So, Silence. Thank you. Thank you very much. The quote from John chapter 12
that's on the back wall of this auditorium are the words of some
Greeks that came to the Lord Jesus Christ, or came to the
apostles and asked the apostles if they could have an audience
with Christ. And they said, sir, we would
see Jesus. Could you, could you arrange
that? The hymn that we're going to
begin with this morning is number 58 in your hardback temple. Jesus, the very thought of thee
with sweetness fills my breast, but sweeter far thy face to see,
and in thy presence rest. Rest. What a sure hope we have
we can rest. in the glorious person and finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's stand together. Tom's gonna
come lead us in number 58. ? Jesus, the very thought of thee
? With sweetness fills my breast, but sweeter for thy face to see. And in thy presence rest. Nor voice can sing, nor heart
can pray. Nor can the memory find A sweeter
sound than thy blessed name. O Savior of mankind, O hope of
every confright heart, Oh, joy of all the meek. To those who fall, how kind thou
art. How good to those who seek. But what to those who bind, ah,
this Nor tongue nor pen can show The love of Jesus, what it is
None but his loved ones know Jesus, our only adored, be thou
As Thou our prize wilt be, Jesus be Thou our glory now and through
eternity. Let's open our Bibles to Psalm
120. Beginning of verse one. In my
distress, I cried unto the Lord and he heard me. No child of
God has ever cried in distress to the Lord and he hasn't heard
them. Those of you that have children
know the difference between a feigned cry and a real cry. You may hesitate
with a feigned cry and let them work it out. But when you hear
a desperate cry, you drop everything and run to your children, don't
you? And if we being evil know how
to give good gifts unto our children, how much more will our Heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? God knows
the difference between a feigned cry and a real cry. And when
we cry, Lord, you've got to deliver me. You've got to, I don't know
what to do. He hears that. Here's the promise,
brethren. In my distress, I cried unto
the Lord, and he heard me. Deliver my soul, O Lord, from
lying lips, and from a deceitful tongue. What shall be given unto
thee? Or what shall be done unto thee,
thou false tongue? Sharp arrows of a mighty, of
thee mighty, with coals of juniper. Woe is me that I sojourn in Messick,
that I dwell in the tents of Kadar. Lord, here's a sinner
crying out because of the sin in his soul. Lord, I live in
a Kedar is a dark place. And Lord, this is where I am. And the coals are burning hot
within me. My soul hath long dwelt with
him that hated peace. I am for peace. But when I speak,
they are for war. Lord, help me. Deliver me. Deliver
me from my sin. Let's pray together. Our merciful
Heavenly Father, We have no real understanding
as to how much you love us. Except that we can look to what
the Lord Jesus did on Calvary's cross. For truly, greater love
hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. And herein is love, not that
we love God. but that You loved us and gave
Your Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Lord, cause us
to cry out to Thee and to believe in Your mercy and in Your grace
and in Your power to deliver us, to reveal to us the glory
of Your Son. We ask that You would be worshiped
this hour, the power of Your Spirit, according to the truth
of your word. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand together once again.
