The Greatest Story Never Told: The Story of Joseph

i'd like you to look at acts chapter 7 with me this is called the title of it is called the greatest story never told it is the story about joseph we all know the beginning of the joseph story and thrown into a pit the last part of the joseph's story where he reigns in egypt over his brothers but the middle part of how he brings his brothers to repentance is the greatest story never told uh i have only heard in my life of one other expositor that dealt with and it's essentially genesis 42 through 45 on how joseph who longs to show grace and blessing to his brothers can't until he brings his brothers to the place of the recognition of the sin that they have covertly kept hidden on the mere fact that they defied god their father and committed murder just a minor point in their lives and they've tried to keep that concealed and joseph is going to artfully for four three chapters he's going to bring it about in their lives of their guilt and then reveal it to them and so this is all set in the context of the sermon of stephen not the stoning of stephen but the sermon of stephen where he showed you first the last couple of weeks about abraham that god blessed a man before he was circumcised before there's a temple and before there is land god blessed the first father of israel which is in keeping with stephen's point is there doesn't need to be a physical nation on the land a temple or even the law or circumcision that god works over and above those things which is the whole point of the church of gentiles coming to faith in christ and being out from under law but under grace and so that is his point and now he is going to show you in the story of joseph it's as if he's going to say we as a people have never ever submitted to saviors who have been raised from the dead we've always had a problem with them we had a problem with joseph we're going to have a problem with moses as a leader we're going to have a problem with uh prophets who called us to repentance and we've had a prophet with our problem with jesus that is the point of stephen's teaching is bringing you up to speed from the old testament to christ well if you'll look at verse 8 it tells you about abraham that he became the father of isaac became the father of jacob and jacob of the twelve patriarchs that form the 12 tribes of israel and it's an interesting observation as he's about to teach you in verse 9 through verse 16 about the patriarchs uh stay with me here abraham lived in tents dwelling is an alien in a land of promise he's very heavenly he is very little earthly the only land he ever owns is enough to bury his wife on that's abraham and then isaac is a little more worldly isaac digs wells and lives in one place beersheba and then jacob is going to go a little step further he's going to raise sheep he's going to build booths sukkoth booths and then he's going to live in a particular city so he can make some money called shechem where he will get his daughter raped and his sons fall into idolatry and then they murder everybody within it and then they have to leave and so abraham isaac and jacob become little more a little less heavenly and a little more worldly until you come to the patriarchs and they have a minor problem with murder rebelling against their father and fratterside against their brother history goes this way have y'all noticed what one generation resists the next will allow the next will embrace in the next one in force in the nebuchadnezzar's vision of the gentile flow of events from 586 when israel goes into captivity to the gentiles you've got the image of the statue of gentile domination of babylon persia greece and rome gold silver brass and iron it gets less and less precious as you go on and that has been the story of history unless you see the four r's god intervening in the regeneration of men where though their body decays their inner man is being renewed day by day and you turn the process backward or you see not just regeneration but lots of regeneration that is called a revival and we will turn the clock back again to write more righteous times and then sometimes you can have it on a broader spectrum it's called reformation and you can in you can start a movement that will last for 500 years called western civilization and then you have the other r that's called the return that's when everything will get good and so regeneration revival reform return that's the only way you can offset this decline in society the christian of course is the anomaly though our outer man is decaying look around the inner man is being renewed day by day into the image of the one who made us so the christian is the anomaly of the cosmos he gets better and wiser and more moral every day until finally he is raised from the dead so we go counter purposes well let's just watch here this greatest story never told in verse 9 we have 12 patriarchs and you've told this story to your kids in the golden book of children's stories the patriarchs became jealous of joseph and sold him into egypt now we we know that story why were the patriarchs jealous of joseph for four reasons he's born of rachel that was the favored wife as opposed to leah and cynthia and cloth hilda i can't remember their names but there was leah and then there's two servants concubines by which the twelve sons come and so rachel is from a special mother and secondly he's a good shepherd joseph is and he brings a bad testimony of his brothers to his father he stands loyal to his father in contradiction to his brothers and