Sermon in Seattle 27.10.2013

May the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and always.

In the beginning of these services this morning, let us quieten our hearts in thanksgiving and prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, we come before Thee in thanks today that You have again opened our eyes to a new day of grace, that You have protected us to this day in faith. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for all gifts Thou hast given us: our families, our friends, our loved ones. But above all, we thank You for giving us Your dear Son, through whom we are able to merit eternal life through believing in His merit work.

Dear Heavenly Father, we would ask You to be with us here at this service, that You would open Your Word unto us, that You would give the hearers ears to hear and hearts to believe. Dear Heavenly Father, we also ask You to comfort those in sorrow, uplift them, and guide them according to Your Word, that they would trust in Your will, that they would desire to continue believing simply by faith.

And we enclose all these prayers in that prayer that Your Son, Jesus, taught us:
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.

For a text this day, which is a theme of forgive one another, I'll read an Old Testament text which is found in Genesis, in the 50th chapter, verses 15-21. Again with that prayer that God would open His Word and feed us, I read these words in Jesus' name:

"And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him. And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying, So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sins; for they did unto thee evil. And now we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father." And Joseph wept when they spake unto him. And his brethren also went, and fell down before his face, and they said, Behold, we be thy servants. And Joseph said unto them, Fear not, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Now therefore, fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones." And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them. Amen.

Before we begin to read and study this text this morning, I would like to bring greetings of love and God's peace from the Ministers and Wives camp. Several of us were able to be there: John and Karen, Marvin Crean, Paul and Hannah, and Beth and I. Last weekend, there at Hathcum, where I think it was the largest gathering at Ministers and Wives camp that there had been. I don't quite remember the number, but there were these servants of God there and their wives from all parts of the U.S. and also Canada. Many parts of the U.S. and Canada. And so, many greetings of love and God's peace from that camp to all of you here in Seattle. It was a precious time together to be there and have the support of the other brothers and sisters in faith.

This text that we have before us speaks of the believer, the former saint, we could say, named Joseph. Joseph. This was the Joseph of the Old Testament. There are, I could say, many Josephs in the Bible. It's not Joseph and Mary, but it is Joseph who was the son of Jacob. You can remember Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, sometimes called the patriarchs. And you might remember about Joseph's life. This text spoke to us about the time when Joseph's father had died. And Joseph had brothers. You recall, he had, there were twelve sons, so he had eleven brothers. And Joseph had many experiences in life. And I would say that we could learn much from Joseph in his experiences in his life and his actions.

And Joseph himself admitted and understood that it was through God's wisdom, or wisdom given by God, given to Joseph, and strength given by God to Joseph, that he was able to live his life of faith. He was able to battle, to battle. Even as it spoke in our text that he gave the credit to the heavenly Father.

You remember Joseph was called the dreamer by his brothers. When he was a young man he had those dreams where the sheaves of grain, or those stacks of grain, there were twelve of them, and eleven of them bowed down to him, to his sheaf of grain. And when he told this dream to his brothers and told his brothers that those—it was a picture that those eleven sheaves of grain were his brothers and that they were bowing to him. I don't think Joseph told it in this way that he was bragging, but he told it in a matter of fact or truth. But this angered his brothers.

And then he also had another dream, if you remember, and I was recalling and reading in the Bible about the other dream that he had. I don't remember all the specifics, but it was about stars and the moon, and in some way there was a picture again of his brothers bowing and worshipping him. And this made his brothers even more angry with him.

And you remember along with me what happened to Joseph—that the brothers were upset enough that they wanted to kill him. Joseph. And it was so that they were in that place where they were tending the sheep away from, you could say, witnesses, and those brothers decided amongst themselves that they would kill Joseph in their anger and jealousy toward him. But that one eldest brother, he, you could say, stepped in and had a different plan. Reuben didn't want to; he knew it was wrong to kill, and so he had that plan to soak Joseph's coat of many colors in an animal's blood and just throw him into a deep pit. And then, as it ended up, they ended up selling him into slavery, and Joseph was taken into Egypt.

And we can remember the happenings in Egypt in Joseph's life throughout his life. God gave him to be an interpreter of dreams, but he trusted God. He wanted to live according to his faith, and we could say that God blessed Joseph because of this. There is great blessing in obedience, even as it says in that one place in the Bible that God would rather have obedience than sacrifice, that he would rather us obey his teachings, or the teachings of our mother, our father, who God gives the strength to teach his children salvation, instead of falling into sin because we willfully do sin because we know that we could have it forgiven. But isn't this using, as it says in the Bible, our freedom or liberty as a cloak? That we would desire instead to be obedient to the teachings, the teachings in God's kingdom.

And it would be a dangerous place if we think we can willfully fall into sin that then we could go take care of that sin and have it forgiven. Certainly it is so in God's kingdom that grace and forgiveness abounds, and it is without measure that all sins can be forgiven. But we also remember that this grace, God also through his grace gives us this gift of faith, and that we are able by his grace to be able to believe our sins forgiven. And it is not something that we should play with—to willfully go and sin that we could then have it forgiven from the hand of the heavenly Father, and that we would treasure this gift that God has given us.

