WEBVTT 00:00:06.959 --> 00:00:12.720 This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota. 00:00:17.039 --> 00:00:21.359 This morning I am bound to have some slip of the tongue. 00:00:21.600 --> 00:00:33.200 I'm just preparing you in advance because we're talking about a man named Jacob who has a son named Joseph and Judah. 00:00:33.759 --> 00:00:36.479 But I'm gonna start with another guy named John. 00:00:38.640 --> 00:00:42.479 So I'm gonna make a mistake there, just preparing you. 00:00:42.719 --> 00:00:48.079 The guy named John is a guy that you all know, although you've never met him. 00:00:49.119 --> 00:00:51.679 You know him because you sing his song. 00:00:51.920 --> 00:00:54.159 Often you sing his song. 00:00:56.159 --> 00:01:06.480 In early 1748, a 22-year-old sailor named John Newton was on a ship in the Atlantic Ocean. 00:01:07.040 --> 00:01:12.879 He was headed home to England from the African coast where he'd been working for a slave trader. 00:01:13.680 --> 00:01:27.920 They ran into a storm that was so severe that a man who had been standing virtually in the same spot as John Newton moments before had been swept overboard and was never seen again. 00:01:29.359 --> 00:01:37.840 One night in that storm, Newton was so afraid that he was on his knees and he cried out to God for mercy. 00:01:40.239 --> 00:01:43.359 God rescued John Newton from that storm. 00:01:44.879 --> 00:01:52.640 But for many years he continued to work in the slave trade, even captaining slave ships for six more years. 00:01:53.519 --> 00:01:57.599 But that night in the storm, something happened to John Newton. 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:04.239 Something in his conscience had been awakened, had been turned on. 00:02:06.560 --> 00:02:11.840 But an awakened conscience is not exactly the same as repentance. 00:02:13.120 --> 00:02:34.560 It took thirty-four more years, long after he left the sea, and after he had been serving as a pastor for many, many years, John Newton finally published a pamphlet confessing his role in the slave trade, calling it a business at which his heart now shuddered. 00:02:36.240 --> 00:02:40.080 And that confession cost him dearly. 00:02:41.360 --> 00:02:49.439 He put his name and his pulpit behind that confession as he supported the abolition movement in England. 00:02:52.159 --> 00:02:58.719 It was sometime around that time that he also wrote the words to amazing grace. 00:03:01.759 --> 00:03:09.840 That is what repentance looks like when it finally becomes real, we might say. 00:03:15.599 --> 00:03:19.039 And that's the story we find in Genesis 44. 00:03:20.080 --> 00:03:33.840 In Genesis 44, more than twenty years have passed since Judah and his brothers stood in a field in Canaan near Dothan and said of their own brother, it's not worth it to kill him. 00:03:33.919 --> 00:03:36.719 We can get more money out of him by selling him. 00:03:38.800 --> 00:03:44.319 In fact, it was Joseph's brother, Judah, who made that recommendation. 00:03:45.120 --> 00:03:49.840 So they sold him to a passing caravan of traders for 20 pieces of silver. 00:03:50.080 --> 00:04:02.479 And now in Genesis 44, the men who did that are sitting in Joseph's house in Egypt, eating at his table, and they have no idea who he is. 00:04:04.400 --> 00:04:09.439 Now it's Joseph in the position of authority. 00:04:10.960 --> 00:04:13.759 And he's not finished with his brothers. 00:04:14.800 --> 00:04:23.279 He still doesn't know whether these men, now there are 11 of them, the ten who sold him and his youngest brother Benjamin. 00:04:23.839 --> 00:04:32.639 And he does not know if the ten men who sold him into slavery are the same men who could abandon their father's favorite son and walk away. 00:04:33.759 --> 00:04:37.360 So Joseph designs a last test. 00:04:38.560 --> 00:04:47.680 And it's specifically designed to place those ten brothers in the exact situation that tore their family apart in the first place. 00:04:49.279 --> 00:04:54.800 And Joseph's testing mirrors the way God sometimes tests us. 00:04:56.319 --> 00:05:01.759 Because God tests his people to bring their repentance to light. 