he brings to them the fact that my brothers have not been faithful to you father and then thirdly we see that there is a first born that he is so faithful that he is exalted as the firstborn who's the firstborn of those 12 brothers it's simeon i'm sorry reuben is the firstborn but he is not faithful and so the father designates joseph and he gives him something incidentally little sermon and sermon that is why in israel you don't see a tribe of joseph you know that you see tribes of his two sons of ephraim and manasseh and they comprise almost 40 percent of israel because the firstborn gets a double portion so you don't have a tribe of joseph you have tribes of joseph and he bestows on joseph the insignia of his special place that the father is pleased in him he has a coat of many colors and that's why his brothers are jealous because he is righteous and they are not his they he is the word of god against them in their guilt he is uniquely faithful to his father and they are not he is designated as the one before him whom the brothers will bow and they are not does this sound like anybody else you know that was a jew within israel that was faithful to his father as a good shepherd and the leaders despised him because of the guilt he brought by his very presence and another thing is that he had dreams god had communicated to joseph that someday his brothers would bow down to him the the sheaves that would bow down to his sheaf as he would be the bread of life and that secondly there was a vision that the sun moon and stars would bow down to joseph that the whole nation of israel someday would bow down to him and his brothers did not like that that he would be that great and the bible says they hated him more for his dreams than they did for his coat and so just like christ men hate him because he is holy and he bears a judgment against us because he is the only one that the father says thou art my son and in you i am well pleased and the others he is not and there is a vision that someday how many knees will bow how many tongues will confess every tongue and men don't like that we bitterly resent the fact that we are not gods if you haven't noticed we don't do too good a job being deities and being our own standard of righteousness and we resist this man and so the father you remember the story sends joseph to his brothers to care for them and joseph goes to them and he can't find them they are not where the father told them to be and joseph seeks after his brothers and they say and he's gone to to dothan and he goes to dothan and the brothers see him coming and they say here comes this dreamer they despise the fact that he claims to be the word of god let's kill him and then let's see how his dreams are doing y'all remember somebody else that they said if you are the son of god take yourself down from the cross you who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days take yourself down from the cross let's kill him and see how his sonship looks and so here comes joseph incidentally joseph's name is an anomaly joseph means either he takes away or he adds which would you like joseph is the one that can take away your guilt and he is the one that can add to you life either way y'all know of somebody else that can take away sin or make you righteous and give you life that is our lord jesus christ and so that is joseph well here he comes and in verse 9 they sold him into egypt they said let's kill him and a brother rose up named judas and judah raised up and he said let's don't kill him let's sell him and so judas betrayed him for the price of a slave do you all know another fellow who was betrayed by a fellow named judas for 30 pieces of silver and sold him to the gentiles and said let's let the romans kill him and we won't be guilty peter said you crucified him by the hands of wicked men the egyptians get no guilt in this the jews do and so judas betrays him for the price of silver he is given to the egyptians and so the jews reject the blessed firstborn the chosen ruler the word of god and they give him away to the gentiles where he will be raised up to be the bread of life do you all happen to know another jew that has been exalted among the gentiles and has become the bread of life to us even though the nation is darkened of israel to who he is well in verse not 9 and be yet god was with him even though the gentiles don't esteem him or the jews don't esteem him god knows who the righteous guy is amen you don't ever have to fear in life as long as god knows that you walk before him and no matter where you put joseph he was faithful to his father as a shepherd he was faithful to potiphar as a servant he got put in jail and he was so faithful as a as a crook in jail that the jailer gave him the keys of the jail like otis campbell and andy of mayberry he gave him the keys you can exalt him to pharaoh's right hand and he'll be a faithful prime minister dig here's a sermon here joseph is guided by one compass and that is what pleases god i will be a good son and a good shepherd or i will be a good servant and a good guy in the jail or i will be a good prime minister over all of the world no matter where you put me i've got one compass most of us get bitter if we miss our turn in a revolving door am i right yeah if we don't get our perks if we don't get our good karma we get bitter no matter where you put joseph he is faithful and so it says god is with him you know it says in psalm 105 i could show you this and take a little time but i'll just quote it here it's one i have held to my heart for a long