We'll sing the hymn that's on the back of your bulletin, back
of the bulletin. Compared with Christ in all beside,
no comeliness I see. The one thing needful, dearest
Lord, is to be one with Thee. The sense of Thy expiring love
into my soul convey. Thyself be so, for thee alone
I absolutely pray. Less than thyself will not suffice
my comfort to restore. More than thyself I cannot pray,
and thou canst give no more. Loved of my God, for him again,
with love intense I burn. Chosen of the air time began,
I choose thee in return. What consisteth not of thy love,
O teach me to resign. I'm rich to all the intents of
bliss if thou, O God, art mine. Please be seated. Who can shear the heart like
Jesus By His presence all divine? True and tender, pure and precious
Oh, how blessed to call Him mine All that thrills my soul is Jesus
He is more than life to me And the fairest of ten thousand In
my blessed Lord I see Love of Christ so freely given
Grace of God beyond degree Mercy higher than the heaven
Deeper than the deepest sea All that thrills my soul is Jesus He is more than life to me And the fairest of ten thousand
In my blessed Lord I see What a wonderful redemption Never
can a mortal know How my sin, though red like crimson, Can
be whiter than the snow All that thrills my soul is Jesus He is more than life to me And the fairest of ten thousand
In my blessed Lord I see Every need His hands supplying
Every good in Him I see On His strength defined relying
He is all in all to me All that thrills my soul is Jesus
He is more than life to me And the fairest of ten thousand In
my blessed Lord I see By the crystal flowing river
With the ransomed I will sing And forever and forever Praise
and glorify the King All that thrills my soul is Jesus He is more than life to me And the fairest of ten thousand
In my blessed Lord I see Adam, that was a blessing. Thank
you. Thank you. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Acts chapter 7. Acts chapter 7. We're continuing
to look at the message that Stephen preached to these men who belonged
to the synagogue of Satan. And I want us to consider verses
9 through 14 of Acts chapter 7. And I'm going to try to just
go verse by verse through these verses. And the title of this
message is Christ Our Joseph. Christ Our Joseph. We know that the characters of
Scripture, all of Scripture for that matter, are not to be studied
for their strengths and weaknesses, but they're to be looked to as
a type, a picture of, a foreshadowing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
this book's all about Him. And if we don't see Him as the
fairest of 10,000, we've not understood anything. If we don't
look at every passage of scripture, and ask ourselves, what does
this tell us about Christ, about his glorious person and about
his accomplished work? Then we've not understood the
word of God properly. So as we consider Joseph, Joseph
is one of those rare characters in the Old Testament. I can think
of none other but Daniel that The Bible doesn't tell us of
any of his negative traits. We know that he was a sinner.
We know that he had problems just like everybody else, but
Joseph is held up as such a clear type of Christ, and there's so
many things in his life. and in the way in which God used
him that typifies Christ. We'll try to stick with just
the points that Stephen made in his sermon here in Acts chapter
seven, rather than trying to look at all the things that Joseph
did and all the ways in which he represents for us. the redemptive work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. You remember when Joseph revealed
himself to his brothers, they were afraid that he would take
revenge on them. And he said in Genesis chapter
45, God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the
earth and to save your lives with a great deliverance. And so we see the Lord Jesus
Christ saying to us, God sent me before you to deliver you,
to give you salvation, to preserve you a posterity, to save your
lives by a great deliverance. And when Joseph and his brother's
father, Jacob died, And they were still concerned even after
being in Egypt for those many years that Joseph would take
revenge. Joseph said to them, you thought
evil against me. When you sold me into slavery,
you thought evil against me, but God meant it for good to
bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive. You thought evil against me.
God meant it for good to save much people alive. Now, therefore,
fear ye not. I will nourish you and your little
ones. And he comforted them, and he
spake kindly unto them. All the evil that our sin has
done against God, God says, you thought evil against me. God
meant it for good. He sent me before you to preserve
a posterity, to deliver you from your sin. And to say, that's
what Joseph said about himself. And he's speaking prophetically
about the Lord Jesus Christ, who would fulfill that promise
completely in saving all of Israel. We begin in verse nine. and the
patriarchs moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt, but God was
with him. Now the story of Joseph tells
us that Joseph would be sent by his father to check on his
brothers as they were caring for the sheep. And Joseph would
go back and report bad things to his father as to what his
brothers, his stepbrothers were doing. Now, I want you to think
with me a moment about the attitude that his brothers had about him.
