All right, go back to the book
of Genesis with me. Go back to chapter 37. Genesis
37. Half the book of Genesis, beginning
with chapter 25, all the way to the end, is concerning Jacob
and his sons. And that's by design. God says,
I'm the God of Jacob. Therefore, you sons of Jacob,
I am the Lord, I change not. You sons of Jacob shall not be
consumed. Half the Bible, Genesis that
is, and the rest of the Bible speaks of the sons of Jacob who
named Israel. It's all about God's people,
okay? All right, Jacob's son, Jacob
and his sons were saved by one son. They would not be alive if it
was not for Joseph. Half the story of the sons of
Jacob is concerning Joseph. And we read there in chapter
45, this sums up the whole story. God sent me before you. to preserve
you in posterity in the earth, to save your lives by great deliverance. And that is why Jesus Christ
came into this world, to save the sorry sons of Jacob. And as I've said so many times
in these types, I don't want it just to be an interesting
type and us to be amazed by the type, but I want us to be amazed
with the thought that He did this for me. Chapter 37 begins, Jacob dwelt
in the land wherein his father was a stranger in the land. Then
all of a sudden Joseph is spoken of. Look at verse 2, these are
the generations of Jacob. This is the story of Jacob. Joseph. This is the story of Jacob. Generations
of Jacob. Generation means life. It's Jacob's
life. And he begins, Joseph. Jacob's
life depended on Joseph. You hear that? You know, Matthew
1 begins the generation of Jesus Christ. And it talks about Abraham,
all the way down through there. All those people were saved with
a great deliverance by the beloved Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 2 says that Joseph was
feeding, he was 17 years old when he first appeared. Our Lord,
this is all so significant. Such a type of Christ. Our Lord
appeared at 12 years old. 12 years old. Remember his mother was distraught,
his parents, they were distraught because he wasn't with them.
What was he doing? He was in the temple. And they
asked him, why have you done this? He said, wished you not?
Don't you know that I must be about my father's business? And
this is Joseph. He was feeding the flock with
his brethren when he was just a boy. What's he doing? Taking
care of the flock. Story of David. Christ is called
the son of David. David, you know, all the sons
of Sarai, sons of Jesse, they were no good. They all hated
David too. Like Joseph's brother. And Samuel
came in. God said, I've appointed a king
among Jesse's sons. And Samuel came in and says,
is this all of them? And Jesse said, no. There's one. Where is he? He's feeding the
flock. Oh, he's a shepherd, is he? He's
the youngest, is he? Oh, the elder's going to serve
the younger. Bring him in. I love what Samuel said, we're
not going to sit down until you bring him here. And when they
brought him in, they said, this is he. This is the one. You know
what Joseph found though in his brethren? Look at verse 2 of
chapter 37. At the end of that it says he
brought unto his father their evil report. His brethren. They're no good,
aren't they? Evil report. They hated him.
Verse 3, Israel loved Joseph more than all his brethren, because
he was a son of his old age, made him a coat of many color.
And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than
all his brethren, they hated him. Why? Why? Why would they hate an altogether
lovely son? Because they were not like him.
They were altogether evil. Isn't this a picture of Christ? He was in the world. The world
was made by him. The world knew him not. He came
on his own. His own received him not. Worse,
they hated him. Our Lord said that. He said,
they hated me. Without a cause. Why? He said in one place, John
3 I believe it is, he said, John 15, he said, if I had not
come that had no sin, I've exposed their sinfulness. And that's
a good thing, isn't it? That's a good thing. Christ came
into the world to save sinners. The world. And so the father
loved Joseph more than all his brethren. Is that okay? It's
humanly speaking it's not. But you know, we are human. If
you have a son or a daughter who's obedient and loving and
just, you know, just been a joy to you, you're going to love
that child. And you have a son or a daughter
that's rebellious and wayward and causes you nothing but grief,
you still love them, but you can't help but love the one
that's a joy to you. Well, here's the difference. God committed His love toward
us while we were yet sinners. But Christ, in Him, is no sin.