00:05:02.560 --> 00:05:10.399 And the repentance that he's looking for is the kind that proves itself in costly sacrificial love. 00:05:11.040 --> 00:05:12.879 Watch how that unfolds this morning. 00:05:13.040 --> 00:05:19.279 Because the grace that changed Judah is the same grace that is at work in God's people today. 00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:27.759 But before we can understand that grace, we need to see how God sometimes uses our sin to show us our hearts. 00:05:29.279 --> 00:05:38.879 Joseph here at the beginning has had a meal with his brothers, and he's sending them back home with their sacks full of grain to feed their families. 00:05:40.480 --> 00:05:41.439 With a test. 00:05:42.399 --> 00:05:49.120 He places a silver cup in the sack of the youngest brother's grain. 00:05:49.600 --> 00:05:58.079 Joseph gives his steward a set of instructions that sounds almost cruel until you understand what he's after. 00:05:58.399 --> 00:06:17.600 He says in verses 1 and 2, fill each man's sack with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man's money in the mouth of his sack, and put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest with his money for the grain. 00:06:18.480 --> 00:06:22.720 So there's building going on here, building of intensity. 00:06:23.040 --> 00:06:27.360 You remember that they came the first time with money to buy grain. 00:06:27.680 --> 00:06:31.680 Joseph sent them home with grain and the money that they brought. 00:06:31.920 --> 00:06:47.839 They've now brought back that money with more money to buy grain because they have a debt to pay, they think, and they have money to buy new grain, and Joseph is sending that all back with all of them, plus his cup. 00:06:49.120 --> 00:06:51.040 A silver cup. 00:06:52.800 --> 00:07:02.160 The word translated in some of your Bibles as money in verse 2 with his money for the grain is the Hebrew word for silver. 00:07:02.959 --> 00:07:07.120 So silver is repeated over and over and over again in this story. 00:07:07.279 --> 00:07:15.519 Twenty years earlier, ten brothers had received 20 pieces of silver in exchange for a brother. 00:07:16.560 --> 00:07:26.480 And now Joseph is putting silver back into their hands another time, and he's testing whether they are going to make the trade again. 00:07:28.480 --> 00:07:35.040 Once they're on the road, Joseph sends his steward out after them to accuse them of theft. 00:07:36.720 --> 00:07:38.959 Sounds like unkind manipulation. 00:07:39.680 --> 00:07:40.959 Sounds mean. 00:07:41.600 --> 00:07:47.439 But you need to understand that Joseph is performing a kind of exploratory surgery. 00:07:48.079 --> 00:07:54.480 Because the only way to see the condition of a heart is to put it under pressure. 00:07:56.399 --> 00:08:01.519 To strain it, to test it, to try it, to see what it's like. 00:08:01.759 --> 00:08:15.519 And that pressure comes when the steward overtakes the brothers, has them all stop, they unload their sacks of grain, eleven of them at least, and they start going through the grain one by one. 00:08:15.600 --> 00:08:23.199 And the brothers are so certain of their innocence that they blurt out a terribly reckless promise. 00:08:24.399 --> 00:08:32.480 And verse 9 whichever of your servants is found with the cup shall die. 00:08:34.639 --> 00:08:36.799 Speak for yourself, brother. 00:08:38.320 --> 00:08:45.279 But they're all so convinced that they're innocent, that they're willing to put their lives on the line. 00:08:46.159 --> 00:08:56.559 So whichever one in whose hands the cup is found, in whose grain the cup is found, that person is going to be put to death, and the rest of the brothers are going to become slaves forever. 00:08:57.519 --> 00:09:01.120 But the steward refuses to accept their offer. 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:06.000 He softens it instead. 00:09:06.320 --> 00:09:13.360 He says in verse 10 the one who's found with the cup is going to be my slave. 00:09:14.159 --> 00:09:16.879 And the rest of you are innocent. 00:09:18.240 --> 00:09:20.559 That's justice, isn't it? 00:09:21.360 --> 00:09:23.200 That is doing what's right. 00:09:23.440 --> 00:09:27.679 The guilty one pays, the rest are innocent. 00:09:27.840 --> 00:09:29.440 And that is the test. 00:09:30.639 --> 00:09:37.840 The steward has just handed these ten men the same situation that occurred 20 years earlier. 