He was the youngest, Benjamin was just born, now he's the youngest,
but Joseph was the golden, child. He was the chosen one. He was
the favored child. What siblings don't look at the
way in which the baby of the family is treated and think,
well, you never let me get away with that. And now on top of
all that, he's become a tattletale. And on top of all that, you've
given him a coat of many colors and he's bragging about how he's
better than we are. So his brothers saw him as a
tattletale. They saw him as a braggart. They saw him as the chosen golden
child, the spoiled brat, if you will, of the family. And they
resented him for it. They hated him for it. And so
when he came out to check on them, they sold him. to some men that were going to
Egypt. They sold it out. And what a
picture. What a picture. Let me ask this
question. Why do men hate the Lord Jesus
Christ? And make no mistake about it. This world hates our Jesus. They may be in love with the
little Jesus of their imagination, who has relinquished his control
to their will and to their works. and to their presumed wisdom,
but they hate the Jesus who is. They hate the Christ of Scripture. They hate the one who reigns
sovereign over them, who holds all things in his hand, who determines
himself, of whom he will have mercy and whom he will harden. They hate the one that is sovereign
over their lives. In the same way that Joseph's
brothers hated him. Why? Why? Same reason. For envy. Let me show you that
in the scriptures. Turn with me to John chapter
11. John chapter 11. Men hate Christ for envy. They're jealous of him. That's
why his brothers hated him, hated Joseph. They were jealous of
him. They were so jealous, they were envious. They wanted to
be rid of him. And nothing has changed in the
hearts of the natural man toward Christ, our Joseph. Look at John
chapter 11, and we'll begin reading at verse 48. Well, let's pick up at verse
47. Then gathered the chief priest
and the Pharisees and the council and said, what do we? For this man doeth many miracles. And if we let him thus alone,
all men will believe on him And the Romans will come and take
away both our place and our nation. Right now, we have a place of
authority. We have a place of power. We have a place of control. And if we allow this man to continue,
the Romans are gonna come and take away our position of power. Now, that's the reason why men
hate Jesus, because he strips them of their power. Men by nature
believe that they have power over God. Yes, they do. Yes, they do. Man by nature has
set himself up on the throne of God, and he believes that
God is subject to him, that he gets to decide when he's gonna
be saved. and that God is obligated to
respond to whatever decision he makes. He believes that he
has the power to earn his salvation by his good works, and that God
is obligated to take into consideration what he's done in order to reward
him with the forgiveness of his sins. Man believes that he has
the power to obligate God to forgive him if he just repents. If he can be, and they say, man
says the same thing today that those Pharisees said. If we let
this Jesus, the Jesus that we preach, the one that we believe
in, he causes us to say, oh wretched
man that I am. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? Behold, truly I am vile. Woe is me, I'm undone, I'm a
man of unclean lips. When we were yet without power,
without strength, Christ died for the ungodly. Now I've told you this before,
I remind you that word ungodly, The Greek language is much like
the English language in that when you put an A before the
word, it reverses the meaning of that word. We hear a lot about
asymptomatic today. And so it is in the Greek language. And the word ungodly is the word
worship with the alpha in front of it. Now that's what God calls
ungodly, men who are unable to worship God. Because of the barrier
of their sin, they're unable to enter into the presence of
God and offer to Him worship because of their ungodliness.
And that's what the believer comes to see. Lord, I'm ungodly. Everything about me is sinful.
I have no power. I have no ability to save myself.
I have no power to obligate you by a decision that I make or
by a work that I perform or by some knowledge that I achieve.
I can't obligate God. He's taken away my place. I had a place of power before
I met Christ. I had a place of power. I had
a place of authority. You see, the unbeliever still
says, what are we going to do? If we allow this man to remain,
that's the reason why your friends and family members hate what
you believe so much. And many of them are very religious. Many of them have their little
Jesus that they believe in, but they won't come here and listen
to hear about the Christ of scripture. Why? Because he strips them of
their power. He leaves them without any ability
to worship God apart from his grace. It's the reason why they envy
Christ. They envy one that they would
have to depend on so much in order to come before God. And
they want to rob him of his glory and take to themselves the power
that belongs to him. And the gospel leaves us naked.
It leaves us stripped of all of our power. And the child of
God rejoices in that. The child of God delights in
having no power and having all that power rest in the one that
has all power, the one that's omnipotent. He's the one that
possesses all power. He said in Matthew chapter 28, and authority has been given
unto me in heaven and in earth." Now, if he possesses all power,
then that means you and I possess no power. He's got it all. But man in their vain imagination
want to believe themselves to have some power. They want to
believe themselves to have some ability to obligate God to save
them when they're good and ready to be saved. And God says, it's
not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth. It is of
God that showeth mercy. You see, men hate the Christ
of Scripture for the same reason Joseph's brothers hated him.
They envied him. They envied the relationship
that he had with their father. They envied the treatment that
he got from his father. They envied the prophecies that
he gave about himself. They envied him. If we allow this one to remain,
and this word moved with envy, it's a deep-seated hatred. It's zealously envious. They are zealously envious of
the Christ of Scripture. Take away our place, and He'll
take away our nation. Now, what was their nation? It
was their accomplishments. If their place was their power,
then their nation was their accomplishments. What does the Christ of Scripture
do to you, child of God? What does He do to you? He doesn't
just strip you of your power. He won't let you glory in your
accomplishments, will He? He won't let you rest in glory
in anything that you've done. Not before Him. Now you make
glory in your accomplishments before men. We all do that from
time to time. But you stand in the presence
of God and you've got no accomplishments, do you? The Lord Jesus Christ
gets all the glory for all the work. And that's why we love
Him. And that's why they hate Him.
