Alright, let's go back here now
to Genesis 41. So they exalted Joseph to be
the head over this ministry. And then we read this in verse 55. Genesis 41.55, and it says, And
when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to
Pharaoh for bread. And Pharaoh said unto all the
Egyptians, Go unto Joseph, what he saith to you, do. I've titled this, Go Unto Christ. Go Unto Christ. Joseph here is
a picture of our Lord Jesus. Joseph was loved of his father
above all his brethren. It says in Genesis 37.3, Israel
loved Joseph more than all his children because he was the son
of his old age. God the Father loves his son
preeminently. A voice came from heaven saying,
this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. There was
none so wise and discreet as Joseph. That's what Pharaoh said. There's none so wise and discreet
as you in whom the Spirit of God is. God showed Joseph all
that would come to pass with the famine and all that he needed
to do to store up for this famine and Joseph told Pharaoh. Pharaoh
said there's none so wise and discreet as you are. None so
wise and discreet. So Pharaoh chose Joseph to be
the one to save them by his wisdom. And that's a beautiful picture
of our Lord Jesus. Christ is the wisdom of God.
The Spirit of God was upon him without measure. There's none
so wise and discreet as the Lord Jesus Christ. None so wise and
discreet as Christ. So Pharaoh gave Joseph all power
over Egypt. He gave them all, I mean this
is the richest nation on the planet at the time, wealthy nation,
Pharaoh the most powerful there is and he gives Joseph power
over all Egypt to save his kingdom from this great famine. to be
the head minister over all, and so to minister food, to minister
life to Pharaoh's kingdom, to the citizens of this kingdom.
Well, Christ is the power of God unto salvation. He's the
wisdom of God, and unsullied, wise, and discreet is our Lord
Jesus, and He's the power of God, who is the life, who came
to set in order all things that He might save His people. Pharaoh
said in verse 40, Thou shalt be over my house, according unto
Thy word shall all my people be ruled. And he said in verse
41, See, I have sent thee over all the land of Egypt. He took
his ring off, put it on his hand, he put him in all this royal
apparel, and he made him ride in a second chariot. Verse 43,
And they cried before him, Bow thy knee. And he made him ruler
over all the land of Egypt. Pharaoh said to Joseph, I'm Pharaoh,
and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all
the land of Egypt. He called his name Zephnath-paneah,
which means treasury of glorious rest. Treasury of glorious rest. And he gave him a wife, Asenath.
And so Joseph went out. He went over all the land of
Egypt. Now that's what took place in eternity. God the Father chose
His Son to be the salvation of His people, to be the captain
of our salvation, to save us from the great famine of our
sin and that our sin caused. Pharaoh blessed all his kingdom
because he put it all into the hand of Joseph to take care of
everything. And God our Father blessed His
people when He put all into the hand of Christ His Son and trusted
Him to do everything to save us from the famine of our sin.
He blessed His elect with all spiritual blessings according
as He chose to send Him, according as He trusted our salvation to
His Son, the Lord Jesus. Pharaoh exalted Joseph, he glorified
him with royal apparel, and he gave him a new name, treasury
of glorious rest, and they cried before Joseph, bow the knee,
bow the knee, and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.
Christ by His one offering came into this earth and He perfected
forever them that are sanctified. He accomplished the work of redeeming
His people. And God our Father has exalted
Him now high above all, over all, over all. He is the manifest
righteousness of God. And because He highly exalted
God, Paul said in Philippians 2, wherefore God also hath highly
exalted Him and given Him a name. Pharaoh gave Joseph a new name. The Father has given him a name
above all other names. And in His name, every knee is
going to bow and every tongue is going to confess that He is
the Lord Jesus Christ, the salvation of His people to the glory of
God the Father. Pharaoh said, according to Thy
words shall all my people be ruled. I have set You over all
the land of Egypt. He said, without thee shall no
man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt. And
so Joseph went about laying up in store for this famine and
providing everything he needed for this famine. And so then
when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to
Pharaoh for bread. They came to Pharaoh crying out. They wanted bread. They're starving.
There's nothing to eat in all the land. And Pharaoh said unto
all the Egyptians, go unto Joseph, what he saith to you, do. Well, God the Father spoke from
heaven, and he said, this is my beloved son, in whom I am
well pleased, hear ye him. Hear ye Him. Christ has the key
to the storehouse of grace. He has the key to the storehouse.
Christ Himself is the bread. He's the life. He's the food,
the righteousness of those He saves. He said, I'm the way,
the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by Me, Christ said. This is the stone which is set
at nought of you builders which have become the head of the corner.
Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none
other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be
saved. This is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Is any in a famine? This famine came after years
of plenty. There were some years of plenty.
Then the famine came and they forgot all about the plenty. Is there any in a famine? Do
you see your total inability to save yourself out of the famine?
Here's what God the Father says. Go to Christ. What He sayeth
to you, do it. Well, what does He say? When
you come to Christ, what does He say? 1 John 3.23, this is His commandment,
that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ
and love one another as He gave us commandment. That's His commandment. Go to Christ and this is what
Christ is going to say. Believe on Him. Believe on Him. Trust Him to do all the saving
and love one another. That's His commandment. Go to
Christ and what He says to you, do it. Christ says, believe on
Me. Believe on Me. Some hear the
word commandments, they hear the word statutes, and they try
to come to God by their obedience to the Ten Commandments or to
some other statutes in the law. The Ten Commandments are given
by God to do for God's people what Joseph's trials did for
Joseph. I tried to figure, count these
up, and I don't know if it's an exact number, but Joseph suffered
around ten trials. He suffered around ten trials.
And God gave each of the commandments in every trial He gives to us
to do for us what He did for Joseph. Each trial showed Joseph
his own famine, his own inability to save himself. That's what
God's law is going to show His people. Every trial he sends,
that's what they're going to show his people. He gave the
Ten Commandments to shut our mouths in famine. Could they
save themselves out of this famine? You just think, if a famine came,
could you save yourself out of a famine? There's no bread anywhere. You can't make bread grow out
of the cursed earth. And God did it on purpose. Well,
that's what the law makes us know about ourselves. We cannot
in any way bring forth life out of this cursed earth called our
flesh. We can't bring forth fruit. We
can't bring forth righteousness. But in every one of those trials
that Joseph suffered, God sweetly forced Joseph to believe on the
Lord. That's how he was saved. In everything
Joseph suffered, he believed on the Lord. And that's a picture
of Christ. Christ came here and lived and
walked through this life and suffered trial after trial after
trial after trial, all culminating with the greatest trial anybody
had ever suffered, the curse of the cross. And the way Christ
saved His people and the way He went through that and pleased
God is He believed God. But in each of Joseph's trials,
he believed God. That was what this famine was
doing for these Egyptians. They were having to go to Joseph
for life. There was nowhere else to go.
Joseph was the only one to go to. And this is what God's making
the Ten Commandments do for God's people along with every other
trial he sends and all the law and the prophets. When he blesses
the whole world to us, this is why we rejoice in it. The law
was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might
be justified by faith. But after that faith has come,
we are no longer under a schoolmaster. God used the law to show you
your famine. He used the law to show you your
sin, to show you your absolute, total inability to save yourself
by your works. And He's hedged you in on every
side by Charles. He hedged you in so there was
no way you could turn any which way. You could only go to Christ.
And He keeps doing this for His people. And when you go to the Father
and try to come to the Father, the Father says, Go to My Son. Go to Christ. And what He says
to you, do it. And Christ says, Believe on Me. He's the righteousness of all
who believe on Him. He's the righteousness. Those
that would not come to Joseph, if they heard this word, go to
Joseph, whatever he says to you, do. And they said, we're not
going to Joseph. They died. That's just all they
was doing. They were in a famine. There
was nothing else they could do. If they didn't believe Joseph
would save them, they died. And we never get past the point
of being able to save ourselves. We're always kept at this place
where we know we have to go to Christ and believe on Christ
and trust Christ to save us. Just like God worked everything
in Providence to bring this famine right here on purpose in the
land of Egypt, God works everything in our lives to bring us into
some famine that we cannot do a thing about. And there ain't
but one thing you can do. There's only one reason it's
given. God is saying, go to my son, and what my son says, do. And Christ always has one answer. When you come to Christ, believe
on me. He says he will do the saving.
Believe on him. Believe on Him. Christ is the
wisdom and power of God over the storehouse of grace. He's
life. He's life and life's in His hand
to give. John 17, 2 said, Thou has given
Him power over all flesh that He should give eternal life to
as many as Thou has given Him. That's the picture we have in
Joseph. He's got power over all. And God the Father gave Christ
power over all flesh that He should give eternal life to as
many as the Father gave to Him. And this is life eternal. What's
the bread? What's the corn that He gives
you to feast upon, whereby you live? This is life eternal, that
they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
Thou hast sent. What else does He say? What else
does Christ say to us? Christ commands us to love one
another. And He shows us how to love one
another. He shows us exactly how. He said
in John 15, 12, this is my commandment, that ye love one another as I
have loved you. That's how. As I have loved you. How has Christ loved His people?
