Turn with me, if you would, in
your Bibles to Genesis chapter 39. I call this message today,
The Prisoner and the Prisoners of Hope. I wish we had more time
to go back and read what leads up to the verses I want us to
read here. If you would look with me first
in Genesis 39 and verse 19, it says, And it came to pass when
his master heard the words of his wife. That is, whenever Potiphar
heard the words of his wife falsely accusing Joseph. It came to pass, when his master
heard the words of his wife, which she spake unto him, saying,
After this manner did thy servant to me, that his wrath was kindled. And Joseph's master took him,
and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners
were bound, and he was there in the prison. But the Lord was
with Joseph and showed him mercy and gave him favor in the sight
of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison
committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the
prison, and whatsoever they did there He was the doer of it. The keeper of the prison looked
not to anything that was under his hand, because the Lord was
with him, and that which he did the Lord made it to prosper. I know of nothing that pictures
injustice more than the situation in this text. Joseph is a prisoner. He is an innocent man. But he is now imprisoned with
all these prisoners who are there justly so, and so vile and guilty
and corrupt. My first thought is, what a miscarriage
of justice! What a place of utter humiliation! Why must this innocent man suffer
such an awful state and condition? Well, because God wisely and
graciously will make him a figure of the Lord Jesus Christ. He will show him to be a type
and a shadow of the only Savior of sinners. I think it can be
said that he is the prisoner. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
is the prisoner, and he is at the same time the prisoner of
God, and God the prisoner. His being there is the only hope
of those who are described in Scripture as the prisoners of
hope. And they are simply those who
are the covenant people of God. They are the objects of His grace. of His everlasting love. They are His people, His chosen,
His elect, His bride, His church. They are those He saves, and
yet they are described as the prisoners of hope. And in order
to save In order to save us, if we be of them, He must rescue
us. And He must do so because we
are all by nature prisoners to His strict justice. Not only
that, but prisoners bound to sin and to Satan and to this
world and ourselves. And we can all be described,
as we are in Scripture, as being all in a pit where there is no
water of salvation. Even Joseph, prior to this occasion
in our text, his own brothers cast him down in such a pit. It says, "...and they took him
and cast him into a pit, and the pit was empty, there was
no water in it." Jeremiah the prophet, the same thing happened
to him. It says, "...that they took Jeremiah
and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the son of Hamilech,
that was in the court of the prison. And they let down Jeremiah
with cords, and in the dungeon there was no water but mire. And so Jeremiah sunk down in
the mire." Everywhere we look in Scripture, those sinners who
are saved by the grace of God are pictured in this way. Turn over, if you would, to Zechariah,
the ninth chapter, and listen to what God says to Christ. And not only to Christ, but especially
to those who are in Christ. He says this to Zion, the bride
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and even the pronoun there is in
the feminine. He says in verse 11 of Zechariah
9, As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth
thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water. Turn you
to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope, even today do I declare
that I will render double unto thee." There is no liberation. There is no setting free, especially
of that barred cell that divine justice holds every sinner except
through the Lord Jesus Christ. And there is no dungeon, if you
will, so horrible, no matter how awful it might be on this
earth, no matter what the conditions might be. There is no dungeon
like to the dungeon of sin. But what we find in this book
is the good news. What we find are the glad tidings
that the Lord Jesus Christ had power and that He, by Himself,
through the blood of His covenant, opens its doors and sets these
prisoners free. Turn over to Isaiah chapter 53
and see if it isn't here that the Lord Jesus Christ is set
forth in this same character and description. Isaiah chapter
53 and verse 8, speaking of the Messiah, Isaiah is led to describe
him by the Spirit of God in this way. He was taken from prison
and from judgment. But the description goes on to
show that it is far more than this. If you look down in verse
12, it says something that is almost unbelievable. had not
God said it. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the
strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death, and
he was numbered with the transgressors." If we can read that, And it doesn't
bring wonder to our hearts and minds. If it does not cause us
to stop in awe at the thought of it, then we neither know anything
about Him or anything about ourselves. He was numbered with the transgressors. Isn't that amazing? If we think
that it was a travesty of justice for Joseph in his purity, humanly
speaking, to be cast in injustice down into that dungeon and prisoners
with the worst of the world, it is nothing to be compared
with this. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ,
having come into this world, does so and identifies with these