They hate Him for the same reason that we love Him. Go back with me to our text in
Acts chapter seven. Verse nine, and the patriarchs
with zealous envy were moved and sold Joseph into Egypt, but
God was with him. But God was with him. You meant
it for evil. God meant it for good. And all
their evil devices, God turned it around and used it for the
salvation of Israel. Did he not? God blessed him. God directed
him. God never forsook him. No man ever knew the presence
and the power of God like the Lord Jesus. That's the agony
of the cross that we cannot enter into. We cannot understand it. You and I can go moments, hours,
perhaps days if the Lord allows us, makes our lease long enough
and lets us go on our way without any real true regard for God
and not be too bothered by it. The Lord Jesus Christ, forsaken
of God, knew what it was to lose that power, that fellowship.
God was with him until God made him to be sin, and then God forsook
him. And he bore the burden and the
shame and the guilt of all the sins of all of God's people,
all by himself. All by himself, it had to be
that way. He could not be helped by the Father. But in all his life prior to
that, God was with him. Every word he spoke, every thought
he had, every deed he performed, every step he took, everything. God was with him. God was blessing
him. God was directing him. And once
he was placed into the tomb, and God saw the travail of his
soul, and God was satisfied with what he did, then God was with
him again. And God raised him from the dead. Notice in verse 10 of our text. Here's our hope, brethren, if
we'd be found in Christ, If we'd be found in Christ, we have the
promise that God will be with us. He forsook Christ that we
would never have to worry about him forsaking us. He said, I
will never leave you. I will never, ever, ever forsake
you. What a glorious hope. What a
promise from our God. Look at verse 10. He delivered
him. out of all his afflictions. Oh, and he was afflicted. He
was afflicted by his brothers when he was put into a pit and
threatened to be killed and finally sold into slavery. And then he
was afflicted as God delivered him from that and put him as
a servant in Potiphar's house. He was afflicted by lies that
were made about him by Potiphar's wife. placed into prison and
afflicted in prison, and yet the prison guard was moved by
God to make him the director of everything that happened in
the prison. So that the scripture says, and whatsoever happened
there, he was the doer of it. Joseph was placed over the prison. You see, everything that man
did to try to thwart the purposes of God were used of God. to bless Christ in providing
for us a deliverance, a salvation. We saw last Sunday from Psalm
119, before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I have
kept my word. It is good for me that I have
been afflicted. Thou in faithfulness hath afflicted
me. Joseph knew about those afflictions.
Joseph knew about what it meant to be tried and tested in his
faith and in his hope in God, and he continued to believe God.
The Lord Jesus Christ, no man ever tested like him. No man
ever tried like the Lord Jesus Christ. Scripture makes it clear
that he was tried in all ways that we are, yet without sin. He knew the real shame of sin.
He knew the burden of sin. He knew the ugliness of sin,
the horrors of sin. He knew when God made him to
be sin, and when God forsook him, look at our text again, and delivered
him out of all of his afflictions. When was the Lord Jesus Christ
delivered? He was delivered when the Lord
brought him out of the grave, when he was given life, when
he was rewarded for his successful, accomplished work of redemption.
