Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Genesis chapter 41. Genesis 41. I would like to look at the first
13 verses of this passage this evening. And this passage holds
great insight into Lord's good pleasure to bring his people
to himself. But I'd like to look at just
those first 13 verses, and I've entitled this, The Confession
of a Rescued Sinner. Now, Joseph, after interpreting
the dreams of two men that he was in prison with, it was Pharaoh's
butler and his baker. And after Joseph interpreted
two dreams that these men had had in the same night, one of
them was delivered back to his former position in the court
there with Pharaoh, and the other one was hanged. And the one that
was delivered back to the position of being in Pharaoh's court asked
Joseph to remember him. When he got out and he got back
to where he was, he said, would you mention my name? And so we're
gonna pick up right there. That's where we left off. Scripture
says last verse of chapter 40, yet did not the chief butler
remember Joseph, but forget him. In verse one of chapter 41, it
said, it came to pass at the end of two full years that Pharaoh
dreamed, and behold, he stood by the river. Now, two full years,
probably since the time that the butler was restored to his
position. It could have been from the time
that Joseph first went into prison, even before the butler and the
baker, but nonetheless, two full years. And two full years that
obviously was for Joseph's good. You say, how can that be good?
Well, the only thing I can go on is the word of God. And it
says all things work together for good to them that love God. So Joseph was there for God's
glory and for Joseph's good. But now, there's one other thing
that we learned from Joseph being in there two full years, obviously,
for sure, whatever time, could have been two years since the
butler got out, but here's the second thing we learned. We touched
on this last time. Don't put any confidence in man.
He'll forget every time, he'll forget. At the end of those two
years, though, the Lord, according to God's wisdom, He's working
all things after the counsel of His own will. At the end of
two full years, the Lord was pleased to make known His will
and purpose through a heathen king having two dreams. King's heart is in the hand of
the Lord. This heathen king didn't know
God, but God can do anything God wants to do. That's what
David said, our God's in the heavens. He's done that which
has pleased him. So the king's heart's in the
hand of the Lord as the rivers of water, he turneth it whithersoever
he will. I was just made as I was going
over my notes today. I was thinking about that scripture
right there. The king's heart's in the hand
of the Lord. And I think about all of the things that's going
on in this world today. And you know what's happening
in this world today? Exactly what God has purposed. That's what's happening. That's
exactly what's happening. Everything. It was no accident that the king
dreamed what he did. He dreamed according to God's
will and God's timing. And now it was time for Joseph
to be delivered from prison. Joseph is going to be exalted
to God's position of responsibility for Joseph. And the dreams are
gonna prove to be God's means and God's choosing to accomplish
God's will. So he sends this dream to this
heathen king, but it's going to redound to the good of Joseph. We need to be reminded that everything,
even that heathen king's dreaming, is divinely ordered for the accomplishment
of God's will to bring his people to himself. I'm the first to complain about
things. Things happen, I just, you know.
But you know that Joseph had to be betrayed by his brothers. Because that was God's will.
He had to be sold into slavery into Potiphar's house in order that Potiphar's wife,
being left to her own wickedness, attempted to seduce Joseph. God kept him. God let her do
exactly what she wanted to do, and God kept him by power, through
faith. God kept him. The Lord said, without me, you
can do nothing. Somebody said, well, it was just Joseph's natural
stamina. No, well, I tell you what, if
he was less to his natural self, I know what he'd have done. But
God kept him. He had to be seduced by this
woman, and after he had scorned her, her unfaithful and wicked
advances. She lied on him, told her husband
that he was the one that instigated the whole thing, and Potiphar
unjustly, he wasn't guilty, thrown into prison to stay there for
years. That was God's will. But I mean,
if we look and see Joseph as we did here when we studied chapter
40 and saw what a picture of Christ, lied on, treated unjustly,
you know, he put himself into bondage, into the bondage of
his people, made himself, Father made him sin, he willingly laid
down his life for his people. So here we see The power of God
guiding all the actions of this world, His omnipotent hand moving
everything, everything for the accomplishment of His will, His
purpose, His counsel according to His good pleasure. Everything is going to prove
to be for God's glory and the good of God's elect. That's the
point. I keep wanting to nail down for
myself, remember, remember, remember, whatever you're going through,
believer, whatever it is, it's for your good. It's perfect,
it's perfect. It could be no other way. Well,
this wicked king had these two dreams. Let's read verses two
to eight. And in his dream, and behold,
there came up out of the river seven well-favored kind, cows
and fat-fleshed. They were healthy. And they fed
in a meadow. It's actually what that is. It's
a marsh grass. It's what is on the edge of the
river. And behold, seven other kind came up after them out of
the river, ill-favored, lean-fleshed, and stood by the other kind upon
the brink of the river. And the ill-favored and lean-fleshed
kind did eat up the seven well-favored and fat kind, so Pharaoh awoke. And he slept. What he did, he
woke up after that first dream and realized it was a dream,
he's gonna say that in a minute, and he went back to sleep. And
he slept, verse four, five, I'm sorry, and dreamed a second time.
