May God be pleased to bless us
this evening as we consider his word together. Let us turn to
the book of Genesis chapter 37 and we'll read verse three. The
book of Genesis chapter 37 and reading verse three. Now Israel
loved Joseph more than all his children because he was a son
of his old age. And he made him a coat of many
colours. This is a familiar picture that
we have of Joseph wearing this coat of many colours. And we realise that he was given
it because his father loved him because he was the son in his
old age and of course he was the son of Rachel who had died. So in some measure we can understand
why he perhaps was rather special to Jacob. But it would appear
that Jacob was rather foolish in doing this because quite clearly
he elevated Joseph above the rest of his brethren. And he
wasn't the eldest, of course, by a long way. And yet Jacob
had done this and made him in this coat of many colors. So
we can perhaps understand why his brethren were not very happy
with this. And they hated him because of
it. They were jealous because of that which their father had
shown to to Joseph, clearly elevated him above his brethren. So we see that there's a teaching
in these things to make us very aware in our own lives that we
don't make mistakes. We don't do that which is not
a worthy thing to do and it's very unwise. This indeed was
very unwise in Jacob's case. And then we see that then, you
see, Joseph was favoured with these dreams. He had two dreams,
which again he made all his brethren aware of. Well, again, whether
that was a good thing or not, probably something he may well
have kept to himself. But nonetheless, he displayed
it and told his brethren that made them even more annoyed and
more jealous because of that which he told them of. And so
we have the scene set. And then the brethren go and
take their flocks to find food for them. And Joseph is left
behind and presumably Benjamin as well. And perhaps it would
have been better had Joseph gone with them. But nonetheless, he
was left behind and eventually Jacob decided he should go and
find where they were. So he goes to find them and eventually
does find them. Now, it's clear from this that,
in actual fact, Joseph had this coat of many colours for really
quite a short time. And he was 17 years when he had
it. And it would seem perhaps only
just, well, perhaps a week or so, or perhaps a month or so,
but at least not very long. And you see he comes and he finds
his brethren. And his brethren initially thought
they would slay him to rid them of this dreamer. But eventually
they decided not to do that, but to put him in a pit. And
what did they do? They took off this coat of many colors. And so it didn't serve Joseph
well at all, did it? It wasn't really of any benefit
to him. In actual fact, it was the reverse. And so we need to
be careful in our days, in that which we do, not to elevate anyone
above others, and especially to elevate them in this way,
because the Lord knew what was occurring. Now, of course, we
know that God had a great purpose for Joseph. Indeed, a great purpose
for the brethren as well. They all form part of the blessed
12 tribes of Israel. And yet we see there were these
difficulties that arose initially in this situation. And quite
clearly, we have such examples to warn us and to instruct us
in those things that we should do. And so we find that Joseph
is now without his coat of many colors. And so we may perhaps
see ourselves, or vaunting ourselves perhaps in some, what we might
think are rather beautiful coats and we may be proud of it. No doubt Joseph was very pleased
to have this. Clearly he wore it whenever opportunity
presented himself, he wore it when he travelled to find his
brethren. It wasn't something that he was ashamed of, it was
probably something that he was quite proud of. to wander about
in this very special garment. Now, God looks at the heart,
and God sees whether there's pride there. And you see, God
deals with pride. No doubt God dealt with Joseph,
and no doubt God dealt with Jacob as well, because Jacob was no
doubt proud of his son Joseph, and proud of his abilities perhaps. and proud of his looks. We know
he was a well-formed and good-looking man. But you see how God dealt
with that situation. And we have to be very careful
that we're not taken away also and taken up with pride. Pride
in the things that we dress up in. It's a great danger, isn't
it, to dress up and expect people to admire the things that we're
wearing. We don't read of the Lord Jesus,
do we? dressing up and wandering around, everybody admired what
he was wearing. It was the very opposite, wasn't
it? That doesn't mean to say that we got to dress raggedly,
but nonetheless we should be very aware and careful of our
dress, and careful of our motive behind it. Now we can be thankful
that the Lord provides us with funds to be able to dress, and
to dress reasonably, and to dress perhaps well. But nonetheless,
you see, the Lord looks at the heart. And we see here that Joseph
was soon stripped of those things, which no doubt he was proud of,
this beautiful coat of many colours. The Lord can easily take things