And often it is so that there is blessing then that comes with obedience, obedience of faith. But it is not this temporal—it is not this temporal blessing that we need to focus on, but isn't it this matter that the blessing, the greatest blessing of the obedience of faith, is the promise of eternal life? That we should look on those things that are heavenly and not unto those things that are temporal. But often it is that we have to be reminded again and again to look to those heavenly things and to prioritize those matters in our life, those matters of faith, those most important matters, those matters of eternal life.

And back to Joseph's life, we have not got to the portion here in scripture, but I think it bears mentioning those trials of faith that Joseph endured. He was sold into that land, that foreign land of Egypt, where they worshipped false gods, where they had the Pharaoh. And you kids may have even learned in school about this Egyptian way of life and these pharaohs, these rulers, and those times with the pyramids, where they worshipped false gods. But Joseph was there in that place where he was surrounded by that ungodly and sinful world. But he, again by the grace of God, was able to continue to confess his faith even unto that place where he was thrown into prison for confessing his faith, where he was even tempted in that way that comes close to especially us as men, where he was tempted by that Potiphar's wife to commit adultery or fornication with her, and he responded to her and was given strength by the heavenly Father even in this matter.

That he said in this way in the 39th chapter, in the 7th verse, it tells us about this account:

"And it came to pass after these things that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph, and she said, Lie with me; but he refused, and said unto his master's wife, Behold, my master wanteth not what is with me in thy house; and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand. There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?"

And so even in that temptation and trial, the heavenly Father gave Joseph strength to resist even that temptation, and that ended him up in prison because Potiphar's wife, or his master's wife, lied about that encounter, and he was then there in prison. And again he interpreted dreams, and the Pharaoh even had that dream about the seven skinny cows and the seven fat cows. And that one, I believe it was the chief butler who had been in prison with Joseph, remembered that he had interpreted dreams. And in this way God's hand worked again in Joseph's life, that he was able to interpret that dream of the Pharaoh. And when he did so, then Pharaoh made him ruler over the lands where they stored the grain for the seven good years.

And this is when Joseph's brethren then, in those seven years of famine, came to buy grain, traveled there to Egypt, and then they were reunited. Joseph was reunited with his brothers, and this then brings us to the theme of the text and the theme of the day—that we would forgive one another.

If Joseph would act with his carnal portion or his flesh, he was one of the most powerful under the Pharaoh in that land, and when his brothers came there, they certainly did then bow down and worship him. And those dreams that Joseph had there as a child, we could say, were fulfilled. But did he then use his power to get back at his brothers? Did he scorn them, that see now I am powerful and my dream came true? No, Joseph didn't. In fact, he was so moved by this that his brothers were alive, that he, we could say, forgave them that evil that they did unto him, and he was so moved that he wept. He was so happy to see that his kindred, his brothers, were alive.

And this again is an example for us that God gave Joseph the correct heart, this forgiving and loving heart. His brothers came with that message from their father after their father had died. Then the brothers in our text were even convinced that now that our father Jacob is dead, certainly Joseph will have his revenge on us now. And they came to him saying, repeating what Joseph had said, repeating what their father had said. They sent a message unto Joseph saying, "Thy father did command before he died, saying, So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren and their sin; for they did unto thee evil. And now we pray thee, forgive the trespass of thy servants of the God of thy father."

And again we see that Joseph had that humble heart, that he did not take revenge even though his brothers had done evil unto him, that he wept when they spake unto him, and he had this forgiving heart unto them. He knew that he, in his life, the blessings had come from the heavenly Father, and that he needed to forgive his brothers for their trespasses.

And this same important message and teaching, we could say, applies very much to our lives. That isn't it so that you and I, each one of us, has needed much forgiveness? We have offended each other, and we have had to humble ourselves and go and ask, apologize, and ask forgiveness from each other. And even in this, in a temporal way, with the relations between people, between fathers and their sons, fathers and their children, mothers and their children, friends one to another, and spouses—in our human relationships, this forgiveness is so important, and it builds our relationship.

And when we can apologize, when we can admit wrongdoing when it happens, and ask to be forgiven, to apologize to each other, this is so helpful to our temporal relationships. But isn't it even a greater matter? We are so fortunate as brothers and sisters in faith that not only is this a matter of a temporal relationship, this forgiveness, but it is such a greater matter that our sins are washed away and the gospel can be preached one to another, and those sins and faults are drowned in the sea of mercy to be remembered no more.

This is such a greater matter, that this is the way we live— forgiving one another. And we, as it says in other places in the Bible, we have this duty to forgive one another when a brother or sister comes to us and asks for forgiveness. Forgiveness. We have no ground to stand on not to forgive, for we have been forgiven so much, as it speaks to us in those parables in Matthew. We can remember some of those about the men who had great debt and were forgiven those debts, and then the one that was forgiven so much turned and laid hands on one who owed him very little. He had been forgiven much, but he did not want to forgive someone who owed him very little. And the instruction in the Bible was this way: his Lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

And this is such an important matter that when we consider how much we have been forgiven, that we want to willingly forgive one another, even as we speak in the Lord's prayer, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."

