So the subject is Joseph the
administrator. The word administrator means
one who heads up, who manages a business or maybe a corporation
or a government. One who bears responsibility
for decision making and for conducting business. Well, Joseph headed
up all of the business of Egypt. He had the management of all
of the lands. He had the management of all
the peoples who were ruled by Pharaoh. And all of the dealings
that anybody had with Pharaoh had to go through Joseph. You didn't get an interview with
Pharaoh. You couldn't appear in Pharaoh's
presence. You couldn't walk into his court,
into his high court, into his palace, step into his throne
room. You could not do that except
escorted by Joseph. And of course, in this, Joseph
is a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is himself the administrator
of all things because he conquered death, he put away the sins of
his people, he satisfied God's justice, and God exalted him. He's exalted to the majesty on
high. He's seated at the right hand
of the Father where he is the administrator of all things for
the glory of God, and for the good of his people. And we come
to God through him. 1 Timothy 2.5 says, For there
is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. One Mediator. See, Joseph was
the only Mediator between two parties, that is, whoever wanted
to see Pharaoh and Pharaoh himself. He was the mediator, Joseph was,
and so is our Lord Jesus. You can't come to God any other
way except through Him. He said in that very well-known
passage of Scripture in John chapter 14, He said, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by Me. You can't do business with the
Father except through Christ Jesus. You can't come to God
the Father except through Christ Jesus. Our gods are consuming
fire. God is Spirit. He will not see
you. He will not receive you. He will
not accept you except through the approved Mediator, who is
Christ Himself. That One who is the Administrator
of all things. You know, the amazing thing in
all of this, Joseph was the Administrator and the Mediator of his brethren
with Pharaoh. He represented his brothers to
Pharaoh after his brothers had done him absolute wrong. They sinned terribly against
him. In fact, some of them wanted to do away with him altogether,
wanted to kill him. And yet here we are in chapter
47, and look at verse 1 again. Chapter 47, verse 1. Then Joseph
came and told Pharaoh and said, My father and my brethren, here
they are. He presented them all unto Pharaoh. And these were men, some of them,
they wanted to do away with him altogether. They were absolutely
opposed to Joseph. And we, in our natural condition,
we were opposed to the Lord Jesus. We had no natural love for Him.
There was a natural enmity toward Him. The heart of man, Romans
chapter 8 says, is enmity against God. And yet, here is our beloved
Savior set forth in the Scriptures as being the mediator of people
who were at enmity with God. And that's our great Savior who
represents us to the Father and presents us to Him as those who've
been washed in His blood, clothed in the garments of salvation,
of God's own provision. So as we work our way through
this chapter, we'll see that Joseph is the one who conducts
all business with both Israel and the Israelites and Egypt
and the Egyptians. And even so, God has committed
all administration of the world to a greater than Joseph. He,
by His sacrifice unto God, has been exalted. And I would advise you, counsel
all of you who are the Lord's people, as you lay upon your
bed tonight and as you're thinking about going to sleep and you're
praying, remember this. Your Savior, your sovereign,
your Lord, your Redeemer. He is the administrator of the
whole world and everything in it. So now you rest easy. We know who's at the helm of
the ship. We know who the governor of all
the nations is. It's our friend. It's our Savior. Yea, he is our elder brother,
one who is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. Oh, what
comfort that gives us. Now quickly, let me show you
several things here. And the first is, I'll use just one word, shepherds. Joseph had instructed his brethren,
and his brethren told Pharaoh when he said, What's your occupation?