who are called transgressors. As a matter of fact, Mark's Gospel
records this, and with him they crucify two thieves. the one on his right hand and
the other on his left, and the Scripture was fulfilled which
said, he was numbered with the transgressors. That is, in his
literal death, the Lord Jesus Christ hung there in his innocence
and in his perfection between two of the very worst of the
world that it had to offer. Their crimes were such that they
had been charged and convicted and sentenced to this, the worst
and most public outward death that a person could die. But more than that, he was numbered
in a more particular way. He was numbered in a spiritual
and eternal way. He was numbered in a just way
with some other transgressors. And there he is. Here is Joseph,
a man outwardly upright and moral, and yet he is in prison. But here is our Lord Jesus Christ,
and He is there though He is perfectly sinless. He is the One who knew no sin. He is the One who is the only
man that the Bible describes as separate from sinners, and
holy, and harmless, and undefiled. And his judge, his earthly judge,
was forced to confess, I find no fault in him at all, and yet
he condemned him to prison and death. He is the Holy One. He is the man tempted in all
points like as we are yet without sin. Look at what it says in
this ninth verse of Isaiah 53. And he made his grave with the
wicked, and with the rich in his death, because he had done
no violence, neither was any deceit in his
mouth. That could never be said of one
even as Joseph. He did no violence. He did no sin. There was no deceit
in his mouth. And can you imagine Christ, the
Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect Son of God, in a prison like
Joseph, shut up, being counted as one such as they are that
are found therein with a bunch of filthy, vile, corrupt, criminals. But the Bible says He was made
of a woman. When the Lord Jesus Christ took
on humanity, when He took on that body of human flesh and
came into this world, having left the glory of heaven, When
He came and identified with our race, bone of our bone, and flesh
of our flesh, He came to the lowest prison
of all. That's what this world is. We
look at it and we imagine that it is such a place that we can
improve upon, a place that is to be desired better than the
world to come. And yet the truth is, every day it
is revealed as nothing but a prison that confines eternity-bound
sinners who are under the strict justice of God. But it says the Lord Jesus Christ
was made of a woman. Paul in Philippians, he describes
that humiliation simply of that. But he goes on in Galatians a
lot farther. He says, made under the law. Made subject to the penalty of
the law. made subject in the behalf of
his people to what the law required for their sin. And when you stop
and think about what he has come into and what he has placed himself
under, there is no way of describing the difference. There is no way of measuring
the contrast. Light was cast into darkness. Love was cast into hate. Purity was associated with uncleanness. Perfection was associated with
putrefaction. And the just was joined to the
unjust. Can you see him taking Joseph? Here he is, this honorable man
who rather than go against his master, rather than go against
this woman, rather than sin against God, he would stand for the right
and do the right. Even if it meant being cast into
prison, here he is with his garments that show him to be the head
of the household. Here he is in purity of mind
and body, and he's taken immediately. And he's cast down in this filthy
prison. That's horrible to us, isn't
it? But that's nothing to compare
with the Lord Jesus Christ who was numbered with the transgressors. And we are so blind and so deceived
in our sin and ourselves that we cannot see Him for who He
is and for what He is. Look down at that second verse
of Isaiah 53. For he shall grow up before him
as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground, he hath
no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him there is no
beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of
men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it
were, our faces from Him. He was despised, and we esteemed
Him not." I remember as a young person
that it was a part of our Our schooling at some age, maybe
somewhere in junior high, it was a part of our schooling that
we made a trek to Raleigh, to the capital of the state. They
took us to the House of Representatives. We walked around. They showed
us the Capitol and all these things. And back then, they took
us to central prison. And we walked in the prison,
under guard of course, and they took us to the place where the
prisoners were executed. Now, they wouldn't hardly do
that today, would they? And it's pretty evident that they haven't. But I'll never forget, I'll never
forget the feeling of walking in that place. And even when I myself was involved
in law enforcement, there was something about when you took
even a prisoner yourself in there and that jail door shut with
the most awful clanging, secure sound. But I remember as a young person
a feeling somehow of being unclean when I walked out of that prison. I can remember seeing those walled
windows and seeing the face of prisoners who were screaming
and crying out vile, wicked things and cursing and such as that
to a bunch of children walking there in the prison yard. But that's nothing. The worst
prisoner there. is no worse in the sight of a
sin-hating God than the best person here this morning. Do
you understand that? The vilest of the vile, the most
corrupt of the corrupt, because sin is what we are, and unrestrained. We're left