And behold, seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk, rank
and good, they were nice corn. And behold, seven thin ears and
blasted with the east wind sprung up after them, and the seven
thin ears devoured the seven rank and full ears, and Pharaoh
awoke, and behold, it was a dream. And it came to pass in the morning
that his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all
the magicians of Egypt and all the wise men thereof, and Pharaoh
told them his dream, but there was none that can interpret them
unto Pharaoh." Now, let me just tell you this. We're going to
get into the interpretation of what I just read here because
it's gonna be repeated in this chapter and I'll get into the
interpretation of it, Lord willing, in another message. But I want
us to, we're gonna go through verse 13 and there's something
in this passage I want us to see in this chapter here. I want us to see that in these
dreams that Pharaoh dreamed after he dreamed them. It was seven
well-fed, good-looking cows that came out of the water. Then there
were seven real ill-favored, not nice cows. They didn't look good. And those
ill-favored cows stood by the goodly cows, and the ill-favored
cows ate the seven good cows. And then he dreamed, it was a,
it was a, stalks of corn and it had seven ears. Now, any of
y'all grow corn? You know, I'm gonna tell you
something. I don't know how much you can get in West Virginia,
I'll be honest with you. But I guarantee you, in Louisiana,
if we got three, that was a good ear, that was a good stalk. Get
three ears on corn, seven ears. That was a lot, that was a, There
was a reason for it. I'm making a point there. We're
gonna bring this back up again. But there was a reason for that.
But then there was seven skinny ears. They were ill-favored ears.
And they stood by there. And those ill-favored ones devoured
the good ones. And he woke up. And it says when he got up that
next morning, his spirit was troubled. What did that mean? And he sent and called all the
magicians in Egypt, all the wise men, he told them his dream and
nobody could interpret the dream. Well, here's what I can see so
far. The wisdom of this world is foolishness. Foolishness with
God, that's what scripture says. Pharaoh's dream, began, he was
standing by a river. Now, when it says in that second
verse before he came out of the river, well, I looked it up and
it's actually talking about the Nile. It's actually the description
of it. It means stream or canal, but
here it means the Nile. That river was so important to
Egypt. The river, was Egypt's supposed
lifeline. That river was for the sustaining
of that country. That river was that which the
arrogant pharaohs used to set forth in thinking that it was
by their power and their strength their wisdom that they were able
to provide for Egypt. And God sent a prophet. In the
book of Ezekiel, hold your hand right there. Turn over to Ezekiel
29. God sent a prophet to declare Egypt's foolishness. Now, Pharaohs,
and that was just a title, like president, governor. Pharaohs
was a title. They thought themselves to be
gods. They thought themselves to be deities. They thought themselves
to be something. And they thought themselves to
be able. And one writer was saying that when you look at the mouth
of the Nile River, it branches off into many, many little rivers,
smaller rivers. And these smaller rivers, they
say, where actually many of them dug to spread the water out to
make the land even more fertile than it was. You can look at
a picture of the Nile River, it just, all of a sudden just
branches out into, you know, multiple. But look at Ezekiel,
chapter 29, concerning these thoughts. Now this Pharaoh, he's
looking at this river. And out of this river, here comes
the cows and the good-looking corn, and then it comes the evil-looking
cows and the skinny corn and the skinnier cows and the skinnier
corn. It eats up the good stuff. Looks at that, came out of his
river. Ezekiel 29. Ezekiel 29, verse
two and three. Son of man, set thy face against
Pharaoh, the Pharaoh, king of Egypt. and prophesy against him
and against all Egypt, and speak and say, thus saith the Lord
God. Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh
king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his
rivers, which hath said, my river is mine own, and I have made
it for myself. And then look in verse nine.