They said, we're shepherds. We're shepherds. Now these men
who were shepherds were the heads of the 12 tribes of Israel. 11 tribes of Israel. Joseph is head of one, but his
is going to be divided into two, as we shall see next week, the
Lord willing. But each one was a shepherd to
those of his family. Each one was responsible to feed
and to care for the flocks of their families. Even so, our
Lord Jesus has appointed shepherds under shepherds to take care
of his sheep, to tend to his sheep. And we remember and we
know and rejoice to know that He's the Good Shepherd. Christ
is the Administrator. He's the Good Shepherd who gave
His life, laid down His life for the sheep. He is the Seeking
Shepherd, for He went out to seek and to find those that are
lost. Just like He found you. You were
lost. You weren't seeking Him. He was
seeking you. He's that kind of Shepherd. and
He pursued you wherever you were. And in the time of grace, He
found you and then He picked you up just like the shepherd
did in Luke chapter 15. He picked you up, that lost lamb,
you being the lost lamb, He picked you up and put it on His shoulders
and He's going home rejoicing all the way. This is our great
shepherd. And as under-shepherds, it is
our privilege and our honor to minister to His sheep. And so we read in Acts chapter
20 and verse 28, that the apostle Paul told the Ephesian elders,
he said to feed the church of God, which he purchased with
his own blood. You feed, you feed the flock
of God. What's my job? Feed the flock. Take care of the flock. Well,
what do I feed you? Articles from Reader's Digest? Go to the almanac? No, I take
you to the green pastures of the Word of God. The very promises
of God Himself. For God has addressed Himself
in this inspired book, the Holy Scriptures. He has spoken to
us, His sheep and His under-shepherds, as we minister to you who are
the sheep of God. We feed you good, good feed. Good food. Good food. And the next word I want to give
you is Sojourners. Notice what he says in verse
4, what they said unto Pharaoh. They said moreover unto Pharaoh,
having said in verse 3 we're shepherds, in verse 4, they said
to Pharaoh for to sojourn in the land where we come. For thy
servants have no pasture for their flocks, for the famine
is sore in the land of Canaan. Now therefore we pray thee, let
thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen." And at the first
part of the verse, they said, we've come to sojourn. What is
a sojourn? A temporary resident, but not
a citizen. They weren't going to become
citizens of Egypt. They're just sojourners in Egypt. Even so, we're not citizens of
this world. We're just sojourners. We're
just passing through. We're pilgrims. That's what we
are. Peter said in 1 Peter 2.11, Dearly beloved, I beseech you
as Strangers and pilgrims. That's us. We're strangers. What do you mean? Do we act strange? Well, really in comparison to
the religious people of the world, we do act strange. because they
don't understand the gospel of grace. They don't understand
our insistence on keeping on speaking of Christ and His blood,
Christ and His righteousness, salvation by pure, sovereign
grace. They just don't understand that.
We speak a language the world doesn't understand. We're sojourners
here. We're not citizens. When Nancy
and I go to Japan, It's been a few years since we've been,
but we go over there and spend time with our son and his wife
and daughter, though she's in university now. Our son is not
a citizen of Japan. He's not a citizen of Japan.
He can never be a citizen of Japan. No, that isn't permitted. He is still yet a sojourner. And that's what we all are really
in this whole world. This is not our home. Our citizenship
is in glory. That's where the home is. That's
where our Father is. That's where the family is gathered.
That's where our brother sits upon his throne of grace and
glory. Down here, we're just strangers. And the world doesn't understand
us because the world didn't know Him and didn't understand Him. There's a verse of Scripture
in Psalm 39, verse 12. Permit me to read it to you.
Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry. Hold not thy peace
at my tears, for I am a stranger Listen to the language now. I
am a stranger with thee and a sojourner as all my fathers were. What
do you mean I'm a stranger to the Lord? No, that's not what
he said. He says I'm a stranger with thee. He was a stranger
when he was here. And just like they didn't understand
our Lord, Didn't understand His doctrine. Didn't understand His
teaching. So, they don't understand us.
They don't understand our doctrine. The doctrine of God. The doctrine
of salvation by pure grace. Sovereign grace. They don't understand
that. And right along with our Lord,
we're strangers. I'll tell you what. I'm glad
to be a stranger with the Lord, aren't you? I'm glad to be a
stranger with Him. And not a stranger to Him. He who is the friend of the world
is not a friend of our God. We're kind of an odd people,
aren't we? And we don't want to act weird. But we don't fit
in with the world. I was thinking the other day,
we don't fit in with the religious world. We don't fit in with the
secular world. I look at some of the things
that people get involved in and I say, well, that's not for me.
