Alright, brethren, let's turn
to Genesis chapter 41. Genesis chapter 41. We come often to Scriptures and
we find things written like this. Paul told Timothy, God hath saved
us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, now listen to this, but according to His own purpose. According to His own purpose
and according to His grace. His purpose and His grace which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. God's purpose and God's grace
was given to His people in Christ before the world was made. What that means is this, brethren,
before God made this world, God chose His Son And God set His
Son over all to save His people from our sins. God gave His people grace and
He gave His people mercy according to His purpose in Christ before
this world was ever made. Isn't that good news? You see
this world look like it's in chaos and it looks like you just
don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. But God does. We watched all week as they tried
to determine where is that hurricane going? Which way is it going
to go? Is it going to hit land? Is it going to go out to sea?
We didn't have any idea. God knew. God knew from eternity. God purposed from eternity exactly
where that hurricane would go. and He ruled it and brought it
to pass exactly the way He purposed it to be. Now, we see typified
in this familiar passage here in Genesis 41, we see it typified
how that God chose Christ and exalted Christ and determined
what would come to pass before as yet anything happened. This
all took place in eternity. God is saying here in this passage
there's going to be a famine But before the famine there's
going to be plenty. Then there's going to be a famine,
he says. But then he's setting up the
Savior. He's setting up the one that's
going to be the Savior during that famine. He's doing all this
before as yet the years of plenty ever even come. All this is being
done beforehand. Sin entered this world, not by
accident, but according to God's determinate counsel. And God overruled everything
that was happening when sin entered this garden. And we know that
and we rejoice in that for this reason. It was because we know
God before that chose a Savior. He wouldn't have chosen a Savior
if He didn't know sin was going to enter. He chose a Savior in
eternity because He knew sin would enter. And it would be
according to His purpose to glorify His Son, to glorify His name
in the salvation of His people. So before God created the world,
God chose His Son to be the Christ and He sent His Son over all
and He chose Christ to save His people from our sins. That's
what we see in our text today. Alright, now here's the background.
I'll just give you this and then we'll get into our text. Pharaoh
had a dream. He saw seven fat cows. Seven fat cows. And he saw seven
skinny cows. And the seven skinny cows ate
the seven fat cows. And yet after the seven skinny
cows ate the seven fat cows, they still looked skinny. And
then he had another dream. And he saw this one stalk of
corn and he saw seven full ears of corn in this stalk. And then
he saw seven blasted and withered and bad ears of corn. And those seven withered ears
of corn ate or devoured the seven full ears of corn. And so he
calls for Joseph, and it's through Joseph God's going to reveal
what this means. Now, first of all, we're going
to have to just read it as we go because it's a lot of text
here. But first of all, here's what I want you to see. We see
that God predetermined all things from eternity. God foreordained
all things from eternity. God predestinated all things
from eternity. He purposed it from eternity.
Look here now in verse 25. Genesis 41, 25. Joseph said unto Pharaoh, the
dream of Pharaoh is one. It means one thing. God, now
watch this, God hath showed Pharaoh what he is about to do. God is
showing what he is about to do, what is about to come to pass.
God knew this beforehand and He is about to bring it to pass.
The seven good cows are seven years and the seven good ears
are seven years. This dream is one dream. It has
one meaning. And the seven thin and ill-favored
cows that came up after them are seven years. And the seven
empty ears blasted with the east wind shall be seven years of
famine." Seven years of famine. This is the thing which I've
spoken unto Pharaoh. What God is about to do, He showeth
unto Pharaoh. Behold, there comes seven years
of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt. Now that's
something all men would say, all this is of God. Well, it
was of God. But now watch. And there shall
arise after them seven years of famine. And that's of God
too. That's of God too. And all the
plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt. And the famine
shall consume the land. And the plenty shall not be known
in the land by reason of that famine following." That famine
is going to be so bad that people born after it came and even people
that had lived before, that famine is going to be so bad they're
not even going to remember what the years of plenty was like.