How did He love His people? How has He continued to love
His people? Even when we did not love Him. Even when we despised and rejected
Him. Even when we sinned against Him.
even when we look to our own hand to try to save ourselves,
even now when we find ourselves in the very same famine. He loves us. Love, the love of
God, is not based on anything we do or making ourselves lovable
to Him. And that's what's amazing about
His love. He loved us when we didn't love Him. He loves us
now when we don't love Him. He loves us now when we're not
lovable and loving. This is the famine He makes us
see. We are the famine. Without Him
working in our hearts, teaching us He is everything, we have
no righteousness. Without His power strengthening
us, Him being the corn of life to strengthen us and giving us
grace and power to love, we can't love. He has to work faith and
love in the heart and this is the rule of life His people are
under. Faith which works by love. And
it's all of Him. It's all to His praise and glory.
Because we can't come any other way. We can't find life any other
way. Everywhere else you look is famine. Everywhere else you look is starvation. Christ is the one who does the
saving. Now all of this is seen in Joseph,
how he loved us, how Christ loved his people when we didn't love
him. In all Joseph's trials, you remember how they all began?
All the trials that Joseph went through began because his brethren,
his brothers, despised him and rejected him. That's how all
his troubles started. Genesis 37 verse 4 says, when
Joseph's brethren saw that their father loved him more than all
his brethren, they hated him and they could not speak peaceably
unto him. They just couldn't. They couldn't
make themselves love him. And when we look at the passage
like this, you're not going to see yourself in Joseph unless
you're in a bad place. We need to see ourselves being
in the place of His brethren. We couldn't bring ourselves to
love Christ. And we can't bring ourselves
to love another that's of Christ. And that's what we did to Christ
when He walked this earth because the Father loved Him preeminently
above all. We could not love Him. We could
not bring ourselves to speak peaceably of Him. Joseph told
him his dream. He went to him and he said, I
was out in the field and you all had some sheaves and I had
some sheaves and all your sheaves bowed down to my sheave. Now
you just imagine if your younger brother came telling you that. 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. What was that a picture of? Christ
came into this earth preaching the gospel to us, saying, All
his people shall bow to him and worship him. And they all shall. They all shall. He came into
his own, and his own received him not. He came unto His own,
and we received Him not. He is despised and rejected of
men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it
were, our faces from Him. He was despised, and we esteemed
Him not. So what happened? Well, Joseph's
brethren stripped Him. He had this coat of many colors.
It's a picture of Christ's righteousness, His perfection. And they hated
Him because of that coat. And they stripped that coat off
of him and tore it up, poured blood all over it, told the father
that somebody, an animal ate him. Our Lord Jesus Christ went
to the cross, the righteous one, and he bore the sin of his people
in his own body on the tree. And after they stripped that
coat off of him, they threw him in a pit. They threw him in a
pit. They threw Joseph in a pit. That's
where Christ went. He went to the cross. He went
to the pit that you and I deserve, that his people deserve. That's
what he did. And then they got the idea. We could make some
money off of him. They saw a band of Ishmaelites
going by and so they sold him. They got him up out of the pit
and they sold him for 20 pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites.
And the Ishmaelites took him down into Egypt. Our Lord was
betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. Why did the children of Israel
reject Christ when He came? They had the Law, they had the
Prophets, they had the Temple, they had the Ceremonies, they
had their religion. Here comes Christ who is the
antitype of everything they were doing. He's the one that all
foreshadowed. And here He comes declaring He's the One. Showing
Him in the Scriptures. He's the One that was spoken
of. Why did they reject Him? When Joseph got down to Egypt,
he was serving in Potiphar's house. And when Potiphar wasn't
around, Potiphar's wife tried to have Joseph have her way with
her. And when Joseph wouldn't give
her the lust of her flesh, she charged him falsely and had him
thrown in prison. And when Christ would not give
men the lust of their flesh to try to come to God, play in the
harlot as the and not looking to Christ our husband alone,
but trying to come by the works of the law and the deeds of their
flesh and using the ceremony and the form and all the things
he has given that picture to him to try to come to God by
those things, by trying to keep the law and trying to look to
their ceremonies and look to the works of religion. When he
wouldn't give them the lust of their flesh, just like Joseph
would not give Potiphar's wife the lust of her flesh, they charged
him falsely and he went to the cross and was crucified. And we see in that an example
of every elect sinner for whom Christ laid down his life, trying
to come to God by the lust of our flesh. This is how Christ loved us. In all that Joseph suffered,
we see a picture of how Christ loved his people and laid down
his life for his sinful people when we were yet his enemies.