away from us, can easily cause them to be damaged quickly, so
that which we're very proud of, we soon find we're not proud
of. because of the damage which has occurred to it. But anyway
God was gracious to Joseph and we can see how the Lord was mindful
of him and allowed this coat of many colours to be taken off. And of course he never saw it
again. Taken off and it was used and it was dipped in the blood
of the animal and then presented to Jacob, as we read together,
and Jacob thought it was the clear evidence that his son Joseph
had been destroyed. But no, God's purpose was towards
Joseph, notwithstanding the situation that had developed. And so we
can be thankful we have a God who is merciful. God had a purpose
for Joseph in his life. This chapter is the only chapter
where this is mentioned, this coat of many colours, but it's
mentioned there for our information and for our instruction, so that
we don't fall into a similar sin and a similar trap, but that
we take notice of these conditions and the situation. Well then
we can trace out God's mercy and God's blessing to Joseph. Now then, the time came
when Joseph was to be arrayed in very fine clothes. And you
see, they were given to him by the king. It was after many years. And Joseph had to pass through
many times of difficulty before that was granted. And you know,
we may think of this in a spiritual sense as well. We may perhaps think that we're
clothed with something rather good and rather gracious in spiritual
terms. And again, it's a very strong
warning here to parents who may perhaps think that their children
are more gracious than in actual fact they are. And they may think
in actual fact that they are clothed with some spiritual garment. They may think it's a robe of
righteousness. In actual fact, it may not be
so, and there may be that pride in that kind of situation. Pride
in the person who wears it, and perhaps pride in the parents
that have made much of it. And yet, you see, it may prove
to be false. It may not prove to be true.
And it may prove necessary to have it removed, have it taken
away, nothing left. Joseph went into Egypt with nothing. Yes, everything was left behind. You might say, all that which
is of our flesh has to be left behind. It has to be stripped
off. It has to be taken away. Even
if we were very proud and very satisfied with it, there's a
great danger in spiritual pride. great danger, and especially
if it's false pride, a false religion rather, and pride in
a false religion, perhaps pride in some false revelation, some
false thought that people may be very proud of, and they may
have spoken about it, and perhaps the parents were very encouraging
in it and thought how wonderful it was, and yet you see The bottom
line is this, did it give glory to God? And if it did not, then
you see it may be necessary to have it taken away and have it
stripped off. This robe of many colours, it didn't bring glory
to God, did it? It wasn't God honouring. All
it did was to bolster the pride of Joseph and Jacob. Well, how
needful it is then that God gives us discernment, grace, to observe
if the things that we perhaps on the surface think are right.
We need to pray over things. We need to check things, whether
they are right, whether they are God honouring, or whether
they are for our honour and for our glory. We must not forget
our heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. How easily we can be deceived. Satan, that great tempter, is
a great deceiver. And so often he leaves us to
ourselves, like perhaps he left poor old Jacob to himself to
clothe Joseph with his coat of many colors. And he may leave
us sometimes to perhaps clothe ourselves, or perhaps clothe
others, perhaps to clothe our children with things which are
not good. But the outcome is that pride
is there. Well, let us ponder these things
and remember that God is a jealous God and God would have all the
honour and all the glory. But nonetheless, we still have
a merciful God who deals with us in love to our souls. Joseph
and Jacob, they weren't outcasts. God was dealing with them in
love and mercy. God had a great purpose for them,
and a purpose for them both, which they would never be able
to claim any right or any honour. And we see how God then went
before them. Now may we see God going before
us, even if we've made mistakes, even if we've made big mistakes,
if we've made foolish mistakes, like Jacob, foolish mistakes,
and yet to realise God is kind and God is merciful. But you
know, you think of Jacob. There were many years, no doubt,
when he was mourning his son. Many years he had to pay a heavy
price, didn't he really, for that foolishness. All those years
before it was known that Joseph was that one under Pharaoh in
Egypt. and poor Jacob was a distressed
man for many years. And Joseph of course had to face
a very difficult period in his life. Those years in Egypt, those
years in prison, they weren't freedom worthy for him. He wasn't
able to wander around the fields, he wasn't able to look after
the flocks and to enjoy the fresh air and everything around him.
