Let's turn in our Bibles, brethren,
to Genesis chapter 37. Genesis 37. They say a picture
is worth a thousand words. And this is one of the best pictures
in all of Scripture of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is our next
familiar story, and it's probably one of the stories that's most
familiar. Probably no telling how many grandmothers have taken
a little grandchild, set him on their lap and read the story
of Joseph and his coat of many colors. Joseph and his coat of
many colors. Look down at verse 3, Genesis
37, 3. Israel, that's Jacob, he loved
Joseph more than all his children. Because he was the son of his
old age. And he made him a coat of many,
or divers, colors. What does that mean, this coat
of many colors? What's the significance of that?
Why did Jacob make this for his son Joseph? Well, Joseph is a
type of Christ. And Jacob made this coat of colors
for Joseph. And this coat of colors is a
picture of all the things that distinguish Christ above his
brethren. That coat distinguished Joseph.
That coat set Joseph apart from his brethren. And all those colors
in it represented something about Joseph's character and his works
and everything about him. And that's a picture of how Christ
is separate from sinners. He's distinguished from sinners
and from those He came to save above us. A coat of many colors
was a garment that was made out of needlework. It was a fine
twined woven needlework, very meticulous work. And it was made
of all these different colors. And it was made of those colors
on the outside and on the inside. Christ is above us on the outside
and on the inside. And that's what this coat was.
And it distinguished a person above others. Let me give you
some examples. There were garments of different
colors that would be worn by champions of warfare. to show that they were the champion
of the army. You know how we are, we have
generals and things and you look at their chest when they got
their uniforms on, they got all these different colors on them.
Well, listen to this from Judges 530, it speaks of divers colors
on both sides, garments with divers colors on both sides meet
fit for the neck of them that take the spoil." What do you
do with a coat? You put it around your neck.
And that's a coat that's fit for them that take the spoil.
Christ is the captain of our warfare. That's who He is. And He's accomplished the warfare
of His people. And He's distinguished above
us on both sides, inside and out. And then you read about
King's daughters. who wore these different colored
garments, these garments of diverse colors, to distinguish them from
other women as undefiled virgins. You ladies get married, you wear
white. That has a meaning. They wore
these diver colors, different color, these garments of divers
colors, and it distinguished them from everybody around them
as being undefiled virgins. Christ the Lord is distinguished
above us because of His holy undefiled character and His perfect
righteousness. The Scripture says in Hebrews
7.26, such a high priest became us, whose holy Harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens. Now listen
to this picture. She had a garment of diverse
colors upon her, for with such robes were the king's daughters
that were virgins appareled. They were set apart as undefiled. It's a picture of Christ being
set apart undefiled. Holy, harmless, undefiled. And then later, when they built
the tabernacle, we're going to find that God had them make this
tapestry of fine needlework of various colors that would be
the door, the eastern door of the tabernacle. That door, everybody
came to it. The only ones that could go in
that door were those that were made priests by God. And they
could come into that tabernacle, into the presence of God, into
the house of God and worship God. Because they were made priests
by God. But the only way they could come
in was to come through that door on that east side with those
diverse colors on it. Listen to this. He said, Thou
shalt make a hanging for the door of the tent of blue and
purple and scarlet and fine twine linen wrought with needlework.
That's what this door looked like. It's just the same as Joseph's
coat of colors. You see, we were cast out of
the garden east of Eden. And to get into God's presence,
we had to come in where the picture is of us coming in from the east.