00:09:38.159 --> 00:09:41.440 There are eleven brothers. 00:09:41.759 --> 00:09:50.159 A son of Rachel, this time the youngest son, Benjamin, is about to be lost. 00:09:50.799 --> 00:09:58.240 And all they have to do to save themselves is to pack up their grain with their silver and head home. 00:09:58.480 --> 00:10:00.399 Benjamin will be lost forever. 00:10:00.639 --> 00:10:02.000 They go home. 00:10:02.320 --> 00:10:04.639 The favorite son is left behind. 00:10:04.879 --> 00:10:06.799 They tell their father another story. 00:10:06.960 --> 00:10:09.600 They've done it before, they can do it again. 00:10:11.759 --> 00:10:14.799 So, what are these men like 20 years later? 00:10:16.639 --> 00:10:21.679 And our author here does a wonderful job of telling the story. 00:10:22.000 --> 00:10:28.720 He stretches the tension out by lengthening the story. 00:10:29.120 --> 00:10:30.879 Look at verse 11. 00:10:31.679 --> 00:10:36.159 Each man quickly lowers his sack to the ground. 00:10:38.240 --> 00:10:40.080 There's 11 of them. 00:10:40.559 --> 00:10:42.960 They're doing this as fast as they can. 00:10:43.759 --> 00:10:49.039 You can imagine a hundred-pound burlap sack on the back of a donkey. 00:10:49.519 --> 00:10:54.000 They're unstrapping it as fast as they can and they're lowering it to the ground. 00:10:54.480 --> 00:10:57.600 And each man opens his sack. 00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:02.639 Verse 12 the steward searches beginning. 00:11:03.600 --> 00:11:09.279 Meaning he's going from one to the next to the next to the next. 00:11:09.440 --> 00:11:11.279 And there's eleven of them. 00:11:12.639 --> 00:11:18.720 This isn't a quick search, it's a deliberate, methodical search. 00:11:19.120 --> 00:11:27.600 One after another after another, beginning with the oldest, Reuben, and ending with the youngest, Benjamin. 00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:35.440 And the cup is found in Benjamin's sack. 00:11:38.399 --> 00:11:44.399 And then comes the sentence that answers the test. 00:11:44.879 --> 00:11:46.240 It's in verse 13. 00:11:47.279 --> 00:11:55.600 They tore their clothes, and every man loaded his donkey again, and they returned to the city. 00:11:57.600 --> 00:11:59.039 Which ones returned? 00:12:02.240 --> 00:12:03.200 All of them. 00:12:04.639 --> 00:12:06.879 What happened twenty years ago? 00:12:08.000 --> 00:12:09.759 One didn't. 00:12:10.879 --> 00:12:14.559 They left Joseph and they all went, the rest went home. 00:12:16.080 --> 00:12:20.480 Every man returns, not one of them takes the road home. 00:12:20.639 --> 00:12:26.399 The brothers who once let a son of Rachel disappear and never looked back. 00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:34.320 Now all of them together turn around and walk straight back into danger for the sake of their youngest brother. 00:12:34.639 --> 00:12:36.799 Do you see what God has done? 00:12:37.919 --> 00:12:40.960 He's brought these men full circle. 00:12:41.360 --> 00:12:49.200 He's given them the same choice that once exposed the worst in them, and this time they chose differently. 00:12:50.639 --> 00:12:56.879 He did that to show Joseph and to show us that something's genuinely changed. 00:12:58.399 --> 00:13:02.240 And God may do something similar in your life. 00:13:03.360 --> 00:13:10.960 He may bring you around to the very same situations where you have failed before. 00:13:12.000 --> 00:13:20.960 And when he does, the temptation that we feel is to ask, why is this happening to me again? 00:13:22.879 --> 00:13:25.840 I won't ask you to raise your hand if you've been in that place. 00:13:26.159 --> 00:13:28.240 You don't have to live very long till you are. 00:13:28.480 --> 00:13:30.879 But friends, that's the wrong question. 00:13:31.600 --> 00:13:37.360 The better question is, what is God showing me? 00:13:37.519 --> 00:13:43.039 Not why is this happening to me, but what is God showing me about my heart by bringing me back here? 00:13:44.320 --> 00:13:52.000 What is God wanting me to see about myself by facing this familiar temptation again? 00:13:52.960 --> 00:13:55.840 Resist the urge to brace for punishment. 