He was with the Father in the beginning. He was the only Son
before the foundation of the world. He was with Him. Daily
His delight, the Scripture said. All together loving. When He
came, Christ came, the Father hadn't spoken. In fact, He never
spoke to you. Everyone out loud. Ever. I always
spoke to the fathers by the prophets. But when Christ walked this earth,
God spoke out loud. This is my beloved Son whom I'm
well pleased. He's altogether loving. And here's
the unbelievable thing, is when we saw Him, no beauty that we
should desire. Now all those years that you
and I were not interested in God and Jesus Christ, we'd heard
the story, we're not interested. It's despising. All we like sheep
have gone astray. Yet the Lord laid on Him the
iniquity of all His people. God so loved the world, a bunch
of worthless sons of Adam. And He gave His only begotten
Son, whom He loved. If we were going to have two
services, the first one was going to be on Abraham and Isaac, the
beloved son sacrificed. And God kept saying, Take thy
son, thine only son, whom thou lovest. And then when it was
over, He said, Since thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only
son, whom thou lovest. I'm going to bless you. Oh my. God's beloved son. 1 Corinthians
16 says, If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him
be accursed. And that's exactly what's going
to happen. You know that? That's exactly what God's going
to do to the planet full of people. But God. Why? Do we love Christ? Why do we
care? Why are you here this morning,
God? This whole story is the sons
of Jacob, sorry sons of Jacob, they started out hating Joseph. Boy, when it's all over, they're
not going to believe that he had mercy on them. If we get
to it. Chapter 37, verse 7, Joseph had
a dream and he said, let me just, I have a hundred verses of Scripture. Let me just sum it all up, okay? Joseph had this dream and he
said, all of you are going to bow down to me, to his brethren. That made him madder. He told it to the father. What
is this dream? His father says, observe this
thing. You know, Christ, the scriptures prophesize of Christ
that says, I've sworn, God said, I've sworn, chapter 45 of Isaiah,
that unto me every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess.
And Philippians 2 said, every knee should bow. Every tongue
should confess. The fact of the matter is, every
knee will bow. And bless God if you and I right
now bow the knee and confess with the tongue and confess Him
before men. God must love us. Our Lord stood before the Pharisees
and the scribes and He said, Hereafter you're going to see
the Son of Man come in and go. You're going to see the angels
of God ascending and descending upon Him, Nathan. This is the whole of scripture,
and I believe our scripture verse for tomorrow morning is going
to be Psalm 2, which says, Serve the Lord with fear, rejoice with
trembling, kiss the sun. Lest ye be angry, he be angry,
and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little.
And it ends by saying, Blessed are all they that put their trust
in him. Oh, how blessed. Like those disciples. Those disciples
were just like the sons of Jacob, Joseph's brethren. They had no interest in Jesus
Christ, but God sent Christ to find them, to seek and to save
them, to find everyone, to call them by His grace and reveal
Himself to them. He revealed Christ, revealed
Himself to every one of those sorry fellows, like Matthew,
the publican. Simon Peter, whose life was fishing,
he didn't care about God, he liked his boats. But God. sent Christ to find the likes
of them. And he said later on, he said,
you didn't choose me, I chose you. He said, oh, blessed are
your eyes, they see. Blessed are your ears, they hear.
Flesh and blood didn't reveal this unto you, but my Father
which is in heaven. You love me because God sent
me to save you. And then he went on to say, God
loves you because you love me. The son was sent to his brethren
in verse 13 and 14, chapter 37. Look at it. Israel said unto
Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? And every
word is significant. Shechem, the word means shoulder. Shoulder. He said, I'm going
to send you to them. And Joseph said, Here am I. Send
me. I'm going to send you to them.