Therefore thus saith the Lord God, behold, I will bring a sword
upon thee, and cut off man and beast out of thee, and the land
of Egypt shall be desolate and waste, and they shall know that
I am the Lord, because he has said, the river is mine, and
I have made it. So here this pharaoh, he looks
and he sees this river, and he sees these things that are coming
out, and he dreamed these seven well-favored They fed in a meadow,
they fed in a marshy grass. John Trapp said this, when the
Nile overflows its banks, John Trapp was one of the old writers,
he said when the Nile overflows its banks, it fattens the plain
of Egypt with a black mold. In that grassy area right there,
he said that it's so fruitful One needs only to throw seeds
upon it to have four rich harvests in less than four months. So
this Nile River, you have to understand, Pharaoh is looking
at this and he's thinking, he's thinking, this is, this river
right here is the source of all of Egypt and I'm in control of
it. I'm the one that handles it.
That's what the Lord rebuked him. Ezekiel would tell him,
he said, you're saying, he said, I'm gonna cut you off. You're
saying that this now, this river, and he said, you're saying it's
mine, and the earth is the Lord's, the fullness thereof. Well, Pharaoh,
he saw in his dream those seven well-fed cows feeding on this
marshy grass, and then seven other cows came up out of the
river, and they were lean flesh, and they stood by the first cows,
and the lean flesh cows ate up the seven fat cows. Turn over
just to 21. I'm gonna just get into the interpretation,
but this is all I'll look at for this evening on the interpretation.
In verse 21 of Genesis 41, and when they had eaten them up,
it could not be known that they had eaten them. But they were
still ill-favored, as at the beginning. So I woke. What he
said is, these seven ill-favored cows ate these big, fat flesh
cows. And after they ate them, there
was no difference in the ill-favored cows. It didn't change. And this
is what was perplexing him. If these cows, if these skinny
cows would have eaten those big cows, why didn't the skinny cows
fill up or something. He just, he couldn't get it.
And then the seven ears of corn, fat flesh, good, one stalk, unusual
for corn, but abundant. Speaking of the abundance of
Egypt, there was just, but then those thin ears, the ones that
were blasted with the east wind, they sprung up after them, devoured
the seven ears. It showed no difference to them
either. Well, what was shown Pharaoh was that God can remove
that which man puts all of his trust in. He was showing him,
you know what's gonna happen. You know that there's gonna be
seven years. Joseph is gonna give the interpretation. Here I go now, getting into it.
Like I said, I wasn't. He's gonna show him. Seven good
years is coming. And they're gonna have seven
years of plenty. then they're gonna have seven
years of famine. And that seven years is gonna
devour everything that they thought that they were gonna have. But
he sees that, but he don't know that yet. So here he is, these
things are hidden, hidden from him. You know, the scripture
says that the natural man knoweth not the things of God. And the Lord even prayed one
day thanking the Father that these things were hidden from
the wise and prudent, revealed among the babes. But Pharaoh
woke up, knew that it was a dream, and he was troubled, but neither
Pharaoh nor the magicians perceived what the meaning was. It was
hidden from their minds. So carnal man knows nothing of
the things of God. David was moved of God to pen
for with thee, there is the fountain of life, for in thy light shall
we see light. Psalm 36, nine. How quickly. Man by nature seeks out imposters
to know the mind of God. Man will run to men that are
ignorant of the scriptures. That's man by nature, and that's
what this That's what this Pharaoh did. He called out all of his
magicians, and they could but study the secrets of nature and
give a good reason for the things of nature. But there was none,
the scripture says, that could interpret the dream of Pharaoh. 1 Corinthians 2.14, the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. The Lord, through Isaiah, said,
therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among
the people, even a marvelous work and wonder, for the wisdom
of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their
prudent men shall be hid. That's in Isaiah 29, 14. So the
Lord hides these things. from those that think themselves
to be so wise and prudent. Like I said a moment ago, he
reveals them unto babes. And then the scripture says,
the Lord said unto the father, because it seemed good in your
sight. Does God have the right to hide
things from men? Absolutely. Does he have the
right to reveal them to whomsoever he will? Absolutely. Because
he's the Lord. But with all the ignorance, that
was in Egypt, and Egypt is a type of this world, a type of this
world's sin, the bondage of sin. The Lord was pleased to accomplish
his will using a heathen king, and he sent these hidden dreams
to stir up the mind of that king to seek out some understanding,
and whenever the king related the story. Now, come back to
Genesis 41. After he related the story, he
told his magicians, this is what I dreamed, I dreamed about these
cows, I dreamed about this corn, and I don't know what it means.
