benjamin.
[21:37] and that is a sign that these are changed men. The first thing the brothers do when they return before Joseph is to throw themselves down at his feet.
[21:52] They know that their lives are on the line. Judah says what shall we say unto my Lord? What shall we speak? Or how shall we clear ourselves?
[22:04] God have found out the iniquity of thy servants. Now as far as the cup was concerned they were innocent but here note what Judah says.
[22:18] God have found out the iniquity of thy servants. There is no doubt that there were sinners like me and you but their sin against Joseph was a particular sin and like burning coals of fire upon their conscience it was something that they could not escape.
[22:44] Judah is confessing their guilt and in doing so he says that he is without words. What shall we say unto my Lord? What shall we speak?
[22:55] Or how shall we clear ourselves? we have concealed for all those 22 years but now God has revealed what we ought what we thought we had so aptly covered what we ought to have confessed but all that is now uncovered by God.
[23:27] Be sure your sin will find you out. Jesus to test the sincerity of the repentance gave his brothers one last chance to escape at Benjamin's expense.
[23:48] He says there to them God forbid that I should do so but the man in whose hand the cup is found he shall be my servant and as for you get you up in peace unto your father.
[24:07] Well what will they do? Will they abandon Benjamin? They have come back with him to face the music and that as we said was a good sign but suppose now that they have a way out will they take it?
[24:24] once again a test is put before them. It might be thought that this is a very harsh thing for Joseph to do to his brethren.
[24:39] They certainly have a hard choice to make. But again Judah comes to the fore and his speech in response to Joseph insistence that only Benjamin should be held to account for stealing the cup is the longest speech that we have in Genesis occupying around 16 verses.
[25:06] It is perhaps the longest heartfelt and heart rendering speech that we have recorded for us as he makes his plea for Benjamin.
[25:20] Benjamin whose life as it were is hanging on Judah's success in his plea with Joseph. And as we noted everything in the life of the sons of Jacob had all been leading us up to this moment.
[25:41] Joseph knew his brothers everything about them as they stood before him and now having tested them and seen that their conviction was sincere that their repentance was genuine he is now ready to make himself known to his brethren.
[26:01] Here we have the same order as we always have in the gospel there has to be a conviction of sin and repentance before there is pardon before there is forgiveness before there is a reconciliation there can't be a conviction of sin without repentance but there cannot be repentance without conviction of sin and there cannot be a reconciliation without conviction of sin and repentance people can acknowledge of sin and talk about their sins and yet never repent of their sin people can even be troubled about the consequences of their sin and we have an example of that in Pharaoh with the plague of locusts he called Moses and he said to Moses I have sinned against the Lord your
[27:01] God and against you now therefore forgive I pray thee my sin only this once and entreat the Lord your God that he may take away from me this death only and Moses went and he entreated the Lord for Pharaoh and the Lord turned a mighty strong west wind which took away the locusts and cast them into the Red Sea there remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt but we read that the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart so that he would not let the children of Israel go now when it says there that the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart what that means is that the Lord gave Pharaoh over to his own heart he gave Pharaoh over to his own heart and once the consequence had left once the locusts had left the land
[28:02] Pharaoh hardened his heart against the children of Israel and he would not let them go once he found some form of relief he hardened his heart and that so often happens that people confess their sin as it were they talk about their sin and they make great promises but once they have some form of relief they are back to themselves repentance you see there is a great deal of difference between remorse and repentance Judas Iscariot had remorse he says I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood but he never came to the point of repentance he had remorse but he did not come to repentance he did not seek the mercy of
[29:06] God in Jesus Christ he knew his sin he confessed his sin and there he stopped and there are many who will confess their sin but there they stop never come to the point of repentance never come to the point of seeking the mercy of God in Jesus Christ however the matter with the brothers here are completely different the brothers have shown conviction of sin and repentance and hence begins the process of reconciliation have you been convicted of your sin can you like David say to your God today against thee thee only have I sinned has that conviction of sin brought you to repentance has there been a change of direction in your heart