time it says that god sent a man before israel joseph sold as a slave that god was behind it can god ever use a wicked act of rejection and death to bring about a greater salvation yes and it says they bound his feet with fetters and his arms they put in irons and the more faithful he was he's faithful to his daddy he gets sold into slavery faithful to potiphar he gets illegally accused of a sexual rap by potiphar's wife he's in jail and he interprets a dream to a cup bearer and a baker he says could you please remember me because i'm here for something i didn't do the guy forgot him for two years every time he is faithful he is treated wrong you know what psalm 105 says the word of the lord tested joseph what was god's word you're going to be exalted someday in all the world but the more faithful he is the lower he goes it's like a guy i know of that is perfect his entire life and he goes to the garden of gethsemane and his friends run off and he's about to be judged for nothing he did and he says not my will but thine be done that's when you're on the varsity and so the word of the lord tested him joseph do you believe that someday all will bow down to you yes i do yes i do yes i do he's in the jail and a member a cup bearer has a dream and a baker has a dream and they're kind of sad and joseph's working in the jail mopping or whatever he's doing answering the phone all right and he sees these two guys sad and joseph says hey why are you sad i'm not sad though i've been illegally treated three times and find myself in jail with no time off for good behavior and no pardon looking forward to i've just got darkness ahead of me joseph is upbeat what a man he says what are you sad about we had a dream we got a sense that it's from god we know it's not pepperoni that's the hebrew we know it must be a dream from god you know what joseph says do not dreams belong to god interpretations belong to god tell me what it is they could have said to him you ever had a dream oh yeah i was going to rule the world you're not doing real well otis no i'm not that's what most of us would say you know what joseph said he says i'm still trusting the word of god i don't walk by faith by sight i walk by faith i'm trusting god i incidentally you're gonna have to do that someday as you get older and older and stuff starts breaking down shutting off turning loose falling off okay you ever stand in front of a mirror and go is that all me god you're going to go to the flatline trusting god just like joseph and so joseph says tell me your dream he interprets it to them he says could you remember it they forgot him you know how long joseph was forgotten 13 years 13 years the time it takes to get a bachelor's and joseph kept trusting god wow what a man the word of the lord tested him will you believe me will you believe me well in verse 10 and rescued him from his afflictions granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of pharaoh and made him governor over egypt and all his household that boy it's a great story that cup bearer all of a sudden one night now listen to this pharaoh has a dream in which he saw judgment and or blessing and judgment he saw he saw heads of grain that were bountiful and then those of famine ate him up he saw cows that were fat and bountiful then they were eaten up that blessing was consumed by judgment and it scared him to death and he had it one night sermon in a sermon there are numbers of occasions nebuchadnezzar sennacherib goes to bed at night wakes up and everybody in his army is dead a guy named a hazaris in the book of uh esther goes to bed at night can't sleep has something red before him sees that mordecai was not honored elevates him this guy goes to sleep at night has a dream point is he that keeps israel neither slumbers nor sleeps often in the bible god does miraculous things in the dead of night you just trust him he gives sleep to his beloved a woman named mary got set aside by her husband for infidelity must have wondered how it was going to get figured out joseph awoke in the night and had a dream the thing in her is of the holy spirit and so here is a vision in the night and pharaoh says it's a wise politician that recognizes that god is sovereign and i have to stand before him he says and you know what that cupbearer raises up and says pharaoh i need to apologize about something this is another sermon in a sermon so feel free to feel guilty the cup bearer says i need to make mention of my offenses i did something wrong what'd you do two years ago i met a guy in jail named joseph that was there on a sex wrap and i had a dream and he told me the very will of god and it came true there is a jew in our kingdom that nobody likes and i found out he's the very word of god and he's the very righteousness of god and he said i need to apologize to you what i need to apologize is that i knew this guy was here and i didn't tell anybody you all feel guilty we'll proceed he said forgive me forgive me for sitting on the truth and not telling anybody but we've got a guy that's a solution here he's the word made flesh pharaoh says man get him up here right now and up from the grave he arose with a mighty triumph over his foes he arose a victor from the dark domain and he reigns forever or something another like that all right and up from the grave here ryan they take a shower shave come up and give me the dream he lays the dream on him and he says you if i was you joseph said here's what i'd do in the time of blessing i would get ready for a time of judgment because there's a time of mercy