Would you turn to Genesis chapter
37? Stephen makes this brief statement,
the patriarchs moved with envy. And I want us to see why they
were moved with envy. And I would like us to read these
first 11 verses of Genesis chapter 37. And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein
his father was a stranger. In the land of Canaan, these
are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being 17 years old, was
feeding the flock with his brethren. And the lad was with the sons
of Billah. and with the sons of Zilpah,
his father's wives. And Joseph brought unto his father
their evil report." Now, I don't know what these boys were doing,
but Joseph brought this report of what they were doing to his
father. Now, Israel, Jacob, loved Joseph more than all his children. because he was the son of his
old age and he made him a coat of many colors. And when his
brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren,
they hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him. Every time they saw him, it would
irritate them and they couldn't say one good thing to him. Verse
five, and Joseph dreamed a dream and he told it his brethren.
and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, here I
pray you this dream which I've dreamed, for behold, we were
binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf arose, and also
stood upright, and behold, your sheaf stood round about, and
made obeisance to my sheaf." That means they got in the dirt
and worshiped. They bowed down. Now, can you
imagine how that infuriated his brothers? Verse eight. And his brethren
said to him, shalt thou indeed reign over us? Or shalt thou
indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more
for his dreams and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream.
and told it his brethren, said, Behold, I've dreamed a dream
more. And behold, the sun and the moon
and the 11 stars made obeisance to me. They worshiped me." Now,
these are dreams the Lord gave him. He wasn't making these up.
The Lord put these dreams in his heart. And he saw the sun
and the moon and the stars worshiping him. And he told it to his father
and to his brethren. And his father rebuked him and
said to him, what is this dream that thou has dreamed? Shall
I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves
to thee, to the earth? And his brother, brethren, envied
him. The most base of all human emotions. But his father observed, would
say, Now, if you ask me what is my
favorite Old Testament story, I wouldn't even hesitate to answer
that. The story of Joseph. Lord willing, we're going to
be staying here for several weeks, but this has been called the
perfect story. As a matter of fact, they made
a Broadway play out of this. You've probably heard of Joseph
and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and many people have seen this
play, and even men love the story. They don't understand it, but
it is such a fascinating and interesting story. More time
is devoted to this story than any other story in the book of
Genesis, the story of Joseph. And because he is such a type
of Christ, there are no flaws recorded regarding
his character. Now you look at Abraham, there's
plenty of flaws concerning him. You look at Isaac, the same.
Both of those men let their wives go into a harem. Look at Jacob,
his life was a mess. Look at David. Look at Solomon,
these are men and the Bible records their sins and their flaws and
their follies. But Joseph, his life seems to
be above reproach. Let me show you an example of
that in Genesis 39. Verse six, this is after Joseph had
been sold into slavery, and he was sold to a man named Potiphar,
and the Lord was with him and prospered everything he did in
Potiphar's home. Verse six, and he left all that
he had in Joseph's hand. Potiphar did. And he had saved
the bread, which he did eat, And Joseph was a goodly person
and well-favored. He was a very good-looking man.
And it came to pass after these things that his master's wife
cast her eyes upon Joseph, and she said, lie with me. But he
refused. and said unto his master's wife,
Behold, my master wanteth not what is with me in the house,
and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand. There's none
greater in this house than I, neither hath he kept back anything
from me but thee, because thou art his wife. How then can I
do this great wickedness and sin against God? And it came
to pass as she spake to Joseph day by day. Every day the same
thing happened that he hearkened not unto her to lie by her or
to be with her. And it came to pass with this
time that Joseph went into the house to do his business and
there was none of the men of the house that were within. And she
caught him by his garment saying, lie with me. And he left his
garment in her hand and fled and got him out. Oh, the virtue
of this man. And it came to pass when she
saw that he had left his garment in her hand, and was fled forth,
that she called unto the men of the house, and spake unto
them, saying, See, he hath brought in a Hebrew unto us to mock us.
He came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice.
And it came to pass when he heard that I lifted up my voice, and
cried that he left his garment with me, and fled, and got him
out. And she laid up his garment by her until his Lord came home. And she spake unto him according
to these words, saying, The Hebrew servant, which thou has brought
unto us came in and to mock me and so on. And he was thrown
into prison over that. But you see the virtue of this
man, he would not give in to this woman's continual temptations. Now, this is the story of a family
of great dysfunction. Let me repeat that. This is the story of a family
of great dysfunction, all of which God used to accomplish
his great end. I think of what Joseph said to
his brothers when he made himself known with regard to them selling
him into slavery. He said, you meant it for evil.
