as we were dealing with the life
of joseph we started in chapter 37 do you recall chapter 37 features
the young man joseph at approximately 17 years old 17 year old young
stripling young uh vibrant man with everything in the world
going for him, not only everything in the world going for him because
of his youth and his vigor. We know he was strong. We know
he was handsome. We know that he had everything
in the world going for him. But on top of that, he had God
going for him, didn't he? Now, we saw that in the 37th
chapter, God had revealed to Joseph two dreams. And we opened
up that series by describing that chapter as the dreamer cometh,
this dreamer cometh. And as we dealt with that chapter,
there were a number of themes that were drawn out of that chapter
that drew us to the great revelation, the great dream of all scripture,
and that is God's dream. and God's work of redemption
in Jesus Christ. Do you guys remember that? Now,
if you do, you do know that what I'm getting at as we go through
the Old Testament is seeking to make a correspondence between
those Old Testament accounts and their fulfillment and reality
in the Lord Jesus. We call that a redemptive interpretation
of scripture. In other words, we're trying
to help us see how that when Jesus said in Psalm 40, verse
seven, lo, I come in the volume of the book, it's written of
me to do thy will, O God, we're trying to help you see how that's
exactly the case as you go through the scriptures. Now, you can't
see that and I can't see that until the spirit of God helps
us to see that. Do you see that? Have you ever
opened up a passage of scripture and said, you know what, this
passage bogs my mind. I have absolutely no idea what
this is talking about. And, but you do know that it's
talking about something relevant because every word of God is
pure, tried in the furnace of fire. Isn't that right? And all
the words of the Lord are right words. And as a second Timothy
3 16 says, I believe all scripture is given by inspiration of God
and is what profitable. So there's nothing in the word
of God that's not profitable. The problem is you and I have
to have an understanding to comprehend its profitableness to us. So
we read in the book of Romans. I believe it's chapter 15 verse
4 and the scriptures are those things that were written before
time were written for our learning. You know what that means? Every
time we go to a passage of scripture, we should learn something. Every
time we go to the passage of scripture with this redemptive
framework, our model in view, we should learn something about
God. We should learn something about God in Christ. We should
learn something about God in Christ for needy sinners like
you and me. That's what we should learn.
This is what our elder was saying in his prayer. And we read it
again in John chapter six, verse 45, and they all shall be taught
of God. This is what I pray every week
for you. As you hear the word of God,
may God teach you, may God teach you. And they shall all be taught
of God. Everyone therefore who has heard and have learned of
the father, here's the result. Are you ready? They come to Christ.
Now, this is what I know, children of God. If God teaches you, you
will come to Christ. You got it? I'm going to try
to help you see something with regards to that today. In your
outline, we had the first message, the dreamer cometh. This is the
sort of sarcastic response of Joseph's brother. And remember,
they were a little bit upset with him because he had a dream
of ruling over his own family. I mean, even dad, Jacob said,
boy, you've got to be kidding. You think I'm gonna bow down
to you? But according to Genesis 37, Jacob hid those things in
his heart. Remember that? Outwardly, he said, I'm not bowing
to you. But inwardly, he knew this, God
has showed him a dream. And God is now showing Joseph
a dream. And we saw in that chapter seven
things that your outline describes. I just want to reiterate those.
In your outline, in the first message, the dreamer cometh,
we saw how that the father loved the son. You remember that? The
opening verses of Genesis 37 said, and Jacob loved Joseph
more than all his brethren. And what I try to emphasize by
that portion is how that God, the father loves God, the son
in a very unique way. God, the father loves God, the
son. You do know that, right? He loves God, the son in a unique
way in which he does not love us. He loves God, the son in
this way, in that everything that God, the son did pleased
him. He loved God the son in a way in which he cannot love
us. If love is corresponding because God the son sacrificed
himself for our sins and God the father loved that because
God the father had a people for himself whom he had chosen in
Christ before the foundation of the world and he was going
to bring them to himself. How many of you are one of those
children for whom Christ died? I hope all of you would be. Now,
I want you to understand that this is a great and covetous
thing with God the Father. He will have his people with
him. And so we see God's love demonstrated towards his son
in that Jacob loved Joseph. And you remember we talked about
this coat that Joseph was given by Jacob. The coat of many colors. And we said that that's a bad
translation is not a coat of many colors. That would be nice,
but it's not a coat of many colors. You know, I've heard some pastors
interpret that as typifying folks from every nation, kindred, tribe
and tongue. That's cool, but that's not what
it's saying. It wasn't a coat of many colors.
It was a coat of expensive value. It was a long tunic and it was
primarily of one color and yet it was laden in all likelihood
with very precious jewels, gold or silver or fine minerals that
would make that coat particular and unique to Joseph. Whenever
Joseph wore that coat, everyone knew that it was Joseph. and
that quote signified the unique, listen to this now, the unique,
the unique, exclusive righteousness of Jesus Christ. See, Christ
possesses a righteousness that you and I don't possess. And
we see him, don't we say, as he, as he serves our heavenly
father on our behalf as doing all things well, all things perfect. He was impeccable in his obedience
to his father. And that was a great, great testimony
by the cult. We also saw in Genesis 37, this
other thing, his brethren hated him, didn't they? Didn't those
10 knucklehead boys hate brother Joseph? Now I want you to know
why they hated him because I'm laying a foundation. I want you
to see this. They hated him because of his dream. They hated him
because the dream said that Joseph was going to rule exclusively.
You remember that? That's why they hated him. And
we carried that over, didn't we? Because the whole human race
by nature hates the Lord Jesus, don't they? Truth is you hate
him and I do too. You understand? See, by nature,
we will not have that man to rule over us. Isn't that so?