And he went down to see about his brethren in Shechem. The
word means shoulder. In other words, the Father put
everything on the shoulders of His Son. Go to your brethren,
be sorry sons of mine. Jacob knew what they were. And he heard these before. But
he sent his son anyway, didn't he? Joseph, his well-beloved
son. I didn't touch on that coat,
did I? That coat, verse 2, of many colors. A distinguishing
coat, multi-faceted coat, pieces that made up this covering that
Joseph was arrayed in, this vesture that Job the father arrayed his
beloved son in, that nobody else had one like it. It distinguished
him from all the other brethren. What's that? Everybody in this
room could tell me what that is. That's the righteousness
of Christ. That's the beauty, the glory
of Christ. Isaiah 63 says, and the brethren took that coat in
this story. The brethren, when they hated
Him, they stripped Him of that and they dipped it in the blood
of a kid, a goat. And later on they brought it
to the Father. Are you with me? Oh my, what a story this is.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, He was sold, Joseph was sold for 20
pieces of silver. Why? Because our Lord's worth
more. 30. They sold Him. They stripped
Him. Though He was sent for their welfare, for their good, because
He loved them, they didn't love Him. No, He loved them. The Father loved them and sent
the Son to see about them. And they sold him, they stripped
him, they slew him. It seemed like they slew him. It sure appeared that he was
dead. But he wasn't, was he? He was alive. And that's our
Lord whom God sent for these sorry sons of Jacob. Well, they sold him into Egypt.
Look at verse, are you with me? Stay with me, this is wonderful.
Verse 28 of chapter 37. They sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites
for 20 pieces of silver and they brought Joseph into Egypt. Why? Because old Hosea 11.1 says,
I've called my son out of Egypt, Mary and Joseph. Mary and Joseph were told by
God to take that child, Jesus, and go to Egypt. And they fled. Why? Because he said, I've called
my son out of Egypt. Which son? Well, Jacob. Jacob's
going to be called out of Egypt. Jacob's going to be saved out
of Egypt. He's going to live there. And in the land of Goshen,
though, the finery of the lamb. And yet God is going to come
down and exodus, that's the next message, come down to deliver
them out of Egypt. They're captives to Egypt. And
he did this by the son, Joseph, the prophet. What son has come
out of Egypt? Jesus Christ. That's why that's
written, Hosea 11. So Joseph was sold into Egypt. And chapter 39, now go over there,
chapter 39. I want to get to chapter 45.
And I really don't want to. I'm having too many. But we've looked at this before,
but I have too. It's just marvelous, people.
It's just marvelous. Because it speaks of our marvelous
Lord. Marvelous grace of our loving
Lord. Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt. Chapter 39,
the Son is in Egypt. He's brought down. Verse 1, Joseph
was brought down to Egypt when Jesus Christ came to this place. Oh, condescension. Great condescension. In Psalm 22, the psalm of the
cross, that's where Christ said, I am a worm. I'm a worm. For him to come down here, made
a little lower than the angels. He whom angels worship, Isaiah
8, says he's made a little lower than the angels. Why? For the
suffering of death, even the death of the cross. Now we see
him like the sons of Joseph. They're going to see him crowned
with glory and honor because he did this. God gave him a name
above everything like Pharaoh did to Joseph. Well, he's in
Egypt. What's he doing? Verse 2, the
Lord was with Joseph. He was a prosperous man. He was
a prosperous man. Verse 3, the master saw the Lord
was with him. The Lord made all that he did
to prosper in Joseph's hand. Whoever knew Joseph prospered. Verse 5, It came to pass from
that time that he made him overseer in his house over all that he
had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptians' house for Joseph's
sake. And the blessing of the Lord
was upon all that he had in the house for Joseph's sake. Do you
know why you're blessed? For Christ's sake. One hundred
percent for Christ's sake. And you know, Egypt, all the
land of Egypt, experienced mercy and grace because Joseph was
there. You know why this world still
exists? Because Jesus Christ has a people down here. And the rain falls on the unjust
as well as the just. And God does tender mercies over
all His work. Why? For Christ's sake. Because He has a people, an elect.
Sorry, sons of Jacob, though they be. sent Christ to save his people,
and the gospel's still going out, and there's still some of
these sorry people going to be saved. And I'm glad. Might be
someone we know and love well, God has mercy on. Evidently. He still has some of that, because
this world's still turning. It's all for Christ's sake. All
for Christ's sake. Scripture says in prophecy of
our Lord in Isaiah 42, he said, My son, he shall not be discouraged. He shall not fail or be discouraged.