Your motive was evil, it was rotten, it was wicked. You meant
it for evil, there's nothing good about it, but God meant
it for good. Now, this is God doing what only
God can do, bringing good out of evil. Now think of these 12
sons. Jacob had two wives, Leah and
Rachel, and two concubines, Billa and Zilpah. Somebody says, was
it okay to have concubines back then? No, but he did it anyway. He did it anyway. And Leah had
six sons of the 12. And you can bet that every one
of those boys knew about how Jacob had hated Blear-eyed Leah
and had great preference to beautiful Rachel. And they felt like second-class
citizens as a result of that. They knew their father loved
Rachel and her boys more than them. Then you had the four sons
of the concubines. You can bet that they felt like
they were real second-rate citizens. I mean, they don't even have
a mother who was wife to Jacob. And then you have Joseph, who
Jacob demonstrated such blatant favoritism toward him. He loved
him more than all his brothers. And the scripture points that
out. Jacob made him a coat of many colors. And you know, he
wore that thing everywhere. You know, when he went down to
find his brethren, when they stripped him of his coat, he
was wearing that coat. He liked wearing that coat. And
I'm sure that every time his brothers saw that, it just grated
on their nerves. And they were angry with Jacob. They hated him. They hated him
for his dreams. They could not speak peaceably
unto him. Now some have suggested that
Joseph was not a good person because of the way he ratted
on his brothers. and I don't condone ratting and being a tattletale
and so on. And others have said he should
have never told those dreams because obviously that's going
to infuriate his brothers. Now, can you imagine if your
brother said to you, you're going to bow to me. You're going to
bow to me. You're going to worship me. You're
going to do obeisance to me. Why? You're going to See, you
mean the sun and the stars and the moon are going to bow down
to you and all of the universe is going to worship you? Can
you imagine how that would infuriate you if your little brother said
that to you? You're going to bow the knee to me. You're going
to be prostrate in the dirt before me. Now, such views are the product
of no understanding of the gospel. Because if you and I are given
an understanding of the gospel, we're going to be given an understanding
of this story. Now, in chapter 36, we're given
the chapter regarding the generations of Esau. And I think it's interesting,
his sons, his sons' wives, his grandchildren, they're all mentioned. There's even mention of things
they accomplished. One man built a city, another
man, his military victories, all the significant things these
men did, that accomplished. And all this is said about the
descendants of Esau. But look in chapter 37, verse two, these are the generations of
Jacob, Joseph. He's the generation of Jacob. Joseph. Now, chapter 36, you
have all these different men mentioned, but not here. Here's
the generation of Jacob. Joseph. You see, there's only
one name of value and significance in the household of God. Jesus
Christ. No other name. He's everything in this household.
All of God's salvation is in him. It's not in you. It's in him. Nothing shall separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is my beloved Son in whom
I'm well pleased. Hear ye Him. What about this scripture? Christ
is all. He's all in the household of
God. He's all in the kingdom of God. He's all, period. His name is the only name of
significance. Now, in Esau's generation, there
were men who did this and men who did that, but every believer
knows there's only one name of significance, the Lord Jesus
Christ. You see, all we'll ever know
of God is Christ. Now let me repeat that, and I
want you to listen and think about this. All we will ever
know of God is Christ. Show us the Father,
said Philip. I think of the Lord saying, have
it been so long time with you, Philip, and yet hast thou not
known me? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. I think of that passage of scripture
in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 6, but God who commanded the
light to shine out of the darkness has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
1. Here's why his name is the only name of significance. Hebrews
chapter 1. God, verse one, who at sundry
times and in diverse manners, spake in times past into the
fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to
us by his son. He's the last word, whom he hath
appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. who being the brightness of his
glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding
all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high, being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by
inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. Now, here is
the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is such that the only name
we want mentioned is His name. Amen. The only name I want to be identified
with is His name, not my own name. I don't want to be looked
upon as Todd. I just want to simply be found
in him. I love those scriptures in Jeremiah. This is the name wherewith he
shall be called the Lord our righteousness. This is the name
