The Hauntingness of Sin
Gen. 42:21-23

1. Once upon a time, long, long ago lived a father with 12 sons. Among those twelve, was one named Joseph, who was number 11 in the lineup. The Father loved his sons but he loved Joseph more than the others. When the brothers saw that their father loved him more than
themselves, they hated Joseph and could not speak peaceable to him. To further complicate matter which intensified the hatred, Joseph had two dreams with the meaning that he would be greater than his brothers and they would bow down to him. This enraged them. By and by the brothers were out keeping the sheep in a distance from home and Jacob sent Joseph to see how they were. When the brothers saw Joseph in the distance, they conspired to slay him. However, Reuben, the oldest said, "Let us not slay him but cast him in a pit." When Joseph arrived they pounced on him, stripped him of his clothing and cast him into a pit. Soon a caravan came by and after negotiations, instead of killing Joseph, they sold him into slavery in Egypt. The
sequence to the story of Joseph is that God was with him in Egypt. He rose high in the government.

2. The rest of the story of the brothers is something different. They had succeeded in committing what might be the perfect crime. Their great sin was covered with a lie to their father, "This is your son's coat. We have found it." The father was grief stricken. This was one
sin of hate lead to a chain reactions of sins. Hate brought forth contemplated murder. The merciful idea of one brother to lessen the crime, led to the selling of their brother into slavery. Then to cover up, they lied to their father and deceived him with the coat dipped in blood. This brought grief upon the father. He grieved for his lost son for over 20 years.

3. A famine came upon the land and some of the brothers were sent to Egypt to seek food. In Egypt they encounter Joseph, but did not know who he was. Joseph recognized him and put them in prison for three days to get information from them. During this three day period they
began to connect up their imprisonment with the crime of 20 years ago.

4. Their conversation about the sin of the past reveals some attitudes that are common to all of us when we sin against God. Sin does bring about changes in our personalities. A person cannot sin and still remain the same type of person. A child cannot continually rebel against the authority of the parents and remain a sweet, dispositioned child. Likewise, the brothers of Joseph took a turn in attitude. Sin held sway in them and ruled them.

Sin brings changed attitudes:

I. They acquired a justifying attitude V. 22

1. When the event first occurred, Reuben was the only one who did not wholeheartedly approve of the murder of Joseph. He projected the scheme of putting him in the pit with the anticipation that he would return and restore the boy to his father. This was commendable but
when he discovered that Joseph had been sold into slavery and was yet alive he did not break the news to his father and correct the story with the possibility that his father could have bought him back. Instead, he was silent. He did not seek to restore the boy. Then in the incident in prison where the past was being rehearsed, their consciences becoming alive to their deeds, Reuben immediately began to justify himself by saying, "Did I not tell you not to sin against the lad? But you would not listen." All the others were guilty in Reuben's mind, but he did not remember his part in going
along with the sin. Reuben did not play the hero and reveal the plot to his father. He did not bravely announce to them at the time, that he was going to tell his father in spite of them. There would have been a chance of buying Joseph back. No! Reuben was silent. Now twenty years later he justifies himself in his sin, "Did I not tell you?"

2. Like Reuben, we often attempt to justify or rationalize our sins to ourselves and to others. We have many mind games we play in these situations.

A. There are no sins. In this post-modem age people have adopted a relativistic attitude in claiming it is only sin if you think it is sin. What may be sin for you, is not sin for me. Sin is only a state of your mind, incorrect thinking, and the solution is to change your thought patterns. This overlooks the fact that sin is against a holy God who is ethical in his nature. God says, there are certain things that are wrong and breaking his commandments is sin.