And Joseph, exalted, we see Christ at God's right hand, having accomplished
all the work, having filled the storehouses full of corn, His
righteousness, His holiness, His wisdom, His redemption, all
is provided, just like Joseph provided all. And there's Christ
now, head over all. And the Father says, go to Him,
and what He says to you, do. And Christ says, believe on Me,
and you shall be saved. You'll be saved from all your
sin. You'll be saved from your self-righteousness. You'll be
saved through every trial. You'll be saved all the way to
the end. And He'll bring you into God's
presence and present you holy, unblameable, unreprovable in
His sight. You'll be saved by Him. Believe
Him. And love one another as I have
loved you, He said. Christ graciously revealed the
Gospel in our hearts, and He continues to reveal the Gospel
in our hearts. He called us, like we saw in
our text this morning, He called us to Himself, and He revealed
all this in our hearts. He made us see our own famine,
and He made us see Him, that He is the end of the law for
righteousness, that He's the bread, that He's the life, that
He's the redemption, He's the right, He made us see it all
in Him. in prison, Joseph interpreted
the dream of the butler. And he asked him, he said, when
you get to Pharaoh and remember me before Pharaoh. And the butler
was so happy, the dream all came to pass and
he forgot about Joseph. But when he finally remembered,
they called for Joseph and Joseph came in. He had been forgotten.
Joseph had been totally forgotten. He was left for a long time in
prison because the butler forgot about him. But when he called
Joseph, Joseph came in and graciously, no word about being forgotten,
he graciously interpreted the dream for him. Brethren, we forget
what Christ has done for us, and we act like we've forgotten
Him and forgotten all that He's done for us. When the famine
comes, the Plenteous is forgotten. And we forget, just like the
butler forgot Christ. But what does Christ do? He keeps
graciously, graciously proclaiming the Gospel to us and making us
hear it in our heart, making it effectual in our heart. Just
like Joseph came there after he had been forgotten and graciously
told them the meaning of that dream. And when He discovers
to us our famine, He draws us to Him in faith. And He shows
us again and again that He's loved us. He loved us before
the foundation of the world. He entered charityship to save
us from our sins. He loved us when we fell in Adam
and He never stopped loving us. He loved us when we were blind
and undone and didn't know Him and didn't want to know Him.
He loved us. He loved us when He first sent the Gospel and
drew us to Himself. And He makes you know all over
again. He's never stopped loving you when you forgot Him. And He draws you to Himself and
graciously reveals how He's loved you and what He's done for you
and how He's never stopped loving you and never will stop loving
you. This is the everlasting love of our Redeemer. And yet,
despite the fact that Joseph suffered all this, all of this,
There he is now, he's the one in charge of everything over
Egypt. And he's got the key to the storehouses.
And the famine comes now to his brothers. The famine came to
his brothers. To his father's house and to
his brothers. And they had to go down to Egypt
because they heard there's some corn down there in Egypt. And they come to Pharaoh, and
Pharaoh says, go to the treasury of glorious
rest, Zephna Penia, that's where you're going to get the... And
they don't know that name. We didn't know that name either.
They don't know who this one is, and they don't recognize
who he is. It's been a lot of years past. And these brothers
who deserved him, these brothers who despised him and rejected
him, they come in. to where Joseph is. And they first came, they brought
some almonds and some other little things. They are going to try
to, they want bread. And they are going to bring almonds
to try to buy some bread. God don't want your almonds.
He says, come empty. Come empty. When they came to
Joseph and people would come to Joseph, Joseph would sell
them corn. Christ says, whoever one that
thirsteth, come ye to the waters. Come buy, drink, come eat without
money and without price. Why? Because when you come by
faith, trusting Christ, He is the price. Christ paid it all. And so the redemption and the
righteousness and everything He gives is free. It's free. Aren't you glad it's free? We don't have a thing to pay.
We have nothing wherewith to pay. It's free. And to show you how free it is,
here come these brothers, the very ones that had thrown him
in the pit, the very ones that had stripped him, the very ones
that had sold him into slavery. The very ones for which he suffered
everything he suffered. And when you look at Joseph's
suffering and all that he suffered, you basically just see a shadow
in all that he suffered of Christ going to the cross and suffering
in the room instead of his people. And everything Joseph suffered. And here they come to Joseph.
And what does Joseph do? How is he going to receive them?