wherewith she shall be called the exact same name, the Lord
our righteousness. His name is the only name of
significance. in the kingdom of God. All hail
the power of Jesus name. Let angels prostate fall. Look in verse three of our text
in Genesis 37. Now Israel, Jacob, loved Joseph
more than all his children because he was the son of his old age. Jesus Christ is the Son, the
Eternal Son. He's the Son of Eternity. Israel loved Joseph because he
was the son of his old age. God loves the son because he
is the eternal son. You see, he's the only begotten
and well beloved son of God. There's no one like him. He's
the son of eternity. Unto us a child is born. unto
us a son is given. That son was not born. He's the eternal, uncreated son
of God. And the government shall be upon
his shoulders. His name shall be called Wonderful
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. Now, on a merely human level,
Jacob's actions were wrong, weren't they? You'd think he would learn
better. He had his dad, Isaac, showing
great preference over Esau than to him. Now, he was a mama's
boy. His mom liked him better, but he felt the sting of having
his dad show much preference to his brother. And you'd think
that he would have enough sense to not duplicate that, but he
didn't. He was just as bad. You know, the acorn never falls
far from the tree, does it? He's acting just like his father
did. And here he is showing preference, and you can imagine how much
that created a toxic environment in his house. I mean, they couldn't
speak peaceably to him. They were angry with him. They
were so upset over the fact that they knew that their father loved
Joseph more than any of them. And the fact that he had this
coat of many collars means he's the heir. He's the heir. He's
not the oldest Reuben was, but everything is going to go to
him. And you can imagine how much that galled these men. What about this coat of many
colors? Well, I don't have any doubt
what that represents. is the many perfections and glories
and excellencies of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what that
coat's about. All the glorious attributes of
Christ that the Father loved him for. Oh, the Father loveth
the Son. And oh, how we see the glory
of that. Now, this coat of many colors
I thought of Colossians chapter 2 verse 9, in him, in the Lord
Jesus Christ dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. All that God is, is in the body
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the man Christ Jesus. Now you think about this fullness
of holiness. dwells in His body, full as of
otherness, the only holy man to ever live. And I love thinking
about this. When He walked on this earth
in holiness, nobody got it. That lets us know how little
we understand of holiness. Here's the only holy man to ever
live, and nobody understood that. They didn't get it. You know,
when you're around somebody who thinks they're holy, oh, it bothers
you. I mean, I don't like being around
them. You know, you feel judged. You feel, you know, they're looking
you over and criticizing you and all that kind of stuff. That's
the way, quote, holy people are. It's nothing but unholiness.
It's not true holiness. But in him is fullness of holiness,
fullness of justice, absolute, perfect righteousness and justice,
fullness of sovereignty, He controls everybody and everything. He's
completely sovereign, even over the thoughts going through your
mind right now. He's in control of them. That's who He is. There's
fullness of omnipotence. He has all power. There's nothing that He doesn't
have the power to perform. There's fullness of immutability. He never changes. Think of how
quickly you and I change. He never changes. Jesus Christ
the same. Yesterday, today, and forever. There's fullness of independence.
He has no needs. He doesn't need you. He doesn't
need you. You need him. Oh, how desperately
you need him. He doesn't need you. He is utterly
independent. I love thinking about that. He
has no needs. There's fullness of love, the
infiniteness of his love. You know, I don't understand
how he could say, as the fathers loved me, so have I loved you.
I don't understand how he could love me with the same way he
loves the father. With the exception of this, his love is infinite.
He can't love partly. You know, people say you love
somebody less. He can't do that. There's fullness
of love. Well, when he says he hated Esau,
he loved him less. How can he love less? He can't. He's infinite in all that he
does. There's fullness of grace. The law was given by Moses, but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. There's fullness of humility. He's meek, this Holy One. He's meek and lowly in heart. There's fullness of approachableness.
He's called the friend of publicans and sinners. And publicans and
sinners drew near to Him. Fullness of wisdom. Oh, the excellencies
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is what that coat represents. Oh, what a glorious person is
the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think it's interesting
that Joseph was always wearing that coat. And when he goes down to his
brothers, in obedience to his father, to find them and see
if it was doing well with him, he was wearing that coat. He
loved that coat. And they stripped it off of him.