00:13:58.159 --> 00:14:01.679 Instead, ask the Lord, what are you trying to expose in me? 00:14:03.120 --> 00:14:07.360 Maybe you could ask, what would it look like for me to choose differently this time? 00:14:10.080 --> 00:14:19.679 Because in those moments when we sense that we're back in that same place facing that same decision, we we sometimes can feel like we're the hunted. 00:14:21.919 --> 00:14:24.720 And it's the temptation that's hunting us. 00:14:27.360 --> 00:14:29.919 Instead, search your heart. 00:14:30.799 --> 00:14:36.159 Because it's the heart issue where everything begins to turn in this chapter. 00:14:36.399 --> 00:14:44.960 We see that beginning in verse 14, where in Joseph's brothers were told that genuine repentance owns the guilt that God exposes. 00:14:45.759 --> 00:14:49.919 These brothers in verse 14 come back to Joseph's house. 00:14:50.399 --> 00:14:52.559 And he was still there. 00:14:53.679 --> 00:14:55.519 A little detail that's important. 00:14:58.159 --> 00:14:59.200 Maybe that's on purpose. 00:14:59.279 --> 00:15:09.440 Maybe Joseph was waiting until they come back, but the narrator wants us to know they didn't get far enough away before they turned around and came back, and Joseph is still there. 00:15:11.679 --> 00:15:18.159 And they all come a second time and fall on the ground before him. 00:15:20.399 --> 00:15:21.840 And who speaks? 00:15:23.759 --> 00:15:26.960 Verse 16, it's Judah who speaks. 00:15:29.039 --> 00:15:35.200 Judah was the one who suggested selling Joseph 20 years earlier. 00:15:36.320 --> 00:15:38.879 Now watch what Judah does this time. 00:15:39.919 --> 00:15:42.799 He doesn't argue that Benjamin is innocent. 00:15:43.519 --> 00:15:48.000 He doesn't say, hey, I know that my brother didn't take your cup. 00:15:48.399 --> 00:15:49.759 I can vouch for him. 00:15:49.919 --> 00:15:51.200 He doesn't do that. 00:15:51.600 --> 00:15:54.799 He doesn't dispute the charge of theft. 00:15:55.919 --> 00:15:58.240 He doesn't try to cut a deal. 00:16:00.320 --> 00:16:06.399 Instead, he says something that has nothing to do with the silver cup at all. 00:16:06.639 --> 00:16:11.120 He says in verse 16, what can we say? 00:16:12.080 --> 00:16:16.960 There's no way for us to clear ourselves of this guilt. 00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:21.679 God has found out the guilt of your servants. 00:16:24.639 --> 00:16:28.320 Notice what Judah actually says. 00:16:29.360 --> 00:16:34.399 He doesn't say the guilt of your servant Benjamin. 00:16:35.279 --> 00:16:36.320 Singular. 00:16:37.279 --> 00:16:41.759 He says the guilt of your servants, plural. 00:16:43.519 --> 00:16:48.639 Now nobody in that room thinks that all ten men's or all eleven men stole the cup. 00:16:48.960 --> 00:16:53.440 It was in one man's sack, not all of them. 00:16:54.000 --> 00:16:55.519 The cup was found in one. 00:16:55.600 --> 00:17:04.400 So when Judah confesses a guilt that belongs to all of them together, he's not really confessing a theft at all. 00:17:05.359 --> 00:17:17.519 And there's only one thing in this whole story that fits the guilt of all of these men that they admitted to back in chapter 42 when the first ten brothers were in a cell together in Egypt. 00:17:17.839 --> 00:17:26.720 And they muttered behind Joseph's back, in truth, God is exposing the guilt concerning our brother. 00:17:28.960 --> 00:17:37.599 Friends, the conscience that first cracked open in that cell their first time in Egypt has finally worked its way all the way to the surface. 00:17:37.680 --> 00:17:44.559 And Judah says out loud in front of everybody, what's been building inside of them for two decades. 00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:49.680 What are they going to do with the guilt that's now out in the open? 00:17:49.920 --> 00:17:52.559 That God has brought out in the open. 00:17:54.720 --> 00:17:57.599 What we see is really pretty incredible. 00:17:58.960 --> 00:18:03.200 Judah refuses to do what they did before. 00:18:04.720 --> 00:18:07.200 Joseph offers him an easy way out. 00:18:08.559 --> 00:18:15.839 He says, verse 17, only the man in whose cup it was found shall be my slave. 00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:18.799 But the rest of you go up in peace to your father. 