How is he going to receive them? Look at Genesis 50. Verse 18, And his brethren also
went and fell down before his face. And they said, Behold, we be
thy servants. He said they were going to bow,
didn't he? All Christ's people are going
to come and bow down. Lord, we are your servants. Tell
us what to do. And Joseph said to them, Fear
not. For am I in the place of God?
But as for you, you thought evil against me. That's us, brethren. Everything we did, all our sin,
still today, all our self-saving, we thought evil against Christ. But God meant it unto good. bring to pass as it is this day
to save much people alive. Now therefore, fear ye not, I
will nourish you and your little ones." And he comforted them
and spake kindly unto them. He opened a storehouse to them
freely. He not only opened the storehouse
freely and graciously and abundantly, He brought them down there to
Egypt and gave them the best land in Egypt, in Goshen, where
they were prosperous and provided for all their days. What do we
see in that? Here's what Christ is teaching
us. He says, believe on Me, trust
Me. And He says, and love one another
as I have loved you. How's that? When we were yet
without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Now, if it's not for Christ and
it's not for His righteousness, that's all you and me still are.
Except for Christ's righteousness, except for His Spirit creating
us new and us being united with Him, we're just ungodly. But He died for us when we were
ungodly. Scarcely for a righteous man
will one die, yet perventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward
us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. Justified
by His blood means we have no sin. Past, present, or future. No sin. Righteous. The righteousness
of God. Being now justified by His blood,
we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were
enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only so, but we also
joy in God through our Lord Jesus by whom we've now received the
atonement, reconciliation. God our Father says, go to Christ,
what he said to you, do it. And what does Christ say? He
says, believe on me. He gives eternal life freely,
abundantly, righteousness and peace with God. Just like Joseph,
no matter what we suffer, believe Him that He's working all things
for our good and for His glory. No matter what. That's how Joseph
So everything that was coming to pass when he was suffering,
everything he was suffering, God is working this for His glory
and for my good. And He's doing it to save much
people alive. That's what God's doing with
everything right now. Everything that's coming to pass
in this world, in your life and mine and everything around us,
He's doing it to save much people alive. And believer, if you're
in a famine, If you sin in any way, go to Him now and believe
on Him now. If any man sin, any believer,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous,
and He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only,
but for His people all over the world. This is what He said.
He said, if when we were enemies we were reconciled by the death
of His Son, justified by His blood, we shall be saved by His
life from wrath. Everybody that was brought to
see that famine, they had experienced plenteous years. You've experienced
plenteous years. We all have. But when the famine
comes, there's only one thing to do. There's only one reason
the famine is sent. Same reason God blessed the Lord
our hearts in the first hour and made us see ourselves as
the total famine. It's to drive you to Christ.
And Christ says, believe on me. makes you see He made you righteous.
And He says, now love one another as I've loved you. It would have
been terrible for Egypt at the time when they were in the famine
to turn on each other and decide they're going to have a war with
each other. A civil war? What good would
that have done? But to help one another, what
do I need to do? I'm starving, brother. What do
I need to do? Joseph's right over there. He's at the storehouse
right now. Go over there. He'll open it
up for you. Come unto me, all ye that labour
and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. The Father loveth the
Son, and hath given all things into His hand. He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. He said, go to the Son, what
He says to you, do it. All things are in His hand. And
He gives eternal life. And He said, Love one another
as I loved you. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You're
my friends if you do whatsoever I command you. Have your brethren
sinned against you? Have your brethren rejected you?
Have you been forgotten of those for whom you did good? We find
it exceptionally hard to love when we've been treated that
way. If you're finding it hard to
love, that means you're in a famine of love. And Christ tells us
this. He says, look at what we did
to Him and yet what He did to us. Look at everything we've
done to Him and yet look at the love He showed us and laying
down His life for us. You thought evil against me.
but God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day
to save much people alive. Now therefore, he says to you,
fear ye not, I will nourish you and your little ones. And he
comforted them and he spake kindly to them. Paul said, let all bitterness
and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away
from you with all malice. We can't put that away. We just
can't. When your countenance is turned
against somebody, you can't make yourself love them. There's only
one way you can do it. Only one way you can be saved
out of that famine is for the Lord to bring you to our great
Joseph and make you hear him say to you, that's what you were
doing to me and I laid down my life for you. Now go love as I loved you. Everything you have, I gave it
to you. You have to hear him tell that
to us. Everything you have is because I loved you and laid
down my life for you. Now you go lay down your life
for your brother. But they sin so against me. That's what he makes you hear.
You sin so against me, Christ says. And I'll lay down my life
for you. Lay down your life. Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath
forgiven you. Be ye therefore followers of
God as dear children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved
us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet-smelling savor. Amen.