Well, this morning our electricity was turned off, not quite halfway through the meeting, towards the end of it. I don't know whether the power company did that or whether one of the brethren did that. But at any rate, we, of course, lost the lights here in the auditorium. We lost the public address system. We lost the tape recording mechanism. But always trying to look on the positive side, on the bright side of things, I said, well, one good thing from my vantage point is that the clock will stop, too. And that would be a speaker's utopia. But you know, the clock didn't stop. Somebody's hooked it up to batteries or wound it up or something, and that thing kept going. We lost everything that was advantageous, and I lost nothing that was disadvantageous. and I felt thoroughly at a disadvantage. Well, we trust that the electricity will stay with us tonight for the duration of the meeting, and we trust that we won't have any more problems with that. So before we study tonight, let's bow together in prayer. Father, we thank thee for the fact that we can meet together in the name which is above every name, that of the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank the Father that he has condescended to promise that even where two or three are gathered together in his name, there he would be in the midst. And Father, truly, his heart must be blessed when he sees so many of thy people gathered together in his name and around the word, that our hearts might be a prize of that which thou would have us to know, not simply that we might be sermon-tasters, but, Father, that we might grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Father, we pray now for help in the meeting, separate from our minds and attention everything that would be alien and foreign to this meeting. And, Father, by the help of the Holy Spirit, may we rejoice in thee and also find something upon which we may feed in the Word of God that the Holy Spirit might use it to bring forth eternal fruit and praise unto thy precious name. We ask all of these things in the name of the Lord Jesus and for his sake. Amen. We're turning now in our Bibles to the book of Genesis, chapter number forty-four. Genesis chapter number forty-four, and for your homework for tomorrow evening, if you would read the beginning of chapter number forty-five. Now we won't finish chapter forty-four, but if you, for preparation tomorrow night, would please begin Genesis chapter number forty-five and read through the first fifteen verses. Genesis forty-five verses one through fifteen. Tonight we're interested in Genesis chapter number forty-four and the first seventeen verses. Genesis forty-four verses one through seventeen. Now speaking as we begin with chapter forty-four we have Joseph commanding the steward of his house saying, Fill the men's sacks with food as much as they can carry and put every man's money in his sacks mouth. and put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth of the youngest, and his corn money. And he did according to the word that Joseph had spoken. As soon as the morning was light the men were sent away, they and their asses. And when they were gone out of the city and not yet far off, Joseph said unto his steward, Up, follow after the men, and when thou dost overtake them, say unto them, Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good? Is not this it in which my Lord drinketh, and whereby indeed he divineth, ye have done evil in so doing? And he overtook them, and he spake unto them these same words. And they said unto him, Wherefore sayeth my Lord these words? God forbid that thy servant should do according to this thing. Behold, the money which we found in our sack's mouth, we brought again unto thee out of the land of Canaan. How then should we steal out of thy Lord's house silver or gold? With whomsoever of thy servants it be found, both let him die, and we also will be my Lord's bondment. And he said, Now also let it be according unto your words. He with whom it is found shall be my servant, and ye shall be blameless. Then they speedily took down every man his sack to the ground and opened every man his sack, And he searched, and began at the eldest, and left at the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin's sack. Then they rent their clothes, and laid at every man his ass, and returned to the city. And Judah and his brethren came to Joseph's house, for he was yet there, and they fell before him on the ground. And Joseph said unto them, What deed is this that ye have done? Watch ye not that such a man as I can certainly divine. And Judah said, What shall we say unto my Lord? What shall we speak, for how shall we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of thy servants. Behold, we are my Lord's servants, both we and he also with whom the cup is found. And he said, 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. Well, it was a rather happy, congenial sort of time that we closed chapter number forty-three with, for they were having a luncheon there at the noon hour when Joseph came home from his work. And I was impressed, as I read through the Scripture again, to note that even such a great and wonderful, festive and joyous occasion as this was did not deter Joseph from the job which God had given him to do. Now, he had seen his brothers as they had passed by the marketplace, and he had given orders that the men were to dine with him at noon, and his heart was stirred again as he beheld his youngest brother Benjamin, whom he had not seen in a quarter of a century or so, and