The Father raised him from the dead. What is our hope? What
is our hope? 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Scripture says, if in this life
only we have hope, if this matter of salvation is just to bless
us with material things in this world, If in this life only we
have hope, we are of all men most miserable. What a miserable
lot we are if we're just looking to God to make us a better life
in this world. No, our hope is eternal. Our
hope is to be raised from the dead, even as Christ was raised
from the dead. Look at Look at verse 50 of 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. Now this I say, brethren, that
flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth
corruption inherit incorruption. We can't go to heaven in this
body that we have now. It's corruptible. It's sinful. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. And don't
you love the way Acts chapter 7 ends when Stephen's being stoned
and the scripture says, and he fell asleep. That's what God
calls death for the child of God. It's like going to bed and
going to sleep. And then you wake up. You wake
up. Behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the last trump, for the trump shall sound and
the dead shall be raised incorruptible and shall be changed. For this
corruptible must put on incorruptible and this mortal must put on immortality. We must be given a resurrected
body, a sinless body. So when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality,
then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death
is swallowed up in victory. Death is our final enemy. Death
is what we need to be concerned about. Deliver us from death. You know,
the natural man doesn't concern himself with that. He's just
concerned himself with, you know, how's my life here going to get
any better? This gospel speaks to the ultimate, the ultimate
problem. For the man that sins shall surely
die and we've got a sin problem and death is on the horizon. Oh, death. Where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin. Sin's
the cause of death. In the day in which you sin,
you shall surely do all of sin and come short of the glory of
God. And the wages of sin is death. That's the problem you
and I have. It's a sin problem. God's saying
to us, O death, Where is thy sting? The sting of death is
sin. And the strength of sin is the
law. Although the law can't save you from your sin, don't think
that you're going to redeem yourself by keeping the law. Somehow you're
going to make up for your sins by the good things that you do.
That's what the natural man thinks. But the scripture says the law
is not the deliverer of sin, the law is the strength of sin. In other words, the law exposes
our sin for what it is, and the law actually aggravates more
sin. The self-righteous religionist
who is looking to his life or her life as the hope of their
salvation. Lord, I'm doing this and I'm
doing that. I did this and I did that. I've obligated God. You see, the sin of their self-righteousness,
the sin of robbing Christ of His glory, the sin of crediting
themselves with their salvation is much worse than if they were
completely irreligious. I've said this before and I'll
say it again. God is much more offended by what's happening
in brightly lit religious meeting houses on Saturday night, Sunday
morning. than he is with whatever might
be happening in those dark and smoke-filled rooms on Saturday
night. He's much more offended by the
Sunday morning activities than he is by Saturday night activities.
And so the law, which men are being put under in religion,
is the strength of sin. It strengthens sin. It makes
sin worse. It makes it worse. You see that?
Look at the next verse. God thanks be to God, which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. What has he done? He's fulfilled the law. He's
put away sin. We have the victory through the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's our life. He's our hope.
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord, for in much as you know,
that your labor's not vain in the Lord. We're not looking to
our labor as the hope of our salvation. We're looking to Christ.
The Lord say, stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has
made you free. Don't be entangled again with
the yoke of bondage. Christ has fulfilled the law.
You serve God out of the willing heart, a willing spirit. Go back with me to our text. Why do men hate Christ? Same
reason Joseph's brothers hated him. Envy. What did God do for Joseph? He
delivered him out of all of his afflictions. What did God do
for the Lord Jesus Christ? He delivered him. from the grave,
he rewarded him and all his people in him for having satisfied the
law of God. And he gave him favor, look at
the rest of verse 10, and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight
of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Now Pharaoh here represents God
the Father. God the Father. And the scripture is making it
clear that God gave Christ wisdom and favor in his own sight. Christ gives us favor, that word
favor is the word grace, and he gives us wisdom in the sight
of God. The scriptures make it clear
that God has made him, Christ Jesus, to be for us our wisdom,
our righteousness, our sanctification, and all our redemption. God said of his son, This is
my beloved son. In him, I am well pleased. God gave Joseph favor in the
sight of the king of Egypt. And he gave him grace in the
sight of the king of Egypt. And the Lord Jesus Christ has
wisdom and grace in the sight of his father. And he says unto
us that we can come before the throne of grace with boldness,
with boldness, looking unto Jesus as the author and the finisher
of our faith, looking unto Him as the one who satisfied the
demands of God's law. Christ did for us in eternity
and for sin and for eternal life what Joseph did for his brethren
temporally Look at verse 10 again. And he delivered him out of all
of his afflictions. He gave him favor and wisdom
in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And he made him governor
over all his house. Pharaoh told the people, you
want anything from me? Go see Joseph for it. Joseph's in charge. I'm going
to my rest. I'm going to enjoy the pleasures
of this world. Joseph's in charge. You want
anything from the king, you ask Joseph for it. And that's exactly what God has
said to me and you. You want anything from God, you're
gonna have to come to Christ for it. He holds the keys to
the storehouses. There was a famine that came
in the land, wasn't there? Seven years of famine. After
Jacob and his sons moved to Egypt, Joseph is providing for them.