He says here, for it shall be very grievous, very heavy, verse
32. And for that the dream was doubled
unto Pharaoh twice. That has a meaning too. Here's
what it means. It's because the thing is established
by God. It means prepared of God. And it means God will shortly
bring it to pass. Now brethren, before any of this
happened, before the years of plenty came, before the years
of famine came, God told what He was going to do. This was
predetermined, it was foreordained, it was predestinated, it was
purposed by God before as yet any of it came to pass. And He
even predetermined that this famine would be so grievous that
that people would forget the years of plenty and not even
know what it was like to have plenty anymore. Now brethren,
before God made the world, before He made anything in this world,
God determined the end from the beginning. This dream is a picture of the
gospel. And this gospel comes and is
all laid out before as yet anything happens. Brethren, God purposed
what the gospel would be before His death. He even made the place
where the gospel was going to be carried out. He determined
what the gospel would be. God determined He'd make Adam.
He'd make him after His own image. He'd make this one to be perfect
and upright. And those years in that garden
would be years of plenty. Adam would walk with God, he'd
have communion with God. They'd be one. But God also determined
after that, after that, by this same man, by one man, sin would
enter this world, and death by sin. And that death would pass
upon all men, and for that, all would have sinned. God predetermined
that. God purposed that. He purposed
it. God even purposed and foreordained
that that sin, when it entered, would be so grievous, so heavy,
so consuming, and we'd forget what it was like to be without
sin. We wouldn't even know what it's
like to live in those years of plenty. And isn't that so? Isn't a famine a good way to
picture our sin? I mean, you're in a famine. We
don't know what that's like. We've all lived in a time of
plenty and been fat and sassy all our lives. But the Great
Depression is about the closest thing we have to it. But you
see other countries where men are starving and they just, they
have nothing whatsoever to eat. They can't, they can't make food
come about. They can't make the rain rain.
They can't make anything grow. They can't, there's just nothing
they can eat. And when you're in a famine,
there's nothing you can do about it. We even read stories of people
eating their own flesh when they're in a famine. Isn't that a good picture of
self-righteous works? Men trying to live by their own
works. They're trying to live of themselves
like a man in a famine trying to feed upon himself. And you
think about that. That's killing yourself to try
to live by yourself. And that's what self-righteous
works are. You're further killing yourself, further taking yourself
into death by trying to do works to give yourself life. That's
a famine, brethren. That's a famine. You see, God
purposed it in eternity, and then God brought it to pass.
Now, look over at Isaiah 41. I want you to see this. The very
glory of God, the very thing that makes God to be God, is
the fact that He sovereignly rules over all. That makes God be God. The fact
that He can Purpose it, and then bring it to pass. That's God. That's what makes God, God. He's over all. He rules all.
And He used that as a test to prove that all man-made idol
gods are nothing. God used that as a test. Look
here in Isaiah 41, 23. God says, show the things that
are to come hereafter. He's speaking to the idol gods
that men have made in their minds. And he says, show the things
that are to come hereafter that we may know that you are gods.
You see that here? This is the test. Show me right
now, beforehand, what's going to come afterwards. That's how
I'm going to know if you're a god or not. Now read on. He says, Yea, do good, or do
evil, that we may be dismayed and behold it together. Behold,
ye are of nothing, and your work of nothing, and an abomination
is he that chooses you. You see what the test was? Show
us things to come that we may know your God. We'll look over
at Isaiah 46. What about our God? What about
the true and living God? Isaiah 46 and verse 9. He says, I am God and there is
none else. I am God and there is none like
me. And here's what makes Him to
be God. Look at verse 10. Declaring the
end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that
are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand. That's His eternal purpose. That's
God determining beforehand everything that's going to come to pass.
My counsel. My counsel shall stand and I
will do all my pleasure. Verse 11. He says, look at the
end there. Yea, I've spoken it. I will also
bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also
do it. And we see those two things in
our text. Look back at Genesis 41 and verse 32. Genesis 41,
32. He says, For that the dream was
doubled unto Pharaoh twice, it is because, here's number one,
the thing is established by God. God prepared it before. God purposed
it. God said, I purposed it. Look
here. Here's number two. God will shortly
bring it to pass. I purposed it. I will do it,
God said. Does that remind you of anything
else? That double confirmation, does it remind you of anything
else? Look at Hebrews 6 and verse 17. Why on earth would anybody
rejoice that God predetermined that sin would enter Why would
anybody rejoice that God was in full control in the garden
when sin and death entered in and all men plunged themselves
into death in Adam? Here's why. Look at this. Here's
this double confirmation again. Hebrews 6, 17. Wherein God, willing
more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability
of His counsel, how that His counsel, His eternal counsel,
His eternal purpose can never be changed. He confirmed it by
an oath that by two immutable things in which it's impossible
for God to lie, He's counseled it and then He's entered into
an oath with it. He's promised it and He said,
and I'll bring it to pass. It's a double confirmation so
that we've got a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay
hope upon the hope set before us. That's why, brethren, that
we rejoice that God was in control in the garden. That's why we
rejoice that God predetermined sin would enter in and that He
was in control when sin and death destroyed mankind in the garden.