Until God changes our hearts and calls us to see how lovely
the Savior is, we fight against his lordship, don't we? And what
did they do to our brother Joseph? They cast him into a pit. Remember
that? They cast him into a pit and their objective was to kill
him, wasn't it? And we saw this in our reading today. In their
mind, Joseph was not. That means in their minds he
had died. So you see, casting one into a pit is essentially
murdering that one. And then we find out that when
Reuben interceded, they took Joseph and they sold him to the
Ishmaelites who sold him to the Egyptians. Remember that? Well,
saints, do you know in Exodus chapter 21, if a man is found
stealing another man, that's equal to murder? And according
to Exodus 21, he is to be stoned to death just as if he committed
murder. This is why these boys' conscience
was bothering them, according to our chapter. Because in their
minds, they had killed their brother. Do you see the great
theme as it carries over to the crucified Christ by his own kinsmen? He came unto his own, his own
received him not. According to Psalm chapter two,
both the Jews and the Gentiles said, we will not have this man
to rule over us. We will cast his yoke off of
us. We will break asunder his cords. He will not rule over
us, but God shall laugh at them. And God has laughed at them.
We saw in that account also how that not only was he cast into
a pit, he was sold into Egypt and then he ended up going to
jail by false accusation. Isn't that so? He started working
for Potiphar and his wife, Potiphar's wife, rather, sought to have
illicit conjugation with Joseph. Joseph stood, he was obedient
to God, he fled this woman, and what did she do? She said he
came in and tried to rape him. Isn't that right? And what we
learned by that is that even Jesus was falsely accused, wasn't
he? And because he was falsely accused,
he himself was brought into a state of being in prison and then put
to death. We learned this in Isaiah chapter 53 verse 8. He
was taken from prison and from judgment and he made his grave
with the rich and the wicked in his death simply because there
was no guile in his mouth. In other words, he was the only
human being in all of the world who was fit to suffer a false
accusation by which he would redeem his people. And we see
this typified in Joseph. Am I making some sense? Okay,
good, because I'm laying a foundation. This has to be understood that
when you read your Bible, you need to see Jesus through the
scriptures, because that's our hope. So then when they cast
him into the pit, do you recall that in that chapter where, not
into the pit, but into prison, that Joseph became the ruler
of the prison? The brother was the ruler of
the pit. Then he was the ruler of the prison. Do you know everywhere
the Lord was, he was ruling? He ruled everywhere. And what
we enjoyed in that account, and I want you to think about this,
was in that particular chapter, if you have your Bibles, I want
you to see that phrase again, because I was meditating on the
beauty of that phrase. I think it's in chapter 39. Yes, listen to it again in chapter
39, verse 21 and 22. I wanna say something about this. Verse 20, and Joseph's master
took him and put him into prison, a place where the king's prisoners
were bound. Remember that? See, this is one
of the reasons why I really do advocate and enjoy the King James
Version. Because the King James Version,
even though in many cases it's not as accurate as in some other
translations, for the most part it is. And they were sensitive
to certain theological concepts that are relevant to us. do you
know that joseph was in prison with the king's prisoners and
i said that you and i are the king's prisoners i want you to
know something i don't mind being in prison with joseph i don't
mind being in prison with joseph and i've said this also before
whether you know it or not all of us are in prison in this world
You know, there's a reality that we desire to be free, but we're
not quite free, isn't that so? We want to do some things, but
we can't actually accomplish those things. We are limited
by a lot of things, aren't we? But it's all right to be limited
and in this sort of prison as long as Joseph is with us. And
if you read the account carefully, listen to what it says, and I
want to raise a question. It says here in verse 22, And
verse 21, 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. Do you see that? Can I say something
about that? All the prisoners, all the king's
prisoners is Joseph's responsibility. See, some of you can enjoy that
right now, but some of you have missed the point. But see, this
is part of what is called gospel preaching. And I want you to
know what that is. Gospel preaching is the exaltation of Jesus Christ
alone. Gospel preaching makes Jesus
Christ the one who not only obtains the glory, but he obtains the
glory because he is the one responsible. Did you get that? He is totally
responsible for the calls and welfare of his people. Now, see,
I know some of you have had that pass over your head and time
pass. You've heard the doctrines of
grace. You've heard the scriptures taught. What you have missed
is this. Everything that Jesus did. everything
he did not for himself, but for his people. So this is how this
works now because I want you to get this God the father placed
on God the son the full responsibility of the redemption of all of his
people and Jesus was glad to do it. This is why the father
loved him. And in doing so, Jesus Christ saw to it what we call
the doctrine of surety ship that everyone for whom he died, everyone
for whom the father called everyone who believes on him, who trusts
on him infallibly will make it to glory. And you know, the grounds
of it is not your faith or my faith or my duty or your duty
or your works or my works, but his faith, his duty, his works. And see, this is how you can
draw from the nectar of the tree of life. As you read the scriptures,
whenever you see Jesus doing anything, remember two things.
I said this last time. I want you to remember this.
First of all, everything Jesus did was meritorious. Remember
that the word merit means that it possesses value. Whenever
he acted, whenever he prayed, whenever he obeyed, whenever
he resisted evil, whenever he submitted to evil, both passively
and actively, it became an act meritorious of divine righteousness. In the eyes of God the Father,
he was pleased because now Christ had provided. by his obedience,
a righteousness, which brings us to the next word. Everything
Christ does is meritorious. Everything you and I do is de-meritorious. Did you get that? Everything
you and I do is de-meritorious. You don't believe that, do you?
Everything you and I do is de-meritorious. It puts a negative check. If
I touch it, it's negative. If you touch it, it's negative.
If Christ touches it, it's positive. But here's the beauty. Not only
is it meritorious, it's transferable. Who needs righteousness today? I do. Do you hear me? Who needs
righteousness today? I do. I need Christ's righteousness
and I want you to know something else. Not only is it meritorious
and transferable that Jesus did it for that specific reason,
to impute it to unworthy, guilty sinners like you and me. Did
you get it? Now watch how this text worked because we saw this
before and I want you to see this. Notice what it says over
in verse 23. The keeper having committed to Joseph all the prisoners
into his hand that were in the prison, watch this last participle.
And whatsoever they did there, do you see it? Did you mark that
last time? He was the doer of it. Isn't that beautiful? Now watch
this now. All throughout the New Testament,
Paul unashamedly makes it clear that Jesus Christ He is the author
and finisher of our faith. He makes it clear that he who
have begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day
of Jesus Christ. He makes it clear in first Thessalonians
chapter five, he who have called you will also do it. He makes
it clear. See, when you understand grace
from a biblical perspective, this is what you understand,
that God starts it, God carries it, and God finishes it. Now,
this blows our mind because you and I are so naturally work-oriented. We are so naturally work-oriented
that we cannot compute God having done everything to obtain eternal
salvation for us. The natural question that raises
up in our minds is, then what am I supposed to do? You want
me to help you? You ready? Nothing. Nothing. nothing. We're going to see that
today. We're going to see that today.