00:18:19.200 --> 00:18:20.319 There it is. 00:18:21.279 --> 00:18:23.359 Here's your chance, brothers, to go home. 00:18:23.519 --> 00:18:27.359 Leave one brother in slavery in Egypt, and the rest of you can go home. 00:18:28.319 --> 00:18:30.240 Are you going to choose it again? 00:18:32.720 --> 00:18:37.920 Now the second time, they had it somewhere out in the desert with the steward. 00:18:38.079 --> 00:18:39.200 Now it's here again. 00:18:39.440 --> 00:18:44.880 The opportunity to take what they have, the freedom that they're given, and turn around and go home. 00:18:44.960 --> 00:18:48.799 They'll have to come up with a new story for dad, because this time they can't have the old story. 00:18:49.039 --> 00:18:50.000 That's already used. 00:18:50.079 --> 00:18:52.000 They already burned that bridge. 00:18:52.960 --> 00:18:54.799 They have an opportunity. 00:18:56.160 --> 00:19:00.000 But Judah refuses to take it. 00:19:00.640 --> 00:19:06.400 Friends, this is the mark of real repentance, and we counterfeit it all the time. 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:13.039 Our guilt makes excuses, doesn't it? 00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:30.559 When we're guilty, we we feel this need to manage our sin, to kind of control our guilt, to keep it to a size that is manageable, that we can live with. 00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:33.839 We can explain it away. 00:19:35.599 --> 00:19:40.559 Maybe it spreads the blame around a little bit instead of taking full responsibility. 00:19:40.799 --> 00:19:43.359 But repentance stops running. 00:19:43.920 --> 00:19:45.759 It stops negotiating. 00:19:45.920 --> 00:19:48.880 It agrees with God about sin. 00:19:51.359 --> 00:19:56.880 And maybe there's some sin that you're trying to manage instead of fully confessing. 00:19:57.920 --> 00:20:02.880 Maybe it's a resentment that you decided at one point was justified. 00:20:03.920 --> 00:20:11.599 Maybe it's a sinful habit that you've conveniently renamed so that you feel more comfortable with it. 00:20:12.559 --> 00:20:20.000 Maybe it's a wrong that you did to someone and you've filed it away under the file heading. 00:20:20.319 --> 00:20:21.920 It was complicated. 00:20:24.960 --> 00:20:36.480 Judah spent 20 years with guilt filed away, and it took a famine and a foreign ruler and an embarrassing test before he would admit it. 00:20:37.519 --> 00:20:40.559 Friends, don't wait for the crisis. 00:20:40.880 --> 00:20:42.480 It's not worth it. 00:20:44.160 --> 00:20:46.400 Bring it up into the open. 00:20:46.640 --> 00:20:47.759 Call it what it is. 00:20:47.920 --> 00:20:52.640 Use the words that God would use for it, not the softened words that you've been using. 00:20:53.200 --> 00:20:59.200 And if it involves another person, and it usually does, then owning it will cost you something. 00:21:01.440 --> 00:21:06.240 It may mean an apology that you've been avoiding or a conversation you've been dreading. 00:21:07.200 --> 00:21:11.279 But genuine repentance most often costs something. 00:21:12.799 --> 00:21:16.480 Now notice the second half of what Judah does. 00:21:17.039 --> 00:21:24.480 He's not going to purchase or buy his own peace at Benjamin's expense. 00:21:26.079 --> 00:21:34.640 Because real repentance never protects our own comfort and leaves someone else to pay the bill. 00:21:35.119 --> 00:21:42.000 If your repentance costs you nothing and costs someone else everything, it's not yet the real thing. 00:21:42.559 --> 00:21:53.359 Which leads us to verses 18 through 34 in our text, where genuine repentance is willing to consider others more significant. 00:21:55.839 --> 00:21:57.839 We've heard that before, right? 00:21:58.880 --> 00:21:59.839 In the book of Philippians. 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:09.119 Philippians, where the Lord Jesus Himself left the glories of heaven because he considered others more significant. 00:22:11.359 --> 00:22:13.200 Judah steps forward. 00:22:13.920 --> 00:22:15.119 Verse 18. 00:22:15.519 --> 00:22:16.799 We're told that specifically. 