Isaiah 53 says, The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand. Joseph was a prosperous man.
And everybody that was in and around Joseph prospered for Joseph's
sake because God sent Joseph and everybody knew Joseph prospered. And, you know, our greatest,
our prosperity is not, you know, we all have all the food we can
eat and the clothing and have shelter and so forth and so on,
but our greatest The thing that he has provided for us more than
anything is his mercy and his grace and his loving kindness,
his gospel. And if we didn't have anything,
we'd be most blessed of all people. The unsearchable riches of Christ
that God has given us. All blessed are the poor in spirit.
They're God's people. Well, he's falsely accused. You
know the story of Potiphar's wife. Chapter 39, verse 20. Go down there. Chapter 39, verse
20. He was falsely accused. You know,
Joseph, this woman, was evil. And Joseph was a man of integrity
and honesty. You know, the Scriptures, God
does not give us one fault of Joseph. You cannot find one thing
wrong with Joseph in the whole story of Joseph. Not one. There's not one fault in Joseph
that you can find. I challenge you to do that. You
can't do it. It's like Daniel. You can't find one fault in him.
Now you know Joseph's a sinner. He's Jacob's son. He's born a
sinner and sinned to his mother conceived him. Daniel, he's a
sinner. Everyone born of Adam is a sinner.
But Joseph found grace in the eyes of the Lord. But God did
not see fit to name one single fault in Joseph because he's
such a type of Christ. It seems like Joseph is just
altogether lovely and a fine man. Why? Because he represents
someone who he is. He represents someone in whom
there is no sin, no fault, No blame. One of integrity. Who is this? Why did Jesus Christ
come? He's the second Adam from above. He's our righteous representative.
He's the holy one of who? The holy one of who? Israel! He made of the seed of David? Abraham? Son of Jacob? Well, son of God. But he took
upon this likeness of sinful flesh, yet without sin, because
he's the covenant head. This is the son in whom there
is no sin. And every temptation that he
faced, like Joseph. Joseph was faced with this temptation.
A real man tempted in all points like as we are. Joseph faced
this temptation and he said, I cannot do this to my master. I will not do this. And our Lord faced Satan as a
man with real flesh and blood and bones. And he said, I will
not sin. I cannot sin. What a picture. Yeah. And he refused her advances. Well, she made false accusations
against him, didn't she? She lied on him. What happened? He was thrown in prison. Oh, he was thrown in prison.
Where is this? Let me find this. Go quickly to Isaiah 26. Isaiah
26. You don't have any place to go.
The snow is getting deeper. Isaiah 26. This is wonderful. But he was thrown in prison.
You know that? Joseph was thrown in prison. You know that. And
it says, while he was in prison, The prisoners prospered. Wherever Joseph went, everybody
prospered because he was such a good man, such a fine man.
Look at Isaiah 26. Our Lord was taken and put in
prison, wasn't it? That's what Isaiah 53 said. Isaiah
26 verse 12 says, Lord, thou wilt ordain. This is not it.
That's not what I was looking for. Let's see. Let's see if
I can find it. Oh, Isaiah 42. I'm sorry. Isaiah
42. Look over there. This is one.
Yeah, Isaiah 42. Talks about the servant in Egypt,
prospering. Isaiah 42. There it is. Look
at this. Isaiah 42, verse 6, I have called
thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, will keep thee,
give thee for a covenant of the people, for the light of the
Gentile, to do what? To open blind eyes, to bring
out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness
out of the prison house. I am the Lord, that is my name.
He said, I'm going to send him and put him in prison to bring
some prisoners in. Now, you know the story? Do you
know the story in chapter 40 how that there were two men in
prison, a butler and a baker? You know that story? We could stay right there for
a while. But both those men had a dream. Now, Baker brought things
to Pharaoh that he made. This is a whole other story.