all of these things were so, but Joseph did not leave his job. He would have thought, well, he had a perfectly legitimate right to. After all, he hadn't seen Benjamin in so long, and certainly a man in his prestigious position and high place in the government of Egypt could have just come and gone as he pleased. He had lieutenants and undermen who were working with him who could have carried on the work. But Joseph apparently was so impressed with the fact that this is the job that God had given him to do, that he would continue to do it until and unless God relieved him from it. that he continued on working in the marketplace, doing that work which befell him in the dispensing of the grain, that he did not quit work, no, not even to go see his brothers, until the noon whistle blew. Then he came home, they set the three tables, they prepared a sumptuous luncheon. Apparently there was wine there, for so the word says they drank and were merry with him. And it was a very convivial and congenial atmosphere. And again, if the Word of God was a fairy story, as people today say it is, we would have had to close chapter forty-three by saying, And they lived happily ever after. Seems as if everything's fine and dandy. There doesn't seem to be any retribution or recrimination because of the fact that Joseph had been sold into slavery by these same men. And usually when folks eat together, there is always a great deal of joy and fellowship and enjoyment of one another's company, and so it was here. But here we go again from that which is a very wonderful experience to that which is a very shattering experience. And undoubtedly, the next morning as these men were up early, they loaded up their beasts of burden, and they went out of the city with their little caravan, and undoubtedly they were thinking, well, you know, all's well that ends well. My, we had some close calls back there, didn't we? And we didn't know why he wanted us in his house, and we didn't know why our lives couldn't be as placid as the lives of other folks around and about us. And we had some anxious moments there. But here our Father Jacob's fears have been set at rest because Benjamin is back here with us, and no harm has come to him at all, like our Father said, might come. And here we even have Simeon. who all of these months has been bound as a hostage of the Egyptian government." But I think the reason that Joseph had bound him in was that he bound him with a silken cord to make sure that the brothers came back again. And, brethren, I am convinced of the fact that the Lord Jesus sometimes does the same things with us. Do you remember the time when God bound the Apostle Paul with a silken cord? And Paul says, I besought the Lord three times, if this thorn in the flesh might be removed from me, but God said, My grace is sufficient for thee. And Paul says, it was because lest I be exalted above measure, the kite of my soul would have flown so high it would have soared to such an altitude that I wouldn't have been any good to the folks who dwelt at this altitude. There might have been the danger that I would become so heavenly minded that I would be no earthly good. And so the Lord had to fashion a silken cord to me, lest my kite soar a little bit too high. I think the Lord also fashioned a silken cord to Peter. When he said, Peter, the day is coming when you shall be an old man, and another shall gird thee and shall lead thee whether thou wouldest not go. And the Scripture says, This said he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. Now we wouldn't put that terminology upon that story. especially if we can trust in tradition and believe that Peter was crucified upside down, we wouldn't say this was any sort of a thing by which a person could glorify God, but it was the silken cord which God attached to Peter. And if you will, the Lord Jesus Christ, I believe, had one attached to him. When on that Mount of Transfiguration he stood there with Moses and with Elijah, and they spoke together concerning his death which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. We don't think of death as being an accomplishment. We think of it as the cessation of all family ties, the cessation of hopes and dreams and plans and ambitions. And while the Christians certainly look forward to going to be with the Lord, which is far better, still it is a cessation of those things which we hope to accomplish. here in this life, and it seems to be a silk and cord, even which the Lord Jesus Christ had placed upon him. Because the Scripture says further, Who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross and despised the shame? It seems as if in almost every case, I don't know as I can say always, but I think in most every case amongst Christians, the Lord will find some way of fastening a silk and cord upon us left our soul fly a little bit too high. And Joseph, for all of the love that he had for Simeon, bound him and kept him as a hostage in order that the greater love for the rest of the family might be manifested. and that the bonds that bound Simeon might act as this silken cord to draw the family back to Egypt so that Joseph might be reconciled not only to Simeon but also to Jacob and to all of the rest of his half-brothers together with Benjamin. But now Simeon's with the group and their whole family is complete again, as much as it ever was since they thought that Joseph certainly must be dead by this time. And they've got the grain, and they've had a very nice luncheon with the Lord of the Land. And everything seems to