and then there's a time of judgment coming do you all know of another great jew that got rose risen from the dead who said there's going to be a time of blessing then there's going to be a time of judgment you better get ready and he did and he said you better take 20 percent of all that you have and put it aside so that we're ready for the time of judgment and that politician made a great statement since there's nobody here as wise as you because you have the word of god i'm going to trust you and elevate you for the rest of my life amen well they elevate joseph and pharaoh says you'll sit at my right hand and everybody will bow the knee before you and all authority is given to you in heaven and on earth bow the knee to joseph and so that man goes within about a 20-minute conversation from the bottom to the top just like jesus well seven years of blessing comes and i think personally that is a typology from the scripture if you go to the book of revelation in revelation chapter two and 3 you see seven churches and those seven churches when you look at them are very reminiscent of something you see the church of of uh apostolic fidelity they test those who were apostles find them to be false but they began to lose their first love like the apostolic church in the early first century then you see the church of suffering like in the roman empire smyrna then you see the church of the imperial church that they have some that hold to the teaching of balaam they have a divided heart just like in christianity you would see the church follow after constantine the roman emperor he would be the head of the church and he would be the head of the rome at the same time it was like bigamy that's the church at pergamum then you see thyatira that means continual sacrifice that's when they embrace jezebel that's the church of the middle ages that became corrupt then you see the church at sardis where they had a name that they were alive but they were dead and some had to escape which is what sardis means that's the church of the reformation that had to come out from the deadness of the church then you had the church at philadelphia brotherly love and god opened a door for them that no one could shut that's the missionary church 16th 17th 18th century that went to the whole world and then you've got laodicea the church where people run things they had and they christ is outside the church standing at the door and knock he's trying to get in his own church because they got so blessed that they don't need him anymore that's the church of the last days it's a picture of the church age seven years of blessing and then in revelation chapter six god says come and judgment comes forth for seven years of judgment chapter 4 of revelation a voice calls from heaven and says come up here and the church is gone amen okay and so here we have joseph and all of a sudden at his feet these brothers show up israel thought they were done with this rejected son that had been sent to the gentiles but they're not god is going to make that nation and those tribes deal with that man that they rejected and they're going to mourn for him as for an only son and so the brothers come before him now the gentile world has been blessed by him in his salvation but the jew is darkened to who he is is that still true today the gentiles enjoy this wounded king that has been rejected this firstborn that they didn't want and has been lied about but someday the jews are going to have to deal with this man and confess their sin well joseph longs to pour out his blessing before these brothers but he can't god cannot show his blessing until justice is met and apologies have come and sacrifice has been made god loved us he so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son justice had to be met and if you're here this morning knowing that there's a god but you wonder where his blessing is he will not bestow his blessing until you come to the altar before him and admit that you are guilty and that you need the shedding of blood of his son to die for you and until that happens the windows of heaven will stay latched on you and so these brothers show up and verse 12 it says jacob heard that there was grain in egypt and he sent our fathers the first time 13 on the second visit there are two visits that the brothers have to make to joseph the first visit is going to deal with incrimination the second visit is going to deal with mercy first you know this man as judge and then you recognize that he gives gives grace you might say this that with joseph we're sin about we're great well i'm sorry where sin increases how's it go grace abounds there will be no guilt so great that joseph's grace cannot cover it but first you have to own up to your guilt and admit what you have done then the blessing will come you don't have to be perfect but you do have to comply with the standard of righteousness and that is an apology and so i'm going to give you here 20 things you say we only got 15 minutes i know that it says the 20-point whammy all right and again it's the story that is not in your golden book of children's stories you don't tell your kids this because nobody knows it but i'm going to give you the story never told stay with me the brothers appeared before joseph and he gives number one a harsh word of conviction who are you men you know what they said they said we're honest men except for the fact we kill our brother we're honest men except for the fact we lie to our daddy and we defy god we're honest men does that sound like somebody it sounds like us if you