[30:13] Judas plea for Benjamin is evidence that there has been a change in their hearts and Joseph's response is to make himself known to them he reveals to them who he is he reveals to them who the host was that had shown to them great hospitality and who was behind all the trials and testings that they had to endure although you may think that the stories about Joseph and Judah it is actually a story as we already noted it's a story about God that which undergirds the whole story is God's sovereignty at worth to accomplish his own purpose it would be natural for us as well as for his brothers to think now is the time for
[31:14] Joseph to take revenge for all that we have done to him but what do we find instead Joseph weeps and he forgives them he is reconciled to them he is able to forgive them he is able to forgive them because he understands that God is at work he believes in the sovereignty of God you see Joseph really led a God centred life and all that happens to him he never doubts or blames God in the house of Potiphar when he is tempted by father's wife he says how can I do such a wicked thing and sin against God when he comes to interpret the dreams of the cup bearer and baker and Pharaoh's dreams he makes it known that only
[32:15] God can do it he names his two sons born to him in Egypt with reference to God Manasseh which means God has made me to forget all my troubles and Ephraim because God has made me fruitful he's a man who relates everything to God we see that here in chapter 45 in verse 5 there he says now there be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that ye sold me hither for God had sent me before you to preserve life verse 7 and God sent me before you to preserve your posterity in the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance the same in verse 8 and in verse 9 he relates everything to God up to this point they had not recognized him and now it was necessary that
[33:18] Joseph make himself known to them although they had met with him several times all they knew was that he was a great man of immense power in Egypt and in all his dealings with him they may have concluded that he was a hard man to deal with and yet all the time he was Joseph and known and he was going to love and he was going to speak to them directly no longer through an interpreter here here here we have the same order as we have under the gospel God speaks to you through an interpreter or a preacher of the gospel but then he comes and he speaks to you personally and he says I am Jesus it is one thing to hear the words of from an interpreter or a preacher of the gospel it is something vastly different when
[34:28] Jesus communicates personally to yourself you will have met with Jesus several times in the hearing of the gospel in the reading of his word in the witness of his people and yet do you really know him you may have and you have met with him in the gospel in his word in the witness of his people but yet do you really do you know him do you know him is Jesus yet a stranger to you today just like Joseph was to his brethren although they had met him several times through and spoke to him through an interpreter and he spoke to them through an interpreter yet to them he was up to this point a stranger maybe that is the way
[35:32] Jesus is for you today yes you have met with him in the gospel in his word and yet he may be a stranger to you then Joseph makes all the Egyptians to leave Rome before he makes himself known to his brothers he wants this to be a private moment with his brothers he wants this to be a personal moment with his brothers and is that not the way that Jesus makes himself known to his people it is always a personal matter it is always a private matter the Egyptians have left and they are alone with this man when the Lord reveals himself to his people they can be in a crowded place and yet they feel as if they are alone with
[36:35] Jesus after everyone has left he makes himself known to them I am Joseph doth my father yet live the brothers were waiting to hear what he had to say little did they expect the words they now hear there they are alone with them all the Egyptians have left Rome Joseph wants this to be a private and personal matter and he says to them I am Joseph doth my father yet live and when he tells them who he is the brothers are struck with fear that this would be natural for they can hardly believe their eyes and ears as he says to them I am Joseph Joseph previously spoke to them through an interpreter but now he speaks to them in the
[37:38] Hebrew tongue he speaks to them in their own language he speaks to them in the Hebrew language it has become so personal has that ever happened to yourself wherein the word of God becomes personal to you have have you ever thought strange the first thing that he asks them does my father yet live before he calls them to come near to him and comforts them he asks about his father what was utmost in his mind was his father and the same is true regarding our deliverance what was utmost in the mind of Jesus as he came to the cross to work deliverance for his people was his father in the agony of Gethsemane he said not my will but thine be done as his father was utmost in the mind of
[38:49] Joseph so the father was utmost in the mind of Jesus as he came to work out our great deliverance the work of our deliverance was always God word before it is man word and what do we read about Joseph then he says to them to come near and he assures them who is he is for I am Joseph whom you sold into Egypt no one outside the circle of the brothers could have known that but Joseph he doesn't deny their responsibility for their action they are truly guilty for he said I am Joseph your brother whom you sold into Egypt today I and you cannot deny our responsibility for the many years we have sold our lives to be willingly sinning against