And then you look at religion today and the whoop-de-doo and
excitement and all that. Well, that's not for me. I don't
fit in anywhere. Wait, you'd fit into God's family. Fit into the Lord's family. And
then another word comes to mind. It's just the word meeting. This
is when Pharaoh and Jacob meet. Look at verse 7. Joseph brought
in Jacob, his father, and set him before Pharaoh, and Jacob
blessed Pharaoh. You know, Jacob didn't fall down
and worship Pharaoh as what everybody else did. There's no indication
that he did before Pharaoh what he did before Esau. He bowed
down before Esau, but he didn't bow down before Pharaoh. He's
older now. He's more mature now. He understands
that he is a child of God. Pharaoh is a heathen. Pharaoh
doesn't know the God of grace. And so Jacob, the very first
thing he does is he blesses Pharaoh. He pronounces God's mercies upon
him. In other words, he prays for
him. He prays for him. This is the
meeting. And then you'll notice, and here's
something else I want to point out, number four, is age. Age. Look at verse 8. Pharaoh said
unto Jacob, How old art thou? Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The
days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years.
Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life then,
and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life
of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. I have lived
as long as my grandfather Abraham or my father Isaac." Age. You'll notice he speaks of the
days of the years of life. Boy, 130 years, that's a pretty
long time. And he refers to it as days.
Days. Yesterday, we thankfully, Nancy
and I, celebrated our 53rd wedding anniversary. As y'all do on your wedding anniversary,
you reminisce. She had just turned 18. I was
18 and a half. And we reminisced about the wedding
and that sort of thing. And then, you know, you get to
talk about my how the years have gone. And some of you have been
married longer than we have. Jacob says, the days of my years. The scripture says, Job says,
man that is born of a woman is a few days. And then he adds,
full of trouble. No wonder the psalmist said,
Lord, make me to know my end. In the measure of my days, what
it is that I may know how frail I am. My friend, you and I are
exceedingly frail. We're never more than one breath
away from eternity. David's brother passed away this
past Saturday. David had spoken to him earlier
in the day. And one moment he was living. Massive heart attack. Doctor
said he was dead before he hit the floor. Lord, make me to know my end. Make me to know the measure of
my days. what it is, that I may know how
frail I am." You see, there's a good possibility the instrument
of death is already at work within us. We just don't know it. He talked about his age. And
I was thinking, I hear people complain about how old they are.
Oh, I'm getting so old. Y'all not complain about getting
older. It's a blessing to grow older. Oh, you got aches and pains.
Well, I know that goes with it. But long life is a gift from
God. Don't bellyache about it. I'm
getting so old. Thank God for it. Look at the
years He's given you. And I've had elderly people say
to me, Pastor, I don't know why the Lord leaves me here any longer. I'm no good to anybody. I'm no
use to anybody. You're a blessing to your family, to your children, to your grandchildren,
to your great-grandchildren, to other believers. Don't fuss about, oh, I'm getting
old. Put it this way. You know, I'm
getting old. The Lord's been so good to me. Look at all the years He's given
me. Oh, I've got aches and pains and rheumatism and arthritis. I've got all those things, but
you know, the Lord has given me a long life. You know what it says about Abraham? Then Abraham gave up the ghost
and died in a good old age." That's what it is. It's a good
old age. An old man and full of years,
that's what the Scripture says. And he was gathered with his
people. And you hear the Word of God. As the years mount up,
You hear the Word of God and remember, the Lord says in Isaiah
46 and verse 4, and even to your old age, I am He. See, you may change as you get
older, but your Lord, your Jehovah, your God, He doesn't change. He says, I am He. I am. Even to whore hairs will I carry
you. and I will bear you. Even I will
care you and I will deliver you. When it's time for you to face
the cold waters of the Jordan River, I'll carry you over, the
Lord says. Jacob says, few and evil. Few. Evil, things disagreeable to
the flesh. I understand wanting to be released
from terrible disease and terrible sickness. I understand it to
a degree because I've never been in that position. But really, that which we want
to be released from is that which is the reason or the cause of
our trouble, sin. There's only one way to be rid
of it. See, all these other things are the effects of sin. Aches
and pains and sickness and COVID and all these other things. Health
issues. Those are the results of sin.