B. I was born this way. This is an attitude claimed primarily by the homosexual community. However, it is breaking out of that community and being used by others to describe people's actions. I recently read where a man who was a child-molester was accepted on the basis of his being born that way. If you buy this idea, you can justify lots of actions. People can say I was born mean, I was born a thief, I was born an adulterer, I was born with an aggressive nature to hurt people, and so on. Such an attitude rules out responsibility for one's actions. It also excludes the possibility of God's transformation of people who seek him. Consider the words of Scripture, Don't you know that evil people won't have a share in the blessings of God's kingdom? Don't fool yourselves! No one who is immoral or worships idols or is unfaithful in marriage or is a pervert or behaves like a homosexual will share in God's kingdom. Neither will any thief or greedy person or drunkard or anyone who curses and cheats others. Some of you used to be like that. But now the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and the power of God's Spirit have washed you and made you holy and acceptable to God. (1CO 6:11)

C. We minimize our sins by categories. We put murder, adultery, fornication and blasphemy in a category and claim that we don't do that. Then we make other categories of sins like lying, stealing, cursing, drinking, and worldly amusements. We may be critical of people who do these things. But we may break the Lord's day, gossip, envy, possess evil thoughts, break our word, let our tempers flare, worry, and minimize our own sins and regard them as minor or insignificant. But sin is sin no matter how little, how white or grey or smooty black we think. In the eyes of God, sin is sin. There is no lame excuse that can side step God's judgement about sin being sin.

D. We attempt to justify ourselves but blaming others. Reuben did this. "Did I not tell you not to sin against the lad? He pointed his finger at them. The first man, Adam, did this and began the whole history of trying to blame someone else for his sin. There is a joke about Adam out walking with his two sons one day. As they passed the Garden of Eden, one of the boys asked, "What is that place over there?" Adam responded, "Son, that's where your mother ate us out of house and home." Think of what happened at the time. Adam said to the Lord, "And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. (Gen.3:12) He put the blame on her, she put the blame on the serpent, and the serpent had no one to blame. It doesn't take long for a young person to learn to put blame on others.

3. But as long as we justify ourselves in our sins, we blind our eyes to the apparent sinfulness of our deeds. The answer lies not in excusing ourselves, but in coming before God as the prophet Isaiah did and confessing, "Lord, Woe is me, for I am lost. For I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. When Isaiah admitted his own sins, rather than excusing himself, he found the solution for them. His guilt was taken away, his sin was forgiven.

11.They acquired a guilty attitude v.21

1. There was a haunting memory in the minds of these men. It is seen in their conversation. "In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he besought us and we would not listen. Therefore, is this distress come upon us.
There are probably many haunting nightmares in which the face of this frightened brother came to their minds. They could hear his pleas over and over again. Their imaginations could picture the thoughts of horror when they imagined him being a slave in a foreign country and so young. You can imagine the days of caring for the sheep and taking a siesta in the heat of the
afternoon when the heat waves rise up from the earth and as they drift off into a doze they see the face of the boy of the past calling to them, "Don't do this to me." For twenty years they lived with this guilty attitude. For 20 years of nights they slept with their troubled conscience. For 20 years they maintained silence about this sin. For 20 years they allowed their father to grieve over his loss and they did nothing about it.

2. Hard work takes its effect on the human body. We must also remember what guilt will do to us. Severe mental guilt affects us in relation to ourselves as well as relations to others. Out in the east, Glenn Leonard, a bulldozer operation, while driving to his home in the country decided to test the acceleration of his new car. Passing the road to his farm, Leonard made a sharp U-turn at the next road, sped back and turned into the farm road, satisfied with the test. Meanwhile, the rapid U-turn and burst of speed was observed by the driver of a station wagon, who apparently mistook the light blue car for an unmarked police car. He turned into the road to Leonard's farm, who was merely interested in getting home. The alarmed driver continued at high speed to the dead end of the road, abandoned the station wagon, and fled. The car was filled with stolen goods.
There is a proverb, 28: 1, "The wicked flee when no man pursues." So it was in prison with these brothers. So it is with us when we have a sense of guilt.

