Brethren, let's be turning to
Genesis chapter 40. Genesis chapter 40. The things that are written here
are things that set the stage for the exaltation of Joseph
and for the salvation of many. What we see here when we're looking
at the Old Testament, we see Christ, and there are tracks
being laid here to reveal the gospel to us, that make known
the Lord Jesus Christ to us, so that in the exaltation of
Christ, in the glorification of our Savior, we now see these
things are all speaking of Jesus Christ. These things aren't talking
about dead things that are passed away. This is speaking of Christ,
the Savior of sinners. Now, let's begin reading in chapter
40, verses 1 and 2. It came to pass after these things,
after Joseph was cast into prison unjustly, that the butler of
the king of Egypt and his baker had offended their lord, the
king of Egypt. And Pharaoh was wroth. He was angry against two of his
officers, against the chief of the butlers and against the chief
of the bakers. Now these verses, what the Lord
is doing here is he's setting forth that in this world, there
are two people, two kinds of people. then that hear the gospel
and believe, and then that do not hear the gospel and do not
believe. They are described here as either
a butler or a baker. A butler serves that which is
given to him. He doesn't grow the grapes, he
doesn't make the wine, he simply receives that wine, tastes himself
to see that it is good, and then serves it to the king, in service
to the king. The baker, on the other hand,
he makes. He's a doer. He does things. He makes things. And of all things,
he makes bread. He makes bread. These two men
represent all men. All men are represented by either
one of these. You're either a butler or a baker. We're all described here either
as a butler or a baker. One people is chosen of God,
chosen of God before the foundation of the world, given to Christ
Jesus, who came and redeemed them out of every kindred, tongue,
people, and nation. These are the children of promise. Believers are the children of
promise. That's what we're told. Paul
wrote to the brethren in Galatia saying, we brethren, as Isaac
was, are the children of promise. You that believe the Lord Jesus
Christ, that he is all your righteousness and acceptance with God, you're
a child of promise. And this word is good news to
you. It's a comforting word to you.
Then there are those who are of the seed of serpent, of the
serpent, and they will not hear. They will not come to Christ
that they might have life. They are content with their works,
with their doing, with the things that they have made. And as far
as they're concerned, this is just as good. What they've done
is just as acceptable unto God. They've worked hard for these
things, and they believe that their hope is just as certain
as you that hope the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm reminded when I think
of baking, it reminds me of the Tower of Babel. Those men made
the Tower of Babel with baked bricks. They baked bricks and
stacked them up and they built a tower up to heaven so they
thought. But if we're to be accepted with
the true and living God, we must come as butlers, we must come
trusting the Lord Jesus Christ and his righteousness, that he's
all our acceptance with the true and living God. That's why the
father sent him, to save his people from their sins. So two
people in this world, all represented either by the butler or the baker. Let's look at verses three and
four here. And he put them, Pharaoh, picture of the father, put them
in ward, in prison, in the house of the captain of the guard,
into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound. And the captain
of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served them, and
they continued a season in ward. And so Joseph here is a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see him in prison with the
prisoners because he was made like unto his brethren. The scriptures
say that he was numbered with the transgressors. That's us,
brethren. He came in the weakness of this
flesh, laying aside his glory that he had with the Father for
all eternity, and took upon him the weakness of this flesh, because
we need a Savior. We cannot save ourselves. We
can't work ourselves out of this debt of sin that we have racked
up with our works, in our ways, in our wicked, sinful ways, brethren. And so Joseph is a picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we're told in verse four
that they continued a season in ward. There came a time, and
for every man, there comes a time when he is made to know what
a wicked man he is. What a sinful, wicked man he
is. He's brought to see that he has
a need, that he must be reconciled to God, that he must be justified
in God's eyes, that he cannot save himself. He's brought to
know that he's in trouble, that he has offended God Almighty. And the Lord put them here in
ward here. The Lord puts people into a season
of prison there to make us to know our offense, to make us
to see, and we've met people that are, don't walk with the
Lord, but there was a time where they came into trouble, and they
had a great deal of difficulty, and they saw their need for a
time it seemed, but eventually they fell away. And that's really
what happens. We go into a season of war, a
season of prison, where we understand our offense, to see our need,
but to what does a man turn to for his justification? What does
a man turn to for his comfort? Does he find comfort in this
world? Does he find comfort and peace
in what he's doing for the Lord? Or does he find no comfort in
those things, to find all his comfort to be shut up to the
Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. That's where the salvation of
the Lord is revealed in His people. By looking at a person, we don't
know who are the Lord's people, but the Lord reveals it by revealing
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that looks to Christ alone, that
rejoices in the Lord Jesus Christ alone, and has no confidence
in the flesh. We're stripped down, we're broken,
We're lost that we might be found by the Lord Jesus Christ alone
and find our all in him. So when the Lord shuts you up
in prison, when he makes you to know your offensiveness to