We'll consider that perhaps next week. But on a human level, you
can see why his brothers hated him. Look at verse four. And
when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all
of his brethren, they hated him. They hated him. And they could
not speak peaceably unto him. Now, as I said, on a human level,
you can see him feeling that way. You'd be that way too. I'd
be that way too, I guarantee you. But this gives us a true
picture of man in his two things, depravity and inability. They hated him. There's man's
depravity. They could not speak peaceably
to him. They lacked the ability. They
had no power to speak peaceably to him. Everything they said
was against him and contrary to him. And that is the way they
spoke. They couldn't do anything else. I think it's interesting that
the very things that the father loves him for. seen in that coat
of many colors. His brothers hated him for the
precise same things. Now, this altogether glorious
person, demonstrated by this coat of many colors, this altogether
glorious person, The natural man, and by the natural man,
I mean me and you, the way we're born into this world, the natural
man hates it. He hates it. He has no love for
him. Now, you find that out when someone
hears the gospel. That's when you find out what
they really think about God, what they really think about
Christ, what they really think about the gospel. It's not until
they really hear the true gospel. They're fine with Jesus Christ
until they find out about a Christ who reigns over them and controls
them. And they find out that they don't
have a free will and that His will is sovereign over their
will and He's in absolute control of them. That's when folks get
mad. I don't love that God. I don't love that Christ. I don't
love that gospel. No, there's a different response to the gospel
like that. They don't love that God, that
Christ, that way of salvation. Now, someone that does not love
Christ as he is, and someone that does not love how Christ
saves. And as he is, revealed his word,
sovereign, all those things we said about him in the Code of
Many Colors, someone that does not love Christ as he is, ought
to be sent to hell. Now that is what Paul said, if
any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema,
maranatha. Let him be damned upon the return
of the Lord. Amen. Anybody that doesn't love
Christ, what greater crime could there be than to not love him
who is altogether lovely? And the cross is the proof of
this. When men were allowed to do what they wanted to do, what
did they do? They nailed Jesus Christ, the son of God, to a
wooden pole and crucified him and put him to death. And you
and I have that same nature. Don't say, well, I wouldn't have
done that. Yes, you would have. Yes, you would have if left to yourself. Now, here we have the depravity
of man. They hated him. But wherever
you have depravity, you also have this. And this is very important.
Listen to this. You have inability. They could
not speak peaceably to Him. They lack the ability. They lack
the power. They could not speak peaceably
to Him. Now listen to this scripture.
John 6 44, the Lord said, no man can come to me. He didn't say no man may come
to me. You may, but he said, no man can come to me except
the Father, which has sent me draw him, invincibly, irresistibly
draw him. You can't come to Christ. This
is how unable you are. You can't come to Christ. Let
me say this. If you don't come to Christ, you'll go to hell. Coming to
Christ is salvation. You can't. You lack the ability
to come to Christ unless God the Father draws you. Listen
to this scripture. The carnal mind, Romans 8, the
carnal mind, that's the mind you were born with. The carnal
mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the law
of God. Neither indeed can be. It lacks the ability. They which are in the flesh cannot
please God. Now, how did men get that way
to where they're totally depraved and totally unable? Well, the
scripture says, and Adam all died. I'm born like that because
when Adam died, I died. Now, somebody may be thinking,
well, how can I be held responsible for what Adam did? I'm just, I can't help it. I
mean, I was born with his evil nature. How can I be held responsible? What if I, an axe murderer, somebody who
killed a bunch of people, was brought before the judge and
said, I'm just obeying my nature. I was born this way. I can't
help it. I shouldn't be held responsible
for this because I'm just obeying my nature. What would the judge
say? Strap him to the electric chair. Get rid of him. That would
be the only just thing to do. You can't use that as an excuse
or a reason to think I shouldn't be held responsible. At any rate, his brothers, verse
four, when they saw him, when they saw their father loved him
more than all of his brethren, they hated him and could not
speak peaceably unto him. Verse five, now let's look at
these dreams. And Joseph dreamed a dream and he told it his brethren
and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, here I
pray you this dream which I've dreamed. And God gave him this
dream. For behold, we were binding sheaves
in the field, and lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright,
and behold, your sheaf stood round about, and made obeisance
to my sheaf. You worshiped, you worshiped. You fell down in the dirt at
my feet and worshiped. Verse eight, and his brethren
said to him, shall Phalendeed reign over us? Or shall Phalendeed
have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more
for his dreams and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream
and told it his brethren. And said, behold, I've dreamed
a dream more. And behold, the sun and the moon and the 11 stars
made obeisance to me. The whole created universe took
their place in the dust at my feet. And he told it to his father
and to his brethren. And his father rebuked him and
said unto him, what is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall
I and my mother and my brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves
to thee, to the earth? And his brethren envied him."
I reckon they did. That's the word Stephen used.