to do what the worst of the worst criminals has done. Do you understand that? Somebody said, well, we know
we have a potential to sin. I wouldn't hardly call it just
that. Because if left to ourselves for a moment of time, there is
in us, in our fallen nature, the very most corrupt, the worst,
the greatest potential to do anything. And the truth is, we have done
it. We did it in Adam. We did it in those people who
crucified the Lord Jesus Christ. And we do it in our mind and
heart every day of our life. You see, the prison is not where
we would expect such a glorious person as the Son of God. Why is he there? Well, for two
reasons that are really the same. He has come just as he did in
the garden voluntarily. Look down in verse 7 at that
description. He was oppressed and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is done, so he opened
not his mouth. He is in this prison voluntarily. But not only that, he's also
there because God has put him there. Divine justice has laid hold
on him as the surety of these prisoners of hope, and the time
has come for him to satisfy for those he became surety for. Arrest that man. Isn't that what
they said? They sent the guards, they sent
the soldiers to that garden where he was, and they said, are you
Jesus of Nazareth? He said, I'm he. But if you take
me, you have to let these others go. That's what divine justice does
to the surety. to that Christ who, before the
world began, stood and took upon Himself in that everlasting covenant
all the responsibility of saving all His people from their sin. The time has come for Him as
the substitute for His people to suffer in His place. Now, hold your place there in
Isaiah 53, but turn back to Genesis 39. Did you notice as we were reading,
in verse 21 it said, but the Lord was with Joseph and showed
him mercy and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of
the prison?" Every time I read that phrase,
the keeper of the prison, it makes me think of the justice
of God. But listen, "...and the keeper
of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were
in the prison." My friend, that's just exactly what God in His
justice and His mercy has done with all the people in this prison
of sin, that it is His purpose to say He's committed everything
into the hands of His Joseph. And whatsoever they did there, He was the doer of it. Do you see that? Whatsoever they did, He was the
doer of it. And surely that has to speak
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who on the behalf of his people,
whatever was involved in rescuing them, delivering them from this
prison of sin, whatever was done in order to satisfy the holy
justice of God, whatever was done to establish righteousness
before God, Christ was the doer of it. Do you believe that? He was the
doer of it. The keeper of the prison looked
not to anything that was done under his hand, because the Lord
was with him, and that which he did, the Lord made it to what? Prosper. That's what our Lord, what was
said of Him before He ever came. He'll establish justice and judgment
And he shall not fail." Everything that was committed into the hands
of Joseph on the behalf of those prisoners there in the prison,
it says that everything prospered in his hands. But look back over in Isaiah
53 at that tenth verse. Because this isn't speaking of
Joseph, this is speaking of the one that Joseph pictured. This
is speaking of Jesus Christ. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He suffers at his own hand. at the hand of divinely inflicted
judgment for sin on the behalf of his people, yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong
his days, and the pleasure of the Lord." What's the pleasure
of the Lord? The pleasure of the Lord is his
purpose of grace, wherein he purposed to save all his people
from their sins to the praise and glory of his life, of his
own self. When Christ was there being baptized,
And on another occasion, he spoke audibly from heaven and said,
this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And the pleasure of the Lord
shall prosper. There is that word again. Shall
prosper in his hands. when those hands were nailed
to that cross of wood, on that tree outside of Jerusalem, when
it appeared that everything was run amuck and the purpose and
counsels of God had been cast aside at the hand of men and
devil? The pleasure of the Lord. was
prospering in His hand. Why? Because it said it pleased
the Lord to make His people His people. It pleased the Lord to
save every one of them, to glorify Himself in every way. It pleased
Him to put everything in the hands of Christ, their surety. and the pleasure of the Lord
prospered in his hand. The psalmist said, For the Lord
heareth the poor, and he despises not his prisoners. Isaiah again in chapter 42, he
says, I the Lord have called thee in righteousness and will
hold thine hand and will keep thee and give thee for a covenant
of the people for a light of the Gentiles to open the blind
eyes to bring out the prisoners from the prison and them that
sit in darkness out of the prison house. What is he talking about in all
this? He's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ coming into
this world, and in His humanity, in His perfect humanity, being
made sin on the behalf of His people in order to deliver every
one of them from their sin. You say, well, I'm not a prisoner,
never have been. That's what the Pharisees said. We've never
been in bondage to any man. He didn't come to deliver you
then. Let me read you some verses that are found in Luke's Gospel.
In Luke's Gospel in chapter 4, it says that Christ came to Nazareth. where he had been brought up.