died now would you go to heaven yes why well i'm perfect obviously i want you to turn to the guy next to you and share with him the most evil thing about you that nobody knows go ahead just thank you now you're not about to donate you know why because you spent a lifetime covering it up well joseph says who are you we're honest men and joseph gives what is called a harsh word of condemnation you are not honest men you are enemies of god and your spies while we were still enemies christ died for us you are an enemy so there's a harsh word of condemnation and they just argue with him we are not as bad as you say we are yes you are number one there's an accusation number two he puts him in prison for three days to awaken their guilt he says i'm going to put you in prison and just hold you there you know what they said when they were in prison the firstborn brother reuben rose up and said i knew this was going to happen he said god knows what you guys did he said it's now come back on us we lied to god we lied to our daddy we lied to each other we lied to our wives we lied to our kids but god knew that we saw the suffering of our brother just like christ on the cross was surrounded and people watched him died and laughed we surrounded our brother and he pleaded with us that he was innocent and we watched him get sold away we watched him die in a sense and now it's judgment day what goes around comes around and so god awakened their guilt that thing deep inside of you that you have disconnected that voice that you wouldn't listen to it's time for an accounting of what you did billy graham talked about when his little kid is dead he said do not take watermelons from that guy's patch next door to us billy snuck one went out behind the shed and ate it problem was billy sped out all the seeds springtime came and there was a harvest of melons behind the shed and daddy said billy i didn't plant these so billy said your sin will find you out and so they're in prison for three days and then what he did is he says uh i'm gonna let you boys go back but i want your little brother what's his name benjamin you know benjamin is the other son born by rachel he is jacob's natural brother i want benjamin back here i want to see him you know why jacob does i'm sorry joseph does that joseph has plans that they don't know about i'm going to get all the family back here and i'm going to take care of you and this famine i have wonderful plans and they're above you all you know is that i'm a hard guy calling you to sin but if you could see what i'm going to do for you you would rejoice is god like that i have plans for you that are high and above you i want benjamin i want your family back here ultimately i'm going to want your wives i don't want your daddy i want your kids but right now i want benjamin well the next thing he does he says i'm going to send you back with the grain you think they'll bring benjamin back no way they're going to bring if you'll lie to your daddy and kill your brother you'll lie to some guy way away in another country but he said this i'm going to keep somebody simeon i'm keeping him simeon you stay right there you other 10 guys 9 10 11. no 9 guys y'all go back y'all go back that's the way god does with us he knows that if he blesses us with today's needs and that's all that we'll forget him and just consume it and so he keeps a way to make sure we have to keep coming back i'm not going to fix your problem completely because you'll forget me i'm going to keep simeon right here and so they left i'm sure a lot of them said see you simeon been nice knowing you no you all come get me so they leave you know what he does number five he puts money back in their sacks they brought money for the grain he puts money in the sacks they're not going to pay for this free gift i'll give it but you're not going to pay for it sounds familiar i'll i'll give it he puts the money in their sacks they stopped at the first snack and pack on the way they got out and went through their bags and there was the money what would they have normally said hallelujah you know what they said we're dead we forgot to pay them they put their money back in is that and you know what they said they said god has caught up with us they have what james montgomery boyce called a god intoxication they are aware everywhere they look that god is out to get us i think i've told you before the great story i didn't tell this the first service but we got no reason to go home all right so i'm gonna tell you this has a ranger season started yet has it really oh forget it let's go on no we had a guy in our church called dave remember dave and dave they witnessed to him over and over and over and he wouldn't listen to him one day he went out camping he got struck by lightning well it didn't kill him but just he couldn't hear for like a year all right he came back and they said you better listen cause he's gonna die someday he said well lightning don't strike twice guess what hit him again and it welded shut his zipper on the uh he had to crawl out of the uh sleeping bag like a larva you know because it welded his back to his smoking bag you better listen well that's just a coincidence he was in the house and they were a bunch of the guys that were witnessing to him brian day chuck these guys they were playing cards and all of a sudden their house shook what was that dave lived next door dave had a gas leak and he came home and he turned on the light and he blew him up all right and he was at the door and they said his eyebrows are smoking a little smoking