But here's my question. As we get ready to go to our text,
what kind, what is it? What would you call a prisoner?
What would you call a prisoner who was in prison with Joseph?
What would you call a prisoner who was in prison with Joseph?
Here's what the scripture calls them. In Zechariah 9, verses
11 through 13, if you have your Bibles, go there. This is the
type of prisoner who is a prisoner with Joseph. The word of God
calls them prisoners of hope. Did you get that prisoners of
hope? I want you to see it. This is
so glorious because, you know, often we look at prison and going
to jail and being confined as something hyper negative in its
connotation. But when you go through the word
of God, you find like a whole lot of God's saints have went
to prison. A whole lot of God's saints have
gone to jail. This preacher before you has
done some of that. And if you hadn't got caught,
you would've too. Listen to Zechariah 9, verses
11 through 13. Are you there? This is God speaking
to his people. As for you, this is God speaking
to Christ. As for you also, by the blood
of your covenant, have I sent forth your prisoners out of the
pit wherein is no water. Do you see it? This is the father
speaking to the son. He says, I've sent your prisoners
out of the pit wherein there was no water. Verse 12, turn
ye to the stronghold, ye what? Prisoners of hope. You got it.
You know what it means to turn to the stronghold to look to
Christ. To look to Christ, he's the stronghold
of God's people, you know, if you ever done any time and I
hope you never do, but it's a it's a place where you can be mighty
hopeless. It can be depressing, it can
mess with your head, but if you know Christ, it's well listen
to what it says turn you to the stronghold you prisoners of hope
even today do I declare that I will render double unto you
do you see that that's called a portion for the firstborn you
didn't know that did you hear these guys are called prisoners
but God's promise to them is not only will they be delivered
but he will give them the portion of the firstborn Now, this is
important if you go with me back to Genesis 39 to establish the
forerunner doctrine. Remember I talked to us about
Joseph being a forerunner and the word forerunner means that
he was the one who ran ahead of us. He ran ahead of his brethren. In other words, he went into
Egypt first. Joseph was in the pit first.
Joseph was in prison first, wasn't he? Now I want you to know this
also. Joseph was exalted to the throne first. Now I want you
to see this because his brethren are coming the exact same way
right now. Do you see that? Where is his family headed? They're
headed to Egypt, aren't they? They're headed to Egypt. And
we talked about this long ago. You and I have an affinity towards
Egypt, don't we? Abraham had a problem when it
was a famine in Genesis 12. He ran down to Egypt, got in
trouble. Isaac was tempted to go down to Egypt and get in trouble.
God said, don't do it. Remember that? And Jacob is now
running to Egypt. He's running to Egypt. But I
need to establish one more structure for you to see how important
it is for God to be unfolding Genesis chapter 42 for us. And we need to start back at
Genesis 41. In your Bible, look with me at Genesis 41. Do you
recall how that Joseph being in prison, communicating with
the butler and the baker over the two dreams they had? And
the butler was restored to his duties before the king. He was
the king's cupbearer, but the baker died. Remember that? And
when the butler was restored to his duties, Joseph said to
the butler, now, when you get to Pharaoh, just Just remember
me, you know, just remember me. Of course, the butler didn't
do that. But then God troubled Pharaoh, didn't he? And Pharaoh
had a dream. In fact, he had two dreams. Just
like we've said, we're dealing with three sets of two dreams
here. Joseph had two dreams. The butler and the baker had
two dreams. Pharaoh had two dreams. You got to understand these things
are not accidents. You remember the two dreams?
Seven fat cows represented seven years of plenty. seven years
of blessing, seven years of great produce for Egypt, and then seven
years of thin cows. It represented seven years of
famine and trouble and anguish for everyone. That's our context. That's our context. Now, the
title of my message is this, and I'm praying right now that
God touched somebody. This is the title of my message.
Joseph, the mediator of the new covenant, and the work of the
spirit of God in drawing sinners to Christ. Joseph, the mediator
of the new covenant and the work of the spirit of God in drawing
sinners to Christ. Listen very carefully. The account
tells us in Genesis 39 that Pharaoh was so happy with Joseph's interpretation
of the dream that he exalted him to be vizier, prime minister
of Egypt. Do you remember that? If you
look over in verse 31, verse 37 through 44, listen to what
it says. And the thing was good in the
eyes of Pharaoh. and in the eyes of all his servants.
And Pharaoh said unto his servants, can we find such a one as this,
a man in whom the spirit of God is? Pharaoh said unto Joseph,
for as much as God has showed thee all this, there is none
so discreet and wise as you are. You shall be over my house. You got it? Dream come in the
past, isn't it? You shall be over my house, and
according unto thy word, watch this now, shall all my people
be ruled. See the typology? Notice what
it says. Only in the throne will I be
greater than you. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph,
See, I have set you over all of Egypt. Saints, this is a great
foreshadow of Jesus Christ being exalted over all the world. Now,
I want you to see the next phrases, because the Spirit of God wrote
this intentionally and Pharaoh took off his ring. from his hand
and put it on Joseph's hand. Do you know what that means by
way of symbolism? This is in all cultures, a transfer
of authority. Whenever the king took his ring
off and gave it to another person, they had the very authority that
the king did. And what we understand is that
when Jesus rose again from the dead, he told his disciples,
all authority and power has been given unto me of my father. You
remember that? So we see here Pharaoh, a great
picture of God, the father giving to Joseph authority over all
of Egypt. The dream is coming to pass. Now notice what he goes on to
say. He put not only a ring upon his hand, but he arrayed him
in a vesture of fine linen and put a gold chain about his neck. And let me leave that alone.
We laughed about a year ago as we talked about King Solomon,
when he built this temple and all the gold that he used in
the temple. And I said inadvertently that Solomon had to be black,
all that gold that he was using. And this is true of Joseph too.