him, praise God if he shows you Christ and how sufficient and
wonderful the Lord Jesus Christ is and that you don't find any
contentment or any peace in your works and what you do. It's a
gracious thing to find no comfort in ourselves. And the Lord is
very long-suffering and patient to work that out in his people
to bring us to the end of ourselves continually that we might find
our all in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's able, brethren. He's able. So the Lord shuts us up to see
that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Now we're told here in the next
verse, verse five, were given a picture of the gospel, pictured
here in a dream which these men dreamed. Verse five says, they
dreamed a dream, both of them, each man his dream in one night,
each man according to the interpretation of his dream. The butler and
the baker of the king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison. And this is showing us that there
is but one gospel. We don't change our message,
for this person and then a different message for that person. There
is one gospel message. There is one salvation declared,
revealed in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we preach that
one gospel message, but this message must be revealed and
heard. And it's the Lord that reveals
that word to his children and makes us to hear that word effectually
in our hearts of what Christ has done. To see and behold the
Savior whom the Father has sent, the Lord Jesus Christ. That must
be revealed to us. And so we see that how they hear
this message, the interpretation of it, is very different. They
hear it very differently. One message. But all men either
hear Christ or they don't hear him, and they die in their sins. One message, brethren, one message. According to the gospel, all
men are sinners, and the Lord makes us to see that we are sinners,
that we are but low in ourselves, that we don't have any comfort
here in who we are, what we know, what we have done. There's no
comfort that we find in there. The Lord brings us all low, because
when we come to the Lord, we're coming as mercy beggars, begging
him for mercy. So he strips us down, he withers
this flesh, he breaks you of the things that you once could
delight in in this world, but he shuts you up in the prison
to make you to find no comfort in those things that you would
hear the Lord Jesus Christ, that you would be shut up to the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so it says in verse six that
Joseph came in unto them in the morning, and looked upon them,
and behold, they were sad. This is speaking to the mysterious
work of the Lord, what he does, what he works in a child, and
to make them to know their sin, to make them to know their need,
to make them to know their offense to the true and living God. And
again, we'll see who does a man turn to. When he's made sad,
who does he turn to for justification? Who does he turn to for peace
with God? Where does he find his salvation,
his rest? Is it in his religion? Is it
in just going to church? Is it in dead letter religion?
Is it in my works? Or is it in the Lord Jesus Christ?
Because that's what the Lord's going to do. He's going to reveal
Christ to you, or you're just going to find yourself and die
in your sins. As the Lord Jesus Christ said,
if you believe not, that I am he, you will die in your sins. So he's shown us Christ, he's
revealing Christ through the preaching of the gospel. When
heard aright by the ear of faith, the gospel serves as a breaking
of the day. After a long night, after a long
weary night, when the gospel comes in and breaks through this
hardness and through this blindness and through the darkness, we
see Christ. the day star rising in our hearts,
and we wait upon him, and we look to him, and we trust his
word of promise made unto us. And he does this because the
scriptures reveal, when you look at the scriptures, the scriptures
reveal all under sin, all under sin. When you read this, you
see that these people are sinners. There's sin, it's spoken of,
it's revealed here that we're all sinners and it's speaking
of each and every one of us here. We're all sinners. Some don't
believe that about themselves. Some think they're pretty good
about themselves. Don't worry about what you think is good
or not. We're all sinners. And the scriptures show that
we're all sinners in need of Christ. And the Lord does that,
that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to
them that believe. is to bring you to see Christ,
to see your need of Christ, to see the sufficiency of Christ,
that you don't try to come to the Lord baking your own bread,
but that you feed upon the bread of heaven. And so, but when a
man hears that he's a sinner and turns to his works, all that
does is gender or turn to more bondage, more and more bondage. and dead things. Now in verses
seven and eight, Joseph asked Pharaoh's officers that were
with him in the ward of his Lord's house saying, wherefore look
ye so sadly today? And they said unto him, we have
dreamed a dream and there's no interpreter of it. And Joseph
said unto them, do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me them,
I pray you. So we see here that Joseph will
hear Those who cry out to Him, the Lord hears those who cry
out to Him, who call upon Him. And it shows us here that our
Lord Jesus Christ is the revealer. He's the one that reveals the
Father to us. Without Him, we don't know the true and living
God. We can't know Him. Christ is the revealer. Christ
is the interpreter. We look to Him. That's why The
Lord shows us Christ in all the scriptures. Even in this passage,
it's to show us the Lord Jesus Christ because in Him, He's the
one that reveals the truth of God to us. He's the one that
reveals that we're sinners, that we cannot save ourselves, that
He is the Savior. He makes this known to us. He
makes us to know who the Father is well-pleased with. This is
my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased. Hear Him. That's who we're to hear, is
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why he's the one being
revealed here in these scriptures, that we would come to the Father
through Jesus Christ, the Son. And so he's the interpreter.