The things that he made. And Joseph prophesied while he
was in prison. He said, you're going to take
your head off. But then the butler now was the
one that brought one thing to the king on the throne. He brought
one thing. This is what the butler did all
his day. He brought a cup to him. It was red with wine. Where did he get that wine? Well,
God made it. He didn't make that wine. Somebody delivered it for
him. And Joseph, while he was in prison, said, the king is
going to restore you back to your place and you're going to
bring to him this cup again with this red wine in it. And he said,
when you do, remember me. You know why we take that table. So many people go through the
motions, and God doesn't accept it, but He does in Christ's name. For all those who come in remembrance
of Him who brought us out of prison, who reconciled us to
the Father, who should have cut off our head. You see, that butler
was restored back to favor with peace with Pharaoh because he
brought this cup and Joseph said, now I did this, you remember
me. He reconciled him to the king. Oh my, what a story. Well, he's the one who reveals
secrets. He's the one who revealed to
the butler and the baker their future. He's the one, Joseph
was the one who decided, as it were, their future. It was in
his hands. One, he said, he's going to restore
you and you remember me. And then Pharaoh in chapter 41. Chapter 41, look at this. We're
getting there. We're getting to chapter 45.
Pharaoh had a dream. You know, the seven years of
plenty and the seven years of famine, okay? Pharaoh had a dream. And no one, no one could reveal
the dream, the secret, the mystery of Pharaoh. the mind, the heart,
what went through the mind, the heart, and what all of this,
the purpose of all this, was in the King, the Sovereign on
the throne. No man could reveal these mysteries except what? Joseph. You know, Christ is the
Revealer. He said, No man knoweth the Father
but the Son. He to whom the Son will reveal
it. Listen to this. Oh, you know these Scriptures,
don't you? It says, Paul said, I'm a minister of the gospel
which God has given to me, to you, to fulfill the Word of God,
the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations,
but is now made manifest to the saints, to whom God would make
known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the
Gentiles in Egypt, which is, here it is, Christ in you. The hope of glory. Those sorry
sons of Jacob, they didn't have a clue. They didn't have a clue.
They're eating and drinking and having a big old time and sinning
against God. They don't care about God. What's
happening? Joseph. They live because of Joseph.
And then when they came down to Egypt, you know, and they
got all this from Joseph and they went back and just back
and forth and back and forth, they're going to finally realize
someday that they owe their life, that their life all this time
was in the hands of their brother. And it wasn't because they loved
him, because he loved them. Because he's not like them. Oh, thank God if we realize something
of that, just something of that. You know, we're no better now
than when the David God called us. You know that? And we're
good Christians now. No, we're sorry sons of Jacob.
No better. If anything, we're worse because
of the sins against such love and such mercy and such grace
because we go times without giving God's blessed son a thought. But God, that's why, aren't you
glad that our salvation is in the hand of one so wonderful? When Pharaoh said, look at this,
down in verse 38, Pharaoh said this, when Joseph revealed all the
mind of Pharaoh and what they should do and all of that is
taking and storing things and food for seven years of famine
and all that. And Pharaoh said this. This was
not so much a question as for everyone to consider. Look at
verse 38. Pharaoh said, Can we find such
a one as this, a man in whom the Spirit of God is? Can we
find such a one who is going to get us all through this famine? The whole world is going to perish
unless we can find one in whom the Spirit of God is and great
wisdom is. Is there such a one? Pharaoh
knew this. And Pharaoh said, Joseph, he
turned to Joseph, for as much as God has showed thee all this,
there's none so discreet and wise as thou art. Now, Pharaoh
said, I'm putting you over it all. Put it all in your hands. And
brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ is not just wise, he is wisdom
for some. He's the wisdom of God, the power
of God. He's the salvation of God. God
hath put all things in his hand. You know why the scripture says
Christ is all and in all? That's because he is. Because
God hath made this same Jesus whom men have crucified, Lord
and King over all. This is why the Scripture says,
Kiss the Son. Serve the Lord with fear. Rejoice
with trinity. He put all things into His hands.