00:22:16.960 --> 00:22:17.759 Judah goes up. 00:22:17.920 --> 00:22:23.759 He leaves the group of brothers and he goes forward to speak to Joseph man to man, one-to-one. 00:22:25.519 --> 00:22:29.039 And what follows this is pretty amazing in the book of Genesis. 00:22:29.119 --> 00:22:32.319 It's the second longest speech in Genesis. 00:22:33.200 --> 00:22:37.839 17 verses of one man pouring out his heart. 00:22:39.359 --> 00:22:43.519 And it's all about their father. 00:22:44.720 --> 00:22:46.000 It's not about himself. 00:22:46.160 --> 00:22:47.359 It's not about his brothers. 00:22:47.519 --> 00:22:48.559 It's not about Benjamin. 00:22:48.720 --> 00:22:49.839 It's not about Joseph. 00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:52.319 It's about Jacob. 00:22:52.480 --> 00:22:53.680 Did I get that right? 00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:55.039 I think I got that right. 00:22:55.200 --> 00:22:56.480 It's about Jacob. 00:23:01.519 --> 00:23:04.240 He doesn't mention the silver cup once. 00:23:04.880 --> 00:23:06.079 It's not there. 00:23:07.200 --> 00:23:14.960 He talks about an old man back home in Canaan whose whole life is bound up in this young boy, Benjamin. 00:23:15.279 --> 00:23:22.640 He calls Benjamin the child of his father's old age, which is almost word for word what was said once about Joseph. 00:23:24.240 --> 00:23:36.559 We're being led to believe that Joseph and Benjamin are considered similarly, with the same terms, the same feelings, the same bond to their father. 00:23:36.880 --> 00:23:40.559 He even quotes, Judah quotes his father's grief. 00:23:40.799 --> 00:23:46.000 He says, My father said, My wife bore me two sons, and one of them went out from me. 00:23:46.079 --> 00:23:50.319 And I said, Surely he's been torn to pieces, and I've never seen him since. 00:23:52.160 --> 00:23:53.920 Torn to pieces. 00:23:56.799 --> 00:24:08.240 Those are the words that Jacob spoke when his sons dipped Joseph's robe in goat's blood and let the old man assume the worst. 00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:15.279 Here, Judah, his son, is now quoting the lie he helped tell. 00:24:16.640 --> 00:24:18.559 He's no longer protecting himself. 00:24:18.640 --> 00:24:20.079 He's putting it all out there. 00:24:20.319 --> 00:24:23.839 He's trying to save his father's heart. 00:24:24.880 --> 00:24:29.279 And then Judah does the thing that ends the testing. 00:24:29.920 --> 00:24:41.599 In verse 33, he tells Joseph that he, Judah, has personally guaranteed the boy's safety back to his father. 00:24:43.920 --> 00:24:46.799 And then he says this in verse 33. 00:24:48.400 --> 00:24:54.640 Now therefore, let your servant remain instead of the boy. 00:24:55.039 --> 00:24:57.119 As a slave to my Lord. 00:24:58.559 --> 00:25:00.960 And let the boy go up with his brother. 00:25:04.319 --> 00:25:07.359 Instead of the boy. 00:25:09.519 --> 00:25:11.920 That's the language of substitution. 00:25:13.440 --> 00:25:16.640 Let me take his place. 00:25:20.079 --> 00:25:23.279 Let me stay, I'll be the slave. 00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:25.039 Let him go. 00:25:25.279 --> 00:25:30.079 Put the chains on me and let the favorite son go home. 00:25:30.799 --> 00:25:42.400 The same Judah, who once suggested that they sell the favorite brother and take the silver and go home, now offers himself. 00:25:44.079 --> 00:25:53.599 He gives up his freedom and the rest of his life to keep another favorite son, another son of Rachel, from being lost. 00:25:54.319 --> 00:25:57.759 That's the evidence Joseph is looking for. 00:25:58.480 --> 00:26:01.680 That's what repentance looks like when it's real. 00:26:01.839 --> 00:26:06.559 It's not a feeling that you work up, it's not a good speech. 00:26:07.599 --> 00:26:15.279 It's a heart that has become willing to be spent for the very people it once wronged. 00:26:16.319 --> 00:26:22.480 Judah puts himself between his brother and the cost. 00:26:23.920 --> 00:26:26.880 He says, I will bear the cost. 00:26:30.319 --> 00:26:32.160 It's a different Judah. 00:26:33.519 --> 00:26:38.000 It's a different Judah than the one that sold Joseph. 00:26:39.839 --> 00:26:49.279 You know, it's possible to feel bad about your sin for years and even decades and never move once toward the ones that hurt. 00:26:51.680 --> 00:26:53.759 The brothers proved that, didn't they? 00:26:54.079 --> 00:26:55.680 For at least two decades. 