It's because it's true of salvation too. God predetermined in His
eternal counsel how He would save, who He would save, who
would be the Savior. All these things were predetermined
beforehand. And that's the whole purpose
of God ruling over everything, good and evil. The purpose of
Him showing us good one day and showing us evil another day.
It's to teach us that we shouldn't trust in ourselves, but to know
that everything that happens is of God. And if it's so in
everyday mundane affairs, it's so of salvation. Listen to the
wise man Ecclesiastes 7.4. In the day of prosperity, be
joyful. But in the day of adversity,
consider. God also had set the one over
against the other. Why? Why did He do it? That to the end, that man should
find nothing after Him. God does it this way to the end
that you and I should realize I'm not in control of anything.
I can't be trusted to bring anything to pass. But God can. God can. That's why. That's why He does it this way.
He's sovereignly in control. Alright, now that's the first
thing we see. Now secondly, We see here that
Christ is the eternal counsel of God. You've heard me say,
Christ is all the counsel of God. Well, that means Christ
is the counsel. He's the wisdom, the counsel
where God determined the end from the beginning, the counsel
in whom God purposed and predetermined how everything would end and
how everything would come to pass and how His people would
be saved. He's the counsel and the wisdom of God. Look here
in verse 33. Joseph says now, Therefore let
Pharaoh look out a man, discreet and wise, and set him over the
land of Egypt. Genesis 41, 33. He's told now
how that there's going to be plenty and then there's going
to be a famine. And then Joseph says this to
Pharaoh, Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man, discreet and
wise, and set him over the land of Egypt. Now remember, this
is taking place before anything has come to pass. There hasn't
even been any plenty come to pass yet, much less the famine.
Now you look at Pharaoh here as a type of God the Father.
And you look at Joseph here as a type of God the Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And in eternity before the world
was made, in eternity before anything was made that was made,
Christ is the wisdom of God. Christ is the counselor. He's
the eternal counselor that's there with God. The Scripture
says the government should be upon His shoulder and His name
should be called Wonderful Counselor. the mighty God, the everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace. See, He and God are one. What
you have here is a picture of a council taking place between
God and His Son. There's a council, an eternal
council. And Joseph's the one that's saying,
well, here's what you should do. Here's what you should do. In my mind, this is what I thought
of when I thought of that. I thought of the picture of like
a father He knows what he's going to do. He knows what's going
to come to pass. But he calls his son to him. And he says,
now son, what do you think we should do? And the son says,
well, here's what I think needs to be done. And the father sits
and listens to him. And he's all the while thinking,
I'm just delighting this son. He is so wise. He's so wise. His mind is my mind. His thoughts
are my thoughts. His ways are my ways. He's going
to do everything just the way I would have it done. And that's
what you have a picture of here. The Scripture says, unto them
which are called, Christ is the power of God and He's the wisdom
of God. Here you have the wisdom of God.
Picture the wisdom of God speaking to God. But remember what we
saw in Corinthians, we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. Even the hidden wisdom, which
what? Which God ordained, which God
purposed, which God predetermined, which God predestinated before
the world. unto our glory." Here you have
a picture of the eternity. Nothing's come to pass yet. And
here's that hidden wisdom. Here's Joseph speaking to Pharaoh.
Here's a picture of Christ, the wisdom of God, the counselor
speaking to God. And He's determining everything
that's going to come to pass. Look at Proverbs 8, 14. This
says it best. Proverbs 8, 14. In Proverbs 8.14, Christ is spoken
here of as counsel and as wisdom. As counsel and as wisdom. Now
watch this. This is speaking of Christ. Proverbs
8.14, counsel is mine and sound wisdom. I am understanding. I have strength. By me kings
reign. and princes decree justice. By
me, princes rule and nobles, even all the judges of the earth.