[39:57] God the brothers are struck silent they cannot deny their past and the sin of rejecting Joseph there are no excuses offered for they know what he knows for he said whom you sold into Egypt and this is what happens when God comes into our lives and when he makes himself known to us we are silent for we cannot deny the fact that we have sinned against God have you been brought to that place where there are no more excuses when you are confronted with your sin you cannot excuse yourself maybe there was a time and you had plenty of excuses to offer but maybe by the grace of
[41:00] God you have come to the place today where you are confronted with your sin and no longer are you able to offer an excuse but you remain silent you remain silent was it not Paul who said that God brings us to the point where we are all found guilty before God when we cannot open our mouth we are all guilty before God well that's how the brothers were here in the presence of Joseph they were guilty it is good to be brought to this place in a day of grace like Joseph's brother for the day is coming when you shall all stand at the judgment seat of Christ and our sins shall be brought before us but that day it is outside the day of grace on that day those who have accepted
[42:06] Jesus will have an advocate with them at the judgment seat and who's their advocate it's the judge but how faithful to appear before the judgment seat without an advocate when he tells us who he is the brothers are struck with fear no wonder they're standing before the one they hated and rejected and sold here was a person who had every right to do justice and revenge the sons of Jacob but instead he shows them mercy he shows them grace he shows them reconciliation he says to them come here for I am sure they stood at a distance because they knew that they deserved only justice for their actions I am Joseph whom you sold into
[43:07] Egypt you are now going to know Joseph in a different way to the way they knew him before I wonder if they were recollecting the way that they spoke of him before where we read when they saw him afar off even before he came near to him they conspired against him to slay him and they said one to another behold this dreamer cometh come now therefore and let us slay him and cast him into some pit and we will say some evil beast hath devoured him and we shall see what will become of his dreams now they stood before an exalted Joseph and they were bowing down before him well this is what happens in conversion whatever knowledge we have of Christ in our pre conversion days it changes and we come to know Christ in a more intimate way you may today be recollecting the ways in which you have spoken of
[44:10] Jesus perhaps in a very derogative way and now you are before him in his exalted state Paul on the road met Jesus in exalted state and Paul asked him who art thou Lord and Jesus replied I am Jesus whom thou persecutest today the Jesus that you have rejected all these years is speaking to you in his exalted state and what is he saying to you today he is saying to you through the gospel come near come unto me come near the knowledge of the brothers regarding Joseph was undergoing a profound change and in conversion that is what happens our knowledge of Jesus and conversion changes compared to our knowledge of Jesus in our pre-conversion days he says to them come near and these words themselves are words of grace and these are the words that the exalted
[45:19] Jesus is saying to you today come come near come all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest come he says for all things are now ready come these are the words the invitations of grace the words of judgment are depart from me the words of grace is come unto me come near to me God saves not at a distance but he is near he says come Jesus is showing us his grace and his mercy Joseph here was showing grace to his brothers not judgment and today Jesus is showing you grace not judgment he is saying come come to me come near for us today he has ordered us to be under the sound of the gospel the last
[46:28] Lord's day of 2020 and as you reflect on your own providence maybe you are beginning to see how God has worked in your own providence how he has set you in employment where you meet other Christians where you have been made to reflect on your own relationship with God upon your own lifestyle he has made you to think and seek for a lasting peace God has brought you to that place where he confronts you and he says I am Jesus come near God has brought a famine to Canaan and has hit Jacob's household extremely hard he has brought plenty food into the land of Egypt Jacob has heard of this and sends his sons to Egypt food and in coming into Egypt things do not get any easier they meet with trial upon trial where
[47:29] Jacob thinks that everything is against him and all the time God was behind it bringing them all to the point where Joseph would make himself known to them and sometimes that is the way it works sometimes it can be through a very hard and difficult providence providence and why is it behind that hard and difficult providence it is in order to bring us to himself in order to make himself known to us I mean we're going through a very hard providence are we not at this time but I and you have to reflect personally upon our own hearts and our own thoughts has it brought me and you nearer to God has it brought me to and you to a confession of sin to repentance has it brought our nation to a place of repentance a hard providence a hard trial but what is our response to it is it bringing us nearer to