And Joseph and Pharaoh made that wonderful decree. He said, If
you need anything, if anybody anywhere needs anything, you're
going to have to go to Joseph, because I put it all in His hands. And God had put all things in
the hands of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Exalted, seated
on the right hand of the majesty on high. Now look at chapter
42. Well, from chapter 42 to the
end, it talks about these sons of Jacob, all right? The brethren
of Joseph. And they didn't know him, and
there's so many places I wanted to show you, and you've seen
them before. They didn't know him, but he knew them. And a
couple of times he was speaking to them through an interpreter,
wasn't he? And they didn't realize he could
understand them. Well, Joseph did all that he
did in the lives of his brethren. They came to Egypt to get corn,
and he accused them of being spies. Remember, they're worse
than that. At first they denied it, didn't
they, Kelly? At first the brethren said, no,
we're not spies, we're true men. Oh, really now? Joseph heard
that. True men? They're going to have to realize.
Joseph's going to make all of his brethren realize. All that
he say, he's going to make them realize. You're not true men
at all. You're guilty, undeserving, unworthy. I love this in what
Jacob said. He said, I'm not worthy of the
least of all thy mercies and all the truth that you've shown
me. You know, God keeps telling His people the truth. About what? About us. If he doesn't, if he
doesn't show us that, we won't need Christ. We wouldn't come
here. We wouldn't sit here. We wouldn't
hear this same old gospel over and over again about Christ the
Savior and Savior. We wouldn't need it. But God. It's the great mercy of God.
It's the leadership of the Spirit of God. If any man be not led
of the Spirit, he is none of his. And what the Spirit does
all the time, all the days of our lives, is convince us of
sin, righteousness, and judgment. Where is all that? It's in Jesus
Christ. Oh, how blessed we are. And these sorry sons, no, we're
true men. We haven't done anything wrong.
Oh, really? And then when it's all over,
now here's what they finally... And he brought them into dire
straits. And down in verse 21 of chapter
42, look at that, chapter 42, verse 21. And interesting, that's
Isaiah 42. The servant bringing these prisoners
out. And they were being held captive
by him, Joseph. And they finally concluded. Here's
what they're, all of them, every one of them confessed. Look at,
you look at it, verse 21. We're guilty. Concerning our
brother, who? Joseph. They all conclude, we
know why this is happening to us now. Because we didn't care
anything about Joseph. We killed Joseph. We sold Joseph. We hated our altogether loveless
brother. We hated him. Isn't that what Peter preached
at Pentecost? You with wicked hands have taken and crucified
the Lord of glory, but you did what God determined before to
be done. Now he said, let all the house of what? Who? Israel. Understand. Let all the house
of Israel know and understand, Peter preached, that God hath
made this same Jesus whom you crucified, Lord and Christ. End of sermon. He didn't ask those sorry sons
of Jacob, would they accept Him? They're all wondering. You know
what they're all wondering? When this is over, you know what
they're all wondering? Is He going to accept us? What's He
going to do with us? In the last chapter, chapter
50, Jacob died and all the sons of Jacob thought, Joseph's going
to kill us now. He's going to kill us now. No, like Manoah's wife would
say to Manoah, no, he wouldn't have showed you all this. He
wouldn't have told you all this. He wouldn't have brought you
here in the land of Goshen to do what all he did for you, to
cut you off. Now, they came to him and Brother
John, he's got in no wise, cast him out. I'm ahead of myself. Go to chapter
45. Look at it with me. When I read this again this morning,
I thought, I'll just go there and just preach that chapter.
Because it's so wonderful. They didn't know Joseph, but
he knew them. They didn't understand Joseph, but he understood them.
They hated Joseph, but he loved them. They sold Joseph, but he
would never sell them. They forsook Him, but He would
never forsake them. And then when He finally made
them guilty, when they finally found out what they'd done to
their altogether beloved son, the Father's favorite, to a man,
they confessed their deeds. And they still didn't know who
this was on the throne. And chapter 45 says Joseph could
not refrain himself. Brother, isn't that like Hosea?
Isn't that like Ephraim? You know what God said of Ephraim?
You read Hosea. Just start reading the book.