be fine and dandy once again. The sun has come out, and they don't seem to have any problems, and no cares, and no worries. And then all of a sudden they hear sirens in the background. Sirens. Where do you find sirens? Well, brethren, this is Philip's translation. This Philip. And they said, sounds like some sort of a Some sort of an emergency going on, yes, and it sounds louder. Sounds like the police headed this way. Well, we better get the beast off the highway, give place to an emergency vehicle, and so they get off towards the ditch and turn around, waiting for the great entourage to swoop past. But it doesn't swoop past. It stops where they are. And here's this very same man that had done them such a kindness the day before. Hey, look, it's Daphna's Panea's sewer. What's he want? Oh, dear, look at the way his face is clouded. Now I wonder what's wrong. Well, here we are, right back in trouble again. And Zaph Nathania says, Is this the way you fellows reward evil for good? What are you talking about? What are you talking about? The silver cup that belongs to my master is missing. Now, it doesn't say so in the Scripture, but we can imagine the brothers must have thought, Well, why blame that on us? We're not the only people that were at that party yesterday. There must be many of those Egyptian folks that hate that man because he's an alien. He was right out of prison. He got the job that some of them wanted. There has had to be as sticky-fingered as any person in our family and in our group. Why hang the blame upon us? Simply because we're aliens? Simply because we're not Egyptians? Or why should we be put to blame? And yet this is what happened. And they're so sure of the fact that none of them has done it. They readily consent to the search, right there alongside the road. All right, we'll take down every man his sack. We'll open up the mouth of the sack, and you can stick your arm and your fingers down through the grain. And if you find this silver cup, if you find it, in whosoever sack it is found shall immediately be executed, and the rest of us will all be your slaves for life. We are so sure of our morality, our integrity, our good name, that we are willing to go way overboard and promise this thing. Well, the steward begins to do the things. It seems, again, strange, I suppose, to the brothers that their lives have been so up and down. They have had one great big blessing and then foothed. Some sort of a tragedy sets in. And it seems, as we mentioned last night, that they can't conduct their business like other folks, but they are asked to go to the house of the Lord of the Land and they are asked to do this thing and then their money is found in the stacks and They all seem to have one sort of an upset after another all the way through. But I think the Lord would have us to understand that simply because there might be a great deal of congeniality and conviviality, it does not mean that the heart is all right with God. Now, some people to whom we talk today assume that they are Christians because they have thought that God always smiles upon their life. They are people who have been born in a very congenial family atmosphere. They are people who have been given the blessing of a very cheerful personality. Their lives seem to be very prosperous, very placid. They don't ever seem to get sick. It seems as if, as the world says, all the breaks go their way. And we have talked to folks who said, well, I certainly must be a Christian because I've had so much blessing in my life. I've never had a serious illness. I've never had a problem with my children. I've had one promotion in my business after another without having to pull strings for it. And with each promotion comes an increase in income. I have a very loving, faithful wife. Everything has always come my way. And truly, the face of heaven smiles upon me. Therefore, I assume that God's approval is upon my life. The Lord Jesus Christ taught a little bit differently, didn't he? In the Gospel by Matthew, and you don't have to turn to it if you don't want to, but in the Gospel by Matthew chapter number thirteen and verses twenty and twenty-one, the Lord Jesus is speaking here of the sower that went forth the sow, and he says in Matthew thirteen twenty, he that received the seed in the stony places, the same as he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it. He responds somehow. The seed is sown, the gospel is preached. The man makes some sort of a response, and all the folks in the chapel, in the assembly, are rejoicing that Mr. so-and-so got saved. The Lord says, not necessarily so, for he goes on to say, yet hath he not rude in himself, but he endures for a little while, for when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word by and by he is offended. The Lord says simply because you live in a congenial atmosphere does not necessarily mean that you have the joy of the Holy Spirit upon you. It may be this particular case here. There is a response. This can be a response of the soul, a stirring of the emotions, an intellectual decision that, yes, this is the thing that I've been looking for, and there is some sort of a temporary response to that which is preached. and it is believed to a certain shallow extent. But when he gets into where the nitty-gritty is of living out the Christian life, he fails because the Lord says he doesn't have any root. All the growth is above ground. But this man is a man who received the word with joy. He had a happy experience in it, and he assumed that he was saved because of the