[48:53] God well God wants us to come nearer to him there is no doubt that the trial that we are going through and the hard providence that we are going through at this present time is designed by God to bring us to himself to bring us to a confession to bring us to repentance but what is it doing in the life of the church what is it doing in the life of the nation what is it doing in my personal life and in your personal life and that's where we go to search ourselves whatever we may think of what our nation is doing or what the church is doing it's what am I doing personally myself in regards to the hard providence that God has placed me in is it bringing me closer to himself is it bringing me to repentance is it bringing me to a place of confession and repentance well is
[49:59] God working in your own life I am sure that to the sons of Jacob it looked very confusing and maybe today you are like them concluding that your providence looks all confusing but have you considered that in your confusion that God is bringing you to the point of conviction and repentance wherein he is making himself known to you at this point all the brothers could do was to throw themselves upon the mercy of Joseph they bowed down at his feet they fell at his feet that's all they could do throwing themselves upon the mercy of Joseph and dear friend that's all I and you can do today is to throw ourselves upon the mercy of God in Jesus Christ and there could be no better way for us to end 2020 than to throw ourselves at the feet of Jesus to throw ourselves upon the mercy of God in Jesus Christ to begin 2021 at the feet of
[51:01] Jesus to end this year and begin the next at the feet of Jesus throwing ourselves upon the mercy of God in Jesus Christ in verse 15 moreover he kissed all his brethren and wept upon them and after that his brethren talked with him we are told that his brothers talked with him is that not the way of the gospel Christ comes to you and makes himself known to you your sin and you are struck with terror and then he embraces you he shows himself as one who is full of compassion and one who is full of pity and one with whom there is forgiveness he kissed all his brethren and wept upon them and after that his brethren talked with them oh they sold him oh they nailed they they sold him but now he is showing him compassion and pity yes in his good providence god is taking good out of evil now it is time to talk now it is time for fellowship now it is time for communion moreover he kissed all his brethren and wept upon him and after that his brethren talked with him my dear friend is the lord speaking to you today is he saying i am jesus yes i am the one for many years you rejected yes i am the one who pleaded with you and yet you passed by all these years i have pleaded with you through the gospel 20 years 30 years 40 years 50 years all these years i have pleaded with you you have rejected me you have walked away from the gospel hardening your heart and today i am pleading with you once again i am telling you who i am i am jesus come near for with me there is forgiveness there is pardon whatever has been in your life in the past whatever you have done in the past with me today there is forgiveness there is pardon there is reconciliation my dear friend if to this point you have been a rejecter of jesus if from this point and up to this point you have turned your back upon me may this year be the year of the lord's right hand in your experience in which you will come near and know the intimate compassion pity love of jesus christ and may may you go forward may you go on knowing the grace that has been shown to you by jesus christ may the lord bless our thoughts let us pray eternal
[55:02] and ever blessed lord we give thanks to thee that thou art the sovereign god that thou art the one who is working out thine own redemptive plan and we give thanks that thou art the one who through thy mercy and thy grace are inviting sinners to come to thee oh we confess oh lord our sins we have sinned against thee for years there are many who have rejected thee and turned their back upon thee and still thou art gracious to us still thou art inviting us to come near to thee and to come to experience thy compassion and thy pity and thy love and thy mercy oh lord we give thanks that today thou art a gracious god that thou a god who delighteth in mercy as we are sure that joseph found delight in making himself known to his brethren but what is it in comparison to the delight that thou have in making thyself known to sinners such as we are and coming to that point where you say
[56:13] I am not ashamed to call them brethren oh lord we pray that this year would be the year of thy right hand and the experience of many among us as we look towards another year a new year may it be a new experience in our life we pray oh lord that thou bless each one of us here gathered according to our individual needs and now may the grace of our lord jesus christ and the love of god and the fellowship of the holy spirit be with you all now and forever more amen