There's no more beautiful story at all about it. It starts out
by God saying, Ephraim's joined his idols. Leave him alone. Leave him alone. And he goes
and he's just like Gomer. And then in the end, it says
in Hosea, God says, How can I give you up, Ephraim?
I can't. No. I'm not going to do it. I'm
going to have mercy on you. And when it's all over, Ephraim
says, why, what was wrong with slapping his thighs? Oh, why
did I treat my Lord like that? And all these sons, and it says
Joseph could not refrain himself anymore. You know, very soon,
the Lord's not going to refrain himself. Very soon, the heavens
are going to split wide open. As if God says, I've got to have
them now. I've got to have my sons. And it's so significant, verse
1 says, there stood no man with him while Joseph made himself
known unto his brethren. No, flesh and blood is not going
to reveal him to you, but the Father. And he wept out loud,
and the whole house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said unto his
brethren, I am Joseph. They were so troubled at his
presence. Verse 4, Joseph said unto his brethren, come near. Come near to me. They were scared. Isn't the fear of the Lord the
beginning of wisdom? When you all, everyone in this
room who first heard and believed the gospel, when you heard who
God is and what you are, a sorry son of Jacob, that God has made
Christ Lord and you didn't know if you belonged to Him or not.
But you bowed to God's sovereignty. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. I remember believing the truth, but not knowing. I
don't know if He did this for me. I remember loving what I
heard, but I still didn't know, wasn't sure that He did this
for me. Why would He? And one day, He told me, He said,
Come here. Come into me. He said, I'm your
brother. I'm your brother. I'm Joseph,
whom you sold, but I'm your brother. Listen to this. Hebrews 2. This is, say Hosea is the greatest. No, Hebrews is. Listen to this. It says, we see Jesus made a
little lower than the angels for the suffering of death. crowned
with glory and honor, they finally saw Joseph alive, crowned with
glory. Why? He was made a little lower
by the grace of God that he should taste death for every one of
his sons. It became him, so becoming of
him, whom are all things, and by whom are all things, and bringing
many sons unto glory. and make the captain of their
salvation perfect through suffering. For both, listen, he that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are all of one. Like Pharaoh said,
are these your brothers? Are these your family? The Gypsies
didn't have anything for these Canaanites. But Pharaoh said
to Joseph, Are these your brethren? Joseph said, Yes, they are my
brethren. He wasn't ashamed to call them
brethren. Those are my brothers. He said, Bring them on here.
Bring them all on in here. You see that man down there,
Goshen? That's the best there is. You
give them that land. That's He who sanctified, they
who are sanctified are all of one. Who? Christ. For which cause
He's not ashamed to call them brethren. Here's what He said,
I'll declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the
church when I sing praise unto thee. And again, I'll put my
trust in Him. And again, He said, behold, I
and the children that thou, God, hath given. And Pharaoh received
them all, all those brothers of Jacob, all those sons of Jacob,
into his land. The Egyptians didn't have anything
to do, but because of Joseph. Chapter 45. One more. Let me
just show you a few more things. Ten more things. Look at chapter
45. It says, verse 7, here it is. God sent me before you. Joseph
says to them, God sent me before you to preserve a posterity in
the earth and save your life. For this cause Christ came into
the world. God sent him into the world.
This is eternal life, to know thee the only true God and Jesus
Christ whom thou hast sent. He didn't call for it. When he
came, men didn't want him. And we didn't want him. We despised
him, rejected him. But God sent him to save the
likes of us and make himself known to us and make ourselves
known to us and to show us that Christ is our great deliverer.
And verse 8 says, Now it was not you that sent me hither,
but it was God. And he hath made me a father
to Pharaoh. A father to Pharaoh? Hold on now, I'm confused. Oh
no, no, that's written like it's written. That son of God is the
father. Yeah, that's it. That child that's
born is the Son that's given. But call His name the Mighty
God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of His government,
there's no end. God hath made me, verse 9, it
says, Joseph said, God hath made me Lord of all Egypt. They said,
now come, come, tarry with me. He said, you're going to dwell
with me in the land of Goshen. You're going to be near unto
me. He said, there's yet five years
of famine, and if I don't do this for you, you'll come to
poverty. He said, you're going to dwell near me? And brothers
and sisters, we live in a land of no bread, don't we? Hosea wrote in the last year,
or Amos, that there'll be a famine in the land, not of bread, but
of the hearing of God's Word. We live in the land of Goshen.