I can see Joseph with those big old gold medallions that the
brothers wear. This was typical of the Egyptians
in that day, but I'm diverting right now. And any of it, it
goes on to say in verse 43, and he made him to ride in the second
chariot, which he had, and they cried before him. Listen to it,
saints. Bow the knee. DC bow the knee and he made him
ruler of all the land of Egypt. And we are reminded of Philippians
chapter 2 where for God had highly exalted him and given him a name
above every name. that at the name of Jesus Christ,
every knee should bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Isn't that right?
Listen to me, the scriptures from Genesis to Revelation depict
Jesus as successfully taking rule over this world. This is
why as we preach and teach, we never put the question mark there,
is Jesus Lord? It's an exclamation mark. It's
an emphatic point, Christ is Lord. Did you get that? Christ
is Lord. God hath made him both Lord and
Christ according to Acts chapter 2. So it's a matter of men and
women coming to realize the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Here's my question.
Have you realized it yet? Has God caused you to see Joseph
fulfilling the dream ruling over all of Egypt for you? If you
ask, there are some things that are going to take place in chapter
42, which you will be able to experience. Now, what happens
in chapter 41 is the seven years of blessings. The seven years
of fullness and sufficiency are gone. They have entered now into
the seven years of famine. Isn't that correct? Now, whether
you know this or not, and I'll say this for good measure, Joseph
was sold into Egypt when he was 17. He took the throne in Egypt
when he was 30 years old. That means him and his brothers
were separated by 13 years, right? 13 years. How do we know this? In chapter 41, verse 46, it says,
and Joseph was 30 years old when he stood before Pharaoh, king
of Egypt. You got it? 30 years old. That means from
17 to 23 years, from 20 to 30, 10 years, his brethren have not
seen him for 13 years. But it's been longer than that.
because you see they had seven years of plenty, remember? So
there's another seven years, which means it's been at least
20 years. Because you see, we are now in
a time of what? Famine. And I want you to see
the language as we lay the foundation for this whole mysterious truth
that does apply so appropriately to you and me. Over in verse
53, and the seven years of plenteousness that was in the land of Egypt
were ended. Verse 54, in the seven years
of dearth that his famine began to come, according as Joseph
had said, and the dearth was in all the land. Do you see?
This was a famine saints that was all around the world. Now
watch this, but in all the land of Egypt, there was bread. See what Joseph had done was
stocked up. He had built big barges and caves
and he stored up all kinds of corn, didn't he? And when the
famine occurred, it began to occur. Joseph knew where the
corn would be for people to get it. Isn't that so? Now watch
what the text says. And when the land of Egypt was
famished, the people cried unto Pharaoh for bread. And Pharaoh
said unto all the Egyptians, go unto Pharaoh, go unto Joseph. You got it? Now watch this. And
whatever he says to you, do it. It reminds me of Mary. Remember
the first wedding feast? And she came to Jesus and said,
we didn't run out of wine. And Jesus said, it's not my time
yet. And she went back and told the
service, whatever he says, do it. Listen to me carefully. Whatever
the Lord says, do it, do it. That's good news. That's good
advice, isn't it? Now watch this because this is
so beautiful. God has providentially created a famine in all of the
world, didn't he? Does God bring famine? Does God
bring plenty? Does God bless? And does he curse? Yes, he does. And there's a famine
now, saints, listen, and everyone has to come to Joseph. Isn't
that right? Everyone, without exclusion.
Let me ask you a question. Have you ever experienced a famine
in your soul? See, this is where we're going.
See, the only way you're gonna ever come to Joseph is if you
experience a famine in your soul. I have found that men and women
do not need the Lord Jesus while they're full, fat and sufficient
in themselves. Isn't that so? I found that until
God dries us up and withers us up and removes all refuges, false
refuges, all crutches, all of those things that we use to shore
ourselves up and to buttress ourselves against trouble, that
we won't come to him. But do you know what the scripture
says? All that the father giveth me shall come to me. Now, if you've come to him, I'm
going to tell you what happened. God put a famine in your soul,
didn't he? God all of a sudden dried up
your soul, dried up your heart, took away all of those carnal
pleasures that satisfied you. And the next thing you found
yourself doing was longing for God. You were longing for peace. You were longing for stability.
You were longing for what you never long for, righteousness.
And this is why we read in Matthew chapter five, blessed are they
that hunger and thirst for righteousness. Isn't it right? And see, they're
blessed because God produces that in your soul. He produces
that. God has to dry you up before
he fills you up. And so here's what happens. The
whole world has to come to Joseph and we read in verse 56 and the
famine was all over the face of the earth. Joseph opened all
the storehouses. and sold unto the Egyptians.
And the famine was sore in the land of Egypt. And all countries,
not just Egypt, all countries came to Egypt to Joseph for to
buy corn because that the famine was sore in all the land. Do
you see it? Are you ready now? Let's open
up our text. And let me remind you once again
that Joseph is the mediator. The mediator is the one you got
to come to for the blessing. The mediator is like the benefactor
of the covenant. He's the one that can dispense
the blessings of the covenant. We have a covenant of grace,
the covenant of mercy, the covenant of redemption, the covenant of
salvation. We call the gospel is Christ is the mediator of
that, and he has to dispense that to us. So in order for us
to be blessed, we've got to come to Christ. Do you see that? And
this is why the scripture says God highly exalted him, set him
at his own right hand and was pleased that in him all fullness
should dwell. That means those of us who don't
have fullness, we have to come to him who has fullness in order
to get fullness. This is Colossians chapter one,
verse nine. So I want you to see how the context works, because
you recall when the brothers threw Joseph into the pit and
sold him down the river, they thought they were rid of Joseph,
didn't they? All of a sudden, here comes a famine in the land
of Canaan. Look at chapter 42. Chapter 42, a famine in the land
of Canaan. I like the way this opens up,
verse one. Now, when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt,
Jacob said unto his sons, why do you look one upon another?
Isn't that funny? Here they are sitting around
broke, hungry, nothing to eat, and they're just kind of looking
at each other. Corn does not grow by looking at each other.