And there's only one way we could come in. God's distinguished
Christ is the door. The door. The only way into God's
presence is through the door. Those have been made priests
under God. Now, these different colors in
Joseph's coat, these different colors are symbolic and they
represent different reasons why Jacob, Isaac, his father, loved
Joseph. These different colors represented
the character and the attributes and the virtues and the grace
of Joseph, reasons why his father loved him. And it pictures the
reasons, those different virtues and characteristics and attributes
of Christ for which God the Father loves Christ. But there's something
else about this coat of colors. The same reasons that his father
loved Joseph, which these colors represent, that coat and these
colors, the same reasons that his father loved him above all
his brethren, are the very reasons his brethren hated him. At first,
at first, for all these reasons we're going to see here, they
hated Joseph. But later, later, when God gave
him a need, And God brought them to Joseph's feet. These same
characteristics and attributes and graces represented in this
coat of colors, for which they hated Joseph, were the very reasons
they loved him and rejoiced in him. Now here's the picture. We're going to see Joseph's the
type of Christ, and this coat of colors is symbolic of all
the many things that distinguishes Christ above us. above all sinners,
and especially above His brethren that He came to save. And here's
what we're going to see. The same things for which we
hate Christ by nature. A lost sinner sees these things
and it makes him hate Christ by nature. And yet, when God
saves him, it's these very same colors for which he loves and
rejoices in Christ. Alright? I'm going to just show
you three colors. I'm going to show you three colors
about Christ that we see pictured in Joseph. And these are the
colors represented in that coat of colors. First of all is the
color of Christ's person. His faithfulness and His holiness
in His heart and His righteousness in all that He did and thought
and went about in His conduct. His faithfulness and His holiness
and His righteousness, His loving kindness, His person, who He
is and everything He did. That's the first color we see,
Christ's person. Verse 2, Joseph being 17 years
old was feeding the flock with his brethren and the lad was
with the sons of Bilhah. Bilhah was a concubine wife of
Jacob. She was not a lawful wife, therefore
her son was a sinner. That's the picture. He was out
there in the field with a bunch of sinners. They were his brethren
though. Now look, and with the sons of
Zilphah, she was a concubine wife, these were his father's
wives, and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. Now get the picture. Joseph's
out there shepherding his father's sheep. He's sent out there on
an errand that his father has sent him on, a mission his father
sent him on to feed the sheep. to shepherd the sheep. That's
what Joseph was sent for. And some people believe that
Joseph was sent to shepherd the shepherds of the sheep. And that's
certainly true of Christ. He was out there to oversee the
shepherds. He was out there to oversee the
shepherds and the sheep. He was the overseer of the whole
field. This 17 year old boy over these old brothers of his. Half brothers of his. And he's
out there over them, and we're told here that something his
brothers did is called by the Scriptures evil. We don't know
what it was, but it was evil. And Joseph reported the evil
to his father. Now, it shows that from an early
age, Joseph was faithful to his father, and he was faithful to
his brethren. Joseph was faithful to his father,
he was faithful to his brethren. He's 17 years old, out there
with grown men, in a field. And he's faithful to his father,
he's faithful to his brethren. It shows he's a holy, he had
a holy and godly character about him. It shows he's righteous
and truthful and upright, full of integrity. Now Joseph's a
sinner. He's like me and you. But as
a type of Christ, and this is why the Lord did this, making
Him, showing Him to be a preeminent type of Christ. You know there's
nothing in this scripture you can find negative about Joseph? You can't find one sin mentioned
about Joseph. Christ don't have any. You can't
find any unfaithfulness in Christ. Period. That's who he pictures
here. But Joseph here, he shows he's willing to be obedient to
his father. He shows here that he's not going
to be a partaker of his brethren's sins. He was not going to partake
with them what they were doing. He was away from home. He was
away from his father. It would have been easy for Joseph
to just say, Father won't know what's going on out here in this
field. These are my brothers. No, he didn't join in with them.
He didn't do what they were doing. He was faithful to his father's
business that sent him. He was faithful because he wouldn't
see his father deceived by his sons. He wouldn't see his father's
sheep harmed by whatever was being done. And I'll tell you
something else, even though he knew that he was going to receive,
probably receive the wrath of his brethren for what he was
doing, For their sakes, he went and reported this to his father.
Because whatever they were doing wasn't good for them either.
And he went and reported it to his father. Now, let's put ourselves
in the shoes of his brethren. We're out there having a good
time, whatever it is we're doing. We're not doing what the father
sent us to do. We're not being faithful, not being right, not
being upright and full of integrity in anything we're doing. And
somebody, a little brother, goes and tells on us. We're going
to like him. We're going to be very happy
with him. No. We call that a little tattletale. Well, it's the very same reason
that the natural man is enmity against the Son of God. enmity
against the Son of God. The Son of God came among His
brethren. The Son of God came into this
field where the sheep are and among His brethren. God with
us. And Joseph here is 17 years old. But Christ came amongst us and
from the womb Christ is holy. He's righteous. He's perfect
in every way. Look over at Isaiah chapter 11.
Listen to this description. This is how the Father distinguished
Christ. put His Spirit upon him without
measure. And listen to this description, Isaiah 11, 2. The Spirit of the
Lord shall rest upon him. You and I, we get the Spirit
and He abides with us, but it's not like what Christ has, not
like resting upon us all the time. Look at this. The Spirit
of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might,
the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. and shall
make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord." From
a youth, our Savior, when He was 12 years old, was in the
temple speaking with the doctors and the lawyers, you know, putting
them to shame with His quick understanding. And in the fear
of the Lord, His Father, look at this, "...and He shall not
judge after the sight of the eyes, but with righteousness
shall He judge the poor." We hate that by nature. By nature,
we don't see that as a virtue. We don't see that as a good thing.