And they said, I don't know what it means. We don't either. All of a sudden, that butler
that two years before had told Joseph When I get out of here,
I'm gonna mention you. I'm gonna mention you to Pharaoh.
Well, here it is now. Years later, and the scripture
sets forth that this man that's been brought back to his memory,
it says in verse nine, then spake the chief butler unto Pharaoh,
saying, I do remember my faults this day. I'm gonna wrap this
message up, and here's really the message for this evening.
I wanted to bring us up, like I said, everything that we've
looked at previously is gonna be repeated in this chapter.
We'll deal with the interpretation of it then. But I want us to
see, with all that's gone before, and this man being brought back,
he's heard what the what Pharaoh has said, and when he told him
about these dreams, he realizes that he's forgotten Joseph, and
in these closing verses, I want us to behold this man's words
and this man's reaction being brought to himself like that
prodigal son. He'd gone out and wasted all
of his money on righteous living. And he came to himself. And here
this butler, he comes to himself. That picture of being regenerated,
stirred by the Spirit of God, brought to an understanding of
what has gone on with me. And here he is. It's almost like
he's going to give a personal word of testimony. And I listened
to what this man said, and I looked at the things he said, and I
saw these five things that this man said, and I said, that's
the confession right there of a rescued sinner. That's the
confession of a man that's been brought to himself. That's the
confession of every man, every woman that Almighty God calls
out of darkness, and that's what I'm gonna preach on, Mitch. And
so here it is right here. Here's the first thing. The butler
declared, That's what I just read. The chief butler said under
Pharaoh, saying, I do remember my faults this day. Here's the first thing. Here's
the first confession of a regenerated sinner. These people are made
honest before God about themselves. They know and they confess what
they are by birth and by choice and by practice. I am a sinner. I'm a sinner. He said, I do remember
my faults. Turn to 1 John 1. 1 John 1. 1
John 1, verses 8 to 10. 1 John 1. 8 to 10, if we say that we have
no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word is not in us. When the Lord Jesus Christ went
to the cross, He bore all the guilt of our debt, all of our
sins, the guilt of our sins in his own body, and he put them
away, put away that guilt, cast it as far as the east is from
the west. But there is still in every one of us the actual
practice of sin, the presence of sin. We confess it, and that's
what this butler did. He heard that Pharaoh, that king,
talking about I've dreamed a dream and I couldn't remember the,
I can't remember the, I mean, I don't know the interpretation
of it, and that butler said, oh, man. I remember my fault. That's what
God's people, I remember. And secondly, having confessed
his guilt, the butler set forth the reason of his guilt. Here's
the second thing, in verse 10. Pharaoh, he's still confessing,
he's telling them what was written. I do remember my faults this
day. Pharaoh was wroth with the servants, he had put me in ward
in the captain of the guard's house, both me and the chief
butler. He said, I remember now, I remember
my fault, and I remember I was in prison. And I remember why
I was in prison. I was guilty. I was guilty. He confessed what he is. I'm
a sinner. I'm guilty. He said the baker and I had offended
Pharaoh. I've offended God. This is why
I'm confessing. I've offended the Lord. He was
wroth with his servants, and were put in a ward, and put in
the prison, and the captain of the guard's house. Every vessel
of God's mercy is going to admit I'm born in bondage. I'm in jail. I'm in prison. I'm
enslaved. I'm confessing my fault. I have
offended the king. That's what I did. That's why
he was there. And I was put in ward. I was in bondage to sin
because of my own rebellion. And I'm going to admit it. I
was in rebellion against God. You know, man ignorantly tries
to convince himself that he's not born in bondage to sin. Thinks that he can release himself
at any time by an act of his will. I just choose it. I said
before, if man has a free will, that means he's saying that my
will is free from God's will. That's what he's saying. If you're
saying your free will, you can do what you want to do, then
that means that you're saying that your will is above God's
will. And it's not associated with
God's will. And that's a lie. That's the
greatest of all bondage. You're in bondage yourself and
you don't know it. Those enlightened by God's spirit, they behold
their spiritual weakness and they cry as the apostles of the
Lord cried when there arose a great tempest in the sea and the ship
was covered with waves. And this is what they said, Lord,
save us. We perish. If you don't save
us, we're going to perish. Now that's the confession of
a believer. This butler, he admitted, I'm remembering now my faults. I was in the ward. I was in the
prison. I was chained up. I was bound