There he was in prison for many years. And as we think of Joseph,
well, we know that he was tried because of the situation. The
dreams that he'd had weren't being fulfilled. No doubt he
wondered what was going to happen. Was he completely deceived? Well,
God's purposes were ripening. they were ripening. And we're
thankful to know that we have a God of love and mercy who does
not deal with us as our sins deserved. He didn't deal with
Joseph, he didn't deal with Jacob as their sins deserved. He was
merciful to him, very gracious. And so we find Joseph then in
this prison house and put there, not because of his sins, There
had been those mistakes, but now he was very honourable in
Potiphar's house. And yet, you see, the lives of
a woman were believed by her husband, and poor Joseph was
put into prison, cast into prison. And of course, prisons in those
days weren't the comfortable place they are today. They were
most unpleasant places. And so we read that Joseph's
master took him and put him into the prison, a place where the
king's prisoners were bound, and he was there in the prison. Well, the keeper of the prison
looked not to anything that was under his hand, because the Lord
was with him, and that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper. Now, God's purpose was very wonderful
in Joseph's case, and it may be so in our case. We'd have
to, the Lord deals with us like he dealt with Joseph, We'll have
to look back and realise that, well, we weren't perfect in our
life at all. You see, God raises up people and puts them in places
of authority and gives them important things to do, those who he has
dealt with in love to their souls. You see, Joseph was a different
person, no doubt, when he came and stood before Pharaoh. He
thought indeed that he'd been forgotten. And perhaps we might
think sometimes we've been forgotten. We may think God has forsaken
us, that there's no hope. Those things that we believed
God had spoken to us, perhaps in a dream, we can't see any
possibility of them being fulfilled. Naturally, there was no indication
how they were going to be fulfilled in Joseph's case. And yet God
had purposed that wonderful way. And God had purposed a position
for Joseph that many years ago no doubt he would not have thought
about. He might have thought that he might have been raised
up as a fairly important person because of the dreams of his
brother and father and mother bound down to him. But I'm sure
he could never have anticipated being in that position, important
place in Egypt. But you see God had purpose for
Joseph and God was preparing Joseph. He lost his coat of many
colors and I leave all that behind and now there he was in prison. But the time came, the appointed
time came, when God would raise him up and of course many things
had to happen before that. See, God's purposes, they come
to pass, but many things had to be worked out. It doesn't
just happen. The butler and the baker had
to be imprisoned. They had to have dreams. They had to be interpreted. And
the butler had to be brought back to his place before Pharaoh. and the baker had to be hung
in order to prove that the Lord God was with Joseph. And then we know there were another
two years passed. They must have been hard years.
Remember, there's Joseph then, before, in that prison, and having
asked the butler to remember him when he came out of prison,
but we're told the butler forgot all about him until, until, the
day came when he should be delivered. And there are those days in our
lives, those until days, when everything carries on until
the appointed time that God has ordained for deliverance. And so it came, and it was very
sudden, wasn't it? You see, the Lord's ways, they
ripen fast. And they did so in Joseph's case. There he was in the prison, and
yet very quickly he was brought out in fair assent and called
Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon. It gives us some indication of
what it was like, dungeon, all those years. And he shaved himself
and changed his raiment, and came in unto Pharaoh. And there
we see Pharaoh then told him his dream. And Joseph immediately,
you see, he gave God the honour and God the glory. He didn't
claim it any longer himself. He came and said, God hath showed
Pharaoh what he is about to do. had spoken to him and God told
him. And previously a Pharaoh had
sent and called for Joseph and Joseph had said, Joseph answered
Pharaoh saying, it is not in me. God shall give Pharaoh an
answer of peace. Again, here we see the very different
situation. Here was Joseph immediately giving
God the honor and glory, not claiming anything himself. Before he had the opportunity
to interpret the dream, he came and said, God shall give Pharaoh
an answer of peace, and he said, it is not in me. Now it's good
for us, you see, to realise the truth of these things, and that
it's not in us. And it's not in us because, very
simply, God gives us all our abilities. And we do need to
realise that. You know, God gives us everything
that we have. And he gives us our abilities.
He gives us our brains. He enables us to do things. It's
all of his grace. It's all of his favour. And so
how important it is for us to be able to come and say, it is
not in me. It's God that helps me. It's God that directs me. It's
God that blesses me. And you know, we often need a
lot of grace to be able to walk in this way, because we often
want to claim the credit ourselves. But you see, Joseph didn't want
to claim any credit. You know, he'd been in the prison.
And who had he conversed with in the prison? I believe he'd
conversed with his God. And no doubt he poured out his
heart to his God in that dark dungeon. Not a very encouraging
place, was it? But a place where God was very
clearly instructing him and teaching him. Yes, he left the great comfort
of his father's house. He left that position, being
clothed in that coat of many colours. All that had been long
forgotten. And now he was as it were left
alone. Jacob also, his father, had we
know been left alone. It's a good thing sometimes when
we are left alone. What does that mean? It means
this, we're shut up to God. There's no one else then that
we can confer with, but we can confer with God. Because God
knows the end. We know the beginning. God knows
the end from the beginning. What a blessing therefore to
be able to come and to converse with God and to confess, it is
not in me. No, any ability that I have,
it's God that's given it to me. It's not in me. Not in myself.