We hate that by nature. He gonna judge us with righteousness.
We hate that by nature. Look at this. "...and reprove
with equity for the meek of the earth." We don't see ourselves
as poor or meek. That's one reason we hate it.
But we're not righteous, and we're not just. And He'll smite
the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of
His lips shall He slay the wicked with His gospel. We hate that.
And righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness
the girdle of His reins. Christ said, I must be about
my Father's business. He came into the field where
His sheep were, and He is faithful to His Father. He was faithful
as a shepherd of the sheep. He came there to where we are
and He fed the father's sheep, all God's elect, and He laid
down His life for the sheep. It didn't matter what His brethren
thought. It didn't matter if they rejected
Him. It didn't matter what they said to Him. He served the Father. You know, you want to be different
from this world? You want to do something and
really be a maverick in this world? Have some integrity about
you. Don't care what other people
think about you. Don't care what your brothers and sisters think.
Do that which is honoring to God and serve Him. That's what
Christ did for His people to perfect His people, to make His
people righteous and holy. But what did He find when He
came to where we are? We were guilty. We were evil. We weren't doing what the...
He came to His brethren, the Scripture says, and He came to
the religious leaders. And you know what they were supposed
to be doing? They were like Joseph's sons. They were supposed to be
feeding the flock. You know what they were doing instead? Fleecing
the flock. They were fleecing the sheep.
They were making merchandise of men's souls. I'm talking about
the religious leaders when Christ came. And that's what men are
doing today. They're fleecing people. Making you want to come to church
for every reason except Christ. That's fleecing people. Just
so they build a building and build a big house and make it
look impressive to the eye and get more people in there and
more money in the coffers and all that. That's not doing anybody's
soul any good. Oh, we just don't want our children
to be bored with just preaching to God. You need to be bored.
It would be good for you to be bored. Sit down and hear the
gospel for a change. God just might save you. He said,
I'm the good shepherd, and everybody that came before me are thieves
and robbers. And when in His light, you and I see, we're the
thieves and robbers before Him. And that's what makes us hate
Him. Listen, go over to John, and I'll be there in a minute.
Listen to this, the light of Christ's faithfulness and His
holiness and His righteousness, His light is what makes us see
our darkness. It's what makes our darkness
to be seen. And that's what we hate. Remember
Simeon, he held the Lord up and he said, this child right here
is set for the fall. The fall of many in Israel. We've got to fall first. We've
got to be made to see our sin by Christ, not by us. When men
say that, I'm not telling you that's a condition you have to
meet. Christ has got to make us see
our sin. Only He can. And then for the
rising again of many. He's got to bring you down before
He's going to bring you back up. And it says, "...and for
a sign which shall be spoken against..." That's who Christ
is. And what's He going to do? "...that the thoughts..." Your
thoughts in mind. "...the thoughts of many hearts
may be revealed." Who is Christ? He's the Word of God. And what
is the Word of God? A discerner of the thoughts and
intents of the heart. You want to know what a man really
thinks about God? Tell him the truth about Christ
and you'll find out just like that. Because he'll hate it and
he'll tell you just real quick what he thinks about it. Christ
said that. He said, the world cannot hate you, but me it hates. Why? Because I testify of it,
that its works thereof are evil. Joseph went and reported the
evil to his father. And Christ came and testified
of the evil, our evil, our very best deed. When they were in
the temple, in that polished temple, in their whitewashed
garments and their whitewashed deeds and their whitewashed house
and everything whitewashed on the outside, God said the inside
of it is just death. Every bit of it is death. Their
works are evil. Now here, John 15. John 15, look
at verse 22. He said, "...if I had not come
and spoken unto them, they had not had sin. But now they have
no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me, hateth my
Father also." Why did they hate Him? Because He stripped them
of their cloak of their sin. They hated Him for that, and
they revealed they hated God too. If I had not done among
them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin,
but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father because
of those works. But this comes to pass that the
word might be fulfilled that it is written in their law, they
hated me without a cause. Now, left in our sin nature,
go back to John 3, 19. Left in our sin nature, we're going to
hate this gospel, we're going to hate Christ, we're going to
hate His preacher, we're going to hate His people, we're going
to hate anything that has to do with Him, because He's light,
we're darkness, and He exposes our sin. You want to know why,
sinner, that you don't believe my gospel? I'll tell you why
you don't believe my gospel. Read right here in John 3, 19.
