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Wayne Boyd

God's Sovereign Plan

Genesis 40
Wayne Boyd August, 29 2019 Video & Audio
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Wayne Boyd
Wayne Boyd August, 29 2019
Beloved of God as we have studied the life of Joseph we have seen the unfolding of God's sovereign plan in Joseph's life. This is true for every born again blood washed believer as we look back ad seethe pit that the Lord has saved us from. God's has truly been gracious to His people in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Let the people God rejoice!

The sermon titled "God's Sovereign Plan," delivered by Wayne Boyd, explores the doctrine of divine providence as illustrated in Genesis 40, focusing on the life of Joseph. The key argument emphasizes that all events in Joseph's life, including his imprisonment and eventual rise to power, exemplify God's sovereign control over history and individual lives. Boyd references Genesis 40 and 41, highlighting how Joseph's ability to interpret dreams was part of God's orchestrated plan, culminating in Pharaoh's troubled spirits and the forgetfulness of the chief butler. The significance of this message lies in the affirmation of God's perfect timing in the unfolding of His plans, reinforcing Reformed teachings on total depravity, grace, and the sovereignty of God in all circumstances, which provides believers comfort and assurance of God’s providence in their lives.

Key Quotes

“We don't believe in chance. We don't believe in luck. We know that it's the providence of God.”

“Joseph was a prisoner in that prison... all part of God's plan, all part of His purpose, to one day exalt Joseph to the position of prime minister over all of Egypt.”

“It is not in me. God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.”

“We who are the redeemed of the Lord, we have nothing to glory in ourselves. Absolutely nothing to glory in ourselves. But we glory in the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Sermon Transcript

Auto-generated transcript • May contain errors

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Heavenly Father, again we thank
you for the privilege and the honor of being able to gather
together. We don't take it lightly that you bring us together to
sit under the Gospel. And we're thankful that you've
allowed us to have a place where we can come and hear the Gospel
preached and proclaimed and I can go forth from here. Lord, we
love you. We thank you for your continued
mercy and grace towards us all the time. We pray you give us
grace and strength in our time of need. And Lord, we know that
we can come boldly before Thy throne only because of the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. We love You, we
praise You, we thank You for Your goodness again. In Jesus'
name, Amen. Turn if you would to Genesis chapter 40. The name of the message is Unfolding
of God's Sovereign Plan. The unfolding of God's sovereign
plan. Now last week we finished Genesis
chapter 40 during our study. on the life of Joseph. In that
study we saw Pharaoh's butler, chief butler, and his chief baker
had offended the king of Egypt, which is Pharaoh, and they were
thrown into the prison where Joseph was. And that prison was
where those who had offended the kings were kept, or those
who had offended the Pharaoh were kept. We see that God's
divine providence arranged for them to be put in the same prison
as Joseph. We don't believe in chance. We
don't believe in luck. We know that it's the providence
of God. And Joseph was a prisoner in that prison. And then we saw
that he'd been put in charge of all the prisoners in the prison.
And again, this was all part of God's plan, all part of his
purpose, to one day exalt Joseph to the position of prime minister
over all of Egypt. And one night, as we saw last
week, those two men, the Chief Butler and the Chief Baker, they
each dreamed a dream. And they were both greatly disturbed.
Joseph went into their cell, and they were sad, more sad than
they normally were. Their countenance was down. They
were greatly disturbed, and they did not understand what their
dreams meant. And God, in his sovereign providence, and by
the Holy Spirit of God, gave Joseph the ability to interpret
their dreams, and our sovereign God made sure those dreams came
to pass, just like Joseph interpreted them. And the chief butler found
favor in Pharaoh's sight, we know that, and was restored to
his former position. And the chief baker was hanged
on a tree, and the birds did eat his flesh from off his body,
just as Joseph said would occur. And again, we looked at how one
received mercy and one received judgment. And we look at how
this also occurred at the cross, too. One thief received mercy
and one thief received judgment, that which was due him. Now look at Genesis chapter 40
and we'll read verses 14 and 15 and see that Joseph asked
the butler to remember him and to make mention of him, the pharaoh,
when he stood near him. Look at verses 14 and 15. But
think on me when it shall be well with thee, And show kindness,
I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and
bring me out of this house. For indeed I was stolen away
out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also have I done nothing
that they should put me into the dungeon. Now look at verse
23, well what happened? Well the chief baker, look at
23 of the same chapter, Genesis 40, verse 23, and yet the chief
butler remembered Joseph, and yet did not the chief butler
remember Joseph, but forgave him. He forgot him. He just totally forgot about
him. And Joseph had asked the chief
butler, we saw there in verses 14 and 15, just to think upon
him, just to remember him, just to show kindness, just make mention
of me unto Pharaoh. That's all he asks. And we see
that in verse 23, that the chief butler, he didn't remember him.