00:26:58.000 --> 00:27:04.319 Real change doesn't show up in how you feel, but in what you're willing to sacrifice. 00:27:07.519 --> 00:27:13.440 So think of think of the person that your sin has cost the most. 00:27:17.359 --> 00:27:25.519 Maybe it's a Maybe it's a spouse who's who's absorbed your anger for years and years and years. 00:27:27.359 --> 00:27:30.079 Maybe it's a child who just got the worst of you. 00:27:32.720 --> 00:27:35.359 Maybe it's a friend that you backstabbed. 00:27:38.799 --> 00:27:44.799 Maybe it's a parent that you've hated for most of your life and you've written them off. 00:27:48.079 --> 00:27:52.079 Genuine repentance doesn't wait for them to come to you. 00:27:53.759 --> 00:28:01.599 It moves toward them, and it's willing to bear the cost of putting things right, even a cost that seems unfair. 00:28:02.960 --> 00:28:05.759 Even the part that wasn't yours to fix. 00:28:09.200 --> 00:28:10.880 Judah didn't need to do this. 00:28:11.039 --> 00:28:12.880 Benjamin had the cup. 00:28:14.640 --> 00:28:19.920 But he was willing to bear the cost for somebody else. 00:28:21.680 --> 00:28:30.559 And what Moses, our author, is doing is tying this all together with the original sin that sold Joseph into slavery in the first place. 00:28:32.079 --> 00:28:36.640 And he's saying that's the guilt that's being brought to the surface. 00:28:36.880 --> 00:28:42.160 That's the guilt that is motivating Judah to act differently. 00:28:42.799 --> 00:28:48.480 But we can't leave Judah there as merely a good example. 00:28:49.440 --> 00:28:57.359 Because this chapter will crush you if all you take home is a message about trying harder to be like Judah. 00:28:58.720 --> 00:29:01.119 Don't try harder to be like Judah. 00:29:02.160 --> 00:29:03.519 You'll fail. 00:29:05.119 --> 00:29:10.960 Instead, God is using Judah to show us a greater son of Judah. 00:29:13.279 --> 00:29:17.519 Friends, you can't manufacture the kind of heart that we see in Judah. 00:29:19.200 --> 00:29:20.640 You can't do it. 00:29:22.400 --> 00:29:40.480 It took 20 years and the kind, patient, painful providence of God to turn Judah from a man who took a few pieces of silver to sell his brother into a man who would turn away from silver and sell himself into slavery so that a brother could go free. 00:29:41.839 --> 00:29:46.480 So where does a heart like that come from? 00:29:47.519 --> 00:29:57.599 How do we go from a heart, heartless guy who sells his brother to a soft heart who takes the place of a brother? 00:29:59.440 --> 00:30:05.920 Well, it comes, I would suggest to you, in the full scope of Scripture, from trusting a greater son of Judah. 00:30:07.519 --> 00:30:09.519 Just a few chapters from here. 00:30:10.559 --> 00:30:15.519 The dying father Jacob will bless this same son, Judah. 00:30:16.400 --> 00:30:22.640 He will call him a lion's cub from whom the scepter will not depart. 00:30:24.079 --> 00:30:28.559 Meaning, there's going to be a king that's going to come from Judah's line. 00:30:28.799 --> 00:30:32.319 Rulership is going to be in Judah's line. 00:30:33.839 --> 00:30:43.119 And centuries later, the last book of the Bible announces that the lion of the tribe of Judah has triumphed. 00:30:45.519 --> 00:30:52.079 That lion is the crucified, buried, and risen Jesus. 00:30:53.680 --> 00:31:00.559 Now look at what Judah offered, and then at what Jesus did. 00:31:02.799 --> 00:31:08.799 We're comparing Judah and the Lion of Judah. 00:31:09.359 --> 00:31:14.799 Judah offered to take the place of a little brother who was innocent of theft. 00:31:17.599 --> 00:31:23.359 Jesus actually took the place of people who were guilty of everything. 00:31:26.079 --> 00:31:31.680 Judah was willing to become a slave so that the beloved son could go free. 00:31:32.319 --> 00:31:39.119 Jesus, the beloved son, became a curse so that we, the guilty ones, could be brought home. 00:31:42.480 --> 00:31:45.279 Joseph never accepted Judah's offer. 00:31:45.599 --> 00:31:51.200 So Judah never actually wore the chains of slavery. 