This is the condemnation. Here's why you don't believe.
The lights, lights come into the world and men love darkness
rather than light. Because their deeds are evil.
They're evil. For everyone that does evil hates
the like, neither comes to the like, lest his deeds should be
reproved. But later now, we're going to see Joseph's brethren
were saved because Joseph was faithful. He was full of integrity. He was upright in everything
he did. And for that reason, he saved
his brethren. And then they're brought to say,
oh, we love this about Joseph. We're so thankful that's how
he is. But right now, they don't like him. Now they don't like
Him. That's what it is with us. We don't like Him because He's
sovereign. We don't like Him because He's holy and righteous.
We don't like Him because He's faithful. We don't like Him because
He came to do the Father's business. We don't like Him because He's
going to get all the glory and we're going to get none. He's
light and we hate Him for that. And when He exposed those Pharisees
and what they did, they went right back into their darkness,
right back into their self-righteous deeds and they hid themselves
there. Every single time you fail to fall at the feet of Christ
and ask for mercy from Him to save us, that's exactly what
you do. Run into darkness and hide in your self-righteousness.
But that woman at the well, when He revealed her sin to her, what
did she do? She bowed in her heart and believed Him. And He
saved her. He saved her. Now which one are
you? Which one are you? Self-righteous Pharisee, holier
than everybody else so you don't need Christ? are just a worthless
harlot sinner that can't have any other hope but Christ. Alright,
here's the second color. It's the color of God the Father's
love for Christ. The color of God the Father's
love for Christ. Verse 3, Israel loved Joseph
more than all his children because he was the son of his old age.
He made him this coat of many colors. Israel, here's a picture
of God the Father, and Joseph's a picture of Christ. Joseph was
the firstborn of Rachel, Jacob's true wife. Christ is that firstborn. He's the firstborn, only begotten
son of God. He's the son of God's old age.
That means he's the son from eternity. Proverbs 8 says, the
Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way before His works of
old. Before He made anything, Christ said, He possessed me.
I was set up from everlasting, from the beginning, wherever
the earth was. And He says, and then I was by
Him. I was one brought up with Him.
I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him. That's who
Christ is. He's the eternal God. He's the eternal Son of God.
The only begotten Son of God. And God saw Christ, and He saw
the end from the beginning, and He saw, as it were, all His people
saved, and all His people saved by Him, and He had all this glory
with the Father before as yet anything was done. Like Brother
Don was talking about this week, it's not that God does something
and He thinks about something else and something else. It was
done in the mind of God. And that's how He beheld His
Son, rejoicing in His Son and what His Son accomplished for
His people. And this also means the Son of
His old age means the Son of God's wisdom. This is how God
would save His people from our sins. This is how God could declare
the end from the beginning. This is how God could say, it's
done! Because my Son is the one to
whom I've trusted the whole world. The Son of His wisdom. And so
God the Father sent Him, and He distinguished Him when He
came from all His brethren. Just like Jacob made that coat
of colors for Joseph, He distinguished Christ from all His brethren.
God said this from heaven. He spoke from heaven. He said,
this is My beloved Son. This is My beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. I pray God will
speak from heaven and speak that in your heart. That's the only
way you're going to do what He says and hear Him and see that
Christ, He's the only Son from Adam to the end of the world. He's the only son that God ever
said, this is my only begotten son in whom I'm well pleased.
The only one. Not you, not me. God never said
that about us. He said it about His Son. I believe
I'd listen to Him. I believe I'd draw near and hear
Him. That's right. Now, what's it
mean here? When we hear this and we hear
that Christ is God's beloved Son, the well-beloved Son, more
than all His brethren, what's the heart's reaction to that?