I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall
find me. Riches and honor are with me.
Yea, durable riches and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold.
Yea, than fine gold. And my revenue is better than
choice silver. I lead in the way of righteousness.
in the midst of the paths of judgment, that I may cause those
that love me to inherit substance, and I will fill their treasures."
Now watch this. Here's what we have pictured
in our text, verse 22. The Lord, Jehovah God, my Father,
possessed me in the beginning of His way. Before His works
of old, I was set up from everlasting. I was set up from everlasting,
from the beginning or ever the earth was. When there was no
depths, I was brought forth. When there was no fountains abounding
with water, before the mountains were settled, before the hills
was I brought forth. While as yet He had not made
the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust
of the world, when He prepared the heavens, I was there. when
He set a compass upon the face of the deep, when He established
the clouds above, when He strengthened the fountains of the deep, when
He gave to the sea His decree that the water should not pass
His commandment, when He appointed the foundations of the earth,
then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him, and I was daily
His delight." Who is this? This is counsel and wisdom. This
is Christ the Wisdom and Counselor and Wisdom and Power of God.
I was daily His light, rejoicing always before Him, rejoicing
in the habitable part of His earth, and my delights were with
the sons of men. You see, what Joseph is counseling
Pharaoh here is, is how to save some men from this famine. And what Christ, the Counselor,
the wisdom of God, was counseling in eternity before this world
was made, His delights were how He was going to save His people
from our sins. So in eternity now, back in our
text, God the Father and God the Son determine how this wise
Savior would save His people from the famine of our sins.
He determined before how Christ would save us from the famine
of our sins. Verse 34. Joseph says, let Pharaoh
do this. Let him appoint officers over
the land and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in
the seven plenteous years. Now he said, first of all, you
need to choose a man that's discreet and wise and set him over everything. So that he's in charge of this
whole thing. He's running this whole show. This wise, discreet
man. He said, then appoint officers
over the land. This word officers here means
overseers. Overseers. Pharaoh foreordained
or Joseph foreordained here that Pharaoh would appoint officers,
overseers in all the land. You know what God's preachers
are? You know what God's preachers are called in the Scriptures?
Overseers. They're called overseers. That's
what the word bishop means. There's three words for God's
preacher in the Scripture. It's the same. It talks about
different aspects of the office, but it's all talking about the
same office. There's a pastor. That's a shepherd. There's an elder, and there's
a bishop, an overseer. They're all speaking of the same
one. And they all give you different
ideas of what the office is about. Remember Peter said, take the
oversight thereof. That's to be an overseer. Not
lording over God's people, and not doing it for filthy lucre,
not for filthy gain, but simply because You've been given a heart
for the Lord's people, a love for the Lord's people, and you
take the oversight. You just do what needs to be
done and look over them and watch over them. You stand between
them and the wolf and declare the gospel, hold up the banner,
preach the gospel to them. That's the picture here of these
overseers, their job. Their job was to oversee. God
foreordained before the world was made. God foreordained that
the way He's going to save His people from our sins is through
the preaching of this gospel. Doesn't it make sense? If God
determined the gospel was going to be this, there's going to
be plenty, but then there's going to be a famine come. There was
a sinless man created, but then sin entered and death entered.
Well, the only way you can be saved is you've got to go to
Christ and you've got to go to the storehouse of God's grace
and there's where you're going to have the bread. It's got to
be somebody who's going to tell this, or else how are you going
to know where to get the bread? So he says, your appointees,
overseers, they're going to take up this bread. And you know what
God's preachers do all week? We take up the bread. We're taking
up the bread. We're laying up the bread. So
we can tell you now, here's where you go get the bread. Go get
the bread. And this was all determined beforehand.