congeniality and the conviviality of the atmosphere in which he found himself. I'm not trying to sow the seeds of doubt, nor to try to tell you that if you are a naturally cheerful, happy person, if you're not a Christian tonight, I'm not saying this. But I do know the word says, He that believeth on the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. That's what I'm trying to point out. And these brothers undoubtedly thought that all of their troubles were behind them because of the fact that they'd had such a joyful, happy experience. But a commandment had followed when Joseph had told his steward, Take my cup, my silver cup, my favorite cup that was on my table, and put it in the sack of the brother who was the youngest, young little Benjamin. And so the case was done. And you'll notice, according to verse two of our chapter, He says, put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth of the youngest and his corn money. The cup was to be put in there apparently after the seed corn was put in there. In other words, the corn was there and the grain was used to sustain life and to give nourishment, and then the cup was added to it. Now we have many folks in this world today that enjoy every day the beneficent blessings of God in their lives. For the Word of God says, The rain falls on the just and on the unjust. James tells us every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow that is cast by turning. And there are many, many people who enjoy blessings out of the hand of God, Their sacks are full of the grain which God has given, and then God one of these days inserts the cup in there. And I like to think of this cup as being a type of that same cup which the Lord Jesus Christ drank of when He tasted all of the dregs which that cup of judgment could hold for you and for me. And I believe that this man, this unsaved man, enjoying the blessings of God in his life, such as good health, a good family, the blessings of sunshine and rain, and a good job, intelligence to do his work. All of these things, which are blessings from the hand of God, God will one day bring that man to a recognition that not only has God put grain in his sack to sustain his life, God has also put a silver cup in his sack, which belongs to Joseph. Now, the first chapter of the Gospel by John says, this is the life that lifeth every man that cometh into the world. And I believe that every person at least once is confronted with the gospel story. This man has brought to a realization that not only is it one thing to live upon earth and receive all of the blessings which God pours out by way of life upon this earth, but God also requires an account given of his son who died upon Calvary's cross. Will you accept him or will you reject him? And every man, at least once in his life, we in America, I believe, many more times than that, stand in the place of Pilate and ask that embarrassing question, what then shall I do with this Jesus who was called the Christ? Now here's the sack of grain, and here's also the embarrassment of the silver cup within the sack of grain. Now do you notice how their problems seem to compound as they go along? Previously, they had simply been worried about the fact that the grain money had been restored. And they said, who put this back in here? We're going to be blamed for something now. This is some sort of a frame-up. Why is this done? And the first chance they had to talk to the steward, they blurted out the whole story. We didn't do this. We didn't have a thing to do with it. We don't know who did it. We think we're being framed or something. But look, we brought that money back, and we brought double money to buy the next grain list. But now when they discover the cup, they've forgotten the grain money. This is a greater problem. This is a greater need. The grain money belonged to the government of Egypt. But the silver cup in the sack belongs to a certain person, the one who has been their benefactor and who has sustained life in Jacob's family. Now they have not only done despot to the government of Egypt by seemingly somehow getting their money back again, but now they have done despot to the one man who has done more for them than any other man they know. Now they've gotten something that belongs to him. So in the seriousness of who stole the silver cup, the grain money is forgotten, isn't it? The grain money is completely forgotten. In little Bible, Joseph brings his brothers step by step through the same process that God endeavors to bring us through step by step that we might come to the Lord Jesus Christ, be saved, and then to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And this is part of the step. All right, let's go on now to something else. That's the commandment that was given. All right, put the silver cup in the sack of the one who is the youngest. Of course, his name is Benjamin. Now, this is the conviction to which Joseph is trying to bring these men. When they first appeared before him, he said, Who are you fellas? And they said, well, we'd be the sons of a certain man that lives back in Canaan, and Joseph says, I don't believe it. And they said, yes, we are. He says, I don't believe it. He says, I think you're spies from some foreign power. And you know that we're having problems with foodstuffs down here, and you have been sent, perhaps by the military-industrial complex, to spy out the weaknesses of Egypt, and it may be you're planning an invasion. No, what we said is true, really. We're shepherds. We belong. We're all the sons of a certain... And