Jacob looks at these boys and I'm gonna tell you Jacob had
a problem with his boys because these men were sinful These men
were wicked men and he looks at me. So what you guys doing
looking at each other? We can't eat that way There's
corn down in Egypt. Go to Egypt. It now what he says
go to Egypt. I'll tell you I'll tell you the
dream is coming to pass Go to Egypt. Now, as they head down
to Egypt and they go down to Egypt with a bunch of other brethren,
notice what it says over in verse six. And Joseph was the governor
over the land, and it was he that sold to all the people of
the land. And Joseph's brethren came and
bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth.
Do you see it? Do you see it? Is every knee
going to bow? Is every tongue going to confess?
That's you. That's me. That's everyone. Oh,
no, I'm not going to bow. Yes, you will. Yes, you will. You're going to bow because the
word of the Lord is right. You're going to bow. I'm praying
right now that the Spirit of God starts causing you to bow
today. See, because if you bow like
in this case, it's gonna be well with you. It's gonna be well
with you. Now, I want you to see this account because it's
very important that God is sovereign first and foremost. You do know
that, right? See, the preparation in the heart of man and the answer
of the tongue is from the Lord. And there are many devices in
the heart of a man, but the counsel of the Lord, that shall what?
Stand. And we see God's counsel standing right here, don't we?
We see God saying long, long ago, these boys are gonna come
and bow before Joseph. Isn't that right? Now they had
no intentions of doing it. Do you know that by nature, you
don't have any intentions of bowing before the Lord Jesus,
but you will when God gets through with you. So we're looking at
an account where we can highlight over in verse six, the sovereignty
of God. God is sovereign. God will bring
you to your knees. God will draw you. This is the
work of the spirit of God. He'll tear up everything in our
lives to get us to Christ. He will destroy all of our false
refuges. He will destroy all of our sufficiency,
all of our carnal security, all of our tricks to get us to fall
down before Jesus Christ. Have you learned that? He'll
just destroy it all. You can't beat God. You just
can't beat God. The other thing is that I want
you to see this as we work our way through this text. These
boys come to Joseph, but they don't know who he is. Look at
verse seven. And Joseph saw his brethren and he knew them, but
he made himself strange unto them. Do you see that? and he
spake rough unto them. And he said unto them, Where
are you coming from? And they said, From the land of Canaan
to buy food. And Joseph knew his brethren,
but they knew him not. Now I'm going to touch on that
here in a little bit, but I just want you to mark that he knew
them, but they didn't know him. Do you know that the Lord Jesus
knows us way long before we know him? Yeah, he was long beforehand
dealing with our soul. You know, the hymn writer puts
it like this, I sought the Lord, but afterwards I knew he moved
my soul to seek him seeking me. And see, when God's drawing you
to himself, and I'm praying that I can get real practical with
this. When God's drawing you to himself, he does it in such
strange ways, you don't even know it's the Lord for the longest
of time. Sometimes you might even think it's the enemy if
you got bad theology. If you got this dualism where
the devil is as strong as Jesus is, and they're sort of fighting
this, you know, heavenly battle and conflict between the forces
of good and evil. Darth Vader against the other
boy. And you've got this idea that
somehow God has an equal duel in the enemy. You have, you've
got a mythological doctrine. You know that, right? Because
God rules over the devil. You know that. The devil is God's
devil. That's what Luther says. God
tells him when to come and when to go. You do know that, right?
And so in that sense, there's no dualism. God rules. And you
and I, when we're being brought to Christ, I want you to know
this. Trouble is what he uses to break
you down. Trouble is what he uses. I was
thinking about this all week long, because I think about how
God deals with all of us. And so many of you will talk
to me in council and you'll talk to me about your troubles and
you'll talk to me about your difficulties. And what I know
is that at that moment, you are closer to God than you ever have
been. And I, on the one hand, I want
you to be free from your troubles. On the other hand, I don't. Because
I know what happens when God loosens the range off of us.
We go buck wild again. We we start acting like, you
know, we forgot where where God's mercies came from. Isn't that
so? That's just our nature, isn't it? You're going to find out
something here. If you can hold on a minute that God knows how
to straighten that out and teach you and I something. There is
a peculiar precomp with us as human beings, too. I want you
to see this. And that's this is called self-deception. Have
you learned that the one person that's most easily deceived is
you and that you are the one deceiving you? And I wanna share
something else with you. No one else is deceived about
you, but you. We know you. But you don't know
you. But you think you know you. I
want you to see that in our text. I'm laughing, I'm being a little
bit of humorous here, but this is so clear in our text. Notice
what it says in verse nine. Joseph remembered the dream which
he dreamed of them and he said unto them, you're spies. You
came to see the nakedness of the land. Now, Joseph is intentionally
being difficult with these boys. Intentionally. And I'll tell
you exactly why. It's important that these boys
know that Joseph is Lord. Did you get that? It's important
that these boys know that Joseph is Lord. See, we got this phony
idea that Jesus is the kind of person that you can kind of walk
up to and be buddy-buddy with, like the t-shirts these young
kids are wearing, which is quite blasphemous. Jesus is my homeboy. No, Jesus is not your homeboy.
Jesus is not your buddy. Jesus is not your partner. Jesus
is not even your friend until Jesus is your Lord. Am I being
too extreme here? But I want you to understand
because there is this distortion of the Lordship of Christ today
where people don't view Him as He really is, the Lord. And until we grapple with this
fact that he is the Lord of our life, you and I cannot be blessed
by his savior hood. We can't be blessed by him being
our savior until we acknowledge his lordship. You know what that
means? One of the primary works of the spirit of God, this is
John 16, eight. You remember this, this is a
initial work of the spirit. Drive this home in your heart
if you've never comprehended this. And when he, the spirit
of truth has come, he will convince you. He will convince you. The word is a legal term. He
will put you into court in your conscience. He will bring you
before the bar of God's law. He will stand you over against
the plumb line of God's righteousness. He will put a mirror up before
you and he will prove to you infallibly without a doubt that
you are a sinner. That's the work of the Spirit
of God. Do you hear me? That's the work of the spirit
of God. And when he, the spirit of truth has come, he will convince
the world of sin. How many of you are convinced
you're a sinner? See, and I hear in the world, I hear in the church
world, when you come to Christ and he takes care of you, you're
no more a sinner. You're gonna be a sinner until
you die. Do you know that? You're gonna be a sinner until
you die and hit the dust. Until you are completely glorified,
you're gonna be a sinner. Here's another truth that is
not comprehended. When Christ calls you by his
grace, over time, your sin becomes exceedingly sinful. Over time,
you see more of your sin, not less of your sin. As you grow
in your relationship with the Lord of your life, that which
was hidden comes to the surface and you become even more aggravated
with yourself. You know, you thought you were
doing all right for a season. And then that ugly monster rolls
up again. You thought for sure you had
that battle won. Remember that? Where on earth
did that come from? It never was put away. It was
just in a cessation for a period of time, in a period of pause
to rise up to trouble you again, to run you to Christ. because
as the writer to the book of Philippians puts it, or Colossians,
as you have received the Lord Jesus Christ, so walk ye in him.