But isn't it so that our flesh does not want to forgive? Our flesh wants to hold grudges. Our flesh, our human side, wants to get revenge. We could say if we were hurt by someone and they apologize to us, isn't it often that we, from our corrupt portion, feel that we should get them back first? But the Bible also has instruction in this way. I was reading in Romans, and I think that Tom two weeks ago spoke on this very text where it's the exhortation for Christian living found in the 12th chapter of Romans, where it speaks to us in the 19th verse:

"Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord."

And so it is that the heavenly Father does not give any place for us to be vengeful or to get back at those that offend us or even hurt us. And the greatest teacher, Jesus, even spoke in that in the Sermon on the Mount where he wanted to instruct those who had held that Old Testament teaching, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, which we could say speaks as a revengeful verse. But Jesus spoke in this way:

"Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also."

So we are not given permission to be vengeful, but as it says in this way, "Overcome evil with good. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good."

But isn't this difficult for us, dear brother and sister? We could say this is a place where we wage a battle with our flesh. So quickly we want to lash out when we have been offended. And in this matter, we also need much grace. And even if it has been in your life that you have acted in this way, the heavenly Father through his servant would also preach to you that this is also forgiven in Jesus' name and blood. Even those words of anger and those thoughts or actions of revenge, you can believe those forgiven in Jesus' name and blood.

It seems sometimes our flesh is so close to us in this regard, and that it is difficult to love one another and to continue in this instruction from God's kingdom through the Spirit. But isn't it so that when we have given those times where we can answer angry words in a soft voice, where we have been given patience and understanding in those confrontational situations, that we have seen that? Isn't it so how these words of love work so much more than words of anger?

And the greatest love is this: this love of the undying soul that we would want to take care of those matters, even those that we may think are minor, that we would not want to let those build up but to put them away and preach the gospel and wash those sins away in the name and blood of Jesus. That, boys and girls, to each other, you kids at home, when anger and fights come, you fathers who, like me, are impatient with your children, remember to put those matters away in the name and blood of Jesus. You spouses, one to another, do not let the sun go down on your wrath but apologize and preach the gospel one to another, for in this way we fight the battle of faith.

In this way, through this gospel, we are given the strength to continue journeying, to continue uplifting and strengthening one another. And in the end of our text, Joseph forgave, had this forgiving heart to his brothers, and he spoke to them these beautiful words:

"But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive."

That God had a different plan than what those eleven brothers thought for Joseph. They thought that he would be put there in a place of torment or slavery, but God blessed Joseph, and in doing so then blessed his God's seed, that the brothers were able to go there to be with Joseph, and the God's kingdom then continued forward as their father then blessed Joseph's children. And as it says here, "Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones." And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.

And his father blessed Joseph's children. As we continue to bless our children, continue to preach the word of God and the instruction given by the Holy Spirit in our homes to our children, one to another, that even though those in this world may think that these teachings may be outdated and old fashioned, as we heard at that camp last weekend, as it speaks in Ezekiel something to the effect of, "Keep me in the old ways, and show me the old paths," we do not come here to services to hear something new, but we come again and again to hear what the Spirit teaches, where the word of God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That same word and that same faith that Jacob preached to Isaac, the same blessing that Isaac continued to bless his sons in the same way. The teachings of the kingdom of God move from generation to generation.

So let us cleave to these, let us hold to these teachings in God's kingdom, even though the world may think that they are old fashioned. We can trust that the Spirit teaches, that the Spirit guides in God's congregation here. And as a mother, the congregation will care for their children, will instruct and will teach, just as that pillar of fire went before those Old Testament travelers at night, and the cloud went by day through the storms of those journeys, that the storms of those Old Testament travelers, and on their journey they were guided. Even so, in this way, the Spirit will guide us and will teach us, will continue to teach in those matters that come forth in this life.

And may God give us obedience of faith to listen to the teaching in the congregation that he has blessed us. He has given us this greatest gift of faith. He has showed us the way to heaven, which continues to be shown unto us, which is through the merit work of Jesus, where we can again and again go to those fountains of grace and again and again be uplifted and strengthened by the gospel, continue to believe all sins forgiven in Jesus' name and precious blood, and cleave to those old ways. This is the way that leads to heaven. There are dangers on the right and dangers to the left, but may the heavenly Father keep us in the center of his flock, and he will. He has promised to be with us, to strengthen us, and to lead us, teach us, and show us the way to heaven.

And I too, coming to this place, ask you and your brother and sister, can I yet believe my sins forgiven? I want to travel together with you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let us join together in the Lord's benediction:
The Lord bless us and keep us; the Lord make his face shine upon us and be gracious unto us; the Lord lift up his countenance upon us and give us peace. In the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.