they said i'm telling you you've been struck by lightning and blown up you better listen well he didn't a couple of weeks later they're sitting at the table all these guys it's over on uh like west hickory one of them streets over there and all of a sudden they just knew that an 18 wheeler would come off the street and hit their house i mean they it shook them well it's dave he thought he had fixed the gas leak he had a big old house full of gas blew him up again and this time they went over and pulled him out and this time his hair was just going up it was like a saturday night live skit and he kept saying god is in this god is in this they had him in the shower turned the cold water on him my god is in this god they're peeling skin off of him he got converted what's that got to do with this i don't know it's a great story right there yeah they're terrified they're terrified god is after us well they went home number six time passed you know what they thought we can just take time and the problem will go away the problem didn't the famine still persist that's the way we are we'll just take care of this later on like the guy said to the apostle paul i'll hear of you later again concerning this he never did the problem's not going away because the problem is not famine the problem's not the economy the problem is you and your defiant heart and it's not going away and god is the hound of heaven and he's after you he's going to get you well jacob number 7 says to his boys go back we're out of grain they said daddy we could have been back twice this time but we can't go back cause this man said to us unless i get benjamin i don't know why but he wants little brother daddy said i've already lost joseph and now you want me to send benjamin and i got doubts about you boys anyway and i don't want to send benjamin they said daddy if we don't we're going to die you got no choice it's either trust this guy that is mysterious and claims to be the very word of god or daddy we're going to die because he ain't changing amen you might argue daddy but this guy is not changing and he says you're going to trust me and you're going to trust me completely and so we can take all the time we want for the problem to go away but it's not going away and jacob says all things are against me just like barney all things are against me the fact is all things work together for good but all things are against me he's right on the cusp of the greatest blessing he has ever imagined and all he thinks is all things are against me he says go ahead and take benjamin if i die if we die we'll die and he says let me send some gifts with you so you can placate this guy because obviously you ain't got sense enough not to make sure the money stays with him you idiot boys that's what he said all right you ain't got sense enough to know how to make a transaction so take some of these gifts back maybe we can placate his anger is that the way we are maybe we can do something to placate him well they went back so that's the first visit is condemnation the second visit is grace they come back daddy sent the gifts we have to justify ourselves number nine they're greeted by joseph with grace how you boys doing hey listen we're awful sorry we don't know where that money came from i know where the money came from i put it in your sack i beg your pardon i put it in your sack yeah all my grain is free to you guys you have to do anything god and another thing simeon is safe and sound simeon came walking out with a turkey leg had his shades on had a tan and then laying out i'm good and another thing i'm going to feed y'all come on in here you're kidding yes sit down they had like a last supper they sit down the 12 of them just sit and he washes their feet y'all know somebody else that had a group meal with 12 guys and washed their feet he washed their feet and he's just a nice guy i thought this guy was the hardest guy i'd ever seen once we started coming we're seeing something about him we never saw he's a good guy you know what he did then he seated them according to their birth order and it said they stared in astonishment here sit down here reuben simeon levi judah he went right down the list down to cletus sylvester and all the brothers and they looked at each other how does he know us he knows us better than we know us do you know your family's birthdays no if you had 11 brothers would you know he knows right where they are this man knows us but then the next thing this is number 11. he can't eat with them because these guys are unclean to the egyptians so even though i love you the grace that i have for you i can't show because you're unclean so we have to eat in a separate place he feeds them he looks at benjamin and he cries because he sees his father in him he sees his mother in him he says he in him and it he gives him four times more than anybody else because benjamin's the only guy there that's innocent he didn't betray him over he wasn't even born so he sees with this guy he knows he's innocent and we're guilty he says y'all go home but before they leave and go back they got simeon they all pack up he says to his servant i want you to take the cup of divination that they would use to try to find the divine will in egypt he's going to use it for his purposes i want you to take this cup and hide it and benjamin that little bitty fella hide it in a sack really yes hide it they leave and once they leave he said all right and he calls together his special forces we'd call them seal tim six and these are it was called uh camel team four all right