What's your reaction to that sitting there that don't know
Christ? Here it is, verse 4. When His brethren saw that their
Father loved Him more than all His brethren, they hated Him
and they could not speak peaceably unto Him. That's the natural
heart right there. Why? Because God the Father loves
Christ. You want to go around telling
this world something? Don't go around telling them God loves
you. Go around telling them God loves His Son. God loves His Son. Well, what
about me? I don't know if He loves you or not, but He loves
His Son. I tell you that. And He only
loves those He put in His Son. You see, God's love for His Son
is God's love for His people. You understand that? When Christ
came, Christ said, As the Father hath loved me, So have I loved
you. You see, God determined He's
going to give him all preeminence in heaven and on earth. That
was God's purpose because He loved His Son. He would distinguish
His Son with a coat of many colors seated at His right hand and
have a multitude of people. And He would be the firstborn
among many brethren. And they all come to Him and
bow to Christ and worship Christ as the Lord of lords and King
of kings. This was God the Father's purpose
in distinguishing His Son above all His brethren. And that very message is the
message we hate by nature. Message we hate by nature. But
by choosing to exalt Him like that, the way He would do it
was by saving a chosen people from our sins. So you see what
I'm saying? The love of God the Father for
His Son, to exalt His Son and distinguish His Son above all
others, was really His love for His children that He chose in
His Son. Jacob's love for Joseph, choosing Joseph to be the head
shepherd, and choosing Joseph to be over his brethren, and
to look over everything, and to take care of his father's
business, because Joseph was the firstborn. Reuben was the
firstborn, but Reuben was unstable as water like Adam, and Joseph
ended up being the firstborn. And by putting him head over
everything, that was Jacob's love for the rest of his sons.
Do you see that? What if he'd have trusted it
to Reuben? Unstable Reuben, unstable as water, who went up to his
father's bed and defiled his father's bed with his father's
wife. What if he trusted it to Reuben? They'd have all died
and perished and he'd have run it in the ground. But he trusted
the one that could be trusted. He trusted Joseph. That was love
to his family. And that's what it is with God
choosing His Son. That's the love to His children
because He didn't trust it to you and me, us Reubens. We'd have destroyed it all. Now,
that message is what men hate. That's the message men hate.
But this is the truth. When Christ came, He said, I
laid down my life for the sheep. And He said, and for this reason
my Father loves me. You see, the Father's love is connected
to what Christ is doing for His people. I lay down my life for
the sheep. For this reason, my Father loves me, because I lay
down my life. And I will take it again, He said. And then what
Christ accomplished by laying down His life was, when He laid
down His life, He accomplished our redemption. He highly exalted
God. And so God highly exalted Him and gave Him a name above
every name. And when He did that, when He highly exalted Him and
gave Him a name above every name, What did we see last week that
God did? He gave Jacob a new name. Christ gave him a new name,
Israel. And when He exalted Christ and
gave Him a new name because He as a Prince, the Prince of Peace,
prevailed with God, Scripture says, wherein also you're risen
with Him through the faith of the operation of God who raised
Him from the dead. So God's love for His Son was
God's love for us. And now he says, neither height,
nor depth, nor any other creatures are going to be able to separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Why would
somebody hate that God loves His Son because He said, don't
give me in you? You know what an insult that
was to the rest of Jacob's sons? They're older, they think they're
wiser, they think they're more trustworthy, they think they're
faithful, they think they ought to be chosen. Darmiento, kids,
what if your father chose Joshua to be the head of the house and
run everything and told you, you gotta bow down to him? What
about that, Keller children? You lot of girls, what if the
youngest one, you gotta bow to him, bow to her? See what I'm
saying? They consider that an insult.
You mean you passing me by? And that's why sinners hate it.
that He didn't choose you and me to save ourselves by our will. He chose Him, the Son of His
love. Alright, here's one more color.
This distinguishes Christ above all others and it's His
sovereign dominion as the head over all that's declared in His
gospel. Sovereign head declared in his
gospel by which he's saving his people. Now look at verse 5.
Joseph dreamed a dream. This wasn't a dream like you
and me have. This was a prophecy. The interpreters really didn't
know, the translators didn't know what to call this Hebrew
word and they just translated it as a dream. But it was a vision,
it was a prophecy that God gave to Joseph. Now look, and he told
it to his brethren. It's a picture of Christ coming
forth and preaching the gospel to us. And they hated him yet
the more for what he spoke. Remember, they hated Christ the
more for his gospel, for what he spoke. Person and with gospel
he preached. And he said unto them. Here's the message they hated.
Now you put yourself in the place of these children, these sons
of Jacob. And you listen to this youngest
brother coming and declaring this, and you think just on a
natural level what you'd think about it. But then you apply
this to the gospel because this is what Christ comes and declares
to you and me. Look here, I pray you, here I
pray you this dream which I've dreamed. Verse 7, Behold, we
were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf arose, and also
stood upright. And behold, your sheaves stood
round about, and they made obeisance to my sheave." That means, your
sheaves all bowed down to my sheave. Now that's on the earth. That's what's going to take place
on the earth. Now look at the next thing. And his brethren,
this was their reaction. They said, "...shalt thou indeed
reign over us, or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us?"