Remember what God told Jeremiah? Before I formed you in the belly,
I knew you and I ordained you a prophet. I separated you from
your mother's womb. I ordained you a prophet. This
was determined beforehand. I came into this world in 1970
and built like a rebel all my days and had no idea whatsoever
that I'd be in New Jersey standing here preaching the gospel to
you. But God knew it before the world was made. God ordained
it. And then look here. These overseers
lay up the corn. Verse 35, it says, Let them gather
all the food of those good years that come and lay up corn. Lay it up. Now watch where it
is. Under the hand of Pharaoh. under
His power, and let them keep food in the cities. And that
food shall be for store. It'll be saved up for store,
stored up to the land against the seven years of famine, which
shall be in the land of Egypt, so that the land perish not through
the famine." Now get the picture here. Corn is what? It's bread. Corn's bread. Corn's life. That's
what corn is. Christ is the bread from heaven.
Look over at John chapter 6. John chapter 6 and look at verse
35. Remember? After He fed those people with
the fish and the loaves, and oh boy, they followed Him around.
Everybody wanted to be around Him because He could feed you
earthly bread at any time. Just speak it and He could give
it to you. John 6.35, He told them, He said, Don't labor for
the bread that perishes. Look at verse 6, 35. He said,
Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh
to me shall never what? He'll never hunger. He won't
have to worry about famine. And he that believeth on me shall
never thirst. Look at verse 50. This is the
bread which cometh down from heaven that a man may eat thereof
and not die. I'm the living bread which came
down from heaven. If any man eateth this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread that I'll give
is my flesh, which I'll give for the life of the world." What
does that mean, the bread I give is my flesh? It means the bread
that he gives, the reason he's alive, brethren, is because of
what? Remember, we're fixing to observe
the Lord's Table. Remember when he instituted the
Lord's Table, he said he took bread. Christ took flesh. He took our flesh, made of our
flesh. He took bread and He gave thanks. Everything He did in His life
was a constant thanksgiving unto God, serving God, obedient to
God. And then He break that bread.
The life I give is my flesh. Christ went to the cross and
was made sin for His people and He was broken. under the justice
of God, for somebody, for a particular people, for His people that were
given to Him so that He was broken so they wouldn't have to be broken.
He died so they wouldn't have to die. The life I give is my
body, it's my flesh, which is broken for you. And He took that
cup and He took that wine and He said, and likewise, this cup,
this wine, it pictures my blood There's a New Testament. A New
Testament, everlasting covenant of grace where God says, everything's
finished. Sin's put away, righteousness
is brought in, my people are complete in Christ Jesus. I'll
never leave you, I'll never forsake you. You're my sons, I'm going
to provide everything for you with Christ because I've already
provided everything needed to bring you into my presence. And
He says to you now, this is my covenant to you. Christ held
up that cup that day and He said, you see this picture of my blood?
That covenant, every letter in that covenant, every word of
God's promise, everything God has to say to you concerning
your salvation is written down in my blood. That's to tell you
it's certain and it's sure and it can never be altered. It's
immutable because of Christ. That's what this bread, that's
what this corn pictured. And look, it was laid up under
Pharaoh's hand. That means Pharaoh had the power. It was under Pharaoh's power
to give this corn to whom he would. If Pharaoh said you couldn't
have the corn, you couldn't have the corn. But if Pharaoh said
you could have it, then you could have it. It's under his hand.
It's at his disposal to do with what he wants to. Well, Christ
is the bread in the hand of Almighty God. And he said there in John
6, no man can come unto me except it were given to him of my Father. Not only do you not have righteousness
in you, not only can you not make yourself holy and righteous
and acceptable to God, not only is Christ the only righteousness
of His people, we're not going to be able to glory that we brought
ourselves to Christ. God is the one who draws us to
Christ. God is the one who gives us to
Christ. Christ the bread is under the
hand and power of God to give eternal life to as many as the
Father gave unto Him. It's under His power. And where do you find this bread?
He said there, this bread is going to be in the cities. It's
going to be in the cities. Where are these cities now? Where
are these cities where you find Christ the bread? You're in one
of them. You've got to come to the cities
where the gospel is preached in truth, where God's glory is
being set forth, where Christ is being exalted and God gets
all the glory for the works that He's done. That's where you're
going to find the bread. If you're hungry and you really
want something to eat, you don't go to the sporting goods store.