But really, what we long to be released from and freed from
is sin in its very existence. And death will do that. Talking
about Brother Charlie a while ago. 57 years old. Released from
sin. Released from sin. Your wife
was released from sin. You see, that's what death is
for a child of God. It's being released from every
effect of that horrible disease of sin. And then notice this, and I'll
just entitle this, A Big Difference. I want you to compare two verses,
verse 12 and 13. And Joseph nourished his father
and his brethren, and all his father's household with bread,
according to their families. That is, food was brought Now
get this, food was brought to the people of God, to the Israelites,
without any effort on their part. Just as if they were little children,
Joseph provided for them. You see, the Lord gives the bread
of life to His people. by His grace, and the bread of
life is Christ Himself without any effort on your part. See,
that's why this salvation is all of grace. It's not your doing. It's not your trying. It's not
your striving. It's all of grace through the
doing and the dying of your blessed substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. and He takes care of you. He
feeds you. All of the people of God here
tonight and all who are watching by way of the internet, it's
the Lord who nourishes you every day. That's why every day is
a day of thanksgiving. Every day is a day of worship.
He feeds you because you're one of His little ones. But, Look at verse 13. There
was no bread in all the land, for the famine was very sore,
so that the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted
by reason of the famine. Here's the picture. Over here
is the land of Goshen. There are the Israelites. Pass
the biscuits. They're eating great. And right over there, the Egyptians.
They said, man, we're starving to death. Who made the difference? The Lord says in the book of
Exodus, He said, I put a difference between my people and the Egyptians. That's what He says. He caused
the separation. Here are the Israelites, and
every day, Joseph just sends in the food. It's a home delivery. Here come the wagons of food.
And you know, wife says to the husband, Joseph sent the food
over again today. Here it is. Come on kids, let's
eat. An abundance of food. And right
over in the land of Egypt, outside the country of Goshen, they're
starving to death. You see, God has been pleased
to give us the bread of life. Christ said, I am the living
bread. Here we are and here tonight,
we're dining on spiritual things. We're eating of the bread of
life. We're eating of the spiritual bread. When right across the
street, just right down the road, literally, they're starving to
death. And don't even know it. They have no idea where they
can get spiritual food. It's right here. It's right here. It's a big difference. Look at this passage of scripture
with me, Isaiah chapter 65. Isaiah chapter 65. Isaiah 65. Look at verse 13. I don't want to take the time
to read all of these verses, but I do want to read Isaiah
65 and verse 13. Therefore thus said the Lord
God, Behold, my servants shall eat, but you, you'll be hungry. Behold, my servants shall drink,
and ye shall be thirsty. Behold. He keeps on saying behold
three times. Behold. Behold. Behold. Be amazed. We eat. We drink. We rejoice. Behold, My servants shall rejoice. But as for you, you're going
to be ashamed. Why is this? Because the Lord's
made a difference. And the word difference has the
idea of separation The Lord has separated a people unto himself. You're numbered among the people
of God. What a great difference. To the one group, God gave bread.
To the other group, there was no bread. And the difference
between those who are spiritually alive and those who are spiritually
dead is that the Lord gives His Son the bread of life, the great
administrator of all things to some, and to others He doesn't
give Him to. And then, go back to our text,
and let me finish up with this. And this is interesting here,
and I've read the verses to you, and I kind of would be interested
in what your thoughts were when I began to read at verse 13, and read down through here several
verses, and I'll kind of condense this. They're silver and they're gold.
Their bread ran out. The Egyptians, their bread ran
out, got nothing to eat. What is silver and gold to a
hungry man? You can't eat silver. You can't
eat gold. And Joseph said, bring me all
your money, I'll give you bread. Well, I don't want to turn loose
my silver and gold. Go ahead and starve to death
then. See if you can eat your money. See if that will nourish you. And then he says, after their
money ran out, then they're hungry and they come to him and say,
we're hungry. What are you gonna part with
now? The cattle's no good to us. They're
skin and bones. What few sheep we've got, they're
nothing. The asses, they're yours, okay? Because what are possessions
when you got nothing to eat? And then that corn runs out,
And then they come to Joseph and said, we're hungry. What you got left? Land. Can't eat land. I'll take your land, give you
bread. We're hungry. What you got left? My freedom. Freedom. You want your freedom or you
want bread? We'll be Pharaoh's servants.