And they hated him yet more for his dreams and for his words.
And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren. And
he said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more. And behold, the
sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. That's
in the heavens. That's the heavens and the earth
all will bow down to Joseph. Now look what his brother said.
And he told this to his father and to his brethren. And even
his father rebuked him. and said unto him, What is this
dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy
brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee, to the earth?
Everybody is going to bow down to him. And his brethren envied him.
You remember why Pilate said, he knew why they were delivering
Christ. They did it for envy. They did it for envy. Because
no man spake like this man, no man had authority to heal, no
man was raising the dead, no man was calling his people out
of darkness, no man could do what they were trying to do,
what he was doing and what they were just trying to do. They
envied him. Which of the rulers and the mighty
and noble people have believed on him, they said? Not many of
them. because he was calling the poor
and the ignoble and the base things, but he was calling them
actually. Look at this and it says, this
is what Christ declared when he came. Remember that parable
he said, a nobleman went into his country to receive his kingdom
for himself and he called his ten servants and delivered them
ten pounds and he said unto them, occupy till I come. But his citizens
hated him. And they sent a message after
him saying, we'll not have this man reign over us. That's Christ. Christ came and He told us this,
God. He came and told us, you're going
to bow down to Me. Every knee is going to bow to
Him. Every toe is going to confess that He's Lord of lords. Whether
you want to or you don't. And they hated Him. You're going
to reign over us. This man is going to reign over
us. No, they said, so what did Joseph's brothers do? What would
they do? This is what they eventually
did. This is the type of what we did to Christ. Look down at
verse 18. It says here, And when they saw
him afar off, even before he came near unto them, he went
to the field, went out there to the field again, and they
see him coming, and they know it's him. You know why? He got
that coat of colors on. He's different than all of them.
And they see Him coming. And they conspired against Him
to slay Him. They conspired against Him to
slay Him. That's what you do in your heart every time you
hear the gospel and don't believe. That's what they did. That's
what the world did when He was here. That's what we do. And
they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now,
therefore, let us slay him and cast him into some pit. And we'll
say some evil beast has devoured him. And we shall see what will
become of his dreams. We'll see what's going to happen
in his gospel. You know, that's what we were doing on the cross.
We were saying, let's crucify him. Come down from the cross
if you can. You spared others, himself you
cannot save. Come down from the cross. Let's
see what will become of your dreams. Look down at verse 23,
"...and it came to pass, when Joseph was coming to his brethren,
they stripped Joseph out of his coat, and his coat of many colors
that was on him. And they took him, and they cast
him into a pit, wherein was no water in it." Verse 25, "...and
they sat down to eat bread." They sat down to eat bread. And
then these Ishmaelites came along and they decided, let's sell
him. It won't profit us anything if we just throw him in a pit.
Let's sell him. That's what we did to Christ. Sold him for 30
pieces of silver. And so they took him down, took
him into slavery. Look at this now. Look over here
at verse 31. And they took Joseph's coat and
they killed a kid of the goats and they dipped the coat in the
blood. You look at that cross and you see that coat of many
colors. Dipped in blood. And it says, And they sent the
coat of many colors, and they brought it to their father. And
they said, This have we found. Know now whether it be thy son's
coat or no. Do you see how callous that is?
They brought this coat dipped in blood to their father and
said, We don't know if this is your son's coat or not. Maybe
you can tell. And he knew it, and he said, It's my son's coat.
An evil beast has devoured him, Joseph without doubt ran in pieces.
And Jacob rent his clothes and put sackcloth upon his loins
and mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all
his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted.