His brethren envied him, but his father observed all these
sayings. Now, what this is saying, Joseph
is nothing more than a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. As a man,
he was a sinner like me and you. I know that the Bible doesn't
reveal his flaws, but he was no different than me or you in
that sense. But the Bible doesn't reveal these flaws because he
is such an imminent type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now what this
is saying in these dreams is Jesus Christ is absolutely sovereign. What's that mean? That means
he has absolute control of everything and everybody. It means that
you are in His hand right now, and He can do with you and me
whatever He's pleased to do. Do you know that if He does not
show you mercy, and if He lets you drop into hell, just and
holy is His name? He's sovereign. And if he saves
you to the praise of the glory of his grace, just and holy is
his name. Here's what I want to, what the
Bible's communicating. In this thing of salvation, listen
to me real carefully, you have no control. None. You're in his hand. And He can
do with you whatever He's pleased to do. Your salvation or your
damnation is up to Him. This is who Jesus Christ is. People talk about free will,
that's the biggest bunch of foolishness there ever was. He is sovereign,
and he's sovereign over the actions of men. He is in control, and
what's gonna happen to you, whether you'll be in heaven or in hell,
is totally, completely, 100% up to him. Did you know that you will only
worship an absolute sovereign. If you have any control, if you
can manipulate, if you can get God to act this way or get God
to act way or you can do something that will make him respond to
you, you won't worship a God like that. You see, actually,
that God does not exist in any way. you'll only worship a sovereign.
Now let's end by turning to Matthew chapter eight. And let me say this, these things
I've been saying, I like them that way. Matter
of fact, I love it. You know, people say, I see no
safety in that. At your own place, I see safety.
For God to will my salvation, for Christ to will my salvation. I love this. This is who he is.
That's what these dreams are all about. Now, they hated him
for this. I tell you what, the believer
loves him for this. We love a Christ who reigns and rules and who
has absolute sovereign control. Now, let me tell you, that's
the Christ of the Bible. Any other Christ is a false Christ. You're worshiping an idol. This
is the Christ of the Bible. Matthew 8. When he was come down from the
mountain, great multitudes followed him. And behold, here's something
very remarkable. There came a leper. If you read Luke's account, it
says he was full of leprosy. He didn't have one square inch
of healthy flesh on his body. He was filled with these ulcers,
which represent a man full of sin. Full of sin. I can identify full of sin. And what's the first thing that
said about this leper? He worshiped him. Now, beloved, this has got to
be settled first, this thing of worship, whether he does anything
for you or whether he doesn't do anything for you. He is to
be worshiped for who he is. Amen. He's the Lord. He's the Lord. If he saves me,
he's the Lord. If He passes me by as an act
of His irreprehensible justice, He's the Lord. And this issue
must be settled first before anything else. He is to be worshipped
without reference to what He does or does not do for me or
you. He's the Lord. He's the one who
the stars and the moon and the sun is going to bow down before. He's the Lord. And behold, there came a leper
and worshiped him saying, and look what he says, this is so
important. Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst
make me clean. Now, how offensive would it have
been if he said, Lord, I will that you make me clean. I'm gonna
let you make me clean. I'm gonna let you forgive me.
I'm gonna let you cleanse me. I, as an act of my own free will,
I'm going to let you work. Why, that is offensive. That's
offensive. He knew better than that. Lord,
if you will, if you will, you're the Lord. And if you will, the
only way I'll be clean is if you will it. I can't make myself
clean. I can't will myself clean. Here
is the issue, if you will. You know, people talk about man's
will and free will and all that foolishness. I know whose will
is going to be done. I understand that. Lord, if you
will, you can. make me clean. I'm filthy and the only way I'll
be clean is if you make me clean. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. Verse three, and Jesus, the one
who the whole universe is going to bowed his feet, said, I will
be thou clean. Now, let me close with this thought. You will bow to him. You will. You see, the Father
has decreed it. He's decreed that every knee
is gonna bow. And every tongue is gonna confess. Of things in heaven, things in
earth, things under the earth. That means everybody, everything
that hath breath, you are going to bow. I pray that you bow willingly. But if unwilling, you're gonna
be made to bow. Because everyone is going to
do obeisance, hit the dirt, and bow to Him. May God give everybody in this
room the grace right now to bow willingly. He's the Lord. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you and praise
you for the glory of thy dear son. And Lord, our prayer is the prayer
of the leper of old. Lord, if you will, it all according
to your will. If you will, you can make us
whole. Lord, put that prayer in the
heart of everybody in this room according to your will. And Lord,
we know that to everybody who prays this prayer, if you will,
you could make me whole. We'll hear your words. I will. Be thou clean. In Christ's name
we pray. Amen.