he says y'all go after them and y'all get that y'all tell them that they're thieves and they have stolen my cup of divination a cup of divination meaning god has told me what you did and they went out surrounded them your thieves a guy raises up named judah and he says whoever you find that cup with you can kill him they look in the sack and it's benjamins the brothers now have to face a decision do we give up the son of rachel to die or do we recognize that we are guilty and follow with him in other words he recreated the situation from 20 years earlier whenever he was sold will you guys repent or will you guys say sorry benjamin it's time to die they go home judah steps up and judah says the father's heart is bound up with this boy if this boy dies our daddy will die too and they show a love for their father and judah says kill me and let these guys go free and joseph recognizes he's finally gotten repentance they love now the father and they won't hurt him we're sorry and joseph weeps and says i am joseph you know what the bible says they said nothing the lord is in his holy temple that all the earth keep silent god shuts up all in disobedience they're guilty and i'm sure they're thinking take our heads off right here the guy we thought was dead is now king of the earth and we sent him to his death but they showed repentance you know what joseph does he says i'm joseph and then he says this come closer we're reconciled don't be afraid come closer and then he says you did this for evil god meant it for good he sent me here it wasn't you god sent me here just like peter said you crucified him with the hands of wicked men god has raised him from the dead in accordance with the predetermined plan for knowledge of god god was behind this and he used an evil thing for a good thing is that true for us that's where you crucify people for six hours let them die slow before they're judged by god as criminals that's a sign of our belief an evil thing is for a good thing joseph said come closer he said god's behind this he used this because he loves you and he intends to bless you in his kingdom and he reveals him you'd never know it by your own wisdom but i'm him this wounded king it's me i'm the one you rejected the one that could kill you i'm going to show you mercy and then it says he took each one of them and hugged him come here reuben don't don't run come back come here and he hugged him simeon come here it's okay come here levi come here come here he hugged each one of them and then he said this go home and tell everybody of my glory and bring them back here this salvation is for you and your family bring them back and show them my glory and take some of my wealth with you because nobody's going to believe it and bring them back here and there's going to be jew and gentile and one kingdom under the bread of life sound familiar go bring him back and i love the last thing he says and he says and incidentally don't fight on the way because i'm sure they were talking about who was more guilty you know simeon you were the guy oh no i didn't want to do it you don't fight on the way and bring him back isn't that a great story the point that stephen is making is you guys have never done well with sacrificial brothers you have rejected wounded kings as long as we've been a nation god did a very good thing out of what you did as a very evil thing and salvation now is shown you got to wake up what a great story what you need is a hem i'm going to show you how hymns get into your soul i'll give you the first three notes and using the rest of the hymn you ready you got to pick it up there is filled with blood drawn from emmanuel's veins and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains lose all their guilty stance lose all their guilty stains and sinners plunged me that flood lose all their guilty stains watch this second verse the dying thief rejoice to see that fountain in his day and there may i though vile as he wash all my sins away wash all sins away wash all my sins away and there may i though vile as he wash all my sins away father in heaven thank you for that fountain of cleansing through the greatest act of wickedness that man has done the renunciation of his good shepherd the renunciation of the faithful servant the renunciation of the condemned one that was faithful until death the renunciation of the one that the nation sat around and laughed at him as he died the renunciation of the bread of life and the word of god the renunciation of the one that says you meant it for evil but god meant it for good and lord if there is a man or a woman who is here this very morning that has kept cloaked what they know in their heart is sin bring them to that knowledge if there's one who has thought that maybe they can placate you or maybe in time the problem will go away or maybe they can just make the tip of the hat and enjoy your bounty and never come to that place of the admittance that i am a sinner and only the one that i renounced can grant me mercy father in heaven i pray that they might be clothed in the mini splendored robe of our joseph who takes away our sin and adds to us the righteousness of god and we'll ask it through christ our lord amen

Channel: Denton Bible Media Ministry

Views: 42,591

Keywords: Denton Bible Church, Tommy Nelson, Sermon, Song of Solomon, Church, Pastor, Denton, Bible, Denton Bible Media, Media Ministry, Acts of the Apostles, Joseph (patriarch), Stephen the Martyr

Id: MY2UlmLpaNM

Length: 52min 42sec (3162 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 06 2016