And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath
day and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord
is upon me. because he hath anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives." Do you see that? To declare deliverance to the
captives. and recovering of sight to them
that are blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord." And he closed the book. And he
gave it again to the minister, and sat down, and the eyes of
all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he
began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled
in your ears." Deliverance of the captives. The setting at liberty. Them
that are bound. Because there is one way wherein
a sinner can escape this prison, and only one way. The prisoners
of this prison cannot escape by themselves. They cannot dig
their way out. They cannot force their way out.
They cannot scheme their escape. And all this means is that there
is not any who can save themselves because there are none of us
who of ourselves can satisfy God's justice for our sins or
bribe God by our promises to give or do or refrain from doing. You see, that's what religion
offers people for the most part in our day. Just another way
to bribe God. If you give God all your money,
He might just let you go in the matter of your sin. If you straighten
up your life, He might just let you get off the hook and out
of this prison. Absolutely not. The only way of deliverance is
to satisfy God the Judge. The only way out is to satisfy
divine justice, to pay the debt, to suffer the penalty, which
is death, a death that you can't die and I can't die. But did you hear Zechariah? God says, by the blood of thy
covenant, I have set forth thy prisoners. He says that to Christ. He says
that to Zion, the church. By the blood of thy covenant,
I have set forth the prisoners. What blood is that? That's the
blood of Christ. Paul, if he be the writer of
Hebrews, says in chapter 13, Now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus. What did He do? He died. But the Scriptures had already
said it wouldn't be possible for death or hell or the grave
or the devil or any of these things, it wouldn't be possible
for these things to hold him. It says, Now the God of peace
that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, Why did he raise up Jesus from
the dead? Because the sins that he bore
were put away. He bare them in his body away.
He died the death that was required by the justice of God, that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of
the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting
covenant. The blood of that covenant, that
covenant made by God with His own Son, and in doing so with
all His people in Him, and ratified by the blood of Christ. You see, when the blood is shed,
that covenant says, all that was shed for must go free. Again in Hebrews, for then as
much as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also likewise
took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them
who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage. You know, there are so many things
that a sinner has to be delivered from, so many cells in this prison,
if you will. And Christ suffered in the place
of His people because God had imputed to Him the sins of His
people. He had transferred all the sin
of all His elect for all time to the Lord Jesus Christ. He
had removed the guilt from the guilty and put it on the guiltless
one. And they are prisoners of hope
because this prisoner is responsible for their salvation. You say,
how could you ever have been in a prison and have hope? Because
God has promised that He will set all His people free. Look again in Isaiah 53 at verse
4. Surely he, all this one who looks
in this prison so pitiful himself, and so weak, and so unlovely,
and so unlikely to be such a deliverer, Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted." He's just dying there just like another
sinner, no? But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." How do we know that the Lord
made Christ to be sin for us. How do we know that the Lord
laid on Him the iniquity of His people? Verse 8 says, He was
taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the
land of the living, for the transgression of My people was He stricken. That's who He was stricken for.
the people of God, and for their transgressions." Well, how do
we know that he was? Because he died. Because he died. You can't see sin. And he's not made sin in some
kind of mystical sense. I don't even like to hear that
suggested. We know he was made sin for his
people because the hand of God's justice laid heavy on him, and
the sword of divine justice smote him, and he died. The sinless one died. And everyone he died for. Goes free. Goes free. He satisfied God, and he justly
put away the sins of his believing people by dying in their place. Verse 10, Yet it pleased the
Lord to bruise him, he hath put him to grief. When thou shalt
make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he
shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper
in his hand. He shall see of the travail of
his soul, and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the
strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death, and
he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors." The reason, Joe, why I wanted
you to read Ephesians 4 is because in that 8th verse it tells us,
he led captivity captive. He did it. He set the prisoners
free. He finished the work. He brought
in everlasting righteousness. He made an end of sins. And He,
by His blood, obtained eternal redemption for us. So all His people are free. But though Christ has already
accomplished this just, this righteous deliverance of His
prisoners from that prison of sin and bondage, they are yet
bound in a state of spiritual death and blindness. I'll tell you how we are. They're
like prisoners who lay dead on the prison floor of a cell that