3. I remember an experience in college when I was taking a test in my first year. I had prepared and knew my stuff; but there was a fellow sitting in front of me whose paper was not covered up. I was resting my eyes, and they happened to rest on his paper. There was one question I wasn't sure about but I happened to see that one of his answers was different than mine. I thought about it and change my answer. I received a grade of 90 as opposed to 85. So it occurred to me that I had half-willing cheated. I was not used to cheating and it bothered me. Every time the professor looked at me I could imagine him reading my mind and bringing accusation in his eyes. It continued to bother me but I tried to shrug it off as unimportant. Finally,
I gave in and went to see him. I confessed what I had done. I was given these helpful words, "Dallas, it take a man to put thing straight." I agreed with him. My confession cleared me of guilt and set me straight. I walked out of his office relieved and feeling clean.
This is the only way to treat sin. Guilt will eat away at the soul and always arise on one form or another to torment you. The words of the New Testament, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us ITom all unrighteouness. "(I John 1:9)

Ill. They acquired an attitude of judgement 21-22

1. There is a sense in which we all want justice to take place in other people, but not particularly ourselves. There is a story of a 13 year boy sent into the jewelry store to pick up a repaired watch while his father was double-parked. The boy waited impatiently while the clerks waited on all the adult customers. Finally, the younger was served. Upon going back to the car his father asked, "what took you so long in there?" The boy answered, "The clerks waited on all
the adults before they helped me, but I got even." How? Was the question. "While I was waiting I wound up all every alarm clock I could find, and it is going to be a mighty noisy place at 4:30." There is a sense in which we appreciate the story because we want justice to prevail.

2. The men in prison understood the words of Reuben, "Did I not tell you not to sin against they lad? But you would not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood." They sensed that their imprisonment was the natural outcome of their sin. It is unwise to judge every mishap in your life as an outcome of sin for that would not be true. The book of Job is a powerful example that calamity is not the direct result of sin. However, there is a relationship between some sins and the consequences that follow. A person cannot use drugs without serious consequences. I had a high school friend who died of an over dose of heroin. I know a lady who has been in and out of jail for drinking and driving. A person who sins against a spouse will find that the marriage is in trouble and may not survive. A person who is always angry with others at work will find that the whole workplace is ruined by such emotions.

3. From the standpoint of the Bible sin has a relationship to God and his judgement. The first chapter of Romans talks about the knowledge that people had about God but rejected and chose to live in rebellion against Him. Three times it says that God gave them up to go their own way which led to destruction and separation from God. It is a terrible thing to have my destiny in my own hands. It is a terrible thing to be left alone by God. The greatest Person in the Universe has come in the person of Jesus to declare God's love and desire to deliver us from the sense of judgement and guilt. The Cross of Jesus stands as God's declaration that forgiveness is possible and transformation is the goal of Christ's love for us.

4. What a strain it must have been to live with the feeling of being judged for the blood of their brother. Even years later, after Jacob had come to Egypt and Joseph had made himself known to the brothers, there was the fear of revenge by Joseph. They sent a message to Joseph saying, "Your father gave this command before he died, "say to Joseph, forgive I pray you, the transgressions of your brothers and their sin because they did evil to you. And now we pay you, forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father." (S)

5. We do not have to live with a sense of judgement. There may be things in your life that you have done and you worry about God's judgement. Let me encourage you to take the words of Scripture seriously, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9) When Jesus gathered his disciples around Him at the Last supper, he declared that in his death, there is forgiveness of sins, and the
New Covenant established in his life give us the gift of God's Holy Spirit to help us to live in joy and faithfulness.

Concl.:
1. We need to ask ourselves some questions. Has culture so dominated our lives that we have no sense of sin anymore? Relativism, the idea that there is no truth, no good, no standard
will not work in society. It won't work with your bankbook? You want truth and honesty and integrity. When we think about other people offending us, we begin to think that there are defmitely some things that are right and wrong in the world.

2. Have we been burdened by guilt so that a sense of judgement clouds our way of looking at others, at life, and at God? 3. Have you thought of being a Christian as a list of rules not to be broken, rather than have a relationship with Jesus. Religion is boring, but a relationship with Jesus is exciting, joyful, and lasting .
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