He just forgot him. And again, remember, this is
all falling out according to God's sovereign plan. Well, look
how long it passed. Turn over to chapter 41 now.
See, we read these narratives without the view. We read these
narratives sometimes and we think, oh, just a short period of time.
Joseph was 17 when he went into slavery. We will see when he
stands before Pharaoh later on in our study. He's 30 years old. 30 years old. So how long had
passed from when he told the butler his dream? Look at this
in verse 1 of chapter 41. Here's the time span. Remember,
I always say it came to pass. Got to remember that's time passing,
right? And it came to pass at the end
of two full years, two years, two full years that Pharaoh dreamed
and behold, he stood by the river. So we see in our text here in
Genesis chapter one, or Genesis chapter 41, verse one, that two
full years have passed, two full years, Joseph's sitting in the
prison. And this is just since the chief butler's been restored
to his position. And again, always remember, as
we go through this study, that this is arranged, planned, and
purposed by our great God. He's sovereign. He's in control. And His timing is always perfect.
It may not seem perfect in our eyes. Joseph's sitting in prison
for two years. But God's timing, beloved, is
always perfect. Always. Always. That's why the
scripture tells us, wait on the Lord. Be still and know that
I am God. Right? Just wait. It's hard for
us to just wait. I know it's hard for me, it's
hard for us just to wait. But that's what the scripture
tells us. And we see here, Joseph waited for two years. He's in
prison, he's probably thinking, well, he never gonna remember
me again. And now this chapter is a very
lengthy chapter, so it'll take us a few weeks to go through
it. But just like before, dealing with the life of Joseph, we see
God's sovereign hand demonstrated in such a way that any honest
student of the Holy Scriptures will have to admit that God Himself
has orchestrated all this. There's no other way. There's
no other way. God Himself has orchestrated
all these things for the purpose we're seeing at the end of this
chapter. of exalting Joseph, the prime
minister over all of Egypt. Second in command. That means that even Potiphar,
you ever think of that? Even Potiphar, who he served,
is now under him. The jailer whom he served will
now be under him. Potiphar's wife will now be under
him. See, we need to think about all
this and how the, now, and we're gonna see that Joseph doesn't
lash out at them. He doesn't. No. No, he doesn't at all. Vengeance is mine, saith the
Lord, I will pay. We need to just leave it in the
Lord's hands, these things. And always remember, too, that
in several places, Joseph is our picture of our great Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He was taken from prison and
from judgment, wasn't he? And when the fullness of time
was come, God sent forth a son made of a woman made under the
law to redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons. In God's time, Christ went to
the cross and redeemed his people from their sins. Many times they
wanted to take our Lord and kill him, but it wasn't the time.
It wasn't the time. Being found in a fashion as a
man, he, Christ Jesus, humbled himself and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God hath also
highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every
name. He came to this earth on a mission to save his people
from their sins. He redeemed them at Calvary's
cross, sinners, sinners. He redeemed them at Calvary's
cross. He's cried it is finished, which means the work is done.
There's nothing for man to be added, nothing for us to add
to that work, it's perfect. And He's risen, and He's now
exalted in glory at the right hand of the Father. And He has
a name above every name. And that one day, every knee
shall bow, and every tongue shall confess. That's even people who
shake their fist at God and hate Him, they're gonna bow to Him.
Every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess what? That
Jesus Christ is Lord. To the glory of God the Father.