In other words, when you receive Christ by faith, that day the
Spirit of God made him real to you, that's how you walk with
Christ all the days of your life. You never get so well in your
walk, so fervent in your growth, so solid in your walk with the
Savior that you don't sin anymore, that you don't need the cross
work of Christ. You don't ever get so holy that you don't need
to hear the gospel preached to you. That's why we preach it
every week. Do you hear me? Jesus keep me
near the cross. Isn't that what the hymn writer
says? Okay. Well now let's look at something
here because he's just accused them of spying on the land and
I want you to see how they respond because there is a truth here
for you and I as well over in verse 11. This is what they say.
We are all one man's son. Are you there? We are true man. Your servants are not spies.
We are true men. Here's my proposition to you.
The proverb puts it this way in the book of Proverbs chapter
20, around verse six. This is what he says. Every man
will proclaim his own goodness. Every man. But a faithful man
who can find. This is what the proverb says
too. I think it's in chapter 14, verse 12. There's a way that
seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
He says it in another proverb, too. I think it's Proverbs chapter
21, verse two, somewhere around there. He says, every way of
man is right in his own eyes. Now, I want you to drive that
home because, you know, often when we read the scriptures,
we do not apply it to ourselves, but it's to you and it's to me.
In my mind, my way is right. In your mind, your way is right,
but listen to me, it's wrong. It's wrong. Do you hear me? My
way is wrong. Your way is wrong. And over time,
God proves our way is wrong. Do you hear me? He proves our
way is wrong. What these boys did is what I
see often happen when people come to church. I want to expand
on this. These boys were in a desperate strait. They certainly needed
food. They were hungry. And they came
to Egypt simply to buy corn. Their motive was correct here.
They were honest in what they said about themselves concerning
that immediate event. But the way they depicted themselves
to Joseph was that that's the way they always were. Like they
never ever did anything wrong. No time. We're honest men all
the time. We have always been honest. And
listen to me, you will never get anywhere with the Lord Jesus
telling those kind of lies. You will never get anywhere.
You and I by nature are not honest. The Hebrew word, there's a very
strong Hebrew word there, that adjective, we're true men. You're
not true. There's only one true man. Do
you know that? There's only one true man. There's
only one true man who was born true and died true. And that's
the Lord Jesus. You remember what the rich young
ruler said? Good master. Jesus said, wait
a minute. Why are you calling me good? Don't you know there's
one good, even God, you remember that? And why did Jesus become
such a stickler in that case? Aren't there good people in the
world? We hear this often. We hear this, well, he's a good
person. She's a good person. But if you had to try to prove
that point by the word of God, the word of God would find you
wrong. Because you know what the word of God says in Romans
chapter 3 verse 9. There is none good How many is
none all? Isn't that right? There are none
that seek after God. There's none that understand
there's none that that There's four nuns There's none that do
it good We don't do good and when the when the Lord was responding
to that fellow There's only one good. He was talking about the
source of good. And that's God. God is the source
of good, isn't he? He's the cause. He's the wellspring
of good. Now, I want to explain this just
a little bit and then I go on in our text. You and I will see
people who do good. But that's different than being
good, isn't that right? Doing good is different than
being good. Doing good often is out of a bad motive. Most
people do good to appear to be good. Most people do good in
order to merit favor with God. Most people boast in their doing
good as if it was their nature and they are grossly mistaken.
And so are these men. And this is what Joseph is going
to do to test them, which is going to draw us to our next
point. Now, remember, what's happening here, Saints, is this
the spirit of God is dealing with these men. You got me. The
spirit of God has dried up their souls. The Spirit of God has
drove them to the one person that can help them. They don't
know him yet, but he knows them. The Spirit of God has begun to
reveal to them their false refuges, their false estimation of themselves. This is the thing that hurts
when we come to Christ, isn't it? When God reveals to us that
we're not all that, it hurts because we're not. And then as
we grow, we find out more that we're not all that. And here's
what happens. Notice what it says. Joseph didn't
buy it. Verse 14, Joseph said unto them
that which I told you is true. Your spies hereby you shall be
proved by the life of Pharaoh. You shall not go forth. Hence,
except your younger brother come hither. This is what he said. All right, we're going to find
out if you spies or not. I want you to bring your little
brother. You got it. Don't don't go to sleep on me
now. There's something to learn here. The testing that Joseph
is about to impose upon his brothers is the same test that's imposed
upon you and I, as God, by his word, by his law, exposes our
inadequacies and our sins. He says, I want your little brother,
send one of you, let him fetch your brother and you shall be
kept in prison. You got it. See, they're getting
ready to be put in prison now, aren't they? See, they sent their
little brother. He was cast into the pit. He
ended up in prison. Now they're in prison, isn't
it? It's very interesting. They're going to be in prison
for three days. And notice what it says in verse 18. And Joseph
said unto them, the third day, this do and you shall be put
into prison. The third they did this doing
and you shall live for. I fear God. Verse 19. If you
be true men, let one of your brethren be bound in the house
of your prison. Go ye carry corn for the famine
of your houses, but bring your youngest brother unto me, so
shall your words be verified and you shall not die. And they
left, you got it? But now watch this, this is so
peculiar. The law was laid down on their
conscience. They were told precisely what
they must do in order for them to live and for their brother
to live. They said, we will do it. But as they proceeded to
leave, notice their conversation. They said one to another, we
are very guilty. Do you see? See, this is the
first time they said they were guilty. You got it? This is the first time they said
they were guilty. And the confession of our guilt, saints, is critical
to our reconciliation with God. You got it? And the Holy Spirit
will work this guilt in you in order to remove it. See, no one
is coming to Christ without first confessing their sin and their
guilt. He that saith he hath no sin is a liar and the truth
is not in him. Isn't that right? So the Spirit
of God is working in them to confess their guilt. And I want
you to see what it was that they were guilty of in their own conscience. One said to another, we are guilty
concerning our brother. Do you see it? Concerning our
brother. Now, if you recall, when I share
with you John 16, eight, where the passage says, and when he,
the spirit of truth has come, he will convince the world of
sin, of righteousness and of judgment. Do you know what Jesus
went on further to say of sin? Here it is, because you do not
believe on me. Do you hear of sin because of
unbelief? See, the core sin of the human
race is not ultimately whether or not we lie or steal or commit
adultery or do this or that. Those things are bad. The core
sin of the human race is rejection of the lordship of Jesus Christ.