He said, all things are delivered to me of my Father, and no man
knoweth who the Son is but the Father, and who the Father is
but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. We need this word to be revealed
to us. Christ had just prayed this prayer.
He said, in that hour, he rejoiced in spirit and said, I thank thee,
O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these
things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. This word must be revealed to
us. Otherwise, it's just a mystery. Otherwise, it's just religion.
It's just you do it that way, and we do it this way, and I
do these things, and you do those things, and it's all dead letter
religion. It's a ministration of death,
and it can do nothing for your soul. The one that saves a sinner,
the one who does good for us is the Lord Jesus Christ. Hear
Him. And He says, I reveal the Father
to you. And He turned Him unto His disciples
and said privately, he speaks to his people privately, revealing
to them that he is salvation. Blessed are the eyes which see
the things that ye see, for I tell you that many prophets and kings
have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen
them, and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard
them." Now, this leads us to the dream which they dream, and
to hear the interpretation that the Lord gave to them. Pictured
in Joseph revealing it to them. And so here we see here, we're
gonna see the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ and
what he's done for his people, and then we'll see those who
find no comfort in Christ. All right, so let's look first
at the whole dream that the butler tells to Joseph here in Joseph's
interpretation, beginning in verse 9. And the chief butler
told his dream to Joseph and said to him, In my dream, behold,
a vine. A vine was before me. And in
the vine were three branches. And it was as though it budded.
And her blossoms shot forth. And the clusters thereof brought
forth ripe grapes. And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand.
And I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup. And
I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand. And Joseph said unto him,
this is the interpretation of it. The three branches are three
days. Yet within three days shall prophet
lift up thine head and restore thee unto thy place. And thou
shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand after the former manner
when thou wast his butler. Now as we'll see, in three days
these things come to pass exactly as Joseph revealed that they
would. But why? According to the mystery
of God, why is Why did the butler hear such glorious good news? Why did he hear such good news
in this dream, this interpretation of the dream? And I was just
moved when I read this passage to see the deeper tracks that
the Lord is just laying here of the gospel, just to show us
the Lord Jesus Christ to you that are shut up in prison, to
you who are troubled by your sin, to you who need the Savior,
the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Why is this such good news? What is the good news that's
declared here? Well, for one thing, that vine
is Christ. He is the vine. Without being
connected to the vine, we're nothing. We can do nothing without
Christ. We have no part in God except
through the Lord Jesus Christ. And these three branches, Joseph
tells us, are three days. Now the scriptures love to speak
of things occurring in three days. It's repeated often in
the Old Testament. Just to name a couple, it was
Jacob that put three days journey between his flock and Laban's
flock. And it's a picture of the Lord
putting three days between us who are his chosen seed to hear
his word and those who will not hear it. Those are not his seed,
right? Jonah was in the belly of the
well three days before he rose again. A picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ and our Savior when he died willingly on the cross
for the sins of his people and shed his blood for the remission
of sins to obtain favor and reconciliation for us, forgiveness for us and
to justify us with the Father, he died on that tree and was
buried and rose again three days later." Three days later. This
speaks to the redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ, how that he
has redeemed his people, how that he gave his life to save
his people from their sins. And by that blessed redemption
were the branches of our Lord being rooted in him bud and bear
much fruit in his people. the fruit of faith and hope and
love, love to God, love for our brethren, to walk in faith to
Him, to wait upon Him in the good hope which He gives us in
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the fruit of the Spirit
in us. That's not of this flesh. That's what He works in us. That's
what He bears in His people, testifying that they are His. This fruitfulness is born in
us of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this is because Christ
is the faithful servant. The Father said, behold, my servant
whom I have sent and whom I am well pleased, I've sent him and
he's gonna say to you the things that I've commanded him to say.