to the glory of God the Father. Oh my. So our great Savior, he
rose from the grave and our great God has exalted Jesus Christ,
the God-man to his sovereign throne in glory. And all power
is given to him in heaven and in earth. And our blessed Redeemer
gives eternal life to as many as God the Father hath given
him. And all spiritual blessings are wrapped up in Christ. They're
nowhere else. Nowhere else. Nowhere else. And only in Christ,
only in Christ, all spiritual blessings are in Him. And all
those spiritual blessings come to hell-deserving sinners. Because
that's what we are. We who are saved. We're hell-deserving
sinners. We're no better than anybody
else, other than the grace of God. He's made us to differ,
right? All spiritual blessings come
to hell-deserving sinners from the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ,
our sovereign Lord and God, so that we who are the people of
God, we receive mercy rather than judgment. Because again,
that judgment that was due us fell upon Christ at Calvary's
cross. And we must come to He who is
the bread of life, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Only in
Him is eternal life. And God's heavenly Joseph, that's
who he is. He's God's heavenly Joseph. We'll
see later on that Joseph, they all have to come to him to receive
grain. That's just a picture of how
we come to Christ and we receive all spiritual blessings in him. In order for them to live, they
had to come to Joseph. We'll see that again. In order for us to live eternally,
we must come to Christ. We must flee to him. He's the bread of life. And we
receive the heavenly manna, which is Christ, from God's sovereign
hand. And this is the only spiritual food that can satisfy your God-given
hunger for righteousness. What did Christ say? We're to
hunger and thirst after what? Righteousness. Who's our righteousness? The Lord Jesus Christ. He's the
Lord our righteousness, beloved. So we're to hunger and thirst
after Him. after him. He's the true bread from heaven.
Let's read Genesis chapter 41 verses 1 to 8. And it came to
pass at the end of two full years that Pharaoh dreamed, and behold,
he stood by the river. And behold, there came up out
of the river seven well-favored kind, and fat-fleshed, and they
fed in the meadow. And behold, seven other kind
came up after them out of the river, ill-favored and lean-fleshed,
and stood by the other kind upon the brink of the river. And the
ill-favored and the lean-fleshed kind did eat up the seven well-favored
and fat kind. So Pharaoh awoke. And he slept
and he dreamed a second time. And behold, seven ears of corn
came up, Upon one stalk, rank and good, and, behold, seven
thin ears, and blasted with the east wind sprung up after them.
And the seven thin ears devoured the seven rank and full ears.
And Pharaoh awoke, and, behold, it was a dream. And it came to
pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled. And he sent
and called for the magicians of Egypt and all the wise men
thereof. And Pharaoh told them his dream,
but there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh. So these two dreams that Pharaoh's
had, they've troubled his spirit so much that he couldn't get
them out of his mind. You ever woke up and the dream
seemed so real and so vivid, but you don't remember it all? Mine, and he woke up in the morning
and his spirit was troubled. He didn't understand them. He
remembered the dreams, but he didn't understand them. Now,
we know that God's timing is always perfect. Now, two years
is a long time. Two years is a long time. And the chief butler had been
restored to his position for two full years. And he'd been there with Pharaoh,
and now the appointed time had come, beloved, for Joseph's deliverance. Now the appointed time had come
for Joseph's deliverance from prison and his exaltation to
his throne of power. It was now approaching. Again,
in God's perfect timing. Joseph probably hoped that the
butler would go right up to Pharaoh and say, oh, I met this Hebrew
man, this young man. That's what he probably was hoping,
because that's what he even said. He said, please, when you talk to Pharaoh,
tell him about me. But he was forgotten. all according
to God's plan and purpose. And watch in amazement though
here, watch in amazement that all this is orchestrated, as
we read through these chapters, watch in amazement knowing that
all this is orchestrated by our great God. It's all orchestrated
by Him. I remember Norm said that God is the director, Christ is
the star, and we're all just a bunch of props. It's amazing. It's incredible. The Lord is
orchestrating all this. It's all about Him. It's all
about the Father. God's going to glorify Himself
through what Joseph goes through here. Watch this. God's going
to glorify Himself through what Joseph goes through here. all orchestrated by God. And
remember, it's He who has caused Pharaoh's troubled spirit. It's
He who caused the butler and the baker to have those dreams
in prison. It's He who orchestrated all
that. It's He who's orchestrated these dreams of Pharaoh. And again, he had no idea what
they meant, but watch as we go through the text and we'll see
Joseph was the ordained instrument chosen by God to give the full
and right interpretation of Pharaoh's dream. Both dreams. And we'll see by the sovereign
hand of God that Joseph, in being able to interpret Pharaoh's dreams,
that here finds such favor in the eyes of Pharaoh that he's
gonna vault him up to prime minister over all of Egypt. over all of
Egypt. And where is he going to be vaulted
up to? To exactly the position that God had ordained for him
to be in. That's exactly where God had wanted to put him. And
it's all by God's sovereign hand. And always remember that Jesus
Christ, our great creator, came to this earth. The Lord Jesus
Christ wasn't just a mere man. He was God incarnate in the flesh,