He said, I'll not go down to the grave unto my son unto mourning. And thus his father wept for
him. Now look, the cross was the enmity of the natural heart
against God. That's what the cross was, just
like this pit was for Joseph. It's a natural enmity against
God, hatred against God. The crucifixion of Christ was
man's natural attempt to strip Christ of everything that distinguished
Christ from you and me, just like they stripped that. First
thing they did for Joseph is stripped him of that coat. And
that's what we were trying to do on the cross. Take God off
the throne. We were trying to strip God of
everything that makes Him God. And that's what men are doing
in every message they preach about Him today, too. We'll see
what becomes of His dreams. And you notice there, when they
finished everything, remember that message we saw the other
day? When they had Him on that cross,
they said, oh, we've got to get Him off that cross because we
don't want to break the Sabbath day. Joseph's brothers, after
they threw Him in the pit, they sat down and ate bread. Us will
crucify Christ and go back to this old earthly, dead, worthless
religion. Earthly bread. And that's happening
every day. That happens every day. Scripture
says they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put
Him to an open shame. Men who hear the gospel, preach
a false gospel, turn Him over to the will of the people, and
men who reject Him and rebel against Him and say lies against
Him, they crucify Him afresh today. They keep on eating that
old stale, moldy, earthy, religious, self-righteous bread. But their
evil act It was God's way of taking Joseph to Egypt and putting
Joseph in power over all the storehouses in Egypt to save
these very brethren that hated Him. Isn't that something? And
everything that transpired on the cross was God's will. It
was God's purpose. to save His people from our sins,
to put Christ on the throne of God above all, to be the keeper
of the spiritual storehouse of God, to save many people alive.
That was God's purpose in everything that was taking place. So, years later, Joseph is given
power over all the storehouses in Egypt. And Joseph being wise
and faithful and all those things they hated about Joseph, for
seven years of plenty, he put the corn in the storehouses.
Saved it. And seven years of famine came.
A perfect famine came over all the land. Nobody had any bread
now. And if you wanted bread, you
could only get it from Pharaoh. But the only way you could get
bread from Pharaoh is to go through Joseph. If you want life, the
only way you're going to be able to have it is from God. You want
salvation. You want acceptance. You want
righteousness. You want holiness. You want full completion. The only way you're going to
get it is from God. But if you're going to get it, you've got to
go to Christ. Because He's the one that has the key to the storehouse.
The only way you can get it. The only way you can get it.
So God then sent a famine to Joseph's brethren. You know the
story. These brethren were brought to the point where they couldn't
eat. I mean, this was a famine. They
had nothing to eat. But they heard. They heard. Somebody came
with some good news. There's corn in Egypt. There's
a lot of corn in Egypt. See, I'm here today trying to
tell you who are sitting out there eating husk, starving to
death, I'm here to tell you the good news. There's corn. There's
corn in God's presence. There's corn in God's kingdom.
There's life there to be had. There's righteousness to be had.
And so Jacob said, you boys go down there to Egypt and go get
some bread. So now let's go to Genesis 42.5.
We're just going to read this. See what happened. Genesis 42.5.
It says there, came to buy corn among those
that came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan." I picture
a line just like that in the Depression. You remember those
lines you'd see in the pictures of the Depression? And they're
all standing there in line. All these people. All these people. But now look at this. And Joseph
was the governor over the whole land. Government's on Christ's
shoulder. He's the governor over that all.
And He it was that sold to all the people of the land everything
about the cross to put Christ on that throne of glory. That's
where Joseph had been put. And Joseph's brethren came, and
look at this now, they bowed down themselves before Him with
their faces to the earth. There's where you have to be
brought before Christ. Bowed down. And Joseph saw his
brethren. I love this. And he knew them.
You see, there's all these people. Standing there, all these people
standing there for bread. But there was 12 boys there,
11 boys there, that Joseph knew. And he said, these are mine.
These are mine. You see, there's a whole bunch
of people wanting corn, wanting to buy it, wanting to pay for
it. These boys right here aren't going to pay for it. They're
going to be giving it. There's some that Christ knows,
and they're His brethren. He's going to give them. He's
going to give them more than they could ever ask for, more
than they could ever purchase with their filthy coins. Look
at this. And it says, He knew them, verse 7, but He made Himself
strange unto them and spake roughly unto them. Christ is going to
make us see our sin. He's going to confess it. Look
down at verse 8. And Joseph knew his brethren,
but they knew him not. They didn't know him yet. And
Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, about
them bowing down before him. There they are. Where are they?
They're bowed down before him. They're doing exactly what the
gospel, what his prophecy declared they was going to do. They're
bowed down before him at his feet. Everything I'm telling
you, listen to me carefully, everything I'm preaching to everybody
here is going to come to pass. It has, it is, and it shall.
We're going to all bow before Christ's feet. It's going to
happen. Now look here. It says in verse 21, And they
said unto one another, We are verily guilty concerning our
brother. They began to think about Joseph
too, all those years ago. We are guilty of our brother.
Sid, are you guilty concerning Christ? We saw the anguish of his soul
when he besought us, and we would not hear him. Have you looked
upon Christ whom you've pierced and mourned for Him as one mourns
for his own son? Some of you sitting there just
thinking, oh, I wish he'd quit preaching. Hope he don't preach
as long as Don does. I ain't. But it'd be good for
us if we heard it again. Look at this. Therefore, is this distress come
upon us? We're the one that put him there.