He's known unto us for the breaking of bread. He keeps breaking bread. We keep coming and He keeps feeding
us. He said, open your mouth wide, I'll fill it. In a time
when they're passed through the earth, Isaiah, hardly bested
and hungry, God's people never hunger, never thirst. They feed
on Him. He said, I'm the bread. You'll
never beg bread. The righteous will never be forsaken
or receive begging bread. Oh, no. He delights to give it
to those who are hungry. And Joseph's brethren ate until
the end. And then, go to Genesis 50. Let's conclude. Genesis chapter
50. And don't you love how that he
said, go get Jacob, your father, and bring with you some of the
goods, some of the goods that I've given you, whereby he'll
know it's from me. And you know, they went, when
they first came in Egypt, they took sacks, remember? They took
sacks, and Joseph filled their sacks, and filled their sacks,
and filled their sacks. And then when he finally revealed
himself to them, Joseph said, now, bring the wagons. Bring the wagons. Load the wagons. And take all this. Oh, we see
a little bit of what all our Lord has done for us in the beginning. And boy, in the end, we ought
to see how he loaded the wagons. All this, like that woman said,
all this, and Christ did. Chapter 50, don't you love that? But anyway, Chapter 50, when
the father and the son met together again, Joseph fell on his father's
face and kissed him on the neck. And then in chapter 50, it says
in verse 15, the brethren saw their father was dead. Joseph
will hate us because of what he's going to requite. He's going
to do to us what we did to him. No, no. No. You see, your salvation is because
he's not like you. God said, I'm God and not a man. David said that. When David came
into the house of God, he found out what all God had purposed
to do for him. Such a sorry sinner, David said.
Is this the matter of men? No. Man's not like that. But this is my God. My God. That's why Jacob, I believe Jacob
said, if you bring me back, When Jacob met the Lord, he said,
if you bring me back, if you bring me through all this world
and all the sin that I sinned and all the trouble that I go
through and all the tribulation, if you bring me back home to
Bethel in the end, you're God. You're my God. That's how I'm
going to know. That's how I'm going to know.
Because it's not going to be me. I'm not going to keep myself. I'm going to do everything I
can to destroy myself. But if you keep me, and I'm kept,
and when it's all over, I'm kept, and you bring me back home, you're
God. It's going to take God to save
me. And this is what Joseph said. Joseph said, I'll not leave you. Verse 18, his brethren fell down
before his face, and they said, we're your servants. They're
talking to the younger brother. Yet they all said, we're your
servants. The elder shall serve the younger.
And Joseph said unto them, fear not. Fear not. Didn't our Lord keep saying that
over and over and over? Fear not. Fear not. How many
times in Isaiah? Fear not, thou worm, Jacob. Fear not. Joseph said, Am I in the place
of God? What Joseph is saying is, I'm not God. No, I'm not
going to judge you. But I'm here to tell you Jesus
Christ is God. He is in the place of God. And because He is, He'll never
forsake us, because He promised. And verse 20, and I close, as
for you, you thought evil against me, but God made it unto good
to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. Therefore, fear ye not. I will
nourish you and your little ones. And He comforted them. and spake
kindly unto them. And Margin says, spoke to their
hearts. And this is what I hope it's
been a comfort to you. We have a kind, wonderful, gracious,
loving Heavenly Father and Elder Brother, the Lord Jesus Christ,
whom God sent into this world to save the sons of Jacob like
us, sorry though we be, And we need not fear. He keeps telling
us over and over again, fear not. And so Isaiah said to me,
the preacher, comfort ye my people, speak to their heart, tell them
their iniquity, the warfare is over, their iniquity is pardoned.
You received the Lord's hands double for all your iniquity.