sent by the Father. sent by the Father to this earth
to do the Father's will. We saw that in last week's Sunday
morning message. He came to save His people from
their sins. He came to glorify the Father
in His life and in His death. And in doing so, the Word of
God, the Word of God, the second person of the Trinity, became
flesh and dwelt among us. Became flesh, came here to this
earth to save His people from their sins. And he glorified God. He glorified
God in his life, and he glorified God in his death. Living as our
substitute and dying as our substitute. John said this, and we beheld
his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth. Full, absolutely full of grace
and truth. The perfect, sinless, spotless
man. No sin in him at all. And Joseph was a type of Christ
as he was the only one who could interpret Pharaoh's dreams. He's
our great God. And it's our great God who made
sure that all the Pharaoh's magicians and wise men were absolutely
clueless as to the meaning of these two dreams. It's God who
caused that. Look at verse eight. It came
to pass in the morning that he was troubled, or that his spirit
was troubled, and he spent, or he sent, I'm sorry, I'm having
trouble speaking today. Set and called for all the magicians
of Egypt, and all the wise men thereof, and Pharaoh told them
his dream, but there was none that could interpret them unto
Pharaoh. None. None. None at all. Robert Hawker says
this, magicians, so called because they are considered to be wise
men, But we know by the, Scripture says by the wisdom, the world
by wisdom knew not God, nor ever will, nor ever will. These men
were clueless as to who God was. They couldn't interpret this
dream. And think upon this, our Lord Jesus Christ is the only
one who can reveal the full meaning of the Old Testament prophecies
concerning himself. He's the only one. The only way
we know that Christ is in the Old Testament is because the
Holy Spirit has revealed it to us. And Christ sent him, didn't
he, to be our comforter, to reveal Christ, to guide us into all
truth. And who is the truth? The Lord Jesus Christ. Remember,
he talked to the two on the road to Arimaeus, and beginning at
Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in the scriptures
all the things concerning himself. He preached himself to them.
He showed, he revealed himself in the Old Testament. And then
those two disciples said, did not our hearts burn within us
while he talked with us, by the way? Well, he told us about himself. He opened the scriptures to them. And we know that spiritual understanding
of the scriptures, of who God really is, of what Christ came
to do and what we really are only comes to the heart and mind
of God's chosen blood bought children by divine revelation. Otherwise, we don't know the
truth. We don't even desire to hear
it. We turn away from it. But God, under the preaching
of his glorious gospel, reveals Christ to us. And now we have
not received the spirit of the world, have we? No. but the Spirit which is of God,
that we might know the things that are freely given to us of
God, which things also we speak, and that's preaching, not in
words, which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches,
comparing spiritual things with spiritual, but the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Natural man won't
receive the truth. I know I was there. Just look back in your life.
There was a time when we, We recoiled when the truth was told
to us. There was a time when I did. Matt, you and I have talked
about that. We didn't want to hear it. Matter of fact, we wanted to
get as far away as we possibly could. Now we love it. We love the gospel. We love hearing
the word preached and proclaimed. Because we're born again of the
Holy Spirit of God. The natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither
can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Now
let's start reading verses 9 to 13 in Genesis 40, 41, with that
in our mind. Then spake the chief butler unto
Pharaoh, saying, I do remember my faults this day. Pharaoh was
wroth with his servants, and put me in ward in the captain
of the guard's house, both me and the chief baker. So he's
recalling when he was cast into prison. And we dreamed a dream
in one night, and I and he, and we dreamed each man according
to the interpretation of his dream. And there was with us
a young man, a Hebrew servant to the captain of the guard,
and we told him, and now notice that he's a Hebrew servant to
the captain of the guard, so that's Potiphar we know from
our studies. And we told him, and he interpreted
to us our dreams, to each man according to his dream did he
interpret. And it came to pass, as he interpreted
to us, so it was, me, he restored unto mine office, and him he
hanged." So, in verse 9, the chief butler, in Pharaoh's presence,
after the magicians and wise men could not interpret his dreams,
maybe he said this to gain favor with the king, we don't know,
it doesn't say that, but we don't know, he might have did it, and
he brings forth what he remembered. He remembered it, and maybe it
came to his remembrance again, because he saw Pharaoh's anger
towards the wise men, it might have brought up back to remember
Pharaoh's anger with him at one time, and when he was cast into
prison. And when he says here, then spake the chief butler unto
Pharaoh, saying, I do remember my faults this day. He's not
speaking of the fault of ignoring Joseph. Joseph's request to mention
him before Pharaoh, he's remembering again the faults that caused
him to be cast into prison. He's remembering those faults. The thing that caused Pharaoh
to be wroth with him. So never lose sight of the fact that as
we go through this study and the study on the life of Joseph,
never lose sight of who's in control of all these events.