No, it is not in me. shall give Pharaoh an answer
of peace. And we see how God gave Joseph
that ability and that view to be able to say that there would
be the answer of peace. If you think, perhaps, wouldn't
we? Coming before a king like Pharaoh,
not a Christian person, We wouldn't think that perhaps that kind
of thing would be necessary. And perhaps sometimes we're very
fearful and don't say things when we should do, especially
before ungodly people. You might think, well, they wouldn't
understand so we won't say it. Well, take the picture we have
here of Joseph. Take the example of Joseph. When
we are perhaps before ungodly people, to be able to testify
and say, God shall God will give the answer. God will direct.
What does it do? It brings honour and glory to
God. We might think, well, people are going to think very ill of
us, and we won't get any promotion, and we won't make any progress.
Think of Joseph. God was dealing with him. Those
things that he had to leave behind and brought through this time
of barrenness and hardness. And yet, you see, it was a time
to be a time of blessing. And so he came before Pharaoh. And as we know, he was given
grace to speak and to interpret those dreams that Pharaoh had
had. And of course, there was a result. And Pharaoh said unto his servants,
can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit
of God is? Now remember, Pharaoh was not
a believer. But here he is speaking in these
terms. Why is he speaking in these terms?
Because of the example of Joseph and the words that he'd spoken,
where he confessed the Lord God before him. You see, very often
in the day and age in which we live, people are afraid to confess
the name of the Lord God. They think people will despise
them. Well, they may. They may despise
them, but so what? May we be concerned about the
honour of our God. May we be able to tell people
that our hope, that our support, that our strength, that our wisdom
doesn't emanate from ourselves, it emanates from our God. And
so Pharaoh said to Joseph, for as much as God has showed thee
all this, you see, he acknowledged what Joseph had said. There was
glory then to God, wasn't there? For as much as God has showed
thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou
art." Note that, discreet and wise. How important for us today
in our lives to be discreet and wise. He tells them, tells him,
thou shalt be over my house and according unto thy word surely
All my people be ruled, only in the house would I be greater
than thou. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph,
See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh
took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand,
and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain
about his neck. You see, this was done because
of how Joseph had honored his God. Joseph wasn't elated by
this situation. No, he was just walking that
way which God had directed him in, and confessed the name of
God. And so this was the result. This
is not a coat of many colors. It's far greater than that. Here
he is, a second in the kingdom, and clothed with these vestures
of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck. He didn't
have any hand in this, did he? Didn't have any hand in this.
Now you think of it again, come back to a spiritual position. You see, as we may be able to
confess our God, like Joseph did, you see, the King, our God,
can come and can clothe us Yes, with that robe of humility. Yes, that wondrous robe of humility. And not only that, you see, when
we're clothed with that robe of humility, it's then you see
that we may realise the Lord comes in and clothes us with
that which we could not present ourselves with and nobody on
earth could give it to us. And what is that? That royal
robe. Here was a royal robe. God gives
his people a royal robe. What is it? It's the robe of
his righteousness. And my friends, how wonderful
it is. Because it's received, it's given.
And it's given by God himself. It was given here by the king
to Joseph. But my friends, what a far greater
blessing to have the King of Kings give us that robe. Now, what would have happened? Our own righteousness, which
we may have thought was rather good, would have been taken away. And we would have viewed it in
comparison, as we read, as filthy rags. because we were claiming
things ourselves. We were adding glory to ourselves.