You're not going to find anything to eat there. You go to a restaurant. You go where the food is. And
if you're hungry, you're not going to go out here to a church
where they're preaching to you about what you need to do and
about how you can save yourself and how you can provide for yourself
and how you can feed yourself and how you can plant the crops
and grow the crops and harvest the crops and make yourself have
life. You don't go to that place. You
go to a place where it's preaching how God's done it and God's provided. That's where the bread's going
to be. And look, and he says, all this
will be done so that the land will perish not through the famine. You know what's going to have
to take place? You know what had to take place
before anybody went to one of those cities and sought that
bread? That famine had to come. When
they had plenty and they could just walk outside and walk to
their garden and pull off them big fat ears and sit there and
eat them, do you think anybody went to these cities and sought
corn from that storehouse? No. But when that famine came,
and they looked at their land, and there was no bread. They
looked in their cupboards, and there was no bread. They went
to their refrigerator and opened it up, and there wasn't any bread.
That's when they started saying, I got to go to the city. And
I got to go to Pharaoh. And I got to ask him, where can
I get this bread? Have mercy on me. Give me mercy. Because I can't feed myself.
I got to have mercy. That's when you'll come to God.
That's when you'll come begging mercy. That's when you'll come
asking Him for mercy, when He makes you to see the famine of
your sin, that you can't provide yourself life. And remember now,
all this was determined. What we're seeing here, all this
was determined before as yet the times of plenty even started.
Nothing had come to pass yet. This was the counsel of Joseph
to Pharaoh. This is what you should do. Alright,
now here's the last thing we see. God was so pleased with
Christ, the counsel and wisdom of God, so delighted in Christ
before the foundation of the world, that God trusted, He exalted
Christ, and He trusted His whole work into Christ's hand, and
He gave Christ glory from eternity. Look at verse 37. And the thing
was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants.
And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find a man in whom the
Spirit of God is such a one as this is? And Pharaoh said unto
Joseph, For as much as God hath showed thee all this, there is
none so discreet and wise as thou art. Thou shalt be over
my house, and according unto thy words shall all my people
be ruled. Only in the throne will I be
greater than now. Remember when Christ prayed in
John 17 and He said, Father, I will that You glorify me with
that glory that I had with You before the foundation of the
world. Well, here's a picture of the glory Christ had with
God before the foundation of the world. The end was determined
before the beginning. God delighted in His Son. God
said, there's none so discreet and wise as thou art. And He
chose him. And He entered into covenant
with him. And Christ became our surety. He did this knowing He'd
have to come into this world. He knew what He'd have to do.
When Joseph entered covenant with Pharaoh, Joseph knew exactly
what his responsibility was going to be. And when Christ entered
covenant with the Father in eternity, He knew what it was He'd have
to do. And he was the only one that could do it. Brother Ravi
just read it. There's only one by whom many
shall be made righteous. He's that one, wise and discreet.
And then look, he said, you'll have the rule over my house. And Christ has had the rule over
God's house from the beginning. All things were made by Him.
The world was created by Him. The place where Christ would
come and work out the salvation of His people was made by Christ.
Without Him was not anything made that was made. Everything
that's been done, not a person has been able to lift a hand
or a foot without His consent. Remember when He came, they didn't
say, here's this one that's born that's going to be the king.
They said, here's one that's born the king. He's been ruling
everything from the beginning. And now that He's finished the
work, as a man, as the God-man, all things are in His hands.
Verse 40, he said, Thou shalt be over my house, and according
to Thy words shall all my people be ruled. The father loved the
son and gave all things into his hand. Hebrews said, Moses
was faithful in all his house as a servant, but Christ as a
son over his own house. Over his own house. The father
said, You'll be over my house. And he was over his house. And
Christ promised he would be made a servant. Look at verse 40.
He said, only in the throne will I be greater than thou. Christ
promised. He's equal with God. It was not
robbery to be equal with God, but He promised He was going
to be made lower, come down, be made of a woman, and He would
serve the Father and become obedient until the death of the cross.
God would be great. God would be in the throne over
Him. And then look, He was exalted. He was exalted. Christ was exalted
by God from eternity. And this was true of Christ in
eternity past. And brethren, now that He's finished
the work, it's true of Him now. Watch this. This is the end from
the beginning. Verse 41. Pharaoh said unto Joseph,
See, I've set thee over all the land of Egypt. God set Christ
over all. He says, and Pharaoh took off
his ring from his hand and he put it upon Joseph's hand. Remember
what the ring was? That's the stamp. That's the
signet whereby it's his approval on everything. Pharaoh gave that
ring to Joseph, put it on Joseph's finger. Well, God put it on Christ's
finger. He said, you're the one. What
you say goes. There you go. You're ruling everything.