we've got all of us here, and there's a little one who is home, and one is not. That's so. I still don't believe you. First of all, they must be brought to a realization that family relationships don't count. This is sometimes the first place that God begins with us. I spoke to a man one time, and I said, are you a Christian? And he said, yes, I am. And I said, would you mind telling me about it? And he said, well... I believe that I'm a Christian, at least I'm planning to go to heaven, because my sister is a nurse. And I said, I fail to see the connection. And he said, well, nurses, as you know, spend their careers waiting on people and doing good sacrificial things for those who have great need. And I believe that certainly this sort of a person who has lived such a self-sacrificial life, God would not keep her out of heaven. And when he opens the door to let my sister in, I'm going to slip in too. This man was basing his hope of heaven upon a family relationship. When sis goes, I go too. Joseph says, I don't believe what you tell me about your family relationship. Yes, it's so. It's so. I don't believe it. You're spies. You've come to spy out the lands. Furthermore, when they tried to buy the grain, we've already noted how he had their money returned to them again. In this country and dealing with this person, your currency has no value at all. And so I come before the Lord and I say, well, Lord, if I can't get in on to my good name, let me use some other currency. Let me bring my morality. God says I'll return it. Let me bring a baptismal certificate. I'll return it. Let me bring the fact that I've always tried to do good and be good. God says your currency has no value in this transaction. And God may, out of His blessings, give a sack of grain to me, but I'm going to find that everything that I use to try to buy that grain with, God's going to return back to me again. Everything of value which I try to give to God, God is going to refuse and turn it back again. Now, you see, what Joseph is endeavoring to do here is to destroy their integrity. Why, we are so sure that we are so moralistically perfect that we are willing to make this covenant Even before you do the search, whoever is guilty will die immediately and the rest of us will go into perpetual slavery. And he said, well, we won't decide on quite that harsh a treatment, but he who is guilty will be my servant and the rest of you can go back home again. Now he has to destroy their integrity. Why, Lord, I'd never do such a thing as that. Why, Lord, that silver cup won't be found in my sack. I can guarantee you that. I've always been a good person. I'm a decent person. I've always done good and tried to live up to the golden rule and do the Ten Commandments and all of these things. Now He has to destroy their integrity. And after the search goes on, the integrity is destroyed. And it's a vastly humble group of men that we see standing before Joseph now. What can we say? How shall we speak? How shall we clear ourselves before our Lord? Well, in whose sack was a thorn? It was found in Benjamin's say. Why, he's the least likely that we would assume would steal anything, the least likely. Poor, young, tender, timid Benjamin, the apple of his father's eyes since Joseph disappeared from off the scene, so precious in his father's sight that he didn't even want to let the boys go back to Egypt if they had to take Benjamin back with them. We would say, yes, we would readily believe that the other brothers might have had the silver cup, but certainly not sweet, timid, dear, young little Benjamin. Certainly not Benjamin. And I can almost see those brothers, for human nature, was no different in those days than it is now. Those brothers, as all of them got the sap down off their beasts of burden, you know, and opened it up, and I can imagine they cast eyes round them about. And I said, well, I know I didn't take it, but I'm not so sure about the other guys. I remember Ruben, and you remember Jacob's going to call Ruben unstable as water. And he said, Ruben got into a sin of the flesh one time. He apparently had no self-control. And maybe when all of us were milling around after the party was over and the servants were coming and going and some of us were going out of the exit, maybe Ruben, you know, saw that gleaming silver cup right there and maybe it was just something that he couldn't pass up for the moment. right inside his little shepherd's coat. Now, I wouldn't put it past Ruben at all. He really can't control himself. He's already proven that. And then Simeon. Yeah, Simeon could have done it too. And Levi, yeah. You remember Simeon and Levi slew the Shikimites. They're men of passion, too. Not so much inward physical passion, but when they get mad, head roll. Yeah, and they could do it too. So we could have come all the way down the line. Yeah, this one has a weakness. This one has a fatal flaw. That one could have done it, but I don't think anybody suspected Benjamin. And they began with the sack of the elders, and they went down through, and the farther down the line Joseph Stewart went, perhaps the men began to breathe a little bit more deeply, and a little more deeply, and another crisis passed, and and Ruben sack was closed up again, and Simeon sack was closed up again, and Levi sack was closed up again. And then there was only one sack left open, and that was a sack of Benjamin, and I could see them all well. Praise Jehovah God of heaven. We're through another crisis. We know it's not going to be Benjamin. And then the probing