What a blessing if God comes and takes that away which we've
provided. Our righteousness, our pride,
it's been taken away. And perhaps we've been left,
as Joseph was, with nothing really, We're not told exactly what was
left, but not very much in those days. They usually didn't wear
very much either. No, but the Lord came then in
the appointed time and clothed him. So it is, my friends, in
our day and age, when our gracious God comes and clothes us, we
are amazed at the Lord's mercy, the Lord's favour, the appointed
time of God. to show us his wonderful favour
and his wonderful love to our souls. We look out of ourselves. It's not in me, we say. Not in me. It's what God has done. It's
what God has given to me. one or two illustrations in the
Word of God which are encouraging for us and we can read in the
Book of Psalms in Psalm 45. We have a very beautiful picture
and a very beautiful description. The Psalm starts off with this,
My heart is indicted a good matter. I speak of the things which I
have made touching the king. My tongue is the pen of a ready
writer.' Yes, you see, this was the influence of the blessed
Spirit of God upon the psalmist. And then he comes down in this
chapter and we read, Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness. Therefore God, thy God, hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. All thy garments smell of myrrh
and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces whereby they have
made thee glad. King's daughters were among thy
honourable women. Upon thy right hand did stand
the queen in God of Ophir. Hearken, O daughter, and consider
and incline thine ear, forget also thine own people, and thy
father's house." Well, we can see Joseph can't be really here
after all those years. So shall the king greatly desire
thy beauty, for he is thy Lord, and worship thou him. How humbling to think the king,
the king of kings greatly desires our beauty, not because of what
we have done, not for anything is in ourselves, The daughter
of Tyre shall be there with a gift. Even the rich among the people
shall entreat thy favour. The king's daughter is all glorious
within. You see what's happened. The Lord has given a new heart. The king's daughter is all glorious
within. Her clothing is of wrought gold. She shall be brought into the
king in raiment of needlework. The virgins and companions that
follow her shall be brought unto thee with gladness and rejoicing
shall they be brought. They shall enter into the king's
palace. Well, we have a little picture
there really of those who are blessed by the Lord. Blessed
indeed. Not which they provided, but
that raiment which has been provided for them. It's God that clothes
us when God deals with us in his way and in his time. In Joseph's
life there were many years when he was in prison, when he was
in the dungeon, but at the appointed time he was brought out, delivered
and clothed with those royal garments. So we see then the
wonderful work of Almighty God and Isaiah has a word also about
this in the 61st chapter of Isaiah. And we read, I will greatly rejoice
in the Lord. Now, no doubt, Joseph greatly
rejoiced in the Lord. And that's when God's name is
honoured and glorified, when we don't glory in ourselves.
He wasn't strutting about with the coat of many colors, no. No doubt he'd come just in those
garments. We know he changed his raiment,
but they were probably not very smart garments when he came before
the king. But nonetheless, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord.
My soul shall be joyful in my God. See, this is the great blessing
of the work of grace in our hearts. This is the effect. We don't
rejoice in ourselves. We rejoice in the Lord. We rejoice
in His work. We rejoice in that finished work
of salvation. We rejoice in what Christ has
done. My soul shall be joyful in my God, for He hath clothed
me with the garments of salvation. He hath covered me with a robe
of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh herself with ornaments,
and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. For as the earth bringeth forth
her bud, and the garden causeth the things that are sown in it
to spring forth, so the Lord will cause righteousness and
praise to spring forth before all the nations. The work of
God brings honour and glory to his great and glorious name,
and if he shows us our need of being clothed, all we have His
filthy rags and we need our nakedness to be covered and to realize
that we have a God who is so gracious to cover us with His
righteousness. My friends, that robe was procured
for us through His death. The price of that robe is without
price. What a wonderful gift to receive
that. You see the That coat of many
colours was no doubt relatively valuable, but you see the coat
and the robe that the Lord gives us is without value, because
it brings eternal blessings with it. It is so superior to anything
this world can give us. Oh, this robe of Christ's righteousness,
and what a cost it was, and that surely will produce praise and
thankfulness in our heart. We may greatly rejoice in the
Lord, his loving kindness toward us, his great goodness in clothing
us, covering our nakedness and putting a new song in our heart,
even praise unto our God. Do we not then go on our way
rejoicing and it's all of grace. It's all of his mercy. and to
meditate upon the price of our salvation. Oh, the wonderful. Here it is. He clothed me with
the garments of salvation. He had covered me with a robe
of righteousness. Yes, the price of our salvation.
That will make it valuable, won't it? Because it's the price of
his death. It's the shedding of his most
precious blood. How true those words. Invaluable
blood. Doesn't it make that garment
valuable? was bought with a price of blood. The Lord freely clothes
us. He takes away all our filthy
garments and gives us his spotless robe, his pure robe, and we'll
never lose it. We'll never be taken off. Once
in him, in him forever. Well, may we rejoice tonight
in the goodness of God. And perhaps as we meditate or
think upon this coat which was given to Joseph, this coat of
many colours, and compare it with the robe of Christ's righteousness. And my friends, there's no comparison
really, is there? One thing is, poor things of
this world, whatever the world can give, however beautiful it
may be, fades into insignificance with regards to the glory of
the robe of Christ's righteousness. because it is an eternal blessing
and my friends, every member of the family of God are given
that gracious and glorious robe and they will wear it throughout
eternity for God's praise. Amen.