Now the famine's getting worse and worse. And if anybody, during
those seven years of plenty, what did Joseph do? He hoarded
grain. He hoarded resources so that
during the seven years of famine, Joseph had the only keys to open
the storehouses and provide bread for the people. And the Lord
Jesus Christ is the one who has the keys to the storehouse. He's
the bread of life. He's the one that we must come
to. And what do we cry? Give us this day our daily bread. Now you might read the story
of Joseph in the Old Testament and think, boy, that's a shrewd
businessman who's taking advantage of people. But it's a gospel
story, don't forget that. What happened during the seven
years of famine? Well, when they came to Joseph
for grain, they had to buy it. They had to buy the grain with
their money. And eventually all the money ran out and Joseph
owned all the money in the land. And so when they came back to
Joseph without money, they said, we've given you all of our money.
All we can do now is give you our property. And so in order
to stay alive, they gave him their property. And at the end
of the day, Joseph now for Pharaoh has all the money and all the
property. But the famine's not over and the people are still
starving. So now they come to Joseph with the only thing they've
got left. Take us as your servants. Take us as your bond servants,
your slaves. We will sell ourselves for bread. And now Pharaoh owns everything. All the money, all the land,
all the people, and Joseph provides food. See, there's no coming
to Christ without putting everything on the line. Everything. Or I've got to have Christ. He
is the pearl of great price. Everything that I have belongs
to Him. My life, my possessions, my land, my service, everything. This is the picture of Joseph
as our Christ. Look at, so the king gave him authority.
You remember when they, the Pharisees sent the police out to arrest
the Lord Jesus and bring him back and they didn't bring him
back. And they asked him, they said, well, why didn't you bring
him? And they said, never a man spake like this man before, for
he speaks with authority, not as the scribes. He doesn't say,
well, you know, it could be this way, it could be that way. Or,
you know, you might want to take this consideration. He says,
I say unto you. He doesn't even say, thus saith
the Lord. He speaks as if he's God. Well, that's why he speaks
that way, because he is. He is. He had authority. And when that centurion, that
centurion who had a servant that was dying, came to the Lord and
said to the Lord, Lord, I'm a man of authority. I say unto this
man, go, and he goes. I say unto another, come, and
he comes. I understand authority. Because the Lord had told him,
I'll come to your house. And then he said, I'm not worthy
for you to enter into my house. You have all authority. Only
speak the word and my servants shall be healed. All I need from
you is a word. And that's all you and I need.
All we need is a word from God. Because when God speaks, he speaks
with authority. And God's word cannot be changed.
Lord, speak to me, speak to me. Joseph had authority. Joseph's
word was whatever he said is the way it was. And Pharaoh gave
him that authority. And God Almighty has given to
the Lord Jesus Christ that same authority. And we come to Him
just like the people of Egypt came to Joseph. Everything's
on the line. I've got to have bread. I've
got to have life. I've got to have Christ. Look at verses 11 and 12. Now
there came a dearth out of all the land of Egypt and Canaan
and great affliction and our fathers found no sustenance.
But when Joseph heard that there was corn, when Jacob heard that
there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. Look at verse 13, we just dealt
with that. And at the second time, Joseph
was made known unto his brother. I stand amazed, the older I get
and the more I preach, how dependent you and I are on divine revelation. If Joseph had not revealed himself
to his brothers, his brothers would have had no way of knowing
who he was. I have watched people sit under
the sound of the gospel for years and show no evidence whatsoever
of having any belief or any love for Christ. I think Lord, what
a miracle of grace it is. And when I say evidence, I'm
just talking about people who want to talk about Christ. People
want to rejoice in Christ. People want to rejoice in what
they're hearing and what they're, and there's no, there's no, there's
no word for me. It's like, are you hearing anything
at all? And the answer is probably not.
Probably not. I fear. And when the Lord spoke
of that parable of the 10 virgins, And the five had oil and the
five didn't have oil. And when the bridegroom came,
the five that didn't have oil, I fear that, I was talking to
a pastor recently, you know, he's not talking about the religious
people out there that don't have oil, he's talking about the gospel
church. And I was sharing this with a pastor friend recently
and he said, I hope half my church are believers. I thought, you know, that's just,
Pretty much the way it is. And what I'm saying to you is
that we are completely dependent upon Christ to make himself known
to us. Lord, show yourself to me. That's
why we preach Christ and him crucified in hopes that God will
take this message and open the eyes of our understanding and
unstop our ears and reveal Christ in our hearts. Because if we
don't know Him, what we're doing is worse than
if we didn't do it at all. To not be found in Christ, that's
my fear. And those that have sat under
the sound of the gospel and listened and refused to believe and not
believed, greatest Judgment will be upon
us. Lord, save me. Lord, reveal Christ
to me. Joseph showed himself, revealed
himself. And you remember what he did?