We'll be his slaves. You see, what value are all of
these things to anybody if you don't have bread? See, that's
the point here. If you don't have Christ Jesus
in the day of judgment, what are riches going to do for you?
You're silver and you're gold. I tell you, when our Lord sits
upon His throne of judgment, money will blow in the streets
perhaps. It will mean absolutely nothing. You see, He's everything. He's
the one you've got to have. And the same way with your possessions.
The same way with your lands. And the same way with you. Are
you going to be servants of sin unto judgment? Or bow to His
Lordship? Scripture says, what will a man
give in exchange for his soul? Oh Lord, give me the bread of
life. I've got nothing to pay with. I come to you empty handed. I'm
a pauper. Anybody else a pauper? I've got
no spiritual wealth whatsoever. I'm broke. Lord, I'm broke. I've got nothing to offer you.
I don't have a good life to offer you. I don't have good works
to offer you. I don't have money to offer you. You own the whole world and everything
in it. I can't give you anything. I'm
just a mercy beggar. Oh, now you're sounding like
somebody with wisdom. I'm just a mercy beggar. And again, I'll just kind of
remind you that Joseph did not have to deal with the priests
of Egypt. Pharaoh had assigned them land,
and that was a good thing. But I've got to go quickly here
and look at verse 27. Israel grew rapidly. Verse 27, Israel dwelt in the
land of Egypt in the country of Goshen, They had possessions
therein and grew and multiplied exceedingly." And it reminds
me of that passage in Acts chapter 2 in the church. The Lord added
to the church daily, such as should be said. You see, the
Lord is blessing His church. This is the church in the Old
Testament. These are all the believers of
God. This is all the believers of God there are in the world. There were of the house of Israel
who were the children of God. This is it. And God multiplied. It grew. And there are times
when the church grows. There are sometimes times of
harvest. Sometimes a time of seeding.
That's what we do. Every service is so the seed
of the blessed gospel. And then in verse 29, the time
drew near or nigh that Israel must die. The certainty of death.
The certainty of death. Gotta die. I mean, unless the
Lord comes back soon. If I was you, I wouldn't figure
on being another Elijah. I don't think that's going to
happen. I wouldn't figure on being another
Enoch. Maybe the Lord will come back
and we won't go by way of the grave. Even so, come Lord Jesus. But unless He comes pretty soon, the time's going to draw nigh
when we must die. That's just a fact of life. the
certainty of death. And Jacob says, I want to be
buried with my fathers. My soul is going to go back to
God who gave it. And my soul will be welcomed
into eternity because of the one who was his mediator and
Savior. And so he makes Joseph swear
that he'll bury him back in Canaan. He says there in the last couple
of verses, I'll lie with my fathers, and thou shalt carry me out of
Egypt and bury me in their burying place. And he said, I will do
as thou hast said. And he said, swear unto me. Back
up in verse 29, he made him swear, and he did that by putting his
hand above Jacob's thigh. The thigh is the strength of
the body. The strongest muscle in the body
is the thigh. And then up above the thigh is
the seat of life for men. He said, you swear on your life.
And Joseph said, I will. I will. I'll give you one last
reference. I'll quit. Hosea chapter 13. Now let's see if you can find
this. Go to the book of Daniel. He's the last of the minor prophets.
And then go to Hosea 13. Hosea 13, verse 14. Note the
promise of God. Hosea 13, verse 14. The Lord
says of His people, Hosea 13, 14. I will ransom them
from the power of the grave. I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be thy plagues. O grave, I will be thy destruction. Repentance shall be hid from
mine eyes. In other words, God said, I'm
not going to turn away from this. He said, I'm going to deal with
death for you. And you know what the death of
a child of God is? It's the time of his home going.
It's the time of her home going. As far as the body that dies,
the Lord's going to deal with this death too. And He will conquer
death and raise our bodies and should be fashioned like unto
our Lord's glorious body. You know, when He was raised
again, He had a glorified body. That's the kind of body we're
going to have. I don't know that we'll eat in heaven, but He had
a glorified body and He ate on earth. So we'll have that kind
of body. And forevermore, our bodies will
be free from all the Weaknesses of sin. Joseph, the Administrator. He's the Administrator. Christ
is the Administrator of all things to fulfill the purpose of the
Father and work all things for good for His people.