Do you hear me? The core sin of the human race
is that when God comes to us in the testimony of creation,
in the testimony of conscience, in the testimony of law, and
in the testimony of the gospel, saying that Jesus is Lord, we
reject Him. That's the core sin. And these
brethren are being brought right back to the core sin that they
had committed. I thought that was so uncanny.
I mean because they they're in their mind. They're not dealing
with Joseph. They're dealing with some Lord
of Egypt. Why are there now? Why are they now being drawn
back to that initial event where they had done such an atrocity
against their brother? You know how that happened when
Joseph said bring me your little brother. You got it when Joseph
said bring me your little brother. Bring me your little brother.
And I want you to see how this works. If you give me a few more
minutes of your time, look with me over at verse 32, verse 30
through verse 36, and notice how Jacob responds. Then I have
one more point to share with you. Verse 30, they are describing
to Jacob, their father, their conversation with the ruler. They don't know who he is, but
this is what he says. This is what they say to Joseph.
And I want you to notice, to Jacob rather, I want you to notice
how Jacob responds. The man who is the Lord of the
land spake roughly to us. And he took us for spies of the
country. And we said to him, we are true men. We're not spies. We be 12 brethren, sons of our
father. One is not. And the youngest
is this day with our father in the land of Canaan. You notice
something strange about that text? You ready? This is precisely
the same language they use with Joseph. They didn't hardly change
it at all. You know what this sounds like
to me? It sounds like they set this up. It sounds like they
were trying to convince themselves that there was nothing wrong
with them. It sounds like they were trying to convince themselves
that all that they were doing was merely pursuing a transaction
for corn. And they're trying to get Jacob
to believe that there is no guilt in them. Now watch this. And the man told us verse 34,
bring your youngest brother unto me. Then shall I know that you
are no spies, but that you are true men. So will I deliver your
brother and you shall traffic in the land. I want you to notice
the next verse. And it came to pass as they emptied
their sacks. that behold, every man's bundle
of money was in their sack. And when both they and their
father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid. Now I'll explain
that in a moment, but look with me at verse 36. And Jacob, their
father said unto them, me have you bereaved of my children. Now notice Jacob immediately
goes to Joseph. There is no reason for this other
than Jacob knows that these 10 boys are scoundrels. And that
the last time he left them alone with all the brothers, Joseph
disappeared. And they come back from Egypt
with this highfalutin proposition from the Lord. And Joseph doesn't
buy or Jacob doesn't buy it. He says, man, I don't believe
you at all. Look, I was bereaved of my children. Joseph is not.
Simeon is not. And you will take Benjamin away.
All these things are against me. See, Jacob became more conscious
of the guilt of what was going on than even the boys did. He
was aware in his mind and in his heart that what was happening
was a consequence of what they had done 20 years back. 20 years
back, Jacob was living with this enigma, this parable, this experience
that they didn't share with him concerning them. He didn't quite
buy the idea that Joseph was eaten up by some wild beast,
although metaphorically he was, but he didn't buy that idea.
He knew that these boys did something to Joseph. You know what he thought? This is what he thought. Follow
me. He thought that these boys sold Joseph into Egypt. See what you're gonna see here
is what is called poetic justice. Go down to Egypt, buy some corn
cause we're starving. Here you come back now talking
about Simeon's gone and they want Benjamin too. Well, I lost
Joseph 20 years ago by your hand and the noise, the rumor that
was going around because you know, you can't keep secrets.
The rumors that were going around the land was you guys had sold
Joseph into Egypt. Now is that a plausible thought?
Absolutely it is. You know human nature. After
they sold Egypt, you can't tell me one of those 10 boys was not
running around, frolicking with some of those people, got a little
drunk and his tongue got loose. Yeah, we sold Joseph, man. We
got tired of that dream. We sold him. I'm trying to paint
a picture of the nature of these 10 boys. They were very wicked.
Do you hear me? They were very wicked. And you
guys know in your own human experience that you can't get away with
sin, don't you? You know that, don't you? You know we can try
to keep a lid on it for a little while, but eventually it's coming
out, isn't it? If it's not coming out of our
own mouth, it's coming out of someone else's mouth. And so
as Moses said in the law, be sure your sins will what? Spy
you out. That's what's happening right
here. But the greatest thing that shocked,
the greatest thing that shocked Jacob is what I'm gonna close
with now. When he saw all that money fall
off those sacks, he said, these boys are crooks. Didn't he? You guys are crooks. And I want
you to know this. They didn't even, they didn't
intend for that to happen. Back up with me over at verse
24. Are we at verse 24? Let me say this as we are going
in verse twenty two or verse twenty three. They they knew
not that Joseph understood them, for he's spoken to them by an
interpreter. Right. So Joseph spoke in Egyptian while they
spoke in Hebrew. He brought an interpreter to
stand as a go between. But he could understand them,
but they couldn't understand him. Joseph was moved. When they began to confess their
sin, Do you see it? I'm gonna say this, but I'm gonna
share this in weeks to come. Eight times from this chapter
to the 50th chapter, Joseph weeps. Eight times. Eight times Joseph
loses his composure in the presence of his brethren and he weeps.