You remember the servants of Joseph were all there and he
told them all to leave. And revealed himself only to
his brethren. Our God's not looking for a following.
He's not running around the world trying to impress men with who
he is and trying to get people to believe on him. He reveals
himself only to his brethren, only to his elect, only to his
people, only to his family, only to his children. And the child
of God says, Lord, make me to be a child. Lord, reveal yourself
to me. Joseph made himself known to
his brethren. Listen, one day, one day, the
eastern sky will split. The trump of God will sound and
the dead in Christ will be raised and all those of us that are
alive will be caught up together with them in the air and so what
shall we ever be with the Lord. And in that day the scripture
says every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that
Jesus is the Christ to the glory of God the Father. Will they
be doing it in faith? No. No. They'll be doing it out of fear.
Out of fear. Let the mountains fall on us,
is what they'll be saying. You see, if God wanted to make
every person believe on Him right now, He could do that. But men are not going to be swayed.
They're not going to be swayed. You know that rich man that was
in hell? Send someone to warn my brothers
of this place. If they have Moses and the prophets,
if they believe not on them. Now what was the Lord saying?
They've got my word. And if they don't believe my
word, they won't believe even though one be raised from the
dead. And the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead and men
will not believe on him. And you won't believe. I won't
believe unless God makes us believe. Believing is not a decision that
you and I make. Believing is a work of grace
in the heart whereby our Joseph makes himself known unto his
brethren. Notice the rest of this. This
is glorious. Look at verse 13. At the second
time Joseph was made known, he was made known to his brethren,
and Joseph's kindred were made known unto Pharaoh. And don't
forget who Pharaoh represents in this story. You see, if the
Lord Jesus Christ doesn't make us known to God, He's got to
stand in our stead. He's got to be our advocate.
He's got to represent us before God. He's all our righteousness
before God. He's got to speak on our behalf.
He's got to to present his blood for our justification. And here's
the after Joseph made himself known to his brother, and he
brought his brother and made them known to Pharaoh. What? What a great gospel truth. Look at verse 14. Then sent Joseph
and called his father Jacob to him and all his kindred, three
score and 15 souls. He called every one of them,
all 75 of them. He called them. Revelation chapter 17 verse 14
says, and they that are with Him, with Christ, are called
and are chosen and are faithful. Revelation chapter 19 verse nine
says, blessed are they which are called to the marriage supper
of the Lamb. Second Timothy chapter one, verse
nine says, who have saved us and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. Romans chapter eight, whom He
did predestinate, them He did also call. And them which He called, He
justified. And all that He justified, He
glorified. Lord, call me. My sheep hear
my voice and they follow after me. You and I are completely
dependent. You didn't choose me. The Lord
said, I chose you. I called you out of darkness
into my marvelous light. The child of God says again,
Lord, call me. Don't leave me to myself. Call
me. Do for me what Joseph did for
his brother. Our Heavenly Father, Bless your word to the salvation
of our souls and to the glory of Christ. We ask it in Christ's
name. Amen. 168. Let's stand together. Number
168. Lord, I hear of showers of blessing. Thou art scattering, full and
free. Showers the thirsty land refreshing. Let some drops now fall on me. Even me, even me. Let thy blessing fall on me. Pass me not, O tender Savior. Let me love and cling to thee. I am longing for thy favor. Whilst thou art calling, O call
me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Pass me not, O mighty spirit,
thou canst make the blind to see. Witnesser of Jesus' merit,
Speak the word of power to me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Love of God so pure and changeless,
blood of Christ so rich and free. Grace of God so strong and boundless,
magnify them all in me. Even me, even me, let thy blessing
fall on me. Pass me not thy lost one bringing,
Bind my heart, O Lord, to Thee. While the streams of life are
springing, Blessing others, O bless me. Even me, even me, Let Thy
blessing fall on me.