Whether one believes it or not, God is absolutely sovereign.
He's absolutely sovereign. He's sovereign over all. And
our God always works things out according to the counsel of His
will for His glory. So it's God who sent these dreams
to Pharaoh. It's God who withheld the meaning, the interpretation
of these dreams, which Pharaoh was troubled with. It was God
who withheld those meanings from the wise men and the magicians.
And they were dumbfounded and blind to the interpretation of
Pharaoh's dream. Both his dreams. And it was God
by his sovereign will who arranged for the chief butler to be at
Pharaoh's side at that exact time. And to be remembering when he
was cast into prison. All this, again, is orchestrated
by our great God. And it's God who's going to allow
Joseph to interpret the dreams. It's God who's going to give
him that knowledge. So all this was occurring, all this was purposed,
and all this was orchestrated by our great sovereign God. All
of it. All to exalt Joseph to his throne
of power over all of Egypt. Let's now read verses 14 and
15, and we'll see God's will being worked out as the king,
Pharaoh, is but an instrument in God's hands to make his will
come to pass. Remember, the Lord said in Genesis
chapter 15, verses 13 and 14, he says this, and he said unto
Abraham, know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger
in the land that is not theirs. and shall serve them, and they
shall afflict them 400 years. So that has to come to pass,
right? And we know that's Israel being in Egypt. This is the beginning
of that. And we'll see later on that Israel
comes down with his children to Egypt, to the exact place
where God had told them they would be. And he says, and they
shall afflict them 400 years. And also that nation whom They
serve, will I judge? And afterwards, shall they come
out with great substance? We know that happened. They spoiled
Egypt. They spoiled Egypt when they came out of Egypt. And that's,
if you want to look at that for reference, that's Genesis chapter
15, verses 13 and 14. So we see later on in this study
that Israel and his family go down into Egypt, where they will
be until they're delivered by the hand of God. And Moses leads
them out into the Promised Land. and God will judge Egypt and
they end up spoiling all of Egypt. And never forget this too, Egypt
is a picture of the world in scripture. And we've all come
out of the world. And I was thinking about this,
it says they're spoiled and they came out with great substance.
We came out of the world, I was thinking about this this week.
We came out of the world, do you know we have great substance?
It just hit me, I was thinking, wow. because we have all spiritual
blessings in Christ. We have great substance. We're
rich in Christ. That's what we always say. We
may, we may not have a lot here on this earth, but we're, we're
richer than the richest man in this world in Christ. We have
great substance in him, in him, only in Christ. It's wonderful.
It's absolutely wonderful. Let's read verses 14 to 16. Then
Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily
out of the dungeon. And he shaved himself and changed
his remnant, and he came in unto Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said unto
Joseph, I have dreamed a dream, and there is none that can interpret
it. And I have heard say of thee
that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it. And Joseph answered
Pharaoh, saying, It is not It is not in me God shall give Pharaoh
an answer of peace. So we see in verse 14 that Pharaoh
sent and called for Joseph and he did so because he's still
troubled in the spirit. He's got no interpretation of
this dream. He wanted to know what these
dreams meant and none of his wise men could interpret them.
None of them. So when Pharaoh heard the chief
baker speak about Joseph and how his interpretation of his
dream came to pass, and how the chief baker's interpretation,
when Joseph interpreted his dream, how that came to pass, exactly
as how Joseph interpreted them, what does Pharaoh do? He sends
an urgent call. He sends an urgent call to bring
Joseph before him again, always remember, That all this is being
orchestrated by our great God. All by his hand, beloved. Joseph's
sitting in prison. And now he's gonna be called
to be in the presence of the king? In the presence of the
man who rules over all of Egypt? And we can see from the text
that this was an urgent call, which means hastily in the Hebrew.
It means to run in the Hebrew. Doesn't mean they were like,
well, just get him in a week or so. Doesn't mean that. In
the Greek, or in the Hebrew, it literally means to run. He wanted him there fast. As
fast as possible. And it says Joseph shaved and
changed his ramnet. He couldn't appear before Pharaoh,
who's the king, in the clothes that he wore in the dungeon,
could he? No. No. I like what one commentator
said, these clothes were probably provided by the captain of the
guard or maybe even bought it for himself. We don't know. And then we see in the text when
Joseph stood before him, Joseph, Pharaoh told Joseph he had a
dream. And there was none who could interpret it. And he let Joseph know that his
reputation preceded him. Look at that. Look in verse 15,
and Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I have dreamed a dream, and there
is none that can interpret it. And I have heard say of thee
that thou canst understand the dream to interpret it. So he's,
notice that, he's saying, well, your reputation has preceded
you. And take note, take note that
Joseph was quick to take the attention away from himself.