Watch this. And he put it upon Joseph's hand and he arrayed
him in vestures of fine linen and put a gold chain about his
neck. He gave him glory. He distinguished him above all. That's what God did to Christ
when He chose him before the foundation of the world. And
that's what He's done now that He's raised Him from the dead
as the God-man and set Him at His right hand. He's arrayed
Him and glorified Him. And He made Him to ride in the
second chariot which He had and they cried before Him, bow the
knee. And He made Him ruler over all
the land of Egypt. Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I'm
Pharaoh and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or his
foot in all the land of Egypt. Listen to what Philippians says,
God also is highly exalted Christ. He's given Him a name which is
above every name. We're fixing to see here, Pharaoh
gave Joseph a name. And he exalted Christ and he
gave Him a name which is above every name, that at the name
of Jesus, Every knee should bow. They went down through there,
and that chariot Pharaoh went in front. He said, here comes
Joseph behind. He said, bow the knee, bow the
knee, bow the knee. Everybody, bow the knee! This
Christ Jesus is the one, when you hear this name, you bow the
knee. And every tongue is going to confess He's Lord of lords
and King of kings. To the glory and honor of our
Father. He raised Him from the dead.
He set Him at His own right hand in heaven and places far above. He said He set Joseph over all. Christ is far above all power
and principality, all dominions, as a God-man. as the One who
knows what we're touched with and knows the feeling of our
infirmities, who was without sin, this One who is the Redeemer
of His people, this One who has us engraved on the palms of His
hands, this One who has us on His breastplate, this One who
ever lives to make intercession for His people. He has all power
over all things in heaven and earth. And He's the head over
His church for this purpose, that He might fill all in all. What does that mean? Well, everything,
all that He said that He would do in eternity, He's filling
all of it. In all His people, He's filling
all of it. Now here's that name, verse 45,
Pharaoh called Jehoshua's name Zaphnath-paneah. He gave him
a new name. Well, there's two or three meanings
I've heard that this name means, but I'll tell you what I know
Christ means. Christ is the Revealer. We wouldn't know the Gospel if
it wasn't for Christ. That scripture I read, Timothy
said, He gave us His purpose and grace in Christ before the
world was, but then it was made manifest by the appearing of
our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Revealer. He's the Revealer. He's got to appear in your heart
before this revelation will be made to you, and you'll know
this Gospel. And I know something else His name means. His name
is Jesus Savior. He shall save His people from
our sin. And look at this, verse 45. And He gave him a wife, Asenath
the daughter of Potiphar, who was the prince of Omm. This was
a different Potiphar. He gave him a wife. When God did this in eternity,
He gave Christ a bride. And Christ came forth to save
that bride. He was doing what He was doing
for that bride. Now, all that took place in eternity. Now look
at what we read in verse 45. And Joseph went out over all
the land of Egypt. When all this was settled in
eternity, all this was determined before, when the time came, Christ
came. And He went out into the land. He satisfied divine justice.
He brought in everlasting righteousness for His people. And right now,
He's reigning over all. Reigning over all. And He's calling
us to the storehouse. He's calling us by His grace.
He's giving us this corn that we might have life. You know
what Ephesians 1 said? In whom we've obtained an inheritance. We've got life now of being predestinated
according to the purpose of Him. who works all things after the
counsel of His own will, that we should be to praise and glory. He's done it so that we should
praise and glory God, who first trusted Christ
from eternity. Father, we thank You for Your
Word. We pray that you bless it to our hearts now. Give us
this bread. Give us this wine. Make us remember
Christ's broken body and his shed blood. Make us, Lord, enter
in more fully into what you've accomplished for us and to know
and be resolved in the fact that this was determined before as
yet you made anything. You'll never fail. You brought
it to pass just like you said you would. So we know, Lord,
you shall not fail. to continue to bring to pass
your determinate will and save us from our sins. Thank you,
Father. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.