up and I could not get out. That's a confession. I am weak. I'm spiritually impotent. Then thirdly, the butler set
forth the truth known by every believer. Here's what it is. that the Lord is the God of distinguishing
grace. He knew that. He says in verse
11, and we dreamed a dream in one night, I and he, and we dreamed
each man according to the interpretation of his dream. Now here's what
he just said. He realized hearing what the
other one dreamed, he knew what he dreamed and listened to what
Joseph said he realized that the Lord had spoken to each of
them according to the Lord's good pleasure for each man. That's what he realized. Neither
man knew the meanings until after Joseph gave the interpretations. And he actually saw the fulfillment
of it. But the butler knew that he was
just as guilty as the baker. And God had sent him a dream
concerning the mercy to the butler that was going to be shown. And
he left the baker to himself. One of them he gave a dream concerning
that cup that had, he saw that vine and it had the branches
and it had the white grapes. He took the grapes, put them
in the cup. It was Pharaoh's cup, the king's cup. He said,
I mashed those grapes up there and I gave it to the king. What
he did was he presented setting forth faith in the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And the baker, his dream, he
had the basket full of holes and all of the baked goods that
he had made. And that's what he was gonna
present to the king, the best that he could do. And that butler
knew. He said, we had a dream. We dreamed
according to the interpretation of his dreams. Even then, the
scripture says, concerning God's distinguishing grace, there's
an elect. There's a people of God's choosing.
Even so then at this present time, there's also a remnant
according to the election of grace. There's a remnant according
to God's choosing. The scripture says, for he saith
to Moses, I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. I'll have
compassion on whom I'll have compassion. Well, then it's not
him that willeth, not him that runneth, but God that showeth
mercy. This butler said this, I remember
my fault. I was in the bondage of that
jail. We each had a dream. And the
interpretations of those dreams set forth God's good pleasure
to show mercy to me. And he let that man die in his
sense. That's what a believer knows. And then fourthly, when
the Lord's pleased to rescue one of his own from bondage of
sin and unbelief, he sends an interpreter, taught of God to
preach the truth of the gospel. Look at verse 12. He said, and
there was there with us a young man in Hebrew, servant to the
captain of the guard. And we told him and he interpreted
to us our dreams. to each man according to his
dream he did interpret. How beautifully we see how the
Lord had that ruling hand in Joseph's captivity. There would be, among all the
other reasons for Joseph being in prison, it's gonna be a vessel
of God's mercy. And Joseph must be there. cross the path of that butler
and tell that butler of the mercy that God was pleased to show
him. Whenever the Lord is pleased
to save a vessel of his mercy, he will cause, turn with me to
Romans 10, he will cause that vessel of his mercy to hear the
gospel. He's going to cross the paths
of the vessels of his mercy with a preacher. Romans chapter 10,
verse 13. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him
in whom they've not believed? How then shall they believe in
him in whom they've not heard? How shall they hear without a
preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent as
it is written? or the feet of them that preach
the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. This man was in that prison,
released out of prison by the grace of God, forgot about Joseph,
but then when the Lord was pleased to send that dream to Joseph,
he remembered, and he came to his senses, and he said, let
me tell you what happened to me. I was there, I was around,
God showed mercy to me, And he did so by sending me a preacher. Hold me the truth. Then lastly. The Lord set forth through the
interpretation of Joseph. The surety of his word. Verse 13 will close here came
to pass. As he interpreted to us, so it
was. May he restored. Onto mine office. And him. He hang. Brethren, I want us to remember
that this whole world is under the command and direction of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Scripture says in the Lord's
great high priest, John 17, two, he said that the father has given
him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to
as many as the Father has given Him. All these things concerning
life and salvation, God's going to save His people. All that
the Father given Him shall come to Him. He may have to send a
preacher to somebody in prison because that prisoner's crossed
paths with that preacher, but God's gonna get him. That's what
He did here. are released out of the bondage
of their sin and unbelief, they're gonna confess, this is what happened.
God saved me. He saved me on purpose. Saved
me by grace and saved me by mercy. And I'm gonna praise him for
it. For his glory and my good. Amen. All right, Gary.