He's gonna speak only those words which he's heard me speak and
they're gonna bless the heart and the soul of my people. Those
who are broken, those who are weak, Those who can't do it,
who can't save themselves, those who are sinners and vile and
wretched and base and poor and nothing in themselves, but they're
precious to me. They're precious to me in Christ
my son. I love them and I sent my son
for them and they shall hear and they shall believe and they
shall be delivered from their prison and from their darkness
and they shall live. They shall live. Christ is prosperous
in all he does. He's the blessed man in Psalm
1, who prospers in all that he doeth. His hand, everything he
puts his hand to, it prospers, because he gladly does what pleases
the Father. He did it all, brethren. It says
in Zechariah 8, verse 12, for the seed shall be prosperous. This is the seed of the Lord
that overcomes the world. by their faith, which is the
gift of God to them, who trust Christ, who believe the Lord
Jesus Christ, his seed shall be prosperous, the vine shall
give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and
the heavens shall give their due. All right, a picture of
the giving of the Holy Spirit and all spiritual blessings in
heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And I will cause the remnant
of this people to possess all these things. This man seeing
Christ, this man saw the vine, and it was a fruitful vine, and
it prospered, and it prospered in his hearing, because the Lord
made it to prosper in him. And I pray the Lord, prosper
this word in you that hear, you that are sinners, you that have
no hope in yourselves, but hear of Christ and want to hear him,
and beg God, Lord, help me to hear the voice of Christ. Make
me to follow him. This word is for you that are
sinners, that cannot save yourselves or bake your way or make your
way out of this. You need Christ. He's the Savior. He's the Savior. And so, therefore,
we read this description of the butler in verse 11, and Pharaoh's
cup, he says, was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed
them into Pharaoh's cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's
hand. Now this is imputed to the butler, but this is the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ who tread the winepress of God's
wrath alone for his people, who bore the wrath of God to propitiate
the wrath of God, to turn the wrath which was against me for
my sin and you for your sin, turned it from us and put it
upon the Lord Jesus Christ to put away that sin forever. He
bore that, and that wine, that blood was shed for us, and that's
the picture there. He's pressing in that wine, which
is the blood of Christ, because that's our hope. That's how we
come to the Father, not in our own righteousness, but in the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why this butler
was received. That's why this butler pleased
Pharaoh, the picture of the Father. He was received in the blood,
and that's how we're received. by the blood of our Savior, who
shed his blood willingly for our sins, a wretch like me, a
sinner like me, and sinners like you, who have no confidence in
the flesh, but have every confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ, that
you look to him, and you keep looking to him, and you trust
him to fulfill all his word of promise unto you. And so that's
our hope, to stand before the throne of Almighty God, that
will be found faultless for Christ's sake, robed in his righteousness,
not my own. I don't want to be found in my
own righteousness, but in his righteousness. And that's where
we stand before God in that beautiful wedding garment without wrinkle,
without spot, without blemish, without any blot, but clothed
in the beautiful, precious, righteous garment of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I think these next few words,
I'll just cover them, but in verse 14 and 15, it speaks to
remembering Christ, to keep looking to him. Verse 14, but think on
me, he said, this is Joseph speaking, when it shall be well with thee
and show kindness or be zealous, I pray thee unto me and make
mention of me unto Pharaoh and bring me out of this house or
don't bury this truth. And this butler, it didn't come
immediately. He forgot, but in the day of
grace, that's when the Lord, when the Lord will make his word
effectual to your heart. In the day of grace, he bears
long with his people, sadly, for many years sometimes. We
hear this, but don't hear it. But in the day of grace, we will
remember the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll hear his voice. By the
grace and power of God, we'll remember him before our Father
and cry out, Lord, have mercy upon me. for Christ's sake. We'll
stop talking about our righteousness and what we've done to earn God's
favor. We'll be silent on that and we'll be boasting of him
and crying out for that grace and mercy for Christ's sake.