00:31:53.279 --> 00:32:10.319 But Judah's greater son left the glory of the Father's side, took on flesh, took on the form of a slave, and became your substitute on the cross, the innocent for the guilty. 00:32:12.160 --> 00:32:18.799 Everything that Judah was willing to do, Jesus did. 00:32:20.720 --> 00:32:25.359 And he did it for the people who had earned death. 00:32:27.599 --> 00:32:34.880 Friends, a repentant heart like Judah's does not come from gritting your teeth and trying to feel worse about your sin. 00:32:35.920 --> 00:32:43.599 It comes from standing in the shadow of the cross, where someone took your place to pay for your guilt. 00:32:43.839 --> 00:32:52.400 And when you really see that Christ went instead of you, he begins to do a work in you that softens your heart. 00:32:54.880 --> 00:32:57.680 So come and trust in him. 00:33:19.119 --> 00:33:28.720 When he brings you back around to your old sin, to your old temptations, to your old habits, what's actually in your heart? 00:33:31.039 --> 00:33:34.640 When you're put in the same place, what will God find? 00:33:36.880 --> 00:33:39.279 Now maybe you already know the answer. 00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:42.160 And it's not what you wish it were. 00:33:44.480 --> 00:33:48.640 Maybe you've been managing a guilt instead of confessing it. 00:33:49.039 --> 00:33:53.920 Maybe you've been protecting your own comfort while someone else keeps paying for it. 00:33:56.000 --> 00:34:03.519 Maybe you felt sorry for years about how you hurt somebody and yet you've never once moved toward that person you hurt. 00:34:03.759 --> 00:34:07.519 If that's you, friend, you need to hear this. 00:34:08.960 --> 00:34:15.039 God has not brought your sin to the surface to leave you standing there exposed. 00:34:17.519 --> 00:34:23.199 He doesn't bring you to embarrassing situations about your own heart just to make you feel embarrassed. 00:34:25.119 --> 00:34:39.840 He brings you there and he exposes your guilt and your sin so that he can draw you to the foot of the cross and to show you the one who hung there in your place to pay for that sin and to remove the guilt. 00:34:40.159 --> 00:34:43.920 He gave himself so that you could go free. 00:34:46.480 --> 00:34:52.960 He nailed your guilt and your condemnation to the tree, Scripture says. 00:34:53.920 --> 00:34:58.400 So trust him and leave your burden there. 00:35:00.800 --> 00:35:08.639 And then turn and treat people righteously. 00:35:10.480 --> 00:35:17.840 Confess the sin to the one who gave himself for you today before you talk yourself out of it. 00:35:20.079 --> 00:35:29.599 Here's a man named Judah who walked into Egypt as a man who once traded a brother away for a few pieces of silver. 00:35:32.639 --> 00:35:38.719 And now he's standing in a room offering his life for another brother. 00:35:40.480 --> 00:35:44.559 Friends, nothing but God's grace makes that kind of change in a person. 00:35:46.320 --> 00:35:54.800 And it's the very same grace that's held out to every single person today at the foot of the cross from the Lion of the tribe of Judah. 00:35:55.679 --> 00:35:56.719 Would you pray with me? 00:36:00.079 --> 00:36:07.440 Lord, I pray that you would make this image of you real, not just in our minds but in our hearts. 00:36:10.800 --> 00:36:18.880 That each of us today would be brought to a realization, a recognizing of our sin. 00:36:20.559 --> 00:36:24.719 And that we would come willingly to the foot of the cross and to see you. 00:36:27.599 --> 00:36:29.360 To turn our eyes to you. 00:36:32.000 --> 00:36:37.679 To trust in you for the payment of our sin, that you have taken our place. 00:36:38.719 --> 00:36:43.440 So that we might walk away with our guilt paid. 00:36:51.599 --> 00:36:57.679 Not just like Judah, but like you, the greater son of Judah. 00:36:59.840 --> 00:37:12.800 May you imprint this into our hearts and minds that we might go from this place today, changed people, Christ-like people, who consider others more significant than ourselves. 00:37:13.360 --> 00:37:14.000 Amen. 00:37:16.239 --> 00:37:20.000 That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church. 00:37:20.159 --> 00:37:27.039 Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus. 00:37:27.280 --> 00:37:31.360 You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.