hand down through the grain, and up comes the dusty cup. Wow, what a shattering experience. Benjamin, of all people, guilty of such a thing as this. Is this the way we return evil for good? Is this what is done in this way? I think it was a similar situation. The Lord Jesus himself must have felt when the young man came before him and said, Good Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And the Lord Jesus Christ said unto him, You know the commandments. And the young man says, All of these have I kept for my youth of. And the Word of God says, And Jesus looking upon him loved him. There's a Benjamin, a very sweet person. a young fellow who had all of the tides of life surging within him, but he denied them every one. A young man who had the wealth to buy any sin that he wanted to buy, but said no to it. A young man who in all of his purity was able to stand before the Lord and to win the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, but not secure the salvation of the same Christ. I think that young man must have been a Benjamin. And of all people that we might have suspected, Benjamin seems to be the guilty one. How surprised we are sometimes when somebody comes forward to be saved. Sometimes folks say, well, I thought he was saved. I thought he was a Christian for years. Why, perhaps they've been coming to the meeting. They may have been even praying. They may have been showing much interest in the word. And when you talk to them, they say, have you read this book by so and so? And have you read this book by thus and so? Why, we thought they were saved. Of Benjamin? He's the one that's got the cup. Why, this is a shocker of shockers, to think that Benjamin should be guilty of this. Well, the problem, as we mentioned before, is what sort of a cup is this? Is not this it in which my Lord drinketh, and whereby indeed he divineth? The word literally is to make trial, or we could use the English word, to experience. Do ye not know that this is the cup by which my Lord causes experiences or makes experiences? In other words, I believe it is simply a test of honesty. Joseph says the same thing himself again in verse fifteen. Do you not know that such a man as I can certainly make experiences or run trials or cause tests? Do you suppose that in my position as number two man in the land of Egypt, the Lord of the land, that I simply accept a person on their own face value? Don't you suppose I caused them to go through some sort of an examination period? And this is your examination. And you failed it. You failed it. Did you think I'd let you come into my house and see all of my silverware and my drinking goblets and my precious stones and not make sure that some of these things weren't missing? What is this that you have done? I think this is the same thing that the Lord does with us. I think the Lord makes trial. I think the Lord causes experience. I think the Lord being a teacher, for this is what we call him, master or rabbi or teacher, and every teacher gives examinations, and I think this is what the Lord does in the Christian life. And you'll go out of a meeting and you'll say, My, that was a wonderful Bible study we had and so on and so forth. And I really learned a lot. Now, you'll be careful because the Lord may put you to the test concerning that thing. Did you really learn something or were you just, were your mind just titillated by the things which you experienced intellectually? The Lord being a teacher will very often make experience. Very often cause some sort of a trial or some sort of a test and say, Now, let's see whether or not you really did learn something, or whether it's a lesson that you could repeat parrot fashion from your mind, it having not gone to your heart but no deeper than your throat. The Lord makes trial. Let's hurry along with this. You notice the confession they made. Men that are greatly humbled, they came back into Joseph's house for he was yet there, and they fell before him on the ground. Now in this confession, the latter part of verse sixteen, they said, Behold, we are my Lord's servants, both we and he also with whom the cup is found. Now prior to this, in our last study, they had fallen before him and made obeisance to him. They had given him their worship. But this sort of thing is that which Joseph is after. Now they have given to him themselves. It's one thing to offer your service. It's a far better thing to offer yourself. Now, if the Lord has you, He has your service. If the Lord has you, He has your worship. If the Lord has you, He has your time. He has your money. He has your capabilities. He has your home. He has your automobile. He's got everything if He's got you. But so many times we give to the Lord piecemeal the things that belong to us. And this is the point to which Joseph has desired to bring them. You notice they say in verse sixteen, What shall we say unto my Lord? We don't even know what words to use. How are we going to frame the sentences concerning confession? Then they say in the second question, What shall we speak? What shall we speak? In the first place, we don't know what words to use. And in the second place, we don't know what logic nor reason to use. We have no explanation for this thing that's been done. And then they come to the core of the matter when they say, And how shall we clear ourselves? There's no way, is there? And this is the point to which Joseph has desired to bring them. And this is the point to which the sinner comes before the Lord. Lord, in the first place, I don't know what to say. Lord, in