Now, let's read the Baker's dream here. When the chief baker saw that
the interpretation was good, he said unto Joseph, I also was
in my dream, and behold, I had three white baskets on my head. And in the uppermost basket there
was all manner of baked meats for Pharaoh. And the birds did
eat them out of the basket upon my head. And Joseph answered
and said, this is the interpretation thereof. The three baskets are
three days. Yet within three days shall Pharaoh
lift up thy head from off thee. and shall hang thee on a tree,
and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee." And then we see,
three days later, it happened exactly as Joseph said it would
happen. Now why, according to the mystery
of God, was such a sentence of wrath spoken against this man? Why did he hear this interpretation? Well, such is the lot of all
that would come to the Father in their works of righteousness.
and their religion, and in their doing, and what they've made
for the Lord, to try and earn his favor, to sanctify themselves,
to justify themselves, to earn a righteousness for themselves,
to be their own wisdom. That's the lot of all those who
trust in their own works, to save them, who think, well, I'm
pretty good, or I've been a Christian as long as I can remember. I've
always just done it this way. God will receive me. I've always
said I was a Christian. And that's not our righteousness.
It's not saying I'm a Christian. It's not identifying ourselves
as a Christian. The child of God looks to Christ
for all. We come to know him as him that
died for me and gave himself for me because I'm the wretched
sinner. So wretched that God had to send
his only son to come and die in my place because I cannot
save myself. If there was a law that could
save us, that could make us righteous, Paul said God would have given
it. But there is no law that is given whereby we can save
ourselves. We can't do it. We come short
continually. If we're honest, we see that
I am vile. My heart is wretched. I am in
darkness. I don't know the truth except
God reveal himself to me and he reveals himself in Christ.
That's what he's making us to see is the Lord Jesus Christ. This baker saw that the butler
was received. It was good for him. Surely when
I come in, the way I'm coming is good enough. It's just as
good as how he's coming, right? That's what he thought. And he
was wrong. He was wrong. And so these three white baskets
on his head, as we see as a number three, it speaks to the resurrection. and in which God is declaring
this same Jesus to this man both Lord and Christ. But this man's
not hearing that. He's still coming in his own
works. He's trusting what he has done. It says that he came
with all manner of baked meats, various baked goods. He did this
work. He did that work. He made sure
that this was covered by doing this baked meat over here. He
was covering all his bases with religion and works. but none
of it was pleasing or accepting to God. And if you have a King
James Bible, in the margin, white baskets means a basket full of
holes. It was full of holes. He thought
he was covered, and his nakedness and shame was exposed. He was
laid bare before all. And the birds did eat them, verse
17, out of the basket upon my head. This baker, is as the man
who hears the gospel declare that the Lord is mighty to save,
that he's exalted, he's shown that he's the savior of sinners,
and whom the Father is well pleased, but all those words fall by the
wayside, and he forgets them, and doesn't think of them, and
the birds of the air come, and just take that seed away, and
he forgets what he's heard, and remembers it no more. It doesn't
profit him, it doesn't profit him, And there's a people, great
a number in this world, just like this baker, who have many
works and many things that they're trusting in this day. And they
think, this will be my acceptance with God the Father. And it won't. This man lost his head. This
man bore. This man was his own head. His
head was taken off of him. He was his own Father, Son, and
Holy Ghost by what he trusted in. And he lost his head in that. It was a vain confidence. and
all who trust that God will be merciful to you in that day,
for your works are mistaken. There is one Savior, one salvation,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and we cast ourselves upon Him for acceptance
and mercy with God for Christ's sake, for what He did to save
a sinner like me. I don't have any confidence in
this flesh. I have no confidence in being a preacher. It means
nothing. I'm just a servant. You're my
brethren. And I desperately need the grace of God. And so do you.
Every one of us needs the grace and salvation of God. And I pray
the Lord help us to hear that tonight. And it says there that
the Chief Butler did forget Joseph, but he remembered him eventually
in that day of grace. And so we see here in this chapter,
the good news to the chosen people of God. It's not good news to
all, not all hear it, but beg God to help you to hear. Beg
God to be merciful to you, to make you to hear this word, to
hear what Christ has done, and to hear that he did it for me,
that we see the vine, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we see what
he's accomplished for his people, and that we be numbered with
that people in grace and in his power to the glory, praise, and
honor of his name. I pray the Lord bless that word
to your hearts, brethren.