Listen to me, saints. The Lord Jesus weeps when he
sees repenting sinners. Are you listening to me? The
Lord Jesus weeps when he sees repenting sinners because he
sees the work of his father in the hearts of repenting sinners.
The Lord Jesus weeps because he sees his father's will being
fulfilled. This, see, this is not a weeping
of despair. This is a weeping of joy. This
is a weeping of hope. This is a weeping of prospect.
See, because as he is testing these men, he's finding out that
they are admitting their guilt. See, this is who God deals with.
He came to save what? Sinners, real sinners. He's not looking for people with
a scheme or a facade. Romans chapter 12, verse 2 says,
be not conformed to this world. but be transformed by the renewing
of your mind. The Greek word for conform there,
its root form is schema, schema. And what God says is don't put
on a scheme with me. The whole world puts on a scheme.
The whole world is about schemes. We're talking about this in the
men's study. We put on schemes, we go out to do business. You
know, no one really knows who you are. Isn't that right? Because
we put on a scheme. Well, you know, she's real nice,
but at home she's something else. He's real nice, but at home he's
something else. I want you to hear me. We know how to put on
a scheme and we have to in this world. But what God is saying
is don't put a scheme on with me. Don't find a facade. Don't find a false image. I don't
need that. I'm looking for the real you.
That's what he's saying. I deal with sinners. You can
come to me naked just as you are completely wide open and
all of your transgressions, all of your guilt, all of your warps,
everything bad about you come to me. In fact, that's the way
he deals with us and he won't deal with us any other way. See
God's about fixing the problem, not covering it up. Religion
covers it up, fig leaves. Christ's righteousness fixes
it. And he was delighting Jacob. Joseph was delighting in his
brethren as they began to toil with what they had done with
their little brother. Isn't that good? OK, so then there's something
that occurs that's very fundamental to the gospel. Not only does
famine bring us to Christ, not only does the spirit of God work
in opening up our heart and showing us our wretchedness and our sinfulness
and our just complete depravity. I hope there's no one here who
does not believe that they are not completely and totally by
nature depraved. You are, and I am too. But he
does more than that. He demonstrates all along the
way his grace. And I'll show you how. There
is a fundamental flaw in the human race that says this. I can earn my salvation. I can
purchase my salvation. If I do good works, I can be
right with God. If I pray hard enough, I can
be right with God. If I read my Bible, I can be
right with God. If I pray the sinner's prayer,
I can be right with God. If I fast, I can be right with
God. I want you to understand it is
endemic in our nature to try to get right with our God by
something we do. This is indicated by them seeking
to purchase the corn. Did you get it? They came to
purchase the corn. I want you to know you can't
purchase this corn. Is this good? You can't purchase
this corn. Oh, you're going to try to purchase
it, but you can't. So what Joseph does when they
come to buy the corn, he tells his servants, put all their money
back in the sack. You know why? Because salvation
is totally by the free grace of God. Isn't that good? He said, put it all back in the
sack, put every dime back in the sack. So as they start riding
back home, one brother's coins fell out. That's what we learn.
One person kind of, you know, fickling around in this sack
over in verse twenty five. Joseph commands to fill their
sacks with corn and restore every man's money into a sack and give
them provision for the way. I love it. And thus did he unto
them, and they laid their asses with the corn and departed this. And as one of them opened his
sack to give his ass provender, in the end he espied his money,
for behold, it was in the sack's mouth. Do you see it? He said,
man, my money here. Now this is how crooked these
boys are. I don't know who this fellow
was. I think it was Judah for, uh, for reasons I cannot disclose
right now, but I think it was Judah. I'm completely speculating.
He saw his money in the sack and he said to himself, I bet
you my other brothers, they actually paid for their corn. I've got
my money back free. I'm not going to even tell him.
I'm not going to tell him. So he stuck his money back in
the sack, covered it up and then they went on home. Right? So
they get home. And when they go to telling dad
the story, all cleaned up, edited where they needed to edit it.
We are told over in verse 35, and it came to pass as they emptied
their sacks. You got to listen to this saints, cause this is
called the gospel. You ready? That behold, every man's bundle
of money was in his sack. Every man's. And when both they
and their father saw the bundle of money, they were afraid. Can I teach you a truth about
the grace of God? It's only grace that can really teach your heart
to fear God. Only grace. Do you hear me? Isn't that what this hymn writer
said? To us grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my
fears relieved. See, the law can beat you up
and it can beat me up and it can condemn me and it can condemn
you, but it can't do what the grace of God does. You know what
the grace of God does? It teaches us. The grace of God
teaches us. When the spirit of God uses his
word, he cuts straight through the sinner's heart and touches
you. He touches you. And the thing
that causes you to fall down and worship Jesus Christ is not
the law, not your guilt, but his grace. Isn't that right?
His grace, his grace. They couldn't understand the
grace that they're experiencing. They couldn't understand how
their money got back in there, but it was designed to help them
understand this truth. They are guilty. They are guilty. And you and I, by nature of saints,
listen to me, we're guilty. But Joseph is not looking at
their guilt, is he? Not at all. Man, they're my brethren. Those are my brethren, and I'm
not ashamed to call them brethren, Hebrews chapter 2. Put all the
money back. Give them all the corn they want.
Send them home. They're coming back because we're
still in a famine. Isn't that right? We're still
in a famine. These men are coming back. They're going to see Joseph
in chapter 45. And I want you to join me in
that study too, because we're going to see more of how God
works to bring his people all the way to him. Point in application. You and I are to come to grips
with our sinfulness. Just come to grips with it. Just
come to grips with your sinfulness. Don't hide your sin. Don't distort
it. Don't twist it. Don't minimize
it. Don't belittle it. Your sin in
mind is sin. But God's grace is so much more
sufficient. And we'll see this when we deal
with Chapter 38. Here's a rule of the gospel. Where sin abounds. Grace doth much more abound. And that's what these fellows
are going to learn. And I hope that's what you're
learning as you walk with the Lord today. Amen.