Isn't that wonderful? He didn't say, yeah, you know,
I did interpret those two dreams of those guys, and yeah, I told
them, and they came past just exactly as I said. The key word
there being I. He didn't say that, did he? No. No. He knows who gets
the glory. He knows. He knows who all the
glory goes to, and he's quick to take the attention away from
himself and draw his attention draw the attention to God, look
at verse 16, Joseph answered Pharaoh saying, it is not in
me. God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace. He turns it
right around. Glorify God. That's why you hear
us preachers say, don't look to us. Look to Christ and Christ
alone. Look to him. That's who we're to look to.
We look to men, men are gonna disappoint us. Constantly. That's the way it is. Because
we're sinful. I'm just a safe sinner, you're
just a safe sinner if you love Christ. Right? But I love how quickly Joseph
just gives the glory to God, turns it right around. That's
how it should be. You ever hear people boasting
about how they prayed a prayer or they did this and they did
that? I've said this many times, I dislike it when people say
I got saved. I just do not like that at all.
The Lord saved me. The Lord saved my soul. He did
it all. And he gets the glory for it.
There's a big difference. The Lord did it all. I was running
the other way. And then I got into religion
and I became a real religious guy. I became a big pharisee,
Vicky Otestan, I was a huge pharisee. Thinking I was better than everybody
else. You know that holy urn now that often gets thrown around?
I became one of those guys. But then God by his grace saved
my soul. He did it all. Lord saved me. Took me out of the horrible pit
I was in. I know he did the same for you who were born again.
He's the one who sought us out. Oh my. Joseph answered Pharaoh,
saying, It's not me. God shall give Pharaoh an answer
of peace. So always give the glory to God. Give him all the
glory. We'll conclude here because our time is pretty well done
now. But take note of the humble spirit
of Joseph. Again, that's bought forth here in verse 16. He's
real humble. He's not proud. Pride's a killer. Pride seeps in. It's a killer. You're not a proud guy. No. And
remember, you who are the redeemed of the Lord, that it is the exalted
Christ of God, it's He who calls us out of darkness. If He hadn't
called us out of darkness, we'd still be in it. We'd still be
in it. But He calls us out of darkness
under the preaching of His gospel. And then it's He who equips His
preachers and gives us spiritual understanding of Christ and His
glorious gospel and the gift to preach in His gospel. And
it's He who sends us out to our appointed places. It's He who
does all that. And for the very purpose, what?
To preach Christ and Him crucified. That's what we do. And in every
one of God's born-again blood-washed people, we quickly learn that
we have nothing to glory in ourselves. Absolutely nothing to glory in
ourselves. Nothing. But we glory in the
Lord Jesus Christ. We glory in Him alone. He's our
blessed Savior. He's our Redeemer. And we're
quick to echo the words of Joseph here in the matter of salvation.
It's not in me. Right? It's not in me. I can't save myself, and neither
can you. But I preach one who can save
all who come to him. And I know those who come to Him are drawn
to Him. Oh, it's wonderful. It's a glorious
gospel. And we cry out like the psalmist
does, with a sincere cry of praise and thanksgiving. Not unto us,
O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory for Thy mercy
and for Thy true sake. And we have been taught, we who
are God's born-again, blood-washed people, we've been taught and
we know that salvation is of the Lord. And we say, glory be
to God. Heavenly Father, thank you again
for allowing us to gather together, allowing us to be here. Oh, we
pray, Lord, that our hearts will be comforted. We who are your
people. As we look in the scriptures
and we see how thy sovereign hand orchestrates all things
in Joseph's life and know that you do the same for each one
of your sheep, guide us and direct us, keep us. And Lord, I pray,
Lord, that if there's any who do not know you here or who will
listen, oh Lord, that you grant them faith and repentance to
believe on thee, Lord, that you draw them to you just as you've
drawn every one of us who are your people. Glory to your name,
honor and praise for the fact that you've taken us out of darkness
and brought us into the glorious light of Thy Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Amen.
Wayne Boyd
About Wayne Boyd
Wayne Boyd is the current pastor of First Baptist Church in Almont, Michigan.
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