the second place, I have no reason or logic because you have beaten down my arguments that I used to have for reasons why I don't have to get saved. And Lord, recognizing myself now as a guilty sinner before you, how shall I clear myself? My morality won't do it. My good name won't do it. No, none of the works of righteousness which I have will do it, Lord. How shall I clear myself? So they come to this very tender confession, and it's a tender confession because it involves God. They say, God has found out the iniquity of thy servants. This is something that's cropped up two chapters before, you recall, when they said, the reason we are having all of this trouble is because of that which we have done to our brother nearly a quarter of a century ago. But now they're willing to come to the part, and they say, we have not only apparently stolen this man's cup, but now the Lord is bringing against us all of the iniquities, not only of this thing, but also when we heard the anguish of our brothers' cries and we stopped our ears against him. The Lord is the dispenser of judgment and justice, and I think they're pretty close here to praying what David prayed in the Psalm you recall, against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. It's a wonderful confession. which they make in this particular place. And I think perhaps also Joseph, loving Benjamin as he does, has an extra little something in it for Benjamin. For instance, I think he perhaps put the silver cup in Benjamin's sack so that he might see if Benjamin is like himself. Now remember now, he's closer to Benjamin than he is any of the other brothers because Benjamin and Joseph have both been born of the beloved Rachel. And Joseph feels closer to Benjamin than he does to the other brothers. Now Joseph has gone through several times when he has been falsely accused of something and he has borne it in patience without retribution, apparently without even defending himself. believing all of this is from the hand of God, and nothing comes into my life except first that it's strained through the sieve of the will of God, and he has been perfectly humble and obedient to everything that God has allowed to come into his life. And Joseph may be saying, I wonder if Benjamin, born of the same mother that I dearly love, I wonder if he also is of the same stern stuff. He, too, has been falsely accused. He didn't put the cup in the sack. Is he going to defend himself? Is he going to denounce the one who apparently has done the thing? Is he testing Benjamin? Perhaps he is. Is Benjamin of the same characteristic as beloved Joseph himself? He may be also testing the brothers in this. Do you remember what they had done to Joseph? They sold him to the Ishmaelites The Ishmaelites carried him down to Egypt, and they said, Well, that's the last we ever see of him. Now perhaps Joseph is thinking, Will these brothers do the same thing to Benjamin? Now I've told them that they can go scot-free. Whoever stole the cup, he'll be my servant. The rest of them can go. Will they desert Benjamin in his time of need as they deserted me in my time of need? Will they in the callousness and hard-heartedness of their heart say, Well, Benjamin, you shouldn't have done it. We wished you hadn't. We don't know what we'll tell Father Jacob. But really, Benjamin, you shouldn't have done this sort of thing. It's sullied the whole family name, and you just have to suffer the consequences, and you know the covenant we made with this man. You have to be his eternal slave, and that's the way it goes. They might have said in the vernacular of the day, Well, Benjamin, that's the way the cookie crumbles. See you later, old buddy. Come home if you get a chance, thus and so. Are they going to desert Benjamin the way they deserted Joseph? Oh, praise God. There's some maturity now in these brothers. And we'll notice as we go along, continue on in the story, that they seem to have learned some lessons as they went along. So this, then, we believe, is that which the Lord often does for us. Praise his name for his faithfulness. to us and leading us along in the way wherein we ought to go. I wonder if in closing we might sing perhaps just one verse of hymn number two, six, five. Hymn number two, six, five. In number two, six, five, we might sing together the very last verse, Dear Savior, when before thy bar all tribes and tongues assembled are. Among thy chosen will I be, as thy right hand complete in thee. Ye justified, O blessed thought, and sanctified, salvation wrought. Thy blood hath pardoned, bought for me, and glorified, I too shall be. Just the last verse, please, of Hymn, two, six, five. Thank you. Dear Savior, when before thy bar, Of Christ the tongues of simple heart, Among thy chosen will I be, And my right hand complete is thee. Yes, yes, yes, yes. and sanctify salvation wrong. Thy blood has cried a cross by me, and glorified I too shall be. Our Father, we praise thee tonight that because of the Lord Jesus Christ, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in him. We thank you, Father, that when we stand before the bar, it will be the judgment seat of the Lord Jesus Christ because of the fact that the Lord Jesus has died for us. Father, we thank you for that cup of communion, which we bless. We thank thee for that into which thou hast brought us the fellowship of the saints. Father, we pray that thou shalt seal the word to our hearts tonight by the Holy Spirit that thou mightest do with it as thou dost see fit. For we pray it in Christ's name and for his sake. Amen.