We're the one that slew him, they're saying. That's why we're
in this distress. And Reuben answered them, saying,
Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against a child you
would not hear? Therefore, behold, also his blood
is required. Now, don't go blaming your brethren.
Reuben passed the buck here. He said, It's your fault. But
hear this. His blood is required. His blood
is required. Christ's blood is required. Look
at this now. And it says here, "...and they
knew not that Joseph understood them," while they're saying all
this, "...for he spake unto them by an interpreter." That interpreter
is a picture of the gospel being preached. Here I am preaching
to you. Some of you are hearing this with your ears, but you're
not hearing Christ's words in your heart. You're hearing it
through an interpreter. But when Christ makes the Word
affectionate in your heart, and you're confessing your sins in
your heart, Christ knows what's being said. Christ hears it.
He knows it just like Joseph did. Genesis 45, verse 1. Then
Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by
him, and he cried. He couldn't refrain himself anymore.
A lot of stuff happened. We'll see some of that later.
And he caused every man to go out from him, and there stood
no man with him while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren.
You remember at the Mount of Transfiguration? They were made
to bow, and when they looked up, they saw no man with Christ.
There He was by Himself in all His glory. And Joseph made himself
known to his brethren. And he wept aloud, and the Egyptians
in the house of Pharaoh heard it. And Joseph said unto his
brethren, I am Joseph. Don't you know those boys were
just Shocked. This is Joseph? Look. Doth my father yet live? And
his brethren could not answer him. They were speechless, for
they were troubled at his presence. And Joseph said unto his brethren,
Come near to me, I pray you. You see, when Christ comes and
really reveals Himself, you're going to be troubled at His presence
because you're going to see, this is the Christ I've hated
all this time. This is the Christ I've done nothing but evil to.
This is the Christ I've blasphemed with my O-M-G that I've been
writing every day and my thoughts against Him. This is the God
I've been blaspheming. And you're going to be troubled
by His presence at first. But Christ is going to say, come
near me. Come near me. Come. Look. And they came near
and he said, I'm Joseph your brother whom you sold into Egypt.
Now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that
you sold me hither, for God did send me before you to preserve
life. Oh, just like their sins put
Joseph in Egypt, our sins put Christ on the cross, but God
did it to preserve life. Now look down at chapter 50 and
verse 18. I've gone a lot longer than I
expected. Chapter 50, verse 18. And his brethren also went and
fell down before his face, and they said, Behold, we be thy
servants. We be thy servants. Joseph said
unto them, Fear not, for am I in the place of God? And Christ
says, when He makes you come and bow down and say, I'm your
servant, Lord, Christ tells you, fear not, but Christ is God. He is God. He is in the place
of God. Look at this, but as for you,
now this is what He's telling them. This is what Christ, as
for you, 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, fear ye not, I
will nourish you and your little ones." And He comforted them
and He spake kindly unto them. Now all the things they hated
about Joseph back there in the beginning, They're so thankful for those
things now. They're bowed down and they're so thankful. That's
how Joseph is. Faithful, long-suffering, gracious,
righteous and holy. They're so thankful for that
now. Sinner, I don't know if Christ died for you. I don't
have any idea. But if God sends a famine into your heart, If
God brings you to see your sin and your sinfulness and your
total famine of righteousness and holiness and any ability
to do good whatsoever to present yourself before God, and God
brings you down to the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ and makes
you to cry for mercy and say, Lord, I'm your servant. If He
ever does that, I can tell you this for certain, I guarantee
everything that distinguishes Christ right now for which you
hate Him are going to be the very things for which you're
going to fall in love with Him. And Christ is going to speak
in your heart this good news and He's going to say, fear not,
you meant everything for evil, but God meant it unto good to
save much people alive. And from that day forward, He's
going to preach this gospel to you and every time you hear it,
He's going to comfort you and speak kindly unto you and nourish
you. Amen. Well, I know you was tired. I was determined
the day I was going to preach a short message because you was
tired. But I got long-winded. It's fine. I bet you they weren't,
I bet you Joseph could have said anything in the world to them
when they was bowed down to his feet and he was opening the storehouses
and they would have said, just keep talking, Joseph. Keep talking.
And you know something else they didn't do? They didn't sit there
and say, well, Joseph, we think we'll let you give us some corn. No, they bowed at his mercy.