the door is standing wide open on. They lay dead though the prison
door has been opened, though the debt is paid, though justice
has been satisfied. They do not know of their deliverance. What does he say? He said, turn you to the stronghold. That word means fortress. It means a place of safety. It
means the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our high tower. Turn ye
to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope. Even today do I declare
that I will render double unto thee." You see, He has to come to us
in that state by His Spirit. We are so spiritually dead and
blind and ignorant. So much still by nature rebels
against God that we even deny the fact of our imprisonment,
our sinnerhood. We rebel against the hand of
grace to us. But He is a merciful God. And
thank God He is the Almighty God. And He comes where we are. with a simple message and a pitiful
messenger usually. But he comes with this declaration, And you shall know the truth,
and the truth shall make you free. He says, If the Son therefore
shall make you free, Ye shall be free indeed. We lay lifeless on that prison
floor, which may be the pew of a church building, but the Spirit
of grace, the Spirit of God comes to our hearts in power. We're made willing in the day
of His power, given spiritual life that is characterized by
faith that embraces the Savior. And we're brought to live and
to know of this freedom, this liberation that has been accomplished
for us. through the doing and dying of
Jesus Christ. Now, that's the real free at
last. That's something only God's people,
born of His Spirit, knowing the truth as it is in Christ, looking
to the prisoner himself, the Lord Jesus, they only can truly
say, we're free. Whenever it was necessary in
God's purpose to deliver those Israelites out of the bondage
of Egypt, they were delivered by the blood of that Passover
lamb, which was a type of Christ. Slay the lamb, sprinkle the doorposts
and the lintels with blood, and when I see the blood, I'll pass
over you." But then they also had to be delivered by power. God brought them out, He said,
by the right hand of His mighty power. He took them and conquered
the enemy that sought to keep them where they were, drowned
Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea, and he brought them out. He brought Joseph out too. This is an amazing story. It's
not a story, it happens. But one day, In God's purpose, after all was
done for His glory, He brought Joseph out of that prison. Do
you know where he went after prison? He wasn't on parole for
twenty years or thirty years. He didn't go back to being a
servant in Potiphar's house either. He went right to the throne of
Egypt. Just like the Scripture says
that the Lord Jesus, when He had by Himself purged our sins,
He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. And He,
in what He had done and in His wisdom, He brought forth for
that people great blessing. He interpreted
the dream. And God was saying that there'd
be seven years of plenty. And Joseph said to the Pharaoh,
you take, he's saying there'll be seven years of plenty. You
gather up everything that can be gathered and put it away,
because it's going to follow that with seven years of famine. Then it says that Joseph was
given the charge, the control of every bit of that food, every
grain. But it says that he opened the
storehouses. He benefited all the people of
Egypt. But there was a particular family,
his own family, that he especially benefited. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ. We're like Peter, who was in prison. And he was so securely there,
he was at the bottom of the prison, the father's point, And he was
chained to a guard sleeping on both sides of him. He'll not
get out of here. The Bible says that the angel
of the Lord came to him. And while the others slept around
him, he awoke Peter, caused the shackles to fall off of him,
and led him from that dark prison place out through all the things. He didn't in any way just lift
him out. He went out the legal way, opening
every door to the last gate and said Him pray. And that's
what God has to do for us. Christ liberated us before divine
justice. But God has to come to us and
does so because of that. He comes to us and literally
lifts us out of darkness, causes the shackles of our self-righteousness
and old religious experiences and such to fall off. And He
takes us out to breathe that sweet, fresh, free air. that is in Christ. And he said,
don't ever get bound up again. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ hath made you free. And that's our experience all
our days. This morning I was sitting there
and I was thinking about all the pictures of prison and
such and the deliverances. It came to my mind that Christ
is our liberty at every point. He's our deliverance. He's our
freedom. He's the prisoner that sets these
prisoners of hope free. I remember reading about Bunyan's
Pilgrim. He was down in a prison. He'd
been taken captive by giant despair. You ever been taken captive by
giant despair? I'm afraid all too often I have
been and am. And so they looked and there
was no way out. But Bunyan said, but then he
remembered that he had the key of promise in his breast. And
he took out the key of promise, put it in the lock, opened the
door. Went to the next gate, put the
key in, opened that gate. And that's how we're delivered
in every low time. every hour of sorrow, every hour
of depression, every hour of grief, every hour of sin, because of the key, which is
Jesus Christ, and because all the promises of God are yes and
amen in Him. That's how we get out of all
these things. It's not by looking around us, not by looking inside
us, but it's by our remembrance of Christ and what He's done
for us. Ah, for these prisoners of hope,
so blessed of God and grace, may we be found among them. So how do you know? When you
look to the prisoner himself alone. When you look to this Joseph,
to this Jesus, who sets all his people free.
God grant that we might do so.